[PRP] Good Morning (Iafri, Li'tt)

[Meepfur]

Iafri waited for him to take his first bite and offer his verdict before taking a tiny bite of her own, and then another. Silly as she knew it was, even this made her a bit nervous; while she was used to eating in the Dining Hall, with her wingmates, she couldn't recall the last time she'd eaten with just one other person. And eating in bed with someone, besides? It was terribly intimate, by her standards.

"It is good," she agreed, and it wasn't a white lie offered to avoid disappointing him. It really was good. As she took another bite, savoring it as she looked for what else she maybe ought to say, a little peep drifted up from under the bed, and was followed by a blue flit cautiously clambering up the side to slink over near his bonded and regard the food hungrily, though his eyes were a concerned yellow. After once being aggressively chased into hiding by a previous flight-partner's flit, he had since approached these occasions with no small amount of wariness.

"Oh, good morning, Pocket," Iafri soothed gently, tearing off a bit of bread to offer to him - though she stopped herself short and looked to her morning's companion. "Do you mind if he has a little?"

Li'tt had fetched the food, after all, and assembled the delicacy. She wouldn't want to upset him by turning right around to feed it to her firelizard.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

The soft peep had Li'tt looking around the weyr cautiously - and soon enough a blue firelizard emerged after it. By how Iafri greeted it, he had to guess they were an expected guest. "Hello there, little one," Li'tt greeted, holding a hand out to the blue to potentially sniff-check, if so desired.

He'd not even noticed Iafri moving to feed him until she spoke up. "It's only food - and food is for sharing, isn't it?" he answered with a smile.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

When Li'tt approved the sharing of a bit of their breakfast with Pocket, Iafri's expression lifted into what was her brightest smile yet. "Thank you!" The bluerider had been incredibly, remarkably nice to her, but that he was kind to her flit added still more marks in his favor. So she handed the morsel of bread to her pet, who had been waiting in suspense ever since she had started to offer. It was taken gently, then very politely eaten rather than scarfed. "Say thank you, Pocket?"

Happier colors whirling into his eyes now that he had had a treat, he craned his neck out to air-sniff Li'tt's hand from several inches away. This one seemed...nice? Possibly? He crept just far enough forward to bump his head against his hand...then sloooowly reached to help himself to whatever morsel he could nab from the plate of food, as though if he moved slowly enough they wouldn't see.

And then off he zipped, up onto a shelf to savor his prize. In spite of herself, Iafri giggled. "Don't mind him. Stay long enough and he'll come around."

It was only after she'd said it that it dawned on her how that might sound, and immediately flushed and looked down again. "Not that- I mean-"

Oh dear. She could sink down into the ground now.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Li'tt smiled, running his fingers gently along Pocket's head as the blue made his grab for food - was it unseen? Li'tt gently pushed the plate closer to make the grab a little easier. "There he goes!" Li'tt laughed. He looked back to Iafri as she spoke, simply smiling at her first statement: "I'll make sure to bribe him with plenty of food - I'm sure that'll be enough, right?"

When she went sheepish, however, he slowly tilted his head at her as though he couldn't understand why she was trying to phase into her bed. "Not that you mean what - do you not like my company?" he asked, punctuating it with yet another smile. Oh, he knew why she had suddenly turned into a shrinking violet, he was just going to pretend he didn't.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Oh. Oh no.

She was doing it again, being stupid and nervous, and was quick to chastise herself for it. Though Li'tt was obviously too nice a person to rebuke her for it as another had, he'd surely find it unappealing. By her estimation, she was well on her way to ruining what had been an impossibly lovely morning. Of course it couldn't have lasted.

If she'd not been holding her breakfast, she'd have been twisting her hands together. As it was, all she could do was stare at it in mounting despair, not daring to look anywhere but down. "No, I-" No, that was wrong, don't say it that way, but cutting herself off made it sound like the answer was No, she didn't like his company. "Of course I do. I'm sorry, I just- you're so nice, and I'm just awful at this."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

He reached out to rest a hand on her cheek, smoothing his thumb along it. "You're doing fine. Deep breaths, okay?" he assured softly, which perhaps would have seemed much more sweet and tender if he wasn't still eating his breakfast with his other hand. Hey, he wasn't going to leave his food where a hungry Pocket may considered it abandoned and go sweeping off with it!

Instead, he looked a touch like a dork.

"You're very pleasant company, so I don't think you need to worry about me running away to never be seen again, hmm?"

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

She went very still for a moment when he rested his hand on her cheek, but soon tilted her head into the touch, closing her eyes. How could he possibly be so nice? To her? She'd always been anxious even on her best days, but one particularly bad experience after a Flight had really stayed with her, played over and over in her mind, and over time the claws of it had dug in deep. Her reflex was to say 'I'm sorry' again, but she worried that it might wear at his patience, in spite of how much he seemed to have.

Breathe. Just breathe for a minute. After not nearly long enough, because she knew she had to say something instead of sitting there forever, she opened her eyes again. "You don't have to stay, if- if you don't want to." Because it was entirely possible that he was being so nice because he was nice, regardless of whether he had other things he would rather be doing. "But I'd like it if you really do want to."

For Iafri, it was downright bold, daring to indicate that she might have a preference.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

At minimum, Li'tt felt he owed Iafri a nice morning for entertaining his company and that alone had been why he hadn't simply peeled himself out of bed and left. It had also been the reason why he'd been so intent on making sure breakfast happened. But something about how vulnerable she was acting just made him want to scoop her up in his arms like she was a poor abandoned canine on the street who was being rained on and oh please, nobody has ever been nice in my entire life.

