Life as normal?

[Kazuki Kajimoto]

"Huh? What happened? Who's that? Who's Red? What's a 'girlfriend'?? Kazuki's tears stopped instantly, and she looked up with great interest, running over to the group.

"Who are yooooooou?" she crooned, poking Semyl. She stared at her and Skyes for a bit, putting two and two together. "Aha~ You two look like twins! ....except one is big and twice as tall, and the other one is short. she said bluntly, stating the obvious and pointing at Skyes and Semyl. She had no idea who's toes she was stepping on.

Then it occured to her- "Wait- waaaaaait- 'Red'.... is a pet name she gave Aji! Oh no! He's- she's-" Kazuki huffed as her internal 'auto-Aji-defence' personality kicked in. No one stole his attention from her! "Like heck I'm going to let her come across as more interesting woman than me! And besides, Aji knows better..."

She stood up and puffed out her chest, the way she saw guys do it when they wanted to be tough. She let out a huffy breath of comtempt and turned her nose up at the other girl, walking towards her head held high. "Who am I?!? Hah! I'm the one and only daughter of the famous- fam- ous... Now that she was toe to toe with this Semyl-person, she had noticed one thing:

"She's not short...." Kazuki thought as she was face to face with Semyl's shoulder. "....she only looked short because of the other doggie.... um.... plan B!"

"I'm the one and only Kazuki Kajimoto!" she said triumphantly, boldly stating her alias. "And on a smaller note, childhood friends with the fox you're talking to, mutt, so be careful." she muttered under her breath.

[Skyes Lowell]

Skyes stared at the two girls staring each other down. This is what he gets for letting Semyl insinuate the other one being Aji's girlfriend- a face off. "Ooooh boy." he thought.

"SHORT?!? Who d'ya think you're calling short, pip-squeak?!?!

"Oh dear. Semyl- c-calm down, she didn't mean it." Skyes facepalmed- the small gray fox seemed to take offense at Semyl for some reason. Then again, a lot of people took offense at Semyl anyways, and sometimes he didn't blame them- she was a lot of trouble to handle sometimes.

Most times.

Fine. All the time, really.

".......never heard o' ya." Semyl said flatly to the little girl. She locked eyes with the tiny adversary- "And 'Red' happens to be a VERY good friend of mine, FYI!"

"No one understands your abbreviations in actual verbal conversations."

"Itmeans'foryourinformation'stupid!"

"....Oh....."

Semyl held her head high and turned on her heel, dragging Ajiryn along with her. "So! I haven't seen you in two months! Where've you been, and what'cha been up to?" She leaned down to whisper in his ear. "Any high-paying 'escapades' lately?"

[Ajiryn]

20 Minutes later

".........................sooooooooo............ Pepper?" Ajiryn offered cautiously, his hand shaking with the small canister hovering above his plate.

This was an awkward situation.

Looking to the right, was Kazuki- the one person that symbolized his childhood upbringing as a productive, yet slightly magical citizen upholding righteousness and law in his life. A part of his life where he was raised to be honest, brave, and charitably kind to all of living existence, serving the public to ensure that his kind would eventually be viewed on the same plane as the rest of civilization.

On his left, Semyl Lowell- the one person that brought him up as a thieving, lying, law-avoiding, stealthy little bandit, serving him examples of living off of the streets- usually with pilfered cash from pedestrians' pockets. A part of his life where he was taught that money under the table is great money, and that stolen items weren't 'illegally stolen', just perhaps 'mistakenly not paid for yet.'

Two parts of his life, now staring each other intensely over plates of fettucini. Two very different, very personal, very contrasting sides of life. He sat quivering nervously, afraid to even glance at one girl without betraying his closeness for that one to the other. Ajiryn looked up occasionally to stare at Skyes, oblivious to the combative glares being traded between Semyl and Kazuki.

"Soooooooooooooooo... How's life?" he asked Skyes, looking for a reason to break the silence.