I mean, Seriously?! (Kale & Val)

The trap door was forces open with vigor. The entering faun heaved an exaggerated sigh and hopped up into the room, kicking the door back into the floor with a lazy kick. He tossed his bangs out of his eyes and gazed around, allowing the abundant noise of his entry announce his arrival. There was no knapsack slung over his shoulder, which was unusual. Visits more often than not occurred when he had something interesting to show the harpy.

Speaking of, where was she hiding? a fruitless glances was shot around the half floor above and then the rafters that disappeared into shadow. There was no doubt she knew he was here, and the door wasn't locked, so Valentin assumed she wasn't out at the moment. Well, he was sure she was here somewhere, so the faun crossed to an open bench by one of the clearer work tables and tossed himself down onto it with a sigh like he had just returned home from a rather stressful day at work and could finally take a breather.

He closed his eyes and buried his face between both hands while he waited for the harpy to reveal herself. There was no dire matter, so if she was busy he would wait. But there was a concerned stitch on his brow despite the lifeless way his body slumped over the tabletop.

The occupant of this top room of the tower had been up higher in the rafters, sitting cross-legged on her own nest. She was in the process of reviewing and working over her notebook. She poured over the equations and observations, data, all of it, to make sense of this new development in the reaction sequence when the door to her room slammed open. Stilling, Kale listened a moment, but her surge of murderous anger at the trespasser was smoothed over as if nonexistent as she recognized the heart. The fluttering of it was keyed in to her memory and it was probably the only person in the castle that could get away with such a presumptuous entrance in to her territory unscathed. She sighed, but trusted the boy to keep to himself until she was ready for him. She took a moment to finish her thought and jot down her ideas and updated hypothesis in the margin before sticking the pencil in the book and closing the binding around the utensil. Laying the sturdy leather cover on the mass of pillows shoved among rafters, Kale hopped forwards, dropping lightly between the beams. Opening her wings, the air caught and slowed her descent. Gliding, she angled herself towards where the faun had draped himself over one of her work benches.

Silently, she lowered, then swung out her legs for feet to meet the wooden ground. Wind ghosted out as large cream wings flapped before folding in. Casually, Kale took a few steps towards the boy and looked down at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Hello, dear. Rough day?" Her tone was light.

He hadn't heard Kale approaching, you hardly ever could. But when she spoke he just huffed quietly in stead of spooking. The harpy had steadily been becoming the one person who didn't make Valentin panic. It was ironic if he thought about it.

He face remained in his hands, muffling his affirmative groan. A rough day indeed.

"Yeah. I don't even know, Kale, I just can't..." There was a brief moment of pause while he gathered his thoughts.

He dropped his hands suddenly, revealing a scowl, and let his wrists fall helplessly to the counter top as if he could no longer contain the frustration in his palms. "I was talking to this girl today and, I don't know. It was fine, small talk, whatever. But then.. there was this... I dunno, I was a little annoyed I guess. But then it was like," he gestured vaguely with his hands like they were trying to scoop some invisible feeling from the air in front of him. "It was just building up and there was--There was so much rage." The explanation deflated him, and he slumped forwards with his arms still drooped haphazardly over the table at whatever random angles they had fallen in. His forehead connected with the surface with a defeated tump! Names weren't mentioned because it wasn't what was important. The important part was mumbled quietly into the wood, "I just wanted to kill something."

Quietly, he waited for Kale's response without moving. Surely she would understand what an overwhelming feeling he'd experienced, even if his description was simply unable to portray it with any justice. He needed her to get it. But more than that, he knew she would, more than anyone else could.

She let the silence stretch over them after such a confession. Glancing off to the side, the harpy sighed and nodded. Oh yes, she knew the feeling, and she knew the ache it caused when left unfulfilled. Taking a few steps over to one of the more filled work benches, she delicately picked up a scalpel. She returned to gently lay it down on the table next to the faun with the quiet click.

"Here, stab the table. It certainly wont help, but it'll relieve some tension and give you something to do." Kale stood behind Valentin and raised a hand to smooth over his back. Oh, her poor sweet Valentin. A smirk pulled at her lips. She felt a little bad about what he was going through, sure, it wasn't easy realizing you really want to kill people but, well...she was...proud, was it? Yes, she was proud of him for this new revelation. This, in her opinion, was a step in the right direction.

"Come now, talk. I'm here to listen. You know I wont judge you poorly for this and venting helps." Her tone quieted. "It's really not a bad thing, feeling this...despite how confusing, frustrating or strange it must be for you. The ache will leave eventually." He hadn't mentioned an ache, but she knew the tightness of the chest she felt upon being particularly enraged. It felt like your rib cage was pressing in on your lungs and heart and your hands felt as if they needed to tear something apart but also like you couldn't move them with the amount of energy coursing through, giving too many directions at once to follow. She tried to sound reassuring and understanding, there and willing to help. And she was, surprisingly.

