Damn her, and her ability to twist his words back on him. People usually lost patience with him by this point; he'd never actually had a drawn out verbal fight like this before, without the advantage of even the slightest thread of his power. It was... really, really irritating. "Yeah, well. I'm not hungry." He was perfectly happy to lurk closer to the entrance of the cave, leaning casually against the wall and eyeing her with a look of disdain- though he couldn't quite force the underlying tension out of his muscles. He was doing alright keeping calm, he supposed, silently watching the warrior hunt with baleful ruby eyes, his fingers toying with the golden bangles that covered his arms. But though he had a knack for controlling others he didn't seem to be nearly as talented in controlling himself, as the sight of her kill made him tense visibly, restless fingers stilling as he clutched his bracelets hard enough to make his knuckles burn white.
The pack raced by and he shrank away from them, pressing into the solid strength of the stone wall against his back. But hey, if he wanted to eat he might as well try this hunting thing, right? Closing his eyes and forcing himself to breath deeply, he reached outward with his mind, brushing lightly against the many strange, feral presences that were the wolves. He focused on one- old, weak, one whose time was certainly coming sometime soon- and pressed his way in, not finding any particular resistance though the creature was certainly alarmed. But though the animal was in his control he wasn't really sure what to do with it. He could call it to him- have it trot right over, wagging its tail happily if he so chose, have the noble creature bare its throat and spear itself on his knife- if he carried one, that was. Goddess, he could could instruct it to simply stop breathing if he wanted to, lull it into a never-ending slumber...
Without any conscious decision on his part he'd been doing just that, his breathing growing shallower and shallower in time with the animal's. He noticed only when the old wolf stumbled, a great pressure on its chest as it fell behind from its pack, its family, his mate, his two grown pups, one of whose had a mate back in the den who was even now heavy with his grandpups- and Akira yanked himself away, eyes snapping open, chest heaving violently as his whole body trembled. He felt more than saw his quarry run back to the safety of the other wolves, following the rest of the pack deeper into the caves. The crafter forced himself away from the wall, his breathing slowly coming under control but still slightly ragged as he shouted hoarsely. "If you're done wasting my time chasing down your breakfast, I still have work to do!" He whirled away, stalking back toward the cave entrance- tension in his shoulders, raw panic in his eyes- praying to moon and sun goddess alike that the infuriating warrior was too busy with her fresh kill to notice how he deliberately hid his features from her prying eyes. words:534tag: kira
if you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
WORDS: 373
TAGGED: Akira
A/N: Nothing
After finishing her kill, Kira motioned for a few nearby hunters to carry it to the feeding den for cooking.
She scolded them for several minutes about how they should always have food ready. She went on about if there was a birth happening with no food for the mother. The hunters bowed their heads in shame and slowly walked back to the feeding den.
At that moment, she heard a wolf whining to her left. Kira noticed Akira by the stone wall with his eyes closed, most likely concentrating. The wolf whined again but something strange happened, it stopped. The wolf happily trotted back to its pack in time with Akira's heavy breathing.
Kira turned to look at him and noticed he was rather agitated, about something. Did he let the catch go? That usually didn't happen to mind readers.
She watched the wolf pad back to its family, it licked a particular female wolf's ears. She was most likely his mate. It was as though a bell had chimed inside her mind, it all made sense now.
Kira began to notice several things, for one, Akira was a jerk and second, he wasn't a total jerk so that was a bonus.
The warrior slowly walked towards Akira, pulling him past the feeding then, past the den area, past the plateau and back into Grotte Agave. She slowly set the gauze back on mouth and nose then quietly walked to an end of the cavern.
"Go ahead and finish so we can leave." She said, eyes locked onto what he was doing. After several moments passed withotu saying anything, Mami whispered, "Next time, don't go after the old ones. They tend to have families to go back to." She suddenly began paying attention to a particular spot on the wall as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
"Besides, don't you know that's why the other mind readers used weapons instead of their minds when hunting?" She added, a slight hint of annoyance in her voice mostly because he was making her feel guilty about wanting food. Kira hated hurting people, intentionally or not.
