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 Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 4:58 pm
  This is a PRP between Van (Kurama no Koishi) and Kiran (Kazu-chan). Setting:Even the rain doesn't stop Lunarians from venturing out to the shops.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 5:37 pm
The rain had been falling steadily since the early morning. It wasn't a hard rain, but the light drizzle was enough to soak the clothes of anyone who remained out in it for a while. But as the day grew into the late afternoon, Kiran decided he couldn't wait for the rain to stop. He left his apartment and tried to keep under eaves and balconies to keep as much out of the rain as possible as he walked the streets toward the section of the market that mostly dealt in the selling of jewelry. By the time he arrived there, his clothes were already most of the way soaked.
He caught a few wealthy looking Lunarians' sticking their noses up at him from under their umbrellas. They probably saw a drowned rat when they looked at him. But Kiran didn't care much about what they thought of him. He didn't come from an overly wealthy family, and he knew his appearance showed it. Normally, his attention would be on the jewels dangling around those Lunarians' necks or hanging from their ears or sparkling from their fingers. But his visit to the market was for a different purpose today.
Passing by the various shops, Kiran glanced over the different offerings that he could see from the front window, hoping to see something that would draw his eye. As he looked, his mind wandered. Rain and the dark clouds rolling overhead seemed to reflect his mood. Bumping into Van a few weeks ago had helped to distract him while they shared the beef wraps. After they parted ways, it didn't take long for thoughts to circle back around to the front of his mind. Things didn't improve during the last training session he had with Captain Yuan. While he successfully dodged an attack by his mentor, he lost his balance and crashed spectacularly to the ground while they fought among the trees. Kiran couldn't stand that look of disappointment on Captain Yuan's face at the end of the training session. It was like the man was saying he was wasting his time on a student that couldn't improve.
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 1:54 am
Something as harmless as rain wouldn’t stop someone like Van from doing her shopping, especially since she’d faced much bigger obstacles in the past while perusing the markets. She’d gotten into legitimate fights in the shopping districts before—it wasn’t something to be proud of, but what were a few drops of water to the fists of an errant Noble? Still, that didn’t mean that she had to like the wet weather. In fact, she disliked it very much, quite like the big cats she had such an affinity for these days.
The woman looked out from under the eaves of a shop that was well known for its necklaces, her gloved hands wrapped around a steaming cup of jasmine tea she’d purchased from a vendor down the street. Mild distaste was evident in her expression as she peered upward into the thick gray clouds. Even the umbrella hanging from her wrist wasn’t going to keep her entirely dry if she ventured out now. If she could, she’d wait the weather out, but it didn’t show any signs of letting up anytime soon. Knowing this didn’t make the captain feel any more inclined to get a move on and return to her office, where it was warm and dry. Work was no more tempting to the Legionnaire than the rain itself.
Drawing a slow sip from the paper cup in her hands, Van’s attention turned to the Lunarians in the street. They were few and far in between, or otherwise concealed under the misty nature of the weather, since the rain seemed to have discouraged quite a few others from sticking around if they didn’t have to. Her violet eyes fell upon a figure moving quickly among the shops, and immediately a pang of pity ran across her chest. The man had to be freezing, the way the water appeared to be running off of his clothes in rivulets.
Yet, he seemed so preoccupied as to not even notice. It took quite some time before Van realized that the man looked like someone she knew, but she couldn’t be sure, especially since he’d passed by so quickly. “Kiran, is that you?”
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:59 am
He reached up a hand, pushing some of the damp locks of hair out of his face. It didn't help much with the rain pouring down on him and dripping into his eyes. But he ignored the cold and the wet as he continued scanning the shops. Later on, he would have to head to work, which at least would be under a roof and provide some heat. No training sessions were planned for today, thankfully. He was already soaked and frozen to the bone, and he didn't wish to add covered in mud to that list.
Kiran sighed. Nothing so far was catching his eye. Most of the time when he looked at jewelry, it was to see what might earn him the most money from stealing it off another Lunarian. He became fairly good at being able to identify if a gemstone was real or fake. But looking for a gift was different. He couldn't look at jewelry with that critical eye of how valuable it was. Each piece of jewelry that he glanced at simply didn't say "the perfect gift" to him. He was always like that when it came to a present. He always tried to find the best gift possible for the recipient. But sometimes that meant driving himself crazy in the search.
