Seeking Refuge (pun intended)

[wishingalone]

Who: Mami and Yosuke
Where: On the way to Refuge, then at Refuge.
When: Week 78
What: Travel! Adventure! And Mami doesn't want to admit that they're totally flirting, too!

"Holding up fine down there?"

Mami has checked, routinely, on Yosuke as they travel. She is more than capable of moving across long distances quickly. With her ribbons and her limited flight powers, courtesy of being a Child of the Howling Gale, she is able to leap from landmark to landmark. She can carry Yosuke with her easily enough; she has another ribbon around him, with loops for him to hold onto. The loops end in elegant bows, to tie them together, because Mami is a little ridiculous sometimes. She made sure that he practiced moving with her, just the same. Despite appearances, it takes some balance and focus on on his part.

But she has it down to a rote movement, ribbons flying to keep them moving. At the moment, they are moving through a wooded area, and nearing Refuge. They probably have a few more hours, at least by Mami's best recknoning.

"I told you that it would be fine!" she calls back down. Mami winks when she does, before she looks back up, and casts her ribbon for the next tree.

Comments

[punchesyu]

"No way, you sure you didn't hit your head or something?" It comes out of his mouth without thinking, disbelief coating his words. "Only Windblessed can do that. I'm just a normal joe."

It hurts to stand, but he manages it. His arm covers his stomach, holding it to deal with the pain shooting through his body. It doesn't hurt to breathe, so that's a good sign. He glances back up at the trees, terrified to think about going back up via ribbon. It hits him now, that he could have died, that a little screw up like that almost cost him a lot.

"Yeah, we're not traveling by ribbon anymore. I thought I was a goner! Man, I thought you said that was going to be safe!" It's callous, letting his emotions get the better of him, upset about what had just happened.

[wishingalone]

"Lest you forget, I wasn't the one who hit their head," Mami says. But then the next words come out. She can't blame him, really, after what happened. But nonetheless, they sting -- perhaps more than they should, playing into insecurities that she has about keeping people safe and how she is viewed -- which ultimately makes her glance to the side sharply.

She ultimately turns away and walks forward. Her attempt to make it like she is getting back to business, and letting the remark slide off, is painfully transparent. It is also a failure.

"I'm sorry," she says. Some of her guilt comes into her voice, thickening it, and Mami pointedly walks forward so he can't see her face. "I should have been more cautious." It comes out tersely. "...We can walk the rest of the way, if you would like. We should be there before sundown, if we do."

[punchesyu]

Yosuke is smart enough to see what his words had just done. He'd gone a little too far, even as upset as he was. It was obvious enough, the way she turned and how her voice sounded, and he immediately regrets opening his mouth at all. His own voice softens, and he walks over to join her, looking genuinely apologetic for what he'd just said.

"Mami...no, that was my fault, I'm the one who should be sorry," he says, stopping at her side, and little behind her. "I lost concentration of what I was doing, and then that happened. I didn't mean to yell at you."

[wishingalone]

"I promised that you would be safe."

Mami doesn't say it with any rancor or anger. It's a simple statement of fact, something she tries to do when she doesn't want to argue. Sometimes, it is to defend herself. Sometimes, it is to cover up when her feelings have been hurt. She stops walking forward, though, and looks down at the ground. She still isn't meeting his eyes, much less facing him.

"I should have been ready for something like that," she says. "You don't need to pretend otherwise, Hanamura. I could have gotten you killed. You're right to be angry with me."

She starts walking again.

[punchesyu]

"Dammit, Mami..." He jogs, moving to place himself in front of her. He knew he screwed up, but he's not going to let her walk off like that. She's been nothing but nice to him, and it hurts him to see her like this. His voice hosts determination now, to make her feel better, and to make her feel like she didn't have to shoulder this all by herself.

"Who cares, I'm okay now, right?" His face sets, not backing down. "So what if we didn't have a backup plan. We both screwed up, so there's no reason for you to be walking off like that thinking it's all your fault. It was an accident, I shoulda been paying more attention to what I was doing."

His head moves to try to get a glimpse of her face.

"C'mon, at least look at me."

[wishingalone]

She stops walking when he shoots in front of her, but she doesn't look up at first. She grows still, her eyes locked on the forest floor in lieu of risking a glance at anything else. It feels safer, that way.

"I've done this before. It's kind of you to say so, but..." She crosses her arms across her chest. It's a subconscious effort to make herself smaller. "...I have more experience. And I must think of more than you. What would I have told your family?"

She finally looks at him. She isn't in tears or anything of the sort -- her composure is better than that -- but she doesn't look happy. Her smile is on shaky ground. "I wasn't being who I'm supposed to be."

[punchesyu]

"Yeah, well, I really don't care about that 'who you're supposed to be' stuff. Everyone makes mistakes. I mean yeah, that woulda sucked bad if it hadn't ended up the way it did...but it didn't." His expression softens. It's hard to find the right words to say. He didn't want to think about Mami having to go to his dad and explain what happened. He doesn't want to think about any of that.

"You can't beat yourself up about it. Besides, what did you say again? That I flew or something? We wouldn't of found that out if this hadn't happened, right?" He winks, even if he's not totally buying the whole flying thing. As much as he wants it to be true.

[wishingalone]

He doesn't care about who she is supposed to be. Mami looks up, surprised at the sentiment and surprised at herself for being startled. He had said she was cool, after all, and more so after getting to know her. Mami blinks once at him. Her guard and her depressed thinking slips for a moment.

When she looks away, it is with embarrassment and relent, instead of the torrent of emotions before. "You did fly," she says. "I saw it clearly. Perhaps floated is a better word, but... I know what I saw."

