That one where it’s Thanksgiving:
By TerraMGP
Small towns in Michigan had a way of tricking you. Growing up in such places made a soul familiar with all of the typical main roads or common back roads needed to get into larger towns or slipping to the homes of friends who might live off the beaten path. Because of that it was oddly easy to get lost. A single turn here or wrong road there and the ‘familiar’ tree lines and houses vanished into a sea of sameness. Of green and brown. Barren crop fields dotted with late November snow that could be shuffled around endlessly and nobody would notice.
That’s how Hui felt. The red panda girl sank into the worn old leather of her seat and watched as her boyfriend’s eyes flashed this way and that looking for the old landmarks likely seared into his memories.
This wasn’t the first time she’d been out this way. She could remember once or twice coming out with Justin and Collin. Driven out by their moms to run around in the field while Meredith and Hui’s own mother did some kind of church stuff in the crafting room. But that was when it had been mostly empty, and before Justin’s cousin Ryan moved in.
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Hui half-whimpered. The question was more to break the silence than an actual attempt at conversation. She wasn’t usually this nervous about things. Probably because when it came to most people she didn’t care what they thought.
Justin shot her a look and then shook his head in amusement. He still dressed as he always did. Heavy trench coat hanging over the back of his seat showing off a Tee shirt. This time one that was remarkably clean and devoid of holes or stains. In fact the one thing she could begrudgingly admit about her Master was that he was, in general, very clean. More so than he usually was at school. The scent of honey and almonds denoting some fur shampoo that was actually worth a damn. She wondered if this was an attempt to impress his elder cousin, or the machinations of his mother insisting that her son look nice for a family get-together.
Either way she both loved and hated it. Her Master was a scruffy ner-do-well after all. But it was nice on occasion seeing him look like a grown up. Something she didn’t really feel either of them qualified for yet.
Those thoughts thankfully carried the wah’s over-active mind until they pulled into one of the long stone-shod driveways along the back road. Justin’s old Corvette thudded and grumbled with cheap shocks struggling to cope against the power of divots and gravel. Out in the vast open field that rested before the house, Hui could see some cubs playing in the front yard. Otters, badgers and bears. Nearly a dozen of various ages. Many she recognized from church or around town. A few of them had sticks or Nerf guns. One bear boy looking suspiciously like Justin did in his younger years as he tried to swing a stick far too big for him the way cloud would twist a buster sword.
The feeling of nostalgia almost hurt, but it was also kind of nice.
The car pulled up to the teardrop gravel turnaround at the end of the drive. It was big enough for at least a half dozen cars, and full up to the point where nobody was getting out easily from it. Justin instead turned on to the grass and parked by a few other cars, late comers like them. The occupants already in the house.
“Master” Hui yelped sharply. Her voice then simmering down a bit as she muttered out “Justin…”
“What’s wrong?” The otter boy blinked and turned to her. Hui felt him brush the back of his hand tenderly on her cheek. A heavy blush hitting her as she glanced up at him over the rims of her glasses.
“N-nothing. I’m just kinda, nervous. I guess. That’s all.”
The boy smiled a bit. He was trying to hide his concern, and doing a rather poor job of it. “No reason to be nervous. Yeah my family is nuts but I’m probably the worst of the bunch. You put up with me just fine. So you should be ok.”
The dark haired girl nodded and then reached up to take his paw in her hands. Her chest heaving in the mix of old fast food bags, artificial new car smell and grease that had saturated the thing. She looked up into those ice blue eyes for the longest time. Clasping his callused paw in both hands. Hui took deep shaky breaths in an attempt to hold back the hyperventilation she knew would come if she were to stop. The Mary Janes she’d chosen to wear for the sake of dressing nice now dug into the melted sludge and dirt caught in the cars floor mat. Scuffing off the shine of her Saturday best and leaving her feeling even more ‘wrong’.
Justin didn’t say anything. Not for a long while. His other paw rested on hers. The injured arm wrapped up in a cast, but his fingers still able to curl around her all the same. “It’s going to be ok.” He nodded “They’re going to love you. Most of them know you already. Even if you probably won’t remember them. Just relax, and try to enjoy yourself. If it gets to be too much, trust me. I get it. I’m the same way sometimes. There are buckets of Legos downstairs and you could go down and do that for a bit if you really need to. I’m sure Becky and some of the twerps wouldn’t mind helping run interference by joining in.”
