Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Nah," Sun flushed. If he'd noticed the hesitation after the last word, he didn't show it. "I don't mind, there's a table in the other room, we'll use that."

His eyes went wide again when the man kneeled and he turned around the rest of the way, or at least tried to. One leg was fine and ended up on the ridge with Sun, the other got caught, and betrayed his balance.

The other man wasn't short, which was probably a blessing, otherwise Sun would have ended up straight in a lap or on the floor. As it was, both arms had flung themselves about the broad shoulders and caught tight, saving him from crashing to the ground, but not from contact and a flash of warmth from skin meeting skin.

Sun cursed under his breath at the near miss...and then cursed in his mind at the contact. "S-sorry." The apology stired a little of the black hair and Sun started to gently push himself off the man. "I was going to say you didn't have to kneel...but stopping me from losing consciousness from a concussion wins the argument by default." This last was said wryly.

"!!" Sunstrike made a protesting noise as the man hauled him up, one arm still slung across the shoulders, the other coming to rest over his very warm face in embarassment. Any place where there was skin contact would be a sudden warmth that had nothing to do with normal body heat. The press of lips almost felt like a burn without the pain, the way it lingered, as if the kiss had been held and not just a casual touch.

There wasn't anything he could really do, and he wasn't sure if anything he would have done in good health would have been the appropriate manners. Maybe here this was customary, the paige seemed to go about it all so naturally as if it were expected.

He really wished he wasn't thinking about rescue, but if things started to get out of hand, it was already proven that he wouldn't be able to protest much.

Gathering up the robe and his legs into the large cushioned seat, he took a few steady breaths and tried to think. The water logged feeling was starting to fade slowly, and with the other man at a good distance he felt a little safer about himself, safe enough to ask a few tentative questions anyway.

"W-where do you come from?" That seemed safe enough.

Sunstrike blinked at the second question, having watched every movement of strawberry to mouth. He tried not to swallow in responce and answer as best he could, reaching for a cherry.

"Do you mean Gaia in general? Or here?" As opposed to the other man, Sun ate the cherry somewhat normally. "If we're talking here, it's to help Vahn Kyonuske. If we're talking Gaia." A soft laugh. "Well, the answers not much differant, I suppose." He reached for another piece, relaxing a little more.

Sunstrike looked away, out the window. There was something lost about his expression as he did so.

"No. He's...he's not here right now, I don't know when he'll be back." The melon was nice, but he just nibbled it absently. Then he seemed to jump a little, coming back to himself and shaking his head, grinning. "It'll be okay, I figure he'll probably be busy when he gets back as well, so I won't see very much of him. Until then, I'm going to help Aiysin with some erm..."

Sun looked at the other man. He couldn't really just blurt to everyone that Sierra needed saving.

"Chores of some kind or another. I'm fairly good with magic up to a point, so she thought I might be able to help." That sounded safe enough. He leaned forward to dip the fruit in the yogart, one sleeve falling over his shoulder as he did so.

"Do you just help around as a messenger? Or are there other jobs you have as well?"

Sun looked at him from around an orange slice, munching in thought. When he'd finished he licked the juice from his fingers. It was odd. Around girls and most guys there was nothing feminine about Sun at all, but now, in the dim light, and plush robe he looked positively delicate.

"Reassigned?" Sun laughed. "I'm not so important as to shake the whole place up like that." His eyes swirled lazily as he reached for another slice of orange, it was obvious from his movements that he was growing tired, he'd not slept in ages.

"Besides, if you're working on something delicate, it must mean that you're important to that, from what Aiysin told me, they don't exactly assign people with no talent to the important pieces of buisness."

Sun had moved closer at the motioning, eye's beginning to widen with each sentence.

"A-are you flirting," The flower appeared between them and Sun jumped, hand to his nose where it had touched him. "With me?" The last bit was a little strangled. In truth he'd known there was something in those green eyes that was more then harmless teasing, but it was hard to focus around them AND the body and the voice.

He chuckled suddenly and put both hands around the other man's with the flower, careful not to damage the beautiful petals.

"I'm flattered, but it's not exactly safe to be around me right now, I wouldn't want to get you into trouble." Sun had a very serious thought and he leaned closer over the flower.

"Aiysin warned me about someone, but I forgot to ask something important. If you've been here for a while, maybe you could help..." He swallowed, unconscously rubbing the other mans hand for comfort.

"There's a man named Shin, she said, I don't suppose you know who he is and what he looks like, do you? She seemed a little worried that he might be angry that I was here, you see."

Sun went red at the kiss, and swallowed hard at the caress. What the hell was wrong with him? I shouldn't be falling so easily... Time for plan b.

The lips quirked into a grin even as fingers traced down the side of his face.

"You talk to me like I'm some forbidden lover, or something."

He suddenly caught the other man's hand and yanked. The surprise would be enough leverage for the moment to pull him closer into Sun's personal space, his hand and arm slinging around a waist, the other still caught up in the hand he'd used to pull. The grip wasn't too hard, but it would catch the other mans attention.

Of course, there was a very real chance this would backfire seriously, but Sun was running out of options.

"Tall, dark, and handsome describes a lot of people, including yourself...what's your name?" If the other man had seriously been expected to flirt, then Sun was treading a very thin culture line, if not he'd get answers. He wasn't honestly expecting this to be Shin, but the flirting was distracting him from important answers.

Without Vahn, Sun might of been lost, but he wasn't completely helpless. The heat in the room grew, not uncomfortably, but noticeably...and his skin was warm and dry to the touch.