Shadows of Morning

[Vivek]

Vivek was tempted to do some more berry fingerpainting when the elf didn't seem to mind overly (or didn't realize that there was berry juice smeared over his pale cheek, one of the two and Vivek didn't especially care which), but before he actually could the elf was going for his bag.

For a moment Vivek frowned at the sudden release of his hand, rather missing the feel of the other one so close... but he pushed the minor disappointment away, instead watching Ien as he checked for things. "Alrighty then." He said, looking absently towards the direction that they had come from, "Ponds not to far that way at all. More like a pond lake thing I suppose, since it's rather large."

He was tempted to reach out and capture the elf's hand again... but seeing as neither Misae nor Dylan had shown up it would probably be best to be able to give the bird a quick cuddle before sending him off again. Gods was he going to owe the poor things an apology. At least the others were perfectly capable of feeding themselves, though they would likely be bombarding him later for their fair share of the biscuits.

With a smile at the elf, he waved for Ien to follow him through the short stretch of undergrowth, making sure that he emerged from the trees at least a couple yards ahead of the smaller man. He just hoped that keeping his distance wouldn't insult the elf, though he supposed that his new companion would probably be able to figure out the reason fairly quickly, seeing as Misae was perched on top of his packs, looking utterly pissed off.

Vivek hurried forwards, setting the berries on the ground besides his packs before scooping up the indignant poof of golden feathers and spinning around on his toes, burying his face into the hawk's neck for a moment before pulling back. "I really am sorry for sending you away so much today. I'll make it up to you. Promise." He told the hawk, catching a few of his feathers in his teeth. Misae just growled at him for a moment, before muttering indignantly, "Promise?"

The hawk was just like anyone else, just like all of the other birds, and Vivek knew full well that Misae wanted to be appreciated, not treated like the scary sideshow... It was harder to do with Misae than all the other birds, since the hawk was the one most likely to be viewed as a danger by outsiders, "On my heart." Vivek answered, nuzzling the feathery bundle again before loosening his hold and letting the hawk jump up onto his shoulder. Sure, in most cases it wouldn't be safe to do so, but Misae wouldn't hurt him, "You go hunt up some breakfast now. I'll see you later."

The hawk snorted, glancing back at what Vivek presumed was Ien before snorting out, "Right then. You deal with the phobic human and the phobic hippocamp. I'll go kill small animals. Seeya!"Before launching upwards and flying in a direction away from where they had eaten breakfast.

There were a few feathers caught on Vivek's vest, which he pulled off and twirled in his fingers as he spun back around, eyes searching for Ien and hoping that being near the hawk hadn't scared the elf again.

[Ien]

After getting up, Vivek gestured for him too follow after. Confused, he did as he was showed but a rather empty feeling settled on his body. He couldn't quite figure it out, the fact that he was juggling so many things in his hand and trying to get them in his bag. The old forest elf flexed his fingers as they past under some bushes of undergrowth and tried to avoid touching any of it. When they arrived at wherever they were supposed to be, he saw the golden feathered creature sitting atop some bags and other assortments of things. He figured that they belonged to his companion.

His body shivered, his lips stuttering in their movements and his eyes closed for only a moment before opening once again. Ien had noticed the way Vivek nuzzled the bird's neck affectionately, only wishing he could do the same. Animals were truly beautiful that was made for the world and for others to enjoy. He knew his past shouldn't let him refrain from doing anything he wanted. It was tough to break through it. He had been so alone since then, only making aqquaintances with people for a short time. Either for traveling or business.

It wasn't possible for him to make friends for long. It seemed sort of...pointless, perhaps. There would always be a gnawing in the back of his consciousness but he learned long ago to ignore it. That would bring him almost certainly near to nothing in the rest of his days.

Ien took a few steps toward the other two, but only too soon the bird took flight and glided off. He retracted his hand and kept it tight to his chest. It was too late to keep trying...Just for now. He was determined to continue and try and get rid of his fear. He desired to be able to communicate with birds and dearly so. Seeing Vivek do so with so many other animals made his want grow larger.

Tears threatened to make it's way out, but he confidently kept it in before jogging up to the human. He noticed there were feathers stuck to his chest. He looked into Vivek's eyes, only wondering if he could keep one for himself. Pointing to them he asked, "Can I...Can I have one?"

