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All was silent. At least, for the time being. Alice Walker thought just then that she might prefer it that way, even though she wouldn't be here when the sound would start up again. All that mattered now was that her job was done, and that she had all but paved the way for Rey and his cousin to take that one step forward.

There was the stage, the podium, the microphone and wiring, the posters placed in only the most decisive of locations--all was her doing. The lynx had to admit that she wasn't too keen on the ideas of posters, though. Might draw the wrong kind of attention.

Then again, this rally was her idea to begin with.

Those few weeks of knowing Dexter seemed to have paid off, now that she took some time to think about what she had accomplished. The bull could be sour at times, but it was obvious he genuinely cared about her. He was much more intelligent than he let on as well, she decided--a humble person, surely. And it was that knowledge he wasted no time in spreading to her; without his help, she wouldn't have been able to sort a bolt from a nut.

Alice took a seat at the stand and held a paw to her cheek. Now it was just a matter of waiting for her escort back since the last thing she'd do was walk home, especially at just past the break of dawn where activity would resume soon. "Home" was the last thing she'd like to call the Undersector...though now, it's not as if she had a choice. She started kicking her legs lightly against the stage to an unknown rhythm.

Suddenly, a voice called to her. "Were you up all night working on this?"

Alice looked up to see the face of someone who had approached without her noticing; one that brought a bubbling to her belly.

"Rey!" She hopped up to hug the rabbit, holding back a little so not to knock him over in his shorter height.

"Hey, it's good to see you again, Alice!" Rey replied, reciprocating the gesture. "I'm here to take you home in a bit if you're ready. You've done a great job!" He smiled the one that he always did, a gentle one that emanated a genuine warmth.

However, it was its commonality that made her just a little bit sad.

"Thank you very much. Yeah, I think I've been here for four hours if I were to guess. Dexter was here earlier, but he went back...home." She coughed. "I'm not sure what, but he said he had some things to work out."

Rey nodded, stifling a yawn. "That's Dexter alright. Say, how are things between you? Are you getting along okay? I haven't really gotten a chance to say hi or anything to you, how stupid is that. I've been busy with personal stuff, and you've had the 'Roubold Welcome' right?"

Rey stretched out his hand in a prompt for Alice to take it. She was reluctant for but a curt second, then did so before Rey could wonder if something was the matter.

Alice took a glance at the podium and stage she had set up once again, then back to Rey, who started away. She followed closely.

"Totally. Is the 'Roubold Welcome' that common, then?" Alice laughed a little and shook her head. "But it's not your fault, Rey. Stuff needs to get done, so it gets done, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Hm. Her demeanor seemed...just a little different, Rey had to think. The rabbit was used to being the only one she had confidence around--and admittedly, the same had applied to him while around her some time ago--but she now seemed a bit stronger, just going by the way she spoke.

"You're beginning to sound like Dexter," Rey said with a chuckle. "You've changed a little, Alice. And I mean that in a good way. I--" Rey stopped himself before he could mention that her exposure to Scotton and the burning of Wardston, and how that had strengthened her character. "You should be proud."

Alice let a hand drift on the concrete of a building at her side as they walked. "I think you're right about that, heh. Thanks though...you can be too nice, Rey."

The pair walked for a little longer. The winding streets of the city were of no consequence to the watchful care of Rey, who knew which paths to take given what sounds he heard or what time it was. It was all so surprising to the lynx who had no idea of his experience--but she easily understood why he had developed such a skill. Or rather, why he needed to.

Even so, Alice found it just a tad ironic that they had to be so careful given the events that would follow.

"But seriously, how have you been? I should have been keeping in better touch," Rey started suddenly. They were half a giant's block away from the Undersector, Rey judged. The sun was pleasant at this time, at some interval between dawn and late morning.

"Fine, fine," Alice replied concisely. She jogged up to his position having noticed she was somewhat lagging behind. "Things have been going well. I'm pretty much under Dexter's tutelage at this point, though. Can't help but get the feeling he wanted to make me useful for something," she said without the humorous tone it warranted.

The rest of the walk was in silence. It vaguely hit Rey that Alice might have been hiding something, but the rabbit immediately dismissed it. She wouldn't, it wasn't in her nature. They grew up together in Wardston and even had dated back in their mid teens--days he recalled warmly due to that fact--and he knew her well enough by this time.

Every now and then he remembered just what he liked about her, what had spurred them to dating, and during those times he would feel a twinge of regret. All it took was a moment of her speaking and a glance at her gentle face; but he had to force the feelings away, for it was a thing that was now gone and could not return.

****

They arrived. It took Alice's speaking to bring that fact to Rey's attention at all; once again, he had been knee-deep in cogitation and hadn't realized it. The pair, both slightly nervous though one much more confident in the path, stood before what giants would call an ordinary storm drain below the sidewalk. To tinies, however, it was more than that; it was one of a few entrances to the Undersector. The grate was delicate to walk on, but not too small for a tiny such as Rey or Alice, who could then hop up to a hole bored into the concrete at the side and make their way down into the old city via a makeshift stairwell.

"Well...we're here, huh?" Alice slipped a hand behind her head, looked away, then back. "Thanks. For walking me home." Whatever it was that she wanted to say, Rey noted how...precise, dodging, her words were. As if noticing this, the lynx mixed it up quickly. "Be careful, okay? I'm not going to be there at the rally. I--"

"No," Rey interrupted. "It's fine. I understand completely. It's just going to be me and Max; I think it's better that way. He's probably safe enough, and I've been in plenty of situations like these. Anybody else would be asking for..." He swallowed. "Something."

The sun was midway to its ascent. Still early morning. No giants about just yet. A cautious breeze, though one more unsettling than comforting to the rabbit. There was some kind of anticipation in the air, but he had no idea what to prepare for. And that was what he wanted least of all.

"I do care about you a lot, Alice," Rey started again. "What we're doing really will be dangerous. You and I haven't gotten any chances to catch up, yeah...and I do miss living together in Wardston. But--"

Rey looked up to see her face, and instantly regretted his choice of words. Her blue eyes were just twinkling at the reminder of their destroyed hometown.

"I-I'm sorry, Alice, I didn't mean to--" Rey was cut short as the lynx abruptly enveloped him in an embrace, one hand groping the nape of his neck as she held back tears. The rabbit said nothing, only slowly curling his arms around her in a shy return of the gesture. He had been ignorant; there was something amiss with Alice, and he was a fool not to have noticed. Only now would he see what.

"Can't we go back to the way things were?" Alice whispered into his neck, hiding fierce sobs. "I miss you so much. I don't want anything to happen to you. If we're together, we--" she stuttered for a moment, trying intensely not to let her voice show weakness but ultimately failing: "I can't let you go!"

Rey had no time to wonder how long she harbored and bottled such feelings; Alice's eyes, shut tight and refusing to pry open, were already beginning to trail tiny streams. The strings of his heart tugged themselves coarse to see such a familiar face so torn. The rabbit tried hard to summon words, but could not as quickly as he'd like. He understood her pain all too well--and yet, he couldn't make this easy. There was no easy answer, no easy way out of her assertion, not to Rey.

The last person he could tell about his relationship with Fiela was his closest friend, who would be crushed to know he had fallen for a giant.

"Please--stop, Alice!" was all he could say at first. The lynx tightened her hold on the rabbit, but said nothing more. "Where is this coming from? There has to be something else to it--this is just too much right now!" At last, she let go, taking a few steps back in apology, but looked no less sorrowful.

More silence. Overwhelmed, the lynx collapsed onto the ground, sitting with her arms over her knees, shadowing her face. Thankfully, however, she had at least the courage to speak. "It just isn't fair..." she choked. "It isn't fair that this is what my life is now."

It hit him. "This isn't just about me and you..." he found himself muttering in realization, but he went unheard. Rey had to think of something. A little louder, he said, "Have you and Dexter been getting along? Tell me." The rabbit sounded genuinely worried, repeating the question from before firmly.

"N-no...between us, everything's fine." Alice wiped tears and took a deep breath. Rey felt the slightest levity at his progress. "It's just...I have to call the place home now, you know? It feels just alien. There's something really, really sad about it."

A mix of expressions drifted across Rey's face, starting with surprise, one-upped by contemplation, and tailed by remorse and then a subtle hint of agreement. She could catch that he had already come to terms with the same things she was now realizing.

"Rey." The single word was said concisely and with meaning. That caught his immediate attention. "...I miss home. Wardston is gone and I've all but figured out why," she sighed quickly and inhaled again, speaking from the slightly muffled cover of her furred arms, "But it's just not fair!"

"It's not fair to anybody, you're right. Least of all you. But now you have a home nobody can take. Me--I have to treat everybody in the Undersector like a group. It's my job. But you can afford to look at it like a family. You can, can't you?"

Alice's features wrinkled, the first display of anger Rey had seen in her in half a decade, however small. For a moment, he thought he may have said the wrong thing. "A family that tears each other's limbs off for fun. Nobody gets along there! Between Dexter and Randall..." Alice paused to catch a falling droplet and sniff, "You'd think that it's more like an orphanage. Sometimes it gets hectic, and it's more depressing than anything else. There's that, and...God, I really do miss you. It's even harder to know that you might die at any time, and that today isn't any exception to that. But I know you're not going to listen to me."

