The clouds this morning were white and fluffy like the snow in winter, now they were black or gray blobs in the navy blue sky. Crystal droplets thundered down in a mosh pit of light blue flickers of melted ice.
A cherry red porcupine was looking out the window of the "Willow Café", watching rain pour down violently. Flaky felt her left paw weigh itself against her cheek as she gazed at the rumbling storm.
She looked up to see the purple acorn lamps above her head, blinking as they had a dim glow underneath her. It was a symbol of a rough day long from over. Her knees were cushioned on the purple seats near the table.
Flaky was, after all, the most timid of the people in Tree Town. "What a day.." she silently thought.
The entire morning of her day was filled with Cuddles forcing her through a game of horseshoes, killing him with one in the process, and avoiding as much danger as possible. By danger, she meant almost everything in her path or bothered to say hello...
Her head turned away from her window as she heard a certain skunk's voice groan in annoyance.
"For heaven's sake, Disco Bear!" Petunia barked as she cleaned a glass from behind the countertop. She was yet again being teased by the flirtatious bear himself.
Disco just leaned closer on the table top as he kept trying to gaze into her dagger-sharp eyes. He, Petunia, and some of the others were the only ones left in the cafe. Most of the customers were already heading to the parking lot due to the storm.
As a female, Flaky was often curious of his romantic pursuits and failure. Most of the tree friends would be annoyed by his bothersome personality, but he secretly had a big heart besides his stomach (a fact that everyone knows about). She just kept looking, feeling a bit entertained as he began to flaunt his cheesy charisma.
"Don't pretend you don't like what you see." Disco's thick western voice purred, dripping with lust.
He was suddenly found himself dodging a silver spoon as it flew past his thick afro, past the stove, and on a table. That spoon belonged to Nutty, who was sitting with Giggles while she drank the rest of her hot chocolate. Not to mention Flippy was sitting alone on a stool sipping a small cup of coffee.
"I wanna go home too, but not with all those cats and dogs out there" the green squirrel continued with his paws pointing toward the falling rain.
Giggles kept spinning her finger in her empty cup. "Me too.."
Well, Flaky never thought she would get up from her seat and speak up. But she did as she walked over to the others.
Her voiced had a soft tremble like always as she spoke up, "M-maybe if we go out at t-t-the s-same time.."
"But wouldn't we all be wet?" Petunia interupted.
Disco Bear's attention was well caught for some reason. He always became peculiar of that shy, gentle, angle that had sparkling white chunks of dandruff in her spiny locks. She was so quiet and tender and was not much of a talker. He just had get to know her. But alas, he was quite embarrassed to even try.
He began to blush because his curiosity slowly melted away to a harmless crush over time lately. Shaking the red splatter off his golden fur, he hopped of his seat and moon-walked a few closer to Flaky in the middle of her brainstorm.
"Flake's got a point.." His statement began to make her blush back to him. She never had such a strange complement before.
Petunia and Giggles looked at him with half-shut eyelids, thinking his words were just another attempt to make them fall in his arms. Flippy rolled his eyes in annoyance, only to see a flash of yellow in the corner of his eye instead.
He looked and saw thunder muffled behind the glass windows and lighting bolts whiplash on the grassy ground each passing nanosecond. The bear's eyes quickly shrunk down to nearly nothing as he let go of the coffee cup, that shattered on the marble flooring.
"OH, NO! NOT AGAIN!" He thought, it was his last thought before his eyes becomes yellow orbs of fury.
Meanwhile, everybody was helping Flaky figure out a plan not to get struck be the lighting infested terrain. "Well, I'm not going first, i'm wearing my snow boots just in case." said Petunia walking out of the kitchen and tossing her apron on the countertop. The whole group could see her pink boots, trimmed with diamonds.
"Uh, g-guys.." Nutty whimpered suddenly as he tugged her arm, only to be pushed back.
"Not now! So as I was about to-"
WHAM!
A wooden stool was flung and crashed on the ground, causing all of them yelp and jump back a few steps.
They all slowly turned around in fear as a bear stood atop the counter with a gigantic bowie knife in his paw, lighting flaring behind him causing a more threatening background for him...
TWO SECONDS LATER….
