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“Bunny for your thoughts!”
Akoni’s features softened in surprise and pleasure as a bundle of pure softness dropped into her lap. Large eyes blinked up at her and she couldn’t help a small smile as she gathered up the tiny blue merle springer in her lap and gave it a gentle hug, laughing as it rewarded her with a bop on the nose.
A thud now as the owner of said springer threw himself into the chair next to hers, slinging an arm around the back of her shoulder. “Bad day? Rami will solve it!” He leaned forward then, pleasant tenor voice dropping a couple octaves as if divulging a great secret. “You can always call on me and Rami if you need a pick me up.”
“Hi Azralus.” Her small smile grew wider now.
It was almost impossible to not get your mood buoyed when around the cheery Sylvari. A grin graced his face and, not for the first time, she appreciated how extraordinarily good-looking he was, especially when his face was but a stretch of a hand away.
Azralus’ constant sunny disposition was a stark contrast against the almost inky black of his bark. And no mistake, his skin in particular was much like the texture of bark, with beautifully etched lines carving deep down from his forehead to form his nose, as well as coming down from his temples to accentuate his cheekbones to meet his lips before splitting his chin cleanly in half.
His eyes were the opposite of her own: bright, sparkling white and always dancing with good humour. Said eyes were now regarding her with such mirth that she felt no awkwardness despite him being so close to her.
“Are you two quite done staring at each other?” came an annoyed voice from behind. A pair of hands grasped each of their shoulders, with a not-so-light warning squeeze for the younger male.
Akoni sputtered, her head whipping back to find Canach frowning down at them. Not that she had to look around to see it was him. She would have recognized his voice anywhere.
However, fingers grasped her chin to shift her gaze back to Azralus’ grin. “I think Akoni’s pretty enough to stare at all day!” He shot her a wink alongside his classic finger gun.
If she thought she had been sputtering earlier, Akoni was now reduced to blubbering, cheeks flaming pink as she held her hands up and waving them in front of her face defensively. “Az- Azralus! You can’t. I’m... You don’t, I don’t think- It’s-!”
“Well will you look at that Azralus, looks like your springer’s decided to flee.” Despite the casual words, there was an underlying cutting tone that lent more edge to the dark green Sylvari’s usual sardonic self. “What a clever creature.”
Bright eyes dropped down to Akoni’s now empty lap then widened as Azralus spun around to search the room for the missing pet.
“Ah no! Rami come back!” He disappeared from the seat in typical mirage fashion, literally vanishing on the spot.
Canach easily slipped into the now empty seat, narrow eyes regarding the female Sylvari carefully. “I thought you had better taste than that, Commander.” The distaste was clearly dripping from his voice now and, as Akoni wondered if it was possible to die right then and there, he followed it up with a one sided shrug. “Not that it’s any of my business, of course.”
This was not the way she wanted things to go. She would very much like for it to be his business.
“I uh, I do! Glowstic– I mean, Bain and I only rate him an eight!” The unimpressed stare that greeted that statement caused a small whine to escape from the back of her throat. She vaguely registered a cackling sound coming from the back of the tavern but most of her attention was caught by the sceptical Sylvari sitting next to her, and that finally broke her.
She couldn’t stop the stream of babble coming out of her mouth. “I mean! I just. I... Bain and I were talking and he walked by so I rated him a seven but he wanted to give him a full ten-”
“The two of you just…” Canach gestured in the air vaguely, “Regularly make it a game to rate random men who walk by?”
“Well no just the really hot ones-”
Voice flat as he echoed, “Hot ones.”
“Just! The ones we think are attractive! And when Azralus came up we had to argue about it a bit and-“
“So how much is a bit?”
Her mind was screaming at her to stop but her mouth was already running at full speed. “I don’t know, maybe half an hour or so? But we decided eight was a pretty good compromise all things considered and it’s just-“
“So not only were you measuring how attractive you think he is, but you spent at least thirty minutes debating on his finer points. To the point of being persuaded to agree that he is more attractive than you originally thought?” An orange-tipped brow arched upwards as he deadpanned his question.
Bright red bloomed across her face as she sputtered and she could feel the curled tips of her ears burn. By the Pale Tree though, why was it so easy for him to make her feel the fool?
A soft bundle was suddenly thrust into her face as the object of their conversation piped up from the free space next to her left.
“Look, I found Rami! And by the way an eight is awesome, Akoni, thanks!!” Azralus once again dropped the springer unceremoniously into her lap, causing her to grab at it out of reflex. He propped an elbow on the table to lean a cheek into it, huffing thoughtfully as he inspected her.
She froze when a dark finger reached out to stroke her cheek as he smiled openly. “You’re a ten in my book! Isn’t she a ten, Canach? Look at those pretty freckles.” The finger started to trace the curved flowing lines on her face. “Also your skin looks like flower petals. It’s so soft too.”
“Azralus,” Canach growled.
Azralus turned his bright eyes on Canach, “Oh! Not that you aren’t also a ten! Your spikes are really c--!”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than dump your flea-infested pet onto other people?”
The younger Sylvari blinked in surprise as he realized the baby springer had enough of Akoni and was now attempting to crawl onto the grumpy mercenary instead.
“Rami no! Excuse me!!” He stretched over to sprawl over a horrified Akoni’s lap, one hand gripping the far side of her hip for leverage as he grabbed for the wandering springer with the other. “Sorry! She just has no sense of personal space!”
“Yo Akoni, way to go!” Absinthe’s voice hooted from the back of the room and this time there really was an audible growl to her right as Canach thrust the errant springer into Azralus’ face.
“Azralus, can you not see we’re having a conversation here?”
The dark Sylvari simply grinned up at him. “Hey, I think Akoni can handle two of us at once, no?”
There was a howl from the general direction of the guild’s resident thief while a huge bellow of laughter from the door announced that Rytlock had arrived in time to catch that gem.
Screaming internally, Akoni did the one thing she could think of.
She stealthed and hauled out of there with speed that would make even her thief friend proud.