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Tumbleweeds had more resistance skirting across vast open plains than wind did echoing between Waru's ears. They were also slightly less flammable than his face, if he could've gone redder? He would've. If he could've heard anything other than the resounding cacophony of 'ohmygodshelikesme?!'

That was the mantra which lived in his head, that, and the sound of her warm approval, which meant far more than it probably should have. How many people had seen the ring so far? The woman who made it, his sweet Lainey, and Eion, and -- how many people would Ei show it to?

"You really think so? Would you believe I nearly lost it -- no -- forgot -- Well...I wanted the proposal to be cute? So I made bath bombs, and the whole Christmas thing happened and then the thing with the - ah - our Rapunzel situation, from work? N then Anna up and left!!" he could've pulled his hair out for that, he'd gone and done 'The Thing' and Eion's sister of choice hadn't even gotten to see the end product!

"There was so much going on, it nearly didn't even happen, and when it did? It was totally by accident - probably because my head went the way of 'Put the expensive expression of love in a soap-rock Waru!'" long dramatic sigh and large hands scrubbing over the heat of his face. He couldn't pick which thing to settle on, she thought the ring was a good idea, she thought he was a good idea. It was a wave of good things n possibilities he hadn't even considered. "Sorry - I just - m'sohappy. Heh, about this too. I get a lotta attention, yanno? Love it, I really do, but then s'hard to know whether it's genuine attraction or window shopping?" probably his own doing since he flirted like he took in air, like it was his first and second language. Having her look him over and state the obvious with such a straight face. ******** him, but she was soo cool!

He was happy to let her scroll through photos at angles, with filters, that highlighted the engraving - which was, really, that he'd picked a pun? It was for Eion though, he woulda gotten it. Probably would groan every time he put it on...It helped that Ei' maybe didn't want anything typical in it, not diamonds, or platinum or gold. Course, he also didn't wanna get branded every time he held his boys hand, so, rocks!

"See, you give me that *look* - but when it's you I'm gushing about to someone else? You'll feel it - you'll be standing in some random room, sneeze three times, and appreciate that you're unforgettable! Even when I'm with all sorts of someone else. That, n I've had not a single soul to gossip with about this!" he was gushing, he was so over the moon chocked full of 'gossip' that he couldn't help but go on about things!

She was right though, absolutely, completely --

His sidetracked thoughts skipped the rails as the waiter came around, he was cowed abit under her endless stare, peeled to his damn core, because she didn't even know his name?! That was - he hadn't even realized that before?! The hell was he, missing the most important parts of meeting people.

"I -- that's -- okay that's ******** fair! Like, introductions...ahm," all soft thoughts as little sides started appearing before the meals proper, dishes for soy, ginger flowers all neatly aligned, dabs of chili dips and wasabi peas. "If I keep calling you Emmy? Is that golden? Do you even like Em's as a nickname? Emilia sounds sooo -" it was pretty, proper, completely and totally her. It rung like queens or high end secretaries; the kind of people who's heels were name brand and maybe also had stilettos in them for real? "It's you, but I always get attached to the most random things...Like! I always go by Waru, s'short for Waruhiu tho; Waruhiu Araullo Ushindi." and why the middle always ended up shoved in there? It just fell out that way, first-middle-last, like it was how he was used to reciting it when it got brought up professionally.

Waru offered a simple shrug, he wasn't like Ei who took down a biography of people - he never shared himself well verbally. "I sleep terribly, my cozy little unit is ten-thousand and one half-done projects....soon m'gonna turn that into two," hands clasped under his chin, the table his elbows restingplace. He mused easily about the endless work they'd need. His place, Eion's, the teams? Did he tell her the details, leave it a surprise? No - she wanted personal and personable. "All my jobs are odd, none of the work is regular. If anything, Mrs. Asher, you're probably more interesting than me? Like, you've probably got cute hobbies besides reading classics n collecting your hero's autographs? How much did that 'note' cost you anyhow..." not that he cared about the dollar value, no, not so much as he wanted to prove he'd been listening. Even lap deep in kitty confusion - he couldn't've missed that she wanted to buy a thing she'd thought she'd lied about?

Something like that - he was never good with truth or dare games.

"Could be Emmy, could be? Only one way to find out." if he'd been born with a tail, it would've been wagging. The way she annunciated his name, couldn't be a coincidence, n he couldn't have cared really, if she'd gotten it wrong, right, but the fact that she said it so pretty? That she knew how to say it.

Hell, if she hadn't had his full on attention before? She sure as heck had it now.

"Lookitchu, a little Princess Toadstool? Speed queen..ohman, maybe you two could run a joint thing sometime? Like, cross-platform s**t? Idunno the world of - ah - gaming...I mean, not beyond that of yer basic mainstream knowledge n such." all his scattered musings, playing with chopsticks n the placement of soy's. How juxtaposed, opposite, it was to her perfect focus. Her confidence caught him again, and Waru wondered if ever he'd met a woman before who so much reminded him of a hawk, an owl?

