With Eld's acknowledgment of her threat--or promise, rather!--Emma left Eld's room, briefly waving beforehand. For he, now, it was a matter of waiting for everyone to get ready. It took about an hour for all of them, it seemed. That was just the average time, and thus a good amount of time to leave Etsu to her own devices.

"Hai," she replied to Eld with a sleepy nod.

There were a number of things she needed to do before she could consider herself ready to go. First and foremost, she needed a good idea for clothes for the day. That was the first thing to do, definitely. After all, if she brushed her hair first, throwing a shirt on afterward would just muss her hair up again, and she'd have to repeat the first step all over again. Etsu got up and started towards her pile of clothes. A lot of them were folded up; the rest were not. Etsu was not the neatest person in the world, without a doubt.

For a moment, she bent down to sort through her clothes. There was many a combination to be discovered, but there still had to be some degree of matching. Unfortunately, she was still borderline asleep, and she didn't want to pick out the wrong things.

"What shour-rd I wear?" Etsu asked Eld specifically as she plopped down upon the floor. He dressed pretty well. He'd be able to make a good suggestion or two. Probably.

Eld waved to Emma as she left. Really, he knew she was just hoping he would spy on them, as an excuse to do to him whatever they had planned. He wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.

"...Eh?" It took him a minute to realize that Etsu was actually addressing him; if it weren't for the fact that she never talked to herself, he would have been certain that was the case.

"Umm...I'm not sure I'm the one to ask, but let me see." He moved over to her piles on the floor (a concession Eld had to reluctantly concede to, as it wasn't really practical to buy another dresser and there was no room in his) and began examining them.

After several minutes, he finally picked out a top and bottom, both nice looking because they were going out, and also fairly modest because they were going to a city without a male present. Not that he thought they couldn't handle themselves, but there usually having a guy along--even a non-threatening looking one--prevented unwanted attention.

It had nothing to do with the fact that he didn't want anyone else looking at the girl he liked, naturally.

"How about these?" he asked, handing them to her for her inspection.

Well, that definitely worked. A dark purple long sleeved shirt, kind of like a sweater, but too light-weight to be a sweater, and a pair of blue jeans. Both were most definitely Sarah's. Some clothes she got from Sarah, some she obtained while she was here, and others she got from Scott Thompson. Sometimes those were extremely embarrassing, and other times they weren't so bad. Like the time he transferred a button down shirt, black vest, dress shoes, and black slacks. She didn't have those anymore; they'd been sent back, and she couldn't get anything else from him whilst she was on probation, but still . . . she got about as many compliments that day as she got when she wore an actual dress.

And a lot of stares that made Eld feel kind of uncomfortable, but from a completely different crowd than during the rare cases when she wore a low cut shirt.

Etsu had Eld leave the room so she could get ready, and she took her time in getting dressed and brushing her hair and all the like. The general width of the shirt was kind of intimidating. Etsu practically swam in it. It was just like wearing one of Eld's shirts, except it actually fit her in the chest area, but was baggy all around. That was to be expected, though. It was one of Sarah's more recent shirts, and Sarah was about thirty or thirty five pounds heavier than Etsu was.

Once she was all ready, with her hair evenly combed out and straightened, and her bangs over the left side of her face, she decided to start out. By that point, she'd all but woken up.

"I wir-rr be back . . ." Etsu told Eld at the door; it felt like she should have hugged him or something, but she refrained, and (very) awkwardly waved (and subtly), even though there was only, like, two feet of space between them.

"Alright, I'll see you later." There was something awkward about the way Etsu waved to him front right in front of him, something that made him want to get rid of the awkwardness. So without thinking, he swooped in, gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

The latter of which he only became conscious of a few seconds after he'd already done it. It wasn't a romantic kiss, but it was a kiss--and he wasn't the type that kissed friends, even on the cheek. He flushed, and quickly excused himself, saying he needed to go help his parents.

Well, so much for making things less awkward, he thought dismally.

Two hours later, against his better judgment, he found himself in Galaens.

He didn't want to be there, but in both large ways and small ones fate seemed to be out to get him. He'd made good on his promise to help his parents. "Is there anything I can help you with?" he'd asked his mother.

"Actually, there is," Rebbecca Tsukimono replied. "I'd like you to go into town and buy towels, bandages...some other things. I have a list around here somewhere."

"We're running low?" he inquired.

"Not really, but...you never know when another emergency will happen. Like another mysterious virus for example." And that caused Eld to wince; they knew he was involved in that mess, and thankfully they didn't ask for details, but he couldn't exactly hide the injuries he'd received--they were minor, but they were numerous. He was certain they figured out some of what happened.

