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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 5:26 am
The snub did not go unnoticed, and only served to further her opinion that he was trying to be as tough and angry as possible. It wasn't working. "Believe it or not he's had more than this before," she said with a sigh as she raised her hand to touch her face but recoiled at the last minute, grimacing at her chocolatey fingers. "I broke my arm a couple months ago and he decided I was thereafter unable to feed him, so he went on a few raids to eat as much chocolate as he could possibly find. Still not sure why he's so obsessed with the stuff," she said with a shrug. "Anyway, there's no way in hell I want him getting sick in the car," lie, since she rode Odette, "so I'd better clean him up before he does it himself and eats his weight in chocolate. Which would be quite an accomplishment, given how chubby he is." Bathrooms were... ah, there. She turned her gaze back to him, tilting her head slightly. "I'll be right back," she said, then grabbed the Pikachu by the scruff and carried him off to the bathrooms. If he left while she was gone, that was fine, but she had a fairly good idea he wouldn't be going anywhere, not if he'd really hurt his leg. Which had been odd, now that she thought about it... Landing like that may have twinged at first, but why did it serve to almost effectively immobilize him? Just one more mystery she felt compelled to investigate.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:08 am
"Mmfh, Right." He wanted to to go and wash too, but he didn't fancy standing up yet. He wished he had his staff with him, but it was with his bike in the car park; somehow he hadn't imagined that he would have got away with nearly seven foot of solid wood inside the mall, especially given the rest of his image. Great. So he was just going to sit here with chocolate drying on his arms was he? Bah. Scowling to himself, Aulus pulled off his shirt and set about using it to get the worst of the chocolate off himself; the sleeveless black vest was old anyway...
Erg.
He didn't really want to put it back on now. Did this mall have a rule about wearing shirts? He couldn't remember, and therefore decided to believe that it didn't; if some stuffed-shirt security guard wandered by on the way to the doughnut shop and told him to put it back on he could do so with glares and bad grace... He smelled of chocolate. It was very tempting to lick some of the residual chocolate off his hands and arms, but that Lucy woman would probably be back soon and so he didn't; last thing he wanted her to walk back to was was him doing an impression of Zeus.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:17 am
It had taken several minutes of warm water and plenty of struggling, but she'd finally washed all the chocolate off Zeus and her arms, and got plenty of water splashed onto her clothes in the mean time. While walking back she was chastising the pokemon who was hanging by his scruff, ears flattened and looking thoroughly displeased with everything forever, so it wasn't until she was a few yards away that Claire noticed Aulus was no longer wearing a shirt. At all. Not even an undershirt or anything. This fact made her visibly falter, clearly not sure what to make of this. It actually seemed to make her rather uncomfortable. Possibly even extremely uncomfortable.
She wasn't going to stand there like a squirrel in the middle of a busy road, however, so she moved over to the bench again and lightly dropped the clean Pikachu on the floor. "Think you can manage to walk to the restrooms to clean up?" It was a simple question to gauge whether he would be able to or not, and her tone implied such. If he couldn't, she might have to help him get to the door. Shirtless.
Arceus, what was she getting into? Her closet seemed more and more welcoming. Hell, just leaving altogether sounded more welcoming.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:56 am
Oh lovely. No 'hi I'm back' or anything politely pointless like that, just 'exactly how pathetic are you?'. Usually he wasn't a fan of platitudes, but he'd take them over implied insults any day. Lucy's tone might have been that of innocent question, but Aulus' mind read a sneer into her words, the implication that he was weak. "Of course I can," he growled, pushing himself to his feet and clenching his jaw in what he hoped was an expression of suppressed anger rather than suppressed pain. Now, of course, he had to follow through.
Fine.
No problem.
Shooting Lucy a last glare, Aulus set off towards the men's toilet. His leg was not too happy about this, and made that very apparent to him. He tried not to limp, but failed miserably. Fine, let her think he was physically weak, but don't let her think he was weak willed. With just about every muscle in his body tensed, Aulus made it to the door and shoved it open. Only when the door closed behind him again did he allow himself to lean against the wall for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut and hissing between his teeth. Stupid woman, why had she had to challenge him like that? Muttering curses, Aulus hobbled over to a sink and set about washing his arms and shirt. Stupid woman.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:37 am
In her defense, he didn't give her a 'hi you're back' or anything of the sort either, just 'hey there, here's my bare chest.' It left her sort of at a total loss of what to do or say.
It was incredibly obvious he was in pain and probably shouldn't walk himself, but he was Mr. Tough Guy so he did it by himself. He'd probably whimper in the bathroom for a few minutes or something. Ugh, men were ridiculous sometimes. But she was glad for it in this situation, she had absolutely no desire to be that close to him when he was shirtless. But he was... limping? Surely the fall from the escalator couldn't have been that bad... Perhaps it had aggravated something else, something wrong with his leg? Maybe, but she figured asking wouldn't be something he'd appreciate.
