paixaorpg | Likely the Storm of the Century [completed]

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Likely the Storm of the Century [completed]

Character(s): Hayate, Awayuki Himeno and Soma Cruz (as well as mentions of Paixaoan citizens and the hotel staff)
Content:Strong gusts of wind and a well-concentrated thunderstorm (followed closely by a snowstorm) make for some very drenched and cold clients arriving at the Actua Are in Joutenheim. Hayate rescues a weak Soma, thinking he's someone else. Then it is morning and after a brief moment of panic for both Hayate and Soma, Himeno comes to join the guys and then they have breakfast.
Setting: Actua Are [N9]
Time: evening, following morning
Warnings: not much, other than Soma fighting his own inner demons ;)

Hayate hadn’t expected the sudden downpour of the storm, or the amount of wind, lightning and thunder that the clouds had unleashed on the city. After maybe a half-mile or so of stumbling, Hayate stopped, tucking the Pretear under the arm she was clinging to and held her tightly, as if he were carrying a parcel and ran, surprisingly using only a minimal amount of Leafe to assist with the trip. (The storm itself providing enough of a push to keep him moving.)

Finally, some time later, they arrived at the hotel. Hayate opened the door and knelt down so that Himeno could stand up and resume clinging if she had to. Looking around, it seemed that even some of the blonde citizens had managed to get drenched in the unexpected storm.

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A singularly stark figure seemed to be wandering the street, looking very miserable (he was drenched to the bone and shivering) and very lost. Part of that could be attributed to the fact that he had no idea where he was.

Another part would be that he had lost something very dear to himself along the way to... wherever -here- was.

"Miiiiina! Where are you?!" he shouted, though his voice was hoarse and rough. It was hard to tell in the rain, but tears flowed from his eyes, and his shivering was not entirely because of the bitter edge of cold that had been creeping in through the rainstorm.

Soma was, truth be told, quite upset. His ostensible girlfriend, Mina, had been with him up until a day or so before. And then... she'd -vanished-. No forewarning, no sign of where she had gone. It was as if she'd never existed here. When he asked, the manager had gotten quite irate with him for suggesting that such a person had ever existed. Disheartened, he had set out, with nothing but the clothes on his back and the sword on his belt.

He'd been wandering the area for over a day now, without sleep, becoming increasingly shivery and fatigued. Now he didn't look far from collapse, and from the tinge of his skin, it was a good bet that if he did, while out here, he would not wake up again. Especially considering the biting cold. It had crept up over the past hour, and the wind spoke of an impending snow. That would definitely not do...

He looked like little more than a zombie as he stumbled through the storm toward the hotel, a shambling ragdoll of a man. The vessel of Dracula had indeed been brought low...

The trip had proved awkward for the still recovering Prétear. Clutching tightly to Hayate, she was quite relieved when he finally scooped her up. Cold and wet, she huddled to him for what little warmth she could get.

She was even more happy to be out of the rain though. Back on her feet, she still clutched Hayate's arm, if just for reassurance, as they stood in the hotel lobby.

Poor Himeno, she would have tried to release the white Prétear form, but doing so around so many people made her a little uncomfortable, but she was very tempted as her dress had soaked in a great deal of water, and she was quickly leaving a puddle around her feet.

Shivering a bit she glanced to Hayate hopefully. She could do with a room about now, so she could release her form and have a warm bath and crawl into a dry bed.

Yeah, that sounded really really nice about now.

Hayate met Himeno’s hopeful glance and carefully turned to the counter, "Two singles." He figured that Himeno was very accustomed to her privacy and he’d probably be less likely to get in her way (and hopefully avoid being a punching bag in the morning) if he had his own room.

The knight handed the woman at the counter a few damp crystal-trimmed leaves. Really, he thought it was a very odd method of currency, but…as long as it worked until he got a proper job again, he was perfectly happy using it.

She handed him two keys and he glanced down at them. Next to each other, that made things perfect….Second floor….Well, at least that didn’t seem as far up as it could be.

He glanced down at Himeno again, leading the way to the stairs, taking care to go slow enough up them so that neither of them would slip because of their wet boots. If she asked him, he would probably pick her up again. Either way, when they finally got to the rooms, he opened the door to Himeno’s room first and pressed the key into her hand. "I presume you can take care of yourself now."

