Riley woke up slowly, stirring underneath her blanket as the sleep's comfy grip gradually let go of her. After a few minutes of tossing around in the warm, welcoming darkness she finally forced her eyes open, dimly glowing embers in the fireplace catching her attention.

After taking a glance around the living room, she realized she was alone now, the three kits having since left. There was someone in the kitchen, but she couldn't quite figure out who it was, and was too drowsy to care much.

Andrew seems to have had enough courtesy to add his blanket on top of Riley's, the human girl leaning over and laying down on the entirety of the couch, taking in the ambient warmth as she slowly woke up from her nap, sore legs providing additional motivation to stay in bed.

With a stretch and a yawn she finally opened her eyes fully, wiping the sleepiness from her eyes before tossing the blankets to the side and sliding her legs off the couch. A few wobbly pushes later, she managed to stand up, walking towards the kitchen, finally making out Ella chopping some cabbage.

"Slept well?" She asked with a giggle, Riley noticing her tail was quite frizzled but not making much of it, groggily responding-

"Yeah, I'm alright... need help with dinner?"

"Don't worry sweetie, I'm just wrapping this one up, how's a sour stew sound?"

"Guess it's a nice change of pace, heh..." Riley remarked half heartedly, walking over to the sink and washing her face awake with some cold water.

"Mhm! But that's tomorrow, today we're gonna be finishing up the mac and cheese from yesterday. For soooooome reason, I think you won't mind, heh..."

Riley blushed a bit, embarrassment from yesterday's dinner lighting up once more before Ella continued-

"Oh, don't worry, nothing to be embarrassed about. There's some cocoa on the table, cold now but you can reheat it in the microwave."

After walking back to the table and straining her eyesight, Riley just barely managed to make out the black cup in the dark. Having gently picked it up, she took a sip of the cocoa, and had to stop herself from drinking it all at once, really curious to see how better it could get after heating it.

As she watched the dark brown cup spin slowly on the glass plate, the hum filling her ears, she took a deep breath through her nose, letting out a quiet moan as she stretched her arms, her lil' exercise interrupted as she smelled something... stronger in the air. It was not unlike like the previous omnipresent scent she was already used to, but more intense and much more noticeable.

She was about to ask Ella for an explanation, before the quiet ding of the microwave derailed her train of thought, the groggy girl reaching in and grabbing the quite hot cup before taking a sip.

The taste of sweet chocolate flowed down her throat, warming up her entire body, any doubts melting away as her shoulders relaxed. A sip turned into a gulp, which then turned into downing the entire cup in one go, Riley feeling downright cuddly from the sweet warmth, a sensation as welcome as much as it was one she was unused to, except maybe in the earliest memo-

No. No going back there.

With a soft shake she lowered the cup down, reaching down towards the dishwasher at the sad realization that there was no more sweetness to drink, Ella stopping her on the spot-

"Oh, the dishwasher just finished before you got up, full of clean dishes right now. Feel free to put the cup in the sink for now, just this one time. Enjoyed the cocoa?"

Riley nodded with a bit of a guilty smile as she placed the cup inside the ceramic sink, reaching up to fill it with warm water, taking a moment to try and figure out how the weird looking faucet worked. She was used to cheap rubbery ones with separate knobs for hot and cold water, not to... what ever this one was. It had a single handle and that's it, the girl confused as to how to even turn it on.

She tried tilting it to the side, which had seemingly no effect. After a moment of confusion, she tried wiggling it around, managing to somehow push it upwards on accident, getting a trickle of water. With some more experimenting, she figured out that she had to tilt it upwards to turn it on.

After pouring some water into the dirty cup, her hand reached through the water stream to turn the faucet off, which only resulted in her letting out a painful yielp as nearly boiling water splashed on the back of her hand.

Ella caught on in an instant, yanking the handle all the way to the other side before grabbing Riley's wrist, pulling it under the running stream of now thankfully freezing cold water, burning and redness slowly subsiding.

"Shhhh, all's fine now, sorry for not telling you about the sink earlier. How's your hand?"

After a moment of surprise Riley realized what Ella did, thanking her with a slight exhale, speaking up-

"D-don't worry, just feels a bit numb..."

"Hopefully it's just a slight burn... goddammit, should've fixed that thing long ago, we all got used to not turning it all the way right, and got lazy, ugh. I'm so sorry Riley..." Ella looked guilty and angry at herself for letting this happen, despite it being such a minor thing.

