New Beginnings part 5
#5 of NB
Chapter 5
"Like this?" Ricky asked with a hesitant tone, ready for the inevitable shouts of loud boisterous children to fill his ears again, offering up his craft like a priest to pagan Gods. He knew if the sacrifice was unworthy, they would strike him down in every manner of plague.
"No!" the tiger girl shouted at him, rolling her eyes and claiming his offering by force. She exhaled a maelstrom of a sigh, but she was merciful, "This part should be pointed! And that part can't fold...wait what did you even do?" she asked herself now, like a mother wondering how her son made such a mess.
"That part is pointed," Ricky pointed out, huffing and puffing, for some reason the girls tone made him want to get it right and show it off. Ricky didn't usually care what people thought, but her condescension irked him, but, at the same time, he also would settle for pretending it didn't happen and leaving; that wasn't a real option though.
As part of the self-made ship rules for all non-military, Ricky was going through a sort of initiation as Pence tried to call it. Basically, he would get all the unwanted jobs or positions that they normally had on the basis of seniority. Right now, it was watching the female cubs, which was much harder than watching the boys, because the girls got bored easily and wanted to do other things while the guys would sit quietly at the holoscreen. So Ricky got stuck at arts and crafts. He was only required to watch them, but honestly, no matter how childish anyone saw it, everyone knows it was better to sit at the craft table, than watch others at the craft table; so the little tigress took it upon herself to teach him the finer points of basic origami. His goal: a frog; His result: Apparently crap.
"But I meant this pointed part, not that one; the smaller one!" she said with a groan and a face palm, taking the paper from his hands and sitting by him with a look of confusion on her face as she tried to save the little paper froggie, but alas, it was gone. She threw the paper aside and got a new one for her and the human, "Okay, step by step, you can't fail doing it that way, right?"
It was innocent and had no venom at all, but it was still the last straw in Ricky's book, and he stood up leaving the table. "Okay, I'm done now."
The girls all shouted in unison, "Nooo!" and tried to stop him, but Ricky turned away from the table, and into a large feline body. He looked up at Pence's stupid 'I caught you' grin, arms folded across his massive chest.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
"Not really," Ricky said, looking down at the ground and trying to smoothly make a break for it, but was easily caught by the lion and escorted back to his too small chair at the table.
"Damn straight you're not, ten more minutes dude and the hard part is over," the lion enthused, sitting the comparably little human back down and giving his shoulders a little squeeze.
"Can't I watch the boys?" Ricky complained, lolling his head back over the head of the chair and catching Pence's eyes upside down.
"Ha ha, you wish, this is part of initiation, sorry," he added, lying about the apology if his grin was any indication, "Quinn's got the guys, you have the girls, it's only ten more minutes."
"Quinn is just watching T.V!" Ricky retorted.
"And so are the boys! Stop complaining. Give you a little tip," Pence offered, leaning in to whisper, his whiskers tickling Ricky's ear, his breath hot, "Don't be unlucky and get this job," he whispered, breaking into laughter and Ricky shot him a dirty look.
"Not cool..." Ricky groaned loudly, but turning to sit down again, accepting his fate; or at least accepting he could not get past Pence in the ten minutes he had remaining.
Despite his obnoxious disappointment at the moment which Pence decided were because of jitters, Ricky was generally okay with the situation now. He didn't seem eager to talk to anyone aside from Pence and the cubs, but he would get used to it eventually. Pence was just elated that his panic attacks seemed to only be temporary and over with. Ricky seemed to be generally quiet, his groaning typically louder than his actual argument, and he didn't seem very out spoken like the lion knew he himself was, but hell, you can't make assumptions on the first day, so he tried not to... how did humans put it? Judge the book by his cover? Ehh...maybe not that, but something along the lines of, 'give him time,' and 'don't always decide things on first impressions'.
"Sorry," Pence teased, walking back to the couches across the room, noting Ricky was still half glaring at him, he waved his finger, signalling the pouty human to turn back to the cubs.
Ricky could not STAND the lion, but at the same time he loved him like an old friend. He was in the dark on this one too, not exactly sure what made the lion tick and feeling vulnerable knowing Pence knew his own insecurities. But...it wasn't exactly bad. He knew he could trust the lion, and if this whole thing turned out not to be pity, Ricky could see them as friends. He knew not to make that jump of course, pity and legitimate caring were different, and Ricky saw no real reason as too why the lion would like him so much as to call him a friend, but Varius WERE uncharted waters... He hoped they were different from most humans anyway, because as much as it was against his character as a loner to admit it, and to let anyone know it; A friend would be nice... but for now he turned back to the table for more verbal abuse and aggravation.
Pence sat down at the couches across the room, essentially watching Ricky and twiddling his thumbs, he didn't want anything bad or uncomfortable to befall his self-named charge, the kid had enough on his plate without random a-holes or honestly bigger set Varius just generally scaring him. The lack of diversity on Earth was a shame really; he had watched adults and kids alike cower in fear of some of the kindest of the kind, just because of their size and appearance.
"Got a crush?" Calper asked from the other couch directly across from the obviously staring lion, a smug but friendly grin on his face.
