Chapter 8
"Oh!" she yelped in surprise as he moved.
He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, it can't be that hard. We've been doing this for how long now?"
"It's still difficult, okay?" she retorted, unable to keep her face indifferent as she looked straight into his face. She tried to keep them from wandering back to his eyes and focused past his shoulder, but, ultimately? She failed. "And it's pretty big."
"Move your hips, dammit, it's important that you do," he said, ignoring her comment. "Put your hands here. Not there. It's...uncomfortable if you put them there."
"O-Okay!" And she complied him, snickering a bit when he sighed in relief. "What it really that uncomfortable?"
"Yeah," he grumbled. "I guess dancing just isn't something for you."
"I mean," she tried to make an excuse, "you can't exactly just read about the motions from a book and get it perfect..." Her irises dragged away from his own and resorted to staring at his vest-covered chest.
"Oi, Aisha." A step to the left.
"...Hm?" A twirl, flourish.
"STOP STEPPING ON MY FEET EVERY OTHER GODDAMN SECOND!"
"You're just in the way!" she replied, her mouth melting from its already-unstable form. Never did she get so embarrassed from just dancing. Since when did she care, anyways?
That's right, Aisha. Just stop caring and step all over his feet if you want. It doesn't matter anyways.
But...my grade for P.E...!
Camilla blew into her black whistle and waited for everyone's attention to gather towards her. "Alright, testing time! Choose a partner in the next minute, first come first serve!"
She glanced up.
He was peering down at her.
Silent agreement established.
A poor girl came up to them. She was one of those nice, kind, innocent, and often, very considerate of others kind of female. Her hair was a short, shoulder-length brown, and her eyes were a cloudy azure. "U-Uhm...Elsword, would you mind if I-uhm-paired up with y-"
"Hahahaha, sorry, I'm already with Aisha here...!" With that, he grabbed her by the arm and tugged her close to him, as if displaying the claim he had on her as a partner.
"O-Okay..." The girl walked away, slightly dejected, but everyone else got to work with getting a partner now that the main attractions were taken by each other. Aisha was delighted when she saw one of her good, frequent partners (Chung) offer a hand to a black-haired student. She giggled when she noticed that the girl's cheeks were heavily tinted in a rosy color as she graciously took his outstretched hand.
"Alright, one minute's up! Testing time is starting now! Everyone, line up and tell me you and your partner's name and what dances you're doing. I will call you out based on last name and the dance that you're doing."
It's just a dancing test, Aisha attempted to reassure herself. You're usually not too worried about your tests. You tried hard for this, right? You can make it!
She was spacing out so much she missed it when her name was called the first time. Even Elsword heard it the second time. The third time, he gave her a hard shove and jolted her out of her mantra of self-support. "It's our turn to dance!" he whispered. His warm breath tickled her ear, making her jump and skitter over to the center of the gym.
"Here are some basic staples for you to follow. 1, you may not talk to your partner during the dance. If you so much as utter a word, you'll be flat-out given a zero for it. 2, if your partner fails, you fail too. 3, make sure to not kill yourself while you're at it!" And with that, the slow-sounding, classical music started.
Uh-uh-wait... Elsword's feet started shifting, and she, with her slightly-off reaction time, shuffled out of rhythm with him. What did he say earlier? Hips? Hands? Moving what?
He brought her down low for a sweep, then yanked her back up. Ahhhhh, what do I do?!
She heard the instructor give a cluck of disappointment. With the gym stonily hushed save for the music, it resounded in her mind over and over again like a repeating curse.
The second song crackled into life through the speakers and blasted something less solemn. Isn't this where he told me to put my hands? She reached out and put them on his thigh, near his way-too-large belt. His expression morphed into something like...panic? He was getting kinda red; did he have a fever of something?
He subtly jerked his head to the left. To any normal person, he would be telling her to move her hand LEFT.
But Aisha, top of the class, president of the school, did not take it normally. She processed the signal and took it that, facing his direction and point of view, he wanted her to move her hand RIGHT.
So she slapped her hand a lot closer to the right than she intended to and hit something underneath his pants that she shouldn't have.
"What the-?!"
Camilla couldn't figure out why the boy's face suddenly went ashen and why the blood began to rush into the girl's whole head.
"Disqualified," she shouted.
"Nooo..." Aisha mumbled, eyeing her grade paper with a tearful gaze. Stamped on it in heart-breaking red was a
ZERO.
"Well... I guess that couldn't be helped, huh?" She dropped her head to the desk, coming into contact with it nice and hard. She winced lightly at her foolish action but rested on the cool surface of it.
