Don't Worry The White Haired One [CLOSED]

Luxanna stood at the front desk of the Noir Headquarters with the most stoic of expressions. "We tried to contact you, but it's difficult getting a message into the Zakatian Palace right now... Until our base is set up there, it takes a while..." one of the lower ranking members of the Noir handed her a stack of papers. "So is this all of them?" Luxanna asked and the woman shook her head. "Masamune hasn't checked in. We haven't heard anything from him since he was heading out to give Nadia her newest mission." the woman explained and Luxanna sighed. She knew the possibilities. "I didn't get a mission..." Nadia spoke up from behind Luxanna, startling the blonde haired woman. A look of worried replaced the stoic expression she had been holding. "Where is Masa?!" Nadia shouted in worry.

"We don't know. And what do you mean you didn't get your mission?" the woman asked, but Luxanna looked back to her and shook her head. "Leave it be. I'll talk to her." Luxanna said, walking over to Nadia with the stack of papers in hand, "You got my letter didn't you?" Nadia nodded. "Then you know where he's at. He's on one of the missions that were meant for you." Luxanna explained, but the worried look on Nadia's face said it all. "We have to go find him." she said. "Nadia, we have no idea where he's at." Luxanna said with a sigh. "The only reason he is out there is because of me! We have to go find him. If those assassins are after him too, he may need our help. He could be hurt, or lost, or fell in some cave..." Luxanna resisted the urge to say 'he's not you' at what she was saying.

"Go get your bow." Luxanna said and Nadia ran off. Luxanna looked over toward the woman she had been talking to and held out her hand. She was handed a stack of unsigned papers and began to fill them out for both she and Nadia, "If you do not hear from me in a month, elect a new leader." "You can't be serious?" "I am, but I doubt you won't hear from me." Luxanna gave a reassuring smile as she slid the now signed paperwork toward the woman. "Her last mission was quite dangerous..." the woman said. "He's fine." Luxanna nodded in confidence, though her own heart was racing. "I'm ready!" Nadia shouted as she bursted through a door armed with her bow and ready to go. "Alright. We'll be heading into Arcadia... That's where the mission sent him." Luxanna stated and the two walked out.

It had been seven days since they left the Noir and there was yet any sign of Masamune. Nadia was getting very worried; Luxanna even caught her crying a couple times and having nightmares about his death. The only reason she knew this is because Nadia spoke in her sleep when she was frightened and the name "Masa" came up quite a bit the past couple nights. And again one of those nights was close. The sun was just starting to begin it's decent over the mountain to allow night to fall upon this section of Aurora when Nadia began to lightly cry. "We're never going to find him... are we?" she spoke sadly, her tears falling from her cheeks and to the ground. Luxanna looked around the area before looking back to her, but as she did she spotted something. Wiping a tear away from Nadia's cheek, she lifted the young girl's chin and smiled, pointing behind her, "You spoke too soon." Nadia's eyes widened and she turned around, a huge smile forming on her face as she spotted Masamune.

There was no stopping Nadia the moment she saw Masamune. Luxanna barely noticed the motion he was making and went to grab her, but Nadia was gone! Luxanna barely felt the bit of hair that her hand slid through as the young lady ran off. "Shit." she said, almost falling on her face as Nadia slipped from her reach. She caught herself though, looked up, and shook her head. Nadia just ran. She ran, held her arms out, and yelled, "MAAAASSSSSSAAAA!!!!!!!" Tears were streaming down the worried young gir's face. She ran up to her friend and with all of her weight and strength, which really isn't much, tackled him. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and clung to him, uncaring whether they fell. "Masa, Masa, Masa!!" she said rubbing her cheek against his, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"You idiot..." Luxanna finally made it up next to the two of them, staring at Masamune with narrowed eyes, "Do you have any idea how worried she's been?" Yeah, as if Luxanna hadn't been freaking out about the idea of him being assassinated. "No more taking my missions without me!" Nadia kept clinging to him, holding tighter than she's ever held before and still rubbing her cheek against his. "Like you could stop him from doing that..." Luxanna pat Nadia on the head and pulled her back away from Masamune, "Now loosen up on the guy... You see he's okay, so don't hug him to death." "You can't hug someone to death!" Nadia protested and re-attached herself to Masamune by wrapping her arms around his torso and nuzzling her face into his shirt. Nadia sniffed, stopped, and looked up to Masamune and blinked, "You don't smell as good as you usually do. You need a bath..."

