Stavanger Bay as if anyone could wait for you

velen had left the borders not long before dawn, and returned with a bouquet of wildflowers and a pretty green stone he had found beneath the snow in a meadow. @Dalia liked rocks, and though velen really couldn't tell one from the other beyond colour, he wanted to make her happy.
tucking the stone into his cheek like a giant chipmunk kept it safe, but his flowers fared more poorly: a great gust of wind rose, tearing away the heads of several. and when velen ducked to the earth to protect the remaining few, the subsequent thud of the flowers against the earth ended a few more of the pretty things.
when the boy finally arrived at dalia's den, he wore a windblown pelt, a bulging cheek, and bore a single creamy flower with a yellow center. he had looked hard for them, finding the blossoms along little outcroppings here and there, but she would never know; he could only hope she would accept his most pathetic offering.

i'm screaming. for so many reasons. dalia's den, for reference 

dalia was in her den, tending to the sad cache that resided in it. she had spent a little bit of time preparing soil (what she could find in the winter months, anyway) inside of the split coconuts. they'd make for good pots to grow important plants so she could keep them nearby, rather than just in a garden. 

velen's scent was what drew her outside. she pressed to the side of the den's entrance, finding him looking all sorts of crazy. her ears pricked, eyes widened in surprise, a small paw raising daintily up to her breast as she hesitated to step towards him. oh what to say? there were so many things... dalia had so many things to say! it didn't help that the heat that sprang to her face was making it all-too-hard to concentrate on words. of course, this meant that she blurted, "you look awful." 

she regretted it immediately. "well! not awful -- you look good as -- ah! i mean, you look good, like -- velen. you look like velen. but -- messy." oh my god what was that? the word vomit was incredibly out of character for the soft and well-spoken dalia, who was reeling like a hooked line. she felt even hotter, and absolutely mortified. "whatcha got there?" she tried meekly, instead.

:D

she appeared, a speckled little wraith with pretty paws. velen stared at her, eyes widening as she told him how he looked. her own horror arose on her lovely features; his own settled into a fond smirk as he watched her scramble to cover her faux pas. it was quite cute, actually, though the thought of calling her cute made him suffer a great bolt of anxiety.
"welf," he muttered around the single flower and the stone. "fuh'you." narrowing his eyes in annoyance at himself, velen decided in the next moment it would be better if he emptied his yap. and so he bent forward, laying the blossom at her forepaws and following it with the green stone he had discovered.
"there were, um, more flowers. but. the wind. and sorry that rock is ... uh.... wet," the ceto apologized sheepishly. why hadn't he wrapped it in anything besides his own saliva? gross.

a stone! dalia watched as it tumbled from his jaws, complete shock and excitement rippling through her. she simply hadn't expected it. and sure, it was wet, but it brought such an ache to her heart -- and such a knot to her stomach. he'd done this for her. she stared at the gifts, trying not to start shaking with nerves. she fought herself to build up the nerve to say something, or do something... she just didn't know how to respond! how could she say anything that even begun to say how much she loved them -- appreciated them -- and him...? her ocean eyes fell back upon him, her tail beginning to fall into a slow wag.

"i love them," she said gently, her voice quiet as ever. and finally, face furiously burning, she gathered up enough boldness to step towards velen and plant a few kisses upon the side of his muzzle -- and then buried her face in his neck, as if she might melt into him and disappear forever. "thank you," she murmured into his fur.

velen scarcely dared to breathe as dalia approached gracefully. he fumbled back a few of her kisses, before leaning into her embrace with a low sound of contentment. and though the boy maintained a veneer of calm, inwardly he was not. it was not the touch of friends now; it was something else between them.
something he had not dared to hope. 
slowly velen brought his muzzle up to groom the curve of dalia's seashell ear, sitting before her and gathering the girl closer with a curve of his foreleg. would that this moment could last forever; he closed his eyes and breathed in the beautiful scent of her, tears threatening with a sting at the corners of his eyes.

dalia lingered there for a moment, feeling warm and comfortable and like she might never want to leave his embrace. he gathered her closer, and she nuzzle further into the curve of his throat, sighing softly. 

