Riley was suddenly awake. She looked around in the barely lit darkness to figure out what had happened, the knife already in her right hand as the mystery explained itself.
And she sneezed again.
With an exasperated groan she let her head fall back onto her pillow, grumbling to herself with a nasal voice as she turned to her side towards the window, judging by the dim light it couldn't have been any later than eight or so.
After sliding her switchblade back under her pillow she turned around some more, wanting to clear up at least one of her sinuses. Guess having that hat fly off of her did bite her in the ass afterwards.
Curse you, winter.
After realizing it was a brand new thing her and Rick had in common she tried to relax on the soft bed, pulling the covers as all the way up to her eyes, wanting to watch the ever so slowly brightening sky.
As her sinus finally cleared and she could smell at least partially again, she realized she could sense the same smell as on Saturday, noticeable but not at all unpleasant. Was she smelling it all this time and just went noseblind after a while? Was it just how this place smelled? Or how its residents smelled? Another question to ask Rick once they have a moment.
But that was later, and right now she heard someone run downstairs quite excitedly, which perked her curiosity up. After a bit of internal conflict about whether to snooze for just a bit more or get up and investigate.
Unfortunately her question was answered with an alarm from behind the wall immediately behind her, uncomfortably loud even when muffled. Despite the fact it was muted just a few seconds later, Riley was definitely not falling asleep anymore, mumbling angrily as she threw the thick covers off of herself, chilly air washing away any remaining drowsiness.
After pulling out some ragged shorts from the bottom drawer she finally got up and walked out of her room before turning towards the stairs, trying to stretch as a door opened right in front of her, hitting her right on the nose.
Riley staggered with a loud grunt, holding her aching nose, thankful that at least it wasn't broken, or so she at least thought. It still hurt like a motherfucker and she felt some blood on her lip as she leaned against her door, quietly whining as the pain slowly subsided and she tried to fumble her way back to her bathroom.
"W-what was- oh my god Riley I'm so sorry are you alright!?" She heard Andrew say out in panic as she stumbled towards the sink, washing her nose with cold water until it stopped bleeding, grabbing a leaf of the toilet paper and stuffing it up the bleeding nostril.
She was more awake now than ever.
With another grunt she left her room again, Andrew still panicking a bit, his tail visible behind him and quite bristly.
"O-oh god Riley I-I'm so sorry I was afraid the a-alarm I forgot to turn off woke you up-"
"It kinda did." She responded in a deadpan voice, its nasalness only intensifying her unamusedness.
"I-I'm so sorry..." Andrew sounded like he was about to tear up on her, shaking a bit.
"It's just a bruised nose, I'll be fine, don't worry. And I at least hope that alarm is turned off now..." She grumbled a bit, annoyed but not really holding any hard feelings against Andrew.
"Y-you're still bleeding!"
"What?" She sensed her nose with her hand, 'ow'-ing a bit as she felt a small cut on the bridge of her nose, her finger barely stained with a tiny bead of the blood.
"Oh come on it's just a cut. If you're gonna panic then just grab me a bandaid or something."
Andrew nodded shakily and ran back into his room, coming back with a weird looking black bandaid, carefully placing it on Riley's nose, the glue feeling a bit hot.
"That feels weird, what kind of bandaid is that?" Riley scrunched her nose a bit at the slight itching, dull pain answering making her regret it.
"T-the kind for fur..." Andrew quietly responded, still looking afraid, his tail quivering.
"Makes sense I suppose, just feels a bit itchy. And come on Andrew, it's not like you deliberately slammed your door into my face, I'm fine." She tried to calm him down, a bit surprised to see him this emotional.
"A-alright, s-still..."
Riley rolled her eyes and walked past him towards the stairs. As she neared them, she heard muted clicking and humming noises from behind the work door, guess Ella didn't have a Christmas break yet. As she slowly walking downstairs, her older brother eventually following as Riley stared at what was happening.
"What are you doing Timmy?" She asked in confusion, seeing the four year old working around the kitchen, tail weirdly still as he was focused, barely peeking above the counters as he tried to smear butter on a piece of bread, next to a small pile of sandwiches.
He turned in confusion to face her, butter knife in hand as he answered- "I'm making breakfast!"
"W-what are you making?" She asked in follow up, noticing Andrew walk down next to her in the corner of her eye.
"Toast!"
"Timmy, remember what mom told you about making toast?" Andrew chimed in, looking a bit terrified at the scene.
"That I have to ask her for help with the toaster!"
"Exactly, so why are you not doing that?"
"Because I'm making the sandwiches first and then I'm gonna ask mom for help with the toaster!"
