The top of the morning.(Open)

Beams of sun hit Devin's face as he beguines to wake up in his room. A small but comfortable area that's around 10 feet length wise and 6 feet width wise, the walls are painted in a odd "cream sickle" orange and the floor has the typical cream colored carpet.

"Mmph." Devin says as he shades his eyes from the morning sun. "It's another day." He get's up to do his morning routine, stumbling over the shoes that he left in the floor.

Akina was roaming around San Malarus, obviously bored. She did this almost every day, as she'd been living here for a very long time. She walked by various houses, taking her time while observing the scenery. She'd seen the same scenery dozens of times, but she still thought it was nice to just go out and get some air.

It was a rather sunny morning, which made Akina thankful that she had tied her purple hoodie around her waist before she left. Early morning was the only real time of the day that she was free to do whatever she wanted, as her parents wouldn't be on top of her to get home quickly. Her mom was most likely still asleep, and her dad was already gone for the day.

Though, if her mom did wake up and realize she had left without her permission, Akina would definitely get into some trouble, that's for sure. But right now, she didn't care about that.

She decided she'd make her way home after a few more minutes of walking around. Hell, she'd be stuck at home for the rest of the day anyway, so she might as well make this little bit of free time count.

After all, a little more roaming couldn't hurt, right?

"Thanks Mom!" Devin says after his breakfast "Do you mind if I go out? Once the school get's unburied, I wont have much time to relax."

"Sure honey, as long as you get home by dinner, and stay out of trouble!" His mother says, almost shouting after him. "Honestly, what are they going to do about the school?" She thinks as she sits down on the couch, thinking "We came here for my husband to get the job... But it's going to make our son fall behind on classes."

Devin walks out the door of the apartment building, breathing in the fresh air and starts down the street, looking for who knows what along the way.

Akina continued her walk, not quite paying as much attention to where she was going as she was still lost in thought.

Her phone decided to buzz at that very moment.

"Crap..." She muttered to herself as she took it out of her pocket and opened it to see some really angry text messages.

Akina started to text back as she walked, her attention now fully on her phone. She didn't stop walking forward, though she clearly wasn't looking where she was going. At this rate, it would be likely for her to bump into someone or something. She was aware this was probably likely, but right now she was too busy being yelled at to worry about that. One thing at a time.

She felt herself bump into something she didn't notice, and she gasped in surprise, stumbling backwards and dropping her phone in the process. Oh, it wasn't something, it was someone.

Man, that was worse!

"O-Oh! I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going, really sorry! That was completely my fault!" Akina apologized quickly as she reached over to pick up her phone, scrambling to stand back up as she had fallen in a sitting position. She finally looked up at the person once she got back on her feet, her face burning up.

Oh. It was just a boy. Maybe around her age? She couldn't really tell, but damn it why was everyone so much taller than her in this stupid city?! This was like the third or fourth person she'd met this week that she had to look up to to make decent eye contact with. Not that she was doing that right now.

Okay. That probably wasn't important, but still. Akina sighed, looking down at her feet while hoping bumping into the guy didn't piss him off too much, or that she hadn't embarrassed herself too badly.

"What a wonderful day!" Devin thinks as he closes his eyes for a second... Of-course when he closes his eyes is when he runs into someone.

"No, it's my fault, I literally wasn't watching where I'm going." Devin says, not injured in the slightest "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?"

"I guess introductions are in order... I'm Devin, Devin Bark" He says as he holds out his hand for a handshake.

"O-Oh...haha...I guess it's kind of both of our faults then...since neither of us were paying attention..." She laughed nervously.

"I-I'm fine..." She had hurt her knee somehow when she fell or was getting up. It hurt quite a bit, but that wasn't important. Akina hoped he didn't notice it. She didn't want him to think he'd hurt her, it was her fault after all. "You didn't hurt me, don't worry."

"Oh, right. I'm Akina Kurai. N-Nice to meet you." Akina stepped forward to shake his hand, wincing slightly as her weight shifted onto her throbbing knee. It was probably just a scrape, and she was being melodramatic, but damn, it still hurt.

"Are you sure your not hurt?" Devin asks, knowing that the look on her face was a facade. The scars around his nose act up every once in a while, often not letting him eat and giving him a sour look on his face. Thankfully he isn't under one of those "attacks" today.

"Alright then.... Are you familiar with the area?" He asks, the question coming out of the blue "I just moved here, so I don't know about the city yet."

"I'll be fine, I think I just scraped my knee or something. No big deal, haha."

Akina rubbed her knee slightly before answering the question.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you could say that. I've been here for a long time. You just moved here? Wow, that's funny. One of my friends just moved here about a week ago too. San Malarus has been getting a bunch of new people lately."

She smiled wryly, looking at the ground. "All of you have to come around when the school's all sandy, huh? It probably makes us look bad...but anyway, welcome. If you need help with anything, feel free to ask me. I know my way around." Akina finally looked up again, seeming a little proud before her face went blank.

