[Log] Niou Masaharu & Tachibana An

[bana_an_na]

Who: Niou Masaharu & Tachibana An
What: Coworker date and cats
Rating: PG
Where: Ramen joint & playground near the second hand 
When: May 4th

Niou shut the till after counting the cash for the evening and moved a few things around the counter. It still…. Wasn’t completely tidy, but it was organised, in its own chaotic Niou way. “Hey Batman-chan, we’re done for the day,” he called out, grabbing his bag. “Come get your stuff.” And just because he was feeling generous, he picked up An’s bag too, putting it on the counter.

With a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other An peeked her head out from the Non-fiction section, “I’ll be right there.” She was practically done sweeping what was left of the shop. Putting away the duo in a corner An made her way over to the counter and picked up her bag.and eyed it suspiciously for a moment.  “I thought we’d have more people come in today..Maybe we should change the animals figures out in the front it might attract more people to come in.”

“Sales figures weren’t too bad though,” he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. Niou scratched his cheek and looked at the frog figurines in the window. “Maybe I’ll go looking for some cow ones. Or elephants, they’re meant to be lucky.”

Niou reached out to poke An on the cheek, quickly moving his hand away just in case she decided to pinch it or something. She was a bit crabby like that. “Are you hungry? We should go out for dinner.”

She tilted her head and then smiled softly , “ Elephants. I like cows as well but I kind of want to paint an elephant blue. ” It was random but An thought it'd be fun to paint  again.

While An was used to Niou poking and prodding her on occasion, she was caught off guard with his invitation.  “ I am… I was just going to have leftovers so I'll have to take you up on that.” She paused and fiddled with her phone, “ What should we get?”

“Yeah okay, I can find some lucky elephants.” To Amazon it was, or perhaps Aliexpress. He rather liked the idea of a rainbow elephant in the window.

Niou grinned and prodded An again, giving her a bit of a push towards the door so he could switch off all the lights and close up. “I kind of want ramen…” he said, giving the door a jiggle to make sure it was locked properly. “Or maybe curry, and I can make you eat the hottest one and see your face turn red and sweaty.” He laughed at that and stuck his tongue out at An.

She made a quick to reply to a text while Niou closed up, “ You should find a baby one as well, that would be cute.”

Looking around one last time and finding everything to be somewhat in place , An made her way over to the door and opened it before raising an eyebrow at Niou, “ You can't make me do that.” She replied and being as mature as she was she stuck out her tongue as well before smiling back. “ Ramen sounds good.”

“We can janken over who gets to paint it,” Niou said seriously. After all, the baby elephant was very important.

He raised an eyebrow right back at An, scrunching his face slightly to make it rise just that bit higher than hers. “I could dare you to eat it,” he said with a grin. “And you would, because you hate losing.” Niou tucked the keys carefully away and gave An another poke on the back to lead her in the right direction for ramen.

“Or you could just buy two baby elephants and they can be siblings.” There, they both could win.

An would have argued against that but Niou was right. “It would be a waste of food and I'm pretty hungry.”  With the poke she was down for two so she lightly elbows his side, “ Should we go to the place near the station?”

Niou hummed in consideration - he still thought a single baby elephant was better, but maybe he could buy two and conveniently smash one while An wasn’t there.

He laughed a bit and elbowed her right back. She was right, of course. A waste of food and then she might just end up stealing his food or something, leaving him with the overly spicy curry. “Yeah, the one near the station is fine. And then we can tearfully depart from each other at the end of it.”

“ I like that place, they have pretty good miso ramen.” She tried dodging Nious elbow but either way it didn't hurt. “ Maybe I want a parfait after? It's Friday, you have to live a little.”

“Oh, that’s pretty daring,” Niou said approvingly, nodding at the suggestion. “Maybe I’ll go all out tonight too and get a coffee.” It’d throw off his entire sleep schedule, but work was only in the afternoon tomorrow, so it’d be okay.

She feigned surprise and put a hand to her mouth. “Coffee? ..Add some creamer and they’ll start calling you a daredevil.” An tried to not grin but she couldn't help it now with how ridiculous it sounded. The station wasn’t a too far of a walk from the store which An was thankful for because it seemed like she was getting hungrier by the minute. She could have helped herself by having a snack. .

