Aster flower shop (open to all)

He arrived at the shop just before his shift, he liked to be early that way he could organize the counter the way he liked it, with a lot of free space for the sweets he used to eat when he was working. He would now spend the next 5 hours working there just to earn enough money to sustain his lifestyle. He put on the hat the manager always told him to wear and sat down, looking at the door. He was lucky to find a job that he didn’t hated like being a barman or working at a coffee shop. He likes flowers, they were pretty, sometime he felt a little bit girly but he just ignored those thoughts.
One hour got by slowly, with a few girls entering the shop to buy a single flower or to ask about something. A man entered too to buy flowers for his wife, he blushed furiously when Kaito said he was a romantic guy, guess he didn’t like to be called like that.
The red head sighed, some days it was boring as hell to work there.

The door to the shop opened and closed as the young man walked in, glancing around curiously. His tail swayed slowly for a moment before stilling. At the same moment he approached one of the sets of flowers, a hand lightly brushing the petals of the orange tiger lillies. Kerrie sighed as his hand dropped back to his side, only to rise again, this time holding a small camera. Turning it slightly, he pressed the button, pleased that the picture looked fairly decent. This was one reason he liked coming to shops like this one. The flowers here were clearly very well cared for.

Pausing, he glanced up to the person sitting at the counter.
"Hi, how much are the lillies?" He asked with a faint smirk as he tucked away the camera again.

[I don't think we'll get a reply from Kaito. He's not been on here for a while.]

Naoki walked into the shop slowly, the door making a little 'ding' noise as he pushed the door open. He walked straight forward to the closest flower and examined it. He smiled, then took a photo of the small purple flowers in front of him. Looking around the shop once more, he carried on taking multiple photos of the different kinds of flowers he found. "How pretty." The white-haired boy mumbled to himself when he found a semi-large red flower which went white as it got to the middle. He took a few shots of this flower, at different angles. His ears twitched as he turned and noticed someone else in the shop. Usually, Nao got so caught up in his photo-taking, he doesn't notice anyone else. Picking up a set of small, yellow flowers, Nao went behind the other guy in the line.

((Ah well))

Kerrie glanced around as he heard the little 'ding' announcing yet another customer for the shop. He watched the person walk in and his smirk broadened slightly. Another white haired individual, it seemed they were practically multiplying. Chuckling to himself, he watched the guy in silence as he started to take photo's of the plants, an eye brow raised in curiousity. Flicking his tail slightly he turned, picking out a few of the tiger lillies, mixed with smaller red flowers. As Kerrie moved to stand at the counter, he realised that the other guy was waiting behind him. Pausing, he glanced around and smiled to him.
"Are you a photographer then? Since you were taking so many photos just now" He asked curiously, keeping his tone friendly, light hearted.

Nao felt someone staring at him. He frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't like talking to people much, so if any communication was made, he'd keep his answers short and sweet. After being asked the question, he nodded slightly.
"I'm doing it at college." He then lifted his head up and stared at the ceiling. The person talking to him had white hair too. Nao never knew white hair on people was that common. Not that he thought he was the only one, though. Sighing, he turned on his camera and returned his head to the regular position he was usually in and flicked through all the pictures he had taken that day. The sacrifice did wonder why he was spoke to so much, but he intended to ignore people as much as possible. Although, this guy he was talking to did seem to be either a sacrifice or fighter.
Nao chuckled to himself as he realised he'd only ever talked to his fighter once over the past few weeks and that was when he first met her. That was pretty disappointing .

This made Kerrie raise an eyebrow slightly as his smirk soon returned. It seemed the guy wasn't very talkative, even if they did have a fair amount in common. He was fairly willing to bet that the white haired guy in front of him was either a sacrifice or fighter, although Kerrie was often useless at guessing which one.
"Really? This is going down in freakiest coincidence to date, I'm studying it too in college, just taking a break at the moment." He chuckled softly, glancing over at the camera in the guy's hands. Not a bad quality one, as good as the one he himself owned at least. "The name's Kerrie, Kerrie Sona" He added quickly, holding out a hand in greeting. Might as well try and see if they could be friends.
Pausing, he turned to set down the plants in the nearest pot of water that held other flowers, he didn't want them wilting before he even bought them. His boss would probably not be too pleased if that happened, especially after he agreed to pay Kerrie extra to get them for the cafe. The idea of it almost made him chuckle again. One would almost think his boss enjoyed yelling at him, or he enjoyed making trouble. At least one of those two opinions was probably right.

