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 Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:21 pm
He wasn't smart enough to let go.
As the bicycle lurched forward in that wince inducing squeal, instinct took over to make sure Einar was safe. An 'others come first' instinct that Lai had since he was old enough to hold doors open.
To prevent the machine from front flipping, Lai dug his right foot into the ground and, while wrapping his right arm around Einar's upper chest and arm, pushed the bicycle to the side. It half worked. The bike still went up, but then at an angle to the left.
Lai fell, sliding his left hand off the Norwegian's back and catching himself and landing on his knees. This action sent sharp pangs up his arms and legs and Lai was pretty sure he had just scrapped his palm on some loose gravel. He sucked in some air through his teeth, acknowledging the pain for the moment before remembering another had gone down as well.
"Are you all right Einar?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:01 pm
"I'm fine, but not really amused by your heroics. You're hurt far worse than I am, and neither of us would have gotten hurt if you'd let me flip over."
Einar reached over and roughly took Lai's scraped hand with his own, and without any thought he pressed the slightly bloody palm to his lips and let his tongue gently touch the cut. He wasn't surprised by the taste of iron and gravel that quickly graced his taste buds, and he turned his head to the side after a moment to spit out the little mouthful he'd acquired.
"You wouldn't have this injury if you'd let me simply fall over, you know."
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:08 pm
You are welcome. The thought drenched with sarcasm as Lai pulled himself up and inspected his scraped hand. Blood rose up but very little spilled over onto the skin.
"It is nothing but a scrape, really. And there was no way I would let you flip over and get hurt. It is just a scrape-" Lai stopped mid sentence as he felt the warmth of Einar's tongue on his hand. The Russian's face erupted into the darkest shade of red yet as a shock went up his spine and he stammered to try to put words together.
"I...I..."
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:24 pm
"Please don't do unnecessary things for a stranger, not many of them are willing to return the favor to you. If you injure yourself like this eventually. . ."
Einar had to trail off as well as he looked up and at Lai's face, his eye wide as he noted how red the Russian's face had become. He wasn't aware but a similar shade was creeping out from under his eye patch and spreading over his cheeks at a slow pace, his mouth still slightly ajar from having stopped speaking.
Despite this, Einar wasn't the type to lose his composure over things so easily and he quickly snapped his mouth shut before licking the Russian man's hand one more time and letting it go.
"I didn't do that for any reason other to get it clean right away. Wiping it on your clothing only spreads the chances for infection and while human spit may not be the best thing I'll work in a pinch."
He wiped the corner of his mouth with the sleeve of his right hand before rubbing his cheeks as well, doing his best and succeeding at getting rid of startled blush.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:34 pm
The heat from Lai's face made the young man wonder if his face was on fire. When Einar looked up at him, the color went just a bit darker as Lai beheld a faint redness touching the Norwegian's face. He felt the second lick of his palm but that was void because of a little inner pouting that appeared when the man let go and the color vanished from Einar's cheeks.
"Who said you were a stranger...?" Lai mumbled as he inspected his now saliva covered palm. The dark shade of red was fading fast. The Russian looked to Einar briefly. "Thank you." He dropped his hands and wrapped them around the metal poles of the bicycle and dragged it off Einar. The Russian's skirt was left with grease smears from the chain, but he cared not. He extended his right hand out to help Einar off the ground.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:53 pm
Einar didn't have a response to Lai's comment about him not being a stranger and instead reached up to take the man's hand and pull himself to his feet without much need of help from the other. The young Norwegian had good strength in his legs and was able to get himself from his rear to standing without his hands with very little effort. Holding onto Lai was more like a formality, or at least a polite response.
"It's not a problem, I used to do something like that for my own wounds all the time. It's quick and easy and saved me the time and effort of having to wash out or explain bloodstains to my mother."
There was humor in his voice as he watched Lai move around with the bike, and somethign inside his head told him that perhaps today wasn't a good day to try and ride again. He should go back to what he was doing in the first place and get his Robin Hood.
"I'm grateful for the brief lesson in bike riding, Lai, but I think I may want to get back to my archery. I sort of promised myself that today I'd at least get one Robin Hood before I finished shooting."
It felt a little awkward to say the man's name after talking all this time and not having addressed him by it, though Einar did his best to not show this.
"You're welcome to come and watch if you'd like, I know I promised to show you how to use a bow."
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:03 pm
Lai pulled him up surprisingly without effort, though he had his suspicions that Einar had done most of the work in the lifting.
"It is pretty ingenious in quick situations." The Russian said, looking at his palm again and waving it slightly to try and get rid of the stinging. "I owe you for that." Lai detected the humor in the man's voice but he did not know if it was for the little story Einar just told or the fact Lai was moving the bicycle out of the way.
"I just wish it would have gone a little better." Lai responded sheepishly as he came around and kicked the stand down. "Maybe another time then? When there is less gravel and more grass perhaps?" He stood straight up again and looked Einar in the eye, there wasn't much difference in their heights, and Lai's eyes lined up with Einar's eye perfectly.
The little pouting feeling turned into one of pleasure as Einar said his name. It sounded nice in the Norwegian's voice and accent. Lai made no mention of this, afraid of what the man might think of him if he dared.
