2597/Study Buddy

Study Buddy
Date of Scene:	07 June 2025
Location:	Cafe BAKE Neko
Synopsis:	Roman heads to the Cat Cafe afterschool to meet up with his new tutor, Ami Mizuno. She seems pleasant and patient, though after a cat takes note of his curious earring-- and it squeaks-- Ami does too.
Cast of Characters:	Roman Talleday, Ami Mizuno

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Roman Talleday has posed:
He's never been to a cat cafe, before. Heard about them, seen some things on the internet, yes. But this is his first time actually being in one.

Roman's still in his school uniform when he arrives, bag slung over a shoulder and a tamagotchi hanging from a lanyard around his neck. Blue eyes seem unable to settle on any one thing, taking in the novelty, and he's easily distracted by sweets in the display case. That's a given-- can't study on an empty stomach, after all?

Well, he didn't want to study, anyway. He was here to meet his tutor, who he'd gotten the number of through school. Roman was not the academic sort, in the slightest. He'd always been told that was fine. Some people are thinkers, some are doers, and then there's you, Rome. That's what Red said.

With a cheekful of donut and an untucked shirt, he ends up standing in front of the table where a blue haired girl is sitting. From the small mountain of books with her, he's certain she's the one.

"You the tutor, then?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Much as he was, Ami still wore her school uniform and as he approached, she had been toying around with some kind of electronic device. Small and blue with the astrological symbol for Mercury inlaid in gold upon the back. Gentle tapping and rapt attention until Roman's voice broke her reverie. Then the device was casually closed over, glasses adjusted, and sapphire blues lifted to regard him gently.

Between the accent and the shirt, Roman certainly had a rather rough image about him.

"I usually just prefer Ami or Mizuno-san, but tutor isn't exactly wrong." She smiled as she spoke and gestured toward the chair beside her. "Did you order a drink?"

Roman Talleday has posed:
"Yeah, they're makin' an iced tea, like." Roman sniffed, not bothering to swallow his bite before speaking, and slid into the offered seat with a careless discarding of his bag beside him.

"You can just call me Rome. Everyone sayin' Talleday-san is gettin' weird. Sounds wrong, now."

Finally swallowing his mouthful, the blond looked her over more thoroughly, and gestured his donut carelessly at her supercomputer. "You got New Super Mario Bros on that?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"New Super--?" Her gaze follwed the gesture of his donut to the computer and fought to stifle a laugh. "Oh. Oh, no, I don't. It's--uh--a planner."

it probably wasn't the wisest move for her to have it out and about quite so carelessly, but there was a lot happening and she needed to squeeze certain preparations in wherever she could manage.

"So. What exactly do you need help with, Rome-kun?" Ami returned attention to him with a smile. "Which subject are you having the most trouble with?"

Roman Talleday has posed:
He slumped back into his chair with atrocious posture, and blew a raspberry. A listless shrug followed, and with a blank look, he shook his head.

"Like... everythin', probably." He furrowed his brows a bit. "Maths and that. Uh... History? And Literature, I don't know nothin' about how your poetry works."

He glanced at the bite hole in his donut. "Maybe English, too. Just cause I speak it don't mean I can spell it, yeah?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Aren't you literally English?" Ami seemed a little surprised by that one, blinking sharply with a shake of her head.

Almost as though that particular admission came complete with a blow. She took a deep breath and slowly let it escape again.

"Well. I suppose it's a good thing I brought as much as I did, but I'm going to hazard a guess that we're best set starting with mathemtatics." Ami shifted things around a little until one of her books had been selected and set between them.

She lifted sweetened cappuccino, took a sip, and then opened the book. It was going to be a long session.

Roman Talleday has posed:
Roman deflated even further into terrible posture at that news, as if he were a clock in a Salvidore Dali painting, draped in his chair with utter unenthusiasm.

"Alright, steady on. I went to a public school, give us a minute-- you can't just be makin' a bloke do algebra or calculus out the gate?" He heaved a long sigh, letting his head loll back in despair. "Can I use a calculator, but?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami grimaced apologetically and shook her head very minutely. She didn't know how things went in schools in the United Kingdom, but she was also a little reluctant to deliver what was likely to be Very Bad News for someone who wasn't particularly gifted with mathematics.

