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Okay so maybe he'd gotten a little too engrossed in the baking show. In his defense, he didn't normally watch that stuff. Hell, Juniper think it was possible to hold a competition over things like cupcakes.

Shows what he knew.

Juniper was dragged from his silent musings over pastries when Nelson spoke. He blinked for a moment, confused before everything sunk in. "I'm happy this worked out too. I hadn't heard anything about this place. He was almost surprised Marq or Faeth hadn't jumped him to try and see what it was all about. Almost. Juni was sure it would happen sooner or later.

"I've... never had spicy pasta." He said quietly. "Hell, I didn't know you could make it spicy." Guess he was learning all sorts of cooking things today. Juniper glanced at Nelson for a moment. "You know.. You don't have to apologize for bringing him up. I know you're upset about him, about the whole situation. You don't have to avoid talking about him because I'm here."

"...Isn't it better to talk about him though? Like, yeah it hurts now, but maybe talking about it, him-" Juniper corrected, "Is how you heal from it all. If I leave, it will not be because of Xander. Yes, there might be times where I get tired of hearing about it, but I would hope you have enough faith in me that I would tell you instead of just disappearing on you. I know I'm not a replacement. I could never be Xander. I don't want to replace him. Even I can see he meant a lot to you. We're both your friends." Even if Xander wasn't here anymore. With a sigh, he linked their arms at the elbow, tilting his head just enough to rest it on Nelson's arm. "That being said. I'm sorry you had to go through that though. I never really had friends till I became a senshi, so I haven't been in that situation."

Juniper glanced up. "You're not lousy. Hell, at least you know how to use your weapon. I don't know what my magic does. The few times I've used it for practice has left people looking spooked." And at this point, Juni was sure he didn't want to know. "...And, perhaps this is a bad thing to say to a General but... If it makes you feel any better, I'm not a big fan of taking energy from people myself. It's better then the alternative... But I'm still always afraid I'm hurting them." He knew he wasn't, but the thought was always still there.

Maybe it was him, who was the lousy one.

Juniper put on a smile though, patting Nelson's arm. "See? It's not all bad."

"I'm glad we met too. Even if you did scare the life outta me at first." Juniper laughed.

He nodded softly. "It will take time. If I bottled things for that long, I'd feel weird talking about it too... I'm not going to hold this against you." Juniper rested his head back against Nelson's arm. "Mmm.. I would like that. Though if my General finds out, you might want to start covering your ears."

Okay, maybe she had been right. Maybe Was Juniper going to tell her that? Hell no.

Juniper made a soft noise. "That was nice of them. Again, I know its probably not the smartest thing I could say but... It's nice when we don't have to fight on sight. Sometimes I wonder what we could learn from each other if we just listened. How much we could learn." His optimism and naivety was going to get him hurt someday... or worse. He tried to stiffle the giggle that crept up his throat at the thought of Gismondine with a fork and a knife. "Okay but that's... That's kinda cute honestly. But yes.. You'll get better at it, I'm sure. I have faith in you."