Fire was a delicate thing. 

Now, Gaius liked fire well enough. That wasn't the issue. The issue was the new memories attached - shown by the burns that had licked all over his lithe form. The scent of smoke had clung to him early in life as he'd learned to wield it. And as he tended to his flame now, he couldn't help the slight shake to his hand. 

He pulled his paw away from stirring the flames, glancing at the growing bowlful of roasted nuts. Just as Gaius did so, however, something wet and slimy dropped on his head. The fox jumped a bit, then laughed at the realization of what it was. Seaweed!

“Thank ya kindly, Quarrel! Stickin’ 'round for your candy?” Gaius snagged the bowl of water from beside him, grinning as he put the seaweed in one at a time. Ten, a perfect number for sea jelly! The bowl was nestled in the fire's ashes as he stirred it with a clean new stick, grinning. "I was gettin' right bored roastin' nonsense. Kettle moss an' nuts an' such are all well an' good, but candy's where it's at. Always had me a vicious sweet tooth."

Slowly, the seaweed was changing. Round and round it went as water began to boil. The green began to melt away... And Gaius grinned triumphantly down at the bowl.

"Aye, sea jelly! The last thin' needed for some candy. Now for the real fun part. A portion of the hot jelly was transferred into another bowl for him to begin kneading moonberries into the jelly. The fox didn't seem to mind how hot the mixture was and he worked the sticky mess with clean paws. Soon enough he had a few balls of white candy that had cooled considerably to retain a glossy shine. 

The candy was held out to the side he assumed Quarrel was on.

"Take a taste of our combined hard work, friend. I'll get started on the next bit." Bloodberries were mixed into a new portion of sea jelly as the process began again. A hum escaped Gaius as he diligently worked the sugary mix with a smile.

Ah, well! No one ever said he was a mind reader. He'd assumed and assumed wrong. Not once did the fox turn to see the feline either. No, he was content with not viewing his guest as he worked to mold sugary jelly into colorful candy. A tiny glance over gifted a peek at the way the priest seemed to enjoy the pure looks of the pretty little candy orb.

The juggling was fun. Quarrel had quite a few tricks up their sleeves, huh?

Some of the candies made became multicolored as batches of sea jelly were colored with the berries. And instead of pure balls of candy, he also decided to have some fun with shapes. One was a more flattened disc with little triangle ears and two dabs of sunberry-colored yellow that made cute little eyes. As it cooled, Gaius grinned, and held it out.

"Trade ya. Hand o'er one of those borin' ones and I'll give you the kitty." He waggled the candy and took in the look on the cat's face. Gaius snitched one of the first cooled candies, popping it into his mouth to roll around with satisfying clicks against his teeth.

"Aye, hits the spot! Love me some good ol' sugar. Eh? You wanna try? Careful now. This stuff's hot as flames. Stay close to the fire to keep it warm and moldable. If you're too far away it'll set before you've worked it enough. Like this."

Gaius scooped up a bit of the red jelly. Over and over he worked it into ribbons and back, staying close to the fire the whole time. When the color was less clear and more opaque, he formed it into another new shape. The orb was rolled fast as he smoothed it out before flattening the circle out. From there his claws carefully molded out a heart as he finally pulled back from the flames. Not long after losing the heat it began to cool with a shining coating as the red became more vibrant.

"An' there you go! Candy! Try with a ball shape first, it's easiest. But if you wanna get fancy then go ahead and try - just do it quick like!"

It was obvious that the heat bothered Quarrel more than it did Gaius. The way they worked it told that the other's paws were more sensitive to it. "Aye, hot ain't it! I long calloused myself to heat. Used to use it a lot. We'd coat weapons in resin and light it aflame. Learned to use red magic for explosions an' the like. But you can use those tolerances for other thing's too, it turned out, and I learned to make candy arts."

He glanced over at the held out candy and grinned widely. "Aye, right on, friend! You're right, looks exact!" Those olive green eyes of his shone as he held a hand out. "Can I see it?"

Quarrel seemed amicable to that as they reached out to hand it over. Before the candy could set in his paw, though, the cheeky cat tugged it away. The grin on Gaius' face never faltered. "Cheeky, cheeky! 'ight, y'had some fun with it!" The fox played along easily as he made a few grabs for the item. "Oi - how'd you do that! It's up and gone!"

Of course he had an idea of how. Sleight of hand wasn't beyond him. But finally the candy was handed over and he held it up alongside his face, pretending to be quite thoughtful. "I gotta say, it might be handsomer than I! Whatcha think, Moonlight? Who's handsomer? It's gotta be the mini me, right? I don't think I can quite compare to that little face. Or maybe it's cuter and I'm handsomer? C'mon, be the judge! You can be biased, I promise!"

A laugh escaped him as the candy was finally handed over after the tricks. Quarrel wasn't as much of a stick in the mud as he'd thought they might be. After the whole incident outside of the library... This was much better.

The nickname, however... Now wasn't that cute! 

