~~~~~ Kyle’s POV ~~~~~

It was the same. Everything was the same as before. I was back in the room I woke up in this morning. The alarm on the nightstand told we it was just past 2:30 pm. I had woken up just a little bit ago, but I had no reason to get out of bed this time around. This fresh pain in my muzzle meant the memory was real and not a dream. I curled up into the fetal position at the thought of it again. I’m homeless now.

I got out of the bed, having nothing else to do, and not wanting to remember the painful thoughts anymore. I wandered down the hall and stairs, pausing near the bottom as I heard Cecil and Snow in the living room.

“How’s that plan sound to you Snow?” Cecil asked.

“I think he’ll love it, I know we will. I mean he’s already here and all, Ryker can deal with the formalities after everything’s all sorted out.” Snow replied. I couldn’t help but think they were talking about me.

“I’m sure he will. After all, from what I saw of them, we’re more loving to the kit than those two. At least his sister actually showed concern when she came down because of the commotion. I didn’t touch her of course.”

“I’m sure you did what you thought was right hun. You never lose your cool after all.” Snow said with a soft smile from what I could tell by the way his whiskers pulled up.

“Yes, I guess you’re right there.” Cecil chuckles softly. He looks up and notices me at the stairs. “Oh, hey kit. How are you fairing?”

Snow turns around and looks at me smiling still. With both of their eyes on me, I walked down the rest of the steps and entered the living room and sat down in one of the chairs. “O-ok, I g-guess. What were you two talking about?” I asked softly.

Snow and Cecil smiled to each other, and the rabbit was bubbling with excitement. He smiled excitedly and me and almost ran over to hug me tightly.

~~~~~ Snow’s POV ~~~~~

I couldn’t contain my excitement now that Kyle was awake and here. I got up and almost ran over to him. I wrapped him up in my arms and nuzzled into the crock of his neck. I could hear Cecil chuckling behind me but on the couch, but I didn’t care, I was happy after all.

“Well, considering Snow’s a little bit too jumpy to say much, I’ll tell you instead. While we’re both deeply sorry about what happened with your family, but we’ve decided to help you because of what your parents did. Me and Snow talked it over, and well, we’ve decided to welcome you to our house.-” Cecil explained, but before he could continue past that sentence, I spoke up, pulling my muzzle out of the kit’s next to look at him.

“We’re gonna be your legal guardians! We’re too young still to adopt you as parents but that’s the next best thing.” I said excitedly, a big smile on my muzzle.

Kyle’s face showed his astonishment. His eyes grew big, and jaw dropped and quivered slightly. He was about to say something before I placed a finger on his lips and closed his muzzle for him. “Nope. Not a word out of you kit. You’re gonna accept this rather you want to or not. We’re good people and I’m sure we’ll be more loving then those foxes you called parents.” I said, taking my arms from around the teen and stepping back a bit to stretch.

“Well, it would seem we’re all in for one busy day.” Cecil chuckled, knowing already what I had planned just from seeing me stretch.

“W-what d-do you mean?” Kyle stuttered, looking from me over to Cecil.

“Hehehe. What I mean is that, first we’ll get you something to eat, and then we shall...” Cecil started, looking over to me with a knowing grin. He knew me all too well, and I was really excited too.

“We’re going shopping!” I shouted, running off to the kitchen and leaving the other two in the living room, Cecil chuckling at my antics and Kyle wondering what was going on.

****

I was having a blast! First, we made sure that we all had something to eat. It may have been nearly three in the afternoon, but we were all pretty hungry. Once we had filled our stomachs, we headed for the mall. We were almost there when I turned and looked at Kyle in the back seats. He was distracted by the entertainment system of my Hummer H2, Hornet. The name itself, of course, came from his yellow and black color scheme.

The best part of Hornet was that he was state of the art. Everything inside of him was the best. The entertainment system that Kyle was distracted by wasn’t just for DVDs; Hornet had on-board Wi-Fi so Kyle was actually watching one of his favorite anime shows over the internet.

I absolutely loved Hornet! Sure, not as much as Cecil or Ryker, but still, my big, bad Hornet was way up there. Just like with Necross, Hornet was the system controlling the vehicle so I wasn’t actually driving despite sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Hornet is definitely the better choice for this. You know we’ll be buying a lot for the kit Cecil.” I said, knowing how much he prefers Necross over any other vehicle, including Hornet.

