Hideaway Strath Futha.

Let me know if you mind the power-play and I'll edit! :)

She knew @Rye had arrived a few days past, yet Towhee hadn't actually seen him yet. It wasn't that she was too busy patrolling or spending time with her family. And she wasn't avoiding him, her peculiar feelings toward him or anything as childish as all that. She just thought it was kind of funny, seeing how long she could evade him. It was kind of a game to her. Any time she sensed he was nearby, Towhee slipped away into the sanctuary, snickering under her breath.

But it got old pretty quickly and, besides, she didn't want to risk hurting his feelings or anything like that. And she did want to hang out with him! So today she discarded her game for a new one: she stealthily sneaked up behind Rye while he was walking through the grove. When Towhee came within a few yards, she literally bum rushed him. She reared onto her hind legs and grasped her forelimbs about his waist, humping him with a wild bray of laughter.

Just a cameo!

Phox worked his way around the territory, checking on the caches and making sure that things were running smoothly. Of all the things he expected to see, his sister humping Rye was probably at the bottom of his list. The Kilonova quirked a brow, shrugged, then went about his business. So far, Rye had proven himself not to be a threat, but Phox would be damned if he didn't keep an eye on him.

As far as I'm concerned, Towhee is always welcome to power play Rye! Just ya know, dont kill em or mame the poor guy lol

The pack was cool, the members were nice and all but something was missing, a certain deaf wolf had been mia for a few days and frankly Rye was a tad worried. Although no one else seemed to notice so Rye just left Towhee to do her thing while he did his. Catching game, searching the territory, trying to catch big enough game to help feed the pack but so far his luck was on the crappier side. Good news is the switch to Towhees' pack was easy, well sort of, the talk with Quixote was rather awkward and painful. All thanks to how everything played out but Rye wasn't about to cry over days old milk. He was where he wanted to be now, and thats all that really mattered.

On his jaunt to someplace, he didn't know where, Rye got a whiff of a scent. Familiar but it vanished sooner than it came. He slowed to a stop, and searched the air for the scent it had briefly carried; nothing. Not a thing, he shrugged and was going to continue his directionless journey when suddenly, he felt his ass end meeting the front end of something else. With crazy laughter erupting from the assalint. Ryes' butt scooted from beneath and he flipped around like a fish outta water. Shock hit him like a boar, and it fuzzied his mind with confusion but also happiness. It was Towhee, he was happy to see her but confused at her choice of a conversation starter. 

"Holy hell, is this a kink of yours?" He grinned, and withheld a laughter trying to escape its lung confines. He also wiggled his eyebrows to the best of his ability but it came out a little weird and unorthodox.

Rye instinctively dropped his hindquarters and rolled away from her. Towhee bounced backward with another loud (and frankly horrific) laugh. She waited for him to recover and brush himself off, smirking at his quip about kinks. Another, quieter gasp of laughter escaped her at his eyebrow wiggle. Oh, how she did enjoy flirting with him. She made a Lenny face at him in return: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

-"That's how I show that I like you,"- Towhee eventually explained. -"I'm glad you're here. I heard you joined a few days ago. Where have you been? I kept looking for you and I couldn't find you anywhere,"- she fibbed, cackling in her head.

Ryes' tail was swaying to the beat of his heart, which was going about a 100 miles per hour. Astonishing the way she makes him happy and laugh, though odd at times, very odd at that but he was easy going. Took jokes for what they were, just jokes but something he didn't know how to decode was Towhee admitting she liked him. His brain sorted through the endless possibilities of how it didn't mean what Rye thought she meant. His face contorted into a mixture of confusion but joy, he nearly violently debted whether or not to directly ask. Eventually coming to the conclusion that seeking truth was better than staying in confusion, he got serious, his body stilled and his expression followed. This was his heart he was talking from after all.

