A Stormy Afternoon
This is for you, Freaky! I DID need a break from writing my own fics. Enjoy and I hope I don’t offend you! I own nothing because everything in here is owned by Freaky!

The clouds were gathering and the sky was abundant with dark, gray clouds bunching together. It was not at all uncommon for storms in Sybak, being so close to Flanoir and all. Add that to the countless amount of knowledge that could be gained from the books and history tomes in the Sybak Library and you have a moderately happy half-elf on your hands.

She loved the sound of the pealing rain on her bedroom roof. She loved the sight of the normally busy little marketplace stalls abandoned, simply because people were too dainty to get their feet wet. She loved the quiet and peace the rain brought and, most of all, she loved the crackling of the thunder and how the lightning lights up the sky with its power. And she relished that she could control that thunder and lightning.

Hearing her mother and her grandmother arguing downstairs yet again about preparations for the soon-to-be new addition to their family, the blue-haired half-elf scowled. She couldn’t believe all the fuss they were making. And over what? Another whiny little brat that she’ll have to babysit twentyfourseven? Jeremy was quite enough, thank you very much. And he was only her cousin.

She strode over to her balcony door and slid the glass open, stepping out onto the balcony. It wasn’t shielded overhead and the rain was pouring down from the heavens. The real heaven. Not Derris-Kharlan.

She leaned her arms against the cool metal of the balcony and let out a small, irritated sigh. The rain trickled down from her bangs and dripped into her crystal blue eyes before she brushed her bangs aside with a small, irritated grunt. Everything seemed to irk her lately, especially now that it was almost the due date for the baby. Mother had become extremely odd, not even insisting on cooking anymore. Yet she always had time to argue with Grandmother but never time for her.

The rain was coming down harder now and the heat of her anger seemed to be fading away as she seemed to have just noticed the icy cold of the air outside. But it beat listening to arguments all day any day. She gave a subconscious shiver and pulled her cloak around her a bit tighter in an attempt to soak up its warmth before it was waterlogged.

The half-elven girl stared out at the endless rows of buildings and other houses. They looked identical on the outside, but in each house, harbored a family with a snobby, genius kid who went to the Sybak Academy and considered himself or herself better than other people. She detested those kinds of people.

“I know you said you liked a gray sky,” came a voice from behind her, sounding almost amused. Keyword being ‘almost’. The voice still held a dark tone to it. “But isn’t this a bit too much?”

“What do you want?” Chala muttered darkly without even turning around. That voice was only too familiar. Things hadn’t exactly ended smoothly last time they’d met… Why did she have to insist on experimenting on him? Why?! And worst of all, his SISTER had seen it. Dear Martel, there was no worse humiliation.

“Nothing.” He replied simply, walking up to her side and leaning against the balcony as well. That annoyed her to no ends. How did he even get past her mother, grandmother AND father without anyone noticing? He must’ve noticed her irritated expression because he started to scowl. “Maybe I just wanted to see you again.”

“What would you need that you had to come specifically to MY house, sneak past my squabbling parents and grandmother, and then sneak up on ME like that?” The blunette retorted, completely furious and utterly perplexed at the exact same time. Why did he say that? Why would he want to see HER? Oh, no… It couldn’t be… She swore she’d never let another man get close to her, not after what happened last time. She exhaled with a heavy heart.

“I…” he seemed to falter, looking for words to fill in the gap of awkward silence that lingered between them. His expression became unreadable and he turned away from her, looking off to the distance. The rain suddenly became deafening loud when the arguments downstairs ceased for a few precious moments before starting up heatedly. “Last time…I…When we…”

She knew it. He was talking about last time, when they’d accidentally kissed. But…it wasn’t as if it was THAT bad… Certainly not terrible enough that he’d come all the way from wherever he lived to come confront her about it. Well…all right, it was pretty humiliating. She sighed.

“It was just an accident,” Chala scoffed, folding her arms underneath her cloak, rustling it just a tiny bit. It WAS an accident… But why did she feel so…good about it? “You don’t have to make such a big deal about it.”

