And the World Shall Forget You

[Zach Kaiser]

"If you're sure." It was true that they didn't have the space, as the tent currently barely fit both he and Etsu, but they could have made something work out. Perhaps. (It would have probably involved him sleeping outside, though.)

The stars were beautiful, and Eld had continued to stare at them long after he'd named every constellation he could remember. Sitting up finally, he turned to Kyo.

"Will you be able to get back okay?" he asked. He wasn't sure how Kyo's foot was doing, but if it was still bothering him he could easily help him back home.

[Nayt]

Toushikyo sat up and began to check himself, making sure he had all his personal effects on hand. Seemed he had everything he came with, which meant he was essentially ready to go.

"I'll be fine," he said with neither malice nor disgust.

Honestly, he was pretty sure he'd be okay out on his own. He knew these paths well and his foot wasn't too bad off. It hurt to walk on after awhile, but it wasn't going to outright force him to collapse on the side of the road. It was just an annoying pain, that was all.

Toushikyo begrudgingly stood. Etsu soon stood up, too. It was only now that she was beginning to realize how cold she was starting to feel, though, and that she'd just recently started shivering. She folded her arms over her chest for further warmth. Now was a good time for pants. Upon noticing this, Toushikyo motioned to his coat, as if to silently inquire if Etsu would like to borrow it from him. She held up her hand and shook her head, though. She was planning on lying down under very warm blankets very soon.

Once it was all said and done and Toushikyo was ready to leave, he addressed his friends (one, a long time friend; the other, a new friend) with appreciation.

"Thank you," he said with a slight bow of his head, "For the day . . . and evening, I suppose."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld couldn't help but grin; Kyo could be a very strange guy sometimes. "You don't need to thank a friend for having fun spending some time with them. If anything, you should just thank Etsu for dinner," he joked. Though Etsu probably got even more enjoyment out of catching it than either of them did eating it.

"Take care of yourself," he said more seriously. "And if you're having a bad day, don't forget." Forget what he didn't say, but Kyo would know anyway.

You are not alone.

[Nayt]

Toushikyo bowed his head again. "I'll not forget."

He then looked from Eld to Etsu, half feeling like there was something else he should say-- but that was just the nature of ending a good evening. If you didn't call it to a conclusion, you'd merely delay the inevitable for longer.

"Enjoy the rest of your evening," he said, before turning away and making his way for and down the path away from the lake, and ultimately back home.

Etsu stood by Eld's side and watched Toushikyo leave. It was surprising how well this day turned out, actually. So well, in fact, that they'd completely forgotten the reason they were out here.

Her next priority soon kicked in, however. Etsu was cold, and she did not like being cold. So she scooted closer to Eld ever so slowly, inch by inch, until she stood with her side right up against his. Only then did she reach over with one hand to undo the bottom button of his shirt and comfortably slip both of her hands under and against his belly. Her hands were freezing and she was going to loot his warmth if need be.

Her justification would simply be this: "I am cor-rd."

[Zach Kaiser]

Heh. He really needs to loosen up when he's around friends, Eld thought as Toushikyo departed. But he supposed that he said anything at all was rather charming by his standards, so it was fine.

Absorbed in his thoughts about why Kyo was so weird around people (it dated back before he became "haunted" ), he didn't notice Etsu's movements until he felt the cold hands on his stomach. He gave a small yelp and jumped.

He gave her a glare to cover up his blush, which was more due to being embarrassed at his reaction than the close contact. "Doesn't mean you need to make me cold," he muttered. But the way he covered her hands with his in an attempt to warm them up betrayed how insincere his annoyance was.

[Nayt]

Etsu wrinkled her brow and gave Eld a look of stern disapproval. She was warming up her hands at the expense of his body heat, and now he'd gone and messed that all up.

"But you are warm," she replied. "You can . . ."

But then it hit her. Eld was clasping her hands in his. He was not just intentionally giving over his body heat-- he was holding her hands. A rush of memories and feelings struck her all at once, all memories and feelings she'd been trying to forget, but slowly giving in to. She softened in both expression and muscle tension, and soon she was worming a couple of fingers in-between Eld's.

". . . share," she whispered.

But she realized what she was doing, regardless of if Eld noticed it or not, and she forced the need to take a step back. Etsu withdrew her hands from Eld's and averted her eyes from him entirely. If it weren't so dark, Eld might have seen how red her cheeks were.

"I am going to camp," she declared outright before turning on her heels and marching away-- and absentmindedly leaving the poles behind.

[Zach Kaiser]

When Etsu moved away, for a second he wondered what just happened. He'd been helping her warm her hands, and then he looked at her and she was getting softer--for the first time, she was looking at him with some actual fondness. And then she quickly left.

He was a little bewildered, and it didn't help that for some reason his heart was beating quite a bit faster than usual. "H-Hey, wait--" He got up to go after her, but noticed that she'd left the fishing poles. He hurriedly gathered them up and started after her.

She's cold, so she probably just wants to crawl under the blankets for the night. That was it. Probably.

[Nayt]

By the time Eld got back, Etsu was already inside of their tent and under covers. She had no idea where she was facing or where she was laying, and hadn't really thought about it too much. She'd simply raced back here-- practically ran towards the end of it (long after Eld lost sight and sound of her) --and buried herself under covers as quickly as possible. She'd have buried her thoughts there, too, if she could, and just turned off her brain and let herself go to sleep right then and there-- but Etsu was neither that lucky nor truly stoic.

Indeed, all she had right now were her thoughts, and they were progressively bothering her more and more. They all dealt with Eld, too. The longer this went, the more she wanted to just smack him for being him. For being nice when she didn't want him to be nice. For being respectful when she wanted him to be a devil worth defeating. For being most things that boys her age were not. When he held her hand back there, Etsu found herself thinking about it-- about how genuinely endearing this boy was.

