The meeting (malakai)

[Malakai Moors]

816 WORDS

@vala

BY MINNIE OF GS

THERE ARE SOME MEMORIES,

Sensitively was oftentimes an enemy for Malakai since whenever it decided to be displayed lowered his self-esteem and made him feel pathetic. Sounds that would merely spark a startling sometimes caused him to quiver in fear solely because of the volume constantly booming during those tortured years. The various methods to inflict the wounds that scared his body, being most condensed around the torso. Although, in those few moments of quivering and fearful thoughts there was always a feeling of weakness. They always subsided in time, gradually ebbing until his body stilled and his breathing reverted back to its regular pace. When his brown eyes trailed over to Vala, guilt entered the bashful man's head and mild embarrassment over his extreme sensitivity. The concept of being incapable to tolerate thunderous noises made the self-conscious thoughts generate again and his eyes avert from his raven-haired friend.

All his eyes focused on was the sheet of white snow below him that was broken with footprints; he could not bare sparing a glance at Vala. When an apology was made, Malakai flinched at the fact his friend felt required to apologize over making a loud sound. These moments when he found himself unable to function similar to the common definition of a normal individual were the times the tall male felt as though all his secrets were out. The self-conscious thoughts ruled, tearing at the shreds of confidence he gained and insisted that he should remain shameful over his inability to tolerate loud noises; like wolves swarming a downed deer. A deep breath was taken and released, giving the bashful man a minuscule amount of confidence and bravery.

"D-don't apologize," he began quietly. "... I... I should learn not to be so s-sensitive..."

There was fragility in the words as Malakai softly spoke, unable to fend off the pauses and stutters. A matter of impossibility being stated did not assist the bashful man since learning to not be sensitive did appear like a goal far beyond his reach. For a few moments, the field medic remained silent while debating his next set of words, his eyes staring into the dark brew of coffee as though it was courage in a cup.

"... Sorry... I just... loud noises, they just... they..." The bashful man began, having difficulty stating the next piece. Another deep inhale and exhale were taken for calmness. "Loud noises just remind me... of those times."

Specifically mentioning the reason was always bothersome to the bashful man, almost rattling him similar to when he directly brought up his mother. It caused him to wonder about those frightening thoughts of her escaping the prison and traveling to Lorsette to find him. Those promises she screamed before law enforcement forcefully pushed her into the car and drove her away. The mere thought of that day and the pondering of an occurrence such as his mother escaping caused Malakai to shiver, making him feel cold with terror. Alas, when the time came to walk home he continued in a silence as his thoughts lingered on some of the horrors, turning his skin a touch more pale. The sudden settling of hush between himself and Vala barely tolerable during the duration of the walk. Further guilt flooded into his mind as he wished his sensitively towards loud noises was not absurdly high.

✿ ✿ ✿

Eventually, the extensive and quiet walk began to reach its end as the sidewalk, streets and various other features reached heavier familiarity. As Malakai grew closer to home, he seemed to physical relax as he burdened his pondering with thoughts of possible cooking ideas for Vala; an excellent distraction. The remainder of his coffee had been finished, the styrofoam cup discarded in a trash pin earlier into the venture to his home. As they closed in onto the muted grey stone stairway leading up towards both the front door and the the dark wood deck. Black bars enclosed the sides of the stairs and around the borders of the deck, thin with the vertical metal bars spiraling in shape. The bashful man was quick to tromp up the stairs, a newfound smile upon his lips while he opened the door.

"Any requests for food?" The question was asked cleanly, lacking bashful tones.

There was excitement in the concept of cooking for another individual, which was something rare for Malakai. Lastly, this worked as both an apology for tardiness and his own ridiculous sensitivity that the ravenette was forced to put up with. As he passed through the door's threshold, he kept the door open to allow her access to the simple foyer. The foyer has never been grand, merely holding numerous wall hooks for coats, shoes placed randomly, a small tool chest, a tiny cabinet, boxes (some occupied by soda cans) and various other miscellaneous items. Patiently, Malakai waited for his friend to enter with plans of closing the door behind her.

- - that will never fade.