“Humph...Fine. I guess you’re right there. It’s just, you know I prefer Necross babe. Sorry if I hurt your feelings Hornet.” Cecil said.

“It’s alright Master Cecil. I understand, me and Master Snow are the same way.” Hornet said through the speakers in the front row. He only used those two so as not to disturb Kyle and his show.

“That’s right. And, now that we’re here,” I start watching as Hornet pulled into the mall’s parking lot. “we can really enjoy this thing!” I finished, pumped up to do some real shopping!

We all got out and started for the mall. We started with the simplest of things; clothes. He headed through several different shops, having the kit try on many different pairs of shirts, tees, shorts, pants, and all sorts of things. I also got Kyle to try some necklaces and bracelets too.

We ended up having to leave to go take the large amount of bags to Hornet and return for more. I just love mass shopping like this! We walked back inside and headed for the furniture departments. He searched through each and every aisle. If we were going to welcome him in, then we were going to give him everything to make that bedroom his own.

We gave him full say over anything this time. And we told him to not even think of looking at the prices. We were sparing no expense in this situation. We walked about the stores and got him to pick out the pieces he liked to help decorate the room we decided to make his. Surprisingly, he only really picked out smaller things, saying he actually liked the way the room was already. I think he was just shy, but maybe it was just me.

We next tackled entertainment. We went about getting game systems and games for them as well. Cecil also went about getting him a new phone and plan with us and ending the one he had with his parents. Kyle had actually started smiling during our outing again. And he seemed to be having fun with us.

~~~~~ Kyle’s POV ~~~~~

This was kind of fun. I had never enjoyed shopping with my parents, but I was having fun with Cecil and snow. They’ve been nothing but nice and welcoming to me. There was no way I couldn’t be smiling after all of this.

“Snow, could I go look at some of those too?” I asked, pointing over to another section of games.

“Sure kit. I’ll be over here when you’re done.” The rabbit said smiling softly as he was looking through accessories for the X-box they had gotten for me.

I smiled to him and headed off to the games. I wasn’t paying too much attention and soon enough ended up running into someone. “Umph...” I said, landing on my butt.

The guy I hit also fell, and so did the games he was holding too. “Ow, that hurt.” The wolf said.

He was a small guy for a wolf, not very muscular, and he was kind of flat chested and flat stomach. He was like me physique-wise. He had dark grey, almost blackish, fur, jagged headfur that he dyed light blue, and his eyes were red like mine, though lighter where mine were darker in color.

“I’m sorry.” I started, getting up a bit and started to grab some of the game cases. “Here, let me help you with this.”

We both grabbed the games and I helped in back up. I handed over the games I picked up and decided to introduce myself. “Here you go. My name’s Kyle. I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

“It’s ok. I wasn’t either really. I’m Zeke. It’s nice to meet you Kyle.” Zeke said, taking the games and shaking paws with me.

“Still, I’m sorry about it. I hope you and your games are alright.” I said.

“Yeah, I’m good. And they’re fine too. Always, I need to get going. See ya Kyle.” Zeke said, waving good bye as he jogged off to the front of the store.

I continued over the games I was headed for before. I looked through and found a few that I liked and took them with me back to Snow. We met up with Cecil and he gave me my new iPhone 4. I was ecstatic as I played around with it!

“Wow! This is so cool.” I said, already going through it.

“I already put in our numbers and even Ryker’s too, just in case.” Cecil said with a smile.

“Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” I said, hugging them both tightly.

Cecil and Snow both rubbed over my back a bit before I pulled away, and started to convert my other contacts to the new phone. We browsed a bit more in some of the other stores before finally leaving and heading back to Hornet again. We piled everything in and headed off for dinner. Surprisingly, it had been several hours since we started the shopping spree.

“Dang, it’s already that late?” I asked, a little surprised.

“That’s the best part of shopping sprees. Time flies when you’re having been kit.” Snow said from the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, Snow loves his shopping. That’s why he was excited back at the house.” Cecil chucked, leaning back in his seat and relaxing.

“So where should we head for dinner boys?” Snow asked, turning to look at me and Cecil.

“Hmmm. Kit, you decide. Today’s been all about you so far, why not continue it.” Cecil said, smiling back to me.

“Umm... well, I...” I stuttered, not knowing what to pick. “LongHorn.” I spat out.

“Sounds good to me.” they both say in union, again surprising me with their closeness.

We soon arrived and were seated after a short wait. I was looking over the menu when Cecil spoke up.

“Let’s see here. Ah! Here we are. The Grilled Trout Topped with Shrimp & Lobster. That should take care of us babe.” Cecil said to Snow, smiling.

“Yeah, sounds like enough to me. Though I think I’ll still get a salad too. What about you Kyle?” Snow asked me. I was still looking through the menu though.

“Umm, I think I’ll get the chicken tenders this time.” I replied, going with something I knew they had and I would eat.

Once the orders were placed, we had our drinks and Snow’s salad out soon after. As the rabbit munched away of it contently, I went through my new phone, looking at all the cool and interesting features.

“Hmm. That’s odd.” Cecil said out of the blue.

“What’s odd?” both me and Snow asked, before looking at each other and laughing slightly.

“Well, Necross just sent a message saying there was a surprise at home for the three of us.” he stated.

“That’s weird. I wonder what it could be hun.” Snow replied.

“He put at the end he wouldn’t say.” Cecil said.

“Your cars can message you as well?” I asked, thinking that was cool.

“They can do much more than that kit. They have a lot of tricks under their hoods.” Cecil chuckled out.

I was gonna say more, but the waitress arrived carrying our food. She set their larger plate down and then mine. We thanked her and started to eat. As I chewed on a tender, I watched as Cecil and snow affectionately shared their meal. They alternated between feeding themselves and one another. They always wore soft smiles and their whiskers bounced as they ate from one another.

The entire display was so cute and loving that I couldn’t stop from smiling at it. We ate slowly, enjoying the atmosphere. We spoke some from time-to-time, but we mostly remained happily silent. The food was good, the company was good, and that was all I needed to be happy for the moment.

Cecil surprised me again by ordering the three of us a Chocolate Stampede. We shared it amongst ourselves. It made me feel like I was important again, like I mattered to them, despite only being with them a few days. We left shortly after, and I patted my stomach as we were heading back to the house.

“I’m so full.” I stated obviously.

“That’s good kit. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself today.” Cecil said.

“I’ll say I did. After all you two have done for me today. I’m so happy you two have done this for me.” I replied, a tear leaking out and running down my cheek as I spoke.

“Hehe. That’s good. Like we said, you’re part of our family now. So don’t think of it as anything more than us treating you as our own.” Snow said, his voice carrying the emotions over and telling me he meant every word.

We quieted down after that, just listening to the music from the radio and enjoying time together. We made it all the way back to the street before the quiet was interrupted. Snow must have saw something that startled him because he hit the brakes, and despite Hornet having driven so far, we stopped like that. We all lurched forward and back at the sudden move.

“What’s up babe? Why’d you stop?” Cecil asked, rubbing his neck slightly.

“I-is t-that... w-what I-I think it i-is?” Snow asked, his eyes, no, his entire body wasn’t moving, as if he had seen a ghost. I unbuckled my seatbelt and moved to look over his shoulder. Both Cecil and I followed his gaze back to the house. Cecil gasped as he saw what was in the driveway, and I could only think of what it meant to them.

In the driveway was a motorcycle. It was covered in armored dressing and resembled a feral wolf almost. Its main color was midnight black, but it was also covered with enchanting, phosphorescent white vines so it was easy to tell it was there. I could just barely make out the license plate, but it read "RYD ROSE" and had a rose beside it as its image.

“Is that-?” I started to ask before Cecil spoke up already knowing what I was gonna say.

“Yeah, Blazer Drive. That means Ryker’s home.” he said, a tear running down his cheek as Hornet continued on and parked himself in the driveway behind the bike.

Before I could even react, Snow and Cecil jumped out of the car and rushed for the front door. I guess they completely forgot about all of my stuff and I did too, far more curious about this Ryker guy. I somehow managed to catch up as they were unlocking the front door.

“Ryker!” they both yelled as they threw the door open and ran into the house. I thought it was odd that those two would go from so calm and caring to frantic so quickly.

“I’ve been waiting for you three.” a deep voice said. I then saw a large canine walk out of the kitchen and turn the corner to look right at us. He placed his right paw on his hip and smirked at us all. “I think you boys have got some explaining to do.”