Cooler Than Ice [Avery, Jet]

One thing that had been on Scarlett's mind for quite a while had been how much time she hadn't been spending doing the things she really wanted to do. Perhaps it was her own fault for deciding to spend most of the winter break studying and doing typical things that the anxious girl often did normally. Although these times, there were significantly less people around, a fact that actually calmed the redhead considerably. But again, while she was studying, there was something in the back of her mind that was bothering her. And that fact was, of course, that she wasn't spending the time with some of the people she wanted to the most. Warren and Jet were off at home, doing whatever it is that the two boys did with their family, so she had the dorm to herself for the most part. And she had no idea where Avy was during that time, but she figured that she was at home as well. Not wanting to bother them wile they enjoyed their families, the redhead endured the solitude.

But that was all going to change, Scarlett hoped. People began to return back from winter break. And so, while she still had the dorm all to herself, she decided to reach out, hoping that Avery was back at the academy. It was a text that she sent, something deceptively simple for how long she stood and stared at her scroll while typing it. After re-write and re-write, she finally got a draft that she was content with.

[Hey, Avy. I'm alone at my dorm if you wanna come over. Room ###]

The main problem being that Scarlett wasn't content with what she sent, immediately regretting the content of the message. Was it too casual? Was she too formal? Should she have offered ideas for them to do, even? The entire situation spiraled out of control way further than she could have ever anticipated. While she waited for a reply - or simply the blonde possibly showing up - she began to get ready for her social meet-up or whatever strange thing that the girl would call such a thing. She went to the dorm's mini fridge, grabbing out a few of the snacks that the trio of dormmates had left over. Scarlett didn't eat them as she didn't want her figure to get worse. She wasn't the skinniest already and was always worried that eating too much would just make her too overweight. And so, she didn't eat much. Other than candy, that could do no wrong.

With some basic set-up done, including straightening up and hiding the various books she studied from into her desk, she waited for some sort of reply. That is, until she would eventually get bored and begin reading something. But that's just a typical hour in the life of Scarlett, really.

Jet was finaly back. Airship was delayed and because of it he missed the boarding of the bullhead that would have brought him to the school. So as a result, he was stuck in Bellmuse for a while waiting for the next one. He decided to walk around town and check the shops before grabbing a snack. He actually saw a cat for sale at the market but it was crazy expensive. The owner of the pet shop said it was special and that made Jet wonder what was special about it other than the moon shaped spot of fur on its forehead. He didn’t ask though, he couldn’t afford it anyway and he didn’t know how his roommates would react to a cat. Maybe one of them was allergic? He took the time to play a bit with the cat by tapping the window, thinking of the late Schrödinger who passed away just before he got home. That was a sad moment, but then again the cat was very old so it was expected.

Trailing his luggage behind him with his semblance, he then went to grab some food and passed a donut place on his way to the airship landing platform. He went in and grabbed a box of twelve with a smile. Not even once did he think of the fact that even with Scarlett and Warren, twelve might be a lot. Those were the kind of details he actively ignored because to him there is no such thing as overkill.

A short Bullhead trip later and he was at his dorm room’s door. He knocked first; making sure that anyone inside had the time to yell if they were not decent or something, then used his scroll to unlock the door and enter with a wide and exaggerated gesture, his luggage dutifully trailing behind.

“Surprise!!! I’m back!! And I bring donuts!” Jet opened the box toward Scarlett with a big 1000 Watt smile. While talking, his small bag of luggage rolled itself on the floor to the foot of his bed, visibly being pulled by the zipper with his semblance. Looking around, he realised Warren wasn’t there. “Huh? I would have thought Warren would be back by now. Oh well.”

Jet dropped the donut box on the desk by Scarlett, taking one for himself – chocolate glazed Boston cream. “I didn’t know what either of you liked so I mixed it up. Eat the whole thing if you want, Warren just had to be here if he wanted some!” Sitting on his bed and eating his donut with gusto, he turned back toward Scarlett. “So! What’s up? Anything interesting happened while I was gone?”

[Hey, Avy. I'm alone at my dorm if you wanna come over.]

What does that even mean?! Avery screamed internally as she stared hard at her phone, overanalyzing the message behind the cryptic text. Realizing this was not the time to look stupid, she hopped off the bed and walked to her closet, shuffling through her clothes. What do I even wear? Jeans? Dress? Lace? M-maybe.. silk? Her cheeks flushed, kicking those thoughts out of her head and in the end settled with a casual attire of a white top, skinnies and heeled boots.
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The loud screeching sound of burning tires roared in the front gate of the academy as the black motorcycle ravaged forward in blinding speed, passing everyone in a blink of an eye and made its way to the dormitory. The driver made a sharp turn, inclining sideward for momentum and sped off inside the building itself. It ran up the stairs, across the hallway and finally halting with a loud noise outside the room... in time to see a guy walking inside.

Avery took out her phone to check if she got the room number right, and she did. Weird. She placed a hand on the door before it closed and made her way inside. There was the sight of the redhead that brought a small smile on her face but then a bug caught her eye. She grabbed Scarlett and dragged the girl behind her before turning to the stranger. She folded her arms and shifted her weight to one leg.

"I'm not sure if you realized, Scar, but there's a weird man standing creepily in your room," Avery said nonchalantly, eyes shifting to the guy with sunglasses. Sunnies inside a room. How tacky. Not even a single word of exchange and she already didn't like him.

Avery slid her scarf off and removed her coat, casually hanging both on the rack near the door. It was a simple act but her way of showing her gun holster strapped on her thigh. "Well, you can't possibly be friends with such a shady guy, right? Which means he's a stalker or something. You should've told me sooner. I'm good at cleaning those up," she said with a shrug as she reached for her gun.

Ah, she was here! Scarlett smiled as she heard the light knock on her door, beginning to stand from her seat. This certainly was an exciting time, the first time she's ever had a friend over to her dorms. It was making her giddy just to think about it. But before she could even lift herself from the chair, the door began to open, "Wait, did I leave it unlocked..?" As the redhead mused, it was soon quite apparent that the person entering their dorm wasn't who she expected. Instead, her roommate entered with a wide smile on his face, "J-jet!" Rubbing the back of her head awkwardly, she wasn't sure what to say, "Hey, I didn't expect you back so soon..." she used as an excuse.