Rey's ears splayed. Alice knew that much about him, she was right about it, and he had nothing to return with. Ultimately, he also had nothing to console her with other than assuring that he would come out okay, and even he wasn't completely sure about that. Now he wanted little more than to break down and admit she was right and give up--but, to both his sadness and pride, he knew like before that giving up simply wasn't an option.

"I'll be honest, Alice...I don't know what to say. You're probably right about a lot of that." Rey began to trail off, but caught himself. "But there's one thing I can't deal with right now. Please understand when I say this, okay?" The rabbit waited for a hesitant nod from the lynx, then extended a hand. The hesitation was very brief. Then as she took it, she was helped to a standing position, their gazes perfectly level with one another.

"What?" urged Alice, despite having an idea of what it was. There was a noticeable glint of uncertainty in Rey's face.

"I can't deal with us trying to get back together. It isn't something that can happen right now. I'm just..." Rey nearly cursed himself for having to pause yet again, avoiding any mention of Fiela. "I'm preoccupied with lots of stuff. Taking from giants is an, ah...full time job. And that's not to mention what I have going on today," he said with a nervous sigh.

"I...I understand, Rey. It makes sense. I'm sorry--what I was doing wasn't fair to you." The lynx suddenly swiveled her head left and right, then toward the sun--its position, more specifically. "We should head inside before somebody sees us, huh?"

"You're sure you're alright, Alice?" Rey asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. The fingers of his hand were promptly caressed, then picked off gently by Alice's own.

"I love you, Rey. You're my best friend and that will never change." Rey looked confused and nearly ready to protest, but Alice would not let him. "Don't worry, I know what you mean. We can stay friends--that's fine. I just want you to know that that's how I feel." She took a deep breath.

"I can accept it," Alice continued. "Not everything has to be sad, and there's no point in making it seem like it does. I'll make do and stay positive; we'll all be okay, and that's what matters."

****

"You're not all that suited as a leader, you know." Randall's copper eyes glimmered with intent.

"Can't help but wonder what in the name of common sense would make you go and say that," Dexter muttered. For a few seconds it seemed that was all he had to say, but it was not so. "By all means, tell me why I should step down." Almost as if to ignore the grey fox, Dexter shoved a wrench between his own teeth and grabbed hold of a pipe above him with a great leap.

"Only that there's a reason you don't see a lot of bulls here in Scotton. Or anywhere else," said Randall. A glance sized him up. "A really big one. Some bulls can't control themselves and just stick to their third-world. Most, in fact. Why didn't you?"

Dexter had by this time pulled himself with a single hand up to a higher pipe in the narrow hallway of the Undersector, for the leak of which had been irritating him for some time. Dexter was a little wary of Randall's unusually serious demeanor. Perhaps this time he had a point he was trying to make, rather than the usual daily quelling...

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm in perfect control of myself. When I get mad at you it's because you're an asshole." There was no change in Dexter's complexion whatsoever; he kept that glazed, mostly uncaring look characteristic of one without any emotions.

Or rather, one hiding them. If there was one thing he hid better than anything else that might have been going on inside his head, it was the smoking ember of a rage that haunted him. And if Randall didn't know any better, he'd believe the ruse.

"Seeing red isn't a common thing," Dexter continued, palm held out. He spoke informatively, like a professor, only hinting at impatience--a tutor with a single, unruly student. "Don't talk to me about things you're insensitive to, you're not a bull."

The clap of flesh against metal, two light squeaks, then no more dripping. Dexter's mass belied a monkey-like agility.

"I..." Randall appeared to give up, throwing his arms into the air for a brief moment, "Fine. Whatever. I know you don't like me, Dexter, but remember I'm only doing it because I'm supposed to." His evasive, annoying act was entirely gone.

The bull dropped to the floor with a thud, then returned the wrench to his table several feet away before returning as if he'd never left the conversation. Now Dexter was a listener, not a speaker, and it came to the fox's attention that he wasn't going to be interrupted just yet. Not this time.

The student became the teacher.

"It's no secret that every species is different. If you look back in the past, it's a bit surprising that people get along that well at all given...advantages." He paused. "In several parts of the world, there are regulations as far as what kinds of activities--the competitive stuff I mean--that one can partake in. Sometimes not regulations, just suggestions, but you get what I'm saying. That on account of the things just not being as suited for some people as they are for others."

"Yeah I know, rabbits and cats on balance beams, all that--"

"But it's not just that. Bulls are an extreme case, if you don't mind me saying so." There was a break in speech as he awaited Dexter's hesitant nod. He did so, but more hesitantly than was expected. That didn't bother him.

"Cats and rabbits are agile, sure. Wolves can be just plumb vicious, but not necessarily in a physical way, among other aspects. Bulls, though...bulls get crazy when they get mad, and have trouble controlling how mad they get in the first place. That's the reason for two things: one, I'm here, and two, lots of bulls are busy locking horns in the reservation far west. And I don't even mean that metaphorically!"

Dexter scowled and waved a hand dismissively; but on the inside, that familiar burning was starting to tear a hole through his stomach. He couldn't show it. "Pheh. Even for my Lead you're way too involved. Take some cues, will you? Sometimes I swear even I have more tact than you."

Randall scoffed and crossed his arms. "You're only kidding yourself. One day something will go wrong which will undo the all the work you're putting into this, and it's going to take away people you think you know--people who you think know you, but they don't because you're too busy shutting yourself away--and then it will ruin you. All you're doing is putting yourself in the path of a gigantic heartache that will inevitably happen. As your Lead it's my job to tell you when you're making this kind of mistake." Randall's shady gaze was both solemn and determined, and he took a few steps encircling the bull.

To the surprise of the fox, Dexter lunged a step forward and grabbed him by the collar, hoisting him a good and effortless foot above the ground. The fox's attempt at seizing control had been utterly halted, while he was forced to note once again that the bull was much quicker than he looked.

"You'd better knock that shit off," said Dexter. No matter his actions, he still managed to appear calm, speaking with only a drone; his gravelly and rough voice still managed to make that intimidating. "I said it once and I'll say it again: you don't know what you're talking about, so you might wanna stay inside the little box I'm letting you have." He raised his free fist in emphasis. "Consider what you think you know about bulls and tell me I'm bluffing."

"You need me," Randall said sharply. "Every bull needs a Lead to keep them in check. I'm yours, you just haven't accepted it."

Dexter narrowed his eyes--was that just the slightest dark hue Randal caught in them? But he had no time to focus on that; Dexter tossed the fox like a ragdoll forward and away from him, disgusted. A loud thud accompanied impact.

"I wouldn't mind any other Lead, but you're the worst at your job. I'll just say that."

"You ungrateful--fuck, that hurt--it wouldn't be as much of a problem for you to live a normal life if you weren't in the middle of crap between us and the giants!" Randall rubbed his arm, his head--wherever had been pinned as he landed, he couldn't tell right away. He was no stranger to abuse in the forms of bruises and injuries due to what was generally considered volunteer work. "It's a bunch of stress buildup that--"

"I said shut up!" Dexter said, louder, anger prevalent in his voice now. "No shit it's stress buildup. Know what else is? You harping at me day in and day out when you are literally the biggest sack of shit. You don't do anything, you just sit here and bother me when I've made it very clear that's the one thing I don't want you to do, and you're not helping at all!"

Dexter's monotone was gone. In its stead a rough flare of a voice took over. Something bestial was beginning to come over him, of that there was no longer any doubt.

"See! You're seeing red right now--" then Randall was slugged straight across the face with a force that sent him spiraling onto the floor. With the thoughts that remained (the others gradually reforming having been scattered with the punch) he managed to realize he had gone just the inch too far. Dexter took to all fours, his body seemingly better proportioned for such a stance, and howled madly.

That wasn't my smartest move. He remembered after all those classes of anthropology that it was a thin line that he tread; he had to be a lot more careful. Dexter...well, not just him, such beasts as him, were difficult to reel in just so. Tempting them just enough to vent, then letting go so they wouldn't go overboard. Like fishing. The hobby of fishing with the consequence of bomb defusal.

The fox forced himself upright, rubbing his jaw coarsely and popping it back into place, but not everything was as it should be. Dexter was nowhere to be found. When his internal clock returned to normal attunement--damn, that was one hell of a punch--he realized that some minutes had gone by and he hadn't even noticed.

Shit, shit, shit!

If there was one thing Randall could make of the moment, it was that he had to find the amok bull.

"Dexter!" No response, not that he expected one. The fox took to running ahead. He was still somewhere in the Undersector, that much he could guarantee. If Dexter tried to leave, he would have already collapsed on the rough stairs that he wouldn't have the clear state of mind to ascend without tripping. They were edited precisely for such a purpose; at least the bull had that kind of forethought.

He could check there later, he thought somewhat morbidly.

Randall called out the name again, then noted a distinctly harsh sound poke at his ears from some distance away in response. He upped the pace. As he turned a bend, the blur of a stricken otter girl dashed past him and toward the general direction of the homely quarters behind him. It was all too clear what she'd seen on her way home, and quite possibly narrowly avoided being a victim of. He squinted harshly.

