Broken Hearts Still Dream Of Happiness

Once the other boy replied, giving him his name, Arc nodded approvingly and replied, "Good. Nice to meet you, Ricin." The larger boy still didn't really seem to be fully aware of his surroundings just yet, but Arcturus was patient as he laid there waiting for the boy to reorient himself. He wasn't sure how he kept stumbling upon these wolves that seemed to need help, at least from his perception of them, but this was the second time now that he randomly found someone that seemed to have something going on or some issue that needed resolving. This time though Ricin seemed physically okay—well fed and smelling of a pack so Arc knew he wasn't alone—but mentally there was something going on.

Arc watched Ricin curiously as he shifted closer to him till they were close enough to touch and raised a brow at his one word question, not really understanding at first until Ricin reached out to touch his paw as if to make sure he was actually there. Arc gave him a little, reassuring smile and lifted his opposite paw to gently pat Ricin's a few times. "Yeah, I'm real," he assured him. They stayed like that for a couple moments and Arcturus could see Ricin visibly relax a bit more until eventually he pulled away his paw again. "It's alright, no need to apologize," he replied when Ricin apologized again, adding, "I know that feeling." He couldn't count how many days he had just laid in bed, replaying his father's death over and over in his head, picking it apart and wondering how he could have done anything differently to prevent it from happening. His dreams were still more often nightmares even though so much time had passed. He often wondered what it would actually take to get himself to move past it, but nothing really seemed to help so he could sympathize with the younger boy.

He refocused his gaze on Ricin when the boy spoke, asking him if he was okay and citing the fact that he was pretty hard to miss. Arc gave a soft chuckle at that. He supposed it should have been pretty hard to miss the very blue pup that was very nearly not a pup any more, but somehow he had managed. "Yeah... you could say that," he replied with a little shrug when asked if something was on his mind, glancing away awkwardly. He didn't know if talking to a stranger about his problems was really the way to go, but he didn't guess there was any harm in it either. Maybe it was even better to talk to a stranger that he didn't even know if he'd see again.

"I just... My dad was killed awhile back and it's still hard, you know?" he finally replied after a moment, his ears flicking back. He could make himself look back up at Ricin again, instead looking down at his paws while his claws picked at the grass under them. "I was just thinking about him and how he died and all that when I stumbled into you so... yeah, I had some stuff on my mind."

"Arcturus Fatalis"