Description: If there's anything in the world more dangerous than falling asleep on a school rooftop... It's probably falling asleep on a school rooftop with a bored Pas around. As an added bonus, we learn just why Tenma Kiryuu is incapable of getting a date! (In a surprise twist, it involves him talking.)
It's funny; most Saturdays, Tenma Kiryuu would be off in some weird part of the world, fighting on television. Not this Saturday, though. No, today the leader of the Guardian Kings is here - his second home, as it were - on the rooftop of Gedo High. It's a fine afternoon in late Spring, maybe a little humid what with the ocean and all, but there's still plenty of light left. So it comes to pass that Tenma is sitting up on his 'throne' by himself, currently the sole occupier of the territory he's claimed for himself and his teammates.
And he is, well, sleeping.
Yeah, it's a nice lazy afternoon for Tenma, whose bookbag is resting on the rooftop beside him, a few actual text and workbooks to be found within the courier-style bag, but if he was doing homework before, he's not now; now, he's taking a nap. The cloth-wrapped bundle of his bokken lies beside him, and his face is covered by a glossy-paged magazine, with a somewhat improbably proportioned young woman in a bikini on the cover; very likely, the pages within have similar content.
One might wonder just what the Gedo swordsman is dreaming about.
A mysterious hand reaches in and steals the magazine off Sleeping Bastard's face.
If the rooftop is Tenma's Kiryuu's rightful throne, then Pás has usurped it, sprawling backward and claiming the windowsill as her established territory. The languid Brazilian settles on the spot, looking freshly stepped out from a dip in the ocean, her long hair wet and wavy with sea salt, her bikini top damp, and her tiny shorts brushed with sand. leaning against the frame and crossing her long legs, one ankle bouncing out the tune on her ipod. With the earbuds in, playing a tinny, muffled salsa beat, she carefully wets her index finger and turns a page, settling back for a very interesting read.
She flips another page. The magazine's centerfold unfurls itself excitedly like the red carpet before royalty. Pás turns the magazine ninety degrees. Her eyebrows pops up. She looks suitably impressed.
It takes a few long seconds before Tenma realises something is wrong, as the rays of the sun beat down on his previously hidden face, and a new sound meets his ears, a scent unlike that of the rest of the Gedo High campus reaching his nose. Something, his finely honed senses tell him, has changed.
So, Tenma's dark blue eyes slowly open, fixing directly on the dusky-skinned Brazilian in her swimsuit and short (short short) shorts. "Oh man," Tenma says aloud, suddenly, his voice tinged with sleepiness from his nap. "It's like somethin' out of a bad movie, there I was sleepin' with the magazine on my face, an' one of the girls fell out of it."
Well, how do you /expect/ Tenma Kiryuu to react to a girl in a damp bikini? Besides staring, anyway.
Okay, so he's staring too.
The sun gets briefly blocked from Tenma's eyes as Pás leans in, her long hair slung in a heavy damp wing over one dark shoulder. Her smiling face hovers inches above his, her wily dark eyes watching him with an unrestrained amusement. "Hum," she says back, with great thought, reaching up to pull one earbud free. "But if I had fallen out, would I not be sittings on your face?"
Her sunny grinning goes a little crooked. Then, rather pointedly, she rolls up the Guardian King's porn and reaches out to whack him straight on the forehead with all his busty bunny friends. "Ufa, Pescador. Is this your idea of doing the trainings? Remind me to fear your right hand."
In fact, Tenma's not too sure he's actually awake right now; he's had dreams like this before. Of course, usually in these dreams Pás (or other girls, and even on some occasions an entirely mute Marisol O'Connell) is wearing even less than the Brazilian actually is... But variety is the spice of life, right? In fact, the words that escape Pás on the subject of her hypothetical emergence from a magazine just serve to muddle things even further, and Tenma opens his mouth to reply...
...Only to get whacked in the forehead with the rolled-up magazine. Okay, not a dream.
"Keh," mutters the Guardian King, rubbing his forehead with the palm of his hand. "I don't harp on you 'bout your bad habits, now do I?" Does Pás actually have any good habits? For that matter, does /Tenma/?
Pás is a bastion of good habits! Except for the stealing. And the fighting. And the public nakedness. And the sometimes driving stolen motorcycles into moving bodies of water. And Tenma Kiryuu.
