paixaorpg | la Fée Verte [completed]

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la Fée Verte [completed]

Character(s): Asuka and Howl.
Content: Asuka trying to find comfort in alcohol and Howl finding himself running away from the tavern's goons to Haja o Que Houver.
Setting: The Cheap Prayer (F5) and then over to Haja o Que Houver (F4)
Time: early Saturday morning, 2-3 AM-ish.
Warnings: Alcohol. ~~And adorable-ness x)~~

Taking off her bandages turned out to be a mistake as Auron had taken off the arms of the plugsuit so that he could treat the wound. The outfit should be able to moderate the temperature of her body, but the designer probably did not think that she would be roaming the streets during snowfall in the wee hours of the morning. The snow hitting her still open wound is also very unpleasant as it leaves a piercing pain as if needles are puncturing the wound.

Part of her mind is telling her that she is mad and that she should go back to the hotel now as Auron and The Prince and Jenet would worry and they have been so so nice and Asuka really does not want to break their hearts after she has broken her mother's her foster parents' Misato's Hikari's hers. But her feet trudges on and when she finally looks up after seeing reflections of lights on the sludge pooling around her feet, she finds herself looking at a broken down sign saying "The Cheap Prayer."

The place seems to be quite lively still, despite the time, and not thinking about how she has absolutely no money on her, she walks into the dimly-lighted tavern. She sits herself on a seat as far from the entrance as possible and finds a table in far corner of the room which has no candle placed on it. She floats to the table and flops herself down on the hard wooden chair, feeling the fatigue of her muscles only then.

It is strange how the darkness of the tavern and the pitiful wailing of the female soloist performing on the stage near her table matches so perfectly with how she feels inside. She snorts at the thought and flips through the menu placed on the table. Realizing that the numbers placed in brackets right beside the name of the cocktails are the alcoholic concentration, she smirks at the first good thing to happen to her in quite some time. Seems that the owner is decent enough to let me know which is the most alcoholic, she thinks to herself.

Asuka gestures to the waiter who has fat deposited under his eyes and nowhere else. Asuka hides herself behind the menu to spare her eyes from such a view, muttering, "Absinthe," before handing the waiter the menu and turning her face to the stage. She realizes that she has no money to pay with, but she finds that she does not really care. The waiter did not seem to realize that she is only fourteen, and she is glad for it because maybe alcohol can help her feel better. Misato usually seems much more manageable when she has her Yebisu, after all.

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Given that his sleeping patterns were now off, Howl had found that he could fall back to old habits -- such as wandering around at night to check out the variety of establishments that surrounded the Haja o Que Houver.

The wizard had wandered down south and had come across The Cheap Prayer. Admittedly it was the artwork drawn onto the walls that had caught his attention first, but after finally settling down inside the establishment itself, he had to admit that the music had it's points. As did the food.

Leaning back against the seat, Howl smiled and kept his eyes on the woman singing upfront. She was beautiful as well as talented with her voice. Twirling a coin in his hand he thoughtfully considered approaching her...

...after the performance.

Maybe.

The waiter returned very soon with the Absinthe on a lavishly designed glass, and Asuka is glad for that as she needs to get her mind to stop thinking as soon as possible before she starts screaming in the tavern. The lady performing on stage actually has a very beautiful voice, but in her state of mind, the sound of her singing the pitiful blues just fuels her anger and frustration.

She picks up the glass of Absinthe and brings it to her mouth, sipping a bit of the alcohol for a taste. If not for her pride, she would have spurted the drink out again, the bitterness is absolutely too much for her, but still realizing that there are people in the room, she gulps down the substance resulting in the bitterness lingering at the back of her mouth as well as on her throat. She coughs a little, covering her mouth with her hand to reduce the noise while staring at the glass with anger.

The fact that the drink is unpleasant fuels her need to finish it in vengeance. She glares at the drink, trying to even out her breathing as the scent of alcohol fills her nose. Picking up the glass and studying it, she takes a deep breath and takes another gulp of The Green Fairy while laughing inwardly at the idiocy of alcoholics who probably drink the stuff every single day. More than that, however, she is laughing at herself because she is now enough of an idiot to drink it as well.

She chuckles to herself as her head suddenly feels heavy and yet clear. Choking again at the acridness of the substance, she evens out her breathing first before downing the whole glass in two huge gulps, resulting in even more coughing. She is choking out laughter and it hurts her head but she does not care and she laughs even more because of it. Putting her hand over the part of her head that is bandaged, she suddenly feels angry since the drink has not yet succeeded in getting her mind from thinking about things that matter. She raises her hand to get the attention of a waitress standing not far off and gestures for more of the drink.

Asuka places her head on top of her folded arms and watches the attractive woman on the stage sing a rather mellow song (http://www.savefile.com/files/8005215). Her voice rings clear throughout the tavern and the fact that the accompaniment can barely be heard makes the beauty of her voice even more distinct. Asuka is not able to focus on the beauty, however, opting to focus on the words that the lady is singing instead:

nobody sees when you are lying in your bed, and i
wanna crawl in with you, but i cry instead.
i want your warmth but it will only leave me colder when it's over,
so i can't tonight, baby...
(Fiona Apple, "Love Ridden (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fionaapple/loveridden.html)")

The drink has caused her to feel more extreme emotions, and so she starts sobbing into her own arms. People are probably staring since the tavern is quite silent and a sober and well Asuka would nevercry in front of people. Asuka is far from well and not so sober, however, and so she weeps in heaving sobs while muttering insults to herself.

He was forming a number of images in his head -- mostly memories from home, when he heard the distinct hiccuping sound that often accompanied a fit of crying. With a frown, Howl turned around and caught sight of what seemed to be a woman in the table behind him with her head buried in her folded arms.

He watches for awhile, keeping his silence and noting that some of the other guests in the establishment regard her with brief glances and then cold shoulders.

He catches sight of the bottle of Absinthe and dismisses the urge to shake his head. That, my dear, is what you get for drinking the strong stuff. He thinks, though he himself makes no move to console her. Howl leans back against the chair to return his attention once more to the performance, leaving the dark to be punctuated with the soft sounds of anguish.

She realizes the glances and cold shoulders thrown her way from the other guests of The Cheap Prayer and ignores it, but she catches a glance from a certain blonde-haired man who is now concentrating on ther solo performance on the stage.

The substance she just drank exaggerates her every sensory device as well as her temper. And so, unreasonably, she stands up and wobbles toward the man. "You..." she slurs while pointing at the man still leaning back and watching the woman sing. The man probably did not notice her pointing as it was more of a coarse whisper than the intended shout.

She stumbles between the chairs, invoking strange looks from almost everyone in the tavern. Even the lady performing on the stage seems to be distracted by her actions. Asuka almost trips over a chair, but she steadies herself and continues to stagger to the man. She slams her uninjured hand on his table, using the hand to also balance herself as the room seems to be spinning very quickly, "You... what are you looking at?"

Howl blinks at the girl, noting that she's a bit unstable on her feet. He straightens, caught a bit unawares, and lifts a light fist to his mouth as he clears his throat. When he looks up again, he offers her a somewhat sheepish smile. "I have no idea what you mean, my dear."

He keeps his gaze on hers, eyes unflinching, face revealing nothing.

Her anger is unjustified, but Asuka cannot see that. Instead, she sees how this man is so much alike the Doll who shows no emotion at all. Feeling the anger rise onc again, she stumbles to the side a bit when the room spun and mutters a 'tch!' while trying to appear as stable as she can manage.

She takes a deep breath and in her anger raises her hand and tries to slap the man.

He is aware of her intention even before she does it -- he credits it to her body language as he can easily read the shift in the shoulder, the rise of the elbow.

He does not bother to make any move to block her, instead the wizard rises smoothly to his feet and sidesteps her easily given that the alcohol has done enough damage to the stability of her system.

Catching her wrist, his face remains neutral and he slips her hand through his arm as any gentleman would. "Let's go, my dear. I believe this place does not do you any good." He leans in close and whispers briefly in her ear. "Perhaps next time you would opt to choose something a little lighter than Absinthe." His voice is soft and low, "Let's get you some fresh air, shall we?"

The moment he catches her wrist, Asuka's normal response would be to attack from below with a swift kick of her well-trained legs. However, she finds that her foot just would not respond. She instead wobbles over as her feet starts to give way beneath her. While she would never admit it, Asuka is rather glad that the man is holding her wrist.

