#✧ ▌ in character : d'lhen tia.

[crystalmarred]

He laughs and he takes off D'lhen's glasses to press kisses between his eyes, sliding them back on. His ears twitch with excitement as he notices the way the other's cheeks flare with a rosy brush.

Aven chuckles, cupping the side of his cheek, thumbing it with the utmost care. "My sweet, sweet Birdie..." and he kissed him again, this time about the forehead.

UNPROMPTED ⇢ @diademreigned

Affection wasn't entirely foreign to D'lhen and though it wasn't unfamiliar, it was difficult to claim that it was something he experienced often. He'd had his mother once upon a time, who'd doted on him quite often until her death. But that was very different from the gestures that A'aven offered to him.

It differed even from the last—and only other—man he'd properly dated. A'aven's words proved more sincere, more genuine in the way he conducted himself.

Playful and gentle was Aven in the way he laughed and slipped the glasses off his nose to press a kiss to the bridge they'd rested on. It was normal that D'lhen's cheeks warmed as his lips curled into a smile when a black ear twitched.

The cup of his cheek, the press of a thumb that rubbed across the skin there... D'lhen had done something, certainly, though he could not recall what he could have possibly done to deserve a man such as Aven—or what he had done to attract him even, save for the press of his nose into a book. He imagined that most men weren't so easily convinced by something so... simple.

But then Aven said something, spoke a word new to him in this context.

"Birdie?" D'lhen repeated, eyes grew owlish as he stared back at him, confusion etched into the upward arch of his brows. The kiss to the forehead left him with a wonder. ... Had Aven called him Birdie?

"... Wherever did you come up with that?"

Surely it had nothing to do with his family. Aven wasn't fully familiar with how Seeker tribes functioned, so he doubted it was because he was from the dodo tribe, of all things. Though that did have that usual... Aven eccentricity that he so loved...

[crystalmarred]

The melody carries a little, as it is made for only one. The humming that follows, soft underneath a hat that tilts just a bit too much. A smile, true and pure — eyes that lock onto one from afar, though it tries ( to no avail ) to appear elsewhere.

Fingers pause, strings silence, and a chuckle that explodes, sending forth rosy cheeks. "I know you're looking Birdie, you don't have to be shy. I wrote this one for you, you know~"

UNPROMPTED ⇢ @diademreigned

It's a pleasant tune that finds it's way through the air to D'lhen's ears, to make the tip of them twitch in delight at the familiarity of the melody. Though the song was new, the fingers that plucked at the instrument's strings were all too familiar for how many times had they been set upon his heart's strings instead?

From the start, A'aven's talents had been startlingly apparent. Bards were common enough, but it'd be an insult to call this man anything of the sort.

D'lhen had, after all, sought out this spot more than once entirely because of his skill in music. Whatever could be better to settle down with when reading a book besides beautiful music?

Haven had not noticed it, he was sure. Not at first, at least. A man as withdrawn and almost abrasive as D'lhen, t'would be hard for anyone to assume that yes, he had come to this spot in particular to enjoy music played by a man with a sweet smile and a gentle demeanor.

But he had. And he did, even still, though now he had learned to tuck himself away, hidden and unseen to escape golden brown eyes, for Aven had long since learned to tease.

A laugh slipped from his lips, bidden by Haven's words. These days, the sound tasted like Aven's own laughter, sweet a sound as it was.

"And whatever makes you think I'm being shy?"

It's uncharacteristic, how quickly Aven is able to draw a smile from him. Blue eyes squint near the corners of his eyes, giving away how right his Haven is, as he always is.

"I hadn't realized you were..." D'lhen paused, stopped and considered the phrasing of words his heart could not capture, could scarcely comprehend. "It suits you more than it does me, don't you think?"

Sweet, beautiful, just like the man before him and nothing like himself at all. Conventionally attractive, certainly, but the rest...? D'lhen was under no illusions, but it was hard to ignore, difficult to deny when Aven was so graciously offering the song to him like a gift he had not known he wanted...

