Prolegomena -Akkii-

[a]

Prolegomena - a preliminary discussion or introductory essay, especially to a book or thesis

Almost a week now.

It has been almost a week since her mother had been BLOWN UP and SURVIVED.

She was still kind of in shock.

Shade was leaning against the building of her school, cell phone in hand and texting, her gaze a movement lazy and soft, what she looked like when she was content. Her dark lashes sent shadows across her high cheek bones as she gazed down at the cell phone in her hands. With a final, soft sigh she quickly typed out something else-probably a ‘bye’- and flipped the cover shut before returning the device to her pocket. Currently, Shade was waiting for Kyo to show up. The bell had rung and she had gotten out of the crowded building rather quickly. She didn’t know what was holding Kyo up; it could be a number of things that she had thought up of while waiting for her orange-haired friend. Maybe he had to talk to a teacher, or maybe he didn’t want to accidently bump into some random girl and transform, so he was waiting for the crowd to die down. Those were only two of the reasons that she had come up with, but in the meantime, she was stuck waiting for him in the cold. Not that she minded, really, it gave her a bit of time to think, and she never really cared too much about having to wait for Kyo.

But what she had been thinking about prior to the texting, and now once again that she had no one to talk to, was her mother. It had been rather stressful on the girl, but then again, who wouldn’t be stressed out if your mother had just gotten blown up and was in a hospital? Aside from that, she wanted Kyo to meet her mother. Today. Kira would be upset more than likely, but now was as good as a time than ever, while her mother was lying in a hospital bed so she couldn’t go and hide somewhere, that wasn’t Shade’s only reason either.

A snowflake drifted down and kissed the girl on the cheek before it melted and Shade wiped the tiny droplet of water away. Looking up at the gray, soft sky as the clouds spat out more little snowflakes that melted when they touched the ground. Hm, snow. No doubt that her mother was looking out of the hospital window at this moment and thinking the same thing.


((::is shot:: It's terrible, but I couldn't think of any other way to streach it out... I'm sorry, this thread probably won't be any near as great as the one's you have with Dante... ^^'))

[X]

Kyo had been trying to find the least-traveled route out of the school, which also meant the longest one. Plus, he’d been stopped by a teacher for shoving a girl away from him since she had been so close, so he’d had to receive a lecture about violence… blah, blah, blah. It got really irritating.
Everyone had been pushing and shoving, trying to get out so they could enjoy the falling snow. Kyo didn’t mind snow. You could even say he liked it. He had never played in it much, but he’d always thought it looked nice, just laying like a blanked over everything.
But, anyway, has the people had been pushing and shoving, he’d been trying to make his way through the crowd without running into any girls. He’d panicked when he saw a girl heading toward him from one side, probably just trying to make it out of the mass alive. Desperately, he had shoved her away, and gotten in trouble. Teachers were so annoying. Often, he wondered why he went to school. But that didn’t keep him from going most days.

Now these halls were definitely not as bad. There were still quite a few people, but it was plenty easy to avoid running into the opposite gender. Finally he found an exit and found his pace quickening. Shade would be waiting for him. He really did love her. Adored her, even. There was nothing that could make him hate her, nothing at all.
But she’ll still be hurt when she finds out you have to be confined. The thought literally stopped him in his tracks. He just stopped, right in front of the door.
”No! I’ll beat Yuki!” he growled under his breath.
Suddenly, Dante came to mind. Everyone knew the older boy and Akito were half siblings. They’d been really, really close, too. Something he had always found strange as a kid. Now, they didn’t seem to remember. Well, they did remember, but nobody was really aware of it--not even him at the moment. Ren-san had sworn everyone to secrecy. They could not talk about it. The memories could not be disturbed again. Sometimes Kyo had been jealous of Dante, though. He was a cat, yet he was one of Akito’s favorites, almost always at the family head’s side. He didn’t seem to even plan on locking Dante up. Although, he had once, but Kyo wasn’t sure. Dante had been allowed to leave confinement, though.
Lucky, he thought, before shaking his head to himself and opening the door, exiting and seeing the snow that was beginning to fall. It would end up sticking, he was sure. The flakes were falling, big and fat. He stayed there for a moment, allowing the snow to come down on him, and then strode around the school until he found Shade.

As he approached, he took in her appearance in one quick glance. He admired her emerald green eyes for a moment, accented by her long eyelashes, and watched her midnight-black hair, which now had flecks of white from the snow in it.

