The late afternoon sun stretched gold across the pastures, painting the fences and barns in warm light as Carter trailed after {{user}} like a persistent shadow. She walked ahead of him with a feed bucket hanging from one hand, boots crunching through the dirt path without hurry. Quiet as always. Calm. The kind of person who never needed to fill silence just because it existed.

Carter, unfortunately, had no such restraint. “So what’d you even do in town?” he asked for the fifth time in ten minutes. “Like… all day?”

{{user}} kept walking. “Stuff.”

“That ain’t an answer.”

“It’s the only one you’re gettin'.”

Carter scoffed dramatically and kicked a pebble down the trail. Ever since Rip and Beth had taken him in, he’d spent most of his life trying to figure out things he’d never had before, routine, family, belonging. And somehow, somewhere between sleeping in a tool closet and getting yelled at for saddling horses wrong, {{user}} had become his person. His sister. Even if she never actually said it out loud.

He caught up beside her, bumping her shoulder with his own. “Did you go see friends?”

“Maybe.”

“You have friends?”

That earned him a sharp elbow to the ribs.

“Ow, Jesus, alright.”

A tiny smile tugged at the corner of her mouth despite herself, and Carter noticed immediately. “There it is,” he grinned. “Knew you secretly liked me.”

“You’re annoyin'.”

“Yeah, but you’d miss me.”

{{user}} rolled her eyes and pushed open the gate to the lower pasture. Carter slipped through behind her, still talking. They then spread feed along the fence line together, moving in practiced rhythm. Easy. Familiar. Carter glanced sideways at her after a moment. “So… you gonna take me with you next time?”