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Just Ask, pt 1

A Story by Bariki

The black horse – he was here again! The same table, the same chair, even the same time of day as yesterday, and the day before that…

The little rabbit named Liu flushed as the horse caught his glance. He quickly looked away from the equine, his paws picking up and stacking the noodle bowls from the empty tables as he flitted about the busy restaurant. Half his mind was focused on his work, the other half on the stranger sitting at the corner table. He can't be from here, Liu thought: his clothes were strange, his scent unfamiliar. The way he picked up his tea and sipped at it delicately seemed so… so foreign. And yet at the same time, the horse seemed perfectly comfortable to be there, despite the occasional curious glance from the regular customers, or, a little more than curious in Liu's case.

His paws and arms laden with bowls, Liu hurried back to the kitchen to unload them into the sink. The owner, a pig whose association with personal hygiene did his species no credit, gave him a baleful look and indicated to the pile of unwashed bowls already by the sink. Liu's ears flatted as he looked away, turning on the tap and starting to scrub the bowls, letting his mind drift back to the dark furred stranger sitting just beyond the kitchen door.

I wonder what he's doing here. He can't be a businessman, not with those clothes and not in this sort of place. Maybe he's a traveller, on his way through here to the mainland? No, why would he come here for three days? A tourist, perhaps...?

His mind wandered further as he cleaned and dried the bowls. He saw the equine sitting at his corner table, gazing at him, those deep, dark eyes of his a veil over whatever purpose he had in the city. As the rabbit’s paw ran around the inside of each bowl with his cloth, he pictured the equine’s strong, broad chest framed in the undone top two button’s of his shirt. In his mind’s eye, the horse saw him staring at him, and return the gaze, those dark eyes glistening as the horse smiled, brilliant white teeth flashing at him as he tossed his forelock back and a deep, powerful voice rang out in his mind.

Why don’t you just ask me? You know you want to.

To be continued...

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