He shrugged and held out his hand. In his palm was three fireflies, blinking their lights and not flying away. He gazed at them with a soft, idle smile. "I guess, though most of them were bragging that they got the attention from the crown prince. Sometimes I think that some of those incidents were staged—which is wrong, but I can't help it." He refused to look at Lily, training his eyes down at the fireflies in his hand.
"Sadly, I wouldn't put it past a few of them." She sighed, her expression softening as she turned her gaze to the fireflies in his hand. Memories of warm summer nights spent chasing the creatures flashed through her mind, bring a faint smile to her lips. "I've never seen anyone catch those quite as easy as you did." She said softly, offering a subject change.
"I'm a thief, what'd you expect?" he asked with a quirked lip, mindlessly flicking his tongue out to brush against his lip ring. He blinked as one flew up and landed on his nose, his eyes going crosseyed in an attempt to see it. Truth was, he's been catching fireflies since he was just a kid. He considered himself an expert on firefly catching.
Her eyes flickered to his lip ring for a second, before watching the bug land on his nose. Her smile brightened in amusement as she huffed a small and quiet laugh. "I didn't know thievery and catching lightning bugs went hand in hand."
"Sleight of hand," he said, blinking rapidly as his eyes went back to normal. "I can catch them pretty easily by being sneaky, as opposed to chasing them around like a child." His gaze caught on her bright smile, his lips parting slightly.
"Chasing them around like a child has it's perks, either way." She joked, reaching up to brush her hair from her face. It took her a moment to notice his gaze on her smile, her cheeks pinkening slightly as she remembered Cinthia's earlier comment.
He offered a lopsided smile, flicking his eyes back up to hers. "I guess it does." He noticed the pink on her cheeks and tilted his head slightly, but didn't comment on it.
Her nose scrunched up in thought as she got quiet for a moment, before reaching up. Her hands closed around a firefly that had been lazily circling her head, lowering back down as she opened them with a smile. "They're so pretty."
He smiled as well, watching her. His fireflies had flown away by now, so his hands hung limp at his sides. "Yeah, I usually come here to escape everyone." He waved a hand around. "But these guys are nice company."
"Escape is nice, but company can be too." She said, nodding. The firefly seemed perfectly content to crawl around her hands, obviously in no hurry to leave. She looked up at him, her smile widening and taking on a slightly playful tone. "So, Mr. Thief. Think you can catch more lightning bugs than me?"
He blinked, then broke out in a grin, which brightened his eyes. "Well, milady, I've been catching fireflies ever since I could walk." He smirked and crossed his arms. "So that's a definitely."
Now that was an expression she could get used to. She gently shooed the firefly off her palm, watching it flutter away, before raising an eyebrow. "Shall we put that to the test then?"
The smirk didn't last long, soon replaced by the grin once again. "Oh, you're on," he said, taking the whole thing a little too seriously for theatrical purposes. "On the count of three?" he suggested.
She huffed a laugh, stepping back with a nod. "One…" She started, already looking around. "Two…" She was fairly well aware he'd likely beat her, considering she hadn't done this in forever, but that wasn't the point. "Three."
He spotted a group of fireflies near a bush and instantly went there. He managed to grab four of them, but the others scattered. He huffed and ended up chasing after them—like a child. Little did he know, the ones he had caught were little escape artists and were wiggling through his fingers.
Lily was a bit more careful in catching them, at least when it came to keeping them in her hands. She had abandoned her shoes back by the bench, making it easier to move quickly, a light and happy laugh bubbling up as she caught another firefly, not bothering to keep track of the number.
"Hey, so, what's the time limit?" Rhydar asked, not looking at Lily as he finally caught sight of his sneaky fireflies and paid extra attention to the ones he caught. He didn't want to crush the poor things, though, so he slowed down some and just ended up standing in one spot and reaching out to ones that happened to fly by.
"Coming up with one before we began might have been a decent idea." Lily said, shaking her head with a small laugh. "Two more minutes, maybe?" She paused her chasing, standing still as a few of the fireflies landed atop her head.
"Works for me," he said, turning around. A startled laugh escaped him as he spotted the fireflies on her head. He whined when he saw all of his catches fly away, as he had accidentally let go of them. "Now look what you did," he accused playfully, chuckling.
"That seems more your fault than mine." She pointed out, raising an eyebrow at him. She opened up her hands, allowing the fireflies she'd caught to fly off, though a few of them decided her shoulders were a perfect place to land. "There. Now we're somewhat even again."
He tilted his head. "And here I thought you'd take the opportunity to take the lead." He smiled idly as he gazed at the fireflies on her shoulders and head. She truly looked stunning tonight, no matter how simple her outfit was compared to all of the other ladies attending the ball.
"I considered it." She said, flashing a smile in his direction. She was careful not to disturb the fireflies, perfectly fine with letting them stay where they were. "But I figured it would be nicer to help you out."
"How sweet," he said with a small smile. He looked up as a few fireflies swirled around him, and he watched them dance in the air, momentarily distracted. His eyes followed them as they bobbed and flashed their little lights, sprinkling the garden with mini stars.
She took the opportunity to study him, a soft smile playing on her lips. He wasn't quite what she'd been expecting when she'd come here. She'd been expecting an arrogant prince, and while he certainly had his moments, he was so much more. If only they'd met under different circumstances…
He has always loved the open night sky for some reason, and fireflies had become a close similarity for him. Something good enough to admire when he was holed up in the palace. He would much rather be out on the open plains, sitting by an open fire and hunting his own meals. Listening to the whispering trees and gossiping birds, watching the dancing grass and thundering herds of wild horses. He had always dreamed of catching one of his own.
His wondering eyes eventually landed on Lily, and he paused for a few seconds before speaking. "We should head back in," he said softly, "I'll take you back to your room."