Her Mysterious Smile

[Nayt]

"Nani desu ka?" Etsu asked from inside. She sounded fairly polite, as if she were addressing one of Eld's parents and not Eld himself.

That was probably the case, actually. Etsu would never sound that polite to Eld. Maybe she still expected him to not knock before opening the door.

Of course, that was the whole reason she was clothed right now. Etsu had to get out of her school clothes eventually, and that time arrived shortly after she woke up that afternoon. Now, rather than wearing her school uniform, she was wearing what she should have been wearing last night: pajamas. It wasn't much at all, actually, just a plain white shirt that went all the way down to her knees. As such, there was no need for pants. She was sitting in Eld's bed, propped up with her head against his baseboard and her knees almost up to her chest (which unknowingly left the bulk of her shirt bunched up at the base of her thighs, exposing the entirety of her legs). Etsu had a book of Eld's set against her legs, and she seemed more interested in reading at the moment than she did anything else.

If Eld paid close enough attention, he'd see that this was one of the more embarrassingly romantic books from his shelves. It kind of bordered on trashy, even.

Her hair was down over the left side of her face again. She was not going to intentionally show the damage that was done there. She didn't want anyone to see.

[Zach Kaiser]

As Etsu's response was not a plea for a little more time, he assumed it was alright to open the door. While from the angle he was at Eld couldn't see anything indecent, it was nevertheless likely that she didn't realize just how much of her legs she was showing.

Given what she thought of him already, he figured his best option was to just pretend not to notice. "H-Hi. Ummm...how are you feeling?"

He was suddenly nervous; he now knew what she was hiding under her hair, but she didn't know he knew. He suspected that if she did, she would have outright refused to talk to him for the rest of her life. Or possibly just screamed at him.

Fortunately, he was too distracted to notice that she had grabbed one the books he usually hoped others didn't notice he owned.

[Nayt]

Etsu looked up from the book. A wave of disappointment washed over her soon after. This was neither her aunt nor her uncle. This was her perverted cousin. Her stupid perverted cousin.

"I am . . ."

Fine.

But that wasn't what she said. It was what she wanted to say. Really. And she wanted to say it in as snide of a way as possible. Regretfully, she wasn't too great at having . . . well, other tones to her voice. Truth be told, Etsu was meek and quietly monotonous for the most part. Nevertheless, she wanting-- initially --to tell Eld she was fine and hope he'd just bugger off and do something else. She was kind of interested in this book, after all, and she didn't much want him bothering her. Or reading over her shoulder. That would be bad.

A different idea came to mind, though . . .

". . . thirsty," she said, "I am thirsty."

[Zach Kaiser]

"Oh." Looking at her, he wondered if she'd gotten out of bed at all since waking up other than to get the book. She'd changed, he supposed (to pajamas for some reason; did she plan to stay in bed all day?), but otherwise there was no sign that she'd done anything else. "I'll go get you some water, then."

Not waiting for a reply, he turned and left the room for a minute, coming back shortly with the promised beverage. "Here," he said, handing it to her.

He hoped this would put her in a good mood, and that she would treat him with a bit less suspicion.

[Nayt]

By the time Eld returned, Etsu had already read through the next page. Now a woman was attempting to seduce a fairly crude prison warden in order to get information on the whereabouts of a lesser demon to whom he has been feeding overactive prisoners. Except this woman is kind of a harlot and will probably put out anyways, even if the warden doesn't give up the information right away. Or even if he does give up the information right away. She didn't even need to go the seduction route. Etsu was convinced that this woman just wants to have sex with someone.

How someone could be like that, Etsu could only guess. It would be envious if the character were impulsive with something other than gratuitous sexual intercourse.

"Arigatou," Etsu said without even looking at Eld.

She'd heard Eld coming in, and reached out to take the glass of water from him. Still not looking at him, she took a sip from her glass, set it upon the nightstand by her side, and continued reading.

[Zach Kaiser]

"You're welcome." If he was at all put off by her minimal acknowledgment, he didn't show it. (And in truth he wasn't; a thank you was plenty for him.)

Though, that she wasn't exactly paying attention to him made it rather more awkward to lead into what he wanted to say, but he supposed he never figured this would be easy. "So, I was wondering...I'm going to the nearby lake this weekend to go swimming with a friend, and if you want you're welcome to come with."