He went to his own room and began to wring some of the water out of his uniform. The Prétear would be rather fortunate if she could release her form. He was rather regretful that he couldn’t do anything right now about his own uniform. He took a towel from the bathroom and began to dry his hair, looking out the window.

He then noticed someone wearing mostly white stumbling outside, "Sasame?" The Knight of Wind wondered if the weather had made him delirious. He took his key and took off. "Sasame!" The Knight called, as he leaves the hotel before teleporting to the white-haired man. He shivered a bit himself, upon realizing how much the temperature had dropped and the wind had an edge to it... Snow was coming. Close now, he realized that it wasn’t Sasame...His clothes were a bit different from Sasame's casual outfit, and his hair was slightly shorter than Sasame’s. All the same, as soon as he was close enough, he could tell that the man was very weak. His Leafe drained, although the knight couldn’t exactly tell from what...there was no presence that would hint at a demon larva, but that didn’t mean anything, he knew from experience.. The knight lifts up the young man and carries him back to the hotel, careful to keep him steady as he heads back to the hotel. He kept his guard up as he moved.

Upon entering the hotel, the knight looks down at Soma as he heads back to the stairs, completely ignoring the odd look he's getting from the bright-eyed recepionist......He’s crying. "Stop crying. You aren’t a child." Arriving back at his own room, he lowers the other man into a chair. "You’re heavy," he grumbles as he goes to get another towel from the bathroom.

When an apparition popped out of thin air not even five feet distant from him, Soma reached for the hilt of Laevatain. His hand faltered, however, and he instead drew his coat closed around himself. There was no way in hell he wanted to get into a fight right now; it would mean one of two things for him. Certain death, or... Well, the second option wasn't even worth considering, even if the dark lord sleeping inside him would certainly find some way of keeping its host alive.

Being picked up and carried was something new to him. He'd always been the one to do the rescuing, always the one to play the hero. He'd been through hell TWICE. Certainly that meant he had more dignity than this...

But apparently he didn't, as he was hefted onto the guy's shoulder like so many potatoes and carried bodily into the hotel. Soma was weaker than a kitten at this point, physically at least. He couldn't have fought if he'd wanted to.

Hayate's admonishment stung a little, enough at least to make him stop crying. He hadn't been bawling to start with; just a slow but steady stream of tears. He flat out didn't have the strength for anything more. Most of what he was doing now was shivering.

As the wind knight set him down in the chair, Soma had cause to be worried. Who was this person? Why had he come to the rescue of a complete stranger, in weather like this? Especially one as disreputable-looking as himself.

After a minute of chasing his mental tail like that, Soma gave up in favor of trying to not pass out cold. There would be time to evaluate the situation later... he hoped.

With Hayate's help, she'd managed to make it to her room with not too much trouble and after nodding to him that she could indeed look after herself, she slipped into the room.

She stood there a long moment just dripping before she finally snapped out of her stupor and finally managed to release the Prétear form. Standing there once more in her normal school outfit, she shivered. It was as wet as her Prétear dress had been.

Slipping into the bathroom, she ran herself a bath, and soon was relaxing in the deep, warm water. She would have been tempted to stay there all night, but had no desire to become more a prune, so pulled herself out. Drying off, she put her laid her clothes out to dry and quickly got into the bed, curling up under the covers. It didn't take long for her to doze off, completely unaware of what was going on in Hayate's room.

Hayate had been...amused by the reaction to suddenly appearing. The speed of wind was useful, even if it was wasting energy. Surprisingly, he hadn’t even noticed the sword immediately. If the young man was to look at the Leafé Knight's own uniform, he would have noticed that the white scabbard at his waist was empty. Hayate couldn't make a sword appear for his life without Himeno's help.

Hayate didn't particularly care about dignity. He did care about leafé...about life. It was a part of duty, after all. He wasn't about to let someone die just for being an idiot.

