Heads up guys, this one is super duper long! Sorry for the length, but I wrote it all in one go and didn't wanna make it its own story. Anyways, this was made for a good friend of mine on tumblr of her two OTPs—Russell/Vinnie and Pepper/Minka. I know they aren't super common pairings, but they were fun to write. Please, PLEASE send fic requests, I love to do them :)
From her perch on the pet store's tree branch, Minka squinted, holding her paint brush in front of her face. She scrutinized it closely for several moments before looking down at the shop below.
"Hm. I think this color will do," she chirped, referring to the lime-ish green dab of paint smattered on the end of the brush. "What do you think, Vinnie?"
The subject in question looked up at her with approval, grinning and sticking out a scaly thumbs-up for emphasis.
"Looks great, Minks! Now, what pose do ya have in mind for me?"
The pink monkey scratched her chin.
"Hm," she said, "I'm not sure. Why don't you try crossing your arms and leaning back a little? You know, tough guy look?"
"Aw, yeah, I'm all about that!" he replied excitedly. He quickly followed her instructions, replicating the pose as best he could.
Once he was in position, Minka began her painting. The two sat in silence for a while, the gecko trying hard to maintain his posture and the monkey making sure to capture every detail of the painting. Though Vinnie was definitely enjoying helping his friend out, the quiet began to wear on him after a while. Making sure he didn't break his pose, he shouted up:
"This is pretty cool, Minka! Do you not have any of the others help you out with this stuff?"
The monkey looked down, worried he had lost his focus. "Be careful down there, Vinnie! Keep your pose!" After she was sure he wouldn't—and after a few more careful strokes of her brush—she responded to his question.
"Eh, well… First off, I'm more of an abstract kind of painter, so models aren't something I usually need. Secondly, aside from Pepper, I don't think I've asked for another model." She thought for another moment.
"Oh, yeah! I've had Russell do it before, but he really really really and I mean REALLY hated it," Minka sing-songed from behind the canvas, her brush dancing along as she did so.
"Oh, yeah, Rusty isn't a fan of stuff like that, heh."
Minka interrupted her painting to giggle.
"Gosh, he can be so stuffy sometimes. Such a worrywart, too. I mean, he's a super duper good friend of mine, but he could use to lighten up every now and again."
Knowing her comments were in good fun, Vinnie cracked a smile of his own.
"Hehe, I know what you mean," he said, "s'one of the things I find cute about him, though. I think he's probably a good balance for me, if I'm bein' honest."
"Yeah, I think so. I have to say I was a little surprised when you got together, though! Speaking of, how long has it been now?"
Not wanting to mess up his friend's portrait, Vinnie resisted the urge to scratch his chin.
"Eh, I'm not really good with time, yanno? Seems like it's been a while, I can barely remember us being just friends."
"Hm, you know," Minka said, "I don't think I've ever heard much about how you two met, either. Come to think of it, this is probably the first time we've ever talked about you and Russell!"
Vinnie was quiet for a moment.
"S'kinda weird, if you think about it… Cuz I mean, we're all like, best friends. I see you guys every single day and you still don't know a whole lot about me an' Russell as a couple. Speakin' of which, I don't think I've heard a whole lot about you and Peppers' backstory and all that stuff either. Wonder why that is. Never thought about it before."
Minka shrugged slightly and smiled. She finally resumed her painting. Her brush danced on the canvas as she took time to think about the topic.
"Weellll," she drawled after a while, "I think that's just because we don't spend a lot of time thinking about that kind of stuff as a group or anything. And in my case, Pep is pretty private about all the mushy-gushy stuff. She'd think it would be so weird to tell everything about our lives. Besides, I still don't even really know how the others feel about it. I kinda just keep it quiet, ya know?"
Her gecko model was silent once more.
"Mmm, well, ya ever think it'd be good for us if we… you know, did stuff as couples? I mean, Penny, Zoe and Sunil are my best buds too, but I think it'd be totally awesome if we got to just chill, just the four of us. We can go on one of those… er…"
He wracked his brain for a moment. "Whaddaya call 'em… oh! Yeah, a double date! Let's go on one of those!"
Minka's painting halted completely and she peeked her beaming face out from behind the canvas. In a matter of seconds, she had completely forgotten her portrait and was climbing the tree and bounding over towards Vinnie.