Nao lifted his head back up from looking at his camera once he was spoken to.
"What a talkative guy." He sighed and nodded along with what the guy was saying. "Well, I'm doing photography but also studying to become a doctor... But a break? Right. Because people usually do that." He mumbled sarcastically, still not wanting to talk to the boy much. "Naoki Irie. Nao for short." Taking the other kids hand, he shook it slightly then let go. "Nice to meet you, Kerrie. I guess..." Letting his head drop down again, the white-haired sacrifice when back to taking photos. There was one of his uncle and aunt which he deleted as soon as he saw it, a muxture of fear and anger flashing across his face for a couple of seconds. "Why the heck did I have that?" He asked himself mentally. Nao had a terrible need to get his iPod out and just ignore the other person talking to him, but that would be too rude. He didn't like talking, but being that rude wasn't something he enjoyed doing. Looking down at the flowers he was holding, Nao sighed. As soon as he got home, or somewhere away from those two that own the house, he would arrange the flowers in a nice way and carry on taking photos of them. The assignment he had to hand in was due soon, and it was "flower arrangement pictures." A boring subject, but at least he got to take photos with his precious flower. "I wonder how Michi and Rai-san are doing." He then thought about the time he'd met them both and laughed slightly, a smile appearing on his face. "And Adam.." When the white haired sacrifice thought about his old fighter, his smile dissapeared instantly.

[Mind if I cut in? Just so you know, Bryn doesn't know about Fighters and Sacrifices yet. I'm still waiting for Ikiru to make her new character so he can find out about them.]

Bryn walked into the shop slowly, keeping his head down. People were staring at him outside, and it got on his nerves. When he walked in, it hit him. A strange feeling that he kept having when he met people in different places. He didn't like it and tried to shake it off, but as soon as he walked in this shop, it got stronger. It was as if there was more than one person who could gang up on him, and his wanting to get rid of it grew each second. All he was doing was buying some flowers for a jar at home. It's not like he wanted to be beaten up or anything...

Sighing, Bryn forgot all the thoughts that were running through his head and took a look around the store. Yeah, they had a wide range of flowers, and they were really good. Turning to the front of the shop, three men came into his view. They seemed a bit... Different, from normal people, and this just made him want to stay away from them even more than he originally did with other people. He frowned, and continued browsing around the shop.

[~Bump~ I was gonna let Remaro post first.]

((Sorry it took so long for me to reply! Sixth form came as a real shock, attempting to get used to the work load. I'll be able to reply more steadily now hopefully ^^))

Chuckling softly, he rolled his eyes a little, scratching behind his ear as he watched the other's movements. He seemed reluctant to speak, probably an unsociable kind of guy, not that it bothered Kerrie particularly. "Now now, no need for sarcasm. My class has just finished a huge project so they've given us a couple of weeks off" He shrugged slightly. It felt nice not to have the deadline and work piling up over his shoulders. Those had been a stressful few weeks, Kerrie was relieved he could relax now. Glancing up to the white haired guy, he smiled quickly again. "Nice to meet you too Nao, always nice to meet a fellow appreciator of photography" He answered brightly, running a lazy hand through his hair.

At the sound of the door opening, his ears twitched and he glanced up sharply, gazing directly at the stranger entering the shop. Perhaps this guy would be more sociable, or at least smile a little more. He smiled lightly again to the guy, raising a hand in one quick wave. However, as Kerrie did this, he stiffened, frowning a little and lowering his gaze. It was strange. He knew about sacrifices and fighters, but he didn't normally meet them. Was this the kind of feeling you were meant to get when you met one? A sense of foreboding, stiffening, as if your muscles were tensing, ready to defend yourself the second you needed to. He shook his head quickly. There was no need to act like that, it wasn't like he was going to be attacked any second, and he sure as hell wasn't going to attack anyone else at the moment. Even Kerrie wasn't that stupid.

