Chapter Text
.
.
She isn’t aware of it at first.
It’s a timbercat feast. The second one they’ve been invited to and she likes luncheon meat but only like, a slice, and then she’s slamming on a guitar. Yumyan goes head to head with her and they’ve got a battle of notes going on between her and two cats. It's really really nice. She ends up sprawled out on a table and completely beside herself with breathless laughter.
“You’re an animal.” Wolf comments from somewhere.
That only makes Kipo laugh harder, since the song had been about bouncing baby megadogs. Bensen tries to slide her another slice of meat and a dare to stick it on the back of Molly’s head. She doesn’t do it, but she spots something over his shoulder.
“What?” He turns his head. “What is it?”
Kipo says, “Nothing.”
It’s a cardboard box.
Bensen looks at her confusedly, “You okay, Kipo?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. I’m just-“ Her gaze snaps back to the box. There’s nothing wrong with it. It even has ‘oranges’ scrawled over the side of it. She wants to check. Maybe she’s craving oranges? “I’ll be right back.”
“Um. Okay.”
She walks over. A nearby timbercat tries to get her attention but she waves them off. The box is empty which, it really should be the end of it. She wants to go back to playing while they could. Tomorrow they had to get back on the road and it’d be a real bummer if this would be her last feast for a while. Except the box and it being empty. It’s bothering her.
She looks around. Nothing nearby. A bowl? She frowns, no that wouldn’t fit. What would?
Her feet are carrying her over. It’s almost natural that she lifts herself up over the edge and plants herself comfortably inside. It’s a shame it only goes up to her waist- oh wait. Easy fix. She sits down and hugs her knees. The satisfaction is incredibly nice.
It lasts four seconds.
“Kipo, what are you doing?”
“Huh?” Kipo blinks at Wolf. It’s like her brain is still playing guitar and has only just now caught up. She glances down at the box and says, “Sitting.”
Wolf squints at her, “Why?”
“Uh, why not?”
“Why in-“
A new song starts to play. Her brain falls behind again as she realizes they’re playing without her and, ugh, she needs to find her guitar right this second. She leaps out of the box onto a nearby table.
“Wuh-! Kipo, watch it!”
“Sorry Wolf! Gotta go!”
The whole ordeal is forgotten by morning.
.
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The next incident can barely even be counted one.
They’re in the ‘hardware district’, or at least that’s what Dave says. She’s distracted by giant claw machines and huge robots with belt legs. There’s a lot to see. Almost too much as her gaze swings from the tools to the broken machines and back over to empty shelves.
“What do you think they made here?” She asks.
Wolf huffs beside her, “Who cares? It didn’t last long anyway.”
“Au contrail.” Dave says from the shelf. “That’s german for ‘not exactly’.”
“What’s german?”
“Sounds gross.”
“Anyway.” Dave shoots them a dark look. “This is obviously a, uh, wood store. Where they sell wood.” He pats the shelf to justify this.
Kipo makes an ‘oh’ noise. She opens her mouth to ask more. Except Bensen appears between them with an excited yell.
“Guys, guys I found-“
Kipo shrieks. She can feel her shoulders hike up to her ears and her fingers stick themselves to her hips angrily. Her lip curls and she gives a hiss before bolting off in the opposite direction. She barely hears Dave cry ‘dude, did you just scare Kipo’ and Bensen saying ‘did she just hiss at me?’
This might be a problem.
.
.
She’s been ignoring it because it doesn’t happen too often. And no one has really noticed or at least, they haven’t confronted her about it. It’s fine. She can manage it. The only thing that’s obvious about it is moonlit nights when her eyes are silted and more purple then ever.
And, of course, battles that get out of hand.
She tried to prevent it. The pigeon mutes were a little bent out of shape about twinbeak and she couldn’t say she didn’t fling it into a mountain of trash. Besides, honesty can work out sometimes!
Not this time. The pigeons mean business. Luckily, Wolf knew exactly how to counter them.
“Rocks.” She said. “Throw lots of rocks. They’ll eat them up and it’ll weigh them down. We can make our escape then.”
“Got it!” Kipo grinned. No jaguar required. Just good ol’ fashioned Kipo throwin’ arms.
The woods had a whole lot more roots and grass then rock, but that just gave them a lot more cover to work with. Bensen was doing great with his berry traps and Wolf was scaling the trees to get better shots at the birds with stalky. Kipo glanced at the ground and Mandu looked up.
