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"https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/313/313827_Milkie_love_polarity_-_your_world_and_mine.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/313/313827_Milkie_love_polarity_-_your_world_and_mine.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/313/313827_Milkie_love_polarity_-_your_world_and_mine.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "100", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "100", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "100", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "100", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "100", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "100", "submission_right_submission_id": "66985", "submission_right_file_name": "87423_Milkie_the_most_electrifying_first_day_of_school_ever_inkbunny.rtf" } ], "description": "But, Glint and Spark are back, and a lovable raccoon seeks to adopt them. Thanks to their... unique relationship, their previous adoptions haven't gone so well. Can Nori be the \"circuit breaker\" that finally gives the twins a place to call home?\n\nGlint & Spark (c) Me\nNori (c) [iconname]Norithics[/iconname]\nChay (c) [iconname]Chaytel[/iconname]", "description_bbcode_parsed": "But, Glint and Spark are back, and a lovable raccoon seeks to adopt them. Thanks to their... unique relationship, their previous adoptions haven't gone so well. Can Nori be the "circuit breaker" that finally gives the twins a place to call home?

Glint & Spark (c) Me
Nori (c) \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Chay (c) \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChaytel\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
", "writing": "\t[u][b]Circuit Breaker[/b][/u]\n\tBy MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie) \n\n“Well, after looking extensively at your paperwork and going through an analysis, we’ve got good news for you, Nori. You’re fit to adopt.”\n\n\tNori breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn’t help but offer a cheeky little grin. It was just how he was. Even when he was nervous, he tended to look rather calm and level headed. The raccoon had been gunning for adoption for well over a couple of months, and he was finally permitted to do so. He couldn’t stop his gray, black-striped, fluffy tail from waggling about behind him in his delight though. Having kids always seemed like an option that just wasn’t available to him. He almost felt stupid for over-looking adoption for so long.\n\n\tBut Nori was anything but stupid. He approached adoption the same way he approached everything else: rationally. He was cunning, witty, intelligent, and most of all thought nothing could be done without a reasonable explanation. Nori’s explanation was simple: he fancied other men, and that meant that he couldn’t biologically have kids with any partner he may have had. Women weren’t entirely out of the question for him, but having a wife never held any interest. Adoption was his best choice, and the longer he had thought about it before signing up, the more reasons he could deduct to reassure his decision was just.\n\n\tHe was going to give someone a home. He was going to give them a family. Most of all however, Nori was going to give someone love that only a parent could hold for their child.\n\n\t“That’s great,” Nori said as he leaned forwards in his chair a little, looking at the worker on the other side of the desk.\n\n\tHer nametag identified her as “Harlot,” which was such a peculiar name for someone in such a position. She had been dealing with the legal side of adopting a child, and had been working with Nori every step of the way to get him approved. She was a sweet girl, but a species that Nori wasn’t all that familiar with. She looked like a raccoon like him, but her ears looked like a bunny’s. He had asked her about it when they started off, and she said she was something known as a “Sentret.” She was a Pokemon – a species that Nori learned came in so many different shapes and sizes that the sheer list of sub-species ranged somewhere around five hundred. Maybe it was small when compared to other species lists, but Nori had a hard time wrapping his head around it all. There was sure a lot to remember.\n\n\tHarlot was shorter than Nori, stocky too. Her body was a round shape, though not entirely unpleasant. Her fur was interesting however. Nori had never seen a raccoon with brown fur before, and darker brown stripes on their tail. She didn’t even have the ‘face mask’ markings around her eyes like normal raccoons. Nori wasn’t like normal raccoons either. He was almost inverted, with dark gray covering the majority of his body, while the lighter gray was what covered his hands and feet in that ‘sock and glove’ sort of way, and what made up his ‘face mask’ and tail stripes. He even had it on the tips of his ears, as if someone had held him by his ankles and just barely dipped him in paint. In a way, it was comforting to see another raccoon that was different… if he could even call Harlot anything other than a Sentret.\n\n\t“And you’ve chosen to adopt… Glint and Spark, is that correct?” She asked, beady little eyes glancing back over the desk at Nori. She almost looked squished into her little ‘cubicle’ area of the lengty desk that spanned the room like a dividing line between the employees and the adopters. Nori was just one of many people there who was going through the process. He was however the only one who was alone.\n\n\t“That’s right,” Nori said with a nod, “The twins.”\n\n\tHarlot seemed to ponder something. Her brow furrowed so cutely, but it almost made her beady black eyes disappear as if her face caved in. He lips were puckered too, making her look like a fish. Nori looked left and right as she just sat there, wondering just what was on her mind. His attention was hooked as she just sat there for a few seconds. It was as if she was waiting for him to open his mouth just so she could cut him off and continue, because that’s exactly what she did.\n\n\t“Well Nori, I feel like I have to say that adopting two older children like them has some… difficulty,” Harlot said, her face returning to normal, “Especially with those two.”\n\n\tNori had all kinds of questions about why she’d say something like that… but for her sake, he condensed it into a simple, “Oh?”\n\n\tSighing softly, Harlot sat back and fiddled with a pen. “Well,” She began, obviously searcing for words, “Glint and Spark have been… problematic. They’re a special case, you could say. You cannot under any circumstances adopt one without the other. This is because they’ve grown and developed with one another. Younger children are still forming bonds, and can be connected to their foster parents without as much difficulty. But teenagers like Glint and Spark take time to adjust to changes. Having a new parent is a radical change, and it can be hard to take baby steps.”\n\n\t“That makes sense,” Nori said as he crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulders, “I’ve every intention of being careful. It’ll take time, but I’m willing to take the time.”\n\n\tHarlot looked at Nori for a short while, and then nodded. “Alright,” She said, “Just remember Nori: the most difficult thing to understand next to women is kids. Let’s go introduce you.”\n\n\tHarlot hopped out of her chair and moved around the big desk and over to Nori, who was standing by the time she bounced over. She lead him out of the office and back into the waiting room. She asked him to wait there and went back to her desk to call someone to escort the twins to meet their new father. Nori didn’t hear a word of it, but he knew that was what was going on – there just wasn’t any other explanation. He felt a little bad for the kids though… He compared the activity to bringing out a dog from the pound. The Center looked all lavish and expensive, but in the end these kids were just being grown to be inserted into a family that they didn’t get to choose.\n\n\tNori sighed at the thought, but was excited nevertheless. His calm demeanor showed him as being more curious than anything else. He really wanted to give Glint and Spark a home they could be proud of, and he wanted to care for them. He hadn’t even met them face-to-face and spoke to them before, yet he felt determined. Was it love? It wasn’t impossible to love someone that you’ve never spoken to, at least not in Nori’s world. He’d just have to wait and see how things turned out.\n\n\tIt didn’t take long for the twins to round the corner, and Nori smiled when he saw them. He tried not to grin like an idiot or look TOO happy, but the feeling was plastered onto his face regardless of his efforts. He just had this feeling that he’d get along with them… Perhaps it was mostly based on how grown up and developed they looked.\n\n\tNori had been a vastly early bloomer in his younger years. At the tender childhood ages, he had become a sexual little deviant, and was as endowed as any man could have hoped. It only got worse as he got older, but he at least learned in time what was right and what was wrong. Even if the blue denim capris he wore had a hard time hiding his arousal at times, Nori had a good head on his shoulders and a steady upbringing. He knew what it felt like to be a little out of the ordinary, and he knew how to build a life of fun and adventure out of it. Just by looking at Glint and Spark, he knew they’d need a similar lesson that the stuffy types at an adoption center would never provide.\n\n\tGlint was something called a “Plusle.” She had yellow fur with a splash of red over some places, like her hands and forearms, and the tips of her ears. She had characteristic red circles on her cheeks that almost made her look like some porcelain doll, but it was cut into quarters by her creamy yellow fur in a way that made it look like she had little plus signs on her cheeks. Red certainly seemed to be her colour, since she wore a red tank top and a loose pair of darker red cargos, and red and white sneakers on her feet, tied neatly. And, when looking, could Nori see a flash of pink fabric over her hip? Underwear, no doubt… and pink WAS technically light red. It was cute how colour coordinated she was. Spark was absolutely no different.