"Tell me something to make me feel better." Said Mob as they ate. This had been a bad idea. This was where she had gone with Master Reigen. This whole place felt like him. Like them. Too many good memories. They just made the bad memories even worse.
"Uh…today I made conversation with someone on the train platform. We talked about how nice the weather's been lately." Said Serizawa. He didn't know what was with her. Her eyes were still red. Her face was kind of red, too. It made her look like she had a cold. Maybe she was sick. He wouldn't ask her, though. He knew that girls were very sensitive about the way they looked. Not that he had much experience with girls. He had locked himself in his room for twelve years and the only girl around had been his mother. After that he had stayed by the president's side almost constantly and the only people he interacted with, and barely at that, were the ultimate five, and there weren't any girls in the ultimate five.
"I'm happy for you, Serizawa. I know how hard that is for you." Said Mob as she sniffled. At least things were looking up for him. She looked down at her ramen. She wasn't hungry. She had to eat though, Serizawa had bought this for her. He was nice like that, like Master Reigen. No, nicer, because he hadn't taken her heart and stomped on it until it was a flat fleshy pancake laying in the sun for the crows to eat.
"It was so hard. I had to hide under my umbrella but I made it through." Said Serizawa. Was something wrong with her food? She was just making faces at it. He thought she liked ramen. Maybe she changed her mind. He wanted to make her happy. When she was happy she smiled. Never a big smile but enough for him. Her eyes lit up, too, before she smiled. Her eyes seemed blank, now, but more like a sad blank.
"It's hard to tell people things sometimes…." Said Mob softly. She took a bite of her ramen. It had no taste. The food turned to ashes in her mouth, literally. The other her was mad, too. Mad and sad. This was not a good feeling. They had to feel better. Master Reigen could usually make them feel better but he was the reason they felt like garbage. Serizawa was there, now, though. Maybe he could make them feel better. He had never been anything but nice to them, to her.
"For you, too?" asked Serizawa. He couldn't imagine Master Kageyama having trouble with anything. She was so powerful and wise. She was the one who had shown him a better path in life. She was very together, not like him. She always knew just what to say or do. She didn't talk that often but when she did it was always the right thing. Sometimes she phrased things awkwardly but she was very wise.
"…yeah… for me too." Said Mob as she ate robotically. It tasted of nothing. No like how plain rice tasted of nothing but literally like she was eating air. Well, she was, partially. The other her was turning their food into a sort of baby food as they chewed. Just as something to do so they didn't end up breaking something.
"What do you do? To make it easier I mean." Asked Serizawa. Maybe in talking to her then she would tell him what was wrong. Or maybe it was just none of his business. It might have just been none of his business and he was prying and being a bad friend. He didn't want to be a bad friend to her, to put what they had at risk. He only had two friends, really, which was much more than he had before.
"I make an idiot out of myself." Said Mob. She should never have confessed to him. He had let her down gently. Wait until she was an adult? Why? So he could say no again? She wasn't stupid, she knew what a no sounded like when she heard it. He should have just left it at no. Why did he have to go and lie to her again like that? Wait until she was older…why? What would change beside the numbers on the calendar?
"You do? I can't imagine you ever making an idiot out of yourself, Master Kageyama." Said Serizawa. She was always so calm, to together. Even when they had met she hadn't looked afraid for one second. She told him to run away and then she handled it. She was so strong. He could feel her eyes on hims. She looked over at him and stared, something in her eyes that he couldn't read.
"Do you mean that?" asked Mob. She stared at him. He was a good friend. He was always so nice to her. He wouldn't lie to her, he wouldn't ever make her feel the way she was feeling right then.
"Of course! I think very highly of you, Master Kageyama." Said Serizawa. She had saved him in every way that a person could be saved. He owed her his life. Not only had she saved him but she understood him. She understood what it was like to have the kind of power that he did. To live in a chaotic world that did nothing to help you keep it together. He would keep it together, though, for her. If she could do it then he could too. After all, she held more power within herself than he ever would.
"…thank you…I think highly of you, too, Serizawa." said Mob. He was a good person. He had changed for her. He had gone against the person who he thought had saved him in the same way that Master Reigen had saved her. He had changed for her, for her. She had changed him, made him into a better person, just like…
"You do, Master Kageyama?" asked Serizawa. How could someone like her see anything in someone like him? Someone as strong as her, as perfect, as together? She was more of an adult than he was in a lot of ways. She knew exactly who she was and who she wanted to be. She had been out there in the world with her powers when he had hidden himself away. How could she think so highly of him? She was so good and he was nothing like her.
