welcome home 12

After disembarking from the car, the trio made their way through the half filled parking lot towards the main entrance, the sheer scale of the building only now hitting Riley.

"This place is massive..." She remarked offhandedly, unable to even take the size of the white structure without moving her head to the sides.

"It's a furniture store after all, needs to be large to offer any sort of meaningful variety." Rick responded as they stepped through the sliding doors, the gray floor and the raw, uncovered ceiling contrasting greatly with the colorful furniture on display.

"Alright, so our shopping list is-" Rick pulled out a small sheet of paper, reading off of it as Riley took in the sights-

"Some drawers and wardrobe to fit the desk and bed we already have, a good chair, some shelves, a nice carpet to cover the floor, choice of paint for the walls, and then basically whatever small things that would add to the room."

"That's quite... vague." Riley remarked, having no idea how would they choose anything out of such a massive collection.

"Well, a good first step is just to find the bedrooms section and look for things of similar color." Andrew chimed in, knowing the path in his head already.

"Where would that be?"

"Well, follow me!" He responded with a cheer, his tail waving to the sides as they made their way through the store, Riley having a hard time taking her eyes off the various living rooms and kitchens on display.

Or from people.

She could constantly spot people staring at them as they walked, some in curiosity, some looking almost sorry for her, to which she responded with a resentful glare. Judgmental pricks.

To her disappointment even some other anthros stared at them like that, one feline looking mom even pulling her toddler to the side when he looked up at Ashers passing through.

Can't escape the pecking order.

She tried to shake herself away from the unpleasant realization, just pushing on and once again pretending that they were alone in the shop. Thankfully, soon enough they reached the bedrooms section, quickly finding some bright enough designs that they could fit with the stuff they already had.

With Riley not really having any stylistic preferences, this part went by quickly enough. A cheap light woodgrain dresser and a matching wardrobe next to it did the trick, easily having more space for clothes between them than she would conceivably ever need.

Seeing Rick write down their store numbers and leave it at that made Riley raise an eyebrow, Andrew thankfully catching onto it and quickly explaining-

"Oh, we're gonna have to assemble them ourselves, we're not gonna take the ones on display."

She nodded slowly, having had exactly zero experience in buying furniture herself.

"Yeah, we only grab boxes with parts and assembly instructions, gonna put them together on Thursday once we're done painting the room." Rick added in, taking a look around the section to see whether they've missed anything.

"That's... unusual." She responded, wondering how would they put together something like a wardrobe, taller than even Andrew. Or how would they transport the parts for that matter.

"That's IKEA for you." Rick shrugged before asking his son in an apologetic tone- "Andrew, mind going back to grab a cart? Guess we all got caught up and forgot."

He simply nodded in response and head back in the direction they came from, Rick taking the opportunity to lay down on a nearby bed, his tail laying flat between his legs.

"So, you mentioned wanting a dark color for the walls, right?" He spoke up, eyes still closed as he enjoyed a moment of downtime.

"Yeah..." She trailed off, her brain deciding to remind her of all the people looking at them earlier.

"Something wrong?" He caught on to her turmoil, opening an eye and raising an eyebrow in her direction.

"All the people staring at us..."

"Aye." He acknowledged it solemnly, taking a deep breath before continuing- "Sadly, that's just reality for us. You just get used to it after a while. Fortunately it's mostly just quiet glances and occasional stares, at least it got a bit better than when I was your age."

"H-how bad was it?" She asked quietly, the gravity of the discussion hitting her.

"Well, I didn't get chased out of anywhere, but I came close a couple times. As well as a handful of loud jeers and the like..." He kept his tone flat, reminiscing the shitty past but not letting it eat him up. "I'm mostly thankful my kids don't have to put up with that. Or at least, not to the same extent..." He added as he thought of Lily's situation at school.

"I'm so sorry..."

"It's not your fault Riley, not in the slightest. Focusing on stuff like that too much only leads to bad places, as, as self-defeating as that may sound. Hence why it's so important for me to make sure our home feels as welcoming as possible, for the respite from all the quiet hostility of the world."

Riley could only nod quietly, hoping that she hadn't defiled that welcoming-ness too much, staring at the panel flooring as the thought kept drilling into her. She almost didn't hear Rick get up behind her before he advised-

"Breathe deeply Riley." He said softly, standing up a couple feet from her.

