Ouroboros Spine raptor wrangler

only if you want / have time ebony. no obligation! <3

it's second nature these days to seek out @Chickadee, and so kivaluk, never one fight that particular impulse when it grips him, does just that.

he returns from tracking a herd in one of the spine's neutral territories, muscles slightly sore from the trek. they had begun to migrate and he had to loop further out than he'd wanted to.

still, he was thorough ... and probably still harboring that small flame of hope that refused to die that galana would reappear; unwilling to face the possibility that she might not've made it, too young to have been able to survive out in the wilds on her own.

he follows the freshest trail of his roommate he could find, gaze and ears alert.

ofc!! <33

moonwoman still wasn't back. chickadee knew she had another daughter on the coast, with new kids besides. still, it was tense not to have her back, to hear the songs still grieving on their float from moontide.
she busied herself with the kids and helping the leaders where necessary. and with antigone, who kept to the edges of the territory these days.
kivaluk was a welcome sight; her lips curved to see him, and she hurried to meet the firsthunter. "hey! nice to have you back," chickadee grinned. "see anything cool out there?"

when chickadee comes into his view, kivaluk feels how just seeing her affects him. can feel the smile that lights up his face, the relax of his shoulders that speaks volume of his comfort in her presence; and there that was always that small hitch in his breath, the softness of his eyes when he looked at her.

hey, he greets back breezily, less because he was out of breath from his journey and more because of that aforementioned hitch of breath feathering in his throat.

nah, he says casually. not really.

a moment passes, thoughts drifting along his mind; many persistent.

can we uh — talk tries to squeak it's way out of his mouth but fails. he takes a deep breath, sucking it in before he tries again.

i've been thinking a lot about courting, lately, to anyone other than kivaluk it's probably out of the blue; completely straying out of left field. and i was wondering about ...well, us. i mean, if there's even an us. or the potential for an us —

word flutter unbidden out of his mouth; the courage he plucked to begin speaking untethering the reigns. i just, i care about you. a lot. and uh, you should. know that. regardless...

not half as smooth as kivaluk always thought he'd be.

!!!

kivaluk began easily enough, but it quickly became clear that a lot was on his mind. a lot. chickadee's mouth formed into a small o of surprise as he went on, her cheeks heating as if volcanic heat jumped beneath her skin.
no one had ever asked her anything like this before.
us? us? us!?
was there an us?
and now she was thinking of antigone, how they'd been together, but not like that. and — how she felt something stirring for him also.
but it was kivaluk standing here, asking her, and a thousand things were clutching at her gut, and — "yeah. there is. potential, i mean."
the breath felt knocked from her starry-eyed lungs.

kivaluk waits for her answer with baited breath, though he tells himself that he's not; that it was ok if they were just friends. just roommates.

because he valued her friendship more than anything; and maybe in that he was more in love with her than he even realized: willing to fit himself in her life where his puzzle piece fit.

but she speaks that there was potential and his heart grows wings; furiously beating within it's cage of his chest, threatening to flutter up his throat.

ok, kivaluk says with a soft clear of his throat. ok, good. he murmurs, mostly talking to himself, gaze darting around for a moment before he meets her gaze. may i have your permission to court you?

he remembers his talks with kukutux of courting and how the wolves of moonglow typically went about it. though he contemplates that perhaps she was supposed to chose him to court her but before it can spiral into anxiety, he figures switching it up might be ok.

after all, it was her choice: whether she accepted or not.

oh, wow, oh wow, oh, wow!
were things supposed to feel like this? could he hear her heart beating, racing so fast, as if her ribcage were a staccato racetrack —
this was a first! was this how ani had felt about stratos? eyes of warm ice or something.
but the firsthunter's own eyes were soft like the edge of a harvest moon, nothing icy about them. only a nervousness she felt in her own belly, and a feeling returned that she hadn't known was growing inside her chest till now.
she was thinking of kivaluk and antigone and mama and dwin, dwin. would she hate this? surely it suggested chickadee was never coming home; oh goodness, oh god, she was getting so ahead of herself —!
"yes," she breathed out toward his handsome face, ears splaying as she shyly sought and held his eyes. "yes. you can."

fight or flight has kivaluk's nerves on a sharpened edge; but kivaluk'd always favored fight ... or at least stay. he was stable.

and he stays here and now, frostbound gaze taking in her face, swallowing back the furious beat of butterflies crawling their way up his throat.

he tells himself it's ok if she says no, if there was someone else, if she wasn't sure —

yes.

for a moment, kivaluk is frozen, brain struggling to grasp her answer before it sinks in.

really? slips out before she answers a second time. yes. you can.

before he can stop himself, before he can think about it, he lurches forward to press a spontaneous kiss to her cheek. he draws back, cheeks flushing.

i'll start gathering courting gifts right away, he says softly, pausing. we should probably tell mom, too.

