"E-eh? Hey! I . . . I . . ." Emma's quieted a bit.

Bragging--that was when Emma could come off as the most childish. If she had some sort of bragging rights and a reason to use it, she'd first heavily consider it, and then just go ahead and do it. Usually, this was passive aggressive, but if she had a reason to have an ego about something or the rather--such as physical form--then she was even more inclined to be a bit boastful. She always needed a reason, though. Always. There was never before a moment in her life wherein she boasted about something and didn't have someone or something feeding into her ego, which was very easily fed and taken care of.

"Of course he should care . . ." She whined, "He's my boyfriend. Boyfriends are supposed to care about the bodies of their girlfriend! Like . . . like if they gain weight, or if they get too much muscle, or something."

It was about that moment that Etsu half-shut her eyes and thought momentarily. She didn't outright say that she was dating Eld, though she did want to, but she did set one hand upon the side of her belly, pinching to discern if she had any sort of excess skin or fat or anything. Etsu looked down, even, and became quite interested in that. Eld would be able to see that much, too--and how silly she looked checking, when she was one of the few girls to grace this planet who was gifted without any sort of excess skin or fat on her hips.

"Come on, Etsu. Back me up, here!" Emma called out to her, "A guy could be pretty comfy if he laid his head on my chest, right? Well, probably if I wasn't wearing a bra--but you know what I mean."

This detracted Etsu from her previous investigation. "A-ano, Emma-chan, that is ve-ry . . . improper quest-ion . . ."

"Come o~n, Etsu!" Emma whined. "Here! Feel, then tell me!"

"N-Nani desu ka?!" Etsu exclaimed as one of her hands were snatched from her control, Emma sliding it around her own body, where she could place Etsu's hand upon her left breast. "E-Emma-chan, th-this is . . . no . . . right . . .!"

"I don't think either of you have to worry about gaining weight," Eld noted as he saw Etsu checking her hips. Even though she rarely seemed to get any exercise, the Cizokian girl never seemed to gain any weight. Then again, he'd been experiencing the same thing recently so he wondered if there was something about being a Reaper that affected one's metabolism.

Emma, on the other hand, while not nearly as active as her sister still spent enough time moving around that she'd be fine. Not to mention both were still growing, so any excess calories would no doubt be used.

Anything else that he was going to add was immediately forgotten after what Emma did next. Instantly Eld's face turned red again, but he couldn't look away, nor could he say anything, though he knew he should probably speak in Etsu's defense.

At first, Etsu tried to wrench her hand away from Emma, only to find that the twelve year old was actually stronger than her. This was no great surprise, though; all things considered, Emma had some of that genetic, while Etsu did not. All of Emma's family had significant physical strength, and while she was clearly the runt of the family, she still had something. Above average for her age and gender, at the very least. Etsu, on the other hand, was unnervingly weak at all times; the only strengths she had were in her joints, and she always needed to brace herself when whipping around something like her naginata. She couldn't pull away, all things considered; if she braced herself and tugged with her joints, she would've, but she'd also fall off the horse. So, in the end, Etsu gave in.

"Etsu~! They're soft, right?" Emma called out impatiently.

". . . hai," Etsu, bashful and feeling somewhat ashamed, admitted.

Emma then let go of Etsu's hand. The Reaper was quick to withdraw her hand, and it was unlikely that her face was going to be anything but beat red for quite some time. That was extremely embarrassing, and extremely uncomfortable. Etsu didn't have any problems with Mayako or anyone else who were sort of . . . attracted to the same gender, but she, herself, was not. Thus, she was guaranteed to feel uncomfortable during these sorts of situation.

"See, Eld?" Emma boasted, "Etsu herself admitted it."

Overall, Eld had grown much more accustomed to dealing with these kind of situations, so he wasn't one to get too flustered every time someone teased him. However, when one of the girls got too friendly with another it never failed to draw a blush and his stare. For a moment he imagined as if Etsu had done that of her own will...

Emma addressing him again snapped him back. "E-Eh? Um...s-sure, whatever you say," he replied, figuring that if he didn't she probably do something like make him feel them next if he didn't relent. Which would have been awkward as Emma was more like a sister to him than anything else.

