Firefly Weir i've counted down the days

No, Malien said. He wasn’t a hero. The wry smile and look of admiration that’d been crossing his countenance faded, and was replaced by a confused, troubled frown. That wasn’t the response he’d been anticipating. No?

Then he elaborated. Just a little bit, he’d fallen in too, but the tone of it.. suggested something else. It clearly wasn’t a topic Malien wanted to linger on. So.. perhaps Malien had been unsuccessful the other wolf really had died in that river. Unconsciously, Arty shivered and pressed a little closer to his companion.

Then wrapped his own forelimb around the other. ”Well.. I’m glad you made it out,” he murmured, and he’d be content to leave it at that. Artyom would not pry any further.

Instead he’d try to change the subject. ”You were right about this place, though. Perhaps.. if you’re up for it, you could provide me a tour?” Malien had suggested meeting here, so he assumed, hopefully, the other wolf was familiar with the area around them.

He's not sure what Artyom is thinking, and he wishes he had the guts to ask about it. But how can he? Bitterly, he regrets bringing it up at all. What good could've come of it? Some part of him had obviously wanted to share, to perhaps have someone share in his suffering at nearly drowning, but...

But there was that one teensy detail of how Malien had caused the entire kerfuffle in the first place. So it sits like a spear through his heart, hard and uncomfortable. He, too, is glad he made it out, but the lesson he learned wasn't not to knock wolves into water, but not to try to help them once they were in.

Even though Artyom is willing to change the subject Malien feels dirty, somehow, as he lets the other embrace him. He doesn't like it, but it lingers in his mind like a thin coating of something vile and unpleasantly smelling.

"A tour?" he echoes, sort of muffled from the position of his muzzle in all that fur. What kind of tour could he possibly provide around here? Slowly, he pulls his head back, peering at Artyom. "What kind of stuff would you like to see?"

Something about the whole ordeal had Malien unnerved, upset, or something along those lines. It was impossible not to note the unusual sort of tension in his body, as Arty embraced him. He was silently concerned, would’ve liked to possibly know more. To maybe comfort his.. companion, of whatever nature they were to each other.

Dying like that was an awful thing, but selfishly, Artyom would far prefer to let that fate befall another than Malien. It was a trade he’d willingly make any day, no second thoughts, and with very little remorse. But that was also something that was probably better left unsaid.

A tour, the other repeated his words, sounding a tad confused. And he looked it, too, when he pulled away from the embrace. Arty offered a loose little shrug at the inquiry. ”Anything. Everything. I wanna see and know as much as I can about every place in Relic Lore,” he spoke, poking fun at the name again as they had been before.

It had grown on him since then. Only a little bit, but it had.

Anything. Everything. Unbidden, Malien's mind goes to the breathtaking falls where he met Venus. Could he..? No; he's not ready for that yet. It's a place he wants to keep to himself for a little longer, a certain kind of magic he's not sure he dares to attempt twice.

"I'm hardly the best tour guide," he responds, tongue lolling out of his mouth. "I might've been here when you showed up, but I'd just traipsed across it from east to west in a mostly straight line." His ears cant forward, to attention, eyes brightening. "But what would the tales of Yom-Yom and Ali be, if they didn't go exploring the Lore together?"

Still.. is he ready to get up? He only just got Artyom back, his fluffy warmth pressed against him, those sky-like eyes to peer into his and steal every thought out of his mind. He wants to stay where he is, for forever. "We could head south for a bit. Along the edge of the lagoon."

Malien put himself down a little, claiming he was hardly the best tour guide, earning him a faux pouty look as if to say I’ll be the judge of that. The other was probably far better than he gave himself credit for. That, and Artyom didn’t consider himself hard to please, especially not in a brand new region. The next part though, was interesting.

”You were waiting for me?” He inquired a bit incredulously. ”I’m flattered, Mally,” Arty tacked on, going for a playful little nudge. That morphed into a soft laugh at the re-use of their former nicknames.

”Very goddamned boring is what they’d be. And we sure as hell don’t want that,” Artyom answered spiritedly, permitting himself the rare usage of profanity for added emphasis. He nodded entirely too quickly to the notion of heading south, though mentally he made note of the for a bit part.

Given south was where he’d first come from, he definitely didn’t want to head too far back that way. ”Sounds like a plan to me. I’m ready when you are,” because they didn’t have to get up quite yet, he supposed. Unlike the last time, Artyom had no intentions of limiting their time together now.

He’d just go with the flow of things, this time around. Let Malien guide their time together a little more. See what happened.

”You were waiting for me?”

Yeah but that's not what I meant-

The slight misunderstanding feels like a cold slap of water, even though it's not wrong: he had been waiting for Arty for a few days. The playful nudge barely registers in that inexplicable and foreign torrent of dread and anxiety. "I meant when we first met," he sort of mutter-mumbles into the fluffy fur, wishing he didn't feel so compelled to practice having a conscience and being honest. "But," he goes on, "I was waiting for you, here. So please, stay flattered."

He isn't expecting the energized response, though maybe he's a fool for that; his face briefly shows surprise, before smoothing out into a sweet expression of fondness, one that would surely make him sick if he had the ability to see his own face. "No, we don't," he agrees firmly, swallowing a laugh he wasn't expecting. It still touched his eyes, though.

And... In some ways, he feels compelled to get up this instant, take Artyom on their promised adventure. Yet, if he asks himself, what do I want? then he does not want to get up just yet. "In a bit," he finally says, wriggling closer and trying to use Arty's neck as a pillow. "I only just got you back."

Malien strangely, oddly, protested just a little at the notion of his having been there. But it was an honest protest, as if it was meant to clarify something. Something Artyom supposed he must’ve misunderstood or misinterpreted. However, it seemed he’d also been right. Malien had been waiting for him.

Confounding as that was, he chose not to hold onto it or ask any more questions. They didn’t matter anyway and would just take up time. ”I intend to,” was all he would settle for.

It was far more comforting to see the other’s countenance transform into something surprised, and then soften into something warmer, and perhaps just a tad amused. That was wayyyy better than the dispirited Malien of a few minutes ago. Preferable by far, and endearing. Followed by the vocalized agreement, Arty found himself grinning almost from ear to ear.

”Damn straight.” That was the spirit.

Though he’d not have protested if they were to rise at that very moment and take off, Mally suggested in a bit. And then the other was resting against him, all warm and cuddly, and.. yeah.

”And I, you,” Arty murmured in reply. They didn’t need to go anywhere just yet. Cuddles first, everything else later.



---good if you wanna fade on your next ^^ thanks for another fun one!

The grin is infectious, Malien struggling to keep his face composed, his laugh down: he's not used to his mouth wanting to twist into shapes like this, or to.. laugh.. genuinely? Not cruelly or because it behooves him to convince someone he finds them funny, or that he's easy-going?

And as he peers at Artyom's face before snuggling into him he thinks two things:

One, that it's kind of baffling he went about his life for nearly six years and never met anyone else (aside from, perhaps, Venus, but that was also just a few months ago) who affected him like this

And two, that it's kind of annoying he spends a lot of his time with Artyom thinking about wow damn why do I want to laugh or wow damn why am I suddenly concerned about my own behavior when really, he thinks he should just focus on the present. Be less concerned.

So he focuses on Artyom. The shape of his body, the feeling of his fur, his warmth; his smell, cold and pristine and distinctly Artyom. He listens to - feels - his heartbeat as they lie pressed together; to his breathing, commits the feeling of laying close to him to memory.

Exploring the Lore could wait. Malien had other sensations to explore first.

[ End, and thank you too <3 ]