Old World Remnants

[Zach Kaiser]

"Huh? Wait, what, no, we're not--it's just--ummm--we--" The thought of what Sarah was implying seemed to overload his brain; he suddenly realized that they were more than little closer than friends usually were, but that being that close to her didn't bother him, but it should have, and he didn't think--

Something in his mind sort of snapped and turned off, and he stood there sputtering for a little bit while it restarted and restored its operating functions, at which point it skipped over the garbled mess that caused the problem and came to a conclusion that may or may not have had anything to do with the current situation.

"Aw, forget Kyo," he said, suddenly incensed. It seemed like he was being more aggravating than usual today, anyway.

[Nayt]

Incidentally, Akizetsumei hadn't given much thought to Sarah's assessment of the situation. Her cheeks were still fairly red, but not because of what Sarah said. Really, the way Eld was holding her got her more flustered than anyone else ever could! In a good way, that is. Nonetheless . . .

Forget Kyo. Akizetsumei was right in line with this idea! Forget him! He was just a big stupid jerk! He'd actually pry her away from Eld if he had to!

Before she finally departed from them, Sarah responded: "Forget the protective big brother with a spear? Your funeral, I guess. See ya!"

Well . . . Sarah did have a point there. Toushikyo probably wouldn't be too pleased if he saw them standing like that again. Heck, even if they were just holding hands he'd probably though a fit! So maybe they'd have to relocate or something. That was fine. Then they could actually forget him and be better off!

Okay, Akizetsumei really enjoyed being that close to Eld, and she was put off by the mere notion that Toushikyo would be such a jerk to pull her apart from someone that was making her very happy. Because he would be such a jerk. He was more than willing and capable! But he also had the capability of being kind of dangerous if she just completely ignored his presence. So, then, she'd just have to go somewhere with Eld where Toushikyo couldn't see them! Akizetsumei peered around she and Eld, until she caught a glimpse of something on the other side of the lake. The footprints that started on their side of the lake and wrapped around cut off into the woods, and it looked like a pathway through the woods had been beaten down recently.

"Y-you, ummmmmm, do you wanna go for a swim?" Akizetsumei asked meekly, "I-- I'll, um, I'll race you to the other side. I think. That's . . . um, that's a race, right?"

Races were those things where people got together and did something fast. At least, that was Akizetsumei's idea of a race. She didn't really like the idea of a clear and distinct winner and loser. It just went against her whole concept of running and exercising. No matter what, you were going to go as fast as you could, and you were going to enjoy it while it lasts-- therefore no one should actually lose a race.

Anyways, there was no time to lose! Akizetsumei really wanted to get to the other side of the lake with Eld, and then maybe try to convince him to sneak off to that path with her!

It went without saying that Akizetsumei was utterly terrible at hiding her intentions. That beaten down path into the woods was practically the first thing one saw if they looked across the lake. Not to mention, Akizets was suddenly a bit anxious and energetic. Eld, at the very least, would probably be able to see right through her. Maybe Eld would still go with it, though? Who knows!

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld frowned as Sarah left. Toushikyo wasn't being protective, he was just looking for an excuse to give him a hard time. After all, he had nothing to be protective about, right?

"Umm...well, racing is usually more than just going for a swim. I'm fine with either, I guess." Though really he would have preferred not to race, as he was rather relaxed and wanted to stay that way.

He gazed across the lake. It wasn't terribly large, so it wasn't too crazy an idea to swim across it. Besides, he was a good swimmer and it seemed Akizetsumei was as well, and she definitely didn't look like she was running out of energy anytime soon.

That she might have had ulterior motives for her suggestion never crossed his mind; while sharp, Eld generally wasn't terribly suspicious of his friends most of the time. (Though it was usually a good idea to keep track of what the Vaerbond sisters were doing.)

[Nayt]

"Okay!" she chimed giddily.

Akizetsumei of Terra was not a competitive girl. This went without saying. She did very much enjoy physical activity, though. Distance running, distance swimming-- all that sort. She wasn't too great at climbing, though. In fact, she really sucked at climbing! It didn't stop her from doing it, though. Even when her badness at the sport made it quite dangerous for her . . .

She put a bit of distance between herself and Eld. Akizets couldn't see under water out of fear of opening her eyes down there, so she didn't want to risk accidentally swimming straight into Eld, or swimming off onto his path, and causing some sort of hilarious screw up. She'd had too many hilarious screw ups in the past few months she'd been friends with Eld. It was about time she limited their frequency!

"Ummmm . . . threetwoone?" she counted off quickly and quizzically. The girl didn't know how it worked, and just like whenever she raced Sarah at anything, she hung back with a curious tilt of her head to see if it was time for her to start swimming or not.

The girl started off shortly thereafter, once she concluded that it was, indeed, time to depart. More than likely, that had much to do with Eld starting before her.

