Welcome to Gaia! ::

Caim wasn't sure what he'd expected the Fierra Place to look like, but the whitewashed two-story building with the balcony on one side and a rather unassuming appearance was a bit startling in the middle of all those trees. He liked the look of it though. It looked prepared for anything without assuming anything of anyone. If that... made any sense at all when said of a building.

He rolled his eyes slightly as Zell bounced ahead and kept up a sedate walk, arriving at the door at just about the same time it was answered. He was suprised yet again by who answered. A fluffy kitsu of mainly yellow and dark gray coloring with a multicolored halo and wings. Ok... apparently there was a lot more to this kitsusagi species than he'd first thought.

Seer looked out through the door, thrown off slightly at seeing Caim but breaking into a smile as understanding dawned on her eyes when she opened it further and saw Zell. "Zell! Hi! Hang on a sec I'll go get Kitsyn..." She gave Caim another, far more thoughtful, look before turning and trotting toward the kitchen, waving the two males inside as she did so. "Kitsyn! Zell's here and he brought a friend!"

There was a muffled conversation around the corner where the kitchen door was, though "I've never seen him before." drifted back clearly enough. Moments later the scarf clad femme rounded the corner, exasperatedly dodging Shoom's attempts to jump on her back so that she was halfway to the door before she really looked up to see who was standing there. Finally she just shook her head and turned to face Zell, about to ask why he came over, and glanced at who he'd brought with him...

And time stopped.

Kitsyn froze, much to Shoom's delight, one paw still in the air to take another step and mouth slightly agape. It didn't help that in the instant she'd looked at Caim he'd looked right back and their eyes had locked. For a moment she stopped breathing. For a moment she was pretty sure her heart stopped, too. Caim simply looked back, ears slowly flattening and eyebrows slowly rising.

Shoom hopped up on Kitsyn's back, realized she wasn't responding, and padded up to her head and tapped on her skull between her ears. That didn't work either so he clambered up on her head and stuck his face right against hers. Kitsyn let out a startled yelp and fell back on her rear on the carpet. She was blushing furiously even as she bellowed at the Dusk. "SHOOM. GET OFF MY HEAD!"

Caim watched the bizarre little creature that was the Duskitsu spring off Kitsyn's head (literally in a spring shape) and then slither off while cackling madly in his leaky tire voice. Then he looked back at Kitsyn to find her looking at him again. His ears went back once more, though only one eyebrow went up this time. He knew that look. Furiae had watched him like that often enough. The thought of his sister made him frown slightly, but even though what seemed to him like rather sudden behavior made him feel mildly alarmed he was intrigued at the same time.

Seer watched the situation bemusedly for a moment, a particularly merry twinkle in her eye. Had she Seen something? Or was she simply happy/amused to see Kitsyn reacting to a male in such a fashion? Truth be told Kitsyn hadn't told a soul in the Place about Caim and they'd all been rather worried about her those times when she would mope around, obviously feeling wretchedly lonely. Then a bellow came from outside and her eyes widened. "Oh! Oh no! I came in for a drink and left Ifrit alone with triplettes!" She turned and dashed outside without another word. Zell and Kitsyn could explain if it was needed.

Caim was looking at Zell out of the corner of his eye with a level of mild suspicion. He had no idea what might possibly be up, but he knew something was. That Zell was essentially ignoring Kitsyn's obvious reaction to Caim's presense was as telling as if Zell had gone ahead and winked at her. But what could he say? Maybe Zell knew the girl's tastes and Caim matched up. It certainly seemed that way... though he wasn't sure what he thought of whatever was going on.

If only he knew how close his suspicions were to the truth.

Fortunately Zell's hug helped snap Kitsyn back to reality and her posture returned to something a bit more normal. And she stopped staring at Caim, though she looked back at him for frequent glances. She looked up at the cieling when Zell mentioned they were looking for a place where Caim could stay, tails twitching thoughtfully. Though her thoughts were more along the lines of how Zell was gonna get it next time they went paintballing. Though... she supposed he may simply have not had an opportunity to warn her, but still... she felt quite the fool after her little performance a few moments ago.

