She'd only been yelled at once by Director Ton this week.

Retsuko sighed, marvelling in that fact as she eased further into her seat. Just the once. The office had been practically buried in a blizzard of paperwork from minute one on Monday morning, and it had taken all of her efforts to dig her way through the mounds of files and receipts and spreadsheets—why they needed to be in physical copy?—in time to reach the surface and see the last glimmers of daylight fade over the horizon, before it was time to drag her aching, weary bones home and scrape together nowhere near enough hours of sleep so she could be awake enough to do it all over again the following day. And again. And again. And again. Her mind dulled and numbed to the endless clacking of keys and the whirring of the copier, the huge pig barking instructions and lumbering across the office to carry them out personally, or else to remind her that it was her time to make the tea.

It was always her time to make the tea.

But through it all, he had been... calm? No. Measured? Eh... Actually on point with his remarks? Well, that was close enough. He'd still had to remind Kabae, and the rest of the floor by extension, not to waste toner printing personal items. Ookami-kun bowed to his wrath for daring to breeze into the room a whole ten seconds after nine on the second day, unable to squirm out of it by flashing his cute, easy, oh I'm so sorry smile at Tsubone and explaining in that rich voice that she hoped made everyone feel so gooey inside.

Not that he hadn't tried…

Komiya had still prowled the office and tisked when he spotted her printing spreadsheets landscape without amending the report headers, even though no one outside that room would see them. Tsubone had appeared over her shoulder and chided her for taking too many water breaks. And for taking too long to work through the marketing team's expenses for the previous four months, having given them to Retsuko five minutes before wafting out of the office herself the evening before. And for having too big a lunch for such a small woman.

Still, the boss had only yelled at her once. Once. For obviously not allowing his tea to brew for long enough.

Still, it was just the once!

She drummed her fingers, wincing away from the stickiness.

Even if just the once, it still happened…

Anyway. She forced away her scowl and let her smile shine. Stickiness made tomorrow's problem by deft brush of paw against skirt, out of sight. Remain positive. That was all done for the week and it was time for the weekend. Time to slip into a loose, downy tee shirt and meet up with her favourite two people in the whole world. Time for them to saunter through the city, chattering about everything and nothing important in the cooling evening air. Time for them to dive into their regular haunt, hide their bags under the table and cover its surface with their tipples, ready to wash all their cares away in a tidal wave of booze.

She had more than earned this beer, even if it somehow didn't feel necessary.

The chatter burbling around her sputtered for a few moments under her own gulps of the crisp, cool goodness. They sat buried in a next of tables and mismatched chairs. It wasn't packed, but only a few spots had yet to be occupied by the exhausted office workers in varying states of formal dress that made up the clientele. Including themselves. The lights dimmed but the outside world glowing orange in the late evening sun, peeking at them through narrow windows. Somewhere behind her in the murky din, a clatter and a cheer rang out as a fresh round was brought to a nearby table. A blurry soccer game kept blurrier minds occupied in the far corner, occasionally masking the voices around them under applause as someone scored for such-and-such.

"I still don't see why they had her torch her friend's house so she could collect the money." Haida leant back on his chair, lip curling uneasily. He let his beer rest against his chest as he pondered his next point, leaving a damp patch in his work shirt. "Seems like too big of an overreaction to be believable," he finished, holding an open paw over the table.

Fenneko sat across from him, uniform quickly discarded earlier for a sky-blue polo and loose shorts. Didn't stop her from radiating absolute control, wine dancing in a perfectly measured swirl. "They've been foreshadowing her dark side for the past four years." She did not even look up from her phone. She barely even slowed her typing. "And she's committed crimes to get her way before."

Retsuko pulled the bottle from her mouth, a smile settling into its place. She tilted her head back towards the hyena.

"Yeah…" Haida scratched his cheek, as though a decent argument was buried somewhere in the fluff. Retsuko gently chewed her lip, eyes darting back to her beer. "But not on this scale."

Fenneko sipped her wine. Retsuko could almost feel the glint bearing down on the poor hyena. "But financial stability has been her primary motivation as a character since the beginning. Do you think she would just back down after all this time?"

She bumped the bottle back onto the table, sighing, lips parting for a light chuckle. Her cheeks bloomed hot as the room swam around her, brain happily soaking into the soothing bath of a fourth beer that hour. She leaned back into her seat, wood creaking awkwardly against her shirt.

Loudly, too. Breath caught in her throat as she fought to keep her coat from bristling. Wide eyes glanced right.

