In Light of Consideration

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity stopped running after 200 metres. She wasn't exhausted. It'd be stupid if she was. But she was crying and tears made running harder. Tears blurred vision. Tears. Blurring eyes. Running blindly. This reminded her exactly of those years before hand. The last time she did so was when her sister died. Kuroha. She missed her. Vera forced herself to come to a stop. Running or walking till she became lost didn't help anyone, herself included. Running was a coward's thought and she hated cowards. More tears welled in her eyes. She hated cowards and she was one. She shook her head to clear her head. Funny how even after she tried to honour her sister, she managed to fail miserably. What she needed was a lecture and she had no one to give her one. No one but herself that is she corrected herself. She laughed. She had enough lectures in her life time to understand how they went. First, she had to address her problems and next, she had to ask herself how to fix those problems. Sure she could that.

Vera started to walk again. If she was going to give herself a lecture, she was going to give herself some private space. She spied a little alleyway coming from the corner of the street she was walking in and decided to enter. It was more or less a dead end rather than an alley but it didn't matter, it still resonated peace to her. The alley was lit dimly by the lone lamp in the street and Vera made her way towards it. Once she reached the bottom of the post, she sat cross legged and leaned against the wall. Time to start her inner lecture then.

First, it was finding what was stupid. Sounded easy enough. She had four main ones. A) Not listening to others opinions. That was exactly what she had done when she was talking to Tatsuma. The thought of him made her cringe. How weak was she to just run. She had been through a lot more than his stupid words but she ran anyways. Showed how fragile she really was. And what her big fat pretense was. She looked down at the dagger in her hand. Hauskor. Hauskor meant Fragile. Fitting for her current state. Fiera Ignis? Not so much. Fair fire wasn't words she would use to describe herself. But she was getting off track, which led her to problem c) but in chronological order b) came first. And so b) was she thought going by instinct was betting than having a plan. As much as she hated strategy, she admitted it could be handy. It wasn't one of her major problems but fixing the minor ones before they became major was better. Back to c) She'd rather run than fight. Pretending was running. And then finally d) her lack of...self-esteem. That was a hard one to admit.

Vera wiped the remaining tears off her face. Now she would add in a step 1.5 in giving lectures. What was the root cause of all her problems. As always, it was probably her fears. She let her mind wander back to that fateful day she had run off to the woods, to the time before that incident. What had Kuroha said again? "I don't get why you're so bent on staying in your little shell! I mean what are you afraid of? More loss? Depression? Look at you. You tried to pretend that everything was fine but in the end, pretending is just pretending. It's not real!" And so it went on. Verity listened to her sister's words, the thing that really immortalised her in her memory. It was so true. It really turned out her problems a, b, c and d were just the same ones as yesterday. Fear of what other's said when in fact, what others said could lead to improvement. Fear of loss when it could help one to grow stronger. That was all what Kuroha said but it turned out she hadn't actually listened. She wished she could be brave and she wished she could get over her unreasonable fears. But they were still fears and fears took some time to get over. Some were easier than others to do so and she had a feeling her one of people's opinions would fade quicker than her one of loss.

In the meantime, she could try and solve a), b), c) and d). A, by listening to others, b, by simply being half strategic at least (she couldn't change the fact she hated strategy), c, by standing up to her fears and d, by not listening to herself. Of course not totally, just the bits where she told herself others were way better than her. Doing that would help her in the long run. Not that she ever liked those bits about herself anyways. Verity gave a small smile to herself. It was a nice goal. For now though, she'd just close her eyes and enjoy the silence before she traveled back to Magnolia. So that was what she did.

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma stood for a second and blinked when Verity walked... Or rather ran, away from the fight. He wasn't entirely sure what to think about it. At first he was thinking he might have been too harsh, but then, and after careful consideration, and only when her words demonstrated that she had completely missed what he had been trying to say. It wasn't that he was blameless, nor that he was superior to her. He had only been trying to get her to take responsibility for her actions. Still, and to his surprise, the area was mostly untouched, other than a scorch mark on the ground where the bulk of their fight had taken place, the whole area hadn't been destroyed which was odd because it had been two Fairy Tail members fighting.
"Hmmm, must be losing my touch." He thought to himself as he walked back to the stall.
"So are you really a Fairy Tail mage." The stall owner asked Tatsu.
"Yep, infamous for pissing off the magic council and everything." He replied with a sheepish grin as he held up the his hand to show the Fairy Tail guild tattoo.
"Heh, don't worry about the extra twenty percent. I'd say free, but a man's gotta eat." The guy replied.
"Yeah, well since I just spent the last five minutes or so looking at my planned date with my fists I'm guessing that's blown out the window. Why don't you take a break and eat with me." Tatsu suggested.
"Thanks, but uh... I kinda hid some of the stuff you brought in the back, why don't you go take some to that girl?" The shop keeper countered. This caused Tatsu to think. Sure he had probably ruined the date prospect, but she was probably still recovering from the electricity, plus it wasn't like he couldn't just track her down anyway, but he had no idea how to approach it. By now any residual bioelectricity was going to be gone which left scent by which to try to find her unless he could get close enough to detect her signature.

