Can We Get A Pet?

Chapter Two

Schuldig wandered down the street several paces behind Farf, not keeping an eye on him. They'd already found a couple rocks, and if anything, they could chuck them at Crawford's head later. But at the moment, Schu was more interested in looking through shop windows. He stopped suddenly, when he found himself outside a pet store. Ooh. Might as well see what they have there. He stepped into the shop and began to browse.

First thing he looked at was the gerbils. They seemed very energetic. And he bet that they would make a lot of noise at night. Plus, the cute one he was looking at had just finished filling the water dish with shavings and turned it up-side-down and was now shoving against the side of the tank over and over. What an odd little creature.

He took one look at the fish and yawned. No way. Besides, he didn't want to lug a tank, food, fish, water treatment, filtration system, gravel, and fake plants home. He turned back to the rodents.

The mice were too small, he decided. But a couple of the rats looked cool. One was hooded, the other was black. That was a bit more like it. The two of them seemed very inquisitive, and showed a good amount of interest in the person watching them.

Then he was distracted by chirping. A room at the back of the shop held birds. So many birds. And they were loud. Canaries, parakeets, cockatiels, doves, and several more varieties he couldn't recognize. Plus a large blue macaw in the corner. Nope. The little birds would get annoying, and the macaw was just too expensive.

He went back out, and paused in front of the reptiles. Hmm. A snake. Cool. It was pretty small, didn't cost much, would freak Nagi out, and fascinate Farf simply because it needed live food. But he still wasn't sure.

Schu found himself watching the rats again. He smiled. Yeah, he liked the rats. He'd have to thank Nagi for that suggestion. He went up to the counter, and asked for a cage, food, shavings and the two rats he'd been watching. He then headed back toward the apartment.


Farfarello looked back and realized that Schu was no longer behind him. This could be a good thing, or a bad thing. He decided it was good. For himself, at least. A rock was really boring, he decided, so it needed to be fixed up a bit. He stepped into a nearby craft store, browsing the aisles, and discretely slipping some paints and brushes into the pockets of his trench coat. Not even the cameras picked it up, and he walked back out again, giving the cashier a little wave. No one would notice anything missing. At least for a while. Proud of himself for wandering into a place alone and not killing anyone, he continued on his way back to the apartment.

He was halfway there when a sign caught his attention. "Rabbits for Sale." Hmm. Schu had mentioned a rabbit. Was it one they had decided on? He didn't think so, but he went up to the door of the place anyway. It was a good-sized studio apartment, and the owners had a pair of dwarf rabbits. They hadn't realized it was a male and female until too late, and now had a large litter of bunnies. As the parents were different breads, some had spots and some were Dutch bunnies. He picked up one that had dark black circles around its eyes and dark ears. It cuddled up against his shoulder and sniffed his neck, and he decided it was actually kinda cute. He pulled out some money, and carried the little rabbit out with him and started on his way to the apartment again.


Farf got back to the apartment first. He was surprised Crawford wasn't waiting for him to yell at him to bring the rabbit back. He slipped down the hall and into his room, closing the door and setting the rabbit down on the floor. As the rabbit hopped around and explored the sparsely furnished room, Farf hung his coat in the closet, dropped his cap on the bed, and pulled out his stolen paint, brushes, and the rock.

He was almost done painting it when he heard the front door open again. Scooping the rabbit up and kicking the cord of his clock away, which the rabbit was sniffing, he looked out of his room to see Schuldig sneaking down the hall.

"Oh, hey, Farf," Schu whispered. "Don't let Brad know, but I got something."

"Ooh. Whatcha get?"

"A pair of rats."

"Cool. I found a rabbit." Farf held the little fluff ball out the door for a second for Schu to see.

"Hey, it's pretty cute. I like the rings around the eyes. Looks like eyeliner."

"Need to get food for it."

"We can go back to the pet store tomorrow and get food, a cage, and a book on rabbits."

"I also painted my rock."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot. I still have mine in my pocket." He made his way to his room. "Well, I'm gonna set these guys up. Oh, and if you're gonna keep the rabbit in your room, you might want to put some papers down until we can get it a cat box. I've heard you can train them."

Farf nodded. "Okay." He put the rabbit down, and went out to the kitchen. He grabbed a newspaper from the recycle bin and grabbed some lettuce and an apple.

While Farf was busy with that, Schu went into his room, and pulled a box containing a wire cage out of the bag he'd carried in. He put it together with little trouble and no instructions, poured in some shavings, and put in the food dish and water bottle. But he kept the rats out, playing with them. One of them, the hooded one, liked to sit on his shoulders and kept running behind his neck under his hair. It tickled. The black one liked crawling up his sleeves. At one point, Schu let it go all the way up, and it poked its head out the top of his jacket, its whiskers tickling under his chin.

A minute later, Farf poked his head in. "Ooh. I like them." He came in, closing the door behind himself, and sat on the floor, putting the rabbit in his lap. "Name them yet?"

"Nope. What about the bunny?"

"Alice."

"Like Alice in Wonderland?"

"Or Alice Cooper. Depends on its gender."

"A perfect name considering it looks like it's wearing make up."

They watched their three new pets wander around the floor. The black rat kept stealing little bites of the apple slices in front of Farf. "I think you should name this one Fingers. He's a thief."

"Okay, but what about the hooded one?" Schu held up the rat that had decided to take up residence on his shoulder.

Farf shrugged. "Your turn to name one."

Schuldig watched the rat for a second. "I feel like being cruel. I'll name a rat Maus." He let Maus run up his arm and behind his neck to sit on his opposite shoulder, and handed the rat a small piece of apple.


The next day, Schu and Farf went back to the pet store to get rabbit supplies. After getting a small crate for Alice to sleep in, a couple dishes and food, they started walking back to the apartment. As they turned a corner to take the long way home, Schu noticed a sign in a window.

"I wonder what a borzoi is?"

And they went in.


A note to my dear friends the readers. Thank you for reading! I'm happy that I actually got three reviews on the first chapter, and was given the encouragement to continue! I have decided to drag it out a bit. I mean, these guys might be hot, they might be assassins, they might be the baddest bishonen in Japan, but let's face it. They don't know a thing about animals.

I had to post this a little later than I had hoped, as it's been a little hectic the last few days. I'm an aunt again, as my brother and his wife just had their second girl, and AOL hates me. Thus, I hate AOL. But my brother pays for it, not me, so I deal.

And thank you to my reviewers!

Narijima – I'm glad you liked it so much! Yes, a pet rock is all they really can handle, but where's the fun it that?

Might be a good idea to move the gerbils. When I had mine, I kept him in the dining room, as we use that table for storage and not eating. (can we say extra shelf?)

Wherdatcomfrom – Intelligence? What's that? Yeah, these animals definitely will be smarter than their owners. And the pet rocks shall not be forgotten!

phwee? yami hobo – Kitten, little dog, large dog, lizard... We'll just have to see how many they get!