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Ziazan sat on the desk, perched on a mountain of papers and took survey of the room. The Essentic could only muse that the young lady was as much a slob, in her own way, as its owner. It also figured it'd left the two alone for long enough and flittered back to the kitchen, somewhat surprised at their embrace. Lighting on the table, it cleared its tiny throat. "You promised to return before the evening."

Foalan reluctantly pulled back from Ellandra and looked at the Essentic over the girl's head, not quite glaring at it for interrupting. He knew what he'd promised and knew that it was a good walk back to Farstep, but it didn't make him any more likely to want to hurry and leave. Things were getting good, after all. "Alright, Zia." He looked down at Ellandra, his expression clearly showing his reluctance to leave. "Sorry, lass. I have to go. You'll come visit, though, right? You can bring a change of clothes this time."

"Bring an overnight bag and I'll take care of the rest," Faolan said, a little surprised that they were making plans for her to stay with him again. He wasn't going to point that out, though. He wanted her to be there with him, even if it meant sleeping on the floor again.

Moving away when she stepped back, he headed to the table and scooped up Ziazan, placing the Essentic back in the hood of his jacket. There was a small pang in his chest, but he ignored it, figuring he was just feeling some heartache at having to leave already. After all, she'd be there with him in the evening.

Ziazan got itself comfortable in the hood, peaking out at Ellandra. At the first few skipped beats of Faolan's heart, the little creature moved to put its wings around the young man's neck, trying to warn him. Fao ignored it and pushed it back down in the hood as he walked with Ellandra through her apartment to the front door.

"I'm ready to go now, I guess. You remember how to get back to my booth in the carnival, right?" he asked, stopping in her living room.

"Everything's fine," Faolan lied, feeling the arrhythmia more so now. He was hoping to keep it under control till he was back at Farstep, or at least far away from Ellandra. He smiled a bit, trying to hide his pain. Moving toward the door again, he began to feel dizzy and light-headed and knew then he wasn't going to get much further. "Ellandra, be a love and get away from me." He moved a hand, trying to push her back from him, not wanting to fall on her when he fainted, already starting to collapse. "Crap, not the coffee tab--" He didn't finish the sentance as he lost consciousness, managing to move enough to avoid crashing through the low table, but still hit it with his head and shoulder. Luckily it wasn't as hard a blow as it could've been.

Ziazan flew up as its master fainted, fluttering helplessly above Faolan, having been too small to catch him or even try to stop the young man's fall. It landed on Fao's back, poking at its owner in a vain attempt to rouse him, then looked up at Ellandra. "Make sure he did not damage himself when he fell, then wake him up. He'll be alright after some rest, but we have to be sure he didn't make it worse with a concussion."

Ziazan sat on Faolan's chest, petting the girl's hands with its wings, trying to calm her down. "He has a condition even he's not fully aware of. Not life-threatening, but inconvenient. His heartbeats get irregular and blood flow changes too much, then this happens. Sometimes from over-exertion . . . sometimes just because." It fanned the young man's face with its wings and looked up at Ellandra. "You faint often. How do you normally get woken up after a spell? Do that for him."

"I'm supposing he has, but it was likely written off as something left over from his illness as an infant after being left in the rain when his mother abandoned him." The creature looked up at her. "He doesn't really know much about that, though. He only knows that he was found as an infant, nothing about his mother leaving him in bad weather or . . ." The Essentic shrugged, deciding all that wasn't important at the moment.

Faolan made a soft noise, moving a bit to put a hand to his head, narrowly avoiding hitting Ellandra. "Someone get the name of the elephant that decided to tap dance on my head?" he asked weakly, tilting his head a little to look up at Ellandra, then at Ziazan, noting their expectant faces. "Is it Christmas?"

"Ain't that the truth? I'm not sure I can sit up just yet, anyway," Faolan said, closing his eyes and just giving in to enjoying Ellandra's touches. He moved a bit, fishing a cell phone from his jacket pocket, then held it up to her. "Can you find my dad's number and dial it, please? He needs to know I'm gonna be late."

"I'll talk to him. He's used to this by now, actually, but he'll take it better if he's hearing it from me. Helps him know I'm okay. I'll just ask him to send one of the carts over or something to get me." He moved his head to look up at her. "Unless you'd rather I stay here."

Faolan licked his lips as the phone was handed to him, waiting for his dad to pick up the other end. He reached up with his free hand, gently wiping away some of Ellandra's tears, sorry that he'd upset her so much.

"Speak, and it had better be to tell me you're either about to walk through the carnival entrance or that you can't make it because you were hit by a bus full of nuns," Keagan said when he finally picked up.

"Not exactly a bus, Da," Faolan said softly, still looking up at Ellandra.

There came a disappointed sigh on the other end. "God dammit, kid. Put some clothes on and get back here. I'm sure she won't mind having you back in her bed after you're done with work."

Foalan winced a bit at that, hoping Ellandra couldn't hear his dad's end of the conversation. "It's not like that, Da. I . . . I had another episode. I'm okay, but I'm not sure I can come back tonight. I'd rather just stay here and be back in the morning." He realized he sounded as weak as he felt, so he added a soft "Please." to the end.

Keagan didn't put up with crap, having learned it took a hard man to run a carnival, but he wasn't heartless. He'd known his son had problems since the lad was an infant and knew Faolan didn't lie about having blackouts, not even to stay with pretty girls. "Alright, lad. If you think that'd be best for you, stay there. Call me in the morning to let me know if you're coming back or staying longer, or if you need a ride back."

"I will. Thanks, Da," Faolan replied softly. He was about to hang up, but added, "Also, can you look into getting us some cheesecake vendors at Farstep?"

"I'm going to let the clowns and burlesque girls have their way with you when you get back," Keagan grumbled, though he was smiling on his end. His son's humor was a good sign that Faolan was alright and feeling better. "Keep me posted." There was a soft click as he hung up.

Faolan snapped the phone shut and, after a few attempts, got it back in his jacket pocket. He sighed and relaxed, looking up at Ellandra, moving his hand from her cheek so that he could rest both arms back around her waist. "Hope you don't mind the extra roommates for the night."