Her Mysterious Smile

[Zach Kaiser]

"O-Okay." He understood; while part of him thought someone should be here to comfort her, he preferred to be alone himself when something was upsetting him, and he wouldn't begrudge that of her, either.

"Umm...if you get tired, feel free to use my bed...I'll put out the futon later if mother and father don't."

He wanted to say something else, but nothing came to mind, at least nothing that he imagined would be really be appreciated. So instead he gave her one last sympathetic look before quietly slipping by her and out the door.

In the living room once more, he let out a sigh. There was nothing more frustrating than seeing someone upset and not being able to do anything to cheer them up, even if it someone he didn't particularly like.

But he needed some time alone too, to relax. Between arguing and now her being upset, he was all tensed up. He quietly left the house, but rather than go into town he went towards the woods behind it. (It wasn't nearly as thick on this side as it was behind the Vaerbond ranch.)

[Nayt]

There was a hill just past that way, one that was tall enough and placed in just the right spot to overlook Hillcrest as it sprawled out and cut its way into the forest. Three sides of the hill were gradual slopes that led to a tall overlook. The fourth side of the hill that looked down on the town, however, was not so much a gradual slope. Rather, it was a near vertical descent; falling down that way would lead only to broken bones and other horrible injuries, if not death. Nonetheless, this hill offered the best view of Hillcrest available . . .

It seemed someone already had the same idea as Eld, though.

Except she didn't seem to be looking out into town. Instead, the girl had her knees up to her chest, her arms around her legs, and her head resting on her knees.

Akizetsumei seemed melancholic as she sat there, staring out into town-- staring out beyond town, very clearly lost in thought.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was more than a little surprised to see someone else on the hill; as far as he knew, the only people besides him that regularly visited it usually only came to look for him. That it was an isolated spot was one of the reasons he often went to its.

Not that he was unhappy to see Akizetsumei, but he wondered if she came here often; it seemed odd that he wouldn't have ran into her before if she did.

"And here I thought I was the only who came up here," he said to announce his presence, since she didn't seem to notice him. He was still working his way up the hill, and didn't want to scare the girl by suddenly being behind her; he had a tendency to do that to people every now and then.

[Nayt]

Akizetsumei perked her head up when she heard a voice coming her away. Not expecting any visitors, she looked down quickly and with a short bit of fright. Was someone looking for her or something? Wait-- it was Eld? Was Eld here looking for her? She looked about as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

"E-Eldridge?" she asked, "What're you doing up this way?"

Which actually wasn't that great of a greeting. In fact, it might have sounded a little rude, were it not for the fact that Akizetsumei was almost incapable of being intentionally rude to someone.

"I-- I mean!" Akizets fumbled over her words immediately, "H-hi . . ."

She dipped her head down, feeling ashamed of herself already. Or was it nervousness? Right now, the reactions looked about the same.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld smiled despite the stymied response he'd received. He supposed she came up here for the same reason he had, and hadn't intended to see anyone. "Actually, I come up here a lot." Which was about the best explanation he had, since he rarely came here with a specific purpose in mind.

"How about you? Is everything alright? You seem a little...down." While he'd sort of come to silently mull over his own problems (which in the space of an hour or so had increased significantly from before), he was more concerned for her now. She didn't look terribly upset, but she was normally so cheery that even being down to an ordinary level of energy seemed unusual.

And after all, he usually came up here when something was bothering him, so it made sense if she did too.

[Nayt]

"N-no," Akizetsumei shook her head quickly, "No, I'm all right. I'm okay. I just got a lotta stuff to think about is all."

Nothing in particular was wrong . . . right? She just had stuff on her mind. There wasn't a thing wrong. So why, then, did it feel like something was wrong?

"It was just-- I dunno, I didn't wanna be home, 'cause it was gonna be way too noisy, and I can't go to my place 'cause it's gonna get dark soon," Akizets justified.

