Gonna Need a Montage [FIN]

[The Jenn]

Valeny followed the other Leveret through the hallways, glad to finally be done with the drudgery and satisfied enough with her work. That had gone much better than the entryway floors. Maybe it wasn't going to take her so long to adjust to a new warren, especially if Aleah was going to be willing to answer more of her questions. She didn't think she'd made too bad an impression, though she was mentally rolling her eyes at her melodramatic 'droop' earlier. No, she needed to take things in better stride. Her old caretaker had often called her overly dramatic.

She squinted her eyes in the sunlight, having to adjust after the relatively low light in the warren, and turned to look at him. Well, that was certainly a different expression! She watched him in slight surprise, then turned her head as he indicated the garden in front of them.

...she hadn't had a chance to come out back yet. "Oh, wow. We had lots of trees and plants everywhere in Avington, but never so many flowers as this. What kinds of plants are these? They smell amazing." She'd actually never seen a rose before.

[Nako]

At first he just watched her, appreciating the awe that played across her features. He liked seeing that look, that appreciation. In his opinion, this was the test he'd put people through to decide whether they were befriendable or not. If she's hated flowers.. he probably wouldn't have considered her worth the time to talk to. Whenever he talked about things he liked, it would be flowers and plants.

"It's a rose; undeniably one of the most popular flowers in the Highland, I'd think. Red is the most popular color, but we have all kinds." Reaching out, he ran the back of his paw most carefully across the rich, blood red petals. "Gorgeous."

With a blink, he seemed to come to, slowly turning his head toward the fellow leveret. "I.. suppose this is the point where I'm supposed to ask you about yourself." Silly social intricacies. He gave a soft, tired smile to take the edge off of a statement that might have been considered more sarcastic than it was meant.

[The Jenn]

Val was too much of a 'girl' not to appreciate flowers. Natural beauty was something that she could appreciate in spades. It was all very obviously cultivated and carefully tended. The whole presentation just screamed decorative and decadent. The Highlands really were a beautiful region and it made her more proud of her heritage, somehow, to see something so intrinsically Highland and feel a part of it.

"Roses... I've heard of them before, but there weren't any growing near our warren. My old caretaker remembered roses from her days in the Highlands, but she couldn't describe them well enough. They look so soft." She gingerly raised a paw to run the pad of one toe across a petal, the smooth velvet of the flower sliding over it. "Wow. Could you imagine making a pillow out of these or something? I wish."

She turned to look at him when he spoke again, unsure if that was meant as an indication of boredom with her company or as a genuine inquiry. The smile took off any edge, but she still wasn't sure. He may have been bored. They'd been cleaning bathrooms together for a while. "Oh. What about myself?" She raised an eyebrow. What exactly was he expecting?

[Nako]

"Yes... what a lovely notion." He agreed. The thought of pillows merely reminded him of how he'd love to keep a nice one for himself.. but he wasn't allowed any such luxury with how he diced things up with his claws during restless nights. It made for an even more uncomfortable night that his blankets were rags, and generally hardly a more than a lumped up piece of cloth to rest his head upon.

For a moment, Aleah seemed confused, looking down at his feet in indecision. Yes, he hadn't considered a specific question to ask her. He hadn't really put much of an in depth thought into that. Carefully, he considered her question. "Well, it is considered polite to get to know one another, yes? I.. Well... You lived in Avington?" Well, that seemed a good enough save. His ears pinned back, feeling a touch foolish.

[The Jenn]

Not having any idea of his unique sleeping needs, Valeny was still imaging a soft, velvety red pillow that smelled like fresh greenery. That would be some sort of heaven, she was sure. If a Jack could figure out a way to make something like that, it seemed the kind of thing suiting a Highlander, if what he mentioned about the flowers was precisely correct.

She sat back on her haunches and looked at him more closely. Why were his ears back? He was the senior in this discussion. He had the authority over her. It was confusing. She was still young enough to be used to constant authority figures and thought of people in those terms more often than not, fresh from her warren as a youngling. "Oh, yes. Sorry. My father-Jack was an Avington-Morganberry. Very colorful. He liked his home to be more subdued, so that he and his Does stood out more. There was lots of green everywhere, and lots of brown, but not a lot else, especially since we lived really deep in the forest where the Cards wouldn't bother to travel. I'd never been anywhere else before I was traded here. How about you? Have you been in this warren your entire life, or have you ever been anywhere else?"

[Nako]

Slowly, those ears swiveled forward again. "Oh? No, I've been here all my life. My place here is not necessarily guaranteed, of course. As a leveret though, you know how that is. Even moreso because of -what- I am. I'm not necessarily 'pretty' enough to pass off as female, I don't think." And the smile that played across his tired face was -almost- a joking one.

"But Avington, eh? A place built off of mysteries. There's a part of me that's always wanted to visit.. but I'd never be able to live there. I'd miss the Highlands far too much."

