http://maten-rou.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
maten-rou.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tampered2007-04-21 12:16 am
maten-rou.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2007-04-21 12:16 am
Log, complete
When; April 13th, Memory Theater Day
Rating; PG-13 (Language, violence, sexual innuendo)
Characters; Maria [![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lorenzavirgine] & Jyabura [maten_rou]
Summary; Because the best way to forget about horrible/embarassing memories is to take lessons in Tango.
Log;
The process of awakening. When chirping birds pierce your tympanum and rip you out of the state of dreaming, letting you carry over only the most recent memories of what you'd seen when you were asleep.
With a slight sigh, Maria opened her left eye, had a decent stretch and stared at her bedsheet with now both eyes for a few seconds. Waking up in this world always felt a bit weird to her in this place since she had lived in the city for the last seven years. Obviously, she had to get used to the birds. Otherwise, she probably would wake up everytime the birds decided to twitter their interpretation of Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance.
Twenty minutes later, Maria stood in the kitchen, firing up the electric kettle. She decided to take a look outside while the water took its time to boil, to check up on the temperature and maybe throw some rocks at the birds. Imaginary rocks. Though even imaginary rocks seemed a bit cruel to her.
She pushed the door leading to the terrace open, sticking her nose into the fresh air first and foremost. A second passed, then she spotted Jyabura.
"Good morning... Already awake?" That was more of a rhetorical question, but... nevermind.
The early bird in question sat at the veranda and generally enjoyed the morning zen as he was usually awake before sunrise. This morning was no exception and Jyabura'd already spent it with some training. Well, sometime he had to train off all the calories from the alcohol. Probably he was more paranoid over gaining too much weight than any woman could ever be.
Slowly he turned around and greeted Maria with a smile. "Yeah... guess what!" he said and stood up, stretched a bit and walked towards her, just when something flashed before his eyes. But it was no dazzling sunlight. More like... pictures. Flashing, moving pictures. Blurry and hectically, but he cleary saw some kind of café and Maria sitting at a table, reading a book when two guys showed up. Two badly ass-kicked guys. Again blurryness, then he saw Maria taking care of their injuries. The sound was bad, but they talked in a foreign language and he couldn't understand a word. Her tone didn't sound too amused, though.
Cut. The next thing he saw was Maria again, current Maria, closer and his hand on her shoulder. Obviously whatever happened lasted only a few steps from veranda to door. Perplexed and confused he stood in surprise before he rubbed his eyes. Did he drink? Or... what the hell was that anyways? "Uuuh..." he said with a sceptical look before he had the chance to do what he intented to since getting up. He gave the girl a kiss on the forehead and glanced into the kitchen. Tea? "I guess I could need some tea, yeah..."
Slightly confused, Maria frowned. Jyabura's behaviour seemed a bit weird to her. Maybe she was overly paranoid again. On the other hand... maybe not. At any rate, he was not the guy who'd get all dizzy when standing up, judging from his looks and his... well, stamina?
She tilted her head; a curly, dark streak fell over her cheek and almost dropped.
"Is something wrong?" Direct approach.
"No um... I'm ok" he lied and went into the kitchen next door to finish what Maria had started. While preparing the tea he still asked himself how much exactly he had drunk the last night and why any aftermaths of having too much acohol would show up hours later and after he was ok for the whole morning. Weird. Still, he didn't want to blame it to the City, yet.
He went outside again with a can of tea and two cups, placing himself to the edge of the veranda again next to Maria, handing her out of one of the cups and filled it up. Good way to start a day. Except for the... hallucination thing, of course. Trying to forget what happened the drank his tea slowly. "You should try to get up earlier. You miss the whole morning" he said, while Maria really didn't sleep overly longer than normal people do. Just compared to him.
"Oh, I approve of my sleeping habits," she tenderly stated, hovering her nose over the warm haze that arised from the teacup before ultimately taking a sip.
"And I'll usually have to stay at work till late, so..."
The noise of the sea. A breeze. Pausing for a second, Maria felt just like she had slipped away from reality.
To be accurate about that, that was just what had happened.
A shock hit her to the bone, leading her to utter confusion. What..? What... had happened? She saw the horizon. And to the horizon, there was blue. Did the City just send her wherever it happened to want her? Was she hallucinating? Did she...
The noise of the sea. A breeze. I guess one doesn't simply accommodate to transdimensional journeys.
Maria's heart was pounding when she turned around. It almost stopped when perceiving something. Though it wasn't quite a "something", it was a huge gate. Really huge. Silently, she asked herself what such a big gate was even needed for before finally deciding to look for that herself. Standing around here frozen with a shocked facial expression wouldn't bring her further, anyway.
Behind the gates, a mixture between church and castle approached her; benches to the left, benches to the right. The hugeness of the gates hadn't promised too much - everything else was pretty well-sized in here, too. People were passing, their gazes seemed to stare entirely through her. For a moment, she stood there. Then she spottet Jyabura - again.
He looked different, though. Younger. About her age.
A second of frowning - then she decided to go after him. When she jostled somebody, she uttered an excuse, but he didn't seem to mind. Actually, no one seemed to mind her.
Even though this Jyabura was significantly younger, he seemed to have some kind of authority as all the people, marine soldiers to be more specific, some accompanied by weird guard dogs, formally saluted him when he passed them, but he didn't even pay attention. Determined he seemed to aim for a certain place in the tower and the closer he got to it, the slower he moved, until he literally hid behind a corner towards a café. Weird enough that this cold and severe tower owned such a nice, even cute scene that didn't fit into the rest of the solemn and dignified atmosphere of that place.
Jyabura sighed nervously, cold sweat running down his face and... yes, he blushed. Seems like some things never changed. He glanced over to the counter to some girl at the cashpoint. That type of girl you wouldn't remember a bare minute after you've seen her. And even if you did, you clearly wouldn't describe her as pretty. He adjusted his tie and pulled out something from his pockets. A loveletter. Well, a wild guess. But it was pink. With a heart on it. It didn't leave much other choices.
After ages he finally went to the girl, still in that sweaty and blushy state. "M-m-miss!" he said. Oh great. Stutter. "What a coincidence I meet you today!" Yes, sure. After he invested a lof of work into peeking into her work schedule. The girl's response was badly audible. She didn't seem really excited, though. After some awkward smalltalk he handed her out the letter, even more nervous than the entire time before. Yes, it was possible. The girl really didn't seem too happy. "Oh?" he answered to whatever she said. "I-is that so? W-well I didn't... I-I thought, we-..." he stuttered obviously shocked and embarassed. "Ok..." he finished crestfallen, took his letter and turned around to go. With his painfully revealing body language it was easy to guess what just happened. By this and the girl's extremely relieved look when he left.
