Corrupted Dominion

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Elflady

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[BCOLOR=transparent]A loud screeching filled the quiet room, shattering the late morning calm, causing a large white and brown cat to open a vibrant, blue eye and glare at the rude contraption. Kou stirred slightly beneath the covers, reaching out a hand and fumbled around the bedside table, knocking the phone to the floor in his search. Finding the alarm clock he flipped the switch in a motion so often performed he could do it while still half asleep and retreated back beneath the cover as silence took over once more. The cat flicked her tail and cast a look at her owner before she curled into a ball once more, pressed against Kou's back.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Without warning Kou jolted upright in the bed as a second shrill noise pierced the room, sending the cat tumbling as the cover moved beneath her, earning Kou a look only an insulted cat could muster. Bending over the edge of the bed he found the phone and turned of the extra alarm, the symbols on the screen stared back at him as the last piece of sleep left him. "Shit." Cursing beneath his breath he shot out of bed, leaving the disgruntled cat behind.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]After a shower fast enough to make anyone jealous and having skipped breakfast he was not terribly late any longer, dressed in stonewashed jeans and a long sleeved shirt he came into the kitchen, bag slung over his shoulder. His large cat was sitting beside her food bowl and looked impatient, her tail flicking back and forth, Kou grabbed a can of cat food and stooped down to fill the bowl. "There, now can you behave for awhile on your own?" He stroked the soft fur on her back and the cat purred as she butted her head against his hand, seemingly having forgotten her injured pride already.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Having cared for the ruler of the house Kou pulled on his sneakers and left the small apartment, locking the door behind him before running down the stairs, he lived on the top floor in a five story house but the stairs was much quicker than the old elevator. Especially when he was in a hurry. The university wasn't so far away from his apartment and he reached the correct building just as the class was supposed to start, easily navigating the corridors Kou reached the room and found an empty seat just in time to avoid missing the lecture.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]Slouching in his seat he placed the bag beside him and took a deep breath, glad he didn't take more than a single class, the years he spent in the obligatory human school was enough in his eyes and he had no intention of stacking on extra years to that education. It was enough that his sister teased him relentlessly about his choice of class, he didn't want to think about what she would do if he actually went back to school.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]The professor was going through a new part of the course and went on to describe the reason and effect of this exercise, Kou listened half-heartedly, always being the type that learned more through doing rather than by listening. Something about working in pairs to teach both how to work with others and to practice journalism by getting to know your partner. Fantastic. Kou was not looking forward to having to team up with someone, especially not a human, times like these he wished he had chosen just simple photography instead.[/BCOLOR]
 
The bright light leaking in from the window pierced Aya's eyelids. She clenched her eyes shut even more and groaned, turning from the light and pulling the covers over her head. Suddenly, a loud noise sounded through the house, making her jump, eyes wide. "Aya!" she heard a male voice call. With another groan of protest, Aya sat up and rubbed her eyes, deciding it was probably time for her to wake up. Her bedroom door flew open and a tall, handsome, blonde-haired guy stood there, smiling bright. Her older brother. "Aya, morning! I thought you had classes this morning?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

Aya immediately felt her blood run cold. "Oh-" she jumped out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom, glad she had her brother there to remind her. After taking a shower, she ran to her kitchen and quickly got a trail mix bar for breakfast, her eyes glancing up at the clock. She yelped, seeing that she was ten minutes late. She quickly left the house, forgetting entirely that her brother was still there. If she had to be honest, he was the last thing on her mind at the moment. As she was running, she put her book bag on her shoulder and pulled her hair up, trying her best to put it into a messy bun. She cursed her house for being so far from the University. She was lucky it was still in running distance.

Usually, Aya wouldn't have been late, but work from her classes have started taking a toll on her, despite telling herself it was nothing. She lived by herself, finally getting her own house hen she turned eighteen. Of course, her family was a little heartbroken to have her leave, but they eventually got used to it. Aya's family was full-blooded angel. They had come from the angelic realm, seeking a place on Earth from the crumbling place they called home. Of course, Aya only really remembered snips and pieces of the place, having left when she was only six.

