Horrible Teenage Awkwardness

Horrible Teenage Awkwardness
Date of Scene:	06 June 2013
Location:	Cosmo Canyon
Synopsis:	Subtlety is for other people.
Cast of Characters:	Kyra Hyral, Kamon Lionward

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Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon is out looking for stuff. Part of the stuff he's looking for is synthesis components; part of the stuff he's looking for is clues to world shards or these 'Keyblade' things. He decided that inviting Kyra to come along would be a good plan, because Kyra's always helpful. Certainly not for any other particular reason, no-sir-ee-bob.

It's the middle of the night in Cosmo Canyon. There aren't really many people around right now; ever since the worlds collided, travellers have been a bit less inclined to come into the canyon. Kamon leads the way across the rocky path into the canyon, one thumb hooked on a strap to his backpack, the other hand using the adamantite-headed spear (and former mop) as a walking stick. He stops at a ledge overlooking the Cosmo Candle, with a clear view of the night sky and of the village below.

"Woah." He sounds genuinely impressed.

There's a BGM, too: http://youtu.be/b5Gvpzn9rNc

Kyra Hyral has posed:
No ulterior motives AT ALL.

Kyra was all too happy to come along on Kamon's trip. Their respective skillsets made them a pretty solid team, even without two other people. Such team-ups no doubt occured in the past and were no doubt inevitable now. Kyra, after all, still had not become entirely comfortable with travelling alone.

Expecting a rugged trip, Kyra has left most of her electronics at her apartment in Archades, with the exception of her Ma Belle. Slung over her shoulder, crossing her chest, is her thick and durable messenger bag, no doubt stuffed to the brim with useful travelling supplies (or explosives). She too has procured a walking stick-but it's little more than that: a stick she plucked off the ground a while back.

When the area seemed sketchy, Kyra walked behind Kamon. When it seemed safer, she was content with walking alongside him, putting her where she is now. She stands next to him upon the ledge and looks outward, taking in the view, her eyes growing distant. "It's nice. I've never seen anything like this before."

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon's ulterior motives are his own. Though, technically, right now, they're not necessarily /his/ ulterior motives. He's just been embroiled in the plan of a... teenage... girl...?

Sometimes, Kamon wonders about his life and where it is leading.

"Kind of reminds me of home," Kamon says. His voice is hushed; awe has crept into his tone. "Though... usually the view was only good at really, um, specific times of day..." Kamon shrugs, trailing off. He glances to the side at Kyra, his gaze lingering for a few seconds. He seems thoughtful. He also looks straight ahead again as soon as he thinks she's noticed.

"Uh, thanks for coming with me, Kyra," he adds, starting along the cliffside. He's a couple strides from the edge, cognizant of his own weight and the possibility of things crumbling. "It's kind of nice to have company out here." There's a difference between teaming up for dungeon delves and disappearing into the wilds together.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Alma was quite a meddling little sister. She only slightly suspects that Alma had a hand in today's outing since it isn't all that unusual for someone gifted in the combat arts like Kamon to request a healer to come along. Not that Kyra was the most effective of healers.

"Really?" Kyra says, mentally overlaying what pictures she's seen of the Iron Desolation before. All managed to make it look bleak and inhospitible-yet life persisted. "Due to the monsters?" Kyra guesses as she stares out over the canyon.

It's almost as if she has the supernatural ability to tell if eyes are upon her because Kamon doesn't get to look for very long before she seems to notice. She turns to look at him, catching the tail end of his head movements. Her heart flutters.

"It's no problem." Kyra says with the slightest hint of sheepishness. Her free hand reaches up to grasp the shoulder strap to her messenger bag, tugging at it restlessly. "It'd get kind of...lonely out here alone." And maybe dangerous, she doesn't mention, because she's sure Kamon can easily handle anything in this area. Kyra, on the other hand...

She walks alongside him, keeping to the side that puts her farthest from the cliff edge should there be the chance. Considerably lighter in weight, Kyra could easily walk on the other without risking a collapsing cliff, but chooses not to.

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon has been kind of uncomfortable with this entire outing /because/ of Kyra's meddlesome little sister. He's not sure if Alma's given him the nudge he was looking for, or if he's playing her game by doing this whole thing, or... what. It's driving him crazy. He's managed to keep it off his face, though. Nothing seems particularly off.

"Well, uh, sometimes, but mostly 'cuz of how the landscape worked. There were these flat stone shelves with veins of metal ringed through it like rings on a tree trunk," Kamon says, gesturing with one hand and smiling widely at the memory, "and in the morning, the sun would hit it /just/ right, and it'd all just... just light up. It'd sparkle for half an hour before it moved so it was just, uh... a blinding glare again." He frowns for a second. "Kinda ruins the image, that last part..."