Rather unceremoniously, she tosses his poor magazine off the side of the roof (where it lands on a random Gedo student who squints gratefully up at the skies) and steps over to straddle the Guardian King's hips, letting herself down to her knees. "You have nothing on me, Tenma Pescador. I went to Catholic school," the Brazilian replies tauntingly, with a slight, playful squinting of her left eye. "Shiuu, but you see, the today is very pretty and warm, I feel very bored, and you will keep me company. Now you get up or I will kick you off this roof."
How is Tenma Kiryuu a bad habit?! Though most of Pás' friends would probably consider her association with him to be exactly that, more than likely. And yet, who's the one always doing bad things? Her, not him. Why, Tenma is a perfect gentleman where the Brazilian is concerned!
Shut up, stop laughing!!
The tall, lean youth's dark blue eyes narrow rather suspiciously as Pás straddles his hips, with her taunting tones and her bold declarations. The worst part, perhaps, is how utterly certain she sounds that he'll do exactly what she wants him to do. "Kinda hard for me to go gettin' anywhere in this position," Tenma says. "Unless you want me to wriggle out from under you."
Of course, Tenma says this with an extremely self-satisfied smirk, his hands moving behind his head, fingers lacing together as he relaxes with a look of supreme indolence. Either he doesn't think Pás would actually kick him off of the roof, or he's just that unwilling to show any sort of intimidation.
"Speaking of the things that are kinda hard," Pás continues silkily, her smile widening and going Cheshire as she slowly, and so very patiently lowers her body over Tenma's, appearing to include him in her claim on Gedo territory.
She stretches out, luxuriating in the June afternoon warmth, looking like someone who was meant for the sunlight. She rests her hands on Tenma's chest, her long fingers splaying, and pushes up close to bring her face within inches of his. "How is it, Pescador, when there is only you, and there is only me, it always ends up with you on your back? --Not that I mind being on top," she asides, loftily, her head tilting to one side.
Her harmless smiling grows teeth. Her hands try to twist handfuls out of his clothes. And, in an inky tone of voice, Pás adds, "...But I like a boy who gives a little effort!" And, swiftly, suddenly, the Brazilian girl demonstrates just how expensive her talk really is. With a sharp, near maniacal laugh, she forces her weight violently to one side, a swing of her arms and a fast interjection of both legs trying to send the Gedo boy tumbling across the length of the roof.
COMBATSYS: Pas has started a fight here.
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Pas 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tenma has joined the fight here.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Pas
COMBATSYS: Tenma blocks Pas' Quick Throw.
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Tenma 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Pas
With Pás over top of him like that, leaning close and splaying her arms on his chest, Tenma is pretty content, you know? Of course, he's a teenaged boy, so that's to be expected. The silky-toned and /deeply inappropriate/ reference from the Brazilian gets a continued shit-eating grin and a shrug from Tenma, who is clearly lacking much in the way of shame right now... Not even a blush or anything out of the tall Japanese youth, but there's a reason for that.
See, he's pretty sure he already knows what's coming.
When Pás' hands grab at his shirt, Tenma's hands are already unfolding from behind his head; when she jerks to the side, Tenma goes with the motion, snapping up the cloth-wrapped bokken as he goes, hitting the rooftop in a more controlled tumble than he would've been able to offer the last time he faced off with the Brazilian. It ends up with him landing in a low crouch, looking a little rumpled but otherwise okay.
"Losin' your touch there, Dakini," Tenma says, as the cloth sheath is untied and tucked away in a pocket, leaving his bokken clear. Surely, Pás is familiar with the ritual that follows; Tenma bites into the flesh of his left thumb, drawing blood to paint a red stripe down the blade of his bokken, forging the link between himself and his weapon. A single slash through the air sets the wooden blade alight, a smoky, violent aura of bloody red surrounding it. Still, since Pás is all the way on the other side of the roof... Tenma obligingly gives her a reason to get closer, slashing at the air a second time.
This time, the motion sends out a roiling crescent of blood, careening through the air at the Pacific High student.
COMBATSYS: Pas blocks Tenma's Dharmapala.
