This is my kingdom come

Manea finally got some kind of reaction from Alastor and got him to acknowledge her presence as her paw rested on his shoulder. He didn't turn to face her, but he at least lifted his gaze to meet hers for a moment. She knew his expression well and could read the emotion in it that others might miss and the pain he was feeling was easy for her to see past the distant expression he tried to wear. Dread settled like a heavy weight in her gut as she tried and failed to guess what could have happened to cause this kind of reaction from him. Alastor cared about very few things deeply enough to be effected this badly by it and her thoughts immediately started to race, wondering if something had happened to one of their children or to Kichi or Ikigai—but just has her thoughts turned to Relm she finally got her answer. His gaze turned back away from hers as he sat the bottle he was drinking from down with a clink of glass on stone and he uttered the words she had genuinely hoped to never hear him say. Relm was pregnant.

At first a flash of utter disbelief and anger hit her and her paw began to pull away from his shoulder until her mind replayed the words back again. Relm was pregnant. It felt too intentional for him to say that in the past tense for it to be a slip of the tongue. That made Manea pause, her eyes trained on his face as she waited for him to elaborate and forcing herself to listen at least long enough to get the whole story. As he explained further, saying that Relm had suffered a miscarriage, she understood. There was a feeling of relief that she quickly pushed away over the fact that she wouldn't be forced to kill her husband's bastards, but she knew that this was not going to be of any comfort to Alastor in his current grief. Her savage demon had one true soft spot and that was for pups—especially his own—which was why this possibility had always haunted her so. She never wanted to see him suffer like this even if there was technically a law broken. There was no sense of justice here, no thought of wanting this to be a lesson for him and Relm. She only wanted to ease his pain.

"Alastor..." she managed quietly after a moment, her ears folding back with sympathy and sorrow etching deeper into her features. She didn't know if there was really anything she could say that could make this situation any less terrible for him, but she had to at least attempt to comfort him where she could. She attempted to try and slip her paw around his broad shoulders, wanting to pull him into her and pull his head into her chest if he let her, but if not she would just embrace her husband instead. "I'm so sorry," she told him genuinely. Maybe it would be an unexpected reaction from her given the situation, but it was what felt right. After a moment of thought she realized he had said that Irilyth was tending to Relm and confusion crossed her features as she asked, "Why are you here? Why aren't you with her? If it's because I wanted you back here at night you don't have to keep to that right now. You can go be with her."

Manea | Temno | Ciemny