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"description": "After a risque, but incredibly memorable night, the boys suffer their first challenge to their relationship, but the advice of Jake and a trip to the swimming pool get them back on track. But while their story is progressing, a dark and sinister story is advancing towards a horrible end...\n\n\nContains scenes of occasional coarse language, explicit sexual themes and violence, oftentimes involving \"cubs.\" It's also a novel and contains actual plot. Enjoy!\nThis particular chapter features no violence and no practical swearing, but most certainly features adult themed scenes involving cubs. You have been warned.\n\nNote: I ask that you download the actual document to see this novel as it was intended. However, for those without patience, I am going to allow the InkBunny preview window to hold the entire story. I repeat: downloading the actual file is VERY much recommended.",
"description_bbcode_parsed": "After a risque, but incredibly memorable night, the boys suffer their first challenge to their relationship, but the advice of Jake and a trip to the swimming pool get them back on track. But while their story is progressing, a dark and sinister story is advancing towards a horrible end...
Contains scenes of occasional coarse language, explicit sexual themes and violence, oftentimes involving "cubs." It's also a novel and contains actual plot. Enjoy!
This particular chapter features no violence and no practical swearing, but most certainly features adult themed scenes involving cubs. You have been warned.
Note: I ask that you download the actual document to see this novel as it was intended. However, for those without patience, I am going to allow the InkBunny preview window to hold the entire story. I repeat: downloading the actual file is VERY much recommended.",
"writing": "Tai’s Story - Chapter 5.\nBy Kichigai Kitsune\nCopyright 2005 onwards.\n\nDisclaimer: This story contains coarse language, violence, adult themes and scenes of an explicit adult nature involving two young “cubs” (young anthropomorphic non-humans). If you are under the legal age as prescribed by the laws under which you are subject to reading such material, do not continue beyond this disclaimer. \n\n\tWhen Robert returned, the two boys were sitting in Mike’s room, clad in fluffy blue cotton bathrobes and their brightly colored satin boxers, playing the Gamestation. Their pointed ears were perked and their attention was riveted on their game. Robert smiled tolerantly.\n\t“Sorry, that took a little longer than expected and it got cold,” the grown-up apologized from the doorway, thumbing in the direction of the kitchen. “The food is in the fridge. I’ll heat it back up at about six, okay.”\n\t“Okay, dad,” Mike nodded, getting onto his knees and maneuvering around to lie on his belly, never relinquishing the controller. “Thanks a bunch.”\n\t“That’s alright.” Robert surreptitiously sniffed at the air. The distinct scent of their peachy shampoo and conditioner hung heavy in the air. “Okay, I’ll be in my study if you need anything, guys. Have some work to do. Oh, Tai?” The tawny furred pup looked up at him inquiringly. “Your mother will be back in about two days. She asked me to tell you that she’s sorry for springing this on you.”\n\t“Oh, okay…” Tai was wondering when his mother would try to get in touch with him. Assuming she ever bothered. \n\t“She also says that you should grab some clothes from your apartment.” Robert nodded approvingly at his son. “Good thinking, Mike. Giving Tai your old bathrobe, I mean. I forgot you still had it. Okie-dokie, catch you two later!” He exited and shut the door behind him.\n\t“Your dad has to work? Today?” Tai’s voice was slightly incredulous. “So late?”\n\t“Of course; no rest for the wicked. Why?”\n\tTai frowned. “I dunno. He gets home from the fair, but then he has to work?”\n\tMike nodded. “Growing up sucks.” \n\tThe tawny kit got up and lay down next to his friend, sliding a paw into his open robe and placing it on Mike’s back. “You’re warm…” he remarked softly.\n\tMike nodded again. “Yeah, so are you. It’s because we just got out of the bath, I think.”\n\t“Hmmm. That was really nice.”\n\tMike looked sidelong at his friend. He was getting braver. Tai was surer of Mike now, and he openly sought this contact. Wanted to keep close. A major change for the boy who seemed so reserved, almost distrustful, when they first met. \n\tIt made sense, Mike figured. Now that he had convinced Tai he wasn’t going to hurt him, the kit was showing his affectionate side. Perhaps desperate for someone to touch, or hug, because his mom always seemed to be away. As far as Mike could tell anyway.\n\t“Hey, you still haven’t really told me what happened to your paw,” he pointed out, not taking his eyes away from the screen, while expertly dispatching several of the computer controlled opponents. “I mean, what actually happened?”\n\tTai shrugged and pulled his arm out of Mike’s bathrobe. “I couldn’t get around Darron and his friends and I thought they were gonna kill me so I jumped off the top of the car-park and landed in a cart. I hit my paw on the edge. The doctors said that I, um, separated it or something.”\n\t“So it was dislocated, huh?” Mike nodded knowingly. “Better than broken! You were so lucky. Should be okay pretty soon. I did that to my elbow once. It really hurts when they put it back into place, doesn’t it?” \n\tAn emphatic nod.\nMike furrowed his brow. “Tai, you must’ve been really scared if you jumped from up there! That’s really high!”\n\t“I had to,” replied Tai, shifting around until he lay on his back looking up at Mike. “They had knives and they were trying to stab me!”\n\t“Public school.” Mike shuddered in disgust. “So glad my dad home-schools me.”\n\tTai smiled a bittersweet smile. “My mom doesn’t care. I’ve been in a bunch of schools so far, and in all of them stuff like this happened. She acted as if I was eg-ex-exaggerating. She just doesn’t care.” He sighed. “Ever since dad died... she’s always busy.”\n\tMike nodded somberly. “I don’t know, but…” He bit his lip. “I’ll ask my dad to see if we can help. It might not be anything, but–” he hesitated. “This is real serious. Maybe we could get your mom to listen.”\n\t“R-really?”\n\t“Look, this is depressing…” Mike got up and padded over to the Gamestation. “Let’s put on a game for two players!”\n\tTai’s ears perked upright again. “You mean we can both play at the same time?” \n\t“Sure!”\n\tThe tawny kit’s eyes widened. “That’s awesome!!”\n\t\n\tWhen it was a few hours later, the two fox-boys went into the dining room, not bothering to get out of their bathrobes. It was almost bed-time after all.\n\tThe Chinese food was excellent, and the two kits felt extra drowsy for eating so much of it. Besides, they had to get up early so they could go to the swimming pool uptown.\n\tTai and Mike asked politely to be excused from the table and Robert gave them their leave. \n\tMike stood and yawned so hard it almost seemed like his jaw would split. “Uh. Sorry, dad. I’m beat.” He started to walk around the small glass table, picking up the cutlery.\n\t“Tiring day.” Robert stood and picked up his plate, and the two kits dutifully handed him theirs. “Tai, you tired as well?”\n\tThe little fox sighed contentedly and nodded. “Yes sir,” he said, shifting in the chair. “I’m always like this after I eat dinner.”\n\t“That’s understandable; Mike’s like that too… obviously.” The adult fox took the plates over to the sink and placed them in the basin. “I’m not going to complain if he wants to go to bed without me badgering him, though.” He turned the tap and a jet of water ‘scooshed’ loudly onto the plates.\n\t“Thanks for the food, dad,” Mike said, carrying the cutlery over to the sink as well. “Can I ask a favor?”\n\t“Shoot.” He took the forks and threw them into the water.\n\t“Can you make our hot chocolate a little earlier?” Mike smiled winsomely at his dad. “We’re gonna go to bed now.”\n\t“I can manage that.”\n\t“You’re the best!” The pup hugged his father’s waist then walked back to his room, motioning for Tai to follow.\n\tBack in the bedroom, the two boys sluggishly made their way to the bed, un-belting their robes as they moved. Mike gently bumped the door with his rear and continued on. They both seated themselves on the edge of the double mattress, robes open, bare chests and boxers exposed. \n\tThere was a significant difference once that door closed behind the two kits. A major change. That change was simple: they weren’t tired anymore. \n\tMike’s eyes were alight with mischief and his mind was aflame with anticipation. He stared archly at Tai.\n\t“What now?” Tai enquired quietly, squirming on the spot, as if Mike’s gaze had pinned him in place. His ears started to get a little warm and he felt his heart beat getting quicker. A feeling, hard to describe, started to bloom outwards from somewhere in his tummy, until his entire body crawled with it. A feeling that was becoming familiar to him now.\n\tMike crawled across the double bed towards him on his paws and knees, robe hanging loosely over his shoulders. “I’ve just thought of a cool idea…” he said breathily.\n\tTai’s entire face felt warm now. He wanted to tear his eyes away and stare at the floor, but something in Mike’s eyes and voice was almost hypnotic.\n\t“What?” he asked, his own voice automatically adopting that same whispered-quality as Mike’s.\n\t“I got an idea for what we can use these belts for…” The horny kit’s muzzle was covered by his fringe of brown fur, artistically hiding one of his eyes and shading his toothy smile. “They’d make pretty comfy ropes, don’t you think? You know, to tie you up?”\n\tTai froze, looking at Mike with worried eyes.\n\tMike leaned back onto his foot-paws instantly. He held a paw up and said, “But not if you don’t wanna do it. It’s up to you. Just an idea.”\n\tBut Tai did want to do it.\n\tEven though something inside him was screeching that he shouldn’t like the idea as much as he did- he shouldn’t be so keen to let another boy, bigger and rougher than he was, tie him up and place him at his mercy- Tai realized he did trust Mike. He could trust him. He wasn’t scared of Mike at all… but that’s what scared him. He never trusted anybody!\n\tWhat if he was making another mistake? \n\tThis wasn’t something as simple as being close to him, or the dirty play in the spa. Letting this bigger boy tie him up in his house was a different matter entirely. But the simple, obvious truth was… he wanted to try it. The idea made him tingle all over.\n\tSurely, if there was ever any other boy he could trust, it would be this one?\n\t“Alright,” he said eventually. “H-have you got any more? Belts?”\n\t“Huh? Why more?”\n\tTai’s face suddenly flushed and he covered his muzzle with his paws. “Could you tie my legs up please…?” he asked bashfully. “I trust you, Mike. At least, I think so…”\n\t“Oh, gee, thanks,” said Mike wryly. Then he crawled a little closer. “Tai, I won’t hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you, ever!”