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Ito Keiichi (伊藤慶一) ([info]keiito) wrote in [info]disappear_rpg,
@ 2010-01-10 00:54:00

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Entry tags:keiichi, kozue

WHO: Kozue and Keiichi
WHAT: Lots of discussion of things.
WHERE: Kozue's room, at a time when Kiriko is Not Present.
WHEN: Today!
WHY: Because it's long overdue?



Keiichi knocked on the door of his ex-girlfriend. As had become his wont lately, he had a small tray of cookies with him. With lots of time on his hands due to break, he filled it with baking. These cookies happened to be of the peanut butter variety.

"Kondo-san? It's me, Keiichi. I'm here."

Lots of time had passed, but Keiichi still felt a tad awkward around her. After all, his virginity was hers, and all that. Considering her reputation, one could be mistaken for assuming it was on a jar with the others she'd claimed.


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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-10 06:43 am UTC (link)
After a moment, the door opened; Kozue was shrugging a sweatshirt on, presumably because the air conditioner inside was on full blast. She looked perplexed, but not entirely displeased; that mood brightened as her eyes traveled from Keiichi to Keiichi's hands and the plate of cookies.

"Hey," a pause for a covetous glace to the cookies, "what's going on?"

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[info]keiito
2010-01-10 06:49 am UTC (link)
The cold air hit him like a blast of Bufu, and he shivered. "Cold in here," he observed, and mumbled something about how much he hated the cold. "Anyway, I brought cookies, because I've been baking most of the past week. Peanut butter. Feel free to share them with Ikeda-san if you like. Is she here?"

Looking around, it certainly seemed like the former team leader was not, in fact, present.

"Was thinking that we could talk. We've sort of tried a few times, and..." He waved his hands about in lieu of saying anything else.

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-10 06:51 am UTC (link)
Kozue shook her head. "She's out. I can… do you want to come in? If you bring cookies, I'm all about talking." Hopefully, the accompanying grin, just a bit goofy, would make it clear that she meant that as a joke. Mostly.

She'd told him she was happy to talk, but this was still an odd place to be; she'd never really been platonic friends with an ex before, or, for that matter, nearly anyone that she'd slept with. The two categories, friend and lover, were mutually exclusive for the most part. Keiichi was an oddity, but he was also a Persona User, which was another big check in the Oddity Column for anyone.

"I'll turn down the AC. I was napping."

Why she wanted to sleep in the aggressive cold was anyone's guess.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-10 06:58 am UTC (link)
"I can come in," he said, and he took a few steps into the room, handing her the tray of cookies. Rather than look for a chair, he continued to stand.

It was still definitely awkward, but awkward was something Keiichi had gotten better at thanks to Paradise. "So, how are things," he asked, somewhat hesitantly. "I've...sort of been out of the loop since Sonozaki-san's Paradise."

Mostly staying in his room and baking, really. "Cold can be nice when sleeping, I suppose. It's hot out and all, but too much cold reminds me of being in there."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-10 03:09 pm UTC (link)
"Yeah, but I just can't sleep when it's really hot," Kozue shrugged, taking the tray of cookies and casting about for somewhere to put them. She settled for her dresser, and took one, before dropping into a chair; it was, in fact, Kiriko's chair, but she was fairly sure that Kiriko would rather Kozue sit in her chair than Keiichi.

"Sit down if you'd like," she said, gesturing, and then, "Things are… well, calm, which is nice. Summer has been fun. What have you been doing? Are you holding up okay?"

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[info]keiito
2010-01-10 07:13 pm UTC (link)
Nodding, Keiichi took a seat in the room's spare chair. "I'm okay, for the most part. It's not so much fun to think about, but I'm trying to avoid such things. As for the summer, I've been...baking a lot, I guess. Haven't been getting out so much, so I've been trying to work on that."

Keiichi still felt somewhat self-conscious in here. "Other than that, trying to avoid drama related to my girlfriend. That's a full time job some days, you know."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-10 08:43 pm UTC (link)
Kozue nodded and tried to restrict herself to a polite sort of laugh. "Aoi-San does seem to gravitate... Or maybe it gravitates to her." She shrugged. Anything else might be too honest, and thus might bother Keiichi. She was still feeling out that particular boundary between them.