Valentin felt like his might cry from relief when Kale did not make fun of him. But he also felt like that was too weak a reaction to permit in front of this person he had grown to admire so much, so he shoved it deep down under everything else into that place in everyone's soul where unshed tears go to wait and fester into anger and aggression.

With his face in the table, he did not see the scalpel. But he heard it, and the nearer ear twitched at the small noise. Kale's explanation supplied the rest, and he deduced what had been placed before him. A hand snaked forwards to curl around the cool handle of the instrument, and he slowly lifted his head enough to glare groggily at it. He just held it for a moment in his fist, wondering if she was seriously suggesting he stab the table, or if it was some sort of jest. He didn't suppose she would jest about it though.

Her words of comfort soothed him and he sighed contentedly without realizing he'd let some sort of metaphysical knot loose with the reassuring pressure of her hand on his back. She spoke that ache like she endured it herself, and he realized the likelihood of that immediately. If he had killed someone, if he did in the future, Kale would always accept him the way she did now.

Before he realized he'd lifted his hand, it fell back to the table. With a dull thump the head of the scalpel had been buried into the wood. She was right, it didn't really help. But the motion, and the fact that it had been on her suggesting, and her approach to aiding him, was enough to ease away enough of his anger. It left a sort of sadness in it's wake.

"I'm prey. But I'm tired of it. I don't like being scared all the time. All.. jumpy." He spat the word with venom. "And panicy. It's exhausting." He pouted and mumbled pitifully across the table while he wiggled the scalpel in the wood, "It would be better if they were scared of me instead." His pout twisted into a sneer and his mumble hardened into a superior snark, "I'm so much smarter than they are."

An elegant arch of her raised eyebrow showed her amusement at his harsh tones. For now, she ignored the scalpel, it was only there to give him something to do.

"And so you are." She spoke casually, lightly. "And so they should." The hand on his back shifted as she started slipping small bits of energy into him, trying to provide and ease away the stress in his cells and un-knot his muscles, using her thumb to rub firm but gentle circles. "Valentin, you are prey, but you have earned a spot at the side of a hunter. A hunter, who I might add, you met because she was trying to eat you..." Kale's tone was light and humorous, as she referred to herself and the odd situation in which they had encountered each other for the first time. "You are not nearly as sad a creature as you were then, and you will continue to grow. You have potential. I would not waste my time if I did not believe you capable. You know that." As harsh as it may be, she was being perfectly honest. As she saw it, Valentin had her approval, which was not an easy thing to obtain and an even harder thing to keep. It may very well be insulting to her that he did not realize and utilize what she saw. Kale hummed lightly, though when she spoke next, her tone was stronger, a sign that the time for wallowing was over.

"Come. You must motivate your anger. You can make them all realize, do not think that you have to sit and fester at their level of incompetence. You can do as you like, Valentin, and I shall expect no less. Tell me, what do you have that they do not? What are your strengths and how can you use them?"

Though Kale's words eased his mind, they also fueled his anger, lending validity to the source of his anger and frustration. It was eventually the soothing pulses of energy that seeped from her fingers into his muscles that enticed him to sigh quietly in growing comfort. An airy snort of amusement heaved in recollection of their meeting, and the faun shook his head mildly while he lifted it from the table top and buried his brow in the palm of his hand instead.

He slide his hand from his face after a moment and glared hard the scalpel. With a lazy twist, he tugged it from the wood and set it with a calmed gentleness back to the table's surface, where is rolled an inch away before stilling. He did know it was as Kale said, and did not doubt for a moment that she would not leave him behind without a second glance should he ever fail to prove himself. It filled him with a strengthened determination to never let her down, this great hunter who had shown acceptance and even a certain level of patience to a weak and inferior grass-eater such as himself. He would endeavor to leave what he had been far behind.

The sudden strength and superiority her tone undertook was cause for him to sit up straighter. His strengths?

"Motivation, invention, my machines. Drive." He felt the anger drove him. It made him feel stronger. "No fear of regret." This, Kale had given him. She was frighteningly strong, and had done hideous things, he was absolutely certain. Regret would only hinder a person, cause you to second-guess yourself and your actions. "Damn the consequences if you can get what you want, especially if someone else can be made to pay the consequences for you," he muttered darkly, with no concern that the other present would judge him for this small epiphany.

"I have determination. I will not waste the opportunities you give me, Kale. I'll earn this place, beside you." Saying so filled him with purpose and importance, that she had placed him there with her own words, and he filled his lungs with it. "I won't ever disappoint you."

He knew it was a frail promise, for it was impossible to foresee any circumstance that may present him with the unfortunate or unavoidable opportunity to fail the harpy. But it was his promise to strive against such deficiency until his last breath. And it was a great rush, to realize you had something--someone--you believed in so wholly that your life would be a sufficient gamble to ensure it's continuity.

He turned his head to glance at her from the corner of his eye. "I want to build something terrible."

