[AQ] And There Was A Storm. . [Rin/Andrei]

[Natsuki Rin]

o Stormy Panic

+ Description: A storm has knocked out the power in the school building shortly after classes have ended for the day; it seems to nasty outside to leave, though the building is pretty deserted, save for one or two other people who got stuck.

+ Stay put, wait out the storm: -1 Guardians, +2 Faberge

+ Venture out to try to get the power back on: +1 Guardians, +1 Faberge

+ Sneak into the staff room while no one’s around: -2 Guardians, +1 Roost

+ Look for someone else who may be stuck: +2 Guardians, -1 Roost

+ Requirements: None

+ Submitted by Hatta


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It was a handful of hours after class had been dismissed. The weather had been clear enough for Rin to go for a run around the school grounds. Normally, she’d use the track which was available, but the grounds seemed more peaceful for it today. As she continued her route, a few raindrops began to fall upon the first-year. Normally, she wouldn’t mind the small shower. However, the small driblets grew into a dangerous downpour before she even had the chance to react.


The skeleton-built girl headed for the nearest building for shelter, the main school building. After sprinting up the stairs, she slammed the doors opened and nearly spilled into the building.
Her mouth gaped open, and her hands rested on her bent knees as she panted and wheezed..

Perhaps she used more energy than she had..  


Andrei

[Andrei]

Rain.

He didn't like the rain.

Between not being able to go out for a run in this weather, it was also incredibly depressing. He was glad he wasn't outside when it had started, but indeed he had planned to go do a few laps at least. But well, so much for that plan. He was already in his running attire, and he lived outside of the school, so there wasn't much he could do about changing his clothes. He figured he may as well go and loiter somewhere else and wait for the rain to stop. Making his way towards the library, his second favorite napping spot second only to the infirmary, he came across a panting figure standing drenched from head to toe at the entrance of the main building.

To be perfectly honest, he thought the sight a tad suspicious-looking, considering the time, the weather and how they ended up in such a state. But upon seeing that she was wearing the school uniform, he was able to lower his guard a little bit. So she was just another student. Shrugging, he made his way over to her. "...Yo. You alright? Not the best idea to go running in this weather, ya know." He offered her one of his face towels he carried around whenever he planned to go for a jog. It wasn't much, but it was something.

[Natsuki Rin]

As she continued to work on her breathing, she didn’t immediately react to the boy. While staying in her half bent-over pose, she closed her eyes. It seemed she may have been attempting to calm herself down rather than just catching her breath.
Running has been becoming increasing more exhausting lately, and each time she noticed this she became increasingly frustrated. 

Of course, she didn’t plan on running in the rain, wasn’t that obvious?
After a few more seconds of none-responsiveness, she let out a sigh and eventually stood up straight. 

She muttered a “Thank you” and grabbed the towel out of his hands.


“..Looks like your plans are ruined, yeah?” She glanced at the athletic-looking attire he had been wearing.

Andrei

[Andrei]

"Yeah. Glad I took my own advice." he said coolly as he stared out at the pouring rain while she dried herself off. He shrugged. "But oh well, this works out too I guess. Needed to catch some more Z's anyway. What about you? What are you planning on doing now?" He asked, more to keep up the idle chatter while waiting for his towel back than hearing the actual answer.

He realized a while back that he actually knew this girl. From the study group. Yeah, that was it. He wasn't able to talk to her much then, so it took a while for him to register her face. From what he remembered....she wasn't exactly the nicest of the bunch, but that didn't really matter to him. Not like they were close friends or anything.

He leaned on the wall next to him while waiting for her to finish off, silently praying that the rain would just end...

[Natsuki Rin]

The storm only grew progressively worse as each minute passed by. Rumbles of thunder began echoing from the outside. Just as the first year opened her mouth to respond, she was interrupted by an explosion of lightning which struck just outside the building.

It felt like her heart stopped for the second the bolt struck. As she felt the heavy pump in her chest, the lights began to flicker within the school. Eventually, the power was killed within the building, and the only light available was coming from small windows of the door.

..Great..

“.. Well whatever my plans were.. they’re over..” Rather than handing the towel back to the boy, she began to pick at the fabric. “I suggest we get away from door...” She grumbled as she began to walk down the hallway

[Andrei]

And with a loud crack....there went the power.
Andrei froze in place. Though not particularly afraid of storms or power outages....he hated the dark. Used to it, sure, power always came and went back home, but that doesn't mean he ever grew to hate it less.

"....Great. Just frikkin great." He cursed under his breath. "How could this possibly get any worse."
He was glad there was at least some sort of light that was able to shine through so it wasn't completely dark. But given the choice he wouldn't even be in this situation in the first place. At this point he was only half listening to what the other said, but he still heard enough to give her a little nod and move out of the way, towel forgotten.

