Sights, Sounds, and Shrieks [Melina/Cecil]

It could easily be said that Suzie Q wasn't Cecil's favourite of the districts. The concert halls were the only main attraction he might have visited, but the throng of people and the sheer volume of the place was way too much for him to really handle right now.
...that, and there were way too many idol groups finding their way on stage for his liking. Those things seemed to pour out of the woodwork.

But there were places worth visiting here nonetheless. There were some surprisingly good food stands about not far from said halls for those hungry souls that didn't want to stray far from the music.
Really, you shouldn't be running in and out of the place just for a burger...but hell if that wasn't a good burger.

...now he just had to remember what business he actually had in the district.

Idol Groups sucked. Their music was annoying. Their voices sounded like a dying cat but worst of all? Their god damn fans. Those god.damn.stupid.ass.fans. With the amount of Idol Groups that popped up constantly and annoyingly thought Suzie Q was a great place for concerts, the Shadow had a pretty good idea of what kinds of people made up their fan base. Simply put she found them utterly insipid.

However! There was one advantage to the idol concerts: fast food. Numerous fast food stands set up around the location of concerts so it was fortunate this trip to Suzie Q wouldn't be a total pain in the ass. As for why she was here? Easy: work. Melina's boss had asked her to make a delivery to an associate of his which wasn't exactly within her job description but hey, work was work. With a milkshake in one hand and a burger in the other the Shadow made her way down the street, unknowingly approaching a certain associate of hers.

Come on, what was it...? There was something his sister wanted him to grab, he knew. It was probably better just to text her a-at...th-this...p-point...
Cecil slowed down as he spotted a certain face responsible for memories he didn't really know how to process yet. That interaction was responsible for a lot of confusion and bafflement on his part.
And now, they were there again.
...somehow, he felt obligated to at least speak to them, considering everything that had happened before. It would be rude, and possibly hurtful to try and avoid them.

Plodding steps took him closer to Melina as he moved his headphones to sit about his neck, the boy looking just about everywhere but the woman he was trying to talk to as everything he could say choked in his throat. It was a struggle to get anything out.
"U-U-Uhhh...hey...."
And it was only with an awkward expression and mumbling voice that he managed to speak, scratching at the back of his head and glancing away.

"Hooo? Hi Cecil." Wiping the sauce off her face (it had been a messy burger) with a convenient tissue she got from the fast food stand. Smiling warmly, with a mischievous twinkle inside her eyes, the Shadow was indeed happy to see Cecil. She may not have considered him a friend (A view she felt Cecil held) but Melina was glad, and a little surprised, to see him again.

"Cat still got your tongue I see?" She slowly walked towards him and leaned down looking him in the eyes chuckling.

"Don't tell me you're here for the Idol Concert?" She wondered just why Cecil was actually here in Suzie Q genuinely hoping it WAS NOT for that blasted Idol Concert. Melina would just loose any and all respect for him if that was the case!

Cecil pointedly did not look Melina in the eye. He was struggling enough as it was, and the meeting of gazes would only exacerbate the issue. He freezes and bites his lip, canine digging into just the inside as he tries desperately not to make this worse on himself.
It didn't take a genius to tell he wasn't doing well on that front.
"N-no...no! To - to both." Was it too late to give up and run? Ankou would understand. He'd be let off for this one. It was way, way harder than expected, after all. What was he thinking? "My, uh, sister sent me to grab something...not that, I, ah...remember...what..." He swallows, fingers running through his hair to clutch at his head. "Too busy trying to get out of earshot of the, ah, uh...idols, today. No way any of the people there would listen to any of it without there being girls dancing on stage..." He gives a minute shake of his head. "It's like a cult, some of them."

"Good. I can't stand these Idol groups....the music is insipid. The crowds irritating and the Idols themselves brainless." She sighed an exasperated sigh before stuffing the last of her burger down; There wasn't much left of it anyway. It seemed that, to Melina, Cecil was still the same stuttering person he was as last time they met. He must always be like that.