chickadee felt that there had never been anything so red in the world entire as her face surely was in that moment. fighting the extreme urge to raise her paw to her cheek, she paused. "courting gifts?"
and — mom — her stomach lurched. it felt very official for dating! she reminded herself that brecheliant was not moonglow, and that there were different customs here.
"maybe, next time we see her." kukutux would be sad, was all. but — they shouldn't wait. chickadee glanced shyly to kivaluk now, wondering if she should kiss him back.

well, mom calls them a bride price but i like courting gifts better, price made him feel like he is buying chickadee and that she had no choice and ... he didn't like that at all. i am to give you ... and your family gifts and ask them if i could have their blessing to marry you. if you accept of course. he explains, tacking the last sentence on quickly, cheeks heating.

i think i was supposed to ask them first about courting you but ... it made more sense to ask you first.

already, he was bucking traditions and he wonders if that was because though moonglow was his heart family they were not his blood family and there are parts of him that are still and always would be wild. would be tartok.

either way, i'll set aside some gifts for brecheliant as well.

this was all — something. the officialness pleased her, however, somewhere deep down with an accompanying flush to her cheeks. the fact that kivaluk planned to put in work for her hand endeared him further to him.
shyly, she offered him a kiss of her own, lingering just a second longer on his cheek.
ears splaying, eyes filled with a thousand things. "i think my mom would really like you."
would dwin? would her sister understand?

kivaluk smiles, and it grows a bit more sloppy, a bit more boyish as she kisses his cheek. and though her lips linger for a second after, the feel of them, the warmth that roars to life in his chest lingers so much longer.

it's a type of euphoria that he does not want to come down from.

i'd love to meet her. kivaluk tells chickadee; earnestly. he'd met her father and some of her siblings already, but he felt that the next step would be to meet the rest. unfortunately, chickadee probably wouldn't get a chance to meet his mama or his papa or akkuma or galana — which cements the type of husband and father that kivaluk strove to be.

a present one. stable and steady.

as he has learned from kukutux and aiolos; ever grateful for the moonwoman and sunking in his life.

<3

"my mom is nice. my dad is great. it's — well, it's my sister, ceridwin. she wants me to come home. and i thought i would, too, you know, but —" 
everything had gone wrong after she'd left, and now — now she had kivaluk.
kivaluk, a home, a role, a den, the stars. the stars.
the starglow which filled his eyes now; the way he looked at her, the way it made every part of her wake up, every hair follicle, skin contracting, gaze darkening, face burning.
"what do you want in a wife?" chickadee asked him in a voice that wished to be bold but was only a whisper.

kivaluk is quiet as she speaks, mentioning her sister and that said sister wanted her to go home and that she thought she would only to cut herself off.

his gaze lingers over her head for a moment; contemplating.

remembering.

a question he'd asked kukutux when he'd first made it be known he wanted to find a wife so long ago now.

d'you want to go back to brecheliant? kivaluk asks, wanting her honest answer. we don't have to stay in moonglow. i'll follow you where ever you want to settle down.

it wasn't something she had ever considered, and this truth showed in her wide, confused eyes. but the confusion soon gave way to curiosity, then deep contemplation. moonglow was nice enough, and brecheliant was home, but —
the faint pulse of instinct at the edge of her temple brought her head up and around toward kivaluk again. "i don't know," she said honestly. "i want to settle down. but i'm not sure i feel settled either place."

kivaluk watches as her deep contemplation takes hold of her expression; and he is quiet and patient.

her answer wasn't admittedly what kivaluk expected and it shows it the slight rise of his brows. but his surprise gives way to his own contemplation.

well, there's a lot of packs out there, he says slowly. or ...we could start our own. admittedly, the idea had never crossed kivaluk's mind prior, probably because he'd never necessarily strove to be a leader one day.

but, he wasn't against the idea. the truth was, he'd help build her a home if that was what she wanted. all she had to do was ask.

so sorry on the wait! u want to wrap and have an updated one soon? <3

start their own? "i'm not sure!" she laughed. it sounded like a lot of work, but — one look at the handsome hunter courting her, and she was filled with a sense of determination. "i'd be willing to talk about it."
her eyes glowed.
"whatever we decide, we'll decide together, okay? promise."
and she kissed his cheek again, simply because she could.

you never have to apologize! and of course! <3

the devotion he felt to her... did not exactly strike him as a surprise. for while it was certainly different than the devotion he had to kukutux and moonglow, he'd always had that ironclad, unshakable loyalty. an immovable mountain that weathered instead of crumbled.

a conversation for once we are married, then. the idea sends a thrill through him; a blossoming of excitement for the future ... that whatever shape it takes they will have eachother. with the courting rituals and marriage ceremony out of the way, the'd have plenty of time to plan out what their future might look like.

ok. kivaluk agrees and vows, leaning into her kiss upon his cheek. it emboldens him to draws his muzzle along her jaw, her chin where he tucks the crown of his head for a moment; loathe to part with her but knowing that, for the moment, they both had tasks to get back to.