"I'd noticed there was something, but wasn't sure exactly how she was involved."

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[info]keiito
2010-01-10 11:03 pm UTC (link)
"I don't quite know the entire story either," he had to admit. "It involves Satou-senpai and Akuba-san, and I'm not sure I want to know. I *am* sure I don't want to be involved."

Suddenly, Keiichi's shoes seemed rather interesting for a moment or so. "It's...hard to say this, but sometimes I feel like I really like the person Misaki wants to be, or thinks she is, if that makes any sense. I don't even know why I'm telling you this. Probably because it makes me feel better to say it."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-11 03:37 am UTC (link)
Her brow furrowed; she would have said something sooner, but she'd taken a bite of cookie and needed to chew. She nodded. "I think I know what you mean," and she didn't press him, at the moment, to say the natural accompaniment to that statement. The thing implied--that he didn't always like the person that Misaki actually was.

Kozue was pleasantly surprised, actually. (Not that there was strife between the two of them, but that Keiichi was displaying more practical sense and observation than she could remember him to have had, when they dated.)

"Are things going well with her? I mean, if you think I shouldn't ask," she shrugged, "but if you want someone to talk about it with, well, I'm not an awful choice." After all, his male friends? Not exactly the global summit of expertise on girls and dating.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-11 02:04 pm UTC (link)
"If you don't mind," Ito-san replied. "It's sort of complicated, really."

Everything was sort of complicated around here, after all.

"Things with..she and I are pretty much okay, I think," Keiichi said, somewhat hesitantly. "It's not even so much our relationship that's the problem as it is...the way things have gone with Satou-senpai and Akuba-san lately. The way she deals with them...and the way she deals with me. I mean, it's one thing to treat people differently, but it's almost..."

"Bipolar" was the word he had in mind, but that was more than a little strong.

"She just gets very emotional sometimes. A lot more so than me, which is saying something," Keiichi offered, chuckling slightly. "I always thought Ikeda-san and you, to a lesser extent, were always too pragmatic and realistic. After this, I can appreciate that viewpoint a little more." He thought for a moment, and amended that. "Your version of it, anyway."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-11 03:43 pm UTC (link)
Kozue nodded; "I don't know, I think I'm probably more pragmatic than Kiriko-san, when it comes down to some things. But that's sort of a different question." She thumbed the second half of peanut butter cookie, and interjected, "These are really good, by the way," before continuing.

"She gets emotional and…" she made a guess from the latter half of Keiichi's statement, "idealistic? That sounds very Aoi-san. But then again, I know she threw a drink on Kanaye-senpai at my birthday, which surprised me when I heard it. And it hasn't gotten better since he and Akuba-senpai split?"

She paused, going back over what Keiichi had said in her mind; she looked thoughtful, and then, momentarily worried. "When you say, the way she deals with you… she isn't chucking cocktails at you, too, is she?"

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[info]keiito
2010-01-12 12:50 am UTC (link)
"Yeah, let's table the pragmatism discussion," Keiichi agreed. Getting into what bothered him about Ikeda-san was likely a bad idea, considering she and Kozue were roommates and seemed to get along fabulously. "And thanks. I do try."

He rubbed his chin in thought for a moment. "Idealistic, yes, but that wasn't really what I was going for. When she's upset at people...the whole cute and sweet thing sort of vanishes. It's mildly worrying." More than mildly, if he thought of it, overall.

His face screwed up in concentration for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to put this NEXT bit. All of the thinking about what was supposed to be a nice fun relationship probably wasn't good.

"No, she's not," he replied. "That's the problem. She's affectionate and caring with me...but I don't see how you can go from one extreme to the other so quickly and easily."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-12 02:01 am UTC (link)
Kozue tipped her head, wishing she had ever learned to raise just one eyebrow. But she'd no luck there. "She just…" She gestured again with the cookie. "Snap. Boom. Drink throw?" And stab, of course?

"You know, I'm sure this is uncharitable and probably against the new rules or something like that, but, it's not entirely unexpected, given what we saw from her in Paradise."