The comment forced a chuckle from Hui. She wasn’t sure why. She’d gotten Justin to try the ‘talking down to your sub to make her feel childish’ thing before. He wasn’t very good at it. But this… she didn’t feel talked down to. She felt like he meant it. It was a silly plan, a stupid plan. But it was an out. That alone made her feel so much better. At least knowing there would be some escape. That he’d thought of some escape to protect her in case things went too far sideways.
With that Justin pulled himself out of the car, and Hui soon followed. The plaid skirt and cream colored knit sweater she wore both felt at least mildly appropriate for a thanksgiving dinner. Though seeing all of the cubs with Tee shirts and oversized jackets to block out the cold she wondered if maybe she was overdressed.
“Get lost out there, Kiddo?” Justin’s dad called from the front porch. The older otter grinning as he waved to his son.
“Be nice if the GPS knew what the hell things were out here!” Justin called back.
The Flannery’s had made their way out here much earlier. Hui had half expected they’d all be using the same car. In all honesty though she preferred it this way. Something about the two of them driving out here on their own and in their own time just felt so… mature? Adult? Nothing she could think of really felt right. But it was a comforting feeling nonetheless. Absolutely something she hoped to be doing again many times over the years.
“I got some coolers in the truck that your mom needs in the kitchen.” Justin’s father smirked as he approached his son, patting him on the shoulder “Think you can manage hauling em in for us, Caramon?”
“How do you know that name?” Hui blinked. Gazing up at Mr. Flannery in shock.
The older man smiled back proudly. “I’ll have you know I’m the reason he got into D&D.” John said with a sarcastic little grin. “Dragons of the autumn twilight… Yeah, he picked it out from a pile of books that were gonna go from Grandma and Grandpa’s to the library. I figured it would be a good step up from Superfudge.”
It was rare that Hui saw her Master blush. But there, now, hearing his father remenisce about the otter’s childhood, it all came out. Justin’s tail thudding hard on the gravel driveway sending rocks this way and that.
“Ok, I’ll haul the stuff in, dad. Just don’t embarrass me, ok?”
“Ok.” the older man nodded back “I gotta go help your uncle get the trampoline set up before the small frys end up throwing a fit. Last thing we want is that thing collapsing.” John then turned to Hui and tussled her neatly combed headfur. “Why don’t you head inside and sit down. Visit for a while. There should be some Vernors in the fridge out in the garage. You still like that, right?”
Hui was going to correct him. She preferred Canada Dry after all. She also had to imagine anything kept outside right now was going to be near frozen. But that really wasn’t too critical in comparison to everything else. Not when the looming threat of what lay in the house pressed into the back of her brain.
As before she simply kept taking long deep breaths of air while her body moved on autopilot into the house. The smell of a dozen different foods, of old wood and leather, of a roaring fire and feral dog. It all hammered her at once as she walked into and looked around the living room. There were probably a dozen or so furs there. Unlike the younger ones outside she didn’t really recognize as many. Most were bears or otters. A few badgers in the mix. Becky’s father and an otter man who looked a bit like Justin’s mom sat leaned back on the couch while an ornery chocolate lab feral tried to dig at some food that had fallen under the coffee table. A couple of younger bears also sat on the couch, shoving each other for space, though Hui didn’t recognize them.
A recliner flanked either side of the couch, though. Hui recognized those occupants right away. The one further from her was Ryan. Justin’s favorite cousin. The man had been more like a big brother to her Master, and was technically the reason she and Chen were into gaming in the first place. After all, Justin got it from Ryan and passed it on to them.
But she hadn’t really seen much of him since she was younger, and to see him now felt like looking at some old god GM. A primordial force from a time before any of their characters or homebrew settings even existed. It was an unnerving sense of awe that only made her feel that much sillier.
The other figure inspired an even greater sense. Though there was nothing silly about that feeling. Gramma Lockhart. The notorious matriarch of the family. She was there at church every Sabbath. Same pew. Same two amount put in the collection plate. At least one of her grandchildren or great-grandchildren always there to look after her and help her get around. The old bear’s silver-blue headfur an the graying brown strands along her muzzle were probably the biggest indicators of her age, and she had enough strength in her demeanor to all but shrug those away.
