It had been a few weeks since Alex's trial by fire Interview with the head of the company, and she was currently lounging on her couch, her apartment was renewed for the remainder of the next two months as she was being payed a fairly large amount every two weeks, she couldn't help but feel the amount of grattitude she had for the company and especially the group that took her in... even though she was practically a stranger. 

She was currently on the couch for a fair amount of reasons, one being that Yume's head dancer, Yua was a slave driver for choreography... and dancing while singing was one of the hardest things Alex has ever done... though they compromised for her to not have as intense choreo when she was singing... which she could only be grateful to Hana who had asked her to dial back the intensity...

She started to hum the lyrics that was stuck in her head since she started to work with them... it was the words that Hikaru had uttered to her during there first meal together... "if only it was a fantasy... like the day you saw me~." A notification dinged onto her phone as she stopped her idle singing as she checked the notifications, her friends from America had started to ask her about a couple of things... apparently hearing from Kazu that they had broken up.

She grimaced at the questions that kept appearing up and about. "Is it really over? You guys were inseperable! How could you do that to him?!" A friend who apparently took his side... "I hope your doing okay. Are you moving back to America soon?" That just looked like they were fishing for information to send to him... "How did he manage to make me the bad guy in this situation..." She grumbled as another notification appeared as she realized that it wasn't the normal social media, she switched to the text as it immeditely brightened her mood. 

'How is it going? I hope Yua didn't kill you in rehersals.' Ryuji's text message rang out in her head for a brief moment as she quickly replied. 'quickly save yourself while you can, she'll come for you next' She put a emoji with it like a white flag as his reply was a tidle wave of sobbing and laughing emoji's. She shook her head as Ryuji's number appeared on her phone again as she quickly answered the phone. "I'm glad your finding my suffering entertaining." She joked as she stood up and started to rummage through the fridge as Ryuji's laugh tickled her ear. 

"I find it to be very enjoyable." She smiled to herself as she grabbed the ice coffee that was in the fridge that she had gotten earlier. "Well, what's up? Did the girls need me?" Ryuji shuffled on the otherside of the phone while Alex started to drink some of the coffee. "Oh no, they haven't told me anything besides what you already know with the announcement is gonna be tomorrow." Alex nodded her head as she looked out the window, staring at the streets. "Oh okay, then why did you call?" She asked curiously before she paused. "N-Not that you can't call, I enjoy talking with you." She added quickly as Ryuji laughed a little bit. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to do something tonight... since it might be the one time you can before people know you immeditely besides from the video from two weeks ago."

Alex nodded her head curiously, it made sense. "That sounds like a good idea, some people ask me if I was that girl but I just act like I don't know what they are saying. The perks of being a foreigner!" She giggled as she transfered her phone to the other side of her head. "Though the girls wouldn't be able to come." She pouted a little bit as Ryuji stuttered a little bit which made Alex blink in surprise, the normally calm and collected man was reduced to a stutter. "Well, it could b-be just the t-two of us? T-theres a computer cafe that I went to when I went to highschool... we could go to that?" 

Alex was silent for a minute before she started to cough a little bit which got a startled question out of Ryuji. "Are you okay??" Alex swallowed and breathed out. "S-Sorry I was choking on coffee, haha, but i'm okay!" she stated really quickly which got a sigh of relief out of Ryuji. "A-and... I'd like to go." After a few seconds of silence Ryuji gave out a startled, "Okay! i'll pick you up in a hour!" He pratically threw his phone down as Alex was in a daze, hearing it all, realizing that he forgot to end the call. "Cute." Alex muttered as she ended the call.

She looked down at her contacts and looked at the more recent contacts and then scrolled down towards Kazu's number which was still saved, but the name was changed hastily by a angry Sakura who named it 'Asshole!' She smiled at the memory before looking down at the contact again and held the contact before it pulled down a few options... one of them being delete, and delete she did, It felt aleviating.

She shook off the nerves as she went into her room, changing clothes as she did as she started to text Hikaru. "I think I have a date." A moment later the phone exploded into a chorus of texts and then a call immeditely. answering it hesitantly she put her ear away from the phone as a Loud "TELL ME EVERYTHING!"

...

