smiling critters

chapter 24 - fort

They stayed like that until Dylan fell asleep and Neil got the opportunity to get up and grab the box of tissues on the kitchen table and cleaned off Dylan's face before going back to cuddling with him, also rubbing his scent on him a bit as one of his many silent gestures of affection. He sat and listened to Dylan breathe as he quietly sang girl in red's 'watch you sleep' to himself, petting dylan's head with one paw and running his fingers through his hair with the other. Once he was done, he was left with his thoughts, trying to think about something other than the fact that his life was still sorta shit. yes, it was better than before, but all the trauma had left permanent marks on him and constantly gave him horrible thoughts that he used to have back in godfrey and elliot's house, so what could he think about that wouldn't make him want to die?

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Neil was sitting at a bench in the playground during recess reading some random book about two humans that are complete opposites but somehow fall in love. He was minding his own business until he noticed someone sitting beside him reading over his shoulder. He looked over and saw a cocker spaniel pup inches from his face, causing him to jump back a bit in surprise.

"Oh, sorry! I just wanted to see what you were reading. I'm Dylan, what's your name?" he smiled and helped him get back on the bench before he sat, eagerly waiting for an answer. Neil stayed silent.

"Uh, can you even speak english?" he asked. Neil nodded.

"Then can you tell me your name?"

Neil shook his head.

"Why not?"

neil sighed and marked his page before putting down his book and picked up his white board that he used to communicate with anyone who didn't know sign, which was pretty much everyone, so he just carried it everywhere with him. He quickly wrote down 'sorry, i can't talk. My name is Neil btw :)' before turning the board to him.

"Oh, ok! No need to apologize. It's nice to meet you, neil!" Dylan smiled. They sat and talked until they had to go inside for lunch. They sat as close as they could at lunch until everyone had to go back to class. Neil's class had to go to the library to get a book to read during silent reading time, but Neil already had a book, so he just sat and read it by himself. Eventually, he heard an African elephant calf and a hyline chick in his class talking to each other. He started quietly hissing at them as he looked up from his book. The elephant calf wrapped his trunk over the hyline chick's beak.

"Sorry, were we interrupting you?" he awkwardly smiled. Neil calmed down a bit and nodded. The elephant nodded back and ushered his friend back to the bookshelves. Neil got back to reading until they came back and sat down. Neil was going to move, but decided to wait and see what they'd do. The chicken was reading a stone rabbit graphic novel while the elephant was reading a random history book. He kinda started to space out until he noticed the elephant had closed his book and laid his head on the table. Neil looked at him.

"Are you ok?" he asked. Neil nodded and signed 'sorry.'

"Don't apologize, you didn't do anything wrong!"

They went on to have a nice conversation with Neil using sign since the elephant apparently knew it, with the hyline chick joining in. They hung out the next day and Neil would spend time with Dylan during recess, and the next week, Dylan had gotten him a lovely moon necklace while he had a matching sun necklace, saying it was a token of friendship.

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Neil smiled to himself at the memory as he scratched behind Dylan's ears. The cocker spaniel pushed his head into Neil's palm in his sleep, signaling he wanted more pets.