Once he disappeared inside the door she heaved a sigh, moving to sit cross-legged on the bench with her back to the armrest. Zeus hopped up to sit in front of her, folding his arms over his chubby stomach and glaring at the opposite wall, ears still flattened. He had been living a dream but both humans had effectively stripped it from him, tore it to pieces, stomped on it, then threw every stomped-on piece into a fire. They had ruined his entire life forever. Forever.
Nevermind Aulus had saved him from drowning.
But he was going to drown in chocolate. Why would he want to be saved?
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:37 am
A couple of minutes later, Aulus had clean arms, and a clean-ish shirt. It still smelled faintly of chocolate and was extremely soggy despite his wringing it out, but he put it back on anyway. After making a vague effort to wipe the drips of chocolate off his trousers and boots he headed back to the door, paused to set his expression to annoyed, and stepped back outside. Still limping, he returned to the bench and flopped down.
"Well, this has turned into a really fantastic day," he muttered in a voice more soaked in sarcasm than Zeus had been in chocolate a couple of minutes ago. "What's next," he went on, "trampled by a stampede of fangirls chasing a famous trainer?" He wanted his staff, and he wished he hadn't left Tortie guarding both it and his bike. Mostly he wanted to not hurt, not be soggy, not to whiff faintly of chocolate, not be mocked any more, and just for the whole day to be over. Luck on his side. Like that ever happened.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:13 am
"Lovely," she agreed with her own heavy dose of sarcasm, extremely glad his shirt was back on. Except... it was wet. Crap, that was her fault too. It really was just turning out to be an absolutely wonderful day.
Zeus immediately perked up when Aulus came back and flopped down, and he scrambled over and immediately set about sniffing him. The chocolate smell was faint, but maybe--
"Zeus, get off," the young woman said sharply, suddenly grabbing the Pikachu by the scruff and depositing him on the floor. "Leave him alone already." As funny as it was seeing the grouchy man squeal like a girl, she figured he was really sort of tired of it. Especially since it didn't make him look very tough and manly. The Pikachu growled and continued his pouting on the floor. Claire sighed at him then looked back at Aulus again - what sort of name was Aulus? ..actually, she shouldn't even be talking about weird names, nevermind - and her gaze traced the scar along his face. There had been one on his chest as well, she had vaguely noticed through the shock and discomfort of him being shirtless, and was now curious as to how he got them. She was, of course, incredibly glad he'd replaced his shirt. ...which was wet. Crap. "I'm going to assume you don't have any other clothes with you? I don't." Why would they bring extra clothes around the mall, anyway? That was just asking for trouble in some ways.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:25 am
Aulus gave another of his vague grunts, stretching out his leg and heaving a heavy sigh. "Not on my person with me," he said gruffly after a moment. "I think there's one clean shirt in my bag, but I'm not sure, and that's with my bike in the car park anyway," and Arceus knew he didn't feel like going to fetch it yet; the effort of going to wash this shirt had been sufficient for the next little while. Until his leg calmed down he'd just have to sit here feeling cold and cross. At least the pikachu had stopped licking him, but the relief of no longer being tickled was tainted a little with guilt for being part of the cause of Zeus' unhappiness. There wasn't a lot to be done about that though, and the little mouse would get over it in the end: when more chocolate was on the cards by the sounds of it...
Still, he didn't like seeing pokemon unhappy even if it wasn't really his fault, and was for their own good as well. Humans could shove it so far as he was concerned (really, truly, he didn't care at all if humans hated him), but it was only through a very great effort of will that he avoided spoiling every pokemon he came across absolutely rotten.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:29 am
She gave a soft hum in response to his words, lifting her hand to inspect her nails to make sure she'd gotten all of the chocolate out from beneath them. "That's alright," she murmured, studying her other hand, "we can go get some more after your leg feels better." She would suggest now - she didn't like sitting there with chocolate on her jeans and drying water splattered all over her clothes - but she figured he wouldn't want to go anywhere until his leg behaved. It certainly looked like it hadn't when he walked to and from the restroom, at any rate.
Aulus would be right - Zeus would get over it at some point, but not until much later. Or until he got chocolate again, either one.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:38 am
...Hu? What was all this we, and come to that why was she still here? It hadn't occurred to him until now that it was odd, but it was. She had no reason to be here, and given there were probably still angry people with questions about pikachu-flavoured chocolate fountains around she should be hastening to get away and head back to her car or whatever. Aulus' scowl shifted into a bemused frown - which still looked rather sinister thanks to his overall impression of 'action movie villain' - and he turned to regard Lucy properly.