"It's all your fault!" she growled, unable to comprehend and sink in the fact that- "That was the first zero I ever got in my life!"
"Oh, hey now, you're the one who grabbed my-"
"S-Shut up!" she blurted hastily, wanting more than anything to stop him from saying what happened. "Your directions just weren't clear enough!"
"Hn," he hummed. "My directions were as clear as they could get without the usage of words, don't you think?" A cocky smile displayed itself across his mouth. "And admit it, you wante-"
She summoned her winged staff out of the air and swung the metal stick down to connect to the top of his head. "You're such a pervert! I really didn't mean to do it anyway!"
See, she's cute even when she's flustered. "OW!" She whacked him again. "OW! Alright, alright!" he submitted to defeat. "Whatever you say."
"Hmph."
"Hey, you wanna hang out for a bit? Don't feel like going home yet." At this request, she gawked at him. "Yes or no, it's that simple," he said, amused now that he saw she wasn't as intelligent as she seemed. A bit stupid, and that's what he liked best about her.
"Okay, but... Do you want me to get dressed up?" She cocked her head to the side, seeing him through a more horizontal perspective.
"Dressed up?" He made a face. "Why would you need to get dressed up for hanging out?"
"Y-You don't?" she stuttered, surprised. Her parents brought her up, telling her every single time that she needed to be dressed properly before going out anywhere with anyone at all. Apparently Elsword's parents never told him that?
"Of course not." Now he was eyeing her in a strange fashion, as if she were a new species of organism found in school. "Hanging out? Just wear whatever, it doesn't even matter."
"Won't people judge you though?" she murmured under her breath, but as usual, he picked it up effortlessly.
"No." He paused. "What kind of life have you been living, Aisha?"
Touchy subject. She swerved away from it and countered with another question. "Have your parents never taught you any manners? If someone is bringing you somewhere, you should always wear good clothes and be polite."
"'Be polite.'" He smirked. "Sure."
"Oh shut up," she said. "Let's just go."
As they stood up and walked down the sidewalk and across the road, he asked, "Any idea where to go?"
"No?" She was curious as to where HE was thinking of going. "Lead the way, I guess."
He was thinking of maybe the park, but almost EVERYONE had been to a park before. And that would seem like a date to him, which was most definitely NOT his intention. As a lone cloud drifted by the sea of blue, an idea sprang forth from his oh-so-brilliant mind. Hm, the café's near here. Elesis SHOULD be on break right now, so I'm pretty sure we can avoid her... "Hey, have you been to this café called Feu Fleur before?"
"French?" she inquired, now intrigued. "No, but judging from the name, it seems like it'd be a decent place to stop by. Although," she continued, seemingly interested, "I wonder what a regular café is like."
"What do you mean?" he asked, shooting a sideways glance at her. "A café is a café. What kind of life do you live?"
"Café, café~" she was singing, avoiding the touchy subject. But he took no note of this. Aisha skipped ahead of him, her pigtails flowing after her. He sighed and called out.
"You're going the wrong way!"
She was crouched in a corner, behind the wall to the entrance of the café's kitchen, her eyes flashing as she spotted the pair of students sitting at a table. "Ohohoho... My Elsword is growing up so fast already...~! Did you think that you could escape from me even if you came during my break...?"
He was facepalming at whatever the girl had said to him, but she could see his body tremble from his laughs. She continued stalking him, in that corner like a shadow, with that maid-like black and white apron draping over her knees.
"Elesis." The voice behind her had come out from the kitchen in the back, and she watched as a white dog-like man, short and stubby in stature, emerge. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Oh. Well." She fumbled for a proper excuse and found one, hoping that it wouldn't sound completely fake when she uttered it. "I'm just watching over the café, to make sure nothing goes wrong."
"But you are on your-"
"Even if I'm on my break," she added hastily. "Nothing could go wrong with just supervising the shop, right?"
"...Everything can go wrong," the man muttered, but he let her go anyways. As he left, a faint scent of cigarettes trailed after him. Elesis wrinkled her nose, greatly disliking that smell. She would have a talk with him later, but... I mean, he let me off the hook this time. Maybe I should just forget about this.
While she was twisting herself in circles through her mind as whether or not to chastise the dog-man later, Elsword shot a glance to where his sister was crouching, looking like she was about to go mentally insane. Her eyes are darting everywhere... Is she okay or what?
"Elsword?" Aisha leaned forward to wave her hand in his face, and he snapped back to attention. "What're you looking at?"
"Oh, uhh..." She followed his gaze, and, surprisingly, Elesis was gone.
