All We Have To Do Is... [Xierra!]

[Anonymous]

Keir merely grinned at the stallion as he slowed to give him a momentary lecture. "Sorry!" he said, chuckling at Caspian's threat to cut off his hair, though it was something the kelpie, in the back of his mind, did fear; he took great pride in his hair. The huff of cold air against his skin made him shiver a little, but he couldn't help but smile still. After all, it was a horse that was making threats.

He wasn't aware of the fact that Caspian's instincts kept kicking in while he was there. He had no idea that it made Caspian want to kill, though perhaps not kill him. Keir also wasn't aware of the fact that anything touching the other kelpie's equine form was slowly becoming affixed to him. At the moment he wasn't noticing because of his concentration on even staying atop the horse; he was too busy gripping his legs around the sides of the stallion's barrel, tangling his hands into what mane he could grasp, and trying not to focus on the fact that a mere layer of cloth separated the horse's spiny back from very personal areas.

Keir was grateful when that "speck" began to turn into tangible objects, and soon a heavenly sight appeared before his eyes: the oasis he'd so been hoping to find. He didn't have much time to admire the sight, though, as Caspian was soon leaping over the barrier of weeds and short brush separating the desert sands from the beautiful pool of water. Quickly, he closed his eyes and prepared for impact.

As a rush of water hit his body, he felt it pushing him back...but he didn't come off Caspian's back like he'd expected to. Horrified, he looked up at the surface above them, the calm water disturbed and thrashing about in waves they'd created. Never having had a need to resort to luring a victim using his true kelpie form, Keir was confused as to what exactly was happening. He tried to pull away again, trying to loose his hands from the stallion's mane, and found that he was still stuck. Letting out a short cry of frustration, Keir slammed his heels into Caspian's sides. "I'm STUCK!!" he yelled at the horse. "CHANGE BACK!" Of course, his words wouldn't come out exactly as he intended, they were in water after all.

[Anonymous]

As the dark horse plummeted into the water, breaking the surface violently and descending at an alarming pace towards the bottom, struggling was the worst thing Keir could have done. Even his shrieks, incomprehensible soundwaves wriggling through the water, pleased the kelpie in Caspian. The rider's desperate heeling against his ribs merely spurred him on like it would spur on any other horse, and awakened the instinct in him. So, he trotted further down leisurely into the depths, his eyes blindingly white beacons of light as the sunlight fizzled out into a dangerous, dark blue. It wouldn't take long for them to reach it, simply due to the typically shallow nature of Oasis springs compared to something as enormous as the sea, but by the time his hooves touched the underwater sediment-coated floor... Caspian was completely enchanted.

"Change back!", Keir had yelled previously, the two words distinguishable by the recognizable vowels and  brevity in length... so, change back he did, taking back his human form as quickly as one could blink, and spinning about to give the other kelpie a wild look. Seeing Keir's face, familiar blue eyes through the darkness of the depths, should have eased him. But instead, the fairy in him refused to give the other kelpie a moment to potentially get away or do.. much of anything, so Caspian lashed out, grabbing Keir by his shoulders, and spinning about in the water to pin the boy's back down against the sand. It billowed up around them in their wake, clouding like smoke.

Caspian snaked his hands over to Keir's elbows, locking them in place with a grip aided by inhuman Unseelie essence, and planted his knees on either side of his waist. He was crouched over Keir much like some cat would over a mouse, and as he leaned forward to inch towards Keir's neck, he seemed to tremble with either internal struggle or desire.

Whatever he'd been fighting, it would have appeared to have won haphazardly, for the kelpie closed his chilled mouth around Keir's shoulder instead, a stark contrast against the warm spring waters. His blunt teeth pressed hesitantly against his skin - reluctantly applying more pressure, as if he knew it was wrong. The eating of live things was unheard of for Caspian typically, but he couldn't seem to convince his instincts of that. This attack was as involuntary as one's heart beating, really, and his veins sang with need.

[Anonymous]

It was such a strange thing to be the one dragged down to the depths of this oasis, and all the way down he was still struggling against the hold Caspian's magic held him in. Of course, it did nothing but frustrate him as he couldn't get away from the other kelpie like this, and so he stayed fixed against him as he was pulled down to the bottom by the other's own strength.

He was grateful when Caspian changed back and his feet could finally touch the bottom on their own, but when he looked at him, his own expression one a mix of confusion and thinking that Caspian was merely toying with him, Keir felt a little alarmed as he saw such a fierce and piercing look in those golden eyes. "Caspian?" he questioned cautiously, moving to take a step back; no sooner had he done so than found himself roughly grabbed and slung to the sand. Of course he fought it, but it was a losing battle with the advantage of instinct the other kelpie had over him.

Though he wasn't frightened, he was pretty confused with all of this. Perhaps he's playing a game, Keir tried to convince himself, looking up at the one who'd felt it necessary to pin him down. He found that same feral look about him, though, and a tinge of worry set in. "What are you doing?!" he demanded, flinging his arms up wildly as Caspian worked his way down to pin his elbows, making his arms pretty useless henceforth.