[Vivek]

Vivek was pleasantly surprised to see that the elf was actually coming towards him, he had half expected Ien to still be cowering back where he had left the elf... though in retrospect that thought was rather mean. It wasn't like the smaller man was helpless or something. Vivek managed to keep both the surprise and the reaction from his eyes and smiled at the little cyan haired man, his grin widening at the question.

"Of course you can!" He said, holding out the feathers that had gotten stuck onto him. They really were pretty things, all golden like the rest of Misae, "It's not like he's short on them." Vivek added, tilting his head and letting his grin widen. He probably got at least a couple feathers randomly stuck places all the time. Tons of them when the birds were molting... especially if they were all molting at the same time. Gods they had a lot of feathers.

He let his eyes flicker over to the pond, and frowned. "I really do need to drag out Dylan. Misae wasn't having any luck with him, so he's probably feeling difficult today. Or was just ignoring the hawk."

Vivek glanced back towards Ien, remembering the mans obvious hunger earlier, and paused, letting a smile flicker over his face again, "If you want you can dig the biscuits out while I'm fetching him. They're in their own little pouch near the top of my pack" he pointed towards the largest of the packs he had with him... which albeit wasn't very big at all. Really, he wasn't worried about anything else the elf would find in there. Some clothes, a blanket, more food, some knives, lots of little vials of antiseptic and medicine and some needles... well the vials were breakable, but he didn't think that Ien would really be threatening them.

As he started moving towards the water, he paused, another thought occurring to him, and looked back, "If any of the little ones come back and start bothering you, just tell them to leave you alone and that I'll give them biscuit bits when I come back. God knows why they like them so much, but they do. They'll listen when you tell them to keep off, they tend to be good like that."

That taken care of, he kicked off his sandals before moving rapidly into the water, making a face as the cold liquid stuck his pants to his legs. Stupid water... oh well. He moved a bit more in, then dove as the water deepened, figuring he had at least a couple minutes to find Dylan before he had to come up for breath.

[Ien]

Ien inwardly cheered with happiness. Two fingers lightly grasping the bottom of the golden feather as he took out his journal and placed it between two of the pages. He closed it tight, making sure that it would stay there until the next time he checked for it. Grinning, he placed it back inside his bag and let it fall closed. He noticed Vivek's eyes look at the pond in a somewhat tired manner, mentioning a Misae and Dylan.

The human pointed to the piles of bags they had passed not too long ago, explaining to him where he had placed the biscuits. His stomach attempted to growl but he sucked it in and covered it with his arm, trying to hide his obvious hunger. He laughed nervously when Vivek commented about the airborne creatures like for the biscuits and nodded. Before there was any other exchanges of words, Vivek had already dived down into the water.

Sighing, he slowly walked over to the pile and knelt down, taking the very top bag. He took a peek inside and instantly saw what it held inside. The biscuits looked yummy and he shuddered with glee. The forest elf hadn't been able to digest any meals lately, only berries and fish he was able to catch every once in a while. Hopefully, Vivek would come back and maybe cook a meal.

His lips formed a straight line and his eyes closed and hands clasped together. "Thank you, oh great Deity! I was blessed." He murmured to himself.

A squeaky 'cheep' interrupted him, sounding rather curious. Scared, almost halfway to death, Ien turned his head towards the speaker, bewildered when he found it be another creature of the sky. Nearly jumping out of his pants, he scooted away from it just a wee bit.

The bird cocked its' head to the side and lightly flapped its wings and hopped toward Ien two steps and chirped.

"Uh..." There wasn't much that he could say. It was rather hard. The small creature was indeed cute and even...cuddly-looking. The little thing twittered as if to laugh at him and asked him again, taking more hops to the elf. His eyes widened, nearly pissing his pants. This wasn't good.

It chirped excitedly, fluttering its' tiny wings, when it saw the bag Ien held and opened and closed its beak over and over again.

"Ah, y-you want some...?" Ien asked hesitantly, reaching into the bag and pulling out the round food item, ripping of a few tiny pieces and tossed it in front of him. "Ah...Hah...."

[Vivek]

It, thank gods, didn't take Vivek long to find the hippocamp, whose fur was almost glowing silvery in the morning light that was shining into the lake. It had belatedly occurred to him that maybe he should have warned the smaller elf about the creature that he was getting ready to drag out of the pond... but it was too late now anyway.

