Eld made the mistake turning to look as she talked; fortunately Emma only bared a little bit of her stomach, but with his mind already well on that track he had to look away lest his imagination fill in the rest.

He wanted to comment that she wouldn't really do anything with him since she had Davis, but he was afraid she'd take that as challenge and he knew better than to challenge a Vaerbond, intentionally or not.

"I'm not starting until you leave, and if you start to I'll leave myself."

However, he couldn't resist taking a jab at her. "Besides, they might fit you, but you wouldn't fill them out."

"That's . . . not . . ."

Fair!

"What's with guys and big breasts, huh?" Emma relented as got off of the bed, "I mean, ain't Sarah and Etsu just too cumbersome? Ugh, whatever . . ."

Emma grumbled the entire way out of Eld's room. Emma, like Mayako, didn't like being compared to the other girls. She was only twelve, though--it wasn't like she was particularly developed or anything! Mayako, at the very least, was sixteen. That comparison was fair. Emma wasn't only enough to have filled out or anything, and actually, she wasn't nearly as developed as her sister when Sarah was her age. There was a good chance that she was going to remain modest like this. This, of course, was a sensitive topic. Nonetheless, she left Eld alone, and waited outside of his room.

Eld hid a grin as Emma stormed out of his room. It wasn't often he got the better of her in an argument. He didn't much care about bust size in general, but she'd practically asked for that jab. It somewhat amusing, though, that despite Emma being much better off than Mayako in that regard, Mayako was much more accustomed to being teased about it and usually took comments in fairly good humor.

He did take care to dress quickly, though; he wouldn't put it past her to try and get revenge by walking in on him while he was changing, and the longer he took the more likely that would occur to her.

Within a few minutes he emerged from his room, dressed in long pants and a sweatshirt. "Okay, I'm all set," he said, glancing towards the bathroom to see if Etsu was ready yet.

It was something Etsu hadn't worn in awhile, but it was one of her favorite outfits. She had lucked out when she got it, too. Normally, her clothing exchange was just a luck of the draw; she could ask for certain things, and she might get something like that--but then again, she once asked for something to sleep in, and the clothes she got were clearly not hers. That was one hell of an awkward night, but with the current relationship changes, it wouldn't be nearly as bad if it happened now. Or if she asked for it specifically.

Early, when she rushed to the bathroom, she had her clothes folded up. When she left the bathroom, it was clear what she had obtained: something she had only worn once so far, but it was well received by the others when she did. A white kimono with light blue details about the edges, something she had been given shortly after she became a Reaper. It wasn't anything special, though; not to her, at least. More or less, it was a casual kimono that she really enjoyed wearing. The color matched her hair, though; she didn't know for sure, but it may very well have been specifically tailored for her.

"Whoa~, hey, haven't seen that in awhile," Emma whistled, "Careful, now; I might get jealous of Davis admiring you than he will me . . ."

". . . I . . . I do no think . . . wir-rr hap-pen," Etsu shook her head.

Etsu probably wouldn't draw Davis's attention away from Emma, but she certainly had no problems holding Eld's gaze. True, she'd worn it once before, but after last night he now thought she looked even more beautiful in it.

"....I-It l-looks really g-good on you," he remarked, half to reassure her and half because...well, he couldn't help it.

For a moment he just stood there blushing at her, before becoming self-conscious. Not because he was staring at her, but because Emma was right there too.

"S-So, are we all set then?" he asked, hopefully getting Emma's mind on seeing Davis so that she wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

". . . . a-arigatou . . ." the girl whispered.

Eld's compliment meant a lot more just then--if only because of his admittance of feelings for her. Etsu blushed; she hadn't actually intended to look nice for any particular reason or person, but wound up getting her kimono by chance alone. She wasn't disappointed with that at all, as she particularly liked this article of clothing, and felt great about it once Eld complimented her. Though, she hoped that she wasn't going to somehow distract Davis from paying attention to Emma--that would be terrible! Etsu wasn't dating Davis--she was dating Eld, so . . . she shouldn't be attracting Davis's attention.