"Does it have to be today?" He knew that, no matter what excuse he might have, if he ran into the girls in Galaens they'd never listen to reason. Well, Sarah and Emma wouldn't, but they were the ones he was worried about.

"Didn't you just ask to help?" his mother countered. "Besides, I don't see any of the girls around, so I thought today would be a good day for you to go." To anyone else (well, save Urikuse) the comment would have been innocuous, but Eld couldn't help but stare at his mother. She knew. Somehow--he wasn't sure how--she knew what the girls were up to, knew of Emma's threat against him. He was sure of it. But he couldn't prove it, and it didn't matter even if he could. Parents could be unreasonable like that.

And so he was in the market in Galaens, constantly looking over his shoulder just in case he saw the girls coming. Normally he'd have enjoyed the day out, but there was too much potential for trouble. He just wanted to finish his errands and go home...

When Eld drew Etsu into a hug and kissed her on the cheek, 99% of her conscious brain functions cease. She froze in place, eyes wide, heart pounding in her chest. She didn't return the hug, but not out of rudeness. Etsu had simply not seen it coming when Eld embraced her. Perhaps she should have. Perhaps she should not have been so surprised and confused. It wasn't like they hadn't been much more intimate than that before--but what did it mean? The way he embraced her like that, and the feeling of his lips upon her cheek--what did it mean? More often than not, whenever Emma departed from Eld, and there was a chance they weren't going to see each other for a few days, Emma hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. It wasn't an intimate thing, though: it was purely familial. Regardless of how many doubts there were regarding Emma's feelings for Eld, he was her surrogate older brother, and Eld treated her just the same, as a surrogate little sister. That dynamic was captured perfectly in the way they embraced before parting ways, but the way Eld hugged Etsu at that moment was nothing like that, and the way he kissed her on the cheek was far too soft to be something so simple as a peck on the cheek. Perhaps she was reading into it too much. Perhaps she was thinking about it way too much, as soon as her conscious thoughts kicked back in, but either way, she couldn't help but blush.

"A-an . . . a-no . . ." Etsu whispered nervously, "S-see y-you . . ."

And she was off--and soon after, Eld was, too.

Of course, this required Eld to actually rent a horse. He could have borrowed a horse from Sarah's father; he was still around the house, even though Sarah and Emma were not--but if he did that, well, no doubt Sarah and Emma would have found out about it.

Naturally, he had to be on his toes when in Galaens. Every so often, in the market, he might even spot them: an azure haired girl, two red heads, and another girl whose hair looked dark purple in the light of day. There were enough people in the crowd, though, that he'd be able to duck behind taller folk and sneak past whilst they took their time browsing at a stall, talking and . . . and even giggling a little.

Yes, no doubt they were talking about Eld and Davis.

And then, advice time.

"Well Ets," Sarah declared as she promptly put her hand on her fellow's shoulder, "Just don't let 'im give you a massage or nothin'."

"Doushite?"

"Bad things happen when that man puts his hands on a girl like that," Sarah replied.

Which confused Etsu, naturally. She didn't really care about massages; they did very little to relieve tension for her. Unlike Sarah, she took very good care of herself. She rarely ever had tense muscles; the only tension that build up in her body was in her spine and joints. Cracking her joints was all she needed, and that wasn't intimate at all. During the two instances in her time knowing Eld that "things happened," a massage on either end did not occur or lead up to it in any way. In fact, Eld rarely gave Etsu any massages at all, probably because, unlike the other girls, Etsu was almost completely unresponsive towards them.

"Take it from us," Sarah then put her other hand on Mayako's shoulder, "It just ain't worth it!"

Mayako looked over Etsu's way with a somewhat knowing frown.

"See, that's what I like about Davis," Emma declared proudly, "One thing doesn't lead to another, more often than n--"

"Horse shiiit," Sarah interjected.

Somewhat dejected, Emma muttered, "What?"

"Do ya know what I was doin' when I was ya age?"

"I, uh . . ." Emma trailed off. She was kind of too young to know about that sort of business back then, "No, not really."

"Lemme tell ya--one thing always leads to another! How old's Davis? Nineteen?"

"Twenty, soon."

"Ain't no way that man is without a sex drive."

Sarah moved closer to Emma to talk, while Mayako moved closer to Etsu; both pairs began their own private discussions, Emma and Sarah regarding their somewhat premature sex lives (Sarah reminiscing and Emma, well . . .), while Mayako and Etsu talked more about the matter at hand: the necklaces all hanging from the cart they stood before.

By virtue of the fact that when those four were together, they talked, and they talked a lot, Eld would be able to get out of the market unscathed, but at about the same time that the girls were leaving the market. He'd have to have eyes in the back of his head--ever vigil! Etsu was an extremely perceptive person, perhaps the most perceptive person any of them had ever known. If she saw a glimpse of him, he would be done for. She'd wind up calling out to him, or rushing forward a bit to meet him.

She did kind of want to return the hug and the kiss on the cheek, after all. But if she got that opportunity, well . . . Eld would certainly find himself in some serious trouble. Trouble that was, perhaps, not quite worth it.

Even though there was no real danger involved, Eld found himself being more nervous than he was during most battles. He was constantly looking over his shoulder, wary of the girls approaching around any bend. Fortunately, they were loud, and he could often hear them from far enough away to make himself scarce. Etsu was the one he really needed to watch out for, though; whereas the other three were fairly well distracted, Etsu's senses were always sharp, and she'd probably notice him even just getting a glimpse.

For once, he was glad her Qi was sealed; he wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise.

He was mostly done when it happened; paranoia got the best of him. Hearing teenage girls in the distance, he quickly ducked around a corner, not even wanting to risk being on the same street if he could avoid it...

...and running pretty much right into Sarah, catching the girls in a rare moment of quiet. He stumbled back, concentrating too hard on making sure the bags didn't spill, and fell on his rear. He flushed a bit--being stronger than normal did nothing to take the sting off a blow to one's pride. "E-Excuse me," he apologized, not yet realizing who he'd run into...

"Uhn!" Sarah let out a grunt as she stumbled forward, before swinging around almost immediately thereafter in a show of aggression, "Hey! Watch where the hell ya goin', buddy!"

Sarah's show of aggression naturally attracted the attention of Emma, Mayako, and Etsu, who all three turned shortly thereafter to see who had accidentally bumped into Sarah--or, as Mayako and Emma figured, the person who had accidentally bumped into Sarah and was about to get a nice shiner to take home.

Which would have been a straight-up guarantee, were it not for the fact that Sarah knew the person who had bumped into her. Very well. Very, very well . . .

"Whoa. Eld?" Sarah reacted by calming a little.

"Er-rd-kun?" Etsu asked with a furrowed brow.

"E-Eld?"

Emma's reaction, on the other hand, was much less surprised, and much more . . . angry? Disappointed? Yes, disappointed, definitely."Eld! What'reyoudoinghere?"

"Eh...?" Eld was the kind of surprised that only comes from a person who believes they're experiencing the impossible. He glanced behind him, because he'd been certain he'd heard them over there, but here they were in front of him.

When he finally seemed ready to believe his eyes, he focused on Emma, who looked...rather displeased. Which was actually kind of a relief. He was sort of afraid he was going to see sadistic glee.

Not that he was in a much better position. "E-Errands," he replied, a bit nervous. He so wanted to believe that they were going to be reasonable about this and believe him.

He lifted up the bags to show them. "Mother sent me shopping for some supplies, see?" There was a distinct impression about him, like a criminal at his last hearing before being sentenced to death.

"Errands, huh . . .?" Emma responded in obvious disbelief.

Sarah glanced over to Emma first, before remembering what it was all about. As soon as she did, Sarah took a step forward--and then Emma did, too. The sadistic glee Eld was expecting and fearing came almost immediately. Sarah grinned and so did Emma, leaving Mayako and Etsu, behind them, fairly confused. Etsu knew that they didn't want either Eld or Davis following them or anything, but she was inclined to believe that Eld had simply come because he had errands to run.

"Errands, eh?" Sarah asked sarcastically.

"Nothing to do with us out here in the market, huh?"

"Nooooo . . ." Sarah replied to Emma for Eld--again, very sarcastic, "No, Eld would never intentionally spy on us or anythin' . . .!"

"Accidental or on purpose, I do believe we had a punishment in mind for just this sort of situation!" decreed Emma.

This prompted Sarah to pound her fist into her hand. "Yeah. Yeah we do . . ."

The girls would be treated to something of an unusual sight: Eld, veteran of many battles by now, most of them involving abilities far beyond what a normal person could ever hope to accomplish, breaking out into a cold sweat.

"G-G-Give me a break!" he stammered, backpedaling rapidly until he hit the wall of the building that he'd stepped around when he ran into them. "It's not like I can say no to her." Which was a valid point; the girls might not have seen it much, but Sarah was not the only reason Eld was a bit cowed by girls.

"B-Besides, if I really wanted to spy on you, I wouldn't run right into you. Especially not in front of you." But would they really listen? He suspected his presence was enough reason for them, and they really didn't care if he was spying or not.

