While Stark had been worried about taking over the pack, the first week of his reign had come and gone without too much issue. He felt comfortable in his role, which surprised him in some ways, and yet, it did not. He'd always been confident - but there wasn't even room for the standard self doubt that he had been plagued with for so long. Stark had quickly taken to choosing his Beta, reinforcing his borders, and they'd even brought on a very capable wolf. He felt like with Rhodes and Buchanan about they had safety - but what he wanted to find was a healer. A proper healer.
It wasn't like he could just put out an all call and locate one, or place a temp add to hire someone on. If it was that simple, he would have done it ages ago and cleared out the defectors.
Stark headed down to the stream, quenching his thirst while he pondered his thoughts, the midday sun warm on his back but not overwhelmingly so.
Had Stark stopped a little ways down, he might've found Natasha lying calmly in the stream, her eyes closed and ears perked. He did not, however, and only got the aftermath. She raised herself from the stream and padded out, shaking water droplets from her fur and sending them flying around. She then proceeded back down the stream, encountering Stark along the way.
Her fur was soaked and already decently short, so it clung to her form and made her look even smaller and daintier than she already looked. Her muscles were better displayed now, but it meant little on such a small-framed woman. Water beaded up on her eyelashes. They dropped onto her cheeks, and then dripped from her muzzle onto the ground. Unaffected by her appearance, she stared at the man for a moment. "You look down," she comments.
Whether Natasha and Pepper intended it or not they seemed to mirror one another frequently. Stark looked the russet woman over curiously, the tone to her voice almost...concerned. He snorted, but he didn't outright deny her. At least not yet. "Tired," Stark countered. He was tired of the constant back and forth between lands and even though Larkspur was home Mordecai and Pippin were still out of the packlands and that meant he didn't have time to stop.
He also needed to get more familiar with other packs around them and then there was the improvements to the Keep he wanted - he wanted more places that were established for storing and he still wanted to find a healer. He was getting ahead of himself. "How are you settling in?" He asked, lifting his head up finally.
Tired was a common excuse that a lot of wolves made when they didn't feel like opening up. Part of Natasha wanted to prod the issue, figure out what was going on, but her lack of true companionship with the male drove her to be less supportive of his problems— so she just shrugs.
"I'm doing fine," she says, her ears flattening. "I had a weird run in with a child— Tam, was what he called himself. Apparently he's been fucking stumps— got a splinter stuck in his balls." The story was said in a deep voice and with a bit of irritation, but Natasha tended to sound like that every time she spoke. It was amusing at least, so even if she didn't intend to it would get his mind off of whatever was bugging him.
Stark stumbled a bit the moment that she mentioned not only Tam but stumps and fucking in the same sentence. "He was...he was what?" He asked quickly. "Jesus christ I'm gonna have to talk to him about that." Stark said with a huff. However the boy had gotten such a notion in his head was beyond him, but, they'd have to have a conversation about things that were good ideas and things that weren't and screwing tree stumps was not going to do him any real good.
"Tambourine is basically my kid." Stark provided, glancing over at NAtasha to see her response. "I've been raising him since shortly after he was born."
The redhead gives a small smile, setting herself on the ground. "I told him not to— not that he has any reason to listen to me," she responds with a shrug, then pauses. She stares at him for a while, the words sounding strange to come out of his mouth.
"You know, Stark," she begins, shaking her head, "You're proving to be very different than the man I had you pinned as." Her ears cup forward and she stares for a minute, tail swishing. "Who's kid is he?" she then asks him. Not that she knew anyone, but maybe she'd find out more about Stark through the child.
Well, aside from the whole concept that splinters in one's balls or dick would hurt and on top of that she was a packmate and worth listening to. "He's usually pretty quick to listen, I'll just...uh. Drive the point home just to be safe." Stark said with a little sigh. It was a hot mess, to put it simply, and Stark had discovered that raising a child was more complicated than he'd ever thought.
"Octavia. She was Alpha when I joined the pack - sort of stepped in as father by accident, really." But he wouldn't take it back. He wouldn't feel bad for those choices at all. "She....she ran off...had some sort of fit. So....well. Now I'm the only parent he's got 'cept the pack." Stark explained. He didn't even know what to say about the sort of person she thought he was - not when here was the truth of the matter was he didn't know who he was anymore either.