"What do we....What now?" Was all he could say.

[Natsuki Rin]

Her strides stopped, and her head turned. She looked over her shoulder to see the boy, who to her surprised, looked fairly frazzled by the situation. For herself, she was more annoyed by the situation (and okay..maybe a bit anxious as well). "..Don't like storms?" If that was his issue, she could say she felt the same way. For her, it was the sudden loud bangs and booms of thunder that she found unpleasant.


So from what she gathers from the boy's reaction, he wasn't going to be one to lead with a plan. These thoughts were only confirmed by the last questioned he had asked. A small sigh left through her lips. "What else can we do? I suppose look for a flashlight.. It's only going to get darker.." With that, she turned her head back around and continued walking down the hallway. Small pieces of fiber from the towel fell behind her from the constant picking. Wasn't it kind of pathetic to have a girl..Let alone a first year girl lead the plan?

Though she wasn't complaining..she'd actually prefer it be that way.

[Andrei]

A flashlight? While not disagreeing that having a flashlight right now wasn't a bad idea, where and how the hell were they supposed to find one in this darkness? "...No, I don't mind bad weather. Back where I'm from, this is something we could call barbeque weather." He fibbed.

He thought for a bit as he hesitantly followed after her, unsure if he wanted to at all. Well she seemed pretty in control of herself despite the situation, so that was something. The taller boy squinted at his surroundings as the hallway got progressively darker. This wasn't good. Out of nervousness, he thought about some places around the school he frequented that could possibly serve as a good emergency gathering hall or would have some supplies that could help them if worse comes to wors-!

...Oh yeah, why didn't he remember that earlier? Swiftly making his way over to the girl ahead of him, he told her his idea.

"Hey Rin, I actually faintly remember the infirmary always having this emergency kit in one of the cabinets there. I don't know for sure what's in there, but there may be a chance of finding a flashlight and other stuff we may need inside. And if it isn't there anymore, we could always check the staffroom. They're bound to have something there too."

He ran his tongue over his dry lips. He wasn't exactly looking forward to the next part of his plan, but if it came down to it, he would have to do it. "And...I remember talk of...a generator somewhere on school grounds. I don't know exactly where it is, but if we can find it..."

He hoped she would be on board with this plan. Usually he'd be alright with doing these kinds of things under normal circumstances--he was used to running menial errands and tasks, after all. And it definitely wouldn't be the first time he'd meddled with such machinery...but he couldn't very well tell her he just wasn't good with handling the dark. Until he could get ahold of a flashlight, he might have to stick around with her a bit longer. He could tell she wasn't particularly fond of the current situation oor looking forward to this experience with each other, so for both their sakes, he hoped they'd get one fast.

[Natsuki Rin]

She immediately scoffed at the ‘barbecue’ comment. There just might be some gluttonous person out there who would be willing to grill in such weather for their food, she thought. As she dragged her bony limbs down the hallway, Rin glanced behind her shoulder once more to see if he decided to follow behind. At least she wasn't the only one stuck in the building. Though she would claim to be tough, being a first-year girl along in a dark big building wouldn't have been her idea situation.

As they continued onward, she wondered just how long the storm might last. If it lasted long enough, would they eventually attempt to run through the storm? Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case as the lightning and heavy thunder only seemed to be getting more aggressive. 

When he eventually approached her with his idea, she stopped walking for a moment and blinked at the boy. The infirmary?. “Yeah.. whatever.” Her shoulders shrugged, I suppose it did make sense to first try that. 

It wasn’t until then, now that he was close enough to her, that she noticed the bandages around his knuckles and hands. You'd think she may have noticed them earlier, as he did frequent their 'study group'. But it seemed this particular feature went unnoticed by her...until now that is.  “.. Do you visit there often? ‘You punch walls or something?” She lifted an eyebrow, not exactly joking.

After her comment, she gestured for him to lead the way, as she didn’t exactly know where the infirmary was. The whole generator plan he announced next seemed a bit too complicated for her taste. “I don’t think it’s worth messing with that just for some light. A little darkness never hurt anyone, right?” her gaze cast off to the side at that.

[Andrei]

He held back on rolling his eyes at her response to his suggestion. You'd think she'd be a little more grateful that at least one of them had an idea on where to go and look first. But shrugging it off, he silently went ahead and took the lead. "Uh...yeah. I visit every now and then. From...punching walls -- yeah, something like that." He almost cringed at how vague he was being. Even he could tell he wasn't being very convincing. He just hoped she wouldn't hold much interest in it and ignore it completely -- He'd really rather not go into the details right now. Although he was actually slightly surprised it took her this long to notice his bandages. It was a change from how people usually noticed that first before anything else.

