(Untitled)

[ironside_pixie]

"Aren't boys supposed to have superior hand-eye co-ordination?" She asks, raising her eyebrows at him in disappointment. She digs her toes into the edge of the hand-me down leather couch in Ellen's New York Apartment. You see, there's this guy and truth be told, he's not anything like any of the guys she's been with. He's not rough and mean, or

Comments

[kurosakiboy]

"I guess not," he replies, tossing his controller to the ground with slightly more grace than her. "But to be honest, I'd rather be here with you than out in the streets. I mean, no offense, but...New York kinda smells."

Coming from a small town, Ichigo was not exactly what you would call 'prepared' for something quite so different as New York City. He thought he was, of course, but he wasn't. The smells, the sounds, the taste of the air - all of it is so different here, so strange, that he's feeling very much out of his depth.

"Not that I'm not liking it here," he quickly amends, casting a tiny smile her way. (He's hardly EVER scowling around her now. It's really quite alarming). "It's just different. But in here it's just...not. Not so much, anyways, and with you I don't really mind any of the stuff that seems strange to me. I think I'm actually getting used to it, actually."

Maybe not the smell, but the rest of it is bearable when it means he gets to be alone with her.

[ironside_pixie]

"Yeah." She agrees, wrinkling a nose that's got Pixie senses. To her the city smells like iron, poison and burning...the aroma of a world on the brink of destruction. Kaye picks at the loose leather on the sofa, peeling up small circles that Ellen won't bother scolding her for later.

"Karakura town is nice." She botches the pronunciation, frowning slightly.

There are certain things you need to deal with when you met at Milliways; she doesn't want things to be serious enough for that conversation.

[kurosakiboy]

Her pronuntiation would have been a point of mockery, not so long ago. Then again, a lot of things were different between them not so long ago. Things seemed to have happened very quickly between them, even though it took years for things to reach this point, and sometimes Ichigo can barely believe that the Pixie girl he once teased and mocked is now the same girl he can barely tear his eyes off of.

"It's alright, but it's also about ten times smaller than New York. I never thought about moving away from there, to be honest, but these days..." He shrugs and trails off, letting the sentence hang as he tries to identify an odd stain on the carpet. Blood or ketchup, take your pick.

"What about you? Anywhere in particular you're hoping to stay? I guess you've moved around a few times by now, haven't you?"

[ironside_pixie]

"New York is easy to get lost in." A year or two ago that was her main concern. Finding a place to get lost, where no one will notice what a freak you are.

She's been thinking a little different lately. Looking at a few empty shops, considering her coffee shop, roping in Corny and Luis, helping people with their faerie problems - helping faeries with their people problems.

She swallows hard and finally bites the bullet, saying what she's been thinking for months.

"Sometimes people...lose...the door, it disappears." She is very good at not looking at him; studying his reflection in the TV.

[kurosakiboy]

She can be very good at being evasive, when she wants to be. It can be frustrating at times, and worrisome at others. Right now it's much more the latter than the former. He's given some thought to similar things recently, even if most of his time is spent worrying about matters of world-ending importance. To him, this is pretty high up there.

"Yeah, I, uh...I've heard." The elephant in the room is taunting him, but he isn't sure he wants to tackle it just yet. "I kinda think we should try and figure out if we come from the same world. Maybe try and ring my house from yours, or vice versa. Just to check, you know?" His voice grows quieter. "So that we know, if anything happens...so we know if it's even possible."

[ironside_pixie]

"Learn Japanese?" The laugh that comes out has an edge to it. Some sort of lingering Bar magic makes it possible for them to communicate here, would that even work if the Bar became unavailable?

She works at one part of a fingernail with her teeth, clamping down and pulling until she tastes copper.

"I've tried dating without knowing the future, it doesn't work." One day the Fae prince you thought was your Savior just turns around and rips you apart. She can't wake up screaming anymore, thinking she's lost another friend...another love.

The smile on her face is thin, pasted on with cheap glue that's already showing cracks.

"We could always ask the Thistle-witch." The minute the idea comes into her head Kaye wants to take it back. She knows it's a bad idea, but all her Pixie courage and fake bravado is rushing to the surface.

[kurosakiboy]

It often seems to do just that in situations like these, in desperate times that require desperate measures or level heads. He should be used to it by now, being prone to unsafe levels of bravado himself, but somehow he never is.