Her lungs burning, gasping for air, Aya opened the University doors and ran in, slowing her pace to a quick run, her icy blue eyes scanning the doors. She stopped at an oak door and put a hand on her chest, taking gulps of air, before opening the door. As soon as she walked in, the students Aya could see turned their eyes to her. Immediately, she felt a slight blush rise to her face as she turned to the professor. He looked at Aya with a stern look, arms crossed on his chest. "Ah, Ms. Himura. This is you're second day late this week, get on task." he scolded before turning back to the black board. Aya took another deep breath and closed her eyes, letting her racing heart calm. Then, she opened her eyes again and quickly moved to her chair in the back, dropping her head on her notebook. She was exhausted.

@Elflady
 
Kou was leaning back in his chair, flipping his pen between long fingers as he tried to concentrate on what the professor was saying, mornings were not his favourite time of day, unless he was sleeping, and concentrating was a bit hard when the brain seemed intent on staying half asleep even when the subject was interesting. Having debated over if it was worth it attending this class he'd decided that it was, any other class that peaked his interest were also scheduled for early mornings so no matter what he picked it would be a hassle and so he had signed up for this one.

Along with the rest of the students Kou turned his head to look at the door when it was pushed open, interupting the professor mid sentance, the black haired girl who entered was vaguely familiar but he couldn't even place her together with a name, he was not too bothered with remembering every human he met, but he did at least remember her as having been in the class. Her face was flushed, probably both from running and the stares she received as she entered, once the professor had finished his reprimand the girl moved down to the back of the room taking a seat a few rows behind Kou. By the time she had moved past him and was out of sight Kou had already turned his attention back to the black board where the professor had begun to write down important points to keep in mind while taking photos, and also how they could be connected with articles and short texts to portray a greater feeling than simple words.

"So, your task will be to divide into pairs, of course with people you don't know that well." Mr. Harlow added the last part and with that easily put down the hopes that this could have been an easy assignment. "In this class photography is important since that is our main focus but knowing how to bring out a story even more by adding text to a picture is also an important part of photojournalism. Normally your job would be to take a picture that can then be used in an article but without experience in both the journalism part and the photography part your skills are never fully developed." While talking the professor paced back and forth in front of the black board while gesticulating. "And for those of you who will end up writing your own articles together with your photos and then sell them this is even more important. As is learning to work together with others. While much in this line of work can be done individually there will be times where you have to work with others and if you can't do that then the money will go to another journalist instead."

Shifting in his seat Kou raked a hand through his dark hair and jotted down a few notes in a barely legible hand writing, he had learned how to write correctly and elegantly as a child but he mostly found it too annoying and time consuming so most of his notes almost looked like a coded message, legible only to him. "Now, to avoid you chosing a partner you already know I will pair you up," Mr. Harlow said, taking his seat by the desk at the front. "The person sitting three rows in front of you will be your partner, starting from the rows furthest back. What remains of this class you are free to start working on this assignment but after today we will return to the regular schedule and you will have to find time outside of school to finish the project, however do try to sit with your partner in the upcoming classes as well." Kou turned in his seat and looked back three rows only to see the black haired girl who had arrived late to class, sighing he blew back some strands of hair from his eyes before joining many other students and stood up, grabbing his bag he slid past a few grumbling students and took the seat next to the girl that had been emptied just now.

"I guess we are supposed to work together on this," he said, meeting her ice blue eyes, an unusual combination with her dark hair. He was everything but excited about this but it wouldn't help anything to sulk over it, getting to know one human just for this assignment couldn't be so bad he figured. "I'm Kouhei," he said, a ghost of a smile touching the corner of his lips that never reached his dark eyes, served as a greeting.
 
Aya watched as the Professor started teaching the class, tuning him out most of the time. She had already knew about the project, having heard some students talk about it one night while she stayed after classes doing extra work. She opened her notebook and started sketching small drawings on the corners of her page, looking up every few minutes to jot down only the important notes she needed. Aya turned the page and sighed, blowing a wisp of her black hair from her eyes, sitting her chin on her hand.

Photojournalism wasn't really something Aya was looking forward to for college, but for some reason, the nature was calming. The only way she felt she could get close to it, would be taking pictures. As she was getting lost in drawing her pictures, something the Professor said caught her attention. "The person three rows ahead of you will be your partner." he had said, receiving some grumbles and mutters of disappointment. Aya scoffed at their reactions and looked up to see who was three rows ahead of her.

