Our Last Days as Children

[Nayt]

"Damn, Eld--bowl me over next time, why don't you?" Sarah grumbled as she recovered her balance.

Eld now stood between Sarah and Akizetsumei. Sarah had to walk around him to see the girl again. It was just as she thought. That red mark on her cheek most definitely came from someone's hand, which likewise told the story about the tears in the girl's eyes.

This was not a good sign.

"She has a suuuper bad temper," Akizets pouted at Eld.

When the girl rubbed her cheek and winced, Sarah almost smacked herself in the forehead. So maybe Etsu was violent, but she didn't expect her to hit Akizetsumei of all people.

"She seriously--?" Sarah asked.

Akizets pursed her lips and paused for a second. "I-- I think everything's okay now, though!"

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was torn. He was angry at Etsu for raising a hand against Akizetsumei, who clearly didn't pose any kind of physical threat to anyone, and he couldn't picture her being terribly insulting either. At the same time he was also angry at himself for putting her this kind of position to begin with. He could hardly lay all the blame on Etsu.

"I'm so-wait, really?" What Akizetsumei said last surprised him so much that he stopped mid apology and completely forgot to be angry at anyone. While it was admittedly hard to picture her holding a grudge, and she'd already forgiven him (even if he'd yet to forgive himself), if she was capable of holding one at all it would surely be with Etsu.

Not to mention Etsu herself was not the most forgiving person. It was easy to recall how she'd treated him when she first arrived, and even after that misunderstanding had been cleared up they argued as often as they got along. He knew she hadn't wanted to interfere in his relationship with Akizetsumei, but that didn't mean she didn't have any ill feelings about it.

[Nayt]

"Yeah," she smiled a little.

But then her cheek hurt again and she frowned. Man, it'd probably be a good idea not to get on Etsu's bad side again. It still felt like she'd been hit in the face with a brick. Akizetsumei was lucky not to have a loose tooth from that! Actually-- oh crap. After tonguing one of her lower molars, Akizets started to feel a bit paranoid that one of her teeth had, in fact, been knocked loose. The brief moment of concern actually caused her to stumble over her words a little before she got her next statement out.

"She, ummmmm, she calmed down and we talked a bunch," Akizets nodded in self affirmation, "Then she apologized, umm, for hitting me a-- aaaaand youknowwhat. She was really nice by the end."

That was kind of hard for Sarah to believe. Etsu? Nice? That happened, what, once in a year? Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still. Nevertheless, it was relieving to hear it went well. Except for the slap, though Akizets didn't really seem too put off by that.

"Um, hey, does my tooth look bad?" Akizets changed the subject without even a second's pause--she'd just rattled on about how her confrontation with Etsu went, and broke straight into that question. She even opened her mouth and pointed it out: second molar on the bottom right (It looked before fine, of course . . .).

[Zach Kaiser]

It was good that she calmed down. Given that this whole mess was his responsibility, he didn't really feel like he had the right to lecture Etsu, even if she may have deserved it for hitting Akizetsumei. (And as she was a girl he couldn't exactly let his fists serve as a lesson either.)

Fortunately, one good way to distract Eld from other issues was to call upon his medical training. Even if it was in a rather simple way.

"It looks fine to me," Eld stated after a minute or so. "You did get slapped, so you'll probably be sore for a bit. If it persists my mother can always take a closer look for you." Etsu was tough, but she wasn't terribly strong, and even as frail as Akizetsumei was a slap from her wasn't going to do permanent damage. A slap from Sarah, on the other hand...

[Nayt]

"Oh. Well, okay," she sighed in relief, "That's good. I was kinda worried!"

Akizets fell into an awkward silence, succumbing to a loss of things to say. She'd already voiced all she had to say today, and still wasn't exactly in a chipper mood--and rightly so. She wasn't going to be perfectly happy for a couple of days, at least. The girl could bounce back from a lot of things, but heartache stuck for a little while. Fortunately, Eld was sorry, genuinely sorry, and Akizetsumei knew it'd never happen again. Eld hadn't said that per say--in fact, he more or less told her he'd understand if she dumped him--but she gathered as much from her conversations with him.

They'd taken a step back, but it wasn't permanent, and they had all the time in the world to move forward by leaps and bounds . . .

