vatheon | (no subject)

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Who: Selphie and Kenshin
Where: Starting at their house, then off to the island (but she doesn't know it's raining so that'll be fun when they get there!)!
When: Afternoon?
Status: Closededed.

So Selphie had told Kenshin that there was something she wanted to show him, and hinted that maybe there was something important to talk about. She didn't want to go freaking him out or anything, but she'd specifically waited until that curse was over - things would be much easier that way. On the afternoon at the time in question, Selphie paced around their living room. There was a full picnic hamper on the sofa, ready to go. An actually there's a bucket and spade too. The island was usually pretty clear, and Selphie figured it would be perfect for picnics and sand castles. But there was a little more to it than that, and it was keeping Selphie in some kind of nervous, but excited, mood.

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The past week had been interesting, to say the least. Last time the bubble curse had hit, he was single living with a friend. His thoughts of his ninja hadn't truly bothered anyone. But with a previous curse, he'd let his feelings out into the open instead of holing them up inside. That considerably changed things.

Now thinking about his ninja was a big deal. Yes, she was beautiful and yes, she had a humongous crush on him (and he flirted back constantly), but thoughts of his 'normal' life back home in Echigo was causing more and more trouble. He was a samurai rather set in his ways, focusing on his people and the battles ahead, not love. Here was another story. No lords threatened his land; no people to protect. It was different. His crush on Selphie had warmed his heart but their cultural differences clashed on a rather regular basis. Selphie had been hinting at something but Kenshin was completely clueless to it. Matters of the heart were a mystery.

Kenshin was in the kitchen, filling a thermos with sake (boy could he use some after that last curse).

Interesting was definitely one way of putting it. Still, here they were, still living together and still, oh so she hoped, on the most friendly of terms. She bit her lip, hoping that by the end of this trip, they'd be closer even still. But she just couldn't second guess Kenshin, and that was one of the things that so attracted her.

Selphie could hear him in the kitchen, and she peered round the door, watching him get his sake ready. Even Selphie felt like she could really do with some. But maybe later. "Ready to go? I'll just go get my boots on." And she disappeared to gather up the bucket and spade on one arm, and the hamper on the other.

Sake was often Kenshin's response to many things. He was known as a war god and a heavy drinker, though somehow the latter never interfered with the former. It was also known that trying to out drink Kenshin was an impossible feat and it was strongly recommended not to do it.

Kenshin screwed the thermos top on the bottle and placed the mostly gone sake bottle in the cupboard, noting to himself to order some more. If Kasuga were here, he'd send her on an errand to get more sake, but she wasn't here and her presence would cause more trouble right now anyway.

He nodded at the inquiry. "Indeed," he replied, heading to the door to slip on his sandals. He'd taken a liking to the rubber and leather sandals that were present here, although he did often wear his traditional straw sandals as they didn't have a tendency to slip off. He didn't particularly expect for a battle, but the warlord was always prepared. He'd just kick them off if a battle began.

But Selphie noticed herself how nearly empty that bottle was. She was usually so good at keeping it topped up, even extra bottles sometime to save Kenshin going to get it himself. But lately, she'd been more than a little preoccupied and spent most of her time at the chocobo barn waiting for the babies. And it bothered her that he hadn't seemed to notice her absence. Still, she made the mental note to pick up more for him.

Selphie watched him putting on his sandals and rather absentmindedly moved to open the door. The stuff was still dangling from the crook of her arm, but she managed to hold it open for him, "Okay, let's go for the island."

Kenshin was a lord. He was rather accustomed to people doing things for him, but here he'd grown accustomed to doing things on his own, as needed. It was more of a cultural thing than anything else. He was far from lazy and was incredibly polite. He hardly meant any disrespect.

Kenshin nodded with a smile. "Indeed." It had been a long time since he'd been up on the island, choosing the park instead of the island for meditation and relaxation. It didn't involve technology to get there. However with company, he'd hardly mind traveling to the island.

Selphie ambled along, but soon found herself concentrating too hard on what she wanted to say to him on the island. She shrugged her shoulders, trying to find a way to carry her things that suited her balance better. So along she walked, trying to find something to break the small silence, and she glanced down at the basket she carried.

"I made us some cookies, too."

She'd been practising for months, her little project for the year, and they were beginning to be less and less black, and more golden brown. She was always so grateful that Kenshin ate them, and seemed to be pleased with them too. But what she really wanted was to make some he actually actively liked. It was all just cookies, but it was something to say until they got there.

