Collaborative Post: Crash, Koop, and Kathy
Crash glanced at Kathy as Mercy asked them if they were going to join in with the beach games, he was having trouble containing his excitement; a grin plastered on his face as he danced around Mercy and moved back over to the table. He raised an eyebrow at Kathy’s answer sinking back into his seat, a sly smile replacing his grin as he watched the color seep back into her face. “Sure am, I’m safest with you remember?” He reminded her with a wink, as she had answered Mercy first. It was a reasonable response. Crash saw Mercy roll her eyes at him before smiling at Kathy. “Great! See you guys soon!” And with that she had bounced over to a small gathering of students by the pool. Crash opened his mouth to say something when his stomach rudely interrupted him with a loud grumble; he felt his cheeks flush with color and his hand instantly shot up to rest on the back of his head as he grinned sheepishly. “Sounds like a plan” He said after a few moments, reaching for his spoon just as he brought it towards his face however he felt someone tap his shoulder. Seriously? He held the spoon suspended in mid air turning to look over his shoulder questioningly, though there wasn’t anyone there...Great now I look paranoid... Whilst Crash was looking the other way a tiny cream fluff ball had fluttered in front of him, completely visible to Kathy the creature stole the mouthful of cereal on Crash’s spoon before darting past and under the table just as Crash turned back around.
Watching the newcomer at the table, Kathy's first reaction was surprise, wondering who (perhaps even what) their visitor was. Then watching him(?) steal some of Crash's cereal right in front of her, she let out a small laugh. Meanwhile, Crash shrugged his shoulders returning his attention to the...empty spoon in front of him, his cheeks flushed with color as he instantly wondered whether he’d dropped it everywhere, his embarrassment apparent as he attempted to inconspicuously check the state of the table, no spillage...thankfully. She debated between telling him what had happened, or just continuing to watch in silence. The latter was easier to do and seemed more amusing, so she decided to let him ponder what had happened on his own for now. Without any words Crash dipped the spoon back into his bowl, this time something tapped his calf under the table his eyes flicked up to rest on Kathy raising his eyebrow at her questioningly. “What?” He asked, failing to keep himself from frowning at her especially as he received a harder kick though he couldn’t see her moving. Now it was Kathy's turn to be confused. Though she was aware that there was someone under the table, she did not know what was going on there and looked back at Crash with a brow slightly raised. She returned his question with one of her own and asked, "Something the matter?"
His frown deepened at Kathy’s question for a moment his expression indecisive as to whether he was amused or perplexed “You k-“ Crash jolted as the third kick came he was more than suspicious of foul play, so he ducked down to check under the table. At the same time the fluff ball from before shot back onto the table hopping over to Crash's bowl the red bobble on its head bobbing around madly as it crossed the table, waving at Kathy with a tiny paw before he proceeded to hover over the bowl and clear it in 3 seconds flat, shooting to hide behind Kathy as Crash sat upright again his hand on his head in utter confusion.
At this point Kathy figured it was time to let Crash know about the situation. "Hey, no hiding behind me." She laughed, turning to look at the small fluffy being behind her back. The moogle froze in alarm, the bobble on its head pinging straight up to resemble an upside down exclamation mark as she turned towards him, he cupped his paws together in front of him swaying his shoulders bashfully as rosy spheres appeared on his cheeks.Crash looked up at Kathy as she laughed his attention drawn to her words, he was hiding what now? He leant to the side so he could see what she was looking at, as his crimson eyes fell on the small ball of fluff an annoyed huff escaped his lips. "Great...should have known" He grumbled, leaning back again he picked up his empty bowl noticing the little baggage hadn't even left a single drop of milk. "Doesn't she feed you Koop?" He asked the fluff ball, not that Koop was paying him any mind as he was rather mesmerized by Kathy at this moment.
"Oh?" She asked, her brow rising slightly in surprise. "You know him? Er... Her?" Kathy didn't want to be rude, but she couldn't tell what Koop's gender was from looks alone.