\n\t“S-sorry.” Tai pulled himself onto his knees and looked his brown friend in his face. “It’s not that. I-I think I’m… I’m… not sure if I should.” He cast his gaze downwards. “I… I just feel so weird.”\n\t“You’re not weird.” Mike placed a tender and deliberate kiss on the younger kit’s cheek – to his delight, Tai couldn’t keep a smile away after it. But it didn’t last long at all.\n\tIn the soft bedroom light, Tai stared taciturnly at the white carpet. After a few moments, he sniffed loudly, bowing his head. “I’m sorry.” He blinked back tears before they could form, knowing full well that crying would just make things worse.\n\tThe quavering apology brought a chill to Mike’s chest. “H-hey, hey, what’s wrong?” he said softly, lightly touching the smaller boy’s shoulder. “What’re you sorry for?!”\n\tWithout warning, two thin tawny arms enveloped Mike’s chest and crossed behind his back. Tai had snatched his friend in a firm embrace. But he said nothing. \n\t“Tai? What’s wrong?” The older kit swallowed. This wasn’t right. \n\t“Nothing!” blurted Tai, breaking out a loud sob. “Nothing is wrong! Nothing feels wrong, and that’s what’s wrong!”\n\tMike freaked. “Hey, don’t cry!” he exclaimed, cradling the younger fox soothingly. “Geez! What’s the matter?”\n\t“I’m not sure,” Tai groaned. He struggled to keep his voice steady. “I don’t know if I should. I want to but no one likes being tied up, do they? What if mom finds out? Or your dad? Mom’d kill me if she knew!”\n\tBaffled and a little scared, Mike’s brain scrabbled for something to say. Tai being upset by this suggestion was the absolute worst case scenario.\n\t“No, Tai, you got it all wrong!” he said, affecting an amused voice, though he didn’t find this in the least funny. “You know I’ll stop if you ask! It’s alright to like this stuff! A lot of people do!”\n\t“Why?”\n\t“They just do.” Mike nosed at Tai’s ears in an attempt to relax him, but it didn’t seem to work. Instead, he sat down right beside him, embracing the tawny kit tightly.\n\tThe little fox turned slightly and pressed against his friend’s chest. “I-Is it okay?” he asked shyly. “To want to be tied up?”\n\t“Course it is.”\n\t“But I hate it!” Tai objected, shaking his head vehemently. “I’ve always been pushed around. I hate that!”\n\t“But I’m not pushing you around!” Mike said quietly. “If you don’t want to do it, I’ll do what you say, right? I’m not a bully. I’d never wanna hurt you. It’s not the same thing at all!”\n\tThe kit opened his mouth to say something, but then he snapped it closed again, confused. He thought about it for a second. “S-so, it has to do with how much you trust the person doing it?”\n\tMike shrugged, remembering how baffling the explanations on this topic he’d illicitly read up on were when he didn’t have the context for them. He still didn’t get it all – but to Mike, that didn’t matter. This wasn’t something that needed to be complicated to him: he liked it, he didn’t need to know exactly why. “Exactly. You wouldn’t trust a jerk or a bully to do it. But what about me? Or, I dunno, your mom?”\n\t“Um, I guess…” Tai sniffled, his expression still a little puzzled.\n\tMike nodded emphatically. “Chill out, Tai! Anyway, I’m not going to hurt you while you’re tied up.” He grinned naughtily. “Gonna do the opposite!”\n\tThe smaller kit raised his eyes at last, smiling wanly. “I know.”\n\tMike brushed a tender paw along his friend’s shoulder. “But, um, do you really want to? We don’t have to. I mean, the tie-up thing was just an idea.”\n\tHesitating only briefly, Tai nodded. “Yeah,” he whispered, wiping his nose on his wrist. “Go on. Tie me up. I’ve never been tied up before. I want to try it.”\n\t“Okay…” Mike gently separated them, grinning. “Wait right here, I’m gonna go get the other belts.”\n\tWhen Mike returned from his foray into the laundry, Tai had neatly placed the pillows and comforter to the bottom of the bed and lay spread-eagled in the middle of the mattress, squinting up at the ceiling light. He was still wearing his boxers and robe, which was now splayed out under him.\nHe was going to be tied up soon by another boy. In another house, alone. What would that mean?\nThis was strange. Why was he okay with the idea?\n\tMike lazily tossed the two extra belts onto the kit’s chest, surprising him.\n\tTai let out a bark of surprise and shot into a sitting position. “Wh-?! Oh…” Tentatively, he rubbed a paw over the cotton strips. They were soft and smooth. He exhaled shakily in mild trepidation.\n\t“Ready?” Mike asked, crawling onto the bed alongside the exposed younger boy.\n\tTai nodded, a surge of excitement dizzying him. “Yes.”\n\tSlowly, carefully, Mike started to wrap a belt around Tai’s wrist. He smiled, listening to Tai’s tremulous breathing. His own started to speed up to match. This was going to be incredible… if Tai didn’t freak out again, at least.\n\t“I-I can’t believe we’re gonna do this,” Tai said aloud, aware of activity inside his short satin boxers. His chest felt strange. Sort of tight. It was an excitement so strong it almost was unbearable.\n\t“It’s just a tie up game. Never played one before?” \n\tTai shook his head.\n\t“That sucks. It’ll be fun!”\n\tHis arm was extended and the cotton belt was tied around the bed frame at the top, to either side. When Mike did likewise to his other paw his mouth went abruptly dry. He experimentally tugged on the two broad belts, only to find that the knots done by the older boy were tight and unlikely to budge if he resisted – and no matter what he did, he couldn’t reach them with his fingers. If Mike continued, he’d be totally immobilized in moments. He didn’t realize at first what it meant to be really tied up.\n\tWhen Mike was finished, Tai doubted he’d be able to resist in the slightest.\n\t“This is my last chance to say no!” he thought, breathing very fast. \nHe said nothing.\n\tMike was almost ready to burst now. He fended off the nearly overwhelming exhilaration by focusing on his task. With deliberate and precise movements, he carefully tied an elaborate knot around Tai’s first skinny ankle, a knot that left a length of cotton free in order to tie the leg to the metal bars at the base of the bed, then another on Tai’s other ankle, before yanking Tai down on the bed and fixing his ankles firmly to the poles. The plaster cast on his damaged ankle was no problem, as the cotton belt was just very firmly tied above it.\n\tTai let out a little mewl after he tested his bonds and found that Mike had left him nearly no leeway at all. He jerked hard, but the improvised restraints didn’t loosen or slip at all, and Tai was nowhere near strong enough to snap the cotton-nylon strips to escape. The quiet sound he made was high pitched and quivering. \n\tMike picked up the comforter and draped it over Tai’s body, then rolled it back until it only covered the littler kit’s feet. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned after that strange, unintelligible sound.\n\t“I-I’m fine,” replied Tai, forcing himself to breathe steadily. “I’m okay, Mike, honest.”\n\t“If you think you’re going to get scared, let me know, alright?” Mike grinned outrageously. “I’ll let you free straight away. You have a stiffy, by the way.” He pointed at the small tent in the smaller kit’s boxers.\n\tTai stuck his tongue out from his sharp muzzle, trying to look a little braver than he felt. “So do you! I can see it from here.” Then he swallowed. The brown fox boy had adopted a strangely predatory expression and hovered over him, growling archly. “M-M-Mike?!” he stammered. \n\tBefore Tai could panic, however, a playful smile surfaced on Mike’s features, and the older pup shed his cotton robe, straddling his tied friend’s supple chest. Tai idly noticed that the feeling of satin on fur was pretty cool.\n\tMike placed his paws on Tai’s chest, gently massaging Tai’s flat chest, using his thumbs to stroke the fur concealed nipples. “Does this feel nice?” he asked breathlessly. Tai nodded and smiled, huffing slightly as his little nipples were tweaked and rubbed. Gladly, he pushed his chest up a little.\n\tThen the older fox kit took his index finger on his paw and traced it down the ticklish inside of an arm, awarded by the sound of a youthful giggle. \n\tTai wriggled uselessly underneath his friend’s hips. He could feel his erection poking and brushing against Mike’s backside. “You aren’t going to tickle me… are you?” he enquired, eyes wide. Practically asking for it.\n\t“Only… a lot.” Mike promptly dug his paws into Tai’s sides, just underneath the ribcage and wriggled them, making full use of his stubby claws. The resulting shriek was immediate and Mike winced, pinning his ears down. “Oookay, just not now.” He leant down towards Tai’s face. “Hey, I have an idea! You’re a little loud, so how about I gag you…?”\n\tThe bound vulpine kit tensed, pulling his bonds even tauter. “What?!” he squeaked, eyes now at dinner-plate width. \n\t“Oh, yeah,” Mike giggled, deciding to push his luck. “How does a blindfold sound? That’s just an extra, but we need the gag. We can’t have you waking the neighbors up in the middle of the night.”\n\t“B-blindfold? Gag!?” Tai was shivering in the warm room. “M-Mike, I-I dunno!”\n\t“Can’t you just give it a try?” was the whispered response. “Later on, just for a few minutes, then you can tell me what it’s like. Please?”\n\tThat took Tai aback slightly. The bigger fox’s eyes shimmered, hopefully. Pleading with him. Tai admitted he had always enjoyed the kidnapping scenes in movies, where the characters were bound and gagged and tied up, but now he was faced with the chance to try it himself. And Mike was begging him… “A-alright…”\n\tMike smiled and started exploring the warm, tight body underneath his. With curious paws, he felt every single nook and cranny of Tai’s furry body. He slid them across his friend’s belly, massaged his chest, brushed at his thighs, and explored the area enclosed by his boxer shorts, all to the sound of Tai’s rapt sighs. Mike was trembling, and his tingling stiffy poked unashamedly out from his groin.\n\tIt was wonderful. Tai’s body was warm and the fur covering it was smooth and dreamy all over, like velvet-spun clouds. He touched everything he could of the tawny boy’s adorable form, appreciating it whole. \n\tTai had his eyes closed, enthralled by the sensual, intimate feeling of his friend playing with his entire body. \n\tThere was a knock on the door.\n\tMike’s reaction was instantaneous and startlingly precise. He slipped off Tai’s body, so he was lying next to Tai, and wrenched the comforter up to their necks, covering Tai’s wrists with pillows and stuffing a third underneath their heads. “Come in!” he called, picking up a comic book from the side of the bed and making it appear for all the world as if he’d just been reading a bed time story to his companion.