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Tenma 0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0 Pas
"Psiu, Pescador," Pás returns in a very theatrical, put-upon sigh, flipping up to her bare feet, letting her wiggling toes get used to the unusual tread on the roof. "If only you used your hands half as much as that mouth of yours... you would have very many girlfriends!" Her right eye winks. But she seems content to give him his space as he duly recovers, preparing herself in a likewise manner. The Brazilian gathers up her dark hair in a heavy handful, wringing seawater from its edges before she ties it back in a sloppy, damp ponytail. She gives each leg a stretch, rolls her shoulders, and finally yanks her ipod off her other ear.
Pás is in the process of winding her earphones around her tiny red devices when she looks up, seeing a distinct and so very familiar movement flicker across her peripherals. Is it just her, or has he gotten faster? Within that split second, she has to react with a sudden arc of blood and chi bulleting towards her; the girl braces her feet against the rooftop, and immediately goes on the defensive, her own crackling chi sparking up from her dark skin. She turns shoulder against the first wave, moves a quick hand forward to protect her face, and... loses her ipod in the process.
"Aiii!" Pás squawks after as it flies off the side of the roof, her grabbing hands one moment too late. She stares impossibly after it. Then, she looks back over her shoulder and straight at Tenma, her face swathed with blood and sadness. "You are payings for that!" she orders with a pointed finger, before she breaks into a run. The Brazilian crosses the rooftop almost instantaneously on fast strides and lunges straight for him, charging Tenma down like she's aiming straight for the double bullseye. Reckless as usual, she leaps forward straight at him -- straight on him -- trying to get one foot up on the Gedo swordsman while swinging in the other in a brutal clip at his face.
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Tenma with Medium Kick.
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Tenma 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Pas
Whoops.
Well, maybe given how little respect she shows other people's things, this will teach Pás a lesson or two about how people value their belongings. Probably not, but... There's always that faint hope. Tenma actually has the grace to look a little sympathetic as the Brazilian's iPod goes tumbling down to an unknown but probably not particularly pleasant fate - he just doesn't get to look that way for very long, as the girl herself is running full tilt at him.
And maybe Tenma HAS gotten faster... But at this moment, it's not quite fast enough. He tries to dodge out of the way of Pás, but can't quite manage it. Instead, he winds up with one bare, dusky-skinned foot on his chest, and the other one kicking him quite solidly across the face, rocking his head sharply to one side with a surprised grunt.
But, it seems Kiryuu has some presence of mind left to him even now; his left hand darts down to his pocket, yanking the cloth sheath of his bokken free again. What could he be planning to do with it? Well, it's pretty simple, really: He swings it sharply as he recoils from the force of the kick, aiming to whip it around one of Pás' ankles and snag the girl... Long enough to swing her directly into the rooftop.
He always plays so nice with her, doesn't he?
COMBATSYS: Pas fails to counter Quick Throw from Tenma with Branded Mule.
- Power fail! -
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Tenma 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Pas
The only lesson Pás is willing to appreciate would be learning how to hold her breath an extra ninety seconds. But she'll get her ipod replaced. She'll find a way.
She's laughing now, wildly, as her foot makes a clean and swift crack across the boy's face, the rest of her twisting in mid-air as if already expecting his immediate retaliation. If there's something sure about Tenma Kiryuu, something she's always liked about him... it's that he never takes long to recover. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see him moving, and before her feet even touch ground, she's reaching out, trying to vault both hands against his shoulders in what would be the sweetest move to grace the Gedo grounds--
Or not. The cloth snags her ankle, her grabbing hands miss, and Pás has the decency to look startled before she gets a faceful of the school's rooftop. SLAM.
And there Pás sprawls, all five feet and six inches of her, strewn in one big tangly aching heap of long limbs and damp bikini. "Puxaaaa..." she whimpers.
Oooh... That really had to hurt. Tenma has a certain awareness of just how close he was to that really not going his way at all, but the fact that it /did/ work out how he wanted to - and quite effectively, at that - broadens the slender teenager's typical smirk. This is a big part of why he fights, after all; the excitement of it, the risk and danger. And if there's anything he knows for certain about Estella Maria de Santo, it's that she'll always provide something new and exciting.
"So, you just gonna give up with that?" Tenma wonders, backing up a bit to give Pás more room and to hopefully control the range of the fight; he doesn't /really/ expect her to give up. He tucks the cloth sheath back into his pocket, and slants his chi-emanating bokken against his shoulder, leaning forward to peer down at the girl with that supremely self-confident expression of his. Don't worry, he knows exactly how to prod her into action again.
