Maha‘oi [Mission]

6:25 PM. Kahului Airport on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The sky was still blue, with clouds dotting the sky, and the airplane was two hours late.

A woman waited at the baggage claim, her arms crossed impatiently as she glanced with her dark brown eyes at the crowds of people pouring into the floor. The all looked the same to her. Far too happy outsiders with stupid pineapple printed t-shirts and leis around their necks, as if coming onto the island without the proper attire was some sort of sick break to ritual. She knew better to be angry, though, after all the majority of Hawaii's revenue was from tourism - yet after a lifetime of putting up with people who saw them as strange beings from a different country rather than a different state had lost it's amusement a long, long time ago.

She was different though, clearly having lived here her whole life - with tan, creamy skin and slick, black hair pulled into a braided bun. This worker was a fairly attractive woman, and would've been much more appealing if it weren't for her stiff posture and outfit that kept most people from even glancing her way. She tapped her foot, gazing down at the small pictures in her hands of the kids she'd be looking for. Five of them were planned to have come originally, but she'd been alerted at the last minute that three of them had been pulled out for academic reasons. Less trouble for her, she supposed. She hoped they enjoyed their trip in the crowded coach area of the plane.

Thank God he was off of that flight. It hadn't taken Richard long to fight his way off of the plane and into the airport, not even wanting to know where he had left Verona. It was already one thing that they had been ditched by the other three people for this mission, but then he had to be here with her. How convenient. He didn't even know that she had signed up for the mission until they had left for the airport from Beata. At least now, they were off of the plane and they could finally get away from people, especially small children. That was the worst part was having to deal with the kids that were on the flight. The screaming and the constant talking. He was glad that he was able to block out a lot of the noise with earphones blasting music, but he also had to deal with Verona. He didn't speak to her much on the way to Hawaii, mainly because he had gotten so frustrated with her as soon as he saw her.

Oh whatever. Now they just had to find that lady. They had been told that someone was going to wait for them, but he had no idea what she was supposed to look like or where she might have been waiting. That and he still had to grab his luggage. Not even knowing if Vera was around or not, he quickly asked a question, mainly assuming that she was close by. "So where do you think our escort is?"

When she first heard about Hawaii it was a Monday morning. Verona had been stressed after a long night of cramming for a test. The brunette had slumped into class and had taken her normal seat in the middle of the classroom, because she liked being in the middle of all of the action, and with an exhausted yawn, the girl propped her head up lazily by her hand. Her eyes were just starting to close when she heard something that sparked her interest. Two kids, one boy and one girl were talking next to her. Their conversation had started out casual, asking if the other had studied for the test, when low and behold, the boy mentioned something about a trip to Hawaii.

Now, seeing as though her mom was full blooded Irish, Verona had been out of the country before to visit her mothers old home. But she had never been to Hawaii and it was no secrete that the island was gorgeous, so once again she was signed up for the mission before really realizing what she was doing... or who she was going with. Nearly a few days before they were set to go Verona had found out that Richard, of all people, was on the trip and naturally, she was devastated. But then it occurred to her, there were going to be three more people on this mission anyway and it was likely she wouldn't even spend much time with him.

Wrong. She had been waiting idly in the airport right by her plane's gate when it finally clicked that they were the only two that were going on this trip. Which started one of the longest airplane rides of her life. And to make matters worse, the two had sat next to each other all the way over there and he didn't seem to be too thrilled about constantly having to move so she could go pee or stand up or go talk to an extremely cute passenger...

But he seemed to be extraordinarily moody today, Verona noted bitterly as he darted off the plane without even waiting on her. I mean, how rude! Here she was in one of the most beautiful places in the world and he had to go and get all pissy. She grabbed her canvas bag and rolled her ear buds around her phone before hastily shoving the wad into her bag and shuffling off the plane and onto the terminal.

"Thank you so much for waiting," Verona hissed when she finally caught up with him and readjusted her bag on her shoulder. The girl pursed her lips and looked around, rolling her eyes at all of the people walking around mindlessly in those tacky khaki shorts and flowered shirts. Seriously, it was distasteful. "I don't know Dickie. I swear, if it turns out our escort bailed last minute..." Her voice trailed off as she spotted a window overlooking the surrounding scenery and without warning walked over and peeked outside. It sure was gorgeous.

