Money, poker and love~? (Tyki Mikk)

Alexander Crow, known by all as "Alex" entered the Dining hall at a casual and wordless pace, at his presence all eyes were turned onto him and a silence fell throughout the room. It wasn't Alex's tall intimidating appearance that caused this reaction, it was his reputation as a "heartless, greedy individual." It was a well known fact that Alex could care less about the souls of akuma or the numerous deaths that were caused at their hands or even that he was one of the few chosen by God to protect the humankind from those monsters. All that Alex cared about was himself and money, he only ever helped the Order if he was paid for it. Then there also the fact that Alex was incredibly skilled at defeating akuma with his parasetic innocence and that he had been an exorcist since the age of 8 - something that not many people could brag about.
The rumour that the Order's superiors only paid and put up with Alex's demands was because they were afraid that if they didn't then the enemy might buy Alex's assistance instead, didn't help matters.

If Alex noticed the effect that his appearance had made he didn't show it. His footsteps echoing across the hard tiled floor as his long slender legs carried him over to where Jerry could be found serving food to the Order's workers, a large pale hand moving tiredly through his untidy dark hair for a moment, causing the small green earring in his ear to shine when struck by the room's lighting.

"Same as usual, Jerry," Alex told the pink-haired cook, leaning his back against the counter in a lazy fashion, his head tilted towards the celing in an almost thoughtful manner, his mascline but youthful voice without any clear emotion.

Quickly Jerry began to prepare Alex's meal and within three minutes placed a tray baring a bowl of steaming ramen with mosu pork, three blood red apples and an empty glass, before Alex.
"There you go, Alex. Eat it all up now, you hear?" Jerry told the sixteen-year-old cheerfully, a grin on his face.
"Yeah, yeah" he muttered back, picking up his tray with one hand before walking away from Jerry, stopping in front of a nearby table where two researches had sat for lunch. It only took one glare from Alex's icy feline gaze for the two to leap to their feet and take off so fast that they left dust behind them, abandoning their table for Alex.
Just as silently, Alex sat his tray down before taking a seat, the dragging of his chair the only sound within the hall for a moment.
Holding up his glass, Alex glared at it and it seemed as if his eyes began to glow with power, the Innocence within his earlobe doing the same thing. From the rim of the glass, clean fresh water began to leak and fill up its contents, only stopping until the glass was half-full, and then Alex sat his glass down before reaching for one of the apples.
He held it up to his lips but paused, his gaze turning to where Shizutsi sat.

For a moment all that Alex did was stare at his fellow exorcist, no words were said by him and nor did he smile. But after a moment Alex bit deeply into his apple, a crisp sound meeting his ears as droplets of juice clung to his boyish lips and strong chin, the same pout still frozen on his pale and slightly feminine face.

Alexander's pout deepened slightly as Shizutsi sat beside him. Whilst Shizutsui's reputation as a trickester proceeded him, this was the first time that the two of them had met and clearly Shizutsui was unfamiliar with how things worked within the Black Order.
Nobody ever sat next to Alex.

And yet, after a moment's pause, Alex reached across and took one of the cards that Shizutsi was holding, his pale slender fingers drawing it out in one swift and slick movement.
It was almost as if the "please" had worked.
And whilst it was true that very few people within the Order ever took part in such simple manners that wasn't the real reason why Alex was being so agreeable.

Alex loved a good magic trick. That and Shizutsi's appearance intrigued him due to being so uncommon.
Why was he continueously grinning like that?

The coldness within Alex's blue gaze seemed to thaw slightly at Shizutsi's trick - Alex would be up all night trying to figure out how it was done. Though the gazes of the Finders and Researchers around them were beginning to irritate the teenager, causing Alex to turn his gaze away from Shizutsi in what might be mistaken as a dismissive manner.

"Alex," he corrected Shizutsi in his deep voice, glaring at the Finders who had gasped, who quickly looked away. Picking up his chopsticks Alex stabbed in a slightly aggressive manner at his noodles, his dark brows constricted. "And you're this institution's 'Trickster.' Shizutsi Joker. Seems like both of our reputations proceed each other."

Using his chopsticks to lift up a few strands of his badly treated noodles, Alex placed them into his mouth and swallowed immediately without even bothering to chew.
"Oh, and by the way," Alex said, "if you keep choosing to flirt with every member of this nut house you're going to find yourself in trouble. You'd be surprised to learn that the majority of these morons don't have a sense of humour."

And with that note, Alex lifted up his glass and began to chug down his own self-created water within the glass, his throat muscles compressing visably every time that he swallowed.

"Heh, what a weirdo," Alex muttered in response to Shizutsi's words, though his icy gaze followed Shizutsi despite himself. Lifting up the second of his two remaining apples, Alex bit deeply into it, savouring its crisp sound.
Well, I guess that he's better than some of the other idiots in this dump, Alex thought to himself, ignoring the whispers of the researchers and finders that sat around him.

Suddenly a loud ear-splitting crack filled the air and the walls and floor of the Main Hall shook violently as if suffering from the effects of an earthquake. Bewildered sounds came from the startled Finders and Researchers, who wondered what had just happened.

Alex raised one this black brow.
That can't be good ...