Welcome to Gaia! ::

He remained a respective distance behind her as she made her way up the stairs, finding himself momentarily dazzled by the lights -- though they were not the lights he had been expecting from the shops nearby.

Casting his eyes skyward, as Nani was, he found himself similarly in awe. He hadn't thought that, in the heart of the city, it would be possible to see this many stars. Usually you had to go way out into the ozarks away from all of the glare.

And yet, here they were.

His eyes flicked to Nani as she chuckled and then back skyward. "When I was little," he said. "my mom used to take me out back to look at the stars when it was too hot to sleep some nights. She used to say each one was a planet....we kinda made a game out of me pointing them out and her telling me what the people were like there."

"I always liked the woods better." he said agreeably, even as she stepped away to twirl, making him grin. "Probably why I spend so much time there before it gets too cold."

A chilled night breeze touseled over them both, as a gentle but frigid reminder of the winter months to come.

A whole winter of being holed up with Phae, his mom, and the fun-killing Ogre. Oh goodie.

Shaking that thought away, he turned his attention to her again.

He watched in silence, making no move to interrupt her for the moment as she moved and hummed along with the music. Had it been anybody else, he would have thought they looked silly.

But watching Nani, dazzled in starlight, hidden in half-shadow of the late evening, she seemed to be very much in her element.

At length, he stepped up behind her, his arms encircling her to place his hands over her own and hold her lightly to him.

The words had jarred him a bit, and he'd no sooner opened his mouth to ask what she'd meant, when they were interrupted by the melodic voice of their hostess once more.

Part of him flared in immediate annoyance at the intrusion, but just as quickly, it was gone again. It wasn't HER fault....she was just doing her job. He turned back to Nani then, holding her for just a moment longer before kissing the side of her head.

"Back inside?" he inquired.

It was nearly an hour later before they emerged from the warmth of the restaurant back outside to return to the car. A good number of the shop lights had gone out, their patrons and staff gone for the night, leaving the streets much less vibrant than they'd been earlier.

To Zhane, however, the world stood out moreso now than it ever had before. And it felt to him that he had every reason to feel that way.

As they arrived at the car, he removed his arm from around her to fish the keys out of his pocket. Doing so, he paused to give his watch a glance, finding it was almost nine. ....was it really? Had they really been out for hours? It certainly hadn't felt it...

"I don't think I've ever had an entire evening go by that fast, how about you?" he asked, giving her a smile as he punched the button on the keychain to unlock the car and reached to get her door for her.

His hand lingered on the door handle for a minute before he closed it for her and then rounded the car to get into his own seat. Once he was behind the wheel he moved to put the keys in the ignition, then paused, as if thinking about something.

At length he chuckled. "Guess its wrong of me not to want to go home..." his eyes shifted to hers. "I mean, I dunno....its not like we can't do this again sometime soon. Really soon." he corrected himself.

The truth was, after their evening, the idea of going back to life as it was under his roof made him want to crawl into a hole somewhere. Spending time with her only made him want to spend MORE time with her...

Clearly, there were not enough hours in a night.