[private] i've never fallen from quite this high; Aquaria

[Pteron]

finger trips across my cheek----------------
----------------kiss me until i can't speak

The green-eyed stallion watches the exchange between mother and child. It is different from the one he most often sees – Reia and Adarra. Pteron refuses to believe that his wife does not love their daughter, but he cannot think of a time when she has seemed as concerned as Aquaria is for Halcyon, or as interested in what Adarra herself wants. The affection he sees in the exchange and the unbridled excitement in Halcyon as he bolts ahead into the jungle without even glancing back are foreign things; Adarra would have looked over her shoulder a dozen times, just to make sure Reia hadn’t found anything more interesting to distract her from the offer she’d made. That Halcyon trusts Aquaria to be there without a moment of hesitation, that is how a child should feel for their mother. Pteron has done his best to provide stability for his firstborn, but he worries often that it will not be enough.

It is a constant weight in Pteron’s chest, that worry, and though he’d naively thought that he’d be able to escape it – escape everything, at least for a while – by coming to Ischia, he realizes now that such a thing is impossible. As the white tipped tail of the now-fully tiger cub disappears into the greenery ahead of them, Pteron’s olive eyes flick toward Aquaria just as she bumps her hip against his. She sounds cheerful enough, but he has known Aquaria for nearly a half-decade and known diplomats for his entire life: there is more to read than just the tone of her voice.

“I inherited Taiga,” he tells her as they make their way through the green trees, “and a wife as well. She is very like her father, Castile, and the match made sense.” Pteron chooses his words carefully. He’s not sure how much Aquaria knows about the plans that his parents had, of his mother’s intent to pull Taiga from the North and ally the territory instead with Loess. A bond between their children was better than any alliance, and when Reia had announced her pregnancy that had cemented the decision in his mother’s mind. The same had not been true for Pteron, whose desires were not consulted. The dun stallion has looked away when he started to speak, and only now turns back, searching Aquaria’s face for a reaction before he adds what he’s not said aloud.

“I do not love her.” He manages, “but Reia is…possessive.”

“If you were to have visited, she’d have driven you out.” The best case scenario would be Aquaria being driven out of the woods, the most likely scenarios is far bloodier and far more likely. Pteron still wears a few partially healed burns and scars from recent minor transgressions. He heals quickly, but his wife’s bite is as vicious as her temper and some wounds take time. 

“I’ve probably put you in danger by even coming here,” the pegasus admits, “but I needed a break, and Ischia has always been a place for that for me.”

Ahead of them, the sound of falling water has grown louder, a break in the trees reveals Halcyon splashing about in the shallows. Pteron has never seen a tiger hunt for fish before, but he assumes that is what the boy is doing

-- pteron --

@[Aquaria]