She did so, trying to repeat the exercise in the car, airing the anxious thoughts out, every breath calming her down a bit. After a few moments she turned towards Rick and looked up at him, nodding in appreciation.

His mouth opened up to speak, but was cut off by Andrew making his way up to them, looking a bit curiously as he announced his presence-

"Did something happen?"

"Don't worry, it's all fine now." Rick calmed him down, gesturing to Riley to follow them as they made their way through the store, her eyes now firmly focused on the furniture, and not people, as they made their way towards the paint section of the store.

The absurd number of various chairs on display made her way spin, some in shapes that made Riley wonder if it's even possible to actually sit down on them.

She wasn't prepared on the rainbows of colors, dazzling and stretching from floor to the ceiling.

"So many colors, holy-"

"Well, the selection shrinks a fair bit if we just focus on the darker ones, but that's definitely quite a sight, innit?" Rick cut her short, pushing the cart deeper into the aisle, towards darker shades.

"You mentioned something about purple, right?"

"Yeah, but I think I meant something darker than any of those." She responded, her hand pointing towards the various purples and lavenders near them.

"Hope it's not black, heh." Andrew chuckled, following up when Riley looked at him with a raised eyebrow-

"Mom would hate a black room, she's already only barely tolerated me having chosen dark gray."

"Because your furniture is also gray, can barely see a thing in there." Rick chimed in to the contrary.

"I can see all fine in there."

"Your sight is twenty/twenty, Ella's isn't."

Andrew looked away at the floor in shame from the reminder, Rick continuing.

"Thankfully Riley's furniture is gonna be light, so she can choose as dark as she wants. Altho black would be a tad bit weird, agreed on that."

"No, not black, don't worry." She responded, taking a look at the dark blues, suddenly getting an idea and walking up to the navy blues.

"This one looks quite close..." She whispered to herself, taking a look at one particular shade, inspecting it as Rick chimed in-

"Close to what?"

"The night sky!" She responded, sounding quite proud of herself at the idea, always wanting to try out sleeping under the stars, fascinated by the prospect of just looking up and seeing uncountable sparkles...

"Now that's an awesome idea!" Andrew responded in excitement, adding- "Maybe we can grab some stars as well?"

"Stars?"

"Fluorescent ones, so that they could actually glow in the dark! How's that sound dad?"

"Sounds wonderful!" Rick seemed to share in his son's excitement, nodding happily at Riley.

She grinned at their enthusiasm, grabbing a can of the appropriately named Midnight Blue and placing it in the cart, Rick inspecting the can and grabbing a couple more, seeming to have gotten an idea himself.

"Andrew, could you take Riley to find a nice office chair for her? I'm gonna grab the stars and some other stuff."

His son nodded, gesturing towards Riley to follow him to another section of the store as Rick took the cart in the other direction, tail still and expression deep in thought.

After quickly discarding the idea of trying out the fancy plastic chairs, Riley took a look at one of the metal ones with the wheels underneath, taking a decently comfortable seat, her eyes going wide as she leaned back and so did the back of the chair, Riley flailing for a moment as she thought she was falling off the thing.

But no, the seat stopped leaning back eventually, the momentum lifting the front wheels off the ground for a second, adding to the freefall sensation before the whole thing steadied itself again, Riley needing to take a moment to make sure she still was on the chair.

"You look like you saw a ghost or something." Andrew chuckled as he walked up, not having noticed Riley's brief freakout.

She leaned in onto the chair and tried to lean back again, and again, the seat gave in.

"What's up with this- this weird ass chair?" She responded, a bit calmer but still unnerved at what just happened.

"It's so that you can adjust the seat to the best angle, guess it freaked you out a bit?" He responded, adding two and two together.

"Y-yeah, s-such a weird design..." She slowly calmed down, sitting back up uncomfortably, looking at him slightly confused.

"Nah, it's a standard for office chairs, guess whoever was checking it out earlier forgot to lock it like this-" He knelt and slid in a lever underneath the seat, his tail looking quite funny as it waved above him.

"Try it out now."

Riley leaned back, and sure enough, this time it actually provided support, and was rather comfortable. She fiddled with the lever Andrew had just used, locking the seat a bit further back, satisfied with herself until she noticed the other lever, pushing on it and jumping a bit as the chair seat started rising. She hoped she hadn't broken anything on accident, snapping her hand away from underneath her seat, trying to appear as innocuous as she could.