Both Sarah and Emma kept taking steps forward, backing Eld up against the building he'd just swung around a moment earlier. He was cornered. He had nowhere else to run.

"Yeah, yeah . . ." Sarah punched her open hand again.

"We understand . . ." Emma replied; it was her turn to take the sarcastic route. "You know--just stopping by, running some errands for your mother . . . yeah, we understand perfectly fine . . ."

Mayako nervously glanced at Etsu, who looked quite confounded. Sarcasm was completely lost on her. The way Emma and Sarah were talking, it sounded to her like they really did believe Eld, but they still had him cornered, and were probably about to do something terrible to him. Etsu didn't understand. Was it supposed to be a joke or something? Either way, she started walking, too, until she took a few steps closer to Eld than Sarah and Emma had, prompting the confusion of the two girls.

"Er-rd-kun, are you er-rand compr-rete?" she asked with genuine interest. After all, if he was finished with hi errands, then he was going to be going home soon enough.

Oh, that wasn't good. He thought he still had lots of street left to back away into, but now suddenly he was up against a wall. Literally and metaphorically. He wondered what they'd do to him. Surely, it couldn't be too bad if they were going to do it in broad daylight in a busy marketplace, right?

Comforting himself was not working at the moment though, and his eyes darted around for any escape route. He didn't find one, but as though a gift from the heavens one was presented to him.

Etsu, you are a godsend!

Seeing that the Vaerbond sisters were momentarily thrown off by her sudden interjection, Eld quickly stood up and nodded vigorously. "Y-Yeah, I just have to pick up some towels," he replied, stepping to the side, away from the corner. His first instinct was to bolt, but he ignored that; they were predators, they'd only chase if he ran.

"I-I suppose I'll go...I wouldn't want to intrude on your girl's day out or anything." Seeing that Etsu helped him a bit unintentionally, he shot a glance at Mayako. He was smiling (if somewhat nervously), but his eyes screamed, help me!

"J-just towels?" Mayako asked, at first a little nervous.

Mayako really didn't like messing with Sarah. As a girl who had essentially been Sarah's shadow since the two of them were five years old, always just following her around--like a side-kick, really. She knew better than anyone else just how violent Sarah could get sometimes, and she knew better than to get involved with that kind of mess!

But still, for Eld's sake, Mayako leaned in and wrapped her arms around Sarah's shoulders from behind, a lot like hugging her from behind. She leaned her chin upon Sarah's shoulder affectionately, to boot. Incidentally, this wasn't completely uncalled for. Truth be told, the only person with whom she had any physical displays of affection before Etsu started spending time with her was, well, Sarah. Now, Sarah was a little confounded at first, but she just as quickly let her grin fall back into a less sadistic one, whilst she leaned her head back a little and set her right hand upon one of Mayako's.

Mayako smiled while leaning her head against Sarah's. She moved her free hand, however, to point ahead for Eld, while mentioning, "They sell towels right over there."

The situation had diffused quickly. Emma passed glares between Sarah, Mayako, and Etsu. It was like they had all forgotten about the want to put Eld in a tough situation. But she hadn't, damnit! Unfortunately, it wasn't quite possible without backup.

But, of course, before Eld might have the chance to leave under the cover of a diffused situation, Etsu took another step forward, asking for his attention, "A-ano, Er-rd-kun?"

Eld had to to turn away slightly to hide the way his eyes lit up. Mayako's quick thinking had saved him! While Etsu was too oblivious to notice the risk she incurred by intervening, Mayako took a big chance! Not that Sarah would ever lay a finger on Mayako, but she had other ways to make the girl's life uncomfortable, he was sure.

"Y-Yeah, that's where I was going," he replied. He was about to bid them farewell before Sarah and Emma regrouped, but was stopped by Etsu.

He wasn't too worried though; after all, Etsu had just helped save him, so he doubted she'd undo that. "Yeah?"

Etsu took the moment that was given to her. She wasn't going to have the chance until way later on, probably! If they weren't going to be back until later in the evening, she wouldn't get the chance until then. And then, it might be a little weird, since it wouldn't be like she was saying goodbye to Eld for a short period of time or something. She'd be right there with him for the rest of the evening! Unless, of course, she went to spend the night as Mayako's, or if Sarah decided to have a sleepover at her place or something. But even then . . .

So, Etsu took another step forward and wrapped her arms around Eld's shoulders. It was a fairly close hug, and although it would be very faint, Eld would feel Etsu's lips softly placed against his cheek. She'd stay like that for a moment before withdrawing.

"S-see you . . ." Etsu would whisper as she pulled away.

Of course, the display was guaranteed to attracted the direct attention of the other three girls. All eyes would definitely be on them, without a doubt in the world.