Chapter 26: She Chose The Bear

The next morning…

Knock knock knock.

Lumpy answered the door. A blue blur zoomed into his trailer at top speed, causing the moose to spin out and collapse in a heap. Not too long afterwards Sniffles hurried back outside, pushing a confused Oakie in the back.

As usual, Oakie was too distracted by the cute animal to be concerned with anything else. "Ooh! Are you a little elephant? A tapir? An aardvark? A—"

"I'm an anteater!"

"Cool! Does that mean you eat ants?"

Yesterday Sniffles had gathered plenty of information while spying on his friends and so, it was for everyone's sake and sanity that he had to do this. The anteater tuned Oakie's blathering out as he herded him all the way downtown where a gathering of animals was.

Cuddles spotted them first. "THE MON—"

With an eye roll, Toothy slapped a hand over Cuddles' mouth. The rabbit was acting like Sniffles literally hadn't explained to them what was about to happen. At the least, when Sniffles had produced sensible facts about Oakie, the other animals were willing to see things from a more rational point of view—that while he looked different and could be a oblivious dimwit, Oakie was completely harmless.

Still, the nervous animals clustered tighter to one another. Sniffles shoved Oakie forward towards the group, clearing his throat.

"What's going on?" Oakie wondered. "What are we doing here?"

"Your name," Sniffles urged.

"My name? Oh, Oakie."

The animals were confused. Petunia looked to Giggles, shrugging. "Okay, what?"

"No, no, my name is Oakie. Oh—kee," he stressed. "I like how blue you are, by the way."

"Oh!" Petunia said, blushing. "Thank you?"

"Is that a green squirrel? Does he have scurvy?" Oakie noticed, leaning forward. The animals inched backwards in tandem. Oakie felt something flitting around his ankles and looked to see that he was now wearing cement shoes; beside him Sniffles was tossing away a concrete smoother and pick.

"Uh...is this some sort of social experiment that I'm not allowed to excuse myself from?" asked Oakie.

Sniffles nodded, satisfied with his methods. Yes, so he'd been proven wrong about the existence of this "monster", but that's why he'd gone out to investigate. It was less of him making up for his ignorance and more so proving that his friends were making a big deal out of nothing.

With him being unable to move, the animals had gotten a little braver and began wandering closer to Oakie. "Maybe this isn't so bad," the human realized. "Yeah, this is working! Little anteater, do you have a degree in psychology or something?"

"Uh huh!" Sniffles confirmed. Cuddles and Toothy were pushing and shoving each other to get to Oakie first.

"Oh, it's you!" Oakie said to Cuddles. "Uh, can I…apologize for how I acted before? Not just to you, but to plenty of you here, I think I recognize a few faces. And I, I just can't get over you guys. So! So, here's my official apology…I'm really sorry for being a menace a few nights ago. I won't do it again."

Then he pet Cuddles on the head, prompting the rabbit to give him a strange look.

Shoot! Oakie thought. That was instinct!

Cuddles said, "Do that again."

When Oakie put his hand out, Toothy pushed Cuddles out the way and took the patting instead. The other animals were growing interested in having a turn, and Oakie became nervous with all the demanding stares boring into him.

"Okay, one at a time? Let's form a line. Rabbit and plat—uh, beaver, to the back for now, okay? Huh…" Oakie noticed a pair of beady eyes watching him from behind the bus stop and waved. "Hey! Why don't you come over, too?"

Lifty and Shifty wandered out into the open, grumbling dismissively but unable to hide their curiousness. Most of the animals relaxed and had a one-on-one with Oakie, but the only ones that he couldn't pet were the twins and Petunia.

"I…I don't know if you're a carrier of any diseases," Petunia said hesitantly. "Sorry."

Wait…! This skunk girl, didn't Flaky tell me she's the one with OCD? Oakie recalled from yesterday at the carnival. Ah! If I could get rid of Flippy's issues, I need to take care of the others, too!

I still don't know how it worked when I wrote in the Book. Maybe because it was created by A Human, it gives me rights no one else can have.

…is that a loophole? Or was it intentional? There's got to be definitive answers from someone...but from who?

Maybe I can help these animals with the Book. Maybe this is how I can be useful for a few rare moments of my life.

