The naming of rats

[hotheadwarmheart]

Who: Lea, Fluttershy, and open for Ka dorm people
When: Early April, a few days after the new people arrive
Where: Outside the great hall for Fluttershy, Ka dorm for everyone else
What: Lea thought he'd gotten rid of his familiar, but the rat came back, and he finally accepts it. Though that means it now needs a name...

Closed to Fluttershy

Lea had been in the library, half working on homework and half trying not to fall asleep, when he felt something tugging on the hem of his coat. Looking down, he saw a familiar looking rat climbing up it and sighed. "I'm really not gonna be able to go familiarless without doing something icky, am I?" he said. The rat looked up at him in a rather pointed way, as if to ask 'what do you think?'

"Alright, fine," he finally said. "You win; I give up. Lemme just find a bulletin board; then I can contact Fluttershy to get your stuff back."

Open to Ka dorm folks

After retrieving his rat's cage, food, and other accessories from Fluttershy, Lea had taken them back to the dorm and was currently sitting on one of the couches in the common room, holding his rat and looking at it thoughtfully. "Guess you're gonna need a name now, huh?", he said. He gave an amused smirk. "I'd call you 'Xigbar', but that would be an insult to rats everywhere."

But what to call him instead though? Lea sat looking at the mostly gray rat in his lap; he'd come up with something eventually, but he'd also be open to suggestions.

Comments

[shiningkindness]

Once she spotted him, she smiled and headed over.

"Hi Lea," she greeted once she was close enough. "Sorry about that. I'm not sure how he keeps getting out of his cage."

And the small smile on her face as she spoke was surely from embarrassment about that, right?

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah, me neither," Lea said. "Especially since I didn't have any trouble keeping him in his cage before I handed him over to you." The look he gave her said fairly clearly that he suspected that she and the rat were in cahoots on that front, but he seemed more amused than annoyed.

"Thanks for taking care of him anyway though," he said. "Hopefully he was easier to deal with than a fencing whale. Which is frankly not a sentence I ever thought I'd have occasion to say." He hadn't seen Fluttershy's own familiar for himself, but he had heard about it.

[shiningkindness]

She only smiled innocently, though there was something a bit playful in her eyes.

"Oh, it was no trouble. I was happy to help." She giggled softly. "I've at least taken care of rats before." As opposed to said fencing whale.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea smiled a bit sheepishly. "Well outside of those few days before I gave him to you, I haven't," he said. "So... yeah I might end up coming to you with random rat questions down the line. Just so you know."

He looked down at the rat, petting it idly with a fingertip. "Truth is," he said, "I didn't want to keep this little guy cause I knew if I did, I would get attached to him. And I probably won't be able to take him with me when I eventually go home; I know you definitely won't be able to take yours home with you. And it's not fair to either us or them."

[shiningkindness]

"That's all right. I'd be happy to help, so feel free to ask me anytime."

She watched them for a moment silently, thinking over her words. "Maybe..." she replied slowly, "but...it wouldn't be any different from any other friendship, I think. Sometimes you meet people, and make friends...and then sometimes friends are split apart for reasons out of anyone's control. That doesn't make the friendship any less real, or any less meaningful. And even if friends aren't together any more, that doesn't mean their friendship won't still help somehow."

Looking up at Lea, she smiled. "So...maybe instead of thinking that you two will be separated someday...it's more important to make the most of the time that you do have together, while you have the chance."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah, well most friends are friends because they choose to be," Lea said. "It's mutual decision between two people who know- for the most part, at least- what they're getting into, good and bad. As opposed to being arbitrarily shoved together by a group of school officials and magically bonded without being consulted first. The whole darn issue could have been avoided if they'd just, you know, asked us beforehand."

He sighed. "So yeah, it's not that I don't want to be friends or anything, I'm just mad that I was pretty much forced into a situation where I'm bound to be hurt sooner or later, and so was he. Probly be even worse for him, because while I can go back to my regular life, who knows what'll happen with our familiars when we're gone?"