Rain Dance

Kimi stared out into the rain sadly. She wanted to go back, to see Voltaire... But now Adair knew, and she couldn't bare to face him. She would have to leave. Once Adair told them what he found out, she was sure that they wouldn't want her to stay anymore.

Dammit, where is she? Voltaire thought as he navigated the tunnels. It didn't help that he was still somewhat intoxicated from his drinking binge. The encounter with Adair had sobered him up some, but not much.

He had searched the main areas earlier, but hadn't found Kimi there. Not that he really expected to find her there, since she was so shy around strangers. If Adair had spooked her or upset her earlier she probably would have gone off somewhere by herself. Last time she stayed right outside the cavern room. The time before that...

She went for a walk in the rain. Had she gone outside?

After a few drunken stumbles into some wrong turns (and one instance of walking right into a wall), he finally found the outside. It was still pouring. And there she was, under a tree. He let out a sigh of relief, but also annoyance. This could be a real pain. Literally.

Kimi didn't see Voltaire from where she was sitting. She gave another miserable sniffle and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. She would have to leave soon. She would have liked to have waited for Trevor, but she needed to find better shelter while it was still light enough to see. She shivered. Normally, She absorbed heat, and that kept her skin at a low enough temperature for her to function, but since she was wet, she was absorbing cold air and that was making her temperature rise. She needed to find a warm dry place.

Kimi and the tree were at too far a distance to shout, so Voltaire knew there was only one option if he wanted to talk to her. He glanced up at the rain, then to the tree, and then back to the rain again.

Man, this is going to suck.

He took a deep breath, prepared his fire powers, and then charged through the rain.

Kimi looked up with a start when Voltaire barreled through the rain to the cover of the tree. Hurriedly, she ducked her head so that her hair hid her face and hunched her shoulders. She tried her best not to sniffle but failed. The least she could do was not look at him, because if she did, she knew she would start crying again.

Voltaire plopped down in front of her, steam billowing off him. He shook some of the extra water off like a dog and then started shivering. He didn't want to be doing that again anytime soon.

"...Hey," he greeted casually. "Adair scare the living crap out of you earlier?"

Kimi shook her head. She kept her eyes down and her face tilted so that he couldn't see her.

"You don't have to lie," Voltaire replied with a sigh. "When he goes Chiaroscuro he scares the living crap out of me, and I'm with the guy all the time."

Kimi shook her head again. "M'not lying" She whispered, her voice still thick with tears.

"What's wrong then?" asked Voltaire, now confused. He had assumed Chiaroscuro was at the root of the trouble, since it usually was. "Some other demon or changeling giving you problems?"

"No." Kimi whispered simply. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine, I don't want to hear about it," said Voltaire, though in fact he did very much want to hear about it. "You've got your business and I've got mine. Let's get back in before we both freeze."

Kimi hugged her knees tighter. "Don't want to." She whispered.

"I can't leave you out here," said Voltaire with annoyance. "It's wet and nasty and Trevor would have my head."

The only response he received was a sniffle. Kimi hugged her knees tighter and continued to look at the ground.

(If he wants her to move, he's going to have to carry her. She won't fight)

(looks like it)

"Alright, c'mon," Voltaire said, picking her up. "We're going back, and I will personally kick the ass of anyone who gives you trouble."

He looked back out into the rain and groaned. Not only was he going to get cold and wet again, he was going to be slower because he was carrying Kimi. He took another deep breath and starting running in the rain again.

Kimi stayed curled in his arms. She could feel him shiver, being pressed against him. She was shivering to so it was a wonder she noticed. "if you're cold, you should go to the hotspring." She whispered, her head still down.

"I'll go there later. First we'll go back to..." Voltaire began, before pausing. "...Crap, Adair wrecked our room. We can't go back there for at least a few hours."

"I don't want to go back" Kimi mumbled again.

(fyi, she's going to try and wander off everytime he lets go of her for a while.)

"Why not?" asked Voltaire with some irritation. "Where do you plan to go instead?"

Kimi shrugged. She didn't have a destination in mind. And it wasn't like she wanted to leave, she just no longer felt comfortable there.

Voltaire let out a frustrated sigh.

"Look, we'll go over to Ava, and she'll watch over you and fuss over you while I work on cleaning the room up," he suggested. "If I can get Adair motivated enough to help out it'll go faster. Though that's a pretty big 'if' after Chiaroscuro. If he's not asleep then he's going to be depressed as hell."

"... I don't want to go back..." Kimi repeated softly. She sniffled pathetically.

Voltaire growled. He wasn't sure what to do about this. If Adair was being whiny after Chiaroscuro he could just make fun of him and tell him he was acting like a girl. He didn't know what to say to an actual girl.

"Tell you what, we'll go over to the hot springs for now," the Hunter said, still shivering a little. "We both could use the extra warmth. Just hanging around in the steam should help some."

Upon arriving at the hot springs, Voltaire found Adair leaning against the wall fully clothed. He did not seem to be enjoying the extra heat like he usually would. His gaze seemed distant.

Voltaire groaned inwardly. Just what he needed right now: another depressed person.

Kimi stiffened. Adair was the last person she wanted to be around. If she thought she could get away she would have struggled, but so many years of torture had her conditioned not to fight. She settled for keeping her head down and her eyes shut.