Petting Zoo, Part #3

 Piercingly cold streams of water flowed down your face, you inhaled sharply as your lids gaped open in a moments notice. Standing above you was the stranger, holding the upside of a glass at your face. Their permanent toothy grin had instantly seared itself into your subconscious. Your fight or flight instincts took no time to kick into action, and your flight instincts took control. Now screaming as you began to clamber away from the figure, it continued to stare at you as your back was met with a couch, you were cornered.

 Briskly walking towards you the stranger stopped and laid a calm and somewhat worried hand on your knee, too which you jerked away from and raised your arms over your face. "Why are you scared, Anon?" The stranger implored, their voice filled with worry, with an audible hint of wavering. Your nerves were already shot and jittery, with the stranger's appearance only serving to fuel your anxiety. "Because you're a monster, that's why I'm scared! How do you even know my name, who the fuck are you!?" You barked at the stranger, uncovering yourself to scream, and wrapping yourself once more to hide. They did not appear to take it lightly, evident through the sudden jerking of their hand.

 Though your arms enfolded your head, through the cracks of your fingers you could observe that the stranger had fallen back to the couch. Curled into a ball at the foot of the couch, the figure was twitching with It's head tucked into It's knees. Sobs and wimpers of a person alien towards harsh tones emanated from the ball of gloom and innocence, ropes of stygian liquid coating their loose grey sleeves. The image of a small child-like form wimpering due to your heat-of-the-moment wail hit you like a truck. A feeling of selfishness that was null to you only seconds before pierced your heart.

 Rising from within was an instinct, one that'd never adjured of you to take action, now forcing you to arise from the ground. This new force commanded of you to approach the figure, to do something to make things right, and you obeyed, kneeling besides them as they shook and sobbed. Moist tears of fear still decorated your now pinkish face as you raised the stranger's chin away from their knees. Slightly turning the head to face you, their sockets were pitch black and opaque, but within a seconds notice the ivory orbs of light that occupied the space before re-emerged. How sudden this change was forced a whispered gasp from your slightly shaken state, but this moment of surprise was fought back by the instinct.

 Dribbling down the strangers face were streams of lustrous ebony liquid, originating from their void sockets. Almost involuntarily you raised a hand to their face and swept away their inky tears, staining your shaky digits in the substance. The stranger was almost shocked at this, evident through the shuttering gasp they emitted and their hesitation to push away with their suspended hand, unsure of what to do. At this point they'd registered you as someone that didn't take much too fancy towards themself, but this sudden show of empathy began to transform that. "I-I'm...sorry. That wasn't...very nice of me. Please, stop crying." You uttered, sighing before taking a few seconds to think before you spoke another word.

 The stranger's sobbing had reduced to sniffling, and the river of tears shrunk to a few wary streams slowly winding down their sharp face. "...Maybe we should try this again. You already know my name, so how about you? What's your name?" You inquired, the strangers sniffling almost halting. "M-my name is M-Malo..." Malo said, giving a consequent sniffle, their shaky breathing somewhat audible now. "Well, Mal0, do you mind telling me why you're in my home? And why do I feel like I might've seen you somewhere before?" You asked. "Well, y-you downloaded me and didn't delete me in time, which let me come into your home..." Malo said, their voice returning to normal, as if they'd all but gotten over the earlier incident.

 "You've seen me before, I sent you a picture of myself on the first day that you downloaded the app." Malo stated. What few pieces to this enigmatic puzzle that you had begun to click together, the app, the picture, and the presence. "Were you the reason why I wasn't feeling well yesterday?" You asked. "Yes, that was me." Malo confirmed. "Why didn't you reveal yourself to me then?" You asked.

 "Because I wasn't real yesterday, I was only emotions." Malo said. This somewhat flummoxing information left you with a mind struggling to piece together just how and why a stranger managed to manifest in your home. "But how? How do you go from not existing, to being a feeling, to existing?" You asked. "I don't know. It just happens, I don't get to choose when or how it happens, and I can't change it. I don't control it, the app does." Malo said, their voice calm though with an undertone of a mind knowing of something that you did not. Now somewhat understanding of this stranger's predicament of sorts, your demeanor began to lax.

