"Are you really, seriously, nervous right now?"
Birch absently swatted at her charge as he swept up another handful of baby carrots to nibble on while he helped harassed her while she worked on dinner. Though it'd taken Birch quite awhile to tell Torram about the developments in her new, more-than-just-friends relationship with Jacopo, Torram had suspected something was up between the two practically since the moment they'd met. At first, Tor had been ecstatic; Birch needed someone she could talk to, someone who made her happy. More than just needing it, she deserved it. She worked so hard, and for so long she'd put the needs and wants of others - namely himself - before her own. But in the time that had passed since their arrival in Shaman, Torram had also seen a side of Birch he'd never even suspected she had (even though, he'd realized, he really should have seen in before). There was a... softness, under Birch's tough exterior, and a heart that was more easily bruised than one might expect. The more time Birch spent with Jacopo, the more Torram worried. What would happen to her if something went wrong between the two of them? What if she retreated inside herself as she had after her brush with the Omniety, when she'd had a taste of love, and a life she could never have? These thoughts turned Torram from joking to brooding, a transition that Birch would have caught had she been less preoccupied with not burning dinner. A knock on the front door caused them both to jump, a sign that they'd been caught up in their own thoughts, and Torram dashed to answer it before Birch. He drew the door open and gave Jacopo what he hoped was his best manly-and-protective look.
"Come on in, I think she's almost done," Torram said, then dropped his gaze to... Was that a familiar? Torram's eyebrows raised in surprise; he'd gotten the impression that Jacopo wasn't the biggest fan of them, but he couldn't think of any other reason Jacopo would be accompanied by... some sort of dog thing. "Who's your friend?"
"Friend?" squeaked a voice from near Torram's ankle as Rochambeau skittered up to the group. To keep from tripping over the cheerful little otter, Tor swooped him up into his arms and backed away from the door so Jacopo and his companion could enter. Roch flopped across Torram's forearm like a furry scarf, peering at the canine from a half-way upside down position. "I love friends!"
"We know, dingbat," Minerva said, rolling her eyes. But even she couldn't help but look a bit curiously in the unfamiliar animal's direction. Perhaps her own appearance would come as a surprise to Jacopo, since last time they'd seen each other she'd been an owl instead of an okapi; she was sure Birch had probably mentioned it, but hearing it and seeing it were two very different things. |