This part of Little Asia was always what you might call bustling, even at this ungodly hour of the morning. The Matsumara household were always roused early by Obaasan, the tiny elderly matriarch of their family, who insisted that every minute of the day be engaged in something productive. As usual, however, the youngest daughter of the house, Arisu, had snuck out at the first opportunity, ignoring the strident tones of her grandmother for her to come back. Chuckling to herself, she filched a roll from a nearby bakery, promising the money later, and began to wend her way through the streets, determined to waste at least a few hours before going back home to be scolded for her misbehavior.

Even at this time of the morning, people needed entertainment. It was this stage performer's responsibility and pleasure to give them that as they walked from home to work or wherever they were going so early. He stood on the corner of a street, long of limb and so frail looking a wind might carry him off with a gust. In his hands were four red wooden balls that he juggled through the air, each one alternating to a different color, making a different sound or flashing with a light as it touched his hands. Most ignored him; a simple juggling act was nothing to fawn over in Rhy'Din.

Nibbling on her rather meager breakfast, Arisu found her attention drawn to the spindly figure on the corner, slightly bemused that he was trying his luck with street theater so early in the day. He'd make more money if he waited for the mid-morning and afternoon, surely. Still, she stopped, leaning comfortably against the wall to watch his act. It was as good a way as any to waste a little while.

There was a distinct lack of any container to catch the money that might have been tossed to him. Evidently he wasn't aiming to turn a profit. When at last someone stopped to pay him some kind of notice, he changed the act up in just a minute way. Four balls became six, and they were not single solid colors that changed when they met his hands, but were flashing orbs of light that danced through all hues of the visible spectrum in mid air. One of them chirped.

Brushing crumbs from her shirt, she blinked as her brain caught up with how smooth the transition had been from four to six. Okay, so he had her full attention now. She pushed from her lean, sliding her hands into her pockets as she walked around to watch him from the front, intrigued.

He tossed a ball higher into the air and twisted around to put his back to her. As it fell his foot shot out and kicked it toward her. With a chirp the ball uncurled and turned into a bright red bird that flew over Arisu's head and went soaring down the street to disappear from sight.

She flinched, as anyone would, only to laugh as the hurtling missile never touched her. Of course, a ball turning into a bird wasn't exactly standard fare for street entertainment, even in Rhy'Din. "How the hell did you do that?"

His response was to drop the rest of the balls and twist around to face her. They rolled across the ground and melted into the stone to sprout up in strangely colored plants and fungi. "It's magic," he explained simply, flashing a brilliantly cheerful smile.

Her smile was bright, despite the fact that she'd only been dragged out of bed barely an hour before, almond-shaped eyes watching as his balls changed shape and hue. "That ..." Arisu mused in her drawling Californian accent, pointing, "... is very cool."

"Here." His fingers curled inward as his hand rose with the palm facing down. With a flick, a small red wooden ball came rolling out from under his arm and into the grasp of his fingers. He twisted it up and handed it to her. "You can have one."

She eyed him with smiling suspicion, hesitantly reaching out. "What's it gonna do, turn into a squirrel and nest in my hair?" she asked in a laughing voice, slender fingers closing over the smooth wooden curve as she spoke.

"Well, it can," he replied with a grin. "Give it a kiss."

"A kiss?" Aware that at least some of the passersby were watching with interest, Arisu rolled her eyes, unable to smooth her smile away, and brought the little ball up to her mouth, watching the entertainer as she did so. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered with a soft snicker, letting her lips touch the ball in a soft kiss.

It chirped and burst apart in a flurry of feathers and wings. Seven birds of seven different, vibrant colors went flying out of her hand to soar in circles overhead. Their song was more lyrical than that of the average bird and followed a general theme of whimsical cheer. The entertainer clapped his hands as he hopped around excitedly.

Startled, she squeaked in surprised, flinching back again from the sudden burst of musical songbirds, wide-eyed in astonished admiration. The sight of the man responsible hopping around and clapping, however, made her laugh again. "You really enjoy doing what you do, don't you?"

"Yes," he nodded quickly as he came to a halt in front of her, hands stuffed into his coat pockets as he leaned and rocked back on his heels. "It's why I do it."

"So not for the money, then," she grinned, tilting her head back to look up at him as he rocked on his heels. "Why do it here so early, though? More people would see if you waited a while."

"Money? No, I don't make any money," he shook his head. "And I run around the city all day! I have to start somewhere."

She blinked in surprise. "You don't make any money? How do you pay your rent?"

"Rent? I...don't?"

"You don't pay rent, or you don't have to pay rent?" Arisu asked, trying to clarify herself for him.

