Tornados from a butterfly's wing
It was startling, how warm his cheek was. How warm it made her feel to touch him. A soft smile echoed his as she pondered it. As close as they were, she realized that touching was not something they did often. That was probably on her. Touch made every feeling more real, impossible to discern from her own if the contact lasted long enough. So it was often easier to keep her distance, and so keep her feelings to herself.
Kissing him, though. That brought a touch of giddiness to her belly. Butterflies, if you will. She smiled like she kept a secret, though secrets didn't last long between two souls as close as theirs. It was a bright, burgeoning thing, and she tucked it to her chest for later examination.
As he admired her wings and spoke in his turn, her muzzle wrinkled in wry acknowledgment of his game. He was at his most handsome when there was mischief in his eyes, a fact accepted ruefully. "Oh, don't make me guess," she requested blandly. "You know I've been exactly nowhere in my life." Which was true enough. If Yan was a hermit, then she was positively a bug under a stone for all she could tell you of the world beyond Nerine. It was the comfort of the Known that kept her there, but it was growing obvious that this had left her rather naive of more than simple geography.
The Alliance. It was something she'd heard of, but only in the vaguest terms. Nothing that had impacted her directly. "That must have been quite the honor," she speculated aloud, but the waves of Regret that followed the stallion's statement belied that idea. She stayed the impulse to wreath him in Comfort and Peace. Whatever emotions he was dealing with were there for a reason, and she figured it was better that those get settled before she tried to wash them away. Otherwise, they had a nasty likelihood of coming back to haunt him.
"Will you tell me why you think that?" She asked, mouth soft. "If there's anything I can do to help, you know I will." It was a offered with all the solemnity of an oath, and meant with the same intensity. Not that there was much that was in her power. She was no diplomat or warrior. Not really. But she could listen and she could be there, and with luck that may lighten some of his load. It was what she had done after the battle, it was what she had done when they were children. It was, she had determined, her own small roll in life.
...Amarine
@[Yanhua] back at ya <3