Rat, human we know the drill by now.

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Blueberry seemed to actually be warming up to Six after he had attacked the Nome. She was still a bit surprised about it, but never the less, impressed by his hunting. She didn't think he had it in him!

He kept trying to figure out of how to get a conveyor belt to work, or if there were any sort of way to get out of here that lead upwards. He kept climbing ladders that were on the walls, tried throwing pieces of coal into the furnace, even trying to pull grates off of vents.

Why he never tried the rat holes made her curious. There were a lot that seemingly lead upwards, but he didn't seem to acknowledge them.

Maybe he didn't know about them? It was weird though, every time she tried to pull him over to it, he just shake her off and go back to whatever. Maybe her species wasn't so smart after all...

It had been a long day of more fruitless tugging grates and pulling on doors, and the cold of the night started to settle in the metal floor under them.

Six had already made her nest by the coal pile, watching him as he paced back and forth as he started up his normal angry chattering.

"This is getting stupid, if only Arcane could keep his damn hands to himself, we wouldn't be in this mess... Sunflower, any ideas?" he glanced over to the girl.

She looked up at him, perking up in a slightly sluggish manner.

"Again with the asking?"

"You had to have found something at least a little bit of use by now..." he muttered. Trapped in a room with the feral girl slowly helped him open up a little more, even if she didn't understand him when he felt like he was going to break into an mental mess again.

He knew the first thing he was going to do when he got to the mainland-- well, before the wildfire he would set to burn down the whole place-- was going to get mood surpressers. They helped him before, back when it was just the three of them...

Seven felt a frown pull at the corners of his mouth. No, not now. Don't think about it. It's in the past anyways. He'll make them pay soon.

He gave a sigh and came over to the small nest like circle thing Squeaks had made out of coal and whatever she could find. She rested in it, looking up at he approached.

He sat next to her, right outside of the ring of coal outlining it. (He had seen her tried to make one for him, but she soon destroyed it midway and hadn't tried to remake one since.)

He rested his back again the pile of black rocks, looking up at the tall ceiling. They had to get out of here soon or else they might starve or die of thirst, which ever was more merciful to them.

Squeaks eyed him out of the corners of eyes, flipping over onto her back. Seven looked at her, raising a brow at her sudden action.

She gave a squeak, but he didn't pay her any mind about it. She did it again, and before long he realized what she was asking for. Uh, yeah no, he'd rather give a feral, flea infested, rabid cat a belly rub then have the weird, awkward feeling of giving another human a belly rub.

He looked up at the ceiling, giving a loud sigh. Squeaks reached a hand out, pressing and swiping it to get his attention.

"No, Squeaks," he said, before looking back over to her.

She was so animalistic to the point he was sure he could teach her how to do tricks. His interest suddenly peaked, could he teach her tricks? Well, now he had to see.

He gave a small whistle to her, making her look up at the other with a confused look. He rose a hand over her, making a fist as though he had something.

"Up," he ordered. Squeaks blinked, before reaching up and grabbing his hand, bringing his hand down. She opened her mouth, going to bite, but gave a confused whine when he snatched away.

"No, no, bite," he said, before doing it again. The girl looked up at the fist, before suddenly losing interest and rolling over on her side, closing her eyes to try and get some sleep.

Okay, maybe 'Up' wasn't a good one to teach her. Maybe something else?

He patted the ground, waking her up. She twisted her head up to look at him, giving a small face of annoyance.

"Shake?" he asked, holding his hand up, palm side up. Squeaks looked at the many calluses that covered it, nosing it slightly before putting hers into it.

Seven smiled, shaking her hand. Squeaks looked on with confusion, taking her hand away. She sat up, finally eye level with the other.

Carefully, Seven reached over, noticing Squeaks flinching and pulled away for a second. He waited, wanting to see if she pressed into his hand; but after a moment, he went to lower it after not seeing her move.

Suddenly, she leaned forward, pressing her head to him. The boy smiled, scratching her head, before finding himself shocked as he swore he heard he give a purr.

Humans don't purr... but it's not like they could growl either, so who was he to judge. Runaways were more feral than their brainwashed counterparts, so it wasn't a surprise growling was something that Runaways were beginning to do it by habit.

He remembered reading that at one point, humans couldn't make such feral noises, they were more civilization and had no need to. It was only when the adults started kicking kids out in the past did they begin to get their strange new ability to.

Seven shook it off, giving a sigh, seeing the other look up to him, holding her hand close to her chest all of a sudden.

"You have a lot to learn about humans... you can't talk yet, can you?" he asked. Squeaks stared at him for a heartbeat, before shaking her head like a dog, making her raincoat flop slightly. Seven pulled his hand away, resting it on his drawn in knee.

"No? Well... I guess you could try to learn something. Okay, try saying... apple."

Squeaks didn't say anything, but brushed her hand over her hair, making a few dead ends fly upwards in a messy frizz. Seven swore he saw a flea or two jump off of her.

"Squeaks, try to say apple," he tried again. Squeaks tilted her head, giving him a dumbfounded look.

"Sure... whatever makes you happy... even if it's... that..?"

"No, no, squeaking. Apple, ah-ppl," he tried.

"What about cats? What is a cat anyways?"

"Apple! It was literally my first word, you shouldn't have any problems with this! Apple, app-le, say it!" he snapped.

Squeaks looked a bit nervous, opening her jaws. She made a couple of huffing noises, and for a moment, Seven thought she was going to get sick by how hard she was forcing the air out.

"Squeaks?"

"Ha... Ha... Ah?"

She tilted her head at him, looking for confirmation that that was what he wanted. Seven gave her a small nod.

"Well, it's a start... I guess we can work on it later... we could try and get some sleep and then work on you with walking."

He tried to give her a smile, but by the way Squeaks didn't respond, told him it may not have been the right time. What was wrong with her?

She curled back in her nest, having her knees closed to her as she let out a small whimper.

Seven lowered a hand, putting it to her head. She felt hot, and by the way she withdrew from his hand told her he must have been chilling to her. He gave as frown, she must be getting sick from all the swimming from earlier... possibly a small cold or slight fever.

"Try and get you some rest, I'll think of a way to get us out," he told her, watching her breathing slowly fall into a more relaxed pacing as she went to sleep.

Great, now a new worry...

He gave one final sigh, before leaning back to look at the ceiling again. He wished they could see the stars, but at least the large, dangerous fiery pit could keep them warm rather then some thin blanket.

He rested his head on the coal pile, trying to get a little sleep of his own.

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Finished - Nov. 2nd

Not as eventful as I hoped, sorry for that.

Not much to say, just that this was all in one go and no proofreading, so sorry for any mistakes.

I have to go do math now -_-

Take care!

* Updated Jan. 15th, 2021 *

I finally got this done-

I'm so sorry, please look at my message board for an explanation as to why this is so late.

For this chapter, I rewrote the beginning of it, so that's new and interesting. Sorry, Dog, no Frost for you just yet, we're getting there though.

Also, random fact: animals that can purr/growl were once feral and/or were primary hunters. I can't remember which cause it's been a while since a read on it and the book that talked about it got deleted.

Thanks Wattpad.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed!

Take care!

* Edited May 14th, 2021 *

Just a few typos fixed

* Edited Dec 3rd, 2022 *