He swam down, grabbing and handful of the equine's mane and yanking on it, earning himself a dirty look from Dylan, but at least the albino had stopped being difficult about this sort of thing lately. Vivek really had no idea how the horse managed to not starve in the wild. Sure, there were things to eat underwater too, but he had to have both types of food, not just one.

The hippocamp apparently was hungry, since instead of starting to complain he merely snorted in dissatisfaction, twisting around to launch up and under the young man, catching him so that Vivek could shift to actually be riding the horse as he launched out of the water, tail changing in mid-leap so that Dylan was able to land on all four hooves and start forging out of the water, Vivek still clinging to his back.

Luckily the blond had a good seat by the time that Dylan realized there was a person by Vivek's packs. The horse literally slid to a stop, ears flattened against his head as he started scrambling backwards, sputtering out, "It's-- Person-- Bad-- Vivek there's a human there! in a high pitched whiny.

Sighing, Vivek swung off and away from the horse, managing to land more or less solidly in the water (hey, at least he didn't fall on his ass) moving back towards the equine and grabbing for the horse's head. Dylan stopped his backwards movement when Vivek's hands hit him, drawing his head down so that the albino's head was butting into his chest. "Calm down." He ordered, slipping his hands down so that his arms were wrapped around Dylan's head. "I know he's there. He's safe. Promise."

The equine sputtered again, but he didn't move until Vivek released his head and added to the equine, "You really need to go eat." as he turned back around towards the elf. He was somewhat surprised to see a quite happy little Aviv ripping apart little pieces of biscuit... at least it seemed that the bird hadn't been a complete ditz and tried to cuddle with the elf. Maybe, at least Ien didn't look too traumatized...

Vivek pushed it from his mind, leaving Dylan to graze -- since the horse didn't seem to be heading towards the fruit -- and moving back towards the elf, pausing for a moment to lean down and run his fingers over Aviv's feathers before continuing and settling down on the ground near to the other man. He was still soaked, his clothes sticking to his wet frame, but the sun would take care of that.

[Ien]

Aviv twittered in delight and hopped around the pieces of bread and pecked at them. Ien couldn't help but smile at how cute the little thing was. It didn't seem too bad but..who knew right? Nn...Probably Vivek. He thought, gratefully, absent-mindedly munching on the rest of the biscuit. Every so seconds, he would toss a few crumbs for the creature to eat, making sure it stayed a good few feet away. He figured it could be possibly dangerous.

The forest elf looked back when he heard footsteps and...something else that was unfamiliar. Possibly hooves? He could see a hippocamp and Vivek walking towards him. The hippocamp didnt seem to happy to see him and frowned, wondering if it was scared of him. Or even wanted to attack. He shuddered at the thought and looked back down at the bird, trying to get his thoughts away. But it was chirping unhappily at him, wanting to eat more.

He let out a nervous laugh and stood up, grinding a big chunk and had all the small pieces fall to the ground. Maybe that'll last him a little longer. It was rather hard for him to figure out the gender of an animal, and Ien hoped he would be able to soon and assumed the creature that sat in front of him was a male. He blinked and glanced over to his side to see his companion sitting next to him soaking wet. Surprised, yet worried, he turned his whole body towards the human and got to his knees, looking him up and down.

"You're not going to just sit there...Are you?" the forest elf asked with fear that traced his voice. He poked the fabrics of Vivek's clothing, slightly taken aback by the sudden sound it made.

[Vivek]

Vivek was almost tempted to go ahead and shoo Aviv away, since it seemed fairly obvious that the tiny bird was making Ien nervous... that or reach over and attempt to cuddle away the unease. He didn't do either though, the first because he was somewhat delighted that the elf seemed to be getting confident enough to actually do something with the bird, the second because... well one he was still soaking wet and two most people didn't seem to talk all that well to him doing that.

Instead he reached out, tapping the rainbow colored bird with a finger. That earned him a squeak and a dirty look from Aviv as the tiny bird hopped away from his finger towards the crumbs that Ien had put onto the ground for him.

Vivek grinned, pulling his hand back and glancing over towards the elf, "Don't feed him too much, he's a glutton, so he'll probably keep eating til he's past full, but his stomach is vaguely proportional to his body."

