You don't always get to choose who will walk through that metaphorical threshold and into your life, and even still there was often no telling just how important they would become. There was little knowing in if they would stay a while, if they would remain for the rest of one's days, or if they were only meant to be there for a fleeting moment in time before vanishing altogether. She'd once been told this once before, and she'd known long before now that it was a truth that she could never deny if ever she would dare to try. At first, the blue-eyed blonde had tried to fight against it as she lost those high school friends one by one. It had been hard for the girl not to think that it had been something to do with her that drove them away, that for some reason she couldn't quite see or understand she was so easy to forget or leave behind. Often times, she would wonder if they even remember her name or all the adventures that they'd had together. She would wonder if they had truly been able to forget all the laughter they'd shared, all the things that had once brought them together without even a tinge of sorrow or guilt. For a long time, she had wondered how it would be so easy to forget someone who had walked into your life and touched your heart in some way, shape, or form. How was it that she had been able to remember each and every one of her close friends, how they'd met, and even how they'd fallen away from one another when they didn't even seem to try hanging on to that friendship she'd once been told meant so much? How was it that she could give her whole heart so selflessly for those she'd loved as friends, thinking they'd grown old together, only to have it broken when they just disappeared like ghosts that hadn't really been there to begin with? It has taken a long while for those thoughts not to leave such deep wounds on her heart, for the pain that had come with each time she was left behind to become nothing but a fleeting stab to her back before she just didn't feel the hurt anymore. It had taken the supportive words and embraces of her parents to help the young woman understand that people would walk in and out of her life, that it was the natural course of nature, but those meant to stay with her would do just that and she wouldn't have to fight a losing battle to keep them with her.

She hadn't expected to find a friend in the younger woman she'd coincidentally run into at the local market she so often frequented, enjoying the locally made and grown goods that she could find there. There was something about the crisp sweetness of those sweet apples carefully selected by the hands of those tree-keepers, something so much more flavorful and refreshing in those jams and cookies made with hard work and passion. It was a relatively busy little market and Beylani had stopped and spoken with a couple friendly strangers before, but when baby blues met those days glacier ice, there had been a familiar connection between the two women. It had been Elain who had spoken up first, greeting Beylani with a warmth not too unlike that she had found in her hometown of Willowhaven as a girl growing up. They'd talked about nothing in particular and yet somehow, a friendship had ignited between them, and they'd found themselves exchanging numbers which led to text messages that also in turn resulted in luncheons and, like what had been intended tonight, nights where they could laugh and dance their hearts away without a care in the world. How the blue-eyed blonde hoped that this fast-growing friendship would remain with her for a change. Too many times had a friendship started so strongly only to wither and fade away like brilliantly colored leaves of fall. Too many times she'd felt something so close to what she imagined love between two sisters surely had to be, only to watch it crumble apart like a sand castle built too close to those lapping saltwater waves. A heart could only take so much sorrow before it started to become jaded, a soul only so much hurt before it began to harden like stone. Beylani didn't want to become distant the the world, wasn't ready to give up on the feeling that her best friend was out there somewhere in the world, just waiting for their paths to cross and they discovered each other. Surely if there was such as thing as soul mates, two pieces of the same heart crying silently out to its lost counterpart separated by an unknown expanse of time and distance, then there had to be something like that for soul friends? How could something like that exist for lovers and yet not for friends?

Then, there was Andras. Beylani knew from the first moment she'd seen him in that old oak at dawn's first light, those once bewildering and frightening bat-like appendages that were now as natural to see perched upon his strong and broad shoulders as eyes and ears on a human, that she would never be able to unremember that night. She had been stricken at the sight of him, the very first (to her knowledge) that defied what she had grown up believing; supernaturals did not exist. Like a deer in headlights, she'd been frozen in place from both fear and fascination, and like fool she has felt so inclined to lift that camera to her face and press that shutter button. Everything had happened so fast, and he had been so fierce as he towered over her in the dark, those leather wings snapped open menacingly... That predatory gaze, that devilish grin, it was all so very impossible to forget. Her heart had raced wildly within her breast then, and now, after all those weeks, it still did - but from a different reason than she would have ever thought possible. He'd come into her life and before even those first midnight tones filled her ears, he'd gone and changed everything she knew about her world, their world. In one fell swoop, he'd left an eternal impression on the blue-eyed blonde, and he continued to ever since that early morning as ethereal moonlight surrender to pre-dawn sunshine. Nothing would ever be the same for her again, and yet as she stood there before the fae man whose predatory gaze traced along her slender frame, she wouldn't have changed a single thing about how their paths had been intertwined and she hoped that of all the souls to walk into her life, he would always be there, surprising her and almost seeming to dare that she be bolder than the last moment they'd spent together. It had taken some time to understand those feelings that caused her heart to race as it did, but she knew now that while she'd considered him a friend, things ran deeper than that. You're foolish to think that it'll ever be reciprocated and you know it, Lani. You're just friends, you should be fortunate for even that... At least, this was what she was trying to convince herself to believe. She was just a girl in a sea of faces, and that would never change.