He tilted his head at her, brows furrowing thoughtfully. "I uh...well. I don't really live anywhere so there's no rent to pay."

He turned to face her with a bemused smile and reached out to take the menu. It was brought up to hover just beneath his eyes to that only they and the top of his head were visible above the menu. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not really sure," she admitted with a smile, opening her own menu to glance over what was on offer before looking back at him. "You're kinda cute, and a lot more than kinda weird. Not that it's a bad thing, but you probably don't make a whole lotta friends, do you?"

Most didn't think it was possible but Tavarius was more than capable of adopting a forlorn expression in the way he slumped back and cast his eyes down before bringing the menu back up. "They're gone."

A frown touched Arisu's face as she watched this, reaching over unthinkingly to curl her fingers gently about his wrist. "Hey, I didn't mean to upset you," she apologised quietly. "Forget I said anything, I put my foot in my mouth all the time."

His slow nod was hidden by the menu but he had no verbal response to give her as he began to dwell and think about the people who came and went without explanation. In silence, he examined the menu to try and think about food rather than anything else.

"Uzai, Arisu," she muttered to herself, rolling her eyes again. No matter how much she failed to engage with the traditions of her family, some things stuck no matter what. Being told to shut up on a regular basis by an irate grandmother was one of them. She lowered her eyes to her own menu, scanning the words without reading them.

A few minutes passed in silence between them until Tavarius had thought long enough and decided that he would instead poke her leg with his foot. Poke...poke...poke...poke...poke... "Waffles or pancakes?"

She jumped, startled by the familiarity of that continued poke, but he'd managed to make her laugh again. "Stop that," she chuckled, drawing her legs back a little way under the table. "And it's up to you what you have. So long as it's not, like, caviar and puffer fish, or anything like that."

"No which do you like more? Waffles or pancakes?" Of course, her attempts to escape were countered by him sliding farther down in his seat so he could stretch out and poke her one last time.

Giggling, Arisu finally resorted to lifting her legs right up onto the seat, crossing them comfortably as she watched him slither almost out of sight. "I don't really eat stuff with dairy in it," she admitted with a faint shrug. "So ... never had pancakes, and uh, I don't really remember what waffles taste like."

"What!?" He nearly fell out of the seat and under the table at this explanation, tossing the menu down as he squirmed to sit back up. "Why don't you eat dairy?"

She grinned at his reaction. "Lactose-intolerant," she informed him with a flicker of a wink. "Happens when you're brought up in a house where your grandmother won't even let you keep a bottle of milk in the fridge. Obaasan is very traditional, and no one argues with Obaasan." She chuckled, rolling her eyes.

"Then you have to have waffles! Wait. Do waffles have dairy?" He glanced around, hoping someone in the diner would be kind enough to intrude and answer him. "Waffles are delicious. They hold the syrup better and everyone knows that's the way to go."

Arisu laughed again, shaking her head at his outrage against her genetic predisposition against anything dairy. "They've got butter and milk in them," she told him with a smile. "It's not like I'm missing out on anything, I can still enjoy the smell."

"The smell?" He shook his head again. "This is unacceptable. I'll find a recipe for non-dairy waffles."

"Okay. You do that. But right now? You need to decide what you're eating." He might have noticed that this wasn't an average cafe, serving both standard and Asian fare to the various customers, but Arisu was just waiting for him to ask what some of the menu items were.

"But I don't know...eggs and bacon and hashbrowns and toast with butter and jelly and sausages. And orange juice. And coffee. And chocolate milk."

Arisu waited patiently for him to stop speaking, glancing up at the waitress who'd been lurking nearby with a grin. "That all?" she asked Tavarius with a grin of her own.

"Hmm..." he scratched at his jaw thoughtfully and nodded. "Yes. That will be all I think."

Waiting until the waitress had this long list written down, Arisu then made her own order. "Tamago gohan, miso soup, nori," she nodded, and the waitress' writing changed to something that clearly came more naturally than the common letters. "And tea. Arigato."

Naturally, he was perplexed by the odd sounding words and turned to peer at Arisu suspiciously. "What are you?"

She blinked back at him, her smile warming even in its confusion. "What am ... oh. I'm Japanese-American," she explained. "Obaasan never speaks English, so I kinda had to learn Japanese as I was growing up, too."

"Oh...I see," he didn't know what America or Japan was, so he clearly had no idea what those words meant. "Who is Obaasan?"

Scratching her fingers through her hair, Arisu's smile relaxed out of its confusion. "Obaasan is my grandmother," she explained. "She's kinda head of the house and family and no one argues with her."

