Welcome to Gaia! ::

Her eyes shot open and looked up at him with nervousness. They spoke what she couldn't vocalize- that she wasn't ready to explain the scars and bruises he must have seen. Or did he know more than that? She felt suddenly so paranoid.

"Th-Thank you for the shirt. Are you sure you're not cold?"

The fact that the ferry was moving at a slower pace indicated to Se that they were arriving at the mainland already. It must have been why Imaru began to dress her. She wasn't drunk so much as achy in the head, but she allowed him to dress her. Secretly, she enjoyed the feel of a boy caring for her, even if it was just Imaru, who she knew she had no romantic feelings for. She did love him, though, and she knew he platonically loved her as well. A lot. She could feel his gaze almost burn while he looked at her scratches.

"Ah the bush ah..."

The worst part about lies is that when you tell them, as you tell them, the most vivid image of the truth will play in your head clouding your vision and thoughts and mind. That's probably why they're so hard to tell, and so easy to catch.

"I was pissing in it. I drank, after all."

She wished she could get the truth to stop playing in her head while Imaru gingerly buttoned her up, lecturing her about why she was drinking and that she did it alone. Imaru was so gentle and concerned. Imaru was so thoughtful. Imaru was everything that He never was to her, and everything that she wished He would be.

And to thank Imaru, she slapped his hand away. "Why do you care who I do or don't drink with or why I was drinking in the first place, huh? I'm just as responsible as you can be. I'm my own person, I don't need you lecturing me about my habits!"

Silence.

Maybe about six seconds of it. Six seconds that felt like two years. She saw nothing but the face of a sweet childhood friend in front of her. She felt nothing but his shirt and smelt nothing but his scent on it for 'two years'. It hurt.

"I'm sorry, Aruru."

Food would be a good way for Se to purge the lingering, awful effects of the alcohol. She stuffed her face full of the free bread, practically fighting with Imaru for the last piece, before the waiter came to take their order. Between her and Imaru, they ate a lot of bread, but she knew that Imaru could eat a whole lot more. That's why she looked curious when he ordered very lightly. She watched him hand the waiter back his menu.

Se scanned quickly over her own sticky copy. Imaru ordered a simple pasta. Every time they came here before, he'd order the loaded pasta, and more. So, she decided to order the loaded pasta complete meal and more. Handing her sticky menu carefully back to the waiter, she glanced over and noticed Imaru's face had that thinking-too-hard look that she was excellent at catching.

It was what she thought. He couldn't afford too much, could he?

"Why not? You're usually fun to hang around with. And what do you mean you're not going to the ball?"

"Wow. I hate to be the d**k to ask you to help me pick out an outfit for the damn thing." Se fiddled through her wallet under the table, out of Imaru's view.

~December 17th, a few days before the ball...~

One late afternoon, a young man strolled down the streets of Isle de Gambino, on his way home from a busy shift at work. The weather was still nice even though the sun was beginning to go down. It was balmy and breezy; perfect weather despite the fact that it was so late in the year. However, every once in a while there was a nippy breeze that came by, reminding the young man that it was, in fact, mid-December.

As he walked home from work, several townspeople stopped to say hello to him. Politely waving, the young man acknowledged each and every one of them. This was his nature: polite and kind to everyone. And he was well-known for it. Well, that and his job of course. The young man worked as a waiter at a restaurant in the center of town called The Cabaret Café. It was known for its great food, employees and environment. But the feature that was the most popular not only among the clientele but the employees as well was the entertainment. This young man in particular was multi-talented. He not only worked as a waiter, but he was also an entertainer at the restaurant.

His name was Mirassou Cabernet.

If someone so much as said his name, people would start talking about him. This was because Mirassou would take part in the nightly festivities from time to time. Every time he did, the restaurant was packed to the brim. Reason being, it was common knowledge that Mirassou was a gifted singer. He was quite famous for it too, but he was oblivious to the fame. As far as he was concerned, he worked at the restaurant and enjoyed his job, got his pay, and lived life to the fullest every day.

He continued walking until he reached a building at the edge of town.

“Ah, home at last!” Mirassou said happily as he walked up the path toward the front door.

But to the average person, this building could hardly be considered “home”.