"Towhee, I don't mean to ignore everything you said, but I need to clear something up." He breathed deep, this was kinda scary, he had to admit. "In what way do you mean by like?" Honestly he felt like a kid again with the vague words. He feared her answer and what it might bring, awkwardness and.. Well thats about it. There was a lot up in the air, but he wasn't going to make a big deal out of things if he didn't get the answer he wanted. Rye expected the worst but hoped for the best.

Rye largely ignored her glibness, instead taking a deep breath and asking her a serious question. He wanted clarification on the nature of her feelings toward him, which was fair. Only Towhee wasn't sure herself and wasn't sure exactly how to answer. Honestly, she supposed.

-"I like you seeing you, talking to you, boning you... well, we only did it that once but I did like it."- She pulled another ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) face. Unsure what else to add, Towhee asked, -"Uh, does that clear that up any?"-

Even as she awaited his answer, she wondered if the feelings were mutual and what they should do it about it if so. Should they become mates? Despite her affection for Rye, Towhee found herself shying away from that thought. That seemed like a pretty major commitment and she definitely wasn't ready for anything like that, not now, maybe not ever.

Well that didn't clear anything up, it muddied the water further but it was a start. Then again two out of the three things wasn't purely lust driven, so that was something good. Rye had to admit, he shared the same feelings and as time marched forward, with the help of more time being spent with Towhee, Rye was giving into the idea that; yes, he had feelings for her. He made a breakthrough days back but even so, he was still on edge about completely giving in. Was emotions normally this complicated? To be all confused and awkward? Looked that way to Rye.

He didn't know how to respond with the answer she gave, either he could press for a better response or just try to go back to joking and enjoying the time they were having. It was a quick answer, didn't even need much thought process. "Mmm - Ya, crystal," Now onto much funner topics, "So, I talked with Phox a few days ago, he gave me the tour and all but I heard that one of his kids was blind. How's the kid doing? Or managing?" Did that come off as rude? Rye didn't mean it that way, he was just interested how she was fairing being blind. Hopefully Towhee didn't take offense.

He might've been satisfied with her answer, though Towhee shook her head when he changed the subject. She appreciated his interest in Fen's well-being (a lot, actually) but she wasn't going to let him off the hook without at least clarifying his own take on the matter.

-"Hold up there, Rye. You can't go asking me a question like that and then not tell me your side. How do you feel about me?" Towhee pressed bluntly.

Damn, damn, damn! He wasn't sure, yet he was. He didn't know, everything was so confusing but he searched his heart, sifting through the wide range of emotions that kept with him often. It wasn't organized by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't pure chaos either, there was a healthy mix of both. So figuring for sure what he felt was not an easy task, so he just plainly said, "I don't know but what I do know is I enjoy spending time with you, I like who you are, quirks n' all and you've got jokes, you're easy going and overall you're just," How could he put it? "Fantastic!" Okay his heart took over, everybody his heart did it again. Great. This could end badly

Before he'd even finished, Towhee found herself cracking a grin at him. It seemed like they were pretty fond of one another but equally uncertain what it all meant for them. Cool, she thought with a wag of her tail, we can keep it casual. Works for me.

She said as much. -"Cool. Sounds like we should keep spending time together... but keep it pretty chill. Sound good to you?"- And though the idea that it could become something serious sort of didn't sit right with her now, that didn't mean it couldn't turn out to be the very thing she (and they) wanted later on.

Ooookay, so I did some research about poppy seeds, probably gonna have to take some creative liberties with this. If I even can?

It went smoother than Rye anticipated, she was good with it and even wanted to keep spending time together. That sounded like a plan to him, pretty damn good one too. "Yeah, more than happy with it." Rye still wasn't what to make of all this, having no experience to guide him, he was really just winging it, it sounded Towhee was too. Was Rye rubbing off on Towhee or was Towhee rubbing off on Rye? Probably Towhee to Rye, he noticed he was getting a bit more curt and frank. Two things he rather liked about her, even if sometimes it almost gave him a heart attack.