"Stupid fucking cat" he murmured huffish, anger rising.
"Jyabura?", Maria asked. It was more of a knee-jerk reaction than anything else. He didn't notice her at all, failed to react when she poked him into his ribs.
Then she slipped.
Water. Hot, slightly toned water mirroring her image in a blurry way. She clinged to the teacup for a second, closed her eyes and raised her head, just to open them again, resulting in her stare meeting green. Plants, trees, grass. The garden. She was back again.
But what...
A glance sideways told her that Jyabura still sat next to her. The old one. Well, kinda.
"I... I kind of lost the thread," she confessed before taking another sip of tea, slightly dizzy. It made no sense to her. No sense. On the other hand, though...
"Is... today a curse day or something?" She asked coyly.
The wolf raised his eyebrows and gave her a sceptical look. "Yeah, I... noticed. You stared into your cup for... quite a while..." he pondered. Not even calling her and poking did really help. Okay. Did they both drink the day before? And how much? And, most importantly, what in the world did they have? He couldn't remember for the love of God they even had anything.
"Curse? Why are you asking?" he said, but if she had the same experience as he had, it did indeed make sense. However, he didn't have much time to think on about that, as once again blurry pictures showed up, just as sudden as in the moment before. He saw some building. Destroyed doors, a bulk of suspicious people before it. He could almost feel the heat and chaos in the scenery. Oh no. Fuck that, not again. He ran a hand over his eyes in an attempt of rubbing those weird pictures away like a bad memory. Memory? "I uh... think it might be..." he tried to say, but whatever was happening pretty much dragged him away. Cleary he heard shots of guns. Lots of guns. Some kind of kitchen with a couple of teens in it. The young girl strangely reminded him of someone, but one guy shooting an impressive amount of people on the hallway distracted him.
Under the black jacket which hung down from his shoulders like a stork's dirty coat, there had to be slightly buff arms at least as he held a Desert Eagle single-handed, taking down the obviously hostile forces on the hallway. Judging not only from his looks, but also from his aura, this wasn't completely new to him - it was difficult to tell whether he was bored by it or if he had some fun while shooting, though. Physically, he was about twenty years old but due to obvious reasons, he seemed older.
Turning his back to the kitchen wall, he left the threshold a short moment to reload his gun. "Fighting ethics, eh?" He snarled derogatorily, not even a single muscle twitching in his face, still focussing his gun. Without a doubt he had been addressing the younger guy next to him, who sent a piqued gaze through his rimmed glasses to the stork before replying: "Fuck ethics, we're gonna DIE!"
"So, why aren't you shooting then, fellow brother?" The stork didn't await an answer but stepped on the threshold again to gun down men and produce some severe blood stains. Due to his tone, he could have said "Fucking pussy" instead anyway.
"If you can't shoot them, give ME the gun!" The girl now demanded, looking up into the glasses-guy's face; he was at least half a head taller than her. She tried to snatch the revolver from his hands but he raised them just in time.
"YOU'RE not shooting! You're getting out of here! There's no way we'll-"
Derogatory laughter originating from the stork interrupted the glasses-guy. He didn't seem to mind, though. He grabbed the girl's forearm. "Maria, you're-"
A bullet from the outside shattered the kitchen's window into sherds; the air was pierced by a high-pitched scream.
"...a curse?" he murmured and finished his sentence, but he actually couldn't remember the first half of it. No time to ponder, as the hot, very hot tea poured on his arm. "Fuck!" he yelled and jumped of, the cup bursting into shards. "Okay, what is this crap?!" he shouted while waving his burned arm around. God dammit. "I'd really like to know how much and what exactly I drank yesterday, because weird fucking things floating before my eyes is not funny!"
He calmed down immediately as it was pretty much obvious that he was cursed, hell knew with what exactly. "Christ..." he snarled.
Maria had winced at that shattering. Since those weird visions could strike her down anytime soon, she got busy swallowing mouthfuls of tea. It didn't go as fast as she wished for because the water was still hot, though.
"As I saw... something, too, I doubt it's connected with your alcohol consumption," she stated calmly, her voice giving a good impression of her pondering. Finally discovering she'd just burn her throat, she put the cup next to her. Intelligence was striking again. And so was curiosity.
"What did you see?"
"I fucking hate burns" he continued to snarl and talked more to himself than to Maria, sceptically looking at his burned hand. "You... had... those 'visions' too? Well, must be a curse, then" he said and sat next to her again, playing around with the shards of the cup in front of him with his feet and trying to figure out what that crap was about. "I uh, think I saw you. In some café with a couple of guys" he finally said, but had enough problems of telling blurry, hectical pictures in words. "Pretty fast and blurry, so... not very helpful."
While he scratched the scar across his eye, he thought about the second vision or whatever it was. "The other was some shooting in a house. No idea, pretty violent and chaotic. I guess you were the girl, but you were definitely younger than you're now. I'm actually not sure and... I have no idea what this is supposed to mean anyways" he finished slightly annoyed. Jyabura was pretty much down to earth and rational, sudden visions that made no sense to him were no things that lightened up his mood.
"A shooting?"
A slightly cold feeling crept up her back. She picked up her teacup again, just to chase the feeling away by warming her fingertips.
"Did you see... did you see someone else? A guy in a black coat with a huge gun? Or another guy with brown hair and rimmed glasses, maybe?"
The invasion. She remembered the noise, the slight fear in the air, spread by the parted family. Vincent taking down one after another in his typical, cold-hearted manner. Pascal unwilling, or even unable to shoot somebody, favouring flight over defense. Fortunately, few guards finally approached and with this assistance, they managed to eliminate the invaders - and a brief time after that, the whole Ticcioni Famiglia.
If Jyabura had seen this, that meant the curse made them... see each other's past, maybe, or each other's memories.
She continued sipping. It felt as if the tea's haze had glued her eyelashes.