"Well if he needs a place to stay we've got plenty of room. Would still have room even without that door. And sure, we can keep an eye out for a dragon. Need something to do now that Al's been found anyway." She stuck her tongue out slightly in a playful manner. "Though, speaking of the door... have you told him about them?" She motioned toward the ex-closet at the side of the room and started to move toward it, motioning for them to follow.

Caim had been giving the room a cursory examination, noting the sturdy but generally plain make of most of the furniture, the plastered walls, the pictures hanging in various places. There were several things he didn't recognize, like the t.v., that he'd come back and examine later. Right now it seems he was expected to follow this Kitsyn girl over to a door in the wall.

Even though he'd been looking around the room, he'd also been watching her somewhat, and he hadn't missed all those furtive little glances. He'd been alarmed at first, and still wasn't really comfortable, but at least there wasn't that pressure in her gaze that had been in Furiae's... that pleading that bordered on begging him to return feelings he simply didn't hold. Even if she hadn't been his sister, and the Goddess... He shook the thoughts away when faced with the door and turned to glance at Zell. Zell had been good for information so far, so it was only natural that he would look to him for an explanation. Aside from the door being "magic" he hadn't really been told anything.

Should have, could have, would have... hind sight was 20/20, as they say. It was far too late to do anything about it now, that was for sure, so they were just going to have to deal with things as they stood now.

When Zell complained about Kitsyn having him explain things she just grinned. "I never told you to. I just asked if you had. And you didn't exactly ask me if I'd do it, either." She turned to look at Caim. "Though all I really know is that you envision the room or place you want the door to open into and... when you open the door, it's there. Well... a replica of the place. We haven't figured out how to get it to link to an actual place yet, if it can. It would sure be handy for getting back and forth between here and Zell's place if we could..." Caim was looking down at her. She found it difficult to speak, breathe, or swallow when he was looking at her. His eyes were always so intense... She forced herself to look away and motioned to the door, managing to say in spite of her dry mouth, "Go ahead and try it, if you want. Might as well if you're gonna stay here."

Caim himself kept watching her for several more moments before looking up at the door. He wasn't used to inspiring the kinds of emotions he was seeing in Kitsyn. Fear, yes. Respect. Even to some degree adoration. That was what had started Furiae's feelings... hero worship. But this was different, and he wasn't sure what to think about it.

But Kitsyn could practically feel the shift as the few barriers Caim had dropped went back up. It wasn't really a suprise when he shook his head and motioned toward the door. Of course... there were still things that needed doing, places to be seen. She just sat where she was as he stood and turned to head back toward the exit, heart sinking into the pit of her stomach. But there was the barest flick of a glance her way when he shifted to give Zell an "Are you coming?" look, and her heart shifted back to an almost normal position. Caim was... so difficult to understand sometimes.

Caim himself wasn't sure he understood at the moment. But he could just as easily test the door out later, and he wanted to get out and see this other HQ and Zell's house. And maybe he'd have time to settle his feelings before coming back to face those confusing bright green eyes again. Eyes that reminded him of someone... a someone that made him feel much the same way at times. He gave Zell one more look before heading for the door.

Kitsyn didn't quite grin at the second hug and walked with them to the door. "Valefor was actually discussing that with Ifrit. She thinks that maybe if he were in the Zanarkand she made... on the other side of where she plans to put the second door, that the link between the two of them might make a link through our door. But... well, she's been spending a lot of time out too, lately." She wasn't sure that Valefor had been spending all of it with Crow the way Aear and Seer were together, but she'd spending at least some of it with him. But ah... thinking about couples in love shot a more powerful pang through her heart than usual. He was only feet away... and so much farther.