Riley and Andrew shared a glance, the sister nodding slightly, not able to find the fault in his logic.
"Alright Timmy, no need to go wake up your mom now, we can help you now." She smiled as the siblings made their way into the kitchen, flipping the switch next to the outlet the toaster was plugged into and opening the lid, stopping as she realized she had no idea how to use this toaster-waffler combo... thing.
"What happened to your nose?" Timmy asked, tilting his head as he looked up at Riley.
"A door hit it." She answered literally, noticing Andrew flinch a bit.
"Why?"
"Because it was a mean door."
Timmy processed the answer for a good few moments, eventually accepting it with 'Okay!' and continuing to make sandwiches.
She stepped away from the toaster, gesturing towards it to Andrew, who got the clue as she started passing him Timmy's sandwiches, just brown bread, butter, cheese and some... meat thing, probably chicken.
They kept working and toasting, Timmy only stopping once he'd used up the entire loaf. Andrew took a small break to turn on the kettle, preparing a cup of coffee.
"This looks like enough toast to feed a battalion, Jesus." Riley appreciated the massive pile of toast material, looking down at Timmy.
"What's a battalion?"
"A lot of soldiers."
"Why would soldiers eat our toast?"
Riley had no idea how to answer, continuing to pass the sandwiches over to Andrew like a human conveyor belt as her brain tried to rev itself into full power again.
As she tried to process his question, Timmy walked up to the fridge and pulled out some ketchup, as well as another red bottle Riley couldn't recognize.
Andrew put a few of the hottest toasts on a plain plate, before taking an egg and... cracking it over them, trying to pour the egg white over the toast and dumping the yolk in the middle. He noticed Riley's surprised expression and quickly explained itself-
"That's how mom likes it, I've no idea why either. Mind taking it to her?"
"Isn't she working?"
"Yeah, but it's not like she doesn't get hungry in there. Oh I almost forgot-" He got to the kettle just before it would start boiling, preparing the coffee and sliding the cup towards Riley, who quickly grabbed it.
She slowly balanced her load as she walked upstairs, standing in front of the door, unsure how to get Ella's attention, eventually knocking on it with her bare foot, unsure how loud she has to get. After a few moments of nothing happening, she tried doing that again, and again, getting no reaction.
Just as she was getting stuck she heard a loud squeak on the left, the door to the parents' bedroom opening up and a very groggy Rick walking out, his tail just as disheveled as his hair. He stopped and looked dumbfounded at Riley, several questions coming off without even having to ask them.
"Timmy woke up god knows when and started making sandwiches for toast."
"What happened to your nose?" He asked deadpan, blinking slowly as a question finally escaped his lips.
"A door hit it."
He answered with a lifted eyebrow, before finally realizing what Riley was trying to do, walking up to her and banging on the door so loudly Riley thought it was gonna fall off its hinges.
After a few moments it opened inwards, bedraggled Ella looking out with an expression that could kill, before noticing what was happening and taking the breakfast from Riley.
"O-oh, thank you a lot Riley, just as I like it." She stopped mid thought as she paid Riley a closer look, her mouth opening before she was cut off-
"A door hit it."
Ella nodded slowly and walked back into her office, Riley getting a small peek at the dimly lit room, only really spotting a large paper-covered desk and two large monitors side by side. She couldn't make out anything else before Ella closed the door with, apparently, her tail. Handy.
"Well, now that Ella has her share it's time to grab some for ourselves, isn't it?" Rick chimed in with a chuckle before they both walked down, Riley sniffling a bit, the cold having taken over the one open nostril.
The two boys were already biting into their toasts as they sat at the table, the rest of the toasts piled up in a large bowl in the middle of the table, the condiments next to them. They said hi to their dad as he and Riley sat down, both grabbing a piece.
Riley had her first toast without anything on it, the salty cheese already having more flavor than most dinners at the orphanage. She scanned the rest of the table, Andrew not putting anything on his either, Timmy smearing it with ketchup, and Rick putting on a bit of the other, mysterious condiment. She waited until she swallowed her bite, asking offhandedly in Rick's direction-
"What's that?"
He lifted his brow at her, pointing towards the bottle, Riley's nod of confirmation making him slide it over to her. She read the writing at the front-
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
'''
SRIRACHA HOT CHILLI SAUCE
TUONG OT SRIRACHA
'''
Followed up by a whole lot of Chinese writing she had no hope of ever understanding. The limited writing she could understand did perk her curiosity, having never had anything proper spicy. She did pour a bit on the rest of her toast, taking a small bite-
And regretting it immediately.
While quite mild in retrospect, the heat hit her tongue instantly, making her yielp quietly as she chewed through, a single tear gathering up in the corner of her eye as she felt her nostril clear up a bit.
