On the second day, Rina woke to a cactus.

She came downstairs to see the terracotta pot sitting on the kitchen table, and her younger brother, Kit, staring at it.

She came to stand beside him, both of them still wearing old t-shirts and boxer shorts, not yet dressed for the day. She knew that Kit was scheduled to be at the Pack Circle for training in an hour, whilst she had the morning to herself, her next shift in Chinatown not until the afternoon.

"What the hell is this?" she asked, staring at the plant. It resembled the cacti she'd seen in the old cartoons she used to watch with her father when she was very young, something about a glorified chicken and a coyote too stupid to catch it. The cactus in front of her was like a column, with three branches coming out of it in L-bends, its dusty green skin covered with sharp spikes. What was most surprising about the plant though, was the bright pink flowers that crowned each branch. Her leopard, fascinated by the juxtaposition of dangerous spikes and delicate-looking bursts of colour, had her reaching out with a wondering hand. The tip of her index finger gently brushed over a petal.

Soft. So incredibly soft.

She turned to Kit in surprise, to see him sporting his customary shit-eating grin. "What?" she snapped, scowling at him.

"It's a cactus," he replied, his grin not diminishing in size despite her scowl deepening.

"I can see that, Kit-ten. What is it doing here?"

Unperturbed by the dig, he continued, "It's for you."

"What?"

"The cactus. It's for you."

She looked at him as if he'd gone crazy. "What?"

"You need coffee," he replied, heading towards the kitchen to switch on their machine. "You've been reduced to monosyllabic words."

"I'll reduce you to monosyllabic words if you don't tell me what the fuck's going on."

Kit didn't even bat an eyelid. This was their normal. Rina may threaten to knock the teeth out of his skull on a semi-regular basis, but they both knew that she'd die before she'd let him come to harm. She knew that he was an adult leopard, a future alpha, strong enough to not need protection, but he was still her baby brother. The baby brother her father had left in her care, despite the fact that she'd been barely old enough to look after herself.

"There was a note. Addressed to you."

"And you read it?"

He came back to stand beside her, handing her a steaming cup of the strong black coffee. She took an automatic sip, but continued to glare up at her brother.

Kit's velvet blue eyes stared back with a distinct lack of concern, and not a small amount of amusement. "Duh. How else would I have known it was for you?" He nudged her then, his elbow gently pushing at her arm. "You didn't tell me you were seeing someone."

"Give me the note, Kit."

He simply blinked at her and took a sip of his own coffee, sweetened with about five spoons of sugar. "Not until you tell me who Felix is."

"He's no one," she snapped. "Give me the note."

"He must be someone, Reen. Strangers don't give you cactuses."

"Cacti."

"Whatever."

"Give me the note, before I embarrass you by tackling you to the ground and forcibly removing it from your person."

He snorted. "As if you could take me on, sis."

Rina narrowed her eyes at him. It was true that Kit was stronger than she was, but he wasn't alpha yet, and she had a couple of years of experience on him. Plus, she was highly motivated.

Sensing that she was quite serious about this, Kit sighed and pulled the note out from the waistband of his boxer briefs.

Rina wrinkled her nose. "Gross, Kit."

"Do you want it, or not?"

She snatched it out of his grasp and threw one more glare at him, before turning her back and unfolding the little card with one hand, the other wrapped around her mug.

Her mouth dropped open at the words inside:

For my prickly soldier.

Felix

His prickly soldier, was she? The card crumpled in her hand at the burst of – something. One smile and he was gifting her cacti? The gall.

Kit sniggered from behind her.

She whipped around to face him. "What?" she hissed, her claws pricking the inside of her skin. She'd always had a little trouble with that.

"I don't think this Felix person knows what he's got himself into. You look like you want to make sheesh kebab out of him."

Rina's leopard growled in agreement. And she was going to use his ribs as skewers.

A cactus.

Really.