[ luka smiles, not that she can see it. but he smiles nonetheless because she trusts him and that makes his heart beat ever so slightly faster.

she'll hear him rummaging for something with his free hand in his pocket (maybe this is why he wore bottoms that are arguably more pants than a beach cover up), before he pulls back the hand in hers. only because he needs both his hands for this.

something cool wraps around her wrist, a bracelet which luka hooks with a simple clasp. a bracelet made of pallacite that glimmers under the sunny skies above. ]

You can open your eyes now. [ he will, thankfully, explain without being prompted for once. ]

I know I'm not a penguin and neither are you~. And these aren't pebbles but a piece of a meteorite, a pallasite. But—

[ but he is comically simple-minded at times and that talk about penguins and their courtship has been rotating around in his mind since. who knows if he'll ever admit it, but he doesn't know how to actually court anyone; he knows how to flirt, he knows how to be provocative, but these are all things he does without any actual feeling behind them. the real deal? he has no clue!

so he might as well follow the example of penguins because she seemed to like it and this is all he has. ]

—I am courting you. Just don't ask me to flop into the water like they did.

[ it wouldn't look graceful at all and while he can swim, he definitely can't swim anywhere near as well as a penguin. ]