Papa's Pops Hula Hoops: Laugh Now Cry Later

After this
Outfit

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The bear had no mental map of Ridgefield. Or if she did, it was utterly failing her. She trailed around in broad daylight, cutting through lanes and alleys, until she’d arrived to a place of interest. Alameda hadn’t felt welcoming. To the animal, there was a distinct sense that she didn’t belong there. That it was a home but not her home. She’d figured the more she walked the less she would feel that, but Cheyenne Point was no different.

Oh well.

It was worth noting that the black bear was also relatively ordinary. Larger, maybe the size of a male, but overall she wasn’t a showstopper.

A window caught her interest. Out of seemingly nowhere, she rose on hind legs and pressed her forepaws against the glass. Possibly spooking the poor customer, or possibly not. It didn’t matter to the bear.

Was that ice cream!

What. The. What.

It was a bear. Pressing her paws to the window. On which, the other side, sat Asha, who was in fact enjoying a ridiculously candy coated ice cream.

"Get down!" she hissed aloud, eyes all wide. Hopefully whoever it was heard her through the glass, but.

Maybe not. Either way, Asha was scrambling to get outside to it as fast as she could. Were???

Hello! Goodbye! Wait, doh, was that... ?

The bear dropped onto all fours, the pad of her right forepaw tingling with the burn from earlier. She watched the glass door curiously, and as soon as it showed signs of opening, she scurried guiltily around the corner in bearish fashion.

She saw those departing bear feet, okay. Asha followed the bear, huffing. The feeling outside told her it was definitely a were. But who?

Around the corner of the building, there was a large mural, so colors and perhaps a certain vampire's familiar face would greet them both on that end. Asha didn't look up just yet though, because bear.

"Hey, I'm not mad at you," she coddled, approaching with a hand out and also ice cream in her other hand. "Just didn't want anyone to see you. You okay?"

Was this... Maxine or Natasha? For whatever reason, she assumed all of Levka's bears were white and all of Cliff's were brown. Like, even Espy's was kinda whiteish.

The speed at which the bear disappeared was nothing astonishing, and when she swept into the side street she slowed. Turned, gaze not registering the mural. ”Okay. Bad hashake,” she told the jaguar.

... Whilst she nosed towards the hand, first, though her eyes were on the candy coated ice cream. Ulterior motives.

Bad handshake? Bad at shake? Bad and shake? Asha didn't know, but she did know that this was someone who trusted her. Trying to focus on the feel, she made an educated guess, based on how many brown bear weres she knew.

"Maxine?" she asked, moving to scritch her on the cheek.

Totally unaware her ice cream was up for, uh. Grabs.

The wires in her head connected, enough for her to answer with a gruff, ”Me,” as she nudged her heavy head into the hand scritching her cheek.

A tongue came out to lick her snout clean, clearly showing an interest in the sweet, sugary, processed smell of the ice cream. Or maybe not clear enough! But there was an eagerness to her sway.

Evidently not clear enough. "Do you want me to call Cliff now or after you turn back?" she asked fondly, still scritching.

The ice cream dripped down Asha's finger on her other hand, and she lapped at it in brief distraction.

It was, sincerely, an elaborate question for her to consider. Lots of intricacies. Cliff was injured? Nat, much better.

The black bear offered up a puzzled sound from the back of her throat, before she craned her neck up. And sought to lick at what was dripping.

Oh.

"Rude!" she scolded, but fond enough that even in her annoyance she moved her head to the side. Meowsha protested, but she'd live, okay.

Asha offered the bear the treat, and wondered what exactly Maxine wanted her to do with her now.

Ashley lived not far from here!

Her car wasn't working great, so she was trying to just do groceries by carrying them back from the store? Shoulders sagging with two heavy canvas bags each, she trudged, gaze mostly ahead.

At least until she heard a voice and glanced to the side just in time to see a woman and a bear. Just.

She.

