Hei stumbled into the Café on a whim, it being the closest, seemingly structurally sound building in the area. It was pouring outside; any way to get out of the rain just that much faster was a welcome one, and he was a little too far from his apartment to go back there instead. He started trying to wring the excess water out of his clothes and hair as he made his way around the overturned furniture. Hopefully the other people in the café wouldn't mind his presence there.
Amber's small house in Espoir had been rocked especially hard. She had not panicked at all, but thought the situation through calmly and decided that she would use her powers only if she truly needed to. She made it to the city on foot. She spotted a brightly-lit, still sound-looking building and made the decision to stop inside.
She lowered her clear umbrella and took the baseball cap off of her head, shaking her long hair out, taking a look around at the people gathered there. She was about to say hi to a few, when she noticed a very familiar figure in civilian clothes.
She stopped herself just in time from calling, "Hei!" Instead she approached him quietly, swinging the umbrella at her side. She knew just from his appearance that she could not call him 'Hei' here.
Hei instantly recognized the voice and wheeled around to face Amber. He opened his mouth to respond, then snapped it shut very quickly upon remembering that he was in a public place surrounded by people and he could not act the same way he usually did towards Amber. Here, he still had to keep up his façade.
"M-Miss Amber," he said politely, fixing her with the most innocent, air-headed smile he could muster, "Some weather we're having, don't you think?"
It felt strange, speaking to her like he was. He never had before.
Amber could not hold back her gigantic grin to see Hei dressed and talking in such a way. She played along cheerfully. "I know, right?" she said, beaming. "Pretty wild out there. Your home wasn't damaged, was it?" There was something... nice about just being able to make casual conversation like this.
"I don't know...I wasn't at home when the storm struck and I certainly didn't stick around to check," Hei said, still smiling. This much was actually true; he really hadn't been at the apartments when the weather turned foul and he had come straight to the café without going back to see if the building was still standing. "Was yours?"
Though the smile she was receiving was notably fake and forced (could she really blame him...?), Amber couldn't stop the reaction. Her cheeks tinged slightly, and she shifted her eyes away, shyly. "Hopefully your home is alright, Li," she uttered, and there was a pause before she answered his question, softly, "Just a bit of damage to the foundation. I live in a pretty old cottage."
"Ah...considering what it could have been, I suppose that's not so bad," Hei mused. "It wasn't totaled, at least. It can be fixed." He found all the small talk frustrating, and it almost made him want to take Amber back outside so they could speak to each other like any other day. But that would be suspicious, so he knew he had to wait it out.
"Yes..." said Amber, sliding her gaze away as she reached up and began to wring her hair out for something to do with her hands. Suddenly she remembered the Meteor Shard (though it had never left the forefront of her mind). She spoke to him carefully, still smiling, still casual, her voice light in case anybody was listening. Amber was still a Contractor- still a perfect pretender at 'normal'. "Oh- how is the camera I loaned to you...? Have you figured out how to work it yet?"
Camera...? It took Hei a moment to understand what Amber was talking about. He quickly realized that she must be talking about the Meteor Shard, since that was the only thing she'd given him recently. He hadn't gotten it to work; he'd barely even touched the lens since he got it. He was afraid of what he would find if it started working, and afraid of what might happen if it did something unexpected.
"Oh, no...I can't say I have." He thought for a minute before adding, "I haven't had much time to figure it out, I'm afraid."
"I haven't gotten the hang of it myself," said Amber, sliding her glance to the side. "There's a lot of fine details to... that kind of thing. A lot of settings. If you ever want to try it out together, you're free to call me up any time." She was being quite truthful. She knew the main use of the Meteor Shard in EPR's plan to stop Hell's Gate from being destroyed in a way that would kill all Contractors, but she had little else when it came to ideas for what other things it did.
"I'll keep that in mind," Hei said dishonestly. His expression grew momentarily grim as he wondered if either of them really wanted such a thing taking effect in Somarium--or anywhere else, for that matter--but he replaced it once again with a forced smile. "I'm not very technologically inclined, so I could use all the help I can get."
Amber looked at the ground. She knew he didn't mean it, but the falsified promise made her smile anyhow...
"...This is a cafe, huh...?" she said finally, glancing around. "I wonder if we can get something to eat. Who knows how long we'll be here...? Oh, I wonder if they serve cake? I doubt they've got any ramen for you." She said this last part with a small laugh.
Hei laughed as well, a quiet but rather hollow-sounding laugh that made it obvious that he wasn't exactly enjoying himself.
"I'll manage, I think. I'm not a very picky eater, after all," he joked back. The two of them must have looked like great friends to everyone else in the cafe. "I hope the storm doesn't last very long. With all this rain, there might be flooding...and who knows what will happen to anyone that's still out there in the rain..."
"That's right," said Amber quite evenly, lifting her eyebrows up at him with a very serious expression suddenly on her face. "In spite of it all, I think I'm a bit fond of this world and some of the people in it. If only there was something I could do to help..." She was very clearly suggesting something to Hei and she hoped that he understood what that was.
Hei caught on very quickly this time, but was still reluctant to drop the act in front of so many people. He leaned towards her and lowered his voice conspiratorially, an almost overly serious expression on his face. The exaggerated way he was acting was probably pretty comical, but his tone of voice was completely serious.
"Maybe...we could...? I mean, it's just a thought, but..."
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She lowered her clear umbrella and took the baseball cap off of her head, shaking her long hair out, taking a look around at the people gathered there. She was about to say hi to a few, when she noticed a very familiar figure in civilian clothes.
She stopped herself just in time from calling, "Hei!" Instead she approached him quietly, swinging the umbrella at her side. She knew just from his appearance that she could not call him 'Hei' here.
"...Li Shengshun," she said, smiling.
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"M-Miss Amber," he said politely, fixing her with the most innocent, air-headed smile he could muster, "Some weather we're having, don't you think?"
It felt strange, speaking to her like he was. He never had before.
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"Oh, no...I can't say I have." He thought for a minute before adding, "I haven't had much time to figure it out, I'm afraid."
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"...This is a cafe, huh...?" she said finally, glancing around. "I wonder if we can get something to eat. Who knows how long we'll be here...? Oh, I wonder if they serve cake? I doubt they've got any ramen for you." She said this last part with a small laugh.
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"I'll manage, I think. I'm not a very picky eater, after all," he joked back. The two of them must have looked like great friends to everyone else in the cafe. "I hope the storm doesn't last very long. With all this rain, there might be flooding...and who knows what will happen to anyone that's still out there in the rain..."
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"Maybe...we could...? I mean, it's just a thought, but..."
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"We have more than enough time to do it, if you're up for it. Think we could still make a good team?"
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