It was a while before he'd managed to fully clean the raw eggs out of his hair, and by that time he'd started laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all. Who knew that Feline Face had that good of a throwing arm, or that little Natsuki would have been willing to let him use up an entire carton of eggs just to get back at him? Of course, it probably had something to do with the truly massive amount of salt and vinegar he'd put into those eggs – the ones that had ended up being cooked rather than thrown at his head, of course.

He wasn't one to easily admit when he was beaten; any of those bastard Hyper Zoanoids would have been able to attest to that, if they weren't all taking up space in his gullet, that was. Thinking of those saps always made him chuckle, and this time wasn't any exception to that rule. Laughing as he stepped out from under the showerhead and shook himself off, making sure not to splatter any water where it wouldn't go down the drain, since he didn't want to get another lecture, he left the shower and grabbed a towel.

He'd never quite noticed the more bizarre changes to his anatomy until he'd had 'Freezer and Feline Face to point them out. Still, the fact that he didn't have sweat glands anymore didn't preclude him from enjoying a good, hot shower. It just meant that he didn't get them as often as he would have liked. Natsuki'd said that they needed to conserve water, at least to the point where no one would think that there were eight different people sharing this one apartment with each other. Someone was bound to come and investigate if they thought that there was something strange going on here, and that someone could very easily be from Chronos.

With his towel, or at least the one that he had been using every time he decided to take a shower, wrapped around his waist to avoid both the weird looks from the other people who lived in the apartment and Feline Face's attempted 'dressing', he made his way back to their room. Feline Face was lounging on the bed, reading some book or other, but he looked up as soon as he heard the door closing, and he smirked when he saw Aptom.

"Well, I see you managed to get all of the egg out of your hair," Feline Face said, smirking as he turned to look at him, then turned back to his book with that same irritating smirk on his irritating face.

"Yeah, no thanks to you."

"Well, that's what you get for trying to set my tongue on fire," Feline Face said, still wearing that smirk.

"I'm going to get you back for this, you know," he shot back.

"You know you're perfectly welcome to try," Feline Face said, turning to grin at him. "I can't make any guarantees about the state you'll be in afterward, though."

"Are you two still having that ridiculous feud of yours?" 'Freezer asked as he came back into their room.

"No, we'd moved on to obliquely threatening one another when you came in," Feline Face said. "What have you been doing lately, Toshi-kun?"

"I've been apologizing to our generous hosts for your antics," 'Freezer said, sweeping his arm to include both of them in his little condemnation. "The least you could have done after provoking Howard to pelt you with eggs was to stay and help clean up the kitchen."

"No, the least I could have done was absolutely nothing," he grinned. "Which I already did, I might add."

'Freezer gave him The Look for that one, and Aptom didn't even bother trying not to stick his tongue out at the guy. This wasn't Chronos, after all, and even though his two new comrades were former lab rats, he knew that they didn't have any more love for the company than he did. Once they had inevitably found out that his diet consisted solely of Chronos-produced Zoanoids, there had been only a slight amount of freaking out.

Tetsuro, the fat kid who was always hanging around with Sho, had seemed really eager to talk to him after that choice little revelation. There were even times when the kid would all but shadow him in his eagerness to get just one more piece of information out of him. It could be kind of annoying at times, but if there was one thing he was good at besides pissing off Chronos, it was not being seen.

Those skills of his were getting a real workout around that Tetsuro, so he supposed that he could think of the whole "stalking" issue as a chance to practice his evasion skills. It was kind of fun to play a game where the penalty of losing was just being pestered for a few hours about what kind of things you did all day as opposed to getting blasted or torn apart or some other generally unpleasant thing like that. He supposed he could even be grateful to the little butterball.

He wasn't ever going to admit that, even under pain of torture, of course – he still had some pride, at least.

XxXxX

When he realized that Agito wasn't there with him, and that the other Guyver probably wouldn't be coming for quite some time, he didn't know what to do at first.

+Hey! Yo, Sho!+

+Ryan?+

+You looked like you just got a shock about a second ago. What's up?+

+I don't think Agito's going to be here for a while,+ he said, looking back at Ryan's family. They were still talking, with Ryan putting in the occasional word of his own. +I don't know what I'm going to be able to do.+

+You know, that's about the third time you've mentioned that Agito guy, and you still haven't told me who he is.+

+I'm sorry; Agito is the other Guyver, one that I've known from almost the first time that I equipped the Guyver.+

+Well, I guess if he's a friend of yours, then I pretty much have to like him. What's he like, just for future reference?+

How to even describe Agito? +I… I really wouldn't know what to say about him?+

+You trying to be nice, or is he really all that enigmatic?+

+He's… he's not someone who can be summed up in just a few words. I don't even think I know him all that well, myself.+

+Well that sounds really reassuring. I can't wait to meet the guy in person.+

Something in Ryan's tone didn't sound quite right to him. +Ryan, were you being sarcastic?+

+Kinda, yeah. In my experience, guys who try too hard to be all enigmatic and stuff either have some serious issues that they don't want you to find out about, or they just like screwing with people for the fun of it. Believe me, I've had close encounters with both types; it's not pretty.+

He really didn't think that Agito was anything like the people that Ryan had described, but then again, he didn't know him all that well, even with all the time that they had spent together. Maybe Agito did have something to hide the way Ryan had said. Privately, he didn't think that Agito was the type to enjoy playing mind games, but he wasn't going to say that. Still, none of that helped solve the problem of just where he was going to stay while he was waiting for his fellow Guyver to come.

+Ryan, do you know anywhere I might be able to stay? I'm afraid I don't have any money, but I don't want to trouble you and your family anymore.+

+I think I know a place you'd be comfortable. They don't charge you anything, and you can even get hot meals and access to the TV – at least when someone else isn't watching it.+

+Where is that, Ryan? Can you take me there soon?+

+Right here, Sho. You're standing in it,+ Ryan said, sounding like he wanted to laugh but was restraining himself.

+Your house? Are you sure your parents would want me here?+ he asked, not wanting to be a burden to anyone if he could help it, especially not to someone who had already done so much for him. +I mean, I think I might be able to find another place to stay.+

+With no money and no English skills? Get real, Sho. We've got a guest room we can get you all set up in.+

+What about your parents?+

+You just leave them to me.+ Ryan's tone was confident, and for a moment Sho thought that the younger Guyver would be able to take on anyone. But he didn't like the idea of Ryan having to lie to his parents again. +You really don't have to do this for me. I'm sure I can find somewhere else to stay.+

+Don't try to go all noble on me, Sho. We both know you're not going to be able to get anywhere with your complete lack of familiarity with the area, so just shut up and let me work, all right?+

There was no particular malice in Ryan's tone, but he was starting to sound exasperated, so Sho let the subject drop.