Riley got up from the floor and scrambled against a wall. This wasn't going how she wanted it to, with no idea how would Timmy even react to her, or what would he even do for that matter.

Dark thoughts started twisting around in her mind before he heard his running footsteps approach her door, judging by the sound he hadn't even taken his boots off. She waited for a few moments, tension rising in the air, not hearing any other noises, too afraid to make any herself.

*knock knock knock*

In all her growing panic, she almost forgot Timmy was four.

"Riley?" She heard a faint whisper from behind the door, Timmy trying his best to keep quiet.

She slowly slid over to the door and leaned back against the wall next to it, thinking of what to respond with until the obvious solution showed itself.

"Yes?" She whispered back, having to stop herself from giggling at the absurdity of the situation.

He gasped loudly and judging by the sounds, started running back and forth around her door in excitement, talking and laughing to himself.

She let out a breath she wasn't even aware she was holding, relaxing a bit at hearing his obvious joy. She didn't know if she wanted to open the door quite yet, but this was nice enough in its own regard.

After a few moments Timmy stopped running around, leaning against her door again and continuing, still whispering-

"How old are you Riley?"

"I'm fifteen!" She kept whispering on her part as well, a smile not leaving her face.

"Wow! Why are you sick?"

She was taken aback by the question, coming up with something on the spot.

"I didn't sleep enough!"

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

"Because, uh... I was excited to meet you!" Which was technically true.

"Wanna be friends?"

"Sure!"

He let out a long "Yay!" as he ran back downstairs, the rest of the family mostly done with unpacking by then.

She moved back to her spying hole, listening in on cheerful Timmy as he told his parents that he's made a friend, the couple responding with warm sounding words and chuckles. Most of the conversation was too quiet to listen in on anymore, and judging from the steps outside the other kids have made their way back to their rooms, getting Rick's message.

She stood up and stretched, a quiet yawn leaving her lips as she considered Timmy's question. Maybe a nap wouldn't be that bad of an idea. She slid off her track pants and snuggled underneath the thick covers, the soft warmth much more than she expected, slipping off to sleep before she could even reign in the mattress.

***

*knock knock*

"Riley?" An unfamiliar voice called out from behind the door.

She stirred around under her covers, the dark and the warmth making her just turn onto the other shoulder, still half asleep.

"Riley, I brought dinner with me, can I come in?"

The voice finally slipped into her mind as she looked back at the door in darkness, her brain taking a few seconds to process the message before it kicked her back to awareness.

"O-oh, sorry, one second!" She responded in a hurry, scrambling around to find her tracksuit bottoms in the dark, pulling them up and running up to the door, flicking the light switch on much to her eyes' annoyance. She took a deep breath and opened the door, preparing to meet someone who judging by the voice could only be...

"Oh dear, did I wake you up Riley?" Andrew asked with concern as he held the bowl of steaming food in his paws.

"Yeah, but don't worry, it was just supposed to be a nap and judging by it being dark out I've slept plenty already." She responded with a stretch and a yawn, looking up at him as she carefully took the bowl of food.

He easily had a foot on her if not more, and coupled with his wide frame he downright towered above the slight Riley, making her feel just a bit defensive. Thankfully his expression softened the image a bit, a wide smile as he looked down at her. His face was similar to Rick's but a bit wider, the slight white stripe above his nose reaching all the way to his hairline.

She set the bowl down on a nearby dresser, looking back up at Andrew with a slight smile as she leaned on the door frame and crossed her arms.

"Lemme guess, not quite what you expected?" She asked in a curious tone, trying to not come off as too snarky.

"Well, yeah, can't deny that. Then again, Dad didn't tell us much beyond your name and age, so our imaginations ran wild." He responded honestly, his soft voice matching the white shoulder length hair.

"Buuuuuut, that's not gonna stop me from loving my new sister!" He followed up cheerfully, opening his arms for a hug.

She was taken a bit aback by the gesture, having only just met him after all. She shot him a worried glance, feeling a bit concerned, taking a step back.

He lowered his arms, noticing her doubts and calmly asking in response-

"What's wrong?" He took a step back as well, figuring out she needed some space.

"D-don't worry, it's nothing, it's just... I need some time getting used to this..." She answered, feeling bad for refusing his kindhearted gesture, despite meaning every word. He just was so genuine...

"Hey, it's all fine sis." He calmly reassured her, guess he really took after Rick. "Promise."

She cracked a smile at this, nodding in appreciation.

"Thanks Andrew, I mean it. Nice to meet you, bro." She extended a hand towards him, being comfortable with that much.

He responded in kind, grinning happily as he gently shook her hand, his paw feeling a bit funny, but not unwelcome.