They walked the rest of the way to the infirmary in silence. There really wasn't much to say in the current situation. They didn't really know each other that much, nor did they talk a lot despite being in the same study group. Odd, he thought. But then again, they were pretty much the same in the aspect that they wouldn't pay much mind to anything that didn't catch their interest at first glance. And seeing as how neither made a very good first impression to the other, well....he supposed this was a natural turn of events. Sure, he wouldn't mind getting to know her more, but whether or not that would happen would ultimately depend on her -- He didn't much like dealing with complicated personalities, anyway.

Remembering the path to the infirmary with great clarity due to his countless visits, they managed to make it there in record time. Letting out a small sigh of relief, Andrei opened the door for them and held it open for Rin to go in.

"...Ladies first."

[Natsuki Rin]

It was a relief when they finally reach the infirmary. By now her legs felt numb and exhausted from overexerting herself running. When the other opened the door, she gave the same ungrateful nod, just as she had done when he offered the towel.

“You’re in track as well, right?.. Guess punching is better than kicking if so..”

She wasn’t all too well at having light hearted conversation or joking around, but the second year wasn’t giving her much to work with.. But I suppose nor was she. It was probably time for her to do what she did best and attempt to  pick at the second year's brain to discoverer who exactly she was stuck with.

“Soo..Angry often?” She asked casually. By appearance, he did fit the typical ‘rough’ ruffian mold.

Rather than immediately searching for a light, she chose to first scope out the room as a whole. Her finger tips grazed across the cool granite counter tops she passed. When she reach a tall mirror and stood against the wall, she gazed at the reflection that was before her. Boy, did she look like.. well.. shit. Her clothes were still soggy and looked heavy, and her hair was stingy and matted. On top of that, what bit of makeup she had on was now smeared and messy.

The daylight wasn’t going to last much longer, but the first year seemed to care more about her appearance than finding any light. Or at least that how it probably appeared to the other student with her. After setting the towel onto one of the counters, she attempted to ‘fix’ up the flaws she saw in front of her. Mostly by wiping her face and flattening out the fabric of her clothes.
A groan came from the first-year as she realized she wasn’t making herself ‘look’ any better. Her hand brushed across the face of her reflection as she gave up on ‘fixing’ anything.

[Andrei]

He let out another breath of exasperation as she passed him and walked into the room, but this time with the hint of a smile on his face. He just couldn't help but find how she reacted exactly to his expectations slightly amusing. Well in a sense, he was already starting to know her better. -- That was something, he supposed. He followed after her and shut the door behind them, taking in the sight of the oh-so familiar room right ahead. Huh. It looked different in the dark.

"...No, I'm not on track, actually. Was planning to, but I couldn't exactly figure out where to sign up." He could've sworn he'd looked through the whole board looking for it, but he never found it. -- was he just not looking hard enough? "But hey, if you could help me with that, it'd be greatly appreciated." And he meant it. Track seemed like a great way to utilize all the excess energy he had pent up -- that, and he really just liked running.

"...And no, It's not that I get mad often...I just get pissed off easily." He shrugged as if it were the most natural reply. Where were all these questions suddenly coming from, anyway? Was she actually having a shot at some small talk? -- well, not like he minded. He got to work on trying to find that flashlight. He'd managed to look through a few cupboards and cabinets -- all to no avail -- before he realized that Rin hadn't been doing the same and was now just looking herself in the mirror trying to fix herself up.

He realized that girls tend to do that, but was now really the time? Sides, besides the wet and matted...everything she had going on, she looked just fine. -- Although he supposed that really only just attributed from the fact that he has terrible fashion sense/sense of style. He let out a groan, though not for the reason he thought she had assumed. He got up from where he was crouching on the floor and made his way over to her. He grabbed the towel he had lent her from the tabletop where she had placed it, but not before giving it a serious look-over. "...okay well I'm pretty sure it didnt look like this when I lent it to you, but ya know, whatever." He continued making his way over to her, brought her hands away from her face, and plopped the towel on top of her head. Thankfully it wasn't yet too wet from when he lent it to her earlier. "...You have to rinse yourself off first before anything, otherwise you're gonna catch a cold. Here, let me."

He then proceeded to the all very familiar process of rinsing off somebody's hair. "And honestly, you look fine, so don't worry about it. For now, let's just focus on getting that light, alright?"

[Natsuki Rin]

It was a bit unexpected that the other had not joined track yet, especially since he was a year above her. Maybe he didn’t decide to join until recently?

“Just speak with the captain—“ She spoke as if it should be obvious. Though her first comment came off rude, she made up for it by her next offer, “I can just let her know you want it. I’ll find out when the next practice is..” Although it wasn’t intentional, she spoke as if her offer was more of a chore rather than a favor.