Naoki just nodded along to what the other guy was saying. "Sorry. I'm a pretty sarcastic person, I guess." He smiled at Kerrie, and then looked around as the door opened. A fighter, huh. Maybe these two have the same name? When Nao saw Kerrie's movements, it was a negative on what he thought. They obviously didn't know each other, seeing as they might have walked up to each other and started talking. Or started a fight against himself. Naoki just nodded and kept his smile on. "I really do love Photography... It's a good pass-time." He mumbled, looking down at the flowers. He was going to put them in some water (with sugar in it*) and then re-arrange them in a way that he could take some good photographs of them. It would be fun, and hopefully, his uncle and aunt wouldn't find out about them until he'd completely finished taking the photo's. He wouldn't want them to take them and do something with them, like chucking them away or stamping on them. That's what they usually did, and it annoyed Naoki to no ends. Seriously.

[OOC: *Putting water in sugar for flowers helps them live longer.]

Kerrie was distracted from the new fighter by Naoki’s words. Shaking his head a little, he focused his attention rapidly onto the other, feeling the smile coming easily to his lips. His own eyes widened very slightly as the other seemed to be smiling to him. Well, perhaps being blunt worked with this guy. “No problem, you wouldn’t be the first.” He answered calmly, turning to check on the flowers he had chosen, glad they hadn’t fallen or lost any petals from when he’d handled them. Slowly, he lifted his head again, nodding slightly in agreement when Naoki mumbled, gazing at the flowers as he spoke. “So do I...Though I hope to make it more of a hobby, I’d love to be a professional photographer” He answered softly, his smile growing warmer as he thought of doing just that, of the amazing locations and scenes he could be asked to photograph and capture through his lens. Photography was no doubt Kerrie’s passion, he was proud to tell others that. Taking another look around the shop, Kerrie paused a moment. “You said you wanted to be a doctor right? I heard the work load is really hard” He commented casually.

((Oh yeah, my grandma taught me that ^^))

Nao was watching the fighter who was walking around the store. They didn't seem to be a team, which was completely confirmed now. "I've met a lot of people who are." He was full-out grinning now. Being blunt with him tends to make Nao warm up to people, because then he knows that they think he has faults which he can improve on. Or something like that. "I was thinking of becoming a professional when I was younger, but a.. Certain event changed my mind and I decided to become a doctor." His smile had become a little sadder than what it was before, but he quickly wiped it off and carried on as if it had never happened. "There is a lot of work, but it's all worth it just knowing one day, when you're working, you'll be able to save peoples' lives and make a family not lose someone so special to them." Nao had his reasons, of course, and him becoming a doctor may have just been a bit of a selfish reason, but he was still going at it head-on as much as he could. "So, I really don't mind it at all. But how's your photography going? Do you think you'll do really well?"

Kerrie grinned back to Nao, glad that the other seemed to have warmed up to him a little more. It was good that he could speak more easily with Nao, Kerrie didn’t appreciate having to step lightly around others, he had never been the type to not speak his mind most of the time. A brief look of curiosity flashed through his eyes and face when Nao spoke of why he decided to become a doctor. “Oh, then, at least there’s one less competitor for photographic jobs” He joked lightly with a slight shrug before nodding slightly. Yes, Kerrie could see the attraction in becoming a doctor. Not to mention the popularity and respect you could get, there was the fact that you could save lives as Nao had explained. “Yeah, it does sound pretty satisfying, as far as jobs go. But way too much work for me” He answered with his light smirk. Pausing again, he looked thoughtful a moment before lowering his gaze, watching his camera. “Pretty well, I’d like to think I could be amazing but...Lots of people say that, you gotta keep a sensible head about a job as competitive as photography.” He grinned again as he glanced up to Nao with his last comment.

Nao just sat and watched Kerrie, trying to figure out what the other was thinking. "Yeah. Makes life a whole lot easier." He looked down and played with the petals on his flowers. A whole lot easier... He slightly winced as he thought this, but just ignored it. "A lot of people want to become doctors because they think it's easy. How wrong they were." He mumbled, pulling off one of the petals on a flower and then dropping it to the bottom of the small bag that was holding them up in his hands. "Well, it's true. You gotta be patient and sensible if you want to get anywhere in life, and you have to put up with a lot of crap that people throw at you too. But, just ignore the critics like them and get on with life and head forward to achieve your goal. That's what I think anyway." He was practically talking a load of rubbish right now, and even Nao himself didn't know what he was talking about, but he just said the stuff anyway, letting whatever he thought come out of his mouth and into the air, no matter what it was.