"Enjoy your dinner!" He waved goodbye as he walked down the corridor, Riley closing the door behind him, taking a deep breath now that this was finally over. Andrew definitely felt like a good person, just... the kind she was mostly distrustful towards in the past. Hopefully she would get over herself soon.

With a little jog to get the burning bowl out of her hands, she moved it to the desk in the other corner of the room, sitting down in front of it, looking out the dark window.

The faraway moon illuminated some of it, at least enough for Riley to see that it wasn't actively snowing anymore, and to make out the black stripe of the road, sandwiched between the white field and the snow covered parkway.

Stripes upon stripes, eh.

She shook off the thought and focused on the dinner in front of her, grabbing some of the stew onto her fork, giving it a taste. The chicken tasted great, especially with the lighter sauce, not at all unseasoned however. She vacuumed it all up, letting out a sad 'awwwh' upon realizing she'd emptied the bowl already.

Wait, what now?

She had to return the bowl somehow, and wouldn't that go against what Rick wanted her to... unless he knew exactly what he did, using this as a way to get her to get out of her room and interact with family at least a bit.

One sneaky skunk.

She moved the empty bowl next to the door, crouching above the hole in the floor to try to spot whether the rest of the family was still busy eating. It was empty and she couldn't hear any clinking sounds coming from below, taking it as a good sign.

After sliding on her duct tape-reinforced flipflops she carefully opened the door and peeked outside, proceeding upon finding the corridor empty. With a quiet sneak she made her way towards the stairs, taking a deep breath before going down, hoping she wouldn't be greeted by the entire family, coiled up and waiting to spring at her like a massive jack-in-the-box.

To her and her heart's appreciation the ground floor seemed to be mostly empty, light only lit up on the other end of the hall in the living room, together with the TV. She thought she could make out someone laying on one of the couches, but she as too far away to tell. Was something wrong with her eyesight?

She shrugged off the worry, walking into the dark kitchen. She just barely managed to put the bowl in the dishwasher without making *too* much noise, ready to head upstairs before the person on the couch called out to her-

"Riley, that you?" With the voice she recognized as Ella's.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Y-yeah!" She answered, unsure whether she should keep going or stay put.

She saw Ella get up and stretch, which interestingly enough also included her slightly frizzled tail, before making her way over, hands in pockets.

She was only an inch or so taller than her, at least that's what Riley thought. The short messy hair made it a bit hard to tell, especially with the less than stellar lighting. What she lacked in height she more than made up in build, soft and rounded all over, making Riley almost look like a stick figure in comparison.

"Nice to finally get to meet you sweetie." She greeted with a smile, extending a paw towards her and shaking vigorously once Riley returned the gesture, before reaching over to the light switch, illuminating them both better, making her realize Ella wore large, round glasses.

Riley was a bit surprised by such a friendly greeting, especially considering her behavior the last time they met. Guess she had to bring up the elephant in the room at some point.

"I-I'm sorry for how I acted on the int-" Ella didn't even let her finish, cutting her off with a 'stop' gesture and a loud 'Shhhhhhh'.

"That was in the past and a lot has changed since then Riley, Rick made me well aware of that. I'm not gonna hold it against you or let you do that either, understood?" Her words were gentle but very firm in only the way a mother could speak.

"Y-yes, Mrs-"

"It's Ella, don't worry. Every time I hear a 'Mrs.' referred to me I feel like I age another year, hah." She chuckled and smiled at a bit confused Riley, trying to come off as non threatening.

"Alright, Ella. N-nice to meet you as well!" Riley responded uncertainly, not expecting her to just bury the hatchet like that, but definitely welcoming it.

Ella smiled widely, Riley only just noticing how the slight stripe above her nose was replaced with a round spot between her eyes, making her do a double take.

"Curious about the spot?" She asked as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world, making Riley blush at being caught staring like this and trying to avoid further eye contact in shame.

"Hey, nothing to feel bad about Riley. I get asked about it sometimes, and it's not like you were leering or anything. Promise, I'll be happy to tell." She sounded earnest, with a tinge of sadness for making Riley feel bad like that.

Riley slowly looked back up at Ella's encouraging smile, eventually managing to force out-

"S-sure..."

"There's nothing wrong in being curious Riley, and given your circumstances I was half expecting you to just go and start endlessly asking questions, not unlike Timmy when he gets going. If you ever want to ask something I'm here sweetie, and I do mean anything, alright?"

She nodded in response, happy that Ella was so open minded. More so than herself, definitely...

"So, the spot is simple enough. Grandma was a spotty and I guess I just got it from her. Have some spots on my stomach and her height as well, so it checks out. Mom got it worse, stripes on most of the body and then a tail of a spotty, Dad was quite baffled when he first met her, haha."

