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Grimacing, Shun grumbled under his breath a bit before looking at Lizzy a little more directly.

"I don't know," he said, "I don't know how she'll react. But I got back at Mac for hitting her. I don't regret it either if that's what you're trying to get at with this."

Narrowing his eyes a little, he thought over what to say next exactly.

"Yes, I know it's not a very nice thing to do but I've never claimed to be much of a nice guy have I? This is how things were done growing up. You got a problem with someone? You duke it out with them. ******** up somewhere? Take a beating. Mac got off pretty damn nicely as far as only getting a punch to the face."

"... Mac hit her? Did he actually hit her or was he just harsh with his words?" She frowned, showing just the slightest hint of irritation before calming down again, wondering if perhaps she hadn't been given the full story, "Anyway, I'm not trying to make you regret it. I'm just trying to make you use that brain sitting in your head."

Yup, she was definitely still irritated.

"Nice? Nice? There is nothing wrong with exchanging punches," She knew that's how some of the locals liked to solve their problems, even if it wasn't her cup of tea, "But I'm just asking you to think before you act - by punching Mac, had it ever occurred to you that maybe - just maybe - you might make Mitsu even more upset? How is she going to be able to trust you with her problems if your solution is to 'duke it out'?"

She paused, "An eye for an eye makes the world go blind, Shun. Your reckless method of 'solving problems' might end up with someone you actually care about getting hurt one day." Great, now she's wondering if him getting together with Mitsu might be a bad idea.

"He didn't."

That was all Shun said for a long while as he fell silent once Lizzy started to pick away at him. The questions about Mitsu were irritating but this was worse by far. It was pretty hard to say what was going on through his mind since his expression didn't really shift all that much. But for the time being, he avoided Lizzy's gaze and stared off elsewhere angrily.

However, his eyes twitched slightly at a few things here and there, which might have hinted that some of the words said actually stung the Reaper to some extent. He remained silent for a little while longer.

"Well what did you expect me to do?" He finally said, "If I hadn't been rough with Mot, do you expect Mac to have stood up and confessed to me or anyone else otherwise? Do you expect me to just stand by and do nothing at all outside of sitting with Mitsu trying to convince her that her cat won't end up getting killed within the next few days?"

"I did expect you to sit by her, yes," She replied with a soft sigh, "Although no - I can't say for sure that Mac would be so noble as to fuss up." Why did she like him, again? She was pretty proud that Mac admitted to being the culprit in the face of an angry Shun, but she wasn't sure if 'saving Mot' was the motivation behind that, "However, school's not that big - tall reaper with a hat and a bird? Granted, everyone's taller than you when you're my height-" Which happened to be Mitsu's height as well, "But if you just asked around rather than resorting to violence first, you would probably have found Mac anyway."

She paused, frowning a little, "He might be harsh and all, but his pet - his pet from a long time ago - was dying in front of him. He was probably scared and irrational, thus he yelled at Mitsu... Although I suppose I would be lying if I said that Mac wouldn't carry out his threat if Whip really died on him." She was starting to think that she should spend a little more time with that hardheaded reaper, know him a little better... Maybe after she's done talking to this hardheaded reaper, "Would you do the same for Bent-tail? Lose your cool and maybe yell at his attacker, Mr 'I use my fists to talk'?"

Wow, she was irritated!

Looking sheepish for a moment, she then quickly added, "Sorry for the lecture, but... But you hit my boilfriend! And almost did the same to someone I consider a big brother to me!"

"I did hit him," Shun admitted when Mot was brought up. Or, at least he figured that was Mot she was talking about. There wasn't really anyone else involved that he was aware of. With a sort of huff, he finally looked over towards Lizzy again.

"If someone hurt Bent-Tail I don't really know what I'd do. But Mac didn't yell at the attacker as far as I'm aware. Ziggy was the attacker, not Mitsu. While she may be the cat's owner, it doesn't make it her doing. Most likely? I'd deal with the one directly responsible. Just like I did here. I could have easily gone and tried to hunt down his bird to finish it off for being 'indirectly faulted' for the ordeal," He said lowly.

