The Assault of the Snow

He watched the younger of the two walk off; nose lifted a bit to scent the winds that were blowing fairly consistently now. Nothing but the fading hint of death from the fleeing Moor and a few rabbits up the way, hiding near a mossy log that they could nibble on for a last minute snack before the storm came in. Good, good, things were quiet again, and it was safe to relax fully. Without Sicarius around, he felt more like curling tightly around Demi; protective both from the wind and because he was a giant fuzzy shield for her. Well, that and he really wanted to basically maximize contact with her without crushing her. Or something. Odd urge; but not unpleasant, nor it would seem, unwelcome. So long as she was happy, he was happy.

"She'll be fine, now. Nothing dangerous left in the forest, now. Let me know when you wish to leave, or if you get too cold. I can shift and give you my coat; I really don't need it in this form."

Demi gave a slight nod at Flynn's words, glad to hear that it was safe for her sister to leave on her own. She wasn't worried about Sicarius getting lost of course: the Malkavian mind was a wonderful thing, and the mental map she had of everywhere she had traveled and the internal compass meant that her little sister, nor herself really, were going to get lost very easily. Even if the snowstorm hit she didn't have to worry.

As she thought about snow a single flake landed on her nose and then another on her cheek. Blinking she looked up to the sky, not mind as Flynn moved even closer to circle around her. She rather liked it; and when he brought up letting him know when she wished to leave or if she got cold she found herself thinking that neither of those options were likely going to happen anytime soon. She had no urge to want to move from this position; and he was warm enough to keep her warm, plus the white cloak she wore helped loads as well. "I doubt I'm going to get cold; you're nice and warm. And I doubt I'm going to want to move since I'm so comfortable.", she said with a grin as she opened her eyes.

Her fingers continued to move through his fur gently, and only then did she become aware of it. A single though crossed her mind that caused her to lift her head slightly and blink; slightly confused, "Mine.". The thought was demanding, claiming, and for the moment made absolutely no sense at all. She wasn't someone who got confused often, so the look on her face, if noticed, would likely come across as... odd.

Given how he was laying, he could see her perfectly with one eye, and watch the open areas around the trees with the other; tiger's had huge fields of vision, so he could see almost 360* at once; which when combined with his nose and ears meant nothing would sneak up on them. He he not been unconsciously focusing on her, he might have missed that expression. One ear swiveled towards her, a sign he was focusing all his attention to her at that moment, "Something wrong?"

How did she answer such a question? She herself didn't know if it was wrong that her mind was speaking the word "mine" now every several seconds. In fact, she was pretty sure that there was nothing wrong with it at all mainly because it came with an extremely happy feeling. She laid her head back down on Flynn's side, the confused expression disappearing. "Nothing's wrong per say... my brain just keeps doing something funny all on its own. And it doesn't quite make sense to me. It's a word that keeps repeating itself; or maybe a word isn't quite how to explain it... a feeling sounds better." Yup, confused Demi was confused.

Head lifting so he could tilt it some, he continued to stare at her; he was plenty confused by that, yep. It... he could see some level of sense there, but that didn't mean he understood very well. "Feelings?" Well, seems it wasn't just him, then. He'd been just going with it, not focusing too much on his odd need to be affectionate and protective of Demi and Sicarius; or rather, extremely affectionate and protective of Demi. He'd found himself on more then one occasion thinking of ways to get out of duty so that he could stay by her side and make sure she was safe and happy; which was insane, because he'd never missed a single duty assignment in his life. "A word tied to a feeling? What is this word, if I may ask..."

The word continued to bounce around her skull. It seemed to bounce around faster and become more demanding, as if it were demanding she tell him, demanding she say it. She rubbed at her head with her free hand as if hoping that it would cause it to stop or at least settle down; of course it didn't work in the slightest.

When he asked her what the word, or feeling was she though best how to describe it. "'Mine.'. That's all I can describe it as. A very demanding 'mine' keeps bouncing around in my skull when it comes to you. It's never happened before, and it's not a bad feeling... in fact it comes with this bubbly happiness." She then paused in speaking; the voice was still there, but the instinct, or feeling, seemed to have calmed slightly now that she had said what the word was: as if it were happy with the out loud revelation. Yay for the voices!

Ears perked some, head tilting the other way and pulling absolutely all of his attention to her; he couldn't even begin to hear anything past her voice and the sounds of the wind and gentle snowfall brushing against her body. That was... unexpected; yet not. They'd been growing fairly close lately; what with their strange needs to spend every free moment with each other when possible. "Seems you wish to claim me, then?" He couldn't find a single issue with this, honestly; nor did he have any reasons to want to.

