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ERIKA'S GARDEN - MID MORNING
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Erika is sitting at the root of the central tree of her garden, leaning on her knees and just barely not leaning her head down on them too. The okapi is still in her purple-and-blue outfit from the day before, staring at nothing while occasionally letting out a deep sigh.
Nesseth makes his way along the alley next to Erika's house, treading a path he's gotten quite familiar with during the whole thing about Melia. Not wanting to startle the okapi, in case she's busy tending to her plants, he calls out as he opens the gate leading into the veritable jungle. "Erika? It's Nesseth. Mind if I come in?"
Erika jolts up slightly, looking up: "H-hey. C-come in. Puh-please." She looks rather shocked out of her disappointed reverie, and it's not entirely certain if she has even slept.
Nesseth steps through the gate upon being invited in and makes his way through the greenery towards the area towards the center that he knows is usually a nice clearing. He's wearing some of his usual non-guard day wear, having gotten a nice enough night's sleep even with all the stuff that happened at the Minnow. As he steps into view, he smiles softly at Erika. "Hey there... how are you feeling?"
Erika looks up at Nesseth and swallows. She gives a delayed smile, but it's rather half-hearted: "Um... w-well. N-not the greatest."
Nesseth makes his way over to Erika and takes a seat on the grass beside her, giving her whatever space she wants at the moment. "Mmh... I can imagine." He looks at the outfit she's wearing, realizing it's the same one from the previous night, "Did you... did you get any sleep last night?"
Erika blinks slowly, then starts to nod... only to shake her head. "...not sure. Might have dozed..." She shifts her position, not quite leaning on Nesseth but certainly sitting close on purpose.
Nesseth notices Erika's movements and scoots a little closer in turn, a joking little smile on his face for a moment as he bumps against her side. The smile slowly vanishes, however, and he sighs a bit at her admission, "I wish I could say something to help you feel better, but... I don't know how much just talking will ease things for you."
Erika lets out another sigh, glancing at Nesseth: "...probably better than just being alone, I think." She stares ahead for a moment: "...when you think things might go one way, and realize you've been so very wrong about someone... it's strange."
Nesseth nods a bit. "Yeah... I can understand the feeling. Like the entire world just kind of tilts a bit, and everything just feels a bit off compared to before." He looks towards Erika and offers another small smile, "And... well, if you just want the company, that's why I stopped by, like I promised."
Erika gives Nesseth a small smile: "Thank you... a-and it's probably good." She moves her hand just slightly towards Nesseth's as she continues musing: "It's like... yeah, like the world just tilts a bit. I thought after the bathhouse, there was more, but..." She gives a slumped shrug.
Nesseth doesn't notice the subtle movement of Erika's hand, focused as he is on her face, but remains sitting exactly as he has been. He nods quietly. "I could see that... First day back for Mirriam, and already fooling around? New experience for you, too, with her like that."
Erika nods: "Yeah... it was odd, but like... I enjoyed that a lot. I thought that maybe...?" She shakes her head: "...what's done is done, I guess. What do I do now?" She grasps lightly at Nesseth's hand as her mind wanders.
Nesseth blinks and casts the shortest of glances down as he feels Erika's fingers lightly grasping his hand. In turn, he gently grasps onto her hand and gives it a soft, reassuring squeeze. "I'd say... whatever you think you should do going forward. Maybe give yourself and Mirriam a little bit of time to sort of... reset, I guess, and cool down. Maybe some time to think on things, too? Like... about yourself."
Erika squeezes Nesseth's hand as she nods: "Yes... cool down, figure out where I am. And maybe with whom I want to be." She gives Nesseth a warm smile, blushing ever-so-slightly as she sits next to him.
Nesseth returns the smile and nods. "Exactly. A bit of time to figure things out, what you want... who you might be interested in, or if you even want something at the moment."
Erika looks down, her voice quieting. "What you've been saying... would it be too daring of me to say... that I might want to involve you, in my life?"