Annnywho, with the clearing of his throat, Rye spoke up and went with an entirely different topic. Something he wouldn't bring up with just anyone, but Towhee? Well, he bet himself she knew a thing or two about, "Poppy seeds, you know them?" Rye grinned, he wondered if Towhee had tried any. Granted it took time to gather enough but once gathered it made for aome fun times. As a teen Rye and his buds used to go out into the fields sometimes and get as much seeds as they could. Granted about the fourth time in they were all caught and scolded, but it was still fond memories to Rye. However he wasn't sure there were any in Teekon, he never bothered to look so really he was also asking if she knew where some were.

He agreed to her terms, then asked something that was a total non sequitur. Her brow furrowed. -"Yeah, I think Raven has used them to help with pain management. But she told me about a sort of study she did with them and how they can be addictive, so it's definitely not her preferred method of... but why do you ask? So random,"- Towhee said, huffing a dry laugh.

Instant no, okay, that was cool. "Nothing, forget it." Quick dismissal, and if she pressed for answers, well, she would receive none. Rye wanted to move on to better things, like the blind pup, Towhee never did answer him. "Anyway, the blind pup, how is she doing?" There was hope Towhee would ramble on about it, and prayer that it would stay like that. Speaking of pups, did Towhee want any? Could she really no have them? Perhabs his assumptions were hasty but then again, the evidence she provided told him otherwise. He couldn't just ask her plainly, so asking sneakily would have to do the trick. But how?

As abruptly as he'd brought it up, Rye dropped the subject of poppies. A little nonplussed, Towhee drew up and blinked at him. But then he revisited the topic of Fen. Her expression went from bemused to amused as he referred to her as "the blind pup."

-"Her name is Fennec, Fen for short,"- she said, -"and she's doing just fine. And she's not just his, she's mine too. They both are. Figment—Fig—too."- That had been the case back at the plateau too, ever since Camilla's death, she was pretty sure, but had Rye not known that until now? Would it matter to him? Towhee wasn't sure.

Remembering names was never a good strong point for him but those two were going to be a piece of cake. He was bobbing his head along as she spoke, in a 'cool, cool' kind of way but then she explained the pups were shared. Rye raised an eyebrow without thinking, the way she spoke made her seem possessive of the pups. Possessive felt too strong, so he switched it out for protective and that was a bit better. "I see." He paused, searching for a question to ask. "How is aunt-hood treating you?" He could guess it was going well but where was the fun in that?

-"Rye,"- Towhee said curtly, -"I just said I'm their mother."- The amusement had slid off her face and she was giving him a pointed look, wondering how this conversation had taken such a turn. Rye's label was technically correct but it totally rubbed her the wrong way. -"And, for the record, I'm really damn good at being both a mom and and aunt,"- she added.

But this was Rye, so her irritation didn't last. -"I'll take you to meet them soon,"- she promised, her smile returning, unaware that he'd already met her son. -"Right now, though, I'd like to—" But whatever she'd like to do, Towhee never said, her voice cutting off and her orange eyes rising skyward as a shadow passed overhead.

More than once, Towhee had spied a hawk flying overhead and felt her heart leap, only to fall once more. But this time, her heart leaped and then it soared. Even from down here, it was unmistakably X. "X!" the Kilonova shouted, her breath coming fast as she watched the familiar raptor circle, winding lower, until she eventually landed on one of the lower boughs of a nearby cedar.

Rye wasn't expecting to hear his name voiced so curtly, it took him back to his home, to his mother and the way she said his name. Although it wasn't in the same way Towhee was saying, his mothers way of speaking curtly somehow managed to have a softer tone to it. He would've smiled at the thought of her if it wasn't for look Towhee was giving him. He stood there a little wide eyed and confused, sure she had said they were hers too but she was just their aunt. Towhee clearly felt she was more to them and that fact would be etched in his brain. As her lecture wrapped up Towhees eyes was pulled elsewhere, to the skies and Rye followed, he saw the hawk as well but briefly feared for the pups as it flew. However it landed and Towhee had called it 'X'. Rye remembered X, not by sight but by name, he always wondered what X looked like, "So thats X?"

