Dreams of the Tempest

[Nayt]

"A-- all nigh-- ?" she could barely get the question out.

Kissing all night was-- what'd that mean? Would they just stand here and keep on doing this, kissing and pulling away, for the entire night? That . . . that was a crazy thought. Crazy and super embarrassing to even consider! Because what could even come of that anyways? N-- nothin'! Akizets covered her lips with her hands to suppress a nervous giggle, but ultimately failed to stop it.

"U-- ummm-- y-yeah-- umm-- ummmmmm-- mybrotherprollywonderswhereummmm-- whereIam," Akizets stammered meekly, "I-- Ishouldreallygohome."

Why was she so nervous? Well, wasn't it obvious? She just had her first kiss with a boy who she felt very strongly for! Her mind was racing and she really had no idea what to say right now. Thank you, maybe? No, that would just be silly! That would just make her look dumb! She wanted to say something else, but wound up in silence, standing there, wondering what to say, and constantly failing to stifle her excited laughter all the while.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld laughed nervously; not so much because Akizetsumei made him nervous (although she did a little, it was his first kiss with her, even if it wasn't his first ever), but because if he was out late with her (or heaven forbid all night) he had a feeling he'd have to answer to Kyo in the morning. And he'd probably bring his sword.

"I'll walk you home, okay?" It was difficult to describe how much better he felt; it was as though a cloudy, stormy sky had parted and light was now shining down.

[Nayt]

"Y-- yeah, umm-- o-- okay," she stumbled over her words.

She started to walk, only to pause and look down the hill. Man, it was way steeper than she thought. Then again, she wasn't really thinking straight when she climbed it earlier, but . . .

Well, no matter! Akizets had climbed cliff faces before! Granted, they were short cliff faces, but she never had much trouble with them! So, Akizets went first without much thought to it, and slowly and hesitantly clambered (backwards) down the hill. It was the only way to see where she was going, after all. It took her a few seconds, but she finally got down and on stable ground again, and she was a bit happier for that.

And once Eld was down there with her-- what next? He was going to walk her home, but how? Was he, like, going to hold her hand? Funny, that. Akizets held his hand several times before and thought nothing of it, but now that he kissed her, well-- that made everything so much different! She blushed at the thought, but definitely made sure to have both of her hands by her sides and not at all clenched up or inaccessible. Just in case!

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld got down the hill with significantly less trouble than Akizetsumei, practically skidding down it but not seeming to lose his balance. He did indeed hold her hand as they walked through the forest back to their respective homes, not parting until they reached her house.

"So...I guess I'll see you later," he said as they stood at the threshold to her home. "Umm...if you ever need to be reminded of what's real, come find me. Any time, no matter what, I'm here. And I'm not saying that just because I liked kissing you," he added.

[Nayt]

Walking back to her house with Eld holding her hand was a whole new experience, really. The whole time, she kept thinking about what next, specifically regarding relationship definition. Because they wanted to be together, right? And they kissed, too! So what'd that make them? Akizets entertained all those thoughts for the entire trip back to her house. It was all stuff she'd never actually thought about before, either. Boys and relationships were usually the last things on her mind. Sure, she really, really liked Eld, but before, she didn't really think about stuff. Not for nearly this long, at least. This probably ensured that she wasn't going to sleep at all tonight! But it was bound to be a good kind of restlessness, because she was awfully giddy right now. She even had a skip in her step.

When they stopped at her house and Eld made his offer, Akizets's face turned red again. She bit her lower and suppressed a nervous laugh.

"Th-- thank you, Eldridge," she said, much calmer now than earlier.

Now, Akizetsumei was faced with a minor problem. She wanted to voluntarily show some level of affection for Eld, because she was genuinely thankful and, well, they kissed! On the lips! So why not kiss again? But they were sort of standing in front of her house and if her dad was home and just so happened to look outside at the time, there'd be one very dead Eldridge by tomorrow! So what she did instead was lean in, wrap her arms around his shoulders, and squeeze him tightly. Akizets placed a kiss on his cheek as they pulled away.

