You deserve more than I've given

When she'd begun to pour forth the troubled contents of her heart, Satira hadn't known how her father would take it. Would he be angry with her? Would he be offended or decide to cut his losses here and now? Every word the young girl spoke broke her heart a little bit more, like tapping on a cracked window with a hammer, but it was a necessary evil for the sake of her father's happiness. She loved Mojito so, and she didn't want him being strung along after her if he could be happier elsewhere. Sacrifice was nothing new to little Tira, who had given up so much of what she'd known in the past year of her life. What Satira hadn't been expecting though was for her hybrid sire to rise to his paws and immediately scoop her up into a tight embrace, quite literally pulling her across the border in his sudden act of paternal love. Tira blinked wide blue eyes in surprise, but very quickly melted into her father's embrace, pale eyes squeezing shut while she buried her face in his fluffy chest and let his familiar presence comfort her aching heart.

Mojito spoke, declaring that she was the best thing to ever happen to him and that he would never stop loving her or wanting the best for her. Satira's throat felt tight with the emotion she was trying her damnedest to hold back, wishing so much that she could be like her mother and just repress things into oblivion, but she was far too much like her dad in that regard. Like Mojito, she wore her heart on her sleeve. The little wolf-dog felt the moisture building up behind her pallid eyelids, and when her father finally drew back enough for her to open those big blue eyes, the tears fell freely from them, cutting through the fur on her cheeks to fall to her paws. Mojito's eyes were misting up too, but he was holding it together better than she was. Satira didn't want much—just for her family to be happy. Thinking that Mojito hadn't wanted to be around her hurt, but it hurt her more thinking that she was the one holding him back. Tira was gradually beginning to see how silly she was for thinking such things.

Satira's mouth pulled into a tight line while she sniffled back a sob, caught between the worry of letting herself grow hopeful that maybe her father wouldn't run off again and the urgent need to embrace him back and keep pretending like everything was fine. Eventually she gave in to the latter, and Tira went to throw her forelegs around her sire's sides to pull herself back into him with a sob that shook her whole body and made her ears bounce. "I love you, Dad," she spoke between shuddering breaths, burying her face into his fluff as if she were no bigger than a potato still. "I just wanted everything to be good again. I want you and Mom to be happy and I don't know how to make that happen. I... I don't know what to do anymore. I feel so lost and confused and I dunno how to fix things when everything's broken."

"Satira"