FIN [PRP Jauhar] Under Cover of Sunlit Leaves [Tes/Dris]

[Fluffesu]

Teslaron was skeptical. Resigned, but skeptical all the same. They'd needed to move. It was what he'd asked of Dris'rynne lo those few months ago, and it was what he wanted. It wasn't safe for them or their children in Oba, anymore. Dris' work had made her too many enemies. Tes had become a very conspicuous thief. And the girls stood out from among the other children like the oddities they were. Precious, precious little oddities. No one wanted a repeat of the fiasco that had driven them to this decision.

Though current circumstances could be better too.

He'd wanted Malila and his daughter Talori to make the journey with them, and he'd been convinced that he could convince it of the stubborn Water woman. There oughtn't have been a reason for her to refuse.

But there was.

She wasn't afraid of the people after Dris'rynne. She and Talori weren't 'important' enough, she'd said, for strangers to attack them without the Shifter about to see it. She was too 'old' to be traveling, too blind, and she already had a home that she was proud of. And no, she would not give Talori up to stupid, dumb boy Tes just because he thought they all needed to skedaddle. He knew how hard she'd worked to put Lori into a respectable school. He wasn't going to take that from her.

Talori had been displeased. Adenah and Annatha had been displeased to leave her, and Annatha in particular did not seem especially thrilled by the destination. Teslaron had to admit that the jungles of Jauhar didn't especially appeal to him, either.

He'd been through them on the way out of Oba, and then again on the way back in. Of all the places, he'd been, Jauhar seemed the messiest, and the least likely to offer its inhabitants a suitable meal that consisted of anything other than 'bugs swimming in gravy.' It was nasty, unpleasant, unappealing place, and it would not have ever been at the top of his list of places to make a home in.

Unfortunately, it had been 'home' to Dris'rynne for as long as she'd been alive. Oba'd never much counted in that regard, Tes was sure. And he'd already decided that for as much as he didn't want these jungles, he wanted Dris' happiness more.

As well as a select few other things from her, that he was much more likely to get when she was happy.

They'd been here a month. It... was far from the best place to live, but perhaps it wasn't the worst. Maybe not especially easy to grow acclimated to either, full of insects and storms as it was... Oh, who was he kidding? The place was dreadful. He didn't care to live in Jauhar one bit. But when it wasn't storming, and when the weather and temperature and climate was just so, it was manageable. That morning at least, it was manageable.

He sat outside, on the wooden planks of their 'deck,' elevated too high off the ground to be enjoyable, and sipped at a mug of steaming tea.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

Dris'rynne was elated.

The decision to move had been a fairly easy one; her line of work left her with too many enemies to remain in Oba, as much as her daughters would like to convince her otherwise. Neither had wanted to leave Oba, Ani most of all, and Adenah's mood had been terrible for weeks. When all chances of taking Lori with them had been snatched away - even though Dris had specifically reminded her daily that those chances were minuscule at best, anyway- she'd turned into a beast. Tantrums, screaming, throwing a vase...At least her little fire cracker was getting it out of her system, where as Ani was likely to hold onto that bitterness for a while...

She had hoped that the beauty of her homeland would lighten their moods. It hadn't really sunk in for Dris'rynne that she was going home until they passed through the forests at the edge of Oba into shifter territory. When the trees shot up and out of sight, reaching into the clouds themselves and blocking out the sun she felt her heart soar.

The circumstances weren't ideal.

They were still in trouble and any number of bad things could happen here, but that still hadn't stopped her from glowing the moment she saw the first rope bridge, nestled sweetly amid the branches overhead. She hadn't realized how positively, undeniably good it would feel to look out her window and see the bio-luminescence of the jungle. The only sunlight here was what filtered through the tree leaves above, leaving the majority of the jungle swarmed in bursts of color from the foliage and lighted torches stemming from the homes around her.

When she made her way onto the deck Dris'rynne was a mess. A well rested, tousled sort of mess. She ran her fingers through her hair, tugging at knots while unconsciously creating new ones. Her mouth opened into a wide yawn, hitching only when she gave in to a surprising, and unpleasant, belch. On impulse she placed one hand over her mouth, the other going to her stomach.

Sheepishly she looked away from the treeline and down to Tes.
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

'Manageable' the forests may be, but they were still so unfathomably bleak. Teslaron squinted out through the trees. It was early morning, too early for the sun to be very high in the sky, and so, surrounded by cover of trees on all sides, everything was dark. It was day, but everything was dark. To the Water man, who'd lived his entire life out in the open sun, it was eerie. And so, so bleak. But at least if he ever became depressed, he knew he'd have Jauhar to thank for it.

