Dawnlark Plains Where the heart is

@Aditya

Following Aditya's scent quickly he found himself unsure what to say. Should he just leave the subject of him and Dawn alone? Probably. Could he resist his morbid curiosity enough not to ask? Probably not. On top of that he was struggling with the knowledge that there wasn't enough members to care for the nursing pups and feed their mothers not to mention the rest of the pack. 

Quickening his pace after the trail of the man he sighed "Adi! Slow down" he decided to just shout out and wait for a response, slowing his own pace until he was sure where exactly Aditya had gone off to.

a voice behind him drew him to a halt, and he turned, a smile blooming over his face as he realized it was sunny. he moved to butt his head against the young man's shoulder but stopped himself mid-move, not knowing the extent of what dawn had told him or how their relationship stood now. instead, aditya pulled back, a little gingerly, gazing at sunny warmly.

"i missed seeing you around," he said, voice a rumble in his throat. "how were your travels?" there was a look to sunny that suggested the boy had done some much-needed soul-searching, that the time away was just what he had needed. he had been so distraught over grayday's death--with reason--and now it was time to heal and grow from it. aditya thought, by his appearance, that sunny had more than a fighting chance to do so.

He was extremely happy when Aditya turned around and greeted him warmly, leaning into his embrace with a warm whine before pulling back. It surprised him and filled him with a sweet sort of aching pain to realise that everyone here still loved him just the same as when he'd messed up and been sent away. "I missed you too Adi." he said in a low voice filled with warmth. "They were...nice. I met a bunch of folks, mostly women. I almost um...almost had sex with one girl. Her name was Fire." he paused and looked down embarrassed and ashamed of that fact. "Went to Undersea. I found Engel at a pack near that on the coast. I had...I had to be the one to tell Seelie about dad. She named one of her pups after him. Grayling" he said with a sad sort of warmth. 

Once he had gone over all the important things he hesitated, the question on his tongue likely to ruin the good mood. Even so he wanted to know what happened, needed to know what went wrong. "I'm sorry about you and Dawn...What happened Adi?" he asked, his voice filled with sympathy and also confusion and concern. His sister hadn't ever seemed too affectionate toward Aditya now that he thought of it but he was sure that she had loved him. He knew Aditya had loved Dawn very much, that was obvious. So what had gone so wrong?

his face cracked into a grin at sunny's admission regarding fire, though he quickly tempered it into something gentler as the boy's eyes cast downward in shame. before he could soothe him, he had moved on, mentioning undersea and--oh. his stomach twisted violently, sudden tears blurring his eyes.

"seelie had pups?" aditya asked, voice hoarse. "how--how many? are they all okay? is she okay?" he blinked the moisture from his gaze, looking away. he hadn't even known she was pregnant. it was one thing for the black seawolf to be bound to stockholm through promise; now, their children indelibly tied them together, and nothing he could do or say would change that. the improbable was now impossible.

in comparison, the situation with dawn seemed almost trivial. he cleared his throat, giving sunny a long look before continuing. "we both made mistakes," he answered, choosing not to malign the young man's sister, though part of him desperately wanted to. after all, he had slipped, too. "she was selfish, and i acted out of anger. it was better for us to. . .separate." that was all he wanted to say on the matter; any more information he wanted could be gleaned from dawn.

He didn't understand at first why Aditya looked so upset at the news about Undersea. Wasn't it good news? Before he could process the possible reasons why Aditya began to ask questions which Sunny answered the best he could. "Four. They all seem healthy yes. Seelie seems to be at peace, happy. She loves them." he said honestly voice almost wary as he studied Aditya to see how he reacted to that information.

When Aditya cleared his throat to signal a subject change, Sunny's ears perked. He nodded slowly, frowning at the explanation but giving a single shake of his head "Maybe it runs in the family. My dad, me and Dawn seem to have a streak of selfishness. Then again...everyone does." he said. His serious expression turned into a sad one, brows furrowing. "I'm sorry Adi...matehood...it's actually not like we grow up believing is it? It's a very hard,fickle thing that takes dedication.." he paused and shuffled his paws, sighing. It was obvious this had just started sinking in. "Not some silly love story tale...not magical or easy". He looked up somewhat hoping Aditya would tell him not to think like that.

