<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Timestamp: 3 Dyo, 81381 When: Janardan School Grounds, in the evening. Who: Kokuteju Cecisofi and Mich Zaphharin Other: Private for Kattius.</td></tr></table> It was a cooling, yet icy Dyo evening outside. The sun had just disappeared behind the arching horizon, the navy night sky and twinkling stars attempting to catch up with it and take their place until the sun would chase them away again. The air froze the young pendragon's skin, which was no surprise with him only wearing a white shirt, light blue body warmer, a blue scarf and a pair of shorts. His long hair, let down for once, blew ever so slightly in the drifting breeze like the last of the dead skeletons of leaves coated in fresh, crisp frost which danced through the air just above the surprisingly dry ground. Small clumps of muddy snow lay at the sides of the footpath. It wasn't long before the 'dragon's footprints were marked all over it. He took long strides, marching back and fourth in front of his favourite bench in the grounds of Janardan. He took deep breaths, fiddling in his pockets as he was aware that his glasses, steaming a bit with air, slipped down his nose. a hand quickly slipped out of his pocket and slipped his glasses up his muzzle, before returning to his pocket. He looked desperately around, wondering what would happen. And, with a sigh, he collapsed on the bench, still staring idly at the ground. Is she coming? Did she get the note alright? were the only thoughts whirling around the teenager's head. After a minute, he sighed and leant back on the bench, staring at the stars. He remembered that evening. It was karaoke evening, not too long ago, and the pair had dared each other to sing. And it somehow led to them singing together. It was then he really knew he liked Kokuteju more than a friend. But thanks to his stupid gossip of a friend, he had lost his courage and run off. Since then, Koku hadn't talked to him as much, and he had been too nervous to talk to her. He had decided that now he would tell her. He left her a note, telling her to meet him by his favourite bench in the grounds that evening. And he would tell her that he like liked her. But what if she was still mad at him? Why was she upset at him? Could it be... no, no way. His thoughts rolled around his head as he watched the stars, before finally silence entered his mind. Little did he realise that someone was walking up behind him.
Under normal circumstances, Kokuteju Cecisofi would have pushed him lightly on the back, or clung to his shoulders, or attempted to shock him mildly in any other way, but for her, these weren’t normal circumstances. If anything, she was quite irritable with the whole situation at hand, and it was only her permanent liking of Mich as a friend – if not, she knew, more – that had forced her to stop moping in her dormitory (and ignoring Kalli to the point of, well, wanting to drop an ice block on the thill’s head to give her concussion, but at least she’d have shut up) and meet him. Ah, there he was on, on his favourite bench. It was too late to turn back now. She stepped around the bench until she was in front of it and, silently, sat down beside him. Koku was bitterly cold, despite her abilities and the fact that she had opted to wear a jacket and a scarf (and had even toyed with the idea of ear muffs, before deciding that would be a tad rude to somebody wanting to talk to her) over her usual wear of a t-shirt and a long, flowing skirt, and she had also found a pair of gloves (but, she knew, they weren’t hers, and were probably Kalli’s, but it was suitable payback for being an annoyance over the past few weeks) to wear. She brushed her fringe from her eyes and let the silence remain for a bit. It was he who should speak first, anyway, Koku had decided a while ago. He was the one that had run off, without warning, when she’d been prepared to tell him something, and he’d left without even letting her start. Kalli had something to do with it, she knew, which was why she’d been treating her friend and roommate as icily as possible. Why had he ran off on her like that? What was he so scared of Kalli saying that he hadn’t wanted to be there when she said it to Koku? Not that, Koku reminded herself, Kalli had actually said anything, but still… The feydragon remained sitting and looking ahead of her, waiting for Mich to speak first.
Mich was aware of Kokuteju approaching him. However, there was no usual playful pounce, grabbing by the shoulders, or gentle push at his back. He simply heard her sit down on the bench beside him. Gulping, he didn't say anything. He just let the silence of the air buzz through his ears. Luckily, most sensible people were indoors, wrapped up warm with his friends. But he couldn't wait a day longer to tell Koku. Slowly, he gave a sideways glance at her. His ears instantly turned red, and his glasses steamed up. He coughed, withdrawing hands from his pockets and slowly turning away from the feydragon. He took off his glasses and gently cleaned them with the bottom of his bodywarmer, before placing them on his muzzle again. He turned around again slowly. He didn't know how long it was until the silence became too painful for Mich to bear. He coughed again, clouds of air leaving his mouth even though he held his hand to his mouth. Taking a deep breath, he glanced at her again. <span style='color:green'>"G...g...good evening, Koku..."</span> he stuttered, unable to find a good place to start. He took a few quick glances around him, before adding hastily, <span style='color:green'>"W-w-wonderful evening, is it not?" </span>He gave a nervous chuckle and looked at her, but decided quickly that he was in deep enough water with Koku already, so he quickly closed his mouth. He leant back against the bench, placing his hands behind his head. After a moment of silence between them again, he muttered, <span style='color:green'>"Look, Koku... about the karaoke night..."</span> yet somehow, he couldn't find a way to continue.
