Half-Moon [Cersei/Baek]

Ther was probably a few things that Baek had to explain to Cersei, none of which he was excited for, to begin with. However, he had to let her know what happened to him these past few years that required Baek in order to run away. He was outclassed by the snake swordsman in terms of speed, and he still wasn't sure if he was generating enough powers in his blows in order to properly take on the pandora hunter and acquire revenge for branding him and hurting his friend. All at the same time, Baek ran and hid. It was cowardly, but there was nothing he could do if he was dead

It had been quite the long day for Cersei Inakamono. Ever since it became known that she had a useful ability for training, people had been crawling out the woodwork requesting training sessions with her. Though she didn’t mind being the center of attention, back to back training sessions were physically and mentally exhausting, especially since she was essentially a pretty punching bag for those who leaned more towards the physical aspect of fighting. Maybe she should start charging for her services? That way she would be able to save up towards her goal, then again she was pretty sure that she would be frowned upon by all the others within the order and would end up getting her shunned by anyone who wanted to train. Sighing, Cersei would make her throughout the streets of the village with Ginger at her side with only one destination in mind, her bed.

Realizing that Cersei probably forgot to meet up with Baek, he would sigh and start to sniff her out. After catching her scent, Baek would move towards her destination at S rank speed in order to reach over to Cersei. After reaching the vicinity, Baek continued to sniff around until he reached her particular location. "Cersei!" Baek would say as he walked over, stepping in front of her. "Did you forget? I wanted you to meet me at that restaurant place an hour ago. Rejecting me?" Baek then sniffed her to see if there was any other man around her. After a few sniffs, he would shake his head. Maybe that wasn't it.

"I wanted to talk....come eat something..."

Her tired eyes would shift towards the direction of the man that had called her name and when she saw it was Baek she would sigh. She had completely forgotten that she had promised to meet up with him for dinner and in all honesty, she wasn’t in the mood too after such a tiring day. “Umm, yeah sorry about that. Rough day you know. Do we have to go in restaurant to have this conversation? How about you walk us home? We can talk then.” Cersei stated before letting out a small yawn. By us, she meant her Midogardon Ginger of course who wasn’t too happy with Baek sniffing around his master. His mood would change instantly, however, the moment Cersei started petting his head to calm him down.

Baek looked at the creature up and down that growled at him, wondering where and how she managed to get one. "That's one of those wolf like creatures, I almost lost my life looking for a thing like that, and you mean to tell me that it was here all along? Or maybe that's not it, you were just luckier i guess. " Either way, that wasn't important right now. Walking beside cersei, Baek decided to proceed with his explanation. "Two years ago, I was attacked by a swordsman, me and hana, remember her? He has the pet Phoenix and likes to grow stuff? Well, he was crazy strong and called himself the pandora hunter. It seems that he was hunting me, and i knew i couldn't beat him as i were at the moment, so i hid out and waited. I'm sorry i didn't contact you...

Happy that Baek had decided to respect her decision to skip the dinner he had planned she would turn on her heels and continued her walk home. She would smile when he had mentioned that she was lucky to have gotten a Midogardon but that was far from it, getting Ginger was quite the pain in the ass as he was quite the aggressive little beast, but now that he was domesticated he was the sweetest pup in all of Pandora, well towards her at least. “Oh? I see.” Cersei said as she listened to Baek’s story about his run in with this Pandora Hunter. In truth this was the first time she had heard anything about such a person roaming the Empire, surely one of the members of the HUIT order should’ve come across such a person or was he that skilled? Who knew? “The important thing is that you’re okay I suppose. But I find it odd that you chose not to contact me at all. I mean I could’ve helped you, or you don’t think I’m good enough?” Cersei said without looking in his direction.

"No, it has nothing to do with your capabilities. I kind of don't know how to label it as, but if it did have a label, it would be pride. I don't want to be known as the alpha that is unable to protect the people that he cared about. Or better yet, how could I show my face around after he beat me in such a way?" Showing the small tattoo on the side of his cheek, you almost couldn't tell that it was actually a brand mark by the man he went toe to toe with. " Look, I know that this isn't enough of an excuse, and maybe you resented me. But how does it look to drag a student of mine on a quest for revenge? It's a selfish way to live Cersei, i wouldn't want that for you.

“You’re an idiot Baek. It’s your responsibility as a sensei to let your student know what had happened to you. What if he had managed to kill you? I would be here waiting for your return for all eternity with no answers to where you were or what had happened to you. You may not want to seem like an Alpha that was unable to protect to those who he cared for but to me, you’re the Alpha that didn’t care in the first place.” It was a harsh thing to say but it was the truth and she wasn’t going to sugar coat how she truly felt, she wasn’t that kind of person. During the first couple of months she had spent a majority of her time searching for him and when she couldn’t find him she was forced to believe he wasn’t coming back and now he just expected that she would just accept his bullshit excuse? Yeah right.