Her mouth dropped open, wanting to call out maybe, or even see if she could chase the bear off with her mind?! But instead she gawked, seeing that the woman was smiling even from some yards away.

Wh-what?!

Rude! She got that. But there was a little secret here, which was that the bear had a track record of taking a shine to females. Males were there to be put in their place. Especially if they were bears! Opposition. >:(

Women, on the other hand, elicited all the nurturing instinct she had in her. Typically, anyway!

The lick of the hand turned into a lick of the cone, before she eventually opened her jaws wide to shove the whole ice cream in her mouth. Hot bear breath was everywhere.

Maxine pulled her head back down, crunching on cone and dribbling ice cream as her eyes landed on a young woman at the entrance of the street. She dawdled one step her way, friendly if preoccupied with swallowing the treat down.

It was almost just as Maxine was tromping a step towards her that her senses snapped in and she noticed the newcomer. Oh no. Ohhhh shit.

More worried about... her reaction than Maxine's.

"Uh! Hey! All's good here. Just my- my pet bear." She patted Maxine's back, scritching along through her thick fur. Please like. Please don't make a big deal.

Ashley could still barely wrap her mind around what she was seeing. A... pet... bear?

Even she wasn't that foolish, and as it took a step toward her, she shuffled back a little. A pet bear? Just out here by the ice cream shop? With no... um. Collar! Or leash!

"That seems pretty unsafe!" she peeped, simultaneously apologetic as she another step in retreat and considered just booking it down the road. Maybe calling the police?!

She noticed the step back. Didn’t like it, because it meant those bags she was carrying were further away! She was so small, too. Small human.

The black bear rerouted, walking demurely behind Asha’s legs as she clacked her teeth quietly.

Asha’s legs, she said, like she wasn’t almost Asha’s height.

Oh good fucking grief. Maxine hid behind her or whatever and the other girl worried for her safety by stepping away.

"I guess I'm lucky that I'm safe then," she laughed incredulously, moving to pet under Maxine's muzzle without fear. Go... go on, chick. Please. Asha turned her head some to focus on Maxine, partly hoping not to be any bit recognizable in some future run-in.

That didn't seem like a very reasonable answer. The bear did seem to go and hide afterwards, like maybe it was tame? Or... not an animal at all.

Ashley skedaddled in a brisk walk, successfully chased off by the woman's response. But when she got a few blocks down, she would put in a reluctant call to report that a woman and her pet bear were hanging out outside a soda shop!

Lucky for those two, response time wouldn't exactly be lightning fast for an uncertain sounding woman who had already left the scene.

Tilting her head into the scratch of the chin, it eased the uncertain clacking.

She was as crestfallen as a bear who’d just been dealt a delicious treat could be. Which was not a lot!!

Asha didn't know what bear clacks meant. Luckily, the other lady was off. Okay. Now what to do with Maxine.

"What should we dooooo Maxine. Should I climb up on you and we make a run for it out of town? I don't know if you can fit like this in my car... unless you wanna try shifting back when we get there?"

So complicated. :(

”Shift,” she grunted hoarsely, thoughts limited to single words. ”Bring car?”

But what if that young woman came back here? Oh... unless she was going to give her her bags, she hoped she wouldn’t.

Shift. Bring... to car? Or bring car here?

Very difficult to piece together. Asha gave a tiny nod anyway. She was, at least, wearing a hoodie. "Okay. Shift back, I'll put this on you," she thumbed at the hoodie, "And then I'll carry you and do like, a zoom run with you out after. Take you to the Sanctuary. Cool?"

Unless she was wildly misunderstanding.

The bear was amenable. She understood only parts of that, yet she licked Asha’s hand of any sticky ice cream residue as though it was a wholly receptive conversation.

Shift and Sanctuary.

”G’okay,” Maxine said after.

If Asha would follow, the black bear would trudge closer towards the mural of faces, intent on shifting back whilst also doing so hidden behind a locked dumpster.

But only if she followed. She needed to know the friend she trusted wouldn’t leave her side.