Haida now sat up straighter, an easy smile around his snaggleteeth. "Okay, but don't get me started on how dumb they had to make her boyfriend for it to work," he said, flourishing a paw in what seemed to be emphasis but looked more like swatting a bug. Dozy eyes landed on her and perked in a heartbeat. Her cheeks prickled. She should smile back… hopefully it looked more warm and encouraging and not constipated.

She glanced left, feeling the steam gushing from her ears.

Fenneko swirled her glass, wine sloshing around the rim but not a drop spilling, phone still glowing in her other paw. "On that, we agree."

Another sigh, warmth settling in her chest. Dignity preserved.

Why wouldn't she have earned this, though? She was just sitting in a bar with her two best friends. Nothing too fancy or extravagant to feel her wallet pinching over. Sure, she had been a little quiet this evening, but they were big fans of a show that had wrapped up earlier that week and she… wasn't. It didn't seem bad, from what she'd heard. At least until the last season, anyway. She'd just missed the boat when it first came out. Something to do with families fighting over a house after a messy divorce? She couldn't be sure. Looked nice enough, though. Maybe she should add it to her list for when she finished HenCIS? Either way, it was nice to just listen to the two of them talk as she soaked in the beers.

She smiled. It had been as long a week as any other in the office. Longer than many, perhaps. At least three of the accounts she had needed to process this afternoon used to be Tsunoda's responsibility, hadn't they? She had definitely heard the doe pouting over having to go over the ledgers for a fish exporter last week, as if the files themselves would reek of the factory, and then poof, a company matching that description with a name that seemed very familiar landed on her desk this morning.

Then again, this was Japan. There must have been thousands of companies handling fish.

Then again, again, Tsunoda had spent most of Wednesday leaning over Komiya's desk and batting her eyes at him from across the office. Then yesterday, she had gushed over him for a whole hour as he putted across the office, and he had melted when she ran her hooves up and down his arms, cooing about what a big, strong man he was and how super lucky they were to have someone like him looking after their office…

Yeah, maybe that had something to do with it…

A quiet chuckle shuffled out of her nose. It didn't exactly take Fenneko's deduction to figure that one out! Her eyes wandered back across the table to where her friend had perched herself what felt like hours ago, phone in hand and smirk on lips. Those were still present, though her tail stood at attention behind her, still but for the occasional dangerous flicker. Dark, beady eyes shimmered under the dim light from her screen, her smirk deepening while her fingers disappeared into a blur.

Retsuko twitched her shoulders, a faint chill oozing down her spine. She blinked, looking down at the table, ears wilting. She would be amazed if Fenneko hadn't recorded the whole thing on her phone. Sure, her eyes had been trained on her work for most of the day, and she'd found the time to share a video of Haida's… attempt at dancing the previous weekend, but she knew better. Her phone would have been squirrelled away somewhere on her desk, hidden yet perfectly angled to video every squeal, simper, fawn, and stroke. Heck, she was probably scouring the pair's feeds and pages for every little morsel of their relationship right now, ready to be saved up and thrown back at the pair when they least needed it...

She blinked, eyes dry and beer hazy on the table. She loved Fenneko. Honest! She was great fun and she'd steered Retsuko right far more often than not. They always had each other's back, but… was it bad to feel happy you were friends with someone because then they wouldn't hurt you?

She glanced at Haida as she upended her bottle again. There was the answer. They were friends and, whether for what he had just said or for how much of a spindly, greasy-faced, awkward dork he used to be, Fenneko went after him mercilessly. Gently, by the limits of whatever dark forces they all knew dwelled in the fox's mind, but mercilessly. Ruthlessly.

Hilariously.

Retsuko couldn't stop her eyes from drifting downwards, face slowly boiling. Nor could she stop her grin from spreading.

She couldn't help it. It was all in good fun and neither of them meant any harm in it, and Haida always gave as good as he got. Well, he tried to at least. Between the way he adorably gangled his arms to emphasise how wrong Fenneko was and the little cracks when his voice reached fever pitch, he couldn't quite match the fox's chill game and icy glare. But he took the bait all the same; maybe he liked it after all…?

She hummed internally, another glug washing away her smile. A scruffy, blushy face swam in her mind's eye, its own wide and panicking and tears brewing in their corners. Her shirt was suddenly clammy against her fur, cloying as the swirly feeling grew cold in her chest. Maybe she should try to tone it down a bit...

His own bottle sat empty on the table before him, his snout faintly darkening with a heady rose as he rolled his eyes. He was leaning forward in his chair again, now, bony elbow dangerously close to smearing his work shirt in another sticky patch on the table.

"Even without all that," he groused, paw flicking up and carrying his arm away from doom, "surely he'd at least suspect something when something happens that only one person would benefit from. Wasn't he supposed to be a trial lawyer? A good one?"