"Now he's making me feel guilty." She grumbled softly, not noticing she said it out loud.
He was perfectly content to be left alone, arms crossed over his chest, hunching slightly over himself as he turned away from her. He supposed she talked to the hunters for a while- he didn't know, didn't care, wasn't interested in anything going on outside his own head- and thus when she grabbed him by the wrist and led him along behind her like some insolent child he simply let her, eyes glazed, staring blankly ahead of him, acknowledging nothing. He allowed her to wrap the gauze around him once more, giving no indication of noticing her, and when she was done he returned dutifully to the vein of ore he had previously been working at. He sat, falling to the earth heavily, and the distant look in his eyes seemed to fade a bit as he pulled his precious hammer into his lap. He turned it over carefully in his hands, inspecting it for damage- if it had been dented even the slightest bit when that infuriating warrior had made him drop it there would have been hell to pay- and then with one smooth, explosive motion he brought it crashing down on the wall.
He had to admit, the racket it made was quite satisfying. He struck it again, and again, letting the rhythmic violence of the motion chase the anger and the fear and the pain out of his system. There was no more shaking or hesitating to be found; he was past the point of trembling anger, well into the stage of quiet, still fury, each stroke of the hammer falling with utter precision. His punishing swings only picked up as her harsh whisper wracked his body. "Yeah, well the-" clank- "young ones have their whole-" clank- "their whole lives-" clank- "left ahead of them." Followed by a crash, as something in the rock gave way to the raw brutality of his swings. He set his hammer down- delicately, at odds with every other sign of his body language- and proceeded to pry at the ore with his hands, working the precious metal free of the wall. "In case ya didn't notice, sweetheart, I make the pointy things, not use them." He worked a piece of the ore free, paying it very little mind as he dropped it to the ground and started working on the next one.
He should have known better; he really should have. What a stupid thing to do. What did he care what she thought of him? It wasn't even like he had been trying to impress her- more that he didn't want to seem weak, useless, like the poor fragile one who needed protecting. And see where that got him? He was a damned fool- and her comment about guilt, well, wasn't that just the icing on the cake. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it, warrior." He all but spat at her, giving up on trying to coax any more metal out of the wall and going back to swinging at it savagely with his hammer, frustration clear in his every movement. What did she know? What did any of them? Stupid, stupid, stupid- warriors, every last one of them. He couldn't complete his assignment quickly enough- if he ever had to look at her face again it would be too soon. words:555tag: kira
if you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
WORDS: 172
TAGGED: Akira
A/N: Nothing
Well his mood has just turned sour, she thought as her eyes stared at the work he was doing. Kira figured she might as well stay quiet and watch him work. He seemed like he needed it.
It was strange, most people around Lunarisclan viewed Akira as a dark, twisted and coniving being. Most simply avoided him when possible. Kira would have never imagined him to be the way he is. He acted harsh but had feelings. He pretended to not care when he actually did. Kira wondered why he acted in such a way. Considering she had the tendency to do so, she merely asked.
"Why do you do that?" Kira asked, loud enough for him to hear. After a moment, she continued, "You act like you don't care about anything or anyone and yet that's not true."
She shrugged, "You don't have to answer me of course. You're the great Akira, you don't HAVE to do anything." The last sentence was dripping in sarcasm with a teasing look in her eyes.
WHAAA I'M SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY, STUPID SCHOOL WAS IN THE WAY!
Yes, mining was nice. He didn't always care for it, but right now the hard physical work and the mind-numbing repetition were just the therapy he needed. He focused in on his work, trying his best to ignore her- and doing a pretty good job of it, if he said so himself. He managed to work another piece of ore loose enough to pluck at it with his hands, and once again began to use his gauze-wrapped hands to pry the metal from the earth. He was finally beginning to work off the internal anger, letting his shoulders relax and the tension drain from his face.
