Mudminnow River and basically, i wanna know

hella late bc i slept five years but thread for @Whittaker!
@Kratos is welcome too as always <3

Avoiding nearby packs has proven more difficult than he'd anticipated, and several days of detouring has set the pair back. They don't really know where they're going yet, but the valley is too familiar for his liking. He can't stand being reminded of so much from his past constantly — so they're moving on, however slow it may be.
He's ahead of Kratos now, enough that all he sees of his mate is a speck in the distance; he'd maybe gotten a little too excited about spotting a river. He's just disappointed now. It's all muddy and gross, not fit for drinking or bathing. He snorts, a habit subconsciously picked up from his mate, and turns to go back the way he'd come.

avoidant, twitchy, whittaker had woken up on the wrong side of the bed and the whole day was destined to be ruined. he angrily rubs out his eyes until he sees nothing but dark fuzz, but the world slowly comes back to him.
just because he could, he changes course to walk into the riverbed, impulsive like a car swerving to drive through a puddle. the air is still cold. winter was stubborn as hell this year, but the chill helps him wake up.
he squints— up in the distance was a small grey coywolf-looking thing. and he doesn't see him yet, but another larger man even further ahead. just because he could, he changes course to approach the silver stranger, impulsive like touching a stranger on the shoulder in the metro to let him know he has dandruff on his suit. hello, he calls out, uncertain and tired, before realising he had no idea where to push the conversation after.

Hello. He turns, unimpressed with the greeting and the boy his gaze lands on. His first instinct is to tell the guy to go to hell — he doesn't know him, and he doesn't want to. But then he remember he's supposed to be recruiting. Pack. Right. He tries to look friendly, but fails miserably, managing only his usual mask of indifference. Hello, He echoes, pausing a half-beat as he considers how to start the conversation. Since obviously this guy isn't going to. You need something? Not as friendly as he was hoping for, but he's not very good at friendly.

just as he'd predicted, the conversation screeches to a halt before it ever gets off the ground, like an airplane on the runway bursting into flames. close your eyes and you would hear the whistle of his brain cells falling through open sky.
he sighs with all the world-weariness he can muster and brings his hand up to his face.
do you need anything? his eyes, resentful and tired, reflect the stranger's apathy. another sigh. apologies for stepping on your coattails, sir.
he's turning and about to walk away when it hits him— he's just called a girl a sir. he grits his teeth and rolls his eyes. granted, she was pretty boyish for a girl. what the hell. i'm running on an hour of sleep and i'm not even using. slowly, he turns back around again, looking a good deal more reserved. uh, sorry. about the uh, thing.
if the conversation before was a plane on fire, now it was a plane on fire carrying a shitton of explosives with a baby strapped to the cockpit. jesus.

The response catches him off-guard; he isn't used to being the one getting snapped at. He knows his own greeting wasn't the best, but really, what did the guy expect? The emphasis on the sir only further confuses the matter — he feels like he's being mocked, but there's no way this guy can know... right? These mixed emotions don't show until the finale, however. Just when he thinks the stranger is going to leave, he turns around and apologizes for — the thing? What thing? He asks, a little more sharply than he'd intended. He immediately assumes "the thing" is the sir part, but for entirely different reasons than the boy is thinking. He'd been right to feel mocked, he thinks.

the creases bunch and gather around his eyes. he was squinting harder, if that was possible, mouth half-open in confusion. y'know, the thing. he gestures lamely.
he does a double take. a weak scoff. do you seriously not know? 'cuz i called you sir. asshole move of me, i know. he scuffs the bottom of his foot on the floor. if he had hands, they'd be shoved unrighteously into his pockets. when he speaks again, his voice is markedly softer. sorry.
yet again, another sigh, this one longer and more heated— his thin shoulders sag with it. um. what's your name. he does not look particularly excited to engage in conversation, but he figures that it'd be best to come away with at least a name attached to a face. he treats it like he's a zookeeper to a cage full of lions: gingerly, wincing, half his foot out the door in case things took a turn for the terrible.

