Hideaway Strath The temperature of the air on the bow of the Kaleetan.

A dense fog swirled through the strath today, making Towhee feel particularly vulnerable as she crept through the white miasma. She parked at her usual spot near the passageway, though she didn't really know why she bothered. She would neither see nor hear any trespassers, should they slither through the pass. Even her sense of smell was dulled by the soupy air. She sighed but remained at her post.

It was really eerie, though Towhee wasn't easily spooked. In fact, she was having more trouble than usual staying awake. To stop herself from napping on the job, she began to run up and down the nearest outcropping until the blood was pounding in her ears and the fog swirled around her heels like an entourage of little ghosts.

@Pippin, mebbe? It's open otherwise!

Towhee had made quite the point in avoiding him—or so he assumed. Had the roguish Ostrega been easily offended, he supposed the colder shoulder would have worked. As it was, the golden wolf took little things such as this with a grain of salt—somehow, after partaking and witnessing what he had in the willow forest on the mountains, certain things in life were hard to take too seriously.

His pale golden pelt gleamed hauntingly in the fog—his eyes narrowed as he finally found her after finally taking the initiative to hunt her down. Their relationship was merely one of acquaintance, but he had always appreciated her down to earth approach in life.

Though now, the white-arrowed wolf watched in open curiosity as he noted her dark frame running about the fog—back and forth. He bristled for a moment, waiting to catch glimpse of an assailant he had not yet smelt or seen, but there was nothing.

Finally, he interrupted the silence, announcing his presence by loping forward, hoing she looked his way before offering a dry: “Are you trying to outrun your tail, Thundersmash?”

In her haste and preoccupation, Towhee didn't notice Pippin until he was standing right in front of her. Her heart jumped into her throat and she unleashed a sharp growl before she could even think. She missed every single word out of his mouth, save for the last one. She snorted, tossed her head and pawed the earth, looking for all the world like a wild filly.

But then she settled and favored him with a long look, then a small smirk. -"Well, if it isn't prodigal Pip,"- the Kilonova quipped, -"the poster child for my least favorite trait in fellow wolves."- She spoke very bluntly, though there was a glimmer of amusement in her orange gaze. Admittedly, she was a little surprised to see him. She hadn't bothered trying to catch up with him; she'd simply assumed he'd go his own way again soon, so why trouble herself?

He was here now, though, and had presumably been running with the pack for some weeks now. Towhee wasn't exactly impressed, though she was hopeful that maybe, this time, Pippin would stick.

She was surprised to see him, of course—he would need to figure out how to announce his presence more efficiently without startling the redhawk.

At her words, a derisive snort escaped him, the corner of his roguish muzzle quirking in an amused smirk. “Now that’s not very nice,” he remarked, trying to ensure he spoke clearly so she could read his lips. He was completely clueless about her sign language and how to partake in it. “Didn’t you get my thank you gift at the Redhawk borders?”

There was a small pause, then, and the agouti wolf refrained from noting that she herself had also left her pack. It didn’t seem wise to anger the boss and all. “To be fair, I’m the poster child for a lot of traits others don’t like.”

Pippin didn't seem particularly fazed by her frankness, rebutting her remark with his own faint smirk. Towhee ignored both statements, or at least didn't bother answering to them. She did make some mental notes, which she tucked neatly away in a filing cabinet in the back of her mind.

He did seem to grow more serious in the next beat. Towhee closed the remaining distance while rolling her eyes. -"You and me both, old buddy, old pal."- She glanced sideways, watching the fog swirl and settle. -"So what brought you here, anyhow? Is it me?"- she guessed. -"Am I emitting a siren call? I mean, I wouldn't know. But it'd explain some things lately..."- It was a joke, of course, but the last few words were mumbled as she couldn't help but think of Rye.

“See? Even you admit we’re friends,” he rumbled, his tail giving an idle flick as he followed her eyes to the fog. He was about to ask her if she had an aversion to the spooky mist, but when she turned back, she surprised him point blank with an interesting question, and he blinked at her for a moment.

‘Siren call?’ He mouthed the words after her, only then realizing she couldn’t hear him and likely thought he spoke that out loud. Amusement traced his eyes, and he recalled that strange wolf he had met at the borders when he first joined—Dingo. The golden wolf seemed to have been quite keen at keeping males away from her—was that a love interest lost?

