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Audric sat up as Azerim burst into the shop, almost giddy with excitement. Wow, it was true. Azerim was a strapping young boy, now. Leaning over Azyre's arm, the little imp smiled at the rocky demon, clad only in suspenders and an oversized belt. Audric's light blonde hair framed his face nicely, curling gently in a way that belied his often mischevious nature. How handsome Azerim ended up! Wow... Audric recalled the event not too long ago, where the oni was just a tottling baby, babbling nonsense, and now, now he was taller than the rest of them!

"I'm Audric." The oni offered from his spot way up on the counter, "We met before." He said then, smoothing out his shirt with one hand. His caretaker entered then, looking thouroughly winded. At the mention of crossing streets, Audric recalled Melek's close call with a car and glanced away. Azyre let out a gentle laugh, leaning his head back to smile at Dark.
"A fine job you did." He said, glancing to the eager oni.

Teak mussed the brown hair of his beloved gently, watching Fresca's eyes blink open sleepily to look at Dark.
"Hello there."

"Yes. But if you have a choice between a slow day and an exciting yet traumatic one, which would you prefer?" Azyre asked, watching the oni's feat with amusement. Marked improvement! Fabulous. While Azerim was never timid, he exuded self confidence and grace now. He didn't seem to suffer at all from the...more negative tendancies that plagued the majority of oni. Shooting a pointed glare to Audric, Azyre sighed. Hatred and anger were wastes of energy.
"Try not to ruin the furniture." He added lamely after Azerim scaled to the counter top.

Audric was staring at Azerim too, cold blue eyes regarding the feat with curiosity. He would admitidly been more impressed had he himself not posessed the ability to fly on condensation, if only for short distances. Why was this one still bald? It made no sense, but his freckles were cute. Audric leaned onto Azyre's arm.
"Nothing." He replied noncomitically. "You're tall."

"Don't we all?" Azyre said, patting a chair beside the counter. His cerulean eyes were gentle and understanding. "Although sometimes it makes you feel a little lazy." He admitted, slouched over like he was with the onis in his lap. Oh well, he was happy nevertheless. The shop was his life, the thing that kept him sane.

Audric grinned. "You're much taller than me, I can say that much."
Azerim then bounded up to Azyre without warning, coming up with some excuse for the table, and volunteering his caretaker to fix it. Typical oni reaction. The exuberence and passion was something not often seen, a welcome respite. Audric, for all he loved timidness, respected Azerim's take what you need attitude, he wasn't afraid. The comment about his hair made him slightly redden as hot blood flushed his face with both embarressment and pride. His hair was his most beloved feature, and to have Azerim compliment him...Well! The rocky oni was already on the ice oni's good list.

But his expression quickly faded to melancholy and he sank down into the shopkeeper's arms.
"What's the matter?" Audric queried. Surely Azerim couldm't be upset about his lack of hair? Or...or tail for that matter, he was tall! And...Had freckles! The dots almost formed a pattern on his brown skin, and, as sorely tempted as he was to connect the dots, Audric instead found himself quietly counting the adorable spots, watching as they wound down from his head down his neck and his back, branching out to the backs of his arms and his barely covered rump.

The only distinguishing feature Audric had was the fact that his hands and feet were blue. Wow, the illustration in the book showed Nereus had blue extremeties too, AND long prettyful blue hair. Audric poked Azerim's lower back, above where his tail should be.

"Why shouldn't I touch places like that?" Audric asked, quirking an eyebrow. He had no knowlege of the social stigmatisms such as that. After all, they were all born naked, and Azerim was pretty much still naked, so what was the big deal? Okay, sure. Audric squeaked as he was tackled by the taller Oni, tumbling down onto Azyre's torso, pinned down. Face reddening ever more, Audric stuttered for a moment as Azerim flexed some of his prowess with his powers. The frosty oni could only shiver as branches of frost spread out around him like white fingers.

"W-well, I like your spots, I think t-they're pretty!" He burst then, having already been facinated enough to count the majority once before. Azerim sat back and Audric leaned up, watching the guantlets of stone point into wicked tips and blunt down again, like a rocky cactus.
"Sure, you can pet my hair." He offered, grinning again. "Though I don't know what it's made of."

