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Kirin hummed his agreement. It was undoubtedly true. Though it could have been worse - better that people see a kid under the uniform than they see a male in a girl's uniform. And it was only until graduation, after all. Then he had to decide whether to attend DCU, that fancy prep school, or whatever else he wanted to do with his life. Kirin rather suspected that the very near future involved phone calls and possible meetings with his grandfather to discuss exactly that.

He made a face as Jada talked about liking men ten years her senior. It wasn't that he had a big thing against age differences, but no matter how well Jada's business side would get along with a thirty yeard old businessman, what on earth would one have in common with the girl who gushed about her kittycat, giggled while pretending to be lesbians to fool stupid thuggish boys, and made competitions out of who could come up with the silliest nicknames?

"Doesn't sound overly fun," he pointed out while attacking the tiramisu. "Wouldn't guys that age be after some serious, turning-into-marriage relationship? You've gotta be able to have some fun before you start looking for that."

To put it in terms Jada wouold no doubt understand, "You wouldn't buy the first dress you saw, would you? You'd shop around. Try things on. Check prices."

The tiramisu was disappearing quickly. Mmmm, beloved coffee. Around a mouthful, Kirin eyed Jada warily. Girls asking strangers to guess their age never ended well. "Eighteen to twenty?" he eventually said, opting for a range rather than an exact number to try and cover his bases. "And I think I'll pass on the latter, thanks. Last girly rival I had ended up dying." Kirin frowned as he recalled poor Lucy Moore, a reanimated corpse as it turned out, but still the most determined rival that Kirin had ever had. "It's kinda put me off wasting time on things like that."

Kirin was pulling his best 'b***h, plz' face as Jada gave her spiel about marriage and business deals and urk blargh gack. No, thank you. It wasn't hard to guess that Jada was just reciting what she'd been told. It made Kirin wonder about the sanity of upper class families. Kaine had doted on his daughter too much to try pulling anything like that on her. And Alison had done what she wanted, when she wanted - and ended up pregnant to a dead fiancee (who was in no way what Jada or her mother would consider 'a suitable match'). With that kind of social stain already in place, no one had been that surprised that Alison Walker raised her child in a decidedly non-upper-class manner. Now, more than ever, Kirin was eternally grateful for his family's eccentricities that had kept him from being raised like Jada.

"It is a sad day when the most reassuring thing you can tell me is that you want to live out a romance novel," Kirin shook his head and tsked. That may have been mock disapproval, that may not have been. "At least you get that most men aren't like that. Though you forgot to add in 'want to talk about his and your feelings - at great length', 'can give you multiple orgasms, every time', and 'reduce your brain to mush and make you swoon into his well muscled arms every time he looks at you'."

Kirin did not see the appeal in romance novels. Admittedly they weren't written with him, or his gender, in mind. But he would be the first to say that nothing in them was remotely realistic - the men, the women, the 'romance'.

"I think real romance has very little to do with what's written in those things. For instance," he pushed the remaining portion of the tiramisu towards Jada. There was just under half the serving left. "I am giving you the rest of the tiramisu. The best tiramisu I have ever had in my life. This is a true. Sacrifice."

Jada's age wasn't all that surprising. Though of course she was younger than him while looking so much more mature. He huffed. "I turned nineteen in January. Bet you wouldn't have guessed that, right?"

Not as used to this kind of place as his companion was, Kirin still turned when footsteps approached. His glare was brighter than a cat macro charging its lasers as he stared down the idiot who dared to harrass them. When the male spoke up, Kirin's lips curled in disgust. Brainless, stupid and corny. What a charming combination. However were Kirin and Jada stopping themselves from falling at his feet? Oh wait. Easily.

"I. Have. Had it," Kirin snapped. He was on his feet in seconds, the spoon tugged from his mouth and thrown down onto his place. The loud c***k ought to grab the waiter's attention. If not, Kirin's voice was certainly about to. "It's not enough for you to harrass me on the street. It's not enough for you to stalk after me and my date. It's not enough that you follow us in here! You make catcalls across a restaurant! But no, even that isn't enough for you and your band of dickless wonders. You, oh prince charming, decide to interrupt us to steal our food?"

Golden eyes were spitting sparks as Kirin glared up at his stalker. Leaning forward, chin tilted up, all of Kirin's body language clearly said he was not in the least bit afraid.

He finally broke eye contact with the douche to glare at everyone else in the restaurant (excluding Jada). "What kind of second-rate restaurant lets their patrons be harrassed this way!?"

The restaurant had better do something about this, Kirin decided blackly. Or he would.

It was probably a good thing that they'd been interrupted before Kirin could advise Jada to reword her latest demand for manly perfection. There was one thing a guy immediately thought of when told to 'rock my world, via my mouth' - and it had nothing to do with food. But Kirin wasn't entirely sure how to bring up what that really had sounded like with Jada, so he was happy to rip into their stupid stalker instead.

Brainless thug, trying to steal Kirin's tiramisu. He gave a mental hiss at the man.