Randall followed the underground, mostly unlit corridor to find himself in another one of Dexter's workspaces. This one was littered here and there with boxes filled with unknown things; some were open, revealing food taken from giant raids--these he sneered at--while others were filled with raw, malleable scrap. In the process of rampaging through it all with mindless destruction was a wild-maned, red-eyed, brown-furred behemoth of muscle and fury, landing bleeding fists through anything unfortunate enough to be seen, even if that meant the things he would normally care for.

"Dexter!" he yelled sternly, like an animal tamer. This time a response was given in the form of a loud, bestial snort. "Get back here and calm down, now!"

The bull roared monstrously, heaving without effort one of the boxes scattered aside him, and Randall only had scant moments to dash to a stack of crates and crouch behind it just in time to watch a meteor of wood and metal fly past him at startling speed. A hideous crash accented the danger he was in.

"Goddamn," Randall muttered, listening to the flustered smashing behind him. It hit him that Dexter, free from the shackles of reason and rational thought, might actually kill him if he put himself in the way. There had to be a way to calm him down before...

He knew what to do.

The fox turned from his cover as if to take a blind meatshot, "Rey and Alice have never seen you like this!" A soaring snowball of angry hand-molded scrap whizzed by him just in time to scrape an ear as he flung his head back. No dice, he thought, folding the cut ear and dabbing away fresh blood with a finger, teeth clenched.

"Alice will be here soon, too! She's getting an escort from Rey back home," he yelled back in a second attempt. Dexter snorted heavily and lay a fist into the ground, pummeling the concrete--but then held hands to his head, hunched over and manic. Just a hint of Dexter's better judgment was leaking through. Just a little more--

"They'll both see you the way you are. Right now they just assume you're 'scary' and avoid getting you mad just because. Soon they'll see just what they have to be afraid of. What then?"

Heavy breathing followed, then a loud thud as the hulking creature promptly fell to the ground.

All was quiet for a few moments as Randall waited for the most sure signs that Dexter's 'seeing red' phase was over. Only when a grunting, delirious exhalation was heard from the other side of his crate did Randall stand.

It was his turn to be mad. Bulls could be compared to animals while seeing red, but Randall did no amount of beating around the bush; such was precisely what Dexter was in his mind.

****

Through the cloudy mist of crimson in his vision that was beginning to fade to grey, Dexter could catch a thin, shadowy creature walk up to him. Most of his brain's functions sighed with the relief of burden and were beginning to shut down.

"One day...happened to be today. Didn't it Dexter? You couldn't accept what I'm here for. You couldn't accept that you're just different and that you need help." The fox turned away, breathing harshly like one would after experiencing near-death. "You're such an idiot. I know you feel guilty about getting into a fight with a giant because you think all of this is your fault. Well guess what? It is, and this is why. Putting yourself into this kind of situation, making my job damn-near impossible--you bulls are all the same." And just like that, Randall was gone again.

Though now he had no audience for his epiphanic ramblings other than himself, Dexter began to mutter roughly, for perhaps he was delirious at the sudden change of blood flow. He was nowhere near the proper state of mind to be upset at Randall's blatant show of the xenophobia he claimed not to have.

"It doesn't sound so bad...if I think about it," Dexter said, eyes a little wider. "I don't have to hold anything back if I go. My parents--they used to live there, at the wastes. Said they got a wall separating us tinies and the giants. Giant bulls don't care enough to break it down 'cause they're too busy venting and doing their own things. Then I can cut my shit loose and stop worryin' about everything..."

Liquid shame and sorrow began to pool at his cheek, and there he wallowed, unable and unwilling to move. Dexter's strength was sapped, but his will was not broken. Shattered and reformed, different from what it was before, but no less resolute, and the quickness with which the change happened left no hint.

Just then, he realized he was alone.

The bull tried to stand himself, but couldn't, for though his thoughts had somewhat collected themselves from their schism, his rage had left him utterly exhausted. A rage he hadn't truly let overcome him in years...save one time. His decision was the same, but it was not out of eagerness; it was out of the heavy guilt that he felt and, finally, could now displace.

Randall was right. He didn't have to put himself under so much pressure.

"Not everything has to be sad," he choked lastly, "And I'm done making it seem like it does." His eyes glimmered with a new determination before they dimmed out and fell shut.

****

It was a disturbing concoction very familiar to Rey: fear and unease, with a whole layer of primal instinct. That terrible mixture had been forcibly dumped straight into the pit of his stomach and he was more than ready to retch it back up. The thing he was most put off about was the fact that he hadn't experienced it to this extent in so long, though he was no stranger to his brain yelling at him to flee and hide.

The rabbit had lost count of the times he had been thrust into conflicts with giants prior, but this was too different. Too different for him, for his developed "tastes," for his preferred circumstances. His strengths lied in outmaneuvering giants, escaping them, making sure he was the one that never got caught. Such a thing was possible inside a giant's house, where their reactions to his presence and that of others was likely just that bit more warranted.

But that couldn't happen here.

Rey found himself where he was but hours earlier, the town square of Scotton. He was sure that any other vocal gathering would be much more...populated, as it were, but he simply had to amuse himself at how the podium and stage looked more like a--what would he call it?--a toy set left behind by a spoiled child after paying for it with their mother's money, having quickly lost interest, perhaps? No, wait, he could go further: and then it was occupied by tinies.

Yes, that would do.

"What are you so nervous about?" Max suddenly asked, noticing Rey's shivering. Wait, was he really shivering? Rey immediately stopped after noticing, took a moment to breathe, then swiped a hand over his hair.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." It was nothing new that stress made him quite cynical. "Just dealing with the fact that I probably signed myself up for assisted suicide. Three-way, pizza-style."

Max turned a callous gaze to him. "If you are going to make an analogy you might as well keep the theme consistent." Rey shot him a look as if to ask if he had missed the point. "It's not as though this is any different from what is routine for you, is it? Just bear with it for a little while."

"What's 'routine' for me is not being seen! I'd say I'm okay at that much! But--don't you think this is kinda the opposite, Max?" Rey asked, flustered.

Max was quiet.

The smallest mass of giants was to gather at the specified time that was now approaching. Though the smallest indeed--about three giants in total. Wanting, to be sure, it might even have been demoralizing if he wasn't already bordering on the pessimistic, but such a low number was not at all shocking.

Other giants circulated behind them, doing their own daily things, paying little heed to Rey or the stand. No, they were more interested in the bakery, in the grocery store, in anything that happened to be more eye-catching than the hover of a butterfly, though perhaps some hadn't noticed it at all; save the exceptional three who possessed the mind to attend.

Three giants is still three too many, Rey thought somewhat coldly. Max stood beside him, but the silent, ominous shade's presence was doing the situation absolutely no justice, let alone the justice to merely assuage him.

One such giant, a jaguar woman leaning heavily on a leg and alternating which one every few minutes, shot off the occasional "why am I here" look in no particular direction. Another was a collie, though her disposition replaced boredom with expectation and specious curiosity; however, she was possessed by a telltale waltz befitting one with not the most...diligent presence of mind. The last was a badger devoid of any particular reaction or opinion regarding where he was at all.

Rey expected that one might leave midway through.

Though the rabbit had complied with the idea, he regretted it by now. It was the last place he wanted to be: out in the open, with no form of defense or immediate places to run. This rally would by no means be the final step toward giants seeing tinies any differently and he knew that--it was simply that being here was still important to getting there, a point A to point B and so forth scenario...or so he had to assume.

In truth, he had no idea how much of an impact relating his experiences to giants would really have.

What if none of them cared? That was something that would not surprise him in the slightest, and yet it was also the biggest and most looming threat. Rey himself would assert that tinies were treated hardly better than pests--sometimes worse, outcome being on a giant-by-giant basis--having seen any manner of death by their gigantic (and sometimes literal) hands while on the job. The odds of them paying attention and actively changing their minds were not too hearty in Rey's mind.

Max nudged him lightly. "Stay composed, Reymont," he said, then took to the podium. The albino began to speak of things Rey had heard in rehearsal plenty of times; a phrase of welcome that could only sound confident coming from him, and thanks for the time they took, and why it was that they were here today.

"Composed! Yes, composed! Of course," Rey muttered, frantic and cynical. He was shivering again and noticed, but did nothing to stop it. "Oh God..."

****

"You got everything?"

Dexter sighed and prevented himself from shooting off a glare. Instead he motioned first to the clothes on his back, then all around him, outside nearing midday in the city of giants.

"Bit late to ask that."

"Just making sure."

_It's a miracle I've managed to put up with him for more than five minutes,_Dexter concluded. Why, barring the earlier events that he'd already begun to block from recent memory, he could find little reason to tolerate him in the first place--no, no, those thoughts had to go, and for good.

"I just...something's bugging me," Randall said suddenly. It went without answer. "What if I told you right now that I found out who destroyed Wardston? What then?"

Dexter huffed. "If you did, then I'd say I don't care."

Randall slung his head back and measured up Dexter multiple times, shocked vulnerable with genuine disbelief. It was no common treat to catch in action, but the bull could hardly bring himself to notice.

"...You're serious? Not even for Rey or Alice--"

"It's not any of my business anymore," he said flatly, determined. "Hell, they could throw a stick of dynamite down the Undersector and I wouldn't be inclined to give a damn. Might just thank 'em for finishing the job. My role here's over." His march accelerated just a touch.

