The Aftermath

[Khonsu Bjoran]

Damn, she ate that fast! He still had over half left when the Terrestrial was putting her empty box to the side. Maybe she'd been hungrier than he had thought. The good news was that it meant she wasn't particularly nauseous, so he probably wasn't going to have to deal with vomit. The bad news was that this was a new cold, and it meant he was going to still have to expose himself to the germs and other such terrible things it'd bring with it. Gross.

Ah, the things he did out of friendship!

He spared Avetea a glance, the blonde man smirking as he thought he saw her eyes droop. "If you're tired, you can sleep, you know. After you take some medicine." He seemed satisfied enough when she did just that, watching carefully as she selected the pills she'd need to take. What was he supposed to do? Bring up her mother again?

Okay, okay. So Khonsu had been curious. He could admit that much, of course. At least, he could admit it to himself. Avetea had kept so much to herself... he wanted to know! There were questions that desperately needed answers, like... like where was she when he wasn't around? Did she call home? Where was home? Was she Terrestrial through-and-through, or was she some kind of mix? Any Venusian in there? They were good people...

Oh, oh God. He was so thankful he hadn't gotten a chick flick. The Lunarian grinned over at his accomplice, taking another bite of the cooling noodles and shrugging. In reality, it was some kind of action-comedy. Probably doomed to be terrible, but at least it was something. Nobody could resist the appeal of the action-comedy. Actiomedy... whoa, that did not work.

"You mean, you don't like chick flicks? Aww, Avi, you wound me deeply," he mocked, placing a hand to his chest. "What kind of movies do you like, then? And no, this one isn't a 'chick flick'. Though I, admittedly, like them."

[Avetea Kaiz]

Avetea grinned back at him, a sleepy sort of smile made of the contentedness that came with a full stomach and the rapidly-working side effects of the medical cocktail she'd just taken. Her face was tilted towards his head, with the angle she was sitting at. It had been awhile since she'd had the time or means to watch a movie, and had she been more awake, she would have been sort of delighted, actually. But as the case was, movies had a way of making her sleepy when she was already tired or sick.

"How can you actually enjoy those? They're twisted. The whole point of a chick flick is to give bitchy girls sitting on the couch eating cheese puffs during their periods hope that a ridiculously attractive man will love them, despite their neurotic tendencies. I'm much more of an action and comedy girl, myself." At the risk of sounding bitter, she didn't bother to go in to an explanation of how tragically unrealistic they were, to boot.

She paused for a moment, looking at him a bit more seriously now. "You know, you can go home now, if you want. You probably should. Ota will probably be back momentarily, and if not, I'll have to go look for her or something. There's only the couch, you know, so you won't be comfortable staying over."

Although she couldn't help but snicker inwardly at the thought of the Lunarian sleeping on the floor.

The brunette's head lulled forward a bit, for just a fraction of a second, but she sat up just a bit straighter, willing herself to stay asleep. A goofy, drowsy sort of expression was taking over her features, and her whole body had relaxed a bit, practically melted into the couch. She pulled her blanket closer around her, unaware that in that position, she immediately looked less guarded than usual.

The movie was playing in front of them, but she had almost long forgotten it between their conversation and the sedating effects of the pills. "Khonsu, what's the New Moon like?"

[Khonsu Bjoran]

She looked cute this way. He didn't mean to think it, and he certainly didn't mean it in any perverted way... but she did. Khonsu offered her a goofy little grin in response, nervous as he folded his legs under him on the couch. Why was it that he did so well with women in groups, but one-on-one, he was an absolute failure? Not that he was trying to put the moves on, no way! She was his partner. That would be inappropriate, totally inappropriate...

The blonde man swallowed the lump in his throat, relieved when she began a tirade about the almighty chick flick. In spite of himself, he blushed a bit, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Well... chick flicks tend to give people hope. Everybody wants a love like that, you know? The idea of a fairytale romance... I think every guy's been the unnoticed best friend at least once in his life. Maybe they're geared more towards the male population than you'd think, but every guy has been the nerd in math class who liked the girl in front of him and was too afraid to say anything about it."

Except for him. He had been super suave in school. Also, he went to an all-boys school, so there was that.

He shrugged perfectly in time with her suggestion he head back to his place, not too keen to go walking around Treq at this time of night. "Nah, don't worry about it. I'll be fine on the floor." It was a new adventure, at least! He'd curl up on the mountains of blankets he'd brought, and then roll around until he hopefully got some sleep. The Lunarian wondered vaguely what kind of neck and back problems sleeping anywhere that wasn't a bed or outside in a field might cause, but at least there'd probably be fewer bugs here than the grass outside would have offered!

