For the sake of the story, I haven't made Rufus as anthropomorphic as he is in the show. (Possessing human qualities)


"If you guys are going to live together then I really don't see how there can be such conflict between you." Kim said shaking her head as she drove along the highway.

Ron frowned and crossed his arms, squirming away from Rufus. "It's not me Kim." He wined, pointing a finger at Rufus. "It's all his fault with his stupid gay complex."

"It's not me." Rufus quipped, his tone softer. "Ron is being mean and he refuses to love me. If he would just love me and let me brand him and keep him as my pet then everything would be alright."

"Life doesn't work that way!" Ron snapped. "I told you already. You are so dense!"

"You're heartless!" Rufus retorted. "But I still love you."

"You don't love me. Stop feeding me that line." Ron's temper was truly as unruly as his hair. Kim groaned, clutching the wheel in an effort to keep herself from turning around and lunging at the two boys.

She turned off from the highway, glad that this one hour ride with two disagreeable boys in the backseat would soon be over. "I can't believe you two have pushed me to this extent." Kim said shaking her head. "But soon this will be all over."

Ron nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and you'll be back to normal Rufus. And we can be best friends again. I'll be ready and eager to put this all behind us."

Rufus frowned. "I just don't understand why he can't just let me brand him and keep him as mine," he mumbled under his breath.

Ron glared at Rufus as they turned off from the highway and unto an off-track dirt road. "Kim?" he questioned.

"Yes, I'm going the right way." She answered. "Trust me; I memorized this address in anticipation to getting you guys back to normal."

The car was shut off and Ron stared up at the big empty-looking warehouse standing in front of him, going well with the deserted lot they were standing in.

'The hell?' he thought, as he felt Rufus' small hand instinctively reach for his. He pulled away, feeling slightly back, but wanting to make sure that he got his point across. 'I don't date men, and I certainly don't date rodents.'

He followed Kim up the path, staring at the circle of trees that surrounded them, thinking about how thick they looked, how menacing. He'd never been good with anything scary. "I guess we should just go in." Kim said quietly, staring at the once magnificent, but now rotting wooden doors.

"I just want to get out of here." Ron said, quiet for an entirely different reason from Kim. Rufus looked equally frightened by the dreary surroundings, and this time, Ron let his hand be captured.

The door was pushed open, and all three teenagers were surprised to see…people. People walking around, in lab coats, with clip boards and goggles and other scientific instruments, and there were machines and things that just didn't look like they belonged on a deserted off-road surrounded by thick trees.

"I guess you can't judge a book by its cover." Ron whistled. "And in this case, the cover is really undercover."

Rufus didn't let go of his hand, even though he did loosen his grip and now that they were surrounded by people, Ron felt bad to have to shake off the blondes hand in front of them.

"Ah, you're here. I was wondering if you'd been deceived by the front of the building like many others and had left." A burly man with a toothbrush mustache exclaimed as he walked up to the group.

"Professor Isaacs?" Kim asked, verifying.

A sharp nod and Ron felt himself and Rufus being lead towards the back of the room.

"I've been very busy trying to find all the correct data types for this one here." The professor said, shaking his head at Rufus. "Of course we've done mutation before, but never successfully from an animal to a complete human. I was told however, that Rufus still retained some animalistic characteristics."

Here Ron blushed, realizing Kim had told the professor about Rufus' strangeness…but there seemed to be more important things on the man's mind.

"So Drakken's mutator didn't work perfectly. Hopefully ours will though. So without ado…" Professor Isaacs nudged Rufus in the direction of the glass case standing in front of them.

Rufus looked at it before stepping in nervously. "First I do a quick cross-examination of his D.N.A and then you guys will be on your merry ways in a second."

Ron stood patiently, staring at Rufus standing frightenedly in his glass, hands pressed against the translucent material.

"It was fun…kind of, while it lasted buddy." He said softly to himself. "If only you hadn't been so weird in the end."

Ron crossed his arms, suddenly feeling bad for being mean to Rufus, who hadn't been able to control his feelings.

"Uh oh." Professor Isaacs suddenly said.

Ron's feelings of regret immediately faded. "What? What is it?" he wined, not happy that Rufus was still a human.

"His D.N.A is completely unstable. Hormones raging like a tsunami in there." The man said shaking his head.

"But you can still change him back can't you?" Ron practically squeaked.

"Yes, I could. But he'd be mutated, angry, and morbid with all those hormones attacking in a way entirely different than they are now. His body acids would move up 10 fold, and soon you'd have to tie him up not to have him kill you."

Ron sighed and hit his head against the glass Rufus was patiently standing in. He stared at the other boy, willing himself to be angry, but it was hard, so hard to be mad at someone with jeans that rode so low over their hips that it didn't leave much to be imagined, who's flat muscled slender body just made you itch to hold them, who's lips were so seductive it nearly aroused you, who's hair was too beautiful to be real. It was hard.

"So what should we do?" Kim asked calmly, noticing Ron had completely fazed out as he stared at Rufus with glazing eyes.

"Stabilize him. Make him reconcile with anyone who could be upsetting him so he can stop waging wars on himself. And then come back." The professor shrugged.

Kim had a glint in her eyes as she helped Rufus out of the casing. "Oh, I'll be sure to." She said determinedly.

"Kim…umm why did you make us pack and drive us away from home in the middle of the school week?" Ron asked, getting worried after Kim had been driving for half an hour.

"Because I think that making you two reconcile and getting Rufus back to normal, government business, is much more important than you learning about the renaissance era." Kim answered.

"But why did you make us pack." Ron said, arching an eyebrow. "And what's up with the food, and the tent, and the flashlights and the…oh shit."