When Gramma Lockhart looked up at her, Hui could feel herself stunned still. If Ryan was an elder thing, this woman was something on a whole other narrative level. From a reality outside of meta-reality. Her gaze shrewd and stern for a long moment before it finally softened and she beckoned Hui closer.
“Well now. You’re the Chen’s girl, right?” She asked. Her voice warbling a bit with the years it wore. Stern, but still rather kind.
“I, uh, yes Ma’am.” Hui nodded as she moved closer. She felt the wrinkled, grizzled paws of the old woman take her own in both hands. Not wholly unlike what Justin had done not long ago. The old bear offered a smile that showed at least a few teeth from partial dentures. Her body shifting slowly as she looked Hui up and down.
“I remember when you were only about this big.” She said, holding her hand up to just above Hui’s hip “Your mother and Meredith would come over here to help prepare the materials for Sabbath School. Justin and your little brother broke one of the upstairs windows, and he still hasn’t paid to fix it.”
The fact that Mrs. Lockhart was joking took way too long for Meredith to really process. She managed to open her mouth, ready to correct that Chen was her big brother. But then stopped herself. It really wasn’t something worth the anxiety of correcting.
Mrs. Lockhart began to stand slowly, her paw snagging up an old walking stick that she used to help pull herself up. Even stooped she was bigger than Hui, and she looked the girl over a few times before smiling again. “So when did you and Justin get married?” She asked “It was three years ago, wasn’t it?”
“They’re not married, Gramma.” one of the bears on the couch corrected. “Justin’s still in high school.”
“No, I’m sure they got married in the spring. A few years back, wasn’t it? Out at that old orchard?” The old woman turned on the cane as she looked back to ask, Hui reaching out for fear that the poor woman would fall.
“That was me, Gramma.” Ryan corrected. “That was last spring. Come on and sit down. You’re gonna make the Lions lose.”
“Nonsense.” The bear woman waved a paw dismissively at Ryan. She used the stick to help pull herself up to full standing height and rub a few of the cricks out of her back. “So many of you kids it’s impossible to keep it all straight anymore. Here, you sit down here dear. I need to go make sure they aren’t butchering my Cobbler.”
Hui’s eyes went wide at the suggestion. She darted to the unfamiliar faces, hoping against hope for some kind of salvation from the shamefully kind offer. Instead the men there all sat and watched with cruel bemusement.
“I could check on it for you if you want.” Hui offered bashfully.
“Now now, It’s my cobbler. I’ll know when it’s done. You sit down and I’ll get you a plate of something while dinner finishes up. Go on. You like Ginger Ale? I think I remember you like Ginger ale.”
The defeated Wah slumped and finally allowed herself to fall back into the seat. She watched helplessly as the family matriarch made her way around the corner and into the kitchen. Every step clearly an effort and only filling Hui with more guilt.
The next half hour passed rather uneventfully. That wasn’t really a good thing for Hui, though. She watched people she didn’t know come and go. From where she sat she could see the dining room table and watched as it was piled with a few different bowls and dishes along with a stack of plates for everyone to eat buffet style. Mrs. Flannery and Becky’s mom Mrs. Parker both seemed to be doing much of the work. Along with them was a very pregnant and very tired looking kangaroo rat with long dark hair and periwinkle highlights. This was Ryans wife. A girl she could remember seeing once or twice in her childhood, and seeing a few times around town. After all, she was certainly distinctive. Gramma Lockhart was also at it. Aggressively talking with the other women while they went about setting things up.
God only knew how long she hovered between watching the women work and trying to figure out what was going on in the game while the men talked about cars and sports and other things she didn’t hope to understand. Not that they couldn’t, obviously. But she wasn’t exactly a tom boy.
At some point this was all broken up by Gramma Lockhart. The old bear having crept up behind Hui, now placing a small paper plate stacked with crackers, cheese slices, pretzels and candied nuts down on her lap, along with a can of Canada Dry in the wah girl’s hand.
“Careful not to let Beast get any of it, dear.” the old woman chuckled before turning back and making her way into the kitchen once more.
Hui was going to question what she meant. Then it was answered for her. The lab from before sniffing up and down her leg and putting his muzzle down hard on her knee. He looked up at her with big brown eyes, clearly eager to get something from the plate of food.
This was Beast, and he was hungry. Hui struggled to push away his big slobbery muzzle from the stack of food while he sniffed and licked at her arm. Obviously attempting to ingratiate himself with her enough that she would offer ups some of the snacks.