That's how she felt about it, at least. Emma didn't personally care all that much, and would have most likely just picked on Davis about it, were she to catch him eying Etsu in an "improper" way.

"Yeah. Well, guess we're out, then," stated Emma with a shrug of her shoulders, before starting off--leading, intentionally.

"Alright," he replied, regaining a little composure. Either Emma wasn't noticing or was deliberately ignoring his reactions, though despite his awareness that he could never lie or hide things well it never occurred to him that it might be the latter.

He wondered if Emma and Davis would stay in all day or if they'd go out at some point. If the latter happened, he could justify leaving them alone for awhile...which would mean he could spend some time in Galaens with Etsu. Now that they were going out, would that make it a date...?

Clearing his head, he brought his mind back to the present--Emma was on her way out the door. "Coming?" he asked Etsu, slightly shyly as he held his hand out to her, if she wished to take it. It wasn't as though they'd never held hands before, but now that they were a couple...

"H-hai!" Etsu exclaimed meekly, inspired to go on because of Eld--because he was willing to hold out his hand to her so they could progress hand in hand, progress into the day. Into another day of their relationship.

She was giddy; so happy that she was all smiles, and had to do everything she absolutely could to avoid giggling. Eld was nervous, and she probably should have been--looking forward to everything, she should definitely have been fidgety and edgy about the prospect of going out on an official date with Eld, or doing anything as a couple, really. The thing was, though, she wasn't looking forward in time at all. Etsu was living in the present, not thinking about the past or the future, if only because she knew that in the future, she'd be without this. For now, she was only happy if she was living in the present, with Eld.

Outside, there were only two horses tied up in front of the clinic. That was fine: Etsu could ride with Eld, and Emma could ride on her own. That would work perfectly, right? Etsu thought that much at least.

She had conveniently forgotten that Emma was personally afraid of riding alone. Though, Etsu was terrible at riding a horse, too. Worse than Emma. She couldn't control the horse, but she could stay on. At least, if she was with someone else who could control the horse. One time, she had been bucked off and had to go right back to the clinic for a couple of days. And Eld was just one guy; he couldn't ride with them both.

"Hey lovebirds, mind if I split you two up for this?" Emma asked sardonically, though she didn't think far ahead enough to figure out who was riding with who.

Eld's face instantly turned red again at the word lovebirds. It was dumb, as it wasn't as though Emma never teased them like that even before, but he couldn't help it.

"U-Umm..." On one hand, he rather liked the idea of Etsu sitting behind him and holding onto him. But he also knew that Emma hated riding alone, though why she'd feel better with Etsu behind her was a mystery to him.

And that was how he assumed things would be set up--Eld and Emma each riding, with Etsu behind Emma. He certainly wasn't about to have Etsu ride again, not after last time. She was too timid to control a horse.

"Sure, that's fine," he relented. It was probably for the best, as he was certain they'd give themselves away if Etsu was riding right behind him.

"Etsu and I?" Emma deduced, "Sounds good."

Riding like that was pretty smooth, amazingly enough. Emma was comfortable riding if she had someone else with her, that was all. The other person didn't even need to know how to keep a horse under control. It was just the idea that she wasn't alone that made her content with the situation. For awhile, they rode like that, not having much to discuss--not at first, at least. And eventually . . .

"Ah . . . I'd go to sleep like this if I wouldn't fall off," Emma remarked, breaking the silence.

This, at first, had Etsu confused. What would bring Emma to such a conclusion? How could one even fall asleep on a horse? No logical deduction could be drawn as to why. Of course, Emma was leaning into her, but that in no way meant that she was going to start falling asleep. Etsu didn't fancy herself all that comfortable of a person. In fact, she figured that she was all bony with her legs and arms and such, even though such was a false assumption. Actually, Eld falling asleep with his head in her lap wasn't a far off concept. Etsu simply didn't consider it a remote possibility; though, she never thought much good about her own body, in the first place.

It wasn't long after her question that she realized that she had to look down to see Emma, and then, she could only see the top of the girl's head. The reason for this was simple: Emma was leaning her head back into Etsu's chest.

"E-Emma-chan!" Etsu cried out belatedly.

Eld was a decent rider, but not so good that he was comfortable taking his eyes off the road for extended periods of time. So even though he heard her comment about possibly falling asleep as like Etsu wondered how she could possibly do that (even he wasn't that deep of a sleeper), he didn't actually turn and look until Etsu's shout.

He stared for a moment, remembering the time several weeks ago where actually did fall asleep like that (though in a bed, not on a horse). That caused him to blush slightly, making it difficult to reprimand Emma for it.

"Please don't," he said instead, regarding her falling asleep. "Do you really want her to fall off and end up in the hospital again?"

"Noooo, I don't," Emma sighed.

Emma sat forward again. Etsu's spill last time was pretty bad. It wasn't life threatening, and she didn't break anything that didn't take much more than a couple of weeks to fix it, but she sure screwed herself up pretty bad. Scrapes and cuts and gashes all over, a few breaks, a lot of bruises. It had looked like she was mugged by a very sturdy and angry bush.

"I can't help it, though. She's got nice tits," Emma lamented, "Waaaay better than Mayako's, and better than Sarah's, too. Etsu's sort of . . . perkier. Yeah. That's a good description. She's perkier--makes for better pillows."

"E-Emma-chan!!" Etsu cried out meekly, embarrassed, "Pr-rease do no say such improper thing . . ."

"Hey, that's why we have 'em!" Emma rebutted, "We have breasts for a few purposes. Guys like them--and some girls, too, babies feed from them, and we can always give our boy toys a place to sleep. Well. Boyfriend in my case. Davis doesn't like to admit it, but he totally thinks I'm good for a pillow."

There were a lot things Eld could say, most of which he refrained from mentioning due to embarrassment. Despite everything that happened, Eld still had a lot of trouble talking about subjects like that--especially with someone like Emma.

Not that there was a lot to discuss, as he got the impression she was mostly just talking like that to embarrass them anyway.

Partly to prevent Etsu from correcting Emma, and partly because her last comment genuinely irked him, he replied, "I find that hard to believe."

"Ano, I am--" Etsu started as a whisper.

But Eld had spoken a full sentence before she could. Etsu had such a meek voice, anyways, that it was easy to accidentally speak over her without intending to. As always, rather than push the issue and try to speak in spite of the interruption (which in itself was much more aggressive than Etsu really was), she shut up immediately. Though, fortunately for Eld and all of Etsu's other friends in Hillcrest, she never once took offense to it. Etsu always just quieted down and subordinated herself, which may or may not have gotten on Eld's nerves. No one else seemed to notice, however.

"What do you mean, you find it hard to believe?" Emma asked, dejected.

She pushed her arms against her chest (without letting go of the reins, of course) to emphasize her bust--which wasn't much, but she was only twelve. Excess couldn't be expected. But still, she had more than Mayako could boast.

"I'm way better than Mayako," Emma stated bluntly, "And if I'm not wearing a bra or something, I'd be even better off."

Normally Eld would feel bad for interrupting Etsu and insist that she continue with what she was saying, but this time he let it go. He knew sooner or later he'd have to tell everyone about his relationship with her, but he wanted to hold off until he thought of a good way to go about it. To some extent hurting feelings was unavoidable, but some ways would be better than others.

"Beating Mayako in that regard doesn't really give you bragging rights," Eld pointed out. He knew guys with larger chests than her; fortunately, Mayako had plenty else going for her.

He did feel kind of bad about depressing her with his comment, so he said, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll take after your sister--just give it time. Davis doesn't need to be concerned with your chest yet anyway." A small bit of irritability sneaked into the last sentence; as an older brother (if not by blood), he'd just never be comfortable with the idea of anyone touching his little sister.