Our Last Days as Children

[Zach Kaiser]

"E-Etsu?!" Eld stared at her, dumbstruck. He wasn't entirely certain he hadn't just hallucinated that.

The well dressed man threw back his head and laughed loudly. "The claws come out! You're much more shrewd than you look. I love it! But that's pretty pricey for an amateur. Five bronze per week, and you get one outfit for both your solo pictures."

And so the bargaining begins. He wasn't expecting to have to do this, but if she could bring the kind of confidence to the pictures that she was showing him now, it'd be worth some extra cost.

[Nayt]

Where she came from, modeling was a very modest thing. Women modeled for photographs all the time, but they were always fully clothed and nicely dressed. But Etsu was not entirely ignorant to the modeling styles of other cultures. She really disliked the whole liberal mindset of it all, but she was actually quite fond of modeling. She'd only done it herself with friends around, but she'd seen many of the sepia photographs passed around of models from other countries, and they were all quite beautiful, even when they weren't wearing that much clothes. She'd never take off that much. She'd never be nude for someone who was not her lover, and a camera was in no way her lover, nor would it ever be.

This was, of course, assuming she'd ever thought about becoming a model someday in her life. Which she had not. The whole notion was completely preposterous.

Nevertheless, she remembered a pose that always struck her. It was a tiny bit racy, had a couple kinds of weird connotations, but wasn't exactly horrible. Really, it was just a twist of the hips, shift of the chest, clearance of the arms, and a straightening of the neck. So she put her right hand on her hip, dropped her left to her side, shifted her hips slightly to the right, straightened her back (as best she could with the slight twist caused by tilting her hips) to bring attention to her torso, and straightened up her neck to show good posture and control.

Nope. She'd never thought about that career choice at all.

"I cannot accept five per week," she said, still posing, "I wir-rr settr-re for eight."

[Zach Kaiser]

"Hmmm..." The heavy thinking bit was just an act; he knew immediately what he'd counter with, but this girl was fierce, and it was best if she thought she'd cornered him. Not like the boy with her; he kept looking between the two of them with his mouth hanging open.

"Seven per week, but I'll give you an outfit for each. How's that sound?" The pose definitely sealed the deal; if these pictures turned out as well as he hoped, parting with an outfit would definitely save him more money in the long run.

[Nayt]

Etsu lifted her arms and folded them over her chest. She, however, was not feigning deep thought. Etsu was not like this gentleman. She was not terribly experienced with this. She was still just a kid, after all. The fact that she was knowledgeable enough to negotiate this far should've been impressive enough. After a second of deep thought, she was able to acknowledge the value to these terms.

"Seven bronze coin per week of ad-ver-tise-ment, pr-rus two out-fit for two sor-ro photo-graph and two out-fit for two . . ." she paused, suddenly feeling the need to clear her throat, ". . . coupr-re photo-graph."

She felt the need to reiterate the terms of this agreement, if only to ensure that this man wasn't going to take advantage of her and change the terms on a whim.

"I accept these terms."

[Zach Kaiser]

"Alright then, it's a deal." He motioned for a nearby employee to go draft that up; he'd be sure to get this in writing with their signatures before she left. After all, if she were to try and contest his use of the pictures, he doubted a judge would take the word of a new entrepreneur over a cute...somethingteen year old, anyway.

Before he could get any further, though, Eld interrupted. "H-Hey, wait a minute, what about me? What do I get?"

The well dressed man gave him a grin. "You get that outfit and one more."

"Hey, that's not fair!" he protested.

"Sure it is; you might look good in that, but males don't make nearly as good of models as females."

"But I'm with her!"

"If you wanted in on this action, you should've spoken up, son."

"I--but--oh...nevermind," Eld grumbled.

The well dressed man returned to his place behind the camera. "Okay you two, in case you forgot, I want you to look into eachother's eyes now, and get nice and cozy."

With a sigh of resignation, Eld turned back to Etsu. "Well...lead the way, miss model," he said not quite sarcastically. He wasn't quite sure what to do here; most of his experienced with girls hadn't involved just staring into one another's eyes. If something like it happened, it was usually just a pause before something else happened.

[Nayt]

Etsu nodded her head. This would at least give her a bit of spending money for a little while--or longer, maybe, if he used her photographs for a longer period of time, or broke them out later if these particular styles ever came back and he needed a decent photo for advertising purposes.

With that all now taken care of, Etsu turned to Eld. She thought about her options. They were supposed to look like a couple. She'd seen a few photographs like that. They were always kind of embarrassing to look at, but she'd been in worse physical situations with Eld before. As she thought about poses, though, she realized she was kind of missing some necessary things for this pair of photographs.

