Private It's Not You It's Me, Even Though I Say It's You

One would think Michi should be feeling comfortable by now -- after all, she'd been on dates with Rowan more than a few times (though not enough to make up for the ones she'd missed before). But that wasn't the case today. She was nervous; sure, this was her first time to invite him out herself but that wasn't the reason for her uneasiness. Michi's expression would have been grim when Rowan arrived, only leaving her face when he called her attention. "Rowan..!" she greeted him, getting up from her seat to receive the hug from him. For a moment, she felt a chill emanating from him but her mind, preoccupied didn't put a pin on the thought. "Magic studes... haven't gone far, unfortunately," she said, her voice betraying her nervousness, "But I'm not giving up on researching yet," she added after clearing her throat. Finally out of her thoughts, her eyes looked down on the menu before her, and it occurred to her that this was the same shop that they met up after the misunderstanding from the ball. The same day they cleared up their relationship. She cringed inwardly at the realization. "So... how are things with you though? Anything interesting at work?"

Michi felt her cheeks warm a bit at Rowan's encouragement but she shook it away, giving him, instead, a rather tight smile. 'Focus', she told herself; don't get swayed. She'd already arrived at a decision and that was why she had asked Rowan to meet with her. Of course, she could have just made it simple and dropped the bomb but... it felt wrong that that was all she would just do that without any warning. Then again, it's not like she was warning him with this either. Nor Lizzy -- she'd probably have her head if that girl knew what Michi had in mind. She also wanted this over as soon as possible but the thought of this being a sort of special place didn't make her very comfortable. Thankfully, Rowan thought of another stop for them both after this. "Ah, great idea! I'm kinda running out of ink too so I that would be nice." She gave the passing waitress her order, but her voice felt distant even though she was sure she had spoken. "Fruits from Atlantis, whoa, that sounds like a treat. Did they say were they sell those? Most I've seen in the market were just regular fruits... and some spooky fruits I don't think I should be trying," she replied to him, trying to keep up with the conversation. At Rowan's innocent question, her gaze flickered down to her hands, before making an excuse to bring her own drink closer to her to keep them occupied. She was wearing longer gloves to hide the marks that was now past her elbows. She'd recently brought them up with her mentor and while the news was a little surprising, she didn't actually feel too concerned. "Well... I'd been getting less sleep," she said absentmindedly, only catching herself until after the words had been spoken. "I-I mean..! It's hard to put down assignments -- it feels bad to lose hard-won progress, y'know?" A pause, watching her gloved hands for a moment. "...Any changes with your abilities?"

Michi gave him a tired smile, "Don't worry, I'll try to get a more sensible schedule," she told him. She couldn't really promise that though; practicing magic, casting spells -- they were so exhilarating that she almost didn't want to stop if it weren't for the fact that she did need sleep to get through her classes the next day. She felt the awkward air, though it could probably be because she was anxious. They were just throwing prompts at each other right now, like playing a game of 20 questions, but Michi wasn't sure if it was just her. It was Rowan's turn now. Michi sipped slowly through her straw wishing Rowan had more to talk about. She probably shouldn't have brought up powers either. It was already one thing to hide the markings from her friends, but now that she knew what was causing it, it was harder to talk about without making them concerned. Since she'd started her magic training, she'd been purging more and more and it was only later she found out she was drawing magic from her eldritch side. But at this point, that didn't matter to her. If anything, it's helped settle the voices and as long as she was going to meet her end goal and help her friends, that was she cared about. "Nothing new with me either," she lied, smiling through it. "Just the usual for me though the voices are getting calmer or something like that? I haven't really tested any more than that." she told him, with a hint of honesty. Not wanting to dwell on that any further she tried steer back to the earlier conversation. "So anyway. About those fruits though. Are they... entirely different or do they have Atlantean grapes or something?"

"I guess 'calm' isn't exactly the word I'm looking for," Michi doubled back. That was the first word that came to mind for her, sure, but it didn't exactly describe how it felt. She wasn't too bothered by them intruding on her thoughts anymore as if she'd gotten used to them. But that wasn't the case either because she could still feel their presence in their mind, but it seemed like they were now acting and thinking with her. "I'm not really sure what happened, but one day I just realized they were less intrusive? It might have been one of the spells I was practicing on, but none of those were actually directly connected to the voices..." Michi's voice trailed off. All she'd been doing really was brushing up the basics and no more than that. "I'll let you know if I figure it out." Michi caught herself, suddenly questioning if that was the right call to say. Then again, it wasn't as if she was ending her friendship with Rowan. She can probably still talk to him about these stuff. Brushing the thoughts aside, she decided to focus on the other topic at hand and her strawberry milkshake that was starting to get warm from all her stirring. Their meal arrived just in time as well -- the perfect distraction. Or so it would be until Rowan brought up about his lack of taste which unfortunately was very literal. "Ah. Right. We should probably try them together -- I mean when you get your senses back, right?" she told him, hopeful as ever. At one point, she'd probably put together the spell to fix everything even though that wont be today. Before she could continue, her eyes led her to Rowan's plate of food and probably an unhealthy amount of red covering the sides. "Um. Row, isn't that a bit too much? You might burn your stomach lining or something..."

'We can make a date of it.' Michi felt the corner of her lip twitch when she tried to smile it off. It sounded fun sure, but she worried if Rowan would still like the thought after today. It was starting to get nervewracking, but Michi couldn't find the timing to bring it up just yet. "Rowan, even if you're... injured, you're still going to get an acid reflux if you eat too much spicy foods," Michi told him, moving his hand that held the hot sauce bottle away from his plate and for a moment, that slight contact reminded her he felt a little colder than usual. Of course, Rowan didn't seem to realize this, and he seemed more concerned about her. "Nevermind about me. Are you sure you're okay? You feel a little chilled."