[fic snippet] WiP: Fairey Tale AU
Jan. 16th, 2004 08:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ickaimpWe're, like, 2 scenes from the ending, and Hakuba's not co-operating with us, the prat. And it's his turn for POV. Although Mati and Ysabet smacking him around with a mallet and a fish the other night helped a great deal. ^__^
... and still can't find the chibi-sketch of the frying pan scene. M'bummed.
It had taken him most of the day, and several close misses, but he had finally tracked his prey to its lair. Ironically enough, it was by following the scent of fresh baked cookies.
That tended to stand out when one was in the middle of the forest and the nearest village was a several hours trip in the other direction. Funny thing that.
Watson made a chirp of encouragement, sensing his own eagerness. With a practiced motion, he pulled the hood off the hawk's head and tossed her in the air. Powerful wings beat, sending the bird of prey higher into the air. He grinned, slipping off his heavy leather glove and tucking it into his belt before grabbing his bow and stringing it.
His prey remained oblivious to this as it hummed, walking through the forest with a bounce gait, tail waving like a banner. Perfect.
The bow creaked as he fitted an arrow to it, a familiar sound, and a comforting one. Watson screamed her battle cry above him, before diving down with blinding speed, her talons bared. The deamon let out a startled squawk, falling to the side and rolling. In a flash, it was running on four legs, the handle of basket it had been carrying firmly held in its teeth.
Watson gave a shriek of disappointment as she flew back up into the air, following it. He gave a low curse, firing his arrow before giving chase. Again.
This was the fourth time today that he'd lost the accursed deamon in the forest. Dusk was approaching now, and he did not care to lose it a fifth. He could swear that it was playing with him, just to be annoying.
He followed the bouncing tail like a beacon through the trees, only to loose it at the base of the mountain. He growled, an annoyed sound low in his throat as he paused his frantic dash, looking for signs of where it might have disappeared to.
Watson gave a cry, swooping down to land on the branch of a tree, then fluffed her feathers in an annoyed manner. He approached her, eyes scanning the area, finding no sign of the monster. Then he spotted what appeared to be one shadow among many in the fading light and grinned. The entrance to it's lair.
Perfect.
With a nod of thanks to his hawk, he stealthily followed, slipping into the shadows. He would not allow the monster to get away with the atrocities that it had. He could not, upon his honour.
He went slowly, allowing his eyes to adjust to the near-total darkness even as his ears found the faint sound of singing. A light glowed ahead and he followed it, into cavern over twice his height, illuminated by the light from another cavern off to the side.
The deamon was there, sneaking towards the light with a fiendish grin on its face. There wasn't quite enough room to safely use arrows, so he set his bow aside and unsheathed the short sword that rested along his thigh.
Unfortunately, this garnered the deamon's attention, causing it to turn around and spot him. "Yipe!"
It was gone in a flash, bouncing off the wall to the other side of the cavern. He gave chase, following it around the room as it jumped around like a deranged rabbit. It changed appearance as it did so, the tail vanishing as he swung to hit it, growing wings to glide to the upper part of the cave, claws disappearing and reappearing. it kept up a linage of amusing sounds as it did so, one second like a pissed off chicken, the next like a stepped on cat, sometimes screaming in what sounded like mortal terror.
It landed in a crouch in front of the brightly lit cavern, eyes wide as he charged at it. A roar like a pissed off bear came from behind it and it jumped.
Hakuba never saw the flying frying pan as it hit him in the head with a resounding clang.
+++
"Kaito?!" Aoko roared as she stepped out of the kitchen, a rolling pin held in one clenched fist. She looked around, fire burning in her blue eyes.
"Yo! Aoko!" Kaito dropped down in front of her, all lanky limbs and grins. "I got the nuts you wanted!"
She blew the hair out of her face, making a rude sound as she did so. "What was all that rack- oh." She blinked, looking down at the unconscious man at her feet. "Who's this?"