"You know what, I might just do that." He said, taking the two plates and heading off. Strangely her scent wasn't that difficult to try to follow. It still blended in with scents from other sources from time to time, leaving him to guess where she had actually gone to, but once he got close enough he could tell her bioelectric signature. Other while Kotone seemed to be able to track things using only scent, Tatsu found that his sense of smell wasn't as good as hers, his best sense was that bio-electric detection and her electrical signature smelled... For lack of a better word it smelled like nature, and that was something he loved. Still, she was probably going to be miffed, and he wasn't going to apologize either.

He didn't come upon her until after the lecture she gave herself, and wordlessly set the plate down in front of her.
"You know, half this food was still for you. Even if you couldn't tell why what just happened managed to come about I wasn't planning on letting you starve." He said flatly. His tone was very 'matter of fact' and he set the plate down in a way that was meant to indicate he felt obligated rather than inclined to bring her food.
"You might even consider tipping your waiter. I mean it's not like I just make food deliveries all over town." He said with a smirk.

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity was enjoying the silence in the alley by herself. That was until someone disrupted it much to her annoyance. Alone time was called alone time for a reason. It meant the presence of other humans was greatly unappreciated. So when she heard the plate get set down in front of her, her aspirations of taking a spin with her senses was significantly dashed. Maybe if she ignored the other person they would go away. Sounded reasonable enough. And so she remained with her eyes closed as the other person started speaking...who turned out to be the recognisable voice of Tatsuma. Oh god. Just because she promised herself to accept people's criticism, it didn't then mean she had to like the criticiser. She pretended he didn't exist until the words 'food deliveries' entered her brain. She slid open one eye. He was smirking. She closed her eye again and sighed.

"The fact that I didn't order any food probably means I don't need to do any tipping." she said. Her tone wasn't hostile at all but it sure wasn't friendly either.

She made no move to touch the plate. Come to think of it, she didn't think she was that hungry. If it meant skipping out on having free food provided by the guy in front of her, she was totally fine.

"And besides, if you're a waiter delivering food, you either got your order wrong or doing it out of the supposed goodness of your heart," she continued, her voice matching the previous flatness of his.

Normally she probably would have loved to punch his face inside out when he said he wasn't going to let her starve. Like she'd let herself starve. That was a fool's thought. It would have been a nice gesture to bring someone food as an apology but like hell was she convinced he was actually doing something like that. From his tone, she gathered he felt more obliged to do it like he was doing her a favour. She huffed. Who was acting all high and mighty again? The girl didn't need to say that she didn't want him in her private space. Her demeanor implied it.

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu considered her words for about a second. He had to keep the conversation civil or it would end up just like it had earlier.
"Well, I suppose it could be from the goodness of my heart, I mean we are in the same guild." He said, looking away as if he were hiding something. He still thought she was pretty, but she had much to learn and it wasn't something he was going to be able to help with if he didn't find out what it was, and he wasn't about to offer that help. After all, he had learned that a good mentor didn't push people into their arms, they waited for the rain to fall and for that rain to push them into their embrace.
"Hey if you don't want it I'm sure there's random animals around here who would like it, but I've never known a Fairy Tail member to turn down free food." He said with a smile as he started to pick pieces of his food to eat. He was starving anyway, and after using up some mana he definitely could have eaten both plates.

His mind slipped back to other mages in the guild. Did they have any other re-quippers? Were there others? Curiosity loomed as he considered how little he actually knew about the others in the guild. The only ones he had actually spent any time with were Old man Taiga and Hannah. The others existed, but consequentially he hadn't met any of them, in part from his never actually being at the guild for more than a week at a time. So this girl was in Fairy Tail? Were they just giving memberships away? No she had to have a story, everyone in the guild had a story, but now wasn't the time to ask about that either. At this point he was resolved to wait and see how she reacted to him both now and in the future if he ever saw her again (something he didn't consider likely).