At that Aviv squeaked out "I'm not a glutton!", but Vivek ignored him, mostly because that was when the elf moved. Vivek frowned at him for a moment, wondering what was wrong... then he realized what was probably the problem, and smiled, "No, I'm going to eat as well as sit here."

He reached over, grabbing a couple of berries before he continued, "It's not cold out, so I'm not going to get sick. If it was cold I'd probably change, or at least ditch the clothes until they dried, but there's really no use in dirtying two sets of clothing right now."

For a moment he just watched the elf, attempting to keep the amusement from playing over his face and not quite managing to keep it from his eyes, "Or were you worried about something else?" He asked, head tilting.

[Ien]

Ien couldn't help but laugh as he watched the communication between Vivek and Aviv played in front of him. The tiny bird was an absolute cute little thing and Vivek was pretty damn sexy. He blushed at the thought and turned his head away from the other man's wet frame, but still able to see inbetween the other. He gulped down a huge lump that made itself comfortable in his throat. Now that he noticed, Vivek had a built body, but not so much so. His clothes stuck to his body in such a...free way. The forest elf tried, and all but failed, to keep down the shiver.

Keeping his face opposite of Vivek, Ien nodded, hearing him. The bird seemed to object to his comment and squeaked. He giggled and smiled, looking at the tiny bird as it hopped back to the crumbs. It almost seemed to hold a spiteful aura towards Vivek and that only made the situation funnier. "No, I'm going to eat as well as sit here." Vivek told him.

Ien made a noise of acknowledgement before clearing his throat and watched as the taller man reached for some berries. Thinking for a moment, he grabbed a biscuit and tearing it in half and grabbed a half-handful of berries and smooshed it between them. Satisfied with his work he began to nibble at the edge. Taking a full bite, at first, would have everything break and fall to the ground. Mm...Jam~

However, the shorter forest elf couldn't enjoy all of it and choked, listening to the human openly comment about ditching his clothes. His face started to ripen to a dark pink, almost red. He managed to calm himself down after a few seconds and pounded his chest to make help; not even sure if that even works. "N-no...! Pfft, I was just...wondering whether you would catch a cold b-because I don't want to catch one," Ien stuttered pathetically. "Y-yeah, that's right."

[Vivek]

Vivek watched Ien out of the corner of his eye as he grabbed for a biscuit of his own, breaking pieces off of it to eat with the berries. He couldn't help wondering what the blush had been for... but whatever had caused it, the smaller man looked rather adorable because of it. The giggle that came afterwards almost made the elf even more cute, bringing a grin to Vivek's face that he couldn't quite hide.

It was odd how much you could tell about someone by the little things. Most people he knew -- which albeit wasn't many --wouldn't have actually taken the care to make a biscuit sandwich out of their breakfast, and that the elf had done so said something of how neat of a person he most likely was. For a moment Vivek wondered what exactly would bring someone like that out into the middle of absolutely nowhere... but the elf could be travelling somewhere and just not have mentioned it, he supposed.

When the elf choked his grin slipped, melting into concern as he set the biscuit down and turned to look fully at the smaller man, a little bit of worry on his face. For a moment he thought maybe the elf was actually choking -- damn, the biscuits weren't that tasteless, were they? --, after all he couldn't think of any other reason that the elf's face would suddenly be so brightly red. He hadn't said anything embarrassing that he could think of...

That the elf started to speak alleviated some of the concern, but Vivek still reached out, a bit of worry flashing over his face as he gently touched a hand to the side of the elf's face, and asked, "Are you alright?"

He was tempted to add that in the off-chance that the elf did get sick, he was fully capable of healing him, and if not was on good terms with most of the healing enclaves in his little route who doubtless had someone who could cure anything Vivek couldn't... but instead he simply held the elf's eyes with his amber ones, his mind running in circles trying to figure out what was wrong.

[Ien]

Ien could feel his worried gaze burning against his back and he could only worry and ignore it. It wasn't as if he was doing any of this on purpose, he just couldn't help it! Being around someone good-looking...He knew he was embarassing himself to no ends and was causing the other man unnecessary stress. His emotions started to get riled up, and frustration was the one that won out. Beads of sweat started to run down his face. I think too much...!

