2030/I Can Afford Things Too

I Can Afford Things Too
Date of Scene:	30 October 2024
Location:	Zoisite and Nephrite's Apartment
Synopsis:	Nephrite has come back from time away, though the chill weather of Japan makes a part of him wish he was back in the warmth. They reconnect, in Nephrite's new, still under construction, apartment. An incomplete scene.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Nephrite

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's a smaller apartment than Mamoru's, but that's honestly not saying much. It's still probably three or four times the size of Kazuo's mother's apartment, and empty, it's a cavernously echoey space. Mamoru turns the lights on and surveys the space before going over to lay fingers against a windowsill.

A dim glow, and the prince's awareness floods out into the building as a whole again before narrowing to this one space and examining the joins, the angles, the load-bearing parts and the parts Neph could have knocked out if he wanted to...

He's still in his school uniform, the dastardly color combination that it is, but he's spitefully put on ratty once-white now-greyish sneakers on to go with it. Never let the shoes match the outfit. His glasses are smudged right now, and his shirt untucked, his tie abandoned somewhere.

KeyLimePie (280) has posed:
It's a smaller apartment than Mamoru's, but Masato Sanjouin - Nephrite, really, Nephrite feels more grounded, more real, given everything - has an entire mansion out in the country, for when he wants unseemly amounts of space. The apartment is everything he needs, for living in the city, next to his prince, his friend, his once-leader... except for the part where it's unfurnished and unfinished.

Stepping through the door - left open, and why not, when the building is empty - he treads on light feet, stepping behind Mamoru, waiting. Watching.

He looks better, from this angle, than he had after Paris. His skin has color in it, his frame is a little stockier, again, well-fed compared to the shrunken mess he'd been after a week in Beryl's hands, and Nephrite had truly hated to leave, but he'd done it knowing he was leaving him in good hands.

Still, they hadn't been his hands, and looks what's come of it. Mamoru's just standing here alone, in an empty building, without even the door locked.

"You know if I was someone else you could have been mugged for something. Those ratty shoes, maybe."

The voice is warm though, hardly censuring, and he comes up to Mamoru in huge, sweeping steps, catches him in a bear hug he could escape from but probably won't.

"Christ on a trike, only for you would I leave sunny California for all this rain. You know it was still 80 degrees half the time, back where I was?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's not so much a warning as a bone-deep recognition of Nephrite's presence, someone he'll always feel safe with, knowing he'd never be attacked by those big hands--

Mamoru takes his time pulling his awareness back out of the walls and floors, the smile on his face lightly playing at the corners of his mouth: it's been a little while since he's seen Neph, since his presence, his beacon, has been close.

Finally, he turns at Nephrite's voice, and he's grinning. "I was keeping an eye out!" he protests, despite the lack of censure. Then he allows, "Granted, my reflexes are a little slow when I'm out like that..."

But then he's getting swept up in a giant hug!! and his arms get flung back around Nephrite, and he mashes his face halfway into Neph's shoulder, and he laughs and it's muffled and the hug stays tight.

Finally, Mamoru's arms slacken and he lifts his head, and he says with his chin on Nephrite's shoulder until the other boy lets go, "I think the sunshine made you get taller. Like by two centimeters at least. You aiming to race Kazuo to the height cap?"

A beat. "By royal decree there's absolutely a height cap."

KeyLimePie (280) has posed:
Nephrite is himself tanner, warmed by the sun, lit up from within by the final end to that shadow, which had so stubbornly hung over their heads. If he's not grown in centimeters, he's certainly grown in muscle - his biceps are even stronger than they had been before, courtesy of not just an active lifestyle but a maintaining of his exercise regime while away. He believes Mamoru - knows there was not a chance he'd been sneaking up on him. That doesn't mean he's going to admit it though.

"Uh huh, sure, that's why I've got you like this!"

And then Mamoru, poor Mamoru, bless his heart, is being honest to god noogied in that bear hug.

"Nothing like an arm's race to ensure we meet out potential, yeah? Worried we're going to make you feel as short as Zoi?"

But for all the jokes, there's a genuine smile there, on his face. It genuinely, truly, is good to be back here in Tokyo. For all that it had been necessary to see his family - for all that that relationship is repaired by a few months in California and copious amounts of online work - this is where he properly belongs.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There HAD BEEN no way Mamoru was pulling out of that bear hug -- but this is different. This is noogies. No, SIR.

Minor scuffle! Not a dustcloud, just some shoving and laughing and roughhousing, and then Mamoru's leaning against the wall laughing. "Nothing can make me feel as short as-- ACTUALLY."

Sly look on an otherwise angelic face. "Usagi has this disguise pen that can turn her into a boy, and we did that and then used it to turn me into a girl? And I was about Makoto's height~"

KeyLimePie (280) has posed:
A minor scuffle - shoving and laughing and pushing and taking advantage of slightly longer limbs, turning a perfectly good hug into the sort of picturesque moment that belongs in a teenage feelgood film, before they finally break apart, Nephrite pleased with how solid Mamoru felt.

