Lane made his way across the empty library to one of the secluded tutoring rooms. No one really used these rooms during typical school hours. Usually he read or occasionally worked on homework he'd put off. The shift to high school separated him from the few friends he had, and making new ones was, in the most generous terms, ongoing. Instead of sitting alone or ignored next to strangers who shot him sidelong glances as he tried to eat before spending twenty minutes in awkward silence, he convinced the librarian to let him spend his lunch period here instead. As long as he didn't eat, which was fine by him. He'd always been small and scrawny. He ate when he got home. The small circular table had three chairs around it, and he took the one facing a small window that overlooked the rarely visited encyclopedia section. It didn't take long to lose himself in his book. Reality faded to quick-tongued thieves and daring plans to steal from rich and powerful families. That was until someone knocked on the door. Lane jerked upright, and a moment later, the door opened. A feline girl a few grades above his poked her head in. She had gray fur with diffuse black stripes and wore a simple blue t-shirt with a derpy looking turtle on it. Glasses framed her yellow-green eyes. She smiled. “I’m not interrupting, am I?” It took Lane a moment to stop himself from gaping. “N-No.” Her ears twitched with amusement. “Mind if I join you?” When Lane gave her a non-committal shrug, she took a seat across the table from him. “Reading anything good? I’m Era.” Lane marked his place with a finger to show her the cover. “I like it,” he said quietly. His hairless tail coiled nervously around his own leg. He tried not to think about how pretty she was. “Lane,” he added after an awkward moment. Era giggled. “It’s nice to meet you.” She opened a book of her own, not one Lane had heard of, but it pictured a young mage with some sort of shadowy canine monster lurking behind, and began to read. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the period, but Lane found it far harder to immerse himself in the story. He kept unconsciously glancing up at Era. Her slit pupils danced across the page, the faint hint of a smile on her lips. She didn’t have huge breasts, but larger than most of the girls his own age, especially for her feline build. Her relaxed posture, the way she rubbed the back of a claw on the page before she prepared to turn it made her appear so confident. He doubted anyone else had ever looked so cool and interesting while reading. The bell nearly startled a squeak out of Lane. He blushed despite himself. Era sighed and slipped a piece of red ribbon between the pages. Her bright eyes glimmered with the easy laughter barely hidden on her lips. “It was nice meeting you.” With that, she stood and gracefully slipped from the room. “Y-You too,” he shouted after her through the open door. She shot a quick glance over her shoulder, sly smirk on her lips, and disappeared around the corner and out of sight. Lane felt like an idiot and he didn’t know why. He kept any eye out for her in the hall between classes, not that he had any idea what he’d say to her if he found her. Probably nothing. Definitely nothing unless she spoke to him first. But he wanted to see her, if only to convince himself she hadn’t been a hallucination. The next day, Lane rushed to the library as soon as his lunch period began. He made his way slowly to the back, glancing down the aisles, but didn’t see any sign of Era. His belly wriggled with a mixture of anticipation and nerves. They barely spoke a dozen words between them, less if he were only counting his own. Everyone thought felines were graceful and pretty. Far fewer thought similarly of rats - especially runty, nervous, not particularly witty rats. His room was empty. Lane sat, opened his book, lowered his head, and kept his attention focused on the window. Minutes passed, then the final bell rang. A weight dragged through his guts, carrying with it the excitement he hadn’t noticed tingling throughout his chest. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but the words of his book didn’t grab him as he tried to read. He considered giving up entirely when someone knocked quietly on the door. Era entered. “Hey!” “Um, hi.” After fixating on this moment in the intervening twenty-four hours, that was all he could think to say. Era flashed him a smile that stopped his heart, took a seat, and casually opened her book to the red ribbon. Her presence may as well have enabled time travel, because the remainder of the period occurred over the course of a longing glance. The bell rang. Era let out the hint of a sigh and raised her arms overhead in a deep stretch. Lane tried not to ogle her stunning figure, especially when her back arched and drew her t-shirt tight across her chest, or the way her chin raised towards the ceiling to reveal her slender neck, or- Lane forced his gaze back onto the page of his book as Era relaxed, then rose. