How Soon is Now?, When you said this was going to happen..

[Esperanza Danuve]

She fell back on her bed, and then got back up again. Walking over, she pressed the "delete" button on her answering machine. Of the seven she got that night, she bet five of them were from her mom-- the first one was something like "Esperanza, have you gotten a real job yet? Esperanza, have you gotten a boyfriend yet? When are you going to get married? You know, medically speaking you've only got eight safe childbearing years left, and with hips like your's...." and the next four were probably "Esperanza, pick up, I know you're there! Please, I'm worried about you..."

The last two were probably from her father and brother. "Sorry Esperanza, but [your] mom asked me to call you. Are you okay?"

They had sent more yesterday.

She looked at her clock and walked over to fill up a little blue dish on the floor labeled "Dalton." Standing back upright, she wondered where her dog was, anyway. Well, he was probably over terrorizing the neighbors, so he was fine. She just hoped he hadn't been an idiot and left the apartment building again so that he could cavort through that-lady-who-lived-in-that-big-house's begonias. They obviously weren't on very close terms.

Getting up, she grabbed a protein bar from her counter and opened her front door to find Dalton rushing inward and staking his spot on her bed. She rolled her eyes and stepped out, locking the door behind her.

She smoothed her skirt as she walked down towards the bus station so that she could get to her third job, which was luckily at a restaurant, because the chef would always have her sample dishes to see if they were ready, so she never really needed to buy dinner. It was nice because she knew he knew they were always perfectly done.

Her bus arrived a little bit early, which was good, but when she got on, there weren't any seats available and so she grabbed a pole and looked at her feet. On the bright side, she was free after her shift that evening and thought she might go see a movie with a few friends.

(Satan needs to meet people >_< CT knows why.)

[Kyle Victor Shryer]

Kyle was pissed. Kyle was furious. Kyle was pretty sure someone was going to get stabbed in the fucking gut.

In fact, he left off some steam by self-narrated just that to himself. He even pictured stabbing people in his mind. It worked worse than most people might assume.

First, he had to deal with clueless idiots just because Sao—no, wait, the great fucking NOODLE—had decided that he was going to go through with some grand, stupid, idiotic, fucking, flipping, gay fairy plan. And no, he didn’t care if that particular description made a bit of sense.

Then he had to find out that his only remaining person even resembling a friend, again a bowl of noodles, actually turned out to be a cross-dressing fairy. Not that he was gay. Kyle’d seen enough of Sao’s perversion to know he was after chicks.

So then the Fairy Noodles sends him to get food. What did he think Kyle was, a delivery boy? And on his way there, some little twerp can’t buy herself food and winds up tripping over a table. Who wouldn’t laugh at it? Yet another stupid little twerp had decided to pick a fight with him and GRRR.

After waiting for the bus for all of five minutes and fuming the whole time, he decided he probably shouldn’t even try to describe things accurately while in a… unbalanced state.

The bus finally arrived. It wasn’t a specific bus, as far as he was concerned. It was just a vehicle to get him away from all the insanity of his Sensei for the afternoon. He’d figure out how to get back later.

He climbed aboard. The thing was completely packed and he, unfortunately, had to stand and hold onto a pole. Also unfortunately, the bus was filled enough that he still had to stand side-by-side with about four other people, one of whom was the absolutely most bland looking blond girl ever.

Even Sao wouldn’t hit that.

[Esperanza Danuve]

She was busy looking at her feet when a bunch of people bumped by her, and she snapped upwards to mutter apologies, flashing everyone a nervous smile.

The bus started moving, and she looked at the boy next to her. She knew she hadn't seen him before, but he didn't look new. Although there was a constant flood of new people coming to Twilight Town, he just gave off that aura that said "I know what I'm doing, you n00b, back off."

She realized she was staring and with a little bit of a blush, stared back forward. She didn't want to look awkward or anything. Anyway, they'd probably never meet again; she wasn't sure why she bothered. Maybe it was because he looked slightly intimidating.

