“I don’t think that’s very right.” Tsukiko mused, watching as Chokuto, sprawled over a rock, toyed with a mouse. The male didn’t seem to notice what she said at first, so she got closer, putting her nose up close to his paws. “Don’t you think that’s a little mean?” Chokuto still took a few moments to react, apparently because the mouse was almost escaping. He trapped it under his paw and frowned at her.
“How so?” He furrowed his brow and tilted his head. “I mean, it’s a mouse.” An ear flicked, a small indication that he had been bitten. His paw pads were thick enough, so it just felt odd. “And I’m not really hurting it… I think.” He hadn’t even used his claws yet!
Tsukiko shrugged, sitting down and continuing to peer at his paw. “Well, I dunno. I guess you kind of are hurting it, you know? Psychologically, I mean.” Poor mouse. It probably thought it was going to die. It had even pooped in fear a few minutes ago. She watched as Chokuto trapped it’s tail between his toes and lifted it up.
“What do you mean psychologically?” He asked thoughtfully, trying to get a good look at the face of the mouse as it squirmed in the air. “You mean making it very scared?” He tilted his head at the mouse, then wondered why he was even thinking of this. Tsukiko was weird, she brought up such random topics.
The dark female nodded, raising a paw to make a platform for the mouse, though it was still stuck. “Do you like being very scared? And, you know, if you think about it, it does physically hurt to be scared. Your heart goes all crazy.”
Chokuto pondered this a moment. “I’ve never been that scared.” He lied. He remembered that time the buffalo charged at him. He thought his heart would come out of his mouth. “And besides, it’s just a mouse.” Said Chokuto, again, pulling the mouse off Tsukiko’s paw and trapping it again beneath his own, so he could look at the clear-eyed female better. “Why do you care?”
“Well, I don’t know if I care-care, but I do feel bad for the mouse.” She didn’t question Chokuto’s statement about never having been that scared. Tsukiko didn’t really care about boyish pride. “Also, why does he being a mouse matter?”
Chokuto paused a bit there. “…Well, it’s not a…lion. And it doesn’t talk.”
“So you mean it doesn’t have feelings?” It was odd that somehow Tsukiko could express discord when she was using her monotone thoughtful voice.
The male scowled a bit at this. “I don’t know. Maybe he does.” Admitted Chokuto. He wondered what had made him start referring to the mouse as a ‘he’ and not an ‘it’. Maybe it was even a girl.
Tsukiko smiled, as if pleased with herself. “So maybe you’re hurting it’s feelings. So it is a little cruel.” A small triumph here.
But Chokuto didn’t totally agree. “Now hold on there a minute, Tsukiko.” He said, raising the mouse by it’s tail once more. “We shouldn’t really go into this.”
Now it was the dark females turn to frown, tilt her head. “Well, why not? Do you not think it’s important to consider others feelings?”
He stammered a bit here, because he wondered what he meant by that. Was she calling him insensitive? Well, sure, sometimes… “I do! I do, it’s just…” Chokuto searched for words. “We’re lions. We can’t go around analyzing the feelings of everyone, if we do, we’ll starve. If this mouse has feelings, then wildebeest and gazelle probably do too.” Said the male, opening his paws slightly so he could look at the mouse, that was slowly calming down.
Tsukiko, admittedly, hadn’t thought of that. “Well, I suppose you have a point there.” She conceded, trying to get a look at the mouse Chokute had. “May I? I won’t let it go.” He grudgingly conceded, and she trapped the mouse with her own paws. “But maybe it comes down to need. We need to kill gazelle and wildebeest to survive, so it’s okay to kill them and hurt them, and upset their family.” The thought of the family of some poor killed wildebeest suddenly made her very sad. “But we don’t need to upset this mouse.”
Chokuto had a sneaking feeling Tsukiko was going to let the mouse go. But he dare not say it. Besides, Tsukiko had never lied to him… Well, she had, once or twice. But she was still pretty trustworthy! “Well, okay. Yeah, I don’t need to upset the mouse.” He nodded. “But still, give it back.”
That surprised her. Was he really just going to continue playing with it, after all they had just discussed? Still, she allowed him to reclaim the rodent, and watched as he passed it from paw to paw. The creature seemed to almost have given up, and or thought it had a better chance of surviving if it played dead. “So you’re still going to do it?”
Chokuto frowned, feeling accused. “No! I mean, no. I just…” He pondered and stared at the mouse. “I mean, not what? I just let it go and all is fine and dandy? I’m sure I wouldn’t think that way if I were him.” The male said that, then immediately felt ridiculous. Was he actually feeling bad because he had somehow hurt the feeling of a mouse?
“Oh.” Tsukiko also had some doubts now. Well, maybe they should just do like you do when you hurt the feelings of a friend. “Maybe you could… apologise?”
“…To a mouse.”
“Yes.”
“That probably does not understand what I’m saying.”
“It’s the thought that counts.”
Chokuto sighed, defeated. He placed the mouse on his two front paws, so that it was facing him, and raised it to eye level. He lowered it briefly to look uncertainly at Tsukiko, only to get an encouraging nod. Rolling his eyes slightly, he stared at the mouse’s large, black eyes. “I am…sorry I upset you.” No reply, of course. “You may go now?” Awkwardly, shifted on his platform-like rock, so he could lower a paw with the mouse to the floor.
It stayed put.
“…You may go now.”
No moving.
Chokuto discreetly flicked his paw and dropped the mouse. Once it was on the floor, the creature finally seemed to understand it was free and hurried away.
After a short silence, Chokuto turned to Tsukiko. “Happy?”
Ignorant of his tone, Tsukiko smiled. “Yes, very! That was kind of you, Chokuto.” She also ignored his snort. “It was very fun discussing morality with you, Chokuto. We should do it again sometime.”
The male kind of feared that. He’d spend a couple days wondering about the food her ate now. “Uh. Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” He said, and watched as Tsukiko left, as usual, without really saying goobye.
“Weirdo.”