He began to feel trapped as the other kelpie took care to try and keep him down, his thin body seemingly not thin enough to slip away from his grasp. "Hey, stop it!" he yelled, twisting his hips around to try and knock Caspian off balance as he found his arms being pinned with excessive pressure. "I'm sorry I kicked you! Let go! ...OUCH, that HURTS!!!" Wincing, Keir desperately started looking for an out, his instinct to escape causing him to thrash about any way he could.

He finally realized that he was a target when the other man was getting close to his neck, that crazed look of bloodlust so near that he could see it was consuming him. Terrified of the idea that Caspian was going to eat him, and alive no less, Keir desperately pressed himself back into the sand and leaned his head back to try and put even a few more inches between teeth and flesh. It was a lost cause, though, for he soon found himself firmly stuck in a situation he never dreamed he would be in with his own kind squarely after his death. Gasping as the sharp contrast in temperature registered with him, Keir frowned in frustration before yelping in pain as the pressure of those teeth gnashed at the sensitive skin of his shoulder. "CASPIAN!!" he yelled. "THIS IS NOT A GAME ANYMORE, STOP IT!! STOP IT RIGHT NOW, THAT HURTS!!"

Though it probably wasn't the best thing to do, Keir pushed against Caspian now, trying with all his might to loosen the kelpie's grip and hopefully knock him out of whatever trance he'd been taken by. Not knowing what else to do, he leaned forward and nipped at his attacker's neck, wanting him to know just how it felt being chewed on.

[Anonymous]

Caspian was stunned by Keir's struggling, and tried harder to keep the boy's convulsing muscles from jarring his mouth from his shoulder. It was shocking for him, completely baffling to be in such a position - after all, he didn't usually have to fight his meals. They weren't of the moving variety once they were drowned. With each jerk, spasm, kick, Caspian came to himself fragment by fragment.

'How...' Came the first thought, breaking into his conscious like sunlight seeping through a storm. This tiny facet of awareness first observed that, despite his previous attempts to intercept his instincts and keep them from biting down against Keir's skin - well, biting down hard, anyway-, the boy's struggling had made his teeth break the skin. As that blood ribboned out into the water, touching the edges of his teeth so faintly, his thoughts were reduced to ashes. Crazily, lewdly, Caspian dragged his tongue across the minor cut, lapping up whatever blood was leaking from his victim's shoulder.

The flavor, however, had him stopping mid-lick. "...Ew."

"CASPIAN!" The shout anchored him back to reality, had him freezing in place. The rest of the words were muffled to his ears, as if he were still trying to hear it through his cotton burrito - which, to be honest, had come undone in the wreckage and was hanging on for dear life at his waist. Caspian did hear a lot of 'stop it's, though, and when he'd felt that telltale pinch of a mouth on his neck, far too close to his pulse, he gasped sharply with both the pain and the shock. He lifted his head, his pupils constricting to normal from their once ferally dilated state. Keir's face came into focus slowly, though he was tossing all around, shrouding a lot of what had been transpiring between them in grainy bits of sand. The black hair... blue eyes... and... horror? It was the other kelpie, and he was scared because...

Caspian looked down, finally coming into full realization just before he was bucked rather forcefully off of Keir's body. "W..." He began, but trailed off at that solitary letter as all of the evidence of how wrongly he'd just treated the other kelpie came flooding back from his memory. His gut was wrenching at the recollection of Keir's innocent confusion, and as Caspian hovered in underwater limbo, he had to clasp his hand over his mouth.

He'd met a kelpie, for the first time in his life, and had made to eat him! Maybe this was his destiny, to be alone forever. He glanced up nervously at Keir's face, wanting to judge the severity of his kindred's hate for him at this point, but cast his eyes back down. He couldn't bare to look.

[Anonymous]

Grateful when he finally got Caspian off of him, Keir immediately scrambling up from the sand and floated a little in the water as he surveyed the damage. His clothes, he was certain, would be filled with sand when he surfaced, and now he had that little cut on his shoulder, and it stung. Not as badly as it would had they been in saltwater, but it still stung.

For a while he didn't look at Caspian, as he was so preoccupied with himself, but eventually he did look to the other kelpie with confused and slightly sad eyes. To say what had happened was alarming would be an understatement; while Keir was certainly inexperienced he had never been tangled up with being "hunted" before now. He was hurt that this other kelpie had tried to eat him.

"Um..." Unsure of how to start, Keir put a hand up to his shoulder and pressed at the cut, trying to get it to stop trickling blood because it hurt being open like that. Moving a little closer to Caspian, staring at his face for a moment with his whole look of dejection, he eventually smiled just a little bit. Once the "cloud" of sand had settled a little, he nudged him with his foot and tilted his head up, trying to indicate the surface to him. Then he was heading up, pushing off of the bottom and letting himself swim lazily to the surface. Just as fast as he'd become fearful and angry he snapped back to being his normal, perfectly fine self. Inwardly, of course; Keir had every intention of milking this whole incident for everything it was worth.

