Her Mysterious Smile

[Zach Kaiser]

Em's attempt to tease Eld only failed because of one reason. "Fight a hobo? What kind of metaphor is that?" he asked incredulously. That sounded both dangerous and absurd, and he wasn't sure he'd ever meet the girl who'd be happy to have someone beat up a homeless person for them.

"S-She does have a point, though. You should try it on and make sure it fits." Eld scratched his cheek absentmindedly. Em was right, and it had nothing to do with wanting to see her in the swimsuit. Nothing at all.

[Nayt]

Akizets also hadn't heard that metaphor before and it was a kind of strange to her, too. Strange enough to get her mind off all the confusing things she was thinking of and onto this weird phrase. Fight a hobo--it was just so strange to think of. Even taking it literally seemed off. What kind of fight would a homeless person put up, anyways? It'd be like beating up a cardboard box, wouldn't it? Except these cardboard boxes were innocent and had human feelings. That was kind of a huge difference, actually.

"It's just a figure of speech," Emily replied with a scoff. That was off her face in no time at all, however, as she turned on her heels and faced the opposite direction: to her house. "Well, let's go, then!"

Akizets couldn't argue with Emily and she especially couldn't argue with Eld. If he suggested it, then it must have been important. And it wasn't like he was suggesting that she do something she's terribly against, either. Akizets truly had nothing against trying on her bathing suit. She kind of wanted Eld to see her in it eventually, anyways. It couldn't at all matter when, especially as she hadn't the slightest clue why she wanted to go swimming with Eld sometime and specifically wear this bathing suit.

---

The Vaerbond ranch house was extremely well kept and dutifully well furnished. It was a fairly large house that had more rooms than it really needed--but it was an old house that used to put up a family much larger than this one. A family of eight was supposed to live comfortably here. One time, such a family did reside here. Emily's father, Benson Vaerbond, was an only son and thus the sole inheritor of the house and the property, but his grandfather was one of eight children. The house was previously built to house five, so a whole second floor was added. The family had something of a collected fortune, one growing for hundreds of years, way back when since their settlement here in Hillcrest.

Akizets was actually fairly amazed when she first entered the ranch house. It was intentionally rustic and laden with home-made decor. Benson's father was something of a carpenter, after all, and he'd successfully furnished most of the house with his creations. The front room was something of a guest room, a pseudo living room of sorts, with the kitchen and dining room accessible to the left. To the right was a hallway that led to all their rooms and the stairs to their would be attic. Without anyone to live up there, it became something of a storage floor.

There was a small bustle in the kitchen. Emily's sister and mother were there having something of a heated discussion through hushed tones, riddled with passive-aggressive insults and comments. It was actually completely unnoticeable if one wasn't listening for it. Otherwise, it seemed like an average conversation . . .

Eld, of course, would know that this was an average conversation in the Vaerbond household.

"Oookay, this way," Emily said as took Akizetsumei's hand and started around the corner, down the hall and towards her room. Akizets almost tripped on the way there, but Em was slow and methodical; she was rushing Akizetsumei at all.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Pretty big, isn't it?" Eld asked. The place was bigger than his house plus the clinic, and it made the actual living space of his place look tiny by comparison. "We used to have sleepovers here every so often; we could each get our own room." Sleepovers were naturally an impossibility at his place and, he realized, Kyo's as well. Or at least they'd be very cramped and probably uncomfortable.

He didn't pay much mind to the way Sarah and her mother seemed to be talking and fighting at the same time. That was just how the Vaerbond family communicated, and once he'd understood that getting along with them became a lot easier.

[Nayt]

Emily led Akizetsumei and Eld to her room. When she opened the door, she revealed the obsessive clutter of a space she occupied. It only seemed to make sense to herself. She had three small bookcases all filled to the brim and several more tomes siting on the floor, stacked atop the other one by one. It was darkly lit with her curtains shut. Usually she preferred a little bit of light for study, something like an oil lantern. She had one of those hanging on her wall. Papers stacked atop each other in what would normally seem like random placement, but was actually fully structured and well thought out. Emily led Akizets in, but specifically stopped Eld before he could even think about following.

"Yoouu stay there," Emily declared as she stuck her tongue out at Eld and shut the door behind her.

Once the door was shut, there was a long silence, mostly filled with fumbling around and unexplainable rustling. When the silence was broken, Eld would no doubt hear it.

"E-ehhh??" It was Akizets, exclaiming something in surprise.

"What? We're both girls."

"B-but that's--"

"We kind of have the same parts, you know."

"B-but-- b-b-b-but--"

"Nothing to be ashamed of."

There was another pause. Akizetsumei must have been extremely nervous and uncomfortable, as she eventually let out a small whine.

"H-heeeey! Tha--that tiiiickklllles--!"

"All riiiight, fine, you do it, then. Gods, I was just trying to help."

Akizetsumei whimpered. "I-- I'm sorry. I-I'm not mad. Pleasedon'tthinkI'mmad."

"What?" Emily replied, "No? Why would I think you're angry?"

"B-because I-- um-- I--"

"Hey, hurry it up," Emily interjected, "I'm going to open the door on you if you don't."

"Wh-what?!"

"I'm going to count to a number. You have until then!"

"Wh-which number . . .?"

"Not gonna say."

"Wait! That's not fair at all!"

"Started counting five seconds ago. Still counting!"

"Nhhhhh!!"

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld rolled his eyes at Em. He could be a bit spacey at times, perhaps, but he wasn't going to follow them into her room when Akizetsumei was going to be changing. But that didn't mean that staying outside meant he was safe.

Just what is she doing? Eld thought when Akizetsumei complained about something tickling. For a moment his mind flashed to the image of Emily standing behind her and grabbing her bare chest. He shook the thought out of his head quickly.

Soon he was hoping that Akizetsumei would hurry up, because he was afraid that the longer this took the more he'd start hoping that Em would make good on her threat to throw the door open...

[Nayt]

"I-- I think that's it?" Akizets questioned.

"Yep. I think that's--" Emily began, but paused at length after whispering, "Oh, wow."

"What is it . . .?"

"Uh, er, nothing. So, ready to show off?"

"Ummmm, I guess so . . ."

It was at that point when Emily pulled her door open. Akizets had to stand aside to avoid getting hit by the door, and Emily was the first one to come out. Emily had actually changed clothes whilst she was in there, and came out in a tank top and short shorts--things she wore around the house but never outside. Emily always tried to dress professional and older than she actually was whenever she actually left the house. This was not remarkable at all. Eld had seen this girl scantily clad on numerous occasions, but any prospect of . . . well . . . anything between them was shot down months ago.

What would likely be remarkable to Eld-- what was remarkable to Emily a moment ago --was Akizetsumei. She stepped outside of Emily's room, still fully blushing. She looked up to Eld's face once but couldn't at all keep eye contact for long. The bathing suit she'd picked out, the one that Eld said he liked, appeared as if it fit her just fine. It was a bikini, though. It was more revealing that she expected. To Akizetsumei, it felt like she was just standing around in her undies. In truth, a bra and panties showed just as much skin as this did--if not a bit less. Her top was low cut, as most bikinis were, and though it functioned much like a bra, it also had less material on it. It almost made Akizetsumei look like she had cleavage.

"Turn around," Emily remarked. She wasn't goading the girl or anything, though. "Gotta see how the back looks."

With the utmost hesitation, Akizets nodded to Emily and slowly turned around. She kept her hands folded together by her bottom, though . . . which didn't really do much. She didn't do much good at hiding anything.

Overall, though . . . the way the swimsuit looked on Akizetsumei, it was almost like she wasn't really a thirteen year old girl. Like she had to be a couple of years older. She had hips. She had subtle curves to her belly between her ribs her hips. She had a bust size. It wasn't much; an A cup at best, but she wasn't flat, either. She had subtle curves to her thighs. She had long legs and nice shoulders.