"It'll be okay, I promise!" Ami felt compelled to try her best to ameliorate any worries Roman might have within this domain. "It's just trigonometry, we're not quite at differential and integral calculus just yet."

She seemed to shrink a little. "But, no. You can't use a calculator. You won't be allowed to use one in the classroom either, so its best you get used to not needing one."

Roman Talleday has posed:
"Didn't Japan, like, invent calculators, or what?" Roman's head lifted, and he looked very hard done by already. "What's th'point of havin' them, then? That's well dirty."

A cat leapt onto the table and, in all the talk of maths, Roman had almost forgotten where he was. "Ooh, hallo you?" He sat up enough to run his hand over soft fur. "Cheeky thing's gonna walk all over your book, next. That's cats. Put something paper down, they're gonna sit on it, aren't they?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"I suppose it depends on what you mean. The first electric calculators were made in Japan, yes. But, the UK also did a lot for the development of early vacuum tube calcuators and the first handheld calculator comes from Texas Instruments in the US." Ami couldn't help herself the moment he'd asked.

She cleared her throat and watched him for a moment. The arrival of the cat and his reaction to it had her relax a little. It didn't matter much to her whether the cat came to sit on the book, she'd just lift the animal into her lap instead. Simple problems often had simple solutions, after all.

Roman hadn't seemed to have a simple problem or a simple solution at first, all untucked and tough-spoken. That kind of casual-carefree that bordered right up against carelessness. But, suddenly, that didn't seem to be him at all. Nobody could be all that bad if they were happy to see a cat.

"Well, I suppose they'd come in useful when summing large sequences of values. But, for the sorts of problems we'll be solving the numbers tend to be far more manageable." Ami shrugged. "I'm sure you'll do just fine once you apply yourself a little bit."

Roman Talleday has posed:
He snorted a little, as if that last bit were a joke or sarcasm, and grinned at her. It faded, though, when he realised she was being sincere. "Right. Yeah. Manageable... let's go with that."

Once you apply yourself was a little loaded, with Roman. Something he'd heard a lot, and never really been able to figure out what it meant. Or at least, never able to meet whatever goalpost it represented, with people.

"You're like... proper smart, though, innit?" He was recognising this fairly quickly, regarding Ami with an almost wary look. "You got librarian energy. Or like, one of them women in pencil skirts in a museum, what knows all the bones."

Even as he said this, the cat was purring, taking more of an interest in him.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami's face turned a little bit pink all of a sudden and her brows knit together into a furrow. Clearly unaware of the image she would present in doing so, she lowered her head a little to glance at him from over the rims of her glasses.

"Well, my mother is a doctor. So, there is a bit to live up to and that means I have to study hard." Ami said this very clearly.

Of course, even that was her selling herself short. Ami definitely was proper smart.

"But, you know. I just mean--" Ami flustered and struggled before sighing. "I just think that you can do it."

She drank some more coffee.

Roman Talleday has posed:
"You haven't seen me tryin' to do it, yet." Roman noted, blue eyes staring at her from under stray wisps of blond. "I could be rubbish."

And probably would be rubbish. He was momentarily distracted by a server setting his iced tea down, murmuring 'cheers' at them in english to subtle confusion. Roman barely glanced at them, however.

The cat was tentatively stretching out towards Roman's chest, putting paw on him and testing its approach. He was still idly petting at it.

"Is your mum a regular doctor for coughs and that, or is she doin' heat death of the universe or expert on obscure bugs kinda things?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"She is a medical doctor, yes. An oncologist, specifically." Ami clarified with a short nod. "At Juuban Second General Hospital and she lectures at the Meiwa University Hospital."

Her attention followed the cat now as it pawed it's way into him for the extra attention. A lot of Roman's hardness seemed to fade away as the small animal claimed its place.

"Between those two responsibilities, she's often working. I don't get to see her all that often." Ami was speaking almost absently now.

