A long time coming

By this point Tatsuma was getting pretty used to searching for people using their bio electric auras as his tracking material. His sense of smell wasn't as sharp as other dragon slayers' and his hearing didn't quite pick up ultra sonic sounds, but his vision and ability to sense things like this made up for that. In this instance, he had decided to track down Kotone on his own. He had asked six or seven people to pass on his apology to her, but of the things he had done wrong, that was one of the higher ones in his sins. Kade would probably have disagreed about that, but he had thought about it, and the people that he had killed to defend the trio was well within the limits of human dignity. Even their boss was questionable at best and due to individual philosophies he didn't really feel bad about it, although Taiga had given him a pretty stern talking to about the matter, he didn't believe that the situation really merited much more than that. If he had killed with the original strike as intended it wouldn't have been an issue. Besides that, there had been more mages that seemed to have agreed with him than those that agreed with Kade and the ones that had agreed with Kade seemed to agree only insofar as to say that he should have stopped once their boss had been incapacitated.

He shook his head quickly to clear his thoughts of that whole situation. It was ancient history by now and the real issue that he himself had a problem with was his general treatment of other people as if they were all getting ready to stab him in the back and abandon him at a moment's notice. Such thoughts had driven him to be away very frequently from his guild mates and he hadn't been there to stop the shadow lord when he had begun the assault. The Tatsu back then may not have been able to do much about it, but the Tatsu right now sure as hell could have... maybe. He had been training, but the big break had been the mission he had done with Cerys, and he wanted to learn more before he went off to fight, though the time was drawing near.

As he neared Hosenka town he caught enough of a lock on Kotone's bio electric signature to finally track her down, and he hurried up to her position, hoping she wasn't going to be doing anything that was going to make his apology any harder than it already was. He didn't imagine that if he happened to track her to a spa or something that she was going to be very happy with his appearance.

Kotone had a lot on her mind as she leaned against a large shade tree, watching others walk by going about their daily business. She flipped her ponytail back over her shoulder, glancing momentarily at Sid. The small black cat actually snored beside her, completely unconcerned with his friend’s contemplative mood.

Kotone had recently discovered who she really was – or rather, who she would have been had she not been raised as Kotone Hoshino, Dragon Slayer. She was also Kotone Argon – daughter of Cornelius Argon and sister to Charlotte. Actually the bad news didn’t end there  - she was Kotone Argon, little sister of Charlotte.

Kotone had only talked to Nines and Charlotte so far. After discovering the news, she’d retreated here, trying to make sense of it all. In short, it probably wasn’t the best time for an all too familiar scent to pass her way. She didn’t even look in Tatsuma’s direction, instead closing her eyes and pulling her hands out of her jacket pockets, crossing them.

“Tatsuma,” she greeted simply, slowly opening her amber eyes. “What are you doing here?” She wasn’t exactly being warm, but in all honesty knowing Kotone he probably expected her to just wheel around and punch him after last time. “Bored of grabbing other women’s chests then?” This had probably been a bad time to be wearing her spaghetti-strapped tank top under her jacket and her short shorts she'd taken to wearing lately. Tatsuma had always had a habit of commenting on her more easily visible than normal chest.

Tatsu switched back to normal vision and looked at Kotone. She seemed pretty changed, although that might just have been the odd choice of clothing as of late.
"Six people and you would have thought one of them would have passed my apology on to you. Still, I'll have you know that A.) I tracked you here, and B.) I come here literally all the time. I get my clothes from here, I have a room here, I shop here, hell if I wasn't in Fairy Tail I'd probably live here. What about you, I know I'm the one that found you but why did I find you.. here?" He asked, noting the odd coincidence with an inflection of the word "here" at the end of his sentence. Wait he had said all of that but he hadn't actually apologized himself. He would have smacked himself on the forehead if he thought it wouldn't draw attention.
"Besides that.. I wanted to apologize for our last meeting anyway. A lot has happened and growing had to be done." He started as he took a seat at the bar.
"I mistreated friends, that's probably the only thing I've done I particularly regret as of late. Still, I wanted to get things set up, put in order, and tell you I was sorry for grabbing your chest. Plus I came here to talk instead of fight so.. progress?" He said, a downward inflection on the word "progress" as if he wasn't sure she'd agree. He didn't exactly have high hopes.

Kotone listened to Tatsuma talk, eventually leading to an apology. She’d actually been given the message by Verity, but like she’d told the girl, it only counted if Tatsuma apologized to her directly. What she’d left unsaid was even then she needed proof, and not just his words. That should be obvious though. Dumb as he was, Tatsuma was smart. Kotone never turned to directly look at him while he talked, keeping her arms crossed and her glare off to the side. She was obviously paying attention to him – she’d have an impossible time not listening to him with her hearing at this range.

“Apology accepted,” she decided, glancing more directly at Tatsuma. She even managed a very slight smile. She knew very well what growing as a person meant, and it seemed that she hadn’t been the only one. Too bad other circumstances already had her stressed, or she might have had a warmer reaction. Not a lot warmer, mind you. Warmth wasn’t a trait Kotone showed many people. Offhand, she could think of two. “That doesn’t put you off the hook, though.”

Kotone pushed herself off the tree, regaining her balance as she spun to face him. Her hands went back into her pockets. Her backpack and sword were actually at her house at the moment. “You’ve got to prove to me specifically you’ve made progress. I don’t let go of things easily, and this is me nodding to the fact we were friends.”

The smile disappeared, leaving her with her neutral expression she’d been wearing before. “As for what I’m doing here, this is my town.” Kotone shifted a bit, looking over her shoulder. “Notice how there’s no posts of any guild or council here?” she asked him. Her cocky grin spread across her face as she focused on him again. “I'm the reason you don't see someone moving in and setting up camp."

Tatsu listened to Kotone as she spoke. Whether she was aware of it or not she had verbal cues that she had, actually everybody did, the key was picking up on the less common ones. Truthfully he didn't know her well enough to pick up on the uncommon ones, but he caught the ones that were more common. Step one "were" friends. That meant she didn't consider him a friend anymore. Step 2 "You've got to prove" used in conjunction with "specifically" meant that she didn't trust him either. That meant their usual method of "communicating" was right out. It also meant he would have to watch what he said.
"Hey back when there was that whole guildless hunt debacle I was here pushing back the magic council." He said proudly. He really loved the town and even if she didn't trust him anymore, he still trusted her, after all she hadn't done anything wrong.
"Besides that, one of my homes away from home is a room here at the spa. The owner gave it to me after I kept them from getting accosted." He added. It was one of his favorite moments to look back on, plus now that his eyes had been opened so to speak. There was a lot to go with, but she was his last stop before he was off to meet his destiny.
"Enough about me though, how can I prove to you that I've changed?" He asked.

Continued on the new site for ease of exp counting and things http://fairytailrevolution.jcink.net/index.php?act=ST&f=59&t=132