Well, he wasn't Avy, but that didn't mean Scarlett didn't enjoy seeing the dark-haired young man. On the contrary, after having the dormitory all to herself for the past week or two made the girl appreciate both he and Warren even more than she had before. However, Jet being here somewhat put a wrench into her plans. If she knew he was going to be here then she probably wouldn't have invited the blonde over in the first place as there would be no need to. But that thought made the redhead feel a bit of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach for whatever reason, "Ehehe... G-good to see you again!" She said, almost as if she were trying to hide something, "Erm... thanks for the donuts, but really nothing has been happening. With Warren gone as well, it was mostly me here alone." With that admittance, she moved a hand to awkwardly rub her shoulder. "I, erm... had actually just invited a friend-"

Before she could even finish that statement, her eyes finally fell upon the blonde girl. Walking in and not looking too happy, Scarlett swallowed hard, "Avy..." Almost as if she were a child having been caught trying to steal from the cookie jar, she felt guilty. But she didn't have time to linger on those feelings as Avery grabbed the redhead and rolled her - and her chair - behind the blonde for protection. It would have been a really sweet thing to Scarlett if she weren't afraid that her roommate and friend were gonna get into a fight.

Immediately, Scarlett's eyes widened in shock, "N-n-no!" she stuttered out. Bringing up her hands, she waved them back and forth while showing her palms, trying to convey that everything was alright, "A-avy no, he's not a creep, he's mine and Warren's other roommate." Attempting to explain, she let out a soft sigh, her gaze lowering as she decided to confess and come clean, "Jet just came back from winter break and... well, I didn't expect him back... sorry that I said I was alone..."

But perhaps good could come from this situation? Perhaps the two coolest people in the world - and two of her closest friends - could become friends themselves? That would be wonderful and gave Scarlett hope that perhaps the situation was quite fortunate? "Erm, but anyways, it's fine... we can still... hang out, if you're fine with that. It's been a while since I've seen both of you, so I'd really like that~" While she attempts to put on a playful tone, it's still quite obvious that she's nervous about the two of them meeting.

Jet was actually quite happy of the surprise showing on Scarlett’s face. He liked surprises, but he liked surprising people even more! It was in his nature, couldn’t fight that. If he had the chance to, say, get home a little early to surprise his friends and roommates, who was he to pass such a golden occasion! Her reaction was also exceedingly adorable; just like pretty much everything she does to be honest.

Scarlett did seem a bit more nervous than usual. Jet was usually good at reading body language but he never really assumed anything from it, because he was wrong often too. He didn’t try to read too much into it but from her reaction, the red-head looked like she was debating something, like Jet actually caught her off-guard… That or she had to go to the bathroom, both where valid possibilities.

He found it a bit sad thinking of the girl alone in the room. Jet realised he never really asked about her family so he didn’t know if she had no one to go to for the holidays. He was actually about to comment about it when Scarlett mentioned having invited a friend over, or at least start mentioning it before a blonde girl stormed in and quickly placed herself between the two roommates. The girl was pretty, Jet noticed – which red-blooded male wouldn’t notice pretty girls? – but that didn’t change the fact that she called him a creep. When she reached for her gun, Jet was quick to get up, his hands in the air, pretty confused about all that was happening.

In his confusion, before Scarlett had time to say anything, Jet did the first thing he could think of. Looking at Avery, he slowly reached to the side, picking the box of donuts and presenting it to Avery with an awkward smile. “Ehm… Donuts?”

After Scarlett managed to explain the situation, Jet had to fight off a laugh, not wanting to set the blonde girl off again. The situation was still pretty funny all in all so he still ended up smiling. Placing the box down, he turned to Avery and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you. So as she said, I’m Jet and I’m her roommate. As for hanging out, of course I’m fine with that! Any friend of Scarlett is a friend of mine!”

Huh? The weird creep was actually Scarlett's roommate? So Avery might have mistaken him for a stalker because of the sunglasses getup but that was due the redhead texting her earlier that she was alone in the dorm only for Av to arrive and see a random guy in the room. Now that she looked at him again, he didn't seem to be a threat. In fact, he was pretty harmless with the way he offered the donut. He was dressed decently as well.

"Fine. Only because Scar said so," Avery responded as she abandoned the idea of drawing out her gun and instead took the sanitizer from her pocket and applied some in her hands. Giving the girl behind her some as well, she proceeded to the box of donuts and helped herself to the chocolate glazed treats. Much to her displeasure, her eating was promptly halted by the guy introducing himself as Jet.

Avery stared at the extended hand, then looked up at him. "Likewise," she said simply and walked away to settle on the couch. It's not like she had anything against the guy; he was decent so far. But the whole handshake thing, yeah, she didn't do things like that.

"By the way, I brought drinks and chips but not much since I thought it's only the two of us," She got up to leave the room briefly and returned with a plastic bag in hand which she took from her bike outside. It contained four cans of soda and three bags of chips which she placed on the table.

"So how did you two meet?"

The tension in the room was thick, Scar watching the two interact and just waiting for one of them to make the first move. Swallowing hard, the redhead's eyes glance back and forth between Avery's back and the expression on Jet's face. She knew that they were just a few wrong things said or done before their room became a zone for a shoot out. And Scar didn't think that Warren or the school would appreciate coming around to see the room completely destroyed. And who knows what would come from that? The redhead might have to move to a different dorm and be with people that she didn't know. Or even worse, get expelled from Syne and never see her friends again!

Biting down on her bottom lip, Scar waited with bated breath as the two figured out what they were gonna do. And she let out the largest sigh of relief that she ever had before when Jet simply offered the protective girl donuts. Accepting the 'offered' hand sanitizer, Scarlett believed that meant that the blonde no longer wanted to fight. She smiled softly at Jet, silently thanking him for not being aggressive to her other friend.

Scooting up her rolling chair, she moved to the side of the couch that Avery had decided to sit down on, waiting for a moment as Avery left and reentered the room. After a moment of consideration, "Oh it's alright... I already had plenty of things for us to eat and such so... you can help yourself." The redhead stated, motioning to the mini fridge they had. Giving a quick glance to Avery once again, she spoke without thinking, "You look really nice..." she said, admiring the outfit she had decided to wear.

