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Aoi was humming a rather nice little tune, pleased with having made Shade a little more comfortable in his household, and he re-entered the living room, passing Verdant and-

Wait. What?!

He stood in the hallway, somewhat shocked. If he had a mouth, it would be gaping open at the moment. Verdant’s mind was absolutely blaring his intentions. The shock however, left, replaced with a rather odd little devious laugh. He loved being able to manipulate situations, and even though this turned out to be much more than he bargained for, it was still in the general zone of the outcome he’d predicted, right?

Hearing the water flow to the shower changing slightly, he assumed a certain someone had already gotten in the water…that wasn’t nearly long enough to…hm, Aoi’d need to get Verdant a robe, then, if Verdant planned on just soaking his clothes like that. But that was for later; he was fairly certain Verdant wouldn‘t be leaving that bathroom anytime soon. He walked into the living room, still snickering lightly.

Seeing his fallen fellow, Orpheus, lying on the couch, his eyes widened a little, rather worried for him, and he ran over. Orpheus, are you ok- He stopped, however, upon seeing the empty iced tea pitcher. He laughed a little bit, holding back a giggle fit from the number of…interesting thought patterns he still sensed coming from the shower duo. Oh, heh, I see you like the iced tea then, Orph?” He held back another giggle.

~

Elst, who had gone to get another pitcher of iced tea after seeing Orpheus demolish the first one, returned from the kitchen, setting the pitcher down next to the empty one. He offered the Essentics a quizzical glance. “My, where has Verdant gone off to?” Aoi replied simply; He’s getting some, uh…quality time with Shade, Dad… before collapsing into another fit of laughter. Elst raised an eyebrow at this, and from the sudden change in the flow of the water audible from the bathroom, he pieced it together well enough. Oddly enough, though, he seemed rather unfazed by this; he offered a simple comment of “How lovely.” without saying anything more on it. He seemed to be completely unfazed about just what was inevitably going to happen in that shower.

Aoi finally stopped laughing after a while, though, remembering something. Uh, Dad? Was I supposed to water the second-section perennials today? Then, once again, he was distracted. A rather interesting feature of his telepathy had been the fact that he’d never been able to completely shut it off. He could weaken it, yes, but not cut it off completely. He was likely to be receiving these…interesting emotional broadcasts from Verdant and Shade all day. Oh dear.

Elst thought for a moment. “Oh, yes, did you forget to water them? Maybe you can get in a rain dance while our other two guests are busy christening my shower, then. Grab Verdant a robe while you’re up, would you? I can‘t help but think that his clothes are likely to soon be unsuitable to wear.” He offered a slight roll of his eyes at this, before turning to Orpheus. “Orpheus, will you be needing any help up? It looks as if you’ve rather filled yourself to the brim…good to know the batch turned out well though…”

Elst gave the two Essentics a slight smile over Orpheus’ tea-dilemma, before walking up to one of the many windows to…Okay, what was he doing, anyway. He seemed to be just enjoying the view…fair enough, considering we’re talking about Stares-at-shrubs here; this was a relatively normal thing for him to be gazing out at. “Lovely day outside…I’d offer you more tea, Orpheus, but that would probably cause some sort of explosion and would be an absolute nightmare to clean out of my carpet…”

Aoi, on the other hand, decided to distract himself from the wide array of…rather scintillating thoughts and emotions utterly pouring from the bathroom, not to mention the amplified mind-audio; he got up, and dashed off to his room, returning with a rather expensive-looking miniature portable speaker set in hand. He realized Orpheus would be soon suffering water-intoxication fairly soon, and even if he dodged that particular bullet, it would take a while for him to manage to move, anyway. So, he took what he considered to be the best path; he walked over, gently picked Orpheus up in his arms, and carried him outside, walking to the perennials section with quite some difficulty. [Orpheus was still quite a load for Aoi’s relatively weak proto form to carry.]

He set the gorged Proto on a bench softy, placing the speakers next to him. The music player was already hooked into the speakers, and at the touch of a button, the music began to play. After a couple notes to get synched with the song, the dance began, green mist adorning the plants nearby.

