A/N: Normally, I don't put author's notes at the beginning of my fics, but this one requires some context lol. Consider this a bonus scene from my silly fairytale AU, Sunshine and Yellow Lilies. As such, if you haven't read that story, none of this will make any sense. If you are one of the folks who reads my longfic, go ahead and proceed! :)

As for the chronology, this story starts off right around the middle of chapter eight, and runs all the way until maybe a few hours or so after the ending of chapter nine. There's no spoilers for anything that happens after that point.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little snippet while I definitely do not procrastinate on writing the actual story!

...

A Brief Lesson in Bennyology

A SAYL Story

By: An Undercover Changeling

…

While Luan could be annoying at times, Lana had to hand it to her for once. This strange, fluffy friend of hers was actually a really good investment. Lana loved all her animal buddies, of course, but she'd never met an animal quite as great as this one.

Benny didn't care where she smeared her boogers, or how many frogs she swiped from the town pond and moved into his garden. He happily chased after sticks and rolled-up newspapers whenever she asked. Once, she'd even spotted him curled up by the fireplace, batting lazily at one of Leni's balls of yarn like an oversized cat. That had been pretty funny.

Not to mention he could talk! In actual words! A talking animal friend, how cool was that?

Benny was everything Lana had ever wanted in a puppy and a kitten. Though when she brought this up to Luan one calm and cloudy afternoon, her older sister dismissed this obvious fact with a simple shake of her head–which sent her ponytail flying–and a quick roll of her eyes.

"Benny might seem a bit furry on the outside, Lana," she reprimanded gently, setting down the script for her play and looking Lana right in the eyes. "And…okay, maybe a bit cute, in a way, but he's not a puppy. Or a kitten. He's a silly, beautiful creature all his own."

"But the most important thing to remember is that deep down, below all of that stuff on the surface, he's human, and should be treated like that. He dresses like a human. He speaks like a human. He walks like a human…mostly. And I would assume he thinks like a human, though half the time I'm not entirely sure what goes on in that wonderful mind of his."

She was distracted for a minute as Benny walked by. With a peculiar, almost enraptured look upon her face, Luan watched the strange creature sweep his featherduster across the mantel on the fireplace and happily answer a storm of questions Lola and Lucy were hurling his way.

"Anyway, the most important thing to remember is to treat him with respect. Let him know you care, and that you like him exactly as he is. Not as a puppy. Not as a kitty. Just as a sweet and wonderful person."

Lana had never heard Luan say something so thoughtful and serious. Before she'd met this peculiar prince, she'd been a nonstop tornado of pranks and puns–all day, every day. Now, though she was still ridiculous beyond belief, she'd become so much more mellowed-out. More likely to think before she spoke. Maybe Benny was a good influence on her.

But Lana didn't say any of this out loud. Instead, she crossed her arms and pouted (Lola was far from the only one in the family who could pull off a sour face, after all). "Fine. I'll let your sweet and wonderful person know that he doesn't have to fetch any more sticks for me."

That brought a curious hint of color to Luan's cheeks. "He's not mine. I don't own him."

"You sure about that?" Lana asked. When Luan raised an eyebrow in response, Lana explained her reasoning: "He likes us, but his tail only wags for you. And I don't know if you've noticed, but he's always following you around. Like a sheepdog–he's always on your heels. He must think you're really special."

Luan's cheeks flushed an even deeper color. "He just knows me the best, that's all. Don't try to read too far into it."

But Lana begged to differ. She had an inkling of a feeling that there was something more to Benny's behavior than Luan was aware of. Something quite extraordinary, in fact.

And it wasn't Benny's human side that had first caused her to theorize about this. Nor was it his human side that could tell her the answers for sure. It was the other side of him. His feline-canine side.

Animals talk with their bodies. Lana recalled the text from a book on dogs she'd read once. Their ears, tails, faces, and posture can say a lot more than any words ever could.

So, then, if she wanted to know more about this strange, funny beast and the things he thought about, perhaps the way to do it really was to tap into the side of him that was, for whatever reason, less than human.

Then I can find out what he's actually saying to her.

Lana rolled up her sleeves with a grin.