"Eee, Vinnie!" she squealed, bouncing up and down around the gecko, "Vinnie, that is such a super awesome idea! Oh my gosh!"
"Heh, ya think so?" he asked, trying his hardest to be modest as the monkey embraced him in a tight hug. "It was nothin', Minks."
"Silly billy, it was a great idea! I can't believe I hadn't thought of this sooner! Eee, what do you think we should do?"
"Er, you first, heh," Vinnie choked out from Minka's furry grasp. "I'm not so good with poppin' out that many ideas in a row. 'Sides, Rusty and I don't do a whole lot of solo dates, either. Fancy ones, anyways. And, uh… we kiiinda don't have too many options."
Minka put her gecko friend down, pausing her giddy bouncing to wrack her brain for ideas.
"Ooooh, oooh. Sweet Delights, for sure!" she said giddily. "Everyone loves Sweet Delights!"
Vinnie high-fived her. "Hecks yea! Now, race ya to tell Russell and Pepper!"
Minka smiled back.
"You're on!"
"Peeeeeeppeerrrrr!" Minka called for her girlfiend in a sing-song voice. She was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement already.
Alerted by her call, the skunk popped her grey head of the fire hydrant. "Oh, hey babe. What's happenin'?"
The monkey didn't slow down an inch as she crash landed onto Pepper, throwing herself onto a girlfriend with a giggle and a thud.
"Ooof," Pepper said, patting her girlfriend's pink hair as they lay sprawled out on the floor, "Easy, babe, you're gonna kill me doin' stuff like that one day."
Blue eyes glimmering with excitement, Minka replied quickly. "But today isn't that day! Lookie here, I've got awesome news!"
"Yeah? Shoot."
"We're going on…. A double date! Eeee!"
Rocketing off of the floor, Minka began launching herself around the fire hydrant interior, bouncing up and down at every "eee!". Pepper, however, was not nearly as excited. She grabbed her girlfriend under the arms to stop her frantic hopping.
"Now hold on just a sec, Minka... Are you sure you wanna do this? Cuz I don't!"
"Aw, Pepper," the pink monkey pouted, sticking out her lower lip. "Why not? Baby, it's gonna be great! You'll see! I haven't even told you about it… gimme a chance! Pleeease?"
"Minks," Pepper responded, not yet giving into Minka's pleading gaze. "Double dates are so lame! Why on earth would we wanna sit down for dinner with another couple and do all that cutesy crap the whole time?"
Minka's gaze deepened, and Pepper was quickly losing her resolve. "But… ugh. Those eyes of yours… okay, fine, Minka…"
"Pep, you're soooo dramatic sometimes," Minka cooed playfully, locking her grumpy skunk girlfriend in a warm hug. She knew she had won. "Don't worry, you're gonna love who we're going with."
"Oh yeah?" Pepper smiled despite herself as her girlfriend pecked her on the cheek. "Who?"
"Russell and Vinnie!"
Pepper's smiled brightened even further, turning at once from reluctant acceptance to outright devilish glee. "Wait, really? Those two? Babe, you shoulda told me sooner. Ohohoho man, this is perfect. We're gonna have a blast with this."
Minka mirrored Pepper's smile with a feisty grin of her own. "See? I knew you'd want a chance to mess with Russell. Am I right, or am I right, huh?"
"Oh," Pepper purred, curling her tail around the monkeys, "You're definitely right, cutie. Now, you and I have a very special task at hand. Operation: Torment Russell is officially a go starting tomorrow at the moment our date begins. You ready to go brainstorm, my pretty co-conspirator?"
Pepper was practically brimming with devilish excitement, and so was Minka. The two girls were right in their element. Still safe within the secret-containing walls of the fire hydrant, they determined to spend the rest of the day constructing elaborate pranks.
"He-yo, Russell… Rusty!" Vinnie called out for his hedgehog boyfriend. He took a minute to scan the pet shop before his purple eyes landed on their target. Russell was organizing the toy box again, methodically separating every item with his dainty orange paws.
Vinnie quickened his pace.
"Russellll!" He shouted again as he dashed over to the hedgehog, stopping just short of a full on tackle. Russell looked up at him with a small smile.
