It's Always Wabbit Season [Walther]

[Tomer Berelowitz]

No one would guess how much more complicated Tomer's life had gotten by how much they saw him. He rolled out of his dorm just in time to go to breakfast and went back after class or training was over. He was more withdrawn than usual, and his face seemed an almost perpetual shade of pink embarrassment. Part of that was due to the constant calling/texting of his mother. She had been incensed at the 'prank' and it had taken the combined efforts of Tomer's dad, sisters, and Sean to keep her in New York. But she called in the mornings a little after he woke up and about an hour before dinner, and sometimes during lunch. Asking if he was okay, if he was feeling alright, if he was too stressed, if he'd gotten enough to eat, if he was warm enough, if classes were too difficult. And of course, even if any of those answers had been negative Tomer would not have told her. He'd called his dad multiple times to make her stop, and she always promised, and always promptly broke that promise. Tomer didn't quite have the heart to block her number, but it was starting to make him a little crazy. Dad called and texted too, and his sisters, and Uncle Josh, and sometimes Sean. It all made Tomer feel very self-conscious and not a little like he was four years old. His room became his refuge. He managed his condensed schoolwork, and took slow but careful care of Clover. Those two things took up almost all of his time, and he was just fine with it.

Spending so much time with his door closed made the room a bit stuffy, but Tomer tried to alleviate that by opening the window just a little. It got cold quickly though, so he went back to cracking the door just the tiniest bit. Turned out the 'tiniest bit' was a tiny bit too much. Clover was a well-behaved bunny, but like all bunnies he was curious, and when he lifted his little nose to sniff he could not detect that snake. Tomer looked up from where he was switching out his books to start his English paper, he was just in time to see a little brown white-tufted butt wiggle out the door.

"Clover!"

Tomer did not curse. Not even privately in his head. But the worst word he allowed himself slipped out as he flicked the power switch on his wheelchair. "Puke."

It was fortunate his wheelchair was electric, since his right arm was in a cast. It rested in a sling that hung across his front, and since it was a dark material it tended to blend in with his sweaters and shirts. Carefully, he levered himself out enough to pick up a box with some nibbled carrots, a bit of hay, and shredded paper in it, and resettled himself. Then he (pun unintended) braced himself and whirred out to the common room, hoping against hope that Dead John wasn't hiding somewhere.

[Walther Ebersbacher]

Perhaps there was a bit more fortune involved in this fateful day for Tomer. Walther was also just finished with his training. He had quite a bit of a handle on his Sonar capabilities. Instead of creating sound, it was lately all focused on the whole 'bare energies' part of it. Which made sense. One couldn't be a martial artist without first learning the basic punches and kicks. And besides, if he could control all of that, then the sky was the limit to how he could do with the whole portion of creating specific sounds. Maybe then the longer pieces would be able to be constructed. Thirty minutes while he took a long shower? That would be nice.

Now thoroughly beat, with sweat all throughout his hair, on his brow, steaming up his glasses a bit, Walther returned to the dorm. His body just felt like it was about to give up on him, collapse, maybe take a nap for an hour or twelve. Nothing could have really prepared him for what he was going to do in a minute or so, however.

Tomer Berelowitz, his roommate that he didn't yet know too well (Partly out of his own nervousness, and also because most of the time he saw him, it was with Erik.) He didn't really care for Erik, not one bit... But Tomer had a bunny. A bunny he occasionally waved at or talked to with a distinct coo. Clover was the cutest thing ever!

And, he saw that little bunny have a little trip through the hallway. He made it a long way from their room! Almost to the end of the hall, where he wound up after a few more minutes of slogging. He had to give a little chase, since the bunny hopped away. And oh, his legs were hurting. But at the end of it, he could halt himself so not to scare him, and kneel down.

He didn't know how bunnies worked, if they recognized people, or recognized scents. Walther had been living around him long enough, though, he hoped. He clicked his tongue for a moment, both hands cupped. "Clover..." He muttered, barely a peep. He saw that little nose bounce a bit. Now was the time. He reached out, quickly, but gently, scooping him up and standing with him.

The timidness that bunny displayed was pretty impressive. Walther gently pet him with two fingers, missing those big ears. But he could, quite easily, hold that bunny in a secure manner. Had Tomer noticed that he got out? Was he even in the room? Walther turned around to the sound of a whirring he was accustomed to as white noise.

"Oh! I got him, don't worry!" Walther announced with a broad smile, panting a little bit.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

Any day Tomer didn't have to directly deal with Erik was a fortunate one in his mind, and though he didn't think it, any day most of the student body didn't have to deal with Erik was a good one. It was Tomer's brand of luck that he'd had all sorts of run ins with their dorm's crankiest inhabitant but very few with the other two, and also his brand of luck that now when he felt the most vulnerable and anxious he'd get a chance to remedy that.