"You'll probably find me just wandering around Malarus, or the school. I usually don't go very far, so you'll probably see a lot of me from now on, haha. Hope I don't bother you or anything." Akina grinned sheepishly as she slid her phone into one of the back pockets of her jeans.

"If you say so..."

"Yeah I heard about the school, what's the deal with the desert that's dropped on it?"

Devin rubs around his nose, making sure that it isn't about to act up again.

"Bother me? I'm great-full for being able to even get a acquaintance before the school get's uncovered."

Devin says while smiling, happy to have even met someone that would give him the time of day.

"Would you mind showing me the best places to "hang out?" I'd like to see what some other people do for fun around here."

Akina thought for a second, mulling over the whole "desert" thing.

"Well, I wouldn't be much help to you there. I honestly don't know myself. I've been hanging around there lately, just exploring and stuff. Me and a few friends actually found some Yen there like two days ago maybe," She frowned. "I hope whatever happened to it gets fixed soon. I actually miss school. Most of the kids around here have been jumping for joy because they don't have to go, but not me." Akina looked towards the general direction of the school sadly.

"And oh, uh, no problem. As long as I'm not bothering you, I don't mind being your acquaintance or...f-friend...or whatever." She smiled a warm smile back at him. She hoped what she said didn't sound too stupid.

"As for places to hang out...uhh...I'm sorry, not the type to hang around with friends too much...there are various places to eat or hang out around, and parks too. It depends on the type of person you are and where you'd like to go. You'd probably find a lot of kids our age just hanging around in the parks or the city." Akina wasn't the best person to ask about this, and she was really hoping what she'd said was help enough.

"If you want to go somewhere, or just walk around a bit to look around I don't mind. I can get you back here without getting lost...if you want."

"Hmmm...." Devin thinks as Akina answers his question about the school "That must be a hard thing to do. It's odd you would find money in the sand though."

"Bothering me? Not even close. It's nice to have someone to talk to." Devin thinks to himself.

"If you say so, though you seam too like-able to not hang out with." Devin tells her as he shifts to his other foot, and then thinks "I hope that didn't sound too weird."

"I still do need a guide for today... So hows about we go to the closest park? I'd like to see how the parks are here, since the closest thing to a park that I had around my house was a daycare center..."

"Yeah, we were surprised too," Akina said with a grin. "We found around 5000 Yen I think. It was pretty weird..."

She laughed a little shakily at the complement, cheeks red. "L-Likeable? Haha, thanks. If you think so, I wouldn't mind hanging out with you, Devin."

"And I can be your guide, haha. The closest park to here is actually pretty close, so if you like going to the park, you should be good." With that, she turned around and started walking to the park. "C'mon. Lets go then."

Akina continued to make conversation as they walked. "A daycare center, really? There are a few parks around here if you like that sort of thing. I actually used to spend lots of time at the park on the swings and stuff, but it's been a while since I actually went there to do stuff like that."

"That would be great!" He says as he follows Akina "Thank you for helping me, even though we got off on the wrong foot."

"Yeah, we lived close to the... well, I guess you could call them the slums" Devin says, enjoying the time he was allowed to explore "Thankfully my Dad has a good job, but my parents chose to live there by choice. They even helped out the poorer neighbors by hiring them to help when I was at school."

"You wouldn't believe some of the mischief I got into as a kid...Nothing bad like drugs of course." Devin says smiling, remembering the friends he had there..... "I wonder how my friends there are doing."

"Haha, yeah, the wrong foot..." Akina's knee still hurt, she'd have to get a band-aid for it once she got home. "But seriously, it's no problem at all. I don't mind. I wasn't really doing much anyway, except avoiding going home."

"Oh, well that's good, helping out others and all. I've pretty much only lived in this area, so I wouldn't know much about what...slums are like. ...That probably sounded stupid."

"Your friends are probably wondering the same thing. And mischief? Like what? ...If you want to talk about it, of course." Akina was genuinely curious, but she didn't want to be rude, after all. "As you probably guessed, I haven't done many interesting things here. I mean, it's not like San Malarus doesn't have anything interesting to do, it's just I'm never one of those people to do that stuff."

They arrived at the park. It was a pretty generic park with slides, a jungle gym, swingsets, all that good stuff, along with plenty of space and benches to sit at. Akina's eyes almost instantly fell on the swings, but she kept herself from making any movement to go near it.

"Well, here we are. How is it?"

"Well... Let's just say I wont be allowed to try and help someone from there move in again, I almost had a wall fall on me." Devin says, wryly smiling about his past mistake.

"I don't know until I see people enjoy it..." He replies to Akina, watching the park for dogs beforehand "It defiantly is a larger one than the one that the daycare had... Nice amount of shade and there doesn't seem to be anyone here."

Devin scratches his head, thinking "That's odd, you would think there would be at least someone here at this time of day."