The ride home was a blur of black asphalt and white snow as the adrenaline took its time to wash out of Riley's system, the girl too excitable to remember much of anything, especially with Ella too tired to engage in much of any small talk anymore.
Riley was the first to get out of the car after they'd parked, quickly opening the back doors and grabbing the handful of bags and boxes, before closing the door with a shove of her hips and heading towards the front door.
Ella took a moment to catch up, scrambling out of the driver's seat with a yawn and locking the car up, slowly walking up to the front door as she raised an eyebrow at Riley-
"What's got you so excited?"
"O-oh, nothing, just, uh, having all these new things to try out!"
Riley was a bad bluff.
Fortunately for her, Ella was an even worse spotter of bluffs when tired.
"Remember to cut the price tags off, Lily's has had her own share of parading in new clothes she got only to realize she was now worth ten bucks." She chuckled as she opened the front door, letting them both in.
The house was... quiet, too quiet. No muffled sounds of Lily practicing, no ambiance of Timmy playing, be it with video games or with wooden bricks.
Only finally hearing the sound of wood grinding against wood, along with the quiet grunts of Rick and Andrew moving the furniture around, a wordless tension leaving Riley as she headed towards the stairs, Ella staying downstairs with a stretch before walking up to the kettle.
Upstairs, the area between her new room and the storage room was a bit of a mess, the doors of both rooms stuck open, with the soft carpet rolled up and silver taped to prevent it from rolling back. The message of 'Under construction' was clear enough, even if it prevented Riley from reaching her current room.
She decided to, at least for now, place the shopping in front of the work room before she slowly walked up, only wanting to get a glance of her-
"Oh, hey Riley, stay back for now!" Andrew's soft if noticeably strained voice took her out of her little adventure, the big skunk's back slowly waddling out of the storage room, obviously exerting quite a bit.
She took a few steps back as she watched the scene, Andrew grunting as he slowly turned, the full sight of a desk being carried on its short side coming into view as he and Rick made progress. The latter followed shortly, adding his own share of strained noises as they lifted the desk through the narrow corridor.
A half a minute or so later they'd managed to carry it over to her new room, Riley catching a glance of Rick's changed outfit, the dad skunk going down to basics with just a white sleeveless shirt, a few sweaty spots on its back included, along with a well-worn featureless shorts and wonderfully mismatched thick winter boots.
The outfit of champions.
Not really able to do much else, Riley just stood and watched for a bit, listening to the sounds of what must have been the two rotating the desk back to its correct orientation, followed by the light thud of the piece of furniture finally standing down on the carpet.
Few adjustments later they left the room, stretching their arms and heading back into the storage, Rick barely managing to catch Riley in his peripheral vision, turning towards her-
"Hey Riley. Guess until we're done you can stay in Timmy's room, just try to keep quiet since he's taking a nap. And afterwards... well, we need to talk."
While the contents of his words were fairly mundane, the sad, almost... regretful tone combined with the addition at the end made Riley's hair stand on end, the girl gulping as she quietly nodded and walked up to Timmy's room. Rick's reaction with a similarly sad nod certainly didn't make her feel any better, doubts starting to coil around her mind as she stepped into the lil' kit's room.
If there's one time she really wished he was around to say his silly things and distract her, it was now.
But he wasn't, snuggled and snoozing up on top of his covers, still in his day clothes and with his tail wrapped around his tummy.
Riley quietly closed the door behind her, sliding her shoes off as she sat down against a wall, arms wrapped around her legs as she just... waited.
She had the phone in her pocket of course, and in a pinch even the art supplies in Timmy's room, but the quickly growing anxiety made her feel too chained for any of that.
The feeling was dreadful, in a way she never remembered feeling before. Of course she's been scolded before at the orphanage, many, many times, but every time she just took it in stride, spitting at the staff as they turned away, done with their monologues.
After all, what could they even do to her. You need to have something you can take away from someone to be able to punish them in any real capacity, and the kids there already had pretty much nothing.
But this was different, and not just because of the possibility of punishment. It was something deeper than that, something utterly absent in her life before this past week.
Respect.
When you're treated like a number that just has to be fed and which should shut up and ideally just stay alive in its room, it's hard to respect anyone around you, be it the other inmates or the jailers.
But here... here it was completely different, Rick wasn't just some detached pencil pusher, he was an actual person like her, someone who had gone through his share of awful events, someone who understood.
Someone whom she respected.
Someone who respected her.
And seeing him, someone who'd grown so important to her in such a short time, just so disappointed and defeated felt worse, so, so much worse than even during any of orphanage's half-baked attempts at corporeal punishments.
But, why was he so down, why was he so sad with her, he couldn't have-
Or maybe? She had no idea how, but... maybe he did know what she did and was disappointed because of that?
But that made no sense! He knew his daughter, his real daughter was being bullied at school by these wastes of skin, h-how could he be disappointed at her for doing some justice!?
The train of thought made her breathing raspy, sadness in her system being replaced by anger, anger that made her hands clamp into tight fists, anger at, at-
Feeling betrayed. She thought Rick better than those moralistic pieces of shit, the ones that said that violence is never the answer and who punished both the bullies and the bullied for getting into fights.
How could he, h-how could he do something like that...
No!
She let out a loud grunt, rubbing her palms into her forehead as she tried to snap herself out of this, of psyching herself up like this because of something she could only fantasize about right now.
For all she knew, he was angry because of something completely different and not because of what'd happened earlier, a-and would never know-
No, not angry. She's never seen him angry. He was disappointed, in a way she did remember seeing before.
Back in their follow-up interview.
Except now it stung so much more, her emotion-wracked body curling up even tighter at the almost physical pain in her chest, unused to feeling bad about herself.
At least, not like that. Not when there was an actual reason to feel bad.
