okeanos has done mostly pretty good with -- not avoiding mal, per se, but certainly keeping himself busy, lest he have to bear the bad news cam brought. ibis and cam's company have helped keep the nagging guilt/urge away thus far. only ibis went to visit their mother, to check on her in the aftermath of cam's news, and okeanos thinks she'll be gone a while. he does not begrudge this -- ibis has always been flighty, has always needed to stretch her wings every so often, so to speak -- but it does mean his options for companionship near his age have been cut in half.

so he makes an effort -- what were his dreams about cultivating a proper friendship again? if only he weren't such a coward -- and lets himself catch mal's scent, idly following it until he runs into the spotty boy. his eyes follow mal's toward the deer herd, his stomach obligingly rumbling. it's been a little while since he had deer, or any animal large enough that more than wolf would need to take it down. is mal thinking the same thing? cautiously he comes closer, and says, "am i interrupting you?" gesturing vaguely toward the herd.

there's still something so novel in being greeted by mal (or, rather, in mal's passive acceptance of his existence, which is close enough to a greeting) that okeanos finds himself utterly charmed every time. it's a problem, probably, especially when he remembers why he's been avoiding the spotty boy in the first place. 

"we do," he agrees, because that's easy, and then winces. "did ibis tell you she was going to visit -- um. going out for a little bit?" okeanos hedges, not sure how cool, conceptually, mal will be with the idea of 'visiting our moms you hate.' "she'll be back," he adds hastily, "but in the meantime..." in the meantime, its just them and cam, which is not exactly a pack so much as a motley assortment of boys. he worries his lower lip, adding, "we can - we should try to recruit, i think."

like who, mal asks, and okeanos thinks briefly of who he's run into, the dark girl at the springs with the spotty throat, saarthal... saarthal would be. well, but he wouldn't know how to find her, or anyone he's met, really. "good point," he mutters instead. he doesn't know how elysium had gone about it either -- seems like folks just showed up every so often. phenomenally unhelpful, come to think of it. 

"well," okeanos starts, putting on a more hopeful voice than he feels, "we just need to go out and-- find them, then. be, ah, proactive about it." he tries to imagine mal actively seeking out new company and fails, amending "or, i can do that, at least.". he likes meeting new wolves -- it's just a matter of adding a by the way, come and stay with us, right? it can't be that hard. in any case, he isn't ready to give up on mal's dream, not just yet.

it takes okeanos a minute to figure out who mal means by they, and he can't help the slight downward turn of his mouth. not at the sentiment (at any other time, he'd feel the vague itch to argue the point) but at -- well. ignoring his half sentences: "has cam talked to you, actually?" he bursts out finally, fidgeting with the grass, "about what happened at elysium?"

okeanos winces and almost drops it. maybe it's better if mal just doesn't know--if he doesn't care, it won't matter either way, right? he can almost convince himself of that. but okeanos is not good at secrets, and he doesn't think this one should be a secret in the first place. "his mom and -- and your dad," he says in a long breath, the words nearly tripping over each other. he does not feel lighter for having said it, and frightened of what mal's reaction will be, rushes on. "um, i mean, i'm not -- that just seemed like, like you should know, even if it doesn't change anything about our relationship to elysium, i'm not -- i don't know." he stops to breathe, chewing his tongue nervously. mal just said he doesn't have anything tying him there, so maybe he won't care at all, and okeanos is just -- being okeanos, all too-large emotions in a too-large body. "anyway, i just thought you should know," he repeats lamely, forcing himself to look away, back to the deer mal was eyeballing a moment prior.

mal's reaction is not entirely unexpected (nor, in okeanos' mind, unwarranted) but he flinches anyway at the force of his words. the desperate, silly urge to reach out somehow and soothe his friend nearly overtakes him -- he takes a half step after mal before he catches himself. something tells him that will only makes things worse. instead he forces himself to sit, his ears laying back against his head.

"no, you're not alone," okeanos says quietly, "and you're right about him. i'm sorry if i shouldn't have told you." but you should know, he adds mentally. not to be sad about it, though okeanos wonders if somewhere, secretly, he is, but because it seems -- important. to know. then again, blood family is so ingrained in okeanos as important, as something to track, regardless of relationship... maybe it is different for mal. it occurs to him than mal probably doesn't even know about his younger siblings; that, though, he doesn't bring up--maybe mal's right and it doesn't matter at all.

well, he can't argue mal has a point. as long as he's known him, his blood has been slowly exiting out of his life. the wolves that should have stayed with him and been there for him. okeanos lays his ears back, his mouth a thin, flat line. "i only meant," he says quietly (in for a penny, out for a pound), "you have me, as long as you'll have me." 

he suspects this, too, will fall on deaf ears -- and there's no point pushing mal like this unless he wants to meet teeth -- so he takes a careful step away, and then another. no; he'll let mal have his well-earned sulk, and nurse one of his own, too, while he's at it. after all, he's alone right now, too, and unlike mal, the familiar is unfamiliar and more than a little lonely.