new twitch city story: Love in the Bushes (Like There Was No Tomorrow)

[schmerica]

This story is dedicated to fox1013, because she held my hand and cheerleaded the hell out of it. Special thanks to her, justbreathe80, and brooklinegirl.

Love in the Bushes (Like There Was No Tomorrow)
by Pearl-o

Twitch City. R. 5500 words. Gennish het or hettish gen. AU branching off from episode 2x5, "Planet of the Cats."
Summary: Fascists, coups, feline assassinations, explosive revolutions, having Curtis as a boyfriend -- Hope survives it all.

*****

Lucky had been successfully converted to their cause, she assured Hope: Curtis had given her a convincing argument. Cats and humans could live and govern in peace after all, uniting against the dreaded mice foe.

Curtis, standing behind Lucky as she said this, made a vigorous cutting motion at this throat, so Hope swallowed her question on what the mice had to do with anything and just said, "Lucky, you won't regret this! I know this will be better for everyone in the end."

"I believe so as well," Lucky said. She really did have a regal presence about her. Hope had noticed that even before -- but it was hard to be too princess-like when you were that desperate for chin scratches, so it was a lot more pronounced now. "Tomorrow I shall leave for Egypt."

"I don’t understand. What's in Egypt?”

Curtis rolled his eyes. "The home of the Shadowy World Cat Government? Duh, Hope."

"Oh," Hope said. "I didn't know that's where it was."

"We cats have a sense of history," Lucky explained.

"Wait," said Hope, still stuck on it, "the Shadowy World Cat Government? Is shadowy actually part of the official name?"

Lucky said, with just the slightest bit of huffiness in her voice, "We also appreciate good drama."

Curtis, with a glare at Hope, said, "I think what Hope meant to say was that it's a great name for your organization. I think it has a ring to it. It always sounds impressive when the TV announcers say it on the news."

This seemed to mollify Lucky a little. "It is very nice!" Hope added, too, but Lucky ignored her.

"I will leave tomorrow, as I said. I will talk to the rest of the government, and raise the excellent points of Curtis's discussion. On Saturday, there will be a press conference, where I will share with the press of the world our decision of how to proceed."

"That'll be televised, right?" Curtis said.

"Live on every channel," said Lucky.

"Oh. So everything will be preempted, then."

"Curtis!" said Hope.

"I was just curious."

Lucky licked her paw thoughtfully. "I assume the two of you will be able to take care of yourselves until I return? Should I hire a human-sitter to make sure you get fed?"

Hope felt another burst of righteous indignation rising in her chest, just like she had felt over and over and over again since she woke up and realized what had happened to the world. Could they take care of themselves for a week! The nerve of the question. They were the humans here, after all. They were the ones who did the caring. They were the ones who had always been in charge.

Curtis spoke before she could say any of it, though. "Uh, yeah, we'll be fine. Just leave plenty of food, and we'll figure it out." He poked Hope hard in the stomach. "Right, Hope?"

Hope put on a tight smile and nodded, afraid to let herself say anything.

"Very well," said Lucky. "When I come back, we shall be allies."

*****

Hope was soaking in the bathtub. Most of the soaps and shampoos were specially formulated for feline health and shine, but she had found an old bottle of lavender bubble bath jammed in the very back of the bathroom cabinet, and seized it with relish. The bath was hot and soothing, and she closed her eyes and slid down, resting her head on the back of the tub.

"HOPE!" Curtis bellowed.

Hope opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. She would just ignore him if she thought he would stop after a while. But he wouldn't. She knew that from experience, unfortunately.

"HOPE!" Her name was even louder this time.

She sighed and sat up. "Curtis, can't you answer the door yourself?" she yelled back.

"It's not that! It's the TV! You need to see this!"