Footsteps behind him, too heavy to be either of his children made him cast a quick glance over his shoulder. Dris'rynne looked... well-rested, to say the least, and Tes let out a hum of acknowledgement at her arrival. "Good morning, Moon Princess," he murmured into the mug held within his palms. If it was going to be like this every day, Tes had no idea what was going to become of his schedule. He was a man for the sun, and this was not the place for that.

With a short scoff aimed at Dris' unexpectedly unpleasant vocalizations, Tes grunted, "No 'excuse me?'" He prompted, tipping his head back to fix the Shifter with a disapproving glower.

"You'll teach our children to behave like savages, if you've forgotten your own manners."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

Instead of moving closer to her boyfriend Dris'rynne stepped up to the edge of their deck, and proceeded to sit. She swung her legs over the edge, allowing them to free fall in the vast, open space beneath them. Her arms found a place to rest on the railing; a bar, of which, resided at breast level to her now prone form. It felt freeing to stretch her legs out front of her, flexing her toes in the muggy Jauhar air, and to feel the moisture already beginning to bead against the back of her neck.

She had never really grown accustomed to the dry heat. At first it had felt nice, compared to the swampy feeling of Jauhar, but it wasn't home.

"You only say excuse me if you're sorry." She turned her gaze away from the trees back to Tes, a slightly devilish grin splitting her features. "And I'm much too proud to be sorry." Dris'rynne pulled one leg up onto the deck and crossed it under her while the other dangled over the edge. She leaned up against the railing, trusting in the firm structure to bear her weight.

"I'm sick again. In the mornings." The shifter added that last bit of meaning to her statement, her grin making her cheeks hurt with the sheer brightness of it. If her words didn't click with Tes then surely the now, thanks to her current position, prominently displayed bump on her otherwise flat stomach might tip him off.  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Teslaron eyed Dris as she stepped nearer to the edge of the deck. He knew she was unbothered by her proximity to that fall, but it didn't and likely never would sit especially well with him. The railing that served as her only support was aged and weathered by the elements, and his woman, gods bless her, was not especially light. He could've told her that there were places to sit just as comfortable farther back, but he doubted she would've taken the comment with much merit.

Instead, he cast a critical eye at her back, hoping that she would glance back at him, see, and understand his concern, and would come to the decision to return to his side on her own. He frowned, "'Much too proud,'" he repeated with a scoff, though that hardly felt like a proper excuse to him.

He had been forcibly raised with manners, and as much as he didn't like to think back on it (and often didn't use them), Teslaron still thought it might be nice for his children to behave like proper ladies, who weren't raised in the jungle. Though he was sure the girls would be as pleased by that as they were by Jauhar itself. Really, being a child was just rife with disappointment and hardship.

As Dris spoke again, Tes' expression shifted to barely leashed anticipation. "I'd noticed," he admitted with a nonchalant shrug. "You're not especially quiet about that, either."

He had been with Dris before Adenah and Annatha were born, and though the situation felt familiar in that regard (besides everything that was unfamiliar about it, like their relationship, their proximity, the forest, their home), he wasn't about to be the one to make first mention of it. Because seeing her unwell shouldn't make a giddy bubble of excitement rise through his gut, and Dris would know what was to come well before he did... But she did look especially delighted about something.

He didn't want to be the one to get ahead of himself. Dris knew he wanted children- his own, that he could actually raise with the woman he loved- but she wasn't devoid of mischief, and he wouldn't put teasing at something so important past her.

Ignoring the perilous drop before them, he edged nearer to her, close at Dris'rynnes' back, and dipped to touch his lips to the curve of her shoulder. "That's unfair, Dris," he huffed. "If you've got something that needs saying, you might as well say it. ...Or at least muster your creativity and put on a show about it. I love some well-managed theatrics."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

"It's not like I can help it." The statement may have been petulant, but it didn't dampen her mood. She had only ever tried to hide her illnesses in the early stages of her first pregnancy, when she lived with her underlings and wanted to keep the entire affair hush hush. Once she'd come to accept it, and started to stay with Tes, it had been a much more open occurrence. Dris had found it was easier to clean up after if she wasn't constantly trying to downplay the act itself.