The poor girl blushed furiously. In confusion. In shame. Even a little bit from the countless dirty things related to just this kind of situation that the young woman had cooked up in her deep perverse dives. Only now was not the time to think such things. Nor was it the time to make herself look even more stuck up by shoving off the big, pretty and frankly sweet dog as he pulled himself up and slumped his whole front half into her lap like some kind of shi-tsu hit by a growth ray.
When she was sure the dog would stay put, Hui set the plate down. She took a few slices of the hard white cheddar and nibbled them. The taste was far stronger than what one normally got out of the bag. Strong enough that it took her brain a few moments to process if she was disgusted or delighted with it. Quickly she popped the can of pop and took a sip. As expected the cold had borderline frozen the contents. A mushy near-slush meeting her lips as she downed the gingery liquid. Still it wasn’t bad, and it was good to finally have something in her system after all but starving herself this morning in anticipation for this. For what she hoped was the first of many Thanksgivings with her future in-laws.
No sooner had she gotten the sip than Beast quickly pushed himself over and nabbed hold of some cheese and crackers with one bite. The hound then slumping down by her feet and curling up while those present chuckled over the animal’s behavior. Once again, she’d screwed up.
Hui slumped back a bit into the springy plush of the recliner. It felt wrong somehow. Some of the older women running back and forth from the kitchen every once in a while. Any time she saw someone else walking by she found herself biting back a whine as every fiber of her being screamed out to offer up her seat. To Justin’s grandmother, or his mother, his aunts. Especially to the mouse who was apparently now their hostess. The raw guilt gnawing at her gut every time someone who deserved a seat more walked by was almost interminable.
She then turned her attention back to the men who were gathered around the TV. She recognized Justin’s dad naturally. She’d even seen a few of the others at church once or twice. But she didn’t really know most of them well enough to feel comfortable. Each of them loud and boisterous. All talking over each other while the Detroit Lions continued to fail at whatever it was they were doing. Annoying most of the gathered crowd.
She tried glancing out the window, her eyes falling on what was probably set to be a well kept garden some day. Patches of dirt tilled up and the start of planter boxes stretching out to a tree line with a bunch of empty white boxes. Bee hives, though there were no longer bees in them thankfully. God only knew she wouldn’t be setting foot out there if the things had been inhabited.
“You doing ok, honey?” Hui felt a paw on her shoulder and looked up with a start. Justin’s grandmother, a stocky grey-muzzled otter woman in thick glasses, looked down over the clearly nervous wah. She could feel the warmth in ‘Grandma’ Lockheart’s voice. Felt concern in the way the paws gripped her shoulders. Hard, but not hard enough to be uncomfortable in normal conditions. It was a familial touch. Yet all the while Hui’s brain was screaming with discomfort.
“No, ma’am. I mean yes Ma’am. I’m ok.” Hui muttered “I, uh, I guess I just really don’t get this game.”
“Not really a game worth getting.” The older woman scoffed. “Here, you want a pop? Maybe a plate with some crackers and cheese?”
“O-oh no. Really that’s ok. I-”
“nonsense.” Grandma Lockhart protested “here. Just sit right there. I’ll get you something to eat. No sense letting the boys devour everything.”
Before Hui could protest she felt the woman walk off. A voice in the back of her head screamed at her to offer her seat. To insist she could get it herself, or better yet to point out that she really wasn’t hungry. Especially not enough to handle the vast quantities of food it seemed the women were making.
None of them came to her lips. The amber eyed girl instead glancing down at the worn old wooden floor. She traced small lines in the dirt around the arm chair’s foot where someone had clearly failed to clean.
The only time she looked up was when the door opened. Each time hoping against hope to see Justin making his way in finally. When he finally did she almost found herself bolting out of the seat. Watching as her man strode in. Big doofy smile on his face. The scent of the outside clinging to his coat. Pushing herself up to hug him as he strode into the living room still hauling the cooler with his one uninjured arm.
“Awww sweetie. You don’t have to get up.” Justin chuckled as he pecked her on the cheek “You’re the guest here. Relax. Visit a bit.”
The wah sighed and fluffed her tail a bit. The bottled up frustration had to go somewhere. Unfortunately it only served to make her feel, and probably look, far more helpless and pathetic.
