Redhawk Caldera Fire away, fire away.

When Towhee said that he could visit his girlfriend, Eljay felt his cheeks flush. He wasn't too sure that she was his girlfriend, even though he definitely felt like they were boyfriend-and-girlfriend — or, well, had been — and to hear someone else acknowledge it like that somehow made him a little shy. Towhee then proceeded to tell him that he should go to her in the Fen after the pups were born. That he should... move there? Was that what she was saying?

Eljay blinked in surprise. Again he found himself a little hurt, but this time with the ease with which he was dismissed. And again he berated himself for those feelings, because just like the ones he'd felt when he found out about the pregnancy, he was pretty sure they were completely ridiculous and he simply shouldn't be feeling them. Now he just needed to tell them that.

Oh, well, Eljay said, still a little flustered. I don't... We kind of had a.. Was it a fight, really? But what better word for it was there? Eljay took a deep breath and continued. .. something that happened. Maia came over to ask me to move to the Fen, but it sounded like... As if she didn't want to be with me anymore if I didn't. It was a question, but also kind of not? Eljay looked at Towhee to see if she understood what he meant. And I said it was a lot to ask and I needed time. I wanted to ask her if she would ever live in Redhawk Caldera with me, or well, if that meant that she never wanted that. But we didn't really get there, because when I asked her for time she just seemed to get really sad, and then in the end she ran off. Oh, he remembered that bitter sting of rejection so well; it had felt as if she was not just leaving, but leaving. He sighed and added, It was just in the middle of everything, too. He liked to think that he would've done better if he hadn't been stressed and tired from taking care of Niamh and Towhee.

He opened his mouth as he hesitated to share his fear of losing Maia with Towhee, and his desire to just say yes to anything she wanted because he knew he would lose her otherwise; but then decided he'd said enough, for now, and waited to hear what she might say instead.