And So I Watch You From... Up Close? [Open]

Long golden locks fluttered in the warm breeze, bounding up and down in response to their owner's skipping gait. The sun glinted off of the honey-colored strands, making the girl in question quite conspicuous. Naturally, it did not help that she was rather loudly humming to an excited and fast paced song. "A! M-B! U! L-A-N! C! E-A! M! B-U-L! A! N-C! E!~" she sang, her skip mirroring the particular rhythm of the tune and the joy and energy with which the lyrics were sung and the notes played in the actual track.

Why was she there? Well, a quick glance into a wallet in the pockets of her wrinkled but daisy-yellow skirt would reveal a fresh accumulation of weekly allowance, and by nature, Kaylee Bai could not hold onto her money for long. She had just moved to Shibusen and to Death City from her home out in a rural district of China, and the amount of money now filling her wallet seemed impossible to deplete! Of course, she would rapidly find in the coming hours that the opposite was exceedingly true, but for now, her heart was content to float along on song.

Of course, her skipping was closed-eyes and rather quick-paced, and as such, she was hardly paying any attention to her direction. Multiple times had she very nearly run straight into a stall and angered the owner when their wares were sent spilling out onto the ground. With a smile on her face, though, Kaylee had apologized each time and made a concerted effort to pick up all the things she had caused to fall, stil in perfect time to the songs in her heart. She continued to sway and bounce even as she knelt to pick up an orange that had rolled towards the fountain in the middle of the square.

"We know~ We know~ That that's not the way though~" she sang merrily, chasing the stray orange towards the fountain, hopping in a one-two-one-two-one-two-three pattern.

It was a rather nice day for shopping. This is what normal people would think about this day, but not this redhead. Even with his gloves on, he could feel his hands... actually it was the complete opposite. He could not feel either hand unless said hand was clenched as tightly as it could. The suit and the long sleeved shirt he wore under seemed to be doing well in keeping the laughing sun's heat. Ethan was displeased about his hands, yet glad that the only affected areas were his hands. If his feet started going numb while outside, he could trip over or fall onto something, or someone.

Speaking of feet, an impact was felt at his toes. The redhead's gaze lowered to look at what he had hit. An orange? Good thing that Ethan was walking slowly today, or else that orange might have been sent flying right back to the sender by accident. Taking two careful steps, the young male crouched down and moved his right hand towards the orange. The other hand was making sure that the backpack he had on his shoulder would not slip from its spot. The leather glove grasped the orange, but as he was rising, the orange immediately dropped out of his hand. Apparently the meister weakly grabbed it. Before it could roll away, he tried once more. This time it was a success, but the tips of his fingers were digging into the orange.

Once he had straightened himself, Ethan saw a girl quite shorter than him skipping his way. Deciding to quickly put two and two together; Ethan presented the orange to her. "Is this yours, Lady?" He asked in a polite manner with a blank expression.

Hop hop. Hop hop. Hop hop hop.

Kaylee was not paying attention to where she was going, however, and, knees bent, bottom wriggling in the air, the sudden disappearance of her fruity target coupled with the sudden voice from above startled her. With a small yelp, she fell face-first towards the cobbled stones of the street. Of course, she was mere moments from catching the fleeing orange, and as such, her face landed ultimately at the feet of the voice's owner.

She sat back onto her haunches, rubbing a rapidly reddening nose with a delicate hand. "Oh, oh, oh, ouch!" she mumbled, trying her best to massage and sooth the pain that was quickly swelling there. Luckily, there wasn't any true damage. She had been low to the ground already, and the truth was that her body had slowly grown accustomed to her own brand of clumsy adventurousness. A little bump like that from merely a foot from the ground would not be doing any lasting damage to her nose.

Only then did she think to respond to the man before her. With a broad smile, face the absolute epitome of cheer, she replied without so much as a pause between words, "Oh certainly not mine actually I think it belongs over there at that stand but I ran into it which made it roooooooll away so off I went in chase but now you've got it so I can make sure it gets back!"

