[private] WE BOTH LOST THE WAR • Solace

[Smoak]

It has taken Smoak quite a while to chew through the information that Kagerus and Svedka had shared with him. Solace had loved him once, Kagerus had said. Svedka was going to be an uncle. An uncle. The bone-plated stallion hadn't asked Svedka who the father was, nor if Kagerus had petitioned to the Fairies for a child between herself and the blue-tinted Caretaker of Hyaline. He hadn't asked Solace either. Instead, the young stallion had dealt with it unhealthily ─ through avoidance. He had carefully skirted the conversation each time it had been brought him; he had thrown his mind into his new work of supporting Hyaline, regularly patrolling the borders particularly where Solace had indicated some political uncertainty.

He smiles at her warmly now, as he always does despite the acidic rolling of his stomach (missed opportunities be damned), and comes to a halt by her side. "Solace," his deep voice rumbles as he notices the new slimness of her barrel. His brows furrow for a moment, nostrils flaring, as his bright eyes flick away from the painted mare and to the open meadow before them. He had heard no word of her giving birth, though admittedly he had been perusing the outskirts of the territory for the last few days. "Is Svedka an uncle now?" he asks with warmth in his eyes, but it's the only way he can make himself word the question. Are you a mother now? and You and Kagerus must be so happy seem like impossible things to say.

He has forgotten what he had sought her out for today, distracted again by the things had hadn't said when he should have said them. He stays quiet for a moment, his eyes turning to gaze into Solace's with a friendly attentiveness. When he does find his voice again, the champagne stallion shifts his weight away from the painted lady and turns his eyes back to the meadow. "You'll be great, you know." He pauses again, to chew on the inside of his lip. "Is there anything you needed? For Hyaline, I mean, or for yourself," he trips over his words and finds that he's quite happy that his forelock has fallen over the side of the face closest to her.

S M O A K
here's a handshake, soldier, 'cause we both lost the war

thanks evvie !

@[Solace]