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There were exactly two things that Tommy Innit was eternally sure of.
One: people will kick the shit out you at any given opportunity, but they’re less likely to when you’re an adorable little ferret.
Two: Animal Control is shit and evil and deserved to be eradicated from the face of the Earth.
He’d been running around the streets of L’Manburg long enough for that lesson to sink in, at least.
For all that people might pity a sad homeless ten-year-old, it was rare for a random adult in the city to see a homeless kid and care in the first place. He got it, even. Times were hard enough on folks, without trying to take care of an outsider, especially some ratty kid who definitely couldn’t help out. The rude bitches shooed him away, maybe threw shit at him. The too-nice tried to call foster care or the police to bring him to some family or other— he’d always slip away, back to the streets he belonged on.
He’d never touch the foster system again. Hell, he didn’t want to be a human again. No, he was perfectly happy where he was, in a little hole in the wall behind a shitty, run-down diner, snagging pieces of half-eaten from the dumpster. Once he’d coated himself in dirt and dust, covering his natural white and cream coloring, the people seemed to hardly even notice him, most of the time.
He was happy, really, until these goddamn Animal Control bitches showed up.
Suddenly, poking his little pink nose out of his burrow, he could smell that far too many people had been in the alley overnight. Instantly on alert, he was looking around with a cautious eye, catching on a new flash of metal beside the dumpster. Creeping closer, slow and careful, he let out a sharp hiss instinctively at the sight.
A fucking live-trap— a big, wire cage, with a raw chicken breast tossed in at the far end, meant to lure him in to step on a pressure plate and trap himself. He’d seen enough of the actual animals around here get caught with it before, he knew how it worked.
The fucking nerve of these bitches! They thought they could catch him like some random rodent! So what if they didn’t know he was a full-blood hybrid, capable of a full animal form shift? They had made a horrible mistake, underestimating the Tommy Innit!
Inching closer to the trap, it wasn’t hard to see the plate, linked to the springs along the side. With his lanky form, it wasn’t hard to step over it and snag the chicken between his jaws, carrying it back across the plate and out of the cage without issue. Honestly, how animals fell for this was insane. This was the easiest thing ever!
Now, a whole chicken breast in mouth, was just the question of what to do with it. There was a quiet part of him that begged not to eat it, that it was raw and dirty and cold and he was tired of being an animal, being treated like an animal.
The larger part of him was a starving animal all the same, ravenous for all he could get, and so he dragged the chicken into his burrow and devouring it quickly before falling asleep again.
It became the new normal, for the next few days. Popping his head outside to see the trap had been refilled with a new chunk of raw meat, stealing away with it to his burrow to eat, and returning to sleep right after. In his ferret form, he already was inclined to sleeping far more, but with how little he’d been eating for so long, it was even harder to keep his eyes open for too long.
It wasn’t until a week later that he realized how stupid he was, falling into a comfortable rhythm with such a threat over his head.
It had rained that night, so Tommy roused slowly, cringing at the damp air outside that seemed to eat away at all heat. His nest of small rags and a lost scarf wasn’t incredible, but it was his, and hard to part with on mornings so cold to face. Still, he had some humans to show up! He yawned, stretching and flexing his paws, before popping out the burrow—
Clink!
Agony ripped through him in an instant, frantic squeaks and squeals tearing from his throat as something thin and sharp wrapped around his front right foot, forming a bracelet of pain just over his wrist, tight and clamping around him.
There were sounds from the alleyway mouth, blurs of motion, people, coming straight towards him, making his squeaks grow even more panicked. People were never good, nothing good happened with people, this was terrible—
“Did we really need the foothold trap?”
“You didn’t have to keep refilling the live trap every day, Wil. Little guy’s wily.”
“Later, Tech, just get the little guy loaded up for now. He’s already overwhelmed enough.”
The words flew past, hard to understand, other than the intent: they were going to grab, him, take him away, put him back in a big house with too many kids that tugged on his ears and his tail and flicked his whiskers and he didn’t want to go—
Hands wrapped around him, instantly turning his frantic chirps into furious hissing, his free claws scraping and teeth gnawing at thick leather gloves that didn’t seem prone to giving out anytime soon. And he still had the fucking clamp-thingy on his leg!
“Hey buddy, you’re okay.”
No, he was not, fuck you very much! He hissed again, even with his teeth locked into the leather, grinding his jaw to try and force through the material.
“Damn, he’s feisty! Dadza, can we—”
“Wil.”
“You’re no fun.”
They were moving, towards a big blue van with cages all along the sides that made Tommy’s heart pulse far too fast to be healthy. Stopped at the side, there was an empty cage, door opened, ready for him to be thrown in, he didn’t want to, he didn’t want to be here, he wanted out—
The hands around his neck shifted, the one around his middle the same, a new pressure on the back of his neck—
It was like a gentle, low-pressure hum had started up in the back of his head; a white-noise that he was suddenly aware of and transfixed by. It brought everything else to a faint buzz, something distant and hard to follow as his limbs all curled inward like a fuzzy pillbug.
“Okay, Wil, get the foothold off, he could get hurt with that on during the drive.”
“Got ya, Blade.”
“I hate you.”
The tight sensation around his leg suddenly released with a click, leg instantly curling up to his chest. One of the humans had a terrifying mess of metal in their hands now— something like a bear trap made tiny, without the teeth on the clamp.
“Aww, he’s so cute! Phil, are you really sure—”
“He’s clearly feral, Wilbur! Focus on rehabilitation, for now.”
He was moving again, closer to a dark space that seemed okay, if a bit too big for him, past a wire gate—
A cage.
No, no no no, he wouldn’t go in any more cages! Fuck that and fuck these assholes for trying it!
It was harder, reaching for his human form; whether that was because of the pressure on his scruff or the months he’d gone without it, he didn’t give a shit. He just cared about hands and feet and a human voice to scream—
“NO!”
His bare feet were on pavement, hands pressed firmly against the side of the truck to keep him away from it. He could still feel a hand by his neck, but now, it was holding onto his ragged T-shirt instead of his scruff.
He looked up, nose still twitching frantically and whiskers wavering.
He met three matching sets of wide-eyed shock and horror, directed at him.
(Of course they were. He was just a rodent, squared. Double the parasite.)
Without another second, he was a ferret again, skittering across the alleyway and straight back into his burrow.
It might’ve been the same day or the next that Tommy was curled in his nest against the returned rain, no intention to come out, and there was a new intruder in his alleyway, announced by gentle clicking.
hello-hello-friendly-hi?
Tommy’s tensed form didn’t release, but… well, there was a certain degree of comfort, in hearing those sounds. Another animal with simple intentions, nothing so complicated or scary as humans. Still, any intruder could be a problem.
He didn’t leave the burrow— hell, he was half-tempted to never step foot outside again—but he cautiously poked a nose out, small black eyes quickly finding his visitor.
… A pink bunny.
Now look, Tommy was aware that ferrets didn’t have full color vision, mostly just monochrome and some red tones. But he wasn’t a regular ferret, so this was definitely a pink bunny, right? Just… cotton-candy pink and in a half-sitting hunch against the opposing wall of the alley, trying to dodge the line of water consistently falling from the building’s eaves overhead.
It was honestly kind of sad, watching this little red-eyed, puffy fluffy thing twice his size desperately trying to pin itself against the thin stretch of dank alleyway that wasn’t sopping wet.
He spared a glance around the alleyway, back toward the mouth: the truck was gone, all traces of their traps, too. The live trap with the pressure plate was even gone. So… he took a little risk.
Friendly-warm-safe-come, he chittered, watching the bunny instantly perk up. Without much hesitation, the little hare was hopping rapidly across the alleyway, now pressed against the wall beside Tommy to avoid the water.
Inside-safe-come? He chattered back, a bit of nervousness in the twitch of his back legs. Tommy couldn’t blame him— ferrets would straight up eat rabbits in the wild. But animals always seemed to know that hybrids were of a different breed, more willing to trust.
Safe-warm-come-come, he affirmed, shuffling backward and making room for his new friend. The little burrow wasn’t quite big enough for them to be together comfortably, but Tommy wouldn’t particularly mind some extra body heat, someone to cuddle up against.
And holy shit, was this the greatest cuddle buddy in existence.
The bunny was practically made out of the poofy clouds from storybooks. His fur had the texture of a warm hug from several people, sprinkled with heart-felt I love you’s. The mans was a plushie come to life, complete with perfect, glittering eyes.
Friend-friend-warm-stay, he trilled into impossibly soft fur, pressing his face further into it. Fuck your boundaries, he could apologize to this dumb, weird bunny in the morning. For now, he was the greatest companion Tommy had ever had.
His eyes started drooping to the sound of rain pattering and thoughtful clicks from the bunny rumbling below him, falling asleep to the cheeps of safe-protect-safe-love.
Tommy woke up to his pillow rudely moving out from under him. With an offended squeak, he glared at the rabbit with a small growl. Oddly enough, the bunny seemed utterly unfazed, just flicking his tall ears at the sound.
Food-hungry-outside-food, he clacked, teeth flashing with the meaning.
Tommy… was less sure.
Yeah, the humans had left yesterday, but who’s to say they wouldn’t be back? Especially now that the rain was gone. He said as much to his cuddle buddy. Inside-safe-stay-safe.
The bunny didn’t seem to like that, ears twitching more and seeming to stay partway back. With a small hop to close the inch between them, giving a tiny little head bump to Tommy’s shoulder. Together-safe-outside, he insisted gently.
And Tommy… well, he liked his new friend. If he went outside alone, who knows what could happen? He could get lost, caught by the Animal Control guys—
He could just decide to leave.
So Tommy gave an anxious shuffle, softly churring his agreement. The bunny instantly perked up, ears flicked forward again, hopping toward the entrance, Tommy slinking along behind him.
He felt his heart beat twenty times in a moment as his bunny buddy hopped straight out of the burrow without hesitation. Sitting on his haunches on the pavement, he sat alertly, looking all around before setting back to all fours and looking back to Tommy. Safe-safe-come.
Tommy, heart starting to relax, braved the entrance, emerging through the entry of the burrow. After all, he had to think about his new friend! Rabbits aren’t carnivorous, so he’ll need to find something more fitting for him—
For the second time in 24 hours, hands wrapped around him, but they wasted no time going for his scruff now, instantly putting him back in that haze of static and forced calm, even as the world swam around him. It took hardly a moment for him to feel something wrap around his throat—not tight, but it might as well have been, it was constricting and terrible and he was caught—
Frantically, his eyes tore across the alleyway for his friend, still able to let out warning screeches while scruffed. He had to shift, he had to get his little friend away before he got caught too— except he wasn’t shifting. No matter how he reached for it, his human form felt utterly gone. Was this it? Had he gone too feral? No, no, it had to be the collar they put on him, it was keeping him trapped like this! He caught a glimpse of pink at the foot of a human, more desperately wailing RUN-RUN-PREDATOR-RUN at the top of his little lungs.
And then, his bunny friend wasn’t a bunny.
Standing in his place was a human in a blue jacket, paws across the chest, matching to the other two. Pink hair was in a clean braid down his back, though his red eyes and too-tall pink ears remained.
Dread, despair, betrayal, hurt coursed through his head— his heart— at the speed of sound, his warnings dying in his throat.
He’d been tricked. This was all just another trick.
Not-Bunny reached out and gently stroked his head, and Tommy tried to pretend he didn’t want to lean into the touch.
“I’m sorry. I’m doing this because I care, little guy.”
As Tommy was placed in a dark, windowless animal carrier, filled with plush blankets, he struggled to believe that.