Hope got to her feet reluctantly, stepping out of the tub. She wrapped herself up in her big fluffy blue robe. "Curtis," she said as she walked to the living room, "if this is about the Magic Bullet infomercial again, I'm going to be very annoyed--"

She stopped talking when she saw the TV. Curtis was standing up between the couch and the coffee table, looking stunned. The remote control lay on the floor where it had fallen from his hands.

On the TV, a large orange cat was sitting at a podium. He was wearing black glasses, and he was meowing into a microphone while the flashes of cameras went off all around. A strip on top of the page translated all of his language into English. At the bottom of the screen, there were large yellow letters, and a picture of Lucky in the corner. Hope read it disbelievingly.

"'New kitty coup rises up -- President Lucky assassinated'? I can't believe it! Curtis!"

Curtis nodded slowly, not looking away from the TV screen. "It has to be true, Hope. They're all saying it."

"So Lucky is ... dead?" She could barely get it out.

"I guess not all the cats were impressed with our idea," Curtis said. He gestured to the screen. "President Boots says they're going to be making lots of changes..."

"Oh my god, Curtis." Hope sat down heavily on the couch.

They watched the TV in silence; there wasn't anything to say. President Boots assured the world that the new restrictions were strictly for the safety of humans. The mandatory ID chips would only hurt a little, and then any lost humans would be quickly and easily found from any police station. The secret police would just make sure everybody was equally happy! And fix the problems of the unhappy. (If you know anybody unhappy enough to make trouble, he went on, be sure and report them. We are starting a new line of happy fun camps especially for them, full of candy and rainbows.)

"Wow,” Curtis finally said. "I want to go to a happy fun camp. Did you hear about the flat-screen TVs?"

"Curtis, they're internment camps! They're not going to be happy or fun. They're going to put all the humans who don't follow their every whim into horrible barbed wire camps!"

A loud knock came from the door.

"Someone's at the door," Curtis said, not making any movement at all.

Hope gave him a withering look and got up.

Newbie was on the other side of the door, looking ruffled and out of breath. "Great, you guys are still here!" he said. He grabbed Hope's arm and pulled them both back inside the apartment, bolting the door and all the locks behind them.

"What are you doing? Where else would we be?" Hope said, letting herself be dragged along.

"I was afraid Human Control got here first." Newbie herded her back into the living room. "Curtis!"

"Craig," Curtis said. It was less a greeting than an expression of disdain.

"We gotta get you guys out of here. Grab a bag and pick up the stuff you can't do without. We only have a couple of minutes." Newbie jittered a little in place, waiting.

Curtis and Hope both looked at him. It was hard to listen to the orders of a guy wearing three different shades of electric blue and two different sneakers.

"C'mon!" said Newbie. "The clock’s ticking."

Curtis turned back to the TV. Hope bit her lip. "Um, I'm sure you're trying to help, Newbie, and we appreciate it, but I really think we're fine on our own," she said gently.

Newbie covered his face with his hands, and then uncovered them again. He said, "Look. Lucky is gone. You guys are now ownerless humans."

"Did you say owner?" Hope said.

"So what?" Curtis said.

"So who do you think is going to pay for this apartment now? Or your food? Or your shots? You two are street humans now, and everybody knows it. Human Control will get here any minute, and take you to the shelter." Newbie shook his head. "You know how many of the humans who go into the shelter ever get out again?"

Hope stared at him. "So you just want us to run?"

"I know a safe house. Part of the resistance."

"Look," Curtis said, "like Hope said, we appreciate it and everything, but I don't think so."

"There's a bigger TV there," said Newbie. "C'mon, I have sleeping pills. We'll knock you out first."

"Oh," said Curtis. "Well, that's different, then." He gave Hope a small shrug.

"Hope?" said Newbie. "You coming or what?"

Hope sighed and made up her mind. "One bag, you said?"

Newbie nodded. "You can get dressed first if you want, though." He paused, considering what he had just said. "Not that you have to. I mean, that's fine, too. You look good."

Hope swallowed hard, and went to pack.