"Well, hello to you, too, Vinnie," he said affectionately, kissing the gecko on the nose. "What's up?"
Vinnie could hardly contain himself—his purple eyes were shimmering and his wobbly green legs quivering so fast he thought he was burst. "Ah! Guess what? Guess what?"
Russell obliged. "What, Vin?" he asked, with a twinge of his own excitement in his voice.
"We're goin' on a double date! Isn't that cool?"
"Really? Well, that could be fun. You know, I've always thought it would be good for us to hang out with other couples more often. N-not that we know very many, but still."
Pleased with his boyfriend's approval, Vinnie swung his arm lazily around Russell's shoulder and responded: "Yeah, I gotcha, babe. Check it out, Rusty, cuz you're gonna love this. I got the coolest couple ever to hang with us…"
Huge grin plastered on his face, the gecko tapped his feet eagerly on the ground as a drumroll. Russell waited with baited breath for Vinnie to reveal who they would be going out with.
"Pepper and Minka!"
The hedgehog's face froze, then slowly turned into an exasperated frown.
"Wha- Vinnie," he said, rubbing his paws on his face in frustration, "Vinnie… really? Pepper and Minka don't count. They're our friends. We've known them forever. We hang out every day."
"Yeah, but not like that," his boyfriend countered. "We've never done couple stuff together. Heck, I don't even know how they starting dating!"
Russell turned away from Vinnie, still rubbing his face frustratedly.
"Do we want to see Pepper and Minka do couple stuff? Really?! I'm sure all they do is tell lame jokes to each other all day—most of them at my expense, I might add. Look Vinnie, there are a lot of things I would do for you, but getting picked on by Pepper and Minka for a whole night isn't one of them. I just don't want to do it. It won't be fun, it—"
As he turned back around to face Vinnie, he found his pleading boyfriend's face pressed to his own. The gecko was leaned down on both knees, eyes wide and
"You're cute, Vin, you know that? But it's going to take a little more than puppy dog eyes for me to back down on this one—"
"But it's gonna be fuuuun! Come on, pleeease? I'll do anything you want!"
"Oh," Russell's face contorted into a devilish grin. "Is that so? Anything?"
Vinnie blushed hotly, wondering what kind of thing Russell had in mind for him. All the same, he kept his resolve.
"Y-yeah. Anything."
"Heh, alright. Starting tomorrow, you're bathing every day!"
A few hours later, and Littlest Pet Shop was about to close for the evening. As the evening sun filtered through the shop windows, Minka and Pepper stirred from their hiding place to get ready to go home. The pair could hardly wait for the next day—the excitement of carrying out all of their devilish plans had them counting down the seconds until the date.
Minka peeped her head out of the hydrant. Sunil and Zoe had already been picked up, and Blythe was sitting comfortably in the chair with a chatty Penny Ling in her lap. Pleased with her observation that she and Pepper would have space to talk to the boys uninterrupted, Minka turned back to her girlfriend.
"Hey, Pepper, we should go over and talk to the guys about the date. We need to have everything planned."
Pepper chuckled. "Man, never thought I'd hear the day you wanted something 'planned', babe, but sure. Ah geez, I can't wait to see Rusty's face!"
The two quickly headed over to the television where their hedgehog and gecko friends were nestled comfortably. As they approached, Vinnie nudged his boyfriend in the side.
"Hey babe, lookit. I think the girls are coming over here to talk about the date with us."
"Mmm," Russell grumbled wearily, slowly rising and dusting himself off, "Here we go."
"Hiya boys!" Minka screeched once they arrived.
"Well, hello girls," Russell managed a grin despite the sinking feeling of his imminent teasing. "How's it going?"
"Pret-ty good," Pepper drawled with a grin of her own. "Excited for the date later, eh?"
Vinnie chimed in. "Heck yeah, you know it. This thing's gonna be so awesome! Sweet Delights is like, the best place ever."
Minka nodded vibrantly at Vinnie, echoing "Yeah, best place ever!"
With Pepper's resounding "Woo-hoo!" the skunk, gecko, and monkey began chatting excitedly amongst themselves. Russell tapped his foot impatiently as the conversation devolved into a cacophony of hoots and hollers.
