House Warming
August 2010

	Ruth was halfway through the flute score for Beethoven's Fifth when someone rapped on her window.  She took a deep breath, determined not to let her practice be interrupted, and played louder.  But they just knocked again.  Nobody was supposed to know she was home.  She had the blinds drawn because she felt she played best naked, and she knew nobody could see her.  But they had certainly heard her.  As she took another breath, her visitor knocked a third time, and a familiar voice called out, “Ruthie, we know you're in there.  Open up and let us in.”
	It was the Winter sisters, her best friends from school.  The voice belonged to Rachel, who was the sweetest girl in the world but a bit of a ditz at times.  Knocking on the window would have been her idea.  Defeated, and feeling equal parts relief and annoyance, she laid her flute gently on her bed and took her old cotton bathrobe off its hook on the door.  She raised the blinds slowly and tried to fix her face into something approaching a stern expression, willing her ears to lie flat against her head.  It never worked.  Her friends were standing right in front of the window screen, arms linked, all smiles and bright blue eyes.  They were twin rabbits, both blonde, both the kind of slender, pretty girls to whom cheer-leading and bubblegum came  naturally.
	“It took you long enough, kitty cat,” said Rachel.
	“Is your sister home?” said Abigail.
	Ruth tied her robe loosely around her waist and leaned against the windowsill to catch the slight breeze that came in.  Her fur was thick enough that even with all of the windows open the heat was more than she could bear.
	“Amy's out in the park with her new girlfriend, playing with her toys,” she said.
	“She found a new one huh?  It's about time,” said Abigail.
	“Can we come in?” said Rachel.
	“You know I'm not really supposed to let you,” said Ruth.
	“Aw, please?  We won't be here but a minute,” said Rachel.
	The girls were identical twins.  They both had white fur with splashes of light and dark brown all over their bodies.  The only way to tell them apart was by the color of their splashes.  Abigail's spots were mostly light brown, the color of butterscotch.  Rachel was covered in dark brown patches, the color of caramel.  This morning they both wore matching black t-shirts that showed off their bellies, and skirts that didn't quite reach their knees.
	“You're not being fair,” said Ruth.
	“Does that mean yes?  You know Amy, she'll be out all day with her girl,” said Abigail.
	“She wouldn't mind us.  She was the one who invited us to your birthday party that first year, remember?” said Rachel.
	“My sixteenth.  That was the year Alex knocked the cake on the floor and you took me out for ice cream instead,” said Ruth.
	“And kept you out after midnight.  I didn't think your sister would ever forgive us for that,” said Abigail.
	Ruth unlocked the screen and swung it open.  Her window was twice as wide as normal, and reached from the ceiling almost all the way to the floor.  Her room had been the master bedroom, before her mother had died.  She'd moved in because Amelia didn't want it.
	“If you guys get me in trouble, I'll... Well, just don't, okay?” said Ruth.
	Rachel stepped over the windowsill, taking care to hold her skirt down with one paw.  She had always been the shy, quiet sister.  The three of them had gone camping together, and had seen each other naked, but that didn't stop Rachel from acting as shy as she'd been when they'd been kids.
	“You worry too much.  Nothing's going to happen,” said Abigail.
	The butterscotch-spotted rabbit swung herself across the threshold, careless of the fact that, for a moment, Ruth could see straight up her skirt.  The girl was wearing red panties with little black hearts and she grinned when she noticed Ruth's attention.
	“Cute robe,” she said.
	Ruth, reminded of her own state of near undress, scurried over to her closet and rummaged inside for something to wear.  She hadn't had time to do any laundry yet but she found one last clean pair of jeans and a pale green t-shirt that was too big for her at the back of the closet.  Amelia had bought it for her because the color matched her eyes, but it showed too much of her cleavage when she wore it.
	“You don't remember what day it is, do you?” said Rachel.
	“Sure I do.  It's August something.  The fifth, I think,” said Ruth.
	“Oh dear.  She gets a new piece of music and she might as well just put her brain on hold,” said Abigail.
	She picked up Ruth's flute and blew across the mouthpiece to make it squeak while Ruth buttoned her pants and tucked her shirt in.
