Abby wasn't sure why she was up so early. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. She blamed the girls in the room next to hers. They were giggling and shouting late into the night. Even though Abby's bed was as far from them as she could get, she could still hear them. She wondered if it was one of their mutations. Probably.

She dipped her spoon back in her bowl. Bringing it up to her mouth, all she got was milk. Cinnamon-y milk. But still, just milk. It didn't really matter though. It was Saturday. And summer. Most people wouldn't be down for breakfast for another two-three hours. It was that early.

Her head felt heavy. She let it fall forward for a bit. Just resting her eyes. Then her eyes opened big. She probably needed a nap. She should go take one. Her belly rumbled. After she finished her cereal.

Adder liked mornings like this, he was finding: awake before not-jock-Austin and then out the door, down the hall, into the kitchen before anyone else showed up. Usually, not always. If there was anyone else, they usually wanted to avoid people too, and were quiet and didn't want to talk.

He prowled into the quiet room, rubbed cinnamon-smell out of his nose as it sort of floofed into his face. So much spicy-sweet. There'd been a lot of meat leftovers last night. There should still be some now.

Adder had his head in the fridge when his ears suddenly perked and he glanced over. just peering over the top of the door. Salt softy. Sleepy salt softy. He glanced down at himself. He was not wolf. Would she be bothered? But if he shifted now, he wouldn't be able to get the container off of the back of the top shelf. He needed hands.

So, logically, he first pulled out the container, then checked salt softy again to see if she'd noticed him yet. Best to check before shifting. It would also be easier to open the container with hands.

She must have been dozing off again. The sudden pop of a lid being taken off a container had her jumping in her seat. Abby blinked her green eyes for a bit, getting the sleepy haze out of them. Then she looked over her shoulder to see a person at the fridge. She closed her eyes tight for a moment. When she opened them, the person was still there.

He looked like... Adder. The person who helped her and Panu, then had ice cream with them. "Adder?" she asked sleepily.

The lovely scent of bacon-wrapped burger patties wafted out of the container, even cold and stuck to the bottom in a puddle of congealed grease. He had no idea how something so wonderful had lasted all night, but from the texture of the grease-gel only one patty had been taken since it had all cooled.

Adder flipped the top one up and into his mouth with a fingertip and thumb, only to hear a familiar voice behind him. A familiar sleepy voice, saying his name.

He didn't intend to look quite so incredibly caught-red-handed-absolutely-no-getting-out-of-this-even-if-he-ran-for-it-on-the-spot, but his first reaction was definitely guilt. For... something? The food sticking rather comically out of his mouth, flecks of colourful grease still clinging to his fingers until one lost its grip and plummeted to the floor.

...

...

""....hi" he attempted, talking out of the side of his mouth because the front and his teeth were all occupied by bacon and hamburger.

>>"hi."

Abby giggled a little at Adder's stunned expression. And how the burger hung out of his mouth. She waved her hand towards the table, silently asking him to join her. She didn't know he lived here. Or maybe she did. She wasn't really up for thinking at the moment. "Morning," she yawned before lifting a spoonful to her mouth.

Adder's ears perked up at salt softy's giggle. She wasn't scared of him? Really? He very nearly wagged his tail, but the flickery haze of white vanished as quickly as it had tried to crawl across his shoulders. She wasn't scared, she wanted him to go over to her!

She was also the only one around to see if he maybe bounced over after tossing his head back to shred the burger in his mouth and swallow it, and also grabbing the container because bacon wrapped burgers.

He swung himself into an empty chair, feet tucked beneath him and lower back twitching as he fought with the completely and totally irrational urge to wave a currently nonexistent tail around even if it would just hit stuff and get bruised.

Abby was still giggling as Adder sat down. Apparently, Adder was a morning person. She was still sleepy though. Swallowing her bite of cereal, she wondered what they could talk about.

"Are those good cold?" came out of her mouth before she yawned big and wide. It was a good question. She hadn't ever tried burgers cold. Not when the grease still clung to the meat. She may have liked most types of meat, in most cooking methods, but grease. Cold grease and Abby did not get along well.

Good cold? "It's bacon wrapped around a burger patty," he said, a little bit slowly. "Of course it's good?" Wait wait wait wait wait if he told her it was good and she believed him, she would want to take some! This was his! It wasn't like a bunch of popcorn and candy that she made and then shared with him, this was his! All his!