“It’s a pretty big deal. I’ll be up all night like an owl.” Maybe he’d message her throughout the night as he stayed up later and later, just to give her regular updates on how things were going.

Niou reached the restaurant first and stuck his head in through the door. One table left. He grabbed An by the arm and hauled her in, zooming there before the tourists eyeballing the seat could get there.

“You want to live crazy that's on you, I mean you could sleep in.” She was pretty sure he didn't get in first thing.

An watched Niou for a moment as they reached the entrance and was surprised when she was dragged in. She managed to spot  some Western tourist that were waiting and gave them a smile that could only be interpreted as I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do. Once Niou let go, she gave him a slight pout, “ you know we could have waited 10 more minutes.”

Niou settled in rather happily into his seat at the squashy table and he looked around at the menus hanging on the wall. “No, I definitely couldn’t wait,” he said pointing at his watch. “I have to eat exactly at this time, or my stomach starts turning itself inside out, it’s really awful.”

He pushed the menu on the table towards her and flapped it around a bit so it made a noise. “What do you want Batman-chan? Keeping room for your parfait.”

She put her hand under her chin and gave him a face that showed that she really didn’t believe him. “I don’t think being eaten inside out by your gastric juices sounds like the most fun but I’m sure you’d be just fine.”

Looking down to the menu for a second she knew what she wanted. While she was feeling daring eating a parfait she’d stick to her regular but downgrade the size. “ A small miso ramen. I plan on eating my entire parfait.” She scanned the menu and tried to guess what Niou might order…Maybe something meaty. “ Are you planning on going big?”

“If I die, I’ll make sure to schedule at least one day a month to haunt you,” Niou said flatly. He simply could not give her more time than that, he would have too many other people to annoy.

Niou blinked and looked at his own menu, scanning the items. “Probably just a shoyu ramen,” he said, making the plastic laminated menu wobble a bit with his hands for extra background noise. “Maybe a beer too.”

She snorted, amused at the prospect she leaned back with a playful smile, “ Better than once a week. I'd have to call in an exorcist.”

For a moment An debated whether to stop Niou from continuing that noise. “ Water for me. I don't even feel like drinking after the past two weekends.” She said with a sigh.

Niou grinned at An’s drink order and he waved over a server to put in their food. “A shoyu ramen, a small miso ramen and… two asahi beers,” he said, his grin getting a bit more feral as the man walked away. “Oh wait, sorry, Batman-chan, you said you weren’t going to drink…”

Oh well, she’d just have to drink it anyway. Niou tucked the menus away and drummed his fingers on the tabletop.

Did he not listen to her? She quirked an eyebrow as soon as the waiter walked away, “ Do you plan on treating me, Niou-Senpai.”

A beer wasn't going to kill her.  She opened her mouth to speak but felt the onset of a yawn and put a hand up to at least cover it, “Mmm, sorry about that. I guess I'm tired.” She mumbled as she used her other free hand to poke at Nious fingers, maybe he'd stop making noise If she did.

“No? I’m not paying for your food.” But he supposed he’d pay for the beer, since he’d been the one to order it. “It’s not a date.” And besides, he’d… probably not pay for a person’s food even if it was a date, now that he thought about it.

Niou just lightly whacked An’s fingers and kept drumming his fingers on the table. “Did you work too hard today? Have exciting adventures last night?”

At least she tried,An was almost positive that he was going to say no. “It is. It’s a coworker date but I thought you’d say that.” The word date was something she did use loosely on a regular bases.

Even after being whacked she pressed on grabbing a finger instead, “ I’m just tired over all. Having to entertain two nine year olds all week is worse than a tennis tournament.” At least it didn’t mentally drain her as much.  “I wish I had had an adventure last night.”

Niou pulled a face. “Gross, it’s not a date.” Coworker date or regular date or whatever. Gross.

He squinted at her holding onto his finger and used his other hand to prise her fingers open to just properly hold her hand fully. And then used both their hands to knock up and down on the table to a beat only he could hear. “I had an adventure last night,” he said casually. “The moon was really bright.”

