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An irritating blaring noise woke Dienza up. His alarm clock. Five in the morning and time to get up and ready for work. He stretched out, his forearm slamming down on the clock and silencing it before he rolled over and found himself face to face with a still sleeping Spiika. '...Right.' The events of the night before came back to him. He stared at her for a few moments, prompting even more memories to return before reaching over and lightly tapping on her cheek. Her eyes scrunched closed before opening slowly. 'Hnn... Hi.' She mumbled. 'Is it Monday already?' 'Afraid so.' Dienza replied, rolling himself out of bed and stepping out into the hallway. Once he had finished in the bathroom, he stepped back into his room and pulled on the loose fitting cargo shorts and work shirt he wore. Spiika shambled like a zombie and followed suit. She pulled on the same clothes she'd worn yesterday. Her house was on the way to their workplace, so a quick stop off would be needed before they got there.

The walk to work was quiet, neither of them having any real desire to breach the obvious topic. The ground was wet from rain that had blown through overnight. Spiika managed to change into her work clothes at her house without waking her father much to her relief, and the pair arrived at work with five minutes to spare. The day was fairly standard for a Monday. Production was on schedule, ahead even until one of the other workers started cussing and throwing things. Dienza and the business manager both had to calm him down, realizing that the template machine he had been using was tampered with by curious micen over the weekend and was now in need of recalibration, a tedious process. All else went smoothly. Dienza recognized Corsaze as one of the drivers running the trucks as they were loaded, suppressing a smile at the older leona's complete silence and aversion to looking at anyone. By the end of the day, the crew had completed another three shipments and it was time to set up for the next day. It was four by the time they closed up. Once again Spiika joined Dienza on his walk home. 'Were you as distracted all day as I was?' She asked, her tone suggesting casual curiosity rather than the nervousness someone else might have felt. 'Not so much.' He replied. 'But tell me, if we... were to...' He slowed his pace for a bit as his mind raced for a way to explain his feelings on this. 'Try again you mean?' Spiika answered. 'Yea.' He nodded, looking back at her as they kept walking. 'I was thinking about that most of the day.' Spiika confessed. 'And as much as I would love to get back with you... and as much as I enjoyed last night, I don't know that I could...' 'We shouldn't commit before we're both sure we can do what we owe to each other.' Dienza replied. 'Right...' Spiika sighed. 'Respect... and all that.' The rest of the walk home was quiet. Dienza dearly hoped that it wouldn't become a trend. Even if Spiika had gone off the rails in her own life, she was still a well-meaning person and a long time friend.

'Ma?' Dienza was confused as the pair approached the house. Nereen was on a ladder inspecting the guttering to the front of the house outside her own bedroom. She was dressed in an older pair of pants he hadn't seen her wear for a few months now and a shirt he didn't recognize at all. 'Hey guys.' She called, throwing a pile of pulped dead leaves from the gutter to the ground. 'It's nothing too bad, there was a leak down the front wall in my room. It must have rained during the night.' 'Yea, I got that impression from the wet ground this morning.' Dienza replied. 'Have you been up there all day?' 'Of course not.' Nereen answered, throwing down more crap. 'I overslept like usual, then I had to ask around for someone to loan me a ladder. Not many people own one, it turns out... Eew!' 'What is it?' Dienza asked. 'There's a... dead bird under all this.' Nereen looked away and climbed down the ladder. 'I think... I'm gonna leave it at that for now.' 'Do you want me to get the hose for you?' Dienza asked, looking at the dirt and grime clinging to the fur on Nereen's forearm. 'Absolutely.' The woman replied. She waited with her arms out as Dienza unravelled and connected the hose at the front corner of the house. 'So how was work, you two?' 'Work is work.' Spiika shrugged with half a smile. 'As long as they keep giving me money I'll keep doing it.' 'Like anything.' Dienza quipped, pointing the hose at Nereen and turning it on. He laughed as his mother flinched and squealed in surprise. His grin grew wider as he turned the spray up more and thoroughly soaked her arm and most of the rest of her with the heavy splashing. 'You little bastard!' Spiika growled. She'd been hit with a lot of the splashing water as well. Her face was irritated, but slowly turned to a smile at seeing how much Nereen and Dienza were enjoying the game. The spraying only stopped when Dienza had soaked Nereen's shirt enough to see things he had no interest in seeing.