He pulled the container a tiny bit closer and stuffed another burger into his mouth.

But it was salt softy and there was more than he planned to eat right now. But it was his. All his. His and no one else's.

Just his.

Maybe just a piece. If she asked - no no no if he gave it to her when she asked, it would be because she asked and he would be giving in to her and that was not good. He should not let her ask, because if she asked then he would have to say no. But the only way to not let her ask was...

To give it to her before she could ask.

Which circled back to giving her his food. His food.

But it would keep her from asking and therefore from him having to tell salt softy no when she wasn't upset at seeing him not-furry.

Oh FINE. He summoned up all of his stray calm casualness and put a bacony package of delight, one of HIS bacony packages of delight, on the container's lid and pushed it across the table.

She'd better like it, after all this. Harrumph. Since it was his food he was giving her.

Abby giggled a little at Adder's response to her question. She couldn't deny it though. Bacon was a very popular food. Bacon-wrapped anything was usually good. It was just the idea of cold bacon that got her. Shaking her head, trying to get the fogginess to leave her brain, she watched as Adder seemed to have an argument with himself. Then he slid a burger towards her on the lid.

She swallowed her cereal and took a drink of her orange juice before picking up the cold, but cooked, meat. There was bacon wrapped all around the burger, making it hard to tell how much was bacon and how much was burger. But the one he passed to her wasn't as greasy as some of the others she could see.

Taking a bite was the next step. She did. It was cold. Cold but cooked. And bacon. She had never had cold bacon before. It never seemed to last long enough for that to happen. The burger was good. Tasted a little weird with orange juice and cinnamon flavors in her mouth. But good none the less. She ate the whole thing. No point in wasting good food, even if the flavors didn't mix well. Like toothpaste and orange juice.

Once she was done with the bacon burger, she wiped her hands on one of the napkins scattered around... well everywhere. Napkins were everywhere in the kitchen and dining room. Then she took another sip of juice. Still weird tasting, but bacon and orange juice went fine together. "How are you liking the Mansion?" she asked Adder. She didn't know how long he had been here, or if she had seen him before (though the food sharing thing made a tingling happen in her brain. She'd look back on it later). Asking those types of questions would make her seem mean. So how he felt about the Mansion was the better option.

Adder watched, his yellow eyes shifting only tiny fractions of degrees as salt softy looked at the bacon burger, at her juice. He waited while she swallowed, and hesitated before picking up the burger. He tried not to think too much about the hesitation; he paused before touching new things, especially things he wasn't sure were food. He'd just... not think about how salt softy could possibly not be sure that this was food.

It was bacon wrapped around meat and it wasn't even slimy.

And then she was eating it all and Adder had to dig his fingers into his knees to keep from covering himself in fur and breaking his tail against the chair, because that was probably what would happen and he didn't want that to happen, or to startle salt softy, both because he didn't want to startle her and because being startled while eating could lead to choking and that was very much not good at all.

It was very, very unpleasant. And stressful.

But there was an option that was not stressful. In fact, it was quite delicious. It was 'eat another burger and stop thinking so much.' He was quite proud of the idea, really.

...

Now there was bacon stuck between his teeth. No fair! Adder swallowed the rest of the burger and tried to get the torn-short edge of a fingernail around the very offensive chunk. He could feel it with his tongue but not move it, but with his fingers he couldn't feel it. Not fair at all!

Wait wait wait salt softy was talking to him. She was asking him something.

...

What kind of question was that?

"It has food." Which was good, very good. "But also noisy little kids who try to pull on my ears. And my tail. It's not a toy!" He was very annoyed when that happened. Very annoyed! It was downright infuriating. HARRUMPH.

...

One more burger. And he'd eat it slowly, and take the bacon off strip by strip to eat it. Except there was still that piece stuck between his teeth. There was just no winning.

"And there are weird adults here. Like drunk chihuahua." And not-cop-face-shifter. Also very weird.

Ears and tail. Right. Abby would remember not to grab those. Ever.

That did make her try to think back. Did she know Adder? Before that day with Panu? Ears and tail. Ears and tail. Ears and tail. Ears and... tail.

Abby tilted her head as she stared at Adder. That tingle in her brain was back. Louder than before. Ears and tail.

It was on the tip of her tongue, so to speak. She knew Adder before Panu. She knew that now. Ears. And. Tail.

