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 Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:46 pm
"Never heard the ballads?" Yue feigned shock, her hand fluttering up to her chest, fingers splayed. "Oh, woe is me! To be in the presence of such musically uneducated company!" Yue grinned and winked at Kiran. Yue Lao didn't know what would happen if Kiran wasn't Legion, which she suspected he wasn't. Little clues gave things like that away. He was fun, though, and so long as she kept her allegiance out of their friendship, perhaps he would be able to do the same. For a while, at least.
"What do you mean you didn't mean for me to fall in! Fiend! Where else was I going to fall?!" Yue was laughing madly while Kiran ducked out of the man's way. "Don't let him catch you, swift fiend; we still have a score to settle," Yue cautioned, cheeing for Kiran and egging them on. She clapped when Kiran managed to push him into the water, and laughed. "Was he ever happy with us?" She asked. She was pleasantly startled when Kiran grabbed her hand, but she thought nothing of it, squeezing his hand.
"What are you waiting for, then?" Yue asked, looking over at him, tugging him to run faster. She wasn't even really sure where they were going, but at that moment, she just wanted to run until her lungs gave out, laughing, her heart racing. Leaving that man behind. The physical contact of her hand in Kiran's made her dizzy with laughter, even though it was such a small gesture. "Faster, faster! I bet I can beat you!" She challenged him, but she didn't let go; if they broke that contact just then, it would be up to Kiran. For Yue, it was a pleasant and comforting connection. She always yearned for physical contact, though; being given it freely instead of having to glean it from strangers was dizzying.
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Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2010 8:06 pm
"My apologies, good lady!" Kiran said with a small bow. "Perhaps you can educate me on those ballads and other songs sometime." Music wasn't a huge part of his life. His family wasn't much known for being able to carry a tune, and his sister would never be able to sing at all. He was glad no one ever dared to ask him to sing. That could only result in great embarrassment on his part.
"I didn't expect you to fall at all!" Kiran chuckled. "How was I to know you wouldn't keep your balance? It was only a tiny poke."
"Quit dancing about, you!" shouted the man, still trying to grab hold of Kiran.
"And settle it we shall! He shalt catch me!" A snicker escaped him when Kiran caught the redness of the man's angry face. He certainly didn't want to get caught by this man. Who knows what would happen if he got caught? Kiran could only imagine it wouldn't be pretty. "My guess would be no."
"Onward!" Kiran agreed, keeping hold of Yue's hand as they raced away from the fountain and the now soaking wet man. "I'm pretty fast, I'll have you know." Kiran grinned widely. There was something about this, stirring up trouble and dashing away before getting caught, that was thrilling for him. Kiran picked up his pace, running without any real direction of where he was heading through the streets.
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Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 11:10 pm
Yue laughed when Kiran suggested she would have to teach him some of her songs and ballads. Now, just for that, she would have to invent some. She thought of it a little, but didn't reply, distracted. Yue Lao, in contrast to her hands-on nature, was really not very good at most things. She could sing, sure, but her voice wasn't exactly high, trilling, trained or alluring. It was just Yue, singing, whatever she felt. Her voice was simple when she sang things, with no ornament, just expressing her gratitude at being alive. Well, and her love of making noise and chaos. She did, indeed, like to disrupt silence. Every time she walked by the local shrine, she would sing loudly about a cat and some fish.
"I don't believe you for a second! That was some stealth-poke with iron strength!" Yue was flushed from amusement, "How else would I have lost my balance, what with my expert skills? They wrote ballads for a reason, you know," she finished, giggling.
She found it intensely amusing that the infuriated man told Kiran to stop dancing; yet another thing Yue enjoyed, but was not particularly good at. What wouldn't she like, if it meant close physical contact? Dancing could be excellent for that, even with strangers.
