And the World Shall Forget You

[Nayt]

It took Etsu a long time to fall asleep. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't stop herself from letting all those conflicting emotions over her position here with Eld from running her ragged. She was awake long after Eld fell asleep. Most of the time was spent debating if he was asleep enough that moving away from him would wake him and send him into another fit of needless worry.

Eventually, though, Etsu did fall asleep-- but not without moving from her position next to Eld. She refrained from using his shoulder as a pillow, though. That'd just be too much.

---

Eld would awaken in the morning long before Etsu would, and after coming to full consciousness, would realize how much warmer he was compared to the night before, something that had little to do with the fact that it was morning and the sun was up . . .

Sometime in her sleep, Etsu must have unconscious recognized Eld as a source of warmth, because she was half-laying on Eld by morning. His chest had become her pillow, and she was sleeping soundly, with one arm around his belly and half-her body laying atop his.

Well, at least she kept warm at night.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld awoke slowly, blinking the sleep from his eyes. As though to make up for the emotional rollercoaster of the previous night, he'd actually slept very soundly. And he wasn't even shivering or clutching his blankets...he was, in fact, quite pleasantly warm, though it felt like blankets bunched up over half of his body, as one side felt like it had more weight on it.

As he lifted his head as his vision (and consciousness) came into focus, he realized that the reason for this was that one side actually had more Etsu on it. She was half draped over him and sound asleep. It made him turn a bit red, from the closeness and from recalling nights with Sarah when they woke up in similar situations.

Of course, unlike those times, he and Etsu were wearing clothing.

He let his head sink back onto his pillow. There was little chance that he could get up without waking Etsu up. Since she'd end up feeling a bit awkward anyway, he figured he might as well let her sleep in...

[Nayt]

It took another forty-five minutes for Etsu to finally stir from her slumber and start waking up. Out here, Eld and Etsu were on a very similar time schedule. Give or take an hour, they woke up roughly in the same time frame.

She whined and murmured a high pitched mumble of reluctance. If there was one thing Etsu did not like, it was the act of waking up. So she shifted, felt the warmth of her pillow, how it lay by her side like a body pillow, and she recognized in her sleepy state how warm it was. So she squeezed it with the arm she had wrapped around it and shifted her position to better lie upon it. It was comfortable and made her comfortable, and she didn't quite feel like waking up yet.

Etsu wound up laying upon Eld entirely, mussing up the covers between them and inadvertently pushing them down with one of her legs, a leg which had devoted itself to wrapping around one of Eld's. To make matters worse for Eld, not only was this girl laying on top of him, but her shirt wasn't down as far as it could go anymore. In fact, it'd bunched up around her ribs, exposing everything from there down.

Of course, she didn't notice. To the girl's sleepy mind, Eld was not Eld. He was instead a comfy and overbearingly warm pillow that she simply wanted to cuddle for a little while longer.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld let himself drift into a state of half-sleep for awhile, comfortable enough save for his arm, which was starting to fall asleep. Or perhaps had been for awhile, depending on when Etsu had decided to cuddle up closer to him. Actually, he wondered if it was decision or just automatic--he sort of guessed the later, as it seemed like she would have preferred some distance between them with the way she was acting before he fell asleep.

After awhile she stirred, and he figured she was getting up. When she started crawling on top of him, though, it became clear that she was far from fully awake--especially when she kicked the covers off and wrapped one of her legs around his.

This was...kind of a dilemma. While their position was embarrassing before it was kind of in a cute way. Nothing serious. This was potentially downright compromising. Especially as her shirt had ridden up, exposing her underwear, and with her new position laying right on top of him he could feel her...well, suffice to say it was obvious she wasn't wearing a bra.

Eld blushed heavily. Before last night it would have been easy to remind himself that she was his cousin and he shouldn't stare or feel anything, but now that he knew they were nearly engaged that logic wasn't holding up quite so well. And it was morning. That didn't help either.

It was possible, if she was very still she wouldn't notice, and maybe he'd find a way to calm down a bit. Otherwise, well...there was going to be a scene when she woke up.

[Nayt]

Etsu was far too gone in the land of slumber to notice any brand of perverse reactions from Eldridge Tsukimono. This was very fortunate for him.

She stirred again, except this time, Etsu didn't quite move too much. Rather, she was vocal again. She murmured sleepily and whined, which would have been entirely normal for a person struggling to stay asleep, and would have thus sounded normal to anyone overhearing, but right now, with the way she lay upon Eld, such a whine might put a very different brand of thought into Eld's mind.

Whether she liked it or not, though, Etsu was waking up. She'd probably start becoming conscious of herself in the very near future, actually. A minute, tops . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Oh god. That was almost worse than her moving more; it was far too easy for him to imagine other situations where she'd be making similar noises, situations involving more movement, less clothing, and heavy breathing.

And suddenly he was acutely aware that she was starting to wake up. He couldn't be like this when she did, or he was going to risk losing any trust in him she had gained after last night. And probably get hit too.

