Chapter 4: 

Rufu was sick of waiting. She thrummed her fingers on the dining room table, idly watching the door frame that led out into the hall. Time ticked on as her claws clacked against the wood, louder and louder, hard enough to add a few more ugly little gashes to the surface. Her chin rested in one hand. Try as she may, she could not discern the mutterings in the other rooms. They were planning something, damn it. She knew they were. Regardless, she caught a fat lot of nothing, no matter how much her ears twisted and turned, leaving her half awake and her vision splitting in two. 

    The silence was loud, zombifying even, but not altogether deafening. She easily picked out the shuffling of cloth near her hand. Her Kenny. Yet, she felt only the dullest sense of relief. He looked ridiculous. He was holding his knees, and was he scowling? She didn’t know, nor care. His head faced away from her, staring at the empty door frame, and she followed suit. Still, nothing. They always jumped on a chance to seek attention or infantilize her, but they choose now to stay quiet? Her heel bounced impatiently. Dread turned into irritation. Get it over with! Her gaze settled on the window, and the setting orange shade on the street that twilight brought. A breath escaped her nostrils. Just for a moment, she thought things were going to be uneventful, that maybe she could have peace just one evening. Just a single one without their pushing and nagging. Wouldn’t that be nice?

A mote of heat neared the asishi’s hand and snapped her gaze back down to the table. Ken was closer now. She watched his hand move towards one of her fingers, only for him to pause halfway there. She could almost feel him already, but there he was. Still. So still. So...afraid. Afraid of her, but why? Fine. She wasn’t sure she wanted him touching her when he was on their side. Her hand slid away from him and on to her lap. Only then did Ken try to meet her eyes, but he was too late. The kitchen had stolen her focus now. 

    “...would’ve found it sooner if you just checked the attic like I sai--”

    A growl silenced the not-so-quiet muttering, and the dreaded form of her mother swaggered through the door frame, Arkebo in tow. Rufu shot up from her seat, ready to stand her ground with her back straight and fur bristling, only for all of it to dissolve when she saw the dusty old box Arkebo was carrying. This was what they wanted to put her through today? She couldn’t believe they still had the damn thing! For a moment, she thought she was dreaming, but Mildraff was clearing the table, and Arkebo tried to set the box down, earning a snarl from his wife. This was real, alright. Arkebo stood still, mane and ears folding, then held the box out to his wife. Mildraff jerked it away from him like his hands were filthy, causing the contents to rattle about, and almost ceremoniously set the cardboard container down on the table with a proud, greedy grin.

    The box was thin, maybe half as tall as a human, and largely black aside from the detailed artwork. On top of the box was a realistically drawn, stern looking asishi woman in formal military attire. The corners of the box were peeled back, one splitting open, and parts of it were scratched up. Rufu knew what it said, but the white lettering annoyed her worst of all. It couldn’t just be Common, no. It had to be this gibberish no one born outside an asishi system had any hope of reading, least of all herself. If she had any choice in the matter, she wouldn’t speak it either. It couldn’t be any worse than this. She couldn’t find more reasons to frown, at least until Ken squeaked out,“”Wha-what does that s-s-say?”

    “Command Chain!” Mildraff announced. “Classic! ‘Govie deposing fun for up to eight players!’ We haven’t had a chance to crack it open in a while, but, since we have a guest, why not? It should be a thrill!”

Rufu couldn’t keep her face out of her palms. How she wished she could just shut her eyes and make the sorry scene disappear. She peeked through her fingers, only to find her mother grinning at her. Her hands tensed, claws nearly piercing skin, but she said nothing. Arkebo removed the lid of the box to reveal a folded metal board, beside which rested two compartments. The first had two decks of cards, one black and one white. The second held eight finely carved playing pieces along with a pair of dice. With everything in its right place, Arkebo slid the box aside and unfolded the metal playing board in all its elaborate, maddening glory. 

The playing area was formed of tiles around the edges of the board, which cut across the middle where it folded, dividing two large squares without any tiles to move on. In those spaces were more words in the Asishi alphabet, though they were made redundant by the corner brackets that indicated where each deck went. The same couldn’t be said of what was written on the tiles. Landing on them caused different things to happen, she knew that much, but context clues weren’t enough to understand them. She would have to rely on her parents to interpret the phrases. A thought that made her shiver.

