Looks like a lot of people enjoy my new writing style. My posting schedule is gonna be a bit erratic and unreliable, so expect there to be a good chance on the weekends, but don't rely on them. I'm having a hard time keeping up with school, because I keep getting sick and fall behind, but can't write when I'm sick Well anyways, I have another opening. Here is the next chapter of On the Rocks, enjoy!

Panther was tossing and turning in the bed that Dante had provided him, his face painted with pain like none other.

"Why does this keep repeating," he whispered to himself as he once again went through the roulette of memories. First it was him playing with sand, and he heard a voice, bright and happy, "Hey Panther," it called to him. He never saw the source of the voice though.

Next came a memory of his 10th birthday, he had never forgotten this… but for the first time he heard the doorbell ring, on the other side someone about his height was holding a large gift, blocking his face. The darkness set in before he saw their face, he did catch sight of the bright pink flesh, framed by light brown fur… an ear.

Each time he saw a memory, he saw another second of the memory… it was different. This next memory was odd. He was running across the grass at full speed, he couldn't even go this fast anymore. He dived, flinging himself across the heated blacktop, and his eyes looked up to see… Dante as he shoved the younger version of his mentor out of the way. Then everything went black and red as he felt connection to his side.

The last memory, it was him in the hospital. There were stitches on his face, and a body cast on him, several of his ribs broken. The pain was gone, he could see a heart monitor, IVs… he thought they were supplying him morphine maybe, which would explain why he felt so out of it, and why he didn't feel anything… just numb. He saw a table, it seeming to spin as his hand clutched out, missing a card a couple times. His hand came to grip the card, flinging it open, shaking. It was a 'Get well!' card, inside was a long message from Dante, mainly saying it was the young raccoon's fault. He could see tears stained the thick white paper.

He rose up, startled. A cold sweat was running down his face, and he found himself repeatedly muttering, "Dante… Dante… Dante," like it was a drug, and every time he said the name, some of the pain went away.

There was noise downstairs, and it had to have been Dante moving around downstairs. He threw his flight jacket over the white tank top, stumbling downstairs as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Morning Panther," Dante called up to him as Panther got to the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey…" Panther wanted to tell Dante he remembered, but wasn't sure how to. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Dante, his memories flashing back to every memory he still had of the raccoon, and for a moment, he saw the kid Dante.

Dante saw the distant look in Panther's eye, but didn't pry. He set the two plates of breakfast down on the table, having actually taken the time to make food, instead of ordering out this time. He sat down and started eating.

"Smells good," Panther said, sitting down in his seat, feeling more awake. He finally decided to just say, "I remember you Dante," not seeming like any other words would work, "And no, it wasn't your fault."

Dante dropped his fork on his plate, a loud clatter of metal on glass… Was it real… but he knew about his letter to Panther when the feline was in the hospital. A pain erupted from his heart, it finally all clicked, the conversation yesterday finally all clicked. He was sending Panther to a likely death; he was sending his best and only friend to his demise. He felt like HE was the one killing Panther. Why couldn't he have been smarter about this, why couldn't he have just tried to bring back a friendship with Panther? Who was he to end Panther's life… other than a bad friend?

"God fucking damn it," Dante muttered.

Dante forced himself to change the topic, all of his emotions being taken through hell. Those memories were supposed to make everything right, not screw everything up worse. "I can't train you in the sky Panther, so my best hope is that your time on Star Wolf has helped enough with that."

Panther nodded, absentmindedly eating his food, entirely focused on how much he just screwed up Dante. "Sorry," he whispered.

"No, it's not your fault, it's mine," Dante replied, shaking his head, only moments from beating his head into the table to try and force a headache to mask the pain.

This time, Panther knew he couldn't convince the raccoon otherwise, partially because he himself blamed Dante for this.

Silence hung ominously in the air, neither of them able to bring themselves to words. Dante felt horrible about all of this, Panther felt even worse.

This was one of their last days, both of them knew this, both of them didn't want to. The same question ran through both of their heads… What would happen after this? Then came the worst one… What happens if this ends in… death?
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This is actually just a tiny bit shorter than my other chapters, just a lot of larger paragraphs than usual. Well anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. This was about 30 minutes worth of work… thanks to me getting stumped a couple times and getting yelled at a couple times. Debating on how long I should make this. Wondering if I should stick with 20 chapters, or maybe more, probably gonna stick with 20 though, so I can get back to Forever.