#(most of them stand for love; loyalty; trust; devotion; brightness; hope; kindness; perfection; valor; happiness; friendship; first love; e

[darknessfoundlove]

decodetalking​:

“Shut up…” How embarrassing could Ai be? Although it was some level of comforting, and his dismissal of his ‘romantic side’ was inherently negative, but normal. A status quo to maintain about something that embarrassed him pretty thoroughly. And as much as he normally wouldn’t mind finding a way around this, it’d be nice to take their time. His expression didn’t change as he watched Ai catch a fairy light himself and hold it close to his body.

Ah, that was cute…

It was probably nice for Ai to talk to other non-humans. Yusaku knew Ai was never disconcerted about Yusaku being human. And beyond that, their relationship surpassed that of simply human or ignis. In fact, Ai had even created a humanoid form, although Ai’s current state never bothered Yusaku.

Why did Ai holding that fairy light make him a little sad?

Ai returned to his side, starting up the conversation again as though the previous ignoring hadn’t taken place, and they turned to the left. Green eyes lit up as well, and Yusaku’s eyebrows raised in surprise. The entire maze was decorated in multicolor fairy lights. Yusaku walked up, taking one in his hand.

“It’s beautiful.” He looked enraptured by it for a few moments, closing his hand around one until his palms were a little too warm and the light was flowing through his fingers. It was like grasping Christmas lights in your hand, not that Yusaku would know what that looked like.

Stepping away before the fairies became upset, he gave Ai a small smile.

“I do wonder if they could turn you into a fox kit. It might be an interesting risk so we can take some of these home. We can hang them in our room.” He let go of the lights, turning back to Ai.

“We could take purple, blue, and pink ones.” Turning to continue through the maze, it was clearly a little bit of a throw away idea…A bit.

“So cruel!” Ai put his hand over where his heart would be in mock hurt. “What happened to that cute, tiny Yusaku I looked after not so long ago? You were so nice to me then! You even laughed at all my jokes~” Ai teased. Secretly, Ai was pleased with his partner's reaction. This was the first time he'd been told to shut up since they both came to this world. He took it as a positive sign that things might be returning to normal between him and Yusaku, or at the very least, that Yusaku didn't think Ai would run away again at the drop of a hat.

Still, He watched, enraptured as Yusaku held a cluster of fairy lights intricately woven into a iris before turning to Ai and smiling. Ohh... That smile was dangerous for his metaphorical heart. If Ai hadn’t already been planning to take some flowers for himself, he definitely would now. Anything to see Yusaku smile like that again... and if these flowers could do that, then Ai swore his partner would be swimming in bouquets by the time he was done.

“You read my mind! But we should get some other colors as well to offset the blue and purple of our walls.” He smiles gleefully. The fox-thing had given him a great plan, and Ai doesn’t need to be given permission to cause mischief, but it sure is nice to indulge once in a while.

“And you gave me a great Aidea! Wait just a moment... Oh! Get ready to catch me.” He flies just over the wall of hedges and shouts down at the pixies. “HEY! I’M GOING TO CHEAT! I’M GONNA DO IT!” Two of the pixies giggle and fly up to meet him, pressing their hands to his head. After a few seconds of this, they start to look rather annoyed. The Ignis whispers something to them and they nod and resume their tittering as one flies off. Ai continues to hold a whispered conversation with the remaining one until the second pixie returns, flying down to place woven basket and a glass jar at Yusaku’s feet. The pixie winks at Yusaku before flying away to join their fellow. Together, the pixies place their hands on Ai’s head again. The drone disappears as Ai yelps and transforms into something small and black, falling out of the sky and into Yusaku’s waiting arms while the pixies laugh so hard they look to be in danger of falling out of the sky themselves.

Ai slowly opens amber eyes to take a good look at himself. “Huh. It looks like I absorbed my drone somehow...” Sure enough, he’s shaped like a little, black fox kit with purple accents taking the place of where white would normally be. He kicks his little paws and flicks his tail experimentally. “Aw, ain’t I cute though?” He gives Yusaku a toothy grin and squirms out of his arms.

“They were having some trouble transforming me with magic, so I told them how in return for the basket and jar. They said we can take all the flowers we can carry ‘cause the maze is gonna be gone after a couple months. Oh, and the jar is for you to collect the floating fairy lights if you want. Don’t worry, they’re not actually fairies. The magic just makes them float in random directions apparently. Also, before you worry, my code changes constantly, so the method of changing my form that I gave them won’t work for long.”

Crouching into a play-bow, Ai wiggles his tail excitedly. “Time to get to work!” He dashes off into the bushes in search of the perfect flowers. First he brings back bunches of pink peonies, white lotuses, pink and yellow camellias, white gardenias, violets, forget-me-nots, irises, lilacs, and a single sunflower. Then white, pink, yellow, and red bundles of roses and alstroemeria. Next he moves onto vines. Ai drags back with him multiple vines of purple morning glories, yellow jasmine, and of course, blue and pink wisteria. 

He makes sure to bite each flower off while leaving a stem so that their vibrant greens can shine though. The flowers don’t glow as brightly after he’s picked them. They dim slightly until they give off a little more light than those fun, glowing star stickers. ‘Perfect for human sleeping conditions’ Ai thinks to himself. Finally, he darts into the undergrowth and somehow returns carrying his crowing achievement: a cherry blossom branch bigger than he is.

Ai looks all too pleased with himself as he drops the branch into the basket at Yusaku’s feet and flops down on his side, tired and covered with glowing petals. By this time, they’ve reached the end of the corridor and are at a four-way intersection. The Ignis-fox looks up at Yusaku with pleading puppy-dog eyes. Maybe his partner will take pity on him and carry him if he looks pathetic enough.