A Walk in the Park (Open to anyone)

[Tenchi Lui]

He was content today. The garden wasn’t overly populated and he found a nice spoke for his easel and paints. He had been sitting there a good three hours already painting what he thought was an exceptional view. The Seven Colored Gardens was probably one of the most prettiest places he had seen but he had never been out of the city either. Still, Tenchi appreciated the wide variety of colors that the flowers supplied. The only thing that he could do without is the clouds constantly moving. He was having a hard time painting the landscape when the sky didn’t want to hold it’s pose. He was half tempted to let it remain a solid color but his stubbornness prevented him from doing so.

When he finally got the sky to something satisfactory, he started putting the finer details of the garden itself. Focusing on the hedges and the blossoms tucked on top of it; he had been engrossed with the image in front of him until someone walked in front of his line of sight and seemed to stop right in front of him, their mind completely on something else to notice they were in his way. Tenchi waited as patient as he could for a good solid ten seconds (which was five seconds more than he normally would have) until he finally snapped.

”Do ya friggin’ mind?” He said loudly at the person, ”Some people tryin’ to see y’know?” Seriously, was it really that hard to just be conscious of other people?

He must have been a sight to see with his black tank top and jeans. His leather jacket was tossed on the ground beside him were a small bag of paint supplies sat.At some point earlier that day he had wiped his brow and smeared blue and green paint across his forehead.

[Tenchi Lui]

Most of the time when he snapped at people, they were quick to just walk away or ignore him. The fact that she bit back at him with a curt tone actually had him reel back with a raised brow. It wasn’t something he was used to unless he was dealing with the cops or something. In a roundabout way, she was telling him to adjust his tone when speaking with her before she moved to sit on a bench nearby. He had been sure that would have been the end of the discussion until she started to apologize to him.

”The hell? First y’ snap at me. Then y’ apologize. And then y’ask for my name? Ain’t you that should be apologizin’ on account of me bein’ a dick. Jus’ not right. And whaddaya mean nobles and gentlemen? Y'sayin' I ain't a gentleman or sumthin?” He shook his head in confusion. This girl… she was weird. Yep, no doubt about it. He looked to his painting and realized he had put paint in the wrong spot during his bewildered state. He growled for a moment before offering a name ”The name’s Tenchi.” He tried biting back the venom that he felt from messing up his painting, he was… sort of successful.

[Tenchi Lui]

”A princess….” He stared at her for a long time after hearing her claim and he tried to imagine the odds of him actually meeting a princess. ’Yeah right… girl’s crazy or sumthin’ He thought to himself with a strange smile crossing his expression. If she were a princess, why would she just suddenly blurt that fact out to just a stranger. What if he were some weirdo who decided to kidnap her and hold her for ransom or something? It just seemed so unlikely that he, Tenchi, would even run into an actual royal member. Hell, if he knew he was running into a royal member of some dynasty or whatever, he may have thought to put on a pair of clean slacks and not the ones he wore yesterday.

He leaned away from his painting when she suddenly was at his side and dabbed at the spot he had mistakenly put paint on the canvas. ’Uh… thanks..?” Who the hell goes around touching other people’s paintings? Hell, how did she know that it was a mistake anyway? It’s not like she had been watching him paint. Then again, it was fairly obvious that a dark blue smudge of paint on the green hedge of the painting didn’t match with the scenery in front of them.

When she commented about the beauty of the flowers and how it reminded her of the palace, he quirked a brow at her; aside from the initial outburst, the girl was fairly reserved in expression and held a certain amount of poise to her character. She complimented at his painting; at least, he thinks it was a compliment… it wasn’t a very straight forward one. No.. he was just plain confused, ”Not really, no.” He commented as he stared at the painting in front of him before giving a shrug, ”Ain’t no Michelangelo or Jackson Pollock. Jus’ hobby.”

[Tenchi Lui]

When she explained about her family’s ancestry the only response he could give was a lame ”Oh. He scratched the back of his head with the end of his paintbrush as he thought about it. If she was the new one in charge, didn’t’ that make her an empress rather than a princess? Bah, Tenchi didn’t’ know how these things worked, he never paid attention in school when he was in school, and then when he was expelled from school, he never learned these things on his own.

