Redhawk Caldera (M) My kick real loud and my beat real slow.

With the problem excised from their company Reyes could take some time to think and digest exactly what had been proposed, and what had been learned. He was still reeling from it all; to think that this man he'd grown close to and had grown wary of, was actually a woman, and that his feelings weren't so strange after all — it was a lot for Reyes to process. 

Meanwhile Towhee got right back to business, clearly feeling the call of nature. Everything she said held a new weight. She was giving him options — an out, if he so chose. Was this how connections were meant to be? Transactional? Was this how his mother had proposed to his father, with the openness to allow him to leave without question? Reyes found himself pulled in different directions as he listened. 

You're welcome to help me raise them. Or if you'd prefer to be more hands-off...

If he did anything, it wouldn't be a rehash of the past. He prided himself in being more dependable than his own dead-beat dad; to prove that, he'd have to stick around. It didn't take long before he opened his mouth to reply with something, but before he did, Reyes shut it again. He knew anything he said would be a mess right now — so he kept it short and sweet: Yes.

Reyes felt his face go warm with embarrassment, knowing he wouldn't be able to say much more than that. He could not deny the friendship that they'd built together, nor the attraction he felt now that he knew it was reciprocated (even if it was purely hormonal). The rest — being a proper father — would have to be shown through action, rather than promised with faltering words.