Enchanted Shores

The adventure

It was only about an hour and a few minutes when Asai had been gone to get food. Leaving me to wait for his return.

Soon he returned through the waterfall, holding a big load of fruit in his arms.

I was surprised to see him smiling slightly.

"Welcome back....that's a lot of fruit." I look down at his loaded arms.

He was holding bananas, mangoes, apples, and coconuts.

"Food." He grinned. He proceeded to walk over to me and push the food in my face.

I watched him arrive with a big load of fruits in his hands, smiling and clearly excited. Upon seeing him, I was swept up in his cheerful expression and reached out instinctively, grabbing a fruit without paying attention to which one it was.

"Thank you." I say quietly, pulling the fruit to my chest.

After I got a fruit, he dumped the rest aside, squatted down beside it, and quickly began to chow down on one of the mangoes.

As he took a bite of the delicious mango, the juices spread everywhere, covering his lips and dripping down his chin.

I kept looking at him, finding the sight of him chewing the mango a bit alluring, even in his messy state without any regard for good manners. Something about the idea of someone enjoying their food so gleefully, regardless of how they seemed to be doing it in a somewhat unattractive manner, was strangely attractive.

Wait! What am I thinking?

I quickly caught myself from thinking that sort of way and turned to look down at my own hand. It was indeed an apple that I had grabbed, a green one at that.

Biting into the apple, caused a crunching sound. I tried to stay as quiet as possible as I chewed on it, but the loud sound made it impossible for me to be anywhere near as silent as I would've liked.

I had just taken another bite of the apple when I heard an unexpected deep and throaty laugh. My ears became immediately drawn to the sound, and I couldn't help myself from turning to look toward the source of the laughter.

I decided to speak up after hearing his laugh for a second time.

"Are you laughing at me?" I asked him, feeling a little embarrassed about what might've caught his attention.

Instead of giving me a proper answer he just laughed again.

"F-forgive me, you funny."

I feel my cheeks heat up again so I turn away.

"I just couldn't figure out how to eat this without being too loud."

He stops laughing and a smirk plays his lips. "You like Allo?"

My head goes to him. "Allo? What's a Allo?"

His face scrunches at my confusion. "In hand." He points at the apple in hand.

"Oh you meant the Apple. Is that you guys call this, a Allo?"

He nodded as if it was obvious. "New York words are weird."

"You mean different, and I could say the same thing to you."

His smile grew and I finally realized something. His teeth weren't yellow or gross, but actually white and nice. They weren't flawless, and he even had sharp canines on the side.

I set down the apple and leaned a little closer to him to speak to him. "How are your teeth so clean?" I asked him, not meaning to offend since it was an honest question due to our varying levels of technology.