Spa Day

Manea never felt like she had been ungrateful for her husband or had taken him for granted, but after what they had gone through with Fia's birth and the gleaning ceremony that had followed she felt like she needed to treasure and cherish every moment with him all the more. As they sat in this hot spring, pressed into one another with his paws roaming her body she felt more complete and at peace than she had since that day. Every day he proved more and more how he was truly the soul that had been made for her, meant to complete her and balance her in every possible way. A little grin tugged at her lips as he insisted that there was no way he could be too good to her, that she was worth everything he could give her, she decided that it wasn't her decision to make over whether she was worthy of his love and attention. He had seen the very best and worst of her, had endured more than she should have ever had to ask of him, and yet he was still here treating her like the goddess he seemed to believe she was. If he had seen her soul laid bare and still decided she was worth all of this then maybe she was.

Manea pressed a tender kiss to his lips, her paws still trailing along the back of his neck and along the back of his shoulders, giving him a bit of the same attention and massage he was giving her. "You know..." she said quietly, her gaze finding his again even though her lips didn't stray far from his. "When I learned about soul mates in the Mendacium beliefs, it felt like the thing that I would be chasing forever. My family had made it seem like this unattainable ideal to have someone that could complete me so entirely and could fit together with me the way they said a soul mate was meant to do. Hardly anyone in my family felt like they had truly found the soul mate they were meant to find and had simply settled so that they could have their children." She looked at him wistfully with a proud grin lingering on her lips, her paw returning to his ear while she spoke simply because she knew how much he enjoyed those little affections. "Something drew me to Boreas and it felt like a wild shot in the dark coming to a place where my family had never lived, but... I knew there had to be something for me here. And then I found you."

Her paw gently stroked over his velveteen ear, tracing over the edges of it while she got lost in her thoughts, devoted love deep in her aqua gaze. "I remember when my grandmother was teaching me and giving me lessons on the Mendacium ways before she passed... She was the one that taught me about the marriage ceremony I did with you. She was the only one I had ever known to give the Mendacium name to their mate until one of my aunts did the same when I was a little older. Seeing her and my grandfather together when I was really little... That's what I wanted. She always told me that the Ancients would make sure that I found my true soul mate if it was really meant to be, that I would know when I had found the one that my soul remembered from another life and now here we are... And I believe she was right." Her tail brushed across his hind legs under the water while she tipped her muzzle to brush along the side of his, pressing an affectionate kiss to his cheek while her paw slipped away from his ear, her forelegs slipping around his neck against to hold herself tight to him.

Leaning her cheek into his for a moment, she let her eyes close and just let herself enjoy the feeling of him molded to her body, finding her missing puzzle piece in this amazing brute. She was quiet for a moment as she sat like this, still straddling him with her stomach and chest leaned into his, until finally she spoke again to get the words off of her chest that she had been wanting to find a good moment to say since Fia was born. "I know we're okay now, but... I still just want to apologize to you one more time. I don't feel like I did my duty as your wife to really prepare you for what was going to happen. I think I was too afraid of my own emotions going into it to fully be prepared for yours. I don't know if talking it through more before hand would have changed the outcome for either of us any, but I'm still sorry."

"Manea Mendacium"