Her Mysterious Smile

[Zach Kaiser]

"I'm sure they meant it figuratively," he muttered as he gave her his wrist, which was infinitely less painful and embarrassing. He wondered how long before news of this got to his friends of its own accord. I really, really hope no one overheard the thing about last night. That was the last thing he needed. At least not enough people spoke Cizokian to understand the pervert part.

For the sake of making conversation and arming himself with as much knowledge as he could before they arrived home, he asked her, "So, you're my cousin then? Or is the uncle and aunt thing just a term of endearment?"

What he really wanted to ask was why she was able to overhear anything last night, but that was not answer he wanted to receive in public.

[Nayt]

The girl took Eld by the wrist rather harshly. He was not going to be getting away from her. She had cold hands. Small hands. Yet her grip was still strong, and she seemed to know exactly where to put the tips of her fingers in order to ensure that Eld would not attempt to flee from her.

"Hai," she replied to Eld, "Atashi wa Kotaino Etsu. Katte Tsukimono Etsu."

He more than likely knew enough Cizokian to know what she-- Etsu Kotaino, formerly Etsu Tsukimono --was saying. It was unlikely a name he'd heard before, at least in that extensive conversation, but there was after all a great deal of Urikuse's extended family that they weren't in frequent contact with . . .

It might still sound a tad bit familiar, at least.

[Zach Kaiser]

Does she think I'm some kind of delinquent? he wondered as she took an iron grip on his wrist. He resisted the urge to point out that the only reason he felt the need to run from her was because of how harsh she was being.

That she was indeed his cousin was mildly surprising, but he didn't know all his Cizokian family so it wasn't totally shocking. Kotaino sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it. What was odd is that her name was formerly Tsukimono; while he knew in Cizok marriages could happen younger than they tended to here, she didn't strike him as a married girl, an impression reinforced by the fact that she'd likely spent the previous night at his house.

He wondered where she'd been; if she was out in the living room Sarah should have seen her on her way in, and if she was in the clinic she wouldn't have been able to hear him. He sort of hoped his parents had just mentioned something about him being loud and she hadn't heard anything herself.

"So...why 'formerly' Tsukimono?" he asked, curious.

[Nayt]

"My mother married," she said simply.

It was at that moment that she stopped out front of the Tsukimono clinic. She released Eld's wrist and started for the door, only to pause for a moment, furrow her brow, and reconsider. She wasn't supposed to use this door for some reason. She was supposed to go around and use the other door. The house door, right?

Without a word, she'd start away from the clinic door and walk around the side of the structure, at least until she reached the front door of the Tsukimono house, which she promptly opened. Etsu was not at all aggressive about it, though. She did not stomp or stew. Even when she insulted Eld and dragged him-- be it by his wrist or by his ear --she was completely calm and stoic about it. There was never a hiss or a slam or a stomp, even when there really should have been.

Etsu slipped her shoes off at the door (obviously a habit of hers that she would not likely ever be broken from), and stepped inside.

"I have apprehended Tsukimono Er-rdridge-san," Etsu announced once she was inside, and though there should have been a tone of pride or victory, it was almost like she was stating a fact more than she was anything else.

[Zach Kaiser]

Married? Etsu notably hadn't said remarried, which struck him. While it certainly was common for a woman in Cizok to marry again if her husband died or they were otherwise separated, being a single mother there carried a definite stigma. He was curious about this, too, but decided that may be a bit too personal to ask someone he just met, family or not.

Besides, they had arrived at his house.

"Thank you, Etsu-chan." Urikuse Tsukimono was waiting for their arrival. A middle-aged Cizokian man, his short dark hair was flecked with gray and his face showed the lines that came with age and a stressful occupation. He looked the part of the distinguished doctor to a tee, and could definitely act like it too. In his son's opinion he had a rather odd sense of humor, though.

"Apprehend?" Eld asked, nonplussed. When he received a questioning glance in response, he held up the wrist Etsu was still latched to.

"Ah. You may release him now, Etsu-chan. We'll make sure Tsukimono Eldridge-san is brought to justice," he assured her as he went to fetch his wife.

"Please don't encourage her," Eld muttered as he watched him go. Louder, he added, "You know he's joking, right?"

[Nayt]

As Eld lifted his hand, so did Etsu, in an almost limp sort of way, as if her arm had momentarily become a dangling part of his wrist and any movement of his arm was going to drag hers along with it. Etsu either did not notice this or did not care too much, as she had successfully brought Eldridge back.

She let go at Urikuse's suggestion, and didn't at all appear bothered by the way he called her "Etsu-chan." Even if he was affectionate in the way he did it, she still would not have been bothered. In her opinion, a father, uncle, or grandfather had the inherent right to address lesser generations like that. It was social seniority, and Etsu saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. She also didn't see anything wrong with physically capturing someone and bringing him back to the house whether he liked it or not.

Etsu looked at Eld's face, her brow furrowed. She blinked several times.

"Ojisan did not sound joking," she replied seriously. He did not sound like he was joking, which must have meant that he was not joking, and Eldridge just couldn't recognize that.

