Redhawk Caldera [m] say you want more

For @Peregrine! There is a finch right outside my window. :o

Finley and Elwood were (back) together. Magpie had returned. Dove had joined them. The children were just about ready to burst free from her belly. All was right in the world, and Fox had no complaints. She was presently sprawled out on the cool earth just outside the den. Over the past few days, she hadn't really left it. She could tell, by some magical instinct woven in thousands of years ago, she was close to having the children she and Peregrine desired.

Idly, Fox licked her front paws, clearing away the snow and dirt that had accumulated there during her morning walk. A tiny finch dared to land just a few feet away from Fox, but the Alpha made no move toward it. The little winged creature hopped around for a bit, pecking at the ground for who knows what before taking flight. Fox's grey eyes followed it up until it was lost to the trees around her.

He knew Fox didn't care much for picking names until after the pups were born, yet Peregrine had selected two favorites he hoped to use when they arrived, which should be any day now. Peregrine could scarcely believe that he and his mate would be welcoming a litter of squirmy newborns within the week. Despite all their preparations, he felt like there was so much to do before they got here. In reality, they had everything covered: the den was ready, the caches were packed and they were as equipped as any pair of wolves could be. All they had left to do was... hurry up and wait.

"How're you feeling, firecrotch?" the swarthy wolf inquired when he arrived back at the den site following a fifteen-minute potty break (he needed more fiber in his diet). "Can I get you anything?" Peregrine caught Fox's eye, then let his gaze drop to her protruding belly. Every so often, he could see her flank twitch when one of the puppies kicked. He imagined it must be uncomfortable, yet it was such an amazing sight. He folded himself into place beside her, bending down to place a lick atop her red head.

“If you could just… pluck these puppies right out of my belly, that would be awesome,” she teased, returning his lick with one of her own. It wasn't that being pregnant was the worst thing ever, it was just that she wanted to meet and greet her little beebs. Maybe if Peregrine just sat on top of her, he could squeeze them out with the weight of his body. And they would come shooting out like little bullets. Weird imagery right there.

“I can’t wait to meet them, Perry,” she added, bending so she could nudge the protruding masses at her side. What would they look like? What would they act like? Would they be boys or girls? Would they be big or small? Considering their parents, the kids could be a total grab-bag. There was one thing Fox knew for certain, though. They would all be loved right down to their very core, and she wouldn't be able to leave them. There were far too many broken and disjointed families, and she had promised herself she would not fall into that category.

Mild PP... tell me if you mind, lol.

Unaware that he was reading her mind, Peregrine laughed and offered, "I could sit on you—gently, of course!—and see if that squeezes them out." He waved his tail in amusement at the mental image. "Or I could try massaging you...? I've also heard that S-E-C-K-S helps labor start." In case she was wondering why he spelled that out, he pointed his dark muzzle at her belly. "Little ears," he whispered sotto voce, snickering now.

"Me neither. So let's do one of the above," he concurred with a lopsided grin, dropping forward and stretching out alongside her. He, too, looked admiringly at Fox's rounded abdomen. "You're leaking, my love," he observed with a boyish giggle, pressing his nose against the thin fur of her belly beside the dripping teat in question. Instantaneously, a splash of milk squirted from it, nailing him right in the left eye.

Bodily functions = the best.

Great minds (or just weird ones) seemed to think alike. Fox grinned stupidly at him, though she didn't point out that they were on the same brainwave. When he offered to massage her, she tried to imagine what that would be like, and all she could think of was him stepping all over her like an idiot and just making things worse. (Sorry, babe!) And, in typical bro fashion, he suggested the S-E-C-K-S to get things moving. If he was really worried about the children hearing the words, somehow she doubted that he'd want to go to town on her. But weren't they blind and deaf when they came out? The thought of doing the dirty was mildly appealing.

“Leaki—oh, goodness!” she said when Perry was unceremoniously shot in the eye with a squirt of milk. It was balls-to-the-wall hilarious, and Fox had to stifle her laughter. “You okay there, Dud?” Fox licked at his left eye, not bothering to think about the "ick" factor in drinking her own breast milk. Wolves lick their own (and their children's!) butts, ok?

Milk Dud!

"You got me," he wailed dramatically, "you got me good!" Peregrine rolled to free a forepaw to swipe across his eye, narrowly avoiding punching his wife in the face as she descended to help him. He held still, letting her warm tongue run over his poor milky eyeball.

"I bet making you laugh might make them shoot out of ya," he opined a moment later, still enjoying the impromptu grooming. He cuddled closer to Fox, bumping her chin with the bridge of his snout. "It tastes good, doesn't it? Very rich and buttery," he added. He'd had a fair few tastes over the past weeks while doting on her and, just like Fox, Peregrine saw nothing strange about it at all.

