I Guess I Owe You... (Lucky)

[Phae]

It was a shocker when he openly admitted to staring at her. Phae had to bit her lower lip to one, keep from blushing and two, to keep from smiling as big as she wanted to. Instead she shoveled a bit of her food into her mouth.

Phae smiled as he told her she wasn't going to be able to get out of entertaining him tonight. As if she wanted to. But that wasn't the point and he knew it. But when he leaned closer her body went wild. Never, in her life had someone's close proximity caused this reaction. She thought at first he was going to kiss her and it took all her strength not to rush forward.

Her heart beat fast in her chest and she found it terribly hard to breath. His words caused her to blush deeply but she didn't look away from his eyes. Blush or not those words had meant a lot to her. She smiled at him and he pulled back her body calming with every inch between them. She swallowed auibly to her as she thought about it for a moment.

"What about star gazing then? If it's a clear night the stars up here are beautiful. I think it would be a nice way to end the night slowly." she said with a smile as she looked at him. Her eyes didn't want to leave his. Screw eating. This was much more important. Nah, she'd go back to it in a moment, or she'd hear about it. She hadn't eaten so much in a very long time.

[Price]

Stargazing? It sounded fun, actually. Normally, Price wasn't much to do such things, but then again, 'normally' for Price was a day filled from top to bottom with training, teaching, learning, and tournaments, all heavily incorporated into the world of the Martial Arts. Being an international superstar was not without it's glamor, for certain, but it was definitely not without it's own detriments as well. With barely any time left in his regular schedule for free time and simply doing what he wanted, Price was absolutely and completely glad to be up here, in this floating city in the sky, able to manage his time how he wants to, with as much or as little free time as he feels he needs to give himself. And at this particular moment, stargazing with Phae Weiss sounded like the absolute best way he could have spent the end this evening. He was already looking forward to ending this silly over-international meal and moving on to the next part.

But not quite enough to overlook the fact that Phae had stopped eating again. He gave her a stern look, and silently pointed with his fork to her plate of spaghetti. It was all he needed to do, and he couldn't resist the silly grin that crossed his face afterwards. It was becoming like a fun game for him, making her eat. Little did he know the extent of how badly she had been eating before she met him.

Finally deciding to verbally comment on the situation, Price nodded. "That sounds perfect, really. You're going to laugh at me, Lucky, I know you are, but I've never been star gazing before. It just so happens that my balcony off my dorm room seems to have a great view of the sky. What say after the dinner and general festivities are over, we head there? Y'know, relax, look at the sky... cuddle each other into oblivion. Y'know, the good stuff."

Price smirked and leaned back in his chair, taking one last bite, finishing the fish and leaving the rice dish beneath it and the meat-pie half-eaten. He shook his head and placed his fork onto the plate.

"I'm just not feeling this much food right now. You, however, didn't get much breakfast, I'm not letting you leave here until I can see myself at the bottom of your plate." He smirked, going back to playing Drill Sergeant Price and just waiting to see what Phae would say about it.

[Phae]

Phae watched him for his reaction and the first thing she got was a silent scolding about not eating. She sighed and took another bite. She put her fork down and rubbed her eyes not because she was tired but because they stung. Stung from tears that she wouldn't and couldn't cry.

He began to speak and she let her hand fall from her face and onto the table as she looked into his eyes again. She smiled and squeezed his hand gently. It was okay he had never done it before and she couldn't wait for the cuddling into oblivion part. She chuckled and nodded she understood exactly what he meant.

"My sister and I used to watch the stars and night. Our parents would have to basically drag us back into the house at night to go to bed. We used to camp out there on weekends some times staying up all night just playing and looking at the stars." she said with a smile. "So, I will take it upon myself to show you star gazing ways. And of course cuddle with you until you can't stand it anymore."

She chuckled at him but her face fell slightly when he told her he wanted her to eat all her food. Her eyes stung again. She rubbed them once more.

"Would you believe if I said that I was more interested in seeing this date get going than eating at the moment?" she asked looking up at him her eyes soft and pleading him to let her. But he couldn't know. There was no way he could without her explaining and even then how would that help.

"I.. I don't eat much, Rich." she said softly as she clenched his hand softly as her eyes looked down at the table. "A few months ago, Junpei left. For a week I didn't know when or if he would come back or where he went. It was a small yet large event that he couldn't handle .. and he just left. Said he would be back when he was ready. Well, at that time we were close. Really close. And I thought it was my fault because this guy kissed me and Junpei saw. He's rather protective. And he just.. left. That week I couldn't take it and I didn't take care of myself right. Landed myself in the hospital. He came back the next day and I woke."

She looked up into Blacky's eyes for a moment before she cast her eyes down again.

"Well, though he came back and I woke from my coma and he sorta.. kinda.. nursed me back to health. But.. I still can't eat. After a week of no food really, bare amounts to stay alive, I just find it hard to eat a lot. I guess.. I'm finding more and more that I never really healed at all. We.. he.. I don't know.. just pushed past the problem back into trying to be normal again and... it didn't work."