That dreamy smile on her face had been most curious indeed. Then again rose petal pillows was a dreamy notion indeed."Roses really are a wonder." Aleah prattled on, slipping a few stems off the bushes here and there that he found out of place. "Domesticated, the rose can be delicate.. malleable. We shape them the way we want, breed them to suit our fancy. The ones just out in the forest though.. they need no pruning nor care." He paused, finding a single blossoming rose out of place from all the rest. Carefully, he snipped it away from the rest of the bush and caught it before it fell. stripping away the thorns carefully, he held it out to her.

It was a gesture meant to be kind, and not particularly suave. "It's not a rose petal pillow, I'm afraid." Could he get in trouble for such things? Possibly. He wasn't sure. It wasn't the first time that Aleah had taken a flower from the prunings and taken it as his own. But it was always the prunings he took, never the most glorious of blooms. Even if he owned the garden himself, he did not think he'd have it in himself to snip a glorious blossom's lifeline to live a meager few days in a vase.

[The Jenn]

Valeny returned the slight smile. "No, I'm sorry to say that you aren't reeking with feminine charm. And really, the forests of Avington don't hide as much as people seem to think they do. Sure, there are plenty of pretty things that come out of it, and there are treacherous ravines here and there, but it's a pretty boring place overall." From the inside of a warren, at any rate, which was where both of them would have stayed.

She watched him tend delicately to the flowers. This must have been a job he'd been doing for a long, long time, to be so comfortable with snipping at the pretty, thorny things. When he offered her a brilliantly red blossom he'd plucked from the bush, she looked quite taken aback. "I, ah... are... thank you? Are you supposed to do that?" Not knowing anything about flowers or their care, she didn't know whether it was normal to cut off what she thought was the most beautiful part of the bush, or if he'd just done something that might get him in trouble.

[Nako]

He'd just upset her. Aleah often forgot that new new leverets didn't quite understand his special condition. His father certainly let him get away with more than he should. His kind smile slanted into an upset, tired frown. Normally he'd get upset, maybe even mad. He wasn't very good at these situations when he was confronted. Maybe it was because she was different; maybe it was the new blend of medication he was on, but he found himself only wanting to assure the leveret that all was as it should be.

"If there are too many blooms, then the plant cannot breathe. Do not worry; I would do nothing to get you into trouble. If anyone dares say a thing, you just tell them it was my doing, hmm?" He gave a soft, encouraging smile as he brought the rose closer. "It was a special little rose, anyhow. She had a stem a little too long; stood out too independently from the rest. A little strange on a well sculpted rosebush. Nevertheless, she doesn't deserve to just be thrown on the ground."

[The Jenn]

Now she's gone and aggravated him by refusing his gift. Except that she hadn't! She just didn't know... what he meant by it. There were a few Leverets in her old warren who'd been interested in their own odd little romances, and she'd watched them as a child, skirting around one another and her father-Jack. It wasn't that he would have cared what his Levereets were doing, so long as they did their work. None of them had wanted uncomfortable inquiries.

She'd never participated in any of it, though, and the idea of a relationship profoundly disturbed her. They were a community, the Leverets. She'd always believed that. They needed to look out for one another, not... whatever came from being in a relationship.

It seemed that he'd meant it harmlessly, though! That was a relief. She returned his smile with a small one of her own and reached out carefully, slipping part of the long stem between two of her fingers and grasping it tightly. "I hadn't known. I'm sorry. I didn't think you would get me into trouble." Pulling the flower a little closer, she got a sniff and sighed happily. It smelled as lovely as the ones still on the bushes. Maybe she could put it in the communal sleeping area and smell it for a while longer. "No, she doesn't deserve that. She's far too pretty, and I can understand wanting to stand out. She got a little too noticeable, though. She should know better. That can be dangerous. She can stay with me, though."

[Nako]

It was probably the fact that she had some sort of trust in him that made him feel good about the present. It wasn't uncommon for leverets to be suspicious of anyone, especially new leverets. He'd make sure that trust didn't come back to bite her in the tail. At her sigh, his heart beat a little bit faster in his chest.

"Dangerous.. yes..." He agreed softly, frowning to himself.



"What are you doing?" It wasn't a kind tone. It was cutting, upset.. almost jealous. Yes, Aisha was jealous. The one person she actually liked hanging out in this forsaken place was cozying up to someone else. And she thought a neuter leveret would be better. Maybe it was even a bit because that they were related, and that Aleah let her bully him around when she felt like it. It would be more difficult if he was always around -this-... thing.

Aleah stiffened when he heard the voice, turning to face the young Doe. Having matured slower than the leveret siblings, she was obviously not quite grown, her voice having not taken on the full tone of maturity. No, she was an angry, petulant teen, and one that Aleah didn't want around right now. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.

"Who are you?"

"Miss Aisha, this is-"

"I'm not asking you. I'm asking -her-"