Tetosaur

"I don't see anything."

"Your eyes haven't adjusted yet." Nausicaa returned. She had dragged Asbel out to see the meteor shower a little after midnight; all week long she had raved to him how this was the best meteor shower of the year and if you were patient enough you might be able a beam of light stream across the sky every minute or two. Asbel was not so sure; after 10 minutes he began to doubt the sanity of the idea in the first place.

"This is crazy. What if we get run over by a wild beast?" She burst out loud laughing.

"What is wrong with you?! You cannot be afraid of the dark?! I thought you liked the nighttime!" She exclaimed unbelievably.

"I do like the nighttime. I am merely afraid of all the possible things that could go wrong." In his defense they had traveled pretty far out into the pitch darkness and he was quite positive they were too far away to be heard in the case of an emergency.

"Relax...Ooh! I think I saw one!" She cried. For a moment he did relax, and he thought he might have seen a shooting star as well. But the joy was abruptly cut short when out of nowhere fangs sunk vindictively into his hand.

"Oww!" He groaned and gasped, totally shocked. "What was that?! An animal bit me!" He cried nervously. The bite diameter was small on his hand but the teeth were incredibly sharp. A wave of panic hit Nausicaa; had she really made a slip in judgement? What if it was poisonous?

"Are you ok?" She asked quickly, more anxious about his safety than her own.

"I think so, it just hurts!"

"Does it burn?" Poison usually felt like acid poured over a wound.

"Burn as in hurt? Yeah." What difference was there between the two?

Both snapped up in terror when the grass rustled around them... It sounded small, and the smallest things were often the deadliest.

"Where is it?" She cried, horrified when the grass rustled over to her free hand. She squirmed to get off the ground when something furry brushed her hand.

"What? A... rat?" She conjectured, but then the fur was longer than a rat's. it nudged her hand and crawled underneath her fingers. Nausicaa repressed the urge to shrink her hand away - this animal recognized her. She gently felt the frame of the creature, and laughed incredulously.

"What?" Asbel demanded, not understanding.

"It's Teto."

"What?!" Asbel shouted in shock. "I got bitten by your pet rat?"

"Fox squirrel." She corrected.

"Well, it's got a nasty bite." He replied, still traumatized.

"I know..." She trailed off. "Let's do some formal introductions."

"What? No." Asbel protested, but she had already lifted the furball towards him.

"Teto, this is Asbel." Then she turned to Asbel, who had shifted a couple inches away. "Don't be rude, reach out your hand." Asbel thought she was ridiculous but obeyed. The animal, which he still hadn't been able to see due to the darkness, hissed at him and he instinctively drew his hand away. Nausicaa brought the creature back towards herself for a personal conversation.

"Teto, this is my friend. He doesn't mean to hurt you, and he definitely doesn't mean to hurt me. He also happens to be the one I love, so you better get used to him." Asbel raised an eyebrow to her strange pep talk. Even stranger was that the fox squirrel seemed to comprehend, and timidly walked up to Asbel. The man reached his hand out to Teto a second time, and this time he felt a petite warm tongue licking his puncture wounds. It tickled to say the least, but he didn't flinch.

"His eyes are a very intimidating shade of green." Asbel remarked, his own eyes having adjusted to the dark. He seemed to barely make out a silhouette of a cute-sized dog-like animal. Gingerly he brought his other hand to stroke the creature, and noted how addictively soft the fur felt under his fingers.

Nausicaa smiled as the two extremely possessive males in her life finally arrived at an understanding. Within a week Teto was eating and sleeping with Asbel like they had known each other for ages.

AN: ps anyone else feel like Teto looks like a pokemon? ;p I forgot the name of it...