Phoenix Maplewood smile without a reason why

@Alya -- let's backdate this ohhhhhh a week or so?

every day got a little bit better. it had to, anyway. summer had dealt him three hard blows--losing grayday, then losing dawn, and finally losing his home. each morning after had been a struggle, but somehow he had persevered.

but did he really have a choice?

between border patrols--he'd been antsy, since the two women had trespassed, albeit unknowingly--he went to visit the moonspear girl, who still convalesced in the maplewood. it had been interesting, getting to know her. she reminded him of dawn, in many ways. but she was more secretive, like something hidden in the shadows. was it simply her darker coloring that gave him a mistaken impression, or was there something deeper, there?

aditya trotted toward where she'd been resting, rabbit dangling from his jaws. the conflagration had chased the small game from the plains over to the maplewood, so, on that front, they had enjoyed good hunting here, at least: a small silver lining to their storm clouds. but while tiny animals could run and hide, larger animals had no such luck. the deer, presumably, had run for the hills; adi didn't know when they'd return again.

Some might consider it a waste, but Alya had spent a measure of time and energy putting her coat to rights. The mud was gone (along with the foul scent) and she was glossy-furred once more. Moonspear, though, was washed away from her pelt. She could no longer smell damp caves, cool mountain air, or the faint spice of conifers on her pelt. Instead, it was the heavy taint of smoke and the cloying sweetness of the maples. And, of course, the scent of the Morningsiders.

Speak of the devil. Alya watched her rescuer approach, discomfort welling in the pit of her stomach. He'd brought food, and it wasn't that Alya was opposed to her whims being catered to (she rather liked the idea) - it was just that she already felt indebted to the pack, and to Aditya in particular.

"Hello, Aditya," she greeted with a weary grin, pronouncing each syllable of his name with the utmost care. She'd yet to share her name with him, and enjoyed throwing it in his face every chance she got. For the Moonspear girl, this passed as flirting.

he dropped the rabbit at her paws, giving her a sly smile in return. "hello, chaiyya." if her evasiveness bothered him, he did not let it show. and it didn't. he had, invariably, found another name for her instead. if the girl didn't like it, she could offer her real moniker instead. either way, he had the upper paw in this situation.

"how are you feeling?" adi inquired, tilting his head slightly to one side. she looked a lot better than she had in the wetlands, now that she was clean and dry. this was the pretty, glossy girl he remembered, her eyes dancing with mischief, not glazed with fear. they really ought to send someone to moonspear soon; he wondered if dawn would be up for the task. it was a ways away. . .

Her ears pressed forward at the foreign word. Chaiyya. She was interested in its meaning, but his question distracted her. "Oh, just swell," she said brightly, not bothering to make the lie sound convincing. She didn't feel like being humorously self-deprecating right then, so she went for satirical cheer instead. "Tip-top shape. If 'trampled by moose' is a shape." This line was delivered with a toothy grin.

Honestly, she was a little embarrassed by the effort it'd taken to get clean. She'd probably be feeling a lot less bruised if she hadn't dragged herself to the stream and back, but then she'd also be dirty and that just wasn't good for her emotional health.

"Did you come to taunt me with your dinner?" she asked conversationally, trying to look like she wasn't lonely and in pain.

aditya laughed, golden eyes creasing tight in a grin. "rather a flat shape," he shot back, raising his eyebrows at her. she didn't look very flat to him. no, she was all rounded muscle and womanly curve. he let his gaze linger a little longer than normal, adding, "for being trampled by moose, you look terrific."

he nudged the rabbit closer to her, shaking his head. "i already ate," he said, settling down more on her level and stifling a yawn. it had been a long day, and still not over yet. "i figured you ought to, as well."

adi wondered how well the others were getting on with their guest. had they even paid her much attention at all? there had been a sort of frenetic undercurrent to morningside since the fire; where they once would have welcomed strangers with open arms, this latest visitor had gone largely unnoticed, from what he'd seen. perhaps when they were more settled, their ways would morph back to how they'd always been.

The brittleness of her act dialed back when he answered in kind, and faded almost entirely when he offered a compliment and an appreciative glance. (Always the best way to her heart.) She preened for him, of course, stretching to show the plush, padded curve of her chest and belly, and the long, sineous lines of her powerful legs. She did look terrific, thank-you-very-much.

"You look tired," she said when her leg started to twinge from the strain of her posing. Discreetly, she tried to work it back into a comfortable position. Spolier alert: there wasn't one. "I hope that's not because of me." The statement was more reproval than contrition.

