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Who: Kitsyn, Caim, whichever of Trel's she wants to bring in.
What: Kitsyn and Caim are a bloody mess and need to get looked at.
When: After this.
Where: A room inside the magic door at the Place; Kitsyn probably sent Bryn over to fetch someone rather than have everyone at Trel's get up in arms and worried by her beat up appearance.
Why: ...lawl.

~~~~~

The room was in whites, light grays, and medium to light blues. Comfortable colors, but not anything dark enough to be "gloomy". And not just plain, sterile white. Kitsyn couldn't stand white rooms. But the room was clean, open, and had a sink and cabinets and soft places to sit or lie down... she figured that was all that was really needed for it. She almost felt bad about the dirt she and Caim were getting all over the floor, though.

It was just them in the room at the moment; they would look at eachother, and away, and shift a bit nervously. Now that they were thinking again it was... akward. Neither of them were really sure how to react to the other just yet. The fact that they were probably going to get interrogated about why they were all banged up with torn clothes didn't really help. Or... well Kitsyn supposed she was going to get interrogated. Caim being mute sorta let him slide by on that one, even if he could write. She wasn't sure he'd want to "talk" about it just yet anyway.

Heck... she wasn't sure she wanted to explain... precisely what happened. Her body told her well enough it was true but her mind hadn't really caught up to it yet. And... they probably ought to... discuss things privately first. Her senses were alight with nervousness right now, though. She didn't feel ready for questioning, but there wasn't really that much time to try and calm down or whatever before paintball this afternoon. If she didn't show up for that Zell would come over and see her anyway, and she'd still be a mess and get asked questions. At least this way potions or whatever would have time to work before the afternoon session. And she needed something... after the heat of moment had died down her ribs had started aching, and Caim had a bit of a limp on the way back. Sigh.

Caim looked remarkably bland at Zell's question and glanced over at Kitsyn. There was a smirk in his eyes, if not on his face, she didn't even have to look to know that. Kitsyn sighed as Aurum disapparated. "We got in a fight." Then after Aurum returned and made her first comment there were twin expressions of blank shock on their faces. There was no reaction for a long moment as Aurum continued talking, and then...

Kitsyn just burst into semi-hysterical laughter. "I was, I was gonna ask... if you, thought we'd need someone... Ow! Ribs hurt, laughing bad, can't stop." She snorked and fell over on her less pained side in an irrepressable fit of giggles.

Caim's blank expression was turned on her for a moment before he sighed and walked over to the sink. It was low enough for a kitsu to use easily, and also had one of those spray hose attachments. So guess what he did?

"ACK. CAIM! OFF WITH THE WATER!!!" Kitsyn turned a glare on him after he stopped spraying... only to get a faceful of water as he squeezed the handle again. After a moment of spluttering and trying to block the spray with her front paws she just charged him. He dodged of course, and she chased him around for a moment before veering over to the discarded hose and then gave him a good spraying.

They simultaneously seemed to remember they had company and glanced at the two blondes from the corners of their eyes. "So... yeah. We got in a fight. I think Caim has a sprained ankle."

Was it odd to see the two of them playing like that? Possibly for Zell at least. Caim had a bit of a frown after getting sprayed, but Aurum had said they needed to get cleaned up before they could use the potions... so he went over to the sink and started to scrub. This wound up requiring the removal of his shirt, and he frowned at the rips in it. Hrm...

At Aurum's words about their clothing Caim glanced over and then folded up the shirt before putting it aside. He then proceeded to strip out of the rest of his clothes quite unselfconsciously. No point being bashful in front of the healer, Aurum, and she was naked all the time anyway. Zell was another guy... and culturally there just wasn't the same need to be so paranoid about that sort of thing for him. And Kitsyn... well, there wasn't any reason to hide from her now, either. If he'd been thinking straight he wasn't sure he'd have done what he did but he wasn't going to turn around and try to take it back or pretend it hadn't happened.

Kitsyn was momentarily distracted with Caim before she just barrelled through a summary of the earlier events. "I was taking Caim up to see the paintball course and show him around, and I was being typically foot-in-mouth about it, and he got frustrated with me. Only this time he bit my ear instead of leaving or something and... well... He bit my ear! I smacked him and we just sort of... got in a fight. Only by the end it was more of a game than a fight but we got a little overboard anyway." She grinned sheepishly at Aurum. "We weren't trying to hurt eachother... not really. If we were things would be a lot worse. We were just a little... enthusiastic with our rough-housing."

She then prodded Zell in the shoulder. "Er... you mind? Caim might not think anything of stripping down in front of you but that would just be weird for me, dude, and probably for you too..."

