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"Y-yeah. That's... probably a good idea." He giggled. Outright giggled, then put his hand to his mouth like he'd just spoken a foreign language. His blush deepened even more as he started to pick up the machine parts all around, putting them all into his pockets, wherever he had room. He stood up after a few moments of doing this, and offered his hand to Alison.

"May I... help you up?" he asked, giving her his most winning smile. "If we're going.... swimming... we should... Get there before they close..." Stalling. Stalling, stalling, stalling. "I also... would like to... fetch something from my house that I... erm... well... Just something."

"That, and... I... I have to get something. I want to drop off everything, but I also want to get something..." He thought about the item in question. It was his 'Mechanical Marvels: Robots and AI' book that had been in Arri's library. He wanted to give it to Alison, so she could read it for herself... It was really just a basic overview of what robots were, and what AI was, and where both could be found. It didn't really go into depth. But... if she was interested? It was a great beginner's book.

He took her hand, kissing the back of it. He knew that was a polite thing to do. "I'll have to duck into the house quickly, but I shall return in moments." he said, waxing poetic and fancy in his speech for some reason. It made him feel comfortable to talk 'upperclass' - even if he might not exactly be doing that. Sometime he just sounded plain silly, and Arri had told him that on multiple occasions.

"It won't take long, o...okay? Then we can go to the store, and... I have no idea what colors, or style, or anything to get, so... maybe you could help me with that? You're..." he glanced at her, up and down, blushing hard. "More... stylish, than I am. You're...v-...very... p... p....p-pretty."

"Yeah.. he's not feeling so good. I'll just drop my things off, pick up what I was going to get, and sneak back outside.... even though he'd probably sleep through an earthquake." He chuckled, and started down the hill. "After I slip in, and out, we can go shopping, and head over to the pool afterward. Do you know how late they're open?"

He paused to help her down, making sure she was not too far behind him, and perfectly comfortable. For some reason, he wanted to make sure she got down safe, and that nothing happened to her, and it went beyond just being 'nice'. He bit his lip a bit until they were both on flat surface again, even though he probably really didn't have to worry about Alison.

"Erm.. You know... I... have a bit of money myself. I'd just have to get it... I... could take us both to dinner or something. After we swim, because I know you're not supposed to eat before. There's this really nice Tex-Mex place called Churritos down the street a little. It's not too well known, but they serve some good food. I like the tacos there... " He mused a moment, then perked up again. "There's also this really nice little cafe in town that serves some of the most delicious Italian you can imagine. Their pizza is really good. Like, jaw-droppingly good. I don't know... what are you in the mood for? There's a lot of good places to eat around here..."

"Italian is... really, really good." He smiled a bit. "I've always loved Italian food - especially their desserts. And pizza. Can't forget pizza." He made sure she got down safely, and... reluctantly let go of her hand once they reached the street level. He headed down toward the right, toward the large house at the end of the street that belonged to Arri. "It's this way..." he murmured. "I'd invite you in, but it's... really a mess inside. And dad's not feeling well, so we might as well save that for later.. I need to show you my room eventually, though. It's got a cool ceiling.. and the walls look like a cityscape..." He trailed off.... "... Heck... I'll just show you. If we both keep really quiet, we might be able to avoid waking up dad, so... you want to give it a try?"

"Alright, we'll just be extra, extra quiet then." he stopped at the mansion at the end of the street, pushed open the door, and stood back to let her inside. The inside of the house was indeed, a mess. There were packing boxes everywhere, dishrags and other such things... stuffed animals on the steps, and a lot of useless junk spread throughout. Arri apparently hadn't cleaned up from the move yet. The hallway opened up into a large-ish ballroom, the same as when she'd been here last, but Arri had been busy, or at least some contractors had. The floor was pure white now, not checkerboard, and the walls were painted a pleasing light-blue. The ground-floor and living room were still hardwood, though. Even if they were a slightly darker shade of wood than before. There were also new rugs up, and more decorations on the walls, like pictures and paintings. There were several such paintings, ten of them, lined up in a row against the far living-room wall. However, there were four that really stood out.