Not letting the moment linger, she hummed, considering Avery's question, "Well, it's... pretty much what you'd expect, I think? We were assigned the room together along with Warren. Honestly..." Licking her lips, she paused, trying to figure out what to say. Rubbing the back of her head awkwardly, "I, erm... was kind've nervous at first, but he's actually really nice and friendly~ Anyways, we've been roommates ever since the first day, I think."

Jet actually realised he was preventing the blonde girl from eating by asking for a handshake. Still, he didn’t know what to take of her cleaning her hands with a sanitizer. Maybe she was a germophobe? Or maybe her visible dislike of him extended to thinking he was dirty enough to clean herself even though she didn’t even touch him. Granted, he just got back from a long flight but he wasn’t dirty or smelly… was he? He was tempted to furtively do a smell check but refrained, pretty certain it would be caught by either of the girls. Scratching the back of his head nervously, he waited for Avery to come back with the few things. As Scarlett said there was probably stuff in the mini-fridge, she probably kept putting stuff in for herself during the holidays, but they also tended to keep it well stocked on goods of questionable nutritional value. At the least, Jet always had cookies, muffins or other baked goods somewhere in the room, he was a sugar addict. He made sure his roommates knew they should feel free to eat from his stuff anytime.

The question Avery asked felt more like an ice-breaker than anything else considering the obvious answer, which Scarlett provided. “Yeah, definitely for me since the first time I entered the room I met you and Warren for the first time, which was the day I arrived in Bellmuse. I was glad I got cool roommates; some people can be obnoxious or just have bad-habits when it comes to living in a dorm. Scarlett and Warren don’t have any quirk that bugs me so I’m happy with the arrangements.” Suddenly remembering something, Jet turned toward Scarlett. “Oh! And talking about living arrangements, if you and Warren are both ok with it, I wanted to maybe get a cat. We had one in my home in Mistral and I thought it’d be nice, I saw a cute one on the way here today. Just thought I’d mention it.”

Turning back toward Avery he frowned a bit. “Ehm… Sorry I didn’t catch your name but I think Scarlett called you Avy? Anyway, I’m turning the question back to you, how did you two meet?” Taking a look at the stuff Scarlett's friend brought and was tempted by one of the bag of chips. Since he was an unplanned extra to her, he decided to make sure she was ok about him taking from her stuff. He pointed at the bag in question. "Mind if I take those?"

While taking the cans out, Avery caught on the redhead's compliment and momentarily stopped. Under normal circumstances, her cheeks would've flushed a tinge of pink by then but at the presence of another person in the room, Avery turned to the sunglasses guy and smirked as though boasting Scarlett praised her and not him. She was never the mature type anyway.

The story of how the two met was uninteresting; she expected as much. They were roommates so what else was there to talk about? In reality, Avery didn't care and merely asked to start a conversation. She was only playing nice because Scarlett was around. Though when the guy mentioned something about getting a cat, Avy paused. That would mean the cat would be in the room... and a certain redhead interacting with it. "...!" Just the mental image of the scene was enough to make Avy flustered. Too cute!

Reaching for the two cans on the table, she used her semblance to cool the drinks. As for the third one, she chilled it as well but tossed it to the guy in a friendly gesture of offering a drink. She grabbed the two cans and two bags of chips before motioning for the last bag for him to take. "Feel free," Avy said with an innocent smile and walked back to the couch. She was being friendly for once~

Yea, as if. She actually froze the third soda so hard the content turned into solid ice whereas the last bag of chip was an extra spicy flavour for the extreme that she bought by accident. Heh. Enjoy. The mere presence of him was an abomination that ruined her alone time with Scarlett after all.

"Hmm. Our first time meeting was... interesting. The most pleasant of first impressions and our personalities just matched, wouldn't you agree, Scar?" Avy chimed playfully as she passed a can to Scarlett and settled on the couch next to her. Of course she could remember that horrible moment but decided to play it off now that it's all in the past.

Scarlett smiled between the two of her friends, glad that the situation turned out like this at the very least. Sure, even the meeker of the trio could tell that there was a bit of tension in the air - mainly from Avy - but she was happy that they were at least trying. In fact, once the redhead began to think about it, both Jet and the blonde were kind've similar in ways. Both of them were actually really cool, but in different ways, she found. And in ways that she wishes she could be someday, but it wasn't the time for such thoughts. She didn't want to get lost in her own imagination as she still wanted to very much spend time with both of them after such a long time from seeing either.

As Avery passed her the drink, Scarlett smiled towards her, "Thank you..." she said, nodding and opening the can and letting it hiss out the carbonation. Taking a few sips, she gave a hum of enjoyment at the flavor. But that hint of sweet and sugar caused hr to crave something almost immediately. Licking her lips, her eyes trailed over towards a can that was on her desk. However, before she could go after her desire, the topic of a cat was brought up, "A... huh? Oh. I mean... are we allowed to even have pets? If so... a cat sounds really nice and cute actually. It gives whoever's around a bit of extra company~"

It was true, having a pet around made Scarlett feel a bit better about being alone. Animals were easy to talk to, the redhead had found over her life, much easier than other people. But she probably wasn't the only one that thought so.

With that, she allowed the two to continue conversing as they wanted while she spent her time trying to discreetly scoot her chair over towards her desk. Slowly, she made her way, hoping that they didn't notice the sound of the wheels rolling on the ground. Why was she doing such a thing? Scarlett being Scar, she didn't want to interrupt or excuse herself even though it was literally just across the room. But she was so very close to her goal that she could almost taste it.

"Wouldn't you agree, Scar?"

"Huh, what?" Scar asked, having gotten halfway to her destination. Drat, she was caught before she could make it. Blushing slightly at realizing how silly she was being, she tried to play it off as casually as she possibly could, mostly by not referencing what she was doing at all. But she was too committed to this journey to stop there. And thus adding to the silliness of the situation, she continued to move her chair back while answering Avy, "I-I mean... that's not really what happened, Avy... it wasn't until we were partners on that project that we got to know eachother, remember? And the cave that-" She stopped there, biting down on her bottom lip as the memories returned to her.

But Scarlett continued to glance over towards the table, reaching over and grabbing the tin can and opening it. Fishing inside of it, she pulled out a piece of candy and quickly unwrapped it before popping it into her mouth with the most delighted smile that anyone could ever be seen with. Allowing herself to enjoy the taste for several moments, she paused once she realized that she was still with friends, "E-erm... Avy, would... you like a piece..?" She offered, hoping that she didn't seem too weird then.

