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Post by Narye Matsuya on Jul 25, 2012 16:02:57 GMT -5
He felt her grip tighten around him and if the mask had not been hiding most of his face, she would have noticed a gentle redness come over his face. A few years had passed since he had felt someone touch him like this, much less a pretty woman. Dancing that night was pretty much the most intimate contact that he had been privy to in a long while. It was enjoyable, and warm. His hands slid down onto her hips and he also pulled her a little closer to him.
"As for you your previous question, I teach the younger teens. Thirteen year olds and such. It can be... trying sometimes."
That was putting it mildly. Narye was no angel at the age either, and he finally understood how much of a pain he was to his own father. Not to say he hated it, he liked most of the kids, but sometimes someone just was a serious hassle with their teenage drama or angst.
With his hands on her hips, he felt the curve of her body. Narye had always had a thing for that area of a woman's body, and this Lady was feeling pretty good with a nice flare to her hips. Not to mention that she felt like he could just hoist her up in his arms with no trouble, or that he could rest his chin on her head. It all came together for a nice, elegant package in that outfit she had on.
"Now I've told you about myself. Tell me something about you."
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Post by Saaga Sun on Jul 25, 2012 18:33:57 GMT -5
Somehow Saaga had trouble imagining the man shepherding a bunch of pre-teens around, but she would not have minded seeing him at his job. She had a hard time pinpointing his age. From the way he talked he sounded like an older more experienced man, but his youthful appearance threw her off a bit. She found herself wondering how old one had to be to work as a teacher. Of course the mask obscured half his face too and made it increasingly difficult to figure him out.
But he had a pleasant voice and a kind demeanor. It seemed to her that perhaps he was the kind of teacher who liked to befriend his students instead of bossing them around. She didn’t ask about it though.
“I can only imagine. That’s a tough age. Kids question everything and when they’re at their worst they disagree with everything you say,” she said, remembering how she’d behaved at that age.
It didn’t take much effort to recall those times, it had not been very long since she was at her most trying age causing her mother a lot of unnecessary grief and helping her father along the road to premature graying.
As the music swelled to a crescendo she leaned away from him playfully, breaking body contact except for holding his hand. People around them were really getting into the rhythm now and the band seemed to enjoy playing to such a lively audience.
“Oh sure. What would you like to know?” she asked, thinking whether talking about her work would bore the man. She was not sure if the art of glassblowing was a subject people other than glassmiths themselves found interesting.
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Post by Narye Matsuya on Jul 25, 2012 20:32:06 GMT -5
The woman he was dancing with seemed to be on the younger side, or perhaps just very short compared to him. Judging age was particularly hard in this situation. It was usually hard enough for Narye to make a guess as to someone's age, as it was not one of his strong suits, when they did not have a mask obscuring most of their face. If he had to make any guesses at all, he would assume that she was younger than him, as he was mostly sure of that. But by how much? If he went by height, he'd say she was in her late teens but that wasn't fair.
Whatever her age, she was a kind and enjoyable person to be around and dance with. Speaking of dancing, when she pulled away from coyly, Narye took it as an opportunity to pull another move. Arching his arm a bit with her hand in his, he coaxed her into a little spin before bringing her back in with a smile.
"Hm... What do I want to know about the myseriously attractive woman I'm dancing with?"
Narye made a bit of a show of trying to figure out what he wanted to know about her, being the playful dance mate that he was. After a moment, he just asked the first thing that came to his mind.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, how old is the lovely woman I have the honor of dancing with?"
It was a little intrusive to be sure, but it was actually something he wanted to ask, or at least get it out of his head for the time being.
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Post by Saaga Sun on Jul 25, 2012 21:34:37 GMT -5
Unfortunately for her Saaga came from a long line of short people, at least from her mother’s side. She had been an inch or two shorter than her, but her father on the other hand had been taller than the gentleman she was dancing with. When she’d been a child she had wanted to grow up to be a tall slender woman and her mother had often told her that it was very likely given her father’s height. In the end, what she got was a short frame that was stacked in a way that made it difficult to buy or make clothes that fit. She often wondered whether she would have grown taller if she didn’t have to spend so many months starving on the streets. But as they say, one should not cry over spilled milk.
When the man spun her round in the midst of their dance, the hem of her yukata flew up at her knees and back down again when she landed back in his arms. She felt her cheeks flush a little from the exercise and then some more when he called her attractive.
