we built this city on broken glass

He had hardly anticipated that impromptu picnic. Frost unable to prevent that look of surprise that found his features as he made his way into that field upon the edge of his own territory. He remembered this scene, from all those years ago. That very first date he had ever taken Nadya on had been much the same. Frost having preferred to be outdoors then near as much as he still did now. It was a...pleasant gesture. Even if the stallion remained near wary of that conversation to come. Frost was, after all, hardly oblivious to that distance that had developed between them and yet his inability to discuss those more emotive topics were surely at least partly to blame. Nadya, he knew, still grieved the death of their child. Frost having come to terms with such a thing in his own way. The stallion nothing if not near unfailingly practical in those matters of emotion even when, perhaps, he might surely have been permitted to feel more than he ever dared allow himself. He had lived that way for too long, perhaps, to truly change now. Even if he was willing to at least try for the sake of his mate.

He understood grief. In the very least he understood why Nadya had been so distraught after that night and yet how poorly he knew how best to ease that grief within her. She had not moved on as he suspected she might. She had not merely asked that they might try for another child. Indeed those intimate occasions between them had near ceased to occur at all. The twins more often than not scrambling into their bed until Frost was forced to sleep on the far side in search of undisturbed rest. Yet, for all the evidence of those problems, Frost remained near unwilling to voice them. Such women's business was surely not his to ask after. The very culture of his race perhaps playing a part in his own emotional ineptitude in turn. The stallion simply having believed that in time Nadya would heal, else come to him with her worries. The later, it seemed, was perhaps occurring here and now and yet he had hardly anticipated it might occur with a meal.

That summery dress Nadya wore was nothing short of appealing, Frost entirely content to let the violet of his gaze rove over her femanine figure before extending the reach of his own affinity to ensnare the young woman in warmth and chase away the chill that surely nipped at her skin. Frost's own jean-clad figure lowered slowly to the ground, the man content to take up that seat opposite his mate. He could hardly help that wariness of sorts that lingered within his gaze even as he offered those lighter words. Women, he had noticed, so attempted to soften those more significant conversations with some other distraction. That picnic, he suspected, just that sort of thing and yet he was inclined to appreciate that effort all the same. His words were met with her own lightly offered tease in turn. Scarlett, it seemed, having shared her role in that last picnic they had shared- the stallion unable to prevent thatslight furthering of the simper upon his lips before his features shifted once more to that near unreadable facade that had so long painted him as near villainous throughout the city.

Nadya shrugged softly then before tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. The gesture near girlish and almost sweet and yet, for now, Frost remained where he sat. The war horse determined to allow Nadya the privacy of her own thoughts and yet he could near sense that nervousness that continued to cling to her figure. An anxiousness that hardly settled him in turn. He had understood her so ...little of late. Her sudden sentiment that it had been some time since it had been just the two of them prompted that flicker of his violet gaze to the dark of her own once more, a soft sound of agreement inclined to rise in his throat. Pack life was eternally busy. It was difficult to find any time to spend alone with any of his pack mates, let alone his chosen mate.

"It has been. We have both been...busy of late."

Each of them, it seemed, had thrown themselves into work or the children or the pack itself with little time for the other. Frost inclined to admit that he missed those moments alone with just Nadya. Without the twins. He adored his children, after all, they were surely his, and yet, especially of late with Micah and Isabella prone to joining them in bed he had near come to wish Nadya would be firmer with them and send them back to their own room. Their presence, somehow, seeming to comfort her in a way he could not- for now. Nadya shifted upon that blanket once more, the woman holding out that salad bowl towards him as Frost leaned to take it. Nadya insisting it was his favoured kale salad. Frost not unwilling to admit he adored that dish- and the uninterrupted view of her chest he was afforded with that very gesture. The stallion near forced to shift ever so slightly upon that rug in some efforts to dissuade those more intimate thoughts that seemed inclined to creep at the edge of his mind. It had been so long, after all, those very...needs content to make themselves known at any given opportunity despite his efforts to cast them aside.Hw pleasing she looked in that outfit....

"Thank you."

He reached easily for that salad then. The stallion finding himself more hungry then he had anticipated and yet he hardly reached for that fork just yet as Nadya spoke of those hours he had been working of late. Frost inclined to admit that he had spent more and more time at that office in the hunter Council Department and on that training field then he had at home. The equine remained silent for several moments, Frost contemplating his own words before allowing those cool, easy lyrics to part his lips.

"Alexander never told me he intended for us to go to Mongolia. It was a surprise for me too. I never intended to be gone as long as we were but the race was over ten days."

He spoke little of his work, to anyone, and yet he had mentioned Alexander's name often enough that Nadya, in the least, surely recognised the Hunter as his work companion. Although in what capacity they worked together Frost remained distinctly loath to explain. So many beings, after all, did not always understand that horse and rider relationship. Nadya too, he suspected, would find little enjoyment in hearing about war, battles fought and ongoing council missions. Such things were likely to worry her more then she surely needed to worry. Frost reached for his fork then, the stallion stabbing at that salad before taking a bite. The man further seeming to contemplate those very thoughts before he spoke once more. Frost sighing softly then.

"I have not ...meant to be away so often of late. Work has been busy. We have so many new recruits and the Council always wants more to be done. When I do come home you seem ...busy in turn though. The twins have been needing you a lot lately."

Those words so hardly held any judgement, Frost so simply attempting, as best he knew how, to bring forward those very issues he was assured Nadya had contemplated in turn. Frost, perhaps, truly lacking any skills for such things despite his efforts.

FrosT