[ARP] My bad. (Pin x Zenda)

[Kytora]

Zenda saw a goat yesterday, and it had reminded her of what had happened last week or whenever she had met Ping, the guard. Goats had tried to kill him. And then they had started talking and were in the same area, so naturally the goats had decided to kill them both. Why kill one lion when you can kill another and make your chances for survival that much greater?

She had been none too happy, that was for sure.

So now the duchess of the east house was prowling around on a mission: searching for Pin to properly yell at him for bringing her into the middle of his war with the goats. He had slipped away so suddenly before that she had not gotten the chance to reprimand him.

Of course, Ping was quick to forget that day. Well, okay, he was still very disturbed by goats having tried to kill him, but he hadn't been expecting he'd ever see Zenda again. they lived in opposite houses, as far as possible, right? She'd probably forget about him. And that was perfect! Lord Zahi didn't have to know about his little...er, issues. Besides, no goats seemed to have tried to kill him since that one time. Maybe the goat was just in a horrible mood that day.

So he was sitting, very oblivious to the imminent danger (aka, the approaching duchess), making sure not to tresspass on any other house's lands, since he wasn't important enough to be allowed to do that. Maybe one day he'd be, though. Pin still had hopes!

After searching for a while, a familiar scent reached her nose and Zenda quickly hopped over a small hill of rocks to spot a familiar lion walking towards her, walking around as well. Grinning at her good luck, she sat down on the biggest, sturdiest boulder in the pile and bided her time. He obviously wasn't expecting to see her. Perfect.

The lioness timed her entrance well. Just when he was passing under her hiding spot--still seemingly totally unaware of her--she called out a greeting.

"Morning. Seen any egolui around, lately?"

Pin, the usually friendly guy, was ahppy to answer any greeting, even though he didn't know where they were coming from. "Good morning! No I..." Realization hit him, and he glanced up, ears laid back and eyes wide. Oh no, this didn't seem like it was going to end too well. He shuffled backwards awkwardly, so he didn't have to tilt his head upwards at such an angle to look at her.

"Uh...Hi, Yao Niang. Umm... What brings you here?"

"Oh, you know. I just like walking around sometimes. And it's a pretty nice day out. If it was raining, I'd be more upset. I hate getting dirty." Her tail twitched and she stretched her front paws a little out over the boulder towards Pin. "But the sun is out and it's nice and warm. If I hadn't hoped to find you, then I'd be sunbathing." She smiled sweetly at him.

Pin stared up at her, unsure of how too react. Because he was immediately sensing trouble, and, being the sort of guy who got in -tons- of trouble as a kid, his trouble senses were pretty darn good. "Yes, it is a lovely day!" He agreed, hopefully and akwardly. And when she directly referenced him, he played dumb. "Me? Whyever would you be hoping to find me? Sunbathing is much more pleasant."

"Oh yes, sunbathing is very much more pleasant than what I'm doing now." Although she was glad to have found him somewhat quicker than she could have: he could have been on the entire other side of the pride!

"I wanted to find you to ask something simple, that's all. You're not busy now, are you?" She was being sweet. She was building up the momentum for the opportune moment to dash his hopes of being in another light, fun conversation with her.

He resisted the urge to sputter, because even though she hadn't dropped the bomb yet, Pindua Rangi was very sure this wasn't going to turn out nicely for him. He actually kind of hoped another murderous goat would show up. They had kind of saved him last time. "No, I'm not busy." He figured he'd at least be honest now. It'd score him some more points in the afterlife, right?

Oh, fantastic. That meant she could go ahead and yell at him now.

"If you haven't seen any egolui lately, how about goats? I know they're your absolute favorite. I even saw one yesterday and it made me think of you and how we meet some days ago." Her grin widened and she closed her eyes to tilt her head to one side. Her tail continued to flick, almost dangerously fast now, from side to side.

He nodded uncomfortably, and in a lame attempt tried to sit down, but immediately found that didn't work, and stood up again. Oh, he'd be tense all day, anyways. "Yes, I have seen goats. Did you come all the way from the east house to inquire about that, miss?" This wasn't going to end happily for him anyways. So he supposed he could politely point out that she was wasting her time on something trivial! But, Pin was quite sure that didn't matter. These nobles had all the time in the world.

"Well, I just wanted to come find you and yell at you for almost killing me last week because of that goat that was out to get you for something you did...or whatever it was." She had forgotten the specifics. All she knew that the stupid creature had gathered up its friends and had...tried to issue a revenge towards them. Which required Pin to boldly save her.

But still. She was upset about the goats.

"So next time you see a goat following you, or even think there's a goat following you, and then you encounter an innocent, defenseless lioness, turn around and go back the way you came." She stated the last comment in a rather icy tone, meanwhile glaring down at him. This was too fun.  

[Kytora]

Pin was nervous. He was really nervous, because she had said she came to yell at him. But...suddenly, he wasn't nervous anymore. He frowned at her. "Well, that's very petty." Oh well, he was doomed anyways. "In first place, do you think I knew I was being targetted by a maniac goat? If I had known, I'd hunt the little bugger down and eat him for breakfast." Which he would have done by now, but goats all looked the same, so he couldn't be sure he had. "Second, how can you be so sure it was targetting me, duchess? You're a wonderful political target! If anyone ever wants to get to the lord and the lady, I gotta say, any of their kids looks great. Maybe they have a weird army of terrorist goats, and that's how they do things." He huffed irritably, sitting down and stiill glaring up at her.

