The beach, Sunday

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

There was a beach here! The town looked weird, but a beach was familiar, and there were a lot less tourists on this one, so Jon could explore and toss shells in the water and nobody could tell him not to. And probably the police wouldn't come by and drag him back to Gran's, either. Probably.

So he was investigating the beach to find anything interesting, and sometimes just stopping to build a lopsided tower of sand, just because he could.


[Open post!]

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[sword_chocobro]

Just because he wasn't at home didn't mean Gladio could slack off on his training! Besides, beach jogging was the best, it was really hard and challenging, and there was way more beach here than back home. So he figured he'd do at least one good loop around the island (and all those stairs, too! He was going to feel it in the morning!), but when he saw some other kid on the beach in the sand, he decided to loop back around and maybe take a brief break.

"Hey, what'cha building there? Some kind of sand castle?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon startled and looked over at the boy, bigger than him, with a bit of trepidation. "Uh, n-no, just, um. Just nothing, really." He shrugged and brushed off his hands.

[sword_chocobro]

"It doesn't look like nothing," Gladio pointed out, but if the other guy didn't want to talk about it, that was fine. "What's your name? Mine's Gladio. Are you from around here? Did you go to that carnival yesterday?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Nothing important," Jon corrected hastily. He still wasn't sure about this other boy. "I'm Jon. I went there but I didn't do much," he added in a rush, in case Gladio decided to tease him about it.

[sword_chocobro]

"Yeah?" Gladio asked, tilting his head a little. "I thought it was pretty fun. I got this really cool eagle tattoo and crushed, like, fifty juice boxes."

That last part was kind of an exaggeration....but not by much.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I, um. I-I thought they didn't give tattoos until you were older," Jon said.

[sword_chocobro]

"It's just a fake one," Gladio admitted, his grin gone just a touch sheepish. "Done by one of the face painters yesterday. But I am going to have a real one one day, once I finish my training and officially become a Shield of the King. It's going to be all across my back and arms and everything, it'll be epic! But....I have a ways to go still."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh." Jon frowned. "What's a, um...a Shield of the King?"

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio squinted a little upwards as he thought of how best to explain it. "It's like...the King's bodyguard. It's a Shield's duty to fight for and protect the king, no matter what. And my family's been Shield to the King for hundreds of years, so it's kind of a big deal. I won't be the Shield to the current king, though; that's my dad. I'll be Shield to the king's son, Prince Noctis."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"But there's a queen, not a king," Jon protested. "And he's not named...um, that. Where are you from?"

[sword_chocobro]

That was earning Jon a deep frown right back. "The queen died years ago," he said, and the tilt of his head went suspicious. "And I'm from Insomnia." Obviously. "In Lucis."

It felt particularly dumb to add that last part. Who didn't know about Insomnia?

"Where are you from?" he then asked, pretty sure the answer would be something like under a rock.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon shrank back a bit. "I'm, um. I'm from Bournemouth. In England. I haven't heard of Insomnia, except I, um. Isn't that where you...where you can't sleep?"

[sword_chocobro]

"....no?" Gladio said, after a moment, confused about both the shrinking back as well as the question. "I always sleep just fine. But I guess we're even, because I've never heard of Bournemouth or England, either. Is that one of the Niflheim territories?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"No?" Jon said. "It's in, um. In the UK. The United Kingdom." He wasn't going to correct Gladio about what he'd meant. Best to let it go.

[sword_chocobro]

"United, huh?" asked Gladio, with a faintly wry grin. "Sounds kinda nice."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I guess so?" Jon really had nothing to compare it to. "Lots of places are united, though. Like, um, the United States, and...and United Ar-Arab...um. Em something. And the United Nations, maybe, but I don't think it's really a place."

[sword_chocobro]

"I don't think any of them sounds like real places," Gladio admitted. "Maybe I should have paid more attention in geography class."

Doubtful. He actually had really good marks in school, thank you very much.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"They are!" Jon protested. His own marks were fairly good, too, even if geography wasn't his strong point. "I wouldn't lie!"