"Are you fast, Kiran? Show me, then!" she said, looking up at him while trying not to stumble, holding onto his hand tightly while she looked up; if she was going to trip and fall, she'd at least be anchored to Kiran. He did pick up his pace, and Yue sprinted with him. Her lungs ached and her face hurt from grinning; her feet were even getting a little sore. She had no idea where they were, by this time; it looked almost as though they were heading out of the winding streets, and into a field with fragrant grass. She wondered if he'd keep running into the field, or turn so that they wound back into the residential area. The smell of the field was soothing, somehow. "You win, you win!" she choked out, laughing and trying to breathe properly. She had, at some point, gotten a pebble in her shoe, and it was now uncomfortably placed. She would run until he slowed, too, but she began to let her pace slow down, a little, favouring the foot which the pebble pressed on.
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Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:57 pm
Kiran gasped "I'm insulted! You think I would lie to you?" He found himself laughing at the idea of "stealth-poking with iron strength" as Yue put it. He thought about her question before answering. "Well then, I suppose they should start writing ballads about me instead. If a great hero such as yourself can fall to such a tiny little poke, then my strength must be far greater than I suspected."
"Try an keep up then!" Kiran ran without really knowing where he was heading. He turned through the streets, getting farther away from the fountain. And that was really what matter anyway: getting away from the angry man. He doubted that man could keep up with their fast pace, but he didn't want to risk getting caught by the man. By the time they arrived at a field, he was panting hard, out of breath.
"Told you I was fast," he said with a grin, but he was gasping for breath as he slowed to a stop. He released his hold on Yue's hand then flopped over onto his back. Now that they weren't running, and the adrenaline was fading, he started to notice the ache in his side. "Well, I think we burned off what we ate," he joked.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:49 pm
Out of the winding residential area, far from her home, Yue Lao found herself in the field with Kiran. Her eyes glinting, skin flushed, she turned to him once they had stopped, retorted, "And I kept up, didn't I?" She smiled, breathing hard, and bent down to take her slipper off and shake the stone out. She dropped the bundle of food, and took off her other slipper, dropping them in the grass next to the messy bundle of bento food. At least nothing had leaked or opened in their flight.
The light was fading, slowly. Yue Lao could see tinges of pink in the sky, framing the field so nicely that she wished she could capture the flavour in a drink. It was nice out, but she could feel that it would probably get too cold to be comfortable as the light faded. For now, it was pleasant. The grass smelled good, sweet, and seemed almost like it might be plush, instead of sharp and unruly like the grass behind her family's garden.
Yue Lao stood over Kiran and acted as though she was about to tip onto him, but shifted her weight to the side and landed in the grass with a controlled thud. Still, it had smarted more than she thought it would, and she winced with a wry smile. "Now I'm just going to be hungry again, though!" She complained, looking up at the sky. She raised one hand and traced the outline of a cloud with her finger.
"Definitely... an angry male Lunarian," she said, laughing, "Trying to catch a certain lithe Lunarian who is darting behind that cloud there," she finished. She pointed to three clouds, though they only barely resembled her recap of the recent events. She let her hand drop back in the grass."Hey, fiend?" Yue began, picking idly at the grass with her right hand. "If you could do anything, anything at all, what would you do?" Yue tilted her head and looked at Kiran, the grass tickling her nose.
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Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 11:01 am
"I guess you did," Kiran admitted, still trying to regain his breath after the long run. "But what if I had let go of your hand?" A sly smirk slipped onto his face. "Would you have kept up then?"
Kiran laughed. "Well, I think we left quite a bit of food before getting chased away, right?" He grinned as he turned his gaze to the sky. He knew he would be feeling hungry again soon as well.
He looked to were Yue pointed and squinted trying to make out the image she saw in the clouds. He didn't quite see it, but he had never been good at picking out images in the clouds. Turning his head to Yue, Kiran almost wanted to kick himself for responding to "fiend." "If I could do anything?" he repeated and thought about that. There were a few things he would want, though they were hardly possible. He wanted his sister to have a voice. He wanted to take back all those times he was mean to her. But he didn't want to say that kind of stuff out loud.
