All the better; all the worse . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld stood there in a kind of dull surprise as Akizetsumei chattered about forgetting something at her house, but just as it seemed like she was about to take off she stopped and turned back.

"Ah...okay," he replied, still a little too surprised by the suddenness of it to be more verbal than that. He made as though to follow her, before pausing himself and turning back to the fruit basket. He grabbed an apple and stuffed it in his pocket before proceeding to trail her out the door.

[Nayt]

Having expected Eld to not be interested, Akizets was surprised that he was willing to follow her to her house. She felt her heart beating hard again, but gulped back her fears. She turned to him, smiling, and started out of the Tsukimono household-- but not before making a mental note to stop by again sometime. Her house was literally just across a dirt road from the Tsukimono household and clinic, and it didn't take long at all for them to get there. Akizets opened the front door and invited Eld in.

Akizetsumei's house was actually quite small. It looked large on the outside, but it was no larger than the Tsukimono household. The first room was something of a large den that seemed to function as a living room, dining room, and study combined. For these purposes, however, it was quite bare. There was a couch at the far end, a couple of half-filled bookshelves in the corner, a table and chairs set in the front right corner of the house, and a couple of love-seats scattered about the sides of the room. The middle of the room was completely bare and devoid of even a throw rug to cover the hardwood floor. A set of steps on the far right corner led upstairs, to the second floor which seemed to overlook the first floor like a balcony. Under the steps was a door and in the far left corner of the room was another door. The upstairs seemed to just be a long open hallway connecting the width of the house, with four doors visible from downstairs.

"I'll be riiiight back," Akizets uttered as she started up the steps with a dash. She seemed to have a habit of walking two steps at a time if at all possible.

She darted to the far left room upstairs and swung it open without a second thought. Even downstairs, Eld would be able to see that it was quite the mess. It sincerely looked as if a hurricane struck it.

There were scarce few books in the shelf and even fewer personal effects about the room. It wasn't well decorated, and despite all its seating locations, it seemed mostly bare.

[Zach Kaiser]

While Akizetsumei's house was about the size of Eld's own, the fact that it was all house made it seem quite a bit larger, especially having two floors. He looked around with interest as she ran to her room, but the room was a bit bare and no one was around. Wonder where Kyo is...still sleeping, probably. He considered knocking on the door to his room, but decided against it. If he was sleeping, it was only going to irritate him.

He knew that the Terra clan was from another country, which had a culture similar to Cizok's but also different. Perhaps the reason for the lack of possessions was that they didn't come from a materialistic culture? But then again his own living room was bare save for a handful of pictures and some books, so perhaps they simply didn't spare much money for personal items. The biggest difference is that while his family owned quite a few books there didn't seem to be many here.

Though, Toushikyo's room probably had enough to make up for it...

[Nayt]

Akizetsumei was actually spending quite a bit of time up in her room--but none of this time seemed to be devoted to stagnation. Rather, she was constantly moving up there, shooting from one pile of clothes to the other, tossing articles behind her and sifting through every pile she could find.

It wasn't long before another door on the second floor opened. This one was on the opposite side of the open hallway as Akizetsumei's. The one that emerged from within was one Eld recognized as a friend--or something of the sort. It was a bit difficult to really classify Toushikyo's relationship with Eld and the others. At its base, Toushikyo seemed to be the bitter enemies of Emma and Sarah, but the very fact that he intentionally spent time with them was enough to say how he felt about them--according to Akizets, at least.

Toushikyo was dressed in something vaguely resembling a private school uniform, dark blue slacks, a matching blazer, and a white undershirt tucked into his pants. He carried a satchel over one shoulder that looked something like a messenger bag. He glanced down the hall at Akizetsumei's open door, furrowed his brow, and shrugged his shoulders. Without a word, he started down the stairs, and continued at a casual pace until he saw Eld standing in his living room. The boy was almost immediately confounded.

"Eldridge," he said as he cleared the last step, "What're you doing here?"

[Zach Kaiser]

"Oh, hey, you're up." Toushikyo rivaled Eld himself in his sleeping habits, but he guessed that he didn't get woken up prematurely (or violently) nearly as much. "Akizetsumei asked me to go hiking with her. Want to come too?"

Though, the offer was mostly Eld just being polite. Seeing the messenger bag, he assumed Toushikyo was either working or had other things to do.

