To Legs

Nudge

"She's..." his mom began as she was staring directly behind Toto at Mika.

"No, no, no, no..." Toto thought again and again in his head. He was afraid what his mother would think of him having this strange dog girl behind him. She'd question and prod him until she knew all of what was going down then she'd probably take poor Mika away.

"...so CUTE!"

"What?" asked Toto confused. "Cute?"

"Yes!" Squealed his mother in exitement. "I didn't know my son had a girlfriend~" She winked and gently nudged Toto in the side as an implication of proudness.

"B-but... what about her ears? Aren't they weird?" Toto asked, very confused.

His mom smacked him across the head. "Young man, that is EXTREMELY rude to insult a girl like that! I should have thought that I raised my son better than that!"

Toto wondered how she wasn't upset or even frightened at Mika's animalistic appearance. He turned around to look at Mika so he could point out her ears and tail to his mother.

He saw no ears.

He saw no tail.

Toto balled up his fists as rubbed his eyes with vigor before re-opening them to take a second glance at Mika, making sure he wasn't hallucinating. He couldn't comprehend what was going on. Where had her tail gone? Toto began to think that this was all a weird dream. He flattened his hand and smacked himself in the face once then turned back to his mother.

"Uhh..." His mother said, confused as to why her son had just hit himself in the face out of the blue. "Are you alright, Sweetheart?"

Though he was seventeen, Toto's mother still called him "Sweetheart". It bugged him. He didn't have many friends, but still. No seventeen year old boy should be called Sweetheart by his parents. It just isn't right!

"Y-yeah," stuttered Toto as the surface of his right cheek shouted out to his brain in pain. So, he wasn't dreaming.

"I'm... Just going to go back into the other room," said his mom, not sure what to think about her son's odd behavior.

Toto's mother then turned to Mika and smiled sweetly before saying, "It was lovely meeting you..." She paused as she had not yet learned the girl's name yet.

Mika peered at Toto with an expression of concern on her face. She was worried about Toto as much as Toto's mother was worried about him. She quickly got the hint that Toto did not want his mother knowing who she really was, as some of her canine features had transferred to her human form.

"Moka," she said in a very cute voice before bowing to Toto's mother.

"Ah, well, Moka," Ms. Hayes began as she now knew the girl's name, "it was a pleasure meeting you."

As she turned to walk back to the other wing of the house, Ms. Hayes gave a quick wink and a second nudge to Toto. 'Good job,' her eyes read as Toto looked into them.

Toto sighed, took Mika by the wrist and left the house through the front door, closing it behind him with a sizable *SLAM* in his irritation at his mother's so-called "approval" of him and Mika. She was his DOG! That was weird to even consider him in a relationship with Mika other than that of friends.

Back in the house, Ms. Hayes smiled.

"She's so cute, that Moka. Such adorable puppy-eyes. Toto's gonna have a hard time combatting those," Ms. Hayes mused before returning to the living room to watch the new episode of Once Upon A Time.

Outside and about two blocks away from his residence, not to mention his embarrassing mom, Toto took to a sudden halt to his pacing and shot around 180 degrees to look at Mika.

"What was that back there? Where did your tail and ears go? Are you REALLY my dog? Are you just some inumimi dog-cosplayer that happened to sneak into my house? Explain!" Shouted Toto once he had made sure there weren't people nearby.

"Well..." started Mika, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

- - -

Part 6 soon!