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While there had certainly been trees in both Zena and Tale they paled in comparison to the monoliths of Jauhar. Great pillars of reds, purples and blues cried out from the earth in their journey to the sun. Even as the land shifted beneath them, edging the pair slowly into the jungle itself, he still hadn't been able to get used to the sight. Vines as thick as his arms hung everywhere and the first time he'd seen a shifter casually use them as a bed leagues above the forest floor had been the day his fear eclipsed any curiosity.

In those early months a lingering exhaustion had claimed him. He'd gotten sick shortly after the bounty hunter's attack - so sick that he'd relied on Ygraine far more than he would have liked. So much of their trip here Asa could barely remember, but in time he had recovered. Not nearly so much as he was any help to her fathers what so ever; at least, in the traditional sense.

It just so happened that her fathers had three little toddlers to care for. Two sons and a daughter; all of which had far more energy than Asa. Now that Ygraine was much further along with their child she was in far too delicate a state to chase after them and....well...since Asa couldn't help provide for her family as a proper man should he'd offered to help watch the kids.

Which, more often than not, left him in a sweaty mess by the time they decided to nap. Little Siel was sprawled out ontop of Asa's lap, happily dozing away, while the other two were happily tucked away. His breathing was labored, as it often was these days, and he knew he needed water, but...well...if he woke Siel then he would have to chase the boy and Asa just didn't want that.

Asa hadn't known exactly how to act around Ygraine's fathers. Meeting her brother had been intimidating enough when they'd passed through his lands on their way out of Zena. If not for Sol then Asa wouldn't have had the herbs necessary to make the trip, but this...this was a different sort of trial.

Perhaps it was because his own father had been so dismissive that Asa found himself working so hard. Callum was easier to get along with. The man had an air about him that said he could make friends with anyone, but Asa knew better. Whatever he truly thought of him he was keeping to himself and yet he was still engaging. Nimueh, however....

Did he resent Asa for getting his daughter involved in his problems? If they were caught she would be blamed for everything and the consequences would be dire. Was he angry that he'd gotten her with child out of wedlock or-?

His head snapped to the doorway where the great hulking frame of a man was trying to squeeze into the tiny home. Goddess, but he was a terrifying sight. For a moment he was content to simply sit there, quietly, minding himself, but then those eerie golden eyes turned his way and Asa's heart stopped.

"Fo-forgive me, I was just putting him to bed." Asa shifted the sleeping toddler so that the chubby boy was laid up against his shoulder instead. Getting up was...admittedly far more awkward an affair than he wanted it to be, but he did it with as much grace as he could muster.

"....I didn't expect you back so soon or I would have had tea ready. I could prepare it for you, if you'd like?"

There was a humidity that clung to nearly everything in Jauhar that Asa couldn't quite get used to. He'd learned techniques to mask the cold sweats that often came over him, but this? The man always felt damp and coupled with actual sweat from tending to three active, large toddlers he really needed to change his shirt...

At least, in his eyes he did. He felt absolutely disgraceful, but to be honest he looked little different than any other natural Jauharian.

"Tea..it is." He just...and so easily, at that. Then again, Nimueh was an absolute mammu of a man and one that put Ygraine to shame. He'd always thought his lover to be a rather healthy young lady, but this... Catching himself staring, Asa cleared his mind by exhaling and moving on to the tea.

When Asa came back to the sitting room, carefully holding on the tea tray, there was a smile on his face. "The first time I ever made a cup of tea I thought for sure I must have poisoned Ygraine. She took one drink and her entire face changed colors." Delicately, Asa sat it on the table with all the grace of a nobleman and, with a sweep of one hand to make sure his sleeves wouldn't dip into the liquid, he began to pour with the other. "I thought you might be hungry so I brought dried fruits and nuts." They would dinner with the family, of course, but a snack wouldn't hurt. Once the main cup had been poured he looked to his....father-in-law?

"How do you take your tea?"

There were certain items of Asa's personage that he couldn't bear to part with no matter how much gold was needed. His earrings, for example. They were the one bit of his past life that he'd wanted to keep and it was simply because it was the one thing his father had gifted him that had no practical purpose attached to it. No expectations of future accomplishments, no acknowledgement of a job well done...Just a gift. And thus, compared to his travel clothes, they must have looked quite odd. He'd contemplated getting rid of them before the child came, but...well if something happened to him then maybe they would like to have them?

Asa carefully adjusted the cushion on his chair before tucking it behind his legs and settling himself down at the table. "It had a pungent aftertaste." Taking his own cup, Asa used it to warm his always-chilled hands and added bits of lemon as he talked. Until the head of the house drank neither would he; it was simple manners.

So, when Nimueh eventually tasted his brew Asa followed suit. He'd been 'content' enough just to suffer through the silence until the larger man addressed him and Asa felt as if he'd swallowed sand.

"Undoubtedly." Realizing he'd quipped with thinly veiled glibbness, Asa cleared his throat. When he sat up a little straighter there was a finality to it; much in the same way he usually got whenever Asa spoke of his own death or political affairs. "If you have questions I will not tell falsehoods, especially since I've involved your daughter in far more than she should have been. I understand your disappointment and your anger, but I would hope that any discontent is with me alone."