"You have no idea how to look after yourself, do you?" she asked in vague astonishment, wondering how you got to be an adult without learning that.

"What do you mean? I get food and I sleep. What else is there to it?"

"You prefer wandering around, not knowing when you're gonna eat next or if you're gonna get a bed to sleep in, to having some kind of stability?" There was a pause as Arisu drew a small chunk of tofu out of her miso soup, delicate fingers on chopsticks sure without the need to concentrate.

"It's...well, I don't know. I don't want to work, I don't enjoy it. I like my shoes but I don't want to charge people for them. I don't think I should, I just want to have fun and help other people have fun, too."

"What do you mean, you like your shoes but you don't want to charge people for them?"

"Shoes? Did I say shoes?" He scratched his head, grabbed his glass of chocolate milk and drained it in a single gulp. "I meant shows."

"You should set up your little shows in the main Marketplace during the midday rush," she suggested, "and then maybe head over to Founders Park during the summer to make the most of all the kids with their parents. You'd make enough money to live on without needing to charge."

"You mean with the hand outs?" He shook his head. "I don't like taking people's money, though."

"It's a way people show they appreciate your effort to put on a show," Arisu explained. "It'd be rude not to take it."

"Well...I don't want to be rude." Next was the glass of orange juice, also quick to be consumed.

The last of her food eaten, Arisu turned her attention to her tea, pouring carefully into the little cup before lifting it to her lips. "And if they want to give you money, rather than food or a place to stay, where is harm in it?"

"I don't know..." Like a child chided and taught his lesson, Tavarius slumped back and snagged his steaming mug of coffee to follow in a similar pattern. He tipped his head back and let the hot drink spill into his mouth and down his throat with a gulp.

She smiled faintly, watching him in bemusement. "You do know I'm just offering up advice here, right?" she asked, brows high on her forehead. "You don't have to even listen, if you don't want to."

He peered at her thoughtfully from over the rim of his coffee mug and shrugged in answer. "Are you from here?"

"I am now," she shrugged back to him, enveloping her small cup in her palm as she breathed in the bitter tang of the tea. "But no, I'm originally from Earth. San Francisco, to be exact."

"I've never been there," he replied with a shake of his head, piling up his dishes on top of one another to make room for his elbows as he leaned over the table.

"You should visit sometime," she suggested with a flicker of a grin. "You'd fit right in."

"Why do you say that?"

Arisu chuckled, setting her empty cup down as she leaned back, pleased she'd decided not to engage in the family breakfast this morning. "It's not an insult or anything, don't worry."

He peered suspiciously at her from over his hands as the fingers linked with one another. "...okay... So! What now?"

"Now?" She blinked in surprise. "Well, I got about an hour to kill before I should get changed and go to the Grand Imperial Hotel. Gotta get a job in the community, or my brothers will go totally apesh*t on me."

"Grand Imperial Hotel?" He blinked back at her. "What's that? Is it made of gold?"

She snorted, laughing at that as she dug a hand in her pocket, fishing out silver to pay for their meal. "I don't know, I haven't actually been inside yet," she grinned. "It's a luxury place where people with a lot of money can stay and be looked after as much or as little as they want."

He shook his head in confusion. "Why can't they just take care of themselves? Are they..." he leaned over the table so he could whisper to her, "really old?"

Arisu couldn't help it; she burst into giggles at that one, dropping her head forward as her hand reached out to squeeze and pat his forearm. "Oh, man, that's awesome," she snickered, lifting her head as she calmed down. "No, I just mean ... well, sometimes it's nice to let other people look after you, rather than doing it all for yourself. It's a treat."

"Oh." He plopped back down into his seat, once more utterly perplexed. "Well. That's weird."

"Well, weird or not, I need a job that isn't gonna get me yelled at every day before I head out to it," she shrugged again, moving to slide out of her seat. "C'mon, if you're coming."

"Nothing's going to happen, Arisu," he promised her with a bright smile. "Trust me, we're safe!"

Her dark eyes met his with naked, open certainty. "Trust me," she countered. "We're not. Move."

"Where do you want me to go then if this isn't safe?" Of course, disbelief still flashed in his gaze. Tavarius was quite sure that he was invincible, you see.

"Just, just ..." She was so agitated now that her ability to be coherent was suffering. "Off the roof, onto a main street, please." She didn't know whose run they were walking along - the Yakuza would only punish her mildly, since she was a Matsumara. The others ... they wouldn't be so gentle.

With a chest heaving sigh, he turned to scoop her up off the ground in one smooth motion and dashed for the edge of the building ... and jumped down into the street below to set her back down again. "I don't know what you're so scared of."