She made no attempt to move closer to him; instead, Dris'rynne waited for Tes to ease himself closer to her. A board squeaked under the shifting weight, but the shifter was unconcerned, to her the sound was as normal as the flutter of nondwa wings in the night.

Even as he was moving closer she reached up to brush the hair away from her shoulder with one hand while the other waited to receive him. It cupped his head, holding him close as her fingers tenderly massaged his scalp. She hummed, leaning back against him just enough to give the man better access. "Theatrics? I don't think so. I haven't the skill, nor the patience for it." Dris chuckled breathlessly and canted her head just enough so that she could see Tes.

He was trying to hide his emotions, to school them into nonchalance, but Dris'rynne had been in Teslaron's life long enough to see past that. She knew how much he wanted a large family to call his own, and as excited as she was to say the news, she was more curious to see how he would respond to it.

"I'm - We're pregnant." Of course Tes had been with her during the later stages of pregnancy. Of course her daughters were just as much his own as if he had been the sire, but this...this was different. "I haven't seen a healer yet; I wanted to wait a little while to be sure and now...now I'm sure."
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

The boards that squeaked beneath him gave Teslaron pause- he hated this place, hated it, with its heights and sounds and darkness and bugs- but he eased forward anyway, shifting so that his legs were tucked to Dris' side with his chest still at her back and his mouth to the juncture between her shoulder and neck. She tipped back enough to look at him, and he did the same, reaching to catch a hand at her hip.

Just her gaze in that moment was enough to send a quiet thrill up his spine, one laden with anticipation and expectation. They'd been together long enough, he thought, that another child would at least not be as unexpected or supposedly detrimental as her first set. Jauhar was her home. Here, Dris'rynne ought to be comfortable and happy enough that it wouldn't be much of an added strain on them, and he had said (for a while now) that he wanted children... And tried, tried, with all of his power to make it so.

Those words left her mouth, 'We're pregnant,' and a garbled sound that he didn't quite have a name for slipped past Tes' lips.

There came the first question, "It's mine?" Immediately, Tes decided this was unimportant, and likely unnecessary to vocalize at all because whose else's- He shook his head instead, and the hand at her hip wound its way around to brush lightly at the rounder (though not terribly obviously so) bulge to Dris' belly. She hadn't sought a healer yet, and he wouldn't have wanted her to without him, so she couldn't possibly know any of the answers to his questions.

'Exactly how far along is it?' 'Is it a boy or a girl?' 'Is it healthy?'

The one that she could answer fell from his lips before it had even fully surfaced in his thoughts. "Will you marry me?" All but as soon as he asked it, his mouth clicked shut. Color rose to his cheeks with all the speed and grace of a tsunami's wave crashing to shore because that hadn't been where his thoughts were, and there were clearly enough exciting and engaging things happening in the moment without the need for another-

But he didn't want to take it back, for all that there was a resounding sense of unwelcome embarrassment that accompanied the question. He loved this woman and wanted to experience anything else the world had to offer as a recognized couple.

Instead, he tucked a kiss to the swath of skin just beneath her ear, wound both arms about her waist and murmured. "No one has ever made me as happy as you do. I would understand if this isn't a priority for you, if you would rather wait, or if it doesn't interest you at all. But if it does, I want to take that leap with you."  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

[4/10]

That garbled, completely natural sound that eeked it's way out of Tes' lips made her heart flutter. There was no posturing in it; no smooth talking sass, just pure shock. It was, for lack of a better word, cute. She lazily wrapped a lock of his dark hair around her index finger while the others massaged his scalp, in slow, comforting ministrations hoping to bring words to accompany the sound-

-and then immediately regretting it.

Dris'rynne's fingers clenched, pulling on his hair as the smile all but evaporated off her face. "You have doubts?" She angled her face closer to his, so that he could really get a full view of the growing anger and skeptical hurt there. There might have been a pout involved, if she were capable of such a thing. Her hand dropped away from Tes' head and moved to his shoulder so that she could half turn, placing one hand on his thigh, dangerously close to his giblets.

This wasn't how she wanted it. What right did he have to take a perfectly perfect moment and warp it- "Are you stupid?" Dris'rynne didn't mean to raise her voice. Surely the sharp burst would have woken her daughters, maybe even the neighbors but the shifter was having a hard time processing his latest question.

She blinked repetitively, mouth opening and closing, brain stunted by the twists and turns in their conversation. A part of her wanted to scream 'yes!' but the larger part wanted to shake him. "Those two questions don't belong anywhere near each other! Why would you ask me to marry you if you don't think this baby is yours?" Dris'rynne did her best to wriggle just enough out of his grasp, ducking as far away from the kiss just below her ear to really look at him.