Time for a brief lesson in biology, big sis.

…

Not even five minutes later, Lana watched extra-carefully, notebook in hand, as Benny stepped away from the fireplace for a second to playfully brush his featherduster against the tip of Luan's nose. The three scarves Luan had been juggling in the air fell to the floor like windblown flower petals.

"What are you doing?" she said with a laugh, swatting his paw away with a swift flick of her wrist.

He shrugged, though Lana noticed the end of his tail twitched as he looked at her.

Wow. That was classic canine talk for "I'm very pleased to see you."

He did this kind of thing all the time when Luan was around. It was like he wasn't even trying to be secretive about it.

Then again, Lana knew all too well that a dog couldn't completely control his tail, and judging by the times he'd accidentally knocked over a chair or two, or whacked Lisa in the face with it, neither could Benny.

Lana whipped out her pen and made a note in her journal: Subject shows strong evidence of an affectionate bond with my sister Luan.

Hey, that actually sounded really smart and scientificish. Maybe Lisa was rubbing off on her, somehow.

To Lana's dismay, Benny didn't actually tell Luan any of that stuff he was feeling, at least not in human words that she could understand. The only thing that tumbled out of his mouth was: "A little spring cleaning."

"It's autumn, you goof." Luan knelt to the ground, sweeping two of her scarves off the ground and back into her arms.

Benny picked up the third and presented it to her. "Any cleaning is spring cleaning if you have a bit of spring in your step, my fair lady."

With those words, he skipped and twirled away like a cheerful, bushy-tailed mime, right on back to his chores. When Lola and Lucy gave him a brief round of applause, he bowed, winning a faint smile out of Luan in the process.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" she called after him.

When Benny turned around, confused, Luan held up his featherduster with a laugh. Not even Lana had been keen enough to have seen her snatch it from him.

"Sorry," he said as he shyly walked back across the room to retrieve it from her. "That was a bad pun, wasn't it?"

She flashed him a saucy, rakish grin as their fingertips touched. "Not quite as bad as your reflexes, toots."

It may have been her imagination, but Lana thought Benny might've been surprised by Luan's casual touch, and by the way she smiled as she did it. Although, come to think of it, why wouldn't he be? He wasn't used to being around so many people. Or really, any people at all.

But he never made that kind of face whenever Lana touched him.

Once the featherduster was back in Benny's paws, Luan tossed her first scarf in the air again. "Now, I'm going to need you to take every last adorable inch of you and put yourself somewhere else. Stop making me lose my focus."

"Your wish is my command," Benny said, stepping back to give her some space.

But, to Lana's surprise, Benny didn't take his eyes off of Luan. He continued to watch her for a few minutes as she practiced, cracking a small smile whenever she laughed as a scarf dropped to the floor or landed on her head.

And just then, before he turned away, Lana saw it.

It was a big, fat, humongous sign that there was something up between them, blazing bright and red in her face.

As Benny looked at her big sister, his eyes opened wide, then shut tight in a slow, calm, extremely familiar rhythm.

Blink, blink, blink.

…

Only a few short months ago, Lana had witnessed a similar biological phenomenon occur in the family's housecat: a thin black bundle of fur with a slightly grouchy demeanor named Cliff. Lori had been petting him while they traveled from place to place in the family caravan, grinning as he purred contently on her lap, when he'd suddenly opened his eyes, looked up at her, and sent her a series of long, slow blinks.

Lori had instantly turned to face her with a puzzled frown. "Lana, explain."

"Explain what?" Lana had been sitting right next to Lori that day, in full view of the interaction. Nothing about it had seemed out of the ordinary to her at all.

"Why did Cliff just go blink, blink, blink at me?"

"Oh, that's a thing cats do," Lana had told her. She leaned over and smoothed down the fur on Cliff's back. "When they slowly blink at you like that, it's a sign that they love and trust you. Cats like to be alert and aware of their surroundings at all times, so when one's able to relax around you and close his eyes, it means that he feels safe being vulnerable around you. He doesn't see you as a threat."

Lori had made a small hum of approval, lifting a hand to gently stroke behind the cat's ears. "Awww, that's kind of sweet. I love you too, Cliff."

