"I would love to take you up on that offer," She replied, frowning to herself when she remembered it would require her making up another excuse or telling Alpha about Frankie. Quickly the frown was replaced by a smile though and she looked over at him, "The real ones are by far the best, I agree."
He tilted his head slightly as he saw her frown. ”Only if you want to. I really don't want to cause you any more trouble.” he said lightly brushing against her arm. ”I know you have responsibilities and I'm not expecting you to drop everything important to spend time with me. I do appreciate the time we get to spend together…” he sighed. ”I’m sorry. I'm rambling.”
"I want to, that sounds fun," She said, thinking as she talked, "I like spending time with you, and I want to be able to drop my responsibilities and go see a city, it's just not possible though." Selina glanced over at him as their arms brushed and she bumped him with her shoulder, "I'll think of some excuse, how much time until you're leaving?"
”I… Well, I was originally planning on staying a week… So that would leave me two days left.” he said a little sadly. ”I could stay longer though if you want me to. I could always rearrange my trip and go to another park later.” he offered.
She nodded, frowning for a moment when she knew it would be terribly difficult to get an ok from the Alpha in that short of time, "You don't have to rearrange your trip, It's alright." Quickly she masked the frown again, thinking of how she could possibly get it to work.
Frankie put his hand on her shoulder and moved beside her. ”Hey? What’s wrong?” he asked concerned at seeing her frown again. ”It’s no trouble for me to change my plans but if you really don't want me to; that’s not a problem either.” he said gently.
"No, I would like if you changed your plans, but I don't want to be a bother and have you mess with your whole trip," She explained, not moving away from his hand on her shoulder, "It's just going to be difficult to convince Alpha to let me go to the city unless we need to get some more supplies."
”You're not going to mess anything up for me if I stay longer.” He assured, moving in front of her to make eye contact. ”I can always just cut off the last park from my trip for now and go to it on another trip.” He smiled at her, his hand still on her shoulder. ”That would give me another week to spend with you.”
Selina thought about it again and couldn't help but smile a little, meeting his eyes, "If you wouldn't mind, that would work. I can get Alpha to agree to me going then and possibly for him to allow me to stay for a few days in either the city or back in the park here with you."
”That sounds like a great idea.” he agreed. ”I wouldn't mind that at all.” Frankie smiled brightly at seeing her smile. He may not have known her for very long but he really liked her smile.
She nodded, starting to think of how to convince Alpha in the shortest amount of time possible. It was weird to think that Selina had only met Frankie less than a week ago but she already was willing to make up excuses to spend time with him.
Frankie smiled at her nodding, very happy that he would get to spend more time with Selina. ”So, which way do we go now?” he asked in regards to their current hike.
"Uh," Selina stopped talking and listened for a moment before smiling and pointing to the left, "This way until we reach the river, then we follow that downstream." They weren't terribly far from where she wanted to take him, but she did want to show him some of the views by taking the longer but prettier path following the river.
Frankie nodded and stepped to the side to let her take the lead again. ”After you, Beta.” he smiled, half teasing but still respectful. This was her home, he was just visiting.
Her smile grew and her cheeks flushed, she wasn't used to anyone outside of her pack calling her by her official title. She nodded though and set off again, just fast enough though that she was walking along side of Frankie, "You can just call me Selina, Beta is too formal."
Frankie's smiled turned soft and sincere at her blush. ”Alright. If that’s what you want… Selina.” he agreed as he walked beside her.
(Sry it took so long for me to respond I was skiing all weekend)
Her smile grew and she led them on in silence for a few minutes before asking a question, "So, is Frankie short for anything? Or is that your full name?" It was something she sort of wanted to know, since it caught her curiosity.
(It's alright. I understand.)
He followed her, enjoying the beauty of the nature around them. ”Well, it’s actually Franklin but I prefer Frankie. I know it’s kinda kiddish but I always thought my full name sounded a little stuffy. And Frank just sounds boring.” he shrugged, a little embarrassed.
"Frankie sounds better than Franklin, in my opinion," She said, nodding and smiling to herself at the thought of teasingly calling him Frank. They were near the river now and the rush of water could be heard in front of them. It wasn't a huge river, but it had a strong current for how shallow it was. The bottom was scattered with rocks of all sizes and a few of the larger ones stuck out to form stepping stones of sort across the river.
”Yeah? Heh. Thanks.” he smiled a little, unsure if he responded to the compliment correctly. He had received compliments before but never from someone who made him feel the way Selina did. Most of his last girlfriend's compliments were kinda passive-aggressive. ”Wow. This is beautiful. We have to get to the other side, right?” his smile was much more relaxed and confident now as he looked at the river.
Selina shrugged and her smile grew playful, "We don't have to, but it's the easiest path and prettiest to follow." Without another word she crouched down and rolled up the bottom of her borrowed pants legs, looking back at Frankie as she stepped into the cold water and waded to the first stone, "You can swim right?"
”Won’t argue with that.” Frankie smiled equally playful. ”Yeah, I’m a great swimmer. Me and my sister go swimming as often as we can. I’m kinda like her training buddy so she’ll be alright when she goes off on her own in the oceans.” he explained as he took off his boots and socks before following Selina to the first rock.
"That's good," She said with a laugh, nodding, "You'll like where we're going then." She hopped from rock to rock as best she could, her feet only slipping a few times and getting the bottom of the pants legs wet.
Frankie raised a brow at the subtle hint about their destination but smiled as he jumped across the rocks to the bank. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite as practiced as Selina and ended up slipping on the second to last rock and fell face-first into the water. ”Oh, Holy Moley! That's cold.” he spluttered as he climbed to the final rock. He shook off some of the water and made the last jump across.
She couldn't help but burst out laughing at him falling, stepping towards him from the bank to help but seeing that he had it under control. "Are you alright?" She asked when he reached the other side with her, looking him over for any injuries with a small smile from his fall.
Frankie blushed red with an embarrassed chuckle as she laughed at his expense. If he was honest, he probably would have laughed too. ”I’m alright. Nothing hurt but my dignity.” he tried to joke, shaking more of the water out of his hair. ”I must have looked pretty silly when I fell.”
Selina smiled and stepped in front of him, gently reaching up and wiping a few stray water droplets off of his face before stepping away, "It was pretty funny to watch you fall, but that's only because I know you can swim and probably wouldn't hurt yourself more than getting wet."
Frankie’s blush darkened at the soft gesture. ”Y-yeah.” he cleared his throat slightly. ”I mean if I had seen that from your perspective; I would have laughed at that fail too.” he smiled a little as his clothes now clung to his body like a second skin.
"Well, should we continue on?" She asked, biting the inside of her lip as she tried to ignore her own growing blush and the fact that Frankie's shirt now stuck to him without hiding many details.
”Sure. I’ll probably dry off faster if I keep moving.” he agreed as he poured some of the water out of his shoes. ”First time hiking barefoot.” Frankie chuckled, quickly tying the laces together and hanging them over his shoulder to dry.