He shrugs and keeps on walking. They're actually getting higher up, with a greater view of the canyon itself. Kamon wants to check out the interior, but scouting the perimeter just feels like the correct course of action to him. "Yeah, sometimes. But with you, I -- um, yeah, I mean, company's good," he mumbles. Kamon lapses into a kind of awkward silence for a moment more.

"...Hey Kyra," Kamon says slowly. "Could I... um, ask you something weird?"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Ironically, just slightly earlier Alma had asked for /her/ advice on the matter of determining a date or not! Hah! But do unto others and Kyra portioned out some advice for the younger Hyral that would hopefully make people feel less awkward in the future.
"So...nothing like I had imagined." Kyra laughs quietly, sneaking a glance at the fighter. "That sounds like it would be beautiful to look at." Nature was a foreign world to those of Ramuha.

The ground crunches loudly beneath Kyra's feet while they walk, the sound seeming especially loud during those stretches of awkward silence. There is none more pointed than the period after Kamon seems to start to admit something, but seems to change to something else mid-sentence. To the likes of Kyra, she sees it, though at the same time she struggles to keep her own focus non-obvious. She's almost about to push on that moment but instead decides to follow her own device.

"Well sure." she jokes, slowing to a stop. "I might not answer if it's too weird though."

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon feels a sense of meta-vindication at Alma going to Kyra for relationship advice.

In truth, nature is kind of a foreign thing to Odynar, too. The Iron Desolation is nearly all covered in metal, but manifests in different ways. Sometimes you get something like what plants must look like on other continents. It's amazing the Odynar survived at all, given the state of that place. You can find beauty in almost anything if you look hard enough, though.

Kamon stops about when Kyra does. He rubs at the back of his neck uncomfortably, debating what to say. In his head, he goes, 'So if a close friend or relative of a similarly close friend asked you to keep a secret about your mutual acquaintance but then asked you to do something based on said secret but you were going to do it anyway under different conditions, would you then not do it because you might have had your opinions colored by the former close friend or relative of the latter, or would you do it anyway?'

What he /actually/ says is, "Kyra, do you like me?"

Kamon's free hand immediately finds its way to his face, fingers over his eyes and palm just above his nose. Oh, Gods above.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Maybe she'll even joke about it later. Kyra feels like beringing up what Alma's up to right now will bring down the whole outing. For once, she wanted to get away from talking about Alma or a while.

As they have stopped, it quickly becomes a struggle to not turn and look at him. She keeps her gaze out, over the ledge, and at the more inhabited parts of Cosmo Canyon. Anything to hide her nervousness right now.

But when he finally asks that question, phrased in such an innocent manner, she turns to look back at him, putting her back to the edge of the cliff. Her skin has become a deep red which is especially noticable in contrast with her naturally pale Ramuha skin. "Y-yeah, yeah I do, Kamon." She says softly, almost as if she were afraid someone was listening in to hear them. Right away, she sees him covering his face and realizes that, wow, he might be as flustered about this as she is!

While it was easy to blame Alma for this awkwardness, her own feelings are no doubt at fault for her reaction. Slowly, she steps forward and lifts her free hand, gently putting her hand over that on his face. "Do you like me?"

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon cannot help but wonder where Alma gets all the time to meddle. It's like she's up in everyone else's business and then can't keep track of her own. Small wonder.

However, right now, he's moe thinking, 'oh gods, oh gods, I'm an idiot, why did I say that, that was stupid of me,' and trying his best not to look at her while doing so. There has /got/ to be a way to save this from being /incredibly/ awkward. Maybe he can pass it off as something else. Quick, what starts with 'me' that he could be bringing up in casual conversation?! Metal? Meat? Melee? M --

-- oh, hey.

That was not really what he was expecting. Hoping for? Oh, yes, definitely. Expecting? Wellll... no. He feels her hand on his, and he flushes a dark red from that touch alone. He dearly wants to keep his hand there, in part because he's afraid that this is some kind of elaborate trick he walked into, and in part because the slightest touch is a lovely thing.

But, no. That isn't right. Kamon slowly lowers his hand, not looking at Kyra. He's looking off into the canyon. It's a defense mechanism. He clears his throat, then does it again, and finally turns his gaze to her face. She looks about how he feels. He can't help but smile at the absurdity. Why's he worrying? He shouldn't worry. "Um, I --"

There's a brief pause; tiny, really. "Gods, of /course/ I do," he finally exhales. His voice drops to an embarassed mutter. "I must've had a crush on you all year, I was just --" A complete coward. "Sorry, this is -- I mean --" He's trying to find an excuse and keeps having to stop himself. He's trembling, a little. The invincible-Odynar-warrior thing is totally ruined by it.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Kamon will feel the slightest bit of pressure from Kyra upon his raised hand. She is trying, gently, to guide his hand away from his eyes. She wanted to look Kamon in the face, as if to somehow verify that this conversation really was happening. The expression on Kyra's face seems to be a mix of terror and excitement.

