2025-02-08 - Rooftop Bunnies

Josh is up on the roof of the apartment building where he lives. What he's wearing is a mystery because he is presently in his fennec fox form. And he's playing with his friend, Five, the snugglebunny. As a fennec fox, Fox-Josh is tiny, weighing no more than 2 ½ to 3 pounds. He is stalking around the corner of a low wall thinking he is about to catch his prey when the clever snugglebunny pounces from hiding on Fox-Josh. The two wrestle around playfully and gently biting one another.

It's not every day that one finds a fox of any variety on a roof, and so when Charmaine steps out to try to find a spot to watch the sunset and stargaze from, she's startled by the activity. "Oh! Uh..." She pulls a bulky, black, sherpa-esque hooded cardigan more tightly around her as she tilts her head to look over the playful commotion "I don't suppose one of you is normally human?"

Aaron had sent a text ahead of time to let Josh know he was stopping in and he needed to talk to him, coming up onto the rooftop looking around he is dressed in Cargo pants, a hoodie with a leather jacket over it, and sneaks on his feet. Spotting the Fennic Fox Aaron smirks watching the two small animals play about. From his hoodie pocket, a small little nose peeks out twitching a few times, his eyes look down with a smile and a finger moves to touch whatever is in his pocket.

Old habit die hard and Shirley is making her way onto the rooftop wearing a pair of pair pajamas with adorable black cats all over them with her oversized cat slippers, her coffin backpack hoisted over her shoulder and a snugglebunny papoosed to her chest. Her black cat ears and fluffy tail on display. She smiles as she sees everyone and heads over, taking a seat by Josh as a fox as she says, "Hey all, for those who don't know me, I'm Shirley." She grins as she says to Charmaine, "Yeah, the I know the fox, he's my bestie Josh." She looks to Aaron as she says, "Your hair looks awesome, did you do it yourself?" she asks at the end.

Fox-Josh disentangles himself from the bright-pink snugglebunny and trots over toward Charmaine. His tail swishes back and forth warmly and his lil fox mouth is open and his lil fox tongue lolls out as he pants. He does a slow circle around Char, sniffing her shoes and the lower part of her pant legs. Then with a happy yip, he trots over and leaps up on Shirley's laps, licking her face happily.

However, there is a big change in the demeanor of Five. The snugglebunny goes up on its hind legs sniffing the air with sudden interest. Its huge ears pivot independently like little radar dishes until they both stop, pointing at Aaron. The lil beastie makes a tiny meeping sound.

Charmaine watches the little fox with a quirked brow, holding very still. "Ah," she acknowledges what Shirley said and then, once no longer being sniffed, she turns to scan the roof and then steps in the opposite direction of the group. "Don't mind me, I just came up to stare at the sky. I won't interrupt your plans."

There is one blue ear that comes out of the pocket then another as the nose twitches more, there is a soft keeping and trilling that comes from the rabbit in Aarons's pocket, it very much looks the same color as his hair maybe that's where he got the idea from. "Yeah, I did it on my own. I do a lot of cosplay stuff." he looks down at the rabbit moving to pull the small adorable ball of fluff out of his pocket and puts it on the ground seeing how Josh's snugglebunny starts to act. "I do not t think you are interrupting anything," he says to Charmaine and chuckles watching Fox-Josh he smiles and one can spot that his canines are a bit pointing, and well so are his ears for that matter. "Hi Shirley, I think I saw you at the Club the other night."

Shirley squeals in delight as Fox-Josh jumps up on her lap and begins to lick her face, giggles ensuring as she utters, "I missed you too silly goose, well fox, but you know what I mean." One hand is gently shifting her snugglebunny Flower while the other pets along Fox-Josh's back.

"Its a free roof, no worries. I usually come up here to smoke sometimes is all, and I don't mind if you wanted to partake with," she offers kindly to Charmaine.

She looks to Aaron as she says, "Me too actually! About the cosplay. And yes, I was there with candy woman look and the cotton candy looking dress. The music and the effects were amazing."

When Shirley mentions smoking, Fox-Josh yips happily and swishes his tail around. Apparently he is enthused by the idea. Shirley's face gets a few more licks before he leaps down on the ground and trots up to Aaron and his snugglebunny. Then Fox-Josh morphs up into regular Josh. He is wearing a heavy, light-gray hoodie with the UCLA logo on the chest, plain black sweat pants, and beat-up Adidas runners.