"Ah-EM," he said, clearing his throat. Satisfied he got the other three's attention, he began speaking. "While I am just as excited as you three are about this wonderful date, I want to make something very clear. Girls, this is for you specifically—I do not want to be annoyed for the entire duration of this date. That includes, but is not limited to, pestering, poking, teasing, joking, irritating, or any other forms of torment that you can come up with. Now, I know for certain there is no reason you two would ever do what I just said, but I just wanted to make sure we're on the same page."
He finished his speech with a firm nod, trying to his hardest to ignore Pepper's exaggerated eyerolls and Minka's giggling. Vinnie, too, seemed to have zoned out already. He was looking in the other direction fixedly. But before Russell could say anything to him, the gecko turned around.
"Hey Rusty, got another idea. Penny Ling went home now, so Blythe's all alone. We oughta tell her about the date."
Pepper overheard the suggestion and chimed in. "Well, duuu-uuuh genius, she's gonna wonder where in the heck we are if we leave without telling!"
Russell narrowed his eyes at her in response, but Vinnie was too busy running excitedly next to Minka, the pair bounding towards Blythe as fast as they could.
Minka reached Blythe first, climbing up the girl's leg. She sat squarely in her lap, taking the place of the book that the teen was reading.
"Blythe! Blythe! The four of us are going on a double date! Eee, isn't that exciting?"
"Aw, that sounds like so much fun, you guys!" Blythe squealed as the remaining three pets made their way over to her, "Sweet Delights, I'd guess?"
"Indeed," Russell replied.
Blythe noticed the displeased look on the hedgehog's face and picked him up with a laugh.
"Aw, what's the matter, Mr. Grumpy?" she asked playfully as the other three flocked around her and jumped into her arms as well. "You're all gonna have a blast, I promise. Besides, you know what's gonna make the date even better?"
"What?" the pets echoed excitedly.
"New clothes for everyone!"
The next day arrived eventually- after giddy tossing and turning all night particularly on Pepper and Minka's parts— bringing with it outfits, and, most importantly, the prospect of delicious food.
Vinnie and Russell made their way into Sweet Delights first. Vinnie, hair slicked back extra tightly, wore an impeccably white dress shirt and black bowtie. His boyfriend was sporting something a little simpler—a maroon T-shirt. However, Blythe knew her two boys very well, and they were both extremely pleased with their outfits, being sure to thank her as they left for their date.
After a minute or two of waiting, Pepper and Minka walked in, their excited chattering drowning out Russell's muted complaints about their tardiness.
Minka was dressed in a strikingly pretty yellow floral dress and had her long pink hair down. Pepper's hair was scrunched up closer to her face in a cute wavy style. For Pepper, she was dressed quite femininely, but her girlfriend seemed to really like it, blue eyes sparkling towards the skunk at every moment.
"Aw, Minka," Vinnie remarked when they arrive, "That dress is so freakin' cute. You look great! Even you look great, Pep!"
"Yeah yeah," Pepper huffed, glossing over Vinnie's unintentionally insensitive remark. "I wanted the super cool rodeo clown look, but Blythe thought that would be 'too much'. But, eh. Whatever. You two look pretty good too."
"Why, thank you—"
Russell's curt thanks was cut off by the sound of Buttercream's chirpy voice.
"Weeelll howdy dowdy my friends!" the yellow rabbit said cheerily. She was followed quickly by Aunt Christie, who smiled down at the 2 couples.
"Oh, you four are so cute," she cooed, "Blythe really knows what she's doing. So cute, dressing you up and setting you out on dates. I'll go get the food ready, hm?"
The woman laughed heartily to herself as she walked back into the kitchen. In her place, Buttercream guided the four over to their small table, chatting as she did so.
"Yessir-ee, food will be comin' right up. Cookies, cakes, ice cream and candies galore. Boy oh boy, I'm getting hungry hungry just thinkin' about it. Okey dokey, ol' Buttercream's gonna go help Aunt Christie in the kitchen. See yall later!"
After her energized speech, the bunny quickly bounded back off into the kitchen, leaving the four to themselves.
Pepper spoke first, not allowing for even a moment of silence.
"So," she said, "I gotta great way to start of this rad date of ours. How 'bout it—comedy stint?"