The older, forest elf didn't attempt to look back at Vivek and gripped the front of his shirt. But the human just had to touch his face. Ien flinched then, as Vivek grasped the sides of his face in his palms, his eyes looking right into the other man. He could feel his body beginning to lose balance and his hands roughly settled on the human's shoulders, tightening a grip on his wet clothes. The hands that touched his face were slightly chappy and dry, however, they were warm and kind of...inviting.

His lips parted ever-so-slightly, with his head tilted back the way it was, it was hard not to either. He could see Vivek's eyes searching his, for...something. Ien couldn't tell exactly what he was doing but it had begun making him uncomfortable. On impulse, the forest elf pushed away and scrambled a couple feet opposite of where Vivek sat. Right after he did so, though, he immediately regretted it.

Ien all but hoped his actions didn't offend the human. They were rather sensitive, he had heard...The smaller man looked up and gave him an apologetic look. "I...I..." His own hands attempted to reach back to Vivek, not knowing whether he wanted him back in his arms. The elf crumbled to the ground in hopelessness and lied there. For some reason, his body wasn't cooperating with him as usual.

Jince you, body. Why can't you help me in this situation...?

[Vivek]

Vivek frowned as the elf winced away, by this point utterly and completely confused. What was wrong? He glanced up a moment, wondering if maybe Misae or one of the other birds (after all Soyala hadn't met the elf yet so maybe could do it by accident) had decided to come back and was silently terrorizing the smaller man from above... But nope, there was no sign of any bird, his or otherwise, and it couldn't be Aviv, could it?

He was somewhat comforted as he looked back and felt the elfs hands alight on his vest, the feel of the cold fabric stretching against his skin as the smaller man gripped it making him shiver slightly... or maybe it wasn't just the fabric. His expression softened a bit as he looked down at Ien, worry still showing on his face, though some little part of his mind underneath of it was absolutely gleeful at that expression. If he hadn't been more focused on figuring out what had gone suddenly wrong, it would have been tempting to... well he wasn't sure at the moment but it would have been tempting to do something.

It took the blonde utterly by surprise when the elf so suddenly ripped away from his hands. He sat their frozen for a moment, amber eyes wide with utter confusion, before the elf fell.

When that happened he leap towards the spot, pulling the elf into his lap simply on instinct and wrapping his arms around the smaller man. On instantly retrospect it was probably a bad idea -- after all Ien had just run away from him, though not very far -- but by that point he already had hold of the elf and there was no way he was actually dropping him back down. Instead he shifted his arms, one hand stroking Ien's hair as he murmured, "It's alright. What's wrong?"

Probably not the best thing to do with most hominids, especially ones he hadn't known for even a day... but hell, it worked with the animals.

[Ien]

Ien couldn't help but feel bad when he saw Vivek's face contorted into sadness. He figured that the other man would be worried about him but...not enough to be taking it upon himself. They had only just met. His voice cracked when he tried to speak and cupped his palm over his throat. He could feel himself edging closer to the cliff of insanity and could feel the tears start to form. It stung like....a bee. Yes. A bee.

What surprised him the most, though, was when Vivek jumped towards him and embraced him. It almost made him crap himself, thinking he might be attacked out of the blue. But the human cooed soft, reassuring words to him and asked whether he was alright or not. His nose started to sting, now.

He wondered why this man was so touchy-feely and affectionate. Of course, he gets hugs and his butt groped all the time but Vivek didn't seem to be doing this because of desire. Well, it didn't seem like it to him at least. Ien shivered as he felt the other man's hand run through his cyan-colored hair, a small moan interupting his strayed thoughts.

The forest elf didn't want to jump to conclusions, however, he couldn't help think that he might've done this with anyone...Or with his animals. Humans are too affectionate too. The other half of his mind didn't seem to care or worry about that fact and wanted to reminisce in his warmth.

Ien paused...and continued to contemplate about what he was going to do and figured: Mnn...blargh. He didn't wait for another moment before wrapping his thinner arms around Vivek's neck and snuggled closer, ignoring but noticing the wetness that seeped through his clothes and touched the skin underneath.

[Vivek]

Vivek was still completely and utterly confused, especially when the smaller man didn't answer. It was one of those situations where it was tempting to keep asking, but even Vivek could figure out that such a thing probably wasn't the best idea...