Randall stood mum for a few seconds, both impressed and somewhat afraid at Dexter's ability to dispel doubt and his sudden change of heart. "Whatever--hey, hold on!" Randall jogged to match his pace. "We're getting close to the square. Stay near me. Wouldn't want to see you off as anything less than intact."

"Oh, why thank you. It's that gentlemanly aspect about you that I really appreciate."

Randall stuffed his hands into his coat and let his eyes compete in a circuit to decide which was more jaded. "Yes, yes, fuck you too." Perhaps for the better, he was entirely unable to come up with a return jab.

A further bit of walking. "Lots of activity...should've waited 'til later," Randall muttered. "But we're here now. I'm sure they're too distracted to care much anyway."

Indeed, the square was quite active. There were plenty of giants doing their daily things, though none of them interested either tiny.

"Maybe." Dexter's gaze was tentative, lingering somewhat on a certain event going on. Was...was that the rally Rey had planned, he saw? Should've been there myself, the bull thought uncertainly. At first that was all the mind he gave to it. What concern that remained had all but dissipated by such a point. Besides, Rey could handle himself...

Wait. No. Something was wrong. The twinkle in the brown-furred collie's eyes; he could see it even from here. And she had something in one hand--

Dexter burst into a sprint.

"Dexter?" Randall yelled back. "You idiot! Come back! Dexter!" But it was no hope, even as he gave chase, for the bull's lumber outpaced the fox's stride by leaps and bounds. Randall slapped his hands at his sides. "Fine. You go get yourself killed."

****

The albino stepped down, his piece said. Granted it had spanned over five minutes on its own, and what Rey wanted to stake in was hardly a fraction of that. There was no time for clapping or applause, nor was there any real incentive or provocation to do so. It was possible both rabbits preferred it that way.

Max scratched his throat and turned to Rey forebodingly. Already his snowy counterpart was beginning to suspect the issue.

"I...I must go," Max said to his cousin in a soft murmur, the sound of reluctance being pushed away stark in his tone. "I've pushed my time as is. I must get my rest."

"You're leaving me here now?!" Rey had trouble keeping his voice down. "B-but you're the only reason I'm safe! They wouldn't dare hurt me while you're here, it'd be too...I don't know, taboo-y!"

"There isn't a thing I can do about it," Max spat, trying to avoid being harsh without major success. "I am sorry. You will be fine, I promise."

Rey found himself unable to say anything in return. It was true, only four hours of normalcy--the rest was agony. He knew this too well. For what mattered, Max was probably out and about longer than he should have been. Silent, the albino turned away and began to hobble in the direction of his home, stumbling with a patternless beat every so often.

Rey expected this...but it was true that there really was nothing that could be done about it. Well, if worse came to worse, at least he could say that he tried.

The rabbit approached the microphone, noting the giants again. The collie, the jaguar, and the badger.

The collie in particular was most definitely eying him with an amount of impatience, as if she wanted nothing more than for him to finish talking so she could just eat him and be done with it. With a quickening heart and rushing hormones, he just hoped that it was the cynicism caused by such that made him think those thoughts.

"H-hello, people of Scotton." Yeah, all three of you. "I-I've had plenty of my own experiences with giants such as yourselves." Rey barely prevented himself from cursing in light of his preemptive stutter. "Most of said experiences were life-threatening. I'm surprised and pleased all the same that those of you here decided to set aside your prejudice for a few minutes."

All of a sudden, Rey couldn't help thinking he'd said the wrong words. He saw a smile or two if he wasn't being paranoid, plenty of teeth; the rabbit could not shake the feeling of being back on his first day on the job--vulnerable, naïve, and all too willing to put himself into danger. Truly, his was a fate in completely arbitrary hands.

If he was lucky, those hands wouldn't curl into fists with him in them.

"All I want to say," he continued, "Is that I've had to put through a lot being here in Scotton. I've learned that not all giants are bad, and I honestly want to assume the best from each of you. I know we might seem like pests because some of us take from you and we're where you'd rather not have us--I've met someone who used to dislike us for that very reason. But she's changed, and she sees it the way we do. Things shouldn't be this way and she knows that." Avoiding names was harder than it sounded. "I'd like to leave you with those words--think about which tinies are like that and which aren't. We're all people, and that's all there is."

Again, no applause. The badger was done waiting; following a few uncertain looks back and forth he walked away, leaving only the jaguar and the collie. Those two stayed, chatting briefly with each other. Rey knew his time to leave was just about nigh, but he couldn't resist sizing up the collie. She wore a loose-fitting blue dress over a brown corset and had the strangest glazed look in her eyes. He couldn't make out many details of the jaguar due to her position behind the canine giantess, but her scarlet sunset hair struck out as her head poked from behind the collie's shoulders.

Apparently done talking, the dog snapped her head back to the general position of Rey, forcing a swallow from him, and then she started pawing toward him. Realizing what was happening he began away from the podium, but he had made the decision too late; clumsy though her hand-eye coordination might have been, she effortlessly reached and snatched him from the ground, pulling him up to her level of vision.

Ah, damn, he managed to snap in his head. Arbitrary fist.

"I told you it looked cute," she said. Rey shook away his daze from being heaved up so quickly, but a new daze caused by hints of bitter alcohol along the warm breath washing over him replaced it. "Look!" The jaguar with sunset hair rested her chin upon the collie's shoulder, inspecting Rey with adequate interest.

"Heh, yeah."

"Hey, little guy! I'm Elsa."

Taking in the face of this new giantess was no easy task. Rey found himself comparing her to Fiela, the easiest thing he could compare her to. She was beautiful, but certainly in a different way; her eyes were soft and blue, she had slightly looser lips to conceal the sharp teeth, and her brown mane was just so deliberately brushed. Where Elsa was gentle--or _appeared_to be--and cared much for her appearance, Fiela was much more ambivalent and self-sorted.

Rey might have respected Elsa that much less due to those thoughts.

"Er...have any questions?" Rey stuttered.

"Um...nah, I guess not really," Elsa replied, eyes orbiting around him while never retaining contact with his own. "I've only seen a couple tinies before though--they're so adorable!" she gushed. Rey's ears flattened, but he tried to keep a straight face. "Really, why don't I see more of you? Well I guess that's a question too, but...okay, yeah, I do have a question."

"Pardon, but I did just finish explaining why..."

"Hm? You know what I think," she continued, less as inquiry and more as a statement, "I think that I like you. Can I take him with me Sam?"

The jaguar, apparently named Sam, giggled at her compatriot's stupor with closed lips. Apparently she was quite soft-spoken, for she only responded with a hypothetical, "You could."

If Rey had hackles worth giving a hoot he knew they'd be raised, and fiercely. Being toyed with wasn't on his to-do list, especially not by a couple of inebriated predators.

"I'll object to that one--w-what do you want with me?"

He had a sinking feeling that he already knew.

"Oh, just goin' out for a walk, I guess," Elsa rumbled. "I saw a flyer a couple days ago and, well, I thought it would be kinda neat. Check it out, meet some people...stuff."

Elsa cocked her head ponderingly, then continued analyzing Rey with childlike wonder. However, a glance behind her allowed Rey to note that the jaguar--Sam, yes, that was her name--was keeping some sort of watch. Where Elsa scanned him, Sam scanned the crowds of various people. Was there someone she was waiting for?

"Well, nice meeting you then," Rey finally said, loosening up just a little more. But he almost instantly tightened up again when her grip did as well, and she replied.

"I said people."

Shit.

"I don't think I get it though," the collie blurted, somewhat slurred. Her grip remained as tight as it had ever been with Fiela, to the slow cracking of Rey's composure. "What's the point of this...thing? Isn't doing much of anything for you, doesn't look like."

To anybody else, what the collie just said might not have made the most sense. But to Rey it was clear as day, and that was not quite something he was thankful for. He was finished. Why now? Why during only the most obvious of setups, and why when he could least be accused of anything that could be remotely considered deserving? Those were things he felt right then he could never figure, even if he had a couple years to think about them first.

There was just no pattern in the life-or-death situations he found himself in.

"Sometimes I had to wonder the same thing," Rey said in a mix of a disappointed mutter and friendly conversation. The collie returned a tilt of her head in a cautious show of curiosity. "...It's just too bad, huh? I have the feeling you're not gonna set me down and let me off, I mean. I've seen it happen."

The giantess seemed to take time to consider that--or, more likely, think simply about the statement at face value. "Well you're cute--kinda handsome, yeah? I think so, a bit." She let a long tongue loll out from her jaws to lick her lips but briefly before yanking it back in, enough of a time for humid bitterness to be caught and winced at. "Did someone ever tell me it was bad to eat a good-looking tiny? I'm not too sure..."

Rey cringed, looking disgusted. "You really can't make this easy, can you?"

"Make what easy?"

"You're horrible," Rey sneered. If it was going to go this route, he had no qualms with pushing the envelope one last time. He made a few notes regarding his cage of fur; with a bit of work he could wriggle free and possibly escape, but where would success be found there? No, he had no option other than to stay. This was the time for defiance, not cowardice. That defiance surged inside him, and suddenly he realized that he didn't care if he went out committing himself.

"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt--you have a drinking problem, don't you?"

Rey caught an "Ooh" then a snigger from behind his captor, belonging to the onlooking jaguar who surely had nothing better to do than stick around and audience his eventual demise.

