.:Experience Is A Hard Teacher (cont'd):.

[Kirien Melantha]

Kirien sighed. Of course she wanted to know what Karmine's excuse was...she just wasn't sure she wanted to know more than she didn't want to know.

Friends make everything so complicated! She thought to herself childishly, pouting at the wall opposite them that was receiving so much of their attention.

"No...he's too smart." She answered with a trace of a smile. She was enjoying their closeness so much that she thought she might reject any idea he would offer, just so she could prolong it. And then he changed.

Suddenly it was like she had her arms around someone else entirely, someone who was...afraid?

"Cylo!"

His sudden attempts to pull away startled and frightened her. Did I do something wrong? I didn't do anything! Did he have a bad thought? This is stupid! Boys make no sense! Maybe he's not supposed to have friends, either?

"Um...it's...okay?" The words felt alien to her. Compassion was something Kirien simply didn't feel. And yet, her hand was halfway to his head, as if to give him some kind of comforting pat. Just before she touched him, she realized. Abruptly, she dropped the offending arm to her side, glaring at it as if it had a mind of it's own. Could she have scared him away with that gesture?

She tensed immediately, looking incredibly uneasy. As nice as it felt being close to someone, she knew she couldn't hold him hostage. He'd just get more claustrophobic until he decided he didn't want to be her friend anymore. She slowly released him and scooted back to her original position, just watching him, gnawing on her bottom lip nervously.

If you run away, you better come back!

[Ϛ Cylo]

As soon as he was free of her grip, he skittered backward across the floor, to a point still along the wall but a good few feet away. He wrestled with the urge to place even more distance between himself and her, breathing as deeply as if he had just run a few consecutive marathons. Now he was hiding his face, staring at the floor between his legs as he clamped his knees to his chest. It was oddly reminiscent of Kirien's own position not long ago.

His thoughts were racing at a pace that was dizzying for even him, Demon of Speed. It was clear he was the only one at fault here, that Kirien had done nothing wrong, and had actually done something very right, very human, very nice, and yet the urge to run away and never come back again was strong. Was this what had happened to Karmine? He doubted the tutor could have had the same experiences and feelings he did, but something along the same lines, maybe?

I can't let her be hurt again, especially not now. She'd never trust another person in her life...

He tried to talk to the demoness, to explain himself, to make sure she couldn't possibly blame herself, but he was still panting heavily, and his vision was blurry. He wasn't claustrophobic, at least not usually, but at this moment he was sure he knew the panic someone who was felt.

Standing suddenly, blindingly quick, he swayed on the spot for a moment before he ran away.

But it wasn't quite the trip the scared part of him wished to make; he simply ran to the other side of the hall, where the windows were, and punched through the glass, not bothering to fumble with a latch or anything of the sort. His glove tore and so did the back of his hand, but he didn't seem to notice, and he simply used his other hand to make the hole bigger, causing similar damage to clothing and skin on that hand.

The hole was easily big enough to fit his head safely through it at that point, and so he did, gulping in the crisp, cold air as if he would die if he didn't fill his lungs with it. After a moment of this his breathing calmed again and after a further moment he pulled his head back in, a look on his face that could almost be described as haunted, though it definitely held a hint of shame as well.

"I'm sorry, Kirien," he said as he walked back across the hall, his voice back to normal again. "I just... well..."

She deserves the truth, but it would probably just scare her away. Sure, she'd fight something a hundred times her size, but this... this is different.

He didn't know why he was doing this, any of this. It was so unlike him, he wasn't even sure he knew who he was any more. Just in the past minutes with Kirien he had almost become a completely different person, and it was extremely unsettling.

"I was scared. Not of you, but of me."

He sat down next to her, though not nearly as close as he had before. He felt like sitting too close would be a bad idea, especially considering what he was about to tell her.

"I almost kissed you... Well, your forehead, but..."

He couldn't bring himself to look at her. He had no idea what was coming, but even if he did, he knew he wouldn't be prepared for it. He was completely at a loss, staring at the torn remains of his gloves as if they held all the answers.

