Perfectly Content.

Who: Amy and Reiz.
Where: Outdoors!
When: Late afternoon.

There wasn't enough air.

When Reiz was traveling around (usually by foot, and sometimes when he'd be able to get a job, he'd buy a cheap bus ticket.) he was always outside. Not that he was going to complain about having a room to stay at or anything! But being cooped up was no good for him. He was use to being completely secluded in a forest of some sort or something at night where no one would bother him. He'd take that time to shift back to his original form, or let his tail unwind and stretch or something. And his poor... appendage hadn't been able to breathe outside the room lately.

So around late afternoon, when people would be at home eating dinner or something instead of wandering around, he decided to hide himself in a little crowd of trees, where he could get a good view of the sky. He liked the sky. It was like the sea, except you couldn't fish from it. Or bird from it.

Reiz sat down by a tree, leaning his back against the trunk, his tail swishing around the tree and snow.

Amy had put on a pair of jeans under her dress and put on a pair of rainy day boot and her blue and white striped mittens to go get Buster a new house. The ghost, or whatever, had busted his old house all up, so he was currently residing in a nest of woolen socks in her inside coat pocket so he wouldn't freeze to death. She was being very, very careful with him. After all, Buster was Not Bright.

She was tromping through the snow on her way to town, having a grand old time when she spotted a man in the woods. Sitting in the snow! "Hallooo!" she hollered, probably waving more excitedly than she needed to (but whats life for if not having fun and waving excitedly?) before stopped stock still and pointing, "You have a tail!"

Reiz could hear footsteps. He stiffened at the sound of them, and at the sound of the very friendly greeting. He whipped around, crouched down with his hands on the snow, his tail whipping about behind him.

He looked at the woman with cautious eyes. She... she probably wasn't going to do anything to him, but he had to make sure.

Amy was pretty sure, it wasn't polite to point at people, even people with tails. So she dropped her finger and swallowed when the fan did a funny not-quite-human jump. She stood very straight and still and said loudly, "Sorry to point, that's not very polite. You have a tail."

She rolled her eyes at herself, he probably knew that already. "My name is Amy Gustufson. What's your name? Are you friend, foe, or Switzerland?"

...Ahh... yeah... Reiz was pretty sure she wasn't going to do anything. He sat down, his knees up, and his hands on the heel of his shoes, the whipping of his tail relaxed to a light swishing. The cautious look in his eyes melted into more of... confused and curious.

"...Reiz." ...He didn't really understand her last question. "...Switzerland's a place..." he said slowly, almost like a question. He couldn't be a place, could he?

Amy relaxed as soon as the strange tailed man did and marched right up to him and offered him her hand, "A place of banking and neutral-osity. It is nice to meet you Reiz." She peered around him to check out his swishing tail. It was kind of distracting.

Reiz looked down at her hand for a moment (he still didn't really like handshakes) and gingerly took her hands in his, and it was easy not to think about the violent thoughts, because he was too confused about Switzerland still. Oh well. Maybe he could find a book about it later.

He gave a small nod. He wasn't really sure if it was nice meeting her yet, but she seemed like a nice enough person. His tail peeked out from behind him swaying up and down, almost like it was observing her.

Amy watched Reiz's tail move like it was peeking at her from around his back. "What are you doing out here in the snow? Is it cold on your tail? Have you had lunch yet? Would you like a cookie?" she was pretty sure she had gotten one off Pandect when he came in earlier.

Brr... so many questions... "Um... I... like snow." He paused, to show that he was on the next question. "Kinda." But... Reiz liked the feeling of snow against his tail. "...but. Not. ...bad cold. And um. ...Yes." Er, no, wait, he meant the yes for had lunch... he got a pack of hotdogs earlier!

"I don't really like cookies..."

"Don't like cookies!" Amy threw her hands into the air to show her shocked disbelief. "Don't like cookies! Even Buster likes cookies!"

Reiz looked down meekly at the disapproval of his dislike of cookies. "Um. ...s-sorry?"

Amy flopped her arms, he was kind of cute, not cute like The Baker, cute like a puppy. "I forgive you, you seem like a nice enough guy. I will have to run you by Buster though, he's not Very Bright, but he is a pretty decent judge of character, when he's not swooning."