”Yo!” Kyo called as he walked over to her, putting an arm against the wall of the school, just behind her head, as if he wanted to put his arm around her shoulders but didn’t.
”Anything you wanted to do? Or are we just heading over to my house again?” he asked.

[a]

Shade looked up at Kyo, a grin playing on her lips.
"Hey, Kyo." She said to him, her grin only growing.
“Well, actually I had an idea.” She said to him, not moving from her spot leaning against the wall, her hands jammed into the pockets of her over-sized hoodie to keep them warm.
“You haven’t met my mom yet, so I figured that I could take you to meet her. She had an… accident and she’s in the hospital right now, which is probably best for us because it’s less likely of a chance she’ll attack you.” Shade told him, it was unclear if she was serious or not.

Taking one hand out of her pocket and slipping it into the hand that’s Kyo didn’t have above her head.
“Does that sound okay?” She asked her orange haired boyfriend, looking up into his oddly-colored eyes, she never thought that she’d meet someone with such strange eyes that was outside of her family. According to her mother, her grandmother had red eyes as well, but Shade figured that they weren’t cat-shaped like Kyo’s eyes. She really did love his eyes, she could probably stare at them for hours on end, but that would no doubt freak Kyo out.
My skittish cat, I love you. Shade thought with a slight smirk.

((Ugh, I'm sorry. Bad post...))

[X]

Kyo listened to Shade talking, interested. He was about to say that meeting her mom sounded like a good idea. It really was. He’d love to meet her. He figured he probably wouldn’t talk much, though. It might just bring up thoughts of his own mother. He arched his eyebrow when she said it was probably a good time to visit her, since she might not attack him.
”Attack me?” he asked cockily, smirking at his girlfriend.
When she took his hand, he gave hers a squeeze, holding it close to his side.
”Sounds great. Let’s go then,” he said as he began to walk. After a while he dropped her hand. He still wasn’t used to it. He really was a skittish cat. He jammed his hands into his pockets, forming into fists. He glanced back at her with his garnet eyes as he gave her a small, genuine smile.

He slowly ran his fingers through his soft orange hair and almost awkwardly reached down and grabbed Shade’s hand again, squeezing it gently like earlier.

[This is fail. D8]

[a]

((XDD))

Shade nodded at Kyo’s cocky tone, a grin on her face.
“Yeah, she would probably only end up hurting herself, but she’s fiery, ya know.” She said to him, using small hand gestures with her free hand. She was perfectly fine when Kyo let go of her hand, she just kept on walking as if nothing else had happened, though she did return his grin when he smiled down at her, and when he took her hand again her grin just grew.

“I’m just going to warn you now; she isn’t the easiest woman to get along with.” Shade told him with a somewhat sheepish expression on her face. “She’ll probably have to warm up to you first.” She said to him. But then again, Shade wasn’t sure what her mother was going to do. She never really understood her and probably never would. Shade didn’t exactly foresee that her mother was going to go and get herself blown up, she thought she was smarter than that, but it seems not. Or maybe Kira was just too stubborn not to go, wanting to prove that she was stronger than this other person. But that didn’t exactly work out all that great….

((Mine is bad too. D=))

[X]

“Yeah, she would probably only end up hurting herself, but she’s fiery, ya know.”
”Kinda like you?” Kyo suggested teasingly, smirking at her as he walked on. His smirk became a smile when she grinned at him, and he was tempted to pull her close. But if he did that, he’d transform. He couldn’t let that happen.
“I’m just going to warn you now; she isn’t the easiest woman to get along with.”
”What woman in your family is easy to get along with?” he asked, smirk returning. He wondered what her mother was like, if she was kind, if she and Shade looked alike.
His own mother had been kind, even if she had feared him. She cared enough to try to take care of him, to try to love him, to try to give him what a lot of Sohma children never received. She had failed, but he was thankful. She gave him more than his father ever did, and that meant a lot to him.

[a]

Shade smirked at his first comment.
“I suppose.” She said to him, the smirk still on her lips. When he made the comment about the women in her family, Shade couldn’t help but laugh a bit. That statement was very true, women in her family-Especially on the Arata side, her mother’s side- were generally very outspoken and strong opinionated, making them hard to get along with at times, but her mother probably ranked pretty high up there with the worst offenders. If she didn’t like you, she would go out of her way to embarrass you, harass you, and just bother you any time she could, she could found out pretty quickly what bothered you, and in those cases in which she couldn’t, well, let’s just say that made her not like you even more. But of course, she did this all to people that she liked. Kira was constantly making dirty jokes to upset Shade, and divulge a bit too much information on her relationship with Roy Mustang. But all the same, Shade loved her mother, and her mother loved Shade.

