tampered | Log; Ongoing

When; July 26th, Mid-afternoon
Rating; PG-ish
Characters; Jowy

sisknowsbest
Summary; He survived the encounter with Riou, now Jowy just needs to survive an encounter with Nanami!
Log;

Subtlety was never really one of Nanami's strengths, and most certainly not now as she tore through the city, dodging snowballs and jumping snowdrifts on her way to the dojo, but the sense of urgency was merited. Jowy, after being more or less a hermit since his arrival nearly a month ago, had finally deemed fit to show himself, and Nanami had jumped at the opportunity, difficult as it was. After hurriedly throwing on her winter gear, which had been packed away since she had believed they wouldn't be needing it for awhile, she had flown out the door to make the familiar trek from the apartment to the dojo.

It would no doubt be a difficult encounter, she was still used to the Jowy she knew back home, who had long since made amends with Riou and had more or less returned to the easy-going friendship the three of them had shared since childhood, before the war had made things complicated. This Jowy, however, came from before the war ended. Before they had all made amends and set off on their journey to see the world. He was still under the impression that she had died from that arrow wound in Rockaxe, and she didn't particularly want to explain that again, but if he was going to insist that she couldn't possibly be alive, she really had no choice. She just needed to keep calm and explain things rationally.

Of course, as she neared the dojo, all thoughts of subtlety and rationalism were forgotten. She'd tackle him the moment she saw him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jowy paused as he examined himself in the mirror. He'd chosen to don the clothes he'd been wearing the day he was taken from his world. He'd gotten new clothing, of course, since he couldn't possibly have survive a month on one set of clothing alone, but something told him it'd only be right to meet Nanami - dead or not- in that particular set of clothing. Maybe he wanted to look as intimidating as he could, maybe he wanted to underline that he was still that friend who betrayed them...

Maybe he was over thinking things again. Placing a hand on the mirror, he sighed, and ultimately leaned against its cold surface. Nothing much had made sense ever since he came to this place. And, he knew, nothing would until he actually tried to make sense of things instead of hiding away and passing his days alone.

Sighing again, Jowy stepped away from the mirror and walked towards his bedside, where he'd left his sword. He still wasn't as skilled in swordsmanship as he'd like- Culgan and Seed had certainly tried their hardest to train him with it when they had time to spare, but he'd spent most of his youth training with a quarterstaff rather than a sword and it was nigh impossible to change masteries so late in life - but admittedly, the sword brought him more comfort than his quarterstaff these days. Luca Blight hadn't wasted any time to drill it into his head how useless his staffs were against sharpened swords.

Shaking his head angrily for losing himself in thought, Jowy picked up his sword and quietly strapped it to his waist. He'd do better making good time for Xanadu instead of bemoaning the life he'd been forced to live in the past few months and ultimately wasting time.

It was a lot colder outside than he'd anticipated; he thought he'd probably miscalculated when he checked the temperature out in his apartment's balcony or it had gotten colder on the way to Xanadu. Still, the cold provided him something to think about as he walked alone, ignoring the people obviously enjoying the cold weather.

He couldn't find any reason for him to enjoy it.

Nanami paced restlessly just inside the entrance to the dojo, glancing anxiously out at the snow every once in awhile for any sign of her friend. A bit of unease nagged at her mind as she unwittingly remembered Jowy's behavior during the war, and if he truly believed she should be dead...

She stopped short as she remembered the curse day several months before where Riou had believed that he had killed Jowy and that she should be dead. When Riou had almost... She shook her head. That wasn't worth remembering, it had turned out all right in the end, after all and since Riou had already met up with Jowy upon his arrival and had returned unscathed, that could only mean there wasn't the same animosity between them as she had last seen at Rockaxe...

A bit of movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and sure enough, there was Jowy. He was wearing that set of clothing she had hoped to never see again, but it was Jowy nonetheless. Without a moment's hesitation, she dashed out the door and into the snow to meet him, with all intentions of bowling him over if he didn't dodge quickly.

"Ah! Jowy!" she called as she made her fast approach.