\n\tRobert entered, holding two mugs of warm cocoa, while Tai looked around in shock. “Hi guys,” the adult said, concentrating on keeping from spilling the indelible liquid on the expensive carpet. He placed the mugs on one of the dressers made to leave. “Careful, they’re really hot and I overfilled them, so don’t spill them. Get to sleep soon, boys. It’s late.” \n\t“Love you, dad. G’night!” Mike called in a fluting voice.\n\t“Good night Mr. Donaldson,” added Tai breathily, relieved that the grownup hadn’t noticed anything amiss. His heart was thumping so hard he thought Robert would hear.\n\t“Good night boys. Love you too, Mike.” Robert closed the door, and the kits could hear the soft, measured footfalls as he made his way back to the study on the other side of the apartment.\n\tWhen he was definitely out of earshot, Mike giggled. “That was close,” he muttered, turning on a lamp above his bed and getting up to switch the main light off. “Now, where were we…?” He grinned toothily as he made his way back. “Ah, yes. I think it might be time for that gag I mentioned. Shaaaall we? We have to make my dad think we’re going to bed.”\n\tAn incoherent mewl.\n\tMike opened his closet door and started rummaging through his sock drawer. “I haven’t got a real one, but we can improvise.” He extracted a few pairs of socks. Long, knee-high football socks. “What do you think?”\n\t“I-isn’t that dirty?”\n\t“They were all washed yesterday.” He reached in and grabbed some more socks of various other sizes. “Besides, it’s only my paws. They’re clean! Are you ready? Tai?”\n\tTai swallowed and nodded. “…G-go on, please!” he blurted. “I wanna try it.”\n\tThe ten-year-old nodded and walked towards his little playmate. “Here, I’m gonna put this is your muzzle, okay?” \n\tTai nodded, but when the stuffed sock was nearly pushed into his open mouth, he twisted away sharply. “Wait, I’ve got something to say!”\n\t“What, what?” \n\tTai grinned shyly. “Love you.”\n\tOn a whim, Mike took Tai’s head in his paws and delivered a firm kiss to the littler boy’s nose. \n\tThe tawny-pup opened his mouth to take the stuffed sock and Mike obliged, gently but firmly placing the sock into the pup’s mouth. Tai screwed his features once the bland, dry sock could be felt on his tongue. The sock quickly sucked up most of the moisture from Tai’s muzzle, making him slightly uncomfortable at first.\n\tMike, with one of his more normal length socks, tied Tai’s muzzle closed. Then without giving the little kit even a second’s warning, tied a football sock over his eyes, blindfolding him in an instant.\n\tTai’s protestation was muffled.\n\t“Just for a few minutes,” Mike reminded him, soothingly stroking his brow. “Then I’ll take them off and you can decide.”\n\tBlind, Tai nodded and tried to swallow, but he couldn’t, not with the sock in his mouth.\n\tThe world had gone dark; this sock was thick and black. No light permeated its fibers, and Tai was totally sightless. He couldn’t see what was going on anymore, nor could he speak out if he was scared, or in pain. Already, his heartbeat came louder and faster. His vulpine ears strained, but what he heard was of no use. Merely the sounds of Mike’s rough, excited breathing and the high pitched mosquito-like whine that seemed to be emanating from the lamp.\n\tHe knew whatever he said now would be muffled and incoherent, so he didn’t even bother.\n\tA paw slowly slipped up the leg of his boxers, and he let out a startled complaint. \n\tThe intrusive paw slowly rubbed over his furry little scrotum, curling its fingers around and over his diminutive penis. Tai inhaled sharply through his nose and held his breath, shaking slightly as that warm sensation spread from his dick through his body.\n\tMike was fighting to keep up his slow and steady pace. There was nothing more interesting at the moment than the sight of this totally powerless little fox-boy, strapped down on the bed underneath his weight, squirming and moaning from his attentions. He couldn’t rush this.\n\tA wicked grin spread across Mike’s face and he withdrew the paw from Tai’s boxers. The little kit whined and writhed at the deprivation, bucking his hips towards Mike’s, pleading with him not to stop.\n\tThat shriek, which before had been almost loud and shrill enough to shatter glass before, was muffled greatly this time by the sock-gag as Mike assaulted Tai’s armpits with his paws.\n\t“Heh!” he sniggered, bringing a paw down to Tai’s belly and tickling it – causing the little fox try to press into the mattress as if it would somehow yield and he could be sucked down into its safety. “Now I got you! You can’t stop me from tickling you crazy! Muahahaha!” The false laugh disintegrated into a real belly laugh, and Mike shifted his ticklish ministrations to Tai’s sides.\n\tThe tied kit struggled mightily, considering his small size, but despite his bucking and pulling, the cotton belts refused to slacken even a little and all Tai accomplished was tensing his body, which of course just made a much better target for Mike.\n\tTai laughed and cried, oblivious to the fact his little cock had become hard as possible. “This is cool!” he thought, wriggling his toes in a futile effort to distract himself from the tickle-attack: he just had to suffer every instant of horrible sensation. “It’s cooler than cool!” Mike slowed the tickling down a tormenting, slow pace, and Tai fought to resist it, completely in vain; he couldn’t stop his high-pitched squeak from turning into uncontrollable giggling. \n\tIn spite of it all, Mike was right: this was fun. \nNaturally the bark furred kit sitting on his pelvic area was more than aware of his tawny friend’s erection. Quickly and dexterously, Mike undid the button fly on the satin boxers and left physics to do the rest of the job. It did. When the kit struggled and twisted his hips, trying to escape an inescapable tickle attack on his lower belly, his small, smooth-skinned dick slipped out of the fly. Judging by the hysterical squealing and wailing, Mike guessed he hadn’t even noticed.\n\tSo he slid off the kit and started running his paws down the supple legs, feeling the warmth and tension in those skinny appendages. He shuddered. This was insane! He had Tai tied up for him, willingly, and he had offered his entire body to Mike. He could do anything he wanted! \n\tLaughing more as he felt a smooth tongue up the inside of his thigh, Tai contended with his urge to hyperventilate.\n\tIt was weird, Tai thought. He was at Mike’s mercy and Mike had done nothing that hadn’t made them both happy – in fact, this was a lot of fun! The tickling was awful, but Mike knew when to stop. Besides, the simple feeling of their bodies touching, feeling one another’s warmth and the ripple of each other’s muscles, the comfort of being held and touched by someone you loved and trusted, was an amazing experience. Tied up or not.\n\tMike glanced over at his work table, where all of his stationery was kept. On the top was a thin, long plastic pen. It was the perfect length, design and width for an improvised dildo, at least for a total beginner. He looked down at Tai. The kit’s chest was heaving with sobbing giggles. He’d liked everything so far, but taking the risk of scaring him again was a bad idea. \n\tIt sucked, having to take things so slowly. Mike had a big list he wanted to get through.\n\tMike decided to get a little naughty. He stuck his muzzle between Tai’s legs and started snuffling around, smelling deeply. Tai giggled and tried to pull his legs in. He accomplished nothing.\n\t“Mmm,” Mike muttered, rubbing at Tai’s lower belly. “You smell really good.”\n\tWith shaking legs, Tai forced himself to stop struggling and relax once again. He let out a tranquil sigh as Mike began to breathe in his scent deeply, occasionally letting his long tongue slip out and lap at his furry scrotum. He finally realized with a mental jolt that his boxers had been opened and his privates exposed.\n\tWhen had that happened?! \n\tMike brought forth a paw and wrapped a few fingers around Tai’s cock. He licked the head wetly, drawing the rough flat of his tongue across the sensitive skin, making the pup wriggle and gasp. “Are you ready, Tai?” Mike asked playfully, starting to pump the length of warm flesh in his fingers. “Do you want me to take those things off you? Just nod if you want me to.” An emphatic headshake. “Alrighty!”\n\tTai squealed into the sock-gag when he felt the tip of his granite hard penis being taken into Mike’s soft, moist maw. Two fingers began to gently massage below the head, the two feelings sending that, what Tai could only describe as, wonderful warm-electricity buzzing through his genital area. Tai whined and pressed his hips forwards, uselessly trying to increase the pressure, or at least get more of him inside that heavenly vulpine muzzle.\n\tBut Mike had other plans. His paws firmly ensured that no more of Tai was inside his mouth than he wanted, and his tongue was driving the little kit wild with its lubricated swiping of the light pink flesh. \n\tMike continued his careful work until Tai’s complaints stopped being merely plaintive and insistent and started becoming desperate. Then, out of pity, he decided to speed things up a little. Tai’s moans become more contented.\nHowever, the barky-furred kit wasn’t going to be hurried at all. He slowly, very slowly, brought his submissive friend to the brink of orgasm, licking, kissing and suckling the tiny cock in his paws… he didn’t, however, suck the whole thing into his muzzle properly. He wanted Tai to squirm, and Tai was obliging.\n\tFinally, Tai squealed into his gag. Mike massaged his testicles in his furry sack and sucked hard on the little organ, running his tongue over the tip firmly, catapulting the hapless kit into an intense orgasm. Mike didn’t stop even as he felt the penis in his paws shudder and jerk in dry orgasm, instead continuing on with his ministration, his tongue still paying particular attention to that sensitive tip.\n\tWhich soon became hypersensitive. Mike’s talented tongue started to aggravate the raw nerves and send even more powerful waves of electricity over the small pup’s body than when he’d teased him in the bathtub. Mike remembered the almost pained gasp he’d got merely for touching it after Tai’s first orgasm. \n\tHe continued on, knowing full well the strength of the sensation he was forcing upon the tied-down littler cub. He felt the dancing muscles of his belly, the tense trembling of his entire body… it was utterly awesome. He knew Tai had to be enjoying it too, even if it was so overpowering.\n\tTai’s whines and whimpers changed note quickly. He was pleading for Mike to cease his pleasure-turned-torment. “Mmop!” he mumbled shrilly.\n\tMike slowly wound down; by the finish he had left his bound little friend shuddering, a clammy cold wreck on the bed, panting heavily.\n\t“Like that?” the bark-furred fox-boy enquired. He wiped at his muzzle with his other paw.