[Nayt]

"Hiking?" Toushikyo asked.

He didn't give this too much thought. Truth be told, he wasn't too interested in that sort of thing. Akizets had asked him to go hiking with her before and he simply wasn't fond of the activity. His time was best spent reading or interacting casually. Acts of physical duress weren't his favorite things in the world.

Toushikyo shook his head. "Maya offered to loan me a few of her texts. I suppose she wants to discuss them, as well."

But then he thought of something. It was belated, but he neither cared for that or how odd the question might sound. He was an invasive person by nature, anyways.

"Who else is hiking with you?"

Elsewhere, Akizetsumei was starting to get a little frustrated with her luck. She continued to tear her room apart, but now she was starting to repeat over places she'd already checked.

[Zach Kaiser]

He was meeting Maya? That was kind of odd, if it was just the two of them; he got the impression she was kind of intimidated by Toushikyo's demeanor, so that she'd offer to lend him books was kind of odd.

In any case, Eld shrugged in response to his question. "Dunno. Didn't think to ask." It sounded like Akizetsumei didn't have many friends, though, so unless she'd asked more of his there was only one conclusion. "It's probably just the two of us."

He glanced up to her room, where there was still much bustle of activity. "Ummm...I think she's looking for her pack. You wouldn't happen to know where it is, would you?"

[Nayt]

"Alone?" Toushikyo asked. He scarcely held much differing tone to his voice, but he almost instantly seemed somewhat indignant about the idea . . .

He didn't even respond to the question about Akizetsumei's pack. More than likely, the notion of his little sister out in the woods with a boy-- alone with that boy --put him off. In some right, it didn't really matter who the boy was. He knew Eld. He'd known Eld for awhile. Eld was trustworthy. But Toushikyo was still put off rather quickly.

Akizets poked her out of her room in frustration. Her clothes and hair were all mussed up and she was a tiny bit red in the face with frustration. The second she saw Toushikyo and Eld talking downstairs, and started out of her room and to the railing that overlooked the first floor.

"Toouu!" she called out from upstairs, "Haveyouseenmypackatall?"

Toushikyo looked upstairs and furrowed his brow. Akizets suddenly took on a look of recognition, followed by a pout.

"Tooouuuuuuu~!!" she cried as she practically ran down the stairs, "Gimme my pack back!"

Toushikyo looked down to the messenger bag he carried, then to Akizetsumei.

"I need it," he replied.

"Forwhaaat?" She pouted and furrowed her brow in frustration.

"To carry books," he replied simply.

"Well get your own darn bag for that!" Akizets stammered.

[Zach Kaiser]

Yes, alone. Eld could tell Toushikyo didn't like the idea of him going hiking alone with her sister, which sort of annoyed him. What, did he think he was going to take off with her into the woods, like some kind of fairy tale bad guy?

"Would you rather your sister, who just recently got out of the hospital, go hiking by herself?" he asked slightly indignantly, just before Akizetsumei emerged from her room.

The fact that Kyo was the problem and not part of the solution bemused him slightly. That, combined with his implied lack of trust, led to him being noticeably less nice than usual. "Just give it to her. It's not like even with a bag Maya will be able to carry more books than you can without one."

Even if Maya decided to break her habit of never having friends over, it wouldn't be with Toushikyo, who would probably not be able to hold his tongue even for her parents. So he assumed they were meeting somewhere else.

[Nayt]

Eld standing up for her actually warmed Akizetsumei's heart. It may have been a tiny thing, but he effectively drained all the frustration from the girl. She straightened up and looked past Toushikyo and to Eld before him. It may have been a mutually beneficial thing, but that was really sweet of him.

Toushikyo's eyes scanned from Eld to Akizets several times, before he muttered "fine" under his breath. He wasn't too interested in getting into a huge dispute right now. Maya was probably waiting for him already, and he didn't quite want to stand the girl up. Why he felt the urge to actually be punctual, he hadn't the slightest clue-- and he didn't much care, either. Whims based on mutually beneficial intellectual or social pursuits scarcely required reason . . . at least for him. Toushikyo took the messenger bag off and dropped it on the floor. It was fortunately empty.