\n\n\tSpark was a “Minun,” and he looked every bit like his sister except for the more obvious gender differences. He was a cutie, Nori had to admit, but the boy didn’t quite spark an attraction like an older partner would, and Nori was thankful for that lack of complication. Everything that was red on his sister was blue on him, including the circles on his cheeks. His were sliced in half however, horizontally by his creamy yellow fur, successfully giving him minus signs.\n\n\tNori was beginning to wonder if he could hook them up to a car battery with jumper cables.\n\n\tSpark’s clothes were blue and varied in shades of it just like his sister’s clothing did. They almost wore the same things even, except for Spark’s shirt being a tank top for boys instead of girls. But one thing in particular had Nori’s attention… and he wasn’t thinking in a perverse manner or anything, but he just couldn’t help but notice!\n\n\tThe way Glint filled out her clothes was absolutely insane. Nori knew these kids were only sixteen years of age, but if he hadn’t have known that, he would have sworn he was looking at a much older woman. To be put bluntly, Glint’s breasts were huge. The sixteen year old girl was a real bra-buster! But Nori was used that though, since he suffered from a similar… condition in his youth – a condition he knew by the ever-so-slightly noticeable bulge in Spark’s pants that they both seemed to ‘suffer’ from as well. But it worked out in Nori’s favor at least. Who better to raise ‘hyper endowed’ children than a father who’s gone through all the paces?\n\n\tShoving those thoughts into the back of his mind like a housekeeper sweeping dirt under the carpet, Nori turned his full attention to the twins. He looked at them, and they just stared back at him. It was possibly one of the most awkward experiences in Nori’s life. The twins had him at a disadvantage, because they’d apparently done it before!\n\n\t“Glint, Spark, this is Nori,” A large pink and black bovine explained, “You’ve met him before, right?”\n\n\t“Yes,” Glint said with a little nod, “He was here before. He’s adopting us, isn’t he?”\n\n\t“That’s right,” The bovine said with a nod, smiling at how well Glint could figure out her situation, “He’s been working really hard to get a chance to take you two home with him.”\n\n\t“But we don’t wanna go, Mimi,” Spark protested – Nori felt his heart sink a little at the statement, “We don’t wanna go to another home.”\n\n\t“Now Spark,” Mimi said with a careful smile, “You know that you and Glint are getting far too old to stay here with us. Why don’t you give Nori a chance? And please, let’s stop talking about him as if he’s not here.”\n\n\tLooking back at Nori, Spark’s ears flattened out to either side of his head, sinking with his pout. “Sorry,” He murmured quietly.\n\n\tNori raised a hand in a gesture for Spark to stow the apologies, “No need to be sorry, I understand how you feel,” Nori explained, “The lady back at the desk told me that you two had been out of this place a few times and it didn’t work out. But I want to make it work out, so if you two have anything you need to sort out with me, you can tell me right off the bat, okay?”\n\n\tSpark looked at Glint then, who simply shrugged and said, “There’s no point, we’re just going to end up back here in two weeks anyways.”\n\n\tNori was, for the first time in a good while, baffled. He had no idea what to tell the twins to ease their nerves… And honestly, who was he trying to convince, them or him? Hearing them talk about staying with him as if it were visiting a horrendous aunt for a short vacation was hard to hear… It didn’t bolster his confidence in his own abilities at all. But he did feel bad that they seemed to think that way. How many children who have no loving family would give their left arm and right leg for one? And yet it seemed as if the twins would have absolutely none of it.\n\n\tA silence hung in the air for a moment before Mimi, the cow, rested her hands on their heads and pet over their fur a bit.\n\n\t“Alright you two, that’s enough of that. Let’s go back outside for a little bit, alright? Then we can start packing your things,” She said, “Now say goodbye to Nori.”\n\n\t“Bye,” Glint and spark said in unison.\n\n\tNori gave a little bit of an uncertain smile and nodded, “Bye.”\n\n\tMimi ushered the kids off, back around the corner from whence they came, and left Nori standing there. He felt as if someone had dropped an anvil down his throat and the weight settled heavily in the pit of his stomach. Uncertainty set in, but his rational mind assured him that the feeling was natural. Every new parent felt uncertain… right? Nobody knew what the future would have in store, and all anyone could do was try their best. What more could anyone ask of him? And yet, standing there, he scratched at the side of his cheek nervously. Thinking didn’t make him feel any better.\n\n\t“Nori, go home,” Harlot’s voice rang in, causing Nori to turn around and look at the portly little raccoon-creature. Her tone was thankfully sympathetic, so it didn’t sound like she was trying to shoo him along so that she could tend to her next prospective parent.\n\n\t“You’ve got to go home and get everything ready for the twins’ arrival tomorrow,” She explained as she approached.\n\n\t“I, uh… Yeah,” Nori said as he rubbed the back of his neck.\n\n\tHarlot sighed with a little smile and reached out to take Nori’s hand and give it a squeeze. She said, “Hundreds of people feel the way you feel every single day. New parents have no idea what to do with their newborn babies, let alone what to do with two grown-up kids. Just remember that a parent and a friend can be one in the same, alright? Take care of them. They need love and guidance just like anyone else.”\n\n\t“Right,” Nori said, though still feeling uncertain, “I’ll just, uh… I’ll make sure their new room’s cleared out. And that the house is clean.”\n\n\t“A good place as any to start,” Harlot said, letting Nori go.\n\n\tNori went straight home, which was a distance away. Truth be told, he lived a good several hours away from the adoption center in a beach-side home. It wasn’t a luxuriant beach-side home you’d imagine a summer cottage to be like, instead it was a modest home nestled into the tree line just at the end of Nori’s local beach. This put him quite a ways away from town, but the beach pretty much lined his back yard, making summer awfully pleasant when he could just take a cool dip off his pier. The house wasn’t small, either – two stories, two bedrooms, spacious, well-kept, no signs of weather-caused wear-n’-tear. He kept his fridge stocked and was quite handy at maintaining his own appliances… All in all, it was a quaint home with enough income to support a pair of twins.\n\n\tHe spent the remainder of the day cleaning out his spare room. It used to be something of a study, or an office, where he kept his computer, and piles of junk. Nori was such a pack rat that most of the things he sorted through and removed from the room had to be thrown out, as he couldn’t for the life of him remember why he kept them in the first place. It went from a messy, disorganized room, to a completely cleared out and vacuumed space by the end of the day. The closet was empty, the room was empty, and he’d moved his computer and desk out to his living room. It had taken him all until dusk, but he managed all right.\n\n\tHe knew that the adoption center Glint and Spark came from would bring all of their furniture with them when they were to get settled in. Nori had no idea what this would entail, but he still stood in the middle of the empty room and glanced around. He was trying to picture what it would look like with kids in it – his kids, no less. He breathed a soft sigh and shook his head. He was far too worn out from so much hauling to be daydreaming… After all, moving the twins in was just going to be more work!\n\n\t“I should go to sleep,” He said to himself. He was just about to, leaving the room and stepping into the hall. He was so excited though, he just couldn’t go to bed right away… He felt wide awake.\n\n\tPausing outside his door, he reached up to tap his cheek in thought with his index finger, humming, “Well, maaaaybe I’ll go after a snack.”\n\n\tThe idea of a snack made his tummy growl, and he smiled as he practically pranced down the stairs again.\n\n\t“Some rootbeer, and Chay’s blueberry pie~” The raccoon sung to himself as he made his way to the kitchen. It was going to be a sweet, sweet start to a new chapter in his life.\n\n\n\tNori woke up the next morning to the sound of a truck… a big truck. He could hear its motor rumbling outside, and it took him a moment to realize what was going on.\n\n\t“The twins!” He shouted, tossing his bed sheets off of his body and scrambling out of bed. He tripped, and stumbled, on his own two feet as he hurried to his dresser. He took a pair of super-tight, clingy underwear and slid them on – and while he’d normally make sure they hugged his rear and crotch just right, he did a quick couple-second check before he grabbed his denim capris as they hung from the edge of his dresser and tossed them on. He looked for a decent shirt, one that wasn’t as dastardly as his symbolic ‘FWOOMP!’ t-shirt, and managed to score himself a nice red t-shirt. Tossing that on as well, he hurried out of his room.\n\n\tNearly falling down the stairs, he ran into the kitchen and made a sharp U-turn down the hall, past the bathroom and into the living room, where he stopped.\n\n\t“Alright, uh… gotta unpack their things, move things up to their room. Got the Nintendo hooked up to keep them busy, right?” He asked himself, looking to his rather big and decorated wall-unit. His television – a nice 40” plasma – sitting with one of those Nintendo Wii systems hooked up to it. He didn’t play it much himself, preferring his Playstation, but he figured the twins would get a kick out of it. It had been set up and things were in position so that they had something to do while Nori helped move everything in and get everything settled. With that in order, he hurried to the door.