Phoenix Maplewood Trippin' on skies, sippin' waterfalls

If you need to pause this thread, that's cool! There's no rush. :)

P.S. Is Arion still technically part of the pack? Lol.

Smash felt her breath catch a little at the news that only Reek and Saena were here. What about Arion? And Wynter? And the rest of the mishmash she had left behind so unceremoniously last summer? Her orange eyes widened suddenly as she thought, Did some of them die in the fire? But Reek hadn't mentioned it and Smash found herself strangely fearful of the answer, so she didn't ask, at least for now.

Anyway, Reek dropped a bomb on her. "Expecting what?" she joked without missing a beat, only for her soft brown features to scrunch in confusion. "Wait—you said..." Slowly, the gears shifted and clicked into place. "You and Saena?" she exclaimed, her face cycling through a whole myriad of emotions before finally transforming into a beaming grin. Things with Wynter obviously hadn't worked out but at least Reek was getting his chance to become a father; and what a damn good one he would make!

"Hey, congratulations, buddy! I'm so happy our practice sessions didn't go to waste." Smash clucked her tongue and winked at him, then canted her head as she revealed. "And, uh, guess what! I'm a dad too!" There was a brief nervousness to her smile as she came clean by admitting, "That's why I left in the first place. I was irresponsible and got myself knocked up. I didn't want to burden you guys or, well, get my ass handed to me." She laughed quietly for a second, then continued, "So I went back to my parents' pack to give birth. My son, Luke, is six months old now." And there was a lot more to the story, yet Smash paused there, giving the grand poobah a moment to digest all that.