Minka cheered at the suggestion, but Russell and Vinnie merely exchanged bored glances with one another, unimpressed. Russell voiced his opinion.
"Ah, ah, this is heading right into "make fun of Russell territory". As I mentioned, instead of crude jokes, I think we should talk about something else. In fact, I have a great topic. I don't think Vinnie and I have ever heard how you two got together."
Pepper and Minka both looked at each other and then shrugged noncommittally, but Pepper spoke first.
"Eh, well, there's nothing really big about it, yanno? I mean, we starting hanging out a lot a while back, more than we usually did. One day, we were just joking around, and she called me her girlfriend."
Minka piped in.
"It wasn't supposed to be serious at the time, but once I said it I realized that's what I wanted Pepper to be. Soooo we talked about it, and decided we both really really wanted to be girlfriends, for real!"
"That's kinda the long and short of it," Pepper said, nodding and wrapping her arm around her girlfriend for a quick hug.
Vinnie smiled and gave them a thumb's up, but Russell had to interject.
"That's it?"
"Uh, yeah?" Pepper replied.
"What a short story! Wow, Vinnie and I's backstory is muuuuch longer than that. In fact, I think I'll share it with you two," he said eagerly.
Pepper, Minka, and even Vinnie exchanged glances of exasperation. The gecko mouthed "here we go" at the two girls as Russell began his long tale.
"Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday… I was just a naïve hedgehog back then, in the spring of my youth. One fine day, when playing with my dear Vinnie here, I just so happened to realize I had deep, deep feelings for him. Ah, I could look into his eyes forever…"
Vinnie blushed both out of flattery and embarrassment as his boyfriend continued his long winded tale. Pepper and Minka both tried to stifle their laughter.
"I knew what I was feeling, but yet I felt I needed to hide my true emotions. Oh, it was a fitful time for me. So much time spent merely pining away for him, unable to confess my heart's deepest desires. With how private I was about my innermost thoughts, it took a long, long time for us to finally become a couple. But, one fateful day, I finally worked up the nerve to tell him how I was feeling. I never should have waited—as it turns out, we both felt the same about each other. We both locked in a romantic embrace, two souls becoming one with one another, a true love story…"
He sighed wistfully as he ended his tale. Vinnie tried to match his boyfriend's look of love, but couldn't hide his mortification. Russell was never good at these kinds of things. He watched way too much "Dutchess of Lancaster Lane". Minka and Pepper merely looked on. All was silent for a moment, but the skunk decided to break the quiet.
"Hah, gaaaaay," she hooted loudly.
Minka and Vinnie burst into fitful laughter as Russell crossed his arms huffily. He shot an angry glance at Pepper, who smiled back at him.
"Oh come onnn, Russ-Russ," she teased, her pet name adding to the hedgehog's ire, "you know comedy's kinda my thing."
"Yes, and you know I asked you to please not tease me at this date. Now, if you'll excuse me, the food is here, and I'm quite ready to eat."
Arms still crossed, he turned his upward-pointed snout away from the skunk-monkey couple and towards Buttercream, who was hopping gleefully towards the foursome. A plate of lavishly decorated sweets—candy, cake, ice cream, and cookies—rest in her hands.
"Alrighty bo-bighty you four cutie patooties, you. Here's your food."
She set the plate in the middle of the table, and four smaller plates next to each pet. The four quickly decided what they would like on each of their plates while Buttercream ran off again.
"Haaaaave fuuuuuuun!"
Pepper, Minka, and Vinnie eyed their food hungrily, about ready to dig in. Before they could do so, however, their hedgehog friend cleared his throat to call their attention.
"A-hem," he said, smoothing out his t-shirt, "now, alright everyone. Before we begin, we all need to make sure we don't get any food on our clothes. Blythe tailor-made them for us, it's important we respect that and be tidy."
He nodded curtly to himself, giving a self-assured grin. Pepper and Minka giggled to themselves as Russell turned his glance over to his boyfriend for approval. The gecko gave him a grin and a thumbs up.
"Yeah ladies, Russell's right," he said. He patted his outfit affectionately. "Can't get these babies dirty, no sir-ee."
