Royal Pairing [Open]

[Meds]

Kanga, Manaaki;

The responses were varying levels of interesting, with Nic heading off the reply. He answered Manaaki satisfactorily, naming a few powers that he had heard of before, though mentioning that he didn't know much more than that. As he spoke, Kanga's eyes drifted over to Edmond, who had remained pretty quiet thus far. He had seen Manaaki speak almost directly to Edmond, and yet it had been Nicolas who had answered. Now, upon looking over, Kanga noticed that Ed's eyes were, in fact, angled towards Nicolas—as if waiting for him to speak first. They had said they were friends, close friends clearly, and this reaction might have made sense if he was shy, or perhaps untrusting. Untrusting seemed the most plausible, but somehow that didn't seem quite right... and he certainly didn't give off the air of being shy. Kanga might have been dumb, but he certainly wasn't stupid. There was more at play here among their relationship.

As Manaaki and Nicolas continued to banter about powers, Kanga kept his eyes subtly trained on Edmond. The male's eyes didn't move from Nicolas' back. When Nic turned and asked him, it was only then that his eyes moved and he replied—almost like permission had been given.
A host of questions cropped up into Kanga's mind. Manaaki sensed the air around his brother change, and turned just in time to see Kanga's chest inflating. Manaaki followed Kanga's line of sight quickly, seeing it trained on Edmond's face. Manaaki had noticed very slight oddities about the other male as well, but the familiar expression on Kanga's face and the glint in his eyes made Manaaki quite sure that an onslaught was about to begin. He took this as an opportunity to quickly answer Nicolas, effectively cutting Kanga off before he had started.
"Crystal, ah, an interesting gift. Defensive, and largely healing-based. Crystal wolves can heal small injuries on themselves, effectively stopping bleeding or stabilizing injured bones. Other interesting gifts include Smog, Venom, or Chameleon..." His eyes drifted to Ed again. Neither twin had missed the subtle meaning behind Ed saying that only defensive powers interested him. Manaaki met Kanga's eyes, giving him a slight brow-raise, indicating that perhaps one question might be alright, but to keep his distance and remain aloof. Kanga more or less understood.

"Defensive gifts, eh Ed?" He said, his deep voice like thunder. "Interested in defense, are you?"

Manaaki didn't quite roll his eyes, but it was close. Subtlety was not one of his brother's strongest gifts—though, he had to admit, that delving a litter deeper into their company might be interesting.

[Calypso]

Nicolas and Edmond;

As Manaaki explained what the power Crystal was, he had to admit that it sounded interesting. Being able to heal any wound by growing crystals from the spot that is injured? It sounded quite handy for a wolf that got into fights a lot. Luckily, he so far didn't have to deal with fights, but there was a chance that it could change. Perhaps he could consider Crystal for himself...

He then glanced over at the other male, Kanga, and noticed that he seemed oddly fascinated with Edmond. It was then that a question came out of the brown male's mouth. At the mention of Ed's interest in defense, a slight pang of alarm flicked in Nic's chest, but he didn't show it. He merely looked over at Ed, knowing that he knew to be careful with his answer.

Ed looked between the three wolves, suddenly realizing that all eyes were on him. This hadn't bothered him the few other times that it happened, but now he was being pressured into answering a bit of a loaded question. His eyes did slightly widen and one of his paws shuffled slightly, but that was pretty much out of embarrassment more than anything else. He sort of shrugged it off, looking towards Kanga. This seemed to be the more suspecting one of the two twins, so it was this one he had to keep an eye on. Of course, he had to watch both of them with the eye of a hawk, but this Kanga was the primary one.

"Yes. I enjoy being able to keep myself and those that are dear to me safe." He then looked over at Nic with a glare, but a slightly playful one. "Especially since someone doesn't pay attention to his own safety." Nic chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. "What can I say? I just enjoy being friendly. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"No, there's nothing wrong with being friendly. But we are in a new valley where these 'alliances' matter. If you meet an evil wolf who kills anyone they see you can't just walk up to them and start a friendly conversation!" Ed did slightly raise his voice, though he didn't mean to. Normally, this sort of behavior would have gotten him a scold from Nic since they were around others, but this time no scold came. But that was only for the sheer fact that these two wolves were starting to suspect that something else was at play. So both the males needed to play the close-friend act and try not to take ranking into consideration, as long as these two bear-sized wolves were around.

"Plus, what if these two had been looking for someone to kill? What would you have done then? I would have been brushed like a beetle under their paw and you would have been by yourself." Ed did look over at the two males as he said what he did, not looking away at first. His eyes were narrow, almost like he still had a suspicion of them. The suspicion went both ways but for different reasons. But Nic didn't really seem to bothered by it. They had come this far and learned that Manaaki and Kanga were generally friendly wolves, regardless of how giant, so 'ifs' didn't matter quite as much,

Nic stuck his tongue out at the gray and white-spotted male, finally realizing that he had been in the water most of the time that they were here. He climbed up out of the water and onto the shore, shaking out his black and teal fur lightly so that he didn't splash the two males, though he didn't mind if any hit Ed.

