Welcome to Gaia! ::

((OOC: Too tired to post right now. Do you want to post the timeskip, Lucky? If not, I'll do it tomorrow.))

((OOC: Okay. Will post it tomorrow - I'm dead on my feet at the moment.))

((OOC: I doubt we'll be introducing anything that really affects Mac and Aria and crew anyway, to be honest.))

Tianara stirred slowly, with a weary little sigh. Keeping her eyes closed, she began to analyze whether or not she really wanted to wake up. She decided she didn't - she was warm and quite comfortable, and didn't really want to move.

It took her a few minutes of determined attempts to go back to sleep to realize that the warmth was not from the blankets, but was emanating very decidedly from beside her. Very, very close beside her.

Sleep-blurred eyes opened slowly, blinking into the light - although there was less than she would have expected, considering. Still half-asleep, it took her a few minutes to realize why. She was cuddled up to Joshua, and his arms were around her - that was where the warmth and the filtering of the light were coming from.

Tianara felt her cheeks flush, although she couldn't figure out why. What was it about sleeping this way that made her start to blush and feel nervous and embarrassed (with more of an undertone of pleasure than she would ever admit)? Obeying her mind's silent demands to move away and prevent humiliation, she squirmed around a bit, trying to figure out how to slip loose.

At last, however, she could only shrug to herself. In his sleep, Joshua clearly had no intention whatsoever of letting go of her, and she didn't want to wake him. He deserved the rest. She would...just have to deal with it until he woke up.

He wouldn't have had far to look up to speak to Tianara - she had followed his progress over the edge of the bed with some interest, and now poked her head over the side of the bed to blink down at him owlishly. "You fell down," she remarked. A little idiotically, under the circumstances, but she wasn't quite awake yet. "Are you okay?"

Only then did the actual words he was saying start to seep through. She sighed a bit, willing her own blush away. Only once it was gone - mostly - did she speak. "It's okay. You were warm." She smiled sleepily, adding absently, "It was nice."

It didn't seem to occur to her that such a statement might embarrass Joshua even more. It didn't really embarrass her - she didn't really understand why she had been so nervy about it in the first place. The human subtleties of sleeping with another person were entirely lost on her.

Tianara gave a little cat yawn. She was still thoroughly tired, and didn't really want to wake up entirely. So instead of getting out of bed, she just leaned on her arm and watched Joshua root through his dresser drawers. "What're you looking for?" she inquired sleepily, pulling the blankets up around her shoulders again.

She wondered what the matter was. It was obvious that Joshua was perturbed, and that made her a little sad. "Is it a bad thing, Joshua?" she asked quietly, just loud enough to be heard. She couldn't really think why it would be, but he seemed so disturbed about it that she assumed there had to be some sort of problem.

Curling up deeper into the sheets, she tilted her head and watched him, wondering.

Tianara blinked, tilted her head, and was about to ask what that had to do with anything when it came to her. Her eyes opened wide, and she sat silently, shellshocked. By the time she came back to herself, Joshua had vanished into the bathroom and she was alone. Probably a good thing too, considering.

When he came out again, she was gazing steadily out the window, her face nearly at its normal colour again. When she spoke, her voice wavered only a bit. "We should probably go out, if the wind's died down, and see if the others are awake yet. Or at least where they are."

Tianara followed him outside. Her eyes softened when she realized what he was looking at. She knew that that gear was important for him. Wordlessly, she joined him, picking up the gear that looked like it had survived okay.

Of course, she didn't know what the stuff was supposed to look like. She was really just guessing that it was all right. So while she carefully put them all into a tidy little pile, she kept shooting glances at Joshua to see what he was doing with the gear that he was collecting.

At last, she glanced around and sighed. The wind was still there, but it had certainly slacked off - instead of throwing her off her feet, it was now just blowing her hair around and tugging at her too-loose clothing a bit. "Is anything missing?" she asked, looking back at Joshua.

Tianara wandered over to the pile of broken things and picked up the tank, turning it over in her hands as she tried to discover what the problem was. She soon figured it out - that hole in the tank was probably not supposed to be there.

Curiously, she turned it around again. "I have something like this at home," she murmured. "I found it when..."

The words stuck in her throat for a moment, but then she forced them out. "When my brother...when Kistad and Kiro took me treasure hunting when I was a little girl."

Pushing the memory - once among her best, now bittersweet due to circumstance - aside, she said, "Do you think you could use it until you get a new one?" She thought she knew where to find it, and it couldn't really be that bad. She took good care of her little treasures, just like all the merfolk did. "I could probably see if Kiro would bring it out."