To a certain degree, some level of worry is always present in Takashi's mind, a worry about a lot of things, large and small. It's an effect of the dark energy, a constant nagging that nothing is right. But this is somewhat different, because he can place specific reasons why he knows something's off - namely, the way Ami's texts have lacked her correctness.
He has managed to fight the urge to bring her something despite her telling him she didn't need anything - at least for now. He might have to do something if she seems as morose in person as her texts appeared to indicate.
With the doorman letting him up, Takashi makes his way to the apartment Ami shares with her mother, and somewhat uneasily shifts his weight from leg to leg beforre knocking.
Whatever it is, he just really hopes it isn't his fault or it isn't something she can blame him for.
Ami really oughtn't allow herself to wallow quite so thoroughly, but finding out you're not good enough for your lifelong dream tends to have a rather dramatic effect on a girl, even if that's not semantically correct, and you're just blowing the truth slightly out of proportion.
Ami is eating chocolate ice cream right from the carton, alongside a bevvy of chocolate brownies and sweets provided by Makoto. It's pretty much as far from healthy as she can get, and it isn't really making her feel any better. She's ditched her school uniform in favor of a baggy, oversized teeshirt with a picture of the moon on it. The shirt falls to her knees, and is about as flattering as one might expect a sack to be. Whether she has on a skirt or shorts beneath is a mystery, but it's certainly not pants.
At the knock, Ami sets her carton of ice cream down, wipes her face clean, then pads to the doorway and pulls it open. She looks at Takashi briefly, then steps back out of the way so he can enter. No greeting, no embrace, no smile; just a look and then she's out of his way.
Takashi stops, looks at Ami for a moment. He doesn't smile widely or question her, he just walks in with a soft, understanding half smile, then looks over at where she was sitting down and the ice cream and other sweets, and he's not so culturally isolated as to not understand that means the girl is sad, and very much so.
He turns to her. For a moment, he's quiet, not sure of what to do or say. But then he finally does get words out. "Hey. Whatever's wrong, I'm here. Whatever I can do, let me know. Can you talk to me about it?"
Ami shrugs and closes the door behind him. As ever, there still aren't boy-sized house slippers, but then: Ami's barefoot, too, so maybe that's okay. She pads back into the livingroom, past her carton of ice cream, to her leather bookbag, leaning against the wall.
Kneeling down, Ami digs into the bookbag and pulls out a handful of letters, addressed to her, all from varying universities.
"These came for me yesterday," Ami explains, as she offers the pile to Takashi.
Takashi reads over the letters in order, quietly. He doesn't bring up the one from Heidelberg, just sets it off o the side. The Kawasaki University letter gets a curious look, but then Axion pings in and while it doesn't sound like anything, clearly some information is exchanged because Takashi makes a face and sets that letter aside too.
But then he gets to the one from Tokyo University, looks at it. Looks up at her. And back to the letter. "Well." he crosses his arms and literally flings the letter on the table. "You can't expect some drone in the admissions department to know what they're saying. Probably just following some sort of checklist."
"Any school would be stupid to not accept you. I mean, these other two got the idea." A pause. "Why'd you apply to a school in Germany, anyways?"
Ami watches Takashi's expression as he reads through the letters. It's clear that he shares her opinion on Kawasaki University, which is at least some modicum of a relief. When he dismisses all concerns about the one from Tokyo, though, she frowns a little.
But he asked a question.
"I didn't," Ami replies, voice barely above a whisper. After a moment, she turns away and scoops up her ice cream carton. Ami drops the spoon in the sink, then covers the carton and puts it in the fridge. "And I didn't apply to Kawasaki, either," Ami explains as she returns. "In fact, the only one I applied to was the one that turned me down, because they were the only ones who had agreed to give me the opportunity to test into early classes in the first place."
Takashi tilts his head. "Wonder where they got the idea from, then. Maybe the same idiot that turned your application down shared it out. Maybe they're on the take? Kawasaki trying to boost its image by preying on people the admissions department finds some flimsy reason to turn down? I mean you gotta figure those people don't make a lot of money doing what they do. Everybody's got a price."
"...Do you want me to move things around on my end? I'm sure I can find some way somewhere to have Tokyo University give... serious reconsiderations... to any problems that they might have believed that they saw. It's pretty clear from the other two letters something's odd."
"Might as well make it odd in your favor back. I mean. Probably. I can probably do that."
Ami gives Takashi a tolerant look, then shakes her head and heads back towards the hardwood floor he's still standing on. "Anyways," she says, "now you know why I'm a little down. Finding out I'm not good enough has been a bit of a new experience, but ... that's why I attend cram school and you don't have to, I guess. Before you go, though, Usagi-chan did suggest I should get something, so ... stay here, okay?" Then, she turns and starts heading towards the bedrooms.
Takashi stands up suddenly to protest. "You are absolutely good enough, and anyone who doesn't think so has ulterior motives or is an idiot." He's incredibly firm on this point, having to lower his voice after.
"Okay... I'll wait." Now he seems to be at least a shred as bummed as Ami, largely through transference. It's at least clear he doesn't like seeing her sad.
Ami shakes her head at the protest, but doesn't argue. She just disappears back into one of the bedrooms. A few moments later, she emerges carrying a massive teddybear, easily as large as she is. It has blue fur, and is wearing a black sailor fuku.
