As usual, Nyimara had no regard for his personal space, and rather than chasing him from the conversation, settles herself close enough to him that the swell of their child was unmistakable. The sight of it made his stomach churn with a mixture of eagerness and guilt and satisfaction as it always did, and he knew that the memory of that scuffle would keep him up tonight yet again. He still didn't understand why he'd done it, but he had, and now there was nothing for it.
He couldn't leave a child to suffer Nyimara alone.
Surprisingly, Nyimara tolerates his presence in the conversation (albeit with a very pointed glare that he had no problem reading, despite his refusal to
obey)... at least right up until he pointed out the very obvious flaw in their plan. Was anyone really supposed to believe that either one of these two strong ladies was going to step down to let the other one wear a crown?
The nip he receives for his question is unsurprising but not as harsh as he might have expected. Still, her teeth leave a mark on his coat and he pulls away from the pain with a soft grunt and a pinning of his ears. The odds were pretty good that she had more in store for him later, but he'd have to deal with that problem when it came. Their battles had become increasingly more one-sided as the larger she got, the less effort he put into defending himself from her temper tantrums.
It is enough to push him back into watchful silence though, his gaze cutting back and forth between Marceline and Nyimara as if spectating a tennis match. He says nothing as the red queen of the Hills joins in on teasing him, but lets his gaze linger on her appraisingly as he tries to read just how deep her "friendship" with Nyimara runs. The silver-maned witch has never struck him as the sort of woman that is adept at making friends with her peers. So far, he's seen her succeed at earning herself sycophants like Kara and horny hangers-on like Quinn, but he would call neither of those her friends.
Marceline had seemed too intelligent to him to fall for Nyimara's tricks... but then again, Rehoboam had only met her once, and that had hardly been more than a brief exchange. Perhaps she mistakenly believed that she could coax Nyimara into cooperation with a shared goal, and that this alone would keep the silver mare from betraying her.
I take it my handsome Rafe is still holding strong in the Badlands? Rehoboam is slow to take his cue, but performs his jealousy eventually with a narrowing of his eyes and a switch of his dark tail. In truth, he doesn't give a rat's ass what the rude Badlands stallion has done with Nyimara in the past... but it is interesting to know that both Queens considered him tamed and willing to work with them. Perhaps it had just been the Lagoon he had objected to, rather than the threat of a different leader. It was a question worth puzzling over later, and he stored it away for consideration so that he could listen to Nyimara's reply.