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Era winked at him then left. Lane watched her go. Why had she winked? Did it mean something? Was that something friends normally did? Girl friends? Were they even friends? Questions raced through his mind now that she was gone and he couldn’t ask them. How was “hi” the only thing he could bring himself to say? Even so, Lane could hardly stop himself from laughing with excitement. She all but promised to continue reading with him. Later that night, Lane found it harder to sleep than usual. Normally he’d read for a bit, but now when he tried, his thoughts inevitably drifted to Era. Should he try to find a copy of the book she was reading so they might have something to talk about? Maybe he could ask what her favorite book was. Or maybe Era simply enjoyed the quite companionship of reading nearby another person, and his attempts to make conversation would ruin things. Harder still was the thing he had even less control over. Because once he tried to close his eyes and no longer had any external stimulus to distract him, unconscious thoughts bubbled to the forefront of his mind, thoughts of how pretty Era was. From the mental model he constructed of her over the course of all both of their brief encounters, she didn’t dress up in skirts or low cut shirts. Era wore jeans, well fitting jeans, and funny t-shirts. She felt approachable and friendly. Her easy smile when she looked at him, the way she giggled when he stuttered or pretended like she hadn’t caught him glancing towards her - Era made him feel like she found his awkwardness endearing rather than off-putting. Normal. No one had ever made him feel like that, especially a girl, a very pretty girl, a girl a few years older whose body grew out of some of the awkward proportions that plagued his own. He wondered if she caught him staring at her chest. He’d caught himself a few times, not realizing what he’d been doing, enraptured by her breasts, the perfect size for her slender feline torso. One part of him in particular appreciated the image his mind conjured, imagined himself as someone she felt similarly about, someone who she didn’t mind looking at her in that way. Maybe someone she might even allow- It took a long while of restless shifting and readjustment of underwear to eventually fall into an uneasy and warm dream he never wanted to wake from. Lane’s alarm ruthlessly dragged him from a perfection that faded from memory the moment he gained consciousness and into a far less enticing reality. A slimy mess cooled in the short fur below his navel. Luckily his underwear caught the worst of it, but the wet fabric clung unpleasantly when he moved. Lane’s cheeks burned with an embarrassment that only deepened as he hurriedly changed out of his soiled boxers. His light brown fur had gray accents down his belly. His pleasant dream left the fur around his pelvis matted and shimmering in the morning light and cold now that he was naked. Lane whined. It was too early for this, but if he didn’t get in the shower soon, his mother would come along to make sure he was up. The thought of her walking in on him in this state nearly brought him to tears, so he wrapped a towel around himself and rushed into the bathroom. He brought his underwear with him to scrub in the shower so no one would ever find out. The rest of his day went without note. Era joined him once again to read, and despite the flash of shame that burned down his neck at the thought of his morning mishap, they read in amiable silence, and Lane only got hard twice. The third time after she left didn’t count, even if it was from the way her hips and tail swayed in perfect opposition as he watched her go. As the days passed, they slowly began to talk. Lane no longer stammered even if he had a hard time meeting her large yellow-green eyes when he spoke. They shared a similar taste in fantasy novels, even if he didn’t admit to liking some of the more romance-y stories Era preferred. He wrote down all the titles she mentioned after lunch to look for once he finished his current book. “How’s your day going?” Era asked, her tone weary in a lazy summer day kind of way. She yawned as she sat heavily into the chair across from Lane. She always asked him that, and it always set warm embers glowing in his chest. A shy smile spread across Lane’s cheeks. “So far so good. How about yours?” Era giggled. “That’s good. Just a bit tired, but I’m feeling better now.” Her warm smile and playful gaze carried more meaning than Lane dared read into, and he dropped his eyes to the closed book in front of him. “Didn’t sleep well?” Lane asked, his voice naturally well suited for a library. “Stayed up a little later than I anticipated. A bit restless. Just one of those nights I guess.” Era stretched. Lane knew all too well. And it was only once Era arched her hands overhead that he noticed her shirt. The light fabric loosely draped her body, and it was only when she leaned back into her stretch that it tightened across her chest that two subtle points revealed the lack of a bra underneath. Lane’s underwear grew