Need a hundred lifetimes kinda love
The immediate lack of any reassurance from her is a definite tell. It doesn't tell him much, admittedly, not when she's just as liable to manufacture some ideas as she is to further enforce one's already there. Like a shark scenting blood in the water, Flora will always bite at the opportunity for dramatics, real or otherwise. In this case, he's unknowingly chummed the water, rousing her fin to the surface.
She reaches back into her pocket, and with all the tension of a police officer who sees the shape of a gun in ordinary objects, he watches her withdraw an extremely threatening...map. Oh.
His worry breaks instantly. He leans further forward off the rail, feeding into the risk of a trap to see this prize worthy of a tadaa. "What's this?" he wonders, plucking it from her hand with curiosity that's blown over all the potential risks without a care. It doesn't take long to puzzle it out, unrolling the scroll into the expanse of a map and marked paths, her explanation just behind the scan of his eyes over the paper.
Holding it unrolled between his two hands like an official proclamation about to be read off—hear ye, hear ye, Flora is the best—his gaze lifts over the top of the scroll to meet her. "What! Flo-ro, that's killer!!!" Excitement threads a hint of a laugh into the words, the sort born from joy too restless to wait to emerge after speaking. She never ceases to impress, always mindful of the smallest details that make the biggest difference in something.
His attention drops back to the page. He pivots faintly while holding it up more, spinning until he orients his view just right with the map's reading. Tracing a finger along the ink, he rests it along a line with a tap. "Okaaaaay, so we're about, here," he declares with another lift of his eyes over the page to her. "So according to this...you're amazing and we're gonna see some starwhales baby!" Releasing the bottom of the map so it rolls up like a tongue back into itself, he surges forward to squish her into a hug, mindful not to jostle the cocoa. The extra warmth from pressing against her is near instant, and with an exhale near her ear he murmurs, "I cannot believe you wanted to do this in Deepfrost."
She reaches back into her pocket, and with all the tension of a police officer who sees the shape of a gun in ordinary objects, he watches her withdraw an extremely threatening...map. Oh.
His worry breaks instantly. He leans further forward off the rail, feeding into the risk of a trap to see this prize worthy of a tadaa. "What's this?" he wonders, plucking it from her hand with curiosity that's blown over all the potential risks without a care. It doesn't take long to puzzle it out, unrolling the scroll into the expanse of a map and marked paths, her explanation just behind the scan of his eyes over the paper.
Holding it unrolled between his two hands like an official proclamation about to be read off—hear ye, hear ye, Flora is the best—his gaze lifts over the top of the scroll to meet her. "What! Flo-ro, that's killer!!!" Excitement threads a hint of a laugh into the words, the sort born from joy too restless to wait to emerge after speaking. She never ceases to impress, always mindful of the smallest details that make the biggest difference in something.
His attention drops back to the page. He pivots faintly while holding it up more, spinning until he orients his view just right with the map's reading. Tracing a finger along the ink, he rests it along a line with a tap. "Okaaaaay, so we're about, here," he declares with another lift of his eyes over the page to her. "So according to this...you're amazing and we're gonna see some starwhales baby!" Releasing the bottom of the map so it rolls up like a tongue back into itself, he surges forward to squish her into a hug, mindful not to jostle the cocoa. The extra warmth from pressing against her is near instant, and with an exhale near her ear he murmurs, "I cannot believe you wanted to do this in Deepfrost."
Kaisel
I could say forever, but forever ain't long enough
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
