He merely continues to allow his tongue to rasp over her fur, the action settling, even to him, seeking to sooth the bristling fur of his companion as nature and instinct dictate. For all their fighting, for all that has occurred between them and for every agitation and annoyance there is a love that exists all the same for Nadya within him. She is Sister, family, pack and mother to his own children. All these things he knows....on some level, that bond which exists between them unique and surely everlasting even if Tobias cannot acknowledge it entirely within his conscious mind. He is tethered to her, he always will be and as such it is perhaps this side of himself which responds to her now. He does as nature intends, as instinct demands- soothing her as he can and yet reaffirming their bond all the same as she relaxes into his touch and the leopard merely releases the deep rumblings of a satisfied purr at her presence.

Dark ears prick forward in response to the words that exist within his mind, drifted upon a line of thought from her to him though he hardly ceases his grooming nor seeks to pull back from the closeness such a thing has achieved in those few moments. He does not, cannot, understand her emotions in this. They are beyond him. Far too deep and complex for a creature whom is given to feel barely the basics of the emotional spectrum- all those emotions he cannot understand simply becoming frustration in its rawest and purest form without any true ability to differentiate. It is the flashes of memory however- that Nadya seeks to show him, that perhaps hold more meaning to the boy. After all, his own memories are surely similar, even if they are fractured, broken or lost in places. Tobias inclined to remember only snapshots of moments on some occasions and entire dialogs on others. Though how and why his mind works in such a fashion remains to be seen, his grooming paused on the moment that follows.

Some of that which Nadya shows him has long since been forgotten by the boy. Mother and Father were shadows to his mind. He knew of them, knew they had existed and yet like their scents had long since done, the memories of them, to the fractured boy- had faded into obscurity. Without a near constant reminder, without a need to remember them he does not. Yet here and now the images that exist within his mind see some notion of understanding. He remembered them, their words, their touches, their efforts so tireless each and every day to convince the half-starved, wild boy to join them at the dinner table. Yet every day he sat on the floor. Just as he refused his own bed and bedroom, every night spent beneath Aiden's bed or on the rug upon the floor once more. In time though he had grown tolerant of them. Accepting of them as they had accepted him- moving about one another though he had perhaps never found affection for them as he had Nadya and Tetra. Children, after all, bond far more readily to other children and while Tetra had forever been his favoured person (and still was) he had come to accept the young Nadya all the same. These memories shifting to others more recent though not all of them, once more, hold meaning to the boy as Nadya intends. Some are merely images. People and places that stir recognition and little else- whether he understands the difference between the two can hardly be said as he seems to consider such things for several moments.

Not.....gone. Different....but not....gone. Still family.

He allows the words to drift easily into her own mind. Tobias seemingly assured of what Nadya is not. That family still exists. After all, family does not fracture nearly so easily- even when it was strained, Tobias seemingly assured of this. Nadya moves away from him then, the lanky Leopard remaning where he sits, his own golden gaze seeking hers as his tail flicks, head tilted once more in consideration of the words that find his mind again as he frowns.

Kittens have.....Naddy and....Tobi and.....Tetra and.....Birdie.

He remains sure, still, that this is enough, the boy less sensitive perhaps, to the fractures lines within their own family unit- ones made more so perhaps, by Nadya's determination to seek the horse Tetra had so forbidden her too though his mind, surely, is not mad to consider love or matters of the heart in the manner Nadya's own surely is.

If not....stay here.....where does....Naddy want....to go?

madness, as you know, is like gravity: all it takes is a little push