FSE

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"Tonight?"

Rini sat in the middle of the couch. The TV played without sound, on some random channel.

"...No."

Beside her, Goren talked on her cellphone. Ritzer had called.

"Dude, I don't care. I'm busy; I have plans."

By the sounds of it, Ritzer was trying to get him to do something.

"What I'm doing is none of your business. And stop calling Rini's number, got it?"

He closed the call.

Rini took her phone back and set it on the table that was shaped so it could be wheeled to the couch and placed wherever it was needed like an impromptu armrest. She pushed it away.

"Why'd you even give him your number?"

"Maybe I like him."

"You have bad taste, Rebecca."

She smiled. "What can I say? I like naughty boys."

At that, he looked at the TV. After a moment of watching some surveillance footage of someone trying to rob a gas station, he felt a pressure on him. Before he knew it, the rat was snugly nestled with him on the couch, her cheek resting on his shoulder.

"Are you sure you're allowed to do this?" The pup questioned nervously.

"If you hear anything," she reasoned, "just shove me away." She snaked her arm beneath him in the space between his back and the armrest. It would be difficult for him to push her away like that. "What was the call about?"

"It's Ritzer, what do you think?"

"Mmm," she mumbled, her lips vibrating against his peck. "You gonna get in trouble for telling him off like that?"

"Yeah right," Goren slid up on the couch a bit. "Ritzer just needs to learn that not everyone's life revolves around his."

Rini gave a wry smile. She knew the real reason. It was no secret. He wasn't some hidden nice-guy underneath. The real reason was, he just didn't care. "Why don't you just put Ritzer in his place? Then you can be the one everyone fears." She jabbed him in the gut with her left hand.

"Because I'm happy where I am."

Of course, Rini knew the translation to that answer. The difference between being the leader, and being second in command, was that second got all the perks without getting all of the rap. He could exercise his position's benefits, but in the end it was usually Ritzer who got caught as the mastermind if anything went wrong.

She had come to learn, over the several years of knowing her friend, that there was a reason he did everything. Rationalities that no boy his age really got around to making. Or maybe that was just her ignorance of the lupine nature.

Either way, it was just another quality she adored.

As the silence fell over them, Rini reached up with her free hand to the blanket covering the back of the couch. She felt its heaviness fall over her in a heap. It was large enough that even without any adjustment it covered them entirely.

"Naomi," Goren stated. "Your mom will freak if she sees us like this."

"She could use some excitement."

Even though they were on the third story of Rini's house, and they could hear anyone coming up the stairs all the way down to the first flight, Goren tensed.

Rini could feel his anxiety. In response, she began to stroke his stomach. The lump of her hand moved up and down from underneath the blanket. Despite her actions, Goren still kept his eyes on the door, craning his neck. She upped the ante, and as her hand neared the lip of his shirt, she slid it underneath.

He held his breath as her hand swept over his coat. She liked how thick and full it was, and yet how easily it let her fingers sift through. It was also such a nice shade of silver-gray, like a raincloud caught in the sun.

Compared to him--her short, stubbly, scratchy, brown covering she could barely call a "coat,"--she was practically skimmy.

Skimmy; a term used by kids to describe those who, by some unfortunate circumstance, have to have their entire coat buzzed off.

Speaking of her coat's coloring, she was due for a treatment soon.

"Aren't you getting bored--just doing nothing?"

Rini felt the words vibrate through his torso, more than heard them. "I'm just fine," she said softly. "I'm not bored at all. Are you?"

His demeanor eased a little. "No..." he stated, and then promptly looked toward the door.

"Would you relax?" She finally pressed, "You're obsessed with watching out for someone coming and you can't enjoy snuggling that way."

He chuckled. "I just don't wanna get in trouble," he explained. "Your mom still thinks I'm good-for-nothing." He reached under the blanket and pulled her arm out from beneath his shirt. "And who are you calling 'obsessed'? Have you figured out who Ark is yet?"

She squinted an eye. "No..."

"Why don't you just ask her? Hell, I'll ask her."

She huffed as she sat upright, shaking the numbness from her right arm. "Hmph. Boys. You can't just ask girls things, that's not how it works. Emmy's keeping it a secret from everyone, not just me, so she won't tell you if you ask her."

"Well... it doesn't really need to be ask," the wolf stated.

She brought a fist down on his knee. "Bad Gorey."

"I thought you were saying something about having balls earlier?"

The rat shook her head. "I'm not trying to make an enemy out of Emmy," she stated. "You know I have to put a face to a name. And plus..." She clasped her hands together, thinking. It wasn't long before she was interrupted by Goren. His choice method was to throw the blanket upon her. Apparently he didn't care for it.

She rustled around for a few seconds, finding a place where she could breach through. It wrapped around her loosely, giving her the appearance of swimming in a puddle of maroon fleece.

"Plus what?" The wolf finally questioned.

"I think I made a mistake," she admitted.

Goren saw her transition from the carefree expression to a sullen and gloomy frown. "Ingrid..." He was quick to sit up beside her, laying a tentative hand upon her near shoulder. "I don't see any mistakes," he assured her.

"I hear them on the playground," she began. "Some of the girls, the ones from other classes. They pretty much believe you and I... 'do it.'"

He growled. "What the hell gives them that idea?"

"I don't know," she spoke lamely, "I didn't say anything to make anyone think that." Without even looking at him she could tell the contortion of rage on his face. "I'm sorry."

"Why're you sorry?" He scoffed.

"Cuz," she rustled the covers, as if to wrap herself and make herself disappear. "I know how much you hate being thought of as..." She trailed. "I should have said something to them. I should have done something about it."

He squeezed her shoulder, and she winced. He eased. "You're fine," he said definitively. "You didn't do anything wrong. They're the idiots."

She breathed in deeply. "I just thought that if I could find out who Ark really was, I could push some of that pressure away from us, y'know?" The covers rustled once again, this time so she could emerge from them like a butterfly from the cocoon.

"Rebecca," Goren pulled her toward him, wrapping his arms around her torso and allowing her to lay atop him on her back. Her long tail instinctively curled around their right legs, loosely binding them together. "Don't you think that might by why Emeral doesn't want people to know?"

The rat sniffed as she nodded, her temples tickled by the boy's whiskers. "I never thought that... being together would make people think stuff like that."

"I think if they're thinking that stuff, they're the perverts." He took a turn, exposing her midriff enough to rub her belly-button. "Even though Fen tempted us, we still threw the stuff away. If anyone says anything out in the open, tell them that."

"Tsch," she lurched a little. "Yeah right. They'd probably laugh at us."

"Well fuck them, then. They can't have it both ways." He squeezed her, eliciting a bit of a squeak. "If they say anything again, you come tell me. I'll take care of it."

She sunk fully into the arms of the wolf. "Why do I suddenly feel sorry for them?" She chuckled.

"Because you're the one that has the heart, Ingrid."

She had forgotten about that personality. Goren: The Bully, The Knight... and The Poet; wordsmith and consoler.

Sadly, their close and intimate bind had to be torn apart as her mom huffed up the stairs, professing that they could not just be slobs and laze around all day.

If only she knew just how much energy it took to cuddle.