diatu | [Adventure] Some Enchanted Eveningwear (Closed to Jecht)

[Adventure] Some Enchanted Eveningwear (Closed to Jecht)

Yotsuyu regularly allowed her snake free reign over the campus. When she didn't need his assistance, he was allowed to pilfer bird nests and otherwise hunt to his serpentine heart's content.

So it was not terribly surprising to have him come home early one evening. What was something of a surprise, however, was the fact that he carried a package in his jaws. There were no other markings save "From an Admirer" scrawled across the front.

Puzzled, she opened the package...

It was lovely, yes, but Yotsuyu was suspicious at even the best of times. Unfortunately for her, she was also vain and somewhatgreedy, which had her throwing her usual caution to the wind and trying on the gown.

Which swiftly unraveled, leaving her horrified in little better than smallclothes--or something she'd have worn when she was little more than a courtesan. Her gasp filled the room--and yet, when she tried to put her kimono back on, the lingerie started to itch ferociously. She disrobed quickly and flung the garment across her bed.

The itching stopped. Yotsuyu swore.

The next few minutes were spent wracking her brain as to who might be the culprit--and (despite there being many other possibilities, which didn't occur to her) she settled on one man.

Jecht.

Pulling her House cloak on, it was a short walk (albeit a still itchy one, clearly the curse judged a cloak to be enough apparel to make the undies itch) to his door, which she pounded on mercilessly.

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What the?

Well, guess he was gonna get his first caller in his suite. And he'd be more thrilled about it if they didn't sound like an angry caller. Stretching his arms lazily, Jecht got to his feet while the wand he'd been playing with clattered to the floor, and stepped over to open the door.

"Hey?"

Likely, it was not who he had expected. Which did not stop Yotsuyu from glaring up at him, and pressing both hands on his chest in an attempt to shove Jecht back into his room.

True, she wanted to confront him, but not in the hallway, where any passers by could see her utter and total humiliation!!

"Do you think this is some sort of joke?? I had thought we were friends!"

Jecht was a big ol' muscley guy -- who didn't see that coming at all, so her shove sent him stumbling back a few steps, well into the confines of his room. "Whoa! What the hell?!" he sputtered, more out of reflex as he swung his arms back to get his balance again.

"Do not act like you do not know!" She stomped in after him, barefoot and becloaked and with Gosetsu awkwardly coiling around one leg--faithful familiar that he was.

Never mind that he had also helped her get into this mess, he couldn't read and he was intelligent, but perhaps not clever. Yotsuyu could not--would not--blame her snake.

Between the shove, the stomping in, and the way she slammed the door behind her, her cloak fell open to expose her shame, the accursed lingerie.

"What do you have to say about this?!"

About to answer, he suddenly had words stricken from him by the abrupt appearance of a lot more smooth clear skin than he expected to see at any point. His jaw dropped for a moment.

"Damn?" he ventured.

That was...both more and less than she had expected, and it only served to enrage her more.

"Idiot!" Yotsuyu snarled, aiming a vicious backhand for that slack-jawed look. "Do not pretend as if you had naught to do with this!"

He'd certainly evinced a sort of mentality that might, when they'd spoken before. Why wouldn't he?

The crack of knuckles on his cheek shocked him straight out of his reverent admiration, and he stumbled one step back and took two more. Anger kindled instead, as Jecht brought an arm up in front of him to ward off another blow.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

"Oh, and if this is the result of someone else's handiwork, not your own, you will still happily ogle it? Swine! Worm!"

Though infuriated, Yotsuyu is well aware that Jecht has both size and strength on her, and now, lacking the element of surprise, she does not close on him again. Nor had she brought her fan with her, so she's unable to try to attack him that way, either--though she is so uncertain with her magics, that's rather unlikely, in truth. But the gall of the man, thinking she'd cheerfully tart herself up and offer herself up as if she were a present with a bow??

"Do you think I would willingly present myself to anyone in this fashion had I a choice? I cannot remove it! Or I would have and thought little of it--though I may have come down to snarl at you about your lack of fashion choices!"