Still kneeling and with her left hand still gently massaging her nose, she stared up at the person in question silently for a moment, taking in his face. "Hiya! I'm Kaylee!" she finished, her right arm extended in the start of a handshake.

The knight-in-training hesitated to catch the woman as she fell. Even though he could have simply caught her by quickly moving about three feet, part of him held back due to his hands. Catching her with the use of his arms only for her support would have been doable, it might have been a little less rough than her landing on her face... but what happened, happened.

Bearing a dumbfounded expression on his face, Ethan had seemed to have frozen in place. He wasn't looking at the lady who fell down. The hand holding the orange was still extended outwards, and kept gazing straight ahead. He was rather shocked that the girl ended up falling in front of him. This wasn't something that Ethan ever seen, much less experienced.

There was, for a split second, an idea that came into Ethan's brain: to simply crouch down, take off his glove and place his cold hand on the blonde girl's nose to ease the pain... but just how that would have been taken? The redhead didn't know her at all, so there was no way to predict what kind of reaction that would have led to. It would have been easier with a male, since he wouldn't need to bother about how that guy would have responded. Women needed to be approached... cautiously.

The redhead looked down with a blank stare at the blonde when she spoke to him. The hand holding the orange was dropped back to his side as he replied "Alright then." She seems... energetic, to say the least. Reaching down with his free hand, and hopping that he was not squeezing her hand; Ethan interpreted her handshake for a "help me up" sign. Once he grasped her hand, the meister moved his hand upwards to lift her up.

Once that he was sure that Kaylee wouldn't fall right after being helped off the ground, Ethan let go of her hand and adjusted his glasses. "Ethan." He replied in a simple manner. "So, Kaylee, was it? Are you alright?"

Now remembering about the orange, Ethan brought up the orange and looked at it. His fingers had dug slightly deeper into the fruit. A little more and the fruit would have oozed some of its juices onto his gloves. Letting out a nervous laughter, the redhead scratched the back of his head. "Ahaha... I think I'll buy the fruit, now that it's in this state. The stand over there, was it?" He asked, waiting for the girl to lead him to the stand.

Grasping the hand before her tightly, probably a firmer grip than the recipient was expecting from a girl of her demeanor and size, Kaylee rose to her feet, other hand still planted on her tender nose. As she found herself upright again, she was, for a moment, unsteady on her feet. Perhaps she simply had feet too small for her top-heavy frame. Perhaps she had unsteady knees from numerous falls and scrapes previous. Perhaps she was merely clumsy. Probably the latter.

All the same, she suddenly found herself stumbling forward into Ethan's chest. He seemed to support her, though, for a moment before she sprang back, face now absolutely beet red. "O-oh! Sorry! Y-yes! I'm fine, of course." Her former exuberance had transfigured itself into a stammer where words fell from her mouth so fast her mind made as if to catch them and try again. Her eyes flicked around like some frightened deer as she made sure her clothes were in order. How dreadful it would have been to have had her skirt fall down in public!

Luckily, there were more important things to mind now. Kaylee's face readopted its former smile, and she led Ethan away from the fountain towards the fruit stall. "Yeah, I came today to buy some things to keep in my dorm room and maybe some clothes, but then I got distracted by how lovely the city is, and suddenly, I was all about exploring! Shibusen is a BIG city, you know? I'd never been to a city this large until I moved here since I just grew up in a little farming village and it was super boring there!"

The girl kept going even while an irritable looking shopkeeper waited for Ethan's payment. "...And I'm excited to learn a lot here, but I'm even more excited because I actually have an allowance I can spend on whatever I want like clothing. I figured I should stop by some store here today and get something to fit in a little better. Maybe you know a good place to go since you look like you know your way around the city. Do you?"

Seeing the girl's face turn to the color of a tomato made Ethan tilt his head to the side, blankly staring back at her reaction. But what could have made her turn that red? It was close to the red of his hair, too. When Kaylee stated that she was indeed fine, Ethan adopted a relieved expression. "That's good." He replied. "Still, that looked like a nasty fall."