Jyabura gave her a surprised gaze. "Yeah. I get the feeling the coat guy's someone you can't really forget that fast." And hey, he had some skills with his gun, he had to admit, though using weapons of any kind wasn't his style at all. "I remember someone with glasses too, so... this actually happened and the girl was you?!" He didn't like this. He didn't like this at all. So he saw pieces of her past? And judging by her reactions and of course, what he've seen, it weren't very cheery memories. But if he saw Maria's past...
"Wait a minute. What did you see?!" Oh dear God, don't let it be something embarassing.
"Yes. It... happened to me. My brothers, both of them."
So they really did see memories. Asking for the reason would have been completely useless. It was just another curse the gods had casted upon them, probably because of sheer boredom. Maria didn't approve of this kind of leisure pursuits - but she highly doubted no one had stepped up at their offices and voiced his resentment about this so far.
"Oh, I saw... a huge gate. And quite a huge interior behind it. You were... a bit younger and..."
For a moment, she paused.
"It's... kinda blurry," she explained then, lying to win some time in which she could phrase the things she saw in a gentle way. In her mind, she went along with the memory, next to it like following a red thread. Pictures flashed, fading. Now that she actually thought of it... A heart on the letter. She fought herself not to snicker.
Well. Some guys got the hang of it, some guys didn't.
"You gave this girl a... letter or something and..." She lost the fight and chuckled a brief moment. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't... I shouldn't laugh," she boldly declared. A goddamn heart.
"Well, she wasn't too exited about it and... you said something about a fucking cat." She shrugged, as if shrugging this incident off.
Helplessly Jyabura ran a hand over his neck and stared at the shards of the cup. He knew it wasn't his fault that the City made him see that stuff, but he didn't like invading her memories like that. "I'm sorry. I guess." he said and he really was, but just wasn't sure if he had to excuse himself for that. Well, he could try to forget about that, at least.
"Gate? Wait, you saw the Tower of Justice?!" he asked her with the most sudden mood change he could come up with. Home sickness striking. That place surely wasn't comfortable, but someone's home was someone's home, right? "That is...!" Awesome?, he wanted to add, but he didn't like what he heard at all. Why in the world would the Goddamned City pick the most embarassing memories out of a collection of much more impressive ones?! He had to give her a offended look when she snickered, but inwardly he didn't really mind. Concerning him and girls, he was used to be made fun of. It was a lot of people's past time in the mentioned tower. Blushing, of course, and clearing his throat he started to pick up the shards. "It's okay. I guess that's better than the stuff I saw. We can talk that out, if you want. If not, I've never seen any of this" he added surprisingly serious.
"Well... It's alright. It happened years ago and I made peace with it."
Almost reassuring, she patted Jyabura's hand when visions broke lose again in her mind, flashing before her inner eye. Even if there is not said to be such thing as an inner ear or... inner sensation organ, at this particular moment, she was pretty sure she owned both of those things anyway.
It started out with bursting walls. A joyous feeling curled her mouth corners upwards, even if it wasn't hers. It was much too sadistic and she knew that; still, it was too strong to abstain from grinning. The smell of blood, though she knew what it meant, seemed almost delicious. A blonde guy sent through a brick wall by a hilariously huge wolf on two legs.
Jyabura.
Seconds of the fight, mere impressions of injuries and destruction. Although she knew what was going on in those visions, all she could think about were the absurdly curled eyebrows of the blonde guy. Seriously, that looks gay, she inwardly remarked before even noticing what she was thinking about there.
More blood. Suddenly, there was a surprised feeling, just before a massive block of frustration hit her, coupled with quite an amount of anger. The wolf was burnt all over - he had lost the fight. She was feeling all of that like her own emotions, however, it seemed strangely distant. Both the alien and her own feelings.
Within a wink, Maria regained her connection with reality and started to feel guilty of what she was thinking immediately. You can't get used to seeing such things, she commanded herself, but obviously, you could. Even if you didn't see a fight in this... dimensions before.
"I... I think," she slowly started, bewilderedly blinking a few times, "I just got a... good impression of your job."
"If you say so" he answered timely before she seemed to be stuck in any kind of memory again. Goodness, this time it's better something impressive, he thought and grasped her hand.
Curiously he raised his eyebrows as she seemed to be back again, but he didn't know what exactly to think of it. "My job? Oh...!" Well, thinking about it a bit longer, it didn't seem too good. Not after he just had invaded her memory of some bloody massacre. No idea what to say, he squeezed her hand irritated. "Weird curse, isn't it? If you don't like me seeing those things or getting more impressions of my job, maybe we should stay away from each other for today" he recommended, but it was obvious he didn't like the idea.
Maria hesitated.
"I actually don't mind," she then explained. "Neither you seeing my memories, nor..."
Again, she paused for a short moment, just to continue with a lowered voice, as if she was ashamed of that:
"... nor seeing you... doing your job."
She emptied her cup to distract herself briefly.
"It's not really different to the fights I encountered back in my world. The quantity of destruction was much bigger in your world, but it's the same idea, actually."
Though she didn't like the idea of people eradicating each other, she grew up with it. It seemed to be an terrific idea to get used to such things. However, there were reasons behind it almost all the time. Reasons which often weren't airtight. But the ethics she knew, Maria had discovered, sometimes were a bit too simplistic to apply them at life.
"And it's the past anyway."
In confusion he tilted his head sidewards a bit. That didn't sound very good. In whatever sense of good. He stared at her hand and continued to squeeze it awkwardly, like one of those little stress balls you get in office. "Is it because I um, I'm from the government?" he asked her, though Maria's explanation that followed pretty much left that choice out.
Past? Maybe what she saw happened in the past. But he'll always stay a killer. And even though he denied it, some other side of him would enjoy killing people. At least those that deserved death by his morals. "I didn't do any other thing in my entire life" he started to explain, or even to excuse himself. "I'm not even capable of doing anything else good than... killing people. I don't even know if I want it" he admitted.
"Now, now. Don't you underestimate yourself."
Maria put the emptied cup next to her to raise a finger and point the fingertip at Jyabura's nose.
"Killing isn't the only thing you're effective at." I could name one, she continued in her mind, but if I'm assessing you correctly, it would make you blush hardly.
"Besides, if there's something you're not good at, take the time to learn it. I mean, in this City, you can't tell me you ain't got some time on your hands." Her fingertip gently touched his nose's tip before she withdrew it.
"Something that interests you. Even things that don't seem useful at all are pretty handy if you're doing well at them. And with enough practice, you'll sure do well at them. It's not like you can't learn anything new. Back in my world, they even made money with the silliest hobbies."
