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Sandcastles and Fireworks	By : DarklingWillow & BronxWench Category: +M through R > Neverwinter Nights Views: 1524 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: We do not own Neverwinter Nights, nor the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Chapter List
- 9
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- 11
Sand sucked in a quick breath when Satoshi touched him. “Sweet Seldarine,” he murmured, his fingers closing reflexively around the coins. He swallowed, and looked at Satoshi, his expression one of utter confusion. Then it cleared, and he smiled with grave courtesy.

“Very well.” Sand bowed his head. He waited until Satoshi looked away, and leaned over to murmur to Kansas. “I will hold the coins until I am able to speak with Miss Archer and Yuji. And perhaps Bronwen can confirm the coins hold little value other than the pleasure I could give by gifting them to you.”

Kansas gave Masato a gleeful, conspiratorial grin, and nodded his head hard, giving the elf a clumsy wink.

Vale looked nearly as eager as Kansas when Yuji mentioned the two museums. “Bronwen told us about those places, and I’m dying to see the art museum. I want to see the armor, and arms, and the old instruments. And maybe some mummies and statues. Sand will love the mummies, and just wait until he gets near bones and old dusty things. He’ll explode with happiness. He loves to go off and dig in ancient ruins, that one. I’m as likely to find him with spiderwebs in his hair and dirt on his nose as not,” he laughed. “Me, I’m strictly a city type. I love gardens and parks, but I’m not overly fond of deserts, and humid jungles.”

Yuji laughed in delight and held the elevator door while they waited for Satoshi, Kansas and Sand, and he nodded towards Satoshi. “He used to love camping and hiking and stuff like that. I’m much more of a city boy, really. Although, I do enjoy the occasional hike, I’d much rather stay in a cozy hotel and explore new cities,” he said, winking at Kansas when the other three joined them.

They got on the elevator, the elves letting the humans tell the lift operator the correct floor. Sand looked at the trap door in the ceiling.

“I don’t think you’re allowed to go up there,” Vale murmured, leaning in closer to Sand. “We can ask Bronwen how it works if you’re that interested.”

Kansas looked up when he heard Vale murmur to Sand, and with a wicked little grin on his lips, Kansas leaned a little closer to the raven elf and whispered, just loud enough for the rest of them to hear him. “They keep a troll at the top, and then it’s all pulleys and levers and really strong rope,” he said, pointing up to the trap door.

Sand’s eyes widened, and he looked at the trap door again. “A troll? Really? I would have thought the stench alone would have made that unlikely. But perhaps they sluice it down daily. Or thrice daily. The gods know, they are strong enough and mindless if they think they are pulling up their supper.”

“Hush,” Vale said. “I don’t think it’s trolls at all. Probably something gnomish. Lots of things here are starting to make me think of gnomes, and all their pulleys, and gears, and metal things.”

“A troll is not something to ignore, my sun. If it got loose, think of the havoc it would wreak, and the harm. It quite goes against the grain to let one live.” Sand frowned at the trap door. “It would take but a moment to get up there, and a moment longer to deal with the troll.”

“You can’t fire off spells here. I don’t think we’re supposed to use magic, and if you make this room fall, it’s not going to end well for anyone, especially if there is a troll, and it falls through the roof into this room,” Vale retorted. “If there even is a troll at all.”

Kansas let out a devilish little cackle, and that was enough to clear the confusion off Yuji and Satoshi’s faces, and Yuji cried out with a wave of his hands. “No, no, no, there’s no troll,” he said, and glared at Kansas for a second. “It’s all machines. There is no magic in this world. Except in movies. There’s absolutely nothing magical at all. Only humans, and machines and gears and mechanical things.”

“You know magic?” Satoshi asked unhelpfully, and stared at the raven elf with open awe, tinged with just a hint of unease.

“We both do,” Sand replied. “I am a wizard, and Vale is a sorcerer. Magic is quite natural on our world, although Bronwen has told us you do not use magic here, other than the sort of sleight of hand distractions mummers might use back home.”

“You see? No trolls, and no climbing up to see the workings, please. With our luck, you’d only find something worse than a troll up there.” Vale shook his head.

Sand gave Vale a long-suffering look. “I can look for a book about the workings if such things are to be had. I am told books are readily available here, which is quite pleasing. Perhaps we might find some on our ramblings.”

“Do not, if you value your sanity, let him loose near books,” Vale muttered. “We lose him in libraries all the time.”

“I am not lost,” Sand replied, his tone mild.

“All. The. Time.” Vale shook his head. “Are we at the right place yet?” He looked at the indicator, and then at Yuji to see if they had arrived wherever they were supposed to arrive.

