Path in the Preserve, Saturday Afternoon

[living_endless]

Somehow, Jono and Didi had decided to go birdwatching.

Didi managed to keep this going until she realized all the different small songbirds looked about the same to her. Luckily, there were plenty of other things to keep her entertained in the woods on an early spring day. "Look," she said to her companion, gesturing off to the left. "It's a whole field of crocuses."

[OOC: For the boy. *scrolls down on f'list* It's a surprisingly big preserve :-)]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono glanced in the direction that Didi had indicated, and then blinked. The crocuses, he had to admit, were at least easier to keep an eye on than the birds were. And he knew what they were, which helped considerably.

//We might stop here for a bit,// he suggested. //Yer never know. Maybe we'll at least spot some hummingbirds or something in there, right?//

Hummingbirds had the added bonus of being not only birds, but somewhat interesting ones.

[living_endless]

"Sure," Didi said, since she had no idea if there'd be hummingbirds around. "And even if we don't, the flowers are pretty."

She was already picking her way off the path and through the mud-and-dead-leaf groundcover toward the crocuses.

"Is it time for butterflies yet?" she wondered aloud.

She supposed, in theory, she should know this.

[furnaceface]

//I imagine butterflies can't be too far away,// Jono mused, picking his way alongside her. //There are flies out, at any rate.//

The downsides that game with the upsides, really. Next, it would be mosquitoes.

[living_endless]

"I'm pretending I don't notice them," Didi said, waving one away before crouching to inspect a flower. "Oh, hey. Ladybug on the crocus."

She kind of thought that was amazingly cute.

[furnaceface]

And, bringing about the cuteness thing another notch toward 'full circle,' Jono thought that Didi pointing out a ladybug was also amazingly cute.

//So it is,// he mused, finding himself crouching down to get a good look, too. //That's got t'be th'first ladybug I've seen this year. Suppose that's good luck, or sommat?//

Hey. He could use all of the good luck he could get. Even if he didn't particularly believe in the stuff.

[living_endless]

"I saw it with you," she said, reaching to ghost her fingers over his jacket. "So ... I think that's my good luck."

She believed in luck, but she believed in about everything.

[furnaceface]

//Our good luck,// Jono corrected, looking her way with a smile in his features. He lifted his hand to curl his fingers around hers. //We ought t'get out like this more often, I think.//

Sunshine and Didi. Winning combination, that.

[living_endless]

D'awwww. This was, like, a Disney moment. Didi's eyes were full of bliss as she looked at him.

"We can now that it's spring," she said. "It'll be good for both of us. It's pretty much been rainy or cold since we got here."

[furnaceface]

//Yer suppose th'summer'll be more pleasant, then?// He'd spent all of... one summer in America, thus far. The weather had been...

Well. It had been weather. That was about the tall and short of it.

//You are planning on staying on through th'summer, right?//

[living_endless]

"I won't know when it's time to go until it's time," Didi told him. She picked a flower and threw it at him idly, before either of them could get maudlin about it.

"Anyhow, yeah, I got here in the summer. That was New York, but it was gorgeous. Not too hot. People just kind of lived outside. I liked it."

[furnaceface]

Right. Go. She had to... to do that, sooner or later.

He fixed his gaze on the flower for a moment, until he was certain that he wouldn't go broadcasting how much that bothered him all around the island for the world to see. For her to see.

//Coastal cities are excellent for that,// he shared. //Th'wind from the Atlantic keeps it from gettin' too insufferably hot.//

He was going to poke at the ladybug, now.

[living_endless]

Oh, dammit. This was hard enough without him -- without this.

Giving her more than a day as a human -- giving her love -- was the definition of exquisite torment. It had to end. She knew that. She just couldn't stand him looking like that.

"Mmmm," she said, and tossed another flower. "So when did you swallow the almanac?"

[furnaceface]

Back when he still had a throat to swallow with.

He glanced up at her, giving his shoulders a shrug, and then, in an attempt to lighten the mood a little as well, he... changed the subject.

//Hold out yer hand, luv?//

[living_endless]

Well, yeah. Er.

Didi quirked a suspicious eyebrow at him and held her hand out. "... nothing slimy?"

[furnaceface]

//Tickly, actually,// Jono replied, holding up his hand. The ladybug was perched at the end of his finger.

[living_endless]

Oh, that was precious. Didi grinned and moved her cupped hand closer to accept the creature. "Careful," she breathed. "We don't want to damage her wings."

[furnaceface]

//Wouldn't dream of it,// Jono agreed as he let his finger rest in the cup of her hand. The ladybug stood there for a moment, and then made her merry way from finger to hand. //Never really was th'sort to crush a ladybug out of spite, after all.//

[living_endless]

"I didn't think you were," Didi said, voice very soft and earnest as she watched the ladybug traverse the valley of her palm. "Just -- they're fragile, y'know? Things happen."

