Of Sand

Sand, I have always hated sand, it gets absolutely everywhere and is annoying and near impossible to completely clean from somewhere. As soon as you think you've got it cleared away and you're home free, more of the foul stuff is discovered. But now more then ever I have reason to despise sand.

Let me set the scene for you: lots of sand, wind, and water. Add having cat ears to all of that, and you have a recipe for perfect misery.

Let me back up a bit and actually explain what happened, exactly. The whole of the Grand Chase had gone out on a mission to explore some desert that was rumored to have some sort of odd village somewhere in the middle. As the story goes, sometimes the village is there, other times it is not.

But that wasn't the only strange thing going on in the sand pit. It certainty wasn't a normal desert, let me tell you. One second it would be blazing hot, the next torrential rain would poor right before it returned to being hot like it should be, only this time the wind would be blowing. Now normally this would be odd, but not too overly annoying...that is unless you have cat ears.

We were now all back at the castle, after finding out that the rumors were actually false, and the village just turned out to be some sort of hardened dunes. Which meant that all of that had been for nothing. And of course that wasn't annoying at all. I was currently trying to dislodge the sand from behind my ears, not that it was going so well. I swear the foul thing was caked behind there, and no matter how much I scratched it never seemed to get dislodged. It was more then uncomfortable, it was practically unbearable. The longer it sat there, the more it itched. And the more it itched, the more it began to drive me insane. I decided to go to the baths, hoping that a good soak would remove the filth.

Who knows how much longer and guess what? The bath had done little to ease the itch, despite the bottom of the bath being littered with sand. I was sitting on my bed in my room after coming from the bath, wearing nothing but a towel, the clothes I had been wearing in a wash pile as they were far too sandy to wear for my liking. Now I had meant to get dressed in some other clothes, but the urge to scratch had been far to distracting, leaving me sitting on my bed.

"Hey Lass have you-Ah!" I blinked and turned to my door to which the voice had come from, but there was no one there. How strange...I could've sworn that was Arme's voice...ah well, perhaps I'm just imagining things...

A few minutes later and a commotion could be heard in the hallway before Arme was pushed into the room, holding a bowl with some sort of liquid with a rag, along with looking frustrated and blushing red as a tomato. Why though?

"Arme?" I asked, confused.

"Uh, um..." She turned to leave, but two pair of hands pushed her back. I wouldn't be surprised if those hands belonged Elesis and Ronan. Those two were always trying to pair Arme and I up. Now, if only they would pair themselves up...

"What's with the bowl?" I asked, hoping to break Arme out of whatever odd state she was in.

"Oh, r-right, the bowl..." She said nervously, looking down at said object. After that she slowly began to make her way closer, and ended up sitting behind me on the bed. "Hold-hold still." She wet the cloth in the bowl and began to wipe my ears with it. It was quite effective, and I could feel the intense itching already beginning to cease. Ah, sweet relief at last. A few minutes passed before Arme spoke again, seemingly having calmed down from whatever it was before. "Lass," she began, "how did your ears become so red? They almost seem rubbed raw..."

Now that she mentioned it they did seem somewhat sore... "Er, scratching?" I supplied, causing the mage to smack me in the head.

"Stupid, you should've just come and gotten me. I could've fixed it right up and then this wouldn't have happened!"

I simply shrugged. "I didn't think of it." That only served to get me another hit in the head, harder this time.

"Stupid! Next time you better think of it!"

"Is that your favorite word today, 'stupid'?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, glancing back at her. She was still blushing from when she had first entered the room, although it dimmed from her whole face being red to it just lining her cheeks. She really was quite cute that way.

"Just for you because you are." She stated to my question. I turned around more so that I could face her, one hand leaned back so as to brace myself. I couldn't help the light smile that came onto my face as the mage's blush grew a little now that I was facing her more.

"You really are cute you know." I stated as I began to lean forward, placing my free hand on her cheek.

"Lass what are you-" But I didn't allow her to finish her sentence as I captured her lips with mine.

I always loved it when I got to kiss Arme; her lips were always so soft and warm. They brought with them a comforting sort of feeling, one which I cherished most on some of my worst nights. For the memory Kaze'Aze has never left me, and I doubt it ever will. But all that ever mattered was that I had Arme now, and she was constant reminder that this was the present and the witch was in the past where she'll stay.

I can still remember the first time she kissed me. It was a quick little thing, and she had had to stand on her toes just to reach up to me. After she had just stood there with a fierce blush on her face, while I myself was left a bit stunned. After all, it's not like I had actually learned about kissing before being possessed and certainly not during.

"Now don't go and get a swelled head now that I've kissed you once!" She had exclaimed before running off.

I had since then of course learned more about kissing, and took it upon myself to kiss her when I felt like it, such as now.

I'm a thief, and at times I can't help but think a lowly one despite what other titles I may have gained while with the Chase; and yet somewhere along the way I did something that allowed me to gain someone such as Arme.

Yay fanservice! Lass in nothing but a towel~ lol Arme's lucky she gets to see him like that!

lol anyways, I dunno where this came from it just did XD Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it and the fanservice. It was fun to write.

-Xire