...eh?

Reiz looked back up at her confusedly. Buster? Who's Buster? Why does Buster swoon? He remembered Smith using the word 'swoon' once, it had to do with teenager girls. Was Buster a teenage girl?

"...who's Buster?"

Amy opened her coat and pulled out Buster, the fancy mouse perked up in the cold and looked around, his long thin tail draping over her mitten covered thumb. Her blinked at Reiz and cleaned his whiskers before looking up at Amy. "Stop being vain Buster, your whiskers are fine. What do you think of my new friend?"

Buster fiddled with his ears and crawled to the end of her mitten fingers to check Reiz out.

A mouse. Reiz had memories of mice. ...Very recent memories of mice, actually. ...Memories that Amy probably wouldn't want to know about.

...They were bite-sized...

"...hi."

Buster swooned.

"Huh," Amy said. "Don't worry he's been doing that a lot lately. A ghost broke his house." It was like ripping off a band-aid, she thought, the quicker and more often she said it the more likely she was to get used to the idea. She fished around in her pocket and came up with a star shaped sugar cookie.

"Aha! Here," she held out the cookie to him. "Try bribing Buster with this, break off little pieces he can hold in his mice hands."

Oh, a ghost. Reiz had never met a ghost, but he wasn't going to deny their existence at all.

"..Um. ...okay." He wasn't sure if he should get anywhere near the mouse, but... He took the cookie, snapping off a tiny crumb in his hand, and holding it out for the mouse.

He was trying really hard not to think about how easily he could nom the mouse.

Buster made some sort of mouse sized calculation and grabbed the crumb, taking an extra moment to sniff Reiz's fingers to make sure he had it all before retreating up Amy's sleeve. She squeaked indignantly, not that she had much time for boring stuff like dignity when there were things like friends to make and mice scurrying up her sleeve. Buster stuck his head out to see what all the fuss was about.

"Cold tail," Amy explained. "I should probably put him back in his sock nest before he freezes into a little mouse-sicle. He's more built for polite tea parties than out of doors frolicking."

Reiz just watched the scene in front of him with the mouse taking the crumb and scurrying up people's sleeves. "...oh. Uh. ...huh?" He cocked his head to the side curiously. Did mice drink tea? ...how are mice polite?

Amy say his confuzzled look and took pity. "He's a fancy mouse, bred for polite company and lace edges handkerchiefs. I think they were bred for labs or little girls or something, but Buster's just a little bit too refined. He needs some one who treats him with a mutual respect and doesn't shake him or make him run around in a plastic ball." Buster settled amiably back in her pocket and snuggled in to wait until they got to the pet shop.

"If you want I can take the rest of that cookie off your hands."

"...Oh..." Reiz didn't understand how mice could be bred for that. Not that he'd had much polite company in his life, so it'd figure that a little mousey had more manners than he did. He had a messy room and a messy bed, and he ate messily.

"Um... okay." He held out the cookie to Amy, brushing the crumbs off on his shirt. It was okay, the shirt had seen worse days. Reiz had gotten good at washing clothes by hands.

Buster's unique breeding and most people's incomprehension thereof didn't worry her, she cocked her head to the side and looked him over one last time approvingly. Amy took a big bite off the cookie and took a few moments to internally regroup. She was having a little freak out in the back of her mind that went along the lines of: He has a TAIL. HE has a tail. He HAS a tail. She was pretty sure normal people DIDN'T HAVE THOSE. Why couldn't stuff be normal anymore? Was there some sort of weirdo infection she hadn't heard about?

Amy sighed, but she was still finishing the cookie so that put her on a coughing jag and when she was done with that her little freak out was over and she could give Reiz a big grin again. "Reiz," she said, just so he would know whom she was referring to, "I think we shall be good friends. I have decided. Shall we shake onit?"

Er. Uh. Hmm... Reiz just looked at her in a perplexed fashion whilst she ate the cookie looking like she was thinking... and proceeded to. Er. Choke? Kinda? On it. He wasn't really sure what to do, so he just watched--and she seemed to have recovered from it alright, so... he wasn't too worried.

