Rain Dance

"It's two syllables. It's not that hard to say," Voltaire replied a little grouchily. "I dunno, call me Vol or Volt or something, I don't care."

"How about just 'taire?" Kimi giggled softly, gently stroking his hair. "It sounds much better."

"...Mmm, guess that'll do," Voltaire answered, wondering what Adair would think when he heard someone other than himself use that nickname. When did he start that anyway? The Hunter couldn't even remember. Voltaire didn't spend much time trying to figure it out, for soon he had fallen asleep.

Kimi smiled softly and continued to pet his hair. She stayed like that until Ava came back, not tired in the slightest after her long nap.

Ava came in with some meat and some apples in a basket, as well as some water in a couple buckets. She glanced over to the sleeping Voltaire, and then to the sleeping Adair, and seemed at a loss.

"I brought food for lunch but almost everybody's sleeping," she said to herself, setting the food and water down in a corner for whenever it was wanted. "Are you hungry Kimi princess?"

"A little. Thank you Ava" Kimi smiled. "But you don't have to call me princess. It isn't something I'm very proud of."

"Then what should I call you then?" asked Ava, as she brought over some meat and an apple.

The smell of food woke Voltaire. He sat up and stretched, feeling better now. Adair, while muttering something, was still asleep, which wasn't unusual for him.

"Just Kimi. Unless you want to give me a nickname like you did the boys." Kimi looked thoughtful "Though I suppose it really doesn't matter much since I'll have to leave soon"

"You're leaving?" asked Ava, looking sad. "When?"

"Eh? You didn't mention anything like that earlier," Voltaire replied. "Nobody's been giving you trouble here, have they?"

"No." Kimi stated "I was supposed to leave after Trevor took you to the tournament, wasn't I? I don't want to stay and be a burden"

"Oh that," Voltaire replied. "Well there's three more rounds of tournament to go if all goes well, so we'll be here for three more days if we don't get our asses kicked in one of the matches. Which we won't."

Kimi giggled slightly. "Does that mean you want me to stay?" She asked with a coy smile.

Voltaire felt his heart (inside Ava) flutter a little bit. She seemed to notice this and looked over to him with a coo. That was the problem with having something/someone else owning your heart: they knew ever little emotion you went through.

"...Well, you don't really have anyplace else to go, so why go?"

"I just don't want to burden you..." Kimi blushed and looked away. "I don't like to cause any trouble"

"At this point you would be more of a burden away from 'Taire because he'd be worrying about you all the time."

Voltaire turned to Adair, who was sitting up with a lazy smirk on his face. When had he woken up? He gave the slightly flustered Hunter a look that seemed to say you know it's true, which annoyed the blonde.

Kimi blushed darker. "Why would he worry about me all the time? I'm not important like you and Ava"

" 'Taire may not always act like it, but he does care about what happens to his friends," Adair replied. "And I'd say you count as that much at least."

"Volty's always been protective," Ava chimed in.

"Yeah yeah, talk about me like I'm not here," Voltaire remarked dryly.

"Oh, it's not like that!" Ava countered, completely missing the Hunter's sarcasm. She started to preen Voltaire's hair. "We love you Volty."

"Stop that!" Voltaire protested.

Kimi giggled. "I'm flattered. I've never had a real friend before." She smiled "I was always kept cooped up"

"Matter of security?" asked Adair. His own noble family kept its females mostly indoors. Girls were not deemed worthy of becoming Heroes, being valued instead as ways to marry into other powerful familes and producing heirs. Perhaps it was sexist, as Voltaire commented a while back, but Adair knew his family wasn't the only one who did that sort of thing.

"You were stuck inside all day?" said Voltaire, managing to push Ava's beak away. "No wonder you ran. I would have gone out of my mind in a week."

Kimi's face fell and she turned her face away from them. She turned pale as she remembered. Having to stay inside, so she couldn't hide. Being tortured to make Neggy react. Being horribly violated by Talmara with Neggy being forced to watch. "Security..." She murmured, just above a whisper "...Not at all."

A horrible silence settled over the room as Voltaire and the others knew a sore spot had been hit again.

"What, did they...beat you or something?" Voltaire asked carefully.

"Something..." Kimi stood up carefully. "I'm going to go for a walk..." she murmured

"Hey, hold on!" called Voltaire, standing up.

"Leave her alone, 'Taire," Adair warned. "If she doesn't want to talk about it, she doesn't want to talk about it. I know there are plenty of things we don't like to talk to people about either."

Voltaire opened his mouth to answer, but then all that came out was a sigh.

"...Whatever. I'm going for a drink. You coming Adair?"

"Sure."

"Don't drink too much," Ava advised. "Match with Ravens tomorrow."

Kimi walked out of the cavern and down the tunnel. She stayed at the outside entrance, sitting with her back to the rock and staring out at the rain. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she struggled to forget.

(She'll tell Adair about her past if he tells her a little about what his family does, but she won't tell Voltaire because she doesn't want him to think less of her for what happened)

(ah, I see. Drinking should help with that :P)

Adair hiccupped loudly in the bar, releasing a small flare of greenish fire. The alcohol for fire-breathers was often spiced with extra chemicals that changed the flame's color. In fact, due to the way alcohol boosted flame powers and lessened the user's control of it, fire-types had a section of the bar all to themselves.

"Dammit," muttered Voltaire, bluish flames riding his every other breath. "Seems like whenever she starts relaxing then I hit some sore spot and she's quiet all over again."

Adair turned to Voltaire to offer some advice, but then he suddenly felt light-headed. How could he be this drunk already? This was only his second drink of mead. An odd, glowing mead, but mead. Voltaire had drank four glasses of some blue drink with green swirls and he wasn't even buzzed yet.

"I don't know," Voltaire went on, sighing and letting out a blast of blue fire. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, letting her stay with us."

"She didn't have anywhere else to stay," answered Adair, before smirking. "Besides, you like her don't you?"

"Don't start that crap up again," Voltaire groaned, before downing the rest of his drink.