Kitsyn couldn't help a little bit of a playfully mean grin behind Zell's back as she trotted over to the sink and started disrobing. "Oh come on, Zell... you know how the salve potions work. You looked shellshocked enough there I figured it'd be easier for me to say something." She grinned even more at his reaction to Aurum's innocent comment. On the one paw, the Elric had a point. On the other, Kitsyn knew the way Zell's mind worked. "Atae's just... Atae most of the time, Aurum. Kind of like you're just you. We don't really think about it until things like this come up 'cause we're just used to it." She shrugged and winced slightly as the motion made the muscles around her ribs stretch. She decided to refrain from warping Zell's mind any more for the time being and didn't add any commentary about how she was pretty certain Zell and Atae hadn't reached that particular junction in their relationship, anyway.

Kitsyn turned on the water in the sink again and started trying to scrub the gunk out of her fur. The clothing had actually helped with keeping them from getting too dirty, and there weren't nearly as many little injuries below the beltline as above. She knew Caim was looking though, and couldn't help wondering what he was thinking. Aurum's innocent question derailed her thoughts and her actions, however, and she just stared at the water running over her paws. And fought the urge to crawl in the sink and hide. "I, ah, th-think we probably still need to talk that out between us, Aurum." It was hard to hear someone else asking that when she didn't know what was going on herself yet. Hard and slightly painful...

Caim was still watching her, and an eyebrow rose slightly at Kitsyn's reaction. At her attempt to remain calm. He was glad for her honesty... all this time, her honesty. No matter how nerve-wracking, or confusing, or painful it was for herself. Or for him. The only thing she'd tried to hide was how she'd known him... but only because she didn't know. And she'd at least told him that when he'd actually asked. He still didn't know for certain what he wanted. But...

Kitsyn finished her washing up and turned around to step over to Aurum and found herself blinking down at Caim's notepad. She read it, re-read it, read it again, and then sat down slowly. She felt a bit dazed, and her voice was husky and soft when she finally managed to say something. "Thank you..."

It read, I won't make any promises. But I'll try.

Kitsyn watched him watching her for a moment before she shook her head. "Let's hurry and get out of here... I just realized I forgot breakfast and I think my stomach might declare war on me soon." There were whole conversations in the looks between the two of them that didn't necessarily need to be shared with the two visitors, and while she was getting hungry, it was more the akwardness of the situation at the moment that prompted the subject change. She was getting hungry... but her stomach was still doing Olympic quality gymnastic tumbling.

It was a testament either to how off-balance Kitsyn was mentally right now, or to her desire to avoid retribution that she wasn't taking this opportunity to tease Zell about Atae. Or quite probably both. Maybe after she didn't feel like a reed in a hurricane she and Zell could trade teasing remarks about their relationships but she personally felt it was a wonder she was able to maintain a comprehensible conversation.

At Aurum's apology Kitsyn and Caim both looked at her in bewilderment. Then Kitsyn started laughing again, and Caim snorted silently. "Aurum, sweets, it's fine. I mean yeah they're probably going to get dirty again later but I don't really feel like having to explain blood on my clothes to everyone I see for the rest of the day..." Still grinning she wiped the start of laughing tears from her eyes and got dressed. She blushed a bit when she realized Caim was watching her but turned and stuck her tongue out at him. He got up and rather brazenly nuzzled at her neck, which turned her an altogether new shade of red, and then dressed himself. It was so very nice but also bizarre at the same time...

Anyway, once everyone was properly presentable again Kitsyn trotted over to the grinning Zell and gave him a friendly not-so-gentle punch to the shoulder. "I have no idea if she's eaten yet or not, but I can't imagine her passing up a chance to be google-eyed with you." She grinned. "You go see if she's in her room and then we can figure out what small country we're invading for lunch." She opened the door to the front room as she said this and padded over to one of the bean-chairs, making certain to wiggle herself quite thoroughly into it.

Relax. At least, she was trying to. She could already feel a bit of improvement from the potions but she imagined her ribs were going to be fussy for a little while longer. Injuries that effected bones and joints always seemed to take longer to fix up even with the aid of magic. It helped somewhat when Caim over and sat near her. Not on the bean-chair, but next to it, and he let his head rest on it. Not... really overtly affectionate. But trying. It was more than she could have actually voiced to ask of him.

There was a brief moment of silence from behind Atae's door, and then, "Just a second!" That was followed by the sound of bed stuff being rumpled, if such could be believed, and a thump which was then followed with a, "Dang it!" Then a brief scrabbling, some paper rustling, and the sound of a book closing. And then finally the door opened and Atae all but pounced on Zell in an effort to give him a REALLY BIG HUG. "I ate this morning." Pause. "Well... I remember thinking about it, anyway..."

There was a far longer silence from behind End's door and Atae disentangled herself from Zell to step over beside Aurum. "Well he was here earlier and I haven't heard him leave, he usually says something to me..." She opened the door just enough to peek her head inside and then pulled it back out with a silent paw-over-mouth giggle. "I'll never figure out how he can sleep like that..."

