For the shape-shifter prompts (providing you are still doing them): A rabbit shifter (she/her) and a human (he/him) cousins, meeting at a family gathering for the first time. Dialogue prompt L, please.
Ohh I love that, very original! First meetings are tough though. Let me see…
That he didn’t remember her name was not too embarrassing in and of itself. Their family was so large, allowances had to be made. That the only thing flashing through his head was ‘from the bunny side of the family’ did make him freeze up with cringing horror, though. Luckily she seemed too distracted to notice and too grateful to get out of the crowded gaggle of uncles and aunts to be very picky about who she sat down by.
“Hi,” he managed, once he had gotten over himself. “Uh, Flynn, pretty sure we’re cousins twice turned upside down, or something.”
She let out a short laugh. “Right, you’re a Hobbes, right? I’m Tammy.”
He nodded, both in agreement and greeting, and made a sympathetic noise at the sight of her sagging shoulders. “Tiring, hm?”
“I’ll say,” she sighs. “And I’m hungry.” She pulled a face at him and glanced towards the picnic tables laden with food. “I’m not even a proper vegetarian, but that doesn’t mean I can stomach that much meat.”
“Yeah, uh, catering really effed up somewhere.”
Tammy gave him an amused look. “You know, don’t you?”
“Know what?” he blinked.
“That I’m a shapeshifter,” she said, lowering her voice just a little. “I can tell you know, you did a thing with your eyebrows when I said the vegetarian thing.”
He winced. “Did I? I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, don’t sweat it. As long as you don’t make any bunny jokes.”
“I promise I won’t make any bunny jokes,” he replied dutifully and, after a moment’s thought, he added sincerely: “That must suck.”
“Eh, every rose has its thorns. On the plus side, I make a fantastic jackalope for Halloween.”
He laughed and they fell into a much more comfortable mix of silence and casual conversation. Tammy was, on closer acquaintance, very easy to talk to. And laugh with. However, the laughing did make one thing rather obvious after a while.
“Um, sorry,” he interjected cautiously. “But, are your teeth meant to be doing that?”
Tammy blinked, closed her mouth around her suddenly significantly larger front and lower middle teeth, and made a deeply embarrassed noise. “Ah shit.” She pressed her lips together for a moment, squinting at nothing, and when she spoke again her teeth were back to normal. “I promise wasn’t thinking about eating you or anything.”
Flynn turned frowned slightly and turned around, looking in the direction where Tammy’s eyes had been straying the past few minutes, staring past him in a slightly zoned-out way from time to time. Beyond the picnic site there were some scattered trees, but beyond those were little patches of bright green grass. Little meadows, dotted liberally with the cheerful yellow of blooming dandelions. Flynn stared at them for a moment, while his brain slowly caught up, and then he promptly turned back to Tammy, who was sporting a rather uncomfortable smile.
“Hey, actually,” he said deliberately. “I’m getting really tired of sitting down. Do you want to go for a walk? You know, look around a bit, out of sight. Admire the…flowers.”
Tammy’s smile broadened. “You are gonna be my favourite cousin twice turned upside down.”