Description: Experience: Quiet reflection. Encountered: Previous target, previous friend? Remembered: Nothing new. Summary: It's hard to get time alone when one has a face many have cause to remember. Ayame's peaceful time on the shore is cut short when not one but two of her prior contacts. One is ready to strangle her, but the other keeps wanting to give her a chance. Where things go from there remain to be seen...
Heated summer days draw beach crowds easily enough. It has to get fairly late in the evening, when most of the daystar worshippers have vacated the sandy shores to have any hope of finding a quiet stretch along the popular Southtown hangout. The air has cooled, the off sea breeze carrying with it refreshing mist and the scent of marine life. With the sun barely peeking over the horizon, it seems destined to sink out of sight in the next ten minutes or so.
A section that has been mostly cleared out by those who came for the daylight recreation and left when the air cooled and prime time television shows drew them back to their homes. It is there that the girl of countless names sits on the sand. Gone are her black and red plaids, her chains, her sheaths and pockets. At the moment she is clad in an outfit that should appear fairly ordinary to any resident of Southtown. She looks like she's ready for class at Taiyo High - a simple school girl outfit, white blouse, blue skirt, and red bow over her chest and everything.
Her long, breeze-tousled hair waves behind her head gently, decorated by a large white bow. She hardly looks as threatening her reputation suggests she tends to be. Seated on the sand, legs bent up at the knees, she has her skirt tucked under her. Across her lap is a familiar device to anyone who has seen the girl fight - a six foot long titanium staff reflecting the last rays of sunlight. Now and then the renown bandit closes the weapon, collapsing it down to a small, half-foot long tube, only to hold it for a moment and have it expand back out to its full length with a hydraulic hiss and a blink of an eye.
Staring out over the ocean, the girl continues to repeat the ritual of collapsing and expanding her signiture weapon, time and time again, a distant look in her eyes.
After a fairly awkward meeting with a trainee, Drake went and secluded himself in his home for private training in the room dedicated for such activity. That's where he's stayed for the majority of the day since, pumping iron, jumping rope, and doing his odd sorts of agonizing crunches.
But now that it's dark out, the mysterious Domino animal has decided to chance the space outside its den. First, the head peeks out, wide amethyst eyes surveying the surroundings. Next, the head tilts aside slightly, listening to the sounds and only picking up the lulling roll of waves. Finally, the creature tentatively takes its first steps out into the dangerous world, one footpad after the other touching porch. The entrance to its den is closed, and...
..All Hell breaks loose.
Drake takes off in a spirited run, kicking up clouds of sand and leaving deep footprints in his wake. Since he didn't see anyone immediately, he feels perfectly comfortable running about with his eyes closed. Nevermind the dangers of an errant surfboard or an unreasonably savage crab! He just wants to feel the seabreeze against his body, feel the sand between his toes, and relax! Maybe even swim after a minute or two!
It's only by a miracle that Drake's eyes open before he ploughs into Ayame. He certainly recognizes her. She's the trainee that might as well have dropped off the planet after leaving him in a burning building. Still, though, he doesn't intend to run into anyone. And this is way more rationalizing than Drake honestly has time to. So instead, all she gets for warning is:
"WHAT TH- WHOA!"
Followed by Drake falling back in the sand and skidding almost the rest of the entire way up to the thief.
Awkwardness abounds, then. Arika stayed behind in London, trying to work through the issues at the nightclub before flying back to Southtown to make apologies for the large chasm that she watched crack open between herself and a certain model the other day.
Which is what she's doing at the beach as the day makes way to night.
Small, tentative footsteps carry her along the sand -- obviously someone is a little more worried about savage crabs nipping at tender toes -- and deep blue eyes scan toward a beach house, to see if there are any lights on to make sure he's at home before she gets all the way across the beach for naught.
Good thing she peeked over there, because there is a wild Drake bolting across the beach at dangerously high speeds.
Blink.
Correction, there is a wild Drake bolting across the beach at dangerously high speeds toward a female shaped object.
Maybe she'd best hang back a moment or two, lest she interrupt. Granted, it's likely a VERY good thing she can't see exactly WHO that female-shaped object is just yet.