Rick noticed her discomfort, giggling after swallowing his bite as he teased-
"Lemme guess, never had anything spicy?"
Riley slowly shook her head, the single tear rolling down her cheek as she kept chewing and eventually swallowed the spicy bite, mouth breathing for a bit to let her tongue calm down...
Before she took another bite out of the toast, really enjoying the flavor despite the heat that came with it. Besides, she enjoyed actually getting to breathe through her nose again.
"So, after you're done with your breakfast Riley, take a look at the furniture we already have in the storage room so that whatever you end up picking fits with it. Of course we could just return those and pick a new desk and bed if they're really not in your taste. And afterwards we can just head straight to the store, no point in waiting."
She nodded, speeding up her crunching and not bothering to spice up the other toast she had, starting to quickly down it as she noticed Lily walk downstairs, the brothers waving at her, Riley gathering to courage to join in with a single wave before she continued eating, only noticing the skunk sister putting some ketchup on her piece before Riley got up with her half finished toast and walked upstairs, not wanting to waste any more time.
She opened the storage room with a crunch of her toast, inspecting the furniture in the middle, the rest of the room filled with a handful of boxes and piles of magazines. The bed was a comfortable bit wider than her orphanage one while still clearly being single. The frame was wooden and quite lean, looking quite lean, with some soft plush on the headboard.
The desk was clearly from a fitting set, made out of identical looking wood, design as straightforward as can be. Quite a hefty amount of desk space, a few drawers to the side of the leg area, and a small shelf on the bottom of the other side, its purpose a bit unknown.
She nodded in appreciation as she closed the door, looking to the side as she saw Rick walk back upstairs, expression expecting something.
"So, you like em?"
"Yeah, they're quite alright."
"Sweet. Anything else before we get going? Andrew's finishing his toast, so we'll be ready soon." He smiled at her, stretching a bit as he neared the door to his room.
"How will we know if the new furniture fits these two?"
Rick thought for a second before snapping a photo of the bed and the desk with his phone.
"That's how."
"Your phone has a camera?" She asked, a bit dumbfounded.
He blinked at her in surprise, nodding slowly afterwards.
"Yeah, all phones nowadays have cameras."
"I-I see..."
"Hey, it's all fine Riley, I don't think I'd be wrong in thinking you've never had a phone?"
She shook her head, wondering for the longest time why did people have them and what did they do exactly, but she never really had a good chance to find out.
"That could change..." He teased with a chuckle, stepping into his room and closing the door behind himself. Riley followed suit, putting on her blouse before she realized she left most of the rest downstairs, brushing her hair a bit before heading there, only Timmy and Lily still at the table, latter's tail freezing briefly as Riley walked into the view.
Riley flinched at that a bit but quickly pushed herself on, someone yesterday being kind enough to stuff newspapers into her sneakers after she came back, leaving them comfortably dry as she put them on again, before grabbing her mostly dry jacket and the rainbow hat, playing a bit with the bobble as she waited, Timmy interrupting her with-
"Why are you wearing mom's hat?"
"She gave it to me yesterday. Do you like it?" Riley responded cheerfully, giggling as she noticed Timmy's eyes were glued the colorful bobble.
"Yeah! It's Lily's favorite!"
Goddammit.
Riley looked away from them, wordlessly praying Rick and Andrew would show up already and not subject her to more of this as she quietly walked towards the garage door and leaned against the far wall, looking down at the carpeted floor.
It's like the universe wanted to spite her by constantly antagonizing Lily.
Thankfully, Rick showed up soon after, wearing the same outfit he did when she properly met him for the first time back on Thursday, Andrew following him wearing a puffy black jacket and fitting black trousers.
Riley opened the garage door wordlessly, waiting outside one of the rear seats as they made their way over, all three quickly getting into the car.
Without another word, Rick pulled onto the main road, turning on the AC and tuning the radio to something pleasant, the two skunks having noticed the slight tension in the air. A few minutes passed before Andrew finally broke the ice, calmly asking-
"Is something wrong Riley?"
She tried to take a deep breath, instead only succeeding in taking a long sniff as she spoke-
"Feels as if I'm constantly pissing Lily off..."
Father and son shared a quick look before Andrew continued-
"I really don't think so, not including her meltdown when she saw you for the first time of course. After that she felt mostly calm, and I advised her to try to just breathe deeply when she sees you, and to try to not suppress or focus on any bad thoughts she might be be thinking when she sees you, and honestly I'd advise the same to you."
"W-what do you mean?"
