~Aaron~
She looked wildly uncomfortable for the next few moments after his question, and he stood up and leaned against a tree, a bit embarrassed. He hadn't meant to make her... do whatever she was doing. It looked like extreme stressing. Which was what he was doing, but he had to ignore that and at least try to focus on the conversation... deep breaths. Any breaths. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Another shifter! This changed everything. This changed his whole life, it changed... well, everything. He jumped, barely catching her name. It was a very pretty name, and interesting too. Kayeni. He'd never heard a name like that, but he really liked it, and it fit her pretty well.
He realized after a moment that he hadn't actually told her his name. He should probably have done that first. He didn't really trust himself to speak right now though, especially since she'd flipped her hair behind her shoulder, and now she looked so clean and calm and collected and pretty and smart and he needed to shut up. He really, really did. He took a deep breath- then another, for good measure. "I'm Aaron. Nice to meet you?" The you was a squeak, as his voice cracked with nervousness and excitement and confusion and just the amazingness of the situation. Except of course how stupid he was making himself look. That was not what he had meant to be doing. Definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY not. His lip was getting shredded. He really needed to work on that habit.

~Kayeni~

Aaron. Kayeni turned that name over a few times in her head.

It fit the person in front of her, for some reason. Aaron.

Kayeni could see he was pretty excited. It showed up in the way he held himself, how he was trying to look calm but incessantly (yet endearingly) failing, and how he kept biting his lip.

Kayeni mirrored his movement, standing up and taking a better look at him.

He might have been about half a head taller than her, and forced her to look up slightly, but... Aaron... had this excited energy buzzing from him.

Everyone took new circumstances differently, Kayeni thought. While she might have been ready to bolt (and she quickly shut down that thought) Aaron seemed... almost excited to meet a shifter that had the same abilities as himself.

Kayeni had, in fact, wondered what it would be like to meet another one of her kind. None of the scenarios she had one run through in her head seemed to fit what was happening now.

Especially the "nice to meet you...?" bit... In normal circumstances, Kayeni would have suppressed a strange (and unwelcome) urge to laugh, but now it felt slightly endearing. She couldn't figure out why.

Kayeni cocked her head slightly at Aaron. Already she was getting used to associating his name - Aaron - to his face and profile.

She let a slight smile touch her lips - partly of relief that the wolf he had turned into wasn't about to start fighting with her, and partly because - deep down - she had longed to find someone who had the same shifting abilities.

"Nice to meet you too, Aaron."

(:D)

~Aaron~
She was smiling at him. He had gotten her to smile?! Yay!!! That was really good! He smiled too, his eyes flashing happily. Plus, she had responded to him! That was a point for him! All thoughts of his math class had long since left his brain, and now he was fully focused on this conversation. He was trying to judge her character, but she was fooling him. She was just so... calm. And comfortable. And serious. He couldn't really accurately interpret character if you were calmly staring into his soul. He didn't really like that expression, staring into someone's soul. He didn't need anyone staring into his soul, they would probably run away screaming and getting violently smacked by his mild adhd. After all, his thoughts were so fast, people would probably not be able to compute... anyway, back to Kayeni. She was really very pretty. Why did he keep going back to that fact? He had never really felt himself doing anything like that before. He didn't really think about girls that much, never more than guys, and that was just as friends. Why did he like her so much? He even had thought that her shifted form was pretty. He blinked, realizing that he'd just been intently staring at her. Shit. He was awful at this. He probably should have slept more. "Sorry? Um. Yeah. Uh. Do you... like... cheese?" Oh he was so darn stupid! Why was he so awkward suddenly? Cheese?! What the heck was he doing? He should have just kept his mouth shut. Ugh, he was so dumb!

~Kayeni~

Kayeni blinked. Did he seriously just ask him if she liked cheese? Now, that was one question that she was not expecting.

Kayeni was expecting a question something along the lines of "you can shift?"... not... cheese.

Then again, Kayeni connected the dots back to her previous point. Everyone had a different way of handling things... maybe being (extremely) eccentric was his one.

Kayeni realised that that point that he had been staring at her for a while before asking it. Slightly longer than most would, as a matter of fact. Kayeni suppressed the slight flutter in her chest when she found young men - slightly more so if they seemed to just be naturally cute - looking at her, and pushed it down, down, down.

It couldn't quite go away though. Kayeni returned her mind to what Aaron had just said.

Cheese. ... Cheese. ...

Kayeni threw a slightly bewildered but amused glance at Aaron, still wondering where the cheese question came from. That felt... rather cheese-y.

Kayeni suppressed the urge to giggle at that thought. Giggling in the middle of this conversation was not the right thing to do.

"... Cheese?" Kayeni smiled - slightly uncertainly - at Aaron. What was he thinking, when he asked it? He probably regretted it now. In fact, Kayeni thought, this was the first time someone had ever asked her if she liked cheese.

Well, today was a day for a lot of firsts. Including someone asking if she liked cheese.

Kayeni decided to not answer the question directly, and simply see how Aaron would respond to it. Okay, maybe she was toying with Aaron a teensy-tiny bit. (Not that she meant anything at this stage, she thought to herself.)

But then again, what was wrong with that?

