Scene #7960: I'd Like To Come Over, Generically

Owner	Pose
Xion	> 'I'd like to come over.' Xion stared at the sentiment on her phone screen, frowning a little. He would have said 'come to the Castle' if he wanted to see Castle Oblivion again, and would call her over if he had a place in mind... Looking up, Xion's eyes reflected the rows of ceramic pots filled with white-speckled loam-brown soil and sprouting every variety of leafy herb and aromatic flower in neat rows. Typing with her thumbs while walking, Xion carried on through the arched glass greenhouse room and out into the sun of the Humagear-Assisted Autonomous District of Haru's world. A row of greenhouses spread either way, and gardener-model Humagears tended to the great variety of plants with incredible precision and efficency. Xion, in red sneakers, white socks, jeans that cuff at the ankle, a white babydoll t-shirt, and a green garden smock with a red visor over her black hair, spins on her heel to start walking towards the open fields. >Go. >I'm actually not there right now? >You can come hang out though. >Do you like apples? Entering another, more barn-like greenhouse with higher walls and squarer construction, Xion pushes open the door to enter an indoor orchard of trees, two dozen in a slightly unneat set of rows. The whole room is lit precisely to carry natural sunlight into each tree-plot, and the air smells sweetly of fruit.
Go Shijima	>I love apples! >I'll be there in a little bit. The whine of the Ride Macher's performance engine is heard perhaps a few minutes later. Shortly after that, Go is walking through the rows of greenhouses, looking for Xion. He's wearing khaki jeans, his usual sneakers and a green tee--no hoodie in the summer weather. "Yo, Xion!" Go flags her down with an arm waved excitedly, as soon as he crosses into the larger greenhouse. Once he catches sight of her apron and visor, though, his smile goes from 'pleased' to 'pleasantly surprised.' "Oh, do you work here? That's really cool." A pause, and then a frown. "I'm not holding you up, am I?"
Xion	"Yo, Go." Xion greets, turning with an open-handed wave over her shoulder and a little smile. "You didn't take too long to find me at all. Are you that excited..." A light huff of laughter takes her, and her waving fingers close. "... for apples?" Turning, on the path between the first two trees, she adjusts her arms to plant her turned wrists against her hips and lean forward, just a bit. "It's seasonal stuff, but the Humagears do pretty much everything here. I think they just hire young people here for tradition's sake. But that's fine." Tilting up, Xion takes Go's final statement more thoughtfully, her arms crossing. "That depends on what you mean by holding me up."
Go Shijima	>Are you that excited for apples? Go smiles and looks away almost bashfully, running a hand through his hair. "Maybe not for apples," he admits. Looking back up to see her regarding him with crossed arms, Go shrugs. "'Bothering you' or 'getting in your way at work,' I guess," he says. "But if I'm not doing that, then I have a question for you." "It was something I thought about after we talked last night. You're the Hero of Everyone's Hearts," he says, coming closer to place his palm against the trunk of the nearmost tree. "You're always thinking about what people want and need, but... what about what you want, and what you need?"
Xion	Tomari Shinnouske and Shijima Go both had incredible wills, the will of heroes, to overcome the many predations of outside control. Yet, both were still decidedly easy to read, for the listeners and empaths of the world. Xion smiles knowingly, rocking her shoulders in amusement as she scores her hit. "If you were bothering me, I could ask you to stop, and if you wouldn't stop, I could tell you to stop." Xion shakes her head, unlooping her arms to slide into the pockets of her apron. Turning to walk, stepping around the path and onto one of the dirt plots under the near-tree to her left, stepping under the artificially directed halo of golden sunlight and bright emerald leaves. "I'm a bunch of things, yeah." She agrees, without turning, addressing the air and Go both, while he leans against the tree she had stepped to. Her knowing smile returns, blue eyes holding a steady gaze. "Well that's complicated, Go. It would mean to define wanting, wouldn't it?"
Go Shijima	"Maybe it would mean that," Go says, following Xion until she's stood beneath that ray of sunlight. His hand, having previously traced across the trunk of the tree, now moves to shade his eyes. It's only for a moment. He steps out of the way of the sunbeams, then, just off the path. "I don't know how I'd define 'wanting,'" he admits, looking up at the leaves to watch the sunlight filter through. "Do you ever look inside, and feel like something is missing? Wonder how you'd get it?" "That's one kind of wanting. There's other kinds. When there's someone you really like, and you realize they're gone, and you miss them--that's another." He looks back down, hand once again resting on the trunk, tracing the grooves of the bark. "And... ha, now I'm seeing what you mean when you say it's complicated, because there's lots of other kinds I can't put words to. But..." "Have you ever felt it? I know you don't feel the same way other people do, but... have you ever felt something inside you telling you to go after something, or someone?"