Aya furrowed her brow slightly as she looked at the boy. He looked like he wasn't too excited about the pairings either. She watched as he stood and made his way over, some students grumbling as he pushed through. The boy sat down and introduced himself, a small glimpse of not even a smile. Aya gave a small, barely noticeable, half smile. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm Ayame." she said, moving a strand of her black hair from her eyes. She pulled out some paper and grabbed her mechanical pencil, looking up to meet the boy, Kouhei's, dark eyes. "So, any ideas?" she asked, raising her eyebrow slightly, keeping her pencil held a few inches from the paper. Since she never really talked to anybody else in the class, Aya was used to going straight to work instead of sitting around chatting. It was a habit of hers.

@Elflady
 
It didn't look like either of them were very enthustiatic about the whole idea, which wasn't something Kou lamented that much, if his partner had been the bubbly, hyper cheerful type he would have had a hard time survivng this project, that type of personality clashed too much with Kou's own. "Hmm, how about we focus the photo part of this on outdoor shots or animals?" He suggested, being outside and surrounded by nature sounded a lot more fun than being inside or in the city and could possibly even make this fun. Granted he had never lived in the demon world but he had been there a few times and the land was less populated and was not so technically advanced, nature was more prominent and actually considered valuable except now when it was slowly detoriating anyway.

So Kou was more fascinated by natural motives, a bit hypocritical maybe considering he lived in a city, but living in a city also made it easier to blend in and not forget to blend in like one might if they lived more isolated from humans. "As for the get to know each other part we could do that along the way." He continued, leaning back in his chair, left hand resting on the notebook, pen in hand as he twirled it around his fingers. "I don't know how many classes you take but I have a pretty open schedule so it doesn't matter much to me when we take the time to do this."
 
Aya sighed and tightened her bun, leaning over her paper and writing down some things. She loved the nature and wanted to get started as fast as she could. "Yeah, we could do that. I would rather do animal shots though." she said after a few seconds. Looking over, Aya traveled her eyes over the boy, the side of her mouth twitching slightly. She had seen him during classes, but he looked like the type that didn't care for the rules or work. She listened as he said they would get to know each other along the way. Aya gave a somewhat humorless laugh and nodded, her eyebrows raised. "I guess so. And my schedule's fine. Whatever day you want to work is fine with-" she stopped, furrowing her brow. "Actually..." she looked at her paper in thought, trying to organize the jumble of things in her head.

"Never mind. I'm free everyday, so I'll just leave it to you to pick the time." Aya said, nodding and looking up to the boy's eyes. She tore a piece of paper from her notebook and wrote down some numbers on it, her handwriting neat despite writing quickly. Aya pushed the paper to the boy and put her chin on her hand, pointing to the paper. "My cell. To tell me what times you want to work, things like that. It'll keep things more organized." she explained, putting her journal into her book bag, pulling out her camera. She turned it on and set it on the table, looking back at the boy. "So, where do you want to start?" she asked, leaning back against the back of her chair, one eyebrow raised.

@Elflady
 
Relieved that the girl, or rather Ayame, agreed with his suggestion and didn't insist on some boring subjct like fashion or still life in the city Kou nodded briefly as she also confirmed she had a lot of time available for their meetings. Much better than having to squeeze it into someone's busy schedule and end up doing a sloppy work because of time constraints, or worse yet because of a lack of dedication, say what you wanted about Kou, and some things were most likely true, but he didn't like to do a sloppy job even if he disliked the task in itself.

As she gave him the number to her cell phone Kou slipped the paper into his pocket where it was less chance he'd loose it until he entered it into his own phone and ripped out a piece of paper of his own, scribbling down his number. It was readable but nowhere close to Ayame's neat handwriting. "Here's mine," he offered, sliding the paper over to her.

"How about we start by deciding what animals we want to focus on," he answered her last question. "Like, wild animals or domestic ones, and if we should stick to a certain size or maybe by where they live?" Depending on what they choose maybe he even could take some pictures of his cat and use those, it would be an easy target since she was always available to use as a model. "Wild animals might be harder to find even if we search outside the city so perhaps we should focus more on animals living in the city, wild or tame?"
 
Aya grabbed the paper with the boy's number and nodded, slipping it into her own pocket. She was glad to finally work with someone who got straight to the point instead of wasting time by talking non-stop. In those situations, Aya would have to do all of the work by herself, but it didn't bother her since she usually did nature pictures. She listened intently as the boy answered her question: to decide what animals to focus on.

