Sun Mote Copse We get wild like a safari.

It was a stunningly beautiful spring day, the sky a pleasant blue and sprinkled with puffy clouds here and there. Sunlight slanted through the copse, a breeze swaying the boughs of trees rife with new buds and leaves. Towhee tilted her snout into the wind playing through her nape, then dropped her attention to the puppy currently scooting energetically around the little patch of grass outside their log.

Soon, she would begin taking Meerkat on short jaunts around their homeland, including a trip to the den Niamh chose for them after she gave birth. In the meantime, the pup seemed happy enough to bumble around the small, grassy clearing, soft little ears flopping as she galloped about on ungainly paws. The sight was so endearing, it made Towhee's chest tighten.

It was only a matter of time before Meerkat crashed into her leg, tumbling to the ground with a cherubic laugh her mother didn't hear. When she righted herself, she looked up at the Regent and made the sign for, -Eat!-

He had given her space. His intent on discussing what clearly needed to be discussed had been deferred when he had noted Towhee skulk back to her den, wrapping herself protectively around what he assumed was a miracle child, and withdrawing into herself. The death of Elwood and Finley hit her hard—the Ostrega hadn’t known them, but the Firebirds were an intense familial unit… it seemed they were all related to one another.

Except, perhaps, for him, as Wraen had pointed out.

But he couldn’t put it off any longer. Towhee might have been happy to ignore the elephant in the room, and while the elephant had started off tiny… she was now a romping bundle of busy limbs and curiosity.

Amber eyes skimmed over the girl as she moved, thoughtful. Her gallop was whimsical—clumsy, like so many her age were. He had no knowledge of pups. Had never considered himself the type to father anyone… but the possibility was before him now. Family, within arms reach.

He felt frozen to the spot, nervous at whatever the outcome of any of this would be. But with a sudden inhale, the tawny male moved forward, his tail swinging in a neutral manner as he gave the kid a small smile, though his eyes flitted up to Towhee, glinting in a far more serious manner than they ever did. “I think we need to talk.”

It would be some time yet before Meerkat could articulate well enough that she and Towhee could converse easily, so it delighted her immensely that her daughter had picked up on some key signs. However, -"You just ate, like, five minutes ago,"- Towhee reminded the pup, reaching out to fondly muss up the sandy fur between her ears. -"Go play,"- she urged, knowing Meerkat understood a lot more than she could speak herself.

But before Meerkat could recommence her frolicking, a guest appeared. Towhee stiffened, then relaxed, then went rigid again at Pippin's words. "No," she replied instantly, "we don't." She knew that came off as coldly dismissive but the Regent needed Pippin to understand that Meerkat didn't belong to him and any claim he tried to make would be rebuffed. "Especially not right now," she added, shooting her child a meaningful look. "She only knows how to sign a few words but she picks up on a lot." There was no reason to risk confusing Meerkat, even if most of the topic would go right over her small head.

Speaking of her, Meerkat had taken notice of their visitor and waved, -Hi!- Unlike with Arcturus, Towhee didn't move to interfere when the youngster began to shuffle toward Pippin, her body language happy and submissive, her bottom crouched and wriggling along with her tail. Towhee might not allow Pippin to claim fatherhood of her little girl, yet he was still the Regent's friend and pack mate, which made him Meerkat's friend and pack mate too.

Accordingly, Towhee introduced, -"Meerkat, this is Pippin. Pippin, Meerkat."- She signed as well as spoke even though Meerkat's back was turned to her. She had fallen out of the habit somewhere along the way and only really consistently picked it up again since her daughter's birth. But the Regent wanted to work on signing everything she said again, particularly while Meerkat was still young and especially with Niamh's pups arriving soon too.

*intrudes*

It wasn't until the loss of Elwood and Finley and Meerkat's miraculous party crashing that Fig finally understood what his father had told him about anger just not being worth spending the energy on. Whatever bitterness or resentment he'd felt towards Towhee had evaporated somewhere along the line. By the time he'd even thought to reflect on it, it had disappeared and he couldn't really put the exact point of its disappearance into his timeline. And it really didn't matter to him either. He was just thankful and happy to be moving forward and away from it again.

He was approaching the temporary densite with a gift for his girls--a somewhat raggedy haunch of wild big he and Penn had somehow managed to fell. Somehow managed being the operative phrasing here because Penn continued to be a complete and utter tool in spite of Fig's misguided hope that losing his parents might've forced him to mature some. Fig had reached out to the other boy knowing he was likely in pain and needed a friend, and while that might still be true, Penn was still a giant dick and it had been difficult not to get fed up and walk out on the hunt.

In any event, he'd at least managed to grab the haunch out of the Blackthorn's greedy, ungrateful paws for his mother and sister to gnaw on. However, Fig paused when he realized that someone else was already there. Someone whose voice he didn't really recognize, but he did recognize the tone of his mother's words (tone deaf as she was), and that had him picking up his pace and stepping silently and unapologetically into the gathering with bright green eyes pinned warily on the blonde male that seemed to be causing some ire.

