Lori leaned against the counter, still not covered. And Kai was having a very hard time concentrating. He had babbled something about thanking her.

>>”Do you want me to help you clean up?” Juka offered.

Kai nodded his thoughts obviously elsewhere. But the store was in shambles, what with the weird earthquake thing. Or shock, or whatever it was that they both had. And then there was also the fact that he and his bubble had gotten blown across the shop. “There’s a broom in that closet back there.” He pointed across the store, distractedly.

>>"Oh, I can think of a few ways."

Lori was taunting him. It just wasn’t right! Weren’t there rules about wearing shirts inside public buildings? He was sure it was posted somewhere…

“Yeah? Uh… what ways?”

"Oh, I can think of a few ways."

Oh, Juka liked the sound of that, he liked the sound of that a lot. "Do elaborate my gorgeous blond angel," he suggested to Lori with a wink, taking no pains to hide the fact that he quite admired the view he was currently receiving. It was really rather unfortunate when he decided that he really should turn back around and help Kai with the cleaning up of the store. Rather unfortunate indeed.

Turning his attentions reluctantly back to Kai, Juka discovered that the teen was doing much worse in the current situation than he was. He was just so sweet and innocent it was a little amusing, though he kept his smirking to a minimum. Not that he thought Kai was likely to notice a smirk given his present preoccupation.

While Juka himself fully admitted to open admiration and rather impure thoughts, he had enough experience to keep control of his faculties. As a self-proclaimed rock star (and an actual musician) as well as someone who most would consider more than a little promiscuous, at some point he had gained if not immunity to beautiful half naked women (and men) then certainly resistance to their charms. Besides, he preferred to be the one doing the seducing or at least allowing himself to be seduced. These things didn't just happen by accident or whim!

Juka went and grabbed the broom that he was directed to and a garbage bag as well. He attempted to hand the bag to Kai. "Kai, my dear, I do believe I may need your help." He smiled his amusement, patient with the kid.

"Do you know the Sanctuary secretary? Lisa?" Lori pulled a pen from a cup and pulled Kai's hand toward herself. Anywhere they touched skin to skin there was the slightest buzzing feeling. Her electricity wanted out of her skin and into Kai's. Bad.

She wrote a phone number on his hand and then their buzzing skin contact was over.

"She will know exactly what you can do to help and she can answer a phone like no one's business." A feat Lori had yet to master.

Lori caught her reflection in the front window and decided to stand up straight and be a respectable person again... which made her jelly knees a stress point that required more rigidity than a semi-solid. Suddenly it seemed a lot more important to be leaning. "I'll just be a minute and then be on my way." Yeah. A minute would do. She could... figure something out in a minute. Or... call a cab.

Lori grabbed his hand and a spark passed between them. Level-headed Kai would have made a joke about them having ‘the spark’ or ‘chemistry’. He was extremely tempted to tell her that he already had the number of the secretary. That was how he had been able to contact her in the first place, but he wasn’t really sure what the Sanctuary was.

Seven digits on his palm, he was curious, “What do I ask her? And when? Should I call her right now?”

Lori went back to her leaning, but Juka saved Kai, dragging him into helping clean. They brushed up the small pieces of pottery and soil. There actually wasn’t as much debris scattered around than he had thought. He couldn’t help stealing glances at the electric mutant from time to time.

“Uh… are you okay? Do you want me to call you a cab? How did you get here in the first place?”

"Do you need some fresh clothes, oh angelic one?" Juka asked Lori. As much as he really did enjoy the view (it should be a sin to cover up a body like that) he had to be practical about such things. The buttons on her shirt were, after all, rather unfortunately destroyed, likely never to be usable again. Well, unfortunate for her perhaps, anyway, really not so unfortunate for either himself or Kai.

Juka, of course, had been to Sanctuary before and could probably go there again if he really felt like it. Interesting that Lori should live at such a place, though. He had experience with two of its patrons and neither of those experiences were particularly pleasant. Maybe Lori was the exception to the rule or maybe she was someone he should be careful around. Just in case. Just until he learned more. But careful or not, no reason why he couldn't' still enjoy her, now was there?