Oh gosh, of course Asha would follow! And... politely avert her eyes in the minutes it took Maxine the bear to break back into Maxine the woman.

This was also enough minutes for her to realize the mural next to them, finally. And this was important. Because as she cast her gaze up, up, up, she saw a bunch of caricaturized faces.

Including one with an absolutely ridiculously pronounced chin. Much like the real Beauregard. "You're fucking kidding me," she laughed to herself, and stepped as far back as she could and held her phone up high to snap as clear a picture as daylight could pronounce. Took a couple more, just to be safe.

Unbelievable. She'd have to follow up about this another time.

For now, Asha stepped in and did her work — pulled out of her hoodie and covered up as much of Maxine as she could, and fast.

Heft her up over her shoulder. Maybe suffer a little hernia in the process. Whatever. It would heal, right?

Speed ran her through the damn streets, a whirring blur past pedestrians. And then ended up at her car. Except it wasn't her car, fuck. Zoomed away again!! This time, found her car.

Would be at the Sanctuary when Maxine came to. Maxine, who was laid up in the back seat and then covered in a blanket.

Asha was watching some Hemsworth be hot on some show on some new streaming service.

Two hours was how long it took for Maxine to come back into it. Which when coupled with the drive, meant Asha thankfully wouldn’t be waiting much longer.

Things to notice upon waking: black leather seats against skin. The sound of a phone’s speakers. Jaguar. Jaguar scent. The familiar, cloaking, presence of being safe in their territory. The edge of her hand throbbing from the burn earlier in the morning, but it was a miniature pin prick of pain, hardly noticeable by bear or woman now. A distraction.

Maxine didn’t make herself known right away. She rode through the suffocating wave of initial embarrassment, thinking about, you know... how she’d made a pact with herself before coming back to Ridgefield County. One where she’d promised herself not to be loud about the first things she felt. Right now, the first thing she wanted to do was whine about being a bit of a burden here.

So... maybe think about something else. She vaguely watched Asha for a minute or two, and it was this car.

This car. The last time she’d been in it, she’d also fallen asleep. But at the passenger’s side. It’d been the whole mess with the park ranger and Psychic. When she’d woken up, Asha had been there, just like this. And she’d... gone inside, into their home, and lied to Cliff about where she’d been, while Asha had gone home and handled the evidence with Abraham. Asha who didn’t remember any of that right now.

Gosh. That thought was no better. Maxine held back the urge to pinch her nose and signal she’d stirred like that. She scrunched her eyes instead, counting to three, redirecting.

Practicing until it was real to her, she said with a weary, loving, smile, ”I remember when you got your license.” Go away, Hemsworth.

Good bye, Hemsworth. Asha turned her head and grinned, switching her phone off rudely and cavalierly in the middle of a tense scene.

"Morning sunshine. You were there when I was eighteen?"

Honestly, imagine Maxine just. Fucking being her driving instructor. Like they were meant to be all this time.

Whoa, that confused her. Softly so. Maxine pulled herself up, feeling something like a kidney stone in her abdomen. “You were eighteen?” she asked, wrapping the blanket around her a little more surely.

"When I got my driving license?" she asked, laughing a little. "Yeah. When did you get yours?"

Not the first conversation she imagined having post shift, but not a terrible one. She imagined Maxine would insist on it if she became deathly hungry.

... Maxine continued to be very thoroughly confused. When had she bought this car? Something about a car. Or, no, it wasn’t. Very certain it’d been about driving.

She inhaled wearily, staring into space some at the failed memory. ”Seventeen?” A rub of the nose. Not sure about that either anymore.

”Do you want to come inside?”

"Um... sure," she nodded, happy to walk Maxine in. Especially since she could probably use that hoodie back anyway. Also to see what had happened?

She'd walk out with her, bringing her inside. Pretty content to let Maxine lead the conversation.

She’d lead Asha into the main cabin. It smelt like wood, mostly. Then get changed into some spare clothes they had hanging around, before coming back out with the blanket and hoodie.