"Um... okay."

"Awesome!" she shook his hand twice with purpose before putting her hands on her hips and giving him another look over. "I," she finally said, "have a question."

Ahh... Amy was a very happy person. Not that Reiz minded, 'course. He just wasn't use to people being so friendly.

He cocked his head to the side, "Um. ...Sure?"

Amy tapped her fingers together through her mittens and tried not to blush, "You can say no if you want, 'cause its your private business and stiff and I wouldn't want to be rude, or weird, or forward or something... But the thing is, mayItouchyourtailjustalittleplease?"

The request actually made Reiz smile a little. 'course he didn't get many requests to touch his tail, just because not many people knew about it, but it was kind of nice that she wanted to touch it as opposed to running away in fear of it.

In response, his tail moved around his side, swaying up and down besides him.

"Is that a yes, maybe?" goodness gracious, she was blushing, wasn't she? What would her momma say? Well probably something about harmonic vibrations in the ether, but still. The tail didn't look embarrassed and Reiz actually looked pleased.

Reiz nodded silently. He was actually kind of wondering how her hands would feel against his tail.

Amy took her glove off (at least she had her mittens on so her hands wouldn't be cold and carefully poked it once quickly before deciding it wouldn't leap up and nibble her or something. The scales along the top were the same color as the rest of it, a darkish grayish color, but they were thicker and more raised so he had something that looked like a dragon-y sort of tail thing going on. She didn't want to grab hold of it suddenly, (how would she feel if someone grabbed hold of her arm suddenly?) or stroke it, 'cause that would just be weird. But it was cool to feel it, like that one time Michael Terrence let her hold his iguana during show and tell in the third grade.

She just kind of let her fingers feel it. It was so cool!

Reiz watched as she approached his tail. She had warm, nice hands. He was use to large calloused hands, use to lots of work and not really... any pampering at all. 'cept for washing hands though, but he didn't know if that could be considered pampering.

It was different then people skin, it was kinda dryish, and calloused. Amy pulled her hand back and probably squeaked in a very undignified manner as she jumped up and down. But again who wanted to waste time on dignity when there were tails to poke? She settled herself (because people got annoyed with her when she got too excited and beside Buster was starting to wiggle in complaint) folding her hands in front of herself like she was reciting something at the front of Sunday School and said with real meaning, "Thank you, that was awesome!"

And because it really was awesome she reached out with her arms and gave Reiz a quick hug with both arms meeting around him.

Ahhh... Physical contact made Reiz blush, but it made him feel all warm and fuzzy and happy inside. 'specially if it was from someone who saw his tail and wanted to hug him because of it. His tail swished side to side, gently tapping against the woman.

He nodded, "...you're welcome."

Mmm... she smelled like happy.

Amy smiled at him with her hands on his shoulders still. She didn't want to let go of him quite yet. They seemed to have formed a little cloud of happy, she and Reiz. All the wariness was out of him, even though she hadn't recognized it before it had left him. He was relaxed, smiling, blushing sweetly, beaming. His tail patted against her skirt softly and she moved one bare hand to pat it back without thinking.

This was what everyone should have. Happiness. Love. She didn't want to ruin it by saying something, by over thinking it, or making time move on. Instead she hugged him again, giving him a quick definite squeeze before stepping back and holding out one bare hand, "Would you mind walking me to town Reiz? No one from the road can see your tail, the path is hidden all the way to Marquette proper."

"Oh. ...Um." To be honest, Reiz very much so wanted to go with her to town. He felt some thoughts of caution in the back of his mind, but he wasn't afraid of Amy or his tail giving him away. He had hid his tail for... well forever hadn't he?

He placed his hand softly in hers and stood up, his tail hugged against his leg.

"Sure," he smiled softly.

Amy smiled at him. She loved Reiz. Not the way she loved Momma: stiffly, or Daddy: like she was still six, or Baby Robbie: privately, or Jamie: adoringly, or Pandect: fraternally, but best friend-ly. Sometimes there were no words. Only soft smiles and soft snow and his cold calloused hand in hers warming up slowly.

Amy loved contentment.