I bounced up the steps to Eva's house on Saturday morning like a bundle of nervous ferrets. It had been a while since I went to her house, almost a year in fact, due to covid.

It hadn't changed much since I last saw it. A few more plants, a few more odd knicknacks, but still the same.

Their house had been a fairly standard white picket fence dealio at one point in time. The time before Eva's mom had gotten her hands on it. Now it looked like some sort of fusion between hippie and cottagecore, with some tech sprinkled in over the top.

The front garden was a barely contained riot of odd flowers and shrubs that almost obscured the red brick path up to the front door. It was like a damned jungle.

I had to step over a partially decomposed letter that looked like it was from their HOA, which had me laughing. Eva's mom would be a bad person to intimidate. Calm and kind on the outside, she harboured a lioness just beneath the surface, ready to smite any who dared oppose her.

My hand didn't even reach the door before it flew open and Eva rocketed out and into my arms. Goosebumps rippled over my skin as she skipped straight to nuzzling her face into my neck. Gosh, Eva was very touchy with her girl friends.

“Hey,” I laughed, picking my taller friend up by the backs of her thighs so I could walk us inside.

“Heyy— oh my god!” she squeaked, clinging to me until I had dropped her inside the door. Breaking the hug, she stared at me with wide eyes. “How did you do that? I didn’t know you were strong now!”

“I am, sort of,” I laughed, enjoying the gobsmacked look she was giving me.

The truth was that I had figured out a simple cantrip that buffed my strength. Not a lot, mind you, but enough that I wasn’t a pipsqueak like normal. A few simple gestures with one hand and I had a moderate boost that lasted five or so minutes.

“That’s so cool,” she grinned, gaze bouncing all over the place.

I shrugged, feeling self conscious. "It's alright. Anyway, where's your mom?"

"Out for the day, she'll be back tonight," she replied, grabbing my hand. "Are you hungry? Or do you want to wait a bit before getting food?"

"Food sounds nice," I said, eyes lighting up. "My mom still has me eating gross super healthy stuff."

"There's some pizza bases in the refrigerator!" She gasped, excitement building. "Let's make pizzas and watch a movie!"

We rushed through the cluttered hallway and into the kitchen, eager to get started on making the most ridiculous pizzas we could come up with. I loved their house, honestly. It was a bit of a mess, Eva's mother was the definition of a hoarder.

If I remembered correctly, after college her mom had disappeared off to some african country to work for a charity. She'd picked up a love of travel and exploration out there in the wider world, and so her house was drowning in crazy shit. Wooden masks with shell mosaics hung on the walls, crazy peruvian rugs littered the floor, and there was even a weathered claymore high on one wall in the kitchen.

Making pizzas turned into a bit of a food fight at one point, with several slices of salami ending up on the floor. It was fun though, just being brats together. She was so goofy when we were one on one like this, and if I was pushed, I had to admit that I was too.

It amazed me how different I was when I didn’t have to constantly hold up defensive walls around myself. Whether I was with my parents, at school, or with my new superhero friends, I had to project strength and calm. Problem was, I was neither of those things, not really. I was just a bouncy, fluffy fox girl who liked spending time with her friend.

Once our pizzas were finished, we threw them in the oven and settled down in her bedroom to watch youtube videos. Eva was so amazed by all the supernatural stuff going on in the world right now, and she’d made an honest to god playlist of videos about it to watch.

I hopped onto the bed after her, and she lifted the covers so I could scoot inside while she said, “I found this really cool channel that’s been documenting all the crazy stuff that’s going on! Did you know that there’s people going out there to fight the monsters and stuff? I mean, not that there’s monsters around every corner, but it is pretty dangerous in the further suburbs.”

Nodding, I situated myself next to her, leaving a foot of space between us. “Yeah, I saw. There’s supposed to be a big group of them down in NYC, right?”

“The Arbiters of Peace,” she giggled, making a face. “It sounds so corny. I like the group here in Concord better. They don’t have a name at all. They just do their jobs and that’s that.”

“Wait, we have a super group here too?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

She nodded eagerly and shuffled up next to me. Well, there goes that foot of personal space I gave us. “Yeah, there’s a grumpy looking dude called Tarmack and a pasty white boy called, um… Spirit Boy, I think. They teamed up to fight a funny looking lizard that was spitting acid all over the riverfront docks. They said they were part of a group that was looking to try and keep Concord safe.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” I said encouragingly.