immediately uncomfortable. He couldn’t help but stare. Even as Era relaxed, and the odds of her noticing his overt attention increased, it took almost more self-control than he possessed to look away. Again he stared at the cover of his book. If Era caught him, she didn’t say anything. They fell into their usual silence. Era leaned forward, resting her chin atop her knuckles to prop herself up. Lane too opened his book as penance for the erection struggling fruitlessly against the inside of his clothes, but one last glance broke his tenuous resolve. Leaned forward over the table, Era’s loose neckline hung low enough to present Lane a revealing view down her shirt. This had to be too far. While he couldn’t quite glimpse her nipples, her pert breasts hung freely, perfect curves covered in a thin velvet of light gray fur and pretty black waves. Surely he couldn’t say something, could he? Should he? The thought of trying to string together such a sentence while her kind eyes waited patiently for him to finish stammering scorched his cheeks. How could he even phrase such a- A what? A question, an observation? It was his fault for staring. He knew that, and yet he couldn’t pull his eyes away, even though he knew he should. She was so pretty. His heart thrummed wildly in his chest. He’d likely never receive such a wondrous view again in his life, and despite knowing he shouldn’t, Lane immortalized it in his young mind. Her easy breathing minutely shifted the view down her shirt. Unlikely as it was, Lane held his own breath when she moved, yearning to catch a glimpse of one of her nipples. He squirmed in his seat, both hoping to peak just a little bit more, and also in a futile attempt to ease the discomfort between his legs. His erection twitched in protest, and he tried to not think about the small wet patch spreading around his tip. Lane nearly fell out of his chair when the bell rang. Era sat up and rubbed her eyes, then smiled at Lane. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Her gentle voice caressed Lane’s ears and deepened the blush hidden beneath his soft brown fur. “I-I hope you sleep better tonight.” He couldn’t bring himself to meet her eyes. She chuckled. “Thanks.” Waiting for his erection to go down enough that he could walk nearly made Lane late to his next class. Lane had another wet dream that night. They no longer surprised him, the fleeting sensation of something he desperately wished to remember tossed him into a cold and slimy reality filled with embarrassment. Worse, they didn’t even provide him with true relief. He started finding himself hard at the most random times, and almost always when he was around Era. Or thinking of her. Or reading, which slipped her into his thoughts. The constant tension winding between his hips tightened to a gentle but persistent ache - a very distracting one at that. It only grew more dangerous as the day went on and his lunch break approached, when he couldn’t help but daydream. Lane made it to the library late, once again forced to shuffle papers around his binder until he could stand up without embarrassing himself. When he arrived, he only did so a few paces behind Era. Instead of running up behind her like the lost puppy he felt, he risked admiring her confident stride and lithe hips. She stopped just inside their room, finding it empty. “I’m a little late, I guess.” Lane’s words barely constituted a whisper, but Era turned to him and smiled. “How unlike you. I was worried you weren’t going to make it.” Her words sent a rush of pleasant tingles dancing through every fiber of his being. She was worried she might not see him? Lane could barely imagine that as a concept that could exist. Era turned back to the room. “Looks like someone else used the room before us. All three chairs clustered together at one side facing the window. Era moved the farthest left chair back to its usual spot, so Lane took the rightmost. But instead of using the chair she moved, Era returned to the one still beside Lane and sat down. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked. They were so close their shoulders brushed when she sat down. He could feel the heat of her body warming his arm. The subtle bergamot orange of her perfume made his whiskers twitch with excitement. Lane shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. The tight green shirt hugged her torso, and he could see the swell of her breasts from the corner of his eye, even if he wasn’t intentionally looking. And of course he couldn’t not intentionally look. So close, he could make out the outline of her bra, the thin straps over her shoulders and the outlines cupping each full boob. It wasn’t fair that a piece of cloth got to hold her so intimately. Era consumed every stray thought, every spare moment of processing his brain could afford. Every detail of her demanded his admiration. Nothing could have ever prepared him to deal with something so awesome, so powerfully captivating. Yet he had no one to confide in, no one he could ask for advice. Of course, he could always