Kim smiled. "Bingo." She said, turning to face them as Ron stared with distaste at the lake in front of them.

"Kim." He whimpered. "You know how I am with camps."

"I do." Kim said, beginning to throw their stuff unto the dirt floor. "I thought taking you out of your comfort zone would give you less of a chance to be mean to Rufus."

Ron continued whimpering as he stared at the lake and the grass and the sky and the trees and Rufus watched him curiously.

"I think by the end of this week you guys will be all reconciled. Ron, either make Rufus fall out of love with you or get him to accept that you won't fall in love with him. Everything you need is in those bags." Kim called, getting back into the car and starting it up.

"Kim, don't leave me." Ron sniveled.

"Ciao!" She yelled, and there was some dust and then she was gone, around the roundabout and back unto the road.

"What am I going to do!!" Ron wailed. "How could she leave us out here? I don't even know where I am. Wilder beasts are going to eat me."

"I thought she said this was a C.I.A training ground." Rufus said calmly. "Wouldn't they check to make sure the area was secure?"

"Shut up!" Ron snapped. "What am I going to do!!"

Rufus began fiddling with a bag and after getting it open, began pulling out the pieces of a tent.

Ron screamed and began pacing as Rufus began putting it up himself, then huffed and sat down in the grassy turf as the tent became erect behind him. "This is your fault!" he yelled in frustration, jabbing a finger in Rufus' direction. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't started with this love shit we could be having serious fun right now."

Rufus blinked, eyes showing hurt. "If you hadn't been such a…a BASTARD, then I wouldn't be feeling like this and everything would be good again."

Ron stared at him, opening his mouth and then, in realizing how right Rufus was he dived into the tent and shut the flap behind him.

It was spacious, really, really spacious, a true C.I.A styled tent, big enough to hold a king sized bed and a T.V and high enough for Ron to stand up and stretch his hands above his head in.

'He's right.' Ron thought. 'I'm really the bad guy in this movie. I don't know why I'm acting like this towards him, but I am, and…I really shouldn't be. So he loves me and touches me a little inappropriately. He's been through a lot; I shouldn't be treating him like nothing.'

"It's getting dark." Rufus commented from outside. "Can you please show me how to start a campfire? I won't ask you again."

Ron, by now feeling pretty crummy, got up and out of the tent, to do even the very least by way of helping Rufus.

They were sitting there, in front of the fire, on a blanket. Rufus had done a lot to get Ron to stop staring at the lake in fear, and now he was quiet, like he'd been tranquilized or something. Ron stared at the remains of his marshmallow, which happened to be the stick. He wanted more, but he realized he was too full to eat anything else.

Rufus had discovered chocolate, and was currently savoring a piece that he'd dug out from some where in Ron's bag. Ron looked up at the sky, wondering at the fact that there were suddenly so many stars.

Rufus looked up and noticed too, and flopped unto his back to stare at them. "Remember that time when we tried counting stars together?" Ron asked tentively. "I always wondered if you could see them, how bright they were."

Rufus shook his head and smiled sadly. "Ron, mole rats are almost blind."

Ron sat up suddenly, and blinked. "Blind?" he echoed. "Blind?"

"Blind. We're nearly blind." Rufus whispered. "Everything I do as a rat, or almost everything is through feeling. Originally, mole rats would live under ground in the pitch black. There was no reason for us to see. We would tunnel and rub our bodies against each other to 'see' each other."

"Blind." Ron whispered. "But…but, you never hit into anything, you could always see the taco's when you ate them, you always knew where the rope was to untie me, when you touched my face you never poked my eye out."

"We're almost like bats. A kind of sonar visual effect is the closest I get to seeing. My eyesight is incredibly poor. I can sense the things and kind of have a blueprint of what they feel like, but I…I can't see. Not as a rat." Rufus said solemnly. "I'm really going to miss that. Everything, everything is so beautiful. And I hope when I'm a mole rat I'll be able to remember what you looked like."

"Blind." Ron murmured. "This must be huge for you."

Rufus gazed up at the stars. "Yes, it is. Seeing you, and Kim, and everyone in live color, being able to put a face to the sound and the touch, is really great."

Ron moved closer to Rufus, letting the other boy stare into his face. He felt really bad suddenly, for putting Rufus though what he had. 'And all this time, I never even knew. How could I know?'

"Seeing you, in vivid color, in clear sharp clean lines, is a pleasure." Rufus mumbled, and his voice was so husky Ron could've sworn it was a pick up line. They were awfully close on that blanket, and as Rufus cupped his face in his hand, Ron dropped his kebab stick unconsciously.

They were going to kiss, there in the dark, in front of the lake and the fire and under the stars all alone out in the middle of nowhere. Ron's brain was hazy with confusion, but as Rufus' lips brushed his, some of it cleared and he jumped back.

"Don't try seducing me you little…little...RAT!" he yelled angrily at a bewildered Rufus, whose fingers were still lightly touching his cheek. He pulled away and stumbled towards the tent, angry so angry, that he'd been moving in to kiss the golden-headed boy on his on accord. That scared him the most.

He left Rufus outside and lay there in his sleeping bag, feeling more confused than ever. That had been all him, he'd been the one that had wanted to kiss Rufus that time. He had been the one that had been moving closer. He'd wanted to do it. And that scared him.

'I can't get intimate with my pet.' He thought. 'He's going to turn back soon enough and then where would that leave me? Heartbroken. He has to stop liking me. If he doesn't, it's only going to be harder for me to resist him. I have to get rid of him, of those feelings, one way or another.'


Thank you:

YaoiFangirl101

Dark Angel

Mantenius

Enigmus