That was it. That was what felt so wrong. She felt like she was suddenly intruding on something. Stepping in on Eld's territory. She felt as if she needed to justify her actions and reasons for being here to him. And then maybe leave anyways, to get out of his way.

She hated being in the way.

"Today was the first time I heard of this place," Akizets began apologetically, "And, um, I didn't know you came up here a lot. Um, I can leave if you want."

[Zach Kaiser]

Wasn't she complaining that her family was never around before? It confused Eld, but he decided against calling her out on it; maybe they were there now, and it really was noisy. (Well, save for Kyo, he imagined, who was never noisy.)

"No, that's fine. I just...sort of needed to get out of my place myself."

While he had figured he'd be alone, he wasn't opposed to the company. He sat down beside her, letting his legs dangle off the steep end of the hill. "I'm not very welcome there at the moment," he said, giving her a wry smile. She had gotten a glimpse of why earlier.

[Nayt]

"What . . . ?" Akizets asked, her voice hushed as if she were suppressing a gasp, "Wh-what happened?"

Akizetsumei had not connected the reason for Eld's unwelcome status with the girl that grabbed him by the ear today. She probably wouldn't unless it was made explicitly clear.

She also did not see this as prying. Well, not immediately. What she wanted to know was if Eld was okay-- if she'd have to go call someone a big butt-head and hope her chastising would help her friend out of a bind. It didn't feel like prying to her. It wasn't going to feel like prying for a solid ten minutes, probably. She was sometimes very slow on the uptake, especially when she talked first and questioned her right/privilege to talk later. It was kind of a bad habit of hers, one she could frequently quell.

. . . Except when she was surprised and already kind of down, anyways.

[Zach Kaiser]

Fortunately, it did not seem to Eld that Akizetsumei was prying. It was, after all, normal for friends to worry about each other. Though there were certain details he wasn't going to divulge to her; he wasn't keen on sharing family details even with friends.

"Well...that girl we ran into, my cousin? It turns out she'll be staying with us for awhile, and it turns out-" he stopped short. No, that was not something he wanted to tell Akizetsumei. "Let's just say she didn't get a good impression of me. She's not terribly happy to be here."

He sighed. He couldn't blame her for not wanting to be here, but the fact that she'd taken a strong dislike to him made him uneasy. While certainly hearing what she did would make anyone a little uncomfortable, she seemed to think he was scum of the earth now, and that was certainly stretching it.

"What's worse is that she's staying in my room with me, since it's the only place with enough space to fit her in."

[Nayt]

"E-eeeehhhhhh?" Akizets said, nonplussed.

That was just . . . unheard of!

"Y-your parents are gonna let her sleep there?" Akizetsumei asked. It was a rhetorical question, of course. "That's crazy. My dad would probably . . . I-- I don't even know what he'd do. But he'd be super mad if there was a boy staying in my room with me."

It was easy to put two and two together on this one. If Gestahl of Terra caught a boy sleeping in Akizetsumei's room with her, he'd probably tear that boy in half. And if he didn't immediately, the boy would at least feel a constant fear for his life until the day he died, regardless of when that may be.

She failed to mention anything about not being able to understand why someone would dislike Eld. She failed to comment on that whole thing in general, in fact. It wasn't because she could see how Eld might be unlikeable (because she couldn't). It was just that it slipped her mind in lieu of a different thought, one she could relate to-- or counter-relate to --a little better.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld chuckled nervously. Well, parents were often overprotective of girls, after all, and Akizetsumei was still young. Even so, he wouldn't want to be in the shoes of anybody who crossed her father--the man was a giant.

"W-Well, I don't think my parents are too concerned about that. I won't do anything to her, of course, she definitely won't do anything to me. Well, she might hit me," he added a bit sourly. "But she's definitely not stronger than Sarah, so I'm not worried."

While he knew the situation seemed bad on the surface, he rather hoped that even someone who'd known him as short of a time as Akizetsumei realized he wasn't going to be any danger to someone staying with him. After a few days passed, perhaps Etsu would see that he wasn't the kind of lowlife she seemed to think.

