215 Vol. 4 pt. 18 Patch 3.0: A Change of Pace (1/2)
What Ryouta really ended up not knowing is that it would not be him who surrenders at the sight of cute ferrets.
No.
It was Alice.
The moment they arrived at the pet store and found the cage with all the ferrets in it, an attendant was over in a flash and offered them sticking their hands into the cage to pet the ferrets.
Alice reached her hands in to pet them.
One of the ferrets, a fat one with white hair and a couple of black spots, immediately clung to her hand, climbed up her arm, and made it out of the cage before the attendant could stop it.
Since then, Alice has been so happy that she was, and still is, crying.
”Are you sure you're alright?” Ryouta asks her.
Alice nods and looks up at him with teary eyes as the ferret rolls around on her lap. ”Can – can we keep it?” she asks.
Serra and Cassandra look at Ryouta as well to wait for his answer.
They all want the ferret just as badly as Alice does.
Ryouta does, too, so he says, ”Yeah, but it's going to need friends.”
”Do you already have a cage and supplies?” the shop attendant asks.
”Nope. Nothing. We're… going to need everything.”
”If you would like me to, I could go ahead and get together all of the recommended items for new ferret owners?”
”Yes, please!” Alice says.
Ryouta cringes at the thought. Usually, when an employee of a store offers something like that, they're going to go and pick out all the most expensive things and include items that aren't really necessary.
”I think we're good. I already have some things in mind and know what we need,” Ryouta says.
”Are you sure?” the attendant asks.
”My hero?” Alice says, earning a confused look from the attendant at her name for me.
”Yeah, we're fine,” Ryouta confirms.
”Alright! Come and get me when you're ready to take this cute little guy home. I'll be up at the front,” the attendant says.
”Sure thing, thanks.”
As soon as the attendant leaves, Alice asks, ”My hero, why did you send her away? Would it not be better to use her assistance when she has more expertise in this than us?”
Ryouta pulls out his phone, searches for what ferrets need to have a happy home, and shows it to Alice. ”We know what we need, we can look up reviews of anything as we look around, and we won't have to pay for more than we need or expensive things that aren't any better than the cheaper versions. When you accept offers like that, you're accepting them to charge you as much money as possible, and I don't want to spend more than we need to.”
”Really?”
”He's not wrong,” Cassandra says. ”They're not trying to be greedy assholes or anything like that. It's just their job to make sure we spend as much as we can.”
”Don't worry. It's kind of adorable how naïve you are, you rich little princess,” Ryouta teases Alice.
Alice pouts and then notices something. ”The – the ferret is still on me,” she says.
”Oh, yeah. Probably should have put it back in the cage before leaving us,” Ryouta says before picking the ferret up much to Alice's disappointment, holding it over the cage, and lowering it.
Then it bites his finger which makes him drop it.
The ferret is fine, but Ryouta's ego is bruised and he looks around to make sure that none of the employees or other shoppers saw him drop the ferret.
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Alice looks shocked. ”You dropped him!” she says.
”He's – he's okay,” Ryouta says as he closes the lid over the cage.
”Must just be having one of those days,” Cassandra says, looking over to the attendant now idly stocking a shelf.
”Yeah, shit happens. They messed up, but not gonna worry too much about it. Let's grab a shopping cart and get everything.”
And so, that is exactly what they do.
They get: a nice, tall cage with multiple levels in it for the ferrets to climb around; water bottles for them to drink from as well as bowls to put their food in; one of the biggest debates ends up being how many toys to buy, and they end up filling up the entire bottom of the basket with toys and extendable tubes; they buy hammocks for their cage and litter for their trays; and they buy several different brands of food and snacks for the ferrets to so that they can experiment with which the ferrets like most.
”I… think we probably ended up getting more stuff than the worker would've gotten us,” Ryouta says, looking over the shopping cart stacked high with various necessities and non-necessities for their future ferrets.
”I am still disappointed!” Alice whines. ”Why don't they have clothes for them? Mr. Chubs needs a suit!”
”Mr. Chubs?”
”The one I was playing with!”
”You already named him 'Mr. Chubs?'”