"..." Jaden was silent for another moment, glaring at her.

"Some punks graffiti'd around here, was going to help the Father." he told her.

"Was a minute late, and when I arrived, I saw the black-haired asshole attacking him. Looked ready to kill him when he was down." he said further.

"So I got angry. REAL angry. And I attacked him in my rage, biting him." he continued.

"But then he stabbed me and ran off, so I went to see if the Father was ok, just as you showed up and flung me away."

Jaden, still looking unimpressed, sighed... as his expression softened a bit.

"He's a really good friend of my Mother." he told her.

"She and him are pretty close, and because of that, I came to know him as well." he continued.

"Really good guy, and deserved help in cleaning up the mess here." he went on.

"...no good deed goes unpunished, it seems." he added with a growl.

Jaden just leaned against the wall, still sitting on his ass.

"Yeah." he said.

"She can be." he agreed.

"But that's neither here nor there, what does that-" he started to ask, before pausing.

"Wait." he said.

"How do YOU know my Mom?" he asked her.

Jaden was silent for another moment, before sighing. Heavily.

"Ah." he said.

"Mom's mentioned you once or twice." he told her.

"...I admit, you're more violent than you've been described." he went on, slowly getting to his feet.

"Really hurt my back."

Jaden then hung his head.

"....god damn it." he said.

"I can't argue that." he muttered.

"You saw what you saw and reacted accordingly." he went on, before looking at her slightly.

"...the freak comment was uncalled for, though..." he then said quietly.

Jaden raised an eyebrow for a moment.

"....attacked and then offered dinner." he said.

"Sadly, not the roughest start to a date for me." he told her with a laugh.

"But no. I haven't eaten." he then said.

"Was thinking about doing so after the graffiti cleanup."

Jaden wanted to say something about her stutter. However, his immediate reactions were quelled by the sense of manners and common decency that his mother had beat into him after he'd had his phase of being a rebellious little shit.

So he just sighed, and thought about it.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Not really." he said.

"Maybe Italian, if you don't have a preference, yourself."

Jade just sighed in response.

"No, I don't have a preference for where." he told her.

"And you don't need to, but I'll accept it as such." he then said.

"YOU have a preference?" he asked.

"Someplace you'd prefer to go?" he asked further.

"...because I just remembered of this little hole-in-the-wall place that'd be good. Dunno if you've heard of it." he told her.

"Maria's Bistro, but the people that know about it generally called it Mama Maria's Kitchen." he chuckled.

"Both work." Jaden responded.

"They're mage-friendly, but non-mages frequent there sometimes, too." he told her.

"...also, not sure if you want ME to be the one doing mana transport." he then said. "My method is... uh... well, let's just say it's 'turn-your-guts-into-a-painful-knot-if-you're-not-used-to-it'..." he mumbled.

"I DO have a vehicle, though." he then said.

"You got a preference for how we get there?"

"Right." Jaden said.

He then sighed as he looked at the scene of the attack, and shook his head.

"Yeah, we should go." he told her.

"Odds are Rene's gonna show up soon, or have Anna show up, and clean up all this mess." he went on.

"And we DON'T want to be here for that." he muttered.

"I'm parked about 5 minutes away, so let's go."