[ prp ] You and I (Fierce Warrior & Dusk Wave)

[rexcorvus]

The Winter Market had come and gone and with it had come yet another flurry of strange feelings that had culminated in the appearance of not only Dusk Wave, but also Brother Shark and then, in a confusing turn of events, Brother Shark following Dusk Wave to a different booth. Or maybe Dusk had followed Brother, Fierce wasn't entirely sure, but either way he had spotted the two of them together, heads bent towards one another as though speaking in low, intimate voices to each other.

Or maybe that was just his exaggerated imagination. Whatever the case, Fierce wasn't sure what he was supposed to be feeling about the whole thing except that he didn't feel particularly great about it. He hadn't been able to leave his own booth, but he hadn't exactly been able to talk to Dusk clearly, not since the whole Obelisk thing.

Fierce wasn't avoiding him. The timing was just bad.

He really wasn't.

Definitely wasn't.

Strength in Numbers would have rolled her eyes and called him an idiot, but Fierce was disregarding this potentially accurate scenario and was instead making his way along a riverbank, staring out at its churning, icy waters and trying (in vain) to figure out how to explain the tangle of emotions he was currently experiencing. He had brought Sharp Eyes with him, the wolf padding alongside Fierce, and Breakwater had attempted to also come, but Fierce had shoved his shuppy into his son's little cave and made a hasty exit before he could be forced to take the wretched creature back.

There was also a bird following him, one with bright green and white plumage, but Fierce was ignoring that too.

dads take 2: the daddening

[peanutbutter]

There had been a lot going on for Dusk lately that had been... confusing to say the least. Winter Market had been part of it - Fierce's attitude towards him, that one buck, Breaking free possibly being there (and that was a thought he firmly tried to stay away from, lest he lingered on it too long and spiraled into despair) - all of that was enough to occupy Dusk's mind for a nice long while. But then there was the matter of the Obelisks, the bird that kept following him around, and the fact that almost all of his disastrous Winter Market experiences would follow him back home and well. Dusk had enough to certainly keep him busy.

Not to mention the hair.

That had been a fun shock, going through the Obelisks to come back after the market and finding himself with a sudden wealth of hair on his head. He still wasn't sure what to make of it - he had vague memories of his father having hair, but was it supposed to grow in this late? Or grow this long? He thought that was supposed to take time. At least he had managed to get it out of his face, with the help of Strange Son and the bird (yet another thought that he firmly repressed), so he was deciding for his own sanity to call that matter dealt with. Even if he did keep having to adjust to the strange feeling of warmth on his neck.

It was actually the reason why he was out now, on his way back from delivering some thing to the Obelisk.

The bird had demanded it and Dusk, in a move that definitely was repayment for help with his hair and not using it as a means to avoid his problems in the Cres, had followed through for once. The path was easy enough to tread and it was nice on occasion to get away from everything, even if he did have a shuppy that he had to wrangle through the swamp. He was in fact, so focused on the shuppy as it hurtled its way towards a river, he barely took note of the other kimeti standing there.

He looked up to give an apology as Friend splashed noisily into the water, but his voice died in his throat as he saw it was Fierce.

He had no idea what to do.

dads but now with More Hair TM

[rexcorvus]

Focused as he was on his own inner turmoil (and the effort of ignoring the bird), it took Fierce longer than he would have liked to admit to notice that there was someone else nearby. In fact, it took several moments of Sharp Eyes nudging his leg for Fierce's head to snap up, a look of annoyance flashing briefly across his eyes.

"What," he said, giving the wolf a pointed look. "I'm not - "

Then he heard the splashing and turned.

It took another few minutes for any sort of reasonable explanation to find its way into Fierce's head because it was Dusk, but it also wasn't Dusk. The buck had the exact same coloration and the exact same markings - and the exact same expression that Fierce recognized only too well - but this Dusk's horns had vanished away, replaced instead by gentle, burnt gold waves that crested softly against his neck and fell nearly to his shoulder scale. There was a bit of it tied up, probably with the help of a mongoose, and by his hooves, one of those wretched shuppy creatures was frolicking merrily about.

It was Dusk. Unless Dusk had an identical, hair-filled twin that Fierce hadn't known about, but he was pretty sure that that wasn't the case, not in the least because Dusk would have at least told him.

(Maybe. If Fierce was actually talking to him, that was.)

Fierce opened his mouth, shut it, opened it, shut it again, then tried to formulate words, except none came. Instead, he stared, and the staring grew longer and more uncomfortable until Fierce realized he was staring, and that his heart was also going very, very fast, and he tried not to think about either of these things.

"...Dusk?" he asked, somewhat stupidly, but the tone was uncertain.

;')