He listened with rapt attention to everything she said, every little note in her voice. The sweet highs and the soft lows, the excitement when she told him all these things he didn’t know, and the admiration for this strange guy of Taiga that had purple too, but not like theirs. And she showed him, too, her nose tap-tapping little places along his neck that made him want to reach for her and draw her closer. He only rolled the tingling from his shoulders instead, his smile broadening at her silent compliments over his splashy lavender, and ignoring comments of the other guy having purple kisses all over him.
Just how old was that guy, anyway?
Her bright-eyed gaze studied the water beneath them as they walked, eyeing the colorful fish flittering around. She watched them. And he watched her. Maybe it would always be that way. Ohhh, look at that one! Her foot tapped at the surface, startling a little blue one that took off to other parts. He smiled and nuzzled quietly at her shoulder, marveling at the feel of her soft skin and breathing in her scent as she wondered what it was like to swim like that too. With pretty scales like Amet, and gills, and fins. D’you wonder things like that, Khari?
Hmm, swimming is nice when it’s back on the island. I almost drowned once and Dad had to come save me. So way out here, swimming is a little more scary to me, he admitted, brushing an aimless little pattern on her other side with the knuckle of his wing. His lips grazed across her neck a little, drifting to tease at her hair like he loved to do, giving a slight tug as he asked what she wanted to do when they got there.
I don’t know. More of this. Walk. Talk. Breathe, look around, see what we see. Just be, you and me, just like this. What about you?
“Mmm,” he hummed, silently and aloud, rubbing his cheek into her before pulling back with a smile. Yes, that sounds perfect. Just be. Exactly what he wanted, but something he may never actually be able to have; just be. That place in the distance called to him again, where they’d gone yesterday, where some things wouldn’t matter. A place they couldn’t go, things he couldn’t do.
They probably shouldn’t race again, he supposed. Not with how it seemed to affect him to tumble with her. But a playful little glint shined in his eyes when he turned back to her. I know a game we can play on the way there. Close your eyes.