Tail

"Does it wag?" Loveall asked as he stared at my tail. I whipped it away from his view, letting it curl against my leg. 

"No." I snapped, feeling my face burn and silently hoping I hadn't started to blush. 

"Can we stop talking about this?" I said this with such annoyance that most other people would duck their head to avoid the possible rage that could spark from my skin at any second. But Loveall wasn't a normal person. Instead of avoiding the anger, he poked at it. 

"How can I? You have a lion tail." 

I was about to rebuttal with something nasty in return, only for his next words to rip the vocabulary from my throat. 

"That's so bombing! I haven't seen such a cool click before." 

"Really?" Why was I shocked? Nothing about Love seemed to be run-of-the-mill. 

"Well, yeah. Can I ask you something else?" 

"Sure?"

"Does it catch fire?" 

"No, my skin gets burned if I'm not sweating enough, but my hair and fur don't."

"Wow, Rider, you're so interesting! I suppose the Rider would have to be. I just didn't expect you to have literal fire powers. Absolutely sparking."

This started a conversation I hadn't expected. He truly seemed to think that I was…interesting. It was only a simple fire click. My tail was something uncommon, causing me to hide it from others, but for whatever reason I felt comfortable with Love.

"Hey, Loveall."

I shouldn't ask this, this is rude. 

"Is that your actual name?" 

Loveall's joy seemed to dwindle. He took a few nervous bites of the Chinese food we indulged in before giving an answer I hadn't expected.

"No, I picked my name. It's part of the reason I'm homeless," He uttered, "I wanted a name that represented me. A name that would bring a bit of love, because there's not a lot of love left to go around." 

I stared at him in confused silence. We went back to eating, but my mind remained on his answer. I wasn't satisfied with it. Who is this Loveall? I found myself avoiding what we needed to talk about, I wasn't sure why, but suddenly the idea of it all scared me deeply. 

We washed his clothes, I showed him how to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch, he took a shower, and then we watched a movie. The thoughts of the lion and his deeply unsettling message didn't touch my mind until I was laying some blankets on the couch for Loveall to sleep. 

"Hey Rider," I could hear hesitation dotting his words, turning my attention to the other it all came back. Why he was here. What was happening.

"Thanks for letting me sleep here, but I'm confused, don't you still want to talk about everything?" He tilted his head to the side, a pillow under one arm and a stuffed animal in the other.

"Oh uh," I was distracted by the sudden jolt in my chest, it was warm and welcoming. 

"Honestly? Can we talk about it tomorrow?" I asked. 

Loveall grinned wide at me, it brightened the whole of his face, "Gotcha!" he leapt onto the couch, burying himself into the softness. 

I walked into my room, closing the door behind me. I sank to the floor, my gaze fixed on the picture settled on my nightstand. The smiling person on the front with their middle finger at the camera. Grief. It chased the burn in my chest down to my stomach, making it knot. 

My tail twitched with discomfort.