She held up a rock deviously, “Bet I can throw mine farther.”
The pig squealed.
She manages to peg four before a yelp from above catches her ear. It’s Wolf, her brain says, and her eyes are frantically scanning the canopy. There, dangling from the talons of a pigeon, her friend. Wolf is giving a great fight, but stalky is on the forest floor and the pigeon is lifting off higher and higher and-
“Kipo!” Bensen cries. “I’ll knock it down! Get Wolf!”
She’s already tearing after the pigeon mute. There’s the tickling sensation of fur brushing her ankles as her surroundings start to blur. She’s fast, fast enough to catch up to the soaring mute. There’s a pop as a soda can nails it in the face and Wolf screams, falling and falling and-
-into Kipo’s arms.
“Phew!” The half-mute almost collapses with relief. “That was way too close.”
Wolf shakily stepped out of her arms, “You’re telling me. Anyone seen stalky?”
“Over here!” Dave yells from nearby.
Kipo laughs, relieved at the sight of retreating pigeons and her unharmed family. Wolf grins at her knowingly, a tad bashful, and holds her hand up. In her mind, Kipo knows she should do something with her hand. A high five sounds great. But she really likes seeing Wolf on the ground, happy and alive, and she’s leaning forward.
There’s a blissful moment where all she can feel is Wolf’s hand through her hair and, gosh. Her chest is warm and her thoughts cloudy with I’m happy I met you. The hand is frozen and unmoving. It’s what wakes her from her daze, blinking blearily into wide eyes.
Wolf stares.
The others are staring.
Everyone. Staring.
“Uh.” Kipo says. She can feel sweat on her neck and internally screams.
“Kipo, what-“
She steps back fast. Her shoulders feel tense and her legs too stiff. She tires to laugh but it sounds hoarse, “Sorry, totally. Uh. Misinterpreted that. Silly me. My mistake! Well! Let’s move on gang!”
She marches forward. After a moment, the rest follow. She wants that to be the end of it, but their gazes don’t stop watching her so heavily till almost two days later.
.
.
It reaches a breaking point.
Friendly mutes sometimes aren’t nice mutes. Kipo learns this while attending the peacock pansy wedding party. For once, it was Bensen the peacock mutes were enamored with and were excited to welcome the dj to the wedding. His only condition was the rest of them were able to attend as well. Wolf didn’t look happy, but the others were having fun and Kipo. Well.
She can’t stop looking at it.
It’s a small silver chalice. It’s sitting next to the altar, not on it. It’s on a little end table and maybe sort of cute? She’s not sure. Squinting at it doesn’t help. According to the priestly peacock, it’s supposed to be the holy grail and only the brides bride would get to drink it. Or something.
Kipo sniffed it.
Water, her brain said. Well duh. Does holy water smell different then normal water? And what makes it holy? Does the water have holes? She leans to the other side of the table to get another angle on it. Maybe there was a secret code?
“Kipo?” It’s Bensen and he looks amused. “What are you doing?”
“Euh.” She answers with a frown. Words are meaningless in the face of discovery.
Bensen crosses his arms, “Did you want to grab something from the snack bar? Might be our last chance for a while.”
Food did sound good. It was moderately tempting too. The chalice was too distracting though and she waved him off. He didn’t get a chance to leave as the bells started to play and the brides appeared. It was a very pretty event. Feathers and decorations and some suspicious bones but it was all very sweet. The peacock mutes all clapped excitedly to heartfelt vows. The brides were beautiful too.
Kipo smiled. This was just too cool.
Crash.
The hairs on her neck stood up. She blinks widely at the audience, unsure what she just heard. Every peacock in the room is gaping at her and she can hear Bensen beside her quietly scream. She glances down. Her arm extended out in an almost casual swipe.
The chalice was in pieces at her feet.
“Oh.” The realization has her toes curling and her stomach twisting. “Ohhh, that was. Uh. Big mistake. I’ll. Get you. Another one?”
The brides puff up angrily. With impeccable calm, the priest says, “Eat the humans.”
It takes four hours to shake the procession. It takes another hour to bear through Wolf’s angry rant and Bensen still quietly screaming. Dave was and is still laughing by the time things settle down. But Kipo doesn’t feel settled, as they rest around the campfire. Everything about her is unsettled.
She raises her hand up to the stars and frowns at the fur on her wrist. It’s fading away bit by bit, but it’s there. She tiredly lets it fall onto her face.
This, she thinks, is a very big problem.