[Tokyo] The Center City

[Bloodedge]

"Chikushou..." was all Mukuro could say about the arrangement of beverages to be chosen from. In the end, he chose not to partake of the juice, but the wine instead. So, he shut the fridge, retrieved a glass, and filled it accordingly before returning to the living space. His return did not come without questions sent his way; specifically one regarding his state attire. As he seated himself on the couch, his gaze shifted toward Shizuka. "What sort of question is that? Do you wear a jacket with nothing underneath? That would be ludicrous."

[Apollymi]

This domestic situation happening before Shizuka's eyes would have been enough to cause fainting in a person less prepared to witness it. She almost couldn't believe it, still the answer to her question made a chuckle come from the silver haired young woman's lips. "Well I don't, but my jacket is also always open. This is..." she said thinking about it for a few moments. "Something I wasn't prepared for. Gomen, Konbanwa, Muu." a smile crossed Akiza's face as she went to sit down on one of her couches. "Well come on, have a seat..." she said the trap was only becoming more complex as the Thorn Queen began speaking. The Echo Queen had a seat but something about this still felt wrong to her, like there was something she was missing.

Even so, Akiza seemed to be amused to no end. The Echo Queen became curious once again, after all it was generally speculated among the gravity children about the relationship between the Thorn Queen and the Tar King, but... this was almost proof that there was something here. "Wow." she said of this situation. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt... this. Here's the book." the girl said reaching into her jacket for the book titled the 'Botany of Desire'. Akiza accepted it with a smile sitting it on the table to side of the couch. "No idea what you think you interrupted but, Arigatou Gozaimasu~" she offered for the girl, who still seemed like she was about to crack. "Yare yare, I can't do this. What?!" she said with an open hand gesture at the pair as if the word what encompassed all that was to be questioned.

[Bloodedge]

"If you say so," Mukuro said prior to taking the first sip from his wine glass. Though he wasn't much of a drinker, he considered this an upgrade to the other options from Akiza's fridge. The Tar King remained silent for the most part, sipping ever so casually, until the moment came that Shizuka snapped and questioned virtually everything she was witnessing. At this point, he snickered lightly, but left it to Akiza to respond by whatever means she had planned to.

[Apollymi]

"What? I went shopping after the meeting and Muko came with me. Then we came back here and had dinner. It isn't really that difficult." said Akiza who seemed far too calm as she sipped from her own glass of wine. Shizuka looked stunned at the Thorn Queen. "Sou ka. But..." she seemed to be curious on a deeper level. "Oh, you don't get more than that, you and Ito-san seem pretty close. What were you up to after the meeting?" she asked. Shizuka began talking seeming to be a tiny bit flustered, at least more so than she ever seemed. "Shig? We went for a run, he gave me a ride on his bike. He's got interesting taste in books... we sat around and had a conversation. He's nice to talk to." she said of the G-Man known to Akiza to be Roze's second-in-command. The Thorn Queen smiled. "Oh, you got chummy enough to just call him, Shig? Huh? Must be nice~" said Akiza who had the most devious look on her face as she glanced back at Mukuro. This moment was so perfect the Thorn Queen wished she could take a picture of it.

Meanwhile the Echo Queen looked around this space and finally put together what was going on here. The Thorn Queen had used the life situation she had presently to find out information about the night of the Echo Queen which she probably would have been rather private about. Such a trap was a new level of devious and very well thought out, Akiza didn't give herself nearly enough credit. "Yare, yare. I walked right into that trap, huh?" she said finally relaxing into the chair and looking up at the ceiling. "Aki, you're a lot more clever than you give yourself credit for." she said. Akiza only giggled. "New question, do you just like old dudes or is it blonde ones?"

"AKI!" the Echo Queen went red in the face, such information and the reaction was all the pink haired girl really wanted. She was willing to let this go now.

[Bloodedge]

The Tar King's eyes were closed as this discussion carried on. He seemed to be relatively disinterested, but it was moments like this that gave him a bit more of an edge against Shizuka. This was the case with everyone for the most part; the more flustered they became, the more easily Mukuro could read into their situation. In Shizuka's case, she was now seeming about the same as everyone else. To the matter of whether she sought older men, or blonde ones, he laughed more hardily. "Yes, is the answer you're looking for."