Not to mention Etsu might have objections to that.

Content with this, Emma quieted herself and felt relatively happy for the rest of the ride. She had proved her point, and that was all she wanted to do--it was all she ever wanted to do, actually. If she adamantly felt that she was right about something, be it regarding her body, another person's relationship, or raw science, she made sure that her point was made very clear in whatever way she could. This time, it meant getting Etsu to grope her, much against Etsu's personal boundaries and comforts. Sometimes, sacrifices had to be made, and Emma was just happy that it all worked out in the end.

They eventually got into Galaens, and as usual, tied up the horses in front of the pharmacy. Emma, having such close ties with the pharmacy, was able to utilize such privileges whenever she wanted. It helped that the owner of the pharmacy supported her and Davis's relationship, and with her not usually having the money to pay for a place to tie up horses, and Davis both lacking the money to afford to rent or own a horse, it was the only way she'd be able to see Davis whenever she and he had the opportunities for these kinds of visits. Truthfully, Emma didn't see Davis nearly as much as she wanted to, so she often became extremely antsy when they came close to Galaens.

Eld and Etsu on the ground again, and Emma having just tied up the horses, Emma was confident in saying, "Weeeeeell! You two lovebirds can go to the market or something if you want. I'm going to head over to my boyfriend's."

The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful. Emma could definitely be a handful sometimes, and Etsu was especially sensitive to that kind of thing, though so far she hadn't been pushed to a point that caused any serious issues with someone.

Eld hesitated to respond for just a second to Emma; truthfully the idea of spending the day with just Etsu really was appealing. However, there was no way he was letting his surrogate little sister be alone with her boyfriend at his house after she'd admitted that he had any kind of contact with her chest.

He crossed his arms. "Nice try, but we're coming with you. Sarah would kill me if she found out I left you unchaperoned."

Etsu was rather excited for the possibility of spending the day with just Eld, too. Lacking money, she wasn't an enormous fan of shopping, but she did enjoy the marketplace--and Eld usually had money on him, anyways. It wasn't a rude lack of distinction between her funding and his, it was culture. Women in Cizok didn't work; they didn't accrue funding. So, when they were out with a man, it was the man who spent the money. Her and her mother, for example, did nothing that brought money in, just sufficed for the family--and that's what she was accustomed to. Unfortunately for Eld, it was something she'd probably never get over, either.

So, it went without saying that she was disappointed that Eld didn't want to go out into the market with her. Her eyes were downcast and shoulders hung just a bit were the only physical signs of such disappointment. She didn't want to outright say anything, though, knowing that Eld was there for a reason, and not wanting to see Sarah beat on him again.

"Awwww, way to suck, man," Emma groaned. "Well, guess we're all off in that direction, then."

Eld hated to see Etsu disappointed, especially as he really would like to spend the day in the market with her. It couldn't be helped, though; he had his responsibilities as an older brother.

He did figure he could bring one thing up, though: "Well...if Emma and Davis go out somewhere, there's no reason we can't go look around the market." In public, he figured he had no reason to to watch over them.

Still, that would be up to them, but there was a chance. Otherwise he could always take her to town some other time.

"Hey, yeah!" Emma cheered up quickly, "Yeah! We can totally do that! Davis needs to get some damn new clothes anyways, so we can all go to the market or something, get some new clothes or something. Well. At least for Davis. And hey, you might want to get Etsu some sexy lingerie while you're there--for, you know, times that you're in bed together, foolin' around."

This confounded Etsu. Not the idea of fooling around with Eld, which was presented in a way that she also did not understand, but the idea of lingerie was completely foreign to her. Little did she know that she had at least once worn a pair of such clothes, but no one ever gave it a name for her. She kept walking by Eld's side, while Emma lead them ahead, down the street towards Davis's house. It was unfortunately a few minutes of walking, which left Etsu more than enough time to ask Eld a fairly embarrassing question (for him).

"Er-rd-kun, what is "r-ringerie"?" Asked Etsu, truly oblivious to what Emma was talking about.

Eld turned a bit red at Emma's comments. "We weren't-"

But for once, it was Etsu interrupting him unintentionally rather than the other way around. He shot a glare at Emma's back, as he was almost certain she'd done that on purpose, knowing that Etsu would ask what it was.