Pleased, Russell leaned in to Vinnie, whispering lowly, "It's about time you showed me some support, handsome." To show he was being playful instead of scolding, he gave the gecko a quick peck on the cheek. Knowing what kind of teasing would come because of his display of affection, he waited for a gagging noise to come from Pepper in response. When none came, the boys looked over at the other couple.
Minka and Pepper were both eating noisily, exchanging playful glances with one another over gobbles of cupcakes and cookies. The devilish look in Pepper's eyes and the playful mirth in Minka's told Russell all he needed to know—these two were deliberately toying with him.
Vinnie noticed Russell's anger flaring up again. "Easy, babe," he said as he patted Russell on the back. "It's all in good fun. Just enjoy the food, 'kay?"
The girls on the other side of the table, meanwhile, continued to conspire wordlessly. Exchanging delighted glances with one another, they slowly started to eat more voraciously and messily. Russell, though brimming with anger, decided he needed to bite his tongue on the matter. He turned his pointed nose downward, lightly munching on a strawberry cupcake.
Pepper noticed Russell wasn't engaging. Challenged by this, she quickly drew closer to her girlfriend. With almost imperceptible sneakiness, she whispered: "Hey babe, we gotta kick this up a notch, kay? Remember what we talked about? Plan B is a go."
Minka simply nodded in response. She gave her best poker face as she swiftly scooped up a pawful of ice cream and tossed it ever so lightly onto Russell's red shirt. The hedgehog, who had previously not been looking at the girls, snapped his head up immediately.
"Girls! You're being filthy! What did I just say about getting our clothes dirty? Blythe would be very upset with us if we ruined her hard work—"
Minka interjected quickly. Her voice was imbued with the best faux-innocence she could muster.
"Sorry, Russell! I guess we were eating too fast. Won't happen again!"
Russell looked over at Vinnie pleadingly, not seeing or hearing the quick high-five and feverish whispers the girls exchanged between themselves.
Vinnie, on the other hand, was trying his hardest to give his boyfriend a sympathetic gaze. Even so, he almost choked on his laughter.
Vainly trying to stifle his giggles, he gasped, "Babe… Rusty, babe. Calm down, okay? I-it'll, it'll wash out, babe—"
Splat. In the middle of his sentence, Vinnie felt something land on his shirt. Something wet, sticky, and messy had just landed on his shirt. Before he could do anything, he felt another splat. But this time, it was much worse. No, oh no. This time it had landed on his hair.
The gecko started out of his chair. He was too blindingly angry to even notice his boyfriend's giant smug smirk. With a battle cry of: "Oh, it is SO on now!" Vinnie picked up a heavily frosted cupcake and launched it with reckless abandon, plastering Pepper in the face.
Minka, filled with excited glee instead of rage, launched yet another barrage of ice cream, sending it splattering all over the boys. Pepper quickly regained her composure and followed suit, laughing madly as she tossed pies and cakes at the two.
Vinnie had found nailing Pepper in the face sufficiently cathartic, and was beginning to chuckle despite himself as he continued stockpiling his arsenal of cupcakes to hurl at the girls. At this point, even Russell had stopped objecting. Outfit completely ruined and all sorts of sticky sweets stuck to his fur and quills, he decided to join in on the fun himself. His ice-cream grenade quickly found a target in Minka, sending the monkey toppling back.
Meanwhile, Buttercream had snuck back in. Green eyes wide with amusement and surprise, she slowly nibbled on a runaway cookie as she watched the fight going on.
In a flurry of green, orange, pink, and grey as well as a tangle of fur, scales, and sticky sweets, the two couples battled each other with ardor. Eventually, however, their supplies were exhausted—all of the food lay in puddles or crumbles on the floor or on their bodies. Shortly afterwards, the foursome collapsed on the ground in a giggling mess.
At that moment, Aunt Christie walked in, calling Buttercream's name. Once she found the bunny innocently munching on a cookie, she looked up at the mess in front of her and gasped.
"Oh… oh my. I can't believe it. You four made all this mess? You are in so much trouble!"
Pepper, Minka, Vinnie, and Russell found themselves shortly thereafter in the arms of Mrs. Twombly, who cradled them in her arms despite the sticky hazards of doing so.
"Oh, now," she said to them, "I have no idea what Christie was talking about, but you four sweeties are such little angels. I told her myself—'my sweeties would never do such a thing'! I wonder how you actually got to be all dirty, but no matter. Blythe can fix you right up!"