His eyes bore into her—the clipped response that came more like an order that they were absolutely not going to discuss the tiny whelp that resembled him more than her—shed a different light on the woman before him—and he wasn’t overly fond of what he was now witnessing.

His swarthy companion (friend? lover?) noted she didn’t want anything awkward being picked up by the whelp, and glancing down to catch Meerkat sidle toward him, crouched lower, allowed his shoulders to sag somewhat in defeat. Towhee was keen on not having this conversation with him, but if she thought he was going to simply walk away from this… she was wrong.

He lowered himself—the shadow of another encroaching upon them drawing his amber eyes up only momentarily to study Fig with slight recognition—for the boy had grown quite a bit since he had laid eyes on him in Asterism Grove, though the two had never formerly conversed.

The Ostrega instead watched the girl approaching him, unsure of what feeling of elation stirred in his chest at the mere sight of her. Had he and Towhee done this? She had told him nothing could come of their union—had she lied? He didn’t have any regrets on the matter—but he needed to show Towhee that he wasn’t just going to shirk responsibility. Maybe he could never be father of the year. But didn't he deserve a chance to try?

His form flattened closer to the earth, his nose tipping down to let the cinnamon pup investigate him, should she wish, whilst his own nose reached out to gently smell her. Milk. Towhee. All scents that signified home to him, which was a new realization.

“Hey, smallteeth,” he murmured, allowing her to investigate him and forcing himself to remain relaxed as he glanced back up to Towhee, waiting for Meerkat to not truly be paying attention before: “Why are you shutting me out of this?”

Her lips twitched at the unexpected nickname, "Smallteeth." Towhee almost made a comment about how those teeth didn't feel so small to her raw, chapped nipples when Fig suddenly appeared. Her orange eyes flicked to him, nostrils flaring a little at the sight of the meat. -"Hey!"- was all she managed before her gaze dropped to watch Meerkat excitedly abandon herself and Pippin in favor of her older brother and his gift, tripping over her own paws several times on her way to him.

While the puppy was distracted, Pippin faced her and, recognizing the signs that he was about to say something, she reluctantly tore her eyes away from the sight of her children interacting. For this reason and many others, the fur along her spine prickled as he pressed the issue she least wanted to discuss right now. She caught his eye, her own gaze boring into his, her displeasure clear.

"I don't want you involved," Towhee replied bluntly, aware that she very well might be irreparably damaging their relationship, though she did add, "not as her father. Phox is her father. You're welcome to be her friend," she continued, trying to keep her voice low but not doing a very good job, "and be a part of her life. But nobody but me can claim her. She came from my body, no one else's."

She paused, gaze still glued to his, plumbing it. Of course, they both knew how babies were made. But it wasn't like they could get a DNA test, guest star on "Jerry Springer" and then file for joint custody. Resemblances aside, there was no way they could ever know whose sperm had germinated Meerkat and so Towhee's preferences was the law. She could only hope, "Do you understand?"

Fig didn't remember Pippin from their days at the Grove. He hadn't been close to any of the other wolves there outside of his immediate family. The exception to that had been Dingo, but he had disappeared long before the earthquakes had begun (I'm pretty sure.....). Even if he had, it likely wouldn't have helped the tension the boy felt as he watched the scene unfold--a tension that didn't ease until his little sister abandoned the stranger and came stumbling over to him instead.

The yearling slipped to his belly, unable to keep the small smile from sliding across his face. He saw Towhee face the other male. He did his best not to listen to their interaction, recognizing it was not likely a conversation he was meant to be privvy to simply by reading their body language. He focused on Meerkat instead, lifting his paw to try and smush it gently on her head as he murmured a fond, "What kind of trouble you makin' today, Shoes?" He felt more settled with Meerkat being near enough for him to protect. Towhee could handle herself if the guy tried anything, though he still kept watch out of the corner of his eye just in case.

Meerkat’s attention span was much like the average young pup’s, and the sight of the more familiar presence of her brother drew her eagerly to the darker youth’s side. Feeling a jab of disappointment that his interlude with her was so brief, he now had Towhee’s audience—and she cut right to the chase with words sharper than any small baby teeth.

Irritation flashed in his own eyes, and he studied her, his features clouding with the storm of annoyance he felt. So that was it—the cards were laid out in front of them. This was Pippin’s worth to the dark woman, and it had foolishly taken him this long to figure it out.

The months of trying to garner trust—the feeling that perhaps he did belong was taken away like a rug pulled out from under him, and the agouti wolf, wearily.