"We?" he asked. "We're going clothes shopping together now, and you're happy to wait until I stop being pathetic too? Is this your good deed for the day or something? Trying to build up some good karma?" He'd been unpleasant to her, just about as unpleasant as possible without actually insulting her with every single word that left his mouth, and she wanted to go shopping with him? Women were weird, weird and fickle; one minute they were all sweetness and light and couldn't do enough for you, and the next they kicked you in the balls for smiling at them wrong. Impossible creatures.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:49 am
"Yes, 'we'," she repeated, looking at him curiously as she leaned her chin in the palm of her hand, her elbow resting on her knee. "It's just a guess, but I don't think you really like sitting there with a damp shirt that smells like chocolate. Pants, too," she added, sitting up and leaning to one side to lightly flick Zeus' ear. "Which is your fault." He glared up at her and swatted away her fingers with a chubby paw. "My fault too, of course," she said as she sat back, her violet eyes tracing the designs in tile on the floor. "So we can go in a few minutes once you feel better. And if you want to call yourself pathetic, that's fine by me," the young woman commented with a shrug. If he wanted to say it like that, so be it - he was the one that said it, not her. "Either way I don't want to be stuck wearing this for the rest of the day, and I didn't even bring a change of clothes at all. We'll find a decent clothing store in a few minutes and get a change of clothes. Nothing too expensive though," she finished. There was no way she was spending a fortune on a change of clothes for a total stranger with an odd name.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:09 am
"Well... Fine." Was she offering to buy him new clothes? Yes it was her fault he was chocolaty, but it would wash out... What did she want from him? She wouldn't be being so nice if she didn't think she stood to gain. She looked almost awkward though, studying the floor so closely rather than looking at him. Had to be an act; she could try to casually pass off what she'd been thinking with 'you're the one who called yourself that', but he knew, he wasn't fooled. Part of him wanted to be fooled, but that part of him was pathetic and he studiously ignored it... Still, it looked like he was going to be stuck with her for a while, so he supposed he might as well make conversation just as long as he remembered to look out for what it was she wanted from him.
"Anyway," Aulus said after a slight pause, an ugly sneer twisting his face, "the last place I want to go is some fancy boutique. Even if I did want to go, a lot of them wouldn't let me past the doors at the best of times, let alone wet and slightly chocolaty. It was a close run thing with getting into the chocolate shop in the first place, I'm sure that shop assistant girl was running off to find her manager and tell him about the suspicious looking man who was probably pondering either robbing or wrecking the place." First impressions counted for a lot, and he knew damn well that he made a bad one. He meant to make a bad one. He wanted them to be wary of him, because if they weren't... He wasn't quite sure what the end of that sentence even was, but it didn't matter. It was important to be tough, otherwise you looked weak, and he wasn't going to let that happen; it made perfect sense.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:27 am
"I don't either," she said with a grunt of disdain, waving away the very idea of going anywhere fancy. "Someplace simple, I really don't like shopping." Not in the sense that most other girls seemed to, that is - if she needed something, she'd go get it, like now. She wasn't one to spend countless hours trying things on and debating and - no, that was ridiculous.
Zeus distracted her from her thoughts when he decided to hop back up on the bench and resumed his pouting in the space between the two humans. Clearly pouting on the floor wasn't garnering nearly as much attention as he desired. The young woman chuckled lightly and flicked at his ear gently again, and once more he swatted at her angrily. Why was she being so difficult? Claire - or Lucy, rather - focused on Aulus once again with a curious look. She couldn't help but study the scar again, rather curious about it still. Should she? Might not be the greatest idea, but she was curious - so she decided to ask a question that he probably didn't get as often as 'how did you get that?' "If you don't mind my asking," she started, tilting her head slightly, "can you see out of that eye?" Lucas couldn't see out of his, but there wasn't any loss of depth perception, he'd said, and she was very curious to know if this man suffered a similar ailment or if he somehow managed to escape it.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:38 am
"Hu?" Aulus' had been gearing up to say something else disdainful about shopping when that question was sprung on him. "Oh, that," he reached up absent-mindedly to trace the deep line of the scar, "I don't care, you can ask me whatever you like. I might even answer. Don't see why I shouldn't in this case; I can see, but only after a lens and cornea transplant. That was a whole barrel of laughs I can tell you, they only use a local aesthetic so I got to listen to the surgeons discussing me like a piece of meat."
The whole experience had been more than a little surreal and freaky; not something he was in a rush to repeat. He wasn't in a rush to repeat anything from those few months come to that, but there was no need for him to launch into his life story at her; for one she hadn't asked, and for another there was no way he was going to bare his soul to a complete stranger.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:46 am
Well at least he answered - that was much better than getting mad over her asking, and wow, how wonderful - he might even continue to answer questions. How kind. Why did he insist so strongly on making himself out to be some super tough guy? Men made no sense to her at all. His answer, however, obviously surprised her. "Can you?" Through surgery, the description of which made her wince. "I hate hospitals, having them fix up my arm was bad enough." That hadn't been a fun way to end a fancy Ball at all. Not that she'd been enjoying herself at all, not in the slightest. Nope, not her. "I've a friend with a similar scar," she explained, absently tracing the line on her own cheek from her forehead to almost her jawline, "and he's blind in that eye. No loss of depth perception though." That had also surprised her - she incorrectly assumed losing one eye would alter his depth perception and the like, but it hadn't. Age had. Poor Lucas was old. Well, sort of.
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