The knight glanced down at the shivering Soma as he returned with a few towels from the bathroom and a blanket from the closet. He tossed the blanket on the couch nearby and then addressed him. "My name's Hayate... You look like a colleague of mine. Don't be too surprised if you end up being called Sasame multiple times in the morning." (He said that not only for his own sake, but also the fact that Himeno might make the same mistake too.) He put the pile of towels down on the arm of the chair and then began to dry the white-haired man's hair as he continued talking. This whole situation reminded him of the rare times when he used to help the other knights take care of the younger knights. Although this was just plain awkward, since Soma looked like he was what Leafé Knights termed mature. "Protecting life is my duty as a knight. I couldn't leave you out in that weather even if I wanted to." Satisfied with his own analysis of the situation, he looked down at Soma, "What's your name and what were you doing out in that weather?"

The mortal vessel of Dracula's power shook his head. "Right now, I wouldn't mind if someone called me Barney the purple dinosaur..." he said, his voice a hoarse whisper. That he looked like someone this person knew was... slightly unsettling, given that white hair and red eyes were not at all common traits where Soma came from.

He had not missed the empty scabbard, strange though it was. Being babied, as it were, might have made him irate were he not half dead, starved and frozen. "Soma... Soma Cruz... I was looking for someone. A friend... Mina..."

Taking a little initiative, Soma reached out a shivering hand to take one of the towels. It was soft, and relatively warm, and fuzzy; imminently towel-like and squeezable. Not like his plushies, but it would do. Besides, he didn't want to get his plushies wet. They got mad when they were wet...

Hayate looked down when Soma shifted and took a towel from the pile. Evidently, he’d hit a nerve somewhere. He glanced over his shoulder toward Himeno’s room. She’d probably be asleep right now. Probably a good thing. He should probably write her a note to let her know they had company….He’d have to do that eventually. He ruffled Soma’s hair to make sure it was dry, as he removed the towel he was using to dry it. Satisfied, he put that towel on the floor and gently tugged at the sleeve of Soma’s jacket with one hand. "Before you cuddle with that, or whatever you're planning on doing with it, you should take this jacket off so it can dry out."

He was babying Soma quite a bit(which was a bit unusual for the Leafé Knight of Wind) but then again, his new acquaintance was hardly acting like an adult at the moment either.

There wasn't really much to be done for it; Hayate was right. Had he been in a less drained condition, Soma might have shapeshifted, thereby repairing his garments completely - but doing so now would invite the darkness to swallow his soul, and he couldn't have that.

Thus it was that Soma shrugged out of his long overcoat, at the same time revealing several very ornate, very obviously magical artifacts strewn about his person. Several potions of varying types; a money pouch that, while quite obviously packed, did not jingle; and a small arsenal of weaponry. (Literally small; somehow, there were quite a few blades shrunken to an absurd size in a pouch on his belt) ~~Take THAT, fifth wall! The Item Paradox is explained!~~

All these (alongside his primary blade, Laevatain) were stacked on the table beside his chair, and despite the ruffling of his hair, he did look quite a bit better.

"I... I don't know how to thank you," he said honestly.

Hayate looked at all the items Soma piled up on the table, staring hard at them, as he lifted the overcoat to hang it on the back of the chair, "...Interesting array of items." It was actually a disguised, 'what the hell is most of this stuff for?' He shook his head slightly, walking around the chair to face Soma, "There's no need. I told you, this is duty for me; it's a part of my job. The fact that you're alive is enough for me." It was true enough. The Leafe Knights were supposed to protect life at whatever cost. It was rare someone thanked them verbally and most of the time, they overlooked the lack of thanks they received. And anyway, the Knight of Wind feared being to blame for another loss of life; he hadn't stopped blaming himself for the last mistake he had made in rejecting Takako's love for him.

The wind knight glanced out the window at the snow, moving to another table and locating a pen and some paper as well as his journal. He wrote a note for Himeno about the fact that they had company and copied the same as a private piece on his journal, along with a concise summary of the day's work. Undoing the locks on the door that he had assumed attached to Himeno's room, he finally opened it, gave the room a quick survey, and then placed the note down on a table before returning to his own room and Soma, shutting and locking the door behind him.

From behind Soma, the knight addressed the next order of business, "Do you want the bed or the couch?" He hadn't claimed any particular place for himself and it didn't matter to him, either. Anything was better than sleeping on the floor.