"Seems t' me you're the one who ain't been practicin'. I hadn't expected you'd go down that easy," Tenma says, grinning from ear to ear. "Estella."
COMBATSYS: Tenma focuses on his next action.
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Tenma 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Pas
"Shiiiiu, ask any boy in my school, he will say that I am many very practices when it comes to going down and being easy," Pás replies, always eager to point her abrasive wit on her own silly self, her total and all-encompassing lack of seriousness never one to play favourites. She peels herself up off the school rooftop with new gashes, bruises, but that same old grin, her limbs only buckling once before she grits down and forces herself back to her feet.
Pás doesn't expect herself to give up. Especially when she hears a certain trigger word, one that never fails to garner some sort of reaction out of the mysterious Brazilian. Her eyelids droop, and she fixes Tenma with a soured look, the expression on her face one of great suffering.
She never should've told him her damn name.
Testament to her patience, and her ever-enduring sense of humour, a wry smile begins to shade one corner of Pás' mouth, visible on a split-second before she moves again. She leaps straight at Tenma, all reckless and little preamble, again trying to plant a hand on his shoulder in her attempt to use him as a vaulting horse. Going up, she tries to bury her knee right under his jaw, and should she get her chance to flip up and over, she puncuates it with a mid-air spin, twisting around to dropkick both feet straight at his spine.
COMBATSYS: Tenma fails to interrupt Devil's Crossroads from Pas with Head Breaker.
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Tenma 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Pas
It's not like Tenma isn't someone who's prone to overconfidence, or anything; certain that he's got a strong advantage over Pás right now, and being something of a risk-taker himself, the Guardian King attempts to respond to the Brazilian's attack not through avoidance, or even trying to deflect the hits, but rather just going right /through/ it... Which proves to work out as well for him as Pás' own reversal did.
As the girl's hand catches his shoulder, Tenma's free left hand lances out, blood-red prayer beads clacking quietly, in an attemtp to grab her by the only thing he can, since she's not wearing much of a top at all.
Her throat.
Sure, sure, he'd appreciate a 'wardrobe malfunction', and all, but in some ways it would just feel, well, /wrong/ of him to cause one... Much better to just manhandle the girl by her neck. Surely then, his own long-fingered hand clamps onto Pás' slim throat, smearing blood from his bit-open thumb, and he starts to yank her down... Which is about when he gets kneed in the jaw.
"Ghhk!!" exclaims Tenma, who finds himself with the Brazilian member of Pacific Resistance flipping /over/ him, and kicking him right in the spine, making it his turn to get knocked sprawling... Though he starts to get back up soon afterwards.
Flipping back up, those signature bare feet of hers pad closer, until both of them are standing parallel near Tenma's shoulders. As he starts to get back up, he gets a helping hand -- or two of them -- that try to help themselves to handfuls of his shirt. Pás tries to pull him up out of the frying pan and into the fire of her darkly-burning eyes and smiling full lips. They pout now in a theatrical display of sympathy. "Ai meu Deus, did that hurt? Let me kiss it better, yea?"
And without warning or invitation -- as per usual with this wily girl -- Pás tries to help herself with a stolen kiss, leaning down to crush her mouth briefly, roughly against Tenma's. And then, even more affectionately, she punctuates it with a sudden headbutt, attempting to violently crack of her skull against his.
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Tenma with Zidane's Revenge.
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Tenma 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Pas
So there's Tenma, halfway to his feet when suddenly - SUDDENLY!! - Pás' hands are grabbing him by the shirt and hauling him the rest of the way, right into that brief, forceful kiss. Of course, through the whole thing he looks pretty much completely surprised, his eyes wide. Surprise, it seems, is going to be his bane today, because such is his shock - and one really has to wonder why, given how often this sort of thing happens to him around Pás, one way or another - that he's wholly unable to defend himself when the girl's head smashes into his, staggering him.