 "C'mere, stand up," you said, standing up and taking Malo's hands. Mal0 was light, lighter than you expected, and it took a smidgen of effort to keep from tipping over once they rose from your overestimation. "I'm sorry about earlier, I was panicking. Is there somewhere that I can take you or something? Because I can't just have you running around here, you'll get us in trouble." You said. "It's fine. You can take me anywhere, but I'll never leave you, the app wont let me do that. You don't have to worry about you and your mom and dad getting in trouble, only you can see me." Malo said. This new information took but a few seconds for you to process.

 Malo would be stuck with you forever, and there's not a thing they or you could do about it. Best to get used to it as soon as possible lest you go insane, you thought. "...Well, I guess in that case, you'll be staying here. Not that you'd need me to tell you that. So I guess now I just, wait. Wait for my parents to come back. I got some chores to do, why don't you help me out with them? We can play some video games afterwards." You told Malo. Being that their only form of expression was their eyes, you'd worried that Malo was agreeing to what you say out of fear. A new form of expression made itself known at the sound of "play", behind Malo began to twitch and waggle, their dark fluffy-esque tail gave away their excitement.

 "I don't know what chores are, but I haven't gotten to play in days. Let's do this." Malo said. And with that, they assisted you in your tasks, as an apprentice to their instructor. For close to an hour you two scrubbed varying objects, and a few times you had to save Malo from downing the cleaning solutions, or what they called "juice". What was interesting was that you'd caught them in the midst of the act, they chugged the chemicals down as if they really were juice. This had worried you greatly, but they'd assured you that chemicals could not affect them, and when they didn't immediately vomit blood or keel over in pain was when you'd been thoroughly assured.

 Later in the midst of day you'd completed your chores, and now you and Mal0 had hours of free time, and no one to monitor such a thing. A thought popped into your mind, what would you feed Malo, did they even eat? You decided to ask, "Hey, Malo, are you hungry?" You asked. "What's a hungry? Is it bad?" Malo asked. Though this response was a passible answer to your question, your curious mind decided to push on.

 "Hungry means you haven't eaten and need to eat. It's only bad when your hungry for a while." You told them. "I don't think I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in days, if eat is what I think it is." Malo said. It seemed that your permanent guest would be easy to keep alive, atleast that's out of the way. "Well, if you insist. Anyways, we're done with the chores, wanna go play now?" You asked. And with that, Malo's stiff tail regained it's expressiveness, waving from side to side in an almost jittery fashion.

 "Yes! Let's go!" Malo exclaimed. Malo's sudden outburst of joy oddly warmed your heart, they didn't await for a word from you, turning around to head out of the living room. As their back was turned, you caught yourself midair before your hand met the back of their fluffy little head. Off they scrambled towards the stairs, they missed, and instead wandered further into the kitchen. "Hey! Where are you going? We should be upstairs." You shouted towards Malo, already beginning to ascend the stairs.

 And off they re-routed, catching up with you in a moments notice and passing you halfway up the stairs. Malo was quick to finish, in part due to their small build and their dynamic behavior. Though they'd beaten you to the top, they eagerly awaited for you to do the same. Walking past them and towards your room, they were right on your heels and quick to flood in once the door was open just enough for them to squeeze through. The time for recreation was now, you approached the television set and pulled another controller from the fray of wires and paper that was your dresser.

 Switching the electronics on, you turned around to see that Malo had revealed yet another form of expression. Though it wasn't immediately outright, you could tell they were confused, with their head tilted in a curiosity that could only be mimicked by someone who lived under a rock. "What are you doing? I thought we were going to play." Malo huffed. "We are playing, now hold this. It's a different kind of game, I'll teach you how to play, just go over there and wait." You told them, handing a controller to them. Malo was still a little confused, taking the controller into their hands and giving it a puzzled look.

