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Apr. 11th, 2012 05:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tairako"Master?"
Looking up from the book he was perusing, Eraqus found his younger apprentice standing in the door to the library, watching him with a slightly puzzled expression as she clutched a string bag in her hands. "Did you finish the shopping, Aqua?"
"Yes, but... umm, I was told to ask you a question. Is that all right?"
"Of course, you can always ask me anything." He closed and set the book on the table, raising a hand to beckon the eleven-year-old girl into the room properly. She complied, leaving the bag by the door as she came to stand next to his chair, hands behind her back. She was getting bigger, he noticed - she now stood taller than him when he was sitting, when only two months before they'd been at eye level. And Terra was similarly growing... as his ever-expanding grocery budget proved. Time moved so quickly... "What is it?"
"Well... Sanna? The lady who sells the apples?" He nodded, waiting for her to go on. "Sanna wants to know if you want her to take me shopping for bras."
Eraqus felt all the blood drain from his face.
"Master, what's a bra?"
Time didn't need to move that quickly!
In truth, despite some... incidents in his past, Eraqus knew he was not the person to explain the process of life's developments to an impressionable pre-teen girl; he wasn't entirely sure he could manage it with a boy, despite having already had this same talk with Terra. The entire process would be far too awkward, and if he was truthful with himself he wouldn't know how to explain it properly. He'd read about it in biology books, of course, but he hadn't known any girls closely enough during that segment of their lives to know the particulars, and there would be questions and horror and Light above he was not ready for that.
"Master? Are you okay?"
Eraqus buried his face in his hand. "Y-Yes... I'm fine, Aqua. I... suggest you go look at some of the biology textbooks. And I will... accept Sanna's generous offer."
He could tell without looking that Aqua was not convinced about his well-being, but she was too respectful of his feelings to argue. "All right... Um, she said to let her know when you could spare me from lessons, so-"
"-I'll talk to her myself." Decision made, Eraqus quickly rose from the table, startling the girl into stepping back suddenly. "I'll go now. If you could put the fruit away while I'm gone?"
"Yes, Master."
Without glancing back, he strode from the library, leaving a very perplexed girl in his wake.
~~~~~
Aqua, however, did not stay perplexed for long.
Once the Master made a decision, nothing could stop it from being implemented, and three days later Aqua found herself once again in the town nestled in the base of the mountains below the castle, this time in the small home Sanna occupied with her husband and two children who hadn't yet married and moved out. The tea the apple seller had made remained untasted in her hands for almost two hours as Sanna very carefully yet very bluntly laid out everything in front of her about what the changes to her body meant, what was yet to come and what had already happened. The mere mention of some of the issues freaked her out completely; she hated not being in control of her body, and now to find out about all these things that she couldn't avoid? At one point Aqua couldn't help herself, standing completely out of her chair and declaring - loudly - that she was going to be a boy from then on.
Sanna could only laugh and pat her on the shoulder, remarking that if it were that easy, every girl would have changed already.
Once the monstrosity of puberty was explained, though, there was still more to get through - items that Aqua would need soon, if not already. Sanna's eyes lingered pointedly on her chest, and Aqua felt herself flush; that part of her had been growing lately, she'd recently noticed, but it hadn't seemed like that big a problem. If that was all this "puberty" entailed, that would have been fine - her shape was simply changing to be more like those of most of the adult women she'd seen in her life. It was all the talk of bleeding and pain and weight gain and boys and romance and marriage and babies and everything that came with it that freaked her out.
Eraqus had also arranged for Sanna to take her shopping and show her the locations to buy all these things herself, and Aqua could not blame her Master for chickening out on this one - if she had a choice in the matter, she would have as well. Sanna's calm demeanor and mothering personality had made the ordeal less of a problem than it could have been, but Aqua still wanted to die of embarrassment as the lady at the clothing store squealed and cooed over how amazing it was to celebrate a milestone in womanhood such as buying her very first bra! Sanna, easily able to tell that Aqua would much rather hide than jump around with joy, managed to calm the clerk down enough to actually do her job, but Aqua refused to meet her eyes for the rest of the visit. She turned a brilliant red when the woman made an offhanded comment that if she was lucky, she'd have a boyfriend any day now and her breasts would be at least a C-cup when they were done growing.
