My third Open Season story! Requested by patient935, hope you like it! I do not own Open Season or any of the characters.

All of the pets and their owners had left Pet Paradiso and were now heading home, and for some odd reason, everybody was singing.

"Laaa la la la laaa… Close to you," was the only thing that could be heard on the road that they were driving on. One of the pet owners was blasting it on their car radio, and the pets that were sat in their respective camper vans had decided to sing along.

Unfortunately, most of them couldn't sing, and therefore sounded like a pack of tone-deaf wolves.

Fifi, who was now practically furless as he had been electrocuted in a swimming pool at Pet Paradiso, cringed as he was forced to listen to the other animals attempt to harmonize with one another. Stanley and Roger wouldn't have sounded so bad if Roger made that odd hissing sound every time he said the letter 's', which made them sound like a snake with a cold and a bunged up nose.

Up next was Rufus and Charlene, who were probably the best singers out of the group, but they projected their voices so well that they were also the loudest. For one strange moment, Fifi had been certain that the singing duo were actually in the same camper van as him and Roberto because they had been so loud.

When they had finally finished and Rufus had classily stated, "I love this song!", Fifi had thought that it was over. But much to his surprise, and probably the surprise of everyone else, Roberto started to sing.

"Daaa da da da daaa… close to you," he sang loudly, making Fifi wince and convincing the furless dog that he had just burst his eardrum from the immensely high volume. Fifi kept a bored expression on his face, contrasting greatly with the happy dog next to him. Fifi's eyes were half-lidded and he scowled slightly, in no mood to be in the middle of a stupid sing along.

But the biggest shock was still to come. When Roberto was in the middle of singing his one-line opera, he hooked an arm around Fifi's burnt body and pulled him in for a one pawed hug, emphasising the last three words of the line as he nudged Fifi playfully in the shoulder.

For a brief moment, Fifi was genuinely caught off-guard. A hug? Where had that come from? He and Roberto never hug; in fact, he didn't think that anyone in their entire group of friends ever hugged, and if they did, it was nearly always one-sided. And even though Roberto had done it half-heartedly, it was a hug nonetheless.

Had… had it been to cheer him up?

Even Roger would be able to tell that Fifi wasn't in a particularly good mood today, even though it was understandable. So maybe Roberto had taken pity on his friend and decided to do something about it?

… Friend.

Fifi was Roberto's friend, and Roberto was Fifi's friend, a fact which Fifi regularly forgot. Fifi had an unusually short temper, which didn't really match with Roberto's relaxed and laid back personality, but they were still friends. Their friendship was quite similar to Stanley's friendship with Roger. The thin white cat was very slow and was often the last pet to catch on, and Stanley really didn't seem to want to be around him, but they were still friends. Just like Fifi and Roberto were still friends. And friends, no matter how unlikely they may be, still helped each other out.

Even if it was doing something as simple as a hug.

Only at this point did Fifi finally realize that he had been spacing out for quite a long time, and Roberto was staring at him expectantly with a happy smile. So Fifi let out a heavy sigh, gave a small yet sincere smile and stated, rather overdramatically:

"Oh, Roberto, that's… beautiful."