Babysteps, sipping tea in The Shop (open to all)

[Deleted]

[classy=template]It seemed the fire flower's summoning had had the desired effect; almost as though resigning herself to something, Alexis chuckled, and Kaizu measured some success in that. He leaned back forward as she spoke, returning almost to his first pose as he listened. "I enjoy a challenge... at least, apparently." He chuckled, and smiled towards Lyra as she set a beverage down for him. It was generous that she had thought to do so at all.

The hand that landed upon his shoulder earned her a more curious expression, however, and his arched brow observed her speech, though Kaizu could not fully prevent a humorous smile from blooming. He could not quite judge the depth of Lyra's speech - that is to say, how literally she expected her words to be taken - but the male did not much mind. It was not her decision, and that, quite directly, made her words harmless. Again, though, she was cut short and rebuked, toppling to the floor, which caused Kaizu to burst into laughter, as he saw that the victim was unharmed.

"Quite a useful skill you have there." He joked, seeing that Alexis appeared slightly uncomfortable and attempting to lighten the mood with his laughter. He did, however, sober when she spoke her next words, and he had to consider his next words, though for once it was a genuine wonderment.

"Truth be told, Alexis, I am unsure myself... Even I am starting to think that not every action must be a pure execution of reason. But I suppose, those years past, that perhaps you were more of an influence upon me - more a friend in my eyes - than you suspected. I felt somewhat of an affinity towards you. Because we are similar? Because our dissimilarities compliment each other? I do not know." He chuckled a little, then, noting that his rambling was becoming useless and abstract. "I am not well studied on the subject: I, myself, have lived somewhat in seclusion.

"I live alone, now, something my poor mother has never quite managed to accept, even if I visit her often. I perform the occasional miserly task the village requires of me to sustain myself. It is a mundane life, and somehow my own company has become boring. I feel like I need a friend, and I like you."

With this delivery, he sat back, easing off a little, smile sustaining, and made a small sweep of the hand. "What other reason would you suspect?" He asked, though there was something a little odd about that statement that prevented it from being entirely rhetorical. His expression betrayed nothing, but beneath the surface... he could not help but wonder.[/classy][newclass=template]font-family: helvetica; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; padding-right: 50px; padding-left: 50px;[/newclass][newclass=template i]font-family: arial; font-decoration: italic;[/newclass][newclass=template b]font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;[/newclass][/style]

[The Bearer of Bad News]

Alexis leaned back and closed her eyes, reaching up to readjust her hairband. She was trying so hard to relax, but this entire situation was...difficult. Dearly desirable, as she never might have expected, but so difficult. So much talking, seeking the right words to convey feelings she'd long ago to keep only to herself.

Lyra remained on the floor, picking up her head to sip at her drink without spillage. "Oh, well uh...there's no ability involved at all. Dunno what you're talkin' about. Eheh. I'm just goofing off is all, really. Yeah. Unless you mean me. Because I'm totally talented as hell. Catlike reflexes and supreme balance, buddy. I could probably drink this upside down standing on one hand. Hm, I should try that..."

Ignoring her sister's antics, the green-clad Icchuuya focused on how to answer the questions put to her, without driving away her only friend. Hm. She had a friend now. That was...nice to think of, actually. "I could not say. Only that none have pursued me - us - quite so ardently before. Since before either of us can remember, we have been sought out only for our potential as tools. Weapons. Even Hotaru, the first to extend us refuge, did so only on the condition that we become part of her martial strength. Ulterior motives are something I am...familiar with, that's all. Intimately. I meant nothing by it. Ah, but to lighter subjects, yes? Today has been far more eventful than I prefer, and I've said more than I like, so if you don't mind I prefer you do most of the talking from here."

