Rabbits are for life, not just for Christmas (Part 4)

Sooner or later, because of how cozy it was on the couch, Netto eventually fell asleep, TV left on any everything. However his mum was soon home too an hour or so later. She came into the living room to find Netto asleep on the couch; she couldn't help but smile as she saw Rock sat next to his stomach, cleaning himself.

"Oh, hello Rock" She said kneeling down beside the couch "I guess Netto-kun must be really tired, ne?" She smiled "Let's take him up to his room shall we?" She could have guessed that Rock's little nose fluctuating up and down in a cute, innocent way was a yes…

Haruka stood to her feet and placed one of her arms underneath his back and the other underneath his legs, she let Rock jump onto his stomach so that way she wouldn't have to make two journeys.

She made her way upstairs and into Netto's room, she placed Netto on the covers and allowed Rock to jump off onto the bed, she then closed the curtains so that he'd sleep a little better and then she tucked him under the covers "I'll leave him to you now Rock" She said leaving the room and closing the door lightly.

Rock snuggled up next to Netto underneath the covers and soon himself fell into a relaxed state, still vigilant just in case.

---

Just an hour or so later, Rock was alerted by his mother calling the boy down for dinner, however she didn't know that he was still asleep, she expected him to have woken up by now…

Rock nudged at Netto's neck, tickling him with his whiskers and trying to make him awake a little quicker "Netto…" He said softly, knowing that he probably wouldn't hear him anyway, so he then added "Netto…" It only caused him to stir and turn the other way which Rock wasn't very pleased of, so… still attempting to get Netto up, he decided to swiftly bite Netto's hand after he'd climbed over the body so that he could reach it, the results were more than promising, Netto was up in a flash, caring for his hand.

"Sorry" Rock said "I had to bite you to get you up, you're mums calling you down for dinner" He said.

"Oh…" He said, still soothing his hand "You didn't have to bite me though!" He moaned, looking down at his hand and seeing the little teeth marks implanted in his flesh "That's going to be there for ages!"

"Just go and get your tea" Rock said uncaringly... but in a nice way.

Netto rolled his eyes and picked Rock up and cradled him in his hands, carrying him downstairs, he was greeted by his mum as he was passing through the hallway to the kitchen, she was going over to the living room "Oh, Netto dear… you're dinner's on the table"

"Thanks mum"

"Did I wake you?" She said, still walking on.

"Don't worry, I'm hungry anyway"

Netto set Rock down on the table before taking his seat, picking up his chopsticks and beginning to eat his tea, he expected to have a nice, quiet dinner… but Rock just started talking to him as soon as he heard the TV switch on in the other room.

"Are you going to call Enzan after dinner?"

"Hm… Not sure, I should… but Enzan isn't easy to… 'rock' like the others, I'm not so sure he'd accept me back for what I did, it'll be a while before he gets over it and starts talking to me again, he's never really liked me anyway"

"Still.. You expected the others to be like that today, but I mean… look what happened instead, I still think you should try anyway…"

"The others only accepted me back because they want to get close to you, because they think your cool… in which I do too! But they probably don't care about me that much anymore, because they know about you know…"

"I doubt that… I think Meiru generally wants to be friends with you…. It wouldn't be very nice of her to suddenly ditch you after being friends with her for such a long time"

"I know, I know"

"But the other two I'm not so sure about"

"You mean Dekao and Yaito?"

"Yes, I don't believe they meant it when they apologized, Dekao barley spoke to you on the way home, that kind of confirms that he still feels awkward being friends with you again"

"Hmm" Netto said, seeming somewhat saddened by Rock's conclusion, which made Rock think that he should have probably kept that to himself.

"So, are you going to ring him?"

"I suppose…" Netto said.

Rock relaxed himself and rested against the table fully, watching Netto eat in quiet… it kind of made him think back to today… it couldn't be that Netto might have been losing interest in him? When they had first met they didn't really get along… although Rock really, really wanted to… but Netto wasn't into the whole… small, cute and cuddly pets thing, but then they managed to get close and that was over new years, he believed that Netto didn't really care about what others thought because nobody had met Rock apart from his friends and parents… but then in class he suddenly lost a lot of confidence in him… because he wasn't sure how everybody would feel about someone as popular as Netto receiving such a insignificant life-pet.

It would trouble Rock for a long time if he didn't get it out of his mind now "Netto, do you really like me?"

