The Sunspire I could stay right here or disappear, and nobody'd even notice at all

Wisteria continued to be vocal just about every day, but the tantrums and fits were beginning to die down as she got older and adjusted to her limited senses. Touch wasn't nearly as sensitive now, so being poked and prodded by her siblings wasn't such a shock. She could smell her family members and that helped her to calm down when she was otherwise disoriented and unsure. @Remi had proven to be a comfort to her, seeming to find her any time she was beginning to melt down with gentle touches, not like Breccan's and DJ's rougher kicks.

Today she was alone, or as alone as she possibly could be in a den full of mom and siblings, and was blissfully quiet despite being awake and snuffling loudly at her outstretched paws. Nine days into her life and little Wisp was able to pull herself along on her tummy, and she did it often to isolate herself like this; she was most comfortable with free air on all sides, even if she found brief comforts in the soft touches of certain family members.

Remi and her golden sister could not have been more opposite in that regard; as much as Wisp sought air around her, her silver sibling desired contact on all sides.

Remi awoke with a squeak as she rolled into a space that someone should have been in. It was the light cool of their absence that had started to stir her from her dreams. Lifting her chin from the den floor, she bobbed her head as her nose probed around and inspected her surroundings. Her brother was there beside her, and beside him one of her sisters. Someone was missing and it was the usual culprit: the third-born. She made a questioning peep. Where are you?

Her senses were still developing, and she had a hard time detecting Wisp, until she blundered forward, crawling along, and bumped into her sister’s flank. Many soft squeaks of joy (@Rannoch and @Liffey, you might have a guinea pig for a daughter), and a wagging wriggling tail, accompanied Remi’s discovery. Found you! The little girl rubbed her forehead affectionately against Wisp.

Just a cameo unless the girls start acting up!

Rannoch had volunteered a portion his afternoon so that @Liffey could get out for a while. Before the mother-of-four had gone on her way, she had fed and groomed her precious, perfect cherubs children, and made sure that they were in high spirits for Rannoch's watch. "We'll be fine," he promised as he curled himself around their children. Rannoch's reassurance seemed to have appeased any concerns that she might have had; Liffey left shortly after giving her husband a kiss. 

While @Breccan and @Deshyr napped at Rannoch's side, he noticed that Wisp and Remi had other plans. He watched them, amused.

As always, it wasn't long before someone disturbed her solitude. She just couldn't understand why they were so insistent on touching her, prodding her into place and making sure she was tucked in among her siblings like a sardine. Didn't they understand that she was a free spirit who hated being penned in like that? But, of course, she was also a newborn wolf pup who couldn't regulate her body temperature, and if she was left alone long enough then she would experience the distressing reality sooner or later.

It never came to that, though. Today it was Remi who found her. She smelled her smaller sister before the touch came and made every effort to wiggle away, but she wasn't able to turn quickly enough to make her great escape. Remi found her and pressed her head into Wisp's side. The girl grunted and whined, turned half onto her side, planted her hind foot into her sister's pugged nose, and gently tried to push her away while her tail whirred behind her.

Her delighted squeaking was interrupted and made into a comical snort as Wisp’s foot pushed into her nose.

...?

Remi bobbed her head from side to side. She issued a quiet peep to announce her confusion at being nudged away, and at the peculiar stirrings in her breast. The silver pup whined uncomfortably, and started to inch her way toward Wisteria again, seeking the comfort and reassurance of nearness and contact. This time however she stopped short of pressing into her sibling. Instead she tentatively sniffed at Wisp’s nose.

Good, yes, very good. Pushing away the offending sibling had the desired effect and Wisteria got her space back. She was deaf to Remi's confused vocalizations and blissfully so, or else she might have felt bad about it. Pushing Remi's face away was a decidedly cold thing to do. Remorse was too complicated, though, and empathy even moreso. The only thing Wisp cared about in that moment was Wisp.

Though, we wouldn't be having this thread if that was the end of it. It was a daily struggle to extract herself from the sibling bundle that she was constantly placed in, and Remi wasn't helpful about it 99% of the time. In fact, while Wisp preferred the solitude, her older but tinier sister seemed to need contact and sought it relentlessly. It was the gentle twang of their whiskers colliding that told Wisteria that Remi was still near.

She sniffed, too, and then screwed up her face and screeched for no apparent reason.

Remi's tail wagged. Being able to at least smell her sister so near and brush whiskers was calming enough for her. Too bad that was about to change. Remi could not hear it, but she felt, among other things, that hot blast of breath as Wisp screeched in her face and she recoiled, snatching back her outstretched head like a turtle retreating into its shell. The stirrings in her breast had come back ten fold, and in response the silver girl let out a long high pitched cry.

Remi scrabbled away, mewling piteously, and crawled in some other direction that was not Wisp's. She did not go far; only enough so that now there was at least room for another sibling or two between her and goldilocks.

First came a screech, and then came a scream. 

Rannoch's attention turned towards Remi, and confusion quickly overcame him. "What happened? he wondered out loud as he leaned over to nose his eldest daughter—Rannoch wasn't expecting Remi to fess up.  After Rannoch kissed Remi on the cheek, he turned to Wisteria, whose squeaking was a more common occurrence. "You got anything to say about this?" he mused, and kissed the top of her head.

Goldilocks, it turns out, had some pretty high standards and a pretty snotty attitude about it to boot. Things had to be just so. The puppy pile could be neither too soft nor too hard, her siblings neither exuding too much heat nor failing to warm her at all. She had to be able to move all of her limbs freely to feel like she wasn't being suffocated, but be close enough that she could sense the others with the finest, most sensitive hairs of her body. Picky, picky, picky.

Remi seemed to think so, too, for she beat a hasty retreat and left Wisp to her solitude. It didn't last very long, though; their baffled father made sure of that when he brushed the Wet Nasty-But-Nice across her scalp. Chills exploded down her spine and she whimpered in response, unsure whether to find it pleasant or uncomfortable. Suddenly Goldilocks changed her standards again, the fickle bitch, and reached out for Remi. Her inquisitive and touchy sibling, as much as she tended to cause a storm of feelings within Wisp, was definitely better than the Wet Nasty-But-Nice when she was feeling moody.

She leaned into her father's kiss, burbling a soft note of affection that expressed the comfort he provided to her. She took it as some cue that she had done the right thing. Her sister reaching out for her was yet another cue — albeit a somewhat confusing one given her reaction to Remi's presence moments ago. But the silver girl had no qualms with it, wanting only for Wisp to be okay and to be near to her. She shifted toward her sibling, laying her muzzle across one small golden paw.

As Rannoch has expected, they had nothing to say.

Despite the previous commotion, Wisteria and Remi eventually reconnected; Rannoch's heart melted as he watched his daughters. He affectionately pressed his nose briefly against Remi and Wisteria, before saying, "Those are my good girls." His head hovered just above them, and he watched them with nothing but love in his eyes.

A brief flinch went through Wisp's tiny form when Remi's chin touched her paw, but this was the least objectionable amount of contact for her, so she reluctantly acquiesced. It was better than the Nasty-But-Nice, in any case, and she found some measure of comfort in it. As Rannoch breathed over them, Wisteria's head bobbled once, twice, and then sank down to the ground as she slipped away into sleep.

Her sister was peaceful. Her father was there. Remi was thus as soothed and as comfortable as she could be, and soon she too drifted into sleep.