"Do you have any hobbies besides painting? I would love to hear about your other hobbies."

Tenchi stared at her rather blankly while the words processed. She was interested in learning more about him? That was… new, odd, and slightly uncomfortable. When was the last time anyone seemed remotely interested in learning anything about him, much less his hobbies? Well… since he can’t recall a person from before he was left with the answer of ‘never’. Not to his knowledge.

”Um…”[/i] Now she was waiting for a response from him and his brain racked for appropriate answers or answers that could be remotely interesting, something different than ’Beatin’ the crap outta jerks. Smokin’ outside old man’s shop… helpin’ run the shop though most times I just do nuttin’. Sewin’, NO.’ Nope… none of those seemed like a good idea to mention, not to him any.

What was tough sounding? Something that a man like him should be doing? ”I… rebuild motorcycles…” the thought came to him in that instant. He had a motorcycle but he hardly ever used it. He never worked on it either though. ”An’ I workout. This…” He waved at his painting in front of him, ”This ain’t nothin’. I dun even know why I’m doin’ it.”

[Tenchi Lui]

She was considering hiring him as a royal artist? Tenchi legitimately laughed at the idea. It had been awhile since he actually laughed but he did from the image that came to his mind. ”Seriously? Ain’t there like… a dress code or sumthin? Do I look like I belong in a royal court or hell… any type of household?” Clearly he knew what his imagine represented. He was dressed like a gang member most of the time and tried to play on that persona to keep people away from him. He stood up from the boulder he had been sitting on and picked up his jacket, tossing it on.

He shook his head. He could just imagine it. There he was dressed in pantaloons, pointy shoes, an embroidered vest, and a frumpy hat with a paint brush. His image of a royal artist was very narrow-minded and skewed since he didn’t know much of how people dressed in royal courts of today. ”And what does her royal highness do as a hobby?”[/color] He quirked a brow and wave a hand across the garden, ”Aside from standin’ in my way when paintin’, that is.”

[Tenchi Lui]

”A knight huh?” Knights were supposed to be chivalrous and kind and well spoken. All qualities that he was sorely lacking. The person in front of him clearly had trust issues; as in, she trusted far too easier. He decided to keep his opinion to himself. It didn’t really matter all that much. Besides, she could want him for as much as she wanted but it wasn’t like she could force him to be anything that he didn’t want to be. ”Fencing huh? I thought princesses just commanded other people to fight for them?” He actually had no idea what princesses did.

[Tenchi Lui]

Well, at least this princess had the common sense to know that she needed to learn how to defend herself from the evildoers on her own at some point. He had always assumed princesses and queens were all classic characters for damsels in distress. Then again, there was no telling if she was actually good at fencing and fencing only helped if you could just walk around carrying a sword of sorts. He doubted the police would appreciate seeing people walking around with weapons at their hips.

When she said that he looked like the type that would fight for others, Tenchi crossed his arms over his chest, ”I ain’t fought for nobody but myself. I dunno where ya got the impression I’m some… diamond in the rough or whatever, but let me warn ya, I got plenty of rap. Most people would be like… running away or sumthin two minutes ago.”

[Tenchi Lui]

Tenchi has never met royalty before or really paid much attention to anything regarding royalty but this girl was certainly weird. She knew he was dangerous to be friends with, admitted it in fact, and still she was going to ‘put her life on the line for that’. It didn’t make any sense at all. He just didn’t understand her. In fact, he was beginning to think this was one elaborate joke, a scheme, someone was trying to screw with his mind. He glanced away from her inviting smile and looked around the immediate area for any spies of some sort that might be finding the conversation interesting or someone to be lurking around waiting to pounce on him when he dropped his guard.

Her next set of questions threw him off completely and he felt a wave of embarrassment as his face flared in heat as the question processed, ”Wh-what? What the hell do ya need to know that kind of crap for? S’not your business anyway. I ain’t got crap goin’ for me.” Actually he stopped lacking interest in people when he was twelve years old. If he had any love interests it hadn’t been noticeable to him. That crap just wasn’t for him. People weren’t for him. He had other things to worry about.