Xion	'Do you ever look inside, and feel like something is missing?' Shijima Go speaks this, to Xion. It takes her a moment, cycling a blink across her gazing eyes, and then she makes a questioning 'mmhmm?'. Unreadably flat of the face, she continues with a lightly agreeing tone. "I've thought about it, yes." The flatness becomes concern, a down-slanted worry, a volume of 'are you okay, Go?'. "It's complicated." She repeats. "And I don't know if talking about what 'I' feel is useful. You have a Heart. It's not just a feeling-processing organ, but a part of you, coequal to your Will and Body. That's why I understand the three portions of a person that way." Xion tilts her head, eyes askew while Go looks down at her white sneakers, his shoes, and the root-knotted dirt. "That's what it means to follow a Heart, to trust the feeling over your Will. But you don't have to have to give up the wheel and follow, or grab the wheel firmly, those aren't the only choices. The whole idea's bigger, zoom out." "Get in the car with someone you trust to take over. Your Body will go along with whatever feels right. It's easy, you just need to take care of it."
Go Shijima	"Who cares if it's useful?" asks Go with a smile. "I -want- to talk about what you feel, because you spend so much time helping other people with their hearts." "Or, at least... I want you to have the chance to talk about it. I want to be someone you can do that with." He peers at her, leaning back against the tree again. "If there's ever a time where you need me as much as I needed you, back then..." He trails off, trusting that she'll know where he's going. "I'm learning about that middle ground, between grabbing the wheel and letting go," adds Go, smiling faintly. "I could do a lot worse, as far as driving partners."
Xion	Xion follows the smile, but remains dimmed on the matter of use value. "Those kinds of things should be useful to someone." She insists gently, and then looks up into the tree's branches rather than address the topic further. Spying a gold-red ripe apple hanging low from a branch, she reaches out her hand-- --and the apple falls into her palm, just like that, transitioned into a held-out offering with a rotation at the shoulder. "Do you want it to be reciprocal, like that? Even?" "To save me as much as you think I've saved you?"
Go Shijima	How did she know that one was going to fall? The question is written on Go's face, sharing the space with a bit of impressed amusement. "Yeah." Go steps forward and takes the apple. He turns it around in his hand, wiping it off with the hem of his shirt. "At least... I want you to understand that you deserve to smile as much as anyone else does. If you'll be the hero of everyone's hearts, maybe I can be the hero of yours." Crunch. Go smiles. It's a good apple.
Xion	Xion's command over gravity grants her dominion over the fall of apples - but it is not clear whether she reacted, guessed, or forced her way. Does it matter? He asked her the same. The Nobody offers little more than a knowingly sly grin to Go's face-written contemplations. Xion's hand falls when the apple is taken, sliding behind her back to grasp her left forearm. "Maybe?" She repeats, thoughtful. "I maybe have an answer for that."
Go Shijima	Two bites into the apple, Go's face is flushed. "Mou..." He turns away, in a strange twilight between exasperation and amusement. "You like the thousand-cuts approach, huh?" He takes another bite--a huge one. Go's working on it, turned briefly away from Xion, for a good twenty seconds or so. "Fine," he says, after swallowing, turning back to face her. "I do want to be the hero of your heart. It's not--" No, that's not the right way to put it. "When we talk about stuff like this, sometimes I get the feeling you think you don't deserve things as much as the next person. And I just can't imagine how that could be true, and if it is true, it's definitely not fair. You changed my life. Ever since that day..." "Ever since you stopped me from going after Chase," he continues, attention completely away from the half-eaten apple, "My heart's grown. I've let lots of people in, people I never thought I'd understand. I see Roidmudes as my family, now, and I want to protect them, help them grow and learn and smile. I understand why Chase tries so hard, now. A lot of that, I did myself. But it'd be arrogant of me to say that you didn't have a part in it." His eyes flick downward, and he's a little quieter. "So... anyone who could take someone as impatient, violent and stubborn as I was, and give that kind of push, even when I was trying so hard to push you away..." Finally, he manages to look her in the eyes again, once his gaze drifts to the apple in his hand. "You understand, right?" His tone is almost pleading, when he asks that question.
Xion	Shijima Go has an apple to work on. Xion lets him take his time, because working through it is important too. It has a use. She just does it with a little knowing-sly smile spread behind steepled fingers held before her lips. The tips of her middle fingers tap the tip of her nose while he chews. "I don't know what the hero of 'my' heart does. It's a lot easier to be everyone's hero, honestly. Everyone needs a lot of things. So many things there's always work to do." Her fingers fall, hands clasping together before her apron. "That's why you don't bother me, when you show up. It's nice to work on things together with people, isn't it? Even if they're not having the best time, moment to moment. Maybe they're off in another place. Maybe you'll never know at all. Maybe maybe maybe." She bobs her head, left-right-left, at her repeated 'maybes'. "Is it kinder for me to say 'yes, I understand', or to say no, and let you try and 'save' me, Go?"
