Greatwater Lake A silent heart ticking under the ground

To be fair, Fox had only asked who put a stick up his butt. Since he claimed such a stick didn't even exist, it was hardly like she had asked him to spill his guts out to her. His second reason, however, caught her off guard. Friend was not a word Fox used with many... even amongst her pack-mates. They were comrades, bound together by the need to survive and thrive as a unit. She felt strongly for each of them, but there were few among them that she considered her friends. Fox was just not the friending type.

She said nothing to his confession of friendship, still quite unsure how she felt about it. Perhaps that was why he had been so... affectionate toward her the last time she'd seen him. Or, heaven forbid, it had something to do with the recent distance between him and Hawkeye. Things finally felt like they were clicking in the yearling's brain. Like tiny puzzle pieces coming together for the big picture. Unlike Peregrine, Fox was ruled almost entirely by impulse and instinct. She saw no need to change it.

Fox barely heard him say something about a sister, but she rolled back into reality right around the time he called her by that nickname. ... and why are you all the way out here? The yearling blinked, suddenly very aware of herself and Peregrine, the physical distance between them (or lack thereof), and that familiar rush of something that was always boiling right below the surface whenever she was near him. Her expression was dumbfounded, displayed as clear as a cloudless summer afternoon.

“Why did you lick my cheek like that the other day?” she asked, completely ignoring the questions he had asked her. “Was that totally friend-related?”