*****

The safe house was only a few blocks away. It looked just like all the other apartment buildings around, so Hope wasn't sure what made this one special and safe from the cats, but it wasn’t like she and Curtis had any choice but to trust Newbie.

They passed a few other people, standing in the halls and sitting on couches through the building. None of them looked particularly worried or in fear of their lives or anything. They mostly all just looked bored. Bored, and the kind of cool that made Hope feel self-conscious about everything she was wearing, especially when they looked her up and down with judging looks. Everybody knew Newbie, though, giving him high fives and greeting him as they walked. Newbie had to cut off a conversation with one guy by interrupting and gesturing to the unconscious Curtis he was half-carrying, half-dragging along.

Their room was number 281. It was small, but not too small -- it was still a lot bigger than Hope's closet room at home. And it looked clean enough. Small favors, Hope thought. Newbie dumped Curtis on the bed, and Hope set their bags down on the floor.

"You guys can stay here," Newbie said. "Don't go out during the day. And, uh, try not to make too much noise, either." He paused, looking like he was trying to remember if there was anything else.

"It's okay, Newbie. I've read The Diary of Anne Frank," Hope said wearily.

"Oh, yeah?" Newbie said, interest blooming. "Did you see the movie? Because, Shelley Winters in that, I didn't think--"

She cut him off before he could really get the ball rolling. "Is there anything else?"

"Uh, that's it for now. I gotta get to work. I'll be back later, bring you guys dinner. Oh, wait! Code names." Newbie looked excited about this last prospect.

"Why do we need code names?"

Newbie shrugged. "You know. It's what you do. Everybody needs an awesome code name. Like a call sign."

"But we're not talking on the radio or anything. And there's no one else around," said Hope.

"So?" said Newbie.

Hope sat down on the edge of the bed, pushing one of Curtis's feet out of the way. "Fine. Code names."

"Yeah!" Newbie rocked up on the balls of his feet, beaming. "See, you're going to be Minnie -- because of the hair."

Hope raised her hands to her head self-consciously.

"I'm Trent." He stopped like he was waiting for her to respond. Hope smiled, but that didn't seem enough to not disappoint him.

"Why Trent?" she said, trying to act interested.

"Because Trent's an awesome name. I claimed that one for me, first thing, when we were assigning code names. No one else got even near it." Newbie looked proud. "Trent," he repeated. "Has a ring to it, right?"

"It's very nice, Newbie," Hope said. She was standing in the middle of this room with her unconscious boyfriend, talking code names with a rebel against the cats. The surreality of it would have been funny if it wasn't so serious.

"And Curtis. Uh. Curtis's code name is going to be .... Loser," Newbie said, and then immediately laughed loudly at his own joke. "Ha, just kidding. Curtis can be Potato."

"Potato," Hope said doubtfully.

"Yeah. Okay, I'm going. Later!" Newbie bobbed his head to her in a sort of good-bye, and disappeared out the door.

Hope slipped off her shoes, and frowning, brought both her legs up to sit cross-legged on the bed. She looked around the room again. There was a calendar on the wall she hadn't noticed immediately. It was filled with pictures of kittens in various adorable positions. Someone had scribbled "Fascist!" and "Mr. Whiskers is worse than Stalin!" all over it in blue ink.

"Home sweet home," said Hope helplessly.

*****

Newbie came back about six hours later. He didn't knock, just came in, almost falling forward and dropping the shopping bag in his hands as he opened the door. "Wet food!" he said.

Curtis was in the corner, sitting close to the small TV he had managed to barter for in the hallways by trading away Hope's teddy bear. Hope was lying sideways on the bed, her legs bent against the wall and her head lying back over the edge, watching everything upside down.

"Oh, thank god," Hope said. She struggled to sit up quickly. "We're starving. What is it?"

Newbie removed a tin can from the bag triumphantly and handed it to her.

"Sardine soup?" Hope said, reading the label.