That angry accusation, plus bumping into a chair, had Jecht grab the latter for support and regain some of his nerve. "YOU showed up HERE and SHOWED IT TO ME!" he said, not quite shouting but definitely loud and angry. "Why the hell shouldn't I enjoy it when you suddenly put it on display?! If you'd said you needed help first, then maybe I woulda known not to look!"

"Should I not face my oppressor? I thought this was your fault, you dolt!" Not that Yotsuyu was convinced of his innocence, but she was fairly certain he wouldn't keep protesting if he was guilty.

He just did not seem that clever to her, sadly.

"You lie," she hissed, glaring at him. "Even if I had said I needed help, you would have looked anyway! Besides, I am not even certain you can help me, or you might have offered by now, eh?"

Gods, she'd probably have to help herself. Maybe she could Modify these things off...but her fan was still back in her quarters.

Yotsuyu was just not ready to make the trip back to her room just yet.

"You've barely given me a CHANCE, damn it!" She was so busy yelling and snarling she was just stomping all over any chance he had to get a real word in edgewise -- he'd barely just gotten the full situation out of her! "Would you just calm down so we can think about this?! Yelling isn't gonna get it off you!"

He had a point; though the fact that Jecht had a point did little to soothe her temper. It had been building to a slow boil for the time she'd been here. It felt almost too good to let it loose.

"Thank the kami for that! I am not certain I would want to expose more to you than I already have!" Maybe it had been the itching, but, petulantly, Yotsuyu didn't exactly want to be calm.

But there really was no certain way she'd get these accursed undergarments off her otherwise. She grit her teeth and tried to rein in her anger and get it under control once more. Her success was limited, but she was silent for the moment, and looked at Jecht expectantly, keeping a flippant 'Well?' behind her lips by only an act of will.

"You want it off or not?" Jecht folded his arms, started to look at the problem to try and figure out something, then immediately facepalmed as he realized that looking at the problem was no end of trouble in and of itself.

"Okay, what've you tried so far?"

And there, Yotsuyu manages to almost look chagrined. She starts to speak; stops, starts again as she turns her gaze to the floor. Ashamed, now, perhaps?

"Nothing," she admitted. "Nothing. I came here angry and accusative. So really, other than trying to remove it by normal means, I have tried nothing magical to take it off."

"S'not like we're good at magic," Jecht grunted. His first action would've been violence on the clothing and he knew it. "Random shot, but I wonder if getting it wet might make screw it up."

"I am not good at it yet." Yotsuyu wasn't bad for a novice...but she was still a novice. At Jecht's next words, she gave him a gimlet stare, lips tightening.

"And I suppose that that has nothing to do whatsoever about wanting to see me in this, dripping wet, hmm?"

Though the idea was worth trying, truly. She glanced around. Did he even have any water in this room? If not, she was heading back to hers. If nothing else, she could Discover water into a teacup.

"This may sound crazy, but you're not exactly at your hottest when you're both raging at me and forced into it." Jecht turned to start rummaging through his schoolbag, which he didn't really use if he could help it. "I got a thing in here that can make water..."

This, she had to see. So she reserved any verbal snarking back at the man, folding her arms over herself. Yotsuyu realized she was being self-conscious, which...didn't sweeten her mood any, either.

"That is well and good, but perhaps we ought to retreat to my quarters? Just in case it works?"

At least there she had a dressing screen she could run behind, if it did work, and save her more humiliation.

"Oh, yeah, probably..." The idea hadn't even occurred to him, in large part because the nebulous idea of 'Yotsuyu's quarters' came with several mental signs that said 'Danger!' and 'Forbidden! Do Not Enter!' and 'Death Awaits Ye Here'. So she could at least take comfort in that.

Coming up with the pair of bracers, Jecht started slapping them on as he headed for the door. "So lead the way?"

"Come." She beckoned him along, leading him down the hallway. Gosetsu dropped from her leg to slither ahead and through the door, practically before she opened it, to curl himself before the small hearth in her room.

As Jecht entered, she closed the door firmly behind him. His fears might have had merit, had it not been a very normal room with a bed, a screen with a few robes and her kimono thrown over it (in haste when that damn lingerie began to itch), and a desk piled high with books. All very normal, indeed.

