Nerezza's tail flicked, a happy whicker emanating from her as she was pet by Aria. She seemed to rather like the princess, even after only this first meeting. It would probably take a bit more for Aria to be allowed on her, however. Reaper snorted, feeling forgotten, and a hoof came down on the stall door. His ears flicked forward and he butted Alexander with his head rather forcefully; it was almost a 'hey! pay more attention to me!'<br/><br/>Xander brought a hand up to the horse's face and ran it along the glistening black fur as Aria spoke, Reaper giving a rough neigh of approval as he was pet. The hand petting Reaper paused, though, as fingers touched down lightly on Alexander's face to smooth away his hair. He could easily bring back the many memories of her as a child doing this. Her slim fingers always seemed to be there pushing back his hair for him as it fell in his face. He had always either grumbled, made some face, or huffed in response. However he could not remember ever there being a time when she had blushed as she did so nor her lingering this close to his face.<br/><br/>Another grin, though only a small one, touched his lips as she pulled her hand away quickly and spun to go speak to the stable boy in a bit of a hurry. He turned to the horses and pet them as she spoke to the guy, musing over that little blush that had bloomed across her cheeks and nose. Aria was quite cute when she blushed. Of course, she wasn't the only maiden he had seen blush... but none had ever blushed simply by pushing his hair out of his face. Then again none had ever pushed his hair from his face. That seemed to be solely an Aria trait.<br/><br/>His musings were broken as Aria came back with his bags in hand. They weren't very large bags; he had only put a few of his outfits in them and then there were apples resting in each most likely. He took them from her,<span style="color: #BF0000">"Thank you m'lady, you didn't have to carry them,"</span>and set them down in front of the stalls before reaching in one to grab a couple apples and hand one to her.<span style="color: #BF0000">"For Nerezza,"</span>Xander said as he took her hand and placed the apple in it, possibly lingering there a moment longer than necessary before he turned to Reaper to give him his apple.