Now with a bloodied - but mercifully unbroken - nose, Tenma /licks his own blood/ off of his upper lip as keeps his attention focused directly on Pás, just for a moment. Then, quick as he can, he suddenly springs forward, throw himself into an extended, lunging position... His bokken leads, power focusing at the tip of the wooden blade, as he tries to catch the Brazilian right at her bared sternum with the point. If he does, then for a moment physics takes a backseat to Tenma's unusual prowess, as he uses his weapon to lift Pás off the ground and into a wide arc, twisting to hurl the girl away from him and across the roof. "Raagh-!!"
COMBATSYS: Pas blocks Tenma's Asura.
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Tenma 1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0 Pas
Reeling back from her own headbutt with a triumphant grin, Pás parts her lips as if to accentuate her clean hit with some smartass remark -- but that gets shot somewhere halfway to hell when she catches Tenma licking up his own blood. The action seems to reflect inside her own eyes, which take a distinctly curious tint to them. She's so interested she nearly forgets to defend herself when he does move for her.
Her quick eyes and quicker reflexes catch the turn of Tenma's renowned bokken, and without thinking, Pás moves as it does. She brings in both hands, and the instant it rams forward for her unclothed midriff, two unlikely hands get right in the way. She catches it, its tip burying into both her palms, the pain of that lucky catch flickering inside the grinning slant of her jaw. But, as quick as she is to save the softer, more tender parts of her body, she is nowhere near skilled enough to misdirect the entire power of the strike.
Pás still goes flying, like it or not, but she moves smoothly through her trajectory, mutating it into a controlled roll as soon as her long-limbed body hits the roof. She grabs her hands and plants her feet, and skids into a crouching stop, landing inches from the opposite edge. She gauges just how far that drop would have been with a quick, impish look over her shoulder. Many would look relieved. She just looks slightly disappointed.
"Pescador," Pás admonishes from the other end of the roof, her lower lip drawn out in a bit of a sulk. "What was that? Don't tell me that I must begin faking this." Of course, as she stands, she only gives her hands the littlest of imperceptible shakes. Dear Criso above, that hurt like hell. She took control of that attack and it /still/ hurt like hell. He's gotten better. She's pretty sure she's lost the feeling in her hands. But she won't tell him that; his ego is already orbiting the Earth.
She flexes her hands again, and rather lamely, forced to acknowledge their temporary uselessness. But Pás is nothing if not adaptable. So, with her usual candour, she flings herself happily back into the fray, sprinting the length of the roof and throwing her lean body back into the air, trying to meet Tenma with a heavy roundhouse kick to the ribs.
COMBATSYS: Pas successfully hits Tenma with Strong Kick.
- Power hit! -
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Tenma 1/---====/=======|=======\-------\1 Pas
Well, what's he supposed to do, just let it run down his face? Of course, it's doing that anyway, leaving him with a bloody red smear from nose to chin, dribbles of crimson slowly continuing on down. Most people would find this a little bit on the gross side... But Tenma doesn't particularly care; his blood is his power. It sings with energy, with life and strength; spilled or not, blood is the ally of the Kiryuu family.
A faintly annoyed sound escapes Tenma as Pás manages to largely avoid the grievous harm his attempt to hurl her across the roof would've caused, but at the same time, it reminds him of the stakes and the excitement; he's never been able to beat Pás, decisively or otherwise... Can he manage it this time?
The sprinting and the kick are pretty well telegraphed to the Gedo swordsman, but for once it seems that blood is actually going to work /against/ him, as his attempt to dodge out of the way leads to him slipping a bit in his own spilled blood, leaving him wide open for the kick that smashes into his ribs, driving him back...
And forcing him to drop to one knee, burying his bokken point-first into the roof to stop his skid, digging a shallow furrow in the metal of the rooftop. "Hah," he says, somewhere between a laugh and a cough. "Let's see you fake this, then." As he says these words, cracks extend out from the point at which his wooden blade has gone through the metal roof, the spiderwebbing cracks widening, emitting gouts of blood that soon rage towards Pás, draconic lines of bloody force scattering chaotically and then seeking to converge on a single point... Pás herself.
COMBATSYS: Pas endures Tenma's Hell of Blood.
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Tenma 0/-------/---====|=======\=======\1 Pas
Her eyes widen. But so does her grin. If her intuition is right, and she is experiencing a new kind of Tenma, one who has greatly accelerated in his power and skill since the last time she fought him, then it's only polite that Pás should play a sincere audience to all of his power. That and she really wants to feel what kind of pain he can bring to the table. So, as the chi from his bokken leaks into the cracks and splits in the roofttop, webbing bloody veins through the concrete, she does not even try to outstep the attack. She does not even try to defend herself with her half-numb, useless hands.
