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"...and he was the nicest boy she knew, but he didn't wanna be her boyfriend anymore."

"Mmh. She get him sent to the nurse?"

"Not this one, no." Veronica pulled a pillow out from under her back, tossed it on the floor. She pressed her foot into her husband's palm. "Work it. That feels good."

Kahnso dug his thumbs into the kangaroo's large feet. What had begun five years ago as his way of attempting to relieve her anxiety concerning something at the time had become a common ritual for them. Their best talks were often conducted with her feet in his grip. "Sure, baby." He shot her a smile and pecked the top of her foot indulgently.

Veronica looked back at him and tried not to smile. She failed. "Kahnso-o-o. Come on. Your daughter's miserable right now, quit being horny."

"You're asking water to be dry, baby."

She booted him in the snout very gently. "Kahnso. She cried all the way home. Apparently he didn't want to be with her because, um."

"Because what?" His eyes sharpened. "He think there's something wrong with my girl?"

"No. No. Apparently it's because her dad's a psychotic asshole," she said, and smiled pleasantly.

"What the fuck, did she actually say-?"

"My words, not hers," she replied, chuckling. "But that's what I took away from it all. Seems like it's your fault, even if it's really not. I recommend you not try to be Superdad right now."

He frowned, climbed over her, and laid his head on her flat belly. Veronica gently petted his head, tousling his hair in her fingers. "Well, this is bullshit. My little girl feels like shit and it's because of me. Go on, say what you're gonna say."

She smiled lamely. "What, I-told-you-so? I don't really feel like it. It's not very fun when Alex is upset."

"Uh-huh." His ruby eyes closed. Veronica stroked the side of his broad head slowly, gently. His tail began to flick and swish. "You gonna talk to her?"

"I already did. Let's just say mom's not coming out of this one clean, either."

"So we have about a week of crying and sulking ahead of us." He huffed. "If these little dicks think I'm crazy, maybe I need to start threatening them. What harm could it do?"

Veronica laughed quietly, but understood Kahnso was never a kidder when it came to defending Alex's feelings. She rubbed behind one of his ears, knowing full well the therapeutic effect it had on him. "Don't worry too much. I have a woman on the inside."

"Jamie's here, huh?"

"Yeah. Try not to fall on her and get your dick inside of her this time."

He snorted. "Hey, you said you didn't mind that. Not my fault she's got good taste."

She snickered. "Good taste? The only reason I married you was to save my fellow women."

Kahnso pulled himself off of her belly, threw a leg over her hips, and straddled her. Their lips came together, and her tongue tangled around one of his fangs momentarily. Another smooch, then Kahnso purred, "Let's make another one. Five bucks says it's a boy this time."

"Fifty-fifty, not bad odds. You can carry and deliver this one. One's plenty for me." She kissed his jowly lips and huffed. "Get those pants off."

Downstairs, Alex's favorite aunt let herself into the mansion with her key. She was past the point of bothering to knock, and likened her unexpected entries to something a sitcom character would do. "Heyo, anybody around?" she called out. Her voice was small and lonesome in the foyer. "Veronica, Kahnso? Alex?" She shut the door at her back, checked the kitchen, checked the personal gym. "Both your cars are in the drivewa-a-ay, you guys better not be makin' me another niece or nephew somewhere."

The short jackal sashayed her wide hips up the stairs and lugged her makeup case with her. It was the size of a tackle box, and inside was everything needed for a total makeover. Veronica requested she come prepared to cheer up her favorite niece. Jamie intended to do exactly that.

She walked down the hall toward the bedrooms. Kahnso and Veronica, if they were in their bedroom like she suspected they were, would be in the opposite wing. Partly due to her teenage desire for privacy and space, and partly to do with an overpowered sound system she had cajoled out of her father, Alex had the easternmost bedroom in the mansion to herself. But there was no music thumping in the hall as Jamie approached. Alex's door was wide open, and there was no noise for Jamie to hear even once she stuck her head in the doorway.

Alex sat in her beanbag chair. She was angled towards the window, reading a book. "Leave me alone," she said coldly.

"Aw, but I wanna see my favorite niece," Jamie whined. She was smiling.

Immediately Alex turned to face her, whipping her black hair around with the sudden movement. She couldn't control her smile. Hastily, she put in her bookmark and bounded towards the door. "Aunt Jamie!" she cried, and met the jackal in the doorway for a big hug. "Hi!"