His hand paused as he heard Ien's moan. In most cases the sound probably would have sent a shiver up his body... but at the moment his mind was more on the healer responsible side of his personality than, well, anything else. So instead of what it would usually do, the sound only worried him more. Not knowing what the hell was wrong was just making this worse. He was pretty positive the man wasn't sick. Pretty positive, there were some things that weren't obvious from the outside... Gods he hoped he hadn't jinxed something with his earlier thought that he could always take the elf to an enclave if he couldn't heal something...

It was somewhat comforting, though it did make him freeze in utter surprise for a moment, as the elf moved. Vivek shivered as more of the cold cloth of his vest was pressed again his skin, ignoring that the elf's arms also being around his neck may have had something to do with it. Not the right time for those observations, not at all.

Vivek shifted a little, one hand still playing through the elfs hair while the other wrapped around the Ien's middle -- not quite his waist, though close. Vivek really was more going for giving the elf a little more support to fall into if... well if he fell again. He still didn't know why the smaller man had fallen in the first place, and if it happened again this way he'd be able to catch him.

The blond tilted his head down, saying softly, "Want to tell me what's wrong?" He figured that way at least he could get some response out of the little elf, even if it was a no that would be better than nothing.

[Ien]

Ien groaned in irritation and felt Vivek shiver and nuzzled his nose against his neck. Then the human's arm encircled near his waist, seemingly wanting to keep him from falling again. He made a small noise of annoyance. Their eyes met again when Vivek tilted his head to get a closer look at his face, the elf figured. His icy blue eyes stared at the human's lips and subconsciously licked his own. He pushed against Vivek's body, hard. Because the other man's position wasn't exactly stable, due to the fact he was so caught up in being worried about him, Ien was able to have Vivek land on the ground with a thud.

His movements wobbly, the forest elf got on all fours, over the blonde's body (as much as he possibly could). "Stupid..." Ien muttured carelessly, leaning in to give Vivek a peck on the side of his neck. He flicked his tongue out and licked a stain of berry juice on the corner of the human's lips.

Oh my gawd...I think I lose. XD

[Vivek]

Vivek hadn't been exactly sure what had happened, one moment he had been looking down at the elf -- finally making eye contact again, which had calmed him a little since it didn't look like too much was wrong there -- and hoping that the smaller man was about to answer him... the next moment he had been toppled over onto the ground.

For a moment he just laid there, halfway between frozen and simply utterly confused as he stared up at the elf. When Ien muttered Vivek wasn't sure if the elf was refering to himself, or to Vivek. And either way he couldn't figure out exactly what it was that the elf could have been referring too... it had felt like he had pushed Vivek over on purpose, why would he have --

The blonde was lost enough in his frantic confusion that the kiss pressed against his neck took him utterly by surprised. If he hadn't already been still he would have frozen at that point. As it was he realized exactly how the elf was braced over him, and his entire face turned red. In a rather vague instant he realized that he had likely been trying to look for all the wrong reasons for whatever had been wrong with the elf, since now it didn't seem something was so wrong as... well... yeah.

He couldn't stop himself from moaning softly as the elf licked so close to his lips, a shiver tracing it's way down his spine. Without really even thinking -- he didn't really have time to think -- his arm snaked up, tangling itself in elf's hair as he twisted his head, tongue flicking out to trace over Ien's lower lip for a brief instant

[Ien]

Ien shivered in delight as the human's digits worked their way through his hair. The elf was practically frozen in his spot, panicking over what he had just done. The only thing that ran through his mind was a plan on how to get out of the situation he put himself in. Ohmigawd...! That too. However, it seemed as if Vivek was enjoying it, responding by licking his bottom lip for an instant. Ien mewled and pressed his upper body against his friend, who was lying on the ground under him.

[Vivek]

Vivek shivered again as the elf made another sound, eyes flickering closed for a moment, this probably wasn't the best thing to be doing but his mind was having trouble catching up with the rest of him and...

The feel of still wet clothing pressing into his chest did wonders for curing that, even though it was the elf who was doing it. Taking a deep breath, he shifted slightly so that he could more or less prop himself up on one hand, the other still tangled in Ien's hair. Sure, he was still technically under Ien, and this wasn't even close to sitting... but somehow it seemed a little less... less... oh hell might as well think it, it seemed a whole lot less sexual this way. Maybe because it gave it a little more normalcy again? Ha, normalcy.

