Hushed Willows furnace

The way he met her gaze made her chest feel constricted.  But it was in a good way.  Odd.  Banner offered him a happy smile while he explained where he'd found the blue-hued songbird.  So, the bird had been distracted, hm?  That sounded an awful lot like something she'd be caught doing.  Luckily the wolves of Marauder's Keep were the largest predators who lived among the willows or else she'd have some serious issues walking around with her head in the clouds.

I love it! she exclaimed quietly, startled at how the sentiment had burst forth without her sparing a second thought.  Of course she loved it.  Buchanan brought her a gift.  She felt momentarily torn: part of her wanted to inspect the creature and choose her feathers right then and there, but a much larger, more insistant part of her wanted to move forward and initiate physical contact with him.  To show him exactly how much she enjoyed the bird he'd hunted for her.  She fought back a frown - was that too forward?  Too.. much?  Ah, hell.  Carefully navigating around her prize, the short lady closed the distance between them and pressed her nose to his mahogany cheek.  And even though she had to crane her neck a bit to reach, she let out a low, affectionate growl.

Thank you, she said softly while moving her dark nose to rub along his jawline.  You didn't have to do that, she added.  And she knew that he knew that.  And he probably knew that she knew that he knew that.  Her mind could go on and on about why what she'd just said was completely pointless, but she felt it important enough to state anyway.  Banner didn't ever want Buchanan to feel like he had to do anything for her.  Those days were over for him.