Her lip turned up as she watched Niou’s face distort, “Whatever you say.”

An hadn’t expected him grabbing her hand like that and it made her tense up for a moment before she willed herself to just relax and pay attention to their knocking hands instead of her senpais face, “Oh? Did you turn into a werewolf?”

“Yeah, something like that. It was a good night for moon watching, I think I saw the rabbit for a moment,” Niou said as he turned An’s hand palm up and inspected it closely. He quickly measured her fingers and palms and shook his head slightly.

“Typical fire hand,” he said. “Look how stubborn you are, Batman-chan.” Niou traced a fingertip down the length of her middle finger and shook his head again.

“The moon was pretty..” At least the little that she saw before she escaped into her apartment and went straight to bed.

An blinked as Niou turned her hand over and listened even if she had a hard time believing him. “You didn’t need to read my palm to know that one..”  She paused and flexed her fingers, “ When did you learn to read? Though somehow I feel like you’re just bsing me.”

Niou laughed a bit at her comment - no, he knew very well by now that she was stubborn and annoying, but he still tapped at her palm, tracing along the different lines seemingly at random.

“I’ve had a lot of different hobbies,” he said after a great deal of silent thinking. “I did crystal ball gazing too for a while. Got the whole candles out and everything.” Niou patted her on the palm and pulled his hands back. Just in time too, their food was arriving.

“And I'm sure you joined a Russian circus while you were at it.” She mused as she straightened up as their food and drinks were placed on to the table.

Grabbing her beer, she raised it up slightly to clink. “ You should tell me a random truth once in a while, maybe I'll believe you more if you did.”

“Just for a little bit,” Niou said, handing An a pair of chopsticks and a napkin as he set himself up with them as well.

He raised an eyebrow and touched his glass to hers. “I do tell you truths all the time,” he said, taking a drink of the beer. “You’re just really bad at picking them out. You should work on that.”

She had a hard time buying that one too but for some reason she could picture him being in one.

“Some truths are easier to tell than others.” An responded taking her own sip before setting the glass down. “ Maybe you should work on being more truthful or do you just like being mysterious?”  

Niou tapped his chopsticks lightly on the rim of his bowl before he started sorting out the toppings from one another, placing them in particular parts of the bowl.

“Think of it more as a <i>habit</i>,” Niou said, finally picking up his first lot of noodles. “And lies are always easier to get away with when there’s a little grain of truth in them.” He gave her a noodley grin.

The eccentric way that Niou ate his ramen made her lip turn up slightly, more amused than anything as she picked up a piece of menma. “ Habit or not...” She paused and and smiled as she shook her head at his display. “ Still, it's not a bad thing to be honest.” At least in Ans case she did try to be but she did tend to omit información more than lie and that wasn't all too different.

Niou shrugged at her comment and slurped up his noodles before he moved on to breaking up his boiled egg into pieces with his chopsticks. “See, you’d think that… until you have a rude best friend who uses all your secrets against you,” Niou said, pulled a face and started picking out bits of eggs one by one now. “He’s a manipulative bastard, and if you give him any leeway, he just abuses it. You should be careful with him, Batman-chan.”

An listened as she slurped up her noodles , her smile growing as she was actually pacifying her hungry stomach.  At the not so subtle mention of Yagyuu she finished chewing and gave Niou a light shrug. “ Hiroshi-kun hasn’t done anything yet that would make me think that but I don’t tell him my secrets.” Sure they were neighbors and got along but they hadn’t had any real intense chats as of late. “ I’m sure he does it with the best intentions. Best friends are there to be mean and tell you how it is and make you suffer. I’m sure you do the same.”

Niou squinted at An. He didn’t even know where to start with that. ‘Hiroshi-kun’. ‘hasn’t done anything yet’. There was so much wrong with all of that being in the same sentence. And coming from <i>An</i>.

“You need to be careful,” he repeated. “I keep telling you, between the two of us, he’s the more dangerous one. He makes me suffer so much more than I make him.” For once maybe, Niou’s expression was rather serious, although it may have all been staged, since it vanishes quickly enough as he goes back to eating and smiling around his next mouthful of noodles.

