Sun Mote Copse And it might get cold, I just don't care

Phox hadn't even attempted to tell Niamh when to tell her kids. That was her choice, and he certainly had no business trying to critique her parenting (aloud, anyway). She spoke first of Bronco, which made Phox snort humorously. It was amusing how squeamish the kid seemed to be regarding all of this. Nellie, on the other hand, introduced a new wrench into the mix that Phox had neither suspected or expected. Phox was, to put it lightly, mortified.

He stopped where he was, halfway through smoothing over another tuft of fur on her leg, to stare at Niamh incredulously. Oh jeez, he lamented, suddenly feeling rather Bronco about the whole thing and wanting to know absolutely nothing about this. Unlike Bronco, he had to be a responsible, mature adult. Phox didn't even know what was to be done about it. Was there anything to be done about it?

Maybe... maybe we could get Towhee to talk to her about it? I think if it comes from you or me, it's gonna get real weird. If Fig or Fenn had been significantly older than Nellie, he might have suggested that, but considering they were all around the same age, he didn't want to put that burden on them. Towhee, on the other hand, didn't have any super personal connection to Nellie as far as he knew, and she'd be a mostly impartial third party.