\n\n\tHe stepped outside, recoiling for a moment as the afternoon sun hit his eyes. When had he woken up? He hadn’t checked the time, but if they left early morning, it had to be after noon. He squinted, rubbed his eyes, and shook his head, only to see the twins coming up the walkway.\n\n\t“Hey you two!” Nori said with a smile, “Come on in, I’ve got something for you guys to keep busy with while I help unpack your stuff.”\n\n\t“You mean we don’t have to help?” Spark asked as he walked up the walkway with Glint. He had a blue backpack on his back, Glint having a matching red one. Honestly, they looked too mature to be walking around with backpacks on like they were heading to elementary school… And he couldn’t help but notice how his clothing matched theirs in a rather unintentional manner.\n\n\t“Of course you don’t have to help,” Nori said, “Unless you want to take care of where some of the things in the boxes go. You leave the furniture to me and the movers, alright?”\n\n\tGlint and Spark looked to one another in surprise, their ears perked. “That’s better than our last foster parent,” Spark said, and Glint nodded. “They made us help move everything! Said it helped develop a sense of a responsibility,” Glint said to Nori. They both looked at him for a moment as if they were unsure whether to believe him or not… But after a short, quiet moment lacking any retracted statements, the twins headed straight inside, walking around Nori.\n\n\t“Thanks!” Spark shouted back as they went inside.\n\n\t“Sweet kids,” Nori said as he rubbed his hands together, “Alright, well they can’t have much.”\n\n\tNori walked out to the truck, and watched as some… fellow who resembled a rock and something else that resembled a pale blue dinosaur with bulging muscles opened up the back of the truck.\n\n\t“Sweet Jiminy Cricket that’s a lot of stuff!” Nori exclaimed.\n\n\tHe really should have expected that everything came in pairs. There were two beds, two dressers, two bedside tables, thankfully one television and a stand for it, and plenty of boxes. It was going to be quite a move.\n\n\tMeanwhile, Glint and Spark made their way inside the house and looked around. It was bigger than they thought, and not some run-down shack like the parent before the last had lived in. It was quite a wonder how people managed to qualify for adoption sometimes, but it seemed that so far Nori was playing all his cards right. The house was clean and he was friendly and considerate enough to give them a way to entertain themselves while they were moved in. Still, a thought bothered them.\n\n\t“So… What do we do, Glint?” Spark asked as he turned to his sister.\n\n\t“I dunno… I guess we test him!” She said with a shrug, “I mean everyone else has sent us back for one reason or another. So we should go through all that stuff and see if he’s gonna do the same thing.”\n\n\tWalking over to the couch, Spark put his bag down on top of it and sat down himself. “But… should we really try to get kicked out?” He asked.\n\n\tGlint walked over to Spark and threw her bag on the couch as well, before she rather boldly straddled his lap. It was a slow and deliberate mounting of her brother, one Spark knew all too well, and she leaned in close, her rather prominent breasts squishing in against his chest.\n\n\t“I’d rather be kicked out of the house for breaking a precious vase than to get kicked out for this,” She said before planting a kiss on her brother’s lips. Pulling back, she continued, “You heard what everyone keeps telling us when we leave. We gotta keep that a secret, and I don’t want to. So we’re either gonna be sent back for being bad, or were going to be sent back for being very, very naughty.”\n\n\tSpark blushed, staring at his sister, before a sound startled them. They squeaked and looked to the door where Nori had come in, struggling to carry their television by himself. He peeked around it at them and blinked a few times himself, looking at the two of them curiously.\n\n\t“… What’re you two doing?” He asked.\n\n\tThere was a slight pause, before Glint looked to Spark with a glare and pinched one of his ears between her thumb and index finger and YANKED on it. Spark squealed and shouted in pain.\n\n\t“I’m first player!” Glint shouted.\n\n\tSpark clenched his eyes shut, and his teeth, shouting, “Ow! OW, GLINT! STOP IT!”\n\n\t“Honestly,” Nori sighed as he rolled his eyes. He set the television down slowly and walked over to them.\n\n\t“Alright you two, rock, paper, scissors over it,” Nori said as he held out his fist to start the game. When the twins just looked at him in surprise, he simply cocked a brow and said, “Well? Come on.”\n\n\tSlowly the twins raised their hands, and they bobbed them up and down three times.\n\n\t“Uno, dos, tres!” Nori chanted before they all picked their choice. Glint and Spark both chose paper… Nori had scissors.\n\n\t“Spark’s first player because Glint was pinching,” Nori said with a nod, looking to Glint, “And you oughta keep your hands to yourself. Now play nice you two.”\n\n\tNori turned then and walked to the television, grunting as he hefted it back up. He felt a little strange, admittedly. Even though he was feeling a little agitated with the twins for getting on each other’s case after just a minute or two in his house, he felt rather proud of himself for how he handled the situation. Nobody could argue with a game of chance. When Nori got the TV back up, the twins were seated next to each other. He smiled to them before he carried on through the house. Glint and Spark just waited for him to go by, along with the Geodude and Machoke that were helping unload the truck.\n\n\t“… Nori’s kinda weird,” Glint said to Spark after everyone was gone.\n\n\tSpark nodded, “Yeah…”\n\n\tLeaning over, Glint kissed the tip of Spark’s ear suddenly.\n\n\t“Sorry for pinching you! It was just a cover-up~” She said with a smile, before looking towards the TV. “Oh! Is that the New Super Mario Bros. game? I’m first player!” She planted her hand on Spark’s head to heft herself off the couch and toss herself towards the remotes, Spark scrambling after her to pick up another.\n\n\t“Wow, he’s got a Playstation 3 too!”\n\n\tThe move went by with little to no incident at all. Nori and the movers had gotten everything set up in Glint and Spark’s room within a good several hours. When all was said and done, Nori stood dead center in the room again and looked around. Glint’s bed was on the left of the room, Spark’s bed on the right. The space between their beds had their television set up so they could play from their beds or on the carpet if they wanted to. Behind him were their dressers, set up against the wall, standing tall instead of wide. One was red, and one was blue, and it was far too easy to tell which belonged to whom. Aside from those things, there were boxes, lots of boxes. He’d have to unpack those with the twins later.\n\n\tHe sighed to himself and rubbed his chin. \n\n\t“Now what?” He asked. \n\n\tThe movers had already gone and taken the truck away, leaving Nori and the twins alone. He had a good few things to do now, like get them enrolled in the local high school so they could start in the spring. All he had to do now was get to know them… It’d be a lot easier when they unpacked those boxes so that he could see what they were into, so he figured he ought to get to that sooner rather than later. He turned and headed out of his room, walking down the stairs and making that U-turn into the tiny hallway that separated the living room from the kitchen.\n\n\tHe was delighted to see the twins seated on the carpet, practically glued to the television set. At least they weren’t bored while they had been waiting for him and the movers to finish. They were having a great time playing their game together… And Nori knew it was quite the hectic little game, so it was no surprise that there seemed to be a mixture of loving co-operation and death-glares being passed between them.\n\n\tNori tilted his head a little as he leaned on the doorframe that made up the hallway entrance, kind of squinting with one eye. He could spy… a thong. Glint was wearing a pink pair of underwear that was showing above the waistline of her pants, and Nori was rather… bewildered. Not by the thong itself, but mostly by the fact that she was wearing one. She was sixteen for Pete’s sake! Kids these days… Something about her just screamed ‘trouble,’ but Nori knew better than to judge a book by its cover. Far be it from him to judge someone for dressing a little… provocatively.\n\n\t“Hey guys,” He said, getting their attention, “Havin’ fun?”\n\n\t“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Glint said as she paused the game.\n\n\tNori nodded a little and seemed to glance around awkwardly. Was he even addressing them right? He was aware they didn’t exactly like him… But still, he couldn’t shy away for that. “Wanna help me unpack your stuff?” He’d ask.\n\n\t“Didn’t you do that?” Spark asked.\n\n\t“Nope,” Nori answered quickly, “I don’t know where you want anything to go.”\n\n\tGlint and Spark paused for a moment, and then shrugged. “Nah,” Glint said, “We wanna keep playing this.” Then they did just that, going right back to it as if Nori wasn’t even there.\n\n\tNori was… baffled, to say the least. NOW what was he supposed to do? Was he enough of a parent by now that he could tell them to do it? Most likely not, he thought. They probably wouldn’t even take him all that seriously. He tapped his cheek a little in thought, kind of poking his tongue into it for no real reason.\n\n\tAh, he knew what to do. He could get them to indirectly be persuaded into helping him unpack. If there was one thing Nori had always been good at, it was being a dastardly little trouble maker. He left them to play their game, and retreated up to their room where he grabbed one of the boxes. He quickly carried it back downstairs, and while the twins were glued to the television set and practically unaware of his existence, he set the Box down next to Spark, making sure it brushed over his leg. Spark noticed, but did his best to shuffle aside so he didn’t have to deal with it.