\n\tTai nodded, still trembling slightly.\n\t“Should I untie you now? Do you want me to leave you like this?”\n\tTai nearly nodded, but then he realized that Mike had deliberately asked two contradictory questions… He snorted a laugh, and Mike snickered.\n\tAt last, Tai felt the socks coming off of his muzzle and over his eyes. A paw hovered in front of his nose, so he delicately placed the two ankle socks into it. “Untie me, please?” he asked, squinting as the lamp light blinded him.\n\tWithout delay, Mike set to work undoing the binds. He threw the four cotton belts onto the floor along with the socks, easing his friend into a sitting position. “Are you okay?” he asked kindly.\n\tTai leaned forwards at lightning speed and locked his jaws in a surprise kiss with those of his friend, flattening him to the bed. Then he leaned back and sat there, looking exhausted but happy, with an adoring gleam in his eyes.\n\t“You seem fine to me,” gasped Mike. Of all the reactions he expected after essentially torturing Tai, a kiss wasn’t one of them.\n\t Leaning over, Mike switched the bedside lamp off and snuggled up to Tai, holding the dazed kit tightly to his chest. “Thanks a lot for playing with me tonight,” he said sincerely. “You’re the coolest, Tai.”\n\t“That was awesome!!” Tai suddenly squeezed himself to Mike’s chest in a loving cuddle. “Wait...” He gently broke the hug, pulled off his robe and boxers, and proceeded to crawl down the bed.\n\t“Tai, whatcha doing?” Mike enquired quietly, then his unseeing eyes went wide as his boxers were speedily tugged down past his knees and a muzzle enveloped his still hard cock. It took the entirety of it at once, wrapping a heavenly tongue around it. “Oh!” he exclaimed, raising his hips off the mattress.\n\tThis time, there was no water to get in the way and even though he was still reeling from that amazing orgasm, Tai was very much motivated. \n\tMike gasped as Tai wrapped his skinny arms around his waist, suckling on the bigger boy’s penis enthusiastically. \n\tThough he had felt it before, though so long ago, it felt much better now. Mike sprawled out, closing his eyes. A shaky moan escaped his muzzle, and he started to writhe slowly, not of his own volition. Clutching at the sheets and Tai’s long head-fur. \n\tIt was wonderful. So unlike his first experience. So right somehow. He was on a comfortable bed, and it was his shy, affectionate little friend cuddling right up to him and sucking him off happily. Suddenly, he found himself cursing all the time of his life that had gone by where he hadn’t experienced it. It was truly amazing.\n\tHowever, Tai sped up, confidence coming to him at last. He sealed his muzzle around the little member, increasing the suction and letting his tongue contour to its smooth, rounded perfection. Mike started to tense up, his gasps and groans growing more urgent…\n\tIn the darkness, Mike shut his eyes tightly, focusing entirely the bliss his enthusiastic younger friend was inflicting on him. It became his entire world for the moment; a warm, comfortable cloud of feeling, like the hot mist from the spa, that he wanted to just stay in forever.\n\tThe older boy felt it coming, but even still he couldn’t prepare himself for it. Not in the least. He couldn’t hold back the loud cry, and his entire body trembled in spasm, beyond his control. Splayed on either side of the smaller kit, his legs kicked and his back arched. “Unnhh!!” Even knowing it was coming, his body was no more controllable than Tai’s was when it took him utterly by surprise…\n\tKnowing it was done, Tai slowed down, starting to suckle on his friend’s member for no other reason than because he admitted to himself that he liked to. After a moment, Mike was weakly struggling, afflicted by that same wonderful oversensitivity Tai had felt. Smiling, Tai withdrew, showing the bigger boy the mercy he had been denied.\n\t“Oh…” Mike sighed, stretching out languidly. Both his voice and body trembled still. “Oh, crap… that was awesome.”\n\t“I hope it was,” the kit replied, scooting slowly back up to head height, “because I was trying my best!”\n\tLazily, Mike rolled over and laid an arm across Tai’s downy furred chest…. \n\tThey were both suddenly so very drowsy. Wordlessly, they snuggled their shaky nude bodies together. \n\tBut after awhile, Tai stirred. “Mike, can we talk for a little while?”\n\tMike jerked his eyes open. “Wha? Y-yeah, of course.” He fought away the creeping fatigue and switched his lamp on again, on the weakest setting, so it merely bathed the room in a warm glow.\n\t“It’s just that I’ve got a couple of questions…”\n\t“Shoot. I can stay up for a little longer.” He yawned. “Barely.”\n\t“That first time met… did you want to do this stuff with me?”\n\tMike tensed slightly. \n\t“Is that why you wanted to be my friend?”\n\t“No!” Mike protested. Then he sighed. “Well… I mean- I th-thought about it, yeah. I wanted to…”\n\tThe littler fox-pup just lay there, silent.\n\t“Look,” Mike said slowly, getting a little closer and swallowing his pride, “I’m sorry. I like you, as a friend. I swear.” There was a pause. An awkward, guilty silence. “… Do you believe me?”\n\tIn the darkness Mike could see very little of the younger pup’s face. “I-I don’t know.” \n\tMike swallowed hard.\n\tThe younger fox stared at the indistinct dark shape next to him. Confused. He wasn’t sure if he cared about this or not. Mike seemed genuinely friendly to him, really caring. He didn’t know what to think, how to feel. Mike was his friend. He enjoyed playing with him. Did it really matter if Mike first wanted to talk to him to convince him to naughty things? No, that itself didn’t matter. \n\tHe had answered honestly. At this point, he didn’t know if he believed Mike. Suddenly, he found himself doubtful again. Would Mike only be his friend to do these things? Then turn on him? The way everyone else did?! Tai was fine with the naughty stuff, but now Mike had made him doubt… he opened his muzzle, but the older boy spoke first.\n\t“Did you only do this stuff because you felt you had to?” \n\tTai blinked. “Wh-what? N-no, I-”\n\t“You know what that means, right?” Mike buried his muzzle in his paws, despairingly. “This means we can’t play with each other anymore.” Tai gasped. “I dunno for sure if you really wanted to do those things – if you wanna be my friend. I can’t do this stuff if you don’t want to do it for yourself! That’ll make me no better than that guy who…”\n\tThe tawny fox felt his chest seize up. “Not true!” he protested, shaking his head violently. “I liked it!”\n\t“Just coz you think you liked it doesn’t mean you want it…” mumbled Mike cryptically.\n\tThere was a long, baffled silence as Tai stared at the older kit. What had just happened? What did Mike mean by that? \n\tA heavy feeling came over him. Couldn’t play with Mike anymore? Oh no.\n\tOh no…\nSniffing, Tai rolled off the bed, clumsily trying to stand while his sore ankle started throbbing in protest, and looked for his clothes and crutch.\n\t“Huh - Where are you going?” Mike demanded, surprised. “Oh, you don’t have to get dressed just to go to the toilet, Tai. Dad’s in the study.”\n\tThe kit shook his head. “I’m not going to the toilet. I’m gonna go home.”\n\t“Huh?! Why?”\n\t“You said we can’t be friends anymore and I-…” Tai pulled his shirt on and picked up his pants. “It’s not right for me to stay. I’ve got my keys with me, and I’ll be alright at home alone.”\n\tWhat stung Mike was the way Tai said that. He wasn’t being catty, or spiteful. He was serious.\n\t“Whoa, stop!” The older kit swung his legs over the bed and shot to his feet. “I never said that! Just that we shouldn’t do that kinda stuff for awhile, until we both know we want to! You don’t have to go, Tai! Please don’t go!” \n\tTai looked at him in abject shock. Not just at how Mike had begged him not to go but at the fact Mike’s brown eyes were shimmering with tears, wide with alarm. Slowly, it changed to sadness.\n\t“No, never mind…” Mike added, slumping and turning away. “It’s up to you. Go if you want. I’ll miss you though.” His voice cracked. “It’s not what I meant…”\n\tThe two of them stood perfectly still, Mike staring at the floor, shoulders heaving gently with his heavy breathing, and Tai staring guiltily at his friend’s back. He wanted to reach out and embrace him, but Mike had said no more, and he didn’t know where the line was drawn. They were so close a few minutes ago, too. He could still smell Mike’s fur…\n\tBut he felt paralyzed. At a complete loss for words. Tai had no idea what to do, where to go. Finally, a brilliant idea came to him. To just ask. “W-what should we do?”\n\tMike turned back to him, and Tai was stunned to see he was now clearly crying. “I don’t know!” Mike sniffed. “I don’t want you to go.”\n\tTai shivered. “I don’t… I don’t want to.”\n\tWith as much dignity as he could muster, Mike swiped at his nose with a wrist. “A-alright. I have an idea. Y-you wanna know if I really want to be your friend, and I wanna know if you really want to do that stuff with me.” He frowned. “Then why don’t we do it tomorrow? We can go to the pool like we planned. None of these types of games. Friends.” He held out a paw. “That’ll give me a chance to prove myself, and you get a chance to find out for sure if you want to be my friend, right?”\n\tWithout a moment’s thought, Tai grabbed that proffered paw and shook it. “Sure!”\n\tMike looked about ready to faint with relief. “Okay… okay. Let’s get to bed…”\n\tTai moved towards the bed, but he stopped, sniffing the air. “Um. What about the cocoa?”\n\tMike looked forlornly at the cups on the bedside cabinet. “Um… I think we’ll just save them for tomorrow. It’s late.”\n\tThe ten-year-old sighed with genuine regret.\n\n\tThe small office was dark, illuminated only scarcely by the light from two computer screens, left on by some of the lazier workers. Eraline sighed, working her way past a few of the messier workstations to her own, which luckily was right beside a stained, smudgy window that overlooked the grimy New York dockyards. It wasn’t a pleasant visage, but it was better than having to stare at a wall. With a sigh, she placed a manila folder on her desk, paused, and knelt down.\n\tShe felt exhausted, and very nervous, as she reached under her assigned desk, reaching behind the metal frame of her work computer. She felt around, finally grasping a small plastic nodule behind the machine and pulling on it. It slid out, and she looked at it. The flash-drive had to be left for hours while data was copied over to it. She should’ve left it overnight, but…\n\tThere was a footfall at the entrance to the office, and she quickly slipped the device into her jacket’s pocket. \n\t“Hey!” snapped a voice, young and aggressive. “Who’s there?!”\n\tEraline stood. “Hold on, don’t shoot!” she said, trying to make it sound like a joke. Though, as expected, the security guard had his paw atop his holster. “It’s only me.”