"So here we are….I'm sorry if it's messier than I said it was…."
Alduin gazed around with narrowed eyes. Maka and Soul had brought him to their house/apartment. After walking through the Academy, which actually seemed much more advanced and sleek than it looked like from the outside and then leaving it into the cityscape, Alduin had finally arrived at the same place where he had been crashed on and pummeled by a series of unfortunate events featuring all of the Soul Eater main characters. The house they were at was nothing much different from a normal house. However, of course, since Alduin was from a different and more medieval world, all the houses around him looked absolutely alien from what he expected. He did not really get bothered by it though since he had now become more acclimatized with the strangeness of the world known as Earth, or what he rather call as Planet Dirt.
Oh well, Maka and Soul's place was actually one of the rooms in the house, kind of like the rooms that you rent in an inn, only that each 'room' was actually a set of rooms that form an apartment. Theirs was on the fifth floor, which they reached up to with stairs. Thankfully the 'stairs' part was still consistent with his world, though Alduin, unused to his humanoid body, had spent a good amount of time trying to catch his breath as he struggled to climb up. Usually when he went up heights, he could just beat his wings and fly up there. Unfortunately, the wings were first to peel off when he fell over into this world, a memory that was still haunting him as he caught up with Maka and Soul, who stood outside at a door numbered '506'. All they needed to do was to insert some strangely-shaped metal piece called a 'key', though it surely did not remind Alduin of his Nirnian keys, into the lock and thus here they are now.
Apartment 506. And it smelled delicious.
Apparently, someone else was in the house. That person really loved fish and bathing. Evidence? The strewn piles of fish bones and soap water bubbles everywhere. Furthermore, the smell of said fish still lingered in the air like a mist and while Soul and Maka obviously cringed at the raw smell, Alduin felt himself love it. How can you blame him? He's a dragon god. Obviously he has been to a river and had his fair share of raw fish.
"Is this a...what do you people call it...ah,bra?" Alduin felt something at his feet and picked up the purple piece of clothing. "So this is your 'cat' problem?" Alduin whistled in sarcastic wonder as Maka ran around trying to clean up the place while Soul dropped down into a sofa to slack off. The entire place was a living room but it had been messed so bad as if a hurricane had been five hundred times tearing it up. "Are you sure that a cat did all this?"Alduin asked skeptically as he tiptoed through the mess, picking up lingerie which he did not know how to respond to, as well as popping bubbles that came too close to his face.
"More like 'witch' problem…." Soul commented as he picked up the remote and began to watch something. Though he was spending more time flipping through some things rather than actually looking at the screen of whatever he was supposed to using. Whether he was just trying to stay unnoticeable or just plain bored, Alduin did not know. Neither did he understand that the images suddenly flipping up on the black box-like object were called channels and that the object itself was a television set. Once again, Nirnian god meets modern life.
"Witch?" Alduin could not help but think about hags and Daedra. Surely they won't have patience for a bra?
"I thought I told you already." Alduin jumped back as a voice came from below. Looking down, Alduin jumped even high at the sight of a small black cat with a witch's hat on top of her head and cupping over one of her ears. "A talking cat? I've heard of a talking dog but a cat?"
"Who says that talking cats are impossible? And anyway I'm not a witch, just a cat monster with an incredible amount of raw power. And you are, sweetie?"
"Alduin."
"Well, sweetie pie. I'm Blair. And-" Poof! A puff of purple smoke covered up the cat. When it cleared, it revealed a well-endowed lady with purple long hair and in very revealing clothes. Much worse than any prostitute Alduin has seen in Nirn. He immediately recoiled back away from her. Other than dialogue, people without a shred of dignity was next on his list of most hated things.
"Argh!" Before the panicked Soul could escape, Blair grabbed him, accidentally pressing him against her breasts. Or maybe not so accidentally. Alduin did not know. The only thing he could do was to watch on with a growing scowl. He really hated it when people just seem to perversely give up their bodies without a shred of thought for the self. Even though this was not to that extent, it was quite on the border.
Spurt! Alduin gawked in another expression of horror as Soul suddenly nose-bled in a big fountain. Miraculously thanks to the mechanics of an anime, the blood did not reach any part of the room, thankfully saving the shocked Alduin and the ignoring Maka a grueling clean-up. Even then, Alduin watched with his mouth agape at Soul losing another lifetime's supply of blood. "Ah! He's so cute when he does that! Such a sweet! Don't you think so?" Blair beamed with her cat-like mouth as she lovingly patted the now unconscious Soul. Alduin did not think whether to respond.