~Aaron~
He was fighting the urge to start punching himself then jump off a small cliff. Cheese? What was wrong with him? She looked so confused... he was so dumb... he opened his mouth, hoping to fix it, then almost cursed as he accidentally replied, "Yes, cheddar or Gouda Capybaras?" What the fuck was wrong with him?! Gouda CAPYBARAS?! What even was that? He couldn't even- what- um... he felt like he was crazy. Literally crazy. He was shocked that she hadn't shifter and just ran away yet. He started pacing unconsciously, his fingers drumming on his thigh as he desperately tried to think of a way to fix the situation. The first time he'd ever found another shifter and now all he could think about was cheese. Ugh, this was just great. Wonderful. Now he was just being weird. Like really though, how was she still here? He'd have been gone forever ago if he was in her situation.

~Kayeni~

Okay. Cheese.

Cheddar, or... gouda Capybara.

Was this some sort of prank?

Then again... he had shifted.

So probably not.

But these were some wierd questions he was posing.

And... for a moment, Kayeni saw Aaron turn away - and she thought he was leaving.

Thanks for nothing, she thought sourly.

But then he began pacing (and looking even more infinitely adorable) and looking as if he desperately regretted saying what he did... Kayeni had to let him off the hook. She didn't want him to leave, after all. Because she did ant to know about this... other shifter... too.

Despite he kept asking about... cheese.

Kayeni firmly shut down the thought of laughing. That would make the poor man even more humiliated. Not what she was after.

But... cheese.

Kayeni felt really, really bad for him. He had looked so excited to meet another shifter, and... was now nervously pacing back and forth after asking about cheese.

Cheese. Kayeni smothered another urge to laugh. If they both got out of this mess still in contact with each other, he was never living this down.

But Kayeni felt as if he deserved a bit of slack. He looked so upset with himself after asking about cheese.

Kayeni forcibly stopped herself for a third time, from laughing.

After a pause, in which she felt sure that might have made him feel even worse, Kayeni hesitantly replied, "Should I... pretend you never said that?" Kayeni made sure to smile a bit, to make sure that he didn't run away in humiliation. Nothing worse than trying to talk to someone and them running away.

Especially if that other person was a shifter, and Kayeni wanted to know more about him.

It didn't help that he was rather cute, doing what he did. Kayeni shut that thought down once more. That was not helping her current circumstances.

~Aaron~
He was so embarrassed. So, so embarrassed. "Um... sorry? Do you want any chee- coffee? I'll buy you some?" He didn't know why he was offering this. Why was she so pretty?! She was messing with his mind! Gah. He sighed. "Yeah, just... yeah. Maybe you should. I'm like, really sorry." He bit his lip, annoyed as his voice cracked midway through the sentence. His first conversation with another shifter and he had already embarrassed himself! This was awful. And all he could think about was how pretty she was... he really should have just gone to math class. Like, he really, really, really should have. Ugh.

~Kayeni~

Kayeni - in all honesty - kind of felt bad for Aaron. He looked so embarrassed.

And he kept looking at her like that.

But now he looked like he wanted to run away and hide in a corner. She couldn't let him do that.

"It's fine... you don't need to get me anything." Kayeni knew he said that simply to cover for himself. She - suprising even herself - wanted to know Aaron slightly better.

Other than his obsession with cheese. Kayeni was never, never letting him forget that.

Awkward pause.

Kayeni finally decided to take the lead in this conversation. After all, Aaron didn't really seem like he wanted to open his mouth in fear of him accidentally saying something else.

"What I think I really want to know is... you can shift? Like... there's always been someone other than me out there who could shift?" she said uncertainly.

Kayeni nervously waited for Aaron to respond. She needed to know.

~Aaron~
He instantly snatched even the smallest change of subject. He was way too embarrassed right now. Plus, the part about him not even knowing why? That was not good. At all. He realized that he hadn't actually replied yet, and took a moment more to make sure he wasn't gonna say anything else about cheese. "Yeah, I can shift. As far as I know, I've had the ability my whole life. My shifted forms are a wolf, obviously, and a dragon. Scary, right?" He smiled at her, a bit less scared now. His green eyes shone as he calmed down a bit, and finally was able to smile at Kayeni. Why did he keep going back to her looks, and how pretty she was? He decided that he had to get her number, maybe take her out sometime. He had to. She was too pretty. He needed to try to remember his phone number first though. What was it, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ... no, what was he doing? That was the alphabet! Not his number! He realized that he'd said that aloud after a moment, and blushed. "Sorry." He muttered.

~Kayeni~

Kayeni barely noticed him mumbling the alphabet to himself. She was too focussed on the topic... he definitely could shift. Into a wolf.

And a dragon...?

Kayeni finally had proof she wasn't the only one in the world who could shift... there was one such person right in front of her.

The knowledge of her being able to shift had been locked deep in her mind, for a very long time. Ever since she was little, she had refused to acknowledge it's existence. She barely shifted - only when she was extremely panicked did she shift - and only in extreme circumstances.

Kayeni didn't want to reveal herself as a shifter. But... here was someone else.

It's not like she practised - or repeatedly tried - shifting either. Aaron sounded like he had.

Kayeni was left to ponder the realities of shifting... what more had she just not discovered? But she didn't want to think about that, either, right now. So she shoved it deeper into her brain, making a mental note to look at it later.

She also shoved down in her brain the unwelcome flutter that came with Aaron smiling. He was cute. And handsome. More than that, actually.

But that wasn't why she was here, Kayeni thought to herself. Maybe later. He did look rather handsome, after all. Kayeni found herself staring at Aaron - and she hadn't said anything yet - and quickly looked away, trying to think of something to say.

So... he could shift. But... a dragon? Kayeni didn't think she could do that. Then again, she had never shifted much, so she didn't really know if she could or not.

"You can shift... into a dragon?" She didn't know whether to believe him or not. Dragons were ficticious... right?