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_ Sneak Treats _

Corben's new sweet jar. At last, Raemon had made it within touching distance. He'd had quite the journey from the living room. One that'd left him puffing, half-winded atop the kitchen countertop. Sure, the giant raccoon had set up a makeshift stairway from his old couch with books and old game cases, and the lift fixed to the counter here made scaling it a matter of pressing a button. Too bad neither of those things helped make getting around the sprawling apartment any easier.

Still, even as he sucked down all the air he could get, the green-speckled, black-furred wrylle had no intention of stopping his march across the countertop, eyes only for the sugary treats ahead. A wide smile spread across his muzzle, tempered only by the dawning realisation of the challenge to come. How exactly would he get at them?

Rae scratched at one of his blue-tipped ears, sizing up a jar that stood taller than his wardrobe back at home. Inside, the colourful wrappers shimmered in the daylight pouring through the window, glittering prizes, hiding several dozen beach ball-sized sweets within. And just like prizes, these sweets would need to be won.

"Dang it," he groaned, throwing his arms around himself as he came to a halt. "This'll be trickier than I thought."

The cat-like hybrid stood in wait, a thick, blue-tinted tail befitting a canine swaying harder to keep pace with his speed of thought. How would he get in there? Failing that, how could he possibly get ahold of the mouthwatering goodies stashed away beyond the glass?

He glanced around the countertop, scanning Corben's stacked up pots and pans, his well-used kettle, and various other kitchen utensils. Then came all the stuff the raccoon had left discarded, from a pair of earphones to a couple of empty beer bottles, right through to the tattered remains of a box previously belonging to a frozen pizza.

"You really need to clean up sometime," Rae chuckled to himself, settling down to a low seat atop the cardboard. "And I really need to work out how to tackle this..."

The wrylle rested his head in his paw, drumming his cheek with his fingers. Sensible ideas were few and far between, an experience he wasn't all too accustomed to when it came to liberating treats from larger friends. Even with all the extra allowances and amenities, being a small folk in a big folk's world needed quick feet and an even quicker mind, be it for steering clear of an oblivious giant's path or for getting at a snoozing raccoon's well-stashed treats. But, on this occasion, speed of thought couldn't help him. Rae couldn't hope to climb the glass unaided, and nothing lying around could offer the kind of aid that he needed. It'd been such a long walk to get that far, never mind the effort that'd gone into sneakily climbing down from his spot atop Corben to start with.

"Fine." Rae jumped back up to his feet, huffing. He told himself he wouldn't be beaten by a simple jar, no matter how large. Rushing the last few steps to its shimmering side, the little wrylle spread out his arms and pressed his whole front against it. All those fiendishly sweet treats were sitting right there, just the width of that glass away from his prodding green nose and focused amber eyes. "Guess we'll do it the hard way."

Rae shifted his weight forward, straining, pushing as hard as he could. He forced the whole of himself into his efforts, all of his strength and will. A grunt slipped from his grimacing muzzle, followed by the squeak of his pawpads slipping across the laminate. A dull thump echoed as the jar began to shift... all of a hair's width away from the counter. The slowest of slow starts perhaps, but a start all the same.

Rae forced the edge of that jar as high as he could shift it, tilting it a few degrees off its base before pushing away into a half-step backwards. He watched in wait for the heavy, clattering clank of its return to the counter, followed by a slow, subtle lurch towards him, just as he'd hoped.

A full body shove followed a quick-footed retreat, again and again, building up momentum as that giant sweet jar rocked harder and louder upon the counter. Beyond the glass, tantalisingly close, those colourful packets began shifting and jumping too, as much under Rae's spell as the container containing them. The thumping grew louder, the movement stronger. Rae's eyes widened, as did his wearying smile. Too easy, he mused to himself, his focus drifting further and further, pondering which of those goodies he'd pluck out from inside.

The jar's rocking became rolling, swaying, forcing Rae to step faster and further each time he needed to make an evasive manoeuvre. Momentum showed no sign of slowing its building, not with the wrylle upping the intensity of his shoves against its side.

So deep in his self-satisfaction, not to mention the lure of those treats soon to be tasted, Rae's focus returned. Too bad it wasn't where it was needed.