People very frequently misjudged how athletic of a girl Akizetsumei of Terra actually was. Running, biking, and swimming (though not in this lake; she rarely, if ever, came out this way) were some of her best skills. She might have only been thirteen years old, but these were her hobbies. They were things she did all the time, when she had the opportunity. Speaking of, she really needed to ask if Eld would like to go jogging with her. That would probably be super fun. Or maybe outright running! Did he like to run? Hmmm. She'd never seen him run before . . .

Akizetsumei had entirely forgotten the idea of a race by the time she was half-way there. When she surfaced at the other side where the water tapered off to the shore, she got out, took a deep breath, and released a happy sigh. That was a pretty good swim.

"Hey~" she said to Eld, smiling, once he was at the other side of the lake. No I won! or Took you long enough! Heck, she didn't even think that, let alone want to say it!

[Zach Kaiser]

I think I'll be walking back, Eld thought as he reached the shore. Even though he'd had a small head start when Akizetsumei hesitated at first, he still couldn't beat her. Not that he was particularly bothered by it, as she wasn't the gloating type and it was more about the fun of the swim than who actually won.

Race was, ultimately, just a good way of describing how Akizetsumei got around in general.

"Hey," he replied as he caught his breath. "You're as fast a swimmer as you are a runner."

[Nayt]

She took a moment to catch her breath, too. Akizets wasn't quite as winded as Eld was, but swimming was a special sort of physical activity. It required her to not breath! She had to breath sometime! So, she breathed all she needed to breath earlier once she was out and not likely to drown.

Though, once she finally gathered that Eld was calling her a great runner and swimmer, Akizets blushed a little. "I-- I'mnotreallythatgood."

If anything, the girl was at least modest.

So, they had options, now. They could swim or walk back, they could hang out on this shore for a bit, or Akizets could pop the question for hiking. It wasn't like anyone noticed they were gone yet, anyways. After all, Etsu and Toushikyo were just getting out into the water, and were much more focused on what was below them than what was beyond them. The other girls were busy, too. Maya and Emily were rummaging through Eld's fishing gear, whilst Sarah was baiting the hooks for Emily and Maya. There were only two poles, so only Emily and Maya were going to be fishing-- leaving Sarah to bait their hooks for them and take the fish off because they were too squeamish to touch worms and all, but Sarah was absolutely fine with that job.

Akizets sat down in the sand and looked across the lake. She had no idea when she should ask Eld if he wanted to go hiking with her. She was going to. It was just a matter of time! But when was the right time? She didn't want to come off as rushing or anything, even though she was super energetic and anxious right now. She was on the threshold of totally doing something bad, after all! Even though that something bad happened to be sneaking behind her brother's back to do harmless stuff he'd otherwise be angry about . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Hey, don't sell yourself short. If you're faster than Sarah at anything, then you're at least the fastest person I know. Maybe even the fastest person in town." Okay, that may have been exaggerating a little, but Sarah was almost certainly one of the most athletic people in Hillcrest. If Akizetsumei could beat her, he doubted there was anyone who could outpace her.

Seeing as they weren't immediately moving anywhere, Eld decided to sit down on the beach for a moment. He was far from out of shape, but he wasn't nearly as athletic as Akizetsumei or Sarah. For short bursts he could compete with them, but he couldn't go full tilt all day like they seemed to be able to.

[Nayt]

Akizets was silent for awhile. Even though Eld complimented her, even though she blushed and wanted to giggle and kindly and shyly tell him how she was a slow-poke compared to her sister, she wound up saying nothing. She just kept on watching the others in the distance.

They really weren't that far away. Sure it was hard to see any major details of their friends, but this lake really wasn't that huge. It was much longer than it was wide, and they'd swam the short side of it.

Is it time to ask yet? She didn't know. But after this half a minute or maybe even full minute, however long she'd been quiet, it had better be time to ask, or else she was going to explode! Or something to that effect. It kind of felt like she wanted to explode right now, at least.

"Hey," she prefaced. Short and sweet. Yeah. That's how it was supposed to go, right? "You, ummm, do you wanna go for a hike with me? Since, um, everyone else is busy and stuff . . ."

That was a terrible excuse to go for a hike. If she went on a hike every time all the people she knew were busy, she'd . . . probably even out with her regular hiking frequency, actually. If she'd been thinking about it, she'd have concluded that she really needed to get a life and stop being such a Loser McLoserface. And then she'd go out for a walk to deliberate it, completing and perpetuating the cycle all at once.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Uhh..." Eld looked around. True, it did seem like everyone else was busy, and there wasn't much they could do even if they rejoined them, at least for the moment. He idly wondered if her water sparring game had sated Etsu's need to compete with him, and if she'd drop the idea of competing with him to catch fish.

"I suppose, if it's not a terribly long one. I can't keep up with you young'uns," he joked. Though he was serious about not wanting to go on one of Akizetsumei's multi-hour hikes at the moment, a short one was fine by him.

[Nayt]

"Ummmmmmyeah! Totally!" Akizets cheered nervously.