*knock knock*
The quiet sound caught her attention, providing at least enough motivation for her to pick herself back up onto her feet as the door was slowly opened. Rick leaned in, his distraught expression looking almost a bit pained as he looked down at Riley, her own emotional struggle more than apparent on her face and shirt in front of the wet spots.
"Riley, are you alright?" He asked quietly, some of the earlier sadness replaced with concern as he walked in and extended a paw towards her, Riley managing to stand up without his help.
"I-I guess..." She whispered back, unsure what to even say at this point.
Was there even anything she could say that would make this any better?
"I'm not angry at you Riley, and I'm sorry if I came off that way. But I believe we do need to have a talk."
She nodded shakily, taking a while to gather the courage to even look up at him.
"Wanna have it in the large bedroom? Your room is pretty much ready by now, Andrew is just adding in some finishing touches right now, but I don't want for your first experience in it to be this sour."
Riley nodded once more, seeing his point and leaving the sleeping kit alone, the carpet in the corridor since unrolled back to its normal appearance, if needing just a bit more straightening.
She didn't even bother taking a look into her new room despite the door being open, not feeling like spoiling the surprise to herself in her present state.
As they walked into her now-former room, Rick closed the door behind her and took a seat on the edge of the bed, gently patting a spot a foot or so away from him.
Riley stayed quiet as she sat down, her slight body shaking in anticipation, just waiting for the trap to spring, for him to start scolding her roughly.
Instead, he just asked a question, his tone having gotten calmer-
"Why did you do it?"
He obviously knew.
She sat in silence for what felt like half an hour, quaking quietly as the mess of her mind tried to formulate her earlier anger into a succinct response-
"Because she deserved it." Her voice was quiet, some of her former tension seeping through the words.
"What did you think doing that would accomplish?"
The follow up took her from the left field, her brain going blank for a good while as she tried to rationalize her righteous anger-
"I did it to make her stop bullying Lily!" She snapped back, emotions driving her wild between fury and defeat, making her leer at Rick.
"From her perspective, she was just punched by a girl she has no idea about, without any idea why." He responded calmly, taking a moment to compose himself before following up-
"Violence, and more generally punishment like that as a whole, can only work if you know what you're being punished for and have the ability to fully comprehend the impact of the actions you're being punished for. She filled neither of those criteria. And even if she did, pain is an awful teacher of anything productive. It teaches resentment and avoidance, and nothing that actually helps the punished party improve."
Riley mulled over the words, Rick's cooling tone struggling violently against her kneejerk anger, the latter making her mutter out to her own immediate regret-
"I thought you weren't like these, these limp-dicked pencil pushers who treat the bullied kid throwing a punch worse than the actual bully!"
She saw his calm expression jolt into a grimace for just a moment, the sight making her feel that much worse before he responded-
"I... know who you mean, even if I wouldn't exactly use your choice of adjectives here.
"I'm not like these people, and I know exactly who you mean, the kind of book abiding bastards that admonish violence in all forms and think that a bullied kid should just talk it out with his bully. But even then, pain, violence are tools, if not for teaching then for self-defense. Even when used as a deterrent, it's not gonna be anywhere near as effective unless the two conditions I mentioned are met. An activist in a black bloc rattling up a fascist something proper is one thing, where the fash knows well what it wants and what it stands for. A girl from nowhere smacking a kid that for the most part, has no real idea why do her parents dislike anthros so much but just knows she should follow their footsteps, for no apparent reason, is another thing entirely."
His words felt like they were melting through her brain, unused to someone who wasn't just a wanna be 'pacifist' for his own convenience, but for an actual reason she had a hard time arguing, even in the safety of her own head.
"What you did was bad not because punching is bad, or because standing up for your siblings is bad, but because it's ultimately pointless and will do nothing in the long term. Beatrice isn't gonna suddenly change because she now has one fewer milk teeth, where as something like a therapy session where you try to pick at her own reasoning would be much more effective in the long run. Of course, I'm not expecting you to have given her a therapeutic session in the bathroom of a mall, especially since you do have a very valid reason for despising her." He chuckled a bit at his own joke, the thoughtful expression warming up into a soft smile.
"A therapeutic session... like the one you're giving me right now?" Riley asked, suppressing her own tiny smirk at the realization, and then another one as she saw him nod slightly.
"Besides, even if I did want to punish you, I can't exactly think of a reason how would I go about doing it without being infinitely more cruel than the action I would be punishing you for." He admitted plainly, chuckling a bit before shaking it off with a few rapid blinks, and bringing up a question once more-
"So, with that in mind, why did you do it? Beyond the surface level reason of wanting her to stop bullying Lily?"
"S-surface level?" Riley responded in confusion, unsure what was Rick trying to imply here.
"While that's the reason you told me about, is it really why you went and did it?"
"W-why would it not be that?" She was lost, having no idea what he was going on about, or how would he even know about her considerations before she went and did it.
"Because that's not how people work. As sensible as we all want to think we are, so many of our actions are based on emotions more than on rational thought. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, not any more than there is with society as a whole- but it's something we all have to keep in mind, lest we start thinking of ourselves as more rational than we actually are. So, with that in mind, what do you think led you to doing it, what did you feel as you did it?"
She wasn't expecting this question, especially after his earlier lesson, making her look up at him with a surprised expression, a question slipping out of her mouth, her voice hushed and at a loss-
"W-why are you asking me that?"
"Because as good as it feels for me to go on with my moralizing, I know from experience that sorting through your emotions will be much more effective, and after our little session back on our way to IKEA, so probably do you." He responded plainly, looking at her with a slight smirk.
"Y-yeah, point taken..." Riley couldn't help but admit defeat, focusing on trying to recall what she felt before going through with her punch, the action proving to be surprisingly difficult, with emotions having noticeably colorized the recent past.
