Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a foreign landscape, the kitchen. Sure, Kaia knew where everything was, and what it was all for, but Khaldun had no real memory of how kitchens even worked. This morning, though, he was trying to impress her by making her tea. He'd watched her making this tea enough times that he felt reasonably sure he could do it too. It was just hot water, water didn't catch on fire. At least, he'd never seen it happen before.

He'd dragged a kitchen chair over to the stove to watch the whole water-boiling process carefully, and he had prepared a mug with no less than four tags hanging over the edge of it. One teabag just didn't look like it was going to be enough. He stared the teapot the whole time, as if daring it to do something besides heat the water. Making tea was a lot more complicated than teleporting, to his chagrin.

It was all going so well until the kettle started whistling, destroying the element of surprise.

Once he'd turned off the burner, Khaldun was busy lifting the teapot off the stove with as much care as if he was defusing a bomb. With all the noise and distraction he hadn't noticed her come into the kitchen. He caught her gaze for a moment and a guilty smile started to form before he turned back to the incredibly complex task of pouring hot water into a mug.

"Yes I am," he replied matter-of-fact. If she wanted to get technical, he hadn't actually slept. Experience taught him how to make the most careful use of starseeds to maintain himself over days if he had to. Sure, it probably was the earliest Kaia had ever seen him awake before, but would it really make her suspicious? Khal didn't have a lot of experience being romantic for longer than a day, so he was careful to make sure everything went according to plan. The plan that he came up with last night right before he'd begged his brother to fund it.

He picked the mug up by the handle and walked it toward the island to set it down next to Kaia. He glanced down at it again, suddenly uncertain. "Do you put anything else in this?"

"Actually..." he began, looking around the kitchen. It took him a little time to remember where exactly Kaia kept the sugar. He didn't go poking around much besides the fridge when he was in here, himself. He was relieved she was happy about the tea, and was glad to have an excuse to hide his face in a cupboard to conceal his involuntary grin when she thanked him. His ego was starting to swell a bit now, competitively. Her last boyfriend would have nothing on him after today. That guy probably never made Kaia tea. He probably didn't even know she liked tea. Hah.

"I was thinking," he talked as he crossed to both sides of the kitchen to retrieve the sugar and milk before setting them down in front of Kaia, "If you wanted to go somewhere today, we could. If you're up for it, I mean. Just... out. For a couple hours. Since we're both already up."

Mission fulfilled, he pulled one of the barstools out for himself and sat down across from her. He didn't say anything else, just watched her with a sort of hopeful look that probably gave away what little was left of his game.

The way she was silent and brooding as she cleaned up at first had him worried that something about his offer had annoyed or offended her. As it was, he didn't really know what the rules were for dating or what stuff he was supposed to do or not do to appease Kaia beforehand. Taking the step beyond friends into something more was easier the first night, before it really set in how little he knew about how to be what she wanted him to be. None of the movies Khal watched had any romance that wasn't upstaged by big explosions and car chases, which were far more interesting to watch anyway. Sure, he could probably arrange that kind of thing if he wanted to be in his element, but Kaia never seemed to like those movies much.

Not that he really thought he was any more on target with his actual destination for the pair of them - but it was the only thing he could think of doing. Almost every night they went on patrol together, he saw her look up at the stars in a way he could never understand. It was a reminder that she was something different than he was, corrupt but still ultimately a senshi. She'd proven her loyalty to the Negaverse cause; there was no harm in indulging her alien interests just this once. He owed it to her to keep her happy. He'd been helpless to stop it before, and he'd even been the cause of her unhappiness once - he wasn't going to let either happen again.

He relaxed again when she started playfully questioning him. He didn't even realize he'd been leaning in those few seconds of worry as she'd stood up from the counter, curling his fingers around the edge of the island, until she suddenly leaned in as well. He let his hands slide over the rim and come to rest crossed over Kaia's as she cupped the mug.

"A little bit of both," he teased. Kaia's hands were warm from the heat rolling off the tea, and so small that his own darker hands completely hid them from view. He always seemed a little reluctant to let go of these moments, but eventually he released her hands and got ready to get up from the makeshift table. "Let me know when you're ready to go."

No surprises just yet for Kaia. The teen had wandered out of sight, checking on the tickets he'd shoved in his pocket: slightly crinkled but still okay. What had Kaia fretting in the bedroom was always a no-brainer for him. Khal probably wouldn't know dressy if it slapped him across the face. Even when Kaia tried to get him to buy new and nicer clothes, he only ever seemed to want to wear t-shirts, hoodies, sneakers, and jeans until they were too full of holes. Today was no different, possibly even a little more threadbare than usual in one knee.

The tickets vanished back into his pocket when he heard Kaia announce herself. He let his civilian guise fade away and his Negaverse uniform replace it, then strode back into the main room where Kaia was putting on her shoes. He looked a little nervous but mostly just ecstatic Kaia was going along with it the way he'd imagined. Even he knew he didn't improvise well when things went wrong. "Hey, there's no rush."