    Next, Arkebo gathered the dice and playing pieces, and dumped them out onto the board. Some old graph paper they’d used years ago to tally scores had landed near Ken. Looking over the eight intricately carved figures, the asishi scratched his long neck in thought, and reached for the one shaped like a skull. Just before he could grab it, Mildraff snatched the skull away, leaving him in a state of abject, childish confusion. “Hey! I wanted to play the skull!” he snapped.

    “Too bad,” she rebutted. “Shuffle the decks.”

    Arkebo’s protests died down, and he did what he was told, sulking all the while. In the meantime, Mildraff busied herself by sneering at the skull, tapping its hollow innards and muttering to herself. “Feh. No brains in that man’s head. No wonder he wanted to play you, maybe he relates?” She swivelled back to Rufu and Ken. “Well? Choose your pieces,” she ordered.

    Resisting the urge to grumble, Rufu reached out and grabbed a figure at random, plopping it down at the starting area. A fang. She glanced down at it, growling. While her father fumbled with trying to shuffle the cards, frequently sending some flying, a quiet tapping on the game board drew her attention. She froze. It wasn’t her parents. If it was, then next door would hear it through the walls. Her gaze shifted to the board to find that it was Ken. He had been walking towards the game pieces. The nearly human-sized gaming pieces. 

“Oh no,” she gasped quietly.

How were her parents expecting him to play when the dice were almost half his size? How was he going to draw cards, or do, well, anything?! A quiet whine slipped from her throat. 

“Mom?” she asked, “He’s not playing too, is he?”

Mildraff grinned, but said nothing. Rufu swore she picked up a faint rustling somewhere, though she assumed it was still her father fumbling with the setup. “Really? You- how’s Kenny even gonna roll the dice?!”

“I don’t see how that’s your problem.”

“What?!” The teenager bit her tongue. Some scraping could be heard on the table. It sounded like bone, but she couldn’t focus on that at the moment. “Those things are almost as big as he is! You’re insane-”

“Don’t you think you’re selling him short?” Mildraff chuckled at herself, genuine enough that the malice hit home. That smug face of hers was looking an awful lot like a scratching post to Rufu right then. 

“You think this is funny? We all know why you’re doing this, Mom. ‘Oh, hah hah! Look at him waddle!’ Leave him out of your damn games.”

Mildraff gawked at her like she was a child who’d smeared dirt on her own face. “You’ve been telling this poor human what he can and can’t do all day long, and now me! Have you no shame?” 

“Shut up!” Rufu slammed her hands on the table; a language Mildraff could understand. “If you keep using him as an excuse-”

“An excuse? An excuse?! I’ve worked too hard keeping this family afloat for some limp-maned runt like you to tell me that I can’t sit down and play a board game in my own star-damned home! As long as you’re here, you sit down and do what I tell you, and your friend will do the same! He plays, and that’s-” 

“I c-c-can r-roll like this-ss!” the human shouted at the top of his lungs. 

Both females’ attention was drawn to the space near Rufu’s hand, and neither believed what they saw. Ken had taken three unused game pieces while they were shouting, laid one flat on a sheet of paper, and let the other two lie at an angle over it to create an incline. His own makeshift stand.

Rufu grinned from ear to ear, pride swelling in her bosom despite herself, “Clever little tordenchi!” 

Mildraff grumbled and looked away, the embers of a smile fading. Maybe she’d been planning to compliment Ken out of spite. It wouldn’t have surprised Rufu. A moment later, her father shouted, “Done!”

Everybody watched Arkebo as he set the card decks into their corners. It wasn’t neat, edges sticking out and cards lumped together unevenly, but precision was never her father’s strong suit. 

“Alright! Let’s start!” Mildraff declared, moving her piece and a random one she chose for Ken onto the starting tile.

“H-how do we p-p-pl--”

“The game’s simple!” she interrupted, earning a nasty glare from her daughter. “The point is to climb your way to the top of society, overthrow the Supreme Commander, and establish your dominance over all asishi.”

Rufu’s claws pock-marked the table in frustration. Taking a breath, she provided a real answer, “You roll the dice to move around the board and trigger events. You have black trouble cards that make things harder, and white resource cards to deal with them and help you increase in rank.”

“You remember!” Mildraff whooped happily. Rufu scowled and hung her head low.

