Her white tail wagged stronger than before, waving about in a fit of absolute glee as he realized what exactly the name entailed. Surely Quick meant no disrespect to his pride to allow others to call him that - though she was unsure if some of their more dry-humored pack mates would even want to participate in juvenile nicknames - but the kids could catch on and easy too. Maybe some day they would grow out of calling him Blackie, but the game had only started... and she didn't intend to let such a hilarious nickname disappear into nothing so soon. They could call her Cottonball too if he wanted to teach 'em that. Quick just hoped he had forgotten about it, wrapped up so much in his own nickname that the floofy-sounding name Leaf had speculated for her would just sort of edge out of everyone's memories.

She tucked her head in, withdrawing her ear from his fake nip, and let a snicker resonate through her teeth ass she grinned back at him. "You made your den and now you must lie in it," she preached, adopting a tone like she was some wise elder with this sage advice. Dropping the voice she shrugged and sidled closer to the dark-coated Guardian, gloating in her victory. "But really. There's not much you can do about it," she smirked, silver eyes twinkling. "Unless you were to somehow cut out my tongue."

Quick twitched a white ear as he went along with their charade, her silver eyes flickering over to him as if to say I'm not afraid. She'd never seen him smile so big (even if it was just a little bit demonic in the context of the whole tongue thing) and found it pleasant how it suited his face, even though he wore a subdued expression almost always. Caught up in the change, Quick only saw the attack coming in an afterthought following his launch - and so, with a girly squeal she ended up on the ground beneath the tongue-snatcher. In that moment she became acutely aware of the closeness of their bodies, having never been within such minimal distance before. It made her nervous, but a good kind of nervous. Quick hadn't realized there could be a good kind of nervous... but how else could she describe the quickness of her heart beat and the warmth that spread from it?

On her back the Arctic female stuck a front leg up, pressing her pale paw against his cheek in a half-assed manner of protection. Subconsciously she didn't want to push him away, but she still wanted to play this little game, so long as it kept their relationship in good spirits. Her tail swept the debris upon the ground, prompting a cheeky grin to appear on her face as though she wasn't the one in a compromising situation. "You wouldn't dare," she challenged him, keeping her fore leg taut just in case he maybe did dare. But she doubted it. Her offenses against him were forgotten, at least she hoped and assumed. If there was going to be another attack, it would be one less sinister than perma-silence - one which she could retaliate against, even with the lower hand.

There was no suppressing the smile that crept into her expression when he fought back, grasping her paw so gently between his dark jaws. When he let it go she allowed it to curl back toward her chest, brushing his shoulder along its downward path. His nose at her throat made her heart race; it was so vulnerable of a position to be. And yet no matter how terse his exhale, Quick felt his breath on her skin like a kiss. For a moment she held her breath, wondering quietly if this was the culmination of their storm, something that had brewed not of spite or disloyalty or anything other than what it truly was - an attraction. To one another. They were like night and day, in many characteristics, but perhaps at the bottom of it - where it counted - were they so different after all?

Her silver eyes met his gaze, looking at him so long as he chose to look her, though she was distracted with the thought that she heard the beating of his heart so loud in his chest. Chulyin's gaze fell from hers, an act of waiting on his part that lit a new kind of confidence in her heart. Deliberately slow she brought her muzzle down, chin touching and trailing the dark fur of his cheeks as she did. She paused in her path, and after a moment, placed a tender kiss with her tongue against the side of his face. Then it was her turn to anticipate, and though her heart beat hard as well, a smile lingered with it.