"Oh you're on a chore for your sister? And you forgot what...? hmmmm....well! I have decided I will help you!" With an elaborate flurry of her now free hand she gave Cecil a thumbs up, smiling widely. While Melina did technically have her own chore to do her boss had said she could go home after it was done so what did it matter if it took her a little longer?

"And yeah....I agree with you on that. They're cute girls though but I don't see the point in spending money. Knowing today's world I bet you people have posted footage online." As had been said before, Melina was genuinely glad Cecil wasn't here for the Idol Girl concert. God damn that would just make him utterly pathetic as far as the Shadow was concerned.

Alright, that was a fair amount of vitriol towards...basically the idol scene in general. He wasn't fond of it himself, and he definitely didn't get the massive following, but that was just plain harsh.

...wait, what now?
"U-Uh-Uhm, really? You-uh-ah - why? You don't - don't even -" Cecil lets out a frustrated sigh. He could speak. Bloody. English. Or rather, he was supposed to be able to. "You've got...no idea? What I'm even supposed to be doing? Why, ah, you, uh - why'd you...decide that?"
With every word that came haphazardly from his mouth, Cecil's frustrations only grew. He sounded even more stupid than normal, and he didn't doubt someone was going to start drawing conclusions based on it.
That was the last thing he needed when he hadn't managed to draw his yet.
He sighs, and pulls out his phone, firing off a text. "I - I need to check what I'm doing anyway...she's not gonna be happy I forgot."

Cecil simply shrugs and shakes his head, latching onto the distraction. "Like loads of things, they'd probably say it's different in person. Dread to think what the difference they're looking for might be with some of them, though. Don't even see what's so special anyway...might look nice or whatever, but I don't get how some people get a kick from just looking at them. Or, well, anyone, not just idols. It's...just, uh, people, whatever they look like or whatever. Why would you stare at them like that? What is it that makes them just have to look?"

"Man that cat still has your tongue. Are you like this with everyone or is it just me?" She cocked her hips, cockily smirking while resting a hand on her thighs. It was equal parts amusing and concerning that Cecil was struggling with the most basic of English skills. The last time they met it was perfectly understandable given how Melina had been flirting but now? She was simply communicating normally.

"Mmm..yeah that's a good point..I know from experience you humans like other pretty humans." The way Melina talked about humans made it seem like she was pretty detached from them. For the time being Melina went silent, waiting patiently for Cecil to text his sister and find out just what chore had brought him here. The Shadow had to admit she found herself curious about Cecil's chore and his sister as well. Was she just as easy to shake as Cecil himself was?

Did-did she really not -
Cecil shot Melina a frustrated look, audibly and visibly flustered and exasperated. "I-Is this r-really surprising, a-ah, after-!" Cecil grits his teeth, letting his breath out in a hiss as he closes his eyes and shakes his head. "N-N-Never...mind."

The words definitely struck him as odd in his mind, and with the implications involved, he absolutely did not need the paranoia. "M-Melina? Maybe...j-juuust, just maybe...you don't want to sound l-l, l-like..." He sighs and lowers his voice to a mumble. "Like you...aren't, human. L-Like you're a demon, or, or something. I-If someone thought, thought that you a-actually were - were that, that would be...that would be really, really bad."

The awkward blond boy jolts as his phone goes off, as if he hadn't expected the incoming text despite having been the one to message first. Tearing his eyes away from the smirk he had still yet to realise his eyes had kept drifting to, he gazes intently at the screen of his phone. "U-Uh, r-right...it's, it's a...cosplay, she ordered, that I have to pick up. From...Aether Costumes?" He facepalms. "Not that I know where the fuck the place is..."

"Jesus you're starting to annoy me now. It was fun at first but really now? Pull yourself together and speak plainly. Being flustered was cute as first but now it's getting old." Melina knew that when they had last met she was responsible for Cecil's flustered state but now? Was it her mere presence that caused it? If that really was the case she was just annoyed at Cecil for his lack of any real self-control. A movie lost its appeal if you watched it 24/7 after all.