He tried to lightly grasp her sides, though he misjudged her height and ended up actually grabbing her thighs instead. (He couldn't see very well at this angle, really, that was all.) He trailed his hands up to her sides near her ribs slowly. (He wasn't enjoying how smooth her skin was, he was just being careful not to wake her up prematurely.) And then, as quickly as he could without jolting her, he rolled her over onto her back on her side of the tent.

Right after, he rolled over onto his stomach in the opposite so quick it was like the snapping of a bear trap, hiding his physical "impairment." And then to ensure he wouldn't have to move and would hopefully not be disturbed while he calmed down, he feigned sleep.

[Nayt]

Though Eld didn't intend it to be a jolt, it was quite the jolt for someone that was on the verge of waking up-- though not quite the jolt that one might expect. Eld rolling her over onto her back was, in the end, what led to her waking, but it still took a couple of seconds. She didn't just wake up immediately . . .

Etsu mumbled something incoherent as she was moved onto her back, and by the time Eld had laid upon his belly, she had stirred to lay on her side, immediately before yawning softly. Etsu stretched out her arms and legs, clamped her eyes shut, and produced a second, louder yawn.

It took the girl a minute to actually sit up. She was awake, yes, but she enjoyed her sleep and enjoyed her comfort twice as much. She tried to go back to sleep, but that failed, so she just laid down for a little while. As her mind started to wander back to last night, though, Etsu tiredly turned a bit, laid on her back again, and glanced over at Eld. What was he, sleeping? Again? He was going to sleep in like yesterday, wasn't he? This made her feel a wee bit jealous of him. It was so hard to go back to sleep once she'd woken up; Etsu wished she could just avoid the whole waking up part sometimes.

"Tsukimono-san?" she asked as she sat up.

Might as well at least make sure he was asleep. If he was awake and just lying in bed like she'd been a few seconds ago, then Etsu was more than willing to suggest they go do some sort of morning activity or something. Sometimes to take her mind off of last night.

Last night . . .

In the end, though, Eld didn't respond to her. He must've been sleeping still. Etsu frowned. Oh well. He'd wake up eventually, and maybe she'd be here to drag him out of bed to go do something with her. For now, though, she was having a major issue getting her mind off of those few events that happened before she fell asleep, whenever it was she fell asleep.

"Sore . . . musimashitare desu ka?" she asked herself under her breath.

Because it certainly felt like one . . .

"Atashi kibowanai." Etsu sighed.

And so, after checking Eld one more time to make sure he was asleep, she turned away from him. Eld would hear a bit of a ruffling and movement, but it'd be decidedly less surprising to him than what she had to say just then.

[Zach Kaiser]

Fortunately Etsu couldn't tell he was really awake; which was good, because she probably would have wanted him to move for some reason or another and right now that just wasn't an option.

Incidentally what she said aloud to herself managed to do what all of Eld's mental will could not and manage to get his mind off the problem. She's glad last night happened? She'd seemed to be getting upset with him again before they slept, so he figured she'd want to act like last night never happened.

It was surprising enough that he blinked his eyes open, not noticing the rustling and forgetting that he was facing her side of the tent instead of the wall.

[Nayt]

When Eld blinked his eyes open, what he saw was likely to take the horrible circumstances he was in and just trash it entirely. Make it as bad as it could possibly could and ensure awkwardness between them for perhaps the rest Etsu's days in Hillcrest. That is, if he stared long enough to let the image burn into his mind before Etsu noticed and beat the image out of his mind with her bare hands.

Just a moment earlier, when she sighed and turned from him slightly, Etsu had figured that Eld was going to be asleep for awhile. And since it was about time she actually start wearing clothes, she took advantage of the time she had whilst Eld was sleeping to disrobe. She pulled the shirt off and dropped it off in front of her. The major issue for Eld would likely be that she wasn't facing her back to him, but her side, and she had her head turned from him just enough that she could not see him from her peripheral vision. She also wasn't looking for him, either.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Etsu leaned over her stuff and sorted through it, looking for her bra. It took her almost a minute of searching to realize that it was actually in the ball of dirty clothes in the corner, prompting her to sigh, crawl over to her corner of the tent, fully face her back to Eld, and slip her bra on. Only then did she get back to her pack and start routing through again, 'til she found a black tank top of hers. She held it up to her chest and looked down. Well, it was probably going to show a fair amount of cleavage, but whatever. Etsu had long since adopted a policy of entrapment with boys. If she was out of school and not in her uniform, she might wear a tank top like this. Nothing terribly low cut, but she'd make no effort to conceal that fact that she did, in fact, have breasts. Larger breasts than all of her friends, actually-- a fact she was fairly proud of when chatting with them. Well, until she became friends with Sarah. In any case, by making no effort to hide this fact, and she caught a boy staring, she had every right to hit him. If they never stared, then she had every right to respect them. Not that this happened often or anything.

Though, she failed to take into account that she'd lost the will to ever hit Eld again last night.

