Hideaway Strath and if you don't love me now

Sirius swallowed at the coming pawsteps, his mouth hanging open as he panted anxiously, threw his reedy tail in all directions as Hemlock's warm, familiar scent washed over him. Hemmy is here, she assured the whining stormcloud, perhaps yet unaware that his neediness was just a symptom of his budding issues with abandonment.He knew the word to mean herself, as he had called her this at first, but after careful thought— formulated mostly through observing the way Lotte treated her children and comparing it to his relationship with the Kali wolf— the boy had ascertained that she was his mother. Not the she-wolf Hemlock insisted was out there, invisible and waiting. Not the terribly beautiful stranger in his dreams. But her.

"Mama," he repeated, stumbling to his feet so that he might climb her as puppies tended to do. He scratched up her forelegs and buried his nose into her chest, happy and eager to find her there even though he couldn't exactly see all her features. "I hadda bad dream," he whisper-mumbled into her fur, extending himself as tall as his body would allow so that he might bury himself into the ruff of her neck, which he couldn't quite reach.

"I don' like dose dreams, mama. Dey make me... Dey make me feel..." He got exasperated trying to explain, unable to describe the intensity of the sadness yawning inside his chest like a great and terrible beast. "Does I haff to sleep, mama? I can stay up for.. forever! I can -- yep -- I can! Okay, mama? B'cos I jus' really, really wanna stay up, ok? I can stay up an-an' you can stay up wit' me, right? Right, mama, right? We can jus' stay up forever?"