Pancakes and Maple Syrup

"How am I supposed to know?!?!?" Matt yelled, throwing up her hands making Kumajiro swing from the hand that was clutching him, "My brother has one too, so maybe its just family related or some other dumb, stupid, grrr!" She glowered, lowering her hands and embracing Kumajiro. Even she thought it would be nice to know why a piece of her hair was her erogenous zone.

Jake raised an eyebrow at the girl's reaction, he also had to stop himself from laughing. Matthieu was cute when she got angry, mainly because she didn't seem like she was able to stay angry or shout for long periods of time, and the fact that she was as harmless as a fly to Jake. "Calm down will ya? It was just a question." Jake said while he thought of other things to say. "Have you ever tried cutting it off or something if you don't like people touching it?" Jake asked, curious about her answer, he guessed that Matthieu would freak out at the question.

Matthieu twitched. What kind of question was that? It was basically the same question when he asked her why she doesn't just clip back. Unbelievable, Matt thought, sighing, How could he even ask that?! She shook her head, closed her eyes and petted Kumajiro.

Jake raised an eyebrow as Matthieu shook her head, closed her eyes and petted her stuffed bear, "Right, bad question, sorry about that." Jake said sheepishly as he chuckled awkwardly. Jake felt a little stupid about his question now, cutting it off would be just as bad as clipping it.

Matthieu scoffed, I can’t believe him! She shook her head and sat on the ground, placing Kumajiro on her lap. She stroked his silky fur, and closed her eyes. A slight breeze blew strands her hair across her face and shifted the green grass around her with a quiet shuffling, the sunlight warming her and the area around her. She calmed quickly by these sensations. It’s been months since she had enjoyed her regular daylight activities, but now morning life was boring and the light caused her to be sleepy. Stupid nocturnal habits, she cursed in her head, I wish I could swim without my sunscreen washing off. She hung her head glumly.

Jake raised an eyebrow as the vampire sat on the ground and stroked the stuffed bear on her lap. Sunlight shone on the patch of grass that the two were standing on, it seemed like Matthieu was calmer thanks to the sunlight, weird. Jake sighed and sat on the ground, things were getting boring, he wondered what Matthieu would do to him if he touched her hair again. Probably best not to try, the vampire would kill him if he did. Well she would try but probably wouldn't succeed.

"Y'know," Matt said, "I miss being in the sun. Before I became this I used to always love being in the sun, now every time I go in it without sunscreen on it's a threat to my life. Cruel and unfair." She sighed, reminiscing on past memories. She thought for a moment, "Tell me, 'monsieur' Jake, if you had lost everything important to you in life, then what reason would there be to continue living as you do now?" She said with mild curiosity, wondering what his opinion was.

Jake tilted his head in curiosity as Matthieu spoke, she was being surprisingly open all of a sudden. The question didn't surprise him much, with what Matthieu was talking about it made sense that she would ask that question. "Well I can't say for sure since I haven't experienced that before, but I think I would just go off and find new things to do and new reasons to live in order to replace the things I lost. Just experiment with stuff, you never know if you like something until you try it." Jake answered, "Like your case right now, if you can't go in the sunlight without sunscreen then go out at night, gaze at the stars or something." Jake said, making an example to the vampire in case she didn't understand.

"I don't like being out at night, that's when most vampire hunters are out" Matt said, taking mental notes on what he said. In her mind most of the things she used to enjoy weren't easily replaced, like a family, and a normal life. And food, that too. She sighed, continuing to pet Kumajiro.

Jake shrugged, he wasn't going to suggest her learning how to fight again, she already made it clear that she wasn't interested in learning how to defend herself. "Try out art maybe? Learn how to paint? Those sound like good ways to spend time." Jake suggested, not really knowing enough about Matthieu to suggest a lot of things to her. "You could try out music too, there are music classes here if I remembered correctly."

"Hnn, I guess" Matt said, uninterested. She began fiddling with Kumajiro's ears with her hands, squishing and pulling on them. She shook out her wavy hair, watching it drift around in front of her eyes and sighed. She hated her hair, not only her ahoge, but the fact it is the same kind of hair her father has.

Jake started reconsidering poking Matthieu's hair again, just to get rid of the new found silence. Normally this wouldn't bother Jake but he was in an odd mood today, "Can I poke your hair again?" Jake suddenly asked Matthieu, just to see her reaction. Jake also prepared to run away just in case Matthieu tried to hit him again.

