"Oh, okay," Charles chuckled, somewhat relieved. He tried not to show the surprise he felt at Ran being more spacey than she had first appeared.
'Wow," he thought to himself. 'When I first saw her I thought she looked so together. I guess you never can tell...But then again, I haven't been all that mindful today, either.'

Directing his attention back to the conversation, he nodded his head in agreement. He scanned the room again, trying not to get caught up in the beauty of the landscape. His eyes narrowed upon a short man dressed in the green Menewsha Botanical Gardens uniform, standing by the large pond in the corner of the room. He gazed inattentively into the green, still water, which was covered by large textured leaves and delicate pink lotuses, just beginning to bloom. Alongside the pond stood a series of dark, cherry-colored trees, handsome and proud. The sharp angles of their naked branches contrasted with the rest of the florid scenery, giving them the appearance of soldiers standing on guard.

Taking care not to get his shoes stuck in the sharp stones, Charles walked through the gravel and approached the man by the pond.

Ran felt her blush darken from embarrassment. Charles probably thought it her to be a nut case after that little slip up. She couldn't believe that she had voiced the comment by accident. Glancing around, she sighed when she found the tree demon.

You'll give people a heart attack like that, she told him when she saw a few other butterflies had come to land on his arms, shoulders, and head.

I can't help that they like me, Gui said with a mischievous grin. He shook the butterflies off before floating off to catch up with Ran as she followed Charles. Are we going to play tag-along all day?

Aren't you curious about what they'll say about the seed? Ran asked, glancing at him. She could tell that he wanted to know more about the seed as well. She hung back to let Charles talk with the employee.

Charles turned around to see if Ran was still behind him, and he caught her staring off into the distance at a group of swallowtail butterflies, clustered in midair. They remained completely motionless for several moments, almost as if they had landed on some invisible surface. Confused, Charles examined the strange scene, and an equally bizarre idea popped into his head.

'Maybe she has psychic powers or something!' he thought. 'That would explain why she was so spacey.'
However, logic soon sank in like a wrought-iron anchor. The butterflies scattered, leaving the spot completely clear. Charles shook his head and laughed at himself.
'It was probably some social or survival ritual, like schooling fish,' he tried to convince himself.

Leaning over towards Ran, he commented casually, "that was pretty cool, wasn't it? I've never seen butterflies do that before."

Ran almost jumped as she turned to Charles. She released a nervous laugh and reached up a hand to rub the back of her neck. "Y-You saw that?" she asked with a slight stutter. If he asked for an explanation, she had no idea what she would tell him. She didn't think he would be prepared to learn that she was the guardian for a tree demon. This is your fault, she grumbled.

I wasn't trying to get caught, Gui muttered grumpily. Another plant caught his eye, and he floated over to it to better examine it.

Just try not to do it again, she thought with a mental sigh.

Charles jerked his head back in surprise. If what he had just witnessed was indeed a natural phenomenon, then Ran's jumpy reaction was certainly unwarranted. Suddenly, the notion that she was a psychic didn't seem so far-fetched. As hard as he tried to deny the thought and come up with another logical explanation instead, the tempting assumption that Ran was indeed psychic continued to creep into his mind like a veil of smoke, and he finally accepted it as the truth, or part of it, anyway. Perhaps it surprised him more that he would so quickly buy into something so illogical than did the concept itself of Ran being psychic. After his father left, Charles had surpressed his more creative side and attempted to embrace the logical, which his father referred to as "mankind's crowning glory".

He knew better than to press her for information; after all, Charles knew he wouldn't like to be harrassed by some stranger if he were the one with supernatural abilities. Instead, he nodded his head and replied, "yeah. I thought it was really awesome. Must be some social ritual that butterflies do, or something."

Charles glanced at the uniform-clad man standing in front of the pond and looked back at Ran.
"I think I'll ask him about the seed now. Do you want to come?"

Silently he wondered if his invitation could at all be construed as flirting. Jane's annoyed face assaulted his mind, and he winced with guilt. He hadn't meant anything with the gesture outside of mere friendliness, but if someone saw him and Ran at the gardens and told Jane...
'I hope she doesn't think of it the wrong way,' he thought to himself. Quickly, he pushed the thought away and concentrated on the lotus seed as he walked toward the employee.

"Y-Yeah, it must have been something like that," Ran stuttered, forcing a grin to her face. She didn't really know much about the social habits of butterflies, but at least Charles seemed to be believing that story all on his own. She was thankful that she didn't have to come up with an excuse on her own, because she wasn't entirely sure how she would have explained the odd phenomenon.

"I'll just wait over here," Ran answered with a more natural smile. She was in hearing range, so she could still learn more about the lotus seed as Charles talked to the employee. And I have to keep my eye on you, she thought, glancing over to the tree demon.

Gui pretended not to hear her as he settled down leaning against the trunk of a tree. Ran shook her head, wondering what he was up to now.