Bringing her hand up, Aya put her fingers to her mouth and furrowed her brow in a thinking motion. Inside, she was excited. Out of all animals, she loved to take pictures of wild animals. "I'm all for wild animals. Just the way that they naturally act in their environment really inspires me. The way they are in the natural wild...I don't know how to explain it. It's a whole new experience than just snapping pictures of tame animals posing for pictures-" Aya stopped herself. She was getting too excited about it just by talking about it, and she doubted the boy wanted to hear how she looked at things. Instead, Aya blew a wisp of her midnight black hair from her eyes and looked at the boy. "Anyway, what do you think?" she asked, wanting to know the boy's opinion. Despite her not caring for photography, she liked everything to do with nature, no matter what.

@Elflady
 
Her sudden enthusiasm when talking about nature and wild animals brought out a small grin from Kou, even if he had to work with a human it was at least someone who shared his interest, "I know what you mean. Everone should appreciate nature more than they do now," he continued, a serious expression spreading across his face erasing what small amusement that had been visible. If humans only could appreciate and care for what they had before they lost it the same way demons had, their own lands had not been so technological and they had not destroyed their world as much just to advance their own luxuries and still their home was slowly going under, crumbling away without any possibility to stop it.

Snapping out from his contemplation over humans and their inability to care for what was important, or rather that the humans who did care were so few in comparison to those who didn't, he looked up at her. "I like it, it'll be a bit of a challenge actually finding them though," Kou said shaking off the serious air and relaxed. "But that's what makes things interesting, nothing fun about it if everything is too easy."

Perhaps they could use this project to show people how important it was to ensure the survival and care for wild animals, without them Earth as well would start to go under, perhaps it wouldn't be destroyed but without animals nature would go out of control and humans couldn't hope to control everything. "Maybe we could focus this project on the importane of wildlife through pictures and articles on whatever wild animals we find, it would make this boring class more interesting."
 
Aya saw the slight grin of amusement on the boy's face and nodded as he agreed with her. She understood completely. Humans were starting to corrupt their own world without even noticing it. Technology was slowly becoming more important than the very nature surrounded them. The thought made Aya frown slightly, in both sadness and frustration.

She looked back up to look at the boy, a type of serious feeling coming from him. She watched as he seemed to snap out of his thoughts and relaxed, proposing an idea. Aya's eyes seemed to light up a little and she sat up straighter, taking her pencil in her hand. She wrote down the boy's idea as he spoke, getting even more excited inside. "That's a perfect idea. People really need to see what they're doing to this so-called 'precious' world of ours." she said, emphasizing the sarcasm on the word 'precious'. Looking back up, Aya looked around and saw people and their partners starting to leave the classroom, some talking about ideas, others talking about anything but the project.

For not even a second, Aya narrowed her eyes at the ones who were blowing off the project before turning back to the boy. "Should we head out, too? We could start today if you want." she said, standing up and grabbing her book bag, swinging it onto her shoulders. She grabbed her notebook, journal and papers and looked back at the boy, waiting for his response.

@Elflady
 
Even if she was a human this girl apparently could see what was important and worth saving, Kou tried to not generalize but sometimes it was hard, so many humans he had met took their world for granted, one day they would stand there and realize that they had wasted a precious planet for comfort and luxuries and it would be too late to save anything. Sure they said that nature always finds a way, a way to recover and take over once more but what did that matter when everyone would be dead by that point, and somethings even nature might not be able to recover from. Of course all humans today would most likely be dead by the time Earth was too destroyed to save anymore but that didn't free them of responsibility.

There was always the chance that humanity would surprise him by trying and succeeding with saving the Eart from decay but he was too much of a realist to hope for that, some might call that pessemism but Kou prefered to call it realism and so far he hadn't been proven terribly wrong. However now humans weren't alone on Earth so maybe that would help but when it came to angels Kou held as much trust in them as he did in humans, which wasn't much, not that his kind was perfect either for that matter but they had already lost one home so they, and angels, had more reason to take care of this world so they wouldn't lose another.

Stuffing his notebook and pen back into his bag Kou stood as well and nodded as he swung the bag over his left shoulder. "Sure, why not." He said with a shrug. "The weather's nice, from what I could see in my hurry this morning at least, so we could start hunting for some wildlife, it may take us some time to actually find some so we might as well start early." After spotting a suitable animal it was also the problem of manaing to snap a picture before it ran off after noticing you, Kou was pretty good at keeping silent and almost melting into the background but he was no match for a watchful animal, some which seemed to sese he was not a harmless creature either.
 