---

It was spring again--almost a full year into Eldridge Tsukimono and Akizetsumei of Terra's relationship. They'd had their heartaches, both individual and mutual, but they were okay. Everything was fine. They were still happy. Akizets was with Eld that day, lounged on his bed, idly gazing about his room as she had so many times in the past. She'd memorized it by now-- which was a hard thing for her to do; the girl had about the worst memory in the world, and most certainly forgot her own birthday, let alone everyone else's, yet she'd still memorized Eld's room. Weird.

"So, hey, ummm, Eldridge!" she sat up in his bed abruptly.

Eld was reading, as he often did. She didn't know what. Maybe he was studying, maybe he was reading something for leisure, she didn't really know for sure. It was hard to tell. His reading face and studying face were virtually the same!

"My parents told me they're gonna have a dinner this weekend, if you wanna come," she said cheerily. The reason, of course, would be completely obvious to Eld, who had an infinitely better memory than his girlfriend.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld leaned back contently at his desk, reading the latest novel he'd purchased. He'd long ago accepted that he wasn't going to get much studying done when Akizetsumei was around. Not that it was much of a problem, as she was always a welcome distraction.

"It's already been a year, huh?" Eld responded, quickly realizing why he'd be invited to dinner. Dinner with one of their families was fairly rare, as both his parents and hers were quite busy on a day to day basis.

He set his book down on the desk for the time being and turned in the chair to face her. "It's hard to believe. It's been such a hectic year..."

[Nayt]

"Mm," she nodded some.

Akizets collapsed back into Eld's bed, spread out her arms, and relaxed. A year. Man! Time really flew! It was impossible for her to believe that she'd really been dating Eld for almost a whole year. What were they going to do to celebrate? She couldn't even begin to guess.

"Hectic, but fun," Akizets said softly.

She didn't regret a thing for this past year. Nothing at all. Honestly, there wasn't a single event she'd take back. Not even that spat with Etsu--because hey, did she and Etsu not come out of that as friends? Conflicts were completely fine if they ended well for everyone involved.

"A-- at least, I've had a lot of fun."

There was a long silence and Akizetsumei curled up in Eld's bed, staring at his half closed door blankly. His parents were sort of like hers. They didn't like it when Eld had his door all the way shut when Akizets was with him. In Eld's silence, she started to feel a bit introspective. She had no regrets, but what about him? He was so hard to read sometimes. Try as she like, there were just times when she didn't know right from left with him. Which was weird, because she was usually pretty good with directions.

"Hey, Eldridge?" She asked, curiosity starting to get the better of her. "You don't regret anything, do you?"

[Zach Kaiser]

"...I can't say I have absolutely no regrets." It wouldn't be hard to guess what Eld was referring to; Akizetsumei have forgiven him for what happened with Etsu, but it would be a long time before he forgave himself.

"But for the most part I'm glad how things turned out." Ultimately he and Etsu had managed to be friends (and only friends), though he'd remained careful to limit the situations they'd been alone in.

[Nayt]

"H-hey!" she put her legs out in front of her, "S-some good came from that, you know?"

Akizets pouted a little. Even that wasn't something she could personally say she regretted! And there were a whole ton of reasons for it, too.

"Me and Etsu got through it and even managed to become friends, and, ummmm, well . . ." Akizets trailed off, only to give Eld a sheepish smile, "It kinda, well, ummmmm, we got closer 'cause of it."

She wasn't going to elaborate. There was still more taboo in talking about that sort of stuff for her than there was in the actual acts themselves.

"I-- I mean, it reeeaaally sucked when it happened, but I think it all turned out well. Sorta like, um, fallin' down from somewhere just so you can learn to pick yourself up, you know? I think that's how it goes. Fallin' off a horse or something like that. Hmmmm," she trailed off, folded her arms over her chest, and looked intently at the floor, almost as if the saying she was looking for was written in the carpet.

[Zach Kaiser]

"I guess you would know, huh?" Eld joked. He got up from his chair and moved to sit next to Akizetsumei on the bed.

"You are really are too good for me," he said a bit more seriously, wrapping an arm around her and gently pulling her into him. "Some good may have come of it...maybe even a lot of good. Doesn't make what I did right."