[sword_chocobro]

"Hey, now," Gladio lifted his hands a little as if in defense, "calm down, I'm saying you would. All I'm saying is that I've never heard of them before. That's all."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon scowled. Big kids were mean and you couldn't trust them.

"Well, they are," he muttered.

[furrybluefreak]

You know what was more energetic than a six year old who could teleport around? A six year old who could teleport and who was hyped up on ice cream and sugar!

Kurt was having a great time playing in the water and sand, the only thing that was making him stop now and then was yet another pretty shell he wanted to save to take back home.

One time as he stopped, he looked over and saw another boy not too far away.

"Hey" Kurt said giving a small grin and a wave.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon looked over and froze, raising a shaky hand to wave just a little. What was this...person?

[furrybluefreak]

"Are you looking for shells too?" Kurt asked excitedly. "There's lots of cool shells on this beach!"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Uh, n-no, not really."

Jon wasn't sure what to do. Should he run away, or stay very still? Should he talk? He just stood there, fidgeting.

[furrybluefreak]

"Oh" Kurt said with a slightly disappointed look. He really wanted to talk about the shells he had found already. "You do know you can hear the ocean waves in some of the bigger shells right?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"It's just because they amplify the sounds around them," Jon said, still fidgeting. "The way the airflow goes makes it sound more oceany."

[furrybluefreak]

"Oh really?" Kurt paused for a moment. "You must be really smart to know that!"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon winced and shrugged nervously. In his experience, being called smart usually came with being picked on. "I suppose."

[furrybluefreak]

"You want to see if we can hear the ocean in any of these I found?" Kurt asked. "It's... it's ok if you don't want to." Kurt was used to people not wanting to be around him. "But I think it would be fun!"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Are, um. Are any of them sort of round?" Jon asked. "They have to have a chamber for the air."

[furrybluefreak]

Kurt sorted through the shells he had gathered in his arms. He held up a decent-sized conch shell, causing the others to fall into the sand at his feet.

"Oops!" he said with a small laugh and then held the shell out toward Jon. "Will this one work?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon nodded. "That's a good one. Then you hold it up to your ear." He bit his lip. "Yours are pointed," he noted.

[furrybluefreak]

Kurt gave a slow nod. Here it was. The inevitable push back that he was 'funny looking' or 'scary' or any number of things he had heard from those outside his family.

"They are," Kurt said simply. There was no denying it or hiding it... any more than he could the oh so obvious blue coloring.

He wondered if Jon had noticed the tail yet. That was when people often started acting odd... if the whole being blue thing didn't already scare them away.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon hadn't, but it wouldn't really be any different than the rest. And Kurt didn't seem like he wanted to eat him or anything. He wasn't even much bigger than Jon, who relaxed a teeny bit when he didn't get mad about it.

"Are, um. Are they supposed to be?" He asked, curiosity winning out momentarily over fear.

[furrybluefreak]

Get mad? Kurt was used to kids pointing and laughing at best and throwing things at him and chasing him at worst. Questions were fun!

"Since the day I was born," Kurt said in response. "They're really sensitive too! Muti and Vatti say I have ears as sensitive as a cat's!"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon relaxed just a little more. "Who are Muti and Vatti?" He stumbled over the names.

[furrybluefreak]

"Ah, my...my mom and dad" Kurt said slightly embarrassed. "I forget English words sometimes." He looked at Jon and tilted his head slightly. "Are you from around here?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I don't know where here is," Jon confessed. "I'm from Bournemouth. In England. Where are you from?"

[furrybluefreak]

Kurt thought for a moment. So he wasn't the only one who didn't know where they were, other than very much 'not home.' "I live in Bavaria, Germany."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh. I've never been to the continent," Jon said. "One day I will. I'll go on holiday to all the places!"

[furrybluefreak]

"I haven't been too far either. It does sound fun, traveling and seeing things. And we're here so that's one trip already done!" Kurt said with a grin.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Except we don't know where here is," Jon pointed out. "So we can't mark it off on a map or anything."

[furrybluefreak]

"Oh you're right," Kurt said thoughtfully. "Well, we'll just have to make sure we find out!"