Josh squats down and peers at Aaron's new friend. "Oh my gosh, Aaron, you found one too!" Josh reaches over and offers his hand for the lil critter to sniff before he stands up and beams at Aaron. "Bro!" he says, holding out a fist for a bump. "Your hair looks dope as fuck right now! So good!"

Finally, he turns to look at Charmaine with a friendly smile. "Hey," Josh greets her. "I'm Josh. It's totally cool if you hang out."

There is no sign of Josh's sometimes-crippling anxiety disorder. He's on home turf. Two of his friends are here. All is well in the world tonight.

Charmaine pauses, hesitates. "I don't smoke, but thanks," she says to Shirley. Finding a spot to sit that is still within a comfortable speaking distance but isn't right in with the small group, the teal-haired woman takes a moment to admire Aaron's hair. "I do my own, too, well, touch-ups - you know, when it starts to fade and look sloppy? I like to keep it as fresh as possible for work." She is notably bunny-free. "I'm Charmaine, one of the event planners."

"I did, I went home and I heard this sound in my room so went to look and saw something got into one the shoe boxes I keep old papers in and when I opened it this little one was curled up in a nest it made out of the papers." the Bunny takes a step closer to Josh to sniff at his hand. But then it too is up on its hind legs looking around large ears up in the air and then it off meeting Five halfway across the rooftop. There are little excited hops and kicks as the blue and pink rabbit trills and sings to Five. Five responds, "Aww Bro look!" he returns the fist pump to his friend.

Arron looks over to Shirley and Charmaine, "Nice to meet you both I am Aaron I do photography for the park."

Shirley laughs a few more times as Fox-Josh licks her face and smiles as he looks pleased about the mention of smoking and then hops off of her lap. She first carefully unpapooses Flower and sets them down next to Five to play before she sits back up. Her hand then go into her coffin backpack and begins to get out her weed bag, starting to break up the weed and pack it into a bowl as she glances up to see Josh shift back to his human self.

"No worries and nice to meet you Charmaine. I'm Shirley but Tini when I am at work at Tales and Tails," is happily mentioned, "And I do the same with my hair as well but I did meet one of the hair and makeup people and she offered to help me out next time if I wanted her to."

Flower slowly hops over to meet up with the other snugglebunnies happily bouncing around. Shirley asks Aaron, "Did you want to partake?" holding up her bowl to clarify what she means.

Right now Five has attention for nothing and no one except for Aaron's snugglebunny. The two little dudes sing their five-note song back and forth to each other, then Five starts to groom Aaron's snugglebunny's fur and ears with great gusto and affection.

"Oh wow," Josh says, staring down at them. "Dude, I think they know each other!" Josh says enthusiastically to Aaron. He squats down near Flower and strokes her fur. "I think these two are having a reunion," he says apologetically to Flower, who surely doesn't understand him.

He looks over at Charmaine. "Oh cool, an event planner? At one of the most magical theme park in the world?" Suck it, Disney. "That must be a super hectic job. What kinda stuff do you set up?" Josh shrugs a little. "I don't do anything that important. I work in the bookstore here on Crescent Island in the Winding Vine."

When Shirley starts getting her weed set up, Josh plops down in a seat next to her. "This counts as a serving of vegetables for the day."

"Weddings, birthdays, funerals," Charmaine is probably joking about that last thing she lists. "Always very busy, and usually pretty peopled-out by the time I have time off, so I'm a bit of a hermit. I've been here since the beginning, though."

Her attention shifts to the snugglebunnies, and she watches them with faint amusement. Then she gets up and starts to head inside. "I think I'm actually more tired than I realized. Have a good night."

Aaron waves to Charmaine, "Nice meet you!" he calls as she leaves, his eyeslookingk to Shirley. "Yeah, I'll take part." he moves over to sit closer to Josh and Shirley. His eyes are on the snuggle bunnies "It looks like it, awww look Josh!" CC short for Cotton Candy starts to groom Five in return, her little back foot thumping the ground every once in a while as she meets and talks to Five.

"Your rabbit is adorable also." he smiles looking to flower then back to the others and relaxs some its the most he has relaxed in a w hile actually.

Flower hops back over towards Shirley mournfully calling out their notes. Shirley stops what she is doing and sets her weed aside to scoop up and console the sad Flower. She carefully gets the snugglebunny back into their papoose and gently rocks them as she coos, "We will find yours soon enough. We can only hope at least ok? Optimism is important." Her hand gently stroking those ears to soothe the snugglebunny while cuddling.

"Event planners are pretty cool in my opinion. I get overwhelmed trying to plan my own birthday if I even decide to do something special for it. Rest well Charmaine."

