Blake awoke first. She didn't move. She didn't have any desire to, and also the Schnee- Weiss- was still clutching her around the stomach.

Weiss's breath and drool had formed a damp patch on the back of the pajamas. It almost annoyed her.

Sometime later, there was shuffling from behind her. Weiss lifted her head.

"Wakey wakey, Blakey Blakey!"

Weiss shook Blake.

"Time to get some eggs and bake-y. (that means bacon! I had to change the end so it would rhyme)"

Blake blinked.

"(That means we're going to get breakfast.)"

Weiss extracted herself from the covers. "But first you need to learn how to walk!" Weiss walked into the center of the room and stretched.

Blake blinked.

"It's easy; first, you lift your leg up." Weiss lifted her knee up. "Then you lean forward, and before you fall on your face, you stretch your leg out." Weiss leaned forward, etc. "Then you move forward and switch legs!"

Blake blinked again.

"So; lift, lean, stretch," Weiss demonstrated. "Lift, then lean, then streeeetttcch."

This went on for a while.

Blake eventually got bored. The promise of breakfast motivated her to try to leave the room.

As soon as she got up and walked to the door, Weiss hugged her.

"Yay kitty! You learned how to walk!" Weiss nuzzled her back. "I'm such a good teacher."


The dining room was fancy. There was one large, long table with an embroidered tablecloth. The plates and the handles of the silverware were embossed with gold. There were LED candles on the table, unused, also embossed with gold.

Weiss dragged Blake to the far end of the table and sat down. There was only one plate of food. One pitifully inadequate serving of two pieces of bacon and half a fried egg.

Weiss frowned and offered Blake half the food. As Blake nibbled on it, she took her to see the cook.

"Can I have some more food?" Weiss said to the cook.

"I'm sorry, young mistress, but your parents gave us strict instructions as to your maximum daily calorie intake."

Weiss pouted. "But it's not for me, it's for Blake!"

Weiss shook Blake for effect.

"Look at how hungry she is! She's starving!"

Blake puffed out her cheek a little. She pouted to mirror Weiss's pout.

The cook made indecisive facial expressions.

Weiss put a hand around Blake's head and hugged Blake to herself.

"If you don't feed her soon, she'll eat me 'cause she's so hungry, and then you'll be fired," Weiss said.

Weiss pulled Blake's chin down with a thumb, turned and tilted Blake's head to face her, and put her neck in Blake's mouth. She did not taste as good as bacon.

"'om nom nom nom i crave Schnee flesh'-" Weiss shook Blake's head, rubbing Blake's teeth against her skin. "'Ahhhhhhh help me! Heelllp meee!'" Weiss said.

"Okay, okay," said the cook, "I'll make some more bacon and eggs for Blake." Blake and the chef made eye contact. "How many do you want?"

Weiss answered for her. "She wants fifty pieces of bacon and five eggs!"

The chef only paused for a moment before turning to the stove.


Blake stuffed bacon in her mouth. It was probably very well cooked, but Blake didn't really care about the subtle flavors, now. Food was food.

Weiss was a little more restrained, but she too was gobbling up strips of pork meat.

"I thought fifty pieces would be enough to last both of us for the rest of the day," Weiss said through a full mouth, "But you're a really hungry kitty, aren't you?"

Weiss rubbed Blake's head with the back of her hand. Blake didn't pause eating.

"I guess it's just as well. Hiding bacon in your clothes will just make it greasy."


"Now quick, we have time before my lessons to try to get your paperwork in. Let's ask my parent's accountant!" Weiss pushed Blake by her shoulders.

The accountant dwelled in a room in the basement, with one thin, tall window allowing in palid rays of mournful sunlight.

"I can look it up," said the accountant, nervously, "But I really only specialize in tax loopholes."

There was typing. "Are you sure your parents will let you keep a sentient person as a pet?"

"Well if we fill out all the paperwork, then they have to."

"Ah- I actually meant if they'll, you know. Not pull the 'parent' card and just take her away."

Weiss smushed Blake against her harder. "I just need to show them that we're such good playmates! They even said as much. Basically."

On the accountant's computer, Blake caught glimpses of various registration forms; legal, medical. Some pet supply sites. A retailer for collars. A dietary guide.

The accountant handed Weiss a portable computer chip thing. Weiss smiled and pocketed it.


After that, Weiss carried Blake- by the stomach, so that Blake's feet dragged on the floor- to the tutor.

"Blake wants to skip today's lesson and play outside," Weiss said to the tutor.

"Blake is certainly free to do so."

"But-" Weiss pouted, "I need to look after her if she does. We're scent bonded now so we can't be separated."

Blake sniffed. Weiss's last statement was not accurate.

"Oh? Is that so?" The tutor looked to Blake.

Blake looked at the tutor, smiling at her apprehensively, and at Weiss, nodding at her expectantly.

Blake shrugged.

The tutor laughed.

"Blakey whyyyyyyyyy?" Weiss whined.

"I guess you'll have to have your lesson today," said the tutor.

"Fine, then Blake wants to learn too!"

The tutor smiled. "I certainly won't object to learning."

"But we have to pause our lessons for a while so we can teach Blake to read!"

"Oh?" the tutor said, "I was not informed of this. I left my alphabet books at home."

"Then we should wait for you to go and get them!"

"Or," the tutor smiled, "I'll leave Blake here with a picture book for today and we can begin your scheduled lesson."

Weiss slumped over the desk and whined, but only at first. She kept shooting Blake glances throughout the lesson.

