Life of a Little Red Porcupine Ch. 4
By Flaky Ciel
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Flaky just hugged a blanket to herself, fantasizing about Flippy holding her. She hadn't seen him in days, and in those days she had hardly spoken a word. Cuddles, Toothy, Giggles, and Petunia all did their best to try to cheer her up, but she seemed to resist their efforts at every turn. "Hey, Flaky. Did you want to come play with us? We were going to the playground if you want to come." Cuddles offered. She just rocked herself and her blanket, slowly looking up and then nodding.
Cuddles put his arm around her while they walked, trying to comfort her as best he could. She looked miserable, just absent-mindedly walking everywhere with no real drive. She had dark rings under her eyes and her normally unkempt hair was even worse than usual. The tangled mat of quills had more dandruff attached to them then ever before. She was just seemingly lost in another time and place altogether. She'd been killed twice since Flippy left her, and her overly-cautious behavior all but disappeared.
Her self-esteem took a massive hit too. She thought that maybe he didn't want her around anymore, since she was so cowardly, and that he didn't want to have to worry about having a girl like that. Or that she wasn't pretty enough, and had bad dandruff they couldn't get rid of. Or maybe he just didn't love her enough. Or, it could just be a combination of all of those, she thought.
She was just wracked with thoughts of Flippy that she'd never get to see come true. Her parents had left her life, and now her love. Flaky just resigned herself to never being truly happy, and just sunk into a near-catatonic state. She sat down on the edge of the park, just staring at the ground, still rocking herself. Cuddles got down from the monkey bars and sat next to her. "Everything's going to be okay, Flake…" he told her. She just looked up at him with eyes full of sadness, making Cuddles feel his heart sink. She threw her arms around him, bawling.
Cuddles just patted her back and let her cry, feeling horrible about the whole thing. "I l-l-loved him so m-much…" She wailed. "N-now I'm g-gonna be all a-l-lone again…"
"You'll always have your friends…" He tried to comfort her. She nodded, weakly, before suddenly returning to her dazed state, sniffling. Cuddles sighed, getting up and returning to his other friends, hoping in vain that Flaky would join them.
Meanwhile, Flippy still paced back and forth, frantically. He'd been at odds with his other self for several days, and obviously looked like he hadn't slept during that time. "You need to get some sleep." The image in the living room mirror told him. "Going this long without it isn't good for us."
"Shut up!" Flippy snapped at it, impatiently. "You're the last person on the planet I need to hear a lecture from! What hurts me hurts you, and I'm more than willing to suffer to make you do it too."
"But you forget I can take a lot more than you can, hahaha." It said, boastfully. Flippy just shot it an acidic glare and resumed pacing. "All this over some little porcupine bitch." It mused, shaking its head.
Flippy reeled on the mirror, shaking it, "Don't you dare talk about Flaky like that!" He yelled. His reflection only laughed at him, making him even more angry.
"You're funny when you're mad." It said. "But that's a great response when you need to survive like we do."
Flippy clenched his teeth, furious. "You talk forever about survival, don't you!? Well, what about children? Isn't that the whole point to surviving!? To love? Do pass on your genes? You're a survivalist, I bet you could see something as primal as that."
"No, the point to surviving is to carry on OUR consciousness, not make a new one. Besides, it's not like we need an heir; we don't age and we can't die, after all."
"As far as we know." Flippy spat. "We could get too old and die anyway! We just don't know, do we!? And even if we don't die… I still want a kid someday…"
The monster put its hand to its chin, thoughtfully, "Huh. I s'pose I could have let you knock her up before sending her off. But then again, your genes are my genes too, and I don't know if I want them mixed with such a coward. Besides, your just mad because you need something to screw, heheheheh."
Flippy shook with rage and was about to break another mirror when suddenly his doorbell rang. He stomped over and swung the door open. "What!?" He yelled at a startled Lumpy.
"Hey Neighbor! Just coming by to see how you're doin'! Heard some yelling in here." The blue moose replied. They stared at each other for a moment before Flippy slammed the door on him. He started to go back and argue with himself more when it was rung again. He opened the door and cocked his fist, ready to punch Lumpy's lights out when he saw that it was Cuddles this time.
"Hey, Flippy…" The rabbit said. "Sorry for what I said the other day… it's not true."