Like he was PMSing or something.

[Kyle Victor Shryer]

He noticed, with some smugness, that the bland girl was totally checking him out. She just couldn't stop staring, even after she looked away and pretended to have been doing nothing.

So he said something, even though even Sao wouldn't hit that.

"Fucking day, ain't it?"

He mentally smacked himself for the "ain't."

[Esperanza Danuve]

"....What?!" was her gut reaction. Did he honestly talk like that? Well, she thought as she looked at him, he did seem like the type to say something as incredibly vulgar as that.

Of course, she hadn't pinned him as the type at first, probably because he had really nice hair. It was like what that one reporter guy said about that serial killer a few decades back. "He was the only murderer I knew who could use a semicolon."

Not to say that the red-haired boy was a murderer of some sort.

Well, he could have been.

[Kyle Victor Shryer]

He laughed, though not as unkindly as he might have. He was trying to break out of his mood, sort of, and the laughter helped.

"Well it is, isn't it?" Then he swept back his long hair and leaned partially against the bar they were both holding onto and let his eyes half-close.

[Esperanza Danuve]

"I guess..." she said, looking back down at her feet. It hadn't been such a bad day. Maybe for him, but he didn't look homicidally mad or anything.

She knew she was going to regret saying it the moment the idea popped into her head, but she couldn't ignore it. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to tell her anyway. "Why? What happened?"

Yup.

She couldn't have helped it. Her regular instincts told her to shut up, but her maternal, dammit-honey-you're-27-and-still-single-oh-well-there's-always-adoption side went: 'Awwwwww!!'

[Kyle Victor Shryer]

Kyle paused to consider, not moving and letting his eyes continue to flutter half-closed. He was getting calmer and calmer, and fast, though he wasn't sure why.

"Not much, I guess," he muttered, "Not much out of the normal, anyway. Just my employer being an ass."

[Esperanza Danuve]

"Oh," she said merely. "I'm sure it can't be all that bad..." She looked up and smiled at him warmly. He looked rather troubled, and she really wanted to help him.

The bus stopped again, and a few people got off. She sat down on a chair and motioned for him to do the same.

[Kyle Victor Shryer]

He sat by her without making any sort of a fuss. He was really wondering why, then he realized it.

This woman, whoever she was, reminded him of Lilliane.

And that, once realized, kinda pissed him off, actually.

"Where are you going to, anyway?" He forced himself to ask casually.

[Esperanza Danuve]

"I'm going to Sakuranbo. The restaurant off 30?" It got quite a lot of publicity so she supposed he would know it. It wasn't super-popular or super-high-class or anything, but it was rather successful. It had a great location, overlooking the beach, and sitting on stilts that were more like steel vines, intertwining and creating columns. Aside from those, the exterior was very contemporary, slightly boring.

It was as if the plainness of the outside was making up for the almost chaotic inside.

She liked it that way, actually. It was quirky.

"Where are you going?" she asked, still smiling. She crossed her legs and smoothed out her dress, looking not into his eyes but at the bridge in between. She didn't really like meeting other people's gazes because she felt it was too personal. She wanted people to let her see their souls by telling her, in their own time and manner, not by invading them.

[Kyle Victor Shryer]

Kyle considered how to answer, then decided, oh, what the hell.

"Oddly enough," he lied, "I was on my way to Sakuranbo, too."

[Esperanza Danuve]

"Really?" She cocked her head to the side and smiled, but she had a really hard time believing him. He just didn't seem the type...

Oh, but she should never judge someone by appearance. It was rude.

"Do you go often?"

[Kyle Victor Shryer]

Kyle considered his options.

"No," he muttered, "Actually, I've never been before."

[Esperanza Danuve]

"Oh," she said. Yup, he was lying. But why?

She decided not to think too hard about it. "Well, I'm sure you'll like it there."

Awkward pause.

"Oh, this is our stop."