	“It's August seventh,” said Rachel.
	“Our birthday,” said Abigail.
	Ruth froze, caught by feelings of shame and guilt while the sisters looked at her.
	“It can't be,” she said.
	Abigail took her by the arm and turned her toward the far wall.  There was a digital clock on the wall by her desk that showed the date under the time.  It had been another gift from Amelia, who had gotten tired of Ruth's always being late for everything.  The time was displayed in big green numbers and currently read 11:35A.  Underneath, in small red text, the clock read Aug. 7.  Ruth felt her tail droop as the shame turned the insides of her ears bright red.
	“Oh shit.  I'm sorry, I didn't mean to forget you,” said Ruth “I didn't even buy you guys a present.”
	“We know.  That's why we're here,” said Abigail.
	“You're going to be our present,” said Rachel.
	“What do you mean?” said Ruth.
	The sisters were on either side of her now and they both took hold of one of her arms.  They were smaller than Ruth was, but they had been on the cheer-leading squad all four years of high school, and they were used to lifting girls into the air.  Ruth mewed in protest but the girls grabbed her legs and lifted her up.
	“You get to be our first house guest,” said Rachel.
	“It's no fun just by ourselves, with nobody else to show it off to,” said Abigail.
	The window was closed and locked and Ruth was carried through her own house and out the front door.  She was aware, somewhere at the back of her mind, that she ought to be angry.  But this wasn't the first time her friends had kidnapped her and carried her away to take part in some scheme they had cooked up.  They had known each other since kindergarten, where the twins had been the only rabbits in a class full of clannish wolf pups.  Because she was a cat Ruth had been accepted, if not befriended, by her classmates.  But Abigail and Rachel had been shunned.  The twins had huddled together in one corner of the classroom until Coloring Time, when Ruth had offered to share her crayons with them.  After that she had been the twins' best friend and favorite toy.
	A red convertible sports car with the top down was parked by the curb in front of Ruth's house.  It wasn't brand new.  The upholstery was slightly worn and there was a dent in the rear bumper and scratches on the passenger-side door.  But it was still a much sleeker car than Ruth could ever have afforded.  Abigail giggled when she saw Ruth staring, and dug a set of keys out of her pocket.
	“Like it?  It used to be Dad's but he said any girls who were going to be living by themselves needed to have a way to get around.  We're going to get it cleaned up next month,” said Rachel.
	“Would you like to drive?” said Abigail.
	“I wouldn't dare,” said Ruth.
	“She'd love to.  Come on, Ruthie, you'll do great.  You're much too timid sometimes, you know that don't you?” said Rachel.
	“This from a girl who cries at scary movies,” said Ruth.
	“She only does it because she knows it'll get you to put your arms around her,” said Abigail.
	“I do not.  She does it anyway,” said Rachel.
	The twins carried Ruth around and shoved her behind the wheel.  Abigail dropped the keys into her lap and hopped into the back seat.  Rachel ran around the front of the car and slid into the passenger seat with a huge grin on her face.
	“Take us home, kitty cat,” said Rachel.
	“We're on Euclid, behind the Bourbon Mall,” said Abigail.
	“It's just a rental for now, but Abi and I are planning to keep it,” said Rachel.
	The body of the car was battered, but the engine had been taken care of.  It purred quietly as Ruth put the car in gear and eased it out onto the road.  She didn't drive very often.  Amelia was used to being responsible for everything, and most of the time it was just easier to let her take control.  But the twins' car was nothing like Amy's ancient Toyota.  It didn't trail a cloud of blue smoke down the street behind it.  The steering wheel turned freely, and didn't whine alarmingly on left turns.
	When she turned off of Secretariat onto the Man o'War Bypass all it took was a light tap of her foot on the accelerator to get the car to scoot.  She hit sixty-five before she was halfway down the on-ramp.  It was a dangerous thing to do.  In this part of the city, the bypass was surrounded on both sides by big horse farms, and there was always a danger of running into the back of a trailer full of Thoroughbreds.  But her luck had held in the past and she trusted that she could get by with one more day.
