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After a night of little sleep, the winged horse-man had caught up on the rest he lacked late into the morning. Images of Victor and Zach still plagued him, as well as Emerwyn's haunting, frightened face. Everything was a mess in his head, and the last thing he wanted to do was deal with it. Yet they wouldn't leave him alone...

He'd just been in the process of brushing out the knots in his tail, a ritual he'd adopted after his last change, when there was a knock on the door, and a familiar voice that brought with it a whole different set of worries and images.

"Nita?" he called, "Er, just a second!"

Hopping to his feet, he grabbed one of the shirts lying on his chair, making sure it was one that wasn't too wrinkled, and hurried to pull it on over his head and wings. Giving his hair a quick hand-comb, he opened the door and looked down at the furry, red-haired girl he hadn't seen in weeks.

"Uh, hey! I'd been meaning to come see you some time..." he shrugged apologetically. "What brings you over?"

The half-worried look that'd been in the horse-man's expression faded as his smile brightened. "Really? You liked it? I hadn't heard from you, so I was wondering... I mean, I'm... I'm glad." Ducking his head in a timid manner, he scratched his nose, then nodded. "Uh, Merry Christmas then!"

He stepped back, about to invite her in, but his duplex-mate, who'd been sleeping on the pile of sheets at the foot of the bed had awoken at the voices, and sensing a new and unfamiliar smell, came bounding over, right between Gaius' legs, and into Nita. Vixen's tail wagged happily as she snuffled at the red panda, her wagging increasing in force as she smelled not only the girl, but a very familiar canine sent.

"Vixen, be nice!" Gaius chided, glancing at Nita apprehensively if she showed any dislike of the dog. "Er, Nita? Meet Vixen... she's a recent addition."

Gaius blinked, surprised by Nita's comment. "Wait, you have one too? A dog? Was it on Christmas?"

Vixen, having satisfied her nose and given Nita's hand a proper licking, sat down at her feet, looking up between the two with an inquisitive face.

The dog accepted the affection, then got back up and moved around behind Nita and leaned on the red panda's legs, almost pushing her in. Gaius jumped back, realizing he'd been blocking the way.

"Ah, right! Er, pardon the mess..."

Considering it belonged to an active guy, the place wasn't too bad. There was laundry about, but no leftover food. However, there was a good deal of wood shavings around a project sitting in the corner, and the bed was far from made.

Gaius waited until Nita was in to close the door after her. "So... Comet, huh? Weird name... But... How'd you know about Vixen?"

The horse-man had begun hurredly tossing clothes out of sight on the other side of the bed, but stopped and looked up, ears alert. "Newsletter? You mean the paper that was left outside a couple days ago...?" He glanced at his desk, where the paper'd been tossed in with a pile of other stuff. He hadn't even bothered to look at it yet, but if it mentioned Vixen, or himself...

Digging the paper out, Gaius turned it over, spotting first the photo of himself. He groaned. "Could've gotten a better picture..." Then he scanned down over the articles, his face flushing pink as he read, and finally flopped down on the edge of the bed, hiding his face behind the paper in his hands, utterly mortified. And it was worse, because Nita had already read it, apparantly! "Auuuugh..."

Gaius peaked over the top of the paper, grumbling something about men not supposed to be cute, then finally set the newsletter aside with a sigh. Nothing he could do about it when everyone else had already read it...

Thankfully, Nita's subject change wiped the worry from his mind for the time being. "Yeah! We actually made a lot of progress yesterday, despite some, er, troubles... I figured since you had that survey project thing to help people, I could do something too with what I have..."

He stood up and offered a hand to help Nita, grinning as he said, "Come on, I'll show you!"

He beamed as she took his hand, though the tilt of his ears belied his nervousness, and his hand lingered on hers a moment longer then needed before letting go. He quickly stuffed it in his pants' pocket and went to get the door for her.

"After you, milady!"

It was odd. All this time, he'd told himself he was over Nita, that he'd moved on, and having been away from her, he'd come to believe it. But now, with her there... he wasn't so sure.

Why did women make things so complicated? He groaned inwardly, a bit of the perplexion crossing his face briefly.