"Umm, I'll, umm, I'll seeyoutomorrow! Umm, g'night!" she exclaimed as she took a step back and waved. Yes, waved. An unnecessary act, but she was particularly foolish right now and simply didn't think any less of it.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld returned her hug. "Good night," he returned, smiling at her wave. She could be incredibly cute sometimes. He'd taken her normally cheery, bubbly self for granted; it was something he would be sure not to do again.

And then as she slipped inside, and Eld returned home, hoping that if anyone noticed the two of them had been out late that they didn't get the wrong idea. Back in his room, he flopped down onto his bed, his mind buzzing but now it was a pleasant buzzing.

And for the first time in a long time, Eld slept completely peacefully.

[Nayt]

Eld slept peacefully, yes. Uninterrupted, too. For a solid nine hours, that is. On the ninth hour was when peace came to an abrupt ending, starting first with a shoe in Eld's side, and ending with Eld's body flung out of his bed and falling to the floor with an echoed thud.

Perhaps he'd come to a conclusion who the culprit was. Sarah always did that. Well, not always, but she did it enough that the figure of speech applied, at least. It was kind of rude to do, but not entirely out of the option, and Sarah was the type to not give the slightest damn what was and was not rude. There were really no personal boundaries between her and Eld. Except, where Eld to reason this, there'd be one major flaw in his conclusion:

The person standing over him in the end was no Sarah Vaerbond.

Toushikyo stood over Eld with his arms crossed over his chest, half for the sake of appearances and half because he was kind of cold right now. He only wore a pair of slacks and a button down shirt, after all. Also keeping with appearances, though, Toushikyo looked down upon Eld with a frown.

"I believe you know what that is for," he said once he was certain Eldridge was cognitive.

[Zach Kaiser]

It was almost impressive how little this method of awakening seemed to faze him any more. If Eld was kicked out of bed much more often it would soon stop even waking him up. He rolled off the side of the bed, into the little nook between the edge and the wall. Woozily, he grabbed the edge of the bed and pulled himself halfway up.

"Sarah, aren't you supposed to be..." He trailed off as his eyes finally met those of the person who woke him up. He blinked a few times, and then stared at him critically, as though this was some kind of trick or illusion and if he focused he could see through it. Finally, he was forced to come to a conclusion: "You aren't Sarah."

Not generally being around Eld when he woke up in the morning, perhaps Toushikyo couldn't be blamed for foolishly believing he'd be reasonably cognitive with any kind of expedience.

[Nayt]

Toushikyo had to suppress a shiver. It was Godawful cold in Eld's room. What, did his family not have a wood burner? They should have. They were wealthy compared to the Terra Clan, and Toushikyo's house had a wood burner. This with a piping sort of ventilation kept their house from becoming horribly chilly like this.

Even more annoying than the temperature of Eld's room was how slow he was right now. Toushikyo thought a kick to his ribs would have woken him up real quick-- but no. No it did not. It was no surprise to him that Eld was at least partially slow, of course. That defined Eldridge Tsukimono's general existence. However, it was particularly aggravating that he was ten times slower while waking up. That sort of ruined the plan Toushikyo had when storming over here. He had it all worked out in his head, too.

It was going to be a fairly dramatic affair, but Eld was ruining it with his lethargy. Oh well. Toushikyo would just have to work something out to salvage it.

"I will only do this once, Tsukimono, so I would prefer it if you woke up," Toushikyo declared promptly.

And he'd give Eld a moment, maybe half a minute tops, to yawn and stretch and slap himself if need be, before offering Eld his hand to assist him in standing.

[Zach Kaiser]

Fortunately, Eld was starting to come around a little more. He took Toushikyo's hand and climbed back onto his bed and sat cross-legged on it, giving a small yawn and his brain functions restored. Perhaps it was something about Kyo being the one waking him up, an unusual circumstance, that helped him get it together a bit quicker than usual.

"What is it? Because if it's punching me, I'm going to hold you to doing it just once," he stated. Seriously, it was one thing to get kicked out of bed, but it was another to get outright beat up in the morning. It had to be at least mid-day before he was willing to let that happen.