Ok, I get it, it was irresponsible of me. I'm sorry, I honestly wasn't thinking straight, for a long time in fact. I really thought I was saving you the trouble, and hopefully, you wouldn't be treated as a weakness to sniff me out if it really did seem like I kicked the bucket, but I didn't. "

Scratching the side of his head, he would think hard about what to do next.

"Hey, i offered to pay you for dinner and stuff, it was to kind of put you in a good mood before I said all of this. Then again, I guess that's not a good way to make it up to you. But I will, I promise."

In all honesty, she was too tired to even wrap her head around this entire ordeal so she decided to let it go. He would have to make this up to her, however, and when she came up with a means on how he could do so, she would surely let him know. “Though dinner does sound like a good idea, I’m pretty sure Cera already prepared food at home and she tends to get disappointed whenever I don’t eat her cooking. If you’re hungry you could always come join us for dinner.” Cera was an amazing cook, probably better than wherever he wanted to take her so this was the most logical choice. That was, of course, he wanted to come over. “It’s up to you though, I won’t guilt trip you into spending some time with me.” She said with a smile as they had finally arrived at her house.

After all of that walking, they finally made i to Cersei's house, a place that Baek has never been to even when they were on good terms. After arriving, he would sniff around the area and notice that there were few other smells going on. Not just the food, but people, or even creatures of some kind. "Someone else is living with you? Who is cera?" Baek would take the time to ask and figure that out as he continued to escort his former apprentice to her lovely abode. He still felt weird about coming into people's place of work, not wanting to be a nuisance or anything of the sort. However, the small growl from his stomach might get the better of him.

A smile appeared on her lips when he had decided to join her for dinner. Entering the yard the first thing Baek would notice was that there had been another Midogardon curled up on the front porch apparently waiting on Ginger to get home. Once the fauna had noticed that they were back it would run up to them before licking her face and running off with Ginger to the back. “It's pretty complicated, to be honest.” Dipping into her pockets she would pull out a key, unlocked her door and entered the house. “I have a number of people and fauna living with me currently, for various reasons.” She said as she removed her shoes and placed them in their designated area before heading to the kitchen. Having a quick look around she would notice that no one was around, which was odd since this place was always bustling with activity. “A lot happened during your two-year absence.”

"I see......" Baek would say as he folded his arms and squinted his eyes. He was sure that people had been in this house, differents kinds of people and beasts to add to it. However, he still couldn't figure out what the reason behind Cersei's current change was. Her personality didn't change too much, but there was something a little more different about her. "So, about the people and the fauna living with you? Are they slaves or something? Or are they people seeking refuge or anything of the sort?" It was a simple question, Baek wasn't expecting an immediate answer out of her. However, he was still a little curious about it.

Taking a seat at the table she would sigh. It seemed that Cera didn’t cook before leaving so she was probably going to starve unless there was something in the refrigerator or cupboards, then again she had been putting on a lot of weight recently so maybe this was a good thing. “Well they were captured by me but they aren’t slaves, they're more like partners in the grand scheme of things. I plan on owning a ranch and I would need civilians to run that ranch and of course fauna for that ranch. I just need to generate enough income for something else I have planned but that’s something I wish not to discuss at this point in time as I’m still working out the kinks.” She said before putting her feet up on the table. It wasn’t a secret that Cersei wasn’t one that enjoyed combat, she was more of a schemer and a dreamer and this was one of the many ways she planned on having her grasp on a certain thing.

"Did you turn them into those succubi too? Or is the infection thing only I can do?" Sniffing the area one last time, Baek shook his head and squatted down. "Nope, nothing of the sort, just the wolves. I'm pretty fond of them, but they seem to be on edge. It's ok though....." All of this talk of money kind of made Baek's brain hurt. He didn't really have a use of money and just travelled wherever he went and slept wherever he went. "Do you need any starting income that I could help you with? I kind of don't have the smart mind like you do, I don't really have a use for all of this money. If it could help you instead, i'll be happy with that. "

Cersei did have plans of developing a technique that could turn others into succubi but that wasn’t something she had needed anytime soon. “Nah, they just regular civilians.” In truth, she didn't need them to be anything more than that as her plans were clear and concise. Cersei would smile at Baek’s generous offer but unfortunately she wouldn’t need any money since she had plans of borrowing money from the Bank in the Land of Glaciers, that and she was pretty sure the money she needed Baek didn’t have a fraction of that, though if he wanted to give her she wouldn’t refuse. You could never have enough money. “Hmm, I’d appreciate the donation, in return, I guess provide you with the animals you need for your pack once I start breeding them. You are looking to start a pack aren’t you?” Cersei said before getting up from around the table and headed to counter where she looked to make some coffee.

