A New Phriend

Aphrodite walked through the city streets as he made his way back to his apartment, another long day of work behind him. Even if it seemed casual to the eye of an outsider, modelling was quite a bit of work, especially in more demanding shoots like today was. He could almost swear he’d hopped enough times to give his legs more muscle!

As he moved to enter the apartment complex, though, a noise caught his attention. It sounded like a chirp, which he would’ve presumed was something that had escaped from Hutch’s shop, but…Hutch’s shop was a good distance away from Aphrodite’s apartment.

The chirp sounded again, and Aphrodite sighed, muttering, “I was going to get cleaned up anyway…”

He followed the sound down the alleyway, soon finding a small imp in a box. He could recognize the fluffy body immediately, especially since he’d seen a handful of them in Hutch’s shop before.

“A phloof…”  The bun moved to gently pick it up, and examined it carefully. It looked like it hadn’t been brushed recently, resulting in a lot of lint sticking to its body. Aphrodite even used a hoof to test the lint, and a large chunk of loose lint pulled away easily. “Goodness. A very neglected one at that.”

Using the box to deposit the extra lint, Aphrodite pulled off as much of the loose fluff as he could. By the time he was done, he could almost swear he could simply make another phloof with what he’d pulled off!

“Well now, that’s all done…” Carrying the imp close to himself, he walked out of the alleyway, turning to enter the apartment complex. “Hutch will likely have some words about how to care for you properly, I’m sure, but I’m sure you appreciate having a lot less lint to deal with!”

The phloof chirped. He decided to take it as an agreement to his statement.

An elevator trip and a couple of halls later, and Aphrodite was back in his apartment, setting the phloof on a bun-sized chair.

“You stay here, all right?” Without waiting for an answer, Aphrodite moved to his bedroom, poring over the handful of books he kept. Soon, he found what he was looking for: a rather thin, rather basic book on handling imps.

The phloof was still on the chair when he returned, and Aphrodite opened the book and flipped some pages. “I do need to check with Hutch for that more detailed book they told me about…I suppose that’ll be much sooner than I’d thought. I’d been eyeing a couple of imps already…”

The book was illustrated, and Aphrodite supposed that it must have been something most prospective imp owners would have gotten. There were fewer types of imps in the book than he’d seen in Hutch’s store, but thankfully, there was a section on phloofs. It was a small section, but it was enough to go off of.

“Let’s see…slow, very docile compared to most other imps, make sure to be prepared for the lint…” Extremely basic. He knew he shouldn’t have expected much more than that, but it was still a bit irritating. “…right. That’s knowledge any bun on the street could tell me.”

Moving to the bathroom, Aphrodite rummaged through one of the cabinets until he’d found an unopened brush. It was more meant for buns, but it would do to get the last of the lint off of the phloof.

“Right, it seems like I’ll be due to see Hutch tomorrow,” he said, walking back over to the phloof. He picked it up and sat down on the couch with it, freeing the brush from its packaging. “I hope this does the trick in the meantime…”

Carefully, he began to brush the phloof, the last bits of loose lint coming off easily. The imp made a softer chirp and nuzzled into Aphrodite as he continued to brush it. Admittedly, such a pure little noise caused his expression to soften.

He’d still be going to visit Hutch tomorrow, but not for the reason he’d planned. Not when the phloof was so happy and content while he brushed it like this. Besides, what did he have to lose? A few minutes brushing out lint once or twice a week?

The phloof closed its eyes, and it breathed softy as Aphrodite finished getting the last of the loose lint from it. With a yawn, he decided to follow its lead for the time being, closing his eyes as well.