A little friendship is all you need (Hyper and Clary)

[Ruby_Fehu]

Iris huffed impatiently and continued to try and wriggle free from Xoren before just giving in and glaring up at him instead.

---

Ruby smiled softly, a slightly amused expression crossing her features at Sola blushing, "Don't worry, accidents happen. Are you hurt?" She asked with concern.

[Hypercube]

Xoren had just finished Iris's belly when he noticed the glare she was shooting at him. "Don't be like that Iris," he said seriously as he rolled her onto her right flank, "it isn't nice."

---

"I'm fine" she said chuckling a bit as she looked down to her brownish-yellow legs, "I'm just going to need to take a bath tonight i guess!"

[Ruby_Fehu]

"I'll be however I want." Iris replied, with a smirk, mirroring her mother's expressions.

---

"At least you willingly take them." Ruby laughed, as she resumed walking.

[Hypercube]

Xoren let out a sigh that embodied his frustration with Iris's attitude as he continued. After some silence, he turned her onto her belly and spoke to her in the time between. "Iris," he said with a fatherly tone, "I love you, but that attitude of yours is not making me happy."

---

"Well I found out pretty quickly that they were a necessity when I was by myself" Sola replied as she moved to take hold of the carcass's leg and continued to drag it.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Iris huffed a little, "I don't like baths. Mum never makes me have a bath." She lied, her bottom lip trembling a little.

---

"Indeed, your sister however is a pain when it comes to baths she throws all sorts of tantrums and her attitude - it would give any teen a run for their money." She shook her head but smiled a little at the thought. "I just hope your father is patient with her."

[Hypercube]

Xoren spotted Iris's lie as plain as day but knew that directly exposing it would make her even more unruly. "I doubt that," he said to her instead, "every parent knows how important cleanliness is and your mother is one very smart feline."

---

"He will be;" Sola said spitting out a tuft of fur that came lose from the gazelle's leg, "he might get a little frustrated but underneath that logical mask he's very emotionally aware. I'm sure you knew that though" she said with a playful smirk.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby just smiled innocently at Sola in reply before turning away from her as the reached the cave mouth and carried it in with Sola before dropping it down and looking towards Iris and Xoren with an amused expression, "Is she misbehaving?" Ruby asked Xoren knowingly.

[Hypercube]

By the time Ruby had returned, Iris was turned on her other flank, her bath almost complete. "She was a bit moody" Xoren said between cleaning, "but other than that she was fine." Sola followed her mother into the cave, dragging the gazelle to the back of the stone floor and letting its leg fall with a dull thunk on the hard surface. "Were you being bad Iris?" she asked her sister jokingly.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby chuckled a little and nudged the meat forward, "Well, eat up you lot. Iris it'll be time for you to go to bed soon." Ruby said fondly only to be met by a pout again.

[Hypercube]

"What happened to you?" Xoren asked through a thick laugh upon seeing his daughter's state. "Well I..." Sola stuttered blushing with embarrassment, "I had a bit of a fall." Xoren moved to her, checking her over for any injuries "are you okay?" "Yeah," she quickly responded, "I'm fine, just a little dirty." "I'd say. Well let's get eating so we can get to sleep; I hope to leave around sunrise tomorrow" Xoren said moving towards the meat and beginning to eat scarcely, leaving the best parts for the others. Sola followed him, doing as he did and leaving the most desirable portions for her mother and little sister.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby smiled a little amused at the father daughter moment between Sola and Xoren before ushering Iris over to her and starting to eat alongside her, nibbling at it so as to make sure she could savour the taste. WHo knew when they would be able to actually sit and take their time eating again.

[Hypercube]

Once Xoren had had his fill, he shuffled over to the other end of the cave and sat as he licked the fur and blood from his paws. He watched the others as they finished, something inside him pushing him, stabbing at him, telling him that this life was too good to be true. That's not true he thought to himself as he shook those ideas from his head. He knew that these thoughts were nothing more than then the undying desire to never be alone again, the intense will to keep what he had reclaimed from the hands of fate.

Sola continued to eat for a while after her father had left; the hunt and transportation must have made her hungrier than normal. Once she had finished, she joined her father but did not say a word as it was obvious to her that he was in deep thought. Instead, she proceeded to begin cleaning herself, not sure how to feel over the embarrassing incident that caused her to be so dirty.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby finished her fill and waited until Iris was finished. The cub yawned and padded over to Xoren, slumping down by his side and nestling her head in his flank, allowing her eyes to shut whilst Ruby watched on with a smile before she turned her attention to Sola, "Here. Let me." She smiled, going over and starting to clean Sola carefully, focusing mainly on the paw Sola and slipped on.

[Hypercube]

"Okay..." she said quietly; Sola was reluctant to let someone else so much as touch her, but she allowed Ruby to do so. As she felt the mother's skill and love come forth she smiled and closed her eyes. "Thank you" Sola said with a small pause before uttering the title she so awkwardly presented, "mom."

Xoren brushed his paw along Iris's back, his mouth curled into a smile at the resting cub before he turned to his own daughter. Watching Ruby clean Sola made him remember back to before everything went wrong, back to Sola's biological mother and the days they spent in the lonely savanna, surrounded by close friends. When he freed himself from the nostalgic thoughts, he realized that small tears had left dark paths in his fur leading from his eyes and falling to the ground in a little wet spot.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby smiled down at Sola as she continued to groom her before moving away when she was clean, "That's better," she said with a smile before peering over at Xoren with a content expression, she tilted her head and excused herself from Sola before going over to him and licking at his eyes, "Hey now, I don't want my mate to cry." Ruby purred lovingly, nuzzling herself into his chest.

[Hypercube]

"Sorry" he said laughing a bit as he wiped the tears from his eyes, "I've been way to emotional lately. I guess it's still just strange to me" he said as Sola curled up and closed her eyes "]being part of a family again."

[Ruby_Fehu]

"It is strange." Ruby agreed, "But worth it." She continued. Looking down at Iris and then to Sola, a small smile crept onto her lips as she lay down beside Xoren and rested her head on her paws. "I'd missed having family around me."

[Hypercube]

"As have I" he said laying down next to her without disturbing Iris as a similar smile took over his expression. "Now that I finally have one he continued, "I don't think I would be able to survive without one." With this he slid his head towards Ruby's and playfully licked her cheek, "I love you."

Sola's eyes were closed, but she couldn't fall asleep. It wasn't because of the voices that reverberated in the cave, but rather the fact that she was so detached from them. Eventually, she stood up and lazing shuffled to her parents and stood next to them for a second, watching them lay. "Um..." she eventually said with a nervous tone, "do you mind if I sleep with you two?"

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby licked him in return with a soft "I love you too," before turning to Sola who looked very sheepish. "Of course you can, you don't need to ask." She shuffled closer to Xoren and rested her head on his paws, looking up at Sola with a motherly smile. "If you feel you have to ask again I'm grounding you." She said with a playful grin which soon gave way to a wide yawn.

[Hypercube]

"Okay mom" she said with a small laugh as she lowered herself to the floor. This type of arrangement was still foreign to her, but she decided that rather than fight against it as she had been, she would just let whatever happened go. Closing her eyes, she lowered her head into unknown space, finally reaching contact with the fur of one of the adults she slept with. After she had made herself comfortable, she opened her eyes and saw her father in front of her, meaning that she was lying on her newly found - no - her actual mother. "I love you two" she said without a thought as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. "I love you too Sola" Xoren said wearily but still full of emotion as he too allowed the deep embrace of sleep to take him into its arms.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby just smiled to herself and murmured the words, "Our perfect little family." She lay listening to the steady breaths of the other three, her mind was filled with numerous thoughts, even though she'd always been a family orientated person finally having a family who she was happy with and trusted with all her heart made her heart want to burst with joy. These were hers. Her love and her daughters and she was determined not to lost them. With a smile she nuzzled her head closer into Xoren but left her body against Sola before finally allowing her eyes to slide shut.

[Hypercube]

Sola was the first to wake of the group when the golden rays of the sun just began to peak over the ridge of a far-off hill. She could not see the sun directly from the mouth of the cave but she could see the slow, yet constant brightening of the sky as the stars faded away. She silently stood, her mouth agape in a huge yawn, and began to walk lazily outside. The sun was just off to her left and the fleeting moon was creeping past the horizon to he right, already half-hidden.

"It's beautiful this time of the morning" a voice said behind, startling her and causing her to jump and turn on her heels. "Hey," Xoren chuckled, "it's just me." "You scared me a bit there!" she replied in a similar jocular fashion with a small pause after which as she moved next to her father and resumed her observation of the morning. "Yeah, it really is" she finally responded, smiling as she rested her head on his flank, suddenly overtaken by a feeling of thankfulness that he was there for her.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby began to stir when she felt the warmth of both her mate and adopted daughter move from her. Opening her jaws in a yawn she blinked sleep out of her eyes and stared towards the mouth of the cave with a slightly dazed look. She blinked again and smiled a little, nestling her head into her paws and watched Xoren and Sola with a small smile whilst they spoke. She found that it made her heart swell watching the pair of them talk together.