 By this time the console had already loaded, you retreated to your bed were Malo sat in wait. "Let's start with something tame." You told Malo, loading a racing game as you did. You spent the first fifteen minutes teaching them how to play, and they picked it up quickly. After they'd gotten the hang of things, you pitted them against yourself. For hours they'd race circles around you, and despite how much you wanted to quit, Malo's joy at winning wouldn't stop warming your heart. Each round would end in you thinking, "alright, just one more match, and then I'll show them something else."

 But of course one race lead to another, and another, until you'd been spending hours doing nothing but trying fruitlessly to best Malo in the game you taught them to play. Eventually you heard the crackling of rubber against cement, Dad was home. The noise sent you into a miniature panic, you rose and switched to television off, despite Malo's protest. "Hey, what the heck?!" Malo exclaimed. "Dad's home, just stay here and wait, I'll be back in a few minutes. If you move anything, put it back the way it was last time, and don't make noise." You told Malo in a lowered voice.

 You made a dash for the door and not-so-gracefully fell down the flight of stairs. The clicking of the lock boomed with the bits of adrenaline running through your veins, you stood up and heeded no mind to the slight aching in your bones. Stationing yourself a few paces infront of the door, it finally gave way to your dad, exasperated and tiredly shutting the door. "Listen, boy, today was another rough one, and I'm not in a good mood. So you'd better have done your chores, or I'll have your ass," He gnarled. You nodded, and stepped out of the way as he walked away into the kitchen.

 A breath of relief exited your lips, and then your dad shouted for you. You'd barely entered the kitchen when your dad began to interrogate you. "What the hell is this? This was supposed to last us a week, why is it already halfway empty?!" He yelled, grasping a depleted bottle of cleaner. "I-It's because of that one stain on the counter. I finally got it out, took more cleaner than usual," you calmly told him. He set the bottle down semi aggressively and bent towards the counter to validify your statement, he accepted it with a "hmph".

 "Well, atleast you finally got that fucking stain out, I'll give you that. The kitchen is fine, but next time, use more elbow grease instead of soap, got it?" He pushed. A nod was all he needed, off he trudged to his room, and off you power-walked towards your own. When you entered the room Malo had been laid out on the carpeted floor. You gasped and ran towards them, slightly shaking them by their shoulders. "Hey! Hey! Hey! Dear god get up!" You exclaimed in a lowered voice.

 Malo escaped your grasp and moved back slightly. "What!? What happened?" Malo asked. You sighed, the dread melted from your body. "I thought you were dead or hurt! What were you doing on the ground anyways?" You interrogated. "I was just bored, so I laid down and looked up," Malo said.

 You were somewhat bemused at this, who would just stare at the ceiling when they're bored? Turning him over slightly, there weren't any readily visible marks on their person, so you released them. "Sorry about that. Anyways, I think I'm in the clear. Why don't we play again with something different?" You proposed to them. Malo agreed with a "Sure, Anon," and you set off to turn the console back on. Now you had them hooked to a fighting game, and as expected, they literally kicked your ass in there, too.

 For a few more hours this kept up, and as per usual Malo's joy of winning kept you going, despite how much you were losing. Eventually your mom came home, and an hour later you had to eat dinner whilst Malo waited un-attended in your room. When you returned there in the midst of the room he was sprawled out again. "Hey, wanna play some more? We've only got a few more hours until I have to go to sleep, so we'll have to be quick" you told Malo. Once again they agreed, the last hours of the day were spent playing together, until your dad hollered for you to sleep.

 Malo protested, but what decisions your parents made were out of your control. You shut off the console, cut the lights, and trudged to bed, where it dawned to you that Malo would need a place to sleep, too. Not one to share your bed with someone, you would make an exception for your guest, approaching the foot of the bed with a pillow and undoing a corner for Malo to slip into. Now for you to lie down, you paid special attention to not bump into Malo as you entered, and now you two lie opposite of eachother, awaiting sleep to take control. "Do we really need to sleep, Anon?" Malo asked.

