A Birthday Bash And New Years Too! (Lehanna)

Given the fact that their little venture into Crocus during the Halloween festival had gone pretty well, Elara felt a little more confident about bringing her partner out for another night of fun. The time between Halloween and Christmas had been rather quiet, giving both girls the chance to adapt to their new relationship and with any luck, help Lehanna to feel like her old self again. That was what the dark haired teenager hoped for anyway but she knew that after having gone through so much, there was a chance that her significant other might always struggle a little when it came to her new circumstances. Still, Elara would be by her side regardless, doing whatever she could to help and ease the worries of her beautiful soul mate. As the thought crossed her mind, her cheeks turned slightly pink, surprising herself once again by the sentimentality of her own thoughts. She’d certainly changed, a fact that there was no hope of her trying to argue with.

Of course, it wasn’t just the New Year that the hybrid slayer wanted to celebrate that night, knowing that this time of year just happened to be when her partner’s birthday was too. Elara’s was on the horizon too although it hadn’t been a time of year that she’d always enjoyed. The holiday season had once been a horrible time for her, having to spend it with her maniacal parents and the rest of her family of nutters. It had been the same old song and dance every year, with her being paraded around like a puppet. She was thoroughly glad that she was now free of such experiences and the teenager wasted no time in pushing those unpleasant memories out of her mind.

Elara always felt a little self conscious when it came to such events and considering her choice of outfit for the evening, she was feeling it just a little more strongly. A beautiful white dress covered her form, along with a flowery tiara that sat perfectly on her head. It was the first time that she’d dared to wear such an elegant outfit, having been worried that it’d stir up the feelings of her past. That was the last thing she wanted tonight and although there was the occasional thought or two, she kept pushing them aside.

The most effective way of doing so though was just to turn her head to the left, where her eyes would fall upon her beautiful girlfriend, wearing a delightful yellow dress that went so well with her own. The dark haired teenager couldn’t help but smile as she watched her, pleased that Lehanna had found the confidence to wear such a dress in public. Elara hoped that it was a sign that she was overcoming her fears and as she gently leaned her head against her partner's shoulder, she’d utter, in a rather soft tone for her. “That dress looks simply heavenly on you, Lea, I can’t take my eyes off of you.”

(502 Words)

When Lehanna had first heard of this upcoming event, the school she attended had been advertising it as something of an important get together. It didn’t have to be a mandatory attendance, however she was given extra credit in her school work to attend and frankly she had yet to make up the two weeks she spent kidnapped by Kalama and the extra week or so it took her to finally get courage enough to start attending school once again. It was a hard couple of months for her, but each day waking up the same apartment as her significant other made her feel safe. Secure even. It gave her a safety net until she could work up her true amount of courage.

Belonging to the same guild also seemed to help them in the long run. Getting feelers about news and other important information as she didn’t really stop by much anymore as of recent. She still couldn’t face them. She felt like she was weak and didn’t belong anymore. No magic to call her own, cursed to the daily thought of being eaten by whatever side of her at the sign of too much self loathing, regret, anger, hatred. Amongst many other negatively themed emotions, Lehanna tried her best to look to the positives. She had a lot of them for the most part, but some still seemed to be shrouded in the fog of her own self doubts. She first and foremost had Elara and a very doting adopted mother in Kita. Her schoolmates that actually didn’t mind being around her tried to cheer her up, some sticking by her whether she wanted to or not got a shoulder laced in tears; mixed of both joy and fear. She just hadn’t realized it until their stubbornness truly came to light.

All of that pitched in a wonderful mood. With Elara coming along to this event with her, she wanted to go all out for her. This wasn’t a silly costume event where something practical to her age group would be allowed to pass. No, she wanted something extravagant and bright. Something to radiate and remind her to stay positive and be happy. And it seemed by the look of her significant others choice of dress she chose to do practically the same thing. The contrasting color of her hair and eyes to the snow white allure of her dress had made her pop out in a crowd and brought a smile to her face. The similarly shared theme of a few flowery type decorations made between the two came differently to Lehanna as taken two small sections of her hair, braided them, adds the flower clip in and looped the ends in to add a bit of a flair. While the rest of her dress seemed to pick up more of blending in with her hair color, the whole look brightened her mood further.

