#tumblr reformatting text is so horrible oh my god

[kiss-dumbbunnies]

inktober prompt #3: boots

yes i missed the deadline. i'm Sorry

prompt writing pt 2 under cut >>

Leaves crunching beneath their each step nearly drowned out the chatter of whatever conversation they were trying to have.

"I hope we see some neat mushrooms," Avery began. "To, you know, collect and study and stuff. Key likes that sort of thing, right?" She shrugged and leaned towards Devon with her arms crossed. "Right, Devon?"

Devon put his hands over his face. "Yes, she likes that sort of thing. No, we will not be taking any home or even touching any. We are not going to risk death for a shroom trip, Avery," he spoke in stern tone, looking her dead in the eyes. "Yeah, whatever you say," she rolled her eyes in response before they lit up. "Ah, but charade you are, my friend; for our dear, beloved Kess certainly brought with her the mushroom field guide we splurged on one night at 3 am on a shopping website we definitely did not need to be browsing through at that hour," she boasted in exaggerated tone, hands clasped together. "Keh, where's that book, aye?" She called, turning her head to the other side, only to see Benjie walking beside them.

"Where is she, Ben? What did you do to her?" Avery glared, still smiling, in a way that wasn't clear if she were joking or genuinely suspicious of the boy.

"Aaye, take it easy," Benjie raised his palms. "She just stayed back a bit, told me she'd catch up in a sec. Wouldn't tell me what she was looking at, but knowing her she probably just found a cute leaf. She'll be... back in a second." His voice faltered and he looked back to the start of the trail.

"Have any of you seen her since we started walking?" His eye twitched lightly as he turned to try and get a better look. "No," Avery shrugged, "but that girl gets distracted by anything that moves. Wouldn't be surprised if she did start picking up leaves." Devon tried squinting through the fog, but the morning mist had only thickened since they'd set foot. Without the sun fully risen, there wasn't much light to work with. "I can't see her, but she's definitely fine, right? We've only been walking a few minutes," he mumbled. "Aye, come to think of it, I can't really see that great out here at all," Benjie nervously tapped a foot at his surroundings.

"Did any of you douchebags bring a flashlight?" Avery groaned. "Surely she did, but if you asshats forgot then it's your own fault if you get lost in the woods at night and eaten by spiders and worms." "Well, if you didn't bring one either then that makes you the asshat!" Devon retorted. "Ha! Ha, ha!"

"Okay," Benjie sighed. "But did any of the asshats bring a flashlight?"

The three looked at eachother, standing in a triangular formation, casting glances at the others every few seconds.

"Nyah!" The rabbit girl shouted out, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly right in front of them. The group all shifted in surprise.

"Jesus, Key, what were you doing?" Devon relaxed his tense muscles, surprised from her unnanounced appearance. "Everything alright?"

"Umm," Kess shuffled her feet in the dirt below her, "was just trying to make sure I didn't step on anything... Saw some neat trees, too..."

"We're gonna be doing a lot of stepping on things, man," Avery raised an eyebrow at her. "You're doing that thing again? I thought we agreed you wouldn't do that thing." "Noo, I know, Kess sighed, "but I feel bad!" With a sound that was undisputibly the sound of a crunched leaf below the foot she just stomped, she jumped back. "Eep!" She cried out. "Well," Benjie tilted his head, flopping one ear over; "there goes your streak," he chuckled.

"So, where do we plan on going, anyway?" Avery yawned, stretching her arms out behind her head. "Like, do we just keep walking until we conk out? Or...?"

"Nah, I dunno," Kess put a finger to her lip. "We'll wander around like wannabe nomads until we find cool stuff, then take pictures!"

"And then what? Then walk until we conk out?" Avery smirked with her eyes half closed.

"We'll keep going until everybody's had fun or everybody calls it quits. And I'm hoping it won't be the latter!" Kess skipped along the path, looking down to try and avoid stepping on anything; only somewhat succeeding. "You'll all have fun together, right?" She slowed to turn around and look at the three with pleading, fluttering lashes.

"Of course, Key," Benjie smiled, his face relaxed and eyes squinting with contentment like that of a purring cat. "It's always a good time when you're around, aye?"

Devon walked alongside her to make eye contact, only for a brief moment before darting his gaze away: "We just hope you'll have fun, too."

Stopping in her tracks, the bunny girl stomped a foot down. "Wait," she crossed her arms, "you're not all going on this trip just to make me happy, right? You all sound like you're only going because I asked!"

Sounds of disagreement arose from the group as they all tried to reassure her that that wasn't the case; their voices and words all stumbled over each other in an attempt to be heard. "Noo, Keke!" Benjie spoke gently, "We thought it'd be fun!" "Yeah, we all liked your idea so much that we all just... agreed to it!" Devon nervously scratched behind his head. Of course they all did want to go with her, but once she'd gotten the idea in her head that whatever they were doing for her was just some form of pity party, it was hard to convince her otherwise. The girl was stubborn; if she believed no one else was having fun, then she wouldn't have fun, either, and that it was time to go.

"Nah, Keh," Avery put her arm over Kess' shoulders. "It's all good. We've all been wanting to screw around in the woods, you just gave us the perfect excuse to do it."

Kess stifled a sniffle and looked over at her friend. "You don't mean it," she pouted.

"Nuh-uh, I'm wearing some good boots, check 'em out," Avery shook her head then stuck out a leg, showing off her starry white platform boots. "Would I wear these if I thought we were gonna do something lame? Would I wear lame boring stuff if I thought we were going to take cool pictures? Would I, Key? Does my fashion sense mean nothing to you?" Avery tilted over her head towards Kess' face exaggeratedly, one eyebrow raised in a quizzical expression.

"All of that, and..." Devon mumbled, looking down at his shuffling feet, "We do really want to hang out with you."

Kess stood still, holding onto her backpack straps as she looked down at the ground.

"I hope you guys mean that," she sighed and walked ahead of the group.

"Good job, Dev," Avery whispered playfully after Kess had walked far enough ahead, "you killed the pep in her step."

"Wha— me?!" Devon tensed up and stared at her. "No, you did! I didn't, I'm doing my best! I just wanted to hang out with my fr—" "Aye, chill, dawg, I'm joking around," Avery interrupted his testimony before walking forward herself.

"Argh, those girls!" He grumbled, his bristled tail lashing side to side. "I have no clue what they're talking about at any given time!" He spoke through gritted teeth. "Well, I'm you're only alternative. Would you rather spend the day with me?" Benjie shrugged with a smug smirk across his face. Devon glared at him, looking like he was about to blurt out an insult before relaxing and letting out a sigh. The two walked to catch up with the girls ahead of them. "They'd probably get themselves killed without us here, anyway, Deb."

"I guess..."

"Sorry about back there, Keke," Benjie lowered his head, looking at her from the side. "We're not doing this out of pity... We really do think it's a fun idea."

Kess kept her eyes to the ground. "I get it," she mumbled. "It's just hard to believe when you're... not used to that being the case."

"Hey, we're your case now," Avery caught up from behind to bump her with an elbow. "You're gonna forget about those rotten assfaces who did you like that, okay? We're not gross and we like hanging out with you!" She assured her, looking directly at her from the side.

Kess tried to hold back a smile, so she looked away, but to her other side was Benjie who caught it and put a hand on her shoulder.

"We've got your back, Keke," he smiled at her. "It's hard to adapt to new things, I know. But we're here to stay, we aren't just trying to make you feel better. We're gonna screw around in the woods for a few days together and we're all gonna have fun."

"Ooi!" Devon called from behind, "check this one out! I found a neat spot!"

The three turned back to look at where the boy was shouting from; not too far away he stood in front of a high platform of rock and grass clearing in front of the trees.

Kess hopped over to see from his viewpoint. "Oh! Good catch, Devi!" Her eyes lit up, taking in the beauty of the scenery.

"I've got a good idea!" Avery smirked. "Ben, prop me up," she turned towards the civet boy.

