Welcome to Gaia! ::

Samantha chuckled softly, settling in more comfortably on the ground. "Those two always seem so busy. Guess I could always see about arranging to have a room of my own here, so I could be around more often." Still smiling warmly, she watched the ever-energetic male in front of her. While she still felt a bit awkward at times with his affections, she couldn't deny she was rather fond of him as well. He was sweet...

"I missed you too, Artemis."

Samantha nodded immediately, laughing. "Of course you could! You have my permission," she winked conspiratorially. That was more true than she let on. Only a certain few would be allowed to visit her in that case and only with her expressed permission beforehand. As was the case with many other things in reference to her...like those who were allowed to call her 'Sam.'

The rest risked losing limbs.

"So," she started again, blinking up at Artemis, "What have you been up to recently? Not sure you ever said." Then as if a second thought, "Wait...do you have a room here?"

Samantha's calm, cool demeanor seemed like such a drastic contrast to Artemis' that one would wonder how the two got along at all. However, it seemed they more than got along...perhaps they could influence each other a bit.

"Well, that's good to hear! I'd hate to hear that you'd been getting yourself into trouble recently, Artemis," Samantha winked teasingly, leaning back now on both arms, seemingly relaxed.

"I've been doing a bit of that myself lately. We've had a couple new arrivals, so I've been trying to help them find their way around the place."

((Sorry, hon....my home 'net has been dead for days....I'll keep posting here though when I can sneak online elsewhere! ^__^;; ))

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"Oh, tell me about it. Though Sheik seems easy enough to care for. Almost like she's not even there..." Samantha chuckled at just how true that statement could be, knowing of at least one time that Sheik had up and disappeared into a puff of smoke, giving the Ninetales the slip.

"Not sure about some of the others so much though...but they're all family now, right?"

"'Til the end and beyond,' huh?" Samantha seemed to smile thoughtfully, glancing at the floor. "That's a very nice thought..." Having no real family of her own, at least not by blood, only now it had started to sink in that maybe blood wasn't what made a real family. Not the kind that counted.

She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them with a sort of sad smile. "It's nice to have people who love and care about you around. Keeps you from feeling lonely."

Blinking in confusion for a minute, Samantha frowned and shook her head. "Oh, no....hon, it's not you! It's nothing you did! I swear!" The Ninetales reached out, placing her hand on his arm soothingly. "I'm sorry I made you think that. I didn't mean to."

Unconsciously, she curled her tails more tightly around herself. She felt horrible for making the poor boy feel bad for no reason. She wasn't really upset; not really. "I was just thinking," she admitted out loud. Her eyes glanced away to the side, suddenly finding the floor very fascinating. "I suppose I'm still getting used to the idea of having a family. For a long time, I thought I had to have someone related to me by blood to have a family...but, it's taken me a while to realize that's not necessarily true." She let a slight smile cross her face, though it was quite genuine.

After watching the sudden change in Artemis' mood with puzzlement, Samantha couldn't hold back a laugh at the fox's last statement. "Ha ha ha! Oh, Artemis..." Still smiling, she reached over, surprising even herself, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders in a sideways half-hug. Even when she was sad, he made her laugh again. That meant a lot to Samantha.

"Who knows? Maybe Kali will let you have a puppy one day? Especially since you've done such a great job looking after the others, you know."