"Dunno." He shrugged. "Kinda cute though. He followed me home, can I keep him?" He grinned playfully at her.
"Kaito..."
"Yeah, yeah." He waved it off, becoming a fraction more serious. "Think he might be a poacher?"
"Not in that armour." She grumbled, motioning to the bits of armour and weaponry the unconscious blonde carried. Too much metal for a normal hunter, not enough for a fully armoured knight. "Honestly Kaito, you have no sense of self preservation."
Kaito simply grinned at her, causing her to roll her eyes. She should know better by now, really she should. He'd been like this for years.
"So what do we do with him?" He crouched down and idly poked the comatose blond. "He's gonna be out for a while. Good arm, by the way."
"Thanks." The lump on his head was an impressive size, if she did say so herself. She shrugged. "Toss him on the guest bed until he wakes up, I guess."
"Then..." He gave a small grunt as he casually stood up, the taller blond draped over him. She forgot sometimes, just how strong he could be when he wanted to. "Where are you going to sleep?"
"On your bed. We can't have him falling out of it and hurting himself, now can we?"
He frowned at her, eyes flickering to his 'nest', hidden a the flat shelf near the top of the roof of the main room. "Then where am -I- going to sleep?!"
She crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. An eyebrow rose back at her before realization flashed. She shrugged. "Well, someone's got to keep an eye on him." She retorted. "And you brought him here."
Violet eyes rolled. "Fine, fine. Whatever." He grumbled good naturedly as he carried their guest to the small side cave that made up the guest room.
Aoko smiled at her best friends retreating back. He really was such a goofball sometimes.
+++
Hakuba was aware of the drift to consciousness.
For one thing, it was very painful. His head ached like it had just been run over by a full parade on horseback.
He was also missing his armour and a great deal of weaponry. Not to mention some clothing. At least he still had his shirt and pants.
And there was a warm presence to the right of him that didn't quite make sense. With a giant effort, he cracked open one eye and took a look.
First thing he saw was a nest of tousled brown hair. Somehow he got the impression that it wasn't a farm animal. For one thing, where ever he was didn't stink nearly enough like one.
Shifting his head down, he found an pixish face lax with sleep below the wild strands of hair. An alluring bed mate to wake up to, certainly, but completely unexplained.
He really hoped this wasn't like the time with the travelling acrobat, the cat and the haystack at that one tavern near school...
A short scream followed by a loud 'thud' came from outside his vision, startling his companion. With a jaw-splitting yawn the brunet sat up, long pointed ears unfurling like sails along the sides of their head.
Hakuba screamed, sitting up and scooting back as far as he could before he hit the wall.
The creature screamed, falling off the bed.
Someone screamed from the doorway.
There was a lot of screaming going on.
"WHY ARE WE SCREAMING?!" A brown-haired girl shouted, waving her arms as she burst into the room.
Hakuba stopped screaming.
"He started it!" An accusing finger rose from somewhere around the floor to point at him.
"Did not." He shot back, trying to maintain his dignity while clinging to the wall like a paranoid monkey.
"Did too!" The tousled brown hair appeared next to the accusatory hand, violet eyes glaring at him. "And I landed on my tail!"
The girl rolled her eyes, tossing her hands up as if beseeching the unseen for patience. "Then why did you grow one?!"
"Thought I was falling out of MY bed." The boy, for it looked kind of like a boy up close, grumbled as he stood up and brushed off his pants. He turned, trying to glance at his rear. "Does it look bruised to you?" He asked Hakuba conversationally.
"Er.." He couldn't really see anything past the loose tunic that covered him to about mid-thigh. He blinked, pieces of his memory falling into place. "You!" He waved his finger. "Deamon! I'm here to vanquish you!!"
Purple eyes looked at him innocently. "Eh? What did I do?"
"Kidnapped the Sheriff's Daughter!" He glanced frantically around for his sword, or any of his other weaponry.
"I Left A Note!" The girl shouted, looking very annoyed. "Even pinned it to the kitchen table so he could FIND it! Sheesh!"