She raised an eyebrow as Niou peered at her. Was she that wrong? “If I have to go on quantity so far than you’d be wrong.” To be fair she did see Niou more often than Yagyuu.

Shaking her head, she slurped up another bunch, ¨If it makes you feel better for some weird reason I’ll believe you..” At least partially.

If An thought Yagyuu was genuinely a nice person, Niou had a suspicion it was because Yagyuu was still doing the gross polite-person thing to her. “Well, he also probably doesn’t pinch your nipples without warning,” Niou said fairly, putting down his chopsticks to drink some more beer. “He’s too polite to do that to randoms.” And girls, probably.

He nudged An’s beer with his own and looked at her pointedly. “You should drink this one. It’s not as shit as Akaya’s beer choice.”

She resisted the need to roll her eyes and snorted instead. “ I'm not random but either way I probably wouldn't invoke the need for him to do that to me.” Niou in the other hand..Even she felt the want to punch him sometimes.

An hadn't meant to abandon her beer but her stomach decided that food came first.  “I know it's not. I'd doubt they serve beer in a place like this.” She countered as she picked up her glass clinking it back against Niou”s own.

“Thank you for the beer”  With that she took a sip before lowering it slightly to peer at her Senpai with a grin. He better at least her treat her to that.

Well, at least An had some appreciation for it, and acknowledged that Akaya’s was an exception to beer - he still didn’t know why Akaya had such bad taste… he’d have to educate him at some point. Niou drank a bit more of his and shrugged at An’s comment. “Yeah, and thanks to you for the food,” he said with an equal grin back at her.

He too could play that game.

Niou put his glass down and went back to his meal. “So, Tachibanana…” he said as he prodded at the egg pieces in his ramen. “How’s life? Are you still boring and ageing every moment of the day?” They spoke a lot at work, but he never really asked her just how she was.

A snort escaped her at Nious response.<i> Yeah right</i> Either way, she still continued to smile deciding that she didn’t need to respond and instead took another sip of her nice cold beer.

There was no mention of Tiny before that and somehow it bothered her. At this point she didn’t pay much attention to what Niou called her but still.  “Hmm..” An paused and set her glass down. “Just about the same as you except you’re worse because you’re older.” She countered deciding to draw random figures on her foggy glass. “I’ve been spending time with my family that came to visit, it’s been nice…”

“I’m pretty sure I’m an ageless entity,” Niou said, raising an eyebrow at An. “The white hair’s a sign of it, I’ll have you know. It’s a side effect of being dipped in the fountain of youth by my mother.”

He reached across the table to tug a bit at her hair, squinting at it - no white hairs for An. Satisfied, Niou sat back in his seat and went back to his ramen. “Oh yeah, the little …. cousins? that came to visit?”

Her finger stopped moving half way through the older boys explanation to slowly just blink up at him looking rather unimpressed. “ Did it also come with the side effect of saying multiple false statements?”

A smile almost made its way onto her face again but with the tug of her hair An looked to Niou rather confused. What was he trying to check? Leaning back, she touched the hair that he had just been holding and combed at it softly, “ Why did you do that? Also yes, those two. I love them but they have never ending energy and ask way to many questions and are rather opinionated.”

She paused and tilted her head, “They’d probably ask you why your hair was that color, though I think with what you just told me they’d probably believe you.”

“That’s just a Niou family trait. We all like to keep our secrets close,” Niou said, turning back to his ramen. It was getting depressingly low on noodles and he prodded sadly at the giant piece of chashu he still hadn’t eaten. An he was fairly truthful, An just hadn’t learned where to look for them and happened to miss a few of his truths.

He grinned at An’s comment about her cousins - they sounded like fun. Especially if they were gullible. “You mean you don’t believe me? My mother dipped all my siblings into the fountain of youth too, I’ll have you know.”

“We all keep secrets but I’m sure you have more than I do.” She started on her own bowl again, glad that she got a smaller size since she was sure if she had ordered larger then there was  no way she’d have room for that parfait.