Another moment and a bit more good sense was coming too him, he didn't release Ien's hair though, instead leaning his head down to nuzzle at the elf's ear as he said softly, "Probably not the smartest thing to start with a random stranger. You can't really know about anyone without having known them for more than a morning, and you're small enough that someone could hurt you fairly easily."

[Ien]

His eyes fluttered open and closed several times when his companion moved a bit from under him. But their position was still the same, pretty much. For a moment, Ien thought the human was going to run away for what he had done. Saddened, he focused his eyes on a spot on the grass they sat on. Contrary to his beliefs, Vivek only moved to make himself more comfortable.

A soft nuzzle replacing the kiss he recieved earlier, and instead on his lips, on his ear. Ien blushed, listening to the human's statement. It was so true. He didn't know what had gotten into him, but...it was very tempting and he gave in to that. He nodded and touched Vivek's hand, hesitantly prying away his fingers and laughed nervously. "Yeah. I don't know what happened." He scratched his right cheek bone, subconsciously, flustered. The forest elf got up and splayed a hand for him to take.

[Vivek]

Vivek loosened his hand as he felt the smaller man moving it, simply letting it drop down to help his other hold him up after it was free from Ien's strangely colored hair. He was rather relived that he had come to his senses when he had; there was absolutely no way he would have done anything to the elf... but anything else would have made this part of the situation horribly awkward and probably embarrassing -- infinitely more embarrassing at least -- for both of them. "Don't worry about it." He answered, accepting the hand that was offered, though mostly getting up himself. Last thing he wanted to do was send them both tumbling to the ground again.

One he was standing stable again he ran a hand through his hair, keeping his gaze centered on the elf's face. "Are you alright now?" Little things first, that was generally a good way of doing things.

He swung his head around as a small snicker sounded off to the side, hand hitting his forehead on impulse and he felt his face grow red. A moment later he was glaring at the small audience they had accumulated, which thankfully was only three, Aviv, Dylan, and... well apparently Soyala had appeared somewhere through all of that. She was giving him a look. The mothering look. The one that said he was going to have some explaining to do once the elf was out of earshot.

Instead of answering the look -- he really didn't want to deal with that right now, not when he really wasn't quite sure what had actually happened -- he glared at the two boys, who were the originators of the barely muffled giggles, "Don't you two say a word he growled out. That didn't seem to really help the situation, and worse, made it look like Soyala was going to say something. Vivek cut her off, tone changing, "I'll talk to you about it later." He said, making eye contact with the pale dove for a moment. Then she fluttered her wings in a shrug, simply hopping over to peck at the biscuit pieces that Aviv had left lying on the ground instead of answering.

[Ien]

The fact that Vivek did not rely on his strength got the elf sort of upset. He was a lot stronger than everybody thought he was, carrying around that axe helped toughened up his build too. It wasn't that noticeable but he had lean muscle...Ien puffed and the air he exhaled tickled his nose and tempted him to sneeze. He coughed to hide it and, miraculously, it worked as he sighed a breath of relief. Sneezing wasn't exactly something he disliked doing, but doing so in front of a newly aqquainted person seemed embarrassing to him.

When they both were standing face to face, so to speak, Vivek asked him if he was alright. For a moment, the shorter man theorized: he worries about other quite a lot, doesn't he?

Yeah, it took him a while to figure it out but Ien was glad, to an extent. Of course, he had met other humans as well, but not many as kind and sympathizing. He nodded in reply as he patted himself free of any smudges of dirt, bending over to check for anything else. As he looked down at his feet, the elf noticed something from the corner of his eye. Tilting his head up, he saw a few unfamiliar creatures in front of, excluding the bird he had fed earlier.

They were making snicker-like noises...almost in a teasing manner, their gaze focused on both of the men. He peeked over at Vivek who seemed to be arguing with the other bird that sat in front of them. He was rather oblivious to the fact that they were laughing at them. A light shade of pink seemed to powder from cheek to cheek as he realized why. He could hear Vivek speaking, but it didn't seem to aim towards him albeit one of the animals instead.

Ooh...I forgot. He's able to speak to them.

Ien cleared his throat as if to catch the human's attention, letting his feet harmlessly pat around the grass."Eh, ahem, Vivek." His voice was rather awkward. Laughing strainedly, he asked, "Do you know where I can dry my clothes?"