"Exactly." Another dainty sip, signed off with a meaningful clack of claw against screen. "You could make the argument, and I've seen this said many times online, that he did know and was just too desperate to bone her to actually turn her in."

"No way." He shook his head, and reached out for his bottle, only for his grin to falter once it came away from the table so lightly. He huffed.

Retsuko quirked, smirk teasing. Did he just whine? An actual, high-pitched whine like a puppy? She picked at her fingers, flames licking her cheeks.

"Yes. The same character whose entire conflict revolved around him reluctantly, but determinedly, informing on the malfeasance at his father's company."

"Pff…" Haida slumped, catching his chin with an arm propped up on the table. "It's like they didn't even re-watch their own show."

"Hmm…" Fenneko pursed her lips. "Then again, that rebuttal would imply he wants to jump daddy's bones."

Haida's laugh exploded into her ears. His shoulders hitched, crushing his collar and winching his arms over the table, paw still holding the invisible bottle. He screwed his eyes shut and tipped his head back, belting louder than a traffic jam. People at the table behind him whirled around in their seats, just barely stopping themselves from carrying on and sprawling to the floor, while a cat at the table next door slammed her fists in her ears.

Retsuko scowled. It wasn't that loud, surely? And even if it was, it was who were they to judge? They were three friends having fun in a place where you were allowed to have fun? Besides… it was just nice to hear him so happy again. To hear him just let go…

Another blast cut through the chatter, ringing painfully in her ears. She tilted away from him, guilt curdling the warmth in her tummy. She glanced at the hyena through narrowing eyes. Maybe it was a little loud? A little attention grabbing?

The muffled roar around them lulled into a whispered fever, punctured brutally by yelping cackles.

So many eyes bore into them from around the bar. So many eyes to stare and pry and judge the empty drinks on the table and the rumples in their clothes. So many to see the cowlicks around their ears and the dark, damp patches under her arms and the soft pooch spilling over her waistband and the sweat on his brow and his lips, and to scoff at the children who couldn't handle themselves.

And then it stopped. Haida froze and her heart plunged through the floor. Oh no. No, it was good for him to laugh. She wasn't criticising… okay, she was, but she didn't mean it. It was perfectly fine and kind of cute and please be happy again!

A few nervy squeals that might have been laughs spilled from his grin, fixed in place while his eyes flickered around the room. That was a start, at least…?

Haida deflated, chest falling and his shoulders sinking down to drag his head back to his usual slouch. Blush deepened in his cheeks as his smile shrank into a sheepish grin. Quieter, softer chuckles took their turn, eyes darting between herself and Fenneko. "H-hell of a corner they wrote themselves into, there."

Fenneko smirked, eyes trained on his own. She drained her glass with a sharp slurp and held it out to him. "Indeed."

Fewer eyes were on them, their owners having turned back to their conversations or grumbling about the goal they had just missed. Retsuko had barely taken another swig before the murmured chorus filled the air around them once more.

Haida eased, his shoulders loosening and grin softening. He poured out a large measure of red for their friend in silent apology. "Kind of surprised you didn't make a joke about me knowing all about that kind of desperation." Oh, Haida.

She raised the glass and an eyebrow alongside it. "I don't need to when you'll do it for me." Retsuko took another sip, stifling the laugh that was brewing in her chest and the twinge that felt guiltier than it should have.

Because it was just nice to all be out together. It felt like forever since they all just pootled down to the dive nearest the office, still caked in the stale air of their own work clothes and heads filled with figures, and just drank the week's issues away.

Teeth nibbled at lips. Another swig of beer did its best to soothe. It hadn't been long, though. They'd all been together at Fenneko's to trawl through the back catalogue that streaming had to offer and snark through some trash. At least, that was where it ended up after the fennec uncorked all her wine at the beginning of the evening. Plus they had been to several mixers since their belated office Christmas party last January and shared a table for all of them, with plenty of barbed words and honking laughs between them. She had even convinced the pair of them to join her for a picnic during a brief heatwave back in May.

Worst idea of the year. Of any year. So many screaming kids and insects. Something must have been waiting to unleash a plague on that park; she'd barely even popped open the first tupperware pot before the sun disappeared behind the swarm. At least Fenneko had enjoyed herself, perched atop a nearby stump, tittering into her phone. And Haida…

She looked over to the hyena, his eyes alight and his cheeks ruddy as he explained the finer points of the trainwreck he and Fenneko had evidently followed, backed up with gestures. Or faintly adorable flailings that made her paws ball up and her tummy fizz, at any rate.