He swam lazily to the surface, pretending to be injured the whole way up as he let his "hurt" arm dangle. When his head popped up to the surface he continued to "struggle" as he made his way to shallower waters and then dry land. Flopping down dramatically, Keir stared at the ground and feigned exhaustion. "This is going to kill me! I can't believe this happened..."

[Anonymous]

Nothing sounded better to Caspian at this moment than to curl up in the blue darkness of the bottom of the spring, hunch down in the plant-dappled sand, and sulk. Sulk for a good, long time. Just as he was quite seriously contemplating doing just that, the side of his calf felt the inclination of Keir's foot. It was so unexpectedly gentle a nudge, the older kelpie looked up at his kindred with a face twisted in utter confusion. Nervously, cautiously, Caspian followed him to the water's edge. It was a shame Keir was in front of him - it might have been undyingly amusing to him to see the way Caspian swam, the way he wriggled his entire body up and down like some drunk sea mammal as opposed to moving like a regular human. Once Caspian felt his feet colliding with the shelf of the spring, however, he ceased 'doing the worm' through the water, and waded over to Keir's side with a perplexed, speculative cock of his head.

"Kill you? Did I break the bone?" He asked slowly, clutching the linens around his hips so that Keir wouldn't see a little - or, in Caspian's opinion, a lot ;] - more than he wanted to as Caspian went to his knees beside him. Although he wasn't denying that he'd most certainly harmed the poor kelpie, he doubted it was anything mortal. And then, before he could bite his tongue, the words came falling out of his mouth, "You promised." The last word, stressed for importance, came out more like a disappointed child berating his dad for not attending their sport's game. He was alluding to the promise Keir had made not to feign his demise to Caspian, of course, but he realized as an afterthought that it was ten different shades of rude to be bothering the kelpie for a trifle of words after he'd just tried to eat him. Eat him alive, to boot! Gold eyes wide with borderline worry, Caspian hovered over Keir's sprawled body, dripping water down from the tips of his green-black hair. "I'm sorry."

[Anonymous]

As he lie there, just looking up at the sky and squinting for the bright sunlight, Keir wondered briefly if there was any danger to him from the tiny scratch of a bite on his shoulder. It was unlikely, it wasn't like Caspian had some sort of venom or something, and so he felt he didn't really have anything to worry about. It wasn't until Caspian was hovering over him that he realized what he'd said and that it broke a promise he'd made not long before.

Instantly he regretted it, what with that look of worry on Caspian's face. "I..." What could he say? He wasn't about to lie to him, that would have been rude anyway, but he knew that telling the truth would probably hurt his feelings too. "Well," he started, trying his best to think on his toes like this. "What if it gets infected?! I mean look at it, Caspian!" Yet he didn't move his hand, keeping  it firmly cupped against the minor wound because he knew such a small thing probably wouldn't have any chance at getting infected and he didn't want Caspian to tell him that after he'd made such a scene over it. "It's a possibility, isn't it? I mean--"

He saw that look in the other kelpie's eyes; the same golden eyes that had glared at him not even an hour before now held that look of sadness, a desire for forgiveness from Keir. His own expression mellowed for it -he wasn't about to make Caspian feel any worse about this than he already did- and he smiled that radiant, friendly smile of his. "It's alright, I know you're sorry, it was just an accident anyway...right?"

[Anonymous]

Perhaps there were more differences between Caspian and Keir than he'd first anticipated. First, Keir was essentially solitary fae... But was he even a fairy to begin with? Didn't he know about magic, glamour, or even how Kelpies went about drowning their victims? He leaned in with curious eyes when the boy had mentioned getting an infection, something quite unheard of for a Kelpie, whose blood was able to purify even the worst substances, infections, or poisons. Right?

But Caspian had never met another Kelpie before, so it was possible that Keir was another breed of Kelpie all together! After all, he had different features than Caspian - what with the black hair and blue eyes -, so it could be possible that they were different... subspecies of their kind? He found he wanted to know more, wanted to know everything about the boy sprawled beside him, but it would have to wait until he'd cleared up... well, almost devouring him.

He ducked down closer to peer in anticipation of Keir actually showing him the wound, but he'd hadn't actually moved his hand out of the way. He'd almost been tempted to pry the fingers apart, had his hand tenatively inching closer, before stopping completely. After what had just transpired, Caspian felt far too guilt-struck to even attempt touching Keir at this point. What if he'd scared him? His mouth pulled into an upset frown, his heart sinking like an anchor. "Let me see? I could help you..." He suggested shamefully, moving his hand to instead brush bits of sand out of Keir's thick, black hair, "My blood can cure any taint. Does it feel like it will get infected? Does it..." His sentence broke here, and he stammered it over as he tried to process it. He'd never actually... asked someone this before, but the fact that he'd grown to care about someone enough to wonder had his breath catching with emotion, "Does it still hurt you?"

