.: The job of a Guardian was never really complete; always there was someone who needed help, and always was he glad to provide that help. Yet, in this instance, it seemed like someone had beaten him to the punch - or, rather, the climb. From a distance, he could see an unrecognised figure watched with concern as a girl adorned with a crimson muffler made her way up the trunk of a tree with the assistance of a ladder, reaching for a cat that had curled up on the edge of a branch. Given the situation, it was safe to assume that this girl had volunteered to help this wayward pet down - at least judging by the expression on the other’s face, she probably wasn’t trying to very indiscreetly steal a cat.
However, something bothered Chung about this situation… If not the risky winds, then the uneven footing the ladder stood on. Every time the girl in the scarf had moved, the ladder made very small and discrete movements, only visible if you were paying attention, slowly and slowly moving itself off-course. If left alone, that thing would topple, bring her crashing down… No, he couldn’t allow that!
His eyes narrowed as he set his own course, bounding through the thin crowd. He couldn’t waste a second, no matter how much he didn’t want to disturb others on the way. The girl reached out again, the ladder digging into the ground again. Her hands wound around the cat and her elevation finally slipped. Helplessly, she fell down, taking the feline with her…
…into the very-recently positioned arms of the Tactician. The cat leapt out of her grasp upon impact, and began to clean itself as if it had just plopped down from a small chair. Taking a moment to recover his breath, Chung then carefully let the girl down with a smile.
“Whew… That got a little riskier than I’d hoped. Are you alright? No bumps, cuts, things of the sort? That cat looked like it had some sharp claws on it,” he asked as fretfully as ever. He’d worry about picking up the ladder again in a moment.
More importantly, it was a relief -- the terror that spiked through her heart jumped up in her chest, up her throat, until it slowly began to die away into confusion. It wasn’t the sky she was staring up at, but the face of a -- boy, brows pinched together and face scrunched with worry. In the next moment she was on her feet again... and he was talking, saying something, but she didn’t have the capacity to guess what.
She’d been saved. Trying to be a hero, even in a small way -- and look where that had gotten her. The creaky ladder from the side of a derelict shed, the autumn wind that, even now, threatened to send the tree branch falling: she’d ignored all those things, stubborn in her focus to do something good. And she’d messed up, and she should’ve hit the ground...
... but she’d been saved.
‘T-t-thank you!’ There was something she should’ve said -- two minutes ago, now, and when it hit her, a rock sunk into the pit of her chest. Her voice was quick to die off. ‘I -- um -- I... I’m okay! Honest! I just... ah...’ She just -- what? Ayano gripped her elbows, then didn’t, then began spinning every which way, frantic in her search for something.
... it wasn’t like she could look him in the face.
'Where did -- oh. He’s okay... I’m so glad.’ There was the cat: preening a few feet away, totally and completely ungrateful. Its callousness drove home all the gratefulness in her words. ‘I’m... thank you, so much,’ she murmured, and finally, she turned in the boy’s direction...
And tried not to shift too much.
‘You were just in time,’ she told the ground.
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