[Verity Lohlepher]

Vera was pretty determined to continue ignoring Tatsuma and when she was determined, usually nothing could deter her from doing what she wanted. However, it seemed like today her determination to ignore him wasn't really that...well determined. She listened to his words and contemplated. From what she gathered of his character as of yet he was...foolish, fake, slightly flirtatious or just plain flirtatious, definitely NOT innocent, a psycho, kind of an idiot, rough, angry in a way, acted superior(ish) and that he sent insults pretty easily. Now he was trying to be civilised. Great. Now she could add confusing to her list of adjectives. She sighed noiselessly and opened her eyes, staring at him directly in the eye despite the fact he was looking elsewhere.

"If someone was in the same guild as you, it doesn't particularly mean you do things out of the goodness of your heart. You could still be enemies you know?" she said in a breathy voice, although not sounding like she believed herself. It was more of a thing to say just cause she didn't particularly want him to be right.

She cast her gaze else where after her sentence and stared at the stone wall in front of her. She'd help herself. She could do it. She faintly heard Tatsuma's voice in the background. The edge of her mouth quirked up.

"If you could find random wild life out here I'd be surprised," she stated dryly but looked at the plate of food in front of her anyways.

She really didn't want to take it and eat. It was like accepting a peace offering. Much as it sounded bad, she wanted to hate Tatsuma and thus not accept his food. But she was just too tired to bother. Hating people was a waste of effort so her sister once told her. She still did to some people anyways but she guessed it made sense. She gave up. Okay she'll admit it. She was hungry. She picked up the plate of food and ate. Just because she was eating his peace offering, didn't mean she had to talk to him. She had to admit, the food was pretty good though. A little cold yes, but definitely worth the value it probably would have been at the shop.

[Tatsuma]

He listened to her as he ate, and once he finally swallowed so he could respond.
"I think if you're in the same guild you should probably try not to make enemies, I meant if you did you wouldn't get any food... or friends... in that order." He joked, making light of her statement and the fact that she was, in fact, eating free food.
"Andf I'm pfretty sfure that I countf as a wild animfal." He added with a mouth full of food. It was normally not something he did around pretty girls, but he with his chances already blown with her, he figured it wouldn't matter if he just ate the way he would if he were alone.

With a gulp he decided to talk before chowing down, but he wasn't about to cut her any slack for being bratty. He felt obligated to try to patch things up enough that if they saw each other at the guild hall they wouldn't be at each others' throats and she certainly didn't seem like the forgiving or wizened type. In fact it was her naivete that he thought was probably going to be her biggest hang up.
"So, when you pulled out the dagger were you planning on stabbing me or did you think I needed a shave?" He asked jokingly.

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity rolled her eyes when Tatsuma said she should probably try not to make enemies in her guild or else she wouldn't have food or friends. Of course she knew that.

"Usually, I think the friends come first and then the free food," she said before looking up at him from her food pointedly "You're just strange. You give people free food first,"

She then resumed her eating while he said he was sure he was an animal. She snorted. That's was true. And eating while talking just exemplified that fact. She stopped eating (because hey, she had more manners than that) and patted his head.

"Hmmmm...." she said as if she was thinking, "Actually, I'd say a domestic animal, not a wild animal. Cause wild animals generally don't give others food. They're too rabid. Oh wait. You're pretty rabid so I guess wild animal suits," she finished, smirking at him before returning to her food.

The fact that she was talking to him somewhat normally crossed her mind. Apparently she had no determination whatsoever to not do so. Whatever. She was probably just unconsciously following what her sister would have said. She did that sometimes.

The next time Tatsuma spoke, she wasn't as civilised as before. She didn't bother to stop eating but she did put a hand over her mouth.

"Stab you definitely," she said plainly as if it were the truth....which is was. She didn't lie. She just blurted whatever came to mind. She was cool like that. Although she did recall herself wanting to stop her impulsiveness just a few minutes beforehand. Oh well. It wasn't like she changed her opinion of being completely honest at all times. She went back to eating straight after that. She didn't particularly care if she was being rude. It wasn't intentional after all and in her opinion, people should be able to tell. If they got all offended she figured they weren't worth her time.

