Ask the OCs! [CLOSED]

Dare for Candor: The_Nerdette!

The_Nerdette's Dare:

I dare Candor to tell Loke. And make a big scene out of it. Maybe have Winter tied up in a corner, gagged because otherwise she'd be yelling at them, and have her listen. Yes. This is my dream.

Me: Well, I've now come to the conclusion that my readers see you as some sort of pseudo-Norman Bates.

Candor: *scathingly* Who--

Me: Oh. Oh dear Lord no. I just realized something. Norman Bates stuffed his mother after she kicked the bucket and kept up in the attic or something of his motel, like a freaking puppet. *looks at Candor suspiciously* Sound like anyone you know?

Candor: *blandly* That Sasori Something-Or-Other whom that poor girl Scarlette seems to be pining after?

Me: No, brat I meant... wait, how the hell do you know who that is?

Candor: Communication between your many universes is not nearly as difficult as you make it out to be.

Me: I'm gonna have to do something about that... I don't want to imagine a world where Raya and the Hayes sisters are in the same place...

Candor: Deal with your troubles on your own time, Author-chan. I believe I have a dare?

Me: Oi, don't look so creepy, with that absurdly amused smirk on your face.

Candor: Oh I can't help my natural look. A bit haughty, I know, but well-deserved, I think.

Me: Arrogant bastard....

Candor: *smirk widens*

Me: That's it. No mercy. Get your ass over to Loke, he's somewhere near the guild, I think, and humiliate yourself, why don't you?

Candor: With pleasure. *disappears*

Me:...I feel like I just did something terrible to Loke...

________________________________

Candor stood, quite alone, in the comforting semi-darkness of an empty guild, his weight held against one wooden wall, arms crossed lazily over his chest. He kept his mind purposefully blank, focusing only on the door directly across from his perch - wary, perhaps, of where his traitorous thoughts might wander should he allow them any slack.

It wasn't embarrassment that prompted to reel in his straying thoughts, far from it. A calm certainty gripped his heart, whether he was fond of it or not. Still, he found the notion itself laughable; who would believe Candor - a boy whom the majority of the guild saw as cruelly indifferent on his most affectionate days - held any semblance of feelings for another human being? Especially one as vibrantly alive as...

He shook his head; the door, only watch the door, everything else is meaningless...

He didn't like this, he hadn't wished for it. He preferred to have no ties, to steel himself from the wantings on the heart. But she had slipped past his defenses in the most incredulous of ways, unrelenting, uncaring to how he reacted. And again it was laughable, because she hadn't even remoted liked him in the beginning - apart from those few, silly moments where she thought he was simply a petty thief who had gone astray from the brightly lit path she herself surely followed. She'd stated herself how entirely she loathed him, and in turn, he couldn't feel anything for her but a childish sort of kinship.

But then, when she'd resisted his compulsion, tendrils of her own thoughts had snaked into his own, and he'd caught a glimpse of who she truly was for the first time - and it had bothered him.

Here was, perhaps, his complete opposite. Clever (admittedly they shared this trait), bright, warm, even to strangers, a girl who was fiercely loyal to those she deemed her friends, a girl who cared little for her own safety when those same friends were endangered. Sarcastic (again, a similarity), foul-mouthed, stubborn to the point of aggravation. Kind, charming - really, everything Candor was not.

But she was pained, in the same he was; broken, for the same reasons. And - though he hated to admit this - that was where his intrigue had begun. How was it that this girl acted so carefreely when she had endured suffering akin to his own?

From there, as she gradually allowed him to linger at her side and spoke to him as openly as she would any other trusted guild mate, that intrigue developed into something else... What, exactly, he couldn't say; it certainly wasn't love, but no longer did he only see her as a mere plaything, to be tossed aside when its usefulness had ceased.

And it infuriated him.

Yet he couldn't shake the feeling, despite his numerous and vigorous attempts to do so...

Candor blinked, dropping finally from his carelessly spun web of thoughts, and looked up at the familiar approaching figure.

Loke, looking no more worse-for-wear than he had upon leaving the guild several days ago, smiled weakly in greeting. Candor was aware of the wizard's dislike for him; it was just shy of mutual, as Candor couldn't quite bring himself to hate the man who had helped Winter when he had been so close to unraveling her mind. Unfortunately, Candor was also aware of how much additional strife his next words would cast between them.

"Need something, Candor?" Loke asked. He adjusted the strap of the pack he'd slung over one shoulder, looking mildly uncomfortable for having to be alone with the green-eyed mage.

"Not quite," the boy replied, pushing away from the wall to stand nearly toe-to-toe with Loke. He was several inches shorter, lither, with a less muscular build, and yet he wasn't deterred in the slightest as he rose on the tips of his toes so as to look Loke directly in the eye and said, "But I believe I have some information that might interest you."

He saw Loke's mouth quirk down into a wary frown, but he just as easily noted the glimmer of interest glittering behing the mage's tinted shades. "Alright, I'll bite. What is it? Did we get another sexy mage to join the guild while I was out?"

Another. He could easily have been speaking of practically any female member of Fairy Tail, but Candor was more keen to accept the obvious fact: He was referring, as subtly as he could manage and perhaps unconciously, to Winter.

"No," Candor said, taking increasingly malicious satisfaction from the way Loke's brow furrowed in further bemusement; he cleary had no idea why Candor had sought him out. Pressing closer to the mage, careful to allow his weight to lean pointedly into Loke, he said, "I'll apologize now, but it seems I was able to steal a certain girl's lips before you."

It took a moment for Candor's words to sink in, a moment more for the shock to register on Loke's slackened face.

"You... You what?"

"I kissed her," Candor answered plainly, showing little remorse but immense glee (however ill-gotten) for Loke's wholly stupefied expression. His flat-lined lips twisted into a smirk, reflecting the rippling emotions swimming in and out of his gaze. "I thought it was only fair to inform you that you were a step behind. Now," he said, gliding back, away from Loke, towards a hallway that shot away from the main room, "I have more important things to do than issue words of comfort to my valiant steed, so I'll wish you the best of luck and be off."

And off he went, without so much as a backward glance or a real word of farewell.

And Loke simply stared after him, much like Winter had after their previous encounter.

And Winter, held back by her loving author inside a closet not too far away, silently screamed obscenities in her head and wrestled futiley to escape her author's hold.

___________________________

...I have no regrets.

But I will say this: You guys know this doesn't affect the storyline of Celestial Heart at all, right?

(BUT NOW I'M CONSIDERING WINDOR AND YOU'RE NOT HELPING CAUSE I CAN'T EVEN THINK OF LOKExWINTER WITH ALL THIS WINDOR QUESTIONS BUT I LOVE YOU ALL ANYWAY)