"That's none of your business, I-I'm sure." A light redness sprouted beneath Elsa's cheeks. "I don't see anything wrong with a chaser."

"It's too late for a chaser; it's all gone straight to your liver by now, right?"

The collie let her shoulders slump and ears flatten, disheartened and visibly offended. If there was any chance of Rey skittering out of his predicament, he knew he had just smashed it. "Why do I get the one with the lip?" she inquired to nobody, ignoring the jaguar as she burst into cackles. Seemingly not wanting to waste any further time trying to converse with her prize, "Whatever. No point in talking with food, 'specially not ones that talk back."

"--If by that you mean point out your flaws--"

Elsa slowly and curiously tugged Rey closer to her face, studying him and his words with half-functional eyes flanked by surprisingly precise eyeliner, the gears behind which working furiously, where Rey found an astute level of dumbstruck. A luminescent anger then lit up her face as his sentence struck her.

"...Little shit!" she barked, sending another foul cloud his way. The collie bit her lip roughly, an act that emphasized her spectacular failure to hide embarrassment and her deep thinking of a good retort, which she couldn't manage to accomplish. Witless, she instead opted to squeeze harder on the rabbit.

"What's with this one? It's like it fucking wants to die."

"Let's be honest," choked Rey, saving as much breath as possible, "What are you going to do to me that I haven't seen before?" He gasped again as a single finger twitched harder than the rest. The pressure was quickly becoming unbearable. "And if you were as considerate as you purported to be by coming here, why would you be so ready to kill me?"

Rey was all too aware of the density of his spit that he was rapid-firing in the face of death, but that wouldn't stop him; not while he was ahead and the option to backtrack was never present to begin with. Fiela's an entirely different case...this one went out of her way to oust me!

"Heh...I dunno." It seemed she was done stalling. Her voice grew somewhat ominous, less angry. Likely, the behemoth was simply happy that she had her captive right where she wanted him. Most frightening to Rey was how her voice seemed to become much more purposeful and...clear as her visage grew darker. In fact, it was genuinely terrifying, nearing the degree he had felt during his hostile encounters with Fiela. Perhaps cowardice really would have been the better decision.

"Well, I guess I dunno what you've seen, but there's one thing I can get to say I was the first to do. I wouldn't wanna disappoint you. And boy, after all the degrading you've done, it's gonna be pretty sweet."

Rey's heart took a bungee jump as the furry vice loosened. Down the rabbit fell, a poorly estimated half the giantess' height all the way to the unforgiving ground, staking a sharp pain into just about every inch of his body upon impact. The rabbit could not withstand the pummeling of an agonized cry against his lips, which sprung apart to release it.

Now this was new. Why couldn't his surprises ever be pleasant ones?

He wasn't dead and he doubted any bones were broken beyond repair, but damn him if it didn't hurt. Memories of Derek's fate wriggled like ravenous parasites into Rey's brain, ignoring all other prominent thoughts regarding survival and escape that would otherwise be flooding him, and might have been able to save him.

His teeth and fists clenched as he lay on his side, Rey rolled onto his back and forced his eyes open against his better judgment--only to be greeted by the underside of a raised paw, toes curling and splaying, ready to pave him into the dirt for good. The rabbit anticipated some last words Elsa would surely want to let him hear before his end, like a villain at last claiming victory over the overconfident hero, but none came. This wasn't that kind of battle--it was a one-off removal of a common pest that fought back too hard. And for some reason that stung more than anything she could have said to him.

Rey braced himself.

Strangely, his senses remained intact; his sight, touch, everything was fine, but his hearing was the first to inform him of that via a piercing yelp that jolted him into a heightened state of confusion. Rey shot up to his feet and his eyes sprung open--the collie had retracted her foot and held it with a hand to rub a bruising ankle, balancing precariously on a single paw.

"Fuck! What the hell--"

What was happening, what was happening? Everything was suddenly chaos! The rabbit swung his neck around looking for some answer, backing away from the closest form of danger--being Elsa, who might kill him more by accident now. The jaguar was the first thing he could see in his mania, who was decidedly unaffected by the discord aside from having a shocked look plastered over her face.

The second was his savior.

"Heh, really thought it'd be a good idea to stay out here by yourself, eh Rey? No backup, not even me?"

Rey managed a mix of a nervous laugh and emotional sigh, backpedaling parallel to Dexter. "Still a better idea than punching one in the ankle, holy crap!" Rey's breathing was quick and harsh, the burning rush of adrenaline forcing him to smile. "Scared me so much, holy--well what do we do now? And what are you doing here?"

"What do we do now?" Dexter made a passing glance at the enraged collie above, who was beginning to realize what had just happened. "Well, now we see what we can make of the situation."

"And if we mess up?" Naturally failure was where his mind shot to.

"Then we go down trying. I ain't running. Are you?"

Rey shook his head. Normally he'd be off in a second, but Dexter's ambition was infectious. Inspiring, proud--reckless nonetheless, but just his presence made the rabbit feel too safe. Like the odds of survival suddenly evened out, like he had just realized that he'd faced much worse. He could survive this!

It had been far too long since the last giant encounter he'd had alongside Dexter. Once, maybe twice it had happened before, and those were easily the greatest successes he'd had in his line of "work".

"It's hit the point where I don't care enough. And heck, maybe if we're audacious enough, we can make posthumous news!"

The giantess snapped back into the focus of the tinies' attention. The first drunken stomp was too slow and too haphazard for Dexter's faster impulse, the bull laughing heartily at the failed attempt. Something had happened while Rey was away--it was as if Dexter had nothing to lose. The rabbit couldn't help but laugh himself, a nervous, manic one.

"Ah, now that's the talk I like to hear! That's the plan then, make her look like an idiot, right?" Dexter then cupped his hands and aimed his words upward. "Gotta try a little harder!"

By now, Elsa had mostly recovered from her initial shock. Anger returned to her, anger at her lost captive and at the pain she could not possibly have expected to receive. She scowled horribly with teeth bared while Sam continued to watch with a mix of amusement and bewilderment, never moving a muscle.

It was a tad unsettling, for it did strike Rey briefly that the feline could pounce and make a move of her own while they were occupied. But it also brought some amount of its own levity, as she seemed utterly entertained and showed no clear signs of joining in.

"You...you both are just asking for it!" Elsa growled, visibly and audibly upset. She tried a kick at the taller bull, but it was like she couldn't see where he had started to move until he was already there--and by that time she had already missed. However, the paw nearly caught Rey on its return trip, which would have set him up to be finished off right away. It had only barely been avoided.

"New plan, I really don't like this one anymore," Rey said, losing breath while strafing to his side. He still ached from Elsa's constriction and was already panting. He couldn't keep this up for long. "We've made our mark, let's get out of here while we still can."

Unbeknownst to them, Elsa looked...frustrated, personally frustrated. Her face was wrinkled with a level of embarrassment on top of anger. It was clear she wanted to get back at them--mostly the tiny rabbit she could have sworn she _had_moments ago, who had the mind to humiliate her and to stick his nose where it didn't belong; the nerve of him! She didn't ask for any of that...

She set her gaze on him, waiting for him to stop completely.

"You're the one that got yourself stuck out here, Rey," Dexter grunted, speaking quickly. Quick to save his own breath, Rey noted, and quicker to put Rey in the limelight. "I'm not going anywhere. You refused to take me with you. And you didn't even take that girl of yours."

Rey started. "Er, what girl? Alice--"

"Don't worry Rey," Dexter said with a chuckle. "Big mean wolfie's got you like gum under a table!"

Rey halted, now thinking, still in the bubble of safety cast by Dexter's powerful presence. But how could he know? Rey had only told Max, and he hadn't really made a big deal out of that, or didn't seem to. He also doubted Max could have or would have spread that anywhere--no way to do that and no real reason to. It didn't make any--

"Watch out!"

"Ack!" The rabbit tried to dodge, but like before he had realized the danger moments too late.

Rey was scooped into the air, now sporting a coat of five brown pythons. Any air that remained in his lungs was forced right out of him. His thoughts shattered, his heart began beating faster, his eyes wavered madly--and _damn_his chest was in pain. Elsa had a shining moment of cleverness, waiting for him to stop moving to strike.

There was one thing he regretted, Rey admitted, and that was that he always took a swan-dive if he was ever prompted to think. It hadn't been as much of a problem before; before, with Fiela, it always ended differently. It ended with his safety; how it went about varied from her simply teasing him to him using his own guile to escape; things that could not and would not happen here. Elsa was positively vicious, and dead-set on enacting sweet justice on him for his last-breath taunting.

"Gotcha," she whispered victoriously. Rey couldn't imagine the intensity of pride and satisfaction she now felt--she caught him! She caught the little bastard that mocked her right to her face and almost got away, literally and figuratively, and while she was plastered no less!

What would she do with him first? He might be a bit dirtied up by now, but he'd still make a good quick bite. She couldn't afford to make it nice and satisfying anyway, not if she didn't want the bull to interfere again.

But then, maybe she could. She let her eyes drift to the ground just slightly.

Stay still Elsa, just keep your eyes on him...

"Let him go!" The bull charged, but this time Elsa was ready. The collie lunged her paw forward to slam into his chest. It was a lucky hit in all truth, but no less effective by any measure for the force launched him a few feet away. He landed prone on his back, hand to his chest; the wind had been knocked right out of him.