Kiran rolled his shoulder. "If I could do anything, I would," he paused to think a little more, "save all the damsels from the big angry men trying to catch them for taking a dip in the fountain." He laughed, not really able to think of a real answer to her question. "What would you do?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 7:35 pm
"That's a good point," Yue Lao said, pursing her lips. Her face was grave. "No, I probably wouldn't have kept up... I think I would have beat you by a long shot." Yue Lao grinned and winked at Kiran, then stopped to take a deep breath, filling her lungs until it burned. It was wonderful, feeling the air sear.
Yue Lao felt the bento boxes beside her, checking that they had remained sealed. They really did have a lot of food left. An entire section of rice cooked in a sauce with chicken and vegetables, too; she knew that was somewhere in one of the bento containers. "Lots of food, actually. We barely ate anything at all, before you shoved me in the fountain..." she trailed off, grinning.
That he hadn't protested his new nickname meant that Yue Lao would probably go on using it. She liked it, because she only used it in jest, and it represented the wicked desire to cause mischief she seemed to feel around Kiran. Not even to harm others, just that it was amusing, for some reason. Running from that angry Lunarian had been fun. For once, Yue was participating in life completely, instead of just observing it.
Yue laughed when Kiran gave her his 'answer' to her question. She smiled to herself, knowing it wasn't much as far as sincerity went. Well, she couldn't really expect anything else. They had started out dodging each others' questions, and that would likely continue. Neither of them seemed the type to be forthcoming with information, especially not of such a personal nature. "All the damsels? What would you even do with that many damsels?" Yue grinned and looked back up at the sky, stretching in the grass. The bits of grass she had plucked off the ground she gathered in her fist. She raised her hand and let them go, scattering them all across her and Kiran. Like it was raining pieces of fragrant grass. She blew one a little off that had landed on her lips. "Clearly, I would become a magician."
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Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 1:28 pm
Kiran laughed. "Then why were you lagging behind me?" It really didn't matter who was faster. Running away from the angry man had been fun. "We should do that again sometime."
"We shouldn't let all that food go to waste then." Now that he wasn't gasping for breath or having aches in his side, he was starting to feel hungry again. They really hadn't gotten much eaten before having to make a run for it. "And I didn't shove. You simply fell." He feigned innocence, like he had nothing to do with her falling into the fountain.
"Of course! What kind of man would I be if I left a damsel in distress?" He pondered that then grinned mischievously. "I'm sure we could think of something to do." He waggled his brow, but honestly, he didn't really know what he would do with a bunch of damsels. He shook his head to rid the bits of grass that had fallen on his face. "Clearly," he agreed. "And you'll become the greatest magician in all of Lunaria."
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Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 11:26 pm
Yue's eyes, already narrowed naturally, slit even further. "I had a stone in my slipper, I'll have you know," she protested. She grinned, in any case. She wasn't upset, and really didn't think she would have beaten him, but it was fun to pretend so at any rate. "Oh? Well, gladly," she agreed, laughing, "It seems like it would keep us fit...!"
Yue relaxed in the grass, stretching her arms out behind her. "Definitely shouldn't," she added, more habit than any real contribution to the conversation. She was just staring up at the clouds, listening to her stomach grumble, when he feigned innocence. "I simply fell?" she asked, stifling her laughter. She sat up and leaned over him, her braid dangling down over her shoulder. "I guess you'd better watch out I don't simply fall more often, then," she suggested, letting herself drop by bending her elbows and catching herself at the last moment, hovering over him, before pushing away and leaning over to grab the bento boxes.
"What a busy man, then. You should teach them how to take care of themselves! Then you wouldn't have to work so hard," she said, laughing. "Oh, I know. We could tie them all together and use them as a raft; make them swim us places and all. Yeah, that would be great," Yue said. she sighed dreamily, opening one of the bento boxes.
She picked up her chopsticks from out of the bundle again and scooped up a little octopus-shaped sausage and turned intently to Kiran. "For my first trick, I will make this sausage disappear," she said, and grinned, dropping it into her mouth and winking at Kiran.
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Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:50 pm
"That's definitely a good thing," Kiran said with a laugh. "I don't think we'd get very many ballads written about us if we let ourselves get lazy." He glanced at Yue warily after his comment. He wasn't sure how she might react if she thought he meant to imply she was fat or something. Some girls were very sensitive about the subject of weight, or at least, that was what his father said once a long time ago.