"W-we, me and Ella were shopping for some shoes, after I came back to her I-I remember her being annoyed since she thought she saw one of Lily's bullies, so I asked her for some details a-and her name." She recalled uncertainly, the surprising difficulty of the mental process making her face grimace.
"Do you remember what you felt when she told you that?"
"I... f-felt motivated, I thought I finally had a chance f-for..."
"Revenge. A chance for revenge." Riley finally answered, the sudden clarity stilling her racing thoughts at the realization.
Rick nodded quietly, asking with a hint of curiosity-
"Revenge for what?"
"F-for making Lily be afraid of me because of her bullying, I-I think." Removed from the immediate scene, she realized just how, how selfish that motivation was.
"Did you think that it would help with anything?"
"I... I don't know. I wanted to get back at her, more than anything..."
"Back at her? How did she hurt you?" Rick knew his question was leading, right towards where he wanted Riley to go.
"W-when I-I saw how L-Lily was afraid of me, a-and there was n-nothing I could do... i-it hurt." Riley admitted, the feelings she recalled making her tear up slightly once more.
"And you were angry at Beatrice since you felt that she was the one ultimately responsible for it?"
She nodded slowly, the words making sense of her angry jumble of thoughts.
"Angry because of how powerless Lily's rejection made you feel?"
She nodded much more vigorously this time, two small trickles freely flowing down her cheeks.
"Angry because you felt like you could finally get back at someone for inflicting all that pain to you?"
She shut her eyes tight, face crunching up from the struggle and the tears, body shaking a bit as Rick brought his monologue into its conclusion-
"Revenge tastes sweet, at least initially, but it contributes nothing in the end. There's the initial rush, you finally showed them how angry you were, but give it a few hours, days, and it fades into nothing, and the original anger is still there after all. All it does in the end is only bring more pain."
Riley didn't even have time to interrupt him before he continued-
"I was once your age Riley, and in your situation. I'm well aware of how badly powerlessness hurts after you're finally given some control of your life for the first time, and I should have done more to help you process this pain back when it hurt the most. I didn't, and I'm horribly sorry for that."
He slid over quietly, wordlessly extending his arms towards her, Riley not hesitating even for a moment before leaning in and hugging him as tightly as she could, her hold shaking as she cried the emotions out of her, slowly cooling off as he held her tightly.
They sat like that for a long while, Rick giving Riley all the time she needed, reaching down to slowly pet her back as he rested his head on hers.
"I-I... t-thank you so much Rick..." She forced out between sniffles, holding onto him tighter still as he softly answered-
"It's all fine Riley. You made a mistake, but we all do. The important thing is to learn from it moving on, dwelling on them won't help anyone." His voice was soft and warm, words followed up by him giving her a small smooch on the top of her head.
She nodded as she cried into his chest, the forgiving words dissolving any remaining worries she held, the tears finally ceasing before she let go, a large wet spot on Rick's shirt a silent witness of the emotional exchange.
"Now... there's something I'd like you to do Riley, to sort of close this sour part out." His voice made his head jerk up, the girl nodding as she listened intently.
"Mind talking to Lily about this? She was a bit distraught once she heard the news and is probably a bit afraid and could use your presence there."
Riley got up quickly, the determination to right the wrongs lighting her up despite the previous sorrow. Just as she neared the door, however, one last question popped onto her mind, and she knew that if she didn't ask it there and then, the question wouldn't let go of her-
"J-just one thing... h-how did you know?"
He chuckled, an amused smile sliding onto his face as he explained-
"Social media. News spreads really fast nowadays, even between friend groups, and Lily heard about it not even five minutes after the fact, her phone wouldn't stop buzzing. And then she added two and two, figured out that there is only one person she knew of that fit the criteria of looking like Beatrice, being at the mall at the time and having a motivation to do something like that. And then she told me, and then you admitted to it."
Fucking phones.
Riley nodded and sighed at the answer, the perceived utility of the phones quickly increasing in her view, despite not really having any idea what 'Social media' were.
"Now, go help Lily sweetie. She needs you most of anyone right now." He gently urged her on with a smile, the determined teen dashing out of the room and running up to Lily's before gently knocking on her door and taking a deep breath.
Fortunately, she didn't have to wait for too long, her sister quickly opening the door, expression shifting from concern to surprise as she looked up at Riley, opening her mouth to talk before being cut off with a tight hug from her sister.
Riley held her as closely as she could, feeling her go from the brief shock as her fur stood on its end, to comfort, the tween reaching her arms around her older sister in return and holding her as closely as she could herself, sniffling a bit as she relaxed in her hold.
"I'm here Lily. I'm so sorry..." Riley whispered softly as she leaned her head down and nuzzled the top of skunk's head with her forehead, calming down both her sis and herself.
"Riley, I-I'm fine, I promise..." She heard Lily mutter out, still sounding a bit concerned, less for herself and more for her sister, before she went on-
"B-but, are you alright!? D-did anyone catch you?"
"Well, if they did I wouldn't be here now, would I?" Riley chuckled a bit as she gently let go of Lily, giving her a half step of space.
"Y-yeah, b-but what about t-the cameras? W-what if they'll find out you did it?" The kit sounded a fair bit panicky, her concern for her sister making Riley crack a slight smile as she tried to calm her down.
"I did it away from cameras and didn't show my face around. Besides, it's just a punch, I doubt anyone aside from what's-her-face's parents would be too keen on bothering with just a single punch."
"W-well, you did manage to knock out a tooth..."
Riley couldn't help but laugh at that, the addition providing her with some well-deserved opportunity to relax, her shoulders loosening.
"Ha, had no idea I could hit that hard. Did she say anything?"
"No, I saw it on a post by her friend, from what it says you just stood in the bathroom, waited for her to pass by, said something she can't remember and hit hard before running away."