Nesseth blinks and tilts his head curiously. "...Me?" He falls quiet for a few moments, then hums quietly as he gives Erika another curious look, though he doesn't release her hand nor move away, "I... don't know about daring, but... well... Are you... sure?"
Erika gives a low chuckle and shakes her head: "No. I'm not sure about anything anymore, but..." She looks at Nesseth with a smile: "You've been through a lot with me. And I did mean what I said about you too..." Her confidence starts to falter a bit: "A-and I know you're with Plume and Vix both..."
Nesseth sighs a bit and nods, but gives Erika a little smile. "Yeah... I'm with Plume and Vix, but..." His smile grows a little uncertain, "If you're serious, and are okay with me splitting my time among all three of you... we could make it work, I think."
Erika shrugs a bit: "Possibly... I-if you are serious too." She squeezes Nesseth's hand: "Like, none of this makes sense right now, but no harm in trying if we both want to, right?"
Nesseth chuckles a bit and nods. "All the things I'd said before? I meant it, too. I suppose I just figured you weren't exactly interested in... you know, me having multiple partners. As for wanting to try..." He grins a bit and leans in to give Erika a little, light peck on the lips, "I'm willing to."
Erika blinks at the kiss, but her confusion melts into a warm smile: "O-oh... well, y-yeah. Let's go with that, then." She takes a couple of soft, relieved breaths before leaning to give Nesseth a small kiss back.
Nesseth lightly squeezes Erika's hand in response to the kiss, and smiles warmly as it breaks, though a bit of a chuckle escapes as a silly thought occurs. "Hopefully my kisses don't make you wake up tomorrow feeling regretful."
Erika giggles softly as she bats her eyelashes a bit: "N-never. Your kisses are so sweet."
Nesseth chuckles in amusement. "Flatterer. That'll get you more of the same, you know."
Erika giggles again, blushing: "I was counting on that, handsome lizard."
Nesseth grins and shakes his head a bit. "Then in that case... don't mind if I do, Erika." He leans in for another kiss after just a moment's pause.
Erika leans in to kiss Nesseth a bit deeper, grinning as she does: "Mmm... l-let's see where we end up..."
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ERIKA'S GARDEN - HALF AN HOUR LATER
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Nesseth blinks his eyes open, having apparently dozed off for a few minutes some time after he and Erika got comfortable snuggling together next to the big tree in her garden. He looks around a bit from his position next to the okapi, just taking in his surroundings for a moment. His arms are lightly wrapped around her in a nice and cozy hug, and he smiles softly as his eyes shift back towards her again.
Erika looks at Nesseth in the eyes and giggles: "Morning, sleepyhead." She gives his nose a soft kiss.
Nesseth chuckles quietly at the kiss and gives Erika one on her nose in turn. "Morning, Erika. Did I... did I actually doze off?"
Erika lets out another giggle as her answer while shifting her position to hold Nesseth a bit differently but just as close. "Maaaybe."
Nesseth smiles sheepishly as he shifts a bit more upright to take some of the weight off of Erika, since he was likely leaning against her pretty heavily. "I think I just got too comfortable, snuggled up next to you... if such a thing is even possible, anyway."
Erika smirks with a blush: "I'd like to think I'm comfortable, at least." She lets out a soft, happy sigh, looking aside as she does.
Nesseth turns his head aside as well, but more for a yawn than anything as he wakes up a little further. Once he's finished, though, he smiles at Erika and gives her a teasing kiss on her neck while she's looking aside. "If that yawn was anything to go by, I'd say you're quite comfortable."
Erika lets out another soft giggle at the kiss: "W-well, then I guess we agree." She looks at Nesseth lovingly: "I'm... I am glad you agreed to be with me, though. Even with..." She waves her hand in a direction that might possibly indicate the Minnow: "...all that happening."
Nesseth meets Erika's look and smiles warmly. "You're absolutely worth the effort of all those troubles, Erika." He smirks a bit, "I was being pretty well serious about the whole 'wanting to date you' thing from before, even if we were joking about it at the time."
Erika smiles warmly with a bit of a blush: "W-well... if you're sure, what am I doubting things for?" She lets out a slightly nervous giggle: "S-still, gotta talk to Plume and Vix about this, don't I?"