"H-hey, I'm all fine, really. Should've asked fir-"

"Hell no, it's your house Riley and you deserve to feel good and safe in it, without worrying that a random appliance will scald your hand. You know what, fuck this, tell Rick to bring me my toolbox and I'm gonna get that dealt with right away." She sounded more determined than Riley has ever seen her, anger solidifying into a concrete drive.

Riley nodded almost turning to walk away before realizing that Ella still held her hand tight under the cold running water, following up a bit quieter-

"After dealing with the burn. Hold your hand here for a moment and give me a minute-"

She tossed the chopped cabbage into the cast iron pot and walked deeper into the room, turning on the rest of the lights and entering the white bathroom, walking out a few minutes later with a small tub of some cream.

After letting Riley cool her hand for a few more minutes and putting the heavy pot into the oven and turning it onto the lowest setting, Ella finally turned off the water, carefully wiping Riley's hand clean with a paper towel and applying some of the cool cream, the leftover tingling sensation quickly fading.

"Feels better?"

Riley nodded, flexing her hand a bit as the moisturizing cream absorbed into her skin.

"Y-yeah, t-thank you."

"You're welcome sweetie. Now go get Rick to bring me my toolbox and try to spare your hand a bit."

The girl nodded, turning to walk upstairs as she saw Ella empty out the compartment under the sink and throw her sweater onto one of the chairs, looking down at her sink with determination on her face and a white sleeveless shirt on her torso.

She was about to knock on the parents' door before catching some racecar noises coming from the play room. She turned to head over there before catching another whiff of the same stronger smell she sniffed next to Ella, two and two slowly coming together before being cut off by Andrew mumbling something loudly in his room, his raised voice noticeable enough to throw Riley off despite being muffled by the door.

With a brief shake, she head over to the play room, and sure enough, Rick and Timmy were busy racing against Lily, the lil' kit excited and giddy despite the room only being illuminated by the large TV.

Dad and son seemed to be winning despite the sister riding an identical car, a sight that made Riley smile at their excitement as she quietly leaned on the back of the cough, spectating the race.

After Timmy and Rick finally drove through the finish line and the little kit erupted in happy squeaks, Riley walked over to the entrance and turned on the lights, the three previous occupants cringing briefly as their eyes adjusted before turning towards her, Timmy sliding off of Rick's lap and running up to hug Riley's legs before she even realized, chuckling at the feeling of being hugged once more.

"How'd you sleep Riley?" Rick asked calmly, reaching his arms up to stretch with a yawn.

"I slept well, thanks for the blankets, heh." She smiled at Lily, who responded with a quiet giggle, soft blush filling her cheeks.

"Oh, that was mom's idea, heh."

"Speaking of, she told me to tell you to bring her her toolbox."

The smile flushed from Rick's face as he thought through what could've caused such a reaction, quickly getting up and jogging towards the stairs, fluffed up tail following him as he abruptly ground to a halt, turning around and dashing into his room.

Riley didn't pay that much mind as she walked around to take a seat on the couch, Timmy quickly following up, snuggling between her and Lily. after climbing up.

She was about to reach out for the gamepad and suggest some races before Rick calling out cut her off-

"Catch!"

The blur in the corner of her eye almost made her start punching at the sight before the message was parsed by her brain, Riley just barely catching the small box before it crashed onto her lap, Rick already gone by the time he turned her head towards him to ask what was the purpose of that.

"What is it?" Timmy asked excitedly as Riley took a look at the small box, turning it around in her hands as she looked for any markings or writing. It was quite heavy, there probably was some metal inside.

"I've no clue..." Riley remarked, lifting the box a bit further up, realizing a part of it could be slid out of the outer packaging, Lily gasping quietly as she realized just what Riley was holding.

She almost turned over to ask Lily what it was that Rick felt so important to give to her before the smaller box fully slid out, Riley's surprised expression dimly reflecting in the phone's screen as she looked down at it, confused for a good long moment before the realization hit her.

A phone... for her?

She slowly pulled it out of the box, a pair of earphones and a small black angular object hidden underneath, curious in their own right, but right now only a distant consideration next to the phone.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Riley held it gently in her hand, unsure what to even do with it. That thing was easily worth more than her, the thought making her gulp in anxiety.

