Welcome to Gaia! ::

His body was good at remembering motions. He had practiced this routine so many times, it was as natural as breathing. Usually, he sank himself into the clarity that only music and movement could give him. He let his thoughts drain out of his mind, and focused on the moment.

But something was off. Through his blurred perspective of the world, he kept seeing flashes of… Well, he didn’t know what. But it wasn’t right. It wasn’t supposed to be there. He didn’t have the time to actually look though. This routine was fast and full of complicated tricks, and there were too many ways to get injured if he allowed a distraction to break in. He had been injured before, and it wasn’t good for business.

So he forced himself to ignore it. He could investigate later. It was probably nothing.

The biggest problem with this, of course, was by the end of his routine, he had fallen back into his own little world. The weird thing that had almost caught his attention was the furthest thing from him mind. This caused another big problem.

Most of his street numbers ended with some sort of flip, roll, or trick that landed him next to his speakers. It was a fluid way to transition into the next sequence, or to change the track according to how he was feeling. It had never been an issue. But this time, when he turned to front-flip back to his bag, there was a person sitting there, waving at him. His body, so confident in his movements that he barely needed to think to complete things, didn’t listen as his mind suddenly flared up in warning. His response time was late.

To keep from assaulting the person, possibly injuring them both, he had to end the flip early. Not being entirely prepared for that, his muscles suddenly tense, that wasn’t going to happen smoothly. The moment his feet touched the ground, he knew the balance wasn’t there. It was wrong. Too much weight on one foot. Before his bones could protest, before his joints could pop, or his muscles strain, he let himself fall. As long as he could land it right, he would get out of the encounter with a few scrapes and bruises, versus a sprained ankle or dislocated knee that kind of unstable landing could have caused.

He did, however, make a note to work on the noises that came out of him during moments like that. The loud, high-pitched squeak he let out as he plummeted towards the ground was damn near unholy.

’I hope no one important sees this.’

Rayyan’s body was braced for the impact. His mind was primed and ready to assess damage, and save face. He was already thinking of how he would apologize to the person he had almost collided with. He was prepared.

Except he wasn’t. Because the impact never came. When that finally registered in his panicked brain, he opened his eyes, only to be face to face with the very person he had been trying so hard to avoid. ’Did I hit him anyways?! Did I judge the distance wrong?!’ But a quick glance around told him that, no, it seemed the male had somehow moved.

’Did he… stop my fall?’

This was the moment when his senses really focused in on the brilliantly golden eye shining through the curtain of gorgeous, fluffy purple locks of hair. The quaint little smile. And then he heard the soft, pleasant voice.

“Uhhh-” he started, realizing that he had been asked a question, but then the male was getting closer, telling him to speak up, and he was dazed. He wasn’t entirely sure how to respond, at this point. Usually when people were this close to him, it wasn’t on a street corner in broad daylight. He cleared his throat, and tried his voice again, making sure to take his hint at speaking up, without screaming in his face.

“I think I’m okay, yeah. You startled me a bit, but I think you more than made up for that by catching me. I’m sorry I didn’t see you sooner, I must have been caught up in the music.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. He had stopped himself from investigating whatever had been pulling his attention away. But now was not the time to worry over little details like that. Especially because he was suddenly very aware of the male’s arms still wrapped around him.

’I really am flypaper for odd, aren’t I?’ He shook his head a bit, and smiled up at his saviour.

“Thank you, seriously. I owe you one.”

Just as soon as he started to feel comfortable with the contact the other male was giving him, he was pulling away. It seemed as though the further away he got, the louder his voice became. Was that an issue with not being able to hear? Did his mind just assume no one else could hear either?

“Honestly, I’m surprised you managed to scare me. How I missed that gorgeous head of hair is beyond me. Maybe I need glasses.” he said, grinning a bit. Yes, he was flirting. Usually, he was pretty good at it. But he had only seen one of the man’s eyes for barely a moment, his hair was fluffy and amazing but you could only drone on about it for so long, and sure he could be cliche and talk about his saving him some more, or how strong his arms had felt, but honestly? He was interested, not desperate.

But the entire situation was just weird. How he seemed to be pacing in and out of his personal space, his volume continuing to fluctuate, questioning him- ’Why does he keep moving?!’

“Sure, I can keep dancing, if you want~” he let himself trail a bit, trademark amorous grin still plastered on his face. But then another falter in his act, caused by the guy suddenly in his face again, asking about how often he came. But then he was gone, again and Rayyan honestly had never been so confused about someone’s intentions.

To distract himself, he walked back over to his speakers. “I used to come here a lot, to dance. But I left for awhile. I wanted to see the world. But I’m back now, so you’ll see me here a lot.”

He chose a song, and hit play, moving a few steps away. In the back of his head, he was praying to any god that would listen that the male stayed out of his way this time. Especially with how he’d been acting since the fall.

