Sun Mote Copse hot girl bummer

AW, but he's looking for @Wraen.

He had tried to digest what had transpired, but no matter the angle he considered, it left nothing but a burning fire within him. That familiar itch pulled at him—the ache of his paws—the reckless need to say fuck it and be done with it—on to the next place.

So he had paced the borders. He had slinked past them, studying the herds, and trying to keep his mind off the bullshit at home.

When days past and the tension had yet to leave, the agouti wolf dipped his muzzle down, finding Wraen’s scent and beginning to seek the silver voice of reason out—because only now did her words about how tight-knit of a family the Redhawks were fully register on him.

Wraen was enjoying a moment of peace and quiet on her favourite observation spot by the western borders. It was a small hillock, padded with soft moss and green grass, and, whoever was lounging in that comfortable seat, could let their gaze travel over the vast fields of cricket creek bog. It was a little too early for the frogs to begin their courtship choir competition, but in the meanwhile birds of various kinds offered a melodic prelude just as enjoyable.

The sovereign wondered, how far Maia had got and what her sister was doing now. Even though she had got used to the sibling's nomadic ways, she always missed her dearly. Firebirds were nice bunch of people, but such friend as Maia was to Wraen could not be substituted. One of a kind. Irreplaceable. But just as she thought this, she caught sight of Pippin coming her way. Eager for a welcome distraction, she pulled herself up to a sit and called out to the fellow: "Hey! How are you doing?"

Oh cool, I've been meaning to have an updated thread with both y'all. ^__^

Phox peeled himself away from the children for the afternoon, deciding it would be nice to get out and have some leisure time that wasn't directed toward his family. Not that he didn't love them to bits (he most certainly did), but keeping connections with the rest of the pack was also important. The silver-specked wolf found himself meandering along the borders, enjoying the quiet break from the mewling of his little sprogs. (He really did love them.)

When he spotted not just one, but two Firebirds up ahead, he couldn't help but catch up to them and interject himself into the conversation. Wraen, Pippen, he greeted with a smile and a wag of his tail. He hadn't known what had transpired between Towhee and Pippin, and he certainly wasn't bright enough to pick up on any signs of distress right away. How are you two doing? I feel like I've been spending all my time dad-ing and zero time socializing with adults.

She seen him coming and he was quick to get to the point—something, he assumed, they could both appreciate. “Hey, Wraen,” he began, trying to calm the grit of his voice and tension within his shoulders as he began to close the distance between the two. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you.”

He felt slightly bad for disturbing her—but he wasn’t here to manipulate her time. “I need a few days to clear—“

That was when Phox, of all others, came upon the scene, and the Ostrega immediately stiffened, his flaring eyes sharp upon the other half of an equation he just didn’t understand. His jaws clipped shut, but only until the boast of all the wonderful parenting his previous leader touted.

Was he purposely baiting him? Pippin couldn’t help the flash of incredulous gaping. “Must be tiring,” he chuffed, knowing he was about to regret everything at this very moment. “Being the dad to another man’s kid.”

No sooner did the words come out did he snort, his eyes drifting away to study the horizon. The pull of his brows was still there, but he instead tried not to burn the bridges of his comradeship with the Firebirds. "Sorry," he uttered, his gaze shooting to the Sovereign. "Wraen, I was hoping to take a few days to clear my head. Anything you need done outside of the copse?"

Pippin's announcement did not come as much of a surprise - not because Wraen was aware of his complicated relationship with Towhee - but she had suspected that as a weathered nomad he was it would be hard for him to stay put in one place. And she would have remained unaware of any tensions had not the very palpable change in her comrade's demeanor, when Phox arrived. Now, this was interesting.

"Hey, Phox," she greeted the fellow, then turned to Pippin to deal with his inquiry first, in case he did not wish to remain. "Uh, yeah, sure. I have Maia on a scouting mission on behalf of Eljay at the moment, but I would be very interested in knowing, what is going on in the valley beyond the mountains," she spoke about flatlands and the wilderness. "Avoid Moonspear for time being - we might not be regarded as exactly friends - but I am very interested in, who these Nightwalkers are and what other packs reside there. Bring me home the freshest gossip," she smiled at him encouragingly. 