"I couldn't stand the other passengers anymore. They were driving me insane..." he muttered before listening to what else she had to say. That would have been funny. Having the escort bail on them too. For the first time in a long time, a legitimate smile actually appeared on Richard's face. "Well, on the bright side, we'd have a free trip to Hawaii. Without an escort, we have nothing on the mission. If we can't do the mission, then we get to vacation... in Hawaii," He actually seemed pretty excited about that. It was a little strange, him being excited over something, but yeah. It made him happy to be away from that school. And if they didn't have to go into any dangerous situations, he'd totally go and relax on the beach. He needed a vacation, that was for sure.

As if to mock Richard, a woman pulled up behind the two of them with her back in her arms, rocking her gently and trying to get her child to settle down. It wasn't working, and the babes cries were loud and seemingly upsetting to everyone around them. There was another young man nearby, who couldn't have been older than thirteen, seemingly appreciating Verona's shirt.

Their escort, meanwhile, took one more glance down at her pictures before spotting finally spotting their faces in the crowd, as the rest grew more and more distant, searching for their own luggage. She happened to walk up at the perfect moment, just in time to hear the youngsters talking shit. She frowned, waiting a few feet away from Verona's side to let them finish before grabbing their attention. "Is that what you think you're here for? Vacation?" The agent cocked an eyebrow, finally stepping forward, getting a good look of them up close. She pulled out her two pictures again, making for certain she was addressing the right faces. "What you do with your time here is up to you, but I suggest you spend it wisely." She stuffed the pictures into her pocket, offering them a hand each. "Mr. Sanford, Miss Andrews, welcome to Hawaii. I trust your flight was pleasant." While her words seemed polite, there was a bland, almost sharp tone to them. "Grab your luggage. I'll be waiting outside. You'll be briefed on the way to the hotel." With that, she spun around without a second glance, leaving the building - the taps of her high-heels echoing.

Verona looked out the window, a canopy of palm trees lining the concrete lanes the airplanes took off from. Despite the airports close proximity to the beach, the Autumn couldn't get a good glimpse at the water. Maui did seem very pretty though, and she had been lost in thoughts of cosmos and beaches and sand when she looked over. A boy, the age of her younger brother was staring at her and it wasn't  her face he was staring at. The girl rolled her eyes at the boy, but instead of ignoring him Verona made eye contact with him, gave him a small little wave and winked at him.

She hadn't been listening to Richard really, he annoyed her too much, but her attention was brought back to reality when she heard a female's voice. The woman was pretty, in a rough and businesswoman kind of way. Maybe if she took her hair down, added a lip gloss and traded out her tacky shoes. Even her voice was drab and way to formal, but she demanded an air of authority and Verona respected that, although she did try to butt in and a comment a few times, but the women continued talking before she could even add a word in. And then she was gone and Verona stood there a little dumb-founded. "What was up her butt?" She remarked to no one in particular, but just because she felt it had to be said. But even though she thought this women was a total female dog, she followed direction, taking long strides over to the baggage claim. Immediately Verona identified an over sized bag as hers, but instead of grabbing it the girl turned to Richard. She cocked her head and batted her eyelashes before saying, "Dickie, do you mind getting my bag?" Her eyes were sparkling manipulatively and the smirk on her lips explained it all, Verona was turning on the charm just to get what she wanted. It seemed to work nearly every time.