That wasn't entirely true. Nadia could be quiet if she wasn't so damn worried about the guy! She had her reasons for practically needing to hug him and make sure it was actually him and not in her imagination! That's happened before! Yep. She has imagined her friends when she misses them! Of course, that's always in a day dream, not when she was up walking around, fully aware, and awake. Right now, she was just really really needing to make sure that Masamune was alright.

"What do you mean what am I doing here?!" Nadia yelled a bit, pouting as she continued to hold him without the suffocation technique being implemented, "This is supposed to be my mission, right!? I can be here if I want! I don't care about your new friends; I just wanted to make sure you were okay! Bad things have been happening, very bad things Masa!! I was scared that you had gotten hurt or worse because no one had heard from you in so long! I was... scared..."

Nadia's entire rant was tear filled and half yelling. She grabbed onto his shirt and shook him slightly as she spoke. Once she said that final sentence, she dropped her forehead onto his shoulder and just cried. Luxanna stepped toward them and pat Nadia on the back. She stared at her crying friend for a moment and even had to fight a few tears herself. Blinking once and wiping a tear away, Luxanna put up her tough demeanor again and looked to Masamune with a serious expression.

"Masamune... We've had three members of the guild assassinated." she explained in as calm a tone as she could muster, while still rubbing Nadia's back to comfort the poor girl. She kept glancing toward the staring statues, suspicious of what they were, but kept talking anyway. "When no one heard from you, Nadia was afr-... We were afraid that someone had gotten to you too... Although they didn't target her, if it weren't for a man that was ordered to guard me... I'd likely be dead too..."

"You two are my favorites..." Nadia brought her head up from Masamune's shoulder and wiped her face with her sleeve, "I know you're not supposed to play favorites with people, but you are my favorites... I was happy when Lux came around and was okay, but... If you had died out here... on my mission... and by assassins... I never would have known... I wouldn't have been able to find you... Lux is always with someone, you're not and it scares me that one day I won't see you again..."

"I'm not sure if you know them... Yuko Enoki, Nakane Chitose, Yushiro Tsuruya were the one's taken out..." Luxanna explained, "They were among the more powerful aligned, so I can see why they'd be targetted; that is also why we thought you might have been as well." Yes, along with her admission of care for the bastard, Luxanna let out a little compliment there as well, which was definitely odd. Something must have her in a better mood because her soft-heart was showing.

"I'm not that bad..." Luxanna shot a bit of a glare toward Masamune at his haunting comment. "Yes, you are..." Nadia said innocently before moving into her favorite people rant. Masamune gave her a thumbs up and Nadia smiled again, "You still need a bath though." At this moment Luxanna began to look at the two of them funny. She stared at Nadia for a moment, her eyes suspiciously narrowed, and then turned to Masamune, letting out a knowing, "Uh'huh." before smirking at the two.

"Well isn't this a discovery..." Luxanna thought as Masamune began explaining the mission. She was only half listening as she watched Nadia actually fully listen to him. That was something she never did. It took a bit for Luxanna to even get her to listen some times, but she actually seemed completely interested in every single thing that Masamune was saying. "Fascinating..." she mumbled under her breath as Masamune finished his explanation of the mission he had stole from Nadia.

"Can we help!?" Nadia asked Masamune with wide eyes, putting her hands together as if she were pleading with him. "Yeah... Masa, can we help?" Luxanna copied Nadia and acted as if she were pleading with him as well, but her tone was obviously teasing. She chuckled and quickly dropped the act, placing a hand on her hip as she glanced back over to the statues that just seemed to be staring at them. "So what is the deal with those? They're freaking me out..." Luxanna asked him.

"Yeah, they're kinda scary..." Nadia gripped Masamune's shirt with a single hand, though he was probably used to this by now, "When is the Oh-gah-naga-laga supposed to be coming out? We can beat it up together!" Luxanna also noticed the excitement Nadia seemed to have about working with Masamune. "Hm... I think for now on you two should go on your missions together..." Luxanna suggested, "You keep making her money, but not yourself... At least this way, she won't worry while you're doing it and she can pay you back for all of your hard work and maybe even get you a gift."

