You can meet many people throughout the year. Some you remember fondly and still greet and see to this day. Others… Well, animosity can grow, even when one doesn’t mean it. Perhaps it is the strong scent of pine and cinnamon in the air as you walk down a snowy path, or the twinkling lights above you that glitter and dance in the dim light of sunset, somehow a sense of regret fills your heart. Whether it is the desire to forgive, or the desire to be forgiven, you feel the desire to reach out to someone you haven’t spoken to in a long time. A long overdue talk is needed. But it is up to you to respond to that burden on your heart.
The evening was settling and the sky was turning dark early as usual. It was barely 5 and the nights flickered on and Christmas lights string about lamp posts, trees, and wreaths of all design glowed like frozen fireflies.
There was Christmas music humming out of chumming shop doors as he walked the strip of stores and spiced baked goods were being sold from all kinds of food trucks.
He always walked alone. He had no real deep connections and Nico was too young to be humanoid. In the way he was, he could feel like everyone else and he could imagine a sense of community and connection. It was wishful self indulgence, him being disguised this way, but it was nice to feel he could belong here. To be as happy as everyone else during this time, though his heart had been aching for a while now.
It made him.pull up those he knew to mind and reflect on the new senshi he had awoken. To his time spent with Nix working to improve training and unity, and his personal work restoring the library. Yet he felt unaccomplished in this though better then he had been last year. Yet, it was nice to have gone out and get little things for those who touched his life in one way or another.
It had been some time since he saw Nat and much warmer, but thanks to her charity and guidance, he was dressed much mor sensible and even a tad stylish for his age and looks. In return, he wanted to give something back..
A knock came to his door, a wrapped present under one arm.
Indigo_Plateau
Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 2:15 am
MoonKitsune
Nataniel wasn’t big on the holidays. They were fine, he supposed. The break from class was nice, but other than that, they didn’t mean much to him. He wasn’t a religious man, and he tended to avoid his family when he could help it. His mom was a bit of a nag, and Nat didn’t get along particularly well with his selfish, spoiled little brother. He didn’t mind the cold, he didn’t mind the pine-scented air, or decorations. Everything was just… fine. No more, no less. It was a bit odd that everything was peppermint throughout the whole season. Why was everything peppermint? But otherwise…
It all just meant very little to him.
He proceeded through his day as usual, simply without the distraction of school. While December was out, Nat mostly remained secluded in his room, clicking away through Overwatch matches. He’d been falling behind in those, given that he had other activities to occupy his time more regularly. The time he would’ve normally spent playing games was typically given to December, now.
The younger man enjoyed them himself, and there were times they simply played together in his room, but they often ended up doing other, more personal and intimate things. Nataniel would never be one to argue against that.
And when December wasn’t around, he could busy himself with his duties for the Negaverse. In addition to quotas to meet, there was still the more physical aspect of his training. Nat had honed endurance and physical strength on his own, but actual combat tactics were still a bit foreign. Not impossible to grasp, but relatively new, just the same. …A lot of it was new. This wasn’t where Nat would’ve imagined himself being if someone had asked him six months ago what his goals were.
But since meeting Wolframite, Fettelite, Mali, and Arthur, maybe it would’ve been unreasonable to assume that things could stay the same.
Most of them he kept in contact with. Of course, he saw Fettelite every day, and Wolframite and Mali were more knowledgeable of much of the ‘newness’ Nat was trying to navigate. But Arthur was… different. He wasn’t like the rest of them, and there wasn’t much reason for Nat to keep too close contact with him. He almost wondered if it would be better to simply not at all… It somehow seemed unwise to try and be friends with something that could literally create the opposition to his goals. He liked Arthur, but…
Nataniel rested his chin in his palm as he watched his computer screen. It had somehow happened that he wasn’t as good at his Overwatch matches as he had been previously, and his team suffered more losses than victories as a result. He sighed and pulled off his headset just in time to hear a knock at the door.
There wasn’t any reason to question it. He’d ordered delivery about half an hour ago, and though it seemed a little early, it wasn’t so much so that he thought it strange. Nataniel stood and walked from his back bedroom to answer it, and when he opened the door, he stilled, a tension creeping up through his frame at the unexpected face that greeted him.
