[Fin] Childhood is Fleeting [Lucca]

[Kari Muffin]

Fleur had "grown into" her role well, she supposed. Everyone said she was pretty and elegant and all of that stuff. It didn't actually make her all of that. The rabbit found herself staring at the mirror in her room.

She was going to get traded sometime soon. She didn't want to go and leave everything she loved behind. She didn't want to be someone's object of affection. What if a Jack wouldn't let her have the freedoms she had here? What was she supposed to do?

Her toes curled. Where was Shelby? He said he was going to come for a visit right about now. Flopping down on her bed she watched the door and waited. Her tail twitching every minute like a metronome.

There was a chance that her new warren would have interesting things to do. That was probably the only plus side.

[Lucca]

To say the day had gone nothing like Shelby had planned would be an understatement. First, there had been the wake up call a good hour before he'd expected it, and the order to help make breakfast, which they -knew- he was awful at, but they made him do anyway. And after that, he'd been tricked (yes, tricked!) into cleaning basically the entire Warren (or it had felt like it, anyways). And once he'd finally finished with -that-, he'd still had all his other daily chores to get through.

Which his own Mom had interrupted no less than twice to send him on pointless fetch quests. And that still hadn't been the end of it, as one of the other Leverets had taken care to lecture him on his voice, of all things. He couldn't help what his voice sounded like! It was enough to drive the teenager nuts, and he'd been pulling at his ears all day.

Just when he'd finally sat down to rest for a minute, he got that funny feeling in his stomach, like he was forgetting something. Something important, that he'd promised to do.

Oh sh--

Shelby bounded down the hallway at top speed, long ears trailing behind him and awkward teenage limbs he hadn't quite grown into burning with the effort. Finally he arrived, panting, at his sister's room, and knocked on the door.

In their childhood, he would have just ran right in without knocking but...well...he'd been told that it wasn't 'proper' for a Leveret to enter the room of a Doe uninvited. Even if that Doe was his own sister.

[Kari Muffin]

Fleur found herself staring at the ceiling. This wasn't much better. Rolling off of her bed she peered under it, pulling out a small bouncy ball that she had loved since she was younger. It was one of the things she had kept hidden so she wouldn't be reprimanded for keeping such childish things.

She started bouncing it off of the ceiling when she reassured her awkward position on the bed. Her room wasn't that close to anyone else, so no one should be really bothered by the sound she was making.

One. Two. Three. Four. She should have been doing proper Doe things. Making her self pretty, pretending not to be able to read whatever was thrown at her, be into all sorts of girly things. Even if she ran away someone would catch her. She was a Doe. They didn't run away because they were proper ladies.

The rabbit jumped a bit at the knock. Ruining her concentration the ball came crashing down onto her chest. She cursed, rolling off her her bed she glared at the door. After a few moments of collecting herself she managed her cheerful voice. "Come in."

[Lucca]

Shelby was surprised that there was no immediate response from his sister's room. Had she fallen asleep waiting for him? Left without him to go down to the lake? He leaned closer to listen at the door, and thought he heard...muffled cursing and thumping. Well, at least that meant she was in there, though the thought of his 'proper' sister saying something like that amused him.

He was tempted to just walk in, then, but he instead waited until he heard the cheerful voice from the room inviting him. He pushed the door open and said, without preamble, "Sorry I'm late. It's been a rather bad day to be honest."

Shelby sighed, running a paw over his ears tiredly, though a flash of color out of the corner of his eye caught his attention briefly, and he glanced down to see...was that...a ball? Where did Fleur have that from? He hadn't seen that thing in years...

[Kari Muffin]

She gave a sigh of relief when her brother appeared. At least it wasn't someone she should be proper around. She eyed him after his comment. He seemed a little out of sorts. And she probably shouldn't scold him....

She followed his glance, only to notice that the ball was actually in plain sight. She shifted closer to it as she spoke. "It's fine, I figured as much. Do you still want to go to the lake for a breather?"

Fleur kicked the ball under her bed. "It's only a matter of time before they trade me... and we don't know if you're going to go to the same warren or not. So.... I figured having a little picnic or something would be nice. But if you're not up for it today we can always postpone it."

