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((XD LOL!!! Subtle header, Doom. ^_~ blaugh xd heart heart I like it. I'll go ahead and start- Tawn's been at the Hq for a while.))

Tawn was waiting out by the lake with his bag, sitting in his and Sarabi's favorite spot. He was just... bursting with excitement, and anxiety... and even a little fear- but mostly excitement, waiting for Sarabi. His mother (who was somewhere in the hq, he figured.. or maybe she'd gone on to the shop) had come home late last night to find him awake at one in the morning. He'd been waiting for the news- and couldn't sleep. When he'd heard that there was a little gumball machine waiting for her, waiting to give her the 5th stage, he... well, he'd been like this, since then.

Tawn felt the pounce before he heard the words, he thought, as they tumbled in the grass from their favorite spot, down the hill a ways.

"Oh, Sarabi!! We won, we won..." And he meant it when he said 'we', because that item in her paws wans't just something for her, but for both of them.

"It's a little scary, isn't it?" He said, when they pulled out of the tumble. "I mean, this... this is a big thing, isn't it?"

Tawn smiled at her unblinking hope and assurance that they could work through everything if they were together. He was still...anxious, but he pushed all his doubts aside for the moment, instead taking the gumball machine from her.

"It's so..." he laughed. "Well, it's cute." He batted at her ear. "It fits the owner." He turned it around and shook it a bit, to see the gumballs inside dance.

"I think Ms. Quiet chose the items pretty carefully. ...They're all made so you WANT to use them. ...I bet you've been wanting to turn the knob on this thing, hm?" He gave her back her 5th stage item.

Tawn sighed. He didn't want to disappoint her. The LAST thing he ever wanted to do was that.

"Sarabi, I want to be with you. I just need to know that... nothing will change. That you'll still... love me."

He felt like a fool for sounding so afraid- and he turned away.

He felt his eyes well up with tears, and brushed his paw up to wipe them away.

"I love you, Sarabi. And I always will." He put her item on the ground, and pulled his bag close to him- it hadn't rolled with them, and was steps away.

"I.... brought this with me," he said, undoing the leather thong that held the bag shut. He pulled the opening back, and withdrew something, wrapped in one of his white handkerchiefs. "I thought you might want to see it." The handkerchief came off with a tug, and there was his camera. His 5th stage item.

He laughed.

"You, of course." He let her examine the camera, not worried that it would 'go off'. It would only work if he voluntarily used it.

"My mother has had that sitting in the china cupboard in the dining room since I can remember, almost." He settled down in the grass, glad for their level spot- he had no desire to go rolling into the lake. "She gave it to me the day after I reached the adult stage. She said it was my choice. ..Sometimes I wish she'd just told me what SHE wanted me to do. It would be easier."

((^_^ I've never seen it.))

Tawn coughed. "I was... actually hoping you could come live with...me. My mother is giving me her old apartment- the one about the shop, and she said I can move in whenever I want. I did want to wait until I was a 5th, though."

...He paused, wondering how she'd take the suggestion.