Clavott smiled in response, closing his eyes and feeling Nika explore his face with an intimacy that both frightened and comforted him. He had seen couples before, especially when playing music for a crowd. Always there would be some pair swaying to the softest melodies, gripping each other as though they held one another's very souls. He had never been incredibly curious of what the feeling was like- he moved around far too often to gain closeness to any woman- but now that he knew, he wanted more. He felt slightly ashamed at this greedy thought; but then, he had never allowed greed to override his emotions, so why not now?
As her lips tickled his ear playfully, a strange mental wave washed over him, carrying memory upon memory on it. Leaving his father, who had adopted him as an infant; saying final goodbyes to traveler upon traveler; sleeping seperated from the groups he occasionally roamed with; and the dreams he had had from childhood to his early twenties, where he lay abandoned on the roadside as a newborn while his parents walked briskly away, never looking back. And as these thoughts teased the back of his head, his eyebrows curved sweetly upward as though pulled on an invisible cord.
He could feel the strong admiration he felt for Nika rise up from within, and he stroked her hair again as though grasping water that might soon trickle away. "Don't leave me," he said suddenly in a somewhat desperate tone. He had not meant to say it, only think it- but now that it escaped past his lips, he closed his eyes. A pained expression deepened the lines on his forhead and tugged his mouth downward. He knew he had no control over her; they had just met, and he would never force her to do anything against her will. He anticipated that, before he knew it, he would be on the road again, sleeping alone under starry skies again.
