Pearl sits me down an her two seater couch. She starts to choke sob a bit. Tears roll town her cheek and onto her pale slender hands.
"Pearl? Honey what's wrong?" I start to run my hands along her tentacles for reassurance, starting from the cream colored parts to those dark pink tips.
"I- I just don't want to give you any financial problems either... I m-mean think about it! two people equal twice as much on the bills and stuff... but I don't really have a choice either... Cod I'm sorry..." She continues to sob... My Cod she sounds like she can barely breathe...
I pull her in to hug her... yet she dosent move herself away when I release my grasp, she just stays there laying her head in the crook of my neck and she let's out all her tears... on my neck... my neck is all wet now...
"Shh... shh... I'm here Pearlie... I've got you.." I hug her again, holding her tighter with every loud sob that escapes her mouth.
"Look at me Pearl, look me in the eyes... Honey it's okay... I make enough money each month to pay the bills for two people, heck I could pay for like four!! You can move in with me, besides," I grab her hand, Interlocking her squared off fingers with my teal tipped ones. "It would be good for us to bond again."
"I...yeah... I'm sorry I haven't mentioned that earlier... I want us to share such a bond that we're inseparable again... I just didn't know how to start after stopping for that long..." Pearl looks me in the eyes, I look back.
"Me too.." I give her a soft smile.
"... care to join me for dinner then?" Pearl says with one raised eyebrow and a smirk, giving a little sniffle at the end.
"Of course. We have time to kill before then though, it's only 4:35. You just wanna order takeout?" I ask, getting up from the couch hastily.
"Mmm... Takeout... you wanna hit that soup spot down the road?" Pearl says pulling out her phone. "I'll call them if you want." Pearl starts to drool a bit at just the mention of the soup spot down the road. It's her favorite spot to eat and she's good friends with the owners actually! It's a small business and she's been they're#1 costumer for a few years now. The owners name is Daleo and his wife is named Marisai. I've met them before, they're some really nice crustaceans!
"Yeah of course! I know it's your favorite so... I wouldn't say no to that." I say, giving Pearl a small pat on the head.
Pearl releases a small chuckle "Quit pettin me like a sea snail!"
"Nah, your too cute for me to stop doing that." I give Pearl yet another pat on the head.
"You flirting with me Iida?" Pearl looks up at me with a sparkle in her eye and her signature goofy looking grin.
"No, but are you flirting with me Houzuki?! I mean you asked if I wanted to stay for dinner so... hm?" I say kneeling down to her level.
"So... what is it hm? You flirting?" I say with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not!" Pearl scoots over to stand up. "Enough on flirting though! I'm hungry." She grabs the wall phone and puts in the number for the soup spot. "Alright... Hey Daleo! Uh huh... yea the usual, oh and Rina's Usual too!... Uh huh... for delivery yes... alright thanks man!!" Pearl puts the phone back on the dock. "Alright, they take a bit to get here but it's worth it. What do you want to to for the time being?"
Me and Pearl take about 15 minutes for a good chat.
"And so she took him by the shirt and—"
Pearl gets cut off by a frantic knock at the door. "Foods not here already is it? This some type of teleportation delivery here?" In fact it is not. Pearl opens the door to find the landlord standing tall and wide with a stern expression on the woman's face. "Ah! Mrs. Pegitio! What a surprise..." Pearl said sarcastically.
"Here."
Pearl looks down to find another eviction paper
"You pay or your out in two days."
Pearl looks at the large woman blankly.
"Great... I'll look into it ma'am!! You have a good day now.."
Pearl slowly closes the door then carefully awaits the click of the door.
"...... Cod freakin..Dammit!" Pearl rips up the paper to shreds, throwing it all around like a mad-man with a bucket of confetti.
"Pearl?... if you need extra help packing I can stay the night if you want," I walk up to Pearl and put a hand on her shoulder. "and don't make any excuses Pearl.. I want to help you with this. I insist!"
Pearl looks at me with furrowed eyebrows "But...You can't sleep anywhere.."
I quickly put two hands on her cheeks "I'll sleep on the floor if I have to! Just let me help you!" I look at her blankly. "Sorry.."
"Nah it's.. it's f-fine... mm.." Pearl puts a hand up to caress over my hand currently docked on her face.
"I-" I say before getting rudely cut off by the doorbell ringing. "I'll get this one." I go up to the sticker hoarded door and swiftly open it to find one of Daleo's kids. "Hi!...uh-" I forget the name of the kid! I do that a lot...
"Marcio?! Long time no see man!" Pearl says, squeezing by me to give him a little punch on the shoulder. "Your dad put you on delivery again?"
"Yeah... we weren't busy at all today so mom and Lola are in the kitchen today!" Marcio hands Pearl the paper bag containing the food. "Explains why I'm here earlier than expected! Enjoy the food. Dad said it's on the house, he heard about your financial problems so he doesn't want you spending too much." Pearl looks at the crustacean with a raised eyebrow.
"Nah kid, the foods only $15 take the money, I've got cash-" I walk up to the door frame cutting pearl off from handing over Marcio the money.
"I'll pay." I pull out my wallet, taking out a $20 bill. "Keep the change, and here's a tip." I hand him a $50 "Keep that too kid, use it for any necessities."
"Wow thanks lady! Dads gonna be pumped! He's saving up to buy one of those machines that let you pay with card!" Marcio says ecstatically with a nice wide smile on his face.
I shut the door quietly waiting for that nice click sound. "Who's Lola?" I ask Pearl, remembering Marcio mentioned the name.