“So, what…?” Towhee spoke loud enough for their voices to be heard, and childishly, he didn’t care that she wouldn’t realize the octave of her tone, and so he matched her own. “I don’t get a say, after all that? You lied to me,” he accused, his tail giving a lash through the air, his eyes sharply falling to Meerkat before drifting back to Towhee, attempting to steel himself. He didn’t want the girl involved in this—and surely she would hear them.

“So your brother raises her as his own, even though we both know she’s probably my daughter. That’s messed up, Towhee.”

She lifted her lip when he accused her of lying. It was so much more complicated than that, though Towhee didn't feel like revisiting any of that, not with him, not now. She had truly believed she was infertile... and, thank fuck, she had been wrong. When Pippin declared her approach as "messed up," she growled softly in warning, orange eyes flashing dangerously.

"No. There's no way to know that. You were far from the only—" Her eyes cut sharply to her kids, youngster and yearling, and she snapped her teeth against the rest of that statement. Pippin was smart; he'd know what she'd been about to say. "This is how it's going to be," she said with cold finality, the muscle in her jaw jumping with tension.

There was part of her that felt bad for shutting him down so completely, likely damaging their friendship beyond repair, yet Towhee would not and could not be budged. She'd told him he could be part of Meerkat's life and she stood by that. But they weren't mates and never would be, just like Pippin would never be Meerkat's dad. Raising her daughter how she wanted was her only priority, his feelings be damned.

Disengaging, she turned away from him and padded over to her kids, forcing a thin smile as she watched Meerkat trying to violently boop Fig's snoot. She glanced back at Pippin, gaze sharp. Her approach to motherhood was not up for further discussion but, by the same token, she wouldn't ask him to leave (like she sort of wanted to do) or take her daughter away, either, not for the moment.

Fortunately for Pippin and Towhee, Meerkat was also doing her part to keep Fig distracted from hearing much of their conversation. The pup hadn't evaded his paw, but her counterattack of toe nibbles was well aimed and effective enough to make him withdraw. From there, she had a clear path to his nose, which she proceeded to boop aggressively. He lifted his snout and turned his head this way and that to try and evade her attacks, but she was a determined little monster. Soon enough, his face and neck were good and battered from her flapping little paws and squirmy little body slams.

All of this was, of course, perfectly fine with Fig. He laughed as he tried to dodge her and smiled as he took her abuse. He decided to change tactics as Towhee came to join them, tucking his chin down against his chest instead of trying to keep it out of reach above her. He then proceeded to push his cranium forward in an attempt to headbutt her into the dirt, all while knowing it was more likely that he was shortly going to have the little monkey on his back.

Exit Pip!

He knew he wasn’t the only one she had been with—and yet as his eyes skimmed over to a playful Meerkat, he could only see parts of Ostrega in her. His jaw tightened, and Towhee’s words were like a bulldozer—but even worse was the way she turned from him, her ability to finalize a conversation efficient given their conversing was her reading his lips.

And she returned to her happy family. The three of them—her back turned to him, and Pippin stood, removing himself from the situation with a new perspective of apparently the illusion he had been living when he had swore his loyalty to Towhee and her family and what that meant his worth was to her.

Her brows shot up when Pippin decided to turn his back on spending any more time with them today. Towhee shouldn't have been surprised, though she was a little bit taken aback. After all that, he wasn't going to take what he could get? Her gaze trailed after him as he disappeared into the trees. Honestly, though, she was relieved. She wouldn't begrudge Pippin a role in Meerkat's life, though it was probably good to take some space at the moment to make peace with the situation.

Lips pursed, she refocused on her children. She took a deep breath and tried to let go of any lingering feelings about how she'd had to treat Pippin. Towhee licked her lips and watched as Figment gently headbutted Meerkat, causing her to lose her balance and fall onto a hip. Her mouth opened in a loud laugh that Towhee couldn't hear. But she saw it, focused on it, and let Pippin fade into the back of her mind as she lowered herself to the ground to play some good old fashioned monkey in the middle.

Wanna wrap and/or archive? :D

In spite of having little puppy paws flapping around before his eyes, Fig kept his eyes on Pippin as he departed the scene. Once the other male was out of sight, he relaxed the tension in his muscles and let his gaze shift over his sister and onto Towhee. She seemed okay, but there were very small clues in the tightness of her lips and the corners of her eyes that hinted to him of her stress. He frowned softly in concern, but didn't say anything. It wasn't his business, and besides, he knew better ways to cheer her up.

Fig looked again at Meerkat as she pup found her paws beneath her and came charging for him again. He smiled and dipped his muzzle down at the last moment to get it under her chest, and then he flipped. She rolled backwards towards Towhee, full of giggles. Fig's tail wagged at the sight, and he laughed as the game continued--rolling a puppy between the two of them while Meerkat laughed happily at her new role as soccer ball.

Wrap! Hope you don't mind the PP--Couldn't help it, I like the visual lol