A Gift

"Thought I might find you out here." Fleet crossed his arms, the action a bit restricted by the bag he was carrying.

Beryl flinched but did his best to look like he was unbothered. "What do you want?"

"I should be asking you that." Fleet huffed. "You're the one who's been stalking me and Gaia."

"I'm not stalking anyone!" Beryl hissed. "I just so happen to be hanging out around here. You two aren't the only ones who live here you know."

"I'm aware." Fleet rolled his eyes. "But we're not dense." He made a face. "Well I'm not at least. Gaia can be."

"Good for you." Beryl's voice was full of sarcasm. "Now I'll ask again. What do you want?" Without saying a word Fleet held out the bag to Beryl. The other xero's face scrunched up in confusion but he did take it. "What is this? I don't need handouts."

Fleet drug a paw down his face. "It's a gift idiot. Not a handout. Just open the damn thing."

Beryl rolled his eyes and made a show of opening the bag. His face scrunched up again as he pulled the lantern fruit out of the bag. "Gee thanks. Just what I always wanted." Beryl didn't look impressed.

"It's a lantern fruit. I'm sure you know that." Fleet took a deep breath to push his own annoyance down.

"No duh." Beryl huffed.

"And you know the Twilight Carnival is happening right now." Fleet waited to see if Beryl would connect the dots but the other xero continued to stare at him. "We want you to come carve masks with us." 

Beryl went stiff. The silence between them was tense as Fleet let his words sink in. "What?" Beryl's voice was oddly soft.

"Come carve masks with us. We're going to do them tonight." Fleet kept his voice nonchalant. 

"... it won't look good." Beryl put up a token protest.

"Neither will mine." Fleet shrugged. "Gaia got all the artistic talent in this relationship."

Despite himself Beryl snorted but he wiped his amusement off his face pretty quick. "Why?"

"Why?" Fleet tilted his head as he considered the question. A simple word that held far more depth. "We care. We want to try. Not sure what else there is to say. If you didn't want the two of us to stick around you should have never indulged Gaia and me at the Skyfire Festival."

"I didn't indulge either of you." Beryl looked away. "I just got cornered is all."

"You gave me a way to contact you." Fleet pointed out bluntly.

"Just to get you to go away." Beryl's ear twitched.

"Sure." Fleet knew he sounded unconvinced. "So, will you join us or not?"

"If I say no?" Beryl looked over at him again.

Fleet shrugged. "Then you say no. Either way you can keep the fruit. We have plenty."

Beryl turned the fruit over in his paws a few times, seeming to consider it carefully. "No strings attached? You don't want anything from me?"

Well, honestly that response was unexpected. Fleet had thought that Gaia was onto something with the gift sure but Fleet had never imagined there was a world where Beryl might actually accept the invitation. "Neither of us want anything from you. If you come and want to leave before we're done then we won't stop you." Fleet turned to leave, extending this conversation too long felt like it would lead to Beryl being driven off. "Come or don't, it's on you. I'm sure you know where to find us."

He didn't look back to see how that his words affected Beryl. It didn't matter too much. He was oddly confident that Beryl might show up and that was enough for him right now. At the very least the gift had been delivered.