Jet smiled happily at the fact Scarlett seemed enthusiast at the idea of having a cat. It would liven the place up for when one of them is alone and just make things more fun in general. “Great! We can go get it later." It was pretty expensive but Jet could handle the the cost, he didn’t really know what else to do with his money at the moment anyway.

Jet took the chips bag with a smile. He didn’t mind the flavor; he wasn’t picky when it came to junk food. He saw that it was one of the caution-you-will-set-your-throat-on-fire kind but as usual, Jet underestimated the level of spiciness and would try them without proper mental preparations. At least he also had a soda that felt pretty cold in his hand. He didn’t realise that the can was actually bulging at the moment.

Looking toward Scarlett, he actually saw that she seemed somewhat further back than she was before, and was moving still toward her desk. Jet had already seen the red head’s candy-craving mode and couldn’t completely fight the smile that crept onto his face. She was way too adorable trying to be inconspicuous. Her gradual movements while she commented on their first encounter added to it too. She probably didn’t realise though. Jet still took the time to analyse what he heard. Avy’s (because he still hadn’t heard her full name) version was pretty different that Scarlett’s, and even discarding the fact he trusted his roommate more than the newcomer, he didn’t doubt one second that the blonde’s version didn’t match. Contrary to what she said, their personalities don’t exactly match in Jet’s opinion. Maybe she was like that just because of him, but he had the feeling Scarlett would have been intimidated by her more than anything at first. They apparently became good friends so whatever happened in that cave Scarlett mentioned must have made things different in some way. Well, Jet was super happy for Scarlett that she found another friend; he was a bit surprised by the personality that he was seeing of that friend but he was happy nonetheless.

While Scarlett ate her beloved candy with a smile that would make Grimm swoon, proposing one to Avy after, Jet was about to open his can of soda it when it helpfully opened by itself! On a side note, it also splashed his face with soda-slush. Carbonated drinks actually explode when frozen, for a bunch of scientific reasons that Jet didn’t understand perfectly, but it doesn’t matter. The result remains that the buildup of pressure was barely held up by the can and the moment Jet applied a bit more pressure on it, the top popped open and Jet now had frozen soda all over his face. The ice actually turns into slush when it’s carbonated. Jet guessed it was because the carbon gas kept the ice from actually forming one solid block, or something like that. It was actually a pretty comedic sight, and thankfully only his face got splashed. It was comic enough that Jet laughed out loud. “Hah! Reminds me of how me and my friend kept a practical joke war going for about a year when we were at Signal. Seriously, the guy was an artist with itching powder, as unoriginal as it sounds.” Using a bunch of tissues that were at arm’s length, Jet wiped his face as clean as possible without a shower considering how sticky soda can be.

He made sure to show he wasn’t angry by keeping his smile. Scarlett had seemed somewhat nervous about them meeting so he didn’t want her to think they would end up at each other’s throat. At least Jet had no intention to. Avy could continue trying to get a rise out of the black haired man, but he was what some often called an annoyingly happy dude. It was pretty hard to make him angry and pretty much everything you did to him, he would shrug it off. Hurt his friends that’s another story, but with how protective she had been at first, Avy wouldn’t hurt Scarlett.

Looking around a bit, he spotted a small metal spoon. He lifted his hand and the silverware flew in it with his semblance. Licking his lips, Jet went ahead and scooped up a bit of soda slush. Tasting it, he found it was actually pretty tasty and refreshing. “Woah! That’s actually awesome. Thanks Avy!” Without thinking, he finally took a chip, crying from the spiciness. Well, good thing he had a refreshing frozen drink handy!

Clearly, their personalities didn't match. Even their way of thinking was different as seen by Scarlett's response just now. Sometimes she wondered how they became friends to begin with. There's just too much polar opposites could take before clashing again.

Opening her soda can, Avery took a sip and leaned back against the couch, folding her legs in the process. "Why'd you stop? And you were getting to the good part too," she said before taking another sip. Realizing the girl she was talking to was no longer beside her, the blonde finally succumbed to the distraction of the rolling wheels and looked back to see the redhead sneakily taking out a candy from the can. It would seem the candy was more important than anyone else in the room as it was capable of drawing out an expression she had never seen from Scarlett before. Avery couldn't help but chuckle at that. This girl was just bursting of charms.  

The blonde stood up to take the candy the latter offered, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear and leaning over to look at the contents inside the can. They weren't even that special. Just normal candies. So Scarlett had a particular weakness against sweets or candies, eh~? That would come in handy in the future.

"You didn't put anything in these, right?" She whispered as she reached for one and helped herself on the treat. "Like a love potion or something," she added playfully before turning around to go back to her couch.

On her way there, she witnessed the guy showering in soda courtesy of hers truly. The idiot. Though she took note of his ability to manipulate the silver spoon. Polarity huh. "You're welcome. Don't hesitate to call me if you want another round," Avery said, returning his smile with a pleasant expression of her own. "And please, call me Av. Only friends call me with the Y." Now that she was back on the couch, she yawned a little and leaned back to relax.

Scarlett couldn't help but blush at Avery's comments, unable to hide her embarrassment as her cheeks turned a light red to match her name. First of course was even more memories of the cave that the two first began to get to know eachother, as well as the events that led to the redhead to show off her gunslinging skills somewhat. From there, a sort of mutual respect had formed which eventually blossomed into something more akin to actual friendship. And of course, the implications of a love potion certainly didn't help that awkward feeling in the pit of her stomach. What was that comment even about, really?

But Scarlett couldn't allow it to linger for long, she just looked a bit weird just sitting there blushing with a piece of candy causing her cheek to bulge out, "Ehehe..." she gives a soft chuckle, "Of course not, that'd probably make it not taste that great. Or... I dunno, what would love taste like?" She did her best to laugh off her awkwardness, something she wouldn't really be able to do with many more people, mostly just her two roommates and Avery. Rubbing the back of her head as she glanced between the two, she only saw what happened with Jet in the corner of her eye.

As soon as she heard that sound of the can erupting, Scarlett's hand was already moving towards the gun on her thigh, grabbing at the handle and about to pull it out. But it was quickly apparently that there was no danger in the room, the redhead letting out a sigh of relief for a moment. That is until she realized both the state of Jet and the area around him, covered in slush. And she was going to need to clean that up!

