unknownrival | [RL - Tea with Vanessa after lunch.]

"Oh no, it's fine!" she assured him, smiling pleasantly and holding out a hand. "That's really interesting. I think if you said Jesus' junk smelled like something sweet and savoury you'd get kicked out of church. It's fascinating, what I've read, Eastern religions. Not that I know too much...I didn't take any religious courses in college because I was so sick of listening to people blathering on about it at that point in time that I didn't care for one much. I opted to take Philosophy and Ethics instead. Boring as hell, but I made the grade and got my AA before becoming an intern..."

Issei smiled at her, relieved that he hadn't completely killed the conversation dead. "Oh, no, Eastern religions are very anti-blather. I'm just as against pompous religious leaders who talk to hear the sound of their own voice as anyone else is. More so, even. I believe religion should be personal, and I can't understand the way it's sometimes made formal and rigid and impersonal in that way. N-not that I usually focus on this specific aspect of our lore, but it gets the message across that we're not taking everything that seriously."

Vanessa listened, setting her tea down again and putting her elbow up on the table. How manner-less of her. She rested her chin on her knuckles and watched him as he spoke. "You sure know a lot about this," she said after a moment, swallowing around her completely visible collar. "You're a lot different when you're not blushing and stammering every five seconds."

Hearing that surprised him, and it showed on his face. "Well, no one's one-dimensional. And religion is one of my greatest passions. ...So should I take that as a compliment?" he asked.

Well, she seemed to like the blushing and stammering side plenty, so maybe not, but he could hope.

"Yes. It's a compliment," she replied after a moment, the side of her mouth quirking up a little into a half-smile. "You're just too cute, Issei. Really. Hiding yourself in that closet like I wouldn't look there. I'm really not all that scary, you know."

Issei blushed, turning away from her again in a failed attempt to hide it. "At the time, you were very angry with me, and I didn't want to take chances. And I'm not cute."

"Oh yes. Angry barely covers it. So infuriated. I'm not very prone to violence, but that was the breaking point, I'm afraid."

She took another sip of her tea, almost done by now, and smiled quite hugely at his little resistance to her compliment. "Uh, yes. Yes you are. Anyone who says otherwise is blind."

"I'm sorry for that, really. I would have done the same thing had I known you were surrounded by crazy people, but still..." Issei sighed. Apologies were difficult when you wouldn't have changed what you did.

"And I am not! People keep saying that and it isn't true at all, so why do they keep saying it?!"

She leaned forward, not back down from this in the least, looking quite like someone who was going to win an argument, cocky about it, but fully capable of doing just that. She set her tea to the side, smirking. "Because it is true. You're fucking adorable, more so then most any of the other ducks I've met so far."

His face heated up even more at her words. "A-adorable is for small children, or kittens, or things like that," he stammered. "I really do think that you're exaggerating, Vanessa."

"No. I'm really not."

And to prove her point, she leaned across the way and gently rested the back of her hand over his cheeks, stroking them carefully. "You're so red. I can feel how hot your face is from over here, pretty much. You need to learn how to take a compliment, kiddo."

Not that she was any better at taking compliments herself. But that was neither here nor there.

Physical contact, red alert!

Issei squeaked and pushed his chair away from her. "D-d-don't say things like that! It's embarrassing, you know...!"

Why had he thought inviting her over was a good idea?

"How is it embarrassing?" she inquired, leaning back in her chair and watching him curiously. He was an interesting kid, she had to give him that much. But the smirk was still firmly planted on her face. "You're darling, really. One of the cutest boys I've ever met. And my school was huge."

Issei took in a few deep breaths now that the immediate danger had passed. "I don't want to hear people compliment me when I can't agree with them. It makes me feel as though I've - misled them, somehow. I can't see why everyone thinks I'm so cute, so..."

"Well, let's see here..." she trailed, tapping a finger to her chin and thinking. "You're a monk who was wrangled into stealing other people's shit in order to save one of your friends. You're self-aware of your orientation at an age where many people are not. You blush and stammer at most anything I've ever had to say to you. And, even after I physically abused you, you still said I could come stay in your temple for a few days if I needed it. You're a good kid."

Issei raised an eyebrow at her. "Aside from the blushing and stammering thing, I don't even know how most of those are supposed to be considered cute. I won't argue with being a 'good kid', although I think most anyone would have done what I did in order to save a friend."

"It's possible that my idea of cute is different from other people's ideas of cute, now isn't it?" she asked, leaning back and finishing off her tea. She sat still a moment, unsure of where to head the conversation now. "When did you realise you were gay anyway?"

He'd actually been asked this question earlier today, which made it easier to answer. "Technically, I did like one woman once. Briefly. That probably doesn't count enough, though."

Issei shrugged. "I've always interacted more with males than females, even at school. I had a few suspicions in middle school that I wasn't exactly typical in that regard, and confirmed it in high school by falling for my best friend."

She lifted an eyebrow at that. "Did you ever have any conflicting feelings on the matter?" She knew she had, had when she starting obsessing over Kashika, even when she took her home because Zara had won her as a raffle prize and gave her to Vanessa to take home for the night, even when Miss Kyle had to walk her through all the steps...she'd had conflicting feelings on the whole thing ever then. After she'd tried to get Kashika to run to the police and tell them everything since she couldn't do it herself without shocks...

He smiled and shook his head. "I never felt any pressure from my family to actually like girls, so no." He chuckled, remembering another of the strange facts about his religion. "Besides, we're Japanese Buddhist monks. Chigo used to be a fine upstanding tradition, much more than being involved with a woman was. I was lucky in this regard, then."

She lifted another eyebrow at that, pondering his words as he spoke. "You're a lucky bloke, then," she responded, thinking of how she'd cut ties with her family before they could make a huge, dramatic scene about it and disown her completely. "Chigo?"

"Older monks having romantic relationships with younger monks," Issei clarified. "Seen being beneficial to everyone involved. Religious history gets stranger the further you go back."

"How...young were these monks?" she asked, trying to suppress her disbelief at a religion that declared that to be an okay thing to partake in. If it was like the Greeks, underage boys being used by older men who had wives and children, she would be enraged beyond belief. As much as she was for people having sex whenever they were ready, the idea of an underage person of any sex being nearly forced into a sexual relationship—which was what she took the "romantic" part as, an assumption, but she thought it probably hit the mark—with an older person who was more than capable of manipulating someone whose brain wasn't fully formed yet...well. It left her quite predatory and unhappy.

"Late teenagerhood. The youngest monks weren't part of such relationships." Issei was just going by what he'd read, anyway. "Anyway, the practice was abolished before the 1800s. Ancient religions, by today's standards, can have kind of strange beliefs. It's not something I look into much."

Vanessa put the cup back in her hands so she'd have something to grasp. That was...well. She'd have to learn more first before she could just sit there and indulge her own sort of moral high ground. "And the older monks, how old were they?"

This was really starting to sound Greek to her.

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