“I’m more likely to believe that your hair color is a family trait than anything.” It didn’t seem like he dyed it or anything. Either that or was very good at keeping his roots from showing.

“The hair’s a family trait too,” Niou said, pulling slightly at the hair in front of his face. “Everyone on my mum’s side has white hair, even the really old ones.” He laughed to himself and started on the soup.

Niou sat back after a bit with a sigh, reaching to grab his beer. “So what sort of parfait did you want? A coffee one to keep you up all night?” Actually given Niou’s desire for a coffee afterwards to be wild, maybe that wasn’t so much of a bad idea. “I’ll need to stop off at the park though, before we go get it.”

“Wow, Seniors with white hair. How shocking~” She tried sounding surprised but at most it sounded playful.

She slurped up her remaining noodles and quirked a brow at the white haired boy as she finished chewing. “Why the park? And no, I want a chocolate parfait.” a coffee parfait wasn’t exactly the kind of sweet she was looking for. “ Do you want to relive your childhood and play on the swings? Maybe the seesaw but I don’t think I can actually get you to go up with my weight.”  The image of them playing on a seesaw made her laugh.

“Well, my dad’s side goes light blue when they get old,” he said, looking just amused at An. That was a lie, of course, but it was a still an amusing mental image to have.

Niou nudged her feet under the table and kept drinking his beer. “You’d just have to work on your leg muscles if you can’t get me up on the see-saw,” he said lazily. It was just simple machines, he was sure she could do it. “And I don’t like swings, I get motion sickness too easily. And I always swing too high and have the stomach-jerk moment where the chain goes slack.”

'Hm,  well isn't that a little odd~ Though I really like blue.” Sure it was her favorite color but she wasn't so sure about it for a hair colour.

She placed her chopsticks down as she finished with her bowl, “ I guess, I'll have to try and see if I can?” As he nudged her, she nudged him back gently. “You know, I actually really like that feeling but I also do enjoy roller coasters. Are you the type to barf after one?” She asked with a grin.

“Maybe when I age, the white will darken into a blue,” Niou said, fingering his hair and going cross eyed to look at it. “And then I’ll just look like my dad and the Niou side will come out more.”

He pushed back at her foot with his own, tapping the toe of his shoe against her shin. “Yeah I vomit after.” Niou grinned at An, lingering on the word <i>vomit</i>. “Usually on whoever I’m with.”

An couldn't help but let out a snort as she watched Niou go cross eyed. “Maybe in your old age you can join some Japanese blue Man group and play the drums.” She said without a thought as she took a sip of her beer.

At the mention of vomiting on someone, she wrinkled her nose and pouted at Niou. “You could at least try and be nice and actually do that in another direction.” The older boy just loved to tease her with that so she decided to move her heel and step on his toe without much force. “If you have that much of a problem then you shouldn't go on any rides.”

Oh good, An was actually going to drink the beer. Better than her sad attempt at Akaya’s party thing. Niou shrugged as he drained his glass and put it down, purposely just off centre from the previous condensation mark on the table.

“I like some rides,” he said, moving his foot to step on An’s foot as well, crushing it a bit and keeping his face straight and he sandwiched her foot between his own. “Like the ferris wheel. And the big carousels. And haunted houses.”

Her lip twitched as she felt Niou’s other foot start to squish her own. As long as it didn’t really hurt she could keep it up. “The ferris wheel is nice, I like spacing out when I go on.” At the mention of haunted houses she raised an eyebrow, “Oh? That’s one of my favorites. They’re plenty of fun.” Most people would use the word terrifying.

Niou kept his foot rather firmly on top of An’s still, prodding at the circle of condensation on the table. “Yeah? I think they’re fun too.” Mostly because Niou didn’t really get scared in them… his own illusions and magic tricks were more terrifying than the ones they had. “We should do one together. Whoever screams first loses.”

After a few seconds she thought that the older boy would step off but nope, he was just going to leave it there. Puffing out a cheek , she tried pulling her foot away slowly, “ You know that would be hard, I not really the type to scream so it’d either end up in a draw or your loss.”  

Niou raised an eyebrow at An and moved his feet to trap her ankle between his own, his grin widening as if daring her to comment on it.

