After Winter came Spring, and after Spring, Summer.

And with Summer came Andrew's 18th birthday.

Ever since Rick had told her that their house had enough space for eight families in it, Riley wondered whether that was actually true- and if so, how would that even look like.

The answers were, respectively: "Yes", and "Like a whole lot of black and white fur."

Riley didn't consider herself to be *terribly* introverted, but found out the hard way that there was a number of people, somewhere between five and what looked to be almost a hundred, above which she could only go 'nope, nope, nope', and recede to somewhere less cramped- fortunately for her though, she had earned herself one of the most important duties during a massive party like that, one that she got to share with Maddy to boot.

The official kit handler.

There still were quite a few of them, ages ranging from not even three to Lily's age, and at that age range there was nothing more boring than an adult party with adult things like talking and drinking badly tasting things from fancy glasses. Getting to play some racing games and playing with wooden bricks though, now that was the good stuff.

Especially when some of them could go and touch a human for the first time in their lives.

It was quite an odd thing to realize, but true nonetheless, the sheer fascination some of the younger kits stared up at her with making it impossible not to giggle in return and offer up a hand to them, one that they inevitably ended up taking, feeling, or, depending on the age, hugging.

With most of the kids gravitating towards racing cars on the screen, supervised by Maddy, she got the relatively easier end of the deal, making sure that the kits playing with the wooden bricks and other physical toys would do so nicely, settling disputes if needed, and sharing the snacks evenly between.

Thank goodness they had the foresight to only go for the most mess-free ones possible, gummies definitely not being everyone's favourite, but it definitely beat trying to keep all the kits clean on top of playing nicely.

"How're you holding up in here?"

Well if it isn't the birthday boy himself.

With a quiet grunt, Riley stood back up where she sat, swiping the dust off her dress pants and looking up at Andrew, his outfit similar to the one he wore last Christmas, except better color matched, with a white shirt and a black tie- a look so good Riley ended up stealing it from him this year.

What could she say, she could rock a dress shirt quite well, as long as it didn't have much in the way of sleeves.

"We're managing, eh Maddy?"

It took the weasel girl a couple moments to notice she had been spoken towards by her girlfriend, missing out the context completely, resorting to sticking out a hand in Riley's vague direction and waving at her from underneath a pile of older kids that really wanted to race and younger kids that wanted to see the cars go vroom.

"Well, I can see that much, hehe."

Both siblings chuckled, Andrew turning to look out the window, the cars filling their driveway and turning the tiny road they lived on into an impromptu parking lot.

"I was just thinking..."

"Hmm?" Andrew's relatively pensive tone made Riley walk up closer, glancing once more at the kids to make sure none of them were murdering each other at that particular moment before looking out the window with him.

"About college and all."

"Is something wrong with Minnesota State? Thought you liked that one a lot from what you've seen."

"Oh it's great, i-it's not that, it's just..."

Riley gave him some space, eyebrow raising a bit.

"Was just thinking it's gonna suck that it's only been a few months and soon we'll only get to see each other at the weekends, if even that."

The admission took Riley aback a bit, a quiet chuckle leaving her afterwards.

"Not sick of me yet huh?"

"Far from it."

"And here I thought you were looking at colleges so hard because you wanted to get away from me as fast as possible, teehee." Her tone was a clearly joking one, though it seemed that it didn't quite land this one, Andrew just kinda awkwardly chuckling in response, leading his sister to walk up and pull him into a big hug, one that was immediately returned.

"But yeah, there's voice chat, if you ask nicely I'll even take the bandaid off of my webcam- we'll be able to keep in touch."

"I know, don't worry, I'm definitely planning on all that, it's just..."

"Hmm?"

"I-I dunno. It all flew by so fast, I can still remember your first day here clear as day."

"That's what routine does to you."

"Yeah. Makes it hard to cherish the important things at times."

"'Cherish', what fancy wording, hah."

She saw him roll his eyes a bit, blushing slightly.

"You know what I mean."

"Of course I do, not my fault you're fun to tease."

"Ain't that the truth."

"So, what were you thinking about with regards to college then? I don't doubt the parents wouldn't mind a whole lot if you decided to take a year or a semester off before going to college or something..."

"Oh, no, no, nowhere near that, don't worry. More so a family trip or something."

"Heh, guess it'd be my first one with you all eh?"

"Yep! So I was thinking a big one so it'd the the one to remember."

"How big?"

"Grand Canyon?"

"Well that does sound quite big."

Neither of the siblings could hold in a giggle at that, the act interrupted by one of the kits, no older than five or so, running up to them both, yanking on their pant legs.

"Hmm? What's up?" Riley spoke up, turning towards the boy and crouching to get closer to his level- seeming to have humbled him enough for the kit to be unable to spill the beans, instead just fidgeting in place-

"Do you need to go to the toilet?"

Andrew's intervention was more than welcome, the boy nodding intensely in return and eagerly grabbing the larger skunk's paw as he was guided over to the bathroom, Riley just chuckling in their wake before turning towards the rest of the kids, seeing a couple of them thinking something though before racing after Andrew and their playmate, the teen's chuckle getting upgraded to barely held laughter.

Oh, kids.

With Andrew taking a temporary leave, Riley sat back down on the carpet, leaning against the wall as she cleared her head, her brother's words getting her in a bit of a pensive mood herself.

School had been a mixed success- catchup was somewhat successful, but she was still very much behind, and her grades reflected that- though if she were to keep putting in effort, she would most likely end up fully catching up by the end of the next semester, and while grades on their own were as useless of a motivator here as they were back at the orphanage, wanting to make her parents and Maddy proud was a very effective carrot in their stead.

Aside from that though, things were on the up and up- she felt better and healthier than ever before, she managed to explore some kinds of outfits that weren't just hoodie with track pants- and even if those were still her favourites after all that, she did manage to find a couple other neat styles, as indicated by her current outfit.

And of course, she had her family- Maddy by now only not a part of it in name only- that she was thankful for every single day. Andrew was right- routine made it hard to cherish them at times, especially with the realization, one that he was struggling with right now, that one day they would all have to leave their family nest and start living on their own.

But that was then, and here...

Riley got up to her feet, walking up to the couch behind Maddy, waiting for a moment where her girlfriend wasn't busy helping any of the kids out before leaning in and wrapping her arms around her, doubling up on her hug with a kiss on her cheek.

...was now.

And she sure as hell was gonna cherish now.