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Akuji sat along the river of grape soda, watching the fishes lurch out playfully. The coffee boy had no taste for sweets-- as how the Candy Numa consumed so much sugar he was confounded. Sighing softly to himself, the Coffee massaged his temples, trying to rid himself of his awful migraine that had befallen upon him since, well, birth. Akuji had taken a step back from his other Coffee Numa kindred and had actually quit the addictive drink. It was only his second day, but his body was assailing him for such a heinous act.

To be quite honest, Akuji was lonely, and that was that. He had met no other Numa, and for most of his childhood he had no wish to. Yet, as he grew older, the need for companionship strengthened, but he was left without any social skills of the sort. Often the Candies would shy away from him, eying his claws and sharp teeth.

Sadly, he dipped a claw into the grape river and licked the sweet liquid off his paw. He grimaced as he did so and shook his head. "Bleck."

Akuji turned around, but as he did so he noted a pale-colored Candy Numa fluttering aimlessly behind him. He gasped, and as he did so, fell into the grape river. "Ah!! Ew-yuck! Blahfak!" he cried.

The poorly designed Coffee Numa splashed finlessly around in the soda for a while before digging his claws into the side of the river. He looked up at the numa who had shocked him at first and, at first, was very scared. She was looking down at him with concerned, genuine eyes, and he was clueless as to how to react. He felt his heart in his throat, trying to think of a way to not scare her away with his appearance.

"I'm fine, thanks," Akuji said softly, although very wet and sticky. With a little difficulty, he grappled onto shore and panted heavily. "Y-you didn't make me fall. I did. I was looking at the grapes and... and I fell."

This was his pathetic attempt to make her feel good. Akuji sensed he was not doing very well. Akuji walked a few paces away from the girl and shuddered, trying to get the damned liquid out of his fur and hair.

After a few moments, Akuji nervousness got the better of him. "You... Y-you aren't scared?" He looked up at her with very curious, hesitant blue eyes.

Akuji was resisting the very powerful temptation to rub his sticky self all over the dirt, and instead concentrated very hard on trying to comprehend this new creature he had met. At the response to his question, Akuji felt all his blood rush to his face. He wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or not, but he was blushing.

"N-no, it's not that. Just, usually other Numa are afraid of Coffee Numa." He explained shyly. "You shouldn't be sorry... so there's not need to apolo- auugh." Akuji swayed and sat, bringing his paw to his forehead again. The unexpected flushed-ness and blood rush to the head caused his headache to triple in intensity.

"S-sorry. I'm not feeling very well." He explained with difficulty, his eyes closed tightly and his tail squirming in discomfort. "I'm, uh, Akuji."

If Akuji had any parents, they would have told him not to follow strangers into their houses after knowing each other for five minutes. Thankfully, Akuji had no such guidance so he figured such an offer was simply an extension of kindness that was common among the Candy Numa. Plus, getting out of the sun sounded like a good idea. If he waited out here too long his fur would dry and be stuck to itself in odd clumps.

"Sure, thanks," He said, suppressing moans of discomfort from his head. "Thalassa," he tested under his breath, hoping he wouldn't be heard, but he just didn't want to get her name wrong if he said it to her for real. "Do you live with other Candy Numa, Thalassa?" He asked fearfully. Perhaps not all of her roomates would accept him as curiously and kindly as she had. More and more, Akuji began to detest his own nature and appearance. It wasn't that he wanted to be a Candy numa, of course not, but there were so many preconceived notions about Coffee Numa that most were hostile toward them. Not even the smidgens were kind!

He was glad to have met this kind Numa, however. She was very... well, sweet. It wasn't the bad-tasting kind, though.

As Thal grabbed a few cinnamon gummy bears, his mouth watered. He loved, loved those things. He used to eat them with his coffee. They leave a weird, sweet aftertaste, which he didn't really enjoy. However, whilst they were in your mouth the cinnamon tickled your mouth and it just-- ARRGGH his head hurt so badly... His migraine brought him back to reality, and he sadly lost his fantasy about the yummy gummy bears.

Her human, huh? Akuji had a human at one point, but as a child he had run away from her, disliking her customs. He had forgotten why, it was so long ago, however being brushed by a human sounded oddly appealing when Thal had mentioned it. He couldn't help but be relived to hear that she lived by herself, though.

"Soap?" He quirked an eyebrow up, confused at the new word. It wasn't often someone mentioned something so odd sounding. "What does that do?" He asked shyly, not wanting to sound stupid or uneducated (although he was definitely the latter, he sometimes considered himself both.)

The notion of sharing the cinnamon bears knocked the migrane out of him for just a moment-- it was so thoughtful. Akuji looked up at her. "Th.. thank you, so much. I really like the those gummy bears, actually. It was odd that you chose the only favor I like." He said with a smile. "E-eer, not that odd is a bad thing! I mean, there are a lot of good odd things, and this is probably one of them. This, as in the fact that you got those gummy bears. The cinnamon ones."

Stop. You're failing.

Akuji retreated back into silent embarrassment for a moment, closing his eyes as his face flushed again. "I'd like to eat them with you later." He tried, settling at that. Once he had smelt that soap stuff, his ears and tails perked up. It wasn't.. sweet. It wasn't bitter. It was... amazing. Akuji had to resist the temptation to grab it out of her hands and rub his nose all over it. That would be both rude and scary, he noted to himself.

"I... really.. enjoy that." He said almost robotically, unsure as to how to convey this emotion.

Akuji was embarrassed again. All things considered, he knew not exactly what to make of Thalassa. She seemed very kind-natured and genuine, and yet somehow her mannerisms reminded him of his own. Wasn't that odd? Akuji had not considered himself very kind-natured and genuine-- he was fairly sure he was not a bad numa, but certainly nothing he did qualified for such attractive compliments. Thalassa was unlike most numas. It made him a little uncertain, but he said nothing of it and attempted to instead focus on the conversation, once again.

"I like the soap," he said simply, observing the odd room. It was made out of something entirely different than candy. Hell, Akuji was daring enough to assume that the room wasn't edible at all! Still, in attempt not to appear incompetent once again he kept to himself about his awe.

"I... uh... I'm not sure what you're supposed to do," he said quietly, as he stepped uneasily into the tub.