There was something akin to heat stirring between the pair, an unseen conflagration roaring in the space between heartbeats. Another grin had sprung to the stallion's lips, tugging on something in the mare's belly and bringing one of her bangled hooves forward. A step closer to whatever fate intended. Eden's ears swiveled, straining to hear what unsaid words would be whispered in the valleys of silence that stretched between their voices. She knew there was something there, but the maiden didn't know what to call it.
Am I your friend?
A slow blink and a breathless reply fell from her control before she could think on it,
"If you'll have me."
Eden noted the way his gaze remained glued to her own, turquoise and amber melding and linking - maybe they'd collide, make something new. Yet, the sovereign was not through with the wonderful battering that Maxence was determined to put it through. With that boyish grin and that melodic rumble, he spoke again,
And I you.
A breath caught and for a moment, she felt herself almost like a puppet on a string - distant and jangled, yanked hither and thither - but she recovered quickly, slamming back into her small reality with a small gasp and a rush of heat to her cheeks. The reasonable train of thought that burst through her skull insisted that it was only normal, only functional, that a King would seek to protect his subjects. Yet, she couldn't shake the absolute certainty that he had meant it in a different way, somehow more than relation between a commander and a soldier.
She took in a shaky breath, suddenly feeling light, small, fragile, feminine.
Tilting her chin up to fix Maxence in her stare, a sudden fire bursting to life behind those amber eyes, Eden spoke with a voice as soft as the down upon her king's wings.
"I know you'll do right by me... You always have."
@Maxence INTIMACCYYYYY
