Ranyin had been told to wait outside. She hadn't gone far, instead lingering close shifting between sitting, standing and pacing when sitting still became too difficult; which was about every thirty seconds. Hàorán was in there with Rìhé, and somewhere beyond where she was allowed to go, their babies were being born.

It was a private event...a family matter. She'd tried to follow but he insisted she couldn't come in. Don't care... she muttered, kicking a loose stone away, but of course she did. She didn't want to wait out here.

She'd only just found him, someone who wanted her around and who paid attention when she spoke and hadn't decided she was too much trouble. She didn't understand why she should have to share that now. Rihe already had him, and soon there would be puppies who would have him too. What did that leave for her?

The girl sighed, and the longer time ticked on the worse it became, Rihe already didn't seem to want her around. And Ranyin noticed every bit of that distance even if she didn't understand why it existed. Now there would be babies too. Tiny, helpless things that belonged to Haoran in a way Ranyin didn't — a way she never would

She wanted to go in, but she wanted Haoran to come out even more.

....what if he didn't want her anymore?

A noise from inside pulled her attention toward the entrance and she stared for a moment before lowering herself onto her belly, chin dropping heavily across her paws. She considered leaving before Haoran came back out. Then maybe he'd wonder where she'd gone and maybe he'd even come looking.

But what if he didn't?

Her ears flattened at the thought.

Ranyin tucked her nose beneath one paw, irritated by the realization of how badly she wanted this. Some greedy part of her wanted to fill every empty place her mother and absent father had left behind with him, until there was no room left for anyone else — not Rihe, not the puppies. No one.

She wanted to be the one he chose first, the one he came looking for, to pull him away from everything that had belonged to him before her and keep him somewhere she alone could be his whole heart. It wasn't fair. Somewhere beneath all that want, perhaps Ranyin even knew that it wasn't.

But she'd spent her whole short life with too little love and now that she'd finally found some, she didn't know how to share it.

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