Once he answered her second question, her eyes shifted toward him rather than her own reflection. She could say she was the same in regards to getting pissed off often. Though, others would beg to differ and say she was pissed always. She wouldn’t deny it either, as it was just how she was and there was no changing that; at least that’s what she settled on.

“Any particular reason why?” Though I guess that’s a characteristic a lot of students his age had.

Her darkened eyes slowly followed the boy as he approached for the towel. Yeah.. she may have fiddled with the twine of the towel a bit too much, woops. With a shrug of her shoulders, she didn’t have much to say in response to that.

Now, she certainly was not prepared for his next set up actions. At first she jerked back when he had grabbed her wrists. Her eyes immediately darted over to stare at his own. Maybe this was his demonstration of being pissy? .. Would he really be that upset over a towel—

Oh. . .

It wasn’t until he actually began drying her hair that she realized this was some sort of kind gesture. Her eyebrows furrowed , and she looked more confused than touched. Though, it was oddly comforting having someone else dry her hair.. It was something not done for her since she was a child.
But she could only tolerate it for some long. After a handful of second, she snapped her arm upward to stop him.

“Alright- I get it. We’ll look for the light.” She looked downward towards the floor before stepping away. There must have been a feeling of vulnerability during his actions, and she wanted to get far away from such a feeling.

With one arm crossed over her body, she began to pull drawers open and dig for a light. A couple of mumbles fluttered through her lips each time a drawer failed to have what was needed.

[Andrei]

"Oh. Wow thanks, that'd help me out a lot, really." He smiled faintly at her offer. It was his first sincere smile for her since they met. "And to answer your other question...well, if you were constantly being picked fights with just because of your appearance ever since you were a kid, don't you think you'd be the same way? -- Well, not like you aren't doing a smashing job of that already." He said jokingly -- or well, he hoped it seemed that way to her, anyway.

By now, he was only a few seconds in to rinsing off her hair. He watched her noticeably stiffen as soon as he touched her -- then relax a bit shortly afterwards, only to raise her guard up again not even half a minute later. She raised her arm to swap his away, but he had expected this reaction, too. He quickly withdrew his hands, holding them up in front of him in a sign of surrender, dropping the towel on the floor in the process. He wore a calm expression as he did this, but a knowing smirk played accross his face. He was starting to find this amusing. "Right, right. No touching. Got it." He flashed her another smile. Oh, that was his second one, today!

From there, he watched her dig around through drawers, resuming their search for the emergency kit and a flashlight. He only did so for a moment though, before shrugging and resuming his own search. He figured she pretty much had the lower cupboards and drawers covered, so he decided to look through the higher up shelves and containers she may have a harder time reaching -- and it didn't take him long to find what they were looking for after that. Raising his eyebrows in mild surprise as he opened a nearby cabinet, he found the little blue box they needed.

He let out a whistle to signal Rin over as he picked it up. Then swiftly unhooking the latches that held it shut, he proceeded to lift the lid up, and --

"...Viola. We have ourselves a flashlight." He smiled at the grumpy girl beside him. "...along with a few other things we may find use for in the near future. -- Peanuts?" He offered her a pack he had fished out of the magical box. Things were starting to look up for them.

[Natsuki Rin]

Though she’d hate to admit it, the whole act-of-kindness gesture did throw her off. She couldn’t help but to assume there may be some alternative motive. He certainly didn’t first come off as someone who’d typically act all comforting. Well, he was a high school boy.. maybe that was just his way of being smooth or flirty… or whatever.. there were more important things to think about.

Just as she was sure their searching would be unsuccessful, the whistle caught her attention. She lifted an eyebrow and gave him a ‘look’ at the whistling. What was she? A dog? After getting over his actions, she slugged her body over towards him. As she stood next to him, she stared down at the box. Huh.. To her surprise, he was correct about the infirmary being the first place they should look. Good thing they found the light quick too, as by now it was nearly completely dark outside.

“Wow.. I guess they were prepared for anything.. huh,” There was a hint of disbelief in her voice that they actually found what they needed.

When he had offered the peanuts to her, she cringed. “Those are probably a thousand years ago---“ She pushed the package away and rejected his nuts. (L0L) “I dare you to try them, though.” Though, it would probably be best if he didn’t accept the dare. The last thing they needed was one of two to be sick.. or dead.

She then plucked out the flash light, and looked at it from each angle. When she pushed the switch on, the light flicked a few times before staying permanently on. Few. It worked. “Great—“ The first year scanned the room completely with the light, before pointing it at the other. Now that they had light, what was the next plan..?

The storm was still going on, though it did seem to calm down a bit compared to how it was. Maybe they should start thinking about the possibility of running through it… but nah.. let’s think about that later.

As she took the light with her, she walked over to one of the previous filing cabinet drawers she pulled open. Maybe there would be something interesting they could snoop on while they wait? She sifted through the dozed of files and searched for any familiar names.