She flashed a smile which, as she kept talking, morphed to half a smirk.
"If you don't want to do it alone... I was taught to dance Tango by my brother. I could teach you."
Jyabura watched her rather unbelieving and, to say at least, not very persuaded. He never even thought of that. If you can't serve your 'natural' purpose, search for a new one. His purpose was to kill people the Government wanted to see dead. There aren't just any alternatives. That's what he was born and lived for. Not doing that made him pretty much a worthless tool.
Still, that made him think. Something that interested him. Yeah, well, he liked gardens. Not gardening itself, that's just something a goddamned elite assassin doesn't do, but... gardens and plants and... That was pretty much it. He scratched the scar across his eye, just a synonyme for 'I do not wish to say what I think', a common trademark of his oh so open body language. "I really don't know if this is a good idea, but yeah, with no one from my Government around, I don't have something useful to do" he finally said and ignored the fact that Lucci was in the City, too. Not that he would ever do a thing the fucking cat told him to do. 'Boss' or not, Jyabura had his limits. Very clear limits.
The scratching again, then an intense execration with a shoked gaze at Maria. Not that he had the slightest fucking idea what Tango was, but dancing? DANCING?! He could as well clamp a piece of paper with 'I AM FUCKING GAY!' on his forehead instead! That was just...! HELL no! "W-WHAT?" he yelled as if Maria told him that he had to take dancing lessons with Lucci best! "I-I reaaaaally don't think his is a g-good idea!" stuttered and raised his palms in front of him. "N-not at all!"
"Yes," Maria said calmly and looked at Jyabura with a serious look on her face, "when my brother was told he had to learn Tango, he went exactly like that."
She hesitated.
"Well, not exactly, but it's close. He was a bit louder and waved about more."
To symbolise the importance of the following point, she raised her finger.
"But then he was told it's a fabulous, foolproof way to get into a chick's pants. What can I say, he already had sex at an earlier age than me. And I wasn't exactly... virtuous back then." The last point was added with a lowered voice and subsequent to that, Maria cleared her throat.
The wolf wasn't really convinced yet. However, he decided to shut up about his own former love life. It wasn't exactly all too normal and a former curse before he lost his memories made him spill out the entire story. Lucky he couldn't remember this day anymore. And lucky Maria wasn't in the City by that point. The whip-story? Oh hell no, the next memory the City let her invade better didn't include this one...
"Ah... is that so?" he asked her canting and scratched his chin. "I always thought dancing makes a guy look gay. Really, really gay, you know?" Well, he still thought that way. And probably always will. "But if that helps to um, what you called it? 'Getting into a chick's pants', right? How practical! There's that certain chick, you know..." he continued and played around with his fingers the most pseudo-shy way someone was just able to imagine. He had masterfull skills in being embarassed, but faking it just didn't work the same way.
"Gay?"
Maria had a really amused look on her face. That sounded too familiar. But she fought the smile bothering her face to look dignified again. She still had a job to do, no?
"I guess you never saw Tango, then. It's all about passion and dominance. And it's highly sexual."
She took a look at her nails and pondered. Most probably, he didn't ever see one of those cheesy movies where a guy teaches a girl to dance. She asked herself if it'd work the other way round, too.
"That's quite a coincidence. I also know a 'certain chick'... who'd be really enchanted to teach you. We might actually mean the same one"
She gave Jyabura a glance from the side and raised an eyebrow.
Now that raised his interest. "Except for the 'sexual'-thing, it sounds a bit like fighting" he explained and got up, but crossed his arms. Still not entirely convinced, it seemed. But he managed to put on a bashful grin. Dominance? Interesting. For someone as extremely competitive as him, that was quite the catchword for action to prove exactly that. Well, maybe the 'highly sexual' sounded a bit alluring too. Maybe. But just a bit, seriously.
He leaned against the banister of the veranda and randomly looked into whatever Xanadu had to offer his eyes. Looks like someone found a new tactic of hiding all those idiotic blushes. "Well, if we really mean the same girl, you better tell her to start her lessons soon, otherwise... I just might lose my interest. But then... I doubt that there will ever be some kind of loss of interest towards a lady like her" he continued with an insecure voice and made sure there was no one even close to their house. And least the stupid Francis cat who'd just tell the network about their dancing lessons.
A smile was provoked by this too cute confession. Slightly flattered, Maria focussed on the green before her eyes. It was a nice feeling, having someone after interested in you who was not a complete moron. Because Maria already had had enough of those.
"As far as I am concerned, this certain girl does have a lot of free time on her hands anyway, so you guys could pretty much start whenever you want to."
Cautiously, she uprised, fiddling about with her fingers behind her back.
"Even right now. Though there is the music missing... and usually, one gets dressed fancy for tango."
Jyabura turned around to face Maria. So she was serious? Damn. Too late to get out of the whole affair now. He looked down at himself. Well, 'fancy' wasn't the right word. But those martial arts dresses he usually wore (and usually highly against the rules of wearing them properly...) at least had something dignified. As for her dress - 'total approval' described it quite good. But then, in his opinion, she could wear fucking anything and still outpretty any other girl in the City.
"Don't know what's about me, but I think you're fancy enough" he admitted shyly but couldn't avoid some a bit too 'interested' look. Dayum, girl. Do you just have to walk around in those half-transparent stuff?, he thought to himself with a slight feeling of unease. Directly followed by 'Why the hell are you even complaining?'
"So um, shall we dance?"
"Sure."
After a swift look at Jyabura, Maria came closer and grabbed his hands at first.
"But it might be not too easy. Because usually, the male leads at tango."
As she couldn't quite tug him closer energetically for he was simply too buff, she pushed closer to him instead, looked up into his face with a slightly grim facial expression. He was right. Tango was, in most parts, like fighting. Like rhythmical, passionate fighting. With some castanets in the background.
"I shall invalidate the role models at first," she explained. And inwardly, she added:
At certain areas, maybe you should get used to that.
"I learn quickly" he managed to say just before it got more and more interesting. Like in reaaally interesting. The first thought that popped up in his mind was why the heck he wasted his life learning fighting and killing when gay stuff like dancing was so much more fun. Like in reaaaal fun.
He didn't reply with anything, but his facial expression was obviously enough telling Maria that he didn't mind anything she was up to, though he also was pretty insecure about the whole thing. Or maybe didn't dare to fully approve of it. "Hey Miss, you're the teacher. And as a good scholar, I'm fine with anything."