Furrowing her brow in an angry - still rather cute way as she's trying to berate someone - expression towards Avery, "Look what you did!" she chastised. Reaching into the tin, she pulled out a piece of hard candy, quickly chucking it and aiming at Avy's shoulder, "I invited you over!" She pulled out another, this time aiming for whatever part of the girl's stomach she could potentially hit, "That doesn't mean be mean to my roommates you know!" With a few more pieces thrown, it wasn't until a moment later that she realized she was doing, "A-ah! W-wait, give those back, I want those!"

Jet smiled back at Avy, still not knowing that this wasn’t her full name. “Will do! And I actually find Av more fitting so that suits me fine.” Taking another spoonful of ice-soda, he was somewhat surprised by Scarlett’s reaction. It was the first time he ever saw her angry. She probably wouldn’t appreciate being told that she looked adorable when angry. It was nice to have his roommate stand up to her friend for him. Jet couldn’t help but laugh at Scarlett’s actions though. While he was pretty touched that she got angry for him, the way she quickly reverted to her candy-mode after throwing them at Avy, now wanting to get them back.

“Ah Scarlett, sometimes I don’t know how you don’t realise how adorable you can be.” Jet got up, put the spoon in the can and used his semblance to keep it in the air while he turned around to the bed he was sitting on. The slush had splashed around him on the bed as well as the floor. The floor was hardwood so that was cleaned easily. As for the bed, he could bring the sheets to be washed later. “Meh don’t worry too much Scar, it’s not that big of a deal. I found it funny and the slush is actually tasty. I had planned to wash my sheets anyway since I didn’t do it before leaving. As for me, I myself needed a shower anyway. In any case we have an extra bed since we’re only three in the room so I’ll use it while the sheets are dirty.” Jet actually pulled the sheet in a bundle and dropped it on the floor next to the bed.

He looked back at Avy, though with his eyes hidden behind his glasses she probably couldn’t tell he was looking at her. “That does make me wonder though. Do you greet every new person you meet with practical jokes or am I that special?” He smiled cheekily, deciding that even though it didn’t bother him, he should tease her some at least. Not that it was much, he didn’t want to set her off without meaning to. Scarlett might be cute when angry, he still didn’t want to have her angry at him for escalating things with her friends.

Looking at the floor, he started to look around for something to wipe the floor. They had a roll of paper towels somewhere too, but he couldn’t see it. The room wasn’t that bright, or not more than usual anyway, so he didn’t think it was because of the filtering that he couldn’t see it. He kept searching for them, his can of soda-slush lazily floating behind him. “Hey Scarlett, where are the paper towels?"

"Look what you did!"

"I know right? It's piece of art-- ow!" Avery frowned and rubbed her shoulder, staring at the candy that fell to the couch then at Scarlett. Did this girl just throw candy at her? Apparently yes, for another candy soared in the air and hit her stomach this time. "Ow! Hey! If you're going to throw things, at least aim properly. And you call yourself a gunslinger?" She pouted at Scar's adorable display of anger, though when the girl continued throwing the little things at her, Avy had to snatch a throw pillow and hide behind it.

"What do you mean I'm being mean? This is me playing nice! You should be blaming that weirdo over there for not getting out of my sight."

Once the candy barrage had stopped, Avy lowered the pillow and smoothed her clothes with a small tsk. Why was Scarlett upset at her? She should be the one annoyed for being deceived into spending a peaceful alone time with a friend and not with some random guy she barely knew. And now she wanted her candies back? Avery stared at the girl incredulously. Unbelievable.

"No!" Avery scoffed, quickly picking up the candies scattered around her and stuffing them inside her pockets. "This is mine! And this is mine too! And you know what?" She stretched her hand to the Scarlett's candy can, coating it in a thin layer of ice before it shot towards her hand. "These are all mine! I'm not sharing until you apologize, she proclaimed and laid on the couch hugging the tin can stubbornly.

Hearing the guy's voice at the background made her eyebrow twitch and she finally glared at him. "And you! Don't talk to me! Don't even look at me with that... tacky indoor sunglasses... tss."

Scarlett's hand was wrist-deep in that jar of candy, searching for another good piece to throw as she glared daggers at Avery. It was a strange expression, honestly. Was she angry? Not really, if anything it was more of a playful amount of upset. Palling around with her friends in her dormroom. It was actually strange for the girl to do things like that, as everyone present knew quite well. Even just speaking out was quite a surprise, not to mention actually throwing things at the blonde. Although while she wasn't exactly mad, she also wasn't entirely pleased at the antics of her friend.

"That's not the point!" the girl claimed after Jet said that it was alright, "That was really rude and I'm not going to accept things like that happening in my dorm." Donning the mantle of defender of justice, Scarlett once again returned to preparing to throw more candy at Avery. It really wasn't even about the blonde being rude, which the redhead had expected at this point. But more than she didn't enjoy seeing Avery upset about something so obvious. She hadn't expected for her to dislike Jet simply because of the fact that he interrupted alone time with the two girls. Certainly not having anticipated that she would have been that mad at the two of them! To her, it seemed like Avery just didn't care about her friends, wanting to selfishly be only with Scarlett. But did the redhead want that?

... Somewhat. Although Scarlett had come to adore Avery, still was finally getting into a place in her life when she had friends and wanted to spend time with them as well. She was hoping that perhaps the group, the three present and Warren, would be able to hang out more and more. But she supposed that of course clashes would happen - that clashing being the blonde. Really, it was truly amazing that even Scarlett was able to stand her.

However, whatever thoughts she was having were quickly interrupted by one realization in particular, "H-hey!" she cried. She stood to her feet, almost leaping towards Avery and trying to grab her wrists, "That's my candy, you can't steal it!" she said, a sharp frown on her face. She knew that she wouldn't be able to win in a physical fight against the blonde. But maybe, just maybe, the power of the candy would give her the power that she needed to succeed.

