fandomtownies | Pizza Planet, Saturday evening

"That was a lot of fun," Sakurazaki gushes lightly as she slides into the booth. "My head kinda hurts a little, but that's just the combination of all the explosions and racing and bright lights and my not being used to seeing movies. Probably a little burn-out from detention still, too." She smiles brightly. "But still a lot of fun."

Jude laughed. "Glad ya had so much fun then." He pulled out his cell and glanced at it, checking the time and frowning. "Wow. Later than I thought it was. Oh yeah, hey, how was detention? Sucks that you got it for nothin'."

"It wasn't so bad. We played some sort of weird detective game. At first, I was really irritated because I could have been in the gym training, but, toward the end, it got to be a lot of fun and much more ninja-like." Ninja was definately the word of the day.

"Sounds better than any detention I've ever been stuck with," Jude chuckled. "At least it wasn't lines or power washing spray paint off brick walls."

"It certainly exceeded my expectations." She smiles. And it also kept her mind off of things for a good chunk of time, which was also nice Sakurazaki felt like she was still doing a pretty good job of continuing that...for the most part.

Jude just grinned at that and disappeared in the direction of the counter for a minute or two. He returned with two milkshakes - one chocolate, one vanilla so she could have her choice.

"Pizza's on the way," he said, setting them down. "Er, so this is my sorry for being a bad boyfriend this last week . . ."

Sakurazaki frowns, a flash of confusion in the expression. "What y ou mean, Jude? You mentioned something like that in your note this morning, too..."

She also reaches for the vanilla shake, sending a questioning look toward him to make sure that's the right one.

Jude reached for the chocolate one, nodding at her.

"Well, I've barely seen ya, we haven't gone out, we haven't talked . . ." Jude looks sheepish. "I'm not even bein' a very good friend."

"Well, just like last week, we've both been kind of busy..." Sakurazaki's eyes shift slightly as she takes a sip of the milkshakes. Well, she knew she'd been busy. She had to admit a little doubt that the same applied for Jude. But she was trying to be encouraging. "It's not really that big of a deal..."

"Although I have kind of missed you..." she admits, not really sure if she intended to say it or not.

That made Jude feel instantly guilty. Especially since she had been busy and he had been moping.

"Aww, geez, I'm so sorry . . ."

She decides after that reaction that she definately didn't intend to say it. Sakurazaki shurgs her shoulders a little. "Like I said, it's not really that big of a deal; don't worry about it." She offers him a light smile. "I mean, we had fun tonight, didn't we? That's what counts, not what's already passed and gone."

"Yeah, right," Jude said, just as sheepish as before. But he was smiling now. "I had a lot of fun. I guess . . . thanks for that. You're too good for me, y'know." And it took his mind off his increasing homesickness.

"I don't know why you say that," Sakurazaki blushes deeply, shifting bashfully in her seat. "You're the one who's doing everything. I'm just kind of...here, reaping all the benefits."

Said with a little bit of guilt? Oh, yeah.

"It's the bein' here that really counts, though," Jude said with a smile. He looked down at his milkshake, spinning the glass around on the table. "If it weren't for you, I might've already been calling my parents and begging to come home."

Leave it to Sakurazaki to misinterpret a compliment like that and suddenly feel bad for holding him back. "You've been wanting to go home?" she asks sadly, mostly because she recalls not long ago talking about how much she'd like staying here.

Jude shook his head quickly. "No! No, I don't. Well, kinda. But no, not really. Just feelin' a little homesick, y'know?" He smiled at her. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna disappear on ya."

"Good," she says softly. "I have to admit, though, I think my homesick phase has passed, especially now that Yuunagi's here. I don't know...I still miss Mahora every so often, but...there's a lot for me here that I couldn't have there."

Like a freedom from obligation that, under any other circumstances, wouldn't allow her to be sitting in this booth with him right now. Like the ability to, as Alphonse had put it, choose what made her happy for a change...

"Yeah, I guess so." For Jude, Fandom had less for him. He was at heart a city boy, used to wandering the concrete jungle in large packs of teenagers, to malls and skate parks. Not a small little island where most of the kids acted older than their age. "I'm glad you're happy here. And hey, it's so cool that your sword finally got here."

Instant grin. "Very cool. You should have seen me yesterday, though. I could barely move from practising too much with her. I should probably take it a little easy, huh?"

Jude chuckled. He'd done that sort of practicing himself a few times. "I wouldn't say so. If ya were that tired out, you obviously needed the workout." He blinked, trying to determine if he had said what he was trying to say. "Er . . . I think so, anyways."

"I've had more than a month off!" There's a faintly devistated whine in her voice. "I've gotten so rusty in that time. But not anymore. I'm going to get even better and stronger than I was when I left Japan."

Jude shook some invisible pom poms - his milkshakes by no stretch of the imagination would bring anyone, boy or otherwise, to the yard - with a grin. "Consider me your devoted cheering section, then."

Sakurazaki grins at him, leaning on the table a bit, chin resting in a propped-up hand. "I'm not so sure swordfighting usually has a cheering section, but I'll be glad to have one."

"But everything's totally better with a cheering section," Jude informed her seriously. "Well, except maybe dating 'cause that could get weird."

Not that he'd had it happen to him before or anything . . .

"You should come down by the gun range sometime then and see me practise. Not when I'm working on my wall stuff, though, because that's too dangerous for spectators, but, you know, if you don't have anything to do one of these afternoons...." She's trying to keep her voice from sounding too hopeful or suggestive, but isn't doing a very good job. If he was impressed by her little tick in the shack with the candles...She flushes brightly just thinking of what he might think when he saw her really working her stuff.

Jude blinked. "Dude. We have a gun range?"

He didn't even think to accept the invitation. He assumed that it would be taken as granted that he would show up.

She nods. "We do. It's down in the basement. This big old gun range and then, off to the side, our little sword practise area." Sakurazaki says it with a little grin, but there's definately a little bitterness in her tone. She gestures the space perameters on the table top.

"Whoa." He thought about this for a long moment. Then a smile spread over his face. "This school rocks. Uh, not that you have a little space to practice, but that the space exists in the first place . . . hey, the gym's pretty big, can't you use that?"

She shakes her head, adopting a very dire tone. "Oh, no. Not for live steel training. They have practise swords in the gym, sure, but those are really so..." Sakurazaki sighs, having trouble finding the word. After a moment, she just gives up. "They're not the same as using a real blade. Up until just recently, after Peter got with me about talking to the Principal about the matter, students couldn't practise with actual blades. But, now that we have our own special area, we can." Beaming, she chuckles slightly. "So, yes, this school does rock."

Pizza Planet, Saturday evening

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