She was . . . scaled. That's what caught Emily's attention the most. Nothing about Akizetsumei was too small or too large in contrast to the rest of her frame, not even her bottom. The girl could easily pull off saying she was fifteen or sixteen if she wore the right clothes . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Oh, wow," Eld said, agreeing with Em before he could catch himself. Akizetsumei usually wore such loose clothing that she looked...well, like a kid. But in the bikini it was easy to see that she was growing much more than he knew. She had curves proportional to her size, which was admittedly not much yet, but it was like...all the development was there, and once she started growing in height the rest would grow with her.

Until that moment, Eld had felt weird to be attracted to her; she was small, younger than him, and naive, so part of it seemed wrong. But seeing her like this, he was beginning to think it would be weirder not find her appealing.

He recalled the day they went up to the cliff, when she'd seemed older for a moment. Perhaps that was what he'd gotten a glimpse of then. In any case, she was going to be a real knockout in a few years.

"W-Well, it definitely seems to fit you," he commented, recalling the pretense they were there on. "It...looks really good on you."

[Nayt]

Akizetsumei couldn't help but giggle. All these negative feelings were washed out all at once. All those nerve wracking thoughts were still there, but they seemed so much less problematic when Eld said something like this, when he complimented her and made her feel like she was really something. It was . . . nice. He was so much nicer than any other boy she'd ever met. He didn't just try to say weird things and he never made her uncomfortable. He did nice things for her and said nice things to her. He made her feel all the good kinds of anxieties she could ever think of. Akizetsumei was happy with Eld.

With Eld . . .

She giggled again. Akizetsumei was clearly happy, now. She was smiling brightly and even brought her hands up to her face to partly hide how much she was blushing.

It actually took Akizetsumei a moment to realize that Emily was sizing her up. She calmed a bit when she finally noticed it and brought her hands down from her face a bit. She was now blushing a bit less, though still felt a tiny bit out of place in this swimsuit.

"Hmm, let's see . . ." Emily took a step towards Akizetsumei.

Akizetsumei, as if on instinct, took one step back. It wasn't that she was consciously trying to get away from Emily. Her muscles just sort of reacted was all.

"Hey, hold still," Emily remarked as she broke the distance between their bodies.

"Oh, umm, sorry," Akizets whispered apologetically.

Emily didn't respond with much. Instead, she stood in front of Akizets for a short moment, looked her up and down, then stood at her side. Without a second thought, she pinched the side of the girl's bikini bottom between her index finger and thumb and tugged on it a bit. Akizets let out a surprised "meep!" but did nothing to stop the girl. Emily circled Akizetsumei until she stood behind her, causing Akizets to look over her shoulder with a vague sense of nervousness, then back to Eld with a look of extreme inquisition.

Then Emily tugged on the back of her bikini top and Akizets let out another muffled "meep!" The final thing Emily did, though, was practically put her arms around Akizetsumei from behind . . .

There was no doubt about it. Emily set each hand upon Akizetsumei's chest, cupping over the cloth of her bikini. Suddenly, it was like Akizetsumei's face turned about as red as it could go. She had no words. She had no expression, either. She'd all but stopped breathing with extreme suddenness, her breath caught in a gasp the first time Emily touched her up there, and the rest was just non-existent. Her lungs just weren't going to work and in her face, she looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a horseless carriage. Her eyes were wide, her brow was harshly lifted, and her lips were parted though no air passed through them.

From Eld's view, it might have seemed like Emily was massaging Akizets just over where cloth cupped her flesh-- but the reality of the situation was that she was touching only the cloth, only the bottom and the side of it. Any contact with the girl's breasts was completely accidental. She soon brought her hands over to the sides of Akizetsumei's chest, tugged on the material again, and came to a conclusion:

"Fits great. Good choice." Emily remarked as if what happened wasn't weird at all. "Was it your first try?"

Akizetsumei did not respond as she still had not started breathing again.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was too stunned by Em's actions to say anything, and it wasn't until she spoke again that he realized that she was only ensuring that Akizetsumei's bathing suit fit properly, even if that meant invading her personal space a bit.

And knowing Emily she was quite aware of what it looked like to him.

Eld coughed slightly to hide his own blush. That was really not a track he wanted his mind to go down, especially after what happened a few months ago. "Well, she did look at quite a few different ones, but this was the first one she picked out."