[crystalmarred]

— CONTINUED FROM HERE ;; ( @diademreigned )

Like you don't know, Haven said, genuine in his assumption that D'lhen knew well the reason. But he did not and the arch of his brows and thoughtful purse of his lips gave away the truth of it.

Rare though it might be for D'lhen Tia to be clueless, he absolutely was in this moment. And evidently, Aven find no small amount of excitement in this, given the delightful little swish of his tail and the broad smile he wore. The chance to perplex D'lhen, after all, was a delightful little treat that few could afford.

Birds sing, he said and D'lhen knew he wore the confusion on his face. His brows arched upwards. It made no sense, then, to call him Birdie, as D'lhen did no singing, not even a hint of it. For all intents and purposes, his Haven was far more a birdie than he ever could fathomably be.

D'lhen's singing voice was hideous, after all. It could scare sleeping children into waking and startle small animals, he was quite sure.

Though D'lhen was calm and collected, his reasoning sound as could be, but A'aven continued, persisted with his strange insistence as he described birds to him. Silly, he would have thought were this anyone else, yet one declaration in particular had his face flushed with a familiar rosy hue.

"You make my heart sing."

Oh. Well, that was...

Singing, laughing, speaking, all for him, A'aven said as deft fingers that were used to the press of harp strings pushed the few out of place strands out of D'lhen's eyes.

D'lhen loosed a breath when Haven spoke, asked if he liked it, voice soft as his lips quirked upwards into an embarrassed smile "You need to ask? Don't you already know the answer?"

[crystalmarred]

It must've come as a shock, the way Aven had been avoiding him. Even if there had been times when Aven had gone a few hours without being around D'lhen, half a week was surely very concerning.

Possibly even frightening. They hadn't gotten into a fight. They didn't argue, they had quite literally kissed each other just a few days ago. It wasn't a public display of avoidance, just. . . Not around. So when Aven had said: "I've been meaning to ask you something. . . Can you come to the Last Stand?"

. . . Did it leave a red flag?

He was pacing back and forth, a hand shoved close to his waist and quite nearly a finger in his mouth to chew. Relief spread across his face when the scholarly Miqo'te made his way over. Possibly at a speed Aven hadn't expected.

The Bard stood there looking out of his mind in worry, shuffling from foot to foot until he had the courage to look Lhen in the eyes. "Birdie. . . You have made me the most happiest I've ever been, since we met. I couldn't ask for anyone better. . ."

His hand reached up to thumb the other's face, a movement in a way he knew was a gesture Lhen found the most appealing.

"I — gosh. . . I don't want to mess this up. . ." Aven chuckled, eyes softening when he grew the courage to return the gaze, this time cupping the other at the cheek. "I want to take the next step. . . And walk with you to eternity. Will you bond with me?"

With a softened motion, Aven drew out a nice velvet case, a ring glimmering within, bright and illuminating. Aven couldn't craft, so entrusting D'tykha was the saddest excuse, but the engraving — one of Lhen's favorite quotes — pressed to the band.

— BASED ON CONVERSATION ;; ( @diademreigned )

The quiet had begun to get to D'lhen. Had this concerned anyone else, he would have been able to ignore it with ease, but the very real realization that it was his boyfriend of nearly a year.

It wasn't like A'aven had avoided him, exactly, but the quiet had left him with an impossible to ignore sense of dread that surely spelled doom for their relationship. It was certainly not the first time that he'd watched someone's interest in him dwindle.

So of course, it only came naturally that when Haven approached him and asked him to the Last Stand, D'lhen's thoughts moved to the absolute worst possibility.

"I... suppose," D'lhen had answered, the few words spoken slow and uncertain as he made his way to the appointed place. Part of him wished to move quickly, where the other wanted to drag his feet and find no answer to the question that had been burned into the edges of his lips for the past week with no way to force it from himself in the scarce few moments they shared.

