Epic 14: So, What Just Happened?

Life here, just got a whole lot stranger.

October had come to an end and with it's end a yucky kind of half rain half snow type sludge came falling from the sky pretty much on a regular basis. Which just made me not all that happy of a pyro, atop of it being a new month. I don't think I have to remind you much that Arienn is a girl. A girl I share feelings with. And being a girl means that she has that lovely monthly curse. A curse I get to share in vicariously.

Woo hoo me.

A top Arienn's cramps and particularly volatile mood swings, she was even snippier with me. Why? I have no idea.

Though she wasn't too terribly happy with the drunken incident… Maybe I did something I don't remember…

Which reminds me, the end of October means Halloween. Halloween means dark and spooky. Dark and spooky means increase of Heartless. Increase of Heartless means Arienn is out in that icky sludge rain more and more.

Despite the holiday being over she and Roxas, both having this annoying sense of duty, were still out clearing out the last bits of Heartless. Somehow they feel it's their responsibility to make sure the Heartless don't hurt anyone. With Roxas I can understand, I can blame that on Sora. But Arienn?

It's noble as a grape and all how she takes care of her planet, but does she have to go out alone? She claims it's to keep from snapping someone's head off, which we all are much obliged to and all but, but… But I worry about her. I don't like worry. It's an annoyingly persistent and fidgety emotion that gets under your skin and makes you do stupid things.

Like going out in the rain looking for the object of your worry.

She had just been gone for far too long for my comfort. And Roxas hadn't heard sign or gust of her in his own prowling since that morning. Hey hey! I wasn't the only one! Dem and Roxas were out looking too! And besides, I just got the feeling she was keeping something from us. I just had the great fortune to find her. And the oh-so-grand honor of doing it when she was surrounded by a large amount of Heartless.

Arienn stared blankly her eyes clearly un-amused by my presence. "Axel." I...was a dead man wasn't I? She sounded ready to tear something's head off. Again. "It's raining. Rain is water. Fire and water don't bloody mix!" She yelled whapping me upside the head as hard as she could.

I stared down at her, water dragging her bangs down into her face turning her brick red hair almost a reddened black. I lifted a brow slowly. "And for attempting to help you out you felt the need to slap me?"

"At the moment I feel the need to slap a lot of things." She admitted with a huff. "A joy which you denied me when you came in disrupting and destroying my punching bags." She scowled at the places on the ground where the Heartless had been. "Which I suppose I should thank you for…"

I couldn't help but snicker a little bit. "PMS is a bitch."

She gagged, before realization dawned on her and she stared at me in shock for a moment then glowered again. "Damn tie." she grumbled stalking off wringing water from her hair. I had no idea why, it was full again in ten seconds. I crinkled my nose at the down pour and fell into step behind her.

We went home, to an immediate accusation from a very worried musician who had only recently returned from his own search for our irritable wind witch.

"Where have you two beeen!" He asked teal-ish eyes flickering between us. Arienn stomped in shaking water from herself like a wet dog would.

"Fighting heartless in a dirty alley in the pouring rain. Rather I was. Axel was standing there being useless." She grumbled going to the fridge and pulling out one of her so loved Mt. Dews.

"Hey! I took out most of those little bugs! That's hardly what I would call useless!" I hissed back at her before she proceeded down the hall slamming her bedroom door behind her in her hormone spiked rage.

But not without a final toss of. "Bite me!"

Dem cringed. "She sooo scary this time of month." he whimpered.

I snorted. "And you're not the one who gets her side effects." I pointed out flopping down on the couch almost dry again. Fire has some severe advantages when it comes to stuff like that. Possibly why I haven't gotten sick, even as a human.

Sick...aaaaw shit!

"Hey Dem go tell Arienn she needs to get dry before she gets sick again." I called to him folding my arms behind my head. I was thinking it was time for a nap.

"Heck nu!" Was the response from my almost-polar-opposite.

I looked at him as best as I could as he moved around the kitchen. Ever since Arienn had gotten sick a few months back Demyx had been determined to get the cooking thing down to an art. He was actually succeeding too.

"Oh come on! She's not that scary. Just take her a bar of chocolate as a peace offering." I said with an absent wave of my hand.

Dem let out a short burst of laughter. "If it's so easy then you do it." He retorted tossing a bar of 60% Dark at me.

I scowled at where it had landed on my stomach. "But she's not mad at you." I tried again.

I was met with another come back. "And whose fault is that?"

I scowled at him. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

He leaned against the counter eyeing me contemplatively. "You know, if you would just talk to her, you might find that you don't piss her off so much." A kind of mischievous little smirk on his face. "Might help with all the sexual tension you two got going too."

I rounded on him. "WHAT!"

He just grinned merrily. "Oh nothing." He sang skipping off to his room.

"Get back here you little…!" I hissed scrambling to my feet and after him. Would have gotten him too if it weren't for a distinct blind spot in the hall, that if not careful can cause a collision.

I stared down at her. Momentum and gravity, had made a perfect team, with a little tech support from Demyx I'm sure, to land me back pressed up against the wall, the arm not seeking out support wrapped round her waist as her weight was pressed against my chest, fingers tangled with the fabric of my t-shirt. Arienn lifted grey eyes to blink up at me. Silence, and a twist in my gut.

"Sorry." She muttered gaining her feet.

"You okay?" I asked keeping a hand on her elbow to make sure she didn't topple over. She tended to be clumsy during this time of the month.

"Fine." She answered quietly. There was a moment of a kind of awkward dance as the two of us tried to get past the other, and then it was over.

I stopped myself from looking over my shoulder to watch her go. My heart still fluttering a little. Probably still a little hyped up from the startle, yeah, just adrenaline. I have no idea where Dem is getting this idea of attraction.

Or, maybe he had a point.

"You okay?" Roxas asked me over the top of one of the books Arienn had him reading in preparation for going to school next year.

"Fine…" I muttered. Accept I had totally had the compulsion to kiss her just now…

But it had to make sense there would be some sort of weird unconciouse attraction when two people were in a situation like Arienn's and mine. Living together in of itself could be a cause!

The fingers on the hand I had laid over my heart twitched a little. I sighed. This just kept getting more complicated…