A Third Wheel Turns a Bike into a Trike Which is Much More Fun

Briar's paw flexed to gently squeeze Artorias' when he slid his paw over in front of her to hold hers, her other paw resting over his foreleg. She thought for a moment that her ruse of simply joining in and helping with his morning duties around the pack had been a success as he spoke about how he hadn't known anything was up at first, but then he went on to point out the pass through the greenhouse she had insisted that they do. She grinned and laughed, giving him a 'guilty as charged' smirk. She knew that had been a stretch, but they had been rapidly running out of things to do and it was one of the last things she thought she could squeeze some time out of. At least she had managed to keep what the surprise actually as a secret even if she hadn't managed to keep the suspicion completely at bay.

The absolute happiness on his face was hard to miss now that they had all relaxed into the lovely set up that Bowen had prepared. Why wouldn't he be? He had the two ladies that he loved most on either side of him with the beautiful beach in front of them and plenty of food and wine to keep them here for as long as they wanted to stay. It made her feel worse for not feeling like she could fully relax herself or completely shake the jealousy that wanted to creep up on her for the littlest things. She would do anything to keep him happy and this clearly made him so happy so she wanted to enjoy this as well... She took another drink of wine and tried to chase away her own thoughts with the warm tingles it spread over her skin.

Bowen surprised her as she set the bottle down again by climbing over Artorias' back to look at her. Briar blinked as she turned her head to look at the emerald eyed woman as she explained what she had asked in their language, her tawny ears giving a small flick in response even though she kept the smile on her lips. She hadn't thought that she had been obvious in how she felt about the two of them speaking together like that, but had Bowen noticed somehow anyway? Or was she just being thoughtful? She was even more taken aback by the offer to teach her the language, making her brows lift with surprise. "Oh! Um... Sure, if you don't mind," she replied with a glance over to Artorias before she looked to Bowen again. "Only if you two don't mind... I know it's special to your family." It was a nice offer and as much as she would like to know what was being said around her she didn't want to intrude on something that was special and particular to the Carpathian family.

Attempting to shake the feeling of this weird division she felt while she tried to determine if it was just her that felt it, she pulled a smile across her features as she quickly tried to move the conversation along. "How about a game?" she asked, hoping maybe if she had something else to focus her attention on it would help. "We have all this wine... maybe a drinking game? Maybe truth or dare? If you don't want to tell the truth or do the dare you have to drink." She looked between them both to see what they thought about the idea with a little grin. "Or if you have any other ideas I'm open to suggestions!"

"Briar Fatalis"