A voice cut through the pitter patter of the rain. Kiran turned from the necklace that he had been examining through the shop window. He stared at the woman standing beneath the eaves of a different shop. With a laugh, he made his way over to her. "Good to see you again, Van," he greeted with a friendly smile as he leaned against the shop wall under the same eaves as Van. He hadn't expected to run into anyone he knew, not with the gloomy weather they were having. Most Lunarians seemed to prefer staying out of the rain, only a few here and there daring to come outside to browse the market.
"What brings you out on a day like this?" Curiosity always got the better of him, and perhaps talking would help keep his mind off recent failures.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 1:59 am
As Kiran approached her at the sound of her call, Van found herself hoping that he wasn’t about to hug her or initiate anything of the sort. This wasn’t because of any personal issue she had with the man, mind—it was just that the fighter was sopping wet and she was more than happy to remain as dry as possible. Even though the Legionnaire had lived in a rainforest for most of her life, she hated rainy days. They ruined her clothes, her hair, and her mood... and more importantly it was always anyone’s match in a battle under the weather.
Van greeted Kiran with a nod and a close-lipped smile. “Likewise,” was the brief acknowledgement. She took a sip of her tea before continuing, “I hope you weren’t planning on stealing that. I’d be morally obligated to stop you, and I really don’t want to step into the rain right now.” The captain hadn’t missed the fact that Kiran had been eyeing the necklaces in the shop window, and though she no longer begrudged him the circumstances under which they’d met those years ago, it wasn’t something she’d forgotten.
After a pause, she chuckled. It was a joke, something she’d grown accustomed to doing with the Noble. Their allegiances aside, it had been fairly easy for them to get along these days. Hopefully it would stay that way, but knowing that they might be called to fight each other at any moment always put a damper on things, not unlike the present weather. “I’m just waiting for the storm to pass,” she said, shrugging quickly, “Got caught on the way back to work. What about you?”
There were plenty of reasons a Lunarian might find him or herself in the city’s jewelry district. Van had never pegged Kiran for the sort to frequent the area for any legitimate reason, since the only time she had seen him around was the time he’d tried to steal her necklace. She believed, hoped he’d changed a bit since then, though, and so the question remained without accusation.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2012 4:29 pm
Kiran looked out at the gray sky from beneath the eaves. He was, at least, out of the rain now, but he was so thoroughly soaked that it didn't make much of a difference. As long as he didn't get sick, he wasn't going to care too much about getting a little - or in this case, a lot - wet. He rubbed at his nose when he felt a little tickle of a sneeze coming on and hoped that wasn't a sign that he was catching a cold.
He raised his hands. "No stealing, I swear," he promised, though it might have been ruined a bit by his grin. It was clear that the cause of their meeting was something that would never be forgotten. "A little rain won't hurt you." He chuckled tempted to flick some of the excess water dripping down his body at her. Somehow, he doubted that she would appreciate any humor in that though.
"I was just doing some window shopping." Kiran waved a hand absently at the shops across the street. And unfortunately for him, it wasn't going well because he hadn't seen the perfect gift yet. "Not for stealing," he added, like he needed to be sure that point stuck. "It's for a gift, and I'm pretty sure I'd get killed if I stole it." His hand reached up to rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck. His mother probably would kill him if she ever found out that he stole anything that he got her for a gift.
"What a miserable day to look for a gift though," he mumbled, and with a sigh, he tilted his head back to stare up at the bottom of the eaves. He found, half wondering how long the rain would last.
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:11 am
Van couldn’t help but smile uncertainly in response to Kiran’s quick reaction to her words, and for a moment they shared identical expressions, at least until he mentioned the rain that continued to fall from the sky in torrents. She made a face, wrinkling her nose slightly in quiet disagreement, as if the thought of getting cold and wet actually physically pained her. “Well, at this rate, I could probably just swim back to work,” she deadpanned, violet eyes fixed on the gray skies. If it was comical that someone like Van was so put off by a bit of rain, she didn’t realize it.
She quirked an eyebrow when Kiran continued, still puzzled at the Noble’s presence in this particular shopping area. It wasn’t until he mentioned gifts that everything made sense, but of course that begged the question...