He shimmied closer, completely unconvinced by Keir's smile and acceptance of his apology. "Of course it was an accident, you colt. Stop pretending you aren't hurt." It was an act, he was sure, because Keir was just so thoughtful as to sacrifice his own well being with Caspian's happiness! Chest puffed out with this revelation, the kelpie nipped the tip of his own finger until a solitary bead of blood welled to the surface. "Here," He declared, eyebrows furrowed with determination. He didn't so much as look at Keir's face, his eyes pointedly fixated on the hand cupping his wound, "Show me? Let me mix our blood together." It was creepy, the very serious and obsessed way that he said it, and it sounded much more like some brotherhood cult ritual than someone trying to aid another. "I've been summoned twice to cure poison. They all say it only tingles a bit, but it might sting from the cold. Makes your muscles... convulse." He explained, balancing his finger as to keep the blood from dripping off prematurely. After biting into the poor kid, it wasn't like he was going to bleed on him willy-nilly now. No need to terrify him more than he already had... is currently... or possibly will in the future. "Trust me?"

[Anonymous]

It was true that while Caspian and Keir were so similar they were also quite different in some respects. Keir was not as "unbreakable" as the older kelpie, for one, though he didn't like that feeling of vulnerability in that he had such power yet could also be hurt so easily. He had no idea that Caspian was so interested in learning about him, but he was quite sure that he didn't want to lose sight of this other kelpie. Perhaps it was the fear of losing that feeling of acceptance or of finding a kindred, but Keir was certain that he liked having Caspian around.

It was interesting, what he heard, and it made him a little curious: Was his blood like that, too? Keir was virtually clueless about most things Kelpie-related, including his differences from most, so he also wondered if it was some quality unique to Caspian and it got him a little curious. On the inside he'd cheered a little for the other's apparent desire to help him, what with the eagerness to see the bite, but he was hesitant to let him see such a small wound. "Oh, it's nothing, really, don't worry!" he'd insisted at the offer of help, though he was quickly pacified by the seemingly gentle action of Caspian brushing some of the sand from his hair- he was sure there would be more in it once he got up. It was surprising to him that this other kelpie seemed to care about his well being, that he wasn't just some pesky, annoying brat to him.

He decided to be honest with Caspian, mostly because he looked so worried and concerned, and he chuckled a little for that determined look on his face. "Well, maybe I was overreacting a little, it probably won't get infected, but I think I got a little sand in it...stings a little--but not for the bite! It doesn't hurt because you bit me! It..." and then he was mumbling something about water and sand, realizing that he was probably only making this worse for Caspian. "No, really!" he insisted as he watched the older male bite at his own finger. "Caspian, it's fine!" But it was too late, of course, Caspian wasn't even paying attention to him and he looked so focused on doing whatever he perceived as helpful.

"Oh sure, because having convulsions sounds so pleasant," he teased. There was just something about his seriousness, though, and about his asking for trust that got to him. Keir wasn't usually so nice about things, especially if he'd been harmed even in the smallest way, but he felt Caspian deserved to feel like he'd helped him because he sounded like he felt so guilty about it all. Finally, with a small sigh, Keir moved his hand away from his shoulder to show the cut. "I trust you, Caspian, but it really isn't anything to worry about, you know." He wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen, if the other kelpie was serious about mixing blood and such, but he hoped he wasn't going to faint whatever it would be. That would be embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Little did Keir know, he was far from being a mere pesky brat in Caspian's mind. Granted, Keir was most definitely a pesky brat, but as a fellow kelpie, and especially as someone who had opted to stick around after all that had transpired, he'd proved his worth. For now, Keir was as immediately dear to Caspian as a little brother would be. At least it explained the nagging pull Caspian felt to spare the boy, or how quickly he'd offered up services without retribution to this stranger that he would have made even his Unseelie Court pay dearly for.

But in this instant, it seemed that Caspian was the one paying dearly, hunched over the body of a persistently defiant and painfully innocent kelpie boy, with his own blood beginning to slowly pool beneath a fingernail. He huffed, eyes half-mast as he awaited Keir to finish resisting. He certainly did want to hide it from him, didn't he? There was no way of hiding the existence of a wound, as if Caspian hadn't even tasted the blood on his own tongue. Regretfully tasted it, if he remembered the blood's unappetizing flavor correctly. Maybe it was his own interpretation, or perhaps some ancient kelpie adaptation so that they would be repelled from cannibalism, but Keir's blood was comparable to perhaps a mound of dirt, or a delicate wine of fermented worms.

With those unappetizing thoughts in his mind, seeing the very slight cut present in Keir's shoulder was almost... disappointing. Caspian fixated the wound with an intense gaze, one hand primed nearby with a fingertip of blood, but his only outward manifestation of the let down was a quip of his eyebrow. "This..." He sighed, drawing his eyes up from the unimpressive wound towards Keir's face - but stopped, unexpectedly halted by a confession of trust. He hadn't ever been... trusted before. He wasn't sure what answer he was expecting from the question proposed previously, or if he had wanted an answer at all, but the uncomfortably warm knowledge that the other kelpie actually did made him want to be worthy of such an honor. Didn't quite like the wild, happy grin it possessed his lips with, though.