\n\n\tNori would go back upstairs and come back with another box, setting it down next to Glint in the same manner. Like her brother, she shuffled over until she was almost squashed up against Spark. Another couple boxes and Nori had successfully closed them in with a half-circle. Four more boxes, and he’d stacked it two boxes high… He then stacked another four boxes on, making it three boxes high. It was a lot of effort, but after a while, the game paused, and Glint stood up, her head barely peeking over the boxes.\n\n\t“What’re you doing?!” She shouted at Nori.\n\n\t“Wanna help me unpack these?” Nori asked with an innocent smile.\n\n\tGlint was speechless for a moment, and soon Spark’s head poked up from the box half-circle as well. Both twins were standing up, and they eyed the boxes, not knowing what to say. They were too shocked – as IF he just stacked them up to get in their way!\n\n\t“I… ugh, okay,” Glint said, leaving the game on pause.\n\n\tThe twins both grabbed a box and started carrying them back upstairs, Nori snickering to himself all the while.\n\n\t“That, my dear children, is a whole new meaning to the term ‘passive-aggressive.’” Nori said with a chuckle, taking one of the boxes and heading up after them.\n\n\tNori was right in his assumption that unpacking would teach him more about them. Going through the boxes, there were of course lots of clothes in their respective colours. Spark dressed rather conservatively, not nearly as comfortable showing off his body as his sister was. Glint preferred things that were a little tighter, a little more revealing, and sometimes straight-up sexy. Most of her underwear was made to entice, which confused Nori – who was she trying to impress? They got all that put away in almost no time at all. It was cute how even the stripes on their socks matched!\n\n\tNori opened another box and found books – lots of books. They were all short novels, some young-adult levels f fantasy books, others actual educational books on interesting, scientific facts.\n\n\t“Who do these belong to?” Nori asked as he took one of the books out of the box.\n\n\tSpark looked over and reached out, taking the book from Nori rather blatantly. “T-Those are mine,” He said, “I usually just keep them under my bed because I don’t have a bookshelf.”\n\n\tNori blinked, pawing a little at the air where the book had been in his hands. “Uh, well I guess that’s a good place for them for now. We can look into getting you a shelf sometime.”\n\n\tMoving that box over to Spark, he grabbed another box and pulled it over to him, opening it up and peeking inside. It had sporting equipment in it… A soccer ball, a baseball, even a tennis ball and some rackets. Nori swore he’d put away a baseball bat somewhere in the closet earlier as well.\n\n\t“Sporty types huh?” He asked with a little smile, only to have that box snatched away from him as well, by Glint.\n\n\t“Mhm~” She said, taking the box and moving it towards the closet so she could put away the sporting goods.\n\n\tNori watched her and realized something… They didn’t trust him with their things. They seemed all too eager to snatch things away from him so that he wasn’t touching them. Admittedly, it hurt his feelings, but he understood well enough that he was still a stranger to them. He had to keep at it! Rome wasn’t built in a day, and he figured the same could be said for bonds between foster parents and children.\n\n\t“So let’s see,” Nori said as he sat on the floor, legs crossed, “We’ve got books, sports, video games… Is there any sort of area we’re missing?”\n\n\t“Spark doodles,” Glint said with a grin to Spark. The blue-sporting Minun blushed rather noticeably at that.\n\n\t“Oh yeah? You guys have a lot of talents then,” Nori said as he looked between them, “Well, I’m an adult, so I’m a little more boring than all that. I work, a lot… But heck, I draw and write too.”\n\n\tSpark blinked at that and looked to Nori. “Are you good?” He asked.\n\n\tNori laughed a little at that and rested his hands on the floor just behind him as he leaned back. His fluffy tail twitched and wiggled behind him as he pondered. “Well that’s a loaded question,” He said, “And my answer’s a little weird. I don’t like to say that I’m good. People say I am, so I take their word for it more than anything… I just like doing it. There’s never too little room for improvement, so… I’ll say that people sometimes enjoy seeing my work, and that I’m sure I could be better.”\n\n\tSpark looked confused about that. “That doesn’t sound like a good way to think about it,” He said, one brow arched, “I mean… doesn’t that mean you think you’re bad?”\n\n\tNori chuckled at that. “I know I’m bad,” He said, and the look on Spark’s face was priceless, “I look at lots of work that’s plenty better than mine, at least in my opinion. But then again, doesn’t everyone? Even the people better than me think they could be better – and if everyone thinks that, then it’s better to not make such a big deal out of it. I’ll show you some of my stuff sometime. It’s mostly cartoonish scribbles.”\n\n\tSpark blinked a little and nodded. “O-Okay.”\n\n\tThen it got quiet. After a brief silence, Nori felt it best that he just shut up and keep helping them sort their things out. Working with them, he had them put their clothes away while he hooked up their old gaming system. They had an NES, which was practically ancient in that day in age… But he was right about one thing regardless: he learned an awful lot about them just by unpacking their things and trying to talk with them.\n\n\tGlint had a very outgoing sort of personality. As much as she tried to reserve it around Nori, he just had to watch how Glint and Spark interacted between one another to know. She was the confident one, the decision-maker, the instigator… Whenever they got into any sort of tussle, she was the one to be the first to punch her sibling in the arm. She was something of a tomboy, but was all too aware of her womanly body at the same time, even going so far as to torment her twin brother with a little flaunting. Nothing made her giggle quite like getting Spark all worked up, but she wasn’t mean to the poor boy.\n\n\tSpark was more reserved. He was calmer, quieter, sometimes stuttered when he got all worked up, and was generally just tenderer than Glint was. He had his moments where he lashed out, pushing his sister or what have you, but otherwise he was far too passive to act on anything. He was really a sweet kid, and he got along very well with his sister even if she picked on him a bit.\n\n\tThey had so much energy between the two of them that Nori couldn’t help but love to watch them.\n\n\tThe room was organized before too long, and Nori allowed Glint and Spark to stay up until eleven o’clock at night. Thankfully, both he and the twins thought that was a reasonable bedtime, so he sent them off to bed without a hassle. After saying his goodnights, Nori closed their bedroom door, and then… he just let out a deep breath. He felt like he’d been holding that breath all day without really noticing he was so strung up.\n\n\tEven he had to admit, he wasn’t prepared for the anxiety he felt when it came to taking care of the twins. It wasn’t as if he’d never taken care of kids before, but these kids were… his kids. It was something different entirely. He wasn’t just trying to be their friend or even their guardian so much as he was trying to be a parent. It wasn’t until he was alone that he even realized how worried he was about the whole thing. The twins had been taken and sent back before, like some sort of item from a department store, and he didn’t want to do that – in fact, he’d sooner die then do that to a couple of smart and talented kids like them. Thinking about it, Nori just couldn’t see why they had so many problems in the past… They [i]seemed [/i]like sweet kids.\n\n\tNori ran his fingers through his hair as he went back down the stairs again. Pulling that U-turn towards the living room, he walked to his recliner he kept in there and then simply collapsed onto it. He went through a little check-list of all the things he had to do that day, and realized he had been one busy raccoon! He woke up late after an anxious night, moved a bunch of furniture into the second story of his home in which the staircase barely had enough room to fit the mattresses, then he moved a bunch of boxes back to the first floor to coax the twins into unpacking them with him, only to move them all back upstairs again. He’d cooked dinner soon after that, then washed the dishes from said dinner, and then had the compulsion to tidy up anything he’d missed while the twins played their video games. Then he sent them to bed and said goodnight.\n\n\t“I remember when my days off consisted of a little housekeeping, and a lot of TF2,” Nori said to himself as he slumped so low in his chair his back was more on the seat than actually on the back rest, “Is this going to be a pattern?”\n\n\tHe took a breath, as if to steel himself. Things weren’t so bad, and he knew it. Maybe he’d be busier, but when he compared that to what he used to do on his days off, it seemed to provide a lot more variety. All he had to do was work that into his routine.\n\n\t“I suppose now the question is… should I get someone to look after them while I’m at work?” He asked himself, his tail giving a flick, “Are they old enough to look after themselves? But they have no idea where anything is… What if they get hungry and can’t make anything?”\n\n\tPondering this, Nori looked to the couch and spotted their backpacks still settled there, and decided he had to move them somewhere where the twins wouldn’t miss seeing them. He took another breath and heaved himself out of his chair, grabbing the backpacks and heading off back up the stairs to at least set them in front of their door – across the hall so they’d be the first thing the young Pokemon would see.\n\n\t“Cripes,” He said to himself, “A father’s work is never done.”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "\tCircuit Breaker
\tBy MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie)