“You could also just Google it,” Satoshi said with a small shrug of his shoulders, and glared at Kansas who gave that devilish cackle of his again and bounced out of the elevator the moment the doors opened on the ground floor.

Satoshi sighed and hurried off after the little imp, the two of them headed for the front desk to inquire about the tour packages for the museums, and to see where they could exchange their money.

“Satoshi is a bookworm too,” Yuji said with a warm smile, as he followed the elves out of the elevator. “I like to read for my entertainment, but I lack the patience that he has to read. Kansas likes to read sometimes. It all depends on his mood and how his week’s been going. If there’s a lot of school work, he doesn’t read a lot. But if he has time off, he likes to read story books. Willow sometimes writes him little short stories as incentive to get his school work done on time. Then he can’t read the story until he’s finished, so it does help a lot.”

“What is google? And do all your books have worms? Is that not dangerous?” Sand sounded eager as the questions tumbled out, until Vale shook his arm gently.

“One question at a time. You sound like an elfling, you do. And you’re a lost cause around books. You start reading, and you forget to eat, or sleep for days. You passed out in the library at home. You hadn’t moved in four days, and you passed out from lack of food. All you’d had was a cup of tea, and moonbeams.” Vale sighed.

Yuji laughed and fell in step beside Vale again, feeling strangely at home on the elf’s left side. “Google is an online search engine. I’ll let Satoshi and Kansas explain it to you. And a bookworm is a person who reads a lot. And I’m sure that reading for four days straight until you pass out from eating nothing but tea and moonbeams qualifies you as a bookworm. When we were younger, Satoshi could read up to three books at the same time. One on the train, one at school and one at home. It was crazy. But he did revive my love of books,” Yuji answered, more than happy to answer the flood of questions, but he was cut off when Kansas came bursting through the front doors of the hotel and yelled across the lobby.

“I found the car! Hurry up, or we’re leaving without you three. Come on, you’ve got to see this car!”

Sand’s face lit up and he gave Kansas a radiant smile. “Really? Now I am curious. What does this car look like? Is it very big, to hold us all?” He hurried over to catch up with Kansas and Satoshi.

Vale stayed beside Yuji, trying not to laugh at Sand. “I enjoy a book myself, but I can remember to eat, and sleep. Little things like that. But I’m going to have to quiz Satoshi and Kansas about this Google thing. Do you think this can use a Google?” Vale pulled out his smartphone, eyes wide. “It has something about Google things on it.”

Yuji laughed a little and held out his hand for the phone, so he could show the elf. “It does look like you’ve got an internet connection on this thing, not just wifi, so I’ll show you. I’m not the best with technology, to be honest, I forget my passwords at least twice a month, and get locked out of my phone around once every year. Usually because I’m drunk, but still no excuse, says Satoshi,” he said and poked at the phone when the elf handed it over. “Here, this is the web browser. And here’s Google. You just use this keyboard to type in any question you have, and then it’ll find all the relevant websites it can find, and you can look for the details you want.” Yuji handed back the phone with an English keyboard on display, and then grinned a little. “Just to start with something simple, try typing in, what is an elevator, and then you tap where it says ‘done’, I think, to get it to search.”

Kansas bounced in delight when Sand hurried up to him, and then he bounced out the door and down the sidewalk to where Satoshi was standing beside a beautiful car painted in dark thunder grey. A stocky man stood beside Satoshi, holding the back door open for them.

Satoshi’s cheeks were pink and he frowned at the youngster. “You’re so loud,” he said with a sigh, and Kansas shrugged as he climbed into the car.

“Who cares? Everyone here is loud, haven’t you noticed?” he retorted, and then cried out inside the car. “Wow, you’ve got to see this, it’s all made of leather and shit!”

Sand was somewhat more sceptical. “How does this car move? There are no horses, or other large beasts capable of moving it, so I presume there is a mechanical device. Does it use steam? And why are there restraints? Will we travel at such great speeds, or is it customary to imprison people in cars?”

To his credit, the stocky doorman from the hotel never changed expression. Sand waited for Satoshi to get into the car, so he could take the seat on the other side, putting Satoshi between himself and Kansas.

Vale grinned at Yuji. “I’m not quite as fascinated with elevators as Sand. But there are more than a few questions I wonder if this Google can answer. You know, in some places, this might be seen as magic. An oracle and seer in this tiny little thing? The gnomes would go mad for this. They’d have it in pieces in mere moments.” He was so absorbed in his smartphone that he nearly walked into the car, looking up only when he all but collided with the doorman. “Oh!” He stepped back, into Yuji’s arms, startled by the man’s silent presence.