Ami drags the big bear into the livingroom. "Usagi-chan suggested I get this for you," she explains. "Since I'm not really great at cuddling, and you need someone you can cuddle, she suggested this could be a surrogate when I'm not up for it."
Takashi blinks more than once as Ami drags the massive bear home. "I thought I was supposed to get you the stuffed animals." is his first protest.
"You know, the issue isn't that I need cuddles in a generic or general sense. You are very much not replacable." Even still, he takes the bear from her somewhat gently and sits with it in his lap, his head over the top of it much like he's occasionally done with Ami.
Ami shrugs a little, then sits back down on the ground. "Anyways, that's everything. I've ... got a lot of studying to do. And Mako-chan needs help with her English, as well. So ... I guess I'll see you later?"
Takashi looks at her, tilting his head. "It doesn't feel like I've done nearly enough. I came over to help, but you're the one giving me a present. You shouldn't be as sad or more sad after I leave as you were when I came in."
"There has to be something I can do."
Another shrug, then Ami crosses her legs and looks up at Takashi. "I'll get through it," she promises quietly. "Mako-chan's cooking and Usagi's idealism couldn't save me from feeling a little melancholy at finding out I'm a bit of a fraud. I doubt you'll succeed where they failed. It's okay."
At that, though, Takashi puts the bear aside and leans forward to look at Ami, in her eyes as much as he can. "You're not a fraud. Why do you think you're a fraud? That's silly. You're the smartest girl I've ever met, hands down."
"Then you obviously haven't met any university students," Ami replies, briefly throwing up her hands and showing just a little bit of emotion, in the form of frustration. She lets out a heavy sigh, then shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. I screwed up, Takashi. Even if I am smart enough, I didn't study enough. All the time we were busy in Peru chasing your hopes and aspirations, I was busy screwing mine up. I shouldn't have ever tried to get into university early. You only got there by having the right connections, and that's cheating, and I refuse to cheat. I'll get there on my own merits, eventually. And if I don't, then clearly I'm not the genius you thought I was."
Takashi looks at her, and gets quiet. So much for some part of this not being his fault. "Wait, you spent like every day studying. Literally some part of every single day. You did what you could. I'm sorry it took so long, I am. I wasn't expecting it. And I'm not sure what else to say. I guess I'd rather have you blaming me than blaming yourself."
He starts to head for the door, but stops - he has to come back for the bear, or that seems to be the excuse, anyways. "But I think you're looking internally for a problem when the problem's obviously with someone that isn't either of us. I'm pretty sure Tsukino-san might actually agree with my assessment of the admissions department there." He hefts the bear over his shoulder. It's a big floppy thing!
"Also for the record I've talked to members of the Nippon Gakushi-in and they're still not as smart as you, so there. University students, hah." He somehow manages NOT to point out that 'mamoru is a university student and I think he's an idiot' - somehow. Must be his lucky day.
All of Takashi's explanations don't really earn much of a response from Ami. She withdraws back upon herself almost immediately, returning to the mostly non-responsive girl that she was upon his arrival.
Except now there's some small part of her that's looking at him with uncertainty; a look of actual upset, rather than melancholy, that wasn't there before.
Ami lets out a soft sigh, then quietly says, "Studying isn't enough when the study conditions are bad. You never left me alone to study. You were always making me anxious, making me nervous, making me feel out of control. I got used to it, near the end. And I think it's better that I did. I'm still trying to figure out how to be a good girlfriend. And I'm sorry I suck at that, too. But ... maybe until I pass this test, you should use the bear when I'm trying to study."
Takashi doesn't like that look and rather visibly, he bristles. Then it actually gets to him and he gets mad. He's walking towards the door, and the steps become stomps. "Ami, after everything we just went through with all the Unmei business, I'd really hoped that when you were upset it wasn't going to be something where you'd point the finger at me. But no. I'm still the bad guy. It's still my fault. You, you, you."
He almost throws the door open and catches himself just before the knob slams into the wall. "I tried to give you space and time but I guess I'm just as bad as that as you are at cuddling. Maybe I should've brought you a bear too - something you could put in the corner of the room and ignore as my surrogate."
A foot out the door now. "You know what, I'm sorry if I distracted you from studying with my presence. Why don't you figure out a list of all the things in your life that are more important than I am and once they're handled then you can call me. That way I don't distract you."
Ami starts to shake as Takashi walks towards the door. She starts to shake not because she's angry, but because this has gotten so far beyond her ability to cope. As Takashi's busy preventing a hole in the wall, Ami starts to sink to her knees, tears welling in her eyes.
And as he sticks a foot out the door, she whines very smallly to herself, "That's not what I meant." But he's leaving, and whether he hears her is probably more a matter of whether Axion relays it than whether the words actually reach his ears.
Ami puts her face in her hands as the tears begin to flow, no longer able to handle the combined sorrow and misery of the past few days.
Unfortunantly for both of them, the only thing Takashi is invested in doing is trying not to cry himself - or much worse - as he all but slams the door to the Mizuno family apartment, and storms his way down and out of the building, bear slung over his shoulder.
Wether it's the dark cloud of energy forming around him or the near-murderous walk and look Takashi is carrying, for some reason the doorman tries to stop his egress from the building and question him... which only results in Takashi grabbing the man by the neck and siphoning enough energy from him to leave him slumped unconscious by the building's door.