Time Marches On

There was no telling how the man would react and Ikigai waited with baited breath. It was only when Deimos smiled and caught her up in a quick, surprising kiss that the weight lifted from the fae's shoulders. His smile was infection and she found herself smiling in return, leaning in towards the man that would be the father of her children. She was glad that he was just as excited as she was. He'd mentioned how it was the job of each Mendacium wolf to find a mate and procreate. She was giving him just that. Not only was this what his family worked towards, but in providing him with children it would raise his standing.

As Deimos took her paw, Ikigai's gaze fell down to look upon their clasped appendages for a moment. She wrapped her digits around his thick paw and gave it a squeeze, bringing her gaze back just as he began speaking again. He spoke of Manea and of Mendacium customs. It seemed as though he was worried that she might have doubts about staying with him. Yes, they'd definitely had struggles but she believed that they were getting past them. The two of them were stronger now then they had been before they were promised to one another. That was how relationships worked. Did he have doubts about her? Ikigai opened her mouth to ask just that, but Deimos' next words had her jaws snapping shut.

Deimos hinted that, if she did have doubts, that now was the time to do something about the pregnancy so that they weren't tied together. Did he really know so little of her? The only way that Iki would ever destroy her own children was if something was drastically wrong with either them or herself. Backing out of a pregnancy because their relationship wasn't perfect would never even cross her mind. The woman's marbled pools fixed onto his own blue eyes and she spoke steadily and with conviction. "I could ask the same of you. Do you have doubts?" Iki continued to hold the paw of her lover even as cold resolve began to fill her gaze. "These pups will be born," she assured him.

Images of what her mother had gone through flashed in the fae's mind and her brow furrowed slightly. Ikigai released Deimos' paw and placed her own back on the furs. She would have the pups. It was what they had agreed upon. It was part of the arrangement. Why would she back out now? The worry that he might wish to escape her ate at the corners of her mind. She would not suffer through the same pain that her mother had. She simply would not.

The slender woman rose to her paws and she took a step forward, standing over the purple man that was still laying down. Her muzzle was close to his and her mercuric pools bore into his aqua gaze. Perhaps it was believed that she was weak simply because she lacked physical strength, but what she lacked in muscle she made up for with resolve and a sharp mind. There was a bit of ruthlessness in the woman as well, though she rarely had a reason to show it. Iki's muzzle slid along the side of Deimos' cheek before she spoke softly. "You and I are irreversibly tied together now." One paw rose to gently cup the cheek of her mate, her thumb pad stroking his amaranthine fur. "If you abandon us like my father abandoned my mother, may all of the gods help you, Deimos, for I will hunt you down myself and destroy you." There was heat in the woman's words. Heat and promise. She meant every syllable. Ikigai wanted to be with Deimos. She wanted to love and honor him, but if he left her... he would be dead to her.

"Iki"