"With a knife?" He questioned sceptically, un-tensing slightly.
She shrugged. "What else am I going to use?"
"A rock?" The deamon reached over to familiarly rap the top of her head with a knuckle. "Hello?"
"Okay! So I got kidnapped by Bandits that One Time." She ranted. "ONE TIME! And I got myself back, just fine!"
"Had them begging for mercy too." The deamon added off-handily. "She's GOOD with household appliances. How's the head by the way?"
"Uh.." He rubbed the bump on his forehead. It hurt, but nothing crippling. "Okay?"
"Sorry about that." The girl apologised, cheeks turning red with embarrassment. "I thought you were Kaito, trying to steal a cookie. I'm Nakamori Aoko, by the way. The goofball here is Kaito."
"Nice to meet you!" The deamon, Kaito, he corrected himself, smiled pleasantly at him. It would have been much more reassuring if he hadn't chosen that moment to a large pair of bat-wings.
Aoko didn't seem to be bothered by this in the slightest. In fact, she appeared to be comfortable with the deamon and his close proximity.
"Hakuba Saguru." He introduced himself, giving a small bow.
This would bear further investigation before he acted.
"Breakfast?" Kaito looked at Aoko with large hopeful eyes that would have fit better on a pleading basset hound.
"Yeah, yeah." She sighed, shaking her head. She looked more amused than anything however. "You're just a walking stomach, aren't you?"
Much to his embarrassment, Hakuba found his own stomach growling. The two brunets looked at him with amusement.
... After breakfast. He'd investigate after breakfast...
+++
"Admit it." Aoko smirked. "You only love me for my pancakes."
Kaito sprouted dog ears and a furry tail, which thumped happily against the chair legs. "S'not true." He mumbled, his mouth full of food.
"Chew or talk." She instructed absentmindedly. He swallowed before continuing.
"I also love you for your cookies!" He grinned at her. She supposed the fangs could be a bit un-nerving, but she was used to them by now. "And your pies, and the cakes, and the-"
She flicked one of his ears, watching it shrink down to human proportions again, well, if human ears were naturally pointed, as a series of spikes resembling a mohawk grew along the top of his head. "I got it, I got it. Now eat your breakfast like a -civilized- person."
"Y'ssm." He grinned, but slowed down so that he was no longer wolfing his food. She shook her head at him and casually checked on their guest, who was eating with obviously good manners and not just a littlebit of suspicion.
"I take it..." Hakuba cleared his throat, looking just a bit embarrassed "That the two of you know each other?"
"Since we were-" Kaito suddenly shrunk, looking like a small child. If one didn't count the glimmering skin, the antenna or the butterfly-like wings. "This high!" The voice came out as a high pitched squeak.
Hakuba boggled.
She rapped on Kaito's head with a knuckle. "Shifting to a minimum at the table!" She reminded him.
He sighed and grew to his normal size again. She noted that his legs were digitigrade and mentally shrugged. Close enough. "But yes, Hakuba. We've known each other since we could talk, or about that high."
"Then... you..." The blond's eyes flickered back and forth between the two of them.
"I'm human, if that's what you're asking." Kaito commented, reaching across the table for more jam to put on the pancakes. It would have been out of reach if his arm hadn't changed into an octopus' tentacle and wrapped around the jar.
Aoko sweatdropped. Hakuba raised an eyebrow. She had to give him credit for good a good stone face. She'd screamed the first time he had done that. Changing shapes was one thing.
Tentacles were Just. Not. Right.
"Y'see, once up on a time, there was a boy." Kaito explained, happily spreading the sweet sticky substance all over his pancakes. "Who was quite good at mimicking sounds and all manner of mischief. And then there was the local sorceress, who after an incident which in a story that shall not be told at this time involving a handkerchief, a voo-doo doll and some snow, got very mad at this boy and cursed him."
