Occasionally there is a tickle of his fur brushing on hers. Where her pale hairs are nudged just barely the wrong way by the presence of his. She can feel the hairs along her neck dance up, subconsciously happy and excited over the contact. "I'll pick better weather next time." She watches his paw move towards the twig and it falls into focus, he's a blurry spot behind it in the further field of view. Until he mumbles about her beauty and instantly they swap. He is in crystal focus and the twig is blur before him.

She inhales sharply and lets loose an 'eep' of surprise. "Oh, oh thank you Lazslo." She's flushed an immediate shade of bright, bright red that comes through at the skin around her nose and eyes. Her whiskers curl and she sheepishly looks everywhere but at him- her two toned eyes swim across his treebound home looking without seeing anything. "I'm sure there's plenty prettier than me though, you are too kind." She wants the compliment to be true, the value it gives her is great but short lived. He's just being polite, she thinks, and giving her a few kind words to make her feel comfortable and welcome.

@Lorant

His golden furs crinkled around his muzzle as she seemed to jolt to life at his praise, all fumbling and folding and unsure where to point her gaze. Lorant knew the blush of a woman – knew it could not be faked, as words so easily could.

"I'm sure there's plenty prettier than me though, you are too kind."

If she thought him kind, who was he to correct her? He narrowed his gaze as if threatening to scold her modesty at any moment, though the words did not come. Instead, he allowed silence to take its turn there. His expression was painted with supposed turmoil of his inner thoughts, until at last he gazed at their makeshift ceiling, jaws parted yet withholding.

"Sometimes, I wish..." Lorant started a thought too weighty to finish.

---

@Jyoti

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Jyoti finds it hard to urge the flush to fade from her face, to quiet the swarm of butterflies his simple compliment had stirred up in her belly. Unprepared to deal with the heat of it she is all too quick to react to his shift in movement and the dreamy thought that he leaves hanging in the air between them. For a moment at least she can stop thinking about how she feels both so unpretty and how badly she wanted to be pretty, to be of value.

She leans in a little closer, ears train his way as the red hue in their center finally begins to fade. "What do you wish?" She asks, enticed to gently pry by the trailing of his voice and pensive way he stares off into the leaves. Jyoti reaches over to lightly lay her paw on his arm and give an encouraging but gentle squeeze. I can be trusted. "I'm not just pretty, I'm a good listener too."

@Lorant

"What do you wish?"

He glanced at her through the corner of his eye, checking that Jyoti was truly as close as she felt. Petrichor lost its power by the moment, replaced instead with her gentle perfume. Lorant let out a nervous laugh.

"Well... if I was lion, maybe I would not be alone so much," he explained with a shrug. I would also be a lot more gullible. He forbid his gaze from meeting hers – instead fixed it upon the leaves readily above them shyly. He forced another laugh through parted lips.

"Nevermind, I joke," he attempted to shoo away the heaviness in the air with a grin.

---

@Jyoti

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He gives her a glimpse of a loneliness that he felt, and an envy of what lions had. And he is quick to dismiss it as joke but Jyoti does not believe it's entirely in jest. "I suppose that's true. We lions do normally live amongst many others." Compared to what she knew of leopards who she had been told lived alone most often. But Jyoti was not going to assume and speak for the commonality of members of his species. "You're not alone right now. I am only one woman, but this will not be the last time we are together if I have a say in it." While she could not imagine ensuring that Laszlo would never feel lonely, she knew are could do a small part to give him some company.

She no longer is giving his arm that reassuring squeeze but she leaves her paw touching him. Was the physical contact some kind of comfort? She couldn't quite tell. Her eyes sheepishly dart away and there is an audible swallow before she speaks again. "Especially if you keep calling me pretty." And there returns the ruby color in her cheeks. What came across as surface level vanity ran much deeper into her veins of insecurity and her wants that his kind words fulfilled.

@Lorant

She took the bait so readily. Jyoti was quick to insist that she would keep him from his loneliness, though as her hand strayed from his arm, at last he craned his neck to look at her fully – pleadingly.

"You are enough." He was insistent where she seemed doubtful. He allowed his eyes to wander from hers to the soft tassel of her mane, the golden tint of her cheeks, the soft curve of her mouth. Lorant watched her utter the words:

"Especially if you keep calling me pretty."

He felt a heaviness deep in his gut that seemed to rush all the way down to a tingle in his toes. Alone in their hideaway tree fort, Lorant leaned forward slowly – almost delicately.

"You are pretty," he murmured softly, lingering there just inches from her face. His greatest feat yet that night was managing to restrain himself in that moment despite every fiber of his being begging to close that last distance – begging to brand the words upon her with hungry kisses.

---

@Jyoti

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You are enough.

Those three words dug down deeper into her heart and soul than any 'pretty' or 'lovely' ever could. When had she ever been enough for anyone? When had she ever felt as whole and safe as she did right now? Letting herself be swept away by feeling needed, feeling wanted... It causes a single warm tear to appear and trace down her pale cheek. She catches a sniffle in her throat- she clenches shut her eyes and swallows the emotion back down.

When she opens then Laszlo is closer now, the space already felt close and cozy but now she begins to feel even more of his warmth, her own warmth. There's an acute awareness of where she is, where he is, that begins to stimulate her senses. She leans in the last few inches, stopping just shy of contact between their lips. The small hairs along her lips, her whiskers, all are curling forwards towards him while her skin ran hot and electric. "I'm lonely too..." She whispers to him, eyes searching him for reassurance that she is not misreading this moment.

If he noticed that single tear, he was happy to ignore it. Lorant was far too preoccupied with the electric air between them and the subtle pattering of rain above just begging to be drowned out with a different sort of rhythm. She leaned forward, then, and the frenzied cat could not help but trace his nose gently across hers.

"I'm lonely too..."

"Let me make you feel better," he whispered, finally leaning forth to try and plant a soft kiss on the pale velvet of her muzzle. He started gently, trying to nibble and groom at the plush furs along her jaw and her neck, his touch wanting and wandering but ever so purposefully slow – only a hint of what he wanted, what he was desperate for, but for which he would make Jyoti demand.

---

@Jyoti

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Better. Jyoti could usually only dream of better. Laszlo's kiss draws out a warm purr from beneath her white plush fur. There's no more chill of that damp rain lingering against her skin she can only feel a growing warmth spreading over her body.

"I want to feel like I'm enough." Her request comes by way of a needy whisper while he wanders the curves of her jaw. She tilts to his whims, her body more than willing to lend him the access he desired. Gates opened at the most gentle of touches, muscles quiver beneath. Every kiss, every nibble. He plays at her neck and she is made to look upwards, to the leaves above them, as more of her is opened at his touch and intimate wanderings. She can see glimpses of sky and hear the drops of rain outside only for a moment until the racing of her heart eclipses all sound in her ears with it's thundering beat.

@Lorant

He was distracted in his love-drunk mission across her jawline, rolling over back onto his stomach so he might crawl forward needily. A social seal had been broken between them and it would not easily be patched up – not now he knew just how plush those alabaster furs were, and how she was just small enough that he could reach all of her.

"I need you," Lorant near-hissed against her neck. In that moment, despite his tongue of silver and perpetually-crossed fingers behind his back, it felt a truth. To be denied of her would be a wound the jungle man would not overcome easily – not when their world was so small, and they were the only two in it. His movements became more frenzied by the moment, gradually shifting from that teasing trail to thinly-restrained fury as he clutched her endlessly closer.

---

[fade?] @Jyoti

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