Drac Ch17
#18 of Drac
Dienza prowled forward and sniffed the air. On all fours in the dark, the hallway was before him with the doorway into the living room just ahead. He scented the air, catching a whiff of his prey not far away. He stopped just short of the door and panned his ears around in an attempt to catch the sound of footsteps. There were none. Val had practiced well. Good, Dienza had no desire to lose his hunting skills even if he was cutting down on the amount of micen he ate. He lowly and silently inched himself forward through the doorway and panned his eyes around the room. Val would see much better than he would, and in the time it would take his eyes to adjust properly she would have plenty of time to hide. His only chance was to hope he could catch her by surprise. He didn't pause for very long, darting towards the couch and slinking around behind it. If Val was hiding under the drum set or the TV cabinet then this vantage point would be his best bet, but it would also mean that she had seen him. A slight scraping noise came from the cabinet. She was there and she'd bumped one of the cords. Moments later the sound of scrambling was heard. Dienza grinned in anticipation and burst out from behind the couch. Val was already running across the floor towards the hallway but it was too late. His hand thumped into the floor mere inches behind her as he pounced, making her jump in shock only to find herself snared in his other hand. 'Got ya.' He whispered, pressing his muzzle to the back of her neck and breathing slowly. Val shivered, adding more shakes to her panting form as she tried to resist his grasp. 'Get off me!' Val growled. 'You won already! Lemme go!' 'Fine.' The leona grinned and released his grip. Val spun on the spot and jumped up onto his muzzle before climbing to the top of his head. On her way up she made a point to kick the top of his nose. 'One day I'm gonna claw your eye out when you're asleep.' She whispered into his ear after she had settled in among his hair. 'One day I'm gonna eat you, face first, and you're gonna love it.' Dienza replied. 'I saw the look in your eye when I caught that micen the other day.' 'S-shut up!' Val hissed. 'I was just jealous... Because I've never had one before.' 'Oh I've seen jealous eyes.' Dienza teased, standing up and heading towards the kitchen. 'And yours weren't jealous.' He turned the kitchen light on and leaned down towards the counter top. With a sudden motion he nodded his head and dropped the rattis onto the counter. She rolled over to face him with an accusing expression, but stopped short as he opened his mouth and leaned in closer, giving her a slow lick over her face. 'You... bastard.' She growled. 'Are you trying to make me feed myself to you? Fine... I like it. Now stop! I don't wanna...' 'Finally!' Dienza laughed. 'Two weeks and you finally admit it. About damn time.' He turned to glance at the digital clock on the microwave and sighed. 'Well on that note, I should start getting ready for work. Be good. Or I'll tell Ma that she's allowed to eat you.' 'Whatever.' Val crawled over towards the back corner of the benchtop where the walls met. The kitchen sponge that Nate had used for a bed was a little too small for her, but she still managed to make herself fit if she curled up enough. After another five minutes, Dienza had readied himself to leave and returned to the kitchen. 'I might be later than usual today.' He explained. 'I'm taking two employees to be trained for forklift driving.' 'I thought you did that last week?' Val asked, raising one ear. 'No, that was just driver's license so I could drive the company car around.' The leona explained. 'I needed that one for myself. Enough of our workers already know how to drive.' 'Okay, whatever.' Val shrugged. 'I don't know what any of that means, but I'll see you later.'
Nereen woke up a little earlier than usual, her clock reading seven in the morning rather than her usual eight or nine. There was little point in trying to get back to sleep at this point, so she rolled herself out of bed and saw to her morning routine before heading to the kitchen to get something to eat. Her first sight was Val sprawled on the counter on top of Nate's old sponge. She was humorously oversized for it, but didn't seem at all to mind. Nereen leaned in close, keeping as quiet as she could until her face was a mere inch from Val's sleeping form. One of Val's eyes drifted slowly open, before blinking and opening all the way. In a split second she had let loose a squeak of terror and tried to scramble away from the leona's face only to slam into the wall behind her. In a daze, she took another look at her assailant and calmed down, recognizing the soft amused face of Nereen. 'Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you!' Nereen said, standing back up and blushing slightly. 'Then what were you doing?' Val demanded, still trying to steady her breathing and clutching her chest. '...Okay, I lied. That was funny.' The woman confessed, blushing a little more. 'You smell like someone tried to eat you.' 'Yea, your asshole of a son.' Val replied, finally settling back down and watching as Nereen took a few steps towards the fridge and opened it. The leona took out a carton of eggs and a packet of sliced ham, setting them on the counter as the fridge closed behind her. 'Did he figure it out yet?' he woman asked. '...Yes.' Val nodded sheepishly. 'Are you sure you didn't tell him?' 'Of course I didn't.' Nereen scoffed, turning on the stove and cracking two eggs into the pan. 'He's always been good at seeing these things. Besides, growing up he's found two micen who were the same, so he knows all the signs.' 