Asuka lets the man handle her hand and leans to him for support. Let's go, my dear. I believe this place does not do you any good. Perhaps next time you would opt to choose something a little lighter than Absinthe. She mutters something under her breath and closes her eyes as all the spinning the room is doing is making her extremely sick.

Let's get you some fresh air, shall we? Asuka nods slowly to the man while chewing her lower lip in an attempt to stop herself from feeling so sick. She is feeling worse and worse every second, however, and she is definitely going to throw up soon enough.

He leads her outside, all the while considering that exposing her to the cold might not be the best of solutions. He isn't quite sure why he's bothered to help her. Perhaps it is because she had enough gall to try to take a swipe at him and that makes her interesting enough to approach in his book.

He opens the door with one hand, the other still keeping her close to his side as he maneuvers her out of The Cheap Prayer and near a wall. Turning, his face is a rather thoughtful mask as he holds her at arms length in case she decides to up-end whatever there is in her stomach onto him.

He has nothing afterall, save for the clothes off his back and some currency that he had estimated would likely keep him for a week, if not less.

"You look rather green, princess." He teases softly, one hand falling to her shoulder to steady her.

While the man was leading her outside of the tavern, Asuka realizes just how pitiful she has become; she cannot even walk on her own anymore. Her emotions amplified by the substance, she starts sobbing. She realizes that crying probably makes her all the more pitiful than she already is, but Asuka finds that she cannot stop herself from choking and muttering "I'm sorry," over and over again.

All the choking that crying makes her suffer is not doing much help to her upset stomach either. The man notices this and holds her at an arms length in case she throws up. You look rather green, princess. Half of her wants to deny his statement, no matter how true it is, but she feels too sick to actually say anything. Still choking she pushes him away and lets herself drop to the snow, heaving out only bile and water.

She has eaten nothing the day before, but her stomach still insists on throwing up more bile. It stings her throat and eyes and she just cries some more at the pain and the shame of having a complete stranger show so much kindness to her after she has done something so idiotic.

[ooc: aww, thanks so much for making me icons! i cannot seem to be able to open the page however :(]

He watches her thoughtfully and kneels by her side, one hand coming to stroke her back gently as she continues to throw up. Poor thing... He thinks as he pulls back her hair from her face, the reddish strands limp and damp from the cold sweat that glistens on her forehead.

"Not too much," he murmurs, looping one arm around her waist to steady her. "You'll hurt yourself if you force it." Frowning he asks, his voice more placid than concerned: "Haven't you eaten anything?" He glances over, and hides his frown as he notes just how young she is.

"Good lord," he whispers, his voice still steady and calm. "You're just a girl -- what in hell's name were you doing in there?"

While there is no chance that Asuka would ever admit it, she is glad that the man was stroking her gently as it gave her something she can turn her mind to while her stomach seems to want to throw itself out. After awhile she stops throwing up and recedes to just gasping for breath while trying to make the ground stop spinning.

Haven't you eaten anything? Asuka does not feel like answering, but the man has been kind and the least she can do is answer him. So she mutters slowly, "Don't have money," she regrets instantly that it sounds so curt.

Good lord, you're just a girl -- what in hell's name were you doing in there? So the man had been kind to her, but he dared to call Asuka 'just a girl'? She gathers all the strength she still has left and pushes him away while shouting as loud as she can, "Not just a girl! I'm not just a girl! Asuka is a woman..."

It is needless to say that her repeating it like a child throwing a tantrum makes the contrary more likely.

Her outburst surprises him more than anything else, and with the hopes of doing damage control, Howl reaches out, catching her hard in case she even considers running off. He pulls her towards him, slipping his jacket off in one smooth motion, consequently inverting the coat to reveal a different sort of pattern on the opposite side. He wraps the article of clothing around her shoulders and pulls her to his side, turning his eyes away from anything else except the direction of forward.

"Stop that." His voice is sharp and intentional in order to hopefully silence her cries and he pulls her along with him, his strides long and swift as he moves them away from The Cheap Prayer.