Inside the room Endless was sprawled half on his bed and half off, his hind quarters being the part that was on the bed and therefore it was sticking up in the air and his tails were draped down and covering most of his head. They were probably blocking out the light from the window and at least some of the noise from those gathered in the hallway. Atae knew End could really be a tough guy... but he'd softened up a lot around his friends and family. He'd probably have felt like an idiot if he knew someone found him in such a silly position, but it happened more often than he realized and even Atae had to admit he looked just... rediculously cute when he did things like that.

In the room Endless woke slightly at the snuggling, and pried an eye open to peer at his visitor. Red and gold wing over him. White and gold fur beside. Aurum snuggling, Aurum stroking his cheek, Aurum falling asleep. It was nice to be snuggled. His eye drifted closed and he went back to sleep.

And Atae hadn't hurt herself; just dropped her book. She confided this to Zell after waving farewell to Aurum. "I was reading when you called me out. Hopped out of bed so fast I dropped my book, I had to find my spot again so I could put the bookmark in." She grinned sheepishly, but it was a happy grin. Her head tilted at Zell's comment; was there anything left that could happen in this house that would suprise her?

Apparently so. Now that her mind wasn't so distracted with reading or the immediate glee overload of seeing Zell her empathy decided to kick in. She paused right before they stepped out of the hall, ears and eyebrows both alternately raising and lowering for a moment. There was one sense of calm confusion; uncertain, but determined. The other, the one she felt most keenly, was confused as well, but also the emotional equivalent of a leaf in a storm wind. When she actually looked out and saw Caim and Kitsyn she was genuinely bewildered that Kitsyn was the one with the shaky psyche. She couldn't remember Kitsyn ever having been in a state like that before... the scarfed femme was usually the one holding everyone else together.

If Atae had been like Turan, she would have gone over to give Kitsyn a reassuring snuggle right then and there. But Atae didn't just snuggle like that, except with Zell, and she was thrown a little off balance by Kitsyn's state of mind. She was hiding it well from the outside, but Atae didn't have to go by her posture alone to know how she was feeling. For the time being Atae decided it would be better just to play along. Any comforting right now might actually make her friend break down a little, and Atae knew that Kitsyn really hated to have episodes like that in front of people. It was a rather unhealthy trait that they both shared, this desire to be strong for the sake of those around them and pretending not to have problems even when they could use some help with them. She'd try to talk to Kitsyn later; it was all she really knew to do right now.

So, on with the show! "They... uh. Ok then." She stepped out of the hall with Zell then, padding over to sit near the slightly befuddled pair on the bean-chair. She was genuinely a little shocked that they'd actually hooked up; Atae knew Kitsyn had been hoping about it really hard for a while now, and she'd hoped a bit too for her friend's sake. But Caim had made a real point of distancing himself, and now... well. "I... really don't know what to say so I'm going to just ask "What's up" if that's all right with you." Now if she could just stop looking back and forth between them like she couldn't believe what she was seeing, that would be helpful.

"Yeah. Bit of a suprise, huh?" Kitsyn grinned and reach out a paw to plop on Caim's head, and the warrior gave her a bit of a look and slid out from under it. Not upset... just... still feeling a bit weird. After a moment he put his head back down and Kitsyn's mind finally relaxed a little. "So what do you two want to do for lunch?" The trick was to just keep trying to do everything normally. Right?

Atae was finally getting over the mental hurtle of Kitsyn and Caim together, and grinned a little bit at the antics between the two. Ok, it might be a while until they really started being comfortable with eachother, but she just had a feeling things would work out. There was already a major shift in Caim's "broodiness", though there wasn't that much outward difference aside from him not constantly frowning right now.

And Zell was being very affectionate today. Did knowing Kitsyn finally got her wish put him in a better mood than usual or what. She glanced at him only to see him blush, and her mind finally registered that bit of something else in his affections before her empathy finally quieted down again. It was her turn to blush, especially after Zell started nomming on her ear. He wasn't feeling... was he? Was she now?

That wasn't really a train of thought she wanted to examine during the current circumstances so she forcibly switched tracks. She flicked her ear to free it from Zell and playfully swatted at his face with it before he turned to offer his lunch suggestion. She decided to curl her tails around behind him before adding her two cents. "Well, we have enough hotdogs for a normal meal... but since Zell's here we'd probably need twice as many." She gave him another playful swat, this time with one of her tails.

Kitsyn chuckled and stretched out. Ah. Starting to feel a little better already. Soooo... how's HQ sound then? Since Caim can't be over at Trel's for too long it seems like the best option. Unless Zell can get some more hotdogs from Trel's without the rest of the Zells following him back here." The final sentence was said in an entirely teasing tone, and she turned a very blatant grin on the fistfighter.

((Yay options for not overwhelming ourselves? o.o; And Caim's just sorta sitting there. He's not all that picky about food. XD))