"If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be," Li'tt assured, leaning in to kiss her forehead again. "Nothing about you is guilting me, so don't you worry that my mind is elsewhere. At worst, it is with Vuurth - but I'm sure you're just as elsewhere as I am."

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

She was pathetic, she knew. Plenty of riders and other weyrfolk did this all the time without making it into such a big deal, but leave it to her to turn something pleasant and good into cause for fretting. Iafri leaned her head forward into the kiss that was pressed against it, clinging to the affection to try to pull herself up out of the misery she was so prone to falling into when she got into these vicious circles of unkind thoughts about herself.

She forced herself to swallow down another apology that was determined to bubble up, taking another deep breath instead. "I'll try not to worry so much, then." Her instinct was to assure him that it would be perfectly fine if his mind was elsewhere, completely understandable, but he'd said it wasn't - except in the way that any rider's mind was - and that was that. "Breakfast really is lovely."

Even if she'd gotten a whole two bites in before she'd gotten herself all flustered.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Good," Li'tt smiled again, polishing off the last bite of his own breakfast before he was back at the plate, assembling another mish-mashterpiece out of what he brought out. Iafri hadn't finished the first one, but he left half of it on the plate again - obviously for her to take when she was ready.

Or perhaps Pocket would take it.

"I'm glad you like it. Sometimes a simple breakfast is the best. Especially on a damp morning like today. All that rain has made it a little on the muggy side so this is nice and clear by comparison." He hummed thoughtfully for a moment, "But it'd still be nice to walk in if you'd like here in a bit."

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Though the background hum of anxiety that was practically a constant for her remained, she managed to tamp down on the active fretting, helped by Li'tt's many reassurances amd calm, easy manner. He clearly had nothing in common with her previous bad experience, and she needed to stop letting it rule her interaction with him. Not that it was the root or sole cause of why she was the way she was; her skittishness and negative opinions about herself had had her whole life to be instilled and fester. Even Girofleth hadn't been able to wipe them away, though the green lent her deep reserves of strength to at least persevere in the face of her difficulties.

Finally settled enough to so so, she went back to nibbling at her breakfast. It was possible she might even be halfway through by the time Li'tt had finished his second helping, at this rate. "I like simple things," she agreed, and even a quick glance around her weyr would prove her honest. Nothing beyond the provided basics was on view, except for Pocket up on his shelf-perch. The question of whether she would like to walk was a dilemma, as was any question that required her to voice what she did or didn't want. "A walk might be nice. I...I do like this, though."

The answer was safely a bit of both, honest but giving Li'tt plenty of room to make the final decision according to what he would like.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Then we can wait for it to dry up a bit more and have a walk later - a little bit of both," Li'tt decided instead. It was clear Iafri wasn't eager to make any medium-to-large size decisions quite yet, so he'd just take what input she gave and magically wrap it into something that appeased it. If he'd noticed she was trying to appease him he gave no commentary.

But of course, staying in meant Li'tt got to spend time taking in what it was Iafri did keep in her weyr which was, as expected, very utilitarian. He didn't mind it, but it didn't give him much more to form an idea of what kind of person she was beyond the glimpse he'd already been getting. Not to say he didn't have those pieces set up on a wall inside of his head with strings attaching them already.

And he wasn't exactly good at drumming up small talk.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

Iafri nodded assent to this plan, and was quiet for long enough to finally finish off her serving of breakfast. It was possible the silence might be awkward to some degree, but for her it was fairly content. The food was good, and it was also a chance to further settle her mind, at least a little, so the lack of small talk didn't bother her at all. Once she was through her breakfast, she was still for a long moment, thinking and hesitating, before she carefully dared to lean in against him. She was fairly certain he'd not object, at least not openly, but she could only hope that just maybe, he might like it as well.

His own morsel polished off, Pocket hopped down from the shelf to investigate the other helping of delicacy that went as yet unclaimed. Much less cautious this time, he sat right next to the plate and reached to grab and take a chomp out of it. In so doing, he missed most of the fruit as it slid off, but got a good bite of bread and cheese.

Mmmm. He gave a muffled approximation of a cheep through his mouthful, most pleased.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Li'tt was more than agreeable to Iafri leaning into his side, shifting to rest an arm over her shoulders and leaning in turn back into her. She had a pleasant weight to her there, and he had no reason to not enjoy how she felt, rested there. Idly, he leaned his cheek against the top of her head, just soaking in the feeling of her there.

He couldn't help but laugh when the little firelizard returned, eyeballing the second morsel as Li'tt had suspected he might. "Hope he's okay eating that," it was an awful lot of bread and cheese and he wasn't sure how obligate of carnivores a firelizard was. Though with as on edge as she had been, he had a feeling she would have interjected otherwise.

"You like that then, buddy?"

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

This was very nice. Since he seemed amenable, leaning his cheek against the top of her head, she nestled a little closer still. Li'tt was kind, and sweet, and she would enjoy this day for as long as it lasted. At least it would be a pleasant memory to have on lonely days.

A soft laugh bubbled up when Pocket returned for a munch, and she lifted a hand to wriggle her fingers at the little blue. "He won't eat it all. He's pretty good about that."

Chew, chew, swallow. His eyes a happy green-blue, the flit peeped an answer at Li'tt before setting down the snack, content with his (rather large) bite. He then toddled over to flop down across the pair, humming contentment. Yes, this was very nice indeed.

demon_pachabel