[Deleted]

[classy=template]Kaizu saw that his question had placed his friend under duress, and immediately he was regretful, his maroon eyes darkening in the moment she never saw. Perhaps through a sense of duty Lyrabel redirected his focus by commenting - Kaizu looked down, found the image of her lying upon the ground and instantly looked away as it summoned up something undesirable. They were both undeniably alluring, something that Kaizu had, oddly enough, not found quite as obvious nor (perhaps) troublesome in his youth. None of these thoughts pierced the surface of his being, though there was perhaps an altered contemplation as he observed Alexis, then.

As for Lyrabel's deception; "I would believe you were merely playing around had I not experienced Alexis' well-timed snares for myself." The humor in his eyes showed that he took no offense; he transferred his chin down onto his palm, then. "Quite a convenient ability." He mused quietly, but allowed her to answer his question.

As she finished, he took a sip of his own beverage, and then set it gently down. His eyes were averted. "Perhaps we share something, in that." He commented, and in the empty space he saw... years, years in which he had helped people, calmed them, given to them and been generous to them... only for them to sort of treat him as an add-on, or else as though he was impossible to approach. It was true, many thoughts went on behind those increasingly blood-like eyes, and not all of them were entirely kind, but that did not mean he ever intended to treat a friend with cruelty or abuse. Was he truly as aloof as people treated him?

He looked back to her, then, and wondered if he frightened her at all. People were often irked by just how precise every action he performed was, how he read everything that occurred around him like a book, and how he could always reply however he needed to. It was so easy to lace in an ulterior motive as he did so, and he felt that right here and now, he could well have lied, or manipulated her, twisted her in some way - even if she was obviously a far more thoughtful human being than most - and decided...

Not to.

"Sometimes, being able to observe and calculate is a burden," He explained, sounding, truthfully, a tad remorseful. "I do not know whether it is conscious or not, but people have seemed to... fear me, like some alien life form." He smiled sadly. "In the past I existed in insecurity. I had to guard myself constantly, and know everything that occurred around me, merely to... well, survive, really. I stole, and I am perhaps not as ashamed as I should be to say that I was excellent at it. I also observed the dregs of humanity in their natural habitat." He sipped his drink again, and shrugged. "Perhaps it shows more than I realize."

Oh, how hard it was not to include 'Even I'.[/classy][newclass=template]font-family: helvetica; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; padding-right: 50px; padding-left: 50px;[/newclass][newclass=template i]font-family: arial; font-decoration: italic;[/newclass][newclass=template b]font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;[/newclass][/style]

[The Bearer of Bad News]

Lexi may have known a few tricks, but the real master of the soul here was Lyra. Because Lexi did, Lyra trusted Kaizu implicitly, and he was pretty cute besides, but certainty never hurt anyone. She blinked once, her eyes closed for a long second, before opening to examine the boy from below. Nothing untoward in his feelings, except for a minor flare when he looked at her prone body. Interesting. She'd have to needle him about it later. Maybe get him to take his shirt off. Oopsie, best to keep such corrupt thoughts at bay - Lex had first dibbs on this one. He was sincere though, completely. And a bit sad. Lonely? Just like Lexi...

She lifted her head off the ground, took a long drought from her cup. Not a drop spilled. Damn she was good. "You guys are way too serious. Loosen up, or you'll die from all the stress, jeez," she mocked before flipping herself upright. Still not a drop of tea wasted. Best not to tempt fate though, so she downed the rest of her beverage in a single gulp, though it burned like hell. She turned to Kaizu, smiled just as sly as one of the cats whose likeness she wore, and sashayed back to the register counter. "My treat," she called behind herself, "But you're taking us to the hot spring some time in the future. It's a mixed bath neooooow~"

Alexis's face reddened ever so slightly, and she shook her head in exasperation. "Arrgh, I keep telling you, you cannot just go and make decisions for other people like that! Ignore her, she was too presumptuous."

Still, the gamble had paid off, as Lexi now sat smiling wide despite herself, and not that feral grin that made people think she was going to eat them or anything. Pission Massed~

"But...if you do want to get together again at all, we...can. No obligations, I promise."