Then he sighed. "But...maybe I'll try to stop dwelling on it, and just keep it in mind as a reminder that I'm just as capable of acting stupid as anyone." While what he regretted most was hurting Akizetsumei, in second place was the damage it did to his own ego. Before then, he'd have simply considered himself better than that kind of behavior.

[Nayt]

Akizets leaned into Eld once he had his arms around her. She rested her head upon his shoulder and sighed contently. She liked being this way, nestled up against him, back up against his chest, his arms wrapped around her, one across her belly, the other around her shoulders--a very specific position, to be sure, but they ended up like this a lot of the time and quite frankly, Akizetsumei thought it was very nice and comforting.

"It's okay," she said and shut her eyes.

The girl reached her hands up, took Eld's hand, and held it to the middle of her chest. She wasn't stressed or sad or anxious or any of that. She was just perfectly calm.

"'Cause I love you," she said it without hesitation, as she had on a number of occasions before now--no skips of the heart or her breathing. Akizetsumei was a genuine person, who above all things was honest with herself and others. If she said something like that, she meant it, always. "And you make me happy. So I just want you to be happy, too."

[Zach Kaiser]

Akizetsumei amazed him sometimes. Clearly she was comfortable with her own feelings now, being able to say that without getting all flustered. He was much older before he could do the same, though mostly because that had only happened recently too.

"But I love you too, and I also want you to be happy. So if we don't figure out some other things that make us happy, we're just going to go in circles," he teased.

Of course, they both had other things they enjoyed, but right now there was nothing he enjoyed quite so much as being in her company and seeing her smile. That alone could lift his spirits no matter how bad a day he was having.

[Nayt]

"Well~" she elongated the word as she thought to herself, "I'm happy when you hold me, I know that much! Aaaand when you kiss me. That makes me happy, too."

Akizets leaned back against Eld enough to suggest to him that he should most definitely lay flat on his back so she can lay down on him . . . because she wasn't actually strong enough to push him over, that is. Not that she knew that. Chances were, Eld just went along with it and she just thought she was tough enough to push him over.

"Aand I like it when we go out hiking, or when we went out swimming together, and when we go eat together, but only when you're not spending your college savings on me 'cause you gotta use that for school, mister," the latter part would have sounded stern were she not already musing about the things that make her happy, "Aaand when you smile, too. And, um, even when we're just kinda sittin' together, bein' quiet 'cause you're reading and I don't wanna bother you, I'm happy then, too."

"Oh! And when we have dinner with families! Like, when my family has a dinner together and you come or when I come and have dinner with you and your family. That's really awesome, too." By this point, of course, she'd mostly forgotten the point, and was just listing off things she and Eld tangentally did together that she rather enjoyed.

[Zach Kaiser]

Feeling Akizetsumei press against him, Eld fell back so he was laying on the bed. If she really tried, she might be able to knock him over if she surprised him, but for the most part she didn't have the strength to budge him if he didn't want to move. Of course, as he didn't mind moving for her it didn't come up much.

"I like all those things too, but I hope there are some things you enjoy not involving me." He was semi-serious about this; he'd read in his psychology book that relationships where one person was entirely dependent on the other didn't tend to fare so well.

He was also worried about another thing: sometime in the next year he'd be applying for college. Either Akizetsumei was going to have to go without him for a long period of time, or she was going to have to leave Hillcrest and come with him. Even if she did the latter, he was likely going to have to spend most of his time concentrating on school.

Regardless of what she did, he hoped she'd find some things she enjoyed as much as being with him, so that she wasn't lost without him.

[Nayt]

"Mm?"

She wondered what he meant by that. More often than not, they did things together, so it wasn't like she really had all that many activities anymore that didn't include Eld. If there was something she had fun doing, she generally invited Eld along, and that made it all the better.

"I-- of course I do," she replied, her tone confused.

Akizets shifted a little so that she could turn, laying not on her back but on her front, propped up slightly on Eld's chest by her elbows so she could look him in the eyes.

"I still love running and hiking, you know?" Akizets said sincerely, "And my brother's still a big jerk, but I like hanging out with him and everyone else. But-- but-- running and hiking, still, the most. 'Cause I can do that anywhere. There's always somewhere to go and explore, you know? Or some place to run to. Like delivering messages and stuff."