Dedicated to: Luki Dimension, for his story, "Ringley's Wish". Okay, so that wasn't a romance, or anything... Actually, it was a humor fic... But it does take place during the same time as this fic. P
lus, the only characters were Thats, Kitchel, Ringleys, Ekidonna... And that OC... Wassisface... Oh. And Kharl and Garfankcy. :sweatdrop:
Well, it was MAINLY about Thats and Kitchel.
Plus, I needed some more dedications, so... Meh. You were in the right place at the right time.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Knights. I got this title from playing with Tochiki's Japenese book, so... Um... Yeah. Long story.
Warning: Slight swearing(as always).
A/N: I know I really shouldn't be saying this, but... I don't like this chapter. I wrote it in April, and... I can't figure out how to fix it. Sorry. I like this story, however, so please read this first chapter anyway! :sweatdrops, again:
Chapter One:
A door slammed in the quiet of the early night, arguing voices ripping and tearing the calm delicatly interwoven with the cool night air.
"Look, it's not my fault! He's only got one room!" This voice belonged to the Dragon Knight of Earth, a young man by the name of Thats. He was trying to make his point clear with a female of about the same age, a girl of about seventeen who was wearing a pair of black shorts and a dark and patterened loose tanktop.
"Why can't we stay somewhere else, then?!" His aforementioned compainion snapped, stomping into the small room, her eyes looking over it's contents disapprovingly.
He glared at Kitchel's back, "What, you too good to stay here?"
She growled at him, spinning around, light brown hair and two dangling stone earrings whipping as she turned.
"Do you realize," She said very slowly and dangerously, "That there is only one bed?"
He looked over her shoulder, confirming that there was, indeed, a significant lack of furniture adorning the cramped quarters.
"Shit," Thats swore, stepping lightly around her and examining the object in question.
It was, indeed, a bed. It was not small, but definatly not large, with cream colored cotton sheets and two slightly limp pillows. It rested on a faded wooden frame, about half a foot off the ground, and with just enough room for two people to share it.
She spoke.
"You're sleeping on the floor."
This was not a question, but a statement: a command.
Thats turned to face her.
"What?! No way. I'm not sleeping on that."
He gestured at the dust covered rough wooden floorboards. The whole of the floor of the room appeared to need a good cleaning; one could clearly see that it had not been swept in a long period of time, and bits of dirt and leaves decorated it's groaning boards.
"What," Kitchel smirked, "You too good to stay here?"
He tensed, sending her a deadly glare.
"What I meant was," He ground out, "We could simply SHARE the bed."
When she opened her mouth to protest, he continued, running out of patiece and ignoring what she had to say.
"It's obviously meant for two people, so it's big enough to fit both of us. We can draw a line down the middle; we won't even touch. And believe me, the only good part about this is the soft mattress. You won't bother me, and you can be damned sure that I won't bother you," He said firmly, sitting down on the bed.
She glared at him.
It was far too late to want to argue, and although they were both tired, she crossed her arms, refusing to budge from her point.
"No way in Dusis. I'm sleeping on the bed. You," She pointed at the other, "Get the privillage of sleeping on the floor."
"What privillage?" He muttered, wracking his mind for a sutable excuse to stay on the bed.
"The privillage of sleeping in the same room as me. Why don't we just look for an inn?" She complained.
"If you want to find a decent place at this time of night, be my guest," Thats said, spreading his hands out and speaking with exaggerated courtesy.
"It was just a thought!" Kitchel stalked past him and over to the window. She looked out it briefly, then pulled it's white slatted shutters closed and turned back to him.
This time when she spoke it wasn't harsh, but a simple request.
"Turn around."
He sent her a confused and somewhat annoyed look.
"What? I'll do exactly what I please."
"Turn around," She glared at him, all charity gone from her voice now.
"I want to change, and I'm sure not doing that with you looking at me!"
He stared her down for a second, before grudgingly getting up and turning around, sitting down indian style on the floor, arms crossed.
She swung the small bag she had been carrying on her back to the floor, then opened it and dug through it for a moment, pulling out her spare change of clothes.
"Can I get up yet?" Thats asked, complaining.
She stuck out her tounge at the back of his head, "No! Wait a second!"
