Sea Lion Shores don't ask me why

atausiq used the few days she left him to try to wrap his swimming mind around his new reality. it was a lot to grasp and part of him wants to hate the situation. it could be worse, he tells himself. there'd been physical attraction prior to becoming her groom ...and she was an empress. his father could've married him off to someone a lot worse. part of him considers this is a punishment as much as it is a political move. despite the rebellious part of him that cringes at the idea of being put in a gilded cage, atausiq remains where hua left him.

he busied himself by his usual patrols, though staying close to the general area she was meant to return for him at; hunting to fill his belly ...and kill his yawning anxieties as he awaits his bride's return. when she did return for him, he follows dutifully after her as she leads the way to her coast. proving that he every bit the same duty bound and family focused boy he'd always been.

her family was his now. imperial jade gaze moves from the sea — his first time seeing it but also unable to take it in; too internally shell-shocked to register it — to his siren bride where it lingers, upon her face and then to the slight roundness of her sides. he's young but he suspects he knows what the subtle but noticeable change to her body means. yes, he replies, tail brushing against his hocks, face tilted ever-so-slightly in her direction; unaccustomed to the stinging salt brine and pelting of sand carried upon the wind. it certainly seems beneficial to him to find out what he's to expect and whats to be expected of him as her groom.