How many shifters had she met? One's with ears and tails that the younger kids could grab. Shifters that didn't look too scary. Shifters that looked like...

>>"And there are weird adults here. Like drunk chihuahua."

Chihuahua? "Who's a drunk chihuahua?" she asked a little giggly. She couldn't think of any adults who were like a chihuahua. There was maybe a few rumored to be drunk. She wasn't sure about those though.

Dogs have tails and ears. Dogs are also not usually scary looking. So younger kids wouldn't be afraid to go near him. Ears and tail.

Shifters, ears, tail, cuddly...

Drowned Rat!!!!

Adder was her wolf friend! Her mouth hung open as the thought clicked into place. Adder was the first person she had cuddled with in a long time. She had watched a movie with him. Shared snacks and raced in the halls. She had rubbed his fur dry. Adder was her wolf friend.

"I never did find out if you liked the movie," she blurted out. It had bothered her afterwards. She was pretty sure they had slept in her bed, like a sleepover, but she wasn't sure. The night was kinda foggy. She did know that they had cuddled. And she had missed the ending of the movie because she fell asleep.

"I dunno what you'd call him. But when I met him he was drunk, and drinking more only pretending kind of that he wasn't, as if coffee could cover up that much alcohol. And he yaps and yaps and yaps and tries to pick fights. Like a Chihuahua. One of those tiny ones with bows and shiny collars that barely know how to walk because their richpeople always carry them." He huffed. Stupid city dogs like that, which weren't even dogs really, were so annoying. And loud. How did something so small make so much unceasing noise. And it was so squeaky.

How did their own ears stand it?

Adder tilted his head in confusion. Why was salt softy's mouth hanging open? Was she surprised at his outburst? He didn't really talk to her that much, so maybe that was it... Or was it something else? Was she somehow overwarm? She didn't look like she was panting and anyway most people didn't pant, so it probably wasn't that.

Movie...?

Oh! That.

"Not all of it made sense. A lot of it was really weird. But..." He hesitated. How was he supposed to really answer this? Hrmmm. "It wasn't bad." That was not a good answer. "I don't... exactly watch movies much." That was also not a good answer. He was making this worse.

"Did you like it?" Subject change!

Abby giggled at Adder's description of the "drunk chihuahua." She really needed to find out who he was talking about. The drunk thing would probably help most. Drinking alcohol laced coffee sounded like something others would talk about.

>>"Not all of it made sense. A lot of it was really weird. But... It wasn't bad. I don't... exactly watch movies much."

Abby frowned a bit. He didn't watch movies much? There was a standing movie night in the main rec room that had an ongoing list of movies they watched. But if Adder didn't like people messing with his ears and tail, and sensitive hearing in crowded places... Okay, Abby could see why he didn't go to the movie nights.

>>"Did you like it?"

"Mhmm," Abby hummed. "I used to watch it with my Daddy. It was one of his favorite movies and I like to watch it when I miss him." She thought about the movie, trying to see where Adder could have been lost. "Daddy liked the idea of aliens and things like that. What was the weirdest part to you?" She took another bite of her breakfast to keep herself from talking more. She had that problem and she wanted to get to know her wolf friend better. Especially since she know knew what he looked like when not shifted.

Salt softy liked how he described people? Usually, on the very scarce occasions Adder happened to describe one person or scent or whatever to another person, they either tilted their head in complete confusion or started shouting at him. Or started with the one and then rapidly progressed to the second as Adder's attempts to clarify continued.

It never seemed to work...

But salt softy had liked the movie, so Adder found it easy to banish the meandering thoughts. And she was asking more questions. What was the weirdest part? Pretty much all of it was weird. But she wanted the weirdest part.

How was he supposed to choose?

"Why'd the bad fat guy who looked like he smelled really bad try to be nice at the end? And why'd the dad leave in the beginning but no one did anything about it?"

Those were tough. The dad leaving and Silver's change of heart. Abby took another bite of cereal as she thought about her answers. Her Daddy's answer to her the first time she asked would probably work. "Daddy told me that Jim's father left because he knew he wouldn't be a good father. Jim's mom was too sad to stop him and Jim didn't understand until later what happened." That was the gist of what her father had told her.

Silver was a little different. Abby frowned as she thought about it. "Silver ended up seeing Jim as a son, which is why he tried to be nice even though he wasn't really. Silver didn't want to hurt Jim anymore so he tried to help. At least, that's how I understood it."