Our Last Days as Children

[Nayt]

Kageko furrowed her brow. She parted her lips to speak, but she was momentarily stricken. She moved her mouth to speak, but nothing came out . . .

It wasn't until a second later that she replied. "It's . . . there is nothing we can do about it. So . . . please, I ask that you calm down, Ma--"

As if she were about ready to say something she either wasn't meant to or didn't really intend to, Kageko cleared her throat at length and become eerily quiet. She was almost visibly uncomfortable, looking over her shoulder every so often to make sure no one was listening in.

"In . . . any event," she began again, at first a whisper, but after clearing her throat again (this time because she had a cough stuck), she continued, "Noah prefers not to talk about that. I impart that to you, as I suspect-- given the opportunity --he'll attempt to take that story with him to the grave, effectively solving nothing. But . . ."

. . . that's just how Noah is. Eld probably had known Noah long enough to know how much he hated it when others pitied him for anything. And here and now, there was a victim much more deserving of sympathy-- but were Noah, or anyone for that matter, to tell the story, it would do little more than drudge up all the wrong feelings. To him, the family of his friend deserved all the compassion they could get, and as far as Noah was concerned, he deserved as little as humanly possible. None, even . . .

---

. . . but when Akizetsumei sporadically approached him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and hugged him close, he couldn't bring himself to ask her to show compassion to those that deserved it most.

"I-- I'm--" Akizets whispered, "I'm so so sorry . . ."

Noah gently wrapped an arm around her . . . and leaned down a bit so she could hug him without being too terribly uncomfortable. Noah was a little over a foot taller than her, after all.

"It's okay," he said.

"Mm-mm," Akizetsumei shook her head, "It'snotokayatall. I--"

She was so convinced that he, like all her friends before him, never really cared about her. She was ready to run home, cry, and write him off forever, just like she had everyone else. It was the only way she could deal with it! She'd tried to confront them before and it only ended with her in the clinic, because push came to shove, and Akizetsumei's bones, especially when she was a few years younger, could not handle the fall. But she was wrong this time. She was so wrong. Noah wasn't being a jerk at all. He tried to get in touch. He tried to tell everyone about what happened to him, but his father never passed the message on . . .

And then when she saw him for the first time in two years, she yelled at him.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you," she whimpered, "I'm sorry. I'm reallyreallyreally sorry."

Noah again restrained the urge to sigh. This wasn't going to get them anywhere. He could've gone and bickered back and forth about how it was all right, that she didn't know and had every right to be mad at him, and then she'd say that she felt horrible for it--and nothing would change. But . . . that was okay. At least with Akizetsumei, distracting her and making her feel a bit happier was fairly easy to do. And so, Noah put his forearm against her lower back, held her close, and stood up straight, effectively removing her feet from the ground, causing Akizetsumei to issue a squeak of surprise, followed by clinging to him for dear life.

"H-- hey! What're you doin'?!" she cried out.

"Villainous in stealing the princess away though I may be," Noah began, putting on his best acting cap, "The circumstances under which I stole her were . . . hardly even. And so I feel it necessary to return this princess back to her prince, and attempt to steal her heart another day under much honorable circumstances."

"E-- eep!" she cried out again, before burying her face in Noah's shoulder. She cracked a smile, though she was trying not to. "You're such a goof."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld looked somewhere between looking like he wanted to go punch somebody and wanting to cry; Hillcrest, while certainly not immune to bad events, was still a relatively peaceful place. That people as violent as highwaymen or as apathetic as he imagined those police to be could exist was something he had difficulty accepting.

Fortunately for Kageko, in his distress Eld didn't notice her slip. "Why? Why would he think he deserves...?" He shook his head; sure, he'd believed Noah deserved to suffer a little. Often, he'd wish that Noah would stub his toe or trip and fall flat on his face. A few times he'd even wished that he'd break an arm or something and have to stay in the clinic for awhile, cooped up in a hospital bed. But even with all the personal conflict he'd had with Noah, he didn't think he deserved to go through all that, let alone be hated for it.

"Well...I guess I can see why he'd be reluctant to see Akizetsumei," Eld admitted. If he went through something that traumatic, the last thing he'd want would be to go show that to someone he cared about. (It was still a little weird to think that Akizetsumei and Noah were friends and cared about each other, the evidence was there.) "But that doesn't explain what he's up to now." Noah came back to Hillcrest, and it clearly wasn't to see friends and family; in fact, that was something he'd sought to avoid.

[Nayt]

Kageko quirked a brow, but her appearance of concern was only temporary. Deep in the back of her mind, though, she thought something--both a compliment to Eld and a momentary condemning of him.

"Employment," she replied, but left it at that.

Eld wouldn't have much of an opportunity to ask about that, though, as it wasn't but a couple of seconds later that Noah and Akizetsumei cropped up into view. Noah was carrying Akizetsumei on his back. She had her arms wrapped around his shoulders, her chin on his left shoulder, and he held her knees up against his sides. He was carrying her piggy-back. If Eld ever had any amount of doubt in Noah's honesty with this girl, that he actually did seek something immoral with her, all doubts would've likely been dashed at that moment. Akizets was just a kid and Noah was an older guy that happened to be friends with that kid.

The very fact that he overacted around her so much, like some living parody of theater, and acknowledged her age and maturity by willingly carrying her in such a way was proof enough.

"Hey," he said with a smile as he approached them, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was a little surprised by that answer. While a decent sized town, most of Hillcrest's employment still consisted of parents handing down family businesses, whether that business was a farm or a store. Wait, does that mean Kageko hired him for something?

But before he could much thought into the possibility, he heard a voice from behind him. A multitude of feelings suddenly flashed through him as he turned around: sympathy for Noah, regret for his own actions, anger for all that being kept to himself, relief that he'd made up with Akizetsumei, who looked happy again, and even jealousy that she was so fond of him, even if it was in a different way than she was fond of Eld himself.

Ultimately, this all added up to a state best described as tumultuously neutral. "I-It's alright," he responded uneasily. He didn't say any more than that; he didn't quite trust himself not to say something stupid again.

[Nayt]

"I shudder to ask, but," Kageko paused, "What exactly took so long?"

Akizets, still on Noah's back, replied, "Noah Herst is a huge jerk," as if that was, in fact, what took them so long.

Noah smiled, feigning guilt. "It's a curse."

Now that they were there, Noah moved to set her down, except he moved too quick, dropped Akizetsumei's legs entirely, and made it seem like he was just going to let her drop to the ground. She let out a surprised yelp and clung to his shoulders for dear life, prompting Noah to chuckle whilst catching her legs. He'd no intentions of dropping her, only briefly frightening her. He let her down, but she was frowning quite intensely, and even went as far as to punch him in the shoulder--something that prompted Noah to feign pain.

"See! Told you," she declared with her arms over her chest.

"I see," Kageko smiled, "I think I can relate."

"Aw, jeez," Noah scratched the side of his head, "I've really got all the luck with the pretty ones today, don't I?"

[Zach Kaiser]

"G-Guess so." Eld wondered if he looked as uncomfortable as he felt. How was he supposed to look at Noah now, after what Kageko told him? He might get mad if learned that Eld knew what happened to him. He could only hope that any oddities in his behavior were waved as being due to accidentally making Akizetsumei cry.

He wasn't sure what to do next; on one hand, he really wanted to be away from Noah for a bit. On the other, he wasn't about to run off on Akizetsumei, especially as she'd probably want to talk to him a bit more.

Deciding his safest bet was to address Kageko, he turned back to her and asked, "S-So what brings you into town today? I take it you're not here to shop for hats." His eyes drifted to her horn, recalling the awkward way she'd tried to put one on earlier.

[Nayt]

"Close, actually," Noah replied.

Kageko nodded her head. "Yes. Noah offered . . . to take me shopping."

The way she said that, it was almost like she was ashamed to admit it. Much to her chagrin, Noah was fully aware of this, and since she'd recently thrown a casual jab his way . . .

"Fun fact," Noah began, "Miss Kageko here has a weakness for fashion."

Kageko looked to Noah with the smallest hint of a glare. The woman was mostly inexpressive (albeit not in an abrasive way, a'la Etsu), so any such reaction as a glare indicated enough that Noah was spot on.

[Zach Kaiser]

"O-Oh." That...didn't sound as unusual as they were treating it. Kageko seemed like a classy kind of girl, so it wasn't too hard to picture her being into fashion and liking to dress her best.

"Akizetsumei's kind of into fashion too." At least, she certainly seemed to have a particular eye for clothing. It wasn't something he quite understood; he'd always thought he dressed fairly well, but she was always telling him he needed more variety in his wardrobe.

[Nayt]

"Ummmmm, you really think so?" Akizets asked Eld, sounding genuinely happy at the notion.

She was really kind of afraid her choices in fashion were off! Eld seemed to like what she wore . . . well, whenever he mentioned anything about it. Eld didn't usually mention much about clothes at all. Except that one time when she was in a bikini. That was . . . well . . . that was a different kind of compliment . . .

"Well would you look at that," Noah said, grinning. "You two have something in common."

"Umm, what kinda clothes do you, um," Akizets couldn't exactly find the right words for it, "What do you usually shop for?"

Kageko sighed. "My preferred style of dress is . . ."