He had rushed to her side, batting away the bugs and helping her to pack all the tubs into the cooler bag, before bundling all the crockery into the blanket and hoisting it onto his back as they left the part. He had walked by her side the whole ways as they trudged to the subway, reminding her that they could just eat at one of their places and it would still be great because it was her cooking. He had even had the grace to not point out how hard her fur bristled when he'd said that.

He'd been so kind to her that day.

So what if it turned out that three of the plates had smashed on the way? He'd looked so guilty.

Her brows furrowed. No, she'd grumbled at the broken china and made him feel so guilty.

She gulped more beer and felt it gurgle against the tension.

She had had to let him down eighteen months ago. It was for the best. It had to be. He was in hospital after getting lost in the rain; she'd just wasted… yes, wasted her time on that other panda. She needed time and space to sort her own mind out, to buckle down and focus on what actually mattered to her and how to actually make things better. To stop focussing on some silly, childish dreams and deal with the real consequences of her actions. He needed… well, he needed a woman with her head in a better place than hers, for a start!

Fenneko maybe? He did seem in tune with her particular love language, after all.

Heck, maybe he'd only asked her then because he felt sorry for her.

She blinked. Yes, that was a selfish thought. Wasn't she supposed to know better than that? But he… he really was nice like that.

Then again, he did imply that he'd had a crush on her for a while. She had tried to let him down gently. It really was for the best. He needed time to recover and she needed some time for herself. She'd known things would be awkward between them for a little while, but surely he'd have moved on soon enough? Found someone better.

Better than some silly, selfish little butterball who dreamed of marrying a living wallet, didn't know just how committed she was about commitment, and couldn't even tell her two most favourite, wonderful, best-in-the-whole-world friends about her hobbies? She snorted. Difficult, that one.

The bottle was in her hand again. Numb, damp fingers clutched at it, like a baby clamped to its security blanket. Because that's what she was. Maybe Tsunoda had been right all along… Maybe her mother was right too…

How could she want kids of her own when she was like this…?

She took another swig. Deep breaths chased away the heat in her face and the pressure behind her eyes.

Maybe awkward wasn't the right word. More like quiet. Work kept them both busy for most of that autumn, and then there was her messy flirtation with instafame—a good reminder that Fenneko was a strong judge of character—but it seemed like he was avoiding her for a long time. Any time he did speak to her he always sounded so nervous, as if he had to fight to get every word out. Surely… he hadn't been hurt that badly, right? He just couldn't be! He'd put up with the office for just as long as she had. He was so tall. He had to be made of strong stuff! Besides, it was just an office crush and she was just some plain, pudgy little miss, pushing dangerously into her late twenties. A guy as cute as him would find someone.

He always seemed to sit up straighter whenever that chirpy wagtail from marketing popped into their office…

Then again, she of all people should have known what a little office crush could feel like… how strongly it could take hold and rule your life... how badly it could hurt…

Another gulp drained her bottle. An air pocket burned in her chest for a moment before she damped the fires with her paw. And another deep breath.

Still, it was nice that they'd had that talk last Christmas Eve and agreed to hang out more often again. And it was good that they actually did start to hang out more; what little rust had crept into their conversations was easily washed away with a couple of beers on the first time of asking, never to return. Things got so much freer and easier; not just in the flow of jokes and words, but he even stood up straighter.

And then, when she found love again, for what felt so real this time, he stayed close to her. Not that she'd made it easy for him, between skipping merrily out on work and living in that backseat blanket for days on end, but he had tried to keep up with her. He had texted her when she first missed work and sent smilies when she told him where she was. He'd been happy for her. And he'd been there for her when she needed friends at the end of it, right by her side on the way to the karaoke den, and then listening to her when she tried to soothe her aching chest with beer for the next three nights.

He'd been there the whole time. Her friend.

She smiled. Whatever invisible spring that the two had been caught in had slowly unwound and they were just… comfortable.

"Retsuko?"

Yes, comfortable. All three of them were, again. They could grab drinks at the bar together, they could go walkabout through the city in the middle of the night, they could hang out at each other's places, they could kill a whole weekend together binging a classic series, they could even go dancing… if that was more their thing, but they could do it! They were happy and comfortable and smiling together again. And it always felt good to see Haida smiling…

"You okay, Retsuko?"

And the way his eyes somehow managed to bug out adorably while still being so soft and warm, like a hug all on their own? That was pretty cute too. And his one little eyebrow, rising nervously to get away from impending peril. And the way his mouth hung open, a little dumbly but more worried… maybe Fenneko had been threatening to show off those pictures of him dancing on the table again?

Either way, so cute!

"You're staring."

Pop.

"Huh?"