How was she going to work off this debt? They knew where she lived even if they did not yet have her name. Her leg showed no signs of improvement, and she was reliant on them for food and shelter. It left her feeling a bit overwhelmed, but she refused to show it while Aditya laid across from her, possibly watching her face for signs of weakness. "Thank you," she forced herself to say, taking the rabbit between her paws and peeling back the fur of its belly with gentle precision. She was not going to get blood on her newly-cleaned pelt.

he chuckled, shaking his head with an infinitesimal sigh. "i'm always tired, these days," adi responded, his eyes fixed on hers with genuine humor. "it's nothing at all to do with you." he stretched slightly, enjoying the feel of the sun-warmed ground. it was cooling, slightly, as the temperature dipped; aditya knew he only had a short time to savor summer before the winter winds rolled in.

the thought sent icy dread down his spine, and he shivered, looking away. "how is your family?" he asked, pushing thoughts of snow to the back of his mind. the last time they had spoken, she had just lost a sister. he danced around that memory; if she wanted to, she would bring it up. he certainly wouldn't do so himself.

This answer was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Alya certainly didn't want to be blamed for his fatigue. On the other, it bothered her that Aditya had things that had nothing at all to do with her. Her next several bites of rabbit were even more fussy and exacting, and then she was disgusted with herself for displaying this fit of pique in the first place. What did it matter if Aditya had other business? Just because Alya was stuck in one place, staring at the canopy all day?

(How did these wolves live get by being unable to look up at the stars at night?)

"We're doing well," she replied, and her heart was such that she no longer considered those that were dead, missing, or turncoats. Her family, the core of it, was doing fine. "My youngest siblings are all growing well. A relief, because the last litter was a disaster. Still is, sometimes." To say nothing of the Yams. Alya still had hope for them. "My mother and father are healthy. And my twins..." She shot him a sly look, aware that he still thought there was only one of her. "... are being courted by more men than I can keep track of."

Which was not exactly an exaggeration.

"Tell me about your family," she said, finishing off the last bite of rabbit and moving at once to clean up her paws and face. "Who else is in this pack?"

if he noticed her sudden turn of mood (and he likely didn't) his face did not show it. instead, he sat patiently through her answer, nodding placidly at her pauses. her twins. . . his eyes flashed to hers, fixing her with a gimlet stare. perhaps he hadn't met her, before. but he could have sworn--

the word family took him by surprise, and a slightly unpleasant surprise at that. since his break-up with dawn, could he truly consider the morningsiders family? any of them? kitten and river were children of his heart, true, but not his blood, and the rest. . . adi forced a smile, mulling her question for a moment before finding the words to speak.

"after our leader died, i stepped up to help his daughter, dawn," he said, his mouth feeling inexplicably dry. "we lead together. then there's her brother, sunny; pema and sebastian are our medics; aviana is sebastian's sister and aliac is sunny's mate. catori is grayday's widow, loir is a huntress. . ." and then there were the myriad children. god, where to begin?

"eventide, river, and kitten are grayday and catori's," he explained, feeling a bit better now that the subject had turned to pups. "aviana has faye, and pema had timberlake, radcliffe, meadow, and padma with shale--who we lost in the fire," adi added, his stomach twisting as he did so.

Alya did not react to the mention of Dawn, but she thought Aditya might have. If it was the same Dawn she'd met at the Fen, it would explain why a few of Morningside's scent markers had been familiar to her. Whatever the case, she set it aside for another time in favor of pursuing another topic of interest.

"You have no blood ties, but you are loyal to the pack," she commented, her tone contemplative. Moonspear had always had trouble keeping outsiders loyal. What was the trick, here? "And they are loyal to you? They must be, if you have taken the father's crown."

Alya couldn't imagine respecting someone who thought to take Charon's place, even if they had nothing to do with his death. In her eyes, though, only she and her sisters were fit to take that place. It was interesting that Aditya had ascended the throne. "Things are not done this way at Moonspear," she offered, going back to licking her paws just for something to do.

her words drew his brows together in confusion, and he stared at her, speechless even after she had finished speaking. "that's not how it works here," aditya finally said, struggling to make his point without coming across as dismissive. "they're loyal to me because i've been loyal to them. and i don't care if they're loyal to me, anyway," he added, a rueful smile painting his face. "that's not why i stepped up. i became leader because i care about them."

were they, in fact, loyal? it had never been a question in aditya's mind, but then, he'd never thought much of it. loyalty, in his view, was for lovers; they were a band of wolves who needed each other to survive and thrive. so what if one of them left for another pack? sure, he would be hurt by it--but he certainly wouldn't chase them down, or demand fealty in advance so as to prevent that betrayal.