She motioned to the dress she currently wore.

"Oh!" Akizets exclaimed, "Gothic lolita?"

"Y-- yes, that," Kageko cleared her throat.

"I really like that, too! It, um, it looks really cute on you!" Akizets said with a smile, only to add, "B-- but, um, I can't-- I look really weird in stuff like that."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld looked from Akizetsumei back to Kageko. There were two things on his mind; the first was that he doubted there was much Akizetsumei could wear that she'd look bad in, but while the gesture might be appreciated he had a feeling he'd just get an eye roll for saying it.

The second thought he spoke. "Umm...just what is gothic lolita? Is it just wearing dark clothes?" That was the only thing that struck him as being particularly distinctive about her dress. It caused another thought to occur. "Does that make me gothica lolita?"

[Nayt]

At first there was conversation. Then Eld opened his mouth. Then conversation stopped entirely. It broke. It outright broke. Eld said something so absurd that Kageko, Noah, and Akizetsumei all three stared at him at once, each wearing similar expressions.

It was a rare time when three people were given the same exact mental image, but at that exact moment in time, it happened. It happened so ferociously. All of them at once imagined Eld in a black, frilly dress. All of them all at once thought some level of What?

And then Noah drew first blood. He laughed first. Then Kageko, stoic though she may have been, had to cover her lips to hide her smile and subsequent laugh (however small and short lived it may have been), and Akizets felt her cheeks turning red in embarrassment.

"E-- Eldridge, it-- it's, ummmm," she edged closer so that she could lean up and whisper in his ear, to inform him of the mishap he just made . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was mostly just confused by everyone's reactions, at least until Akizetsumei whispered in his hear just what gothic lolita meant. "E-Ehhh?!" He frantically looked around, immediately going into damage control. "W-Wait, I didn't mean--I heard gothic and thought it meant dark clothing!" he insisted, turning bright crimson quite quickly.

Fortunately, he knew from experience that fighting the laughter was usually ineffective, so instead he just tried to change the subject. "W-Well...I think you'd probably look good in gothic lolita, Akizetsumei," he muttered, hoping that they could quickly forget about this misinformation.

[Nayt]

A few years ago, Noah would have slapped Eld's back laughingly and told him how easy he made things. But that was back in a simpler time. Back when he had a lot less on his mind. A lot less stress. A lot less guilt. That was back when Noah could find it in him to be mean.

Instead, all he did was laugh a bit more.

Kageko, too, laughed a bit, but not much more than that. Eld's reaction made it all the funnier. This time, it was a bit more noticeable when she laughed.

"Hey, Kageko," Noah said as an aside, "You're cute when you laugh."

It wasn't the compliment that caught her off guard or even the placement of it--it was how serious Noah was. Kageko looked at him, at first confused. She didn't notice when her cheeks burned red, though. Instead, she frowned after a second.

". . . Noah," she said, wet her lips, shut her eyes, and tried not to sigh. "Please."

"I . . ." Noah was deadpan. He averted his gaze. "I know, I know. Sorry."

As it all played out, all Akizets could do was stand by Eld's side quietly, watching and waiting for them to stop laughing or start into their own mess of conversation. Suddenly it seemed like Noah and Kageko were on a wavelength so far out there that neither Eld nor she would have understood if it were explained. She looked at Eld, though, and smiled some. She personally didn't think the gothic lolita look suited her all that well, but if he did . . .

"I-- um, th-- thank you," she whispered back. "MaybeI'lltryitagainsomeday."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was rather distracted by the brief exchange between Noah and Kageko; he'd figured that they weren't anything more than friends, but now it seemed like there was something deeper going on there. But it really wasn't any of his business, so he let himself get distracted by Akizetsumei.

"S-Sure...though...looks like it might be expensive." If Kageko's outfit was anything to go buy, the clothes must've been pretty pricey, and probably weren't sold in Hillcrest. They'd more than likely have to go to Galaens to find them.

[Nayt]

"O-oh, um, I already kinda have something like that," she said, and actually felt a wee bit embarrassed to admit that for some reason, "I dunno how well it fits, though. It's been, um, a year or two, I think."

It was weird, because she bought it back when her parents made more money and gave her a larger allowance, and her father wasn't around when she bought it-- and he was most definitely irate with her when he learned about her purchase. They didn't say anything bad about her or anything, but they asked her to start "think about the world around you" before making purchases again.

. . . Strange advice, to be sure.

"I thought it looked really cute at the time, I guess," she felt the need to reason that out for some reason, too-- make an excuse or something. "I-- um, I mean, it still kinda does, but it didn't look as cute on me?"

Akizets realized she was babbling and decided it best to just shut up.