[FIN] Move to the Music

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Mm, it could be," the girl countered back with a wry smile. "I don't really appreciate being lied to - it happens surprisingly often, actually." Though it was said lightly, it was something that bothered her deep down. Her pale eyes narrowed very slightly at how fast the smile disappeared from his face, but she merely noted it silently for now as she took the offered glass and held it delicately, swirling its contents briefly before she took a sip. "Mm, well, to be fair, I'm glad you didn't get me any of those - I'm not a fan of root beer at all, and though I like ice cream, I don't like it in drinks."

She couldn't help but notice that her drink was, unlike his, pointedly nonalcoholic, although that wasn't something she would comment on right in front of the bartender who would no doubt not appreciate an underage drinker. Akira's question, however, made her eyebrows raise a bit, but she cleared her expression and raised her glass, looking at his eyes over the rim as she took a sip, then lowered it. "I have before, yes; nothing too serious though," she admitted with a casual shrug, although she couldn't help the feeling that tried to well up inside her; the desire to have one, but the hesitance and uncertainty that prevented her from pursuing any. "What about you?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

He appraised Sera a while after her confession of being lied to often. The tiny change in her features did not go unnoticed and he took on a slightly more serious demeanor, his attempts at maintaining his merry mask ceasing. "I see." And he did, too. He felt he knew all too well what it was like to be lied to. "Well in that case, I'll try to be...unsurprising. Boring, even."

It wasn't fair to keep up false pretenses around his new acquaintance, particularly when she herself seemed to have been so completely honest with him all this time. Despite his mannerisms up until this point and her apparent appreciation of them, Akira found himself hoping that maybe, just maybe, he had finally found someone who valued honesty over politeness just as much as he did.

"Not a fan of root beer, but are a fan of ice cream. Duly noted. But no ice cream in any drinks at all? What about other kinds of Ice Cream Floats?" he wanted to know, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his thighs. "Have you tried any of those? They don't just have to be with root beer, after all. I've had a rather lot of fun experimenting with soda-ice cream combinations in the past. Call me strange," he said, "but I used to live a rather...sheltered life. Didn't provide too much in the way of entertainment, so I was limited in the ways I could amuse myself."

He chuckled a little at the memories of his experiments, mixing colors and flavors at will with hundreds of different ice creams and sodas. "It still remains my favorite commoner dessert, though I try not to have it too often. Makes me sick," Akira explained with a sheepish smirk.

"...'Nothing too serious'?" he repeated, admittedly relieved she hadn't decided to strike him across the face for the audacity of his personal question. He figured he'd been right to guess she was less sensitive than other girls he'd spoken to on the subject in the past. Sometimes they'd even taken it the wrong way. "Pardon my ignorance, but...how do you have a relationship with someone without it being serious?"

For Akira had always taken relations with others very seriously, whether they had been rivals in school, friendships, or more. Everyone else fell into the category of 'acquaintances' to him and he normally kept himself remote and detached from them aside from business or work-related purposes. To be in an intimate relationship - and one with a boy or girlfriend, no less - seemed serious by definition to the young man, so the concept of an unemotionally-invested relation with such a person perplexed him.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The girl seemed a little amused at his response. "That doesn't mean you'll be boring," she countered. "It's just dumb that people think they need to lie to try and sound more interesting." He hardly seemed like the type to lie though, but she never put it past anyone. Not like he would need to lie about ice cream floats though - that would be kind of a ridiculous thing to lie about. It made her smile anyway. "Mm, I don't think so; I normally like my ice cream separate from my soda, but I'm always up for experimentation," she replied coyly as she swiveled her seat so that she could face him, though she rested an elbow on the counter and smirked at him. "What do you mean, commoners?"

Mention of commoners and now not knowing what she meant by casual relationships had her wondering, and her expression morphed into one of quiet curiosity. "Seriously? Where are you from again?" She paused thoughtfully though, as she considered the best way to try and describe the concept. "Well, it seems to be the norm in school - casual relationships, I guess they're called. People get into relationships that last anywhere from a few days to maybe a month. Two tops, then break up and go date someone else for the same range of time. S'kind of stupid really," she added with a shrug as her gaze shifted to the line of bottles along the back wall, studying each as she took another sip of her drink, still holding the glass delicately. "I think that happens more when you're like... maybe 16 or 17. Maybe 15 too, I guess." Another indifferent shrug, and after a few moments her pale gaze shifted back to him. "Never heard of those before?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Is that why they do it?" he wondered aloud, tilting his head thoughtfully. "In that case, I doubt any lie I could come up with would sound any less stupid than the truth. You needn't concern yourself about lies coming from me, Miss Seraphine." His forearm slipped off his leg. "C-commoners? Did I say that? Sorry, I probably meant 'common'. It's my favorite common dessert."