Although Mich was her friend, and she cared for him, Koku was beginning to find herself growing more and more annoyed at the poor arden. He hadn’t outright down anything to annoy her, aside from run off at the karaoke night, but he’d ran off on her, when she’d been about to tell him what she thought the most important thing for her to tell him was. She’d been about to leave when he’d started talking, and then she found him talking about the weather, of all things, and she was very close to seriously getting up and leaving. He had then started about the karaoke night and had then stopped, and hadn’t found a way to continue so far. For her part, Koku remained silent. Mich had, in her eyes, wronged her, even if she didn’t quite know why – well, yes, she did, she’d wanted to tell him that, yes, she was vaguely aware that he liked her beyond a friend, and that, yes, the feeling was mutual and, oh, would you be interested in starting a relationship? If anything, Koku knew she was going to be the more decisive in the relationship, what with Mich and his inherent shyness, but she hadn’t thought it would come down to her forcing him into being decisive. She didn’t even sigh, but instead looked up at the star-studded sky through her purple eyes, pointedly not looking at him. She felt that if she did, she’d suddenly break down and do something overdramatic and overemotional. She didn’t look at him, but the stars seemed to share his gaze, and she found herself looking at them in comfort. Shaking lightly, from nerves if nothing else, she opened her mouth, and exhaled a gust of warm air that clouded in front of her, unable to find what she wanted to say. Koku removed her gaze from the sky and lowered it to look at the ground, turning slightly from Mich, and then managed to find the courage to ask him. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“Mich…”</span> Began Koku, trailing off into the silence that was looming over them, <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“Mich, what am I to you?”</span>
Mich listened to the sound of Koku's voice, glad that her silence was over. However, on her words, he stumbled. His eyes widened, panic-stricken. Oddly enough, this was the moment he had waited for, but he wasn't just ready, yet. A mumbled string of jumbled words, which didn't fit together or make sense, slipped from his mouth. <span style='color:green'>"Uhh... well... gya... urg... yaaaah..."</span> he stuttered, looked around at her, which only made things worse. A LOT worse. His words began to slur together in a hasty fashion, and he felt like lava was boiling under his cheeks. He then closed his mouth, and looked away, letting silence ebb between them, letting the night air cool his cheeks. He knew what Kokuteju was angry about - the karaoke night. It was after then that the silence had slipped between them. He had to explain, but he thought it was rude not to answer her question. He bit his lip, brain in muddles of endless confusion, emotion tearing him apart inside out. He sighed, and glanced around again, <span style='color:green'>"Look, Koku, what I was saying about the Karaoke night? Listen... I'm sorry about that. Really sorry."</span> He turned himself around, and said, <span style='color:green'>"Look... The reason I... I ran of was... 'cause Kalli came in. A...At first, It was just embarassment, but... you know what Kalli's like. If she had seen us up on stage together, she could have... y'know, exaggerated it. I... dunno why... It... it was totally stupid of me. I was so selfish. I didn't think about you..."</span> He felt his voice croaking and breaking up, shaking slightly. He stood up and faced away, <span style='color:green'>"And besides, I didn't want her to hurt you."</span>
Under normal circumstances, Kokuteju might have smiled or even giggled at Mich’s attempt to explain himself and then stumble over his words, but as mentioned previously, these weren’t ordinary circumstances. She continued to remain silent and ignore his gaze as he spoke, almost radiating the coldness that she was showing towards him. The feydragon was ready to leave as she realised he avoided her question, but at least he was giving an explanation as to why he’d left her on karaoke night. Somewhere in her, she snapped, her temper getting the better of her. In one swift movement, she was off the bench and staring icicles at Mich. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“Yes, Mich, it was selfish of you!”</span> She yelled. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“I’d…I’d… you’d made me play that stupid game of getting me up to sing, and running circles around one another, and then when it comes to it and it’s finally finished, you run off! You run off just because a nosy little thill turned up!”</span> Koku stopped for a moment, catching her breath, before continuing swiftly onwards, not letting him get a word in. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“How could she have hurt me, Mich? Hmm? By exaggerating us on stage together? Singing?! Would it really have been so bad if she had exaggerated us, if she had assumed we were more than friends, if she had passed it all around the academy? There’d be those that don’t care and there’d be those that would laugh and jeer and then get over it eventually, once they’d grown up a bit! It… it… I thought that was what you wanted, anyway!”</span> She stopped, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down, her entire body shaking with rage and anger and fury and a thousand other emotions beneath them, feeling tears begin to well in her eyes. Her tail flame burnt strongly and flickered rapidly with her anger, yet was cold to the touch, as freezing as the gaze that she had set on Mich was.