"that's good," he said, attempting a joyful tone. it came out more like he was choking on something, though, and he cast his eyes down, embarrassed. he should be happy for her. and he was happy for her--but he wasn't happy. not in the least. and he knew it showed on his face, but at this point, he didn't care. sunny could ask all the questions he wanted--

--and hell, since he was now separated from dawn, he could be honest, now. anyone and everyone (save stockholm, really) could know.

he was grateful for the change of topics, nodding along with sunny's words. if the boy expected him to rebut his thoughts, he was in for a rude awakening. "no, it's not," aditya murmured, thinking of all his past relationships. they had started out magical. . .but reality reared its ugly head soon enough. "it should be, but it's not. we just have to. . .cope with it, the best we can."

sick to death of talking about dawn, he shook his head, moving on. "so. this girl, fire. do you like her?" he asked, a smile blooming over his face. he'd thought there was something between sunny and the huntress aliac, but perhaps he was mistaken. better not to shove him into anything, based on rumors and misread body language.

Sunny's ears went back and his eyes widened at Aditya's response before he swallowed thickly and looked down for a moment, slowly processing and accepting what he had really been taught and had witnessed since puphood. Love was something that rarely went well but it was also something that was apparently hard to avoid. "That...That sucks" he murmured very very eloquently.

When the subject turned to Fire it was his turn to look upset. "No!" he replied way too quickly and then looked ashamed "Well....yes. She is beautiful with fur like flame and she was sweet and smart and...and we were both vulnerable. She wanted to be wanted and so did I, I guess and we just...stuff started." he looked down at the ground clearing his throat in an embarrassed way. "But I realised just in time she wasn't who i wanted. I love someone else, who is kind and sweet and funny and gentle.. I love Aliac. So I stopped and turned Fire down." he said softly, remembering the fierce way the young woman had sashayed away, her hips swaying in such a torturous way.

his outburst took aditya aback, but he knew that there was something more to this story besides sunny changing his mind on fire at the last moment. as the story progressed, his grin grew wider, and when aliac's name was finally dropped, adi gave sunny a nudge to the shoulder in excited congratulations, eyes sparkling.

"vah, kya baat hai! well done--i'm very happy for you," he exclaimed warmly, face suffused with happiness. "aliac is a sweet girl. you two are good together." his grin grew cheeky as he added, "i'm looking forward to pupsitting your litter, next spring." if he thought longer about it, he might have been dragged back down into a sour mood by the thought that he might not have his own litter next year, as planned.

but his joy for sunny overwhelmed his bad mood for now, and he continued to smile. "anything else interesting out there? did you. . .see any sign of easy, or lavender?" here his expression began to fade into something more resembling worry, as he thought of the missing sisters.

Sunny felt his fur heating up and he shuffled a bit, though his lips quirked up into an embarrassed sort of smile. Sunny's mind didn't register the meaning of Aditya's pupsitting comment at first so he just dumbly grinned and nodded eagerly "Yeah! That'll be real nic-" then it dawned on him what that meant and his eyes widened, a slight wave of excitement going through him at the thought of not only mating Aliac but becoming a father. "I...I hope we have one. They'd be really pretty" he murmured. 

His expression fell as Aditya asked what other things had happened, specifically if he had seen any signs of Easy or Lavender. "No signs of them at all." he said sadly, his expression turning worried before he tried to push on. "I saw Engel. He's in a pack by the sea lead by someone called Rosalyn" he gave the information, proud that he had remembered details of a new pack.

adi nodded, gaze drifting over sunny's plush pelt, his well-built frame. "they will be wonderful children, sunny," he agreed, returning his eyes to his brother-in-law's friend's face once more. it was a pity they would no longer be related to him, by marriage. . .but the bond between aditya and sunny meant that he would always at least be a friend and mentor to the fruit of this new union. that, at least, was something.

he let out a sigh, disappointed at the lack of news. not, of course, disappointed in sunny--how could he be? he needed to accept that the girls were long gone, or even dead. they would have turned up by now; even lavender was not that senseless about direction. or dauntless would have retrieved them. it was a lost cause, the search for easy and lav. it made his stomach churn to think of it.

aditya's nose then wrinkled in distaste as sunny mentioned engel, of all wolves, and he scoffed as sunny finished talking. "can't believe someone took that lecher in," he muttered darkly, rolling his eyes. not wanting to say more on the subject, he moved on. "i've never heard of rosalyn, before. we should pay her a visit, eventually. perhaps when the pups are more grown, and we can afford to send a scout out."