It made her want to smack him 'til he bled.

He forgot me, she told herself over and over again.

More thoughts she didn't want to drudge up ever again, but now she needed to. Now she needed to make Eld less endearing of a person. She needed to smear him. Tell herself how horrible of a person he was. Convince herself that nothing was changing between them, and that she never wanted anything to change to begin with. That he was always terrible and always would be terrible. Completely nonredeemable.

He is a liar. His sincerity is a ruse, she told herself, Because he forgot me.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld tried to catch up to her, but the poles were too bulky to move fast through a narrow trail with, so he was invariably forced to move at a more leisurely pace. When he made it back to the campsite, he simply leaned them up against a tree for the night. Etsu was already in the tent, and trying to get them back in the dark sounded like a good way for one of them to get a hook stuck somewhere unpleasant.

"H-Hey, is everything alright?" he asked as he opened the tent. He started to crawl in himself, on whatever side wasn't occupied. Though wearing notably more clothing than her, he was still getting cold, and now he wanted to crawl under the blankets too.

[Nayt]

Etsu heard him out there, situating the poles before crawling into the tent. Soon enough he was in, and though she hadn't intended it, she was facing him.

Pretend to be asleep, she commanded to herself.

He was going to be lying next to her soon, once he was dressed and ready to sleep. Which meant he was going to be at least partially undressing first. Right next to her. If there was light to see, she could have opened her eyes to watch him. And then he was going to lay down next to her. The tent they shared was as large as a mattress and they slept side-by-side. They may as well have been sharing a bed together.

Etsu shut her eyes tightly. Pretend to be asleep!

She focused on breathing. That was the important thing. She needed to breath calmly and slowly. It felt like her heart was beating its way out of her chest, but that was something only she could hear. Breathing, though-- that was something Eld could hear. The only way to effectively pretend to be asleep was to look relaxed and breath as light and separated breaths as humanly possible . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

While she may have fooled Eld before with this routine, previously Eld had no particular reason to care whether or not she was awake and no reason to question surface appearances. Plus they were several feet away. It would be difficult to make convincing charade when they were so near each other now.

Of course at the moment Eld was more worried about getting inside without a repeat of last night's fumbling. He sort of patted an area of the tent, and ended up resting a hand on Etsu's leg--well, that was the side she was on.

The contact would only last for a few seconds, as he began to crawl down the other side of the tent.

[Nayt]

She might have done so well at pretending to be asleep, but then Eld touched her leg and everything changed. She froze up and gasped, except her gasp sounded more like a squeak of surprise than anything else. Then she shut her lips, bit her lower lip, and tensed up.

Did he hear that?

But that was the least of her worries, it seemed. Though Eld moved his hand away from her leg, Etsu's mind was left to wander. What if he touched her again? Except rather than just below her knee, he put his hand on her thigh? And then higher and higher? She'd have to resist. She'd have to do something to protect herself. Right?

Just pretend to be asleep.

And yet somehow, that won out over resistance. If he'd touched her again, she wouldn't have slapped him, kicked him, or any flailed about in any way. She'd have merely tried harder to pretend she was asleep. If she was asleep, he'd leave her alone. That was the idea, at least.

Except Etsu hadn't taken into account that she blew her cover the second he touched her.

[Zach Kaiser]

"S-Sorry," Eld replied when it was clear he startled her; or at least, that was his assumption. He was more concerned about getting in and getting settled than paying attention to what Etsu was doing at the moment, so he didn't even notice she was attempting to feign sleep.

Some jostling was inevitably involved, and he bumped against her several times, but there wasn't another clearly deliberate touch from him.

It was only once he was fully in that he realized she was being unusually uncommunicative even for her; he would have at least expected some grumbling from her. He was fairly certain she was awake, but there was no way to tell for sure.

"Hey...uh...I know you're comfortable, but if you're awake would you mind leaving for a minute so I can get changed?" he whispered.

[Nayt]

In her panic, Etsu failed to realize something. Curled up as she was, she had her hands out just a bit, and as she was facing Eld laying like she was, this left both of her hands almost half-way over on his side of the tent. She couldn't withdraw them now, could she? No it was too late for that. She couldn't move around too much. Couldn't pretend to be tossing and turning. If she did, she'd have to react to him somehow, through some sort of grumbling or mumbling, and that would have taken more effort than she was capable of putting out right now.

He bumped her a few times in the whole process of climbing in, which alerted her each time. They were deliberate, though. Didn't seem to be, at least. Everything was going well.

Until Eld spoke up.

Pretend to be asleep! Pretend! To be! Asleep!

She was practically screaming at herself in her mind. Etsu couldn't react. She couldn't do anything. Just force paralysis and hope Eld shut up, changed quickly, and went to sleep soon . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"E-Etsu...?" He stared at her, but it was almost pitch dark and impossible to see her. He'd thought she was awake--she yelped earlier--but now she wasn't reacting to him at all. Either she was ignoring him, or deep, deep asleep.

He decided it was most likely the latter. In the past, she had no problem giving him a piece of her mind, and he figured the way he'd stumbled around would have caused at least a grumble if she'd been awake.

So he turned so that his back was to Etsu (just in case) and started to get undressed. He unbuttoned his shirt and removed it, placing it in the back with their stuff and grabbing his sweatpants from its place on top of the pile. He gave one last (blind) glance over his shoulder then, and pulled down jeans his jeans and boxers.

It was then that he froze. Unexpectedly, he felt something warm on his rear end. When taking his bottoms off he'd been forced to curl up to reach, and it turned out Etsu's hands had apparently strayed over to his side of the tent...