Northstar Vale blood in the cut [m]

He gave a stiff nod. of course it matters to me. WHy wouldn't it matter to me.

He wasn't sure what to say what to do. I like you. I think your friendly and your funny and your sweet. Are we friends absolutely, do i wonder if we can be more also absolutely, but relationships take time, and I don't wish to push or prattle or any of teh above, but I also do not want you to think that I would callously throw my body at whomever asks me for it, come spring. I'm not built that way. Do other's do it, yes. But I don't.

He sighed, brain working into overdrive. Anxious. Irritated, but he had told her hadn't he. He was a plain speaker. It caused less issues.

There was a sag of her shoulders—the words he had avoided avidly before now spoken and placed between the two of them. So it hadn’t been her imagination.

Honeyed eyes stung—that familiar burning that she was about to cry because she felt like she was in an argument. Juvenile—annoying. It usually only happened with those she cared for deeply and she released a shaky breath. 

You say that now, Reyson. I don’t doubt you mean everything you say. Just as I’m sure everyone I have ever known has only ever had the best intentions. But then they were gone. Or something better came along. 

What about Mereo? Your tour? Whatever other plans your Imperator has in store for you? She paused exhaling sharply, glaring upward to him—he was so damn tall it was even starting to hurt her neck. What if we explored this a dainty paw lifted, gesturing between them And it doesn’t work?

Too late he realized his words were ill received, and he waited for the inevitable let down, that would follow. He gazed at her with ice blue eyes, waiting. To listen.

What about Mereo? With my tour I become Elitus, which gives me leave to ask for a family, a mate if i want one. As for Imperator, he makes decisions yes, but he is not an unfair man, and he was, no he is a family man. he still has children. He would not forget that.

He sucked in a breath at her next words. So that was where this was. She was afraid. That he would leave, that it wouldn't work.

Reyson studied her. Then it wouldn't work, and it would hurt. But I have hurt before. But Meadow, the decision is now up to you. I have already told you what I had dreams for. I cannot make you believe me, and I cannot tell the future, and if you'd rather we stayed friends. Fine. But I think it would be a mistake, unless I am misreading everything. And I would do my best to prove you wrong every chance I had.

In a world of little choice, Meadow has now placed with one that felt almost impossible. It was an easier route, she surmised, to simply decline him in the most polite way possible and then slink off to Epoch where she could adopt a bunch of little critters and become known as the crazy critter lady.

Or she could take a leap of faith, and go for the hard route—the one where she would try to blindly trust a man who had truly come into her life with the force of a maelstrom in the likes she had never before experienced.

But no, Meadow was determined right then and there that what she wished to do, was dip a toe in the figurative waters. She could not jump in head first— would he hold that against her? And she felt the flutter in her chest—a demand, then, from the man before her, her eyes alight with a stubborn fire. “Court me, then, Reyson. Casually. Please, prove me wrong at every chance you have.”

Reyson felt unfair and a bit like a bully. In his defense he hadn't meant to speak of this yet. Had wanted to do just what she asked and court her as politely and kindly as he could. But she had a insufferably cute habit of pulling form him the deepest desires of his world.

She looked up at him with a fierce expression and he found her ultimatum pleasing.

Reyson eyed her and nodded his head. Very well I will.

He moved past her and lifted her bundle, blocked her from the sun and motioned her forward. Speaking over the bundle. Shall we?

She pointedly stared at him. Honeyed eyes watching the reactions he held—and then the smug bastard complied with her, and then had the audacity to take her plant bundle and carry it for her like the perfect gentleman he was.

“I can’t decide if I’m mad at you or you’re adorable,” she huffed out, features painting a glare.

“We shall,” she decided then, brushing past him and huffing her way in the direction Basilica was.

You're adorable. Even when your pissed.

He spoke candidly, over a mouthful of herbs. Which quite frankly tasted awful. But she was in for it now. He was gonna be teh sweetest he could be, while giving no quarter, because he wasn't a push over, well actually usually he was, but he didn't plan to be.

He followed beside her at a leisurely pace, though he did keep the chuckle from his throat.