To his dismay, the spirit kept his mouth shut on what troubled him, merely chewing on his lip or shyly turning his head away while avoiding any careful inquiries.

It drove the shadow near mad.

He couldn't care less about anyone else. The world could burn and he wouldn't care, just his spirit must not be unhappy. Anything that troubled him, he had to get rid off.
There was nothing he feared more than those bright, gentle eyes dimming permanently, as they did when the humans came to attack him.

"You are not bored, are you?", he asked quietly, the thousandth question he had asked in those few days (or at least he felt it was that way).

The spirit shook his head, hair grown out of grass flying around softly, and smiled so brightly that his eyes lowered into half-moons.
"I'm not bored", he chirped sweetly, eyes sparkling.

That much, the shadow thought, didn't appear to be a lie. But then what was the problem? He was not bored, not tired, not scared, was comfortable with the cave, was happy with the animals, liked the weather-

The shadow stared into nowhere as he kept on thinking, distracted. In the meantime, the spirit pursed his full lips and leaned forward, hesitantly reaching out to pull at the shadow's pitch-black clothes.

Whatever they were made of, the cloth swallowed all light to the point that he couldn't even tell if it creased or not; it was just a black hole on his body¹Google 'Vantablack' to have an easier time imagining it.  

He could feel it, however, on the tip of his fingers. It was the first time he managed to grasp it. It was uneven and smooth at the same time, constantly changing its texture just as it appeared to flicker.

Seeing the shadow not yet notice it, the spirit tugged at it.

He simply did not know how to convey his intentions. He was happy the shadow was at his side but he disliked how the guard kept on falling into a daze. He wanted to talk with him, keep a conversation for once. Maybe he just had to make sure the shadow understood, even though he himself did not know how to say it.

The tall figure twitched just the tiniest bit at the touch, then his eyes slowly wandered over to meet the spirit's.

To tell the truth, the shadow had no idea how to react to the contact. Usually, he was awkward at being touched and even if it was the previous spirits, he had always avoided any contact.

At the same time, he couldn't bear pushing the spirit away, especially not when he was watching with his bright, soft gaze. If he pushed him away, he felt he might just break something within those eyes.

So he didn't.
He just stared at the small hand on his clothes.

And after hesitating for a moment, lifted his hand, holding it out open for the spirit.

The childish being took a moment to understand what was happening, then let go of his grip and instead reached out for the open hand. His skin was blaring luminescent against the darker tone of the shadow; a healthy colour against a grayish, unnatural shade.

He still felt that it was a great combination. Their hands looked nice together, even though his hand seemed to vanish within the shadow's. Anyway, it was nice and slightly cool to the touch, so he could just keep on holding it.

If the shadow had thought this was about maybe keeping the contact for a few seconds, then he was wrong.

As the sun set, dying the world in red, he just sat on the ground with a baffled expression. His left hand was still being held by another, despite the holder having fallen asleep over an hour ago. If he moved it just the slightest bit, the grip would tighten.

...So in the end, he couldn't move an inch without risking to wake up the spirit, much to the visiting wind's amusement.

It wasn't all that hard to get them together, just a little push!

For the spirit, who had found out that he very much liked holding the hand of his guard and that the shadow didn't hate it, there was no question that they were going to hold hands all the time from now on. Yes, that was a great idea!

Troubled, the shadow had to slow down his pace to accommodate the spirit who was constantly looking around, cuddling his arm. It was an adorable sight - to just look down at his arm and see the spirit's excited face nestled against him.

It would be even better if he didn't have to constantly worry about danger. He was patrolling, not strolling...

"It would be better if you waited for me in the cave", the shadow probed, then shut his mouth when the spirit's cheeks inflated in a pout.
"No! I want to accompany you!"

How could he say no to that? The spirit really was cute, pouting like that...

"Promise me that you will listen to what I say, though. Otherwise, I can't make sure that you will be safe."
"I will! I won't leave your side."

The shadow's heart jolted at the words that could be interpreted in too many ways. Just when he was scolding himself for thinking too deeply, the spirit continued to add a few words with a lowered head, ears flushing brightly.

"I don't want to leave you, anyway, so it's better if you want to keep me close."

Humans had a saying that temptation was the source of all evil. 
Remembering that, the shadow felt it couldn't be any truer - he was fighting to keep his hands at his side and not pull the cute youth into his arms for a crushing embrace. Not only would he probably hurt the spirit, he would also scare him.

That meant he would have to go slowly, very slowly.

Hm?
When had he decided to pursue the spirit, after all? Hadn't he planned on keeping to himself so as to avoid doing something that the spirit might regret later? Wasn't he going to stay as he was; just a guard for this lively being? How had it suddenly changed to that?

The spirit rubbed his face against the shadow's shoulder, small face shyly blushing but happy. The spirit held the guard's arm close to his body, his grip gentle.

The shadow redirected his gaze back to the front.
If he wasn't supposed to fall in love with the spirit, then he would have probably created without that being possible in the first place, he thought. (The mountain certainly agreed.)

Besides, it seemed that the spirit was more troubled when he was being avoided rather than with the shadow being too close, and it was his task to keep the spirit satisfied and happy. That didn't create any conflict.

Either way, he just had to make sure that he never did anything to hurt the spirit, then he would be fine.

Deciding that, the shadow relaxed.

Half a month later, the river had to realize that he had underestimated the situation. And also who would be in charge. Previously, he had thought that the shadow was someone who would never cross certain boundaries, but now he realized that he needed to adjust the thought a bit.

The shadow was certainly very well controlled and would take things slowly and steadily.

It was just that the spirit wasn't agreeing with that, considering he had no comparison for things going slowly or fast.

So, if the spirit decided that he wanted to sleep cuddled in the shadow's arms, nestling under his chin, right in front of the whole group, then the shadow had no right to reject him.

As for being stared at by four pairs of amused eyes...

That wasn't the spirit's problem.