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Night. Tail. A fluffy, large tail flickered back and forth. Back and forth… Almost hypnotizing a random passerby, who turned out to be Proxy’s Phaeton. Wise thoughtfully watched it, as well as the lower half of the body sticking out right from the wall.
“Ugh… Come on!… How…” an annoyed male muffled voice sounded from the other side reached Wise’s ears. Although even without the voice it was clear who got into such an… interesting situation.
“How?..” Wise repeated, and Seth’s tail, stuck in the wall, instantly wagged stronger.
“W-Wise! Manager, is that you?!” Seth rejoiced, slapping his palms on the wall from his side. He recognized his friend, but then continued sadly, “ugh, can’t hear well. My ears are on the other side of this problem… Hopefully, it’s you.”
“Right, it’s me, but….” Wise raised an eyebrow, looking at the fidgeting butt of the wall’s victim, “…are you sure it’s a good idea to rest in this hole instead of doing your night duty?”
If only he could hear the heaviness of the sigh on the other side, he would probably run out of air in his lungs himself.
“You may think this is absurd, but… it’s all a cat.”
“A cat?”, either not hearing, or not believing, Wise asked in bewilderment.
"Yes, a cat! White!”
“…”
“Not me,” the policeman hastened to clarify, realizing that he was only burying himself deeper in a… hole. “A street cat was running here. It stopped next to me while I was on patrol, and seemed to want something. Well, I leaned towards it… And then it snatched my walkie-talkie.”
Wise blinked with an idiotic expression on his face, listening intently to Seth’s wagging tail.
“I tried to take it away, but it wasn’t easy. After a couple of minutes of chasing, the cat saw this same hole and jumped through it. So this is how I…”
“Don’t tell me you thought you would slide through this hole. With your sizes.”
Seth went silent for a moment.
“It happened instinctively,” the only thing he managed to mumble as an excuse.
Wise nodded understandingly, forgetting that the other one couldn’t see him. He looked around and noticed that there was no end to the wall on either side. No wonder that Seth didn’t go around — the cat would’ve long ago disappeared into the shelter, disassembled the radio into parts and reassembled it several times.
“And here I thought there should’ve been racial solidarity between you two.”
“We are completely different species!” Seth shook himself and then sighed again: “Could you call Zhu Yuan or… anyone?”
“Sorry, I forgot my phone at home,” for some reason he wanted to lie and see what else would come of it.
“Oh? How so?! W-well… Then take it from my pants.”
So he did. Not as Seth expected though.
“W-Wise! It’s in the back pocket!” the catman fidgeted from offbeat sensations when Wise tried to feel for the phone in the side pockets, and even somewhere in front.
“Ah, right,” not feeling particularly guilty Wise moved his hand from the sides to his lower back muscles. And yet not here, since the outline of the phone was clearly visible and far from the proxy’s cunning fingers. As his hand traveled down poor Lowell’s backside, Wise felt a twitch and a puff every now and then. At first, he only found it cute, but along the way he quickly realized what was what, and came up with a plan.
“Tell me, hypothetically… If I called for help, but a little later? Would it be?..”
“…a violation of the law by a citizen in relation to another? Especially to someone who is a representative of the Security Service and who desperately needs help?” he somehow enthusiastically recalled. Seth loved rules. And he unconditionally loved to obey them, as well as subject others to them.
“Right. Would it be?..”
Seth would have gladly answered, but instead of words, a groan escaped his tongue. Wise moved his hand a little lower and tickled the root of the tail, while the other hand was playfully pinching his hips, as if “trying to find something”. Seth, who was barely standing on his toes, instinctively tried to move away, but only pressed himself harder into the hole in the wall.
“Y-yes! Wise, aha- hahaha, please!” he already howled embarrassedly, twisting in another and senseless attempt to escape from captivity. “And… such actions are unacceptable!.. I can equate them to… to…”
“Harassment!” Wise jokingly exclaimed in a deliberately serious tone, and then began to actively tickle Seth right under the ribs.
Explosive feelings. Loud laughter and the thud of fists hitting the wall came from the other side of the hole. Seth wriggled as best he could, and if friction hadn’t gotten in the way, he might have slipped out by now, since any caught fish could learn such hardcore fidgeting.
“Yes!!.. Aha- HAHAhaHahaaa! Stah- thihis instant!!” Oh, how adorably pleasant this unknown laughter sounded to Wise’s ears.