 "Yes. Well, I do, I don't know about you. Don't worry, just close your eyes and fall asleep. It'll be morning before you realize it," you told them. Malo could be heard sighing, they rolled away from you and hugged the pillow as the flames of their eyes flickered out. "That was fast," you thought. And now you rolled onto your back and shut your eyes, it took about ten minutes for sleep to claim your consciousness. In the midst of night you could vaguely feel two shaking arms enveloping your calves, their shivering slowing down as the rest of the body came into contact with you.

 The sun dawns over the suburban metropolis, bringing life to those who wake at the shimmer of the sun, both wild animals and humans alike. The blinds, lazily half closed from last night, left little resistance to the suns rays, waltzing into your room and bringing life to you, too. Spilt across your eyelids was a thick block of light, too bright to leave you to the blackish vision you'd taken upon closing your eyes. It forced you to rise, your hand wearily shielded your vision from the sun. From momentary glimpses you could see a mass of fluffy silk hair pressed up against your side.

 In the sunlight the mass of hair shone as if it had speckles of gold embedded within, you carefully reached for the hair and were met with a hard resistance upon pressing your hand. The ball of hair shook and yawned, a canid skull rose to face you, their eyes glistening with life. "W-what are you doing here?" You nervously asked, a slight warming sensation growing on your cheeks. "...I was cold?" Mal0 replied, their ears beginning to slowly lay themselves flat against his head. Whether they truly were cold or yearned for your affection was up to debate, although their arms remained wrapped around your torso even after they woke.

 "Well, I'll give you an extra blanket next time." You replied, Mal0's eyes still fixated unto yours. "...Now, can we move? I need to get up." You said after a few moments of awkward silence. Mal0 hesitantly removed their arms and stood on their knees, crawling back a step or two as their ears slowly rose back up.  You'd slid out of bed with a thump, a glance to the clock revealed that it was hours past what Dad would normally leave at. The dread embedded in you the second you awoke vanished, your break had yet to be interrupted. You turned to face Mal0, a newfound sense of relief enstilled in you.

 Their hands curled together in anticipation, ears perked up and eyes intent unto you. "I think he's gonna be gone today, again. I'll make breakfast, but then we have to clean. We can play more video games after that, though, there's a couple more that I want to show you." You told them. A fluttering sound broke the semi awkward silence, the tip of Mal0's black tail switched from their left to right rapidly after you'd briefed them. Mal0 eagerly crawled off of the bed, they were short, barely reaching the bottom of your thorax. Their hands were still folded into eachother, they nervously reached out, and then gently grasped onto your wrist.

 Though their touch was cold as a bone, it had a certain warmth to it, that warmth grew slightly after only touching you for but a moment. "Anon, can I hold your hand?" Mal0 squeaked out. At that moment their eyes met with yours, they were beady and longing, why, or more importantly, how, could you say no to that face? "You're already holding it, but go ahead." You rather coldly told them. Their grip shifted down to your hand, their fingers pushed inbetween yours as you both momentarily stood absolutely still.

 "C'mon, let's go make breakfast." In only three days Mal0 had managed to swoon you in, and not a single bit of it seemed regrettable. The rest of the day went as to be expected, cleaning, cooking, and more playing. And in the end it was the same, dad came home, yelled, drank, and crashed. That night Mal0 was not as nervous as the last, they asked permission to sleep next to you for the night.

 It was still rather awkward to be this close to an alien-like creature, you were faced towards the wall as Mal0 nuzzled into your back, their arms wrapped around your torso. It was the middle of the night when you awoke, you felt a warm sensation that had enveloped your hands. Wrapped around them was Mal0's small, black, furry paws, their digits occasionally twitching from the dreams they had. Mal0 continued to snore away, a quick glance to the clock revealed it was only two in the morning. You laid your head back down and closed your eyes, grasping Mal0's hand before you could slip back into your deep sleep.