"I mean... that wasn't the original plan, but yeah, pretty much." She chuckled, trying to minimize the glee in her voice.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Lily nodded before something popped up, making her speak up once more-
"B-but, won't you be going to the same school as me and Andrew? W-what if you stumble upon her there?"
Riley considered the inevitable possibility for a while, eventually concluding-
"Well, if she stops being a bully, then maybe I'll say sorry. Iiiiif not, heh..." She chuckled, her sister noting the humor in her response but wanting her to be more serious-
"Riley, please!"
"Don't worry, I won't punch her again or anything. What I will do is go find you, hold you under my arm, and make it clear to her that if she lays a hand on you once more, I will do the same to her. Maybe even get another tooth out of it." Riley responded, as serious as she got despite the quip at the end.
Lily thought through her response for a moment, nodding slowly before running up to Riley and hugging her once more, the older sister smiling in response as she held the kit.
"Doing it the way I did might have been a mistake, but I still mean it- I'm not letting anyone hurt you."
"T-thank you Riley..." Lily muttered quietly, her hold on her sister growing stronger, Riley petting her back and hair.
Riley wasn't gonna let anybody stop her from being the best sister Lily could have.
"You're welcome Lily. I love you."
"I-I love you too Riley, a-and won't let anybody hurt you either!" The kit responded with confidence as she let go of her sister, a slightly teary expression filling with determination.
Riley was ready to respond, before a very welcome squeaking noise from behind cut her off-
"Hi Riley! You're back!" Timmy said, running up to her and replacing Lily as he hugged her legs.
"Hey Timmy. Had a good nap?" She turned towards him with a small chuckle, leaning down to stroke his hair some, much to his elation.
"Yeah! Can we watch Mimi and Nana now?" He asked happily, Riley having forgotten about the show with all that's happened since she left, but definitely didn't want to let him down-
"Sure. Say..." She turned towards Lily, who realized her intent but didn't manage to word out something to the contrary before the fell words filled the room- "...wanna watch with us Lily?"
Lily knew, there and then, that she was done for, and that Timmy wouldn't even let her breathe until he'd get her to come along, a sigh of amusement mixed with mild frustration leaving her mouth before she responded, knowing better than trying to oppose the torna- four year old-
"Okay... in the play room or where?"
"Play room!" The kit responded happily before running out the room, Lily desperately trying to appear annoyed, not able however to suppress a warm smile at her situation, knowing she could use a breather like that.
"Can I take that 'I love you' back?" Lily asked jokingly, breaking into laugh immediately afterwards, Riley joining her, finding her reaction to being dragged along hilarious.
"Nope~" The older sister chimed out, taking a deep breath before walking out the room, a devilish idea popping in her mind making her almost break into more laughter as she quickly dashed down the corridor. Timmy was already excited and waiting on the play room couch, Riley turning on the lights as she realized how dark outside it was getting already before she leaned in and asked the kit-
"Hey, Timmy, how about you ask Andrew to join us too?"
He let out an excited gasp and slid off the couch, tail waving comically behind him as he ran up to his older brother's room and started banging on it, Lily having to suppress a burst of laughter as she realized what was going on.
It took a few moments for Andrew to come out of hiding, the unsuspecting big brother crouching in front of Timmy as he opened his mouth to ask what was going on, before being swiftly cut off-
"Andrew wanna watch with us!?"
Riley saw the procession of his emotions in detail, from the initial surprise, to realization as he took a look into the corridor, both of his sisters staring him down in amusement, to defeat as he was just as familiar with the tyke's insistence. The end result was a quiet sigh followed by a warm smile, the big bro ruffling Timmy's hair as he stood up and walked out of his room, curtly answering-
"Sure! Whatcha watchin'?"
"Mimi and Nana!" Timmy answered, running past Riley back into the play room and scrambling once more onto the couch, the older brother reaching with a relieved sigh, happy that at least he was dragged into a group watching of an actually good cartoon.
Riley took a glance back at the gathered siblings, shooting them both a wide grin before following Timmy in, leaping onto the couch right next to him, before a realization struck her-
Wait, how were they actually gonna watch it? Is it on air right now? Is it some more of this wonky internet thing?
The situation didn't clear itself as the other siblings sat down, Lily leaning on Andrew's shoulder as Timmy reached up to the TV remote and turned the flat screen display on, Riley staring confused with her mouth slightly agape as the tyke continued to navigate around weird menus.
Her confusion only deepened as she saw some familiar icons on the screen, recalling seeing them in her exploration of her phone. What were they doing here, on a TV? Why were these menus so familiar?
Why was there an onscreen keyboard all of a sudden?
She just stared in amazement as Timmy started slowly typing out the name of the show, the... site? suggesting the full name just after the first letter which he promptly ignored, typing out the name in full despite the assistance provided.
Was this a website? Was the TV just... connected on the internet like that? the mere idea made Riley very confused as to the reason for adding a feature like that, before she mentally groaned, about to watch one after all.
With some more effort Timmy managed to navigate to the show's official page, selecting the most recent episode that wasn't displayed as seen and playing it, the site automatically switching to fullscreen. The chime of the opening tune caught the attention of the two other siblings, making them slide their phones back into their pockets and focus on the TV, Timmy laying the remote back on the table as he snuggled up to Riley, who pet him softly with a smile as she looked up.
The opening sequence showed a lil' purple skunk girl in a light pink dress, looking around confused as the background shifted behind her without her changing her expression, from an airport, to the inside of a plane, to another airport, then a car, and finally an inside of what was presumably her room, painted in a muted mint green. It all looked just a bit too large, some of the details looking jagged and unwelcoming, the entirety coming off just a bit concerning.
Soon after however, both the music and the creepiness of the surroundings faded away as another character ran into the frame and hugged the skunk girl tightly, a cream-colored rabbit boy. Afterwards, both her and the environment looked much less frightened, the girl quickly returning the hug with a smile.
