"Yes! You pierced big brother's ear for him, right?" Leon snapped, rooting around in his beltpouch until he came out with a small jewelry-store box. "I even bought the earring!" He held up a huge chunky silver hoop, a defiant expression on his face.

"Okay, kid. One: that earring is way too big for a fresh piercing and would damage your ear," Bowman said, stubbing out his cigarette, "and two, I wouldn't know where to start on those big fluffy ears of yours." One hand flashed out and tugged at Leon's ear. "I don't know where any of the veins or big nerves are, and even if I was dumb enough to dick around with Fellpool anatomy without experience I'd probably have to shave off a lot of the fur..."

"Ow! Lemme go!" Leon swatted at Bowman's hand, his ears flattening in feline outrage. "Fine. How about my nose, then? Will you pierce that?"

"Your nose? I don't think so, kid. Your parents would have kittens. ... uh. No offense."

Thwarted, Leon slammed the earring back into its box and the box back into his beltpouch. Bowman watched, amused, then asked, "What's up with this, anyway? Why do you want a piercing so bad all of a sudden?"

"I'm tired of nobody ever taking me seriously!" Leon wailed, flopping out on his bed. "Even if I dress up nice they just think it's cute! But I have a plan..." Leaning over the edge of the bed he scrabbled around in his pack, coming out with a pair of worn black leather pants with gleaming silver zippers running up each leg. "Big brother Ashton ripped these up pretty bad and threw them out, so I stole them. I'm going to patch the rips up with safety pins and wear them, and get lots of piercings, and spike my hair up all mean, and then maybe I won't be cute any more!"

"Aw, man!" Bowman said, reaching out to tweak one leg of the leather pants. "The ones with the zippers up the sides? Man, I liked those pants..."

"... what?" Leon said, derailed from his tirade.

"Uh. Never mind."