"Do you have . . . r-ripstick? A very r-right shade? And bracer-ret?" she asked, paused, and added as an afterthought, "A neckr-race wour-rd be nice, too."

She didn't expect to get these for free, but that was fine. It would make for a better photograph at least. Again, though, Etsu's knowledge of fashion was kind of limited. She knew a little bit, such as accessorizing and whatnot, but matching accessories? Nope. She could only hope this man knew better than she would.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Huh?" Unlike before, where Eld was simply in shock about what was happening, now he was just confused. What did she need all that stuff for? Or was she looking to get more free goods?

It surprised even the well dressed man. "You're really serious about this, huh? Alright, I'll go see what I can dig up." With that he took off; it didn't take him long to return, though. Naturally, they sold some stuff specifically to go with certain outfits.

"Here you go, miss. You have to give these ones back after the shoot though," he reminded her. The deal was for the outfits; if she wanted to keep the accessories, she'd have to buy them. "If you really like them, though, I'll sell 'em to you at a discount," he added as an afterthought.

The items in question were picked out specifically to go with the outfit, which meant they were classy looking; after all, this pair of outfits just screamed good taste.

[Nayt]

"Arigatou gozaimasu," she said with a slight bow of her head.

It was just as she figured, though. She couldn't keep these. But that was okay. A discount was fine, too. They were getting outfits for free--two for Eld and four for Etsu. How could one complain about that? Besides, that'd completely cover her goals of picking up a few new outfits, so she'd be able to afford some accessories. What she was given was a light shade of lipstick, a loose bracelet of small, polished pieces of wood connected only by an elastic strap, and a silk black choker with a small fake jewel in the middle. All quite elaborate. Etsu applied these (lipstick first, of course, which contrary to popular belief, did not come in a tube, but a shallow jar; application required use of one's pinky finger, much like applying blush or whatnot).

That all said and down, Etsu, with a light shade of lipstick applied and a pair of accessories that went very well with her dress, turned to face Eld. She turned to him slightly, making sure that her apparel was still very visible (that was the goal, after all)--the dress, the contours of the body that it showed off, the necklace, and bracelet specifically--and shifted her hair to hide most of her face from the camera, though not without hiding her lips. The black of her hair and the near-porcelain color of her skin made the light red of her lips and the slight glossy sheen of the lipstick stand out all the better.

For the sake of a pose with Eld, she rose her left hand to gently take his left, whilst grabbing his right and setting it upon her hip, a bit of a background suggestion of dancing. She then set her right hand upon his shoulder. Provided Eld was able to go with it, they would most certainly look like they were dancing.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld couldn't help but stare at Etsu; even on a regular basis she looked his age, rather than the fourteen years old she really was. With the dress, the makeup, and the accessories, she could pass for a full-grown adult, at least eighteen. If it weren't for the fact that his own suit made him look older too there would have been a jarring discrepancy between them.

He allowed Etsu to guide his hands. Oh, like we're dancing, huh? He may have been out of his element here, but he still caught on fairly quick. At least he was somewhat familiar with the pose, as he'd danced before, though it wasn't something he got to do often. This let him relax a little.

Which was in one way a good thing and in another a bad thing. It was a bad thing because when he relaxed and lifted his gaze from where she was placing his hands to looking at her directly, his breath caught for a moment.

It was a good thing because in that moment the well dressed man realized he had his picture, and was quick to snap a shot. This time Eld hardly even noticed the flash.

[Nayt]

Etsu couldn't move her lips. She couldn't say anything and she had to breath out of her nostrils. She couldn't move a muscle until the picture was taken, and that made this all the harder, because she wanted to say something about it being all right, and telling him that he can relax, that it's just a picture. Eld looked so uncomfortable. But she couldn't say anything right now. She had to wait. The most she could do, perhaps the best she could do right now, was look him in the eyes and hope this was good enough for now.

In no time at all, the picture was taken. She caught the flash out of the corner of her eyes and sighed in relief. It felt so weird, actually. Weirder than she thought it would have. But that said and done, she was able to say something for Eld's sake. And, in part, her own.

"It is okay, Tsukimono-kun," she whispered to him as soothingly as she possibly could, "It is just a photo-graph. You can rer-rax."

To accompany these words of encouragement, though, Etsu moved her hand on his shoulder up a bit, to set upon the side of his neck, where she could rub his cheek with her thumb. She smiled some. Eld looked handsome, he really did. He just needed to relax a little.