"Yeah, we were sold out of the good flavors. It was that or the gross stuff for urinary tract health."

"The urinary tract stuff really isn't that bad," Curtis said from his corner. "Lucky used to have us mix it with ice cream."

Newbie flashed a smile to Hope. "Brought you a can opener. Two bowls."

Hope sighed again. "Thank you, Newbie." She stood up and took the bag from Newbie's arms and set it down on the desk. Newbie sat down on the bed where she had just been sitting.

"So, uh, you guys started thinking about owners yet?"

"What do you mean?" Hope asked. She had managed to open the can without cutting herself and she began to separate the weird, horrible-smelling stuff into two equal portions.

"Like what you're going to do next. It's pretty competitive out there. And you guys already have a few strikes against you," Newbie said, drumming his fingers against the bedpost. He looked at Hope seriously. "New adoptors like babies best. You guys have outgrown the cute stage already. Plus if you're staying together--" He paused there, leaving it as a question.

"Curtis and I are not going to split up!" Hope said, indignant. "Not to please some cat!" They loved each other; no cat could come between them. Besides, Curtis needed her.

"Okay, then, going as a pair, that's harder too. Plus there're Curtis's special needs."

"He sits on the couch all day! That's not a disability."

Newbie shrugged.

"You'd think that would be a plus," said Curtis, slightly whiny. "I'm right there. What else do they want?"

Newbie said, "You have to think about the kinds of cats, too. A lot of them are worse than no owner at all. I have it pretty easy -- my cat's never around, no hands on contact. He's got a bunch of us, people who can pay their own way and work hard. That's why I'm still at the store." He paused thoughtfully. "Maybe that could work for you. We just need to think of your special talents."

Hope looked over to Curtis, who avoided her eyes, and then down at her own nails. The silence in the room went on for a while before Newbie cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Okay, uh. Other stuff. Hey, maybe you could be a breeding pair!" he added, suddenly bright. "Hope, you're pretty enough, and I guess they might take Curtis, too."

Curtis's forehead wrinkled as he considered it. "We are really good at having sex."

"Oh my god," Hope cried, dropping a spoon onto the desk, where it hit with a loud clang. "How can you even say something like that? This isn't funny! Curtis and I are not going to be, be sex slaves having babies for someone else to give away! That is the most horrifying thing I've ever heard. What about human rights?"

"You mean feline rights?" Newbie said. He continued without waiting for an answer. "Okay, so, no cat for you guys. That means you're gonna be living on the wrong side of the law. You sure you can handle that?"

Curtis scoffed. "Come on. It's not like we're incompetent. Staying inside a room isn't brain surgery."

"I think we can do it," Hope said. She took a deep breath, and told him what she had spent the entirety of the last few hours thinking about. "And we want to do more for the resistance. I want to be more involved. Things need to change, and fast."

"Sing it!" said Newbie, pointing at her with one finger. "All right. Meeting tomorrow morning in the lobby. That last strike went good -- especially with Curtis's new weapon. We need to plan something big next. Kick 'em while they're down."

Hope nodded firmly. "I'll be there! Curtis might be sleeping," she added. "But I'll tell him about the important parts."

*****

"I can't find my Hogan's Heroes tape," said Curtis. He was sprawled in the middle of the room, poking at the bags they had brought with them. Hope had to walk over and around him as she got ready.

"I think I took it out when I repacked for you," Hope said, distracted. She peered into the mirror and carefully adjusted the twin buns on the top of her head.

Curtis raised himself up on his elbows. "What? Why would you do that? I packed my necessities, Hope." His voice wasn't angry so much as disapproving, like Hope had done something naughty without consulting him first.

"Curtis," said Hope. "You only brought two pairs of underpants."

"You can buy more underpants."

That was a point, actually, and Hope paused in lacing up her sneakers. "Would you have?"

"I don't know. Maybe," Curtis said, sounding a little sullen.

Hope shook her head. "I need to go. How do I look?"