While looking for the paper-towel, Jet tried to hide his amusement as much as he could but the smile was still coming out. All that was happening made things more lively and he seriously liked it. Chaos is generally interesting, more so than order at least. If everything goes in an orderly fashion, everything is predictable and that makes things boring. Now, sometimes boring is exactly what someone wants from time to time, chaos is interesting in relatively small doses. Avy may be rude and Jet was a bit sad that she didn’t seem to like him. He didn’t really know why… Did he do something to her before? He would have remember her, Jet always remembers pretty girls. So if he didn’t do anything before, what did he do this time to make her so mad at him for some reason? Unless it was really just because he was an unplanned presence? It’s not like he could think of anything he did other than that that could have annoyed her… She did call him a weirdo too.

Jet found the paper towels after looking around for a while – they apparently fell on the ground and rolled under a bed. “Ah! Gotcha!” Jet started wiping the floor from the slush. The can was still floating lazily around. He was still paying attention to the two girls interacting. While their personalities did clash a lot, Jet had never seen Scarlett speak up like that and stand her ground. As cute as her reactions were, it surprised Jet quite a bit. The black haired guy had wanted from day one to try and bring her out of her shell somewhat and while he was happy that she was much more at ease with him now than she was at first, he was glad to see someone else had made a crack in that shell, a bigger crack than he did even.

Jet threw away the soggy paper towels and used another to try and wipe a bit of the soda-stickiness from his face. He took off his glasses to wipe them and closed his eyes while doing so to prevent being blinded by the light. It was actually exactly at that moment that Avery had mentioned his “tacky indoor sunglasses”.

“Huh? You mean these? Yeah I guess I do look extremely douchy with those indoor. But, they’re not really for cosmetic purposes.” Jet pointed to his now uncovered eyelids. The scar tissues around his eyes were pretty flagrant and a bit unusual looking. It was plain to see that it wasn’t a typical wound that did this, the scar tissues roughly followed the nerve paths around his eyes. It actually looked kind of cool in Jet’s opinion, but some people found it gross. While the scarring was visible around his glasses, it always surprised Jet that a lot of people didn’t actually notice it. Well it’s not like scars are really uncommon here so people never really comment on them or even react to them. “I’m not blind before you ask, but extremely sensitive to certain frequencies of light, these glasses filter them out. Otherwise, the current lighting would be very painful to me.”

In the middle of hogging the can of candies to herself, Avery saw movement from the redhead and was genuinely surprised when Scarlett tried to pry off her grip by grabbing her wrists. "W-what are you doing?!" Avy flustered furiously. The blonde didn't expect such response from Scarlett considering the latter wasn't comfortable with physical contact in the first place. And did she really think she stood a chance against Avy in a battle of strength?

Apparently so, for Avery found herself releasing the can, not because of Scar's strength - what strength, the girl couldn't open a jar to save her life - but due to both shock and embarrassment from the situation. "Here, here! You can have it," Avy growled, giving the can to Scar and quickly escaping her clutches as she moved off the couch to gain distance. "If you can open it, that is," she added with a smirk. The can had actually been covered in a thick layer of ice, sealing it completely inside. "Maybe if you say please~ I'll open it for you. Maybe."

At this time, Avy noticed the guy removed his glasses and heard him explain about his light sensitivity. She actually noticed the scar a while ago but chose not to say anything, even now. She learned from a decent someone that scars not only held certain memories but were also a constant reminder of one's failure. Thus why she chose not to delve deeper into it. Still, that didn't mean she disliked him a little less. In fact, an idea popped in her head.

"Hey buddy, since Scarlett here wants us to get along, why don't we play a game~?" Avery suggested with friendly smile as she approached him. She tapped a foot on the floor and the soda turned into ice. Without its carbonation, it's nothing but liquid, free for her to manipulate. A snap of her fingers and the ice shattered into minuscule pieces that eventually evaporated in the air, as though the mess never happened. "Don't worry, it's nothing harmful. It's just truth or dare, without the 'truth' part. Avery leaned against the table and folded her arms. "We basically take turns daring each other and the dares should be within the players' capabilities. For instance, asking you to create ice is not allowed since that's out of your scope. But asking you to kick a cat is okay because it's only morally impossible. The player wins when the other refuses to do the dare and he could. Pretty simple, right?"

"But as with all games, there must be a bet." Avy smirked. This was the cake to the icing... or however that saying goes. "Loser gets to do whatever the winner wants~ Up for it?"

"Ah-ha!" Scarlett let out in triumph as she tore the tin can of candy away from the evil clutches of her blonde friend. Truly, that day was an absolute victory that would be sung out for generations. 'The Day That Candy Won', they'd say. Scarlett could almost see it now. She smiled at Avy for she had won the day and nobody could doubt that. In fact, her expression was almost mocking in a way, simply smiling towards the girl as her hand roamed towards the top of the tin can, trying to reach in for its contents. However, that smile slowly turned into a soft frown as she realized what was wrong. No, it couldn't be, the redhead through to herself, too afraid of the truth to accept it. Not wanting to believe, she refused to look to accept the situation as truth. Fear shot through the girl's body like a raging fire, something that paralyzed her to the very core.

Scarlett was, of course, being rather melodramatic, all things considered, eventually looking away from Avy simply to confirm what she knew. The redhead couldn't believe what she was seeing, something so abhorrent. This perverse truth that she had to come to terms with as she realized that her candy tin was frozen over, almost completely solid.

"Ah! My candy!" Scarlett cried out, not paying attention to Avery's claim that she would cry it out if the redhead simply asked nicely. No, she wouldn't be blackmailed like that, the redhead had too much (not really) self respect. And if there was one thing she'd fight for it'd be love and candy. And since she doesn't really have any love right now, she could focus all that on her candy.

Scarlett scurried away from the two, not really paying attention to the ongoing topics, most of it just being background noise as she panicked inwardly - and outwardly. She opened up the tools that she used when she worked on Prism, scanning over the various equipment that she had to work with. She was becoming less and less confident while she attempted to find the exact thing she was looking for, the thing that would easily be able to help in this situation.

"Where is it... where is it... where's that blowtorch..?" Scarlett mumbled to herself as she continued to search for the tool, "Okay, okay, think... where did I have it last..?" She thought deeply about the subject, coming to the conclusion that their other roommate had borrowed it last time she saw it, "Darn it, Warren!" she cried out. She had no time to waste and she was getting quite desperate now. She reached into the bag of tools, pulling out a screw driver and a hammer. Pressing said driver onto the block of hammer, she steadily brought the hammer down onto the frozen candy tin, hoping to break away at the trapping ice until she could finally get it free.

