Welcome to Gaia! ::

Earendil chuckled and held out his free hand to Miyuki, inviting her to sit in his lap. "Come here, you," he smiled at her. "You know, we came out here so you could play in the grass. And you've been spending so much time in our arms ... are you sure you want to sit with us again?"

He chuckled and tilted his head slightly towards Lin. "You would think she'd get tired of always being held."

Earendil didn't seem to notice Lin's strange look: without making a comment about it, or making a big deal of anything, he removed his arm from around her so that he could pick up Miyuki with both hands. He set her on his lap and began to bounce her gently.

Actually, he was being very deliberate in paying attention to Miyuki: Lin had suddenly tensed up, and he didn't want to bring any attention to the situation.

Earendil chuckled and kept bouncing Miyuki gently, to the beat of a song he had learned when his mother had sung it to Regan when she was a baby. It was just a silly little song about an elfin boy who was learning his runes, but the words were simple and apparently - according to his mother - appealed to the ears of little children.

He didn't know, he couldn't remember her singing it to him when he had been a child.

"Hey Lin," he said suddenly, ceasing the bouncing, "do you think I could ask you some theoretical questions?"

Earendil kept watching Miyuki, unable to face Lin while he spoke to her.

"Theoretically," he began; and then he stopped and shook his head. "No ... you heard the conversation between me and Shael. Forget theoretically."

He sighed and started bouncing Miyuki again.

"Say there's someone you love," he tried again. "But you know for a fact that that person doesn't love you, doesn't even like you in any special way. Do you tell them and risk the relationship that you already have?"

"And if things went badly?" Earendil went on, frowning. "Forget about ideally, think realistically. They're taken completely by surprise and nothing is ever the same. Is it worth it? Getting it off your chest but at the cost of being able to spend time with this person?"

He was terrified, just talking about it like this with her ... though sadly, he was certain she wasn't going to understand him anytime soon. She wouldn't figure it it was her he was talking about.

Earendil nodded slowly, thoughtfully. The problem was, she could say what she wished, but she probably thought it was someone else, and things were always different when they actually happened, instead of just talking about them.

He looked at Miyuki's smiling face and thought back to when Lin had been the same size - or even smaller. Things had been so much simpler then ...

Earendil's face grew warm, and he lowered his eyes in shame.

"I must confess, Lin," he murmured, "I'm afraid. Many people find it amusing ... I'm willing to traverse the known world, to venture into the unknown world, to try anything new ... but I am afraid to say the one thing that needs saying to the one person who needs to hear it most."

He smiled at her, his cheeks red. "Does that make me a coward?"