Gently, she reached over and took the pancake, smiling at Frankie. "Thank you," She said, already starting to eat the fluffy treat, "I'll buy you more pancake mix when we're in the city in return." Selina had been planning to pay him back for the food already, as well as for the trouble he had to go through with having to move where he camped and everything, but she wanted to make sure he knew about it.
”You’re welcome.” he smiled happily back at her before pouring the last of the batter into the pan. ”You don't have to do that, Selina. You should save your money for…” he paused briefly as he never actually considered that she might have money. The thought just never crossed his mind. ”Umm, you should save it for your pack. Or for yourself. I can handle my own food budget.” he assured her kindly. ”Thank you, though, for offering.”
"I'm going to pay you back, it's not that much after all," She replied, shaking her head and smiling at him, "It's the least I can do." Selina popped the rest of her pancake in her mouth, savoring the taste and watching him cook the last pancake. When they went to the city, she was going to make sure she stopped somewhere that served pancakes, and she was going to eat as many as she could.
”The least you can…” he parroted back before shaking his head. ”Selina, you’ve already done so much for me. When I first got here, you warned me that I was trespassing on pack lands and lead me to this cave to camp at instead. You took me hiking to two of your most favorite places in this park where we had the best day ever followed by a beautiful night under the stars. And when we came back, you helped me avoid getting caught by your Alpha.” he smiled softly at her. ”You practically saved my life with that one. Not to mention that you're trusting me with the secret of you and your pack being werewolves. You don't have to do anything for me. If anything, I owe you big time for everything.” Frankie reasoned.
Selina flushed slightly and shook her head, motioning to him, "I could list off all the things you've done for me in return too. I'm going to do this for you, it's a gift from me, a late welcoming to the park." She smiled, leaning back on her hands. Frankie had done so much for her, and it felt right to buy him something like pancake mix that he would use to feed himself after all the food she had taken from him.
He raised a brow, wondering what he really did for her aside from teaching her how to swim a little better, and flipped the pancake. ”If you insist… I guess there's nothing I really can do to stop you.” Frankie smiled a little at her. ”Thank you again.”
"It's nothing," She replied, smiling and leaning back on her elbows. Selina looked up at the canopy of trees above them, smiling and just relaxing after an amazing meal of new food. It was the perfect moment, not too windy or cold, and with food in her stomach, she was perfectly content.
”No. It's not nothing. Everything you do is something.” he smiled softly. ”That is just a very kind and sweet gesture.” Frankie told her as he slid the last pancake on his pate. After he found a place to put the pan so it could cool off without any danger, planning to clean up later, he started eating the rest of his meal. This was such a peaceful evening. He glanced up to gauge how much daylight they had left before they could show off their howls and Selina could teach him how to do it better. He couldn't help but smile eagerly at the thought.
Selina shrugged, glancing over at him, "I suppose you're right." She smiled, making sure he was indeed not lying about taking the last pancake for himself, before she looked back up at the sky. There was still a little bit of daylight left before sunset would roll around, but it wasn't more than an hour or even half an hour, just enough to let them wind down and relax before going to start their howling session.
He sighed contentedly as he continued eating though his eyes shone with anticipation for the sun to go down. His sister always teased him about how he liked to howl some nights but he was honestly kinda proud of it. One Halloween a couple of years ago, he dressed up as a wolfman and participated in a haunted house, howling to scare the visitors. And he actually got most of the people to scream pretty good even though his costume was a little cheesy.
(Very sorry for the late response..I have no excuse for myself besides life)
"Are you excited to go to the city?" Selina asked mostly to break the silence. She did like the quiet, but she also wanted to talk to Frankie more, seeing as she had an abundance of questions about the city even since the last time she had gone there. Who knew what could have changed since she had last stopped by.
(It's ok. No excuse needed. Life gets crazy sometimes.)
”Yeah.” he nodded a little, biting his tongue to keep from saying that he was really only eager to go with her. ”Probably not as excited as you are though.” Frankie added with a lightly teasing smile as he continued eating. He was looking forward to showing her around and try his best to answer any questions she had about the city. Since he was going to be staying at this park, he was fairly sure he would have a little more wiggle room in his budget to take her to some fun places while they were touring.