[Meds]

Kanga, Manaaki;

The quiet wolf answered their question contently enough; in fact, there was a sudden explosion of conversation. Kanga blinked, silently delighted that such a simple question had sparked such a vibrant response. Either Edmond really was that concerned with keeping others safe (not unimaginable), or he was that concerned with Kanga having noticed. The brown and russet brute didn't comment again, but a little quirked grin found its way to his mouth. How interesting. New wolves were so interesting—so many new personal stories that he was not privy to. So many opportunities for questions.
Manaaki listened as Ed replied, noticing much the same thing as Kanga, but gleaning a different understanding from it. From his point of view, the two were just as they said—close friends, nearly brothers, with Ed feeling the brunt of having to look out for a less-careful, more-outspoken wolf. Manaaki knew the feeling well, and therefore came to that conclusion quickly. He smiled as well, misreading Kanga's own smirk, as occasionally happened in a rare while.

"Perhaps I should go in search of Barrier or something myself, eh Kanga?" Manaaki fixed his younger twin with a withering stare. "Keep others from harming you; or better yet, keep you away from things you shouldn't poke your nose into." Kanga snorted in response, glancing to the males again.
"Ed has the right of it though," Kanga rumbled. "Plenty of wolves in the valley take pleasure in the fighting and the killing and the maiming, you know." He gave a sniff, slightly comical. "Take it from someone who knows, Nic. The Manaaki's of the world get tired too." He fixed his brother with a halfway-thankful, and halfway-mocking sneer.

[Calypso]

Nicolas and Edmond;

Nic's first instinct had been to lightly snap his jaws at Ed, warning him of his attitude, but he held back. He couldn't do that here. Not now. Perhaps later he would give Ed a nip on the ear, as long as this encounter turned out well. As Manaaki began to speak again, Nic turned his head and looked upwards, meeting the silver male's eyes. At first he only addressed his brother, saying that he should get some sort of defensive power. As cool as that would be, Nic didn't think that either of them needed a power. He highly doubted that any wolf would ever willingly challenge either of them. Also, he doubted that anything Kanga got into would really harm him unless he had ran into one of those super powerful wolves they had mentioned earlier.

Once the silver-furred male had turned back and addressed them again, Ed turned his head away, averting his eyes. He wasn't quite sure how the two twins had felt about his answer. Then again, he didn't really care. But he still turned away, still cautious of them, but not feeling the need to keep a constant eye on them longer.

At Manaaki's words, Nic glanced over in Ed's direction, not quite thinking of it that way until now. A thought did cross his mind that had done so a few times before. Ed was Nic's guard, bodyguard if you would. He had to be on alert constantly and felt the need to always be at Nic's side, no matter what. Surely Ed got tired. He knew he did. But there was also a few other things to think about. Ed did all of this both willingly and forcefully. Not by Nic, but by their pack. In addition, Ed had been trained to do this exact job. Hardly sleep, stay careful, and never stray too far from Nic. Even if he did get tired, he would never show it and would always push forward. Ed was his best friend and dedicated guard. If he wanted to do this and live this way, Nic wasn't going to stop him.

"I can understand that, I suppose. Though, everyone gets tired eventually." A thought occurred to him. "Minus that Nyx character you mentioned earlier," he added.

[Meds]

Manaaki, Kanga;

A subtle flashing in Nic's eyes towards Ed, when Ed had spoken the first time, caught in Kanga's gaze. His own eyes narrowed minutely, trying to catch something in his expression that would give away what he was thinking, but the russet brute was let down. He almost huffed in annoyance, but saw Ed watching him. When Kanga turned to look, though, Ed had already turned away.
Manaaki watched as Nic looked at Edmond in a somewhat different light than he had previously. Manaaki almost smiled. Perhaps he was noticing (if not for the first time, then again) just how much Ed seemingly did for him? Manaaki didn't know for sure, as the two were still largely strangers, but he had seen the same sort of look in Kanga's eyes directed at him once or twice.

At the mention of wolves getting tired, save Nyx, Manaaki nodded vigorously and Kanga smirked. It was Kanga who answered.
"Indeed. Though it would seem that Ed is better trained than Manaaki here, and lets his exhaustion pass without much notice." His wicked eyes dialed in on Manaaki now, but the older knew the younger was joking. He flashed his teeth all the same, which was quickly mimicked by Kanga, with relish.

"Well, we wouldn't want to keep you from your travelling and sight-seeing," Manaaki hummed, tilting his head slightly and taking in their appearances. He was more than game to continue the conversation if they willed it, but had a feeling that perhaps they wouldn't mind leaving, either.