“A present? For whom?” The words tumbled out of Van’s mouth, curiosity having gotten the better of her. Then, recollecting herself, she cleared her throat, a faint smile playing on the edges of her lips. It didn’t occur to her that the gift might have been for a relative, but she couldn’t be blamed for this, having been the recipient of many of those kinds of gifts in the past. “Is there something you should be telling me?” she asked then, her tone mildly accusatory.
But she was unable to keep the act up, and the grin finally broke across her face. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Kiran! Is she pretty? I could help you pick something out, if you want~” Suddenly the rain wasn’t so disheartening, now that she potentially had an excuse to return to jewelry shopping.
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Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:06 pm
Kiran released a soft chuckle. At the rate the rain was falling, it seemed entirely possible that they might actually be able to swim their ways to their next destinations. "A swim might be nice," he thought wistfully. It had been a long time since he went for a swim. Most of his time near water was spent fishing or on the docks selling the fish that he caught. He didn't usually go jumping into lakes and rivers and the ocean and splash around for a while.
He turned his head, confusing knitting across his brow when she asked if there was anything he should be telling her. The subtle accusation in her tone only made him feel more lost at the question. He was about to speak when a grin broke out over Van's face. Her next words made him throw back his head and laugh. He held a hand around his waist as his sides started to hurt from laughing so hard. "Oh, I haven't laughed like this is a while," he said, wiping away a tear. Or maybe it was just some rain water that slipped down into his eye.
Kiran shook his head, drops of water splattering out from the damp strands of his hair. "No, it's nothing like that. No girlfriend to speak of." He glanced over to the stores across the street. If he thought about it, he guessed he could see how Van would come to the conclusion that he was shopping for a girlfriend. "I was looking for a gift for my mother, maybe pick up something for my sister if I see something nice." He turned back to Van and grinned. "Would you like a gift too?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 3:09 am
Van wasn’t a funny person. It wasn’t that she was particularly unfunny or that she didn’t have a sense of humor; she did. Jokes were simply not a part of her everyday conversations as a captain, and any attempts at humor on her part were premeditated and delivered in a dry, biting tone. So when Kiran started laughing before the words had entirely left her mouth, the woman reacted the way anyone else in her situation might have—with stunned silence.
If Kiran was confused before, it was certainly Van’s turn to feel the same way now. As far as she could tell, she hadn’t said anything funny. At least, her teasing tone was nowhere near deserving of the laughter that was shaking the Noble’s frame. It was clear that something about what she’d said was absolutely hilarious, but she couldn’t understand why. Van opened her mouth to speak, but words failed her for the moment and she was forced to wait until Kiran’s laughter had subsided to inquire about what was so amusing.
“What’s so...” she began, her brow furrowing slightly in bemusement. Then he answered, and immediately she felt a rush of warmth color her cheeks. “Ah. I... I didn’t mean to presume.”
It seemed silly now after the fact—the misunderstanding had been a big one, but not one that was unreasonable. Rubbing the back of her head somewhat awkwardly, the captain could only feel her blush deepen uncharacteristically when her friend teased her. “No, not for me,” she answered quickly, flashing Kiran a quick smile in an attempt to show that she was recomposing herself, ”You gotta save it for your mum and sis! ...and perhaps that girlfriend, too, when you get one.” Van didn't bother to reflect much on why the Noble was single; everyone had their reasons, after all, including herself.
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Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 11:19 am
It felt good to laugh like that after being in such a poor mood of late. But remembering how long it had been since he had a good laugh also reminded him of the reason why he had been down recently. He had to improve his skills or he would be little use to the Nobles in battle if he continued to lose. Kiran shook his head with a ghost of a smile still on his face. "You couldn't have known," he pointed out. "We never really talk about that kind of thing."
He shrugged. He had offered. "My mother and sister won't be expecting anything expensive," Kiran explained and chuckled. "They'd probably think I stole it if I came home with expensive jewelry as gifts for them." He rubbed the back of his head as if imagining the slap his mother would give him if she even suspected that he stole something that he was giving her as a gift. She could have frightening strength sometimes.
Now it was his turn to blush. Heat crept up his cheeks, and he ducked his head with an awkward chuckle. "I think it will be a long time coming before I have a girlfriend." He was too preoccupied since being a student at the Academy to think about romancing a girl. His mind was even more distracted in past months by his failures. He couldn't exactly impress a woman with his tales of his less than heroic losses in battle.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:12 am
“This is true,” Van admitted, still sounding a little embarrassed about the matter. She and Kiran never discussed the topic of boyfriends and girlfriends for a few reasons, now that the captain reflected on it. For one, most of their encounters these days were on the battlefield, which hardly left room for idle chit chat. And when they did come face to face as civilians, there was apparently nothing to discuss in that subject, or if there was, Van was supposed to keep it a secret.
Friend or not, the fact still remained that she and Kiran had sworn allegiance to opposing factions. “Old habits die hard, hm?” Van asked then, smiling gently through the jibe even though she had just been reminded of one of the reasons that their relationship could never truly be one without conflict. They were safest when they only talked about the smaller things, such as jewelry and gifts, and Van was perfectly happy with keeping things that way—straightforward. The simplicity of the nature of their friendship was one less thing she had to worry about.
She wouldn’t press for details about girlfriends, or lack thereof in this case, but this didn't stop her from expressing mild surprise at his apparently low sense of self. “Really? I think you’re—” she stopped short, trying to think of a becoming trait in the Noble. “nice? Honorable. Well, mostly—you’re not perfect.” Van found herself laughing at the rather lame attempt she’d just made at reassuring Kiran. Vacuous compliments came easily to her; they were part of any good routine in buttering up a Noble for information. When she meant said compliments, though, they were more difficult to execute.
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Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:32 am
"I doubt that old habit will die anytime soon," Kiran admitted with a quick chuckle. "Much to my family's great disappointment." He had been picking pockets and lifting jewels for most of his life now, and though he had some rather bad experiences when he got caught in the act, he didn't see himself giving up his thievish ways.
He wasn't a thief all the time, however. He had times, like now, where purchasing something the honest way was more important. There was a certain pride in being able to enter a shop and pay for something with money that he earned through hard work rather than stealing it from someone. But he still enjoyed the thrill of trying to get away with something without his target realizing that they had lost something of value.
Kiran blinked at Van then laughed as she stumbled over her compliment. "I doubt anyone is really perfect," he said with an amused grin playing on his lips. Nice and honorable? Those compliments had him feeling a little embarrassed, and he hoped he masked any sort of blush without her notice. "You would probably be closest to it though." He stared up at the falling rain as he said it.
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:35 am
Van continued to smile, although the light of amusement in her eyes dimmed a little when Kiran admitted he still hadn’t kicked the horrible habit. She couldn’t quite put a finger on the emotion she felt upon hearing this—was it disappointment? The captain had a certain disregard for some rules and regulations, and she most definitely followed her own sense of justice, but there were some things that were more difficult to overlook.
Thankfully, the fighter lifted her attention away from his purported imperfections, and Van found herself grinning a bit too widely at his words. She, perfect? Once upon a time, she might have believed herself so, but a long line of mistakes and lessons had made her come to a private realization of the contrary. “Oh Kiran,” she sighed, rubbing her nose in mild embarrassment in spite of herself, “You can’t just go around telling everyone that!”
Reaching out to tap the Noble on the arm, she continued teasingly, “And you have to look them in the eye when you say it, you know.” Compliments, for Van, were not hard to come by—they just felt a bit strange, coming from someone she often fought with.
Deciding then that she’d embarrassed the both of them enough for an afternoon, the woman pulled the umbrella at her side up over her head, making to step back into the rain. “I’ve got to get going, but perhaps I’ll see you again soon?”
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2012 2:05 pm
Kiran hunched his shoulders as he lowered his head, looking all the more like a drowned cat with his dripping wet strands of hair hanging down in front of his eyes. His gaze darted toward Van, and he felt even more embarrassed by his comment. He was no expert handing out compliments. It was easy when it was someone in his family, but even more difficult when it was to a pretty lady. And Van definitely fell into the category of pretty lady.
"It's not like I'm being untruthful," he admitted awkwardly and with difficulty met Van's gaze. It was much easier to make such comments when he wasn't looking at the person, which probably explained why he didn't do so well in the girlfriend department, if he gave more effort to that area. But the war still provided a great distraction for him.
Kiran chuckled lightly as he pushed away from the side of the building where he had been leaning. Knowing their relationship, the next time they met might not be a pleasant encounter. The next they met might be on the battlefield. "Perhaps," he agreed with a grin, his cheeks still slightly pink. "Hopefully, the weather will nicer next time." The rain hadn't let up that much while they spoke.
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