one warm day is all I really need; Mazikeen

[Mazikeen]

Barrow says that he’s proud of her and it warms her smile that turns into a laugh at his mention of a cracked hoof taking him out for months. But the laugh doesn’t last long because she replies sincerely to his words, and that’s nothing to laugh about. Because it does matter. She didn't think she'd hear anyone say that to her. “Thank you.” As they move out of the lake she laughs again, a full bright noise, when Barrow talks about his musk but her only response is to shake her head before she sits down in the sand, feeling utterly relaxed and eager to dry out in the sun. It can evaporate the water while Barrow’s presence has the same effect on her worries. She shrugs a little when he says he guesses he should figure out where he’s living, even though she’s the one who had just asked where. “Only if you want to. It’s not the worst thing in the world, to not have an official home. I didn’t, when we first met.” And it hadn’t bothered her at all. She does like Hyaline, likes the fact that the pack has settled here for now, and there’s a security to having official borders. But she thinks she’d wander anywhere if she had her friends with her. She smiles at this thought and it brings her back to the present. “You can stay here, if you want. That’s a shifter exclusive invitation.” Mazikeen feels a little embarrassed about this, about how if Barrow hadn’t been able to shift he wouldn’t have been welcome to stay - no matter how much she cared for him. But she reasons with herself that it's not a problem anymore.

@[Barrow]