	As Ruth slid in ahead of a semi with a light-up neon vixen silhouette on its grille Rachel wriggled in her seat, too excited to sit still.
	“We should get pizza to celebrate,” she said.
	“That's what we had last night.  You ate half of mine, remember?” said Abigail.
	“Well you didn't want it, and it's no good if you let the cheese go cold,” said Rachel.
	“Pizza.  With extra mushrooms and a thick white sauce instead of tomato.  Can you imagine such a thing?”said Abigail.
	“It was good,” said Rachel “Can we?  Huh?”
	Ruth slid into outside lane to let a burly wolf on a huge motorcycle on and she glanced at Abigail in the rear view mirror.  The rabbit shrugged and shook her head, the way she always did when she and her sister argued, but she was smiling slightly, too.
	“You'll have to make the call then, Rach,” said Abigail.
	Rachel grinned, showing her broad front teeth and dug in her pocket for her cell phone.  But a triple check of all of her pockets failed to produce anything except a couple of strawberry lollipops and some loose change.  The girl deflated a little and bit her lip while she unwrapped a sucker.
	“Maybe when we get to the house?” said Rachel.
	“Our phone still isn't set up at the house, remember?” said Abigail.
	Rachel stuck her sucker in her mouth and pouted.  The girl looked so downcast that Ruth felt moved to take Rachel's paw and lay it in her lap.  It was a little ritual between the three of them that never failed to comfort whoever was down.  But this time neither she nor Rachel could find a comfortable position.  There was something hard in Ruth's pocket that pressed into the back of her paw, no matter which way she twisted it.
	“Quit fidgeting.  I'll get it,” said Rachel.
	The rabbit's paw slipped free and Rachel squirmed her fingers into Ruth's pocket before Ruth could stop her.  In her haste to get dressed Ruth had forgotten to put on any panties, and the feel of Rachel's blunt little claws on her leg sent a tingle down the base of her spine and into her crotch.  She mewled with pleasure, and hoped that Rachel hadn't heard her.
	“Got it,” said Rachel.
	The girl withdrew her paw, and when she opened her fingers there was the phone Ruth had thought she'd lost three days ago.
	“Well, kitty comes to the rescue once again,” said Abigail.
	She had scooted forward to lean across the back of the seat, and her whiskers tickled the back of Ruth's neck when she grinned.
	Rachel eagerly stabbed at the phone's keypad while Ruth zoomed around a church bus loaded with children, and bright paper banners printed with Bible verses and strung on the inside of the windows.  It was a silly thing to do.  Their exit was only a couple of miles away, and the car had such a light touch that she was running at almost eighty miles an hour.  The speed and the wind rushing all around her made her feel slightly giddy, and she pushed the car to go faster while Rachel shouted their order into the phone.  The wind whipped most of Rachel's words away before Ruth could catch them, but she heard mention of mushrooms and extra olives and hunger made her stomach gurgle.
	“Are you girls really living by yourselves now?” said Ruth.
	“We want to give it a try.  Dad liked the idea.  He said it would give him some peace and quiet for once.  And Rach and I like the extra freedom,” said Abigail.
	“I'll bet you both walk around stark naked,” said Ruth.
	“Like you do, when Amy's not at home?” said Abigail.
	“I don't walk around naked, I keep my panties on.  Sometimes.  When I feel like it.  It isn't my fault the two of you come sneaking around to get an eyeful.  You don't have to hang out on the porch and watch me, do you?” said Ruth.
	Abigail giggled and pushed her paws under the collar of Ruth's shirt, digging her claws into Ruth's thick fur to massage her shoulders.
	“You don't have to wiggle your ass like that, either,” said Abigail.
	“My ass was made for shaking,” said Ruth.
	“Maybe you'd like to show us later, then.  In person,” said Abigail.
	When Ruth turned down the exit ramp lunch had been ordered and Abigail had laced her fingers loosely around Ruth's neck, the way she sometimes did, to feel Ruth purr.  Both of the twins were fascinated by the gentle rumbles Ruth could make in her throat, and she could count on one or both of them cuddling up to her when they were together just to feel it.
