Just a short bit with the kind of thing Celeste is doing in the Hopps warren. Don't want do too much, not with Selaxes lurking around, with massive plot bombs likely ready to unleash on them at any moment via Sounds of the Heart.
"uhm, Celeste? Celeste?"
"Oh, I must have..." There was Celeste, holding a very young bunny, obviously just concluding a very thorough tongue wash. She was in the Hopps nursery, being the big floofy for the littlest kits while their siblings were nursing. She must have dozed off, but the washing?
Jasmine had been the one to wake her, and now regarded her with bemusement.
"Did I? How - ?" The Coyote was clearly confused.
"It's one of those little instinctual things a lot of young mothers do when they're dozing or zoning out." She picked up her now very clean son and the discarded diaper he once had on.
"But, I'm no mother. I mean, ya know." Celeste was very flustered.
Jasmine and the other couple of mothers present all gave her beaming smiles. "All the maternalism is rubbing off on you, silly pup."
Celeste could only blush.
One of the older Mothers, Ruby, added, "You know, if you're not careful, you might even starting nursing."
Celeste recoiled at that, "What?!"
"Ruby, don't scare the Pup." Charlene chided. "Every once in a while one of the girls will start lactating on her own. Otherwise it's a hormone supplement thing. Sisters or Aunts helping with the feeding, or foster Mothers."
Celeste was incredulous. "Wow, I didn't know."
Ruby considered, "No one in the warren is currently doing it, but it's not that unusual, especially in such a communal setting."
The Mothers all noticed Celeste's unconsciously put a hand to her own breast. "Do you have any thoughts about a family?" Ruby asked.
"Me?" Celeste frowned. "I've always been just a mechanic, ya know. I've never done - girly stuff. Wouldn't even know how."
"I hope it's not too soon to mention it, but was of the impression that you and Jeremy were being very boy and girl together." Charlene warily observed.
Celeste grimaced, more in an inarticulate mash of emotion. Mostly just awkwardness, not really knowing what she felt. "I guess I never really thought of it in those terms. We were just two together." It was never sex-as-reproductive urges, or so she thought. Just intimate shared pleasures.
Then she began to think about how much she now seemed to need the sensation of those little bodies next to her.
"I guess I really don't know what I'm about. It's like being a 'grown-up', like you are supposed to have this magic transformation from child to adult. But that doesn't really happen. You just keep on keeping on. New things come up, and you learn how to deal with them."
There was a shared nod with that.
"But I've never had anything that I'd guess was a 'family'. I shared a living space with my Uncle for as far back as I can recall. He kept me fed and sheltered, taught me to ready, encouraged me to be a bibliophile for that matter, we always had books around. Taught me to be a mechanic, a machinist, how to play pool. But never anything like, I don't know, 'family' stuff. Or gender role stuff for that matter. I knew about the biology, the difference in plumbing, but all I ever knew socially were mechanics, and just thought of them as mechanics, not a gendered thing."
The Does were a little taken aback by that. For them, family was everything, and though not strictly enforced, gender roles and conduct were all part of the day-to-day of life in the warren and beyond.
"So, the idea of being a 'mother' or having any kind of family just hasn't ever been a thing for me. I have a place to sleep and a job to do..." And for the first time, it really struck her how bleak that limited life was. She shifted herself, picking up one of the little ones for the adjustment, and held her close, as much to comfort herself as the discommoded kit.
The circle of Mothers were beginning to realize too, what for them would be a nightmarish existence of crushing loneliness.
Seeing the obvious dismay in their faces, Celeste clarified. "It isn't that awful. Sort of." She made a sad little laugh, "Funny, most of what I know about how we Latrans are suppose to behave comes out of books. We're often loaners, and really mated couples are an only sometimes thing. Same thing with families, sometimes very minimal, sometimes as a small extended family, though not as extensive or intensive as a wolf pack."
"But all I know in reality is that after being alone for so long, having a taste of togetherness with Jeremy, and all this wonderful young life around me, has made me aware of what I'd been missing."
"Yes, I can see that. But, about relationships, don't be too quick to get a new 'comforter'. Rebound romances rarely end well." Ruby advised.
"Yeah, mate in haste, regret forever, or something like that." Piped in Jasmine.
"You don't have to worry about that. I was ever so lucky to have Jeremy for the time I did." Celeste observed wistfully. "He'll be hard to replace."
"For now, how about a late night nibble?" It was Bonny, the matriarch. She loved so to see her happy young Mothers and their next generations before her. And an added little hitch, the Coyote, the dreaded carnivore, now the love of those same tiny bits of future.
That any of her offspring might go with off-species mates and not directly contribute to the Hopps legacy was not so much a thing nowadays, as they brought other intangibles into the fold that only made the collective that much better. If only the circumstances between the little thing and her Son had gone different.
Funny, how the Latrans, who towered over the whole clan, could still evoke the notion of 'little pup'. But she evoked such guileless innocence in many ways, and even with her now luscious coat, was still the slightest of things. Especially compared to the rounder forms of the Mothers around her. Even the smaller Finnish Fox, the beautiful Riina, was more curvaceous.
Everyone considered the offer with enthusiasm. The Mothers sought some cover; they were nursing topless for convenience in the privacy of the nursery. Celeste needed clothes altogether, as she had stripped down to offer more of her fluff to the little ones. With her new dense coat, there wasn't anything to see, not that it would have been an issue anyway.
"Can I see how your coat's coming in?" Bonny asked. She was fascinated with the salt and pepper effects within the warm browns and greys, with a slightly darker 'saddle' in the middle of her back. Then her amazing bush of a tail. As she was a bit bigger than the foxes of her experience, her proportionally larger tail was a special wonder.
Bonny politely stroked her arm; "I can see why the little ones particularly love you for the fluffle."
"Thank you, Ma'am. As we were talking about it, I seem to be getting more maternal, whether I want to or not."
"Yes, that would be such a terrible thing." Bonny returned in mock sarcasm.
Just a short warm and fuzzy bit before the awful.