In the meanwhile, Lifty and Shifty had gone full tsundere and were brawling in front of Oakie, fighting for his attention. The human noticed something flying towards them.

"Hey, isn't that the—HI!" he exclaimed, leaning his head back when Splendid flew within an inch of his face. "You're the pretty one. Can I touch you, too?"

"What?" Splendid asked, startled.

"Pet you on the head!" Oakie was saying in the distance. "Duh!"

Flaky turned away from the sight, relieved. Sniffles had kept his promise about being unbiased towards the human, but she hadn't expected him to clear the air with the others this soon. She was just grateful everyone was getting along.

And now, it looked like life was going to get good and stay good. They at least didn't have to worry about being forced into nasty situations anymore.

She passed the movie theater, glancing over some of the posters. One of them was a scary movie with a giant monster destroying a peaceful town. The tagline was: Even if you run, you still can never hide!

Trust me, I know how to run, Flaky thought. A bus passed her, breaks spitting, and she almost jumped out of her quills. "Ugh!" she exclaimed, face-palming.

She was tired of being so jumpy. She had thought about asking Oakie to write away her anxiousness and make her braver, but—

Wait!

Flaky stopped, looking closer at the poster of a movie about blue aliens. She could've sworn she'd seen something on it move or squiggle, but after inspecting it she concluded she must've been imagining things.

Whatever. She was on a mission.

"Hm…"

That morning Flippy hadn't done much other than fix his door. He'd done it by hand just to give himself busy work. He tossed the hammer in the bucket, glancing down down at the Book of the World.

Gimmie a kiss.

Flippy did a double take but didn't see the message anymore. "Did you say something?" he asked cheerfully.

Get your head out the gutter, the Book of the World said before snapping its pages shut.

Flippy scratched his head, confused. The Book was in another one of its moods. He was reminded of how it was normally passive, but could get disturbingly hostile when provoked. He figured it wasn't any different from how he was.

Or how he used to be, thankfully. Maybe that was why he'd subconsciously bonded with it so fast. The thought was the same with Blooey, even before he'd known the dog could be triggered. Now, and also just like him, Blooey was much better. They could function and enjoy life without walking on eggshells. It was wonderful.

Flippy was hit with a sudden wave of sleepiness and checked his watch. It was time for his midmorning nap, so he went outside and lay down in a ring of flowers, curling up underneath the sun. It wouldn't be too much time later when he felt a presence.

He jolted awake, ready to defend himself, but then his stomach did the craziest backflip. It was Flaky. She was nervously twisting a finger into her cheek, not quite looking at him yet.

"Um, sorry for waking you…UP!" she exclaimed, startled by how he shot to his feet. "I-I wanted to ask you if—"

He hugged her. Flaky stammered out nonsense.

"Thank you," Flippy said. "The Book told me what you did yesterday."

"O-Oh, I…"

He took a bottle of pink liquid with a red bow on it from his breast pocket, then reached down and picked a flower. He gave them both to her—a bottle of perfume, and a daisy. About the former he said, "I made this with the flowers in my garden."

Shocked, Flaky took the gifts and stared at them. She set her mouth in a straight line.

"I'm going to put some on right now," she said, putting the flower behind her non-existent ear.

"Now?"

"Now," Flaky said confidently. When she began spraying herself with the perfume he wiggled his ears and twitched his nose. His heart felt like it'd swell right out of his chest. Finally they had each other within reach, and there wasn't much more to do or say about what would happen next.

He held his hand out, and she took it.

Flaky felt like a girl. Well, she was one, but this was the first time where a male treated her like a female. She had always felt a little insecure about her femininity. She looked androgynous and thought she wasn't as pretty as Giggles, Petunia, or Lamby. Even Disco Bear treated her different from the other girls!

But she didn't have to think about those things anymore. She felt like she was on cloud nine and wanted to start skipping. She and Flippy were still holding hands. She'd gotten herself a boyfriend!

So far neither of them actually had said the words 'boyfriend', 'girlfriend', or date. Did they really have to? They were naturally on the same wavelength and understood each other well enough by this point. The more they walked and talked, getting more comfortable with each other and putting the wicked past behind them, it was obvious what didn't have to be said. They were finally a couple with nothing else threatening to turn their relationship on its head.