She leaned against her boyfriend, her Master. Feeling the cool air from the outside wafting around him still, slowly sucking up the heat of the room, and off of her. A deep, earthy scent that she thought he wore well.
“You doin’ ok there buddy?” a large bear on the couch asked as he glanced up at the otter.
Justin’s dad snickered and slugged his relative in the arm. “Bah, come on John. My kid’s tougher than that. He’s still got all his fingers so he’s fine to do a little work. Huh kiddo?”
Even as this conversation went on Hui watched as some of the younger cubs ran up the stairway and around the corner into the living room. The heavy thudding steps were so loud and uneven that Hui worried the poor things were going to fall down and hurt themselves. Thankfully none did. They soon all gathered around the recliner where Ryan sat. The bear swarmed by half a dozen of his youngest kin all jumping up and down around his seat.
“Uncle Ryan. Uncle Ryan” one badger called out “Are you gonna spar with us?”
“Yeah!” A bear girl a few years older than the badger snapped “You brought all those boppers over last year to our house, and then I almost beat you!” The look on the girls face made it very clear that she absolutely did not. But then she didn’t have ot know that.
Soon the cubs were talking over themselves in a deafening din. All begging the slumped twenty-something to get out of his very comfortable spot, put down his cold bottle of beer and entertain them outside.
“Uuuugh, I donno kids.” Ry muttered “Ol’ Uncle Ryan’s getting a bit too old to keep up with all of you. May need to give me a few minutes first. At least until half time.”
“Hey now!” Justin called out. Hui felt her heart sank as he slipped off from around her shoulder, moving over to the gaggle of kids and putting his one good hand on his hip. “You kids think you get to go up against Ry just like that? You squirts gotta beat me first. Also, it’s boffer, not bopper.”
The cubs all turned to Justin and at once six pairs of eyes were laser focused on the teen. They gazed with such grim determination..
“Getting a little undertale in here, isn’t it?” Hui muttered. Instantly regretting it. Cursing the fact that nobody would know why she made the joke even if they knew what the game was. Which most probably did not.
Justin simply shrugged as he continued whipping the cubs up into a frenzy of foam fueled fury. Taunting and jeering at them before rushing them out to run off and grab some foam swords from the stockpile in Ryan’s garage. The otter then slipped past Hui and let a paw trail along her shoulders, smiling soflty. “Here honey, you don’t have to get up. I won’t be that long.”
Hui hadn’t even realized that she could go out and watch him. But the idea of asking him to felt wrong now. Wrong as every move she’d made today. Another brick in her monument of foolishness.
Just like that her rock slipped free from her, heading out to entertain his cousins with his one working arm and leaving her to stew in her anxiety.
God only knew how much time passed before Gramma lockheart came back. The woman smiling ear to ear as she slipped a fresh plate of food into Hui’s lap, this time loaded up with some cookies and what looked like home made toffee. The old bear smiled and patted Hui’s hair gently. “There you go, dear. I figured Beast would get to it at some point, so I snuck you some of the good stuff. Just don‘t let any of the wee ones catch wind of it or they‘ll all want cookies before dinner. Do you like Toffee? You should try it. Naqi makes some surprisingly good toffee. I never really liked the stuff before. But I guess that was just the worthers things.”
Hui smiled meekly at the fresh outpouring of kindness. At the very least the dog wasn’t going after her food this time. Though that was a small comfort considering she hadn’t really asked for any food, or to be waited on. At this point the whole room was just a blur of people coming and going. A crush of answers she didn’t realize she was giving to questions she didn’t process. Everyone being so impossibly nice, and the wah herself just not at all prepared for it.
That was until another hand hit her shoulder, and she looked up. The dark haired kangaroo rat from before smiling down at her.
Her hostess didn’t say anything. She simply cast a glance at her husband and then nodded for Hui to follow her. Hui followed Naqi in a daze. But at least now, if nothing else, she was starting to feel like she could breath again.
--------------------
The idea of wandering off even further into a strange house had Hui more than a little nervous. She knew she shouldn’t be. It wasn’t like she was wandering around the Baker plantation with a giant ass VR headset strapped to her face. No way she was going though that again.
The house showed its age. The walls thick enough to mostly dampen out the sound of the noisy furs below them. The stairs all just a bit too narrow and creaking from old cracks in the well worn wood. Nothing Hui would have normally noticed. But her brain was trying to taper down from the overload of information she’d been getting downstairs. And in truth it did bring to mind ideas of how she and Justin may be some day. The idea of her Master finding some nice old house for them and fixing it up bit by bit. Showing off the muscles which only existed in her imagination, along with that sexy back tattoo.
