"Are you okay?"
The voice was soft but startling, and Cracked Facade flinched, drawing himself to his full and slender height. for a brief moment the bucks expression was unguarded, raw, but he grabbled to reclaim his usual mask of vain confidence, wrapping it around him like warm pelts.
He eyed the pale doe that had come upon him, the way she carried herself and the smile she was aiming his way. It made him frown. "I'm fine," he insisted, though she'd get much caught him off guard and he didn't feel entirely steady just yet.
"Are you?" Scaled brows arched, and she moved closer to him. "I'm pretty sure you're the one that was calling me."
Cracked's friend grew more pronounced. "I didn't call you. I didn't call anyone."
"Well, no, not with words." The doe shrugged. "But a call just the same. You're expecting." She said it like it was fact, glowing eyes taking him all in. "Perhaps not yourself, but with another."
Her tone made it clear it wasn't a question, and Cracked Facade faltered for a minute, ears dipping back and sure mask slipping to let a little more of that worry and fear bleed through.
He rallied, pulling himself together. "Fine. So what if I am?" Why is it any of your business?
Merry smiled knowingly. "So you wouldn't like a blessing, then?"
Cracked's eyes widened a touch, and as the pale doe turned to go he stook a step forward. "Wait. Please."
She paused, ears returned to listen.
"I..." The sureness in his voice wobbled. "I want them to be happy. Comfortable with who they are." Not unsure and doubting. Not like him.
Merry smiled again, more gently this time. "It's done." She started to turn again, feathered tail swishing. "Don't worry. They'll be fine."
Cracked watched her go, the mask fAlling away completely to show the nerves beneath. "But how do you know that?" He wanted to know, need in the timbre of his voice. "How can you be so sure?"
"Because I willed it so," she answered him, not stopping. "And because the Motherfather wills it to be." She giggled, softly. "You'll be a fine father, because you care enough to worry you might not be." The doe shrugged, and with that she changed. Taking flight and swooping up into the branches and away.
Cracked watched her do, feeling unsure, still, but...maybe a little bit better. He didn't want to disappoint them. He didn't want to disappoint her. He didn't want to disappoint his family. It was an awful lot to try to live up to.