Awaking in a sodden bed was nothing special for Jules. Unlike most mornings the shame of this fact was very far from his mind. By now the itching from the previous night had become a burning. By the time they managed to make it to the clinic to see a doctor large blisters had started to form on his legs  

“Hogweed Rash.” The doctor said as he applied a salve gently to the burns on Jules’ legs. “Thankfully  we caught it before you’d scar. Stay out of the sun, use this cream, and do not scratch.”

“Honestly! Just what did you two get up to?” Jules mom exclaimed on the drive back home. “Mandy’s mom phoned and she has it too. All up her legs and some on her back.”

“Nothing mom.” Jules said slowly, concentrating on keeping his fingers tightly interlaced in his lap so that he would not be tempted to scratch. “Just playing near the creek.”

“Well enough of that. The doctor said to keep out of the sun, so you are going to stay at Mandy’s place today.” 

“Ah Mom!” Jules moaned as he squirmed in his seat. “Why can’t I stay at home?”

“Don’t ‘Ah Mom’ me. You still have a week of your grounding left. Amanda needs someone to stay with Mandy while we go out. And despite your obvious inattention we know we can trust you with that. Mandy can keep an eye on you and make sure you don’t turn on the TV as soon as we leave.”

Jules groaned and slumped lower in his seat. Bad enough to be stuck with this rash, but even worse to be stuck at a stranger’s house with it and with no way to distract himself from the nagging urge to scratch.

And so it came to pass. Two kids who would rather have nothing to do with each other, staring forlornly after the car that drove away - stranding them together.

The silence was awkward. The house strange. Smells that Jules could not place wafted on the air. As much as Jules would have liked to take the chance to wander away from the living room where he had been left by his mom, he was worried about just what Mandy might do to him if he went somewhere he shouldn’t. He feared accidentally wandering into her room and getting viciously beaten for it. He could feel a sympathy twinge from his crotch just at the thought. Sighing he dug into the bag he brought with him and pulled out a book, before settling down on an overstuffed couch. He managed to keep the grimace off his face as his legs rubbed against one cushion. Thankfully he could count on a good book to distract himself from the unfortunate realities of life. Jules had only just started to make some headway when he was startled by the loud thud of a stack of board games being dropped on the coffee table. Blankly he stared at Mandy who stood there with her hands on her hips.

“Look. You don’t want to be here. I certainly don’t want you here ‘babysitting’ me.” She sniffed and turned away from Jules, staring away instead at a corner of the room. “I may have seen you with your pants down. You saw me changing. We are even.” Mandy’s eyes flicked back to the other cub. “Truce?” She softly said, offering a hesitant paw.

Jules felt the edge of his muzzle start to creep down in a frown as he stammered “Uh….” Before he could think too hard on it he realized that he had already put the book down, reaching for the offered paw. “It really was an accident!” He blurted as he grasped.

Mandy let out a non-committal grunt and collapsed onto the floor, grabbing a random game from the pile and started to set it up. “Well you going to join me?” She said, a peevish tone sneaking into her voice as she rapped a section of the floor nearby. As Jules lay down opposite her, Mandy nodded. “Sorry, I can’t sit down too well right now. It really hurts.”

“I know what you mean.” Jules said softly as he took some tokens and studied the game board. “It really stung when I banged by legs against the couch just now. I bet I have to sleep on my stomach tonight.”

Mandy didn’t say anything at this, but rather took a card and began to play the game. It was slow at first, but eventually the needed communication of the game and the uneasy truce led to both cubs finally relaxing. As the game progressed, so did the talk. Cackling and teasing over bad luck turned into comments about life. Winces and complaints gave way to grins and banter.

“I can’t believe we will be going to the same school next year. I didn’t know so many places fed into that Jr. High.” Jules remarked as he placed his train cars on the board.

“Damn it! I wanted that route.” Mandy cursed turning her head up to stick her tongue out at Jules before studying the board again. “So why were you in the hospital?” she said casually as she made a motion for Jules to take his turn.