She slipped the tank top over her head, then sat upright on her knees and continued to search through her clothes 'til she found a pair of shorts she liked. Etsu promptly took these, turned so she was laying in bed again, and pulled them on. This, however, would have her slightly facing Eld again. Were Eld's eyes open again (or still open) by then, she might very well find the will to hit Eld again.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld knew he shouldn't stare. He really, really shouldn't. But how could he not? Etsu had possibly the finest example of a female body he had ever seen. She easily rivaled Sarah (who was widely considered to be one of the more desirable girls among their age group), perhaps even surpassing her. Where Sarah was a little rough looking from all the physical activity and labor she did, Etsu was soft as could be. The phrase "easy on the eyes" seemed invented to describe her.

It was when she was done putting on a top that Eld finally forced his eyes shut. As lucky as he felt, it was already going to be enough trouble looking Etsu in the eye for the rest of the day, not to mention it probably wouldn't be until she actually left the tent that he'd be able to safely move.

Trying to calm down and think about other, not disrobed-Etsu things (and find that very, very difficult), he unconsciously let out a small groan, though hopefully she would interpret it as him starting to wake up instead.

[Nayt]

Etsu didn't notice Eld's staring at all. Had she, she'd have probably been so flustered that she'd have hit him numerous times and ran all the way home.

She did glance at him when he groaned, though. Was he waking up? Etsu's cheeks turned red at the thought. She really dodged a bullet on that one, didn't she? If she had spent just another minute getting ready, he'd have woken up, and that would be all kinds of awkward. She made a mental note to never do that again, just in case. She could always just grab some clothes, wander down the path for a bit, and change quickly. Supposedly people actually came to this lake, though, so she couldn't go out there and change. Couldn't bathe out there, either.

Oh well. Didn't matter. Crisis averted, nothing else to worry about. She'd just make sure the crisis never came up again. Either way, Eld was probably going to be asleep for a little while longer, seeings how he didn't quite flutter his eyes open after groaning. So rather than go out and about, she decided to wait for him. Etsu sat up again, turned, leaned over Eld's head, and routed through his stuff 'til she found the book that Maya lent him. Once she had that, she scooted over to her side of the tent again, opened it to where she last left off, and started reading again.

Unfortunately for Eld, she wasn't going to be leaving anytime in the near future. Not until he was awake and ready to go about the day, that is.

[Zach Kaiser]

It was fifteen minutes after he stopped hearing rustling noises that Eld even dared to look. He glanced at Etsu, saw that she was reading, and realized she wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. Well, seeing as she was dressed now, that could at least be fixed.

He intentionally let out a yawn, before reaching down and pulling the blankets back up over him. Assuming she didn't both flip him over and throw off the blankets again he was safe.

"M-Morning," he mumbled, half as part of his show of waking up, and half because looking at Etsu and talking to her were rather difficult right now.

[Nayt]

"Hmn?" she looked up from her reading.

Darn, she'd just started, too. Oh well. Maybe she'd get the chance to read a little later. For now, though, Eld was awake, and it was about time they get on to some sort of morning activity.

"Ohayou gozaimasu, Tsukimono-san" she replied. Her voice carried no malice, grievance, or indifference-- not like the way she used to talk to him. She almost sounded pleasant, in fact.

Etsu marked her page (which was approximately two pages beyond where she started today; whoo, yay, major progress!) and set the book over by her pile of clothes, which was now one shirt larger, even though that shirt actually belonged to Eld. Chances were that shirt now belonged to her.

Well . . . unless he wanted it back . . .

"Ano . . ." suddenly she felt very awkward. Firstly, she had no idea what she wanted to do today, therefore nothing to suggest to this ultra-sleepy Eld. Secondly, she had no idea how to approach him after last night. Assuming it wasn't all just a dream, that is.

"How did you . . . sr-reep?" Kind of a cop-out, but it worked.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Ohayou. Umm...fine. Really good." He had trouble looking at her; every time he did, his mind automatically filtered out most of her clothing. This was...distracting, to say the least.

However, despite his preoccupation, he didn't fail to notice that she was being rather nice right now, quite a change from how distant she was last night. Not that he deserved it. His face sunk down into his pillow, so that only his eyes were visible. I'm a terrible person.

"H-How are you feeling today?" he asked, in an effort to prove to himself that he was concerned with more than just her body.

[Nayt]

"I am . . ." she began.

But she really didn't know the answer to that question. Now that she thought about it, Etsu was still reeling from last night, and as much as she wanted to distance herself from Eld to think about it all, she wanted even more to spend time with him. It was bizarre. So instead of "good" or "bad," she answered:

"O-kay."

She fell into silence for a moment, feeling suddenly awkward. Strange . . . back when she thought she had every reason to hate Eld's guts, she never felt awkward around him. Now that she decided to start coming around and giving Eld a chance, she was able to feel awkward and uncomfortable during periods of long silence.

"Wour-rd you . . . r-rike to do some-thing with me to-day?" Etsu asked, and by the inflections in her voice, it was pretty clear that she had no ideas-- but the very fact that she was asking suggested that she at least wanted to do something.