As the pair began to relax in such a social setting, there wasn’t much of panicked feeling in her mind over tonight. She refused to let the curse invade her mind and drag her thoughts to the brink of a panic attack. No, tonight wasn’t about her. It was more for Elara than anything. So when she felt the teens head lay on her shoulder and comment about her look in the dress, a smile lit her face ad a soft giggle accompanied it. ”Second to you, Ela. But I didn’t want to drag you out here with me and then simply freak out and want to leave early. I feel like a burden sometimes and tonight I want you to have fun. Besides, I love seeing that smile on your face~ It makes the whole room brighten up.~” She replied, leaning her head over to give a soft kiss to the top of her head just behind the tiara in her hair. ”Take your pick of things to do, because I got something planned for us for later while we’re here too.”

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Just seeing her partner smile so brightly did wonders for the dark haired teenager's morale and her soft and gentle words, along with the kiss that sent a tingle through her body, caused Elara’s smile to grow in return. “You’ll never be a burden to me and I’ll tell you that as many times as I have to in order for you to understand. I want to help you through this and I’m here for the long haul. You’re not getting rid of me, no matter what happens.” Her tone of voice was sweet and she meant every word, wanting nothing more than to be by Lehanna’s side. Ever since she’d confessed her feelings, Elara’s sense of protectiveness towards her partner had increased by a factor of a ten. Never had she felt like this towards anyone but it didn’t scare her. No, it just meant that she’d finally found someone who was worth protecting. Lea brought so much light and happiness into Elara’s life, one that for so long had been horrible and dark.

The final words of Lea’s replies aroused the curiosity of the teenager and before she could stop herself, she childishly asked. “What plans? What have you got planned for us?” Her desire to know overrode everything else for a second or two, her shields dropping to reveal the repressed young girl who had long since been buried. She didn’t stop asking either, even when the slayer led the way and started to glance around at the various games and stalls that were littered all over the place. The two of them hadn't taken part in too many of the activities during the Halloween festival and Elara couldn’t help but want to try one or two of them out. She’d heard that most of these kinds of things were rigged but Elara couldn’t help but want to show off in front of her partner and her eyes soon fell upon an interesting stand.

It was a shooting range, where people were trying their luck by firing pistols at a group of moving targets. Curious, she turned to her partner and asked. “Want to have a go at this? It can’t be much different from playing on our Gamestation back at the apartment.” Elara thought that she was a pretty gamer and had been delighted when she’d managed to get her hands on one although saying that, she’d broken more than one controller due to her excitement, not to mention temper. Since she didn’t attend school like Lea, the dark haired teenager had been forced to find something to do during the time that her partner was away. Gaming had filled that particular hole and she could quite often be found trying to beat one title or another, generally while listening to the divine music of her favourite idol at the same time.

She had to admit that the targets were moving rather fast though and more than one person was beginning to get a little frustrated with it…

(502 Words)
(1674 TWC)

Lehanna had let out a light, almost soundless sigh as the news she knew had existed already knew. She could be told that a thousand times, and yet she knew the influence of the curse on her mind would make her unable to grasp it fully. No matter how bright of a day she had, this thing always found a way to drag her into a sense of dreadful thoughts and distasteful, dark thoughts. Between utter violence, to self harming scenarios, to heart shattering news. Nightmares or day dream variants were always abound when her mind couldn’t keep itself busy or uplifted in the moment. Some days were harder than others no matter her being around Elara or not.