"Heh? Alright," he extended his arms towards her, lifting her up and letting her climb onto his shoulders. With a "hup!" she boosted her top half onto the platform, crawling until her whole body was up, and then sitting upright and looking down at the two boys below her. "Yup, good spot up here," she nodded. "Where'd Kissy go?" She looked around, catching the sudden sound of footsteps behind her. "I went around!" Kess giggled. "You didn't need to make poor Benny use all of his muscle mass, he's going to die now."

"Nah, boys like doing that kind of stuff. It makes them feel like they're not totally useless. Right, Ben?" She looked down at him; the platform wasn't actually that high, so she was up pretty close to his face. "Yeah, that's right," he teasingly poked her on the nose; "boop". Kess couldn't help but giggle at the whole ordeal. "There's that smile," Devon mumbled under his breath softly.

"Okay," Benjie angled his phone camera towards the two girls sitting side by side on the platform. "Get into some cute poses and hold it, I'll get this thing to focus eventually," he unsteadily held the phone horizontally, squinting and trying his hardest to get the lens unblurry.

"That's cause your hands are unfocused," Devon put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow. "I'll show you how it's done," he pulled out his own phone, trying to unlock it and load the camera app. "You boys and your dumb shaky hands," Avery leaned forward towards them. "Give me your phones, I'll fix it," she reached out towards them. "Aye, I can do it myself!" Devon quickly swiped through his homescreen after a lot of trembly-hand password-typing.

"Ooh, you have a lot of apps. Can I check these out later?" Avery flashed a smug grin, towering over to look down at his screen. "No! No looking at my stuff!" His tail started lashing impatiently. "I'll get it working after... There we go!" Opening his camera app, he pointed it at the two girls, and...

"Yoink, got you," Benjie stuck out his tongue as he took a shot of Devon first. "Hah, double whammy," Avery chimed in as she also photographed the ferret from a different angle on her own phone. Devon's head turned quickly to look at them one after another in utter confusion. "What?"

"Be nice to him!" Kess laughed, covering her mouth with her sleeve. Holding back swear words, Devon held himself still for a moment to untense himself. "Okay, are you ready now?"

"Readyyy!" The girls smiled. "Oh!" Kess squeaked, "try to get a good shot of our shoes from your angle! I got new Converse shoes!!!!"

"Aww, she loves her Converse, Denny," Benjie cooed. "Get some good pics. My pics are gonna be the best!" Devon grunted, still trying to get a good, focused angle. "It's not a competition..." He mumbled. "Well, it is now!"

Taking pictures from different sides and angles, moving around the area and posing ridiculously, they'd all gotten some shots of each other. Kess and Avery had moved back to the lower ground to take photos of the boys in their spots as well, and overall tried to make as many combinations as possible. They even swapped their coats and shoes to let the others model them in the photos.

"This is so great!" Kess squealed. "I'm so happy, thank you guys for coming along with me, I'm so excited for the little adventure we're gonna have!"

"Just you wait, babe," Avery slipped her phone back into her pocket and hopped down off the rocks, "we're going all in."

"Pulling out all the stops!" Devon added, kicking his feet as he sat atop the platform. "What they said," Benjie shrugged, smiling at her. Kess could barely contain her joy and hid her nose in the neck of her jacket. "Thank you guys..."

"The quality on the pictures kind of sucks, though," Devon sighed, swiping through his photo gallery. The sun hadn't risen quite high yet; it was still in the blueish-dawn phase. "That's the price to pay for the low-light life," Avery stuck her tongue out at him.

"Well, we can come back any time in better daylight," Benjie put his hands into his pockets, "and there'll be plenty of cool spots to take pictures at on our way, I'm sure."

"Yeah, like he said, better daylight will show up eventually," Avery put her elbow on top of Devon's knee where he sat. "That's how the daylight cycle works, Dev. You do know basic science, Don't you? Basic science, Dev-Dev?"

"These are aspen trees!" Kess exclaimed softly, running a hand gently up and down the bark of one standing along the side of their path. "This is the perfect time of year to look at them, their golden leaves are so beautiful in the autumn sunlight. They aren't very common around here, either!"

"I hope we get to see more of them down the road, then," Benjie walked up to put his hand next to hers along the bark, feeling it himself. "And I hope you'll pull out more cute poses in front of 'em".

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