"That is most wonderful," Kenshin smiled. Now that was something he could get behind. This food called cookies was amazingly good. He'd never had anything like it. It was just like when he'd first tasted ice cream. Both were so incredibly foreign yet incredibly tantalizing. His home, during his time, didn't have anything which paralleled.

Every time Selphie made cookies, they only seemed to get better with every batch. He nothing to compare, so he didn't know cookies weren't supposed to be burnt, but each batch came out less and less burnt, so that must be the proper way to make them, he'd reasoned.

Maybe that was why Kenshin was such a good guinea pig - he had nothing to compare to, no kind of idea of understanding what it should be like. But he took so quickly to sweet things, so what made it so hard for him to be interested in others...like kissing.

"I put in extra chocolate chips this time.."

She flushed a little, partly out of embarrassment, but also out of heated frustration. She was glad once they reached the elevator that took them to the island, looking forward to a change of scenery, even if it was to the place where things began to change - that place on the beach where he had kissed her cheek, and held her close.

Cookies unfortunately had little to do with cultural differences. A pity they weren't more similar, however, as that would solve so many problems. If intimacy or affection were cookies, then this whole kissing issue would be so much simpler to handle. Unfortunately this just wasn't the case. Kissing just wasn't part of his culture. He was a refined samurai and monk. This seemed more something Keiji would know about.

"I do so like the ones with chocolate chips."

The change of scenery was nice. This past month had been rather difficult. The number of curses had increased drastically. Not only that was the resurfacing issue of kissing. It just didn't make sense to him. What was so important about something so vulnerable? Someone could easily take them by surprise and stab through the both of them, killing the two instantly.

"Oh.." It was raining. Selphie hadn't expected that it'd be raining at all. She still walked out onto the island, glancing around her as though there might be some kind of shelter. It was just a spitting rain, but it was definitely noticeable.

Still, the change of scenery was great, and it began to make a difference to her spirits. She walked a little quicker, swinging the picnic basket on her arm, her boots kicking tufts out of the sand. Selphie turned to face Kenshin, skipping backwards with a smile on her face. "Come on!"

Kenshin hadn't been expecting it either. It really had been some time since he'd seen any rain. The bubble didn't seem to have much in the way of rain, though there was slight weather. He would've preferred snow, as that was much closer to the weather back home. He enjoyed the cold, the ice, and the snow.

Kenshin nodded. He didn't see much trouble in going out in the rain, though he did wish he'd chosen a more casual yukata. They did tend to dry better. Regardless, he stepped out onto the beach, attempting to not lose his sandals in the sand.

By now, the rain was making her laugh, and she was happy to put down her basket and her bucket. She closed her eyes and spread out her arms and began spinning and spinning around, feeling the rain on her upturned face. Selphie laughed and stopped, allowing herself to stumble across the sand. She opened her eyes and looked for Kenshin, still swaying. "Eeh! I'm dizzy!~"

Such an unusual ritual, something Kenshin hadn't really seen before. Then again, Selphie never ceased to amaze him. Perhaps it was some sort of rain dance.

At the sight of her stagger, Kenshin seemingly leapt forward, catching her in his arms.

But of course, it's just Selphie being Selphie, and most people would probably be amused or confused by the way that she enjoyed the rain. The moment Selphie found herself in Kenshin's arms, she wrapped her own around him tightly, holding close. She smiled, and gazed up into his eyes, a loving smile on her lips, "Hi."

Of course. Kenshin did enjoy her rather whimsical approach to many things. It was something he almost envied at times, but he knew he couldn't afford it, not with all the wars back at home. Not with the battles that arose here either.

He smiled back down at her in his arms, seemingly sparkling as the rain bounced off him. "Hello"

Selphie had thought that their trip to the island would be difficult, that maybe it'd be hard to bring the subject up. But there they were, together and in each other's arms. The rain appealed to her sense of romance too, cooling them and dampening her hair. She dared herself to move up on the balls of her feet so that her lips brushed very lightly against his when she spoke. This was too perfect, and she held him a little closer.

"Kenshin..you should kiss me.."

Oh great, this again. It wasn't that he didn't like kissing; it was that it just didn't feel natural. It was too vulnerable, leaving them open for attacks and ambushes.

They were so close and a kiss would be easy to execute, but what if he did it wrong? What if they were ambushed in the process? What if he offended her again with his reaction? There were too many negative scenarios flying through the samurai's mind.

He paused for a moment, his expression soft but slightly confused. "I know not how." They'd gone over this before. Kenshin really didn't know how. It wasn't some sort of inborn trait or even something learned from training. Kenshin had requested to learn but the lessons, though incredibly short, always ended with Selphie being upset with him. He just didn't know what he was doing wrong.