It was all too cute to see how they busied their mouth with another candy just to keep from having to talk. Funny that. They thought it would stop conversation? He had every intent to hear another of those purrs. Gaius brought the candy down to look at it, playfully scowling. "Ach, I was right, see? They like you more than me, little candy. I should gobble you up for it!"

It was his turn to show off a little trickery. Gaius made to eat the candy fox, but a swift switch traded another for the cute candy before it dropped into his grinning maw.

Then, he showed off the intact candy, despite doubts of fooling the other. "Ain't nigh as good as you but hey! I can try. So what's got you poutin', Moonlight? Cat got your tongue now?" He stirred the fire again with a grin. This was far more fun than sitting here alone. With candy to boot! His tail thumped the ground happily.

The chuckle was progress! The fox seemed to preen a bit at the noise from Quarrel. It wasn't a good trick by any means, he was rusty and his hands struggled with subtle moments these days. It was enough for a chuckle, though, and that was the important part!

The growl made him raise a brow, but the subtle movement of candy told him he was getting an answer. The response wasn't a surprise either. He'd suspected such. The little mage didn't seem like the kind of critter to say such things. So Gaius merely smiled at the fire and nodded in understanding. That was until he noticed the way they dug until their own arms. Time to put a quick stop to that.

"Hey, it happens! No shame in a misunderstandin' - so long as it doesn't stay that way. Here, let's use up the last of this here candy, take some." Gaius held out the bowl of jelly, smiling. At the refusal he grinned and shrugged. "Nah, I get it, can't take the heat of it huh? Not for everyone. I know it's hard to do. Should've expected it to be too hard for you."

Hook, line, and sinker! 

He took the last of the candy himself, grinning down at it as he formed the sugary treat and talked. "That's the silly thing about our minds, they like to play tricks on us. Just gotta outsmart it at it's own game! And if you talk to the other critter nice and civil like, you can rig it, and then you can rig your own mind. Talkin' it out can trick our minds into realizin' it's all thoughts and not reality."

Olive eyes glanced over to see that Quarrel was working at their candy. "An' I think you're just a bit miffed that my advice worked, if I'm readin' you right. You're poutin', Moonlight. But! I suggest you keep takin' that advice for the future. It's nice to find a resolution that works for you both, wouldn'tcha say?"

Ah, an ear flick. He was starting to learn that appeared to be a subtle sign of disagreement or discontent. It was worth it to learn such a critter. Thumping was one thing, but Quarrel spoke a whole different language without a word.

An unexpected blessing was that Quarrel moved closer after accepting the challenge. Hands were easily busied without ever needing to point out the digging of sharp claws into soft fur. And while he knew there wasn’t a word getting through, at least the cat seemed to be enjoying himself enough to overlook it. Simple candies were the aim for his craft when he did finish pulling the sugar. He didn’t mind being bested, however, as the priest began to make something more intricate.

Slowly but surely he recognized what he thought the figure was. A tiny dragon. Velyra, if the color was to be believed. How cute.

“Oi, that was mine, y’thief!” He joked easily at the stolen white candy he’d been working with last. No actual anger was held in Gaius’ playful tone.

And when the cooking candy figure was finally shown off, his eyes glittered with amazement as his grin went wide. “Aye, look at you!  Velyra herself, sweet as can be! I’ve made a candy artist of you it seems. Here’s a good thought. Let that cool and then offer it to Velyra. Since we worked together on it there’s no way it won’t make for her new favorite offerin’. An’ it’ll thank her for bring in’ us together too. I think she chose well yet again makin’ us friends. Don’tcha think?”

Gaius turned to Quarrel with a beaming grin full of sunshine. There could be something said about the joy he seemed to bring with him… contagious, really. He leaned back on one arm, stirring the fire with his other hand that held his stick. 

The hint of how happy Quarrel was to be praised was plenty for Gaius to know he should keep doing it. The little candy was as perfect as it could get. And considering that his tactic had worked wonders, he found no reason to keep it up. 

The pause made Gaius glance over with a raised brow. Well, if there was a question, he wouldn't press to hear it. But when the cat turned to him proper, he returned the gesture, and watched as their expression changed minutely before being schooled back into neutrality. What had - the scar. Okay. He could play this off. 

"Eh? Oh - see my badass new scar? Ain't it cool? Lot better than all these burns!" He patted the spot, the scarring as neat as could be. "Little Nis did well healin' it. I like scars. I feel like they're a gift from Morothi." 

That didn't seem to be helping much. 

"Hey." Gaius said softly, stirring the fire to let embers fly up and crackle distractingly. "It's alright. Not every choice we make are good ones. What matters is learnin' from them, y'hear? This is what I meant. Two wrong don't make a right. You were tryin' t'do right by Valens, but hurtin' another to do so didn't get you anywhere, eh?"

He looked into the flames then, letting them dance in his olive eyes. "So I just ask that y'learn from it. Y'already apologized so no point in frettin' about it. 'sides! I'm proud of it! It's a mark of standin' for what I believe in even in the face of adversity."