The jar wobbled, sending a stiff jolt through the counter below. The grinding of glass on laminate rumbled out as the towering container tipped, hitting a forty-five-degree angle. A shadow fell over a still smiling, still dreaming Rae. If he'd realised, he might not have lined up to give one last, hefty shove.

The wrylle met the glass shoulder-first, just like every barge before. This time however, the jar wasn't playing ball. Instead of retreating, it kept on coming, fast and hard, tipping past a point that'd prove to offer no return.

"No--" Rae shook himself to attention, ears perking, tail stiffening. With barely a warning, the jar toppled, slamming down with a crushing, gut-wrenching thud atop the trembling counter. How lucky then was he that his reflexes alone snatched him away from the impact zone.

Rae gasped, sweeping a paw over his brow. Ears lowering, tail loosening, he wouldn't dwell upon his paper-thin escape for too long.

He bounced over towards the top of the fallen jar, rubbing his hands with glee. A wave of sweets pouring out onto the counter, he thought, would be a suitable reward for his efforts. Instead, the empty countertop that greeted him only offered him a kick in the teeth. "Oh, come on...!"

The glass jar had a glass lid on it. Rae hadn't noticed that one small detail before bringing it down to his level. Yet another challenge for him to face, but yet another challenge he'd be only too willing to take up in the name of treats.

Spotting no latch, nor any obvious way of twisting the stopper stopping him from breaking inside, Rae took matters into his own hands. He grabbed one edge in both paws, gritting his teeth, getting as good a grip on it as he could before putting his all into a rough, jerking pull that left his arms ready to pop from their sockets... and the lid refusing to budge.

Simmering, muzzle bridge creasing, Rae stepped forward to repeat the motion. Then again. Then once more. That final pull left him reeling, staggering, needing to throw back a foot to catch himself from falling: a temporary distraction from the ache starting to radiate out from his shoulders.

He took a moment to collect himself and let his heart rate and breathing return closer to normal. Brute strength might've gotten the jar sideways, but clearly, it couldn't help now. Rae needed an alternative... but in what form?

He searched around the counter for a second time, hoping for something to reveal itself. Corben's headphones wouldn't help, nor would that pizza box or the other junk scattered about the place. Those things aside, Rae spotted a used butter knife lying in wait towards the counter's edge, offering him a glimmer of hope. Maybe grabbing that would be the answer to prying those sweets free... Or not.

Trotting over, the size of that task quickly revealed itself. That knife was as long as Rae stood tall. Longer, even. Sure, he was able to grip and heave the handle end up from the counter, drag it a few steps back towards the jar... but then what? Rae needed all of his strength just to get that far. No chance would be able to lift and manoeuvre this heavy heap of metal in a way that'd help pull the lid off.

His arms gave in, unable to ignore the strain any longer. The knife clattered back down to the counter. Plan A was a no-go, which meant time to fall back onto plan B... Whatever that looked like.

"Guh..." Rae slumped over, resting up against the two empty beer bottles that Corben had left littering the counter. Getting a treat shouldn't have been this tough, he figured, starting to grumble over the big raccoon's decision to hide his sweets in that damn jar in the first place. After all, he'd only snuck himself a few for himself during his last visit. Hardly an excuse to lock them away!

Ready to stomp on back to the counter lift and retreat to the living room, something shiny caught the wrylle's eye. Down on the laminate, almost hidden, something resembling a giant keyring sat behind those big, brown bottles.

"Oh..." He bent down, grabbing hold of the ring section to drag the rest out into the open. What he'd found as a keyring all right: one that included a bottle opener. "That'll do it!"

Far smaller and more manageable than the knife he'd been fighting with, the length of an arm and easily lifted with both, Rae snatched up the opener and made a beeline back towards the sweet jar.

With a satisfying, ear-flicking grind of metal on glass, Rae shoved the head of Corben's bottle opener deep into the groove between the neck and lid of the jar. It fit well. Perfectly, even. Another push worked it even further, joined along by a subtle clink and pop as the opener dug as deep as it could.

