Chiaki awoke with a start, and a snort. She had been snoring and, wiping the dribble of spittle from her mouth she blearily looked around the room, her eyes attempting to adjust to her surroundings, albeit poorly. She yawned, stretching in the light of the morning, the dew she could see cascaded off of the roof tops of the village hidden in the leaves. She wondered what she was going to be up to today.
Groping around blindly, or rather, not wanting to see, she picked her way around with her hands until she hit the desk with her fingertips. Recoiling in pain she put them in her mouth and suckled them, glaring at it. Noticing the paper there with a note to her, it had Xion's address. Oh, right, she was supposed to meet him. She stretched again, another yawn breaking her concentration and she looked at the clock.
Shite! It was that time already!? Chiaki bolted out of bed, her long blue hair cascading around her as she ran out of the room, her billowing nighty behind her as she slipped on the rug in front of the bathroom and bowled straight into the kitchen on her side, knocking over the two bar stools there, and tossing the contents of one, a bunch of overdue papers on it, around the room. Groaning, she untangled herself from one of the stools, it had landed on her back, pinning her right hand behind her, and righted herself, placing the stools back in their places.
Bruised, but not hurt, more bruised in pride than in body, she growled as she bent low to pick up the papers, her nighty getting in the way once or twice as she did so. All of the papers back in their places, she stumbled out of the kitchen, not because she was asleep or feeling sleepy any longer, but because of her battered and bruised pride, and her stiff muscles from being whipped around by her own momentum.
Her dad's voice crept into her head, "A rushed job only makes twice the work." She shook her head to get it out of there, she knew that already, but she had reason to try to rush. Sighing and looking at the clock, she had no reason to rush, she supposed. She was already late.
Kicking the door aside with the outside of her foot, she stepped into the bathroom, shrugging off her nighty and starting the water. She wanted a hot shower so that she could perhaps loosen some of the sore muscles, now, and perhaps rinse off some of the hot mess that she had made of herself that morning. Chiaki wasn't all that impressed with the person that she saw in the mirror and opted out of her morning check to see if she had grown any. She hadn't, she knew it.
Chiaki knew why she had slept in, it was because she was getting less and less good sleep since… well… since that happened. She put her hands against the shower walls and watched as the water rolled off of her in rivulets, arching her back to let the hot water cascade down her small frame. She didn’t want to get out, wanted to stay there all day. But bills don’t pay themselves. She reminded herself of that once or twice before she finally got out, having scrubbed all of the nightly grime from herself.
Her fingers worked like clockwork as she started to get out, already pulling at her hair and twisting it into smaller braids, before bringing it to the top of her head, grabbing her towel with one hand, she wrapped it around herself, holding it closed with her teeth as she opened her drawer and put her hair into a braided bun. She would let it out today at some point, and it was a cheap way of getting her hair, usually wavy, to curl it.
She looked at herself again in the mirror, her pink and tanned skin standing out in stark contrast to the towel that she was holding in her teeth, which was a pale teal color. She lifted a leg onto the toilet and inspected her tan lines. She had been wearing a bathing suit when she had gone out, but she probably should go to a tanning salon to get rid of the ridiculous lines that she had formed from baking herself in the sun a couple days in a row. After all, she needed to make sure that if she went out she didn’t have clashing tan lines.
Chewing her bottom lip and putting her towel away, she gathered her nightie up and tossed it in the dirty laundry hamper, which was in the closet. She buried herself, picking out some comfortable clothes, ones that she didn’t mind getting dirty if she was to spar with Xion again. She hadn’t had a good spar with him in a while, and she wondered how much he had learned since last time.
A smile lit her face, as she remembered their last battle, and how she had knocked herself out. She even chuckled audibly about it, as she pulled a sock over her heel and up her leg, it fit snugly and stopped at mid-thigh.
Slipping into some shoes, she inspected the outfit that she had picked out. It was going to be a sunny and bright day, so she had opted for a bright and sunny outfit, a sundress, plain yellow with a sinched waist held together by a string that came with the dress was her choice. She had picked out a little blue bralet that could be seen underneath, but was lacy enough to be fashionable, and was really, meant to be seen and have the characteristics of an undershirt. Chiaki had also picked out a pair of horizontally striped blue and white socks, which were tucked into some black shoes with golden buckles that held them to her feet. She looked herself up and down and nodded to herself.
Walking to the bathroom, she threw on some mascara and eyeliner, put some lip gloss on and packed all of them into her bag should she need a touch up later and blinked. She finally grabbed her keys and took a cursory look through her apartment, it was a bit of a mess, but she would have to leave it like that to be at least a little bit on time for Xion.
She sighed and took to the roofs, jumping off of her balcony from her stairs onto another roof, and took off. She didn’t know exactly where she was going, only that she had the address. The damned address! She groaned and spun on her heel, digging into the tiled rooftop, making the tiles creak and break under her heel as she jetted back to her front door, fumbled with her keys and unlocked it again.
She fast-walked through the apartment, making sure not to have a repeat of what happened earlier and nabbed up the piece of paper that she had written his address on. Perhaps she wouldn’t be so late? She winced while looking at the clock, hoping to the great sages that she wouldn’t be too late.
Sighing, she figured that she would have a hard time making it there in good time, but she didn’t figure on being this late. Speed walking back out, she jammed the keys into the door, dead bolting it again and took off across the roof tops.
Attempt two.
As she sped over the city, some of the puddles caught her eye as she looked around for the house that she had been given the address for. She wondered where she would find the youth and as she jumped across the roof tops, the puddles illuminated her. Chiaki flew like a blue bird across them as easily as breathing, having done this for a good while now.
She spyed Xion, probably before he did her, and changed her trajectory to intercept him. She jumped, holding her hands in front of her, holding her dress tight to her crotch so as not to give the entire street a view of her panties, she landed softly next to him, giving a small wave and smile.
“Good to see you Xion.” She fussed with her dress, making sure that she didn’t look as rushed as she felt. “It’s been a little bit since we last met. How’s the training been?”
She mentally scolded herself, but it was true that their relationship had started with him training, and that it really had grown into a relationship of steel sharpening steel, where she had helped him grow through training, and he her. Was it enough to apologize now for that? No, it was too late now, it would look like back tracking.
Stupid. She chastized herself.
“So where are we headed?” She tilted her head and pulled back a stray hair that had escaped her tight bun on the top of her head, secured by a hair tie and two decorative senbon.
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