The Horse.
Haruka and Michiru lay in their shared bed. The blue duvet limply drooled upon their legs, leaving their upper bodies free. Haruka took advantage of this to finish of an essay she had left to the last minute. Michiru, however, nursed a novel as she reclined against her pillows, allowing fantasy to overcome her. She had borrowed 'The Reader' from the library earlier that day. The old musk of the book, as with all library books, intoxicated her as she read.
She stopped reading when she came to a part in the text where the woman, Hanna, asked her partner a trivial question. Michiru tasted the partner's response, considering it flattering, then dared to pose the same question to her frustrated lover beside her.
"Haruka?"
"Mm?" Haruka replied hastily, too drowned in her own business to be bothered with her girlfriend.
"If you were to think of animals, which animal do you think I would be?"
"I don't know, a fish?" Haruka responded, haphazardly.
"Oh." Michiru turned back to her novel, though not quite concentrating enough to absorb any of the text. She was hurt. The only likeness Michiru had to a fish was her ability to swim. There was so much more to her than that. She would have thought that Haruka, of all people, would have judged the many aspects of her personality before settling on a response.
Haruka, over the top of Lenin and the Russian Revolution, picked up on her partner's dissatisfaction.
"What's wrong with being a fish?" She asked.
"No, nothing," Michiru insisted with a half-hearted smile.
"Ok..." Haruka thought for a moment. She crawled her way on top of Michiru – an awkward position for both of them – so that she was looking into her lover's deep blue eyes.
"You like to swim, like a fish. But you're sweet and friendly, like a puppy. You're playful and mischievous, like a monkey. You're warm and soft, like a kitten, and you have a beautiful laugh like.... an animal with a really nice laugh. Best of all, you're gorgeous, and any time anyone looks at you, they instantly fall in love. So, that having been said, I think," Haruka paused for suspense.
"You think..." Michiru parroted. She was overwhelmed by the series of compliments Haruka had given to her, yet she was waiting for the real answer to her question.
"I think," Haruka said again. "You'd be a dolphin."
Michiru began to giggle. "A dolphin? Really? How lame."
"Oh, come on!" Haruka protested. "At least I didn't say a whale. So what about me? Reckon you can do better for me?"
"Let me think," Michiru replied. "What's the most obnoxious animal in the world?"
"Oh, hey!" Her partner frowned.