But not so fast... "My eyeball, I mean," he joked with a snort, even while wondering if enough laughter might actually get her labor started...

Switcheroo!

Fox went about grooming him, getting a little bit carried away and moving to his ears out of habit. There was something so rewarding and relaxing about fussing over her pack-mates, even the ones she wasn't romantically involved with. It was an incredibly lovely and intimate way to bond with one another, and it served the greater purpose of keeping each other clean and free of things like burrs and mats.

When Peregrine eluded to the taste of her milk, she paused thoughtfully. When he revealed that he was talking about his eyeball, rather than her milk, she gave him a playful shove. “You are such a goober!” Her mind went back to the two options: sitting or S-E-C-K-S, and she nibbled more gently at Peregrine's ear. “You know…” she murmured, “We probably won’t get another chance for at least the first half month.” It might even be longer, depending on how up to the task her body was feeling.

Haha, awesome. Woo, quick post before I pack up and make the arduous trek home. Let this be my legacy if I perish! \o/

When she nibbled at his earlobe, he made a noise that could only be likened to a purr. "Do you think it's a good idea?" he murmured, chewing at his lip and giving her large belly a sideways glance. He found her just as attractive as ever, yet he would never want to harm her or the pups. "We can try, if you really want. We need to resume our conventional squirter and squirtee roles," Peregrine quipped.

Whether or not it would lead to anything other than snuggles and bonding time, he began to return her physical gestures of affection. He swiped his tongue up and over her face, then moved to her jawline, then to her curving neck. For the moment, he didn't sit or stand up. Instead, he curled closer to her, his own abdomen curving to accommodate her large belly as he now preened the soft fur at the base of her throat.

I know you probably already left but DRIVE SAFE, WOMAN. I need to grab some stuff from my old place before all the roads freeze again, boo. Preemptively marking this mature JIC.

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: S-E-C-K-S

“You do have a way with words,” she said with a chuckle, then licked Peregrine's nose for good measure. “Wasn’t it you who just said it might make them hop out of there faster?” She really wished that Ashton were still around to ask, but that didn't look like it was happening anytime soon. Maybe one of their other comrades would pick up where he had left off. While she wasn't particularly keen on being healed with anything other than time and patience, there were other questions and concerns she did want to be answered. They'd just have to hope that another healer came along.

Preening the spot just behind his ear, Fox then pushed up and away from him so that she stood, then shook her coat. This caused her belly to wobble in an amusing fashion beneath her, and she nudged Perry in the ribs to stand up. When he wasn't up the next instant, she nipped at his neck impatiently. Maybe this was a good idea. Even if it didn't make the pups come out any faster, it might at least take her mind off things for a little while.

"I did," he conceded, pausing his grooming on her upper chest to speak. "I'm down if you are. I just want to make sure I don't hurt you or, ah, poke them or something. Can that happen?" he wondered aloud to no one. He, too, thought of Ashton. Peregrine was sure that if the hippie Healer had been around to ask, he would have launched into a windy, amusing speech about safe sex during pregnancy. What a shame that he wasn't here for that, or the birth, or the rearing.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Peregrine laughed when Fox eagerly coaxed him to his feet. "In more ways than one," he promised with a waggling of his brows. "Just tell me if you're uncomfortable or anything and I'll stop," he promised, planting a firm kiss on her nearer shoulder blade.

Even heavily pregnant as she was, Fox was not a large wolf and Peregrine had no trouble getting into position to dance the horizontal tango with her. "More cushion for the pushin'!" he crowed jokingly as he hugged his forelimbs around her round middle. He was about to go for it when he felt the pups squirm in between his wrapped arms.

"Whoa..." he breathed, momentarily very distracted by all the movement.

Yay for semi-matching titles and foul language!

When he asked if he might poke something (presumably the children) Fox shrugged. They'd find out soon enough. Peregrine rose to the occasion, assuring Fox that he would stop if things felt... off. Fox gave him a quick nod, a peck on the cheek, and then situated herself just so. It felt a lot more like work than fun this time around, but maybe it would bring the children running out of her body just so they wouldn't have to endure any more of their parents' nonsense.

She grinned goofily when he made his little rhyme, though she squirmed impatiently even so. The pups must have felt her frustration, for they too began to wiggle around, causing Peregrine to become distracted. “Just, uh, ignore that?” she suggested, shifting her weight. "Get on with it!" was what she really wanted to say, but somehow she didn't think that was going to make things go any more smoothly.

*takes a break from a really scary movie to write this* D:

She urged him to ignore it, but then she felt these movements all the time. "How can I?" he asked, a smile in his voice. "I feel like I'm hugging them," he continued, wrapping his arms all the tighter around his mate's midsection. "I'm hugging all of you!" Peregrine declared in breathy, happy, fatherly wonder. He fell silent then and just clutched his wife and children for a long moment.