And she would be back to trowing a ball at the ceiling.

[Lucca]

Shelby started a bit when he was caught kind of staring at the ball. He didn't really mean to, he'd just been surprised to see it. This was why the other Leverets teased him sometimes about being spacey. He blinked, taking a minute to register that Fleur was talking about something else entirely. Oh, right, the lake...he'd just been thinking about it himself.

"Of course I still want to go! This is the only thing all day that won't get...screwed up somehow." He ran his paw over his ears again, but managed a smile. "Hey, don't talk about such things. Just because you're basically an adult now doesn't mean Father's gonna rush to trade you off." They both knew it was going to happen, but Shelby didn't like to think about it. With such a small Warren, and them the only children growing up in it, they'd grown closer than most other Rabbit siblings really had a chance to. Although Shelby understood that Heike (who he called Father, even though he had a funny hunch that he really wasn't his actual Father) had always been close to his own sister, as well.

Regardless, neither of those things was anything to worry about right now...in fact, he didn't want to worry about anything else for the rest of the day. Heh, but being a chronic worrywart meant he wouldn't be able to keep that promise for very long...

[Kari Muffin]

"That bad?" She said with a sigh. Her day had been uneventful. Like every other day it seemed. She was just perpetually preparing to be shipped off. To be pretty. To be a good piece of property for a new Jack. To her it seemed pretty obvious with the way Heike gave her nervous looks that something "wasn't right" and she would have to go soon.

"Riiiight. We'll just stop talking about reality if it makes you uncomfortable. Come on, I convinced one of the leverets to leave the basket near the back door." Though technically she hadn't told anyone she was going to leave the Warren, she would deal with that later. The basket it should have been enough for everyone to connect the dots, but sometimes the trivial matters didn't make it all the way to the Master of the Warren.

Her mother would be angry, but it didn't particularly bother her.

[Lucca]

Shelby frowned, ears lowering. "I'm just saying, you don't need to be such a pessimist." And she didn't have to be mean about it, either! Was it too much to ask to just hang out with his sister, and not his sister, the Doe-who-might-get-traded-at-any-moment? Apparently so. And now he was worrying about it again, because he -had- noticed the odd looks lately whenever Heike looked at Fleur. He'd also noticed the sad looks Mom had been giving her lately. She always seemed to be about to say something, but then would just shake her head and be silent.

It was downright unnerving, and that was why Shelby really didn't want to think about it. Not today. Not right now. He wanted to savor the last lingering moments of childhood however long he could.

"All right," he said, trying to sound peppy. At least this meant she'd probably told someone where they were going, so he didn't have to worry about that. At least, that's what he assumed.

[Kari Muffin]

"Realist," She corrected with a mock smile and head tilt. She always saw the glass as half empty. She had every reason to, after all. So many things could go wrong when she was traded off. And it wasn't like she would see her brother after that... unless they were always traded to the same place.

She refrained from sighing at her brothers attempt at being something close to peppy. He really just sounded like he was being strained. She hopped towards in front of her brother. "You know if you're exhausted I'm sure you could take a nap and we could.... go out for a moonlight adventure near the lake. Even though it's dangerous we could use a bit more adventure in our lives."

Or at the very least she could use more adventure in her life. Her brother probably wouldn't appreciate it though.

[Lucca]

Shelby frowned, as his sister was blocking his way. And now that they were both practically adults, she'd grown far bigger than him, being a Doe. His ears went back and he sighed, debating between honesty or something easier. And here he'd thought he was getting better at hiding his emotions. Fleur just knew him too well, though, for that. Honesty it was.

"I'm not really tired," he said, fidgeting with the corner of the rug. "Just...just sad. I'm...emotionally tired I guess. I mean, I could run a mile, but don't ask me to sit through a lecture from Mom right now." He grinned weakly. Honestly, a nap didn't sound too bad now that she'd brought it up, but he could nap outside anyway if he had to. Though that might be a little boring for his sister. Maybe they could even go swimming or something, though. That should keep him awake and it had been basically forever since the last time they'd had the chance to swim.

"We could always go swimming, you know, after lunch."