Welcome to Gaia! ::

Wellspring seemed a bit conflicted by her statement as he glanced up at sky, now a lovely mix of reds to reflect the setting sun. Part of him felt the need to one-up her - she couldn't have had as boring of a childhood as him. Had she ever tried being a water-bound paeson living in a decidedly landlocked tree? His adoptive parents had done the best they could for him, he knew that, but it hadn't made the experience any less painful. How could he reliably make and maintain friendships when he couldn't hardly move anywhere. Until he had somehow grown out of it, it was terribly painful.

"Not sure if running into you at that party was really all that interesting," as far as he remembered their first meeting, not a damn thing was fond. He'd kind of hated Aurelia's guts, both somewhat intuitively (since she was a blood pae'il) and as a result of their actual interaction. If he could tell his younger self that one day he'd be having a date with the 'b***h' that'd been so intolerable before, honestly he might have even laughed at himself.

Funny how things worked sometimes.

Shoot, he'd trailed off in his thoughts. Back to the conversation... warm easily? "In the water I'm pretty good with whatever, but I don't like the wind so much. It's hard to explain... but it's almost like a different cold." The fire would be preferable, though honestly the idea of snuggling into that tail of hers warmed by the fire sounded even better was definitely not a thought he was thinking.

He stood beside the blanket, quite obviously refraining from sitting, as she prepared her fire pit. That said, Wellspring's actual knowledge of this sort of thing was clearly lacking. "Rocks...? Why would you need those?"

"Wait, next date? Can't we finish this one first?" Aurelia must have been playing 3D chess or something because Wellspring was admittedly still trying to get through one date without just being mean. Actually.... Wouldn't this be their second date? Like yeah, they'd f----ed at Las Venus three years in a row now, but only the most recent time it happened had they'd intentionally gone, like, together together. Actually, wasn't this the first time he'd met with her outside of that. Oh Laisidhiel if someone from the Spring or Tree happened to see him.

Off to the dungeon with him it'd be. Forever.

Well, he'd lived a life outside of it at least.

Honestly, Wellspring should have been mildly impressed that Aurelia was prioritizing the making of their campfire over watching the sun set, but he wasn't really. Even as the warm tones touched their features, instead he was caught in his own existential thoughts. He'd somewhat absentmindedly responded to her comments as his eyes followed her movements before blinking at the striking of the rocks. He instinctively took a step away from the sparks - "What is that?!"

Like hell she was a perfect angel.

Ahem, that was breaking the fourth wall a bit too early for this rp. Carrying on.

Wellspring awkwardly took a step to the side as she crouched down to get the fire started, mystified at the process. Like, he knew that those in the Tree used fire to cook meat and whatnot for the meals, and even the naiad had their own way of making the occasionally warm dish (albeit mostly reserved for special occasions, given the difficulty). But honestly, he'd not really given much thought to the process.

His mouth might have been slightly agape as he watched, and his eyes certainly widened as the flames caught on the tinder. If Aurelia was apt to ask for a high five from Wellspring, he'd give it with his hand. In a kind of mystified, probably stupid-sounding tone, he just commented with, "Woooooah...."

Blushing brightly at her comment, all the way to the tips of his ears, he took a step back and attempted to move out of her way. "Uh, no, not really. We always had community-held meals in the Tree, so unless you were a cook or something, there wasn't a need to." Plus it was kind of hard for him to cook with a claw and all. "Same sort of idea from the Spring, but the naiad don't really cook most of their food per say."

By the time he was done talking, there were now two fishes skewered beside the fire. He'd opened his mouth to ask what 'camping' was, but quickly shut it with a light flush of the cheeks - he didn't want to keep sounding stupid. Instead he tried to diflect to the rest of the convo.

"Uh.... S-Sure...? What did you bring?" He stood a bit aways from her rather than taking the initiative to sit down

Wellspring offered a half-hearted shrug. "Maybe? I wouldn't know... And don't really care to know." The city was exclusive to the blood pae'il after all - not only would he never be allowed in, but even the thought of such a large concentration of them was almost nauseating. The sheer density at Las Venus was bad enough, but that sounded truly horrid. This may have slipped into his tone a bit.

Realistically, though, just as he could never visit the City, Aurelia would likely never visit the Tree or Spring. Even if they had kids one day, they probably...

Wait, hol' up. He was getting ahead of himself. Even with just very theoretocal musings, there was such a thing as so far. And too far was that vine of thought right there. Back it up, back it up.

At least the fire was well and thoroughly going now.

As for their snacks, he was familiar with a few, having seen them around Last Venus and all. That said, he was less familiar with the taste. Wellspring offered a nod and sat down a solid 3-4 inches away from Aurelias body. "What are you doing to the 'orange'?" Was she gonna waste food - that seemed mildly out of character.

The fact that Aurelia admitted she had no real desire to visit the City was a bit of a conflicted moment for Wellspring; on one hand, he would have been able to use that as a reasonable excuse to stop seeing her for any further date(s), in the other, he was moreso relived that would never happen. Oh Laisidhiel, his mother would certainly panic if she ever learned he'd just thought that... Though perhaps the fact that he was, you know, *here* was altogether more damning.

Oh, she didn't like the taste? For such a glutton, that was highly unusual - how bitter could they be? "Sure?" He said softly as he reached over, scooting just a bit closer to her at the same time, and picked up a peek with his hand. The meat of the fruit he gently accepted with the side of his claw.

One small nibble was all it took for a very obviously upset expression to form on his face. That was nasty. Bleh. No thanks. Without saying a word, he stood up and threw the offending peels towards the water (though they admittedly didn't make it that far). Once he sat back down, he took a bite from the fruit instead and mildly panicked as fruit juice squirted this way and that. This one was so sour! But sweet! Oh shoot, had he squirted some on her?!

Wellspring sighed an internal sigh of relief that she made no motion to indicate she'd been spritzed. With a nod, he took note of the flurry of seeds that were hidded in the flesh and, prior to taking another bite, nimbly cut out the ones remaining with his claw. "Thank you for the heads up" now finished. "A bit sour, but still good." Faun and naiad dishes didn't tend to use much citrus, so the flavors were strong for his palette.

Thanks to the fire, his skin and hair had fully dried by now and rested softly on his back. Where before his mother would do it up, he'd had to learn how to weave the braids in himself since leaving - not the easiest thing for a one-handed pae to do.

Wellspring sighed as he looked up, the sky now varying shades of purple and littered with the stars beginning to show. The view really was rather romantic. He glanced over to Aurelia, "How do you know when the fish are cooked?" He would honestly be fine eating them raw - that was why he'd brought them still alive - but those who didn't live in the Spring tended to be wary of doing such a thing.

Looking back up at the sky, a secondary, minor thought crossed his mind. Man. He was gonna have to sleep on the shore tonight, wasn't he?