We both know we can't go without it

After her confusing meet-up with Reek at Redtail Rise, Pantaleimon returned home exhausted. She'd returned home as soon as she could, not taking much pause, and found that she really wished she had. Pan wanted to talk to Peregrine really badly, even though she didn't really know what to talk about. Besides the fact that Pan could never explain exactly how she felt about what she was, Pantaleimon knew that he would never want a solitary lover in herself. He had Fox, and he could probably get any male he wanted -- well, except for Reek, obviously -- so why would he ever want only Pantaleimon in his life? It was a stupid thought, but the thought remained, and Pantaleimon found herself torn between confronting him and leaving the Caldera to stop herself from hurting herself every single day she watched Perry not be hers, or just... dragging along, pretending things were fine, and taking second place as boy toy for granted. The worst thing was that the second option appealed to her the most, even though she knew in her head she needed to think about the long term. It was hard to, though, when the short term was so sweet.

When Pan arrived upon Redhawk Caldera's borders, she was surprised to see one of Fox and Perry's kids hanging out there. She'd met Nightjar once or twice, but they had never spent any private time together. Pan was surprised to see him hanging out at the borders, but then again, all wolves -- including the pups -- had been asked to pick up a warrior or warden trade. If she remembered correctly Nightjar had picked warden -- hadn't Perry said something about that? -- so maybe he was just practising. Pan looked around to see if there was anyone with him, but there was no one she could decipher.

Since Pantaleimon knew little about what the pups were and weren't allowed to do at this age, she decided not to fuss too much about it. Pan trotted towards Nightjar and called out to him -- "Hi!" -- while she fell in step with his patrol. "Are you out patrolling?" she asked gingerly, feeling kind of dumb for asking -- what else was he doing? -- and she hoped that Nightjar would be able to appreciate her company.