What was it that had changed his mind? Had he been too technical, too smart about the wrong things and too dim about the right ones? His nature drove him to analyze and his contradictory condition bid him to agonize.

It resulted in an overthought, an inability to pursue of body the answer he wanted while his mind was consumed by precious little else. D'lhen had plucked a graying hair from his tail this morning and could not bring himself to care.

The way that Haven paced as D'lhen approached only provided more fuel for his anxious mind. Whatever had him so anxious? Surely a breakup wouldn't have had Aven so nervous?

And then came the words. They started off well enough, but blue eyes struggled to meet the familiar lavender ones when he made mention of how he could ask for no one one better.

But despite all the anxiety, despite the worry in his heart, it melts all the same when Aven reaches out to thumb at his cheek. Funny, how it always had that effect on him, even in moments of uncertainty like these...

"I don't want to mess this up..."

Mess it up...?

Now, D'lhen was confused. The sweet way he spoke, the way he worried about messing things up. No longer did this sound like an attempt to break up with him and now he was... a bit befuddled, truthfully.

"I want to take the next step. . . And walk with you to eternity. Will you bond with me?"

Wait... Hold a moment... Wait...

The velvet case came out, opened to a handcrafted ring of impressive quality. Words wrapped around the band, a familiar philosophical quote that D'lhen had pointed out to A'aven several times in the past, in relation to Sharlayan's status as an unbiased and unaffiliated keeper of knowledge.

But afore D'lhen could properly answered, a sigh of relief slipped from his lips as he crossed his arms.

"I thought you were breaking up with me, you..."

D'lhen tried his utmost to find words for A'aven, but little came to mind that fit the want for exasperation when the warmth that swelled in his chest replaced his mild irritation. He had had been so thoroughly convinced he had found then end with A'aven, that he had at last grown tired of D'lhen Tia as he knew most reasonably would.

But his Haven was far and away from a reasonable man, blessedly so.

Tears blossomed in that relief, crested the edges of his eyes as they spilled over, mixed with the glee, the happiness he found in that moment that he had never even put thought into, never considered beyond the rare moments old classmates would tell him they had recently been bonded themselves.

"Do you even need to ask? Truly?"

[crystalmarred]

"You are the most perfect and beautiful thing I've ever seen." — Avelhen

— FROM ROMANTIC SENTENCES ;; ( @diademreigned )

"Flattery—" Will get you nowhere, is what he wanted to say, was what rested on the tip of tongue before A'aven followed the words with an unfortunately dazzling enough smile that it sped his words to a halt.

Perfect. Beautiful. D'lhen was not oblivious to that fact that he was conventionally attractive. He had a pretty enough face that was further supported by the makeup he wore and the elaborate way he did his hair. So beautiful was, perhaps, a descriptor that suited him well enough. Perfect, on the other hand, was a far cry away from logical.

Few things could be reasonably deemed perfect, most especially where people were concerned.

"By our very nature, we are flawed, Haven," he said as he adjusted his glasses on his face in a bid to detract from the flush of red that dusted his cheeks. "While I'll concede that you find me attractive, I'm a far cry from perfect."

He'd been told similar enough by someone in the past, certainly, but it sounded different from A'aven Tia. Perhaps it was the inherent romance in the play of a bard's fingers against a harp's strings. Or perhaps it was D'lhen's flaws nature that interfered with what he ought to think about the man in front of him.

There was a certain mischief that danced in A'aven's lavender-colored eyes that dwindled D'lhen's confidence in what was certainly a genuine and earnest denial of the poetics that Haven insisted upon waxing at every opportunity.

"Stop that," D'lhen said with a huff, his nose wrinkled.

And there was that sweet, little smile still.

"Stop," D'lhen warned again as he pointed a gloved finger at A'aven. But it was impossible to continue with his insistence towards logic and reason when his sweet Haven at last reached out and pulled him into warm arms, a warm smile, so impossibly warm, just like he was.

Another huff whispered, a feigned attempt at seeming cross even still.