[Kirien Melantha]

She wished that when people were going to leave, they would say goodbye. That way, she could at least prepare for missing them. But he didn't. He just got up and took off suddenly, just like she was hoping he wouldn't. There was no 'goodbye.' And it hurt.

He'll come back. She tried to tell herself, eyes downcast. He can't just leave after that! He'll come back soon!

And then, he did come back. He must have only been gone a few minutes, or a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. She released the breath she didn't realize she was holding, and smiled, happy to have him nearby again.

When he spoke, she listened intently and fearfully as if she was expecting to be scolded, as if she did something to make him run. What she heard made her mouth fall open in astonishment.

K-kiss?!

She hadn't even thought about kisses before. What would it be like to kiss someone other than family? If it felt so nice holding him, maybe kissing him...?

Her cheeks tinged a rosy pink, and she shook her head back and forth, trying to shake away all thoughts of kissing.

What's wrong with you, Kirien?!

"I-I..." She started, wanting to say something, but she found herself unable to find the words.

Don't talk about kissing, idiot!

"You were scared?"

It came as a whisper, so soft that Cylo might think he imagined it, until she sighed in relief, silently thanking herself for not saying something she would regret. Whatever was happening was too important for her to be saying stupid things, and she knew it; it didn't matter that she didn't know what it was, or what it meant.

"I don't think you should be scared..."

I don't think I want you to be scared. I don't think I like you being scared!

"I don't want you to be scared. I don't want to be scared, either."

[Ϛ Cylo]

If Cylo had ever read any sort of romantic novel or anything of the sort, he may have seen parallels between his current situation and one of such fictional ones, and taken "I don't think you should be scared..." as meaning something along the lines of, "Kiss me, you fool!" Fortunately (unfortunately?), this was not the case, and he simply took the meaning literally, without any sort of kiss-connotations.

Of course, even if he had conjured up that particular meaning for what she said in the depths of his mind, he'd still have to dismiss it as absurd that Kirien Melantha would want him to kiss her. For all the progress he'd made, he still found it hard to see the girl as human. Or, well, at least as someone with emotions and the like, since she actually wasn't human, and neither was he.

In his refusal to look at her, he hadn't caught her blush either, and so her words managed to take almost a dangerous tone at first, mostly due to his mind being convinced that he was somehow going to end up dead today, or at least severely mauled. But he didn't care, at this point. This wasn't about him, and it wasn't her fault he'd thought what he did and been scared off.

He sighed, flexing his grip to make sure the glass hadn't done any serious damage to the moving parts. Satisfied he'd heal up fine soon, he took a red and black bandanna from his pocket and wrapped it around the hand that had it worse, just so he wouldn't bleed everywhere. Then he finally looked over to her, his face looking completely normal, as if nothing had happened. There were even traces of his signature grin on it.

"Yep, scared," he admitted. "I'm a wimp, I know. But think about it; what would you do if I kissed you?" He went on without waiting for an answer, though it was clear he expected it would have been 'I'd kill you'. "I don't particularly feel like dying today; my schedule is packed already."

He felt like this had only really explained why he hadn't kissed her, which he was sure she'd know already, and he figured he should probably explain to her why he thought of this all in the first place, even though he wasn't quite sure himself.

"I guess I felt like, at that point in time, you were..." He had planned on the words 'my sister' coming out of his mouth just then; he felt like giving her the sort of kiss on the forehead one would give their sister, but he realized just in time to stop himself that he had nearly said 'my girlfriend' instead. His mouth suddenly dried, and he realized it was his body and mind telling him that telling her his intentions were purely platonic would be a lie.

This realization was nearly paralyzing, and he didn't seem to be able to see anything anymore, but he forged blindly on, determined not to leave Kirien as confused as he was. She had enough to deal with already today.

"You're a pretty intimidating girl, Kirien. I mean, I'm sure you know that, but it's easy to see you're very strong, physically and as a person. And yet you're," he swallowed, even though his mouth felt like sandpaper, "beautiful. Really beautiful. These were the first two things that jumped at me when I met you, and I was very cautious with you because I knew you were like a thorny rose in that sense, and I didn't feel like getting pricked."