The time had gone and went as Ryuji had came to pick up Alex, the man had managed to greet her in a presence that wasn't a suit which made him more approachable then before, though I guess that was the point, to look intimidating as a guard. He was still in a buttoned up shirt which looked nice on him. Alex meanwhile had gone for just a classic tshirt with a jacket over it with jeans. Alex had complimented him when he came by and the look that she got was something that made Alex think back to the conversation she had just had with Hikaru...

"W-well I think it's a date. Ryuji asked if I wanted to do stuff so. I said yes?" Hikaru was pratically squealing while Alex had to take her head away from the phone once more. "Well? How do you feel about it??" She asked while Alex felt  a little lightheaded. "Nervous?" She questioned herself while Hikaru giggled through the phone. "Just be yourself! You only have a day of course until your face will be on everyones mind." Alex groaned slightly at the reminder, the idea of a debut is to be the face of it. but the way they were teasing the collab was a little forward. just a bit of melody from the song and then BAM her face. "Don't remind me."

She began to pace before Hikaru asked. "Do you like him?" Pausing her step she didn't say much. "Alex if you don't like him don't lead him on." Hikaru pressed as Alex shook her head. "What if it isn't a date?? Maybe he just wanted to hang out and game?" Hikaru shook her head. "Trust me when I say he is very picky with who he chooses to ask to play games. Believe me, it didn't go well when we tried to play a game with him. we got our asses handed to us." Alex shook her head. "Well thats different, you guys are friends. We just met, and i'm..." 

She paused a little as she shook her head. "Your trans?" She finished for her as Alex sighed. "I'm trans, and hes nice and i am hopeless." She muttered more of her insecurities to her friend who listened silently. "You're also amazing, and he sees that." Hikaru stated as Alex blushed slightly at her friends words. "Go on, even if it isn't a date, i'm sure everything will be okay." 

Seeing his blush she smiled and held out her hand. "So you gonna take me to see where your little lair is?" Ryuji smiled and grabbed her hand. "I would show you mine but it's not finished." She waved towards her place while He gave a low chuckle, "it will be finished and we can game all night! be the insomniacs that we were destined to be!" Alex said with a surprising amount of conviction while Ryuji couldn't help the laughter that echoed out of his mouth. "I don't doubt that." Shrugged her shoulders she looked around Tokyo, looking at all of the other people and gave a short breathe in... ever since she moved to Japan, she felt a different aura when she landed...

She thought it might have been the excitement of meeting with Kazu... but yet the Aura was still there. It was like a euphoric nostalgia, a place that she knew she belonged, even though she didn't look it. She looked down as she felt Ryuji's hand squeeze hers. "Here we are." Never had she been to a computer cafe, and it was as cute as she pictured it, a Barista was behind the counter, typing away at a laptop. The cafe itself had a few rows of computers, in quite a high quality as well, there was only a piece of paper on the wall with a few rules, 'No downloads outside of games, No porn, and no harassment.' it was good rules and defiantly rules to be applied.

A guy who was at one of the computers stood up quickly and shouted,"Yo It's the Dragon himself!" Ryuji smiled slightly while Alex raised an eyebrow. "Dragon? A little on the nose." Alex pushed at him as he shook his head. "Hey there Red, haven't spoken for you in a while." Red shrugged his shoulders. "Ehh you know how it is... whos this?" Looking her up and down Red looked at Ryuji before looking back at Alex. "HeLlO ThErE, It NiCe To MeEt YoU" Red said in a very broken  english while Alex looked like a freit train crashed into the side of a school. "I can speak japanesse fluently" She pratically deadpanned at him as he looked at her as if he had been caught with his pants down.

"Oh." Alex laughed as she raised her hand. "I'm Alexandria, It's nice to meet you too." He took it gingerly and shook it, looking over towards Ryuji curiously he shrugged and pulled up a chair. "You just passing by?" He asked curiously as he shook his head. "Nah me and Alex are here to play something... which we still havent exactly talked what." He looked over and she shrugged. "Anything to keep my mind off of it, so you choose." Ryuji and Red looked at each other while Red muttered. "Oh you don't wanna do that." 

Little did she realize that Ryuji was a major LoL Fan as well as mmo's they had gotten worked up abot a new gamemode that came out... meanwhile Alex also had a account, and they defiantly didn't expect the beat down that Alex would bring. "Holy shit Alex, what kinda crack are you on!?" Red asked in shock while Alexandria could only giggle, "I bring you Mur~" Ryuji looked over at her before she wen't. "Murder~" She pratically sang as Red started pissing himself laughing while Ryuji was only chuckling. "Where did you find this one, she's freaking hilarious." 

