Author's Note: I call my Animal Crossing town Nelipot - I guess it's supposed to mean "one going barefoot". Also, like the other animals, Rada (an OC) has a phrase: "hyl". I'm pretty sure that's the Norwegian word for howl.

Lobo sighed heavily for probably the twentieth time since Eva had shown up at the Nelipot fountain. She looked up from her sketchbook and watched him pace restlessly. Eva had known the wolf for almost four weeks now and seeing him like this was a strange sight. "What's up, Lobo?" she questioned.

He looked at her with his piercing yellow eyes. "Rada…" he mumbled.

"Excuse me?"

"Rada! Rada!" Lobo threw his paws in the air, shaking his head frantically.

"Uh… The she-wolf? Am I to assume that you have a thing for her and you're meeting her here?" Lobo had to look away. He couldn't sound as confident as he normally did – not when it came to matters of the heart. "Do you want my help?"

"No!" he practically snarled. "I'm not some incompetent fool, ah-rooooo!"

Eva shrugged and hopped off the bench, ready to head to the ocean to relax and find something else to sketch. She took only a few steps before Lobo cried, "Wait! I didn't mean that!" She looked over her shoulder at him. "What do you think you can do to help me, ah-rooooo?"

"Well, I mostly said something because you seem really anxious. Why do you think that is?"

"Because… It's because she's not like the other wolves I've met, ah-rooooo... She's not stuck-up or obsessed with fashion or anything like that. She's just…really laid-back and cool. I don't have the words to describe her properly," he admitted sadly.

"So, the problem is that you're not cool?"

"Do you want pummeled?" Lobo growled.

"Listen, if she's as cool as you make her seem, she won't care how truly lame you are." That earned Eva a fierce glare. "By that, I mean, you could probably do just about anything, and she'll enjoy it simply because she's hanging with you. Don't worry so much about it."

"Lobo! Eva!" Rada walked up to them. "What're you guys doing, hyl?"

"Nothing much," Eva said, shrugging. "I was sketching, but now I'm going to go stare at the ocean for a while." With that, she left the two alone.

Lobo stared at Rada for a long moment, watching her expressive amber eyes. Her long, beautiful grey fur shimmered in the sunlight. She wore a flowing purple sundress and a charming smile. He loved that about her – that ready smile.

"You seem very distracted, Lobo," Rada observed. "Is something wrong? Do you want to go home, hyl?" She looked worried. It'd been a while since he'd had someone actually worry about him. He'd told his mother a long while ago that she needed to stop babying him, and he hadn't heard anything from her since.

"No way! What do you want to do? We'll do that, ah-rooooo!"

Rada tilted her head to one side. "Hmm… We could head back to my place? I can cook something for us to eat, hyl!" She wagged her tail happily at the thought.

Lobo didn't want her to have to worry about that so soon into their relationship. He just wanted them to have fun. As if she sensed that, she changed her tune: "Or we could always go for a stroll around town, hyl? If we see something that seems like fun, we can join in, don't you think?"

Lobo shrugged; it was an idea – one that he was more willing to go along with, at least. "Sure."

And so they wandered. As they were walking by the pond, Rada paused to skip a stone. She tried to hand him a stone, but he shook his head. "I don't know how—"

"I'll show you, hyl!" She put the stone in his paw and showed him her technique. Not that it did him any good; his stone sank right to the bottom of the stupid pond…

Lobo sighed heavily and started walking away, sulking. Rada was by his side instantly, taking his paw in hers. She always surprised him – but in a good way. They continued their walk in comfortable silence. That is, until Rada's stomach rumbled hungrily.

Rada, embarrassed, could only giggle. Lobo's gaze narrowed and he questioned, "Is that why you wanted to go back and cook?"

"You caught me!" she said laughingly, holding her paws up.

Lobo glanced around and spotted an apple tree. Nelipot had a lot of trees that could bear fruit, and most of the time that fruit was anyone's to take – so long as they weren't pigs about it…

"Ah…! You don't have to do that, hyl!" Rada watched as Lobo started climbing the tree. "You might fall, Lobo! I can wait until I get home, you know?"

"I won't allow it, ah-rooooo!" Lobo dragged himself up onto one of the lower branches and grabbed a shiny red apple. Twist and…pull! The apple came loose just as Lobo started to lose his balance.

"Lobo!" Rada covered her eyes as he fell.

"Oof!" Lobo hit the ground hard.

"Are you okay?" Rada ran up and crouched down beside him.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" But his manly ego was a bit bruised. "Here." He handed her the apple.

"Thank you." Rada fell back on her bottom and sniffed the apple. She made a small, delighted noise before she took a bite of the sweet and juicy fruit.

Lobo sighed as he fell over, resting his head in her lap. If she minded the invasion of her personal space, it definitely didn't show. If anything, she seemed to relax even more. She inspired him, really. She reminded him that sometimes, he just had to stop and let life go on without him; that he didn't always have to be doing something. Stopping to smell the roses suddenly seemed like a better idea – even if he knew that they didn't smell as good as everyone said they did.

"Hey," Rada's voice brought him out of his thoughts. She'd finished her apple and was now staring down at him with her pretty eyes. He had to force himself to sit up. He stared down at his paws, noticing that he'd broken a nail clean off. It must have happened when he'd tried to save himself from falling…

Rada nuzzled his cheek suddenly, startling him. "You're too cute!" she told him with a grin.

Lobo frowned. If she were anyone else, calling him 'cute' would have been the greatest insult and he probably would have went off on her. But all he could do was sigh. "Then I'm only willing to be cute around you," he said after a full minute of silence.

Rada laughed heartily. "I can live with that, hyl!"

So, maybe Eva was right and he was lame. Who cared? Rada didn't seem to, so Lobo wasn't going to complain any. Life was grand enough now.

Short Story End! Thanks for reading!