Kaito looked the epitome of cheerful relaxed story telling. Until she looked behind him and noticed a cat-like tail twitching in nervousness. He took a bite of pancake and jam, filling his mouth for a moment.
"Basically, he can shapeshift into anything other than his true appearance." She explained, covering him for a moment.
"Can this curse not be undone?" Hakuba questioned, brows coming down as he pondered the manner over.
"Oh, yes." Kaito swallowed as he nodded. "But I ain't gonna do it."
"Do it?"
"If I wanna go back to 'normal', I gotta do something for Akako." Kaito wrinkled his nose briefly, little more than a flinch. "She's usually a nice sorceress and all, but I don't wanna. Besides, I LIKE shape shifting!"
He flashed a mega-watt grin at their guest, practically glowing. "So I see." Hakuba looked amused. "Do you have any control over said ability?"
"Certainly." Aoko had to muffle a giggle as their guest suddenly found himself looking at, well, himself. Kaito was not only mimicking Hakuba's appearance and voice, but his posture and proper eating style as well. "But it is a far cry easier to simply relax and allow my subconscious to decree what our appearance shall be from moment to moment."
"I... see."
Kaito laughed, the solid Hakuba appearance rippling like water and melting back into his usual brown-haired lanky limbed self. "I told ya I liked shapeshifting."
"What happened after you were cursed?" Hakuba questioned, looking interested despite himself.
"Well," Kaito chewed his bite of food, hair turning a thoughtful blue. "I tried for a while to pass as my normal self, growing scales where people couldn't see, altering my appearance just a bit to blend in, but it didn't last long. I didn't have the control I do now, and, well, I slipped up."
"Rather spectaularly." She couldn't help but to add. He shot her a glare and she giggled. Not a moment he liked to be reminded of.
"Mom was okay with it, and so was Aoko, but the rest of the village wasn't quite so... comfortable with it." He finished explaining. "So I moved out here and there you have it." He shrugged gamefully, turning his attenion back to eating, the discussion clearly over.
Of course, that was glossing over a few major details, such as the torches, arrows and pitchforks, but if he didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't going to bring it up.
"I'm here to do some baking for the festival this weekend." She explained to their still puzzled looking guest. "Every time I try to bake at home, people keep stopping by 'just to see how things are going' or an emergency arises, things keep happening and the next thing I know, I've got nothing done or everyone's swiped everything. If I come out here, Kaito's the only one I have to chase, and he's willing to help."
"And she's really GOOD." Kaito added, an extra pair of arms popping out and applauding.
Hakuba's eyebrow rose. "Well, that explains the tunic."
"Clothing is a pain." Kaito grumbled, the extra limbs moving backwards and turning into fluffy feathered wings, filling out the open sides of his shirt. She knew for a fact as well. It had taken forever to settle on the loose tunic with the sides open and belted loose long shorts. "Fish tails espeically. Hate having to sew up my pants after that."
She grinned, remembering the time she'd seen that. His shorts had suddently become a skirt as his legs fused together into one long continuious scaley tail. Which had set off his fish-phobia and sending him screaming up into a tree, fish tail and all.
"Don't forget having to add the tail hole." She bouced. "Oh! Hey, remember that one time when instead of growing out the back, it came out the other side and-"
Kaito turned a holly-berry red all over and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, putting an abrupt end to THAT conversation.
+++ TBC +++
Curse you Mati and Becky!!! That 2.0 fic is stalking us now...
Anyway. Must go to clean house, the realtor is coming over Yet Again. (dude. it's a rental. bugger off). Swear the pervy old guy is trying to catch me in my underwear or something, s'not even funny. *growls*
... and still can't find the chibi-sketch of the frying pan scene. M'bummed.
It had taken him most of the day, and several close misses, but he had finally tracked his prey to its lair. Ironically enough, it was by following the scent of fresh baked cookies.
That tended to stand out when one was in the middle of the forest and the nearest village was a several hours trip in the other direction. Funny thing that.