"Thanks, now it's an actual ch-" She stopped in an instant as her leg brushed against the bottom section, rotating the seat a bit. She tried doing that again, and sure enough, the chair did rotate. She kept doing that, realizing she could turn it around all the way, before getting the idea everyone trying an office chair for the first time did, preparing for a takeoff before Andrew grabbed the back of her chair-

"Ha, I know what you're thinking about, and lemme stop you right here. They reaaaally don't like people doing that here, me and Lily *and* Timmy already got an earful for that. At home, sure, but not here."

She nodded in embarrassment before getting up, catching her balance before going to check another chair, thankfully the back of this one already locked, and really quite comfortable, Riley not expecting the professional looking chair to feel so nice to sit in.

"Good choice, that's the one I use." Andrew commended her intuition, taking a seat in a chair on the opposite side of the small aisle, taking a look at her.

"Well, I'm definitely liking it so far..." She responded, leaning into the comfort of her seat as a doubt from earlier decided to show itself again, prompted by the way he was looking at her. She looked back up at warmly smiling Andrew, before asking a something that made his gently waving tail freeze solid.

"So, what was the *real* reason you came here with me and Rick?"

He clearly wasn't expecting a question like that, his eyes darting away as his smile wilted.

"I-I told you, it's c-cause I wanted to help you a-and I enjoy spending time with you!" He was obviously hiding something, Riley's brows raising a bit as she pressed on-

"Is that all? I- I really want you to be honest with me Andrew, I'm not gonna think any less of you or of what you've done for me." She was as earnest as she could be, not wanting or upset her bro, just for him to tell her the truth.

He looked startled, lifting his palm to hide his face as he turned his chair further away from her, the fur on his tail bristling a bit.

"P-p-promise?" He asked quietly, sounding as if he was about to tear up, hearing him sound so sad made her regret her question for a moment before she continued.

"Of course Andrew, you are my big bro after all." She tried to sound as light hearted as she could, despite his reaction making her internally worry how bad the realization was gonna be.

He took a few deep breaths as his tail slowly straightened out, slightly damp eyes turning to look at her as the painful words came out-

"I-I-I'm having so-some feelings towards you I r-really shouldn't be having..."

His response only confused her further, before she took a stab at what feelings he was talking about-

"Y-you find me hot?"

"Oh no, goodness, no, of course not, I-I meant I'm liking you a bit too much..."

She nodded slowly as the second option came up, the possibility made more certain by his words-

"You're crushing on me?"

Bingo. He froze briefly yet again, taking a deep breath before nodding slowly.

"That's why you came with us?"

"I-I did w-want to help you, b-but a-also just spend m-more time with you..."

"I'm... honestly unsure of how to react." She admitted honestly, not sensing any malice or perversion in his words or actions so far that could make her start doubting towards darker undertones.

"I'm so sorry Riley, I-I thought i-it was gonna blow over s-sooner, I-I don't want to make you uncomfortable like that..."

"H-hey, it's all fine Andrew... It's not what I expected, not by a long shot, but you are aware that these are feelings you shouldn't be having, which honestly eases most of my worries."

He looked back up at her, a slight wobbly smile forming as his eyes tried not to tear up.

"I-I'm glad, I was a-afraid you'd think of me as s-some sort of a pervert..."

"Not at all Andrew, not at all." She returned the slight smile, getting up and walking up towards him, thinking it was his turn to get a reassuring hug, extending her arms a bit uncertainly.

He noticed the gesture with slight surprise and got up, letting her hold him tightly.

"You're still the best bro I could have ever wished for Andrew. Even if you're in a dire need of a girlfriend." She added with a slight giggle, hugging him tighter before letting go, looking up to him once more.

"T-thank you Riley, a-and again I'm sorry f-for all this, g-guess I do really need a girlfriend, heh..." He slowly calmed down as he sat back down, a bit too heavily for the chair to not squeak from underneath him.

"Truth be told, I kinda assumed you had one already, you're genuinely a sweet guy." She complimented him, keeping up her smile as he blushed in response.

"N-never had the courage to a-ask any out..." He chuckled, his past regrets stinging like a cloud of mosquitoes.

"I see. I wish I had some solid advice for this stuff, but I haven't really had any more luck with this than you." She admitted, looking to the side herself.

"Never had a boyfriend?"

