After seeing the new chapter of Princes' Path, I'm now obsessed with the idea of Lou asking Hawke to look after Nix and Phinny when he goes away for extended periods of time.
I'm headcannoning here that the birds are way more worried about Lou than they're letting on. They're connected to him through his magic. If he was dead, they would know. But he's not dead, so where is he? If he was okay, he would've sent them word by now, but they haven't heard anything from him. What's wrong?
Not knowing for them is worse than Lou dying and having to find his next reincarnation. (Baby Vanum is kinda cute, and Phinny and Nix always compete to see whose name he'll say first and whose name he'll pronounce right first. They are very used to being called Pinny and Niss.)
Anyway, Hawke spends a good bit of the day comforting them and giving hugs like this: