“Rassum… frakkin… no good…”

Nibble growled each little set of syllables as she continued scrubbing the floor of the gym. The latest in her series of punishments at the BOS consisted of scrubbing and cleaning the floor and mats in the gymnasium, points for irony Nibble assumed given how little time she spent in there, and taking out the trash. The trash part at least made sense, as on this particular occasion that Nibble was being punished was due to the chinchilla blowing up the trash can in the cafeteria with her leftovers. That small thought at least made her smile as she wiped off her brow, finally done with the section of floor she was working on.

“You missed a spot.”

“WAAAAGHH!” Nibble yelped and reflexively flung the sponge at the source of the sudden voice. It bounced harmlessly off the chest of a grinning Florida panther. “What the flip Slipstream!? Going to give me a heart attack like that! And don’t walk all over the floor…” Nibble stopped mid-sentence seeing that Slipstream was hovering in a sitting position and was thus unlikely to have tracked in any mud or dirt. “And what spot? I got all the…” this time when Nibble stopped talking it was to scowl and stare at Slipstream’s blindfold. He had successfully pranked her.

“Awww, did I scare the complete sentences out of you? That’d be a new one for me,” the panther grinned as Nibble continued to scowl before snagging the sponge-turned-projectile and starting on a new section of floor.

“Buzz off Slip, I’m not in the mood,” Nibble grumbled at the ever-grinning hero.

Slipstream glanced around the room, mostly for effect, before focusing back on Nibble. “I can tell. You’ve been getting in trouble an awful lot lately. What’s going on?”

Nibble just continued to scrub the floor, not returning the gaze, “It hasn’t been that much.”

“You’ve been punished five times this week.”

“So?”

“It’s Tuesday.” That got a momentary twitch out of Nibble, so Slipstream pressed, “Something’s eating ya kid.”

“So what,” Nibble shot back, scrubbing a little harder now. “Not like anyone cares or remembers.”

“Remembers what?”

Nibble slammed the sponge on the ground and turned around to get right in Slipstream’s face as she shouted, “Dys! Nobody remembers him, and the anniversary of his death is coming up, and nobody even gives a flip that he’s gone!”

While his grin was now gone, Slipstream hadn’t backed away and instead had straightened up. “Of course someone does. You do.”

“You know what I mean! He’s gone and I can’t do anything about that and no one else can so why does anything matter?” Nibble snapped.

Slipstream was now standing as he stared down at the slightly quivering chinchilla. “Well it’s clear that these punishments aren’t reaching through to you, so I think it’s time to switch to something else. Something you’ve needed for a while I’m thinking.”

“Oh yeah, and just what would that be,” Nibble sarcastically responded before yelping as Slipstream reached down and picked her up. Before she could even comprehend what happened the panther had his arms wrapped tightly around her in a big bear hug. “Cut it out! Put me down! Put me down…” Nibble continued to protest as she whacked his shoulder with her fists. The protests and hitting slowly subsided though, and before she really knew what she was doing Nibble found her arms wrapped around Slipstream’s neck, returning the gesture.

“I’m sorry that Dys is gone, and that no one can do anything about that,” Slipstream said as he shifted his arms, now fully supporting the chinchilla’s weight as she laid her head on his shoulder. “None of us will be able to replace him, but at the very least we can be here for you if you want us to be. And I’ll personally be here for a hug whenever you need one.”

Nibble didn’t say anything for a couple minutes until she finally nodded and muttered, “Thanks… and Slip?”

“Yeah kid?”

“You know I’m going to blow your shoes up later for this right?”

Slipstream chuckled as he continued the hug, “Of course you are kid, of course you are.”

-

DGA surprised me with this rather heartwarming image and I was inspired to write an accompanying scene for the gift. Thanks again DGA, Nibble will always get hugs from Slipstream.

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Siji Voon/Nibble and art by  darkgodariaz
Jason Mills/Slipstream by  gamegod210