She looked up at him once more and smiled weakly as she squeezed his hand softly. She took their joined hands and raised them up to her face his hand running over her cheek softly as she closed her eyes. She held his hand there for a moment before she opened her eyes again and looked up letting their hands fall to the table again slowly.

"But, with you. It's like that never happened. I feel like I did before aside from eating. But you've gotten me to eat more today than I eat in a whole day all together. But I feel happy here with you and I feel whole again." she chuckled and shook her head. "I've probably scared you off now, laying all this on you suddenly. Sorry."

[Price]

"Wow..." Price trailed off, words failing him for quite possibly the first time ever, as Phae suddenly explained the truth, and the problems that lay behind her facade. It would seem (of course) that this Junpei whack-job was behind it as well, obviously and completely mistreating her from start to finish, and not being able to see the problem at hand. In the end, it was Phae who was suffering from it, as well.

This... this was something Price would NOT stand for.

His eyes narrowed a bit, as she shook his head quietly. As the eyes opened to their normal size once more, he was smiling. Not a smirk, nor a grin, but a full, normal, reassuring smile. He stood up from the table, pushing the chair back as he did so, helping Phae to do the same using their interlaced hands. As she stood, he pulled her closer to him, giving her another long, warm embrace. While they were hugging, his face close to his, he whispered to her once more, quietly so no one else could hear.

"Don't worry, Phae. You haven't scared me, only helped me to understand what it is I need to do. Don't worry about what happened back then... and forget about him for now. I'll take care of you, if he's so wrapped up in his own self-image that he won't even see you fading in front of him."

The obervation was obvious, at least to Price. He'd seen it before, the extremely over-protective boyfriend crap. The whack-job was so obsessed with his own image, and how good he looked with a girlfriend, that he would freak out over even the slightest of misunderstandings. It was either that, or he was so insecure of himself that he figured that if she were ever to even look at another boy, she'd run off and go be with him instead. Price thought it ironic that, even despite this, it was starting to seem more and more like that was going to be the case. He kept his warm, long embrace with Phae, thinking to how anyone could have just up and left a girl like this. As fun, as charming, as beautiful as she is, to just run away after one tiny problem was not only cowardly, it was pathetic. And neither of those two traits were valued high at all in Price's book.

Finally he pulled away from the hug, still caring not for who all was around to bear witness to it. Almost like magic, as always, the Price that the world saw was back in action, a confident smile on his face as he took Phae's hand lightly.

"Come on, Lucky, let's ditch this joint and go catch that movie. You better be taking me to something good. Hey, hey, guess what my favorite kind of movie is!" he said excitedly, walking towards the cafeteria doors with Phae in tow. The question wasn't technically meant to be answered, considering that if Phae had been paying any kind of attention at all since this morning, she would likely know, but could be answered regardless. Either way, Price was hoping Phae would take the lead soon enough, as he hadn't the slightest clue how to get to any movies around this place.

He was really going to have to start learning his way around.

[Phae]

The one word that came out of his mouth pretty much summed it up. And yes she had explained that she had eating problems but she hadn't touched sleeping and the fact that she worked out for hours on end. Yet, perhaps Price was the one person that could really heal her since Jun couldn't. He had only cured her weakness but now she had so many internal things wrong that she was not whole any more.

But then he stood and Phae's eyes followed him until he pulled her up. She looked into his eyes wondering what he was going to do. But suddenly she was pulled into a tight warm hug and her eyes closed. Instantly, she felt safe here. She felt as if there was nothing not even her problems could follow her here. She felt so light suddenly with his arms around her. His cheek was against hers and she wanted to smile because it felt so natural there.

The words he whispered warmed her and she litterally sighed into him as she nuzzled as well. She felt relief. When she needed it most he was going to take care of her. That was all she really needed. Love and life. She needed someone to help her to take care of her and allow her to heal the right way. She was more than reluctant for the hug to end but she thought internally of how she could cuddle a bit with him during the movie and it made it only a little better.

His normal self was back but she had been touched by the softer Blacky and she smiled enclosing her hand over his. She let him lead her out and she chuckled up at him smiling.

"How about Kung Fu or Martial Arts!" she said with a grin as she leaned into him lightly. "Good think the theatre isn't far. We can hopefully get some nice seats in the back."

She grinned up at him. She led him back to the streets of Babylos this time they were much busier than before. As it was now afternoon people were going about their business and getting their shopping done. Another couple added to the mix didn't seem to make much difference but to Phae it meant a lot. She was with Price. They cared for each other and they were out for the rest of the day and some of the night.

"You know, I'll have to keep this in mind. You know, the whole my life sucks hug me deal. Could come in handy." she chuckled looking up at him making light of the situation. Her hand squeezed his as to actually tell him 'thank you for caring' as did her eyes.