Hushed Willows furnace

always! <3

Since her promotion Banner spent much of her time within the borders of The Keep.  Her early days of membership in the pack were spent elsewhere and though she had a bevy of exuses for her absences then, being away at a time like this didn't seem kosher to her.  Plus she apparently had a great deal of things to do as a leader, though none of these things had seemed particularly pressing before she'd earned her new title.  It was a wonder Stark did all of it by himself!  Though now he never had to do it alone again.  She felt especially proud that he trusted her to watch over the pack in his absence despite how emotionally exhausting it could be.

She just wasn't used to being needed or sought out for anything important.  That might explain why she shied away from it all when Stark wasn't off traveling.  And now that their ranks had finally filled out some, she felt even more secure in keeping a low profile.  Of course, she'd needed a couple of days to recover from her late night stroll with Buchanan.  Not that they'd encountered anything dangerous, but there was a lot of.. emotion that night.  And her outburst.  Though he likely saw it as a blip in the middle of an otherwise pleasant evening, to her it was a much bigger deal.  It meant a loss of control in a way she hadn't experienced before and, to be honest, it frightened her.

Naturally, waking up at what she assumed to be a very late morning hour also frightened her, though it was in a much different sense.  Banner blinked and looked around The Crook, disbelief clear as day on her face.  How the hell was she the last one up?  How did she sleep through Tambourine doing.. well, anything?  She rose with a groan and trotted slowly toward the larger mouth of their sleeping quarters.  .. the hell, she mumbled to herself, eyes narrowing as she looked around for any sign of her packmates.  The Beta could only assume that her mental exhaustion had been a little too obvious, just enough for Stark to let her sleep entirely too late this morning.  Or maybe everyone just went about their business and decided to leave her be for some miraculous and random reason.  Who knew?

She realized she'd been heading to her favorite tree when she'd made it about halfway between it and The Crook.  Banner paused and grumbled a bit to herself as the fog of sleep began to wear off.  She braced herself and gave her coat a mighty shake in the hopes that a bit of vigorous activity would help wake her up.  After a sharp exhale she was on the move again, headed to her tree with no real plans for the day.