He'd recover soon, Elsa surmised given his obvious strength, but for now she could turn her full attention back to the thing in her hands. This time she made sure her hold was tight, this time she was learning from her mistakes. Hell, if this was all it took to come out victorious over a tiny, she wouldn't mind having them in her house at all!

"Fiela's lucky that she gets you guys in her house all the time," she blurted, brushing aside fluffy brown bangs. "I dunno why she complains about it. It's like free stuff coming to you. One might make a good pet, or a snack." She licked her lips. "Or something else. I'd have to see for myself."

The white rabbit was hers to do with as she wanted. The big brown one couldn't do much of anything this time. Oh sure, she could put that one out right now, but why would she? He had made her look like a fool too, but it was unnecessary effort. The rabbit was first. What would she do...

Eh, she thought, I've wasted enough time, I guess.

Snack would work fine.

Suddenly a claw prodded her shoulder, interrupting her mental game of options.

"Uh, Elsa..." Sam muttered.

Elsa ignored her, glaring into her captive's eyes, though right away she realized the reaction she would then receive. She saw fear in them--an unsettling feeling, in all truth, it decidedly wasn't what she liked about the situation at all. It was weird, it made him seem more...relatable, she could put it. But she'd prefer not to; other terms and phrases would work better. Too weak, messed up, afraid, silently wondering what would happen to him; it frankly made her feel a little sick. She didn't like to have taken it this far--but she starkly concluded that such was not her fault. She might even have begun to reconsider--

However, the fearful gaze itself was directed somewhere behind her. Not at her.

"What the fuck are you doing." The voice came from the target of her detainee's attention.

Elsa stuttered, rapidly turning to meet the newcomer, instinctively tucking away the tiny rabbit further into the confines of her grip and away from sight. "Huh--Fiela? What are you--"

A coarse slap echoed loudly. Eyes and ears from several parts of the square briefly turned to the spectacle, then slowly retracted.

There stood the proud figure of Fiela, the black wolfess in denim, disappointment prevalent on her face. She stared down Elsa coldly, punishingly, but gave off no vibe of weakness. Rey's heart leaped at the sight that he could barely make out--but just why she was here, none of them could rightly figure.

"Looks like I'm late. You're not in any condition to be outside," snapped the wolfess. Rey immediately understood that she was not here to rescue him, and subsequently that he was still in danger. "How many times do we have to have this talk? One bottle, one hour in. You're clearly not..." Fiela trailed off as she had now noticed Sam, who was just about frozen. Fiela's green, purposeful eyes narrowed and her lips frowned.

All of a sudden the fight had changed. The conflict between a tiny and a giant had switched to two tinies, then one again, and was now a crippled and one-sided verbal free-for-all the second Fiela entered the ring. Surprise was glued onto the--reddening in Elsa's case--faces of those who knew they would become the victims.

For Elsa at least, she and Fiela had suddenly become temporary rivals, the result of something comparable to a pack instinct. Elsa, the lesser, the omega, had to be wary of the newcomer as she was pressing her dominance. As long as Fiela was angry at her, it would remain that way and any attempt to usurp her would be met with hostility.

"Uh--" the jaguar stuttered guiltily, knowing that her blunder had been caught.

"Sam." Fiela sighed; she must have half-expected her presence. Any anger she might have had she now stuffed away quite well, while surprise simply dissipated. "Honestly what the hell. The least you could do is be a little responsible."

Rey thrashed as best his prison would allow as the scolding outside continued, but Elsa's hold on him was all-encompassing. He had to somehow get Fiela's attention or she might just pass him up, and then his doom would be entirely certain. In response to his struggling the pressure increased just slightly--too much longer and his chest might just cave in.

"I just thought we'd go somewhere else," Sam said softly, nervous now. Her eyes drifted to the now-recovering figure of Dexter and she shuddered. As far as she was concerned, the jaguar was pinned by two scary things. Not just Fiela being mad at her for taking Elsa outside after one too many drinks, but a tiny bigger than the rest who could hurt her, despite still being less than two feet tall. "Listen, I swear, going here was her idea!"

"Sam showed me the flyer and said it would be fun to go!"

Fiela shook her head. They'd play the blame game now that they'd been caught...

"Oh yeah, because you can't say no to Elsa, Sam?" There was no canine rivalry with Sam; Fiela could be genuinely scary. "I'm sure she'd find some way to...I don't know, be nice to you and make you feel bad for not going or something. Give me a break." The black wolf calmed herself and sniffed, tapping a paw on the concrete. "I didn't want to blow you two off, but that doesn't give you the excuse to be so irresponsible. You're supposed to be keeping her inside when she gets like this, Sam. Do I have to babysit you or can you handle things on your own every now and again?"

Sam brought her head down, clearly ashamed. It was much too fun to watch Elsa make a fool of herself, but getting caught red-handed wasn't part of the plan. The jaguar conceded, frowning, absently fiddling with kempt fiery locks hanging too close to her face.

Elsa drew her fist close like a child hiding candy from a snooping parent. Fiela noticed the action and her attention snapped straight to the collie.

"What's that?" she demanded, sizing her up.

"A tiny," she said nonchalantly, though continuing to hide it.

However, a sharp pain struck the inside of her palm and she let out a contained gasp, partially revealing the contents of her hands. "Ouch!" They cracked open just enough to permeate two stiff white ears due to the intent of his struggling--and apparently biting now; oh, he was gonna get it--but that was all she would allow.

"It f-fucking bit me!" Elsa looked up after a brief fit, seeing her adversary's brow raised with suspicion. Whatever Fiela's intentions were, Elsa could tell that, for whatever reason, she was the one that would get it if the wolfess found out just what she had.

The wolf's eye twitched once or twice due to impatience and lack of sleep, while her nose twitched for an entirely different reason.

Fiela sniffed again; there was a familiar scent in the air, a phantasmal trail leading straight to the collie's fist. It was aromatic, euphoric--she might even say delicious, filled with cowardice, timidity, uncertainty, a melting pot of things her instincts told her to enjoy, and a unique mix at that. It was the same fragrance she'd come to know so well...

That was it, it was definitely Rey. Her eyes suddenly flared with a defensive rage that surprised even herself, but she attempted to keep her cool.

"Give him to me. Now."

"He's just a...a jerk!" Elsa's tongue rolled over her own words like raggedy terrain. Her hand still stinging, she attempted to continue. "He--"

"Enough!" Fiela barked in interruption, growing anxious at the sight of Rey in Elsa's grasp. Her mask of calm couldn't be managed for long. If the collie so much as laid a finger on him beyond having him where he was, so help her. "I didn't come here to have you bicker at me and BS your fucking mistakes. We have rules with each other, you have to go by them since they're what we all agreed on. That includes you." She paused, letting it sink in, being decidedly evasive about just why who Elsa had in her hands was important. "Elsa, you're fucking hammered and you're not supposed to be out here. Give me the tiny or you'll get more than a slap." Her teeth bared, she snarled at the collie, letting known her superior strength and willingness to hold up her threat.

Elsa was reluctant; the last thing she would consider doing was tempting Fiela, who would remain the alpha as long as she had a reason to be cross. However, she could do what she wanted with the rabbit quickly, with no time for the wolf to react. The idea passed through her head and taunted her--and oh, how it did--but then, where would that get her with Fiela? Hell, she'd tear her apart if it so pleased her. Maybe not literally, but she wasn't entirely willing to test that theory.

But then...

Her hand was fast, lurching with dark purpose toward her open, toothy maw, but Fiela's reflexes were faster still. The rabbit halfway carried to her lips, a hand came once again smartly and viciously across Elsa's face--this time as a closed fist--forcing a pained whine, then an instinctive growl that devolved into a pitiful whimper the second the guttural sound was returned by the wolfess. Fiela's was more powerful, more demanding, more angry--and Elsa could do nothing about it.

"One more move like that," Fiela snapped, provoking. "I fucking dare you."

It seemed so uncharacteristic of her friend to suddenly get angry about some tiny, but it was obvious there was either rhyme or reason to it. Fiela was mostly loose, though when she had a set mind and choice that went opposed she did not like it. Perhaps it was...just punishment? Fiela taking away her prize and claiming it for her own?

Elsa cast one more glassy glance down into her hands. Damn it, she...she almost had him, she was this close! With the subtlest and most attenuated of whimpers, she acquiesced and handed him over. Her place in the two-member pack was cemented.

But whatever rhyme or reason there must have been, she wanted to know.

"Geez, Fiela, set your stove to simmer...you're being so defensive about this! It's about the tinies too, isn't it? It has to be!" Used to tell me how annoying it was when you found tinies in your house, she thought. Deciding which things to say and which things to think in this situation was tricky for her. "Why do you care?"

"Because." Fiela breathed and calmed herself again, relieved now that Rey was in her control. She caressed her prize, inspecting him; he was mostly okay, Elsa hadn't done anything severe. The overpowering gale of confidence returned to swirl around her while the sharp muzzle reverted its attention forward determinedly.

"This rally isn't quite over yet."

Sam and Elsa exchanged varied glances and one or two mutters.