[Zach Kaiser]

"I-It's not...the picture..." Eld whispered, too quietly for anyone but Etsu to hear.

Well, isn't this something. They said they were cousins, but...well, the way they looked at each other it certainly seemed like there was more than family affection there. Ah well, that kind of thing wasn't that unheard of.

Normally he'd have given them a bit of time to regain their sense, but it seemed like the boy, who'd so far been the more reluctant one of the two, was a bit discombobulated. The girl certainly seemed like an expert at playing him, the way she touched his cheek like that.

"Alright," he began quietly, speaking to the girl. She was the on in control, so she was going to determine how well this picture came out. "Now just lean in, place your lips against his." He was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, but there was still a chance she'd balk, or at least hesitate long enough that this mood was lost.

He hoped she wouldn't though; with the way they were acting he suspected a real kiss would turn out very, very nice.

Eld, for his part, was frozen. He knew he should object; he really did. But with Etsu touching his cheek like that smiling at him tenderly, he just couldn't get the words out.

[Nayt]

Suddenly, something turned off in Etsu's brain. Her cheeks flared up a reddish color as she felt her heart skip a beat. A-- what? A kiss? What? Seriously?!

"I . . . I . . ." she could barely part her lips to speak.

This guy was serious, wasn't he? He wanted them to kiss and he wanted take a photograph of it. He . . . he really wanted that. And . . . they were going to, weren't they? Even though Eld was . . . even though she had already . . .

Etsu felt a number of wants all at the same time. She wanted to step back and shake her head. She wanted to accuse the mustached man of something horrible. She wanted to just wrap her arms around Eld and hug him and try to forget this was all happening. But ultimately, what she wanted to do most was forget the whole idea that she'd ever decided to never romantically touch Eld ever again, forget all their obligations, and make a good picture . . . and take pride in it, too. This was all matters of professionalism, right?

They were still just models. It just was . . . as models, they had to kiss. Right. It wasn't a matter of emotions or anything that happened between them at the lake . . .

It is . . . it is completely professional . . .

So Etsu took the initiative. She smiled some at Eld again, tried to be as calming as she could, stroked his cheek with her thumb again, and brought his left hand, the one that'd been holding hers when they were to appear like dancers, and set it, too, upon her hip, though noticeably towards the bottom of her hip.

Then, with no further hesitation, no further breaks in the mood, she shut her eyes, leaned up, and placed her lips upon Eld's . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

The way she smiled at him as she touched his cheek caused his heart to skip a beat. Right now Etsu was downright radiant; could she be like this any time she wished, or was it just because of the pictures they were taking?

Pictures. Right. That was probably what this was all about. It wasn't as though Etsu had any real interest for him anymore, he was sure. She was just serious about making this picture good, especially as she was going to get paid for it.

That thought allowed him to calm down a little bit; this was just a photo shoot. He smiled back at her a little bashfully as she placed his other hand low on her hip. It was silly of him to get so worked up over this.

This was what he told himself, but as soon as their lips met, all thoughts of the photo disappeared from his mind.

[Nayt]

Like Eld, Etsu too forgot about the picture. She was lost somewhere between her heart and Eld's lips and had no idea where to go from here. She didn't move, though. She had just enough recollection of the purpose for this kiss-- this pose --to know it was best to try not to kiss Eld with any degree of elevated passion. A static kiss, a pressing of her lips against his, was the best option available.

And damn was it hard to maintain.

Etsu wanted to disregard the pose, lean in, wrap her arms around Eld's shoulders, and kiss him like she'd done many months ago, back when they were staying together at the lakeside. But she couldn't. No matter how tempting it was, it just wasn't an option.

The photograph itself was bound to turn out well. Amazing, even. Photography often sought to capture something genuine, and there really wasn't anything else more genuine that could happen between these two. There were feelings left, remnants of passion that hadn't exactly gone away like they both hoped.

If the man with the pencil mustache was looking for a good picture, he'd most certainly get one.

[Zach Kaiser]

Under normal circumstances he'd never interrupt something like this, but he had two more pictures to take. Still, instead of doing what he wanted to, which was grin broadly and say cousins, eh? he just coughed rather loudly.

Suddenly aware of his surroundings again, Eld reluctantly pulled away from Etsu, flushing deeply. Though it was probably for the better; he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold the kiss and not make any attempt to deepen it.

"A-Aren't you going to take a picture?" he asked.

"I did," the well dressed man replied, not entirely able to suppress a grin. "A very nice one, at that."