Mich jumped as Koku started yelling at him. He had seen Koku annoyed, even a touch angry before, but never like this. She started shaking from head to toe, eyes blinking in a frenzy, as he leant back from the angry feydragon. He felt tears welling up in his eyes, his heart being torn to little shreds which were scattered in the air around him. When Koku had finished her outburst, Mich stood for a second, blinking, looking at the girl who he had grown to like much more than just the girl who was in the dormitory next door. Suddenly, before he knew what he was doing, he yelled, <span style='color:green'>"Would you just SHUT UP? I wasn't thinking straight, okay? Honestly, I try to give you an explanation, and you don't LISTEN! I was scared... I don't even know why I ran off, okay? And so what if I want to be more than just friends with you, and I've liked you that way for ages now? I... I..."</span> Suddenly realising what he had just done, all colour wiped from his ears. His eyes widened with shock, and his tail flame dipped into an aqua blue colour. A few teardrops flying from his eyes, he swore loudly into the air before storming off at a running pace, tears streaming from his eyes. He didn't know where to go, he was just furious with himself. On the other side of the grounds, he slumped down to the ground, sobbing to himself. He felt so stupid, so useless, so angry with himself. No doubt Koku hated him now. He had finally told her how he felt, but in the opposite way to what he was expecting. And now, after that stupid outburst, he had probably lost her for good, as a friend too. He wrapped his arms around his knees and sobbed. Ah well, guess it was back to his first love, education... Yet somehow, it felt useless to him too. What was he supposed to do now?
To be perfectly honest, Kokuteju was more than taken aback at Mich’s outburst. She knew his temper was easy to snap, and she knew she’d more than definitely crossed the line this time. She continued shaking as he ran off, anger and sorrow getting the better of her, and she fell to the bench once he’d gone. She was breathing heavily, trying to stop herself from crying, but there were tears rolling down her cheeks and the urge to hit something was rising in her. Her heart felt like it was about to break in two, and she wondered what had happened to Mich’s. Looking around, she expected to see shards of it on the floor, leading to where it was he’d ran off to. Oh, where had he gone? What had she done? Wrapping her arms around her legs and bringing her knees to her chest, Koku shook with rage and sadness, fury at herself for what she’d done. He’d been trying to explain something, trying to tell her that he liked her – oh, what she’d been trying to do on karaoke night, and wasn’t that the most stupidest reason to ignore him for a quarter? Somehow, she found herself singing, when it had been that which had caused the whole fiasco to begin with. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“We the people fight for our existence We don’t claim to be perfect But we’re free,”</span> Koku sang to herself as she rose wearily from the bench. If she was going to apologize, which she ought to, before she made this any worse and lost a dear friend, she was going to have to find him. If he heard her coming, then he had every reason to run away, and she knew where they stood. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“We dream our dreams alone With no resistance Fading like the stars we wish to be.”</span> The feydragon headed in the direction that she had seen Mich going, singing whilst she went, wondering if she could reach him through the medium of lyrics or not. Somewhere on the other side of the grounds, she came to a stop, looking for him. Finding no sign of him, she continued standing and sang again. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“You know, I didn’t mean What I just said But my God woke up On the wrong side of his bed And it just don’t matter now.”</span> <span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Lyrics from Oasis's Little By Little</td></tr></table>
<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Sorry for the late reply. ^^;;</td></tr></table> Mich felt a tear slowly dribble down his cheek. He shook his head furiously, before becoming still, his skin still trembling. He was a total loser. How could he ever apologise to Koku now? She probably hated the sight of him, and never wanted to talk to him again. Why did he have to ruin their friendship? Another tear dribbled down his cheek when he heard a voice. He glanced around, listening. Before long, tiny teardrops appeared at the edge of his eyelids. It was Koku's beautiful singing voice, the one which he loved so much, but could probably only now admire from afar. He listened to the lyrics, but didn't get what she meant. He had to hate him more than anything. It was a trap. She was probably going to kill him. Well, might as well have gotten it over with. Slowly, his now-blue tail flame slipped out of the cover of the trees, burning with enough light to be noticed by the feydragon.