"Oh, oh, oh! Can I come with you?!" Nadia practically begged. As if that wasn't manipulating enough of Luxanna to do, she had to add a few things more. "And then Nadia will be able to keep you safe, clean, fed, and sheltered... Since in comparison to both of us combined, the woman is rich... Thanks to you of course... Don't you think it's about time she pays you back for everything?" Nadia nodded excitedly and hugged Masa again, "Please, please, please?!" Luxanna stood behind Nadia and just silently laughed, knowing Masaume would likely yell at her for it, "I think it's only fair." Luxanna stuck her tongue out at Masamune, knowing that if he said no to her, she'd likely cry and he often couldn't handle her crying. Of course, she also understood the consequences of her actions and regrets nothing.

Luxanna and Nadia watched the look on Masamune's face change with his grunts. He obviously didn't want to say yes, but Nadia was too cute and Luxanna knew he thought something a little 'strong' of her. Well, that was she thinks he thought. Once he gave in, Luxanna blinked at the idea of whips and chains. "Wait, what?" she thought, blinking in surprise. Luxanna just smirked and Nadia could not have been happier. "I promise, I promise, I promise." Nadia nodded over and over again.

"Hehe..." Luxanna just chuckled cockily at this situation. She couldn't help but set the pieces in motion and felt she was already close to 'check mate'. She intentionally stared at Masamune, as if she was trying to let him know that she was doing this on purpose. "I'm sure you two will have a lot of fun... Just be careful on what glass statues you let her buy, alright?" Luxanna stuck her tongue out at Masamune again, waiting for some sort of reaction toward what she had just said to him.

Masamune explained what the thing was. Nadia had no idea what he had been talking about and the explantion of the creature sounded frightening to her. "So this thing is going to be really big, really ucky, and can swallow me whole to make me a part of him?" she tilted her head to the side. She shuddered and shook her head, "I'm glad we came then. If you had been eaten by the ucky, then I really never would have found you." Nadia smiled big, obviously still thinking about losing him.

"Quiet." Luxanna said as she stared out at the statues. She could have sworn she saw something out there moving. "Something... is out there..." she glanced toward Masamune and Nadia, "And it's big." Nadia pulled her bow off her back and nodded, finally letting go of Masamune. Luxanna pointed between a couple of the statues and lowered herself to the ground to try and not be seen. "Blonde and white hair in the dark ass swamp... We'll help so much..." Lux said sarcastically.

"I'm gonna move away from you guys..." Nadia darted off, surprisingly silent as she did. "Nadia!" Luxanna whisper-yelled and tried to grab her, but Nadia was always a nimble and quick little thing. Once again, she got away and vanished into the darkness of the murky swamp. "What's your plan? Do you have any idea how to kill a wall of muck? Because one of our best bets just ran off without a plan..." Luxanna looked to him, wondering if he had anymore information that he could give out.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no. You're the one teaching her about all of that, Masamune." Luxanna smiled mischievously at him. If her suspcions were correct about these two, there was definite possibility of both of them feeling a little bit of love for each other. Luxanna didn't mind this at all. Masamune was always protective over Nadia, so he obviously cared to a certain degree. Luxanna was just going to push the bar to see how much. If she succeeded, the two of them would get together.

But now it was time for business. Luxanna blinked when Masamune said he had a plan. Seeing that she was told of no plan, he either didn't need her help, didn't want her help, or something else along her not being needed, she stepped over to the side and leaned up against a tree. He got started, so she sat back and watched everything happen. He was quick, accurate, and doing pretty damn good all on his own. "Hm... I can see why he's survived her missions." she thought.

The large wall of muck was caught on fire, causing Luxanna to smirk. She even found it amusing that he was treating it like a magic trick, but when he called on his assistant, she raised an eyebrow. Nadia had run away, right? Luxanna blinked and turned her head around the tree to look back where Nadia had run. The moment she did, her eyes widened when she saw a massive blast of water shooting in her direction. She quickly returned to the other side of the tree, seeing it hit the muck.

A few seconds before... Nadia knew what her cue was. The moment she heard the word ice. "Comin' right at you, Masa!!!" She fired off one of her 'water missile' attacks and it flew forward, almost hitting Luxanna in the process. "And number 2!" she said as she notched an arrow in her bow before the monster was even hit. A light blue aura formed around her, which was really just slowly forming ice crystals. As this happened the monster was hit and knocked backed quite a bit. "Firing!" she yelled so they could hear, right as she let the arrow fly. The arrow flew, creating a trail of thin ice along the ground. When it slammed into the Ulga-monster, the ice instantly surrounded it.

