School cafeteria at lunchtime, Aoi sits down beside Rose, Lily is just leaving. She was sitting a couple of spots away from Rose and apparently had some small talk with Rose.
"I gotta go see the teacher, see ya later Cotton Candy!"
"Yeah. Thanks for keeping me company."
"No probs, I actually enjoyed the talk. Anyway, I gotta go. See you around!" Lily waves to them and leaves.
Aoi glances towards Rose, who's looking at Lily. Aoi smiles. :: Oh my, Rosie-chan, has someone found a way to cut your thorns? :: "Hi Rosie-chan, what's up with you? When did you start to talk to someone else?"
Rose blushes slightly, and a tiny pink cloud of embers falls down behind her ears. "What, no, I just... Uh. We were just talking about the last lesson... Yeah."
"Oh, sure. So, what was it about?"
"What?"
"The last lesson."
"It was, uh... About elemental interactions...?"
Aoi grins widely, chews on her food and watches Rose, who grows a bit uncomfortable under Aoi's gaze.
"Rose, that was the lesson last Monday..." she says, "You never listened to lessons, unless it was practical. You wouldn't have anything to talk about if it was about lessons."
"Uh—"
"Don't worry Rosie-chan, I won't tease you more. You'll tell me when the time is right, eh?"
"Time is right for what? Tell you what exactly?"
"Rosie-chan, don't tell me you don't...? Oh, this is gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to this."
"Aoi, you're not making any sense."
"Don't worry about it, you'll see in time, you'll see."