Taking a risk, Asa quipped, "To be fair, sir, you've not given me reason to believe you won't." There hadn't been any warmth between the two of them and while Asa was more than understanding of it he was having to fall back into old habits just to get by. If he could figure out what sort of man Nimueh wanted for his daughter then he could act accordingly, but until then he was left spineless and nervous.

For a while he simply sat there after Nimueh spoke and let the words sink in. He took a steady drink from his cup, letting the warmth simmer in his throat before slowly lowering the cooling vessel. "She needed me." He said at length. "I knew I was being selfish by speaking so freely with her, but Miss Ygraine spoke to me and not to what I could produce."

Asa sat back in his chair and pulled the edges of his shawl closer, still fighting the occasional chill even in Jauhar. "I did what I could to repay her kindness."

The spill didn't bother Asa so much as Nimueh's method of cleaning it up. Accidents happened, a fact that he was getting used to, but to ruin your tunic your like that...The distress would have been clear on his face for a moment before the young scion bit back his words. It's fine, perfectly fine, and very normal.

Please never do that again.

"If I may be so bold as to say it, I would marry your daughter if I could." Asa admitted frankly. "If I were able to give her the sort of life she deserved then I would, but I'm not in any position to do that." She should have had a manse of her own with fields a plenty to roam. Forests in which to teach their child how to track and hunt, rooms with plush rugs and thick desks to teach their child how to outsell competitors, hearty meals every night...

"I don't have much of anything. I have little coin to support her, barely enough skill to start a fire and no where near enough time to be here...Still, I want to make her happy with what I do have. Which brings me to this."

He was so nervous he could have fainted, but Asa knew if he didn't say it now he likely never would. "Will you teach me how to be a father? I may not get the chance to raise them, but...I want to help as much as I can."

It had taken Asa quite a long time to be able to look at Ygraine properly because of her eyes. At first he had thought it was simply because her beauty eclipsed everything else in the room, but a part of him acknowledged the truth. Aishan eyes were very commanding in their lack of pupils. There was a void there; one that was both eternal and surface deep all at the same time.

His concession was surprising and it showed. For a moment Asa's guard dropped, almost as if he'd been expecting harsh criticism that never came, until the other man leaned forward. That felt like something his father would do and Asa's fingers clenched around the cup.

Something in him shifted as Nimueh talked. Like a cord that lost it's tension or perhaps even found something to hook onto. "Until I was seven I was never allowed outside of my room except to attend parties and only for a few hours at a time. My only friend was the elderly healer in charge of keeping me alive until I was old enough to sow my seed and die."

Asa leaned forward himself and leveled his eyes with Nim's. The sight may have unnerved him, but he wasn't afraid. He didn't have time to be. "When I was thirteen my father thought it appropriate to hire a lady of the night to spend the week in my chambers. He wanted assurance that I could perform; that his investment would pay off." He could still see her clearly. The low cut, threadbare dress, her criminally jaded face..."I slept on the floor all week and paid her extra just to shake the headboard and scream."

It was embarrassing to admit, but the truth often was. Asa had been terrified just to look at her and she hadn't been shy to show him what she had to offer. When it was clear he didn't want her affections she'd been happy just to have a weeks worth of meals and a warm bed.

"Every day that I wake up by her side I'm terrified that I'm having another hallucination. That it's a fever dream and when it breaks she'll be gone. And I don't....I'm sorry, I just don't understand why you would condone that." When he sat back Asa was clearly exasperated and the chill was starting to make sense. He had a fever, a low grade one, but a fluctuation in temperature all the same. The man had clearly been running too hard and instead of worrying him it just made him aggravated.

"Hearing you talk about your children and your husband just makes it worse. They're precious to you and you should be throwing me out instead of telling me to marry her."

Asa couldn't help the way he settled back with a doting smile. "I know that all too well. I've tried to get her to leave me behind multiple times, but once she's got her mind set on something she can't be swayed. Sol told me I may as well save myself the headache and just go along with it." The one time he'd mentioned Ygraine's stubbornness around her brother the other man simply laughed in his face.

"She's bossy; always has been."

He watched as Nimueh rose and, recognizing what cabinet he was moving too, felt a flush of another sort decorate his cheeks. There was a sigh of resignation that pulled out of Asa's soul; as if he'd known it would come to this, but he really, truly didn't want it to. The herbs would make him sleepy and the last thing he wanted to do was nap when he could be preparing dinner.

Or, well...trying to.

"Pull a sprig from the purple pouch, the one there by your left hand, and the vial beside it. That should do it." The iceling flexed his right hand and with a shake of his wrist a 'pop' of blue flame sprouted from his fingertips. He gently encased the teakettle with his hands and warmed up the contents inside.

"I've never been filthier in my life, but you know? It feels nice." Now that the tea within was warm once again, Asa sat back and shook his thin wrist until the fire dissipated. "I don't think I'll ever be able to stomach rodent, though. Callum asked if I had ever tried fire roasted moracker while we were passing through Sauti and when I said I hadn't he looked devastated. Claimed it was a delicacy, but I can't tell if he was teasing me or if it's a nomadic thing."