"Now trust me," Fiela began, voice reasonably powerful. "I'd be the last one to advocate for stuff like this. I've had experiences of my own that have taught me otherwise, and frankly, what just happened is the only reason I'm saying anything at all to you two. You two should understand where I'm coming from at the very least since you don't have a clue. See, it's one thing when a tiny comes along, steals your stuff and walks away taunting you. I don't like that one bit.

"But the thing is that I've met a few that just aren't like that. They are_people--they're all different, they think," she tossed the quickest of teasing glances downward, "Sometimes too much, they do their own things, and some of them make good friends." She then held a limp Rey with two fingers pinched around his stomach, unaware of his somewhat pained wheezing. "This guy's one of them. He's shown me what I know. Sure, sometimes he's got balls where they don't belong and sometimes he just does stupid stuff, but he's genuine. He's real. I can talk to him and about him and describe him like he's somebody I know--because he _is.

"He hasn't stolen from you two, has he?" Two uncertain shaking heads, though one looked ready to protest until Fiela continued. "Wasn't he just standing here telling you the same things I'm telling you?" Now they nodded in unison. "Good. Anyway...I'm sure you've gotten a mouthful of all that by now. So I guess that's all I really have to say. Be a little more open-minded."

It seemed the pack mindset was all but dissipated, for Elsa seemed more than willing to speak up now. Fiela had what she wanted and said what she had to say; she had no more reason to be upset, Elsa reasoned. The wolf seemed much less likely to lash out.

"You think I'll respect him when he goes on talking shit about me to my face? That little bastard--he..." Elsa trailed off. Fiela wasn't listening, instead giving her an unamused look with studded ears folded back, aloof. It just wasn't fair. Now she'd been locked out of comeuppance three times consecutively!

"Maybe he wouldn't if you didn't try to kill him, Elsa." She possessed no doubts to her words. "Think about that."

"Actually, Elsa," started Sam, looking almost apologetic, "She is kinda right." Sam knew nothing of tinies either; she'd seen one or two in her own house, but she was never able to catch them, nor did she try very hard to do so given how few she'd seen. "I dunno. I'm...not all for it, but just let it go, okay?"

Fiela smiled. "Thank you. I don't care how far you take it, really," she said waving a hand. "Maybe I'll talk to you about it more later. Right now, you two go home so Elsa can sober up."

"Yeah, okay," said Sam. "Come on. Let's go." Elsa grumbled with her hackles raised darkly, but sighed, shook her head, and proceeded with Sam.

Rey looked on from his new perch, sighing deeply. He had the most frightening feeling that the collie hadn't changed all that much, and if they ever met again, the circumstances would be hardly any more friendly--the opposite, most likely, he thought with a shudder.

What a day. The rabbit had more than expected that it might be his last, but his fate had been prolonged, pushed back, saved, then brought back into reality so many times that he'd been damn near desensitized.

The titanic protector veered her gaze downward, pulling him from thought. "You okay?"

"Beaten, battered, a little bit shocked--overall, yeah."

She sighed. "Elsa's generally a really nice girl. I hate to have to get all mean at her. This is honestly kind of a problem she has. She drinks a bit and she's off, and then the littlest thing will tick her." She paused. "Speaking of which, what the hell did you do that she was going on about?"

Rey's ears sprung up. "I might not have said the nicest things to her. I thought I was finished and that she was being cruel."

Fiela scoffed. "She might have been, though, is the thing. Guess I don't blame you." She then smirked. "I'll leave just what you said to my imagination," she said playfully.

"Gee, she's normally nice huh? I'd like to think so, at least if we put enough modal auxiliaries in front of it."

Fiela cocked her head. "I wasn't referring to her attitude towards tinies, Rey. Far as I know she's never met one before." Rey's shoulders slumped. "She can pretty much be a moron when she's drunk. Don't fault her for it if you can help it."

"I'm just so glad that you came...just think, if Elsa had her way with me I'd be a crumpled pile by now. She's made it a teeny bit obvious that she hates me."

"Well...part of the reason I got so uppity was because if you were gone, then it'd seem like wasted effort on my part. To be honest it would be a shame to have to go through all this advocating and hiding our relationship only to have you get killed on a whim."

"Ouch," Rey said dejectedly. "That's it?"

"Hey now, that's not the only reason, you know that's crap. Would I really have bothered if that was it?"

Rey smirked. "Just joking."

The wolfess chuckled, then put on an almost stern look. "Ah, my bad. You get so easily offended it's hard to tell." Rey shook his head, subtly admitting defeat. "Wait, wasn't Max supposed to be here?"

"Huh? How'd you know that?"

Fiela suddenly recalled that this was a surprise of sorts. She told nobody. "Well...let's just say I learned a thing or two today."

Rey didn't seem to entirely know what she meant by that, but answered regardless. "Max left about midway, that's when the trouble started--"

"Hey, so," came a rough voice from below, "Would anybody like to explain to me what in hell just happened?"

"Is that--" started Fiela.

"Yes," Rey finished. "This is Dexter."

"Good to know we're all so tight-knit, then." The bull stood a good two feet away from Fiela, still uncertain. "Gum under a table, Rey."

Rey spoke a little more hurriedly. "Yeah, hey, by the way, about that--Fiela, could you put me down for a sec?"

She shrugged. "Sure."

Rey daintily jumped from the furry platform as it lowered to the ground. "Tell me something," Rey started. "How do you know about that?"

"I'll be honest. When you started disappearing by yourself for longer periods of time, I got suspicious. I followed you once and...well, definitely got to see something I never would've expected. Nothing explicit, don't get me wrong--and thank God for it--just you two together. I was a little mad at first. Not gonna lie, I looked at you like something of a traitor for a couple days. Kept it to myself." He wiped his brow and looked away, rubbing a horn absently. "But then I realized it was...actually a good thing. It was and is a good thing. Some people are dead-set on thinking tinies and giants can never get along." His gaze glinted behind him, in the direction of the area he abandoned Randall. "If anything this proves otherwise. All we have to do is make it until then."

"Wow." It was frankly one of the most powerful things he'd heard from the bull. "You're right. Until then, though."

"I was going through some serious stuff today," Dexter said, clapping a massive hand on the rabbit's back. "Something you don't know about and honestly, you might never. I was considering leaving. All you need to know is that I won't. I'll keep pushing like I always have and nothing will stop me." Monotone triumph was imbedded in his voice like invasive weeds, never to leave.

"Ahem," echoed calm thunder. "If you're finished, I'd like to wrap up a few things and head home."

"'Course," Dexter answered for Rey. "I've said all that needs to be said." He started off, walking slowly in the direction of the place he grew damn too close to ostracizing. "See you later, Rey. Dunno how long you'll be gone this time, but I'll keep an eye on Alice. You have fun with big mean wolfie." He made a flicking motion with his wrist and a loud sound imitating a whipcrack.

Rey was embarrassed into silence as Fiela hoisted him up again.

"Sounds like there's some stuff that I don't need to be concerned with. So I won't bother concerning myself with them." She started walking, poised. "C'mon Rey, I'm kidnapping you real quick."

"Uh oh. Out of the frying pan, as they say," Rey joked.

"Oh come off it, you. This is the thanks I get?"

There was a bit of contemplative quiet. "This whole thing really puts stuff in perspective, doesn't it? I mean in the end that's all anything is, just perspective. I never, ever thought I'd be able to look at you like a hero."

"Trust me, neither did I...heh. Though it makes sense, doesn't it? After all, I'm not one for the whole 'damsel-in-distress' thing. Like, at all. You make a _much_better damsel. And I bet I'd have more chances to play the hero than you would, little bunny." She chuckled to herself while Rey flushed the faintest red in her palm. "You know Rey, I do things on my own agenda, I do them how I feel like doing them, and...okay, sometimes I can be a little harsh."

Rey stifled his opinion on the understatement.

"But I'm not evil." She paused. "First time we met I told you the same thing, huh?"

"Yeah...guess you did."

"Things have changed a lot. For the better, too."

Rey didn't bother answering that. There was nothing he could add at the time and he felt that she summed it up well enough.

Suddenly there was the jingling of keys, then a fresh gale of air as the door to Fiela's home opened. It was the first time he'd experienced it; normally he went through the hole--that, mysteriously enough, she still hadn't gotten rid of--and this blast of air represented something new. Refreshing and welcoming all the same.

The towering wolf entered and stood a few feet away from the door's arch, deciding that there was no better time to strike a devilish glance at Rey. There were certainly some things on her mind she wouldn't address in public.

"Now that we've settled down...we have to have a little talk. I swear Rey, if you weren't so small I'd slap you for being so dumb." Fiela laughed softly, part serious and part teasing. "You owe me. Big time. Hell, just for future reference, how often should I expect you to get yourself into trouble like this?"

"Worth it, whatever 'it' is, to be honest," Rey said, able to puff a massive sigh of relief while reclining into a sitting position with his back against her thumb. "Heck, it's better than being on your bad side. I just never want to be on that side of things again, ever."

"I wouldn't get so comfortable there if I were you. I can see why Elsa would try to come and eat you. You're sweet in more ways than one..." she bared teeth dangerously close to him. "And just the right size."

Rey leaped from his recline and stood straight. "That's not funny!" Such forced a quick laugh from Fiela, who clearly thought otherwise.

