and in the end, i will seek you out amongst the stars
the space dust of me will whisper “i love you”
She loves the attention he lavishes on her, the way he doesn’t shy away from her wandering explorations of the ridges of his skin, of the bright bone and rust that clings to him. All these things that make him different from momma and different from brother, all these things that make him daddy. She nuzzles him, leaning into the stars beside his lips, and he does the same to her, pressing his lips to the little hollow at the side of her nose in a gesture that makes her little tag wag frantically. She loves him so much - doesn’t know the feeling by name, just by the glowing warmth that radiates from within her beautiful little chest.
But then momma groans and daddy goes still, unmoving until he pulls them suddenly closer. She doesn’t object because she loves her momma too, and daddy kept her tucked all safe and cozy against his side, but the sounds momma makes now are nothing like the soft music from before and she flattens her worried little ears back against her dark silky mane. But daddy must know what to do because he’s reaching out and murmuring words that she can barely keep up with before one replaces the next and is jumbled in her spying ears. All except the last one which she clings to triumphantly with another flick of her dark, curly tail.
Love.
It doesn’t matter that she has no clue or context for what this particular sound might mean, except that daddy said it to momma and for a split second her face looked so soft and beautiful. That must mean it’s a good sound, and now it’s hers because she caught it before it disappeared like the other ones.
Her little tail flaps softly again.
And ohhh, she watches in the hazy dark as momma heaves one last time and her brother finally joins them. It took him long enough! Which she reminds him with a soft little whicker she pushes all the way out from her little belly when he lifts his perfect face to find her. She watches momma fuss over him, feeling sleepy as she lays back against daddy, sprawled haphazardly across his forelegs and directly beneath his nose just in case he wants to fuss over her. But her eyes are already closing again, her breathing evening out with a sigh.
Ugh, or at least she was going to sleep until momma started rumbling at them in her soft, musical way to come eat. Her little tummy growls an answer that makes it absolutely impossible for her to pretend to not have heard her and stay asleep flopped so happily across daddy’s strong legs. With a huff she half-rises, pausing in small increments when her body starts to sway away from her control, until she is standing on trembling legs and leaning so hard against daddy while they watch her brother scramble to his feet. She gasps when he manages it, takes one single brave step in his direction until he tumbles back down again in a heap of long, tangled legs.
She makes a soft sound at him, a sound with worry etched into the edges, but he leaps back up again, bucks like nothing happened, falls again. Her delicate white face lifts to look up at daddy so she can try and gauge his expression, because her chest feels tight, her little bones wary at such abuse, but her brother is grinning, already climbing to his feet for a third time and pushing his nose against mommy’s belly. Her stomach growls again, those steely black ears flicking back and forth as she takes another trembling step forward and freezes uncertainly.
