He had been ready to gear up for another trip to the spot.

Wandering had become the only way he would not go mad, he feared. The company of the cubbin' was easiest when the woman all stunk to high heaven with the scents of spring. All it had done to him was irritate him and he had found himself plenty happy to let them go wander off if they wished. Let them be another man's problem for the minute!

He had just wanted to grab something from a personal cache first before he began the trek south.

He had not imagined it would be Clouse that he had come to grab from the cache. You get back and not call me?! No anger touched his voice. Only bewildered excitement and the sudden shackles of spring freed from his neck.

Loach could not, would not, contain his own string of kisses. Trailed all over and along the handsome face that had come home to him. Even if it seemed to only be for a moment. A moment together meant a million things to wayward lovers.

I missed ya too.

A soft sigh was he moved to slump his rear against the ground. Forelegs softly reached to grapple the smaller male.

How're they doin'? What's it lookin' like? As much as he wished to ignore all of it and only talk to his lover about dovey things, it would not be appropriate. Not yet. Not in Loach's mind, at least.

Better.

There was that selfish little flare again, that ugly green beast. It would have been so easy to simply say come home then. To carry him to bed and pretend that things were whole for everybody. Just so that it could be them.

Yet he knew it would never be that simple. Not right now, at least.

It's...same old, y'know. A soft roll of his shoulders. I was thinkin' 'bout findin' somewhere a bit bigger. Didn't think so many would be sticking around still.

He thought at the first breeze of spring, they'd be gone. Maybe not Llinnea, but the others? Possibly. Probably. Now there was a good little group and he knew that predators would come fighting for a chance to fish soon too. Why risk all of them against bears or cougars when there was plenty of river to go?

Well, uh, He ran a mental count of those who lingered around still. Ve, Lana. Two cubbin' 'bout to be grown. Me, o'course, and gotta have room for you too, hm? He tried not to pin the man, to not make him feel like he had to be a body here. No matter what ran its course with the group, there would always be a place for Clouse wherever Loach laid his head.

They weren't lovers because of a group claim.

S' a lot of bodies to keep cramped up at the split. But I figured if they do wander off anyway then...I'm just findin' me a better spot too. Somewhere that the fish would not fear for the amount of hunters and somewhere to better shelter the ill of the weather he had witnessed. The split was open and while he had loved it for that, he had also come to learn how to hate it too.

Maybe you'll tell me if I'm bein' stupid.

His mother and father would have laughed if they could see him now.

Cozied up with some man, talking about responsibility. Maybe it wasn't who he had wanted to be when he was younger, or even just a year ago, but it surely seemed to be who he was becoming. He hardly believed in fate and destiny, those sort of chains, but maybe there was a reason he had fallen into this.

I hardly am with this crew. Everyone seems to mind their own...real self-sufficient bunch. He snorted softly as he leaned a bit deeper into Clouse. But...y'know, I don't mind making sure everything stays good so everyone can keep enjoying themselves. His voice grew soft and careful, like a private confession.