"I doubt it will hurt you very badly." He assured the boy while trying to fight off the smile that downright refused to stop trespassing on his face, "And if it does, it can't be worse than an infection, or losing a limb. Might've even lost that one socked hoof you have." And god dammit, if that last comment he'd made himself didn't only make his grin widen. It would seem sadistic in this context, but really, he just hadn't been so happy in quite some time. Meanwhile, he'd braced one hand in the short line of beach before the oasis degraded into it's natural hedge, and used his other hand to smear the dab of blood across the small cut. Though he was trying to be as gentle as possible, he had to apply at least a little pressure to ensure the blood leaked into a wound that was so very not fatal. "There..." He breathed when he'd finished, quietly as if he'd been holding his breath in anticipation. No one, or at least anyone in the immediate area, could possibly say how Keir would react, so Caspian watched his face with big, curious eyes. And, recalling how Keir had seemed somehow calmed by the simple and considerate action of removing sand from his hair - even if it was a futile gesture -, he awkwardly tried to smooth some of the remaining black tendrils away from the boy's face. "How do you feel?"

[Anonymous]

He had no clue why Caspian was smiling like he was. It was a little strange to have someone so stubborn about helping him even with something as small as he deemed this. At least it wasn't scary. It surprised him that he'd remembered what he'd looked like as a horse; it was such a specific, if noticeable, detail to remember after only seeing him as such once before and for a brief amount of time at that. And he was pretty sure this was the happiest-looking he'd seen Caspian since they'd met, which had its pluses; Keir preferred seeing smiles to frowns, for the most part- and who wouldn't?

Keir smiled a little, he hadn't really known until now what it felt like for someone to remember something like that about him because for the most part he'd killed anyone who'd seen it or was avoiding them out of embarrassment for not being successful in making a meal out of them. The idea of pain, though, however small, was unnerving and it made him tense up as he felt Caspian's bloodied finger on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and waited until it was over, relieved that nothing happened immediately. When he opened his eyes to meet a pair that looked wholeheartedly concerned, though, he just couldn't resist the temptation to mess with him yet again.

Immediately, he dug his hands into the sand and turned his head away with a scrunched up and pained, if fake, expression. He kind of felt bad as he realized that Caspian still seemed concerned for him and was trying to do what he could to comfort him, but he didn't feel bad enough to leave the theatrics where they were. Squinting his eyes shut, Keir mustered a sniffle. He didn't dare open his eyes until he was sure he'd welled up enough to shed some believable tears. When he was sure he could get himself to cry a little he turned his head again and opened his eyes to look at Caspian. He was all smiles on the inside as he felt a few droplets crawling down his cheeks in curved streaks.

"It hurts me," he squeaked out. "It...you..." He quickly wiped the bits of sand from one of his hands onto his shirt so he wouldn't get any in his face and then proceeded to wipe at his tears. "You didn't bother to give me a bandage, you...you mean Kelpie!" he clarified, grinning like a foolish child. "Am I supposed to just leave it like it is?! What if I get sand in it because you left it as an open wound?!" He would've been busting out laughing if he wasn't trying to keep some composure so Caspian wouldn't smack him silly for what he'd done; he knew well enough how mean it was to mislead his kindred.

He wiped at whatever tears were left and smiled, doing what he could to try and pacify Caspian. Slowly, he pushed himself to sit up and frowned as he tried to shake the sand from the rest of his hair. It was nice to know and actually feel that someone was concerned for him since he'd never really had anyone to rely on, but at the moment he was completely abusing what trust was between them. Briefly, he wondered how long it might last, or really if it would last at all after he'd just faked something again. In an attempt to salvage whatever good mood Caspian had appeared to be in, though, Keir made an effort to maintain eye contact with him. "I'm sorry, Caspian," he told him with that goofy smile of his. "Please don't be mad or anything, I just couldn't resist and... well, thank you for your help. Hopefully it will keep me from getting into any big problems or anything. Forgive me? Please?"

[Anonymous]

Though the sun was beating down on them with a ferocity only the desert could possess, and even though Caspian would rather beat himself over the head with a beached whale than endure another moment outside of the water in this heat, he found an odd comfort kneeling next to Keir. His face felt strange, for a lack of a better word, in having been smiling so consistently for so long. And on that note, his insides felt stranger, strung tight with worry but undeniably, positively fuzzy with happiness. And why was he so happy? Because Keir said he'd trusted him, because Keir didn't run away, or because he hadn't simply died much like everyone else might have in the same situation? Or maybe because, for the first time, Caspian felt as if he were just where he belonged, perched in the sand over the body of this fellow kelpie, wiping his blood dementedly over his shoulder.