Watson made a chirp of encouragement, sensing his own eagerness. With a practiced motion, he pulled the hood off the hawk's head and tossed her in the air. Powerful wings beat, sending the bird of prey higher into the air. He grinned, slipping off his heavy leather glove and tucking it into his belt before grabbing his bow and stringing it.
His prey remained oblivious to this as it hummed, walking through the forest with a bounce gait, tail waving like a banner. Perfect.
The bow creaked as he fitted an arrow to it, a familiar sound, and a comforting one. Watson screamed her battle cry above him, before diving down with blinding speed, her talons bared. The deamon let out a startled squawk, falling to the side and rolling. In a flash, it was running on four legs, the handle of basket it had been carrying firmly held in its teeth.
Watson gave a shriek of disappointment as she flew back up into the air, following it. He gave a low curse, firing his arrow before giving chase. Again.
This was the fourth time today that he'd lost the accursed deamon in the forest. Dusk was approaching now, and he did not care to lose it a fifth. He could swear that it was playing with him, just to be annoying.
He followed the bouncing tail like a beacon through the trees, only to loose it at the base of the mountain. He growled, an annoyed sound low in his throat as he paused his frantic dash, looking for signs of where it might have disappeared to.
Watson gave a cry, swooping down to land on the branch of a tree, then fluffed her feathers in an annoyed manner. He approached her, eyes scanning the area, finding no sign of the monster. Then he spotted what appeared to be one shadow among many in the fading light and grinned. The entrance to it's lair.
Perfect.
With a nod of thanks to his hawk, he stealthily followed, slipping into the shadows. He would not allow the monster to get away with the atrocities that it had. He could not, upon his honour.
He went slowly, allowing his eyes to adjust to the near-total darkness even as his ears found the faint sound of singing. A light glowed ahead and he followed it, into cavern over twice his height, illuminated by the light from another cavern off to the side.
The deamon was there, sneaking towards the light with a fiendish grin on its face. There wasn't quite enough room to safely use arrows, so he set his bow aside and unsheathed the short sword that rested along his thigh.
Unfortunately, this garnered the deamon's attention, causing it to turn around and spot him. "Yipe!"
It was gone in a flash, bouncing off the wall to the other side of the cavern. He gave chase, following it around the room as it jumped around like a deranged rabbit. It changed appearance as it did so, the tail vanishing as he swung to hit it, growing wings to glide to the upper part of the cave, claws disappearing and reappearing. it kept up a linage of amusing sounds as it did so, one second like a pissed off chicken, the next like a stepped on cat, sometimes screaming in what sounded like mortal terror.
It landed in a crouch in front of the brightly lit cavern, eyes wide as he charged at it. A roar like a pissed off bear came from behind it and it jumped.
Hakuba never saw the flying frying pan as it hit him in the head with a resounding clang.
+++
"Kaito?!" Aoko roared as she stepped out of the kitchen, a rolling pin held in one clenched fist. She looked around, fire burning in her blue eyes.
"Yo! Aoko!" Kaito dropped down in front of her, all lanky limbs and grins. "I got the nuts you wanted!"
She blew the hair out of her face, making a rude sound as she did so. "What was all that rack- oh." She blinked, looking down at the unconscious man at her feet. "Who's this?"
"Dunno." He shrugged. "Kinda cute though. He followed me home, can I keep him?" He grinned playfully at her.
"Kaito..."
"Yeah, yeah." He waved it off, becoming a fraction more serious. "Think he might be a poacher?"
"Not in that armour." She grumbled, motioning to the bits of armour and weaponry the unconscious blonde carried. Too much metal for a normal hunter, not enough for a fully armoured knight. "Honestly Kaito, you have no sense of self preservation."
Kaito simply grinned at her, causing her to roll her eyes. She should know better by now, really she should. He'd been like this for years.
"So what do we do with him?" He crouched down and idly poked the comatose blond. "He's gonna be out for a while. Good arm, by the way."
