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 Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:27 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:21 pm
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From inside the shower, Xavier said, in a tone laced with a mixture of exasperation, embarrassment, and a grudging affection, "Helmut." A hiss of the water turning off followed this, and then a whooshing sound as the curtain was pulled back.
A few seconds later, Xavier had poked his head around the doorway, his cheeks pink, mostly dressed, save for his heavy coat, which was lying on the bed. A few cuts and bruises were still visible on his face and down the side of his ribs, but he curled clawed fingers around the towel in his hand and wiped at his hair. Some feathers flitted to the ground around his feet.
"Why the beach of all places, anyway?" he mumbled, dropping the towel onto the back of a chair.
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Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:32 pm
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"Be...because...it looks like fun!" Helmut decided, straightening her back to give herself the extra two inches of height that didn't actually amount to much, with the drastic difference between the two of them. By the time she had even come up with this answer, she had started to pull on her knitted scarf, which had been wrapped around her neck and shoulders three times with length to spare.
For someone talking about a beach, she certainly looked prepared to go out in a winter storm.
"A-and I think...it'd be really fun if...you know..." Tiny little hands appeared out of her massive sleeves, pressing the tips of each claw-like nail together sheepishly. "We went to...gether...like um friends?" As she spoke, she focused very securely on her own fingers, but not only a moment later they were thrown down at her own sides, and she was looking up to bellow with closed eyes:
"PLEEEASE?!"
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Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 2:21 pm
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Behind his hand, Helmut's mouth broke into a wide - perhaps too wide - grin. Above his hand, her dark eyes practically sparkled, opened as widely as their natural droop would allow.
"Really?!" She squeaked, muffled by his own flesh, and then she ducked away from the hand and tackled him around the middle - a gesture that at one point had probably intended on being a simple hug - to nuzzle her head into his stomach. "YAY THANKS!" She yelled again, abruptly letting him go to rush to his dorm room door.
"Tomorrow? Tomorrow! Bring your bathing suit okay?!" Giddy as anything, Helmut threw open his door and disappeared into the hallway, heading to her own room only a floor away.
She had things to do.
-----
The next day came, and, as promised (or more accurately, demanded) Helmut showed up at Xavier's door again. This time, she was burdened with a giant basket...and another large coat draped over the basket, one that matched her not-at-all-appropriate-beach outfit that consisted of more scarves than was probably necessary and one too many sweaters.
Not that it seemed to phase her at all, as she instead herded him into a waiting taxi and, eventually, to the beach. The surprisingly warm, only vaguely populated beach.
"OMIJACK LOOKIT, XAVIER, LOOK!" She shrieked at the boil at her side, dropping the basket to the sand in favor of gripping his arm with both of her hands and pulling on him in excitement. "Are beaches always this pretty?" She demanded, now hanging off of him so she could kick off her boots. "And warm?" She continued to prattle on, all without letting him go.
"Is this a thing?!" She whispered loudly, wrigging and burying her toes in the sand, which drew a high-pitched, excited (but mildly terrified and quite uncomfortable) whine from her throat. The sand bits tickled between her toes, and she sank in a little bit! How cool!!
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:20 pm
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He was going to regret this, he just knew it.
Xavier was not quite dressed as warmly as Helmut was, but he was still wearing a large, fur-lined coat over his swimming attire, and said coat was very definitely and very securely fastened, half because he was not about to just walk out in his swimsuit, and half because he was horribly embarrassed to be wearing such little clothing in public.
"Yes...yes I see, Helmut," he said weakly, as she towed him along, Xavier stumbling in the soft sand. It at least smelled nice here; the water looked pretty, and the weather was very warm, which meant he'd already started feeling a little too hot in his furry coat.
"I...I don't know, I've never been to a beach." Xavier followed Helmut's lead and hesitantly pulled off his shoes to poke his toes tentatively into the sand. It felt warm and a little fuzzy against his skin, and he stared down at it with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.
"This is weird..."
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:53 pm
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"Me neither!" Helmut chirped in delight, still holding tightly onto his arm, though now she was raking the sand with her clawed toes, making straight little lines before ruining them spectacularly. She glee'd internally, and finally out loud as she kicked the sand, and sent it flying.
