Damn.
Steve reached for one of the spare settings, trading his fork for a clean one. Then, after mulling his options long and hard over what happened to be some very delicious eggs, Steve echoed the raccoon’s words. “Here’s the deal -”
Real or hallucination, the creature appeared to be in no hurry to go away. But it did speak English and, after the meal, that happened to be the biggest break he had gotten all day. He might as well use both.
“I happen to have found myself in a bit of a predicament which makes this -” he took another bite, sure to put on a show of how enjoyable it was, “incredibly valuable.” Who knew when his next meal might be, if there’d even be one at all. “In fact, the only thing more valuable to me right now is information. And since you’re the only -” he gestured vaguely, not having the words because animals didn’t talk, “that speaks English here I’m thinking we could make a trade.”
-
As the other parroted his words, his ears lowered and his lip curled as he fought the urge to start snarling. “It ain’t as cool when you say it.” he pressed, wanting to offer any kind of blow he could, no matter how small.
As the stranger vomited their pathetic little story about how deserving they were of the food, he finally caved and allowed himself to bare his teeth. As a treat for having at least tried not to. “If it’s so valuable to you, why are you throwing it on the floor like it ain’t nothin’.” he answered, his words quiet but firm. “You want information from me, it’s gonna take a bit more than some whatever that is.” he slowly lowered his claw towards the eggs again.
“You bought that. You can buy it again. But for me.” his tail flicked in anticipation. “Thens, maybe, if you play nice and don’t start throwin’ things around like a barbarian, I’ll think about tellin’ you what I know about-” he cut himself off, shrugging as if to say that they both know what he was referring to and that it wasn’t to be said out loud. In reality, Rocket had no idea what the other could possibly be talking about, but was willing to string him along.