Then he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. "Oh." With a guilty little chuckle, Peregrine began making love to his mate, though all the movement made the puppies wriggle like crazy. He slowed, not only distracted but... he was quiet for a moment, then, "Fox, babe." Pause. "I'm not sure I can do this," he admitted sheepishly.

Eek! I am just sitting in the living room. Trying to decide if I should go to Ian's or see if he wants to hang here. He can be a poopy pants sometimes. Maybe I will drink a beer! /ramble

Fox did her best to keep her cool, though in the end, it didn't seem like this was going to work out. Wriggling free of his embrace, she let him plop back down to the ground. “It’s okay,” she half-lied. “Maybe we can just go for a walk. Get the body moving, y’know?” Hopefully there wasn't too much disappointment mixed into her tone. Their children would be here soon enough, and she had no room to complain. Once they were out and about, maybe she could get some alone time with Peregrine again. Then again, patience had never been her strong suit.

She nudged under his chin, hoping to assure him that it was "no big deal." “We have a whole lifetime together,” Fox said as much for herself as for him. The pups, either feeling her calm or just ready to chill, stopped their writhing for the time being. Apparently they were having none of this adult stuff today. Would the Redleaf parents always have to succumb to their children's wishes? Maybe, when they got older, that wouldn't be the case, but for now, Fox knew they'd just have to do what they wordlessly requested.

I vote beer either way. I could go for some Kentucky bourbon ale right about now!

Fox slipped from his grip and he felt a coolness where she (and the pups) had been just a moment ago. Peregrine frowned, though his lips twitched upward again when his mate reassured him that everything was okay and that they had a lifetime for lovemaking. When she proposed a walk, he bobbed his head and flourished to her side, more than ready to escort her.

"I guess we ought to get used to them being sort of... interruptive," he joked as they began to walk, unaware that he'd just made up a word. Peregrine snickered. "We'll love it, though, honestly. We'll think it's cute even when they're leaking from both ends at once. They'll be the loves of our lives, aside from each other, of course," he said in a sappy voice, licking Fox's cheek.

Fox had no doubt that their family would be a (nearly) perfect one. They had created their home here with every intention of making it for their children, and she couldn't imagine anything better. There were times when she had to remind herself not to get caught up in the what-if scenarios (both past, present, and future), but in the end, Fox was happy and satisfied with the decisions she had made to get here. Peregrine was going to make a wonderful father, and she would be a wonderful mother. They would be WonderParents™! And with all the support they had from their friends and family, Fox thought they had a very slim chance of anything going haywire.

“You know, I think these kids are really going to bring the whole pack together. Everybody will be looking after them and keeping them safe.” Redhawk Caldera had been, by far, the best pack Fox had ever been a part of (outside of her birth place). Swiftcurrent Creek was a close second, but tensions had always been so high there, and everybody had been so high-strung. Even though she wouldn't admit it, Fox was as much to blame as anybody else. She'd ruled with an iron fist. With Peregrine at her side, much of that had softened.

He bobbed his head to acknowledge her statement, a smile still tugging on his lips. Moving to the caldera had been hard; the circumstances had not exactly been ideal. Peregrine realized now that it was the best and most important decision he'd ever made. He had raised a litter on the plateau but here, he could say that these lands literally belonged to his children, that they had come here just for them and built a tightly-knit pack from the ground up just so they could be reared in the best possible environment. Let's be honest: how many wolves could say that around these parts?

They padded along in silence for a while, then Peregrine broke it. "Hey, I was thinking... I really like the name Nightjar. They're these sort of reddish brown and black birds. Considering their parentage, we stand a good chance of popping out one that looks like that. I feel like that's a cool marriage of our respective naming preferences. What do you think?" He was fairly certain he'd mentioned the name before (either to her or someone else, he couldn't quite remember), as well as another name, which he did not yet mention. The other one fit neither one of their typical naming conventions but it was already a firm favorite in his mind, for more personal and heartfelt reasons.

Dang, only four more days. Trying not to doubt my wolf parenting abilities, haha.

Fox tipped her ears to listen to Peregrine's name ideas. Fox, personally, was still of the mind that they shouldn't even be named until they had lived a full turn of the moon. Somehow, though, she did not think that Perry would be agreeable to that. Still, she didn't have to call the children by their names until she felt like it, and Fox fully intended on calling them "you!" until she was certain that they would survive.

“Has a nice ring to it,” she had to admit. “What if we… kinda split the names? Like, I get to name one half, and you can name the other.” Fox paused, trying to gauge how Perry felt about that idea. “I mean, we can still collaborate! But, y’know. Maybe each of us gets the final say on half of ‘em.” If all went according to plan, they'd each get the final word on six little sprogs.