There was one really pretty painting of a lady in a silver dress. She had golden eyes, black hair, and her skin was black. She also held some sort of symbol. Her nails and lips were both the same shade of luscious red.
Next to it, there was a man dressed in white and gold. He had platinum blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes. He seemed to look right through whoever was viewing the portrait. His paper-pale skin was a little creepy.
A couple of images down, there was the image of a fancy-and-proper child, with auburn hair, and pale skin... and eyes that were sewn shut. He didn't seem too bothered by it though.
The last picture of interest was of a young man in black and red. His hair was black, but tipped with a rainbow of colors. One eye was pure red, and the other was a more pinkish - with a faint scar slanting toward his nose over that eye.

As they passed the pictures, Sebastian stopped, and pointed the four out to Alison.
"I've never met these people, but I've heard a lot about them. Well, these three, anyway." he pointed at the woman's portrait. "That's Damia. She's apparently a really nice person, but can blow up like a volcano. Not entirely sure if dad meant that literally." On to the next one. "That's Eriot. Dad calls him the pain in his... well... bad word. I don't know why." He moved over to the boy. "That's Demain. He's kinda creepy looking. Dad doesn't talk about him much, just to say that he feels sorry for him. And that last picture? That's dad."

He let Alison take this in, before he pointed up the stairs next to the living room. "My room's up here. It's the first on the left."

The door was rather simple, and matched the rest of the doors on this floor. White, plain, with a gold-colored doorknob. The only difference was that this had letters in bronze tacked to the door, in an arc. SEBASTIAN. This was definitely his room. He turned to Alison, heart hammering again, and gave a little grin. "Ready?"

Without really waiting for an answer, he pushed open the door, and showed her inside. His own room was far more clean and neat than the rest of the house, and rather nicely decorated. The floor was carpeted in a nice soft-gray, and the walls were painted like a city-scape at night, all the way around. Where the 'buildings' ended, it became the night-sky, which continued onto the ceiling with little pinpoints of white paint on pitch-black.

Scattered throughout the many shelves in the room were lots and lots of books. There was a desk in the corner, with a steampunk-ish lamp settled on it, an open book, and writing utensils. There was a wide-screen TV built into the wall nearby the bed, which was also pristine and freshly-made, and had sort of a bronzey-gold color-scheme, with white sheets. There weren't very many stuffed animals on it. One giraffe that was pink and blue, a white terrier-type dog plush, and a turtle that was obviously made by hand, and had a lot of mistakes. But all three looked well-loved.

"So.... what do you think? It's not much, but..."

"Actually... my dad made that." Sebastian blushed full-on red. "I think it's pretty cute, but... Dad really doesn't know how to sew, so he just tried his best, and came up with that. I had wanted a kitty, but I guess he could only find a pattern for a turtle."

".. Actually." a new, slightly older voice came from the doorway. Arri was standing, there, looking pretty sick. Shadows around his eyes, paler than usual skin. But he was at least in a good mood, if a little surprised. He had his arms crossed, and was leaning against the doorframe. "The cat pattern was too hard to follow, so the saleslady recommended I just buy a pre-made plush and decorate it. I wasn't having that, so I asked her to show me the patterns for beginners." He shrugged. "It wound up a turtle."

"Dad! I... um...." Seb stammered for words. "I just... Alison and I... we... um... er... that is..."

Arri lifted an eyebrow. "Sebastian, you're not a scratched CD. Stop skipping, and spit it out."

"Uh... I...." He took a deep, steadying breath. "I met Alison again out on the hill by the park. She wanted to hang out for a while, so we decided we'd go swimming, and she'd teach me how to swim..." he trailed off, then picked up again, since he'd forgotten a crucial bit. "OH! And she's coming with us on the trip."

The black-haired man nodded a bit, coughed into one hand, and looked over toward Alison.
"Hello there. We haven't seen each other in a while, but I remember who you are. You're more than welcome to come on the trip. Just be sure to ask your guardian if it's okay first, and bring a first-aid kit with a flashlight, enough changes of clothes for two weeks, and whatever spending money you want. And anything else you think you might want or need."