Selphie's expression crumbled slightly, a tiny frown appearing on her forehead. Her lips downturned as her eyes opened, wide and almost pleading. This wasn't difficult, so easy as they stood as they were. But she refused to kiss him, she wanted to be kissed by him.

"I've shown you... you know how. Just trust me."

Because maybe that was key to all of this, maybe he didn't trust her that everything would be okay. She so badly wanted him to know that nothing bad would come of a kiss.

Kenshin frowned slightly in return. This was so difficult. "And each time I have attempted such, you leave disappointed. I know not what I have done wrong," he confessed. Each time he was left empty, his heart frosting over.

Selphie's expression softened, and she moved an arm to place a hand gently on his cheek. She looked carefully in his eyes, unable to think of anything to say to make him feel better. So instead, she tilted her head slightly and pressed her lips to his firmly.

This time he wasn't taken by surprise, so he didn't make a move to back away. His expression remained soft and calm. Was this the proper way to do it? Such an odd custom it was. He failed to see the significance in it, but foreign customs were just weird sometimes. Then again, foreigners thought Japanese customs were weird too.

And while he didn't try to move away, Selphie held herself closer to him, and allowed herself yet another soft kiss, almost as though she was encouraging him to rejoin with the same motion. Her heart was already beating ten times faster and she closed her eyes, hoping that Kenshin felt a similar giddiness.

Kenshin wasn't entirely sure what he felt as his heart beat just a bit faster. This wasn't a battle, yet it was slightly exciting, even if it were incredibly vulnerable.

Selphie sighed softly against his lips, quivering a little in his arms, both between excitement and the cold of the rain.

He could feel her shaking in his arms. Was he doing it wrong again? Maybe but it was getting a bit chilly. While Kenshin reveled in the cold, most did not. He pulled back from her just slightly. "Are you cold?"

She smiled up at him, still all in quite a daze, her eyes wide and sparkling. "Mmm...Just a little." But she nuzzled herself that bit closer from when he had pulled away, and left a softer, more lingering kiss on his lips.

"We could---" he was quickly interrupted by the kiss. Were kisses supposed to last this long? Perhaps in other worlds, people didn't need to worry about ninja ambushes or other samurai and warlords. But for Kenshin it felt nice but still incredibly vulnerable.

He couldn't shake the feeling. It was so strongly ground into him there wasn't a way to let it go. It was something he simply couldn't explain to Selphie. Back home, it was just known. The threat of war lingered around every corner. Leaving oneself vulnerable and open was a bad idea and without his ninja or his men to protect him, he was left to fend for himself at times.

This place was peaceful much of the time, but he knew that danger could be lurking around the corner, between rivaling lords living here and potential invasions and curses. Being too vulnerable could mean his death - and Selphie's too. He wanted to protect her so strongly but just didn't know how to express it.

[ since historically, Kenshin is believed to have been killed either by a ninja or heavy drinking. Maybe both. ]

Selphie wasn't completely oblivious to these feelings that Kenshin was having; she knew and understood the man reasonably well, after all. But had she any idea of how strong they were, she might have been more careful because the last thing she wanted was to make him feel in the least bit frightened or concerned.

Eventually she pulled away, lowering her gaze - she was giddy with the whole thing, her cheeks brightly blushing. But there was such a happy smile on her face. "It's raining." It was all she could manage to say that made any sense.

Kenshin was rather pleased to see the smile. He didn't do it wrong again, not that he really knew what he did right anyway. It was all still so confusing. "Perhaps we should return and warm up with some tea," he suggested. He didn't want her falling ill from the cold.

"That's a good idea." She slowly peeled away from him, but her hand stretched out to reach for his as she scanned the beach for her picnic basket. She'd run quite far in the rain, and it was a little way off, but she started walking towards it.

"It's a shame we didn't get round to our picnic, but I guess we can have it at home."

Holding hands was another foreign custom, but he didn't withdraw from this one. It didn't feel so vulnerable. He took her hand delicately in his, walking with her.

"Perhaps we could picnic by the lake in the park instead," Kenshin suggested. The park was incredibly peaceful (most of the time) and would make a grand place to eat lunch.

Selphie squeezed Kenshin's hand at the suggestion, and turned to smile at him brightly. It pleased her that at least he didn't want to just throw off the whole idea of a picnic. She reached down to scoop up her basket and headed towards the elevator down, "That sounds perfect!"

"Then we shall move to the park," Kenshin agreed. No reason to sit in the rain. He preferred the snow, yet this place rarely saw snow. It was one thing he missed about his cold homeland.

Kenshin followed her, smiling at her excitement over a picnic. He was happy to see her happy.

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