"Hair is made of Keratin, a protein produced in the body. It's the same stuff your fingernails are made of." Azyre piped up, watching them with interest, his own green hair cascading down his shoulders like a soft green waterfall.
He reached over and gave Dark a reassuring pat on his shoulder.
"Don't worry too much about it." He said, stretching slightly and resuming his watch of the two oni. Fast friends already.

Audric eeped as he was rolled onto his stomach, little black tail wiggling with anxiousness. His back was turned! O...oh...
Any protest Audric would have made was silenced by the hands in his hair, tousling the whispy blonde locks, threading and shifting them in a way that was absolutely divine. He had to be careful for the little horns Audric posessed, they were quite sharp little devils.

"If I were to follow this pattern of questioning, I'd be talking forever. Suffice to say proteins are something your body needs to remain alive. It just does, and one of the types of protein makes your hair and fingernails. Mull that over." Azyre said, willing to humour him to a degree. He smirked at Dark.

Audric was almost purring under Azerim's hands, reduced from a fairly quick witted sharp tongued beast to a sighing nubile purr box. His long ears twitched slightly, eyelids fluttering. Such sensations! DIVINE!
Reality was a 747 jet that crashed and burned into him when Azerim's finger prodded his spine, causing the ice demon to squeak and wriggle away, embaressed for his own lack of control. For a moment, he was speachless.

Teak peered at Dark, a familiar face and thus not worth a glare. He gave him a buck toothed smile instead, rubbing the soft brown hair of Fresca, who had fallen asleep yet again.
"Enjoying the respite. No republicans coming after us about our selling the spawn of Satan and genetic engeneering whatnot. Although I miss beating the senses out of Fundies." He admitted with a slight shrug.

Audric bored a hole into his own lap with a furious gaze, trying to think up a sharp retort, a reply, ANYTHING! He came up with zip, nada, zero.
"What else can you do?" He queried, a little lamely.

Azyre watched Dark with amusement. He smiled a little sleepily, glad that Dark was laughing. It was good to see him laugh.

Both Oni were quite red by this point, with both amusement and embarressment. Innocently though. Audric had never met anyone so forward, and Azerim seemed to just realize just what he was doing.
"I...I don't know, It just happened." Audric admitted, pressing his icy hands to his face, willing the incriminating flush away. It took a few moments but he finally regained his composure. The hands in his hair had felt nice, almost too nice.

"My hands?" He asked, not waiting for a reply before shucking his coat and rolling up his sleeves, exposing the manifestation of his element from his elbows down, shiny and shimmering blue.
"Iono. They're just skin, I suppose." He said, poking at one arm with the other. His skin had a kind of rough texture to it on that section, due mostly to the accumulation of ice. If the ice melted away, would his hands be the same paleness as the rest of his skin? His tail was still the same soot black. Odd...

"Ice packs." Audric echoed quietly, wondering if he felt like holding his crusty ice hands to someone's sickly face for hours and hours. Didn't sound too appetizing, unless it were his caretaker, or maybe Azyre. He'd make an exception for them, but NO ONE ELSE. At least, not yet. He eeped as Azerim caught his hands and pressed them to the warm brown skin of his face, mentioning how it felt as though he had been doused with water, but not. Audric sighed pleasantly as he let his own hands drift over Azerim's face, curling around the back of his head, thumbing gingerly at the stone horns, a gentle smile drifting over his cherubim face for a bare moment of peace.

Their skin was very different, but Audric never thought to question why, it didn't really matter. It was just how things were, and he accepted it happily as being a benifit of being different. He'd dislike it immensely if anyone looked just like him, so he didn't bother with asking why.
The hyperactive Oni's voice broke into his reverie and Audric pulled his hands away as Azerim began dancing about and jumping up and down.

"Hey, tone it down." Azyre piped up, wincing at the little demon bouncing along his torso. "I'm not a trampoline, or bounce mat." He said with a grin.

The cold oni could only nod. Once again the intense stare came over him as the smaller Oni tried to read Azerim's thoughts, or perhaps just his body language. A game sounded like fun, and any excuse to spend more time with Azerim was perfectly fine with him.