A quick dip

He watched a smile like the sunrise begin to grow on her face as he introduced himself, a pleased tingle shooting through his body. He loved to make others smile, especially when there had previously been a frown. Perhaps it was his general disposition to make sure others amused or happy, likely gained from a life of diplomacy where it had been his job to indulge the pleasures of their guests to get what they wanted. If he left an interaction without getting at least one smile (discounting his cousin), he felt he hadn’t done his job right. Hell, he even cracked jokes when fighting someone.

He felt himself falter though when she suddenly fell into the pool. He sat, stunned for a moment, golden gaze blinking in surprise. When she didn’t come back up immediately, he began to worry, but before long she surfaced, shaking water from her fur with a self-deprecating joke of making her fall for him. This earned a hearty, baritone laugh from him, his strong, barrelled chest expanding and contracting in quivers in genuine amusement. She was quick witted, too, how perfect!

He watched with pleasure as she inched closer to him, still leaving a respectable distance between them, though he wouldn’t have minded if she’d snuggled closer. She introduced herself as Sedna, her own jokey calling-card indicating herself as a healer which he snuggled into a little file in his brain along with her name. “A healer you say? Does that mean you can fix my heart after you break it?” he teased.