“Oh, come on, it’s not that cold!” Amenii smiled as she walked further down the stone path that served as their walkway to street. Nera had sworn up and down that it would be the death of her one day, insisting that concrete would be so much easier to maintain as well as be far less of a tripping hazard. She had also mentioned, on more than one occasion sense the snow had begun to fall, that having a slab would make keeping the snow off that much easier, and a heated slab would almost make the winter walk bearable. Still, Amenii had won out in this one, and the artistic nature of old stone steps had come out on top, for now. “You can’t just hide inside until May you know! People are going to start to talk.”
“Let them.” Nera growled, framed in the doorway she was hesitant to put a single unnecessary toe past the lip of the door frame and into the white powder that covered the block like a fuzzy white blanket. “If they want to see me, they can join me shivering at the bus stop waiting for the green line.”
That too had been a point of contention, and Amenii had resolved to try and find Nera some better winter boots. Not an easy task for a predator her size, well, not with anything that would be remotely comfortable.
Instead her other half had grumbled and moaned about freezing temperatures starting in November and wasn’t likely to stop until well into June.
Amenii had made the mistake of calling Nera a tender foot one particularly cold night, only for the hyena to pin her to the floor and warm those freezing toe pads against her belly.
The screaming had been so atrocious that three patrol cars had come by to perform a wellness check, a possible domestic abuse in progress, and what one smiling officer who had been patrolling the neighborhood for several years now described as “A first-degree murder conducted by a couple who were clearly married.”
This had gotten the thermostat turned up five degrees higher, and had placated the hyena for a while, however it had not helped her overall mood much.
Muttering something about legs and feeling, Nera reluctantly put one padded foot before the other and gingerly walked out into the yard.
“See, not that hard.” Amenii smiled, folding her arms over her chest.
“I’m going to pin you to the bed tonight.” Nera grumbled. “And this time I brought a gag.”
Amenii’s cheeks flushed, she was pretty sure Nera was joking. Pretty sure.
Bending to scoop up two mitten fulls of snow she quickly packed them into a ball and smiled.
“Oh, don’t you dare!” Nera began –
A few minutes later the anonymous calls to the local police department were going out again, something about a triple homicide in progress.