[Deleted]

The looming grey brick house that rested upon it's little hill watched as the two of them approached. Its bleak color was at home in the winter setting the city found itself in. Having waited outside its walls many times in the past the sight of the old building was a familiar if not welcoming sight. It had been quite a while since her last visit but a side from the withered, brown flowers sleeping in their bed and fresh snow upon the landscape little appeared to have changed. Regardless of the lackluster image that the building gave off in the bitter season it was still rather impressive especially when compared to her apartment. The only stairs that led to her home where used by all in the building and lacked the craftsmanship she saw now. Then there was the wooden deck that greeted the stone stairs as they rose. Vala didn't even want to think of how much it would have cost to construct all of it. Here she was, a college student with a full time job and she could barley afford to eat. Such luxuries as a home like this were far from any reality she currently lived in.

Placing her palm upon the railing Vala began the short stroll up the steps after Mal. Bits of snow fell from the railing as she made her ascent towards the front door as her hand traced the metal rail. The snow was quick to melt as it touched her equally pale skin creating beads of chilling water that ran through her slim fingers. The  bone biting cold was expected though it wasn't something that caused her any discomfort. With her naturally gifted abilities things never felt as they should to her. Cold wasn't really cold, nor did heat ever seem to be that hot. It was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it left her sense of touch rather numb to everything yet at the same time burning down her apartment left her without a burn.

Trudging on the last few steps Vala's boot caught the landings lip causing her to trip with little grace. Having her hand already on the railing Vala was quick to recover without making much of a show of it. Shaking it off Vala didn't even bother to mention the clumsy behavior and hoped that Mal wouldn't have noticed. There were many things Vala thought herself as being rather talented in. The bane of her life was her often clumsy nature; something that she made long strides in trying to control. Much like her abilities it was just another part of who she was and there didn't seem to be much she could do about it.

"Uh...." The noise trailed off as Vala hadn't been expecting Mal to say anything after such a long silence.

"Anything edible?" The answer was a simple one and the best Vala could come up with on such short notice. In all honesty her thoughts hadn't been trained on eating as they walked.

"You know me Mal. I'll eat anything." Glancing at Malakai Vala gave him a look that said 'you know it's true'.

With a nod of thanks towards Mal as he held the door open for her Vala took a moment to stamp her boots on the hard deck flooring. Living in such a tiny home she knew that once dirt got inside it was a pain to get out. Trying to be a tad more gentle than necessary as not to cause any more grief to Mal she kicked her shoes a few times. Clacking her boots against the decking bits of browned snow that clung to her boots scattered across the ground. After a final stomp of her heels Vala took a moment to examine her feet before walking into the warming embrace of the foyer.

"Wow." The impressed word dripped from Vala's lips as her eyes adjusted to the lighting of Mal's house.

Even standing in the foyer of the house Vala could already tell that every aspect of the house was a thousand times more luxurious than her little apartment. Though they had been friends for a while this was the first time she'd ever stepped inside Mal's place. For one reason or another she'd never asked to come and he'd never invited her. Of course, Vala wasn't one to pry when it came to things that didn't concern herself. Knowing Mal he was probably just to shy to come out and invite her over until now. Given what little she knew of his mother she didn't blame him for it... but damn... it was such a nice house.

"I'm not a mooch or anything... but had I known your house was... as amazing as this I would have been living her for years." Given the rather bland tone of her voice it was difficult to tell but it sounded like Vala was being playful.

"I don't even have a foyer. Just a busted shoe rack... well more of shoe... holder... for a single pair of shoes... these shoes...." Her words trailed off in a somber tone as she sighed.

Crouching so that she could reach her boots Vala worked quietly as she unlaced her boots. With twin knots having been tied to make sure they didn't unravel (as if she needed something else to trip over) it took a few seconds of nimble finger movements until they came undone. A wave of relief came from her feet as she slipped the leather boots off. She always tied them much to tight but at least they would never fall off. With her feet now free from their prisons Mal would clearly see that the socks Vala wore had the distinct markings of cats on them. Clearly her love of kitties had slipped into her daily fashion.

"Um... ignore the... the cats." Muttering the words bashfully Vala didn't like the fact of people seeing her softer side. Luckily she felt comfortable enough around Mal for him to see them.

"At least he can't see the matching accessories." Vala thought to herself with some relief.

[Malakai Moors]

1,068 WORDS

@vala

BY MINNIE OF GS

THERE ARE SOME MEMORIES,

The atmosphere of his father's home always possessed a calming effect for Malakai. It became visible with his general body language which eased immensely once the threshold to inside was crossed and the warm air amiably embraced him. The pleasantry in being shielded from the harsh bite of winter weather was another positive factor in addition the atmospheric effects. Despite the nightmares that plagued some nights, there was a sense of safety inside the walls; almost like the location was land his mother was forbidden to physical tread. Moments were spent quietly listening to the sounds of the house settling against the wind and for any signs of another person being present in the house. Alas, it appeared only himself and Vala remained inside which meant his father had marched off to work. A swift glance was taken to the foyer's exit before returning to his friend to notice the minor slip.

