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SSDD 2014 Raultherabbit

Raul woke up the way he always did on the weekends. Earlier than he wanted to. There were still single digits for the hour almost every Saturday and Sunday when his eyes inevitably opened. Something would set his mind to waking. A movement, a scent, a sound. Some hazy after images of REM sleep that jarred his subconscious into waking. Eyes pulling open, brain clawing to activity in that quick, ancient prey species way when sensing danger. Ears would perk up and swivel, taking in every possible sound. Finding no danger he would arch his back and stretch, yawning and rubbing his eyes clear of groggy sleep before smacking his lips, giving his whiskers a twitch and sniffing the air.

Of course, his bedroom smelled heavily of rabbit, himself being a rather enthusiastic member of the lapine persuasion. Lately however his nostrils detected an ever growing presence of another scent. It was deeper than rabbit. Sour, musky, ancient and altogether completely foreign to his nose. At least to his bedroom.

He would rate it almost equal to fox for its ability to completely overshadow every other deeply rooted scent that gathers in the nooks and crannies of even the best kept rooms frequented by living, breathing, stinking animals.

Such as the dragon that was busying itself in the shower. Raul contemplated all this while cradling his head in his paws, keeping his breathing slow and even, fighting the urge to stand. Standing was out of the question, as his mind and body reminded each other why, yet again, there was a dragon in his shower.

There would be two. No, three or quite possibly four bottles of wine downstairs on the wood coffee table. Judging by the way his head was now throbbing, syncing to the loud, far too loud splashes of water against fiberglass shower enclosure.

As he swung his legs over the bed onto the floor, Raul carefully stretched his cottontail tail down, hissing immediately as stiff muscles in his lower back and rear protested. 'Unnngh." He complained to himself, finally making a noise.

"Finally up rabbit?" The shower called to him, muffled by water and steam and a curtain dividing the room from the bath area.

The rabbit stood slowly, promising himself aspirin, ice cold water and then a shower once he shooed the dragon away. The dragon that was, more and more, spending his free time after spending his nine to five time. The dragon that kept, somehow, adding to the predatory stench filling his mattress, marking his fur and silly little things like door knobs dish towels.

He shuffled, eyes half closed, paw lifted above his head to block out most of the too-bright lights in the bathroom, over to the sink. He ignored the dragon's muted queries a few moments longer as he applied cold water to his face, swallowed two, then two more aspirin, then drank enough icy water to numb his sinuses and throat. Which helped his head a lot more than one would expect.

"Rabbit?" The voice behind the etched glass shower intoned again. It sounded too patient and confident for the rabbit to want to respond to verbally, but...

"Yes, Hyzelil?" The insult plain in the language of rabbits, shiny enemy. There was no word for dragon in lapine, but borrowing some of this and that well. It worked.

The dragon didn't bother to answer the jab. "Join me in the shower before it gets cold." The same precise measured speech. Mechanical.

"No. U embleer hrair. I will wash once you are gone. Why are you here so early?" Now memories were coming back from the evening. Wine and work. The constant struggle for the rabbit. Balancing work and fun became impossible. To do both was his compromise. So the dragon must have spent the night and after the work and the wine...

"You made me stay this time. You did not let me go. You wanted m--"

"No I didn't! The wine and the stress and work. You took advantage of me. Again. Of my generosity. I said last time would be the last." Raul wrung his paws together, feeling tendons pop. He wanted to swing at the dragon. He wanted to hurt him. The way he felt hurt.

Of course the dragon wouldn't rise to the bait. How could one silly little rabbit's ranting ruffle his scales? They couldn't. The harsh talk from the little lapine just polished his scales. Only the sound of water dripping off the silhouette of the dragon and into the drain remained. Were there any words left for the dragon to say?

