Summer Lemonade
"Soooo what'cha doing there?" Raijin jumped at the sudden female voice behind him. He turned to glare at a smirking River. "We have lemonade over there and I drew the short end of the stick so I had to come drag you out of your self isolation." she explained, ignoring his heated glare. "You wanna come over and have some?" He turned his back on her and after a few moments he heard her sigh. "Suit yourself. Feel free to come over if you change your mind." He waited to turn back around until he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore. He saw the other Korpis gathered around a pitcher of what he assumed to be lemonade while they chatted among themselves, some more enthusiastically than others. He sighed and turned away from the scene. While he would admit he was probably being more standoffish than he should, they had been nothing but nice to him after all, it was hard for him to just open up after so much time spent alone. They all seemed to be comfortable around each other but he just didn't feel the same yet. Perhaps some day he would, but it wasn't today. As he got lost in thought, he definitely wasn't brooding no, he failed to notice that River had come back and slid a glass in front of him before retreating slightly. He startled and looked over at her wide-eyed. She simply smiled at him. "I figured if you were going to keep brooding over here by yourself I could at least bring you a glass to try. It helps with the heat." It was fairly hot out, something to help him cool off might be nice. He looked down a the glass suspiciously regardless. River easily noticed his hesitance as she added, "It also tastes good."
Raijin carefully slid the glass closer to him and took an experimental sniff. It smelled nice honestly; the cold of the glass had also felt nice against his paw. He lifted the glass up and took a small sip. His eyes lit up. It was... really good. With a quick side glance at a still smiling River he chugged down the rest of the glass. He set down the now empty glass and wiped off his muzzle. "It was... ok." He said quietly.
River burst out into laughter. "Just ok huh? Whatever you say dude." She snagged the now empty glass with her tail as she turned to head back to the others. She chuckled to herself. "Ya know," she started as she looked back at him, "if you want any more we have plenty of it over there. Up to you though." She turned back around and walked away. Raijin watched her retreating back with mixed feelings. On one hand he knew he wanted more of the lemonade; on the other getting more would clearly require going over to the others and interacting with them, even if just for a little bit. The plan had been smart he had to admit. Get him to like it by bringing him over a glass and tempting him with more only if he came over and got it himself. He gave a mild glare in the direction of the others. How badly did he want more? He sighed and made a decision as he slowly made his way over to the others.
Taisho and his wisp were the first to notice Raijin's arrival. "Well look who decided to join us! Never thought I'd see the day." He smirked, though his expression fell slightly. "Though I guess I owe Tundrith money now. I didn't think River could do it." He gave an exaggerated sigh as his wisp comforted him.
"Yes! I knew she would figure something out!" Tundrith smirked as she transferred the glass she'd been holding in her paws to her tail so she could hold a paw out in Taisho's direction. "Pay up pirate boy."
Another exaggerated sigh later saw the passing of a few coins from Taisho to Tundrith. Tundrith wore a triumphant look on her face as she stashed them. Raijin heard an exasperated sigh from his right. "You two are going to scare him off again." Wolf said as he pinned the two with a glare. Both mimicked zipping their muzzles shut, but one look at each other was all it took to break down into laughter. It earned them another sigh from Wolf as he shook his head.
Raijin was pulled away from looking at the scene by a tap on his shoulder. Astral help out a glass of lemonade with a small smile on his face. "This is what you wanted right?"
He glanced over at River who was watching the others with a fond look on her face. She caught his eye and gave him a reassuring smile. He turned back to Astral as he accepted the glass. "Uh, yeah. Thank you." Astral gave him another smile before walking back over to Wolf's side. This immediately caused the group to begin relentlessly teasing the two, though Raijin mostly tuned it out as he savored the lemonade this time. He let their idle conversations wash over him as he slowly sipped on the drink. He was grateful none of them tried to pull him into conversation directly. He did contribute a couple small things where it felt appropriate but there was never pressure to contribute more. Over the course of the day he might have had more glasses than he should have but honestly he didn't care. No one said anything about it so he simply enjoyed what was probably his new favorite drink. With the heat and his previous hesitance more or less forgotten they all enjoyed the summer day in their own ways.