“Why? Is your milkshake bringing all the boys to the yard?” It was a quip that was spoken almost too quickly as he felt a certain hesitation in responding to her. He didn’t think she was flirting with him, but he could be pretty oblivious—but Towhee had always been easy-going, from the small bit of time he had spent with her. “I just wanted a do over,” he finally admitted.

She rolled her eyes at him again. Towhee didn't really think of him as a friend at this point, though there was something about him that continued to intrigue her. Maybe it was simply their inside joke ("thunder smash") or the fact that he kept popping up, despite himself. His good looks probably didn't hurt.

Towhee huffed a dry laugh at his comment about milkshakes. -"Something like that,"- she said, though she didn't have the heart to poke fun at the subject beyond that. She still felt bad about the whole thing with Rye, even if she knew she'd handled it as best she could, given the circumstances.

But if she couldn't bring herself to joke at what felt like her dear friend's expense, she could still distract herself with humor. -"Didn't you already get one of those?"- she asked point blank, tilting her head. And then Towhee added, -"And how can it be a do over when we never did the do to begin with?"-

“Huh,” he chimed, his brows quirking at her notion that this was not his first ‘do-over.’ “Are you only allowed one?” His rumbling tone was teasing—deflection to the fact that he had a hard time staying in one place and trusting others enough to call them pack.

Trust issues 101, and yet he liked to discard that topic before it got too in-depth. The history of what had occurred on the mountains not far from here was something he coveted as his own dark secret.

Of course, Towhee never disappointed when keeping the topic light, and Pippin snorted derisively. “I promise if we did the do, I wouldn't need a do-over from it,” he retorted, a lazy grin roguishly appearing on his muzzle. Big talk for a guy who didn't exactly have feedback from any former lovers. Again, Pippin didn't tend to stick around long.

A flat, -"Duh,"- was her only reply to Pippin's likely rhetorical question. They were called second chances for a reason; they weren't infinite. But, of course, she didn't actually feel that strongly about this right now, so she said nothing more on the matter.

He bantered right back at her, pace for pace, and Towhee found herself grinning. She found she enjoyed flirting with him, just like she did with Rye. Her smile faltered at that thought. She still felt badly for letting him down. Though wasn't the entire reason she'd done that because she wasn't looking for anything serious? She didn't want to tie herself or someone else down, so she was free to flirt with (and, hell, fuck) anyone she wanted and she shouldn't feel bad.

Not that Towhee was actually very prone to these things. Except for her spate of lust during her first and only heat, she might've thought she was asexual. Then again, maybe that's just how it was supposed to work: a wolf was only meant to copulate in order to breed. She'd have to ask Raven about it sometime.

-"Maybe if you actually stick around this time, I'll take you up on that bet. Hope your mouth doesn't write checks your ass can't cash,"- Towhee mused with a sardonic grin, finding herself truly hoping he would stick around long enough for her to find out. Not only did she want Pippin to stay for his merits as part of the pack, she really wouldn't mind that looker all over her business come springtime...

For now, that stuff was off in the distance someplace. Wanting to change the subject but not sure how, Towhee suddenly went rigid, stared out into the fog and gasped, -"Did you hear that?"- She tried very hard to keep her smirk under control.

And so Towhee put him in the ‘potential fuck’ category, leaving the Ostrega slightly amused and used all at once. “You’ll be throwing all the cash at me after checking out my ass,” he rumbled in response, sinewed shoulders lifting in a light shrug. He could have continued, but stopped at Towhee’s direction, her eyes blinking at the fog.

Had he heard what?

He paused, allowing the quiet to envelop them both as he listened. And then only realized—what the fuck had she managed to hear?

“Cute, Towhee.” He noted, his muzzle tilting. “Is this where you have me investigate and then off me somehow to avoid a good roll in the sack?”

Oooh, Pip's avatar is gorgeous!

It only took a beat for Pip to catch her bluff. She smirked at him, offhandedly telling him, -"I like the cut of your jib."- Towhee shook her head before adding, -"I definitely don't want you to die before we get our chance to make magic by mashing our genitals together."-

Although she truthfully didn't have a drive in the off season, she peered at him speculatively after that. She kind of wanted to propose that they run off into the fog and go for a practice session. But then Towhee remembered that he hadn't done anything to earn that sort of privilege. She would only let him bump her ugly when he'd stuck around for a little bit. And hopefully that was incentive...

-"I'm actually bored as fuck and sitting here is next to useless with this fog. Wanna patrol the borders with me, emphasis on 'Lauren'?"- the Kilonova invited in the next breath.