“I’m easy to get along with, aren’t I?” Shade asked him teasingly with a grin, elbowing him gently in the ribs as she turned down the street that the hospital was located on. She walked a bit further, before stopping once in front of the multi-storied white building, looking pristine, but holding an aura that was almost dreadful. Shade disliked hospitals. She didn’t like the smell, the moans of the dying behind the heavy doors, and the white walls that stared her down like an angry animal. The crisp uniforms of the nurses; occasionally splattered with the blood of a patient. She-didn’t want to, but still did- heard the muffled cries of children, mother’s sobbing. Shade looked up at her, her small hand still holding Kyo’s as she studied to tall, white building for a moment.

“This is it.” She told him, looking over at her orange haired lover. “I guess we should go in now.” She told him lamely, maybe trying to stall actually going into the dreadful place. But she took a step forwards and led him around the parking lot-staying safely on the sidewalk, thank you very much, but sometimes people were just in a bit too much of a hurry to get to the hospital- until they were met by the glass doors, which she pushed open before stepping into the cool atmosphere of the hospital. Shade already knew where her mother was and just to sign the two of them in at the front desk, which she did quickly, not wanting to linger any more then she actually had too, signing Kyo’s name for him before leading him- very hastily- to her mother’s room. Once she had been taken out of extensive care, Shade had just about demanded that her mother have a bottom room, for reasons untold but anyone who knew Shade and Kira would know that was because Shade was afraid her mother might throw herself out a window due to having such a shattered pride or maybe out of boredom, Kira would probably do either if she had a leg to do so with. She had at first been on the first story, but was moved to the third when an elderly patient needed the room on the first floor.

So Shade pretty much dragged Kyo to the elevator, where she roughly jabbed the up button and waited impatiently for the elevator.
“Stupid elevator.” She mumbled under her breath. If it wasn’t clear to Kyo yet that Shade was not fond of hospitals, it was probably clear now as she stared at the metal door of the elevator with her jaw jutted out slightly and she reach over to jab the button again.

--

Finally, the elevator arrived stepping into lightly with Kyo in tow, Shade pressed the ‘3’ button before waiting for the elevator to carry her designated floor.

The silence was filled with soft music from the speakers, but the stillness between Kyo and Shade wasn’t as calm as it was before. It was probably due to the fact that Shade was uncomfortable in the hospital, and her manner was displaying that as loudly as if she had a neon sign over her head with an arrow pointed to her saying, ‘SHE DOESN’T LIKE IT HERE AT ALL’.

Once the elevator came to a lurching stop, there was a soft ‘ding’ and the doors smoothly slid open. Shade in the mean time had let go of Kyo’s hand, but now took it again and stepped into the pristine hallway of the hospital, before turning and leading him to her mother’s room.

“This is her room… so… yeah…” Shade said lamely, trying awkwardly to fill the silence before opening the closed door of the small room. She reached for the cold metal of the door knob, before turning it and stepping in.

Her mother was slouching against the pillows under her back that held her upright, her head turned towards the window as she watched with mild interest the fat snowflakes drifting from the sky like ashes drifting away from a fire. Kira looked over a few seconds after Shade had entered, her reaction delayed a bit by the fact that she hadn’t at first heard the door open or the soft reading of her daughter’s footsteps.

She turned her face completely to face her two visitors, the bright, unreal green of one eye shining through a light curtain of her long black hair and she lazily brushed it out of her face. Her one green eye was too bright, probably from being drugged up on pain killers. That half of her face looked perfectly fine, and the over bright eye paled in comparison to the other one.

It was the eye of a vulture, the pupil permanently dilated as wide as it would go, and the fogginess over the entire surface of her eye, over the once bright, lush-fiery even-green combined with a few blood vessels that had popped, dotting her eye with little spot of red in the whites of it. It was blood chilling, Shade still couldn’t bring herself to look at that dead eye in her socket, the mutilation she could deal with, that fact that her mother no longer had a right leg she could deal with, the scaring that marred her once flawless lips- Shade had always been envious of her mother’s lips, as odd as that may sound-she could deal with that. All the scars on her face the doctors had told her would fade in due time, anyways. It was just that eye that chilled Shade strait down to the marrow in her bones and made the blood fade from her face.

