[i]Before I start, I’d like to put a little background on this story. My character Charlie is based on my real world partner, and as such, has a tendency to change a bit depending on my current feelings with him. Recently, I haven’t gotten to spend as much time with him, and this led to several arguments, and it started to feel like we were losing each other. After playing a game called Retale (It’s made by Symbol, check his page out, too!), a certain character named Spike, reminded me of why I realized I love Charlie in the first place. It made me remember why we were together in the first place, and how I had been before hand. It made me realize why I need him, and this realization lead to us making up. I’d never really realized before how much our relationship had effected my life, and I’m very, very thankful to have him back in it.[/i]

[center]Life Snippets - Renewed and Rekindled
By Oliverrook [/center]

    I smiled to myself as I laid in bed, eyes still closed. I could smell it. Bacon, a little bit of hash brown… and Charlie’s pants from the night before. I sighed happily, laying there a bit longer with Charlie’s jeans on my face, just listening to him preparing breakfast. After about a minute or so, I finally sighed again, and dragged myself into a sitting position, my partner’s pants falling off my face, along with apparently several dozen crumbs from some kind of pastry.

I yawned, stretching out and laying back down for a few seconds, looking up at the ceiling. It was nice to have some time off. I had been planning to spend it playing video games and writing on my laptop, but after the events of the previous day, I found the prospect of spending the day at home with Charlie much more appealing. It had been a long time since I had just spent the day with him, and the thought of curling up against him (or possibly in him later on) was more than comforting.

Sliding my legs over the side of the bed, I stood up, casting a glance around the room as I tried to locate my own garments from the previous night. The room was messy, clothes everywhere, a bunch of empty packages scattered here and there, and the smell leaved much to be desired. I loved everything about it.

A look out the window showed that it was raining heavily, to the point where it was almost dark out, even though it was 10 o'clock in the morning. Now that I was paying attention, I could definitely hear the rain pounding down on the building, and there was the sound of rolling thunder in the distance.

I threw on a pair of pants (that, now I’m thinking about it were most likely Charlie’s), slipped on my glasses, and made my way out into the kitchen/dining room. I smiled to myself, silently watching as Charlie attempted to flip the bacon in the pan he was using, resulting in several pieces falling to the floor, with most of the rest landing on the counter.

“Better be quick,” I said, grinning at him, “Five second rule.”

He turned to look at me, grinning his typical toothy grin.

“Not sure that counts for bacon,” he said.

“It counts especially for bacon,” I said, walking forward and kneeling down to help him pick it up.

I grinned suddenly, as Charlie’s tail wrapped around my waist, pulling me into his lap with a jerk. He leaned down, wrapping his arms around me and giving me a lick on the head.

“Mmm…” he said, licking his lips, “Why would I need bacon when I have you?”

“Because it's delicious and I’d also enjoy having breakfast?” I said.

“Hmmm…” he said, “You make some good points.”

“Later, I promise,” I said, laying my head against his chest and looking up at him.

“Alright, but only if I get some belly rubs out of it.”

I smiled.

“Charlie, I’ll give you all the belly rubs you could ever need,” I said.

“I dunno,” he said, “I can need a lot of belly rubs sometimes.”

“Just finish making breakfast,” I said, laughing, “And you’re burning the hash browns.”

After a quick breakfast consisting of slightly burnt hash browns and floor bacon, Charlie and I laid down on the couch in the living room (Which was technically just part of the dining room/kitchen, but on a carpeted section of floor with a TV and sofa awkwardly placed in a way so the TV was in the center of the room so as not to block the window), and put on a DVD copy of the second season of Dragon Ball Z.

I smiled, cuddling into the skunk’s chest fur, and positioning myself so that I was tucked up beneath him, arms and legs wrapped around me, with tail draped over lower extremities. Charlie opened his mouth and wrapped his jaw around the back of my head, and began nibbling on it gently, licking the top of my head as he did so. I just kept smiling, and reached behind me to stroke his ears back a few times.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had been this happy. Charlie and I had been fighting constantly for over a month, until we had made up the previous night. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed simply being with him, simply knowing he was there. It was comforting, uplifting, fuzzy. I smiled again, feeling that familiar warmth inside my chest that I felt whenever I was close to Charlie. A feeling I hadn’t experienced while we were fighting. This kind of thing was what I had been missing for so long, and I was more than grateful to have it back.

I snuggled into him some more, turning my head and closing his mouth with my hands so I could kiss him properly.

“Mmm…” I said, “You taste good.”

“You don’t taste half bad yourself,” he said, grinning.

We laid there for most of the day. It was a Saturday, both of us had the day off, it was raining; The perfect day to do nothing but enjoy each other.