His glasses snugly on his face again, Jet opened his eyes again to see Scarlett’s victorious look. She looked like she had just won a million lien, which might be the worth she placed on that can of candy turned icicle in her mind. It might have been his imagination, but Jet could have sworn he saw her hugging the thing while sleeping once when he was coming back from a night-stroll. It was truly adorable.

At that moment, Avy asked him if he wanted to play a game. Now Jet is a lot of thing, but staying still doing nothing is always very hard for him, so he will always be up for any sort of games… or almost any. “Sure! I’d love playing a game! Oh and thanks for the floor, I guess I missed that spot.” Listening to the rules of the game, Jet couldn’t help but smile at the “dare or dare” game. People that proposed to play these games usually had something in mind already. Jet was game still, part of it because he thought it could be fun, part of it just out of curiosity for what she’d ask him to do. The rules were indeed simple and Jet didn’t have any problem with them, though he was suddenly glad he hadn’t bought the cat yet, because he would never have been able to kick it. Kitties are too cute.

Scarlett was still fighting body and soul against the ice surrounding the can. He rapidly looked around to see if he could find the blowtorch she was mumbling about but his reduced vision wasn’t any good for that. He hid his amusement when he saw her use a hammer and screwdriver to chip at the ice. Her determination was pretty endearing.

Jet was about to agree when Avery added that last part, the bet. Now he couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “Well that sounds like a nice idea. I wonder what I would make you do but I guess I’ll think about it when we get there.” Jet was somewhat confident because he wasn’t the kind of person that feared ridicule. Though on the moral ground he was somewhat limited, pranks he was alright with, but if it affected others he couldn’t take it too far. Still, there was only them three here and he was certain Avy wouldn’t ask him to hurt, so in his head, he was ready for anything.

“Alright, you made the game, you start!” Jet smiled and awaited his dare.

Avery chuckled upon seeing the triumphant look on Scarlett's face which was immediately replaced by a look of disappointment and desperation. Haha! Cute~ Could she really blame Avy for always putting her in these situations to draw out these kinds of expressions? It's her fault for being adorable so she should've seen it coming. She had to deal with it one way or another.

Meanwhile, glasses guy agreed to the game with no questions asked. Hook, line and sinker. This was way too easy even for Avery. While she admired the guy's confidence to take her on in her own game without giving a condition of his own, it was pretty careless in his part. But then again, these people were too kind for their own good. They always gave the benefit of the doubt.

As Scarlett took out a screw driver and hammer, Avery snickered. "Aww~ Isn't she absolutely adorable?" The blonde mused and glanced at the guy beside her. Pressing her lips together, she moved close to him, invading his personal space as she stopped by his ear. "And for your dare, I want you to make her cry~" She whispered slyly, pulling back and giving him her usual innocent smile.

Avery moved off the table and approached the redhead who was now struggling with the screw driver and hammer. Settling on the ground in front of the girl, she pulled her knees to her chest and watching heartily as the latter struggled to open the ice. "So with your non-existent muscles, when do you think you'd finish with that?" Avy asked as she rested her chin on her knees. She watched as the girl hammered the screw driver against the ice, and when she raised the hammer up again, that's when Avery stepped in and forcefully took both the hammer and the screw driver. "Mkay, you've had your fun. You're gonna hurt yourself with this, you know. Go find something else to use. Or you can always go the easy route and just ask yours truly for assistance~" Avery shrugged in an overdramatic way.

"Besides, your roommate there has something to say... or do~ You should probably hear him out," she said with no hidden animosity whatsoever.

Scarlett was, of course, not really paying attention to the two chat away behind her. She was far too concerned with dealing with the problem of her frozen candy tin. Allowing the tip of her tongue to poke out from between her lips, she closed one eye as she measured just where she should strike the end of the screwdriver with the hammer. Her intention was, of course, to chip away at the ice over time. Although of course her handling of the tools weren't that of a novice, she seemed to be fairly adept at them as it turned out. They were her tools after all and she often worked on her Prism, tuning it up, repairing, and even making minor upgrades to her dust-launcher of a revolver. But obviously, she was using her tools in a bit of a creative way to solve her problems.

Pulling the hammer back, Scarlett prepared to finally strike at the screwdriver... only to have both of them taken from her hands by Avery. She frowned hard, her mouth almost making a perfect upside 'v'. Turning towards the girl with a quiet whine, she narrowed her eyes at the blonde, not wanting to feed into the idea that she could just bully the meeker girl. Sticking out her tongue defiantly, she took no time in doing what she said and beginning to search for something else in her bag of tools.

Not looking towards the duo, Scarlett spoke at the claim that Jet had something to say, "... Huh? Oh, what is it, Jet?" she asked, thinking that it'd be a suggestion about the candy tin, "Ah, hang on, you'll need to give me just... one... there it is~" With a playful tone, she pulled out her second choice of what to use. A tool that was just slightly larger than her handgun with a long drill at the end. Plugging the cord into a power outlet, she grinned almost madly, "J-just give me a moment, this is gonna be really loud!" she called.

Turning on the tool caused the drill to begin spinning at high speeds, causing a constant whir to fill the room. Not loud enough to drown out people talking, but enough that it was certainly a bother. Scarlett began to bring the power drill forward, pressing the spinning tool against the frozen candy tin and attempting to shatter the ice with something made for making holes. Sure, perhaps one hole won't cause the ice to break apart, but worst case scenario is that she makes enough of them and then throws the tin onto the ground since its casing would have been weak enough. It was the perfect plan.

There was no denying it, Scarlett was indeed adorable. Jet couldn’t help but smile at her antics. Who would want to hurt such a kind person? Apparently, her own friend it seemed. The fact Avy had invaded his personal space didn’t bother him, she was a pretty girl getting close to him, what guy would be bothered but that? But the dare she gave him did bother him, quite a lot. Maybe she was bluffing and didn’t believe he would do it, and she would be right. Jet didn’t care much what people thought of him. Yes, he was a goody-two-shoes. Yes, he was predictable and relatively naïve. Yes, he was easy to tease and all that stuff. But that didn’t stop him from sleeping at nights and remain annoyingly happy to others. So to him, that dare was a definite “no”. He was not going to hurt a friend just so he wouldn’t lose a silly game to someone he only met once. Jet looked at Avy with an impassive face, his perpetual smile gone.