"A spotty?" Riley asked in confusion, a bit afraid this was something she was supposed to already know, but after all Ella did encourage her to ask questions...

"Spotted skunk, a different subspecies, as opposed to us striped ones. Heard about em?" She explained quickly, eager to inform.

"No, not really I think." Riley responded, a bit calmer given that Ella seemed to not mind, but still just slightly on edge.

"Well, for starters they're quite a bit smaller, my gran was pretty much your size. And they've spots instead of stripes, well less spots and more kinda blobs, hard to describe without showing it, different tails too."

"Also with spots?"

"Ha, not quite but that would be quite a sight. They're all black with only white tip, and overall a bit wispier. Other than that, hmm... oh right, spotties are quite agile. My gran was cartwheeling at times in her seventies."

"Wow, that's quite something. What happened to her?" Riley asked, curious about what became of technically her great grandmother.

Ella's enthusiasm deflated as she sighed wistfully, looking down a bit.

"Can sprint and walk on your hands all you like, but you can't dodge cancer."

"Oh god, I'm so sorry to hear..."

"It's all fine Riley, she passed away over a decade ago, I need to finally get over it sometime. Just, still miss her at times."

"I see. What- what was she like?"

"She lit the entire room up wherever she went, heh. Always chatting, cracking jokes, entertaining us lil' kits with her antics. Never stopped, even once we were hardly kits anymore. Called us every so often afterwards, remember her being so excited and happy when I got pregnant with Andrew, even more so when he joined our lil' family. Was the first to visit us in the hospital."

"Yeah, she sounds great. Never met my grandparents, and from what I've heard they're not the kind of people that I would wanna meet anyway."

"I understand Riley, can't choose your birth family after all. Buuuuuut, I'd say you couldn't have chosen better with your actual one!" Her expression lit back up as she smiled warmly, shaking off her funk.

Riley giggled a bit at that, unable to help but agree in all regards so far.

"Well, I'm certainly glad I said 'yes', that's for sure." She smiled back and closed her eyes, savoring the sweet moment.

"As am I sweetie. As am I." Ella took a deep breath and extended her arms for a hug, shooting Riley an overjoyed grin.

Riley's expression broke a bit as she took a step back, trying to break through her mental blocks and return the hug.

"Ri-" Ella noticed her unease and lowered her arms a bit, worried. An instant later Riley bit her lip and went for it, holding her as tightly as she could. She was tensed up all over, suppressing her brain screaming at her to run away.

After a moment of confusion Ella held her back, reaching up to gently pet the back of her head, the pleasant sensation cutting through some of the anxiety.

"It's alright sweetie, it's all fine." She cooed quietly, gently rocking them both back and forth, trying to ease her daughter's stress.

A minute or so later Riley finally had enough of grip on herself to unclench her body, taking a deep breath after another, slowly and deliberately letting go.

Ella stepped back a bit and nodded reassuringly at Riley, busy trying to hold back tears.

"I-I'm sorry, j-just-"

"Shhhhh. It's really all fine sweetie. Not used to hugs all that much, right?"

"Y-yeah. I've a b-bit of a hard time with them and just pushed through this time, and guess it w-worked." Riley felt a bit better at the realization that she did succeed, even if it came off awkward.

"It did! And you'll only get better at it as you practice, promise!" Ella cheered her on, placing a paw on her shoulder and smiling.

"T-thanks, Ella. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome sweetie. Oh, just thought of something to sweeten the mood-" She walked over to the kitchen reaching up to one of the cupboards, pulling out one of the larger bags of the peanut butter candy and passing it to Riley.

"Has Rick told you about those?"

"Yeah, he has, we even- oh , gimme a moment!" Riley passed the bag back to surprised Ella and ran back upstairs, completely forgetting to sort the candy out. She grabbed the shopping bag and thew the pack of peanuts onto the bed before racing back downstairs, catching her breath as she gave it to Ella.

"G-got an idea at the shop to grab some for each of you, forgot to bring it to the kitchen earlier-"

"Awww, that's so nice of you Riley. Gonna give it out after tomorrow's breakfast I think, can't think of a better way to warm them up to you some more than that!" She smiled widely as she took the bag and stuffed it into the same cupboard she pulled the candy bag out of, having to push on the doors to get it to close again.

"We had a similar idea earlier today, but sadly they were out of stock. Next time we go shopping we're gonna shower you with them to make up for it, how's that sound?"

"Sounds nice, b-but it's really not nec-"

"Not many things are necessary sweetie, but we want to make you feel appreciated and cared for. Beeeeesides, I don't think anyone would be *too* opposed to you sharing some with them if the guilt is really eating you up~" Riley couldn't help but chuckle at the latter part, feeling much better about the whole thing.