It was not a word men usually used to describe her. Her colleagues often told her she was a little know it all and honest in a way that would make most people hate her. Master Zhang had a habit of striking her on the head with a newspaper from time to time in an effort to rid her of the habit of talking back at him. All in all a man giving her a compliment was not a routine occurrence, it was an exception to a rule.
“I’m twenty,” Saaga replied after she’d had a short moment to savor his previous statement. Age was a sensitive issue to some if not most women and she had always had trouble understanding why. She had found that the older you got the more freedom you gained. Once one reached seniority it seemed no one cared what you did anymore.
“Sometimes it feels like I’m ancient though,” she chuckled, thinking about her work and the people she lived with.
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Post by Narye Matsuya on Jul 25, 2012 21:52:25 GMT -5
The second she told him her age, he froze for a second, putting them both off beat with the music. Even behind the mask, his eyes widened visibly in surprise. He had surmised earlier that she was younger than him, but he wasn't quite prepared to hear that she was nearly half his age. The shock of revelation lasted for a brief moment before he found the beat again and began dancing again, though a little slower than before.
"You're nowhere near ancient."
He managed a nervous smile while he looked down at her. When he didn't know her age, she was a perfectly wonderful woman, one he would've liked to get to know better. Her age didn't really change that but now he was burdened with anxiety about it. In a moment of resolve, he decided that revealing his own age would be more fair to the girl than letting it come up at a less opportune time.
But he was still nervous about it, so there was a moment of silence while he mustered up the courage to tell her. After a quick sigh and a small smile in her direction, he leaned over and brought his mouth closer to ear.
"Please don't be put off by this, because I would love to get to know you more, but I'm, uh... thirty-nine..."
Narye didn't dare bring his head back up and simply leaned on her while he waited for her response. He didn't want to see the shocked, perhaps disgusted, expression on her face at learning how much of an age difference there was between them.
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Post by Saaga Sun on Jul 25, 2012 22:37:23 GMT -5
Saaga noticed the shock in her dance partner’s eyes and furrowed her eyebrows beneath her mask, more than a little confused. Was her age a bad thing in this context or was something else bothering the man? She was not used to having such close relations with a man, so deciphering his reaction was something she was pretty much ill-equipped to do.
Having lived a fairly sheltered life, dedicating most of it to her craft she’d had no time or interest in relationships. She was very close to the people she lived with, but that was because she’d known them her whole life and even then she wasn’t completely comfortable around them. And they were women. How was she supposed to know what made men tick?
When he gave her a nervous smile, Saaga could not think of anything else but to smile right back at him. He seemed like an interesting guy and getting to know him better didn’t sound like a bad thing. But she didn’t want to tip toe around him either and her age seemed to have knocked him about a bit.
She was about to ask him what was wrong when he leaned in closer to whisper something to her. Saaga’s first reaction was to pull her head back a little, but she managed not to actually do it. She looked around nervously not knowing if she was supposed to give him a pat on the back for comfort or something. In the end she didn’t do anything and just listened.
“Uhm…Okay? I’m sorry, I’m a little confused. Why should I be put off by that? It’s just a number,” she told him.
Thirty-nine was not even that old. Master Zhang was sixty-something and the people she played paisho with were usually a lot older than him. Yet she did not discriminate against them because of their age. Somehow she felt like she was missing something here.
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Post by Narye Matsuya on Jul 26, 2012 8:38:09 GMT -5
Narye jerked himself back so he could look into the woman's outfit. She probably couldn't tell because of the mask, but Narye was raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her nonchalant response to his confession of age. He wasn't expecting her to take it so well, or even question him about it. He wanted to say something, but he had to clear his throat first.
"Well, um... Uh... I thought you'd be, y'know, a little... put off by the age difference. Y'know..."
There was no other way to put it, and Narye knew it.
"... An older gentleman hitting-on a younger woman. Doesn't bother you at all?"
That was a confession that Narye would have preferred he never make but, for the life of him, he could not figure out a better way to word it. He WAS hitting on her, there was no two ways about it. Or at least he thought he was. Maybe he was so rusty in the Wooing Department that he was sending a completely different vibe than what he intended. The point was: Her question had kind of thrown Narye for a loop and he didn't know what to think anymore.
Regardless, he kept dancing with the woman and tried not to make them into a scene by his own actions. The more he danced with her, the more comfortable he was getting with her, even in spite of his little revelation. Everything had gone so well so far, why should an age difference ruin such a nice evening?