She opened the door to the pet shop to call for her helper.
"Oh Blythe! Blythe, dear! Can you come here for a minute?"
With her usual "Sure thing, Mrs. T," Blythe walked over to her and the pets, who were now set down on the ground and peering up at the teenager sheepishly.
"What happened this time?" Blythe inquired with a small chuckle.
"Oh, the sweeties got into a mess at Sweet Delights. Christie wasn't too happy, but everything's alright. It would be wonderful if you could give them a bath, is all. Thank you dearie!"
Mrs. Twombly then closed the door and headed back to her station at the cashier, leaving Blythe with the four perpetrators.
"Ok-ay, guys, what actually happened?"
They sighed defeatedly. None wanted to speak, but eventually Russell piped up.
"We, uh… got in a bit of a food fight on our date."
The other three nodded in agreement, wondering what Blythe would say to them. The teen crossed her arms.
"Guys," she said, sitting down on the floor with them, "you know that was a terrible idea. I'm sure you made a total mess of the place."
She sighed. "Look, I know you four wanted to have a fun date, and I know these kinds of things are important to you because you're couples and sometimes couples need to do things like this with each other. It's fun, I get that. But it's not good or fun to destroy people's property and make a mess of things, okay? Now, I'm going to get you into a bath and wash your clothes. Afterwards, we're all gonna go over and help clean up Sweet Delights. Alright?"
Getting themselves and Sweet Delights clean proved to be a long, arduous, and considerably less fun part of the day for the pets. Already tired from their food fight, they ended up even more exhausted after fixing their mess.
There were still a few more hours before their owners came for them, but they could barely keep their eyes open. Three of them, anyway. Minka was still full of energy, bouncing around on a perpetual sugar high.
"So guys," she said smiling, "When can we do this again, huh?"
Her girlfriend let out a snort and the boys soon followed with their own chuckles. After a moment, all four of them were laughing raucously despite their various states of exhausted.
"Ahhh…. never gonna happen, babe," Pepper said finally, wiping a mirthful tear from her eye.
"Yep," Vinnie responded, "No way no how."
"Agreed," Russell echoed.
"Aw, you guys are no fun," Minka said, pouting. Her sadness was gone on a whim, however, as she turned over to Pepper. Minka leapt into her girlfriend's arms excitedly.
"Well then, if another date isn't on the table… ready for more pranks, Pepper? Looks like Zoe, Sunil, and Penny could use some fun. I was thinking… pie to the face? Eee, eee, so fun!"
"Oof," the skunk replied tentatively as her girlfriend climbed on top of her. "Ah, Minks, I think I'm done for the day. Can we just go pass some jokes back and forth, preferably cuddling and completely still?"
Her particular emphasis on the last part of her sentence elicited a small whine from her partner, but before Minka could reply, the skunk started again.
"Need I remind you who agreed to go on the date in the first place?" she inquired teasingly. "You love jokes, babe."
Minka gave a small smile,
Pepper then carried her girlfriend away, the two retreating towards their usual fire hydrant sanctuary. Vinnie and Russell were left alone at last. Both yawned wearily. After a bit, Vinnie broke the silence.
"Huh, I'm kinda realllyyy tired. Looks like you are too, eh?"
"After today's events, I could sleep a million years and it'd never be enough," Russell replied, rubbing his eyes.
"We can put that to the test, babe," Vinnie replied with a grin, grabbing his boyfriend's paw and interlocking it with his own. The pair headed in the direction of the TV. They both had mutually, wordlessly agreed that the best way to recover from the day's events was to binge watch movies under the blankets.
Sitting down in front of the TV, Vinnie turned to Russell. He had a sheepish look on his face.
"I… I hope you, uh, still had fun an' all. Sorry if I dragged you into it and you had a sucky time".
Without even needing to think about his response, Russell gave Vinnie a kiss, then locked him in a hug.
"Sucky time or not," he said, "If you're happy, I'm happy. And I know you care."
That was all the reassurance Vinnie needed. He smiled as the two laid back into the soft pillows and blankets and slowly snuggled up next to each other with contented sighs.
"…..but I am never, ever doing that again."