Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I guess that could be interesting, or perhaps just sharp," he had never thought of it that way-that he could be interesting. He'd never thought of himself as anything but an extension of his brother rather than an individual, and now he wondered why?

He laughed out loud at her joke, "That's a good one, bad seer though." He pondered the riddle for a few moments. "They'd tell them they already had her in custody?" He furrowed his brows thinking. He couldn't really come up with anything that good.

"I'm not sure I'm quite as sharp as I thought I was. I confess, you have me stumped." He splashed water at her playfully.

Yakinori felt himself blush as she closed the space between them. His skin felt warm where her breath touched, but when she spoke and gave he punch line, he threw back his head and laughed. His eyes sparkled at her when he finally could catch his breath. "That's pretty amazing joke." He felt the goofy grin on his face get goofier, "You're pretty amazing too."

Why had he just said that outloud? He had said that OUTLOUD! Now he was going to look stupid, not that he normally minded exept now he did and she as goign to think he was an idiot. Calm, be calm, brush it off. Maybe she won't notice or didn't hear. Yeah, well she's not deaf. She definately heard, he was just going to ahve to go hide his head in shame and bury it because there was no recovering from this.

For the first time, the actual first time ever, not just how other would say it, Yakinori felt at a loss for words. The mer beside him was beautiful and sweet. She had a smile that glowed, and he felt as though everything he could say or would say would come off stupid.

"Do you collect shells?" And there you go, another dumb thing to say!

"I love jokes," Could he possibly say anything ever? How had he come to be a bumbling idiot in front of her. Why were all the words he meant to stay transformed into half-idiocy? Why was everything so easy in his head but not when the words actually came?

"Oysters, scam?" He thought, trying to process the joke. "I don't know but I bet it's because their shellfish." Why, why did he say THAT?

He smiled at her joke. At leas she didn't seem to think him stupid or boring, or the fact that he thought jokes with puns in them were the best. She seemed to enjoy them too. "A sweater?" He questioned. He'd seen a lot of little usidia running around with sweaters on, apparently it was some kind of fad that was going on. Every mini under the sun was wanting a jacket.

He'd even seen one with a moose on a sweater! Why one would want a sweater much less one with a moose seemed comical to him. Wouldn't it just get wet when you swam and weigh you down? Why would one want soemthing that would make them drown.

"Erm," he gave a careful thought to it. "OH! I bet they pearl!" He was quite proud of himself whether he was right or not. Funa would love the joke, Funa always did love his jokes even if they were quite terrible. "Am I right?" He asked with a hint of a smile on his face.

For a moment the glow of pride faded, his cheeks grew warm as she looked at him with shining eyes. For a moment, he was thinking what it would be like to kiss her--half expected it to happen. Then she was looking away from him hot and flushed.

He felt his own face burning and turned from her. He reached for a topic to break the awkwardness. "The weather usually like this here?" THE WEATHER? HE DID NOT JUST.

How could he have even said that? "I don't...know?" He offered with honest hesitation. "I didn't know what to say. I mean...you get me all tongue-tied and stuff." And, oh God, he'd just said that out loud hadn't he? This was getting nowhere.

He felt as if his whole body was pink, even the parts that were not supposed to be pink. "I mean," Yakinori searched for words as he stuttered along.

"It's like...you....uhm....take my breath away?" That was it, he was just going to die of embarrassment now. Yep, that was it.

He shrugged, his face a furious pink. "I...I don't know. I mean..." How could he describe it? He felt shy around her when normally he wasn't. He wanted to hear what she said and thought, but felt too stunned to speak after she spoke.

"I, you. You make my heart beat fast. You make me nervous. I'm hardly ever nervous. I mean, I pull jokes all the time without getting caught. I'm cool as a sea cucumber. But talking to you, I don't feel cool. I feel....shy."

He turned his head away a moment. "And I kind of, you know, like it. It's weird. I know but. I mean....what about you?" He really was making a fool of himself, and for once that mattered. He didnt' want her to think of him as a fool even if he was blubbering like one. He waited quietly to see what she said.