“Well, after looking extensively at your paperwork and going through an analysis, we’ve got good news for you, Nori. You’re fit to adopt.”

\tNori breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn’t help but offer a cheeky little grin. It was just how he was. Even when he was nervous, he tended to look rather calm and level headed. The raccoon had been gunning for adoption for well over a couple of months, and he was finally permitted to do so. He couldn’t stop his gray, black-striped, fluffy tail from waggling about behind him in his delight though. Having kids always seemed like an option that just wasn’t available to him. He almost felt stupid for over-looking adoption for so long.

\tBut Nori was anything but stupid. He approached adoption the same way he approached everything else: rationally. He was cunning, witty, intelligent, and most of all thought nothing could be done without a reasonable explanation. Nori’s explanation was simple: he fancied other men, and that meant that he couldn’t biologically have kids with any partner he may have had. Women weren’t entirely out of the question for him, but having a wife never held any interest. Adoption was his best choice, and the longer he had thought about it before signing up, the more reasons he could deduct to reassure his decision was just.

\tHe was going to give someone a home. He was going to give them a family. Most of all however, Nori was going to give someone love that only a parent could hold for their child.

\t“That’s great,” Nori said as he leaned forwards in his chair a little, looking at the worker on the other side of the desk.

\tHer nametag identified her as “Harlot,” which was such a peculiar name for someone in such a position. She had been dealing with the legal side of adopting a child, and had been working with Nori every step of the way to get him approved. She was a sweet girl, but a species that Nori wasn’t all that familiar with. She looked like a raccoon like him, but her ears looked like a bunny’s. He had asked her about it when they started off, and she said she was something known as a “Sentret.” She was a Pokemon – a species that Nori learned came in so many different shapes and sizes that the sheer list of sub-species ranged somewhere around five hundred. Maybe it was small when compared to other species lists, but Nori had a hard time wrapping his head around it all. There was sure a lot to remember.

\tHarlot was shorter than Nori, stocky too. Her body was a round shape, though not entirely unpleasant. Her fur was interesting however. Nori had never seen a raccoon with brown fur before, and darker brown stripes on their tail. She didn’t even have the ‘face mask’ markings around her eyes like normal raccoons. Nori wasn’t like normal raccoons either. He was almost inverted, with dark gray covering the majority of his body, while the lighter gray was what covered his hands and feet in that ‘sock and glove’ sort of way, and what made up his ‘face mask’ and tail stripes. He even had it on the tips of his ears, as if someone had held him by his ankles and just barely dipped him in paint. In a way, it was comforting to see another raccoon that was different… if he could even call Harlot anything other than a Sentret.

\t“And you’ve chosen to adopt… Glint and Spark, is that correct?” She asked, beady little eyes glancing back over the desk at Nori. She almost looked squished into her little ‘cubicle’ area of the lengty desk that spanned the room like a dividing line between the employees and the adopters. Nori was just one of many people there who was going through the process. He was however the only one who was alone.

\t“That’s right,” Nori said with a nod, “The twins.”

\tHarlot seemed to ponder something. Her brow furrowed so cutely, but it almost made her beady black eyes disappear as if her face caved in. He lips were puckered too, making her look like a fish. Nori looked left and right as she just sat there, wondering just what was on her mind. His attention was hooked as she just sat there for a few seconds. It was as if she was waiting for him to open his mouth just so she could cut him off and continue, because that’s exactly what she did.

\t“Well Nori, I feel like I have to say that adopting two older children like them has some… difficulty,” Harlot said, her face returning to normal, “Especially with those two.”

\tNori had all kinds of questions about why she’d say something like that… but for her sake, he condensed it into a simple, “Oh?”

\tSighing softly, Harlot sat back and fiddled with a pen. “Well,” She began, obviously searcing for words, “Glint and Spark have been… problematic. They’re a special case, you could say. You cannot under any circumstances adopt one without the other. This is because they’ve grown and developed with one another. Younger children are still forming bonds, and can be connected to their foster parents without as much difficulty. But teenagers like Glint and Spark take time to adjust to changes. Having a new parent is a radical change, and it can be hard to take baby steps.”

\t“That makes sense,” Nori said as he crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulders, “I’ve every intention of being careful. It’ll take time, but I’m willing to take the time.”

\tHarlot looked at Nori for a short while, and then nodded. “Alright,” She said, “Just remember Nori: the most difficult thing to understand next to women is kids. Let’s go introduce you.”

\tHarlot hopped out of her chair and moved around the big desk and over to Nori, who was standing by the time she bounced over. She lead him out of the office and back into the waiting room. She asked him to wait there and went back to her desk to call someone to escort the twins to meet their new father. Nori didn’t hear a word of it, but he knew that was what was going on – there just wasn’t any other explanation. He felt a little bad for the kids though… He compared the activity to bringing out a dog from the pound. The Center looked all lavish and expensive, but in the end these kids were just being grown to be inserted into a family that they didn’t get to choose.

\tNori sighed at the thought, but was excited nevertheless. His calm demeanor showed him as being more curious than anything else. He really wanted to give Glint and Spark a home they could be proud of, and he wanted to care for them. He hadn’t even met them face-to-face and spoke to them before, yet he felt determined. Was it love? It wasn’t impossible to love someone that you’ve never spoken to, at least not in Nori’s world. He’d just have to wait and see how things turned out.

\tIt didn’t take long for the twins to round the corner, and Nori smiled when he saw them. He tried not to grin like an idiot or look TOO happy, but the feeling was plastered onto his face regardless of his efforts. He just had this feeling that he’d get along with them… Perhaps it was mostly based on how grown up and developed they looked.

\tNori had been a vastly early bloomer in his younger years. At the tender childhood ages, he had become a sexual little deviant, and was as endowed as any man could have hoped. It only got worse as he got older, but he at least learned in time what was right and what was wrong. Even if the blue denim capris he wore had a hard time hiding his arousal at times, Nori had a good head on his shoulders and a steady upbringing. He knew what it felt like to be a little out of the ordinary, and he knew how to build a life of fun and adventure out of it. Just by looking at Glint and Spark, he knew they’d need a similar lesson that the stuffy types at an adoption center would never provide.

\tGlint was something called a “Plusle.” She had yellow fur with a splash of red over some places, like her hands and forearms, and the tips of her ears. She had characteristic red circles on her cheeks that almost made her look like some porcelain doll, but it was cut into quarters by her creamy yellow fur in a way that made it look like she had little plus signs on her cheeks. Red certainly seemed to be her colour, since she wore a red tank top and a loose pair of darker red cargos, and red and white sneakers on her feet, tied neatly. And, when looking, could Nori see a flash of pink fabric over her hip? Underwear, no doubt… and pink WAS technically light red. It was cute how colour coordinated she was. Spark was absolutely no different.

\tSpark was a “Minun,” and he looked every bit like his sister except for the more obvious gender differences. He was a cutie, Nori had to admit, but the boy didn’t quite spark an attraction like an older partner would, and Nori was thankful for that lack of complication. Everything that was red on his sister was blue on him, including the circles on his cheeks. His were sliced in half however, horizontally by his creamy yellow fur, successfully giving him minus signs.