Rating; PG-13 (Language, violence, sexual innuendo)
Characters; Maria [
lorenzavirgine] & Jyabura [maten_rou]Summary; Because the best way to forget about horrible/embarassing memories is to take lessons in Tango.
Log;
The process of awakening. When chirping birds pierce your tympanum and rip you out of the state of dreaming, letting you carry over only the most recent memories of what you'd seen when you were asleep.
With a slight sigh, Maria opened her left eye, had a decent stretch and stared at her bedsheet with now both eyes for a few seconds. Waking up in this world always felt a bit weird to her in this place since she had lived in the city for the last seven years. Obviously, she had to get used to the birds. Otherwise, she probably would wake up everytime the birds decided to twitter their interpretation of Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance.
Twenty minutes later, Maria stood in the kitchen, firing up the electric kettle. She decided to take a look outside while the water took its time to boil, to check up on the temperature and maybe throw some rocks at the birds. Imaginary rocks. Though even imaginary rocks seemed a bit cruel to her.
She pushed the door leading to the terrace open, sticking her nose into the fresh air first and foremost. A second passed, then she spotted Jyabura.
"Good morning... Already awake?" That was more of a rhetorical question, but... nevermind.
The early bird in question sat at the veranda and generally enjoyed the morning zen as he was usually awake before sunrise. This morning was no exception and Jyabura'd already spent it with some training. Well, sometime he had to train off all the calories from the alcohol. Probably he was more paranoid over gaining too much weight than any woman could ever be.
Slowly he turned around and greeted Maria with a smile. "Yeah... guess what!" he said and stood up, stretched a bit and walked towards her, just when something flashed before his eyes. But it was no dazzling sunlight. More like... pictures. Flashing, moving pictures. Blurry and hectically, but he cleary saw some kind of café and Maria sitting at a table, reading a book when two guys showed up. Two badly ass-kicked guys. Again blurryness, then he saw Maria taking care of their injuries. The sound was bad, but they talked in a foreign language and he couldn't understand a word. Her tone didn't sound too amused, though.
Cut. The next thing he saw was Maria again, current Maria, closer and his hand on her shoulder. Obviously whatever happened lasted only a few steps from veranda to door. Perplexed and confused he stood in surprise before he rubbed his eyes. Did he drink? Or... what the hell was that anyways? "Uuuh..." he said with a sceptical look before he had the chance to do what he intented to since getting up. He gave the girl a kiss on the forehead and glanced into the kitchen. Tea? "I guess I could need some tea, yeah..."
Slightly confused, Maria frowned. Jyabura's behaviour seemed a bit weird to her. Maybe she was overly paranoid again. On the other hand... maybe not. At any rate, he was not the guy who'd get all dizzy when standing up, judging from his looks and his... well, stamina?
She tilted her head; a curly, dark streak fell over her cheek and almost dropped.
"Is something wrong?" Direct approach.
"No um... I'm ok" he lied and went into the kitchen next door to finish what Maria had started. While preparing the tea he still asked himself how much exactly he had drunk the last night and why any aftermaths of having too much acohol would show up hours later and after he was ok for the whole morning. Weird. Still, he didn't want to blame it to the City, yet.
He went outside again with a can of tea and two cups, placing himself to the edge of the veranda again next to Maria, handing her out of one of the cups and filled it up. Good way to start a day. Except for the... hallucination thing, of course. Trying to forget what happened the drank his tea slowly. "You should try to get up earlier. You miss the whole morning" he said, while Maria really didn't sleep overly longer than normal people do. Just compared to him.
"Oh, I approve of my sleeping habits," she tenderly stated, hovering her nose over the warm haze that arised from the teacup before ultimately taking a sip.
"And I'll usually have to stay at work till late, so..."
The noise of the sea. A breeze. Pausing for a second, Maria felt just like she had slipped away from reality.
To be accurate about that, that was just what had happened.
A shock hit her to the bone, leading her to utter confusion. What..? What... had happened? She saw the horizon. And to the horizon, there was blue. Did the City just send her wherever it happened to want her? Was she hallucinating? Did she...
The noise of the sea. A breeze. I guess one doesn't simply accommodate to transdimensional journeys.
Maria's heart was pounding when she turned around. It almost stopped when perceiving something. Though it wasn't quite a "something", it was a huge gate. Really huge. Silently, she asked herself what such a big gate was even needed for before finally deciding to look for that herself. Standing around here frozen with a shocked facial expression wouldn't bring her further, anyway.
Behind the gates, a mixture between church and castle approached her; benches to the left, benches to the right. The hugeness of the gates hadn't promised too much - everything else was pretty well-sized in here, too. People were passing, their gazes seemed to stare entirely through her. For a moment, she stood there. Then she spottet Jyabura - again.
He looked different, though. Younger. About her age.
A second of frowning - then she decided to go after him. When she jostled somebody, she uttered an excuse, but he didn't seem to mind. Actually, no one seemed to mind her.
Even though this Jyabura was significantly younger, he seemed to have some kind of authority as all the people, marine soldiers to be more specific, some accompanied by weird guard dogs, formally saluted him when he passed them, but he didn't even pay attention. Determined he seemed to aim for a certain place in the tower and the closer he got to it, the slower he moved, until he literally hid behind a corner towards a café. Weird enough that this cold and severe tower owned such a nice, even cute scene that didn't fit into the rest of the solemn and dignified atmosphere of that place.
Jyabura sighed nervously, cold sweat running down his face and... yes, he blushed. Seems like some things never changed. He glanced over to the counter to some girl at the cashpoint. That type of girl you wouldn't remember a bare minute after you've seen her. And even if you did, you clearly wouldn't describe her as pretty. He adjusted his tie and pulled out something from his pockets. A loveletter. Well, a wild guess. But it was pink. With a heart on it. It didn't leave much other choices.
After ages he finally went to the girl, still in that sweaty and blushy state. "M-m-miss!" he said. Oh great. Stutter. "What a coincidence I meet you today!" Yes, sure. After he invested a lof of work into peeking into her work schedule. The girl's response was badly audible. She didn't seem really excited, though. After some awkward smalltalk he handed her out the letter, even more nervous than the entire time before. Yes, it was possible. The girl really didn't seem too happy. "Oh?" he answered to whatever she said. "I-is that so? W-well I didn't... I-I thought, we-..." he stuttered obviously shocked and embarassed. "Ok..." he finished crestfallen, took his letter and turned around to go. With his painfully revealing body language it was easy to guess what just happened. By this and the girl's extremely relieved look when he left.