Aya nodded once again and started walking out of the classroom, her footsteps echoing in the hallway. Despite being calm on the outside, she was more than excited to go into the nature on the inside. When she was younger, Aya would always go into the trees and watch the animals silently, just letting her thoughts swirl in her head. Now, thinking back, she missed the peaceful times of her childhood.

Aya shook her head as she opened the doors to go outside, adjusting the neck strap holding her camera. She sighed, looking at the small amount of trees that were in the distance. Compared to the forest she used to wander in, this would've been a bare plain in comparison. Aya walked forward and started up her camera, adjusting it to the sunlight in silence. She had no opinion of the boy she was partnered with so far. At first glance, she would have thought of him as a slacker, or some kind of delinquent. But Aya shook her head once again, clearing her head. She had learned from the past not to judge a book by it's cover, and she wasn't going to start doing it now. "We should start over there." Aya said, pointing to the thickest part of the small wooded area in front of her. Just thinking about going inside made her giddy with excitement. Of course, she kept a calm demeanor on the inside. In her head, she noted that it looked a little dangerous, but what was life without taking risks?

@Elflad
 
Following Ayame outside the building and towards the, well it couldn't be called a forest exactly but it was as large of a gathering of trees you could find this close to the city. The university was located closer to the outskirts of the city, and the city itself wasn't the biggest one either luckily enough since it would have been much harder if that had been the case. But this would have to do for now, if they wanted something else as a backdrop they would have to search further outside the city but that would be better to do while prepared and not straight out of school. Kou nodded in response to her suggestion, and before he continued he opened his bag and pulled out his own camera, wrapping the strap around his hand instead of hanging it around his neck.

A simple look in between the trees gave Kou a pretty good feel for the small forest, it was safe enough for a kindergarten class to visit if compared to a similar forest from his world that much was clear. The flora on its own in the demonic land was dangerous enough not to mention even the most innocent looking creature was potentially deadly in some way, not like on Earth. There was danger of course but perhaps not with the same intensity, at least not around here.

So far though the forest seemed like any other, birds coud be heard and seen but anything bigger was keeping out of sight, although if they were careful they might get lucky. "What do you think, should we find a good place to hide and see if any animal comes by or should we keep moving?" He asked after theyhad gotten a it inside the small forest, keeping his voice lower than usual.
 
Ayame stopped and turned to look at Kou, then back at the trees. "I think we'll have a better chance of finding bigger animals inside. You can follow if you want." she said with a shrug of her shoulders before turning back to the trees. Aya continued walking, parting the smaller branches as she did so. "Just don't chicken out on me, okay?" she called over her shoulder. In the past, she had worked with other students who were so much as scared of a little ant pile. The further she went into the trees, Aya was more at peace.

The sounds of the cars were drowned out by the sound of wind blowing through the leaves. Quickly, Aya paused and crouched, her eyes narrowing when she saw something move. "I think we found it." she said quietly, bringing her camera to her face and putting it into focus. Then, she saw it. A baby doe was slowly walking past the underbrush, sniffing the ground. Most likely for food. Aya smiled behind her camera and zoomed in, taking a few shots of the baby doe, glad it hadn't noticed her yet. "Wow..." she muttered to herself, taking a few more shots before pulling the camera from her face.

@Elflady
 
Kou shrugged and followed the girl deeper in among the trees, shifting most of his focus to the area around them to spot anything moving, which was hard in a world where animals were scarcer. Not that you could simply find an animal in his home and walk up to it but they were not hunted like they were on Earth and some of them somehow could sense when a hunter, either man or beast, were on the prowl. "Don't worry about me," he replied. "Nothing in this forest can scare me off." The last he said with a lower voice as the were getting deeper in with higher chances of seeing an animal.

Sure there wasn't much he was afraid off and besides, wild animals rarely attacked humans, not even predators, unless they felt threatened or had their young nearby. Nature itself could be intimidating to city kids though, people who had only seen a forest on TV and fainted if a centipede crawled up their leg. Or well, most city kids, himself was raised in this city and he didn't consider himself similar to the majority of the humans although that had it's reasons.

