The longer he watches and familiarizes himself with Evren, the more he can see the emotions trickle across her face. They were subtle, given that he was still all but a stranger to her, but he couldn't tear his gaze away either. Grief weighed heavily on her brow as they spoke about her daughter, belying the truth behind the strained smile that she offered him to conceal the pain in her heart. Solomon cannot know the situation, but his mind spirals into possible conclusions before settling on the likeliest outcome given his own experience. His suspicion is only further cemented by the way she drops her head, avoiding his gaze and the concern therein.

It is enough to make him want to close the distance between them and offer her the sort of comfort he is best equipped to give. Solomon would never be as adept at wielding words as he was with the language of touch, and yet he knows it would be inappropriate for him to do so. Evren is not his, and not even someone that he should be considering courting, let alone touching, and yet he can't help the way his brow creases in concern. It would be so much easier to simply align himself at her side, shoulder to shoulder, until the grief passed. To be something other than incapable of helping her.

Solomon releases a slow breath as she regains her composure, a strained smile flitting over his lips as she accepts his compliment for what it was. Shaking his head with a soft chuckle, he adds to it, his tone genuine despite the fact that it is prompted by her sadness. "Honestly, I wouldn't have guessed you had any grandchildren at all if you hadn't told me yourself." Subtly, the lean tobiano ducks his head so that they are once more eye to eye. "I'm not sure I feel ready for them myself, and I'll be lucky if I get one more season before mine do the same."

The Forest Queen's evasive answer about her daughter's troubles does not necessarily erase his suspicion, but he accepts her implicit command to drop it. If it was not a matter in which she needed or wanted help, then he could not force his services upon her.

Her gaze sharpens on him once more and he prepares himself for another round of her careful probing when something jostles in the forest behind her. The sound does not alarm him, given his advantageous position and ability to observe that it is only a falling branch, but even if it had, her reaction would have easily stolen his attention away. Like a startled filly, she leaps away from the sound and nearly crashes into him. He does not yield, choosing instead to brace himself in preparation for impact.

A queer sort of regret rises when she stops herself before contact occurs, and he stretches out to impose it himself under the guise of well-meaning support. His neck, already arched tautly as he braced, unfurls to allow his muzzle to press briefly against the slope of her shoulder to steady her. The moment should have been chaste - merely a friend supporting a friend in a moment of surprise - but he'd be lying if he said that his touch did not linger against her skin for a beat longer than it should have, or that it did not trail slightly along the broken edge of color where brown faded to alabaster.

Desire twists in his chest, and he fights the urge to surge closer and close the gap that she re-imposed between them. The reasons why he shouldn't seemed very much farther away than they had only moments ago, but he resists, his body tensing as he stops himself from moving.

"There's nothing to apologize for," he says quietly, his gaze affixed on her. In the time it takes for him to find what remains of his composure, she has another question waiting for him and he chuckles softly before replying. "Yes, I did."

The reasons why he should not pursue Evren remain stubbornly far away, chased off by the Forest Queen's proximity and beauty. Reason cannot possibly hope to compete with his memory of her soft coat beneath his lips or the way that the season begged him to close the inches that separate them and caress the rest of her markings with his lips. It is only his doubt in her interest that still his hooves and keep him stationary.

"I wanted to ask if you would allow me to rest for a while to recover from the swim, but now I must ask a third." He says warmly, his gaze attempting to find hers again, desperate to read her reaction. He had to know if he was only imagining the tension that seemed to surround them, or if she felt it too. "If you allow me to stay, would you also keep me company, while I wait?"

Solomon