Kerrie felt the eyes of Naoki on him. It made him stiffen a little for a moment before he willed himself to relax, ignoring the fact he was being watched. Slowly he glanced around again, gazing back at Nao curiously, his eyes flitting down to watch the petal fall into the bag. When the other winced, his expression became thoughtful, if a little cautious again. Something seemed to keep upsetting the other in his thoughts and it was times like this that Kerrie wished he was a talented mind reader or something. “Yeah, some of the students studying it at uni are always complaining about the work. I got put off after watching a dissection when I was younger, I never knew just how squishy the heart was till then” He laughed softly before moving to take a seat beside Nao, his gaze never leaving the other guy. As he spoke, his eyes widened very slightly before he slowly nodded in agreement, leaning back into the seat to get more comfortable. “Couldn’t have said it better myself, you have a way with words Nao” He smirked lightly, surprised to find himself both understanding what the other had said, and completely agreeing with it. That didn’t usually happen.

Nao sighed and rubbed his eye. He looked to the side, to where more flowers were and traced the outline of them. While he was looking at them, he listened to what Kerrie was saying. "You don't like dissection, huh? I always thought they were cool..." He mumbled, grinning slightly at the memories of science when he was younger. The white-haired teen turned his head back to face the person he was talking to. "Not really. It usually takes me months to think of something like that." Instead of keeping his eyes on Kerrie, he moved them across to the purpe-haired kid who had entered before. He wasn't doing much, which meant he wasn't very interesting.

Bryn looked around to the other two that were in the shop, waiting to pay for the flowers. They looked like they were having a good conversation to the 22-year-old. "Cheh. Really need to get some flowers for Maya." He mumbled, looking through all the different flowers they had in the store. There was a big variation of them, so he didn't know which one his sister would like. "She likes red, so red roses?" He said to himself quietly, picking up one of the roses out of its vase and looking at it, twirling it around in between his fingers. "Or maybe a mix of two different types of flowers?" Talking to himself was something that Bryn did often, sadly. He scratched his collarbone, where is "Intolerance" name was. He still didn't know where he got the name from, but he suspected it had something to do with his sisters and a major prank.

*Bryn still doesn't know about fighters/sacrifices. Dx *

He watched Nao a few moments longer before chuckling softly and shaking his head a little. "Nah, I guess I'm just really, really squeamish, stuff like that turns my stomach...I guess it's why I'm the sacrifice" He shrugged a little, voice dropping when he mentioned the last bit. If Nao turned to him with one of those 'What-the hell' looks then he'd laugh it off, if not...Well that opened up another topic of discussion for them. For a moment he chuckled quietly, things could get rather interesting at this rate. "Really? Well then you're very lucky, at least once every few months you can come up with some awe inspiring comment that'll change lives" He teased lightly. After another moment, he glanced to the third customer in the little flower shop. He seemed to be talking to himself...Crazy? Probably not actually, just trying to ignore them most likely.

((Is Bryn's name visible to the others?))

[Late reply. I'm in China. Sorry. Dx]

Nao smiled along while he was spoken to. "It's alright if you get used to.. Sacrifice, huh?" His first sentence was cut short as he ran what Kerrie had said to him through his head. "I dunno why I'm a Sacrifice, but I am one. Though, I haven't exactly found my partner yet. I lost my first one a few months back." He mumbled, looking down and smiling solemnly. He lifted his head up after a few seconds and kept his smile. "What's your unit name, then?" He asked half-excitedly. He liked meeting other units and talking about their partners, unit names or spell battles. No one else would listen to what they would call nonsense anyway. "But anyway, I'm nothing like Martin Luther King Jr. or anyone who's done something like that. I'm just a kid, to be honest, and nothing I do will change lives like MLK Jr. did. It would be good if I could, but I doubt it."

[Ness (Bryn) says "Yes, you can see it."]

Kerrie paused as he listened to Nao, his ears twitching slightly curiously. A light smirk flickered over his lips when the other’s words fell short and he knew instantly that the other would know about sacrifices and fighters. Chuckling softly he ran a hand through his hair before frowning a little, eyes widening slightly. “R-really? I’m sorry to hear that...But...It’s better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all right?” He joked lightly before shrugging. “I haven’t found my partner yet, but we’re called Passionate.” He reached down, tapping his left thigh to show where the name was on him. “What about you? What’s your unit name?” Kerrie questioned curiously, leaning a little closer so they wouldn’t be over heard. “Y’know, if MLK Jr. Thought that way, he’d have never made any of those life changing speeches” He pointed out with a smirk, glancing to the other guy again. Kerrie could see letters appearing just above the collar of the shirt. If he squinted his eyes briefly, he could read the word, Intolerance. Well, that answered the question about whether or not the other was a fighter, or sacrifice.