He'd expected the answer to be less confusing, but it turns out it's the exact opposite. Now he isn't sure whether his assumption had been right, or what's going on at all. I guess it would be an asshole move, if I was a chick, He says after a moment, studying the other boy carefully and deciding to keep a hold on his temper for now. At least until he figures out whether there's actually a reason to be angry. The stranger is acting so odd, sharp one moment and soft the next, bold and outright but fidgeting the whole time. It's a little annoying, but Zephyr is interested anyway, if only because he's so different. Different the way Kratos is, but completely unlike his mate in every way. But I'm not. And my name is Zephyr. You?

she— he's not a girl? what? he frowns, chews his lip, and his face folds deeper into confusion, but he remains silent. this guy— he was so clinical and collected, a pair of gloved and powdered hands holding a scalpel, and whittaker felt like a chipped mallet next to him. dingy and vaguely pathetic.
more than anything though, he's impressed.
church, dude, he mutters. i'm whittaker. so we can shake on not, like, biting chunks out of each other, right? because that's seriously the last thing i need. he scratches the back of his head, still distant, still skeptical, but a couple notches more comfortable. despite the haphazard (and largely unsuccessful) tough-guy aura he tries to exude, anyone could see the fundamental naivety in his eyes from a mile away.

Church. He's never heard that word before, so he isn't sure what it's supposed to mean, but he doesn't spend long pondering it. The lack of argument and the slight shift in atmosphere are enough for him to assume it isn't anything bad. The boy — Whittaker, he has to remind himself immediately — even manages to draw a smile from him with his next words, odd as they are. A real smile, one not inspired by his mate for once — something that hasn't happened in... a long time. Excluding when he'd laughed at rat boy. Whittaker has no way of knowing it, truly, but the rarity of the moment makes itself known in small ways; the briefness of the expression, the awkward half-curve on one side as if he doesn't quite know how to form a proper smile. Maybe he doesn't, actually.
Yeah, Amusement bleeds into his voice, but the smile is already fading, gone as quick as it'd come. He hopes he isn't interpreting the phrase the wrong way. Regardless, he tries to switch back into recruitment mode; now that he's interested, it's even higher on his list of priorities. He wants to keep this one, even if he doesn't seem the fighting type so far. You live around here, or just passing through?

zephyr smiles, or at least, tries to smile, and whittaker flashes back a toothy smirk, like he's on the verge of a fistbump. he's starting to whistle— a disjointed, off-tune melody, when a question juts out in between them.
he has to open and close his mouth a few times, searching blindly for words and the structure for a sentence that won't be completely incomprehensible. what comes out of him is a passable attempt at doing so. just, y'know. he kicks at the ground and scuffs up dirt. passing.
his head ducks down in something like embarrassment. what had really happened involved an exasperated mother and her taking away the keys to his own house, but zephyr didn't have to know all that shit. he looks back up. you?

The smirk sparks an odd feeling in his chest, but whatever it is, it fades quickly. His question prompts a rather showy display of Whittaker's youth, and reminds him that he's just another boy. A different sort of boy, yes, but not another species entirely. Nothing to gawk at. Not that he wants to do that or anything. Why would he want to do that?
Anyway. Me too. I'm looking for a place to call my own, actually, A careful pause, brief. His next words are heavy with implication, an indirect invitation. As much as he wants to claim Whittaker for himself, he still tends toward playing hard to get; if he can get the other boy to ask after his pack, he will. And a few people to tag along.

as much as whittaker fails to deal with subtlety, he's smart enough to notice what's implied. it took another level of obliviousness to not notice the air, steeped in suggestion. he glances up, skeptical. or maybe that was how he always looks. evidence was rapidly growing to support the latter. so, uh, you asking me to tag along and shit? he cocks a brow, cocks his head, lets the expression settle in for a few moments before he breaks into a smile. hell yeah, man.
he walks closer with dragging, almost arrogant steps. let's shake on it. in between them, he raises a hand, pale and streaked with dirt, more knuckles and veins than anything else.

feel free to fade with your post <3 zeph will just invite him to come meet kratos after this

Zephyr had hoped for interest, but he hadn't quite expected the response he receives. It catches him off-guard just enough to leave him in silence for a moment, staring at the offered paw with a hint of confusion in glacial eyes. Yeah. Uh... shake — ? He hesitates, abandoning the question and opting to mimic Whittaker's movement. After a beat, he gives his paw an awkward shake in the air, assuming that must be the logical next step. He'd said shake, after all.