Er... Well, it didn't sound so good thought out in so many comprehensible and tangible sentences, but the feeling itself was satisfying and very new to Caspian. It felt like the day could quite literally only go upwards from this low point, and given the odds... well, it was highly unlikely that anything could ever be worse than trying to eat someone. Unless, of course, your attempts to make that person feel better out of a deep rooted emotion - which Caspian wouldn't even bother identifying right now, but was relievingly brotherly in nature - backfired in the most terrible way. Which was what Caspian was waiting to find out! At the most, he might have expected a few twitches, or little twinge of discomfort. He wasn't at all braced for what was about to happen, but when it did, he reacted openly. His typical, tough-kelpie filter was no where to be found in this moment of vulnerability.

And what a moment it was, absolutely key for Keir to pull such a dramatic stunt!

Caspian froze in place like a mannequin, his blood-stained finger preserving it's exact position over Keir's shoulder as he watched on in nothing less than completely undisguised horror. "K-Keir...?" He spluttered, eyes snapped wide and brows knit upward in genuine confusion, "Keir, what is it?! Are y-" But he never was able to finished his sentence, felt his cognitive ability to form cohesive sentences drop from the tip of his tongue as the younger kelpie sniffled in an adorably sad way, and then... Oh God, opened his eyes to reveal them upset and blue and wet with tears! Caspian jerked his hand back, holding it in plain terror against his chest as he watched the tears slip down Keir's cheek with an intensity that one might reserve to watch a terrorist in an airport.

There were too many things at play here for Caspian to keep up, too many faults that his brain was spewing in red flags to keep him from knowing any better. The guilt that it was his fault, especially, was the weight that broken Caspian's heart with such profound sadness at the sight of Keir's tears, and that extreme and momentary emotion clouded all of his better judgement quite effectively. It might have been hilarious to see his alarmed expression at that moment, and how desperately pale he'd gone, but Caspian was on the wrong side of that joke. Right now he was a papercut away from turning tail and running in the other direction, but was still panicked beyond being able to move much... especially since he still hadn't breathed since Keir had started speaking. Every word he said tugged at his heartstrings, and at that point, Caspian was very much Keir's bitch.

But not for long.

He froze in a different way now, his body still wound up as tense as could be, but his lips twinged into a deep frown. Keir had played him, that whole time!? Caspian exhaled with the knowledge, his breath bleeding between his teeth in a long, exasperated sigh. 'He really is a bastard colt.' The older kelpie acknowledged internally, fighting the desire to fist his hand in Keir's hair and fling him into the water. And it was worse that Keir was grinning now, right in his face, and it made him fist his hand into a white-knuckled grip. It trembled ominously against his chest, and he had to close his eyes and furrow his brow to channel enough will power to keep from giving Keir something to really cry about. He gritted his teeth, even as Keir attempted to apologize and be all around playful again, Caspian was positively fuming. There wasn't much Keir could do to slay the beast once he'd gotten the older kelpie so upset, so embarrassed that he'd been so worried over someone so... so... 'Insolent! Damned... disrespectful! Snatched pranks! A kelpie or not, he's... he's...'

And then, against all odds, "Ha... Haha... Hahahaha! Hahahahaaa!" Caspian laughed. Darkly, twistedly, insanely laughed a laugh that could only be born from the very pits of hell, something tinged with dementia and lunacy and terrible, terrible thoughts of ill-intentions upon poor Keir. And as Caspian laughed, his lips pulled into an awful smile of death and destruction, eyes clenched shut with the effort... he lashed out swiftly, scooping up a handful of sand and promptly sprinkling it over the small cut on Keir's shoulder. Then, when his fingers were done nimbly depositing sand over the wound, he mussed the rest of the sediment into Keir's hair, digging his fingers into the poor kid's black tresses and working the sand all about.

It wasn't enough, it didn't quell Caspian's growing insanity and burning laughter, so he swept low, wrapped his arms about Keir' waist, hoisted the boy up like a sack of potatoes, and haphazardly flung him out into the pool of water just behind him. The satisfying splash... well, that was good enough. At least Caspian wasn't laughing anymore, instead he'd pushed himself to his feet and brushed the sand from his knees with steady and sane sweeps of his hand. "You're funny, Keir." He stated blankly, his face and voice void of any emotion that would back up such a compliment, "From where did you inherit that sense of humor? Pixies? Trolls? Humans?" Obviously still sore, Caspian huffed and waded out into the water himself, sinking deeper and off the shelf into the warm, comforting waters of the oasis. That was nice - like covering the eyes of a beast, returning to the water had the kelpie finally quelled. "You're an impressive liar. Even better than I."

[Anonymous]

The reaction he got wasn't what he expected and that definitely wasn't good for Keir. He'd hoped Caspian would shrug it off, be an outstanding sport and forget that he'd been playing with him about dying and getting him into a panic over tears even though he'd already asked him not to be like that, to not pretend around him like that. Of course he deserved what came next, but Keir just wasn't getting it at first.

With Caspian sitting there frowning and looking terribly upset and embarrassed, Keir didn't quite know what to do. He snickered a little, trying to lighten the mood, and made the mistake of scooting closer to the other kelpie. "You forgive me...right? It's no big deal, right...?" The look on the older kelpie's face, though, said quite the opposite.