"Thanks." The lump on his head was an impressive size, if she did say so herself. She shrugged. "Toss him on the guest bed until he wakes up, I guess."
"Then..." He gave a small grunt as he casually stood up, the taller blond draped over him. She forgot sometimes, just how strong he could be when he wanted to. "Where are you going to sleep?"
"On your bed. We can't have him falling out of it and hurting himself, now can we?"
He frowned at her, eyes flickering to his 'nest', hidden a the flat shelf near the top of the roof of the main room. "Then where am -I- going to sleep?!"
She crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. An eyebrow rose back at her before realization flashed. She shrugged. "Well, someone's got to keep an eye on him." She retorted. "And you brought him here."
Violet eyes rolled. "Fine, fine. Whatever." He grumbled good naturedly as he carried their guest to the small side cave that made up the guest room.
Aoko smiled at her best friends retreating back. He really was such a goofball sometimes.
+++
Hakuba was aware of the drift to consciousness.
For one thing, it was very painful. His head ached like it had just been run over by a full parade on horseback.
He was also missing his armour and a great deal of weaponry. Not to mention some clothing. At least he still had his shirt and pants.
And there was a warm presence to the right of him that didn't quite make sense. With a giant effort, he cracked open one eye and took a look.
First thing he saw was a nest of tousled brown hair. Somehow he got the impression that it wasn't a farm animal. For one thing, where ever he was didn't stink nearly enough like one.
Shifting his head down, he found an pixish face lax with sleep below the wild strands of hair. An alluring bed mate to wake up to, certainly, but completely unexplained.
He really hoped this wasn't like the time with the travelling acrobat, the cat and the haystack at that one tavern near school...
A short scream followed by a loud 'thud' came from outside his vision, startling his companion. With a jaw-splitting yawn the brunet sat up, long pointed ears unfurling like sails along the sides of their head.
Hakuba screamed, sitting up and scooting back as far as he could before he hit the wall.
The creature screamed, falling off the bed.
Someone screamed from the doorway.
There was a lot of screaming going on.
"WHY ARE WE SCREAMING?!" A brown-haired girl shouted, waving her arms as she burst into the room.
Hakuba stopped screaming.
"He started it!" An accusing finger rose from somewhere around the floor to point at him.
"Did not." He shot back, trying to maintain his dignity while clinging to the wall like a paranoid monkey.
"Did too!" The tousled brown hair appeared next to the accusatory hand, violet eyes glaring at him. "And I landed on my tail!"
The girl rolled her eyes, tossing her hands up as if beseeching the unseen for patience. "Then why did you grow one?!"
"Thought I was falling out of MY bed." The boy, for it looked kind of like a boy up close, grumbled as he stood up and brushed off his pants. He turned, trying to glance at his rear. "Does it look bruised to you?" He asked Hakuba conversationally.
"Er.." He couldn't really see anything past the loose tunic that covered him to about mid-thigh. He blinked, pieces of his memory falling into place. "You!" He waved his finger. "Deamon! I'm here to vanquish you!!"
Purple eyes looked at him innocently. "Eh? What did I do?"
"Kidnapped the Sheriff's Daughter!" He glanced frantically around for his sword, or any of his other weaponry.
"I Left A Note!" The girl shouted, looking very annoyed. "Even pinned it to the kitchen table so he could FIND it! Sheesh!"
"With a knife?" He questioned sceptically, un-tensing slightly.
She shrugged. "What else am I going to use?"
"A rock?" The deamon reached over to familiarly rap the top of her head with a knuckle. "Hello?"
"Okay! So I got kidnapped by Bandits that One Time." She ranted. "ONE TIME! And I got myself back, just fine!"
"Had them begging for mercy too." The deamon added off-handily. "She's GOOD with household appliances. How's the head by the way?"
"Uh.." He rubbed the bump on his forehead. It hurt, but nothing crippling. "Okay?"
