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[Her comment makes him laugh, but he can't exactly follow through with that and still eat his food. He covers his mouth to finish his bite, then holds up three fingers with it.]

Three. Three hearts.

[If she wants more details, she's going to ask a more specific question; there's too much there to just start talking.]

[She almost spits tomato on him and his neat suit, but thankfully it's ultimately downgraded to an embarrassing sputter, and the napkin saves the day!]

Okay, [Said when they're all clear.] big guy, and multiple hearts in order to adequately support an equally big and gorgeous body, then!

[That's a far more complicated response but it's incredibly accurate and genuine, so there you go.]

[Accuracy is important!]

Aw. You flatter me.

[He bats his eyelashes at her briefly before sinking back into his sandwich.]

You deserve it.

[Especially for that very impressive eyelash batting technique. There's a moment where they're both just eating, so it's a companionable, easy form of silence, but it shouldn't be any surprise that Nariko talks first. If you let her she'll basically go on and on about whatever crosses her mind for at least an hour.]

You know, I almost left entirely. Nathan's old enough that I can trust him to be on his own, after all, he probably doesn't need me around so much.

[She screws her eyes shut and adds, in a kind of self-deprecating tone:] ... I shouldn't say that about a fifteen-year-old.

[Boxer doesn't mind the silence at all. It's hardly awkward, after all, because the company is great and the sandwich is fabulous.

Until she speaks up again.

He instantly stops eating, mouth full, as he stares at her like a deer in headlights. That...sounds an awful lot like...]

Yoo haff a thon?!

[A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD SON??? Pardon the full mouth but he really can't help but jump to conclusions, especially when she's never told him her brother's name.]

Wh - Oh, no! No, no, no!

[You have completely misunderstood Boxer, let's reverse this for a second!] He's my little brother! He goes to a private boarding school at the edge of the city!

[And then she ... Kind of bursts out laughing.] Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I just - [Wait, let her giggle some more.] I wasn't thinking!

[Granted Nathan might as well be her son, considering how things have gone down but that's a technicality that doesn't need to be mentioned right away.]

Oh. Oh, [he says, laughing. He really doesn't mind that they're both kind of laughing at his mistake, because God, is that funny. If she had a 15 year old son, when would she have had to have him? Ten?]

You made it sound like--well, you're his caretaker, right? Heh.

[Pretty much! Which isn't impossible, per se, but it's thankfully not quite how things went down.]

I suppose if you want to look at it from a legal standpoint then that's a good word for it, actually. Someone has to look out for him.

[Don't you know she and her brother sprouted from the Earth, Boxer. There were no parents involved in the making of these two!]

[Well, she did give him a brief explanation on them before. To be honest, Boxer doesn't think of the concept of parents very often, because he sprouted from the Earth.

Or, perhaps more accurately, an egg on a coral bed.]

Fifteen, right? As long as he's hanging out with a decent crowd, he'll be fine.

I know. He's much more responsible and well adjusted than I was at that age, so who knows why I worry so much about it.

[Probably because that's what you do when you're looking after someone for the majority of their life.] He's in band, makes good grades, I even like his boyfriend! I think the worst thing he ever did was go to the gas station and scare me half to death, once.

[She reaches inch her clutch really quickly and pulls out her phone, when she turns the screen to Boxer there's a picture of herself and a rather gangly, blonde haired boy wearing a huge smile in front of Nathan's school. He's wearing his uniform and she's a bit dressed up herself, too.]

That's him. He's about taller than me and I still think he's going to get in trouble for helping every single person he comes across ...

[This poor man's already been roped into pictures of the family! She really does like him.]

[He is.

Eating.

It.

Up.]

He sounds like my kinda guy.

[Watch out, Nariko, or your horny boyfriend might go after your little brother, too! He has a fond smile on his face while Nariko shows him the photo.]

Cute, too.

[Okay now he's just acting pervy on purpose.]

What was he doing at a gas station that was so scary?

Moving on from me already, I see.

[If it's a faux pas to talk about exes with current attractions, isn't it maybe not a bad idea to eye someone else on the first official date? But she moves onto the story easily enough.]

He was ten, and he decided he was going to get up and go get ice cream at two-thirty in the morning. There's no city in the world that's safe enough to go walking around in badly lit streets for ice cream.

[What might be equally as strange is that the middle of the night was a nap and not, y'know, going to bed for the evening.] I thought he'd been kidnapped and nearly lost my mind.

Just giving you a hard time.