"Hee!" Then, rather abruptly, she turned to stare up at him with wide, drooping eyes and a too-big smile. "Choose a spot for us! Choose a spot for us!" At least she let him go, and stooped to gather her dropped things, which was the only (and short) reprieve he had from her unwavering, hopeful stare.
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Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:57 pm
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He was still wearing his heavy coat, but it was starting to feel very clustered, Xavier tugging absently at the fur-lined collar with one long, black claw (the other arm was still clutched within Helmut's grasp). "The sand is...is nice," he said at last, a little reluctantly, because he didn't want to admit that he sort of liked it because that would mean that he sort of liked the beach and that would mean that Helmut had been right all along and that was totally a bad thing.
"Oh," said Xavier, momentarily flustered by this sudden task. "Erm. Ah."
He glanced around, his eyes slowly taking in the area around them, until he finally managed to locate a place that was not near too many people but not far away enough to be isolated.
"Over there looks good," Xavier said, a little lamely, pointing. "Come on."
He tugged on her sleeve and trudged through the warm sand to the place he'd indicated before all but dropping down into it, burrowing experimentally into the funny feeling material.
"What do you think?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:33 am
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Xavier was right to not give her too much credit.
The followed after him like a little duckling, the massive basket and an outer coat in tow, and dropped it all the moment he stopped to claim this spot as theirs. The basket tumbled over upon hitting the sand, and a little green liquid seeped out, only a little bit, that went entirely unnoticed. Helmut was surveying the area, not looking at the basket, and she eagerly nodded her approval with both hands on her hips as if it were a big, important deal.
"Yes this is nice! Goodgoodgood." Then, turning away from him, she righted the basket - poked at the small green stain - then dug around in it, producing a normal sized umbrella whose handle was almost immediately buried in the sand. "TAHDAH! Shade!" Not a lot of it, mind you, but enough, if you tried hard enough. A blanket then followed - her bed's comforter, if he knew her well enough to recognize it - spread out in the sand and held in place by sizeable rocks which, apparently, had also been in the basket.
She nodded again as she surveyed her little set up, then immediately looked down at her own feet, wiggling in the sand. Hee, sand. This was gonna be a fun day! She seemed to have forgotten the world around her in favor of the sand wiggling between her toes, but as a wave rolled in --
"SWIMMING!" She cried out suddenly, startling herself with the noise, and immediately started taking off her heavy clothing, starting with her scarves. Progress was severely hindered as she got stuck in her own jacket though, head ducked and arms waving uselessly above her head, but she fell backwards onto her butt in the sand, and struggled away.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 9:47 am
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Xavier eyed the basket somewhat warily, like he half expected it to explode at any second - but Helmut seemed to know what she was doing, and the next second they had themselves a little oasis, complete with umbrella (and Helmut's blanket, which made him snort in mingled exasperation and amusement).
"If we sit close, we can both fit under the umbrella," Xavier said, tugging at the sleeve of his coat and wondering if he could manage to put his hair up without losing too many feathers in the process. "I think, erm, it's rather nice, I see, and - "
He winced almost automatically at Helmut's bellow, and then she was suddenly a bundle of clothing and fluff. Xavier peered at her, flushing a little, but a small laugh escaped him, and he reached out a hand to press a claw down on one of her scarves to hold it still.
"You look like a little bug," he said. "Have you, erm, ever been swimming?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:42 am
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A muffled yelp, a 'thank you' and a 'not a bug!' followed Xavier's assistance with her scarves and jacket, and with the extra hand to remind her what was where, she managed to shed the jacket - which was still done up properly, mind you - and the scarves. She was left in a much-too large for her sweater, which was much easier to remove without help, and finally she was in nothing more than a red and brown skirted one piece, a few bandaids, and plenty of bruises. Even the bathing suit was somewhat too large for her, and without her layers of clothing it was painfully obvious how tiny - and already lanky - she was.
"Nope!" She beamed at him belatedly, sitting on a nest of thick winter clothes. As she elaborated, she raised her arms wide, indicating something large, instead of something far away. "I'm from noooorth-north Halloween...all the water there is ice an' snow. Never even seen a beach before!" Except in books, and on TV, and one photo of her parents when they were just married and on vacation. But as far as she was concerned, none of those things counted, because she had never thought they were real things. The beach seemed like an otherworldly place, and yet, here it was.
