✷

He watched, curiosity nagging at him, as the two wolves spoke. The Not-Mom kept staring in his direction, and one point he finally caved, stealing a cursory glance over his shoulder but there was nothing but Dirt and Wall. Was she? Looking at him? Did he have something on his face???

He scrunched up his nose, going cross-eyed as he tried to see, but that hurt his head so he stopped. And— oop, yeah, she was definitely looking at him now. His tail began to thump lightly against the ground. Hungry! Yes, he was that. That was him. He wanted that.

Shooting up onto all four paws, he weaved himself between the Not-Mom's legs, his tail slapping against her ankles. And there was that word again! Baggy, he echoed helpfully.

✦✦✦

The kid seemed the get over his previous reservations pretty quickly. That was... good, right? Right. Less good was his rain-slicked fur pressed against her legs. An involuntary shiver shot up her spine at the sensation. Her skin crawled.

But then Cupid spoke and her head snapped quickly in his direction, then back down to the kid. How can you tell? She asked, trying to keep the waver out of her voice, the hollow feeling of dread.

She didn't know squat about kids. She couldn't tell at a glance if he was old enough to survive off milk, and suddenly what was once a very routine "hey this random kid just showed up at my house" had turned into "hey I might have to watch this random kid starve to death".

What do we do if he can't?

✦✦✦

---

Puppy paws pattered nearer, but Cupid didn't encroach. His instincts wanted to bundle the little thing up and coo over the child, but he was capable of managing his impulses. His paws shuffled against one another. In the distance, his wings squawked with disgruntlement at the raindroplets currently splashing against her feathers.

And his daughter sounded horrified, like he'd just told her...well, precisely what he just had.

Does he have teeth?