Those thoughts were still rattling around as the mouse woman led the girl into the master bedroom at the far end of the hall. Naqi was silent. Simply grinning to herself as she went though the drawers of an old oak vanity, pulling out boxes and sifting though what sounded like a disaster area of random debris.
While her hostess sorted though the objects, Hui looked out of the window at the land in front of her. She could see Justin leaning against an old tire swing, a massive foam sword in his one good paw. Watching with amusement as a bevy of cubs of various ages set about flailing awkwardly at each other with other, smaller swords. Most were still too big for the ones who held them, making the whole thing look like some silly parody of an anime fight. The only one who looked anywhere near capable was Becky. The badger girl growling and brandishing two swords while she and Justin deflected it and offered a few ‘near miss’ swings whenever one of the cubs tried to attack either of the teens.
“Bit overwhelming, isn’t it?” Naqi finally said. The mouse now apparently done with her sifting and searching. She leaned against the vanity and smirked, looking over the trembling red panda girl with an odd note of familiarity in her face. “Trust me, I get it. It’s a big ass family. Honestly was a bit worried about how all of this could turn out. My Master is actually pretty chill compared to a lot of his relatives. Especially Meredith. God, and people wonder where Justin gets his temper from.”
“I don’t think she’s that bad.” Hui muttered softly. Even as she did she could recall instances of Justin’s mother coming and yelling at school officials or getting aggressive with the old church ladies who criticized how she raised her son. It wasn’t as violent or sporadic, sure. But it was there.
That train of thought cut off as Hui’s mind clicked at what she’d just heard. She glanced up at Naqi even as the older woman pulled the stool from the vanity up close to Naqi and set down a makeup palette with the logo for the Addams family on it.
“Shocked that Hot Topic still carries this kind of stuff. But it’s nice on occasion. Sure I can afford way better now, but sometimes there’s just something about this cheap crap you can’t replicate with the nice stuff.” Naqi didn’t ask anything, she didn’t give any warning. She just dabbed a bit of the foundation pigment on to her brush and started to slowly sweep it into the panda girl’s cheek fur. When Hui moved a bit Naqi grabbed hold of her chin, using the leverage the girls stubby muzzle provided to keep her face firmly in place while the older girl did her work.
“The neck furrow gives it away.” Naqi said as she worked. “You don’t brush your neck fur that much, do you?”
Hui gulped and tried to nod. Naqi instead holding her face firmly.
“Yeah, I get it. Most people don’t usually notice it though. Or they think it’s a scarf thing or something. Actually if you wear a scarf in public you can usually get away with wearing the collar in places where it can’t be passed off as some fasion accessory. Honestly it’s kinda fun. The way all the normies can look right at you and not know.”
Hui couldn’t hide her blush at the words. Between that and being held in place the whole thing felt so surreal. She started to bite her lip only for Naqi to pull the thign down with her thumb and shake her head.
“Come on now, I’m working here.” The mouse girl’s ears twitched a bit. Her nose wrinkling ever so slightly as she suppressed a laugh. “I’m not gonna criticize. So long as you kids are being safe that’s all your business. Just remember SSC”
“Safe, Sane and consensual” Hui quipped as best she could though the grip on her muzzle
“Right.” Naqi nodded proudly “And if you have anything you feel scared about asking someone or can’t ask your folks, you ask me instead. Because the internet is… the internet.” The woman sighed and shook her head softly “And really, let’s be honest. You like that dumb dweeb out there, right? That collar in your pocket isn’t just a phase or something, is it?”
Hui gripped hold of the blankets with either paw. She was sure if Naqi wasn’t there she could see her own blush in the mirror. Shining though both fur and makeup like a damn lighthouse.
“relax.” Naqi sighed “The point I’m trying to make is that you’re family. Or at least close enough to it. I know everyone can be super tough to deal with all at once like that. Honestly this little clan of theirs is a bit much. But they are trying to make you feel welcome, in their own way. Just take your time, and don’t feel too bad about speaking up if you get a bit overwhelmed.”