The flower shop really was a mess and, as he began cleaning, Juka started to feel guilty about the whole situation all over again. Maybe he would have to bake the teen a cake. Yes, that's exactly what he'd do. Just as soon as this whole mess was cleaned up.

>“What do I ask her? And when? Should I call her right now?”

"Call whenever you have time. It's no rush. And I'm sure you can ask her whatever you want. I'm not really good with phones." They tended to give a heck of a lot of feedback or melt. Lori smiled the smile of 'I'm fine, really' when Kai offered to call her a cab.

>"Do you need some fresh clothes, oh angelic one?"

Clothes? Lori plucked at her duds. She had to look a hot mess right now. "What and miss the look on their faces when I pop back into the staff meeting?" She flashed pearly whites at Venus' small, pasty twin. Nope. She was just being stubborn about refusing help now.

To cover the fact that she was stalling she decided on a bit of small talk. "How did you two uh-meet?" It was a more tactful way of asking where Kai had picked up a flamboyant foreigner. And hey. Maybe there was a story in it.

Stare and the floor and sweep. Stare and sweep. Stare at Lori and sweep an already clean spot. She seemed perfectly comfortable standing there, making them sweat, and cracking jokes at the same time. His laugh was a little bit too enthusiastic as he imagined the aforementioned staff meeting.

>>"How did you two uh-meet?”

Kai exchanged significant glances with Juka, willing him to hear his thoughts. Is it too nerdy to tell her about? Obviously, however, that didn’t work so he decided just to go for it. “We, uh, met at a pokemon tournament.” And then as if more details would justify the geekiness, he rushed on. “You had to animate something with your powers to create a pokemon that could do attacks and I made a tangela out of some woody vines and practiced with it a lot so I could do a vine whip and other such attacks and I had a lot of other things planned, except Juka made this bubble pokemon and he kept smashing into me and so… I lost the first match…” There. That made perfect sense.

Even if Juka had to be careful of trusting Lori given her place of residence, he still couldn't help but grin mischievously at her intention to return to her business meeting in her current state of undress. Now this was a woman he could appreciate, one who was confident in who she was and what she looked like. "What a disappointment if you aren't able to take pictures of their expressions, my dear."

When Lori asked himself and Kai how they met, Juka shared a look with Kai before the teen proceeded to explain all about their pokemon tournament. "You should have seen it. Even if Kai here, was the defeated one, he put on a brilliant showing. Perhaps you should come and watch the next round of action. Yours truly is sure to take the finals." Confidence was never something he had a shortage of.

Juka continued his cleaning activities, knowing that the taxi would be there within minutes, which was probably a good thing for poor overwhelmed Kai. He would have to find the teen someone, Juka decided. Yes indeed, he'd go to some of his favourite companions and see if any of them had a teenage sister. What a fantastic idea. He nodded to himself.

Pokemon tournament? "There are fliers hung around the Sanctuary about that, but I wasn't sure what it was really... maybe a will sit in a round." Or not since they'd taken the X-jet at the first round and were currently holding the Mansion's head of security in her basement. Lori smiled a smile that was perfectly G rated and reflected no such devious thoughts. "Sounds like some good old fashioned educational fun."

A horn honked outside to signify the taxi's arrival. The blonde waved amiably. "Well, if you ever need help at least you know I'm near at hand." She couldn't promise to drop everything like she had today, but the offer was there. Lori had a special place in her heart for Kai, who she had helped with his very first murder.

"Juka, it was a pleasure." The boss lady winked as she made her way out of the store. She always chose her words carefully.

Lori made a graceful exit to music of the blaring taxi horn, which, Kai noted in particular, stopped honking as soon as she emerged from the shop. A few moments passed while he stared after her, mouth gaping open like a fish.

He regained some of his composure and turned to face Juka again. “Uh… so… you wanted to do… something? I can’t quite, uh, remember?” He snapped his fingers dramatically. “Experiments? With the bubbles, right?” His brain seemed to be right scrambled. If anyone asked, it was definitely because of the shock he’d received earlier. The one that made him fall over. The first time. “Anyway, are you still up for it?”