The hog was many things, large, smelly, and loud being physical, on top of tannish brown skin, curly tailed and average height, but past that, he was actually in secret the most socially obsessed people Pence had ever met. He was friends with every clique, he was funny, he was gossipy, and stranger yet, he was still completely Calper. He never once lied about himself in the entire three years since the hog's mom had become part of the crew. In two minutes of knowing the pig, he told everyone his favourite food, his love of Rewwelt brand transporters, and of his homosexuality. Nothing was taboo about this kid, and everyone liked him for that, and respected his courage. On Earth he was even surprisingly popular with the humans, despite his appearance. He just had that effect on people.
"Completely," Pence humoured him, doing his best impression of a giddy bride to be, bolding out a paw for the pig to look at his fictitious engagement ring, "I'm gunna ask him for his hand in marriage!" he swooned, breaking into laughter.
"I don't think it's the one giddy with a ring who asks," Calper noted loudly, intentionally killing the moment, only to have the pair burst into another round of laughter at the semi-serious stares they had exchanged.
"Get a room," Kochi complained, sitting on the couch across from Calper, receiver still in hand, not even looking up. It took a lot in both cases, but Kochi and Calper REALLY didn't like one another, because either one had the rare ability to just go under the others skin.
"Are yah ready to go honey?" Calper asked in a faked endearing voice, getting up to sit beside her, reaching for her paw, "The room is warm and waiting."
"You wish." She stated, pulling away and standing, "Go suck a cock you fat pig."
"That's kinda the idea sweetie," Calper continued, earning him a much deserved death glare.
"Fuck you!" Kochi said, storming off, "I hope you grow old and lonely."
"Oww!" Calper said, grabbing his chest for effect, "That hurt on the inside, I don't think I'll ever recover."
Pence giggled knowing the fox girl was still in ear shot, "Dude, one day one of you two will just crack and attack the other. I personally want to be sitting front row in the safety zone when it does."
"Tickets start as low as six credits," the pig retorted, putting his hooves up in the recently abandoned couch space. "Seriously, three months on Earth and she thinks pointing out I'm gay hurts, if that's all she's got now it won't even be much fun to torture her; but let's not talk about that, let's talk about this human you're fond of."
Pence went quiet for a moment, 'shit' he thought to himself, 'he needed to word this VEEERY carefully'. Despite his appearance and reputation Calper was a good friend and would keep a secret, but Pence wasn't in the mood to even risk the idea of himself 'being fond of' a human getting out. "His Name's Ricky; and what do you mean fond of?" he asked, trying to play dumb.
"Don't play dumb,"
'Shit!'
"And give me the honest answers here okay? Everyone already knows something's up, even a blind Varius could tell yah you became friends a bit fast, hell, even for a crush."
Pence's eyes shot up at the pig with a primal anger and frustration that even put the steady-as-a-rock pig in an uncomfortable position. Calper swallowed hard at the predatory look from his friend, every time he saw that it scared him, even though Calper knew nothing would come of it his very core told him to be afraid.
After a moment of agony from the pig, the lion's eyes lost their sharpness, calming down enough to not be completely terrifying but still intimidating. "Calper, I swear," Pence started with a calm fury, "If I hear that word again from you I'll beat your ass."
The pig tried to interrupt but the lion stopped him with a paw, "I'm serious, as much as I joke about you being the biggest gossipy bitch, it's got some truth to it you know? You spread rumours and know everyone's business and honestly I'm a bit jealous of your connections at times; but you WILL NOT," the lion specified, "Talk about me and Ricky in any kind of relationship other than fast friends at the very most, got it?" Pence finished, looking around to make sure no one was in ear shot. He hated when he had to be serious, but sometimes it was necessary to ensure ones survival, socially or literally.
Calper recomposed him-self, getting his classic all-knowing grin back, "Okay, okay, I won't be a total gossip about this, but let me give you some advice, the social shark to the guppy. If you don't want that rumour to start you have to tone it down...You of all people."
Pence sat back in the couch, a bit more relaxed, trying hard not to be offended, "Me of all people? What the hell does that mean?" It was more aggressive then he had planned, but Calper understood it was excess anger, regardless the lion felt bad for yelling.
Calper sighed, thinking hard on how to word it, "Well, you're not exactly the best at hiding your emotions and feelings, so where some people have a hard time expressing themselves, you have the exact opposite problem, you overdo it man. Typically one does not carry a new friend to the couch human wedding style," the pig offered the explanation as to not offend and seem general. "You're over excitement is pretty damn adorable and hilarious on my end, but it sets off most people so they will assume you feel what they would feel if they did what you did, and wedding style pickups equal more than friends in most people books," he finished, hooves in a shrug.
Pence sat there a moment to take in the info. He always knew he was over expressive, but he often forgot about it, it was just a natural part of who he was. Regardless, Pence knew even some of his few friends who knew him knew him would question his behaviour, hell, he was questioning his behaviour. He laughed at the closest likeness of his resent activities being that of a surrogate brother in a way.
"I don't mean to freak you out..." The pig started.
"No, that exactly what I needed, you right," Pence interrupted, "I need to be more careful."
Calper snorted, "I know I'm right silly kitty, this is different, I was..."
"Smart ass!" Pence laughed.
"Stop interrupting!" Calper shot, "I can't see your human at the craft thing."
Pence shot him another look, "He's not MY human Calper, he's ju..." The meaning of the sentence hit the lion then, and he looked over at the craft table. Felton, a large bluish grey haired bull had taken his place at Ricky's seat, the lack of rust hair and pink flesh obvious.
"Shit........"