At first, Richard couldn't help but slightly block out the voice of their escort. He was just joking around; why did she have to be so serious? He was sure she didn't want to be here, but dang. Next, he turned to find Vera already moving towards the luggage and he quickly followed, not really wanting to miss his own bag, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard her calling for him. She really wanted him to carry her bags? Was she crazy? If she couldn't carry it herself, why did she bring so much stuff? He really couldn't understand women. But then he saw his chance. He saw the look on her face. He could even feel that little bit of magic she was trying to work. He'd been trying really hard lately whenever he saw her to fight against that, and thankfully this time, she wasn't really trying too hard to get him to do anything. His expression suddenly lighting up, he gave her a quick smile before shrugging his shoulders. "Yeah, I can get that for you," he said almost too enthusiastically as he made his way to the belt that had all of the bags on it. Of course, hers had to be the largest. He patiently waited as the luggage went around the carousel, and as her bag finally passed by, he reached out for it, but he did so to where he moved annoyingly slow just so that his hand barely missed the bag as it went by again. He didn't even bother to chase it down. "Oh crap. I missed it. Too bad..." He looked at her with a smirk, his words just coated with sarcasm.

Verona's face lit up for a second, a smile parting her lips as she looked over at Dickie. For once she look appreciative seriously considering giving him a sincere thanks. And then he siked her out and Verona's face fell into a grumpy pout, her arms crossing angrily under her bust and her eyebrows furrowing. "Dick," She hissed at him as she rushed over to pick up her bag. The girl struggled to pull it off of the moving belt. Verona gave it one hard tug and it fell off the moving belt, but with it went Verona who stumbled backwards and nearly fell on her butt. Her fall was cushioned by a boy around the same age as her. His face wasn't particularly attractive and he smelled a little bit like corn dogs, but he had a very nice build and didn't seem to mind helping Verona up. And just as the boy opened his mouth to say anything more, Vera walked away, her head held high despite being seriously embarrassed. And just because she didn't feel like trying to be friendly anymore, Verona kept walking past Richard and over to the stiff woman at the car. Once more leaving him behind.

While that was meant to be an insult, all Richard could do was laugh at himself. He was pretty proud of that one and her reaction just made it better. Then watching her stumble all over herself after her back just made it hilarious, but at that point, he felt slightly bad for it. Just slightly, though. As soon as she shoved her way past him, he didn't feel anymore remorse. "You know you can't stay mad at me for long!" So now he was getting in a better mood. Which was good. They were in Hawaii, after all. Rolling his eyes at her one last time, he quickly followed her towards the woman with the stick up her butt.

Children. They really had to send children. Her office had requested to Professor Wright that they send a few teachers - or at least someone more experienced, but he had declined. Saying that this would simply be an investigation and that there had yet to be a readily available group of adults to serve in North America, so their options were very limited - and of course, the teachers themselves needed to stay in campus. Made things more simple for her, she told herself forlornly. The woman sighed a bit under her breath and nodded at the driver, who - with a quick click to the wheel, popped open the trunk for them to put their belongings in.

Climbing in, it was almost more of a limo than it was a large van. The two rows of seats in the back faced each other. She took care to sit on the side nearest the front, so she could easily signal the escort if need be. She would wait until the two of them were inside, seated and the door close, at which when the driver would bring the van to life and begin to drive off, away from the airport. "My name is Nalani Hale." She said simply, getting straight to the point, "Many people - tourists mostly - have been missing one by one these past few months. Nobody knows exactly what is happening to them. A few skeptic locals believe it might be the Mo'o - man-eating dragons of old legend, that is." She shrugged, "It could be anything, though. When we reach the hotel, we'll get you settled in and leave you to your work." She glanced at them, wondering if they had any questions at all. If not, that was fine with her. She wasn't much of a talker, anyways.

Verona didn't try to add to Richard's comments, but instead rolled her eyes and kept walking ahead of him. Until they reached the large van, which was not at all stylish but instead quite an eyesore. Verona stared mildly at the open trunk and then her glance flickered down to her bag. By now, she knew better than to ask Richard, but the bag was extremely heavy and it would take a whole lot of force to heave the bag up and into the trunk. The girl took a deep breath and using all her might she slung the bag up, but it didn't make it all the way into the trunk and only barely scraped the car. But she was determined, and after a few hard swings, Verona successfully landed the bag into the trunk and steadied herself before sliding into the large van and attempting to make herself comfortable.