That aside, Lehanna had seemed to try and come around to pushing those thoughts aside while she wanted to enjoy tonight. Her mood was bright and exciting, so why would she want to put a damper on it? As a small smile popped into her face, it only grew brighter as she heard the practically childish way that Elara started asking her about the plans she had brought up over the course of the night. But, she simply waved her finger and placed it against her own lips for a moment. ”Im not telling you!~ You’re just gonna have to wait, El!~” After that, she giggled and almost doubled over from the overjoyed amusement of her partners reaction to an upcoming surprise. Almost something as amusing if she’d have waited to spring it on her entirely without a hint, but this time she felt it more fun to clue her in and let her stew in the thought.

Elara then seemed to suggest a rather odd choice of activity to have even thought would be allowed in a place like this. She seemed to be rather enthused to play a little game of using the firing range and tried to compare it to their game that primarily Ela liked to play. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t find amusement in playing from time to time, but she always lost in something that lacked the logical accuracy of gunfire. But the real thing? That was surely her ace in the hole. ”Sure, I guess. I hope you know this isn’t going to be anywhere near the game though, El.” She couldn’t help but warn her while approaching the range.

Her eyes tracked everything like a pair of calculators and until she picked up the gun, she had seemed to be picking her best course of action. When it gave a bit of resistance, the teen looked down and her brows furrowed from realizing the actual weight of a gun in her hands. She took a moment to get herself adjusted to holding the weapon and aimed down sights somewhat. Knowing how fast the bullet fired and the speed of the targets, Lehanna waited just a moment before firing the first as well as her first shot. The kickback of the gun shot her back and onto her rear end as the bullet pegged straight to the head of the target, only off from a direct center point by a few millimeters.

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Elara was miffed when Lehanna refused to even give her a clue as to what was in store for them later and a pout appeared on her face. It didn’t last all that long, as she wasn’t going to spoil the occasion by getting in a mood but it would be hard to miss the look nonetheless. She couldn’t help but wonder just what Lea had planned though and was soon wracking her brains trying to figure out what it could be. It could be anything and soon enough, she reluctantly gave up although she was definitely looking forward to whatever it was. She just hoped that it wasn’t going to be something that would turn her into a childish mess again. The thought somewhat terrified her, even if she had to admit that ever since she’d met Lea again, those moments tended to occur more often, regardless of the embarrassment. Maybe she was making up for lost time?

“It’ll be fine.” She reassured her partner as they approached the firing range. “If the first shot doesn’t go in then surely one of the others will, right?” It summed up her playing style pretty well, spray and pray, with little in the way of accuracy. She had no idea why she was so confident about this and maybe it was just because Lea was beside her that she felt that way. Her high scores on the Gamestation were pretty good, after all and she’d managed to progress rather far, albeit with a few temper tantrums along the way when she lost.

Taking the gun in her hand, she’d then hold it to her hip for a second, as though she was a gunslinger about to draw on an opponent. Her keen slayer sight honed in on the target before her, watching as it moved to and fro, before she raised and fired. The sound was like a cannon and the bullet blasted straight past the target and into the wall beyond. It was probably the worst shot that had ever been fired on the range and the look on Elara’s face was drawn into one of annoyance. The kick hadn’t been so bad for her, with the physical training that she’d been doing keeping her up but her shoulder stung a bit nonetheless.

Annoyed by her awful attempt, she’d turn around to find Lea on her backside. Instantly, she’d put the gun back on the table and move over to her partner, kneeling down beside her. “Are you OK?” She asked, looking a little concerned, rotating her shoulder a little from the kick. “I don’t know what they’ve done with these guns but I didn’t even get close to the target. It wasn’t anything like how it is in the game.”

A part of her was just waiting for the inevitable, ‘I told you so’, but it was too late to do anything about it now. Perhaps if she tried the game again then it’d be easier? If her wounded pride could handle it, that was.

