I'll Always Come Home to You

He wanted her so deeply so it was difficult to not feel just the smallest bit disappointed when she mentioned the dinner he had prepared, but he could understand. He had been the one to declare that they should take things slowly, had he not? Hadn't he wanted that? He chuckled softly and gave her a bit of a guilty grin for letting himself get carried away, nodding in agreement as he climbed off of her at when she nudged his chest away. It truly was more than enough to just be with her again as much as his desires and certain other parts of him might be saying otherwise. He settled back down onto the blanket beside her with a soft sigh, smiling as she leaned into his side. It felt like he was officially home now that she was at his side, the warmth of her fur mingling with his comforting and familiar as much as it was enticing and maddening.

She questioned about his trip as she was reaching for a piece of the meat laid out in front of them. He waited a second to get her reaction to the meal and grinned when she made it obvious that she enjoyed the meat he cooked. It had been a bit of an experiment for him since he didn't often go through the trouble of doing all of this preparation for a meal, but Eska was worth it. She deserved everything in the world that he could give her. A little date like this didn't even feel like it could scratch the surface of how he felt about her, but it was difficult to embody that in any kind of physical form or gift anyway. He chuckled when she offered him a piece of meat as well and he took it happily, a pleased murr rumbling in his chest at the taste. It actually was very, very good, if he could say so himself.

"It was mostly uneventful," he admitted, recalling the days that he spent traveling with Artorias to see what highlights he could tell her. "I think the most interesting meeting might have been with Ashen. Their Empress is actually a woman that I met long ago when she was still a pup which I thought was funny - and also made me feel old." He grinned with amusement and added, "They've also invited The Hallows to partake in their summer festival and fighting tournament later in the season so that should be interesting. Other than that I think we made some promising leads to start trading with some of the other packs so we can start making use of the alpacas we've been raising and I got to see some distant cousins of mine in Valhalla. A good trip all in all. Though if I never travel to the north again it'll be too soon." That portion of the trip had been the only part that had given them issues and after living in Auster for a while he certainly didn't feel up to facing that cold weather again any time soon.

Ulric picked up a piece of meat to offer it to her as well before picking up another piece for himself, continuing their little tradition of sharing a meal together that he loved. It was just a little thing, passing stuff back and forth, but it was something he had never done with anyone else so it felt special to them and just meant that he had all the more chances to sneak in little affections here and there. "Artorias is going to make one hell of a leader one day," he mused with a chuckle after he swallowed down the next piece of cooked meat, speaking as he reached across to pick up one of the bottles of wine ahead of them. "Everywhere we went he was extremely respectful and eloquent. Far more refined than I've ever been, that's for certain." He had the personality for it on top of just being a top notch fighter as well. For just a yearling he had more than impressed him so far.

His thoughts wandered as he took a long drink of the sweet wine, placing it within reach of both of them just in case Eska wanted to partake. As he watched Artorias learn and grow into himself he often wondered how his life might have differed if his father hadn't been killed, if they hadn't lost the pack that Ganta had led, if perhaps he could have grown up in it and trained from day one the way Artorias had gotten the chance to. How different would he have been if he didn't grow up with resentment and loss and being thrown in to being his broken mother's sole caretaker? They were questions he would never know the answer to, but he was happy that he had the chance to do this for Artorias and give him a better path in life than he had gotten for himself.

Pushing his thoughts away, he refocused on Eska as he dipped his head to nuzzle against her cheek, giving her ear an affectionate lick. "What about you? How have things been here?"

Ulric Adravendi