Makara knocked on the door again, louder this time. Wesley had said they would go on a date today, but had failed to answer his phone all morning. Now that he wasn't answering his door either irritation was rapidly giving way to concern.
She gave one last knock, hard enough to hurt through her golden scales, before getting ready to move on to other options. However, that was when the door opened and he poked his head out.
He looked like he hadn't seen Sun or sleep in far too long, but still smiled when he saw her. "Hey, Maka, come in." Once he had beckoned her inside he started to look uncertain. "Um, what time is it."
"Late enough," she said with less rebuke than she had been intending a moment ago.
"Yeah, sorry." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "I've kind of been caught up in this really big project."
"Must be," she said. "No offense, but you look like death."
He grinned enthusiastically. "Funny you should say that. Here, follow me."
Makara followed along, albeit with some concern as to how he was acting. When they got to the next room, she was confronted with what looked like a low budget attempt at a mad scientists lab. She eyed the assorted equipment assembled and asked, "Okay, Wes, what are you trying to pull here?"
"Well, you see," he paused in consideration for a moment. "Ever since you mentioned how long ryu-jin live I've kind of been thinking about that, and..."
She facepalmed in frustration. "No. Tell me you're not."
"Well what am I supposed to do?" he asked. "Just sit here and die on you in a few years?"
"No. Just," she shuddered. "My mom said that if you started doing this I'd have to bring you over so she could talk to you about it."
"Okay, that seems really random," he commented.
The ryu-jin girl shook her head vigorously. "Apparently she 'had a fling' with a human guy. She sort of based her prediction that you'd do this on him, and said she wanted to point out a few things he tried that didn't work so you 'wouldn't look too silly' or something."
"Oh," he perked up. "That actually sounds really helpful. What's so bad about that?"
"She also said she'd invite my aunt over," she muttered.
"If she's got more advice, I'm still not seeing the problem," he said. "I mean, I am kind of trying to be the first person to succeed at this. Ever."
"Yeah, well, apparently the guy she knew sort of, you know," she gestured vaguely. "Went dark side."
"Oh, come on. You don't think I'm going to do anything evil, do you?"
"No," she said flatly. "I mean, he gave off a whole bunch of warning signs. You know. Wasn't sleeping or eating right. Eventually wasn't thinking right either. Then he started the downhill moral slide."
"Hey! I'm," he stopped midway through his objection. "Well that's really shoddy logic. And I'm thinking just fine."
"Like trying to live forever by neglecting your day to day basic health?" she asked.
"I liked it better the way that I thought of it as better long term priorities," he muttered.
She decided to leave that potential argument alone for the time being. "Look, this is what she thinks is all. And I did promise her that I'd tell her if you tried something like this, so my hands are tied."
"Fair enough," he shrugged. "So, what now?"
"Well we were going to go out somewhere," she said. "But now you're going to get yourself presentable, and we're going to go out somewhere so you can clear your head."
"Right," he nodded, and started to turn for his room to change. Then he stopped suddenly, and turned hesitantly back towards the golden scaled girl across from him. "Hey, if I ever did start to, you know, go bad? You'd stop me before I did anything, right?"
She smiled sympathetically. "If push comes to shove, I'll beat some sense into you. You have my word."