[Nayt]

Eld was not helped up into his bed, though. Toushikyo did not let him get that far. Which, in turn, meant Toushikyo cut Eld off in mid-sentence when he finally pulled Eld up to his feet . . .

Without warning, Toushikyo drew Eld into a hug. It was rather sudden and sort of awkward, but Toushikyo wasn't good at this whole affection thing. He rarely, if ever, showed it for his own brother and sister, let alone a good friend of his. Though, this wasn't a normal kind of display of affection. This was--

"And I believe you know what that was for, too," he said as he released Eld.

--thankful.

Naturally, Toushikyo hadn't embraced Eld for too long. He felt awkward and uncomfortable with it, but it was necessary, considering what he'd done for his sister. With this, though, if Eld had any doubts that he had completely helped Akizetsumei, then he might as well consider those doubts crushed by Akizetsumei's older brother himself.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was so confused and surprised that he didn't actually have time to return the embrace before Toushikyo pulled away. "I do? What do you-" And then it dawned on him; there was only thing that could have possibly happened that would drive Kyo to display that level of gratitude.

"You mean she's...?" He didn't dare say it, as though if he spoke it aloud it would break some kind of spell. That Akizetsumei didn't just feel better, but was entirely "cured" was almost too much to hope for.

But what else could possibly drive Toushikyo of all people to be so thankful?

[Nayt]

"Correct," Toushikyo said with a nod.

Naturally, this was a huge relief for him. He'd been worried about her for awhile and regretful for even letting her go to the lake. It was amazing, though, for this all to be resolved so soon. Toushikyo had been fighting this for years, and it just kept getting worse. But Akizets got through this in weeks. It was good, though. He was sincerely happy for her, and sincerely grateful for Eld's helping her.

"She has been . . . giddy. All this morning," Toushikyo noted, paused, and amended: "And all of last night, too."

As much as he might dislike admitting it, it was nice to see Akizetsumei back to her old self. After all, even when she wasn't "cursed" per say, she was depressed and constantly thinking about something. She didn't have any energy at all, and retired to bed after something so small as a walk to the store. Now, she was happy, energetic, and could not in any way be drawn back from cloud nine.

[Zach Kaiser]

"That's...that's wonderful!" Eld blurted out. Even though Eld was more expressive than Kyo all the time, the sheer amount of joy he displayed right now was probably more than he'd have ever seen. A bright smile spread across his face; this was the best news possible.

However, he sobered up somewhat quickly; Akizetsumei was cured, but Kyo wasn't. Though now, they knew how to fix that, right? "You know...what you need to do yourself, then, right?" he asked softly.

In the end, no matter how much Eld may have wanted to help Kyo, he wasn't the person that could. But he wasn't Akizetsumei; he had a lot more stubbornness to get over in order to actually reach out to someone. Especially the person whose help he suspected he'd end up needing.

[Nayt]

Indeed, Akizetsumei's recovery strengthened a theory of Toushikyo's. He could almost guess at what direction he needed to go with his life, now. This was vastly better than his state of existence a few months ago. Back then, Toushikyo hadn't the slightest clue what he was doing with himself. He was training with his sword, trying to get attuned to his curse, and trying to incorporate it into his life in at least a helpful way. But ultimately, he was just taking shots in the dark. He had a lot on his mind, a lot of thoughts about the future, but he had nothing but whims and fancies to go on. Now, at the very least, he knew which one he needed to pursue.

"I do, yes," Toushikyo nodded.

Though, it wasn't quite what Eld was probably expecting . . .

"I intend to look into joining the militia in the near future."

Hillcrest was large enough to possess its own militia, but the actual organization itself was fairly dangerous. They were not involved in wars or land disputes, but they had their share of problems. The militia functioned as a police force and dealt with crimes of all kinds. It was also the town's wild animal control, for all intents and purposes. A militiaman was taught how to use a firearm well, allowing them to hunt wolves, bears, and other such monstrosities that could pose a significant threat to the citizens of Hillcrest. The job itself was neither easy nor safe, but it was definitely admirable, as far as community standard went . . .