Jungle Fever [Closed]

The last two weeks of Kyohei Takano's life were filled with frustration. A new addition to his travels was making sure that his life was miserable and she wasn't letting up. Annerose was nothing more than a pain in Kyohei's side, so he made sure to get his revenge whenever he could. She was pretty much stalking him and he only tolerated that because of the massive guilt trip she constantly laid on him, even though the situation wasn't his fault. She was a selfish brat who thought the world revolved around her, so he made sure that her world was hell on this hot day. They were walking through the forest and heading south. They hadn't reached Zakat yet, but were getting closer to White Water than Annerose knew. Kyohei had been happily avoiding the small villages and any main roads too. If she was going to be this bitchy and make him carry her shit, he wasn't going to let her be happy either.

And now, Annerose and Kyohei were traveling through the hot and humid jungle between White Water and Varedia. He was close to being rid of this woman, so that was good, but he wasn't going to make anything easy on her. In fact, her constant complaining wasn't making his revenge as sweet as he thought it would be. "You are such a pain in the ass! I don't care whether your feet hurt or whether you're itchy or... or... or whether you're hair is messed up. We'll get there when we get there." he yelled, looking back at her over his shoulder, "You bitching like a five year old brat isn't going to get us there faster, you stupid girl!" Kyohei sighed and looked forward again. This wasn't worth it at all. He had tried to ditch her a few times, but the chick was just so helpless. She'd be dead at this point, though her reaction to bugs was hilarious! "You've got another one of those spiders on your head."

"Of course you don't care. You don't care about anyone but yourself; that much is obvious." Kyohei smirked and laughed as she reacted to the spider that wasn't there. "Yeah, it was funny to me, so..." Kyohei shrugged and looked up to the trees. Her voice was grating on him. As she whined, he began mouthing 'blah, blah, blah' until she shut up. "Oh shut up. I'm probably doing the people back at your home a favor. Keep pissing me off and I'll leave you in the middle of the jungle to deal with the snakes and shit on your own." And that's when Kyohei realized she dropped her bags. This was his chance. She wouldn't leave these things behind, so he smiled, dropped the bags this bitch was forcing him to carry and darted off through the jungle. "See ya, you spoiled rotten brat!" he yelled back through the jungle as he vanished from her sight. After knowing he was about one hundred yards away from her, he climbed a tree and sat to relax in silence. "Finally..." he said with a sigh, "Some peace and quiet."

Kyohei was able to enjoy the silence for a bit more, but soon that same voice crawled it's way inside of his ear. He opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow, looking down to see her struggling. He rolled his eyes at the guilt he felt. He didn't want to feel bad for someone like her, but watching her like this was making that happen. He stayed silent, originally going to allow her to just walk passed him, but then she fell. He winced, clenching his teeth when she fell. He saw her bag just fall everywhere and sighed. He was going to give in, wasn't he? He tried to dissuade himself by thinking of all the harassment and annoyance he had received and felt since they met, but then she started crying and god damn it...

Kyohei hit the back of his head on the tree trunk, but not hard enough to hurt him. He slid down the tree and landed with a thud right next to her. "Come on..." he said with a defeated tone, "Let's get your stuff up." Kyohei began helping her clean up her clothes and packing them back up. Since he had originally ditched her, he expected to be yelled at again and was just waiting for it to happen.

There was the briefest moment where Kyohei thought there was a change in Annerose, but that shifted with another one of her fits. "Okay, you know what... Stop." Kyohei put a hand up to her and set her now packed back down to the side, "You listen for once. You have been doing nothing but complaining, whining, groaning, and bitching since I met you. You wanna know why we're out here? Because I enjoy hearing you just as miserable as you make me. Yes, there were roads to White Water, but why the hell would I make things easier for you when all you do is make sure I am miserable. You are nothing more than a spoiled rotten brat who thinks the world revolves around them. Guess what, it doesn't. No wonder no one likes you. This..." he pointed to her bags and then to her again, "This is why no one returns after leaving. You chase them all away with your selfish and uppity attitude. You are the epitome of the inconsiderate rich kid that everyone hates, but uses because of the money. Is that the only way you get people to stick around? You pay them? Do you even have friends? What about family; is your attitude why they sent your ass away? Do they even want you back? I can't imagine so, because unless you change something about yourself, the way you treat people, and the way you look at the world, not a damn person on this planet will ever give a true damn about anything more than the money you buy them off with." He stopped and stared at her with strangely wide eyes, "Get it, yet?"