"But... let's take a shortcut," Hematite glanced at her mischievously, feeling confident. He'd scoped out their destination recently. He knew a lot of old, abandoned spots in Destiny City from running around them and through them. Teleporting made getting places so much less of a hassle now, too, giving them a whole new purpose during daylight hours. As gently as he could with a metal gauntlet, he took Kaia's hand in his and helped her to her feet. After a brief lurch through darkness the apartment around them was replaced by a dark and dusty room behind a boarded-up store window, with light leaking in through the cracks A moment after that there was no jet black metal separating their fingers, and Khal was just Khal again.

It was hard to see his face in the dark but she could hear him laugh quietly, maybe a little nervously. "That's the idea."

"Oh, through the front door. Lock's busted." He was already walking her over to it, stepping carefully over the debris strewn around the floor. Chunks of the wall and ceiling were carved out by what could only have been supernatural forces, scattering wood and ceiling tiles across the floor. He spoke casually but distantly about the place, navigating in the dark simply by running his empty hand along one wall. "It's been like this for years I guess. Almost as long as I can remember. I've had to hide here before a few times as a lieutenant. Lost some fights to super senshi, zodiacs... at least until we got rid of them for a while."

Aside from the occasional complaint that was more criticism than contemplation, Khaldun didn't actually go out of his way to mention a lot about his life in the early Negaverse. By the time he'd met Kaia he was over a year into captaincy, not some struggling, pathetic lieutenant. Khaldun gave the front door a shove and the protesting hinges gave way to blinding daylight. When their eyes adjusted, they were looking out onto the heart of downtown Destiny City.

Mentally he tried to map the way to their destination, orienting himself with the landmarks. Finally pointed down the street. "It's just two more blocks from here, to the left."

Once they had melded into the crowd, still linked hand in hand, he began to move closer to Kaia involuntarily. There were people all around them, boxing them in. Jostling them. Yelling on their cell phones. His hand was tensing up in hers, then holding on like a vicegrip. He was painfully out of his element like this, but he just kept pushing forward.

There was very little reason in his mind why he shouldn't resort to violence each time he was bumped and pushed and stepped on. His free hand was already balling into a fist. Was it too late to consider teleporting all the way there? He was already imagining simply power up right then and draining energy out of the people around them till he could carve a path. The idea of cops showing up wasn't nearly as awful as he felt here, now, holding back his perfectly sensible instincts for Kaia's sake. Because for a few hours today they were just another pair of humans doing regular human things. Just... normal people. It was actually really hard to fake something that seemed so natural for everyone else, he was remembering with more than a little dread. Hillworth had beaten that hope out of him after years of barely surviving all kinds of confusing situations, leaving violence his only safe, predictable option. How Kaia masked herself so well, he couldn't even imagine. His gaze jumped around the sea of faces and hair, as if hoping that at any moment an exit would open up and they'd be out of the claustrophobic mess.

And then he picked out the distinctive buzz of her voice from the audial assault of city sounds, felt her other hand on his arm. It made him turn his head slightly so that his gaze could tear away from the crowd and fixate on Kaia instead, the only thing familiar and safe in this horrible place. His grip relaxed slightly, just enough that Kaia wasn't going to lose her fingers. Getting him to let go completely probably wasn't going to happen, though. He was treating her hand like a lifeline, it had already quickly become an instrument more to ease his discomfort than to guide her anywhere. He'd forgotten how much he hated being in crowds, and he could barely control all the panic that rose inside of him with every moment the situation was out of his control. Any other day, any other reason, and he'd never come here at all. He came out at night, or he teleported where he needed to go, or he got into fights when people got in his face, and it all worked for him just fine. So much for trying to impress her with this and thinking he could actually do something for her without making a complete fool of himself . He was just getting worked up and it was his own damn fault.

"Kaia," he exhaled. Distraction was already setting in again and he couldn't force his expression for very long. He just looked anxious. "So uh, next time we'll just take the bus."

"Yeah," he echoed, his attention fading fast. She nearly lost him again, until he felt her press close to his side. A surge of protectiveness ran through him, and pulled him together again. For Kaia's sake, he had to get through this. His fingers flexed a little in her grip to squeeze back as gently as he could, returning the small gesture of comfort they shared when they were out in public. "Yeah, it's real close."

They finally had their chance to break away from the crowd when they reached the base of a concrete staircase where people milled and sat above the street level. They walked up the steps to a squat 2-story building with a large dome rising above it. Khal had never been inside it before in his life - so far as he could remember, at least. Hillworth certainly didn't go in for many field trips, especially not for their... less promising students. Not that he minded. He hated being shepherded along on educational tours of anything. So it was always just some funny looking piece of scenery, a stage for a fight, mostly forgettable. Turned out all this time, it was the Air and Space Museum. Still a huge yawn, for him. For Kaia, though, he just kept hoping she liked space... and air.

They hovered briefly in front of the admissions area while he fished the tickets out of his pocket with his free hand and offered them to Kaia. If she hadn't yet figured out where they were, the name of the museum was printed across the tickets over a background of stars glinting in the night sky. Khal scrutinized her reaction, mostly clearing out of her bubble of personal space. It was beyond his ability to predict the way Kaia would react. That kind of mystery was exciting and alluring in a lot of ways to him, but whenever he actually thought too much on it he wished that he just knew exactly how to make her happy. All he had to offer her today was a guess. "Surprise?"