When the laughing started he froze. He had no idea what to do and was just staring at Caspian helplessly with those big, blue eyes. "Caspian?" But it was too late, he'd already made him so upset no amount of sugary sweetness and innocence was going to save him now. He was entirely unprepared for what happened next.

As Caspian scooped up sand he thought he might just throw it at him for acting like that, but no, Keir was in for much worse, in his mind. As soon as some of the sand hit his wound he inhaled in a hiss and swung his hand over to cover it, but that only made it worse as he ended up pressing the sand against his cut. "HEY!" And then he was putting it in his hair. Keir wasn't happy about that at all, but he knew why he was doing it. Pouting and grumbling about how he was totally messing up his hair, he leaned back to try and get away. Really, though, he was letting Caspian do it. If he'd wanted to he could have gotten away faster, but he felt bad for making the other kelpie so upset, for playing the only kelpie he'd ever met.

"Caspian, I..." He wanted to make up. He didn't like it when people were upset with him and it certainly got him flustered that someone who was becoming important to him was upset with him. He was laying it on thick, giving him those gentle, innocent eyes as he prayed nothing else would happen, but of course it wasn't over. When Caspian grabbed him he knew what was going to happen and pressed his hands against his shoulders, struggling to break free of his hold. "Caspian, NO! Don't do it, I--" And then he was flying, his strength no match against that of an embittered man.

He hit the water awkwardly, making a big splash where he normally could make the tiniest of plops on a dive. Growling as he went down into the water, he twisted himself around and shot right back up. Allowing only up to his eyes to surface, he stared at Caspian as he spoke. What he was saying instantly made him feel like a horrible kelpie, though, like he'd taken things too far. Swimming closer, he lifted his head up, still trying to lighten the older kelpie's mood by giving him that innocent look. "I'm sorry I lied...it wasn't nice, especially since you're so important to me," he admitted, daring to move a little closer. "I guess I take my fun too far, huh?" he tried to laugh a little, but it didn't really come out like he'd hoped.

Feeling a little awkward and embarrassed himself, but for his horrible attempts at lightening the mood, he averted his gaze and drew his attention to the cut on his shoulder. He was sure it would heal well, so long as he got all the sand out of it, so he started brushing at it trying to feel if there was any below the surface of the cut. For a few moments he busied himself with rushed attention to the wound, haphazardly splashing water on it to clear out what was on it, but this only made it start to bleed again. Sighing for this, he undid the bottom two buttons on his shirt -which really were the only things keeping the waterlogged garment on his body at all- and peeled the wet fabric from his body as he walked into shallower waters. Once it was off he flung it as far as he could, hoping it would dry out during the rest of the day if he set it out, but it only barely caught the corner of a bush. Grumbling, not really caring anymore because he was not getting back out of the water to fix it, Keir turned and waded back out so he could try and get the rest of the sand out of his hair.

While Caspian was free to do what he pleased now, Keir couldn't stand that feeling and just had to get the sand out. He spent a good chunk of time just standing there bent over with his hair dangling in the water as he worked feverishly at combing to get the irritating grains out. "Mean," he whined.

When he was done, or at least when most of the sand was out, Keir straightened up a little, letting his hair swing just above the surface as it dripped water. He shook it out a little before flinging his head back and letting the wet hair smack his neck and shoulders. Sighing in relief now, he ran his fingers through his hair in an obsessed way as he waded into deeper water, trying to find any stray grains before he stopped and tried to enjoy the cool pool of water he'd been so desperately searching for before. Finally he gave up with his hair, brushing it back over his shoulders, and just relaxed. He allowed himself to float on his back, enjoying the comfort in silence for a while before his curiosity got the better of him. "Caspian, you forgive me, right?" he asked, eyes closed against the sun as he just floated there.

[Anonymous]

In the clutches of madness, Caspian hadn't really considered giving Keir any leeway for the playful antics. Even the friendly expression and soft eyes, which would have ordinarily had him stopping in his tracks, didn't deter him from his mission for revenge. Now that he was back in his own skin, however, he had more of the mental capacity to dwell on Keir's attempts at salvaging the situation. 'A situation that he'd invented to begin with.' Caspian reminded himself inwardly as he pressed out into the waters, horizontally drifting along the surface with more the inhuman buoyancy of a crocodile than a human.

"Hmm." He sighed indistinguishably into the spring, his ethereal black-green hair trailing out from the nape of his neck and through the water like vines. It was hard to stay upset with Keir, and as much as he wished he could deny him any further opportunities to humiliate him, the boy was making short work of getting past his defenses. He would have found it endearing if it wasn't pissing him off so much. "I'm glad I served my purpose for your amusements." He replied curtly in a voice thick and rich with an accent no longer of this world, likely born from centuries frequenting the earthen Unseelie Court.