"It's almost like the cat version of a smile," Lana had informed her (pulling on a smile of her own in the process, because this little moment really was pretty adorable). "Or even a kiss."

…

A kiss. The thought of it shocked Lana right to her core. Was this the Benny equivalent of that?

Surely this bizarre puppy-kitty thing that the Louds had accidentally adopted…he didn't like-like her sister, did he? So much that he wanted to kiss her? That was ridiculous, right? Nothing more than her brain speculating about things that weren't actually true.

Right?

Then again, Leni had called him Luan's boyfriend the other day. Maybe there was actually some real merit behind her thoughts for once.

At the very least, if Benny's instincts were anything like a cat's, and Lana had ample reason to suspect they were, it was becoming more and more obvious that he trusted Luan immensely, to the point where he even felt safe being vulnerable around her, and saw her as a very special friend. And since he never said much of this aloud, there was a decent chance Luan was still completely in the dark about some of this information.

Lana smiled. It was pretty cool to know something Luan didn't.

But she still wasn't entirely sure what to think of the wild possibility of her goofy little animal friend having a crush on her big sister, even after Luan's constant reminders that he was actually a cursed human. Not a real animal, just a regular person in a fluffy costume.

Lana continued to spy on the pair and their interactions for a good while, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was indeed a strangely abundant amount of smiles and giggles from Luan's end and tail-wagging from Benny's. But whether this was a friend thing, a close friend thing, or a close friend thing, Lana still had no clue. It would require a lot more research, but Benny's behavior was so intriguing to her that she was actually excited to study it.

Right then, Lana felt two light taps, one on each of her shoulders. Turning left revealed a curtain of dark bangs and a face as pale as ash. Turning right, she was met with a pair of thick, round glasses and a sparkling pink princess dress.

"Elder sibling, if I may, what in Kepler's name has occupied your interest today?" Lisa asked, blinking her owlish, hazel-brown eyes in confusion.

"Yeah, what are you up to, Lana?" Lola made a suspicious face at her twin.

Lana shrugged. "Biology."

"It looks an awful lot like you're spying on Benny and Luan," Lucy remarked.

"Exactly," Lana said as Benny shyly brushed past to bother Luan with his featherduster once again, causing her to shove him away once more with a goofy, lopsided smile.

Lana sat back with a content smile to watch the show, pen at the ready and brimming with ink.

This is going to be good.

…

"Could you read it again?"

"I've read this page four times in a row, you silly boy. Shouldn't you be bored of it by now?"

It was late afternoon on the next day when Lana finally had to admit it. Benny and Luan were cute together. In a weird, goofy way.

Earlier, Lori had led all of the siblings (minus Luan) in a sibling meeting, during which Lola had relayed the details of her spy missions to the smiling, giggling group: according to her, Luan was, in fact, flirting with Benny.

While Lana had never been quite so sure of Luan's motives (she was much harder to read than Benny was), when Luna had asked if any of the siblings thought Luan was into him, Lori and Leni's hands had raised so confidently that Lana had, somehow, been easily persuaded to put up her own as well.

As for the question of whether or not Benny liked her back–Lana hadn't been entirely sure how to answer that one, either. All she'd responded with was a simple "Maybe?", because while she knew full well from her observations that Benny liked Luan, she was still on the fence about whether or not he liked her. And she didn't want to make any assumptions or cause any trouble before she knew for certain what was actually going on.

Like how you really shouldn't send a bicycle out onto the road until you knew for sure that all the pieces were in proper working order. Everything ought to be examined carefully and closely. Or maybe that was the mechanic part of her talking.

All of her sisters had, once again, been much more certain about their answers. They all seemed incredibly deep-set on the idea that Luan and Benny had a thing for each other.

How and why were they so confident about this in such a short time? Maybe they were just a whole lot better at this romance thing than she was. Lana knew about animals, and she knew about their instincts–that was it. None of that complicated romantic mumbo-jumbo. Only pure, honest emotions.

But now, watching these two again, she was starting to see subtle signs everywhere that indicated that romantic feelings might've been blooming between them. Especially on Benny's end.

