24 Her Name (9)

Some people are good at coming up with names for their pets or stuffed animals, while others have some trouble with it. And then there are people like Kyro who are absolutely horrendous at it. Iris covered her ears to not be polluted anymore by his naming sense.

After hearing suggestions like 'Fluffy', 'Cookie', 'Toffee', and others that shall better not be named, she could no longer tolerate his sort of insanity and ran away. He tried calling her back with a few other choice names, some of them sounding positively hooker-like, and her speed doubled. She had entertained the idea of accepting a new name from him, but not one of those.

Why did all his choices have to be either overused pet names for people who couldn't come up with a name and just chose their pet's color or stripper names? She wasn't going to be Cinnamon or god forbid Candi!

In the living room, she ran behind the flower pots and hid there. It wasn't a permanent solution, but it was something. At least she didn't hear his voice anymore. That was already a victory.

Lying down on the floor, she rubbed her eyes, wondering what she should do now. He was going to want to give her a name—it was inevitable—but she couldn't accept any of the ones he chose. Her only choice was to ignore his calls for the time being, but how long could it last? He'd settle on one name sooner or later.

This needed some serious consideration! Her future self-respect rested on this decision of his. If she got a hooker name, how would she be able to show herself before others? It'd be too embarrassing!

She couldn't leave it to him, but then, how was she to push the right name into his head? This thing with her not being to talk human language was quite annoying. If only she could speak up and tell him that he was being an idiot…

Wait, maybe she couldn't speak, but that didn't prevent her from using other items in the room. If she wrote something… No, that's too conspicuous. She needed something that he would not associate with her. Her status of a fox and not human had to be preserved. Otherwise she might find herself treading the streets with an empty stomach once again.

'Right… Something covert but that would make him say my name…' She looked around, looking for anything useful. The TV was the first thing that caught her eye, but she soon abandoned that train of thought. It was too unlikely to hear someone there voice her name. There wasn't any women at the moment in the business world called Iris, and Kyro didn't seem the type to watch gardening shows.

That left his phone and the computer as the best options. The song Iris by Goo Goo Dolls came instantly to her mind, but as she recalled the lyrics, there didn't seem to be a single mention of that name in it. 'Argh! Why did they write such an awesome song and called it Iris, but didn't mention this name once? How can I pretend to run over after hearing it then?'

She couldn't, and thus another plan was ruined. 'Wait, this shouldn't be the only song with my name. It's not that rare. Somebody should have fallen for a girl called Iris and written a song to her. There must definitely be one out there.'

But even if she found one, how was she supposed to have him listen to it? It'd be troublesome for her to try and type something on a keyboard, so she'd need to be alone for him not to overhear or see anything he shouldn't. Yet if he wasn't around, how was he to hear and notice that she reacted to that name?

'What a headache!' Iris glowered at Kyro who was still in the bedroom and who she couldn't see at the moment. If only he could have come up with a single decent name, she wouldn't be in this situation, thinking of ways to reveal her real name without revealing that she was human as well.

After she exhausted herself in cursing him, she returned to the problem at hand. She needed to have some time with his computer while he wasn't looking and would not be able to hear the commotion she made. In the last two days, she'd seen only two such occasions - while he was in the shower and asleep.

He was a heavy sleeper, so that presented a good opportunity. She might not know his password yet, but nobody hid them from their pets so she could learn it and have the whole night to practice clicking on the right keys. Her paws were certainly going to become a problem there.

However, how would she explain how she typed in his password and turned his computer on? This couldn't be explained by her 'accidentally' stepping on the right keys.

This left only the time he was in the shower. If he went to the computer first thing upon waking up and only then to the shower, she might have some fifteen minutes to spring her trap on him. But would that be enough? Fifteen minutes weren't that long when you had to learn how to use a keyboard with paws. Her only saving grace was that she was a little thing and her whole hand was barely thicker than a man's finger.

'Tomorrow morning then,' she decided. It might be dangerous, but for her pride and to not be called Candi, she had to do this.