Afterwards, a couple of adult characters walked into the scene from the same side, their appearance suggesting they were the rabbit boy's parents. They walked behind the hugging pair, reaching down to stroke their hair, Riley only now noticing that the mom character was holding a wrapped-up baby in her arm, another cream rabbit.
The show's logo then slid in from the top, the names of the two main characters thankfully colorcoded. 'Mimi' was colored in the same shade as the rabbit boy, and even if she didn't catch that, the two floppy ears coming off the dots over the 'i's would certainly give her a clue. Similarly, 'Nana' had the same lilac tone as the skunk girl with a large bushy tail coming off the last 'a'.
Underneath, the episode's title appeared, spelling out:
"S6E7: Let's have a talk"
As cute as it was, it certainly left Riley still fairly confused, the girl taking an opportunity to slide the phone out of her pocket as Timmy's eyes were glued to the screen, bringing up the search engine and typing in the show's name, scrolling down a bit until she found the Wikipedia entry, having quickly realized the site's usefulness during her first internet binge back on Monday.
'''
Mimi and Nana (TV Series)
_________
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with its source material, "こんにちは、ナナ！" (Literal meaning "Hello, Nana!", published in the US in 1996 as "Mimi welcomes Nana") (1995 Book)
Mimi and Nana (ミミとナナ Mimitonana) is a Japanese-American educational television series, developed jointly in cooperation between Fuji Television Network, Inc., Nickelodeon[1], and the author of the original book, Hayashi Tsuyoshi. It premiered-
'''
Christ that's a lot of fluff, where's the actual premise!?
She scrolled down the page, missing a large chunk of the opening scene as she scanned the dense contents, eventually managing to find the part she was looking for-
'''
Mimi is a 5-year-old hare whose world is turned around by the arrival of his newly adopted sister, 4-year-old skunk named Nana. He is initially confused and has difficulty adapting to a completely new person in the house, especially as Nana barely speaks English (Japanese in the Japanese version), her native language being Spanish (English in the Japanese version)[16].
With the help and advice from his parents and the kindergarten teacher, Miss Roberts (Miss Ono in the Japanese version), Mimi is determined to welcome his new sister as well as he can, playing with and teaching English to her (Japanese in the Japanese version), as well as taking her outside to the nearby playground (along with his parents) and introducing her to his friends, and in later seasons, kindergarten classmates.
'''
Huh. With that in mind the opening did make much more sense, the unusual premise making her look back up from her phone, now genuinely interested in the show.
The action seeming to be taking place in a kindergarten, the frame focused on Nana as she was sitting cross-legged near a pile of dolls, happily playing with them before one of the other kids ran up to her, loudly asking her something she couldn't quite understand, her tail subconsciously wrapping around her as she slowly shook her head, muttering out-
"D-don't understand..."
The other kid repeated his question, sounding more annoyed despite the lack of understanding, only the initial "Can-" clear through his muttering. Nana gulped at still being unable to grasp his question, clearly growing afraid, shaking her head once more and clutching her doll tightly.
After another failure, her classmate was clearly upset, saying something else before running off towards the kindergarten teacher, the action making Nana's eyes go wide as she realized she was in trouble. She quickly got up and looked around with panicked eyes, whimpering as she was unable to locate Mimi. After a moment she took off into a random direction away from the teacher, whimpering in fear as she tried to hide, eventually taking a seat at one of the drawing tables. Her tail was scuttled between her legs as she looked around once more before reaching out and grabbing a hat from a nearby box, a rainbow propeller cap looking comical despite the seriousness of the situation.
With her disguise in place and the doll moved onto her lap, she grabbed a small sheet of paper from the pile in the middle of the table, picking a few crayons up with the other paw, taking a deep breath as she tried to calm down.
Lily distracted her with an offhand comment, Riley moving her eyes off the screen for the first time in a few minutes, taking a moment to blink them a few times as she listened to her sister-
"I still can't believe this is made in Flash."
What is Flash?
"What is Flash?" Riley asked quietly as she leaned towards her sister, Andrew intercepting the question as he answered-
"Program used to make animations and cartoons. It has an, uh, a bad reputation since it was used for a lot of shows that were just... awful." He admitted plainly, Lily chuckling as she cut in-
"You still watched them all the time."
"I was young and stupid and didn't have any tastes! Besides, so did you when you were little." Andrew's voice squeaked a bit as he defended himself, Lily following in kind-
"Because I watched them on your lap! I had no choice there!"
Before Andrew could respond with anything, Timmy cut both of them off with a loud 'Shhhhhh!', the three siblings blushing in embarrassment as they turned back towards the screen.
Nana was looking a bit distraught as she faced one of the other kids sitting at her desk, different from before and looking much less annoyed, more so confused at Nana's reaction, the cat girl asking-
"Nana? Why are you scared?"
She took a deep breath as she looked up from her unfinished crayola drawing, thinking through her words for a moment before answering, her voice still afraid-
"M-m- I don't understand..."
The cat girl looked at her in confusion, brows furrowing before she realized something with a small gasp, pointing directly at the brown crayon Nana was holding, repeating the question Riley assumed was asked earlier when she wasn't looking-
"Can I have the brown crayon?"
The words came through clear this time, but Nana was still unsure as to the intent, the scene then shifting to a first-person view from Nana's perspective. Colors became muted as the cat girl's question manifested as a sentence written in crayon, suspended in the air in front of her. Her surroundings seemed to be slowed down significantly as the skunk girl kept changing focus between different words, trying to parse several words she knew into something coherent.
"Puedes..." She muttered as 'Can I' lit up, that word she knew well by now.