It had been quite an interesting experience. The list in Lana's notebook was now chock-full of interesting things she'd seen Benny doing. More tail-wagging. A lot more tail-wagging. The way he always listened, ears perked and tail alert, whenever Luan spoke to him. That peculiar way he looked up whenever Luan walked by, as if he knew the sound of her footsteps. Only her footsteps produced this result; he hadn't twitched so much as a muscle in response to anyone else's. And yesterday, as Lana had strained her ears hard, she'd even thought she'd heard a purr come out of him when Luan had casually brushed a hand across his shoulder on her way to retrieve her juggling pins.

Yep, he's definitely found his favorite person.

That was one thing a lot of pets had in common. They loved their whole family, but there were always a few people within it that they felt particularly drawn to more than anyone else. Usually in the Loud family, one of the people the animals loved most of all was Lana, but Lucy's bat, of course, preferred Lucy. And Cliff seemed most comfortable around her parents, Lori, and Lincoln.

But Benny…. Benny preferred Luan. A lot.

Any animal expert would conclude that he must feel as though he belonged to her. Or with her, at least.

It had been pretty funny to see Benny's ears and tail visibly relax when in Luan's presence even as the rest of him was tripping over his words (and occasionally, his own feet) in his rush to get her attention and impress her. The animal side of him was more than comfortable around her; it was actually his human side that kept getting in his way!

It had also been funny seeing Lincoln and some of the girls trail after him while he'd finished his chores from the previous day and as he'd searched around the castle for wherever Lily had scattered all the checkers from the set he, Luan, and Lana had been playing with earlier. As he did this, they'd asked him far more questions than he could ever possibly keep up with.

Since Lana had recommended it (for research purposes), some of those questions had been about Luan. How they'd met, what he thought of her, that kind of thing. And this produced another interesting result. Whenever they'd asked him a question regarding Luan, he'd answered with smooth nonchalance, maybe the occasional stammer or two at most, but his ears had told a very different story. Curled up in a corner to watch, Lana had noticed how they'd pulled themselves back, flattening against his head: the way animals reacted when faced with a predator, or something equally scary.

And he'd clearly felt nervous when Lori had dropped hints earlier that he seemed "particularly interested in relationships." His whole face had gone visibly red (enough to show right through all his thick brown fur) at Lynn's suggestion that he might marry Luan one day. And though he'd outwardly denied having a crush on her, he hadn't seemed very confident about it. If anything, he'd seemed to be overly stiff and serious when delivering this declaration, which hadn't matched at all with the way the fur on his neck had stood on end–a typical feline fear response, and most likely a typical Benny one as well.

Benny was comfortable around Luan, but anxious when talking about her. In fact, he might've even been afraid to talk about her. Very interesting.

What if he does like her in sort of a romantic way, and that's why he's shy when we ask him this type of stuff about her? That would make sense.

Now Lana and her comrades, Lola, Lucy, and Lisa, were huddled together in a corner of the lobby, watching as Luan and Benny went over Luan's lines for the play. Even now, the way he was sitting, with his posture straight, paws still and folded neatly, ears erect, and tail lightly sweeping across the floor (an unconscious habit of his?) told Lana a lot about how he was feeling. Delighted, slightly nervous, listening very carefully…. maybe a tiny bit too eager to please, if I'm being honest.

"Or anything, really. I like hearing your voice," Benny admitted. Based on Lana's gathered evidence, he was, in fact, speaking the truth.

"Oh, stop it, you," Luan said, twirling the end of her ponytail with a delighted smile. "You're going to turn my face into a tomato, Benny."

For a minute, Lana almost wished that Luan had a tail. Because she thought for sure that if she did, it would've been wagging right about now.

"And it's nice to hear my name again," he added, his voice much softer and shyer than before. "It sounds nice when you say it, I mean…"

Lana observed with fascination the way that Benny seemed to shrink back a bit after he said those words, a bit like the way Cliff reacted to the sight of bathwater–he'd try to make himself as small and unseen as possible. As Luan took her eyes off her script, looking right at him, he dropped his gaze immediately, glancing down at the floor instead.

Now he's clearly feeling anxious around her. Maybe he is scared of her, after all.