“Don’t worry, Seth. I’m not doing anything unlawful. Just trying to help.” Wise grinned and squeezed his sides upper, almost digging into the hole in a way to his armpits. Still, it was too tight. “Who knows when others will come if I call them. We can get you out with our own efforts!”
Seth continued to fidget and laugh desperately, but the mention of his own efforts tugged at his workaholic streak. He never liked to be a burden to anyone, and was always a hard worker, so he mentally agreed that he could try his best here too. But these thoughts were somewhere too deep, and it was they who stopped the rookie officer from yet another appeal to the law. On the surface of his emotions, Seth wanted to kill Wise.
“Yohou’ll pay for thihis!!”
“Sure,” Wise smiled to himself and went for the thighs. Seth’s body was almost built for squeezing everything in it, as Wise thought. And, fortunately, absolutely everything was incredibly ticklish for him, at least right now, when he couldn’t even predict the next move of his “rescuer”.
“By the way, Seth…” Wise started, looking down at the very enticingly standing flimsy feet. “I actually haven’t seen you without gloves before. Do your hands and feet look like paws by chance?”
A blush spread hotly across his face, filling every pore with an embarrassment the guy had never known before. Seth understood where this dialogue was going and was momentarily horrified at the thought that he would have to go through tickling in the spot he himself can’t touch without shaking. “Regular human feet, I swear! You don’t have to check!”
Obviously, Wise wasn’t satisfied with this answer. Or maybe, on the contrary, he was more than satisfied? In any case, he felt the need to take off those shoes and check properly. First, by teasingly sliding there with one finger, and then briskly wiggling with the rest to the accompaniment of confused laughter, squeals and wall shaking… Of course, in the name of salvation.
~~~
Next day, Wise didn’t receive any papers or messages about reporting to Security. Instead, Security came for him.
“Manager Wise is awake?” Seth asked his yawning little sister, who was just coming down from the second floor of the video rental store she and her brother shared.
Glancing at the Security officer in surprise, Belle took a step back, finding a higher step with her foot.
“Wise! What have you done tonight?! Here…”
“Thank you,” Seth nodded briefly to the slightly frightened girl and went upstairs.
The open door obviously led to his sister’s room, which meant there was another one. Seth walked in unceremoniously, and finding Wise just awake and confused by Seth’s arrival, he defiantly took out handcuffs, to which Wise reacted with a frisky jump, as if he had been stung by a dozen bees in one soft spot.
“Seth! Are you seriously going to arrest me?!”
Wise was almost ready to tear out his hair: how could this be? Is this the end? He, of course, expected that sooner or later Seth would find out about something that he should have, but to repeat the scenario drawn in his head just because of a child’s prank?.. Not even that. Because of helping a friend in need out of the kindness of his heart?!
While Wise was clutching his head, rethinking his moments of connection with Seth, the officer had already managed to handcuff him.
“Not a step. I came to punish you.” Seth’s voice was firm, it was unclear whether it was fake or sincere. The only thing that Wise understood very well now was that frowning Seth looked extremely cute. “Justice will prevail, and you have the right… uhm, only to remain silent… if it will be possible in your situation, of course,” stretching out the words, Seth was speaking very closely to Wise’s ear, almost running his nose over the guy’s cheek. He placed his hand on Wise’s stomach and dived under the longsleeve, suddenly tickling the belly of the detainee.
That’s when Wise was struck by lightning. So this is what kind of punishment he had in mind! Well, of course, Seth was his friend. Be that as it may, he was sure that this Thiren still values kindness above the letter of the law. But still, now he wondered if a fate worse than arrest awaited him. The idea of being tickled by the cat’s claws gave Wise an army of goosebumps and a cold sweat down his back.
“S-Seth! You don’t have to do this! I swear, I only wanted to help!” Wise muttered confusedly, backing away, but Seth held the chain of handcuffs tightly. Without waiting for an answer, Proxy rushed wherever his eyes directed him, because of which the officer was taken aback and almost fell, but never let go of the handcuffs, running after the scoundrel.
“Stop right there! You’ll only make it worse for yourself if you keep resisting!” Seth shouted, chasing and tickling Wise all the way, until his victim tripped over his own foot and loudly fell to the floor.
“Seth, haha! HAhaHahahAaa!! I’m sohorry, I- ahapologize! HAHAHA!~”
It was the moment when he found it ironic that got the right to remain silent, since for the next twenty minutes of his punishment the entire neighborhood could hear Wise fighting loudly, through laughter and tears, to actually gain that right. Well, deep down he knew he deserved it. Maybe not even that deep.