He paused, figuring at this point she would look at him--and possibly glare in preparation to accuse of him being a pervert who wanted to see her in a swimsuit. (Being friends with Sarah meant he was fairly well versed in knowing what things a girl would jump on for the excuse of calling him a pervert.)

"If you don't want to swim, though," he went on, regardless of her reaction, "I could always dig out some of my fishing equipment if you'd prefer..."

[Nayt]

Wait, what? Is she seriously planning on biting that off? Oh my. Well, then. That'll certainly get a person talking. That'll get a man singing, in fact. That was perhaps the most insane method of interrogation that Etsu had ever heard of in the entire fourteen years she'd been alive. Effective, though.

Eld would probably be able to see Etsu's reaction to some of the goings on in this book. She'd go from reading normally to furrowing her brow and pausing for awhile. Then she'd go on and continue reading as normal. And then he asked her a question, and--

Wait, what?

Etsu looked up from the book and stared at Eld with her brow furrowed. Initially, she was suspicious of him-- inviting her out to a lake and all. But then he kept on going, and her suspicion faded. She soon lifted her right eyebrow and looked upon Eld with a level of curiosity previously unseen from her.

"You . . . fish?" Etsu asked, very clearly surprised by this development.

[Zach Kaiser]

Etsu's reactions were kind of strange, as though she wasn't listening to him at first--he realized she must have been pretty engrossed in whatever she was reading. However, just as he was about to lean around to see what she was reading she spoke up.

"Yeah, though...not often." Things were looking up; for the first time, it seemed like she was genuinely interested in what he had to say, rather than just putting up with his presence. "I'm not really good at it or anything, but I go fishing every once in a while. Sometimes I'll get my friends to go, and we'll start a bonfire on the beach and cook them right there."

Which was normally far inferior to taking them back to someone's house and cooking them properly, but somehow Maya had a knack for getting food to taste amazing no matter how little was available to her.

[Nayt]

As Eld told that story, however brief it may have been, Etsu's features softened more and more. An outing. Fishing. A bonfire. Cooking their catch.

She remembered something . . .

There was a time once when her family went for outings such as that. Just her, her mother, and her stepfather. Etsu never knew her real father. She never knew the circumstances of her conception or her birth, only that she was her mother's daughter and that was that. Kiyoshi was the closest thing she had to a father. He taught her how to fish with a spear during those outings. She remembered him standing behind her, holding her arms and hands with a sort of gentle authority as he showed her the proper way to hold a spear. When she caught her first fish, he taught her how to gut it. She was sick to her stomach at first, but she was just a kid back then. The next time they all went out, she caught her own fish, gutted them, and cooked them herself at a bonfire built by her mother.

Etsu was never a great cook. She always burnt her catches-- but Kiyoshi liked his food with black spots on it. Even when Etsu couldn't eat it, he could, and he always complimented the chef. And then her mother-- she'd fish with a pole, and she'd always somehow nab the biggest catches, which she'd cook to share between Etsu and herself . . .

The corners of the girl's lips twitched. A smile began to form. It wasn't full, but a shadow of her mysterious smile was more than enough . . .

She looked away from Eld, half shut her eyes, and allowed the faint hint of a smile to fade. So he was going fishing and she was invited, huh?

"Sou ka . . ." she paused a moment to think-- but there really wasn't anything to think about. "I wir-rr fish with you."

There was a pause. Etsu almost left it at that, but it somehow felt wrong. Like she was being too nice to Eld all of a sudden. That wasn't going to happen. She couldn't lighten up! Even if he formally invited her to join he and his friend in one of her favorite hobbies . . .

"And I wir-rr catch more than you," she added, feeling as if that was enough sternness to add, just so Eld wouldn't get too comfortable with this non-aggression thing. Except that wasn't an aggressive thing to say at all. In fact, it probably (accidentally) sounded more like a challenge than anything else.

[Zach Kaiser]

For a moment, Eld thought that somehow, his grandfather might have been wrong--or perhaps that her dislike for him simply outweighed her interest in fishing. If that was the case, he wasn't sure what he could possibly do to change her opinion of him.

But then she smiled. It wasn't much; just a barely perceivable lift on the corner of her mouth. But it was a smile. For the first time, Eld felt there might really be a chance for them to get along.