"Tener..." This time the word 'have' came into focus, Nana gasping quietly as she started figuring it out-
"El lapiz de color..." 'crayon' lit up this time, the three already highlighted parts sliding downwards from the rest of the sentence as they moved together, resulting in 'Puedes tener [the brown] el lapiz.'. Nana then moved the question mark downwards as well, Riley giggling as she noticed a small inverted one also appear at the start of the makeshift sentence as the cartoon kit gasped at the realization that her playmate just wanted to have the crayon.
There was still one unanswered question however, and Nana quickly took another piece of paper before drawing a small brown blob in one of its corners, tapping it with her claw as she asked the cat girl back-
"Brown?"
The latter was briefly confused at the question before she noticed Nana tapping the color blob, responding with vigorous nods as she remembered Miss Roberts telling them that Nana may not know certain words they knew, and that they shouldn't get angry at her for not understanding something.
"¡Hurra!" The kit squeaked internally at her progress, internally connecting the word 'brown' to preexisting 'marron', her voice relieved and full of joy.
And then she realized she still haven't given the crayon to her classmate, reaching over and passing it quickly to her with a quiet-
"Sorry!"
The cat girl giggled as she took the crayon, smiling and chiming back-
"Hehe, thank you Nana!"
"¡De nada!" The skunk girl responded, unsure yet how to say it in English, but by now most of her class was thankfully aware of what it meant, much to Nana's relief.
Afterwards they both drew some more, Nana about to reach out and ask for the brown crayon back, the teacher cutting her off as she announced to the class-
"Alright everybody, time for recess!"
Ohh, she knew that one, quickly standing up from the table and racing towards the large doors to the outside together with the rest of the kids, the camera lingering on her unfinished drawing of her and the cat girl holding hands for a moment before following the kindergarten class outside.
As Nana raced towards the pavement part on the far end of the fenced space and all the pieces of chalk scattered on it, she stopped in place as she noticed Mimi climbing into the sandbox, the girl wasting no time in changing her course towards him, hopping in herself as she hugged him tightly.
This was the first time Riley got a clear look at how Nana looked from behind, looking a fair bit confused as she analyzed her coloration. Pastel colors were expected for a children's cartoon of course, but she thought they'd at least keep the skunk stripes, Nana's entire back being filled with the lighter shade, white being replaced with a lighter shade of lilac. Not just that, her entire tail was this white-replacement color, which was neither true of the striped skunks, as Riley now knew well from experience, or of spotted ones, as Ella told her on Saturday.
Guess just another question to ask-
Wait a moment, she had this magical internet thingamajig to aid her.
She pulled her phone up once more, still on the show's Wikipedia article, scrolling down the page to find an explanation for that-
'''
* Nana
Nana is a four (five as of S2E7[20]) year old Hooded Skunk with a love of drawing, dancing, and playing with cloth dolls, especially with Mimi. While initially afraid to do much in her new home as she only has a tenuous grasp on what is going on, Mimi's warmth does bring her over and she starts playing with him, drawing a lot in her spare time and wanting to help in the kitchen, and once she's not as much intimidated by her, playing with Lulu. While Nana's past isn't explicitly brought up at any point in the show, some of her background drawings and behavior when anxious has led fans to speculate that her biological parents have been physically abusive towards her in the past, along with potentially being drug addicts[citation needed].
'''
Despite Riley's answer being given out in the very first sentence, she couldn't help but to keep reading on, the realization that Nana was adopted at age 4, suggesting something bad had happened to her parents so early in her life made Riley gulp as she fought against stray tears forcing themselves onto her.
She... had gone through something like that herself, but thankfully at a much later time in her life. Even then, her biological mother might have as well died many years-
No. Not now.
She forced her hands to unclench, scrolling upwards to distract herself from the bitter strand of thought, tapping the link for the 'Hooded Skunk' page, taking a deep breath as the page loaded. The last thing she wanted right now was to scare Timmy again.
She had her answer as soon as the page image loaded, the entire fluffy back of the model being pure white, all the way down to the base of the tail, itself also completely white and looking quite a bit relatively larger compared to the three skunky tails next to Riley.
Damn, that's neat.
Her attention was brought back to the cartoon with a louder sound, Nana busy drawing something on the sidewalk, Riley guessing it was herself, as a loud call caught her attention, the same kid she couldn't understand earlier trying to talk to her again, once more incomprehensible.
Nana was instantly on edge once more, Riley more than understanding of her response as she decided to just drop the chalk and run away, the other kid reaching a hand towards her only to have it sadly drop down to his side, a quiet sniffling heard before the camera caught up with the skunk girl, busy trying to hide in the sandbox.
She scooted back towards Mimi, making sand castles with him for the remainder of the recess, tail between legs.
As the class made their way back into the large classroom, Nana jumped a bit as she felt a tap on her shoulder, looking up to see Miss Roberts looking down at her with a slight smile as she asked quietly-
"Nana, can we talk?"
She heard the phrase enough in the past to where she knew what it meant, but it didn't make her any less afraid as she spotted the same boy she couldn't understand standing behind the teacher.
She didn't really have a choice, slowly following along as the teacher took her to a small secluded corner, the other kid staying behind the standing cork boards separating the quieter area from the rest of the busy play room. Miss Roberts quickly arranged hers and one of the smaller chairs to face each other, taking a seat and welcoming Nana to join her, the skunk girl trembling a bit as she sat down.
"Hello Nana. How are you feeling?"
The last word was still quite fresh in her memory in this context, Nana taking a moment to respond quietly-
"S-Scared..."
The teacher nodded at that, sliding off her chair and wordlessly offering the skunk girl a hug, Nana graciously accepting it as her trembling ceased.
"What scared you Nana?" The teacher continued as she held her pupil, gently petting her back as she waited for the answer-
Nana pointed at the cork board behind which the boy stood, whispering out-
"H-him."
Miss Roberts continued her petting, asking once more without a change in tone-
"What did Lucas do that scared you Nana?"