"Sorry about that." The girl apologised, cheeks turning red with embarrassment. "I thought you were Kaito, trying to steal a cookie. I'm Nakamori Aoko, by the way. The goofball here is Kaito."
"Nice to meet you!" The deamon, Kaito, he corrected himself, smiled pleasantly at him. It would have been much more reassuring if he hadn't chosen that moment to a large pair of bat-wings.
Aoko didn't seem to be bothered by this in the slightest. In fact, she appeared to be comfortable with the deamon and his close proximity.
"Hakuba Saguru." He introduced himself, giving a small bow.
This would bear further investigation before he acted.
"Breakfast?" Kaito looked at Aoko with large hopeful eyes that would have fit better on a pleading basset hound.
"Yeah, yeah." She sighed, shaking her head. She looked more amused than anything however. "You're just a walking stomach, aren't you?"
Much to his embarrassment, Hakuba found his own stomach growling. The two brunets looked at him with amusement.
... After breakfast. He'd investigate after breakfast...
+++
"Admit it." Aoko smirked. "You only love me for my pancakes."
Kaito sprouted dog ears and a furry tail, which thumped happily against the chair legs. "S'not true." He mumbled, his mouth full of food.
"Chew or talk." She instructed absentmindedly. He swallowed before continuing.
"I also love you for your cookies!" He grinned at her. She supposed the fangs could be a bit un-nerving, but she was used to them by now. "And your pies, and the cakes, and the-"
She flicked one of his ears, watching it shrink down to human proportions again, well, if human ears were naturally pointed, as a series of spikes resembling a mohawk grew along the top of his head. "I got it, I got it. Now eat your breakfast like a -civilized- person."
"Y'ssm." He grinned, but slowed down so that he was no longer wolfing his food. She shook her head at him and casually checked on their guest, who was eating with obviously good manners and not just a littlebit of suspicion.
"I take it..." Hakuba cleared his throat, looking just a bit embarrassed "That the two of you know each other?"
"Since we were-" Kaito suddenly shrunk, looking like a small child. If one didn't count the glimmering skin, the antenna or the butterfly-like wings. "This high!" The voice came out as a high pitched squeak.
Hakuba boggled.
She rapped on Kaito's head with a knuckle. "Shifting to a minimum at the table!" She reminded him.
He sighed and grew to his normal size again. She noted that his legs were digitigrade and mentally shrugged. Close enough. "But yes, Hakuba. We've known each other since we could talk, or about that high."
"Then... you..." The blond's eyes flickered back and forth between the two of them.
"I'm human, if that's what you're asking." Kaito commented, reaching across the table for more jam to put on the pancakes. It would have been out of reach if his arm hadn't changed into an octopus' tentacle and wrapped around the jar.
Aoko sweatdropped. Hakuba raised an eyebrow. She had to give him credit for good a good stone face. She'd screamed the first time he had done that. Changing shapes was one thing.
Tentacles were Just. Not. Right.
"Y'see, once up on a time, there was a boy." Kaito explained, happily spreading the sweet sticky substance all over his pancakes. "Who was quite good at mimicking sounds and all manner of mischief. And then there was the local sorceress, who after an incident which in a story that shall not be told at this time involving a handkerchief, a voo-doo doll and some snow, got very mad at this boy and cursed him."
Kaito looked the epitome of cheerful relaxed story telling. Until she looked behind him and noticed a cat-like tail twitching in nervousness. He took a bite of pancake and jam, filling his mouth for a moment.
"Basically, he can shapeshift into anything other than his true appearance." She explained, covering him for a moment.
"Can this curse not be undone?" Hakuba questioned, brows coming down as he pondered the manner over.
"Oh, yes." Kaito swallowed as he nodded. "But I ain't gonna do it."
"Do it?"
"If I wanna go back to 'normal', I gotta do something for Akako." Kaito wrinkled his nose briefly, little more than a flinch. "She's usually a nice sorceress and all, but I don't wanna. Besides, I LIKE shape shifting!"