"Acknowledge there's tension between you two, but don't try to dwell on it or suppress any thoughts of it, just acknowledge it and let it pass."
"A-and how do I do something like that!?"
"Taking a few deep breaths would be a good start." Rick chimed in, following the conversation as he pulled onto the state road.
Riley stopped herself from barking back a response, opening her mouth a bit and closing her eyes, breathing in and out, letting a bit of the tension out with every exhale. After a few minutes she opened her eyes again, Andrew smiling at her from the other end of the rear seats.
"Alright, if you feel comfortable with all this, you can try doing something like... like consider the situation between you and Lily, and whatever thoughts come up, don't focus on them, don't kick them out, just let them pass and verbalize them."
"Ve-verba-what?"
"Say them out loud. No need to whisper or shout or anything, just try to say them out clearly. Of course, only if you want to, if you're not comfortable then just read it out loud in your mind. How's that sound?"
Riley considered his offer, biting her lip a bit.
"A-and what will that do?"
"Once you stop ruminating and focusing on the stressful thoughts, you'll definitely feel at least a bit more comfortable around her, and can work on changing your conscious response."
"Alright... I-I'm gonna try..." Riley responded, her voice shaking a bit as she kept breathing.
"You can do this Riley."- Rick cheered her on. "-and remember, only say them out loud if you're comfortable with us knowing so that we can advise."
"Yeah. We're not gonna interrupt you, so just keep going until you can't think of anything else and just feel kinda empty."
She nodded in response, leaning back into her seat and closing her eyes, focusing on the situation with Lily and trying to inspect the cloud of thoughts passing through her, without dabbling into any.
Fuck this was hard.
It took her a while to stop overly fixating on certain thoughts as she kept breathing, including stopping fixating on the thought of her having not fixating on anything.
"I-I'm afraid that I hurt Lily in a way s-she'll never forgive me for." She finally spoke up, Rick turning off the radio, bringing the car to silence aside from the quiet rumble of the engine.
"I'm afraid that even my sight pisses her off, and that she can't stand me at all and never will."
"I'm afraid she won't ever accept me as a sister because I'm not a skunk."
"I'm afraid I'm gonna start resenting her for all these, and get so angry one time that I'll end up hurting her."
"I'm afraid she is already resenting me like that, and one time will eventually get angry enough to spray me."
"I'm afraid her resentment will spread to you all..."
She had to catch and stop herself from going any deeper down this dark path, breathing deeply as her mind cleared up and she opened her eyes, Andrew looking at her with a shy smile and tears in his eyes.
"I-I'm proud of you sis." He whispered out, reaching out an arm towards her, Riley shakily grabbing it, the funny feeling of his furred fingers gently stroking her palm making her relax a bit.
"As am I, Riley. It's really not easy to do something like that, we both know that quite well."
"W-where did you l-learn something like this?" Her voice was still shaking a bit, Andrew holding her just a bit tighter.
"Therapy." They both responded near simultaneously, Andrew giggling a bit at the coincidence.
"You both went to a therapist?"
"Not at the same time of course, but yes. Ella convinced me to when we were engaged, and it really pulled me out of a dark place a couple of times. As for Andrew, I think it's his call to tell you if he feels comfortable." Rick responded, keeping his eyes on the road.
Andrew was silent for a bit, eventually sighing and speaking up-
"Back in middle school I felt... horrible. About myself as a person, m-myself as a skunk, thought everybody hated me, mostly because I certainly did. I... hurt myself back then, hoping mom and dad wouldn't notice and worry about me. They did, and they did worry about me, and they ended up recommending me to a therapist."
"D-did the therapist help?"
"She probably saved my life. It took... a while, a long while and a lot or work on my and her side until I started feeling... normal about myself and people around me again, even longer until I stopped fearing that people hated me, until after Timmy was born. If not for her and her work I... might have tried ending it."
It was Riley's turn to gently stroke Andrew's hand, wishing she wouldn't be strapped to the seat so that she could try hugging him in return for once.
"I-I'm so sorry Andrew..."
"It's all fine Riley, I'm more worried whether this wasn't too intense for you. This was all in the past, and thankfully I'm so much better now."
"I'm fine, don't worry, I... know the kind of emotions you were dealing with."
He looked concerned at her, Rick speaking up-
"If you want, we can recommend you to the same therapist Riley after the Christmas break."
"I-I'll think about it, t-thank you for the offer..."
"You're welcome Riley. If you want, we can try talking a bit about the fears you brought up."
"H-heh, sure, I did speak them out loud after all."