They stopped at the diner. Flaky noticed Flippy fidgeting while they sat and waited for their food. She distracted him by asking how Blooey was doing. That got things flowing again and he gushed about the day he brought the puppy home (avoiding the messier and/or disturbing details) to just yesterday, right after Oakie had fixed him with the Book of the World.

Flaky internally grumbled to herself. She had been wanting to move things along with Flippy as early as yesterday, but Oakie had made her and Lumpy leave the bear's house.

"Let's split. They need some time and space to readjust," the human had said as he pushed them out the door. "I mean, wouldn't you want time alone after being cured of murderer-itis?"

I think he was still kind of afraid of being there, Flaky thought, resting her head in her hands. She wore a slight smile, masking the anxiousness that was threatening to swallow up her rationale. She'd already seen that Flippy and Blooey were cured but her instincts still wanted her to be afraid.

No, no! she to herself. I'm not running away from him again. I don't need to!

Their food came and she was startled to see he hadn't ordered much for himself; in truth, Flippy was trying not to pig out in front of her. But their chemistry remained natural whether they were speaking to one another or not. Flaky struggled with her anxiousness, but was able to reel in her insecurities and not let them show. If she wanted to be braver, she'd have to start now.

Afterwards they didn't really have a plan on where to go next or what they wanted to do, so they kept walking until they turned into the park. Flippy pointed out a tree they could sit under to rest. It was a nice day; the peace and quiet was something to be enjoyed.

"Whoof!" Flippy plopped down on his rear, casually leaning back onto the tree trunk. He hid his shaking hands in his pockets. At least they weren't tingling.

I can't believe this. he thought. It feels like I've stopped running in place and I'm finally making progress.

At least now, we're free to make the decisions we want moving forward, but…

But what? He thought about the other couples: Cuddles and Giggles, then Petunia and Handy. He felt like there was something different in those relationships compared to his and Flaky's. .

Because of that other side of me, I never thought we'd make it to this point. But he's gone. Is this feeling just left over from how I was before?

Why do I still feel like maybe this won't work? Is this paranoia, or vigilance?

It's not like I'm completely done with my job. I won't be able to truly relax until I take care of Them.

There were three more quills out there he didn't have. Only when they were secured would he finally be able to purge the sense of dread looming at the back of his mind…then suddenly, the dream he'd had over a week ago crept back into his mind.

"…Flaky," he spoke up, startling her out of her own thoughts. He looked her in the eyes, serious. Her leg twitched and her eyes widened.

Uh oh! Take it easy… Flippy told himself. "If…anything ever seems strange about me, then run away as fast as you can."

He was surprised when she responded by looking confused instead of frightened. Still, he hesitated on giving her context. He didn't have the heart to tell her about his nightmare—a projection of his greatest fears.

"Please," he added.

Flaky nodded, twiddling her fingers and looking at him coyly. She was paying attention to what he was saying, right? Flippy quickly looked down at his hands, unsure of how to proceed. He worked up his courage and opened his mouth.

"I..."

"Can I kiss you?" Flaky asked.

He raised his head, looking at her in amazement. She may as well not have whispered and yelled it in his ear, because now his heart was on fire, back on the run.

"…I've never kissed a boy before," she revealed, still playing with her hands. "…have you ever kissed a girl?"

He shook his head, shocked. They both thought this made things much more special for them both. They were alone, it was quiet, and they were at finally at peace with one another. Flippy turned over to his knees, crawling closer to her.

"Let me go first...!" Flaky blurted quietly. "Please?"

He smiled at her. Her kiss was light and feathery. His was strong but tender.

"Almost too perfect to be true, isn't it?"

A little worm sat on a park bench, spying on the pair with a mounted telescope. "Yeah, that's right you adorable little normies. Keep gushin' over each other," he snarled. "You're tellin' me a bear and a porcupine can fall in love? Meanwhile, here I am downloading every dating app and I get nothin'."

Angry, Rookie squiggled off to report to his boss. It was almost time. He couldn't wait to ruin someone's day, their week...maybe even their life.