It was the only reason he didn't turn and snap at her the moment she opened her mouth. As it was, his somewhat lighter mood once again began to darken; it was pure luck that kept him from losing his temper and yelling at her. His mind flexed out toward her, prodding the edge of her defenses- not in anything resembling an attack, not really, more an attempt to ferret out the motivation behind these ridiculous accusations. "Damn straight, I'm the great Akira." He scoffed at her, visibly preening, doing his best not to let her see how her comments affected him. Who was she, to make him all uncomfortable? What he did was his own business, she had absolutely no reason to be prying around. He quite deliberately turned away from her, continuing to work diligently- letting his silence be her only answer. If she wanted to make assumptions, well, it wasn't like he had a reputation for her to ruin. words:268 tag: kira
if you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
WORDS: 160
TAGGED: Akira
A/N: Nothing
"Okay, I'm assuming you're just not going to answer so I guess I'll just leave it at that." And with that, Kira silently fumed in the corner. She felt him prod around her mind, a little less forceful from earlier.
"Thought I told you not to do that." She bit out, forgetting that protecting her mental state from attack took a lot. DaiFuyu had warned her not to do so repeatedly. Considering her immune system was not great, she was beginning to feel the effects. Her strength was draining, eyes drooping. This was bad. This was getting worse, and fast.
"Are you done yet?" She asked, voice beginning to sound weak. Her eyes glanced over at the small pile of ores right beside him. Due to her vision beginning to swirl, Kira could not decipher exactly how many pieces of ores he had gathered.
"You seem..." She trailed, took a breath and continued, "You seem to be done."
Finally, an assumption someone made about him that was correct. Maybe she wasn't a complete idiot, then- she'd at least learned something about him in all the time they'd spent together today. Though that rising hope was soon dashed, seeing as she thought she could tell him what to do with only a few words. "Oh, relax." He huffed- he didn't intend to take her over, not really, only to poke around a bit and figure out the motivations behind her confusing behavior. But there was something changing in her mental defenses, something in her body itself- her breathing? her heartbeat? he couldn't tell, and damn it all, he wanted in. And so he redoubled his efforts to find a chink in her armor, silently willing her to just give in, to let him understand her and whatever it was that was going on.
He might have brushed it off, or else ignored her in his sour mood, but there was something in the weakness of her voice that made his head snap toward her in alarm. Was it the fumes of the cave, maybe? He knew she hadn't come here much before, and despite both of their bravado he was well aware that it was a dangerous place. He might have let it go, let her save her pride- it's what he would have wanted were their positions reversed, after all- but when she trailed off to take a breath mid-sentence he knew something had to be done. He stood abruptly, stowing his hammer away in the pockets of his pants and scooping his collected ore into his hands. "Yeah, I'm about tired of your presence, too." He was peeling gauze away from himself and bundling it into her arms, pressing her bodily toward the exit of the Death Cave- and in his (no not worry that was ridiculous) morbid curiosity to figure out what was wrong with her he redoubled his efforts to get in her head, only meaning to seek out what was making her breathing so funny and perhaps steady it so he wasn't accused of, you know, murdering his so-called protector.
if you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
WORDS: 200
TAGGED: Akira
A/N: Nothing
This was not ending well, Kira was sure the next morning would come with a fever. She made sure to stay away from Death Cave, the fumes were bad for someone such as her. Considering she'd given him the gauze, her body was left completely vulnerable.
When she felt warmth wrap around her, and his body push hers towards the exit of the cave, Kira's mind simply snapped in place for only a moment. "What are you.." Her voice trailed as she stumbled, vision beginning to blur once more. "What's gotten into..." She took a slow breath, "you. Can't be seen with a person...remember?"