\tNori was beginning to wonder if he could hook them up to a car battery with jumper cables.

\tSpark’s clothes were blue and varied in shades of it just like his sister’s clothing did. They almost wore the same things even, except for Spark’s shirt being a tank top for boys instead of girls. But one thing in particular had Nori’s attention… and he wasn’t thinking in a perverse manner or anything, but he just couldn’t help but notice!

\tThe way Glint filled out her clothes was absolutely insane. Nori knew these kids were only sixteen years of age, but if he hadn’t have known that, he would have sworn he was looking at a much older woman. To be put bluntly, Glint’s breasts were huge. The sixteen year old girl was a real bra-buster! But Nori was used that though, since he suffered from a similar… condition in his youth – a condition he knew by the ever-so-slightly noticeable bulge in Spark’s pants that they both seemed to ‘suffer’ from as well. But it worked out in Nori’s favor at least. Who better to raise ‘hyper endowed’ children than a father who’s gone through all the paces?

\tShoving those thoughts into the back of his mind like a housekeeper sweeping dirt under the carpet, Nori turned his full attention to the twins. He looked at them, and they just stared back at him. It was possibly one of the most awkward experiences in Nori’s life. The twins had him at a disadvantage, because they’d apparently done it before!

\t“Glint, Spark, this is Nori,” A large pink and black bovine explained, “You’ve met him before, right?”

\t“Yes,” Glint said with a little nod, “He was here before. He’s adopting us, isn’t he?”

\t“That’s right,” The bovine said with a nod, smiling at how well Glint could figure out her situation, “He’s been working really hard to get a chance to take you two home with him.”

\t“But we don’t wanna go, Mimi,” Spark protested – Nori felt his heart sink a little at the statement, “We don’t wanna go to another home.”

\t“Now Spark,” Mimi said with a careful smile, “You know that you and Glint are getting far too old to stay here with us. Why don’t you give Nori a chance? And please, let’s stop talking about him as if he’s not here.”

\tLooking back at Nori, Spark’s ears flattened out to either side of his head, sinking with his pout. “Sorry,” He murmured quietly.

\tNori raised a hand in a gesture for Spark to stow the apologies, “No need to be sorry, I understand how you feel,” Nori explained, “The lady back at the desk told me that you two had been out of this place a few times and it didn’t work out. But I want to make it work out, so if you two have anything you need to sort out with me, you can tell me right off the bat, okay?”

\tSpark looked at Glint then, who simply shrugged and said, “There’s no point, we’re just going to end up back here in two weeks anyways.”

\tNori was, for the first time in a good while, baffled. He had no idea what to tell the twins to ease their nerves… And honestly, who was he trying to convince, them or him? Hearing them talk about staying with him as if it were visiting a horrendous aunt for a short vacation was hard to hear… It didn’t bolster his confidence in his own abilities at all. But he did feel bad that they seemed to think that way. How many children who have no loving family would give their left arm and right leg for one? And yet it seemed as if the twins would have absolutely none of it.

\tA silence hung in the air for a moment before Mimi, the cow, rested her hands on their heads and pet over their fur a bit.

\t“Alright you two, that’s enough of that. Let’s go back outside for a little bit, alright? Then we can start packing your things,” She said, “Now say goodbye to Nori.”

\t“Bye,” Glint and spark said in unison.

\tNori gave a little bit of an uncertain smile and nodded, “Bye.”

\tMimi ushered the kids off, back around the corner from whence they came, and left Nori standing there. He felt as if someone had dropped an anvil down his throat and the weight settled heavily in the pit of his stomach. Uncertainty set in, but his rational mind assured him that the feeling was natural. Every new parent felt uncertain… right? Nobody knew what the future would have in store, and all anyone could do was try their best. What more could anyone ask of him? And yet, standing there, he scratched at the side of his cheek nervously. Thinking didn’t make him feel any better.

\t“Nori, go home,” Harlot’s voice rang in, causing Nori to turn around and look at the portly little raccoon-creature. Her tone was thankfully sympathetic, so it didn’t sound like she was trying to shoo him along so that she could tend to her next prospective parent.

\t“You’ve got to go home and get everything ready for the twins’ arrival tomorrow,” She explained as she approached.

\t“I, uh… Yeah,” Nori said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

\tHarlot sighed with a little smile and reached out to take Nori’s hand and give it a squeeze. She said, “Hundreds of people feel the way you feel every single day. New parents have no idea what to do with their newborn babies, let alone what to do with two grown-up kids. Just remember that a parent and a friend can be one in the same, alright? Take care of them. They need love and guidance just like anyone else.”

\t“Right,” Nori said, though still feeling uncertain, “I’ll just, uh… I’ll make sure their new room’s cleared out. And that the house is clean.”

\t“A good place as any to start,” Harlot said, letting Nori go.

\tNori went straight home, which was a distance away. Truth be told, he lived a good several hours away from the adoption center in a beach-side home. It wasn’t a luxuriant beach-side home you’d imagine a summer cottage to be like, instead it was a modest home nestled into the tree line just at the end of Nori’s local beach. This put him quite a ways away from town, but the beach pretty much lined his back yard, making summer awfully pleasant when he could just take a cool dip off his pier. The house wasn’t small, either – two stories, two bedrooms, spacious, well-kept, no signs of weather-caused wear-n’-tear. He kept his fridge stocked and was quite handy at maintaining his own appliances… All in all, it was a quaint home with enough income to support a pair of twins.

\tHe spent the remainder of the day cleaning out his spare room. It used to be something of a study, or an office, where he kept his computer, and piles of junk. Nori was such a pack rat that most of the things he sorted through and removed from the room had to be thrown out, as he couldn’t for the life of him remember why he kept them in the first place. It went from a messy, disorganized room, to a completely cleared out and vacuumed space by the end of the day. The closet was empty, the room was empty, and he’d moved his computer and desk out to his living room. It had taken him all until dusk, but he managed all right.

\tHe knew that the adoption center Glint and Spark came from would bring all of their furniture with them when they were to get settled in. Nori had no idea what this would entail, but he still stood in the middle of the empty room and glanced around. He was trying to picture what it would look like with kids in it – his kids, no less. He breathed a soft sigh and shook his head. He was far too worn out from so much hauling to be daydreaming… After all, moving the twins in was just going to be more work!

\t“I should go to sleep,” He said to himself. He was just about to, leaving the room and stepping into the hall. He was so excited though, he just couldn’t go to bed right away… He felt wide awake.

\tPausing outside his door, he reached up to tap his cheek in thought with his index finger, humming, “Well, maaaaybe I’ll go after a snack.”

\tThe idea of a snack made his tummy growl, and he smiled as he practically pranced down the stairs again.

\t“Some rootbeer, and Chay’s blueberry pie~” The raccoon sung to himself as he made his way to the kitchen. It was going to be a sweet, sweet start to a new chapter in his life.


\tNori woke up the next morning to the sound of a truck… a big truck. He could hear its motor rumbling outside, and it took him a moment to realize what was going on.

\t“The twins!” He shouted, tossing his bed sheets off of his body and scrambling out of bed. He tripped, and stumbled, on his own two feet as he hurried to his dresser. He took a pair of super-tight, clingy underwear and slid them on – and while he’d normally make sure they hugged his rear and crotch just right, he did a quick couple-second check before he grabbed his denim capris as they hung from the edge of his dresser and tossed them on. He looked for a decent shirt, one that wasn’t as dastardly as his symbolic ‘FWOOMP!’ t-shirt, and managed to score himself a nice red t-shirt. Tossing that on as well, he hurried out of his room.

\tNearly falling down the stairs, he ran into the kitchen and made a sharp U-turn down the hall, past the bathroom and into the living room, where he stopped.

\t“Alright, uh… gotta unpack their things, move things up to their room. Got the Nintendo hooked up to keep them busy, right?” He asked himself, looking to his rather big and decorated wall-unit. His television – a nice 40” plasma – sitting with one of those Nintendo Wii systems hooked up to it. He didn’t play it much himself, preferring his Playstation, but he figured the twins would get a kick out of it. It had been set up and things were in position so that they had something to do while Nori helped move everything in and get everything settled. With that in order, he hurried to the door.

