The Lonely Rabbit and Broken Thief

Chapter Twenty-Four

"This place is nice."

Well, he wasn't expecting to see Splendont here. Or Splendid. Or Lifty... or Flippy, of all people.

Lifty was looking around the house, touching everything with an excited, curious aura around him. He looked happy to see the house in working order and clean. Flippy took a spot on the couch, entirely too relaxed and he wasn't exactly too sure if it was him or the other him. Splendid looked entirely too uncomfortable here and he could tell he was curious as to why Cuddles was here. And Splendont... looked like a silent, but deadly ticking time bomb.

Shifty had fled to his room the second they arrived and Cuddles stayed outside the other side of the door to listen in on him and make sure he didn't hurt himself. He managed to get Shifty to keep the door cracked, even just a bit so he could run in if he needed to.

"Yo, B.M. since when did you know Cuddles here?"

B.M. smiled at Splendont, "My son is a fan and long time friend of his."

Splendont glanced over at him and Cuddles shrugged, "You should have told me you were in town. I could have said "hi," you know."

B.M. hummed, "Sorry. I didn't know you still took up residency here."

Flippy piped up, "So, you gonna tell us why we're here? At ten p.m. at night?"

Splendid pinched his cheek and sighed, "Flip, don't be impatient."

Cuddles watched them, mildly fascinated at their dynamic before B.M. caught his attention by leaving and returning with Mr. Pig. The man was gagged and relatively still silent from when Cuddles knocked him out cold.

It was then that Lifty spoke up, "M-Mr. Dad?"

Splendont looked at Lifty, confused until he looked back at the man, "Ah... so this was the man in the file... he's old."

Cuddles frowned at his comment and looked back at the man, disgust rising in him. B.M. set him close to the entrance of the house and crossed his arms.

"Lifty, I'm sure you understand the implications of this man being here. Yes?"

Cuddles looked at Lifty, who stared at the man and he knew what he was thinking. He knew what this man had done to Shifty. He knew the brunt Shifty's trauma started with him.

"He... h-he sh-shouldn't be here..." Lifty said, his tail rising up, puffing out like it was alerting him to danger.

"Yes... it seems Dreamy must have found a connection to this man to Shifty and purposely sent him here–"

"Wait, I'm not following." Splendid cut in, making the others look at him.

Splendont looked at Lifty and then at Cuddles. Flippy pointed at them.

"Hey! What's with those looks? What's going on?" Flippy snapped, getting up. "Why is this even an issue? Why are we helping out Shifty anyways? He's been an asshole to everyone, including his own brother, and I don't mean to diss on him, but he did some really bad shit."

Cuddles got up from where he was sitting and pointed at Flippy, "Hey, you watch your mouth! You're not the only one who had shit going on in your life so don't judge him for doing what he had to do to get by!"