\n\t“Eraline?!” exclaimed the young security guard, shining a powerful hand-held flashlight at her. “It’s well after hours, what’re you doing in here? We’re about close up.”\n\t“Oh, Katz said he wanted some paperwork done for the morning, but I’m not due to come in until nine. I figured I’d just nip in and dump them before you locked up.”\n\tThe guard frowned, approaching her. “Fair enough,” he said. “You’re new here, so just a bit of a warning. This is the New York City docks, not some small town pier. Some of us boys can get a bit edgy when the sun goes down and we’re on our lonesome. All kinds of filth try to sneak around in here in the dark.”\n\tThe vixen smiled. “Sometimes in broad daylight too,” she thought to herself. “Sorry,” she said aloud. “I didn’t think of that… Um, one second, I came over here to finish something off, and I dropped my pen. Do you mind if I-?”\n\tThe guard nodded. “I don’t, but you’ve got five minutes. I’m counting.”\n\t“Won’t be one.” Kneeling again, Eraline reached under the desk and picked up a pen. One she had deliberately knocked down there earlier in the day. She stood, flipping over the manila folder.\n\tSatisfied at her performance for the office surveillance camera.\n\tQuickly, she finished off the paper at the very top of the pile. “Alright, done.” Closing the file, Eraline walked over to the nearest desk and dumped it atop the pile of trash. She couldn’t resist shaking her head in disgust at it all.\n\t“Okay, come on,” the guard insisted, ushering her to the door. “No offense intended, but I got a job to do. Bet you can’t wait to get home to your boy anyway, right?”\n\tEraline felt a dull, painful chill settle into her chest.\n\t“…Yeah.”\n\n\t“Tai?”\n\tThe sound of his name cut across the fluffy clouds of his dreams and tried to call him back to the land of the living. He wasn’t interested.\n\t“C’mon, Tai!” \n\tThe cub rolled over and mewled sleepily.\n\t“Wake up, lazy-butt!”\n\tAt last, Tai mumbled some incoherent gibberish, then added “Too comfy!” on the end. \n\t“Ohhh, Geez-Louise!” Mike rolled his eyes heavenwards. “Well, can I at least have my arm back?”\n\tNo response. Though Mike was sure he saw a smile on the kit’s face. \n\t“Aargh!” He yanked his arm free, careful not to hurt his slight friend. “Sleepy-head.” He touched Tai gently then slid out from under the covers, making sure he didn’t let any of the heat escape or the cold air of the room rush in to fill the void he left.\n\tHe walked over to the window overlooking the brightly lit street and stretched. He fell onto the window sill, dizzied.\n\t“Woo, I gotta pee!” he muttered. He considered dressing, but his dad had seen him naked before. It wouldn’t kill him. But he did have to get Tai up, he supposed. “Tai!” he said to the slowly awakening kit. “It’s time to wake up. We’ve got to go to the pool before nine, and we need to have breakfast and shower.”\n\tTai rubbed his eyes sluggishly, sitting up slowly. His eyes weren’t quite focused and his head swayed like a cobra. “Uhh… why a shower? We’re going swimming, right?”\n\t“Showers are good in the morning, they wake you up. Anyway, if we get things out of the way quickly, we can play something before we go.”\n\t“How will get to the pool?”\n\t“Dad will drive us. I cleared it with him last night.”\n\tThe door opened and Robert poked his head in. “Actually guys,” he began, “Jake’s gonna take you. I tried to ask his father, but he couldn’t go either.”\n\t“Jake?” Tai exclaimed, waking up almost instantaneously.\n\t“Aww, you aren’t coming, dad?” whined Mike.\n\t“Nah, sorry. I’ve got a lot of work to do. Need to cover for someone at the university.” Robert raised an eyebrow and chortled. “Lookin’ good boys. Lost your clothes in the night, huh?”\n\tTai hid his face by pulling the comforter up. \n\t“Shy, ain’t he?” Mike laughed, holding his arms out to his dad, asking to be picked up despite his nudity. Robert obliged and easily hefted his little boy into his arms, nuzzling his nose lovingly. Tai could only think of how much he’d want to shrivel and die if his mom saw him sleeping naked. Let alone actually asking her to pick him up.\n\t“What do you guys want for breakfast?” the grown-up enquired, resting his muzzle on his pup’s head. \n\t“Sandwiches!!” Mike replied, holding his father tighter. “Have we got any salami?”\n\t“Yep. I’ll throw something together.”\n\t“Awesome!”\n\tRobert put Mike down. “Okay, boys, it’s time to get dressed. You can’t go to the pool naked!”\n\tTai just curled up into a ball.\n\t“Tai, don’t be embarrassed!” Mike laughed. “Okay, I’m just going to the toilet. Be back soon. We’ll have a shower then get dressed.”\n\tRobert pulled back the top of the blanket and smiled at the little fox hiding under it, like a timid mouse. “Come on, Tai, time to get up. I won’t peek.” He knew his own son was very laid back about his nudity, but other kits he knew could get rather ashamed. “I’m not going to stay here to look at you.”\n\tTai rolled over, his expression inordinately shy. He summoned his courage and sat up, knowing that it shouldn’t matter if the grownup saw his bare chest at least. “O-okay. Umm, didn’t you say that my mom was coming back today?”\n\t“Maybe; she was going to try for tonight, but she might get back well after you’ll have to be in bed.”\n\t“Thank you for looking after me.”\n\t“Don’t mention it, Tai. It was great to have you around. Are you going to be alright with your ankle today though?”\n\t“Yeah. I can limp around.”\n\t“Careful with it, Tai. Don’t use it too much or you’ll make things a lot worse. I’m going to tell Jake to make sure you dry it off. See you!”\n\tRobert went to the kitchen, leaving Tai to stretch before heading to the bathroom to wait for his friend. The door was locked, and he remembered that the toilet was actually in there as well as the shower. He waited patiently for Mike to open the door, hoping Robert didn’t return and see him fully exposed.\n\tWhen the door did open, Tai, this time fully awake, was met with the visage of his friend in the nude. Mike cocked his head. “What’s wrong?” he asked. \n\t“N-nothing.” Tai was suddenly reminded of his own nudity, and he felt his face grow hot. There was also that oddly familiar ‘glowing’ feeling in his lower belly. \n\t“You really don’t need to worry,” said Mike, half serious. “Not here, anyway. Dad doesn’t really care. Did I tell you? He plays football at the university where he teaches. He’s spent more time in changing rooms than I have. We’ve seen loads of naked furs.” \n\tTai flushed and nodded.\n\tMike took the younger kit’s arm in his paw and pulled him gently into the bathroom. He stuck his head out into the hallway furtively, then closed the door. He turned back to face Tai. \n\t“Wh-what?” Tai asked, surprised. He wasn’t sure if he expected to share the shower with the older boy.\n\tMike shrugged. “Nothing. Actually, I got a question.” \n\t“Huh?”\n\t“Do you really want to go swimming today, or are you just coming because I asked?” \n\t“Well…” Tai squirmed and looked at his nude reflection in the bathroom mirror. “I’ve never gone swimming in a pool before. I guess I want to see what it’s like.” \n\t“You what?” \n\t“There was a few pools near my old home, but I never went.”\n\t“You mean ‘there were a few.’” Mike correct absently. He seemed to be thinking, looking blankly at his friend and putting his hands on his hips. Tai caught himself staring when he did, but looked away quickly—they’d promised not to do things like that anymore. “So, you can’t swim, can you?”\n\tTai adapted something he’d heard his mother say. “Of course I can. Like a brick.” He smiled nervously.\n\t“Not a problem.” The bark-furred boy grinned. “We’ll see how we go. Still want to come?” \n\t“Sure… I guess.” \n\t“Are you sure you’re unsure whether or not you’re sure?” \n\t“Wh-what?” \n\t“C’mon, let’s get in the shower.”\n\n\tJake arrived a little later, and Robert quickly said his goodbyes and left the boys in the care of the teen. \n\tThey were lying on Mike’s bed, alongside one another, and playing the video game Tai’d seen when he first stayed here – it was starting to really fascinate him. The door creaked open and Jake poked his russet muzzle in. \n\t“Hey guys! What’s up?” he said cheerfully. He was wearing black jeans, a red shirt and a light brown jacket. A long steel chain connected his wallet to his jeans, dangling fashionably down his leg. \n\t“The roof,” quipped Mike instantly. “Nothing much,” he added then. “It’s been a boring morning.” \n\t“A cold one too. Sure you want to swim in this?” \n\tMike stood and stretched. “Indoor pool. Should be okay.” He had on a long sleeved gray and blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans. \n\tJake nodded and leaned against the door frame. “You should bring a pullover or something anyway.” \n\tTai sat up cross-legged. He had his hoodie next to him and was wearing some new clothes; Jake noticed that twice now he’d seen Tai in the same gear. But now he was now wearing a deep blue t-shirt and cheap black track-pants with a red stripe down each leg. A cast coated one of the skinny kit’s ankles.\n\t“Are you going to be alright to swim with your ankle wrapped up in that?” Jake asked, idly wondering when and how it got hurt.\n\tThe kit nodded. “Um, yeah,” he replied. Jake felt he seemed a little distracted. “The doctors said I could let it get wet, but I have to dry it off.”\n\t“So, when are we leaving?” Mike enquired, enthusiastic to get some practice in. He had seated himself again and was slipping on a pair of flip-flops. \n\t“Have you had breakfast yet?” \n\t“Just some sandwiches.”\n\tJake shrugged. “OK, get ready and let’s jet. I’ll treat you to somethin’, I got paid yesterday.” \n\t“Thanks for taking us Jake.” \n\t“No problem. Just promise me one thing.” \n\tMike looked up, curious. \n\t“No strip teases, Mike. None of that stuff in public.” \n\t“Of course,” Tai suddenly joked. “We only do that at home.” \n\tMike stuffed a sweater into his sports bag hastily and darted out of the room to go to the toilet before they left, leaving Tai and Jake in the room together.\n\tThe little fox waited until Mike was out of earshot, and he spoke up just as Jake made to turn and leave the room. “Jake?” he said quietly. The larger canine turned to him, and Tai quickly looked down at his paws dangling over the edge of the bed. “Um… can I ask a favor?” \n\t“Shoot.” \n\t“Um. C-can you teach me?” he felt the familiar steadily increasing heat in his cheeks and he knew he was blushing under his fur. “Can you teach me to swim?” \n\tJake paused. Though he’d brought his own swimming gear, he wasn’t too keen on getting into the water himself. “Mike’s a better teacher for that than I am,” he said coolly. \n\t“I know, but he’ll be busy.” Tai already knew how pathetic he’d look, trying to flounder around on his own. \n\tWith a mental sigh of resignation, Jake nodded. “We’ll see. Come on, let’s get moving.” \n\n\tJake let the two fox boys into ‘his’ car, and almost from the moment he did he knew something was wrong.