[Through his nose, a shaky exhale. It falls short of a laugh or real humor, because they're talking about real and serious things.

Chaotic, broken lives.

Yeah, Tim means to convey with the matching silence. It drives him crazy too. Life and how hectic it is and how many people are in it, and how he's past the point of being a boy- past having the ability to ask for another road to take.

Girl Dog lifts her head. In Tim's uneducated opinion, she's more wolf than dog in a way that defies the pedigree percentages. No doubt that's why the Prince chose her, picked her out of the litter.] Huh?

[Tim had thought he'd told her.

But thinking back, his- everything had been sloppy, hurried and incomplete. With the mortification of damning the family he loves (and hates), Tim makes the choice to keep Kate-- here. Here, where her body now is next to his. Connected, kind of. Not away.]

My little brother's.

[The words are rough. Not because of sentiment. Because of disuse. They're foreign.

Yeah, Tim hates how complicated everything had to become too.

If he were whole... he would have loved a brother, of course. An imp of a little brother. Tim swallows, and explains the wolf on her bed.]

He probably had a... an important name for her. Something pretty. I don't know.

[Something Arabic, maybe. Elegant but strong.

Tim defends himself by mumbling,]

Siblings, huh. Always picking up after'm.