When she felt him probe at her mind, Kira was unable to do much but cough once she tried to stop him. It felt strange and uncomfortable, watching as her mind instinctively remembered the night of her birth. The times of sickness, growing up and working hard to improve the immune system that was doomed from the start. DaiFuyu teaching her how to mentally protect herself, informing her of the risks for someone with such a low immune system.
"What are you..." Kira protested, though it was most likely too late. "Stop it."
She stumbled, and he was careful to keep her on her feet, careful to keep her moving steadily toward the exit. "Yeah, well, can't be seen with a body now either, hmm?" He forced a humorless laugh, all bitterness with a slight edge of fear. "You know who'd be getting accused in that situation. Rather not be burned at the stake, thank you very much." Because it was totally self-interest that made his heart pound in fright as he struggled to keep her going. There was only so long he was going to be able to fool himself, but, well, he had different things on his mind right now. Later, later he could berate himself for acting like a fool- right now, he was concentrating on the task of figuring out how a powerful warrior such as herself became so sickly so quickly. Surely the fumes hadn't gotten to her that badly... right?
And then her mental barriers went soft- he didn't know if she was letting them down, it didn't really feel like it, and yet with a focused attack he could cut through her defenses like butter. Some nagging part of him told him not to do it, that she was a strong-willed, honorable person and he wouldn't be able to pull one on her on a regular day- but hey, this was an emergency situation, right? And so Akira forcibly opened her mind to him- and was nearly floored by the rush of memories that assaulted him. All of them memories of weakness, of sickness, of disease- and of their beloved leader telling her not to resist a mental attack, that it would send her already weak system spiraling down. "Damn it!" He snarled and yanked his mind away, just as the duo reached the exit and got their first breaths of fresh air.
He turned her bodily around, surprisingly strong for a man of his stature, and sat her forcefully against the wall. "And you seriously thought this was a good idea?!" He snarled, pacing back and forth in front of her restlessly, his anger quickly mounting. But he was a practical person, when it came down to it- fuming wasn't going to fix anything. And so he jerked to a standstill and whipped himself around to glare at her. "You're not going to die on me, right?" His arms crossed in front of him protectively as he eyed her, wary and guarded- increasingly worried about her and increasingly worried about himself for caring so much. words:420 tag: kira
if you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
WORDS: 408
TAGGED: Akira
A/N: Nothing
Once outside, Kira took a large gulp of air, fresh air. She was furious, for being so weak and for allowing him to poke around in her mind. She felt naked, unbelievably so. This was not something another human being should know.
"How dare you?" She hissed, "My thoughts and memories are mine alone!" A cough ran through her throat, a dry one. "You can't just barge into them as if it was your right! If you wanted to know what was wrong, you could have asked..." Kira trailed, "Nicely."
She remembered him, from earlier, stating that Kira should have asked nicely. Now, she was turning his own words back at him.
When he began yelling at her, Kira was flabbergasted. What was he angry about? "I don't.." She thought for a moment, her mind was getting hazy, causing words to seem complicated and out of sorts. "What? What did I think was a good idea?"
At his obscene question, Kira shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. My life span may have just shortened and I can feel a fever coming, so who knows." It was an exaggeration, after a well rested night Kira should be fine. If worst comes to worse however, she could end up the next morning with a fever. Nothing too grave but her body needed to fight off any signs of infections. In a fumes infested cave, the chances of infections and diseases are pretty high.
How rude! To think that when someone is sick before his eyes, the one thing he asks about is whether or not he can walk away without looking guilty. It hurt, a little. Not that the two had grown such a wonderful relationship together, but Kira expected more. She didn't know more 'what' but she simply wanted more.
It was entirely confusing.
"Don't worry." She added bitterly, letting her now heavy feeling head sway towards her arm. Her arm was being supported by her knee. "If you can get me something to write with, I'll make sure your name is clean if I do end up dying."
After a moment of silence, Kira took a deep breath. "Wouldn't want people thinking you killed me right? Since that's all you care about."
