The Sunspire this summer day quickly changes

terance and @Rannoch set out early that morning for a patrol as previous planned. of course, terance was struggling, and like seabreeze, terance knew that rannoch would pick up on his inner turmoil all too quickly. so, after a bit of casual chat, terance came clean. 

"wraen is disappointed in me, she's only spoken to me to tell me maia joined us," he said with a heavy sigh. he mentioned nothing of his fear that he was also failing everyone in his life, but that mostly stemmed from this one issue-- which was what had crashed down on top of him and his excitement for his and seabreeze's litter. did rannoch know this?

"Why do you think she's disappointed in you?" Rannoch asked; he wanted to give Wraen the benefit of the doubt, despite his apparent allegiance to Terance. Rannoch considered all that he knew for a moment before he elaborated. 

"Do you think it could be that she's busier because of her promotion?" he offered with a reluctant smile.

"she told me she was," terance said bluntly, because how could he sugarcoat such harsh words coming from a woman he trusted and loved so dearly? and maybe those weren't her words-- but how else could he have interpreted it? 'oh i'm so happy for you, but i'm going to frown and scowl and tell you you're a child' ? no, of course not. wraen was disappointed.

"it was before her promotion," terance added, his own brow furrowing as he thought about the possibility of such. he shook his head to say, once again, that he was very positive she felt this way. he didn't mention how he felt about her promotion, that was a topic for another day. "she thinks i'm being naive and stupid and that i don't understand the weight of my actions-- and how they have consequences. like i'm some sort of child floating through life unaware of what's going on," he added, teeth clicking. he glanced to rannoch, gaze softening, "and i do, i think about it every day, but that's not to say i'm not allowed to be excited-- right?"

"Oh," Rannoch replied once he had been given all the information that he needed to formulate an opinion. Wraen was opinioned and honest— two qualities that he admired about her— but, Rannoch found himself sympathizing with Terance. 

Rannoch's expression hardened as Terance softened, and his ears pressed forward as an uncomfortable sensation anger boiled within him. "Of course you are," he replied, his voice hard, "This is an exciting time in your life, and nobody should take that away from you." Rannoch shook his head then, glanced away, and exhaled slowly; he was astounded at how easily he had been riled up. 

"Sorry," Rannoch offered after a prolonged moment as looked at Terance again. "I didn't mean to get so heated about that," he shrugged stiffly, "I just don't think that you should be treated that way." 

“don’t worry about it,” said terance, softly. it was a lot and he had no real answer— but to try to reassure rannoch felt right. Was it a lot? Yes. Was he upset? Yes. But he was fine— and if he wasn’t fine now than he’d be fine later. It was all fine, ran didn’t need to worry about it. 

“It’s something we’ve never talked about— like it’s never come up Before, I don’t think neither of us know how to handle it,” he said with a gentle shrug, “and I don’t thinks wraen is handling it right but... I guess I can’t really judge her for thinking what she thinks— right?” Right?

Terance's perspective helped quell any residual resentment that Rannoch felt; perhaps his passion had been unjustified, too. "Right," Rannoch replied with a sigh, "we can't." It wouldn't be fair to Wraen if they did. 

"All we can really do at this point is move forward and do our best for Sunspire, you know?" He appended and smiled at Terance.

terance nodded in response. "i wouldn't want anything else," he said softly, forcing a wider smile towards his friend, "we'll all be alright by the end of this." of course, he was still wildly beat up about the situation-- and all of his motivation was still suffering. but somehow he'd talked himself out of his funk today-- with rannoch's help, of course. 

"let's just keep patrolling," he said with a forced smile, tail waving once, "i just wanted to tell you." rannoch deserved to know. he moved along swiftly. "everything good with you and liffey?" he asked, referring mostly to the litter that terance knew rannoch and liffey wanted to have.

"I appreciate it," Rannoch said, "And, please, let me know if there's anything else I can do to help out."

Their conversation changed suddenly; Rannoch was fine with centering their discussion elsewhere, as long as Terance had gotten everything he needed off of his chest. "We're good," he replied fondly, "I've just been keeping a closer eye on her since we're not sure if she's pregnant or not." 

"How are you and Seabreeze? All ready for your kids to arrive?

terance nodded with a small shrug. "of course," he agreed, understanding his friend perfectly, "i hope she is, paws crossed for you, dude." he bumped rannoch affectionately and then kept moving forward on their patrol, ears cupping forward at the mention of his own litter.

"so ready, we've prepared a whelping den and all that-- and picked out names," he shared with a smile. and then, ears flicking at the realization he hadn't told his friend yet, terance added, "and we're in love." he snorted after he said that. "did that sound corny? like something out of a fairy tale? ah, whatever, she told me the other day."

Rannoch appreciated Terance's sentiment; he smiled and then clapped his shoulder against his friend's. 

As Terance spoke of his most-recent happenings, Rannoch paused to check on an unexpected trace of a coyote. He quickly established that it was stale, and then continued along. It was at Rannoch pranced after Terance that his eyes lit up. 

"In love?" he returned with enthusiasm. "What are you guys going to do about that?"

terance shrugged. he didn't know... at least not yet. the next step would probably be to ask her to be his mate-- like officially, right? but terance wasn't sure how he was gonna do that yet. he expressed this to rannoch, who gave his own opinion, and then the pair discussed it further. there was a lot to discuss, especially on terance's side-- who was still a little guarded thanks to a certain blue-eyed cerberus.