"I guess we could, except I don't know who the Thistle-witch is." He's frowning now, not at her but at the bloody-ketchup stain, and if you asked him why he probably wouldn't be able to tell you. He just is. "I don't know, I just...I was actually thinking about studying English at school, once all this stuff was over. All the fighting. I thought it might be a good idea, in case anything ever happened, but I've never been great with languages, so I don't know. Maybe we should ask this...Whistle-witch."

[ironside_pixie]

"Thistlewitch." She corrects automatically. She's been eyeing up Japanese courses in the library, but she's not about to tell him that. She's...well she's the all-american Pixie, to give it all up and move to Japan for a boy...that would be difficult. Almost as difficult as losing him.

Things are moving too fast. She doesn't want to fall hard again. The brave, brash pixie is fucking terrified.

"She's in New Jersey. We'd have to take a train." She's on her feet, nerves jittering. She doesn't even know for sure if that's where answers lie and it means going on Roiben's turf.

[kurosakiboy]

He doesn't know that. He doesn't even know where New Jersey is. What he does know is that he's willing to do anything to stay with her, and that includes visiting witches of all kinds. If he survives the weeks ahead, if he can actually turn everything around and not only live but win...well, that's something he's not willing to think about until he gets there. It's too painful to hope for that much only to watch it all get snatched away from him.

"If you want us to go see her, I'm game." He stands as well and touches her arm, trying to ground the girl who's always going to be halfway in the clouds. "Just tell me why you want to see her, and then we can go. No more questions after that. Promise."

[ironside_pixie]

She can feel his fingers against her arm, raising all the hairs there, leaving goosebumps in their trail. They don't talk about the day at his house...it's too awkward and close right now.

She wonders briefly if he'll ever be able to touch her without her heart leaping to her throat and beating out a samba.

"Sometimes she knows things." There were hints at the time, about Roiben, that she hadn't picked up. Veiled warnings the Thistlewitch had covered well. Kaye's head had been full of cotton-wool and happy ever afters...foolish.

"She's one of us." Beat. "Like me. A faerie."

[kurosakiboy]

Wonderful, he thinks. More magic. Just what he's always wanted.

"Alright, fine." He's become much more accepting of magical people since meeting her, but he's still not a big fan of the stuff. It doesn't follow the rules, basically, and that bothers him. He probably could do magic, if he had a hundred years to learn. As it is, no thanks.

"Do you think she'll be able to tell you something? Something about us?"

The future? Their fate? And what exactly happens if there is no future, no fate? What then?

[ironside_pixie]

"Maybe." She shrugs, a rippling roll of her shoulders before grinning, all brass and boldness.

Can't afford to be afraid, there'll be time to fall apart after. She's literally been to hell the Underworld and back, what's a little eggshell divining?

"You said no more questions." She pulls on her sneakers and a light jacket, leaving him to do the same.

"Coming?"

[kurosakiboy]

No such thing as a 'little' predicting the future.

"Fair enough," he replies, managing a weak smile. He did say no more questions. "Alright, I'm coming. But you'd better not be this cryptic about everything today, or else I'm going to leave New York more confused and lost than when I got here."

He's pulling his arms through his jacket as he speaks, and by the time he's done that he's ready to go. He's watching her carefully, protective and nervous at the same time, ready to follow her anywhere she leads him. He trusts her, even if he has no idea what's in store.

[ironside_pixie]

"It's in my nature." She says and she's only half-joking. She will never be caged. She will never tell a lie. She will never be human. Her life was changed forever by the Thistlewitch. This time, Kaye's hoping for good news.

The train ride is silent. This isn't the time for jokes. She has no idea what will happen when Roiben hears the tale of a strange pixie in town with a stranger boy. Best case scenario, he won't care, even if it stings. She can't sit still; a hurtling metal carriage does not go easy for her and she spend the journey nauseous, trying and failing not to swoon on Ichigo's shoulder.

[kurosakiboy]

He takes the train ride much better than she, if only for the fact that he isn't bothered by metal (or speeds). He actually enjoys it, to be honest. It gives him a chance to see more of the city, to see more of the people, and to experience New York (and New Jersey) from the debatable-comfort of a train. Much better than walking.

When she seems ready to hurl all over his shoes, Ichigo puts an arm around her and rubs her arm softly, trying to comfort her uneasy body and soul. It's hard to tell if it works, but she doesn't vomit even once, which he takes as a good sign.

[ironside_pixie]

When the train stops, despite her dizziness, some kind of instinct in Kaye finds the exit as fast as possible. She loses Ichigo somewhere to her left and ends up crouched beside a crushed Starbucks cup with her head between her polka-dot patterned knees.

"Remind me to never do that again." Her voice is a weak kitten's mewl.