Netto stopped eating and looked up, staring at Rock in the eyes "What? Of course I do! … Well… as a friend of course" He smirked

"I know that… but it seems to me that your still afraid to show me off… a lot of people with pets weaker than me have been walking down the street, as you noticed today… even in class today you were shaking because you couldn't predict what everybody was going to think of me"

Netto went silent, turning his face to look down at his food, considering Rock to be right "You know, I try not to get embarrassed about you and you know I wouldn't… but everybody expects me to be some great person because of my father… but you should know that I'm the only person in the world who received a talking life-pet… it's cool but I do deserve some sympathy for the fact that you are a Rabbit"

"Well I know I'm not exactly the coolest animal on the planet, I'm probably not even liked by many people because of the trouble my species have caused, but I would have thought that someone like you would give me a chance to prove myself"

"Rock, I don't need to give you a chance" He exclaimed "Your good enough for me as you are, so please stop worrying"

"As long as you stop being embarrassed about me and try to be confident enough to show me to others"

"But you said a week ago-" Rock interrupted

"I know what I said, but I was only trying to help you get over your fear of showing me off to your friends, I expected you to feel guilty for having such feelings"

"Okay… fine" He replied, continuing to eat, Rock sighed in such great relief that he could feel himself relaxing again, he was hoping that he could meet some more of Netto's friends, although he did hope that Netto meant it when he said he'd try to show Rock to his other friends and not be worried about their opinions.

After dinner, Netto went over to the house phone, Rock was happily holding onto Netto's shoulder, which could have been dangerous for any normal Rabbit… but this was Rock. Netto dialed Enzan's number and waited for him or someone else to pick up.

"What?" A harsh, uncaring tone answered, sounding like they wouldn't have been bothered even if it was someone really important on the other side of the line.

"Enzan, Hi" Netto added shakily.

"Why have you called?" He spat back.

"No particular reason" Everything he was going to say suddenly slipped his mind, he could tell Enzan didn't want to speak to him…

"You're wasting my time, I have tones of stuff to do and I'd rather not waste it on talking to someone like you at the moment"

"Well, that's really why I've called; I'm apologizing for the other week" He finally plucked up the courage to say what he was going to say.

"Hmmm… left it a little late haven't you, Or could it be that you were scared to approach or even talk to me again?"

"No, it's not that, I was only just able to apologize to my friends today, and we're talking again, so~"

"They shouldn't have accepted you back so easily, shows how weak they are, you've made all your friends soft and so has that Rabbit of yours"

"Don't talk about Rock like that! He's not just a Rabbit you know"

"Whatever, so he has some rodent in him too?" He added an insignificant evil laugh afterwards.

Grrrrr, Netto mentally growled "Look Enzan, are you going to accept my apology or not, I'd rather not take it back"

"Fine, whatever, I'll take it but it doesn't mean we're friends again, not unless you make it up to me" Abruptly he hung up and left Netto feeling like somewhat of an idiot.

"See, what did I tell you?! I knew he wouldn't be okay with me" Naruto placed the phone back in its place and begun walking back upstairs into his room.

"At least he accepted your apology"

"Yeah, but he said I have to make it up to him, so what on earth does that mean?"

"I suppose he wants you to give them something in return…" He said, almost questioning his own theory.

"Like what? I can't exactly buy them him a gift for simply lying to lying to him, he probably lies to me all the time, like just then, I doubt he has anything important to do, he has others doing it for him…"

"But what happened two weeks ago was pretty major…"

"Well, I only found out on that day that you could talk, I don't even understand what I did wrong… they all went mad at me because they thought I lied about you being able to talk… you know, they thought I was doing it for attention… jeez" He complained "I mean, I could tell Enzan wasn't too happy with you, he expected me to have some amazing life-pet because my father creates them and he sort of see's me as a rival, he expects me to get something better so that he could improve himself and do better, make me jealous and such" He said.

"Kids are so complex, nothing like that happens in the animal kingdom or even in the life-pet kingdom…"

"Well, I don't ever remember life-pets being able to talk… that would probably solve a lot of problems, not being able to talk and such"

At that moment… Rock gained a tremendous idea "Here's a thought, why don't you ask your father if he'll change your Enzan's life-pet and allow him to talk, I'm sure he'd love that"

Netto stopped at the top of the stairs and looked over at his life-pet clinging to his shoulder "But… if that happened, then because of the press he gets from the Media every day, I doubt he'll be able to keep it secret for very long, soon my father will have tremendous amounts of people wanting the change"

"I suppose, but maybe if you made him promise he wouldn't"

"Well knowing him I doubt he can keep something that big for secret for long, besides it's Enzan, he practically hates me… anyway, I don't think he deserves something that amazing after how he's been treating me and ignoring me"

"Well then, I think you should be civil with him for the time being, see if you can forget about what happened, because I bet the trust between yourself and your friends has dropped, especially with Enzan, so maybe you can build up that friendship again, it may be a little harder to do that with Enzan but I know Meiru will easily accept you again, she can't turn you away"

"Hmmm" He continued on into his room, plopping Rock down on his desk and then taking a seat on the chair in front of his computer "That's a good plan" Netto smiled "Having a talking life-pet really does help, even better that you're a cute, fluffy bunny" Netto added stroking Rock behind his ears on his neck.

