by Sara Jaye
This story is the product of a few mental images and several nights of RPing AzelTiltyu with a friend on AIM.
It was a warm spring day. Azel and Lex were visiting Freege castle and rolling in a field of wildflowers with Tiltyu.
Yes, a field of flowers. Somehow she'd convinced them it was a good idea.
"I still can't believe you talked us into this," Lex grumbled. "I feel like a sissy! Men don't roll around in flowers, we roll around in mud! Right Azel?"
"Ehehe...right! Mud!" He was too embarassed to admit he was enjoying this more than he'd ever enjoyed the mud.
Of course, Tiltyu had never joined them in the mud, and he probably wouldn't be enjoying this as much if she hadn't suggested it.
"So why haven't you left yet?" Tiltyu challenged.
"Cause you'd cry and tell your father we were being mean, and he'd yell at us!" Lex retorted. Azel just nodded, even though he didn't quite agree with Lex's reasoning. Lex knew as well as he did that it was nearly impossible to say no to Tiltyu. There was just something about her that broke through Azel's carefully constructed wall of self-conciousness, made him feel alive...
"Nyah!" Tiltyu stuck her tongue out at them. "You just don't wanna admit you love it!"
"We don't! Right, Azel?"
Azel blushed.
"Well...it is fun, and these are very pretty flowers," he said quietly.
"See? Azel agrees with me!" Tiltyu said. Lex whapped Azel lightly upside the head.
"You traitor," he grumbled. "Fine, maybe it is kind of fun. But don't you go telling anyone else about it, okay?"
"Oh, fine." Tiltyu stuck her tongue out again. "But as long as this is our little secret..." She took two flowers and placed one in each boy's hair. "There!" she squealed. "You two look just adorable!"
The boys sighed in defeat. Even when she conceded, she always won.
She's wild, she's crazy, she talks me into doing things I'd never dream of, Azel thought. But I wouldn't want her any other way.
Azel knocked nervously the door to Tiltyu's room, holding the gift in his hand. She answered, wearing her trademark smile.
"What is it, Azel?" she asked.
Blushing furiously, he pressed the small bouquet of wildflowers into her hand.
"These are for you," he said, almost whispering. Tiltyu's smile widened.
"Oh, they're beautiful! I love them!" she squealed. "But why all of a sudden? It's not my birthday, or solstice or anything."
"I...I saw them outside, and they immediately reminded me of you!" he blurted out. "Remember that time at Freege, with Lex, where you put them in our hair just to tease us?"
Tiltyu closed her eyes, feeling a wave of nostalgia at the thought of Freege. Suddenly she remembered it as though it were just yesterday. Azel's blush, Lex's grumbling, her laughter as she got them to admit they were having fun...
"I even kept the one you put in my hair, in a small vase on my nightstand," Azel continued. "And it's still there, too."
"Oh, Azel..." Tiltyu leaned forward to hug him. "Thank you. For the gift, and for remembering. Funny, I always thought you and Lex would be mad at me forever, but I didn't care."
"Hate you? Nah, Lex was only sore for about a week," Azel said as he returned the embrace. "And I could never be mad at you!"
Tiltyu moved back for a second, then took one of the flowers and placed it in his hair. This time he didn't protest.
"Now..." She took another one and placed it in her own hair. "There! Now we match!"
Azel just laughed as he wrapped his arms around her again. "You're too much, Tiltyu. And I wouldn't have you any other way."