He sighed. Fallah didn't even try to stop him, or say goodbye, or even move from her position, as far as he could hear. So much for making any sort of friendship.

He took tentative step after step, grimacing at stepping into another icy, muddy puddle of water, then he heard a crash up above and a shout and once more the tumble of limbs that was Fallah crashed into him and his eyes flashed open out of reflex, glancing at her bright red coat and even brighter blue eyes. She fell on top of him and pushed him down to the ground, and his mind stuttered when it should've shouted at him to shut his eyes and stop looking at her.

Instead, he looked right at her, and wondered if he'd ever seen eyes so brightly blue. There was a lagging noise in the back of his mind, an adscript to the pulling loveliness of her eyes, and he didn't listen to it. Her eyes were more captivating than the clearest shimmering pool in Pisces, than the purest of stone he'd seen in Orion, "...more lovely than the alluring flower in Polaris, your eyes are a poem unto themselves. Why did I ever think to withhold myself from such glory? If I could spend the rest of my days looking upon such enchanting jewels." He grinned widely. "Oh, if one could never blink! A moment lost each time that isn't spent looking upon such beauty is wasted!"

@Fallah

Fallah pushed into the other as she stumbled, ending up on top of him. His eyes opened and stared right at her as she stared down at him. There was a moment of silence before he began to spew off, "...more lovely than the alluring flower in Polaris, your eyes are a poem unto themselves. Why did I ever think to withhold myself from such glory? If I could spend the rest of my days looking upon such enchanting jewels... Oh, if one could never blink! A moment lost each time that isn't spent looking upon such beauty is wasted!" Was this the blight Basil suffered from? Fallah's maw twitched up and in one motion, Fallah would cover his eyes with her left foreleg, the fluffy fur blocking his sight. Her smile widened, her teeth showing as she began to snicker, then to laugh, briefly pressing her maw into Basil's chest to muffle the airy sounds, "This is the monster you become?" Fallah murmured between laughs into the dog's fur. She felt his warmth and could hear his heartbeat and had half a mind to stay there for a bit. Her face become slightly flush and her mind shot quickly to Fisher and Black. They were her warmth, not this stranger. Chuckling once more, Fallah spoke, "Okay, I'm-not-me-I'm-Basil, I'm going to remove my arm so close your eyes." The lynx would say, carefully shifting off the other while leaving her foreleg there for him to decide when he was ready.

@basil

Ah! Her visage was lost from his standpoint as she covered his eyes, a mistake on her part, surely! He wanted to ask her politely to remove it so that he could gaze up at her and offer up more lovely words but that would be completely idiotic and he couldn't believe this was happening to him again, and here she was, laying on top of him and laughing. He was a laughingstock, a fool, for not taking proper precautions against things like this. Why would he think that this would end any differently?

He scrunched his eyes tight as she instructed and when she lifted her arm, he very calmly and gently pushed her off of him and got up, shaking his fur.

Deadly calm, he spoke, his head hanging low to the ground, his eyes shut tight against any further "I'm a monster to myself. I don't control anything I do in that state, and it terrifies me. So I'll leave, before I do something the both of us regret."

He moved to leave again, this time paying attention to her location. He didn't intend to let down his guard again and get pounced.

A shame.

[exit Basil]

@Fallah