Now Phox: "All the usual. I actually enjoy that for once I do not need to babysit as much as I had to in the previous years. You are doing a good job there."

Phox's eyes widened at the remark, and then he scowled. Phox listened to the conversation between Wraen and Pippin, but he wasn't just going to let Pippin go without explaining why he thought it necessary to be an asshole to his superior. That's right kids, Phox is pulling rank. Thanks Wraen. And Pippin, hang on a hot second. What was that supposed to mean? As far as Phox knew, Pippin hadn't made any effort to see Meerkat (or any of the children, for that matter). Now he was going to bitch about not being a part of their lives? That wasn't going to fly with Phox.

With Wraen standing here, Phox had a feeling things wouldn't get too out of hand, but he still braced himself in case Pippin decided to take things in a physical direction. Not that Phox wanted to fight him. He just wanted a goddamn explanation for why he was being talked to like he'd done something wrong.

Grateful that Wraen didn't pry further, he gave a nod, eager to get past the two and the hell out of dodge for awhile. He'd find some info on these Nightwalkers and hopefully work off some tension. 

Phox, of course, wasn't about to let anything go, and Pippin regarded him coolly as the swarthy wolf called him to stop. He had always liked Phox--maybe he still did, just not in this moment. But Wraen's initial words of how tightknit Firebirds family blood ties ran was more than apparent to him now. And Towhee had made it more than clear it hadn't included him. 

No wonder no one outside of their ranks wanted to stay. Yet what good would pissing them off so? Then he wouldn't even be able to see Meerkat. 

"It means nothing, Phox. Just like Towhee has said that Meerkat's resemblance of me means nothing, too." He paused, pointedly looking at the dark wolf. "I already said sorry, Phox. So let's just drop it. It's already been made clear that it's not even a conversation worth having by your sister."

The first thing that came to Wraen's mind, when Phox called out Pippin on, what was bothering him, was that the nip on Towhee's butt had been well-deserved. Had she known that her one-night-stand-no-strings-attached binge would end up with her living in the same pack with at least two of her suitors, perhaps, she would have sourced Meerkat's donors further away. That was a heretic thought and one that she would leave for herself to discuss.

"Wait - I was under impression that you and Towhee were kind of an item?" she furrowed her brow, recalling, how thrilled her Regent was, when Pippin had joined the ranks. In fact, she had been the one to persuade Wraen to have him. "Could you elaborate on, what exactly happened between the two of you?" she asked, trying to defuse the situation. "I mean, because it seems that neither me, nor Phox here has a clue."

She what? Phox asked, clearly perturbed by this new information. He had assumed that Pippin had not come to see Meerkat, but now it sounded like he'd been urged (or threatened) to stay away from her. Not that Phox had any strong feeling that Pippin was the father (or anybody else, for that matter), he didn't think there was a good reason for Towhee to tell him that. Even though Towhee wasn't Figment and Fennec's biological mother (or the biological mother of the three little ones), Phox had always thought of her as their mother. He also thought of Niamh as the mother of his three little ones, both biologically and in every other way. They were equals, as far as he was concerned.

That was the part that didn't make sense to him. Why would Towhee reject somebody who wanted to help parent her kid? Especially when it was fairly likely that he had been half of the equation to the solution that was Meerkat. Yeah, what gives? he asked, furrowing a brow with more confusion than unsettled tension this time around.

Maybe they were trying to reassure him—support him—whatever. Wraen, at very least, was, and maybe her kindness would have been more appreciated had the wanderlust Ostrega not spent his entire life avoiding difficult situations such as this.

Tambourine’s death and all was a pretty key start to that.

“Wraen,” he rumbled, giving her a wry smirk. “I already told you we weren’t. Besides. Snitches get stitches, and all that fun stuff,” he hummed, though the humour in his tone was lacklustre.

But suddenly everyone was very interested in what happened, and honestly, he didn’t like the idea of others getting too far into his business. All he had wanted was to tell Wraen he was bouncing for a bit so she didn’t think he had just up and left.