[Hypercube]

"I know I haven't had the chance to really say it" Xoren started placing his head on his daughter's in a tilted turn, "but it's times like these that remind just how much I love you Sola" "I love you too dad" she said back, removing herself so that she could look him in the eyes. "Dad?" she asked averting her gaze in a nervous way, "can I ask you something?" "Of course you can," her father said in a tone that matched his title, "you can ask me anything." Sola shuffled in place a bit, her eyes flying around their surroundings as she slowly spoke, "I... I want to know... I want to know about what life was for us before we were... separated."

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby smiled softly and shuffled closer to Iris who was beginning to wake, trying not to alert the others to the fact she was awake. Eventually she lay beside Iris and rested her head on her paws trying to find a distraction so she didn't feel like she was intruding. Iris who seemed aware of this looked up at her mum through half shut eyes and began to paw at her, looking for attention.

[Hypercube]

Xoren looked to the sun which had now became almost fully visible and let out an audible sigh. "I normally wouldn't talk about the past," he said to his daughter, "but for you... I will. It all started when I met your mother - Avanti. She and I were both hybrids and that wasn't well accepted where we came from, but we made it work." He told Sola of the times they spent together as she sat, smiling and laughing at the comical bits before her father's expression changed from nostalgia, to dread. "Everything was great for a long time..." he said tilting his head down and to his right before looking back to his daughter, "but then something horrible happened."

Xoren stopped his speech for a while and Sola could tell that he was having a hard time recalling these memories; not because they were lost, but rather because they stung with more fury than any pain he could face in the present. "It's okay dad," she said, "you don't need to tell me if it hurts you that much -" "No." he said in a quick, but calm response, "you really should know of your past."

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby glanced around the cave, looking for a way to leave so Xoren and Sola could have some time alone. Eventually she noticed a small hole which let a little light bleed inside. She picked Iris up and padded to the gap whilst they two were deep in conversation before pawing at the rocks until the tumbled to the side. The mother and daughter padded outside and Ruby could finally see around her surroundings. With a smile she picked Iris up by the scruff and scrambled to the top of the cave before placing her down on the flat makeshift roof and started to watch the sunrise with her.

[Hypercube]

Xoren let out another sigh, sitting down and looking straight to ground, this time for much longer, before he continued to speak. "One night, a group of bandits attacked our camp while you were still too young to form memories." His voice contained a sharp pain, and Sola could hear it through his attempts to mask it. As he gathered his thoughts, she moved to him and laid on his side hoping to console him in some way. "They raided the entire camp and fought with ferocious nature which eventually sent me into a pit, knocked out cold. They must of thought I was dead," he choked out, tears beginning to form in his eyes as Sola looked up to him helplessly, "because when I came to... I saw all of the members of the pride - men and women - dead... including your mother."

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ruby and Iris sat together on top of the cave, Iris was sat between Ruby's front paws and was looking around curiously. "Can't we live here instead of lots of travelling?" She asked with a small pout and Ruby's lips curled up into a small smile. "I highly doubt it flower." She said with a sigh, "Although it is beautiful it may not be safe." Ruby took in the sight that had been covered in shadows the night before. A large watering hole was about half an hours travel from the cave and a variety of animals were all huddled together and drinking. It really was a beautiful sight.

[Hypercube]

At this point, tears streamed from Xoren's eyes and cascaded to the ground - some hitting his daughter and others splashing on the rocks. "I looked for you for hours" he cried, "but I couldn't find you. I had lost - I had lost the only two people in the world I really cared for..." Sola moved and laid herself on her father, nuzzling him deep into his pelt in an effort to comfort him. "After I couldn't find you" he suddenly continued still straining the words out, "I just walked - I didn't go anywhere in particular - and the only thing that kept me from laying down and letting nature take its course... was the thought that you were out there - somewhere - still alive."

He and his daughter were both crying at this point, their sorrowful masses intertwined about each other hypocritically trying to calm the other one down. Soon though, Sola stood and moved in front of her father, looking him in his still teary eyes as his gaze met only with the empty rocks that surrounded them. "Dad," she said, "I wish I could say more but... I love you." At this, Xoren looked to her and smiled. "I never needed anything else" he said, standing and embracing her the way they did when they reunited some days prior.