Metaphors were a rare thing to hear from Cylo; he had no idea where that had come from.

"But today I've seen that you're not just a beautiful instrument of death, you're a real person with a personality I like and I guess... well..."

Holy Moses, I'm not in love am I?

But his gut told him that wasn't it. At least, not yet. However, it was clear to him now that he liked her, a lot. It was getting that thought out of his head in the form of words that presented a problem. For the time being, he was silent.

[Kirien Melantha]

What would I do if you k-kissed...?

Kirien's face flushed a deep red for what seemed like the millionth time that day, and she broke into a wide smile. She felt lightheaded and giddy, and she felt stupid for feeling lightheaded and giddy.

Stop thinking about kissing! Stop thinking about kissing! What's wrong with me?! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

But at the same time, it was a nice feeling. Maybe if she made sure he wouldn't tell anyone, it would be okay for her to be stupid around him.

She didn't react to his comment about dying for some time. She was too busy thinking about...nothing, smiling sillily and staring off into space. Her thoughts were going far too quickly for her to be pondering much at all. All she knew was that she felt really, really happy.

Then, she blinked, and the words replayed in her mind. 'I don't particularly feel like dying today.'

Kirien frowned, eyes narrowing. A course of anger drove through her; she was sick of being told how she was going to treat people. "I don't know! I don't know what I'd do! But I wouldn't kill you!"

I could have killed you a hundred times by now, stupid!

She rolled her eyes exasparatedly, and let out a sharp, annoyed sigh that might have meant she was no longer interested in his friendship. But Kirien was too moved by his revelations to keep up her 'I'm so annoyed with you!' act for long. Soon enough, she was practically glowing.

She moved in front of him and carefully gave him a one-armed hug. As quickly as she had come, she jerked away and headed back to her original position, very afraid of scaring him off. She immediately felt guilty, after what happened last time they were touching, but she knew no other way to express her happiness.

I wouldn't kill you!

"I like you too much."

[Ϛ Cylo]

Being romantically-challenged and ignorant can only go so far before one begins to see that looks and blushes previously attributed to anger and frustration are followed by neither anger nor frustration. And it would take a complete idiot to see a smile as wide and bright as Kirien's at that moment and not realize it was happiness that she was feeling. So Cylo realized, finally, that maybe kissing her wouldn't have led to his untimely demise.

Still, if you expect he will suddenly do things such as replying to her indecision about what exactly she would do if he kissed her with, "Well why don't we find out?" or something equally forward in the field of romantic interest, you are sorely mistaken, and should probably go find a smutty novel to assuage your deep-seated desire for lovers spouting corny lines.

Then he was on the defensive again, spouting sorry's at barely audible levels and raising his hands in front of himself. While a few moments ago the apologies would have been said more or less solely to save his hide after offending her, at this point in time, he really truly was sorry for all his prejudging and fear.

"I know! I really am sorry, it's just natural for me to feel that way. It's a defense mechanis---"

Then she had hugged him again, and he was rendered mute. He was slightly put off by the fact that such a simple gesture could render him useless (wouldn't that be a hoot in a fight?), but who was he to argue with a hug? And then she was gone, and the pit of his stomach churned with a feeling that could only be described as black. He realized fully how terrible of him it was to have basically told her he was afraid of her, and thus given her the impression that hugging him was likely to not turn out well.

He let out a deep sigh, trying to expel the bad feelings as best he could, and slowly shuffled over to where Kirien sat. When he reached her, he slowly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close and snug, careful not to let his bloody hands touch her.

"I'm sorry about all of this, really. I like you too, Kirien, a whole lot. It just might take me awhile to adapt is all."

[Kirien Melantha]

Her stomach was doing flips that were strange but not completely unpleasant, and she frowned, resting one hand on her tummy worriedly.

"Cylo!" She started scoldingly, her brows furrowing. "You're making me feel sick! I think I'm going to throw up bunnies!"