"Nope, a couple guys at the orphanage did try to ask me out, but they were young and dumb and most of them were lucky they didn't end up with broken noses for their efforts."

"Haha, that's definitely one way to deal with pesky guys, heh... heh..." He chuckled a bit nervously, really hoping that none of his classmates would have a similar idea to deal with him if he ever did decide to vocalize his interest in them.

"What about girlfriends?" He followed up unexpectedly, the question short circuiting something in Riley's brain as she could only flatly respond-

"But... I am a girl."

"And? There are girls that are into girls, my favorite aunt is one!"

The realization made Riley's eyes shoot wide as she processed it.

"Oh. Ohhhhh..."

So many more events and feelings suddenly made so, so much more sense in retrospective it almost scared her. She had to stop herself from reminiscing with a solid shake, getting up and looking around trying to suppress the internal realization-

"Rick's been gone for a while now, any idea where he might be?"

Andrew lifted an eyebrow at her as her expression went a bit wild, before getting up together with her, having a look around, pointing into a direction-

"There he is!"

Riley tried to squint her eyes as hard as she could, but all she could make out was a small black blob. She thought her eyesight perfect, so the realization she couldn't see whatever Andrew saw was a bit disconcerting. She was distracted from her doubt as Andrew waved and even jumped in place in Rick's direction, the black blob slowly approaching, the shopping cart quite a bit fuller than the last time she saw it, a lot of its contents hidden underneath a slightly disheveled blue tarp.

"There you two are. Picked one already?" Rick asked, straight to the point, Riley walking back to the comfortable chair she sat on and showed Rick its tag.

"Same as Andrew eh? Guess he did help you after all, it's one good chair in this price range."

Oh boy did he now.

"Yep, same model. See you've grabbed some shelves as well?" She noticed the plank-like things sticking out from underneath the tarp, Rick nodding and responding-

"Just picked them from the same set as the dresser and such, that alright?"

"Sure. So, what's left now?"

"The carpet and some small things, might grab some lunch on our way there."

"...this place offers lunch?"

***

This place did offer lunch.

As Riley was taking a bite out of a Swedish meatball in front of her, she looked around the small food court, most other tables taken as well.

No surprise about that, these things tasted so much better than they had any right to with a name like that.

"So, enjoying the special?" Rick asked with a small chuckle at how quickly Riley managed to empty her plate.

"Didn't know you could make meat like- like this taste actually good."

"You definitely can, just have to actually cook it first."

She chuckled at that, taking her paper plate and throwing it in the trash bin, stretching her arms a bit.

"If you want to Riley, you can already start checking out the carpets, they're just right down this aisle." Andrew guided her, Riley nodding to the other two as she made her way over, breaking into a brief jog as she scaled the massive corridor, finally ending up at the hundreds and hundreds of carpets.

Most of them horribly tacky.

Her expression soured a bit as she went through the dozens upon dozens of patterns that looked like they crawled their way out of the Victorian era, briefly losing hope of finding anything serviceable before one particular pattern presented itself to her, a light bulb going off in her head instantly at how well it fit her earlier night sky idea.

Relatively uniform dark green, with details that made it looks like a field of grass despite being soft and nice to the touch. Just like actually sleeping outside, haha.

Having already made her choice, she went around checking the rest of the carpets, trying to find the absolutely worst one of the bunch, succeeding upon spotting the obscenely complex wanna-be Persian rug that when asked what colors it wanted to use, answered with 'All of them.'

She was giggling at it when Andrew called out-

"Didn't think you for the kind of a person to go for Persian rugs." He chuckled to himself, rewarded with Riley sliding her tongue out at him before she responded-

"Nah, was just trying to find the ugliest thing here I could."

"That's... yeah that's a very good contender for the category, I have to admit. Gives me a headache just looking at it." Rick chimed in, looking almost baffled as he tried to take in the entire mess of the carpet.

"But anywho, found one you actually unironically enjoy?"

"Yeah, it's a bit earlier in, it's thiiiiiiis one!" She dragged the sentence on as she ran up to the green carpet, pointing at it with a smile.

"Fits with the night sky, doesn't it?" She chimed in happily, glad to have found something so genuinely nice and to be able to make a space of her own.

"It sure does, it's great!" Rick responded with a wide smile, a fair bit more enthusiastic than Riley expected, not deciding to pay it that much mind as he wrote down its tag.