As fast as Kirin's unexpected, and rarely seen, temper had flared, it was gone. In it's place was the much more familiar chilling veneer of Meadowview's Ice Queen. "Her," Kirin said flatly, eyeing off the richly-dressed and immaculate Jada. "And you." She ran a slow, utterly dismissive eye up and down the guy. Dressed like a 'hood thug, all low-slung pants and hoodie. Some pathetic attempt at a soul patch or other moustache growing beneath thin lips. The man was not anything near what Kirin would deem attractive (though maybe Jada had a differing opinion), and was clearly on the other end of the social spectrum from Jada.

"I've heard of slumming it, but I don't think anyone is willing to go that low," Kirin said, flicking his hair back over one shoulder.

Kirin had no intention of submitting Jada to the same dismissive scrutiny that he'd subjected their stalker to. While Jada was not the usual type of person Kirin associated with - touchy and bubbly and ohsosocial - she had proven herself witty, generous (with both food and by interceding in Kirin's initial quarrel with the bullies) and amazingly respectful of Kirin's privacy. Overall, one of the least annoying people he knew these days.

Although she was touching again... Kirin frowned, looking down at the hand on his wrist. He sighed and let that arm drop, flopping back into his seat as the manager finally arrived. At least it had only been his wrist, not an arm around his shoulder or waist or somewhere that someone as aware as Jada might notice a lack of real curves.

"Fine, fine, tigerkins," Kirin reteliated with one of his own nicknames. "I suppose I've been scary enough for one day? I'll let him run away. This time."

A deadly glare was focused on Jada's admirer, the warning loud and clear that if they met again, Kirin wasn't backing down. Without breaking his stare, Kirin added to the manager, "And if you could check that they aren't just loitering outside the restaurant to continue harrassing us the moment we leave?"

"I am the very soul of restraint," Kirin muttered sourly. The amount of people he had to resist the urge to cuss out or beat over the head with blunt objects... It was a good thing he had an outlet in his senshi form, or bottling up all of his emotions might have resulted in a psychotic break. (Though there were perhaps those who would say that Foramen was the psychotic break.)

The manager led Jada's forlorn suitor away, rounding up the rest of his group as well. Kirin was happy to see them go, though he did wish he'd had a chance to hit them with something. He consoled himself with the thought that he was heading back to senshi form after this anyway. Even a youma would do at this point, to take the brunt of Kirin's frustrations.

When Jada held out the last piece of tiramisu, Kirin wasn't sure if it was a taunt or an offer. He didn't waste time finding out. Like a predator who spied his prey sleeping, Kirin darted forwarded and chomped the last piece of the spoon. Some of the tension in his shoulders melted away like the coffe-flavoured treat in his mouth.

"Mmm," he hummed in pleasure. Golden eyes were almost lazy as they inspected Jada. Someone knew the best way to calm the caffeine-addicted beast.

It was no wonder the manager was near tears as he comped their meal, what with the large amount of dessert left. What Jada has initially called 'twenty dollars between friends' had become a much more expensive excursion. Kirin held back a snicker for the sake of Jada's reputation. It seemed the 'girls' were doing just as damage to the restaurant as their stalkers.

Kirin eyed the amount of dessert left. "Somehow I don't think we need any more than we already have." He was suspecting that most of it would be going home with Jada. There wasn't much room left in his stomach, and Jada had been matching him plate for plate.

"It's not a bad place to spend some time. At least now that we're no longer anyone's entertainment," Kirin said. 'All day' sounded a bit too long for him - senshi business and all - and Jada had her lawyers to get back to. But it was nice to pretend that they had no bigger concerns than eating dessert all day.

The spoon was back in his face. Either Jada really did intend to spoon-feed him or this was a hint to try the mousse. He did both. The bite off Jada's spoon had his eyebrows raising. A few seconds later, his spoon was across the table, stealing a large portion for himself.

"Ah, you don't have to..." Kirin gave a faint protest. Even if the meal had ended up free, it had been Jada who had been planning to pay for it, and Jada who wanted the extra desserts to take home. He didn't like to feel in debt to others... Though at least if Jada forced food off on him, it wasn't food she'd paid for.

Jada stole his stolen treat back and Kirin pouted. It was a bit of an act, sure, but it seemed to keep Jada entertained and wasn't hurting anyone. (Kirin was very thankful that despite their little act this afternoon, no one actually was a lesbian, so it wasn't like he was leading someone on or expecting things to go further than the other wanted.) "You don't love me after all," he said with a dramatic sniff.

Their little playacting was interrupted by Jada's sudden exclamation. The young woman was suddenly in a rush for them to leave, all so she could get Kirin back to school?

Kirin wondere dif Jada had forgotten that Kirin was skipping today. Or was this just Jada running roughshod, trying to force Kirin back whether he liked it or not? He huffed and then gave a tiny smirk. He could play along, he supposed. All he had to do was walk off in a different direction from Jada, then go where he wanted.

"Oh, you're probably right," he said, faking surprise as he looked at his watch. "Seems I'll be late for the first afternoon class. What a shame."