Welcome to Gaia! ::

Trace probably should have been paying more attention to where he was going but... it was so wonderful out. He couldn't help but close his eyes and suck in the sun's energy. And certainly if anyone looked close enough, he seemed to almost be admitting his own shine. I wonder if Althaia is getting along alright... he thought vaguely. Somehow in his happiest moments he always thought of Althaia.

So there he was, strolling along the street, face turned to the sun, eyes closed. He really wasn't too surprised that he ran into someone. However, the chance that that person was the one he was just thinking about surprised him.
"Althaia? Are you alright?" he asked.

There was the slightest twitch of hesitation on Trace's face, just a split second when his grin seemed to turn down, and then it was gone. He was sunny again. "Oh, we've been fine! Here, let me help." He lifted the two bags from Althaia easily with one hand. "You don't look so well. You'll have to get yourself a nice sun hat so you won't be all fried up on your walks home."

Trace didn't seem to hear her, he was studying her outfit, rubbing his chin thoughtfully with his free hand. Then he looked up at her head, ever-so-gently turning her chin to the side to see all around it. "If only I had brought my sewing kit..." he muttered. He straightened and grinned again. "Well! Off we go! Can't keep you out here for too long. You need to get home and drink some nice, cold lemonade. Oh, wait..." he paused. "Did you say something?"

Trace pulled the bags away, raising an eyebrow. "Of course you can. Having a lady carry this? That's terribly rude." He smiled. "Truly, it's no big deal. These are only a fraction of the things I have to lift in training." He started strolling off down the street, back the way he came to get to Althaia's house.

Trace slowed his pace and glanced at Althaia, his eyebrows knitting together slightly. "Althaia? Are you feeling well?" Without waiting for a reply he put down the bags and put his hands gently on her shoulders, stepping in front of her so his shadow cast down on her instead of the sun's rays. "You should rest." He scooped her up into his arms, walking over to the side of the street and placing her under a tree. He went back to retrieve the sun bags, then flopped onto his stomach next to her.

"Bring a water bottle as well, next time," he told her, picking a daisy. He studied it, then started picking others.

Trace smiled sympathetically. "Many people make that mistake, actually," he said lightly as he finally stopped picking the flowers and started entwining them together. He worked quickly, with obvious ease and skill. It only took about a minute before a flower crown was finished in his hands. He lifted it up and placed it on top of Althaia's head. It tilted slightly, and he laughed at the sight. "Your crown is crooked, Princess," he told her merrily.

He rolled over onto his back, propping himself up with his elbows and staring out at the sunny street. His grin had faded to a sad smile. "Kia and I used to sit in the shade like this and pick out shapes in the clouds. Before I..." he trailed off, his smile gone completely now as he watched a small puffy cloud drift by.

Trace stared at the sky for several more minutes, then closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "Have you ever felt so strongly for someone that even if the slightest possible chance of them getting hurt opens up, you feel... petrified. And you don't want to let them go, for fear something will happen to them when you're not around to protect them?"

He felt something crawl onto his hand, and he opened his eyes, lifting it to see. It was a ladybug, which had frozen on his knuckle when he moved. It still sat there, staring at him in shock. "And they seem so fragile, you're scared to touch them, in case they break under your fingers," he murmured, holding his hand up to a strand of grass so the ladybug could crawl onto it.