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For once there were no books littering the table Axton was sitting at in his usual coffee haunt. Only a steaming mug resting in front of him, pale hands cupped loosely around the warm ceramic as he watched, almost dazed, as people moved past the window. Classes were over, not just for the summer, but in Axton's case, for the foreseeable future. He'd just finished the last of his exams that afternoon, and assuming he'd passed, well, college was over.

It'd seemed like something worth celebrating. His parents had insisted on taking him out to dinner with his his little brother, and it'd been fun, but after a week of papers and exams drawn forth from the mouth of hell, Ax was a bit worn out.

However, that had not stopped him from giving one of his favorite people a call to see if she'd be free to come out and close out the day with him. It'd been ages since he'd really gotten to spend much time with her. Between his classes and her new love life, if they managed to catch up once a month it was a bit of a miracle.

He was eager to see how she was doing. To hear more about this Akio guy she'd been dating.

Oh yes, there'd be questions about that.

He'd spotted her out the window before she'd reached the door, so Axton was on his feet when she spotted him, hands in his pockets, a lopsided grin on his face. "Hey, long time no see, eh?" It was a bit of an understatement, but they'd both been busy. He was hoping that now with class over they could get back to something close to normal; her dragging him along to charity events, and him pretending not to like it.

"How've you been, shortstack?" Pulling his hands from his pockets again he held his arms out for a hug. "Keeping busy, I'm sure. And then there's that boyfriend thing you need to catch me up on." Cause he wanted to make sure he was treating her well.

Axton wasn't protectiveat all, not even a little bit...

He gave her a soft squeeze on the shoulder as she stepped back from him, smiling down at softly flushed features. Ax didn't need her answer to know she was serious about the boy she'd been dating, it was written all over her face. On the one hand he was happy for her, that she'd found someone that made her happy. On the other, it was incredibly difficult to turn off that big-brother instinct. Now that he was free from the obligations of school he was going to have to meet this guy. "What was his name again?" Has she told him before?

As he took his seat again, hands resuming their loose hold on the coffee cup he'd left on the table, he shook his head, chuckling lightly as he looked down into the steaming contents. "Dating? No, nothing like that." There'd been Desdemona...but he'd lost contact with her quite some time ago, and since then he'd been buckling down on his classes. There hadn't been much time for traditional dating.

That didn't mean he'd been alone, but Rory didn't need to know those details.

"So when are you going to jump into the college scene?" He tapped a finger against his mug. "Or are you?" If she was, and he'd forgotten... A small frown played over pale features as he looked across at her.

No intentions of googling, at least not yet, but Axton figured it was good to at least known Rory's boryfriend's name.

His nose wrinkled as well following her offer to help him find someone. "It's okay, I'm sure now that I have free time again it'll be easy to meet people." Which still didn't mean he was looking to jump right into any sort of serious relationship, but he was looking forward to having the time for casual dating again.

Pale brows arched at her expression regarding school and it was obvious that he'd stumbled onto something that was a bit of a sore subject. It made him half wish he hadn't mentioned it, but...

"If you change your mind about it I bet there's some scholarships you could apply for, with all the community service you've been doing. I wouldn't mind helping you." Ax had had to apply for some financial aid himself, so he wasn't a stranger to the process.

He didn't have an immediate answer for her question, and he brought up his coffee to nurse at it as he considered it. When he lowered his mug again his lips twisted and he half shrugged. "Ask for more hours at the thrift stop for one, then put out a bunch of applications with various businesses around the city. Anything that my degree might give me a leg up in. Then we'll see how it goes."

Watching her fidget, Axton did regret the topic now. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable, ever. Nor did he want to see her settling, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot either of them could do about that at the moment. Maybe he could do a bit of research, see if there were scholarship programs, or something.

But not today.

Thumbs running along the curved rim of his mug, Axton looked down into the dark coffee within. "I don't really know. I picked leisure studies cause it was very broad. You see it in a lot of businesses, there's usually roles revolving around health and fitness coordination, or recreation. Anywhere from camp councilor and amusement park management to coordinating activities on cruise ships." He shrugged, mentally going over a few of the places he'd considered looking into.

At a certain point he'd considered using the degree to leave the city. To travel, bouncing from cruises to resorts, to other exotic get-aways. He still wanted to do that, but he didn't want to be gone for such long stretches or time. It made it a little tricky.

"So you have a job somewhere, then?" That was hopefully easier to answer.

"Yeah, hopefully. I'd really like to find something close. I like my apartment, and the city, and I don't to have to pick up and start over again somewhere else." He wrinkled his nose, then grinned across at her. "Besides, you're pretty much one of a kind, so it'd be impossible to replace you." Who else would he find that drag him around to charity events and volunteer programs? It wasn't always fun, but Ax's life and certainly gotten more interesting when Rory had entered it.

His fingers trapped out a rhythm against the side of his mug. "A coffee shop, huh? That's not that far from my place, actually. Looks like I might have to change haunts. Another grin, this time playful. "Come harass you at work."

All in good fun, of course. But if he found out she'd rather not have him around her job that was fine too, he'd understand wanting the professional distance from her personal life.

Axton perked up at that, sitting a little bit straighter in his chair. "Oh yeah? That'd be great. I mean I don't expect to jump into anything perfectly tailored to this degree right off the bat, but even using it a little bit would be nice.". He chuckled to him self, tone a little self depreciating but amused. He was aware enough to know that a degree didn't just automatically land you a great job.

"What's the address? I could go drop off a resume, fill out an application." He thought perhaps he knew the building she was talking about, but he'd have to be mistaken and wander into the wrong one.

He grinned as she kicked at his foot under the table, completely unabashed. "Will he? Maybe we'll strike up a friendship." For her sake he did hope he and boyfriend got along. He'd hate for her to feel pulled in different directions.

"A good point," he agreed with an excited grin. Working in the attached Cafe, he wasn't sure how much sway Rory would have, if any, but he couldn't imagine anyone actually saying 'no' to her. He'd been a little lost in the last months of classes, unsure where he was going to go or what he was going to do, but this sounded promising. He hoped.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it. It was just the address Rory was texting over for him. He'd head over in the morning.

Brows arched, he brought his mug up again. "Is Bob the white one, the ginger one that looks a bit on the rough side?" He had very minimal knowledge of the cats beyond pictures and the occasional story They sounded like a handful, but Rory seemed to enjoy them.

"Hey, are you hungry? Do you wanna go get something to eat?" Coffee just wasn't enough.