"We'll see," he replied with a smile of his own. Etsu may have liked to fish, but she didn't look like much of an outdoor person. But then again, in his experience, fishing came down to mostly luck anyway.

"So, what'd you find to read?" he asked, finally leaning around to see what book grabbed her attention so thoroughly. Which was when he encountered two very embarrassing things.

The first was that the book itself was...well, one of the books he rather preferred others not to know he owned. Even Kyo, who liked to read as much as he and Maya, would have raised a brow at him owning such trashy romance novels.

The second, one which he hoped Etsu failed to notice, was that from the angle he'd leaned in at, with the way she was sitting, he caught a glimpse of her underwear.

[Nayt]

This was more than just a trashy romance novel. This was a completely insane trashy romance novel. It read like it'd been written by five people who'd been deprived of sexual gratification for twenty years, starved for a solid month, and given psychoactive drugs by their captors, then promised to be fed well and released into a den of (oddly) sex crazed virgins if they could somehow come together to write a novel that is at least readable.

The result was pretty awesome.

Etsu was fairly content to read this. It was utterly insane and Eld had to be a terrible person to own this novel. It felt like it should be a requirement in purchasing literature like this. When you go to the counter and the cashier is supposed to give you a price, she winds up checking out what you're purchasing and just asks you a question, instead: do you still have a soul? If the answer is no, then she smiles, nods, and gives you a price. But if you say yes, she shakes her head quickly, snatches the book from your hands, and hastily informs you that you're now somewhat less clean for having considered this purchase and really just need to go home and get a shower or something.

That's exactly how it should go with this brand of literature.

Originally, Etsu planned on not answering Eld's question, as she might have then felt a little less clean for admitting that she was reading this utterly insane novel. So when he leaned in to get a better look at it . . .

"D-don't r-rook!" Etsu cried meekly as she pulled the book to her chest and clenched her thighs together unconsciously.

It might seem as if she were yelling about something else, but she really hadn't the slightest clue about her clothing malfunction and quite frankly would not give a damn if it was not brought to her attention.

[Zach Kaiser]

Thinking she'd noticed that he saw something other than the title of the book, Eld's brain went into damage control overdrive.

"S-Sorry, um, I didn't try to--I mean, with all you're wearing--I mean...I-I'll just be going now. See you at dinner!" It was not his most dignified mode of thinking.

Deciding that fleeing would save more face than any words could, he left the room as quickly as possible. He hoped by the time dinner rolled around, she would have forgiven him--or at least forgotten about this...

[Nayt]

As Eld left, Etsu became increasingly more confused over what he said. Something about what she was wearing? Etsu relaxed and looked herself over for whatever it was that got Eld to react like that. She could find nothing, though. Maybe Eld really was touched in the head, after all?

---

The setting sun cast shadows upon the faces of the three. One, standing cliff-side and facing the sun, smoked a self rolled cigarette. The second stood behind him, arms over his chest and eyes to his feet. They were grown men. The third, on the other hand, appeared to have a feminine build. Her silhouetted figure stood within the trees, watching the two standing cliff-side. They were quite the distance from Hillcrest, perched-- once more --upon a cliff that Akizetsumei of Terra happened to frequent.

"We need more time," said the second in a gruff whisper, "I need more time."

The first took a long drag from his cigarette. "Ain't got much toime left."

"Well-- how much, then?" the second reasoned hastily, "Ya've been so fuckin' elusive with this. Why don't ya tell us how long we got 'til the Stop, for godsake?"

There was a long silence between the men, before the woman not too far from them spoke up in affirmation. "I, too, am curious."

Seen within the orange glow of his cigarette, the first man's lip twitched. Between dirty fingers, he pulled the cigarette away and flicked it off the cliff.

"All roigh', oI get the 'int," he spat, before turning to the second and third. "We got one week from t'day."

"F-- yer serious?!" the second stepped back in surprise.

In the woods, the woman looked at the ground. "That is . . . troublesome."

"Yeah. Yeah it damn well is. So we gotta 'urry this shit up. See if this kid's got the capacity we're lookin' for-- an' if he don't, we gotta move the 'ell on fast."

The second scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah. Yeah-- I get ya. I'll keep it up fer a few more days. If by then I'm sure he ain't got what it takes, we'll find someone else . . ."

Her Mysterious Smile//Fin.