Despite its mansion-like stature, the building was dilapidated, so dilapidated that it looked from the outside as if it was uninhabitable. The once-blue-but-now-colorless walls were falling apart, the door was lucky to still be holding onto its hinges, and the roof had clearly seen better days. The only things that were remotely still intact were the windows, and that’s because Dan—the owner of the restaurant Mirassou worked at—had paid to have them properly fixed just two weeks prior. It was shocking that such a nice person was living in such poor conditions. He was very fortunate, however, to have the restaurant owner taking care of him. It had been this way for several years now, and Mirassou couldn’t imagine it any other way. He had very little memories of his parents, who had abandoned him at the age of twelve. Against all odds, Mirassou continued to thrive.

When he got in the door, Mirassou put down the house keys and immediately started to cook dinner. Dan had given him some of the new spices that the restaurant had been using and the boy couldn’t wait to try them out in some chicken.

The inside of the house was very different from the outside. From the inside, the house looked livable, with a kitchen, sitting room, dining room, bedrooms, closets, you name it. It was all fairly elegant too, as Mirassou's family was fairly wealthy before his parents left.

As he got the supplies for dinner out, something occurred to him.

“Oh, that’s right! I better check the machine…” he said out loud, quickly rushing to the phone.

A while back the restaurant employees heard news of a ball to take place in the coming weeks. They were looking for entertainment to have at the event, so Mirassou had applied. He was to get the news via phone call in the near future. Ever since, he had been checking the answering machine every night. However, there had been no messages yet.

Dialing the numbers needed to pick up messages, Mirassou anticipated the results.

“You have one new message,” the voice on the other end said.

Gasping in excitement, Mirassou listened closely.

The message began to play.

“Hello Mr. Mirassou Cabernet, this is Lorika from the Benevolent Order. I'm happy to tell you that we've reviewed your application, and we'd be delighted to have you as our entertainment for the ball. Please come to the Temple of the Order on the 24th of December for the event. Thank you and have a great day.”

Click.

For a few seconds after, the entire house was eerily quiet. But that didn’t last, as Mirassou shouted out with happiness.

“YES! YES! I GOT IT! WOOOO!” he yelled excitedly, jumping up and down so much that the whole house shook in response. “Guess that means I should get something to wear…but first I better finish dinner.”

Walking back into the kitchen, Mirassou continued to get supplies ready. First the baking dish, then the spatula, then the measuring cups…

But the excitement still had a hold of him.

As he worked, he sang.

“Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’, yeah the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother come on in~! Kick off your shoes, start losin’ the blues, this old house ain’t got nothin’ to lose…”

((No, that’s not a song that’s been stuck in Rocket’s head for days, honest!
It is a real song though...))

"Yep," Alexi said. "Well, truthfully, Zain and I just hit it off the first time we met, and we're really tight now."

Then the boy asked about Total.

Alexi giggled slightly.

"You can take this one," Total said, wriggling out of Alexi's arms and onto the ground. He skittered around the area playfully.

"Well," Alexi began, "we met back during the war. He was in trouble, and I saved him from..."

Total shot her a glance that said, "Shut up and shut up now." But the minute he turned away, Alexi motioned for Xeiashi to come closer.

"...I saved him from a small forest fire," she whispered into the boy's ear. "He was rooted to the ground, flames all around. He realized what was going on and cried out for help. I happened to be in the area, so I dug him out with my hands, picked him up, and carried him away from the fire."

She paused for a moment, looking at Total to make sure he hadn't heard or seen. Thankfully, he was chasing a small fly that happened to be buzzing around. Alexi breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't know why, but for some reason, Total's embarassed about it. Must be male-plant pride or something." She laughed at her ridiculous joke. "But all kidding aside, we've been together ever since."

She paused again, thinking of all the good times.

"But as for what he really is," Alexi continued. "Even I don't know that."

Just then, Alexi noticed something strange.

"Hey, where'd Total go?" She looked around.

He was nowhere to be found.

"I'll go look for him," Alexi said. "Sorry to leave so soon Xeiashi, but I have to find him or else he'll get himself into trouble again. I don't even want to think about what happened last time..."

((Now I'm going to start the Total-all-by-himself arc. This should be up within the week.
Let the fun begin! =D))