tell her. Era. He just needed to figure out how, and he needed to figure it out soon. The crushing desire squeezing the low places in his belly, the muscles that tried to work his erection free of its clothed prison, it all left him barely able to function. He had another wet dream that night. The following night as well, and another over the weekend. It almost felt normal to wake up with semen wetting his fur and soaked into his underwear. He got better at extricating himself without smearing it down his legs. Scrubbing it from his fur didn’t get any easier, nor did the embarrassed prickling that rose from the mess lessen. Lane took his usual spot in the library, eyes heavy from restless nights, but his heart quickened in anticipation of seeing Era again. She joined him a few minutes later and dragged a chair beside his as she’d started doing. “How was your weekend?” she asked cheerily. Was it an accident how closely she placed her chair? The sleeve of his t-shirt brushed her arm. “It was okay. It’s good to see you again. How was yours?” For once he managed to not fumble his words. Era giggles. “You’re cute.” She affectionately nudged him with her shoulder. “Boring, but I guess that’s my fault. I need to find something to occupy my time with.” Lane might have noticed the glance she gave him, but he was too focused on how hot his clothing suddenly felt. She said he was cute. Did that mean she liked him, or was that something girls said to their friends, or something else maybe? His head spun in a chaos of emotions, nervousness and excitement and the hot energy that filled his body when she looked at him. Eventually they each settled into their books, though Lane found it hard to concentrate. He read the same page three times without comprehending a word past the first sentence. He forced himself to focus, reading each word one at a time when, so deftly he barely noticed it, Era placed a hand on his thigh. Everything lurched to a halt. Lane’s breath caught, and every muscle in his body tensed, but he didn’t pull away. He waited for – something. Era didn’t say anything, didn’t acknowledge her hand resting lightly atop his jeans. Her slit pupils didn’t falter in their steady advance across the page of her book. Lane swallowed hard. It couldn’t have been an accident, not with the way her thumb idly stroked back and forth, how her fingers occasionally teased the inside of his thigh, and how, if her touch hadn’t occupied the full capacity of his sensory functions, he might not have noticed the slow methodical advance ever higher towards his groin. His breathing grew shallow as he tried to keep it silent. The muscles in his pelvis clenched in desire. Any higher and Era would notice his cock twitching underneath his pants. But of course that had to be her intention, right? The outside of her hand brushed his length. Lane couldn’t stop his muscles from contracting in response, or the sharp exhalation that hissed between his teeth. Era’s paw flowed across his shaft, gently mapping the outline of it through his pants and stroking him in response to how it lifted towards her touch. Still she said nothing, pretending to read, though her eyes no longer followed the page. Sharp little teeth bit at her own lip. Her pointed ears stood at attention. Lane nervously glanced towards the window, but in all their time here, he couldn’t recall anyone walking by. Even if they did, no one would see Era’s hand below the table. Era’s slow and deliberate touch sent waves up through his belly that kept him from responding in any coherent manner. It felt too good, even as his muscles fatigued from fighting against his restrictive clothing. He’d gladly suffer such minor discomforts in exchange. Of course that faced him with another problem, one that reminded him of waking up with a mess in his boxers. Lane’s tail curled tightly around his ankle. He shivered with nervous excitement, the taboo thrill of Era touching him - in the school library no less. Era, a girl, one of the prettiest most interesting girls he’d ever met, cupped her delicate paw around his clothed erection. Her fingers trailed his length, then shifted to the button of his jeans. A fingertip circled the metal fastener, a claw teasingly plucked at it, and when he remained silent, Era lazily began to work it open. It took a few attempts for her fingers to blindly slip the button free. Lane’s barely audible whisper escaped from trembling lips. “W-What are you doing?” Era smiled, still not looking at him, head tilted as if reading. “Should I stop?” That shut him up. He didn’t know what he wanted, but it certainly wasn’t that. His zipper descended one minute metal click at a time, carefully timed between the regular twitch of his cock against steadily diminishing resistance. She drew the zipper all the way down before nimble fingers slipped inside the crotch of his pants. The backs of her fingers caressed him through the thin fabric of his boxers. It was almost too much. Lane couldn’t imagine how her touch might feel against his bare cock or how he might resist