We're gonna be great!!

In response to his proposal, she pitched another idea. Peregrine liked it immediately, though he thought on it a moment before replying, "I'm down with that. I think we'll come up with some great ones," he mused. "I actually have at least one more I absolutely want to use." Here, he caught her gaze and held it for a few beats. "Ready for it?" he teased, then revealed: "I was thinkin' Fox Jr. if any girls pop out looking like you." He smirked.

Actually, that wasn't a half bad idea... but it wasn't actually the name he'd picked and Peregrine intuited that his mate wouldn't be so hot on the junior part. "Actually, the name I have in mind is Atticus or Attica, depending on who it fits. I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned it to you. I'd just really like to honor my brother's memory, even if it's not the name of a bird or even an animal." He smiled softly, then looked ahead again. They'd have to have at least four for him to use both his names, unless he named one Attic(us)(a) Nightjar (or vice versa). Now there was an idea!

Fox gave him a look, pausing to consider whether or not he was joking about the whole "Fox Jr." thing. True, he had named Osprey Jr. after her aunt, but naming her own child after herself seemed... well, a bit self-centered, even for the selfish Alpha female. Did Fox really want a mini-me running around masquerading as a younger version of herself? It seemed like a downright terrible idea!

But Peregrine was quick to point out that he was only kidding(?) about the name. “You know I’m going to end up calling them by their animal names, right?” she said with a grin, nipping at Perry's shoulder as they walked along at a casual pace. That gave her another idea, though. “I know your name is Peregrine… but you don’t look anything like a peregrine.” She pondered for a moment, trying to come up with an all-black animal that might fit Peregrine's personality and whatnot. “What about… Tasmanian Devil?” Fox grinned. It was really too long for a name, but from what she recalled, they were black creatures with feisty personalities and propensity for causing trouble. “I could call you Taz!” she beamed, unaware that she was remaking a Looney Toons classic.

Oh my, now I want to change his name. :O

Fox pointed out that she would be sticking to her naming convention, come hell or high water. Peregrine grinned crookedly at her. "They're going to have so many names. Maybe we should use that to our advantage and train them in the art of espionage. What do you say, mama?" He bumped his cool nose against her jaw. "Wanna have a batch of spy kids?"

But his mate was still caught up on naming themes and he laughed out loud at the one she picked for him. "Wait," he said after it died down, "what's a Tasmanian devil...? Taz, though... I like that. Now we both have three-letter names!" he chirruped happily.

“Taz and Fox,” she said aloud, entertained by the way the short names sounded together. “Maybe I’ll train them all to call you Taz instead of Dud or Father or anything like that.” Wouldn't that be a hoot?! In fact, maybe she could teach them to all use each other's interchangeable names. Now that might be something to exercise their memory so they didn't end up like her, a total memory failure. Maybe that could help them with their whole spy kid agenda.

“We should give code names to Finley and Elwood, too! I swear I heard somebody refer to Elwood as ‘Twig’ the other day. But maybe I was imagining it.” Little did Fox know that his nickname was the product of Finley herself. “What do you think about Finley? Maybe…” she pondered, trying to bring to the forefront an animal that was similar to her bestie. “Oh, I know! Koala! I think they’re grey and white, with a black stripe on their nose. They live in trees, but not anywhere around here.” Fox had only heard them described by their color and where they made their homes. Other than that, she didn't have a whole lot to go on. “Do you think Fin would like living in trees?”

"But I like Dud," Peregrine protested softly. He wasn't sure where Fox had come up with it but he genuinely liked it. Other dudes could go by Dad, Papa, Pops, etc. He would be the one, the only, Dud! "We could always have them call us by our first names. My parents did that. Well, Mo did. I called dad, well, 'dad.'"

"Twig works for Elwood," he agreed sagely, unaware that he was feeding into one of the pack's biggest inside jokes. When she proposed Koala for Finley, he mused, "Aren't Koalas... bears?" Let's ignore the fact that they're not bears at all, shall we? "Koala Bear! How fitting for our little Finpin." Peregrine smirked, then pondered Fox's question and said, "If Elwood—I'm sorry, Twig—is a tree, then... yes."

Fox grinned as he spoke. In all likelihood, the names their children called them would come naturally. He seemed to like the names that Finley and Elwood were given, and Fox would have to remember (fat chance!) to call them by their code names rather than their actual ones next time she saw either one of them. She thought the two names fit wonderfully, and there was no chance she'd be running it by either of them before she started calling them by their new names.

The queen of the caldera continued walking alongside her king, letting the conversation lull for the time being. She was just as happy to walk in companionable silence as to talk about their friends and children and their friends' children and their children's friends and their friends' friends and their children's children. (Did I get all the combinations?)