[Apollymi]

"Yare, yare. I can't believe you set me up, Aki." she said seemingly disappointed, but she figured this was probably for the best. Actually there was no better pair to have figured out such information about her. "And you Muu, looking all tickled and actually laughing." she rolled her eyes. This only made Akiza laugh a little more. "Mendokuse, even I knew the answer to that one Muko~" she said sitting down her wine glass and placing her hands in her lap.

"I'm not apologizing. I thought it would be funny, and making you a bit unsettled was the easiest way to find out about your afternoon with Ito-san~" said Akiza, traps were her specialty and if she knew her targets well enough setting the trap was rather easy. This was one such situation. "I suppose that is true, but that last question was Chi-chan level in abrasiveness~ you can't just slip those into conversation, people don't expect that from you." she was done with this part of the conversation, even so... there was still the matter of what was going on between the Tar King and the Thorn Queen. "But seriously, since we've thoroughly embarrassed me, is this level of domesticity normal for you two?" she asked simply as a curiosity.

[Bloodedge]

"Why wouldn't I be tickled absolutely pink by this? You're about as pathetic as a normal person right now; I can see right through you." True enough, Mukuro was having a rather entertaining time being able to read into the Echo Queen thanks to her atypical state of mind. "And, if you must know, yes. It wasn't the plan for today, but the shopping trip was cancelled. Have we sated your nosiness now?"

[Apollymi]

Akiza rather quietly enjoyed how tickled this moment made Mukuro, and with that in mind, she'd done more than she wanted to do. Shizuka wondered how often the Tar King took issue with being unable to read her, though she often didn't try to do so herself, she also couldn't read the Tar King very clearly. "Yare, yare. I suppose it makes sense. Glad I could amuse you today~" she said there was just a hint of sarcasm there. But soon enough she would have her question answered along with a sideways comment about her nosiness which only made the silver haired girl laugh. "Yes, I'm nosy... Aki just basically interrogated me, to find out about me innocently hanging out with a guy. But I'm totally the nosy one." she said. The statement about Akiza's nosiness only made the Thorn Queen giggle.

"Well, I am not nosy. I figured I could skip the really long girl chat if I poked directly at the point of interest. That's why I slipped in that Chi-chan question. She does that a lot when she really wants to know something. She says whatever she thinks will make someone answer to shut her up. It's an interesting tactic~" Akiza admitted. This only made the Echo Queen smirk. "Ah, well that makes sense doesn't it." said Shizuka of their young Storm Queen. "Ah, whatever, also I wasn't being nosy, I just didn't expect to find you here Muu, now I feel like I should plan random girl hangouts ahead of time, instead of simply assuming Aki will be unoccupied because it's dark out~" mentioned the young woman who seemed to have already been fine with the idea of the two before her being paired up. It was simply not something she expected to have true solid evidence of.

[Bloodedge]

The longer Mukuro sat, the more comfortable he decided to make himself. He eventually positioned himself in a manner that kept his right leg crossed over his left, and his left arm resting in his lap while he held his wine glass in his right hand. "From my point of view, this interrogation you speak of only came as a precursor to the obvious interrogation you were going to bring. Fair is fair, Shizuka. And, as I said... I am here by coincidence of Abenobashi having to shut down for some reason. I just figured I may as well make myself comfortable before tonight's movie."

[Apollymi]

"Yare, yare. Yes fair is fair. But..." she looked around. "This was done purposefully to stun me with too much information to ignore. Normally speaking, I would just draw my own conclusion way after the fact and not bother. She set it up so I'd ask a question and she'd have an opening to ask one in return... " mentioned the Echo Queen who seemed to understand the situation almost completely now that she was no longer totally embarrassed by being asked questions and overloaded with obvious proof of the domestic relationship between the Tar King and the Thorn Queen. "Because one or both of you saw my arrival with Shig~" she concluded. Of course, that was plenty obvious by now. "You get his number?" this was Akiza's only response to what the young woman said. "Of course, I did say I liked talking to him." was the only reply from the white haired woman who seemed to have already regained her normal level of selfawareness. "Aw, it's no fun now. You're all back to normal~" said the Thorn Queen as she stuck her tongue out at the other girl, who returned the gesture before standing. "I'll leave you two, to your movie~ And we can chat later." she said looking to Akiza. "I am gonna go find out what happened at Abenobashi~ I was there earlier today and it seemed fine." she said with a chuckle. "Catch you both, later." she said heading for the door. Akiza got up to accompany the girl out and gave her a hug at the door which she accepted as they obviously still friends and after the fact the girl's bit of a prank was very amusing.