"Fine." Curtis had already turned back to the TV.

"Do you need anything? I mean, I'll mostly be pretty busy with the revolt, but I could pick something up..."

"I wrote out a list. It's over on the bed."

Hope picked up the scrap of paper. In Curtis's horrible bunched up handwriting, it said TOAST, COOL WHIP, BATTERIES, WATERPROOF MARKERS, OATMEAL, SOCKS.

"Okay," Hope said. "Okay, I'm going to go now. I'm so excited, Curtis! My first day as a real revolutionary!" She couldn't help beaming.

"You'll be great, Hope," Curtis said, looking over at her. "You're going to be awesome. Go declaw the furry bastards!"

There were times when Curtis could be unexpectedly sweet. Just because it didn't happen that often didn't mean it wasn't special when it did.

*****

The first thing she had to worry about, Newbie explained as they walked through the streets, was the secret police. There were a lot of people who had decided to collaborate, to give information to the cats about humans, to help the government and keep everyone in line.

"Luckily," Newbie said, "they're usually pretty easy to spot. Here, see that guy over by the streetlight?"

Hope squinted. "The man in the trench coat and dark sunglasses?"

"Yeah. Most of them dress like that. It's like a uniform almost. Fedoras, too, most of the time. Oh, and a lot of them, they have these Eastern European accents. Like Boris and Natasha. 'Moose and squirrel!'" he added, much louder, in a really bad Russian accent. He grinned at her."And if they're scribbling all the time in a notepad, that's a giveaway. The cat had fifty years of passive TV watching. I guess it catches up with you."

"Newbie, I don't understand something," Hope said. They had reached the park; Hope followed Newbie in sitting down in the bench, with a clear view of the courthouse across the way. She continued, "Why would anybody do that? I can't believe so many people would be that willing to betray their species."

Newbie shrugged, jerking his leg up and down as he sat. "It's safer. Cats won't go after them. And some of them actually like the cats."

"You're joking," said Hope.

"Nah. Some of them are impressed by the whole ending the wars and achieving world peace thing. And everyone has enough food and health care now. And they're reversing all the global warming. Oh, and the cures for AIDS and cancer," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"But they're fascists!" Hope cried. "And ... cats!"

"Hey, hey, hey," Newbie said, raising his hands in front of his chest. "I know that! That's why we're here. We're not just blowing shit up for the fun of it." He paused. "Although it is a lot of fun. Hey, you ready?"

Hope nodded determinedly. "I am."

"C'mon, then." Newbie stood up and looked around suspiciously in all directions. There weren't people wearing trenchcoats in eyesight, though, and he offered his hand down to Hope and helped her up. "Let's do this."

*****

It turned out that Hope was really good with explosives. Really good. Better than any of the other things she had spent the last five years of her life doing in stupid job after stupid job. She wasn't sure what to think about that. On the one hand, it felt great to find out she did have a real talent after all. On the other hand, her talent was something she never would have found out about if the cats hadn't taken over. It was kind of ironic, in a bitter way.

"Wow, Minnie," said Newbie softly, leaning in close over her shoulder. "You're really good at that."

For some reason, it made Hope blush. "Thanks, Trent," she whispered back.

Newbie led her back to the park across the street, and they each bought a hot dog from the cart there and ate it slowly, watching the building out of the corners of their eyes and trying to look inconspicuous. After they were done eating, they stood around with their hands in their pockets, chatting about nothing, for about fifteen minutes, and then the bomb exploded.

For half a second after it went off, it seemed like everything stopped, all together -- and then it all started right back up. Everybody was shouting and running about and panicking, and all of the government cats were evacuating the building as the speakers loudly told everyone to stay calm, this was an emergency. It was chaos.

With everyone else running around, no one noticed Newbie and Hope run off, too, away from the scene of the crime. They ran fast, down a couple streets, before Newbie stopped and pulled them both into a side alley.