Seeing Nanami very much alive, well, and running dangerously fast towards him helped ease some of the tension, and other black thoughts, inside Jowy. It didn't do much in the way of lightening his mood, but it certainly helped him brace himself for the impact he knew was about to come, instead of comfortably side-stepping his supposedly-dead friend.

By not dodging, Jowy sealed his fate...or was that doom? as Nanami had no issues with flinging herself at him, different timeline be damned, and hugging him with a death-like grip.

"Jowy Jowy Jowy," she prattled off excitedly, but didn't pause to give him a chance to respond before she continued. "How are you? Are you all right? Have you been eating well? Sleeping enough? I missed you! Don't hide like that again!"

"I wasn't... hiding," Jowy muttered in response. Nanami felt real, felt warm and alive. There was no disputing that fact anymore. Despite that, Jowy couldn't help but think it was all so surreal still.

"I guess," he said after a while in a slightly sarcastic tone. "You are alive."

The sarcasm wasn't lost on her, and she backed off to narrow her eyes at her friend. Taller than her or not, she started poking him.

"Ehh? What's with that tone? Of course I've alive! Do I look dead to you?" Her tone and mannerisms were those of familiarity, and as far as she was concerned, they could put what happened during the war behind them and go on being friends here, just as they had done back home.

If that meant beating some sense into her two most precious people, she really had no problem with that. There was no reason to carry on like that in the City, but then again, Riou and Jowy were awfully stubborn.

If it had been him before the war, Nanami's actions would have undoubtedly brought an amused smile to his face. But Jowy had changed, seen too much ( including her supposed death), and was only able to smile in a slightly pained manner.

This Nanami was definitely the Nanami he remembered.

"No, you don't look dead," he said honestly. "But I still can't understand how you're here. I was pretty sure you'd died then."

For a moment she paused just to stare at Jowy and his obviously forced smile with narrowed eyes. Well, he hadn't threatened to kill her or called her a fake or something (although her mind briefly flickered to how much Riou would love to hear about something like that), so they were already a huge step up from Nanami's worst case scenario, but far from the sort of scenario she really wanted.

But that wouldn't stop her, of course. She resumed poking him as she nonchalantly replied, "I already told you that that arrow didn't kill me! Dr. Huan was able to save me in time and now here I am! Safe and sound!"

Once again the poking stopped so Nanami could back off and give her friend a bright smile.

"And I'm crushed that you aren't happier to see me," she said with a wave of a finger.

"I'm sorry..." Jowy apologized quickly; and he really was sorry he couldn't be happier that Nanami was alive. "It's... still a surprise to me."

He avoided Nanami's eyes carefully, not quite of how he'd hold up if he faced her directly.

"But..." he said after a while, a short pause for thought. "It's good... that you're alive."

Not willing to let him get away with that, Nanami leaned forward to try to catch his gaze.

"Staying cooped up won't do you any good, Jowy! Let's have some fun, okay?"

Their gazes locked for a moment, before Jowy uneasily broke the eye contact. He didn't agree with Nanami's idea of making things better, but he also knew arguing with Nanami would get him nowhere. At least, he thought in consolation, this Nanami was happy.

"I'll try," he said simply, and smiled forcibly, though his eyebrows furrowed just a bit. It didn't feel right, but he was willing to go with the flow, and to see where it would take him.

By then Nanami was already kneeling in the snow and packing it into a tight ball, which she then chucked towards Jowy's face.

"Think fast, Jowy!" she yelled and then retreated a short distance away to start forming another snowball.

Ah!

Jowy didn't have much time to actually dodge the first snowball, and he was left with a cold and reddened face by that, but he was determined to dodge the next one.

"That's not--" he began to say as he was barely able to dodge the second snowball. If Nanami was hoping to cheer him up by burying him in cold snow, then... she was hopeless, Jowy thought.

"Don't make me throw back," he said simply, though he knew Nanami was not likely to stop.

"That's the point!" Nanami called back as she continued her onslaught of snowballs. Of course, it was her plan to cheer him up, or at least get him to drop the poker face and sincerely smile, with a snowball fight, and if he planned to just take it, well...snowman Jowy would be pretty funny, too.

"Unless you're afraid you'll lo~ose," she teased in a sing-song voice as she tossed another snowball at his head.

Log; Ongoing

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject