Still, the engkanto felt he was asking too much. To think he was just...Well, he was now technically a tenant and goodness he was imposing upon Muse. The brunet did just moved in and considering the possible expenses, moving out drama and all. Malaya didn't want to be a burden right now---not ever.

"I'd like that...," he smiled a little, "It's just that I've grown used to having my own little garden and living off on it. With some occasional fowl and meat to grace my table. Inang Kalikasan ((Mother Earth)) is a very hospital and generous woman...She truly provides. I simply cannot ask for more."

He exhaled deeply and then looked at the market food, feeling a little nauseous at the thought of fresh, crispy and juicy bounty being robbed of their innate wonders because of chemicals. Malaya took the human's hand in his once more and smiled brightly, having pushed back the thought in his mind, "Say... Joseph, when you go decide to go...to the next level on gardening, can I...help?"

The spirit seemed quite shy and somewhat embarrassed by the request but really couldn't help himself.

"Ina...Wow I don't think I can even pronounce that." Muse admitted, with an faint laugh. It was amazing again, how very different their personal 'worlds' had been. He'd grown up in the city, his taste for gardening had come about with potted plants and a roof top green house, not being surrounded by unfettered greenery. "Yeah, absolutely you can help. Hell, I'll probably enlist you as a personal taskmaster for as long as you put up with me, so I stay on track with my writing. Lets see what we can find that you can stomach, and I'll check around for some farm stands so we can get stuff there for as long as they're open. I think most of them are pretty seasonal, so..."

He grinned at the human, raising a finger to tickle his chin and traced his exposed throat, placing the pad of his finger right above the voice box, "Repeat after me. I -soft I. A long 'e' sound.- Nang -elongate the 'a' part but not too much' Just as how I say it. Ka-li-kah-sahn." Malaya then listened and followed the other's words and then smiled at him, "Really it's not so bad... But then from how I take it, we have different accents. Your is very..." He paused momentarily, snapping his fingers on the opposite hand, trying to remember the exact word for the situation. Only to end up making curves up in the air. The engkanto chuckled and then sighed, "I'm not a linguist. Sorry... Though it has a tendency to go lilting upwards? I don't know---not a linguist. And mine is soft, easily malleable but I can sound angry because of the stress of certain words."

The braided spirit then picked up an apple and placed it on the pile forming in the plastic shopping basket, "Since you say it simply needs to be washed anyway, I'll trust you on that account. If my stomach hurts you'll have to nurse me back to health!," he teased as he feigned a pout and took his place by the brunet's side.

The supermarket...now that he thought about it, wasn't as scary as he first assumed it to be. Simpy put, it was as any market only cleaner, colder even. Not to mention almost everything was wrapped, covered with chemicals or both. It was a little shocking for him but somehow, he could sense the rationale behind it.

"I was wondering... Do you mind if we look for some clothes too? As much as I enjoy your selection of clothes, I think it would be awkward to be always stealing off your clothes all the time..."

Malaya could only imagine what if the mortals' friends came over and found him in just a shirt and underwear prancing about. The ideas that one could make from such an event. Or perhaps even Muse's parents.
He didn't want a repeat of what had happened to him when he once had a buddy over and was well...wearing his things. People have a tendency to jump to conclusions after all.

"Though... I don't mind?"

Muse caught himself turning red again at the linguistic tutelage. "I uh, I think I know what you mean, but the only um...accent mark I ever remember the name of is the Umlaut." He gestured vaguely. "Thats the...two little dots over the letter. "Other languages weren't exactly my college strong point. Or my high-school strong point..." He admitted, flustered again by Malaya's freeness with causal touch, which still read as vaguely flirtatious.
"...Did you...want pears too? Or peaches? Something else?" They didn't have quite the same variety of imported and exotic fruits as he was used to seeing, but then out here things more exotic than a pineapple were probably considered something along the lines of 'fad food', something that people ate just to look fancy and cultured. Ok...well...he could kind of see that with some things. Like the huge trend on Pomegranate for a while. More likely to curl your toes than unsweetened cranberry juice, and just as likely if not more so to be a horrible demise to any article of clothing lighter than black. "We'll have to go to a different store for clothing, so why don't we get this set and then we'll go look? I'll skip on buying anything we have to put in the fridge so it doesn't go...funky or something, sitting around in the car....or...something like that." He offered "I mean I don't mind or anything, but I can...see where that would kinda get old fast." He paused, clearing his throat and then laughed slightly.
"How do you -do- that? You keep...I don't know...reducing my ability to communicate to a verbal prat fall."

Pears...Peaches?

