Lol he's such a tsun [Root]

Free time. Free time. And what was Root doing? Working. Yep that's right. He was holed up in his lab conducting calculations and experiments all at once, scribbling quickly in his journal. His hair was all over the place because he was pulling at it earlier and he hadn't brushed in a while. His sister was probably at home like she usually was, and at least his Wendy tracker wasn't beeping saying she had gone somewhere off her usual path home or lingered too long in any non-designated areas. Which meant he was uninterrupted in his work and he was getting far. He hadn't gotten this far in a while. Not since he had started to actually have friends who wanted to hang around him. He was so laser focused he had forgotten a crucial detail.

He'd left a Bunsen burner on, the flame licking at the oxygen in the room, and then… he backed away looking for a paper on the lab table knocking it over. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." He was cursing loudly from in his lab room, as he moved papers out of the path of the fire and then running and grabbing a glass of water to put out the little fire before it spread too far… since he had disabled the fire alarms if it got too bad, the whole place probably would burn down before the fire department could make it here. The fire grew, and the room was filling with smoke and then… the sprinklers went on. The fire went out and there Root stood, drenched as all of his papers were drenched as well. Fuck.

He gathered as many of the papers as he could as the sprinklers turned off and made a note on the driest paper he could to disable the sprinklers as well. Luckily he had managed to save the papers he really needed the most. However the room was still very smoky and Root was coughing from it. Cursing, he retreated from the room and took a deep breath. Okay. Everything would be fine, he moved everything he needed, he salvaged all the papers he could and all he could do was wait for it to dry and air out in there.

That meant he had to leave his lab. Fuck.

An additional room he had for himself held his supplies, which included an additional set of clothes which he changed into and he took the fresh journal from there. Oh god, what would he do now? Mindlessly, Root made his way out of the lab his hair obviously wet and not wearing socks and his shoes still wet from the sprinklers. He began writing in his journal quickly as he exited the building. However, out of the corner of his eye he spotted green.

Instantly he looked up to see Mariko, the hope of seeing her driving this action, and he smiled like an idiot… However, his lapse in concentration caused him to slip due to the wetness of his shoes and fall right to the ground on his ass right as he approached Mariko.

Smooth.

"Fucking hell." He pushed himself up from the ground and dusted himself off. His clothes were dry but his shoes and his hair was not. Oh god what would he tell her happened? "H-Hi Mariko. Wh-What brings you this way?"

Crap. She noticed. Of course, it was fairly obvious, but he still wished she wouldn't have noticed that the lab was in shambles slightly. He ran a hand through his hair and looked back with a sheepish sort of smile on his face. It wasn't like he was going to worry her unnecessarily and tell her he kind of just caught the lab on fire. No, no. The best way to go was to play it off cool.

"Oh don't worry about that… at all. It's nothing really." Just a stupid fool's mistake causing a fire and thus the need to stay out for a little while. Double Crap. He probably looked so messy. Quickly, he turned around and tucked his shirt into his pants and turned around again. It would probably be the best he could do for right now. "Why don't we get away from here? Uhm… Food. Food. You like food right? Right, who doesn't like food? We could go to a restaurant nearby and -"

Root stopped and looked at her for a moment. Ah, she was beautiful, looking to him with those beautiful green eyes of hers. He took a deep breath trying to calm himself down. "You know Mariko, I said it before, but you don't have to call me Senpai. Just… just call me Root… Or Alex. You could use that too." Shit, why did he tell her to call him Alex? Ah well, just the same, he trusted her to use that name regardless. Their friendship was the friendship he cherished the most, and he rather her not feel like she had to be so formal with him. Plus, that sort of stuff was so stupid. Honorifics were so… he couldn't describe it. He rather not know what another thought of him just through the use of an honorific. Plus, he wanted Mariko to know while he was a year ahead of her, he viewed her as his equal in standing.

If this were anyone else, Root would get angry and insist on them using his name, but her big smile made his cold demeanor melt. It was always around her that his rough exterior smoothed out a bit. However, it was scary how this happened, and yet he couldn't stop himself from seizing the chance to hang out with her, despite the fact that he would have to soon go back into his lab and clean everything up. He was slowing down on his work ever since he had become her friend, and that was even scarier but he couldn't do anything about it.

Honestly, he didn't know of any restaurants around. He never really went out and when he did, it was because Adrianna insisted on it. Except he had a terrible memory and he didn't remember where they ate on the rare occasion. At least he remembered that he occasionally went out with Adrianna to lunch. In many ways, she was his friend and not just his lab mate. Ah right, Root wrote a note to tell Adrianna what had happened in the lab so she wouldn't worry. Well, if she didn't get here before he got back.

"Right this way," Root said picking a random direction and starting to walk. He didn't know what to say otherwise. All he knew was that he was looking forward to spending time with Mariko, and he didn't want to make a fool of himself. He also wouldn't like to tell Mariko exactly what had happened in the lab, but he was sure that it would come up. He'd have to suck it up and tell her. "The lab caught fire. Don't worry, I saved all my experiment data and it'll be fine once the, uh," What were they called? "People do their jobs." Root grinned slightly before looking away for a moment. Stop making a fool of yourself, Alexander. Well, he told himself, that was impossible to do especially around Mariko where he acted a fool.

Whew. That worked. He didn't think it would, even if he wasn't really lying to Mariko at all. He was just… trying to make things seem not as bad so she didn't worry. He wasn't a liar. He never once lied to Mariko. He'd lied to others around Mariko, but he never lied to Mariko. He never could bring himself to do such a thing. So when she asked questions, he had to tell the truth, though he tended to sprinkle the truth and make it sound better by leaving out information. Ah well, it was because he didn't want her to worry, but he would get better at added the details she should know, like how the fire was his fault, later… He really, really didn't want her to think worse of him. There were plenty of people who did that for him. He was surprised that she didn't hate him given how much people hated him and spread word around about how mean he was to others. Also, vicious untrue rumors. Most of this was led by a fellow fourth year who just so happened to be Mariko's cousin, but it wasn't like he could say she was a liar because Mariko would probably believe Emiko over him. And it killed him at times that she held that influence over his love. He couldn't do anything but hope that his time with Mariko lasted as long as it could, for he knew one day she would hate him like everyone else did.

"Oh, uh. It's a secret," Root said quickly. Not a lie either. Just because he didn't know where he was going, didn't mean they weren't going anywhere. They'd walk until they hit a restaurant and then they could eat. It was a secret from him too, so it was true. Root sighed. "I don't know actually. I don't remember any restaurants around here." So much for that. Ah well, he couldn't bring himself to do anything more than tell her it was a secret. He didn't know where he was going, and she would think he was an idiot. "I'm sorry, I just… wanted to get away from the lab as fast as possible." Shit. He was looking so lame. He was looking so stupid. How could she ever like a person like him? Though normally he wasn't like this. Normally he was a lot cheerier and laughing when he was around Mariko. But then again, he did just run from his lab after days of research and it was a bit disconcerting he'd lost concentration enough to cause a fire. Maybe he was going insane. Or maybe he was already there.

"I figure there's something nearby. I mean, I do want to go eat," Root's stomach rumbled slightly. When was the last time he ate something? "If you still want to eat with me. I mean, I'm sure I look like a mess." He continued walking seeing a sign up ahead for some sort of all-you-can-eat place. Hey, that would work. He picked a good direction it seemed.