As his body began to move, falling back into the rhythm of the routines, he found himself returning his eyes to the strange male, instead of letting himself turn his focus inward. But he wasn’t sure it was nerves. Rayyan had met a lot of people in his life, but none had been so… Well, odd. Unique. And he wanted to know more. He wanted to unlock the mystery of those gold eyes.

So if dancing was what his saviour wanted, dancing is what he would get.

’I really need to figure out his name. And his number.’

Rayyan had always been pretty sharp. Living on the streets would do that to a person. So, he was very proud of his ability to stay aware of his surroundings, as well as his ability to block them out.

But as his attention continued to drift to the purple-haired enigma, and it somehow got harder to remember what he was looking at, as he had to send his body into serious autopilot to allow his mind to think about why he had chosen this song, that he was dancing for a specific person....

There were people in this world that weren’t human like him. They had strange abilities, and crazy good senses. All kinds of species roamed these cities, and he had ran into quite a few different ones during his travels. Most blended in pretty well, and could pass as human, until need arose to show their true nature. Given the oddities that his saviour brought into the situation, Rayyan couldn’t help but wonder if he was one of these other species.

The song ended, and his body stopped its movement by instinct. It took him a full beat to realize the music was no longer there. He was too busy staring at the male, trying to figure out why he felt like he was suddenly missing half the pieces of reality. But then everything snapped back into place, and he was confused as to how he had missed the bright purple hair. Again. His saviour was clapping, and complimenting him, and getting up in his personal space again.

’I wanna touch him…’ he thought, and it took all his energy to keep from reaching out to lay fingers on what he was sure was a very handsome face under all that hair. It was another odd reaction, because he very rarely felt the urge to get physical with anyone, without good reason.

’Focus, Rayyan! He’s talking to you!’

He smiled, and tilted his head, trying to make up for what was probably a glassy eyed stare by looking as cute as possible. ”My name is Rayyan. Rayyan Ryder.” He returned the other’s gesture by sliding his hands into his own back pockets, and leaned in just a bit more, closing the already miniscule distance between them. He hoped the guy didn’t take it as mocking, but if he didn’t do something with his hands, they weren’t going to listen much longer. ”And what should I call you~?”

’Ketz… Interesting name. But it suits him. Just as eccentric as he is.’ Watching his bow, suddenly so formal, he felt a slight blush bloom onto his face. He really couldn’t figure this guy out. At all. He knew that that confusion, that challenge was part of why he was so wrapped up in the male.

He realized a moment later that he was staring again, and that Ketz was speaking. Thrown off again by his saviour. “I love bubble tea. It’s been awhile since I’ve had any worth drinking, actually.” his gaze lingered on the little smile visible beneath the curtain of hair.

He really shouldn’t. There were things he had planned today. His dance class would be starting up soon, and he had told one of the girls he would go with her to an audition later. He had to go grocery shopping, and his apartment really needed a good clean. He had been putting that off, boxes still piled into corners, only half un-packed. So technically, his day was planned. He had a schedule.

But as usual, his stomach, and the newest shiny thing that grabbed his attention took precedent. The fact that the shiny thing was actually a person meant nothing. His stomach growled out loud, and he blinked, glancing down at it, before laughing. “Food would probably be a good idea too. It’s been awhile since breakfast.”

Honestly, he was surprised. Usually his stomach was protesting much sooner than this. For as compact as he was, he ate enough to feed a village. His body was a bottomless pit, probably because of the insane amounts of energy he put into everything he did.

Carefully, he turned, sliding his hands from his back pockets to begin packing up his belongings. He still wasn’t sure they would behave themselves, but he needed them to carry the bag, so he would have to trust his self-control, at least for a few minutes.

“Let me pack up, and we can be on our way, kay~?”

“Fancy? Naw. Today isn’t a day for fancy. It’s too nice outside.” If he was being honest, his version of fancy was probably way off from most people’s. Any food he didn’t have to cook himself, or wasn’t bought with a handful of change from a truck or a stand was fancy. But he tried very hard not to let people in on how much he struggled. His reputation was his career, after all. And no one liked starving artists, as backwards as that was.

Once everything was shoved back into his duffel bag, and the thing was forced closed, he bounced back to Ketz, smiling wide. “Well, I’m up for just about anything.” he said, keeping his hands wrapped tightly around the strap to his bag. It baffled him, honestly, how badly he wanted to reach up and touch the male’s face, push the hair out of the way, or even just run his fingers through the hair in general. The mystery there must have been what was messing him up, but that was no excuse. If he expected people to respect his personal space, he had to respect theirs. Not that many people actually did respect him, or his personal space, but that wasn’t the point.

“It’s an awesome day for an adventure,” he grinned, and his eyes sparkled, honey and gold shimmering in the sunlight. “Lead the way, Mr. Handsome.”