Blacktail Deer Plateau Rome o Romeo where art thou?

@Issun yaaaaay feels. set after our Takara x Issun x Minori thread.

It had occurred to her that maybe she hadn't stormed off. Yet....Takara and Issun, having a moonlit meeting and sharing hushed words in their language about running off. If she hadn't stumbled on that meeting would she have even known that Issun was leaving or would he have just vanished? He didn't strike her as that type of man but then again...he hadn't exactly called her to tell her about it. Her mind replayed the whole event, the words that Takara had said to him. A blossom branch, Her devotion, She obviously loved him....yet when Issun had confessed his feelings Minori had turned him away. Perhaps Takara would give him what he needed. Besides, love sucked and emotions ruined everything, She didn't need it. As if summoned by these exact thoughts a memory played in her mind of her mother and her walking through the forest one spring, her mother telling her how one day she would find someone who would become the center of her universe and when she didn, she should never run away from him. The impulse to sing was immense and the song almost physically forced itself from her lungs

"Look at your feet and see
This is the path you'd walk
Look in front of you and see
That is your future
Mother has given me a lot of kindness
"Embrace love and walk" she repeated
That time i was just a child and i didn't understand it
She held my hand
We walked together"

The words flowed from her mind, her singing a bit hushed and whispery and not exactly perfect due to the fact that she hadn't sung since she was last tucking in her baby brother. Normally it cheered her up but this time it hurt her even more. She had a chance at love and she had rejected it, not knowing it for what it truly was.

he practically floated through the trees at the speed he was going. he needed to catch up with minori, to explain himself. to fix things. the two had just fallen into a state of peace (somewhat), he’d be damned if he losed her over this.

he slowed to a sudden halt when he heard minori singing. it was strange; he never expected her to be the singing type. but it was beautiful. he slowly made his way towards her and cleared his throat. “i didn’t know you could sing,” he mused quietly.

he took a few more steps, closing the distance between them. “why did you run off?” he asked. he was perplexed. he couldn’t think of a reason why she’d be upset with him talking to takara.

She probably would have moped along into her den, the song lyrics that she had thought out hadn't made anything better and she wanted to replace the images of Takara and Issun inside her brain. Even some more torturous dreams would be better than facing this reality. She was torn between fighting for her desires and risking Issun getting upset because she had bloodied his childhood friend up and submitting for once in her life and allowing them to run off together into the sunset. She had realised everything much too late to fix it and it had her hating herself more than ever. She could hear Issun approaching from behind her and froze, allowing him to catch up. Slowly she turned so that her eyes stared into his, not looking away even when a rush of embarrassment heated her cheeks when he commented on her singing. That hadn't been something she wanted him to know about at all. She gave a slight nod and studied him silently, sitting down so that she was less tempted to run. Where had these cowardly urges come from all of a sudden?

She studied him, eyes roaming over his face and counting the white freckles that dotted around his eyes as she pondered how to answer. What would she say? That she was an idiot and hadn't realised love could be felt in different ways? That she hadn't realised that she did love Issun, in a deeper, more important way than Corvus until it was too late? That Kavik had made her realise it, when he said love was when you couldn't imagine being without someone and she couldn't imagine how it would be when Issun took Takara and left? Her breath halted briefly and she tore her eyes away from him, hating how suddenly they moistened up. "I've been dealing with the realisation that I'm a complete and utter fool ever since me and you made up. Struggling to make sense of something I was too slow and dumb to realise sooner before I messed everything up"

She paused for a moment and looked at the ground trying to summon the courage to look him in the eyes while she came clean and explained everything to him. "I thought I loved Corvus...I mean I do but...see...there are apparently different ways to love. I loved...how similar he was to myself and maybe even to Higoro. The physicality of him, how we could fight and get bloody and sweaty and still laugh at one another. How he looked at me...It was...physical." she struggled to explain it to him looking nervous and uncertain for the first time in her life. "What I felt for you...the safety, the warmth, the happiness and lighthearted enjoyment of your company. At first It was friendship but then there was these...flutters, how every time we touched my heart would race and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I refused to see it as what it was, thought that since I decided I loved Corvus I couldn't love you. But I did. I do. Much differently...Much deeper. I can't stand the thought of losing you and you not loving me and leaving. But....she's all over you"

It all rushed out of her at once, leaving her teary eyed and breathless and she finally stared at him, her ears going back. "The way she pressed against you,looks at you, the way you hold her close. I understand why you met with her and not me. She accepts your love when I denied it. I ran away because I needed to accept I was too late but I hated watching her, hear her whisper declarations of devotion. I wanted to beat her down Issun, pin her down until she acknowledged that I was better, that I could...have you" her words trailed off after that and her eyes widened, breathing coming quickly as she stared at him almost fearfully. She waited for him to get angry, to tell her she was too late and she should have thought all this sooner before pressing herself against Corvus.

it was all so much information at once.

at first he was confused. what did she mean by ‘different ways to love’? he clenched his teeth when she spoke of corvus. how she marked off all the reasons she loved him. he didn’t know where she was going with this.

and then she spoke of him. his eyes widened with shock as she went on. their stories were very similar. platonic love turned hidden romance. both disregarded those feelings. both confessed too late. but it wasn’t really like that was it? he wasn’t denying the love he had for her, like she had back in the den.

he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “me and takara have always been close,” he started, “we have a strong bond. and after being apart for so long, i won’t leave her side again.” he stepped forward and looked into minori’s emerald green eyes. “i love her, but not in the same way i love you. i meant everything i said that day, nothing has changed. i’d do anything for you.” now there was barely any distance between them. his face was only inches away from hers now. “i love you,” he repeated.

She stared at him as he stared at her both looking at one another with wide eyes but for different reasons. She stared at him with a wide eyed, tear filled look of broken expectation and every word he spoke made her heart fall a little lower into her stomach and she felt the world tilt and sway beneath her until suddenly the words he spoke held a different meaning because he explained he loved Takara differently which she took to mean platonically, like she had originally said to him. She found it ironic how they both were similiar but in a sort of backwards way. Her breath caught and she leaned toward him as he said he would do anything for her and stepped closer, the distance between them so little that she could feel his breath blowing against the soft fur of her muzzle. She held her breath in as he spoke three little words with such a big meaning and a wave of relief surged through her covering every inch of her body with warmth. Her tail swayed and she let out a small breath, a whine accompanying it "I love you too Issun. I will come with you, anywhere you go. I won't leave again" she breathed it out and her eyes squeezed shut with the rush of emotion it brought a strong surge of joy accompanied by an undertone of fear. She reached her neck out, gently tracing the fur along his muzzle with her own as she stepped in close to press her chest against his her chin resting across the back of his neck.

something fluttered in his stomach when she ran her muzzle along his. it felt good, a sort of feeling that he hadn’t felt in a long time. not something since his last mate. only this time it was different. it was better, it held more value.

he ran his tongue through her soft fur. “we leave at dawn,” he whispered, “will you stay with me for the night?”

She couldn't help the look of surprise that crossed her face when he said they would leave at dawn. She knew they would have been leaving soon but not this quickly, she wouldn't even have time to explain her reasons to Kavik, to Corvus. She would be doing the same thing to him that he did to her. She dismissed the thoughts as soon as they started though they still tried to nag at the back of her mind so she focused instead on Issun, the feeling of his fur and his smell being breathed into her nose. "I'll be ready" she murmured and at his request she smiled, licking the back of his neck before pulling away "Yes, I would love to" she felt almost shy, glancing away for a moment before lifting her eyes again.