"This whole damn thing is just one ******** mess," he hissed, growing more angry as this went on, "This is why I avoided people before. I can't deal with people and they can't deal with me. I'm better off alone."

"You hit Mot?" She looked distraught at the news, "Why would you do that? Mot's a complete sweetheart! He wouldn't yell at a ghoul even if... Even if a ghoul kicks him in his 'weak spot'!" Then again, Shun might not know this - at least she had made her point now.

"Mac's rationale was that Ziggy was owned by Mitsu, and that she had a responsibility as a pet owner to control her pet," She argued, putting her hands on her hips as she continued, "Not saying that Mac was right in shouting at Mitsu, but put yourself in his shoes for a moment, would you? And you are right - going after Whip would not solve the root of the problem since Whip was not the one who yelled. Similarly, Mac had no reason to go after Ziggy because the root of the problem is not him - it is Mitsu's inability to control Ziggy. In the end, it is nobody yet everybody's fault. You are right... It is a mess."

She frowned at him before digging in her bag (oh magical bad of holding), pulling out a pair of shades. Standing on tiptoes, she then put the pair of shades on Shun before stepping back, "Deal with it. I said it when we first met - no one's an island, especially not in this school. By the way, the shades look pretty good on you - might want to keep them."

"I did it because he was being uncooperative," he grumbled before falling silent again. The only thing he got out of that nagging snippet was that he was going to have to try harder to get Mitsu to train that damn cat. He had been skimping a bit on that due to the fact that Ziggy liked to pounce and claw his face whenever possible, which made teaching Mitsu anything a little difficult. Though, he did get to work with her a bit with Arkham. That was a start he supposed.

Flinching away as she put sunglasses on him all of the sudden, he furrowed his brow wondering what the hell that was for. The shades seemed incredibly random to him.

"I never said I was an island. But I was doing fine on my own before," he said quietly while taking the shades off, "I'd probably be fine now too."

"Did you expect someone who had no idea what was going on to be cooperative?" She sighed, shaking her head before rubbing her temples with one hand while staring up at Shun, "Just... Promise me to not use the 'hit first, ask questions later' strategy often, alright? Or history's just going to repeat itself..." And who knows how that'll end next time.

"No you won't," She simply replied with a wave of her hand, "Anyway, I'll contact you again about bringing Mitsu out... Anything you want to clarify, say now or forever hold your peace."

"Fine," he grumbled while sitting down onto the bed again. If anything, Lizzy had given him a ton of things to think about now, which for the moment, seemed to be much more of a hassle than anything else. Ugh.

"What makes you say that I won't be fine?" Shun asked, narrowing his eyes at the spider demon, "And... what exactly do you have in mind for this 'outing'? You're not going to make me jump into a ball pit with her are you?"

"..Maybe. But there's really no telling what I'd end up playing. What comes out really depends on my current mood," he frowned, "I don't think it'd be helping with anything with how she feels if I play something dark or angry."

"I don't know.. I'll.. think about it I guess," Shun grumbled. What was one more thing to add to his pile of thoughts anyway?

"Why would you being with Mitsu make you dark or angry?" She raised an eyebrow at him, folding her arms across her chest, "Anyway, if you sort out your thoughts before the outing, I'm sure you'll end up playing something less likely to make a scareling cry." Hopefully anyway... It was hard to tell with Shun.

"Good to hear!" She smiled, both glad and relieved that the boil wasn't protesting as much as she had anticipated, "Well then, any other questions? If you have anything to ask, feel free to call me up~ It's alright to go visit friends who ares not Mitsu, you know?" She couldn't resist grinning, letting out a soft, amused chuckle at her own comment.

Frowning some, Shun glanced away again and let out a sigh. Maybe this would work out, but the daunting task of tackling his emotions seemed even worse than before.

"I"m really.. not good at this.." he mumbled under his breath. It was possible that he might have almost seemed a little sad. Almost. It was a little hard to tell when his expression was still fairly intense as per usual.