Kira remained near the wall, her head still on the uplifted arm. "You can go do whatever it is you do, go craft or something." Another breath, "I'll be fine in a few minutes, if not then an hour."
That was low of her. Turn his own words back against him, like it wasn't a completely different set of circumstances- like it wasn't one of their lives on the line, like she hadn't randomly started to collapse before his eyes. All he could do was scoff at her, his eyes fixed on her, scanning her features for any clue as to if she might be getting worse. Despite her obvious anger and confusion he hadn't gotten as much information as she feared- or he had hoped. It had been a brief flash of images, too much for even his mind to sort through all at once, and though he had the general gist of her condition he had no idea how to tell if it was getting worse or if it was getting dangerous or how to help her if it did. He didn't know if she was playing dumb or if some strange disease was frying her brain, but either way it was winding him up tighter and tighter, nervous energy bubbling up inside of him, making him fidgety, all of the tension determined to force its way out, manifesting in the form of anger, white-hot and unstable and utterly dangerous.
He snarled at her, taking a step forward threateningly before regaining control of himself and backing away again. "How else was I supposed to trust you? You're obviously either too stubborn or too stupid to watch over your own damn self!" How dare she hide such things. How dare the leader put her in such danger- they should have known, they all should have known, not to put her in such danger like this. Was was he supposed to do with this girl? "Seriously, you're the most pathetic excuse for a warrior I've ever met. Even little weakling crafter apprentices can hold up in there." He'd feel the sting of her comments later; right now his anger was burning hot enough to make him numb. He'd deal with it later. For now, things were too urgent to waste his time on verbal jabs and fancy comebacks. And so he simply took her blows, making no move to strike back, and gave her a twisted, humorless grin. "Yeah, well, leavin' a dead body out here ain't gonna help my problems with troublesome guards." Mind made up, he reached for her, hooking his arms under hers and yanking her upright. "C'mon, warrior, on your feet. The faster we get back to camp the better." So that he could wash his hands of her, of course- he had no other motivation, negative or otherwise. Obviously. words:435 tag: kira
Those words struck home. Her entire childhood was dedicated to becoming stronger and not letting her weakness overshadow her strengths. She trained, for many years and was now a respected warrior. It wasn't her fault that her birth came with infections. It wasn't her fault that she had to fight off said infections when she was less than a month old. It wasn't her fault and his words were hurtful.
"Seriously, you're the most pathetic excuse for a warrior I've ever met. Even little weakling crafter apprentices can hold up in there."
Kira could barely register anything after those words. Despite being friendly and brave, Kira had her fears and insecurities. Most clan members have forgotten about her weakness, it was rarely seen in action. Leader clearly believed that she could handle it.
It was so infuriating and unfair, she didn't know what to do with herself. All she could register was her right hand that slowly lifted, and connected with his left cheek. Hard.
"Don't." She muttered, "I am not a pathetic warrior." Kira couldn't hold back the sniffle that bubbled in her throat. "Everyone has forgotten about my condition, but of course, your words always have to strike home don't they?"
Kira shook her head and slowly dragged herself up from the floor. "Whatever." Kira began making her way towards the general connection of caverns. "Imagine me telling everyone about the reason why you stay away from hunting, your weakness."
Arriving at the den area, Kira sighed. "That's exactly how it feels like. Have fun with your ores." Her hand flung a piece of iron that she had gathered, in case he was having a hard time. "I have no use for that anyway." And with that, the warrior retired inside her den.
C'mon, c'mon, she had to be okay. This was weird for him, new, and it was frightening and he hated it. People despised when he worked his way into their minds, he knew that, but it was always so they would leave him alone or so he could figure out some puzzle that was stumping him. Much as they feared his power- and alright, he may have encouraged that fear once or twice- he didn't mean anything by it, he'd never done anything truly harmful, though perhaps a bit embarrassing. But this stupid girl, who though sickly was determined to enter a poisonous cave literally named Death, had gone and pissed him off and then what did she get? He'd just been trying to annoy her, and then he'd merely been looking for answers to help her and then he'd gone and broken her bloody brain. He didn't think it was uncalled for, to be freaking out a little! And so of course he'd defaulted to his caustic, bitter excuses for jokes, trying to make her feel something, anything, to make her respond and get some of this frightening pressure off of his chest.