The first expression on his face upon seeing someone come into the room was relief. Clover sat there calmly in Walther's hands, sniffing inquisitively, whiskers twitching. A friendly and personable bunny by most standards, Clover was as outgoing as his owner was not. Case in point, Tomer then began to blush. Of all the days for his rabbit to misbehave! Well, okay. Better today than one where Erik and/or Dead John were in the common room, but still. Tomer couldn't even scold Clover, exploring was no crime. Moving his chair carefully towards his roomie, he managed a little bit of a smile. "Thank you so much," he said, looking down at his bunny. Clover didn't seem to have anything odd in his mouth or have stepped on anything questionable. Good. Holding out the box from his room, he added, "If you could please put him in there, that would be great."

Sighing, he regarded his pet. "And you, mister, are so lucky Erik isn't here."

And then he couldn't ignore how tired Walther looked anymore. "Would you like something to drink? You saved Clover, and I have some lemonade and cookies in my room."

[Walther Ebersbacher]

"Oh, sure, no problem." He set the bunny down in to the box, as requested, and he couldn't help but just smile at him. He was so cute! Such a friendly little devil. He couldn't imagine how hard it would have been if it were anyone else in the common room. He'd never seen Clover get out before, but then again, Tomer was here a bit longer than he, so he just had to ask... Maybe it'd make him more acute and sensitive to a bunny's presence from now on?

"Does he get out often, or is this a one time thing..?" How difficult owning a bunny must have been for someone in Tomer's, well... condition. He'd heard it was because of his powers, but it still meant these braces and stuff all of the time. Every time he saw Tomer, it almost seemed like he had a new gadget around him, or underneath him, or on him. All for stability, in all likelihood... And he wasn't going to say it, cause it always sounded rude or condescending, but he really felt sorry for him. Such a nice guy, and people like Erik could just walk, run, and jump around if they so desired.

But he couldn't make any assumptions. When the beverage was offered to him, it was like his eyes twinkled. "Oh yes, please... A whole day of training super-hard, I'd really like that." Who knew that he was stashing sweets all along? Lemonade was one of his favorite drinks ever, too. How convenient!

"You're the best." Walther added with a bit of relief. "If you'd like, I could put Clover in his cage for you." It was really an effort to do everything he could to have Tomer do a lot less in his day. He just so graciously offered lemonade and cookies, after all. So if he could get up two times less, that'd be fine by him.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

The little bunny had never escaped before, but Tomer kept a close eye on him. Took very good care of him too, but Clover was just being a bunny. Once in the box on his owner's lap, he dug around happily, little toenails scraping against the cardboard as little bits of paper were dug through. "I hope he doesn't do it often, but I feel bad he has to stay in such a small place," Tomer said. "His cage is big though. As big as I could make it."

The cage was made of those wire shelving panels, one panel wide but three high, so that Clover had a lot of room to move around and levels to explore. Cut down boards on metal dowels made little levels, and there were toys and towels and things to dig around in inside the cage. And if Tomer held a carrot at the top level, Clover obligingly came up, and Tomer could scoop him out without getting out of his wheelchair.

Leading the way to his small bedroom off the common room, Tomer let Walther inside. The room was cozy and neat, decorated with a map of New York City, a poster from the Avengers movie, and a family photo. There was a small fan near the desk that was entirely to keep Erik's secondhand smoke out of his room, and other than the bed and desk, Clover's cage was the biggest thing in the room. It was also tidy, or as tidy as the home of an active little bunny could be. Clover himself didn't take up much space, but he was quite pleased with his decorating efforts.

The other feature of Tomer's room was the small dorm fridge his parents had gotten him when he'd moved in that was beside the bed and double functioned as a bedside table. A luxury, to be sure, but one that made the life of an introvert with a combative roommate much easier. Inside were bottles of water and individual sized Simply Lemonades. Using a foot on the altered door of the fridge, he pointed to the contents. "Help yourself. What kind of cookies do you like?" He blushed a little. "My friend gave me a going away present of those little packs you can get. I have Nutter Butters, which are peanut butter, Chips Ahoy, chocolate chip, and Oreos."

Despite Walther's accent, Tomer was fairly sure Oreos didn't need an explanation. On the cage, he thought about it for a moment, and said, "Oh, no thanks. I can do that myself."

He didn't want to put Clover back in his cage so soon, but he didn't want to risk another escape. Having the door to his room open was kind of nice too, it aired everything out. Maneuvering over to the cage, Tomer unhooked the door at the top and gently lifted his rabbit in, and adding the leftover carrots from the box.

[Walther Ebersbacher]

Out of all of those cookie brands, he really only did recognize one. The Oreos. He never knew that Tomer was stashing this much. But then again, he was never the sort to look in other people's property. Though, all of those times curiosity nearly got the better of him... Tomer could have been looted if he were a bit weaker-willed. And he knew plenty of times he had to smack Darian's hand away.