"Oh that's his sister! I wonder why she's in the kitchen though... she's been dorming at college for quite some time! I wonder if she graduated?" Pearl had a smile across her face.
"What's she majoring in?" I ask in curiosity.
"Neuroscience, it's the thing will all the brain activity and stuff." Pearl goes over to the counter to put down the food.
"Neuroscience! She must be intelligent, neuroscience is a pretty complex subject. Just like the brain! It's the body's most complex organ, it does everything! From the way you see things to your smallest movements on your face!" I help with opening the food bags on the counter.
"You like rambling?" Pearl gives out a chuckle, "that's cute, can you grab the soup spoons over in the drawer?" Pearl points to a drawer with a label saying 'utensils' She labels all the drawers, I assume she forgets where she puts everything.
"Sure, and you know I like to ramble. We had to do neurological studies back in the army, it was quite fun for a bit but I moved on to engineering." I hand Pearl the soup spoons.
"Looks like you got to working out also..." Pearl practically drools at the sight of my arms, she's so gay and I don't think she even knows it.
"I still work out, you wanna join me once you move in to my place? I go every Saturday." Pearl hesitates at the question.
"Well I mean... to see those arms in action, definitely..." Pearl drools again, looking starstruck at my physique.
I let out a small soft chuckle. "you gotta work out too if your there."
"Well, treadmill doesn't seem so bad!" Pearl takes out the two containers of soup and proceeds to open them. She pushes my container towards me. Right there sits a container of Udon noodle soup with some greens to go with it. Pearl on the other hand has miso soup and a side of white rice and teriyaki pigeon.
Pearl goes in completely shoving down a huge portion of the pigeon. "So, you've got any modeling offers lately?" Pearl says with her mouth full of food.
"Yeah.. I think the magazine is hitting nearby stores next week, and swallow before you say anything. And don't choke either." I take some broth from my bowl to take a sip of, blowing it to make sure it doesn't burn my mouth off.
"Ooh!! Sweet!! I can add it to my collection!" Pearl stands and walks over to a shelf with a stack of magazines going across the shelves.
"Collection of what?"
What could it be? I wonder... surely she doesn't have a whole bunch of attractive pictures of me laying around?
Does she?
"You" Pearl spreads about 15 magazines with my face on the cover. "Don't get the wrong idea, these are fashion magazines! It helps me with what matches with what. I'm not so good with colors.." Pearl chuckles nervously.
"Uh huh" I pull one of the magazines towards me. "Then why are there wrinkles on different spots of the cover, like something got it wet it there?" I raise an eyebrow with underlying suspicion in my expression.
"I- I'm clumsy?" Pearl smiles nervously, looking like she just wants to say something and not let it be a lie for once. "I get jealous, like really jealous."
"Pearl? Your jealous of me?" I look at her in worry. Why would someone want to be jealous of me? I mean yeah I get the whole famous part and the beauty part and- oh... the beauty part... oh dear.
"It's just that your able to go out and just be complimented on your looks. Every piece of beauty on you just mentioned everywhere, In media, in magazines, on the internet, even on the flippin newspaper!?" Pearl smacks a palm on her face. "And me? What's mentioned about me? My forehead, me being like 1 inch tall, my utterly annoying voice, my temper, and just each and every flaw about me."
"Yes, and whoever puts you down like that are complete jerks, look Pearl... I'd say any flaws you have that you think are unpleasant someone would think those flaws are highly attractive." Pearl seems to be getting a little red by the second. "You alright?"
"Who would find my flaws attractive? I don't meet beauty standards at all!" Pearl looks saddened, her ears drooping and expressions getting lower by the second.
"Hey, I mean think about it. People find certain features about people attractive while others don't. Just because people call you ugly doesn't mean you are, you just simply aren't their type, while for other people, you are." Pearl just droops more downward in expression.
"Who's type would I be? I'm not even a good kisser either.." it's one thing I thought I wouldn't hear from pearl is that she's a bad kisser, she seems so gentle and experienced when it comes to physical affection, yet again though, she's never kissed me so I wouldn't personally know.
"Look up." I put my teal tipped hand under her chin to lift up her head. We look at each-other, eyes glimmering in a pool of tension and chemistry between us.
"Y-You?" Pearl looks at me starstruck, her eyes widen at the realization and her face gets warmer by the passing nanoseconds.
"Maybe... I'm not saying much but... you are cute." I put a hand up to caress her cheek. "We... we should start packing!" I realize it's getting a bit late. I get up to grab an empty box I noticed in the back of the living area. "Point to a shelf I can take some stuff off." Pearl points to a cubic shelf on the left side of the room containing a ton of books... books? Pearl dosent read that much to have a few shelves worth of books? "What's all these books for?... Let's see... Basics of Turf war... Basics of Ranked Battles... Basics of fighting..." I keep going down the line of about 25 books all on about different topics of fighting and self defense. "What's with all the books about fighting?"
"To protect you... and myself.." Pearl says with a soft tone of voice. "Being a huge celebrity has its flaws, I mean think about it. Paparazzi,weird ass creeps, you can easily get attacked, etcetera etcetera... y'know I don't want you getting hurt.." Pearl moves closer to me.
"and how's that going for you?" I ask.
"Well... I gotta work out more..." Pearl smiles with a toothy grin. "You can start putting those in the box.
I obey and start to pick up books to put them in the box one by one, seeing if any of them look interesting to me.
________________________________
We keep packing for a few hours and get a TON of progress with packing.....
TBC....