She dry-swallowed and waited for either a nakama speech or hearty, hearty disapproval.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-12 02:29 pm UTC (link)
"It's not like I like Satou-senpai that much, but I wouldn't throw a drink at him. I wouldn't throw a drink at *Shirai-san*, let alone Satou."

He sighed at Kozue's latest proclamation. "It's not...unexpected, I suppose, but it is in a way." He lowered his voice, just in case anyone might be listening in. "Paradise shows us exaggerated versions of people. Like, Toru's not REALLY a completely perverse hikkomori tentacle creature. Misaki's not a vindictive embittered slut who wants to either sexually assault or murder us all."

Trying not to flail visibly, Keiichi sighed an octave lower. "...I somehow feel worse after putting it that way."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-12 04:32 pm UTC (link)
Kozue chose to finish the cookie in hand rather than laugh; after chewing, she had a handle on herself enough to comment without sounding ridiculously amused. "Surprising that that's her other self, considering present company."

She still smirked a bit; and maybe the joke would make Keiichi feel a bit less guilty about saying that about his girlfriend. (And if it made him feel worse, well, Misaki was repressing a psychotic embittered slut and serial murderer. Apparently.) "You're right. I think it's sort of… I don't know if it's exaggerated versions of their worst qualities as a person, or just of their negative feelings," she stopped and picked up another cookie off the plate, "or, I don't know, sometimes it's tough to make sense of. It's not the real person, but that doesn't mean it's not part of them."

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[info]keiito
2010-01-13 12:39 am UTC (link)
"I still don't quite believe all those rumors, you know. Silly though that sounds..." Keiichi cocked his head to one side, and shrugged.

"Whatever it is...it makes things awkward. And confusing for me to try and deal with. It's...odd being on the other side of the relationship where your partner's more into you than you are."

That, of course, brought something back to mind, and Keiichi winced, instinctively curling up a bit where he sat.

"About that..." He paused, and winced again. "The whole "I love you" thing. I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." His voice trailed off again, and he looked rather guilty.

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-13 01:22 am UTC (link)
"Ah." She looked down, knowing what he meant—about being the one who wanted it less, and the one who cared less. It was, after all, her policy. It was the easiest way to go about things, she knew, because she'd always be the one who hurt less.

At least, it made sense that way.

It didn't mean she was the less awkward one, unfortunately enough. "I think the, uh, what do you call it, there's a law word." She waved a hand, and then gave up in a bit of exasperation. "The expiration date is up. As far as how I feel… you don't need to apologize to me." Was that a too-brusque way of saying I've long since moved on? She shook her head. "It's good to know you didn't really mean it that much."

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[info]keiito
2010-01-13 10:03 pm UTC (link)
"I'm not so good with law stuff," he admitted, "so I'll take your word for it."

The conversation was awkward as it stood. It was unlikely it would get anymore so, so why not continue?

"I did like you though," Keiichi said. "Quite a bit. It was probably in part because of the practicality, probably in part because..."

There were certain admissions that hurt to make. There were also certain ones you didn't *know* would hurt until you made them.

"Because I never thought someone as pretty as you would give me the time of day." Such a statement, he knew, needed clarification. "Before the team, I was sort of..in my own bubble, I guess? I went to Cooking Club first year, and did my work and everything. I had friends, but I didn't really know that many people at all."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-17 05:23 pm UTC (link)
Kozue's brow furrowed slightly, and she entertained a few brief possibilities for answering without running completely roughshod across his feelings. They weren't dating any more, after all—there was no need to be recklessly cruel to fight for distance, or force a break. The breaking had happened.

"Well, you were wrong about that," she smiled, trying for … well, encouraging? She wasn't sure of the precise mood. "I mean, me," she pointed, "and Aoi-san, and she's totally top level in the whole first year." Her smile tilted some, becoming a bit like a smirk; good job, Keiichi? Kind of. "Well, both of us. You should give yourself more credit."

And the admission that he'd liked her a lot? That could… that could stay. The honest answer was I liked you okay and you were a novelty which was most of the reason I went for you anyway and there was no reason to tell him that, but Kozue couldn't think of a good enough lie to put in its place.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-17 07:31 pm UTC (link)
"It's...I don't know," Keiichi said, grimacing slightly. "Every now and then I hear it in the halls."