The minor act of clumsiness was accompanied by a hasty recovery, thus the bashful man remained silent. Embarrassing his friend accidentally over a moment of maladroit movement. After the insufferable muted walk towards his home, Malakai had no intentions of offending or possibly bringing the return of silence. There was concern over his friend's safety, but there appeared to be no physical injuries which gave the field medic another reason to remain hushed. When the mentioning of having no ideas for food, the tall man went silent in thought. A joyous night of friendship would be pleasant considering it felt like years since Vala had come over. Fancy cooking was unnecessary and time costly, which meant that something simplistic and perhaps better suited in respect towards nights spent around friends.

"How about I just cook pizza and we can watch a movie or something? We haven't done that in a while," Malakai suggested quietly. "Plus, that won't take long which means you can be fed sooner."

Once Vala entered the foyer, Malakai closed the door, locking the chilling winter air outside. He was swift to reach down and unlace his boots in fluent finger motions; not a single shake entering his hands due to his medical practice. Once the untying was completed, the tall man shook off his boots which sent tiny clumps of white snow to the floor. Some of the more stubborn ice particles clung to his boots, refusing to leave. As he gently set his footwear aside, he listened to Vala's comment about the house and gently chuckled. The concept of his house being any definition of lavish was foreign to him since the place was old and even still maintained a cold air to it. Although, it still kept an overall pleasant charm with the manner the floorboards creaked beneath the feet and the common house settling noises.

"This place is a little old, but still pretty nice. Although, if you ever decide to randomly show up and demand to live here, I warn you, it is cold. My dad had no proper heating or cooling since he is a spirit, plus he was barely home." Malakai paused as he pondered more about when he first started living here. "Come to think of it, I don't think he even invested in electricity. When I got older and wasn't down here as much, he kind of just decided to pick up a bunch of jobs in order to have something to do."

The sentence described his father as a workaholic, which was indeed the case. The man lacked hobbies and found investing his time in working and assisting people to be valuable. Constantly, his father appeared to be searching for some odd job the elderly neighbors needed completed or occupying his days with general housework should his occupation not require him. Nowadays, it was not frequent in order to spend time with his incredibly bashful son. There was always consistent conversations about how Malakai was doing, which was meant to reassure his father that his son was well. The bashful man walked past his friend, glancing back to find the cat marked socks. Cats were one of the few things his ravenette friend could be soft towards. A gentle laugh escaped Malakai's mouth.

"Don't worry, as far as I am concerned, you are still tough," Malakai responded.

Once the shoes were off, Malakai shrugged off his coat and hanged it on an open coat, which left him in a dark blue hoodie. When the undressing of winter clothing was completed, the bashful man strolled around the corner into the humble kitchen. The cooking implements taking over the corner adorned with counters and shelves while a table was stations in the opposing corner. Two of the chairs remained slanted out from beneath the wooden table, making their frequent use obvious while the remain two were pushed in. It remained properly clean, its most recent use being prior to potion brewing. Everything appeared untouched since the kitchen was left, which was the product of his father's self-sustaining capabilities. There were several exits from the kitchen, a large archway that led into the nearby living room and the hallway with half being a straight corridor while a stairway occupied the other. For a few moments, the bashful man glanced around at the light grey walls of the house's innards.

"Do you want something to drink?" Malakai offered. "We have quite a selection, or... I suppose I do since my dad doesn't really need anything like that."

Slowly, the field medic walked over to the black fridge, which was adorned with magnets that held reminders and grocery lists, and pulled open the door to reveal its contents. Cold air rushed out to hug the bashful man as he revealed the stuffed shelves hidden in the fridge's interior. There was a few cans of soda kept in the fridge, mostly out of his father's anticipation for Malakai to possibly bring company over. At times, it was brought upstairs for the social gatherings his father would be prone to having. Then there was a plethora of healthier drinks often purchased to assure the bashful man that he would not be solely consuming junk. Lastly, there were various food products that required the chilling atmosphere in order to assure that they would not rot at an accelerated rate. After a few moments of berating himself for the slight messiness of the fridge before glancing at Vala, patiently awaiting a reply.

- - that will never fade.