I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring. I do, don't you? 'Course you do.

[comparative_insanity]

Who: Youou (Kurogane) and Fenn (Fai)
What: Fuck yeah it's awesome to be out in the sun andHOSHIT WHAT IS THAT HAIRY THING EVEN? (AKA a stroll in the park turning into Vermedi shenanigans)
Where: A park. Some park. Everyone likes parks.
When: Afternoon of the 29th yep
Warnings: No one warned Fay that turning into a creature of the night hurts a fuckload. Oh, and blood-drinking might be a thing that happens. Weeeeee.

***

Being sort of together with Youou was to Fay just a long series of new and unexpectedly nice experiences. Going to museums; someone cooking for him properly since the first time since he was 16; spending evenings at home listening to someone reading to him and giggling at his unbelievably British accent. And now a stroll in the park. He was pretty sure that just random strolling was only things that happened before when Emery managed to drag him along by being such a lovable dork that it was hard to resist. This was different, though. Youou was actually holding his hand, for crying out loud. It felt like another of those things that he supposed that real couples did, and once more brought the question up if maybe he didn't actually have an honest-to-God boyfriend.

Maybe soon he'd actually get up the courage to ask.

But not right now. The sun was falling in slanting rays across the small pond they walked along, the smell of freshly mowed grass and rain was heavy in the air, and everything was just a little too perfect to break the silence, or really do anything but sigh a bit and lean against the other man.

...well, up until the moment when he glimpsed something a bit too big to be a cat or a rat disappear into a cluster of bushes. He blinked, halting. "Did you see that? Or... Or can you feel it?" After all, Youou now had strange new senses that allowed him to feel strange things.

Comments

[shut_up_idiot]

Youou had been smiling down at Fai, squeezing his had lightly as they walked, instead of looking where they were going so he'd missed the thing as it scurried into the bushes. But he stopped when Fay stopped, the look on his face turning into one of mild surprise.

"Hmm? No, I didn't see anything." He raised his eyebrows a bit at the question, not sure why it should be important, but Fay had asked and so. "But I can see if I can feel something."

He focused. He'd become pretty good at turning this weird sensing thing off, unless it was too crowded, but had yet to reach the point where he could use it continuously without being distracted by it. As so, he needed to concentrate whenever he wanted to purposely use it.

He could feel the warm presence of Fay next to him, and the slightly different ones from the various other people walking in the park. He closed his eyes, picking up the smaller energies of the animals, before directing his attention to the bushes Fay had been looking at. What he felt was, well it was strange. He opened his eyes again, looking at his companion.

"I feel something but it's...It's weird." He shrugged a bit helplessly. "It's animal-ish but it's not right, it's like there's something wrong with it." Another shrug, this time accompanied by a small smile. "Or my spider senses are just off. Why? What did you see?"

[comparative_insanity]

Fay frowned, shaking his head slowly and tugging at Youou's hand as he stepped a bit closer. "I ain't sure that they are off, actually. I saw something pretty weird... or well, weird for a park, anyway." He was still walking closer, head tilted to the side in curiosity, but he was also moving very cautiously, as if waiting for his cue to turn tail and run. And because he's anxious, he's aware of the world in that weird way again, unconsciously plotting out the distance between a sizable rock in the grass, a fallen tree limb, anything that could be turned into a weapon if he really had to. It's a strange thing, this new way of seeing the world around him, but it might just also be useful.

"It looked like a big animal, you know? Too big for being something that lives in a park, I think. The biggest I ever saw was a hare. So either something's escaped from a zoo, or there's something-" He looks up at Youou, eyes wide, "-you know... like the freak animals, that sort of thing. Not natural."

[shut_up_idiot]

He let himself get tugged along, more concerned because Fay was than because of what he'd felt himself. He hadn't learned to trust his senses yet and even with all the weird things that had been going on he still had a hard time believing there was something going on here. But Fay obviously thought there was and in the end that was really all incentive Youou needed.

"Some wild animals can get rather big, you know. Even those living in a park." But the freak animal thing was, unfortunately, also a valid theory now that he had been reminded of their existence and he frowns in concern, moving closer to Fay in case something, even though he had no idea of what, were to happen. "Just, be careful will you. No matter what it is, it's probably a good idea to not take too many chances, right?"

[comparative_insanity]

He just shook his head in response at first, because even if it had only been a glimpse, he was pretty sure no wild animals that he knew of looked like that. Unless it was some kind of very small bear, but somehow he severely doubted that they'd allow one to exist peacefully within the park.

"I'm being careful, sugar. I ain't gonna rush in on it, whatever it might be. Besides, you're with me, ain't that right?" He grinned at the other man, squeezing his hand gently, and it was true that he felt a lot safer than if he'd been alone. But just in case, he snatched a broken bottle from near the foot of the first bushes. Which was good, since only a moment later a squirrel with a freakishly human-like face and too-big hands dropped out of the tree right at him. He made a startled squeaking noise and slashed at the thing with the jagged end of the bottle, and it screeched and fell to the ground, where it lay twitching.

"I think we can safely say that it's something like those bug-things, right?" Although it didn't seem as if any were going to start pouring out of the squirrel, strangely enough.