Chapter 13 My Cute New Friend

Wendy hugged Judy to her chest. Feelings; positive ones, beautiful ones, welled up within her. They took over her mind, the very core of her being. They made her feel like she was at the top of the world. She wondered if this had anything to do with endorphins, as Iggy had said looking at or holding something you find to be cute releases serotonin. Well. whatever the reason, Wendy knew that she wasn't going to let Judy go for a long, long LONG while.

"LET ME GO!" Judy gasped.

With one last squeeze, she let the rabbit officer go. She smiled at her, knowing full and well that they were going to have the time of their lives.

That is, until Judy rushed toward the door. She pounded furiously on the thing, banged on it with every muscle present in her body. "LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

That was when something occurred to Wendy. Call it an epiphany, call it a stroke of conscience, call it whatever you want. As Wendy looked at Judy, she realized that...that…

She had taken her out of her home. She had taken her out of her life. She had even taken her out of her own dimension. Her little fuzzy animal friends were probably worried sick about her, and for good reason. Since she technically wasn't in her home dimension anymore, one could easily and logically assume that she was dead.

Wendy felt vomit fill her mouth as Judy continued banging on the door, making absolutely no progress with knocking it down. She swallowed the acidic, watery lump, trying to push her feelings down with it.

"Judy, please stop." She said this for no other reason than to not have the banging stir her conscience.

Judy kicked the door one last time. She panted and heaved, placing her hands on her knees like they were a form of life support. She then turned toward Wendy. The way the bunny's nose twitched, the way her ears flopped, the way she looked at Wendy….it made the female Koopalign feel even worse.

"Send me back home," Judy whispered. When Wendy didn't respond right away, she went up and started to punch her in the chest. "SEND ME BACK HOME! SEND ME BACK HOME NOW!"

Wendy began to cry. She really was causing this poor rabbit pain. All because she had taken Bowser's advice. Darn Bowser.

Although...the fact that Judy was here l, in her room, staring her right in the face...it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Wendy couldn't let her go home. Sure, she also can't stand the fact that the rabbit is miserable, but…

"Why don't I send you back home later?"

Judy blinked. "What?"

Wendy sighed and stood up. "Look...you might not understand this. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if you downright denounce me for it. But…" she swallowed some tears…. "I just had a falling out with one of my friends."

"Okay. That's nice," Judy said, her tone ripe with sarcasm. "But what does that have to do with me?"

Wendy bit her lip. "I...sure, she wasn't the best friend," she continued. "We didn't even know each other for very long in the grand scheme of things. But...it still hurt when she accused me of lying. When she accused me of leading her on. When she…" Wendy whimpered. "When she cut me off."

Judy's eyebrows scrunched up as Wendy buried her head in her hands. The rabbit was probably judging her. Probably calling. Her all sorts of horrible names in her head. "Again, how is this important to me? You kidnapped me!"

"I know! But you're just….so cute!" Wendy stood up. "I want to be friends with you, Judy. I want to be able to form a friendship that lasts." She smiled. "And, well, you're here now."

"AGAINST MY WILL!" Judy shouted in protest.

Wendy cringed. "Yes, against your will; that's true." She lowered her head. "But...I know that you would never be here willingly. And if I want to be friends with you, then...well, what's wrong with doing a little push in the right direction?"

Judy gawked, her jaw dropping. Wendy smiled painfully. She knew that this was wrong; her conscience was telling her so. However….did she really need to listen to her conscience all the time? What was wrong with doing something for herself every once in a great while?

So, she pushed her thoughts away and put them to the side. She would deal with the guilt she was feeling later.

"What I'm trying to say," Wendy said, "is that I will be willing to send you home if you spend some time with me. Let us get to know each other a little bit."

Judy still looked absolutely, downright horrified. "What's the alternative?"

Wendy swallowed a lump in her throat again. "The alternative is that I don't send you home."

Judy's nose twitched in fear. Eventually, she sighed. "Okay. Okay. I'll...be friends with you."

Wendy smiled. "Thanks, Judy. I really appreciate it." She sighed and looked around her room. "Well, since we're friends, I suppose I should introduce you to my family." She grinned. "You're gonna love my family, Judy! I have six brothers; four older, two younger. It's certainly a big family."

Judy chuckled, although Wendy couldn't help but notice the apprehension in her tone. "Yeah. That's a big family." She then muttered under her breath "not as big as the family I have, but hey, that's just a technicality."

So, Wendy led Judy out of her room. The first people who they saw in the hallway were Lemmy and Ludwig. They were...playing catch? Okay, an odd thing to do in the narrow hallway, but okay. At least they weren't breaking anything.

Crash!

Perhaps Wendy thought that too soon.

"Oh, darn it!" Lemmy exclaimed. "That's Bowser's vase; he's going to throw a fit!"

"No, no he's not." Ludwig used his telekinesis to move the broken shards into a trash can near the window, causing Judy to gawk. "If it's so valuable, why would he put it in our hallway where it can so easily be broken?"

Lemmy put his hand to his chin. "You...you actually make a good point." He smiled. "This is just our little secret!"

"Yeah," Ludwig said with a snicker. "Nothing to see here."

Wendy cleared her throat. "Hey guys!"

"Hey Wendy," Lemmy and Ludwig said in unison. There eyes locked onto Judy, whose nose was still twitching like mad.

"Woah, Wendy!" Lemmy exclaimed. He rushed up to Judy, who looked just about ready to attack him if push came to shove. "That thing is so cute!"

Wendy chuckled. "She's not a thing. She's my friend."

"Your friend?" Ludwig asked with a raised eyebrow.

Judy chuckled nervously. "Yeah. I'm her...I'm her friend."

"My cute new friend," said Wendy. She patted Judy on the back, all while Ludwig looked at her suspiciously.

"Why is she a rabbit?" He directed his gaze up toward his sister. "Is she from that anthropomorphic animal universe?"

Wendy swallowed yet another lump. "Maybe?"

"Ooh, cool!" Lemmy said. He took Judy's hand and gave it a mighty shake. "Welcome to our universe, little rabbit!"

Judy tried to smile, but failed. "Th...thank you?"

Ludwig still looked at Wendy with a raised eyebrow, which caused her stomach to squirm. "Wendy, what is she doing here, exactly?"

Wendy's heart thumped. She couldn't tell Ludwig that she had kidnapped Judy. He would reprimand her for it, bash her for this horrible, awful decision.

"She's just here."

Ludwig kept his eyebrow raised, and this time, Lemmy's suspicion was activated enough for him to do the same thing. "How?"

"That's…" Wendy took a deep breath. "That's not important. She's here now, and we're friends."

Ludwig looked down at the rabbit. "Is that so?"

Judy looked up at Wendy. She looked scared, hesitant. She finally sighed and turned back to Ludwig. "Yes. It is so."

Ludwig finally lowered his eyebrow and shrugged. "Okay." He looked back at Lemmy. "Come on, Lems. Let's go work on a song."

"Okay!"

With that, Ludwig and Lemmy went back into their room. There was a pause after the door closed before Wendy cleared her throat. "That was Lemmy and Ludwig. They're my two oldest brothers."

"Cool," Judy uttered.

"I...I plan on introducing you to everyone. I really think you'll like my family."

Judy sighed. "Sure," she whispered. "I like everything under duress."

Wendy blinked. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just...lead the way."

Wendy nodded and led Judy down the hall. Her conscience was going nuts, but you know what? Sometimes, it was good to be selfish. You take opportunities you don't normally when you're selfish. Sure, most often, those opportunities involve hurting others, but…

Wendy shook her head. Again, she would deal with the guilt later. Right now, she had to find the others.