'Cause You and me, We Make Each Other Better

'Cause You and me, We Make Each Other Better Aug 16, 2019 15:46:52 GMT Cheetah likes this

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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2019 15:46:52 GMT

(ooc: January 19th. Closed to @tiana and @naveen.)

Perhaps it was a bit of a crazy hope that she'd be able to recreate something that had been so... thrown together. That night, though, Tiana had an itch that she couldn't quite scratch. Sure, it would have been easier to make the dish in the spectacular kitchen of Arendelle. She knew that better than anyone. There just was something about trying to make it out in the wilderness that seemed right, though. So, there she was fussing over a little campfire with her cooking tools, a hollowed out pumpkin, and a smattering of other ingredients. Okra had been a part of the dish, she remembered. Mushrooms, too, and the rest? She was kind of grasping at straws for the ingredients. It had been so long since that night when she and Naveen, as frogs, had danced under the moonlight. Nevertheless, she was trying her best.

With the pumpkin situated in a large pot over the fire, and the ingredients carefully being added to the mix within it, Tiana felt confident enough to at least take a taste. She dipped her spoon into the mix and took a small sample. Then her brow furrowed.

"Something's missing," she murmured. Then her gaze shifted to her ingredients. More mushroom, maybe? Or was it the okra? Or... the lack of company?

Tiana would admit it. She'd been glad to see Naveen at her little class the other day. Since that day, though, they hadn't spent as much time together as they could have. He'd been presumably busy with learning how to fight, and she herself was busy with maintaining the army's food supplies. She'd be lying if she said she didn't miss his presence. Maybe, though, he would have followed her out to the Great Forest. It wasn't too far of a stretch, she told herself. After all... he'd followed her all the way to the war.

As she shook the thought away for a moment and tried to resume thinking of what she'd done with the dish, she turned her gaze skyward. Two particular stars in the night sky, somehow shining through the cluster of trees overhead, shimmered down upon her. A smile tugged on her lips.

"Ray... Evangeline," she murmured. "Good to see y'all tonight. I hope you're doin' all right up there." She had to be doing something right if she could still see the two firefly stars. They were still watching over all of them. It was that thought that set her mind at ease a little bit. If Naveen wanted to come find her that night, he surely would. For the time being? She needed to relax a bit.

"Guess it's kind of silly, huh." Tiana was speaking more to herself than anyone else. "I don't know why I'm stressing over this one dish. I don't even know if it'll turn out like it did when I first made it. Guess I just thought it'd be nice to share with Naveen again." Talking to two fireflies that weren't even on the mortal plane anymore. In a way, it helped to take her mind off the unneeded worry. Naveen would have been fine with anything if he did come looking for her. Who knew? Maybe he'd even help. He had a pretty good memory for these sorts of things.

Maybe, she thought, that was just what she'd been missing. A lighter look at things, really. He would undoubtedly have lifted the mood. That was what he usually did when she got too serious about something. So all she really had to do was try and relax. Then she'd wait to see if that line of thought came true.

After all, they may not have been perfect human beings but they did compliment one another perfectly.

'Cause You and me, We Make Each Other Better Aug 27, 2019 5:25:34 GMT

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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2019 5:25:34 GMT

"Tiana? Are... you here?"

The Maldonian prince stumbled over a tree root, attempting to find the meeting spot he was told about. The sun was just shy of setting completely, making the forest darker than he would have been used to... if he was even used to traversing the forest in the first place at all. Even in these unfamiliar lands, Naveen had rarely left the city, if only because it was what made him feel safest. But he could not deny the unusual familiarity of being completely surrounded by nature without an inkling of where he was going. That aspect of his life seemed like an eon ago.

When Tiana had told Naveen that she was planning (in her words) "a surprise" for him in the forest, he had no idea what to expect. Though they had spent time together at her lesson the other day, there was no doubt between the both of them that they hadn't been seeing each other as much as they wanted in recent days. Their respective duties -- his training, her cooking -- left them busy enough. But with a city as big as Arendelle, there was just so much to explore. And with the Suns' impending supply delivery on the horizon, there was very little else to do but wander when he wasn't on the field.

Tiana, he knew, had been occupied with her own business. The work she was doing in the castle, from what he had observed in his short time in the kingdom, was no different from what she had been doing at home. He had poked his head into the kitchen once or twice during meal time, but there was very little he felt he could do without getting in the way of her or the rest of the kitchen staff. This newfound separation put a new, strange feeling of distance between the two of them.

And no matter how he tried to brush it off, distance inevitably turned itself into loneliness.

So perhaps when she did invite him on this spontaneous outing, it was a blessing in disguise. After all, spontaneous was something that Tiana usually wasn't. Having them meet in the heart of the forest was even more unusual. He couldn't navigate a bayou on his own, let alone a sprawling forest -- but the scent of his wife's cooking was unmistakable. And after a little more navigational distress, he soon came upon the clearing that he was told about. His eyebrows raised, eyes widened, and he raised a hand to cover his mouth.

"Achidanza..."

The Maldonian expression was spoken in a hushed tone. There before him was Tiana, gazing up at the sky while a pumpkin roasted over a campfire. Scattered remains of finely chopped okra and mushroom lay next to a set of flint and a small knife. Naveen had no idea what to expect coming out, but in this moment, this was everything he wanted.

Everything he needed.

He made his way into the clearing, hands behind his back and trying to mask the new sense of nervousness that was suddenly washing over him. But there was no need to be nervous. Tiana herself looked it enough for the both of them. He approached her quietly, gently laying a hand on her shoulder. His eyes were half-closed, though his eyebrows stayed up, and he offered a hand to her just in case she wanted to take it. And between the two of them, he would dare to break the silence.

"Table for two?"