#// ooc. food fixes sadness!!! i haven't even decided what he's making but here we are JKHFLAKJH

[crystalmarred]

It reassured him to finally see Alisaie brighten, if only a little.

"Does Alphinaud ever come out unscathed?" he asked, words punctuated with a laugh. The lad had a way of irritating Alisaie, all while barely trying. X'kijin had always assumed it was a sibling thing, though it hadn't been his experience with his own.

Then again, he was ten summers older than them and hadn't grown up with them besides.

In the short-lived silence, Alisaie's stomach growled—and X'kijin laughed, louder than was the norm.

"Either of you would have to cook more often for me to tell you that," he said, lips pulled into a soft smile. It couldn't be said that Alisaie felt good, but it was better that she joked around with him nonetheless.

X'kijin couldn't resist the short-lived laugh when she asked if he was going to share any details. Of course he wasn't going to. While it was no closely-guarded secret—likely anyone in the Mean could tell her—he wasn't apt to spoil the surprise if she didn't already know it.

"You'll just have to find out," he said with a smile, though it was a bit of a risk, all things considered. What if she didn't like it, after all? Had she ever tried the dish back home? His efforts thus far had produced something passable, but not as close to the taste of the original as he hoped, though everyone in the Crystalline Mean had wondered how in Norvrandt he was dissatisfied with the end result.

Alisaie accepted his help in getting her onto the amaro, at least. While he knew she was full capable of doing it on her own, that didn't mean he shouldn't make it easy.

With her settled into the saddle, he did much the same. His took him a moment. His height was beyond what most people considered average for a Miqo'te—which seemed close enough to the Mystel average—which meant that mount size was a bit... difficult for him. His chocobo back in Eorzea was sized for an Elezen woman.

The amaro lent to him, however, was meant for a Miqo'te man on the taller side, not the freakishly tall side. It was fortunate, then, that X'kijin was a dancer and a healer, rather than someone who lugged around a huge war axe or a gigantic sword.

Chakrams and staves were very often lighter weight. The armor they wore was much the same and was often cloth, even. Were things different, he would most definitely need one that was larger.

The ride back was... peaceful, at least. As well as it could be, at least.

Whether or not Alisaie appreciated the silence, he couldn't say for certain. Was it worse or better to leave her with her thoughts? To leave himself with his own, even?

The trip felt short and their arrival seemed almost a surprise to the young girl. Spaced out though she was, once he slipped down from his own amaro, he reached out to help her do the same.

A thoughtful hum slipped from his lips as they started to walk before he answered, "Nah. You can come back to the Pendants with me. If you can guess it before I'm done, that just means I've done something right."

Especially if one considered that half the ingredients that made up the dish weren't available here on the First.

"Any guesses?"

It's an easy question he asked with a smile as they walked away from the Amaro Launch, headed towards the Pendants.

"Your only hint is... it's a dish from the Source... and it involves fish—so I hope you like fish."

His strategies for comforting were some of the most welcoming Alisaie could have ever received. Her rounds within Amh Araeng were no short of exhausting and overwhelming. The way she would scatter across the sands in a daily routine for several hours at a time suddenly meant nothing. Someone out there was still likely to get harmed. Someone out there was still likely to . . .

She waited there for a moment, lost in the way his thumb felt at her back, the circles that ensued, and the height difference that was so overpoweringly obvious. For a moment, she thought she would need to be offended at him kneeling just to make it rather acceptable to garner a hug that truly even meant anything.

Or rather had any weight to it.

Such had their relationship become. Where his silence and quiet nature had all blossomed into something a little less than what it was before. A working progress, but they'd grown rather close since the years drug on. Alisaie often smiled when she caught a chance to reach for someone's hand and find it grasping right back at hers. A squeeze for good luck and consolation. It had been awhile since Alisaie had truly found something no short of a family that wasn't just her brother.

Her brother. . .

Alphinaud, right. Still within Eulmore, doing gods knows what. With every place bathed in the light it was no wonder some of them wouldn't risk venturing out into a newer location. The brightness that expelled from where they were was enough as it was. Still, however, she could feel a pang of regret. So many things she wished to speak to him about, and how unkind things had been since they'd been called to the First.

Made her all the more grateful for the company she kept at this point in time. At least up until his hand rested at the crown of her head, the ruffling tamed in what Alisaie could estimate it wanted to be. Nobody was immune from wishing they rubbed a hand through the hair to ensure the urge had gone away. She made a face and gently smacked the hand away, expression growing all the more better.

"Had you been Alphinaud you likely would not have come away unscathed," but she was smiling throughout it; knowing plainly that it had all been a jest to raise the moods for mere moments or two. Her own eyes bore gently into X'kijin's nearly beaming gem of a pair of eyes when her stomach began to groan; at the mention of food.

Aaah. . .

"I think that's a grand idea. I finally get to have one of your famous dishes you always talk about. I'm sure you made quite the name for yourself in the taverns all around Limsa if you ever had the opportunity to cook them something. Course, I'm sure Alphinaud or myself would not have a damned thing on you should we make something. By all means... I think it's time we leave this place..."

It was about time, as Alisaie's own breathing had since leveled out and strayed into rhythm not unlike X'kijin's. The steady inhale and exhale that didn't fight for air like it had previously. For the comfort she had been bestowed, silently had her request, she could gloss over the jest remark at her height. A playful punch to his bicep would do little to remedy how much she likely would've wished to kick someone at a tease like that. Course, that however depended on the person - and X'kijin was not someone she wished to lose the respect of. He had cared too much and too hard through this all for her to shatter something she caved so much in this godsforsaken situation.

He cared . . . and he stayed, why squander that now for a silly thing that meant so little now?

"I suppose it would be futile to ask what it is you're planning on making then, is it? I should know by now that since magicians were never ones to reveal their secrets, what makes myself think that a culinarian of your caliber would do much the same."

Alisaie's boot pressed into his locked hands as he hoisted her onto the Amaro, her arms balancing around the neck until she was secure enough to take hold of the reins as wait for the Miqo'te to follow suit onto his own. Poor thing, whilst they were lucky to find one that fit his height, it still looked like it would be a task to fly him back to the Crystarium.

However, the ride was silent and almost lonely, but maybe that's what they had needed. A break from the wailing and the loudness that filled the dunes of Amh Araeng, even if it pushed them into thoughts in their own head. Alisaie almost hadn't realized they made it back until a hand reached forward to offer her help from the mount. While she had no entire backstory into X'kijin's life before all this, he never relinquished that brotherly gentleman nature he always handed her.

"Right, the Wandering Stairs then? Am I to wait for this masterpiece where I may have no cheating eyes give it away?"