Further up Ayame stopped and focused her camera on a young fawn, he followed suite although he stayed where he was and used the lens to zoom in so as to not scare it off. Lucky it was just a fawn, it was not as good at detecting potential danger as an adult would making it easier to get close to it. Speaking off which it's mother should be nearby, doe's never left their young alone for long unless they were well hidden away somewhere. The little fawn, still having white spots in its coat and not quite as elegant or steady on its feet as an adult yet, brought out a soft smile from Kou that most people wouldn't expect from him. But even if he was a bit of a loner and not very warm and fuzzy towards people somehow animals just brought that soft part out of him.

A bush rustled slightly and not long after a grown doe appeared behind the fawn, it looked quite relaxed as it calmly ripped leaves as it passed by the undergrowth but it's large ears never stopped moving to take in all the sounds. Snatching her head up from the ground you could see her nose twitch and ears swivel before she moved away, the fawn following, it hadn't flashed its tail and run but it must have sensed something was off. "Since she didn't run off in panic we might get lucky again," he said as he turned his eyes to the girl beside him. "So, why did you chose this class, it's not the most popular choice?" He asked, after some silence. He didn't usually go out of his way to make friends with humans but they were going to work together for this assignment so getting to know each other at least a little would not hurt.
 
Ayame gasped silently as she saw the doe and fawn run off. She turned her camera off for the time being, lifting her hand to run it through her black hair, only to realize that it was still up in a bun. She heard Kou's question and turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "I guess I just needed something to do. All of the other classes were boring, I love nature, so this seemed like an okay pick." she stated in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, starting to stand from her crouched position, her lower back starting to hurt.

Aya stretched her arms above her and looked in the direction the fawn and doe had run off to. She then turned back to look at Kou, her questionable eyebrow still raised. "How about you? You don't really seem like the type who'd join a photojournalism class." she pointed out, looking over his appearance. To be honest, he looked like the type of guy who would slack off or fall asleep in class. Like a delinquent. As she waited for his answer, Aya started walking deeper in the gathering of trees, keeping an eye out for the fawn and doe.

There were a few false alarms from when the bushes moved, but as far as that went, Aya continued walking deeper, intent on getting some pictures of the doe herself. The occasional chirping of birds would make her smile as she looked up at the trees, trying to find where they were calling from.

@Elflady
 
"I suppose my reason is similar to yours." Kou said, well aware that judging by how he chose to dress and act not many would guess his interests correctly and that was not even counting the fact that humans weren't aware of his true origins either. "I like nature and find it more interesting than most people I've met. Besides that, not many of the other classes caught my interest so it wasn't much of a choice."

Due to his parents being some of the first to move from their corrupted realm Kouhei had never had much problem fitting in among humans except that he couldn't be entirely truthful to them. But he had visited the demon world although it had been some years now and he had learned a few tricks from a friend on how to track, and while it wouldn't be so useful here, cover up tracks to avoid being hunted yourself. Looking down on the ground he let his dark eyes scan the forest floor, taking in the soil and how the bushes had been disturbed or eaten. If his friend had been here it would have been so much easier, she could pretty much find the needle in the proverbial haystack if she tried hard enough.

"Hey," he stretched out a hand to put it on Aya's arm before pointing to their right in between a couple of birch trees with their typical hanging branches. "I think they went that way." There were hoof marks in the soft ground left after a puddle and a few branches on a nearby bush had been broken. "It's stopped running too so we should be careful." That was mostly his limit when it came to tracking, he had learnt to read the area, to spot some obvious signs and some smaller ones, Kaya had also tried to teach him how to distinguish the animals speed from it's tracks. She had only partly succeeded.
 
Aya nodded and continued walking as she listened to Kou explain why he joined photojournalism. "Oh.." was all she said in reply, her eyes scanning the ground. After a while of walking, She heard Kou tell her that they went in between a few birch trees. Aya turned and looked in the direction they went, noting the hoof prints on the ground. She nodded and started heading in that direction, occasionally ducking under the random branches. But, even as she ducked under one branch, it caught her hair and pulled it from the bun. Aya groaned and stopped, lifting her hands to untangle her hair. After a few moments she managed to undo it, letting her hair cascade down to the middle of her back before stopping. She lifted her hand and rubbed her head, grimacing slightly. "Sorry about that." she said softly, continuing to walk, not bothering to put her hair up again.

