Old World Remnants

[Zach Kaiser]

It was all Eld could do to resist grabbing Noah's arm and tossing him flat on his back. Right in front of a crowd too; that would have been vilifying. It was sorely tempting in his current mood, which had started to improve talking to Kageko but was now quickly plummeting again.

But he knew he couldn't. Or rather shouldn't; it would get back to his parents and his grandfather, and he'd probably be punished rather severely for enacting violence without provocation. Well, without justifiable provocation.

"I thought I'd keep her company, since someone stood her up and left her to be gawked at by a large crowd," he replied evenly, doing everything he could to keep his obvious dislike out of his voice. If Kageko was Noah's girlfriend, Eld wouldn't have put it past him to do this on purpose, as a way of letting the entire village know how pretty and exotic his girl was.

[Nayt]

"Heh. I got a little held up," he shrugged his shoulders, then looked over to Kageko, "Luckily, she's a forgiving girl. I wouldn't be this far if she weren't."

Then he set his eyes on Etsu. Without hesitation, he let out an impressed whistled.

"Looks like you already got a main squeeze of your own, anyways, eh Eldridge?" Noah smirked and rubbed Eld's hair harshly, before pulling away from him and circling around to get a better look at Etsu, "I have to say, I'm pretty surprised that a guy like you could impress a classy gal like this."

Etsu looked down, then back at Eld, and motioned to herself confusedly.

"Pleasant surprise, though. Don't get me wrong." Noah waved off any possible offense before it could happen. Well, sort of. "Just means you grew up a li'l since last time is all."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld pulled away from Noah's arm and gave him a disbelieving stare. Was that all he could think about? "Etsu is my cousin, Noah, not my girlfriend." He refrained from pointing out that Eld had, in fact, had a girlfriend back when he was still in town. Though of course Noah probably wouldn't consider Sarah classy. That opinion, at least, was one he really couldn't hold against him.

"Anyway, since it seems you two have something to talk about, we'll leave you alone," he said as politely as he could muster.

Though part of him wanted to suggest that if they wanted whatever they were going to talk about to remain private they should head somewhere less public. But he figured Kageko at least could figure that out, even in Noah didn't.

[Nayt]

"Oh. Well then," Noah rubbed his chin, "Looks like genetic ties have done you wrong, Eldridge. Oh well. Better luck next time, I guess."

That seemed to be it for Noah's attention to Etsu and Eld, though. Immediately following this, he turned his attention to Kageko.

"So hey, Kageko-- you want anything to eat? " Noah asked.

He actually sounded kind of like a nice guy when he talked to Kageko and not like a jerk whose sole purpose was to get a woman's pants off of her-- oddly enough. Though, Noah did have a good history with women. Sure, he could be a little overconfident during the courting process, but he never actually treated a woman wrong in his life. When breakups happened, they had less to do with him and more to do with circumstances.

Kageko glanced to the door, "I . . . do not know. I do not know what they serve."

So far, all she saw was what Eld and Etsu had to eat-- which kind of looked tasty. At least, tasty enough for Eld and Etsu to finish their meals without a problem.

"They have a menu," Noah extended his hand out to Kageko.

She looked at it with a furrowed brow, then looked up at Noah questioningly. She hesitated for a full second, but ultimately took his hand and accepted his gentlemanly offer to help her stand.

"C'mon, I'll show you-- and hey, I'll buy," he half-grinned at the last bit.

"I appreciate that."

Noah began to lead Kageko to the door when he realized that Eld and Etsu were probably heading out right around now. He looked back to them, half waved, and called out, "Hey, Eldridge-- good to see you, man. Really. I'll catch you later."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was a little relieved to see that Noah was at least treating Kageko nicely. Or perhaps he was just playing it safe, as she struck him as smart and mature enough to see through a man's intentions towards her. It was hard to tell with Noah sometimes.

"Yeah, sure," Eld gave a small, halfhearted wave in return. Not if I can help it, he corrected in his head. He had little doubt Noah would have been far less polite to him if there hadn't been girls present.

