I don't believe we've met yet? (07-13-2011) [Axel & Azar, further in possibly other people]

It was late in the morning, 15 past 11 when Axel finally left his room. With him being a real morning person it was very unusual for him to be out of bed this late but for some reason he just couldn't get out of bed.
That made it 15 to 12 by the time he'd showered, got dressed and was on his way down for breakfast. When he saw how nice the weather was - much like the day he arrived, sunny and warm with a light breeze - he quickly made his breakfast (two slices of bread with butter and cheese in between) and went outside to eat it in the garden.
As he walked around, already chewing on his first bite, he looked around to see if someone else was out here too.

If he'd look in the direction of the picnic tables he would see a young woman wearing skinny jeans and a tight short top sitting on the tabletop of one of them. Face directed to the sun, eyes closed and shoes kicked off, Azar was clearly enjoying the improvement of the weather over the day that she had arrived. Too absorbed by the warm touch of the sun on her face, neck, arms, hands, belly and feet she wouldn't notice if someone would join her. Maybe she would break free from her trance if someone talked to her. And if that didn't work she would certainly break free if someone tapped her on the shoulder or something alike.

Axel did notice Azar and recalled he hadn't introduced himself to her yet. He'd only seen her at dinner where her name briefly came by but that was it. So maybe it was time to get to know her a little better.
'Hey, look at me!' he thought at that, realising that in the couple of days he'd been at Meinior he'd already overcome a part of his shyness - the day of arrival he'd been quiet as a mouse, now he willingly took the initiative to go talk to a girl (and not just any girl, need be said, she was really goodlooking!)

So he walked over to her and when he came to a distance of about 10ft he spoke up: "hey there. You're Azar right?"

Azar didn't react immediately, it took about half a minute before it really got through to her that someone had spoken to her. Opening her eyes and looking in the direction of where the sound had, probably, come from she saw Axel walking over. Giving him a once over she smiled at him, Aemilio already having informed her about his stepbrother which gave her a bit of an advantage.
"Hi," she replied making a small wave, "yeah I'm Azar and you're Axel right?"

Just about to speak up again, wondering if the woman had heard him the first time Axel jumped a little when Azar suddenly reacted. He was smiling again though when she introduced himself and guessed who he was.
"Yes I am," he said with a nod, "who let the secret out?"
After taking another small bite of his bread he looked at the table Azar was sitting on and a little shyly asked: "can- can I...?" gesturing to the empty spot next to her.

Azar looked at the sandwich in Axel's hand thinking she should have a bite to eat as well, but not yet she would get it when she was really hungry. Wanting to spend as much time outside and in the sun today as she could manage.
"Your stepbrother Aemilio," she answered with a bit of a grin and then nodded at his has spoken has gestured question, "go right ahead."
After that she turned her face towards the sun, closing her eyes again, not that she was ignoring him she always just loved to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin for a few days after a rainfilled one.

(( has = half I pressume?=P ))

"Thanks," Axel said with a blushing smile to then take a seat on top of the table as well, next to but certainly not touching Azar. 'Waow, she sure doesn't make a secret of her body,' he thought as his eyes passed over her skintight clothing. Still, that made him much less uncomfertable than Dominique in her bikini.
"O really?" he replied in a slightly cautious when Aemilio's name fell, expecting his attention-loving stepbrother to have mentioned a bit more than just his name and none of it to be positive, "did he tell you anything about me?"
Actually not really wanting to hear the anwser to that anyway he went on to another topic: "lovely weather isn't it? Much better than all that rain and w-" that reminded him of something: "this might sound a bit invasive, please don't take it the wrong way but... you have a water allergy don't you?" he asked.

At Axel's question if Aemilio had told her anything about him other then his name Azar merely shrugged; "Not really."
She smiled when he mentioned the weather, but it faded a little when he asked her if she was the one with the water allergy.
Here we go again.
"Yes the weather is wonderfull," she answered, "and yes I am the girl with the water allergy. And if you ever think it'll be funny to try and push me into the pool or something I swear I'll kill you."
Not that she really believed that Axel would be the kind of guy to try something like that, but she just felt like adding that.

Relieved as he was to hear Aemilio hadn't told Azar anything about him yet - meaning she didn't already think badly of him - got wiped away by the death threat casually thrown his way.
"I-I uhr, okay," he replied startled, forcing a weak chuckle through to her joke - at least, she was joking right?
"I would never do something like that anyway," he assured her, "I don't know much about water allergies - except what I could find on the internet - but I can guess pushing you into a pool won't do you or me any good."