	Euclid was a quiet, tree-lined street full of old houses, including a few that had been built in the Nineteenth Century.  They were well kept up, with neatly clipped lawns and fussy little wooden fences between neighbors.  The girls had grown up in a neighborhood like this and Ruth had always felt conspicuously poor and unkempt whenever she visited them.  She slid down a little in her seat, and leaned one arm on top of the car door.  When Abigail did it, she looked cool, like one of those movie stars Ruth sometimes saw on the news cruising through Hollywood in their million dollar cars.  Every time she did it Ruth was certain she just looked foolish.
	“You girls are going to have to get me a special visitor's pass.  If I come here by myself, they'd kick me right back out,” she said.
	“They're not that bad around here.  Just come right to our house and nobody will ever say a word,” said Abigail.
	Ruth eased the car through the narrow lane between a moving van parked on one side of the road, and a Mercedes parked on the other side.  Her back bumper was barely clear of the big car when Rachel grabbed her arm, twisting the wheel a little to the left, and pointed at a house on the left.
	“There.  That's our place, just ahead,” the girl said.
	It was an elegant, one-story house with mint-green siding and real wooden shutters painted with climbing roses.  The whole house sparkled, with brand-new windows and a recently-poured concrete walk up to the front door.  It even had its own driveway, which was a rarity in the city.  Ruth eased the car in slowly with one ear cocked for the scrape of stone on metal, but she easily cleared the side of the house.
	“You drive fast.  We'd still be on the road if Abi had been behind the wheel,” said Rachel.
	“The limit in town is 65,” said Abigail.
	“And who ever pays attention to that?  Only people's little old grandmothers and you.  Come on.  Now we're here, maybe we can give Ruthie a tour of the house before the pizza guy arrives,” said Rachel.
	The twins sprang out of the car and they caught Ruth as she unbuckled her seat belt.  They didn't pick her up this time, but they both wrapped an arm around her waist and pushed her up the porch steps and through the front door.
	The house was one of the old ones, with a bare wooden floor and bare plaster walls that had been painted white.  Short black curtains hid the upper half of each window and cast slanted pools of sunlight into the room.  It was pleasantly cool in the house, but the air was still and the emptiness of the house made their footsteps echo slightly.
	The sisters had made an effort to spread their belongings around, to make the house look less empty.  They had shoved an overstuffed sofa against one wall, across from their television and games system.  An armchair sat all the way on the other side of the room and they had laid an ornately decorated rug between them.  Ruth had no doubt that the girls would have the place filled to bursting with new toys in less than a year, but, for now, it seemed kind of lonely.
	“We want to repaint the walls, but we can't agree on what color to use.  Rach wants to paint them pink,” said Abigail.
	“It would be prettier than black.  Can you imagine painting that color?  After you're older than thirteen?” said Rachel.
	“You could try both.  Why not pink with black stripes?” said Ruth.
	Abigail grinned, showing off all of her teeth again.
	“This is why we should steal you more often, kitty.  We need an artist around the place,” she said.
	The two of them took Ruth on a lightning tour of the house.  Here was the bathroom, with its yellow tile walls and perpetually dripping shower.  Here were the twins' separate bedrooms, each with a fluffy Queen-sized bed and thick carpets on the floor.  In Rachel's room there were a dozen shelves of different sizes stuffed with books and the glass wind-chimes she'd been collecting since she was a kitten.  Abigail's walls were covered with posters for the movies she adored, and a photo of the three of them that had been taken when they visited Washington, D.C. in the tenth grade.  Here, at the end of the tour, was the kitchen which joined onto one side of the living room, and here was a wolf, in a bright red uniform, with boxes of pizza in his arms, and his finger on the doorbell.
	While Rachel paid for the pizza, Abigail pulled Ruth to the other side of the living room.  The girl had an odd, lopsided smile on her face, and she stood so close that Ruth caught the sweet smell of the boy's cologne that Abigail always wore.
	“It was sweet of you to come,” said Abigail.
	“You two grabbed me, and carried me through my own front door,” said Ruth.
	“Yes, but you didn't have to play along.  You know if you'd objected we'd have let you go.  But its been months since we saw you.”
	“I came to see you right after graduation, didn't I?”