Akizets watched as Toushikyo took his leave of the house; he said nothing, not even a goodbye or "have a good hike." She sighed and picked up her messenger bag. Beyond the new addition of this, Eld might notice-- if he looked at her neck and upper chest, at least --that Akizets seemed to be wearing a necklace, now. It seemed to be a rustic looking silver key attached to a silver chain.

"Ummm . . . I'm . . . I'm sorry," Akizets remarked softly, "Tou's being a real jerk today. I dunno why."

[Zach Kaiser]

"It's fine, I'm used to it," he replied, giving her a wry smile. Toushikyo being a jerk was nothing new to him, and he knew that getting mad was useless. He was a intellectual person, so the best way to handle him was liberal application of the hammer of logic. Kyo wouldn't do something to be nice (and when he did he'd never admit it), but he he'd do something if it made logical sense.

Akizetsumei's necklace caught his attention. At first he thought it might be simply a practical way of remembering a house key, but it looked too old and ornate for that to be the case.

"This is cute," he said, grabbing it gently and and leaning in to look at it--and incidentally placing his face quite close to hers. "What's it to?" It was too unique of a piece for there not to be a story behind it.

[Nayt]

That feeling she had earlier, the one where her heart was racing and her cheeks were burning-- it came back with righteous vengeance. Eld did something completely unexpected: he reached over, brushed his fingers upon the bare section of her sternum, and gently tugged her key forward. He leaned in, close to her face, and examined it. There was less than a foot of distance between their faces, and Akizetsumei suddenly didn't want to breath anymore. What if her breath smelled bad? Suddenly, she was self conscious of everything. Her breath, her body-- everything. She was practically frozen in place.

But she couldn't be. Not for too long. Eld had asked her a question-- even complimented her . . . well not her directly, but it was close enough to make her heart skip a beat.

"I-it-- it, um . . . i-it's . . ." Akizetsumei trailed off.

She gently retrieved the key from Eld's hand and turned away from him. If she faced him, he'd have seen exactly how much she was blushing right now.

"I-it's . . . um, it's silly," she whispered shyly.

Akizets held onto the key and shut her eyes. She took in a deep breath and tried to fight away all her anxieties that rather suddenly built up on her.

"M-my mom gave it to me a few years ago," she recounted, but sounded much more shy and bashful about it than she did thoughtful, "Ummm . . . shecalleditthekeytomyheart-- I dunno-- I just really like it."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld let the necklace drop and put space between them again. And then he smiled at her.

It wasn't a wry one, or his usual plain nice one that he gave freely to everyone. It was still friendly, but held a hint of mischief in it. He was having fun, genuinely enjoying himself in her company, not just because he was easygoing enough to enjoy talking to just about anybody who had basic manners, but because he actually liked her.

"You better take good care of it then," he said with a wink. "You never know when some boy is come and try to steal it."

[Nayt]

Once she felt sufficiently calm, Akizets started to turn to face Eld again. As she did, though, Eld started to speak, and she'd fully turned to face him by the time he winked at her. It took almost a full second for what Eld said to actually hit her, but when it did . . .

Akizetsumei's cheeks burned again; she blushed in full force right in front of Eld. Whether he knew it or not, that was the exact right button to push for teasing her. He couldn't have known, though. She thought herself so secretive about it. How could he know? It was impossible. She averted her eyes from Eld and looked down at her shoes awkwardly. Akizetsumei tried to speak several times, but all that came out were small sounds of stutters and stumbles. She wanted to say how she figured no one would ever try to steal this sort of thing in a million years, partly because it was just an old key and partly because boys just weren't that interested in her. She also wanted to say that the right person could steal it, maybe, but only if he was real sweet about it.

It seemed, however, that Eld wasn't all that serious. She took him a bit too seriously at first-- but in hindsight, maybe she shouldn't have. He was joking . . . right?

"H-hey! You're the first boy that's ever touched it," Akizets exclaimed, "D-don't tell me you're trying to steal it! That'd be mean. Stealing is wrong."

She was still blushing with grave intensity, though, and it seemed her voice had elevated in pitch enough that she practically sounded squeaky.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld grinned. He half expected her to clam up or maybe be a bit mad at him for teasing her, but she bit right back! "What, me, steal the key? Never!" he protested with mock indignation, closing his eyes and turning up his nose a bit.

And then he opened one eye and smiled down at her. "I suppose I'd just have to get Em to teach me how to pick the lock instead."