Go Shijima	"You're asking me?" He laughs breathily. "Jeez, I don't know which is kinder." Another two big bites, and he's done. As before, he's quietly chewing as an excuse to contemplate, and then the core is expertly underhanded into a compost bin. There's a spigot nearby, a source of water on hand in case it's needed. Go uses it to rinse his hands, briefly stepping away to shake them dry. When they aren't dry enough for his liking, he wipes his palms on the seat of his pants. "It doesn't seem like you need saving right this minute," says Go as he returns. "You're right, too--I might never know if you really do. But it's not... entirely about 'saving' you, either," he admits after a pause that has him fidgeting in place. "What would you do, if you needed something? Would you put yourself first? The way you talk about other people, how kind and selfless you are... I don't think you would." "Ma... no. No more maybes," he says firmly. "Xion," he continues, stepping forward, reaching out gingerly to take her hand, "I care about you a lot. Enough that whether you understand or not, I want to be there for you. For-you for-you."
Xion	Xion watches Go Shijima leave. She watches Go Shijima return. He works up his courage, and works off his maybes, and speaks it. He makes it real, for himself, and proves it to the world. "..." "... And Chase?"
Go Shijima	"I respect him a lot," says Go. "And I think we're cool now. Or at least, we're not splitting off from anything useful to hit each other every time we're in the same place," he softly jokes. His hand gently squeezes hers. "Even so... I don't feel the same way about him. Not even close." "You were there for me when I didn't think anyone would be--especially not a friend of his. There's just... no comparison." He smiles softly. "But you knew, didn't you? All those sly little smiles you've been making, the way you don't let me get by with just implications and suggestions."
Xion	Hands held, Xion stands and gazes. After months of her being 'missing', she was here. As near as feeling. Squeezing her hands proves that, too. "If I told you, Go, it'd be unfair. To the human Go Shijima." Nodding along to 'but you knew', Xion can't help but laugh. "Go, that's so unfair to you too. You're asking someone who was created in innumerably different ways, someone who hears desires and speaks to passions as people, if I already knew. I did. I knew, but if I took it away from you, then would it ever be yours? It would be just another thing I gave to you. It can't be that way. It has to be bigger than that." "More zoomed out." She affirms.
Go Shijima	With slight hesitance, Go pulls his hand back, only to reach up and caress Xion's cheek. His thumb gently trails down, as if he's afraid anything more forceful than that tender gesture might hurt. "I understand. And if that's the case... then thank you. For letting me say it." His brown eyes meet hers, twinkling with an unspoken question as his hand drifs down, shifts to her shoulder. He pulls her close, eyes shut tightly. One hand finds the small of her back, the other, navigating around her visor, strokes her hair. Go squeezes. "I'd like to give you something, now," he quietly murmurs, pulling back to warmly regard her as the sunlight filters through the leaves of the trees. Cheeks flushed, eyes half lidded. He steels himself, ignoring his racing heart, and leans in to kiss her, eyes slowly closing as he draws near. His fingers press into the small of her back in anticipation, and then...
Xion	Thumb upon cheek. Eyes meet. Lips touch. Xion is pulled in, from the small of her back, and Go dips down to 'give' her something. Her hands butterfly out, past Go's sides, before falling down around his back. Seeking, half-lidded browns look into her unshocked, gazing blues. She kisses conversationally, unhurried, until her left hand rises up Go's back to tug down on the back of his collar. Breaking away, she dips her nose and laughs. "I -am- working, still." She chides to his chest.
Go Shijima	When she breaks away, the Go that Xion sees is a little different from the one before. Tugging at his collar, cheeks flushed, looking like at once like the slightest noise might make him bolt, and like he's gotten away with something, and like he just won first in a world-class race, all at once. "Right," he says, coughing and looking away. His eyes creep back towards Xion, as a smile slowly spreads. "I guess that would definitely be 'holding you up at work,' huh." Go laughs quietly. A moment passes, waiting for his heart to stop racing. "Wow..." "If I could just stay here with you a little longer," he quietly says, "I'll be good." It's a lovely day--even inside the controlled environment of the greenhouse. Just like there's a middle ground between having one's hands fully on or off the wheel, there's a middle ground between gunning it and a dead stop. Today's a great day for cruising with someone special.
Xion	"Try another apple." Xion suggests, holding out her hand. Another apple drops from the branches, golden-red, and lands in her hand. "They're just fall-into-your-hand good." She smiles, and laughs again.