It actually wasn't a hard thing for Kyra to admit that-though maybe she had done so hastily. Once her follow-up question leaves her, she immediately feels even a little bit more embarassed. What if she sounded desperate? Guys didn't like desperate!

He drops his hand and Kyra keeps her fingers latched onto his. Despite him not looking at her right away, Kyra is definitely looking at him and he will find green eyes peering up at him when he finally does.

The teenager struggles to not suddenly squeal 'eeeee'. The scientist within her marvels at how vulnerable Kamon looks right now-a stark contrast to how she usually finds the Odynar fighter. He keeps trying to excuse himself and amongst all of his staring and stopping, Kyra's hand drops away from his and instead places a single finger against his lips.

"Better late than never." she's quick to say.

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon lets Kyra guide his hand. He's not sure he trusts his own hand. If he did, it probably wouldn't've gotten him into this mess. (Or maybe that's his mouth.)

Though... Kyra looks about as nervous/frightened as he feels, and perhaps more excited. Kamon's heart is pounding like /crazy/, wanting to leap out of his chest. It's making him feel a little light-headed. He's not sure if he likes it or is just made more nervous by it. This hasn't gone terribly, though; he keeps wanting to open his mouth and apologize, though, and -- and --

Kyra puts a finger against his lips. He clams up, blinking in apparent surprise. 'Better late than never,' she says. Better late than -- okay. He takes a second to process that. His eyes widen for a second. Apparently, he's a little bit slow when he's kind of admitting one of those secret things he's kept locked away for fear of terrible, terrible rejection.

"--"

He doesn't really 'say' anything. He exhales a little, visibly untensing slightly. He's just... silent. It's entirely possible because he figures if Kyra removes her finger, he'll start babbling incoherently again, and ruin whatever affection she might actually feel for him because she would realize he's kind of an idiot. Well, he thinks he's kind of an idiot.

Definitely, /definitely/ better late than never, Kamon thinks.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Perfect, he got the 'memo.' Kyra was not so physically gifted so in a real pulling contest, he would win, hands down. If Kyra had been shaking, she had stopped when she made contact with Kamon. The contact seems to have a calming effect against the white mage.

No. No apologizing tonight! She did not want Kamon to feed that small piece of her that was resentful of him not saying this earlier. Dwell on the past? Not tonight. Perhaps unfortunately for Kamon, she does remove her finger, if only so she can step much, much closer to him and wrap her arms around the small of his back.

"I dunno how long I've felt that way about you." Kyra says softly, "Buuuut I do know it's been a while."

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon has more or less stopped now, too. It's a wonder what having the cute girl you've had a huge crush on in close proximity will do to you. It's a good thing they're not on a different part of the world entirely, where crazily-proportioned animal-people live; their eyes may have been replaced by hearts already.

But right now, Kamon's eyes are mostly too occupied to be hearts. He's looking down at Kyra, blinking for a second when she gets much closer to him. He finds himself enjoying the view (and Cosmo Canyon is nice, too), and has noticed that his hands have moved themselves around to Kyra's back at some point in the last minute or so, holding her against him.

"I'm --" Not sorry. He smiles, leaning down a little. "-- glad. That we don't have to, um... dance around it, anymore. I thought, maybe you weren't interested. But... I'm glad I was wrong."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
On certain worlds, little heart-bubbles would no doubt be dancing around their heads right now. Here, Kamon will have to settle for the shy look upon Kyra's face as she peers up at the Odynar fighter she's admired for the few years she has been at Alexander Academy.

One of the hands moves around from Kamon's back, snaking up and over Kamon's own arm. It lifts and pushes the hood back from the moogle-styled hoodie she frequently wears, letting her hair flop free-an even better view, no doubt. The multiple piercings in her ears glisten faintly in the light of the Cosmo Candle.

She reddens a little bit more. "W..well maybe my signals weren't strong enough...I'm pretty deficient in the art of flirting." Hilariously inept was more like it-or rather, a little stung after it horrendously backfiring on her once. Her hand drops to wrap around him once more. "So..um.."

Awkward. AWKWARD! SAY SOMETHING!!! "...now what?"