“No! I meant…” Kral spun around, the water flying out of his spiky hair and barely missed Chala by a few millimeters. He paused and when he spoke again, it was in a hoarse whisper. “I…felt. I felt emotions when we…”

The half-elf’s eyes widened a tiny bit, her mind already reeling with all the wonderful possibilities of this happening and the reasoning for it. She was already half-considering electrocuting him immediately to study but that wouldn’t exactly be safe with all the water falling out of the sky. If she were to use electricity here, she’d probably shock his heart or something like that and be more likely to kill him than anything.

“That’s impossible.” She replied flatly, finally deciding that there was no one in hell something like that could happen to someone like Kral, who came from a dimension composed of nothingness and ruled by a Spirit who was filled with malice.

“That’s what my sister said,” Kral growled in frustration, his expression turning quite sour, indeed. “But…it couldn’t hurt to check, would it?”

She could see the direction this conversation was taking and Chala didn’t like it one bit. There was no way in Hell was she going to kiss him again, not intentionally, anyways...right? She shook her head firmly, giving him one of her glares.

“Yes, it would.” Chala scowled, trying to decipher her own feelings. Part of her wanted to just give in and give him one little peck. But the other part vehemently shook its head and offered a long list of reasons why she should NOT kiss this guy. Unfortunately, the second part won out. “So, absolutely not.”

“…I didn’t want to have it come to this…” Kral sighed, his eye twitching slightly at ‘this’. “…hmph. If you do this one thing for me, I’ll let you study me.”

“Excellent, when do we start?” Chala rolled her sleeves up and brushed her cloak back over her shoulder, her lips curving up into a grin. Not a normal grin, no, never. A psychotic grin that showed lust for science and knowledge of the Nagithian people. Ehehehehe… Oh, wait, what did she have to do to study him, again? …Oh, Martel.

She shuffled reluctantly over to him and was just about to place her lips on his when there was a chirp from the side, then followed by a sniffling sound. Chala slowly turned her head to see one green, annoying-as-hell bug standing on the balcony railing, a box of tissues by its side and one in its hand. Kral looked like he was going to kill the Fred the cricket and then dip him in chocolate before chomping him down in the most violent way possible.

Chala looked just as livid, though more annoyed than anger. She stalked over to the bug and picked it up between her thumb and index finger, bringing it up to her eye level. It had dropped its napkin and now was cowering in terror.

“Listen, bug,” she hissed, her eyes narrowing down to slits as she shook the bug a little to get her point across. “If I were to ever find you around me ever again… Let’s just say bugs with antennae make wonderful lightning rods.”

“Crick!” the green cricket nodded its head violently, its eyes going wide with fear. Chala scoffed before dropping the annoying critter to the ground, where it frantically hopped away. Kral looked absolutely frustrated at the interruption. Sighing inwardly, Chala walked back up to him and pressed her lips gently to his. Needless to say, that was very surprising in the least.

After about two or three moments, Chala stepped back down and cocked her head to the side a bit to observe his reaction, mentally storing it in her mind for later. Who knows, it could come in handy again someday. His facial expression seemed to range from shock, to surprise, to wonder, and to amazement as he blinked a few times.

“I was right…I did feel something,” he murmured to himself, barely audible, even with Chala’s angelic hearing. Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch at this tidbit of information. Was it possible that a kiss would allow Nagithians to feel emotion? But that couldn’t be it… That was far too simple… What if…what if it was love?

She contemplated that theory for all of a second before shaking her head. It couldn’t be, Nagithians were incapable of feeling love or any emotion resembling even the slightest affection. Or, at least that’s what she’d always assumed. But she would be able to learn more about him when she studied him.

Chala grabbed his arm and started dragging him into her room, her lips curled up in a wicked grin as she slammed her balcony door closed. She didn't really care at the moment that they were both dripping rain water all over her bedroom floor as she shoved him in the vague direction of her bed.

“Now… Let me get my scalpel.”