Rain. The air was humid, grey. Kalia snagged her coat, heading out the worn door. The onslaught of senses - the subtle shifts in the raindrops - was both comforting and distracting. The familiar and coarse hum of city traffic brought a frown. Green eyes settled on the asphalt walkway, leaving half a dozen times to check the alleyway for unknown persons. Out of the street, she glanced to the left. In the haze of the rainshower, she made out a glow of red and yellow. She began towards it, maneuvering around slower pedestrians while she homed in on her target.

At least, until she felt her shoulder clipped. Stopping dead, Kalia's eyes flashed to the culprit that had managed to barely make physical contact. A taller boy, dark hair. White. Nothing special. "Watch where you're walking." she growled.

How bold of her. This was such a rarity, somebody who was seemingly unphased at all by Arel's presence. His eyes flickered towards her, a stoic expression concealing the immediate curiosity that sparked. His ears blocked out the city, and he looked into eyes that flashed against all the grey that was coating the world. So fierce. So...confident? His immediate reaction was to like her, but the aggressive reaction led him to believe she did not think so highly of him.

He didn't want to merely ignore her, so he twisted the upper half of his body and leaned in to be eye level with her. "Am I not supposed to walk here?"

Where she expected to be met with only a dismissive swear, Kalia found herself defensive. Half a step taken back, she felt raindrops pelting her skin. Each one, a little colder than the last in the tension. She met the offender's gaze, tiny whispers in the air letting her know the water in the air was at the ready should the need arise.

Standing her ground, she disregarded the pedestrians muttering irritation as they walked around the two. "These aren't your streets." she finally responded. Then paused, while she took in an idea of his clothes. They were... odd. "You're not from here." Kalia stated matter-of-factly, "Get off the street."

Arel snorted, seeing her nerve break for a moment before swelling up with her attitude all over again. He let himself smile a bit, a warm look filling his eyes, making the golds and browns in his eyes flash.

"Look at you, so quick to judge!" he chuckled lightly, "I think you should take time to at least ask questions, or risk making an ass of yourself." He perked his ears as he heard someone scream obscenities from a car, bringing his pleasant expression to a brief halt, before regaining his focus on the girl.

"Wouldn't want to have that now, would we?"

Kalia felt a flare of anger rush through her, the words almost as irritating as the condescending tone in which they were spoken. Here this guy was, an outsider to the territory, talking down to her like privileged white trash.

Straightening her posture, she stared him down. Who did he think he was, strutting about like he owned everyone here? Distantly, she felt the air pull in around her while water froze to her skin. "You don't fucking know me." she spat. Red and yellow sign forgotten, Kalia zeroed in on the self-entitled asshole in front of her.

Ice. Arel's eyebrows slipped upwards and he held his chin up, straightening his poster and turning his whole body to face the adolescent girl as she came unhinged in front of him. How curious, she displayed abilities.

He exhaled slowly and steadily, and as he did so, stripped all the air water within 5 feet of them clean of water particles. The pedestrians walking around them quickly darted their heads around, confused at the lack of rainfall in a specific spot, but Arel kept his posture, not letting them know for an instant he was the reason the area was dry.

"I do not believe I claimed to know you, although drawing the water from the air to your skin doesn't do much for remaining conspicuous now does it? Now I know more than most people I'm willing to bet."

He took a few steps back as to give her some space, and lightly bowed his head, not letting the pedestrians break the connection of their gaze.

Kalia studied the figure; the way he turned, his face shifting to adopt a new and even more condescending expression. In the course of a heartbeat, she had a sharper view of him. Blinking, she broke eye contact just long enough to steal a glance at the still-hazy neon lights of the restaurant only a block away. The whispers in the water had quieted, leaving an eerie silence in the monochrome scene.

At his words, she struggled not to glance at her skin. She had felt traces, not realizing she had pulled enough to be noticeable. Let alone strip the air of the rain. Her ears picked up a new tone among the pedestrians; questioning. In the distance, the sound of a siren threatened to draw her immediate attention. Face twisting into an odd disapproving look, she responded with an offhanded "You don't know anything. You just come down here from your fancy-ass hill house to gawk at the lower class." Regaining her stance, she kept a peripheral watch on the dwindling number of people around them. "Oh look at the little hoodrats, dear," she mocked in a false posh tone, "Look at their little hovels, how quaint. Oh that one has a little headwrap. He must be their president." Kalia waved a dismissive hand, returning to her original voice. "Bullshit. Get out of here before you figure out what it's really like."

He glanced around at the surrounding people that he was previously ignoring. "Is that really how you view your peers? I'm quite fond of the headwrap myself." He shifted his gaze back to Kalia with a cold glare. "And was that supposed to be a threat? I assure you that getting your skin wet is not going to make me tremble."

He walked to a streetlight off to Kalia's left, nimbly navigating through the people still slowing their pace over the dry air. He rocked back on his feet and let his back hit the pole.

"So empty threats and bitching forgotten on my part, what is your name?"

Mottled green eyes followed the figure as he moved, air shifting oddly to accommodate the change in location. Queer as it was, she couldn't sense any water at his feet to freeze his steps. She turned slowly, keeping the figure in front of her at all cost.

What relief she felt at the guy's apparent leaving was brought to a halt when he turned around to her again. She was again basked in the embrace of humid rainy air, the gentle inaudible whispers giving her a better grasp on how close others were to her. She spotted a darker figure to the side, sticking to the shadows. Watching.

Confidence rekindled, Kalia answered the question with a prompt "Fuck you."

Arel looked to where the girls eyes had diverted to, squinting briefly to focus on her eyes, then adjusting his head slightly to look into the dark area looming nearby. Damn, Arel thought to himself, I was too focused I didn't notice. His vision flickered back to the temperamental expression in front of him. He pondered for a moment, I'll just watch, see what they do.

"So, Fuck You, do you have somewhere to be or do you strictly emerge from your home hunting for people to wrongly judge?"

He expanded the range of the drought, covering a wider range now as to avoid as many people stopping to block his view.