"Why did Riley get a phone?"

Good question Timmy, good question.

"Well, I have a phone and she's older than me, so it's obvious she deserves one as well." Lily responded, sounding a bit irked by the lil' kit's question.

"But I want a phone too!"

"We've been over this Timmy, both me and Andy got ours when we were nine, and you will as well."

"But I want one now!" He whined at his sister, folding his arms in grumpiness.

"You can't even read." She responded while barely holding back a chuckle at his toddler frustration.

"Yes I can!" Timmy responded loudly, sounding almost hurt by the accusation.

Lily rolled her eyes and pulled out her own phone from her pocket, quickly pulling up what looked out like a blank white canvas, writing out in block letters-

'''

TIMMY IS A

DUM DUM

'''

"Alright sport, what did I just write?"

She brought the phone in front of his eyes, Riley stifling a giggle at the words as Timmy focused as hard as he could, trying to decipher them.

"Tee... I... Mmmmm... Timmy! Hey, that's me!" He lit up, Lily genuinely looking impressed as he read on.

"Is... Ayy... what's an A?"

Riley couldn't hold back any longer, breaking into giggles at what was taking place next to her, Lily eventually joining her as Timmy asked confused-

"What are you laughing at Riley?"

"Mmmkhm-n-nothing, keep reading!"

Timmy looked back at Lily's phone, lowering his sight a bit and focusing on the second line, mouthing out the letters-

"Dee... You... Mmm... Dee... You... Mmm..."

He focused deeply on the letters, his brain firing on all cylinders as he tried to combine them together into words, an eureka moment lighting up his expression before the actual meaning of the letters made him whine angrily-

"Hey! Mom told you not to call me that!"

"I'm sorry..." Lily sounded apologetic, taking her phone away and turning away from her brother's angry gaze.

Riley noticed his tail puff and bristle out a fair bit, while hers kinda tried to hide itself behind her cowering body. Deciding that she should probably step in to defuse the situation-

"Hey, Timmy, wanna help me out with my phone?"

His ears perked up at the question as he turned towards his other sister, leaning up on her thigh towards the phone she was still holding. A moment of thought later he looked up at her, asking curiously-

"Why do you need help with it?"

"Well... I've never had one, I don't really know what they do." She responded as truthfully as she could, a bit taken aback by his question.

"But you're sixteen!"

"Fifteen. And what about that?"

"Why have you never had one?"

"Because nobody gave me one?"

"Why didn't your parents give you one?"

Riley's playful grin cracked into a grimace, and she had to place the phone down on her lap as her fists clenched and body shook.

"Timmy!" Lily cried out at his insensitive question, the lil' kit looking a bit anxious between Riley's obvious change in mood and Lily calling him out like that.

"I'm sorry!" He called out, clearly scared, his shrill voice breaking through Riley's foul mood before she reached over and pulled him into a gentle hug, calming both him and herself down.

"Shhh... it's all fine..." Her voice was a bit raspy as she breathed deeply, her body gradually unclenching.

"It's just... my parents were bad people Timmy, alright?" She followed up, eyes closing as she let old grudges slip out of her, not focusing on them.

"But... why?" He asked in response, sounding almost defeated.

"I wish I knew." She responded with a whisper, sighing to herself before looking up at Lily, who was no less affected by her outburst despite her age, reaching her arm up and pulling her into the group hug as well.

"But that's all in the past now. So, wanna help out with my phone?" Riley asked them both, wiping the grimace off her face with a slight shake, replacing it with a tentative smile.

Lily nodded eagerly and got up, taking a seat right next to Riley on her other side as she lifted her newly received phone up, staring at it blankly.

"So, first you'll have to unlock it, there's a button on the side right here-" She reached her paw behind the phone, pressing the slight bump on the side of the smooch device.

The screen momentarily lit up, displaying some text on the dark background-

'''

✉✉✉ | 📶 LTE 🔋47% 8:14PM

--------------------------

18th Sept 2019

8:14PM

Swipe up to Unlock

'''

"So, that's the lock screen. I... take you haven't used touch screens before?"

"Or even regular screens for the most part, heh."

"Hmm... alright then, place one of your fingers down here where the 'Swipe up' thing is written."

After considering what did Lily mean by that for a moment, she decided to just press on the text with her thumb, figuring that's what 'touch screens' meant.