Kira’s… eyes, the seeing and the unseeing, gazed over Shade, before landing on Kyo, and at this point she cursed loudly and turned her face, veiling it with one hand.

“F***, Shade, why’d you bring someone here?” Kira mumbled, her speech somewhat slurred by the medication and the scars.
“He’s currently my boyfriend, so I figured that you would like to meet him.” Shade said, sighing a bit. Her mother could be so VAIN sometimes, but Shade couldn’t really blame her mother at this point, Shade wouldn’t want anyone to see her like that, too.
“Yeah, but I look like a G*d da**** STEAMROLLER hit me, then back up and decided to hit me again!” Complained Kira, still keeping her hand up.


((Faaill...

Does this work?))

[X]

Kyo followed, slowly, behind his girlfriend. She really didn't like being in the hospital, he noticed. Hospitals had always bugged him, too. They'd kept his mother in the hospital for a while, after she'd tried to kill herself. As if she wasn't already dead. She'd jumped in front of a train, of course she'd died already. But they'd put her in a hospital room. He and his father had come to 'visit' her. Ever since that day, hospitals were one of the many places he hated to be. But he wasn't making it clear, aside from how stiff his body was.

He trailed after her the whole time, holding her hand when she grabbed it. He was glad when she finally stopped pressing the button and they got into the elevator. But the tension was still radiating off of her, making him shift a little uncomfortably.

He squeezed her hand as they left the elevator and made their way to her mother's hospital room. He, of course, wasn't prepared for what he saw and sort of stood gawking without really registering how rude that must be.

It was finally when Kira loudly cursed that he got a grip and looked off to the side. Hearing how upset she was by the fact that he was seeing her like this, he turned so he faced the door. What with how she was acting, he almost felt as if he'd walked into some girl's room while she was naked. His face burned.

"Uh... sorry. I shouldn't have stared," he said awkwardly. It felt like he was talking to the wall, since he wasn't facing her. He knew she'd heard, though. It wasn't like he was being quiet or anything.

[a]

Kira spread her fingered apart to peer at Kyo, her one good green eye staring at the orange haired teenager with a complex expression that could not be described.

“… S’fine, kid.” She finally said, dropping her hand. “Don’t blame ya, I’d stare too, I look pretty screwed up.” She said, trying to shrug off his gawking, though his gawking had made her feel even uglier.
“I’m Sato Kira, I would bow but the doctor said that I should stay off my legs.” Kira said with biting sarcasm, a cold smirk curling up on her face, turning her head so that she could look at him better. “How about I shake your hand, instead?” She offered, as if to apologize for the rudeness in her tone, but anyone who knew her would know that she didn’t really apologize for anything. But she did place her hand out there for him to shake, her smirk turning into more of a soft smile, but not even a smile, the ghosts of a smile.

((::is shot:

[X]

Kyo turned back to face her, not allowing his eyes to travel to the other side of her face, watching the clear, practically unmarred side of her face with his intense, cat-like crimson gaze.
His hands were sitting in his pockets now, as he had let go of Shade's hand.
When he heard the sarcasm, he simply shrugged, smirking a little bit, despite the biting tone in her voice.

Seeing the hand, Kyo took on hesitant step, then smoothed out his stride and accepted the hand, shaking it. He wasn't sure whether she was really sorry or not, but he honestly couldn't care. To return her smile, his smirk softened a bit.
"Anyway, uh, nice to meet you Kira. I'm Kyo," he said. Kyo wasn't one for formalities. He wasn't going to be overly respectful. If Kira and Shade were anything alike, he figured he wouldn't have to be.

[a]

Kira shook it firmly before she dropped it to her side again. She looked up at Kyo with an inquisitive look before she asked, "How long have you known my daughter?" though what she really wanted to ask was 'Are you dating her? If you are, you better not do anything she doesn't want to, and don't touch her anywhere below her belt.' Kira was normally so blunt and would just go out and ask it, but for now she was going to build up to the question, maybe thinking of a better, less bold way of saying it, for she knew her daughter woulid probably die right then and there of embarassment. Maybe the medication was making Kira a bit more mellow and calm.

Shade watched the two carefully, it seemed that her mother wasn't going to do anything stupid, and atleast seemed to be thinking before she blurted out whatever. Sometimes she had a tendency to do that, it really was embarassing and in those moments, Shade was very good at just hiding in the background, praying that no one would notice her.