"Hey, sweetheart!" Jamie smooched her on the cheek and got a smooch in return. "How ya' doing, beautiful? Heard you had some boy trouble."

The girl made a disgusted sound and flopped onto her bed. Her back rested on a small nest of stuffed animals and purple pillows. Most of her room appeared more like a sixties stoner den than a thirteen-year-old's bedroom, but that was just how Alex liked it. She had voraciously consumed most of the music culture leading up to and including her father's music. Her lava lamp bubbled contentedly on the bookshelf, and a multitude of rock gods leered inward from the walls, her father in his leathery prime among them.

"Man, I love your room," Jamie said with a laugh. "I would've killed for a pad like this when I was your age." She sat down on the bed and patted Alex's foot. The girl huffed and pulled it away, drawing her knees up to her chest. "So, c'mon, talk to me. Tell me all the gruesome stuff you won't tell your mom 'cause she's a lame-o square."

Alex cracked a grin and tried to snuff it out. "Mmmf. Just some dumb boy..."

"Honey, all boys are dumb," Jamie said patiently. "Even your uncle Aaron."

"Uh-huh," Alex said. "I bet even my dad is dumb. Everyone says he's crazy. I hate it. He doesn't seem crazy to me!"

Jamie thumbed the handle of her makeup case thoughtfully. "Alex, hon, here's the deal... you know your dad wasn't always cool like this, right?"

"I know." Alex's tone told Jamie that while she knew about her father's past, she didn't particularly believe any of it. Her perception of him was still loving and narrow; she could not see him as anything but her daddy.

"Well, that's why people say that stuff about him. As much as I know you hate hearing this," she smiled apologetically, "you'll understand when you get older."

"Yeah, yeah."

Jamie pulled up her makeup case and put it on the bed. Alex uncurled somewhat and looked at it curiously. "What's that thing?"

"Why, Alex, honey, it's just the makeup armory. I know your mom's not into painting nails, so that's exactly what you and me are gonna do!" She popped its clasps and it sprang open like a suitcase to reveal dozens of bottles of polish arranged chromatically. Each was held in place by a mesh pocket, and below them were an assortment of brushes of varying fineness. Jamie pulled out her toe-spacer and - after glancing at the purple dominance of her niece's room - selected a bottle of royal purple polish.

"Oh, cool," Alex said, and pawed through the case. "Wow, look at all these colors. You use all these?"

"So-o-ometimes," the jackal said. She held out her paw for Alex, nails up. They glimmered a breathtaking blue shade. "This is my favorite color. It's like your eyes! But I like to change it up sometimes." What Jamie would not say in front of her niece was that her husband loved when she dolled herself up like a total slutty shorty.

Jamie shook the bottle vigorously, then spun open the lid. She wielded like a pencil the thin, coated brush attached to the cap. "All right, honey, where do you wanna start? Toes or fingers?"

The little girl stared at her aunt's gleaming blue claws. "Mmm, fingers!" she said, and offered Jamie her left mitt.

"Now, you gotta hold still for this," Jamie said. She took her niece by the wrist, held it so the girl's fingers could lay on her own wrist. "Just keep them flat."

"Sure," Alex murmured. She watched very closely. Her broad kangaroo tail shifted on the bed, but she was otherwise still. The first layers of purple polish spread across her claws and she cooed, "Ooh, it looks pretty."

Jamie giggled. "Damn right it does. You're gonna have the best-looking fingers in school after I'm done with you. Best-looking toes, too."

Alex sighed. "I guess I will, yeah."

The jackal didn't look up from her work. "Aw, Alex. Don't even worry about that boy. Believe me, when you get a little bit older, you're gonna break so many hearts."

"I don't wanna break hearts," Alex whined.

"It's a fact of life with a lot of girls, honey." She blew on Alex's thumbclaw, saw that the polish was dry, and so moved onto the index finger. "You could always wear really baggy clothes and never comb your hair, be all ugly."

"Gross," the girl said, and began to giggle.

"Never wash your armpits or wipe your butt, you know. Gotta be really grody for some guys to avoid you."

"Stop, that's nasty!" Alex cried, and now she was giggling too much to hold still. She looked at Jamie and tried to steady herself, but the jackal's tiny smile set her off again. She flopped back into her pillows and plushes, howling with shrill little girl laughter. "Do some people-," she laughed and started to set Jamie off, "do some people not wipe their-?"

