{"sf1_id":1667275,"sf2_id":"zeR4jdJn","title":"Hannah the Red Panda","author":"Phi_Fi","words":21750,"posted_at":"2020-12-29T23:59:00.000Z","tags":["Pet","Size Difference"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1667275-hannah-the-red-panda","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/zeR4jdJn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/bc/63/bc63b32c-dd3f-4e09-a8c1-2c12820c2dea","description":"#2 of Greentext\n\nSomething I made for a \"pets of furries\" thread that used to exist. First longish work I finished. Saved here from pastebin purge.\nGreen(\u003e) is Anon's perspective, regular text is anthro perspective, and brackets are text messages.\nSorry if it's confusing, the story got to be much bigger than I expected for a green.\nExtra Chapter with explicit stuff I didn't want in the main story: https://pastebin.com/9PyQwF0J\nThanks to everyone that encouraged me to continue and finish it.","content":"Part 0: Prologue  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon wakes up in a stupor. The first thing he notices is that hes naked.  \n\\\u003eAnon looks around and as best he can tell hes in some kind of prison cell.  \n\\\u003e'What kind of jail strips you naked?' he thought standing up.  \n\\\u003eJail wasn't all that accurate either, three of his walls were massive concrete blocks easily 15 feet high.  \n\\\u003eNone of the walls reached the ceiling.   \n\\\u003eThere was another 15 feet of air to a slanting corrugated tin roof.  \n\\\u003eThe forth wall was actually a chain link gate, but with a clear plastic shield on the inside.  \n\\\u003eEven with the gap between the walls and roof he quickly surmised that climbing out wasn't going to be an option.  \n\\\u003eHe approached the gate to get a look down the hallway.  \n\\\u003eThe cell immediately across from him was empty.   \n\\\u003eBut he could see another man, naked and sleeping, in the cell to the left of it.  \n\\\u003eAnon intended to yell out \"Hey man what is this place?\" but all that came out of his mouth were growls and yelps.  \n\\\u003e'What the fuck was that' he thought. He tried speaking, he tried saying the alphabet, he tried singing.  \n\\\u003eBut only growls and yelps came out.  \n\\\u003eAs he grew more desperate to speak the volume and shuddering of his 'voice' became worse.  \n\\\u003eThe other man stirred and began to growl back.   \n\\\u003eSoon more voices, male and female, could be heard further down the hall.  \n\\\u003eAnon took a step back, the cacophony of animal sounds and the nature of his spartan cell suddenly clicked.  \n\\\u003eHe was in a people kennel.  \n\\\u003eWhile Anon was trying to process this new information a door at the end of the hallway opened.  \n\\\u003eThe other humans grew quieter.  \n\\\u003eAnon heard barks that sounded nothing like the humans and far louder.  \n\"Hey whats all the commotion, today?\" Susan said to the humans.   \nThey had all quieted down now, but it was usually a good idea to check on them when they made this much a fuss.  \nShe walked down the hallway saying nice things to each one as she passed.  \n\\\u003eAnon could hear something walking down the hall, something big.  \n\\\u003eWherever it went came more dog-like growling.  \n\\\u003eHe could feel its approach and he backed further into his cell.  \nSusan had gotten to the last of the cells, with a chubby little male who was always glad to see her.  \nShe hoped he got adopted soon.   \nIt was never a good idea to have favorites when running the shelter.  \nBut being a hummie lover through and through was why she was here in the first place and she couldn't help it.  \nShe was about to head back to the front office when she sensed something behind her.  \nShe approached the suspicious cell.  \n\\\u003eAnon looked up in horror at a giant fucking wolf.  \n\\\u003e... that walked on two legs   \n\\\u003e... and was wearing blue jeans and a tie-dyed t-shirt?  \n\\\u003eHis fear was quickly eclipsed by confusion as he wondered, yet again, what the fuck was going on.  \n\\\u003eThis was not some snarling werewolf from horror films but a slim wolf girl.   \n\\\u003eSlim being relative on her 14 foot frame.   \n\\\u003eShe leaned down and began making those conversational growls he had heard her use on the walk up.  \n\\\u003eThe look on her face was clearly one of concern.  \n\"Who are you?\" Susan said to the human she had never seen before.  \nRicardo didn't mention any new strays or drop-offs.  \nThis one was scared to death of her though, and oddly muscular.  \nIt might have been abused, or worse yet used in human fighting.   \nShe wanted to comfort him but knew better given his obviously agitated state.  \nSince she was just now finding out about him there was a good chance no one had fed him yet.  \nIt was still another couple hours to feeding time, but she reasoned she could make an exception for the new guy.  \n\\\u003eAnon just watched as the titanic girl stood back up and walked off.  \n\\\u003eWatching her tail sway back and forth, he caught himself checking out the profile of her butt in the jeans.  \n\\\u003eAnon shook his head vigorously trying to make sense of things.  \n\\\u003eAnon was a person-dog, in a world of dog-people.  \n\\\u003eOr was it the opposite?  \n\\\u003eHe was so lost in thought that he didn't notice the return of wolf girl until her shadow was over him.  \n\\\u003eShe opened a small hatch at the base of the cage and pushed a dish in.  \n\\\u003eAfter a few more indecipherable growls she walked away.  \n\\\u003eAnon approached the dish which contained some vaguely kibble like food with water poured over it.  \n\\\u003eAnon didn't see a spoon, and then realized it was probably foolish to expect one.  \n\\\u003eHe picked up a chunk of the stuff with his hands and ate a bit of it.   \n\\\u003eIt had the consistency of cold hamburger, and tasted like weak gravy. \u0026nbsp;  \n\\\u003eGravy that someone had forgotten to salt and pepper.   \n\\\u003eStill it was better to focus on his odd provisions than his even odder situation.   \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 1: The Weirdo.  \n  \n\\\u003eFive days had passed since he first woke up in the kennel.  \n\\\u003eAnon had learned a lot though.  \n\\\u003eFirstly this wasn't a world of just dog-people.  \n\\\u003eThere were cat-people, deer-people, and fox-people too.  \n\\\u003eAll kinds of giant animal people had walked through the place talking in the same growl language.  \n\\\u003eSome were employees like wolf girl, a big tiger guy was the other one he saw frequently.  \n\\\u003eBut most were looking at the humans, some had even taken humans with them when they left.  \n\\\u003eOn a leash.  \n\\\u003eYeah leashes took some getting used too.   \n\\\u003eThey didn't really have yard time or anything.  \n\\\u003eBut twice a day each human would be leashed and walked to the far end of the hall.  \n\\\u003eThere was a sort of astro-turf area where they popped a squat and did their business.  \n\\\u003eIt was immensely demeaning, especially when the wolf girl was on duty.  \n\\\u003eThe tiger guy couldn't care less, but she was so encouraging and attentive during the process.  \n\\\u003eIt made him feel like a toddler.  \n\\\u003eBut that was something else he learned.  \n\\\u003eEven though he couldn't speak anymore, he knew he was different from the other humans.  \n\\\u003eThey were totally pet like in their behavior and mentality.  \n\\\u003eAt first he thought maybe it was an act, but any attempt to communicate with them in the night had failed.  \n\\\u003eThey were as confused by his hand signals as any untrained dog would be at home.   \n\\\u003eHe decided the safest course of action would be to just act like them until he could gather more information.  \n\\\u003eAnon had briefly considered escape, if he could tear the plastic off the fence gate, he could easily scale out.  \n\\\u003eBut given his lack of knowledge on this world, he wasn't sure he would fare much better than being in his cell.  \n\\\u003eHe had a hunch this was a no-kill shelter. He only saw humans leave with adopting animal people.  \n\\\u003eWhich was something that had gotten to him, most of the animal people were less than warm to Anon.  \n\\\u003eMaybe it was because he wasn't soft like the other humans here.   \n\\\u003eHe worked out constantly in his cell to keep his mind busy.  \n\\\u003eAnon never wore a stupid grin like the other humans either, there was a limit to how much he would pretend.  \n\\\u003eIf only to preserve what little dignity he had left. \u0026nbsp;  \n\\\u003eStill he wasn't seeing an out to this situation anytime soon.  \n\\\u003eShort of waking up in his bed as magically as he had arrived here, it was either escape or adoption.  \n\\\u003eAnon stopped his current set of push-ups short when he heard the door to the office opened.  \n\\\u003eTwo sets of animal-people footsteps were walking down the hall and 'talking' to each other.  \n\\\u003eAnon had heard enough at this point to recognize wolf girl, and know that the other person was female.  \n\"So what makes you want to get a human?\" Susan asked the red panda girl.  \n\"Oh my family has always had humans, but I couldn't have one in college.\" she replied.  \n\"But I'm on my own now, so it's about time\"   \n\"What did you study?\" Susan asked as they walked down the hall inspecting the other humans.  \n\"Art, over at State\" said the red panda girl tapping on the plastic of a dozing females kennel.   \n\"Who has been here the longest? I'm not particular about looks I just want a human to cuddle with\"   \n\"I'd rather take one that needs a home, than one I think looks cool, you know\" she said turning to the wolf.  \nSusan beamed, this was her favorite kind of human owner.  \n\"Well, there's Dancer, and Little Tony, and ...\" she paused slightly \"... and the Weirdo.\"  \nThe panda girl laughed, \"who's the weirdo?\" she said looking around.   \nSusan motioned for her to follow her down to the end of the hall.   \n\"He's only been here five days, and I don't like the nickname Ricardo gave him, but it kinda fits.\"  \n\"How? I have to know what a human does to be called a weirdo.\" she said laughing again.   \n\"Well for one hes kind of intense, at first I thought he was abused or something, but hes good on the leash.\"  \n\"He just kind of stares through you. Not in a creepy way, it's like hes trying to figure something out.\"  \n\"Also hes...\" she paused and gestured to the human in question.  \n\"Oh my god he's ripped.\" the panda girl giggled. \"Did someone give a human steroids or something?\"  \n\"No, even better, he works out.\" Susan said with a grin.  \n\"What?\" the panda asked flatly.   \n\"Yeah, we have these little security cameras high in the ceiling to keep an eye on them.\"   \nShe pointed to one of the black hemispheres on the rafter.  \n\"Whenever no one is in the room, the weirdo is working out.\"  \n\"Like sit ups, push ups, I swear I even saw him doing yoga once.\"   \n\"No way\" said the panda girl.   \nShe was leaning down to get closer to eye level with the human.  \nSusan was right, he definitely had a unique way of looking at people.   \n\\\u003eAnon had been inspecting the red panda girl while the two chatted.  \n\\\u003eThe floral patterned long skirt over her wide hips and large bottom.   \n\\\u003eThe dark green spaghetti string tank top that revealed her ample cleavage.  \n\\\u003eThe home made looking wooden jewelry necklace and multiple ear piercings.  \n\\\u003eThe well worn flip-flops and large heavily ornamented purse.  \n\\\u003eJust going on the style choices from back home, she was giving off a stoner / hippie vibe.  \n\\\u003eShe was about a head shorter than wolf girl, a diminutive 12 feet or so.  \n\\\u003eBut when she leaned down she was almost eye level to him.  \n\\\u003eWhich was a struggle for him to maintain given the crazy view of her bosom she was showing off.  \n\\\u003eShe stared at him for a while, longer than any of the other animal people had maintained eye contact.  \n\\\u003eEventually she said something with a wide grin on her face.  \n\"Really?\" said Susan.  \n\"Yeah, I'll take him, we weirdos have to stick together.\" said the panda girl waving at the human.   \n\\\u003eAnon almost put his hand up to wave back, but he had never seen one of the pet-humans wave, so he stopped himself.  \n\"Well lets go fill out the paperwork. What was your name again?\" said Susan.  \n\"Oh man, I'm so rude, I spaced on the introductions.\" panda girl said following the wolf \"My name is Hannah.\"  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 2: The Ride Home.  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon had a funny feeling about how the two girls were talking as they walked back to the office.  \n\\\u003eIt wasn't long before his suspicions were confirmed.  \n\\\u003eThe wolf girl opened the cage, and the red panda produced a thin black leash from her purse.  \n\\\u003eAnon started keeping pace with the girl who was obviously his new owner.  \n\\\u003eAll three walked out into the office and Anon got to see something of this world other than the kennel.  \n\\\u003eThe two girls chatted while he looked over the posters on the wall and magazines on a small table.  \n\"Yeah thank you so much for showing me around\" Hannah said to Susan.  \n\"I just hope you and Weirdo are happy, though I hope you give him a better name.\" Susan said with a chuckle.  \n\"Oh no chance. It's too perfect.\" Hannah said looking down at Anon. \u0026nbsp;  \n\"Hey you should come by my place sometime, after Weirdo gets settled.\"  \n\"I'm planning on having a little party at the end of the month if you would like to come to that\"  \n\"Yeah that sounds fun.\" said Susan, pulling out her phone.  \n\\\u003eAs the two girls exchanged contact info Anon was figuring out the letters of this alphabet.  \n\\\u003eSpeaking to and understanding the speech of the people here was off the table.  \n\\\u003eBut reading and writing should still be an option.  \n\\\u003eAnon felt a slight tug on his leash, and realized that the red panda girl was leaving.  \n\\\u003eHe briefly became aware of his nudity, which he had become accustomed to in the kennel.  \n\\\u003eHe was anxious to step outside naked, but realized that feeling really belonged to his old world.  \n\\\u003eEverything looked familiar but scaled up to the worlds proper inhabitants.  \n\\\u003eRed Panda girl was leading him to a massive grey sedan of a car. It looked fairly new.  \n\\\u003eApart from the variety of bumper stickers on the back.  \n\\\u003eThe Kennel was situated on a rural road, he couldn't see any other buildings around.  \n\\\u003eHe had to keep in mind that the situation with panda girl might not work out.  \n\\\u003eHe would really like to be able to get back to wolf girl as a back up plan.  \n\\\u003ePanda girl had opened the passenger door for him, but didn't wait for him to climb in.  \n\\\u003eInstead he found her hands sliding under his armpits, and he was effortlessly lifted into the seat.  \n\\\u003eAnon was shocked to be handled so easily as she said something with a huff.  \n\"oof, you are denser than you look\" said Hannah.  \n\"Now come 'ere. We have to preserve the moment.\"  \n\\\u003eThe panda girl squatted next to Anon and pulled him into a tight hug.  \n\\\u003eAnons face was squished into the left breast of his titty monster owner.  \n\\\u003eHer plump arms and soft fur did nothing to mute the casual strength she displayed.  \n\\\u003eAnon looked up and saw her phone in her right hand.  \n\\\u003eA flash later and his confused face was caught in her smiling selfie.  \nShe closed the door and walked around to the drivers side.  \nTyping quickly she posted the photo on social media.  \n[Meet Weirdo, my new human! :P] she alerted her friends.  \n\\\u003eAnon watched her get in and they were quickly driving away from the kennel.  \n\\\u003eThe problem was his perspective, sitting so low in the seat he couldn't see much of where they were going.  \n\\\u003eHe tucked his legs under himself in an attempt to sit higher and see out the passenger window.  \n\\\u003eHe spotted signs as they progressed down the winding country road.  \n\\\u003eEventually they got to something that looked like a smallish town.  \n\\\u003eAnon was busy trying to remember land marks, but he kept getting distracted by the \"people\" watching.  \n\\\u003eTwenty minutes of city driving later and they were in the suburbs.  \n\\\u003eAnon had to sadly admit that he had lost his orientation as they pulled up to a single story brick building.  \n\\\u003ePanda girl got out of the car, and grabbed his leash.  \n\\\u003eAnon waited for her to open the door, but she just patted her thigh and said something.  \n\"C'mon, we're home now\" Hannah said in a gentle voice.  \n\\\u003eAnon climbed over the central console and jumped down onto the driveway.  \nAs Hannah lead her human to the front door she let her tail casually sweep into him.  \nShe was hoping to bring out a playful side to her bewildered little Weirdo.  \n\\\u003eAnon was hypnotized by the generous swaying hips walking in front of him.  \n\\\u003eHe didn't really feel like he was staring given that they were level with his head.  \n\\\u003eHowever every other step brought with it the poofy red tail smacking him in the face and chest.  \n\\\u003eHe resisted the urge to bat it away, not wanting to appear aggressive, besides it had a pleasing odor.  \n\\\u003eShe had perfumed her tail with something floral and earthy, that he couldn't quite identify.  \n\\\u003eAs she opened the front door he simply let the tail rest on his shoulder.  \n\\\u003eShe walked in and he followed, unsure of what to expect from his new home.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 3: Home is Where the Hemp is.  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon surveyed the living room, it had a strong smell of incense.  \n\\\u003eIt was very much in the style of \"fresh out of college\".  \n\\\u003eA few second hand sofas with some throw blankets over the back.  \n\\\u003eA cheap entertainment center housed a decent (though massive to Anon) tv and some game consoles.  \n\\\u003eThere was a well worn coffee table that had a water bong and a wooden box that he could guess the contents of.  \nHannah removed the leash from Weirdo's collar to let him roam around.  \n\\\u003eAnon walked into the next room, the kitchen.  \n\\\u003eA few dirty dishes, and an older looking fridge, but mostly cleaner than he expected.  \n\\\u003eThere was a sliding glass door going to a fenced in back yard.  \n\\\u003eA small patio had a metal fire pit and some wrought iron table and chairs with a hookah as the center piece.  \nHannah was leaning in the doorway, watching Weirdo wander around.  \nShe was texting a friend [I feel like my human is judging me for how I live. lol]  \n[Hes walking from room to room and I'm embarrassed I didn't clean up first.]  \n\\\u003eAnon walked past his owner tapping away on her phone.  \n\\\u003eDown the hallway he briefly glanced in the bathroom.  \n\\\u003eStandard shower and sink, but weirdly no toilet.  \n\\\u003eInstead it was one of those in-the-ground things that he had seen in other countries back home.  \n\\\u003eMaybe creatures with tails universally preferred squatting?  \n\\\u003eNext down the hall was the bedroom, more second hand furniture, and a bit messier than the rest of the house.  \n\\\u003ePiles of clothes, opened disorganized closets, and a cluttered dresser dominated the space.  \n\\\u003eOne final room at the end of the hall, a second bedroom that she was using for an office?  \n\\\u003eMore like a computer room. A big dual monitor rig, on a massive desk that all looked very new.  \n\\\u003eBehind that were bookcases loaded down with everything from comics to college textbooks.  \n\\\u003eThe room was littered with figurines, posters, and all kinds of, well, nerd shit.  \n\\\u003eHe was curious as to why this one room was immaculate and organized but figured he would find out in time.  \n\\\u003eAnon turned around and bumped into a red furry tree trunk.  \n\\\u003eHe almost fell over but was more shocked at how quietly his huge owner moved in behind him.  \n\"Oh, watch out little guy\" Hannah said rubbing the startled humans head.  \n\\\u003eAnon hated to admit it, but her hand, paw, whatever, was actually comforting.  \n\\\u003eHe closed his eyes and smiled slightly as she scratched his head.  \n\"Aww\" was all Hannah could say, glad to finally see her high strung pet relaxing a bit.  \nShe walked back to the living room.  \n\\\u003eAnon followed closely behind her.  \n\\\u003eHe was eager to get into those books and try and learn the language.  \n\\\u003eBut right now he really wanted to stay with her.  \n\\\u003eThe little bit of physical contact so far made him realize just how starved for it he was in the kennel.  \n\\\u003eBesides his original plan was to pretend to be a good pet.  \n\\\u003eThe better he pulled that off now, the more free time he would have later for research.  \nHannah sunk into the couch and turned on the TV.  \n\\\u003eAnon waited, unsure if he was allowed on the furniture.  \nHannah noticed him by her leg and picked him up, she laid him down next to her.  \n\\\u003eAnon was going to take a while to get used to being handled like that.  \n\\\u003eResting his head on her generous thigh was a comforting reward for the brief indignity.  \n\\\u003eAs he was trying to make sense of the TV program, his owner reached for the wooden box on the coffee table.  \n\\\u003eHis suspicions were confirmed as the odor of weed emanated from it.  \n\\\u003eShe pulled a pipe out of the box and packed a bowl for herself.  \n\\\u003eHe never really partook, but Anon had no strong judgments against the habit.  \n\\\u003eAll things considered this was way better than the kennel, and his situation could be a lot worse.  \n\u0026nbsp;  \n----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;Part 4: The First Mistake.  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon awoke on the couch. It took him a moment to get his bearings.  \n\\\u003eIt was dark outside so he must have been sleeping for a while.  \n\\\u003eHe wasn't sure when he fell asleep, but the panda girl, who he resolved to simply call Red, wasn't around.  \n\\\u003eShe had covered him in a blanket from the couch, and he took a moment to appreciate that.  \n\\\u003eHowever there was a smell of food coming from the kitchen, which was probably what woke him up.  \n\\\u003eHe rubbed his eyes as he walked into the other room.  \n\\\u003eRed was standing in front of the oven, still wearing her green tank top.  \n\\\u003eShe had lost the skirt and flip flops, wearing only a pair of boxer briefs.  \n\\\u003eHe could just barely see over the table which had a large plate with most of a sandwich on it.  \n\\\u003eThe smell from the pan was unmistakably that of bacon frying up.  \n\\\u003eAnon briefly considered the ethical ramifications of meat eating in world of sentient animal people.  \n\\\u003eThen Red began to speak.  \n\"Hey sleepy head. Done with your nap?\" she said looking down at Weirdo.  \nHis eyes were firmly fixed on the pan of bacon, though.  \n\"This is for mommy.\" she said pointing to the bacon with her spatula.  \n\"But let me get you some human food.\"  \n\\\u003eRed was transferring the bacon to a plate with a paper towel.  \n\\\u003eAnon watched as she went to the closet and got out a tin bowl, which she set on the counter.  \n\\\u003eShe pulled out a bag with a goofy cartoon human on it and poured out some kibble.  \n\\\u003eAt the sink she lightly covered the kibble with water and set it down in front of Anon.  \n\\\u003eHe sat down and started eating while she finished building her sandwich.  \n\"You really are weird\" she said with a smirk \"My old humans used to loose their mind at dinner.\"  \n\"You know what? For being such a good boy here's a treat.\"  \n\\\u003eRed leaned down and deposited a single strip of bacon on the edge of Anons bowl.  \n\\\u003eThough a single strip doesn't really describe it properly it was closer in size to a small steak for him.  \n\\\u003eAnon took a single bite of the crispy meat and nearly cried.  \n\\\u003eHe wasn't sure if it was genuinely good bacon or if six days worth of kibble made it so, but it was amazing.  \n\\\u003eHe intended to savor it, taking a few bites of the bland kibble and then finishing with a healthy bite of bacon.  \nHannah hadn't taken so much as a bite from her sandwich she was so amazed watching Weirdo.  \nMost humans ate their food so quickly they would genuinely make themselves sick if you didn't control their portions.  \nBut her Weirdo was taking his time.  \nHe was even rationing out the bacon, almost like he was consciously savoring it.  \nIt was the most bizarre thing she had ever seen a human do.  \n\\\u003eAnon finished up without realizing how much of a spectacle he was for Red.  \n\\\u003eHe stood up and noticed she had only just started eating.  \n\\\u003eHe felt slightly guilty about leaving a dirty bowl on the floor, but he had a role to play.  \n\\\u003eSo he snuggled up next to her as she ate.  \n\\\u003eShe scratched his head and said something.  \n\"Cuteness won't buy you a place at the table\" she said through a mouthful of BLT.  \nThat was always a hard and fast rule to maintain for humans.  \nEventually she picked up her phone to check some of her media accounts and casually finished the sandwich.  \n\\\u003eAnon took the opportunity to explore the house unsupervised.  \n\\\u003eHe was looking at her books when he realized that the kitchen was probably a better place to start language research.  \n\\\u003eIf this world has bacon he could probably decode stuff a lot faster using food labels.  \n\\\u003eStill any research he was going to do would need to be done while she was out of the house.  \n\\\u003eWhich all depended on her job or social life.  \n\\\u003eHopefully she wasn't a full-on pothead NEET.  \n\\\u003eWorse yet what if she had some kind of \"human-friendly\" job?  \n\\\u003eShe seemed like the type, and that would basically have him stuck by her side 24/7.  \n\\\u003eAnon shrugged, no use worrying about unknowns this early in the relationship.  \n\\\u003eIn any case his stomach was grumbling. That bacon wasn't playing well with the kibble.  \n\\\u003eAnon walked into the bathroom and used the floor toilet thing.  \n\\\u003eA single square of toilet paper folded over twice was more than enough for him.  \n\\\u003e'You don't know what a luxury this stuff is until you don't have it' he thought remembering the kennel.  \n\\\u003eAnon stood up and took a piss. As he reached for the handle, he froze.  \n\\\u003eWhat the fuck was he doing? Humans don't use toilets here. Shit.  \n\\\u003eAnon heard Red coming down the hallway loudly saying something.  \n\\\u003e'shit shit shit' thought Anon.  \nHannah heard the sound of peeing from the kitchen, and got up from the table.  \n\"Weirdo, you better not be peeing on my floors\" Hannah said loudly.  \nShe secretly blamed herself for not taking him outside after he finished eating.  \nBut right now she was just concerned about where he had done his business.  \nShe stopped in the door frame of the bathroom.  \n\\\u003eAnon looked up to Red, she was as confused as he was mortified.  \n\\\u003eHis hand still hovered over the toilet lever.  \n\\\u003e'In for a penny, in for a pound' Anon thought as he pulled it down to get rid of the waste.  \n\\\u003eThe only solution now was to make the situation so ridiculous that no one would believe her if she told them.  \n\"What the fuck...\" Hannah whispered to herself.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 5: The First Night  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon was trying not to panic as the seconds audibly ticked by from the clock on the wall.  \nHannah stared at her human, who seemed petrified in the moment.  \nShe burst out laughing.  \n\"Holy shit\" she said between laughs, \"That's amazing.\"  \nShe was doubled over laughing as she approached Anon and pulled him into a great big hug.  \n\\\u003eAnon was getting smothered, which would have been somewhat pleasant if he knew he was in the clear.  \n\"What a clever guy\" she said kissing him on the forehead.   \n\\\u003eOK maybe his read on the situation wasn't quiet what he initially thought.  \n\\\u003eAs Red carried him back to the kitchen he thought about the sequence of events.  \n\\\u003eShe clearly heard him peeing, then came down the hall, and caught him flushing the toilet.  \n\\\u003eMaybe she didn't see the toilet paper, that might have been a step too far.  \n\\\u003eBut perhaps peeing and flushing wasn't that unusual a thing to teach a human?  \nWhile Anon pondered his increasingly bizarre situation Hannah grabbed her phone from the kitchen.  \nShe plopped down on the couch in a heap with Weirdo in her lap.  \nShe was texting, whats her name from the kennel? Susan.  \n[You never told me Weirdo was toilet trained!]  \nA few seconds later she got a response of [???]  \n[I just caught him peeing in my toilet, and he flushed! :)]  \n[Oh my god, that's incredible. I wonder what psycho trained him to do all this stuff?]   \n[idk, but he's mine now. lol]  \n[It makes sense though, he was always anxious when I took him for breaks at the kennel.  \nIf he's been trained to use a toilet he must have thought he was being naughty going on the floor.]  \n[Oh poor guy, well I'll be sure to let him know I appreciate it. ttyl]  \nShe put her phone down and kissed Weirdo on the back of the head.  \n\\\u003eAnon figured that what he did couldn't have been that bad.  \n\\\u003eIf it resulted in this much snuggling and affection, how could it be?  \n\\\u003eStill that was too close a call.   \n\\\u003eBeing an above average pet in cleverness was a good enough cover.  \n\\\u003eBut there was far too much stuff he had planned that he would need to keep on the down low.   \n\\\u003eAs they watched another hour of TV, he decided he would repeat what he did at the kennel.  \n\\\u003eStick to a routine, observe everything, and play the pet.   \n\\\u003eAt least for a week, maybe more, he had to learn more about his new owner before trying anything.  \n\\\u003eThough he was struggling to stay awake right now.   \n\\\u003eHis owner was terribly comfy to sit on. He wiggled a bit to wake himself up.  \n\"Yeah it's getting to be that time Weirdo\" Hannah said with a yawn.  \nShe turned off the TV and set the human down.   \nHe followed her to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth.  \nThen to the bedroom where she searched through one of the piles of clothes.   \nShe found her favorite sleeping t-shirt and peeled off the tank top.   \n\\\u003eAnon's eyes got as big as saucers as the largest pair of breasts he had ever seen were casually freed from the top.  \n\\\u003eIf scenes like this were going to be common place then he REALLY didn't want her to know he was more than a pet.  \n\\\u003eA woman scorned is one thing, a twelve foot tall animal woman scorned is several more things he didn't want.  \n\\\u003eShe put on the pink t-shirt and turned off the lights.  \n\\\u003eAs she crawled into bed Anon looked around confused. There was no dog, er, human bed that he could identify.  \n\\\u003eRed rolled over and patted the mattress as she said something inviting.  \n\"It's ok, you can sleep up here with me\" she said to Weirdo.   \n\\\u003eAnon didn't need to be asked twice.  \n\\\u003eIt was cumbersome climbing into the bed.  \n\\\u003eIt was at chest height to him and soft enough that his hands sank in considerably.  \n\\\u003eHe got up high enough to do a sort of roll combined with a leg swing maneuver.  \n\\\u003eRed was laughing at him again, which made him glad to have finally figured out what that sound was.   \n\\\u003eHer hand reached around his middle and pulled him in close.   \n\\\u003eOne of his previous girlfriends liked being \"the big spoon.\"   \n\\\u003eIt was never right with someone smaller than him, more like a backpack than a big spoon.  \n\\\u003eBut in this situation he was definitely \"the little spoon\".   \n\\\u003eHer body heat to his back.  \n\\\u003eHer arm across his chest.  \n\\\u003eHis head nuzzled up to her breasts.   \n\\\u003eThis world wasn't all bad.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 6: Anons day out.  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon was deep asleep when suddenly the wind was knocked out of him.  \n\\\u003eThe morning light was barely peaking through the window as he struggled to free himself.  \n\\\u003eHe was being pinned by something massive.  \n\\\u003eAs his eyes adjusted he could make out the the red fur of his new owner.  \n\\\u003eYesterdays events came rushing back to him and he realized what had happened.  \n\\\u003eRed had shifted in her sleep, his left shoulder and arm was pinned under her hip.  \n\\\u003eHer massive thigh had landed squarely on his chest.  \n\\\u003eLuckily her kneecap landed between his legs, far below his crotch.  \n\\\u003eThat little bit of luck aside he was still immobilized by just one of her legs.  \n\\\u003eHe worked on freeing his arm first, which wasn't that hard once he caught his breath.  \n\\\u003ePushing with both arms he was able to pivot underneath her.  \n\\\u003eEventually only one leg was stuck and he was able to pull it free.  \n\\\u003eThroughout the whole ordeal she barely stirred. Just some sleepy grumbling on her part.  \n\\\u003eHe looked back at her before sliding off the bed.  \n\\\u003eSplayed out on the sheets with her tail draped across her back, she was cute.  \n\\\u003eShe would have been cuter if she hadn't nearly pressed him to death in her sleep, but still.  \n\\\u003eAnon walked to the kitchen; he shook his head after he arrived realizing the futility of it.  \n\\\u003eIt's not like he could put on an apron and make breakfast.  \n\\\u003eInstead he just walked through the house, trying as best he could to learn about his owner by its contents.  \n\\\u003eHe noticed pictures of family and friends he hadn't payed attention to yesterday.  \n\\\u003eNormally he would have felt like a creep looking at someone else's stuff like this.  \n\\\u003eBut there really wasn't anything to do until Red woke up.  \n\\\u003eAs if on cue, she came strolling down the hallway.  \n\"Morning, Weirdo\" she said with a wide yawn.  \nHe walked up to her side and she scratched his head.  \n\"Sleep well?\" she mused, opening the fridge.  \n\\\u003eBreakfast was quick, no bacon strip this time.  \n\\\u003eShe showered and dressed.  \n\\\u003eShe wore a broad straw hat, with spaces for her ears to poke through, and huge sunglasses.  \n\\\u003ePlus some loose hippy clothes and jewelry to complete what Anon assumed was her typical look.  \n\\\u003eSoon anon was back on the leash and in the passenger seat.  \n\\\u003eThey rode into town and she pulled up to a plain building.  \n\\\u003eOnce inside he recognized the sound of lots of humans.  \n\\\u003eAt first he feared it was some kind of human vet and he was going to get the snip.  \n\\\u003eBut the business quickly revealed itself to be a human grooming salon.  \n\\\u003eHumans were sitting in very crude looking barber chairs, some were strapped down.  \n\\\u003eHair was getting trimmed, finger and toenails were getting clipped.  \n\\\u003eAnd all of it was being done by three animal people.  \n\\\u003eA dour looking lady goat, a youngish looking fox girl, and a jaguar man?  \n\\\u003eOcelot maybe? Anon couldn't place the species.  \n\\\u003eBut even with the language barrier Anon could tell he was ...flamboyant.  \n\\\u003eAbout thirty minutes of waiting resulted in them getting called over by Pink Panther.  \n\\\u003eAnon was actually relieved to have him as a groomer after observing all three.  \n\\\u003eGoat lady didn't give a shit and was strapping everyone down super tight.  \n\\\u003eFox girl was producing a lot of blood just from trimming nails and didn't appear all that confident at the job.  \n\\\u003eRed picked Anon up and put him on the table.  \n\\\u003eAnon walked over to the chair and took a seat.  \n\\\u003eRed and Pink Panther exchanged a glance and laughed.  \n\\\u003eShit. That was another thing he probably shouldn't have known to do.  \n\\\u003ePretending to be dumb was was turning out to be much harder than expected.  \n\\\u003eAnyways Pink Panther proved to be a total professional.  \n\\\u003eA quick hair trim, careful around the ears, and he didn't forget the back of the neck.  \n\\\u003eThe shave was equally well done, and the sanding of the nails.  \n\\\u003eThere was this weird moment where he pointed directly at Anons crotch.  \n\\\u003eRed just squinted her nose and shook her head.  \n\\\u003eAnon was pretty sure she just declined a manscaping and for that alone he would be eternally grateful.  \n\\\u003eAs Red payed, Anon rubbed his hair, this being a pet thing was proving pretty cool in some respects.  \n\\\u003eThe next stop on their little trip was fairly obvious from the outside.  \n\\\u003eA head shop.  \n\\\u003eOh fuck, was this where she worked?  \n\\\u003eOnce inside Red was greeted by all the people behind the counter, one of the customers even said something to her.  \n\\\u003eShe picked out some incense and was browsing at some of the stuff behind the glass.  \n\\\u003e'Ok so she's just shopping' Anon thought to himself a little relieved.  \n\\\u003eMaybe she's just friends with these people.  \n\\\u003eOr is she one of those people that visits work on her day off? Ugh.  \n\\\u003eA tall goat dude walked up to Red. He bleated something down at Anon.  \n\\\u003eAnon just looked up confused.  \n\"He doesn't know sit?\" Shawn asked incredulously.  \n\"I guess not.\" said Hannah a little puzzled.  \n\"Weirdo here knows all sorts of stuff, I hadn't thought to try typical human tricks.\"  \n\"Oh you got to train your human right.\" Shawn said nodding to himself.  \n\"You know I could come over and give you a hand if you wanted...\"  \n\"I've been training humans my whole life\" Hannah said \"But thanks for the offer.\"  \n\"Cool, cool, cool\" the goat muttered, unable to salvage the conversation.  \n\"I think I'll just get the incense today\" Hannah said a bit more chipper this time.  \n\"I'll ring you up over at the front register\"  \n\\\u003eAnon was beginning to understand the value of body language, now that speech was denied to him.  \n\\\u003eFor instance, that goat guy got shot down. Hard.  \n\\\u003eLike don't even bother searching the wreckage, no survivors, shot down.  \n\\\u003eThey had a pretty busy day after that.  \n\\\u003eThey hit a pet shop, an outdoor produce market, and a grocery store (for beer).  \n\\\u003eBy the end of it Anon was exhausted.  \n\\\u003eKeeping pace with someone twice his size was a bit more cardio than he was used to.  \n\\\u003eHe did get one thing out of it.  \n\\\u003eRed introduced him to so many people today that he was pretty sure what his name was.  \n\\\u003eHe had no clue how to write down that pattern of growls but he knew it when he heard it now.  \n\\\u003eLater, after Red had finished making dinner she grabbed one of the bags from the pet sop.  \n\\\u003eFrom it she produced a new collar, leather, like a belt but with softer material on the inside and edge.  \n\\\u003eAs she put it on him he inspected the bronze tag on the front.  \n\\\u003eAnd now he knew what his name looked like.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   \n  \nPart 7: Training Day  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon awoke just before sunup.  \n\\\u003eRed had rolled towards the window in her sleep, so there was no struggle for freedom.  \n\\\u003eInstead her tail was laying on his chest.  \n\\\u003eIt was tempting to cuddle up to it, like a body pillow, but he was pretty sure that would wake her.  \n\\\u003eHe simply laid there for a few moments unsure if moving the tail was a good idea.  \n\\\u003eThe issue became moot as she yawned and stretched in the bed, her tail rising to smack him in the face.  \n\\\u003eShe climbed out and Anon followed.  \n\\\u003eAnother breakfast like yesterday, but she seemed to be in no rush this morning.  \n\\\u003eLots of messing around on her phone.  \n\\\u003eShe poured herself a bowl of cereal and took it into the living room.  \n\\\u003eShe watched some animal people version of one of those home remodeling shows for a couple hours.  \n\\\u003eIt was nice being all snuggled up on the couch, but goddamn this was boring.  \n\\\u003eAnon didn't like these kind of shows even when he understood the language.  \n\\\u003eIt was almost midday before she changed out of her sleeping clothes.  \n\\\u003eThough the sweatpants and tank-top lead anon to believe they weren't exactly going out on the town.  \n\\\u003eShe opened the sliding glass door to the backyard and gestured for Anon to go outside.  \n\\\u003eAs he walked past her Red laughed and said something.  \n\"Couldn't care less, huh?\"  \nWeirdo kept surprising her, most humans would have ran out the door without a second thought.  \n\\\u003eIt was a smallish backyard, in proportion to the patio at least.  \n\\\u003eThere was a grill off to the side that he hadn't seen before, and a small shed.  \n\\\u003eGiven the rust and spiderwebs on the grill it didn't appear to get much use or care.  \n\\\u003eRed walked past him out into the grass.  \n\\\u003eAnon was busy thinking about how the grass was getting a little wild. It had been mowed but not recently.  \n\\\u003eRed said something authoritative and loud, while patting her thigh.  \n\"COME\" Hannah repeated.  \nWeirdo walked out through the grass to her.  \nShe scratched his head \"Good boy, now STAY\"  \nShe started walking away.  \n\\\u003eAnon decided to follow, when she turned around and practically yelled that last word at him.  \n\\\u003eAnon stopped moving and it finally made sense. She was doing commands.  \n\\\u003eThis was going to be annoying.  \n\\\u003eAnon stood still until she did what he assumed was the \"come here\" thing again.  \n\\\u003eAs he jogged over she yelled the other thing.  \n\\\u003eHe stopped, and couldn't help but feel like a kid doing that red light green light game.  \n\\\u003eAt least she was smiling.  \n\\\u003eShe repeated the \"come\" command, so he jogged up to her.  \n\\\u003eShe squatted down and rubbed his head and said cutesy things to him.  \n\\\u003eIn any case at least she was really happy. 'Maybe I'll get more bacon with dinner' he thought.  \n\\\u003eAnon was briefly mad at himself.  \n\\\u003eDoing dumb tricks for bacon? Is that what his life had become?  \n\\\u003eOn the other hand, isn't that what his old job was? Just a series of dumb tricks for bacon, except with bills?  \n\\\u003eAs Anon was distracted by his philosophical conundrum Red moved her hand behind his legs.  \nIn a swift motion Hannah bent his knees with one hand and pressed down on his shoulder with the other.  \n\"SIT\" she said to the confused looking human.  \n\\\u003eBeing forced into a squat like that was very disorienting.  \n\\\u003eEspecially with the uncomfortable felling the tall grass was producing on his 'undercarriage'.  \n\\\u003eRed let him go and he stood back up.  \n\\\u003eShe repeated the command and Anon assumed the position.  \n\\\u003eDoing squats reminded him that it had been a few days since he got to work out.  \n\\\u003eThe kennel, for all its faults, had provided him with an abundance of alone time.  \n\\\u003eOnce Red was done heaping praise on him she lead him back into the house.  \n\\\u003eShe still had bags of stuff from yesterdays shopping excursion on the kitchen table.  \n\\\u003eFrom the pet shop bag she got out a package of some kind of human treat.  \n\\\u003eShe gave the squat command again and Anon obliged, after which she leaned down and gave him his reward.  \n\\\u003eIt was like jerky almost. Not the good stuff, but still much better than kibble.  \n\\\u003eRed was walking to the computer room, when she stopped and looked down at Anon quizzically.  \n\\\u003eShe sat down on the floor of the hallway and grabbed Anon's shoulders.  \n\\\u003eHe was sort of forced to lay down on the floor.  \n\\\u003eShe said something, but it sounded more like talking to herself than a command.  \n\"I wonder if Susan was just fucking with me...\" Hannah said.  \nHannah assumed a push-up position.  \nShe was able to do a few, but quickly realized a couple things.  \nFirst, this tank top was in no way ideal for exercise.  \nSecondly that she was hopelessly out of shape.  \n\\\u003eAnon was bemusedly watching his owner pound out some push-ups with abysmal form.  \n\\\u003eThough he rather enjoyed the show the tank top was producing.  \n\\\u003eShe quickly quit and just looked at him with that puzzled expression again.  \n\\\u003eIt was like she was expecting something...  \n\\\u003eShit, did she know about him working out?  \n\\\u003eDid the kennel people know? Did they tell Red?  \n\\\u003eAnon had to decide quick.  \n\\\u003eHe could either disappoint and confuse her or do what she was obviously trying to get him to do.  \nHannah pulled herself up to her knees, maybe Susan made the exercise stuff up?  \nShe was about to stand up when Weirdo started doing his push-ups.  \nHer jaw dropped, she wanted to get a video of it but her phone was back in the living room.  \nInstead she just watched, giggling to herself.  \n'Man, he can do a lot' she thought as Weirdo kept going.  \nIt was amazing for her to see because humans didn't have fur.  \nSo she could see all his muscles working.  \nThe tension in his back and legs, the flexing of his arms...  \n\"Lets not focus on that, or I'll be the weirdo' she thought to herself.  \n\\\u003eAnon wasn't counting but he figured that was enough to make the point.  \n\\\u003eHe stood up to find Red sitting on her knees.  \n\\\u003eHer hands were over her mouth, unable to hide her huge smile.  \n\\\u003eShe clapped her hands cheerfully and pulled Anon into another one of her bear hugs.  \n\\\u003eA happy owner was better than the alternative.  \n\\\u003eAt least now he might be able to get some workouts in without wasting alone time on it.  \n\\\u003eRed's embrace lingered a bit longer than either of them were expecting.  \n\\\u003eA ringing alarm from the living room punctuated the silence.  \n\\\u003eRed stood up and fetched her phone.  \n\\\u003eAnon followed her as she walked into her computer room.  \n\\\u003eShe picked up a black hoodie that was laying across her chair.  \n\\\u003eThere was a graphic on the top right of a cartoon red panda at a keyboard.  \n\\\u003eAnon watched as she got a variety of programs up and running.  \n\\\u003eShe put on a headset, which was oddly shaped for animal people ears.  \n\\\u003eAdjusting her webcam she began talking into it.  \n\\\u003eSuddenly her voice and mannerisms took a serious uptick in energy and volume.  \n\\\u003eShe turned to Anon and picked him up.  \n\"Everyone say hello to my new human!!!\"  \n\"His name is Weirdo and hes my little cuddle bug!\"  \n\\\u003eAnon was pulled into another tight hug and his face and neck showered with kisses.  \n\\\u003eHe was unceremoniously plopped down on the floor.  \n\\\u003eOn one screen she was running a game that was loading up.  \n\\\u003eOn the other was a web browser with a copy of the first and her webcam feed in the lower left.  \n\\\u003eAnon left the room chuckling to himself.  \n\\\u003eShe was a streamer. She plays video games for a living.  \n\\\u003eAfter the hilarity of the situation wore off, his analytical side started taking over.  \n\\\u003eThis meant she was going to be home a lot more than he hoped.  \n\\\u003eBut he wouldn't be dragged anywhere out of the home.  \n\\\u003eAlso she would have to be in front of the camera for a while.  \n\\\u003eIt was far from the ideal but he could make do with pseudo-alone time.  \n\\\u003eAnon went to the living room.  \n\\\u003eHe might as well get a workout in since he was already warmed up.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 8: The Party  \n  \n\\\u003eIt had been almost three weeks since Red took Anon home.  \n\\\u003eRed's streaming time became his workout time.  \n\\\u003eIt was too risky to do anything other than that while she was in the house.  \n\\\u003eAt first she took him everywhere, even on ten minute errands around town.  \n\\\u003eHis only alone time was in the early hours of the morning before she woke up.  \n\\\u003eHe was able to get into the closets and dressers to find stuff that might be useful.  \n\\\u003eHe took a pen and notebook from her old college supplies and kept them under the frame of her bed.  \n\\\u003eWhat little time he had to himself he used to write down words he picked up off labels or television.  \n\\\u003eBut he was making slow progress until the end of the first week.  \n\\\u003eThat night she took Anon out to a 'human-friendly' bar where she met up with friends.  \n\\\u003eThe place was loud and crowded.  \n\\\u003eWorst of all he found interacting with the other humans extremely disturbing.  \n\\\u003eAnon stayed very close to Red to avoid having to deal with any of them.   \n\\\u003eHe got the impression that she left early, but was glad to be out of there.  \n\\\u003eUnbeknownst to him, she mistakenly thought he had some kind of anxiety around crowds.  \n\\\u003eAfter that Red left Anon at home more often in order to avoid stressing him out.  \n\\\u003eHis progress rapidly increased after that.  \n\\\u003eLike everything else in this world the language was alien, but not too alien.  \n\\\u003eSoon he was picking out roots of words and building a very large vocabulary.  \n\\\u003eAfter the second week he felt safe in using the computer.  \n\\\u003eOnly when she was out of the house though, that damn mechanical keyboard was too loud otherwise.  \n\\\u003eAnon was always careful to delete his history and never mess with any of her tabs.  \n\\\u003eIt was risky, but it was simply too useful for looking things up to ignore.  \n\\\u003eThe internet informed him that humans don't have the same hearing range as the animal people.   \n\\\u003eThat explained why the reading and writing was coming along so well yet the spoken language was so hard.  \n\\\u003eAside from the commands she had directly taught him he could not successfully match what he heard to what he read.  \n\\\u003eAnon learned a lot about his owner.  \n\\\u003eHe learned that she was 23. That she had an art degree, but started out pre-med.   \n\\\u003eHe learned that she made an embarrassingly large amount of money streaming.  \n\\\u003eBut she had only been doing it for the last year and a half, and appeared to live pretty frugally.  \n\\\u003eHe also learned that she named him \"Strange\", or some variation of that.   \n\\\u003eWithout being able to pair sounds he found names much harder to translate.  \n\\\u003eSo even though he knew her name, to him she was still just Red. \u0026nbsp;  \n\\\u003eHe had clearly lucked out on getting adopted by her.  \n\\\u003eFrom what he could tell via the internet she was a very kind human owner.   \n\\\u003eKind enough that Anon was beginning to feel guilty about the situation he was in.   \n\\\u003eHe was after all only pretending to be a pet.   \n\\\u003eHe shared her house, her food, her bed...  \n\\\u003eNow that he had the option of communication, everything could change if he wanted it to.  \n\\\u003eOf course he was also painfully aware of how his situation could change for the worse.  \n\\\u003eThe risk of a negative reaction outweighed any benefit to be gained for the time being.  \n\\\u003eBut the longer he kept his secrets the more he felt a negative reaction was likely to occur.  \n\\\u003eAnon had put such thoughts on hold today because Red was a flurry of activity.  \n\\\u003eShe had spent the morning mowing the back yard.   \n\\\u003eWhich had been neglected long enough to make it unreasonably difficult.   \n\\\u003eEvery inch of the house was getting cleaned, even the permanently messy bedroom.   \n\\\u003eThere was one gut wrenching moment where she was reaching under the bed for more clothes.  \n\\\u003eAnon feared she might accidentally discover his notes.   \n\\\u003eLuckily all she found was socks.   \n\\\u003eAs the afternoon approached she went out and came back with several loads of groceries.  \n\\\u003eAnon browsed through the kitchen as she was filling a cooler with ice and beer.   \n\\\u003eVeggie tray, chips, dip, some of those pre-made kebabs from the butcher...  \n\\\u003eClearly a party of some kind was underway.  \n\\\u003eHopefully no one would bring over other humans.  \n\\\u003eAside from that he was kind of looking forward to it.  \n\\\u003eAs Red was setting some of the food out on the kitchen table there was a knock on the door.   \n\\\u003eAnon followed Red as she went to answer it.   \nHannah wondered who would be at the door.  \nShe had invited people over at seven but she never expected any of her friends to be on time.  \n\"Hey!\" said Susan as Hannah opened the door.  \n\\\u003eRed exchanged greetings with the wolf girl from the kennel as Anon stood back.   \n\\\u003eEventually Red welcomed her into the house and she approached Anon.  \n\\\u003eSquatting down the wolf girl rubbed his head with both paws.  \n\\\u003eShe was a bit more hands on than she had been at the kennel, but part of him was glad to see her all the same.  \n\"So, Weirdos been doing well then? He looks healthy.\" Susan said.  \n\"Yeah, he's healthier than I am.\" Hannah said from the kitchen.   \n\"Pushing that stupid mower nearly killed me today.\"   \nSusan picked Weirdo up and carried him into the kitchen scratching his chest and belly.  \n\\\u003eAnon tried not to freak out as the wolf casually held him close to her chest.  \n\\\u003eOne massive paw cradled his buttocks.   \n\\\u003eThe other was distractedly scratching his chest. \u0026nbsp;  \n\"See, I could never hold him like that\" Hannah said.  \n\"Weirdo is a bit heavier than most\" Susan said dropping the human back to the floor.  \n\"I don't think I would want to hold him like that for long\" she said with a chuckle.  \n\"He doesn't seem too impressed with it, either\" Hannah said laughing at Weirdos confused look.  \n\"I hope hes going to be all right with all the people over\" she said growing concerned.  \nShe started telling Susan about how on edge Weirdo got at the bar a couple weeks ago.  \n\\\u003eAnon was getting self-conscious as the two girls clearly talked about him.  \n\\\u003eAs much as he had learned the frustration of not understanding spoken language still got to him.  \n\\\u003eEventually the conversation shifted and Anon wandered back to the living room.  \n\\\u003eAnother car was pulling into the driveway.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 9: The Incident  \n  \n\\\u003eGuests arrived over the next two hours.  \n\\\u003eAnon recognized some of them from the head shop.  \n\\\u003eWith Reds encouraging many of the guests ventured to pat him on the head.  \n\\\u003eA few guests brought folding chairs and migrated outside as the sun started to set.  \n\\\u003eThe fire pit was moved out to the grass and a chubby bear guy started a fire in it.  \n\\\u003eWith all the eating going on lots of people tried to sneak Anon food.  \n\\\u003eOr expected him to eat dropped stuff off the floor.  \n\\\u003eHe mostly just ignored the offerings, it was never the good stuff anyways.  \n\\\u003eUntil Red gave him a bacon wrapped shrimp that someone had brought to the party.  \n\\\u003eEveryone in the kitchen seemed very amused watching him eat it.  \n\\\u003eAnon didn't give a shit, it was the best tasting thing he had had in a while.  \n\\\u003eHe was always tempted to take food from the pantry or fridge.  \n\\\u003eBut it wasn't something he ever wanted to get caught doing, so treats were few and far between.  \n\\\u003eAs the party wore on Anon walked around to the different groups of people.  \n\\\u003eThe inability to understand the conversations made the party more boring than what he hoped for.  \n\\\u003eHe never stuck around any one group for long.  \n\\\u003eEventually Anon found himself in the living room.  \n\\\u003eHe was sitting on the couch next to wolf girl.  \n\\\u003eShe and some of the other guests were playing a party game on one of the consoles.  \n\\\u003eAll in all the guests seemed to be having a pretty good time.  \n\\\u003eRed was having fun as well.  \n\\\u003eAs it got later in the night many of the guests began to head home.  \n\\\u003eWolf girl gave Anon a very enthusiastic goodbye.  \n\\\u003eRed was outside with a few friends sitting around the dwindling firelight.  \n\\\u003eSome of the head shop folks were in the living room.  \n\\\u003eThey were getting high and polishing off the rest of the snacks.  \n\\\u003eAnon was about to leave the room and check on Red when an uproar came from the group.  \n\\\u003eSomeone had apparently said something very funny because they were all rolling with laughter.  \n\\\u003eExcept for one guy, the goat dude from the shop, he wasn't laughing.  \n\\\u003eHe was grasping at his throat...  \n\\\u003eHis friends were starting to grow concerned as well.  \n\\\u003eBut they weren't moving fast enough.  \n\\\u003e\"These idiots are going to watch their friend choke to death\" Anon thought.  \n\\\u003eHe ran down the hall.  \nAlex, the otter girl, was starting to panic \"Shawn are you OK?\"  \n\"Fuck what do we do?\" said someone else.  \n\"Go get Hannah! She was like, a nurse, or something\" said Alex.  \nNo one moved, except for Shawn who fell back into his chair.  \n\"Shit!\" exclaimed Alex, rushing out of the room herself.  \n\\\u003eRed had a little first aid book in her closet with the old college stuff.  \n\\\u003eAnon found it pretty quickly.  \n\\\u003eHe hoped he could just toss it in the room.  \n\\\u003eMaybe they would be too distracted to notice where it came from.  \n\\\u003eDespite being essentially a pocket guide it was about as hefty as a good size textbook.  \n\\\u003eAnon stood at the edge of the hall and underhand tossed it into the living room.  \n\\\u003eIt landed flat, with a loud slap, but proceeded to slide across the hardwood floor under the couch.  \n\\\u003eEveryone turned around, but not towards the direction of the book.  \n\\\u003eRed had just walked into the room with the otter girl.  \nHannah was jogging through the kitchen, Alex said something about an emergency.  \nAs she got to the living room she was momentarily distracted by something loud landing on the floor.  \nIt slid under the couch and she glanced down the hallway where it came from.  \nShe saw Weirdo standing there.  \n\"What do we do?\" Said Alex, snapping Hannah back to the issue at hand.  \n\\\u003eRed made eye contact with Anon and his heart about stopped.  \n\\\u003eIf she saw the book at all she put it out of mind to respond to the choking goat.  \n\\\u003eShe organized the stoners into picking him up and preforming the Heimlich maneuver.  \n\\\u003eAfter a few seconds of struggling the offending wad of raw cookie dough was dislodged.  \n\\\u003eEveryone was relieved, goat guy was busy vomiting into a trash can, but he would be all right.  \n\\\u003eAnon was trying to stay calm, he really needed to get that book back.  \n\\\u003eThat was proving to be damn near impossible since this was now the most active room in the house.  \n\\\u003eEveryone in the living room got sobered up by the emergency.  \n\\\u003eThe few stragglers in the back yard were coming in to find out what happened.  \n\\\u003eAnon hoped that everyone would disperse.  \n\\\u003eMaybe then he would get an opportunity to hide the book.  \n\\\u003eInstead the lateness of the hour combined with the choking incident was encouraging people to leave.  \n\\\u003eIn pairs and small groups the guests were saying their goodbyes.  \n\\\u003eThe last two left were the otter girl and the goat who was drinking a glass of water.  \n\\\u003eAfter he finished he gave Red a huge hug, then left with the girl.  \n\\\u003eAnon had stayed next to Red the whole time.  \n\\\u003eOnce the door was closed she let out a huge sigh.  \nHannah walked back over to the couch and slumped down in the middle of it.  \nWeirdo jumped up beside her.  \n\"Leave it to Shawn to end the night on a crazy note\" she said idly scratching the humans head.  \nShe looked over at the garbage can he had been using.  \n'Better put that outside before it stinks up the whole house' she thought.  \nShe set it out on the patio.  \nTurning back to the kitchen, she realized the last thing she wanted to do was clean.  \nIt had been a long day, she resolved to let it all go til morning.  \n\\\u003eAnon watched her, waiting for her to be distracted long enough to go for the book.  \n\\\u003eUnfortunately it looked like she was too tired to do much of anything.  \n\\\u003eShe walked towards the bedroom and gave Anon the 'come' command.  \n\\\u003eAt this point it was routine for him to get in the bed while she brushed her teeth.  \n\\\u003eAnon was relieved, he would be able to get the book in the morning before she woke up.  \n\\\u003eHe ran to the bedroom ahead of her.  \nAs Hannah was brushing her teeth she noticed she left all the lights on in the living room.  \nThe TV was still on and playing the title screen for a game that had been abandoned earlier in the night.  \nThe remote wasn't on the coffee table, so she walked around the sofa and began digging in the cushions.  \nIt wasn't in the couch. Annoyed, she chewed on the toothbrush while looking around the room.  \nThere was a dim memory of something sliding across the floor when everyone was panicking about Shawn.  \nShe got down on her hands and knees and began to feel around.  \nIt wasn't a remote but there was something under there that shouldn't be.  \nShe sat back up and stared in confusion at her copy of \"First Aid: A Quick Reference Guide\"  \nA sequence of events slowly began to assemble themselves in her mind.  \n\\\u003eIf Anon had better hearing he might have recognized the sound of a toothbrush hitting the floor.  \n\\\u003eAs it is, he only managed to hear what followed, a series of loud angry animal-person sized footsteps.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 10: In the Doghouse  \n  \n\\\u003eRed's shadow fell over Anon.  \n\\\u003eHe saw that dreaded book in her hand.  \n\\\u003e'Don't look at it.' he reminded himself.  \n\\\u003e'I shouldn't even recognize what a book is.'  \n\\\u003ePlaying dumb was his only option, and he had been less than expert at that in the past.  \n\\\u003eBack lit as she was by the hallway it was hard for Anon to read her expression as she spoke.  \n\"What the hell is this doing under the couch?\" Hannah said to Weirdo.  \nThe human was already wrapped up in some sheets, but he was giving her his full attention now.  \nShe held up the book by a corner \"Did you get this out of the closet?\"  \n\\\u003eAnon sat upright.  \n\\\u003eHe glanced at the book as she moved it, but was careful to bring his gaze back to her face.  \nHannah narrowed her eyes and approached the human.  \nShe bent down and met him eye to eye.  \nHer ears pressed back as she focused on him.  \nShe brought her hand up to his chin and held him tight as she put the book directly in front of him.  \n\\\u003eAnon broke out in a cold sweat.  \n\"You know what this is\" Hannah whispered to Weirdo.  \nEven as she said it she wasn't sure she believed it.  \n\"That's why you brought it to the living room, for Shawn.\"  \n\\\u003eAnon cautiously put up his hands on her wrist.  \n\\\u003eHe lowered the book to look her in the face again.  \n\\\u003e'Just pretend this is some game' he thought hoping her guard would drop soon.  \nHannah slowly shook her head.  \n\"No, this is too weird\" she said sighing \"even for you.\"  \n\"And I'm too tired to think this through right now.\"  \nShe stood up.  \n\\\u003eEven from the elevated position of the bed it was hard for Anon not to be intimidated by her size.  \n\\\u003eEspecially with that sour look on her face.  \nHannah tossed the book on her nightstand.  \nShe looked back at the human.  \nStill feeling generally creeped out by the whole situation she made up her mind.  \nThe last thing she wanted to do right now was cuddle up with him and go to sleep.  \n\\\u003eRed grabbed Anon by the forearm, a bit tighter than he expected.  \n\\\u003eShe turned around and started walking.  \n\\\u003eAnon struggled to get off the bed and jogged along side her.  \n\\\u003eAnon was genuinely afraid of his owner for the first time.  \n\\\u003eHe had no idea what she was planning to do, and was completely at her mercy.  \n\\\u003eShe led him to the living room.  \n\\\u003eHe was practically tossed onto the sofa.  \n\\\u003eAs he rolled around to orient himself Red walked over to the TV.  \n\\\u003eShe angrily searched for the button on the side and turned it off.  \n\\\u003eShe pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa and tossed it over Anon.  \n\\\u003eAfter he got out from under it she pointed at him and firmly stated the \"stay\" command.  \n\\\u003eShe stomped down the hallway and shut her bedroom door forcefully.  \n\\\u003eAnon was alone in the dark.  \n\\\u003eAfter several long quiet minutes he rolled over and wrapped himself in the blanket.  \n\\\u003eReplaying the events of the night over in his head he struggled to go to sleep.  \n\\\u003eHe wasn't sure he had slept at all as the morning light pierced through the windows.  \n\\\u003eHe got up and stood at the front door.  \n\\\u003eSince he had learned to read he had contemplated going on his own from time to time.  \n\\\u003eBut he always failed to put a reasonable plan together.  \n\\\u003eBorrow a few tools, and head off to the woods, naked and alone?  \n\\\u003eAnd for what purpose? If the animal people were cruel or malicious there might be something to gain there.  \n\\\u003eBut the life of a suburban pet was hardly worth fleeing from.  \n\\\u003eHe also struggled with the fact that he felt indebted to Red at this point.  \n\\\u003eShe had treated him well, even if she didn't know the extent to which he was capable of appreciating it.  \n\\\u003eBy his reckoning he had another hour or two before she woke up.  \n\\\u003eHe grabbed a spare piece of paper and began to write at the coffee table.  \n\\\u003eHe described the world he came from, how he found himself in the kennel, how he learned the language.  \n\\\u003eHe knew he was making lots of errors, but hoped the gist of the letter would come through regardless.  \n\\\u003eIn his conclusion he thanked her for opening her home to him, and apologized for deceiving her for so long.  \n\\\u003eAnon took his letter into the kitchen and set it at Red's usual seat.  \n\\\u003eHe cleared the table from all the cups and discarded plates from last nights party.  \n\\\u003eThere was a clean dishtowel hanging from the handle of the oven that he took down and wrapped around his waste.  \n\\\u003eWith his improvised apron on he opened the fridge and looked for the bacon.  \nHannah had a rough night of sleep.  \nThe first thing she saw as she opened her eyes was the book on the nightstand.  \nShe had sort of hoped the whole thing had been some weird nightmare brought on by too much partying.  \nShe breathed in heavily and rolled over.  \nHer plan to go back to sleep was interrupted by the sudden awareness of what she smelled.  \nShe got up and quickly headed towards the kitchen.  \nAs she approached the living room she looked for Weirdo.  \nNot seeing him on the couch she began to have really bizarre but unavoidable concerns about who was cooking.  \nShe rounded the corner and found him.  \nHe was on a footstool, in front of the oven, with the comically large spatula in his hand scrambling an egg.  \n\\\u003eAnon heard Red coming down the hallway.  \n\\\u003eOnce she stopped in the doorway he turned to greet her.  \n\\\u003eThe shocked look on her face was priceless.  \n\\\u003eHe gave her a slight smile and a head nod, not really having thought of a proper greeting for this scenario.  \n\\\u003eHe pointed the spatula at his letter on the table, and returned his attention to the frying pan.  \nHannah was pulled out of her trance by the brief gesture.  \nShe approached the single piece of stationary that was sitting on the newly cleared table.  \nAs she read the tiny writing she sank into her chair.  \nShe was so enthralled by its contents she didn't notice Weirdo place a plate in front of her.  \nBy the time she had absorbed what was written down he was standing next to her.  \nHe was eating a single strip of bacon and small pile of egg scramble off a second plate.  \n\\\u003eAnon intended to savor what might be his last meal in this house.  \n\\\u003eHe hoped Red wasn't too shocked to let her food go cold.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 11: Telephone Game  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon collected his plate and utensils and put them in the sink.  \n\\\u003eHe moved the footstool so that he could start washing dishes.  \n\\\u003eHe gathered up a few of the plates and glasses leftover from the party.  \n\\\u003eGiven the over sized nature of everything it was an oddly difficult task.  \n\\\u003eHe was so distracted that Red had to repeat herself to get his attention.  \n\"So can you understand me?\" Hannah asked a bit louder.  \nWeirdo turned off the water and looked at her.  \nHe pointed to his ears and shook his head.  \nThen he pointed to his mouth and shook his head.  \nHolding one hand flat he mimed writing on it with an imaginary pen then nodded.  \nHannah flipped over the letter in front of her and grabbed the nearby pen.  \n\\\u003eAnon watched her write as he dried his hands on his towel / apron.  \n\\\u003eHe hopped down from the stool and walked over to the table.  \n\\\u003eHe pulled out a chair and climbed up on it.  \n\\\u003eSitting on his knees his arms rested on the table and he was able to look at what she was writing.  \n\\\u003eRed spun the paper around and he read her question.  \n\\\u003e\"How long have you been...\" and then a word he didn't recognize.  \n\\\u003eHe pointed to it and looked at her in a way that indicated he didn't understand.  \nHannah thought 'conscious' may have been the wrong word to use anyways.  \nShe quickly wrote 'smart' next to it, hoping that would suffice.  \n\\\u003eAnon gestured for her to give him the pen.  \n\\\u003eHe wrote \"always smart\" underneath her question.  \n\\\u003eThen he decided to clarify \"but only reading and writing for 1 or 2 weeks.\"  \n\"So you've just been pretending to be a pet the whole time?\" Hannah wrote.  \n\\\u003e\"Had no choice\" Anon responded.  \n\"You should have told me as soon as you could\" she wrote.  \n\\\u003e\"Didn't know if it was safe.\"  \nHannah felt slightly wounded by the suggestion.  \n\"What made you think I would ever do anything to hurt you?\"  \n\\\u003eAnon quickly wrote \"Not you, personally.\"  \n\\\u003e\"You might tell others or not take me seriously.\"  \n\\\u003e\"Only been here a month, trust takes longer.\"  \nHannah was annoyed by that comment.  \n\"You didn't need trust to sleep next to me or see me naked.\"  \n\\\u003e\"Trust as an owner different from trust as a friend.\"  \n\\\u003e\"I want to be friends. That takes more time than we've had.\"  \n\\\u003eAnon didn't want this to turn into an argument but he felt the need to make one last point.  \n\\\u003e\"I'm always naked. Consider us even.\"  \nHannah furrowed her brow.  \nEven though she still felt a small violation of privacy, she had to admit he had a point.  \nWeirdo had basically been forced to endure every indignity of a normal human pet for a month.  \nShe thought back to all the times she had put him on a leash and paraded him through town nude.  \nCertainly not something she would have enjoyed if the situations were reversed.  \nShe looked at him as he waited for her to write another question.  \n\\\u003eShe wrote quickly.  \n\\\u003eShe got up from the table as Anon read \"I need to think about this. I'll be back soon.\"  \n\\\u003eGrabbing her hoodie, phone, wallet, and keys she walked out the front door.  \n\\\u003eHe heard the car start and quickly drive away.  \n\\\u003eShe hadn't even touched her breakfast.  \n\\\u003eFor the next few hours he cleaned up from the party to distract himself.  \n\\\u003eThe longer she was gone the more stressed out he was getting.  \n\\\u003eOnce he ran out of things to clean, the anxiety really overtook him.  \n\\\u003eNormally he would work out or read or get on the computer while she was out of the house.  \n\\\u003eBut knowing that when she came back their relationship would be changed forever all he could do was sit on the couch.  \n\\\u003eHe didn't know how long he had been staring at the blank TV when he heard her car pull in.  \n\\\u003eHis usual excitement at seeing her come back was replaced with uncertainty and dread.  \n\\\u003eRed walked in holding a few bags.  \n\\\u003eShe smiled at him on the couch.  \nHannah's biggest worry evaporated.  \nIt had occurred to her, after driving around for a while, that he might take her absence as an opportunity to run away.  \nShe was genuinely glad that he had waited for her to get back.  \nShe sat next to him on the couch, though she didn't scoop him up or pull him to her like she typically did.  \n\\\u003eRed was digging through the bags next to her.  \n\\\u003eFirst she pulled out a charging cable and set it on the coffee table.  \n\\\u003eSecondly she got out a phone. It was one of those smaller cheaper ones that have the prepaid plans.  \n\\\u003eShe handed it to Anon. It was somewhere between a large smartphone and a small tablet in his hands.  \n\\\u003eShe typed something into her own phone, as he examined his.  \n\\\u003eAnon's phone dinged and he received a message.  \n\\\u003e[I think texting will be easier than writing letters.]  \n\\\u003eAnon looked up at her and smiled.  \n[Thank you very much] Weirdo replied.  \n[I have something else.] Hannah typed before digging into her other bag.  \n\\\u003eRed pulled out a few pairs of white cotton shorts.  \n\\\u003eShe laid them out on the coffee table.  \n\\\u003eAnon inspected the different sizes and picked up one that looked like it would fit.  \n\\\u003eHe read another message from Red.  \n\\\u003e[I can get more of whatever fits. They're kid sizes. I wasn't sure if you wanted shirts too or not.]  \n\\\u003eAnon pulled a pair on and tied the draw string.  \n\\\u003eThey were a little long on his thighs for shorts but it fit as well as some of his old workout clothes did.  \n\\\u003e[These are great. This is all I really need for in the house.]  \n[You shouldn't wear anything in public. Humans hate having clothes put on them unless its really cold.]  \n[It's not a good idea to wear them if people come over to the house either.]  \n\\\u003e[In case of company, get naked. Understood.]  \n\\\u003eRed laughed at that.  \n\\\u003eIt was a good sign that the very serious mood everyone was in had finally broken.  \n\\\u003eShe looked down at him and her smile faded slightly.  \n[You don't have to wear the collar around the house. I bet it feels demeaning.]  \n\\\u003eAnon held the little bronze tag resting at his collar bone between his fingers.  \n\\\u003eIt was the first thing Red had given him after bringing him to her home.  \n\\\u003e[I don't notice it anymore, one less thing to worry about if I just leave it on.]  \n\\\u003eThey continued to chat for a while.  \n\\\u003eAs soon as night came the lack of sleep from the previous day had finally caught up to them.  \n\\\u003eAnon told Red that he would sleep on the couch.  \n\\\u003eShe agreed that was probably best for the time being  \n\\\u003eBut she promised to help him get a better sleeping situation soon.  \n\\\u003eHe thanked her for everything.  \n\\\u003eIt was awkward. He wanted to give her a hug, or some physical display of gratitude.  \n\\\u003eIt would have been nothing to do that a day ago, but now everything felt so different. \u0026nbsp;  \nHannah was tempted to pat the human on his head, like she had done so many times before.  \nShe couldn't bring herself to do it now, after having 'talked' to him for so many hours.  \nNot really knowing what else to do, she walked out of the living room as Weirdo made a place to sleep on the couch.  \n\\\u003eRed went to bed and Anon plugged his phone into the charger.  \n\\\u003eHe got comfortable on the couch as she turned off the lights in the hall and closed the door to her bedroom.  \nHannah laid in bed staring at the ceiling.  \nShe spent a lot of time going over the things she and Weirdo talked about.  \nShe rolled over, struggling to get comfortable in the summer night air.  \nAs tired as she was it was impossible for her eyes to close.  \nAll she could think about was how crazy Weirdos situation was.  \nShe remembered the kennel and thought how awful it would feel to be locked in there for five days.  \nShe thought about how every person he encountered was a huge monster to him.  \nHow lonely he must have been not able to talk to anyone.  \n\\\u003eAnon was almost asleep.  \n\\\u003eHe heard a door open and Red's footsteps in the hall.  \n\\\u003eHe groggily looked over the back of the couch to find her already standing there.  \n\\\u003eShe reached down and picked him up.  \n\\\u003eThe blanket fell back to the couch as she cradled him with both arms.  \n\\\u003eHe wrapped his arm around her neck in an attempt to stabilize himself.  \n\\\u003eShe took him back to the bedroom.  \nHannah got herself back into bed.  \nShe pulled Weirdo close to her and sighed heavily.  \n\"This doesn't feel weird at all\" she said under her breath.  \n\\\u003eAnon drifted off to sleep in his usual position.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 12: Chit Chat   \n  \n\\\u003eAnon awoke wrapped in Red's arms.  \n\\\u003eShe was fast asleep as usual.  \n\\\u003eAt this point he was well accustomed to squirreling out of her embrace in the early morning.  \n\\\u003eBut there wasn't pressure to get anything done today.  \n\\\u003eInstead he decided to lay in and wait for her to get up.  \n\\\u003eIn a lot of ways he had been treating 'being the pet' and keeping his secrets like a new job.  \n\\\u003eNow that none of that was a priority it was like getting his first day off in a month.  \n\\\u003eHe was very relieved for the secret to be out, especially considering that Red took it so well.  \n\\\u003eAs Anon was contemplating his gratitude, the arm around him hugged him tight.  \nHannah rolled onto her back, dragging Weirdo with her.  \n\"Morn~ing\" she said through a yawn.  \nShe hugged the human tighter, excited at the prospect of asking him all kinds of questions.  \n\\\u003eAnon was pressed into his owners soft belly.  \n\\\u003eHer hands firmly grasped his shoulders, such that he couldn't raise his upper arms.  \n\\\u003eHe pushed against her elbows as best he could, and pulled himself into a sitting position next to her.  \n\\\u003eShe giggled as he worked his way out of her grasp.  \nHannah sat up and patted Weirdo on his head.  \nShe got out of bed and stretched.  \nHe was already in the living room when she entered the hall.  \n\\\u003eAnon grabbed his freshly charged phone as well as Red's much larger one from the coffee table.  \n\\\u003eHe followed her into the kitchen placing her phone on the table.  \n\\\u003eRed was searching the fridge.  \n\\\u003eAnon texted her [good morning]  \nHannah replied in kind to the text, still amazed that she was 'talking' to her human.  \nShe started making breakfast for the both of them.  \n\\\u003eAnon was getting out plates and utensils.  \n\\\u003eIt didn't take him very long so he played around with his phone settings while waiting on Red to finish.  \n\\\u003eShe served both of them and asked Anon [Did you like the human food?]  \n\\\u003eHe laughed at the question and decided to be diplomatic [It was food and it was free. I can't complain]  \n[Well you won't have to eat it anymore, did you cook a lot at home?]  \n\\\u003e[Not really, just bachelor meals mostly.]  \n[Oh, you didn't have a girlfriend?] she asked unable to hide a mischievous grin.  \n\\\u003eAnon thought about the question for a minute, focusing on chewing to buy time.  \n\\\u003eHe had never been an open book, and felt very odd to be sharing so much.  \n\\\u003eBut he had to concede that even if it made him uncomfortable it was more than fair.  \n\\\u003eHe already knew so much about Red; she was entitled to have her questions answered.  \n\\\u003e[Didn't have a girlfriend. I had to move after college for a job.]  \n\\\u003e[I was mostly working on my career and didn't have much of a social life.]  \n[What did you do for a job?] Hannah asked genuinely intrigued.  \nThe fact that her human pet had a whole life before meeting her was beginning to sink in.  \nFriends, family, hobbies, aspirations, he even went to college apparently.  \nQuestions about all of these things were forming faster than she could ask them.  \n\\\u003eAnon was taking time with his responses as he was having to look up words as he went.  \n\\\u003eAn actual conversation was stressing the limits of his vocabulary.  \n\\\u003e[I worked at a bank, as a Financial Consultant. Retirement planning, investing, that sort of thing.]  \nHannah stopped chewing her food as she read the text.  \n[For real?]  \n\\\u003e[Yes, why?]  \n[I thought maybe you were like a personal trainer or something...]  \n\\\u003e[Just because I work out?]  \nHannah hated to admit that that was the extent to which she had thought about it.  \n[It's just odd to think of humans doing bank stuff]  \n\\\u003eRed's eyes lit up and she was excitedly typing something.  \n\\\u003e[OMG, DID YOU WEAR A SUIT?] was what Anon read as she watched him anticipating his response.  \n\\\u003e[Yeah, nothing fancy, but it was a bank.]  \nHannah couldn't help but giggle.  \nThe thought of her human in a suit was too cute.  \n[That settles it, I've got to get you a suit now :)] she texted.  \n\\\u003e[I wasn't a fan of suits, it was just required for the job] he replied smiling.  \n\\\u003eAnon was starting to think about things from her perspective. \u0026nbsp;  \n\\\u003eA human in a suit here is just a funny costume on a reluctant pet.  \nHannah collected herself [You can't talk yourself out of this]  \n[At some point I have to get you in a suit and take lots of photos]  \nWeirdo was just wearing a sheepish grin.  \n[I bet you look good in a suit though] she added without much thought.  \n\\\u003eAnon wasn't sure how to take that compliment.  \n\\\u003eHe stared at his phone unable to think of anything to type.  \nHannah sipped her water nervously as she tried to think of something else to ask.  \nWeirdo was typing now and she watched her phone.  \n\\\u003e[Thanks, but you've spent plenty on me. I already feel like I've been taking advantage of your hospitality.]  \nHannah stood up and finished her message.  \n[I spoil my humans. We have to keep up appearances :P]  \nShe started clearing plates when she thought of something else to say.  \n[If you feel like paying me back you can help with my taxes or something. I hate doing that stuff.]  \nShe giggled at the thought of having a human accountant, in his little suit.  \n\\\u003eAnon wasn't sure how much of his knowledge would translate to this worlds finances.  \n\\\u003eTruthfully the best advice he could give would be to pay an expert to do the taxes for her.  \n\\\u003eBut that was a conversation for another time.  \n\\\u003eHe helped her clear plates from the table, which she left in the sink.  \n\\\u003eAnon was going to start washing the dishes when he heard Red give the \"come\" command over her shoulder.  \n\\\u003eShe was waiting for him in the living room.  \nHannah was already typing on the couch [Dishes can wait, I want to keep talking.]  \n[Is it rude for me to still use commands? Sorry if it was. I can stop.]  \n\\\u003eAnon stood in front of her.  \n\\\u003e[I don't mind. They're useful to get my attention and we can't both be on our phones for everything.]  \n\\\u003eOnce he finished typing Red picked him up and pulled him on the couch.  \n\\\u003e[I don't think I'll ever get used to being lifted off the ground though.]  \nHannah smiled [Well too bad, cause that's never going to stop.]  \nShe stopped teasing him when she had a realization.  \n[How come you understand commands but not anything else?]  \n\\\u003eAnon began to explain everything he had learned about human and animal people hearing.  \n\\\u003eThe commands they practiced were just a distinct noises to him.  \n\\\u003eBut his hearing wasn't adequate for deciphering the subtleties of language.  \nHannah was impressed that he knew so much and had learned it in such a short time.  \n[How do you figure all this out?] She asked.  \n\\\u003e[Internet]  \n[You used my computer?]  \n\\\u003e[Yeah, once I got some basic words down I could use a browser.]  \nIt seemed obvious now, since he was so comfortable using the phone, but she hadn't considered it.  \n[I didn't even notice she responded.]  \nShe felt more naive than anything.  \n\\\u003e[That was the idea.]  \n\\\u003e[I just used a dictionary and an encyclopedia.]  \n\\\u003e[I never knew how long you would be out of the house so I did everything as quickly as possible.]  \n\\\u003eAnon could tell she still wasn't quite satisfied with his answers.  \n\\\u003e[If it makes you feel any better, we wouldn't be talking if I hadn't gotten on the internet.]  \n\\\u003e[Now that I have the phone I won't use it anymore. Sorry.]  \n\\\u003e[Besides the keyboard is too big and too loud]  \n\\\u003eAnon smiled at her hoping that would lighten her up.  \nHannah gave a single dry laugh at that last comment.  \nShe scratched Weirdo's head.  \n[It's alright.]  \n\\\u003eAnon thought of something else to change the subject.  \n\\\u003e[You know? I'm kind of glad I accidentally used the toilet the first night I was here.]  \n[Why???] Hannah said laughing at the randomness of that statement.  \n\\\u003e[This would be so much more awkward if I had spent the last month shitting on the lawn.]  \nHannah was properly laughing now.  \n[Ok, that's enough for today. I need a bowl.]  \n[Do humans smoke weed?] she asked, amused at the thought of getting high with her 'pet'.  \n\\\u003e[Some do, I was never really into it.]  \n\\\u003eRed shrugged her shoulders and pulled her stash box across the coffee table.  \n\\\u003eShe opened it and yelled something, surprising Anon who wasn't paying attention.  \n\"Fuck, there it is!\" Hannah yelled yanking the remote triumphantly from the box.  \nShe turned on the TV and changed channels.  \nWeirdo tugged on her shirt sleeve. She looked back to see him holding up his phone.  \nHe had typed out [Subtitles?] and she nodded, picking up the remote.  \n\\\u003eRed turned on the closed captioning and started packing her bowl.  \n\\\u003eAnon might not like her shows but at least now he could understand them.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n----- 2020 updates begin here -----  \n----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 13: Time Skip  \n  \n\\\u003e3 months later.  \n\\\u003eAnon and Red established a comfortable routine.  \n\\\u003eHis language skills improved with having someone to talk to.  \n\\\u003eThey had both learned some simple sign language to avoid relying on phones.  \n\\\u003eShe gave him an older laptop of hers.  \n\\\u003eIt was good enough for surfing the internet.  \n\\\u003eAnon helped her manage her media accounts and emails for the streaming.  \n\\\u003eHe also helped manage her money and started an investing account for her.  \n\\\u003eRed tried to be more respectful of boundaries.  \n\\\u003eShe didn't take him out on the town like she used to.  \n\\\u003eOccasionally Anon would go along with her for a drive to get out of the house.  \n\\\u003eRed was hesitant to have friends over and force Anon to act like a pet.  \n\\\u003eAnon insisted she maintain her social life.  \n\\\u003eSo a few times a week she would have people over and he would play the part.  \n\\\u003eIt actually wasn't that bad from his perspective.  \n\\\u003eUsually he just cuddled up with her on the couch if they were hanging out in the living room.  \n\\\u003eCuddling in general had increased by a lot.  \n\\\u003eAnon wasn't \"allowed\" to get up and wander the house in the morning anymore.  \n\\\u003eThey would stay in bed till she got her hugs and nuzzling in.  \n\\\u003eAnon had become a somewhat regular appearance on her streams as well.  \n\\\u003eHe would sit in her lap and pretend not to watch the game.  \n\\\u003eApparently he was quiet popular with her chat.  \n\\\u003eThere was one incident that caused a brief panic for them.  \n\\\u003eWhile streaming Red asked Anon to get her a soda via text.  \n\\\u003eShe forgot to put her AFK screen up and Anon walked into the room and set the can on her desk.  \n\\\u003eEven though the stream only saw his hands pushing the soda into view they freaked out.  \n\\\u003eRed came up with a reasonable enough cover story.  \n\\\u003eThat she had tried to teach Weirdo to fetch a soda.  \n\\\u003eBut all he learned how to do was bring her a drink whenever he wanted attention.  \n\\\u003eShe made it sound like he just did it randomly.  \n\\\u003eIt should have been obvious that no one assumed her to be texting her human.  \n\\\u003eBut it made both of them much more conscious of how they were treating their situation.  \n\\\u003eAnd how unusual things that were now normal for them might appear to everyone else.  \n\\\u003eHe had grown accustomed to some casual nudity in the house when acting as a pet his first month.  \n\\\u003eAnon suspected that the fur of anthro people made them more casual about nudity in general.  \n\\\u003eThe levels of undress he saw on tv shows and the internet implied as much.  \n\\\u003ePlus why would anyone feel self conscious around their pets?  \n\\\u003eHe had expected a reversal of this once she found the truth out about him.  \n\\\u003eInstead Red had seemingly become more casual over the last few months.  \n\\\u003eAnon was not exactly disappointed about this.  \n\\\u003eStill he was not expecting the text he just received.  \n[want to take a shower?]  \n\\\u003eAnon stopped reading on his borrowed laptop and did a double take on the text.  \n\\\u003e[go ahead. I can wait to take one]  \n\\\u003eAnon assumed she was asking if the shower was free since he had just finished a workout.  \n[do you want to take a shower with me?]  \n\\\u003eAnon was thinking of how to answer as Red walked up behind him.  \nHannah leaned over the back of the couch to to look down at Weirdo.  \nSeeing him on her old laptop made her grin.  \n\\\u003eAnon looked up at his naked owner.  \n\\\u003eThe playful flicking of her tail told him she was in a mischievous mood.  \n[come on. you need a shower and I need help shampooing my tail :)]  \n\\\u003e[ok sure] he replied back, quiet unsure of his response.  \n\\\u003e\"great\" she signed him as she set down her phone.  \n\\\u003eAnon didn't get the opportunity to ask anything else.  \n\\\u003eAs soon as he removed the laptop from his lap she had scooped him up from behind.  \n\\\u003eAnon was still not used to this, despite its near daily occurrence.  \nHannah carried Weirdo the short distance to the bathroom.  \n\\\u003eAnon was used to cuddling and he was used to nudity.  \n\\\u003eBut naked cuddling was very new.  \n\\\u003eLuckily the trip was short enough that it only aroused his curiosity.  \n\\\u003eShe briefly hugged him close before setting him down on the floor.  \n\\\u003eAnon quickly removed his boxers and collar.  \n\\\u003eThey entered the shower and she handed Anon a shampoo for her tail fur.  \n\\\u003eThe bottle brush shaped appendage was almost as long as he was tall.  \n\\\u003eHe lathered it up as best he could with Red pulling away from him as she cleaned herself.  \n\\\u003eIt was impossible for her posterior to not command his attention in this situation.  \n\\\u003eShe began to clean her lower half drawing his eyes to her curves as she did.  \n\\\u003eHe was finishing up rinsing the tail when it pulled from his hands completely.  \n\\\u003eRed turned around and squatted in front of him face to face.  \n\\\u003eShe used her own shampoo to wash his hair.  \n\\\u003eShe grinned widely while her paws massaged his scalp.  \n\\\u003eAnon felt like he could melt into the warm water and her soft touch.  \n\\\u003eAfter he was well rinsed off she killed the water and got them a pair of towels.  \n\\\u003eShe gave her fur a quick once over as Anon stepped out from the tub.  \n\\\u003eRed used the stay command to get his attention.  \n\\\u003eHer towel was wrapped around her torso.  \n\\\u003eWhen he faced her she picked him up and set him on the counter.  \n\\\u003eAnon was given a smaller hand towel.  \n\\\u003eRed made a rubbing motion next to her ears.  \n\\\u003eShe turned around and Anon started drying off her ears as instructed.  \n\\\u003eRed was trying to brush out her tail.  \n\\\u003eBut the ear massage was having a distracting effect on her.  \n\\\u003eShe soon stopped brushing and simply leaned back against the counter.  \n\\\u003eAnon had discovered the fluffy ears of the red panda were quiet sensitive.  \n\\\u003eIt had become a ritual for them to do it after she was done streaming.  \n\\\u003eThe headphones always made her ears feel funny and his massages were a great relief.  \n\\\u003eAnon stopped after the ears were completely dry.  \nHannah turned around and embraced the little human.  \nShe closed her eyes and gave him some playful licks on the neck and face.  \n\\\u003eAnon recognized this sort of behavior as the anthro version of kissing.  \n\\\u003eHe was unable to move as the larger female held him tight and continued to kiss his neck.  \nHannah could feel Weirdo tensing up.  \nIt was enough to shock her out of what she was doing.  \nShe had been lost in the moment and now backed off, slightly embarrassed.  \nShe opened her mouth to apologize.  \nOnly to stop because she remembered that words would fail her.  \nInstead she smiled weakly and set Weirdo down on the bathroom floor.  \n\\\u003eAnon watched as Red retreated to her room in a brisk walk.  \n\\\u003eHe wanted to ask if he had done something wrong.  \n\\\u003eOr at least clarify what had just happened between the two of them.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 14: Confession   \n  \n\\\u003eAnon wasn't able to focus on anything for the rest of the night.  \n\\\u003eHe got the impression that Red was avoiding him.  \n\\\u003eShe had been in her streaming room for hours.  \n\\\u003eAnd she usually didn't close the door.  \n\\\u003eAnon had checked her accounts and saw that she wasn't online.  \n\\\u003eHe heard the door open and was careful not to rush her.  \n\\\u003eAs she walked past him to the kitchen she smiled again.  \n\\\u003eShe signed \"dinner?\"  \n\\\u003eHe nodded and followed.  \n\\\u003eShe plated and microwaved some leftovers for the two of them.  \n\\\u003eThey usually avoided using the phones when eating.  \n\\\u003eThe silence was strangely comforting to Anon.  \n\\\u003eEventually they finished and Anon had to ask.  \n\\\u003e[did i do anything wrong earlier?]  \nHannah read the text and shook her head vigorously.  \nShe started to type.  \nShe paused and deleted what she wrote and tried to type again.  \nThat wasn't working either so she deleted it again.  \nShe sighed and dropped her phone in frustration.  \n\"I wish I could just talk to you...\"  \nShe hadn't noticed that Weirdo had walked up to her side.  \n\\\u003eAnon didn't like seeing her struggle to express herself like that.  \n\\\u003eHe set his hand down on her knee to comfort her.  \n\\\u003eRed smiled and rubbed Anon's head.  \n\\\u003eShe quickly typed something.  \n[you didn't do anything wrong]  \n[sorry if I made you worry]  \n\\\u003eAnon thought for a moment before typing.  \n\\\u003e[sleep on it and write it out in the morning]  \n\\\u003e[that's what worked for me]  \n\\\u003eTruthfully he didn't get much sleeping done before he wrote his letter.  \n\\\u003eBut that wouldn't be a helpful detail to include.  \n\\\u003eShe nodded and leaned down to kiss Anon on the forehead.  \n\\\u003eThat made him feel a little better.  \n\\\u003eBetter enough to get some work done before bed.  \n\\\u003eIt was fairly late before he got a message from Red.  \n[come to bed]  \n\\\u003e[be there in a sec]  \n\\\u003eHe finished up an email and closed the laptop.  \n\\\u003eAnon turned off the lights and went to Red's room.  \n\\\u003eHe closed the door and pulled himself up onto the bed.  \nHannah sat up and removed the sheet covering her.  \nShe didn't normally sleep in the nude.  \nSo the surprised look on Weirdos face was very amusing.  \nShe grabbed his hand and drew him in closer to her.  \nHannah caressed his collar and removed it.  \n\"I don't want you wearing this in the house anymore.\"  \nShe knew she would have to translate for him later.  \nBut she wanted to say it now.  \n\\\u003eAnon didn't know what was going on.  \n\\\u003eBut he began to form an idea as she kissed his neck and removed his boxers.  \n\\\u003eShe pulled herself back and signed \"keep going?\"  \n\\\u003eAnon leaned into Red and gave her some kisses of his own.  \nHannah grabbed Weirdo and rolled over with him.  \n... the next morning.  \n\\\u003eAnon awoke to an empty bed.  \n\\\u003eIt was the first time he hadn't gotten up before Red since arriving.  \n\\\u003eHe laid back down and thought about the fun from the previous night.  \n\\\u003eThere was a bit of a learning curve for the different sized lovers.  \n\\\u003eBut they managed to make it work.  \n\\\u003eA few times.  \n\\\u003eHe could hear Red moving around in the kitchen.  \nHannah smiled as Weirdo wandered in.  \nHe walked up to her side and grabbed her butt.  \nShe laughed and put her hand on his head.  \nPicking up a piece of paper she handed it to him and went back to cooking breakfast.  \n\\\u003eAnon sat at the table and read through the letter.  \n\\\u003eIt was a confession of her now obvious feelings for him.  \n\\\u003eHow she had transitioned from one state to another over the last three months.  \n\\\u003eIt started with her empathy for his situation.  \n\\\u003eThen appreciation for him as a friend and confidant.   \n\\\u003eTo the more conflicted feelings about him as a partner.  \n\\\u003eHow she came to rely on him emotionally.  \n\\\u003eAnd how guilty she felt for having to pretend to treat him differently around others.  \n\\\u003eShe concluded with an apology of sorts.  \n\\\u003eThat she had been selfish about the previous night.  \n\\\u003eRed knew she shouldn't have forced a change like that.  \n\\\u003eSince Anon didn't have the option to leave.  \n\\\u003eShe didn't want him to feel trapped.  \n\\\u003eAnd finally a post script telling him not to wear the collar around the house.  \n\\\u003eAnon searched the table for a pen.  \n\\\u003eHe wrote something at the bottom of the page.  \nWeirdo approached Hannah as she was setting the table.  \nHe handed her the letter back and signed for her to read it.  \nAt the bottom he had written something short.  \n\"I love you too.\"   \nShe brought her hand to her mouth and started to cry.  \nWeirdo frantically began to sign \"no, no, no\"   \n\\\u003eAnon knew she was happy, but still didn't want to see her cry.  \n\\\u003eRed knelt down and pulled him into a hug.  \n\\\u003eShe kissed him a few times on the neck and hugged him for a little while longer.  \n\\\u003eEventually she picked him up and set him at his place at the table.  \n\\\u003eThey enjoyed a quiet and happy breakfast together.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 15: Not So Weird Now  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon and Hannah had many conversations over the next few days.  \n\\\u003eIt was a lot like when they first \"met\".   \n\\\u003eBut these conversations were more personal.  \n\\\u003eThe first thing Anon wanted to know was if she had reservations about being with a human.  \n\\\u003eHer answer wasn't as complicated as he had expected.  \n[I would date an anthro wolf]  \n[But it's not like I'm going into the woods to flirt with a wolf wolf]  \n\\\u003eIt was true that this world had both anthro and animal versions of its inhabitants.  \n\\\u003eAnd anthros could partner across all the species of other anthros.  \n\\\u003eSo it was more an issue of sapience and consent than the form of their partners.  \n\\\u003eShe had the reverse question for Anon.  \n\\\u003eSince he came from a world of only humans, did he find her attractive?  \n\\\u003eAnon had had enough girlfriends to understand how loaded that question could be.  \n\\\u003eHe admitted that at first the differences were jarring.  \n\\\u003eBut after a while everyone here was clearly just like the men and women from his old world.  \n\\\u003eIt was weirder for him being the odd one out.  \n\\\u003eRed pressed the question he dodged, regarding her attractiveness.  \n\\\u003eAnon listed off all the things he found cute about her.  \n\\\u003eThe way her tail covered her back when she slept.  \n\\\u003eHer whiskers twitching as she smiled.  \n\\\u003eThe way he could tell what was on her mind from her ears.  \n\\\u003eBy the time he was done Red was satisfied enough to give him some extra attention that evening.  \n\\\u003eTheir nightly sessions had been another area of mutual interest.  \n\\\u003eMorning cuddle sessions also had the tendency to become encore performances in that regard.  \n\\\u003eRed had also revealed some things about herself that Anon didn't expect.  \n\\\u003eShe wasn't embellishing when she said she relied on him for emotional support.  \n\\\u003eBefore he arrived pretty much all she did was stream and get high.  \n\\\u003eShe picked up streaming before graduating.  \n\\\u003eAnd she had no plans for her art degree.  \n\\\u003eSo she just kind of continued doing what she was doing after college.  \n\\\u003eRed was struggling with her lack of direction and self medicated the anxiety away with weed.  \n\\\u003eShe got a human in the first place because she realized she might be depressed.  \n\\\u003eHaving a human pet helped for a little bit.  \n\\\u003eBut even after the first week she was already falling back into the old habits.  \n\\\u003eThen she found out she didn't have a human pet.  \n\\\u003eAnon as a person was supportive and kind.   \n\\\u003eSlowly the anxiety she used to have went away.  \n\\\u003eAnon realized in retrospect that she only smoked when her friends were over lately.  \n\\\u003eIt was clear that confessing all of that was difficult for her.  \n\\\u003eMaybe even more difficult than her initial confession of her feelings for him.  \n\\\u003eAnon had felt guilty about how one sided their relationship had been.   \n\\\u003eWith her providing him with so much and asking for so little.  \n\\\u003eHe was happy that he was able to provide for her in other ways.  \n\\\u003eA few more weeks passed by.  \n\\\u003eTheir domestic routine absorbed the changes to the relationship.  \n\\\u003eThey were both getting well practiced at sign language.  \n\\\u003eEnough now that they used it almost exclusively when they were in front of each other.  \n\\\u003eExcept when in front of the tv.  \n\\\u003eIt was easier to switch between phones and the television than it was to turn and face each other.  \n\\\u003eAlso having to sign to each other cut down on cuddling time.  \n\\\u003eSo it was no surprise that they were both watching when the fateful news report came on.  \n\\\u003eIt was a report about a female human.  \n\\\u003eOne that possessed intelligence far above the average human.  \n\\\u003eShe had been observed doing strange things by her owners who happened to work at a university.  \n\\\u003eThey asked some animal behaviorists to look into her and soon reached their startling conclusion.  \n\\\u003eThe news clip showed video of her being shown a stack of colored blocks.  \n\\\u003eThen she was shown an arrangement of the blocks and stacked them to match perfectly.  \n\\\u003eFor comparison another female human was shown gnawing on one of the blocks and ignoring the instructions.  \n\\\u003eThe news report included scans of the two humans brains.  \n\\\u003eThe \"normal\" human had a brain slightly smaller than their brain cavity and had fewer folds.  \n\\\u003eThe smart human had, what looked like to Anon, a normal brain.  \n\\\u003eOne that filled the brain cavity and had deep folding structures.  \n\\\u003eThe news report followed up with a discussion of a male human recently captured by animal control.  \n\\\u003eHe had been stealing food from nearby homes.  \n\\\u003eHe was even captured wearing stolen clothes.  \n\\\u003eA photo was shown of a human in an over sized t-shirt and a lion cop holding up bags of food.  \n\\\u003eThey were standing in front of a small shack in the woods.  \n\\\u003eThe authorities insisted that the human had built the shack itself and seemed to be acting on his own.  \n\\\u003eThe story had widely been dismissed as a hoax.  \n\\\u003eBut now the researchers on the female human were requesting access to the captured feral human.  \n\\\u003eThe newscasters made a few human jokes to wrap up the story and continued on with something else.  \n\\\u003eRed and Anon were dumbstruck.  \n\\\u003eNeither had to say anything because they both understood that he wasn't alone.  \n\\\u003eThey followed the story obsessively for the next few days.  \n\\\u003eThough there wasn't much to report.  \n\\\u003eEveryone else was treating it as an oddity.   \n\\\u003eThere was an animal rights group that had demanded they be allowed to represent the humans legally.  \n\\\u003eThough few people seemed to be taking their demands seriously.  \n\\\u003eEventually the news had dried up.  \n\\\u003eThe researchers had caught some flak for going to the press.  \n\\\u003eHe and Red had talked about it and Anon absolutely did not want to contact the researchers.  \n\\\u003eAt least until more info became available about the humans they already had.  \n\\\u003eDays continued to pass by and they fell back into their routine.  \n\\\u003eAnon still checked for more news on the humans multiple times a day.  \nHannah had just finished up a stream.  \nShe checked her messages and saw a text from Susan.  \n[mind if I come over?]  \nHannah said yes.  \nThey had become pretty good friends over the last few months and hung out often.  \nShe responded instantly [cool, I want to take a look at Weirdo]  \n[why] Hannah asked, still half distracted from closing various programs.  \n[Cause I think he's one of those smart humans!!!]   \nHannah's eyes grew wide.  \nShe immediately got up and called for Weirdo.  \n\\\u003eAnon came to her, concerned.  \n\\\u003eShe hardly ever called him like that.  \n\\\u003eRed signed \"what do we do?\" and handed him her phone.  \n\\\u003eAnon read through the conversation.  \n\\\u003e\"Fuck\" he tried to say.  \n\\\u003eRed didn't understand but she got his intent.  \n\"Should I tell her not to come?\" Hannah signed.  \n\\\u003eAnon asked if she had a good excuse not to.  \n\\\u003eIt would be suspicious if she suddenly changed her mind without one.  \nHannah racked her brain to think of something.  \nPanic had already set in and she had no idea what to say.  \nA knock at the door caught both their attention.  \n\"She must have been on the way when I responded\" Hannah signed.  \n\\\u003eAnon tossed Red her phone and dropped his boxers.  \n\\\u003eHe was going to hide his phone in the living room.  \n\\\u003eThey would just have to play it by ear.  \nHannah yelled \"Just a minute\" to the door.  \nShe waited for Weirdo to give her a thumbs up and opened it.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 16: Back Up Plan  \n  \nSusan and Hannah greeted each other and took a seat in the living room.  \nSusan asked if Hannah knew about the \"smart\" humans.  \nHannah played dumb and said she heard something about a hoax.  \nSusan excitedly told her that's what people thought it was at first.  \nShe continued to tell her what Hannah already knew from talking to Weirdo about the news.  \n\\\u003eAnon stayed in the kitchen.  \n\\\u003eHe could hear them though it didn't do him any good.  \nSusan finally asked Hannah \"Where is he?\"  \n\"I think he might be napping right now\" she deflected.  \n\"I don't know if Weirdo is like those other humans.\"  \n\"He hasn't done anything that crazy.\"  \nSusan looked at her friend in disbelief.  \n\"Seriously? He does workouts. He's toilet trained.\"  \n\"Like even that thing you told me about with the soda can is nuts.\"  \n\"My uncle took a year to train a human to fetch him a beer.\"  \n\"Weirdo figured out how to do it with you in a few days.\"  \nHannah was getting nervous.  \nEverything Susan was saying was true.  \nBut she didn't know how to turn the conversation away from it.  \n\\\u003eAnon could see Red getting stressed out.  \n\\\u003eThe discussion clearly wasn't going the way she wanted it to.  \n\\\u003eHe made a decision to comfort her rather than hide.  \nWeirdo came into the room and got up on the couch with Hannah.  \n\"There he is!\" said Susan happily.  \n\"Did you hear us talking about you?\" she asked in a sing song voice.  \nHis presence did calm Hannah down.  \n\"Let's say that he is like those other humans\" she said, petting his head.  \n\"What happens after that?\"  \n\"I don't want him to go to some research lab.\"  \nSusan looked at her friend.  \nShe hadn't considered doing anything with the information.  \nMostly she was just curious.  \n\"Also the researchers are swamped right now.\"  \nThis piqued Hannah's own curiosity.  \n\"How do you know that?\"  \nSusan shrugged.  \n\"I'm on some vet forums and their grad students made a few posts about it.\"  \n\"Apparently they've had tons of people contact them who think their human is a genius.\"  \n\"Like they just do fetch or balance a cup on their head, normal tricks.\"  \nShe chuckled and rolled her eyes.  \n\"The humans they're looking at are way beyond that stuff.\"  \n\"They do things like what Weirdo does.\"  \n\"So the researchers have been telling everyone to get a vet to do a brain scan.\"  \n\"Because it's expensive and most people won't do it.\"  \n\"But they won't even look at a new human without a scan right now.\"  \nHannah pulled Weirdo closer to her.  \n\"I don't want to put him through that if I don't have to.\"  \nSusan was getting a little annoyed.  \n\"You really don't want to know if he's special or not?\"  \nHannah shrugged and smiled \"He's already special to me.\"  \n\"I don't want him to become a test subject is all I'm saying.\"  \nSusan shook her head.  \n\"They really want to find more like the two they already have.\"  \n\"They're not related so it's not like a mutation.\"  \n\"Which makes it even stranger.\"  \nHannah looked at her friend for a bit.  \n\"You won't tell them about Weirdo, right?\"  \nSusan appeared hurt.  \n\"No. It's up to you.\"  \n\"I just thought you would be interested in it.\"  \n\"Are you feeling alright? I didn't mean to upset you or anything.\"  \nHannah sighed.  \n\"It's complicated.\"  \nThey sat in silence for a little while.  \n\\\u003eAnon was struggling to judge the mood of the two anthros.  \n\\\u003eIt was hard to ignore the fact that he was the center of their focus.  \n\\\u003eRed stood up with him in her arms.  \n\\\u003eShe said something to Susan and walked back to her bedroom with him.  \n\\\u003eShe closed the door and started signing to Anon.  \n\"I think we should tell her.\"  \n\\\u003e\"Why?\" Anon asked.  \n\"No one else knows about you.\"  \n\"Someone should. In case something happens to me.\"  \n\"Like an emergency.\"  \n\\\u003e\"I don't know\" was all Anon could say.  \n\"I don't either, but it bugs me that we don't have any back up plans.\"  \n\"They are looking for more humans like you.\"  \n\"And she's already guessed that you aren't like other humans.\"  \n\"I think she would keep your secret.\"  \n\"But we have to ask her first.\"  \n\"She has to know how serious it is for you.\"  \n\"For both of us.\"  \n\\\u003eAnon had to admit she had some good points.  \n\\\u003eThe wolf girl had been a good friend to Red.  \n\\\u003eHe still remembered from the kennel that she did genuinely care about humans.  \n\\\u003eAnon eventually relented and nodded.  \n\\\u003e\"What's her phone number?\" he asked, pulling his own phone out from under the pillow.  \n\\\u003eRed picked up her phone and sent him the number.  \n\\\u003eAnon put on some boxers and Red opened the door.  \nHannah walked down the hall in front of Weirdo.  \nSusan had been confused about her friend's attitude and the hasty exit from the conversation.  \nHannah apologized for being so weird and promised to explain what was going on.  \n\\\u003eAnon had moved to stand in front of the coffee table.  \n\\\u003eThe wolf girl was curious about his clothing and Red's demeanor.  \n\\\u003eShe was even more shocked when she saw him pull up a cell phone and start typing on it.  \n\\\u003e[Hello] was the simple text Anon sent her.  \n\\\u003eShe looked between the message and him several times.  \n\\\u003eShe laughed, turned to Red and asked something.  \n\\\u003eRed shook her head and told her something that made the wolf look back at Anon.  \n\\\u003eAnon smiled and waved at her.  \nHannah had a very engaging conversation after that.  \nShe was able to answer most of Susan's questions.  \nBut occasionally she would sign things to Weirdo and interpret his answers.  \nThey talked quite late into the night.  \nThey avoid mentioning the recent intimate development in their relationship.  \nEventually Susan promised to keep Weirdo's secret.  \nAnd told them that if they ever needed anything she would do whatever she could.  \nThere was an awkward moment where she went to pat Weirdo out of habit.  \n\\\u003eAnon shook her hand instead.  \n\\\u003eHe actually did feel relieved to have one more person he could trust.  \n\\\u003eHe got the impression it was cathartic for Red as well.  \n\\\u003eIt had become obvious that her last remaining source of anxiety was worrying about him.  \n\\\u003eRed thanked him for being willing to share.  \n\\\u003eAnon said it was no big deal.  \n\\\u003eBut privately he started to question how much longer they could keep this secret a secret.  \n\\\u003eOr even if it was a good idea.  \n\\\u003eThey might need to consider some longer term fix for his situation.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 17: Coming Out in Style  \n  \n\\\u003eAnon had several conversations with the wolf girl over the next week.  \n\\\u003eHe had gotten access to the forums she talked about.  \n\\\u003eAnon buried himself in research outside of his work for Red.  \n\\\u003eTo the point where Red had noticed.  \n\\\u003eThey were lying in bed together one evening.  \n\\\u003eRed was on her side with arms wrapped around Anon.  \n\\\u003eThey would exchange her phone to talk to each other like this.  \n\\\u003eRed finally asked him what he was up to.  \n\\\u003e[I think we need to get ahead of this.]  \n[Ahead of what?]  \n\\\u003e[Smart humans getting found.]  \n\\\u003e[The researchers got a third one who passed the brain scan this week.]  \n[Have you changed your mind about contacting them?]  \n\\\u003e[No, none of the humans they have can talk.]  \n\\\u003e[But I doubt anyone is trying to teach them to read or write.]  \n\\\u003e[I was lucky to have the time and resources to learn on my own.]  \n[You're welcome :)]  \n\\\u003eAnon squeezed her arm affectionately.  \n[So what do you want to do?]  \n\\\u003e[I don't know yet.]  \n\\\u003e[Just venting I think.]  \n[I'll support you no matter what you decide.]  \n\\\u003eThey called it a night after that.  \n\\\u003eA few weeks had gone by and Anon was finally ready to explain his plan to Red.  \n\\\u003eHe sat with her on the couch and they texted.   \n\\\u003eHe explained to Red how the researchers were out of consideration.  \n\\\u003eFrom what he had learned online and through those forums they weren't being public anymore.  \n\\\u003eSo going to them was more or less fully trusting them.  \n\\\u003eAnd they had already been kind of reckless with their disclosures so far.  \n\\\u003eAnon wanted nothing to do with the lawyers either.   \n\\\u003eThe animal rights group they were associated with was ethically questionable.  \n\\\u003eTheir claim that they wanted guardianship of the humans was also suspicious.  \n\\\u003eBecause it would give them legal rights for the humans likenesses in ads.  \n\\\u003eIt seemed more like a publicity stunt for themselves.  \n\\\u003eThere was the option of getting a lawyer for himself.  \n\\\u003eBut it would be a complete shot in the dark and very expensive.  \n\\\u003eBecause there was no legal precedent for a human asserting their own rights. \u0026nbsp;  \n\\\u003eRed had been getting antsy as she clearly didn't like the unloading of bad news.  \n[So is there anything you think\u0026nbsp; you would want to do?]  \n[I don't get the impression you've resigned yourself to be a pet forever.]  \n\\\u003e[I was getting to that.]  \n\\\u003e[I think the best thing to do would be to go directly to the public.]  \nHannah shook her head, confused.   \n[Like, as in, just talk to people on the street?]  \n\\\u003eAnon chuckled.  \n\\\u003e[No, I mean on your stream]  \n\\\u003e[You have a pretty big audience]  \n[I have a dedicated audience, not a big one] she corrected.  \n\\\u003e[It's several hundred people showing up regularly.]  \n\\\u003e[That's big enough.]  \n\\\u003e[If something really shocking happened on your stream it would be all over the internet.]   \nHannah thought about it.  \nThe \"funny video\" of her human bringing her a can of soda went wild.  \n[If we did a long stream it would get lots of views as people sent links to their friends.]  \n[But what's the point? How does this get you closer to what you want?]  \n\\\u003e[The main issue with relying on the researchers or lawyers is that we aren't in control]  \n\\\u003e[I'm at the mercy of whoevers help we accept]  \n\\\u003e[But if a huge number of people know about my situation, then help will come to us.]  \n\\\u003e[I'll have a choice of lawyers if we need them and tons of online and popular support behind us.]  \n\\\u003e[It'll be undeniable too, if there's hours of video of me signing and answering questions.]  \n\\\u003e[No one will have to trust scientists, lawyers,\u0026nbsp; or the news, or anyone other than us.]  \nIt actually was starting to make a lot of sense to Hannah.   \nShe found it very comforting that he kept referring to 'we' and 'us' as he typed too.   \nIt was nice to know that he felt they were in this together.   \n[OK, let's do it.]  \n[But only on one condition.]  \n\\\u003eAnon looked over at her curiously.  \n\\\u003eRed smiled and typed.  \n[We have to get you a suit for your debut!]  \n\\\u003eAnon spent the next few days setting up some social media accounts.  \n\\\u003eHis idea was to have his own accounts set up to go during the stream.  \n\\\u003eHopefully people would contact him directly instead of swamping Red.  \n\\\u003eShe was pretty keen on getting the suit.  \n\\\u003eIt seemed to make her more comfortable with the idea.  \n\\\u003eThat alone made it worthwhile to Anon.   \n\\\u003eSo when she came home one afternoon with it in hand he wasn't shocked.  \n\\\u003eIt was a nice pattern even if it was an off the rack suit for children anthros.   \n\\\u003eRed was disappointed in the fit.   \n\\\u003eIt was really loose on him, likely due to being made for someone with fur.   \nHannah didn't really have anyone to ask about Weirdo stuff other than Susan.  \nShe started there by giving her a call.  \nShe explained the strange predicament of trying to get a suit fitted for a human.   \n\"I could get my mom to do it. She's a seamstress but she's done plenty of tailoring for the family\"  \nHannah was ecstatic.  \n\"But she would have to take measurements from Weirdo...\"  \nHannah thanked her and told her she would get back to her.   \n\\\u003eAnon wasn't terribly excited about having a middle aged wolf lady fit him.   \n\\\u003eBut it mattered to Red so he was willing to go through with it.  \n\\\u003eOver the weekend Red took him to pick up the wolf girl.  \n\\\u003eAnon and her chatted with texts on the way to her mother's house.  \n\\\u003eHe was still wearing his boxers for the visit at least.  \n\\\u003eThe girls chatted with the wolf matron.  \n\\\u003eShe had a little grey on her muzzle but otherwise looked much like her daughter.   \n\"Oh he's so well behaved\" Molly said reaching down to pat Weirdo.  \n\"Yes, that's what inspired me to do the suit thing\" Hannah said.  \n\"Susan says this is for a tv show...?\" Molly asked.  \n\"Mom, it's an internet broadcast\" Susan corrected.  \n\u0026nbsp;\\\u003eAnon still felt odd when anthros conversed around him.  \n\\\u003eAs much of a relief talking to Red had been these past few months;  \n\\\u003eIt was still very weird to be surrounded by conversations he could never decipher.  \n\\\u003eLuckily it didn't take long before they moved into a living room.  \n\\\u003eSusan's mother produced clothing measuring tape and a notepad.  \n\\\u003eAnon and Red had practiced what to do.  \n\\\u003eShe would just give the stay command over and over as she moved his arms and legs.  \n\\\u003eAll he would have to do was follow her lead.  \n\\\u003eNeither of them anticipated their host being so chatty.  \n\\\u003eThere wasn't room to complain, she was doing them a favor after all.  \n\\\u003eBut it did take much longer to get all the measurements done as a result.   \n\\\u003eWhen she was done she gave Anon a slice of ham.  \n\"We can put him out in the backyard while we have some tea.\" Molly said.  \nSusan and Hannah looked at each other before hesitantly agreeing.  \n\\\u003eTheir host opened the back door to a fenced in backyard.  \n\\\u003eAnon got the impression he was being let out.   \n\\\u003eHe walked out into the grass as the door was closed behind him.  \n\\\u003eHe found a shady spot and sat under a tree.   \n\\\u003eA human was in the neighbors yard, yelping at him.   \n\\\u003eIt all drove home his place in this world.   \n\\\u003eIt made him grateful Hannah was who she was and had helped him so much.   \n\\\u003eBut it also solidified in his mind that 'coming out' to the world was the right call.   \n\\\u003eIt was hard to guess but he figured about an hour had gone by before they let him back in.  \n\\\u003eThey were in the middle of goodbyes and he stayed near Red as they made their exit.   \n\\\u003eAs soon as they were in the car the wolf girl was already typing on her phone.  \n[I'm so sorry about Mom!]  \n[I should have told her you were skittish or something to let you stay inside!]  \n\\\u003eAnon read her texts and told her not to worry about it.  \n\\\u003e[How long does she think the alterations will take?]  \n\\\u003eAnon thought it would be best to move past the whole visit and discuss plans.  \n\\\u003eThey talked a bit more until it was time to drop the wolf girl off at her place.   \n\\\u003eAnon had to tell her to stop apologizing for her mom several times.  \n\\\u003eWhen he and Red got back home she asked him to stay with her on the couch.  \n\\\u003eAnon thought she wanted to watch TV.  \n\\\u003eInstead she just lied down and snuggled up with him.  \n\\\u003eThey didn't try to say anything to each other.  \n\\\u003eHe could tell she wasn't feeling good about insisting he get fitted for the suit.   \n\\\u003eAnon wanted to tell her it was alright.   \n\\\u003eBut after a while he realized just being there was already doing that.   \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  \n  \nPart 18: Debut  \n  \n\\\u003eRed had been telling her fans that she had a big reveal for Saturday's stream.  \n\\\u003eAnon had planned to start at noon.  \n\\\u003eRed was getting the stream running by 11:30.   \n\\\u003eAnon hoped to go on for several hours, possibly for the rest of the day.  \n\\\u003eHowever he was so nervous that Red had to force him to eat breakfast.  \n\\\u003eThey wanted the stream to get as big as possible, but Anon was worried his nerves would give out.  \n\\\u003eAnon was wearing his suit, which he found strangely comforting.  \n\\\u003eHe had never had a custom tailored suit in his old life.  \n\\\u003eIt was hard not to feel confident when wearing one.  \n\\\u003eAlthough Red's enthusiasm had helped in that regard as well.   \n\\\u003eIf anything she seemed to be anticipating his reveal almost as much as he was dreading it.  \n\\\u003eNot that she was downplaying the possible consequences.  \n\\\u003eIt was her more optimistic nature contrasting with Anon's cynicism.   \n\\\u003eIt was ten til noon now and Anon was waiting at the door of her streaming room.   \n\\\u003eShe would signal him to come\u0026nbsp; over once she made the proper introductions.  \n\"Okay everyone I'm so excited that we've got almost 500 people in stream for this.\"  \n\"I expect us to break that pretty quickly though.\"  \n\"Once this starts I want you all to share links to anyone you think would be interested.\"  \n\"So, as you all know I have a human. My darling Weirdo.\"  \n\"And some of you may be aware of those smart humans they have been looking into at State University.\"  \n\"Well, I've suspected he might be one of them for a while.\"  \n\"A few months ago, that was made very clear to me after an incident I won't go into detail with today\"   \n\"The point of this stream is for me to introduce you, and the world, to Weirdo. The real one.\"  \n\\\u003eRed waved Anon over.  \n\\\u003eHe exhaled heavily and walked over to her desk.  \n\\\u003eRed had set up a stepping stool next to her so that he could stand at the desk and be center frame.  \n\\\u003eThe chat was freaking out over the suit alone.  \n\\\u003eThings really got out of hand when he started signing to the chat though.  \n\\\u003eRed would narrate for him as he gave his introductions.  \n\\\u003eHe explained how he had awoken in the kennel as he was.  \n\\\u003eIt wasn't worth going into the whole \"I'm from another world thing\" right now.  \n\\\u003eA human knowing sign language was blowing their minds enough as is.  \n\\\u003eHe gave a brief summary of teaching himself to read and write.  \n\\\u003eAnon typed a quick salutations into the chat to demonstrate as Red held her hands up.  \n\\\u003eThey were only halfway through his story and the stream had broken 3,000 viewers.  \n\\\u003eAnon and Red had agreed to spare most of the details of the party, for the sake of her friends involved.  \n\\\u003eHe told the stream enough for them to know how Red found out.  \n\\\u003eAnd the conversations they had afterwards.  \n\\\u003eIt got a little difficult to continue because Red was getting choked up.  \n\\\u003eHe was explaining all the things she had done for him and she was getting kind of emotional.  \n\\\u003eHe let her collect herself before continuing.  \n\\\u003eThere wasn't much to tell after that.  \n\\\u003eSince they certainly weren't revealing any info about their intimate details.  \n\\\u003eAnon shared his social media links.   \n\\\u003eHe used his phone to take a selfie of Red and himself and then posted it.   \n\\\u003eThe stream had broken 10k and was rapidly climbing.  \n\\\u003eAt some point they had gotten to the front page of the streaming site.   \n\\\u003eAnon asked Red to explain some of his story from her perspective while he went and got a drink.  \n\\\u003eIn the kitchen he had to take some deep breaths.  \n\\\u003eThey were past the initial intros but they still had a long time to go, It wasn't even 2 o'clock yet.  \n\\\u003eHe came back with water for himself and a soda for Red.  \n\\\u003eThe chat was unreadable, and had to be switched over to subscribers only.   \n\\\u003eIt was going so fast, but Red's mods were sending in questions for Anon.  \n\\\u003eWhat was coming through the stream was pretty mundane.   \n\\\u003eBut the social media stuff was gaining traction too.  \n\\\u003eSo the next few hours were a whirlwind.  \n\\\u003eResponding to chat, responding to questions coming in through the phone.  \n\\\u003eSome legitimate news outlets were reaching out to him by the time he called it quits.  \n\\\u003eIt was only five o'clock but time had flown by.   \n\\\u003eThe stream broke 100k by the time it was done, which was absolutely insane according to Red.   \n\\\u003eAnon promised to do a live stream of his own Sunday at noon to do some follow ups.   \n\\\u003eRed made dinner as he sat at his usual place with the laptop in the living room.  \n\\\u003eHe was responding to some of the more high profile contacts that had reached out to him.  \n\\\u003eBut he quickly found that to be exhausting.  \n\\\u003eOnce again eating in silence was a great relief to both of them.  \n\\\u003eIt must have been a slow news day because the next morning every single news outlet was talking about him.  \n\\\u003eThere was lots of speculation about how it could be fake obviously.   \n\\\u003eBut five more or less continuous hours of streaming seemed pretty undeniable to most.  \n\\\u003eThe stream he started that afternoon broke several records.  \n\\\u003eAnon was starting to get nervous about the numbers as he ended.  \n\\\u003eThe smart humans never became that big of a story, so that had lowered his expectations.  \n\\\u003eBut a genuine talking human was apparently several orders of magnitude more interesting.  \n\\\u003eHe had never considered the possibility of becoming famous.  \n\\\u003eEven the preparations he had made were not adequate for the sheer volume of contacts coming in.  \n\\\u003eRed reached out to her fans and asked for help in that regard.  \n\\\u003eHe got a contact at a management company that was surprisingly enthusiastic about helping him out.  \n\\\u003eEverything grew organically from there.  \n\\\u003eWeirdly some of the last people to find out were Red's friends, who weren't exactly the news watching type.  \n\\\u003eHe got to make new introductions with many of them.   \n\\\u003eHe did eventually contact the researchers who had the other humans.  \n\\\u003eAnon gave them advice on trying to see if the others could learn to read and write.  \n\\\u003eBut he was still hesitant to meet with any of the other humans or the researchers in person.  \n\\\u003eHe was still very much aware that everything he was doing was on legally shaky grounds.  \n\\\u003eSo it was some relief when a large civil rights firm contacted him through the management company.   \n\\\u003eThey were nothing like those \"animal rights\" lawyers pushed on the news.  \n\\\u003eThey agreed to represent him if and when any such issues came up.  \n\\\u003eThrough some interesting legal shenanigans they were able to come with a kind of trust where he owned himself?  \n\\\u003eIt was very odd but it made paperwork for his growing responsibilities easier.   \n\\\u003eIt had taken a while and been very hectic, but Anon's plan seemed to have worked.  \n\\\u003eGoing straight to the public got the best options to come to him.   \n\\\u003eHe had been concerned about how to transition into making money.  \n\\\u003eBut streaming turned out to be insanely good for him.  \n\\\u003eHe was a huge draw as a novelty just playing video games.   \n\\\u003eHe felt a little bad about sucking at it and still outperforming Red.   \n\\\u003eBut they had some frank conversations.  \n\\\u003eShe had been wanting to move past it for a while but she didn't have an exit strategy.  \n\\\u003eHelping him manage his newfound celebrity was a much better job in her opinion.  \n\\\u003eShe still streamed once a week or so to stay in touch with fans who had supported her for so many years.  \n\\\u003eBut money wasn't a problem anymore.  \n\\\u003eSuch that they were able to move out of Red's rental house.  \n\\\u003eThey didn't have a problem with the place, but security had become an issue.  \n\\\u003eIt didn't take long for people and even the media to intrude on their privacy.  \n\\\u003eMoving into a nice condo downtown diminished those problems by a lot.  \n\\\u003eThey had been moved in for about a month and Anon was sitting on the couch with Red.  \n\\\u003eAnon and Red had decided to keep a lot of her old furniture.  \n\\\u003eIt made the place more comfortable.   \n\\\u003eThough Anon was comfortable enough anywhere.  \n\\\u003eSo long as he could lay down with his head in Red's lap like he currently was.   \n\\\u003eHe was checking his email and Red had been watching tv.  \n\\\u003eAfter a bit she turned it off and started scratching Anon's head.   \n\\\u003e\"What's up?\" Anon asked.  \n\"Nothing\" Hannah signed back.  \n\"This is the first day we've had to ourselves for a while.\"  \n\"No meetings or distractions. It's nice.\"  \n\\\u003eAnon suddenly remembered something.  \n\\\u003e\"I forgot to tell you I have a call scheduled with a publisher at 4:00.\"  \n\"Publisher?\"  \n\\\u003e\"Yeah, apparently they want to pitch me an offer to write a book about my experience...\"  \n\\\u003e\"But I can reschedule if you want to just take the whole day off.\"  \nHannah thought about it for a moment.   \nIt was just after 2 o'clock.   \n\"No we still have time before your meeting.\"  \n\\\u003e\"Time for what\" Anon signed back, oblivious to her sly grin.  \n\\\u003eShe took his laptop away and grabbed him as she stood up.  \n\\\u003eAnon had finally caught up with her intentions as she took him back to their bedroom.  \n\\\u003eHe quickly got out his phone and sent an email to reschedule the meeting anyways.   \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp;The End.  \n  \n\n"}