"Must you be so difficult?"

Though D'lhen knew better than anyone that he was, by far, the more difficult of the two of them. ... He'd pity Aven, were he not so grateful for him, rare as the moment were where he'd say as much...

[crystalmarred]

you didn't have to stand up for me, and yet you did. — Avelhen

— FROM HERE ;; ( @diademreigned )

"I didn't—"

Something about the turn of phrase made him itch, made his tail lash and eyebrows furrow as his heart sank in his chest much the same as it had when he saw the way Haven's face fell in the wake of words that targeted his intelligence.

"You're no fool, Haven."

The sentence came quick and almost harsh in the way he spoke it as he struggled to reel back in the venom laced on his tongue. A part of him still wanted to turn around, spew poisonous words at the waste of space that had attacked A'aven with the one thing that could shake him.

Idiot, fool, stupid... All words that were still kinder than some that had been used against his Haven and certainly kinder than the ones that were gifted in return.

"Whyever are you so willing to simply accept such an obviously false assessment? We both know to call them wrong would be generous," he said, sharp gaze nor huff of breath meant for Haven. Tense shoulders gave away his frustrations as much as his more distinctly Miqo'te features such as the flat press of his ears.

"Anyone who calls you those things aren't half as intelligent as they think they are and especially not as intelligent as you are."

The pinch of his lips together proved another symptom of his anger. He'd throw something, if only it was socially acceptable and there was anything left in arms' reach to throw. He'd already tossed his book at the person's retreating back and perhaps that alone was what surprised A'aven more than anything.

"Of course I'd stand up for you... You can't possibly expect me to standby and just... listen..."

His heart fell, ached as it thought of the way A'aven's face had twisted at accusations and insinuations, despite how he hadn't breathed a word to them in retaliation.

"How could I ever just sit there and listen to such... rot?"

[crystalmarred]

“ i like kissing you. “ — Avelhen

— FROM REASSURANCE STARTERS ;; ( @diademreigned )

D'lhen was typically such a straight-faced man, difficult to read and even more complicated to interact with, in large part to his... less than hospitable demeanor. It was a miracle, he had thought, that he'd caught the eye of anyone, much less someone as sweet as A'aven Tia.

Music had been what caught his eye—or ears, more appropriately. To sit and listen to a song played from an instrument instead of an orchestrion with book in hand was a peace that proved rare to D'lhen amidst the chaos of Sharlayan's Studium.

When A'aven found his way to him, however, that rare peace turned common and though that word held some negative connotation, it delighted D'lhen in ways difficult to describe.

As often as time allowed, D'lhen sat here near enough the square to listen to that gifted peace and willfully ignore the few that gathered there because they were equally enchanted by the pretty bard.

Perhaps he had looked too cross as he'd stared down at the academic text in hand. Perhaps he had looked as baffled as he felt as he read the page for the second time as he realized he had not managed to retain a single sentence of the information presented on it.

D'lhen could, perhaps, blame it on the music, though the way his gaze flit occasionally to its player would prove the theory incorrect.

The abrupt cut of the music pulled his gaze away from the book even faster than all the snuck glances at A'aven had and—

Oh.

Lips found his, pressed together for but a moment in a heartachingly sweet peck on the lips that left D'lhen's tail to sway with glee where it had previously been still next to him on the bench.

His ears pressed back, sprung up, twitched at the brief show of affection that turned the scowl he'd worn before into a smile and teal eyes softened as they found ones closer to the blossoms of a wisteria tree.

"Whatever was that for, Haven?"

A familiar smile spread across Aven's face, made D'lhen's heart swell with an affection he'd rarely known, if ever he had prior.

"I like kissing you."

Ah, words that brought color to his cheeks, simple as they were. The developments between them were so... new and he was yet fully familiar with Haven't affections and how quick he was to offer them.

"You... could do it more often, you know."

It would certainly wave away the few that came to gawk at him while he played for reasons aside from the wonderful music.