"Don't want to sound like what?" Her expression formed into an irritated scowl as she leaned in to listen to Cecil's mumbling. Just like her expression twisted into sadistic amusement as she wrapped her arms around Cecil's neck in an embrace, pulling herself close to whisper into his ear. Oh she was going to enjoy this immensely and yes, what she was about to do was definitely something Cecil would be absolutely justified in getting flustered about.

"And what if I was..? What if I was something far worse? What if I just wanted to taste and devour every last joy this world contained?...ahahahahahahahahaha....~" She whispered into the younger male's ear, laughing softly her expression twisted into a intense expression of mirthful enjoyment. Just like that she pulled away from Cecil, standing up straight and acting as if everything was perfectly ordinary a perfectly wholesome grin on her face.

"Oh a cosplay store? Huh. I don't really care for all this...Asian stuff but cosplay I can appreciate. It's a pretty nice hobby really." For a few moments the Shadow went silent, rubbing her smooth chin as she thought about the situation. "Aether Costumes.....hmmmm I think I've seen that store before..." Slipping a hand into her pocket Melina's quick fingers danced across the screen, bringing up good old Google Maps to find directions.

"Oh hey. Turns out it's only a few streets away. Shall we get going Cecil?"

A minute twitch develops in Cecil's eye, frustration starting to bubble over in earnest at the words he was hearing. "Are you kidding me?!" For that moment, Cecil glares back, infuriated by the way it was all being treated as an amusement meant for her and her alone. "You kissed me out of nowhere and ran off before I even had any idea what happened. I'm sure it was just a brief amusement for you to laugh at and forget about at this point, but just because you forgot about it doesn't mean that I did - and I had no idea what to make of it til now!"
The ire drains off after a moment longer...and then, he just feels stupid for making a big deal out of it - and really, he had. It was an event that didn't even register with the woman: inconsequential, fleeting, and ultimately pointless.
...great. He'd found another one of these people.

Cecil stiffens a little as Melina closes in once more, but at this point things have just drained away, another thing to run off and fill the bottle. With it, the boy cools dramatically, not quite unable to care this was happening but currently far more cold to it all. He felt the shiver down his spine - and ignored it. "Then I'd say you were being far too careless."
He refused to rise to the bait this time. He would not give them the satisfaction from something so mean-spirited.

Cecil didn't respond further as Melina let him go to speculate on cosplay and 'asian stuff', still uncomfortable but far more neutral. A wave of tiredness slips over his features before passing away once more, nothing but a simple roll of his eyes to acknowledge both it and how foolish he was. "Alright. Lead the way, since you know."

"About time you got it out of your system. I was worried you were just frustrated and angry at me bottling it up constantly..but if you can speak your mind so freely then we're good as far as I am concerned." The joking sarcastic tone Melina had been speaking with was gone replaced by a lot more serious and down to earth tone. She was genuinely glad, even if she hadn't predicted exactly this, Cecil had blown his top. Bottling things up was never good...especially when it lead to someone being a one trick pony.

"It may have been a brief amusement...but isn't that what friends do? Spend their time together having brief bouts of fun?" It was a naive viewpoint one that spoke to either a VERY poor understanding of people or an equally terrible set of experiences with people. In all honesty both were most likely true especially as Melina had pretty much confirmed she was most definitely not human.

"Yes....yeah I might be a bit reckless and careless...but you don't mind do you? It's not like I have any real desire to cause any harm...well, at least to you." All in all even if Melina was a highly reckless supernatural entity was that really a problem? Was it really a problem if she didn't cause any serious harm? Sure she might screw with Cecil but it was simply supposed to be harmless fun. That was the issue really. Melina felt it was harmless simple fun but did Cecil? Hell, did anybody else? Anyway. Melina would throw an arm around Cecil's and smile genuinely, before leading him away to the store.