He hoped Akizetsumei understood what Emily was actually doing. Well, about the sizing up the swimsuit part, not about the teasing him part. He could do without her figuring that part out.

[Nayt]

"E-e-- eh-heh . . ." Akizets laughed nervously.

It was the only thing she could do right now. What just happened was so weird, so obscure . . . she had no reaction. There was nothing to say. No words to express the notion that she felt violated because she didn't actually feel all that violated. More than anything, she felt completely shocked and terribly embarrassed because all that happened in front of Eld. But when she looked at him, it didn't seem like he was all that . . . put off? It was weird.

"Eh-- heh-- heh . . ."

This whole mess was really getting weird!

"Whoa! Hey there, sexy," another voice called from down the hall.

Akizets did not even have to look to know that it was Sarah's voice. She walked down the hall with some brand of victorious stride and stopped by Eld's side.

"Lookin' good there, Akizetsumei," she commented, "What's the occasion?"

"Akizets just picked that up," Emily motioned to the bathing suit, "So she came by to try it on."

"Ohhhh," Sarah then looked to Eld, set her elbow upon his shoulder, and smirked. "Well, Eld looks awfully impressed."

This actually got Akizetsumei to look at Eld, if only to gauge his reaction again. Was he really as impressed as Sarah made him out to be . . .?

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld hadn't realized that he was still staring at Akizetsumei until Sarah said something. Akizetsumei would be able to catch him looking at her and blushing just before he shot the bespectacled red-head an annoyed look and said, "W-Well, she looks good, doesn't she? Even Em thinks so."

"What do you think, Sarah?" he asked. "You've probably been through more swimsuits than all of us combined, so..."

[Nayt]

He said it. He said it again. He said she looked good. And it was sincere. The way he was blushing was a lot like the way she blushed when she was with him, thinking about all the good things that she liked about him. Akizetsumei's nervous laughter gave way to another giggle. The whole mess with Emily was suddenly a lot less difficult to bear.

"Hey, it's true," Sarah admitted with a shrug of her shoulders, "You look great, Akizetsumei. You do a bikini better justice than Emily could any day."

On Eld's other side, where Emily stood, there was a wince and a low rumble, like a growing growl. Except Emily didn't growl. She bit. She had a habit of retorting verbally and starting a chaotic mess of an argument, though it seemed as if she was trying to hold back for now. For Akizetsumei's sake. She'd never been in the Vaerbond household before. It might've been best to let her grow acquainted with it first.

"Huh." An older, almost middle aged, female voice spoke up.

Sarah damn near jumped out of her skin. Akizets was less surprised, and Emily even less. The both of them still jumped somewhat, though. None of them really expected that . . .

Mrs. Helen Vaerbond was easily the source of Sarah's good looks. Or her feminine assets, at least. At thirty-five years old, she was tall and shapely, and though she was on the bigger side of the weight scale, she was neither obese nor overweight. She was curvy. She still had a pretty face, too. Sarah and Emily's hair color came directly from her; only their mother's hair was that fiery red. With the way Helen Vaerbond carried herself--and especially with how she wore black framed glasses most of the time--it was easy to tell which parent Sarah inherited the most from. Sarah practically looked like a younger version of Helen, a fact Sarah had no qualms with. The amount of boys that still clammered after her mother, regardless of the twenty plus year age gap, was actually pretty astounded.

Right now, there was one major problem with Helen's appearance: no one heard her coming. If they'd just looked to their left, they'd have seen her in their peripheral, but they were all too busy looking at someone else . . .

"So, Eld's got a new girlfriend?" Helen asked idly, "Well, she's cuter than Sarah, at least."

"M-mom!" Sarah stammered.

Helen seemed to completely ignore her daughter. She reached her hand out as if to take Akizetsumei's. Akizetsumei hesitantly obliged. "I'm Helen Vaerbond," she said as she shook Akizetsumei's hand, "Sarah and Emily's mother."

"I-- I'm, umm, I'm Akizetsumei of Terra," Akizetsumei replied. There was a lot going on here. A lot to keep track of. And all the while, she felt like she was standing on a stage of some sort, as if all eyes were on her.