One might expect Ayame to be used to having people charging at her. That this time it happens to be on ACCIDENT makes it an exception to the norm, perhaps, the girl glancing up from her thoughtful reverie at the sound of the shout. Her hands tighten on that titanium polearm of hers, the girl springing to her feet and spinning toward the rampaging Domino, staff held defensively in front of her, getting ready to smash her assailant back before he gets close enough to launch an attack!
That he comes into a sliding stop causes her to relax a little, taking a step back from where he ends up, leaning her head to the side just a little. "Hmm. Safe!" she declares, waving her right hand out to the side in a gesture not unlike a baseball umpire. "Hey there," she continues, glancing at Drake, then at the beach behind him, then turning around to glance behind /her/. "Was I sitting in your runway?" she asks, turning back toward him, staff hefted up to rest against her shoulder, a teasing grin in her features.
That there is a third figure seeing things play out from a little ways off seems to escape the normally cautious girl, as she isn't glancing in Arika's direction as she takes a closer step toward Drake, swinging her staff down off her shoulder and pointing it toward his chest, "Easy there. Any closer and I'd have had to clock you one!" She still seems to be teasing him for the amusing entrance, however, as she then simply laughs, bringing her hand back up to brush several locks of her strawberry blonde hair back over her shoulders before exhaling a relaxed sigh.
Drake seems quite dazed and out of sorts at first, having to snap out of his own blissful ignorance of the world around him. For the world has given him sand burns. Ouchies.
Still, when his head lifts, he spies Ayame.. and recognizes her. Normally, he greeting would have him laughing in lighthearted merriment at his own rather ridiculous display. But.. it's her. His bright eyes dim significantly from amusement to anger... then, oddly enough, hurt confusion.
"You! I.. didn't think I'd run into you again. Not seen you in a long time. In fact, last I saw you..."
Drake rolls to the side and pushes himself up to his full height.
"...You were ditching me in a burning building."
Though he doesn't come out and say it, the lack of authentic malice in his voice lends more towards the underlying simple question of 'Why?'
That's okay, Drake. Arika has more than enough malice to share. When she hears the voice, she continues up the beach. Deep blue eyes narrow upon the thief, and the punk princess stops just long enough to quietly remove her sandals so that she can continue to pad across the sand as silently as possible. Hands ball into tight fists, causing her knuckles to whiten.
At this point, she knows she has to move swiftly or else Drake is going to wind up giving her away.
Launching herself across the sands, she doesn't bother stopping as she comes up to the 'pair' standing there chit-chatting as though neither has a care in the world. Her hands lash out to grab at Ayame's shoulders so that she can just fling the thief away from Drake.
And here's the answer to Drake's 'why?': "THIEVING BITCH."
Yeah, Arika tends to hold grudges on untrustworthy people for a rather long time.
She notices the way he looks at her the second he sets eyes on the girl. It's a good clue that she should probably be on her guard. It has been a while, as he says. Hard to say what might come next. He rises up to standing and the long haired girl takes a step backward from him. "Is that so..." she replies as he mentions it having been a long time. But when he cites what that last encounter entailed, her eyes widen for a brief moment before narrowing, the girl quickly trying to hide her reaction behind that neutral expression she's adopted all of the sudden.
Leaning forward a little, staff propped against her shoulder once again, she studies Drake with a narrow eyed scrutiny for a moment before standing up straight again, her expression once again a grin, if perhaps a callus one, "Well, you look all right to me. So must've turned out okay for you. Didn't need me it seems." Her hand comes down to rest against her hip as she leans her head to the side slightly, not sounding too bent out of shape about the whole thing.
She never notices Arika coming, the other girl's approach silent enough to go unheard against the waves of the sea. "So- ACK!" Ayame starts speaking again. She doesn't get a single sound further when her shoulders are grabbed from out of no where and she's hurled sideways with a fair amount of force. It sends her stumbling several steps, just about to tumble into a face plant except for how she catches herself with her staff at the last second.
Whirling back around to stare at Arika with a completely shocked expression, she brings her free hand up, waving it in front of her, "And just who do you think YOU are?!" She pauses for a half second, before shaking her head, "Better yet, just do you do you think *I* am, huh?"
"That doesn't mean-," Drake starts, only to get cut off by a bikini girl lunging at the person he's talking to. Holy crap, ravenous fangirls. Ravenous fangirls staking claim on Drake! ..Awesome.