“I think I could make you scream,” he said, reaching across the table to prod An on the cheek. “I know you so well, Tachibanana.”

She really was debating kicking him in the shin at this point with her free foot but then it’d be endless. An would continue her tactic of staying quiet, maybe Niou would get bored.

“You don’t know me that well and I really doubt that. Let’s find a really good haunted house and go and see who loses. Winner gets something.” She said moving her face away from his hand with a slight pout. An really was competitive when she wanted to be.

It was easy enough to just keep his legs stretched out so he could hold onto An’s ankle and Niou drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “Alright.” He doesn’t scare easily and… he’s completely not above cheating to make sure he does win. He has a suspicion if he pulls a frog on An, she’ll scream.

“Are we just going to make it a general IOU thing, or do you want to detail out the punishments now?”

They should probably get going, actually, he can see people waiting outside the door… but that involved letting go of An’s ankle and Niou squashes it between his own just a bit more.

An IOU sounded safer than what Niou could cook up but out of curiosity she'd humor the idea.

“We can detail it maybe later.” Her eyes followed Nious and she could tell that they really were overstaying their welcome. Except Niou wasn't making it easy for her. Finally letting out sigh she extended her hand out to poke  him, “ Do you mind letting go? We should get going, don't we have to stop by the park first?”

Niou grinned and grabbed An’s hand just before it poked him and he squashed her ankle for another moment while grinning at her. And then he suddenly let go and moved to stand up. “Yeah, I have to go to the park.”

“I’m paying for the beer, right? And you’re paying for the ramen?”

She almost jumped when he grabbed her hand. An hadn't expected him to do that but he managed to let go before she could say anything.

All she could do was give him a pout before getting up herself, “ I didn't exactly order that beer myself , but I don't mind paying for what I had.”

“Hey, you seemed to have enjoyed it,” Niou pointed out, using a foot to push in his chair - it went in wonky, but he left it - before he headed to the counter to pay. For his half.

“What are your plans for tonight post-parfait, Batman-chan?” Niou asked, tucking his hands in his pockets and waiting for An to pay for her part.

“Oh, the beer was just fine.” She shrugged walking up to the counter herself and paying for her share.  Asahi wasn't her favorite but it went well with the ramen.

Slinging her bag back onto her shoulders she thought for a moment, “ Watch a movie and go to bed, I know it's not the most exciting thing but it'll do.” Tomorrow she was spending time with her cousin again so relaxing a bit wasn't a bad idea. Walking out she stretched out her arms, “What about you, Senpai?”

Niou trailed behind An out the door to the night air and he steered her towards the park. “I’ll probably stay out for a few hours,” he said, strolling along and prodding An occasionally in the back to keep her moving. “Maybe stay in the park. There’s no reruns of the Vampire drama on tonight, so no need to rush back early.”

The fingers on her back were unnecessary and made her want to poke the older boy in the spleen but the walk to the park wasn't to far so she'd leave him be for now. “ This park really must be interesting if you would want to be there for hours…” She took a minute to think, “ Are there cats? Also, why would you even watch the reruns?” An had caught a few snippets of the show and it was a bit over the top at least in her opinion.

Niou glanced at An at the question. Why else would he be willing to sit in a park if there weren’t cats? Well, beyond sometimes wanting a quiet night to himself and fresh air. He didn’t think that that question required an answer though, especially since she’d see the cats in a few minutes anyway.

“I like to just see how characters have changed over the years,” he said before he grabbed An by the arm and pulled her into the park. “Like seeing how you changed over the past year, it’s fascinating.” Niou grinned and pulled out a ziploc bag from his bag, shaking it loudly.

Considering that Niou only gave her a look it seemed like an answer she could figure out herself. Maybe it had been a sort of dumb question.

The pull on her arm made her want to roll her eyes, she could walk just fine but her Senpai was just kind of like that. The park was pretty much deserted. In some ways it made an relieved because the quiet was nice. “Oh? You think I've really changed? I know I grew at least 1mm since I started working at the shop.”  

The treats gave her answer and An was one to enjoy petting cats, not that she actively carried treats on her anymore.