If every little helps, i'll be sure to lend you a little bit. " Baek didn't know what else to say, not really. Cersei went off to go and make some coffee, something that Baek didn't necessarily taste before. However, he didn't want to see like a big wuss in not accepting something that he never necessarily tasted before, so he felt like he should be brave and have a little bit of what Cersei wanted for the time being. "So, was umm... there anything else that happened these past few years? I know money has it's importance and what not, but does it mean you'll be leaving soon for your business?

Cersei would frown when he didn’t respond to her question about him forming a pack but would shrug it off. Walking back to the table she would place two cups before herself and Baek. She would also bring over a bottle of milk and some sugar cubes in the event that he wanted his coffee a bit sweeter. “Nothing much has happened in all honesty. I just trained a lot so I could master my ability and made plans for the ranch. It's been pretty bland around here.” She said before taking a sip of the coffee. “I should be leaving in a few weeks for Samuigakure, I have to visit the bank there to sort out a few things”

You said you were mastering a technique right? What exactly were you learning? I'm sorry that I wasn't here to give you any guidance or anything, but maybe i could till give you some tips or anything of the sort? I mean, only if you would think it's useful. Travelling to samuigakure could be dangerous, and baek wondered if she could handle this on her own. "Are you sure you can handle the trip? Don't be afraid to ask for any help if you want me to go with you. I don't really have any plans of my own for the time being. Though, I am trying to fulfill my pandoran duty of making a horde of werebeasts, and i don't even have one. You know, i never turned anyone into a regular werewolf either, basically nothing.

“It isn’t a technique it’s more of an ability. I have the ability to generate copious amounts of good or bad luck. At first, it was just something that would randomly happen but now I’ve mastered it and I’m now able to control it to some extent. Unfortunately, it isn’t something you could help with since it’s an ability I was born with being a ronin.” She ended, taking another sip of her coffee. It was quite cute that he was worried about her trip to Samuigakure but she was a big girl and was able to take care of herself. “There really isn’t any need for you to accompany me since it’s friendly territory and I really shouldn’t be in any sort of danger. Unless something bad happened at sea, even then I have wings so I could fly if the ferry somehow managed to capsize.”

In a way, that means that you can make yourself lucky all the time if you really wanted to. It's only a shame that I can't really do anything to help when it comes to that. Oh well, i'm pretty sure that everything happens for a reason, you're strong. However, you don't necessarily like fighting and picked a better path for yourself. I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of. "

Getting up, Baek would walk over and pour some coffee of his own. The first thing he smelled was the bitterness of it. "I can already imagine how it tastes. " He made a small sour look as he took a few sips.

If only she could really make herself lucky all the time that would really be something cool. Alas, her powers didn’t work like that at all. Truthfully she didn’t think that she was strong, in fact, she believed that she was far from it. Zaku and Baek were strong, her on the other hand, not so much. It didn’t bother her at all though considering that her desire wasn’t to become a God of Pandora or a high-ranking Knight. She had plans on retiring soon and enjoying the life that she envisioned for herself and possibly a family. “What about you? What are your plans?”

"Don't have any. I lost contact with a friend of mine, and the cypher I was working under, Ka Jiko, haven't seen him in two years. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. If i stick to nothing more than following my natural instincts, i might have a small pack here and there. I mean, it's my job as an alpha to make more wolves and whatnot, maybe diplomatic relations with other wolves in order to maintain the peace with the vampires, maybe not. "He then walked over to the window. " I follow my heart, and that's all i think i can do. "

Cersei knew all too well that feeling of not having a purpose in this world. For years she had been wandering around the world trying to find some sort of meaning as to why she was born and why she was unlucky. She had managed to find out the reason to the latter but she was still struggling to find her purpose even though she had plans for the ranch. “Have you tried finding this Ka Jiko? He’s a pretty popular figure in Pandora so it shouldn’t be hard to find him.” She stated before finishing her cup of coffee. She had never personally met this Ka Jiko, but she had heard stories about him, in all honesty, he sounded like an interesting dude.

"Well, it's because he's so busy that I wouldn't want to bother him. It's not like he's missing, he's a potential god of Pandora in the making. If that's the case, even though I was under him in the past, what's the point of meeting with me. I don't blame him, I understand. "Baek held no grudge towards that end result. He felt that you would have to be important to meet people like that. " Though, if I ever get far, don't ever feel like that. You can meet with me whenever you want, or I'll come get you. I'll always come get you if you find yourself in trouble.