On her way back to the castle with yet another bag, this one filled with all sorts of supplies she would need as well as three bras in basic white and "one to grow into," she kept her gaze locked onto the ground in front of her feet as she followed the grass-covered path up the mountain. Her cheeks were still flaming, she could tell, and Aqua made a solemn promise to herself as she climbed.
Whatever happened, she would not let Terra know about this. Any of this.
~~~~~
Terra wandered down the hall, trying to read as he was walking and doing a rather terrible job of it. He wasn't one of those people that could move anywhere not paying attention to where he was going, as his having run into several walls in the past had proven. But the Master wanted this report on the principles of blizzard magic as soon as possible (or, more specifically, yesterday), so Terra was trying to force himself to work as often as he could.
It... wasn't going all that well.
His left arm hit another wall, jarring the book from his hands, and Terra quickly bent to retrieve it before any of the pages could be creased and the Master not be pleased with him. Harming a book, even on accident, was a forbidden thing in the Land of Departure, as both Master Eraqus and Aqua would come for his head if they caught even a hint of such clumsiness. Fortunately the volume, which was both big and old and already kind of falling apart seemed to have been spared any new damage at least, and Terra sighed with relief as he tucked it under his arm to finish reading when he wasn't actually on the move.
As he was straightening up, however, a flash of white caught the corner of his eye and he turned to look at it. White was nothing new in the castle, most of it was white, but there had been a memorable instance the year before where he'd accidentally caused part of the ceiling to collapse right along this stretch of hallway... Well, he just wanted to make sure it wasn't trying to fall apart again. A quick glance along the ceiling showed that all of the plaster was intact, thank goodness, and he took a few steps to see what the thing was.
He... honestly couldn't tell. It was made of fabric, basic white fabric that was probably cotton, and had two loops that he couldn't figure out and two kind of... were those pockets? Holsters? It didn't make any sense to him. Book forgotten, Terra bent down to pick up the strange thing, holding it up to dangle in front of him as it twisted slightly, letting him observe it from all angles. The thing wasn't ringing any word bells, but the long part of it seemed to be elastic and it kind of maybe reminded him of-
Terra's eyes widened as he made the mental connection, balling up the fabric in his hand and breaking into a flat run for his room. Oh man he finally had one!
~~~~~
Aqua had been putting a great deal of effort into pretending that all these bodily changes weren't happening, but the fact that she now had to put on one of her training bras every morning and the elastic kept digging into her ribcage all day made it very hard to ignore. She'd come to accept the inevitable in the situation at least but she couldn't help wish it gone every single day. That was probably why she didn't notice one of her new bras was missing for a couple of hours - the rule of the castle was that everyone had to do their own laundry and put it away as fast as possible, but she'd been ignoring the laundry basket for the afternoon while she periodically adjusted one of the straps over her shoulder and tried to concentrate on the math work the Master had set her. Her own sense of responsibility eventually caught up with her just before dinner, though, and she turned to the basket with a sigh, dumping it all onto her bed and starting to sort through it.
She froze when she realized the thing was missing.
Okay... Calm down... There's only a few places it could be. Retrace your steps- No matter how sane her inner voice was, in this one case Aqua wasn't all that willing to listen to it. She did follow its basic commands, but keeping herself calm was so much harder than it normally was. Terra and the Master were in the castle! They could run across it at any time! She had to find it, and quick.
The journey to the laundry room had never seemed longer but she knew she'd never covered the distance faster. Unfortunately, she didn't see the thing either in the room itself or the halls leading to it, so she reversed direction and headed back to her room after giving the laundry room a thorough search.
