** Telepathy/Psychic Bond **
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
The Voice
"Simultaneous Speech (replace with thought, etc.)", first person's initialsecond person's initial.
Xx0o0xX
Stepping outside onto balcony overlooking most of the city, Videl let out a tired sigh. Rei was standing some distance away observing her.
"You can speak freely you know?" She said loosely, shooting down any protest from Vivian. Erasa and Sharpner also looked at her funny. Rei rubbed the back of his and looked down at the ground.
Heh, she caught your act kid.
He locked eyes with the princess and passed his hand over his face. "Tired of pretending, Hidenka-chan?"
"Because you don't look like the typical boot-licker." She said, pleased that she got him to open up somewhat. His tone was still semiformal, but friendlier.
"I see no reason to suck up to a princess who's more comfortable around commoners than royalty."
She sent him a quizzical glance, puzzled as to how he knew that. He motioned with his hand as if he were pulling a hood over his head. She thought back to that afternoon's collision, looking at him now, he really was well-built. Her face heated up slightly.
"You saw through that, huh?"
"My younger sisters pull the same shit." It wasn't exactly a lie, he could tell right away, her energy signature also matched.
"You have little sisters?" Erasa chirped, finally finding a way into the conversation now the Rei wasn't on guard anymore. "Are they as cute as you?"
He pointed over to an adjacent balcony. "You be the judge." Looking over, they saw a mixed group of students ranging from 2nd year middle school to 1st year high school mingling amongst themselves, apparently having gathered after they'd seen the Princess. Among the group were a few of Rei's new friends, and two beautiful look-alikes.
"The red-heads?" Lime and Mikki were standing together, talking to a group of girls who looked like they were from Fubuki. Rei let out a shrill, but almost inaudible whistle. Almost immediately, the shorter one's head snapped in his direction. The older one soon followed, and so did the rest of the girl out of curiosity.
Erasa lightly bounded over to Rei and waved energetically at them. The younger girl waved back just as energetically, while her elder gave a curt bow. They turned back to their own business, smiled cramped as the group they were with went into a slight frenzy.
Rubbing the back of his head, Rei turn back to Videl. "Neither of them have any interest in royalty, sorry."
"It's fine." The less suck ups, the better.
"Does your entire family have red hair?" Sharpner asked, "Does that mean you're from Diablo Plateau?"
"Fubuki." He enunciated. "Hair colour isn't a definitive characteristic of race, you know. It's not like all blondes are from Scandinavia. Ah… That's probably still on the surface."
He pulled on the bangs hanging over his forehead. To him, it looked like someone splashed him with blood, the red ever encroaching on the black. Well, his sisters liked it, so he left it as is.
"Then you're Japanese?" Erasa asked, walking over to him and running her slender fingers through his hair.
"…Probably." He replied.
"Probably?" Videl asked, raising an eyebrow. "How can you not know for sure?"
Rei lifted an arm and started scratching the back of his head, but he didn't answer.
"Were you adopted or something? Surely there are records of you somewhere, if not up here, then down on the surfa-"
"Retrograde amnesia." He interrupted, "Can't remember where I came from if I can't remember my own name now can I, Hime-chan."
He finished speaking with a smile, but it never reached his eyes.
"That's…unfortunate." She said. She'd almost said interesting, but figured it would be in poor taste, especially to someone she barely knew.
"Oh, you poor thing!" Erasa said, pressing his arm into her ample bosom. He wasn't sure if she was doing it on purpose, but Rei got a good view of her cleavage before shifting his eyes.
Her shameful display made her two female friends frown and flush in embarrassment. Vivian, who was quiet since earlier voiced her complaints. "Erasa! You're in public, behave yourself!"
Said girl only pouted and replied, "I'm just being friendly."
"You're being handsy!" She corrected harshly in a sharp whispered, "You tried to touch him earlier at school too!" She moved closer to pry the blonde off.
Erasa just folded her arms and stuck out her tongue at the brunette, "It's better than hitting him!" At that Vivian turned a bright red and stuttered something incomprehensible. She was close enough for Rei to smell her rose perfume. Looking at her closely, was the tallest of the three girls, about five inches shorter than him given her heels. Her skin was also some levels darker than theirs, a tan-olive instead of fair white. Seemingly feeling his eyes on her, Vivian turned and unintentionally locked eyes with him. Her eyes were a rare caramel brown, her wavy mocha brown hair cascaded down her back, covering her right ear. The dress she wore accentuated a figure womanlier than her age suggested, and despite her modest neckline, she was probably almost as busty as Lime. Cheeks reddening ever so slightly, she broke contact at turned away.
"Stop staring." She huffed, in an attempt to quell her embarrassment. Glancing back at the boy, she saw a slight smile.
"Beautiful flowers were meant to be admired." He replied with a cheeky grin. All three girls blushed like mad at the comment and Sharpner let out a low whistle.
"Damn, you're smooth." He commented. "The last dude caught staring got two black eyes."
"Well, roses do have thorns." Rei added, watching her blush even harder. "But I think Pride of Barbados does her more justice."
Vivian felt like her face was on fire. This boy obviously found it fun to tease her, but he did it so innocently that she found it impossible to get angry like she usually did. Turning away more, she noticed Videl smirking at her, a suggestive expression on her face.
"What flower am I, Rei?" She asked in a sing-song voice.
"Most definitely a white rose, I can tell that much. A pure personality under a thorny façade." His answer made her blush and smile, however, she did take note that he considered her childhood friend to have more of an exotic beauty than she did.
Erasa clasped her hands in front of her and squealed slightly, "Me too, me too!"
Rei looked at her for a bit. "You are complicated." This girl was by far the most touchy-feely that he'd ever encountered, even more so than Mikki. But, despite that, Rei could sense no ill intent from her. "Mmm, pink bougainvillea?"
Sharpner for one, only knew one of the flower Rei mentions, but the fact the he got the two toughest girls on Victoria blushing like girls in love was an impressive fete. Even his sister, who changed boyfriend more than change outfits wasn't immune to his charm. The scary part was that Sharpner didn't know if he was doing out of naivety, or if he was secretly suave.
The group conversed a while longer, until an aged man in a three-piece suit accompanied by a detail of soldiers appeared at the archway leading to the balcony.
"Hime-sama, your father requests that you return home." The steward said, bowing. Videl sighed and started moving towards him and the guards. Stopping just short of the threshold, she turned around to address Rei one last time.
"Thanks for keeping us company Rei. It feels good to talk to a real person after such along time." She smiled sweetly at him before turning away again. Sharpner lightly punched his shoulder as he passed and Erasa winked and blew him a kiss. As Vivian passed she briefly made eye contact and blushed. She joined her friends surrounded by guards and left, the scent of her rose perfume lingering.
Rei bowed slightly as they walked off, but his eyes never left Vivian's retreating figure. He watched them until he could no longer see them, then, shaking off an unfamiliar feeling in in his chest, he assessed the current situation. More than four fifths of the energies that were there before were now gone, Rei decided to go help his boss pack up, grab is sisters and go home.
Xx0o0xX
For those of you wondering, bougainvillea has the biggest thorns of the three plants mentioned, usually on the magnitude of being spines. Pride of Barbados is a flowering legume tree with some nasty little thorns that are almost impossible to avoid.