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Honestly, shy-Kyra is still cute-Kyra. Basically any-Kyra is cute-Kyra, as far as Kamon is concerned. Hoodless-Kyra especially. Although, the little moogle-bobber thing is actualy kind of adorable, even if the whole outfit kind of evokes the 'white mage without a cause' sort of image...

Kamon actually laughs at that. Flirting? Either of them? Nah, never. There might be a reason that the whole 'awkward roundabout confession' thing just kind of worked out, and that reason could very well be that anything more subtle would go completely over their heads. "I'm, uh, pretty bad at picking up on it." Willfully ignorant, actually. He had a similar problem with getting burned by it in the past.

Kyra poses a question. Kind of a problem, really. Kamon isn't sure, himself. "Uh..." The sensible answer is probably something like spending an evening in Cosmo Canyon enjoying one anothers' company. The thought crosses his mind, but he assumes that's too picturesque to actually work out here. Kamon's kind of in the same awkward place Kyra is, in the planning regard.

He has an expression of deep thought on his face for a long moment. It seems like risk-taking when they were /positive/ it was the wrong decision is how both of them managed to get /this/ far... maybe he should stop listening to the sensible part of his brain, and start just doing the first thing that strikes him as /right/.

Kamon holds Kyra close, leans down, and promptly kisses her on the lips.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
His laughter brings a flush of embarassment to Kyra since, at first, she has no idea why exactly he's laughing about it. Then he reveals that unless she had flirted with the subtlety of a sledgehammer (or perhaps the subtlety of a Helena), Kamon likely wouldn't have picked up on it to begin with. A bit of a relief, actually, because there's nothing more frustrating than sending the signal and having it ignored.

It helps not to focus on the awkwardness that might have been. There's plenty of time for awkwardness right now.

Kyra could think of a thing or two to do. Had she any interest in tradition, she might detail the formal Hyral courting process. But there was no need to share it since Kyra had discarded her family's rules long ago. Her mind instead races to consider the option that would be most offensive to her not-present family.

She doesn't get a chance to make a suggestion and that's okay. Because Kamon is kissing her and everything is alright in the world. As he does so, Kyra's hands move up so the can loop around the back of his neck.

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon has basically decided that subtlety is a thing for other people. At this point, all that it's managed to do is make them dance around the subject, have awkward pauses, and embarassedly glance away from one another when they think that the other is looking. Kyra is bad at flirting to the point that her skill is more or less nonexistant; Kamon is bad at spotting signals to the point where even if she was, it wouldn't work.

So instead, yes. He's kissing her. He's just holding her, and kissing her, and... and...

...and that's about it, really. It doesn't get any simpler than that. Or, maybe, any more perfect.

Eventually -- and it's a long kind of eventually -- Kamon seperates from Kyra, though the distance must be fractions of an inch. He catches the breath he hadn't realized he was out of. He just looks at her, his expression a smile that's got just a hint of astonishment, as if to say, 'did we really just do that?' which is immediately followed by his subconscious going, 'yes, and we should do it again.'

"...how about that?" Kamon asks. She /did/ ask 'now what'...

Kyra Hyral has posed:
There is no subtle in SCIENCE!! Having never really gone through the motions of pursuing a realtionship-moreso, baring witness to the song and dance amongst her siblings and peers, being able to bypass it all completely was nonetheless rather refreshing! Though these specific thoughts will hit later, her mind instead being pretty consumed by this experience.

Right now didn't need anymore complications.

She too draws a breath, only now realizing how much she was holding in. Her arms remain resting around his neck and a tiny, coy smile is upon her face. Yes. That just happened.

"Perfect." she breathes. "Let's do it again." No sooner than she's said that, she inclines herself upward onto her toes to return the favor.

Kamon Lionward has posed:
Kamon's family is kind of stuffy and official too, though admittedly, Odynar tend to handle relationships in a more fast and loose manner /or/ in a trial by combat manner. The Lionwards, historically, function somewhere inbetween. If one of their kids is interested in someone who happens to be a combatant and an older member of the family hears about it, they go all gung-ho for the latter. If they aren't, then there's usually really awkward conversation thats only ever entertaining for the parents asking the embarassing questions.

This, Kamon thinks, is way, /way/ better.

Kamon starts to say 'okay' and gets cut off about about 'o' by soft lips and a coy smile. He holds her at about the waist, somewhat unconsciously pulling the shorter girl upwards to make this that much easier. He very quickly loses track of time, and general thought that isn't '<3', once again.

By the time he realizes that time has actually passed, he's also lost his ability to care. It could take a while before hormones let them actually speak to one another again.

Or, you know, until they actually feel like that's a superior course of action.