sweet dreams are made of these, who had a mind to disagree?

[picklesplz]

Who: Kirin, Maya.
Where: Maya's place
When: Uh, the day after this conversation?
Summary: MY PRECIOUS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABIES.
Rating: PG-13?
Other: No actual babies present in this log. Nataku, stop terrifying Kirin with the thought of parenthood.

Comments

[picklesplz]

"Hi, Maya," he replied, stepping into the house and cocking his head to the side as he twisted her tone apart in his mind.

Something was off about her, but it was probably just the fact she was angry at him. She would be, wouldn't she? He'd run off after a rumor and hadn't even bothered to say where he was going. He shouldn't have done that. He could have told her... well, not really, she'd have just worried more. 'Hey, Maya, I think I found my brother and I'm gonna go and have an epic duel to the death with him, because he's a bit of an asshole. Sibling rivalry, and all that, you don't mind right?' Yeah, that would have worked marvelously.

Kirin arched an eyebrow as she locked the door that tightly.

"I think so, yeah," he nodded at the door, managing not to frown. "You okay?"

[picklesplz]

"Why, Maya, planning to do--oof."

Kirin bent over as if the air had been knocked out of him, though Maya's punch was hardly even felt. He just knew from experience that people tended to feel better when it seemed their hits actually did some damage, even if they didn't at all. And Maya looked nervous enough.

"Heh, I wouldn't mind if it were pickle flavored," he said jokingly, straightening up and shrugging without throwing the black haori off his shoulders.

He kept his arms folded over his belly, inside the yukata, as the empty sleeves fell listlessly on each side. He didn't look much different from what he'd look like, before, though his hair was getting dangerously long again. He'd have to chop some of it off when he came home.

"Want me to fix the door for you later? As payment for looking after my babies while I was gone."

[picklesplz]

"Well, if you're worried about someone breaking in, it's not very sturdy," Kirin scratched the underside of his chin as he looked around, reacquainting himself with the room, "I could probably kick it down without much trouble. And that's not very safe your you, is it

[picklesplz]

"What!" Kirin stood up abruptly, and if Maya had been paying close attention, she might have seen the glint of something reddish underneath his hair as his eye snapped open on reflex.

Kirin watched her change the topic, and didn't press on it. But he filed the thought away. He didn't like that, not one bit, and he'd make sure, as much as he could, that something like that didn't happen again. It seemed a lot of things had happened while he'd been away. Unfortunately Maya chose a topic Kirin wasn't really... fond of.

"Family business," he didn't lie, preferring instead to mislead. "Just... something came up and I had to go. I didn't expect it to take so long or be so... messy."

Well, the last part was a lie. Messy was a given, when dealing with Kujaku. But Kirin hadn't actually had a chance to even see him, and that pissed him off quite a bit.

"Probably not nearly as exciting as pickle flavored snow and people breaking into your house."

[picklesplz]

She was scared.

He realized it when she started babbling all over the place, and he really didn't like it. It just... didn't fit her. Some people were well suited to be scared all the time, Maya wasn't one of them. So Kirin did something he very rarely did, because it really did seem she needed it, he hugged her. Not quite as abruptly as she'd hugged him, last time, though; he let his hands on her shoulders and then tugged her close, bowing his back slightly to lower his head a bit.

"It's okay," he told her, grinning faintly, "we'll just make sure they can't do it again."

[picklesplz]

Kirin grinned, forcing his third eye close so it was little more than a black mark on his forehead. He didn't want Maya looking up and seeing something she shouldn't, after all. Which was why he usually avoid having people so close to him. But well, there were worse things to go through than a hug with a pretty girl that also happened to be his friend.

"Mm, depends if my jars fit under the stairs," he joked back, letting one of his hands rub small circles on her back. "Lucky for you, I'm really good at making mousetraps."

She'd be alright. He just didn't like whatever had scared her that way. Nataku had said genocide, but Nataku was also prone in calling things as he saw them and Kirin had actually been hoping that had been an exaggeration or, as it often happened with his friend, a case of mistaken perception.

Well, it seemed it might not be the case.

[picklesplz]

Irony was that if he weren't concentrating on rubbing circles on her back, he would count her three seconds up and shove her away. Well, maybe not shove. Not too hard, anyway. Kirin tried to keep his mind off that particular track and ignore the fact he was, fully consciously, out of his own free will, touching someone.

It was shudder-worthy weird.

"My, my, such generosity," he grinned at the words, while trying to imagine living under the stairs. It... probably wouldn't be worse than sleeping in a closet. Probably even more comfortable. He buried memories of old Stea digs, and felt a very particular smile tug at his lips. For some reason, people tended to assume he was a mass murderer when he smiled that way. "Ah, Maya, but bears are just bigger rats. Same principle, different size. Well, the ones in Abyss were. Is there a difference in fauna from one level to another? Aside the number of fleas they carry?"

[picklesplz]

He was unruffled by her movements, for the most part. The eye was closed, and if she saw the scars on his empty left eyesocket, it wouldn't be nearly as... well, awkward as if she realized the marks on his forehead were actually an eyelid. It'd been... easier, with Nataku. Then again, Nataku was unique on his own, and Kirin had long stopped expecting his friend to be in any way normal or standard when it came to dealing with the world.

"Oh good," Kirin's grin softened into something not so nightmare-worthy, "does that mean you get to cook for me, too? Sweet, I like this deal more and more already." He made sure to stress the teasing in his voice; in his experience, women weren't really happy when told something like that, even as a joke. Amidaba had made sure he got that clear, from the get go. And he didn't really like people cooking for him, anyway. They never used enough pickles. "Well, I've never been to Elysium, so I wouldn't know... but I'm pretty sure I could catch a rat the size of a bear too. It's all in the wrist."