We're Only Animals: Book 2 - Part 1: Building the Tower

Chapter 36 - Post-Meeting Couch Speaking

Louis had, indeed, gone to the store and gotten more food for them, but not before texting Legosi and telling him with that he was alright. Once he was finished that, he dropped it off at home and began to make his way to Shogi's room. The whole time, the meeting with Ichi played over and over in his head. He couldn't get the image of the Imaginary Chimera out of his mind. It looked sort of like...Adler.

He arrived at his destination, knocking on the door, finding himself wondering how much progress they could have made while he was gone.

The answer was a good amount. When Legosi opened the door, the floor was cleared out, and if the large trash bags in the corner were any indication, there had been a lot of trash. The window was open and a steady breeze flowed in. Of course, Louis wasn't paying as much attention to the room as he was to the gray wolf in front of him.

"Louis!" Legosi wrapped him up in a big hug, even lifting him up.

The deer hugged back, tightly. "H-hey! As you can see, I'm still alive."

"Y-yeah!" The wolf let him down, his tail wagging hard. "We can talk later. We're almost done here, I think." He turned to the small sheep cleaning behind him. "Right, Shogi-san?"

Shogi set another bag of trash down, wiping his hands. "Yeah! We are! I'm feeling better already!"

Louis came in, looking around. "What can I do to help?"

"Well, we were going to clean the walls next. We're using some stuff from the janitor closet in the hallway." Legosi walked around the now seemingly empty room. "I hope Oguma-san gave you enough money to buy some good furniture."

"O-oh! More than enough! We could probably fully decorate a house if we wanted to!" Shogi laughed.

"Oh, yeah." Legosi walked up to Louis again, tail still wagging. "I texted Haru about maybe bringing in some plants to freshen up the place, so she can finally visit us, too!"

Louis tilted his head, scratching his mate's cheek. "Looks like cleaning has really helped both of you be happy."

"A clean room is a clean mind," Legosi said in a sagely tone. Or at least, as much as he could manage as he received the cheek scratches.

"What? Did you get that from Gosha?" his husband asked.

"No! I can be smart."

"You came up with that yourself? Uh-huh, sure."

This caused Shogi to chuckled as he continued cleaning around.

"I really did! But...maybe I heard it somewhere," Legosi shrugged.

"Who knows. It makes sense, though. I'll help clean the walls with you." And help he did. They all took a different part of the wall, with Shogi cleaning near the floor, Louis cleaning near the middle, and Legosi cleaning near the ceiling. They worked their way around the room. At one point, Legosi and Louis ended up next to each other and the wolf gently bumped his hip against the deer, playfully.

Louis bumped back. "I got more food for the room."

Legosi leaned down and gave his ear a small lick. "That sounds lovely."

"What do you want to eat tonight?"

"Hmm, what'd you get?"

"Well, more celery, that's for sure. Uh...you'll have to see at home."

"Well...I'm definitely addicted to that curry you made for the party." Legosi turned to the sheep. "Shogi-san needs to try it, too."

The former butler looked up. "O-oh! I would love to."