Savannah Fukui's dorm (Private | Mature)

Savannah ground her teeth, clenching her fists as she drew her attention back to the horizon. "What could I possibly want?"

"There's a lot of things someone could want." she shrugged, "I just want enough to get by, my family back, and to be able to live a normal life. But you've got something beyond that. You have your family, you have enough to get by, you're beautiful, intelligent... I'd imagine someone like you, who too often intimidates others with how confident you are in what you are, probably longs for something more basic than your intelligence would recognize." she turned on her butt, propping her feet on the wall and laying her head back on the floor, "Like friendship, or love, or acceptance... Purpose, even."

She closed her eyes, hiding the tears the formed and threatened to escape. "Why would I want that?"

"Because despite that big, beautiful brain of yours saying otherwise," she chuckled, smiling up at her friend, "You're human. We're all fallible. If you're going to have a fault, at least make it one you enjoy."

She snorted, sliding out of her position to lay in the grass and stare up at the stars. "My fault is my heart. It always is. Anger, desire..." she shook her head, "I have no need for love, of any kind."

"I find love more of a strength, personally." she shrugged, "You saw my panic attack at the formal? Usually I can avoid having those if I look at this." She pulled a necklace off of her neck, with a dangling circular charm all in gold, and handed it to Savannah.

She took it gently, holding it as though it would shatter if she so much as breathed on it. Her eyes examined it with the delicacy and attention of a jewel dealer, and she smiled softly before handing it back. "Your mother, I assume?'

Beyril nodded, pulling it back around her neck, with a soft smile, "Yeah, it is. It was with the things she left when they ran. The only thing left in her jewelry box. But, then again, it was the only piece she ever wore."

Savannah nodded before looking up and sighing. "I'm to get my mother's engagement ring, whenever she feels that I am ready." She shrugged, distanced. "She always looks at it with such wonder, such calm... I've never understood it. Perhaps the memories of that time were good, perhaps even wonderful, but what about now?" She shook her head, "My mother's a fool that cowers in her own skin and hides behind a veil of 'love' to justify why she complies to father's every whim, why she has not left him behind. If that is what love does to a person, I want nothing to do with it."

"My mother and my father liked to argue." she chuckled, "Not in a scary, shouting kind of way, but to almost assert to one another that they were in control of their own lives. They had simply come to value one another's opinions as well. And they respected one another's differences. Neither one of them was ever the 'pants' in the relationship. They were partners. Like a weapon and meister."

"Weren't they, though?" She said, looking over at her, the tears still there, still having not filled enough to fall, "Partners, I mean?"

She shook her head, "No, they could have been. Their wavelengths matched up." she chuckled, "But they knew that if anything happened to the other in battle, they couldn't stand it. So they never fought together."

She nodded, closing her eyes though she faced the sky once more. "I've never been like that, not really. I mean... there are my siblings. I'd destroy the world and myself, die every day to let them breathe, to let them live, but I've never been that way with anyone else." Her eyes squeezed shut even tighter. "Of course, I suppose that mean that no one has been that way with me, either."

"They might have been," she shrugged, "The thing about that kind of love? Sometimes it's too afraid to show itself."

She shook her head, "I don't let anyone care that much." Savannah looked over at her, eyes opening, the tears clinging to her upper lashes, "I push people away as soon as they get too close. Do you know how many exes I've had?" The meister shook her head, sighing shakily. "You are the closest person I have ever known without sleeping with."

"Trust me, you won't sleep with me." she chuckled, "And I'm aware of the string. And perhaps that's more a sign of you loving them." she teased.

She promptly flicked her off. "I've slept with 99 'lovers' in the past," a persistent reminder told her that she was leaving one out, but it didn't feel right to include him in the count. "I did not love them."

"Something pulled you towards them. That can be a kind of love." she shrugged, ignoring the finger, "Love is everything to me. You'll never convince me it isn't the singular most powerful force in the universe."

"And you will never convince me that it will do anything but kill me." She sighed, pulling herself up to her feet before looking at the house. "I better check on him. The fool might overestimate himself and jump down from the framework.

Beyril nodded, letting her eyes close with a smile as she clasped the necklace tight.

She didn't say a word as she walked around, sliding out of her flats on the front steps and lifting the skirt up. Savannah untied the initial waist sash before lifting up her gown. She tied the corner of it into the waistband and finally headed inside. The meister wouldn't say a word, merely walking around and looking for him, staring in wonder around the abandoned mansion.

Akira had climbed to the rafters, and jumped down gracefully as he saw her approach, a confused look on his face, "You wanting to go home..?"

"No." She said simply, looking up at him; her expression was guarded but her eyes were sad. There was pain there, as well as confusion and something else that she had left unidentified. "I... was looking for you, actually."

Akira nodded, looking to make sure Beyril wasn't there, "Ah... I, uh... see." His cheeks turned crimson, "I should apologize, actually. Earlier. I was imposing. Rushing to conclusions because my mind wished them so-" he shook his head, "The point is, I told you when we first met I wasn't here to tie you down. You're still free, and I apologize for letting my heart get in the way of your happiness."

She shook her head, shifting on her feet, unsure of herself. Savannah knew why he'd looked around, but she did her own search for Beyril herself. After a few moments, tense and silent, where she was looking at her feet, she suddenly stepped forward. Her hand took ahold of his shirt once more, and she tugged him down, rising onto her tiptoes to meet his lips with her own; she had to know.

The touch, forced at first, was tender, but it sparked a wildfire in seconds. Her heart pounded, flooding her face with color as she pressed against him, blushing and wondering, trying to convey to him without words her own confusion. She didn't want to rely on him, didn't want to need him, to want him, and all while fearing him at the same time. However, she had to know whether or not she had proper reason for these things, whether or not that's what these feelings even were. Attraction was something far from unfamiliar to her, as was desire; these things, she expected, these things, she knew, but she had to know whether or not there was anything more.