[PRP] Resting Time [Ichta/G'ran + Naughty Children]

[Tsunake]

Slowly, uneasily, a smile pulled at his lips. He couldn't take back his words... but he didn't want to, either. Her thanks just earned an awkward, curt nod, hoping he hadn't upset her. NO. Elzebuth reassured him. You didn't.

"You are." G'ran said after a moment, a little more firmly. Please, trust him. He wasn't the sort of man to say these things just on a whim... or, you know, either.

Ah.... A good protector! Pretty Girl trilled at him quietly with approval, reaching out to groom his head and head knobs.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Oh! The brown flitter fussed as he was groomed, laying his head on his side and seeming to grump about the whole ordeal. But he held still never the less.

Ichta nodded at G'ran's insistence, squeezing his hand a little tighter, but simply remaining quiet for a while longer. He never said something he didn't fully intend, but...had he felt pressured because she had said something? It hadn't been her intention, at least.

"I wasn't fishing for you to say that," she finally admitted.

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

Pretty Girl didn't relent at all, scolding him in between careful licks. He could fuss all he wanted, but she was determined to make his hide shine!

"I didn't." He blurted out hastily, then looked chagrined. Shards, there was no one like Ichta to scramble his mind.... especially unintentionally. "I didn't." He said more quietly, giving her hand a quiet squeeze. She'd never made him do anything he didn't want to do. She'd been like that ever since he'd met her.

"You've only ever helped me." He muttered to himself, speaking his thoughts aloud.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

She had helped him? Shards, it had always felt like the other way around to Ichta, though she could scramble to imagine a few ways she could have been considered helpful in his eyes. He was so strong and capable that she just....

"I just did what I could because I love you-"

Ichta immediately slapped both hands over her mouth, cutting herself off and turning around in shock. SHARDS AND SHELLS.

Naughty Boy and Aurinkoth both jerked at the sudden alarm felt from the woman, and while Naughty Boy settled down almost immediately, he did complain. Aurinkoth, however, just sent his brother a wave of amusement. Wasn't his just so funny?

Tsunake

Whelp. Ichta decided to do that. I am not in control of the horse anymore.

 

[Tsunake]

Pretty Girl gave a squeak of alarm, nosing with worry at Naughty Boy even as he groused. Meanwhile, G'ran was staring at Ichta as though she'd grown another head, slowly tilting his head to the side. She.... loved... Loved? What even was love? Did she... Love? The big man just stared at her back for a long period of silence, attempting to sort through the overflow of information currently rushing through his brain.

Had he done something that was worthy of her... love?

Elzebuth cracked an eye open absently. You are you. That is more than enough for her.

G'ran took an awkward step forward, not knowing what to say. He always took so long with words, but this time... he didn't even think there would be words that fit with his feelings. Slowly, his arms wrapped around her, pulling her back against his chest while he buried his head into her hair.

She loved him.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

I messed up.

You didn't.

He's not saying anything, I messed up.

He's taking his time. I promise you didn't mess up.

Logical Ichta would have been making the exact points Aurinkoth was having to as she stood still, hands still touching her face, though they'd dropped to her chin, making her look more nervous (a perpetual look for her, really), than horrified by her sudden declaration. It wasn't that she didn't mean it, but....

She startled, just enough to jolt when he pulled her back against him, before relaxing and leaning her full weight against him with a sigh. It was nice, really. She even let the silence sit for a while before she opened that dumb mouth of hers again.

"I didn't mean to just throw that out like that. I mean...I didn't have better plans, but..." she trailed off, feeling a bit dumb for trying to explain it. ".......You questioned my kindness.....a long time ago. I.." how did she word this?

"I don't expect anything from you because of how I feel, you know."

Shards. She really was bad at words.

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

G'ran exhaled silently with relief when he felt her relax, nuzzling even more into her hair as though to claim it. "I know." He said quietly. "...Back then..." After more silence, he slowly pulled them towards her bed, still holding her in his arms as he took a seat. G'ran didn't look at her, staring vaguely elsewhere as he began to speak.

"In the mines, no one did anything.... just for the sake of it. Every favor.... everything had a cost. Before I knew you, I thought..." He shrugged silently. He thought it was the same here. The mines had been all he'd ever known--why would he think the outside world would be any different? "But you helped me. An uneducated idiot." G'ran huffed, smiling crookedly at himself.

"Now I know you're just a good person. ...There weren't many good people in the mines." A flashback of a man, shouting at him to go, the horrible groan of rocks caving in--and then eerie, utter stillness, ruined only by the copper tang of fresh blood. He'd been just a boy. A boy that someone had died for.

demon_pachabel

ShinosBee

whoops a mention of a thing

 

[demon_pachabel]

As he spoke, she pulled her legs up to rest her feet on the edge of her bed, leaning back into him and listening without judgement. She turned, looking up at him, even as he looked off elsewhere - some other time, even - and held back her desire to frown. His story wasn't good - not in explaining enough, but in that it was unpleasant. It left a sore place in her heart.

Her fingers brushed over his cheek when he called himself an idiot. "While the first is true, I've never thought the latter," she corrected gently. She couldn't think of anything he'd done that made her think he was an idiot - beyond nearly barreling into a fight between hatchlings and making her cry.

As for good people in the mines...."There is one less now that you're here with me."

Tsunake

 

[Tsunake]

"Hm." Knowing Ichta, she probably never had thought such a thing of him. Well, G'ran could certainly think of plenty of times he had been an idiot... but there wasn't any reason to bring it up now. He slowly twisted to look at her, the weight of those words sinking heavily in his mind. Good people... His arms tightened gently around her. How had he been so lucky as to found someone like Ichta?

"Maybe." He mumbled, leaning against those fingers as they found the stubble on his cheeks. "Hope so."

He wanted to be a good person, for her. Hell. He wanted to be everything he ever could, if that would make her happy.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Her hand stilled as he leaned into it, allowing her palm to rest against his face.

"I know so," she answered quietly with a smile - had she ever given him a reason to doubt her? Actually, if she thought about that long enough, she would have drummed up plenty of reasons he could have held. o-Oh...Oh, she was going to stop even considering worrying about that. Especially when life was seeming to good right then.

Ichta was very happy.

Tsunake

A wrap?