i've never fallen from quite this high | aquaria

[Pteron]

and since you’re the only one that matters,----------------
----------------tell me: who do i run to?

She names the last sibling he’d expected her too, and Pteron falls still for a moment. Tiercel has returned? Gale had said that their brother did not wish to be found, and though that situation was not ideal, it was better than dead. Pteron would prefer his family gathered in one place, and having that in Ischia is largely responsible for his recent happiness. The excitement of finding out that his sibling has come back and the concern over finding out that he has used his emotions against Aquaria, stirs contrasting reactions within the piebald stallion. He has no right to be any more protective over Aquaria than any Beachmaster to their Nereid leader. That has not changed how he feels, of course, but it has modified his behaviors since their last conversation.

Before the coming of the darkness, there had been a single cloud across his time in Ischia, and it remains audible in the way Aquaria bids him to be cautious.

“Of course,” he replies immediately, a soldier to his Dame. The smile that follows is warmer though, and he bites back the playful desire to ask why she’d made him promise. Her answer would probably be a cold wave crashing onto the warm sand, and Pteron is wise enough to keep the delicate balance that they’ve maintained for the past few months. It is not quite friendship, but it is better than the nothing-at-all of before. She will say it’s because their sons will miss him, and not because she’s changed her mind about him. And their sons would miss him, Pteron knows, and that will always be enough for him.

Safe but sulking, Aquaria tells him, and Pteron shakes his head in sympathy. He’s not at all surprised; their son is at the age where he might strike out on his own and the world he now faces is a very different one than anyone could have expected. “When I get back, I could ask him if he wants to hang out with me for a while?” Pteron images Aquaria is busy, and one less thing on her plate during these unprecedented times would surely be appreciated.

“Would asking for a kiss for good luck be too much?” he asks playfully, flaring his broad wings as though for his imminent flight. They flex as he flashes the nereid his most charming smile, the one he reserves for situations in which is most uncertain about the reception of his humor. He is sure that the answer will be no, but at this very moment he wants to make her laugh even more than he wants to kiss her.

@[Aquaria]

-- pteron --