Pás plants her feet and takes it like a fighter should.
One moment before the blast, that crazy Brazilian girl is merely standing there, proudly holding her ground on rival territory, her dark eyes nailed on Tenma's as she grins expectantly at him. The next, she is all but lost in the furious torrent of blood, it crashing down in a spectacular -- and not to mention sickening -- deluge. Finally, the display ends, but the target is not where she should be, felled at the eye of that storm.
Instead, out of nowhere and materializing almost at Tenma's left, Pás tries to reintroduce herself to their fight with a low, raspy grunt and a foot aimed at the side of his head. Trembling, covered in blood, and barely hanging on, it's obvious she's been stripped down to the last inches of her strength, and she moves like every last second counts. With failing strength and little mercy, she tries to unleash a flood of strikes not unlike the bloody attack he brought on her; but her own detonation is one filled with sharp, unrelenting, continuous kicks. She tries to nail him with weaving roundhouses, before pushing her body skyward and twisting so violently that she goes inverted inside the air, swinging one foot out to try to snag her heel on Tenma's throat.
COMBATSYS: Tenma endures Pas' Dama Branco.
[ < > ////// ]
Tenma 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\0 Pas
Still recovering from his own attack, breathing raggedly and trying to get his footing back underneath him, Tenma... Knows he can't avoid Pás' attacks. So, he doesn't even try; instead, he leans into the first attack, letting that seemingly endless supply of kicks hit home. Over and over again he gets kicked, but with each kick he changes his position slightly, maneuvering... Trying to get himself into exactly the right place... And then he gets kicked right in the throat, which produces a strangled cough from the Guardian King.
But it doesn't stop him. Not yet, at least.
With the ferocious tenacity that's gotten him this far in the past year, Tenma blocks out the pain and the weariness, the desire to simply lie down and sleep for a few weeks... As the kicks struck home, Tenma yanked his weapon free from the rooftop, and now the youth is armed, and ready to make one last attack of his own, as Pás hangs inverted in the heartbeat after kicking him in the neck...
Tenma's hand stabs forward, as fast as he can make it right now, simply trying to power through whatever defenses the Brazilian might offer, and take her out with a final blow!
COMBATSYS: Tenma can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\ <
Pas 0/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: Pas dodges Tenma's Initial Breaker.
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Pas 0/-------/=======|
While Pás is aware, on more than one level (many of them painful) that she may never match the sheer power behind Tenma's trademark chi, she has ample faith in her own reflexes, and knows that in a fight against him, her only hope is to keep that stategic step ahead from the reach of his bokken, and to read in his very body movement where he intends it to go.
Like now, not even being momentarily suspended upside-down stops the sharpness of Pás' calculating eyes. Even inside a heartbeat, she can see him preparing to strike while she is open, and her only hope of defense is simply moving that much faster. Her hands hurt like hell, and she knows she's going to be regretting this for the next week, but the girl slams both palms down against the roof, the sudden agony almost blinding as she presses her weight down, flattening her body and moving out of the way with a push of her arms, his strike passing just hairs from abdomen.
The surge of delight is immediate as Pás realizes he's missed her, but she's not out of the woods yet. Her fierce, reckless dodge was made without even considering how or where she'll land, and her fumbling hands are too numb and clumsy to even catch her. Barely landing on her feet and slipping on strewn puddles of greasy blood, it's almost a reverse of events from that time they fought aboard the Jinchuu, far above the ground in the mast's netting, because it's her turn to teeter off the edge of the roof. The Brazilian even finds the pride to look surprised. She blurts out, rather airily, as she starts to go over, "...Ai bosta--"
Battered and tired as he is, Tenma simply didn't have his usual speed or steadiness, either; but that's why he went with something simple and quick, having hoped that Pás remarkable reflexes would be dulled as well.
No such luck, though.