[It's a funny idea of what teasing is.

He chuckles.]

I don't think I could have a craving bad enough to get me off my ass at two thirty in the morning, much less navigate dark streets at that hour.

[Stilted sense of humor: check. But as long as he's only teasing, then it's alright.]

I mean, we didn't have food, exactly, so I kind of understand why he went, but who the hell isn't scared to walk around so late? Augh. [She rolls her eyes at the memory, and suddenly realizes how heavily contextual it is.] He was fine, of course, I just chewed him out for a solid ten minutes and cried hysterically while doing so.

[She gathers her trash up rather neatly, and if he's done with everything but the cole slaw then she'll end up taking his stuff, too.]

[~~He's too young for him anyhow.~~]

So did you end up getting some ice cream to keep at home afterwards?

[Boxer can honestly imagine Nariko both chewing someone out and bawling at the same time without much trouble.]

[If he can imagine it then he already knows her pretty well.]

Ultimately, yes, he was at least smart enough to get a tub.

[So they ate that all night until the situation resolved itself over the following twenty-four hours.] Let me go throw this out.

[She's a neat freak, but only gone for a few seconds.] Now if I ever cross my eyes at rocky road you'll know why!

[Oh, yes, please take it! Better one trip than two. He sips his water a bit as he watches her throw it out and return.]

Oh, that's fine. I'm more of a mint and chip guy. Or moose tracks. Or forbidden chocolate. Or french vanilla...

[A pause, and he sighs with an exasperated grin.]

Great. Now I want ice cream.

[Ohhhh, French Vanilla! With chocolate syrup!]

So let's get ice cream!

[Before he faces his great fear of heights.]

Oh, oh, oh, there's a place I want to take you to, they have ice cream!

[She practically vibrates with excitement.]

Alright, alright! [He chuckles. Just don't explode on him, it's just ice cream!] Let's check this place out.

[He just hopes he can decide on just one.]

[She's already exploded on him before and he didn't seem to mind then! But, yeah, she'll make some attempt to keep herself under control, whether it works or not depends on how surprised he is at where they're going to get this ice cream from.

With all their trash gathered up and taken care of the tray goes to its designated spot so that they can get going! This time she doesn't ask permission to take over wheel duty, she just goes to it like they've always gone about it that way.]

By the way, what in the world is moose tracks?

[Whee! Gosh, this is a lot of fun. Just like a date should be.]

It's a vanilla base marbled with fudge and peanut butter cups. It's pretty rich; I don't think I'm gonna be in the mood for something like that after downing a pot roast sub.

[Yep, still in love.]

Diabetes Ice Cream.

[That's what Moose Tracks really is.] But that sounds about right, way too heavy. They have this really nice vanilla-strawberry swirl thing that might be nice! It's lighter than you might think.

[They have to go a little bit of a ways to get there so she goes a tad quicker than beforehand.]

[It's a good thing he doesn't mind speed. The streets are a little crowded, since it is the weekend, after all--but it's hard for other pedestrians to miss a giant kraken in a wheelchair.]

Oh, that sounds perfect. Does the strawberry part have chunks in it?

[Or can he get strawberry toppings?]

No, but you can get strawberries on top!

[Considering that it's one of her favorite fruits she might never accept a dessert establishment that did not honor the classic flavor that was strawberry, in most of its forms.]

I usually get the one with bananas, nutella, cheesecake, and vanilla! [Simple and sweet! But she's not going with the usual tonight, because what's the fun in that? It takes a few more minutes but when they turn into the part the food truck is just an extra ways off. There's already a healthy line, and a few other citizens hanging around the benches and enjoying their handheld crepes. They're Japanese style but, honestly, this is New Cloudbank, the city always puts a twist on whatever it latches onto!

So while the batter is thin and all the classic toppings are there the ice cream choices are nearly endless, and there were more than a few unique flavors to go along with a nearly endless list of toppings and sauces.

But the absolute best part was that even the normal sized crepes were a bit big, but the Deluxe crepes might just be the right size for Boxer!]

A-ah...

[Japanese crepes. Japanese crepes!!! Oh my God, Nariko, giant Japanese crepes! He stares in awe at one of the deluxe ones two young women are sharing.

The long line ends up being a good thing because it gives him plenty of time to decide what he wants. Just vanilla and strawberry swirl with only strawberries isn't going to cut it.]

This is awesome, Nariko.

[He's very excited, albeit it manifests a lot more quieter and mild-mannered than Nariko's.]

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