Third kept himself in the shade of the water tower as he waited for the right time to make his move. It was time to switch again, though Prime would be disappointed to hear that the lead pack was away on a mission. Third had searched as much as he could after they left; he hadn’t found anything leading to a “weapon of chaos”. He had taken several images of their paperwork to be reviewed at camp. Reviewing it in the captain’s office seemed too risky.

His pocket felt heavy, and Third pulled out the photo inside it. He’d found it slipped into shirt the morning after the twin’s request and felt the insane urge to keep it hidden from his brothers. It wasn’t like the moment was scandalous - not like some of the other photos he’d taken of the twins - but it was a moment he’d shared with them and he sort of wanted to hoard it away.

Which was silly. It was just a moment.

He rubbed his thumb over Toc’s quietly smiling face. If he hadn’t been there Third could believe the two were cuddled together sleeping; it was only because he’d taken the shot that he knew the close-up of their faces was a blink of time where they recovered, luxuriating in each other, before reaching out to invite him in.

Third shivered, feeling cold for a moment even in the heat of the desert. He’d fled from that offer because they just wouldn’t understand. Third had obviously been fascinated with them, with how they enjoyed each other, and they’d caught his arousal. They’d just wanted to return the favor. Except Third didn’t care about the heat down there, not really. He’d taken care of that enough on his own to know there was no lasting tie to the act. Not for him. He wasn’t like Prime reaching out to touch any willing body because he craved that intimacy. He wasn’t like Second who didn’t care who he fulfilled his body’s needs with just so long as it was done.

Third craved a moment like what the photo gave. It was a teasing reminder of what he could have had. Not that blind physical intimacy, but trust and closeness and affection. The twins had offered him a moment of that. Or seemed to. It wouldn’t have been real.

Third shoved the photo back in his pocket. A moment was too much temptation. There would be a risk they would figure out there was more than one fox, and worse still his brothers wouldn’t let him back into the village.

But he wanted. He really wanted.

His sash still smelled like wolf. He couldn’t get them out of his head. A stolen moment.

His chance came and Third slipped out the gate without the guards noticing, a trick he only managed because of the crowd of merchants currently tripping out of the village. It was easier to slip from their group unnoticed and manage the sandy ground between dunes. He’d be faster on his paws, but he stood out too much. It took him an hour to reach their slowly-improving desert camp out on two feet.

“Took you long enough,” Second grumbled in echo of Third’s thoughts.

Third ignored it. He shook the sand out of his hair and pulled the mask off. In a bag near the side of their cave-shelter he had a jar of cream he put on his face to keep from getting marks from constantly wearing the masks. Taking it off for a several days would be a relief. “It’s harder to sneak out in the daylight,” Third admitted as he rubbed the sticky substance on his temple, “even though the main pack left last night.”

“What?” Prime growled, his face fluttering from annoyed to angry in seconds.

“Some sort of mission, from what I gathered. The twins are also out visiting their mother. It’s their birthday, apparently, and they got an early start this morning,” Third said.

“Tic and Toc?” Second asked, “Or Calyx and Sphynx?”

Third didn’t even know who the second two were. “Tic and Toc,” he said. “They - um - had a special request. I would have switched if I had time, Prime, I swear, but they didn’t give me a chance between asking and taking me to their room.”

“What kind of special request?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.

Third bit his lip and ducked his head, red staining his cheeks and giving away the nature of the situation even without all the details. “They asked Black Fox to take pictures of them having sex for a special friend.” He made it through that without stuttering, and felt proud of himself. “I think they’re looking to court a pack. They’ll want us to deliver the package while they’re gone - but they didn’t say where to and they didn’t give me the pictures. So I don’t know how that’s going to work.”

Second snorted. “You probably flew out of there so red-faced and obvious they figured you’d never pull it off and did it themselves.”

“That only helps our image as rookies, I guess,” Prime drawled out. “Though one of these days we will figure out how to get you to stop blushing all the time. What else happened?”

Third held up the mini camera and waved it. “I have pictures to send to the tablet of some documents from the captain’s desk. I didn’t see anything about our target, but I just did a quick glance. Since the main pack is out of the village it’s a good opportunity for recon, so I focused on getting as many images as I could.”

Prime nodded. “Make sure to look for codes in the writing. If you could get to them that easily the text is probably nothing; the real data is hidden in the messages.” Prime stood and dusted himself off, starting to stretch and limber himself up while Third gave the rest of his report. Nothing else of interest had happened and the main pack had left the village operating smoothly; there wasn’t much to tell. Prime seemed to be in better spirits when he sprinted off to return to the village, though, which made the weight of that picture in Third’s pocket heavier.

He hadn’t told his brothers about it. He selfishly wanted to keep it a little longer. It wasn’t like the twins were in the village to ask about it, anyway. It could wait until they were back before he said anything.

“You should get some rest,” Second said, pulling out his knives to check that the desert hadn’t damaged them. “I’ll wake you in a few hours to go over those images.”

“Do you want to rest too?” Third asked. With the image fresh in his mind, a cuddle with his brother might ease that ache just a bit.

But Second was giving him a look like he’d just asked for something stupid, and Third felt himself slump. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” He pulled out his blankets and curled up beneath them to slip down to his underclothes before rolling up the softer pieces of his wardrobe into a makeshift nest for his head. Without thinking about it, he buried his nose in the cooling cloth and breathed in the mixed scents of Tic, Toc, and arousal.

It made Third’s chest hurt as he slept alone in the sand, wishing he was in a bed with a real pillow.