Blake was handed a textbook; A Brief History of Colonialism. Blake stuck her tongue out at it. Its pictures weren't that good.


"I don't have swordfighting practice today," Weiss touched her medical eyepatch, "So we can play until dinner."

Blake was pushed into Weiss's room again. Weiss placed her in the armchair.

"But first you have to wait right here Blakey," Weiss said. She went into the adjacent bathroom.

Blake followed her, silently.

Weiss was in front of the mirror. Her eyepatch was on the sink shelf.

Weiss poured some yellow, maloderant lotion onto her left hand and dabbed at the left side of her face. She did not look happy.

Weiss turned a little and then flinched wildly.

"Ahh! Blake, don't look-" Weiss squeaked.

Blake walked forward towards the Schnee, until Weiss fell out of her stool, onto her back, onto the ground.

"Ow~"

Blake kneeled over her. Weiss stopped and inhaled sharply and tilted her face to the left. She covered her face with her hands.

Blake grabbed Weiss's wrists and pried Weiss hands away.

After a few moments of struggle, Weiss exhaled and closed her eyes and tilted the left side of her face towards Blake.

There was a still-healing cut, red and pugnant and oozing slightly, vertically along her left eye.

Blake tentatively poked at the fresh scar-

Weiss broke out of Blakes grip and pushed Blake away by her face.

Weiss got up and moved Blake to a corner and turned her to face the walls.

There was a few minutes of medical sounds and then Weiss picked up Blake from behind, nuzzling her. She had her medical eyepatch on and was smiling again.


After that, Weiss tried to brush the knots out of Blake's hair and tell Blake about her life. Neither succeeded very well.

Blake wondered if maybe rubbing one's nose in another person's hair was a standard of grooming for the wealthy, as Weiss spent a lot of time doing that.


Then there was dinner. Blake had regained her appetite and was much less obstructive when Weiss dragged her to the dining table.

They sat down at the far end again. Twenty chairs away, on the opposite side of the table, was a grand plate of magnificent stake and potatoes and peas.

Weiss, in contrast, had very small portions.

"Did you make some for Blake?" Weiss asked the cook.

The cook placed a plate, larger than Weiss's, in front of Blake. Blake shoveled food into her mouth and hissed half heartedly when Weiss stole some potatoes.

"Hey hey, Blake," Weiss said. She proffered a spoonful of peas to Blake. "Blake. Blakey. Blake. Hey."

Blake wiped her mouth and clamped her mouth shut. Weiss poked her cheek with the spoon full of peas.

"Blake, eat my vegetables for me," Weiss said.

Blake swiped a piece of steak off Weiss's plate.

"Blake!"

They skirmished for a little bit.

Then the other taller Schnee appeared. Weiss immediately stood up straight and pushed Blake off her.

"H-hey mom-" Weiss said.

"Sorry sweetie," the other taller Schnee said. She grabbed her plate off the other end of the table. "Mommy needs to take care of some business. We can eat together tomorrow, when your father gets back."

"O-okay."

"And don't think I didn't notice you trying to get out of eating your vegetables. Small comfort that your little pet cares more about your diet than you do."

Blake looked up towards the other taller Schnee. They made eye contact. "Actually, perhaps you can make yourself useful and ensure my daughter eats her peas," she said to Blake.

Blake didn't react.

After the other taller Schnee left, Weiss looked sad and poked at her food.

Blake scootched towards her. She grabbed a grubby handful of the circular vegetables. A few slipped through the cracks formed by her fingers.

"eat." Blake said, pushing the handful at Weiss's mouth, "peas."

"Blake noooo!" Weiss yelled in terror, or perhaps delight. She scrambled back to the edge of her chair. A few peas got into her mouth.

The ensuing fiasco was very messy.

Weiss ended up on the ground, pinned under Blake. Both of them had mushed peas in their hair and clothes. Somehow they managed to finish their dinner.


The next thing Blake knew, Weiss led her back to her bedroom and then into the adjoining bathroom.

Weiss locked the door immediately and ran to fill the tub. Blake realized what was going to happen and fruitlessly scrabbled at the door.

The hideous roar of the tub faucet echoed off the porcelain walls.

Weiss grabbed Blake by the stomach and pried off her desperate clutches.

Blake's clothes came off again, and Weiss picked her up by the torso.

Blake struggled the whole time, flailing and hissing, grabbing at the towels and ledges and rungs, anything to avoid the undulating mass of hideous water.

"No kitty," Weiss said, "You have to go in the water or there'll be gross pea mush in the bed, and even a single pea in my bed will keep me awake all night."

Blake blinked.

"And if there's peas in our bed, then there'll be ants. That's how you get ants, Blake! And then frogs will come to eat the ants, and then vultures will come to eat the frogs!"

Blake blinked again.

"And then our bed will be a hive of vultures and criminals, and it won't be fun, Blake! It won't be fun at all."

Blake blinked a lot.

"That was a joke," Weiss said.

Blake didn't laugh.

"I guess humor will be another lesson I'll have to teach you."

And that whole bit distracted Blake enough to give Weiss an opening to bodily dip her into the hideous, charnal tub-depths.


Blake begrudgingly tolerated her second bath this year and the subsequent dressing and hair drying and after that being pulled onto the bed, where Weiss hugged her face to Blake's back.

"I liked today," Weiss said, sleepily. "I hope everyday is like this from now on, Blakey."

Blake patted Weiss's arm and drifted off to sleep.