Redhawk Caldera lazy afternoons

He continued to look away from her, eyes burning, as Finley offered what he could only call tough love. He decided not to respond, to let her finish and finally walk away without a word, but he promptly failed at this when he gritted out, "Fin, that's what I was trying to do here." Peregrine let out a long breath, eyes pressing closed (a tear fell from each, which he ignored) as he tried to reign in a sudden burst of anger. "I want to guide them through this, teach them to cope and move on. Eljay was preventing that." He still didn't look at her, embarrassed by the wetness on his face, and instead spoke to a nearby tree.

"This isn't a pissing contest, Finley," he added in a flat voice. He'd lost kids too, from the loss of little "Derp" in his first week to Junior's savage death at his own teeth. "And how many times do I have to tell you to quit calling me that?" And with that, Peregrine was done, so done. Eyes leaking, nose sniffling, he finally made a move, darting away a lot like a butt-hurt little kid fleeing from the jerk bully on the playground.

Surely they could fix this, make amends, get past it, forget about it completely... but, for now, Peregrine unknowingly did the same thing as Eljay: ran away to cry and wallow.