“Oh! Almost forgot!” Arkebo interjected. He had grabbed two extra black cards he’d left behind in the chaos, one for him and one for Ken, placing them in front of their players. Ken was dumbstruck. The human leaned over a card the size of a small bed for his species, staring uncomprehendingly at the picture: A small asishi cowering before a taller, angrier asishi. No matter how he tilted his head or adjusted his glasses, he came to no clarity. It was enough to make Rufu wince. Any other time it would have been cute, but why here? Why now? Why with them?

 “W-w-what’s--”

Mildraff elaborated, “Males start off with a special trouble card demanding submission to female players. If you have a resource card that I can use on a trouble card then I can take it for myself, and I can give you one of my trouble cards if I have more than one.” 

Ken furrowed his little brow. “H-h-h-how do I rem-move it?”

Arkebo stared at the human as if he’d suddenly grown two centivalen. “You don’t.”

“Enough talk! Let’s start!” Mildraff demanded, banging a fist on the table. The stand shook a little, and its owner stumbled to his knees. Rufu’s hand reached for him on reflex, just to stop narrowly short and clench her fingers around the edge of the table instead. She couldn’t. She couldn’t let them. She couldn’t let him… She just couldn’t.

Tiny clatters upon metal told her that her mother wasn’t waiting any longer, and with a slump in her neck, Rufu pulled her hand back. She barely caught the roll in time. A nine. Mildraff was already moving her piece ahead, and had set it down no sooner than she snatched a white card off of its deck to place in front of herself.

Mildraff looked at her expectantly, “Go on.”

“W...w-wait. What’s the t-turn order?” Ken asked uneasily.

Mildraff rolled her eyes. Rufu’s twitched. “Dominance,” her mother informed.

“D...dominance?”

“Whoever’s in charge goes first, and it goes down the ranks from there,” Arkebo explained vacantly, “so obviously, you go last.”

These two weren’t making it easy for Rufu to keep herself in check. Ken utterly deflated upon hearing that. True or not, there was no need to explain things that way; he didn’t need to be belittled! Mildraff cleared her throat, and with a trembling fist Rufu snatched up the dice and tossed them. Three. Unceremoniously, she dragged her piece forward a few spaces, and looked to her parents for ‘guidance’. Arkebo was already reaching for the dice. She snorted, and he looked at her with confusion. “Well?” she blurted out.

“Well what?” her father repeated.

“What does it say?” the teenager shot back.

“You mean you still don’t know how to read?” Mildraff gasped.

Rufu’s mane had risen to its full length, fluffing out the back of her shirt. Her lips trembled; a flash of something sinister appeared in her mother’s eyes, but she wasn’t going to give in. No. Control. She had to remember control. She couldn’t lose her temper and give her mother what she wanted. She was in control, not Mildraff. 

“I can read just fine. Just not this archaic garbage,” she retorted.

Her mother shook her head, “That’s your heritage, child. Every asishi should know how to read it.”

“Yeah? Well I don’t, and neither does Kenny. So if we’re going to play, you need to translate for us!” 

“Alright, child! There’s no need to yell,” Mildraff responded with a sickening calm. “It’s a promotion tile. If you had the right resource card you could rank up to a Captain and be that much closer to becoming the Supreme Commander. But you don’t have any cards right now, so it’s your father’s turn. Unless, of course, you want to invoke the rule of claw.”

So that was what they wanted from her, Rufu realized. Her tail began to stiffen in anger. 

“Uuuh, is it my turn now?” Arkebo tried to ask.

Her father looked between the two females, one bitter and slumped in her chair, the other hideously happy that she’d made her that way. However, this gave him no pause, and he shrugged and tossed his own dice. Bone rang out against the metal board. Five. He picked his piece up, happily raised it high, and hesitated. Then he frowned.

“Arkebo, dear.” Mildraff spat the word like a curse. “Put that thing down.”

Arkebo swallowed hard and set it down. 

“Draw,” his wife ordered pleasantly.

With a sigh, he gave up, and drew from the black deck, placing it next to his other trouble card for all to see. Rufu didn’t care to look at what it was. Instead, her thoughts and attention were immediately on Ken. He was already up and running across the board like someone cracked a whip. The little human moved behind one of the dice, and began pushing it along as fast as he could. This wasn’t sustainable. He would still need to go back for the other die. Help him. Raise your hand and help him, Rufu. Her hand did raise, little by little, hovering by her waist. Then it stopped. Then it fell. Why did she have to help him? He could have asked for their help if he thought they were so wonderful. Unluckily for him, the only help Mildraff seemed inclined to give was the thumping of her fingers on the table as she waited.

