The Lady and the Ladies' Man

"On your own?" Cassie said incredulously while Mamouru kept talking. "Now you're just being dumb."

She listened to the rest of what he had to say while turning a bit red in the face. She didn't know if she should be angry or sympathetic or something else. She was angry, though, at least a little bit. How could he be so callus? Well... maybe she could find out.

"I know... it's not a cheerful world." She began slowly, trying to slow herself down and not say anything just out of anger. "And how on earth could you think I haven't been hurt? That's what caring for people does! If you don't care about anyone, then they can't hurt you. Isn't that right?" That sounded a bit angry, but she didn't say it just out of anger. "But yeah, I'm pretty lucky. I've always had good people to watch out for me. But I think... if you were to step into my shoes, you still wouldn't have anyone, because you don't let them. Know how I know?"

She began counting on her fingers. "Johnny would have your back. I just met you and I'd help you if you needed it... Taylor would, if you asked her. I know it. Your mom would, of course. This girlfriend that you don't care about, I bet you if you really needed something and you went to her and were honest, she'd help. You don't have anyone on purpose. So stop! The world isn't a cheerful place because everyone is out to get me, and YOU'RE THE ONE who's out to get me! You've got to learn to be a better person, you have a responsibility." She said with finality.

While she'd held her temper mostly in check, she'd spoken forcefully, as if she expected there to be no arguments about any of it. It was a tone she'd picked up from her dad. She kept walking, soberly at first, but then she looked up at Mamouru. She studied him for a moment, and she couldn't help but smile. She pulled her hat out of her pocket and pulled it over her head, her orange hair sticking out against her forehead, and grinned brightly up at him. "I seeeee youuuu!" She said in a silly voice. She made a bear noise and jumped at him, pantomiming taking a bite out of his ribs and tickling his sides.

Mamouru looked away and wrinkled his brow at Cassie when she called him dumb. He then smiled as she continued. A tight smile. 'Yeah, that's right." He said through his closed teeth. He then let out a sigh as he continued walking next to them. His words were exasperated a little bit. "I don't need their help or your help. There isn't a situation or anything like that, alright? Besides, it's my job to make sure Johnny stays out of trouble. I guess with him in Taylor's capable hands, I can finally cross that off my list now."

"I'm not out to get you, Cassie-san. I don't know why you think that. What have I done to give you any indication that i am? I already decided before that I wasn't going to." Well, he decided things but it was hard to completely say he wouldn't if the opportunity didn't present itself.

But while he thought about it, Cassie decided to take the conversation in a different direction and suddenly got very playful. Before he could even look up to see Cassie's declaration, he was being assaulted. He started laughing, more caught off guard than anything. "H-hey, ha ha.. C-C'mon, Cassie-san. Heh heh. K-knock it off!" He tried to push away Cassie by putting a palm against her forehead and giving a light shove but he wasn't doing a very good job.

"Nobody lubs meeeeeee!" Cassie said in a silly voice, with almost a spot-on reproduction of Mamouru's accent. With Mamouru's protests, she stepped quickly to his side to make herself more difficult to find off. The tickling intensified.

"I'm all alone because everyone's dumb because no one lubs meeeeeeee!" She continued. "Someday my princess will come, so I can try to get her and throw her away! IEEEEE SOOOO SAAADDD!"

She stopped, suddenly, and backed up a step. She straightened the bear hat and looked up at Mamouru with a funny smile. Now that she saw him the way he was, she couldn't be mad at him. He did bad things, and he was missing some things, but problems are problems and being angry about it seemed so silly. Maybe it wouldn't if he'd hurt someone she cared about, like Taylor, but that was a different conversation. She couldn't help herself. She couldn't look at him and not love him.

"Well, young man." She asked in a very stern, authoritarian voice, attempting to make her voice low and manly again, and again with Mamouru's accent. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Mamouru growled as Cassie continued to tickle him. His attempt to be annoyed being defeated by how she was tickling him and escaping his ever more serious attempts to get her off of him. "It's heh heh... not like.. ha ha.. that!" He said and panted when she finally let go. He leaned forward, his face was red for many reasons. He pressed his palms into his thighs and looked up at Cassie with as much of a glower as he could muster in his state.

