Lily pursed her lips, looking almost offended. “I prefer to think of them as something other than dusters,” she said, mock hurt filling her voice. “But no, I don’t really have much of a reason for bothering you. I was taking a walk and saw you, thought you might appreciate a little bit of company?” She noted how he kept holding and stroking her tail, though she didn’t give any indication of having noticed. It was, she admitted to herself, quite fun to see him do it. 

He raised an eyebrow at that, his smirk widening, showing off a series of sharp pointed teeth, “Company? with you? my greatest and most dangerous rival? How scandalous! what will the common folk say?” He threw up a hand to his brow, posing in mock shock like some renaissance painting, “What evils are you up to oh dark foxy one? we are feuding enemies are we not? We should fight to the death, not make small talk!” he held the pose for a little while playing up the drama of the situation to increase its absurdity, before he gave her a grin a mocking grin, hugging her tail to his chest a little as he did so. 

“Well, I suppose I could use someone to talk to until I go feed the pigeons and prep for this festival. What’cha want to talk about, Foxington Fox?”

[i]It’ll at least give the other students something to gossip about.[/i]

One of Lily’s eyebrows rose in a small show of entertainment. “The 13th century called, they want their acting skills back.” A small smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. “Or was it the eleventh? I can never really remember. But then again, I don’t have a lot of interest in that.” She shrugged, the eight tails that were not currently being hugged making a wave-like motion similar to her shoulders’. “But what do I want to talk about? Hmm… I guess I’ll start with saying that I’m not as antagonistic as you think. At the very least I’m trying not to be.” She pursed her lips, then, glancing off to the side. “Tsuki doesn’t like it when I tease you. She thinks I’m being too hard on you.” 

“You? Not being antagonistic?” his eyebrow raised itself a litte more, real incredulity seeping into his voice. “Did you take a blow too many to the head or something?”

Spontaneously he snapped his fingers and with a dull hum he raised himself gently off the floor, beginning his usual levitational mode of movement, his skin cracking a little like a porcelain mask as he activated his Faeish powers. He was still hugging her tail, but kept close enough to her avoid pulling it.

 “Ms Tsuki should also know better than that…” he gave her a mischievous grin, “she obviously hasn’t heard of or experienced my infamous ‘revenge tactics’.”

“I’m not sure if she has, but she’s a kind girl. She doesn’t much care who people are, and only really wants people to be happy, regardless of who they are.” Her brows bunched together in thought. “Unless, of course, they try to really harm her or people she likes, then she becomes a bit mad.” Her cheeks puffed up before she let out a heavy sigh. “Regardless, I actually try to become a bit nicer to other people, you included.” 

“How novel, she seems like a caring one, although I doubt she’ll have to worry about me, I’m in perfect cheer” he lied, grin twitching slightly as he did so, “I assume this has something to do with you and the incident with Alice?” Sindri asked, trying to steer it away from the topic of Tsuki and his own happiness, “The students had a bit of a buzz about that. Heard you got talked to by the ‘Ole Tiny Witch herself.” He looked around nervously at that, hugging her tail a bit closer and scanning the area as if he expected Slyphide to pop out at any minute and reprimand him. When she didn’t he turned to her with a look of relief on his face, “Unlucky you. You really don’t want to see her when she’s mad, trust me on that one.” His face twitched again, and he shuddered slightly, “Sweet faeish grandfathers she’s awful when she’s mad...”

“Oh… she didn’t seem that bad after I slapped her,” Lily said, eyebrows having risen high above her eyes as she worked to make her expression one of incredulity. It was a lie, of course, but she had a feeling Sindri wasn’t very good at lies when it came to Sylphide. “But enough about that, are you sure you’re in ‘perfect cheer’ as you said? You’re hugging my tail awfully tightly for someone who’s perfectly happy.” The comment was followed by a smile; a simple curve of her lips. 

He gave her a look of shock, his face contorting into what seemed to be a mixture of amusement and awe, “You slapped that Ice queen?... right in the face?” after a few moments he gave her a nod of approval, “I’m honestly wondering how you even got away with that and lived. Nobody else see’s her as she is, she’s all bubbly n’ comforting and stuff with other people, but If I’d done that she’d have dragged me to the bloody grave early like a miniature grim reaper.”