Ken hurried to reach his little stand and bent down to heave the dice up on top. She could hear his breath picking up, her nose caught the scent of his sweat. They’d worked so hard on his fitness together, only for him to waste it on appeasing her parents. What for? Her chest was tight with guilt. Why wasn’t she helping him? Was him seeming to like her parents cause enough for her to ignore him?

Soon enough, the die was in place and Ken gave it a good push. It rolled down his improvised incline with all the ease he’d intended. He didn’t bother to read what it landed on before he was running back across for the other die. Rufu glanced around when she heard her father yawn, staring at the clock. Mildraff’s smile was so strained that Rufu half expected her face to crack. The rattle of bone on metal drew her attention back down to see Ken’s other dice land.

“Three,” she informed him.

Then the human was off again, jogging over to the piece that had been chosen for him. A hand, it looked like, or was it a paw? When he finished pushing his piece up next to Rufu’s, Mildraff had already scooped the dice back up and was about to roll again. 

“Wait!” he shouted.

Mildraff halted mid-throw, nearly punching the game board. “What?” she snapped, “It’s the same as hers. There’s nothing you can do!”

Ken tensed up, and Rufu watched her mother carefully. The tone made part of the younger asishi’s lips peel into a jagged, fang-filled snarl. “Y-y-you mentioned a ‘rule of c-claw.’ W-what is it?”

Mildraff blinked. There was a quiet moment, until she cleared her throat. “Well if you want a resource card, and don’t want to wait to land on a tile for one, you can show that you have the qualities of a real leader,” she said with a charming smile, “and if the other players agree, then you can have a resource card.”

Ken’s pose relaxed. Rufu could practically see the gears turning in his head. “Q-qualities of a l-leader, huh?” he repeated.

“Fitting of a Supreme Commander! A true asishi!” Arkebo was quick and proud to clarify.

“...a-and I could spend that on the promotion im-m-mediately?”

“Provided it’s the right card, yes.” Mildraff said.

He was seriously considering it? She leaned back. Oh no. She couldn’t watch this, but she couldn’t tear herself away either. The humans had a metaphor for what was about to come, she was certain. Something about watching a...wreck?

“A-alright. G...g-go ahead,” Ken spoke at last, before hurrying off of the board.

Mildraff’s ears wilted and she frowned. Rufu’s twitched, as she heard her mother muttering, “...waste of my precious time…”

Four. Mildraff moved her piece ahead, and with a flick of her wrist she tossed her resource card back into the game’s box. Rufu only caught a brief glimpse of the artwork, depicting an asishi saluting. She could only guess the tile was for a promotion, and only being able to guess grated upon her nerves all the more.

Without a word of her own, Rufu reached forward and scooped up the dice, giving them a callous toss. Five. She swiftly moved her piece into position, then looked her father straight in the eyes, fully expecting him to answer. He paused mid-reach, with slumping ears and a wilted mane. She was suddenly aware of how she was looming over him from her seat, and how he was hunkering down and glancing desperately between her and her mother. Dread piled in her gut and feuded with the adrenaline that had shot through her. It was disgusting, but it felt so natural, so right. Rufu shuddered and looked away. What was she doing?! But the damage was already done, as Arkebo quietly mumbled, “It says you’re the dominant one. You roll first next round.”

 Arkebo quietly gathered up the dice and rolled. She didn’t see the result, as she stared off in a different direction. The fur on one of her fingers rustled as a warmth neared it, and she pulled her hand back into her lap again, away from Ken. Her movements became slow, weighed down by guilt. It itched and gnawed at her, until she finally looked back to see him walking out onto the board again with his head hung low.

Once again, he went through the process of pushing the dice along to his stand and rolling each one to find his result. A mere two. The rapping of Mildraff’s claws on the table made the muscles in Rufu’s neck tighten, and her nerves fray. Arkebo was no more patient; Ken hadn’t even finished moving his piece before her father took a resource card out of the deck, and placed it by the human’s trouble card.

Rufu’s breath was heaving through her nostrils now. She didn’t know how much more of this she could take. Grabbing the dice, she meant to roll, when her mother intruded, “You know, you wouldn’t have to have us explain each tile if you were smarter.”