Way to go, Ito-san! He'd heard it from dozens of his fellow second years, and seen the jealous looks from first years. He ignored it, mostly. "I somehow think I'd get less of it if they saw what Aoi-san can be like when she gets angry or upset. Still. It wasn't even that, really. It was more the team as a whole. Having a real social life...took some getting used to."

Understatement, that bit. Cooking Club did not a social life make.

"I think things are pretty good now, though. With the exception of trying to figure out how to make sure things are okay with Aoi-san, but..."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-19 02:21 am UTC (link)
"Well, there are some good things that've come out of this whole…" she twisted her hand and went for another cookie, before checking herself. How many had she eaten? Damn, but she couldn't remember, and now she knew she'd just end up overstuffing herself and looking like a pig, and… she dropped her hand onto the desk.

It did seem like a simply good thing to Kozue; having a social life was an uncomplicated boon.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-19 02:55 am UTC (link)
"There are, yes," he had to admit. "For the most part, you guys are great. There are notable exceptions, of course, such as Shirai-san and Satou-senpai, but..."

They were a team, in a loose sense of the word, albeit getting closer as time went on. A team constantly under threat. As best he could tell, the only Paradise victims of late save Aomori-sensei had been...them.

"I'm glad you like the cookies," Keiichi observed. "I still don't think Sonozaki-san ate the ones I brought her."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-19 02:59 am UTC (link)
"They're great," Kozue said, eying them and wishing for another; surely one more cookie wouldn't be the difference between model-skinny and pig-fat. Right?

"Thank you. And… You know, Satou-senpai isn't as horrible as I used to think he was, he's just really sensitive. Kind of like a little boy who drinks too much." If that wasn't damning him with faint praise, well… "It's probably not easy for everyone to sympathize with him." She inched her hand closer to the plate. One more cookie. Just one more.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-19 03:06 am UTC (link)
"Probably not, no. I haven't actually had that much alcohol, not even at your party, so..."

Keiichi watched her hand creeping towards the cookie, and he chuckled. "Go ahead, eat it. I hate to be a killjoy, but we spend a good chunk of our fair time in mortal danger. I find it hard to deny myself yummy things in such situations."

Unspoken was the "you are rail thin and do not need to worry."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-19 03:11 am UTC (link)
"It would be a waste if we had to go into Paradise to get someone and I didn't get to eat them all," she mused, justifying it to herself. "And Kiriko-san might steal them while I wasn't looking, too…"

Kozue had no doubt of that fact. No doubt at all. She reached out and took another cookie from the plate. "Oh. Would you like one? Here I am, stuffing my face, and..." She grinned.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-19 03:24 am UTC (link)
"I am on board with this reasoning," Keiichi agreed. "These are cookies for you. No Kirikos allowed."

Ito shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He really was trying to avoid the topic of Ikeda-san, but it kept rising to the front.

Nodding, he reached across and took a cookie. "Thank you." He took a bite, and smiled in satisfaction. "These are pretty good. Maybe I'm getting better."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-19 05:19 pm UTC (link)
Kozue laughed, and crunched down on the cookie. "Okay, I can get behind that plan. I'll hide them. Or finish them all."

In the name of keeping all the peanut butter goodness to herself, she could definitely get behind eating more cookies. Just a few more. Maybe just the entire plate more.

In a moment of generosity inspired by Keiichi's tacit point that she wasn't fat and could go ahead and eat cookies to her heart's content, sans judgement, Kozue continued, veering off the topic of Ikeda (mostly). "It's better that we stopped dating sooner—it's not like it could have worked between us in the long run." Oh, that sounded ungenerous, um, oops; Kozue rushed to continue. "I mean, since I'm not allowed to choose a long term relationship for myself anyway, and you're a good guy. That seems like what you want."

It still came out all garbled--why did all her attempts at goodness end up self-centered and fragmentary? Ugh. She bit into her cookie in frustration. Stupid words.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-19 08:33 pm UTC (link)
Keiichi's eyebrow cocked in what best could be described as confusion. "What do you mean, you don't get to choose?"

