Happy Sam week, everyone! It’s that time of year where we show some love to a sad, stuttering bunny, whatever that looks like to you.
In honor of, and in celebration of Sam week on /hmofa/, I’ve decided to write a short companion story to The Leaves of Fall, called Bottle Rocket Dreams. This story will be a one-shot, and is considered canon to The Leaves of Fall, like Autumn Flowers.
Due date: before the end of Sam week ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Current WC: five thousand words
Target WC: ten thousand plus
Theme: River City Extension – The Fall and The Need To Be Free
Contains spoilers? yes
Story Synopsis
It’s the Fourth of July. You and Alex decide to carry on tradition and get the girls together on the roof of the school with the promise of grilled meat, cold beers, and the best seats in Ranchview to watch the fireworks.
Only, something — or someone — is missing on that night, a fact that does not go unnoticed by a certain Vixen. And what starts out as a fun evening drinking on the roof like old times becomes an exercise in the pain of loss, and the power of moving forward.
Oh, and there’s lots of fireworks.
tags: #hmofa #tlof #holiday #fox #rabbit #human #sliceoflife #mentalhealth #cute #touching #serious #mentalhealth
Short Peek
>You’re so deep in your analysis of Jenna’s behavior that you don’t notice Sam fooling with a long, cardboard tube she swiped from the duffle bag
>”A-A-A-Anon,” she nudges you with the tube, which is slicked out with hand-painted sparkles and patriotic stripes of red, white, and blue. “Wh-Wh-What what one is this? TTTThere’s no wr-writing on it.”
>Something about homemade fireworks?
“Here, hand it over.”
>She hands you the tube, which you examine
>It’s long, brown like cardboard ought to be, and decorated by hand
>Fuse sprouting out of the end
“Where the hell did you buy this stuff from, dude?” is all you can mutter
>You take a harty swig of beer, ready to move on from this one like a bad lover, and onto your second
>You then look down upon Sam, sipping her cute little soda, and belch
“They look like roman candles to me,” you say, excusing yourself
>Sam cocks her head, a few strands of hair crossing over her small face
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of a roman candle?”
>”N-N-N-N-Nope,” she shakes her head, ears flopping side to side with weight
“Jesus Christ Sam, these are the best fireworks ever, you don’t know what you’re missing out on here,” you say, excitement building
>”T-T-There’s a f-ffff-ff-few more in the b-bbb-bbag, b-but I only gg-ggrabbed two b-b-before Jenna g-g-got the others,” she points
>Jenna and Alex are on another part of the roof, channeling their autism into opening up one of the roman candles to see if either of them can identify what’s in them
>Oh, and Jenna is almost done with her beer
>She sways in an uneasy crouch, learning uncomfortably close to the deconstructed corpse of a patriotic cardboard tube
>As if she’s sniffing it for chemicals like those anthros that work at the airport
>Maybe she is?
>Fuck if you know — time for another beer down the hatch
>And hey…
>….homemade roman candles…
>…what could go wrong?
”Hey Sammy, while they’re busy doing their dumb nerd shit, you wanna play wizard wars?”
Foxing and The Leaves of Fall Delayed This Week
In observance of Sam week (and because I physically cannot develop, write, and edit that many stories in the span of a week), my main stories Foxing and The Leaves of Fall will not receive updates this week. Updates will resume the following week at their regularly scheduled times.
Generous Fan Art by DC
