Lost Creek Hollow One reason

Maybe backdated a few days?

Whatever Treason must have been dreaming about left her looking content as she lay stretched across the pile of fluff Joss had gathered for her den. She had entirely moved inside the den now, the thinning fur on her stomach made it uncomfortable to touch it to the snow for extended periods. In here she was comfortable, but not necessarily comfortable with herself -- the visibility of the teats across her underside was weirding her out. She'd gone out of her way to sort of hide it and pretend they didn't exist recently, but she'd shifted while sleeping. And with her slack on her side, it could maybe be seen that her otherwise fit figure barely curved where it previously hadn't at all.

She'd buried the remains of a hare she'd grabbed from the cache in a snowdrift near the entrance in case @Terance wanted some (or she'd just have it later). The day was wrapping up, and she'd come back to the den a bit earlier than usual, and yeah, fallen asleep waiting.

terance had been out patrolling earlier in the day with @Rannoch, who asked as many questions about terrance and treason's future litter as terance would entertain... though, for the most part, terance was pretty bland in his answers, so rannoch would catch on that it was really hot topic to terance and the conversation would shift to other things. more guy talk, since terance was trying really hard nowadays not to fall into the rapid waters that his hopeless romantic side was. whether he was protecting himself or had genuinely changed as a wolf had yet to be discovered. 

either way, terance and rannoch discussed some of the northern caches (and a certain vermin that had been invading them lately) before they both decided to retire for the night. when he arrived at the den, he noted the leftovers buried in a snowdrift, a small smile pressing onto his scarred muzzle. his tail waved a bit and he dug them out, taking a few minutes to chow down. he assumed treason would come outside if she wanted to, otherwise he was perfectly fine eating alone. when he finished, he kicked some of the non edible scraps away, licked his chops, and headed inside quietly. 

his gaze fell upon treason as his vision adjusted to the darker space. as oblivious as terance tended to be, he did notice the tell-tale signs of pregnancy. if not for the gentle curve of her stomach or her teats, he had at least noticed her scent. another smile, a little more excited than the previous one. he disturbed her, because if he just let her sleep this would be a short thread, as kindly as he could, nosing the fur along her cheek and jaw before settling just beside her, so that he was mostly parallel to her.

Treason made a muffled noise as she stirred, her tail thumping off the ground a couple of times as she came to consciousness.  So, Terance was home -- though was that right?  It was her den... But now did that mean it was his too?  There were a few little weird questions like that which occasionally nagged her, but they weren't exactly amazingly important so she wasn't really going to ask.  What would be the point other than to settle her whole thing with wanting to own everything?

She stretched and yawned, sort of shoving against him as she did so before she righted herself and nosed at him lazily.  Didn't seem like she minded being woken up at all -- she hadn't meant to doze off in the first place, after all.  Another yawn.  Mm.  Longer day than usual or was I way more tired than I thought?  Either one sounded reasonable, but she suspected that his day had probably been about as exciting as hers -- in other words, totally boring patrols where nothing happened, and that was a good thing.

a phone post lol

 

it felt weird to call treason cute of all things, but terance found her sleepy actions at least reminiscent of the word. a rumble sounded in his throat as she nosed against him, giving her a quick, affectionate nip as she shoved against him. terance made no comments of the signs she showed of pregnancy, since she herself didnt really bring it up. honestly, to terance, after dealing with treason this long, he often assumed that if she didn’t talk about it... she probably didn’t want to. 

but maybe he assumed wrong. 

i think you’re just tired, he chuckled anyway, but added, there’s a fox harassing one of the northern caches. i think it might’ve already taken off though, it’s scent was stale and less out of the territory. he hoped so, he really didn’t want to have to deal with a pest. then again, it was his job, after all. 

how are you? he asked, casual enough.

She had her moments.

It was pretty accurate that if she didn't mention something, it was one of two things: either not something she wanted to discuss, or something she thought was so obvious that they had to be on the same page.  Okay, a combination of the two was also kind of an option and might be reality in this case.  But she also had that whole wanting to pretend there was nothing different going on nonsense, so that might cloud things more.

Oh, so he had a slightly more interesting day than her.  Not fair.  Maybe I'll go check that out tomorrow, she said renewed interest.  See, she didn't mind hunting down creatures that went after their food -- foxes, coyotes, whatever.  She had enough size on them that she didn't see them as at all a threat to her well-being.  They were a different challenge than hunting proper prey -- they always seemed to be a bit smarter, probably because they knew how predators acted from firsthand experience.

She was starting to wake up a little more, eyeing him with a bit more mischief, Fine.  Bored, but I guess boring is good.  Treason was mostly thinking in terms of her own adventures, but that could probably carry over to her physical state as well, not that she thought of that.  But it's boring, so any thoughts?  With a quiet growl, she acted out a few super lazy play bites to Terance's neck and shoulder.  There was basically no pressure behind it -- she was basically just mouthing him obnoxiously.  But if it encouraged him to figure out something that might keep her entertained, totally worth it.