Malaya's eyebrows rose a bit as he looked at the other. "Those aren't native to where I belong---they're foreign. I think from China? We get out stock from China... We only get them so rarely so... It's rather prized."

The thought of having peaches and pears...sounded rather inviting to the engkanto. After sharing that they were such rarities... It only increased the want in him. "I don't mind at all," he smiled, "As a matter of fact, I'd love it... Though---I hope you don't plan to play 'Hades' on me and tempt me with food so I may stay forever in your abode..."

Gestures and statements that the human might have found flirtatious and forward were actually quite normal for the other. It was a clash of cultures perhaps. As his was based on affection and expression: through touch, word: both written and vocal and of course through gifts. Having nothing to give the other, Malaya only had himself to really offer.

He looked at him teasingly as he found the peaches and tossed them in the air, smiling.

"I don't know... Do I do that to you? I'm sorry---I really wouldn't say it's a talent or I do it naturally but... Should I take it as a compliment then?"

Picking up three pieces of the fruit, he placed it on the basket and looked up at Muse, "Don't be so nervous about me...That could explain why."

Raising his hands to Joseph's face, he patted both cheeks and then patted his shoulder, "You're doing well. Now that I remember---last time I met a mortal and told him I wasn't human, he also lost consciousness and couldn't speak...kept swooning. Poor thing. At least you're talking."
___

Poor Muse. Always getting flustered and stuttering when the other's around. DX

"Pears and peaches will probably actually grow around here if we plant some saplings." he noted, grinning a little at Malaya's reaction to what to him seemed so common. "But no I wasn't planning on doing the Pluto and Persephone thing. I don't even like Pomegranates." He noted. "I think they're pretty gross actually. But yeah, yeah I guess thats probably a good way to take it...and I did faint...remember?" He offered, picking up another peach and putting it in the basket after checking it over. It was the patting that was doing it, a culture clash when he wasn't used to contact being quite that personal. It was a bit different than bumping shoulders or being squeezed next to someone on the subway. I mean on the one hand you're...totally normal seeming, on the other hand, I know you're...not human?" He offered, fumbling to explain. "...And I haven't had someone have their hands on me that much since I broke up....which...has gotta sound totally pathetic I'm sure."

He had a hand over his neck, rubbing the base of it soothingly as he offered a sad smile, "I haven't had anyone care for me this much in decades. I'm not complaining a lot either. I'm quite thankful."

Once. Malaya did find true love. But that true love left him in the end. No need to expound... No need at all.

The engkanto then twisted his neck a little, making the muscles squeak a bit and stretched his arms.

"It's how I've been raised. I'm quite an affectionate creature. So...I tease, I touch and I---Well you get the idea don't you, Joseph?"

He picked up a peach and played with it a little, tossing it a bit in the air, smiling, "Apples and pears belong to the same family...of fruits."

"Do they? I didn't know that..." He offered, also offering up a teasing poke at Malaya's belly as the engkanto stretched, though his expression turned sympathetic at the Engkanto's sad smile.
"Really? Thats a damn long time to be lonely." He noted. He'd gone a couple years before without dating, and decades? That was a long time to contemplate. "I guess people just aren't that casually intimate anymore. Or not most of them. You fall out of expecting it."

"Well finding true love is like finding a needle in a haystack, my boy," he said, letting out a soft chuckle as Joseph poked his belly. "So yes... I did like someone a lot many years back and he took good care of me. Something went wrong along the way and I ended up dating his sister---not the best of times. They were only alike with looks alone and everything else was just not."

Malaya looked over the human and then continued, "It's easy to find casual buddies for such matters... A lover for a night, a lover for a week...But something like that? Never." He sounded wistful and rather melancholic with a sad smile on his face, "But...I'm thankful anyway. As unfair as it may sound, I have a standard for love now---something kind and real. Passionate that moves you..."

He took the brunet's arm and stayed close. "Though I'll admit why I found myself so...open towards you. It's been such a while and I'm tired of being the 'ice queen' already. I want to be close to somebody already---even if it'll hurt me in the end."

If they were not in a public place, the engkanto would have wanted nothing more than to bury his face on Muse's arm and just stay there. The human seemed so kinder... It wasn't too difficult to trust him at all.

"...Somehow, I begin to understand why our kind sometimes end up desiring yours for lovers."

"Temporary commitment?" He joked, a little harshly over his own much shorter lifespan. "Sorry, that was a little crude sounding." He slid the basket over his free arm to give Malaya's gripping arms a gentle reassuring squeeze without hitting him with the shopping basket.
"It always hurts when you loose someone, but only because they meant something. So it's a trade off I think. But then I'm waxing poetic."