At least until she realised what she was saying and then she shook her head again. Ami had revealed perhaps a little more than she should have at the end there. So, she forced herself to smile and returned sapphirine gaze to his.

"The heat death of the Universe, Rome-kun?" She asked almost pleased, as though this proved some point. "See. There's some proper smart in you, too."

Roman Talleday has posed:
He flashed a particularly boyish grin at her, almost sheepish as the cat asserted itself, but it was a pleased little smile. "Nah, I'm just spoutin' stuff off of them documentaries on the telly," he minimised it some, "I get it, though. My old man's a cop, back home. It was just me an' him, since I was small... long hours. But we get by alright, don't we?"

He didn't dig into it deeper, but Roman had no real sense for Japanese cultural habits and etiquette, yet. A small shrug rolled his shoulder, and his smile seemed to be understanding.

The cat had extended to sniff at the earring Roman had on. If Ami had not yet noticed, she would now-- a single dangle earring in the shape of a tiny teacup. A paw came about to bat at it, and one could swear a small and nervous squeaking could be heard before Roman turned his head back to the cat, tilting his ear away.

"Oi, behave--" A ruffling of fur and ears, and he set the feline back onto the table, reaching for his drink.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
He had a very different way of speaking that seemed to be influenced a great deal by his own background. To her Japanese ear, it definitely sounded rough. The thing was, though, it was all in inflection and none of it really matched with the content of what he was saying. That was all very normal, if a little bit sensitive in point of fact.

Roman had responded to Ami's mention of her mother with a little bit about his own father. It made her feel a little better for having shared and, of course, they did get by alright. Getting into the complicated feelings around her own, generally absent father was not something she was interested in indulging with a stranger.

Let alone one she was supposed to be helping study.

"You at least watch the documentaries, Rome-kun." Ami niggled into the point. "Maybe--"

She furrowed her brows again, attention drifting to the earring. She hadn't noticed it at first. It was a peculiar thing.

"Did your earring just complain about the cat?" Ami was sure she'd heard something.

Roman Talleday has posed:
Roman looked at her, stalled, with a blink. After a beat, he simply settled on, "... No."

Which wasn't very convincing, on its own, and his hand lifted self-consciously to cover it. "No, it just tickled--" He immediately made a squeaking sound, imitating it, re-enacting it with a tilt of his head and a dismissive wiggle. "Just not very manly to be... ticklish, like, is it?"

He cleared his throat.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami stared at him for a long moment with a very slow blink.

"If you say so." Ami said, rivalling the pace of the blink with the draw of her sentence.

She wasn't about to press the issue, though. Whatever the case, people had their reasons for things. The very least she could do, regardless of what she might suspect, was give him both the benefit of the doubt and the option of support if he needed it.

"If you ever need help you can ask." Ami tried to word things with as much generality as she could. "Though I don't think I can cure an unmanly tickle, there are things I can help with."

Roman Talleday has posed:
Roman felt like she was saying something in two ways, just there. But it was very hard to tell. She used the word 'cure' and he felt a strange paranoia for a second-- as if by being a genius, she could somehow see right through him, maybe even read his mind or something.

"Right... Like tricky-nometry and poly-nubials?" It was a subtle attempt to clarify, or redirect.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
For a moment, Ami had roughly the same thought as he did. Was he able to peer into her mind somehow? She did have some poly-friends getting married very soon and that was a very specific phrase.

She shook her head.

"Yes." Ami replied, forcing herself back to the actual task at hand and affirming that fact for herself. "Yes. Trigonometry and polynomials. I can definitely help with those things."

Roman Talleday has posed:
He watched her for a moment more before he let his attention drift to the textbook, and Roman sighed. The little tremble in his earring had subsided now and he let it go, sipping at his iced tea and setting it down.

"I can see why you picked this spot to tutor from. The sweets and the cats lullin' people into a false sense of security, and then out comes the thickest book about triangles ever printed, yeah?" He scoffed a little, set his donut in his mouth, and reached down to get books from his bag.

Maths. Yipee.