"You?" Suddenly, she was squinting at him, lifting a hand to shade her eyes. "...You didn't forget your bathing suit, didja?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:17 pm
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"You're a bug," Xavier stage-whispered back, but he was smiling - at least until he realized just how many layers Helmut was wearing. There was soon a pile the size of a small clothing store next to her, and then she was in her bathing suit, looking much tinier than Xavier had ever seen her.
Maybe it was because of the lack of clothing. Xavier flushed slightly.
"I've never seen a beach either," he admitted, twisting one claw around the next as he glanced over at the ocean. "I, erm, haven't really ever been swimming before - " Unless you counted almost drowning. " - but it, erm...looks rather nice, doesn't it?"
He was starting to be very hot in all of his layers. Xavier gave Helmut a sheepish look.
"No," he said defensively, tugging at his fur collar. "I, er, was just...cold...that's all..."
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:30 pm
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"YEAH WELL-----shhhh!" She sputtered, fizzing out as she had no response to that. Instead of a witty or loud come back she puffed out her cheeks and stared at her feet, which were burying one another in the sand. Her play at being indignant failed miserably as he admitted this was his first time too. Suddenly, everything was not only forgiven, but entirely forgotten.
"REALLY? Cool! We're having a first time!" She threw her arms into the air again, but immediately dropped them to the ground on one side to use as the leverage she needed to free herself from her nest of clothes. "It looks really nice! I wanna go I wanna go I wanna -" Suddenly, she stopped and looked at him, as if his words just reached her.
"...Your pants are gonna go FWOOSH!" She mimed a ball of flame, which looked just like swinging arms, and resumed struggling out of her nest, this time with the sole intention of crawling over him instead. She plunked herself down on his lap, facing him, and started to pull at his jacket before remembering what buttons were.
"COME OOONNNN Let's go swimming!" She demanded, loudly, and started trying to help him out of his jacket.
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:47 pm
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He couldn't help but laugh at her, lifting a clawed hand to cover his mouth. It was somehow very liberating to just be normal around Helmut; Xavier finally had someone that he was able to relax around, someone he didn't have to be nervous around, and it was very freeing.
Even if that said someone was currently running around like a bug and trying to take off his clothes for him.
"What if I want them to go fwoosh?" Xavier protested weakly, scrunching away from Helmut's prying hands, though he couldn't do much about her sitting on his lap (the ghoul was remarkably strong for someone so tiny; or, at least, stubborn).
"Wait wait wait - " He finally hollered, clutching at his now half undone jacket and staring embarrassed at his best friend. "Look, erm - o-okay, we can go swimming, but..." Xavier trailed off, squirmed a little, and then finally mumbled, "But don't laugh at me, okay, I've never, erm...worn a swimsuit before."
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:16 pm
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"...! YOU CAN LAUGH?!" She cried at him, pointing so dramatically she touched his nose. Now that was a sound she hadn't expected out of him! Though, admittedly, she had heard him chuckle a couple times but...it was still a huge shock. But eventually her hand dropped to try and undress him, with the sole intention on going swimming.
Helmut paused at his protest, as if she hadn't thought about that before. Her head canted to the side, fawn ears perking up through the messy mop of white hair. "...Then...I'll find mashmallows?" She mused distantly, her stare focusing somewhere over his shoulder and seeming completely unaware of her mispronunciation. If something was on fire, and you wanted it to be on fire, you got marshmallows right? Wasn't that how it worked? His huller eventually brought her attention back, and she shook her head before staring at him with wide eyes.
"I won't laugh!" Helmut promised rather loudly, going as far as to rake a black claw in an X over the middle of her chest - mostly because she didn't know where her heart actually was, but that spot seemed as good as any. "This is my first one too!" Yay, they had something else in common! But he had made her stop helping him, and with nothing else to do she gave a small whine and toppled to the side, seeming to go spineless as her head fell towards the sand at his hip. Except, at the last minute, the rest of her body followed, pulling into a really awkward, boneless somersault into the sand. She ended up with her antlers against his hip, starfished on her back in the sand.
"Lesgooooo!"
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