She was generally skilled with Common, but it was times like that when her language sounded just a bit broken. Fortunately, those didn't happen too often.

[Zach Kaiser]

"He was, trust me," Eld replied. He assumed Etsu must not be as used to Common as he was, and not just from her accent. Most people would have picked up on it; whether they found him funny, though, was another manner entirely. The fact that his mother seemed to was one of the few aspects of his parents relationships he just couldn't comprehend.

Before further discussion could entail, Urikuse returned with his wife in tow. Despite being only a few years younger than her husband, Rebbecca Tsukimono made it seem like the age gap was larger. Her long, dark brown hair (tied back in a ponytail) was still healthy looking, though her face, too, showed signs of age. More evidently, whereas Urikuse was fairly mellow Rebbecca was more energetic.

"Please, sit down," Urikuse asked. They both sat on the couch, leaving a chair each for Eld and Etsu. "Let's see, where to begin...first of all, Etsu here is your cousin. She's your aunt Kyoko's daughter, to be specific. And she'll be staying with us for awhile."

"You actually met once when you were both infants," Rebbecca interjected on a more cheerful note. What she failed to mention was that was the last time any of them save her husband saw Kyoko. Eld knew from talking to his father about his family that he and Kyoko didn't get along very well.

"Her family's going through some tough times, so we'll be looking after her for the time being. I hope you two get along."

Eld resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That was probably wishful thinking, the way things were going so far. "So...where's she going to stay? Don't tell me in the clinic..."

Rebbecca shook her head. "She stayed there last night, but we can't give up a room just for her and having her stay in occupied ones isn't an option. She can't sleep here, either, and even if there was room in our room with the clinic in earshot it would hardly be a place for a young girl who needs her rest."

"So, what, are you going to have her sleep outside?" he asked, not seeing what other options they had other than the ones listed.

But there was one, whether he wanted to admit it or not. Rebbecca and Urikuse glanced at each other before looking at the two again. They weren't smiling, but something in their eyes told him they had to intentionally try not to.

"Actually...she's going to stay in your room."

"And where am I going to stay then?"

This time he could actually see the corner of their mouths twitch. "You'll still be in your room, too. You'll both be there, at least for the time being."

"...Huh?"

[Nayt]

The bulk of all that Rebbecca and Urikuse discussed with Eld, Etsu had already heard by now-- specifically said by Urikuse, in fact, when they were on their way from Rangeki to Hillcrest. The one thing she did not know was that she was supposed to be staying in Eld's room.

With Eld.

Etsu stared blankly at her aunt and uncle.

"He wir-rr attempt hentai things with me," she stated frankly.

It wasn't even like she was accusing him of anything, not by the way she said it, at least. Rather, it was as if Etsu were stating a solid, undeniable fact: that Eld was going to try to do perverted things to her if she were to stay in his room. This was relatively unacceptable on her part, and if she was forced-- kicking and screaming --to stay in Eld's room, she would feel tempted to make her stay with him as unpleasant for him as humanly possible. Perhaps unpleasant to his male anatomy, for that matter. This would deter him from doing perverse things to her.

[Zach Kaiser]

"What?!" Eld visibly balked at the idea; even his parents were taken a little aback, though when they glanced at each other they remembered why she might think that.

"Now, Eld-"

"You just met me!" Eld retorted, ignoring his father's attempts to preempt him. "Even if you were around last night, what the hell makes you think I'd do something like that?!" While he honestly didn't want her in his room any more than she wanted to be there, he was good and truly offended that she thought he would do anything like that.

[Nayt]

Etsu turned her attention to Eld and stared at him with a vague look of disapproval. Even now, when he was outright shouting at her, she was almost perfectly stoic and cold.

"Hentai, hentai, hentai," she repeated, and if she weren't so stoic and cold, she would have sounded as if she were lecturing Eld right now.

Of course, she never said that she'd be against him doing perverse things. Right now she would. She'd make him never want to touch a woman ever again. She somewhat planned on doing that before he could get any ideas, in fact. But that discounted the possibility that for some reason or the other, he'd become endearing toward her. Maybe he'd butter her up. Then he'd do perverted things to her. Then her prediction would come true and her Aunt and Uncle would have to live with known that their son took advantage of her at a time of weakness or something.

It was a quintessential male quality.

"You are boy. Boys are hentai. Boys sneak into gir-r's rooms and stear-r under-wear. That is what boys do. And you did hentai things r-rast night," she said frankly, only to add, "Baka hentai," at the end, as if that had somehow become Eld's new name around her.

[Zach Kaiser]

As Eld and Etsu continued to argue, the former's parents realized that they weren't going to get anywhere like this. Whether Etsu had a negative impression of boys to begin with (which was beginning to sound likely) or her the previous night had just made too big an impression on her, she was only going to insult Eld, and the continuing accusations were only getting him more riled up.

"Children, time out," Urikuse said suddenly; he didn't shout, but he had a lot of practice getting his voice to command attention. Eld, at least, instantly shut up and looked at him. "Eld, I'll talk to you in our room."

He couldn't help but slightly wince at the severity in his father's voice. I don't deserve this, he thought sulkily, but wisely kept his mouth shut, exiting the room with only a parting glare at Etsu.