The young male followed the cheery lass to the stall and listened to her story. His free hand was brought up to his chin and began rubbing it in thought. Death City was big? Granted, it was at least could classify as a mid-sized city, but Ethan didn't think that it was that impressive. "Then again... I come from a bigger city..." He muttered before turning his attention to the merchant.

"How much for this orange?" He asked as he juggled with the orange and taking his glove off. The ungloved hand reached inside his pockets and pulled a bunch of change. After shifting the pile of change in his hand with his index finger, Ethan gave the exact amount to the shopkeeper. The redhead moved to the side of the stall and placed his remaining change back into his pocket. Placing the orange in the pit of his arm against his chest, the male proceeded with taking his other glove off. He folded one glove and placed it inside the jacket's pocket, and did the same thing with the other glove.

"Although you should be careful with the DWMA's allowance. They don't give a whole lot, so it's better to save up bit by bit. I've seen some students waste all of their allowance on so much stuff that they had to beg for food from others." He said while smiling nervously. He remembered some students asking him to share some of his food, and instead bought them the lunch only for that day. The next day, however, he had to lecture the same lot. "... But let's hope that that doesn't happen to you."

Ethan grabbed the orange. The feeling in his hands had mostly come back, thankfully. It would have been a pain to try and take off the skin of the orange with numb hands. The young male started scratching at the skin. "Yes, I do know this city quite well. After all, I have been here for three years now." The Meister responded as he continued to peel off the orange's skin. "However, I don't really know a "good place" in this city. Either there's a bunch of markets and shops in one area, residences in a few others... to be honest, for someone who comes from a larger city, this place doesn't have much." Ethan stated as he looked around.

"I suppose we could just continue walking around until you see something that interests you." He added as he saw the glare the shopkeeper was giving to the pair. Clearly, that person wanted for them to leave. Walking over to a nearby trash bin, Ethan dropped the peeled skin and continued walking down the street. "So, you come from a... farming village? How is it like over there?" The redhead asked as he took a piece of the orange into his hand and showed it to the lass. "Want some?"

Was she relieved that he hadn't picked up on her embarrassment? Well, it didn't matter anyway.

Cheerfully, Kaylee bounded alongside her newfound friend. "Oh, no thanks. I'm not hungry, and anyway, this is more money than I've ever had, so it's really not like I'm going to spend it all since I'm basically just using the same stuff I used back home except now we don't have to grow the rice, I can just buy some and cook it." Her breath didn't seem to run out. Even with her bouncing gait, again in tune with the song she was humming from before, she didn't seem to need to inhale when she spoke.

Enormous lungs, probably, would explain a few things about her figure.

"Anyway, yeah, back home was REALLY BORING. It was mostly just me and my family, and we had to grow all our food, but sometimes we'd get done quick, and I'd go off to play with the neighbors. It was out in China, so there were mountains everywhere, and everyone in the village thought I was strange because I looked different, a little more like you, but I told them it was just because I got more sun than they did."

She led him unconsciously away from the food stalls and little stands towards slightly more enfranchised establishments housing the latest in Shibusen fashion and decor. The street was lined with rather lean deciduous trees that Kaylee's eyes flicked too eagerly. "And we never had trees with scarlet leaves before! That must be a Shibusen thing, right? I mean, it was a mountainous region in China, so we didn't have many trees worth talking about anyway. It was all bushes and grass and rice paddies, but still!"

Definitely enormous lungs.

"Hey, hey! Maybe I can buy a blanket in there!" she said suddenly, gesturing excitedly at a store with a sign above it in curved script reading "High Life". Next to the words was an artistic rendition of a large canopy bed draped in purple curtains. "I need one since when I moved here, I didn't really have much except the clothes I had back home, and I was hoping maybe I could get some spare blankets in case I wanted to have a friend stay over, except I haven't made any friends here yet."

She stopped mid-step, hand on her chin thoughtfully.

"Well, except now I've got one!"