Fox

Chapter 4 - In Their Rooms

"Alright then, how are we going to decide who gets her for the first night?" A voice boomed from beside me. I jumped, quickly looking around to see who said it. Gabe smiled apologetically at me. "Sorry Trouble, I didn't mean to scare you," he said more quietly. I gave him a quick smile and butted my head into his hand so he knew I had forgiven him. He grinned back at me.

"Do you have a preference, little miss? Is there anyone you'd rather stay with?" Mr B asked me. I shook my head, making a show of curling up on the sofa to make my point. He raised a single, perfect eyebrow while I watched with slight jealousy over my paws - I'd always wanted to be able to do that, but even after practising for an entire afternoon I still couldn't manage it.

I shook my head again, both at my thoughts and the look on his face. Slowly, his other eyebrow raised to join the first. I could hear some of the others begin to snicker quietly but I ignored them, intent on my staring contest with Mr B. I was not going to be more of a burden than I was anyway, and I was not going to force them to stay with me.

When the others realised that next to nothing would stop the staring, they all began to laugh in earnest. I refused to look away still, but I could stop the flinch when there was the sound of a hand hitting skin. My eyes darted around and I saw that Silas had slapped his leg as he laughed, and that was what made the noise. As the only one looking at me Mr B noticed my reaction but didn't say anything about it when I turned to look at him again. Instead, he smirked at me.

"You lost, little miss, so you're going to have to stay with one of us. The sofa isn't as comfortable to sleep on as you'd think, anyway." His eyes showed the laughter he was holding back and I grumbled quietly to myself. "As she doesn't seem inclined to choose, does anyone desperately want to look after her first?" Mr B asked the room at large. Instantly, everyone stopped laughing and began yelling. I flinched back into myself more, hiding my face under my paws. Victor must have noticed, despite yelling himself, and held his hands up. Slowly, everyone quieted down.

"How about everyone stops yelling and we decide this rationally," he gestured at me as he spoke. I felt everyone's attention switch to me and was immediately smothered with apologies from the others. I cautiously lifted one of my paws from my snout and looked at them, then hid again as I saw all of their attention was on me.

"How long will it take to sort her room, Gabe?" Kota asked, and I could hear the smile in his voice. If I was a human, I would have been blushing furiously.

"Well, there's a tonne of shit in there and we need to get other crap that she can use, and obviously I need some paints so it doesn't look so fuck ugly anymore, so definitely more than a week, maybe even two." If I had looked up at that point, I would have seen everyone throwing knowing glances at one another. I looked up when his words registered in my head. Over a week? Maybe even two? What on Earth was he planning to do that would take that long?

I focussed my gaze on Gabe, tilting my head to the side slightly to show my confusion. I saw his mouth shape an "awh" before he shook his head and got back to business. "C'mon Trouble, I've got a lot to do and so little to work with! It's gonna take a little while to sort everything." I just tilted my head more. His eyes softened. "Look, everyone wants to bunk with you anyways, so really it's a win-win situation." My mouth opened slightly with his words. He grinned at me then looked around at the others. "She's so cute, can we keep her?" He asked impishly, causing everyone to burst out laughing. Mr B, who I was beginning to think never smiled or laughed, saw me looking at him and his lips twitched upwards the tiniest bit for a second. I stared at him.That was the best I'd gotten so far, and even that tiny smile changed his whole look completely.

Once everyone had caught their breath, Mr B began to speak. "Now that we've had that sorted out, let's draw straws. As always, the shortest wins - or goes first, in this case - and then we work our way to the longest, the last person." Everyone made a sound of agreement and Luke skipped away to find some straws.