Tenma stumbles as he tries to catch himself after missing the Brazilian, his head and eyes turning to watch her course, which... Yeah that's not good. "Pás!" the Gedo swordsman shouts, using the girl's chosen name for once, his bokken dropping to the rooftop with a clatter, its aura vanished by the time it lands, while Tenma himself dives after his supposed enemy, reaching to catch her hand with his. He's no acrobat, like her, to dangle from a webbing of cable by his ankles... But he IS strong enough, even right now, to hold her weight with one hand.
Even though its his left, bloodied thumb and prayer beads and all. "What the hell is wrong with you, idiot?!" Tenma demands, angry and deeply offended that Pás would nearly get herself killed on his roof, and totally not bothered for any other reason. He will, of course, attempt to haul the Brazilian up, the alternative being rather unpleasant.
Pás is strangely serene for falling straight off a school's rooftop, because with a natural recklessness comes a practical certainty, one that rids her of any excessive theatrics save for the squeezing-shut of her eyes. For some reason, it's supposed to hurt less when you can't see it coming.
Her last foot slips, and with neither the strength nor the coordination to keep herself atop the roof, the Brazilian falls. Her stomach lurches, her insides knot, and for a split second she comes to terms when what's going to happen -- when something suddenly grabs her by the hand and stops her fast, the interia jarring every bone in her body, and bringing a new flood of pain to her stinging hand. Though it's gotta be better than the alternative.
One brown eye pops open. For a dangling instant, Pás just blinks owlishly up at Tenma, then she just smiles. It's not one of her crooked, mystery grins, but something rarer and much more genuine. It's tinged with a delighted sort of relief. "Pescador!" she says, a little breathlessly, her face colouring at the corners. His angry return pulls an airy laugh out of her. As he pulls up, she helps after a pause, propping one foot on the side of the building and pushing up, reaching in to hook her free arm over his shoulders, adrenaline making her body shaky as it presses in close. "Shiu... I take that back. Your hands, they are just as good as your mouth. If not better."
Still, even Tenma can't support Pás' weight forever; battered and bloodied, and definitely worn out, his arm trembles as he strains to hold on to the girl's hand and haul her up, though there's some relief when the Brazilian starts helping her own rescue instead of expecting him to do it all himself. Once they're both safely back on the roof, with a shaky Pás pressed up against a slightly less shaky Tenma, the tall youth leans back against the rooftop, with neither the energy nor the interest to try and make the Pacific girl move.
"Nearly gave me a heart attack pullin' that crap," Tenma mutters. He remembers the /last/ time Pás nearly fell to her doom off of this particular rooftop, after all. "Should've let you fall," he adds, though he doesn't really mean it. "Didn't think you'd be that heavy, damn near pulled my arm out of its socket; maybe you should think about a diet or something."
Shockingly, Tenma Kiryuu is still single.
Covered in bruises, battery, and a whole lot of blood, Pás leans back against Tenma with that universal, couched look of satisfaction that begs for a cigarette. That was a good fight. That was a really good fight. And after it, he just saved her life. She thinks she feels a little giddy. Not that it'll ever show. Slinging one arm back to lean on the Gedo youth, half-propped up on him, the Brazilian lets out a tiny sigh and settles in to complete their picture of half-strewn exhaustion. When he mentions his heart attack, she lets out an impish grin. When he refers to letting her fall, Pás laughs quietly. And then when he talks about her weight--
Pás veers a hot look straight on Tenma, a dangerous look burned in her dark eyes. She watches him steadily, unblinking, for a very, very long, very thoughtful heartbeat. Then, picking her elbow off him, leaning forward, she moves back for the Gedo school rooftop's edge. She leans over it. Not to teeter, not to fall to her death, but to cup one bleeding hand against her mouth and call, very suddenly, very loudly: "WHY THANK YOU TENMA KIRYUU YOU JUST SAVED MY LIFE! YOU ARE A BIG SWEETHEART HERO! OF COURSE I WILL GIVE YOU BIG HUG WHILE YOU CRY--"
Apparently mentioning a girl's weight is some sort of taboo; nobody told Tenma this. His own 'irritable for the sake of being irritable' glare meets that dangerous look from Pás, though his expression slowly fades into a more confused one as that long moment passes... And then oh no what is she doing?! That confused expression gives way to one of more outright panic, because there Pás is casually trying to ruin his reputation again.
"What, hey... No! Shut up!" Tenma insists throughout the Brazilian's loud calling over the courtyard, deciding that he has to resort to desperate measures to nip this in the bud, so he sits up, and he reaches out with one hand to turn Pás' face back towards his, and proving that he's learned a lesson she's taught him several times now...
He aims to kiss her right on the mouth. It's purely a revenge kiss, a utilitarian gesture to stop her from shouting awful untruthful things about him, and not at all for any other reason. It also tastes like blood.
"--mpff!!" Forget falling off rooftops; Pás' subsequent heart attack is saved for something that counts. She's stolen countless kisses from many boys, and many of them have been from the poor Tenma Kiryuu when he least expected it -- but never once has she ever shared a kiss with him that she did not initiate.
And it's pretty much the scariest thing that's ever happened to her.
Her eyes widen. Every overshot, exhausted muscle in her body finds the energy left to lock up. Her voice is long since snuffed out. She doesn't even realize she's forgotten how to breathe. Pás is just thinking, over and over, how he just kissed her, and he shouldn't have kissed her, because she always kisses first, because that's how it's supposed to go, because that's always been the way. It's also not good, it's all wrong, it tastes a lot like blood, and it... it feels really nice. She can feel her eyes slowly closing. She can feel her face burning. She can hear her heart hammering inside her ribs. A good cardiac arrest would be really nice right about now.
Yes, Tenma is a bad man. The thing of it is, though, that Pás totally deserves it, having done just this sort of thing to Tenma and who knows who else in the past... Thus, Tenma is absolved of all guilt.
Really, it makes sense.
Now, to be fair, Tenma didn't really think this whole thing through, he just figured it'd be a good way to shut Pás up since she was shouting about him being a super huggable nice guy again. But, turnabout being fair play and all, and with the Brazilian girl not actually pulling away or hitting him or anything like that, he decides to just go with it. This decision is not at all influenced by his hormones or anything else.
The kiss seems to go on for an eternity before Tenma finally decides to come up for air, breaking off the kiss and flashing the shit-eatingest grin you ever did see. Given all the blood that got into his mouth, of course, red runs between his teeth, highlighting the whitness all the more, and he looks pretty pleased with himself...
The faint flushed colour in his cheeks kind of ruins the effect a little, though.
And one kiss later, the fearless, reckless Pás, who will do anything, show anything, who only cares to embody silly amusement and selfish freedom... is still holding her breath. As the kiss breaks, she seems to be on the verge of returning it, of doing the impossible and becoming receptive to something strange and frightening that she did not initiate, but then it's over, and her eyes are opening, and she's busy trying to get her heart out of her throat. Her big, wide brown eyes stare helplessly at Tenma, his grinning gone wholly unreturned. All traces of wryness have been all but slapped off her face, in its place an utterly rare, if not completely impossible, improbable look of disbelief. She looks stunned. She looks like, finally, she doesn't have a single smartassed thing to say.
Pás just stares at him. Her dark skin looks even darker with her furious blushing. She swallows compulsively. Her sore hands flex, starting to rustle to life at her hands. And then, as she looks to one side, the girl looks instantly afflicted, like the entire gravity of the moment had just hit her, and she realizes what just happened. She glances back at Tenma, sees his grin again, and the look in her eyes changes to something heavy, but unreadable. She looks away again, this time on purpose.
"I-- " she says, in an entirely different tone of voice, this one quieter and sounding distraced, "should find my music player. I should go home." Pás is nodding to herself. That is a good idea. That is the smartest thing she's ever thought up. She rises, quickly, on shaky legs, ignoring every one of her aches and stings for the pressing need to get the hell out of there /and fast./ "Goodbye Tenma," she adds absently through her quick, fleeing steps, moving like she's been spooked. The Brazilian heads straight to the open window, and ducks through it. She doesn't even look back.
...Of coure it's hard to look all pleased with yourself after /that/. Tenma is left sitting there... Well, more like half-laying there... On the rooftop, looking decidedly bewildered as Pás /runs away/. A troubled look slowly creeps over his face, his brow furrowing as he tries to figure out what just happened.
"Maybe I did it wrong," Tenma wonders aloud, of nobody but himself, scratching his cheek thoughtfully. Well, he'll have plenty of time to think about it, 'cause after all that he's not going anywhere for a while.
Log created on 23:07:00 06/14/2008 by Tenma, and last modified on 19:59:00 06/16/2008.