"I'd offer you tea, but I frankly would like this entire mess over as quickly as possible." Because she had revenge to plan, and a need to figure out precisely who was to blame for this farce.

His fears about her room have nothing to do with its contents and everything to do with its occupant and her potential reaction to someone else being in her room!

"Ain't much of a tea guy anyway," Jecht said, as if that wasn't obvious. He lifted his arms to show off his magic dealies as he continued. "Here's the deal. These things'll surround me in water. So I turn my back and light 'em up, you do what you gotta to get your things wet. If that doesn't work... we, uh, try somethin' else."

"I do not, as a rule, keep stronger beverages here, since there are any number of mischievous children about." And she didn't put it past a hooligan or three to find out that Yotsuyu was keeping alcohol in her quarters, and attempting to avail themselves. The taverns weren't that far a walk, after all.

"Very well. Do your...thing." She gestured at him. As pragmatic as she was, she planned to take the quickest way to getting soaked. Probably hugging him.

Okay, definitely that, not that it pleased her at all, but one does what one must.

"I don't do strong," Jecht said conversationally. "Just not tea, is all I'm saying. All right, let's see here..."

He flexed his hands, making his forearms stretch beneath the bands and press into them. An aura of water whooshed out around him, surrounding him in about an inch thick's worth of liquid.

"You should try it. There might be a blend you like in there." Though that was just fine by Yotsuyu, if he chose not to accept her offered hospitality. She just offered that to anyone who happened to wander in, after all!

She scowled a little at his broad backside. There was a small part of her that wanted to aim a kick at his rump...

But that would not get her what she wanted, and so instead, she first turned her back and backed into him to wet the back of the accursed lingerie, and then turned and...

Gave him a hug. As distasteful as it was, it was the quickest way she saw to get the lingerie as wet as possible, as swiftly as possible.

And once it was, and the straps began to slip, she darted behind her dressing screen with a cry of surprise and triumph!

What the hell just happened?!

He'd been figuring on back-to-back but not what came after! So in the wake of her retreat to privacy, he couldn't do much more than stand there, stunned, and try to figure out just what the heck...

Likely it came as no surprise that Yotsuyu donned actual clothing as swiftly as she could. The cursed lingerie, she threw haphazardly on the changing screen. She would deal with that later. In truth, she needed to find the perpetrator, and make them regret their choices.

Back in her kimono, she stepped out from behind the changing screen and shot a look that might almost be described as guilty at Jecht. He'd been right, she was not kind to him, and yet he had helped her, when Yotsuyu was uncertain that anyone else would have done so. Considering the circumstances she was in at the time.

"I...thank you for your help." She would make it a point to do something kind for him, but she wasn't sure what that might be, right now.

"Uh, yeah," Jecht said, finally remembering to turn off the whole water thingy. He slowly turned around, figuring it was probably okay -- she wouldn't have come out too quick, right? The last thing he needed was to get her kicking him 'cuz he saw something he shouldn't. "Don't worry about it. Didn't do much except turn on these things."

"You put up with me. You could have put me out--and you would have been justified!" Yotsuyu snapped back at him.
Damn him, she was no good at actual apologies, and thanking him was difficult enough--though she had managed, and that was gratification in and of itself.

Not that she would admit that to Jecht. Nor was she about to kick him out, either. He'd earned that in her mind, at the very least. The right to be there.

"I am sure we can both agree, regardless of my temper, that I treated you poorly. And you are correct in that I did not give you any chance to explain yourself. You were right to yell back at me. I..."

The words did not want to come, but Yotsuyu forced them out anyway, perhaps a bit too quickly. "I am sorry."

"Hey, whoa. I couldn't imagine putting you out! You don't come with that kind of image, you know." She was way too fierce. If she'd wanted to stay for whatever reason, she sure would've, no doubt in his mind! "Besides... we gotta look out for each other, you know? You'da helped me out if I needed it."

Maybe with a few sharp comments about his intelligence, but she would've, he's sure of that too.

He was not wrong. About either of those speculations.