	“That was in May.”
	The door closed behind them, and Abigail leaned closer and gave Ruth a quick kiss that just brushed her mouth.
	“You've made my sister very happy,” she said.
	“What about you?” said Ruth.
	But Abigail just smiled and skipped off to find plates for their food.  There were still half a dozen boxes of the twins' unsorted belongings stacked up in the kitchen and it took five minutes for Abigail to unearth a package of paper plates.  Pizza was dished out, but before any of them sat down to eat Ruth took hold of her friends paws and sang Happy Birthday to them, for the small pleasure of seeing even Abigail turn shy and fidget with the hem of her shirt.
	“Introducing our first chair flute, gentle ladies, and head of the school choir for three years straight,” said Rachel.
	“You always were a bit of a nerd, Ruthie,” said Abigail.
	“Who believed in unicorns until she was fourteen?” said Ruth.
	“She still does,” said Rachel.
	Abigail stuck her tongue out at them and they all three grinned.  When they'd been kids, their classmates had teased the three of them endlessly for being friends.  It Wasn't Done for a cat to be friends with rabbits. Somewhere along the way they had picked up the habit of teasing each other, and in some strange way it had brought them closer together.  As they grew older it sparked something between Ruth and the twins that bordered on love.
	It was Rachel who picked up her plate first.  She skipped across the room to plop her butt down on the thick rug in front of the television.
	“Pick something fun for tonight, okay Abi?  No more of your awful horror movies for just this one night, please?” she said.
	“Maybe we should let our kitty pick, since we dragged her all the way over here,” said Abigail.
	“How about... Errol Flynn in 'Captain Blood'?” said Ruth.
	Abigail smirked and rummaged through her mountain of DVDs until she found the right disc.
	“Swashbuckling piratical action it is,” she said, and she flourished the silver disc like it was a cutlass.
	“But you'll have to keep your tongue in your mouth this time.  I don't need a bath just because Olivia de Havilland gets you hot,” said Rachel.
	“No promises,” said Ruth.
	The three of them cuddled up in a pile on the rug to eat their pizza and watch, with varying degrees of interest, while Errol Flynn hammed his way across the silver screen.  Rachel cringed a little, as she always did, at the sword fight between Flynn and Basil Rathbone, and she buried her face in Ruth's lap.  The heat of Rachel's breath on her crotch made Ruth squirm and pant, and she bit her lip, afraid that Abigail would hear.  But if Abi knew what was going on she gave no sign of it.  The girl had almost as much of a crush on Ms. de Havilland as Ruth did and she was lost her in her own romantic fantasies.
	Even after she turned back over to watch the rest of the film, Rachel kept her head in Ruth's lap, the way she did when she wanted to be comforted.  Ruth was certain it was just habit.  There was nothing frightening about Errol, except maybe how bad he was at sword fighting.  But it wasn't something she felt inclined to complain about either.  Having Rachel's head in her lap that made her feel warm and floaty, and at peace with the world.
	“Why do you keep looking at me?  I can move if you aren't comfortable,” said Rachel.
	“You're fine,” said Ruth “You're perfect.”
	She reached down to stroke Rachel's chin because she knew the girl liked it, and Rachel nuzzled her paw and smiled.
	“I could fall asleep listening to you purr.  It's very comforting,” said Rachel.
	On screen, Errol was building things up to another epic battle.  The music was doing its best to stir their blood and keep them on the edge of their seats.  Oblivious to all of this, Ruth petted Rachel's cheek, fascinated at the way the girl's fur felt between her fingers.  Rachel tilted her head back to let Ruth explore her long ears and the softness of her throat.  From there, it seemed only natural to Ruth to let her fingers slide down the curves her friend's body until she reached the gap between Rachel's shirt and her skirt.  The girl gasped as Ruth's finger's slid up under her shirt, and across her smooth stomach.
	The three of them flirted around a lot, and they had seen each other naked, as children, when they had gone swimming together.  That was as far as it had ever gone.  Embarrassed, Ruth started to pull her paw away, but Rachel grabbed her wrist.
	“Don't stop.”