The silence that settled between them for a moment afterwards was comfortable, though short-lived. Khonsu blinked, turning to Avetea with no small about of surprise. She wanted to know about the New Moon? "It's really warm," he started hesitantly, trying to recall the things he had liked about his home world. In all honesty, Earth wasn't so bad. There were so many more peoples and cultures to experience here... it was a veritable mixing pot. "There are a lot of Mercurians, and there's a giant palace... the place is filled with nobility, supporters of the Regime. The people love politics and all the best things in the world, and gossip."

Here, he shifted, moving so he was lying down with his legs over the edge of the couch, head in her lap as he looked up at her contentedly. "It's actually pretty boring. They love the ritz, galas and balls, everybody's so fancy. It's like nobody can have any real fun there... it's why I like Earth. I don't regret coming."

[Avetea Kaiz]

Although she wasn't exactly a full mental capacity at that point, she couldn't help but notice a bit of pink tinge his fair skin, and she actually felt a little bad for berating something he enjoyed. "Yes, I suppose you're right," she conceded. "I never thought of it that way." After all, didn't "chick flick" imply that it was aimed at women? But then again, maybe she'd only been thinking of one subset of chick flicks, the kind that featured ridiculously handsome and ordinarily unobtainable men and neurotic, albeit pretty women. She supposed the sort that he spoke of were less annoying. Perhaps even cute, if you were in the mood for that sort of thing.

The Terrestrial didn't bother to argue with him further, knowing that his stubborn streak rivaled her own. Though she was betting they'd only have this debate about him staying over once - one night on the floor would kill the desire for any future experiences of the kind.

Avetea listened contentedly as he talked about the New Moon, and didn't even flinch as he laid her head in his lap. Personal space was usually pretty high on her priority list, but in this relaxed state, she seemed completely at ease. Of course, maybe it wasn't just the sickness-induced loopyness. Maybe she was actually growing comfortable with him. Because they were friends. Or something.

It was a shame, she thought, that such an awful group of people should have the best of all things beautiful. Her memories of the Moon were only very vague, and many of them consisted of the night that the Silver Millennium had been destroyed, and then Crystal Tokyo after it. Avetea knew it must have been a sight to behold at one time, but she just couldn't remember what that great palace had looked like in a time of peace.

He seemed content to be here, and Earth was a nice planet, but she couldn't shake that thought. "I bet it will be beautiful, when we restore the princess. You know, with the sparkling palace and all of the balls and galas. Except they'll be celebratory events, parties to bask in all of the truly good things that this galaxy will have then."

It seemed far away, but at that moment, the thought was still comforting.

[Khonsu Bjoran]

He wasn't in the mood for another fight (his supply of 'serious time' had been all used up for the entire year that day), and it didn't seem to him that she was either. That worked out perfectly fine for him, really. It was late, and there was a movie on. One that, he sneakily noted, fit her genres. He had kind of pinned her for the dramatic comedy sort, and was happy to note that the ol' Khonsu-boy still had it.

Whatever it was. He assumed 'it' was good, though. Nobody in the movies ever said they still had 'it' when referring to something terrible, like chlamydia. Which, for the record, he definitely, one-hundred percent did not have. Nor had he ever. And he would have absolutely loved to keep it that way.

The movie rolled in the background as she talked about the future, and he felt that serious bug afflict him once more as he did his best to grin up at her. It didn't seem like it would do any good to discuss the defences on the New Moon alone, or how they had Mercury wrapped around them so tightly they might as well have been two planets in coitus. Venus and Jupiter weren't far behind either, and Saturn provided the Moon with a number of services...

Their best bets would be Mars and the outer planets. It was unfortunate, really, because the population on Venus alone left him thinking they were going to be in for a battle. The blonde man didn't want to think about failure, what would happen if they died again. What if this was their last opportunity? Weren't they supposed to have stayed dead after the last time as well?

He had had a discussion with one of them about this in the last life, he was sure. Her face was obscured in his memories, meaning whomever it was was still gone from their current collection. Which was another worry yet. They needed an army. They couldn't do this with nine girls... but they didn't even have those nine. Where was Pluto? Were they going to have to go to Mars? Would Mercury even be receptive, knowing how the planet was so close to the Regime?

"It'll be the most peaceful place in the solar system," he agreed then, trying not to worry her with the same things that plagued his dreams, "She'll make everything pure and wonderful again. It's just a matter of time." And then Khonsu did something he rarely did.

He grew quiet, and just watched the damn movie.