'Micen too?' Val asked. 'I thought it was just me.' 'Nope.' Nereen replied. 'Thing is with micen, if they don't receive the right kind of education or the right attention from their parents growing up, they look for it elsewhere. And the only other source of attention they get comes from... well, predators.' 'I wonder if I'll ever find one like me.' Val pondered. 'It's a shame you arrived here after Nate was gone.' Nereen sighed, pausing for a few seconds and looking sad. 'What happened to him?' Val asked. 'About two weeks before Dienza brought you inside, we had... a visitor.' Nereen explained. 'He was here to kill Dienza. Because Dienza had done something terrible that cost their group a lot of money. But luckily Dienza was at work, so instead he had to deal with me.' 'How is that lucky?' Val asked. 'No offense, but Dienza does look a lot more dangerous than you.' 'Looks can be deceiving, sweetie.' Nereen smiled for a moment. 'But Nate was here, on the counter. When... the visitor, let's call him Black, decided to get a little aggressive, I decided to be aggressive right back. I had him almost cornered here. But Nate thought I was in trouble. He jumped onto Black's hand and bit him. Black slammed his hand on the counter and... well. Nate didn't survive.' 'Were you okay?' Val asked. 'Oh I was fine.' Nereen nodded, flipping the ham in the pan before opening a bag of bread and sliding four slices into the toaster. 'I managed to use the distraction to get the knife out of Black's hand. Actually sliced him open pretty badly, didn't even mean to. After that he ran. Straight out the back door and over the fence. I lost sight of him. Then I buried the knife and Nate out in the backyard and cleaned up as best I could.' 'That sounds so sad.' Val said. 'I never knew anyone had tried to kill him. I just figured leonas were always the ones doing the killing, but not to each other as well.' 'There are some... terrible people in this world.' Nereen nodded. 'But all that's not our concern anymore. Dienza has a good job, he's making a lot more money than he used to and he's getting his life back on track. All I want to do now is support him in that.' 'You're a good mother.' Val smiled. 'Anyway, Nate was like you.' Nereen smiled back. 'Only he was a lot less subtle about it.'
By the time evening had rolled around and Dienza had arrived home, Nereen had done some reshuffling of the living room and placed the sofa against the back wall rather than out in the open as it had been. She made the decision in the late afternoon, and had just recently finished. The TV itself was in the same spot, albeit the cabinet was now turned to jut out from the wall facing the couch's new position. 'What's all this for?' Dienza asked, leaning in the doorway as Nereen was plugging the cables back into place. 'I don't like how the couch position had us facing away from the front door.' She replied. 'It never occurred to me before, but if Black hadn't been such an amateur he might have just picked the lock and walked in. I might not have... even known.' 'Ma, I thought all that was over?' Dienza said, frowning slightly. 'It is.' Nereen nodded. 'At least with them. But there are other groups out there, and now my name is fresh in people's memories again. 'Well... If it helps I did take a look at an apartment complex today.' Dienza began. 'The place across from the mall, Desio Apartments or something.' 'Isn't that place expensive?' Nereen asked, standing up. 'Turns out it only looks expensive.' Dienza laughed. 'The rent there depends on which floor you want, top floor's ritzy but the bottom floor is about what we're paying here. And it is a better place all around. I took a look on the second floor. Fancier kitchen, about as much room as we have here and only thirty pound more in rent to what we pay here.' 'I see.' Nereen nodded. 'You could almost afford that on your own then?' 'Almost.' Dienza replied. 'But why?' 'Maybe you should get a first floor apartment then? Rent on your own?' Nereen offered. 'I mean, I'd be fine here on my own. And you don't wanna live with your mother your whole life do you?' 'I... I just...' Dienza stammered. Nereen had a point, but he had never given the instance much thought. 'I guess not but... I never really thought about it.' 'It's not that far.' Nereen said. She stepped forward and took him into a hug. 'We can always visit each other anytime. Just do it, I'm sure everything will be fine.' 'A-alright.' Dienza nodded, hugging back. 'So, who gets custody of the rat?'
After dinner, the two of them had settled on the couch and put on the TV to a documentary about the early history of leonas on the continent. Val was almost glued to the screen, sitting in the middle of the floor and completely engrossed in the world she'd never known about. Dienza's mind raced with thoughts of living on his own. It was certainly something he could handle, but at the same time it would take some getting used to. Nereen had insisted that Val would go with him to "make sure he didn't go nuts with loneliness." Val had agreed, mostly because she wanted to see more of the world and meet more people. She had not been dissuaded by the idea of meeting more leonas, seeming fairly confident that Dienza would protect her. As the night wore on, Nereen eventually excused herself and went to bed. Dienza laid himself down on the couch and set his phone alarm for his usual time. Val had curled up on the carpet and fallen asleep in the dim light of the TV. Dienza yawned and turned down the volume, before letting himself drift into sleep as well.