Wait. Wait! Not awesome! That's Arika!
Drake's eyes bulge a bit at that realization, and the only thing he can manage out is a confused, "Arika? What're you doing?"
When teammates have rabies!
"Oy! Don't be playin' that coy little schoolgirl crap with me!" Arika's eyes narrow, and she situates herself between Drake and the thief. "You know perfectly well who Oi am, you ruddy bitch." Fists remain clenched at her sides, and she takes a somewhat aggressive stance, just waiting for a move to be made against her. "And Oi know perfectly well who you are. You're the little wench that tried to take me ring during my last Saturday Noight Foight." Glare.
"And you're the bitch that left a person very important to me to die, as well as someone who's been 'urting another one'a me friends." Let's see, is there anything else she's forgetting? "Not to mention you've been involved with those Blackjack goons. Workin' for'em last Oi 'eard. Seems to me, Oi've still got a 'andy lil' packet of information, includin' pictures to that effect." Seethe.
Recovering her balance and standing up straight again, Ayame keeps her distance, showing no signs of approaching either. Her attention skips over Drake to focus on the young woman that seems to have it in for her. For good reason! "Let's see..." Ayame continues, bringing her hand up, pressing her finger against her chin as she pretends to be contemplating what was said.
"You're Arika. And you seem to think that I'm someone who tried to take some ring of yours at some point..." she continues to reason it out. "At some fighting event or other..." She glances off to the side thoughtfully. "And there's another friend of yours I'm also causing trouble for, eh?" She shifts her focus back to the Brit. "Well, sounds like I didn't get your ring. Annnnd if I am such a thief, I must not be a very good one, because all I have is this staff," she holds up the metal weapon a little, "And the clothes I have on," she continues, twirling around once to show off the uniform for emphasis it seems.
Completing her twirl, she rests her right hand at her hip, her staff still gripped in her left hand. "So as I see it, you don't really have much to get so bent out of shape over, so I don't see what all the fuss is about!"
Drake listens to Arika, glances to Ayame, then back to Arika.. and he gapes. "Wait. She's the one that.."
A sullen look is redirected back to Ayame. "She told me about it when it happened. I just.. forgot." He gives his head a shake. "Don't exacerbate it, kay?"
It should be fairly evident that Drake favors Arika's testimony, all the more when he steps up beside her to place his hands soothingly on her shoulders. "Calm down. That was a long time ago. She didn't know you're with me..."
His eyes zip back over to Ayame, giving her a sincere look. "Right? Cuz you wouldn't try to steal from the people close to me?"
Only, this time a simple soothing hand to her shoulder isn't going to be enough to calm her down. It was her -ring- for crying out loud! Arika doesn't hold much stock in caring for a lot of frivolous things, but -that- ring, the meaning behind it, the promise it holds...
It's pretty damned important to her.
"Oh, that's roight. Pardon me. Oi must be makin' it up, even though the whole DAMNED THING is on video, includin' when you turned on me, someone that was s'posed to be workin' on a team with me." Pause. "Shouldn'a expected anything less from one of Belmounte's bitches after Jinchuu," she mutters.
The fists clench even tighter, causing knuckles to pop, and fingernails to dig deeply into her palms -- just enough to cause them to bleed a little. "She's the one, alroight. 'undred percent positive on this one, luv, so whether she knew Oi was with you or not ain't the point. Point is, Oi ain't the first one she's tried this with. Ask 'er. Ask 'er wot she did to Aranha that 'e can't even talk 'bout it." Snort. "Oi've no doubt she'll lie to you 'bout it though, seems to be 'er way."
Ayame holds her ground, feet planted in the sand, not seeming to mind that she's going to have to clean out the brown casual shoes she's got on when she gets out of here. Drake buys Ayame a couple excuses and the girl is quiet at first, hearing him out. She nods ever so slowly as he theorizes that she had no idea that there was something between him and the girl who's ring she tried to take some time ago. "No, of course not," she states in the end when he prompts her. "That would be ridiculous." She flashes Arika a teethy smile, resting her hand behind the back of her neck.
Arika doesn't seem to care much for the explanations, however, though it doesn't seem to phase Ayame much. Up until she mentions names. Belmounte. Jinchuu. The girl's smile falters, her arm slipping down from the back of her neck to rest at her side. "Blackjack... Belmounte, huh..."