"I do, I really do. You don't have to call me Master. You can call me by my name." said Mob. She didn't want to be called Master. She didn't want to be anyone's master. She just wanted to be herself. She wanted to be…Mob.
"Oh no, that's much too familiar." Said Serizawa. He knew that was a social rule, you couldn't just call the people above you by their given names. He hadn't been called by his given name in so long it sounded foreign to his ears.
"I don't mind. I want…I want you to call me by my name." said Mob. Mob. Shigeko. Anything but Master Kageyama. She didn't want to hear the word 'master' anymore. She didn't want to think about Master Reigen and how incredibly, unbelievably, idiotically, stupid she had been.
"Are you sure?" asked Serizawa. There were so many rules and even when it seemed like he wasn't breaking one he could be breaking one. He didn't want to break any with her. He didn't want to do anything that could jeopardize what he had with her.
"I asked you to, didn't I?" said Mob with a slight tone. She wasn't a child. If she said that she wanted to be called by her name then she wanted to be called by her name. She didn't need Serizawa to see her as a child too. She wasn't little anymore. She was not a child.
"Oh, right. I will then…Shigeko. Or do you prefer Mob?" asked Serizawa. This was big. He hadn't called anyone by their given name since he was in elementary school. No, wait, he had called people by their family names then too. She would be the first person that he ever called by their given name.
"You can call me Mob if you want, but right now I want to be called Shigeko." Said Mob. Mob was what Master called her. She wasn't up to being called Mob right then. She wasn't up to being Mob right then. She could so easily let herself slip away. Shigeko could take control. It would just be so easy.
"Ok…Shigeko." Said Serizawa. He tested her name out. Shee-jay-kow. Wow. They were even better friends than he had thought. Was he supposed to tell her that she could call him by his given name now? He had never asked anyone to, and it sounded weird. He liked Serizawa. Maybe he should leave it at that.
"Almost nobody calls me that, you know." Said Mob. She didn't much care for it, the other her always thought that she was being addressed when people called her Shigeko. She didn't feel like being Mob then, though. Maybe she should just relinquish control to the other her. No. The world was made out of paper and the other her would rip it apart without even realizing it.
"Shigeko? Why, it's a nice name. I like it, it sounds pretty." Said Serizawa. What did it mean? Nurturing child. She was very nurturing, wasn't she? She was always thinking of others.
"You really think so?" said Mob. She didn't think one way or another about her name, but now she kind of did. She valued the opinions of her friends. Serizawa was a good friend, very nice, very honest. He had never lied to her, not even once.
"I do. It means nurturing child, doesn't it? That's what you are so it fits." Said Serizawa. She wasn't a child, though, not really. When he thought of a child he thought of a small and helpless little person. She was older than a child but younger than a proper adult. She acted like an adult, though, sometimes. More than he did a lot of the time, anyway.
"I'm not a child." Said Mob, the teacup next to her cracking. She was not a child and hadn't been for years. Chronologically yes, she was young, but she didn't feel like a child anymore. She knew that she was capable. She knew that when it came down to it she would do whatever she needed to do up to and including laying her life down for the people she cared about. A child wouldn't do that. Who cared about chronology? She was not a child and she knew this to be true.
"Oh no! I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that you're a very nurturing person. You're always thinking of others. I like that about you." Said Serizawa. Great. He had gone and said the wrong thing and offended her. She was looking at him, now. He couldn't read her face or her eyes.
"You don't think I'm a child?" asked Mob after a moment. Serizawa shook his head. She was young but not a child. She didn't act or look like a child. Not that he spent much time looking at her. He tried not to look at her, if anything. She was his superior and friend. Besides, from what he could gather girls didn't like that. Not that he knew much about girls but he didn't want to offend them.
"No, I don't think that you're a child at all." Said Serizawa. Mob smiled. She didn't smile big, she never did naturally, but she smiled. Someone saw her for what she was, not what she had been. She was not a child anymore and finally someone acknowledged it.