Luan, however, didn't seem put-off by his timid nature. Even as he slid back, she leaned forward, bridging the gap he'd made between them.

"Really? You like that?" Luan's smile grew wider, and, Lana thought, a little devious. "Well…I can do it again if you'd like, Benny."

Now Benny's expression, human or otherwise, was as easy for Lana to read as one of Lily's picture books. His ears, cocked in Luan's direction, had perked up and his tail was noticeably puffier than it had been a few seconds ago. He was definitely flustered.

And although she wasn't the best at understanding the faces of actual human people, Lana had a feeling even Luan had picked this up from him, and was using it to her advantage.

Lana had no idea what on Earth Luan was thinking–maybe she was only being silly, maybe this was due retribution for the mud he'd thrown at her and the way he'd blasted her with his garden hose yesterday afternoon, or maybe this really was an attempt at flirting, like Lola had said she'd been doing–but the comedienne's eyes seemed to sparkle with a new and mischievous light.

"It's a fine name, you know." She idly flipped through the pages of her script, seemingly oblivious to the vivid brown blush that was starting to color Benny's cheeks. "Sounds good. Rolls off the tongue. I think I'll say it a few times more, if that's alright with you."

She didn't even give him a moment to respond. "Benny, Benny, Benny, Benny…"

Her eyes didn't move an inch from the words on her script, but the playful, knowing grin on Luan's lips made Lana wonder if she'd somehow been able to predict the look of pure astonishment on the prince's face.

Neck fur bristling in clear embarrassment, he covered his face with his paws. "You're messing with me."

"Who, me?" Luan blinked up at him with wide eyes, making an dramatic expression of mock innocence that was, without a doubt, the most charming, enchanting face Lana had ever seen her pull off. "Heavens, no! Believe me, I would never dream of doing such a thing to you, Your Royal Fluffy Highness."

She managed to keep up that sweet, winsome face for only a few more seconds before her expression cracked and she dissolved into great peals of laughter.

Luan couldn't see it from her spot at the table, but Benny's tail, which had been resting beside his chair, gently swished back and forth in joy.

"Awww, look at that!" Lola whispered into Lana's ear. The smile on her face was as big and wide as though she'd just found a mountain full of jellybeans right in the middle of the castle lobby. "They really are in love–I told you!"

"It does seem likely. They appear to be quite compatible," Lisa added. There was a rare smile on the little genius's face as she spoke. "And, to be perfectly frank, I wouldn't mind having such a fascinating test subject for a brother-in-law."

"Hmph." Lucy crossed her arms in protest. "I'm supposed to be the one around here who falls in love with all the magic cursed monster princes. Not Luan."

"You'll get the next one, Lucy," Lola promised her.

They all quickly ceased their conversation, all watching with eager faces, as Luan spoke up again. Lana wished she had a bucket of popcorn (or worms, either would make a fine snack for such a dramatic performance) at the ready, just for this occasion.

"But seriously…we can keep going if you're up for it," she said. "Here. You take this and follow along with me, so you can catch me if I mess up. I want to see how much of it I have memorized."

With one hand, Luan passed Benny the script, which he took and quickly skimmed through, trying to find the place where she'd left off. A few seconds later, she reached out with her other hand and took hold of his hand, squeezing his furry fingers tightly. She didn't even say anything to him; it was automatic, almost as though it was simply second nature for her.

From the looks of things, it wasn't second nature to Benny, but as she started to recite her lines, he began to relax, his tail finally smoothing itself back down to its normal volume. Elbow on the table, his free hand propping up his cheek, he watched her like she was an angel descended down from heaven. It was the same sort of silly, swoony, deeply-infatuated expression she'd seen Lori wear around Bobby.

They really are a couple, Lana realized with a start. A really strange couple.

Their courtship didn't exactly resemble the traditional, romantic methods that Lana had seen in Lola's fairytale books (of which she'd been forced to listen to far too many). There were no roses, long strolls through moonlit gardens, or heartfelt serenades from balcony-tops...though Lana wasn't sure Luan would've been interested in that kind of thing, anyway. Instead, they courted through laughter, smiles, stupid puns, stealthily-hidden pranks, and winks from across the room.

