Oh Orphiel, please…
If he could play those three words on repeat, spoken with love and tangled in sorrows, he would want for nothing else. The way she spoke his name always sent shivers down his spine and rooted him to wherever he was standing, even while his soul felt light enough to drift upward into the heavens.
Parvati closed the small distance between them and pressed her forehead to his shoulder. Orphiel sighed a contented breath - he couldn’t help it, to have her touch always soothed him - and turned his neck so he could idly brush his whiskered chin over her champagne crest. His sigh stirred her brown hair and he perked his dark-lined ears forward to listen as she started to speak. He frowned as she took the blame on herself and pulled his face away enough so he could shake his head almost vehemently against her points.
“No, no, you are being a true Queen, always,” Orphiel would blindly follow Parvati anywhere, now that he’d come to realize their time apart had been one of his biggest mistakes. To hear her doubt her amazing prowess and her capability as a Queen hurt him most of all. “Your love and protectiveness of your children is admirable, but do not forget there is a reason you have me as your Guard,” he paused and fought through the instant, acidic bitterness before he forced himself to add, “and Loupgaru, as well. We are here to carry out the acts you need us too, if you are too weak to fight… you have us.” Orphiel wanted to believe he could do anything for her. That if she needed him to fight for her, he wouldn’t choke like he had when he’d fought for the Lagoon in the past.
“If I were to lose you to one of these damned bastards who come to take where they have no business stealing from…” as he spoke his words turned into more of a dangerous growl. Orphiel did not often show his anger to the world, but it was there now. He hated every single intruder that had blown disrespectfully across Parvati’s border and took advantage of her condition to fight and take more and more away from her. Orphiel’s dun coat shuddered and he sighed a frustrated breath. “I can’t bear even the thought.” He concluded, closing his eyes and concentrating on calming the angry racing of his heart. It wouldn’t do to get so worked up now. There was no intruder to bite and kick at, just Parvati, just the sorrows that lay heavy over them both in the absence of their first child.
“Just…” he started, voice soft again as he reached to brush his lips against her cheek and tasted the trail of her previously cried tears. He kissed her again before he said, “Promise me that if I can do something for you, you won’t hesitate to ask. I’ll do anything I can, Parvati. Anything.”
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