At this point he finally turned to Etsu, whom he'd more or less ignored since sitting down with Kageko. "Do you want to head back, or is there somewhere else you want to go?" he asked, as he glared at the crowd to get them to move out of their way. As much he hated to admit it, the rudeness of their presence was one thing he could agree with Noah on.

Actually, he was probably secretly enjoying the attention.

[Nayt]

Fighting through the crowd was a lot easier now that it was thinning out-- and it was still getting even smaller by the minute, especially now that Noah and the Umbra woman were inside of the shop. It was difficult to see her, and with the whole reason they were outside staring cloaked in privacy, there quickly became little reason to surround the shop like an unknowing blockade.

"We can war-rk," Etsu replied to Eld once they were clear of people.

She didn't want to go home just yet. She'd been cooped up in that house for way too long. The longer she could stay out here, the better. Truth be told, she didn't care where they walked to. Eld could take her around all the outskirts of town and just circle the place a few times and she'd be just fine with that.

Once they were set on a direction, Etsu decided to ask something that'd been on her mind for awhile:

"Do you hate Noah Herst?"

[Zach Kaiser]

While in reality he would have just preferred to return home, Eld nodded his consent to walk. He didn't pay much attention to specifically where, other than that he wanted to avoid crowds.

Etsu's question wasn't entirely unsurprising; it didn't take someone as sharp as Etsu to see that there was bad blood between him and Noah. "I don't know if I'd say hate, but I don't like him."

He continued, figuring if he didn't explain Etsu would as anyway. "He used to pick on my friends and I when we were younger. It was pretty relentless; we couldn't run into him without him starting something with us, though it mostly Kyo and I. I think if he countered one of the girls he just hit on them. Mostly it was just childish teasing and name calling, but it came to blows a few times." And he and Toushikyo were undoubtedly the worse off for it; neither was particularly large or strong even now, and they'd been even scrawnier when they were younger.

"Then a year or so ago he suddenly started acting like we were really great friends. It irritates me. He thinks he can just smile and be forgiven for anything he does."

It wasn't as though Noah was really a problem now; he was hardly around and even when he was Eld rarely talked to him. But Noah served the same role for Eld that Eld himself now served for Etsu, the only real difference being that Eld rarely dealt with him directly anymore.

[Nayt]

"Sou desu ka?" Etsu asked rhetorically.

So that's how it was, then. They were enemies, but they didn't hate each other. Or, rather, Eld regarded Noah as an enemy and Noah . . . either didn't anymore or simply lost the will to care? That would have been disappointing if he simply threw away a perfectly good frenemiship for lack of drive or boredom. Keeping it interesting simply required a little bit of thought was all. If it started to get boring, it was best to just back off and strike out of nowhere later, ultimately reviving the dispute. If it started getting too rough, then do the same. If you're feeling particularly invincible and the other person is getting really down about that, forget to cover up an annoying weakness with the hurt level of a small papercut-- they'll take advantage of it to even the score and with a boost of confidence, they'll be right back on their feet and fighting strong.

Of course, it was very possible to be too rough in these sorts of circumstances. That was the whole reason Etsu hadn't said anything particularly demeaning to Eld recently. It wasn't a matter of "it's not fun if they don't fight back," though. Rather, it was a matter of honor and interests. It was horribly dishonorable to beat up on a social corpse. Likewise, the interest in such a relationship should never be the total destruction of the other person . . .

Either way, it seemed Noah was giving up on that. Well then. If he wasn't going to bully Eld around anymore, Etsu would just have to pick up the slack for him.

And so, she put out her foot as they walked. They were in a specifically muddy place near the back of the village. Eld was guaranteed a soft, but dirty landing.

[Zach Kaiser]

On a better day Eld would have easily avoided being tripped, or at least caught his balance. As it was, he was too distracted to notice the foot and too lethargic to be able to save himself in time. He found himself tumbling forward, and in a panic he flailed about, trying to grab something to keep him upright.