[Tatsuma]

Well he had figured she was going to stab him, but he thought it was kind of cute the way she was talking with her hand covering her mouth. It was hard to stay mad at her, but he was resolved to continue being a smart ass.
"I'm going to come back to that comment, but before that no. It's food, THEN friends, because if you don't have the food you can't share it with your friends." He said confidently. He hadn't put them in order of importance because they were both kind of important in their own way, he had put them in order in which one should get them and that was the best decision as far as he was concerned.
"And back to the knife thing... what does it do? I mean if you wanted to change your mind you could shave me instead if you want. It seems like the friendlier thing to do, of course if you still want to stab me you can have a freebie once I'm done eating." He said with a nod. He wasn't exactly the master of healing, but he was very much the resilient type. Then there was the comment about him being a rabid animal.
"And I am not rabid! I'm clean, you could even pet me if you wanted to." He added with a wink.

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity nodded her head in a can't be bothered whether you jump off a cliff way finishing the remainder of the food in her mouth with relative ease. She still thought Tatsuma was a strange one. She shook her head at his response and swallowed.

"First, I think that if someone had no food, they would be either dead or starving, neither of which lands you in a pretty good place for obtaining friends that are alive. Also, if you had no food and wanted to share with friends, you go out to eat with them and then pay," she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

She flicked a strand of hair out of her face and took another bite of food. He asked what her knife did and pondered whether to tell him or not. Him having no clue what it did could prove to be an advantage to her if they ever fought again. However her thought processing was interrupted. She coughed and raised an eyebrow at him (still coughing a and still with a hand over her mouth. Shave him? Freebie stab? He definitely retained the title of psycho in her head.

"If you wanted me to shave all your hair off I'd be happy too. Just ask. But seriously? Who asks someone whether they want to stab them, no expenses?" She said, her eyes stretched wide and appearing to say are you an idiot? She shook her head before continuing to speak. "And my dagger, not knife, does electricity/lightning magic. Obviously it cuts people too," She was still in a huff and the words came out unconciously. She realised this a second later and shrugged her mental shoulders. Oh well. It didn't matter that much.

A slight blush appeared on her face when he suggested that she could let him but shook it off quickly. She already patted his head. No need to get embarrassed. She gave an exasperated sigh when he winked at her and shook her head.

"The fact that you said I could stab you for freebies says to me that you're feral. Domestic animals are tame. I wouldn't care if you're clean or not; wild animals can also be clean."

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma shook his head.
"The purpose of getting food for your friends is to keep them from starving and dying. And if you go eat out with a friend and you get them food then the purpose of your going was still food, ergo, the food remains top priority." He said as he nodded his head up and down, completely convinced he was being logical. Then was the next matter of addressing her next comment, on that matter he decided to go ahead and just be himself with the matter of being flirty.

"I said you could stab me since I figured it would help you get any anger you might be holding onto out of the way, but since you're refusing I can assume that you're not still angry at me. So since you're not stabbing me, the offer to pet me is still on the table. I don't bite... unless that's your thing. " and then something else she said struck a cord. "What do you mean you would understand if I wasn't clean? I'm always clean most of the time. Only when I'm in the woods for long periods of time am I ever not clean." He added. Still, he opted out of debating the matter and importance of cleanliness and he let it go in favor of another topic.

"Of course if you'd rather I could always pet you." He added with another wink.

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity sighed. He still thought food came before friends? While food was one of her favourite things in the world, it still didn't make sense. His logic only applied to the extreme cases of war, death and starvation. There may be other situations where buying food for your friends was so that they didn't starve but they were still going to be extreme and not your everyday kind of situation. His other bit of logic wasn't logical to her either. "If you think about it, there is only ever going to be extreme cases in which buying food for your friends so they don't die becomes your top priority so therefore your logic doesn't apply to everyday life which in general, is majority of the time. And if you go out with a friend to eat food, the purpose is generally to catch up with the friend and spend time with them. Sure, eating food is one of the things you would be doing but still, it's not the main purpose as friends, being people are." She nodded her head. She put up a pretty good argument. In her opinion that is.

His next statement about stabbing didn't help to alleviate his status as a psycho person. She continued to stare at him as if he was crazy. "I wouldn't take your offer to stab you because I'm a pretty sane person and sane people do not stab others upon request unless said person needed to be stabbed. And I assure you, biting is not my thing." she said. She finished eating and put the plate down before leaning back against the wall. She ate quickly when she wasn't thinking about food or eating slowly. Sometimes it didn't work in her favour but other times it did. Today it did. If she wanted to, she could leave the psycho behind. However, her mind was more focused on arguing her case.

"I never said you weren't clean. I said I wouldn't care whether you're clean or not. Completely different things." she began to say somewhat irritably. She was beginning to think of leaving when she heard him say he could pet her if she wanted. At this she stopped her preparations for leaving. "Unlike you, I don't think myself as an animal." she said hotly.

