25 Unicorn Street- Friday morning

[throughaphase]

The bad news was, Lexi had been dragging the inflatable reindeer she'd been gifted around like it was her new best friend.

The good news was, there was a rule that Mr. Rudy had to sleep downstairs.

And that was a very good thing, because when the dogs started barking like crazy and Kitty went downstairs to check what had happened, she did not expect to find a murderous reindeer down there.

"Uh, Clint?" she called.


[For that guy!]

Comments

[so_hawkward]

Clint wasn't always the best husband, but he had learned the difference between his name being called for a question, and his name being called because Kitty needed him right away. This sounded like the second one, so he happily dropped the clothes he was folding and came out of the bedroom. "Yeah, is everything okay?"

[throughaphase]

"I think we may need a weapon or something," Kitty said. "There's, uh. A crazed reindeer."

[so_hawkward]

Oh, hey, weapons were definitely something Clint could take care of. "Is it made out of snow? Just need to know if I should grab a hair dryer or a real weapon."

[throughaphase]

"Real. The dogs are holding it off."

In case that said anything, because Kitty was ready to run in there and phase them if the reindeer got too close.

[so_hawkward]

It probably said a lot about Clint that the dogs being in danger made him move faster than just Kitty being worried. He grabbed his upstairs bow (as opposed to the one he had stashed in the kitchen) and headed downstairs, stopping in his tracks when he saw the reindeer. "What the hell? Did it break in?"

[throughaphase]

"Don't know, don't care right now," Kitty said. "I don't want to make it mad."

She paused.

"Madder."

[so_hawkward]

"Please tell me Lexi isn't going to see this, or do I need to lure it somewhere?" Clint asked. "I really prefer indirectly giving her reasons for therapy later."

[throughaphase]

Kitty looked back to make sure Lexi hadn't snuck by to hang around.

"She's still upstairs. Might be more traumatizing if a crazed animal hurts the dogs."

The priority really was the dogs, huh.

[so_hawkward]

For all her toddler-ness, Lexi was at least smart enough to stay away from crazed animals, probably.

"Okay, maybe with the dogs I can just lead it back outside. It might not be crazed if it can get to the preserve?"

This was clearly spoken like someone who hadn't been shooting snow angels for the last few days, but something that was genuinely animal-shaped felt different.