"be my guest," returned terance, who was, again, pretty convinced the damn thing was gone now.. just a hit and run, kinda deal. too bad they couldn't get it while it was there, though. either way, treason being off causing mischief for herself would probably be fine -- since she couldn't really get into too much trouble with a fox that wasn't even around anymore. 

she mouthed at him, like a teething child but with much duller fangs than baby teeth. baby teeth were ouch. "boring is good," he returned with a low growl to respond to her own. terance was actually pretty pooped, so he kind of didn't want to entertain treason right now. i mean, to be fair, he signed himself up for this, but at the same time... he just wanted to sleep. he returned a few of the dull nips, mostly to her cheeks though.

she seemed ready to rumble though, so terance tried to pull apart a few things that were low energy but... entertaining, maybe. granted, he and treason had different definitions of the word. "we should explore tomorrow morning," he suggested with a flick of his ear, "maybe go dig around somewhere new, find something cool."

Yeah, he kind of did.  But she saved this silly playtime just for him so it had to be special.  She paused after one final mouthing, the tip of his shoulder in her mouth as she growled devilishly a little more and pretended to gnaw on him, tail wagging behind her.  But that was apparently enough for now, as she let go and licked his cheek in a much more traditional fashion.  She was a sucker for anything even vaguely resembling roughhousing with a willing participant, even that toned-down mauling.

Her ears tipped forward attentively, Mm?  Is there somewhere in the territory you haven't managed to explore, or do you mean somewhere nearby?  She was pretty sure she'd covered most of it in her quest for a densite, so it might not be as fun for her if it was the former.  Maybe I'll even ditch the fox if it sounds interesting enough.  Probably wouldn't beat a piece of helicopter, but considering she probably would have a hell of a time convincing him to spar at this point, she'd take what time with him she could get.

terance flicked his ears, wondering if he'd accidentally made it sound like he'd discovered something. he hadn't, for the record, so he wondered now if this would be dreadfully disappointing... oh well. "nah," terance said with a shake of his head, "but i figured we could travel south a territory or two and see if we could find something worthwhile." what could be worthwhile? he had no idea. treason insisted on carrying around a stinky piece of metal, though, so she was bound to find something while they were out and about. 

"maybe we'll find secret tunnels, or something," he offered, green eyes gleaming. there was a bit of osprey shining through, though treason probably didn't share that same whimsicalness.

Okay, even if there was nothing specific, Treason seemed to be okay with it.  She nosed at him again.  Mm. I'd be fine with a field trip. And this time you won't even have to chase after me if you're along from the start, hm? she said, smirking.  Okay, so maybe him chasing along last time she wandered off hadn't ended up being a bad thing, but eh.  It was still amusing to her, but nobody said her sense of humor was normal.

Treason was starting to settle back down again a little.  She lowered her head, muzzle reaching out to cross over onto Terance's paws.  It'll be a better day than whatever I would have planned.  She sighed, staying quiet a moment before she continued softly, We should probably enjoy what's left of the time we've got where it's just ourselves.  It wasn't like... A bad sort of quiet or anything, just not juggling daggers with razorblades glued to them kind of pointy/edgy like a lot of Treason's comments.  She glanced up at him for a second, then back down.  Hard to read, as always.

oh, you're glad chased after you, the stone rumbled with only mild mockery, returning her nudge and mirroring her smirk. 

terance watched her as she lowered onto his paws, giving her a few licks to the forehead. he fell silent as she spoke, wondering exactly what that entailed. even as she glanced up at him, terance found little to grab hold of emotionally... unable to tell if that was a good or bad comment. jeez, she needed a sign that just said exactly what she was feeling at any given time. terance usually counted himself decent at reading her, but sometimes it was just too damn hard. 

we could always pawn 'em off to someone else and get some quality alone time in, terance offered, leaning down to nose the base of her ear, or we can make a sacrifice to the god of 'whoops my bad' and get him to reverse the whole pregnancy thing. the second one seemed less practical. giving her a few more kisses to the head, terance added in softer voice, i'm very much looking forward to having more than just us, though, so maybe no sacrifices.

She shrugged a shoulder, feigning far more detachment than was typical to her, i suppose I've been happy with the results...  

Yeah, the first... When they're old enough.  It was what I wanted and I'm not going back on it. Even if it was inconvenient and awkward and annoying and all that.  She looked up at him again, not looking away this time. So no sacrifices -- like that at least.  A quick smirk.  And good, because you're not allowed to chicken out now either.  Not that she expected he would, but since he was the one who'd changed his mind about the whole 'no relationship' thing in the first place, so she'd still poke at him about it for fun.

i think, terance returned with a low, playful growl, you would hunt me down and drag me back if i ever did. terance could definitely see that. besides, he had no plans to do such... not that his life ever went according to plan anyway. he was loyal, at least, so on his end he was pretty positive this would go as planned. his history of mental breakdowns seemed to come to a stop when he started dating (??? dating wtf) treason, so from that standpoint terance was pretty sure this was a good fit. 

to that, the stone gave her another nudge, leaning into her to preen gently at the fur by her neck. wanna go back to sleep? he murmured, tail tapping a few times against the ground -- content.

That might almost be fun in itself, she mused, amused at that thought and that he'd come up with it.  Seriously, don't tempt her.  Though having a willing partner in her games definitely meant she was prone to getting into a little more trouble.  But not tonight.  Tonight, his company and his doting were plenty enough to keep her tired mind occupied.

A quiet sigh, Mhmm. I'll be looking forward to tomorrow. Treason lifted her head and shifted slightly then, settling in to a more comfortable position against Terance's side.  She nuzzled his cheek, and with a, Sleep well, before lowering her head again to where it had been before.  Sleep would come easy for them.