"You... hah... hah.." He said and looked at her as his serious face twitched into something of a smile. "You're too damn nosy, you know that?" He said and smiled at Cassie. He then stood up and held out his hand. "Here. Give me your hand." He said with as forceful tone as he could manage without being rough or demanding and still being a little polite.

Cassie responded only with her big, joyful smile. She curtsied, though she didn't have any idea why. She giggled.

"Okay." She chirped and took hold of Mamouru's hand. She had no idea what to do next, but she was happy just standing there. Her eyes shifted back and forth, but she kept smiling. She felt like she understood Mamouru, and because of that she trusted him.

Mamouru took hold of Cassie's hands and looked down as he held it. Her felt the warmth of her touch and then turned his head and began walking, tugging on Cassie's hand and leading her through the city. Kyoto had a very old fashioned feel to it and as the old capital of the country people were very serious about history and even a lot of modernization was received with skepticism at best. But as Mamouru walked silently with Cassie, he had a pleasant smile on his face, looking around at the city and taking it in.

It wasn't until they got to a rather large building with an even larger tower attached to it, that Mamouru stopped and looked up. It was the tallest structure int he city and could be seen from anywhere but it was easy to forget about. Mamouru suddenly looked at Cassie and smiled. 'Ok, Cassie-san." He said. "Now that we're here don't tell me that you're afraid of heights or something silly like that."

Cassie let Johnny lead and seeing him take in the city she took time to do the same. She liked Kyoto. It was her second time in the city. Toyko was all so much hustle and bustle, but Kyoto seemed different. It was nicer, she thought. If it weren't for Friction, she'd probably rather live here, although honestly she'd rather live farther out in the country. She missed green. She missed gardening with her mother.

The two stopped in front of the tower and Cassie stared up at it. "Oooh." It was so tall! And... pointy.

"What? No. Of course not. Are we going up there? Do they even let you? Should... do we have time to... I don't... Is there a, uh... thing. Okay. Let's go!" Cassie wasn't afraid of heights. Not more than anything else at least. She didn't mind them at all. Well, that wasn't entirely true. As long as there was something to cling to and the floor wasn't made of glass or something, she'd be fine.

How exciting! And there was a hotel too. It was probably nice.

Mamourusmiled at Cassie as she looked up at the tower. "Yes, and they do. I've never been there myself but why not? It should be fun." Mamouru stepped forward and tugged on Cassie's hand and went inside, buying two tickets for them. He looked at Cassie and shook his head. "Do you have somewhere to be? A hot date, perhaps?" He then laughed.

"They get about a thousand people a day here, I've heard. He had scoped out the best places to take girls in Kyoto which meant browsing various brochures and had some menial knowledge about most places in the greater Kyoto area that were worth visiting.

They stepped towards one of the elevators, at night, there weren't as many people and so when the doors opened up and they stepped in, it would just be the two of them, the few other tourists finding their own private elevators among the nine available.

The doors closed and Mamouru looked at Cassie and then back to looking forward. He hadn't even realized he was still holding onto her hand, only having let go to buy the tickets and hand them out. "It's about 300 feet up. I guess on a really clear day you can even see some buildings in Osaka." He said making small talk.

"Uh huh." Cassie said absently, staring wide eyed out the elevator. She wondered why everything always seemed so much prettier from above. Maybe once you were free of all the worry of getting along in some place you could see it more for what it was. The farther they got from the ground, the clearer everything became.

She was too caught up in the moment to even realize how far off the ground they were. She only clutched Mamouru's hand, and lifted it up to press it against the glass. "Which way is your house from here?" She asked.

After a moment, she asked "How come we're up here?"

Mamouru looked out the elevator as it zoomed upward to the observation deck. When she asked her question, Mamouru wrinkled his brow and looked around. It was hard to tell at night but he pointed in a direction that he thought was accurate.

"That way, I guess."

Soon the elevator doors opened and Mamouru pulled Cassie to the observation deck. It could hold 500 people, had telescopes and games and a panoramic view of the city. There were about half a dozen other people mingling about but they were more or less alone. At Cassie's question, Mamouru raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked sincerely. "I thought you'd like the view. Is there something wrong with that?"