An eerie silence fell heavily over the scene on Caspian's behalf, leaving only Keir's pleas and the twinkling sounds of moving water to fill the void. He wouldn't speak, not yet, not until he'd felt contained enough to say something without risking scaring away his spritely kelpie friend. Annoyed, of course, but he still valued the boy above all else at the moment. And at least, as time dwindled away, he'd had the sylphs, brownies, naiads, harpies, and all other different breeds of fae-derived villains who dwelled in his court to interact with. Keir hadn't had anyone, had he? Did he just associate with the mortals, then? Caspian mulled over this, welling with unspoken questions as he watched Keir's reflection bouncing off the surface of the water instead of summoning the courage to look at him plainly after all that had occurred, again.

It was innocent, at first: just observing the emotions change Keir's face indiscreetly from innocent to embarrassed to ... frustrated? Caspian quipped a brow, blinking his cat-gold eyes down at Keir's doppelganger as he made futile attempts to clean the wound he'd created and sullied himself, then turn about face to remove his shirt. There was no reason why, no justification for his sudden shyness, but he'd looked away rather quickly after having been staring for too long. Skimming his fingers along the surface, he bid waves to ripple out from the disturbance and warp Keir's image to deter his eyes from giving Keir such painfully apparent attention.

It was true, he was curious and drawn to his kindred like a magnet, but it was against his character all the same to be so nosy. Then again, it was a bit hypocritical to be flustered about Keir losing his shirt when Caspian had been next to naked for at least the majority of this experience, right? Besides, kelpie and most other fae he was familiar with alike didn't find such taboo importance about indecency. So he shouldn't care, not at all. With that firmly reassuring in his mind, he glanced back at Keir to resume his scrutiny, following the motions of his hands working through his black hair. The whines were music to his ears, especially since Keir deserved to be at least a little upset, but Caspian was already over the trick.

"I'm important to you?" He finally acknowledged, his expression carefully aloof as he flicked his nimble fae fingers through the water to lightly splash the object of his attentions, "Stop fretting. I'll forgive you. If only because you're important to me, too." A small, weary smile flitted over his face as if in an unguarded moment at the confession, maybe meant for only himself, and was gone by the time he tilted his neck back to turn his eyes back to Keir's. "But, you could do something for me to make it easier. You're already in my debt for riding me here, do you remember?"

Caspian hadn't actually intended on making good on that demand, something that had only been spoken in jest, but now he found himself returning to it in earnest. There was something he wanted from Keir, something specific that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but it was hollowing him out from the inside with his indescribable yearning. He furrowed his brow, giving the kelpie a pensive and peculiar gaze. "Your hair." He declared suddenly, and with the discovery, reached across the water and touched his hand to the drifting strands, "Give me a lock of your hair, and I'll forgive you."

He wasn't sure why he'd wanted it so badly. Perhaps because he knew how valuable it was to Keir, and he'd just wanted to do it to piss him off? But he had no intentions of disposing of it when he was done, had some strange long-term desire to just... keep it.

[Anonymous]

He had no idea that Caspian had watched him, but even if he'd seen him looking he wouldn't have cared. If anything, he wasn't one to be particularly shy about his state of dress in any given moment.

Keir couldn't help but smile when Caspian told him that he was important to him as well. When he looked toward his kindred, though, that faint smile was missed by a mere moment. He was happy for this discovery, the strange development of a friendship. In truth, Keir hadn't really ever become attached to anyone, so he assumed that his feelings about it stemmed from sharing a likeness with the older kelpie. It was difficult, after all, to convince a human to stick around once they found out that Keir just wasn't normal.

As he drifted closer to Caspian, he found himself looking up at him upside-down. He found this to be quite amusing and immediately proceeded in twisting his head around at different angles to peer up at him, a smile ever-present. "Yes, I know," he said for the indebtedness comment. "What would you like me to do for you?" He floated patiently, still looking up at him and watching curiously as his eyes showed a sort of uncertainty. Then, it was revealed what Caspian wanted. "What?! My hair?" Keir asked nervously, frowning at the idea of losing a lock of hair.

It wasn't extremely important to him, he knew well enough he would go on just fine without a piece of it. It was just the idea of something of his own production being handed off to someone who was more likely to burn it in spite than do anything well-meaning. Slowly, Keir let his feet drift down under the surface and righted himself to stand on the sandy shelf facing the other kelpie. "Well, if that's what you want then I'll let you have some of it," he said, trying not to give away his reluctance.

With nothing else at hand to do the deed with, Keir resorted to severing a lock with the sharpest of his nails - not that any were particularly sharp. Holding the strands carefully with his fingers, he worked quickly to avoid embarrassing himself. However, a faint red came to his cheeks despite his attempt at deftness. Once finished, he held the hair in his hand helplessly for a moment, feeling as though something were missing. Looking up at Caspian, staring intently into the other kelpie's eyes, he eventually came up with the answer.

"Hmm. Need that, too..." he mumbled, reaching beneath the water and quickly ripping a strip from the edge of Caspian's white cloth. Grinning, he brought up the wet piece of fabric and tied the black strands together with it and then, at the end, decided to make a bow of the excess cloth. Chuckling, a smile creeping to his lips, he held out the hastily-made 'package' against his palms. "Here, Caspian," he said gently, determined not to let such a silly thing as hair get him upset when, after all, he did owe him.