He paused, loosening his grip on her tail and giving her a sheepish and embarrassed look, “Your tails are nice and huggable though…” he muttered, avoiding looking at her properly. Although he’d never admit it to her, there was one more reason:They were quite comforting as well.

He turned his eyes elsewhere, studying the functional scenery in all its glory asides from Lily’s smile, he’d been having difficulty lying to it as nervous and agitated as he was, “I’m fine…” he muttered distractedly, looking about for phoenix girl, although it did seem that she’d left.

“I’m always fine…”

“Now we both know that’s not true,” she said, stepping into his line of sight and looking up at him, a stern expression on her face. “I’ve only known you for, what? A year and a half, and I know you well enough to tell that you’re lying right now, and pretty horribly, too. For someone who’s usually almost as good as trickery as me, you’re being really bad at it right now. So spill it, what’s up?” 

He turned towards her, but his face was different than it had been moments before. What now stared back at her was cold and angry, mixed not too little with a measure of hurtful spite as well, there wasn’t any friendliness in his eyes as he responded icily and direct to her prying. 

“Do not try and test me Lily, I’m not in the mood for it. What in the slightest makes you think I’d even tell you anything anyway? the last ‘year and a half’ as you so lightly put it has been you antagonising me, why bother adding fuel to the fire under some possibly false pretense that you’re changed now.

“You don’t know anything about me asides from what I chose to show you, so don’t act like you have rights to an explanation of anything I do.”

He began to stalk away, ceasing his levitation and dropping her tail as he did so, a cold aura settling around him as he walked away shoulders hunched. Already he could feel the anger and the misery piling up, and he didn’t want to talk about it… at least, not sober. 

“We’re not friends Lily.” he muttered beneath a heavy scowl, “just acquaintances.”

“You’re right,” she said from behind him, only a few steps away, and closing in. “I don’t know anything about you aside from what you’ve shown, and I’m not suddenly a good person, nor do I pretend to be more than what we are. However,” she stepped in front of him, tails spread out in a half-hearted attempt to bar the way, “that doesn’t mean that I can’t try. If I offended you, I’m sorry, but bottling things up never amount to anything.” Her eyes grew dark for a brief moment, the look disappearing almost as quickly as it had come. “Trust me on that.” 

He shouldered his way their her tails, not really paying much attention to her. The words did strike a cord, but he couldn’t touch them, not yet. He couldn’t let it out. “Somethings are supposed to be bottled up and forgotten.” he spat angrily at her, “Sometimes they’re just too deep for the wounds to heal, and all you can do is drown them out with whatever you can. Sometimes just thinking about them can drive a person mad, what they’re doing, who they’ve lost, how they’re stuck in a practical prison to which they can’t escape.”

He put both his hands on his skull, shaking a little in both fury and sorrow, “I don’t want to talk about them Lily, I don’t want to think about them. I just need to drown them out tonight… so that’s what I’m going to do.”

He shot her a foul look, then turned and continued walking, “I don’t need pity Lily, especially not yours.”

She gave no resistance was given as he walked through her tails, the furry appendages simply moving out of the way. She didn’t turn around as he walked past her, instead just saying. “I know that pity won’t help you, but for what it’s worth… no. There’s a festival downtown today. Anonymity and more booze than you can drink.” A sidelong smirk played at her lips. “It’s something to consider, at least.” She did not wave, nor turn around. She just walked back the way she came, tails swaying. 

He gave a mirthless chuckle, the anger fading from his eyes, leaving behind a hurt and fragile looking expression. “Oh Lily,” he murmured quietly, more to himself than anything else. “Where did you think I’d be going?”

He raised a hand to wave her off and continued to walk onwards, leaving her far behind, “Maybe I won’t feel like killing everyone in this hellhole once I’m drunk…” he muttered, his thoughts turning dark again as he began to brood once more.

With that he stalked onwards silently, a tall sharp looking figure striding onwards like some scarecrow mockery until he was lost from slight, a feeling of humor settling over him, like he was walking to the gallows.

[i]High ho, High ho, its off to the festival we go…[/i]