"Stupid fucking cat" he murmured huffish, anger rising.
"Jyabura?", Maria asked. It was more of a knee-jerk reaction than anything else. He didn't notice her at all, failed to react when she poked him into his ribs.
Then she slipped.
Water. Hot, slightly toned water mirroring her image in a blurry way. She clinged to the teacup for a second, closed her eyes and raised her head, just to open them again, resulting in her stare meeting green. Plants, trees, grass. The garden. She was back again.
But what...
A glance sideways told her that Jyabura still sat next to her. The old one. Well, kinda.
"I... I kind of lost the thread," she confessed before taking another sip of tea, slightly dizzy. It made no sense to her. No sense. On the other hand, though...
"Is... today a curse day or something?" She asked coyly.
The wolf raised his eyebrows and gave her a sceptical look. "Yeah, I... noticed. You stared into your cup for... quite a while..." he pondered. Not even calling her and poking did really help. Okay. Did they both drink the day before? And how much? And, most importantly, what in the world did they have? He couldn't remember for the love of God they even had anything.
"Curse? Why are you asking?" he said, but if she had the same experience as he had, it did indeed make sense. However, he didn't have much time to think on about that, as once again blurry pictures showed up, just as sudden as in the moment before. He saw some building. Destroyed doors, a bulk of suspicious people before it. He could almost feel the heat and chaos in the scenery. Oh no. Fuck that, not again. He ran a hand over his eyes in an attempt of rubbing those weird pictures away like a bad memory. Memory? "I uh... think it might be..." he tried to say, but whatever was happening pretty much dragged him away. Cleary he heard shots of guns. Lots of guns. Some kind of kitchen with a couple of teens in it. The young girl strangely reminded him of someone, but one guy shooting an impressive amount of people on the hallway distracted him.
Under the black jacket which hung down from his shoulders like a stork's dirty coat, there had to be slightly buff arms at least as he held a Desert Eagle single-handed, taking down the obviously hostile forces on the hallway. Judging not only from his looks, but also from his aura, this wasn't completely new to him - it was difficult to tell whether he was bored by it or if he had some fun while shooting, though. Physically, he was about twenty years old but due to obvious reasons, he seemed older.
Turning his back to the kitchen wall, he left the threshold a short moment to reload his gun. "Fighting ethics, eh?" He snarled derogatorily, not even a single muscle twitching in his face, still focussing his gun. Without a doubt he had been addressing the younger guy next to him, who sent a piqued gaze through his rimmed glasses to the stork before replying: "Fuck ethics, we're gonna DIE!"
"So, why aren't you shooting then, fellow brother?" The stork didn't await an answer but stepped on the threshold again to gun down men and produce some severe blood stains. Due to his tone, he could have said "Fucking pussy" instead anyway.
"If you can't shoot them, give ME the gun!" The girl now demanded, looking up into the glasses-guy's face; he was at least half a head taller than her. She tried to snatch the revolver from his hands but he raised them just in time.
"YOU'RE not shooting! You're getting out of here! There's no way we'll-"
Derogatory laughter originating from the stork interrupted the glasses-guy. He didn't seem to mind, though. He grabbed the girl's forearm. "Maria, you're-"
A bullet from the outside shattered the kitchen's window into sherds; the air was pierced by a high-pitched scream.
"...a curse?" he murmured and finished his sentence, but he actually couldn't remember the first half of it. No time to ponder, as the hot, very hot tea poured on his arm. "Fuck!" he yelled and jumped of, the cup bursting into shards. "Okay, what is this crap?!" he shouted while waving his burned arm around. God dammit. "I'd really like to know how much and what exactly I drank yesterday, because weird fucking things floating before my eyes is not funny!"
He calmed down immediately as it was pretty much obvious that he was cursed, hell knew with what exactly. "Christ..." he snarled.
Maria had winced at that shattering. Since those weird visions could strike her down anytime soon, she got busy swallowing mouthfuls of tea. It didn't go as fast as she wished for because the water was still hot, though.
"As I saw... something, too, I doubt it's connected with your alcohol consumption," she stated calmly, her voice giving a good impression of her pondering. Finally discovering she'd just burn her throat, she put the cup next to her. Intelligence was striking again. And so was curiosity.
"What did you see?"
"I fucking hate burns" he continued to snarl and talked more to himself than to Maria, sceptically looking at his burned hand. "You... had... those 'visions' too? Well, must be a curse, then" he said and sat next to her again, playing around with the shards of the cup in front of him with his feet and trying to figure out what that crap was about. "I uh, think I saw you. In some café with a couple of guys" he finally said, but had enough problems of telling blurry, hectical pictures in words. "Pretty fast and blurry, so... not very helpful."
While he scratched the scar across his eye, he thought about the second vision or whatever it was. "The other was some shooting in a house. No idea, pretty violent and chaotic. I guess you were the girl, but you were definitely younger than you're now. I'm actually not sure and... I have no idea what this is supposed to mean anyways" he finished slightly annoyed. Jyabura was pretty much down to earth and rational, sudden visions that made no sense to him were no things that lightened up his mood.
"A shooting?"
A slightly cold feeling crept up her back. She picked up her teacup again, just to chase the feeling away by warming her fingertips.
"Did you see... did you see someone else? A guy in a black coat with a huge gun? Or another guy with brown hair and rimmed glasses, maybe?"
The invasion. She remembered the noise, the slight fear in the air, spread by the parted family. Vincent taking down one after another in his typical, cold-hearted manner. Pascal unwilling, or even unable to shoot somebody, favouring flight over defense. Fortunately, few guards finally approached and with this assistance, they managed to eliminate the invaders - and a brief time after that, the whole Ticcioni Famiglia.
If Jyabura had seen this, that meant the curse made them... see each other's past, maybe, or each other's memories.
She continued sipping. It felt as if the tea's haze had glued her eyelashes.
Jyabura gave her a surprised gaze. "Yeah. I get the feeling the coat guy's someone you can't really forget that fast." And hey, he had some skills with his gun, he had to admit, though using weapons of any kind wasn't his style at all. "I remember someone with glasses too, so... this actually happened and the girl was you?!" He didn't like this. He didn't like this at all. So he saw pieces of her past? And judging by her reactions and of course, what he've seen, it weren't very cheery memories. But if he saw Maria's past...