He knows he's missed a lot, being away for so long, but it's good to see that most things have stayed the same -

"She does?" His eyes are tracking down. He's not doing it on purpose. They're just moving on their own, down Mamoru's body, settling on a certain space lower down. "And it changed everything?"

A beat, a shake of the head, that name causing an involuntary twist of the lips, one corner wanting to go up, the other wanting to trend down, the mood mixed - better to focus on something else, entirely.

"And you tested it out?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah, everything," Mamoru says, laughing again, this time at Nephrite's reaction. He spreads his arms wide. "I had cute hair," he pulls his arms back to mime floofing a bob around his head, "and my roommate said I was elegant."

Then he pushes off the wall and pffts, punching Neph lightly in the arm again. "Of course I tested it out. I wanted to know how it felt to wear a girl's body instead of a guy's. It was fun! You should try it, you'd be adorable."

Mamoru definitely feels more solid, more there in a lot of ways, than he did after Paris. He also feels like he's buzzing under his skin, but not in the bad way like with the dark energy -- just anticipatory.

"Let me show you my place! It's almost done, I'm moving in on the tenth." And then Mamoru's heading for the door back into the hallway outside the apartments, the middle of the building itself.

'KeyLimePie (280) has posed:
"I would not be adorable," Nephrite protests, immediately, "I would be smoking. I would be stacked. You saw my Shadow, didn't you?"

It's not like he's insecure in his masculinity, or anything, but he's not adorable, not like - well, he glances at Mamoru again... yeah, he can see him being elegant, but he has to wonder if he'd been 'adorable', too, or if that was going to be reserved for reflecting back on thirteen year old Hematite, puffed up and full of wasps and confidence that wasn't entirely earned.

"You're right, that was a dumb question... but do you really think she'd let me? Seems it could be a bit tasteless, to ask her for a favor right off the bat." He's very, very aware that he has ground to make up with Mamoru's girl, the one and only Sailor Moon, Naru's best friend, Makoto's princess - Usagi Tsukino, she of many titles, the girl he'd once been truly unfortunate towards.

"Yeah? It's almost done? Then what are we waiting for - this place is mostly done, aside from the bar - you would not believe the hassle it is, getting these guys to build me a bar, don't I look like a grown man?" It's an idle complaint, as he follows Mamoru around.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Of course I saw your Shadow," scoffs the prince, "but the pen is a disguise pen, it picks what it wants. It put me in a dress with books and cats on it, and expensive librarian shoes. And yet, I was elegant anyway."

There's always something about the way he carries himself when he's not paying attention, it makes sense that Nephrite can see 'elegant' in his mind's eye. "Anyway yeah I'm sure she'd let you. She'd probably want to see too. It could be a bonding experience. Or you can wait!"

Once the door's closed behind them, he walks across the hall and opens the door to his own apartment. "I figure I'll just leave this unlocked until you all remember how to teleport. And give Zoi a key, unless he wants to move in too..."

He turns the light on in the foyer, which leads to the hallways to either side, and to the 'front door' of the main living area, with its stained glass window-- then through that door, into the vast cavernous space of one room-- the light spills in from the foyer and the windows are tinted but let in the city lights.

"You look like a teenager," Mamoru says, so blunt, so cruel. So cruel! "But they should be dealing with me, anyway, since I'm the landlord. Send them my way. I'm a teenager too but I can say I'm going to be renting to adults. Because I am."

He gestures at the floor. "That still needs to be poly-sealed, and the kitchen's done but the bedrooms and bathrooms aren't, except for the master bedroom, except for the shelves. And I have furniture and decorations on order."

KeyLimePie (280) has posed:
"Yeah, yeah the disguise pen is a pen that - wait, what? It's going to pick the clothes for me?" What if it puts him in something ridiculous, huh, like... something ridiculous, that's fled his mind now that it's time to exclaim in horror. "Anyone with eyes would guess that result, for you."

There's grace and confidence that echoes in the way he carries himself, when he's not distracted by the bees buzzing, that can only be defined as regal.

It's probably rude to doubt Mamoru's understanding of his girlfri - no, fiancé, it's fiancé now, he saw the livestream - but well, he was kind of a dick, to put it blunt..

"Maybe so. If you can drag Kazuo and Jadeite into it, I'll ask." There. It won't just be for him, and also, if she rejects him, he'll have company to sulk with. Not that he'd sulk.

"Wow. Can't believe that. Wow. And hey, you might be the landlord, but I can afford things too. You don't need to pay for my place's fixes too."

He looks around the apartment, taking in features as they walk.

"Nice glass. It's even better in person than it was in pictures. I've been picking out furniture too, but, sometimes it's nicer to sit in it, you know?"