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It was evening. Victoria was putting her twins to bed and THING was curled up on the couch. It was funny, being a toddler and having a key to a grown up mother of two's house, but THING was a funny creature just the same. Presently, it was waiting for her to get back. Her babies had been attempting to climb on and chew it while they were awake, and now that they were off to bed, THING could sit on the couch unmolested. Well, till Tori came back and wanted to snuggle anyway. She loved the plushie, among other reasons, for its soothing powers.

Presently, on the coffee table in front of THING was a bottle and a half full glass full of a strange juice Tori liked to drink in the evenings. It wasn't coffee, THING knew that for sure. She drank coffee in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon, usually in the kitchen, and while she was still waking up. That drink was dark, a blackish brown with a strange smell. Tori liked it hot or at least very warm, and THING would sit at the counter while she was making it, just enjoying the funny smell. Tori'd let her try it one day, letting the plush have a sip of the beverage, both with and without creamer. Creamer was something Victoria seemed to love – she had tons of flavors of it in the fridge and let THING try each of them. It thought they tasted good by themselves and liked the coffee plain, but Tori just laughed and said it was a silly Thing. She didn't object to THING having small cups of plain coffee or creamer just the same though.

This drink was something THING hadn't tried before. Tori called it “wine” and said it was made from fermented grapes. THING didn't know what fermenting was – it would have to look that up on the discovery channel – but it knew what grapes were. Those were fruit, and they made grape juice. That was a sort of reddish purple color, right? So this was obviously fancy grape juice. Idly, THING looked at the glass and wondered if Tori would mind if it tried some. She usually didn't, and usually just called it a silly THING if she caught it doing something it shouldn't but wasn't causing trouble – pff, when did THING cause trouble? - so that couldn't be too bad, right?

The tot carefully picked up the glass with both hands, cupping it carefully the way Tori did with her long slim fingers. It didn't want to spill so it didn't try that way, but did run the top under its nose the way Tori did to sniff it. THING blinked its yellow eyes at the scent and stared at its reflection in the liquid. It wasn't the same kind of aroma as the coffee, but still strong. This drink was cold though, and shined in the light. Carefully, the white furred plush tilted the cup to take a drink, blinking as the flavor touched its lips then tongue. The first thought was 'bitter' or 'sour', but not quite either. A strange flavor that was definitely not grape juice but definitely something like that.

THING was still blinking and staring at the cup with a small red mark on its lip when Tori came back. “Having a taste?” the girl laughed, reaching out to take the glass from her companion and wiping off the red stain with a nearby napkin.

“It tastes like red.” THING explained, looking up at Tori as she went back to her seat and took a sip of the drink herself. There was no other way to describe that flavor, really. Red. Because it wasn't anything else THING had ever had, but it was certainly red.

Tori snorted a little, putting an arm around the toddler's shoulders and lifting THING back into her lap. “It's not for little kids, so you can't have any more.” she explained. THING just shrugged. That was okay – red didn't taste THAT good. Coffee was better. Speaking of which, the white furred toddler turned back to its friend to smile, “Can I have another sippy of coffee?”

(Tori used with Ceres's permission)