"Blair, next time please don't make such a mess of the house! And you are speaking to our new tenant." Maka called out from the kitchen.
"Oh? You are a tenant?" Blair looked at Alduin, observing him with scarily sparkly eyes. Then she cheered. "Yes! Now I'm not alon-"
"Blair, he's also in the DWMA." With Maka's answer shooting through like an arrow through the knee, Blair's hype instantly died down.
"Sad face….Ah you guys at your academy always have so much fun while I just stay here at home dying of boredom." Blair's hair-ears drooped sadly.
'Seems like she had more fun thrashing the house….' Alduin wondered as he began to help Maka clean up the house while Blair continued to have 'fun' with Soul. "Help me….." Alduin and Maka ignored him.
"So where is my room?" Alduin asked Maka impatiently as he threw the last bag of fish trash into the trash chute. Usually as a god, he would get the things he wanted and now that old habit still persists. Even worse, it's not just that habit, but also the habit where he would do things with force if he did NOT get what he wanted.
"Ah, yeah, sorry about that. Just let me get the keys. And thanks for helping up with the clean-up. It's tough to do it alone sometimes." A smile still pasted on her small face, Maka led Alduin to a door farthest away from the house door. "Wait a moment," She said as she pulled out a ring of keys, clearly to find the one that was used to unlock the room. While she fumbled with them, Alduin grew even more impatient, his foot beginning to tap against the floor. As Maka put the key into the keyhole, he gritted his teeth. Things are so slow. A few more seconds and he might just-
Clack! Door was open. Alduin's impatience thankfully disappeared. "Go on in. See whether you like it!" Rubbing through his new messy jet-black hair with his human hand, Alduin brushed past the short girl as he tried to calm himself down. You have to bear with him. With all that has happened today, yesterday and the past 200 years, it was tough trying to retain control when it was so easy to just let loose and go all out in a fury. Reasoning with anger was also not the most effective thing to do but with no other method to keep it in check, Alduin continued to remind himself that he needed this place and the offer as he looked through his new place of residence.
The room was nothing spectacular. It was simple with a desk, a white-covered bed and a oak wardrobe. The floor was covered with a black woolen rug that felt smooth, yet comfortable enough for him to rub his feet against it.. The walls are all white, some of it stained with dust and dirt. Nothing too fancy. It also had another room attached to it. He did not know what it was, much to Maka's shock and she quickly introduced it as a bathroom. Apparently, if you wanted to do some business, you do it here. When he hesitantly thanked her for the help, she just looked at him with a weird expression of concern. Now, the most interesting thing in the room. Positioned at the two sides of the bed, light was shining from two small glass objects attached to the wall. "Now that I've noticed it, what's that?" Alduin pointed at those objects.
Maka's look of concern got even deeper.
"Are you sure you don't know that? Those are electric lamps. Everyone should know that."
"Lamps? Electricity?" His brows raised questioningly, Alduin placed his right hand on one of the 'lamps'. "NO!" Her eyes wide with shock, Maka tried to stop him. Too late.
"AHH! HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!" In an instant, Alduin found himself running around the room in pain as his hand was burned by the heat. Before, he would be shrugging off lava if it was just an hot bath. Now without his natural heat resistance, Alduin was taken by surprise by the spontaneous burning sensation on his palm.
Blowing at his hand as if it was ever going to do any good, Alduin continued his frenzied run-about, unable to cope with the pain of getting scalded. "In here!" Taking the initiative, Maka appeared back into the room with a bucket of ice cubes. How she managed to find an iceberg and get the cubes, Alduin did not know. At the same time, he did not care. Shoving his hand into the bucket, Alduin felt a deep sense of relief. "Ahhhhhh..."
An hour later…..
"You sure are a lot of trouble..." Maka sighed from the kitchen, cooking dinner while Soul was helping to bandage Alduin's scalded right hand and warding off Blair's seduction.
"So you really did not have a home in Death City?" Maka asked out as Alduin heard the sound of boiling and the smell of carrots. Not very good. Vegetables irked him.
"Nope, like that Death guy said, I'm just a wanderer passing through a desert, forcibly placed into a crazy academy led by Death himself." Alduin half-lied as he flexed his bandaged hand. 'I guess it will do,' he noted as Soul continued to literally cat-fight with the laughing Blair.