"Lily... I know it's definitely not how she's probably coming off right now to you, but she wouldn't hurt a fly. And as angry as she might be appearing as towards you, I can guarantee you that most of that anger is turned inwards, angry at herself at how she comes off to you, and at how she made you afraid of her. She doesn't like being angry at people, or holding grudges or being scary. She's a very friendly girl on the inside, struggling with her own bitter disappointment, and at the same time with how she appears to someone she ultimately cares about."
"S-she cares about me?" Riley asked, her eyes tearing up a bit.
"Of course she does." Andrew chimed in, his voice warm and reassuring. "No matter your species, you're still a sister she's been waiting for for so long, one she wants to love, and one she wants to be loved by..."
She was openly crying at this point, not really considering Lily as someone who wants to know and love her before...
"And don't worry, the only one she's resentful towards is herself, sadly. She hopes, she told me yesterday, she hopes that someday you'll forgive her for how she reacted." Andrew kept going.
"O-of course I do forgive her..." Riley whispered out, tears dripping down from her chin.
"Just like she forgives you for any hard feelings you might be holding towards her." He smiled at her again, fumbling around for a moment before pulling a tissue out of his pocket, handing it off to Riley, who definitely appreciated it, wiping off her tears and blowing her nose as she slowly calmed down again.
"T-thank you Andrew..."
"You're welcome sis."
"Thank you both for encouraging me t-to go through with this, I... I'm definitely feeling better overall now."
"We're glad." Rick chimed in, his voice sounding cheerful.
"There's one more thing I wanted to mention, and left it for the end since it's the most open and shut one." He continued.
"A-and that is?"
"Nobody is gonna spray you, I promise you that. Spraying is... kind of taboo among skunks, despite it being one of the things we're known for."
Riley snuck a glance to the side, Andrew clearly squirming a bit, looking just a bit uncomfortable.
"Taboo?"
"We don't talk about it, basically. It's something that you do *only* if you really, really have to, and never in anger or because of something else. I can tell you for sure, that between five of us, not a single one of us ever sprayed another person."
"Even thinking about doing that just makes me feel awful..." Andrew chimed in.
"Same, but it's something we had to clear up eventually anyway, so now I'm at least glad it's hopefully done and dealt with." Rick responded back.
Riley surprisingly relaxed at that, one of the small worries that was just hanging around in the background leaving her.
"Yeah, that's one of the questions I wanted to ask but couldn't get myself to answered."
"Have any more? Now that we've cracked the Pandora's Box of uncomfortableness no point in not going in all the way." Rick responded, Andrew nodding slowly in the corner of Riley's eye.
"How do tails feel like?"
Andrew spurted out his breath, looking at Rick as he tried to move his tail around.
"Now that's one hard question." Rick summed up, Riley seeing some of his own tail moving around from behind his chair.
"I-I have literally no idea how to compare it to something else." Andrew flat up admitted, hoping Rick could figure it out somehow.
"The closest thing I can figure out is like, somewhere between a very very long finger and an arm, but more sensitive and much, *much* more flexible. And the fur motions are like, a bit like being able to move the tail in another axis, as weird as that sounds."
"You're right, it does sound weird as fuck. How do you even control something like that?"
"You don't, mostly."
"What?" Riley was a bit dumbfounded at that, it was her turn to tilt her head.
"Well, you don't really consciously control your legs and feet as you walk, right? You just... walk, and it's much the same with tails as they react to your emotional state and all, and to a lesser extent also ears. Doesn't mean you can't move it consciously, but most of the time you don't really have to. Is that a bit clearer?"
"Y-yeah, I think so, probably as clear as it can get for someone without a tail, heh."
"Mhm. Any further questions?"
"Hmmmm... well, when I first got home I smelled some weird smell and didn't think much about it, and this morning when I was dealing with a stuffed noise I smelled it again, and realized it's been around this whole time and I just got used to it or something. What is it?"
"Ha!" Rick exclaimed, sounding way too happy for him to not be expecting it. "I had a bet with Ella whether you'd notice immediately, she thought that of course not since she's too used to it. Well, simply put that's just how skunks smell by themselves. And with five skunks sharing a space for so long it's obviously gonna get noticeable after a while."
"I see. Now I'm curious whether other anthros also have smells like that."
"Of course, hell, so do humans, it's just that much harder to notice."
"Huh, that's... honestly not that surprising."
"And that's a very good sign." Rick responded with a tiny hint of pride in his voice, before chuckling to himself and adding-
"And so is this one!"- As he pointed to the right, the sign reading-
'''
IKEA
⮣
1/4 MI.
'''
The two siblings shared a load groan as Rick pulled into the parking lot, so proud of his pun he kept giggling until they finally parked, ready to face the labyrinth of furniture that awaited ahead.