\tHe stepped outside, recoiling for a moment as the afternoon sun hit his eyes. When had he woken up? He hadn’t checked the time, but if they left early morning, it had to be after noon. He squinted, rubbed his eyes, and shook his head, only to see the twins coming up the walkway.

\t“Hey you two!” Nori said with a smile, “Come on in, I’ve got something for you guys to keep busy with while I help unpack your stuff.”

\t“You mean we don’t have to help?” Spark asked as he walked up the walkway with Glint. He had a blue backpack on his back, Glint having a matching red one. Honestly, they looked too mature to be walking around with backpacks on like they were heading to elementary school… And he couldn’t help but notice how his clothing matched theirs in a rather unintentional manner.

\t“Of course you don’t have to help,” Nori said, “Unless you want to take care of where some of the things in the boxes go. You leave the furniture to me and the movers, alright?”

\tGlint and Spark looked to one another in surprise, their ears perked. “That’s better than our last foster parent,” Spark said, and Glint nodded. “They made us help move everything! Said it helped develop a sense of a responsibility,” Glint said to Nori. They both looked at him for a moment as if they were unsure whether to believe him or not… But after a short, quiet moment lacking any retracted statements, the twins headed straight inside, walking around Nori.

\t“Thanks!” Spark shouted back as they went inside.

\t“Sweet kids,” Nori said as he rubbed his hands together, “Alright, well they can’t have much.”

\tNori walked out to the truck, and watched as some… fellow who resembled a rock and something else that resembled a pale blue dinosaur with bulging muscles opened up the back of the truck.

\t“Sweet Jiminy Cricket that’s a lot of stuff!” Nori exclaimed.

\tHe really should have expected that everything came in pairs. There were two beds, two dressers, two bedside tables, thankfully one television and a stand for it, and plenty of boxes. It was going to be quite a move.

\tMeanwhile, Glint and Spark made their way inside the house and looked around. It was bigger than they thought, and not some run-down shack like the parent before the last had lived in. It was quite a wonder how people managed to qualify for adoption sometimes, but it seemed that so far Nori was playing all his cards right. The house was clean and he was friendly and considerate enough to give them a way to entertain themselves while they were moved in. Still, a thought bothered them.

\t“So… What do we do, Glint?” Spark asked as he turned to his sister.

\t“I dunno… I guess we test him!” She said with a shrug, “I mean everyone else has sent us back for one reason or another. So we should go through all that stuff and see if he’s gonna do the same thing.”

\tWalking over to the couch, Spark put his bag down on top of it and sat down himself. “But… should we really try to get kicked out?” He asked.

\tGlint walked over to Spark and threw her bag on the couch as well, before she rather boldly straddled his lap. It was a slow and deliberate mounting of her brother, one Spark knew all too well, and she leaned in close, her rather prominent breasts squishing in against his chest.

\t“I’d rather be kicked out of the house for breaking a precious vase than to get kicked out for this,” She said before planting a kiss on her brother’s lips. Pulling back, she continued, “You heard what everyone keeps telling us when we leave. We gotta keep that a secret, and I don’t want to. So we’re either gonna be sent back for being bad, or were going to be sent back for being very, very naughty.”

\tSpark blushed, staring at his sister, before a sound startled them. They squeaked and looked to the door where Nori had come in, struggling to carry their television by himself. He peeked around it at them and blinked a few times himself, looking at the two of them curiously.

\t“… What’re you two doing?” He asked.

\tThere was a slight pause, before Glint looked to Spark with a glare and pinched one of his ears between her thumb and index finger and YANKED on it. Spark squealed and shouted in pain.

\t“I’m first player!” Glint shouted.

\tSpark clenched his eyes shut, and his teeth, shouting, “Ow! OW, GLINT! STOP IT!”

\t“Honestly,” Nori sighed as he rolled his eyes. He set the television down slowly and walked over to them.

\t“Alright you two, rock, paper, scissors over it,” Nori said as he held out his fist to start the game. When the twins just looked at him in surprise, he simply cocked a brow and said, “Well? Come on.”

\tSlowly the twins raised their hands, and they bobbed them up and down three times.

\t“Uno, dos, tres!” Nori chanted before they all picked their choice. Glint and Spark both chose paper… Nori had scissors.

\t“Spark’s first player because Glint was pinching,” Nori said with a nod, looking to Glint, “And you oughta keep your hands to yourself. Now play nice you two.”

\tNori turned then and walked to the television, grunting as he hefted it back up. He felt a little strange, admittedly. Even though he was feeling a little agitated with the twins for getting on each other’s case after just a minute or two in his house, he felt rather proud of himself for how he handled the situation. Nobody could argue with a game of chance. When Nori got the TV back up, the twins were seated next to each other. He smiled to them before he carried on through the house. Glint and Spark just waited for him to go by, along with the Geodude and Machoke that were helping unload the truck.

\t“… Nori’s kinda weird,” Glint said to Spark after everyone was gone.

\tSpark nodded, “Yeah…”

\tLeaning over, Glint kissed the tip of Spark’s ear suddenly.

\t“Sorry for pinching you! It was just a cover-up~” She said with a smile, before looking towards the TV. “Oh! Is that the New Super Mario Bros. game? I’m first player!” She planted her hand on Spark’s head to heft herself off the couch and toss herself towards the remotes, Spark scrambling after her to pick up another.

\t“Wow, he’s got a Playstation 3 too!”

\tThe move went by with little to no incident at all. Nori and the movers had gotten everything set up in Glint and Spark’s room within a good several hours. When all was said and done, Nori stood dead center in the room again and looked around. Glint’s bed was on the left of the room, Spark’s bed on the right. The space between their beds had their television set up so they could play from their beds or on the carpet if they wanted to. Behind him were their dressers, set up against the wall, standing tall instead of wide. One was red, and one was blue, and it was far too easy to tell which belonged to whom. Aside from those things, there were boxes, lots of boxes. He’d have to unpack those with the twins later.

\tHe sighed to himself and rubbed his chin.

\t“Now what?” He asked.

\tThe movers had already gone and taken the truck away, leaving Nori and the twins alone. He had a good few things to do now, like get them enrolled in the local high school so they could start in the spring. All he had to do now was get to know them… It’d be a lot easier when they unpacked those boxes so that he could see what they were into, so he figured he ought to get to that sooner rather than later. He turned and headed out of his room, walking down the stairs and making that U-turn into the tiny hallway that separated the living room from the kitchen.

\tHe was delighted to see the twins seated on the carpet, practically glued to the television set. At least they weren’t bored while they had been waiting for him and the movers to finish. They were having a great time playing their game together… And Nori knew it was quite the hectic little game, so it was no surprise that there seemed to be a mixture of loving co-operation and death-glares being passed between them.

\tNori tilted his head a little as he leaned on the doorframe that made up the hallway entrance, kind of squinting with one eye. He could spy… a thong. Glint was wearing a pink pair of underwear that was showing above the waistline of her pants, and Nori was rather… bewildered. Not by the thong itself, but mostly by the fact that she was wearing one. She was sixteen for Pete’s sake! Kids these days… Something about her just screamed ‘trouble,’ but Nori knew better than to judge a book by its cover. Far be it from him to judge someone for dressing a little… provocatively.

\t“Hey guys,” He said, getting their attention, “Havin’ fun?”

\t“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Glint said as she paused the game.

\tNori nodded a little and seemed to glance around awkwardly. Was he even addressing them right? He was aware they didn’t exactly like him… But still, he couldn’t shy away for that. “Wanna help me unpack your stuff?” He’d ask.

\t“Didn’t you do that?” Spark asked.

\t“Nope,” Nori answered quickly, “I don’t know where you want anything to go.”

\tGlint and Spark paused for a moment, and then shrugged. “Nah,” Glint said, “We wanna keep playing this.” Then they did just that, going right back to it as if Nori wasn’t even there.

\tNori was… baffled, to say the least. NOW what was he supposed to do? Was he enough of a parent by now that he could tell them to do it? Most likely not, he thought. They probably wouldn’t even take him all that seriously. He tapped his cheek a little in thought, kind of poking his tongue into it for no real reason.

\tAh, he knew what to do. He could get them to indirectly be persuaded into helping him unpack. If there was one thing Nori had always been good at, it was being a dastardly little trouble maker. He left them to play their game, and retreated up to their room where he grabbed one of the boxes. He quickly carried it back downstairs, and while the twins were glued to the television set and practically unaware of his existence, he set the Box down next to Spark, making sure it brushed over his leg. Spark noticed, but did his best to shuffle aside so he didn’t have to deal with it.