\n\tThe duo sat apart, and their conversation, when they actually spoke to one another, was awkward. Tentative. Not the chatter of typical kids, nor the mature banter he knew Mike at least was capable of. It was odd, definitely not what he expected considering the… intimate show they put on when Jake last saw them. Eventually they started discussing the color of passing cars. They didn’t seem even remotely interested in the topic; like they were struggling for things to say.\n\tThe teenager felt uncomfortably like he was restricting them. They clearly had other things they needed to discuss.\n\t“Another pink one,” Tai noted quietly. “Why would you want a pink car?” \n\t“Like your boxers?” retorted Mike. He grinned over at the tawny kit. \n\tTai smiled nervously. “No one sees those.” \n\tThe younger fox felt a strange twinge of relief for some reason, and he reached up absently to brush one of his stray bangs out of his face. It flopped right back, and he despairingly left it. It was just a nervous habit of his, and that lock naturally fell in front of his eyes anyway. It either had to be cut or just put up with, and Tai hadn’t suffered a haircut in years.\n\tThe two foxes locked eyes for a split second, then they both went back to looking out the window and remarking on cars. \n\tJake frowned in puzzlement. What the hell was going on here? \n\t“So, what do you guys want to eat?” he asked, pushing the matter aside for now. \n\t“What’s along the way again?” replied Mike, stretching up so intensely in the seat that his navel was actually visible. \n\t“A lot. What do you feel like?” Jake frowned. “Didn’t you guys get much sleep last night?” \n\tTai was already yawning before he even thought to stop it. “Uhh, yeah,” he lied, badly. “I think it’s just because it’s early in the morning.” \n\tJake forced his facial muscles to affect disinterest again; for Tai, maybe, but Mike, for all the years he’d known him, had been an early bird, especially when practice was involved. It was nine in the morning; Mike was usually up and about by then. Maybe the kit was getting into the teenage tradition of lethargy early.\n\t“Ya know, I feel like some sausage… maybe a sausage roll,” Mike mused. “Haven’t had one in ages. Tai?” \n\t The tawny boy had leaned his head on the window again. His breath was misting the window, thanks to the blisteringly cold morning temperature, and he was watching that with what could best be termed ‘bored interest’. He frowned, thinking for a moment. “Um, a-actually, I’d like some chicken.”\n\tJake raised an eyebrow. The smaller kit struck him as extremely deferential. Shy and unassertive, despite the strange, almost attention-seeking decision to go topless for Jake. Jake was mildly astonished he didn’t just agree with Mike.\n\tBut if Mike was surprised, but he didn’t let it show. “Well, Jake, it’s up to you now!” \n\tThe alsatian coughed. “How about both?” he suggested. “We can go to a good home-style restaurant a few blocks from the pools and swing around again.” \n\tThe kits voiced their agreement. \n\tBut then the car fell silent again. \n\t“Hey, there’s that pink car again,” Mike said suddenly. “Wonder if she’s lost?” \n\n\tEarly as it was, the trio were seated in short order at the restaurant. \n\tIt was a nice place that tried very hard to affect a southern, homey atmosphere. The alfresco dining area outside looked more like a garden. As they walked through the front door, Tai noticed there were white lace drapes on all the wide windows skirting the dining area, and the tables and chairs were well polished oak. Verdant houseplants were almost everywhere, while the middle of the dining area was taken up with a grandiose pond-like water feature, constructed of gray stone, that was home to three fern bushes.\n\tDozens of wide tables encircled it, set out with, white, frilly table cloths and inscribed menus. \n\tThe menus were bound in a soft, pungent wood. Mike opened his after the waitress left them seated and immediately screwed his face. \n\t“Why do their menus stink?” he asked in a sotto voce. \n\tJake lifted a finger to his muzzle and shushed him, unable to keep a grin down. “Shhh! It’s the wood, Mike. It doesn’t stink either.” \n\tThe waitress returned almost instantly. It was a perky lapin with large ears, a slim body, a smile that appeared permanent and, so far as the trio could tell, a genuine southern accent. “Hi guys,” she chirped, looking at all of them and shining her gleaming smile. “I’m Jessie, and I’ll be your waitress this cold morning.”\n\t“Cold alright,” muttered Mike. “Excuse me ma’am, but could you turn the heaters up or something?” Across the table from him, Tai was shaking slightly and had wrapped his arms around himself, trying to focus on reading his menu. \n\tJessie laughed. “Sorry, we just opened, so the heating is taking its sweet time.” She looked at the boys sympathetically. “It’ll be warmer in a few minutes, I promise, hun. So, would you like more time to decide or are you ready to order?” \n\tMike nearly retorted that they’d had less than no time to decide so far, but instead kept it to himself. He looked down at the menu again and quickly scanned it. “Uhh… can I just have a breakfast please?” he said, looking up at the tall lapin-lady. “It’d be real cool if you’d swap the salad for extra sausage though.” \n\t“Sure.” \n\tJake spoke up next, sensing Tai still wasn’t too sure of his choice yet. “I’ll have a burger please. With fries.” \n\t“Beef burger…” Jessie looked over to the smaller fox boy who was still frowning at his menu, a few locks of unruly tawny hair flopped in front of his face. “And you, honey?” \n\tHe looked up, slightly embarrassed, and swiped the hair back around his left ear with practiced speed. “Umm, can I have a chicken burger please?” \n\t“Grilled or fried?” \n\t“Um, I-I guess,” Tai stammered, not even sure what the difference was, “Grilled?” \n\t“No problem! Do you want some fries with it? Only a buck more.” \n\tTai shook his head. “No thanks.” \n\tScribbling rapidly on her notepad, Jessie asked one more question: “Anything to drink?”\n\t“Cola.” \n\t“Water.” \n\t“Apple juice, please.” \n\tShe scribbled a little more, then looked up, that radiant smile of hers damn near blinding. “Alright! I’ll be back soon! Shouldn’t take long, since you came in early.” She walked away, humming softly. \n\tWhen the rabbit was out of earshot, Mike grinned at the tawny kit. “Hehe!” he chuckled. “So, that’s why. All grilled food, huh?” \n\tJake looked across the table. “What’s this?”\n\tMike scanned the restaurant quickly to ensure it was still empty. “Go on, Tai, lift up your shirt for a second. Go on!” \n\tAbashed and confused, Tai nonetheless did as he was told. He stood up briefly and lifted his hoodie and shirt to reveal his skinny lower torso and tummy, causing Jake’s heart to skip for a split moment. Tai’s lower body was very lean and embraced by a near-golden fur, creamy white on his flat belly, which slightly tapered down to his hips before widening almost imperceptibly again. Jake gulped: Tai wore his tracksuit pants quite low, resting several inches below his little navel.\n\t“Mike!” the teen grated, eyeing Mike balefully. \n\t“What? You’ll see more than that in the pool,” Mike said insouciantly. “I didn’t mean it like that, I swear! See what I mean though? He, like, eats entire pizzas and he’s so skinny!” \n\tBlushing, Tai lowered his clothes and sat down again. “It’s probably because I don’t eat much,” he proffered. “I’ve gone a few days without eating once!” \n\t“Wouldn’t your mom freak out?” Jake said, positively astounded. The idea of not eating at least twice a day, to him, seemed bizarre – the teen loved his food.\n\t“Mom’s always had to work all day and night shifts,” replied Tai. “It’s not her fault. I just don’t get very hungry. There wasn’t much food anyway.” \n\t“How much do you eat on a normal day, then?” \n\t“Not a lot. I don’t get hungry very often.” \n\tJake sighed. “That’s not good. You really have to be fed more. Being skinny is one thing, but it might also be why you’re so short. Stunting your growth.” Something had abruptly gone very wrong. Tai was staring straight downward, his shoulders slumped. Jake shut up immediately.\n\tTai whimpered and shook his head. “Sh-she couldn’t. She had to work or I wouldn’t eat at all. Not her fault.” \n\tImmediately, both Jake and Mike became alarmed. \n\t“Tai!” the teen hastened to apologize. “I’m sorry; I wasn’t criticizing your mom. Sorry.” \n\tMike however looked sadly at the smaller boy. He remembered the eight-year-old’s eyes, his quavering voice, when his mom left him on the day they met each other the first time. Tai wasn’t defending his mom from Jake…\n\tJessie bustled back up then and handed over three glasses of liquid, smiled, and walked away, evidently still busy despite it being early. Her presence was timely, however, and Tai ducked under the table when she approached, pretending to be tying his shoelaces. He sat back up when she left, and his eyes were miraculously dry. \n\tWith a nervous cough, Jake switched topic quickly. “What have you got planned for after the pools, guys?” \n\tMike reclined in his chair, hoping the awkward moment had passed already. “Nothin’ big,” he replied, resting his head back into his paws. “Tai will probably sleep over for one more night.” \n\t“Ah, back to school soon, huh?” his tone was sympathetic. “That sucks.” \n\t“Yeah.” Tai muttered. \n\t“Is your paw better yet? Maybe you can get your mom to let you stay off for a while longer.” \n\tTai looked under the table at his bandaged ankle, sealed inside its thick plaster cast. He flexed it gingerly and had to admit the pain was minor. “I think it’s getting better…” there was a distinct note of disappointment in his voice.\n\tMike chuckled. “I remember when I hurt my arm; couldn’t wait for it to get better.” \n\t“Oh, you broke it, Tai?” Jake looked at him in surprise.\n\t“Nuh-uh,” replied the fox boy, smiling. “Just sprained it badly and hit it off the side of a shopping cart.”\n\t“Yeesh.” \n\t“In fact,” Mike drawled, “it was really lucky. He’s lucky he didn’t break a lot of stuff, jumping off the mall roof like that.” \n\tJake’s eyes widened. “Say what? Why?!” \n\tTai shot his friend a withering look. “I was being chased… it was the only way I could escape.” \n\t“Chased?! By who? C’mon, Tai, tell me how it happened!” \n\tWith a sigh of resignation, Tai passed the time until the food was brought to the table by explaining who it was that chased him through the city, and why. Jake was having trouble believing that someone his age would try to stab or kill a kid as small as Tai, but then Tai described his school to him…\n\tThe teenager swore under his breath. “Unbelievable.”