"They are super cute together," she says to them both and carefully rests her now sleeping snugglebunny on her lap as she pick back up her bowl. She is careful to only hit a third of the green of the bowl before she passes it to whoever is seated to her left along with the lighter.

Josh has a soft, big heart. Seeing Flower sad really affects him. He peers at Shirley consoling and swaddling her lil bunny, and his eyes blink several times in a row and he momentarily avoids eye contact with anyone. Stupid smoke! Oh wait, nobody has started smoking yet. Maybe it's allergies then?

When Shirley holds out the bowl and lighter, Josh accepts it. "Thanks, down girl," he says, leaning in to give Shirley's cheek a friendly kiss. He winks at Aaron. "Don't worry, I won't kiss you. I don't know you well enough yet."

Josh lights up and draws in a long, slow inhalation of the pungent smoke. He's an experienced long-distance runner with an enormous lung capacity. He sits there holding his breath as he passes the accoutrement off to Aaron. Josh leans back in his chair, closing his eyes, getting lost in the gentle rush. But finally he does have to breath, so he exhales a mighty plume of smoke up into the night air, letting out four or five smoke rings toward the end. Our boy has been to this rodeo a time or two before.

Aaron looks to Shirley and her small rabbit, "Aww, I never thought I'd have one let alone find her friend." he watches the pair feeling sad for the small bunny.

He looks over to the pair that are grooming and meeping at each other, CC gets in closer to Five and leans into the other rabbit's side as if feeling safer that way. Aaron is quiet for a few moments just watching then there is a blink and a look to Josh with a blink and a blush, "Oh, yeah all good man."

Aaron reaches over takes and lights it up taking a pull from it and holding it in handing it back over to Shirley, he does not hold it in as long as Josh does but it is also not his first time at this, head tilting up to let the smoke out into the air.

Shirley smiles as Josh kisses her cheek and teases him, "As if you didn't give me enough kisses when you were a cute little foxy," she does return that kiss to his cheek before he can slip away though. She takes the bowl when it is offered to her as she mentions, "So, I'm Shirley by the way. I don't think I had a chance to catch your name. Also what do you do in the park?" is asked before she takes a hit from her bowl. As she holds in the smoke, she passes the bowl to Josh once more.

Josh beams when Shirley smooches his cheek. "I am a cute little foxy, aren't I?"

Although he knows the answers to what Shirley asked Aaron, he doesn't give them. Aaron is more than capable of speaking for himself. He accepts the bowl from Shirley and takes another hit, a normal sized one, not a Super Mega Hit like he just did. No sense in getting stupid high tonight. He hands off the gadgets to Aaron and then he slides off his chair and lies on the ground with his head near CC and Five. He so-gently rubs his hand around on their fur, smiling happily at them. "Maybe some day I'll find my prince just like you two found each other," he murmurs softly to the amazing little creatures.

Aaron is only going to take the one hit for now and passes it back over to Shirley with a smile, "I'm Aaron and I do photography for the park." he watches Josh move to lay down next to the bunnies, there is a head tilt as he watches him. A soft smile comes to his face as he crosses his ankles and leans back. He doesn't comment on what Josh has said, his hands tucked into his hoodie pocket looking up to the sky now. "Isn't that what we all wish someday?" he comments softly.

Shirley smiles as she says, "Yes you are, and you know that silly," making sure the smoke escapes upwards and away from the little snugglebunnies. She looks to Aaron when he starts talking and responds, "Oh! that's cool. I love photography but I can't do it as great as ya'll can." She softly smiles as she says, "Yeah, I think it is. But I find that cuddling with friends can at least help some."

"Shirley is an S-tier cuddler," Josh says. "10 out of 10, would cuddle with again." He is just the right amount of high right now, mellow without being stupid. He makes no further moves toward the weed bowl. He lies there on the ground near the snugglebunnies.

He continues to gently stroke the snugglebunnies' fur. "They seem so happy together," he says, his voice become a bit distant. "Poor Flower," Josh says as a couple of tears drip-drip-drip from his eyes onto the ground he's lying on. "What if Flower never finds their mate? What if they are cursed to always wander alone."

Ooookay, on second thought maybe Josh got half a step higher than he intended to.

Aaron smiles at Shirley, " 5-star huh?" he teases gently then looks to Josh, his head tilting to the side as CC seems to keep at him when he starts to seem sad. Five looks over at Josh as well, head tilting letting out that five bar trill, Aaron takes a breath in then lets it out.

"You got to keep hope close to you, its hard I know." he knows he does not think he will ever find someone who could understand him and like him for who he is. "Don't think that way, have hope that she will and believe she will, just like you will some day." he gives a small sniffle and looks up. "Yeah I went to school for it."

Shirley smiles at Josh as he calls her a S-tier cuddler and says, "And we can if you want to watch more movies soon after I get off work. I can bring more brownies. I am about to make another batch of them." She looks to Flower as she says, "We will find theirs. I am sure of it." Attempting to console Josh regarding her snugglebunny. She smiles to Aaron as she says, "Yeah, I am a great little spoon with how small I am or a big spoon if you can shift into a teeny fox. And I took a class to get my license to be a bartender but that isn't anywhere near the same as what you did though."

Josh rolls to lie on his side on the ground, propping his head up with one hand. CC and Five move close and start licking his face comfortingly. Josh is a tolerant soul and allows this to go on for several moments before very gently steering the two precious creatures away from his face with his other hand as he grins reflexively.

"I'm the only uneducated dolt here," he says in a tone that sounds playful and not at all like he's bothered by this. "Don't need a college degree to sell books. Just scan the thing with the scan gun and let 'em stick their card in the machine thingy to pay for it."

When Shirley suggests bringing over more of her brownies for movie night, Josh's face lights up. "But Shirl, could you pleeeeaaaase bring over some regular brownies too? I mean, eating a little piece of brownie just makes me want more brownie." His gaze shifts over to Aaron. "Dr. Shirley only lets me eat a little bit of weed brownie."

Aaron waves his hand in the air slightly as Josh says he is an uneducated dolt.."Man let me tell you, I fought with my parents so much I didn't want to leave and go away to college, yeah I am good at taking pictures but like it wasn't what I wanted." he shrugs, "But my parents gave up a lot to get me into school so I went and later found I liked taking photos but not your standard ones, like scenes and such they are nice but like."

He chews on the corner of his lips, "I like taking pictures of people, seeing their expressions and capturing them in time. People who are dressed up and express themselves those are the kinds of pictures I love to take." he blushes a little looking to Shirley, "Man you need to bring normal ones for when you get the munchies."

Shirley laughs softly before she says, "Fine fine, I can bring over some regular ones too. I don't need you accidentally eating too much of the special ones." She looks to Aaron as she explains, "That is because I have high grade stuff and he can only really do a fourth of the brownie in one sitting otherwise I work it will make him comatose." She smiles as Aaron explains and says, "I think that is a better thing personally but I may be biased. And I wasn't sure if he liked my brownie recipe last time in my defense."

Josh rolls onto his back, peering up at the night sky. The bunnies move closer to him for warmth. Or maybe they sense his state of mind. "I will weed brownie you under the table, Miss Breaking Bad." One side of Josh's mouth curls into a lopsided smile. He picks up one of the snugglebunnies -- who can tell which one is which? -- and holds it above him, peering up at the creature. "Talk to me, Johnny," he says. The creature looks down at him and meeps. He gives it a kiss and sets it back on the ground with its companion.

"Aaron, one of these days will you show me your work?" Josh asks, still lying on his back staring up at the sky. "I dress like shit so I know I won't end up in any pictures but I really, really want to see your work."

He rolls his head to the side so he can see Shirley. He points a finger at her. "You rock."

Aaron chuckles watching Josh hold one of the bunnies up like he was the lion king or something then puts it back down, watching them snuggle up to him he grins tilting his head to the side, "I have some on my phone if you like to see, they are of me from a fantasy shoot I did but umm." he looks shy now. "Yeah, sure I can show you my work sometime."

He looks over to Shirley nodding, "Yeah best not to have a knocked out Josh, I like when he is aware and smiling." he looks to Josh on the ground smirking at him, "Here you can look at the pictures." he looks to Shirley, "You can look also if you like."

Shirley laugh softly and lightly shakes her head, "Ok. Bet. We can go brownie for brownie next time. How about that?" She says daringly to Josh with a prideful smile. She smiles fondly at him as she answers back to Josh, "As do you Joshie, don't ever forget that."

She looks a bit curious at the mention of the fantasy and softly squees in delight as she is told she can look also. She gets up carefully and cuddles her sleeping snugglebunny to her as she sets down with Josh to look over the photos and she blurts out, "Holy fuck you look hot as fuck Aaron."

When Shirley sits down on the ground to look at Aaron's pictures with him, Josh pushes very close to her. "So cold," he says even though he is wearing a pretty heavy-duty hoodie. He peers at the phone as Shirley thumbs through the image.

"Bro dude what the fuck?" he murmurs. "Hot doesn't even cover it. Liquid hot magma."

Aaron hears Josh say he is cold and slips off his leather jacket to hand it over to him, he doesn't need it not at the moment. He should have known the reaction those photos were going to get him, his hands quickly move to bring his hoodie up so he can hide his face as his cheeks turn pink and he tries to hide in that hoodie shaking his head and waving a hand, "No, no they are not that good, really." oh how he becomes so shy all of a sudden and tries to hide inside that hoodie it is to cute and CC looks up watching him from where she is snuggled against Josh and Five.

Shirley looks to Josh as she asks, "Do you need my snuggie again silly boy? You never dress warm enough for up here, I swear." She then notices Aaron's reaction as kindly statement, "Aaron, we aren't bullshitting you. For real. I know we are our own worst critics but seriously, if you were to post these online, you would get such a following of everybody. I'm not joking." She doesn't try to pry him out of his little shell but she will try to ease the self doubt with words, maybe not successfully but she is sure gunna try!

When Aaron drapes his jacket over Josh, he peers up at Aaron with a surprised, open-mouthed smile. He looks at Shirley and then over to Aaron and then up at Shirley. "Did you just see hot super model boy lend me his jacket?"

He looks over at Aaron retreating into his hoodie. "Now that is the most adorable thing I've ever seen." He gently and carefully picks up CC -- at least he thinks it is CC, he can't tell them apart really -- and sets them on Aaron's lap. "Go tell your daddy how pretty he is."

Then Josh goes back to snugging against Shirley the Space Heater. "It's not my fault it's winter," he says in response to her crack about him never dressing warm enough. "And you know heavy clothes don't properly show off my butt."

Aaron peeks out from under his hoodie only thing that can be seen is some blue and pink hair and his blue eyes, he blushes even more when Joshua calls him hot model boy. "I, I don't know...I never thought of doing it." he says in a soft voice, he watches the two snuggling up and when CC is put in his lap he moves to pull her into his hoodie, her head comes and pokes up out of the neck line her small front paws resting on the edge of the collar, she thrills and meeps up at Aaron nose bumbing his chin.

Je falls quiet watching the two and listening, he still remains hidden for the moment. He looks down to CC and kisses the top of her tiny head then looks to Joshua for a moment as his jacket rests on him and then to Shirley smiling but for the moment his words are lost to him not sure what to say.

Shirley grins as she looks to Josh and utters, "I absolutely did so that hot super model boy lend you his jacket. Alas! My snuggie no longer has purpose!" She feigns dramatically, hamming it up. She sits up and grins as one of the snugglybunnies is put into Aaron's lap with that statement. She smiles as Josh snuggles back up with her, easily leaning into him since she is indeed a little furnace. "Yeah, yeah, you have a cute ass. I don't show off mine until it is closer to beach weather and I have my SPF fuck off sunlight." She laughs but she does get the highest SPF and will absolutely use parasols and umbrellas to avoid sunburning.

She gets worried as Aaron falls silent and gets up to move to where Aaron is and sits down next to him, gently wrapping her arm around his shoulder as she says, "Hey, I get that it is hard to see ourselves as others do." Her hand then just gently rubbing on his back in slow, gentle circles as she continues, "So sorry we came on so strong about it but just remember that we sadly don't always see how others do and that majority of our fellow co-workers, myself and Joshie included, wouldn't try to make you super uncomfy on purpose. Ok?"

Josh stands up with Aaron's coat draped over his shoulders. He picks up Five and goes to sit in the chair on the other side of Aaron. Not wanting to intrude into Aaron's personal space, he doesn't touch the man but he holds up Five so they can see and smell CC. That leads to Five awkwardly climbing into the neck hole of Aaron's hoodie to join CC. There is a cacophony of song and trills under poor Aaron's shirt.

Then Josh gives Shirley a super warm, appreciative look as she comforts Aaron. He nods approvingly to her with a warm, honest smile.

Aaron looks to Shirley, his hands come up to lift his hoodie down. "Its not that I didn't like them, I just never had people say things like that to me really before. Its something I am not use too, I have always been looked at oddly most times cause I don't follow people or trends I just do what I like and I like Cos play, I like fantasy and gaming." he smiles.

When Five moves to climb into the hoodie with CC he starts to laugh looking down into his shirt grining and blushing more as the two bunnies sing to each other, he looks over to Joshua then back to Shirley, "Thank you." he says looking to them both.