"Of course. Why would I ever try to push you into the fountain?" Kiran grinned. "Well, if you did fall, I would simply have to catch you, wouldn't I?" Yue's hair tickled his exposed flesh when it dangled over her shoulder and brushed over his chest.
"But if I taught them how to take care of themselves, they wouldn't need me to rescue them anymore. What would I do then?" He blinked at Yue's next comment then broke into laughter. "Interesting idea, though there may be some problems with that. What if they can't swim or they drown under our weight?"
Kiran applauded. "Bravo! Bravo! What other tricks can you do?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:07 pm
Yue picked another piece of grass off her lip. "There has to be ballads about laziness. If there isn't, I will write us some, spread the word!" Yue stretched, then looked at Kiran again. He seemed expectant, somehow, but she wasn't sure what about. She quirked an eyebrow and then winked at him. "What, waiting for me to become even more interesting?" She teased, grinning.
"You'd try to push me because you're a fiend!" Yue said, feigning indignation. "Oh, you would do that, for me?" Yue pretened to swoon as she pushed away from him. The idea of being caught if she fell was funny. She remembered having tripped and allowed herself to fall earlier, and he caught her then. Pushing her into the fountain, however, he hadn't managed to stop that. Well, she had instigated the first, whereas he had playfully pushed her and caused her second fall. She wondered if he was reliable, the kind of Lunarian who would catch her if she fell again, though she didn't plan on doing so any time soon.
"Perhaps you'd do something more useful, fiend. Of course, our raft would be flawless; they don't need to swim, the buoyancy of the empty air in their heads would keep us afloat. I'm pretty sure they could keep even the largest war machine afloat, these damsels in need of rescue," she suggested, grinning.
Yue pretended to think long and hard about what Kiran had asked. She made an awkward bow, not quite sitting up fully. "What other tricks? Well, let's see..." She sat up more straight, reached for a piece of fried egg with her chopsticks, and looked down at him. "It's not as pleasant, but sometimes I can make myself disappear. Actually, I do that alot," she said, popping the egg in her mouth and chewing slowly, savouring the taste. Even slightly cold, it was still delicious. What she had just said was more honest than she thought he'd understand, but her eyes glittered as though it was just more playing. Yue was always playing, it just wasn't the same game all the time.
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Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 6:22 pm
Kiran laughed. "Ballads about laziness?" The idea amused him for some reason. He shook his head while grinning at her next question. It was a relief that she didn't get upset at him over nothing. "But I think being lazy would get boring after a while. Got to have a bit of excitement in your life. Like running away from angry men after falling in a fountain."
"I object to that," Kiran argued playfully. "I had no way of knowing that you would lose your balance." But he certainly had found it amusing when she did fall into the fountain. "Of course I would." He winked at Yue. "I'd catch any pretty lady who fell."
Kiran had to burst out laughing at Yue's comment. "I suppose I hadn't thought of that. I didn't take into account all that air in their empty heads."
"Oh? Now that would be an impressive trick." But in the way she said it, Kiran wondered if she meant something more and he just wanted catching it. "I hope you don't plan to perform that trick before I get the chance to walk you home."
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Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:08 am
Whatever he had been bracing himself for had clearly never arrived, so Yue was glad to see him grin. "Who said I ever want to be that lazy? I'm sure we can have many more adventures. What next? I wonder..." Yue Lao closed her eyes and then opened them suddenly so that the light startled them. She grinned as they adjusted to the sky, though she imagined the light would fade soon.
Yue laughed when Kiran objected. She sighed, exaggerating it heavily, and finally said, "I guess it's about time I came to terms with the fact you were just so innocent tipping me over into the fountain. There are only so many times I can try to trip you up...!" Yue looked over at Kiran, her eyes glittering. She laughed again when he winked at her. Perhaps it was contagious, this ridiculous mood. "Reliable or not, at least you're amusing," she said. It was a compliment of sorts, though she didn't know if he'd take it that way.