"RUUUUUNN!" A choir of voices screamed as five critters zipped out the door at the speed of light, with a savage bear dressed in a camouflage jacket who let out a loud roar as he chased them in the storm that grew to a hurricane with an army of lightning flashing in every direction.
Giggles and Nutty were in the lead with Petunia, Flaky and Disco from behind. All of them were running as fast as they could as Flipqy began to catch up, more bloodthirsty than ever.
"I saw this saw this happen in a dream once!" Nutty said between his panting breath.
Petunia gave him a punch in the arm as quick as possible and she kept running. Disco Bear was the most frantic of the group. The only other time he ran this fast was when the roller rink was on fire.
Flaky was also about to catch up to Giggles, only to yelp at the top of her lungs as Flipqy tackled her to the muddy ground. She looked up as he stood on top of her with the knife aiming right for her skull, making her yelp even louder.
"What's the matter, scared of a little silver spoon?" he hissed as he raised the knife up in the thunderous sky. Flaky's eyes flickered left and right for a way to escape.
It wasn't long before she saw a CD tucked in a plastic case lying next to her in the mud, reaching out her arm to grab it as she quickly thought why could it lie there in the dirt at this time of hour.
Suddenly, she felt her leg rise up in he blink of an eye...and pierce Flipqy straight in the belly by accident! He let a grunt of agonizing pain as he clutched his belly in anguish.
"What the heck is wrong with you, wome-" Flipqy was cut of when Flaky got up and smashed the CD in his face, scattering shards in his face, and knocking him out like a furry Goliath.
Flaky got up shakily as she saw him unconscious and dizzy at her feet. "...Sorry!" She laughed nervously.
Just then, Giggles rushed over and grabbed her hand as they both ran inside of a bus that stood in the front of the over-crowded parking lot. An exhausted Flaky dragged her feet to back of the seats as the bus drove off in a trail of dust.
ONE MILE AND A STOPLIGHT LATER..
Nutty was licking the lollipop from his fur pocket (Most tree friends have pockets in their fur) as he looked at the back row that held the tired Flaky that yawned softly as she laid her head on the long seat cushion, where a blush-crazy Disco Bear found her in his lap instead.
"Oh, s-sorry Disco..I didn't *yawn* k-k-know someone was sitting here.." She slurred as she nuzzled in his belly.
Disco's face was nearly as red as Giggles's as was having a heated argument with Petunia...again. The girls were the best of friends, although they tend to fly off more handles than a handlebar mustache.
"Some plan she had, huh?" Petunia fumed, "We were nearly killed like yesterday!"
Nutty popped the lollipop out of his mouth and began to join in. "It's not so bad, we've been through worse stuff."
Giggles simply grabbed him by his neck, shaking him back and forth.
"Are you even listening to us!?" She yelled.
"Hey! If Flaky was Cuddles, would you still agree to risk yourself in "Rambo's" paws of hatred" Petunia interrupted.
That very moment, Giggles blushed a huge wave of crimson red and dropped the squirrel on the floor. "Uhh…"
Petunia glared at her as she gulped nervously, embarrassed by the fact her own best friend brought up her own boyfriend. "You can't even say anything..CAN YOU?!" The skunk huffed at the flushed chipmunk.
Disco Bear, on the other hand..err..paw, was comforting Flaky at the same time.
"You were so brave, Flaky." He gushed as he gently pressed his paws against her cheeks, making her blush with a little giggle to match.
She blinked in confusion of the sudden feeling of passion.
"I-I was?" The paranoid princess asked, tilting her head to the left like a cat watching the sunset on a balcony.
Disco could have sworn he felt his heart literally melting into a giant, pink puddle as it fluttered at the same time when she spoke.
"Yeah, I'm actually a bit of a softie myself."
Flaky's head tilted back in its normal degree as Disco Bear looked away slightly, arm scratching behind his neck in embarrassment.
"Both kinds?"
He was about to reply when he realized what she meant and playfully rolled his eyes.
What neither of them noticed was Nutty watching them while laying flat on the floor.
"Hey..you got something on your arm.."
Flaky raised her arms up and her eyes darted around her armpits. "Where? I don't see it." Her voice was starting to fill with worry.
Disco began to hold up his hands while Flaky kept looking.
"It's right over..THERE!"
