Third floor common room, Friday morning

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Jan was hungry. Yes, there was grass downstairs, but what he really wanted was some more of those delicious, delicious oats.

He could get the cupboards open with his teeth, but his horn made it difficult to poke through them. This was how he managed to knock a bag of flour, which bounced off his head and onto his withers, even as he tried to duck out of the way.

It didn't do a lot of damage, but it did leave him with a white stripe from his ears to the base of his tail. Normally, this wouldn't be anything but irritating. Today...

"Bewdiful," came the slurred voice. Jan looked down to see a striped rat with a puffy tail staring up at him out of unfocussed eyes. "Loves you. Niscehst, nischest girl I've ever seen."

It grabbed Jan's hoof and started kissing it while Jan stared in utter horror. "Kindly let go of me," he muttered, knowing it would be wrong to kick the thing out a window when it could talk, and not sure how to extricate himself without hurting it.

"Nah, nah, nah I loves you." It was slobbering on his foot and it stunk (like a brewery, not that Jan knew it). "You 'n me, gonna make bewdiful music together."

"Help?" Jan ventured, entirely at a loss.

Comments

[thankgoditsme.livejournal.com]

Friday was really over this 'getting up before noon' thing, but he had class again this morning and he suspected it was going to involve running and jumping and exercising until he threw up. Breakfast was probably a good idea. Something involving eggs and juice and healthy things that wouldn't be so terrible if they happened to come back up in a few hours if Professor Dex was feeling cruel today.

He hadn't been expecting to run into Jan again. Or a, what was that? "That's a skunk." Mornings were good for stating the obvious.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

"Friday!" Jan was truly happy to see him, and his voice held a certain amount of desperation. "It won't let go." As if to prove Jan's point, the skunk wrapped its furry forepaws around Jan's leg, and started slobbering sweet nothings into his fetlock. "And it talks."

[thankgoditsme.livejournal.com]

"Did you talk back and ask nicely?"

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

"I asked it to let go." Jan bent his head right down low so he was nose to ear with the skunk. "I don't wish to hurt you, but I will if you do not release me." He wouldn't, not if it could be avoided, but the skunk didn't know that.

The skunk's resopnse was to lunge at Jan's nose and try and smooch him, proclaiming its love

Horrified, he quickly pulled his head away. "It will not listen!"

[thankgoditsme.livejournal.com]

"I think it likes you." Friday walked closer and tried to get a better look. He shrugged. "Hey you. Yeah, skunk. What's all this?"

[notahostage]

Wendy was in search of food. Food and coffee.

She didn't expect the tableau that greeted her as she entered the common room though. "Jan?"

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

The skunk struggled to its feet, weaving as it flopped against Jan's leg. "Ish my girl," it warned her.

Jan sighed and looked at her forlornly. "It is a skunk. I cannot move or it will make a bad smell, and it will not let go."

[notahostage]

"He's not a girl," Wendy addressed the skunk, trying not to laugh for Jan's sake. "He's a unicorn."

She looked up at Jan. "I hear tomato juice will get rid of the smell, at least?"

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

The skunk belched at her. "Ish a stripey girl. Ish my stripey girl."

"I am trying to avoid the smell," Jan muttered, "by waiting for it to fall asleep."

[notahostage]

"You'd be surprised how long it can take some drunkies to fall asleep," Wendy replied sympathetically. "Do girls have horns where you come from? Because he does."

[thankgoditsme.livejournal.com]

"It's you again." Yep, still stating the obvious this morning. "Think Jan will be able to ditch the skunk?"

[notahostage]

"It is indeed me," Wendy replied. "Good to see only one of us needs glasses."

"I don't know, doesn't help that skunks'll stoop to chemical warfare."

[thankgoditsme.livejournal.com]

"I warned him about that, but I don't think he's ever been skunked before," Friday said, then hastily added, "not that I have." Liar.

[notahostage]

"Of course you haven't," Wendy agreed, almost as if she believed him. "I guess it could be worse, could be one of those gremlins I keep hearing about."

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was the fact that Chad hadn't had his morning coffee yet, or maybe it was just the fact that Chad was Chad, but, when he shuffled into the common room that morning, his path clearly aligned for the coffee maker, he merely lifted a hand and grunted a greeting to who his mind identified simply as Dor's roommate, as if the fact that there was a horse in the common room was nothing of interest at all.

And then when he opened the cupboard and there was a skunk inside that looked at Chad sleepily before rubbing his belly and releasing a long, loud burp, Chad didn't even blink. He just grunted again, and lightly pushed the skunk aside so he could get the coffee.

Which he thankfully discovered was in a different cupboard without skunks.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Jan stopped mid-lullaby, and the drunken skunk cuddled his hoof. "Excuse me," he called. "Do you know anything about skunks?" It cuddled even closer. "Specifically how to get rid of one?"

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

The grunt Chad gave in response was a questioning one, his shoulder still stooped tiredly as he almost mechanically went through the motions of getting a pot of coffee started. He grunted again and looked at the skunk on Jan's hoof. Another grunt, this one varied, starting out in approval, but then quickly descending into apologetic uncertainty as Chad's head swayed back and forth a little.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Jan followed that easily, unicorns being big on body language, and he hung his head despondently.

Then jerked it up again to avoid skunk lips.

[notahostage]

Wendy nodded in Chad's direction. "Hey."

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad lifted a hand, but was not yet conscious enough to offer anything more than a grunt in greeting. The smell of coffee brewing, though, was helping to make the grunt at least a bit more expressive.

[notahostage]

"Not a morning person," Wendy said. "I can sympathise."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper wrinkled her nose in distaste as she entered the common room, only to be assaulted by the smell of fermented grains that humans enjoyed so much.

"...Jan?" she said hesitantly, when she saw who was in the room.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

And his morning just grew more humiliating. It was one thing for the humans to see him like this, but Firekeeper?

"It is me, though I could wish it wasn't," he replied, trying to pretend there wasn't a singing drunken skunk cuddling his leg. "Good morning?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"I'd say the same back to you, but..." she glanced down at the skunk clinging to Jan's leg. "I could growl at it?" she offered.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

"No!" he said quickly, and shook his head. "It will spray a foul scent over the whole common room, else I'd have kicked it out the window long since." It was kissing his hoof again, and Jan's skin twitched. "I am waiting for it to fall asleep."