“Yeah, you’re not as annoying,” Niou said with a cackle, before he moved to his usual spot in the park, sitting down on the ground. And with a few more shakes of the bag, the cats appeared, rubbing around him. There were just two in this park, though sometimes Niou managed to seduce over the cat from down the road as well.

“Your hair also grew,” he said, holding out a cat treat for An to take. “But mostly your personality is less annoying.”

Her eyes narrowed lightly as she took a seat next to the older boy. “I never was annoying, you don't know what your talking about.” She herself would be more annoyed by the comments but the very cute calico cat that was near her knees was making it hard for her to stay mad.

She took the treat and set it down on her palm for the cats to take. “ You're still annoying , Senpai…” A smile grew on her face as one of the felines sniffed her hand and nabbed the treat. “...Maybe more tolerable.”

“I know exactly what I’m talking about,” Niou said, letting the cats rub against his knees and hands. At least An seemed to be getting into the spirit of it all too, so Niou gave her another cat treat.

“The treats are actually for you, not for feeding to the cats here,” he said with a grin, scrunching his hand into the fur of one of the cats. It was kind of weird to be talking to someone while doing this, but it was easy enough to relax and he pushed one adventurous cat off his lap. Or else he’d be there all night.

“Maybe if you liked frogs you’d be better.”

With another treat in her hand, she lifted it up in a pawing motion dead-panning a, “Nya Nya.”  Before shaking her head with a laugh, “ Is it my prize for being so well behaved?” Another treat gone but in exchange she had a cat in her lap and that was more than enough fair trade for her.

“ Are you ever going to let that go? You literally try and exploit that every chance you get.” An mumbled as she scratched the side of the cats head. “ It gets boring.” More annoying than bored but she’d rather he think that.

“Nah, it’s just a way to get you to behave better,” Niou said, reaching up to stroke her on her head and down to behind her ear. “That’s the ‘well done for being well behaved’ pat.”

Niou grinned and repeated the action to the cat on her lap, curling his fingers as it leaned into his touch and purred. Cats were just so much easier to deal with than people. “I’ll let it go when I get bored of it.” His grin widened and he poked her on the forehead. “Or when I find another one of your weaknesses.”

Usually a pat on the head wouldn't bother her that much but somehow it did, maybe it was the extra stroke near her ears that did it but she gave him a pout, not wanting to disturb the sweet cat on her lap. There was a light flush of embarrassment on her cheeks.“ Maybe if I were an actual cat I might but I'm not really in the business for cat treats.”

She moved her hand towards the other cat that stood between them and gave it a pet on the head, wouldn't want the poor thing to not get some attention to.  At the poke she wrinkled her nose, “Do that again and you'll lose that finger, I don't have very many weaknesses so good luck with that.”

“I have human treats too, you know,” Niou said, clicking his fingers on one hand and then holding out his other hand to show her a wrapped candy. “You can have this one too, to make you behave better.”

He made another one appear for himself and he popped it into his mouth, wrinkling the wrapper at the cats to make them look at him. “But you have <i>some</i> weaknesses,” Niou said, prodding the cat lightly on the nose with his finger. “Which means I can find more than just one.”

The candy was welcomed,  “ You make me sound almost feral and untamed. I think that sounds more like you.” She said as she plopped it in her mouth.  

“Good luck with that, I was pretty naive when I first met you, I'm not letting them slip out again.” If she was honest there weren't many things that bothered or scared her so Niou would have to dig deep to find anything.  

Niou just shrugged at the… compliment? He’d take it as one sort of anyway. He’s more focused on An’s almost-a-challenge to him to learn about her weaknesses.

Well, perhaps right now he can’t find any, but Niou was still confident he could unnerve her a bit. And maybe that was what made him slip, just for a moment, into an illusion of Tachibana Kippei before he broke it, becoming Niou again to pat the cat winding around his knees. “Are you saying you’ve become a jaded old woman because of working with me?”

One minute Niou was next to her and then the next what seemed to be her brother. All she could do was raise an eyebrow and she continued to pet the cat in her lap, ¨Why are you trying to turn into my brother?” It certainly didn’t suit him , Niou almost was the exact opposite. To being called an old woman she snorted, “ Only if you’ve become a creepy old man.”