She frowns a little, looking like she's only half listening to what the rest of the young diva has to say. Another name snaps her back into the present. "Aranha too, hmm? Sounds like someone who shouldn't have messed with me had to get taught a lesson, that's all," she finishes with an unrepentant shrug.
She collapses the staff in her hand back down to the small metal tube, a mere six inches in length, then twirls it in her left palm idly. She glances back and forth between Drake and Arika, considernig the way he touched her shoulder in trying to calm her down. "Well, whatever. I don't think it's anything for you two love birds to make a big deal about. I don't even know-" She cuts herself off mid-sentence, turning her side to them, immediately breaking any and all eye contact. "Whelp. I should get going!"
"Hey, wait," Drake says pointedly to Ayame. "I.. still think I should talk to you about what happened." Despite it all, he has a protagonist's stubborn optimism still. "With the fire and all," he specifies. But now might not be the best time, with Arika around. Considering the odd way she's attempting to make her egress, he had to ensure that Ayame wasn't going to try and avoid him forever. Who knows, she might actually come to him this time instead of having to nearly dropkick her at random!
Regardless, the young model's face looks hopefully, gaze affixed on Ayame's. Even if it's turned aside. His hands lower from Arika's shoulders, though, to hang at his sides.
Twitch.
One would think that Drake would learn not to add fuel to Arika's fire. She just continues to keep her narrowed eyes upon the thief as she attempts to make a quick get away. With an eerily calm voice, she says, "Oi catch you near -anything-," she looks over her shoulder at Drake, "Oi consider mine, and Oi'll be more than 'appy to 'elp Aranha eradicate you once and for all." Makes no difference that she's not even certain Aranha is still in pursuit of her or not, that's something she can ask him with a simple phone call in the morning. Besides, it's time she got an update -- she did pay good money for the information she has, after all.
Despite the calm, cool tone of her voice, she's not about to let her guard down until the thief is well out of sight. Pressing her nails against her palm again, there is no doubt that she's caused herself to bleed in order to keep herself from outright attacking the girl (at least she's getting better at refraining from -that- sort of thing).
But the sheer irritation that she's feeling at Drake's optimism will just have to be dealt with later. How he could remain -that- hopeful that a leopard will change its spots is completely beyond her.
Drake mentions wanting to talk some other time, and Ayame glances back toward him, studying him for a moment, frowning slightly. "I think I would like that." she states calmly, eyes flickering back toward Arika as if extremely interested to see how the other girl takes his invitation.
She doesn't seem happy about it one bit. That's to be expected by now. And the young bandit doesn't help with the way she gives the diva that teethy grin a second time, as if she's enjoying watching the two play off of each other. Her smile fades a little as she mentions Aranha again, her expression cooling, complexing paling slightly even in the dim light. "Right. Well. It was nice meeting you too, /Arika/."
She brings her empty right hand up, turns to the side, waves over her shoulder, and begins to walk along the beach. She's gone ten yards when she pauses to look behind her, expression a subtly puzzled one, but she doesn't linger for long before continuing on toward the city to leave the beach all together.
Drake seems pleased by Ayame's response, nodding to her softly once. His expression remains the same, however, and he looks to Arika. They'll definitely have to talk later about some stuff. But all the same, he apparently appreciates her to -some- degree, as his arms lift to loop around her neck in a mini-hug. "Relax..," he whispers.
"'bout as nice as 'avin' lemon juice squirted in my eye," she mutters under her breath. Arika holds her ground, unmoving despite the mini-hug and the quiet command to relax. She's not about to relax at all until the thief is gone. The very second she moves toward the city, the punk princess just turns to Drake with a frown. "Just promise me you ain't meetin'er alone. Bring -someone- with you. A fan, your chauffeur, -Chet-." The frown deepens. "I don't trust her," she whispers, all pretense of the accent dropping, "And I don't want to see you hurt, or believing some outrageous story she gives you." Exhaling a sigh, she unclenches her fists and wrinkles her nose. "Let me borrow your first aid kit, I've been hiding the files at your place anyhow... you can go through them and make your decision on her, but -please- promise me you won't go alone."
Log created on 00:00:41 08/05/2008 by Ayame, and last modified on 18:34:27 08/05/2008.