“I uh… I’m not too good at that.” the wah muttered
“You’ll get better at it. I’m sure.” Naqi nodded “I may be a fairly new addition but I’ve been around these people since grade school. They grow on you. Somewhat.” Naqi just kept working on the confused girl. Moving her muzzle this way and that. Seeming to pay only passing attention to any of the girls nervous shivering or fidgeting.
When she was finally done, Naqi turned away once more and snagged a couple of items from a jewelry box built into one part of the vanity. Before Hui could react, the mouse woman had clipped two something’s to her ear. Only when the older woman stepped aside could Hui see the end result of the handiwork.
It wasn’t that much. Some paleing ting to her already white cheek fur, set with some brush glitter that made it look almost like a snow field. Thick dark lipstick and eye shadow. A pair of sterling silver clip on ear cuffs, both on one ear, both inset with a very basic and somewhat sloppy raven motif.
“There, see?” Naqi snickered “Maybe you can go see if that gets your Master to break away from his ‘glorious battle’ and pay some more attention to you.”
“That’s not really the problem” Hui muttered. The girl was barley able to scoot aside as a very pregnant Naqi shifted herself over on to the corner of the bed and gave the wah a pat on the head. The almost sisterly smile just growing that much wider.
“No. But if I can guess, the real problem is really just fear. You seemed pretty damn scared of speaking up for yourself down there.” Naqi sighed
“It’s not really my place.” Hui muttered back. “I mean, I don’t want to make a bad first impression or anything. Everyone was being so nice, and I made Gramma Lockhart get out of her seat…”
“you didn’t ‘make’ her get out of her seat” Naqi corrected “One does not ‘make’ that woman do anything.” She made sure to punctuate her words with her best attempt at copying Boromir’s pose in the famously memed Lord of the Rings moment. It got a snort out of Naqi. And a smile. A smile she’d lacked since getting out of the car.
“Look, If you need to back off from people for a bit I get it. And if your subby lil butt needs ‘someone’ to give you permission, then ‘Miss’ Naqi is going to do it. You have permission to tell me if you need to bail somewhere more quiet when at family get together. Same as anyone else in the house. Hell, same as I used to when I came to visit sometimes. The Lockharts are a lot. Especially with Parker and Flannery mess mixed in. And those are just the ones you know about! At some point you’ll have to toughen up a bit. But nothing wrong with taking it slow and dipping a toe in for now. Right?”
Hui turned to the mirror again and took a few long, deep breaths. Her smile twisting a bit more. She was happy, and she was anxious, and she was confused. Mostly confused.
“My family are from China.” Hui finally muttered. “We’re pretty American. I mean my brother and I grew up here after all. I was born here. But most of the family isn’t here. In fact I think it’s just one distant cousin out in Nevada. Dad found him on Facebook and they’d never met before that. So for Thanksgiving it was just us. Me and Chen. Our parents. That’s it. And it was fine. I mean we’d get to see our other relatives when we fly over in the summer. Baba gets flown out here once in a while to visit. But this? This feels more like a ‘real’ Thanksgiving. Way more. I just feel like I’m screwing it all up.”
“What is it with men in this family going for socially anxious nerds.” Naqi huffed. “Look, I get it. I do. I’m Yuit. Mom and I bailed down here when I was four. Let’s just say, dad’s not really someone I have in my life and leave it at that. For a long time it was just me and her for Thanksgiving. Sometimes my grandparents would be around. They like to hover around Canada in their RV but sometimes they make their way down here to the mitten. But the shift to a big ol family dog pile can be kind of insane. And that’s before you get into Beast.” The pregnant rodent snorted at her own joke and gave Hui’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Justin looks at you the way my Master, my Husband, looks at me. You’re special to him. You’re precious. He brought you here because he wants you to be part of the family. Odd as this is going to sound, that’s what the rest of us want too.”
“R-really?” Hui blinked as she looked up at Naqi
“Gramma confused my wedding with you and Justin getting married. I’m pretty sure in her mind you’re already part of the family. Which means you’ll just have to sit back and take it any time she wants to get you food or dote on you. None of us get a choice in that.”
With that the Wah girl was ushered to her feet, Naqi nodding in approval at the slightly gothy makeover. “There we go. Now then, let’s head on down and see if the game’s over. Maybe we can sneak on something worth watching before dinner.”
“Ok.” Hui nodded softly, allowing herself ot smile a bit more. “I think I got this. And Miss Naqi? Thanks.”