"You're such a jerk." Her breathless admission with a breathless gulp. Whether her frustrations were making her eyes water, or the moment itself, Dris'rynne refused to admit that she was misting up. "Why couldn't you have said all that before? Before that stupid question?"
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

"I- ouch, Dris-" Teslaron reached up to catch her fingers against his own because his first thought was that the Shifter woman didn't know she was yanking at his hair. It was an emotional time for both of them, and- Ah, oh, wait, no, she definitely knew full well what she was doing, though exactly why Dris'rynne was angry was entirely lost on him. "Not doubts," he asserted, trying not to scowl back at her. "It only very briefly occurred to me that we never expressly agreed on... keeping to ourselves, and I didn't want to assume anything, if that weren't the case."

In his defense, Tes had decided the question was irrelevant the near-instant the words fell from his mouth, and he did suppose it was unlikely that anyone else might be involved. He eased back, giving her space to move, though still adamantly keeping his hands at her hips. "No, I don't think I'm stupid, I- They clearly do belong together, or I wouldn't have said them as such. Dris'rynne."

He caught his hands to either side of her face to hold her attention and leaned forward to follow after her retreat.

Though she looked all sorts of emotional and seemed utterly intent on belittling him, Teslaron still smiled. "I do expect it's mine, if that's any consolation, but I didn't- don't still, see the harm in asking. Whether it is or not, I'd still love you, still want to make you happy, and still be excited for what we've built together."

"But if you insist on being so hormonal and moody, I could wait to ask again at a slightly more convenient time," he added with a snort of barely-leashed amusement.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

"I thought it was an unspoken agreement." Dris'rynne groused. True, they had never formally discussed the topic of mutual exclusion, but she had always assumed that was just what dating meant. To stay true to your partner and not to stray, but maybe she was just naive.

She pouted, jutting her lower lip out in juxtaposition to the stern look of her eye and the firm set to her jaw. Still, once his hands were framing her face she didn't move away; rather, she stayed close, if unwavering in her moodiness.

"It is." Even though it needed no explanation at this point, she was adamant to state it, just to cement the babe's paternity. After the hard spoken statement, her eye began to soften and as much as she wanted to stay mad at him, it was damn near impossible. Being held like a hyperactive child, forcing her to look at that smiling mug; really, she was bound to break at some point.

"I want to be married before the baby is here." Dris'rynne move the hand on his thigh to the juncture of his leg and lower torso as she slipped closer to him.  

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

Tes snorted derisively and gave a quick shake of his head reminiscent of an unruly animal. An unspoken agreement wasn't hardly much of an 'agreement' at all, leaving many ways for things to be misconstrued or otherwise turned. At any other occurrence, he wouldn't have trusted anything unspoken to pan out in accordance with his hopes or assumptions- And it was why he hadn't checked himself immediately this time. But that didn't need saying now. He had assumed he was her only as much as she was his, and there only came a bubbling satisfaction at hearing it voiced aloud.

"Good," he whispered instead, as he dipped to touch his lips to hers. Such a silly, pouting woman, as beautiful when she was pleased as she was when offended. And if it was his (she'd said it was- said it with those pouting lips), all the more reason to grin.

So as Dris shifted in closer again, Teslaron was too eager to pull her in, snaking one arm up and around the back of her neck while the other locked at her hip and drew the Shifter forward. He dropped his head to her shoulder, nuzzling affectionately as a sound somewhere between a laugh and squeal of delight escaped him because there was no reason not to be giddy.

It was what he'd wanted. He'd told her as much, and had consistently, throughout there time in this jungle, tried to make it so. When he peered back to her face, he was still smiling. "Do you?" Tes prompted with much more obvious interest, a far cry from the attempt at passive detachedness he'd tried for earlier. "I'd thought it might be interesting to wait until after, so that all of our children could be there to see it and be a part of it... But I admit to being unfamiliar with Shifters' marriage rituals. ...And not especially knowledgeable about Matorian ones, either, if I must be frank." There hadn't been many of those happening where he'd grown up.

But that, too, was irrelevant for the moment. They weren't in Matori, so it seemed more natural to follow whichever customs Dris'rynne had been raised with.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

Dris'rynne spread her hips wide to encircle his legs, bringing her against his lap. She kept one hand low against his back while the other slid around his shoulders. The sound that erupted from him was almost too adorable for her to bear; and in response to it, a happy little laugh came from her, totally unbidden and unrestrained.

