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Aoi had quite a talent, and Lauss nodded as the other essentic explained, not catching on the the fact that, to anyone but Aoi, he was nodding at nothing. At Lee's demand, he'd been learning to keep most of his thought in his head, but now there was someone who could hear all of that anyway. Aoi can here this? Seven-hundred-fifty-eight to the third power is four-hundred-thiry-five million, five-hundre-- Oh, they were moving now? Lauss lifted his broken wrist and laid it on his belly as the wheelbarrow bumped along, careful to not let it get further damaged. By now, he'd forgotten his promise of cotton candy, and simply enjoyed riding along with Rhian at his side.

Try again? Was Rhian not happy to be called "Miss Rhian"? Lauss looked up at Aoi. His brother had been correct. Apparently he knew exactly how to make Rhian happy. Turning back to Rhian, Lauss held his wrist nervously and, as she has asked, tried again. "Just Rhi..." Was he correct this time? For some reason, he found himself looking up to Aoi for assurance.

Rhian barely held back a joyful squeal as the fluffy treat dropped into the wheelbarrow with her and Lauss teacher, and it took her perhaps a minute to successfully devour the entire sweet treat, following which she planted many many kisses on Lauss' nose. "You're so sweet, Lauss-teacher! So sweet, so nice, so special!" Oh yes, the flutterby was positively radiating joy and happiness, though perhaps her delight was a bit too vocal.

Talking wheelbarrow anyone? Well, thankfully they hadn't left Farstep yet, at least.

Aoi simply smiled as the sheer aura of bliss that seemed to envelop the two Protos became all the stronger. This Lauss, he was…amusing, so helplessly enraptured with Rhian, understanding it less and less as the love grew stronger. Hang on Lauss, you’ll pull through this, you will, you’ll have some help along the way, too, and just you wait… You’ll be soaring along with Rhian in no time.

Lauss, I’m gonna go ahead and let you in on a little secret, here… No matter what you say, no matter what you do, it’s you she wants, alright? I know you’re more leanin’ towards booksmarts, here, but even if you don’t understand your feelings, you still feel them. Just say what you feel, and she’ll love every last word.

Noticing the odd looks he was receiving, Aoi covertly made the fern grow a little denser to muffle some of the noise, reminding them both with a little mental broadcast; ‘Ey, lovebirds, let’s lower the volume a tad, eh? People have been startin’ to notice, and it’d take a lot out of me to try and weave a sound-cancel spell around the two of you. We’re almost out of Farstep, too, I’ll be runnin’ a fair bit faster once we’re out of this crowd… Just keep it down a little and no one’ll overhear you as we pass.

And, as promised, the Alter redoubled his speed once he was in the clear, with less pedestrians around as they left Farstep. Green mist, almost like steam billowing from a running locomotive, began to pour from his muscles as he worked them, but he kept it hidden in his clothing to avoid more odd stares. It’s be a pretty big drain to his Source, but they’d make it to the nursery soon enough.

She wanted... him? Her squeal of happiness really just helped him understand more. He hadn't said anything overly romantic just then, yet she was so happy. It was true; it seemed like everything he said made her happy. But hearing that he needed to keep quiet helped him sort out his next few lines for a bit. Even if he could say just anything, he'd have to really sort this out and make it sound good. "Special" wasn't very descriptive, after all.

The noise of the crowd seemed to die down, and he assumed they were out of Farstep at this point. He hummed in an unusual way as he prepared himself. Being nervous wasn't much fun, yet... Wait, he could say that, couldn't he? Well, may as well. "...Rhi is more than just special. I get... very uncomfortable when she'd around. It's quite bothersome." Okay, wrong direction, let's get back on track. "But when it's Rhi making me nervous, I wouldn't want to feel any other way. It's a peculiar combination of happy and dread." That was what he was feeling, correct? He was pretty sure what happy was by now, but dread wasn't something he experienced often. It was difficult, matching a word to a feeling. He was speaking from the heart, yet it sounded like he was reading a book. Then again, it always sounded like he was reading a book; that was just Lauss. "That's... all I want to say, I think." He just wanted to know what Rhian's thoughts were now... hopefully she was still happy.