[punchesyu]

"You're serious about this, huh?" Seeming surprised, he looks back at her again in disbelief. "If I really did that, that means I'm a Windblessed too. But I've never had any signs at all that I'd be something like that."

Though, if Mami says she was sure of it, then he's starting to think that maybe he really did fly. He throws his hand up behind his head, rubbing it- it's hurting his brain to think about this. Was he really? That would be so awesome.

"Okay, so like, what am I supposed to do, say the magic words?"

[wishingalone]

She blinks at him. Magic words? Is he serious?

He is serious. Despite the crash in her mood just a few moments before, she smiles -- it's more nervous than usual, still -- and shakes her head. "Despite what you may have heard, and perhaps it's a disappointment, we don't have magic words. Close your eyes."

Her tone becomes the usual one, when she lectures. "Clear your mind, as best you can, and let it... float." Her eyes don't close, but she looks up. Her expression becomes more vacant. "Can you feel it? There's a presence there. It's always around us, always cradling us."

She lets out a breath. "That's the wind. That's ours. Now, call it, with your mind."

[punchesyu]

It's crazy sounding, but he does as he's told. If anything to entertain the idea that he might actually be able to do it. Secretly, he really hopes that it wasn't the heat of the moment that maybe made her see something that hadn't really happened at all- and that he could. And he feels a little less stupid because she's instructing him, even if he does feel a little dumb standing in the middle of the forest with his eyes closed.

One eye pokes open, and immediately closes to make sure she hadn't seen him, proceeding to clear his mind and think about the wind. And calling it, however way he could. At first, it doesn't seem to work. But he redoubles his efforts with a deep breath, and to his surprise, something seems to be there. It feels like it's always been there, and Yosuke focuses on that as the winds pick up once more, swirling around him. His feet lift slowly from the ground, an act he barely notices, until he floats a good foot or so above the ground.

It's now that his eyes open once more, looking down at Mami from his new height, eyes wide in utter surprise.

And he falls, that short distance, right on his butt. The winds subside, and he groans.

"Owwwwwww!!!! Dammit, can't I have a soft landing ever??? My ass....."

[wishingalone]

When he floats, Mami is truly elated. She goes from a low to a high in a short time -- an emotional roller coaster, if there ever was one -- but she is immensely proud of him, then. She didn't think he was a Windblessed. It doesn't precisely change anything, but it feels right too. When he falls, though, she covers her mouth with a hand quickly.

She may be holding back a laugh. It was kind of funny. (It was also a little cute.)

But then she lowers her hand to him and nods. "You flew," she repeats. "You're a Windblessed, Yosuke. I don't know how, but... congratulations."

[punchesyu]

Reaching for the extended hand, he takes it, still annoyed that his ass was going to hurt a little. But, she was right, he was. Lifting himself up with her help, his face lights up, the idea that he was something actually special starts to dawn on him.

"...Yeah. I am, aren't I?" He feels giddy, and it's worn clearly on his face. He was a Windblessed. He had all these powers and stuff that came with it, didn't he?

"This is so cool!!!!" He exclaims, half shouting it in her face. But best of all, is that he'd discovered his powers with her along, and she seemed happy about it too. He'd wished that maybe he could have had time to practice to impress her further, but he'll take it.

"Thanks. I guess this is what it feels like to be a Valkyrie from Citadel, huh?" He grins stupidly at her, so excited to use his new found powers.

[wishingalone]

Mami pulls back when he shouts with excitement -- she can't blame him, though, because she did the same when she was little -- and grins despite herself. "It is, yes."

At least in part. There's rather more to it, but she doesn't need to explain.

"I'm happy for you," she says. Her tone rises in cheerfulness as she speaks. "It's wonderful news. And opens several opportunities and--ah, our training can take a whole new form, now, too. I can teach you to fly, too! Oh, and we can fly together!"

[punchesyu]

"This is so sweet! We are so gunna fly the rest of the way there now! ...As soon as I figure out how." He doesn't know if he'll get it right off the bat, but he sure as hell was going to try. And he was going to make sure he'd get better and better at it, no matter what. Especially if she wanted to do more things with him, now he can't back down and slack off nearly as much. The discovery came with a rejuvenation of wanting to be a little stronger, because he can't not use what he has. He doesn't want to be useless.

"Let's worry about the training when we get back to Union. We're totally going flying now! C'mon!" Concentrating, he calls the wind once more, finding it a little easier this time now that he believes in himself. Taking off at a run, he lets it pick him up into the air- though it's a really shaky take off, but he manages to stay in the air. Yosuke is still wobbly, not having a full grasp, but he's not missing the chance to look and feel cool now.

[wishingalone]

"I'm right behind you," Mami says, only a little more calmly. Her excitement isn't exactly shouted or squealed, after all. But it's still there, plain and simple to see. Mami beams at him, before she produces a length of ribbon. She watches him take to the air, carefully. If he falls, that wouldn't do at all. Sometimes powers are hard to control.

But, she realizes, he has it. She grins, then, and throws her hand up. The ribbon snaps to a tree limb, and pulls her up afterward. She goes flying after him, her own wind making her soar.

[punchesyu]

He doesn't go too high, dodging around trees with a little difficulty. His altitude fluctuates, dropping suddenly every now and again, but he tries to keep his focus on what he's doing so he doesn't drop all the way down to the ground. He's at least made sure if he does fall that he'll be okay, but now he's realized that playing it safe here means he has to dodge branches.

Which he doesn't get too far until he misses one because he's too busy looking over to Mami and smiling at her like an idiot.

He runs his head right into one, dropping from the air but catching himself and floating there as he holds his head.

"Okay-!" He says with strain, "I think this is gunna take a little more practice than I thought-!" But don't worry, he's okay.