"So, that's basically it unless you need something else." He added, relieved that they got the necessities squared away.

"A mirror maybe?" She responded a bit uncertain, unable to come up with much else.

"We have a nice one that would fit great with the dresser, currently busy gathering dust in the basement."

"In that case I think I'm set!" Riley shared in Rick's relief, having seen enough furniture to last a lifetime.

"Great! Andrew, you and Riley can head back to the entrance, I'll grab the boxes and then we'll load it all in the car, aight?"

They nodded, Riley following Andrew's tail as Rick turned around with his cart, pushing it a bit strenuously.

"Need some help dad?" Andrew quickly noticed, walking up to Rick with some concern in his voice.

"Don't worry, better take Riley back to the entrance-"

"Riley, just hug the left wall and you'll get there sooner or later." Andrew interrupted, still wanting to help his dad out as she nodded and headed through the store.

The dozens of light fixtures almost distracted her from her intended path before she snapped out of her moth-like trance, making her way through a few creepy bathrooms and finally arriving at the main entrance, taking a seat on one of the benches and looking around, walking up to one of the news stands near the main exit, some red logo above it.

She briefly went through the newspapers on display, having had no luck in finding anything in the more recognizable publications. After putting whatever national rag she checked out back down she reached for something with a lot less budget, with "St. Louis" in the title and browsed it open, expecting to find nothing still, her stint having blown over quietly...

But it hadn't.

```
13 Pages (UPDATE)

By: ADAM ROBINSON
---

Following the unexpected call for help received by our redaction office on Friday night, and the unwillingness of Oakwood Child Care Center to comment on the testimonies contained within the thirteen pages sent to our office, we promised to keep the readers updated on the developments of this story.

Since the Saturday morning we've sent four journalists to the Oakwood Child Care Center, and while we couldn't get any staff to comment on the events that have passed, we've noticed the presence of a large amount of police officers on the scene, as well as employees of the St. Lewis County and Minnesota State Child Care offices, who both refused to comment.

Our journalist who'd visited the Oakwood Child Care Center late yesterday, has found it locked up and seemingly completely abandoned, declared as "Condemned" by the Minnesota State Child Care office. The fate of both its pupils and its staff remains unknown, as well as the identity or fate of the initial whistleblower. We await an official statement from the Minnesota State Child Care office or from St. Lewis County Child Care office.
```

It took Riley a few moments to fully take in the implications of her actions, almost dropping the paper in shock. Oakwood orphanage... Condemned?

"Riley!" She heard Andrew call out from behind her, a massively loaded cart right behind him, being slowly pushed forward by straining Rick.

She put the newspaper down and ran up to them, offering to help with pushing the cart, only to be refused by Rick with a shake of his head.

"Andrew, race ahead to the car and prepare the space for all this, fold the seats back-" He managed to force out a breathless sentence and toss his keys to his son, who nodded in acknowledgment before taking off.

Riley slowly watched Rick push the overloaded cart forward, helping him out with turns on the slightly bumpy asphalt, adding in some force herself as they had finally made their way back to the car, the trunk and most doors already opened, rightmost back and front seats neatly bent backwards to the point of laying completely flat.

One after another, Andrew helped Rick in moving the long, slender boxes from the cart into the car, stacking them on top of each other, with a few larger ones going straight into the trunk, as well as the many, many cans of paint, much more than the three they initially packed. She wanted to ask Rick about this but he was more busy, packing in shelves and the rolled up carpet. Riley was kinda baffled as to how exactly did they manage to fit it all in, but they somehow pulled it off, sharing a high five as they both gathered their breaths, Riley proactively taking the cart back into the store.

After a brief stroll back the car was already closed all over, with only the rear door open, Andrew squished on the middle seat waiting for her, shifting as far as he could to give Riley some space.

She managed to squeeze herself in and shut the door, seatbelts were right out of the question with how cramped the rear seats were.

"Everyone in?" Rick asked, finding a tiny viewing spot between the piles of stuff in the trunk, slowly pulling back from the garage, the car feeling noticeably more sluggish with all the load.

Despite being squished so much by the door on the left and Andrew on the right, Riley found this all quite enjoyable, the slow speed of the car and the slight rumbles making her doze off, her head landing on Andrew's shoulder. She could have sword she heard him giggle before she finally dozed off...