He could only smile as he looked over at her who was enthralled in the game, before she looked back towards him and smiled. "I guess I was just lucky." Alexandria's face burst into red as she finally died in the game. "I blame you for that one." She muttered while he snickered away. Whenever she died she looked down at his hand and felt the itch to grab it. Every so often she would look at it, and when they both had died, Ryuji saw what she was staring at and placed his palm face up next to her and she looked up and blushed brightly, but gingerly grabbed it.

After a few games and very innocent hand holding, more people kept coming in which limited the amount but left it at that, they continued to play before Alex leaned back against her chair... though not something she expected was to see a familiar face. "Ryuji." Alex whispered as she turned her face away from the door where she saw Kazuto walk in. He looked over at her confused as she started to shake. "Alex? What's wrong??" He asked worriedly as she basically hid next to him, her shyness was completely gone in Ryuji's eyes but also knew something was wrong...

"He's here. Why is he here. is this the cafe he mentioned as well." Alex muttered, shaking in a form of anger and Anxeity. "Oh yo Kazuto! Over here" Alex froze hearing red shout that as he pointed towards his monitor, "Look how well we did." Ryuji heard the name and looked over, remember seeing him once before, but he remembered the name that Alex had said was her ex. "Can we leave. Please?" Alex's whisper turned into a whimper. Ryuji stood up and started to caress the girl away from prying eyes but unfortunatly, Red had saw. "Yo Dragon where are you going? this is the friend I told you ab-" Ryuji glared at the said friend as Kazu caught a glimpse of the blond he was trying to escort out. "Not now." The firmness surprised Red and Kazuto had nothing more then a blank stare as he watched the retreating backs.

Alex's breath had given away when they got far away from the cafe, turning down a secluded alley, she barely could breath as Ryuji got to eye level with her, trying to speak but all Alex could see was Kazu's face, staring at her with the look that he had given her that day. She closed her eyes trying to rid it before Arms wrapped fully around her, snapping her out of the shock. "R-Ryuji." Alex whispered against the shirt, tears cascaded down as he whispered. "It's okay. he's not here, you don't have to think of him." Closing her eyes she stood there shaking, letting the tears flow out.

Ryuji stood by her the entire time, trying to sooth it away, it took a couple of minutes for Alex to compose herself as she wiped away the tears and gave a ragged cough away from Ryuji. "S-Sorry... I didn't expect him there..." Sniffling away the ideal world of never seeing him again she looked up at Ryuji. "You don't have to apologize for something that wasn't your fault." Ryuji reminded while Alex sniffled and gave a huff. "Yeah well, falling for that asshole was my fault." The air was filled with silence before Ryuji left his hand open for her.

"Come on, i'll walk you home."

The walk was in a way, awkward. not because of each other, but the feeling of having such a nice day ruined in a instant by the person that caused Alex so much grievance. Getting to her apartment he walked her up the stairs before pausing at the door... "Alex-" "Ryuj-" They both stopped before Ryuji waved her to go.. "W-would y-you like to c-come in?" She asked as he looked at her curiously and slowly he nodded. Pulling him inside, she realized long before that the group may be a little to big to fit in her apartment so she knew this would be the only getaway from the group she could get... but Ryuji...

"I had fun..." Alex admitted as Ryuji smiled brightly at that. "I'm glad he didn't ruin it." He said as he grabbed at his hand in a nervous way. "You wanted to tell me something?" Alex asked before Ryuji finally blurted it. "I- I would like to do that again!" Blinking away the shock at his timid reply she slowly nodded. "I would too..." She said trailing off as she stared at their hands together... together. it slowly clicked as she blushed brightly. "Would you like to... stay?" She asked as the blush deepend, looking away from the man who had been completly transparent with her...

"Would... that be okay?" She nodded her head, still completely averting her eyes. "I mean... I kinda don't want to be alone after that, b-but also... you make me feel safe..." She admitted slowly looking up, her eyes met his and their faces flushed again, he squeezed her hands and slowly whispered out, "Okay... I'll stay." 

...