"You are right, I would have helped you, had you needed it." The words came without hesitation, and that might have come as a surprise to him. But it was no less true; had Jecht had some sort of issue, Yotsuyu would have given him her aid. Unbidden. Perhaps with commentary, yes, but she would likely not have held it over his head, either.

Or perhaps not much.

It didn't surprise him. Yotsutyu was something of a bitch, but not the kind of girl who'd just kick someone in need out. That was his impression, anyway.

"So don't worry about. This stupid school, I'll probably need your help not bein' green or having an arm for a leg or something any day now."

"Kami forfend, do you honestly believe I would hope for something like that?" Yotsuyu gave him a horrified look at that.

"Hopefully those things will not happen. I would rather you try to listen for someone gloating about their cleverness in creating a pair of cursed evening wear...I admit it was my own greed that got me into this, in a way."

She sighed, then. "But if you do get in trouble, yes. I owe you. You must come to me and allow me to do my best to aid you."

"I didn't say you were hoping for it! I said it was probably gonna happen!" The way things were already going on this crazy campus, he wasn't gonna be spared for sure!

But putting that though aside, he smirked Yotsuyu's way. "If I hear anyone talking about this prank, I'll do the worst thing I can think of to 'em."

Yotsuyu gave him a dull stare at that. "I am not certain that is a good idea, either." Mostly because she couldn't imagine what the worst thing Jecht could think of was. Save that it probably was not as bad as anything she could come up with. Her thoughts strayed more to him not getting himself in trouble, however.

"And you do not have to encourage probability, you know! Unless you are possessed of some imp of the perverse--though the kami know that would surprise me not at all!"

"Are you kidding? It's exactly what you want." Jecht smirked proudly down at her, satisfied to have the upper hand back. "'Cuz the worst thing I can think of to do to 'em... is tell you who they are."

She laid her hands on her hips, and smiled up at him. It was a bit more like a baring of teeth, but more because of what he had said, and not the why.

"You shall have to be careful, that is terribly close to playing dirty. But yes. That pleases me greatly."

Nor did she feel like the upper hand was out of her grasp, but Yotsuyu needed no reason to grasp it back for the moment.

Jecht chuckled, glad they were on the same wavelength.

"So... everything cool? Didn't leave any rashes or weird marks or bruises?" He sure as hell wasn't gonna check himself!

"Nothing that I noticed upon cursory inspection. Nothing physical, in any case. As for the scars to my dignity, I fear I shall carry them for the rest of my days..."

At least she can crack a joke. Assuming that IS a joke.

"I trust I have not given you a dose of bad dreams in the making, either?"

Okay, it is probably a joke.

"I think my dreams'll be all right." Jecht rubbed at his neck, not meeting her eyes. She'd ASKED, damn it, but come on, she probably knew exactly what image stuck in his mind through all that!

Or she was thinking more pragmatically, so the thoughts he was thinking did not cross Yotsuyu's mind.

Which...in truth, was probably healthy for him. Who knew what she'd do if she realized his mind was in the gutter again.

"I should probably be going...I have classes to consider in the morning, after all." Even if Jecht himself might eschew them, Yotsuyu herself had absolutely no plans to. Traumatic evening or not.

"Yeah, there is that, huh? Later'n I thought. Just... send your snake if you got more trouble somehow." Better than writing it on the boards. Or coming down herself -- in, uh, similar circumstances.

"I shall do so." In truth, Yotsuyu was surprised that no one else had noticed her humiliation. She counted herself lucky, there.

With that, she escorted Jecht to the door of her quarters. "I shall see you around, then, I suppose."

He went placidly enough, a bit too embarrassed by his thoughts to make a production or a spectacle out of it like he might be inclined to otherwise. "Yeah, definitely. Ain't no getting rid of me, right?"

He dug up a grin at that as he stepped into the hall.

"I shall probably regret that there is not, but there is no getting rid of you, no."

Certainly there was something of a complaint in her words, but there was no real malice in it, either. She was...was she happy that he had been willing to help, and close enough to do so? It seemed likely, confusing as it was.

Chuckling, Jecht waved over his shoulder as he turned to head back to his room. Man, what a night.

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[Adventure] Some Enchanted Eveningwear (Closed to Jecht)

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