Eva gave an enthusiastic nod and flipped her laptop open. I had to smile as I saw the poor, battered piece of hardware. It was covered in all sorts of stickers and looked generally worse for wear, although the specs inside weren’t terrible. She just dropped it a lot.

She hit play on the first video she’d found and settled her head onto my shoulder. My heartbeat gave a jolt at the contact. Her head was so warm, and oh my gosh, her hair was so insanely soft. It was tickling my neck, but I wasn’t going to move even if I lost my mind to it. How could I, when she seemed so comfortable? Plus, I kind of liked it. Okay, I really liked it. After all, she was my friend.

The videos were actually really informative, and I found myself taking mental notes. I had a pretty good idea of the local situation, with the monsters mostly sticking to the northern forest, but the broader state of affairs was different.

The government was flailing blindly, trying to pass laws and ordinances that would give them control of the situation. It wasn't working very well though. I mean, they'd utterly failed to deal with a large scale but thoroughly mundane pandemic, what the hell were they going to do about dragons and shit?

I could see the Hunter's handiwork throughout the official response though. They were testing the waters, seeing what they could get away with. Unfortunately for them, it wasn't a lot. Turns out that a good number of powerful american families had spiritual blood of one kind or another. It was hard to pass laws against changed folk when half the banking world fell under that umbrella.

We took a break from the videos to eat our pizzas, and as we were chowing down, I asked, "Hey, Eva… you're not like, upset about not having any inhuman traits, are you?"

She paused with a slice of pizza halfway to her mouth. "Um… no?" She quickly shook her head. "Sorry, that's a lie. Yeah, I guess I sort of am? It would be so cool to have a cute fluffy tail like yours, or big bat wings or something."

"It would be fun if we matched," I said as nonchalantly as possible.

"Oh god, yeah," she said dreamily. "We'd be so cute. I mean, you're cute already, but…"

I frowned. "You're cute, what are you talking about?"

"I mean, there's cute, then there's fox girl cute," she told me seriously. "I guess the answer is yes, I am kind of bummed. I'm not going to get all depresso over it, though."

"If you had the chance to be fox girl level cute, would you take it?" I asked curiously. I hadn't intended for the conversation to go this far, but I may as well get the info now that the subject was on the table.

She nodded wistfully. "Hell yeah, I would. If I could choose, I'd want to be pink! No wait… red! Oh, but a cool acid green might be fun too."

"Please no, I like my eyesight," I laughed, pretending to have my eyes burned out, sizzling noises and all.

My antics prompted another food fight, which led to a trip to the bathroom to wash pizza juice off our faces. We were such gremlins.

Then it was back up to her room and the interesting videos about world chaos and destruction.

A whole video about the Florida zombie problem later and we were dying of laughter. Poor zombies had it rough down there, what with the giant alligators, plus the Floridians. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was pretty funny that the minor undead uprising down there had been defeated by the local wildlife.

The midwest's dragon issues were another story. One that involved the military, crazy rednecks with guns, and a whole lot of burning corn.

"How is society staying together?" I asked after the update on the hunt for the dragon they were calling the emerald flame. I plopped my head wearily down on her chest, since we'd slid so far down the bed now that we were almost laying down.

"Humanity is just like that," Eva shrugged, fingers threading into my short hair. "Even in the worst war torn regions, people still live their lives. "

"Hmmm, I guess," I sighed, then gasped as her fingers found the sensitive base of one ear.

She began to scratch me there behind the ear, gentle and soothing. It felt amazing, and my eyelids had fluttered shut in a matter of moments. "E-Eva…"

"Does that feel nice?" She asked in a warm whisper.

"Yes…" I mumbled, each careful stroke of her delicate fingers loosening my inhibitions.

A second hand came down to begin on my other ear, and that was it. I was a goner. I came undone at the seams, melting into a puddle of warmth, safety, and happiness. Scritches were fucking magical, I swear. I think I began to doze under the careful caress of my friend's hands, it was that good.

Then, all of a sudden, she stopped and let out a loud squeal of surprise.

I wriggled up onto all fours and stared up at her, heart pounding with anxious confusion. "What's wrong?" I blurted urgently, searching her wide eyes for the source of the outburst.

"T-Tia!" She exclaimed, her voice high and delighted. "You… you turned into a fox!"

QuietValerie

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