Still, he had some pride in being good at finding loopholes and before refusing, he was going to make sure he had no options. The ice-user had taken away the tools Scarlett was using, prompting her to search for other ones. Jet knew Scarlett was good enough not to hurt herself with her own tools but with her current somewhat childish antics it was easy to forget that fact.

This was when Avy put the sunglasses wearing guy on the spot, telling Scarlett he had something to say. Luckily for him, she started doing a ton of noise with her drill. It was a bit comical to see how hard she was working on getting her candies back. This actually gave Jet an idea, making him smile. Avery only asked him to make her cry, never mentioned any restriction on why and how she was crying. Thinking quick, Jet wondered what would be most effective to create a strong emotion in her. In her current state, he guessed anything related to candies would be amplified tenfold. Still, he wasn’t sure tears of joy would be easy to get from her. As childlike as she looked in that candy-mode, she wasn’t a child and Jet guessed she could probably control her emotions. It did remind him of something though.

“You know Scarlett, I wasn’t there for the holidays. When we go get the cat, let’s stop at the candy store on the way and buy a giant bag of whatever candy you want, call it a late Christmas present.” Not that he expected her to cry from joy just from that but he still thought it was a slim possibility. He really wanted to get her a Christmas present anyway so that wasn’t a lie; he just decided to say that now in case it was enough.

Still, he had another trick up his sleeve and for it he turned toward Avy. “Still, I agree with you on that Av, Scar don’t cry easily, so it would be something difficult to manage. I don’t actually plan to try though, and I doubt you actually want to either.” Jet smirked. The bluff was called. Also, if she was going to play dirty and go straight for morally bad stuff, he would answer with loopholes and use the lack of restrictions. She never said the dare was to be kept unknown to Scarlett. So that’s why Jet implanted the idea that Avy might try to make her cry in some way. Simply from knowing that’s what she was trying to do, the red headed girl would become resistant to pretty much anything the blonde could come up with, preventing her from winning that way even if she was seriously planning to hurt her friend enough to make her cry.

This girl is really... Avery heaved a sigh when the Scarlett returned with a drill. So perhaps Avy was underestimating her skills with the tools, but she's wielding it on something that it's not used for, so of course the blonde would freak out. Still, she let it go fearing Scar would replace it with a bloody chainsaw or something. And the girl looked so determined Avery didn't have the heart to tell her she could easily reform the ice even if she punched a hole through it.

Avery stood and went to her coat to take a pair of leather gloves from its pocket before returning to Scarlett and unplugging the drill to stop her momentarily. "I can't believe you're this stubborn." She grunted as she put the gloves on Scarlett's hands to prevent them from frostbiting from prolonged contact with the ice. She took her own sunglasses which hang on her top and handed it to her use as makeshift safety glasses. "If you feel like giving up, call me~" Avy suggested with a single pat of her head before leaving her to her work. Despite the blonde's words, she casually thinned the ice to make it easier for the latter to drill through.

Meanwhile, the guy went for tears of joy for his dare. Avery figured as much though that route's harder than triggering negative emotions. She also wasn't worried he informed Scar of the dare. The girl had been too distracted with the tin can to understand what's going on. Avy even doubted she knew of the game the two were playing. Still, she gave him props for trying. Or not. Avy chuckled at his last statement. Even at the unlikely case that he made her cry with the candy offer, he cancelled whatever progress he had by admitting he's not gonna try. Basically making a move and then surrendering.

And he thought she couldn't do the dare herself? "You forgot something, Joel," Avery said lightly, positioned next to him so only the two of them could hear. "The one asking the dare is the one with the opportunity to win. So why would I ask something that I know I can't do? Not to mention if I failed, that'd give you the chance to ask yours?" She folded her arms and looked at her nails nonchalantly. "I already made Scarlett cry... twice, on separate occasions even. What's stopping me from doing it a third time?" She spoke fluidly because everything she'd said was a fact.

"Unlike you, I know her fears and I know exactly how to make her cry. It's not pleasant, so I'd rather avoid it if I can, but don't try me. I'm not some hero of justice. I'm willing to do anything to win even at the expense of a friend. You, on the other hand, are you willing to risk seeing your roommate cry just so you won't lose?" She finally tore her eyes away from her nails and looked at him. "If you surrender and admit defeat now, I won't have to do it. But if not, I'm fine with that too. That just makes me see what kind of person you truly are."

Scarlett paused the powerdrill just for a few moments as she looked over her shoulder towards Jet. And then, the greatest words that she could ever imagine came out of the boy's mouth. The promise of candy. A smile appeared on her face, a soft expression of joy. It was interesting, really, considering the different reactions that both of her friends constantly managed to get out of the meek girl. While Jet seemed to cause her to smile quite often, it was rare for Avy to cause her much more than distress, annoyance, and occasionally hurt feelings. All-in-all, it was strange that she considered herself as close to Avy as she was to Jet, but that was due to the time they've spent together. It was kind've hard to not after the things they've done together.

"Ehehe... sure!" Scarlett said simply, giving a nod of approval, "Whenever you want to, really. Just let me... break through this first, alright?" With that said, she gave a quick lick of her lips, turning back to the frozen jar of candy that she was intent on breaking through to what was rightfully hers. Turning on the drill once again, she found it short-lived as Avery just so happened to pull the plug right then and there. Her face went from a smile to that of despair, lightly grinding her teeth together as she considered what to do.

"F-fine!" Scarlett let out, not seeming to mind the sudden addition of sunglasses and gloves that were put on her, "If that's how it's gonna be then..!" Her hand dipped to her thigh, pulling out her Prism and flicking her wrist, quickly loading in a single dust bullet, "Freeze my candy... I'll show her..." she muttered softly, pulling back the hammer. This all caused the flower design on the side of the gun to begin glowing a slight red, not too unlike her eyes when she uses her semblance. She aimed the barrel at the frozen tin, ready to squeeze down on the trigger.

Scarlett blinked, realizing that it probably wasn't the best idea. With a soft frown, she placed Prism on the table, furrowing her brow in displeasure. Grumbling to herself, she moved back towards the power outlet and plugged it right back in, sticking out her tongue defiantly at Avery. This time she had it, she was sure. Turning on the drill, she slowly led it towards the frozen block. If not interrupted, this time she would begin to finally make progress, drilling a hole right into the top of the ice.