"I've got directions on my phone so lets a gogo!" Melina honestly hoped she had actually reached an understanding with Cecil. She found him a rather entertaining chap to spend time with but did he feel the same? The Shadow hoped he did as her only goal in this existence was to have fun and Cecil was a great way to have fun.The Shadow did genuinely hope that she and Cecil had come to an understanding or that their relationship had developed in a positive direction. She liked him if only because he was a source of entertainment but that was what friends were. Humans made friends for their own happiness right?

"You..." He lets out a long sigh. He had no idea what to make of Melina, for certain. He suspected he wouldn't for a while.
Was he willing to find out, though? Put up with this, longer?
...of course he was. Never let it be said that Cecil Erinforth ever did the smart thing.
"...there's more to it than that, Melina. It's part of things...but definitely not all of it." Not that he was able to lecture anyone on friendship given his track record, but that just didn't feel right. "We aren't friends yet. I barely even know you outside of you screwing with me. And the last thing I need is someone constantly tormenting me without even a thought to anything other than their own amusement."
He didn't need another Rui in his life. God forbid, if he saw her in a witch outfit, he was running for the hills.

"Better not..." Cecil gives a long sigh as he looks Melina flatly in the eye, and sees a familiar golden shimmer. "Assuming you're harmless - for all intents and purposes - then let me just say...even if I don't mind, other people will. Think a little about what you do - and what you say."

The protest that starts to fly from Cecil's lips as Melina sweeps him along with an arm around his is rapidly quashed, and with a little effort he extricates himself from her as he continues to walk by her, a very light flush coming to his cheeks that he can't suppress. "Like that. Even if that means little to you, it's easily a more meaningful gesture to someone else..." In this case, him. Oh, if only preconceptions went away that easily. "...let alone anyone looking."

Oh you don't consider us friends? Well that is a real shame. I suppose I should stop doing the same then." That put a damper on things. Melina had honestly considered herself and Cecil friends. Not good friends but bad friends were still friends no? That was how Melina saw it as in her eyes relationships were these things that could never not improve.

"But hey. If you don't want someone like me in your life....well. I suppose I will take my leave in that case. The store you want is at the end of this street. Take a right once you reach the Costa Coffee then walk. It's on the right side of the street according to Google Maps." Melina would have unhooked herself from Cecil at that moment but the younger boy beat her to it.

"Oh....but let me finish by saying one thing. You're an idiot if you worry about what other people think. Screw other people~" With that she took her leave, walking in the direction opposite to Cecil's destination leaving him alone with her "advice." Melina didn't care for the thoughts of random strangers. If she and the people she gave a flying damn about approved of her behaviour then that was fine. Random strangers on the street were meaningless entities Melina just didn't care about!

Something about the statement hit a familiar sore spot. He'd said the words first, but it still rang about in his head, the statement rattling about in other voices more painful than the one he heard now. A dark little laugh lets loose as other thoughts crash in after it. "What can I say? I wish it was easy as talking to someone once. But I've never known it work that way."

As Melina went off, his mouth clamped shut with dead words, before he turned and moved lethargically off the way he was directed. He wasn't going to go chase after her. That was...beyond, stupid. And really, he didn't quite have it in him right now - hell, he couldn't even say anything as they were leaving.
The whole thing still bothered him, though.
Because he was, in fact, an idiot. It wasn't exactly news to him.

Shaking his head, he goes to double check the name of the place he was visiting, and remembers that he did, in fact, have Melina's number on his phone. Not like he'd used it, but it was there - she had given it.
A little pressure grows in his mind from that recollection. A certain demand, a certain expectancy that his subconscious voice wanted fulfilled.
It had a tendency to win eventually these days. Might as well do it while the whole thing's recent.

And thus, Melina received texts from a new number.

CECIL: If I wanted you gone, I would have said so outright.
CECIL: Or, well...just left.
CECIL: I just...it's not that I wouldn't want to be friends. It's just not an instant thing.
CECIL: ...that, and I already have enough nightmares because people won't stop screwing with me til things have gone too far.
CECIL: Apparently, I nearly died after one of those incidents, and I'm really not keen to repeat that.