Welcome to Gaia! ::

"You could feed it to me," Fao said, though it wasn't clear if he was teasing or not with his grin. "Or you could show me where you keep your plates and silverware."

Ziazan floofed its feathers up at the stroking then waddled around on the counter, trying to figure out where they were now.

"I would like that, but there's other things that would be more fun," Faolan murmured, before managing to stop himself from saying anything more on that train of thought. He didn't need Ellandra throwing him out. He opened the cheesecake container and used one of the forks to plop it down on a plate, then set it before the girl before doing the same to the other cheesecake for himself.

Ziazan hopped off the counter, fluttering over to the table. It looked back at Ellandra. "Everything is of interest when all objects hold a story." With that, it flew off to the other room to explore the small apartment.

Faolan watched the Essentic leave, then looked down at the slice of cheesecake. The girl had said it was good and he took her word for it, not that there were many types of foods that he didn't like. Just ask the vendor at the stand that had the chocolate-smothered, deep fried twinkie dogs. He took a tentative bite and smiled. It was good.

Faolan nodded his head, swallowing. "It's not what I expected. It's very good." He motioned for her to come closer, not sure why she was keeping her distance. "Don't worry on Zia. It'll be okay. If it can survive living with me, it can survive anything."

"More cheese?" Faolan chuckled, putting an arm around her to pull her close into an easy hug. "Don't worry about Zia, love. Its just curious about its surroundings. I won't be asking anything about what it learns from your place. I'd rather learn about you from, well, you."

The young man couldn't help but feel happy that Ellandra stayed in his arms. He'd expected her to push away or become flustered, but she seemed more easy around him now. Maybe that was a good sign that it would work out between them. "Think I might ask Da to see about there being a cheesecake stall added to our list of food and drink vendors."

He rested his weight back on the counter more so Ellandra could rest against his chest and sighed, completely content. This was so different than how it usually went when he found someone he fancied, but he decided he liked the slower pace of the pursuit. There was something here with this girl that he didn't want to screw up.

Moving his head to look at the door Zia had exited earlier, Fao shrugged slightly. "I never discount what the Essentic finds interesting, honestly. It has a mind of its own and developed a personality fairly quickly. If there's something to interest it, Zia will find it."

"More kinds, eh? Hm. I'll talk to my dad when I get back about it," Faolan said softly, moving a hand to stroke Ellandra's hair. He really did think she looked cute without the hat. She might not be beautiful like the women at the carnival, but there was something about her that shined brighter than any person he'd ever known. At least in his eyes, anyway. He'd seen it the moment he saw her last night when she walked by the booth. At first, he'd figured she'd been someone he could easily take for their money, but when she'd come in the booth, he knew it wasn't that at all. There had been something about her he wanted to be near. It was almost tangible, this inner-light of hers.

A soft chuckle escaped from him at her next words. "Ah, lass, you let it go that route and we're likely to take the whole of your home back with it." A thought occurred to him then, some impulsive little idea that for once did not seem like it would be wrong to act upon. He looked down at her, golden eyes meeting her gray ones, a smile that was half playful and half something else tugged at his lips. "And what if I find something that I'd like to keep?"

Fao smiled, not saying anything. He didn't trust the words that might come forth if he did speak. Instead he let his actions do his talking, cupping the girl's cheek gently in his hand and tilting her face up as he bent down, kissing her gently. He kept it chaste this time, not wanting her to balk as she had earlier.