"Have you ever considered just letting him run around the room..? I don't know how bunnies really work but, you could train him to go back to one place to sleep..." And then he thought about it for a second longer. He forgot all about the snake. "Oh yeah, Dead John... Perhaps that isn't such a good idea." He chuckled, trying to remain light-hearted about it, though the image of a snake just coiling his bunny like that was pretty awful.

Walther gently lifted up one of the packets, he didn't know why he was being so considerate. Even if the little pile toppled over, it's not like it really mattered. "That was nice of them. I can't say they would have lasted long if I got the same thing... All I got were a lot of clothes." Hell, by comparison, his part of the room was incredibly bare. An area for studying, and his uniform bed that was made in a uniform way each and every day. He was a little bit jealous of everyone else's personalization, but eh... He was used to this place by now.

He popped one of the Oreos in his mouth. Unlike others who had a whole 'first disc to eat' philosophy, he just had them whole. They were meant to be combined, as far as he was concerned. The only thing that could have possibly improved it was milk. A tall glass of cold milk to make the discs slightly soggy, and perfectly chewy. When he swallowed it, Walther directed his attention to Clover, wiggling a finger at him. That bunny was seriously the cutest thing in this school!

"Was he a gift, too? Clover. Or did you have him for a long time before Hammel?" Since the bunny seemed so friendly, Walther went ahead and gave him another stroke of the finger. His fur was so soft, but so thin and plentiful. That nose twitched yet again, and his smile broadened. "I think he likes me."

[Tomer Berelowitz]

'Stash' was too lavish a term for half of a 12-pack of snack packets of mini cookies. If Tomer had candy bars or something, then maybe he'd call it a stash, but the cookies were mostly there for when people were awesome to him the way Walther had been and not for general consumption. The top drawer of the four-drawer bureau held the box of packs, and Tomer let him pick out a dark blue package of mini-Oreos. Since Walther might feel guilty about eating in front of him, Tomer took a lemonade for himself, but no cookies. He wasn't hungry.

"I let him out to run around the room all the time," he said. "But I crack the door just a tiny bit so it doesn't get stuffy when I know Dead John isn't loose." Tomer smiled a little. "I haven't trained him, exactly, but when I want him back in the cage I let him see half a craisin and then put it at the top, there." He pointed to the top level. "He runs right up and I close the door."

Then his brow furrowed. "Do you know what craisins are?"

He also had to be careful how much he said that word. Tomer could swear Clover knew it. He didn't want to get his hopes up.

"Might be for the best. Cookies aren't very healthy. I give them out to thank people who help me." A metallic clicking sound Tomer could never adequately find a comparison to rattled; Clover was drinking from his water bottle.

"Yep. My uncle gave him to me for my birthday. It was a few months ago. He's only about a year old." Tomer smiled again. "I'm sure he does. He let you pick him up. Bunnies don't usually like that, and he never even got nervous. My uncle named him too. I've never named a pet. You can come visit him whenever you want. It's good for him to have company and meet people." Talking pets reminded him. "Do you like gerbils? My friend Sebastian has two."

[Walther Ebersbacher]

"He is the cutest thing." Walther couldn't help but gush at least a little bit, he wasn't used to people having pets around here, or really in general. The most people had back in Stuttgart were German Shepherds, maybe a few cats here and there. But things like mice, rats, bunnies, and even snakes like Dead John were a rarity. Owners of that nature usually either lived in one of the larger cities, like Berlin, or traveled all the time anyways. They were considered too exotic.

"Well, have you ever tried maybe getting one of those ah..." He sat there, briefly, trying to remember what the English words would be. He was always used to hearing them a certain way. And when words were less commonly used, he got a little bit confused. "Baby gate. You know, the ones you put in the middle of the door, and lock?"

It seemed like a bad idea, with Dead John and his owner, who could slip through the little holes those things usually had, or could just kick it over, respectively. But for those moments that Erik wasn't around, it didn't truly seem like a bad idea. "That way the door is open, so it is nice und breezy." Language slipping, a usual (not so rude) faux pas he made. "And yet he cannot escape in to the hallway. He is a little explorer."

Walther looked back over to the cage, nibbling on another one of the Oreos. "Of course I know the cranberry-raisins. Or Preisines is how I'm used to hearing them." They were one of his favorite snacks, funnily enough, when he didn't quite feel like indulging himself with sweets. "Well, Tomer, I'll be sure to help you out in taking care of him when you're not here in the room." It was a benefit to having a dorm-mate you could trust. And Walther liked to call himself trustworthy.

"Zherbils..?--- Oh, Gerbils, the little hamsters. I can't say that I've ever even seen one. My friends back in Germany were more accustomed to dogs and cats. Maybe if he's on campus, though, I could go meet him and them some time!"