[Elsword] - Masked Renegade

05 - Clumsiness

...

Elesis raised an eyebrow, skeptical at Aisha's statement. "Ava's reincarnation?" she repeated.

"Yes! If you're curious, then I'll tell you everything someday, but today is not the day." Aisha responded with her usual grin.

"Alright, but, how do you plan to deal with this situation?" Elesis inquired, stretching her arms tiredly. She slightly yawned, honestly, she wasn't quite looking forward to the rest of the day at school. She practically knew everything that was taught in the curriculum already, though thankfully there wasn't any real 'work' yet.

"Elesis," Aisha paused. "You trust me, don't you? Then, leave it to me. No more questions asked." she smiled reassuringly.

The redhead rolled her eyes. It was almost impossible to get Aisha to speak the truth sometimes, she was talented at avoiding queries.

"Then, without further ado, back to class."

~

Before long, the final school bell of the day had rung, chiming and echoing into the air. There wasn't much to do in class, so students were already packed up and ready to go five minutes prior to the bell. Students excitedly stood up, and rushed to the doorway, swinging their bags over their shoulders as they rampaged, all attempting to squish through the exit.

Ara, Aisha, and Elesis seemed to be the only 'normal ' ones. Ara approached them happily while everyone else was still facing hell trying to squeeze out of the gate at once.

"Ready?" Ara beamed, thrilled to have friends over. Despite being unsure of the idea toward the beginning, her feelings changed as the afternoon flew by. She still wasn't sure of Aren's opinion to it, but she truly wanted some comrades over to build up friendship and camaraderie.

"Of course! We're all hyped about it, and yes, even Elesis here, though she's doing a terrible job of expressing it." Aisha joked, nudging the Grand Master's side.

Elesis glared at the Void Princess for a moment before facing Ara, holding her schoolbag by her side. "Lead the way, the sooner we arrive, the better." she calmly spoke, though it was eminent that she was a bit annoyed at Aisha's behavior.

By the time they reached the door to leave the classroom, there were piles of exhausted bodies laying out and about in the hallway. Foolish students from before, nothing new.

Ara casually stepped over them, attempting her very best not to hit any of them when... she tripped over an arm. Landing face-first into the floor, Ara whimpered, sniffling as she stood up. Her clumsiness inevitably struck again.

Elesis, who was usually a stoic individual, broke out into a muffled laughter at the sight. She covered her mouth with the palm of her hand, a failed attempt to conceal it.

"U-Uwah..! I-It's not funny, E-Elesis...!!" she whined.

"A-Ah, my apologies..." the knight responded. "I was chuckling because it was... cute. It reminded me of my younger brother when he was a child, is all."

The two girls leaped over the 'corpses' with ease, as some began to twitch from the fatigue that came from being at school.

"Please proceed!" Aisha grinned, tempted to comment on how adorable her friend's clumsiness was, but decided not to for the sake of being a good ally.

~

After vacating school grounds, the rest of the walk back to the Haan residence was quick and easy. It seemed less of a drag when company was around, and the girls had chatted about various topics on the way there, so it didn't seem to take long before they reached their destination.

Ara lived in a quiet neighborhood with friendly people around the locality. It was close to a small, local convenience store for groceries, and provided a exquisite view of... trees. The living expenses were cheap, which was the main reason why the Haan family had chosen it.

"Sorry, it probably doesn't meet your expectations, but it's a nice place, I swear!" Ara cheerfully nodded to herself, skipping towards the front entrance.

The two ladies trailed after her. "No, no. It's fine, thank you for letting us stay here." Elesis' lips curved into a soft smile, another rare sight.

The Sakra Devanam rang the doorbell. "Aren! Aren, I'm home! (with two of my new friends, but he doesn't need to know that yet)"

Add answered as he swung open the gateway, blinking as he stared at Ara and her gang with a blank expression. "Oh... welcome back." he stopped for one moment, biting his lip as he seemed to have forgotten something. "Ara, was it?"

"Mhm! Where's Brother?" she asked, a bit nervous because her friends might have misinterpreted the Esper's existence within the household.

Right on time, Aren was running down the staircase to the main entrance, when he accidentally slipped  over a welcome mat that was situated at the bottom of the stairs. He hobbled into Add as he lost balance, causing the albino to stumble forwards, conveniently landing on his feet in front of Ara, as he held onto her shoulders for balance. There was nothing wrong with it, except... they were a bit too close for comfort.

Ara's face flushed, she could already feel his breathing due to the closed distance between them.

One thing was certain, clumsiness definitely ran in the family.

...