Firestone Hot Springs you hit me like a hurricane

Valiant huffed at her, turning his face away from her wink to hide a stupid grin. Her promises, though, drew his attention right back toward her.

"And just what have you been hidin'?" he asked in faux suspicion. He got the tone right, but he couldn't manage to sober his features until she spoke again. Those words wiped his face slack, so that the only emotion was a tender vulnerability in his eyes. He thought he'd been plenty clear with that line, and this was as much encouragement as he could've hoped for from the doe. More than that, though, he felt the strength of the statement echoing in his own veins. He was glad, too. Very glad. And there wasn't much that Vaire could do to change that.

This knowledge settled him. No matter how things ended up between them — this was still the right path.

"Me too," he replied, after swallowing several other responses that came to mind. And then, abruptly, the sentimentality of the moment became too much to bear. Valiant smacked a paw across the pool's surface to splash warm water in Vaire's face. His expression likely broadcast that this was an act of emotionally stunted desperation. He was surprised and a little horrified with himself, but he'd done it and by god, he wasn't gonna take it back.

He tried to form this confusion into an expression that said, What are you gonna do about it?

It was not terribly successful.