"Thank you for taking me here. I feel much better." Said Mob. She ate a little more quickly now. The food still had no taste but she wasn't motion sick anymore. She felt better, now, much better. He had, in fact, told her something to make her feel better.
"Why were you upset….Shigeko?" asked Serizawa. Since they were such good friends not then maybe this wasn't prying but instead friendly concern. He didn't like to see her sad, it didn't suit her. Happiness, the face she was making right then and there, suited her. She looked nice, then. Happy.
"I just messed up, that's all. Nothing you need to worry about, but thank you." Said Mob. He was really nice. He was always so nice to her, even when they first met. He had been pulling his punches when they fought. So had she. He hadn't wanted to hurt her then and he wouldn't hurt her now. He made her feel better, which was more than some people did.
"Alright, if you say so. I couldn't really see you messing up, though." Said Serizawa. Maybe this was one of those times when she didn't want to talk about it. Sometimes people didn't want to talk about things. They ate in silence for a moment. Her eyes weren't red and puffy anymore, that was good. She looked better. Maybe he had helped her even though he had no idea how he had helped her.
"I mess up all the time." Said Mob. She messed up in class, she messed up socially, and she messed up with Master Reigen. Maybe she was just destined to mess up. Maybe that was just what her existence was meant to be. Mob, the person who messed everything up.
"I've never seen you mess up. I look up to you, actually." Said Serizawa. She was looking at him. Her eyes were a nice shade of brown. They looked happy, too. She was giving him that look again, though, that unreadable look.
"You do? Why?" asked Mob. Nobody had ever looked up to her before, not even her little brother. She had always been the person who looked up to others.
"Because you're amazing. Well, the things you do, I mean! The way you always know what to say and what to do and you just have everything together, you know?" said Serizawa. Mob reached over and put her hand over his. It felt like a nice thing to do. His hand was much bigger than hers. Soft, though. His nails were bitten down to nothing, though. Hers were kind of getting kind of long.
"Thank you, Serizawa. I think that you're amazing too. You went from locking yourself away from the world to trying to take over the world to helping to save the world." Said Mob. Serizawa held his umbrella in his other hand. This was…wow. He didn't make a lot of physical contact with others, especially not female others. Her hand was smaller than his. It was soft, too, and warm. Warmer than he thought that it would be even though he knew that human beings were warm blooded. The only person to touch him regularly had been the president and he had been cold to the touch, like toughing a statue.
"I never really wanted to take over the world. I was just following the president, that was all." Said Serizawa. How could he have been so stupid? He just followed the president because he had showed him what he thought was kindness and friendship. She had been the one to show him what true kindness and true friendship were. She, Shigeko, Mob.
"Still, you helped me save it. Thank you for that." Said Mob, her hand still over his. This was nice. He wasn't pushing her away and telling her that she was just a kid. Not like some people. Serizawa was nice like that, and he understood her in a lot of ways. He knew what it was like, what a lot of stuff was like.
"You saved me. Thank you for that." Said Serizawa. He let her keep her hand there. He had no idea what she meant by it but he decided not to read too much into it. Even though it felt like his insides were trying to become his outsides. Even though he had never made this kind of physical contact with a girl who hadn't been his mother. Even though she was so nice to him, so nice to everyone. Even though she had always been there for him when he needed her. Even though she would always be there. Even though-
"Serizawa? Are you ok?" asked Mob as Serizawa charged the air with his energy. Her explosions were sudden. They happened when she couldn't hold anything back anymore and the other Shigeko flooded out of their mindscape like a broken damn. Serizawa's had a preamble to them. The cracking energy was like when the sea got really calm and they sounded the tsunami alarm.
"Fine! I'm fine. Are you done?" asked Serizawa as he pulled his hand away from hers. He couldn't think about her like that. He actively tried not to think about her like that. This was not the person he should be thinking those thoughts about.
"Yes, I'm not hungry anymore." Said Mob. She had eaten most of her food. It was mostly just stray noodles and cold broth left. Usually she passed her bowl to Master Reigen and he would drink the last of it himself but Master Reigen wasn't with her right then and there. He was probably off with someone else, someone he would rather be with, someone who he thought was grown up enough for him. Someone who he didn't see as a child. But she wasn't a child, not really. If Master Reigen only saw her as he did when they met then fine. She had someone right there who saw her not as a child but as an equal, an adult.