[crystalmarred]

There's the sound of shuffling down the pathway of the Last Stand. The sound of skittering right behind.

The sound of a chair screeching, someone sitting down, and then a nervous clear of the throat.

"D'lhen?" Tykha mumbles, folding his legs under the table before he leans down, plucking something from the ground and holding it up. "What do you think of Marv?"

UNPROMPTED ⇢ @diademreigned

It was an unusual sort of familiarity that he and Tykha shared, despite only recently becoming acquainted in Tykha's eyes. D'lhen had known him at a glance, where D'tykha had been entirely clueless as to D'lhen's very existence. A bittersweet moment, to be sure, but not one he took to heart beyond the relief that he yet lived after all these years of separation.

It came as some small surprise that D'tykha approached him with no hesitation until it came to the clear of his throat after he took the seat across from him.

But when he managed to get the words out, they were... certainly not what he'd expected.

"Marv?"

D'lhen repeated the word—the name, more specifically, of the creature D'tykha now held in his hands.

"He's smaller than most dodos at adulthood," he said, matter-of-factly. "And I would presume he's an adult, since you've had him longer than a few moons."

A pause as he set aside his book and pushed his glasses higher on his nose to take a better look at the creature.

"Most dodos are a great deal larger, so it makes sense he'd be more of a pet."

Dodos were often used for food by a great deal of people and his lacking size certainly made him a poor target lest someone was on the verge of starvation.

"They're sacred animals to our tribe, though, so it's fitting you're caring for one. Why do you ask?"

[crystalmarred]

— massaging their shoulders ( Avelhen )

MEME ⇢ @diademreigned

The afternoon had been, for the most part, the picture of relative normalcy. D'lhen had spent the greater part of the day in the Studium where he'd assisted with studies and theses, as mandated by the occupational contract he was under with the Studium.

It was the sort of thing he enjoyed, even if there were often times that might not seem the case. When he assisted the Studium attendees with their studies, he often learned a great deal about things he otherwise had not been inclined to seek out. It was certainly one way to expand the scope of one's knowledge.

That did not mean it was always pleasant. Sharlayan was the city of scholars and thus prone to all manner of debate and a clash in opinion, even academic ones.

Some days, such as today, left an exhaustion that settled deep in his bones, yet left him so on edge that sleep proved impossible.

Evidently, Aven had noticed as much—or perhaps he had noticed when D'lhen had at last pulled himself from bed when sleep wouldn't take him. He'd stepped out of their shared room and found himself nestled down in a chair with a book, reading by candlelight. His eyes burned with the need to sleep, yet the shake of his leg and tenseness of his shoulders made it apparent no such thing would come to him.

Exhausted, he didn't hear the approach of someone behind him until hands slide onto shoulders. D'lhen jumped, startled by the sudden touch as he jerked his head up—

"Haven," D'lhen breathed out, as a familiar calm washed over him. "Did I wake you?"

Aven was gentle in the way he turned him back t'wards the table he was sat at, the book he had already set down on its surface.

A smile lit his face as Aven's hands started to move against his shoulders.

"Whatever are you doing?"

The words were punctuated by a little laugh as Aven started to massage his shoulders all things. A breath of laughter touched the shell of his ear, made it twitch.

"You're tense, Birdie..."

A hum slipped from his lips, the curl of his lips still apparent as it ever was in A'aven's presence. It was hard not to find happiness in the things that he said, in the way he made obvious his affections. They did not fit together on the surface, but beneath what seemed apparent, they slotted together so perfectly in ever way.

"It's difficult not to be..." he said as a sigh fell from his lips, bidden by the press of fingers against his muscles. "Did you know we had an associate professor of aetherology prone to aether sickness? The man wants to study aether currents. He wanted me to approve his request for a gleaner with a proficiency in fishing."

Which was, admittedly, not that difficult to come by, given the beneficial properties of many fish.

"Just looking at my summon seemed to be enough to make him queasy."