	Ruth glanced over at Abigail again, but her friend was still absorbed in the movie.  She heard Rachel whine, very softly, and felt the girl tug a little at her arm, which brought her back.  Rachel had always liked to be touched.  She was forever begging Ruth to pet her ears or stroke her hair and, now, Ruth was certain the girl got something more out of it than just comfort.  She continued to stroke Rachel's stomach, moving her fingers through the girl's fur in little teasing, circular motions that slowly went higher.   Rachel writhed a little and her eyes closed as she went limp with pleasure.
	Ruth's paw brushed against the bottom of Rachel's left bra cup, and she let her fingers drift across the satiny cloth to find the little nub of the girl's nipple.  Rachel moaned and rolled over on her back to let Ruth explore.  Rachel's breasts were quite small compared to her sister's and Ruth could fit one entirely in her palm.  It was easy to slide her paw under the cup of Rachel's bra and push it out of the way, and she felt the girl shiver a little in anticipation.
	The shrilling of Ruth's cell phone made all three of them jump.  Abigail hit pause on the video, and Rachel sat up and tugged her shirt straight again.  Ruth clawed her phone out of her pocket and swallowed hard in an effort to keep her voice steady when she answered.
	“What, Amy?  I was just about to...  That is, it isn't even dark yet.  Is everything okay?” she said.
	“You seem awfully sure it's me,” said Amelia.
	“Who else would call me?  I'm with the girls and nobody else has this number,” said Ruth.'
	“I know where you are.  I smelled rabbit in the house when I got home.  You forgot about their birthday again, didn't you?  Really, Ruthie, it isn't that hard, and they just can't keep stealing you like this.  Somebody's going to get the wrong idea.”
	Ruth felt a pair of arms wrap around her, and Rachel nuzzled the hollow where her neck met her shoulder.
	“How'd your date with Leslie go?” said Ruth.
	“That's why I called.  Can you camp out with your little girlfriends tonight?  I have something special planned,” said Amelia.
	“I guess there's no point in asking if you've already kissed her, huh?  I don't know.  They've just moved into their new place, and--”
	“She can stay,” said Rachel.  The girl's arms tightened possessively around Ruth's middle.  She'd forgotten how good the twins' hearing was, again.
	“Next time, I'm just going to ask you to pass the phone to one of them.  We both know you were committed for the night as soon as they snatched you,” said Amelia.
	“Just stay off my bed, huh?  I washed the sheets this morning and that's not something I want to think about,” said Ruth.
	“No promises,” said Amelia.
	The phone went dead before Ruth could reply, and Abigail snatched it out of her paw.
	“Your sister has the best timing.  Ten more minutes, and the movie would have been over,” said Abigail.
	They finished the film because it seemed silly not to.  Then, because it was Abigail's birthday, too, they let her pick out one of her favorite Rubber Monster movies.  Neither Ruth nor Rachel had much of a taste for horror films, but they'd had their little bout with romance and both of them agreed it was only fair.  Ruth put her arms around Rachel's shoulders as the opening credits rolled, ready for frightened tears and an evening of trying to comfort her friend.  But, for once, they didn't come.  There was no more petting, but Rachel never stopped smiling even as various obscure actors hammed their way through their death scenes, or the last survivors scrambled to assemble their ultimate weapon against the coming monster.
	“Nobody has ever touched me like you did,” said Rachel.
	“I know.  I'm sorry, Rach, I wasn't thinking.  We've always been so close, and I just--”
	“Everyone else has had someone.  I even know about the time you and Abi kissed in the locker room after school, when you were sixteen.”
	“She told you?”
	“It made her happy.  She's had a crush on you for years, you know,” said Rachel.
	“I guessed that when she kissed me,” said Ruth.
	On screen, the battle with the monster was nearing its climax.  Gunfire and fearful screeching filled the room.  It all faded away when Rachel reached up and pulled Ruth's head toward her.  Ruth resisted for a moment.  She could fee Rachel trembling in her arms and she wondered if she was doing the right thing.  But Rachel's mouth was welcoming, and the curves of the girl's body fit perfectly against Ruth's own as her friend dragged her down onto the floor.
	“I love you, too,” said Rachel.