Hope collapsed against the wall, breathless and laughing. "We did it! Did you see that?"

"I saw it," Newbie said. "Mission accomplished." He made a really dorky gesture with his arms, and made a triumphant martial arts noise.

Hope giggled again, and on a sudden whim, hugged him hard. Newbie hugged back, even tighter, and they swayed together for a few seconds happily. Then Newbie started to kiss the side of her neck.

Hope closed her eyes, not thinking, as he began to nibble down her shoulder, until she realized what they were doing and jerked away.

"Newbie!" said Hope. "I'm sorry, I -- I can't. I have a boyfriend."

"Oh," Newbie said, "So you're one of those people. You're just buying into the bourgeois cat mentality." He overenunciated 'bourgeois', turning it from a two-syllable word into almost four.

"What? I'm not," said Hope.

"Hey, no, it's okay." Newbie shrugged it off, looking nonchalant. "You're still stuck in their rules. It's not like you're really a revolutionary yet--"

Hope stepped forward and kissed him firmly on the mouth before he could finish his sentence.

*****

The first thing Hope noticed when she got back to their room was that it was quiet; the television was off, for almost the first time since they moved in. Curtis was in bed, underneath all the blankets. Finding Curtis in bed in the middle of the day wasn't necessarily a rare occurrence, but he wasn't sleeping now.

"Hi," Hope said, slipping off her shoes and setting down the groceries.

Curtis croaked out her name in a low voice.

"What's the matter?" Hope said. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked down into his face.

"Um, I think it might be faux berry withdrawal? I haven't had any Frooty-O's since we moved in."

"Oh, Curtis." She stroked her hand down the side of Curtis's face. He looked awful, sweaty and pale and cold. She felt overcome with guilt. "Poor baby."

Curtis looked like he wanted to nod in agreement with that, but he didn't say anything.

Hope sighed, stood up, and started to undress. When she was down to her panties and bra, she started to climb into the bed beside Curtis. Curtis scooted over, a little relunctantly.

"Uh, Hope, I appreciate the thought, but I don't think this is really the time--"

"We're not going to have sex, Curtis," Hope interrupted. She lay on her side and wrapped her arms around Curtis's chest.

"Oh," said Curtis. He brought one of his over to her, too, stroking down her back. "What are we going to do, then?"

"We're going to lay here and hold each other," Hope said.

After a moment, Curtis said, "Why?"

"Because I said so."

Curtis made a thoughtful grunt and pulled her a little closer. Hope cuddled into him, closing her eyes and appreciating his familiar smell. Curtis didn't always have the best hygiene, but he didn’t smell bad. Just like himself. Like them in bed together.

"Do you ever worry about how we got together?" Hope said.

"No," said Curtis.

"I mean, do you worry that because I cheated on Nathan when I was with him, that might mean I could cheat on you, too?"

"No."

"Oh," said Hope. She wasn't sure if she was relieved by that answer or not.

"Not until just now, anyway," Curtis added.

Hope said, "Don't worry."

*****

On The Price Is Right, Bob Barker ended the show by telling the audience make sure and get themselves and their family sterilized; thousands of unwanted humans were born every year.

"I wonder if we'll ever have kids," Hope said. She was sitting on the floor, her chin resting on top of her bent knees. "I mean, I'm not ready to have kids, but even if I was. I can't imagine having them now, bringing them into a world like this."

"I don't know," said Curtis, sitting beside her. "It's not that bad."

"Curtis, it is that bad. And we don't know if it's ever going to get better."

"Yeah," said Curtis, "but it wouldn't get that bad for a kid. He wouldn't know any better. Plus, having a mom who's an underground spy femme fatale. That's cool."

Hope snorted. "I'm not a femme fatale."

"Oh, you are." Curtis sat up a little, so he was at the same height as Hope, and shifted a little closer, turning so they faced each other. "If this were a movie, you would be the sexy seductress in black leather. The bad guys wouldn't know what hit them."