"I do." She smiled, leaning forward to bump her nose against his. "It's silly, but it's important to me." AT heart, Dris'rynne was an old school romantic. She'd always wanted the princely fellow to sweep her off her feet, get married and have children the traditional way. Just because they'd skipped a few steps in the beginning (even added a few) didn't mean she couldn't still press for a wedding before the babe was born.

"Usually, shifter weddings are a just an excuse to have a big party. The entire village comes together for dancing, drinking, and there are bonfires as big as the trees!" A more solemn look came over her then, and Dris'rynne took a steadying breath, "We don't have to have anything like that, though. Ceremonies like that are over rated, but I just want the marriage itself."
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

"That doesn't give us much time to plan, does it?" He questioned with a wry grin. If Shifter ceremonies were as extravagant as she claimed, or as large as Oban ones (and he had seen one or two of those), then a handful of months wouldn't be enough to accommodate all the preparations, particularly where food was concerned, and if they were to have a big party-

Tes' thoughts came to a quick halt. A big party, with all those people they had as friends. Slowly, the grin seeped from his face, replaced by a tiny, thoughtful frown. He certainly had no great sums of friends or family to invite. Dris'rynne only seemed to get along with half of hers, if that. And though the Shifter populace did not seem to be as racist as some of their neighbors, Teslaron had no idea what their tolerance would be for a couple like them. Would an entire village even come to a celebration in their honor, if invited to do so..?

Tes shook his head and rolled his shoulders. "I'm not opposed to parties," he admitted. "But I don't have experience throwing them. You looked excited enough that it sounds like something you do want, despite what you say... Would it make you happy, if I made vows to you in front of as many of your people as would see us?"

And then another, equally as troubling thought: "I'll need to send for Talori... Do you think Malila will let me have her for even just a little while?" If their parting was anything to go off of, no. But he knew how offended she'd be, if she were left out.  

[Painted Moose]

Fluffesu

"I would want my sisters to come, if we could steal them away from mother. You'll like them; they're just as much of a handful as you are." As skeptical as she was about getting them away from Briza without the shifter woman throwing a fit, Dris'rynne's optimism was strangely growing. Maybe they could have an actual wedding, after all.

"I want it, but it seems stupid to have a big party for a handful of people. Unless we just tell the elder and he invites everyone for us-" She'd seen the old man a handful of times in the market and he had certainly always seemed nice enough. He also seemed the type not to miss a party, no matter how small, so maybe, just maybe...

"As nice as a wedding would be, I wouldn't want it if Talori couldn't be here. She's family; it wouldn't be right. I'm sure if you told Malila why she could let her go for a while." At least, she hoped so.
 

[Fluffesu]

Painted Moose

The corner of Tes' lip quirked up, threatening a smile once more. While he wasn't familiar with Dris'rynne's sisters on a personal level, he'd heard enough tales about them, their exploits, and their importance to the woman in front of him. "I expected at least as much," Teslaron admitted. "And if they were anything like me, they'd escape the confines of their oppressive mother without you needing to steal them, at all." He'd be hard-pressed to believe they wouldn't attend, if bidden, and was only mildly surprised they hadn't been around, yet.

With a quiet sigh, he eased back, propping one hand behind him to support his weight while the other remained idly dusting up and down the length of Dris' side. Quite of their own accord, his eyes dipped as well, from her face to lower: the swell of her breasts, the rise of her stomach, her thighs... "Can you really just expect someone to do that for you?" He asked warily.

It certainly wasn't how things worked in Oba, but Shifters seemed as though they were much stronger family units, anyway, and tended to rely more closely on each other such that they had those type of bonds.

Dris'rynne probably had more friends here than he knew of, besides.

"I'd have to fetch her, myself," he murmured in response to Dris'rynne's assertion about his daughter. She was the only actual blood he had, and it would be cruel to keep her from this occassion when he knew how badly she wanted to be free of the desert, however... "She'd have to travel longer than she'd be allowed to stay, I'm sure. That stupid school her mother has her in- I'll never understand. Malila won't make the trip, herself, but-" Tes scoffed more loudly, this time, clearly frustrated. "I suppose I won't know unless I ask, and there's nothing to do about it now."

"More importantly," he fixed his wicked little smirk on her face once more. "If my Moon Princess wants a party, she'll have one."