"Wait a minute. What did you see?!" Oh dear God, don't let it be something embarassing.
"Yes. It... happened to me. My brothers, both of them."
So they really did see memories. Asking for the reason would have been completely useless. It was just another curse the gods had casted upon them, probably because of sheer boredom. Maria didn't approve of this kind of leisure pursuits - but she highly doubted no one had stepped up at their offices and voiced his resentment about this so far.
"Oh, I saw... a huge gate. And quite a huge interior behind it. You were... a bit younger and..."
For a moment, she paused.
"It's... kinda blurry," she explained then, lying to win some time in which she could phrase the things she saw in a gentle way. In her mind, she went along with the memory, next to it like following a red thread. Pictures flashed, fading. Now that she actually thought of it... A heart on the letter. She fought herself not to snicker.
Well. Some guys got the hang of it, some guys didn't.
"You gave this girl a... letter or something and..." She lost the fight and chuckled a brief moment. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't... I shouldn't laugh," she boldly declared. A goddamn heart.
"Well, she wasn't too exited about it and... you said something about a fucking cat." She shrugged, as if shrugging this incident off.
Helplessly Jyabura ran a hand over his neck and stared at the shards of the cup. He knew it wasn't his fault that the City made him see that stuff, but he didn't like invading her memories like that. "I'm sorry. I guess." he said and he really was, but just wasn't sure if he had to excuse himself for that. Well, he could try to forget about that, at least.
"Gate? Wait, you saw the Tower of Justice?!" he asked her with the most sudden mood change he could come up with. Home sickness striking. That place surely wasn't comfortable, but someone's home was someone's home, right? "That is...!" Awesome?, he wanted to add, but he didn't like what he heard at all. Why in the world would the Goddamned City pick the most embarassing memories out of a collection of much more impressive ones?! He had to give her a offended look when she snickered, but inwardly he didn't really mind. Concerning him and girls, he was used to be made fun of. It was a lot of people's past time in the mentioned tower. Blushing, of course, and clearing his throat he started to pick up the shards. "It's okay. I guess that's better than the stuff I saw. We can talk that out, if you want. If not, I've never seen any of this" he added surprisingly serious.
"Well... It's alright. It happened years ago and I made peace with it."
Almost reassuring, she patted Jyabura's hand when visions broke lose again in her mind, flashing before her inner eye. Even if there is not said to be such thing as an inner ear or... inner sensation organ, at this particular moment, she was pretty sure she owned both of those things anyway.
It started out with bursting walls. A joyous feeling curled her mouth corners upwards, even if it wasn't hers. It was much too sadistic and she knew that; still, it was too strong to abstain from grinning. The smell of blood, though she knew what it meant, seemed almost delicious. A blonde guy sent through a brick wall by a hilariously huge wolf on two legs.
Jyabura.
Seconds of the fight, mere impressions of injuries and destruction. Although she knew what was going on in those visions, all she could think about were the absurdly curled eyebrows of the blonde guy. Seriously, that looks gay, she inwardly remarked before even noticing what she was thinking about there.
More blood. Suddenly, there was a surprised feeling, just before a massive block of frustration hit her, coupled with quite an amount of anger. The wolf was burnt all over - he had lost the fight. She was feeling all of that like her own emotions, however, it seemed strangely distant. Both the alien and her own feelings.
Within a wink, Maria regained her connection with reality and started to feel guilty of what she was thinking immediately. You can't get used to seeing such things, she commanded herself, but obviously, you could. Even if you didn't see a fight in this... dimensions before.
"I... I think," she slowly started, bewilderedly blinking a few times, "I just got a... good impression of your job."
"If you say so" he answered timely before she seemed to be stuck in any kind of memory again. Goodness, this time it's better something impressive, he thought and grasped her hand.
Curiously he raised his eyebrows as she seemed to be back again, but he didn't know what exactly to think of it. "My job? Oh...!" Well, thinking about it a bit longer, it didn't seem too good. Not after he just had invaded her memory of some bloody massacre. No idea what to say, he squeezed her hand irritated. "Weird curse, isn't it? If you don't like me seeing those things or getting more impressions of my job, maybe we should stay away from each other for today" he recommended, but it was obvious he didn't like the idea.
Maria hesitated.
"I actually don't mind," she then explained. "Neither you seeing my memories, nor..."
Again, she paused for a short moment, just to continue with a lowered voice, as if she was ashamed of that:
"... nor seeing you... doing your job."
She emptied her cup to distract herself briefly.
"It's not really different to the fights I encountered back in my world. The quantity of destruction was much bigger in your world, but it's the same idea, actually."
Though she didn't like the idea of people eradicating each other, she grew up with it. It seemed to be an terrific idea to get used to such things. However, there were reasons behind it almost all the time. Reasons which often weren't airtight. But the ethics she knew, Maria had discovered, sometimes were a bit too simplistic to apply them at life.
"And it's the past anyway."
In confusion he tilted his head sidewards a bit. That didn't sound very good. In whatever sense of good. He stared at her hand and continued to squeeze it awkwardly, like one of those little stress balls you get in office. "Is it because I um, I'm from the government?" he asked her, though Maria's explanation that followed pretty much left that choice out.
Past? Maybe what she saw happened in the past. But he'll always stay a killer. And even though he denied it, some other side of him would enjoy killing people. At least those that deserved death by his morals. "I didn't do any other thing in my entire life" he started to explain, or even to excuse himself. "I'm not even capable of doing anything else good than... killing people. I don't even know if I want it" he admitted.
"Now, now. Don't you underestimate yourself."
Maria put the emptied cup next to her to raise a finger and point the fingertip at Jyabura's nose.
"Killing isn't the only thing you're effective at." I could name one, she continued in her mind, but if I'm assessing you correctly, it would make you blush hardly.
"Besides, if there's something you're not good at, take the time to learn it. I mean, in this City, you can't tell me you ain't got some time on your hands." Her fingertip gently touched his nose's tip before she withdrew it.
"Something that interests you. Even things that don't seem useful at all are pretty handy if you're doing well at them. And with enough practice, you'll sure do well at them. It's not like you can't learn anything new. Back in my world, they even made money with the silliest hobbies."
She flashed a smile which, as she kept talking, morphed to half a smirk.