And then she slapped him.
The bitch went and slapped him, after everything he'd tried to do for her! (And yeah, he wasn't used to being wailed on all day like the warriors were, that kind of bloody hurt, too.) And then she had the gall to go and pretend that her whatever-it-was was common knowledge! "How in the hell was I supposed to know?!" She's on her feet, he supposed that was probably a good thing, but at this point he's far too frazzled to be making good decisions. "Not like I grew up here with the rest of you! At least your precious 'everyone' knew in the first place." He doesn't want to deal with how much that idea hurts- she belongs here, and he doesn't, he never has, they never wanted him. And so it was all he could do to stand there as she stumbled away, flinging his words at her back as she left him there. "Go ahead and tell them. See if I care." Because he didn't care what They thought- he didn't! And sure, they might crucify him later for hurting her, but...
Oh, goddess damn it all. He had to jog to catch up to her, watching furiously as she disappeared inside of her den. "You can't just hide from me, you know!" He grabbed for the piece of iron she'd flung, dropping it unceremoniously into his pocket with the others, before walking right up to her tent and rapping at the doorway. "Goddess help me, woman, I will call a mender down here." He didn't like not being able to see her- he didn't like not knowing what was going on, though he dared not extend his mind to her for fear he'd cause her heart to stop beating entirely. "Don't make me go in there, KiraSune!" words:500tag: kira
Once inside her tent, Kira stumbled across a wooden stool beside her bedding. It sent her crashing towards her bedding, thankfully, but made a racket loud enough to wake the dead. Once she felt the soft feathers, Kira sighed and relaxed.
Her head was pounding, sounding like her heartbeat. It throbbed without rhythm, which wasn't giving her any sort of way to accomodate. Akira's commentary and screeching was not making it better, on the contrary, it was worsening the situation.
She wondered, if he didn't care, why was he still badgering her? When he mentioned bringing a mender, a ghost of a smile formed on her lips. Not that it changed anything, she was still pissed.
"Go away." She rasped. It was hot, she didn't need to waste energy on yelling at him. "I'm fine!" Kira tried her best to repress a cough but to no avail.
Once he threatened to enter her den, Kira growled. "You wouldn't dare."
There was a crash. A very loud crash, within a den containing a very sick person, who Akira could not see. It did not do wonders for his mental state. Surely he wasn't the only one who heard that, right? He knew for a fact that some of the hunters were up and about, it was at least breakfast time if not later, so surely some other one of his clanmates would come to check out the racket and relieve him of this unfortunate duty. Right? Right. ...but no one seemed to be coming. He cast a somewhat desperate look around him, hoping for some magical mender to come to his rescue, and finding nothing. Seriously, what was with this camp? The one time he wanted people around, of course there had to be none to be found, that was just his luck!
He didn't want to admit he was frightened- he refused to admit he was frightened, just flustered, that was all- and yet when she spoke with that terrible, raspy voice his agitation shot up another level. "You are very obviously not fine, you stubborn brat-" was he entitled to call her a brat? He was definitely shorter than her, was he older? he didn't know- "and you said so yourself earlier, so just shut up and let me help, alright?" He didn't know how, of course, but this was not one of the things that the Great Akira concerned himself with, not at all. All he knew was that he couldn't see her and that he didn't like not seeing her, and he most definitely did not like being told what to do- and so he went crashing into her tent with a "Of course I would, do you not know me?" and a look that oh-so-clearly spoke of his honest concern for the warrior. "Come on, don't be stubborn." words:313tag: kira