Rhian tilted her head as Lauss spoke, trying to sort out both his wrds and his feelings. After a long moment of deliberating, she flicked her antennae a bit, and asked, "Lauss-teacher likes but is scared of me?" She didn't quite understand, but while the words didn't sound quite right - and could, indeed, be taken as just a bit hurtful - she focused more on the emotions behind the words, and relaxed after a moment. "No, no, Lauss-teacher's just afraid to make me unhappy, desn't know what to do!" Happiness easily restored - and, to be honest, shot through the roof again - she chirped cheerily and kissed him on the nose yet another time.

"Don't worry, Lauss-teacher; I'll help you get past the scaredness!" At Aoi's announcement, she went quiet, trying to figure out what exactly "Beer hat uh Hursery" was supposed to mean. Finally, not getting it at all, she just asked a tentative, "Aoi-flower? Are we there yet?"

Aoi tapped the edge of the wheelbarrow to get Rhian’s attention to look away from Lauss for a moment. “Look around, Rhi, the rhyme was that We’re At the Nursery. You both should stay in the ‘barrow for a bit though, until we’re farther from the front gate. And my Dad, Elst, was the one to plant almost all of them, Lauss. I only planted a much smaller amount.” And so he wheeled the enamored duo along the cobblestoned path, yelling “Dad! We have company, one Lauss, one Rhian, so I set the sign to ‘closed’ for now, okay? You should come outside, stop messing with the orchid for a bit, alright?” as he passed the Lobby.

He knew the chances of that actually convincing Elst to go out for a while were slim to none, but at least this way Aoi could at least say he tried. His father was still recovering from his burns, and was rather unwilling to allow anyone to see them. But enough of that, this was Lauss and Rhian’s afternoon.

He continued to push the makeshift carriage along until they’d reached the wide area between the two massive greenhouses, covered in ferns and other tropical greenery and bathed in jade light refracted through the mountainous domes of emerald glass around them. “I figure we’re far enough now, go ahead and stretch your wings a little, Rhi. And Lauss, seeing as you’re a bit movement impaired, I’ll just wheel you wherever you’d like to go. Sound good to you?”

Orpheus lay on his back in a large butterfly bush, his tail flicking back and forth as butterflies fluttered about. The whole lot of them seemed to be talking about some kind of party that happened last night; apparently, there had been a lot of drinking and an equal amount of mating going on. Hell, it sounded like one his telenovelas.

Orpheus had been lazing about on the bush since earlier that morning; Verdant and he had been eating breakfast when Orpheus began sighing and gushing about how awesome Aoi was and how cool his magic was and how amazing his body was and the like. As one might expect, Verdant had slammed his head onto the table repeatedly, stuffed the little wyvern inside his messenger bag, and high-tailed it over to the nursery. He pulled Orpheus out and told him to play with Aoi while he went to get something highly inappropriate and sexy to wear to Dorian's house later that night. Orpheus shrugged, flew into the Lobby, and frowned when he saw that nobody was there (as in, Aoi wasn't there). Uncle Elst was there, he could hear, but he was still suffering from his burns and he was not about to go and bother the poor man when he needed to get his rest.

"Sigh... so boring... I wonder if Big Brother's going to buy edible lingerie or not..." Orpheus was contemplating bugging Elst for just a little bit for company when he heard Aoi's lovely voice. And what was that he had said? Rhian was here! "Oh, no way! It's been forever since I saw that brah!" With littel effort, Orpheus took off and followed Aoi's voice.

Aoi watched calmly as his sister fluttered about, albeit nervously as she made a crash landing. He was used to her doing this, however, so he wasn’t too worried. So used to this, actually, that he’d already trained a little in using his magic for healing purposes. It wasn’t much, but he could certainly help fix up cuts and bruises, the small stuff. “Well, I dunno if she’s hurt or not, I mean she looks fine but we can’t be certain until we ask her, eh?” He watched as she piled into the wheelbarrow. “Ah, sure, sis, you can stick with us, no problem. You okay? That was quite the crash.”

He fell silent, though, as his telepathy flared, detecting another mind getting within range. A very…familiar one. A dark flush spread across his face, and he turned away from the wheelbarrow duo to hide it. Nonononot him not him not him I’ll end up in idiot mode or something…

But he was too late to run. Too late to hide. The Wyvern was Coming.