Yuji purred hard when he suddenly had an armful of blond elf, and before he could even finish processing that thought, he wrapped his arms around Vale’s slender waist and pulled him close. “Careful, we won’t get far if you fall under the car, or walk into traffic,” he said, and keeping one arm around Vale’s waist, lifted his other hand up to gently tuck a lock of hair behind one pointed ear. But to Yuji’s surprise Vale’s ear did not look pointed like it had the night before. Now it looked just like any other human ear, albeit slightly more pointed at the top, and if Yuji was entirely honest with himself, it was the prettiest ear that Yuji had ever seen. Save perhaps for his baby daughter’s tiny ear. But then Yuji’s finger collided with the masked tip of Vale’s ear, and Yuji could clearly feel the silken skin under his fingertip as he accidentally slid his fingers down the elf’s ear as he tucked the lock of hair behind it.

“Sweets, what are you doing?!” Satoshi cried out as he slid past the raven elf to get into the car, Kansas’ feet sticking out over the back of the seat as he climbed into the back. “You can’t sit in the trunk, get back here,” Satoshi continued as he got up on his knees on the seat and tugged on Kansas’ leg.

“Le’ggo,” Kansas cried out and promptly fell down, head first behind the backseat, his voice filled with laughter as he scrambled to sit up. “There’s a seat back here. I’m sitting in the trunk!” he announced as his head popped up and he clapped his hands. “I’m calling dibs on the trunk seat. You can’t sit with me.”

“Tatsuya, really,” Satoshi said, switching to Japanese. Satoshi spoke a few words in a concerned tone, looking at Kansas with a very serious look.

Kansas retorted defiantly in Japanese, but then he blushed and deflated in the small seat in the back. He seemed to agree and asked what sounded like a question.

“Hai,” Satoshi said and sat down, scooting to the far side of the car to let Sand in. Satoshi pulled a water bottle out of his large bag and handed it to Kansas with gentle words, then turned back to his bag.

Kansas took the offered water bottle, and opened it to take a sip while Satoshi rummaged around in his satchel. A moment later Satoshi turned a little in the seat to shake a single tablet out of a plastic medicine bottle and hand it to the youngster in the back. Kansas stuck it in his mouth and swallowed it with a sip of water, then smiled at Satoshi. “Thank you,” he said in English and sat back, fastening his seat belt and looking out the window at the traffic.

Satoshi turned to offer Sand a small smile, his cheeks pink and his hands trembling just a tiny bit as he returned the medicine bottle to the bag.

Sand followed Satoshi into the middle bench.

Vale all but purred as Yuji wrapped his arms around Vale’s waist. And then, Yuji’s hand found Vale’s ear. The result was that Yuji’s hand found—and stroked—the sensitive edge, and Vale’s knees nearly buckled.

“Ah,” Vale managed. “Thank you for the rescue. Maybe it’s safer if I get in the car.” He gave Yuji a quick look, his cheeks faintly pink. “Um, where should I sit?”

“Your ears are warmer,” Yuji whispered, barely louder than a breath, and for some reason he could not fathom, he tightened his grip around Vale’s waist just a fraction, and let his fingers continue to trail down to the elf’s jaw. And for a moment, Yuji wanted nothing more than to possess this beautiful blond elf, to have him on his knees, begging to be allowed to please Yuji.

Yuji blushed furiously, let go of Vale and took a step back as he stammered. “Uhm, wherever you’d like, Vale-san. You can sit in the front with the driver, or in the back with the others. Maybe it’s better if you sit in the back. I’ll take the front,” he said, his hand running through his hair and fisting in the back, and Yuji looked like a shy teenager as he grinned a shaky grin at the elf.

Satoshi shot Sand another shy smile, but then he bent over his bag again, and as discreetly as he could he also swallowed a small pill, washing it down with a long swallow of water. Then he turned to the elf, and indicated the seat belt as he put it on himself. “This is a safety belt. It’s a precaution, really. In case there’s an accident, then the seat belts keep you safe. You put this part in here, until you hear a click. Then, when you want to get out, you just press here,” Satoshi said as he pointed to the button to release the seat belt, then pressed it to show the elf how it worked. “And it releases like that. It’s not to keep you prisoner. It’s just to keep you safe, while we drive. I mean, if you’re going at forty kilometers an hour, and hit someone who’s going just as fast, you’re receiving a force of eighty kilometers total. Even going that slow, you can get hurt.”