Flippy sighed and lowered his fist, "No, you're right… I am a danger to everyone around me…"
Cuddles shrugged, "Well, I can't argue that point. But what I really came here to say is that… well… Flaky's miserable without you…" Flippy backed away a little bit. "She really, really loves you, man. Lately her already-low self-esteem is just… well, gone. It's like she's dead, almost." The two had an awkward silence spring up around them. "I'm not telling you what to do or anything…" Cuddles continued, awkwardly, "But, I think that, compared to her life as it is, a life with you, injuries or not, is much better…"
Cuddles turned around, making his way back towards the playground. He looked over his shoulder to take a last look at Flippy, but he'd already retreated inside. Flippy paced back and forth inside, thinking. With him, or without him, Flaky was going to be hurt one way or another. "What are you thinking? You're not really going to go after her again are you?" His reflection asked. Flippy ignored it, and continued trying to decide. "If you bring her back here you'll wish you hadn't, I promise you."
"You know what?" Flippy asked, rhetorically. "I don't think you can do that. I might have to stress about you a whole lot, way more than I can deal with in fact, but this…" He said, pointing towards himself, "is me. Not you, THIS."
"You can't just ignore me!" It spat. "I'll get out one way or another, and I'll make her suffer! You can't rely on anyone but yourself! We are the same person!" Flippy just stared at it, fed up. He threw his dog-tags to the ground, inciting a surprised gasp from his reflection.
"Do you mean that? Or is it just that the concept of love scares you!?" Flippy returned.
"I'm not afraid of anything!" His reflection countered. They just glared at each other. "Fine, go get your bitch! But I swear to God, you'll regret it. I will make her squeal and beg for death!"
"I don't think so." Flippy said, still sad but surprisingly confident. "I stifled you down before… I even used you to save her from Shifty and Lifty. As long as I'm here, I don't think you can hurt her too badly, and if she's with me, I bet I'd get more of a handle on you!"
"We'll see…" It snapped. "But you can't love her too much, if you're willing to let me get our hands on her, hahahaha!" Flippy closed his eyes, tired of listening to his alter ego. He rubbed them and looked back at his reflection, only to see a mirror image of himself. He sighed and sat down. What if he's right, Flippy thought. Would it be selfish of him to ask her to live with him, despite the dangers? But Cuddles just said she was miserable without him, so either way Flaky just seems destined to be in pain.
"Well… at least… if she lived with me, I could take care of her when I'm able…" He said, aloud. He stood up. That solved it. He would just ask Flaky to make her own choice.
At the park, Flaky continued to rock herself, even after Cuddles had got back. He sat down next to her and sighed. He looked up to the other part of the playground, seeing an ice-cream truck on the street nearby, with none other than Nutty freaking out all over it, jittering so much he was sending bits of ice-cream and sno-cone everywhere. He gently nudged her, "Hey, Flaky, want some ice-cream?" She looked up and then back down, and shook her head no. "Oh, please? C'mon, Flake. Let's go get some ice cream. It might cheer you up."
Flaky didn't respond but she followed him anyway, obediently. "Two please." He told the ice-encrusted caveman behind the counter. He somehow received two cones, one of which he handed Flaky. She didn't really start eating, she just held it and continued to stare into space. Cuddles sighed again, defeated, and took her hand and started walking back towards the park. They stopped in their tracks, however, when the sound of screeching tires popped up behind them.
Nutty got one scream out before Flippy's jeep, skidding on the copious puddle of melted treats, ran him over, snapping his neck clean off before ramming into the ice-cream truck where Cro-Marmot was stationed. Flaky dropped her cone, horrified, and ran to the scene with Cuddles tailing her. When she got there Nutty seemed to be the only casualty, as Cro-Marmot was well protected in that block of ice, and Flippy had miraculously been spared, though he did look pretty bad from crashing face-first into his steering wheel.
"Flippy!" Flaky shouted, her and Cuddles helping him out of the car. The bear shook his head, shaking off the daze, and looked up at Flaky. He still had the strength to stand, which he did, and grabbed Flaky in a huge hug.
"Thank God…" Flippy said, softly, holding Flaky to him. "Flaky… I'm sorry I made you so sad…" Flaky just nuzzled him for a moment before suddenly breaking the hug, and looking up at him.
