Kosa looked up from the book she was reading, surprised that someone else was in here. She was inside a hidden library in the Cartlann Cave, relatively shut off from the rest of the world. She was even more surprised to find Helios staring back at her.
"There you are, Kosa," He said, looking down at her fondly, "It's just past sundown, I thought I should come get you."
She blushed slightly, tiny pink ice crystals forming on her neck. Annoyed, she licked her fur, hoping to melt them with her tongue. "Well, thank you for coming, Helios," She said, marking the page she was on and closing her book.
"No problem!" He exclaimed, "By the way, what were you reading? I had to call your name like, three times before you noticed I was there," he said curiously.
"Oh, it was just some mythology. I find it particularly interesting. More so than all the other books in here, anyway," She said, gesturing to the wall of books. "Why do you ask?" She questioned, immediately mentally kicking herself. He literally just told you why he wanted to know. Why are you like this. She shook her head lightly to rid herself of those thoughts.
"I like hearing your voice when you're excited," Her heart did a flip in her chest, and her blush came back with a raging force. She quickly tried to force her mind to think of something, anything else. Anything to take her mind off of his voice and the fact that he likes how she sounds and oh no. Oh please tell me I'm not in love with this idiot. She thought, already knowing the truth. She shoved her feelings down, and just started walking away.
"Hey, loser, what're you doing?" Helios turned his head towards the sound of Kosa's voice. She was walking over to him curiously, staring at the thing he had in his paws.
"Well darling, if you simply must know, it's a steel drum," He said, smirking when the ice crystals started forming. "It's an instrument from where I'm from. I taught myself how to play when I was younger."
"Really? That's so cool!" She exclaimed, moving closer to get a better look.
He looked down at her, somewhat put off by her closeness. "Yeah," he said, before awkwardly continuing, "If.. if you want I could play something for you?"
She stared up at him with hopeful eyes, "..Could you? If it's not too much trouble, of course," she asked, slowly backing away from him.
He scoffed, "If it was any trouble, I wouldn't have offered. Now, what song do you want me to play? If you want, you can go grab your filimbi and play along, or you can sing if you feel like it,"
She thought for a moment, mumbling about different songs, before nodding to herself. "If you happen to know it, could you play Sikiliza? I'll go and get my ki'i to play with you. I'll sing too, if you want," She said, growing quieter as her sentence went on.
Helios nodded, and watched her run to her cave. He sighed, wondering how on earth he would ever approach her about a relationship.
525/500 Words