Quite anxious to change the subject he searched his mind for a brighter direction to steer the conversation to.
"So Azar, how do you like it here so far?" he therefor asked, "who've you met so far?" and that reminded him: "o and have you been told about the performance show and the welcome party already? It's mrs Nellis' idea but I think she expects us to tell all the new arrivals about it."

Azar simply smiled, her face still towards the sun, her eyes still closed, when Axel chuckled weakly assuming that she had been joking. Well he could assume whatever he wanted as long as he wouldn't take advantage of her allgery.
At the change in subject she listed his questions in her mind so that she could answer them one by one.
"Other then the weather on the day of my arrival I quite like it here so far," she answered to the first question, "So far I've met Mrs. Nellis, Tobias, your stepbrother and Lugh. And no I haven't heard about that," she answered actually turning to look at him, "please do elobrate."

"Ok," Axel said more cheerful after swallowing another bite, "well it started when Dominique - she's an Egyptian girl who lives here too - said she could belly dance I think... Well either way, mrs Nellis told us she wanted to throw all the new inhabitents of the mansion a welcoming party. So, at the end of the summer of course, so she'd be sure everyone can be here, not that some late-commers will have to miss it. And somewhere along the way the idea came of having a show at the party too, where everyone who wants to put an act together can perform. So Dominique is going to belly dance, Lugh and Aemilio are going to play the music for her act, o and Tobias might join too if he gets over his stagefright."

Speaking of it like Axel got all excited and for a moment was really sure he wanted to be a part of it and do his story... but then he found he didn't even feel comfertable telling Azar he was considering to do his act and the enthusiasm-induced courage left him again.
So instead of putting himself out there he passed up the oppertunity to Azar; "so... are you going to perform, d'you think? I'm sure you've got some nice talent," he added with a smile.

Azar listened silently as Axel explained the welcoming party and it's open stage to her, nodding every now and then so that he knew she could keep up with what he was saying. He sounded quite excited about it all, was that because this Dominique girl was going to belly dance or was he really looking forward to the party in general.
"Belly dancer hmm?" she mused aloud and smiled a little when he asked her if she was going to perform, "I'm not sure. Is the party going to be held outside?"

"I think so yes," Axel replied with a nod, "mrs Nellis said she wanted to do it here on the grounds. Unless it starts to rain of coure, then we'd move the party inside. But I'm sure she won't plan the whole thing on a day with a bad weather forecast...! Why d'you ask?"

As he spoke he tried to get a good impression of Azar but she was so closed-off, it was difficult to do so. He just hoped the reason she seemed to have so little interest in him was because she was enjoying the sun and not because she was arrogant or simply didn't like him.

Azar smiled when she heard that the party was probably going to be held outside on the grounds of the mansion allowing her to do the act she loved to do. When Axel asked her why she had asked she simply shrugged and answered in an offhand voice: "Just curious, fire dancing it a lot easier when you do it outdoors."
She was silent then for a few moments just long enough to have it sink in and then just before he could immediately comment about it or ask her about it she changed the subject; "So are you going to be preforming as well?"

"Fire dancing??" Axel gasped impressed, "can you really...?"
But that was as far as he got before Azar cut him of with her question.
"Me? O well, maybe," he replied with a shy smile, "I'm still working on my act you see, and if I'm not satisfied about it before the show I'm not going to do it," he said trying to hide it but still feeling a little sad about it; 'I wish I had a cool talent like the others,' he thought unhappily. Then his face brightened up again as he returned to the subject of her fire dancing.
"But back to you, you can actually fire dance? Like with those long sticks on fire? Or balls on strings on fire? Where did you learn that?"

Now Azar was curious to what it was that Axel wanted perfectionised or else he wouldn't perform it, but she kept her question for when he was done asking about her act. She smiled, a little satisfied, at his reaction, it was always amusing to see how surprised/amazed/impressed people reacted when she talked about it.
"Both," she nodded at what she inturpreted as a question to what she used during her dancing, "and I sometimes also breath fire, but only if there are other dancers as well. It's more fun to do it with at least on other person a the same time. And I pretty much learned it myself by watching a lot of clips about it on youtube and stuff. But now back to you again, what are you trying to perfectionise before the party?"

"You learned it through youtube clips?" Axel repeated, suddenly doubting if it was such a good idea if Azar performed that night - considering someone burning her lips off might dampen the party mood. "Are you sure it's safe for you to do it then? I mean, if you haven't had any proffesional training..."

Then of course the topic of the conversation switshed back to his act again. "I euhm," he started uncertainly, "I might read out a story I've written myself." He bit his lip; now that he said it himself, and to someone who was going to put on a fire dancing act, he realised more than ever how lame his contribution to the show was.
"It's not as spectacular as the other things," he said, thinking he might as well beat her to stating that, "but hey... mrs Nellis seemed really enthusiastic about it."

