baby one more time

The subject she touched on was a sensitive one that they'd both been avoiding for an admirable length of time. He listened to her, minding to be perfectly fair, though when she finished he found that his opinion of the matter remained unchanged. Ariston was a wolf born and raised in the traditional way; he had difficulty imagining a freeform lifestyle similar to Hawkeye's childhood.

He permitted her to gather her wits with the meditative release of breath. "Not a fool," he started with a dismissive shake of his head. "But I definitely felt that you'd made a mistake. You paid your price and learned from it. Fools never learn." He smiled then and looked across the watering hole. "I remained a part of this pack despite your mistake because I have faith in your dedication. Backgrounds, no matter how odd they seem to others, only sway my opinion of leadership when there is a continued negative effect." It was his roundabout way of both forgiving her of what had happened and reassuring her that it did not have a lingering effect between them.

set by Emy