A forced laugh. So much for being completely honest. But did she really need to think him a complete and utter snob simply because he'd let slip a term that he'd been using all his life? "In that case, though, we should definitely try some experiments some time when we're both free next. An ice cream parlor seems ideal."

The questioning of his origins warned Akira that he was bordering on the verge of idiocy yet again. He needed to think his answers through before he spoke them aloud, but it was just too easy to be comfortable talking to Sera. He found himself forgetting that there was anything personal or otherwise that he wanted to keep from her at all.

Perhaps in time there would not longer be anything, but for now, as this was only their second meeting, he doubted she'd have cared to hear his whole life story, complications and all. He was far more interested in learning about hers, anyway, or at least whatever she was willing to share. "Mm...maybe that was it, then," he guessed, brow furrowing. "I was the oblivious one in school when it came to interacting with others. Not a very popular person among my peers, and being aware of things like casual relationships wasn't my highest priority. I thank you for explaining it to me, though," he said, thinking deeply on the criteria of such relationships.

He wondered if he'd been in one and hadn't even realized it. It seemed to Akira that it would have been an easy thing to hurt someone simply by being unaware of the type of relationship they were in, especially if they only knew of the serious kind. "Are these terms laid out before entering into one of these, or are they generally discovered after the fact...? And...what's the difference between having a casual relationship with someone and just being friends? Would it not be the same level of intimacy?"

Akira paused a beat, regarding Sera curiously yet again. "So...does that mean you haven't been in a relationship since 15?" he wanted to know. "No, I haven't heard of them before now, but now I'm starting to wonder if I had had one without ever having known. It would certainly explain its premature demise." He shrugged and took another drink.

"They wanted to move on, but I didn't realize they felt that way until they already had. We parted on bitter terms. I never did quite understand what I did wrong, but this might just be it." He gave her a grim smile. "Long ago or not, I suppose you've had your fair share of casual relationships then, hmm?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Well, I think that's one of the reasons why. I know there are others - like secrets," she replied pointedly, giving him a coy little smile before she sipped at her drink again. Wouldn't lie to her, hmm? She still remembered quite clearly when he introduced himself, or more specifically, when he began to say a name that sounded nothing like Akira - and now he was correcting his words to 'probably' be this other, similar word. Her smirk grew a little. "Did you?" The expression morphed into a softer smile at his suggestion, though. "An ice cream parlor sounds nice."

She remained silent during his explanation of past experiences in school and a relationship, and when he'd finished she averted her eyes to frown thoughtfully downwards. "Mm.. I think it's not so much an explained thing as much as it is unspoken and expected by everyone. Or at least, that's how it was in my school. And the difference is you don't kiss - or do more inappropriate things with - your friends." Another coy smile, after which she laughed. "No, I've had some more recently than that, but not for at least two years. I had a few but found I didn't really like them, so I just never bothered with them again. And it might have been," she added in regards to his previous relationship. "That could've been it; sometimes, though, things just sour for different reasons," the girl added with a shrug as she lifted her glass again for another sip.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

With sweat beading on his brow, Akira took a nearby napkin to dab at it. If he didn't say anything more on certain matters, he wouldn't have to speak falsely. Besides, they were relatively minuscule details; with luck and time they could be overlooked.

Unspoken and expected by everyone... If he hadn't been feeling quite naive enough before, he certainly did so now. What an odd practice, to go dating someone you didn't feel strongly about. When Sera mentioned the difference between friends and casual relationships, though, he was caught mid-swallow and consequently began to choke.

After a few moments of coughing to the side, trying to breathe, and processing everything at the same time, Akira swallowed again to recover. Perhaps he'd heard of casual relationships before after all, if in cruder terms. "So...just to clarify," he tried, his throat a little sore from his drink going down the wrong pipe, "A casual relationship could be defined as...something you have with a...a 'friend with benefits'?" Or '******** buddies', as he'd heard it put once or twice before, but that was a term he found vulgar and wanted to avoid at all costs.

He smiled and nodded as she continued, but his mind was reeling a little still at the concept. It was a minute or so of staring at the counter top through their drinks before downing the rest of his and getting back to his feet. "Well, I don't know about you, but I think I've had my fill of speaking on such matters for one night. How about we get back to what we really came here for?" The brunet inclined his head back toward the dance floor and winked. "I'd love for you to show me some more of those moves; maybe teach me a few."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera's brows rose significantly when he started choking, but he recovered quickly - and the topic over his coughing fit amused her a little. "No no, that's something different entirely; that's a lot more casual. This one is.. It's still exclusive dating, whereas 'friends with benefits' could happen between a single person and however many people they want. Or 'friends' I guess," she said with a shrug.

"Anyway, I agree," she said with a brighter smile as she finished her drink, left the glass on the counter and stood, "dancing sounds like a wonderful idea."