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma looked at her, she was taking him way too seriously.
"You're taking statements way to seriously. I mean mostly it's just jokes to loosen the mood, but seriously I didn't mean food then friends in order of importance, I meant in the order in which you should get them. You get worked up really easily don't you?" He said with a shrug. It was kind of an annoying personality trait, but everyone had those didn't they? Talking to people with nothing about them that got on one's nerves was going to inevitably get boring.

"I'll just take your plate back to the restaurant. I bet he isn't expecting me to do that and it'll be fun. Plus I have a train to catch. I'd advise you to work on your re-quip magic. You have the potential to be stronger but you lack discipline, I'd offer to train you, but you seem to have a problem with criticism from others, or for opinions that differ from yours, people like that make bad students." He said, quoting something his mother once told him when he had reacted much the same way she had to an argument when he was five. Still, she wasn't ready to be trained by someone else, and he wasn't really sure he wanted to given everything that had happened. His loss to Kotone meant he had things to work on. He was resolute that the next time they met he would beat her. Meanwhile Verity didn't strike him as the rival sort.

"Learn to put some faith in other people and you'll be fine. Though if you resolve to using your dagger against someone, you should probably be ready to kill, a knife is a weapon, not a toy. If you want to use a weapon you need to be ready for the worst case scenario and it doesn't seem like you are. If we ever meet again, I hope it's after you've matured a bit." He spoke the words as he grabbed her plate, and then he wordlessly walked around the corner of the building, leaving her to think about what he said.

Half way to the second building he got an idea and walked back around, leaning on and kissing her before walking away, it was impulsive but it wasn't like he was probably going to see her again anyway and he thought her reaction would be funny.
[#ff0000]"thanks for not stabbing me!"[/color] he said before he took off running again.

[Verity Lohlepher]

Verity realised she was not in the mood for getting a lecture again much less listening. Once Tatsuma started talking about her taking things way too seriously, it was all she could do to avoid falling asleep. It was all very taxing on her energy and the initial fun in visiting Oshibana town was officially destroyed. Although if she was talking about the fun disappearing from her visit, that would have happened the minute the starting walking around aimlessly.

"Definitely," she said not really thinking when he stopped. He had been saying something about her getting worked up easy. Well that depended on the day. Usually she was a brick wall. She knew she was pretty high strung though once she got to a stage where she could blab whatever. He was just unfortunate in that today she was in very serious, very high and mighty and very sensitive mood. Not traits she particularly liked but just a fact.

She continued to listen to him, one ear in one ear out. One thing struck her as particularly funny and she gave a short bark of laughter before clapping a hand over her mouth so she didn't interrupt his speech. She? Get trained by him? That was absurd. She had a very limited attention span. She only ever lasted if it was something that she wanted to do. Somehow getting trained was not one of the things she wanted in life. She knew how she worked even if he didn't. She didn't think the words coming out of his mouth were genuinely his and wondered if someone had told him that before.

Vera could have chosen to interrupt his dialogue right then telling him that indeed, she was a bad student but she let him continue. When he was finally finished she decided to give him a piece of her mind.

"First I'd like to say, I am a bad student and I always have been. I'm not the type to focus when I don't want to. Second, I nev-," she broke off mid sentence when she finally realised he had walked off. Oh. She was offended. Vera huffed. Why did she have to listen to whatever he was saying and he got to just walk off? She guessed she could have walked off when he was talking but she didn't because....she didn't know why. She was territorial of her alleyways perhaps? Despite the fact that she didn't want to get worked up over some idiot, she couldn't help but fume. She hated people who ignored her. She started to imagine the ways she could boil Tatsuma in a cauldron when she saw said person strut back around.

She glared at him. Did he really think he could hear the rest of what she was going to say? Of course not. She was quite firm in her decision of staying put until he leaned on her. Internal sirens went off. She tried to edge backwards but she wasn't quick enough. He kissed her. Immediately she blushed and shoved him off. "What the hell was that for?" she demanded. She was getting prepared to punch him in the face when she heard him say thanks for not stabbing him before running off. "Well I definitely wish I did!" she yelled after him before turning around and swiftly stalking away in the opposite direction. Talk about romantic first kisses. She shook her head. The blonde didn't see the magic in them but she didn't have to like getting kissed because someone wanted to screw with her mind. She definitely hoped she didn't see the psycho again in the near future even if they were in the same guild.

~Exit~

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