Hope couldn't help grinning at him. "Oh? What does that make you, James Bond?"

"I'm not in the movie, Hope. You don't see the boyfriend of the girl. That would ruin the story." He leaned in and touched his forehead against hers. "Besides, I just watch the programs, remember?"

Hope wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Curtis leaned into her, pushing them further and further horizontal until Hope was on her back on the floor, Curtis heavy over her.

"Sock it to me," Hope said, tugging at Curtis's t-shirt the best she could. Curtis pulled away from her, just far enough to pull down her trousers and underwear, and start pushing down his own jeans and underwear. Hope wiggled to get her blouse over her head, and they still weren't naked, but they were close enough. She kicked off her pants so she could wrap her legs around Curtis's back, and he pushed right in.

She groaned with the goodness of it. Their sex life was always really good, which was actually kind of weird; if she had thought of it before they got together, she never would guessed that Curtis -- who, when you came down to it, was actually pretty lazy and cheap and selfish in a lot of ways -- could be such a generous and attentive lover. But sex with Curtis was the best sex Hope had ever had, really. And all it took was a little kissing, a grope of her breasts, and she was wet and worked up and ready to go.

"Harder, harder," Hope moaned, scratching her nails down Curtis's back and squeezing down on him. Curtis was balanced precariously, holding his weight on one arm while his other hand worked between her thighs, but he responded immediately, just giving it to her, all strong and forceful, warm and solid and scratching her itch just the way she needed.

She raised her arms above her head, groping around blindly, till she found the leg of the bed and wrapped her hand all the way around her, holding on tight to ground her and keep her steady as Curtis thrust into her. She closed her eyes. She was making small high-pitched noises, and Curtis was breathing heavily, not quite grunting but almost, kissing her shoulders and collarbone and top curve of her breasts.

Hope came, all the tension built up in her body letting go in one amazing moment. She burst into uncontrollable giggles, just like she did every time. That had bothered some of her boyfriends, even when she explained that she couldn't help it -- Nathan had always thought she was laughing at him -- but Curtis had never minded. Curtis liked it, thought it was funny, and sometimes it even made him giggle, too, like now, so they were both laughing when he came.

Curtis was heavy against her, his head resting against her breast, but Hope liked the weight. She stroked her fingers lightly through the sweaty hairs at the nape of his neck. Her fingertips brushed against the fabric around his neck on the downstroke.

"Curtis, why are you still wearing your collar?"

"Hmph?" Curtis raised his head. "My collar? I don't know. I never took it off."

"Take it off now," said Hope.

"Okay," Curtis agreed, but he just closed his eyes and lowered his head to her chest again.

Hope gave him a light shove. "Now, Curtis."

"Okay, fine, whatever," Curtis said irritably. He rolled off to the side and sat up. His fingers fumbled around the back of his neck; Hope watched for a few seconds before she got impatient and got up, too, pushing his hand out of the way so she could unclasp it herself.

"There," said Curtis. "It's off."

Hope stared down at the shiny name plate in her palm, and slowly closed her fingers around it until only the edges of the fabric stuck out the sides of her fist. She felt angry but also like she was going to cry.

"It's not right," she said, blinking rapidly. "It's not right, Curtis. It shouldn't be this way."

"Hope," Curtis said, in that same uncertain tone he used every time he could tell she needed support, when he could tell there might be some cue he was supposed to follow but he didn't know what it was. "It's okay. It's just an old collar."

That was when Hope burst into tears, for the first time since this whole crazy thing had started. Once it began, she couldn't stop it; the sobs kept on coming, nonstop, and even breathing almost felt like hiccuping. Her nose was running and her mouth tasted like salt from her tears and she could hardly see through her teary eyes, and Curtis's arms came around her, holding her tight.

"Hope, it's all right," Curtis said, stroking her hair with a sort of patient soothing. "We all miss the pet monkeys."

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