She nodded, laughing lightly, "I'm really excited to have someone who actually knows a lot about cities to help me. I know the basics and how to not be out of place, but maybe I'll be able to see places I normally wouldn't know about." Selina was excited to go to the city and she was going to ask Frankie way too many questions about things she didn't know about.
He chuckled a little. ”If you’d like to and if we have enough time, I’m sure we can go to a few of those kinds of places. And if you have any questions about anything while we're there, just ask and I’ll do my best to explain.” he smiled at her. He was sure she already knew that but he wanted to offer anyway.
Selina nodded eagerly, a bright smile on her face, "Be prepared for the amount of questions I'll ask..I have too many of them." She smiled, laughing and glancing over at him. Going to the city was going to be the highlight of her month, especially if she got to spend the time in the city with Frankie. He knew much more about it than she did after all, and she liked any excuse to spend time with him.
Frankie laughed along with her and nodded. ”I think I can handle it.” he smiled with a small shrug. ”I’m not really a fountain of knowledge but I should be able to answer most of your questions.” The young man was equally excited to spend time with Selina, wherever they ended up. Though he was curious about how she would react to the car ride. Surely she had been in a car before.
"I don't think they're hard questions, I just have a lot of them," She replied, leaning back on her hands as she once again glanced at the sun. Quicker than she realized, it was going down, meaning they probably had about half an hour before sunset. "Do you want to get going soon so we can get to somewhere where I can teach you how to howl without you getting in trouble?"
”That’s fine.” he smiled. It made sense to him that she would have a lot of questions and he was certainly willing to help. At her suggestion, Frankie glanced up at the sun as well and nodded. ”Yeah, the sooner the better.” he agreed thinking the sooner they left, the better the chance of getting out of range of Selina's pack. ”I just need to clean up a little then we get going.” he said, already starting to gather everything he brought out to cook with.
Selina sat up straight and slowly got to her feet, smiling gently, "I can help you if you'd like. We can head out faster then and get more time to howl." She was excited to teach him, and the further they could get away the better for the both of them. Getting Frankie in trouble with her pack because she wanted to teach him his was the last thing she wanted.
He couldn't help but smile brighter at the mention of getting to spend more time with her. ”Well, ok. If you really want to.” Frankie nodded, accepting her help. The only things that really needed to be washed were the pan, bowl, and the whisk he used to stir up the mix. Everything else just needed to be put away back in the cave.
She scooped up the few things that seemed to need to be washed, then smiled at him and nodded towards the river, asking gently, "Do you want me to wash them in the stream? Or would you prefer something else?" The stream is where she would normally wash things, but she didn't want to make him mad or disgust him by doing that if he didn't want it washed there.
”The stream is fine.” he nodded, standing up. ”I have some bio-safe soap in the cave we can use.” he offered her with a smile. He hadn't really thought about using the stream but since he was going to have to ration his supplies, including water, it made more sense to use what was readily available.
"Perfect, I'll go wash them then, and when it's done we can get going," She offered, balancing the dishes in one hand and keeping the other hand open for the soap. It didn't bother her to wash the dishes for him, especially if he was cleaning up the rest of the supplies. "Also, if you have warm clothes I would say possibly put those on, I'm not sure how long we'll be out here."
”Great!” he smiled brightly, his eyes widening slightly, impressed by her balancing act. ”Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to grab a jacket when I put everything away.” he assured with a light laugh before he headed to the cave, carrying the few other things with him.
Once inside, he set his small load down in front of his cooler and quickly grabbed the soap and a cloth for her to use. Though he felt a little… off as he did. Yes, she offered and yes, he appreciated her help but it felt… almost a little sexist… like he wasn't being fair to her. He sighed lightly and tried to ignore the feeling before heading back out, smiling gratefully at her as he held up the two cleaning items. ”Found 'em.”
Selina smiled, nodding in thanks and gently taking them, "Perfect! I'll be back as soon as they're washed." Carefully then, she set off, balancing everything as she headed down the deertrail into the woods. She had done plenty of dishes before and had walked the trail hundreds of times, meaning it was quite easy for her to focus on balancing everything instead of walking along. Soon enough she arrived at the stream though and set to work, humming to herself softly.