"And third and final, like you're so noble yourself! Sure, I was trespassing, but you didn't know that. Maybe I had some important business to attend to, but no, you gotta come and be all 'I am important!' and make me go on a ridiculous chase for an imaginary herb called egolui." Pin's quick moment of bravado was quietly replaced with teror, because now he was deinitely in trouble, if she decided to talk to anyone about this. Well, he hoped his being a good guard would do him some good.

As soon as Pin began his huffy retort, Zenda realized she had two very clear options as to go about and handle this. One was the most obvious: tear into him with more angry words and speak to his house and explain his behavior. They would consider a duchess's words over a mere guard's as more important and therefore considerably more truthful. If she wanted, she could severely harm him for speaking back to her like this.

Option two was, she had to admit, not the one she preferred: be the bigger lion and either laugh it off, apologize, or something of a mix of the two. Zenda would much rather continue to yell at him, but he held very valid points in his argument while she was just...scolding him because she could. Her class gave her that privilege.

So she set her jaw and lowered her tail to the ground, calming its twitches while she stared at him. Suddenly, she launched herself off the boulder to land gracefully in front of him, then sitting so they were at eye level.

"In the first place," Zenda began, "I propose you help me find the 'little bugger' of a goat who tricked us and put an end to it here and now." She was not going to offer her help to a guard. It had to be the other way around.

"Secondly, while I believe a goat may hold a grudge, I can't believe they are smart enough to target me for revenge simply because I'm an easy way to get to my parents." The thought unnerved her, though. She hadn't considered that enemies of her house or her pride could easily get to her and therefore her family.

"Thirdly," she chuckled at this one, and even blushed a little, "would it help if I said I was only trying to hold your attention on me for a while longer that day, by asking for your help in searching for 'egolui?' I haven't had much fawning lately; my parents stopped when I became old enough to find a mate of my own to do it for me. So I guess I was just...lonely for it." She took on a sort of indignant tone at the end. Then she glanced at him in a kind of apologetic way, a half-smile on her face. She didn't have to ask for his forgiveness. Not at all. But she was going to be better, and to be better, she had to confront her faults. And she had faulted him.

When she approached, Pin was a little scared. Not of her, because she was definitely smaller than him and if she attacked him he could handle it, but simply of her status. If she left him by storming off, he'd definitely never hear the end of it. He'd in the least get kicked out of the pride, or something...awful like that. But he put on his man face, and looked defiantly right back at her. (But please don't tear me apart!)

"Sure, I could find the goat." He agreed, though his voice was still that of an unhappy, somewhat angry male, like he were answering a drill sargeant. But not as loud. He didn't answer her second point, though, because he was biting his tongue so he wouldn't say something like 'you never know'. Because he didn't really want to make anyone scared of goats.

But then when she got to the third point, he didn't even know what to think. His features softened slowly, and his brows furrowed in confusion. Well, that was entirely unexpected. "I guess it would help?" He replied uncertainly, not totally sure what was going on now. She had been all....well, evil one moment and now she was the poor little girl who missed attention? "You could have just... talked, or something." As much as Pin had been in a hurry to get out and avoid discovery, he liked to think he would have stuck around for a lonely person.

She almost huffed back at him, right into Pin's face, but she caught herself and instead made a face at him. "I know that. I just didn't think of it then, so I didn't offer to have a conversation with you. I did the first thing I could think of: bribe you to stay longer." By lying? Yes, if that's what it took.

"I'm so..." She tried to sound it out again. It wasn't often that Zenda Mila, Duchess, had to apologize. "I'm sor...sorry." She averted her gaze for a moment, only to glance back him with more of a glare in her eyes. A defensive maneuver, of course. She was feeling rather vulnerable and what other way could she defend herself then trying to act tough and angry at him again?

Pin frowned. For whatever reason, this had actually been a little easier when she was torturing him. Because at least then there was an appropriate thing to say. But what were you supposed to do when the duchess apologized to you. "uuh, it's okay?" He offered hesitantly, and also looking away. Okay, this had become an even more awkward encounter, and he was left wondering how that even happened. He briefly glanced back at the same time as she did, and decided it was about time to end this.

"So, I guess I better go find that goat then." He mumbled, not looking directly at her. "Uuh...let me know if they try to kill you again and I'll...hunt them down...for you?" Lame, Pin. Very very lame. "Bye, I guess." He concluded, getting up and climbing his way further from her, lingering just long enough to hear any comment she might decide to make before going along his way to hunt down murderous goats. (apparently)

Lame, but she still accepted it. "Fine. If I see any that look suspicious, I'll let you know." Zenda didn't realize that Pin was feeling terribly awkward; she was feeling really weird herself. Probably awkwardness. Not the best feeling in the world. She'd have to work harder to not feel that again, at least.

As he left, he paused, and she was going to call out a farewell too, but he was already on his way and she didn't want to talk anymore. No, it would be best if she just went home and then fell asleep. Yes. Sleep sounded good. So Zenda turned around and trotted back home without another backward glance.