“Ask Towhee, then. I don’t want to go into details. If you want the quick details of it—we banged. A lot. Because she told me she couldn’t get pregnant. And then she had Meerkat, and she told me I’m just the packmate, Phox is the father—end of story. She refuses to discuss it further.”

He paused. “If you have questions or concerns, then take it up with her. I’m going to go blow off some steam and collect my head, because this is bullshit. But that’s between me and Towhee.”

Wraen had heard Towhee's rhetoric before in a different setting, but she had not been aware that not all were fine with the situation. If Pippin was taking it badly and it had taken two months for her to find out, what was Arcturus going through? And he was not known for talking about his emotions at all? Oh boy... she made a mental note to lock Towhee in a den and have everyone guard her until her heat was over next year. 

"Well, if this "between you and Towhee" stuff begins to affect other packmates, it is my business," she told Pippin and walked to stand in his way and not let him flee just yet. "What kind of proposition did you make to Towhee?" she asked, refraining to add that there was another father strolling around in their ranks, who could make similar claims, were he not easily intimidated by women. "Or you did not get to propose at all?"

Phox listened. If he'd been his mother, he probably would have grappled with Pippin after the third word and told him to stop being so... wordy. Thankfully, Phox is very unlike his mother. Pardon me for interjecting, but... this is also kinda my business, too. I've been treating Meerkat as my own kid in large part because Towhee stepped up to be a mom for my two last year. I would love for Meerkat to have all the dads in the world, just as much as I love having all the moms in the world for all my children. Phox had no qualms with Pippin. He even kinda liked the guy. He was mostly hurt that he'd been called out for something he didn't even do.

Maybe I can talk with her and... I don't know. Make her see that having you as a dad influence in Meerkat's life a good thing. Phox didn't give a good god damn about biological ties. If Pip wanted to be part of the family, by gods, Phox would find a way for him to do it.

Cut off by Wraen, the Ostrega gave pause as she spoke, his eyes falling deftly to her cheek rather than her own eyes—Firebirds didn’t seem to lay demands much for subservience, but she was still the Sovereign.

“There was no proposition, Wraen. She avoided me, and when I finally managed to get some time with her, she shut down any discussion of it. She walked away from me. I wasn’t about to make a scene in front of Meerkat.”

Phox’s interjection caused a sideways glance from the agouti wolf, who was growing wearier as the situation unfolded. “Careful, Phox, or else she’ll shut you out, too,” he rumbled, his tail giving an agitated flick.

“Look. I’m sorry. I’m cranky. I need some space because I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I don’t even know what the right thing to do is.”

But the itch in his paws was definitely telling him it was probably best to just cut loose the drama and leave. Towhee had made it hella clear that his presence was completely unimportant, and that Meerkat wouldn’t know him as anything else but a friend. So what was the point?

If it had not occurred to Wraen to promote Phox before, then now, listening, how he dealt with the situation, she realized that there was a very valuable and level-headed asset in the Firebirds' midst and she had not even been aware of it. So much for getting to know all the people. But then again - as the man himself had said it before - he had his paws full herding four kids, his sister and a wife, there had been no time for chit-chatting and even this opportunity had turned into something different.

"Phox said it all very nicely," Wraen agreed. "I mean - Towhee has a rather blunt manner of saying things, so - perhaps - something has been lost in translation," she said. "I think that it can be sorted out, when you feel like doing it. Have your out and have time to think things through and then return and talk with her. Meerkat can only gain, if she has an extra parent and a friend."

Phox smiled a bit when Pippin mentioned Towhee shutting him out. Little did Pippin know that Towhee actually had shut Phox out for a time. Back when he had first returned to the Redhawks, he wasn't sure that he would ever regain her trust. It had taken months to get back on her good side, and Phox had clung to it like velcro ever since. Now, just like when they were kids, he and Towhee were inseparable. But that didn't mean they agreed on everything.

When Wraen complimented him, Phox couldn't help but gently sway his tail from side to side. It seemed as though he and Wraen were on the same wavelength on this. Then again, had they ever not been on the same wavelength? Phox found himself nodding along with what she suggested: Pippin should take some time, but Phox was still glad that he'd heard this.