Silver Creek i was wide awake - but when was that?

’Old age suits you.’
 
Warmth rushed to the boy’s cheeks and he turned his head as though she might be able to see such a flush beneath the white fur. The starchaser was not used to such remarks. His time alone had been challenging, and he had been left with many nights that he wished he had never removed himself from the wilds of his birth. As though she could read his mind, the girl asked him where he had gone. Deku’s gaze lifted until it latched onto her concerned expression. He felt his heart beat guiltily. If he could not stand to see such a look on Weejay’s face, he could not imagine the reaction that his mother’s might inspire within him.
 
“I went to a forest where I stayed for a long time… or it felt like a long time,” he answered her in a soft voice. “But every night the fireflies would come out and fly into the sky and become stars. It was amazing.” There had been many things about the wood that had appealed to the young wolf. He had thought several times about returning to the wilds to collect Orochi and his mother so that they could live there with him. Of course, it hadn’t ended up that way.
 
Deku looked to the orange-eyed girl with a wave of his tail. “They had these flowers that I had tried to bring back to you, but every time I plucked one… it would wilt and turn black before I could get close. I guess they needed to stay in the forest,” he recounted to her with a furrowed brow. The boy had thought about Weejay quite often. Every time the girl would cross his mind, it would fill him with a wave of nostalgic sadness. Deku didn’t want to share that part of the story with her.