They finished and walked out the door, stopping in front of the ramen place. Serizawa made no move to leave. He didn't know if they were still hanging out or not. Master Reigen usually told him when they were done hanging out. Serizawa didn't really want to be done hanging out with her.
"I don't want to go home yet." Said Mob. She didn't want to go back to her house and brush off the million and one questions that Ritsu would have for her and then she'd be up all night staring up at her ceiling and thinking of how she had made a complete and total moron out of herself. No. she didn't want to go home just yet.
"Do you want to keep on hanging out?" asked Serizawa before he lost his nerve. He didn't want to stop hanging out with her. This felt nice. Her presence, her warmth, her occasional smiles. She made him feel warm, too, and kind of nervous but a good sort of nervous. He tried to squish that feeling down. He didn't know precisely what it was but he figured that it was something that he should not have been feeling towards her.
"Yes. I would like that a lot, Serizawa." Said Mob. She didn't care what they did. Anything but going home with nothing to do but look at the ceiling and going over the many, many, many mistakes that she had made.
"What do we…do?" asked Serizawa. He had never hung out with someone for this long. He knew what he would do if he were alone but he had no idea if she liked the things that she liked. She was looking at him again, expression unreadable.
"What do you want to do?" asked Mob. She didn't want to do anything in particular, just go home. She would even have gone to the park to watch the grass grow if he had suggested it.
"If I were by myself I'd stop by the model store on my way home but I don't know if that's something that you would like." Said Serizawa. There weren't really girls at the plastic model store and he had no idea if she even liked building them.
"Ok. That sounds nice." Said Mob. She had never been to the model store but she knew, vaguely, where it was. She didn't really build things like that because she, well the other her, had a tendency to break things. Still, it beat going home. She had never been to Serizawa's house, either, so that would be a nice too.
"Really?" asked Serizawa. Did she mean that she wanted to come home with him, too? He had never had anyone over before. Was it too messy? Would she mind?
"Yes. I wouldn't say yes if I didn't mean it. I always mean what I say." Said Mob. Serizawa wasn't believing her either, just like Master Reigen didn't believe her.
"Ok. Well, it's this way." Said Serizawa as he watched a dark look pass into her eyes. He had said the wrong thing again. Damn. Well, he could just…do better in the future. What had Master Reigen said? Mistakes were just future opportunities or something like that. He said a lot of wise things, it was hard to keep it all straight.
They walked down the street together, some distance between them. Serizawa risked a glance at her every so often. She was staring straight forward. He let himself see her aura. Still the same two colors, bubblegum pink and electric blue. More blue than pink, though. He wondered what that meant. Usually it was an even split. He didn't ask, though, because that might have been rude.
Mob felt his aura pass over hers. It was nice on a metaphysical level. It reminded the other her that he was there. The other her perceived the world differently. Serizawa's presence made them both feel good. Safer. Like Master Reigen's presence used to. But Master Reigen wasn't there, now was he? No. He had rejected them. He had pushed them away and rejected them. Even after they kissed…Mob walked a little closer to Serizawa. He made her feel less alone.
Serizawa wasn't sure what he was supposed to do right then. She had gotten closer to him. Was he hogging the sidewalk? Did she want him to move? No, there was plenty of room on her side of the sidewalk. She had wanted to be near him. Oh. Why? He had no idea what he was supposed to now. Keep walking? He decided to keep walking. He couldn't just stop in the middle of the sidewalk and ask her what that was about. Wait, he had seen her and Master Reigen do this. He put an arm around her, that was what Master Reigen always did when they were that close.
Mob was staring at the world ahead of her when she felt Serizawa put an arm around her. Oh. Why? Did he…want to? She had been walking kind of close to him. Did she want him to? She liked it when Master Reigen put an arm around her when they went places. Did she like it when Serizawa did it, too? Whatever. He wanted to and he was nice so she'd let him. She was happy that someone wanted to be this close to her.
Serizawa wasn't sure how he felt about this. On the one hand this was no trouble at all. On the other hand he had never been this close to her before, or any girl for that matter. He held onto his umbrella with his other hand. He had nothing to be nervous about. She had asked him to and she hadn't pushed him away so he must have been doing something right. Right? She didn't seem upset at all. She was small, smaller than him. He was conscious of this fact and he didn't know why. She was smaller than him and she was warm, this was what his mind chose to focus on. He could feel her hair under his arm. It was long, longer than his had ever been. It looked soft. She looked soft, like a plushy maybe. No, not a plushy. Maybe like a doll? She did look kind of like a doll sometimes. She could sit very stilly and go without blinking for long periods of time, he noticed. She looked kind of like a doll, then. Her hair was perfect, nothing out of place. Her skin was pale and smooth looking, not a single scar or blemish. She was pretty, he decided. She was very pretty.