"Ohhh, you're Katalyna's daughter?"

Akizets nodded.

"Kata talks about you all the time," Helen said with a smile, "You're really her pride and joy. I can't say she's ever said a bad thing."

Akizets blushed-- for a different reason this time. She hadn't the slightest clue what her mother would say that was good about her, but it was kind of flattering to know.

Helen turned her attention back on Eld then. "Eld, your taste in girls has improved. I'm proud of you."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was just as startled as everyone else when Helen showed up. "H-Hello, Mrs. Vaerbond," he stammered out first; even being embarrassed couldn't stop him from giving a polite greeting.

While he felt a little sorry for Sarah, he knew that Helen was just teasing her and didn't mean that. Or at least he hoped that was the case. Sometimes it was hard to tell. Though not for the first time, he had to wonder just how much she knew about his relationship with her daughter. That was always made him a little nervous when talking to her.

Rather than address her mistake right now, he decided to just avoid talking about it. For some reason he didn't want to actually deny it with Akizetsumei right here; besides, she hadn't corrected the saleswoman earlier either. "H-How have you been?"

[Nayt]

As much as Akizetsumei felt it was respectful to look at Helen when she was speaking, she couldn't help but divert her gaze to Eld. People kept confusing them for a couple so much today. It was weird. Was there a reason for it? Did they look like a couple? Akizetsumei hadn't been purposefully trying to get onto Eld's good side like that. Really, she was just trying to be good friends with him!

But the notion was, well . . .

It sounded nice . . .

"Ohhh, I've been good," Helen said to Eld heartily.

But Sarah wasn't hearing any of this. She was still reeling from something her mother said just seconds ago, that implication that Eld must've had bad taste in women when he started dating her. Sarah wasn't going to let that one go. Not without a wholehearted battle.

"Mom!" she grumbled loudly.

"What is it?" Helen asked. The innocence in her voice was clearly false. Those like Emily and Eldridge would probably see exactly how Helen was goading Sarah into starting up the old fight they were having in the kitchen.

"You know what it is!"

"Ohhh, what?" Helen turned to walk away. She stopped at the end of the hall, though. Akizets, Emily, and Sarah all watched her as she turned around theatrically. "Did I hurt your feewings?"

It looked like something had broken inside of Sarah Vaerbond. All she did for a moment was stare at her mother, until at long last her eyebrow twitched repeatedly, followed by the muscle below her eye, and soon after she was hulking down with her shoulders and rolling up her sleeves.

"Mother," she replied calmly, "One of these days, I'm just gonna . . ."

"Sock me one?" Helen smiled. She turned away again and started for the kitchen. Sarah stomped after her. It didn't take more than a second for her to raise her voice again.

---

At first, Akizetsumei was kind of scared of the whole verbal battle. It wasn't until others like Emily and Eld started to find enjoyment-- if only slightly --in how utterly absurd it was, that Akizetsumei stopped taking it as seriously. Neither Sarah nor her mother fought over anything specific. It was almost like they were fighting just to fight. Ego and pride clashed all at once, and there were probably only a handful of men in the village that could have stood up to the torrent of verbal brutality those ladies unleashed upon one another.

It ended with a quiet, calm, and friendly dinner.

In the end, Eldridge and Akizetsumei left the Vaerbond ranch side-by-side. Akizets had long since changed back into her clothes, and now held her swimsuit in her arms. She was still laughing, if only slightly, over the utterly absurd experience they'd had at Sarah's.

[Zach Kaiser]

Dinner with the Vaerbonds was many things, but boring was never one of them. Even when they weren't arguing the family was a boisterous bunch. Fortunately, despite the fact that (according to Sarah and Emily) they fought over their food during normal meals, plenty was made available whenever they had guests.

All in all it was a fun evening, and it doubled to serve the purpose of distracting him from thoughts of Akizetsumei in a bikini, thoughts that were coming back to him now that they were alone and she was carrying said article of clothing.

"They're an interesting bunch, aren't they?" While he didn't know much about her more life, he imagined the Terra clan were a bit more low key than that--especially considering how little her father or brother spoke.