Looking up from the book he was perusing, Eraqus found his younger apprentice standing in the door to the library, watching him with a slightly puzzled expression as she clutched a string bag in her hands. "Did you finish the shopping, Aqua?"
"Yes, but... umm, I was told to ask you a question. Is that all right?"
"Of course, you can always ask me anything." He closed and set the book on the table, raising a hand to beckon the eleven-year-old girl into the room properly. She complied, leaving the bag by the door as she came to stand next to his chair, hands behind her back. She was getting bigger, he noticed - she now stood taller than him when he was sitting, when only two months before they'd been at eye level. And Terra was similarly growing... as his ever-expanding grocery budget proved. Time moved so quickly... "What is it?"
"Well... Sanna? The lady who sells the apples?" He nodded, waiting for her to go on. "Sanna wants to know if you want her to take me shopping for bras."
Eraqus felt all the blood drain from his face.
"Master, what's a bra?"
Time didn't need to move that quickly!
In truth, despite some... incidents in his past, Eraqus knew he was not the person to explain the process of life's developments to an impressionable pre-teen girl; he wasn't entirely sure he could manage it with a boy, despite having already had this same talk with Terra. The entire process would be far too awkward, and if he was truthful with himself he wouldn't know how to explain it properly. He'd read about it in biology books, of course, but he hadn't known any girls closely enough during that segment of their lives to know the particulars, and there would be questions and horror and Light above he was not ready for that.
"Master? Are you okay?"
Eraqus buried his face in his hand. "Y-Yes... I'm fine, Aqua. I... suggest you go look at some of the biology textbooks. And I will... accept Sanna's generous offer."
He could tell without looking that Aqua was not convinced about his well-being, but she was too respectful of his feelings to argue. "All right... Um, she said to let her know when you could spare me from lessons, so-"
"-I'll talk to her myself." Decision made, Eraqus quickly rose from the table, startling the girl into stepping back suddenly. "I'll go now. If you could put the fruit away while I'm gone?"
"Yes, Master."
Without glancing back, he strode from the library, leaving a very perplexed girl in his wake.
Aqua, however, did not stay perplexed for long.
Once the Master made a decision, nothing could stop it from being implemented, and three days later Aqua found herself once again in the town nestled in the base of the mountains below the castle, this time in the small home Sanna occupied with her husband and two children who hadn't yet married and moved out. The tea the apple seller had made remained untasted in her hands for almost two hours as Sanna very carefully yet very bluntly laid out everything in front of her about what the changes to her body meant, what was yet to come and what had already happened. The mere mention of some of the issues freaked her out completely; she hated not being in control of her body, and now to find out about all these things that she couldn't avoid? At one point Aqua couldn't help herself, standing completely out of her chair and declaring - loudly - that she was going to be a boy from then on.
Sanna could only laugh and pat her on the shoulder, remarking that if it were that easy, every girl would have changed already.
Once the monstrosity of puberty was explained, though, there was still more to get through - items that Aqua would need soon, if not already. Sanna's eyes lingered pointedly on her chest, and Aqua felt herself flush; that part of her had been growing lately, she'd recently noticed, but it hadn't seemed like that big a problem. If that was all this "puberty" entailed, that would have been fine - her shape was simply changing to be more like those of most of the adult women she'd seen in her life. It was all the talk of bleeding and pain and weight gain and boys and romance and marriage and babies and everything that came with it that freaked her out.
Eraqus had also arranged for Sanna to take her shopping and show her the locations to buy all these things herself, and Aqua could not blame her Master for chickening out on this one - if she had a choice in the matter, she would have as well. Sanna's calm demeanor and mothering personality had made the ordeal less of a problem than it could have been, but Aqua still wanted to die of embarrassment as the lady at the clothing store squealed and cooed over how amazing it was to celebrate a milestone in womanhood such as buying her very first bra! Sanna, easily able to tell that Aqua would much rather hide than jump around with joy, managed to calm the clerk down enough to actually do her job, but Aqua refused to meet her eyes for the rest of the visit. She turned a brilliant red when the woman made an offhanded comment that if she was lucky, she'd have a boyfriend any day now and her breasts would be at least a C-cup when they were done growing.