The hawk looked down at her, her expression as ever impossible to read. But it was definitely X. And she wasn't flying away. Towhee gaped up at her, heart thundering in her throat, though she clapped her mouth shut when a whine began to claw its way out. She so badly wanted to reunite with the hawk, though she didn't blame X at all for being absent since Tegan had cruelly butchered her chick. Even after all this time, that treachery still rankled horribly.

"X..." the mercenary murmured when long moments passed and still the bird did not come down to her. "I've missed you. I'm so, so, so goddamn sorry for what Tegan did. You brought Z to us, thinking he'd be safe, intending him to help us... and Tegan..." She heaved a breath, then clenched her teeth. Yes, all her ill feelings surrounding the splintering into Asterism Grove had ebbed away, save for her murderous fury at her younger brother.

She'd forgotten about Rye momentarily but when X still sat on her branch like a statue, Towhee looked over at him. -"Yes, it's X."- She meant to explain why this was such a significant moment, yet the words caught in her throat. She didn't want to dwell on Tegan's sins or the utter misery of that day; those memories still soured her mouth. -"I haven't seen her in a long time,"- was all she said in way of explanation.

Overhead, the hawk finally moved and Towhee's head snapped upward again. Whatever X said, it brought a smile to Towhee's lips and a wet look to her eye. Without looking over at Rye, her eyes still fastened on the hawk, she translated, -"She says... she's come home."-

There was a story behind it all, and Rye for one was interested in piecing it together. Although there wasn't much meat on the bones it was enough he could guess what he needed to stay current with Towhee. Long lost bird, shattered trust due to something happening to a Z. Rye could only guess it was another bird, he would have to get the story from Towhee later but for now? He was focused in on her, watching from a partial distance. For a minute, he considered comforting her but he didn't think she wanted that, so he stayed put and watched the scene play out.

He nodded quietly at her answer, and looked up at the hawk. How did those two meet? What was their bond formed out of? There was mystery stretching as far as the eye can see with the pair, it only furthered as Towhee translated. His veil of fascination was parted and something new covered him, happiness. He saw the way Towhee smiled, it brought a smile of his own. There was something alluring about her, Rye couldn't pin it down but maybe it was just that fact. He wasnt sure but it didn't matter, she was happy and that was all that did. He didn't respond to Towhee, wanting their reunion to be between them, not her him and it. So he sat in silence, waiting for the next part to take place.

Yet despite X's proclamation, the hawk made no move to come down from her perch. Towhee drew in a long breath, then let it out through her nostrils, before turning to face Rye. She felt terrible but she needed him to go away so she could try to get X to come down to talk. There was so much to say, after being apart for more than two months.

But she'd only just caught up with Rye and he'd pretty much come here for her! Still, Towhee would be doing everyone a disservice if she lied and said the hawk wasn't suddenly her only priority at the moment. She would just have to let Rye down easy and swear to come find him another time, in the near future.

-"Hey Rye, I really need X to feel comfortable enough to come down to the ground so I can talk to her. If you go to the rendezvous site, I'll meet you there later and we can have something to eat and talk some more. Would that be okay?"- Hopefully he wouldn't protest, else Towhee was going to have to resort to demanding him to leave; the mere thought already made her feel like a total asshole.

No way would Rye stand in the way, nope, X meant a lot to Towhee and he wasn't gonna ruin things for her. He had nk issues with parting, he was rather glad actually. He felt out of place in the reunion and leaving would usher that feeling away. He smiled, and nodded his head, "Yeah, no problem. Don't worry about getting back, I understand." He tried to sound as understanding as he could, truthfully he wanted to stress further that she should stay as long as she wanted with X but he didn't feel right talking about X in front of X. He prayed she got the drift he was pushing and with that, he left, giving her one last smile before departing. He wish her luck, mentally and he hoped X didn't fly away again.

Archive if you want! TThanks for the thread