Morning Life

    The sun was rising over the ranch and the only obvious sound that didn't sound great was a sudden, "Son of a--!" This growling ruckus was caused by one, shirtless Salamander who was glaring angrily at a failed pot of hot, well, what should have been hot water for some tea.

Needless to say, Xander forgot that he should have just used his fire magic for heating of the water, instead of actually trying to do this the 'normal' way.

Burning water, is, yes, a thing.

The next words out of the rumbling draconic man, with his tail flicking side to side was a simple, forced out english. "I hate you." At the kitchen ware.

What is it about people at the ranch doing strange things at all hours of the night and morning? It seems like this has become a common enough occurance that Rylen is halfway to grabbing his robe when he realizes that it isn't Uta's slimes or some random person causing chaos.

He blinks, hesitates his hand over the robe, then lowers it again before wandering, groggily, to the little kitchen in their shared loft. "Well, good morning to you, too." Despite the magical translation properties of Elder Tale Online, Rylen knows enough English to have picked that particular choice bit of wording out, regardless.

Leaning slightly on part of the wall that separates the two rooms, he raises his eyebrows, but isn't quite able to hold the bemused look as a yawn seizes him. "Mmm. Between you and Uta, I wonder if I'll get any sleep until I head back to Ninetails." It's hard to imagine sleeping /better/ in a war zone, but...

    Xander looks over with a sheepish grin on his face. He rubs the back of his neck, "I was uh," He then hold up the pot with /now/ burnt water inside of it. "Going to make you some tea... and breakfast... and surprise you!" Then places down the pot, glaring at it with all his anger. "However, that plan has now backfired. ... Much like this pot."

The Salamander sighs softly and walks over to Rylen, before gently reaching up to move one of the Pooka's bangs behind his elf-like ear. "So, I guess I'll need to settle on just this instead." Then leans in and gives Rylen a kiss. "Good morning?" He says after with that still sheepish look on his scaled face.

Rylen's gray eyes look from Xander's angry expression, to the pot, and then back again. The corner of his lip turns up. It's really hard not to outright laugh at the moment, but the Salamander looks so truly frustrated that he /tries/ not to.

"Alas, I'm afraid neither of us have been gifted with any sort of cooking ability. Thankfully we made up for that by getting extra points in attractiveness." He teases, following Xander's approach with his eyes. He makes a quiet, pleased sort of soundas he leans in to return the kiss, then can't help but offer a soft chuckle as he pats the Salamander on the chest.

"Good morning." He muses, then pauses, raising his brows, "Is it just the tea that has you smoking from the nostrils this morning, or is there something else I should know about?" He's come to understand that sometimes when Xander blows up about small things, there are actually bigger reasons behind it.

    The Salamander glances to the side at Rylen's question, before looking back to him. "I... won't be able to help in the Ninetails Dominion. I owe one of the members of the Scale some help, after they willingly aided me with my armor."

He then goes to rest his own shoulder against the wall, keeping his eyes directly on Rylen. "It is taking me into the tower. More importantly onto the sixth floor maze... and possibly while I am there, also looking into the goblin situation."

He lowers his gaze a bit, before looking back to Rylen. "This means I could be gone for maybe a week... Or longer." He smirks, but it is not a happy one. "I guess uh, like real deployment." He then has and lowers his gaze, his own bangs falling over his face. "I remember how much my dad hated long deployments. I remember... How much I hated them as a kid, but I understood it, since I grew up /with/ it... but when you are the one having to make that choice."

Xander makes a soft clicking sound, before he shakes his head. "But I never been one who liked throwing people to the wolves." He looks back to Rylen once more. "And given the situation up there, it needs more experienced eyes on it."

There are moments when Rylen's state of calm and relaxed nature might obfusgate his actual feelings on matters. Though his amusement slips into the more passive expression, his eyes simply seem curious, listening to everything before giving voice to any sort of response.

"The life of a soldier, huh?" Rylen knows what it is like, all too well. His father was a military man. The big difference here is that Xander is nothing like Rylen's father. He wouldn't have thought twice about leaving with little notice.

Reaching out a hand, the Pooka lays his fingers against Xander's shoulder, lightly rubbing his thumb over the skin there. "I get it." He offers softly, "And I'm not going to begrudge you the responsibilities you have to your Alliance. I certainly have mine, as much as I wish I didn't."

Rylen smirks, "How can I maintain my lay-about reputation when I do all this work?" He teases, but leaves that hand lingering there, drawing a little closer to cup the Salamander's neck. "You care enough to worry. That's enough for me." With a small smile, he inclines his head.

"I'm no soldier, but I'll try to hold down the fort up North as much as we can manage. At least offer aid where we can. You've probably got the more dangerous job, so ... worry more about yourself than about me."

    Xander falls silent as he listens to Rylen, moving with him easy enough. Resting his head against the other forehead as he closes his eyes. His heavy scaled tail only moves slightly before he says gently. "... Thank you for understanding, Rylen... I know you didn't have the greatest example of a soldier in your life. I remember you telling me about /him/... But I will come home to you. I swear it. I /will/ come home."

