Redhawk Caldera we'll always have this dance

She ducked her head down before remembering that Fennec couldn't see her expression. Drawing in a suddenly wet breath, she looked up and watched through tears as her sister played with the baby. It was an objectively endearing sight, though something about it made the tears come faster. Meerkat did her best to cry quietly, at least.

She desperately wanted to leave, particularly before Fen really cottoned onto her, but something about being here was helping her clarify these godawful feelings. So she was, what, jealous? It wasn't like she wanted either one of them to herself. Meerkat didn't even know how she felt about a mate or family of her own, not since Atlas. And whatever they were to each other, they were her older brother and sister.

Something about that train of thought niggled at her as she wiped at her runny nose. Just because she didn't want Bronco in that sense didn't mean she didn't want him to herself, she slowly realized. And now Fen's own words echoed in her head: "...Bronco isn't around..."

Meerkat missed him. They'd been so close, once, doing pretty much everything together. And now he felt remote. It didn't make much sense, since they lived in the same place. They saw each other in passing all the time. But they'd both been so busy with other things—Meerkat with her search for Phox et al, Bronco knocking up Fennec—she realized that simply wasn't the case now. They weren't close anymore.

Now, he was close to Fennec and their son instead. They were a picture perfect family of three. Feeling winded, Meerkat began to back out of the den, suddenly afraid he would come home and find her here. All she wanted was to see him and go back to the way things used to be... yet that was impossible, so she didn't want to see him at all.