Heron Lake Plateau But I'm ten toes down, I will not fold.

She should go visit the Firebirds, follow up with Niamh and check on Finley and her new babies. Or, at the very least, she should go patrol. But just now, Towhee simply couldn't tear herself away from her little family. She had never expected to have one, yet here she was, raising two amazing kids alongside @Phox. It was the perfect arrangement she'd never known she'd wanted. As Towhee stared at them—all three napping, the kids tucked up in the crooks of their father's arms—her battered heart smiled.

So she shirked her responsibilities and slid forward onto her belly, smiling a dopey smile at the sight of them. Fuckin' dweebs, she thought with fierce affection... with love... with unconditional love. It wasn't something with which Towhee was very familiar—she had been betrayed, hurt and left too many times to hand out such a thing easily—but she knew the way she felt about @Fig and @Fennec was utterly unequivocal.

Her chin came to rest atop her outstretched forelegs, yet Towhee was not tired and she did not sleep. She simply stared, the corners of her mouth curled into a little smile, and knew she'd do anything for these three dorks.

Fenn was asleep, until for some reason her mind decided being awake was better.  As was the usual for the tiny girl, her body didn't agree quite as quickly, so when she woke up with was with a little groan and a very, very floppy roll.

Huff.  She opened her eyes and blinked, peering at the fuzzy form that was her aunt.  Yana she said, though it split into a yawn halfway through.  To Towhee, it would likely look like nothing more than a yawn.

For a while, nobody moved. All was still and quiet (or so Towhee assumed); it was quite restful. But then Fen stirred and the Beta immediately lifted her head to watch the girl as she roused. Soon she was sitting up, blinking in the light and yawning. The noise she made was lost on Towhee. Until the pups could enunciate clearly, there was no point in trying to communicate with them verbally.

But she'd been signing at them from go, so Towhee sat up, smiled and patted the ground with her foot. -Good nap?- she asked, knowing two words and an inquisitive symbol was probably still too complex but wanting to expose Fen as much as possible until she caught onto ptero.

Fig hadn’t been sleeping, but he had been lying very still. He had decided to be stubborn and stay awake while his sister napped, but had quickly grown bored without her being conscious enough to amuse him. So, he had taken to amusing himself by laying beside her and kneading the ground with his little outstretched peets like a cat kneads at a blanket or an innocent bystanders face. Cats are dicks.

But that act in itself wasn’t really what entertained him. It was the little song he sang that ...well, that wasn’t exactly entertaining either, but it seemed to have been doing the trick for the last twenty minutes. It went something along the lines of ”Buh buh buh buh buh buh buh...” over and over and over again, tunelessly, endlessly, irritatingly. It was fortunate Towhee was deaf otherwise his new anthem might’ve gotten his tongue removed.

Fenn’s movement behind him shut him right up though. He bolted upright and spun, looking back at her with a wide-eyed, wide-mouthed smile and a loud declaration of ”BAH!” His gaze leaped to Towhee in the next instant and his smile broadened (if possible) and he went lunging right over the top of his sister to set to work trying to nab one of the paws she was twitching around in the air and give it a good, loving chomp.

She peered at Towhee as she signed, but even if she'd been able to glean any meaning from the gestures, she couldn't pick up enough finesse to them to even really note.  All she knew was that it was an odd way for the shape to be moving.

And then some jerk interrupted them anyway.  BAH! she squealed as Fig jumped on her.  He managed to catch a paw, but she rolled and pushed with her hindpaws, trying to knock him off so that she could jump on him.  That was the proper order of things after all.

They both looked her way, though before Fen could possibly react (although it was seriously doubtful she would comprehend the sign, much less respond to it directly), Fig launched himself over his sister. And for the sake of continuity, we'll say he managed to latch onto Towhee's poor, unsuspecting mitt. She looked down at him, agog, wondering how a pup had just managed to get the drop chomp on her. Then he began to apply pressure and her face quickly curdled into a wince.

Trying not to do it too violently, Towhee shook her leg to prise him from it. When that didn't work (and some ancestor in her head scolded her to never, never shake a baby), the Beta bent over him, scruffed the little scamp and yanked him free. She felt his teeth scrape across the meat of her lower foreleg and winced again. It would've been a big, fat lie to say she didn't momentarily entertain the idea of dropping and stomping him. Towhee didn't have motherly instincts to sugarcoat these things.

But the feeling passed quickly and she more or less gently plopped Fen on the gr—no, let's make that on the sister.

when I respond too fast I read things wrong oops

skippin you bro bc I made that confusing 

Wait a minute.  It wasn't her paw Fig was chewing on..... so who was?

Oh.  She was chewing on her own paw.  Nice.

She drooled and lazed, rolling sideways to lay down and better shove more of the thing in her mouth.  This was amazing.  Even an air-dropped Fig couldn't ruin it, though she did give a muffled Hyufff of displeasure as he landed on her.

I totally did not follow any of that. So Fig didn't really either! All he knew was that he managed to grab a paw, but then he managed to lose it within the next few moments. He went limp with a disappointed grunt as he was lifted, instinctively knowing that he had been overpowered and it was time to stop fighting. But that instinct vanished in the moment after he was dropped onto his sister and he flopped about until he was back on all fours, looking about eagerly with his little tail flapping to and fro.