This left Rebbecca alone with her in the living room. "Let's take a moment to calm down, shall we?" she said wryly.

******

"I'm sorry," Eld blurted out once his father closed the door, "but she does nothing but insult me when she knows nothing about me. It's...aggravating."

"Yes," Urikuse replied, "that's part of the reason we're putting you with her."

Eld stared at him for a moment before responding. "You're going to have to explain that one."

[Nayt]

Etsu had a slew of insults to direct to Eld. She had called him perverted. She had called him stupid. She even called him rude when he argued harshly enough (something that must have been a great show of irony to Rebbecca and Urikuse, considering Etsu's track record so far). Ultimately, though, the two of them had to be separated, and when Urikuse announced that it was time to separate, Etsu took it quietly enough. She stopped talking and subordinated herself to Urikuse's command, though she was-- if only briefly --tempted to question it.

At the very least, it was enough to get Eldridge to shut up. She was starting to get annoyed by the sound of his voice, and would be a happier person if she could spend the rest of the day not hearing it.

She watched him head off to his room with Urikuse with mild, though. She continued to watch even after the door was shut behind them.

When she finally looked back to Rebbecca, she asked calmly, "Wir-rr you punish him?"

For what, she didn't say, but Etsu was convinced at this point that Eld had committed enough infractions today to deserve some level of punishment.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Well, I'd hoped he'd be a little more mature than that, but no. He hasn't done anything wrong, Etsu-chan."

She was tempted to point out that her insults were sort of the cause of this, but instead she thought it might better to clear up a misconception. Even if it kind of amused her, it wasn't worth it if it meant her two charges would be at each other's throats.

"Not even last night," she added. She imagined the girl would probably question why. "Though admittedly his timing could have been better."

******

"To be frank...my sister--Etsu's mother--took off recently." This was clearly not something he liked to say, and while Urikuse did not take the idea of honor nearly as seriously as most Cizokians he nevertheless was ashamed of his sister. She had no sense of responsibility. "Left her and her father, who's a friend of mine, to fend for themselves. There's a lot of strain there right now. Etsu's certainly not to blame, but her lack of tact isn't helping any. So we'll be taking of her for a little bit while her father gets his act together."

Eld got the impression that there was more to the story than that, but he knew better than to ask. "Yeah, but...she clearly doesn't want anything to do with me."

[Nayt]

"Not even r-rast night?" Etsu asked, almost as if she did not believe Rebbecca.

Etsu didn't understand why Eld would not be punished for anything. It automatically felt unfair. He was supposed to meet with them and have this discussion they were having now last night, once Urikuse and Rebbecca had finished talking with Etsu personally-- but Eld was doing perverse things in his room with some girl, and the whole thing had to be put off until today. Then he wound up disappearing before anyone could get a hold of him, and Etsu had to be sent out to retrieve him to expedite things.

Surely he'd done everything wrong so far.

"You shour-rd not ar-rrow it," she said frankly, "It shour-rd be wrong for him to do adur-rt things in your house. It shour-rd be wrong for me, too."

Still disappointed by the fact that Rebbecca was not going to have Eld punished, Etsu set her elbow upon the table and moved to rest her head in her hand in something of a passive-aggressive huff--but she wound up resting her left cheek against her hand and both audibly and visibly winced. Instead of trying to relax, Etsu leaned back in her chair and kept her back straight in a proper sort of way. The way she'd always learned every year at the academy.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Believe me, Eld's embarrassment at being heard is probably worse than anything I could do to him," Rebbecca joked. Though actually it was kind of true; if Etsu said something about hearing him earlier, she could only imagine what her son's face looked like, especially if he was with friends at the time.

"More seriously, things are different here than in Cizok. In Hillcrest you won't find many parents that have much say in their children's relationships past a certain age. Though there are some exceptions," she added, recalling another of Eld's friends/former girlfriends.

"And while if you're really curious about it you should ask Eld yourself, let me just say that wasn't just some random girl he was with last night; they have a bit of a history."

While she couldn't force Etsu to change her sense of morality, of course, she did hope she'd understand that by their standards Eld wasn't doing anything terribly wrong. He might have being a little irresponsible, but definitely not immoral.

In any case, Eld's personal life wasn't what she'd really wanted to discuss, though the fact that Etsu's first impression of him had been so negative was definitely part of the issue.

"In any case, I know you don't like the idea of staying in Eld's room, but it's the only place in the house where there's enough space. We'll try and make it temporary; Urikuse and I have been talking about adding a guest room for some time now, and we'll probably go ahead with that so you have a room to yourself."

******

"Perhaps, but we think you'll be a good influence on her. If you can hold your temper," Urikuse said pointedly, succeeding in making his son look rather guilty. "And you have plenty of space in your room that you don't use, which makes it...well, pretty much the only place in the house like it."

"I-I...suppose, but..."

"And contrary to her fears, we know we can trust you, right?"

This Eld took rather more seriously. If Etsu thought he was pervert and would do things to her, he'd just have to prove otherwise. That was probably the only way she'd be able to trust him. "Right."