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(2710 TWC)

It didn’t take from the initial landing from the kickback for Lehanna to snap out of a small bit of a daze. Frankly, she was surprised to have even fallen back. Logically, it did kind of make sense that the force from the shot could have enough force to send someone her weight backward, however to think she could withstand that was higher than she thought. Perhaps it was just the arrogance in her mind to show off to Elara. Wanting her to see in some capacity she could defend herself even without magic. And yet… something felt off. She stared for a moment towards her target in where she hit and she couldn’t help but think of scenes in which she could potentially be killing people. She flashed back to that of Kalama’s massacre, the curse fueling the thoughts of slight fear gif the wrong moving into a more substantial sense of morbid and sick possibilities with the curse having taken full control of her.

Yet Elara’s voice snapped her back. She looked over, slightly puzzled as the glazed over eyes of her daydreaming mind fixated back to reality and began to laugh a little. ”Yeah yeah, I’m ok. I just didn’t e do t so much of kickback is all. I guess you had better luck in that department since you’re only trying to relax your shoulder muscles.” She started to stand back up and made sure to grab her weapon as well. All while Elara tried to claim the weapons were so heavily against the girls because it wasn’t how the game reflected it to be. At first it was a slight giggle before she erupted into a more full blown laughter that only lasted for a small moment and ceased. Shaking her head, she would point at the hole Elara made in the wall and then to her own target with a confident smirk.

”That my dear, is the difference between reality and video games.” She said in a rather fact manner. ”Though I guess I could be labeled as cheating a little bit if I didn’t confess I’ve been watching videos and guides of how to shoot in preparation to maybe pick one up in the future…” Her confession came with a sigh attached at the end, shaking her head slightly in a bit of self disappointment. ”But I told you before that the reality of how guns acted in games and in real life were leagues apart… now let me show you how to stand and we can try agains to see if you can get better aim now.” With that, Lehanna approached the shooting range with one of Elara’s free hands held in her own. When they got to it and she would take her gun once more, Lehanna would stand right behind her, letting her hold the gun up. Gently, she would take her left foot and gently push her feet while relaying the instructions she memorized.

”Feet grounded and apart, arms up and steady…” Pausing to reach out and push the butt of her gun up a little more, leaning over her right shoulder some and smiling, ignoring what bit of a crowd that may have looked their way during this time. ”When you’re ready, Fire. I’ll be here to catch you.” Her whispered words meant to send encouragement to the raven haired teen, moving her hands back to allow her to fire of her own free aim.

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The concerned look on Elara’s face swiftly changed into one of irritation as Lea laughed at the slayer’s garbage shot compared to her own. There was a startling difference when it came to accuracy and the dark haired teen felt quite foolish. Her shot probably would’ve been closer if she’d tried to miss the target on purpose, such was how garbage hers had been. Lea’s on the other hand couldn’t have been much closer and Elara had to admit that it was a good shot indeed. The only slim hint of comfort that the summoner could take from the exchange was that she’d stayed on her feet but it wasn’t much. Her partner was definitely the better shot.

Elara huffed a little as Lea admitted that she had some background knowledge when it came to real life firearms and for a moment, she put her hands on her shoulders, looking unimpressed. “Oh, so you were hiding the truth from me, were you? Sneaky.” She wasn’t actually mad in truth, just annoyed still at her own crappy attempt. Lea’s explanation made perfect sense though and even though Elara was saddened that her partner was already considering the possibility that she might not recover her magic. “There’s still a chance that your magic will come back or that your encounter has given you a new type, you know.” She tried her best to sound encouraging and fully believed that there was a chance.

When Lea took her hand and led her back to the shooting range, Elara obediently followed, unable to say no when her partner spoke to her in such a way. She held her gun in the way that her beautiful soul mate told her too and naturally followed her instructions. It was nice to see Lehanna getting so into the whole affair and Elara couldn’t help but smile as she felt her body move. In fairness, it was an odd position that she found herself in and certainly wasn’t like how it was in the game. There was no way that she’d be able to fire a barrage like this but maybe that was the point. She soon felt Lea lean over her shoulder, which caused Elara’s heart to skip a beat and her cheeks to gently turn pink.