It was perhaps best that nature had already taken its course in that regard; Soma was sound asleep in the chair, head tilted to one side, mouth slightly open. If Hayate were observant enough, he might have noted a slight elongation of Soma's canine teeth, but that was quickly receding. The biggest surprise would wait for morning, when Soma's eyes would return to their normal color.

For now though, Soma was dead to the world, and breathing normally.

From the pile of items glinted a small, ornately carved necklace. Wrought of jade with a gem of sapphire at its center, the pendant had a soothing effect for anyone who chose to look at it; even moreso for someone who chose to wear it, for it had been blessed at the very shrine where he had first been sucked into Hell.

With a bright keening sound, that pendant shattered, releasing whatever hold it had on Soma...

Hayate took the blanket from the couch and laid it over the now sleeping Soma. There's a glance at a small pendant glittering from the light on the table. It reminded him a bit of the peace and awe Leafenia inspired. When it shattered the peace was broken. Hayate's mind almost immediately flashed back to Leafenia and the shattering of Fenrir's crystalline prison. Despite everything that has happened since telling Himeno the story of the past, the knight is still blaming himself a little bit and uneasy about the Princess of Disaster.

He shook his head, letting his thoughts chase each other around for a while, Fenrir's not here. Regardless of what I think, Himeno says it's over. This is Soma, not Sasame. Soma has nothing to do with Fenrir. The mental reassurances don't cause the uneasiness to fade, but it keeps him focused on the current situation and his need to be the leader right now. He can't be worried while working, and anyway, there's nowhere to run now, so he has to deal with this in the present.

After a while, he managed to focus himself and get to bed. Propping up the pillows on the bed, he sat up for awhile, keeping alert, before his eyes finally closed to get some rest.

Soma slept a fitfull, nightmare-studded sleep that night. He relived first his experiences in the realm of Chaos (a warped version, in which he was forced to accept the mantle of Dracula), and then the culmination of his second visit to Castlevania - in which, to his recurring horror, he killed Mina.

It was as the deathstroke fell that he awoke to find a knife in his hand - one he recognised vaguely as the one Genya Arikado had given him. It was held in the stabbing position, and it was about an inch from his own knee, point down.

This was, as one can imagine, not a good sign. Not at all. After returning the blade to his pouch o' weapons, he wandered into the bathroom to see if he could, in fact, obtain a shower therein. As it turned out, he could; ten minutes later, he emerged from a steam-filled shower stall and didn't bother dressing. A few moments of concentration saw him flash between two forms - his current, human form, and that of a giant bat - and then back again. Emerging from the secondary steam cloud this caused, Soma was fully clothed, albeit not in the same outfit he had been wearing before. Not -quite- the same; his white trenchcoat had been exchanged for a black overcloak with a red lining.

Soma was wearing Dracula's mantle, even though his eyes had gone back to their original blue and his fangs had shrunk to normal size.

He didn't seem to notice, though, as he walked back out into the room, feeling considerably better than he had before.

Himeno had slept soundly through the night, and awoke as the morning false light poured in through the windows. At first she was confused as she glanced around the unfamiliar room, but memories of the day before seeped back to her mind.

So it hadn't been a dream. She had defeated Fenrir, then come to a strange city. But she wasn't alone... Hayate was here.

Slipping from the bed, she went straight to check her clothes, which were now finally dry much to her relief. Fixing herself up the best she could, and dressing in her school uniform, she opened the room door and slipped out into the hallway. Pulling her rooms door closed, and locking it with the key she'd been given, she made her way the short distance down the hallway to the room she knew Hayate had taken for himself.

With a brief hesitation, she knocked softly on the door.

Hayate had a decent night's sleep, even with the fact that he had spent quite some time thinking about everything that had happened and things Himeno had said about everything being okay now.

When the Knight of Wind saw Soma with a dark cape and red lining, he had to pause for a second. After all, he had last seen Sasame wearing a midnight cape with a red lining (http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m247/Moody_015/pictures/PDVD_064.jpg). After assuring himself that it was Soma, given the fact that he hadn't had an indication of the presence of a danger in his mind, he managed to say, "Soma, I prefer the white coat."

Hearing the knock at the door shortly afterward, he went to go open the door. After nodding to her in greeting and allowing her to enter the room, he said, "We have company."

Leading her into the room, he introduced the two to each other. "Soma, this is Himeno. Himeno, Soma."

When Hayate pointed out the change in Soma's attire, he recoiled. Not from Hayate; he had no reason to fear the guy. From the cloak.

Scrambling out of it as quickly as inhumanly possible and tossing it into a corner, he shuddered. As if things weren't already bad -enough-, he didn't need a thousand year old Count making his fashion choices for him.

The knock at the door shook him out of the momentary panic, and it was a much calmer Soma which bowed in greeting to Himeno. "Ah... a pleasure to meet you, Miss Himeno." Having accomplished that feat, he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry about last night... That cannot have been a pleasant experience for you, Hayate."

He might have gone on, but for one thing. A low, animal-like rumble came from the vicinity of his midsection, a sure indicator that his body wanted Food. Now. Lots of it. Blushing at the interruption, he turned a cockeyed smile on the both of his erstwhile companions. "D'you think they have room service here?" he queried, looking quite abashed.

Himeno was glad to see Hayate when the door opened, but confusion fell on her face as he said they had company.

Her first reaction was what Hayate's was like. Her eyes grew wide at the man before her at her first glance. "S-sas..." she started to breath out, but she closed her lips before the whole name was spoken. Second glance had made her realize, no, this was not Sasame, but he looked extremely similar. Almost uncomfortably so.

"S-sorry," she quickly apologised, even if Soma had not even gathered why she was apologising, "I'm p-pleased to meet you, Soma." She managed an awkward smile to him as she tried to cover and recover from her surprise. It became quickly apparent even more so that this wasn't Sasame, as the guy turned very bashful.

"Last night? What happened last night?" Himeno questioned, turning her gaze to Hayate, wondering what she had slept through.

Seeing Soma quickly get rid of the cloak was more than enough to confirm that it was Soma and not Sasame.

When Himeno asked about last night Hayate glanced down at her, "I made the same mistake you just almost did. He has quite a resemblance to our Sasame and I saw him wandering outside. He nearly froze to death."

Turning to Soma he said with some irritation, "I told you already. I couldn't leave you out there even if i wanted to. Doing my job isn't troublesome."

He probably would have continued if it wasn't for Soma's interruption. Someone would have reminded him sooner or later about the necessity of food that he often forgot. "I don't know about room service, but there's a small restaurant downstairs where we can get breakfast."

Soma shrugged sheepishly at Hayate's words. "I know you did. But it was still stupid of me."

The declaration that there was food close at hand seemed to galvanize Soma; he collected his now-dry coat from the back of the chair it had been set on, and then went about arranging his things. This took a relatively small amount of time, all things considered; it was something he was familiar with from a great deal of practice.

Finally remembering that there were two others present (how he had forgotten, one can only guess), he offered a wry smile. "You don't have to stop yourselves calling me 'Sasame', if that makes things easier for you. I can live with an alias. Besides, it helps to have a familiar frame of reference when dealing with something or someone new."

With a night's sleep under his belt and dry clothes on his back, Soma felt like a new man. Which, in more metaphysical ways than are comfortable to admit, he was.

Lacking anything more to say, he performed what was fast becoming a familiar gesture; he reached up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly, a half-smile on his face. Another new addition to his attire became apparent as he reached, a ring with a chaos knot engraved on its face. With a quiet 'huh', he regarded the ring for a moment, then shrugged. Thus attired, he sat down to wait for Hayate and Himeno to make whatever preparations they needed in order to face the world.

"Oh, I see," she replied Hayate after listening to his, rather brief, explaination. Although it was enough. "It's a good thing Hayate noticed you out there then!"

"Oh, no no! It's alright, Soma. It was rude of me to mistake you," she then quickly responded to Soma's offer, despite it's good intentions, she couldn't imagine calling anyone else by that. And there was always the chance Sasame himself might turn up here, and that would only make things more confusing!

Himeno then glanced to Hayate, perking at the mention of food. "Breakfast? Yeah! I'm hungry, let's find something to eat!" she exclaimed, excited at the prospect of food.

The thought of a plate piled high with pancakes made her salavate and her empty stomach growl. Yes, she was definitely up for a meal, which wasn't an unusual thing for Himeno. Eating was something she enjoyed a lot.