but that was not somewhere she could stay forever -- and she had so much now that she wanted to say. so much she wanted to ask. she wouldn't, she knew it might ruin the moment. but dalia could not stay completely quiet. not typically one to fall over her words, embarrassed by her jumbled sentence from earlier, she put tried her best to put together something coherent -- that properly expressed her emotions. 

she pulled apart from him, glassy eyes finding his -- but before she could say anything, she couldn't help but giggle just a little bit. "are you... crying?" she asked, tail wiggling as she asked.

the moment sprang eternal, one to be etched in velen's mind forever. but he wanted to look at her now, and so welcomed her departure from his arms, the way her eyes glowed with humour and some deep emotion. "maybe. no. not technically. shut up," the ceto rumbled good-naturedly, reaching to brush her guard hairs with his lips before settling his eyes upon the seaglass of her own again.
gods, he would never grow tired looking at her. the thought pleased velen as much as it terrified him, but he drove it away with a smile. dalia had been on the verge of saying something, he thought, and kept silent in anticipation.

he defended himself, all good-naturedly... as velen always was. it brought a soft laugh from dalia, who head butted his shoulder gently (as dalia always was) as he grazed over her guard hairs. "such a baby," she purled, her tail waving low, backing up to meet his gaze again. 

the tension, at least from dalia's perspective, lifted from the air. it hadn't been bad tension, but she had grown more anxious by the second. she said what she'd meant to say a few moments prior, feeling a little less anxious about it. "i wish you could meet my family," she told him, her head tilting to one side, "i think they'd love you." 

dalia wondered if she loved him. she certainly liked him, more than she'd ever liked anyone before. it was different that how she felt about her parents, a different kind of emotion. but... as different as it was, it still felt the same. she wondered if that's what it was. love. or was it too early in their budding relationship to tell? was she just jumping to emotion that she assumed was right?

did she?
the thought leapt unbidden to velen's mind, surprising him. did it matter? would it matter? desperately pulling his thoughts from that particular track, he focused them upon what dalia had told him a while ago: that she could not return to drageda. effectively, the girl before him did not have a family.
she did, however, have the mayfair-cairns, and the chestnut-eyed boy grew warmed through at the idea that he could be dalia's family now. "mine already love you," he murmured, unable to keep the halfway stupid grin from his face. 
did he?
velen wanted to joke, to laugh, to do anything that would dispel the rapidly creeping feeling of seriousness that was overcoming the pair of them. but he could not, for once more was he hopelessly entangled in dalia's gaze, and the hope that she felt something similar for him.

at his comment, silently, dalia wondered about ford. what that meant. would ford care? did she care if ford cared? why did it even matter? she had velen. he was hers. she stared at him silently with wonder in her gaze, over numerous things. to her great surprise, she was the one who was making jokes. maybe velen and rannveig had rubbed off too much onto her... 

"well -- don't start crying again," she teased gently, moving to headbutt his chest, flashing him a smile that wasn't as smirky as his might've been, but a good mischievous look. and then, feeling like she really needed to dispel the affectionate tension (that was making her oh so anxious!!) she gave a high-pitched growl and jumped away a few steps, tail wagging and hips sashaying as she challenged him to a game of play.

there was an irony here, that the thoughts of velen and dalia walked the same path, but could not be shared. not here, not now. but still the boy was content simply to be near to her, and gave a low rumble of laughter at her teasing words.
"oh, whatever!" velen scoffed, following dalia's growl with one of his own. dropping to his own bow, the ceto darted forward to snap playfully at her small forepaw; it really was quite tiny compared to his, wasn't it?

literally screaming at my own lateness... i will make us a new thread <3

"don't whatever me!" pressed dalia in return, doing another quick dance away from him as he snapped at her forepaws. she jumped and wiggling and darted from him if he came again at her, content on a game of chase where she was being chased. despite all the ruckus it caused in her own mind, she felt completely safe and sound with velen -- it almost seemed to erase all the demons that followed her. not quite, but almost. 

she flashed him a grin, gaze pressed into his. "come get me," she teased, darting away from him again as an invite into a race.