Jules paused unable to find his words for several seconds before answering. “Uh… an X-Ray.” He murmured.

“Me too.” Mandy said matter of factually as she caught Jules eyes with her own, an expression of curiosity on her face. “I don’t know how to ask this, but is it, you know, something down there?” Mandy said, her voice growing softer with each word, a trace of a flush visible. 

Jules felt his own cheeks begin to match Mandy’s, and he nodded once, slowly. “Yeah,” came the mumble, “something like that.”

Mandy jerked her gaze away from Jules before nodding. “Me too. I figured it might be something like that since you didn’t have a cast. Mom said we had something in common.” Mandy suddenly smirked and added in a more bold tone. “Funny, it didn’t look broken.”

Jules began to sputter and he felt his tail start to creep in between his legs, causing him a jolt of pain as it did so. He missed entirely Mandy’s grin as she made her move in the game, so distracted by his own thoughts. The game progressed in silence until it was broken by the ringing of the phone. Jules snapped his head up, just to see Mandy bounding up from the ground, running off to answer the phone.

“Hello. … Oh hi mom. … Yes everything is fine.  … Just playing a game with Jules. … Yes a board game, and yes he is still alive!” Mandy pouted and stomped her foot in response to the call.  “No you can call off the police and ambulance.” Mandy moaned and thrust the phone in the direction of Jules. “Your mom wants to talk to you.” Mandy stuck her tongue out at Jules and stomped back to her perch on the floor, grabbing another game on the way and started to set it up.

Jules slowly stood and walked over to the phone, mumbling a greeting as he picked it up. After a minute or two of conversation, he returned to the game Mandy had set up. “They said they are going shopping now. I guess we are stuck with each other for another couple of hours.” Pausing he looked at the kitten, studying her for a moment. “I suppose we just keep playing games?” 

Mandy rolled her eyes dramatically. “Maybe I shouldn’t have called off the ambulance then. We are making a huge dent in my game supply. At this rate it will be Candyland or old maid soon.” She paused and smirked, just a little. “And even though we are even, I’m just going to say that strip poker and naked twister are right out.”

As Jules sputtered in response to this, Mandy just giggled. 

It was in this vein that the next half an hour passed. Jules attempted to ignore the off colour comments as Mandy tried to get under his skin. They were in the middle of a game of Go, when the combination of itchiness and bladder pressure forced Jules to stand up off the floor and ask, “Sorry, I need to take a break and put some lotion on. The bathroom is where?”

“The backyard is just down the hall…”

“Please?”

“How about the kitchen sink? No? Okay, third door down.” Mandy beamed as Jules passed her on his mission of relief. The kitten was really starting to enjoy teasing Jules.

The sharp tang of the lotion followed Jules back into the living room. It was weird. Metallic and organic, sharp tones mixed with soft. It was something that the pharmacist had compounded for him, but it seemed to work. It was painful, even with a light touch, to apply it to the red blisters that were present on his legs. They did not seem to be shrinking, but neither were they growing, something Jules was thankful for. He could handle this level of itchiness, so long as he was distracted. He just needed to stay focused on something other then what was going on with his body. A faint smile creased his lips as he started to enter the living room again. As much as Mandy made him uncomfortable, she was very good at keeping his mind on something other then his legs.

Something was off. That was Jules thought as he entered the room. Mandy was busy fiddling with the board, which he could barely see her past her stretched out body. Maybe she had cheated when he was out of the room. Were the stones in different spots? As he paused to mull this over, Mandy looked back over her shoulder and grinned. 

“How many shakes this time?” She said in what was supposed to be a sweetly innocent tone. Her thrashing tail, gave lie to the innocence. “I mean of the lotion bottle.” She added, as Jules did not answer.

Jules’ silence was not from anger, nor was he deep in thought on how best to answer back. No, Jules’ mind was elsewhere. He had finally figured out just what was off in the room. What he had not noticed before, but what Mandy’s tail was bringing clearly to light. Her tail’s antics had nudged her blue dress up just enough that Jules was fully aware that Mandy was not wearing any panties.