Pain was something that she wasn't unfamiliar with. There had been many times as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult that she had endured several forms of that unpleasant sensation that was often meant to create a form of awareness and avoidance in an individual. While there were very few out there that did not flinch away from pain or shy away from those situations where the mind is quick to remember the pain, however insignificant or drastic, and drive one to do things with the more or less instinctual and reflexive hope to keep history from repeating itself, most all beings â€" surely both human and supernatural â€" were innately hard-wired to go to many lengths both great and small to prevent pain. Whether it was physical or emotional pain, the mind still perceived it as that unpleasant occurrence.. Beylani was no exception to this law in nature where pain was meant to be avoided, not embraced or held onto, and yet the very fantasies that would overwhelm the forethoughts of the young woman seemed to defy that natural law that existed for good reason in most â€" if not all â€" living things. Like an animal wounded by a bullet quickly learning that going near human civilization was dangerous, that pain from the bullet wound only further fastening in that creature the strong desire to do all that it could to avoid the two-legged creatures that had been the source of its anguish, a majority of individuals would react in a very similar way when they became wounded, regardless of whether it was a cut into one's body or one's heart. Even as a child, she was a near perfect example of how there was little fighting against that part of the mind which was intended to either make her avoid likely similar experiences altogether, or learn from them and proceed with caution that she hadn't had before. From learning that it was best not to run on slick pavement to what the right and wrong ways were for cutting chicken breast so that she didn't cut herself â€" these hardly covering the vastly different intensities that she'd felt in her life â€" in all those years that she'd made poor decisions, she had been quick to learn to avoid getting hurt if she could help it.

What she hadn't expected though was just how much her heart could hurt, how it was possible to love someone so much even though there was no chance that it could ever be real. The fae man gave her a happiness, a sense of bliss like nothing she'd ever known and likely never would with anyone else. While not much time had come to pass between Belyani and Andras, there was so much he had showed her in that short expanse of time that she never believed she would see or feel. The warmth that wrapped around her when she was in his arms, when he kissed her, it was better than sitting by a roaring fire on a bitter winter night. The way that he could make her heart soar with every gentle smile, every softly spoken word, every fleeting or lingering touch, it took her far about the cloud nine and into a whole new world she never knew existed. When she was with him, everything else in the world just seemed to fall away to where it was only the two of them. She knew that it was foolish, to feel so strongly for someone that would never feel the same way for her, but no matter how hard she tried to fight against that rising tide, she always lost. She was always sent diving ever deeper into those feelings that he made her feel, and the deeper she fell, the more she knew it would devastate her when this fantasy was brought to a screeching halt. She didn't even want to think of how much she would hurt when what they had â€" whatever it even was she couldn't say for sure â€" became nothing but a bittersweet memory. How her heart would ache when she reminded herself of just where this one-way road was headed, when she would try and prepare herself for that fateful day when he introduced her to that special fae woman that would walk into his life and steal away that heart she desperately wanted to call her own. A part of her would surely die knowing that one day she would not taste his lips on hers, feel those strong arms pull her close to him. She remembers the tears that had threatened to fall from behind her closed baby blue eyes as she fell asleep in his embrace, remembered that first dull ache that tightened her chest in a way entirely new to her. She could hear that part of her, that piece of her mind that warned her against all this in the very beginning telling her that she needed to stop this now before things fell apart from under her feet... but she just couldn't. There were no words to express that torturous feeling of loving so much only to know that she would need to let him go.