"That's stupid." Kyohei let her rant just like she let him, but her reply was both unexpected and a little annoying. "You're right, if no one there likes you, why go back? You don't need to. I don't stay anywhere I'm not wanted, so you should do the same, but... There is one problem you have and you need to get over it." Kyohei went over and stood in front of her, his hands on his hips, "This woe is me attitude needs to go. If you want friends, you need to learn how to treat them. You and I met through an accident and the first thing you did was start yelling at me and talking about your own selfish wants and needs. You didn't even care whether I had hurt myself. It's understandable, you didn't know me, but that was the first time I realized you were nothing more than a brat. I was right."

"Anna, you have every ability to make friends and get people to care about you, but it's a two way street. You need to give as much as you get. If you want to be treated nicely, then you have to treat people like that. You say there is no point in changing; that's bullshit and you know it. You're being lazy. You want the world to go your way and it won't. People that weren't born with a silver spoon stuck up their ass fight for happiness and comfort day after day. They don't yell at the people that are helping them. They don't complain all the time over shit others can't control. And they definitely don't treat people like pack mules just because they can. You want a good friend, make yourself one first. And by that I mean..." he leaned down and got in her face, glaring at her in annoyance "CHANGE."

Kyohei actually felt bad for her. He had his share of hard times, but he didn't dwell on them too much. However, there was this pretty girl right here that needed his help. She even offered him a meal and a bath once they got to her place. That was a hard thing to answer. Truth be told, Kyohei wasn't planning on leaving Arcadia and she had pretty much said why he didn't want to. She hated Arcadia, feared Arcana, which pretty much made him assume she hated Arcanists as well. They kind of go hand and hand with each other.  Kyohei sighed and shook his head. Should he tell her that now? Later? When she was getting on the boat to Zakat? Kyohei groaned in frustration, but it wasn't aimed at her. "Okay, so let's try this. If you stop acting the way you've been acting, I'll stop making you miserable."

"And Anna... I get it, okay? I do. I never had any real friends and people were always scared of me. The fact that you weren't is weird!" Kyohei threw his arms in the air and rolled his eyes, "You say you're scared of Arcana and stuff, then why the hell do you have me with you?" He grabbed his hair, pulled his lips apart to show his fangs, and then pointed at his eyes. "Do you think this stuff is normal? It's not! Arcana did this to me, duh. If you're so scared, why be with me? Why follow me? Why even trust me to take you to the right place? What if I told you that right now, we weren't even near White Water? What if I said we had gone in the exact opposite direction and I'm leading  you off as my virgin sacrifice? Hm?" Kyohei stopped, took a deep breath, and let that sink in to her for a moment.

"Life isn't perfect, people aren't perfect, and many people just suck, but there are a lot of people, including in Arcadia, that are nice. I... haven't met many of them, but they're there..." he looked to the ground and a sorrowed expression came on his face, "They... have to be, right?" Kyohei sounded more hopeful then, like he was hoping what he believed was true over having actual evidence. Like he was asking her if what he was saying is true. In reality, it was something he was hunting for too.

Kyohei glanced to her hand when his shoulder was touched. He kicked a little at the dirt when her question came too. "Because! You're a girl." he quickly realized that sounded weird. "I mean... Ugh." he ruffled his own messy hair and paced for a moment, "You can't be alone. I mean, you shouldn't be out here alone. I'm used to it, but out here things can get bad and at least I can use my abilities to defend myself and..." He motioned at her, signifying he could protect her too, "You know... I mean, you're a girl." Kyohei looked away from her and stared at the ground, "You said you were gonna stick with me, so I thought that you'd be nice to me... I thought that if you got to know me you'd be my friend, but then you were always angry! You were always yelling and complaining and mad at me!" Kyohei began talking with his hands, tossing them from left to right, in the air, making different motions to signify what he was saying. "You were just mean and I left because I thought it was pointless and came back because I was the reason you were out here. I didn't want to just leave you like that... Nobody's that heartless! Even some demon thing like me..." Kyohei kicked at dirt again.

Hearing her apology made Kyohei smile a bit. He nodded to acknowledge it. Then she brought up his appearance. His face hardened a bit, like he was waiting for her to say something mean. It was something he was used to, so it wouldn't bother him to much. What she did say wasn't mean, or nice, or... What the hell did she just say? When she leaned in, he stood his ground, but it didn't stop his cheeks from shifting to red. And then... "Did you just compare me to a lizard?" Kyohei didn't know how to take it. He wasn't mad or anything like that. He was just stuck. "I mean... I guess that's better than a demon. At least you think lizards are cute, so that's a bonus." Kyohei scratched shyly at the side of his head, looking off into the jungle. She thought his eyes were cool, awesome! "You're the first to say anything like that... besides some of the kids who say 'oh cool a monster'." Kyohei sighed at that and rubbed the back of his head. "And sorry for being such a pain... Can we just be fri-..."

