Ballad Of The Stupid Wolf

1

  He'd walked into the drama club, one random afternoon of a day ending with "y," and just like a weekday ending with "y," he'd expected Louis to maybe berate him about lighting, but ultimately pay him no mind.

  Louis was... smiling. That was the first thing Legoshi noticed. The deer was smiling, and not in that sinister way he did when he knew he was better than you. He was smiling, out of, like, joy or something. It was beautiful, and Legoshi wished he could take a picture of the moment.

  After all, even when Louis got angry at him for being... well, timid? Legoshi wasn't sure. Even when Louis got angry at him, the deer probably barely spared Legoshi a thought.

  Strangely, on this day, which did in fact end with "y," at least in English, he'd walked in to find Louis, laughing along to one of Bill's jokes.

  Now, keep in mind, the fact that Louis was acting all... happy, or whatever, was already surprising. But then, he was laughing along with Bill? BILL!? Clearly something was up.

  Legoshi's eyes were drawn to the deer from that point forward. Throughout the whole drama club, he could only think about Louis. Maybe that wasn't, well, all that unusual. Louis was the star actor, and Legoshi had to keep the lights on him most of the time when they practiced lighting. But this time, Legoshi was just working on props, and he was still consumed by Louis. Metaphorically.

  The second thing that tipped Legoshi off was the way Louis was moving his hands. Louis, well, he never spoke with his hands. He'd even berated the wolf once for doing as such, though admittedly, Legoshi did have claws to worry about.

  "Something's definitely wrong with Louis," said Kai, completely out of nowhere. Of course, Kai could totally say something like that and hold it to be true on the best of days, but he really meant it this time.

  "Yeah..." said Dom. "Hey, Legoshi, you've been hanging out with Louis-"

  "I'd hardly call it that," said Legoshi. He knew Louis was with Haru, and Louis sometimes bugged him about being a wolf. That was about it. Sure, they had talked some about lighting and character movement, but that was only once, and-

  "Well, I mean, he basically never talks to anyone else 1-on-1. Except maybe Sanu, and Bill on rarer occasions."

  "I'm in charge of lighting. It's. Well, it's natural," excused Legoshi. Someone like Louis wouldn't assign meaning to this, so why should he?

  "Ugh, just admit you know more about Louis than us," Kai commanded.

  "Um, I know more about Louis than you," Legoshi conceded.

  "Nice, you actually listened," Kai commended.

 "Oh my god. I've been trying to say this one sentence, for like, six paragraphs now. Can I please fucking talk?" asked Dom.

 "Yeah, yeah, go ahead," said Kai.

 "Legoshi, you've been hanging out with Louis more often than us. Has he ever acted like this before? Know what might have sparked this change in behavior?" Dom said, looking very pleased with himself for getting a whole snarky comment into this story that wasn't about him.

 Legoshi put down the needle he was using to thread the sleeve back onto a shirt which had been ripped up by Bill. Why was it always Bill?

 He pondered.

 And pondered.

 And came to a riveting conclusion.

 "I uh have no idea why Louis is happy right now. Maybe we should... uh ask him?"

 Kai's face contorted. His smile was a grimace, and his grimace was a facial contortion. That was how Legoshi felt, anyway.

 Dom sighed. "I don't think Louis would take kindly to us asking him about it."

 Kibi finally piped up, having been listening in for about the entire conversation. "Everything we think we know about Louis is clearly already thrown out the table. Is that a saying?"

 "What?" asked Tao, who both hadn't been listening in, and didn't understand what Kibi was talking about either. "Table? Who said anything about a table?"

 "Nobody said anything about a table, but don't act like you would have known anyway. You were NOT listening."

 Tao grumbled something along the lines of "frmghrmblr."

 "Whatever metaphor Kibi was trying to say, I don't know. Maybe Louis is just in a good mood. Maybe he decided to stop being a fucking prick to everyone and he got a girlfriend," Kai suggested.

 "I thought he already had one?" asked Legosi.

 "That rabbit just really likes sex a lot, Legosi," Kibi supplied.

 Legosi narrowed his eyes, which was hard to do, because his eyes were really fucking narrow already. Well, Haru did like sex a lot, but... He was sure it was more than that.

 "I don't think Louis has a girlfriend," said Dom.

 "Yeah, it's a little unbelievable," said Tao, who had actually started listening.

 Legosi sighed, because it was in character for him to do so. Several seconds passed, and he sighed again. It may as well have just been the way he breathed.

 Kai yawned. This caused everyone else to yawn.

 "You'd think that this would really wake things up, wouldn't you?" asked Kibi to nobody in particular.

 "You mean... shake things up? And are you referring to Louis's mood change?" Tao always got sidetracked easily from conversations while working. He maybe didn't have enough energy to fully think about his work and his conversation. Still it was fun to tease him when he lost track of the subject.

 "Yes, I did mean shake things up. And yeah, that is what we were talking about, Tao." Kibi rolled his eyes. His beady little eyes.

 "Okay," said Tao.

 Legoshi sighed again. "Yeah, uh it seemed really weird at first, didn't it?" His ears stood on end as he heard somebody in the actors team crash into somebody else.

 Kai looked over at Louis, who was goofing off and messing up his lines from Adler, which was already done, on purpose. "He's... still acting happy. This is outrageous."

 Dom nodded. "Yeah," he said. It was safe to say that he agreed with this assessment.

 They continued sewing for awhile. In fact, they were actually all repairing costumes which had been destroyed by a certain Bengal tiger who had been showing off his mighty power. Said Bengal tiger definitely showed that fabric who's boss.

 "And why is he getting along with Bill?" asked Kibi, reminded of said Bengal tiger by the destruction caused by said Bengal tiger.

 Legosi nodded, mouth open ever so slightly. "Bill?"

 "Yep, Bill. You know, Bill," Kai confirmed. "The big stripey orange-"

 "I... do know Bill. Uh- I was just. Why did- I, uh, did not mean to say that? I meant to, uh, say something reaffirming."

 "Ah, okay," said Kai, not understanding. Legosi was like that sometimes. Completely unintelligible.

 Kibi laid back for a second. "The lack of yelling deer is really boosting my happiness, though. I feel happy!"

 Legoshi shuddered. He simply felt afraid.

 They continued to faff about and make aimless conversation for an hour, and it would be written out in detail, but honestly, it would be painful, and the number of times Legoshi said "uh," would definitely double the wordcount of the chapter. In fact, from now on, the author is going to take the liberty to cut out any 'uh's from Legosi's speech, as to make the process of reading this less painful.

 Finally, after a lot of hard work, Drama Club was over. Legosi stood up, stretched a bit because he'd been sitting for an hour, and walked over to the small gym rehearsal area, where all of the club members were gathering.

 Louis was about to make a speech, from the looks of it!