Koop flapped his rather small purple wings swooping around Kathy to land on the table between the pair, he poked his tiny tongue out at Crash momentarily. "Well its referred to as a 'he' but who knows, this here is Koop he's like a really useful...thing Mercy keeps around" Crash explained rather vaguely. Hmm, I should probably know more about it than that... "Koop at your service ma'am, Kupo-po!" The creamy fluff ball exclaimed, flaring its bat like wings as it bounced closer to her holding out a small paw. Laughing lightly, Kathy took Koop's paw and gently shook it while greeting, "Nice to meet you Koop. I'm Kathy." Koop's mouth curved up into a smile as Kathy shook his paw, the rosy sphere's on his cheeks darkened as he retracted his hand.
Remembering that Crash's stomach had growled, she lifted her bowl up and set it down in front of him. "Here. You can have mine since you weren't even able to eat a bite of yours." Then turning to Koop she added with a smile, "No stealing this one Koop. Let's give him a chance to eat."
Crash touched the back of his neck a subtle pink tint entering his cheeks as Kathy placed her bowl in front of him. "I erm..." Crash stuttered forcing himself into a slight dilemna on the one hand he was rather hungry on the other he felt guilty. Koop's bobble drooped to one side as he listened to Kathy but he nodded his head in acceptance. "You're sure? You know I could always grab something later...you should finish this" Crash counteracted pushing the bowl back within her grasp, apparently guilt won out on that one. "Come on. We don't want to miss everything at the beach right?" Taking her spoon, she dipped it into the bowl and held a spoonful of cereal out to Crash. "Here. Open your mouth." She had a point, though as Crash looked at the spoon gripped in Kathy's hand he felt color seep into his cheeks, without his mind's approval he felt his mouth open on command. Seriously? Just like that?! The blush on his cheeks lost its subtly as it spread across his rather perplexed expression. Koop pawed at the unruly patch of fluff on his chest looking between the two of them with a rather bemused look...well as bemused as he physically could.
Kathy hadn't thought much about her actions, or that it could be a rather embarrassing scene to even watch, but seeing the blush spread across Crash's cheeks she began to feel rather self-conscious of herself. 'I-It's no big deal.. Right?' A slight blush began to spread across her cheeks as well, but she forced her hand steady and gently placed the spoon into her friend's mouth. "Now close, and swallow." She laughed a little after the words left her mouth, making her think about feeding a small child at the table.
Crash was currently watching Kathy rather than the spoon being guided into his mouth, so he saw the blush edge its way across her face which pretty much made things even worse for him. The cold metal had barely touched his tongue when her words reached his ears, he was pretty sure she could feel the heat coming off of his face at this point, why was he so flustered? He closed his mouth around the spoon as instructed and swallowed. "T-There. Wasn't so hard right?" Kathy asked, beginning to feel nervous again just from watching Crash get flustered. Quickly retracting her hand and putting the spoon back onto the table, she pushed the bowl towards him again. "I know you're hungry. I'm fine so... Eat. Unless you want me to keep feeding you like a small child." She added the last sentence while giving him a slightly funny look. Crash shook his head in answer to her first question, not trusting himself to speak as he felt his hand automatically lift to the back of his neck, his eyes dropping to look at the bowl as she pushed it towards him a second time. Ok shake this, don't think about it "If you're sure..." Crash murmured to her keeping his eyes downcast as he picked up the spoon, trying to ignore the fact he hadn't viewed that interesting interaction the same as her. With permission granted he quite happily demolished the bowl of cereal in front of him, of course maintaining perfect table manners whilst doing so. Holding the last spoonful Crash hesitated for a moment. "You want the last bite?" He queried, offering her the spoon although he held it at an angle so she could take it from him.