"Aww, it's okay now baby bunny," she cooed disparagingly. A clawed finger nudged him, eliciting a cringe and a shudder from the rabbit. "Oh come on, I'm only teasing. You get uptight so easily."

"Yeah, I guess I do," he admitted, recomposing himself from the false threat. "In my defense it's a lot easier to live without the threat of being eaten."

"Suppose I can imagine. That's what the prey does though, isn't it? They adapt, they conform to the things around them. Like..." She paused. "Bigger things. Protection." A knowing smirk. "But y'know, sometimes I get the feeling this is a horribly one-sided relationship, not all that symbiotic. And to think I could've just stepped on you and been done with it. Would've made my life a whole lot easier, huh?"

"Gee...if I didn't know any better, I might just call it an abusive one," Rey quipped, playing the role.

"Whatever, you're just saying shit. You don't like calling the shots--that's where I come in." A hint of a smile escaped her upon mention. "Speaking of which..."

"Uh oh. What?"

Fiela shut and locked the door behind her, shortly thereafter setting Rey upon the dining room table.

"Now, normally after you visit I send you back down and you find your own way. I think they can handle themselves for now." The wolf shed her jacket and tossed it behind her, landing somewhere on the couch. "I'm not gonna let you sleep in that dump anymore--not when there's an available house with plenty of free space."

His confidence cracked. Never took much, Fiela mused internally.

"Uh, I--"

A finger twice his size shushed him.

"Nope, not gonna hear it. We've had this talk before anyway. You're staying with me and that's that. Don't think you can get out of repaying me for saving your ass, bunny boy."

Rey stammered again, trying desperately to think of something--though part of it was in the hope that Fiela could say something to prove it wrong. To quell his anxiety, he might say.

"There's still a lot more work to be done, though--like, today won't count for everything! I mean thank you of course, you did do stuff--good stuff--I just think that there's more stuff that still needs to happen, really high up in terms of priority..."

"Ah, okay. It's funny because, hey, I'm pretty high up myself in terms of not giving a damn." Fiela wasted no time in pouncing on his words. "If you don't want to think of it as your end of the trade, then you can always consider it a test."

At first Rey looked almost huffy. "Well, with all these options at my disposal I might consider myself a pretty damn lucky guy..." he said, but Fiela was undaunted.

"You've got two lucky rabbit's feet to work with, I'm not all that surprised. But then it's probably not luck, it's just me carrying the relationship on my back. Points for you being adorable when you try to give me backtalk, though." Her voice hinted at a degree of ambivalence she might have had toward Rey's fulfillment of such a hypothetical quota, but he could never be rightly sure.

"Clarity" toward her inner machinations would be too strong a word; Rey would opt for the more flexible "insight".

"What if I get you a visit to the chiropractor in return, then?"

The wolfess released a rumbling giggle. "Okay, okay, that was cute. Don't bother with the chiropractor thing though, you're far too light for it to be a real problem anyway," she said with a gentle smile, all but confirming his former belief. All she wanted was for Rey to keep it interesting. "Still, you gotta pay me back _some_how."

"O-okay. Um..." There was a somewhat lengthy pause.

"Something up, Rey? You're spacing a bit."

"Hm? Oh, well...no, it's nothing." That wasn't true, she could discern. His voice wavered and he spoke too fast for it to be.

It would always disappoint the wolf just the slightest that her quickness, her wit, her ability to note sparse detail couldn't be used in quite the same way they had been before...but Rey would certainly provide juicier opportunities of his own. She had no regrets.

"No, you've got something on your chest--I mean, more than normal." Genuine concern, spiced though it was with her trademark aloofness. Almost pretending she didn't care--but Rey could see through it and discern otherwise. "You can talk to me if you need to."

"Okay, well, it's nothing groundbreaking I guess. It's just that I...well you were there at the rally, kinda, you know what our problems are," the rabbit concluded. "I don't want to ask anything from you, but I'm not sure that everyone in the Undersector will be totally okay without me."

"Hmm..." she contemplated for a few moments, then shrugged. "Different circumstances than before. I suppose some donations could be arranged--just remember to ask nicely, yeah?"

"Oh, thank--"

"But," Fiela continued, wagging a finger, "Before I go off doing you more favors you don't deserve, you and I gotta work out some kinks." The wolfess' tone became impish as she crossed her arms atop the table and rested her head sideways on them. Her tempting gaze fell atop him like twin green boulders. "Talk to me, Rey. Let's start paying off your debt there. I wanna hear what you have to say about me."

At first Rey was mum, but he made his best attempt at summoning words. "Y-you do?" he stammered, easily put off by Fiela's expectant loom. "Oh. Well, um, y-you're very pretty, Fiela..."

The wolf's expression went flat with curvature only at the ends of the lips, disappointed yet amused.

"Come on, you've done way better. That all?" Silence. "Well Rey...you've just turned on Good Friend Fiela, who's here to let you know that you're pretty bad at traditional flirting."

Rey's throat loosened as he put on a somewhat disbelieving look. "Who's the other Fiela then?"

"Girlfriend Fiela," she continued matter-of-factly, stroking his ears with monolithic deft fingers, "Who totally loves it when you try. You're cute as a button and just as easy to wear."

Damn. She won.

"Er, sorry...can I try again?"

"You'll get your chance, don't you worry. Either way there's certainly room for improvement, so I'm in no hurry. Good for you to have someone understanding like me who's willing to help you with your slip-ups, isn't it?" the wolfess sang tauntingly.

Rey waved a hand, suddenly deciding to ignore his proposed place in the hierarchy for his cloud of confidence had returned to him. "Whatever, one criticism after another. Between us, you're the half with all the freedom anyway--I'd say that's what you're getting out of it."

Just then Fiela flashed a dirty smirk, one that unsettled Rey no less than others of its ilk ever did, cleaving the certainty he'd codged up in twain. The difference here was that there was a button-pushed glee that lit up her eyes, as if she both unabashedly knew how right he was and loved it.

This was what she'd been waiting for. Compliments be damned.

"Ooh, got a mouth now, do we Rey? Go on, tell me more," she said randily, looming over the rabbit with expectation prevalent in both her voice and her eyes. The strangest thing was her ability to make her urging sound both like sexual temptation and a death threat, or worse, some clever, aggressive cross between the two. And knowing her, the last wasn't too unlikely in Rey's eyes.

Fiela caught the rabbit shivering slightly with delicious, sheepish timidity. He was slowly realizing in part where the talk was going, and just the precise degree of nothing he could do to change it. To boot, Rey could not assert that being due solely to duress if he could rightly call it that, not if he were to be honest. He was well aware of the terms of his circumstances and that was certainly coming back to bite him.

The wolfess, however, while confident in her control, still studied him closely. It was always worth checking for she'd found the rabbit could be quite tricky when in the mood. Another reason she could tack on towards what made his company so interesting.

"Well, I--how do you want me to pay you back?"

Oh no, the cards were laid bare on the table. She had him utterly cornered.

Then it was like the wolfess had been subject to some anomalous chemical reaction. Fiela's ears and eyes flared dangerously at the question, all forward and giddy, as if that was just the answer she wanted but not the one she entirely expected to receive. The hackles along her neck subconsciously raised in a manner that least resembled their normal purpose--a powerful, predatory lust.

Fiela now knew just what it was that she wanted from him, and that it wasn't something that had to be given to her. Rather, it was something that she would prefer to take, for Rey was just about dangling it on a stick before her and she wasn't about to pass it up. There was a word to describe the best part of it all, which was that he had essentially handed her the permission to do with him as she pleased on a silver platter. But what was the word...

Ah yes, she thought. Tantalizing.

The femme fatale leaned in even closer, treating Rey to a view of nothing but the runway of her muzzle, the two joyful, focusing eyes, and a toothy smile in his peripheral vision. He was the slightest terrified, but equally excited.

Nervous of what she had planned with her prisoner, however, would describe him right then quite well.

"You just said the magic words," she whispered softly, a hand skittering behind him. Before he noticed the trap, it sprung; the wayward fingers began pushing him toward her chest and the gargantuan canyon thereof. His face reddened madly as he was pressed into the ebony valley for those few moments.

At the first sign of struggle from her plaything, Fiela pressed harder. She would have none of it.

"You ask way too many questions, and sometimes you're pretty tactless, but _damn_if you don't know the right things to say to me. Forget the fact that you're sweet, I like this about you way more."

Apparently deciding he'd had enough, a pair of crane-like fingers then pinched the hem of his shirt and laid him flat along the table upon his back. Fiela poked a claw at the prone rabbit's stomach and skillfully drew an indistinct pattern along it, forcing a gasp. Her eyes dreamily bored into his being, studying him, making known the level of ownership she possessed, while simultaneously sending the message for him to simply signal if it was too much.

There was no such signal, though perhaps she moved along too quickly for him to react.

"We'll see what happens, got it? But you can start today, whether you like it or not. And hey, if you somehow don't, I know I sure as hell will. Now..."

Whether anything Rey wanted to say would have been in shy objection or not was never discovered or given any thought; the huntress resumed her grasp over the rabbit and possessively stuffed him into the confines of her cleavage, tilting her gaze toward the white speck in her shirt.

"...How about you show me Boyfriend Rey?"

The wolfess then started off, the faintest of elated skips to be found in her steps.