Star Starless

Iris watched as Lockwood and Vivus walked off. He couldn't see what they were doing, but he heard them laughing and talking. Iris signed. "Me too..." he mumbled.

(dang it i gtg for now i'll continue iris's part in the morning)

Iris's face turned bright red. "What do you mean?"

Before she could reply, Iris appeared again with an armful of firewood. He began assembling the fire to the left of Vivus and Lockwood. "Don't let me interrupt." he mumbled.

As Iris shuffled around the village remains, his thoughts raced. You're an idiot. He definitely likes someone else. Probably Lynx or Cedar but definitely not you. The pathetic excuse for a fire elementalist. Iris grabbed some wooden house boards and brought them back to the camp.

Iris turned before walking away. "Yeah, thanks, that would help." He forced a smile and started shifting through rubble and debris, trying to find salvageable firewood.

"Um, uh... I should probably get firewood to make a fire... it's getting pretty cold..." Iris stood up and started to walk away

Iris shook his head, but reluctantly joined both of them.

Iris looked over at Lockwood, but looked away when he noticed. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid...

Iris glanced at the two of them conversing about the stars and other random topics. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Of course he doesn't like me back. I got my hopes up again, just like always. And now he probably doesn't want to talk to me again. Stupid.

Iris kicked a bit of debris in a pile. "So, uh... we were thinking about trying to find Cedar and Moeruhime. Do you want to help us?"

Iris looked at the ground. He's mad. he thought.

Iris waved back. "Hi again"

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out. Though we should probably head up now. I think we've left Lockwood standing up there for 20 minutes, and I think Lynx went to find some things that survived the attack, so we should probably go find him as well." Iris stood up again and walked towards the tunnel mouth.

"I'm sure that there are many ways that we can make Lockwood, and everyone, feel comfortable down here."

Iris held the books Vivus had given him and put them in his bag at his side. "I'll give this to him. That's also a great idea, although we'll all probably have to convince Lockwood to come down here again. Either that or drag him down here."

Iris chuckled and smiled. He looked at Vivus, and gave her one last hug. "Are you feeling ok? I-uh, we should probably go look and see if there are other survivors. We still haven't found Cedar and Moeruhime, and considering we found you, Lynx, and Lockwood, there's a pretty good chance they're still alive."

Iris felt really bad, but he didn't know what to do. He was never really good at giving others advice about their emotions. Instead he walked over to where Vivus was sitting and gave her a hug. "It's ok to be sad or mad or happy, just know that I'm your friend and I'm here for you."

Iris stopped. "I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... I-" He looked down at his feet "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Like I said, we're all processing things right now, so feel free to take your emotions out how you want to."

"Uh, I mean, he's probably just a little shaken up due to the whole destruction of Clearwater, and he probably doesn't know how to release it so he's just taking it out on everyone. Don't take it too personal."

"Hey, its ok, no need to say sorry. No one is expecting you to feel normal now, we're all going through things right now. And Lockwood acting like that had nothing to do with him not liking you, I think he's just... going through some things right now."

Iris walked into the room. "I don't know, you just seemed really upset in the tunnel earlier and I just wanted to make sure you were ok. And when I was walking down here I hear you say some things... I just wanted to make sure you're ok, and I just wanted to let you know me leaving to follow Lockwood had nothing to do with you, I just needed to make sure he was ok."

"Hmmm. You're lying. May I come in?" He gestured to the large open cavern shrouded by the willow tree.

Iris appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, the tiny flames he used to navigate the tunnel still flickering in his palm. "Sorry, uh, are you ok?"