After a few moments of walking, Aya scanned the little field that was just beyond the few birch trees in front of her. The way the light lit up every blade of grass, reflecting off of the leaves on the trees, made her smile in delight. Not only that, she was relieved to find the doe and fawn standing just in the middle, grazing. Slowly, Aya raised her camera and turned it on before lifting it to her face. "There they are...in the perfect spot." she muttered to herself, zooming in on the two before taking a few pictures. Then, she got to a nice angle, where the sunlight bounced off of the doe's coat and onto the fawn's. After taking a few more photos, Aya sighed and pulled the camera from her face, turning it off.

"I think this is all we're gonna find today. What do you think?" she asked, turning to look at Kou while pulling her long black hair over her shoulder, just in case it wouldn't get caught in anymore branches. After the short time they had worked together, Aya couldn't explain it, but she felt that something was...off about Kou. She couldn't put her finger on it, or place what it was, so she decided to push the thought from her head for the time being. After all, she usually wasn't one to judge other people. Especially not without getting to know them...it had always been how her family treated others. They were angels after all...

@Elflady
 
Kou slowed his steps when he heard Aya get caught, he turned and a small grin spread in his face, there wasn't any malice in it just a teasing glint in his eyes. "And that's why I'm glad my hair's short, there's no risk of almost ripping it out by getting tangled in something." He had nothing against long hair, in fact he liked it, as long as it didn't belong to him. He could never understand his sister for example who seemed intent on growing her hair as long as possible, until she suddenly changed her mind and went for a shorter hairstyle again, one could never predict her moods.

His eyes finding their targets Kou stopped and did what the girl beside him did, focused his camera on the two animals. Out in the middle of the meadow the pair was grazing peacefully, or rather the doe was grazing and the fawn was nibbling on some straws of grass without finding the appeal apparently as it nuzzled its mother instead. Kou didn't say anything in reply to the girl's words afraid to spook the animals but he agreed, the lighting was perfect.

"Yeah, and we were pretty lucky for our first day I'd say. Some days it's impossible to even spot a bird let alone a bigger animal." Wrapping the camera strap around his hand after switching it off as he spoke. Moving as quietly as he could, which was pretty quiet compared to most humans, Kou prepared to head back the way they came, not wanting to scare off the doe once more by being too loud. "One day we should probably either go out near dawn or dusk," he commented as they made their way back. "Not only are there nice light during those times but many animals come out around those times." He did not look forward to dragging himself up at dawn only to head out into the cool morning to take picture but what didn't you do for a school project. Not a very common thought coming from him and one his sister never would let him forget if she heard it.
 
Aya turned and narrowed her eyes at Kou when he commented on long hair. As they started turning to walk from the gathering of trees, she listened as Kou proposed taking pictures during dusk and dawn. Nodding, Aya agreed silently before speaking. "Yeah, that's probably the best thing to do. I personally think that taking pictures at dusk would be easier on the both of us. I don't really mind the idea of coming out here to take pictures, but you'll soon learn that it's a pain for me to wake up. After all, my brother woke me up this morning..." she said, sighing slightly as she ran her hand through her hair. "Not only that, but if we're lucky, we could catch a few shots of owls or something nocturnal." she added, turning to glance at Kou before redirecting her attention ahead.

As they kept walking, Aya couldn't help but keep glancing over at Kou, furrowing her brow slightly. There that feeling was again. Something...different. She shook her head slightly and looked back ahead, seeing the sun starting to set. "Were we really out here that long?" she asked out loud, raising an eyebrow. Then, Aya turned her head and saw a tall boy with unkempt golden hair striding towards them. "Aya, come on! Mom and dad's been waiting for you for-" he stopped when his eyes landed on Kou, a sense of familiarity passing across his face. Before he could say anything, Aya cleared her throat slightly to get his attention. "Loid, you were saying?" she asked, raising both eyebrows this time. Loid snapped his attention back to Aya, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry sis, I was just thinking about something." he said, laughing a bit as his gaze glanced back over at Kou.

Aya let out a sigh and looked between Loid and Kou. "Look, Loid, do you two know each other or something?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. Loid shook his head and smiled at her. "No, he just looked...familiar." he said, pausing to find the right word to describe his constant glances at Kou. Aya shook her head and looked over at Kou, giving him the barely noticeable half smile that she had when they first met. "If you want, I'm free tomorrow to work. Just give me a time." she said, lifting her hand in a slight wave before walking beside Loid, who gave a darker look to Kou before following Aya.

@Elflady
 
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