[Deleted]

[classy=template]That was an odd smile. The male's face remained deadpan in receiving it, thinking it probably best not to offer a replica; after all, Alexis certainly seemed as though she could be the jealous type, and Kaizu could easily imagine that many an affection had befallen the flightier twin in the past, probably to some dismay from her counterpart. The fact that this seemed fact in Kaizu's mind was perhaps telling of something; but still, as he turned his gaze off of the red-clad twin to her more adult complement, observing her flustered state after Lyrabel's perhaps-slightly-too-enthused suggestion, he found the smallness and comfort he took from his own smile to be far more telling.

She was smiling, too, and it was truly a heartwarming sight to behold. Kaizu did lead a rather uneventful life, it could not be denied - but it was still the nicest moment he had experienced in some time. Especially when she did offer to meet again. "No hot springs?" He inquired mildly, sounding slightly disappointed, but he pouted his reckoning, sipped his beverage, and moved on, hoping the satire had not been too inhumane. "I'd like that." He said, more seriously - very seriously.

He mused, then, off into the distance. "...My list of frequent haunts is rather underwhelming." He admitted, looking at her then, said catalog compiled. "I actually don't live too far from here; four or five blocks. There is a bookstore on a corner - its modest collection has enamored me with its taste - but that is unlikely to be appropriate. A friend of my uncle's runs a cafe on that same street... else I do not know. I spend much of my time at home. There is, of course, the park.

"Unless you'd merely rather return here. I sense a certain fondness for the place." That was putting it diplomatically, as Kaizu was wont to do.[/classy][newclass=template]font-family: helvetica; text-align: justify; font-size: 11px; padding-right: 50px; padding-left: 50px;[/newclass][newclass=template i]font-family: arial; font-decoration: italic;[/newclass][newclass=template b]font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;[/newclass][/style]

[The Bearer of Bad News]

With Lyra's urgent nudging that they needed to re-merge soon, Lexi had precious little time remaining to spend here without revealing what the twins were to the world, and to Kaizu.

Her decision was made. She reached across the table to grab him by his fancy neck and yank him closer, where she crushed her lips upon his own.

The clock ticked. Too late. Time was up. The light drained from their eyes, and Lyra who was standing at the time crumpled to the floor. Lexi's grip relaxed, and she slumped. Too long. They had been pushing themselves further and further to spend more time apart, but this was too long. Their unstable bodies couldn't continue to function as two individuals, and shut down for good. No pulse, no spark between nerves and mind.

Only the dead, thirst for love and acceptance finally quenched. #PraiseHydro

---

#ScrapDeath

[Deleted]

What happened next was unexpected; usually so much the reserved type, Alexis reached across the table with her small arms and yanked Kaizu forward - not that he offered any resistance beyond a curious cock of the eyebrow.

She kissed him, as - he could not deny - he had been thirsting for her to do since his teen years. He felt a completion of purpose, then, as though, in the end, this had basically all he had been on this earth to do.

However, almost as soon as Kaizu felt Alexis's lips on his own, the clutch on his collar relented; she fell away from him, and he opened his eyes to see her slump forward onto the table. Confused, he glanced down at Lyrabel to see her in a similar state, her eyes blank and staring at nothing. Somehow, the boy knew they were dead; somehow, it did not terrify him nearly as much as it should have.

Kaizu had never been suicidal, but somehow he felt this moment would be the apex of his lifespan. There had been no polygamous threesome to speak of, which had been a shame, but some things could not be helped. He found he had drawn a kunai from his hip pocket and had the tip at his throat.

Through some divine moment of inspiration, his last words occurred to him. "Praise Hydro," He whispered, before he plunged the knife into his throat.

He bled out all over the joint, quenching the scene.

Meh.

Scrap Death

[KoKoKo]

Hydro gets another soul

Approved