\n\tMike’s eyes glinted. “What was that?” \n\t“I said: unbe-” \n\t“Before that.” \n\tJake smiled down on the ten-year-old fox. “I said a word you don’t know yet.” \n\tMike chortled. “There aren’t many of those.” \n\t“I know, but I have to pretend while we’re in public.” \n\tTheir casual, almost affectionate, banter made Tai smile, his furry ears slowly perking upwards. All of a sudden, he realized he was loving the situation. Back in Alaska, he and his mother almost never left their house, aside from going to school or work, where Eraline scarcely listened to him. When they did go out, he was simply being towed along behind his mom; the adults never listened to him, why would they? He had nothing to say, and even if he did, why would anyone listen? \n\tStrangely, it was usually worse with other kids. \nHe always felt useless and distant from everyone. It hurt. All he wanted was just someone to talk to him, to listen to him. The last fur to do that died years ago. Tai was no attention-seeker. If anything, he was the opposite. But being nothing to anybody, a nobody, every day, aside from a target for mean-spirited jerks, for so long…\n\tBut Jake had just listened to him telling a story for almost five minutes. Really, truly listened! Shown some concern and real interest! No other grownup had done that! Aside from Mike’s dad, maybe.\nThen there was Mike himself. The bigger boy was older, and had every right to talk down to him the way all the others Tai had encountered did, but he didn’t. Mike treated him like an equal. So considerate and friendly. The awkward conversation of the previous night started to seem even more ludicrous now. \nA happy chuckle escaped his muzzle.\n\tSomehow, here, now, he was somebody.\n\n\tThey pulled up to the swimming pools and jumped out the car, grabbing their individual bags from the trunk of the car and made their way towards the entrance. Enjoying and energized the crisp, cold morning, Mike wanted to jog, or maybe even run, but the injured Tai could hardly oblige.\n\tIt was a large complex, a sports-center about the size of Tai’s old elementary school but made of a few large buildings, rather than dozens of small classrooms. When the trio opened the glass doors into the swimming pool building, the stench of chlorine nearly brought Tai to his knees. \n\tHe dry-retched and would’ve outright collapsed if Mike hadn’t caught him. \n\t“I-it stinks!” he complained, trying to avoid breathing in through his nose. He felt bile rising in his throat.\n\tMike chuckled and helped his friend find his footing once more. “You get used to it,” he said unhelpfully. \n\t“Isn’t that like getting used to hitting your head on a wall? Yeuugh!” \n\tJake had wrinkled his nose, but didn’t seem drastically bothered by the stink. “Is there even an outdoor pool here, Mike?” \n\t“Yeah, on the other side,” Mike said absently, trying to keep Tai upright as another wave of baulking nearly overwhelmed him. The littler fox was leaning heavily on him; one paw had even grasped a pawful of Mike’s shirt. \n\t“Wow, are you alright?” Jake sighed. “I think we’re gonna have to wait a while for Tai to get used to the smell before we all go get changed.”\n\tMike nodded. Tai was reacting strongly to the smell- which stood to reason, since he’d probably never smelled chlorine before- and Mike had seen what could happen to kits as young as him. They definitely didn’t want Tai to puke in the pool, or start crying in distress; he silently cursed himself for not thinking about it. “Think we should make a break for the canteen? It always stinks much less there.” \n\tTai retched once more and looked up at the two older boys. His eyes were watering and reddened, while his expression had taken on a pained quality. “H-how come you guys are taking th-this so well?!” he gagged. “I-it’s so gross!”\n\t“It is,” Mike replied, trying to keep his younger friend upright despite the damage he was doing to his shirt. “We’re just more used to it. You get okay with it after a while. Indoor pools stink because there’s less ventilation.”\n\t“L-less wh-what?” \n\t“Less air going through, to take away the stink. C’mon, let’s get to the canteen…” \n\tTai held his breath, nodded, and prepared to sprint if necessary, his ankle be damned.\n\n\tA few minutes later, they were sitting on the plastic chairs in the canteen, which was a self-enclosed part of the pool. The casual opening of the entrance however, allowed some of the sickening chlorine smell to waft in. Eventually, Tai had managed to tolerate the milder stench in the canteen, but the very thought of going back into the pool area made his stomach churn. \n\tThey weren’t the only furs at the pool this day of course. While school was still in session, there were kids on supervised swimming lessons, as well as a handful that appeared to be there with parents anyway. There were older furs, as well as an entire swimming team comprised of teenaged otters. \n\tTai took a deep breath; he was surprised when he didn’t throw up because of it. “Mike,” he said quietly. “You can go ahead you know.”\n\t“Nah, I’m alright waiting for you,” he said, smiling. “We have all day.” \n\tJake checked his watch. “Yeah, that’s alright, don’t ask me if I have anything to do today,” he said sourly. \n\t“Don’t you have to practice?” Tai said gently, smiling at Mike. \n\tMike sighed and stood. “Guess you’re right!” he picked up his bag and began to amble towards the changing room. “Don’t be too long, ‘k?” \n\tOnce Mike was out of earshot, Jake fixed the tawny vulpine kit with a steady stare. “Yes?” \n\tTai winced. “Umm, well… I wanted to talk with you about some stuff… also I can’t swim.” \n\t“Huh?” Jake blinked, leaning closer. “Talk about stuff?”\n\t“Yeah.”\n\t“Well, fire away.” \n\tThe boy looked around nervously, then leaned in closer too. “Uhh… um, I wanted to talk about… uhh…you know…?” An uncomprehending stare was all he got. “Th-that thing you and Mike are, uh, arguing about?”\n\tJake’s heart stopped, then skittered about his chest for a moment like a mad rat. “Not here!” he hissed firmly. “People can hear!” \n\t“I know, I know!” responded Tai hastily, in an equally low voice. “I’ll be quiet, I promise! It’s just… I need to talk to someone! Please?” \n\tHis voice was so pathetic, Jake’s resolve weakened like a castle wall hit with a cannon ball. “But why here?” \n\t“I don’t want Mike to hear.” \n\tJake buried his head in his hands, his ears drooping tragically. “God, why me?” he moaned under his breath. “Alright, Tai… be very, very quiet. Stop the moment I tell you to. I’ll answer what I can.” \n\tBiting his lower lip, Tai let his eyes convey a wordless thanks. “Um, I need to know… why do you say no to him? Um, I know you…”\n\t“Find him attractive?” Jake supplied acidly, glaring at Tai.\n\t“Yeah.” The shy kit quailed slightly.\n\t“Two reasons, Tai,” began the teen quietly. “The first is simple: it’s dangerous. If we get caught, it’s me that’ll be in real trouble. Trouble you don’t know yet and probably wouldn’t understand. Just get that if we were caught, my whole life could be ruined. The second reason is a little more complicated.”\n\t“What is it?” Tai was not one to be dissuaded by ‘complication.’\n\tJake sighed heavily. “Tai... I don’t know if you can understand this, but listen: Mike was introduced to this stuff because he was raped when he was about your age. I know that’s not how it is for every, I dunno, sexually aware kit out there, like yourself, I guess. But with Mike it is! I just don’t think it’s right. Every time he tries to get me to do something to him I think about how it began, what he went through and it’s just wrong.”\n\t“But Mike said he didn’t mind it too much.”\n\t“Yeah, like that’s normal. I dunno, Tai, it just seems wrong, maybe you’ll understand when you’re a bit older, it’s hard to explain; I’d care a lot less if it was a little more normal. Besides, doesn’t change the fact that it’s dangerous. So why do you ask? Did he put you up to it?” \n\t“No, no! I… we just, um… well, I dunno.” Tai flushed a little. “Um, do you think there’s any reason for Mike and me to not do it?” \n\tJake blinked. Then frowned. “I don’t know, Tai. I guess not really, just remember that Mike isn’t exactly like you. Don’t do anything stupid and don’t let him do anything stupid and you should be fine; be very careful. I don’t think you want to tell anybody though. You might still get in huge trouble. Just remember that if you don’t want to do something you have the right to say so and he has to respect that.” \n\tTai closed his eyes for a second and thought hard before speaking next. “J-Jake… Mike thinks I’m only doing things with him because I don’t want to lose him as a friend. And I’m worried that he’s only trying to be my friend because he wants someone to do this stuff with. Wh-what do you think?” \n\tThere was a pause, and the only sound was that of the canteen staff chattering and some shouting in the pool area. Then Jake burst out laughing. “I can’t believe I just got asked for relationship advice by a little kit!” he chortled. “Tai, seriously, I don’t know. Mike is a very honest kid, and I think if he realized that he was doing anything like that he’d be ashamed. I don’t think he’d ever hold a false friend just so he has someone to be dirty with.” He took a deep breath. “As for you, I don’t think you’re only doing what he wants so you can be friends. I mean, you’re the only one who knows for sure, Tai. I remember the first night we met. Like I said though, Mike won’t hurt you. Not on purpose.”\n\tTai smiled sheepishly. “Thanks Jake…” he said quietly. “Well, just one more thing…” \n\t“Hmm?”\n\tThe kit’s smile grew even more embarrassed. “I can’t swim real well. Could you…?”\n\t“… Oh, fine… come on, let’s get in there.” Jake rolled his eyes and pushed his chair back, grabbing both his and Tai’s bags. Anything to change the damn topic.\n\t“Cool!” Tai stood also, then swayed a little. “Whoa… uh, I’m a little more used to the smell now, I think.” \n\n\tEraline pulled the clunky old, white car over to the side of the road, and rested her pointed muzzle on the wheel. She sighed and lidded her eyes for a moment. \n\tGod she was sick of this. Cracking her eyes open again, she looked up at the two-storey murky, unclean structure that was her home for the night, once again, with a mixture of loathing and resignation. \n\tShe didn’t want to be here, staying at this excuse for a hotel. It wasn’t about what she wanted however. Being offered an excuse to be this close to her new “job” for the first few days, getting to know the employees and the area, was too good a chance to pass up, even if it sent her to the opposite side of the gigantic city and kept her there for days. She’d gotten a lot of information, more than she expected, but it came at a cost.\n\tBut until it had all been thoroughly analyzed, there was no way of knowing how useful that information would truly be. What they needed to know wouldn’t just be lying around on unsecure servers she could access from her workstation. She was blindly grasping at straws, exactly the same as they had been four years ago.\n\tLuckily, it wouldn’t be for much longer. Hopefully.