“He’s funny,” Niou said, but it’s hard to bring up the illusion again when he’s patting a cat. Oh well, just the few seconds will have to suffice. “And I’m trying to get some more people for Seiichi to crush. He’s slaughtering my current roster too easily.”

Niou turned and grinned at An. “Didn’t you know, Batman-chan? I’m an ageless fox spirit.” He unfortunately couldn’t make fox tails or anything appear, so Niou flicked An on the nose lightly instead - same difference, right? (not at all).

With a roll of her eyes,she let out a sigh, “He can be and my brother would have no problems with playing against Yukimura-kun...I don't know about crushing.”  Whenever she played with him it was what happened but there games were friendly and she did pick up a thing or two to try in her own games.

There he went again, with a wrinkle of her nose she decided to return the favor  by grabbing the older boys nose between her fingers without applying pressure.“Now you're just lying to me, Niou-Senpai.”  There was a small smile on her face, “ You're more like a mortal fox spirit or a cat.”

“I’ll let you know how it goes when I perfect him.” Which wont’ be for a while anyway, Niou had a lot of studying up on Tachibana to do beyond just snooping through threads and watching him from a distance.

Niou scrunched up his face as An grabbed his nose. “A mortal fox spirit who can still turn into a human though.” He reached up to grab her wrist, using his grip to tilt her hand down so that he could lick her hand.

“You know your illusions aren't perfect, even if you managed there always alittle of you hiding.” An was confident in that she could tell if it were Niou or not.

“Do you have-” She would have continued her sentence but considering that her hand had been licked it made it hard to keep going. Her cheeks flared and she used her other hand to push at Niou’s face. “ Why did you lick me!? I just pet a bunch of cats they weren't exactly clean.”  Niou was lucky she had a cat in her lap or she might have pushed him.

Niou just grinned at An’s surprise with the hand licking. “It’s good bacteria,” it was fine. Probably why he had such a good immune system too. Besides, the blushing and shock were so worth it.

He grabbed onto her other hand that was much too close to his face and brought it near his mouth, staring directly at An as he poked his tongue out and very obviously went to lick this hand too.

She really needed to stop underestimating Niou because as soon as she saw what he was up to An was pulling at her hands, “Hey, don't you dare!” And he did and now she was up another wet hand and it had tickled. “Senpai, you're gross.”

Now that the cat was out of her lap, she took her chance to stand up and stare down at the boy, “You're not Gokutora or a cute cat so you shouldn't be licking my hands.”

Ah, her surprise was definitely worth it. Niou tucked the rest of the cat treats into his bag and stood up, prodding An in the stomach. “I’m kind of offended you don’t think I’m cute enough to lick your hand,” Niou said, reaching down to pet the cats a few more times. “I’d let you lick my hands if you really needed to.”

A few different things went through her mind to say but instead decided that she could be a little mean herself, “ It’s not about being cute,” She started before swinging her hip to bump into Niou with some force to throw him off balance, “Why would I need to lick your hands?” A grin appeared on her face, maybe she should think of an escape plan in case of retaliation.

Niou stumbled for a bit and gave her a narrowed eye look as he caught his balance. “You might be dying and the only thing that can save you is the germs off the hands of a fox. I’d let you lick them then.” But only under those circumstances.

He suddenly moved and went to grab her around the waist with both his arms, lifting her up slightly before he dropped her again. “I think I want a parfait too,” he said, setting off as though nothing had happened. “I think I deserve it.”

“How kind of you but I’m sure I’ll be alright.”  She said eyeing him lightly and trying to maintain her smile. As she turned away she certainly didn’t expect to be picked up, “Hey! What-” And like that she was down again.

Now An was just confused but still a small smile played on her face as she followed behind. Oh well, it didn’t matter really, “You should get a coffee parfait then.”

“Oh yes, since it’s a Friday night and I was being wild” Niou said, stretching his arms up and then reaching to poke at An once more.

“Maybe I won’t even sleep tonight, gosh golly, how exciting.”

.