Her fist shook and her knuckles popped. 

“Hey!” Ken’s voice cut through the anger. “She passed her finals with flying colors!”

Rufu froze and looked down at her boyfriend. The little alien was facing Mildraff with a tremble, but he hadn’t stuttered. Before it could fully sink in, her mother huffed and waved the comment off.

“Oh please, that’s just because she had help. If you weren’t feeding her the answers she’d have flunked out by now.”

Rufu growled as she tossed her dice. Another five. Which put her piece...Right. Next. To her mother’s. She slammed it down in place and Mildraff laughed in condescending, throaty little notes. How asishi of her. “You still have no resource card. You know, maybe you’d be doing better if you acted more like an asishi.”

She wasn’t talking about the game.

Rufu surged up to her paws, and slammed her hands onto the table, toppling the game pieces. Her growl reverberated through the room, untethered, unhinged. The decked slipped and spread all over, to a much distressed, “Nooooo!” from her father. Ken fell onto his back. Rufu locked eyes with her mother. Her mane was raised, her teeth were bared, and her muscles coiled to spring into action. For one moment, she was ready to follow through on that smirking, stinking asishi’s advice. Then, like a rubber band, her mind snapped back to its senses. Bile welled up in her throat. She wasn’t like them, She wasn’t an animal!

Rufu clenched her eyes tight. She heard someone take a breath, but before a word could be said her teeth clacked together loudly with a shout. “SHUT UP!”

Then she was gone.

~~

For an agonizing moment, Ken was left in silence. Rufu’s sudden departure had him feeling grief-stricken above all else. He knew Rufu, and much as she had scared him, he kept seeing something beneath her aggression that she only felt at her lowest points. Defeat. Was this his fault? The one time he managed to open his mouth to defend her, and this was the result! He took off his glasses and wiped his face. His senses were returning, carrying uneven breath, dizziness, and a heartbeat that drummed in his ears. No wonder she was ashamed of him. 

Mildraff hummed, outwardly cool, “If she didn’t want to play, she could have just asked. Oh well. Arkebo. Food.”

He went stiff, ears flat. “But, the game-”

“Now!”

Whining like a pup, Arkebo pawed at the misplaced pieces one more time before leaving altogether. Mildraff slithered away after that. 

“Assholes,” he muttered to himself. 

Neither of them seemed to hear him, thankfully. They were off in their own little worlds. Not that they had ever left them in the first place. That, at least, would explain how they treated Rufu. To think this was what she had to put up with for all these years. Every hour of the day, with them? Again the thought came. Her, ashamed of him. If he’d given these beasts calling themselves parents so many chances, even defended them at points prior, then how the hell could she not be?

He slumped down onto the table’s surface and leaned back against the stand he’d slapped together. All he could do was helplessly search the ceiling so high above for answers, but, predictably, it provided none. God, he’d made a mess of things. He snuck into her bag to find out what was wrong, to help her however she needed it, but this? There was no helping this; he was just a kid, like her, and a much smaller kid at that. All he’d done was drive a wedge between them. Perhaps he should just pack it in and go home? He could call his parents, or even ask...no. No way in hell was he asking anything of those monsters. Mom and dad it was. Ken pulled his yutri out of his pocket, dialing a number he knew by heart before swallowing his fear and hitting the call button.

The device had barely begun to ring before the image of a black-haired, brown-eyed woman popped onto the yutri’s screen. The seething expression on her face made him swallow again. 

“Kenneth? Darling, it’s Ken!”

There was a distant response that Ken couldn’t make out. When his mom focused back on him she was quick to start her tirade. “What were you thinking, slinking off to your girlfriend’s house without so much as a word?”

He flinched. He deserved that.

 “I nearly filed a missing persons report after the first day! Disappearing like that out of nowhere, haven’t you seen the headlines? What are we supposed to think? And then when I finally learn where you are it’s not from you, but from a complete stranger!”

“Honey, honey! Calm down!” A blonde man with green eyes came into the frame from the side. “He’s alright. There’s nothing to panic over.”

    Ken’s mom took a deep breath, “Robert…”

“Hey now, it’s not like we never snuck into your room in high school,” his dad pointed out quietly.

Ken’s mom blushed, and she looked ready to slap her husband. Nevertheless, Robert laughed and turned his attention to the call. 

“What’s up, giant-slayer? Your visit going okay?”