He still looked confused, really. The entire concept of arranged marriage had been one of those things tangent to his mind even when introduced in Ikeda-san's dungeon. It was 2013, for crying out loud. Such things didn't still exist, right?

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-19 08:49 pm UTC (link)
It was her turn to raise an eyebrow; it wasn't obvious? Especially after Kiriko's entire turn around the block with the concept, she'd have thought anyone who was from Japan, at least, would have a basic familiarity with the idea.

"I'm having an omiai after I graduate?" She offered, her voice rising into a question at the end even though she'd not meant it in an interrogative case. It was a statement, not a guess or a question or a theory, after all. It was fact.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-20 12:32 am UTC (link)
"Oh." Keiichi had never really known anyone who had, except for Ikeda-san. The entire concept bothered him.

"Part of me wonders why people still do it," he admitted. It was perhaps a bit insensitive, but Keiichi was little if not honest. "It seems to create a lot of issues, if what we saw in Paradise with Ikeda-san was any indication."

Keiichi was generally not a fan of things that forced people's hands on matters. This, probably, explained his lack of belief in most religion, though he did have a passing interest in Shinto that he really should have been paying more attention to.

"Is your family forcing you into it, too," he asked, figuring the answer to the question was somewhat obvious, but he wanted to make sure.

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-20 01:13 am UTC (link)
"Relationships that people get into all on their own cause issues too," Kozue responded, "like we saw in Paradise with Akuba-senpai and Aoi-san." Was that a bit much--a bit of a fast, defensive response? She shrugged, as if to divorce herself from the immediate defensiveness. "And the Ikeda family was…well, they didn't handle things very traditionally, from what I saw, although I don't think it's my place to talk much beyond that." For one thing, engaging their fifteen year old daughter was a bit much. Even in the house Kozue was raised in, that was a bit much.

"Forcing is a strong word," although it was an accurate one, though she didn't particularly want to admit it, "but yes, that's what my family has decided for me."

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[info]keiito
2010-01-20 01:56 am UTC (link)
"They do. Believe me, right now, I'm sympathetic to relationships causing problems." He chuckled a bit, but then frowned almost as quickly.

"But they're *my* problems, you know? Aoi and Akuba have their problems because of their own decisions, not someone else's..."

The frown remained on Keiichi's face. "You deserve better than to have someone else make a decision like for you."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-20 03:13 am UTC (link)
She shrugged again. "But that's the way it's going to be—I get some say in it, you know, it's not entirely my grandmother running the show like in some horrible movie."

She turned and looked at her desk; "I think that's one of the reasons people feel so weird about it; they don't know how it actually works."

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[info]keiito
2010-01-20 03:17 am UTC (link)
Keiichi had a question on the tip of his tongue, but the least he could do was, you know, wait.

"How does it work, then," he asked, trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice, directed far more at her grandmother than at her.

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-20 03:27 am UTC (link)
"We'll… hire an intermediary, and my grandmother will compile a list of interested candidates with acceptable backgrounds and credentials, and I get to go through all of them with her and tell her what I think. Any of them we all like, we get to meet—that's actually the miai part—and then we see which families work best together, and..." She waved her hand a little. The rest should be obvious.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-20 04:39 am UTC (link)
"So it's like a...job search," Keiichi reasoned. "Though, what do you mean by "acceptable credentials?"

Really, as practical as Paradise had made Keiichi in many areas, he was still about as naive in equally many.

"It seems like a lot of work," he continued. "And it sort of assumes the whole "you wanting to be married" thing."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-21 12:38 am UTC (link)
"I wouldn't be doing all the work, I kind of get to sit back and relax," she said, leaning backward just to illustrate the point. "And credentials like his family and his ancestry, his career and what kind of advancement he's expecting, health profiles, personality, what he's looking for—I mean, pretty much what you'd expect."

She avoided saying that it was very much like a job search, indeed. "And I don't mind the idea of getting married right out of high school. It'd be better than going back home to live."

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[info]keiito
2010-01-21 03:41 pm UTC (link)
Keiichi thought about this for a moment. "That sounds...really complicated," he said, face screwing up in concentration.