Matthieu stammered, blushing fiercely, "W-What?!" She blushed even more and hid her face in Kumajiro. "Whhyyyy?" she whined, sounding like a little kid whom didn't want to stop playing and take a bath or something. She rubbed her face in Kumajiro, wanting her blush to go away.

Jake laughed softly, the question was worth the risk indeed, Matthieu's reactions were so damn funny. "Sorry, sorry. I was bored and your reactions are priceless." Jake said through his laughter as he watched the girl hide her blushing face in her bear and rubbed her face on the stuffed bear. Jake wondered if he should use this opportunity to walk over and poke Matthieu's hair but decided to wait for her next reaction. She would probably get angry at his words.

"Pricelessly funny, or pricelessly cute?" Matt hissed, "You're such a pervert! Why would you touch it?" She looked up at him laughing with a sad, pouty look and pink cheeks. "You're so mean!" She kept complaining, throwing lame insults at him.

Jake's laugh reduced to chuckles as Matthieu hissed, "Both I guess." Jake said, answering Matthieu's hissed out question. He finally controlled his chuckles and stared at the blushing girl while she kept complaining. "Hey! I am not mean, I prefer to call it being playful." Jake said, mock offense obvious in his voice. "And I am not a pervert! I asked for permission if I could poke your hair." Jake said as if it justified his actions.

Matt pursed her lips, "Although that is true, I'm not sure I trust you touching it, every if my reactions are pricelessly cute and funny." She petted Kumajiro again, not sure if she should let him touch it again, even if it disgustingly felt good. Ew, She thought, Why would I let him touch it? Nobody else touches it, without a small consequence . . . but then again, if I wanted it to be fair he doesn't have one like me or my brother . . . Her blush slightly deepened, as she slightly growled. Al and her had and 'Ahoge Pulling War' or so Al called it.

Jake shrugged nonchalantly, "Doesn't matter, your reaction from me just asking you about it was good enough." Jake said as he laid down on the grass, hands behind his head and one leg crossed over the other. Jake yawned, purposely letting out a small stream of fire, simply because he had nothing else to do anymore. "Oops, that doesn't happen very often." Jake lied, wanting to see what Matthieu's reaction to his fire breath would be.

Fire? Matthieu looked at him curiously, That would be fun "So, what about your powers, huh?" She questioned, the corner of her mouth twitched a bit. "They obviously revolve around fire, non?" She petted Kumajiro contently, curious for his powers, but thinking of something mildly more interesting.

Jake looked curiously at Matthieu, odd, she seemed interested in him all of a sudden. "They don't revolve around fire, fire is just a side bonus." Jake said as he shifted slightly in the grass. "My powers are heavily combat-orientated, I have enhanced strength and speed, my senses are sharper than regular humans and my skin is harder than regular humans as well. Added to that, I can also grow claws and wings, both of those are harder than steel. Finally, as you've already seen, I can breathe fire." Jake explained as he sat up from his position on the grass.

" . . . mhmm . . . " Matt mumbled and nodded her head, lost in her thoughts, " . . . That's . . . nice . . ." She smirk slightly and bit her lip, luckily her fangs weren't out. Her hand idled a moment while petting Kumajiro, then continued. "Aha . . . ha . . . haa" She closed her eyes oddly happy, trying to stop her lips from curving up in a smile by biting down harder.

Jake raised an eyebrow at Matthieu's odd behavior. Shrugging, Jake decided to do something that he would never do had Matthieu been acting normal. He walked over to the vampire girl and poked her dangling strand of hair a couple of times before he backed away and waited for her reaction. Hopefully she doesn't try to kill me after this, Jake thought to himself.

Matt bit down hard on her lip, trying to not moan. But then she realized what happened. Face turning bright red, not only form the touch, but from the fact that she let Jake touch her ahoge . . . AGAIN! "W-Why?! Y-you're so m-mean . . . " She said in between light gasps, hiding her face after she flashed a glare at him.

Jake shrugged, "You were acting weird and I didn't know what to do so I just poked it." Jake explained to the blushing vampire, deciding that coming up with a lie about why he poked her hair again was too much trouble and wasn't worth it. "So why were you acting all weird just now?" Jake asked Matthieu, hoping to change the topic before she could come to her senses and kill him for touching her hair again.

"I-It was nothing!" Matt growled, "A-A boy shouldn't ask a girl what she was thinking, you know?" She said making up an excuse, I can think of what I want when I want to! She grunted frustrated, and turning around so that her back faced Jake. "Y-You really shouldn't touch it . . . It's unfair . . ." She threw random excuses at him.