Caim sped up just slightly as they neared the door, pausing and stiffening when Zell pulled his little stunt. He shot Zell a brief snarl and trotted a few yards outside the door before stopping and giving himself just the slightest of shakes. He glanced back to see Kitsyn was waving them farewell. She was focusing for the most part on Zell, but the quick look she did give Caim made him want to shake all over again. She made the hair stand up on the back of his neck... he'd never enjoyed that sensation. His tails twitched impatiently as he looked at Zell, waiting for the blonde to take the lead again.

Caim listened as he followed, or half listened at least. The names meant little aside from Kitsyn and Shoom. He'd seen them at least. And "paintball" meant nothing to him beyond "paint" and "ball", but he couldn't figure out how painting a ball was a game. When Zell mentioned watching the flames when sparring with Ifrit he did glance over with a raised eyebrow. That made him curious. It sounded like he lived with Kitsyn...

He stopped for a moment and tugged the pad of paper out. I will meet them later. A pause. Paintball? Not knowing what so many of these things they kept mentioning were was frustrating. But if he was going to be here for a while, and it definitely looked that way, he needed to find out. And asking was the only way to do that effectively. His own questions taken care of for the moment, he tucked the pad away again and motioned for Zell to proceed.

Kits? Children. The term for the young of both rabbits and foxes was kit, so he supposed it made sense. And no... Caim wasn't the best with children. Especially the ones that warranted being a "handful". He could only imagine how difficult a "handful" was when only paws were available. Ah... he made a joke. Not that anyone knew it.

So paintball was a game played with... toy guns?! He knew guns... what they did, at least, because the only ones in his world were big clunky things mounted on airships. It was difficult to imagine a small enough version of those to be used in a game, though... and somewhat disturbing to think that something like that had been turned into a toy. Not that he supposed he should be suprised. Little boys always liked to play war, after all. Even he had, until he'd actually seen war and found out it was no game. He would have to think long and hard on the matter before he even really considered joining them...

But he did nod to let Zell know he understood. At least... in a rudimentary fashion. As ill as the thought sat with him he had a sort of morbid curiosity about what the guns looked like now. But he prefered concentrating on other things right now. So he pointed forward in the direction they'd been walking to find out perhaps how much farther it would be.

It probably didn't help Zell's ability to read Caim's body language any that the swordsman held himself so stiffly most of the time. A trait that did not, by any means, stay with him on the battlefield; or in the training yard. It was eery for people who weren't used to it to see such a sudden change in his posture.

Caim shook his head at the mention of kilometers. The measurement he understood was leagues. He did understand it not taking much longer, however, so he was satisfied with that.

A ghost a smirk crossed Caim's maw at Zell's apologetic look, but he neither nodded nor shook his head. It took a moment but he finally shrugged. He hadn't really... formed much of an opinion. Kitsyn was too distracting... He did want to go back, though. So he supposed he liked it well enough.

Couldn't be Kitsyn? Zell, Zell, Zell... how could it not be distracting to meet someone for the first time and have them immediatly start acting so... self-consciously lovesick? Caim was used to intimidating people, and that was the complete opposite. So yes... it was Kitsyn. Though Caim would have been most reluctant to admit it.

He was almost glad Angelus wasn't here right now. Almost. She always picked up on this sort of thing with him immediately and tried to pick it apart. The dragon had, for all her disgust with the human race, done her best to try and break down the walls of rage and battlements of emotional disconnection Caim had built around himself for so long. To a degree she'd succeeded. And she would have enjoyed nothing more than shoving Caim's feelings in his face and... well... making him feel them. He was off balance enough right now...

He nodded in an absent sort of manner after Zell's admission of how short their visit had been, having gone back to trying to memorize anything that could help him find his way around later. When he asked about Angelus Caim's face took on that look of impassiveness that generally implied anything but was going on beneath it and nodded. He was almost glad she wasn't here... but not really. He missed her.