Not bothering to give her time to respond, he was curling tighter around her, enough to almost be constricting. Like this, he was laying on his own back to some degree, or would be if he wasn't too busy nuzzling into her again, purring so loudly her voice would have been drowned out entirely. Basically, him saying 'I am completely okay with this idea' without actually saying anything. This way just felt more... appropriate. Tiger instincts, for the win.

"Aye, that about sums it up." Indeed it did, her entire being seemed overjoyed with the revelation; and the voice within her head, the constant 'mine', seemed to just become one with her very being. Flynn was hers, and given his reaction he was perfectly okay with this. The bubbling happiness over flowered as he curled even tighter around her, nuzzled her, and began to purr louder than before: his physical reaction far better of a response than any verbal one she could have been given. Nothing mattered after that, not the cold wind that was continuously blowing nor the snow that was beginning to fall even faster and harder than before. She simply cuddled up tighter to Flynn and smiled. Fingers ran through his fur still all on their own, though she was far more aware of the gesture than she had been before. "Perfect.", she said in a content voice as she ignored the beginnings of the blizzard that began to start up.

He had to agree with that, this was rather perfect. As much as he wanted to... he wasn't even sure; curl so tightly that he ended up turning into a snake, he knew that would be a bad idea. She might be plenty tough, but he could crush her without too much effort. Instead, he stretched out so that his entire spine cracked and reset just right to allow him to comfortably settle in. Returning to a gentle curl, that would give her protection from the wind, he used his tail to build up a snow block to keep the wind off of them; then lifted an arm to offer her a warmer place to get comfortable. He was basically a giant blanket compared to her, so it would work pretty well. He didn't much mind what she did, so long as she didn't get up and leave him there.

Demi glared for but a moment at the heavily falling snow: she was determined not to leave the comfort that she had being curled up so close to Flynn even with all of the cold. However at his offered suggestion she stopped her glaring and cuddled up beneath offered arm. The even great instant warmth caused her to snuggle in close and close her eyes. She was comfortable and now she could enjoy the sound of the heavily falling snow and just enjoy the beauty of it all without having to worry about getting too cold and having to go home. "Hmm... you know, I could stay just like this for a few days. Minus the need for food of course..." Yup, she would have been perfectly content with a mini camping adventure: just the two of them, the lovely falling snow, and enough provisions to keep them rather comfortable for a few days. All without having to worry about the rest of the world. "Just you, me, and the beautiful snow..."

"This... could be arranged. Easily, in fact. I have plenty of vacation time saved up, it wouldn't take more than a day's notice to use some of it. Camping in mid winter in simple enough; so long as you have enough wood for a fire. Or a giant, warm tiger to curl into." Now that she was curled into him properly, he was able to shift limbs and body just right to protect her from the snow while not suffocating her, she was laying entirely on his fur thanks to the layers of loose skin that where standard for a tiger to have, and as he'd eaten a rather large breakfast that morning, he go could several more hours before needing to even think about food.

"We can plan this properly, wait out the storm, the go into the high mountains. Nothing and no one but us the local wild life; I can show you all those little hiding spots that hold the interesting animals and such."

And now she was grinning very very happily. The idea that they could actually go and spend time together alone for a few days was very appealing, and very pleasing to hear. There was nothing she could honestly think of that would be better than that. So, she nodded her head in agreement with the idea all while remaining curled up close to him. "That sounds like a perfect idea. Sicarius was planning on going to bug my father for a few weeks anyway starting tomorrow, so I wouldn't even have to worry about her getting into anything."

Happy Demi was indeed happy. "How much vacation do you have?", she asked curiously. She couldn't expect him to use it all of course, but she was curious as to how long she was going to have him all to herself.

"Uuuh... that's actually a really good question. Several... years, likely. I've never taken a day of it, and our vacation time never expires. Any vacation time we have when we retire from the guard is converted to back pay and added to our pensions. I could use... oh, likely several weeks before anyone would have issues. Not a big deal; my commanders are extremely effective, they can handle the men without me." Aaand then he was back to nuzzling into her, purring soft enough for her to speak, but hard enough for her to feel it through his entire body.

Several years... he had several years of vacation time. It was almost a little much to wrap her head around, almost. Of course she couldn't expect him to take several years of vacation all at once, but the idea that she could steal him away for even a few days or a few weeks was quite nice. The feel of his purring was almost enough to lull her to sleep, but she didn't want to waste any of these moments like this with sleep so she forced her eyes to reopen. "So I get to have you all to myself for several weeks...", she said with a playful grin. Her mind had so many ideas of things they could do: from wasting hours away just cuddling like they were now to exploring one thing or another and everything that of course came in-between.