He turns to watch Elain leave, and so does Beylani but then her gaze is quickly returned to those dark hazels as he gives her a lazy smile before midnight tenor tones fall effortlessly from his lips."Why would she? I haven't told her about you or anything yet, though now I'm sure I will have to say something to ward off the questions she'll surely have later", she replies nonchalantly, smiling then and giving a small shrug of her shoulders. A chuckle now falls from him and she tilts her head ever so slightly and ever curiously at what would have prompted such a reaction, though he spares her the wondering and explains what it was he did. She never really connected the two, but it made sense."She did, though I guess I just wasn't sure exactly what 'High Lord' meant really", she admits openly as baby blues look up to ever mysterious and ever changing hazels from beneath dark lashes. He speaks again, this time of why he was here, offering her his arm and she does not hesitate to place her hand in that place on his defined forearm as she had before, a gentle smile dancing across blush-colored lips as he leads her towards the sidewalk. He was taking her out? There is a light that flickers across her gaze at the fact that he had remembered. He laughs lightly now and she can't help the bright smile that finds her features as he teases her like he seemed to enjoy often. That familiar boldness ignites the depths of her gaze as she leans lightly into him, baby blues locked on teasing hazels."My, you know me so frightfully well Andras", she answers with a gentle note of teasing in her own sterling voice though there is a genuine fondness in them. A part of her wonders if she truly was so easy to read in that moment as he begins to lead them down the street, hardly noticing that her side still brushed against his own. She must be, especially if Elain had been able to see the way that she'd nearly frozen in place when she'd seen him waiting there in that usual display of lazy amusement. Even now, his timing still seemed eerily right, but that didn't matter. He couldn't be more right that she was glad he had appeared.

As they walk along for a few strides, those satin smooth baritones reach out to her again and she turns her gaze away from the increasingly familiar buildings and stores to look back up at the chiseled features of her companion. Amusement finds her lips as they shift into a sweet smile and a soft note of laughter chimes in the autumn evening air."Yes, human things can be complicated affairs, though I am certainly curious on when I might get to experience something more... fae", she teases boldly, baby blues twinkling with endearment. She seized any moment she could to toy with him, only out of fairness since after all he seemed to relish in bringing that flush to her fair-skinned cheeks so often. Anything was perfect though, the young woman content to participate in whatever plans he had arranged as curiosity pricked at her heart that had now steadied itself once more - for the time being at least. They are soon entering into the small coffee shop as he opens the door and while she breathed the rustic essences of espresso happily, she does not miss the distaste that washes briefly over his features though he seems to overcome it quickly. They move to the counter and his hazel gaze shifts to the blue-eyed blonde once more as he speaks the barista waiting for her order. She smiling sweetly up to Andras before turning to the woman on the other side of the counter."Just a small breve chai tea latte, please", she orders before turning to look back up to Andras, waiting patiently to see what he might order if anything at all. She wonders then how he liked his coffee, if he preferred the sweeter things or perhaps the more abrasive coffees with a robust taste that was far too strong for herself. She remembers how they'd never been able to sit down with coffee to chat as she'd wanted that night when he'd given her that camera, recalls the gentleness of his hands against her skin... Reigning in those thoughts that nearly wandered too far from her control, she continues to gaze up at him warmly, wondering where they would be going once they retrieved their drinks. Whatever he had planned, she was very much eager to see.