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Post by Saaga Sun on Jul 26, 2012 10:20:13 GMT -5
If Saaga’s question had put the man on a loop, then his confession about him hitting on her threw her on for a couple. For a moment she could not do anything but gape at him, her lips forming a silent ‘oh’ in response. She hoped he wouldn’t take it the wrong way. It was not like this news was thoroughly unpleasant for her, but men coming on to her was not something she was prepared for most of the time.
The only time she could recall going out with a man, was when Tahrro had bought her dinner in exchange for her help in the filchpie-incident. Even then most of the evening had been spent debating and him pointing out all the things she was wrong in. After the dinner he had proceeded to drag her around town. Though she had fond memories of the evening, she hardly thought of it as a romantic encounter. She bit her lip thoughtfully, trying to think of something to say.
Even when she thought about the whole situation she could not really find anything wrong about his age. Sure it was rather weird to think that someone thought of her in a romantic sense but she would have felt weird about it even if the man was her age. Well, perhaps not in a romantic sense specifically, she was not that naïve.
“Uh, I don’t really know what to say to be frank. I’m not very good at reading these kinds of situations,” she started, kind of shyly and not really wanting to let him know the full extent of her ineptitude in male-female-relations. The situation was very awkward for her in more ways than one. She was used to being on top of everything, all independent and assertive and now she felt like she was walking on thin ice not knowing where to step.
By his reaction and statement Saaga surmised that maybe societal pressure dictated that she should feel insulted or disgusted by his courting, but she found herself feeling rather flattered. Maybe she was a defective product. Too much time spent worrying over the well-being of others and now someone had come along to give her attention for a change. Surely it was silly to secretly feel happy about it.
“It’s really not your age that’s…I’m really not the kind of woman men usually hit on, so uh…Just a little confused right now,” she finished, looking at both of their feet cheeks flush with red. If anything now was a time she could really have use for a drink.
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Post by Narye Matsuya on Jul 26, 2012 11:11:39 GMT -5
"You're joking."
Narye was finding that this woman was just full of surprises. First it was revealed that she was nearly half his age, then she followed it up by saying that she was not the kind of woman that men are looking into? Somehow that second point was more of a shocker than the age issue. He could hardly believe it.
To him, it was a situation that he might have scoffed at had he not been in usch close proximity to the woman. What was the world coming to when a young pretty lady couldn't catch the eye of a young man or two? It never occurred to him that she may have lived a sheltered or secluded life, as it wasn't an assumption he typically made. As far as he was concerned, this young lady looked like the kind that should be fighting them off with a stick.
But judging from her expression and the way she was looking at their feet, she was being entirely truthful, and not exactly sad. She seemed more embarassed with the situation than upset about not attracting the eye of someone before Narye.
"Well then, let me be the first to court you, miss. Even if I am a little older than you. Hold on!"
With that said, he took the initiative once more and wrapped his arms around the girl, behind her thighs and just below her bottom. With almost no effort, he lifted her up and held her against him, bringing her off the ground and up to his eye level while he spun them around once with a smile. It was a brash move, but it seemed fun and a great way to get her smiling again.
"Do you want to take a break from dancing, or you wanna go for another ride like that?"
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Post by Saaga Sun on Jul 26, 2012 13:55:26 GMT -5
"You're joking."
Saaga chuckled lightly at his reaction. It seemed to her like they were taking turns in trying to shock each other. So far they had spent as much time gaping at each other in surprise as they had danced. She could not help but feel a little amused by that and she wondered what other shocking tales he might share with her.
Listening to him talk, Saaga had some trouble believing he really was as old as he said he was. She could have easily believed him to be twenty-nine or a little older, but not thirty-nine. Then again why would anyone lie about being middle aged? Wasn’t it usually the other way around? Older people trying to appear younger? Unless of course the man was secretly over his forties, but she doubted anyone could have lived so long and aged so well. Still, the thought of it was rather hilarious, though in retrospect others might have found it sort of creepy.
When he talked to her, Saaga raised her eyes from the floor to meet his and raised her eyebrows skeptically, though of course he could not see it from under her mask. Those were some bold words from a man who did not even know her name yet, but she was curious to see where the evening would lead her.
“Okay then. What are you goi—Wow oh!” she exclaimed, startled by the sudden lift off. Instinctively she wrapped her arms around his neck, scared that she would fall if she didn’t.
And then he spun her around resulting in a few feathers falling off her mask and her sitting breathless on his arms, eyes wide with surprise. After a moment she started laughing, not sure if it was due to being terrified, or getting an adrenaline rush. Possibly both.
“I don’t know what to think of your rides just yet. I might have to catch my breath for a little while,” she told him, combing through his hair absent mindedly. He kept it pretty long didn’t he?
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