Kokuteju was beginning to become both extremely annoyed and terribly upset after her constant searching produced next to no results. Where was Mich? Had he actually left the grounds now, and headed for his dormitory, and should she check there or just let it all fall to pieces? The feydragon shook her head, angry with herself for thinking such a thing. Was she that stupid to let him go without him hearing her out? But where, oh where, was he? It was then that she saw the tail flame appear out of the foliage, the cold blue of sorrow shocking Koku to her very core. She’d done this to him. She’d upset him, she’d been an idiot, and, oh, what do you do in these situations? She stopped for a moment, almost backing out of the idea of going over to him, her entire body trembling to the extent that her wings were quivering. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and calmed herself as much as possible. With that, she stepped around to join him. He was sat on the ground and Koku dropped down beside him, looking away from him and into the sky. She was shaking again, from anger and sadness and frustration and fear, which was something she hadn’t felt in a while. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“You know, I didn’t mean what I just said,”</span> She sang again, although barely higher than a whisper. With that, she let her head rest against his arm, humming quietly to herself, before coming to a decision. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“Mich, you’re an idiot,”</span> She told him, before swiftly reaching up to kiss him to prevent any complaints. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“But I love you.”</span>
Mich fet heat once again rising to his cheeks as he felt Koku's head lean against his arms. He glanced at her quickly as she spoke to him again. Before he knew it, she had kissed him, and he heard the words he had always wanted her to say to him. He felt the spot on which she had kissed him, before sniffing sadly to himself. His ears dropped and he looked away again. <span style='color:green'>"Koku, you're right about me being an idiot. A stupid, selfish idiot,"</span> he looked around sadly, tears in his eyes, <span style='color:green'>"Though I know you couldn't possibly mean the second part. Especially after what I did... yelling at you like that. There was no reason.... you did nothing wrong..." </span>he sighed and slumped against the tree, tears rolling down his cheeks, a shake still quivering in his limbs. <span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Rubbish, but still. xD</td></tr></table>
Anger began to rise in Kokuteju at Mich’s reaction, although not because he had rejected her as she might have previously feared. Instead, he had decided to go on a self-loathing and self-pity trip, which was beginning to irritate the feydragon. Whiny, nobody-loves-me-because-I-really-am-an-idiot Mich was not that ‘dragon that she had fallen for. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“Mich,”</span> Said Koku, with a hint of a threat concealed in her tone. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“I did mean the last bit. In fact, I still do mean it. Although I won’t if you don’t stop being this self-pitying idiot.”</span> She sighed, shook her head and ploughed on. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“I shouldn’t have ignored you for so long. I shouldn’t have just let us fall apart like we did. And anyway, I once heard that people in love were slow and stupid, but…”</span> She looked at Mich and took his hand in hers. <span style='color:#CCCCFF'>“At least they’re not lonely.”</span> <span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>That took me all of five minutes. ._.; Sorry, it's short, and I've totally stolen song lyrics again, although this time from the Feeling.</td></tr></table>
Mich listened to her words. He still wasn't convinced that she still liked him, but he simply sighed and looked away from Koku. He let silence filter between them, only the slight hooting ot night birds in the air. It was now a proper night, with the stars set in their place and twinkling like fireflies. Mich just stared at the stars, astounded by their beauty. Slowly, he shuffled a bit closer to Koku, finally gripping her fingers with a little more confidence. Okay, the self pity fit was a lot more stupid than what he had done before. He just couldn't lose Koku now. Slowly, the shaking ebbed from his limbs, and he relaxed. He leaned slightly against Koku, and took a deep breath. He had to tell her now. He looked up to teh stars, and slowly said, <span style='color:green'>"Look at the stars, Koku. They're so beautiful tonight."</span> His head slowly turned to glance at her, and a faint blush rose to his cheeks, <span style='color:green'>"But they couldn't hold a candle to you."</span> <span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>Last part ish sappy. Stars line stolen from Oban Star Racers. ...What? It's the cutest line in the WHOLE SERIES!</td></tr></table>