"Alright! Here you go!" Alduin gawked as Maka placed a bowl of porridge in front of each of them. Except he didn't know what is porridge. "Umm...interesting...What is this?" Alduin asked as he hesitantly scooped the thick 'soup' with a spoon. It looked more like what would happen to a person if Alduin was to fire a flaming breath at him, which the more primal part of him hoped for. His undexterous hand trying to keep a decent grip on his spoon, Alduin frowned with effort as he brought a spoonful of the 'porridge' into his mouth.
"It's nothing that much really. Porridge. Just some rice boiled in water, along with some chicken, vegetables and some seasoning."
"KAH KAH KAH KAH! THIS IS RICE?" Alduin nearly choked on the porridge he was starting to eat half-way once he heard that.
"So surprised? You've never seen this before?" Maka blinked blankly as Alduin managed to regain control of his coughing. "Okay, maybe it would be better if I called it oatmeal; that term is better known here in America. Sorry if you got confused."
"I see. I guess it would do. It's just that I've never really expected this to be rice." Alduin quickly calmed down as he continued to eat, deciding not to ask what oatmeal or even America was. It would have just made him a downright idiot in front of the other three in the house. The porridge was okay though, he thought. But he has definitely eaten better.
That said, Alduin immediately thought back. When he was a god, anything was something he could eat. Once, he remembered, he ate a fellow dragon, when he was especially hungry and that meal was nothing short of spectacular, especially with a dash of seasoning and some fire breath infused into it. Blood as the sauce, tendons as the appetizers, bones as the toothpicks. Good times. Good times.
"So...huh?" Just as he was about to create a conversation, Alduin noticed that something was wrong. He was sitting alone with Maka at the dining table, eating his porridge. During his daydreaming and memory indulging, everyone else save Maka had headed back to their rooms with their food. "I guess people here don't really have family feasts, huh?" Alduin groaned as he finished the porridge.
"Sorry about that. That's usually how it is." Maka apologized.
"Argh...Enough with the apologies..." Alduin groaned towards Maka, annoyed by her seemingly lack of a backbone, even though he clearly knew from her Maka Chops that that was not supposed to be the case. This girl had a tough and determined attitude. If she was changing that just because he was a tenant, it got onto his nerves. She was honest; that he respected her slightly for. It would be best for her if she just retained her spunk. "Huh?" Maka tilted her head, looking preplexed by his comment. Noticing this, Alduin quickly changed gears. Part of him wanted to confront her and tell her to just treat him like as if he was Soul or something along those lines, but the portion that triumphed in his decision was his simple inherent fear of her annoying Maka Chops. "Nothing...nothing….I'll just go...to my room and take a nap…" Alduin silently cursed his mouth. As he was about to enter his room, Maka called out, "Hey! Make sure you wake up at 6 am. Got to go to school."
"Don't tell me when to wake up, morta..." Alduin muffled himself. "Damn it, me and my habits." Luckily, Maka seemed to have missed the last part of Aldous's angry remark. "Want me to annoy you with a chop?" The girl offered innocently, her hand already going for her dictionary.
"Alright, alright...I got it..." With a huff, Alduin slammed the door behind him, giving himself a stretch across his hurting back. "Freaking weak human body…"
Sitting at his bed, Alduin, with no conscious purpose, looked up through the window. Into the dark sky. The night sky was much more different than Skyrim's, with the moon having a mouth that has blood pouring out of it. It was not scary, just downright unnerving, since he understood that if the moon is the same distance from Earth as its Nirnian counterpart was from Nirn, then the trail of blood leaking out the corner of its mouth could be easily the size of a country. Imagine if just one stray drop just fell off and boom, flooded and pulverized a city into oblivion. Now that would be one hell of a world.
At least the stars were comforting.
The beautiful constellations. They were not of specifically Nirnian types but at least some of them seemed to be similar to ones he had seen before. The Big Saucer or Dipper. The Hunter and his Dogs. It kind of reminded him about the times when he had flown about.
The reassuring sparkle of the midnight lights.
The very rare comet sailing across the sky on its endless pilgrimage through space and time.
All these made that moment of looking at the sky seem like the perfect time to reminisce about his past.
His mistakes.
His wrongdoings.
The time to think whether the decision to oppose his dad and revive the dragons to terrorize Skyrim was the right one.
The perfect moment to decide to turn over a new leaf and start anew.
"Piss off!" Alduin stated.
And with a huff towards the stars, he went to sleep, without the slightest bit of regret.
Looks like Alduin is still Big Bad Alduin the Black Dragon. He's gonna to stay like this for a while so do bear with him. As they always say, old habits die hard! Hope you like this chapter. Peace! Please Review!