After a short while, Nereen was showering inside while Spiika and Dienza worked to set up his recording instruments and laptop on the floor in proximity to the drum kit and record a few tracks. Dienza had plans to record several guitar tracks himself at some stage, so having the drums pre- recorded to work with would be a bigger help if Spiika was unavailable. As the girl played, Dienza waited in the kitchen to avoid distracting her and at the same time keep an eye out for micen. It was difficult to hear over the beats and clangs in the next room, but there was always a chance the micen would try to exploit that. He wanted to catch one or two before his mother was done in the shower if he could. Micen were sweeter than most other foods after all, and Spiika had missed out on that one last night. He got down low, his tail swaying behind him half in focus, half in time with Spiika's rhythm as he crept towards the pantry. He slowly moved into position before yanking the door open. This time there were three micen there, and this time he was prepared to grab them before they made it to their escape tunnel. With a quick swipe of both arms over the plate Nereen had left there, he had them. 'Gotcha.' He looked across them, noting the same beige male that had escaped from him before and escaped from his mother last night as well. 'Well aren't you the luckiest little bastard? This must be your first unlucky day.' The other two were another male and a female, both brown furred and each of the three dressed in rags that loosely resembled pants. He carried the three to the living room, waiting in the doorway so as not to distract Spiika as she finished up her rhythm. She finished after another minute, completing a three and a half minute track the pair had written up some weeks ago. She yawned and stretched with a sigh. Dienza stepped into the room and tapped the laptop's keyboard deftly with one of his toes. Spiika's eyes lit up as she noticed the captured micen in his hands. 'I thought you said they were hard to catch?' She said. 'Where were these guys?' 'In the pantry.' Dienza replied. 'But you do raise a point. What's the story little runts?' He lifted the new male up by his tail, keeping the other two gripped in his left hand. 'T-there's more of us!' The micen stammered, trying to curl up and refusing to meet Dienza's stare. 'And with all the extra food that went in... we've been trying to make the most of it.' 'Well it should be easier now.' Dienza nodded. 'With... three less mouths to feed.' He tossed the micen through the air to Spiika. 'F-four.' The micen replied through ragged breaths. 'You killed my sister yesterday...' 'Thank you!' Spiika grinned, before lifting the squirming form to her lips and slurping him in like a noodle. The female in Dienza's hand let out a gasp and then buried her head into the fur of his fingers. He lifted the pair up curiously and separated them, looking with a thoughtful smile at the male that had been showing up lately. 'So what's your name?' The leona asked. He received only a blank stare in response, so he flicked the back of the micen's head and raised an eyebrow. 'Name?' 'T-Teo!' The micen replied, his voiced mixed with fear and anger. 'Why do you care?' 'I don't, I'm curious.' Dienza shrugged, before lifting the female micen to his lips and flicking her between them onto his tongue. Teo cringed at the sight, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head at the slow wet sounds and muffled cries that followed. He let out a small horrified squeak when the leona finally swallowed. Dienza froze as his mother stepped into the room from the hallway opposite the room from the kitchen. 'Oh you found him.' Nereen said, smiling as she entered the room. She was now wearing the loose grey tracksuit she usually wore to bed and her hair was hanging loose around her shoulders. 'Yea...' Dienza nodded. 'He was stealing from us again.' 'Oh that little dickens.' Nereen laughed. 'You're still upset over that? Is it because you bought the last load of groceries?' 'It's the principle.' Dienza shook his head. 'Anyway, he got away from you last night, maybe you should hold on tighter.' He held the micen Teo out and dropped him into Nereen's hand. Nereen lifted Teo to her muzzle and inhaled the micen's scent. For a moment Dienza watched in anticipation, thinking he might actually see his mother eat one of them, but instead she sat the micen on top of her head once more. Spiika swallowed as quietly as she could before speaking. 'Nereen, that's how he got away last time isn't it? Why don't you just eat the little guy?' 'Right.' Nereen nodded as she plucked Teo from her head and held him close to her chest in one hand. 'But I'm not eating him. He reminds me of a pet I used to have.' She leaned her face down and gave Teo a kiss, something that made the micen curl up and do his best to squirm away. 'Oh, now it starts to make sense.' Dienza nodded knowingly, speaking like a fancy detective from a story book. 'So here we have Missus Aerb, the gentle giantess to the micen of the Aerb household, which, according to my calculations makes the prime suspect in the case of the missing micen to be...' He slowly turned towards Spiika with a playful grin. 'You're an idiot.' Spiika rolled her eyes but smiled. 'As I suspected!' He replied. 'It was Miss Jetive all along! Will you come quietly?' 'Oooh, will I?' Spiika responded sarcastically and played a long drum roll while holding a face of excited anticipation. At the end, her reply was anticlimactic. 'No.' 'Ach! I've been foiled.' Dienza snapped his fingers. 'Loudly it is.' 'Two nights in a row?' Nereen remarked, twirling Teo between her fingers as the micen contemplated whether he was better off trying to jump. 'I need to sleep too you know.' Dienza was silent, stunned by what his mother had just said. After a few moments, Spiika broke the silence with a quick badum tish of the drums. Nereen was the first to laugh, followed by Spiika a few seconds later. 'Ohh, really?' Dienza shook his head and dropped himself onto the couch. 'Ma, I don't need to hear this talk from you.' 'Oh come on, what do you think I am?' Nereen scolded, almost blushing. 'Do you think I'm made of stone? There's more to my life than just sitting around here all day. Besides, do you really think someone just let me borrow a ladder out of kindness? In this neighbourhood?' Dienza was silent, his eyes wide with almost horror as thoughts he didn't want to see danced through his mind like a parade of nightmares. 'Nope! I'm not thinking that one through! You're my sweet innocent mother who embodies everything right with the world! I'm having a shower!' Spiika cracked up as Dienza ran from the room. Nereen continued to blush and put Teo in her other hand. 'So anyway... What do you feel like for dinner?'