Yes, that's exactly what it felt like. Like she'd somehow wharfed down a whole lot of happy, fluffy pink bunnies who were dancing around inside her.

She stuck her tongue out at her fellow redhead playfully, and fell into a fit of girly giggles at their renewed contact.

If they see you, they'll eat you alive! No one will take you seriously ever again! A voice chided her at the back of her mind. Shut up. She snapped back at it, and it never warned her again.

And then, a silence fell between them. The silence was so thick that it made her nervous and uncomfortable, and she squirmed a little, trying to shake it off. She wasn't used to being so close to anyone, either. She wasn't used to having people talk to her without their voice shaking, or look at her without fear or uncertainty. She definitely wasn't used to being hugged so much and so long.

I'm not used to people liking me, either.

She scolded herself for reacting the way she did. She liked being hugged, and she was sure that she didn't mind what anyone else thought of her, so...

Maybe he's trying to trick me. No, he's not trying to trick me. He's all weird, too!

She squirmed a little more. Don't run, stupid! You didn't want him to run, you can't run! Quick! Do something! Say something!

"Gimme your hand." She demanded bossily, and grabbed for the wrist of his unwrapped hand. "You idiot. You could have just opened the window!"

[Ϛ Cylo]

Cylo was a little surprised by the comment, but after the other oddities the day had held, it was as nothing, and he had very little trouble instantly retorting with something not-very-helpful, as was his custom.

"Well with bunnies it's better out than in, isn't it?" he said, his tone serious but his grin impossible to ignore.

Cylo, perhaps surprisingly, actually found the silence to be comfortable. He was growing increasingly comfortable with this and was more or less at peace with himself. At least, as muc as he possibly could be in this situation. However, he hadn't magically developed super-empathy, and was thus ignorant to Kirien's own feelings on the matter.

He was caught too off-guard by the gesture to protest when Kirien grabbed for him. He hadn't been overly expecting her to be worried about it, and not because he thought she didn't care about him; he was over that. He simply thought she'd be used to seeing blood.

"Of course I could have," he grinned, "but that would have been boring. And when do I ever do anything boring?" This was somewhat of a point of pride with him, actually.

He watched closely as Kirien took his hand, unsure of just what she intended on doing. He sort of wanted to heal the injury himself, but he hadn't fed in awhile and didn't feel like expending the energy. He could deal with a few cuts.

[Kirien Melantha]

He punched the window because it would be less boring? That's[/i] stupid.

A slow eyeroll expressed her annoyance with Cylo's childish reasoning. It suited him, as fascinated with fun and excitement as he seemed to be, but she refused to believe he was stupid, and inflicting harm on oneself because it was more interesting was just that.

"Uh-huh. You didn't think about opening it, did you?" She accused, wearing a smug smirk as if she knew exactly why he'd punched through the window. Like there was some deeper meaning that he refused to disclose, and she'd just found it out. When she next spoke, it was not to reveal her deduction, but to giggle a light, "You're weird."

One glance down at his wounded hand determined that the cut began healing while she was talking[/color] (yes?), and with a satisfied nod, she released his hand.

"Let's go outside? They're gonna come out soon." She suggested, though she wouldn't mind being seen, as long as they didn't see her crying...just being with Cylo wouldn't make her weak. But she remembered him saying something about going outside, so that's what she thought they should do, lest he punch more windows.

Let's wrap this up, shall we?

[Ϛ Cylo]

Sounds good to me.

"Course I did! What do you think I am, stupid?" Cylo said jovially, not doing a very good job of sounding convincing. He didn't say anything to the weird comment; he supposed it was true, really, but it didn't bother him to be called on it. He was pretty much as at peace with himself at that moment as one could possibly be.

He studied his hand as Kirien released it, glad his hand was back to normal mostly because Kirien would stop worrying about it. "Outside sounds good," he said, though he wouldn't have minded being seen either. "It's a beautiful day."

He stood, and helped Kirien up as well before making his way for the doors, and with them, the fresh air that he didn't quite need anymore, but would be happy to enjoy with Kirien.

That's a wrap?