She watched the bug a second longer. "I feel like this one will live a long, healthy life, though."

[furnaceface]

If Jono was in even a slightly worse mood, he might have commented about how he was certain that now that she'd said it, a crow would swoop down from above and steal the insect away.

Only... He wasn't in a worse mood, and he believed her. When Didi had feelings like that, he figured they weren't to be taken lightly. And there was just something... Nice? Something nice, about thinking that this insect in particular would do well for itself.

//Good t'hear,// he said, instead. //I like that, I think. That she'll... last.//

[living_endless]

Not a crow, but there was a wobbly owl overhead eying the snack ... until it almost smacked into a tree trunk and changed course.

Barely registering the bird, Didi lightly reached to put the bug down on top of a small stone. "For a ladybug, anyhow," she said. "Lots to eat, nice safe place to lay her eggs..."

[furnaceface]

//Plenty more ladybugs from there, th'species lives on.//

Apparently, he'd swallowed more than just an almanac.

//She's a good find,// he decided. //Even if we were supposed t'be looking at birds.//

[living_endless]

"Absolutely. And birds are just birds," Didi decided, flopping down on a relatively dry patch of ground to stare at the sky. "Or maybe there just aren't any cool ones around here."

... it would help if she paid more attention to the birds and less attention to her boyfriend.

[furnaceface]

Oh, come on. Her boyfriend was so much more interesting than a bunch of birds.

Well, maybe not more interesting than that owl had been, but since they'd been distracted, they'd never know.

//Well, we'll always have th'macaw,// he decided. Which made up for just about every sparrow they'd seen so far today, yes.

[living_endless]

Well, yeah. Didi had seen a lot more sparrows in her life than she'd seen Jonos.

Possibly because there was only one Jono.

"That's like our 'we'll always have Paris,'" Didi decided idly. "Only we can make it, 'we'll always have the macaw -- and the ladybug'."

[furnaceface]

Barring any crows, of course!

//'We'll always have th'ladybug,'// he echoed, bemused. //It certainly has a unique sort of ring to it, doesn't it?//

[living_endless]

Crows wouldn't dare.

"We're a unique couple of people," Didi decided, reaching up for him. "Here, sit with me. Tell me what you see in the clouds."

[furnaceface]

Jono took a seat, careful to mind the ladybug on his way down.

//What do I see?// He looked upward, then, reaching an arm around her shoulder. //Beyond just clouds, yer mean?//

[living_endless]

"Mmm-hmmm," she nodded, relaxing back against the arm. "Like, I think that one is a really big group of sheep getting ready to jump on a trampoline."

[furnaceface]

Jono took a moment and tilted his head sideways in order to get a better look.

It was absolutely just coincidence that tilting his head sideways like that meant his head was resting against hers. Truly.

//Completely heedless of th'elephant comin' up behind 'em because he wants a turn, too?//

[living_endless]

Didi giggled. "But the sheep are lucky," she said. "Because there's a griffin overhead who's going to swoop down and pick up the elephant, see?"

The relevant cloud looked vaguely like a fat, blobby poodle.

[furnaceface]

//That'd be th'dog breed, right?// Jono squinted at the cloud in question for a moment. //Only with wings?//

Flying dogs could totally happen.

[living_endless]

"Isn't it a mythical beast?" Didi asked, also squinting. "It ... looks like a dog with wings, anyhow."

[furnaceface]

//It rather does,// Jono agreed, bemused. //There's a group of hunting dogs called griffons, and considering th'cloud, I'd thought perhaps that was what yer were referring to.//

He glanced her way, bemused.

//I think perhaps yer have a better imagination than I do, luv.//

[living_endless]

"I might," she said. "Or I might have spent more time on games like this. I have to at least try to keep up with Del, right?"

The youngest endless always won at imagination games.

[furnaceface]

//Seen any butterflies, yet?//

Jono offered her a smile before looking back at the sky. If you asked him, there were a few right there. The entire trampoline was made of them.

[living_endless]

The smile in Jono's eyes made Didi's stomach full of butterflies, forget the sky. "There could be," she decided. "I think one's going to land right there."

She lightly tapped a fingertip against his nose.

[furnaceface]

Which, naturally, had him go a little cross-eyed before he looked her way again.

//That so, luv?//

Oh, there was mischief in that tone, no doubt about it.

[living_endless]

"Absolutely," Didi told him. "You'll be walking around, living your life, and bam! Butterfly attack."

Or not, from the way she was laughing.