Wise, sharp, enticing...

"Ohkay, maybe not boring, but everyones got their own intrigues, yeh? I'm more outdoorsy, probably? I like obscure parties, n getting in over my head with damn near everything. Oh! I bounce at clubs, got this one that my girl works at, too. Gives me something like a semi-regular gig in ways that don't interfere with -- uhm - all the other things.." vaguest wave to the obvious goings on that was their shared 'job'. "...that being said, if games are life, then what's your go to for downtime?

“C’mon Em’s, if you do? I’ll watch in person. Haru’ n Hina’ve got an okay place. It’s always fun to head over n sit sidelines - cuddle up a body pillow n watch them compete. Hell, stick you two together? The commentary alone’d probably make some kind’uv bank.” he watched for ‘content’ - to support his favorite girl, her sweet as hell baby bro, but more importantly? It was a nice easy way to check in on the team without seeming like he was hovering.

Hina was a big girl, had even bigger brains than she did a proper viewership, but they didn’t keep him from worrying every now n then that she was doing ‘okay.’ To have that kinda unfettered access to Emmy too? To know a chat existed he could quietly drop into at late hours - throw a bit or two her way — it made some part of him deeply happy.

“Hobbies, taste, the job, the side hustle that is our ‘other job’. Normally I’d say you were too classy to come play in the woods with someone like me…” because people didn’t deserve to be dragged into his shenanigans unless they were willing, even Cela had his limits on how much bright, shiny, ******** he was willing to take in n deal with at any given time. “…but maybe you could be into that too?” Maybe she could be into it the way he was into clubbing, and strange eateries. “Mmh, or something a little more Prada and a bit less wild. I should take you to the beach! Cook you something fresh-caught —- cause I like diving as much as I like playing in the mud. N you look like you could use a spa day or two.”

He thought of all the things he enjoyed. Like cooking, like — and her food looked divine. Even the way she ate it — all manners between bites and daring stares. The eel-rolls that got slid before him were too tempting, and he was a heathen for demanding fried calamari, but the way it got fried properly at the good places? Chewy sticky squid bites of deliciousness; the thing got stabbed onto a stick and unceremoniously dipped into spicy Mayo.

Flattery would get her *everywhere*, as easy as he was for genuine intrigue? For *attention* - and oh was he ever easy for that. The way she pointed out his attributes? Waru gave her warm smiles while he speared a piece of squid, sopped it in chili sauce, sucked it down. Enjoyed the bounce of it that told him it was freshly caught, fried to perfection.

The chopsticks became toys as easily as everything else that ever ended up in his hands did - things to play n point with. “Y’all’s viewers could watch you both kick my a** on the big pixel screen. Heh, Hina gets into some hinky stuff — all edges of that 18+ crowd. Could do something with that? People like to watch the hot guy lose to the pretty pair of girls.” n was it terrible that he could already imagine Emmys gamer face? Stern, steely, cold, compared to Hinas soft smolder - both smart enough to sass each other in hyper-intelligent ways while he sat as a pillar of ineptitude, dead center. <********, but he would’ve paid to see that any day.

“Would I! Hell, a beach, a spa,” dribbled a bit of soy off the end of a stick, over the tip of eel slathered onto rice. “Em’d, if there’s one thing I love? It’s self care. S’the only way to survive all this stuff I think. Every bit of ‘you’, that you give? You gotta take back in-between. Not even three hours from here…there’s places…” he could see them already. Seaweed wraps, mud baths, salt water hot tubs that were divine — boiling up all on beachside resorts. The eel got speared and existed in limbo between two sticks. His eyes lost the track for it to find Em’s, to narrow in curiosity.

“Are you into romantic stuff? Like — I am easy - *restless* - but easy. Asking for all that extra time, not knowing if it’s a persons thing or not? For me, that’s what’s hard. Feeling like I’m taking something up without knowing better.”

Emmy didn't catch feelings, didn't care for feelings, not for how little bearing they had on what she did and didn't choose to do with other people. N Waru? Well, he lived soo much in his feelings so much of the time; was endlessly possessive of the ones he caught, when he caught them. Not for everyone of course, and not all of the time. Cause there were instances when he saw a person n' something in his head just clicked; howled for him to 'go' without a second thought. Random nights of fun, sans consequence, or expectations of returned calls and followups.

The people he invested himself in though...those he loved unconditionally? Ohman, did they ever get to deal with all his unrelenting feelings.

Feelings Emmy didn't have...

At least, not the way he did? He held soft intrigue n surprise as he turned the concept over in his head, and wondered if maybe 'romantic' was the wrong way to phrase things? He'd file away everything else for later; beach dealings, the specific sorts of 'fun' she wanted to have. What that all boiled down to for her, cause it mattered, cause she was important.