She pushes those thoughts away again, for the umpteenth time as she makes herself focus on the task at hand, Chika quietly tucked away in her bedroom and those pots and a glass baking dish surrounding her. She begins cutting those vegetables, each gesture made with that knife careful and precise as she worked on the medley she intended to serve along with that casserole. It wouldn't be anything like the fae food that she had at the Winter Solstice Festival, but nothing was wrong with simple. After all, her entire life â€" up until that night that she'd met Andras of course â€" had been just that; simple. Ordinary even. Perhaps one might even go to the extent of calling it bland... At least, that's what she thought when she looked back from where she'd come and where she had somehow ended up. From a world where fae folk, weres, witches, and vampires were nothing but figments or ancient lore to explain that which had seemed unexplainable. They had gone from things of imagination and creative writings to beings as real as herself, as real as her little rural hometown of Willowhaven. And then, Andras had shared with her his world. Somnia... Oh, how she loved that world seeming to be forever cast beneath winter's spell. The skies almost always seemed so clear, and that little village with its beautiful people and laughing fae children... It was like something right out of a fairytale. What she wouldn't give to belong in a world like that, belong in his world. It was all too easy for her to imagine spending those cold nights by the fire in her little log cabin, staring into the flickering flames and glowing embers as she listened to the wind whispering just outside her window. She could imagine herself walking through those streets as she bought groceries for dinner, still adamant that the only magic she needed in her life to make it magical was the affections of the one man in the world that she could never have for herself. To think of cooking for him, it both terrified her and made her sigh gently. I really need to stop this... before I end up truly sorry. Despite the ease of these silly little fantasies, she knew it was all just an illusion crafted from those feelings she just couldn't shake yet.

A knock sounds at the door and she doesn't even have to wonder who it is, setting down that knife in more haste than she needed as she moves over to open that door, wearing nothing more than a fitted white long-sleeved V-neck shirt and light blue bootcut jeans, those blonde locks sporting their usual loose and elegant curls that fall over her shoulders. Baby blue eyes immediately find those hazel depths that she could blissfully fall into forever, the fae man giving her a smile as amusement flickers across his handsome features, encouraging a teasing smile of her own as those midnight tenor tones reach for her. She regards his perfectly fitted attire for a moment before meeting his gaze once more."I don't know, you might be a little overdressed for a simple dinner", she says lightly to him, her sterling voice dancing with amusement as she steps aside for him to enter. She doesn't miss the way that his head turns, looking for Chika and making a relatively dry remark as she easily recalls how that encounter had gone. She can hardly help the smile that finds her blush-colored lips again."Yes, well, she's normally quite sweet. I'm sure if she met you a second time, it wouldn't be quite the same. You gave her quite the scare, after all", she muses lightly as she watches him remove the scarf she'd made him, that warmth washing over her as she moves to brush her hand against the soft fabric still warm from his skin, baby blue eyes glittering beneath the memories of that day in the log cabin. How she missed that cabin... He removes his jacket then and she can't help her gaze from wandering over the clear indication of the muscle that lay beneath the gray clothing, though his tenor tones distract her before those thoughts can come rolling forth unbidden as they often did. She gives him a sheepish grin then, lifting a hand to tuck away a blond curl behind her ear then, giggling gently at his point she hadn't really considered until now."I'm actually hoping that maybe they'll be too busy asking questions to notice. I'm sure my mother will be quite interested in you since I've mentioned you a time or two", she admits quietly, feeling that blush coloring her fair-skinned cheeks.

Just as he moves to close the distance between them, she can feel her heart fluttering within her breast now and she has to remind herself to breath to keep from fainting as that weakness tickling her conscious ever so slightly when he brushes a hand over her cheek softly, her own hand reflexively moving to rest over his strong chest like it belonged there, the faint beating of his heart felt against that slender fingers. His words are gentle as hazel depths look into those baby blues that meet them without falter. How they haunted her every thought when she was alone..."I'm well. A little nervous for some reason, but I'll manage. How are you?", she answers gently and ever truthful. If she lingered there much longer... She didn't really want to allow for that thought to finish itself, so instead she simply moves back over to kitchen as her mind scrambles for something, anything. And then she remembers."Oh, I met a fellow named Frost the other day on my break at the café when Ellie came to visit me. He's apparently a regular there. So that was an interesting encounter", she mentions casually, thinking nothing of it and if anything remembering how warmly her friend had greeted the seemingly cold man with those unusual violet eyes unlike anything she'd seen. Resuming with that task of finishing the cutting of those bellpeppers, she looks over to Andras with curiosity, unsure as to why she felt like perhaps he might at least know the name of the man she'd met a few afternoons ago.