"I think it would be a nice change of pace. Sure, I would love to watch you and learn to shoot."
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:14 am
"Yeah, I think going on something soft like grass instead of gravel would make the whole falling lesson a lot less painful and would probably result with us getting less cuts and scrapes. I don't know if there's a clinic here in the LOTUS compound anyway, so we should play it safe."
Einar rubbed his elbow against his hip in an attempt to scratch it without using his nails, and he was moderately surprised to feel something peel slightly with that motion. His mind registered that he must have gotten scraped up as well and didn't feel it (not a surprise) and since he wasn't making any noise about it he decided not to mention the small cut to Lai.
The last thing he wanted was someone trying to nanny over him with fussy nature and demands of being careful.
"Let's head back over to where the targets are set up. I left my quiver and arrows over there since I wasn't exactly sure what the sounds I'd been hearing were before you came into the picture."
A faint grin decorated his face as he moved over and lifted his bow up from the starting point of where it had been set down, and with a little motion of his wrist he beckoned the Russian to follow.
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 11:30 am
"I would assume there is one, though I have not found such a clinic yet. But I agree all the same."
Lai inspected his scraped hand one last time, the saliva from Einar was drying and leaving his palm cool on top, but hot underneath as the cuts were irritated. That irritation would stop soon and healing right after, and Lai was no longer concerned with the nicks that now crossed his hand.
"Lead the way. I am glad you left them there, or else I might have something worse than a cut palm and stinging knees."
As Einar grinned and beckoned him, something at the back of Lai's mind sprang up with a red light. He had seen a grin like that before, but he could not place it. Einar had said they had met briefly before, so the Russian assumed it was then. Still, it was perplexing. When the light jumped up, an image of the gardens then a hallway did too. How odd.
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:05 pm
"If that's the case then I'm not sure I want you to try shooting a bow unless you've done it before. I don't know if my tongue could handle cleaning up so many injuries in one day. If it dried out I don't know what I'd do."
He wasn't facing Lai as he spoke, instead taking steps back towards the archery field which actually wasn't that far away, and he yawned as the pair continued to progress forward.
Einar wasn't so sure why he was so sleepy as of late, since he was going to bed each night, butt hat didn't matter right now. His first priority was to get these arrows shot and make a Robin Hood to show off. He hadn't gotten once since he started here at LOTUS, which made sense considering today was his first day out shooting, so. . .
"I'll shoot a few arrows first if you wanna watch, and then you can give it a go. Sound fun?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:12 pm
"My cousin showed me some beginner things about archery when I had free time and he was able to. I always missed."
At the mention of Einar licking him again, Lai's cheeks darkened momentarily. He was glad the other man was not looking at him as he strode along only a little bit behind. As Einar told him of his game plan Lai nodded.
"Sounds fun to me."
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:45 pm
Eianr completely missed the alternate meaning to his earlier words about licking Lai's hands, and he missed the blush on Lai's face, so the Norwegian young man remained pretty in the dark that he may have been making Lai remember who he was in one way or another.
As the pair finally reached the archery grounds Einar quickly picked an arrow up (as he'd lost the first one somewhere along the way) and knocked it into his bow, pulling the string back and firing without hesitation. It screamed through the air for a moment before striking the target that was about ten yards away - square in the middle.
"Not bad, not bad. Probably could have been more exact, but..."
He didn't want to show that he was a perfectionist at this just yet.
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:50 pm
As Lai watched Einar nock the bow with a misfired arrow and then watched it sail dead center into the target, he felt a little nervous. Einar was good. Einar was very good. Elite, to say the best word that came to mind.
Lai quickly shut his gaping mouth and had to comment.
"It looked dead on to me." His eyes were wide with a mix of shock, awe, and eager anticipation to try it out for himself. "That was a magnificent shot Einar."
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:12 pm
"You think so?"
Einar's cheeks held a bit of prideful flush to them, as it seemed like he wasn't used to be complimented for anything he'd done. Blushing like he was made him seem younger than his twenty-one years, and he moved to gather a few more arrows to put into his quiver before he'd shoot again.
Right now there were at least three arrows resting in the center of the target, their colored feathers making them easy to see against the startling white and black. If he was going to make a Robin Hood he had to pay such careful attention.
"I've never thought myself good at much other than making maps and exploring, but for some reason I became proficient at archery. Having one eye didn't make this any harder."
He shot another arrow, this one landing so close to one of the middle three.
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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:18 pm
"Yes. Very much so."
Lai had moved to the right hand side of Einar, but far enough away where he wouldn't get hit by the bow or any arrows that decided to not go straight and hit the young Russian instead. Lai had turned back in time to see color rise in Einar's face and something about that made Lai relax. Though, another red light came on.
The gardens, a hallway, Einar, Lai, Einar blushing...Five things that made no sense other than the connection between Einar and blushing. Lai was remembering something with Einar in it, but what? It was frustrating.
The Russian pulled himself from his inner thoughts and listened to Einar talking before firing an arrow.
"We all have our little secret talents. Some of which we are not even aware of until we happen upon them randomly. Maybe archery is that for you?"
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