After the last few days, he had never been happier to hear his father’s silly nicknames than right then and there. Still, he wasn’t sure what to say. He was going to ask them to come pick him up and take him away from this madhouse, but now that the moment had come he...he couldn’t do it. What kind of man would he be if he up and left Rufu here? Ken’s lip trembled, and he looked down. 

“Ken? Baby, what’s wrong?” his mom’s voice softened.

“Let him talk, Anne,” Robert whispered.

“I um...I-I actually think I...u-upset her, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

“What did you do?” Anne asked gently.

Ken tried not to grimace, but he couldn’t stop the unease from showing up on his face. They didn’t need the details. He didn’t want them worrying for him, and he didn’t want them mad at her. Even if she was ashamed of him, he loved her.

 “I...disagreed w-with something that was...important to her, a-and she’s been mad since,” he answered vaguely.

They knew he was avoiding something. It was plain as anything on their faces. “Son, speaking from experience, the best thing you could do is apologize and be honest,” Robert advised him. “Listen, you’re two very different people. I’m sure that’s why you’re together in the first place, but that’s why talking this out is important!”

“It’s hard to tell you much more when you aren’t giving us everything,” his mother told him bluntly, albeit with a smile. “I will say this, though. If she feels the same way about you as you do for her, you’ll make it through whatever’s wrong. She won’t dump you for being stupid. Lord knows I’m still with your dad.”

“Hey!” Robert exclaimed in mock-offense as his wife smirked at him.

Ken chuckled despite himself. Just be honest, then? Would that be enough? His parents’ advice was normally sound, even if the idea of addressing what made her angry in the first place made him uneasy.

“Thanks Mom, thanks Dad.”

“We love you, Sweetie,” Anne offered. 

Ken’s finger moved towards the end-call button. “Love you too. See you soon.”

“Knock ‘em dead, giant-slayer!” Robert cheered just before he hung up.

Ken wrung his hands along his face. That hadn’t gone how he expected, but he certainly felt better. Maybe, just maybe, he could patch things up with Rufu. He had to try. It would be an insult to the time they spent together if he didn’t. Ken looked around at the empty table and abandoned game. Some doubt crept back in, and the warm voices of his parents seemed to fade as he remembered he was alone. He couldn’t help thinking: I wish bubba was here.

~~

Rufu’s palm slammed into her punching bag, sending it swinging back as her claws raked its tough leather hide, chasing a ripple from the impact. This place was rotten. Everything about it, she despised. Rocking back onto one paw, the thick muscles in her other leg coiled tight as she pulled up in one smooth motion. She kicked the punching bag, and the frame it hung from shook. Her parents took everything away! They always did! 

The punching bag swung back towards her and she met it with an elbow strike to halt it, and knocked it back again with another palm strike punctuated by the claws on the end of her half-curled fingers, the thick natural weapons punching through the bag’s hide this time. Her accomplishments! A vicious swipe of her other hand’s claws tore gashes in the simple dummy, foam flying and sticking to her like the gore she was born to spill. Her dreams! She headbutted the punching bag. And now her Kenny! Why?! So she could be like them! Hopeless! She grabbed hold of the leather bag, claws digging in, and kneeded it. Goalless! She yanked hard on her prey. There was a pop, as a chain link broke. Listless! She slammed the punching bag on the ground with a loud boom. Vicious and cruel animals! Rufu fell upon the broken practice dummy, pinning it with her weight and claws. Asishi!

When her jaws sunk in past the leather, Rufu hurtled back to reality. Slowly, shakily, her teeth left the dummy. She trembled as her tail and mane hung limp. Her vision was blurry, her lips were dripping with spittle and dissolving foam, and she clenched her eyes shut with a sob. She couldn’t wail. Rufu wished to the stars above that she could at least do that, but she wouldn’t have the peace to let it all out as long as she was here. With a soft thump, she let her head lie against the punching bag. Tears wet her cheeks. She shuddered and sobbed. She was so, so lost. Would she ever be free of this? Every moment of her life was spent under their thumb, trying to fight back, doing everything in her power not to become as disgusting as they were. She hated them. She hated what they were, what she was, because no matter how hard she tried, it always came back to that.

