Heron Lake Plateau the heart

Oh man, he was just making this worse.  New goal: don't wake Raven.  If she stayed asleep, she wouldn't know how much of a failure he was being right now.  Qui really shouldn't have skipped that parenting class.

Though both Owen and Phoebe were both up in arms at his failed attempts, Phoebe sounded much more likely to wake someone up, so she got his attention first.  Trying a different tactic, he lowered his head again to very softly nuzzle the tiny pup, trying to encourage her to just curl back up against Kite and pretend nothing happened.  Shh.  It's ok, he whispered, it's just me, the idiot.  Just go back to sleep.  Chances of that happening felt like maybe 3% if he was lucky.

And then, Owen, who seemed to be way more focused on trying to beat him up now rather than his sister, thank goodness.  He nudged the boy around a bit so he could more easily pick him up, delicately moving him to the other end of the pup line where there was a bit more room for him.  If there was less competition, maybe there'd be less trying to bulldoze his sisters?  Maybe.  Quixote was kind of just winging this.  All he wanted was them to settle down for a few more hours 'til it was an almost-respectable hour to wake up.  Knowing his luck, that'd just piss Owen off more, but hey, he was trying, dangit!