Koop during this time had become restless he flapped his tiny wings lifting off of the table, glancing from one to the other still rather perplexed about their odd behavior. "Beach now, Kupo-po?" He asked after a few moments, uncertain whether to interrupt he should have left them by now Mercy would probably want him back. Glancing at Koop, she nodded with a smile. "Soon." Turning back to Crash, she looked at the spoon he was offering. "Trying to return the favor?" She asked with a grin. Then reaching over, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and guided the spoon over to her mouth. Taking in the last spoonful, she let his hand go and chewed the cereal before swallowing it down.
Am I? Crash looked down at his hand briefly, it would appear he was though he wasn't quite prepared for Kathy's reaction or his own for that matter, feeling her warm fingers wrap around his wrist instantly made the hair on the back of his neck stand up like he'd been shocked. His eyes had drifted from his now white knuckles to rest on her face, which was probably not his best idea. The young shapeshifter dropped his eyes almost instantly, dropping his hand as she released his wrist his cheeks were by now practically the same shade as his hair, he pulled his hand back relaxing his grip on the metal implement as he placed it back into the bowl flexing his fingers trying to ignore the thin layer of sweat that had accumulated on his palms. "Thanks for that" He thanked her with a sheepish grin, just about managing to push the blush from his face. Looking a little perplexed at his thank you she asked, "For... Letting you feed me?" A moment later, a slight blush rose to her cheeks as she realized her mistake right after the words left her lips. "Ah..! S-Sorry, I just realized what you actually meant. No problem..." Burying her face in her hands, she wondered why she had even thought that in the first place. 'Of course he meant for the bowl of cereal! Why would you think of the other possibility first?!' Or not...Crash felt the blood rush back to his head almost instantly , he opened his mouth as if to respond to her question. What are you going to say to that?! Don't even... However he was luckily cut off by Kathy as she jumped to rectify the situation, lifting a hand to his forehead he ran his fingers into his fringe watching her bury her face in her hands, he felt he should say something to ease her embarrassment. "Well for both of those" He shrugged, of course the more he thought on it...Ah...that may not have been the smartest thing to say... Right on cue, Kathy's blush deepened a shade. She had her face hidden behind her hands so she didn't know if Crash could see, but she was hoping he couldn't.
He cleared his throat gently placing both of his hands on the table "Anyway, if we're...finished here maybe we should start heading to the beach?" He suggested standing up as he spoke, shaking his legs as if to get feeling back into them...he'd been sat still a rather long time, well a long time for him. Nodding, she slowly released her hands from her face and began to get up from the table. Looking at both Crash and Koop she replied, "Let's go then." She glanced back for a moment at the bowls on the table, but didn't see a place to put the dirty dishes. Figuring it would probably be cleaned up later, Kathy began to lead the way towards the beach. She faltered after a few steps, wondering if it would be good to take hold of Crash's wrist again but... 'I... Just don't think I can bring myself to do that right now.' She realized she was being obviously conscious, but she could not help herself. Koop practically shot after Kathy, almost flying into the back of her as she faltered being a nimble little beggar he swooped around her side halting in front of her. "I should return to Mistress, see you two soon Kupo-po!" With that he waved an enthusiastic paw at Kathy and spun away from them.
Arriving at the beach they could see that there was already quite an impressive crowd there. And... Unfortunately she also recognized a few faces from back at the bar. Instinctively, Kathy back off a little and hid behind Crash, realizing a moment later that she probably looked silly doing that.
After taking in the rather colorful arrangements ahead of him, Crash felt a small rush of excitement course through his body as that urge to run everywhere all at once resurfaced within him. Volleyball! Sea! Waves! Sand! Games!...................And calm? Crash shook his head trying to dislodge the strange thought train he had adopted upon arrival, he dug his hands into the pockets of his swim trunks trying to appear a lot calmer than he felt. He felt his eyebrow quirk up questioningly as Kathy slid behind him as if hiding from something...or maybe someone? Having completely bypassed the crowd before hand he dropped his eyes quickly in search of familiar faces. He felt himself groan audibly as his gaze settled on the brown haired student from the bar, he didn't blame Kathy for retreating. This did mean he was her human shield, he wasn't exactly the best shield against words though...