Arisu almost deafened him with a squeal of fright as he leapt off the building, holding on tight with her eyes squeezed shut. When she felt solid ground under her feet, she let go, only to slap him hard in the stomach. "Don't you ever do that to me again!"

"You said you wanted down!" he replied indignantly, rubbing at his stomach. "I was just doing what you wanted!"

"I didn't expect you to jump off the roof! I'm scared of heights, you -" Stopping herself before she could make a bigger exhibition of them, Arisu drew in a deep breath, letting it out in a huff, and turned to walk down the street, one hand fisted in his sleeve. "Never mind."

"Oh," Tavarius blinked at her as he followed along. "Well, I'm sorry."

Once she was certain he was walking with her, she let go of him, plunging her hands back into her pockets. "Please don't use the rooftop ways around here again," she said quietly. "They were built by the gangs that run Little Asia."

"Oh, that's what you're afraid of." He shook his head at her. "They can't hurt me."

"Yeah, well, they can hurt me," she pointed out in a dull voice. "And believe me, they've seen us together."

He sobered up immediately, frowning at her. "They won't hurt you, will they?"

"Not unless they think it'll get them something," she told him quietly. "And even then, only if they catch you or me on the runs up there. They're not stupid enough to snatch someone off the street without an openly acknowledged accusation."

"Good," he nodded firmly. "Well...that was a huge waste of time. How much more do you have?"

"Uh ..." She blinked, relaxing finally from her agitated concerns to pause and look back at him with a half-smile. "Why're you so interested in spending time with me, anyway?"

"Huh?" He tilted his head at her thoughtfully. "I...because you're pretty and nice?" From his tone, it was obvious that Tavarius wasn't exactly sure of what she meant by the question.

"Relax, I'm not looking for compliments," she chuckled. Now the immediate danger was passed and no hands had reached from the shadows to drag them out of public sight, she was properly relaxing, the brightness of her personality returning. "I'm just curious. I mean, most people would have taken the meal and gone."

"Well, that's not very nice," he replied with a shake of his head. "But I like you. It's been a while since anyone was so nice to me. If you don't want to spend time with me, you don't have to, though. I can go. If you want."

"No, I'm not asking you to go ..." She rolled her eyes, laughing again. "I guess I'm wondering how long you're planning on sticking to me today, that's all."

"Oh." He scratched at his jaw and shrugged. "Long as I can?"

"I can't take you home with me," she warned with a smirk. "Obaasan would have a fit."

"Why? I'm nice. I bet she'd like me."

Arisu snickered. "You're not a good Japanese boy," she reminded him, smiling. "She probably wouldn't even let you in through the door."

"Japanese?" He shook his head. "Well, I was made by someone who had eyes sort of like yours." He tugged at the corners of his eyes to try and make them seem smaller. "They were squintier."

"Yeah, I wouldn't describe any Asian like that if I was you," she snorted, shaking her head. "We're not all weaklings like me."

"Well, I mean, he looked Asian, I guess."

"Wait a second ... you were made?" Arisu came to a halt by a spice merchant's, turning to stare at Tavarius in astonishment. "You're not human?"

"I'm a product of magic and science," he replied with a firm nod. "Made in a lab in some city really far away by a weapons research and development organization."

She couldn't resist, looking him up and down with a cheeky grin. "Anatomically correct?"

"Uh...what does...you mean...?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Her hands gestured vaguely to him as she chuckled. "Got all the right bits in all the right places?"

"Oh!" He nodded quickly. "Yes! Yes, yes I do."

"And they all work, right?" Perhaps that was a little bit cruel, as teases go, but the blush was very cute.

He cleared his throat as his cheeks turned to that bright, bright red again. "Yes. Yes, they do."

"Oh, so he was pretty good at what he did, then." She flashed him a wink as she stepped backward, out of the way of couple of schoolkids heading for the Elementary. "Look, you make a decision about what you wanna do. I don't have to go to the hotel today, but I do have to go to work tonight."

"Well, I want to follow you around more. If you don't mind...and, but if you have to do the hotel thing, please do. I can wait outside or something, and when do you have to go to work?"

"My shift starts at 6; I'm working the bar at a theater until I get a different job," she explained. "Don't get off until after 10, usually."

"Oh." He nodded quickly. "Then I'm going to follow you around until then."

"Cool. You'll come in handy when I do the shopping." She cast a laugh back to him as she resumed her walk. How on earth you went from breakfast to constant companion in the space of an hour was beyond her, but Tavarius seemed harmless enough. She just had to get him out of Little Asia before her brothers caught wind of her new friend.

((Thanks for the scene, Tav!))