The inside was nice and spacious, and Verona made sure left a good space between her and Richard before looking around the black exterior. She halfheartedly listened to the women as she briefed them on the situation and introduced herself. Verona caught onto the important stuff, Nalani, Mo'o, dragons, blah blah blah. But her mind was much more focused on all of the cool things that she could do in Hawaii. Like surfing for example, Verona had been surfing a few times with her family, her mother loved to surf, but it had been so long she wondered if she'd even be any good. Oh and swimming, and tanning, and drinking fruity beach drinks, jeez the beach was just great. And here she was in Hawaii, which was totally gorgeous but she had to find some creepy creature and worse be here with Dickie.

They arrived at the hotel at a reasonable time, and it was gorgeous. Right on the beach, lined with palm trees, dotted with surfboards, and tied together with a large and classy fountain. Verona smiled at the women and offered her a "Thanks~", before opening up the door, climbing out. She had popped open the trunk and was just about to grab her bag when an extremely tan doorman grabbed her bag and took it for her. Verona strolled up to the man at the counter and flashed him a small smile. "I'm here for my room key, Verona Andrews." She said, running her manicured nails on the marble counter and waiting for him to get her the key. Verona flashed an impatient glance towards the door, wondering if Dickie had kept up or not.

It almost pained him to watch her struggle so hard with her suitcase, but it was totally worth her carrying her own bags. If she thought it was too heavy, she should pack lighter. Carrying his own bag across the airport through the crowd, it didn't take him any time to pack his bag into the trunk before climbing into the van awkwardly, trying to keep the space between Vera and him. While it was a slight bore listening to the woman talk, he kept his ears open to keep the details. They'd definitely need that later if they were actually going to try to track this thing. But whenever she was done talking, Richard kept his mouth shut. Man-eating dragons? It sounded pretty self-explanatory. A little terrifying, but no questions needed to be asked. He really didn't want to believe it. Instead, he really wanted to try to stretch this out to get a little bit of vacationing out of it, but whatever. Work needed to be done, he guessed.

When they arrived at the hotel, Vera was already out of the van and walking through the doors by the time that he climbed out of the van. So now she carry-- nope. Someone else was carrying it for her. Of course. "Alright, wait up on me! I gotta grab my stuff..." he muttered as he grabbed his suitcase out of the back. Other employees offered to take it for him, but he got it. He was a big boy. As soon as he walked into the amazing hotel, he could already hear her asking about her room key. He quickly caught up with her at the desk and placed his things down for just a moment to catch the clerk's attention. "Aaanndd... I need the room key for Richard Sanford, please. If you don't mind," he said.

Nalani said nothing more as she watched the the two young ones climb out of the car at once with little more care about the matter. For a moment, she wondered if it was too late to send these two brats back to where they had come from, but she knew it wasn't in her power to do so. Holding back a sigh, she waved Verona's half-assed 'thanks' away and signaled for the driver to leave once they'd gotten their things.
More power to her sister, she supposed.

The clerk at the counter had held a hand up with a smile, motioning her to wait a moment as he finished up with a customer he was already dealing with on the phone. By the time he'd been able to hang up, Richard had found his way to the counter. "Alright, Miss Andrews." He looked to his computer screen, punching a few letters in. In front of him appeared the name and picture of the young woman for her reservation, but she wasn't the only one. "Accordimg to my records, you and Mr. Sanford are booked for the same room." He gave them a curious look before disappearing in the back room. The clerk reappeared a few moments later with two plastic cards with their names on them each. "Room 1420. Third floor. Signs should point you in the right direction. It also says here you have a five hundred dollar credit for hotel services." He held the cards out to them each with a grin, "Welcome to Hawaii. Please, enjoy your stay."

Verona ran a hand down the cool marble of the check-in counter, watching a family of four stumble in with matching sunburns. She was in a genuine, happy-go-lucky mood until she heard the next words of the clerk. "W-wait..." Verona said frantically, her eyes growing huge. She leaned into the counter. "There must be some mistake! This can't--just... no." The brunette looked helplessly up at the ceiling and turned back to look at the blonde boy, as if it was his fault they had to sleep in the same room. Wasn't this supposed to be a school trip anyway? Wasn't there some policy that girl's cant sleep in the same room as boys? Verona then thought back to her own roommate sleeping with a brunette chick. He was the headmaster son, so she supposed not after all. Still, this was definitely NOT cool.