Azar eyerolled when Axel, like many before him, got doubtful of her firedancing skills after telling him that she had taught herself.
"I've been doing fire dancing since I was 12," she told him, "and I've never burned myself or anyone else in those 8 years. And if you don't believe me I can show you sometime after dark and Mrs. Nellis she'll probably will be worried about my act as well."
When Axel told her what his act was going to be she had to bite her tongue to not agree with him on his act being lame. Succeeding quite well as she simply smiled and shook her head; "I'm sure it has to be spectacular if you are already trying to perfectionise your story."

"Ok, whatever you say..." Axel said quickly when Azar got touchy over his concerns about her firedancing. "You can't really blame me - or possibly mrs Nellis - for being a little catious when you casually mention you've never had a single proffesional lesson and yet you want to go firedancing?"

Then they switched roles and it was his turn to be a little disgruntled about her reaction to his act. Despite of her simple smile there was something about what she said and the way she said it that betrayed her real opinion on the matter. He couldn't really blame her though - actually he agreed with her.
So he sighed and unhappily muttered: "thanks, but like I said, I probably won't participate in the performing."

Azar couldn't help but smirk at Axel when he that she couldn't blame him on being a little worried about her fire dancing. With a shrug she answered giving him a wink: "I can't help it that I'm just that good."
Her smirk faded to a normal smile, guessing that her little lie hadn't worked but let it be. She really was a little disappointed when he said that he probably wasn't going to perform.
"That's too bad," she answered honestly, "why don't you want to perform? Stage fright?"

Axel looked at Azar for a moment, suddenly noticing she reminded him of his stepbrother a little. It must've been that slightly cocky attitude when she claimed she was 'just that good' that called forth the similarity.
"You've already met Aemilio right?" he asked, to her probably out of nowhere. He then grinned and told her: "you remind me of him. Has anyone else noticed you two seem to have something alike in you?" He guessed she wouldn't be all too pleased to hear that, and to be honest he didn't mind if it pissed her off a little.

When she asked if he had stage fright his cheeks collored a little; "well, maybe a little. But at the moment I don't even have an act, so I..." he fell silent for a moment, then he suddenly smiled again. "You just helped me with my act. Thanks."

"Yeah I know your brother," Azar answered not seeing it as an insult that he compared her to Aemilio, "an you are the first to say that."
She raised a slightly amused brow at the sight of Axel's cheeks colouring just because she asked him if he had stagefright. Though she got a little confused when he said that she had helped him with his act, not understanding how she had accomplished that.
"What do you mean?" she asked, "How did I help you with your act?"

"You just inspired me," Axel said cheerfully, as he worked away the last bit of his sandwich, "maybe my story will turn out to be good enough after all!" He didn't really believe it himself but just pretending he did for a moment made him feel better, so why not?
"It still won't be as extravagant as your fire-" he stopped midsentence as something came to mind; "you said you've been practising since you were 12? But didn't your mother mind? It's a pretty basic quality of mothers not to like the idea of their 12year-old playing with fire after all...?"

Azar blinked a couple of times at Axel when he told her that she had apareantly inspired him for his story, leaving her still wondering how she had done that.
"Okay care to tell me how I inspired you?" her voice betraying that she found it a little annoying that he didn't tell her right away. She smirked a little again though and she shrugged, her mom wasn't like most moms.
"What can I say my mom knows that I am, always have been and always will be a little pyromaniac," she told him with a sweet smile, "and as long as I got the routines down with nonflammable things and I practised outside and away from anything that's flammable she allowed it. She wasn't really happy with it but she rather have me do fire dancing then go and putting random things on fire."
And the fact that I'm half a fire demon helped a he|| of a lot as well of course...

"Sorry, I can't tell you," Axel said with a sincere look, "not until the entire story is done. I can betray though that I might base a character on you ok?"
When the conversation went back to Azar, well to her mother to be more precise.
"I... I see," he said to Azar's fire dancing history, despite of the fact that he didn't really understand at all. The pracising with unlit, unflamable objects in a safe spot did sound like a very motherly thing to do but even so, he couldn't imagine her mother approving of Azar using real fire until she'd had some real lessons. So did she have a really easy mom or was Azar just a bit of a difficult child? Something about her made Axel assume the 2nd.
"You sure are lucky with a mom like that," Axel pointed out, "mine would've locked me in my room if I came to her as a 12year old lad saying I wanted to learn how to fire dance and breathe fire!"