”Y’know, people don’t normally go ‘round askin’ people they just met those things. Normally they…” He paused for thought and wondered how people normally got to know one another. Frick if he knew. ”Uh… ask about interests fall in with… movies… and whatever. Or something.” Now he was just confusing himself. Ugh…

[Tenchi Lui]

Cute? She thought he was cute? Someone was definitely screwing with him. No one called him cute. Hell, people thought he anything except cute. Punk, jerk, muscle head, metal head… when he was younger the descriptions were queer, flamer, weirdo, freak… never anything nice. Never handsome or cute or pretty or any other word that was actually halfway decent. ”Whatever…” Clearly the boy didn’t know a compliment when it struck him in the face and couldn’t accept such things. He began to gather his art supplies and stuffing them into the bag he had with him. He wasn’t going to be painting anymore.

When she asked about his parents and if they were treating him nicely, Tenchi simply shrugged his shoulders uncaringly, ”Ma died when I was like… five. Old man spends all his time in the shop so s’not like I see him much ‘less I help him out.” His dad went to work early in the morning and went to sleep at night so that he would be well rested the next day. His old man and him had the potential to spend time together on days the shop wasn’t opened but Tenchi always went out during those days to waste his time not at home. Much like today. ”Bet y’folks spoil ya like no one’s business. Royalty has money, right? Never been found wantin’, Prolly nice.”[/

[Tenchi Lui]

Both her parents were dead? ”Shit.. sorry.” Now he felt like crap about bringing it up. Actually she was the one that brought the topic up but anyone would have naturally would have returned the question when the topic was raised. When she apologized that his father died, he stared at her for a long period of time as he tried to process what she was talking about. After a moment he decided to re-clarify things, ”Nah, my old man is ‘live an’ kickin’. Ma was the one that died. Dun remember much ‘bout her since I was young so wouldn’t know if she loved me or not. S’pose she must have though, otherwise what was the point of keepin’ me?”

He plucked his canvas off the easel and held it up to look at it for a moment. He probably could add a lot more detail to the piece but… whatever. ”Here. Wanted me to make sumthin’ for the palace or sumthin’ right? Y’can jus’ take this one since y’seemed interested enough to ask about it.” Plus, the painting would have likely been tossed since it wasn’t his best work in the least. That and it meant he didn’t have to worry about carrying it home if she took it.

[Tenchi Lui]

”He makes shit.” Tenchi responded, not bothering to clean up his language even while in the presence of a princess. He wasn’t very self aware of his language for anyone around because he simply didn’t care enough about it. If people had a problem with the way he spoke then they would just stop speaking to him. Simple as that. ”Clothes and crap like that.” He clarified as his statement could have been processed as a wide variety of possibilities. His initial answer had been fairly vague. ”Jus’ don’t go tellin’ people I made that.” He pointed at the painting, ”Don’t need people botherin’ me ‘bout it.”

[Tenchi Lui]

”Uh… sumthin like that.” He wasn’t very famous. They typically only had regulars that came in. His old man might have become something greater if he strived to be but he was content to just stick to the small shop they had and take orders. He didn’t really advertise the store and depended solely on returning customers. Those customers were happy enough with his products that even the days Tenchi chased them away with his attitude didn’t prevent them from returning when his old man is back.

She said she’d keep who made the painting to herself and for that, Tenchi was thankful; however, the question that followed just confused him, ”Resent the law? I ain’t never said I resent the law. Hell, law is fine as it is, it’s people that are screwed up.” How often did cops just slack off on their job rather than uphold the law like they should? Enough times where Tenchi just didn’t care for the police anymore.

He gathered his things and tucked his easel under his arm, looking slightly awkward with all the supplies, ”A’right uh… princess Isolde” Is that how you’re supposed to properly address a princess? He didn’t know, it just felt awkward coming out of his mouth, ”It’s been real but I’mma jus’ head home. Light ain’t right no more so I dun need to stick around.”