Welcome to Gaia! ::

...... Thinking back he might have been smarter inviting a guy. Roch had a brand new smoothie in his hand and was wearing his black and red swimtrunks and his steel toed boots, a towel draped over his shoulders. He was standing outside the hotsprings, waiting for Hel to show up. It was just that Hel was one of the first people to jump to his mind--and the first one that WASN'T pissed at him for one reason or another.

So he'd invited Hel. And jack all the idiots that might think this meant there was something between him and his best bro's ghoul, because, seriously, she'd kicked him in the balls one too many times for him to even see her as a prospective romance partner. It just seemed like something she would like.

Besides, he was proving that he wasn't avoiding her with this, right?

He grinned. "So we had this class, led by the janitor lady, Moira, and had to come in here and beat on gigantic molerats, who followed some of the people around, but their heads exploded when I hit them," he said, starting into the tunnel that led to the hot pools. "And then she revealed these," he finished, moving out of the way so she could see.

"There's lava pools down that way and ice pools down that, but I never bothered to look," he added as he kicked off his boots and dug through the pockets of his swimtrunks. He pulled out a few strange things, one rubber ducky and a plastic balloon that needed inflated.

Someone had yet to explain that hot springs weren't for playing in to the punk.

"Well... y'know, there weren't any pools back home," he said, looking a bit sheepish as he kicked his boots off. He wasn't wearing socks. "So I figured I should bring the stuff you need for one here, right?" He brought the ball up and started inflating it, capping it off happily.

Then he tossed it into the nearest pool, grinning like an idiot. "And look! Ducky's got a guitar!" he told her, showing it off.

He pouted. There was no other word for it. "I liked the ducky," he said. "It's got character!" Then he tossed it into the pool as well before jumping in after it. "Ahhhh, it's freakin' hot when you do it that way!" he complained. "Oh well, this is great," he said, relaxing back against the side of the pool.

Then staring at the ducky as it bobbed past.

"I bet it'll be really awesome after a spar... or the horsemen trials," Roch agreed. Then went silent for a moment. "Hey, Hel? Can I ask you somethin' a bit serious?" he said slowly. There was hesitation in his voice. "Actually, no," he went on quickly. "It's nothin."

"Don't kick me there! Not over a jackin' question!" he said, giving her a dirty look. "What I wanna ask..." He went silent for a bit. "Say you got this friend--your BEST friend, and say you get into a fight with this best friend. Over somethin' really serious to you, but somethin' they don't get, y'know? What do you do?"

He sank deeper into the water, running a hand over his face. "When we had this class I didn't even talk to her," he added quietly. "And not just because she was hanging out with a jacker I can't stand. I haven't talked to her in a week." Which, really, wasn't really that long for not talking to most of his pals, but for Danny, it was a bit... weirder than hell.

"This... it isn't somethin I can compromise," he told her. "And it's probably somethin a lot of people think I'm being ridiculous over, but I seriously, seriously feel it ain't somethin I should do. It could put them in a bad situation. A really bad situation. I won't do that to my friends, especially not my best friend."

He frowned, then shrugged. "So even if it pisses her off to where she stops BEIN my friend, I still can't--WON'T do it," he finished. "But... Jack me, I don't want to lose her, too. I keep jackin up, Hel. Losin' friends. I don't know what'll happen if I lose Danny. Hell, maybe I'll go to the grim reaper school after all."

"Danny IS what I value, Hel," he said, frustrated. "If I take her emblem that means she's taking responsibility for what I've done now and what I've done in the past--that's how I read it. And I CANNOT and WILL NOT have her take that, do you get it?" he asked.

"I've got like, a three inch thick juvie record. They've got enough stuff on me that they could send me to juvie for the rest of my jackin' LIFE. That they could send three of me to juvie. And sure, she's rich and her family could get her out of it--but I don't want to put her in a position that she'd need to be bailed out. And Xiu! She slipped me hers in a cupcake box! How the hell do I tell her that I don't--can't take it? And don't even get me started on Charlie, although, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have a record of his own--"