2nd floor common room - Morning

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo wasn't much of a cook. It had always been one of his sisters who seemed to take the task upon them. He knew how to make breakfast however, enough not to burn the eggs or the bacon. The eggs were sizzling and he was going to have more than one stain on his t-shirt, but the food would be worth it. He might even be convinced to share if anyone asked.

Beside him, the coffee pot was brewing. The coffee maker was noisy, drowning out the sound of the radio, and Ichigo kept eyeing it warily, hoping it wasn't going to blow up or something.

[[Open. Really.]]

Comments

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"I think it's invisible gnomes," she said seriously, abandoning her ceral to start digging around the cabinets. "I've stayed up once or twice to try and catch them at it, but I never see them."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Um...

"You know, that's not fair. I have no idea if you're kidding or not," Ichigo remarked, frowning a little.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Half the time I don't know if I'm kidding or not," Anemone answered, leaning back enough to grin at him around one of the cupboard doors. "I gave up trying to guess if people were serious or not after my first month here. I just assume everything is equally possible."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

But that sort of thing was just going to drive him batshit. "As long as they're hygienic gnomes, I suppose," Ichigo commented as he watched Anemone search the cupboards.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Victory! Anemone let out a small cheer and dangled her prize at him. "Pancakes," she announced, going for the other ingredients. "They can be tap-dancing purple gnomes for all I care, as long as they keep refilling the food."

"Hey, you're Kurosaki, right?" she asked, starting to toss things on the counter. "From my ec class? I'm Anemone."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

No way did he fail to notice a pink haired girl. Yeah okay, this was embarrassing.

"I am," he replied sheepishly. "Sorry, I was distracted by the apron the teacher was wearing."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Well, it was an ugly apron," Anemone answered practically. "I think it seared my eyes and traumatized my young brain forever."

Hmm...wonder what dried cranberry and chocolate chip pancakes were like. Grinning, she dumped both bags fully into the mix she was whipping up. "I refuse to wear an apron."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Even a frilly one?" Ichigo asked, because it was too easy and he couldn't not.

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

That earned him a cranberry aimed at his head. "My hair is pink, not blonde. Especially not a frilly one."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo ducked, grinning as the cranberry missed. "Thanks for clarifying, I wasn't sure."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Yes, well, I understand things like colors and shapes are confusing to newbies," she said dryly, "but I have every confidence you'll master it eventually."

She poured the batter into her frying pan, trying to coax it into funny shapes as it cooked. "Just wait. When dinosaurs wearing frilly aprons invade next week, I'm going to laugh if one of them takes a shine to Mr. Durden."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Ichigo snorted and he was rather grateful he wasn't drinking at the time. "You won't be the only one," he commented, letting the dinosaur thing just pass him by. "And thanks, I'm inspired by how much confidence you have in someone you've only talked to once."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"You aren't gibbering under the table at the thought of dinosaurs or invisible gnomes," she pointed out sweetly. "That means you'll probably survive the rest of summer session."

"Unless a gremlin bites you. I hear they cause people to die of embarrassment sometimes."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

She clearly hadn't seen him the first day, but Ichigo was not playing to let that mood continue. It would leave people with the completely wrong impression of him.

"I'll survive more than that," he assured Anemone, he was stubborn enough for it too. "And I've been told about those too. I'm still not sure what to make of them."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Anemone had...avoided this welcome picnic, since it brought back too many painful memories.

"I've been told about them, or heard it over radio, but I've never seen one," she admitted. "Sometimes people disappear after the first few weeks or the first real round of the Fandom Strange, probably because they can't handle it."

"Personally, I think the weird crap makes time fly faster. I've been here a whole year now, and it doesn't feel like it at all."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Disappear or leave?" he asked, because there was a huge difference. "Personally, I'm not going to just let some little weirdness scare me off."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Leave, I guess," she answered. "If it was unplanned disappearing, people would freak out about it more, like they did the time people were actually vanishing."

"So if gremlins are little weirdness, what do you classify as a big weirdness?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

The question was sadly enough lost on Ichigo as he straightened up in his chair, staring at Anemone. "People were vanishing?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Uh-huh." She flipped the pancakes over, apparently unconcerned. "Aliens. Creepy creepy angel aliens that were zapping people back in time."

"Oh, if no one's told you yet, there's a clearing in the forest somewhere with a circle of big stone angels. Stay out of it."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

The coffee mug was placed back on the table as Ichigo leaned forward. "You're not kidding, are you?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"No." Anemone looked up, purple eyes meeting his firmly. "I don't get the physics or it or anything, but they sent people elsewhere. As long as they're in the circle, they're harmless, so just stay away."

"We got everyone back, though. Hurray for screwing with temporal theory."

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

Man, just when he thought he was going t to get through a conversation without having to boggle over thing.

He considered a reply, but it wouldn't come until finally... "Your eyes are purple."

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Purple and red," she said patiently, "My hair is naturally pink, and this," she flipped her hair over her shoulder and tilted her head so he could see the metal receptor on her neck, "is real too. I'm not local." Understatement.

She shoveled some of the pancakes out of the pan and on to a plate. "Want some?"

[first-guardian.livejournal.com]

"Okay..." he trailed off, still staring at her. "What's that thing?"

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Medication receptor," she said absently. "Like for getting a shot. It's all the rage in ten thousand years."

Yes, now she was just trying to break his brain for the fun of it.

"So, what class are you in?" she asked, working on the next batch of pancakes. "How many more years to go at Looney High? Where the unusual is usual, and we save the world every Tuesday."