Captain Pincher.

Who would have thought?

The man that Solveig had met all that time ago in the dead of night was hardly anything like the man she had come to see now. Of course, when she had first met Pincher, he was an utter mess. He had stayed a time, and the two of them had gotten to know each other, but Solveig had noticed one thing in her time in the Typhoon so far: No one else knew. No one else knew about Pincher's past but her. Perhaps that was intentional- she knew she was much the same, and as such, she had enough respect for Pincher to keep her mouth shut about how they had met each other. As far as anyone was concerned, and until Pincher said otherwise, they were simply old friends.

If he would even let her call him a friend.

Truth was, Solveig didn't really have many friends, nor did she work too hard to create them. People were... tricky. That much, Solveig knew well. People were broken, and confused, and considerate; kind and hateful, spiteful, and lost. No one person was different, nor was any one emotion the same. In most cases, it was simply easier to maintain a more professional relationship. It saved you a lot of pain if you had no expectations of people, no expectations of being loved or cared for in any capacity.

In any case, she was seeking him out. It had been too long since they had last seen eachother, and after the recent events, she wanted to know what the heck was going on. Not to mention, she was glad for him, that he had seemingly put his life back together. She couldn't exactly say the same for herself, so seeing someone else succeed in the task was... refreshing. And finding Pincher? Well, she just had to follow the smell of smoke. Literally. As she made her way through the territory, following faint traces of Pincher's scent, mingled with that of smoke, she found him not long later. Sitting there, smoking still as he did. Solveig rolled her eyes and sighed inwardly at the sight. He never did stop, did he?

Her paws gently drifting across the ground, nearly silent, the violet-eyed snowshoe almost smirked beneath that soft smile of hers as she snuck up behind him, sitting herself down neatly and lightly flicking her tail over her paws. "Don't you know those are bad for you, Captain Pincher?"

Solvie. Pincher was the only being alive on this earth that would be allowed to get away with calling her 'Solvie' of all things. It was casual, a petname really, one that she could never say that she had before. There was no love with her parents. It was always 'Solveig' with her mother, 'Girl' with her father. Her mother never read stories goodnight to her, she never sang; except maybe in the rare days when her father was out hunting would any gentle touch be garnered to her. Her father was a different story, and her brother- well, they had only gotten along when they were children. To say the least, Solveig was used to disappointment. She was used to being alone, to being just 'her'.

So when she had met Pincher, she had had no other expectations for that. But Solveig always valued herself highly. IT wasn't an ego or anything of the sort, but after so long of being someone else's puppet, and having finally taken control over her own life, she would ensure that she was not going to become someone else's 'thing'. So maybe, when she had met Pincher, she had been patient, yes. She had been a caretaker for him, his broken mind, and whatever wounds he had endured. But even she fell for him. How couldn't she? He was admittedly handsome, and once he had begun to settle from his torments, he had been endearing. He had understood what bits of her lifestory she had told him as much as she could have understood his side of things, too. Though she had never had children, nor a husband of her own, she did know the meaning of losing it all, even if she had never been fond of her own family to begin with. But most of all, she had never been Pincher's thing. They had been together- yes, they had been in love, and his promises of waiting for her in the Typhoon, whenever she had gotten her things together, was a promise that Solveig had put enough trust in- enough trust in him to depend on.

And what an utter fool she had been to believe that.

Her gaze lifted to his as his purr made her chest hurt. But the soft smile on her face said otherwise. If it was one thing Solveig was very, very good at, was keeping her own emotions deeply buried within herself, having complete control of every aspect of her body. She had molded herself into this pristine pelted idea of perfection, and it was a facade that she had not easily dropped. Only Pincher had ever managed to briefly break through those defenses, and she had to admit that... Even Pincher's new daughter, Goldie, had earned a soft spot in her heart.

Pincher's daughter. His son.

Pincher's soon-to-be husband.

He hadn't waited for her.

The thought stung and hurt her more than she care to admit, but she just tried to remind herself that she should have been prepared for this disappointment. At the same time, if she thought this would have happened to her, she would have never gotten involved with Pincher Roux. She would have never made that mistake.

"I did not patch you up for nothing, Captain Pincher, for you to simply wither away under smokes," the answer came, perhaps more formal than he might have been expecting. But even despite the heartbreak, and the fact that Solveig was the only one that knew the truth of his old life, she had not the harshness in her body to betray him. If it were anyone else, perhaps she might have. But Jacob was... well frankly he looked like a breeze would topple him, and Pincher.. She couldn't do that to him.

Solveig was silent for a long while as she considered his words. One, she almost found herself automatically leaning towards his shoulder before she caught herself and sat stiffly straight, her gaze staring slightly ahead. Eventually, she began carefully. Some good things are bad. "Do you regret it?" she asked, speaking of them and the nights they had shared. Or, perhaps, she was speaking of his relationships after her. The promises that he broke. The fool he had made her. But as soon as she had 'voiced' the question, she seems to pause and shake her head.

"I heard you're getting married. Congratulations," Perhaps Pincher would be looking for some note of sarcasm or false-meaning in her words, but there was none. IF he was to be married, there was nothing she could do about it, so she wouldn't make herself more miserable than she already was by being sour over the matter. "He seems nice... Too nice. Don't go hurting him, Pinch. I don't think someone like him could take that," she said idly. Perhaps it wasn't her place, and though the words were still spoken with a heavy measure of caution, was she wrong? She could shove her feelings down and accept she had been abandoned by her first love. But Jacob? She doubted he would be able to handle seeing Pincher with a paw around another woman for some diplomatic business. "...What I mean to say is: if you walk out on him and promise to wait for him to the ends of the earth..." the words were blunt, more so as she turns her head to look at him as she finishes that sentence. "You best wait. For real this time."