He shook his head. "Your culture is fundamentally different because of your more tangible lifespans therefore there is a greater respect for everything in compared to us---we drawl on for as long as we wish, feeling confident in our longevity. But humans...don't have all the time in the world."

Smelling the soft smell of ripe peaches and pears from the basket, Malaya sighed softly and continued, "So your kind can be quite passionate and endearing as lovers. A few days of companionship and such already entails so much emotions...courtship perhaps? I don't know---that's how it looks to me."

The stories have always been so short of how the engkanto and humans fall in love. A matter of few days---such large amounts of passion and longing, the feelings of breaking the rules and being with someone else... Not to mention, humans were so varied than their kind. Some had lovely bronze skin and such enchanting eyes... And they were so easily drawn like moths to a flame when they beheld beauty. Some end in tragedy. Some end in happiness.

"I'd have to agree with you on that account. Something only matters because you gave it such a value. Though---I believe I'm getting old for this." Malaya let out a soft chuckle, "So when you find someone...remember of me, who did not fair so well in the trade of love."

"Me? I'm probably a doomed batchelor. I stand rightfuly accused of not spending enough time with people. I get too lost in my books." He shook his head with a wry smile. "So we can be too old and too cynical together. How does that hit you?" He offered, leaning into Malaya with a teasing, light shove. "You seem far too...I don't know. Passionate? To be 'too old' for falling in love. You just haven't met someone that fits yet. Of course if you live that long, you probably have a lot longer to feel hurt too, and I get the feeling you got stung pretty hard. Also ironic? I'd be surprised if most humans didn't envy you quite a bit, although someone once said "Millions long for immortality that know not what to do on a single rainy day."

"...What I'd give to feel that rainy day in exchange for immortality, then."

Malaya trailed off, speaking in a softer voice as he nodded, "Sounds good. As long the tree lives, you'll always have me around---to bother and keep you company."

Joseph did pose a very good point. He really was too passionate---too easily caught up in his emotions and often hurt badly afterwards. Thinking that hardening up by putting up an encasement would better the situation, only to make it worse. People discarded you because you were no longer of use to them. If more so they refused or simply forget to acknowledge you when you've put on a guard, it's because you're just that dispensable.

"They say that the real fruit that Hades had offered to beautiful Persephone was not a pomegranate but an apple. They're loosely related. What fun that aphrodisiacs...are the fruits of temptation as well." He chuckled a bit and scratched his cheek with a finger, "Though I have yet to find their relations in the fruit family. Or was it otherwise---Eve offered a pomegranate and not an apple? Ha ha... I forgot already."

Though in his heart of hearts, he did hope that he could find someone. Either that or somehow cope with all the hurts so he could stop being so...caught up in it. Being in this strange but beautiful world somehow---gave him some freedom to express and perhaps it might even offer him some solace.

"Hey...I tend to make things sound to depressing, don't I?"

"I'm the one who brought up our comparative lifespans." He pointed out, pausing by a case to peer at juices and bottled milk, opening the cold case for a carton of milk and a glass bottle of cream. "I think I read something on that once. Or it was something odd that wasn't an apple. I forget how it ended up being an apple, translation I think." He was rambling now, and felt a little foolish for it. "...Apples are an aphrodisiac? I thought that was strawberry's? And dark chocolate."
Should he get ice cream? He wondered. It was one of his vices, which ironically he tried to avoid. Too easy to go through it while he was writing, and not actually eat an proper dinner, but he didn't know if Malaya had ever even tried it.
--

Edit: =_X Damn. When I start transposing character names it's time for sleep. *lol*

"Point taken. Lots of things often get lost in translation...," he commented, nodding as he did so. "But yes they are aphrodisiacs...Actually for the past hour, I've been grinning at the selection and thinking what a convenient place this is for women or men to come make concoctions. It's practically swarming with possible ingredients."

Malaya had come to notice that Joseph wasn't really that comfortable about sex or discussion thereof and decided to keep it tame. "It's just a matter of creativity and ingenuity to come up with the recipe to drive the other wild. Did you know that only the flower of the jasmine plant is an aphrodisiac while the rest is poison?"

"Perhaps it was either translation or artistic license that did so," the engkanto offered trying to rattle through his mental library. "We could look it up some books---or that thing you call a computer. You did say it has books right?"

Of course he wouldn't know what the internet was.

Muse blinked in surprise at this set of botanical revelations, which conjured up amusing mental images of ordinary people hunkered over giant cauldrons on their stove, brewing aphrodisiac's like the Macbeth witches. "Seriously? You know I bet you're one of the only people around that actually knows that. Probably keeps the gossip down to a dull roar." He laughed. "Yeah we could look it up, there's lots of digital articles and stuff we might be able to pull up. Do you want to do that?"