The conversation was halted by the sound of very sudden thunder. It was already getting dark and there was a sudden temperature drop. "What the hell?" Kyohei sniffed the air and looked around. He looked to Annerose and noticed the outfit she was wearing. "That's all you've got to wear right now, isn't it?" Kyohei looked around for some sort of shelter. "Shit, shit... Uh... There's a storm coming, a pretty bad one too. We need to find a place to lay low until it dies down, otherwise we could get hurt out here." Kyohei grabbed her bags, this time taking three of them, and then began leading her through the foliage. "If you see a cave of some sort, tell me. We need to find it fast." he said as thunder hit.

Kyohei led the way to the best of his abilities. The terrain wasn't the funnest or easiest to get through. Annerose saw a shelter before he did and jerked him in that direction. The two hurried over and Kyohei was able to make it dry. She, however, was not. Kyohei set her bags down where they'd stay dry and looked over to her. "Those clothes... They're soaked now and it's getting colder. Are you going to be okay like that?" Kyohei asked with legitimate concern. Most men would be on the perverted side, check her out, and hope she'd have to cuddle up. If not, they'd be paying attention to whether her nipples got hard. Kyohei, however, was doing the exact same thing. He hadn't been this close to a girl before. Well, not in this manner at least. He'd met women, but none of them would he have gotten a chance to get close to. He couldn't help but be a little curious and imagine someone like her getting naked.

Luckily, he had recently gained a bit more respect for her. "Here." he pulled off the black cloak he always wore and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was very warm, but not just because of the fabric. Kyohei was a fire Arcanist after all. His body heat was above normal, so the cloak had warmed up like coming freshly out of a dryer. "We'll have to wait here until the storm dies down." As if on queue, the thunder sounded and lightning crashed. The rain suddenly kicked in even more, crashing down like a dam had been released. The wind picked up and so Kyohei pulled Annerose to the back of the rock formation. "This... isn't good." he said while looking around. Visibility was pretty damn low.

Kyohei turned away when he was asked. Once he was able to look again, he did. He didn't even know what she had done. Sure, Kyohei was technically stating the obvious, but did she have to be so sarcastic about it? Kyohei thought things were going a bit better, but seeing her roll her eyes changed his mind. He didn't say anything. He just stared at her for a moment and then walked to the opposite end of their shelter. He sat down at the edge where the rain couldn't reach and just looked out at the rain. He said nothing again when she asked about her own luck, but when a question was directed at him, he spoke up. "I'm fine." was all he said and he didn't sound happy. He didn't understand this woman or the attitude she always had. "Just get some sleep. I'll wake you when the storm passes."

Kyohei was able to sit in silence for a while. Annerose fell asleep and he was just sitting there enjoying the sound of the rain. The wind was making this less comfortable. The sound of the wind through the forest was a little frightening. Kyohei could hear cracking branches and wouldn't be surprised if a few trees fell. He was brought out of his relaxed state by Annerose's voice. He looked over to her and saw her teeth chattering. "A fire will be blown out easily." he said as thunder crashed again. There was something relaxing about a storm. It was terrifying, but not so much so that Kyohei feared it. He stood up and walked over to her. "If you're that cold, you're gonna have to deal with it." he said as he sat down. He swooped her up and placed her into his lap. His body was naturally warm, very warm. It was like using a heated blanket or having your own personal heater. "Now, go back to sleep."

That squeak was cute as hell. Kyohei held back a chuckle. Something poking her? Kyohei was utterly confused by that. He blushed as she snuggled into him and then smiled. "Yeah, comes with the territory, I guess." He watched her fall asleep on him and just smiled. There was something nice about this. He had a pretty girl sleeping in his lap. The storm raged on for a few hours, but luckily, Kyohei was able to sleep. He woke up as the storm stopped and the sun raised. Annerose was still asleep so he looked around for something. He grabbed a small branch and poked her with it. He kept poking her until she woke up. He was curious as to what she was going to do when she woke up because something was poking her. When she did wake up, he just smiled widely and laughed. "Mornin' Anna. You ready to go?" Kyohei'd help her up and go to her bags. Most of them had gotten wet, but one was pretty dry. He'd carry the wet ones. "Alright, I know the way to a road from here, so it'll make the trip much easier. Let's get you home." And with that, the two continued their trip to White Water.