Hayate agreed with Himeno, shaking his head slightly at Soma’s suggestion. "You aren’t like Sasame, Soma." The Knight of Wind paused, "Secondly, Sasame did some...less than noble things for a knight."

At Himeno's agreement on breakfast, Hayate nodded. He glanced down at his knight uniform, as he moved to the table to pick up his journal and his small pile of crystals, coins and leaves that passed as currency here. It made him feel both awkward and special that he was wearing his uniform. He sort-of wanted to be able to have his two forms, though. The ability was there….He just couldn’t seem to find enough energy yet to pull it off, although that made no sense at all, since it was an innate gift to switch from one to the other in times of trouble or need. Then again, given the city, nothing made sense anyway.

He would have to hope that this state was only temporary or take into the consideration that the city was more dangerous than any had previously thought and something was innately telling him so. He wasn’t sure what to believe quite yet. He just hoped Himeno would continue being oblivious of the fact that he still wore his uniform at the moment. He couldn't deal with more awkward questions at the moment. At least not until he had a much needed cup of coffee.

He nodded at Himeno and Soma, "Let's go." He hoped Himeno wasn't going to eat everything off the menu.

A smile and a slight nod were given with the intention of conveying forgiveness for any percieved offense, though he wasn't. After all, he -was- more than one person...

Soma had to wonder at their reactions to his suggestion, at least until Hayate gave his brief explanation. Knowing that there was a subtext there that he had no place in, he dropped the matter entirely.

It was a rather nice hotel, well appointed even in the hallways, and as he walked through those halls, Soma had to admit he regretted entering in such a sorry state of affairs the previous night. Not a dignified entrance, being carried in by somebody else half-dead.

Though Hayate insisted it was his job to do things like that, Soma felt a moral obligation to repay the favor. Though he had no way of doing so at present, he had a feeling that an opportunity would definitely present itself if he stayed with them.

As they walked, Soma took the time to observe his two companions. They seemed fairly normal - she was rather upbeat and seemed to have an almost boundless good cheer, although there was something lurking deeper that Soma couldn't quite catch. Hayate... Hayate was a knight, in every classical sense of the word. Gallant, quiet, thoughtful, brave. A protector. There was a bond between them that made Soma's heart twinge, but he put it out of his mind as best he could. Mina wasn't here. He was beginning to wonder if she ever had been; his own memory had been known to play tricks on him, after all...

Truth be told, Himeno had thought nothing at all of the fact Hayate hadn't changed from his uniform. He didn't really stick out here anymore in that than he would in his usual clothing. If she had stopped to think about it, she'd probably assume he was just being more on guard, since they were in this strange place, and wanted to be prepared to fight or something like that.

She wasn't sure what to exactly make of Soma, but he seemed nice enough. His resembalance to Sasame was very startling, but she could definitely see the differences between them, upon second a closer look.

Once out the door and heading down the cooridor, Himeno latched onto Hayate's arm, slipping hers around his, as they walked along. She gave him a bright and warm grin. She was so happy Hayate was here, and that she wasn't alone.

Hayate blushed as he attempted to shift his arm out of Himeno's grasp, protesting a little. Honestly, he wasn't trying very hard to make her let go. He might not like having her cling to him in front of company, but he wasn't going to argue about it(at least not in front of Soma). He stopped trying to shift when she gave him one of her bright grins. He couldn't stay mad when she smiled like that. It didn't happen very often. After all, usually he was facing her fist.

When they finally got to the modest, but well-appointed restaurant downstairs, Hayate asked the hostess for a table for three and they were seated shortly with menus, among other visitors. The number of blondes in the city was still a bit unsettling to Hayate, although he had learned that it was the norm for many people in the city to be blonde and blue-eyed.

Soma looked over the menu with a practiced eye. He'd been in similar places in this city before, seen the sort of things they had to offer. Price wasn't much of an issue, for him at least; having a bottomless coinpouch around these magpie-like people certainly came in handy.

Suppressing a knowing smile at the two, Soma did his best to ignore the byplay between his new-minted friends. It was difficult, all things considered, because deep down he knew that, under the same circumstances, he would likely be doing the same thing with Mina. But then, she had never been here. Had she? It was all a blur now; he thought he remembered seeing her, but... it was all so -muddled-...

Himeno was well aware of Hayate's bashfulness. She'd expected it, but she went on holding his arm despite it. He wasn't going to get away that easy! Of course, Hayate didn't know. He didn't know what had happened at the Tree of Fenril. He didn't know how much they'd both come to really realize how much they meant to eachother.

Somehow, it didn't matter though to Himeno. She knew. She knew what he'd done, or was that what he wouold do? Or... ugh. Time stuff was confusing. Either way, Hayate was Hayate.

Releasing Hayate's arm to take a sheet, the Prétear sat herself down at the table, taking up the menu and scanned it for something to eat. It didn't take her long. She soon had closed the menu, folding her arms against the table's edge.

"Well, I know what I want!" she declared cheerfully.

Hayate glanced over the menu. Honestly, this was turning out to a slightly more expensive plan than he thought. There were some things he disliked. One of the chief ones being that he disliked having to admit that he couldn't do everything on his own. Being the leader of the knights made him more interested in being self-sufficient, and feeling responsible for just about everyone.

He closed his own menu as the waiter came over asking for their orders. "I'll have french toast and scrambled eggs. And a cup of coffee with milk." The waiter nodded, taking down his order.

Soma's own order consisted of a local soup he'd taken a liking to and sweet iced tea. A holdover from his days as an American, perhaps.

Pulling his coinpouch from his belt, Soma offered Hayate a knowing half-smile.
"Breakfast is on me. Least I can do for the people who saved my life." Or at least my sanity.

As he turned to the waiter to place his order, Soma blinked. The man was surrounded by a bright aura, almost blinding at first glance, as if he was suffused with light. That light caused an instant spike of sharp pain behind his eyes, and he quickly looked away. "Soup with crackers and a cup of iced tea. And an aspirin," he added hopefully, rubbing the bridge of his nose and not looking directly at the man.

Where the hell did that come from? he asked himself, trying to shake off the momentary dazzlement. I've never reacted to light -that- way before...

When the waiter finally arrived and the other two made their orders, Himeno pipped up cheerfully, "I'll have pancakes, please! Oh um... and tea, apple tea if you have it."

When the order was placed, and the menu's gathered and whisked away by the waiter, Himeno turned to look at her companions. "So.... What should we, well, do?" she wondered.

The Prétear wasn't exactly sure what to do to even begin to start to solve their problem - that being the problem of being stuck here. What were they to do? Where should they start? This was all very confusing, and Himeno didn't really like thinking about it, especially right now, so she turned her attention back to Hayate, awaiting an answer. That is, if he even had one.

Hayate gave a brief nod at Soma when he offered to pay for breakfast. It was followed shortly by a brief, confused glance when Soma looked away from the waiter.

As for Himeno's question.... Hayate wasn't quite sure where to begin either. He needed a job; he wasn't about to let Soma pay for everything. But what were they going to do? He barely knew the city.

He shook his head. Honestly speaking, much as he hated to admit it, he was as lost on the subject as she was. "We'll make the best of it. We'll figure out what exactly we'll do after breakfast. For a start, the papers that came with the journals will probably be useful."

Soma wasn't about to tell either of his new companions why he had looked away from the waiter. Not only was it embarrassing, the portents were very bad indeed. How was he supposed to tell them that his sensitivity to light was growing exponentially by the hour?

Focus, he told himself. You've beaten this before. This is no different. Mina can't always be there to keep you in line; Dracula's power does not control you!

After what felt like a short eternity, he managed to relax his grip on the table's edge. If Hayate and Himeno were watching him, they probably knew he was struggling against something. Just what, they probably didn't know...

To make a long story short, Soma did in fact manage to control himself, though it was more due to the food he was served (which had been laced with the blood of a lumen, unbeknown to him) than any efforts on his own part.

Hayate and Himeno ate and made small talk between themselves, occasionally casting worried glances at their companion. Whatever he was holding back, it did not bode well for anyone.

Soma fiddled about with his journal while they read and asked the odd question; after a few minutes his journal fell from numb fingers as a shocked expression came to his face. Though asked several times what was the matter, all he could come up with was 'She's here.'

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Likely the Storm of the Century [completed]

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