"i've spent most of my life without a family, chaiyya," adi explained. "the morningsiders are the first real family i've had in years. all i care about is keeping them safe and happy."

doing a bang up job of it, too. he supposed that the fire couldn't have been prevented--

but it should be him, lost or dead. not shale, or sebastian. river. kitten. he hadn't done enough, and he had lost loved ones because of it.

Alya gave a tiny nod, her expression suggesting that this much, at least, had become very clear to her. Things were done very differently at Morningside than they were at Moonspear. From his words, she could not divine what exactly had caused those differences. Had she not been loyal to all those that'd left? She would have fought for any that belonged to Moonspear, but they'd all gone their own way. Only blood was truly loyal, and even then, there were exceptions.

"I've always been with my family," she shared, outlining one of the things that made them different. She spent a moment examining this discovery before filing it away for later thought. "They'll be worried, by now. You will probably find my sisters at your gates before too much longer."

This was delivered in as bland a tone as she could manage, but it was hard to hide how much she missed her family, and how much she wanted to see her mirror images. "Aditya - why are you helping me?" she asked, leaning toward him. None of it made sense to her, and she wanted to know the answer for herself before Hydra and Lyra found her, asked her, perhaps found out from Aditya himself. For some reason she found herself... worried for him. If he was as good as he seemed to be (which was, admittedly, too good to be true), she didn't want him harmed for her sake. Oh, she didn't think it would come to that, but Hydra could get testy when her counterparts were in danger. It was a proven fact.

he was about to feign fright at the mention of her sisters--imagine two more black shadows like this at his border!--when she asked him a question that made his ears perk with interest. he regarded her for a long moment, head slightly tilted, a cheeky smile slowly oozing over his face.

"would you rather i have left you in the swamp?" aditya teased, eyes glittering with mirth. "it's not too late to go back, chaiyya. we'll get you good and stuck this time."

he laughed softly, but his expression calmed from humor to seriousness after a few seconds, and he took another pause before speaking again. "why wouldn't i help you?" adi queried, looking bemused. "i told you, this is my way. this is how i live my life--the only way i've ever known how to live. even if i had wanted to, i wouldn't have left you behind. it's just not in my nature."

his brows drew together as he considered something he hadn't thought of before. "are you concerned about your family being in my debt?" he asked gently. "because i can assure you, i didn't do this with expectation of repayment. you don't have to worry at all about that."

Alya did not laugh, on the principle that she did not like to be the butt of the joke. But the truth was that she did not mind Aditya's teasing - especially since she believed that he really would not have left her behind. "I suppose you think you're funny," she said with a haughty sniff, but her heart wasn't in the jab. It was too much energy to be mean to the man when he was so good at setting her at ease.

"Thank you," she said again, trying not to sound begrudging. What else could she say? "You're a different breed, Aditya," she decided, leaning forward to aim a kiss at his cheek. "Whether you seek repayment or not, I believe I will have to find a way." For her own sake, of course. Not for his.

"i do," adi chuckled, giving her the smallest of winks. comfortable silence fell between the two, until the girl thanked him again--and leaned closer, placing her muzzle near his cheek. the warmth of her breath on his pelt was a shock to his system, and he let out a short, surprised exhale through his nostrils, glancing toward her. the amazement eventually ebbed into something gentler, calmer; he found that he very much enjoyed her company.

"let me know what you come up with," he remarked, stretching out and holding back yet another yawn. "i am interested, even if i don't want repayment." he smiled, staring out into the trees, a slightly dreamy expression on his face. after a long, contemplative moment, he turned toward chaiyya once more, with a gentle inclination of his head.

"i should get back to patrols," aditya said, reluctantly lifting himself to his feet with an infinitesimal groan. "let me know if you need anything. i'll be around." after a long look at the girl below him, studying the lines of her face, he turned and padded off, heading toward the territory line--her touch still burning on his cheek.

The silence between them was comfortable, but underneath the smooth veneer of tranquility, Alya was coldly calculating. She had to remain in Aditya's good graces, and gain the trust or allegience of the rest of his tribe. Men were fickle, she knew, and could rarely be trusted to keep their promises. Perhaps there was something different about Aditya or perhaps not. Alya had not come as far as she had without learning a thing or two, and this time, she would plan for every eventuality.

Alya watched him walk away in deep contemplation, wondering just how long she would have to remain among the Morningsiders. She would have to find a healer at last, and see what they had to say about her leg.