And the World Shall Forget You

[Zach Kaiser]

Had Etsu noticed him chasing her earlier, chances were she would have chosen to stay in the water instead; she could, after all, nearly swim circles around him. But now that they were on dry land again Eld could put his longer legs to good use.

He raced after her, and unless she had something up her sleeve it wouldn't be long before he caught up. Wanting to stop her, but not actually wanting to risk hurting her by yanking her arm or tackling her or something, he instead chose to throw his arms around her waist and once more lift her off the ground.

Though, this time he didn't jump with her into the water or anywhere else for that matter--he simply held her in the air for now, figuring she'd panic for a bit. "Gotcha," he declared victoriously.

[Nayt]

No, she hadn't expected Eld to catch her. In fact, she had some small delusion that she could outrun him. She thought that by being more physically active than Eld, she'd be just fine. Length of legs had not come to mind. This was inevitably her downfall. Or uplifting, rather.

"Ah!" Etsu cried as she was lifted into the air.

But there was something else there. Something more. There was a hint, however small it may have been, that Etsu laughed whilst he held her up. She kicked with her legs as if to flail, but rather than flail, Eld wrapped her arms around Eld's and held onto a wrist and a hand, keeping him gripping her and making sure he had a tight hold on her, so not to risk accidentally dropping her . . .

Kicking the boy that was holding you up in the air was a bad idea. It was grounds for him dropping you. She might have been flying thoughtless by now, but she wasn't dumb enough to do that. Yet! Maybe if he put her closer to the ground, she'd retaliate, but certainly not in a position like this.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld grinned; even though Etsu flailed, he could have sworn she was having fun. Indeed, he'd put her down--he couldn't hold her up forever after all, he wasn't terribly strong--but he'd have a bit of fun first. So keeping a tight grip on her, he started to spin. It took him a little bit to get up to full speed, and once he did he had to struggle not to fall over.

After a minute or so of this he put Etsu down as gently as he could, and it was only then that he noticed the flaw in his plan: while she may not have been able to counterattack him very well from being dizzy, he was equally dizzy and would be no better at defending himself.

[Nayt]

Etsu let out a cry as Eld spun her around. Helplessly, she clung to him even tighter, now even more afraid that his hands would slip and he'd let her go by accident. It would've been even more tragic, now. Now, she'd go flying off in whatever direction he was facing when he let go. There was a 40% chance she'd hit water and a 60% chance she'd hit ground. Those were not good enough odds.

When Eld stopped, he wound up letting her down. The whole world was spinning around her and she found it difficult to stand. She let go of Eld's arms and pulled away from him slightly. She took a step forward and nearly fell over. He'd really done a number on her . . .

But Etsu didn't let that stop her. Not quite. She whipped around to face Eld, fully intending to retaliate. How, she had no idea. Why, she had every idea. Every reason, in fact! She was going to get this boy good. She was going to make sure he didn't ever do that again!

Except rather than "get this boy good," Etsu spun around too quickly, and only a second after she faced Eld, lost her balance. Harmlessly, she fell into him, but not with all of her weight. She'd fall into his chest with not enough force to bowl him over, and it was there she would remain for a long moment.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld laughed as Etsu stumbled around, too disoriented to actually get any kind of revenge on him. Or so he thought; whether by intention or accident, she stumbled into him. Which normally would have been no problem, but as he was dizzy too he stumbled back a few steps as he caught her.

"W-Whoa there," he said, fortunately managing to avoid falling over and sending them both into the dirt. That would have been uncomfortable, especially as taking a bath out here wasn't really an option.

Deciding to abide by a kind of silent truce for now, he simply held onto her for the time being, waiting for their senses to stop spinning.

[Nayt]

At first when Etsu set her hands upon Eld's chest, she was just using him for balance. That was all. He was like a tree, something she could hold onto whilst she gathered her bearings back. At first, that is. The longer she lingered there, the more acutely aware Etsu became of their proximity. She did not become aware of how worked up she was getting, though. Or how much fun she was actually having. Or how much she would not have minded maintaining this proximity for a little longer.

She wet her lips after a moment, but believe it or not, she wasn't giving thought to much of anything right now. All she was doing was catching her breath and enjoying the moment.

Then, without warning, Eld would feel her leg behind his knee. She pulled back with her calf and pushed her weight into Eld. She fully planned on throwing him down, and there was absolutely no problem in him dragging her down with him, either. After all, she was throwing all her weight into him. Etsu had every intention of landing on top of him.

After all, how else was she going to sit on his stomach (more like straddle his stomach) and pin his hands down over his head? Falling down herself was just a necessary evil!

[Zach Kaiser]

Even after he'd gotten over most of his dizziness, Eld didn't let go. He didn't have any particular reason for it, though he probably would have argued he was just preventing Etsu from doing something to him or warming up after getting out of the water if pressed. But no, he just felt like keeping the close contact.

And then Etsu tried to trip him. But he had a brilliant plan, one that had worked a few times already. With his arms around her, he'd just pull her down with him, and then she'd regret trying to shove him over!

...Well, the plan would have been brilliant if it weren't for the fact that Etsu had intended to follow him down to begin with. As it was she landed safely on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and before he regained his senses he found his hands pinned to the dirt over his head.

He squirmed a bit, realizing that Etsu more or less had him at her mercy, a thought that made him nervous in both the prickly and the tingly sense.

[Nayt]

Straddling his stomach, Etsu held Eld down to the very best of her abilities. This was actually more restrictive for her than it was for Eld, but oh well. For instance, in fear that he'd overpower her, Etsu held his hands down with both of hers, effectively leaving her no extra limbs to put to use for any other sadistic means-- like trying to tickle him or something (an urge that rather suddenly descended upon her). Also, by virtue of Eld being taller than her, she had to lean forward a bit to keep his hands pinned down over his head. They were most useless to him there. This put her chest a little closer to his face than she might have planned, but where he might notice, she did not.