It had been a...rather dizzying list of factors, all told. But one thing bothered him.

"It's sort of...why did you mention personality so late," Keiichi asked, the look on his face now somewhat sheepish, as if he was expecting to be given a "you are SUCH a dunderhead" look for his questions. "Health profiles and career seem important, I guess, but family and ancestry? What does any of that matter? Isn't personality most important? I mean, you have to live with him for the rest of your life and all."

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-21 05:31 pm UTC (link)
"I guess you haven't heard much about my grandmother," was Kozue's only reply. Keiichi was lucky that he didn't know, maybe—it seemed like the concern over what percentage Japanese her great-grandchildren were would rub Ito the wrong way. But maybe that was just Kozue guessing. She frowned slightly.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-21 08:29 pm UTC (link)
Again, he paused, trying to reason her way through everything. "Not really, no," he admitted. "We didn't really speak about our families much when we were...you know."

Something came to his mind at that moment. "Are you from an older, wealthier family? "Aristocrat" probably isn't the right word, but...like that? I know in history they usually used arranged marriages more than other groups."

He often forgot just how much money it took to get into Nanakamado unless you were on scholarship. Between a combination of his own scholarship, and subsequent hiring of his father to work as gym teacher (and a few backroom deals related to that), his room and board and tuition were virtually entirely covered. A good chunk of the school was beyond simply wealthy.

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-21 09:01 pm UTC (link)
Kozue nodded; "You didn't know that? I--well, there's no way I'd have gotten in here on merit. I mean, come on. My family has been old money in Iburi for generations. I think I was related to someone in the first graduating class of Nanakamado or something," she added, with a thoughtful look upwards. Like, a couple-greats uncle or something?

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[info]keiito
2010-01-21 09:14 pm UTC (link)
"My family hasn't even been on Hokkaido for fifteen years," Keiichi replied. "Sort of puts things into perspective."

As did the whole discussion, really.

"I'm one-eighth American," he said. "My great-grandfather on Dad's side was born in California. Even if we'd...not have fallen on our faces due to me being an idiot.."

He left the "I wouldn't be good enough" unspoken.

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-21 09:32 pm UTC (link)
"Oh, I didn't know…" If it hadn't been rude, Kozue would have started squinting right there, trying to pick the American-ness out of his features. But people had done that to her (more times than she liked to count or recall) and wouldn't inflict it on anyone else.

She shook her head instead. "She'd have lost it if she found out we were even dating, in that case. I mean, the explicit reason my brother and I are having miai instead of romantic marriages is so that she ends up with a family line that's less mixed, not more so. She wants one-eighth great-grandchildren and… Well, she's very detailed about it."

Detailed like the day that Kondo Fumiko had explained that her soul would find no rest until her family line had expunged the Western blood to no more than one percent—1/128th American or less—and until then she would suffer constantly in some version of naraka that Fumiko had made up specifically for the purpose of cowing her family members. (Kozue had only recently become aware of the fact that the Hell of A Million Betraying Children was, in fact, not real.)

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[info]keiito
2010-01-21 09:43 pm UTC (link)
"That's..." More dots ensued from there. "Forgive me for putting this bluntly, and I know I am, but why does she care? What actual difference does it make to her if your husband is Japanese or American or Chinese or Arabic?"

Keiichi looked some combination of annoyed, confused, and feeling like he was missing a justification for this.

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[info]anthesphoria
2010-01-21 09:48 pm UTC (link)
Kozue shrugged and picked up another cookie. "I don't know. I never asked."

The words were blunt, too, quickly said, as if they had just strayed from uncomfortable into entirely forbidden territory. She bit down and chewed and tried to look far, far less tense than she felt.

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[info]keiito
2010-01-21 09:59 pm UTC (link)
That, it seemed, was as good an excuse as any for Keiichi to vacate the premises. She seemed perturbed, somehow, and her chewing looked annoyed and uncomfortable.

"Sorry for bringing it up," he said, immediately, rising to his feet. "Enjoy the cookies. I'll see you soon."

With that, he was up and out of the room in a rather Tom like fashion.

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