Every little thing in this faun, his posture, his growing anger so thick it seemed pliable to her, his pledged deference to her, unfailing loyalty. It all made the smile on her face grow wider. There was a wicked undertone but it was more than that, her pride and affection for the boy increased exponentially. There was not much she could but let it fill her as he continued on. It swelled inside her tiny chest and, despite the improbability, she believed the words he spoke. And for all his vehemence, she stayed in quite pride of him.

"...No. I don't think you will." She hummed lightly. "I am willing to bet, that given guidance, opportunity and time, that you will grow to be a force to reckon with."

Valentin, her sweet and innocent deer, had quite a heart of burning ice underneath that soft and shy outer layer. Piece by piece, layer by layer, she would strip him of those hindrances, she was simply pleased that it was likewise tearing itself out to meet her. But, he was not ready yet, there was so much more to discovered.

"And as such, I will present these to you. Show me, Valentin. I will be watching, waiting to see what you can do. One day I will call on you, and I will be expecting nothing but perfection as you have promised me. Till that day, however, you must grow." She paused before a light chuckle escaped her. The harpy stood directly behind him, wings stretched. The light streaming in from the old white clock face cast her shadow far over the faun's shoulder's so as she opened her wings, they appeared attached his shadow bent over the table. Kale removed her hand to weave her fingers expertly through her feathers, removing but one contour feather about the size of her hand and wrist. It was a flight feather than had yet to reach it's full length and ability. Deftly she threaded it in to her student's hair before throwing it over his shoulder for him to view.

"You must learn to fly, Valentin." She smirked and patted his shoulder before taking a step back. "Build something terrible. Then build something awful." Her chin raised. She meant awful as in horrific, but also as in full of awe, solemnly impressive.

Kale's commending words elicited a tentative scoff from the faun as he looked forwards again. He struggled to believe in himself to the extent she seemed to, despite his spoken determination. But he knew that the harpy would never sugar-coat anything for anyone, and that knowledge made him feel a little proud to have done anything to earn praise from this great hunter. Of course, he wasn't about to say so even in the midst of such an empowering moment.

His eyes hardened as she spoke until he wasn't really looking at the table anymore, but boring mental holes into the wood he glared through. She would call on him one day, and he knew he had to work hard so that he would not let her down when that time came. All the same, it ached to know that he wasn't ready yet, and he felt heavy with a foreboding fear of separation. Why would she have to call on them, if they were not to disunite? But he did not comment on the choice of wording, unable to predict the future.

When his gaze refocused, it was upon the shadow that stretched over the wood before them and he felt truly inspired. All he could do was nod firmly and try not to lose his mind to the plans budding behind his eyes.

The weight of his hair unexpectedly tossed over his shoulder wasn't really what gained his attention. It was the brush of something foreign ghosting over his cheek as it passed to land with his long raven strands down the front of his shoulder and splayed across the table. Hesitantly, as if afraid to disrupt the symbolism, the faun raise a hand to brush his fingers gingerly over the soft barbs of the pale feather that had been tangled in his hair. He recognized it for what it was; him and what he could become; and swallowed his emotion thickly when he heard Kale speak his instructions.

"I will," he promised both of them quietly.

He turned his head sharply to show the harpy the inspired glint in his eye and the wicked smirk curling on his lips. He was suddenly filled with the overwhelming desire to do something worthwhile and reckless.

"Fancy some exercise?"

She watched with a critical eye his movements. He had yet to disappoint her and showed no signs of regretting anything he was saying or what he was very obviously turning in to. She likewise was unable to predict the future, but she knew that for her, things would be going in motion very fast and very soon. There was a very large possibility that she would actually need an ally. An ally like Valentin. Yes, this was good.

As he turned to face her, she tilted her chin just a bit higher, approval showing through her casual and cool expression. It was stern and proper...and perhaps a bit motherly in the subtly displayed fondness and pride lain there within the lights in her eye and the corner of her lips. She nodded once in acknowledgement of his pledge.

Studying his expression she could not have been more pleased and found her own wickedness seeping through into a small smirk. Valentin's sudden question, however, had her raising her eyebrow in slight surprise. It seemed a rather sudden thing. She turned her head to look at the large clock and hummed in contemplation. She had yet to finish going over her notes and those things must really be sorted...so much work to be done really...but...

Kale turned to look at the faun's face and found she could not deny him.

"Alright." She smiled in surprisingly genuine good-nature combined with mischievous playfulness. She lifted a hand almost daintily, palm down, for him to take. "Shall we? What do you have in mind?"

He saw her hesitate in that brief moment, but he also had seen her wicked smirk that mirrored his own, and he knew that she would join him. So when she agreed, he grinned broadly and finally rose from his seat to face her. He slipped his hand beneath her knuckles, trapping her daintier fingers gently between his palm and his thumb.

"I feel like running until my lungs explode. Or my legs, whichever goes first."

With that explanation sufficing for him, he turned to lead the way from the tower.


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