Bleeding Heart 113 This Is Acceptable

He carefully made his way through the fog over to where he had thought a good place to keep watch would be. It was only when he got pretty close that he realized that Vixen was sitting there already.

He did not see Tira but he was sure she was close by. She had been making it a point to not leave them alone. As much as he understood that it was still frustrating. It wasn't like they would really do anything that drastric – he wanted to give Vixen the proper respect of waiting till he had married her. But he wouldn't have minded stealing a few kisses. Nothing wrong with that. Especially when he was fully planning on marrying her, so it was not like it would be playing with her feelings or anything.

With a smile, he snuck up on his sweetheart. Could he call her that just because they had decided that he was courting her and had shared a kiss or two? Well, not like anyone could stop him inside his own brain.

She did not hear him even when he had bent down so that his head was about on par with her ear. Heh, she could really use some more lessons on paying attention to her surroundings.

Usually he would have just frightened her to make a point about it. But… since they were technically together now, even if they had not really discussed it all that much, he felt like teasing her.

So, instead of speaking in his best ghostly imitation, he instead lightly bit her ear playfully. She shot up, her cheeks reddening a little as she looked back at him, "L-lowks? I did not hear you." She took a deep breath and shook her head, "Don't do that." She could not quite meet his eyes and seemed awfully fl.u.s.tered. How cute.

He laughed at her as he sat down beside of her, and asked calmly despite his fast beating heart, "Where's my sister?"

"I have no idea. I think she'll be back soon." She looked away from him, and then asked timidly, "What was with that greeting, anyway?"

He kissed her cheek affectionately, "I wanted to see your reaction if I did something like that. It was amusing." As she glared at him with slightly puffed up cheeks, he laughed, "And you do have pretty cute ears."

Her eyes widened and she looked down, her lips twitching into a smile. Interesting. Lowks felt his own lips curl naturally into a smile. The way she reacted to him flirting with her even a little – she seemed pleased.

Did she actually, maybe…? Not just being willing, or deciding he was okay as a someone to fall back on when she found herself having difficulty catching a man? The thought put him in an incredibly good mood.

She spoke quietly, "I never thought I would ever live to hear the day you actually flirted with anyone… I always figured you knew nothing on how to do so."

"Don't be too surprised, not like I am all that good at it. I've never really gotten much opportunity to try to practice it." Still smiling, he reached to grasp her by her shoulder and pulled her gently to lean on him.

She flushed again but did not fight him. It was not like this was the first time she had ever leaned on him, but it was different when they were actually getting into a relations.h.i.+p. He was glad she felt that it was different too.

He looked down at her, and just quietly examined the features of her cute face. She was no exceptional beauty. He was thankful of that - if she had been it would have been so much harder to keep her out of trouble. And she was plenty attractive as it was. But more in a comforting way than those woman who were troublesomely beautiful.

He would rather have her than any other, whether beautiful or not. They were not Vixen. He could not say why his heart had set itself so firmly on her. But it had, from a fairly young age, as weird as it might be he had pretty much already decided he wanted to take her as his wife when she was thirteen. He was pretty sure that it was because he had been aware that his race made it so that they actually did not have that huge a difference in age. Making it so that he had never really viewed her as being all that much younger than him. But she had been a child and so he had not said anything. He had just wanted to wait until she was eighteen so it was not like he was actually chasing her when she not yet ready for such things.

That was why he had never really gotten much of a chance to ever try flirting with anyone. By the time he was old enough to be looking he had already made up his mind. And he would not play with anyone's heart just to get better at a skill he only wanted to use on his own girl anyway.

So now, he was trying out something he had only ever practiced in his head. He just hoped she would forgive it if he made a blunder with his words or actions.

As he continued just holding Vixen against him, Tira joined them, almost seeming to materialize out of the fog. Embarra.s.sed Lowks went to remove his arm from around his girl, but Tira took one look at them and smiled, "Well, that's acceptable. Just as long as you aren't getting too physical."

Lowks rolled his eyes at his sister but was more than happy to continue holding the girl leaning happily, though with some embarra.s.sment, into him. So he ignored his sister's presence and just continued to snuggle Vixen into his embrace.

Well, he tried to ignore Tira but as she started chatting idly with him, it made it hard to actually do. But he did not let her presence stop him from calmly holding onto Vixen and keeping her plastered against his side.