On her way back to the castle with yet another bag, this one filled with all sorts of supplies she would need as well as three bras in basic white and "one to grow into," she kept her gaze locked onto the ground in front of her feet as she followed the grass-covered path up the mountain. Her cheeks were still flaming, she could tell, and Aqua made a solemn promise to herself as she climbed.
Whatever happened, she would not let Terra know about this. Any of this.
Terra wandered down the hall, trying to read as he was walking and doing a rather terrible job of it. He wasn't one of those people that could move anywhere not paying attention to where he was going, as his having run into several walls in the past had proven. But the Master wanted this report on the principles of blizzard magic as soon as possible (or, more specifically, yesterday), so Terra was trying to force himself to work as often as he could.
It... wasn't going all that well.
His left arm hit another wall, jarring the book from his hands, and Terra quickly bent to retrieve it before any of the pages could be creased and the Master not be pleased with him. Harming a book, even on accident, was a forbidden thing in the Land of Departure, as both Master Eraqus and Aqua would come for his head if they caught even a hint of such clumsiness. Fortunately the volume, which was both big and old and already kind of falling apart seemed to have been spared any new damage at least, and Terra sighed with relief as he tucked it under his arm to finish reading when he wasn't actually on the move.
As he was straightening up, however, a flash of white caught the corner of his eye and he turned to look at it. White was nothing new in the castle, most of it was white, but there had been a memorable instance the year before where he'd accidentally caused part of the ceiling to collapse right along this stretch of hallway... Well, he just wanted to make sure it wasn't trying to fall apart again. A quick glance along the ceiling showed that all of the plaster was intact, thank goodness, and he took a few steps to see what the thing was.
He... honestly couldn't tell. It was made of fabric, basic white fabric that was probably cotton, and had two loops that he couldn't figure out and two kind of... were those pockets? Holsters? It didn't make any sense to him. Book forgotten, Terra bent down to pick up the strange thing, holding it up to dangle in front of him as it twisted slightly, letting him observe it from all angles. The thing wasn't ringing any word bells, but the long part of it seemed to be elastic and it kind of maybe reminded him of-
Terra's eyes widened as he made the mental connection, balling up the fabric in his hand and breaking into a flat run for his room. Oh man he finally had one!
Aqua had been putting a great deal of effort into pretending that all these bodily changes weren't happening, but the fact that she now had to put on one of her training bras every morning and the elastic kept digging into her ribcage all day made it very hard to ignore. She'd come to accept the inevitable in the situation at least but she couldn't help wish it gone every single day. That was probably why she didn't notice one of her new bras was missing for a couple of hours - the rule of the castle was that everyone had to do their own laundry and put it away as fast as possible, but she'd been ignoring the laundry basket for the afternoon while she periodically adjusted one of the straps over her shoulder and tried to concentrate on the math work the Master had set her. Her own sense of responsibility eventually caught up with her just before dinner, though, and she turned to the basket with a sigh, dumping it all onto her bed and starting to sort through it.
She froze when she realized the thing was missing.
Okay... Calm down... There's only a few places it could be. Retrace your steps- No matter how sane her inner voice was, in this one case Aqua wasn't all that willing to listen to it. She did follow its basic commands, but keeping herself calm was so much harder than it normally was. Terra and the Master were in the castle! They could run across it at any time! She had to find it, and quick.
The journey to the laundry room had never seemed longer but she knew she'd never covered the distance faster. Unfortunately, she didn't see the thing either in the room itself or the halls leading to it, so she reversed direction and headed back to her room after giving the laundry room a thorough search.