Recomposing himself, he decided the best way was just to say it straight out and get it over with. "Lingerie is...sexy female underwear," he explained. "Sort of like...what you wore...that one time..." He trailed off, getting a bit flustered thinking of it. He had to admit, he'd like to see Etsu in lingerie again, but he doubted she'd want something like that--he especially doubted she could bring herself to pick something out in public.

Emma figured that she'd just let that one go--give that question to Eld, let him stew over it and think up some sort of reply. Truthfully, she didn't expect him to answer so bluntly; that in itself with humorous and commendable. Etsu, knowing so very little about other cultures and their respective vocabularies, didn't know what lingerie was, and if she ever saw it, would not have been able to name it something other than "very revealing underwear." Emma had to contain that urge to burst out laughing at Eld's explanation: that Etsu had worn such a thing before. Etsu, on the other hand, seemed even more confused.

"Er-rd-kun, what make some-thing "sexy"?" Etsu asked bluntly.

I would like to be that for you . . .

Emma had to contain the urge to laugh even more. Sometimes, Etsu's seriousness became the funniest thing. Funnier than any joke, just because she took almost everything seriously, regardless of how absurd it may be.

He should have seen that coming. He really should have. Etsu, who seemed to completely lack contact with boys save for him, would of course have no idea what made something sexy.

Eld, unfortunately, didn't have a very good idea either. He might be able to peg individual actions or articles of clothing as sexy, but he really didn't know. At this point, girls in general were sexy to him--the fact that he could be attracted to both Sarah and Mayako, two girls who were at polar opposites of the development scale, was proof of this.

He decided to just answer the question in terms of lingerie. "Well...for lingerie it's usually stuff that doesn't cover much, or is kind of see-through...that kind of thing."

Truthfully, he should have just given in and asked Emma to give a better explanation, but he wasn't sure that was a great idea--knowing her, she'd end up embarrassing him, Etsu, or both of them to a great degree with her thoughts on it.

Emma, grinning, slowed her pace a bit so she wasn't so far ahead of Eld and Etsu. This had one purpose: it allowed her to back up and be in the same group with Eld and Etsu, and talk to them easier--as well as hear them better. Also, if she slid her way between Eld and Etsu, she'd be able to make expressions towards one without the other knowing. And she did just that, sliding between them and walking with Etsu to her right and Eld to her left. She wasn't discrete about it at all; in fact, she was pretty obvious.

Etsu stepped a bit to the side to allowed Emma more room, and couldn't help but wonder why Emma had moved there. Was there something wrong with her walking so close to Eld, now that they were dating? Emma didn't know about their current relationship status, though . . .

"I think that means he wants to see more of your skin, Ets," Emma whispered (loudly) to Etsu.

This, of course, had Etsu reacting in only one way, a repetition of something she had said hundreds of times by this point. Etsu simply furrowed her brow and whispered, ". . . the "u" is no sir-rent . . ."

Eld looked at Emma curiously as she interposed herself between the two. Usually if she did something strange, it meant she was plotting something, but he failed to see what she was trying to do other than possibly just annoy them by coming between them.

Normally Eld would have refuted (or at least qualified) her statement, but if Etsu was going to ignore it, he was as well.

"I think she's just using that as a nickname for you," he told Etsu, leaning so he could see her around Emma. It wasn't as though Emma didn't know her name.

". . . but . . ." Etsu whispered, her eyes downcast and head hung a bit.

Even as a nickname, she didn't like it. It just didn't sound right to her--but then again, her accent didn't sound right to everyone else in Hillcrest. Etsu relented and decided not to ask Emma not to do it, but not because she felt like she'd be being hypocritical about it--but just to avoid conflict. Just another thing of many that she'd have to get over . . .

"Well, we're here."

Etsu looked up. Davis's house looked so much like the others that Etsu had trouble picking it from the others. Rather, she just took the moment to move closer to Eld once Emma skipped on ahead, hoping that he'd do something affectionate . . . like wrap his arm around her or hold her hand. She wasn't going to bluntly ask, but she could still hope.