He sighed and she quickly slipped out of her shirt and shorts into a pair of soft and featherlight long gray pants and a blue shirt, light almost to the point of white, and thin almost to the point of translucence.
She carefully closed her bag and placed it on a short wooden table near the window; the only article of furniture in the room besides the bed.
"There."
He quickly glanced over his shoulder at her, apparently assuring himself that she was, indeed, fully dressed, then turned around completely.
"Which side do you want?" Thats asked, gesturing towards the bed with an offhand wave.
In response to his question, she slipped under the covers of the side of the bed closest to her and rolled over onto her side, taking up the middle of the bed.
"Both. You can sleep on the ground. G'night."
Muttering an unintelligable stream of curses and complaints, he stretched out on the floor, lying on his back, staring at the cealing.
As her breathing slowed, his eyes remained open, mind still active.
Uncomfortable, he rolled over onto his side, facing the bed and the girl now fast asleep in it.
The light of the moon slid into the room throught the mostly closed window, casting a pale shine over all it touched.
"Stupid," He cursed under his breath, slowly rising to his feet and walking around the room with the quiet experiance gained from years of sneaking through the dark and stealing away into the shadows. Reaching the bed, he snatched up one of the two pillows and stalked back to his original position on the floor.
Dumping it on the ground and soundlessly lying down next to it, he closed his eyes, attempting to go to sleep.
The hard floor dug into his back.
Thats growled softly and rolled over again, then punched the pillow in an attempt to get it to confirm to a comfortable shape. When this didn't work, he folded it in half, mentally complaining at the pathetic fact that he was forced to do so in order to have some amount of padding beneath his head.
He lay on his side, facing the door, wondering what he had done to deserve this. He was with Kitchel, Kitchel!, in the tiny room above a bar in Draqueen, one they both knew well. There was a small hallway outside the door he was looking at, leading down to one other room, Master's private bedroom, and a set of stairs which led down to the first floor of the building.
He was well aquanted with the layout of the building he was in; he had spent many nights camping out either up here in the spare room, or down below on a hard wooden bench behind a dirty table at the bar.
That was back when he lived on the streets, however.
A rustle from the bed jerked his thoughts back to his current situation, and he groaned at the thought of working with Kitchel for who knew how long. Treasure hunting was fun, sure, but not with her!
As the minutes ticked by, he rolled over on to his back, lay on his stomach, and eventually turned over to rest on his other side.
From this angle he could see his traveling companion. She had tossed in her sleep as well, instead of facing the shuttered window, she was facing towards him.
Kitchel was sound asleep, green eyes closed and small mouth turned downwards into a delicate frown.
Thats stuck his tounge out at her.
He rolled back over onto his back, but couldn't get comfortable in that position, and soon turned back onto his right side, facing the bed. He closed his eyes, waiting for the soft darkness of sleep to overwhelm him. A constant train of thoughts, however, kept him firmly awake and aware of his surroundings.
Mentally groaning, the Knight of Earth opened his eyes once more, staring straight ahead.
From his view point on the floor, he could see the girl lying a few feet away from him quite clearly, and, as if for lack of anything better to do, he studied her unconcious form. She was still asleep, one leg bent slightly, the other not at all. Her left hand had clenched into a fist in front of her face, and the other was hidden under the soft cottony blanket draped over her slim figure.
And as if on cue, she snapped her eyes open.
"What're you doin'?" She asked in a voice only slightly groggy from sleep and quickly hardening into annoyance.
"Go to bed!"
Thats sent a scalding look into two angry green orbs of fire, lightning sparks of mahagony flashing inside their fragile glass covers, threatening to break loose. Deadly spears of black were cocked and ready to fly.
She growled at him, eyes narrowing further, then flipped over onto her other side, facing away from him, deciding it was too late and she was too tired to waste time in a full-fledged argument.
He sent her a last disgusted look before rolling over as well, closing his eyes, and sliding into a deep sleep at last.
The room became silent, and in the morning when the two of them woke, the past night was nothing more than a faint and nebulous memory, pushed far into the back of their minds.
:n:
Cheer, everyone. I've finally gotten my act together. Here's numero uno of my Thatchel attack! non
It's december, goodwill towards mankind, please help a poor little highschooler by REVIEWING!