He let the handle go, leaving his tool frozen in place while taking a moment to size up the situation. Positioned as it was, resembling a lever beneath the lid, Rae's tail swayed with glee at what appeared to be a success in the making. He'd need a little more elbow grease to finish the job, and sore arms or not, the wrylle was only too keen to get going.

He pushed and pulled at the opener-turned-lever, shifting his position each time in the hope of finding the best vantage. Every exertion drew a quiet groan or a subtle shift from the jar or handle; feedback enough to keep Rae motivated to reach his ultimate goal.

Shove after tug, again and again, the wrylle's tired arms began to complain, stiffening up in the start of a protest. Soon, his legs would rebel along with them, weakening and losing stability. How long could he keep this up, he asked himself. Even when things were said and done in the kitchen, sweet in his grasp or not, Rae still had a long walk back to the living room to face.

The fire in his heart reduced to a smoulder, overrun instead by the burning of his muscles. No matter how hard he heaved at or threw himself against that handle, the damn lid just refused to budge that last bit. "Damn it, Corben... Did you glue this thing on!?"

Moments from quitting, closer still to his arms straining completely, the little wrylle practically flung himself at the handle. Both mentally and physically, he'd prepared himself to be stopped dead in his tracks once again. That made the gasping squeal he gave even louder as both he and the bottle opener tumbled down to the counter.

A metallic clinking filled his ears as Rae came close to faceplanting, quickly replaced by a heavy, skittering thunk and the rushing of rustling foil.

Dazed, drained, it took no small amount of effort for Rae to roll himself over and pick himself up into a seat. Still, he'd gladly admit to it all being worthwhile. "Yesss!"

His tail batted the counter, ears perking to their highest as he witnessed the last of a wave of wrappers flowing out from that giant sweet jar, rapidly forming into a magical, multi-coloured mess.

Exhausted or not, Rae wasn't about to stand, or rather sit on ceremony. He struggled to his feet as fast as his tensing limbs could get him there, shuffling over to the colourful river of sweet wrappers he'd helped create. There were purples, pinks, blues, greens, and more: so many choices, but only one pair of paws.

Rae's foot nudged at one of those beach ball-sized treats, starting the golden foil shimmering in the light as it rocked atop the counter. As good a selection as any, he figured, hauling it up into his arms way easier than anticipated.

Maybe it was the power of the prospect of the sugar rush to come, but Rae found the walk back from the kitchen far less taxing than the one that got him there, even with both arms full.

He practically skipped across the hall, almost jogging through the living room. The journey up that makeshift stairway onto Corben's couch might have posed a problem. Fortunately, he had a big brown-ringed tail to help, draped over and dangling down to the floor, offering its support as a huge, fuzzy handrail.

The final leg of his mission involved crawling up Corben's, starting with a scrambling climb up his muscular calf and onto his shin, all while keeping his gold-wrapped prize from rolling off the other side. Throughout, the hefty raccoon napped away, adding the occasional twitch into the mix to keep Rae sharp as he shuffled up his shin, past his knee, then onto his thickset thigh.

"I've earned this and then some," the wrylle mumbled to himself, scaling Corben's soft wall of an underbelly before reaching back down to bring his sweet with him. He pushed both it and himself onwards, deeper into the cream-coloured fuzz and doughy paunch of his friend's round, shirt-straining stomach.

Crawling became easier once he made it out of the fur and onto striped fabric, returning to the open book he'd been curled up with while his host napped. Finally, Rae could settle down for good, jiggling the peak of Corben's belly like a massive waterbed as he flopped down onto his own.

Rising and sinking in time with his friend's deep, rumbling snoring, Rae allowed himself a moment to both rest and to enjoy the softness enveloping his underside as he sprawled. A rub here and some kneading there felt appropriate, the soft warmth feeling even nicer on his bare pads. So occupied with his wandering paws, Rae barely registered the fact that Corben's snoring had softened, slowed. Granted, at that size, the noise he made was impressive all the same.

The time soon came to move from rubbing at bellies to battling with wrappers. Rae sat himself up, spreading his arms to take either end of the torso-width sweet in both paws. Tugging both ends of the wrapper revealed a way through the golden foil, offering a shadowy glimpse at the sugary treat inside. A good pull at that opening would be all it'd take to get it tumbling out into the open. Unfortunately for Rae, he'd be the only thing to go tumbling.