The engkanto nodded, smiling widely. He was tapping on his lower lip as he let out a hmmm, sounding rather thoughtful as he let his dark gray eyes scan over the vegetable section. Then he reached out to pick up a piece of vegetable and showed it to him.

"This," Malaya said balancing a juicy red tomato, one that fit it's nice little plump self in the spirit's palm, "Is definitely related to the pomegranates. At least...to a certain degree. And yes, it also an aphrosidiac. Bet you didn't know that."

He then raised the red fruit to his nose and sniffed at it, promptly ignoring the chemical overtones and then picked another vegetable, "Now if you couple these with some green leafies like cabbage and then eggs---Eggs too. They are. Then some choice seafood with wine, grapes are lovely...Too bad, they're so expensive! You have a romantic dinner."

After he spoke, there was a salad to go ---only processing needed to be done in the braided forest dweller's arms. "See? Though if you like you can always say you're doing it for the nutritional value anyway. You don't really have to be such a genius to figure these things."

The spirit returned the items to their respective places in the vegetable section, dusting his arms of the residue green and looked up at him curiously. He simply nodded, not wanting to further the conversation since Muse would no doubt show him what he meant later on.

"So... Where off to from here?"

"Actually I know a good place to get seafood if you want some sometime, although it's a heck of a drive and we'd need to pack a cooler with ice. " He offered, "And no, I never would have figured a tomato as an aphrodisiac. A good sauce ingredient, but not an aphrodisiac. I'm starting to see what you mean about this place being a practical bonanza..." He looked around and pointed vaguely at the Grapes. "They're not that bad actually, but I was thinking after we got some things here we might drive around and see if we turned up a farm stand or the like. I mean there's got to be one around somewhere. He picked up the bottle of cream for example. "I mean they've got cream in a bottle instead of a cardboard carton. That says something."
He hmmed thoughtfully, adjusting the basket again. "Hey I saw this weird gadget that let you grew lettuce inside. Maybe I should get one of those. I don't know.

Malaya listened intently to the man's words, nodding every so often as he really couldn't say much to add in. Most of the things he spoke of were of modern conventions. He would learn them soon enough, he told himself. The spirit was smart and learned. It would not take long until he managed to settle into the lifestyle of the taller human.

Finally he spoke, a soft laugh and glee evident in his tone, "Alright as you will. You're the Mother Goose of this trip. I'm just trailing behind you for fun."

He grinned up at the brunet and then rubbed his back, right between the shoulder blades. "You know when tension builds up, you gather air here..." Then he moved it to point at the man's lower torso, "And in the stomach. I'll give you a massage to relax when we get back as payment for now. I'd like to treat you but---it would be futile and a little funny if I borrowed your money just to get you something."

After that he patted the side spot once more and gave him a very knowing look.

"Mother Goose huh? I'm not sure how to take that one. Ooh." The sample shoulder rub was maybe slightly less out of the blue coming from the very hands on Malaya, but from Malaya's rather expert hands, it also felt marvelous. "I think I'd have a hard time coming up with an argument against that though. Damn you're good at that...."
He imagined they'd just gotten some strange looks, but wasn't entirely sure he cared right at that particular moment anyway. "Thats quite an expression though. Whats going through that devious head of yours?"

The spirit put a hand on his hip and jutted the other out to give an illusion of a female figure---an angry mother to be more specific. Malaya pouted and removed his other hand off the man's back, completing the pose.

"Now, young man!," he started off now wagging a finger and somewhat sounding like he was scolding the brunet, "Listen to me, I'm simply looking out for you and this is what you repay me?!" The engkanto let out a deep sigh and raised a hand to his forehead, letting the back of it and his head meet as if it feign a faint. "My gracious host... Always thinking I am up to something no good!"

He shook his head, still being a little too dramatic and let out a whimper with closed eyes. After a few seconds, he opened one and then dropped the act.

"Fine..." Malaya raised his hands in surrender. "I was thinking of opening your pressure gates and then leave you paralyzed so I could go steal your car and figure how it works. Then if I destroy it by accident while I figure things out..." He paused to look to the side and touch his nape uneasily. "I'll hide in my tree. But I promise I won't leave it in a bad condition if ever though!"

The youth let out a soft and nervous chuckle.

Then he waited for Muse's reaction.

((ooc: rofl))

Muse gave a startled half puzzled laugh, Malaya having found another term that went directly over his head, though he could take a guess at this one at least.
"Heh, my -what- now?" He wasn't sure weather or not to take the rest of it as a joke, or weather or not Malaya would have really tried to take his car for a Joy ride. "I can't tell if you're pulling my leg or not. Were you really going to try and run off with my car?" He questioned, blinking in disbelief. It really was sort of odd to imagine cherubic Malayala hot-wiring the car.
"...You know you'd need keys anyway, right?" He raised an eyebrow, pulling out the keyring and giving it a spin. "And a few more things. There's a reason they license people to drive. Like..oh...traffic laws and such? That and if you did I'd be pretty pissed off."
It would seem like an out of the blue bit of betrayal from the otherwise pleasant and innocent Engkanto, though maybe not as out of character as he might have wanted to think? Malaya was, as best he'd been able to tell, enormously curious about things. Maybe prone to trying to explore and didn't, perhaps, know how much trouble he'd have gotten into, not only with Muse himself, but with the law. Especially if, trying to learn to drive in town, and in the parking lot, he hurt someone. "I mean in the middle of town? What if you hit someone? Thats a good half-ton or so of metal on wheels..." He was also going to feel like a fool if it turned out Malaya was joking, but this one at least wasn't the funniest joke.

His eyes widened at the all too many things needed to be taken into consideration as he twiddled his thumbs and looked up at him innocently.

"But I just wanted to know how it runs..."

Malaya then looked down at this fingers, still playing with them and grumbling about not being too subtle about being able to build a time machine.

"I think---I'm the one who had too many a 'Chinese take out dream' here," the engkanto said using some gesture with his fingers for emphasis, "I'm a little too high up my knocker to think if I studied automotives well enough I can make a time machine."

He let out a soft hmph and a pout, folding his arms.

"I think---I think I've also been reading too much H.G. Wells before going to sleep... Having too many odd dreams of aliens with their tripods or time machines."

Malaya looked up at him and asked, "Say... If those alien things DO come to Earth and start grabbing humans for their fuel and fodder, I'm technically a tree so I don't have blood... Would I still be considered?"

Sometimes... The youth just had a way of thinking that everybody else was just as strange as he was or just on the same wavelength. He never considered that perhaps---Muse might not even know who H.G. Wells was.

"...Wow... you really are a piece of work aren't you?" Muse sighed, reaching over to tousle Malaya's hair with his heavy exhalation. "I really don't think Tripods or Morlocks or the like are going to show up in the night, but at the very least, if we had a Trifid invasion, you could probably talk to them? Besides, if you're thinking about time travel, I think you need to read a little more of some of the more modern authors, like Bradbury, Heinlin and Azimov." He couldn't remember which one it was just now, but one of them had covered some time paradox issues that he thought might discourage the Engkanto's fantasies about making a time machine out of his car. "Jeeze, I'm afraid to think what you'd come up with over reading Moreau's Island." He noted sighing again and pulling his hand back, shaking his head at Malaya.
Maybe he should unpack his books, he thought he might have a copy of "The Way Things Work". He'd picked it up as a joke, amused by the illustrations of ridiculous Mammoths, but in this case it might just help Malaya figure things out without taking them apart.
"How about we finish up here for now." He offered, waffling now over weather or not to find the farm stand, or if he'd turn around to find Malaya backing the car through someone's cornfield.

Malaya let out a small sound of protest when Muse tousled his hair and he stuck out his tongue at him afterwards in offense, growling low in his throat. Although it was done in anger to defend his slightly messed hair, it came off more endearing than intimidating. If anything---the engkanto was very, VERY vain about his hair. Once his hair was done and fixed, it irritated his good nature to have people just carelessly run their fingers through it. Even if those said people were people he was fond of. The rather harmless looking creature had been known to actually court fights even with his lovers after they messed his hair without the former's permission.

But Muse knew nothing of this.

And he was more shocked than anything, so he let the gesture be and decided to move back and not court trouble.

It wouldn't be any good for both of them if he suddenly became violent in such a public place. Though the engkanto lodged the idea of 'getting back' somehow when they got back.

"Don't touch my hair without my permission next time. I don't think you'd like your hair messed up after you took a while to get it in order."

He pouted slightly at the other instead and tried to smoothen out his hair. Then he nodded, "Alright, Mother Goose. You're the boss. If it's time to go then we ought to go... But I have a question."

The youth looked around and then turned to Joseph, "How do you pay for these? I don't see any merchants you could hand your dollars to. Where are they? I doubt you can just walk out with the items when you're done?"

The concept of cashiers---Something the writer had to teach the tree dweller about. The latter had caught sight of them but didn't really know what they were for. He found them a little strange though.