"BOOM!" Nadia yelled happily as it hit. The ice surrounded the monster, yes, but it also continued on about ten feet behind the now frozen muck creature. "Don't make Nadia angry!!" she giggled and ran forward to reunite with her two friends. "I did it, I did it! Is it done now?" she asked, hurrying up to them with her bow in hand. She didn't usually ever use that attack, but a mucky monster was not going to get her friends. That was a big no-no! She had to protect them! "So, is it dead?" Luxanna asked.

Nadia was about to stop Masamune from shooting the thing because she didn't think it'd be dead yet. The last time she used this power, the creature didn't officially die for at least an hour. She hated this arrow for that reason, she felt like she was slowly killing something when she used it. Fortunately, when he shot the thing, it did shatter. It took Nadia a little bit to realize why, but when she did she sighed in relief. Since the thing was also made up of quite a bit of water, the water instantly froze when her ice covered it. Otherwise, the creature actually would have lived and likely just started attacking them again. That was just pure luck on their side now, wasn't it?

Luxanna and Nadia followed Masamune over to the camp he set up. When he started talking about food, both of their ears perked up, but Luxanna quickly changed her mind. "I want some!" Nadia said excitedly and took the bowl. Luxanna waved it off and shook her head, "No thank you. I don't eat reptile." Nadia blinked at that comment and then shrugged it off. "I've never tried Masa's cooking before!" she said and took a really big bite, expecting a lot more than she got. Luxanna just watched Nadia's face turn sour and began to laugh hysterically at it. Nadia turned away and quietly spit it out, trying to be as polite as she can, "I think I'll do the cooking when we go on our missions, kay?"

"Hahahaha!!!" Luxanna held her stomach, continuing to laugh at it, "A-And that's why... haha. I didn't dare put that in my mouth. He cooks to survive, not to enjoy it, Nadia..." Nadia pouted and narrowed her eyes at Luxanna, "If you knew this, you should have warned me!" Luxanna just shook her head, "With you, I've learned to let you learn your lessons on your own..." Nadia looked to Masamune, "I'll teach you how to cook for survival and yumminess, okay?" Nadia smiled sweetly at him, hoping that she didn't make him mad or insult him too bad with her having to spit it out. "Just don't feed the girl reptile... I know she'll never be able to enjoy that stuff and so do you."

"Anyways... Why the hell do you seem to think I've got whips and chains on me at all times?"

When Masamune mentioned his lack of money, Nadia's expression dropped to really, really, really sad. She looked to the bowl of food he had to eat and was ready to cry again. Luxanna saw this, rolled her eyes at Masamune's idiocy, and hit him on the side of the head. When he'd look to her, she's put a finger in front of her lips to tell him to be quiet and then use her eyes to motion to Nadia, lipping the word "Idiot." toward him. "I'm sorry..." Nadia spoke up and sat down fully, taking another bite of the food. She fought the urge to spit it out and tried to keep a straight face. Once she forced the bite down, she looked up to Masamune and smiled. "I'll eat all of it, I promise. It's my fault you have to eat this stuff in the first place..." she looked down to the food and went to take another bite.

Luxanna sighed and changed the subject, asking Masamune something that apparently took him off guard. Of course, his answer threw Luxanna off even more. She noticed his reluctant expression, but she raised an eyebrow as if to say 'just say it'. Once he answered, Luxanna's jaw dropped. She blinked a few times and slowly Stewie Griffen'd her head to the side. "Are you serious?" Luxanna said and then regain her composure, "You... dumb ass. I don't care anything around with me! Doe I look like I have anywhere to store a chain or whip!?" Luxanna stood up and then put her hands on her hips. She was about to say something else when Nadia spoke up, "What does it mean to do a do?" Luxanna froze, blinked, and looked to Nadia, "He'll have to show you some time soon. Just ask him when he's ready."

"Revenge is mine, you bastard." she thought, sitting back down and leaning up against a tree with her hands behind her head. She knew exactly what was about to start up and was ready for this show. "So when can you show me how to do a do?" Nadia smiled innocently to Masamune and tilted her head a bit, holding a now half eaten super bland stew in her lap, "Can you show me tomorrow? Or when we get back to the Noir maybe? Or on our next mission? When ever you're ready like Lux says." Luxanna smiled and just continued watching the changes in Masamune's face at this point. There was nothing better than watching him squirm under the subject of 'sex' with Nadia, absolutely nothing better. "When he does show you, just make sure he's gentle, okay?" Luxanna added and Nadia nodded.