Aoi had almost begun his dance in full, when, suddenly...all other sounds were drowned out in...Orpheus? Holy crap, dude...

Aoi stopped in his track, poking a button on the speakers to pause them as well, a shocked expression on his face. Upon realizing what the astounding noise was, however... Snrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk- He burst out laughing, for a few seconds. He eventually regained his composition, however...or at least a little. Y’know, Orpheus...I was gonna ask if you wanted to dance with me to help the magic work and all...but I’m not sure it’d be a good idea to shake you up any more, you might explode or something... Another, more stifled bout of laughter.

The offer still stands, though... He walked over to where Orpheus sat, extending an arm.

Aoi finally calmed down a bit as he took Orpheus’ claw, but, as he did so an…odd feeling coursed through him for just a split second, felt like electricity down his spine, through his heart, around his stomach. But, for now…he ignored it. He hefted Orpheus up around his neck, the usual scarf-like arrangement, once more ignoring the [although this time it was much stronger] sensation jolting through him. He walked over to the speakers, this time selecting an alternate song, one that could more easily be danced by multiple people.

As the music began to play, introducing with the sounds of rain, a little flute as well, and as the other instruments began, so did Aoi, with gentle rocking, a few steps back and forth, just barely. Okay…we’ll start by keeping you here, so you can watch and get used to the steps, then I’ll let you off my shoulders and we’ll both dance, alright?

Aoi’s usual green mist already had begun to group around them, swirling in clouds to and fro; it seemed to accumulate the most right on Orpheus’ belly.

Okay, Aoi…just ignore the fact that you feel so warm all over, so…giddy…But why was it he felt he could just leap into the air and float off into the sky with Orpheus here with him…? Must just be because the wyvern had wings, of course, that had to have been it…nothing else…

Aoi subconsciously tried to suppress the lovely swooping feeling he felt inside himself…to absolutely no avail. So, maybe…he could just incorporate it into the dance, yes, that would work…no one would notice that he’ll end up making this a dance where the dance partners are constantly pressed together, right?
…Right?

And as the guitar began to play from the speakers, the dance truly begun. He swayed back and forth, like kelp moving in some submarine gale deep under the ocean…His rhythm began to be noticeable; he was trying to make sure that Orpheus noticed that he pivoted back on a tri-beat pattern, every third beat, even if it was silent, was when he turned and swayed the other direction.

Soon enough, the main vocals had set in, and with it started the next portion of the dance. He continued to sway, but every time he arrived at his axis, about to turn around, he first pushed his arms forth slowly, then back, and the mist obeyed the swaying and pushing, moving along with the dancers. As the guitar became just barely faster, and the secondary vocals had begun, a twirl was added to every other turn. The dance was slowly building itself up.

Aoi, overwhelmed by the things he was feeling at the moment due to a certain wyvern, had hardly even noticed that his body itself was feeling odd, energized…didn’t even notice that there was easily tenfold the amount of mist floating around than there usually was; it was actually getting darker around them as the clouds began to gather about them, and the mist only allowed green light through.

All Aoi cared about was that his Orph-, uh…his friend Orpheus was warmly snugged around his neck, dancing with him.

Aoi just felt…so very strange…His body coursed with energy, his form feeling stronger, feeling almost as if it were expanding…in the thick, cloudy mist, his body began to change.

He began to notice that Orpheus felt lighter and lighter as they danced, but…maybe that was just because Orpheus was flapping his wings, maybe he was lifting a little of his own weight. And it all felt so wonderful, he felt so full of life, rejuvenated…and his heart, well…

It felt like a void that had been there all along…had been filled.

So many things were swirling through Aoi’s mind…thoughts, emotions, hopes, dreams, feeling…yet amongst all this were absolutely no doubts, no regrets…Almost a sort of bliss, it could be said; everything was warm and close and pleasant…

What do you mean, Orpheus…I do feel different, though… He didn’t stop dancing as he said this, enjoying it far too much to halt…The growing feeling, what was going on? He felt so much stronger, taller, yet…the mist was so very thick now, he couldn’t even see himself. He did feel a distinct breeze, however.