Snippet #2627586

Zane's smile disappeared for a brief moment as his eyes opened wider upon being addressed by his friend Eevie, but it didn't last more than a second before his smile and the warm look in his eyes returned. He was still standing there with his hands behind his head as though he couldn't be more bored with the current wait for everyone to get settled in, but in all honesty he was feeling pretty great. Excitement, maybe? Zane gave the princess an answer to her poking fun at him almost immediately.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked her, bringing his hands down to meet his hips as he titled his head and raised an eyebrow, making him feign annoyance towards her as he looked down at the considerably shorter woman. "D'you know how hard it'd be to fight with a thing like that in my hands?!" Although his voice was raised slightly, he wasn't yelling at her, and he knew it wasn't perceived as such either. This was a usual interaction for the three of them; the princess and her two loyal bodyguards.

Before Eevie could throw one back at him, however, her attention was stolen away by the monkey Zane had had a brief encounter with earlier. He held up a hand in reply to the monkey's greeting of him, not batting an eye at being called 'Red-Head', as it was clear to him and everyone else who he must have been referring to.

"Yo, monkey-dude!" said Zane, a friendly tone in his voice. He let his hand drop back down to his side with a sway of its entire limb as their new monkey/man-like ally introduced himself. Sun Wukong was his name. Zane had thought he seemed pretty cool. Sun had an air of innocence and purity of the heart about him, and Zane liked people like that. They were the most fun to hang out with, after all. It was one of the reasons he was so taken with Eevie when they had first met. "The name's Zane Archaeus!" He said that with a thump on his chest with his fist upon being asked what Sun should call him and the various other people around him.

As everyone went on introducing themselves to Sun Wukong, Zane's eyes shifted to the demonic-looking creature walking toward them all, a few seconds behind Sun's arrival. Immediately, Zane moved toward her as if a moth drawn to a torch. Making her stop in her tracks almost immediately after she had joined everyone, Zane invaded her personal space by very rudely observing her features up close. His hand was holding his chin and he was shifting his weight around so that his eyes met a new level each second while he checked her out. He took a couple of audible sniffs at the air around her, making his already rude actions appear even more brazen. Finally, his eyes locked with hers and he moved his face very close to her own, an eyebrow raising suspiciously.

"Hmm," he pondered, rubbing his chin slightly. "You look pretty mean... But I don't sense anything off about you." Speaking honestly about how he saw this woman whose name he didn't even know, Zane leaned back once more, giving the poor girl back her space. A large smile appeared on his face and he said the first thing on his mind without a moment's hesitation to think about what it might have sounded like to the others. "Well, you smell hot, so it's all good!" Had Zane not been so very dense, he too likely would have stumbled over himself as surely many others who had caught what he said might have done, but the boy's thoughts were pure, although his choice of words made them seem otherwise. He had no idea who or what the woman in front of him was, but the moment he had sniffed the air she carried with her, that is to say: her scent, he picked up a strong relation to fire. The only word that came to mind in his thick skull had been 'hot', and so he used it without shame. Zane's utter obliviousness to how he was coming off to surrounding eyes and ears would be the reason of his misunderstanding the sharp feeling of a small hand meeting the back of his head with the force intended to beat discipline into his very being.

"Gah-!!" grunted Zane, his head instantly bowing in front of the demonic woman in front of him from the sheer force of the blow. He snapped back up and looked around, brow creased seriously as he held up a clenched fist and grit his teeth, trying to figure out who it was that did it. His eyes fell down on Eevie, who was now standing right in front of him with her hands placed on her hips as she scowled up at him like he did something unsavory. "What the hell was that for, Eevie?!" He was angry at being struck so suddenly as he rubbed the spot with his hand, but he knew she must have had a reason, and therefore didn't really feel all that upset about it. But still; the back of his head really stung...