After helping her with her aim a touch, Lehanna stood back, allowing the teenager to take a deep breath before pulling the trigger on the pistol. The bullet catapulted out of the barrel and tore towards the target, striking it powerfully in where the heart would be. An accurate shot and one that was a thousand times better than her last. The kick, however, was far stronger this time and the dark haired girl found herself moving backwards rather fast, hopefully into Lehanna’s arms. She had no idea why the kick had been so much more potent this time but she felt a fair amount of pain in her shoulder, resulting in a sharp intake of breath from her.

Pain aside, she had to admit that Lea’s advice had worked and with a chuckle, she uttered in a teasing manner. “You know it all, don’t you?”

(526 Words)
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A slightly nervous chuckle escaped in response to the slightly cheeky reply that her partner had given towards her admittance of trying to self learn the art of shooting. It was never something she felt comfortable with before, but frankly with everything that had happened, the idea wasn’t anything more than precaution at first. Strangely enough, Lehanna had realized in the moment that she hadn’t had those protruding cursed depression themed voices in her head when it came to the idea of owning a gun. The thought crossed her mind that it had to be something that had to do with her simply watching tutorials and firing range practice, but when she thought about having to be an actual owner of one… nothing bad seemed to come of it.

Now, actually owning and carrying could be a whole separate beast, however she would worry about that should the day come. Until then, she pushed away those thoughts and focused on the most adorable, caring person she knew that stood in front of her. Though the smile on her face didn’t seem to stay consistent, it came and went through Elara’s whole small comment over her magic coming back or gaining a new one. ”It’s not like I’ve lost hope in getting my magic or some other one back…” She paused, standing up and brushing off her outfit before she picked up her gun and flicked on the safety. ”I just… I want to be sure I can protect you. Not just myself. Sometimes it’s… hard to get out of my own way, you know?” She seemed to be a little more quiet, looking away in a bit of a sleight of dislike. ”I’ve always had to take care of myself. It’s just hard for me to grasp the idea I don’t have just myself to think about anymore. I have you, I have Momma Kita… I just- …Nevermind. I-I don’t mean to drag this into a pity party.”

With a light shake of her head, the teen quietly followed and then began to hold close to the word of helping Elara to gain some hold of her gun firing skills. Frankly, just being this close against her significant other was making her heart race, but she kept her mind on the objective of helping the slayer to aim properly. And as she watched the shot hit center mass in such a way, she caught the other teen in her arms and happily began to giggle before leaning in and planting a light peck of a kiss to her cheek. ”That’s it, Ela! Great shot!” She cheered excitedly, laughing happily for her improved aim and gave a couple light pats to her arms before letting go of her hold knowing she’d have her balance back.

”Well, I always did have the better grades in school than you did, Elara!~” She mused, jokingly teasing her with an obvious wink.

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It was painful for Elara to hear just how much Lehanna was still suffering and although the slayer did her best not to let it show on her face, it was a stinging reminder about just how far Lea still had to go. Her partner had come on leaps and bounds since she’d returned from her capture or at least Elara thought so and to hear such pessimistic thoughts sadly reminded her of those first days, when Lea’s mood was far more all over the place. Those had been a bit of a rollercoaster, for both girls but even though they had been, the summoner had come to realise that they’d helped bring herself and Lehanna closer together. Honestly, Elara had probably grown up more in that period than she had in her entire life up until that point. She’d gone from caring about very little to being Lea’s anchor, a change that had taken a little time for her to for the dark haired girl to get used to. She didn’t answer and let the topic trail off as that was clearly what Lea wanted but she’d definitely listened.

Luckily enough, the shooting range had provided a suitable change of subject and after her successful shot and having landed in the arms of her partner, Elara couldn’t help but feel a lot better. When she thought about it, Lea had always been pretty good at being able to explain things in a manner that the sometimes thick headed slayer could understand, even back home, all those years ago. The kiss caused her cheeks to turn a lovely shade of pink but she happily leaned back against her partner for a moment affectionately, feeling at home in Lea’s arms. Eventually though, Lea let go of her and fortunately, Elara had recovered her balance at that stage. The gun sure had a stronger kick the second time around and her shoulder was still stinging a bit.