The rabbit wasn't done. "Well, say something! You come to my house and take my food and my wine. You take my company and you take my body! For what? A pat on the back and a word of praise? It's not enough anymore. You're a waste of my time. I don't remember the last time I was at a park by myself, or at a social function without you. When I'm with my friends you have to be there, or you're emailing me or calling me at all hours demanding my attention and for what?" The rabbits voice rose in pitch until he was almost shrieking, fists balled at his sides, leaning towards the shower door and that damn dragon standing behind the glass. Silent as a ghost.

Again, the dragon was silent. The rabbit's breath came in great heaving breaths. Claws dug into his palms until he felt the prick and the warmth of blood pooling. There wasn't enough strength in his hung over, exhausted body, at 9am on a Saturday, to properly vent at this damnable creature. He turned his back on the shower and shoved his paw under the faucet, running cold water under his puncture wound.

"Leave dragon. Get your stuff and go. I don't want to talk to you again."

He heard the creak of shower opening, the hiss of scales on scales. Clicking of claws pausing just out of arms distance behind him. A long pause before the dragon answered. "You know I cannot do that. You are nothing without me. You need me more than I need you and I will prove it."

Raul heard the wet plop of towel hitting tile, then the sound of dragon walking out of the bathroom. Pausing long enough, Raul supposed, to put on clothes before leaving the house. He didn't even slam the door.

The rabbit ground his teeth together. A lump of unease and anxiety already growing in his stomach. A shower. He needed a shower. He climbed in, barely noticing the smell of the previous occupant as he turned the water as hot as he could stand and stood under it. Until his fur was soaked through, until his skin felt pink and boiled. Then he scrubbed, as hard as his tired body could stand. Again and again with soap and washcloth until he could almost imagine his body didn't smell like dragon.

As he fished for a towel and stepped from the shower he caught a glance at his reflection in the foggy mirror. Only an apparition of a rabbit. A foggy, incorporeal mass of shadow and shapes in the moisture covered mirror. Nothing, really. He stepped from his bathroom back into his bedroom and looked at his clock. It was past Ni-Frith already. He sat down on his bed and contemplated his plans for the weekend as he pulled on underwear. Friends. He would ask a friend to a late lunch, and then he would go to a music store. And he would be two albums, to treat himself. He stood up to the dragon. He wouldn't be used again. Nothing would get to him like that again.

For a long moment, as he typed a text message into his phone, he felt like a new rabbit. Lightened by his emotional outburst, he jumped up on his toes and did some shadow boxing with the wall, seeing the lapine shaped opponent jab and hook back at his form. He felt great, perhaps he would go and ask out another friend for dinner. He could go to that crazy vegan place that just opened next to his apartment building.

His phone chirped suddenly twice in quick succession. Walking back to his nightstand he thumbed its screen back on and read the notifications.

The first was from his friend begging off lunch as he'd already ate, though he looked forward to the music store.

The second was from the dragon. "Need your help. Get on Outlook and check my calendars for space for a new client. Need to have meeting with opposing counsel before Tuesday, preferably tomorrow, you need to be there too. Make this work quick and forward the dates to my phone." Raul's head tipped backwards and he quickly swallowed the wave of disappointment welling up in his guts. There would be the afternoon getting a hold of the necessary people and wrangling them into a meeting on the weekend. It would take the night to get all the documents off the network and printed and copied and arranged and rescanned. Tuesday meant tomorrow, Sunday, to the dragon. He never took time off, so neither did Raul.

He quickly tapped out a cryptic response to his friend. To the dragon he only said two words "Yes, sir."

The dragon was right. Damn him.

Raul walked into his living room and kicked up his feet on his coffee table. Logging into his laptop with one paw, the other one reaching for the half empty wine bottle and bringing it to his lips.

Raul took a long sip from the bottle. When he put the bottle down on the side table he looked at his living room. Scattered bottles everywhere. He should clean up. He hadn't had a visitor in months and it was showing in the mail piled up on a stack of records. There were depositions flagged and highlighted in a pile on a corner of the couch.

The rabbit took the bottle of wine and finished it. Then went back to work.