Charles stopped before the employee and let his hand dive into his pants pocket to draw out the baggie holding the lotus seed. It floated in the water, proudly glinting in the light of the overhanging lamps like a magnificent warship. The light reflected off of the seed's surface and hit the surface of the lotus pond, making a small portion of the water dance and sparkle. The blooming lotuses swayed gently, as if they too had been caught by the sudden desire to move and dance. Charles gazed in wonder at the gentle, delicate beauty of the pink lotuses, their petals gracefully unfurling to reveal a bright yellow patch of stamens.
'So this is what my seed will look like...if it grows' Charles thought to himself.

Sure enough, this shook the man out of his meditations, and he turned to face Charles with wide eyes.
"Eh? Was that you, son?"
His voice came out strained and thin, as if someone had squashed his windpipe long ago.
Charles chuckled in response, slightly embarassed that he had caught the employee's attention in such an ostentatious way. The employee drew closer to him, and his wide eyes moved from Charles' face to the seed inside his palm. Charles read the nametag that hung from his breast pocket: William.

"What've you got there?" William wheezed.
Charles shifted uncomfortably in his spot and pulled the bag back toward himself. He knew that he wanted to find out the truth behind his purchase from the antique store, but the way William covetously eyed the seed made Charles uncertain. He snuck a glance back at Ran.

'Well, it would be really inconsiderate of me to drag her all the way to this room, only to back out just because I don't like the way he looks,' he considered. He turned back to the employee and said, "Er, it's a lotus seed I bought yesterday. Do they usually look like this? Would you know?"

Ran watched the interaction between Charles and the employee. She tried to look as if she wasn't paying all that much attention to them, but she was curious to know what the employee would say about the seed.

She glanced back over at Gui, who appeared to be napping under the tree. You're not up to anything, are you? she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly at the tree demon.

Whatever would I be up to? Gui asked with a little smirk. I'm just absorbing the natural wonders of the gardens.

"Let me take a look at that," the employee breathed. In a manner that was decidedly less than ceremonious, he grabbed the plastic baggie from Charles' fingers and greedily devoured the seed with his eyes. Or at least it seemed that way to Charles.
"So uh, what do you think?" he asked nervously.

William turned the bag around with his fingers, carefully examining each side of the seed. The excited glow in his eyes faded, and he knit his brows in a tentative frown.
"I've never seen a seed glow like this before," he rasped. "I thought it was just the light. Hmmm."

Charles let his shoulders drop. The employee's lust for his lotus seed had just been his imagination after all. The look he had seen in William's eyes was merely excitement; perhaps at the fact that a young person was taking interest in botany.
He felt a small pinch of guilt for misreading the man's intentions.

"You know, I don't think this is a lotus seed. In fact, I don't think it's a seed at all, son."
He coughed into his free hand and returned the bag to Charles.
"I don't know where you bought it from, but you should ask for your money back. It looks like someone glazed a piece of wood with some nail polish. I'm really sorry, son."

Ran's brow knitted when she overheard what the employee told Charles. She glanced at the tree demon. It's not a seed? she asked him in confusion.

Gui had gotten up and floated over to Charles and the employee quicker than Ran had realized. They actually hire senile people like this? he demanded, giving the employee a scowl. He's blind if he can't see the life in that seed!

Humans probably aren't as in tune with nature as you, Ran pointed out with a sigh.

Dejected, Charles took the plastic bag and shoved it back into his pocket. He tried not to let his disappointment show as he thanked the employee and turned back to meet with Ran. William gazed after him sympathetically, for he had caught the faint tone of frustration in Charle's voice. He opened his mouth as if he was about to offer some sort of condolence, but a sudden, gripping shiver ran down his spine and cut off his vocal chords. He shook his head and muttered something inaudible.

As Charles approached Ran, he released a heavy sigh and prepared his face for an artificial grin. His thoughts were muddled in a mixture of anger, sorrow, and disappointment as he desperately tried to recall what stroke of idiocy had caused him to purchase the fake lotus seed the previous day.

"Maybe he's wrong," Ran suggested, offering a weak smile when Charles approached her. She couldn't really tell him that she knew the lotus seed wasn't a fake. Charles would want to know how she knew that, and she doubted he would believe her when she said that a tree demon had told her.

Aren't these people supposed to know a seed when they see it? Gui grumbled, glaring at the employee. It would be easy to leave him tied up in a tree or something. But he knew Ran was already mad with him for tripping the woman at the front desk.

"Haha, yeah," Charles laughed weakly. "Maybe."
He was glad that Ran was trying to cheer him up, and he gave her a half-hearted smile in thanks. He didn't want to bring himself to believe that the seed was real again, but at the same time he didn't have the heart to throw it away. Instead, the lotus seed remained stupidly tucked inside his pants pocket like some sort of cheap talisman.
'But this certainly wasn't cheap,' Charles thought to himself angrily.

"Hehe, can you believe I got this from some antique store for 800 gold? I wonder if I should go return it..."

Ran shrugged. "You never know," she said as she started walking. "Perhaps something will come from it." She offered a cryptic smile. When she had gotten the dead tree branch, she had felt silly for getting it. After all, in appearance, it was nothing more than dead tree branch. Even after hearing that it was possibly possessed, it had still surprised her when Gui first appeared.

- End RP -