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Be sure to bring her some flowers~

It was the only tip his guardian had to give him on this occurrence, and it... did not help much at all. In fact, he outright did not like the rather amused look the small woman gave him upon his asking - it was the kind of look that promised relentless poking at a later date.

He never did like those looks.

He could have asked his father, perhaps... but that was a whole other matter completely. And certainly he was busy catching up with those he once knew. And overall better things to think about than, what do you bring a girl who's in the hospital ?

He had noticed Raven had not been logging in WoW or in Skype at all, but he certainly not though she was in the hospital. Granted, Kendall had told him it was nothing serious, and certainly nothing life-threatning, but he figured it was only polite to go and see her. And that was what he did, after he had gotten off work and changed.

And yes, he had indeed brought flowers.

It took only a few steps for Sei to figure out that he did not like hospitals at all. Those white walls and long halls... everything seemed so... sterile. It was hard to explain why it was off-putting, but it was, indeed, off-putting. At least, he couldn't possibly get sick from the other patients...

A quite inquiry to the receptionist and an elevator ride later, the fa'e was making his way toward where his friend was.

"That's fine." He smiled in return, making his way closer to the bed. Apparently the flower thing was common, as there was a vase right there - so he turned to set them in. It was nothing big or fancy, as least he didn't think it was - he knew jack s**t about flowers, after all. All he knew was daisies were pretty. So daisies it had been.

"Are you feeling well... ?"

"I see..." Well, the blonde had known it was nothing serious, at least, from his demeanor. If he hadn't known... he may very well have created another amusing scene of darting out of work like a bat out of hell. Something about Omi's kid and... hum. His brain did not quite ding on the truth yet, but the foxcoon seemed pretty comfortable about her decision. Kids and all that biological stuff was beyond him. After all, he was very likely he would never have any for... obvious reasons.

"Seems like you're recovering well, though." He had not been quite sure what to expect when he had came inside, but he was glad to see her... relatively well. "Ill'd have come earlier, but Ken only told me today since I asked him about it."

Her hiss made him dart closer on pure reflex, but he stopped once his brain seemed to finally send the signal to the rest of him that, no, she wasn't in danger, stupid. "Yeah, I understand." He understood that part, at the very least. Guardians and, he figured, parents, could be rather overprotective. Expecially when they shouldn't be. "My father just came back. It's... kind of weird, but he didn't hightall it in the opposite direction the second he saw me, so... There's hope, I guess. He's pretty lost."

The fa'e looked rather sheepish for a moment, but did sit as close to her as he could. "I don't think I have." He had not mentioned Hoshi a whole lot before... simply because he knew so little himself. "He's nice... Very calm, as far as I could tell. I mean, yeah, he was nervous and it showed, but... That was understandable. It was the first time he had ever seen me... and likewise. I don't think he expected me to be... Well. Old. Im almost as old as he is. It's kind of akward... But he means well. I want to get to know him."

"I am mostly glad he's okay. I've been looking for him for quite some time... I was starting to think he might have faded." He couldn't keep his face from not betraying what he thought about the matter - that had been a rather unattractive idea. "Im glad that ill get the chance to know him... and not only know what Zero and my mom had to say about him."

"I.. guess so ?" He said, with an amused smile. "Everyone kept telling me I look so much like him, too... and they were right about it. It was kind of hard to tell for me from photos when I was younger, but now..." There was no denying he definitively looked like his father's son.

Perhaps it was safer to say that he had not even noticed that her hand was on his, as he simply was not looking in that direction.

"I wasn't... really sure what to take, actually. I wasn't sure what you liked, but Zero told me to bring flowers, so... well, I did. I guess it's common to bring people flowers when they're in an hospital ?" Clueless. So very clueless. He still didn't know what had his guardian so amused, either.

What kind of question was that ? "Of course I do." He said without hesitation. Why shouldn't he ? "I really like to talk to you, and to hang out and..." He was cut short, however, when he finally took a good look at her. And his first reflex was to look downward...

To her hand holding his.

One could almost see the gears starting to whirr in his brain at that very moment. Maybe she wasn't talking about the kind of 'like' he was thinking of. Maybe she was talking about the kind of 'like' that he had been doing his best job at ignoring ever since he had started to get close to her. That kind of like that kept him up almost all night talking with her on Skype on a work day. The kind of like that kept him retracing his own steps to her work place to pick her up once her shifts were over to ride her back home. The kind of like that wanted nothing else but to see her smile, to hear her laugh, to be with her, again and again.

The very kind of like he had been very good at ignoring, up until now. It just seemed like a Patented Bad Idea - not because of anything Raven was or did, but because of what he was. He was a fa'e. They attracted trouble like magnets on metal, and he was no exception. The logical side of his mind was firing up big red warning signals. He'll end up in trouble again. And what would that meant for her ? She could end up hurt. Or worse. Very worse. He had convinced himself to not act on it for her sake.

But when his gaze rose to meet those red and orange eyes again, logic threatened to fly out the window rather quickly. After all, who was he to pretend that he knew what was best for her ? She had Omi as her sister. She had to know, very well, what being a fa'e was all about. She knew what she was possibly getting into.

...Right ?

But that was if she liked him at all. That could simply have been a very random question. He could be misunderstanding completely and be about to look like the biggest moron in recent history. But then... He had kept people at arm's length before, and it hadn't exactly worked very well. Hadn't he decided to start living from now on ?

And did that not mean to take risks ?

He was silent for a moment, that seemed to be stretching out for forever, before he finally reaching with his other hand to cup hers. Slowly, so slowly, almost as if he was afraid he might break her, almost as if she was made of glass and the slightest wrong movement might shatter her.

"Im... not very good at things like this." He admitted. "I like you. I like you very much. But if you got hurt because of me, I would never forgive myself. Im... constantly thorn in between wanting to be with you more than anything else in this world, to tell you everything I've always wanted to tell... and wanting to keep you safe. There are things out there... out to take me. To use me. To kill what I have become and use this shell for their own purposes." He paused.

"...I don't think I've ever let anyone that close to me. Let anyone truly know who I was. Beside you. I... wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe it was.... my way to love you and keep you safe at the same time."