"B-but you s-said we could never be t-together…" Flaky cried, still upset. "And I loved you…"
"And I'm still not sure if it's a good idea…" Flippy admitted, making Flaky start to tear up even more. "But, that's why I decided to let you decide that… And I was on my way over here to ask you to, but I got in a bit of an accident…"
"A bit!?" Cuddles asked, startled, looking at Nutty's remains.
Flaky started to speak but Flippy stopped her. "Flaky, you really have to consider this… For my sake… My other self, I don't know if I'll ever be able to control him…"
"I don't c-care about that…" Flaky whimpered, but Flippy continued anyway.
"Flaky, if I lose it and he shows up, he could hurt you very badly… torture you even… I'm not positive, but he still might. I-I don't want you to get hurt because of me…"
Flaky hugged him tighter and said, "I know he could h-hurt me, but I d-don't care… I don't want to be a-l-lone anymore, Flippy… I really don't… And I love you so m-much, that he doesn't matter to me."
"Are you sure? 100?" He asked, staring into her eyes. She nodded in response, crying. He smiled and sighed, embracing her again. Their lips locked in a passionate kiss, practically feeding off each other's renewed love. That moment seemed to drag on forever, until of course the sound of truck horns filled the air behind them.
Before they could turn around they'd both been hit by the Mole's semi-truck, barreling over the ice-cream truck in the process. Flaky struggled to look up and saw the last few ounces of life drain out of Flippy's eyes, having been split in half from the collision. She flopped down, not knowing how badly she was hurt, horrified. She let out one scream as memories of her trip there came flooding back. Then everything went black for a moment, and then her body felt like it was on fire, and she could feel every injury she had accumulated from the impact.
Then suddenly it was all over and she opened her eyes. She was back at Happy Tree Hospital. She sighed, realizing that she must've died. She tried to move but felt something around her, and looked up to find that Flippy was holding her, tenderly. "That's kind of a mood-kill…" Flippy noted, his eyes still closed due to the fatigue of resurrection.
Flaky smiled and blushed, "Y-yeah, kinda…" She cuddled up to him, exceedingly thankful to be back in his arms. She had missed him so much, and she felt her heart easing up. The two just laid there in the hospital bed for several moments.
"Flaky…" Flippy started, hesitantly, "So you're… you're sure that you want to live with me..?"
"Of course I am, Flippy… I'm just glad you'd even want me…" Flaky said, relieved.
"Of course I would…" He said, happily. It was settled, finally. Flippy hugged Flaky to him, as happy as ever. They really would be together, after all. They both closed their eyes, lost in a dream come true.
When Flippy opened his eyes again, he was back in his own bedroom, strangely. He felt another presence suddenly, and looked to his right to see his worse half looming over him and his love. He realized he was dreaming. "What do you want.,?" He spat, hugging Flaky to him.
"I just wanted to give you one, final, chance to rethink this…" It told him.
Flippy scowled, "Flaky decided on it. She loves me more than she fears you." His dark side laughed, evilly.
"She's not much in the brains department then. I know it's not guts that motivated her, heheheh. Both of you are spineless." It mused.
"Just, leave her alone." Flippy demanded.
"Why ask me to make promises you know I won't keep?" It asked, getting closer to Flaky. "But I've been thinking about this dead-weight… I guess you could say she's my bitch too, now!" It laughed.
Flippy pulled Flaky away from him, defensively. "No, she's not. And stop calling her that!"
"We'll just see how things go. But I know she'll be wanting to leave before long. But… in the meantime… I guess I'll just try to have as much fun with her as I can!"
"No!" Flippy yelled back. "I won't let you!" He shut his eyes, tightly. When they opened he was back in the hospital, holding a sleeping Flaky. He looked down at her ran his hand across her cheek. "I'll find a way to control you…" He said, still addressing his alter ego. "And Flaky can help me…"
Flaky dreamed about the day her parents had died, and she woke up, startled. Flippy rocked her, slightly. "Hey, Flaky…" He said. "Are you ready to come home with me..?"
"Y-yeah." She said, happy. "J-just promise me that you won't l-leave me again…"
"Flaky… if you're willing to stay with me, despite what I might do, I promise you, I'll always be here for you whenever I can… I'll be here to protect you…" He responded.
"Th-thank you, Flippy…" She replied. "I love you so much…"
"I love you too… C'mon, let's go home." He said. They got up and walked out of the hospital, then strolling back to Flippy's house, hand-in-hand.