"Baaa! Aaaaggbaa!" he chirped importantly as his gaze landed on Towhee and he decided she needed to be told a thing or two. He hopped towards her face, attempting to reach her chin to give it a big ol' kiss because the news he needed to share was that he loved her face. And also he wanted to play more.

Neither one of the pups reacted much to being shoved on top of one another, which made sense if you thought about it: they'd kicked around in a womb together for months and had been squished together pretty much ever since then too. Towhee chuckled as she watched them, quirking an eyebrow when Fig began leaping at her face.

A more typical parent probably would've lowered herself to the pup's level and let him have his way. But Towhee just held out a paw and gently smushed it against the kid's forehead.

she is skippable now! I meant to put that last post but I forgot

While Towhee played with Fig, Fen rolled over and closed her eyes for a little siesta.  It might put a crimp in their playing room, but she was sleepy and sleepy child does as sleepy child does.

Towhee did not give him the assist and lower her head so he could give her any chin kisses. Instead, she smushed him. He plopped down onto his haunches under the weight of her paw, tilting his head to the side curiously over what this was all about. He leaned to peer around her paw up at her first, looking for some indication of what she might be expecting from him next. When he saw none, he went to his usual standby and tried to give her paw a loving chomp. Maybe it would get her to get this paw out of his way so he could give her some gosh dang chin kissies!

Fig seemed utterly perplexed by her face-smushing, which earned a snicker from Towhee. When he made to bite at her, she relented and bent down to give him a slobbery kiss, her tongue swiping from the tip of his nose up between his ears and leaving a little cowlick in its wake.

She looked over to see Fen fast asleep, then back to Fig with his bitchin' hairstyle, and the Beta's heart fell very full all over again. She would never get tired of this feeling. She hadn't carried these two in her womb, yet Towhee certainly carried them in her heart.

Speaking of tired... -Didn't you guys just wake up?- she pondered, pointing a toe at Fig's sleepy sister. -Don't tell me you're gonna rack out on me too?-

Fig grinned triumphantly as his ploy worked and the paw was removed. He managed to plant a couple of chin kisses on Towhee before she trumped him with a sloppy lick across his whole face. Fig giggled and did a full body shake, unaware of his sweet new doo, which remained in tact as though his Aunt's saliva was made of hair gel. His eyes settled on Towhee again as she began to move her paws around in that funny way she always did.

Without a single thought in his head as to why or what it was he intended, Fig lifted a paw in the air and batted it around in a way that was somewhat similar to what his Aunt had just done. It was hard to say if he was simply trying to mimic her or if he was starting to figure out that this was how communication worked. But either way, the boy found it to be entirely amusing and laughed again at his own antics.

this thread has inspired Figlet's new avatar :D

Fig began waving his little peets around in the air and it made Towhee's heart lurch in the best possible way. "That's it," she said slowly, aloud, before signing, -That's it. This is how we talk.- It didn't seem like he'd quite cottoned onto that yet but his mimicry made her hopeful that he would pick up on it soon. Her younger siblings always had.

-I love you,- she signed at him next, pausing between each of the three signs and doing them emphatically, then repeating herself a few times to see what he made of it.

The boy didn't know why, but this seemed to be making his mom really happy. He watched her with amusement, his face puzzled but still smiling as she moved her paws around more. He had stopped flapping his own arms for the moment almost as if to study her better. But when he moved them again, it was clear he hadn't done it so he could mimic her. He was just trying to out-silly her by making even crazier paw flaps. Paw flaps that eventually had him tripping over himself and falling down. He was still laughing, though, so that's good atleast.

He flailed back at her, clearly thinking this was some sort of game. She told herself he would catch on eventually and to be patient. But for now, Towhee stopped bothering with trying to sign at him. Instead, she dropped her paws to the earth a moment before pouncing the silly youngster and snuffling ticklishly at his ribs and belly.

Oh, quit worrying so much, ma. Fig would indeed catch on eventually, without even really realizing he was catching on at all. Even now, he was cataloguing the different ways she moved her paws and storing them in his little brain. He didn't know how to use them properly yet, sure, but he still knew them. And if he knew them, he could start repeating them. From there, he'd catch on with the when to use and the what it means.

For now, though, he was just a silly pup that appeared to be trying to flap his arms to fly away and failing. He rolled happily under Towhee's "attack" and giggled loudly as he was tickled, kicking his little paws harmlessly against her nose in a playful attempt at self-defense.

Towhee gave up on every pretense as she engaged her son, tickling him and cooing straight gobbledygook, very much living in and enjoying the moment. She knew the sayings about how kids seemed to grow up in the blink of an eye. She had seen it for herself, with her younger siblings. That was in the back of her mind right now as she tried to be present.

But, eventually, her responsibilities niggled at her so much that she couldn't ignore them any longer. Hoping that Fig was tuckered out again, Towhee announced that she really ought to go patrol, then planted a big, slobbery kiss on the crown of the kid's head. "I'll be back as soon as I'm done," the Beta promised, giving Fig's ribs one last tickle before she finally tore herself away to tend to her duties.

Fig's whole body ached from laughter by the time all was said and done. Still, the boy was very displeased when his grown-up playmate excused herself. He gave her the best show of pouting he could muster, but it did little to sway her. She left, and her adopted son stood whimpering in her wake.

Sad, defeated, and super sleepy, Fig spun and returned to his sister. He snuggled up against her and proceeded to whine into her ear until she batted his face a few times to shut him up. Satisfied, or something like it, he shut his eyes and let his sleepiness take the wheel.