the crushing pleasure threatening to overcome him. A single claw hooked underneath the waist of his boxers, tugging just hard enough for him to notice without actually pulling them away from his fur. Era finally looked up from her book and leaned in close, her lips just shy of his ear, hot breath tickling his fur. “Can I? I won’t if you don’t want me to.” Her claw retracted so she could trail a fingertip along the waistline of his boxers. The backs of her fingers brushed the short fur of his belly. "But I'd really like to." Lane would have done anything if she followed it up with the way she said those words. The tone, the way it conveyed such need and teasing desire, more a command than a request to the primal instructions that lurked somewhere deep within him. He tried to say, “Yes.” It came out as more of a squeak but apparently conveyed his meaning, because a moment later, Era’s fingers deftly slipped beneath the waistband of his shorts. She didn’t go directly for his cock. The backs of her fingers traveled to the crook of his hip, intentionally avoiding his shaft. With the pressure of his clothing relaxed, his tapered length lifted from his belly, allowing her hand to stroke along his groin underneath. Lane squirmed, panting, barely aware of anything beyond the way she touched his body. While she maintained a cool composure, settling back to appear as if reading, he doubted he did. He let out another tiny, wavering squeak when her fingers finally encompassed his prick. Delicate fingers squeezed gently in response to the way his tapered length twitched. A thumb brushed across his tip, smearing the drop of precum waiting there. Era did little more that begin to explore how he fit within her grasp, his boxers still covering her hand up to the wrist. “Wait-” Lane gasped. “Maybe- Maybe you should- Slow-” He couldn’t bring himself to tell her to stop. His hips trembled, toes and calves tensing in preparation. She didn’t stop. “Are you close already?” Era giggled in excitement, not malice. “It’s okay. You can cum.” Her slow movements barely stroked more than a finger’s width in either direction along his length, but in combination with the way she squeezed, and the thought of someone else touching him, wanting him to feel good enough to- Lane squeaked, and was overcome. His vision of the small room faded. Warmth blossomed against his belly, increasing with each shock of pleasure that squeezed the air from his lungs to make room for the swell of untempered ecstasy. A satisfaction unlike anything else he’d ever felt, like running all day only to sink into a pile of blankets fresh out of the laundry, softened the eventual crash. Tears in the corners of his eyes caused his vision to blur when he finally opened them to find Era watching him closely, yellow-green eyes wide and intent. She smiled brightly. “Wow. You really can feel when a boy cums. It was twitching like crazy.” She bit her lip, looking abashed for the first time Lane could remember. “And the look on your face was adorable.” She carefully extracted her hand from his underwear, but not without getting some of his mess on the back of her index finger. Thick cloudy fluid shone on her stormy gray fur beneath the florescent lighting. Era shot him a sly glance. “And sorry. I didn’t think there would be so much.” She eyed her finger again. “It’s not weird if I taste it, right?” Lane’s eyes widened, but he couldn’t bring himself to respond. He didn’t know either way. After another glance, Era licked the back of her finger clean. Her whiskers and nose twitched. Then she giggled, and Lane nervously joined in. The warm sticky glow seeping into his fur began to cool in an unpleasantly familiar way. When the bell rang, they both nearly jumped out of their seats. It was the cruelest bell Lane had ever heard. Era stood and awkwardly looked around the room as if searching for something, but she only ever brought her book. If Lane didn’t know better, and had half a useful thought squirreling around in his brain, he’d think she looked nervous. “I’m glad we could do this. I hope it felt good.” Lane blinked. Good didn’t begin to describe it. Words couldn’t, at least not any combination of words he knew. “Very,” he managed with a complete lack of inspiration, and his tail curled in embarrassment. “I’m really glad we met.” Era beamed at him. She started towards the door, but then glance out the small window and hurried to his side. Before Lane could prepare, she kissed him. It was quick, barely more than her lips touching his, one intense breath of her perfume. She was gone before he could speak again. Only then did he realize his situation. Lane winced as he did up his jeans, smearing cum into his own fur. He hated the sensation, but at least there was a bathroom across the hallway from the library. He rushed to it and scrubbed himself in the stall as best he could while impossibly thin toilet paper disintegrated between his fingers, but he managed to dry himself and his clothing to an acceptable level. Lane almost made it to his next class on time.