Luxanna sighed and shook her head when she saw that look of irritation in Masamune's eyes. He was too dense to understand what she was trying to do, though that made her wonder, why the hell was she trying to do that? When she thought of that question, her own mind was stunned into confusion. And then Masamune's question hit and the two women were shocked. Nadia's eyes brightened and she looked up to Luxanna with the most innocent and hope-filled expression ever.

"Is that true?!" Nadia asked and took Luxanna's hands excitedly, "Have you finally found someone that you love with more than just friendship love?" Luxanna blinked a couple times and leaned back away from Nadia with a 'what are you talking about' look on her face. She turned toward Masamune and narrowed her eyes a bit, but it wasn't anger toward him or anything. She was actually not sure what either of them were talking about. "Well, well...? Have you?" Nadia asked once again.

"Nadia, I have no idea what Masamune is talking about. My mood has not changed what-so-ever." Luxanna told her. Nadia stone-faced. She blinked twice and then pointed up at Luxanna accusingly, "Liar. Yes, it has. You're more smiles and laughs now, even on our trip you were daydreaming like I do. You don't ever daydream!" Nadia put her hands on her hips and pouted up at Luxanna, who just leaned away more and looked away from both of them, trying to think of what they were talking about.

"I guess... Maybe... I did meet someone in Zakat that's... quite beautiful." Luxanna said with a soft smile, her cheeks turning a bit pink. Nadia's eyes had stars shine in them for a moment and then she looked back to Masamune, whispering in his ear, "If she finds someone she loves, she won't pick on you no more, I bet. We have to make sure they are happy together." Luxanna noticed this and narrowed her eyes, "Uh... Excuse me, but what the hell were you two just whispering about? Hmmm?"

"Make no mistake, the woman I speak of is beautiful..." Luxanna said, then moving off on her own tangent, "... strong, independent, kind, intelligent... b-b-but!! There is nothing happening between us. Nothing at all. She is out of my League and no chance of that changing." Luxanna turned away from them, held her head high, and crossed her arms along her chest. Nadia just dull-faced and glanced toward Masamune and then back to Luxanna like 'Even I can't believe the bullshit she's spouting'.

Luxanna and Nadia both stared at Masamune, but in different ways. Luxanna looked at him like he was absolutely crazy. Even if she wasn't a lesbian, him hitting on her was not something she'd allow. For one, Masamune was more like a younger brother to her. At the moment, she couldn't remember his age, but the maturity level between the two of them seemed to tip in her direction just a bit more, so she figured she was older. So yes, to her, he was a younger brother and not to be looked at any differnetly than that. Nadia, on the other hand, just tilted her head to the side. There wasn't much of an expression on her face at this point; it was often hard to tell what she was feeling when she was actually thinking hard on something. It would have been obvious to both Luxanna and Masamune, since they knew her so well at this point, that something that had been said struck some sort of nerve with her and caused her to think a little harder than normal. Now, whether this was a good nerve or a bad nerve to strike was yet to be seen.

"She'd be a challenge alright, but I don't think she's the type to play 'hard-to-get', you know?" Luxanna spoke up first, her arms crossed along her chest as she thought about Tsubine, "She doesn't play games; she's just very responsible and cautious about who she let's close, which is something I can't blame her for at all." Luxanna took in a deep breath and sighed, looking toward Nadia. She was too quiet and her face was to content; Luxanna didn't like it. "What the hell are you thinking about?" Luxanna spoke up and asked, pulling Nadia from her thoughts. Nadia turned her head up to Luxanna quite casually, more so than normal, and just blinked a couple times. She said nothing and just looked back to Masamune for a moment, and then back to Luxanna. "Am I ugly?" she spoke up, asking out of nowhere. Luxanna blinked once and just shook her head in surprise, "Why the... Okay, for one, hell no, you're not. For two, why would you even ask that?" Luxanna narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Nadia, who just shrugged, stood up, and walked off.

"She's thinking again..." Luxanna stood silent for a moment, watching Nadia step over to a tree about fifty feet away and lean against it. She looked to Masamune and raised an eyebrow at him, "I am definitely blaming you for that one. I'm not entirely sure wh- well, I have a clue, but it's your fault." Luxanna just sighed and sat down, "Just let her think, I guess. When are we heading back?"