"There's this idea....of how there's sensuality and sexuality, yeah? N one doesn't have to be the other, n both can exist together easily as they can apart. S'all the stuff that sits aside from uhm - the intellectual n the spirit?" and he drew little soy squiggles on the clean outline of the cube plate which held his calamari, realized it halfway through, n set the chopsticks aside so he could lace his fingers under his chin and just -- focus.

"The things I'm most into, I think, fall mainly into the one - being sensual. N everything else? S'just maintenance for the rest. Cause I'm vain, for sure, and I like it when people get to enjoy everything I've put in that specific sorta work for. But? I love it, when I get to enjoy all the quite bits of downtime in-between that." he woulda been lying to say he didn't enjoy seeing himself in the mirror. Knew he'd only ever be young the 'once', and ******** if he wasn't gonna get the most out of that, but when he put the peacock aside?

It left him with pantry's full of tea kits, bathbombs, a bevy of quiet meal settings, enough throw blankets to swaddle athousand men in, n incense sticks that littered bits of ash -- oh -- all the ******** over his home.

"Trickles down into things that become important --- what makes you happiest with another person, what makes you happiest with me? All the physicality -- or remembering that you like warm avocado oil with a massage? Doing both, doing neither? Mmph, mapping out where the line is so I don't trip us up on accident?" the wince of concern for the idea that he could crash n burn things without realizing; foolishly. He was so used to clocking people as being one way or the other. Hell, as being both, sometimes. To pinging an emotion n weaving off it. N there Em's was -- all sorts of stunning new, with clean lines, n clear desires, not a bit of messiness in the middle. So utterly fascinating, n how terrible would it have been if he dumped mud on whatever tenuous first chances existed between them.

"S'like...you want our time together to be just ours, yeh? Can do. N you want things nice? Simple enough. N I want --- to spend time with you, just..If it's games -- if it's *games* --" emphasis on innuendo, on the twitch of a sly smile as he reached for his utensils once more. The eel wouldn't eat itself after all. "Being with people I like, s'always felt like watching the sun. Coming, going, and no matter the setting? There's always something beautiful there." the glint of excitement for that, the huff of want. Cause he did. He wanted to see what other little bits of Emmy's personality lived behind closed doors. To watch her eyes flare with unexpected delight or a blush grace her cheeks.

“Heh, like we’re not gonna keep doing this?” bravado on wheels, as if he’d be rude enough to ignore the open door n red carpet laid bare; the whole scene practically had his name on it. Emmys boundless confidence, he wasn’t about to turn that down. Not now — not a second time. “N girl, I own enough oil for an army. Hell, I’ll pull that s**t from subspace if it’s something you’d like…” when in want of Vaseline? Coco butter reigned supreme, but avocado was a close second for him. Especially since it didn’t have the nasty smell of stale olive that he’d always disliked.

He figured she wouldn’t mind, all her preaching of that weird green fruit and it’s many virtues when slathered on toast…not even any ranch topping it.

“I ask, only because, well….I suppose we could work the details out in writing? I’ve had that before.” all the ways he wanted to avoid stepping on toes or staying into the morning when he was meant to be out right after. Maybe she didn’t cuddle? Maybe she — none of it made him any less eager. Set him hungrily seeking parameters instead; like he needed to know the shape of the box he was meant to be working in.

She reminded him of Syrus, they could ******** with each other all day - but his nights didn’t turn into weekends. Their hours together always had a purpose, an end goal, unless n until he inevitably derailed them; n sy wanted his attention, but not his ring. Never that.

“I think there’s some things, yeah, for one? You’re never an obligation, you’re a ‘joy’; n all that quiet in between — s’only if you want it…need it? I could never do it alone. So I find people to fill these pockets of time. Make them the reason I take a moment to just — just be? Having someone to be still for, n spend idle hours with; if I was alone in my own space it’d be unbearable for my rat-race brain to work around.” He chuckled for the truth of that, sucked the ends of his sticks free, salt and eel n bits of rice.

All the ways he was always getting into something, except when he had someone else to care for — then he was busy getting into their things instead.

“Which, so long as you tell me when I’m crossing lines? Like — I can do fun, *physicality*, easy as breathing air. Always believed people needed more n just the one or other to meet their needs? Like — people wise. That way no one has to bear the brunt of any one burden. So m’not gonna up n vanish just cause you won’t weep in my arms about your latest bout of work drama.” slow reassurance, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t been clear as crystal about everything, but he knew he took extra time to catch onto the ends, to catch up to her lead.

“Aside from that? Ems, I think we’ll figure each other out just fine. Might even have a good time doing it.” all the ways he hoped, eyed a passing wait staff n flagged them down briefly for the check. He wanted to take her back — map out conversations in the privacy of her domain. Pick through her terms until he understood best what made her happy. Finding all the where’s, how’s, with whoms, how oftens.