Tangled Autumn

Apples (continuation from Apple Picking)

     The sickly sweet smell of dozens of ripening apples hung in the air. The orchard stood empty as everyone else had filled their baskets and filtered out at the end of the first day of the harvest.

     Except for two people.

     A young couple sat underneath one of the apple trees, bathed in the golden light of late afternoon sunshine. Sitting it's his back against the tree, the young man had his left leg bent up and his right leg stretched out in front of him, black bangs with a blue stripe flopping down enough to touch the forehead tucked under his cheek. Curled up under his right arm, his girlfriend was nestled against his side, happy in her boyfriend's arms. The ground around them was littered with fallen apples, the ones dropped on the floor that they hand managed to salvage. To the rest of the worked they may have looked to be asleep with their pairs of hazel and blue eyes closed but the sun observed them occasionally opening their eyes to look at the other and smile lazily at each other.

     Suddenly, the goggles perched atop the young man's head head fell down to land on the young woman's head underneath his cheek.

     "Oh!" Cassandra gasped then giggled alongside with Varian beside her. She patted his leg, "Come on, we need to get up sometime. Your Dad will be wondering where we are by now."

     Varian groaned, "Must we?" tightening his arm around her shoulders and nuzzling his cheek into her hair, breathing in her scent of blackberries and pine that was slightly overpowered by the apples surrounding them,

     "Yes." Cassandra pushed Varian's arm off and stood up, without her head supporting them Varian's goggles fell down to hang around his neck. Pushing off the tree to stand, Varian grabbed the basket of apples then joined Cassandra where she was walking ahead. He snuck up behind her and grabbed her around the waist causing her to cry out in shock then giggle and hit at his hand as he tickled her for a second. While Cassandra scowled at him, Varian laughed. Twisting out of his hold, she held his hand instead as they carried on walking out of the orchard and through the village to Quirin's home on the edge of Old Corona.

*~*~*

     Quirin had the door open, already standing in the doorway and smiling at them, before they even reached the house, "a you two have turned up a little later than expected,"

     "Sorry Dad, we dropped the basket so had to fill it again," Varian said,

     Cassandra raised a brow at him, "We?"

     "Alright - I did but in my defence I wouldn't have needed to if I wasn't preventing you from breaking a bone," he argued.

     Quirin chuckled, "Come on in."

     After they stepped inside the house, Cassandra turned to Varian, "I'll get these washed," she said, taking the apple basket from him,

     "Alright," he kissed her cheek then went with Dad into the living room.

     Humming a tune to herself, Cassandra set the basket on the counter beside the sink and turned on the tap. Her attention was drawn back to the basket when over the gushing of water she heard a rumble amid the apples. Her eyebrows pinched together and she froze - remaining as still as possible.

     Suddenly a furry head burst through the surface causing Cassandra to jump and gasp in shock. Apples went flying, most of them scattering across the counter and Cassandra caught the one that was about to go plummeting to the floor. She sighed at the raccoon with an apple in his mouth, "You can't eat all the apples Ruddiger." Cassandra could've sworn that she heard Varian laugh from further in the home. 

     With big, black eyes, he blinked up at her. Then, completely ignoring her, jumped onto the counter then to the floor. Leaving Cassandra to shout after him as he darted upstairs, "Hey! Bring that back!" If Varian hadn't been laughing before he certainly was now.  Giving chase to the thieving burglar cat, Cassandra followed him up the stairs and through to Varian's old bedroom. "Give it here you pesky!..."

     But her insult died in her throat.

     Now cute wasn't really Cassandra's thing but even she just had to whisper a quiet 'aww' at the scene that took place in front of her.

     Beside the bed, Ruddiger dropped the apple and rolled it forwards just enough so it wasn't quite in the shadows underneath the bed. This was confusing to the observing swordswoman but was followed by the surprise of a small, black nose poking out to sniff at the red fruit. Cassandra started, wide-eyed, as another raccoon's face emerged from under the bed - eyeing Cassandra nervously. Ruddiger appeared to notice this and went over to his friend's side, nuzzling and licking their cheek reassuringly in a way that made Cassandra believe this was his girlfriend.

     "Uh Varian?" Cassandra called,

     "Yeah?" she heard him reply,

     "Your room has some new residents."

     For a moment there was no sound then a pair of slightly hurried footsteps came up the stairs and Varian stood on one side of her, Quirin on the other.

     Varian gasped, "Oh my gosh! Ruddiger met a sow!" Cassandra's brows furrowed. "Female raccoon," he clarified.

     Once she determined it was safe, Ruddiger's girlfriend crept out into the light, brushing up against the male's side. Cassandra nodded into the room, "Seems your pet found a lady friend." Both raccoons chittered back in the direction of the bed. The trio of humans gasped as a litter of five raccoon kits came waddling out to their parents and began to fight over the apple. "...And developed a secret personal life."

     "It appears this room finally has another use," Quirin chuckled.

     Ruddiger looked up at Varian, you could see the pride in their eyes and their smiles - Ruddiger for his family, Varian for his friend. "He-he's a dad," the alchemist whispered,

    "You're tearing up aren't you?" Cassandra grinned,

     "What? No!" he answered whilst sniffing and wiping his eyes.

     Cassandra just giggled at him. She watched as the baby raccoons tried sinking their teeth into the apple but only succeeded in rolling it away. Sneaking up, Cassandra crouched down near them. The kits scared and ran back under the bed, their mother darting to stand protectively in front of them. Cassandra held up her hands but the family only backed up further when she pulled out her dagger. She was still holding the apple that she had caught in the kitchen so she set that one on the bed before picking up the one the kits had been trying to eat and carefully slicing it with her dagger. Holding out one of the pieces in front of her, she smiled comfortingly at Ruddiger's children and girlfriend. One of the bolder kits snuck out from behind its mother and slowly edged towards Cassandra. Nearly laughing at the tickling feeling of fur against her fingers, Cassandra loosened her grip to let the raccoon kit carry off the apple piece and start nibbling on it. The other babies followed suit, curiosity overruling their fear, crawling over to Cassandra as she held out the other pieces - one of them even eating it straight out of her hand. 

     Walking across the room to sit on the bed, Varian joined Cassandra with the raccoons - Quirin had left to see if he could fashion a proper nesting box for the furry family - and she stood up to sit beside him. "Hmm, I'm going to have to see how many are girls and how many are boys and give them names too - can't just keep on calling them 'Girl' and 'Babies'," Varian said,

     "Why not?" Cassandra shrugged. Varian chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as she began to slice the other apple.

     They sat there until evening began to turn to night, just watching the kits play and feeding each other apple slices. Blissfully enjoying the company of each other, their boyfriend and girlfriend.

[~Author's notes~]
I had absolutely no idea how to end this so hopefully it's good. Just a cute moment in Old Corona between these two and everyone's favourite raccoon, I don't know what else to say with this one so enjoy!