It took a moment for the skunk girl to put her fears into the limited words she knew, eventually coming up with-
"I don't understand him and he get angry and walked to you."
"I see sweetie. You got scared because he got angry at you?"
Nana nodded, holding closer onto her with a quiet meep before the teacher continued-
"Lucas was angry because he thought you didn't want to understand him."
Nana parsed the answer for a moment in confusion, coming up with-
"D-didn't want to understand him?"
"Mhm. Speaking is hard for Lucas, and he wanted to play with you Nana. He got angry and talked to me, and then I told him that English is hard for you too."
Nana felt a sting at that, Lucas' reaction suddenly much more understandable. After all, she would be frustrated too if she thought that someone was deliberately doing something like that to her...
"Then on recess Lucas wanted to say sorry and got sad when you walked away."
"I'm sorry..." The girl uttered out, feeling bad at her reactions towards him, trying to blink away the stray tears.
"Can you say that to Lucas Nana?" The teacher asked, Nana nodding in response as she let go of her, taking a moment to gather her courage before walking out of the quiet space and up to Lucas, who looked at her slightly surprised before she spoke up quietly-
"Lucas, I'm sorry..."
The boy took a moment to formulate a response, speaking very slowly, with Nana fortunately able to understand him this time despite the slight slurring-
"It's f-fine Nana."
She was happy to hear he wasn't mad at her, and even happier as he extended his arms towards her, Nana walking up closer and hugging him gently, the prior tension melting away as they made amends in the most kindergartenly way.
They let go of each other after a few moments, Nana looking behind herself to find Miss Roberts smiling and nodding down at them both.
"D-do you w-w-wanna play now?" She looked back at Lucas as he carefully spoke out, smiling herself and answering with a cheerful 'Yeah!' before he ran back to the dolls, Nana following him as the camera stayed back with quietly laughing Miss Roberts as the scene faded to black.
"Now that's way better than awful SpongeBob knockoffs, isn't it Andy?" Lily chuckled as she found another opportunity to tease her brother about it, Andrew managing to not take the bait as he responded-
"Yeah, it is! That's why I'm glad Timmy is watching these and not what you watched at his age, that way he'll avoid your brain rot~"
Riley chuckled out loud at Andrew's deflection, taking a sigh as she pulled Timmy closer to her, leaning down to nuzzle the top of his head, thinking the show already over.
"Riley, letters!" The lil' tyke squeaked in response, gently pushing her head away from him as his older sister struggled to understand what he meant by that before she looked up at the TV.
The environment had shifted back to the apartment Riley assumed to be the titular duo's house, especially with them both sitting on the couch in their pajamas together with their parents. Nana was sandwiched between the two grown up rabbits, with the baby Lulu sitting on the dad's lap, looking around curiously.
Riley noticed a window behind the couch showing the silhouettes of several other tall apartment buildings in the background against the backdrop of the late evening sky.
"Hello everybody!" The mom said, waving softly at the camera with the kids following her afterwards, causing it to lose focus for a bit before the image corrected itself and she continued-
"Tonight, we'll be taking a look at a letter sent to us by..." She reached over to the small stand next to the couch, picking up her phone and reading out from it-
"By Timmy from Minnesota, four years old, with the help from his mom!"
All the siblings reacted differently at the realization, Riley's eyes going wide, Lily shouting out a 'What!?', Andrew chuckling warmly, and Timmy sliding off the couch with a loud gasp of excitement, running off into the corridor before any of the siblings could stop him. Lily had enough awareness to reach for the remote and pause the episode, reversing it to just before Timmy was name dropped, realizing why he'd left them so suddenly.
Riley was about to ask what was this about before the situation cleared itself, surprised looking Rick being half dragged, half led into the play room, looking at the rest of his kids in a bit of a daze before the kit ran off once more, presumably to get his other parent.
As the skunk dad continued to look around, Riley saw him open his mouth for a moment, presumably to ask what was going on, before he decided he'd rather learn the Timmy way.
Ella looked like she'd literally just been dragged out of bed, which judging by her earlier exhaustion was far from improbable. She looked around sheepishly as the lil' kit scrambled back onto the couch, Lily getting her cue to let the episode play again. Ella reacted with a slurred 'Wait what' to Timmy being mentioned, and from what Riley had glanced, Rick shared her quiet but still surprised response.
The rabbit mom cleared her throat before reading out the start of his letter- "Hi Mimi and Nana and Mom and Dad and Lulu!" -before breaking out into a soft chuckle, the entire family sans the baby Lulu taking a moment to wave at the camera some more, Mimi by far the most excited.
"My parents told me a week ago that they're adopting us a new sister, her name is Riley and she's sixteen years old. I'm happy and excited, but also worried because she's so much older than me and I don't know if she will talk to me or play with me. Dad told us she's gonna come home to us next week, and I want her to like me. What can I do to make her like me? Signed, Timmy."
Riley sat there for a long while, her mouth open in surprise for a moment before she felt the emotions swell in her, pulling her little brother onto her lap and hugging him tightly, cooing happily as she tried to hold back happy tears, her reaction interrupted by the show's Mom answering-
"Well, Timmy, we're so happy to hear you're gonna have a new sister! We know how exciting it can be, but also how scary, especially since she is much older than you and you don't know her well yet. And while she might not end up having the same hobbies or playing the same games as you, she's still just a person like any other, and just like you, in the end, she just wants to be cared for and appreciated like you or me. As long as she feels that from you, you both will definitely figure something out that you can do together, sooner or later. Thank you for your letter Timmy, and best of luck to you and Riley!"
By the time the show's Mom had finished answering Timmy's letter, Riley was buried underneath five hugs, her own arms wrapped around Timmy who'd twisted around to hug her in the meantime, Lily having leaned over to hold them both, Andrew taking the long way around and joining in on the hug from the other side, and the parents awkwardly leaning in over the couch to try to embrace them all.