In reality, she didn't know how long that path went. In fact, no one did. This was the first time it'd actually appeared during all the kids' stints of going to this lake. It wasn't like it was never there or anything, just that no one really walked out past the lake this way, and apparently someone did just recently, and had a fresh path through the woods laid out for them. Hopefully it wasn't too recent and they were going to intrude on someone. That would really suck! But . . . hey, it could always be someone like Remmy. He was a cool guy. If everyone Akizets met in the middle of the woods was like Remmy, she'd probably run away from home and live out on a cliff for awhile!

Or maybe not. Batou supposedly hunted at night, and she really didn't want to meet that big bad wolf again. Okay, so if it wasn't for Batou, she'd totally camp out in the woods just to meet more people like Remmy.

Akizets stood up quickly and turned around to this recently beaten path. It was definitely a forest path, all right, and one that hadn't been traveled frequently years, if at all. It was all overgrown, with a thin path beaten down by heavy boot prints. There wasn't even enough space for the both of them to walk side by side, even. It was darkly lit due to heavy tree cover, even in the middle of the day.

Not a problem, though! Akizets had been hiking for years, now, and she had no problems going out past this! Of course, she had no sense of direction when it came to new places like this, but that's what Eld was for, right? Without a second thought, she stepped from sand to beaten down weeds, and started down the path.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld quickly got up and followed Akizetsumei into the woods, idly wondering who'd gotten here before them. It looked like the path was only beaten down recently. As it was unusual for people to come this far from town by themselves (and he only saw one set of footprints) he wondered if Remmy had been this way recently.

Though hiking with Akizetsumei was always fun, the fact that the trail was so new made for rough going compared to what he was used to. After a little while he spotted a large rock that looked about the right height to sit on.

"Mind if we take a short break?" he asked, plopping down on the rock. It was probably large enough to fit two people on it if Akizetsumei wanted to rest too...though not by much.

[Nayt]

"Hmn? N-no, notatall."

Really, she had no idea what she was doing back here, anyways! She wanted to come out here alone with Eld, and maybe hold his hand or somehow coerce him into holding her in general-- but how were they going to do that when this path was so thin? And how would she go about it if it wasn't so thin? They were now a ways from everyone else, so it wasn't like Toushikyo was going to be hounding them anytime in the near future, but was there any sort of non-creepy way of trying to get Eld to put his arms around her again?

No, probably not . . .

Heck, she didn't even know if that's what she really wanted back here. Akizets hadn't a clue what her ultimate goal was! She was out here, alone with Eld, and she had no idea what to do! Man I am such a loser!

Maybe she'd come up with something by sitting down, resting, and thinking on it, so she did just that. Akizets sat down on the rock next to Eld and lost herself in deliberation. Unable to multitask well-- to fall into deep thought and regard her surroundings at the same time --Akizetsumei didn't quite acknowledge how close she was to Eld on this rock. She was practically sitting in his lap. He'd literally have to just tug on her hip and pull her over his way by a couple of inches and she would, in fact, be sitting right in his lap.

[Zach Kaiser]

After taking a few moments to catch his breath, Eld noticed that Akizetsumei seemed to be daydreaming or something. Which wasn't a problem, but he was a little worried that seated as precariously as he was she was going to slip off and hit her head or something.

"Hey," he said, to get her attention, before tugging her over just a little bit. Hopefully, she wouldn't think it was too awkward--she was practically in his lap now--but he felt it was better than being half off the edge.

He didn't notice that he left his arms holding her sides when he was done.

[Nayt]

At first she was curious. Then she was surprised . . .

"Mn? E-eh . . .?"

But this was not an unpleasant surprise. Not at all. This-- this was something she was just thinking about, actually. She was pulled into Eld's lap and held up against him. A couple of months ago, this was a position that if she found herself in with a boy, she might have died on the spot. But now . . .

She was smiling and blushing and caught on the precipice of an ultra-girly giggle. If Eld had been able to see her face, he'd have seen how much she was blushing right now-- and the way she was smiling, too. Sure, she was nervous and riddled with anxiety, but she was smiling so much right now that her cheeks were probably going to start hurting in the next few minutes. It turned out, she didn't need to plan anything. She and Eld were going to end up like this somehow or the rather, whether they were alone or not.

Without a second though, Akizetsumei reached down to her sides to take Eld's hands. She trailed one of his hands across her belly as if she were going to get him to wrap his arms around her again, but she was a little slower this time. She felt less rushed now that she was doing it again, and in the process, she felt something totally new. She felt the skin of Eld's hand against the skin of her belly, and it suddenly ran a chill up her spine. But it was a good chill, one she'd never felt before, but good nonetheless. So she kept his hand there, if only to experience the feeling of another person, a person she happened to really like, resting his hand upon her skin . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld didn't resist the pull of Akizetsumei's hands. In all probability, this meant something, as did the fact that his heart was beating a bit faster than normal, and that he felt rather flushed for reasons that had nothing to do with the hike.

But right now he didn't want to think about it. He was comfortable, he was content, and anything thoughts that would potentially disturb this status were locked out of his brain for the time being.

So for now he allowed himself to simply enjoy embracing Akizetsumei, and not worry about what may or may not come later.