"If you don't want to do it alone... I was taught to dance Tango by my brother. I could teach you."
Jyabura watched her rather unbelieving and, to say at least, not very persuaded. He never even thought of that. If you can't serve your 'natural' purpose, search for a new one. His purpose was to kill people the Government wanted to see dead. There aren't just any alternatives. That's what he was born and lived for. Not doing that made him pretty much a worthless tool.
Still, that made him think. Something that interested him. Yeah, well, he liked gardens. Not gardening itself, that's just something a goddamned elite assassin doesn't do, but... gardens and plants and... That was pretty much it. He scratched the scar across his eye, just a synonyme for 'I do not wish to say what I think', a common trademark of his oh so open body language. "I really don't know if this is a good idea, but yeah, with no one from my Government around, I don't have something useful to do" he finally said and ignored the fact that Lucci was in the City, too. Not that he would ever do a thing the fucking cat told him to do. 'Boss' or not, Jyabura had his limits. Very clear limits.
The scratching again, then an intense execration with a shoked gaze at Maria. Not that he had the slightest fucking idea what Tango was, but dancing? DANCING?! He could as well clamp a piece of paper with 'I AM FUCKING GAY!' on his forehead instead! That was just...! HELL no! "W-WHAT?" he yelled as if Maria told him that he had to take dancing lessons with Lucci best! "I-I reaaaaally don't think his is a g-good idea!" stuttered and raised his palms in front of him. "N-not at all!"
"Yes," Maria said calmly and looked at Jyabura with a serious look on her face, "when my brother was told he had to learn Tango, he went exactly like that."
She hesitated.
"Well, not exactly, but it's close. He was a bit louder and waved about more."
To symbolise the importance of the following point, she raised her finger.
"But then he was told it's a fabulous, foolproof way to get into a chick's pants. What can I say, he already had sex at an earlier age than me. And I wasn't exactly... virtuous back then." The last point was added with a lowered voice and subsequent to that, Maria cleared her throat.
The wolf wasn't really convinced yet. However, he decided to shut up about his own former love life. It wasn't exactly all too normal and a former curse before he lost his memories made him spill out the entire story. Lucky he couldn't remember this day anymore. And lucky Maria wasn't in the City by that point. The whip-story? Oh hell no, the next memory the City let her invade better didn't include this one...
"Ah... is that so?" he asked her canting and scratched his chin. "I always thought dancing makes a guy look gay. Really, really gay, you know?" Well, he still thought that way. And probably always will. "But if that helps to um, what you called it? 'Getting into a chick's pants', right? How practical! There's that certain chick, you know..." he continued and played around with his fingers the most pseudo-shy way someone was just able to imagine. He had masterfull skills in being embarassed, but faking it just didn't work the same way.
"Gay?"
Maria had a really amused look on her face. That sounded too familiar. But she fought the smile bothering her face to look dignified again. She still had a job to do, no?
"I guess you never saw Tango, then. It's all about passion and dominance. And it's highly sexual."
She took a look at her nails and pondered. Most probably, he didn't ever see one of those cheesy movies where a guy teaches a girl to dance. She asked herself if it'd work the other way round, too.
"That's quite a coincidence. I also know a 'certain chick'... who'd be really enchanted to teach you. We might actually mean the same one"
She gave Jyabura a glance from the side and raised an eyebrow.
Now that raised his interest. "Except for the 'sexual'-thing, it sounds a bit like fighting" he explained and got up, but crossed his arms. Still not entirely convinced, it seemed. But he managed to put on a bashful grin. Dominance? Interesting. For someone as extremely competitive as him, that was quite the catchword for action to prove exactly that. Well, maybe the 'highly sexual' sounded a bit alluring too. Maybe. But just a bit, seriously.
He leaned against the banister of the veranda and randomly looked into whatever Xanadu had to offer his eyes. Looks like someone found a new tactic of hiding all those idiotic blushes. "Well, if we really mean the same girl, you better tell her to start her lessons soon, otherwise... I just might lose my interest. But then... I doubt that there will ever be some kind of loss of interest towards a lady like her" he continued with an insecure voice and made sure there was no one even close to their house. And least the stupid Francis cat who'd just tell the network about their dancing lessons.
A smile was provoked by this too cute confession. Slightly flattered, Maria focussed on the green before her eyes. It was a nice feeling, having someone after interested in you who was not a complete moron. Because Maria already had had enough of those.
"As far as I am concerned, this certain girl does have a lot of free time on her hands anyway, so you guys could pretty much start whenever you want to."
Cautiously, she uprised, fiddling about with her fingers behind her back.
"Even right now. Though there is the music missing... and usually, one gets dressed fancy for tango."
Jyabura turned around to face Maria. So she was serious? Damn. Too late to get out of the whole affair now. He looked down at himself. Well, 'fancy' wasn't the right word. But those martial arts dresses he usually wore (and usually highly against the rules of wearing them properly...) at least had something dignified. As for her dress - 'total approval' described it quite good. But then, in his opinion, she could wear fucking anything and still outpretty any other girl in the City.
"Don't know what's about me, but I think you're fancy enough" he admitted shyly but couldn't avoid some a bit too 'interested' look. Dayum, girl. Do you just have to walk around in those half-transparent stuff?, he thought to himself with a slight feeling of unease. Directly followed by 'Why the hell are you even complaining?'
"So um, shall we dance?"
"Sure."
After a swift look at Jyabura, Maria came closer and grabbed his hands at first.
"But it might be not too easy. Because usually, the male leads at tango."
As she couldn't quite tug him closer energetically for he was simply too buff, she pushed closer to him instead, looked up into his face with a slightly grim facial expression. He was right. Tango was, in most parts, like fighting. Like rhythmical, passionate fighting. With some castanets in the background.
"I shall invalidate the role models at first," she explained. And inwardly, she added:
At certain areas, maybe you should get used to that.
"I learn quickly" he managed to say just before it got more and more interesting. Like in reaaally interesting. The first thought that popped up in his mind was why the heck he wasted his life learning fighting and killing when gay stuff like dancing was so much more fun. Like in reaaaal fun.
He didn't reply with anything, but his facial expression was obviously enough telling Maria that he didn't mind anything she was up to, though he also was pretty insecure about the whole thing. Or maybe didn't dare to fully approve of it. "Hey Miss, you're the teacher. And as a good scholar, I'm fine with anything."