As The Result Of a Bet

6 - The Mouse's Reception

Jack's PoV:

We set the mausu on the guest room bed, and go to see what she did with the kitchen. It turns out, she had broken in and headed straight to the kitchen, and eaten some of MY cookies, and had started packing fruit and cheese into a plastic bag. We head back up to the guest bedroom, and we all stand by the bed.
"She must be a stray..." Mark says, letting his voice fade into a silence that envelopes the room.
"The question is, what're we gonna do? She broke into the house, but she must be starving... I don't know what to do." Tom says, and I realize he's trying to make a decision already.
"Guys," Mark says, "we've GOT to help her. I don't think you guys realize how hard it is on the streets, let alone getting caught like she did. Mausus have especially hard times, they're really fragile. We've got to help her, we've just gotta. I..."
The look on his face says that he wants to express something, but doesn't know how.
"Hey!" I say, "we don't even have the full story yet. We need to find out where she's coming from. If she ends up being a burglar, or something, then we report her. But if she's lost, and alone, and has nowhere to go, then we'll help her out, okay? You can't just make this kind of decision before we have all of the facts!"
They all look at me sheepishly, and at that moment (because I'm the author and I do what I want), I hear a groan, and I turn around to see the girl's eyes open. She looks up and has confusion written all over her face, then realization dawns in her eyes, and she sits up straight.
She gets up in rushed, jerky movements, and runs to a corner of the room, in a vain attempt to get as far away from us as possible, because we are blocking the doorway.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Please d-don't report me, I'm so s-sorry! I was just so h-hungry, I hadn't eaten for five d-days! I smelled food at your doorway, and...oh g-god, I can't go to the pound, please! Nobody wants a mousu, I'd waste away in the pound! Or worse, get adopted by some terrible person! Please!"
She continued to beg, but Mark seems to have gotten over his initial shock, because he steps forward, but that action is only met with panic from the mousu.
"Oh god, please no! Please don't hurt me...please..." she sinks to the floor and starts sobbing, still begging.
"No no no, it's okay! We won't hurt you, or report you, we promise" Mark says, stepping forward and sitting down in front of the mousu, who presses herself against the wall as a last attempt to get as far away as possible from Mark. He moves forward a little bit more and wraps his arms around her, and she stops moving, still sobbing.
I notice Felix and Tom look at each other and leave the room, so I head closer to them, listening in on the conversation.
"We should help her."
"I don't know, Felix, she seems a bit unstable."
"Oh, then what do you suggest we do, Tom? Report her? Mark won't let us do that, even if I considered it, which I won't. And we are sure as hell not pushing her back out to the streets, we're not heartless. Do you have any ideas, Tom? I'm open to suggestions."
"..."
"Well?"
"...no."
"That's what I thought. Come on, Mark'll have calmed her down some by now. We can get the full story, like Jack suggested, then make a final decision."
They head back in, and I look back at Mark and the girl. She's calmed down a lot, but she's stillin Mark's embrace, sniffling from time to time.
He whispers something to her and she nods, then the get up and she steps away from him.
They walk towards us, and finally reach us, her features displaying her obvious unease.
"I'm s-sorry" she says, stuttering a little.
"Can you tell us what happened?"
I ask, Tom and Felix looking over at me.
She nods and takes a deep breath.
"I live on the street. Since I couldn't find any jobs or anything that would hire a small mausu girl, I ended up not really knowing what my next meal would be. When you don't eat for five days, you tend to start acting a little desperate. I was walking by when I got an amazing food smell coming from this house, and I saw you," she says, gesturing to me, "in the driveway, holding groceriesn So, I waited until you all left, then I broke in. I felt really bad about it, but I was too hungrt to care very much at that point. There was a plate of cookies covered with plastic wrap on the counter, and it looked like you guys had a lot of extra food, so I decided to take some."
After she said all of this, the room fades into a silence. Then Felix whispers something to Tom, and Tom whispers something back.
"Okay, first, we'll need a name."
She looks nervous, and says, "I don't really tell people my real name, (me making up excuses because I haven't gotten the okay from PricklyTrash yet) but you can call me DS."
Tom smiles brightly, then says,
"Well, DS, first, we need to get you washed, then fed, then you look like you need a good night's sleep. That sound good to you?"
Her lips part in shock as she stares at Tom. She nods slowly, probably wondering why she wasn't being reported.
"I'll run a bath." I volunteer, running to the bathroom and starting the water, pushing the lever to put the water at a nice temperature. Once the bathtub is full, I stop the water and walk out, where I find DS, looking nervous. I give her a comforting smile, and walk out. She walks in and closes the door, while I walk down the stairs, finding Mark in the kitchen, making some eggs.
"Hey, Mark, are you okay?"
I ask him, and he shakes his head a little, and I realize he's crying a little. I rotate him so he's facing me, and I hug him, he hugs me back.
"I just...I was in the exact same boat, you know? I really want her to have a better time than I did...I want to make sure she gets to where she needs to, without having to go through what I went through." once he's done crying, we pull apart, and he looks into my eyes. Actually, now that I'm looking at them, his eyes are beautiful. They are a sea of care and comfort, brown with flecks of grey and black, and lighter shades of brown that made his eyes seem to sparkle. They fit him well. They give his face a child-like wonder to it that makes him absolutely adorabl-
'Whoa. Whoa there, Jack, stop it.'
I blush madly and see Mark doing the same, he looks back to the pan and continues cooking the eggs. I walk out of the kitchen and see Felix and Tom standing in the doorway, looking at me with little smirks on their faces. I blush harder, "how long have you been standing there?" I ask.
"Long enough to SHIP IT!" Felix says, and my whole head probably turns read.
"Oh, come on, quit teasing him. Although, I do totally ship you two." Tom adds as an after thought. I leave them standing there, and go to the front room, turning on the tv. DS comes down ten minutes later, and we eat. She seems tense and uneasy, and we finish quickly. Felix takes her to the guest room and tells her to sleep, and Tom warns Mark about. His PTSD as we all walk up the stairs to go to bed. I say goodnight to Mark and Tom, and hear a spring and a, "Oh, I missed this bed!" before I reach my room and settle into my cat bed. As I drift off to sleep, I think about Mark, and my last thought before I fall asleep is,
"Yup, there's no doubt about it. I'm falling in love with Mark."

AN:

Sup, Turducken Army? I feel good about this chapter, and guess what? I'm adding Cry in! I'm going to ask a big question:
Should Cry be a

Neko

Inu

Mausu

Or human? And yes, he will be in a relationship with Felix later, so I'm kinda leaning towards human, but I want the audience to get a choice, because your the ones reading it, after all.
Also, PricklyTrash, sorry if your character seems panicky and kinda weak, she was just a little...panicked at that time. She's a lot stronger, I swear.
Also, please answer, the world wants to know!
Will you join the Turducken Army?

Turduckens, UNITE!!!!
-MusiCore