Forest Lzrds

    Going through the forest, one will eventually run into... a sight that might be considered unusual. At least considering *who* happens to be the subject of the sight in question.

    Namely, Atif. The usually energetic Salamander isn't running through the forest this time, or going through any katas. Instead, he's found a portion of the woods with sparser tree placement, and a beautiful spread of flowers along the ground, and...

    He's laid down on the ground. On his back amongst the flowers, arms spread by his sides, just... serenely staring at the starry sky above.

He's already staring upward, so it's hard to miss the tall form that eventually comes to lean over him slightly, pigtails hanging over her shoulders from the forward angle of her body. "Well now, fancy running into you out here." It might be late but her combination of colors makes Vertina stand out fairly well from the dark skies above them.

    "Ah!" Atif squeaks out, jolting a little from the surprise where he lays down before propping his upper body up by his elbows. Well, not too much up with her basically right over him, though. Eyes blink at her, and he smiles sheepishly. "...Fancy seeing you sneaking up on me."

Vertina smirks. "I wasn't sneaking, you weren't paying attention." She stands and looks up. "Though that it quite the distraction." She steps around to the side and sits down on the ground as well. "Didn't mean to block your view."

    "Same difference!" Insists Atif with a quiet (but amused) huff. When she settles down besides him instead, he straightens himself up further, so that he's sitting instead of laying down. "I come down over here sometimes to just think abotu things," he admits, with a peek up to the sky. "It's quiet here."

"Yeah, I can see that. Not too far from the town, but far enough you're not going to wander into a lot of other people. I was just looking for botanical spawns, myself." She tilts her head back a bit to look up as well. "I've had too much time in my life to do nothing but think as it is. So I try not to do too much of it when it isn't necessary."

    "Oh," Atif lets out in a quiet sound at those latter words, eyes sweeping down from the sky to regard the other Salamander, with just the faintest hint of sadness. "...I kind of get stuck thinking about things too much too, tell you the truth..." Shoulders roll around slowly. "We don't gotta just sit around here if you'd rather."

"No, noo no, sitting is fine." It's Vertina's turn for once for the slightly awkward laugh. "I need to slow down and pace myself more often. But I get too wrapped up, you know, being able to -do- physical things again."

    "I get you," Atif allows. There *is* a bit of a curious peek at the change in the source of akwardness, however -- but when that peek extends to a longer look at the other Salamander, there's a small, warm smile. "This can be pretty nice too though, right?" Eyes wander back upwards, giving a light sigh. "This world can be pretty beautiful when you just stop to look at it, you know?"

"Yeah... yeah it is." Vertina leans back to prop herself on her arms. "Stop and smell the roses as they say... I kind of forget to do that. Being able to be active again, to get the excitement I've sorely missed in fighting monsters and facing other challenges. Gets me going and I don't think about slowing back down after a while."

    "I know how that feels," Atif says, a bit thoughtlessly-- right before doing a bit of mental backpedaling. "Uh, I mean... not the same way, I imagine. But I understand the excitement. It's... most of it's things I could never do over on the other side."

    He tilts his head slightly to one side, before he raises one knee up, resting a cheek onto it while looking to Vertina. "You seem to do just fine with slowing down with me. Even if we do get up to some high-speed shenanigans too."

Vertina laughs. "Different kind of not slowing down, but true." She resumes looking up at the stars. And trying not to think about if they are actual stars or just some elaborate background rendered above the sky. That would just make her head hurt.

    "Eeeh?" Atif's eyes squint a bit, and then he shifts his leg to guide his foot to nudging lightly at Vertina's shin. "Different kind of slowing down hooooow exactly?"

Vertina leans over a little to give Atif's shoulder a poke. "I am sure as heck not physically slowing down when we're racing, that's how." Oh, she's making a kinda dumb joke about slowing down.

    "--Hey hold on." Atif lifts his head up from his knee now, and leans over to SQUINT directly at Vertina. "Are you calling me dumb?"

Vertina stares at Atif. Just stares for a long moment. "... How does joking about slowing down physically vs slowing down metaphorically connect to calling someone dumb?" She has no idea people use slow to mean stupid.

    "Eh, I mean--" Atif immediately stumbles akwardly, leaning back away a little. "I mean, it's just... You know how people say like... somene's slow, and... erhm..." His eyes snap away from her, looking down at hte ground by his feet akwardly. "Nevermind..."

"Oh." Pause. "Oooooh." Vertina quickly shakes her head, pigtails flicking with the abrupt motion. "I did not know. And most definately did not mean it that way!"

    He peeks back up to her with that. He considers her, silently, for a moment, and then... "You know..." Another nudge of his toes against the side of her leg, smiling with an unusual tone of amusement. "You're kind of cute when you'r eembarrassed."

Vertina smiles as she leans over a bit closer. "I can say the same thing about you Atif."

    Atif blushes faintly at that-- but to his credit, he manages to not try to escape that lean from her. "Um... I mean..." He mumbles. "... I'm not very good at not being embarrassed either, am I?"

Vertina lifts one arm from behind her to put over the other Salamander's shoulders. "But that's part of your charm."

    That... just makes Atif's face glow an even brighter red. But after a second or so of hesitation, he scoots a bit closer, and leans in against the other Salamander, head to her shoulder. "Because it's cute?"

Vertina mmmhmms. "Because it's cute. And it's genuine. That's why people like you so easily I imagine."

    Atif turns his head just lightly along her shoulder to peek at her face-- which might end up coming across as something approximating a nuzzle, even if he doesn't intend it. "You feel pretty genuine too, you know," he notes. "And I couldn't say if people like me easily or not. I haven't made many... particularly deep friendships."

"Friendship isn't a pool, it doesn't need to be deep to be enjoyable... Wait... maybe that doesn't sound so great of context." Vertina isn't complaining about the nearly nuzzling though, intentional or not. "Whatever. I have no reason to hide who I am from what happened to me. If anything, I can prove that hardships can be overcome."

    Atif actually snorts quietly as he notes, "That *does* sound kind of bad out of context." He lets out a content sigh, and, in spite of the continued flush of red, he braves himself to coiling his arm about her midsection. "But yeah. I admire that about you, you know. That strength in you."

Well hasn't this gotten rather cozy. Not that Vertina is complaining! It's comforting to have the company. "If nothing else, the stars are even prettier when you have someone to share them with."

    "They really are," Atif agrees easily, his tail idly swishing along behind him, possibly occasionally bumping against that of the other Salamander. There's a brief few seconds of akward silence on his part, then, before he admits sheepishly, "...There's about a hundred cheesy things I could say here, but you probably would rather I spare you from it."

Vertina laughs softly. "Not necessarily." She gives his shoulders a squeeze as she leans against him. "But this is one of those moments just enjoyed as it is."