"Now just move it up halfway up the screen and then let go."

Riley slowly slid her thumb upwards, filling up some sort of a bar on the left side of the display, lifting up her thumb once it was filled, the screen changing after what she assumed was unlocking it.

"There you go, well done Riley." Lily chimed in earnestly as the older sister took a look at the unlocked screen.

The black background was replaced with the door to her unfinished room, a 'Riley' name plate near the top identifying the phone's owner. The bottom of the display was filled with a handful of icons, not unlike what she remembered from the computer class, but obviously different. 'Phone', 'WhatsApp', 'Camera', 'Chrome', only one of those sounded vaguely recognizable, and it wasn't the metal.

"Knowing Dad he's already put all our numbers onto your phone, press the 'Phone' one and then press 'Contacts' near the top."

Riley was briefly confused by the instructions, but eventually managed to find the relevant button on the screen, bring brought to a list to all the numbers-

'''

* ..Dad (Rick)

* ..Mom (Ella)

* .Andrew

* .Emergency

* .Lily

* Liz Asher

* Marvin Asher

* Arthur Nelson

* Nica Nelson

* Sophia Nelson

* Wilma Nelson

* Kate Saughton

* Izzy Tate

'''

"That's a lot of people I don't recognize..." Riley remarked offhandedly, having no idea where to even start.

"Yet!" Lily giggled, checking where there weren't any more numbers hidden deeper down, before speaking up again-

"So, the two Ashers that aren't us are Dad's parents-" She pointed at Liz and Marvin with a claw, tapping them each to bring up their photos.

Marvin looked like the coolest grandpa in existence. Aviators, lush silver beard that reached beyond the frame of the photo, hair similarly tied up in a black and white bandana, more of it than she thought it was possible for someone this age. And of course, wide grin stood out on his visibly sun charred face, looking like he'd just finished telling a joke.

Liz on the other hand was caught giggling on her photo, lifted cheeks and closed eyes straightening out most of her wrinkles. Judging by the choice of the photos, this seemed like a fairly common scenario, Riley unable to help but to crack a slight smile. Tired black skin gave way to a flurry of white curly hair, and aside from a touch of eye shade she was unable to make out any other accessories or makeup.

"And a fun thing about their photos-" Lily passed her sister's phone back to her, fumbling with her own for a moment before pulling out a photo. Riley's suspicions that both of them were taken from the same source, the old couple sitting on the opposite sides of a table at some bar.

Riley giggled at the realization before bringing her phone back up and asking-

"What about the rest of these people?"

"Mom's side of the family. Arthur and Sophia are her parents, and the rest her sisters."

Riley went through the names one by one, checking out their photos. The grandparents didn't have any, neither did Nica, but she was lucky with the other tree.

Kate looked much like Ella, if a bit leaner, and with her forehead spot replaced by two narrow stripes running in parallel. Riley couldn't make much beyond that and her making a peace symbol with her paw, the photo was much too low quality.

Wilma seemed like someone who heard of the concept of a 'punk skunk' and went all the way with it. Her fur was heavily dyed, a thick purple stripe running from her nose to her hairline, the hair itself dyed in an admittedly cool looking gradient between pink and violet, with a hefty amount of gel added in. Her nose ring made Riley question herself as to why she never even got her ears pierced, piercings like that looking absolutely awesome on her aunt. Along with the nose ring there were a couple of rings on each ear, and one on her left eyebrow.

However, it was Izzy that really grabbed Riley's attention. She looked slight and decently tall on the photo, sharing her older sister's forehead spot and blue eyes. Face shape was also really close to Ella's, with the only thing that really stood out being, well, the rest of her, covered in lighter brown fur, with the ordinarily white parts being noticeably creamy in color.

Lily caught on to her sister's surprise, chiming in-

"First time seeing a brown skunk?"

"Y-yeah, I thought you guys only came in black and white."

"Well that's most of us, but there are plenty of folks in all the shades of brown as well, all natural. Heck, not even the black and white skunks are pure black and pure white, there's a lot of slight shades, just hard to see unless you have really good lighting. And sometimes there's enough variation to make someone really stand out, heh."

Riley listened closely at the explanation, an obvious follow up question pushing itself onto her tongue-

"You ever just compare your shade of black with someone else's?"

