The Greys Chapter 11: Grand Introduction
#12 of The Greys
The pastry shop was packed with people, most of them sitting down to eat but a few were staring at the pastries behind the glass in front of the counter. The animals were so involved in their eating or searching that they didn't notice when Gideon slid in behind the register, his cousin moving next to him.
"Hey ya'll," the tubby tod yelled out at his customers. All of them slowly turned their attention to Gideon, giving him warm smiles. It took most of them a few seconds to realized that there was a near equally chubby fox standing next to him that looked nearly identical to him. Gideon tossed a hand around his cousin's shoulder, giving him a strong pat, "This here's m'cousin, Kody!"
It took a second for most of the patrons to drink in the news. All of them were locals, so hearing that Gideon had a cousin that none of them had ever seen or heard of was strange. Finally though, a little doe bunny kit, one of the Hopps kin, finally said something, "Hello."
Kody was blushing a little at his cousin's embrace and announcement, so much so that he only gave a casual wave and a quick, "Hello." Of course, Gideon didn't really stop talking, "He's a city boy and a war hee-roe." The other fox just snorted as he started to push off from his cousin, "I'm not a war hero, Gideon."
"Sure, ya're, cuz! Ya been in th'Army n' th'Air Force. Yer a gen-you-ine war hee-roe," the tod said as he gave Kody another pat on the back.
"How come we've never heard of you before," Judy's older brother number 15, named Leroy, asked, "I've lived here my whole life and never heard about you until today."
"Well," Kody started to say as he moved a hand up to scratch the back of his head nervously. Luckily, Gideon stepped in, "That's cuz he didn't know we was kin til last year. You know them newfangled genie-ology places up on th'interwebs? That's how we found out."
The nervous fox wondered if that answer would suffice. It really wasn't a lie, but it wasn't a whole truth. Thankfully, the equally tubby fox's answer sufficed. "Ah, well, it can be hard to keep track of family, especially when you have one as big as mine," Leroy said with a chuckle. Kody just responded with a nervous laugh, "Yeah."
Unfortunately, the answer didn't exactly sit right with Marry-Anne Springer, one of Bonnie Springer Hopps' many siblings. The two foxes looked too similar for it to just be random coincidence. She wasn't sure if they had the same sire, but they were certainly very closely related. She'd have to tell Bonnie about this later.
After the odd introduction to the store patrons, Gideon had muscled Kody out the door of the pastry shop to start a walking tour of the town. All in all, Bunnyburrow's town central was longer than it was wide, having been built along a central street. There were a few houses here and there that surrounded the center of the town, newer structures built behind the mercantile buildings so people could walk to work or school, but most of the people that lived in the area lived on farms.
They walked down the street, the two chubby tods walking beside one another as they spoke, mostly making light small talk about work, until the subject started to change a little to more personal questions. Gideon was the first to ask the question that Kody knew was coming, "So, Kody, you got yerself a sweetheart?"
The fox shook his head, "No. Not recently. You?"
Gideon chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders, "Nah. Been s'busy with work, I haven't found one."
Kody just nodded. He could tell that his cousin wasn't exactly being entirely truthful, the tod's face was flushing, not something people did when they said they weren't seeing anyone. He just nodded his head. There was a secret Gideon wasn't going to tell him, but he figured that his cousin might be just like him.
"Gideon," he leaned in closer, just about to ask him the question that was on his mind when someone stepped in front of them.
"Well hay there, Gideon."