Welcome to the Guess the Author story contest. The topic this time, chosen by our previous winner Sir Sebastian, was a simple one… RUFUS. Seems SS felt the little guy wasn't getting the recognition he deserves.

The rules are simple. Read through all the stories in the contest and determine who wrote which story. Email or PM them to me, Zaratan, by the 15th of January and the one with the most correct wins. The winner will then get to pick the topic of the next Guess the Author contest. Simple huh? And now, let's meet our entrants;

Fighting Chicken

MaceEcam

NeoSaiyanAngel

Screaming Phoenix

Thomas Linquist

Whitem

Zaratan

So that's the list. Seven stories, one each by the listed authors, and you have to guess who wrote which story. Good luck to you all!

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His Humans

Rufus smiled as he watched his humans cuddling together on the couch. It always gave him a good feeling to see the closeness between the two of them. It had been a trying time for them all the past few days, but especially so on his humans.

He could barely imagine how long it took for the two of them together. For the years that he had known them, they had been friends, close friends, but just friends. Now, thanks to the schemes of one evil villain, they were together as they should be.

Watching them fall away from each other had been hard on him. Watching his boy Ron losing the closeness with his girl Kim had been stressful, so stressful he had barely been able to eat those three platters of nacos that his boy had left untouched. Watching Kim pull away because of that Eric that he had thought so much of at first had been even more difficult. Even when they were seeing others, they always kept that closeness between them and it was slowly fading away before his eyes. But now, with Drakken defeated and Eric destroyed, things could finally be the way that they were supposed to be.

It was hard, seeing the two of them dancing around each other for years. He knew that they would be the perfect mates for each other, but they never saw it themselves. It was like they were fighting their own instincts NOT to be together. He had even given them time alone to see if that might start something. But no matter what he tried, they kept pulling away from taking that next step.

He was there on their very first mission, and he could see the bond between them even then. Nascent, flickering, but it was there. As the years went by and they went to high school, the bond even deepened, despite his girl's crush on that Monkey boy and his boy Ron's infatuation with Zita, though he could understand that one at least. She always ordered extra cheese.

That Christmas barely over a year before when they went to stop Drakken and got lost in the Arctic, he could see the joy on his humans faces when they were reunited together. He even thought that would be the catalyst for them getting together, but alas, it wasn't meant to be, even with the kiss.

When they had gone to that wedding just earlier that fall, he had thought for sure something would happen there. He had evened restrained himself from going after that overgrown lizard so that there would be no distractions. He watched them on the dance floor, could see the sparks flowing between them, the little looks tossed back and forth when they knew the other one wasn't watching. But again, it wasn't enough. After that night, everything returned to normal.

Then the modulator incident. He had thought for sure his girl had FINALLY wised up. Sure she had been acting funny, but she had been somewhat strange when she was interested in the Monkey boy. The kiss in front of the locker had all the marks of their love finally springing forth. The date that night, as if they hadn't been dating all along, even if they never called it that exactly, seemed almost perfect. And then his human got scared of achieving what he knew he wanted most and broke up with her. It was only after that that they found out it was artificial. Despite the false nature of the emotions, Rufus knew this could still be just the push his humans needed to finally get together. But again, the two of them slipped back into their normal routine with barely a mention. No talks to discuss their feelings, no quiet silences staring into each others eyes to see the truth. Instead, it went right back to Ron nights and hanging out, as if nothing had happened between them. It would have been enough to have him tearing out his own hair, if he had any. He was tempted to pull out his boy's just to make a point.

By the time Eric had shown up, he had been close to giving up hope of his humans ever truly becoming one. They just wouldn't see what was right in front of them, how his girl Kim needed her boy's goofy nature and devil-may-care attitude to balance out her type A personality and work habits. Similarly, his boy Ron needed his girl Kim to give him focus and drive him to bigger and better things. They both seemed to understand that yet never really acknowledged it. They needed something that would force them to see things the way that he saw that.

That thing was Eric. Rufus never thought that when they first met Eric, pulling into their parking spot with his shiny new motorcycle, that he would be the spark. When he and his girl Kim had met, it had instantly set his hackles rising, the way they looked at each other with stars in their eyes… it was the first time Rufus had been afraid that his humans would end up with someone other than the one they should be with.

Watching Eric and Kim getting closer while Ron was left behind was hard. Seeing them doing the same things that Kim and Ron used to do, eating together, hanging out together, was distressing. It was as if they were throwing Ron and Kim's actions in his face, calling one dating and the other just friendship. He did everything he could to encourage his boy, especially when he found out that Kim and Eric were going to the junior prom together. He thought he had him motivated enough when they got him dressed in his human's father's blue suit, but Ron had chickened out at the last moment.

Then it had all come to a head. Drakken in charge of Bueno Nacho, with his little robots attacking him and Ron. Drakken 'kidnapping' Eric, knowing Kim would fall for his trap. That was quickly followed by the betrayal and their capture. As he had lain in his humans pocket, he had despaired that it was over, that his humans would never become one.

And his human took THAT moment to step up. It had been so shocking to hear Ron say that, he had popped right out of his pocket, almost ruining it for both of them. Thankfully, the naked mole rat was out of the pocket as they say, and no way was he going back in after that. All that was left was to stop the bad guys, and Rufus had taken great pleasure in ending that synthodrone, the one who had come so close to ruining his humans.

Now, everything was as it should be. His Ron and Kim were happy and in love. It had been an awfully long journey, with many twists, but it had finally happened. Now, two souls that should be together were joined, and nothing would tear them asunder.

He was one very happy naked mole rat.