[Jaykobell]

The amount of willpower it took for Cristobal not to roll his eyes at her supposedly "not crying" was quite astounding.

But the amount of willpower it took not to facepalm at her next words was far too demanding, so the deliveryman just let himself do just that. The words, they were so astounding that he had no idea how to react to them. So many things were going through his head, like yes, why had he done all those things, like getting beaten up for her? Maybe he actually had values, hell, maybe he'd learned the meaning of the word care that night and had decided to apply it in practice. Even he didn't know: doing such things for someone else had never crossed his mind, so him actually doing those things was quite surprising, even to himself.

"Okay, fine, you're not a freaking stalker, all right?" Now hopefully that would have Kyrie stop the whole self-moaning just long enough for him to try to find a suitable synonym. "What I meant was that you're overwhelming," he continued after, trying to put emphasis on what mattered and what he wanted her to hear. "Listen, no one's paid attention to me, okay? And then you show up in my life and you make a scene out of some stupid kid plucking a feather from me. What, you think it never happened?" If he got a single cent out of how many times someone had plucked a feather from him, mark his words that he would've been rich by now. "But you went out of your way to be so freaking... freaking sorry about it." There wasn't even a word that he could think of to explain how she'd seemed to him, and now certainly wasn't the right time to look in the dictionary. "And then you offered your dressing room to me, you offered food, you offered even drinks. Who the hell does that?" With the last part being a legit question: who really did do that? "And then you wanted to drive me home? And then now you're still going. You're... You're just smothering me. Is that better than stalker? I can't get into any more details than this!" There really wasn't any other way for him to explain how stressed out he felt towards her actions. It was going from literally nothing to way too saturated in one go, and he just couldn't handle that.

"I don't... I can't have any relationships, okay?" he eventually added, something akin to anxiety slipping through his angry and judgemental tone. "Have you been keeping track of how many times I've made you cry already? Okay, you think I'm fit to be your buddy or whatever else you want us to be?" Just imagine how sick she would get of him after a while. He was nasty. He was unpleasant. He was bitter. He wasn't anything nice to hang around with. Maybe with a bottle of alcohol thrown into the mix, but even then it took a lot of it to finally call him tolerable. "So why do you even care? I'm an ass, so why are you even taking my words seriously?" Which was, again, a very legit question to ask. Why care for someone who obviously didn't?

"And why I did all those things? I don't even know. Maybe subconsciously I did the whole caring thing too, I don't even know." When he sometimes thought back to that night, he did wonder why people couldn't be... more that way. Not so much judgemental jerks who thought they could lead and ruin his life however they wanted without his say on the matter. Why people couldn't care like Kyrie had, even if just for one single night. Oh, he had wondered, and maybe he'd felt like he somehow owed it to her to do something nice in return. "I have a conscience or whatever the hell you want to call it," he eventually continued, though the answer wasn't even that certain despite the short pause to think about it. "Just tell yourself whatever. I did it, that's that, it wasn't because I hate you, because if I did, trust me when I say I woud've spread that story instead of halting it. Trust me." Cristobal was certainly capable of pulling nasty stuff if he hated someone, and let's just say that it happened a lot, especially recently.

"Okay, was that everything? I can't even keep track of everything we're talking about anymore," he admitted, holding his head a little from the headache that was starting to creep up on him. "You're not a source of pain, or... whatever you called yourself." Holding a very deep and extensive conversation also wasn't something Cristobal was very good at. Lack of practice and a very deep lack of acquaintances to pull it off with.

[Kallile]

Kyrie did just that at first; she listened as if her life depended on it and tried very hard not to get caught off guard again and instead pay attention to all of what he was saying. And the way he put things…wow, she really did sound like a stalker. She shook her head and waited for a few second to make sure he was done talking. “I…didn’t mean to come off so strongly to you. It’s just…that is how I show my affection. I want to share all that I have with people close to me or who deserve it. When I saw you bleeding and hurt on my account because I made you wait while I inspected the package, well, I honestly did feel bad. You wouldn’t have gotten hurt if it hadn’t been for m keeping you there and I just wanted to make you as comfortable as possible while you had to wait on me. I never meant  to smother you…I just like to be there for my friends. It’s what I do…so I guess I can’t really be too sorry for it. But I didn’t ever mean to make you feel the way you do now.”

She honestly didn’t. She had wanted this whole thing to do exactly the opposite direction of where they found themselves right now. She found herself smiling just the tiniest bit at his next statement, something she hadn’t been meaning to do on purpose. “I know, too many since we’ve met. But…none of it has been just you. It’s all been a reality check for me, I guess is the best way to put it. I am so surrounded by people who only see me as a model or as some…free ride by being friends with me that no one ever says anything negative. There are tabloids and things, sure, but those are all articles. I read them; there’s no face or voice or even a real single person that I’m disappointing other than the writer. I don’t cry because of you, not really, I cry because you remind me that I’m not as strong as everyone makes me feel like I am. I get my feelings hurt and yes it is childish…but it is how I cope with it. It doesn’t mean I would just give up on trying to do better; do you think I would have still been standing here if I was really going to be shaken by a few waterworks? Maybe that’s just me exercising a lot of stupidity…but I don’t blame you for my tears. It’s actually…refreshing to hear how I really come off to people.” So far she had gotten quite the earful about how she came off and she didn’t like any of it. But even though it had initially hurt her ego she could turn it into constructive criticism once she was a little removed from the raw emotion of all this.

The smile that found itself on her face next was genuinely meant to be there, and Kyrie looked at Cristobal and his beaten face with renewed sense of what he had been trying to tell her all along. He had done this all for her, to try and repay her for that night. He had sacrificed nearly everything for someone he had barely even known. “Cristobal…I should have listened more carefully the first time. But since I didn’t I hope it’s not too late to say it now.” She knew that realistically it was far too late to try and go back beyond the tears and the little breakdown about being seen as a stalker to him. That time to be truly sincere had passed, but she hoped it wasn’t too late for it to just mean something. Anything. Even if it just meant that she was a jerk who hadn’t really opened her ears to what he was telling her. “That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. No one would have ever dreamt of going so far out of the way to try and protect me like that. And if I knew how to properly repay you I would, but so far I haven’t been the best at fulfilling the nice things I want for you. But really…thank you. For everything.”

Her smile faded and she nodded to him slightly. “I think that was everything.” She paused and thought a moment; there was no good way to end things and she had already taken up a sizable chunk of his time to get all this off her chest…his too. “If things aren’t completely ruined between us…I’d still like to just meet and talk someday. Somewhere you like—I won’t drive you home or be...smothering to the best of my abilities. If you don’t ever want to, that’s fine too. I’ll do my best not to be so enthusiastic with my desire to be caring and friendly if you will just…think about it.”

The look on her face told that she was still stewing and thinking over the things he had just unloaded onto her, though she at least looked more at peace now even if she was a little puffy-eyed from the bought of tears. “I didn’t mean to take up so much of your day. Unless I need to meet the deliveryman who will be taking care of things I’ll let you get back to work…” She really didn’t want to leave yet, not with all the tension still so fresh in her mind. But what could she do? She had just promised him that she would do her best to be less smothering and she wasn’t going to accomplish that by sitting across a desk and staring at him until they both had warm and fuzzy feelings about one another.