A sudden jolt bounced him upwards, sending him arms and legs sprawling as both he and his sweet caught some airtime. Time froze as he peaked. Weightless. The ceiling above vanished, replaced by the striped shirt below. Gravity returned, pulling Rae back down into that giant-sized mattress.

"Oof. 'ave a nice trip there?"

As soft as his landing was, it still left Rae's head spinning. He pushed himself onto paws and knees, peering down to find Corben smirking back up at him through one eye of his darker brown mask. "Huh?"

"Ya really reckon I'd still be sleepin' after all that racket you was making?"

The dizzy wrylle stared at him, frozen, trying to work out what had just happened. His dumbstruck expression pulled Corben's smirk into a smile. It wasn't until he remembered what truly mattered that Rae's brain shifted back into gear. "Hey, where'd my candy go!?"

"Candy?"

"Yeh!"

Corben yawned wide, smacking his lips, sending both himself and the couch below trembling. The same went for Rae, too, shaken around as the raccoon's belly wobbled. "And what candy would that be?"

"The one--" Rae stopped himself short. "One I had from earlier."

"I don't remember that," Corben retorted past a smaller follow-up yawn, lifting his head from the arm of the couch. "What's it look like?"

"Like a candy," he sang back in complaint, huffing as dropped back into a seat atop the raccoon's stomach.

"Hmm..." Corben shifted again, tugging his stocky arm from its hiding spot between his soft side and the rear couch cushions. "Like this one?"

Rae craned his neck up to find the half-wrapped gold prize he'd worked so hard for, held between finger and thumb. "...Maybe."

"So how'd ya get your paws on this then?" Corben's large tail flicked into a slow sway across the carpet. "Since, y'know, I'm absolutely, positively certain that ya didn't have it earlier."

"Found it," Rae declared.

"From where?"

"A place."

"Oh yeah, what place?"

"The place that I found it! Duh."

Corben couldn't help a grumble. "...Which is?"

"...Candy jar." Rae couldn't stop a smirk of his own from forming. "The jar for candy."

"You don't say... And how exactly did you get it from the candy jar, the jar for candy, all by your lonesome?"

"Wasn't easy."

Effortlessly, Corben pulled the sweet from its wrapper, keeping it in his taunting grasp. "You could have asked, y'know."

"You were asleep! ...And you might've said no anyway."

His head tilted, ears perking. "And what if I say no now?"

Rae blinked, pulled between the treat above and Corben's toothy grin below. "Then that wouldn't be very nice of you. Be very rude, even."

The raccoon snorted hard, rolling the sweet between finger and thumb for a moment before offering it to his tiny friend. "Did ya find one for me at least?"

Rae shook his head as he snatched his treat into outstretched arms and grabby paws, wasting no time in nibbling at its chewy chocolate shell. "This one... Mmf... was effort enough."

Corben huffed, blasting him with warm air. "Now _that's_not very nice."

"Wha--?"

With a meaty slap and a hefty jiggle, Corben planted his chunky paw atop his stomach, shoving both Rae and his sweet into a firm hold against his bulk.

"Hey!"

"Hmm?"

Trapped, unable to move a muscle, the little wrylle did his best to keep nibbling at his treat, shooting an incredulous glare once it proved impossible. "Rude."

"Heh. Well, now that you've got one..." Corben started to rise, slowly hauling his big, broad frame up from the grumbling couch. "...I've decided _I_want some sweets, too."

"In that case..." Rae sang, grunting, allowing that grasping paw to hug him even deeper into all that shifting bulk, purring and kneading away as it sloshed and bounced back against him. "I suppose I can wait... If I _have_to."

"Well..." Corben nudged the sweet back down into his grasp. "How 'bout next time ya decide to be a little sneak, you make sure to be a sneak for both of us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Rae cried in reply, chomping down on his chocolate treat.

"Cool." He chuckled, rubbing between his tiny friend's ears as he stomped off towards the kitchen. "I ain't even gonna ask how much mess you've made out here..."