“Arthur,” he murmured quietly, dark gaze flicking from the Mauvian’s face and then rapidly to the floor. Odd, sometimes, how coincidences happened. Think of the devil and he shall arrive. Not that Nat considered Arthur that bad, of course…
He leaned past the frame and quickly peered out, looking around for anyone else. December could teleport home in an instant, so looking did little good, but AArthur seemed alone, at least. “What are you doing here?” Nat asked softly, taking the man’s elbow and giving him a gentle tug inside. “You know better, I thought. It is unwise for you to walk around-“ He gestured vaguely at the Mauvian’s frame. “Like this, and to my house-“
But… Arthur wouldn’t know, Nat remembered with a tiny frown. Arthur wouldn’t know what Nataniel was now.
Indigo_Plateau Crew
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MoonKitsune
Romantic Exhibitionist
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 5:49 am
"Hello Nat." He said, his cheeks flushed link from the cold weather outside. The cheeriness dampened a bit when Nat shuffled him in with a whisper.
"I wanted to see you." He said, stepping inside and watching him look around.
"You don't have to worry. My tail is tucked inside my pants. I put in a special order for a way to make it look more seem less when it's tucked. Oh, and I no longer give off a energy signature now. I could be right next to a Negaverser and they wouldn't even notice." As for his ears, he was sporting a winter cap in a Ashen dark blue that was pinching his ears.
Looking about, he glanced back. "Is your roommate out?"
And then he paused and held out the present to him. It was very clearly helmet shaped with wrapping paper of motorcycles with Christmas hats on them. "Merry Christmas."
Indigo_Plateau
Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:09 am
MoonKitsune
"You wanted to see me?" Nataniel repeated in a murmur, as if the concept was foreign to him. He and Arthur had met only twice, and even though Nat did like the Mauvian, over the past few months, he had grown uncomfortable with the thought of fully trusting him. How could he, right? When Arthur made the very thing Nat was to be fighting... Arthur created things trying to kill him, and Nataniel would be lying if he said he wasn't trying to kill them first.
They couldn't be friends. Certainly not the kind that shared Christmas wishes and presents.
Nataniel shut his eyes, and in the sense of privacy offered by his darkened vision, he reached, looping an arm around Arthur's neck and drawing him close. It was not his preference to be the one to instigate such things, and he rarely did, but what else was he supposed to do? He made friends only sparingly, and they had shopped together, and rode his bike together, and Arthur had sat in his lap while Nat rubbed his ears...
These things felt to Nataniel like the type of activity that would be shared between friends, and no matter how he felt he didn't need that connection, it was still nice to have, still something he wanted.
But it was something he couldn't have with Arthur.
"They are out," he whispered softly as he leaned far enough back to allow space for the things Arthur carried in his arms, though he kept a hand still placed at the side of the Mauvian's neck. "But I am uncertain if you should be here," he admitted. "And... I cannot accept this."
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MoonKitsune
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Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:55 am
Arthur had no expected a hug, but took it as a very good sign that he was welcomed to pop in like this more often. Smiling, he enjoyed the close proximity, reminded of the bike ride to the mall. Though compared to being outside going at high speeds on the city streets, Arthur noticed that Nat actually smelled of some kind of fragrance. It was not one he was familiar with, but it was definitely not the traditional human smell and instead decided that it must be his shampoo or body soap.
The hug was ended, but the hand still settled on his neck, and Arthur batted no eye at it, accustomed most of his life to hands placed on his back, neck, or atop his head. It was a reassuring, grounding feeling, though different when he didn't' have fur dividing him from that contact.
"Well of course I missed you. It has been a long time." He assured him, but frowned when the present was declined. Frowning slightly, he kept it out.
"Why? It's the holidays, and I wanted to give a present to my friend. I made it with you in mind after all. Well, parts of it." He said. His hope to see Nat's reaction to his gift was not going exactly as imagined, and he was growing concerned that maybe he misunderstood some key part of the holiday between people. "Did I - get the tradition wrong?"
He lowered the helmet-shaped package slightly.
"Why shouldn't I be here?" He looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but maybe his roommate didn't like any company over. If that was the case, that was a rather controlling friend. "Is something wrong?"
