Soon or later he slept and woke to find the sun was putting on a lovely show for him. Vrash slipped away, utterly forgotten as his delirium took a sharp turn and Indris began to see impossible shapes and colors blossoming from the daystar’s death throes. Purple and red and blue and chartreuse…he hated chartreuse. Giggling at the lava-lamp-like display, the wolf picked up his head to get a better view and sighed, feeling utterly alone in the world. Everyone had floated up to go live in those colors, wrapped up in sunshine and laughing at him. He’d watch them cavort for awhile—Siaqi and Green and Oni and Poet and Element and all the rest, one by one. Their smiles were like ice-cream (what a drunken thought). “I can laugh too, you know,” he snapped back suddenly, and cackled like a madman in response to his visions. “You’re all a bunch of fools for leaving me anyway; I’ve got the Beach Boys in my head. Humph. I hope you all burn up!”

Glancing pointedly down at his paws again, the crazed young man tried to ignore the twitch of his limbs and the roiling mess of hormones surging through him. (It was almost enough to give him a headache.) He was crazy, sure. But even crazy wolves needed a little love sometimes. If only they hadn’t all flown away and left him…

A sly grin skated across the boy’s muzzle as he perked up considerably. “I was feeling a bit lonely, you know—everyone else has run off to watch the lightshow on the sun—but I’m better now. Much better.” And he nudged the other Fielder pointedly, noting the multicolored sun-paint Dathan appeared to be sporting. “That’s very nice, Dath. I s’pose you are magical… And you certainly have brightened up my night.” Disoriented and delirious as he was, an idea came to the younger canine then. He stood, pulling his wobbly legs under him, and began to pace around his friend, admiring the lovely colors that he’d imagined streaking the Lambda’s naturally pallid pelt. Eventually he faced the wolf again, his tail still wagging crazily, with no particular rhythm or pattern. That was what gave him the idea: “Dathan, why don’t we dance?” Why not indeed?

“That’s all very lovely,” the Lonán teen had to admit, as his friend continued to ramble cheerfully. Where had he heard someone talk that quickly before? I-never-stole-anything-before-and-I-just-fell-off-a-dead-man's-car-and-my-parents-are-about-to-come-pick-me-up-and-this-is-the-girl-I-love's-favorite-beer-and-I-was-just-wondering... um... could I borrow it? Ah, he remembered now. It was nice to remember things—it proved you weren’t crazy. Comforted in his own dementia, Indy found himself nodding along as Dathan did most of the talking. That was so sweet of him, to jabber while the Lonán youth stood there like a dumb bunny… “Glad, glad, glad. Everyone’s glad—and that’s not hard when we’re everyone.” Hah, that was almost a joke, so Indris laughed. Both in his head and out his mouth. He smirked at the snowy wolf watching him. Dathan seemed very entertained by Indy’s little dance. But he was much more excited by the idea that he might join in the dance, too.

As Dathan positioned himself, graceful as a ballerina, as a leaf (I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch me soar.), Indris did his best to mimic his friend, tossing his paws up on either side of the older male’s neck and sort of hopping to the side as he started the dance. “I didn’t know you could sing,” the Beta remarked as they spun and hopped awkwardly, like children. “I didn’t know a lot of thing about you, really. You’re acting very funny, Dathan, but it’s nice. Nice…whoops!” The post-yearling hadn’t meant to say that last part; it just slipped out as he slipped himself, his two left feet propelling him and the Lambda to the ground.

For awhile they rolled, and Indy laughed dizzily, until they finally came to a stop at the bottom of a hill. Feeling even more disoriented than before, Indris glanced down at Dathan and laughed. “Hahahahaha…that was fun. So are you.” And he gave the other male a big, sloppy kiss. It was nothing like how it had been with Vrash. There was no hot, binding passion. This was no effortless expression of utter connection between two beings. It was just a pastime kiss. A hobby. Some people’s hobbies including collecting stamps, or skydiving, or eating broccoli. Indy’s hobby, when he was insane, happened to be flirting like a fiend.

Hooray! “I won,” Indris cried when he ended up on top, before launching into the speech about how silly his friend was and kissing him like a drunken fool. Speaking of drunken fools, Dathan would make a good one. Indy pictured him with a jester’s cap set squarely between his ears, the little bells jingling as he cavorted and whirled. The white wolf’s babbling interrupted his mental picture, but that was alright. Indris had known just what to do to shut him up: in the most polite way possible, of course. So he kissed him! Haha, just like that.

“I didn’t know the sun could r—” the loony Beta started to say, but Dathan’s lips closed around his and he was effectively silenced. No more celebrities in his head. Just Dathan, the last wolf on earth save him, and the running sun and the kisses and the man on the moon. “Very nice,” the darkened male had to agree, reaching up to nip his buddy’s nose. “I’d say the man on the moon’s a very talented dude. So, what else can you do?” Giggling as he lay there, Indris stuck out his tongue and made a raspberry at the other wolf, then closed his eyes expectantly. “Surprise me!” he yipped in a singsong voice.