After achieving a heavy loss, Verona shuffled over to the elevator and hit the button up to the third floor. Another overly tan man helped Verona heave her bag onto one of those cool rolling carts and after some reluctance, Verona offered to share the cart with Dickie. They were sharing a room, she figured she might as well try to get along with him at least a little bit. The cart took up most of the room in the elevator and Verona found herself a little closer than Richard than she found enjoyable. Verona held her breath as the door closed and the two started to be lifted up. "I swear Dickie, you better not try and pull anything because we have to share a room." The autumn said nonchalantly, staring blankly at the silver elevator doors in front of her.

When they finally reached their destination Verona eased out of the tight space and rolled down the halls looking left and right at ever room she passed until she found their room. She quickly pulled the key out of her purse and slid it into the lock, it's light flashing green and unlocking the door. Verona let the door swing open and quickly evaluated the room. It was beautiful, plush carpets and a large view looking out to the beach. On the wall to the left sat two full beds and Verona quickly claimed the bed with the best view of the beach. The girl collapsed onto her bed and let out a long sigh. Exhausted from dealing with Richard and jet lag, Verona quickly found herself wanting to sleep. But she wasn't going to. Verona pushed herself off of the bed and turned to look at Richard. "Since we have like, a week here. I'm going down to the beach. We can look for the monster later." Verona said, throwing down the file she had been given onto the bed carelessly and unzipping her suitcase. The girl closed and locked the bathroom door behind her.

Really, Verona only spent five minutes getting ready for the beach. It didn't take her long to change into her swimsuit and coverup and lather on a thin layer of sunscreen. Although she didn't get her back, she figured she would just get someone on the beach to do that because she did not want Richard touching her lower back... or her back, period. Verona slid open the bathroom door and quietly walked over to her suitcase. As she inspected the clothes that she had brought, she couldn't help but wish she had brought more covering pajamas. How was she supposed to know that she was going to be sharing a room with... him. "I'm going down." The girl announced, sliding her sunglasses up so that the held back a curtain of her wavy brown hair. She didn't know if Richard had planned to join her again at the beach and lingered for a second by the door.


edit: I am so sorry this is so long, I just got a little carried away.

Oh dear Lord. They had to share a room? What was the school thinking? That was... No, just no. He couldn't share a room with her. There was a reason they were in completely separate dorms back at Beata. Having a girl in the same room didn't really bother him so much since at least two of his three suite mates were girls, but it was Verona. But of course, before he could even really react, she was already taking off toward the elevators with her bags on a luggage cart. Grabbing his things again, he took off after her only to be a little surprised when she had offered him room for his own bags on the cart. Throwing them on the cart, he didn't say much, letting no remark replace a 'thanks' since most of what he had said today had just been snarky responses.

But that changed when the two had gotten onto the elevator and she said something about him trying to pull something since they were the only two in the room. Did she really think he was going to try? He disliked her just as much as she disliked him... unless she was just talking generally, but he couldn't really figure out what that meant. As long as he got his own bed, he was cool with the room sharing. "You really think I'm going to try something?" He asked before the doors to the elevator opened up to the floor they were staying on. Grabbing the cart again, he followed her out with an eye roll until she opened up the door to their room. He had to admit, the room looked amazing, but he was most excited to see two beds and not one. Hallelujah. Had there been one, he knew he would have been sleeping on the floor for the whole week. Throwing his bags on the yet unclaimed bed, he watched Verona run back and forth between her side and the bathroom before she came back out with a swimsuit on and the cover-up over top. He had to admit to himself that she knew how to pick outfits.

"Alright I'm coming," he told her, not even bothering to change. He was already wearing a pretty raggedy pair of cargo shorts and a simple t-shirt and he had plenty of clothes to change into if he even bothered to get into the water. He was so tired at this point, he honestly felt like staying inside with a book he had brought with him for the flight, but he wasn't able to focus on it. Now he could. Grabbing his sunglasses and that book, he was pretty much ready to go. "I'm good. If we're going, let's go," he said, walking past her out of the door.