"Never forget how empty-headed they are! You may find yourself in trouble if you leave one unattended and they just float off somewhere. It's happened to me, I should know; I lost a girl that way. Love of my life," Yue said, mournfully. Of course, that story was not even remotely true. For Yue, the love of her life was likely information and alcohol brewing. It was difficult for Lunarians to compete with the pursuit of knowledge when it came to Yue's fickle passions. Books, unlike living beings, could be set aside with few consequences.
Yue surveyed Kiran carefully, her eyes amused half-slits. Had he known? Had he guessed? She would disappear if given half a chance. Even if, perhaps, she didn't want to. Especially if she didn't want to, in fact. Caring if someone was there or not was dangerous. "I was just preparing to, so if you want to walk me home, you'd better hurry, fiend. Who knows how long I'll be here? Maybe if you hold on tight I won't disappear." Yue winked and began to tidy things up. She waited to make sure he wasn't going to eat anything else, though. By this point, the sun had begun to sink.
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Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:44 pm
"I'm sure we'll think of something to do next," Kiran said with a grin. He didn't have anything in mind off the top of his head, but there was sure to be something exciting and adventurous for them to do. But the day was already getting late. Getting up, he stretched his arms over his head.
"Ah, it's such a relief to have my innocence finally accepted." Kiran released an exaggerated sigh of relief that was broken by a cocky little grin. He chuckled at her laughter. "Well, you know, I try so hard at it," he said with a shrugging roll of his shoulder, like it was no big deal that he was amusing.
Kiran laughed again. "I'll try to remember that in the future." He stared at her for that last comment. Love, romance, any of that stuff wasn't something that he knew much about. Perhaps he was just a little thick in the head when it came to that. He was all right with playful flirtation that didn't really mean anything. But serious romance? That was beyond him. "Ah, what a shame," Kiran said, deciding whether the comment was serious or not, he would just continue with the joke. "Got to be more careful next time."
Kiran offered a hand to Yue. "Then let me be swift and sweep you off your feet to carry you home," he said with an air of playfulness. "I wouldn't want you to disappear on me, after all."
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Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:36 am
"If we don't, I'll be sorely disappointed...!" she warned, trying to make herself look serious. Her smile twitched into place again, though. She felt the overwhelming need to stretch as well, watching Kiran stretch. The grin he offered shortly after startled laughter out of Yue. She punched him lightly in the shoulder, a playful pressure.
"Maybe I just changed my mind! Nobody innocent smiles like that," she said, shaking her head. Again, the shoulder roll. Yue was afraid she'd adopt it out of amusement if she didn't keep a close enough watch on herself.
Yue brushed some of the grass off her loose white pants and frowned at a stain she'd acquired on the knee. Chishio would have to scrub that out. If it wasn't for the coolness of the white fabric, Yue would happily adopt a darker colour so she'd stop messing it up and Chishio wouldn't have to keep fixing it. But chichi knew her daughter was a little wild, and accepted the consequences of that, as far as her clothing was concerned. Fixing simple things like tears or stains made Chishio content. "You better try to! If you forget, who knows what the consequences will be," Yue said, looming up over Kiran with her arms stretched above her head, making wooooo noises in what was probably supposed to be an imitation of a spirit. She didn't realize how similarly they considered the flirting and romance. Yue Lao would bolt at the slightest indication of being serious. She didn't do serious well, except when it came to her brewing, or Jianyu's wellbeing. Possibly Kiran's wellbeing now, too; she was fond of him, that much was true. "What was a shame?" Yue had clearly already forgotten whatever grand statement she had just made, and had no idea what Kiran was talking about. That was another problem talking to Yue; it wasn't certain she'd always be listening.
Yue's eyes glittered playfully again. She pursed her lips and tapped her chin with her index finger, looking perplexed. "Now... riddle me this: if you're going to sweep me off my feet, are you a hero? Or are you a pack mule, carrying me home," Yue suggested, and then she burst into laughter. She accepted his hand with a grand flourish and squeezed it. "Let us away, fiend! Before one or both of us disappear," she said, swinging the bento up and resting it against her shoulder blade with her free hand.
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