Mob was conscious of much bigger he was than her. He was bigger than Master Reigen, too. He smelled different. Master Reigen smelled like cigarettes and aftershave and incense. Serizawa smelled like soap and plastic and aftershave but a different kind, not as strong. He smelled nice too, she decided. Even the plastic smell was nice. If she closed her eyes she could imagine it was Master Reigen, though she didn't do that for very long because it made her heart hurt. She walked a little closer to Serizawa. He wasn't rejecting her and he wouldn't. Not that she was doing anything that could end in a rejection.
"This is it!" said Serizawa as she got even closer to him. His stomach was doing flips, his hand was so sweaty that his umbrella could have slipped from his grip at any time. She had never gotten that close to him before. She had never given any indication that she wanted to be that close to him before…right? Was she still upset? Or did she just like being close to him.
Not that he had ever had anybody who wanted to be that close to him. Not that it had been possible for anyone to be that close to him.
"Whoa…" said Mob as she took it all in. There were models for everything! Including…was that unit one! A lot of unit ones! Units zero and two! This. Was. Amazing. She clasped her hands together. She was getting too worked up. Still, though, this was amazing. She didn't have a lot of EVA merchandise even though she loved it. She didn't have a lot of stuff in general. She tended to break things on accident.
"You really like it in here?" asked Serizawa. Her eyes looked so happy. She was staring at the shelf with the Evangelion models. He liked that show enough, it was cool. She seemed captivated, though. Hey, he had learned something about her.
"Yes. Yes I do, Serizawa." Sais Mob as she walked to the shelf. She let herself touch the model of unit one. Shinji's unit. He was like her in a lot of ways. He had something that he had to do, pilot an EVA, even though he didn't want to. He did it because piloting the EVA was what he was good at and it gave him purpose. He did it because he was told to. Before Master Reigen had told her to come and work for him she had been totally without purpose. She pulled her hand back. No. She had to stop thinking about Master Reigen. She reached over and felt the box for unit two. She had to be more like Asuka. She piloted the EVA because that was what she was good at but nobody made her. She was a pilot because then she could prove herself. That was what Mob needed to do. She needed to be her own person, to prove herself. Then she wouldn't be seen as a child anymore.
"I didn't know that you like Evangelion." Said Serizawa as he watched the emotion play out from behind her eyes. She nodded but didn't look at him.
"I do. Do you?" asked Mob. She liked it because it was the first thing that she had ever seen that made sense. She understood why everyone did what they did and she understood why it ended the way it did. Instrumentality must have been wonderful. No more pain, no more sadness, no more boundaries between people.
"I like it alright. I didn't really get the way the show ended, though." Said Serizawa. In the twelve years spent locked away from the world he had watched A LOT of TV. Evangelion was the one thing he didn't understand. The ending where everyone was just talking to themselves and the animation was either weird or nonexistent was too confusing. The movies really cleared it up, though.
"It ended with everyone reaching instrumentality. All of their boundaries broke apart and they could all finally understand each other. It must have been wonderful." Said Mob. Now she was facing him. She let her aura touch his. It was like touching AT fields, almost. The AT field was the metaphysical part of you, it was like your soul. She had left her vessel before and her aura had gone with her. Was the aura just another part of her, the soul part, and it was just too big to fit into her vessel? What did it mean to touch souls with someone? Was that instrumentality too?
"You think? Everyone looked pretty scared in the last rebuild movie." Said Serizawa. He could feel her aura touching his. It was like a feather light touch, like she was testing him out to see if he was there. He pushed back, a little. It was nice.
"They just weren't used to leaving their vessels and being one with everyone else. I've left me vessel before but I've never been one with someone else. Well, the other me but she doesn't count because we're two halves of the same person. Leaving my vessel was scary the first time but now it doesn't even hurt. I don't leave it that often, though. I don't really need to." Said Mob. It hurt getting used to having no boundaries between her and the rest of the world. After that she got used to it. She had even controlled it well enough that she didn't get ripped apart when she materialized inside of Minori to get Mogami out. Sometimes she wished she had, though, on those nights when she wakes up scared and everything is floating around her.