"Heh, plenty times, especially when meeting more distant family and such. Love doing it with younger kits, since they don't realize there are differences like that unless one of their parents is much lighter in color than the other one. Especially with Timmy when he was-"

Riley turned to the other side at the mention of her younger brother, the lil' kit having dozed off right next to her at some point. She cut off Lily with a quiet 'shhh', reaching in to pick quietly groaning Timmy up, slowly carrying him back onto his bed, doing her best attempt at tucking him in and sliding his plushie next to him before almost closing the door, leaving it ever so slightly ajar to let some light in.

As she walked out of his room, she noticed Rick going upstairs, carrying four bowls of reheated mac and cheese, smiling knowingly at Riley as he walked over, passing two bowls to her-

"Take one to Lily, I'll service the boys. How's the phone so far?"

"I... I don't even know what to say. I-I've never gotten something like that from someone..."

With a soft smile, he spread his arms wide, Riley taking the offer of a hug and holding him tightly, two bowls clanking behind his back.

"T-thank you so much R-Rick..."

"You're welcome Riley. Treat it well and feel free to ask anyone of us for help, except maybe Timmy, heh." He giggled a bit as he let Riley go, the girl blinking away a couple of forming tears before running back to the playroom, laying the two bowls on the table in front of them.

"Cheers." Lily thanked her softly, grabbing one of the bowls to eat as Riley sat down next to her, managing to unlock it once more, looking at the screen with a bit of a confusion, unsure what else to do with the thing.

"So-" The younger sister spoke up again after finishing her bite- "The rest of these are WhatsApp, the app we use for messaging each other, feel free to open it and send something to Andrew, or else there's no way in heck Dad will grab his attention for food."

Riley opened it with a hesitant tap, a list of recipients showing itself to her, mostly just mirroring her saved numbers. She pressed on Andrew's likeness, an on-screen keyboard popping up, awaiting a message to write.

The human girl tilted her head in confusion, unsure how tactful she ought to be, Lily laying down her half-finished bowl and asking for Riley's phone with a gesture. After receiving the phone from her uncertain sister she tapped up a message blindingly fast, slamming the 'Send' button before passing it back to Riley who took a look at its contents-

'''

hey stinktail take off your headphones

'''

She grimaced at the message she got conned into sending to her brother, gulping and hoping that she could explain it somehow before the door to his room slowly opened to take the bowl of food from Rick, the skunk teen walking over to the play room, confusion on his face before he realized who Riley was sitting next to, sticking his tongue out at his younger sister, who repaid in kind as he head back to his room.

After letting out a sigh at the situation getting defused, Riley picked her phone up once more and curiously tapped the camera icon. Her tired eyes opened up as she realized she was suddenly looking at her own lap, taking a moment to piece together the fact that it was just the feed from the rear camera, which was confirmed by waving the phone around, getting a sight of the rest of the play room.

Lily noticed Riley's discovery, speaking up in excitement-

"Hey, wanna take a selfie together?"

A what.

With a tap on one of the icons the camera seemingly flipped around, the feed now coming from the front of the phone, proudly displaying a live feed of bemused Riley as she struggled to figure it out.

Her sister helped her position the phone so that it caught them both, Riley tapping a large icon of a camera after they were done tweaking it, the phone confirming what it just did with a click, the recently taken photo popping up on the screen.

Riley looked like she was off her rockers on something because of her expression, and Lily was caught mid-yawn, the inside of a skunk's mouth like that becoming another thing that Riley hoped not to witness again.

With a giggle, her sister stood up, stretching a bit and speaking up- "Guess that's my cue to get going. Remember to charge it overnight and feel free to explore the rest of the phone, just try not to call anyone on accident, heh."

She nodded in acknowledgment as Lily turned around and head to her room, the half finished bowl of macaroni in her hands. Riley followed soon after, heading to her room and quickly downing her portion, with nobody else around to make her feel bad for devouring so much food so quickly.

A few moments later and she was under her covers, light turned off, her pale face illuminated brightly by the screen of her phone, held above her eyes. While she had no idea what the 'Chrome' thing was, a few moments of experimentation made her realize that it was just another way to access the internet.

And such, a few moments of experimentation stretched suddenly into a few hours of browsing the vast and unknown digital ocean, Riley's tired eyes only getting some rest after the battery had run out, the girl not able to be bothered to get up and sort out the charger, sliding the dead phone next to her knife under her pillow as the midnight took her.