How hard can it be to find one guy...

While Adrian tries to find Noah, failing miserably in that department, he ends up being found. Shoulders tense as a warm coffee is pressed against his back, accompanied by a familiar voice.

...Oh! It's him. Could've been more subtle.

"Hey! I was just looking for you," he quickly quipped, grasping at the offer of coffee. Shrugging indifferently, a lopsided smile on his face, he choked out: "I'm not picky about my coffee."

I hope he put lots, but I can always add more...

Obliged he took a sip, tasting a rich mix of bean and creamer, but also a pervading sweetness. Immediately his stomach roiled at the concoction, although his tongue begged for another taste.

"S'good. Thanks." Although he rarely enjoys coffee, it's a great change of pace; and he's not wont to suggest otherwise. He wears a light, easy-going smile as he speaks with the last bit of grogginess that's clung onto him since he'd roused himself awake. "Aww, that Houndour's cute."

A hand reflexively reached out to pat the pokemon, at great personal insult to the Persian, but Miser would simply tangle itself betwixt either person's legs as it made an introduction of its own.

---

^{A classy cat trying not to seem jealous.}
noah faber

"Aww, he reminds me of when my Arcanine was still a Growlithe," he offers at Frey's teething, which also serves to dismiss the previous notion that he was a cat person. "I like most pokemon, really. But Miser's better at keeping a low profile." He gestured to the sleek feline.

Shifting around uncertainly, he takes another sip of the coffee before allowing silence to fall. But Noah is keen for the preview, and quickly decides to spirit them away somewhere not surrounded by morning people chattering about what they want in their espresso. "Fine, fine," he hardly resists.

After getting upstairs he's surprised to see a few people occupying a couple monitors set up along the walls, although many remain empty and available for use. Shuffling towards one the furthest from any strangers, Adrian prepares to take a seat, Persian yawning as it too settles in.

"This place is actually pretty swanky..."

---

^{A classy cat trying not to seem jealous.}
noah faber

It was cute the way he held up Houndour's paw. Adrian wished he'd brought along Howitzer; they would've gotten along. They were so much alike.

"Yeah, yeah," he says with no small hint of sass. Although he's smiling outwardly, there's a knot in his stomach from the anxiety. I want him to like it... But it was unlike his last song. It was somber.

Depressing, he countered himself. And super edgy.

Pulling out his phone and flicking through to his messenger, Adrian pinpointed the lyrics he'd sent to Noah earlier the night before, rehearsing them in his mind's eye. "J-just... gimme a moment."

Closing his eyes, he relaxes his breathing, his chest rising and slowing at a crawl as he pushes out and exhales. Clearing his mind, as well his throat, Adrian imagines the instrumentals he's devised kicking in, allowing them to build up before...—

"You never know when you'll see the day,
Your arms and legs, they've given out;
Death's knocking harder at your doors today,
Choking on your words, your voice fades out..."

His eyelids peel back long enough for him to catch a glimpse of Noah, but he shies away from the eye contact, slipping them closed just as soon.

"I never thought it would happen this way,
Losses sustained with the first rattled shout;
Torn from the world without given a say,
Abandoned, left for dead in the fallout...!"

---

^{A classy cat trying not to seem jealous.}
noah faber

He shies away from the punches, unaccustomed to the gesture but mostly recoiling out of instinct. Noah makes him feel like a friend, less so a celebrity. "Ou-hey! HEY! That's assault; I could like, sue you, or something," he scolds in jest.

He's able to breath easily for a moment, basking in the praise that seems to lift his spirits, puffing out his chest. Beaming even. But Noah is sharp, not letting the contents of the song go unquestioned. An answer isn't forthcoming, and he tries to avert his gaze to hide from the question, but his company is insistent. "Yeah, I'm alright. Why?"

It was like a tribute, or even a requiem to those who'd lost during the New Year's incident. Of course it was going to be heavy. While Adrian had gotten off lucky, he'd seen much. Sometimes he still recalled that fateful moment a trainer's Gardevoir burst into smithereens, scraps of its gossamer being littering the area in a downpour of its mutilated cadaver. But he'd been "lucky"...

...And recognized for it after the fact.

"I just needed to write... something." In his own way, it was paying homage to those who'd paved the path he now walked with their sacrifices.

---

^{A classy cat trying not to seem jealous.}
noah faber

Adrian's twiddling a finger in front of Miser's face, earning a few half-hearted swipes as he catches the pink beans of their padded feet in hand.

"Maybe. But you've got more tact than most paparazzi, so you don't come across calloused or inciting..." Credit where credit was due. Although he'd been hoping for a bit of a respite, he supposed people could already guess what it was about. Adrian didn't have to guard it like a secret.

"I was celebrating in Slateport over the New Year. You've heard the news. Hardly the holiday we were all expecting..." He pouted, lowering his voice to more of a dull croaking.

"I got lucky, but... some people weren't." Splaying himself against the table, stealing away Noah's arm space, he ran anxious digits through the tangles of his hair, kneading out his raw, flayed nerves.

"I just want to know they're being cared for. The song's supposed to be attention grabbing; so people won't forget them." That was his mission.

"Hopefully they're making progress..." Anybody who'd seen his social media knew a music festival was in the works. Proceeds were meant to help stabilize Slateport's communities, and offer an innocent distraction. Adrian, a humanitarian...?

Mayhap this world of theirs was fated for ruin.

---

^{A classy cat trying not to seem jealous.}
noah faber

He starts at Noah, a look of apology blaring across the table at him. "I-I'm sorry, man. I didn't know..." He'd been a bit presumptuous there. Seemed he'd been around for that shit show, too.

"I'm writing it for the music festival Buzz Records is sponsoring in Slateport later this year. But I didn't wanna piss on the mood if things get chipper by then. I have other songs ready for it too..."

They were his record company, and he owed a lot to them. It went without saying he'd hoped to return the favor. Sitting back into his chair, throwing his head back in a tangle of jet black locks, he finds his composure. "It'll work out."

His dulcet tones betrayed no lack of confidence, but he would truly feel remiss to leave this song as just letters etched in a notebook. "Thanks, Noah. You're a swell pal." He smiled with his eyes.

"Oh, I should pay you back for the coffee," he began to rummage through his pockets, trying to find the familiar leather texture of his wallet.

...Did I leave it back at the apartment?

---

^{A classy albeit distanced cat.}
noah faber