"There's nothing there," she said. "Are you seeing some hallucinations or something?"
He stared at her. "What?" she asked, averting her eyes. Why did I just avoid making eye contact? she thought, thoroughly startled over this trivial matter. "A-Anyways," she continued, trying to strike up a conversation. "Uhm..."
He continued staring at her. "W-What are you staring at me for?!" she squeaked, collapsing under the pressure.
Elsword smirked, satisfied at the reaction she gave him. "To make you feel uncomfortable," he answered, twirling the spoon around in his coffee. The heart-shaped cream dissipated as he made circles with the utensil. "So? What was it you wanted to tell me?"
"Give me your hand," she said, picking her cup up to sip from it. The white porcelain was stood out against her dark brown gloves, and she winced. "Hot..." she grumbled, covering her lips with her wrist.
"Yeah, be careful, this place makes everything burning hot." He gave her his hand, feeling rarely compliant that day.
She frowned at the large palm set in front of her and sighed. "Take your gloves off too?"
"Take them off yourself."
"..." She scowled but yanked hard on it, slipping the black fingerless gloves off. "What am I, your maid?"
"If you want to be." He grinned slyly at her. "You already got the outfit, right? Now all you need to do is wear that, come to my house for the night, and wake me up in the morning with a 'Good morning, Master El-'"
The staff swung down.
"Seriously, you need to stop hitting me," he groaned, rubbing the several small lumps on his head. "I'm gonna get a concussion like that one day."
"It's your fault for saying something perverted like that again!"
"My adorable little brother said what...?" someone said, making "huhu... huhuhu..." sounds behind them. She shuddered and yelped, doing a 180 to face them.
"Who is this...?" Aisha asked, now curious instead of creeped out. "She looks exactly like you, Elsword! Only she has... She has..." Her amethyst eyes wandered over to the older woman's chest area and deadpanned, "Breasts."
"I'm Elsword's sister, Elesis!" she introduced herself, but then whirled and grabbed her sibling by the shoulders. "What did you say to her?"
"Let go of me, Sis," said the red-haired boy bluntly. "Don't worry about it. I didn't say i'd like to marry her this time."
"Y-Y-You what?!" Aisha screeched. Him? Elsword Sieghart, PROPOSING to a girl? What kind of girl would like him in the first place, anyways?!
"That was a long time ago," he divulged, saying it like it was nothing. "When I was like seven, I told this girl that I wanted her to marry me or something. I actually don't remember her, but Sis says I did."
"That's not the point~" Elesis said sweetly. "What did you say to our cute, petite, genius magician Aisha here?"
"Nothing," he tartly responded.
"He told me to be his maid," Aisha helpfully quipped in.
"Oiya, Elsword? Is that what you told her?" Despite the dark tone in her words, she was pouring ice cubes into a plastic bag, sealing it and dumping it on her little brother's head. She patted it, hard, to make sure he understood just how much his head hurt. And he did, as his eyes started watering and he had to bite his lip from saying "Ow."
So this is what having siblings is like, Aisha thought, feeling quite envious. She had always been the only child, and that placed a lot on her shoulders. Especially since the rich didn't just get money from nowhere and had duties to perform too. Even if she did have a little brother or sister, she most likely would never have the time for them.
"So, in compensation, miss," Elesis said, stretching and yawning (just like her brother, too), "how about I treat you to some funnel cake?"
"El!" She grinned happily as the burst of flavor reached her taste buds, the enriching juices spreading on her tongue. "This is pretty good!"
"Isn't it?" Elsword slung an arm over the bench they were sitting at near the park. "I still don't know why she would compensate for you when I'm the one who's clearly hurt, though." While she was putting some more into her mouth and savoring the sweet godly goodness of it, the Rune Slayer watched a couple of kids mess around on the play structure. It was a boy and a girl, and they both seemed so innocent and harmless as they swung across the monkey bars, skipping one at a time.
"Hey, you okay? You look a bit off." She tilted her head, bending over to take a peek at him. He hadn't realized it but he had gradually been sinking his vision lower and lower until he was facing the ground.
"Huh? Oh. I.. I was just thinking over some things Sis said."
"You mean the girl you asked to marry you?" She giggled. "You know, that probably would've been sweet if it weren't you who proposed."
"Wow," he muttered. "Thanks."
"Any time," she replied. "But what're you thinking about?"
"I once asked Sis about what the girl looked like. But she said that she had never seen her, only that I came running home to her telling her all about it. And that I never said a word about the girl ever again. She also said that... A month later, when she asked me what happened to her, I told her that I didn't know who she was talking about."