Over her head, while she'd been near hysterical, he'd glimpsed what appeared to be tavern's goons. He remembered that he'd paid his tab ahead of time -- but he had the inkling that this little one hadn't, so it was for the best that they hightail it out of there immediately.

"Where is your hotel? If you don't have one, I guess I'll have no choice except to take you with me." His feet may have picked up in pace, but his breath and pulse maintained the same steady rhythm.

Stop that. His voice has a certain authority that silenced her hysterical crying into subtle hiccups. She holds on to his shirt as he guides her away from the tavern in long strides. She holds on to the man's coat until her knuckles turn white. Realizing that the man had taken up in speed, she looks over her shoulder, looking for what it was that could have been the reason. Her breath is caught on her throat as she sees very huge men who are even taller than Kaji coming up to them.

Where is your hotel? If you don't have one, I guess I'll have no choice except to take you with me. His voice brings her attention back to the man leading her forwards. She almost blurted out the name of the hotel that she was staying in with Jenet, Auron and The Prince, but thought that she does not want to go back to them. She stays silent but tightens her grip instead.

Howl glances only briefly to her when he feels her grip tighten on his shirt and he shifts just slightly to cover that hand with his own. It was a good thing she was light – but then that was to be expected considering that she was (despite her earlier protests) just a girl.

She's probably no older than fifteen. Though my own estimate could be wrong. He turns his head, his eyes half-lidded as he looks down at her. "It’s either you’re quiet because I frighten you, or you’re quiet because you have nowhere to go." He looked up and away from her again, his feet just skimming the ground as he led them past the pawnshop, the streets, houses, and straight on towards the Haja o Que Houver.

"Or," he murmured, "you do have somewhere to go, but you don’t plan on telling me just yet." When the road came into view he slowed his pace, sure now that whoever had thought to follow them was well behind.

Halting, he set her down on the ground and faced her, one hand coming up to brush the bangs out of his eyes. "Which is it?" He tilted his head to one side. "Though you needn’t worry. I’m tired and too lazy to go any further than that hotel." He lifted a finger to point to the lights of where he'd spent the previous day. "So you’re welcome to stay with me if you like." He turned away then, fingers brushing lightly through the strands of pale blonde that fell to his shoulders.

He was tired.

She has half a mind to shift her hand when he placed his over hers, but instead lets it stay there. His hand is pleasantly warm. She closes her eyes while still holding on tightly to make herself less dizzy. It’s either you’re quiet because I frighten you, or you’re quiet because you have nowhere to go. She opens her eyes slightly when he talked to her, muttering softly under her breath, "I'm not scared."

Or you do have somewhere to go, but you don’t plan on telling me just yet. He placed her on the ground. She lets go of his shirt and tries to balance herself before looking up at the man again. Which is it? Though you needn’t worry. I’m tired and too lazy to go any further than that hotel. So you’re welcome to stay with me if you like.

She definitely does not want to go back to Jenet or Auron or the Prince, but she does not really want to stay with this man just because he pities her either. "I want to stay with you..." she mumbles, "but I want to repay you."

Asuka looks up into his eyes, "Tell me your name and I will pay you back someday."

He can’t help but smile at the words that leave her mouth. So formal, for a wee thing. He yawns, one hand falling over his mouth as if he could catch his breath between his fingers. With a slightly lazy amble to his step he begins to walk towards the entrance of the hotel, "It’s Howl." He yawns again and stretches a bit, one hand gesturing her over without even so much as a backwards glance.

She’s a child at the least. He thinks to himself, glimpsing her reflection in the glass of the door. And a young lady at the most. Unlike the man he’d met previously, this little one moved with a gait of a clumsy teenager.

And that vulnerability is something that he appreciates greatly. It rendered her just as helpless as he probably was, if he’d had any sense to consider himself helpless. And that helplessness was precisely why there was no need for the guises, or the giving of yet another false name.

"Come along, Scarlet." There is a teasing tone in his voice as he pins her with a nickname, and he shifts slightly, turning so that he is facing her. "Let’s get some food into that system of yours. And if you’re smart, you’ll pass out and sleep until noon tomorrow."

He holds out a hand, oddly enough remembering Markl and the first time he took he boy into his home. It is never pity, afterall, that prompts one to bring home strays. When she is strong enough, they will part ways.

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la Fée Verte [completed]

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