He flashed a mega-watt grin at their guest, practically glowing. "So I see." Hakuba looked amused. "Do you have any control over said ability?"
"Certainly." Aoko had to muffle a giggle as their guest suddenly found himself looking at, well, himself. Kaito was not only mimicking Hakuba's appearance and voice, but his posture and proper eating style as well. "But it is a far cry easier to simply relax and allow my subconscious to decree what our appearance shall be from moment to moment."
"I... see."
Kaito laughed, the solid Hakuba appearance rippling like water and melting back into his usual brown-haired lanky limbed self. "I told ya I liked shapeshifting."
"What happened after you were cursed?" Hakuba questioned, looking interested despite himself.
"Well," Kaito chewed his bite of food, hair turning a thoughtful blue. "I tried for a while to pass as my normal self, growing scales where people couldn't see, altering my appearance just a bit to blend in, but it didn't last long. I didn't have the control I do now, and, well, I slipped up."
"Rather spectaularly." She couldn't help but to add. He shot her a glare and she giggled. Not a moment he liked to be reminded of.
"Mom was okay with it, and so was Aoko, but the rest of the village wasn't quite so... comfortable with it." He finished explaining. "So I moved out here and there you have it." He shrugged gamefully, turning his attenion back to eating, the discussion clearly over.
Of course, that was glossing over a few major details, such as the torches, arrows and pitchforks, but if he didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't going to bring it up.
"I'm here to do some baking for the festival this weekend." She explained to their still puzzled looking guest. "Every time I try to bake at home, people keep stopping by 'just to see how things are going' or an emergency arises, things keep happening and the next thing I know, I've got nothing done or everyone's swiped everything. If I come out here, Kaito's the only one I have to chase, and he's willing to help."
"And she's really GOOD." Kaito added, an extra pair of arms popping out and applauding.
Hakuba's eyebrow rose. "Well, that explains the tunic."
"Clothing is a pain." Kaito grumbled, the extra limbs moving backwards and turning into fluffy feathered wings, filling out the open sides of his shirt. She knew for a fact as well. It had taken forever to settle on the loose tunic with the sides open and belted loose long shorts. "Fish tails espeically. Hate having to sew up my pants after that."
She grinned, remembering the time she'd seen that. His shorts had suddently become a skirt as his legs fused together into one long continuious scaley tail. Which had set off his fish-phobia and sending him screaming up into a tree, fish tail and all.
"Don't forget having to add the tail hole." She bouced. "Oh! Hey, remember that one time when instead of growing out the back, it came out the other side and-"
Kaito turned a holly-berry red all over and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, putting an abrupt end to THAT conversation.
+++ TBC +++
Curse you Mati and Becky!!! That 2.0 fic is stalking us now...
Anyway. Must go to clean house, the realtor is coming over Yet Again. (dude. it's a rental. bugger off). Swear the pervy old guy is trying to catch me in my underwear or something, s'not even funny. *growls*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
*snickers*
Date: 2004-01-16 07:03 pm (UTC)Which means that I have to frantically get my house ready for a bunch of strangers to invade (And the realtor on top of being a pervert is nosy) as well as pack and get ready for that. >_<
Having strangers invade every MY HOUSE other weekend without any control over it is very annoying. (no, we're not territorial much, what gave you that impression? *innocent, innocent*)
Have taped several of the doors and my fridge shut because the 'Keep Out' sign in the medicine cabinet hasn't seem to have done the trick.
He really hoped this wasn't like the time with the travelling acrobat, the cat and the haystack at that one tavern near school..."
Have an explination for that!!!
Was reading GW fics, and amused by Trowa, so he got thrown in. Then asked Mati and Becky, who were on at the time, for a random object each. Mati said 'cat' (prolly because hers was attacking her keyboard again) and Becky said 'Hay' (since she'd been hauling it before going on-line), so there you go.
Really, it's not being about perverted. It's about the random stuff that allow people to do it themselves. ^________^