She extended both to Asha. ”Thanks,” Maxine expressed, the same smile from earlier crossing her face.

Hunger nipped at her, so it was good they had a kitchen. She’d have to go back to church and figure out just where the hell she’d left her things, but, that could wait.

”Couldn’t tell you the last time I shifted somewhere so public.” Just not her usual haunts, generally. ”So... thanks.”

And what a damn coincidence.

Asha huffed. "Don't even worry about it. I'm like. A multi-time offender, remember?"

Actually, it was taking a risk that Maxine knew about any of the times Asha had publicly shifted, most likely the Cheyenne Incident. She just sort of assumed... maybe she knew about that. Or. Maybe not!

She wore the hoodie again and then rolled up the blanket lazily. Still kinda wanted to know what had triggered it.

”Apparently I don’t remember.” She huffed back a genuinely warm grin. But... still, it was thanks for being at the right place at the right time. Saved her a whole lot of embarrassment and god knew what else.

She got to making some BLTs with fried egg to knock down the first wall of hunger. Careful to not agitate the little burn on her hand any more.

Oh. Oops. She decided to just forge ahead on it, watching Maxine kind of take charge with the food. She probably should have offered, but this was.... her place, and she'd probably be done faster, so.

"Well, so like. What happened? Today. Did someone... do something?"

Oh, Asha. She knew that was a question from the heart. ”I waaaas... stupid. Very stupid,” Maxine told her, eyes on the bacon as she opened the pack up. ”I shook some guy’s hand and didn’t check him for jewellery.”

A lesson she wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Shit.

"Aww, man. I know that fucking pain," she said sadly, unfurling her right hand to show it off to Maxine. It was soooooOOOOoOOoo ugly. Super, super ugly. Permanently fucking ugly. "Did you shift in front of him?"

She lifted her eyes to the palm which was being shown, chuckling some. For someone like Maxine, it really did work to... console? Not that she needed it, but!

Both on their right hand. Both the same way. Asha’s match with silver looked significantly worse than... she peered at the graze on the edge of her own palm. Yeah. Asha’s was significantly worse.

”I left as soon as it happened. He still seemed to figure it out, though. Knows what I am. Maybe my eyes changed colour.”

"Ugh, fuckers. I hate this silver thing. Maybe one day one of our doctors will make like... some kind of... vaccine or some shit against it."

Why did humans get to have all the progress! Surely a were might be smart enough to come up with something. Maybe even a sort of... invisible barrier or something. Like paw wax.

Fuck, would paw wax work?! She'd seen it in pet stores when she looked for, uh, pet cat stuff! (And catnip toys for herself.) It was supposed to protect paws against... everything?? "Shit. What if we all started using paw wax?"

Fuckers. Who? Laurence wasn’t. He hadn’t known any better. If anything, Maxine was responsible for ruining both their days.

Ugh, Maxine.

”Mmmm...” Thoughtful. Amused. ”What about the rest of our bodies? Just paw wax everything?”

"I mean. I guess," she laughed. "Good thing it'll be winter soon and we'll all just. Be covered up all the way anyway."

”My one problem is-” Maxine prodded the bacon on the skillet. Eggs followed. ”I think those products are made from honey? Most balms are. So I’d probably...”

She glanced to Asha from the side before licking the top of her hand without really licking it.

A big, big gasp of realization. And also. Scandal!

"Maxine! That's so lewd!" It wasn't intentionally but like she had to be awful somehow.

It completely wasn’t, Asha! ”Say that again!” Maxine lifted the greasy spatula in the air because she too, had to be awful somehow.

Asha fucking ran outside because she was like, eight year old awful.

What sort of word was lewd anyway? Maxine would show her lewd-

Only she wouldn’t, because her jaguar Queen was running out of the cabin. It was an adorable scuttle which completely tempted the bear to give chase, but the popping of oil in the skillet took priority.

”You best get back in here!” Maxine yelled. But that too, was with love.

She had food to feed and eat with her.