"Oh. Yes. Of course." he mentally slapped himself. idiot.
"Yeah, that's my major. It's been slow going, because, like I said..." he shrugged, looking off into the distance, "Not much experience."
He shrugged again and looked down into his lap, where his hands rubbed his thighs.
"Well... I needed a job... And... They were hiring?" he looked up, hoping that would be enough. He wasn't sure how much he should reveal about himself. It was only the first date, after all. He'd lost other jobs for less.
"I sort of ran away from home, you know, my family being a lot of woodsy people. I didn't really have..." his voice lowered as he came up with a believable lie, "good references..."
His social awkwardness had given way to true discomfort, and he was eager to get the subject off himself in any way he possibly could. He was too afraid of scaring her off. He still didn't know much about Rhia, but he liked her. "So, uh," he struggled. "why do you study journalism?"
He managed to fumble the conversation away from himself for the rest of the date, and at their parting of ways, he told Rhia he'd ask his boss about the interview and that he'd like to see her again. But in their awkwardness, had never actually exchanged phone numbers.
Zahir promptly went home after the date, where Gaea was making himself dinner. The lycan looked up from the pan when he heard the door close, and asked him how it went. Zahir was pretty white.
"Terribly," he muttered, slumping onto the couch in the living room.
"I don't know anything about humans. I'm so awkward." the werewolf put his face in his hands with a loud sigh.
Gaea swallowed his mild look of concern away and tried to focus his attention on the meat in his pan. "Sorry," he offered, his right ear cocking to the side. He wasn't sure he should do anything. Part of him was a bit relieved; he'd begun to get a little uncomfortable at the thought of a human girlfriend, but on the other scent, he knew how much the prospect had meant to Zahir.
Eventually Gaea finished cooking and eating and sat down next to Zahir on the couch, who had begun staring into space again. The lycan put his arm around his partner and hugged him close, letting out a huff through his nose while shoving the human form into his chest fur.
Zahir sighed. "Sorry."
Gaea rubbed Zahir's shoulder and bent over to take in a huge whiff of the man's hair scent. After a few moments, he asked softly, "Was the terrible date so terrible to her?"
Zahir shrugged. "Dunno."
"I don't think it was," Gaea suggested. "Stop getting stressed out about human stuff." He flicked his right ear and leaned back into the couch, patting Zahir's head.
"You've known them your whole life," Zahir whined. "This is all new to me, still."
Now it was Gaea's turn to shrug. "You read tons of books, don't you? You'll learn."
Zahir rolled his eyes, "It's not the same."
Eventually, enough time would pass that Gaea would get up and go to bed, leaving Zahir to his own pity party for a while before he, too followed.
The next day, Zahir went with Gaea to open the tradepost. Today they were holding a small performance at noon to draw in some more people. It was something Gaea did every so often to spice things up. So he'd do the show and Zahir would work the register and handle anything that needed handling while Gaea was pre-occupied.
Today had been advertised as a free Gourd Dance, and Gaea would demonstrate a dance that took place during a ceremony to ensure a good harvest and last hunt for the year. Some Lycan tribes lived in very cold climates with harsh winters. Those tribes would farm part of the year and preserve the food to make up for a lack of meat. The Autumn Auspice wasn't really a thing that happened anymore, but it was showy enough that it prevailed as some entertainment for other races. Some forms of it were adapted for human thanksgiving, and now urban lycans that had traditionally celebrated Autumn Auspice generally held the activities on Thanksgiving instead. The Trade Winds had not traditionally partaken in the Autumn Auspice, but as part of Gaea's job to hawk bullshit Lycan culture to humans, he dabbled in a little bit of everything.
After getting everything ready, it was soon time for the performance to begin. The Trade Post was small and the small crowd that had gathered for the event had cramped the store, but Gaea was eager to put on a happy face and entertain regardless.
Dressed in a leather loin cloth that reached the floor, the lycan picked up a hollowed out gourd in one hand and a modified bear claw instrument in the other.
"In Lycan culture, there's an Autumn harvest called the Autumn Auspice. At this harvest is also the last hunt of the year before a harsh winter. After the harvest, we begin the Auspice with dances to honor our warriors, hunters, elders, and gods. We dance and sing to pray the hunters get good kills to last through the winter, but if they don't, then we pray that the plants we've harvested are tasty and nutritious. The Auspice is traditionally the first omnivorous meal of the year. The success of the harvest and the last hunt determine if the winter will carnivorous, omnivorous, or vegetarian."
He held up the gourd, showing it the crowd. "This is a dried out gourd. Most of you have probably seen Lycan Gourd art. But decorative gourds can be eaten. Sealing them in and painting and such is just a form of preservation. This one has been hollowed though, and we use it as an instrument." he shook it and it made a rain-like sound. "They can be filled with lots of different things, but this one is sand."
He then held up the bear claw, a contraption that looked a bit like a hand-held weapon. It had a large opening Gaea could slip his hand through and grasp at his palm. The claws extended outward. "We call this a bear claw. We're unimaginative, I guess. It's made from an actual bear claw. It's not a weapon, but a musical instrument. See?" he tapped the claws against the gourd and it made a hollow sound.
"Bear claws make different sounds than lycan claws do, so we use them with the gourds and other instruments to make a rhythm. The gourd dance is just one of many dances on the Autumn Auspice but it's the easiest to do, which is why I'm going to teach you all how to do it!" he gave a little
laugh to the crowd and then started the actual dance by hopping from foot to foot and shaking the gourd.
Following this, he would alternate between scratching the gourd with the bear claw and tapping it in various ways producing different sounds. He'd also produce various vocalizations that could be described as howls or growls, but was actually chanting, more or less, in Lycan language.
Zahir watched from the counter, somewhat impressed. He wasn't fully educated on lycan cultures, so he liked learning something new. Gaea wasn't so bitter to make up lies from nothing, so he knew the song and dance was probably real, or at least heavily based on the real thing. What Gaea mostly did for tourists was simplify. It was never "this specific tribe here" or "tribes in this part of the world." It was every lycan did this, or some lycans did that, without specification.
As everyone seemed captivated by Gaea's performance, Zahir pulled up a stool and leaned on the counter, wondering if Gaea actually liked dancing as much as he seemed to be. That was until the werewolf's attention was diverted to the door of the trade post opening and Rhia walking in. Immediately, he stood up, his face going white.
