ooc:
To any other, his response would have been deemed tactless and unsavory. Lacking all but logic his words were cold to her ears and in effect they lowered to the warmth of her autumn crown. At least he was honest, she could commend him for that. However those laid ears came forward again in surprise, feeling his more engaging touch and received more in answer than she expected. Shock sat quietly on her muzzle, drawing her clouded eyes wide but seeing only the dancing flames of the firelight.
It was not like him to express anything other than a logical view however painful. And in his voice she could hear him fighting the urge to speak as he would, dismissing feeling and stating fact as it was. But she could hear him trying and felt what came of it. The tension that gripped him then slowly released as he in his own unique way offered flattering words to convey his interest. A perfect candidate, perhaps the closest to affirmation of his interest she would receive, and for some reason his awkward attempt made her smile...giggle even as she had as a pup when watching him try his paw at her family's fighting method. Now as he had then, he was opening himself to be vulnerable in her presence, a test of trust for the Lambda if ever there was an ideal one.
As she mentally recalled the past, her verbally recalled the request made by her Shepard those many seasons ago. At the time, she hadn't understood the significance, but as they played and grew together she came to better understand why he had been adamant about that bond. Even as children they had become complements to each other. A night that could not be without its day, strength balanced by wisdom. It was a bond she held true to up until she could not longer stand the stagnation of the Nomad ways. It made her smile to hear he had remembered and sought to honor it but it was a fleeting glimmer at best overcome by uncertainty. She met his eyes as he tried to grasp for the words to say then all out confessed his inability to do so. It was a terrifying moment to see her friend like this but she would not let that fear touch her face.
Instead, she carefully raised a hand to cradle beneath his chin to tip his muzzle down just enough to grace it with her own. "I know..." she confided, speaking quietly not of his difficulty in grasping the right thing to say, but of something more that carried on silently. "The bond we share is unique to our family, something that most born into a pack outside of our own would not be able to comprehend. Beyond our mountain home others live for each other and thrive and make their bonds of the notion and expectations of love...something we were not privileged to know of unless we discovered it ourselves. I did not understand him as a child, but I know now why my Shepard asked so much of you. Because that bond had already formed...and had I stayed...had I not left you, there is not a doubt that the bond would have transformed us beyond what we are now."
She placed a gentle lick on the end of his nose resurfacing one of the moments of many where she had done so during their lessons and play. "Perhaps it is selfish for me to say...but it is not something I want to lose with you...regardless of the form it takes."
.ooctable, .oocinfo {
background-image:none;
padding:10px;
line-height:12px;
margin:5px auto; width:85%;
background-color:#938d93;
border:1px solid #2d242d;
font-size:10px;
color:#2d242d;
border-radius:2px;
border-style: dashed;
-moz-border-radius:2px;
-webkit-border-radius:2px; }
.oocinfo {
font-size:10px;
width:250px;
margin:5px; }
</style>