“Don’t scare the poor elf,” Kansas said quietly from the back, in English, and giggled. “He’s going to think that a car works the same way a cannon does, or something.”

“So, then, we will go very fast?” Sand ventured. He fastened his seat belt, imitating Satoshi. “At home, we might use horses for quick travel, or perhaps if one is permitted, the great eagles of my home city can fly much faster. I am not entirely sure how you measure distances here, but perhaps I can find a book which might help.”

Vale leaned into Yuji’s touch. He appeared not to register Yuji’s words, until Yuji released him and stepped back. “Um, yes, in the car,” he stammered. “I’ll sit behind you, since it might be better if you direct the driver to where we’re going. I mean, none of us know this city, but I barely know this world, so…” He trailed off, and clutched his smartphone. “I’ll get in now.”

Yuji bowed politely and then, feeling more awkward than he had since his teens, he reached for the backdoor, all but bumping the doorman out of the way, and held the door for Vale. “Please, Vale-san, allow me,” Yuji said, his voice half an octave higher than it was supposed to be. He held out his hand to help the elf into the backseat, his cheeks now flaming red, and his lungs had all but forgotten how to breathe from embarrassment.

“We probably won’t go very fast in the city,” Satoshi said, blushing a little as he realized that Sand would be sitting right next to him.

“You fly eagles in your home?” Kansas asked, leaning against the back of the seats, and sticking his head between the headrests, staring at the elf with eyes bright with curiosity.

Sand nodded to Kansas. “There is a special group of protectors who fly giant eagles. They patrol the area around my home city, which is located on the top of a mountain, in a valley. It is easier to see, on eagle-back. But most of us simply walk to where we need to be.” He looked around at all the cars passing their parked car. “There are so many cars. I cannot imagine we will be able to move at all.”

Vale took Yuji’s hand and slid into the middle row of seats, alongside Sand. “Thank you,” he murmured. “This is very exciting.”

“You must put on your safety belt, Vale.” Sand leaned over to show Vale how to operate the seat belt. “It will help you in case we should collide with another car, so we do not fall victim to the reciprocal forces, and wind up tossed like thistledown in the wind.”

The driver cleared his throat. “I can promise you, we won’t have any accidents, Mr. Iradil. I’m extremely careful, and most drivers are good about obeying the traffic laws, despite how chaotic it might look.”

Satoshi gave a comical snort and muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear him. “If you think this is a lot of cars, you should try driving in Tokyo. That would do your head in.”

Kansas giggled and waved at the driver. “Hi. I’m Kansas, what’s your name?”

Yuji bowed in apology to the doorman as he shut the rear door, and then slid into the front seat next to the driver, allowing the doorman to close the door for him. “Hello, my name is Yuji Hayashi. I do apologize for the little one, he’s just excited. Pleasure to meet you,” he said and bowed his head at the driver, then buckled up his seat belt and glanced into the back to check how Satoshi was doing.

The small smile that Satoshi gave him was enough for Yuji to tell that Satoshi had taken one of his anxiety pills, and somehow that made Yuji feel both sad and calm at the same time. He still checked the inside pocket of his jacket though, to make sure the paper bag that had been there since they left Tokyo was still there.

“Good morning, Mr Kansas. My name is Finn, and I’m Miss Bronwen’s driver. I’ll be your driver while you’re in town. Just let me know where you want to go, or what you want to see.” He nodded to Yuji as Yuji sat beside him. “There’s no need to apologize, Mr. Hayashi. This car is meant for being used, and Mr. Kansas didn’t do anything that damaged it at all.”

Vale looked out the window, past Satoshi, at the steady stream of cars passing them by. “Maybe driving is best left to others,” he said. “I like my head where it is, mostly.”

Yuji looked up at the driver and smiled warmly. “Oh, sorry, the plan was to start at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and then head to the Natural History Museum, I think. Or start there, and then go to the Metropolitan Museum, whichever one is more convenient. I’m afraid that none of us know our left from our right in this city, so we are counting on you, Mister Finn, to make our trip the easiest.”

A horn honked, and Vale turned his head fast enough to make it look like he would injure himself.

“It’s just traffic, Mr. Anorongil. Nothing to be concerned with.” Finn’s voice was calm. “Drivers use their horns to communicate, after a fashion. That was a rude comment on the car in front of him, who moved in front of his car without warning.”

Vale settled back in the seat. “Sorry, it sounded like a battle horn for a moment.”

“We are on vacation, my sun. No need to worry here,” Sand said, and looked out the car window. “Are we there yet?”
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Sandcastles and Fireworks