"At least you're willing to admit it," She nodded, reaching out to pat him on the top of his head. She then paused, mid-pat, before tilting her head, "Why don't you try smiling...?" It was a serious question, and Lizzy waited in anticipation for his answer; she had never seen him express anything that resembled bliss before... In fact, she was starting to wonder if he could express that at all.

"Take a deep breath, close your eyes, relax, think of something - or someone - that makes you happy... And smile." As she said that, she demonstrated, hoping to get Shun to do the same, "You can do it!"

Twitching from the head pat, Shun narrowed his eyes at Lizzy before giving her a strange look as she suggested that he smile.

"I have no reason to," he said plainly before she started to explain what he should do. He stared at her a little warily before letting out a sigh and closing his eyes. He may as well humor her. Clearing his mind, he tried to grasp for anything that brought him any sort of joy or at least content. The reaper couldn't really say for certain that anything made him happy, but he had been in states of content at the very least.

He thought of.. her. And her own smile... There was something.. relaxing about it and soothing to see. However, when he realized this, he stopped himself as confusion hit him once more. Tensing up as the confusion and conflict hit him, he shook his head and reopened his eyes.

"Meh. I don't need to smile anyway."

She leaned towards the reaper when he started to relax, holding her breath as she waited; could this be the first time that he had ever tried to smile? It really doesn't matter whether he 'had a reason' or not - smiling required no real reason... It's something you do when you're contented, happy or amused! Sure, perhaps he didn't have many things to smile about, but hopefully, that was in the past.

She wasn't sure what to feel about an always smiling Shun though... It could be a tactic used to confuse future opponents, maybe?

Almost, almost... Wait, what...?!

"You were almost smiling there!" She exclaimed with a disappointed pout as she frowned, "Why did you stop?" Actually, there was a question that might be more important here, "What were you thinking of?"

"Too many things going through my head," he mumbled before freezing at the next question. Shun felt strange and he wasn't really sure what to make of it..

"I... her," he uttered under his breath, almost sounding ashamed. Maybe that was just the confusion going through his head that caused him to say it that way. The Reaper felt no reason to hide it but... there were just so many things that he didn't know how to react to any of it.

"It's.. not a big deal. It's been years and no one aside from you has ever really mentioned anything of it."

"Aw... Well, at least you tried!" She nodded, giving him an encouraging smile before blinking at what he said next, furrowing her brows in confusion; she almost missed what he said since he said it so softly, but... She was pretty sure that he mentioned...

"Her...?" She echoed, pausing momentarily, "... Mitsu?" It wasn't exactly a wild guess, but she still needed some form of clarification from Shun! At his comment, she raised an eyebrow, "Hey! Just because nobody mentioned it doesn't make it any less important! I suppose people just have... Different priorities?"

"...Yes."

Looking back up at Lizzy, the Reaper frowned and shook his head.

"I don't see how smiling is important. I've been fine with not doing it. The lack of a smile doesn't mean that my life is miserable."

Shun wasn't exactly a happy person by any means and he tended to be on the broody side, but he didn't consider the way things were to be horrible. There were many things he didn't like or didn't enjoy, but there were a few little things here and there that made things not too bad. He was, for the most part, fine with the way things were.

Well... not necessarily with the way things were recently. The heavy confusion was not something he wanted to stay. It was a definite problem.

Cue the softened expression and 'awwwww' as Lizzy grinned at Shun, "What about her makes you want to smile, exactly?" She was asking out of curiosity, really; after all, she figured that those might be things Shun might want to say to Mitsu on their sort-of-date, "Uh, for example... What do you like about her?" Hopefully she was actually helping Shun to express his feelings - the boil did not seem to be any good at doing that.

"Of course you're not miserable," She replied, making sure to put empathsis on 'of course', "You just don't express your lack of misery much." She managed to say that all while wearing a deadpan expression, although she was smiling sheepishly at the end of it.

For some time, Shun was just quiet but it wasn't really because he didn't know the answer. It was more because a part of him didn't want to speak. He had already revealed quiet a bit and he wasn't really sure if he should keep talking. So, rather than speaking up, he just sort of looked towards Lizzy in silence even after she explained a little more about smiles.