The sneaky funk star suddenly lunged at her armpits and wiggled his fingers underneath. The porcupine let out a squeal of delight mixed with surprise at his ticklish paws, laughing giddily at the same time.
"HA HA HA, GAH HA HA HA! NO-HO-HO! THAT TICKLES!"
Disco was laughing too as he kept tickling the flustered, shaky, girl next to him. She began to let teardrops of giddy laughter leek out of her eyes and, with all the strength in her elbows, flung out her own arms and crammed them under his own armpits to tickle him back.
Instead they wrapped around his waist, pulling the two into a quite awkward hug.
Flaky and Disco blushed at the same time, except Flaky was still giggling like a toddler in a sandbox.
She honestly wanted to keep laughing for the rest of eternity because for the first time in her immortality, she was having fun, real fun with the people around her.
And it..was….AWSOME!
Flaky couldn't help but rest her cheek against Disco's, completely exhausted with tingling armpits. Disco caressed her face as she began to close her eyes. As a flirt, he never got a girl in his arms until now.
"Oh,Yeah.." He said softly to himself.
Flaky and Disco woke up immediately when they saw Nutty looking at them with an innocent, sweet expression plastered on his face.
Disco sighed reluctantly. "What do you want?" He growled.
"Nothing~" the sugar-hyped squirrel smirked in a sing-song voice as he swiftly cocked his eyebrows up and down. Right there, the bus doors closed with a certain passenger on board in a green beret that made Flaky jump almost 30 feet in the air.
Flippy quickly held onto a pole as the bus went back in motion. After the three woke up the fainted Flaky, the bear began to explain his unexpected arrival.
"It's okay, guys." He said with a bit of a chime in his voice. "None of this ain't going to happen like that again."
Nutty stood behind his side with a chocolate bar in paw, still grinning wider than ever before.
"That's cause I told him everything!"
Disco' s eyes narrowed at him like an arrow the very moment he heard those words, pulling up the sleeves of his jacket.
"WHY YOU LITTLE SON OF A GUMDROP! GET BACK HERE!" He yelled as he chased Nutty up and down the aisle of the bus, past the still bickering Petunia and (blushing) Giggles.
They even ran past the driver, Lumpy, who was in the middle of solving a crossword puzzle.
Flaky was quite unfazed with shock though.
"F-flip, Flippy? You're r-really o-o-okay with this?"
"Trust me, a solider knows what he's doing."
Flippy did suffer from PTSD, a type of disorder that plagued him since as long as he could remember. His friends were always being feared of his alter ego, Flipqy. He wanted all his life to be full of forgiveness for his sins.
He held Flaky in a soft embrace as the next thing he said made her wipe away soft tears of happiness.
"And I'm not gonna make anymore mistakes, either."
Nutty screeched to a halt in a puff of dust, surprising Flippy when he turned around to see him.
"Oh, come on! When did you ever make mistake?" He huffed. Flippy stared at him with his half-shut eyelids while dangiling the dog tags around his neck. "..I totally knew that." Nutty sulked as he took a few steps back from him.
"I still want to make sure you're ok, in case "HE" screws "it" up." Flippy continued to the blushing Flaky.
Disco was back to chasing Nutty as they were about to go past them, only for Disco to be punched in the face by a not-looking Flippy. "Just call me your personal bodyguard."
He even did a bow for special effect. Disco chuckled nervously while rubbing his sore eye.
Meanwhile, Lumpy was honking his horn at the truck in front of him. Feeling bored, he began to turn on the radio for some relaxing music.
Loud music blared throughout the bus instead, making every last one of the tree friends to be startled and flop face-flat on the floor when the stoplight turned green, making Lumpy drive off with his head bobbing to the rhythm.
"Ow,my tail!" Nutty whimpred as he rubbed his sore tushy, along with Petunia doing the same.
"Stupid Lynx Zeppelin!" Flippy grumbled, getting up. Giggles and the others looked at him in surprise, amazed by the fact he knew the artist of the loud music.
"Don't ask.."
Disco petted Flaky's head as she smiled so heartily, you could hear a soft "squee" in the atmosphere.
"That reminds me," Disco suddenly said. "Where my emergency CD player? It was in my pocket earlier."
Flaky just simply shrugged and gave him a hug. It never hurt to be a little scared; of finding true love in the ones you least expect the most.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