Unfortunately for Etsu, she was the only thing near, and one his arms got a grip around her as he fell. Either she would have to keep them both upright or (more likely) they'd both end up in the mud.

[Nayt]

Eld was stumbling, thrown off his balance, and reaching for anything to catch himself from falling. Perfect. Everything was going according to pla--

"Gnh?" Etsu gasped as the feel of Eld grabbing her by the shoulder.

Etsu did her very best to remain standing. She flapped one arm about fruitlessly, a tactic she gave up on when she felt her legs beginning to give. Then she took a more blunt approach: slapping at Eld to try to force him to leave her go. If he didn't let go, she'd wind up . . .

Before Etsu knew it, she was lying on her side in the mud. She hit the ground hard, but the ground was soft and moist and caught her like a velvet glove-- except this glove was wet dirt, and Etsu didn't even have to look at herself to realize she was already covered head to toe. She scrambled up to her feet, and by now, she couldn't even begin to hide her rage. This girl was fuming.

"B-baka!" Etsu shouted at him-- yet even still, despite her raising her voice, she seemed to only be able to raise it so many decibels.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was not a quick person to anger. He was mellow by nature, and even in his bad moods he tended to be more melancholy and sullen then truly angry. But more than losing, more than being called an idiot or a pervert, more than being falsely accused and even more than Noah Herst, the one thing Eld well and truly hated was being dirty.

"I'm the idiot?!" Eld exclaimed incredulously as he struggled to sit up. "You're the one who tripped me!" He wasn't certain whether it was on purpose or accidental, but he had a pretty good idea.

He looked down at his clothing with the kind of disgusted impression that Etsu probably had the first night she arrived. Well, would have had, if she emoted at all. "I'm probably going to have to just throw these out. I liked these clothes!"

[Nayt]

Whoa, what? Eld actually yelled at her? Etsu would have been surprised if her blood was currently reaching a boiling point, too. Eld was shouting at her and she was damn well going to shout at him right back, and there was nothing he could do to stop her (without ending up with a broken wrist or two, of course).

"You did no have drag me with you!" she shouted, her Common sounding a lot more broken when she was in a heightened emotional state.

So what, he was going to lose this shirt? Well he could always buy a new one. That's how it was, right? His parents were rolling in money, and without the time to spend any of it on themselves, Eld was the sole inheritor of it-- right? And here he was complaining? How spoiled was that?

"It serve you right for get-ting me dir-ty, too," Etsu grumbled, only to add a hmph at the end for good measure.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Yeah right," Eld grumped in return. "You probably tripped me on purpose! If anyone deserves to be dirty it's you."

He climbed to his feet, shaking his arms to flick mud off. Ugh, being like this made his skin positively crawl. Even before he dealt with his probably ruined clothing he needed to take a bath.

"You can have your walk if you want it," he announced, glaring at Etsu. "I'm going back home and taking a bath."

[Nayt]

"N-nani desu ka?!" Etsu cried.

She was positively shocked. He would seriously do that? Leave her here and filthy like this and not even help her back home in the least? He probably planned on rushing straight to the bath, too, didn't he? Well, that wasn't going to happen. Etsu felt horrible. Not nearly as horrible as Eld, but she felt horrible nonetheless. She was filthy, and she was not just going to stand or sit around and be filthy for any longer than what was necessary. If Eld wanted to get a bath, he'd just have to wait until she was done.

"No. No, I am getting bath first," Etsu declared promptly as she stamped her foot down in defiance, "I wir-rr not sit and dry r-rike this."

And if Eld had a problem with that, well-- tough luck! She was going to get into that bathtub first, and absolutely nothing he could do would stop her.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Uh-uh, no way." Eld shook his head vehemently. "You stuck your foot out, you get to be the one to wait. I'm getting in right away, whether you like it or not." All thoughts on humoring her because of her situation were long gone. He was not spending a single second more than he had to like this.

Which was why he turned and starting heading back towards his house. He would have ran, but chances were that with his muddy shoes he'd just trip and get even dirtier, so he settled for a fast paced walk.