Jigano set the bouquet on the kitchen table and nodded thanks as a knife was found and he was given some vegetables to cut up. It was... strange... to be preparing food beside someone. The fire was starting to crackle merrily and while the house was't yet warm there was an air of coziness to the moment that left him bemused as he began to slice more potatoes. Rory was a warm, solid presence beside him and Isuma was playing on the floor with her stick and he didn't know how to feel about something that he hadn't known since childhood. Moments like these happened to other people, not wanderers like him. Not heroes who had lived long enough to become villains.
But... maybe with Rory...
He glanced over as his friend started talking, seeing the shake in his hand and fighting the urge to cover that hand with his own. He wasn't used to these impulses, this warmth that filled him when they touched, but he knew the hunter had his pride as surely as Jigano himself did, and though he kept a surreptitious eye out to make sure the knife didn't slip he made himself focus on his own portion of the ingredients. Rory's words came slowly, the sweet voice gone rusty with disuse, but he listened closely all the same.
His mother was gone, then, or else the farm would still be hers. There would be other times to ask about that, but today was for brighter things - or at least, not-sad ones. There was enough sadness in Rory without bringing up painful memories when he had just begun to wake up again. He nodded in understanding, but let Rory speak at his own pace. He didn't follow when the blond man took the fruits of their labor - or rather, the vegetables of it - to the pot, but stayed where he was, slowly turning the knife over in his fingers as he looked from his friend to the gryphlet splayed out on the floor and ferociously chewing at her stick with fierce delight. "That sounds..." he might have said 'lonely' but the word felt too honest in that moment. "...quiet," he said gently instead. He set the knife down on the cutting board and moved to the table, leaning against the back of a chair as he watched the fire and the man in front of it. "I suppose the goats mostly take care of themselves? I counted three ponies when we were in the barn," he added, glancing fondly to Isuma. "Talys I already knew, and Esaia I met..." over Long Night, in darkness and the red light of luxere antlers, clinging to the pony's back as Amalia urged her towards the Settlement "but the third, a gelding I think? was new to me." His lips quirked into a wry smile. "Not that I know much about horses... I've always walked everywhere I needed to go. I barely know how to sit on a pony, much less ride one properly."
But... maybe with Rory...
He glanced over as his friend started talking, seeing the shake in his hand and fighting the urge to cover that hand with his own. He wasn't used to these impulses, this warmth that filled him when they touched, but he knew the hunter had his pride as surely as Jigano himself did, and though he kept a surreptitious eye out to make sure the knife didn't slip he made himself focus on his own portion of the ingredients. Rory's words came slowly, the sweet voice gone rusty with disuse, but he listened closely all the same.
His mother was gone, then, or else the farm would still be hers. There would be other times to ask about that, but today was for brighter things - or at least, not-sad ones. There was enough sadness in Rory without bringing up painful memories when he had just begun to wake up again. He nodded in understanding, but let Rory speak at his own pace. He didn't follow when the blond man took the fruits of their labor - or rather, the vegetables of it - to the pot, but stayed where he was, slowly turning the knife over in his fingers as he looked from his friend to the gryphlet splayed out on the floor and ferociously chewing at her stick with fierce delight. "That sounds..." he might have said 'lonely' but the word felt too honest in that moment. "...quiet," he said gently instead. He set the knife down on the cutting board and moved to the table, leaning against the back of a chair as he watched the fire and the man in front of it. "I suppose the goats mostly take care of themselves? I counted three ponies when we were in the barn," he added, glancing fondly to Isuma. "Talys I already knew, and Esaia I met..." over Long Night, in darkness and the red light of luxere antlers, clinging to the pony's back as Amalia urged her towards the Settlement "but the third, a gelding I think? was new to me." His lips quirked into a wry smile. "Not that I know much about horses... I've always walked everywhere I needed to go. I barely know how to sit on a pony, much less ride one properly."