Jamie snickered. "I don't know, I guess-, I guess maybe, yeah. Some weird people." She covered her snout and tried to stifle herself. "Oh, god, that's dumb. Come on. Lemme finish up."

Alex struggled to control herself. "Okay. Ooh, okay. I'm sorry." Her cheeks and ears were hot from the laughter. She struggled to keep still as she offered her paw back to her aunt.

Soon Jamie was painting again, and had nearly finished with Alex's pinky when the girl spoke up again. "Do you think my dad's crazy, aunt Jamie?"

Aunt Jamie was taken aback. She looked at Alex and was unsure what to say. "Well, Alex," she grunted. "I don't know. When I met him for the first time, back before he and your mom started dating, I thought he was a little," she paused to think of a descriptor, "dangerous. Like something was off about him."

"Off?"

"Weird. You know."

"Oh, okay." Alex looked down at her claws. They caught the sunlight streaming through the window and shined beautifully. "Do you still think that he's off?"

"Now? No. Not at all." Jamie flashed her a smile. "I think he needed your mom. I think she was what was missing from his life." She blew across the girl's nails and then sat back as if to admire her work. "Well, honey, I think we're done with that paw. Whatcha think?"

"I think it looks awesome!" Alex said, grinning and inspecting them herself. "This is so cool! How come my mom doesn't do this?"

"Oh, I don't know. Guess she never was much for frilly stuff like this. Whole time I knew your mom in high school, she had bruised knuckles. Total tomboy, that chick."

Alex smiled sheepishly. "Dad says I'm a tomboy. But I use my feet."

"Spoken like a true 'roo," Jamie said, and winked. "Now gimme that other paw. I got claws to paint."

The girl complied, and giggled. "Do my toes, too!"

"We'll get to 'em, we'll get to 'em. And that way, when you kick someone in the face, the last thing they see is gonna look fabulous, all right?"

Kahnso peered into the room, said nothing, and drew back into the hall. As he walked with Veronica toward the foyer, he wore a thin, unhappy smile. "Great, nail polish."

Veronica frowned. "What's wrong with nail polish?"

"I don't know," Kahnso huffed. "Just seems like an adult thing to do. Makeup. Looking pretty for boys."

She kissed his cheek, leaned on him. She managed to press him against the wall and laid her head on his chest. His heart's beat was slow and comforting to her ear. "Mmm. Our girl's growing up. We just have to deal with that."

Kahnso's arms slid around her. He smooched between her ears, lips pressing down in her long blonde locks. "I don't want her to grow up," he said bitterly.

Veronica laughed softly and squeezed him. "She's always gonna be our baby. And we get to embarrass the hell out of her when she actually starts bringing home boys. That time she got sick all over me at Disney World? Ammo."

He grinned and laughed. "Jesus, woman. Didn't know you were that vindictive. I figured nose-breaking was about as far as revenge went for you."

"I have my indulgences. Speaking of, I haven't forgotten that time you plowed Jamie at last year's Halloween party."

He frowned. "It was the punch!"

"Non-alcoholic. I saw to that myself." She pinched his ear only somewhat playfully. "You owe me for that one."

Kahnso's sour face made him look like his teenage daughter when she was in one of her dreadful moods. "She liked it. You know we still fuck around."

"We both do, yeah," she allowed, "but not over the balcony above the pool during a party, for god's sake."

A naughty smile creased his muzzle. "Yeah, that one was pretty good. Aaron thought it was funny, though."

Veronica sighed. She kissed him. "Kahnso. Are you gonna be all right?"

"With Alex getting older?"

"Mhm."

"I don't have a lot of choice, do I?" His eyes scanned down the hallway. His ears picked up a sharp giggle from his girl and he smiled at the corners of his mouth. "I really never thought..." He let his words trail off, ideas dissipating back into his mind. His fingers slid down Veronica's back slowly. She was still damp with sweat. "I love you."

She pecked his cheek. "Love you too." As she leaned on him, her thoughts began to wander. She asked quietly, "Were you serious? About wanting another one?"

"I thought about it, once or twice. I don't think it would be fair to Alex." The large fox squeezed her around the middle. "Why, did you want-?"

"No. Not really, no," she answered. "I'm happy with what we got the first time. Let's quit while we're ahead."

Kahnso took his wife back to bed. They did not make love, not again so quickly. They laid still and quiet. She listened to his heart, and he listened to the slow breaths she drew.