The sand was dark and a little too scratchy beneath the pale of Kuroki's paws. It never really bothered him back home, was impossible to rid his coat of every single grain of sand, but it just felt different here. It was weird, how he'd found a little slice of paradise so far north, but upon closer inspection it was obvious it was all just a farce. A pretty good imitation, but a fake all the same. The palm trees that bordered the cove looked as though they were clinging on for dear life, old and raggedy with flaking bark. Nothing at all like the vibrancy and ease of growth back home, like everything was just better in the south. And then there was the water. Fuck no was he gonna dip one toe into that. Didn't matter how pretty it looked, how the setting sun spread fire and lava across the waves, he intended to stay right here on dryish land. "Speech"

Onyx was old enough now to start learning to fend for herself and live on her own. She still had her parents and family to fall back on, but she almost felt like it was expected of her to thrive off the land and her upbringing. That may have not been the case entirely, but it was what she expected of herself.

She wandered often because she wanted to explore and travel, but she tended to stick close to home especially while she recovered from the lack of strength she had from the crystals. She had made her way farther west, stretching the limits it seemed. That was nothing new for her.

Looking down at the cove from above, she noticed the familiar form traveling across the sands and towards the shore. She hesitated to go down and join him at first, she may have acted tough on the outside but she really struggled with her self image around those she felt fond of like Kuroki and Cina. It was in no means of a crush, or at least not that she understood. But there were few wolves she actually cared for or liked and she felt like her last run in with Cina had driven him away. She had wondered the same for Kuroki.

She carefully treaded down to the shores, approaching him from behind and taking a seat beside him without word. Only looking out at the sunsetted oceans in front of them. Sure beautiful, but she didn't pay much mind to those things. The only thing she thought of was what a fool she made of herself the last time they had met.

"Onyx"

Mature! For foul language. Can be prone to violence.

Side eying Onyx as she approached, Kuroki was willing to play nice and sit quietly for about...maybe thirty seconds before he started eyeballing her. It felt as though it had been forever since he'd seen her last and though he wouldn't say it, he was relieved to see the Long Night hadn't left any real lasting marks or scars. Or at least that was till he noticed two bumps on her forehead. Leaning forward, his eyes widened as an inquisitive what the fuck sorta expression rippled across his features. He was pretty sure her face hadn't been so lumpy before, warty like an old witch you'd find stirring a cauldron. With no sense of manners or common sense, he raised a paw to honk one of her nubs. In part to actually figure out what was going on and two, cause he knew it would piss her off. And rightly so. Really though, she could have been sick. He didn't know much if anything about her not even her name, but he figured she was the strong and silent type. Stoic, in that boss ass bitch way. He respected it, really did, but she wasn't much of a conversationalist. "So how you been?" He asked, still attempting to paw at her face. Like it was a normal thing to do.

At first when Kuroki reached up to touch her she didn't move and acted like she couldn't see him. Her eyes out at the water in front of them, she had built this odd sense of tension between them from their last meeting. Her eyes flicked a couple times toward him though as he peered over and then saw his paw lifted towards her face. She didn't expect him to actually touch her though.

When they made contact she flinched away, more like an aggravated sibling that was being pestered. If she was honest, she was really worried about the bumps growing out of her head since the crystal incident. But there wasn't any ooze and this seemed to have the texture and appearance of a young buck growing antlers. She was still skeptical though.

He asked how she had been, and she figured he was done messing with her head though she was wrong. He reached up to touch her again, and her front paws lifted up to smack his own paw away from her face. But she didn't start hollering at him or anything. She was very easily read as irritated to his actions, but there was a limit he had to reach, if only from being her... friend? "I became worse after I went home from the last time we met." She spoke, her eyes leering down at his paws to make sure they would stay there. "I've been trying to build my strength back up." That was more of a confession. She would have never admitted being weak to anyone else, but Kuroki had witnessed just that moment of pure vulnerability. It definitely hurt her more than it hurt him, she supposed he couldn't really care about her life outside of their meetings though.

"Onyx"

Mature! For foul language. Can be prone to violence.

Kuroki grinned as she swatted him away, her paw connecting with his in an obvious no touchy gesture. He really ought to have read the room and gave her some more space, but it wasn't his fault she made being a pest so fun. She was ice-cold, you know? Trying to heat her up and get a rise out of her frosty exterior sounded like a damn good time if you asked Oki. And the way he saw it, though they didn't really know each other yet they were sort of friends. Close enough to warrant this sort of behaviour. "Strength huh?" He paused to mull it over, struggling to imagine her being weak in any sense of the word. Nope, couldn't do it. She was always gonna be a tough ass, wasn't she? "You look plenty strong to me. I guess that's the vibe you wanna give off though, right? Ice queen." He shot her a clever side glance, fangs poking out as he grinned. He reached out again, this time flicking up a toe to poke at her paw. "You lot still live up this way then? In the middle of nowhere?" He'd done his fair share of wandering, knew that no one officially called the north their home any more. Not since her home got abandoned and all that.

Her expressions went very unchanged as he sent her a near compliment she supposed. Though she couldn't help but hate the silly title he tried to give her. She guessed that calling her an ice queen meant some kind of royalty of respect, but it wasn't a tone that she fancied much. She had seen him enough for him to get the idea of how she was raised, she had spoke of it before. Her eyes moving off of him to look back out at the sun setted oceans she spoke again, "Surviving the northern lands proves your overall strength." She paused with a careful grimace without looking back at Kuroki. "I've been learning to live on my own more recently."

She had minded his paw poking less than him trying to harass her stubbed antlers and this time didn't shy away from his touch. She wasn't going to go any further than that though, she wouldn't know how. It had been mostly just her and her family over the last few seasons since Incendium fell. A careful side eye as Kuroki asked if she still lived northern, she wasn't too great with keeping her eyes on him at least. Was that because she liked him? Or didn't care much for him? She couldn't really tell honestly. "I've been wanting to move further south. But I... don't want to be away from my family." While her voice was stale, it was a true feeling inside of her that she probably wouldn't have shared so carelessly had she not been with Kuroki. He couldn't know that though. She wasn't sure if he felt the same way about his own family either.

"Onyx"

Mature! For foul language. Can be prone to violence.