Even if he hadn't seen the tears, he likely would have felt thim; hell, he practically did. But he wasn't entirely a fool and he knew immediately she hadn't meant to let them through - so he did his best to look distracted, as if he had been momentarily caught off guard by something between the two of them. Was it a bug perhaps? Or maybe a petal? It was nothing but something, a flicker of inattention to let them both pretend those tears hadn't happened. Shem, of course, wouldn't really forget it though - he tucked it aside for later, like a mouse into a cache for winter. Something about Taviora upset her. He really hated that. Not Taviora, no, but he hated that places could do that, like a place could never shake off a ghost or memory. Even now, he held something against Iromar even if no part of Moteuh's murder even existed there anymore. Was Tikal the same?

And he'd been staring too long by then. His face had been an array of searching and curiosity, and it seen crinkled into an embarrassed grin as he turned aside slightly and cleared his throat. He had been looking at her funny but only because he had become so deeply enchanted by the realization that they might have more in common than he ever imagined. Fate had decided they were suitable so why hadn't he considered that before? But then she mentioned cousin and he...couldn't help but look absolutely bewildered. Zelda was Tikal's cousin...and Zelda was Shem's sister, though only half. But Shem knew his uncles and aunts and none of them were Tikal's...oh. He remembered then. His mother had a mate once before, right? Before he, Moteuh and Asriel, somebody else had been her world. Hah! He couldn't help but smirk to himself inwardly - of course, right? It was all too easy to forget that he and his siblings hadn't really been born out of 'love' or any of that - he didn't doubt Zeltzin's love, definitely not, but he knew the circumstances weren't usual. But what did that matter? A little ache in the heart was nothing compared to unwanted tears, so he merely nodded in thought and concession. "Glorall is nice, you aren't wrong. I heard the island there has flowers you don't find anywhere else." It was easy to focus on what made her happy while he tried to squirm out of the spiral he had found himself teetering on.

Her voice, of course, seemed to be the real antidote. Even if he could sense some edge of...something else - sadness, maybe? - to it, her voice was always like a fresh breeze or a bird in the tallest of trees: a bit like the feel of spring. It washed over him and made his fur stand down, his muscles relaxed. Shem even breathed a sigh of relief, a little hah! of laugh beneath it in relief. So, his father hadn't made somebody like Tikal do something absurd. Good! She might have some hidden strength to her but Shem didn't want somebody like his father to be the one to bring that out - he was selfish. Shem wanted to be the one to bring her strength to the surface. He wanted to nurture her dreams and aspirations, challenge her and be challenged...urgh! Every time he thought or felt it too much, he couldn't help but give a little squirm on his paws as if trying to get comfortable in the world again. "It's not all that fun growing up fully though. Besides, you can always make a place in the world if you don't find one to fit into. I don't think you need to change yourself just to fit into it." He shrugged, and then he rose properly and moved towards the flowers she had been so desperately trying to reach. He looked up at them again and then back to her. "These flowers belong on the ground, right? That's where they're supposed to grow but they're all the way up there in the rocks. They found a place they liked and made it their own." He blinked and laughed at himself a little - ah! It was a silly thing to say, right? But it felt right. Tikal was like those flowers to him, anyway. Sure, he could see reason - and had! - to be frustrated that they weren't in the right place but after having looked at them long enough, he realized they were nice the way they were. Nobody could hurt them up there so they'd last a long time - they might even bloom all the way through spring and into summer.

Trust her to give him a question to catch him off guard again. It left him with his mouth agape a little, completely lost for words - did he have plans? Something he wanted to do? If he had thumbs, he'd have twiddled them but instead, he looked away and cleared his throat again. "Well, I used to have something I wanted to do. It's all I could think about but uh, well...well, when I met you I realized it was silly to only look at one thing my whole life." He wasn't growing up, at least he didn't think so. Instead, he had realized that maybe growing up wasn't that great. He'd wanted so badly to be big and strong as a child so he could topple Iromar over and bury it completely but when he had met Tikal, he had realized just how much living he had missed out on just because he'd been unable to take his eyes off Moteuh. It made his brain a big mess and even then, in front of her, he couldn't help but look visibly distressed, uncomfortable, like somebody totally lost. It was hard to get it together but he did his best - he breathed in deep, centred his body, and tried to give her a grin. "I want to make a place for myself and for others, I think. Imagine it, would you? You want to be and do something and others just let it happen instead of wanting you to learn what they want you to know, and do what they want you to do." The idea actually made him happy, or something close to it. Was it crazy though? His eyes were on hers, on the hunt for the answer to it: was it crazy to think that?