"Hmmm... Maybe a memory-altering spell? But that's pretty high-leveled, and not to mention it's illegal too... I wouldn't see a reason to alter your memory, unless someone hated you that much for asking the girl to marry you."
She started watching the kids too, but when she noticed that his funnel cake was left untouched, she snatched the plate from his hands and stole a bite from it. "H-Hey!"
"If you're not going to eat it," she said triumphantly, "then I'm not going to let it to waste!"
He took the plate back and exhaled a breath. "I really can't let my guard down around you, can I?"
She was quiet, like she was actually considering the notion of what he just uttered. "Nope!" she finally declared. "Anyways..."
"What?"
She stuffed her mouth full with the funnel cake and tossed the paper plate into the trash can next to them. "Today was...well...the most fun I had in a while, really." Elsword gaped at her, and she shot him a glare. "I don't live a carefree life like you get to, you know."
"You're happy just from going to a café and eating a funnel cake?" he said, still unable to comprehend it.
"Yes," she snapped. "Yes. I am. Now just take my gratitude and stuff it into your already-overgrown ego, will you?"
Wow. Talk about mood shifts. She just went from cheerful to downright tetchy. "And.." she continued. "Those are swings, right?" Aisha pointed towards the direction of four black seats, each shaped almost like a crescent moon. All of them were hanging from a dark blue metal structure, chains creaking as the seats moved due to the gentle wind.
"Don't tell me you've never been to a park before, either," he said, standing up. "Yeah, those are swings alright." Then he stuck his hand out, offering it to her.
She stared at it.
Since it didn't seem like she was about to take it any time soon, he grabbed her hand, feeling that small figure fit into his large palm again.
"W-Where are you taking me?" she squealed, and the children on the monkey bars caught sight of them.
"Look, the big kids are on a date!" she heard one of them say, and her cheeks turned bright red.
"Here," he said, sitting her down on a swing, looking unfazed by the little kid's comment. "Have fun. You know how to swing too, right?"
"O-Of course!" She lifted her chin up. "I studied all the methods and theories on the motion, acceleration, and velocity of swinging!"
"Which means," he said under his breath, "you DON'T know how to swing." Elsword strolled behind her and gave her a rough shove, causing her to shrill, "What are you doing?!"
"Teaching you how to do one of the most basic things everyone should know how to do," he said, giving her another shove as she swung back towards him.
"W-Watch where you're putting your hands, you pervert!"
"Whoops."
"Don't you 'whoops' me!"
"Just focus on swinging your legs!" She did as she was told, and eventually he stopped pushing her and sat on the swing next to her.
The air current was flat on her face, and she rejoiced in the sensation of cold wind on her face. It was almost like she was flying, although she knew that she could have just sat on her staff for that. But this was different, probably something she would've never been able to do if she hadn't just taken a risk and went with Elsword today. After all, if her parents found out that she was hanging out here...
Soon enough, she grew tired from all the swinging and slowed herself down by sticking a foot out into the sand. As her swing screeched to a stop, she saw Elsword observing her with some sort of unidentifiable visage. "Oh. By the way, I still need your hand for earlier."
He stuck it out, saying nothing.
She took his gloves off again and held his hand face up, so his the skin of his palm was showing. "You know," she explained as she traced something on it, "they say that you can tell how many children you'll have if you count the lines on your hand."
"Well?" he asked. "How many will I have, O Great Seer of the Future?"
She pouted at the expression and said, "Three."
"Give me yours, then." So she gave him her hand, and he counted, tracing them just like she did. Honestly, it tickled so much she just wanted to squirm away from his fingertips. "Oh hey, you're gonna have three too!"
Wait. A connection flashed between both of them as they simultaneously thought of the same result. If you're going to have three, and I'm going to have three, then...?!
"N-No way," she said, voicing her confusion.
"Of course not," he replied, appalled at the mere idea of it.
"It's not like we're going to marry each other anyways, right?" the two of them said at the same time.
The swings creaked, although whether in agreement or denial, they couldn't say.
Ahh~ I finally got this chapter out! You know, the first time I wrote this chapter, I had it all completed, but then I just had to make a blunder out of myself and accidentally delete it. e.e I got kind of sad and disheartened afterwards, even as I tried to rewrite it again, but I sort of gave up for about two weeks or so until i slapped myself and was like "WAKE UP YOU LAZYASS." So I finally got around to finishing it, except it was different and better! ^^ I hope y'all readers are proud of fat lazy me for pulling this out! :'D But anyhow, as always, thank you for taking your time to read my humble writings, and I hope you enjoyed it! I wish you a good day now~
