'Dull, rainy day, bored fox. Week off school. Dad in hospitle. Courtney at work.'
Idled on his newly acclaimed bed in his new bedroom, the fox stared out his window at the rainfall, bored out of his mind and utterly fed up. Life was a load of shit. No sugarcoating. His closest and first friend, Celica, had been growing distant at school, his dad was in hospitle, and Courtney was back at work, and from what he had managed to overhear whenever she came home pissed off, there were a few 'problem's' that she was having with other officer's and a Chief Bogo. He had approached her about it, but like the stubborn girl she had always been, she pushed it aside and claimed it wasn't something he needed to worry himself with.
School was a mix of up and down. He had gotten a few friends in his time there, growing close to them, but not as close as he used to be with Celica, and that pained the fox though he wouldn't show it. Naturally, he still faced judgement, bullies, predjudice and the sorts from other students, but he was growing cold and disconnected to the hate; the only issue was that he was slowly growing disconnected to the positives as well.
Couple all of that with the fact that he had recently gotten into a fight, and nearly lost his right eye from it, and you had one broken fox. The vibration of his phone snapped his thoughts back into reality, and he lazily grabbed his phone and unlocked it, pausing on the wallpaper.
Answering the call, he was greeted by the soft, smooth, female voice on the other side.
"Hey Cae." She greeted him.
"Hi Lunar, what you up to?"
"Nothing much. Bored outta my miiiiind just staring at the rain." She whined, Caelum able to imagine the pout on her face. Lunar; he had met her when she first moved to his school, for reasons unknown. She was a likeable, loveable vixen, funny, sweet, shy and kind - eyes a glowing moonlight blue, and fur a dark midnight blue, with a long, winding, fluffy cat tail, and cat ears that swivelled on her head at every different sound, or perked up and drooped in different ways in relation to her feelings.
He had been the first to approach the cross-breed, introducing her to his few friends and very quickly growing close to her in the few weeks she was there with them. "Hah, same, soo what do ya want?"
"Why do you assume I want something?"
"Well, normally you only call me when you need help with something, usually homework. Let me guess." He paused to think for a moment. "Maths, given a stupidly difficult set of questions, no calculator and you 'don't want to cheat'" He knew Lunar well. She was never one for calling up people for idle conversations, she more than likely needed help or a favour - didn't mean they didn't end up talking for hours after she called them anyway.
"Ok. One, technically I'm not cheating because it's not me who uses the calculator, it's you who then relays the information to me so I can write it down, it's called teamwork."
"It's called cheating." He deadpanned, cutting her off.
"But that's not important, what's important is that it's totally one hundred percent NOT cheating, just.. breaking the rules and doing what your not supposed to do in a slightly different way." She tried to justify her method of cheating.
"Like I said.. Cheating."
"Ok, fiiiiine, it's sort of like cheating. Happy?" She sighed, making him 'hmm' in content.
"It's enough. Now, how can I help you kitty?" He purred softly, making her growl in annoyance.
"Since when did you purr? You're not half cat. Don't purr.. Purring is MY thing." She hissed. Then she quickly snarled and added on. "And don't call me kitty! I'm only half cat."
"Aaaaanyway, what can I do for you?"
"Nothing really. Honestly, I called you up to ask if I can pop over to your's? I'm dead bored over here and my parents are no fun." Caelum swiftly shot up straight, shaking his head as if she was crazy."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"After last time!"
"It wasn't THAT bad. Jeez." He could imagine her rolling her eyes.
"Yes it was!" He exclaimed.
"All I did was accidently blow the toaster up and nearly set the kitchen on fire." She pointed out as if it was something so medicore and simple. "Don't act like you've never done it before."
"As a matter of fact, Lunar, I haven't. I'm pretty sure you're the only person who has nearly burnt down a kitchen and blew up a toaster because you wanted a slice of toast."
"I did warn you in advance that I break everything I touch." He could hear the slightly forced giggle on her voice. "Besides, how was I supposed to know it would do that? You're the ones with the toaster that has a self-destruct mode. Not me. Can I pleeeeeeeease come over? I'll make it worth your while."
"How so?"
"I'll actually buy you a present for Christmas?" She didn't sound all that convinced in her own offer, but he could hear the boredness overtaking her. Feeling sorry for the girl, as she's always been able to lift his spirits when he was bored and down, he agreed.
"Fine, but please.. Try not to destroy something this time. Are you going to bring anything with you?"
"I don't know, probably my drawing book and some crayons and that. It's no fun drawing alone."
"Yeah, I forgot you love to draw whenever I'm around. I have to say, you're getting really good."
"I only do it because you actually seem to be the only one whose interested enough to even look at them, and because you're kinda a drawer yourself. I'll see you in a bit then, going to go bug dad until he agrees to drop me off. Is Courtney there or ya home alone?"
"Home alone, she'll be back in a hour or two, I'll send her a text to let her know your here."
"Much obilged, see ya." She ended the phone call before he could say goodbye back, but a soft smile was hidden on his lips. He secretly liked Lunar the most out of all his friends, infact, he'd even go so far as to say he may have a small crush on the cat-fox. She had a way of cheering everyone up, and Courtney had said Lunar reminded her of a friend she used to have when she was lot younger, and she was good at getting Caelum to agree to things, all because of her ability to purr, whine AND do puppy eyes at once. It was something no-one could resist.
