Northstar Vale i'd be home with you

For anyone other than Liffey or Rannoch. Set when they're away visiting RHC!

While the boy had taken to training alone, or patrolling alone, or eating and sleeping alone - he still felt the absence of the pack's leadership. The scent of Rannoch would likely never die in this place, but it wasn't as strong as it could've been. It was lacking in spots. Vague reminders that, yes, this was home. He would come back eventually and life would persist at its normal pace - there was no need to worry.

Titmouse wasn't worried, but he disliked the thought of Rannoch chasing after Liffey. He was still ignorant to the connection between the two of them; it was more like... Titmouse disliked that they were friends because Liffey wouldn't be his friend. He was, to put it bluntly, jealous of his cousin (or jealous of Rannoch, maybe of both of them!). Titmouse did not have any concrete connections within the pack, and he felt this keenly with the absence of both these wolves.

It had not occurred to Tit that Liffey wasn't really family. That his parents were his adoptive parents - that he was, effectively, an orphan. The concept had been lingering in his mind since he'd last spoken to Rian. He hadn't gone out of his way to figure things out, but he had been thinking about it - about what it meant to have nobody, to be alone, to have no real family - and the thought of LIffey always comforted him to some degree, even if they'd stopped talking.

Her absence was a strange thing, then. It left him feeling a bit numb. He told himself, who cares if she comes back? But if she stayed away, maybe Rannoch would to? And that sent him into a spiral of thoughts and strange emotions - what if Rannoch doesn't come back? What do I do then?