In response to Lea’s joke, Elara would, with all the maturity one would expect, stick her tongue out at her beautiful guild mate. “I did badly on purpose just to spite the family.” In a way that was true but honestly, she just never understood half of the crap that her teachers were trying to teach her. “I always had you to copy from anyway.” A joke in return or that was how it was supposed to be.

Glancing down at the gun, still in her arms, she’d then chuckle and ask. “Fancy one more go at this? Now that you’ve taught me the basics, I wouldn’t mind another try and I’d love to see you pull off another miracle shot like the last one. There’s no way that you could hit another target in the head with your first effort.” Elara was tempted to make a bet on that but there was a voice in her mind telling her that it would bite her in the backside if she did so. Her bets recently with her partner hadn’t been all that successful.

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There was a bit of a haughty chuckle that came from the blight blonde teens mouth in response to her partners comment. She was always that kind of person, or at least she led on that way when they were living together under her parents roof. Maybe that was just to be her parents acting in such a way that she transferred her dislike onto the orphaned girl. Either way, it was a little amusing to hear her act delusional in regard to their prior schoolwork. However, she had always just hated her parents for the way their treated her and scarred her for life. Even now, she gets the shakes any time she has to walk into a small room for something.

When the offer and bragging style of confidence boasted from her adorable other, she smirked. ”Oh yeah? Well tough guy, why don’t we just see about that.” She replied in a very, equally confident manner. ”In fact, why not add to it. Let’s make a little wager on this too. Let’s say, if I win, you do all my half of the house chores for a week.” In anticipation for an equal one, she wouldn’t put it past Elara to slide a rather mischievous counter plan, however it didn’t cross her mind in the moment for the sake of the game. She was going to win this like she won every grading test since they were kids, but this time without seeking approval from some ungrateful tyrannical ingrates.

Now, Lehanna seemed poised for this game of theirs, ready to begin once she learned of Elara’s bet and even her to start if she felt so confident in her ability to win.

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A smirk flashed across Elara’s face as Lea almost seemed to read her mind regarding a bet. There was no way that the dark haired teenager could back down and soon her mind was considering the possibilities of what she’d ask for should she win. She wasn’t overly concerned about Lea’s demands, as the two of them were pretty good when it came to keeping the apartment fairly clean although Elara would be the first to admit that she could be a tad lazy sometimes when it came to her half. Chores were something else that she’d had to get used to since moving in with her partner, as they’d never been tasks that she’d had to do before. Her previous guilds hadn’t cared and her family always hired someone to do those kinds of things. That being said, she didn’t truly mind doing them and it’d been a necessity since Lea had returned from her ordeal. Elara had been holding down the fort during her partner's disappearance and recovery.

In response to Lea’s offer of a bet, Elara would lean in close and whisper into her ear, her cheeks reddening again as she thought back. “If I win, then you have to prepare and serve a meal for me wearing that cute little maid outfit that you wore during our first Halloween together. I know that you still have it hidden away somewhere and you were so adorable while wearing it.” Her grin turned cheeky at that point and the summoner soon added. “You’ll have to refer to me as ma'am for the entire evening too.” The rational part of her mind instantly informed her that there was a snowball in hell's chance that she’d actually be successful in winning but the slayer’s stubbornness was taking over and she pushed that thought aside.

Assuming that Lehanna was willing to accept the bet, Elara would lead the way back over to the shooting range and begin setting herself, her body moving so that it was in the posture that her girlfriend had taught her. The adrenaline was starting to flow through her body as she prepared, ready to test herself. She’d have to admit though that the image of her partner in that gorgeous maid outfit was slightly putting her off though but if that was going to be the reason why she lost then it wouldn’t be so bad.

Flicking her gaze over to Lea, she’d flash a smile. “You ready for this?”

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