Etsu looked down at his face, her lips curled into a slight grin-- a subtle expression by anyone else's standards, but one so pronounced for anyone that knew Etsu so well. She was ginning as if to say silently now I have you. The tables had, indeed, turned on Eld.

Not that she could do anything with this, but hey. It was the principle of the matter. And it wasn't like he could get up, right? No way that was going to happen. She might not have many options available to her, but the fact that she was limiting Eld's opportunities were good enough for her!

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld turned a little red at how close she was--or more specifically her chest. She was wearing a fairly low cut tank-top, too...

Though, what drew his attention more was the small grin she gave him. It made him squirm even more; he was sure she was deciding what to do with him. She probably had so many ideas the problem was only deciding which one to go with.

He tried lifting one of his hands, but it was futile; he may have been stronger than her, but she had all the leverage here, and could hold him down fairly easily. And of course, despite their little contests he had no desire to really hurt her, and he was fairly certain neither did she him, so he wasn't really desperately trying to free himself.

[Nayt]

In actuality, Etsu didn't have much of an idea for what to do with Eld now that she pinned him! Tickling him was the only thing she could possibly imagine-- because it wasn't like she could get behind him or anything. If she could get behind him, then she could put him in a headlock or something until he gave up. But here, it was just a matter of keeping him pinned. Anything else required freeing up one of her hands.

The sight of Eld failing to lift his hand filled Etsu with confidence, though. Yes, she had him. There was nothing he could do. That is, when she held his wrists down with two hands. But could she hold him down adequately with one? Well, if two was enough to keep this boy pinned, then that meant he wasn't too terribly strong. If he wasn't too terribly strong, then technically wouldn't she be able to put as much force down as possible with one hand and hold him down just as efficiently as she could with two?

Well . . . it was worth a try. Slowly, she let go with one hand, wriggled her other to hold down both of his wrists, and watched for a reaction. Hopefully she was right about this . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

When he felt her try to pin both his hands with just one of her own, he knew his chance had come. He pretended like he was helpless to prevent it, but as soon as she had her other hand away from his, he made his move. Pushing up with one hand, he quickly got just enough room to slip the other one free.

For a moment, though, he too hesitated on what to do. He didn't want to actually hurt her, but at the same time he felt like he needed to do something in order to turn the tables on her.

Finally he noticed (completely innocently) that her shirt had ridden up a bit, exposing her midriff. His free hand flew to her bare side, pinching her suddenly and then lightly and rapidly tickling her. He hoped she was ticklish.

[Nayt]

Oh God was not right about this. She was not right about this at all.

Panicked by her horrible mistake, Etsu tried to make up for it by grabbing at Eld's free hand-- except she didn't get there in time, and wound up just holding onto his wrist as he reached her side. Suddenly aware of what was about to happen, she leaned away, but ultimately to no avail . . .

Etsu let out a shout of surprise, followed in short by a reluctant, but uncontrollable laugh. Indeed, it seemed she was very, very ticklish. This was actually a fact that Etsu was previously unaware of. Had she the state of mind calm enough to think it over, this was probably good information to know for future reference.

As if to somehow put a stop to this, Etsu made yet another mistake, in an act of hasty, panicked, and distracted thinking: she let go of Eld's other hand. And with both her hands free, she grabbed at his offending fingers and wrist and tried to pry his arm away from her-- which was really quite tough, what with her laughing and squirming against her own will. But it wasn't her fault. She hadn't been tickled in years. She'd built up no resistance to this sort of thing!

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld grinned. Etsu was ticklish; very ticklish. So ticklish, in fact, that her normal somewhat stoic demeanor was shattered entirely, laughing without reservation. Well, she couldn't help it, but it was his first time seeing such mirth even if it was technically forced on her.

She reacted by trying to use both her hands to pry his off her, but that only let him attack with his other hand, sending it to her other side for a double tickle attack! And he didn't plan to let up, either; she'd either have to stop it herself, or cry uncle and accept her defeat.

[Nayt]

Oh, no.

This . . . this wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. Was Eld seriously getting the upper hand on her so easily? It was like she couldn't even put up a fight. She was totally defenseless!

After awhile of this, Etsu tried to fight against it by not laughing anymore. She stopped trying to pry Eld's hands away, and instead shut her eyes tightly, tensed up all over, and did everything she absolutely could to keep from laughing. But it was to no avail. She managed for a couple of seconds-- a couple seconds of whimpering, that is. In the end, there was really nothing she could do, was there? Or maybe . . .

Etsu was just in a bad tactical location. She was distracted. Way too distracted. She couldn't do a thing here. She needed to get away. And so, that became her priority. She squirmed back, wriggled away from Eld's hands, and scooted back from Eld's stomach to his hips, from his thighs to his knees, and ultimately back far enough that she was away from his horrible hands, where she could try to crawl to her feet and get away again.

[Zach Kaiser]

He had her on the run now, and he wasn't going to let her get away. As soon as Etsu got off from his stomach (he tried not to think of where all her hips might be moving across), he sat up and crawled after her, grabbing her arms and pushing her to the ground in a pin.

Surprisingly, he was having a lot of fun. More than he'd probably be willing to admit. He and Etsu were fairly evenly matched, whereas when he tended to get into competitions with Sarah he usually got his butt kicked.

Even if he succeeded, though, he'd face the same dilemma Etsu had: not being sure exactly what he wanted to do.