[Nayt]

"I--" Akizets paused for a second.

Just what was she going to say, again? Did it have anything to do with the idea of Eld sleeping with a girl in his room? No, actually. Akizetsumei trusted that Eld would not go and do weird things with people he was not . . . well-- official with, to say the least-- let alone people he barely knew.

No, she wasn't going to talk about anything like that. What really grated Akizetsumei's gears was the notion that someone might actually be hitting Eld.

"You tell me if she hurts you, okay?" Akizetsumei requested firmly. She acted as if she were flexing her bicep then, but she didn't quite have much to flex, "I'll show her not to mess with my friend!"

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld couldn't help but laugh. It may have been a little mean, but the idea that he'd need Akizetsumei's protection was kind of funny. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I think I'll be okay," he replied. "I said she might hit me; I didn't say it would hurt." While she had an iron grip, Eld got the distinct impression Etsu wasn't that strong; or at least, not as strong as he was. Unless she struck him entirely unprovoked he could probably avoid any pain.

His laughter quickly faded, though, when he remembered what had prompted him to come up here to begin with. "I'm going to try to cut her some slack; she's...going through some tough things right now. I can't blame her for being upset."

It was impossible for him to fathom one of his own parents simply leaving one day. Not without a good reason, and not without telling him in advance about it and giving him said reason. Even if they weren't tied down because of the clinic they...just wouldn't do that to him.

However, he didn't particularly want to discuss the details with Akizetsumei, so he tried to change the subject. "So, how did you find out about this place, anyway? I thought only me and a few others knew about it." And even then, most of them only knew either because he'd taken them there or they'd followed him.

[Nayt]

"I'll still do it, you know," Akizetsumei affirmed with a nod.

She set her arm by her side just then, though. It seemed that the only thing bridging the gap between their bodies was her hand, at this point-- flat on the ground and loose. Akizets let one of her legs dangle like Eld did, but still kept the other close to her chest.

Upon Eld's question, Akizets looked over to him with a tilt of her head. It took her a second before she remembered what she said about this place-- that she had heard about this place before she came up here.

"Oh, um," Akizets looked away and shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno. It was silly for me to come up. I mean, it was just 'cause Remmy told that-- oh, um-- right . . ."

Akizetsumei scratched the back of her head, nervous at first. She still kind of felt like she was intruding on Eld's sentimental territory or something.

"I ran into Remmy in town," she explained, energetic at first, but she slowly faded into normality, "He caught me when I was all bumming out and stuff. Um, we talked for a bit, and he told me about this place. He said that, um, I think he said that his best friend used to come here all the time, and Remmy stopped by here sometimes too, but-- um, he said that coming up here is like, um . . . I think he called it a "calculated risk," or something. He said that a lot of stuff happens up here, and there's some chance of it being good stuff and some chance of it being bad stuff. Like, um, I dunno-- like really major stuff, you know? That's how I think he meant it, at least . . ."

Akizets trailed off and set her chin against her knee again. Obviously she was hoping something life changingly good would happen by her coming up here, but so far so . . . moderate and uneventful.

[Zach Kaiser]

"...Huh." It sounded kind of far-fetched. He wondered if Remmy might have been trying to play a joke on the young girl, though he couldn't see where the punchline was himself. "Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I've been coming here for awhile and I've never had anything particularly exciting happen to me."

It sounded rather superstitious to him. After all, no matter how you looked at it this was an out of the way place that not many people knew about, and it was too close to town to have much in the way of wildlife near it. It was, if anything, particularly suited to have nothing at all happen.

I wonder who his friend was; I've been coming here practically since I could walk, and I've never seen anyone I didn't recognize. And he was fairly certain if his best friend was someone he would recognize he'd have heard about Remmy before.

"So...why are you so bummed out?" he asked. She'd kind of evaded the question before, but it definitely seemed like she was hoping something here would cheer her up.