Nesseth nods a bit, his smile still quite easy. "Yeah, once you're comfortable for it, I think. I think they'll both be okay with it, since you're... well, you."
Erika leans back on the tree... and on Nesseth: "Y-yeah... I mean, we all know each other for quite a while now... r-right?" She doesn't sound entirely certain of this, though.
Nesseth gives Erika a warm snug just for comfort as she settles against him. "Yeah, but... just let me know when you're ready to chat with them about this. I'll be there with you, so if they get upset, they get upset at me, not you. And we don't have to talk to both of them at the same time, if you'd rather go a little more carefully."
Erika nods, humming a bit: "Y-yeah... I would like you being there. But... it's not fair doing this in secret either, is it? Even if it hurts to tell."
Nesseth hums quietly, thinking on that for a moment. "Well... I don't think we'd have to resort to doing things in secret together, but..." He looks sideways at Erika, his mouth quirking into a small smile again, "If we have to... I can always spare time for you."
Erika smiles: "Well, i-if you couldn't, this would be very silly, right?" She glances down: "But... I don't wanna ruin anything you have already. Are we sure?"
Nesseth shakes his head a bit. "You won't ruin anything, Erika. That's the reason why we'd talk with Plume and Vix, after all, so we can settle into the new situation."
Erika nods slowly: "Yeah... I know it's proobably going to be fine, but like... I worry? Not really sure about stuff."
Nesseth chuckles and nods, understanding Erika's worry. "I know... I had the same worries when I went to talk with Plume about the thing with Vix, way back. But... it was something that we wanted, so we just had to talk with Plume about it. It took some talking, but they understood."
Erika smiles carefully. "I guess so, yeah. This scares me, but I wanna do it anyway?" She gives a small shrug and looks at Nesseth with a small grin.
Nesseth hums. "Mmh... and it's something I want to do too, so... we can at least give it our best shot, right?" He gives Erika another soft hug, "And besides... even if it doesn't work out, we still have these moments... along with whatever else we can get in secret if need be."
Erika hugs the lizard with a grin: "Well, yeah. We can... take it a day at a time I guess?"
Nesseth grins in turn. "Exactly! We can enjoy the time we have now, for as long as we can, and see what life has in store going forward together."
Erika smiles a bit brighter: "Yeah. I was never that good at staring forward, anyway!"
Nesseth 's frills flex a little as he chuckles, then hugs Erika warmly again. "Little by little, and who knows? Maybe we'll get to see years together going forward, hm?"
Erika leans on Nesseth some more, nuzzling his neck: "I certainly would not mind that...~" The okapi is not too sleepy at the moment, but certainly content.
Nesseth opens his frills just a bit, giving Erika better access to his neck, and he playfully drapes his frill over her snout for a moment. "It would be really nice, yeah. We'll just need to take that first step of talking with Vix and Plume."
Erika giggles at the frills, breathing into them a bit before blinking: "W-wait, does that mean I'm now dating them too?"
Nesseth blinks and gives Erika a curious look. "I mean... that, you'd probably have to talk with them about? You don't have to if you don't want to, of course, but it's still good to at least hang out with them sometimes."
Erika shrugs with a smile: "Kinda already do, anyway. Sort of. At times?" She shakes her head slightly: "I have no idea. One day at a time before I get a headache and need to ingest some blueredroot for it. Cures headache but messes my sense of balance, that one."
Nesseth chuckles and nods as he leans up for a little kiss again. "Heh... yeah, let's just take things slowly for now. Once you think you're ready for a chat with them, either together or one at a time, just let me know."
Erika nods and mrrp'hs happily into the kiss, for now done with life-important questions and the stuff.
Nesseth lets the kiss linger for several seconds, just enjoying the warmth of Erika's companionship right now. His tail lightly drapes over her legs as he gets comfortable again, and he grins as the kiss breaks. "One day at a time, right dear~?"
Erika giggles as she leans on Nesseth: "Yup~."