((Really? Hope you're enjoyiing it over there ^^ And thanks for Ness' answer ))

Nao frowned when a smirk was presented in front of him. After the other ran his hand through his hair, Nao had to chuckle at the slight mess it had made. "Yeah. I've pretty much forgotten anyway, so it doesn't really matter." A slight nervous smile and an also nervous laugh. "Passionate. That's.. A nice name. Better than some of the ones I've seen," And mine. I mean, what's 'Lifeless' supposed to mean anyway? "My Unit name is Lifeless. No idea why I have it, but it's grown on me now." He lifted up his sleeve on his left arm to show the name that was placed there to Kerrie. The nervous smile was still there when he finished his sentence, and the young teen wasn't planning on removing it from his face any time soon. Nao wasn't exactly used to showing emotions on his face, but he knew, soon, he would use them more. "Well, he was a confident guy. I'm not exactly that confident in myself, let alone making speeches in front of people. I practically faint when I get on stage and there's a lot of people." He shrugged then looked towards the same direction as Kerrie, where the purple-haired guy was. "Intolerance, huh?" He whispered. I suppose it's a pretty good name. He mentally face-palmed himself for thinking that. Who was he to judge peoples' Unit names?

Bryn sighed and mixed the flowers he was looking at together. He really couldn't be bothered to choose right now. If his sister didn't like them, she could come and look for them by herself, he decided. "Well, now that's done, time to pay." He mumbled, walking slowly towards the counter where two others were standing and talking. He felt two gazes on his collarbone and he quickly pulled his shirt up to cover his Unit name (which was still unknown to him.) He sighed and stood behind the shorter looking white-haired boy with the camera. He looked around and leaned against the counter where flowers weren't covering at and closed his eyes slightly. It seemed, because the guy behind the counter was gone, that they would have to wait a while before they could pay. 'Better not take up my entire day.' He thought to himself whith a scowl, his mind going over all of the events that had happened in the past few days. Especially the 'being called a girl' events and the 'groping on the trains by old men' ones, too. He shuddered and sighed. 'FML.'

Kerrie blinked in surprise when he heard Nao’s chuckle. After a moment, he reached up, tugging at his hair before smiling when he realised what was funny. He smoothed the messy locks before nodding a little. “Surely you have some good memories though? I think any memory is worth keeping, even if it hurts” He answered softly before laughing awkwardly, knowing how weird that sounded. Glancing back to Nao, he grimaced a little. “Not an amazing name, I think it’s probably more to do with my fighter, whoever he or she is. If anything it’s embarrassing” He chuckled quietly again before looking surprised. “Lifeless...Maybe it’s to do with how your enemies will end up if they cross you? You certainly don’t seem lifeless anyway” He shrugged before leaning closer to look at the name on Nao’s arm. Nodding a little, he leant back on the counter, glancing around slightly. “I s’pose, stage fright’s pretty common in people” He smiled lightly before nodding, glancing briefly to the other guy again. “Yeah...I wonder if he has any idea about this stuff...Y’think we should ask?” He whispered again, frowning at the sight of the other’s shudder. Must have been thinking about something bad.

Nao grinned after the others hair was smoothed into place again. "I would say it depends on what the memory is. It could be something so traumatising, you want to forget it, so your mind grants that wish and gets rid of all the memories. It's a usual case with people who've been through something like kidnapping or stuff like that." He explained quietly, watching the purple-haired guy walk towards them with the newly-chosen flowers in his hands. He shrugged at that point. "Still wondering who my new fighter will be, if I ever get one." He frowned slightly at the thought of never getting a fighter and having to do all the spell battles with others he may come across by himself. Wouldn't be the best thing to do. "By myself they wouldn't be very Lifeless. It depends on how good the fighter will be." Nao then put his sleeve back down to hide his name once again and put his hands behind him on the counter. "Depends on the person?" He let a slight laugh go and then looked towards the floor, but then the purple-hair again. "Yeah, we could ask him. If he doesn't know, should we explain it?" He mumbled back to Kerrie, eyebrows furrowed. He wondered what the two of them would look like, randomly talking about 'fighters', 'units' and 'sacrifices' to some random guy.