Then he goes to move ever so slightly to place both hands on Rylen's face gently, mostly to make sure their gaze can not break. "I will always come home to and for you, Yoshi." Then gives the man a longer kiss on the lips, before slowly pulling away.

    There was a sigh that follows, perhaps the Salamander relaxing a little, he does try to smile a bit as he says softly. "I-- Might take the new member of the family with me. Though I am worried he might need more training given the dangerous situation... But I really don't want to take one of the birds up there... Though they may be better trained at not getting spooked."

He tilts his head faintly. "What do you think? One of the birds or the cat?"

Though Rylen tends to always portray confidence and calm, the words of reassurance do settle somewhere in his chest, helping to ease a bit of tightness that he might not have even realized was there. "I know." He lets out a breath, then shakes his head, "Don't even think about trying to compare yourself with my father. You're nothing like him in all of the best ways possible."

The touch of Xander's hands draws his gaze back, a tenderness in those gray eyes of his as he meets the kiss that is offered with a warmth of his own. "You better, Marcus. Otherwise I'll have to track your scaley ass down." He offers, voice soft.

As Xander seems to relax a little, Rylen eases as well, seeming to consider the prospect. "Well, you've got that collar on it, don't you?" He's referring to the strange relic that they both seem to have. "It would give you more opportunity to work with the cat, and the more you work with it, the better the chance it will form a permanent bond with it."

He shrugs. "Just so long as it doesn't eat you or anything. I'm fond of you with all your digits attached."

    "I think it has more of a taste for Uta-snacks." Xander says with a slight murmur, before followed by a grunt. "Yet, you have a point. Besides, being a predator feline, the fella probably would handle fight better and given, well, /cat/, even if big, cat monster, still has softer paws. Which is good for scouting anyways."

There is suddenly a sly grin that crosses his face. "You think I should name him Cringer?" It was a joke. It /had/ to be a joke-- right?

"I hope you mean snacks that Uta is offering, not that it likes to snack on them..." Rylen wouldn't be terribly surprised with either of the two options. "We really need to find a way to get them trained on how to deal with monsters. Between the two of us, we should be able to at least let them handle their slimes without taking large swaths of damage."

He sighs, rubbing at his temple slightly. He opens his mouth to say something, but then Xander suggests a name for his new 'pet.' "So... does that make you He-Man, then?" He raises a brow, expression shifting to an amused smirk.

    Xander can't help it. There is that grin that crosses his face, that look in his eyes and what comes out of his mouth is just automatic, "I don't know, should you raise my /trusty/ sword and find out?"

It was only after he says it does he 'ahem' and then just laughs, before shaking his head slightly, "But, hehe, anyways.. I do seriously need to come up with a name for that critter."

Rylen shifts his arms to cross them over his chest, rolling his eyes. "You, good sir, are a nerd." Still, he can't help but laugh to himself. "Name your cat what you like. If nothing else, I'm sure people will get a laugh out of it."

He pushes up off the wall, letting his arms drop to his side. "I'm probably not the best to make suggestions. Kyo is named after my sister, and Moko is named after a friend's parrot from when I was a kid." He shrugs, walking over to the cabinets, obviously hunting for something to eat.

    "Well, better to be a nerd, then a stuck up slob." The Salamander says with a playful wink. He then watches as Rylen goes to find some food as he stands up fully once more. "We might need to go shopping for more supplies or do some hunting."

"As for suggestions well," Xander shrugs, "What if we adopted a baby, we'd have to figure out a name as well." chuckles. "Consider it practice!" Wait- where did the baby thing come from?!

"Oh, don't worry. I think nerds are kind of sexy." Rylen chuckles, "It's the dumb jock in me, wishing that I had more brains." He does have a somewhat humble view of his own intellect, perhaps because school hadn't been easy for him and most simply considered him little more than an athlete.

Closing the cabinets, Rylen sighs to himself. "Probably. Otherwise I might waste away to nothing." He pinches at his own abdomen, then frowns dramtically.

Of course, this playful line of discussion is side-tracked by talk of babies. Rylen's eyes widen as he looks in Xander's direction, "Did you just..." He sort of gapes, open-mouthed. Like a particularly sexy elven fish. "I don't even know if that cat is a boy or a girl and I'm not risking the front end to look at the back!" He protests.

    "Oh, he won't bite you--" There was a long pause before he continues, "And I'm fairly sure its a he." Xander says simply, "Besides I-- wasn't talking about that kinda--" He chuckles and shakes his head. "Nevermind. Anyways, if you like me to go to the market with you, we better get dressed and go do that."

Xander smiles, but it was a little distant. "Then once we get back, I'll need to pack up and get ready to head for the tower." He walks over and kiss Rylen on the neck. "You sexy, jock, you." Then gives him a good 'pop' on the rump, before he goes to get himself dressed.