And although Benny seemed to be too shy to return much of it, it was obvious that Luan, whether she fully knew it or not, was actively flirting with him. And, on top of that, she very clearly wanted him to flirt with her.

They were, without a shadow of a doubt, the most bizarre pair Lana had ever seen in her entire life. But she'd never seen Luan look happier than she looked right now, hand-in-hand with Benny.

It was still a bit weird to her, but Lana supposed that if this funny kitten wanted to fall in love with her sister, she wasn't going to stop him. Besides, Lisa was right–he would make for a very fun brother-in-law. He was a great dude, and Lana liked him a lot.

And their future children…they might look cute. They might also look a bit unsettling, being half human and half whatever Benny called himself (though according to Luan, as Lana recalled, his official title was "a silly, beautiful creature all his own"). But, awww, Lana could already picture all their adorable, tiny paws and tails.

It wasn't the future she, or anyone else, for that matter, had expected Luan to have–after all, who could've ever expected that this boy might just be the one who was finally able to win Luan's ridiculous heart?-but if it was the one that might be happening someday, Lana was fully on board with it.

And she truly thought it might. Benny's face held the same expression when he looked at Luan that Lana's held when she looked at a huge mud puddle on a rainy day. He was absolutely lovestruck.

And as he listened to her rattle off her lines, even though he'd already heard them four times before, he seemed to be as calm and focused as any anxious little beast could ever be. He even closed his eyes for a moment or two, absorbing the strong, clear sound of Luan's voice as though it was the most beautiful melody his ears had ever heard.

Lana had a perfect view of the moment when, as Luan shrieked something about seeing Tybalt's ghost hunting after her character's beloved Romeo, Benny's large, dark eyes blinked open and closed in that same slow, gentle rhythm she'd seen him do the other day.

That exact same type of gesture in which a cat told a person that he loved her.

Blink, blink, blink. The Benny equivalent of a kiss. And it was all Luan's.

Luna had teased Luan about this kind of thing just that same afternoon, claiming that the only reason Luan had wanted to talk to him alone in a private room was because she wanted to kiss him. And though she hadn't actually done it, and though the muffled snippets of conversation the siblings had picked up while eavesdropping on the other side of the door seemed more serious than romantic, had the idea of it really been that far-fetched?

Lana made a few more quick scribbles and scratches in her notebook. First of all, she used a caret to add the word very in front of the phrase, strong evidence of an affectionate bond with my sister Luan. Then, she marked down another sentence in small, shaky letters: A kiss seems likely.

Benny liked Luan–almost certainly as far more than a friend–and it was in part his animal side that had helped Lana come to truly believe it.

In time, Lana might eventually trust her siblings with this information: the deepest part of her makeshift biology study, but for now, she liked having this as her own little secret. Something she knew and watched for that none of her siblings had picked up on. For once, she was the very first to know something special about her sister's first crush. She thought this was really cool and special.

And as for Luan…maybe it was best for her to figure out about Benny's affections for her on her own terms. As these romantic feelings developed calmly and naturally with no interruptions, the way they did and should in the animal kingdom.

This was an extremely delicate ecosystem, after all.

Besides, she'd figure them out sooner or later. Luan was the cleverest, most devious prankster Lana knew; she was probably more than smart enough to figure out something as simple and obvious as Benny's feelings.

For now, Lana would just be patient, though at the same time, excitedly waiting on pins and needles, for the moment when he'd finally work up the courage to give Luan a real kiss.

...

A/N: Some of what happens in this story is taken from fragments and snippets of stuff and dialogue that I planned to take place in the main story, but couldn't find a place for. I'm thinking of writing more of this type of thing: little scenes showing the thought processes of other characters throughout the course of Sunshine and Yellow Lilies. After all, I'm not able to explore everyone's headspace in the fic, but I'm actually really curious about what some of the others might be feeling and doing. What else might they be thinking or observing that Luan and Benny don't know about?

I've wanted to look at Lana's point of view for a long time, but she really doesn't have much focus in the main story. And I just thought this was a funny idea-the animal expert making commentary on what she sees our wonderfully fluffy Benny doing. And I just like trying on the internal voices of different characters. It's good practice!

Until next time! :)