Juka waved at Lori, grinning all the while, as she exited the little flower shop. That taxi driver was certain to be in for quite the ride home and he just wished he had a camera to see the faces of her co-workers. Judging by Kai's reaction, it probably wasn't a moment too soon to have her leave. The poor kid was tangled all over himself. Yes, that just reinforced that fact that he must find Kai a proper girlfriend. Or at least a girl to show him the ins and outs of the female form.

"Kai, my darling, you are going to have to come out with me some night very soon and I will get you you're own person goddess. Its a promise." Because if there was one thing that Juka did, it was take care of his friends.

"We were going to grow some plants," Juka suggested helpfully, continuing to sweep away the mess. Poor Kai's shop, it certainly had become a disaster zone in rather short order.

“Goddesses are real?” It was not an entirely stupid question in his head. “We could, yes, we could go out some time. With… yes.” Kai shook his head and the cobwebs seemed to break. He blushed at his flustered reaction to his first experience with a scantily clad woman. He wanted to be a gentleman and treat her with respect, but… well, in the heat of the moment he’d acted like any other teenage boy.

Now that he was thinking clearly, he turned back to his shop and Juka. “It’s actually not too bad, considering all the flying through the air that people were doing.” He grabbed the dust pan and swept the last of the loose dirt away.

“Well now that that’s done, let’s see about this plant-growth accelerating bubble, thing. Do you have a specific plant in mind or do you want to use one here?” He considered the possibilities. Depending on the rate of growth, a tree might take too long to show any real progress. Maybe we should start with something that blooms in a season, like a daisy…

Kai really was positively adorable. Whatever girl Juka found for him would be lucky indeed to have such a sweet boyfriend as he knew the plant man would make. "A human goddess, silly," he helpfully clarified for the confused and befuddled teenager. Giving him a moment to collect himself seemed like a good idea and, was expected, given a couple of minutes he did exactly that. Positively adorable.

Sweeping away the last of the debris, Juka looked around and decided he was satisfied with the progress made. It might not be perfect but at least he didn't need to feel guilty all over again about the state that he left the place in.

"Oh, I didn't think to bring a plant of my own," Juka answered sheepishly. He knew he had forgotten something when he left his apartment in the morning. "I just, uh, guess I was hoping you had some plants just lying around..." Maybe he should have thought that through a little more thoroughly. He pointed at a plant with not yet bloomed buds on it, small enough to fit in one of his bubbles. It had a little sign on it stating that it was a hydrangea. "Would that work?"

Kai laughed. It felt good to laugh honestly after a period of freaking out and thinking someone was going to die. “It’s okay that you didn’t, I do have plenty of plants ‘lying around’.” He made a sweeping gesture with his hand.

Juka selected one from the shade garden section. >>“Would that work?"

“Mmm, a hydrangea.” A good choice, they grow in one season and the blooms would be easy enough to see clearly since they get so big. The stalks were also woody, so I can definitely watch it grow with relative ease. “It’ll grow about three feet tall. Would that still work for your bubble?”

Juka laughed with Kai, glad to see that he was feeling like himself again. Not that he blamed him after the rather lovely view that was Lori. Even Juka, experienced lover of many beautiful people that he was, hadn't been entirely immune from her rather prominent charms.

"Three feet will fit in my main bubble," Juka answered. It was a little large to fit in a mini bubble meaning the bubble would disappear once it got to be a certain size. Although he wasn't really sure how fast plants like that tended to grow or how much time Kai wanted to devote to their growing, so it might end up not even being an issue. He wasn't certain how fast his own power worked, exactly, but he knew he certainly couldn't grow a tree in any reasonable period of time, that was for certain.

Juka walked over to the plant and bubble both it and himself and began thinking thoughts of fast growing. He still wasn't absolutely positive how his time control thingy worked, but thinking strongly seemed to do the trick in the past. "Now I think we just have to wait," he informed Kai. Hopefully this would work.