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Fear not, Alex--you weren't in trouble. Probably not, at least. As the zomboil accepted her request, Xiu murmured a polite "excuse us" to the others before ushering Alex a fair distance away. Enough so that they could still be seen by their friends, but not close enough so that they could be heard. The fact that Xiu kept her voice soft helped with that part as well.

Turning around, the baku wrung her hands in front of herself anxiously, wondering just how to approach this topic. But for something like this...maybe she should just get straight to the point. "First off...the specifics aren't really my business, I know, but I do consider both you and Yin Cang friends--I can't help but be just a little concerned. I also couldn't help but notice that the two of you are..." Avoiding each other? Ignoring each other? "...acting very strangely today."

...That was kind of an understatement, actually. The air had been pretty heavy.

"Could it be that you two had a fight?" Or maybe it was more complicated than that, but even Xiu knew that a small argument could cause a rift between even the best of friends. ...But hold it, those bruises of Yin's weren't caused by--

...She...was a little afraid to ask about that part.

While Xiu and Alex separated from them to have a chat, Mort wondered idly what the consequences or seeing fireworks would be. It wasn't like he could see well in these old prescription glasses, getting a milky and blurry view of anything beyond two handspans from his face; and this was proven when he tried to reach for what he thought was a pygmy dragon, but was in fact just a spotted rock.

Once again pulling his hand out faster than a Swift Strike FEAR, Mort used it to rub the back of his neck, that self-conscious tic that had been waiting for Yin to fill the silence. When he only offered his name, the zomboil was resigned to speak. And really, he knew he should - this wasn't any way to be treating a new student. This was a horrible first impression he was giving. "W-Wasn't here last year, so not know if was 'nother like," Mort told the demoness, having some trouble looking her completely in the eye (sometimes wavering to her smoke wisps), but at least getting better. "Know from reading manga, i-is 'round Chinese New Year." He just didn't know specifically what the festival was about in the beginning was all.

That coin in the ground looked so interesting. Naturally it crumbled under his fingers, but was that not so interesting?

((whut phone tag whut))

Alex couldn't even muster up a smile for the petite demon ghoul as she tried to tell him that Yin probably still wanted to be friends. There was a chance that he did, but did Alex feel like he deserved that friendship anymore? To be honest, at this point, he didn't.

This wasn't even to mention the fact that he had left a big thing out of what had happened between him and Yin, though this was only because it was something absolutely nobody knew, except Alex himself, and he did not at all want to even think about it anymore, let alone talk about it.

Ah, teenage drama~

When Xui told him she would be right back, he cringed, tempted to reach out and grab her before she could run back off towards the weremantis. Did they have to do this here, right now? Was this really the best time? He guessed it was sort of putting a dampener on the festivities...but he could always just leave and that would take care of that just as well, would it not?

It wasn't long before she was back, with Yin in tow. Alex was busy studying the ground again. It really was such an interesting ground! But slowly he somehow managed to raise his eyes to the other boil, his eyes just as full of pain as they were that morning in the gym before he left Yin there all alone.

He was faintly aware of Xui saying something, and he tried to concentrate on that, instead of how horrible Yin looked, and how much he wanted to destroy whoever did that to his best friend.

Concentrating was proving to be very difficult.

Finally Xui's words sank in, and Alex quickly shook his head. "No..no! Of course not I wasn't...I'm not mad." he said firmly, his eyes were wanting to drop to the ground again but he wouldn't let them. He just had to..look Yin in the eye and let the other boil know that everything could still be fine.

Was Alex still angry? He couldn't really fault Yin for being worried about one of his own friends (though Alex was perplexed as to why Yin would think he and Danny didn't get along. Sure she scared him most of the time, but he had actually sat and had conversation with her once). Alex had also had time to get over Yin ditching him, though being ditched and then forgotten about completely still stung a tiny bit.

But was he still angry? Of course not. He was ashamed, a little hurt, and frankly, quite miserable. But no, not angry, not even in the slightest. So he said as much.

"Yin..I'm not angry with you. I know I can't even ever come close to being able to make things up to you though. I did a horrible thing, and all because I couldn't control myself.." He gritted his teeth at the memory of lunging at Yin, at attempting to crush him beneath his hands. "I shouldn't have run away afterwards, and maybe one day I'll be able to explain why I did, but for now I just..can't. Just, please do not apologize to me anymore. I'm tired of you apologizing every time I do something wrong." Ok, he was getting a little worked up again, time to breathe. Just breathe and relax. It took him a moment, but he was able to calm down again. And then he smiled, tentatively. Just try and make it ok...

"Still friends?"

Xiu had stepped back and turned her back to the pair to let them have their talk, giving them a little bit of privacy (even though she could still hear them). Still, she tried her best to tune them out, glancing about idly at the booths and--ah, did Alex just ask if they were still friends? The baku perked up at this and, despite her best efforts, couldn't resist turning around to look at them as she waited for Yin's answer. Had they patched up their friendship?



Yes, it seemed like they had. If Alex and Yin were to turn to look at her, they would find the little baku positively beaming at them, hands clasped in front of her. However, instead of commenting on how glad she was to see things resolved, she simply asked, "Ready to head back to Mort and Michi?"

Yin was walking beside the zomboil toward the others and shook his head at the comment, a determined look in his eye. "That fight is finished, and what needs to be dealt with I can handle on my own. You should not trouble yourself." But as they drew closer to Mort and Alexander's...friend...Yin slowed down, using the excuse that he was turning to make sure Miss Xiu-Ying was with them to let the zomboil arrive ahead of himself.

He held back from the rest for just a moment to try to talk to her briefly. "Thank you Miss Xiu-Ying," he told her as he gave her a slight bow. "What you have done today means a great deal to me." And now it was time to rejoin the group, and hope that the rest of the festival could carry on without a hitch.