Rock brightened up at the compliment and happily accepted the soft tickling behind his ears "Thank you, Netto-kun" … "Wait" Rock added "Are you trying to distract me from making you do your homework"

Netto shiftily moved his eyes from right to left, attempting to make himself look innocent "Nooo" He echoed and brought his lips into an innocent smile.

Rock blinked harshly "Get it done and then you can relax for the night. Come on, it's not much is it?"

"Like, three different subjects, each piece at least two or three pages long"

"I'll help you as much as I can, I have a lot of knowledge on everything, but I won't give you the answers, that's what homework is about" He added sternly.

Netto 'ugh-ed' at Rock, got his homework out from his bag and loaded up the computer… getting on with his homework.

---

Later on that night, when Netto had finally finished his homework, after a few arguments with his furry friend as well… he was surfing the web while Rock was lounging around on his bed, cleaning himself and stretching, getting ready for bed.

"Netto, it's getting late… hurry up"

"It's only half ten, I'm still busy"

"You have school tomorrow and you're barley doing anything on that thing you call entertainment" He added sarcastically, not really caring for any sort of technology except TV's because they were actually interesting.

"Don't worry, just give me another half an hour and then I'll go to bed"

"But your mum told you before whilst you were doing your homework that you need to be in bed before she goes and that'll be soon I presume"

"I don't remember that"

"You were too busy solving math problems"

"Dividing and Multiplying fractions is difficult"

"Stop changing the subject Netto-kun… anyway, how about you have another ten minutes and then you go to bed"

"Right... right" He replied, seeming more interested with the computer than his pet.

Rock rolled his eyes and immersed himself with his cleaning again.

After a few more minutes Netto added "Hay Rock, I got an email from Dad"

Rock looked over at the screen from Netto's bed "What does it say?" He asked.

"Apparently, he's thinking about further researching the abilities of life-pets, says he has some new theory too… sounds cool that, ne?" He said, rather excited "And that he's thinking about designing new life-pets with the ability to talk, like you"

"Ahh" Rock added, feeling rather un-original as of then "I guess that's pretty cool, but I wonder what it is that your father is researching"

"I doubt he'll tell us, but I'll email him back anyway with our thoughts and he might just let us in on it"

"Knowing your father he'll probably use me as the test subject"

"I won't let him if it's something risky" He said typing away on the keyboard.

After sending the email and finally turning off his computer, he quickly changed into his pj's, feeling slightly disturbed and flush that his Rabbit was watching him the whole time.

He turned off his light and crawled into his bed, being careful to avoid squishing Rock in the process. He didn't mind Rock sleeping with him in his bed now, at first it was annoying and somewhat weird… but he'd adjusted to it by now, he actually felt safer for some reason… even though his life-pet was quite small, although he was getting bigger bit by bit.

Rock was snuggling up next to Netto's stomach underneath the covers, listening to each breath the boy let out, feeling every motion his body made as he breathed and inhaling the enchanting scent that Netto lightly let off without him even realizing…

There was something Rock loved about Netto… but it was so difficult to explain what it was… it was just everything about him that amazed Rock, made him happy that he was alive and that he was spending his life with someone like Netto… he knew that he would be different if he had never met Dr. Hikari and then been told that he was going to be given to his son... since he had been told about Netto from his father he had heavily anticipated the moment he would finally meet him.

When Rock knew that Netto was asleep from the light snore noises his throat was producing, he crawled his way to an opening to take a quick look at Netto's face, seeing it very still and peaceful was something he could stare at all night… but he'd actually come out to the opening so that he could quickly apply his own scent to Netto's, he thought of it as 'placing his own mark' so that everyone else would know that he had a life-pet and practically an over-protective one in some ways.

He rubbed the underneath of his head along Netto's arms and when he could smell his scent he happily crawled back underneath the covers and diverged in heavenly sleep.

Sorry if the end bit was a little weird, but I can just see an overly-possessive Rock doing something like that…