"In that case, I'm in!" She responded cheerfully, her and Ella sharing a chuckle before being interrupted-

"Mooooooom!" They heard a girl's voice calling from upstairs, Lily running down towards them soon after.

"Mom, where did y-" She froze as she stared at Riley and Ella, shocked.

It was hard to make out some details from the distance, but she did have more of Ella in her than Rick, including a white tip on an otherwise normally striped tail and a pair of glasses. What interested Riley more than that, however, was her expression, which was quickly souring, the girl looking almost hurt.

"Hey sweetie, was just chatting with Riley, what do you need?" Ella asked calmly, not noticing the distress on her daughter's face from her angle.

Lily kept staring at Riley from above, latter tensing up a bit once she noticed her tail was rising and bristling slightly, putting her on edge. Suddenly, she stopped, her tail falling back down and the hurt expression turning into almost despair, her eyes darting between Riley and Ella.

"N-nevermind." She managed to get out in shaking voice before running back upstairs, Riley's grimace deepening as she heard her tear up just before she'd closed the door to her room.

She turned towards Ella who was just as confused, her expression a bit shocked as she looked up at the stairs.

"D-did I do something wrong?" Riley asked uncertainly, afraid she'd offended the girl somehow.

"Don't think so, I've no clue what got into her. I'm gonna go up and ask her, do you need anything else Riley?"

"I-I'm good." Riley assured her as Ella passed the bag of candy back to her and walked upstairs, Riley following her slowly. Lily's audible cries felt like she was the one getting stabbed, having no idea what she even did wrong.

She put the snacks on the desk, suddenly no longer hungry, and sat down on her bed, her anxieties worming their way into her thoughts. The occasional scream, muffled too much to discern meaning but not enough to obscure the fact it was Lily's, only added to her tension.

It was too much for her, she had to tune it out somehow. She grabbed some freshly bought clothes, tearing off their tags before heading to the shower, and turned on the hot water, having to tune it down quite a bit since it was actually hot here, almost burning her skin.

Even through the din of the water she was certain she could still catch Lily's shouting, that or her brain was really despising her at that moment, not giving her a breathing moment even as she was busy lathering up.

The shower didn't calm her down, the hot water only doing the opposite as she couldn't even stand still as she dried off, making it take forever before she threw the clothes onto her still damp body, hair dripping behind her as she paced around the room, waiting for-

*knock knock*

She almost ran to the door, opening it widely to find Ella waiting for her, a look of unease on her face, obviously hiding something Riley wouldn't want to hear.

"Riley, I've talked with Lily, and, well..."

"W-what is it Ella? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no, it's nothing you did, more so... sigh. Well, she's wanted to have a skunk sister for the longest time, and when Rick told us you'd be coming along he didn't mention that you'd, well, not be a skunk, so Lily of course zeroed in on her wish. She was easily the most excited for you, and now it's clear why. I should have talked to her about this beforehand, but I just kinda, kinda forgot... I'm so sorry for this mess Riley."

"I, I understand." Riley responded, not really knowing how to answer, but at least knowing it wasn't anything she did.

Instead, it was who she was.

"It's even worse when taking into consideration that a lot of human girls at her school have been... less than friendly, even mocking her for having a tail."

"I'm sorry to hear, they sound like assholes."

"Taking after their parents if anything." Ella took a long sigh, rubbing her forehead in exhaustion before looking up at Riley.

"Of course, me and Rick are gonna keep talking to her about this, this isn't healthy for either of you. Until she feels better about you, the only thing I'm asking of you is to try to not take it personally, alright?"

"I-I'll try my hardest." Riley responded with a determined nod, exasperated Ella smiling ever so slightly.

"Thank you sweetie. Again, I'm so sorry for all this, we should have told her sooner and have had the whole big conversation, sigh." She took in a deep breath and suppressed an exhausted yawn, slowly shaking her head.

"Seems like we could all use some sleep." Riley offered, Ella looking up at her mildly surprised, before nodding in acknowledgment.

"Definitely, Lily most of all. Sleep well Riley, don't let it all get to you, alright?" Ella smiled at her reassuringly before waving and heading to her and Rick's room, Riley closing her door afterwards.

She was lowkey expecting something like this to happen, but not as... heart-wrenching as this. She turned off the light and laid down, trying to think of how she could win Lily over. After twenty odd minutes of her tired brain repeatedly throwing up hands in defeat she decided to just call it a night, hoping the next day would clear the whole mess up a bit.

She snuggled in deeper under the thick covers, the occasional whistle of the wind raging outside only making her feel more comfortable as the soft warmth put her to sleep.