One day, she would graduate, One day, she could move out and never see them again. Even so, her coworkers would still look at her the same way the other students did now, and for all she tried...every shower she took, every attempt to curb her instincts, every effort to improve her grades, every time she tried to rein in her anger, she couldn’t escape being what she was. Acting like what she was. It was simply...natural. She would never be free. It would always follow her around. So, she just laid there atop her broken punching bag, sobbing herself away.

It was hard to say how long she was like this. It could have been a few minutes, a few hours, or even beyond. However, the repugnant smell of the house was still laying siege upon her; an anchor she could no longer ignore. Rufu sat upright and brushed the tears from her eyes. She couldn’t let them see her like this, but it hit her when she raised her arms to her face. This stench wasn’t coming from the house. Oh god, she was even starting to smell like this place. Rufu’s lips peeled back, but she kept her teeth grit tight to curb the screaming. She-- she couldn’t handle this. She couldn’t do this!

Standing, she rushed out of her room aimlessly. She was back downstairs in the dining room before she realized it

“...t your job…” she heard someone whisper.

She flattened her ears to try to tune them out. Whatever garbage they were on about was the last thing she cared to hear. Looking over the table, she was disgusted to see the same familiar tiny form sitting in the same place. Black hair, no longer quite so neat after several days here, and green dots for eyes that faintly shone. Rufu forced herself to keep quiet again, much as it pained her. Kenny had been left on the table by himself… because she had left him there.

She strode towards the table and sat directly behind her boyfriend. He looked up at her, but he wasn’t saying anything. She didn’t know what to say, herself, or what was going through that little head of his. However, common sense told her that she couldn’t have been the only one in need. She softly placed her hand down on the table, and he all but ran to her finger, hugging it as tightly as those tiny arms could. Rufu could no longer hold back a high-pitched whine of sorrow and relief. She did this to him, to her Kenny.

“R-R-Rufu I-I’m--”

“YOU DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” A shout from Mildraff blasted out of the kitchen.

“You lost your job!” Arkebo fired back. “This isn’t about who’s in charge!”

“Well, maybe you should find one yourself, Mr. Restaurant-Quality Chef!”

“Right, because your husband bringing home the food and supporting the house would do wonders for your little ego, huh? Wouldn’t it? WOULDN’T-”

A sickening clap came through, and a yelp of pain followed. There was the sound of a woman gagging. Silence hung in the air, broken only by Mildraff’s emotionless voice, “Go clean yourself up.”

Rufu’s other hand neared her tiny boyfriend on instinct. She watched her mother hurry through the dining room, not sparing the two of them a glance. Her hands were held out far away from her body, and tiny beads of dark red dripped off her claws. Moments later, her father came in with a white metal box. His cheek bore three long, ugly gashes, and his nostrils flared with heavy breaths. He slammed the box onto the table, sending Ken sprawling to his knees, while repeatedly muttering, “Can’t infect the food,” to himself like a mantra.

    Arkebo opened the box to reveal a few small rows of medical supplies. He dabbed some rubbing alcohol onto a cloth ball, and started to clean the wounds. Ken had wandered away from the safety of her finger. She followed the tiny alien with her eyes as soon as he slipped away, but he was already speaking before she could stop him. “A-a-are you a-alright?”

    “Alright? Alright? Look at me!” Arkebo rose to his full height and slammed his fists near Ken, barely missing him. “What do you think, you little insect? My wife just told me she lost her job! I still have to keep everyone in this house fed! Nothing I say matters, and, to top it all off, I have to deal with a pest like you hanging around and asking stupid questions!”

    “I-I-I j-j-..I-I’m s-sorry!”

    “Oh, I’ll MAKE you sorry!”

    Faster than Arkebo could react, Rufu rose from her seat and swatted his hands away, leaning over her boyfriend protectively. Even hunching, she loomed over her father.

“Go back to the kitchen, and finish dinner,” she ordered, teeth bared and snarling.

“Yes, ma’am,” he whimpered. His mane slid down along with his willpower, and he slunk back into the kitchen to finish tending his wounds.

    A wave of nausea rolled over her, as what she had done sunk in. She felt like fainting; she could feel Ken’s tiny hands rubbing her fingers, but she could never bring herself to look at him when she felt shame like this. When the petting didn’t seem to elicit a response from her, Ken said, “R-R-Rufu, could y-”

    She turned her hand over without looking, saying all she had to. He didn’t waste a second in heeding her unspoken order, thus she was even quicker to take them out of this wretched kitchen. Time was not a luxury they had anymore.