After sending a text to Courtney, letting her know Lunar was coming over for a bit, he climbed out of bed, phone in his pocket and began searching for things they could do. Finding his own drawing book, he was interrupted by a text on his phone; checking it to see Courtney was perfectly ok, well.. She did literally invite Lunar around whenever she wanted, but she was fretting about the toaster. It had.. Been an awkward conversation but the young cat-fox was forgiven with open arms and a massive embrace.
He had made sure to get out his spare housecoat just incase she got cold again. From what he had figured out, her body wasn't able to regulate the temperature as efficently during colder times, so she'd feel it more than any other friends of his, alot more. The first time it happened, no-one realised how bad it could affect her and she actually had to get medical attention.
Her room, from what she had said, had to be re-designed to help her cope with this 'problem' as she called it, but his room wasn't, and he had no way to get over to her house. Laying it on the end of his bed, he opened up his drawing book and flicked through some of his sketches while he waited for any notification from Lunar. Some of his sketches were much more detailed than others, and one or two in-particular where really beautiful and very well detailed sketches of Lunar and his characters in their game - Lunar had done the detail and alot of the refinement in those sketches, but the rest were purely his.
She had a talent for drawing, that was undeniable, and coupled with her extensive creativity for designs and concepts, she had potential. A text came through from the half-cat, her saying that her dad had very easily relented to the puppy eyes and was dropping her off now, and that he was placing her in his care. He gulped, knowing that her dad was very protective of her and if something happened.. Well he doubted even Courtney could do much.
He went downstairs and waited patiently at the base of the steps, somehow knowing she was only a minute away at most. He twirled a pencil in his paw while waiting, then nearly jumped out his fur when the doorbell rang. "Caelum! It's me." Her voice echoed from the other side of the door. Grabbing his key, he wasted no time in letting her inside, hanging up her wet coat after she took it off.
He looked at her, an eyebrow raised in confusion at her clothing choice. "Really? A tank top and long-shorts? In THIS weather?"
"It's a cool tank top. Look it has my name on the back, and the design is sooo cool on the front." Well she did have a point. Printed on the back of the black clothing was a midnight sky that formed the word 'Lunar', while on the front was a beautifully designed and intricately detailed Midnight blue nebula.
"Still, kinda unproductive, especially considering your 'problem' as you call it."
"It is a problem.. It's not normal." She whispered, almost as if she felt slightly ashamed.
"When have you ever been one for 'normal?'" He looked at her with a blank expression, eyebrow raised knowingly.
"Never, but that's beside the point." She crouched down, taking out her crayons and her drawing book from her small backpack, leaving it beside Caelum's school one, she waited patiently for him to go first.
Leading the way with her close behind, he opened the door and let her inside, closing it behind him, he grabbed the spare housecoat. The fox-cat turned at the sound of his voice, "Lunar, you're probably going to want this, considering your unproductive choice." Her vision was encased in blackness as he threw it over her head, her posture instantly slumping into an annoyed one.
She huffed beneath the housecoat, Caelum watching with a smirk on his face. "Seriously? You couldn't pass it to me? You just had to ruin my fur." He rolled his eyes at her, but made no effort to help her. "So I guess you're not going to be a nice fox and help me out?"
"It's not like it's difficult Lunar, just take it off." Instantly she went quiet, then giggled softly.
"I didn't know that was why you let me come over."
"No no no! That's NOT what I mean. Just take the housecoat off Lunar, nothing else."
She giggled once again and finally pulled the housecoat off her head, ruffling her fur, she put on a dissappointed expression that ultimately morphed back into a smile, putting the housecoat on, she looked at him with genuine gratitude. "T-thanks Caelum.. It's, nice to get out the house.. been bored all week because of this horrible weather."
He smiled back, jumping onto his bed, she climbed on next to him and sat beside the fox, looking through his drawing book at some of his later sketches, admiring them, before leaning back against the wall and resting her own drawing book on her lap, open at a blank page. Caelum leaned against the headboard of his bed, his eyes catching a very brief glance of a small, faint red mark on her wrist, hiding well against her fur.
"Soo, what have you done all week?" She asked, ignoring her sketch.
"Nothing really, yourself?"
"Same, been.. yeah.. bored all weekend, spent most of it in bed." She crawled over to Caelum, snuggling up to the fox. "S-sorry.. For some reason I'm still kinda cold. You don't mind.. right?" He shook his head in a 'no' wrapping his arm around the vixen-cat as she let out a faint yawn. "You're not boring.. I've just been getting little sleep this week.. Y'know, late nights and that. I'm sorry I'm not much good company right now." She snuggled closer into him, resting her head against his chest. She suddenly got up and stared at him with a threatening glare and half-slitted pupils, hissing "This means nothing by the way."
He hummed as if to say, 'I know, no need to threaten me' even though she couldn't hurt him to save her life, she just wanted to look tough and make the point clear. "Seriously, nothing."