\tNori would go back upstairs and come back with another box, setting it down next to Glint in the same manner. Like her brother, she shuffled over until she was almost squashed up against Spark. Another couple boxes and Nori had successfully closed them in with a half-circle. Four more boxes, and he’d stacked it two boxes high… He then stacked another four boxes on, making it three boxes high. It was a lot of effort, but after a while, the game paused, and Glint stood up, her head barely peeking over the boxes.

\t“What’re you doing?!” She shouted at Nori.

\t“Wanna help me unpack these?” Nori asked with an innocent smile.

\tGlint was speechless for a moment, and soon Spark’s head poked up from the box half-circle as well. Both twins were standing up, and they eyed the boxes, not knowing what to say. They were too shocked – as IF he just stacked them up to get in their way!

\t“I… ugh, okay,” Glint said, leaving the game on pause.

\tThe twins both grabbed a box and started carrying them back upstairs, Nori snickering to himself all the while.

\t“That, my dear children, is a whole new meaning to the term ‘passive-aggressive.’” Nori said with a chuckle, taking one of the boxes and heading up after them.

\tNori was right in his assumption that unpacking would teach him more about them. Going through the boxes, there were of course lots of clothes in their respective colours. Spark dressed rather conservatively, not nearly as comfortable showing off his body as his sister was. Glint preferred things that were a little tighter, a little more revealing, and sometimes straight-up sexy. Most of her underwear was made to entice, which confused Nori – who was she trying to impress? They got all that put away in almost no time at all. It was cute how even the stripes on their socks matched!

\tNori opened another box and found books – lots of books. They were all short novels, some young-adult levels f fantasy books, others actual educational books on interesting, scientific facts.

\t“Who do these belong to?” Nori asked as he took one of the books out of the box.

\tSpark looked over and reached out, taking the book from Nori rather blatantly. “T-Those are mine,” He said, “I usually just keep them under my bed because I don’t have a bookshelf.”

\tNori blinked, pawing a little at the air where the book had been in his hands. “Uh, well I guess that’s a good place for them for now. We can look into getting you a shelf sometime.”

\tMoving that box over to Spark, he grabbed another box and pulled it over to him, opening it up and peeking inside. It had sporting equipment in it… A soccer ball, a baseball, even a tennis ball and some rackets. Nori swore he’d put away a baseball bat somewhere in the closet earlier as well.

\t“Sporty types huh?” He asked with a little smile, only to have that box snatched away from him as well, by Glint.

\t“Mhm~” She said, taking the box and moving it towards the closet so she could put away the sporting goods.

\tNori watched her and realized something… They didn’t trust him with their things. They seemed all too eager to snatch things away from him so that he wasn’t touching them. Admittedly, it hurt his feelings, but he understood well enough that he was still a stranger to them. He had to keep at it! Rome wasn’t built in a day, and he figured the same could be said for bonds between foster parents and children.

\t“So let’s see,” Nori said as he sat on the floor, legs crossed, “We’ve got books, sports, video games… Is there any sort of area we’re missing?”

\t“Spark doodles,” Glint said with a grin to Spark. The blue-sporting Minun blushed rather noticeably at that.

\t“Oh yeah? You guys have a lot of talents then,” Nori said as he looked between them, “Well, I’m an adult, so I’m a little more boring than all that. I work, a lot… But heck, I draw and write too.”

\tSpark blinked at that and looked to Nori. “Are you good?” He asked.

\tNori laughed a little at that and rested his hands on the floor just behind him as he leaned back. His fluffy tail twitched and wiggled behind him as he pondered. “Well that’s a loaded question,” He said, “And my answer’s a little weird. I don’t like to say that I’m good. People say I am, so I take their word for it more than anything… I just like doing it. There’s never too little room for improvement, so… I’ll say that people sometimes enjoy seeing my work, and that I’m sure I could be better.”

\tSpark looked confused about that. “That doesn’t sound like a good way to think about it,” He said, one brow arched, “I mean… doesn’t that mean you think you’re bad?”

\tNori chuckled at that. “I know I’m bad,” He said, and the look on Spark’s face was priceless, “I look at lots of work that’s plenty better than mine, at least in my opinion. But then again, doesn’t everyone? Even the people better than me think they could be better – and if everyone thinks that, then it’s better to not make such a big deal out of it. I’ll show you some of my stuff sometime. It’s mostly cartoonish scribbles.”

\tSpark blinked a little and nodded. “O-Okay.”

\tThen it got quiet. After a brief silence, Nori felt it best that he just shut up and keep helping them sort their things out. Working with them, he had them put their clothes away while he hooked up their old gaming system. They had an NES, which was practically ancient in that day in age… But he was right about one thing regardless: he learned an awful lot about them just by unpacking their things and trying to talk with them.

\tGlint had a very outgoing sort of personality. As much as she tried to reserve it around Nori, he just had to watch how Glint and Spark interacted between one another to know. She was the confident one, the decision-maker, the instigator… Whenever they got into any sort of tussle, she was the one to be the first to punch her sibling in the arm. She was something of a tomboy, but was all too aware of her womanly body at the same time, even going so far as to torment her twin brother with a little flaunting. Nothing made her giggle quite like getting Spark all worked up, but she wasn’t mean to the poor boy.

\tSpark was more reserved. He was calmer, quieter, sometimes stuttered when he got all worked up, and was generally just tenderer than Glint was. He had his moments where he lashed out, pushing his sister or what have you, but otherwise he was far too passive to act on anything. He was really a sweet kid, and he got along very well with his sister even if she picked on him a bit.

\tThey had so much energy between the two of them that Nori couldn’t help but love to watch them.

\tThe room was organized before too long, and Nori allowed Glint and Spark to stay up until eleven o’clock at night. Thankfully, both he and the twins thought that was a reasonable bedtime, so he sent them off to bed without a hassle. After saying his goodnights, Nori closed their bedroom door, and then… he just let out a deep breath. He felt like he’d been holding that breath all day without really noticing he was so strung up.

\tEven he had to admit, he wasn’t prepared for the anxiety he felt when it came to taking care of the twins. It wasn’t as if he’d never taken care of kids before, but these kids were… his kids. It was something different entirely. He wasn’t just trying to be their friend or even their guardian so much as he was trying to be a parent. It wasn’t until he was alone that he even realized how worried he was about the whole thing. The twins had been taken and sent back before, like some sort of item from a department store, and he didn’t want to do that – in fact, he’d sooner die then do that to a couple of smart and talented kids like them. Thinking about it, Nori just couldn’t see why they had so many problems in the past… They seemed like sweet kids.

\tNori ran his fingers through his hair as he went back down the stairs again. Pulling that U-turn towards the living room, he walked to his recliner he kept in there and then simply collapsed onto it. He went through a little check-list of all the things he had to do that day, and realized he had been one busy raccoon! He woke up late after an anxious night, moved a bunch of furniture into the second story of his home in which the staircase barely had enough room to fit the mattresses, then he moved a bunch of boxes back to the first floor to coax the twins into unpacking them with him, only to move them all back upstairs again. He’d cooked dinner soon after that, then washed the dishes from said dinner, and then had the compulsion to tidy up anything he’d missed while the twins played their video games. Then he sent them to bed and said goodnight.

\t“I remember when my days off consisted of a little housekeeping, and a lot of TF2,” Nori said to himself as he slumped so low in his chair his back was more on the seat than actually on the back rest, “Is this going to be a pattern?”

\tHe took a breath, as if to steel himself. Things weren’t so bad, and he knew it. Maybe he’d be busier, but when he compared that to what he used to do on his days off, it seemed to provide a lot more variety. All he had to do was work that into his routine.

\t“I suppose now the question is… should I get someone to look after them while I’m at work?” He asked himself, his tail giving a flick, “Are they old enough to look after themselves? But they have no idea where anything is… What if they get hungry and can’t make anything?”

\tPondering this, Nori looked to the couch and spotted their backpacks still settled there, and decided he had to move them somewhere where the twins wouldn’t miss seeing them. He took another breath and heaved himself out of his chair, grabbing the backpacks and heading off back up the stairs to at least set them in front of their door – across the hall so they’d be the first thing the young Pokemon would see.

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