"I've never left my vessel before and I've always just been myself. I think I might be able to but I'm afraid to try. I've never been one with someone else before, it's just me in here." Said Serizawa. He had never been one with another person in any sense of the word. It had always just been him. Even in his head it had always been him. He knew that she was split in half, though, her consciousness was. That was the duality in her aura. His was one solid color. He was just himself.
"You're lucky, being alone." Said Mob. She had spent her entire life, well almost her entire life, with the other her. She didn't know when the other her came into being but she knew when the other her had first acted. Ritsu forgave her, though, for that time when they were little and she lost control. Serizawa knew what it was like to lose control even if it was only him.
"It gets lonely." Said Serizawa. He had been lonely earlier. He had been so lonely that he had gone back to work to see if anyone was there. Now he wasn't lonely, and it was all thanks to her. She still seemed troubled, though. He wished that he could make her feel better.
"You don't have to be lonely. I'm here with you." Said Mob meaning it in the most literal way possible. She was there and he was there so then neither of them had to be lonely anymore. He reached a shaky hand up and almost put it over her shoulders before putting it quickly at his side where it belonged. He didn't know if she wanted him to touch her. He wanted to make physical contact with her but he knew not to. He was too nervous and too socially inept. If she asked him to, though, then he would. He took a shaky breath and left her to look at the EVA models. He walked to the back of the store to clear his head. He needed to stuff down all of those feelings that she brought up in him, that she had brought up in him since the day they met.
He hadn't wanted to hurt her when they met. He was pretty socially stunted but he knew that one did not fight with girls. He had pulled his punched, so had she. She didn't have to but she did. She didn't even beat him, not really. She had, instead, shown him something better than anything he had ever had before. She had just met him but she cared enough to show him the error of his ways. She had saved him, too, at the end even though he had originally been her enemy. She had saved him and then accepted him as a friend.
That was all he could ever ask for.
If she noticed the way his eyes would linger on her she said nothing. If she noticed the way he would sometimes stutter around her then she said nothing. If he noticed the way he would trip over his words around her then she said nothing. Maybe she didn't notice, maybe she didn't want to make him feel bad. But why was she different now? She had wanted to be near him. She had wanted him to make physical contact with her as they walked. She was here, with him, sharing in his interests. That was just friendship, right?
That was all it could be, right?
He grabbed what he wanted and found her where he left her. He debated getting her something. He wanted to get her something. He wanted to make her happy. He wanted to see her smile. She was pretty when she smiled. She was pretty when she didn't. She was pretty whenever.
"Do you want one?" asked Serizawa. Mob shook her head.
"I can't. I'd probably break it on accident." Said Mob. She wouldn't ever get herself something so delicate. She didn't have many toys or trinkets, even when she was a child. She always accidentally broke things with her powers.
"Really? Oh. I'm sorry. I forgot that yours were different from mine." Said Serizawa. His explosions were different. He just sort of exploded everywhere but she grabbed onto things with her powers and they broke. If he looked closely enough he could see the other her, the white the existed in the cracks of her existence, reaching out and grabbing what they could.
"That's alright. Is that what you're going to get?" asked Mob. That was from one of the Gundam shows. It was an ok series. Nothing could ever eclipse EVA though.
"Huh? Oh, yes. I haven't built this one yet." Said Serizawa. This was new-ish. He hadn't had as much time to build with work and all. It would be nice to get back into his old hobbies. Well, as long as he remembered to socialize. He was socializing right now, though, with her.
"I bet it'll look cool when you finish it." Said Mob. The little finished ones that they had at the store looked cool. It was amazing that someone could build something like that all on their own. She could never do such precise work like that.
"They do, when they're finished. I have some like this finished, if you want to see them." Said Serizawa. He still wanted to hang out with her. Did she still want to hang out with him? He was afraid of both answers, the yes and the no. If yes then he'd be nervous because he never had anyone over before. If no then he was equally afraid. It wouldn't be a rejection, right? It would feel like that, sort of.
"I do." Said Mob. She didn't want to go home just then and being with him was nice. He was nice.
He wouldn't reject her.