[Tokyo] The Center City

[Bloodedge]

Following his previous words, the boy in the alley received stares of varied sorts from the men around him. He sighed then, knowing there were some among them who would still attempt to take the "job" he spoke of. "If you plan to take the job, tell me now. I'll go ahead and take care of the problem ahead of time, in that case," he spoke in the same bland tone he typically used. As he took a step forward, a voice finally emerged from an inhabitant of the alley. On the unexpected side, the voice he heard did not belong to one of the men, but instead to a girl even younger than himself. His gaze found this girl during her approach, and his brow furrowed. The men were behind him at this point, looking as if they intended to assault the female child. The brown-haired boy raised a glove-clad hand to halt any potential movements from this group while he spoke. "Kujo. This has nothing to do with you. Leave now."

[Apollymi]

The young woman who'd approached this particular young man apparently saw nothing wrong with her behavior. In fact, her hands didn't seem to move from her hips as she heard what this young man had to say and scrunched up her face in reply. "Since when did you become such a hard ass? All I said was hi. Jeez, I haven't seen you in forever, the least you could do is just say hi in return," she said seeming to feel some sort of dejected by the way this young man had treated her in this moment. As far as this lass was concerned, she seemed to think it was rude of this young man to not just say hi in return and allow them the time to catch up. She was planning on doing something similar with her other friends anyway. But this lad in particular she'd been friends with as well.

[Bloodedge]

Normally, it was expected that such a message would be met with the unwanted presence leaving. This time, it was not to be. Of all the people he knew, this particular individual was one of few who would not sulk or storm away when he spoke like he did. It was annoying to even think that Jolyne would not be leaving, considering what he'd been preparing for. Even worse than her refusal to leave, though, was her nagging about the situation between them in this moment. "... Hi?" he questioned. Thinking about the time in which Jolyne arrived, he figured common sense should have given her a clue as to what to do with their meeting. As a method of getting rid of her, he turned away and spoke again. "Hi, Kujo. Now leave."

Seeing this strange interaction between a pair of teenagers, one of the men began laughing and nudging the boy at his side. "Oi, what's the matter? Natsu, this has got to be your wife, right? You two having a little spa-OOPH!" Suddenly, the boy's gloved hand slammed into the diaphragm of the man who'd begun speaking. The others were already beginning to laugh alongside the man, but all fell silent as the instigator had the wind knocked from him and fell to the ground.

[Apollymi]

It seemed that the young man to whom Jojo was speaking was fine with acknowledging her in this moment, but still went on to try and get rid of her. She seemed to not be okay with this in anyway, if for no other reason than she didn't like the idea of her formerly kind-hearted friend telling her what to do in such a base and meaningless way. "Ugh, why the fuck would I just do what you say because you say it, that isn't even what I stopped for..." she said, seeming to have remembered this young man way differently than he appeared now. At present he was about as disagreeable as she was herself and this would only make the situation worse. As she looked on, Natsu had already turned away and had even gone so far as punching a man who was with him who'd dared to speak apparently on the matter of the nature of the relationship between the pair of young teens. She turned her nose up at the idea that anyone would think they had some sort of relationship. It was obvious they didn't given how brazenly he'd pushed her aside. "As if I'd ever..." she muttered under her breath after a scoff. Jojo seemed to find something in this boy's temperament to be far too different, and cared little about the situation at hand or whatever business he was conducting in this dark alley in early evening. No, she'd simply stopped to catch up with an old friend who'd disappeared after their tower had opened.

[Bloodedge]

"Is anyone else feeling particularly stupid today?" Natsu asked of the men. None seemed willing to comment on this, though all were quite amused by the dynamic between Natsu and this unknown girl. Natsu knew this. Still, he couldn't simply have rumors beginning to float around about him in the streets of Tokyo. "Good. I'd personally see to the end of anyone who thought I'd take interest in something so... sub-par. Just look at how she's dressed; show me enough respect to think I wouldn't lower myself to that level," he said whilst eyeing the girl briefly. His right hand rose once more thereafter, waving in a manner meant to dismiss the group whose meeting had officially been tarnished. "I'm tired of this now. Get out of my sight, all of you." At his command, the group of gangsters did indeed depart from the alley.

[Apollymi]

Whatever Natsu's business with these men were, it didn't concern Jojo. However what did concern her, were his following words about her. She hadn't come here seeking his judgement or assessment of her physically, still something about the boy's words seemed to get under her skin just a little as she soon enough crossed her arms over her chest, and angrily pouted seeming to be upset about something. "I don't remember ever asking you what you thought of me, you colossal jerkoff," she muttered in angry typical fashion. There was almost fire burning in the girl's eyes, all of this simply because she'd stopped to talk to the lad she hadn't seen in what felt like years. Whatever he was into now, she was having none of it, and his seemingly frightening demeanor to all of those men, didn't seem to have any reasonable affect on her. But whatever the case, it seemed Natsu had dismissed all of these men and was now here alone with her. It made her wonder what going through his mind.

[Bloodedge]

Still, this girl continued to be a thorn in Natsu's side. He had dismissed the annoyance that was the group he'd originally been speaking with, yet Jolyne persisted in her efforts to gripe about his demeanor. Neither positive, nor negative emotional responses came from the male teen when the girl's rant began anew, but he was quite clearly disinterested in the fact that she'd gotten so riled up over a few simple words. "I distinctly remember telling them... not you. Maybe you mixed something up? To you, I was saying go away; now you've gone and ruined my meeting."

[Apollymi]

Jolyne listened to what Natsu had to say, and the coldness in his demeanor and his general lack of interest were even more annoying than she'd thought of his earlier desire of her to go away. "Ugh, you're the one mixed up," the girl said as if it was the most simple thing in the world, but so she wasn't misunderstood she'd clarify. "I was standing here, which means I had to hear it, you're still a jerk," she said. "And who has a meeting in the middle of an alley if he doesn't want to be seen? It's not like you're alone in the city, jeez... this is what I get for trying to be nice to you," she continued to gripe seeming to have no issues one way or the other how this young male took her behavior. She said her statement nothing but logical even though she was quite cross.

[Bloodedge]

"Urusai!" he said, obviously having quite the distaste for everything Jolyne was saying at the time. As far as he was concerned, she wasn't making any sense at all. Everything she'd done had simply been an annoyance, and he wasn't at all sure why she was so adamant about speaking with him in the first place. What's worse, she went on to ask why he'd been holding a meeting in such a place, if he didn't wish to be seen. Of all the questions he'd ever been asked, this one made him raise his brow the highest. Was she really this out of the know? Natsu thought there could only be one explanation, and that was it. "... Do you really have no idea what I do? Most people have the common sense to avoid a group of people like us they see standing in an alley."

[Apollymi]

Natsu might have told Jolyne to shut up, but that didn't really bother her. After all, she got into screaming matches with one of her brothers on a semi-constant basis. Regardless of this, it seemed that Natsu was beyond annoyed but his annoyance would soon dissipate into obvious curiosity. The boy's brow rose as he questioned Jolyne's knowledge of his doings as if she would know such a thing. "Why the fuck would I know what you do? I was overhead and I haven't seen you in forever, I stopped to talk with you. I don't care who you hang out with or anything," she said seeming to find this boy's mannerisms of curiosity more strange this his annoyance. "It's not like I'm stalking you or anything. I just saw you and decided to say hi. Like I would if I saw any of my friends I hadn't seen in a long time," she said seeming to find his questioning of this strange. She'd seen much stranger things than a group of people in an alley and it was hardly anything to avoid more cautiously than anything else. But perhaps the girl just didn't fear things in the same way as other people.