They took their time as the show rolled its credits, the whole family united together in a very furry, very loving group hug, Riley feeling so warm inside she just wanted to giggle like a schoolgirl.
Fortunately, Timmy knew just what to say to avoid this lasting forever, quietly asking-
"Can we watch some more?"
After the big ball of floof had dispersed, Rick quietly left the scene, with his wife realizing how late it was and dashing downstairs to reheat the leftovers of yesterday's dinner. Lily excused herself by saying she had to practice some more for her recital, Timmy accepting the reasoning especially since it provided them with some nice background music as the other three kept watching, going through two other episodes before being called down for dinner. Riley had to shake her little brother from his grogginess as she took him downstairs, Ella having served the sour stew from yesterday.
The tasty meal went down just as well the second time, Andrew realizing that the lil' tyke wasn't gonna stay up for much longer, slinking back into his room unnoticed. After waiting for Timmy to finish his portion, Riley took him back up to the play room, watching the rest of the episode with him, the sleepy kit having dozed off in her lap by the time the mail segment rolled around.
Riley was lucky to catch Ella as she carried him to his room, the skunk mom changing Timmy into his pajamas before she tucked him in into his bed, giving her daughter a good long hug after she'd told her of Timmy's letter getting featured on the show.
After turning off the TV and the light in the game room, Riley headed back into her room, stepping into the large bedroom on accident before correcting herself, smiling widely as she realized that the finished room proudly carried her name on the door, like the rest of the kids' rooms.
One of them, hehe.
After taking a deep breath Riley closed her eyes before she pushed on the handle and stepped in, keeping them shut until she'd closed the door behind herself, leftover paint fumes tingling her nose as she took a look-
Stars. There were stars on the ceiling. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of tiny white dots lit up the fake sky, concentrated mostly into a dense stripe that ran diagonally across the ceiling, not unlike the milky way once you were far enough away from the cities to see it.
Re-reading through the book full of the pictures of night sky was one of the few things she actually enjoyed doing back at the orphanage, at least until she'd memorized it.
After the initial impact of the decorations softened a bit, Riley reached for the switch, a lamp on each side of the painted milky way lighting up, the warm light filling the room, Riley gasping as she realized the full extent of Rick's paintjob.
All the small fluorescent dots did indeed combine together into a galaxy, stretching long across the sky, its ends fading away on the walls of the room.
What was probably even more surprising, because of the sheer amount of effort it must have taken, was the treeline painted at around her waist level, loads of dark green and black silhouettes standing out against the night sky, the purpose of both the paints and the stencils suddenly much clearer.
That's why Rick had worked so long into the night on this...
Riley teared up a bit as she inspected the light furniture, the wood doing a good job at blending in with the darkness when the lights were out, but sticking out with light shining on it, most likely much to Ella's enjoyment.
A wide desk, a comfortably compact bed, enough drawers to hold her entire wardrobe, and just in case, another wardrobe standing near the window, with plenty of coat hangers inside, ready to-
Wait, what was her coat doing here? Did Rick...
She walked back to the drawers and took a look inside, and indeed, all of her stuff was already there. One for trousers, one for tops, one for underwear, and the bottommost one for her orphanage stuff.
A brief confusion over what happened to all the cards was answered as she took a look up at the shelf above the desk, proudly displaying all the good mementos.
She had to take a seat on the bed as she looked at all the wonderful details within, noticing more and more as she looked around. A snowglobe of a winter cabin, not too dissimilar of the Asher's house on the dresser, a small model flying saucer hanging from the ceiling in one of the corners, the moon painted with the same fluorescent pain above her desk...
This was all so much, and none of it necessary. For all she really needed she could have very well stayed in the large bedroom forever, but as she recalled Ella's words-
"Not many things are necessary sweetie, but we want to make you feel appreciated and cared for."
Well they've sure as hell succeeded at that, Riley unable to hold back a teary grin as she took all their care in, jumping a bit as the creaky door let out some noise, the girl noticing Rick smiling at her softly as she took in the sight of her room, before getting up and running up towards him.
While she was at loss of words that could appropriately express her gratitude for him, for all the Ashers, for all they've done for her... She did have something that would do the trick, the force of her sudden hug making the large skunk stagger with a chuckle before he returned it wordlessly.
"I-I don't even know what to say..." She admitted with a whisper, Rick slowly petting her back as he answered with a chuckle-
"There's no need to say anything Riley. I just hope you'll enjoy using your new room as much as I enjoyed designing it, haha." His voice soft and reassuring, his daughter more than sure that he wasn't saying it just to make her feel nice.
"S-still... T-thank you so much Rick. For- for all of this."
"You're welcome Riley. You're more than welcome. And now, heh... we both could use some well-deserved rest, doncha think?"
She let go before nodding intensely, all the emotions of the day definitely having their impact on her, the girl realizing just how tired she was after all that, a loud yawn escaping her before she could stifle it.
Rick chuckled at that, taking a deep breath before smiling one more time, nodding towards Riley as he sent her off-
"Sleep well sweetie, and enjoy your room!"
Before leaving her alone, Riley only having enough willpower left to plug the charger into the socket next to her bed and the phone into the charger, shedding the outer layers of clothing and hanging them on her chair before finally slipping under the covers.
And having to get back up immediately afterwards as she realized she forgot to turn off the lights, an exhausted grunt escaping her lips as she forced herself back onto her feet, just to collapse back in bed a few seconds later.
The starry sky wasn't any less impressive the second time around, Riley abstaining from touching her phone, instead deciding to focus on all the shiny dots up above. Their uncountable number almost hypnotizing, making her doze off soon after, the stars watching over her as she slept away all the day's happenings, readying up for tomorrow, whatever may come.
Whatever, and whoever.