\n\tShe already had a list of things to do now. Normal things, now that she was back in a real city. Now she didn’t have to endure the poverty, the isolation and the sheer boredom she had become so used to.\n\tFor one thing, the curtains in her bedroom absolutely had to be replaced. In fact, before Eraline had left, she’d removed the curtains and ugly, stout curtain-rods from her bedroom window. Before she even got ready for her… night shift. \n\tThere was more to be done too. She had a real home at last – but of course, within days she’d been called away. Leaving her son alone, again… she knew he was capable; if nothing else, Tai had always been good at looking after himself while his mother was away. He was in good paws too. Probably a better parent than she could be was looking after him. But still, it wasn’t…\n\tTwisting in the driver’s seat, Eraline withdrew her black leather wallet and snapped it open. She was never one for purses and the like; she knew her femininity came from herself, not her accessories. She needed something to hold her money and cards, not an ornament that gets in the way and presents a target for thieves. \n\tOpening the wallet, she took the key-card from its resting place on top of her credit card. She paused then, her eyes coming to rest on the little passport sized picture she had stuck in the transparent compartment of her wallet normally reserved for a driver’s license. The clear green eyes and shy smile seemed to be directed right at her… \n\tShe smiled, opened the car door and stepped out onto the wet road. Grudgingly making her way to the building.\n\tThen she frowned, and pulled out her new cell phone. She stared at it for a few moments, before hitting the speed dial and bringing the device to her ear. \n\tIt rang out. But as she brought it away from her head, disappointed, she saw the text on the screen. She had a message, so she opened it…\n\t“Be careful, Eraline,” it read. “We want you to come home safely and soon. They’ve gone swimming.”\n\tShe paused. Tai went swimming? He was afraid of water, wasn’t he? How interesting. Maybe he was getting over it? That was good.\n\tEraline smiled widely and kept walking.\n\tHer son was safe and happy. For today at least.\n\tThat was something she could never guarantee…\n\n\tMike pulled his face out of the water, blinking the stinging water from his eyes and shaking his head so more of it wouldn’t drip down from his medium length head fur. He flicked his ears idly and pulled himself up onto the pool edge. \n\tHe’d just done three laps in succession and a rest seemed in order. \n\t“Huh?” he muttered to himself, as he caught sight of Tai and Jake at the shallow end of the pool. Jake was giving Tai some instructions, and trying to help the floundering fox-boy stay above water by holding him up with a hand on his stomach. Mike felt a strange, two-way jealousy as he looked on. He shook his head, as if trying to shake it away. There was no problem with Jake helping a kid half his age learn to swim, and no problem with Tai wanting to learn. That’s all it was.\n\tHe blinked. Tai was wearing swimming trunks; or rather, briefs. Dark green ones. Mike chuckled to himself; he hadn’t seen a casual swimmer wearing those before, at least not here. He did, because he competed, but casual swimmers seemed to be too scared to wear them. Not that he was complaining, Tai’s revealing swimwear was an interesting sight for him. Mike took a deep breath and tried to focus again. \n\tAfter a few more laps he’d probably have done enough; he was confident he could win this time if his competition was the same as last if he just kept this up. Few other kits took this as seriously as he did, and he was feeling in pretty good shape. He barely felt puffed at all. Then he could join the others and examine Tai’s swimwear more closely…\n\tDown the pool however, Tai felt like a total fool. There were boys a year or so younger than him, here with a school teacher or something, swimming like fish in the deeper zones of the pool, and yet he could barely stay afloat. \n\t“Don’t worry,” Jake said, seeing the frustrated look on the kit’s face. “We all have to start somewhere. Even if it’s the paddling pool – that’s how Mike and I got started, you know. Swimming since we were little toddlers.”\n\tTai nodded and tried to keep a positive mindset about it. He could barely get his arms and legs to move in synch; it was more like he was getting used to being submerged in water than learning to swim, because he was sure as heck getting a lot of nothing done.\n\tJake shifted position in the water, laying a paw on the kit’s fluffy tail that protruded from the tail-fly at the back of his briefs and gently pressing it down. “You’re not actually doing too bad, you know…” he said, forcing himself to ignore the fact he was basically touching Tai’s butt. “You’re good at treading water at least. Careful with the tail, it can drag out behind you and be a real pain. Try to keep it level.”\n\t“Mmblagh!” Tai spat out some chlorinated water. “Uch. It tastes gross.”\n\t“That’s why we swim in it, not drink it,” Jake quipped. “Hey, I gotta ask. How come you’ve had no lessons? I’m not sure I’ve ever met a kid who didn’t at least get a lesson before your age. Didn’t your old school have a swimming program?”\n\tPlacing his paws down on the pool floor, Tai looked up at the bare-chested teenager in his board-shorts. Tai’s shoulders barely peaked up from the water and yet Jake wasn’t even wet above his flat, furry stomach so far. “Yeah, I think so,” he said, brushing one of his bangs from his face and making to rub his eyes. “I didn’t go to it. They couldn’t make me swim.”\n\tJake reached out and stopped him. “Don’t rub, it makes it sting worse. Just blink a few times and keep your fur from dripping it back in.”\n\t “OK.” He blinked a few times. “Anyway, I didn’t swim at school… because I’m afraid of water.”\n\tThe teenager frowned. “You seem ok to me.” \n\t“Yeah I’m fine if I can see the bottom.”\n\t“I don’t get you. Why is that?” \n\tTai looked at his shimmering, distorted reflection in the bright pool and moved his paws through the water, sending ripples in all directions. “When I was really small, my dad died in a big boat accident. I- I kinda got scared about dying that way… drowning at night. Not sure which way was up or down, because the water and the sky are as dark as each other.” He shuddered slightly. “If I can see the bottom it’s okay. Or if I can stand. Someone once tried to make me swim in a cold lake back home in Alaska. There was even some ice in the water. I really hated water after that.”\n\t“Why did they try to make you swim in a deep lake on a freezing day?” Jake said, baffled. \n\t“They pushed me in. I got scared.” Tai looked a little embarrassed. “I didn’t know how to swim. I guess they wanted me to drown rather than swim in it.”\n\tJake suppressed a sudden urge to punch something. “Who did this? Why?” \n\t“Two boys about Mike’s age…” Tai absently made a wave in the water with one arm. “They heard me talking to mom when she dropped me at school one day about how I hated swimming and they pretended to be my friends one day, so they could push me in the lake after school.”\n\t“Ah.” Jake smiled tightly. “I’d love to meet them one day. So, how come you didn’t want to learn to swim at school or privately, but you came along today?” \n\t“I dunno…” he looked up again, wide eyed. \n\t“Did you tell on those boys?” asked Jake, still a little furious. \n\t“Yes.”\n\t“Did they get in trouble?”\n\t“No.”\n\t“Why not?!” \n\t“Because they said I fell in, and got their parents to say they were at home.” The tawny boy sighed almost angrily. “They never help me. If they even listen to me.”\n\t“If I’d been there, I’d have kicked their asses for you, I swear…” said Jake. \n\tTai smiled up at him. “Thanks.” \n\t“Don’t mention it.” \n\tA wave of sympathy came over Jake. He felt suddenly so sorry for Tai. Other kids picked on him, adults never listened to or helped him—from the sound of things, his mother failed to listen most of the time. Come to think of it, Jake hadn’t been to Tai’s apartment two days in a row and the boy’s mother was clearly not around. \n\tAt the restaurant earlier, what Tai said under his breath… was she ever around for him?\nJake had to wonder how Mike had won him over so fast.\n\tA blast of water smashed into the back of Jake’s head and he turned around slowly to glare at the grinning Mike, who’d stealthily made his way around the duo by swimming under the water. “Hi guys, what’s shakin’?” he asked, swiping back his head fur with a practiced paw. \n\t“Not much,” replied Tai brightly, who had managed to avoid being splashed in the face. “How about you?” \n\tMike lifted up the stopwatch around his neck and looked ruefully at it. “I just beat my best time.”\n\t“So when do you guys wanna go?” Jake asked blandly, giving no hint that he’d just been splashed in the back of the head. “We going to stick around here for a while?” \n\t“Yeah, I’m done with training, I just wanna play around for a bit,” Mike said, looking to Tai. “We can stay in the shallow bits. You ok with that?” \n\tTai nodded happily. “Okay!” \n\t“So how does a game sound?”\n\t“Which one?”\n\tMike thought for a second. “Marco Polo?” Tai gave him a confused look. “No problem, I’ll explain it. It might even help your swimming out, Tai!\n\t“Someone has to swim around with their eyes closed, and the others can only walk in the shallow water. Every time the ‘it’ says ‘Marco!’ everyone else needs to reply with ‘Polo!’, and using the sound he has to find people and tag them.” \n\tTai furrowed his brow. “OK, I think I get it.” \n\t“One last thing: you’re it!” \n\t“What?!”\n\t“You need to practice swimming!”\n\tWith a groan, Tai closed his eyes and the game began… \n\n\tThey had been playing happily for about half an hour before finally Jake called a halt to the games. \n\t“Guys, okay, it’s time to get out of here,” Jake called over Mike’s incessant calls of “Maaaarcooo?” \n\t“Aww!” Mike whined, opening his eyes. “How come?” \n\t“Yeah!” complained Tai, treading water a few meters into the deeper end. “I’m just starting to like the water.” \n\tJake shrugged. “I know guys, but we’ve been here for two hours now. Your dad will be home soon.” \n\tWith a discontent groan of defeat, the two boys swam over to the side of the pool and hoisted themselves up. Jake averted his eyes so he wouldn’t stare at the two briefs-clad kits. His resolve didn’t last long, and he snuck a few peeks before pulling himself out of the water as well, berating himself silently. \n\tWalking side by side, the two sodden fox kits padded their way to the showers. Tai didn’t like the way the slimy, gritty floor felt on his exposed paw, and so walked a little faster than necessary, ignoring the minor throbbing that caused in his ankle.\n\t“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Mike asked, idly running a paw through the soaked mass of fluff that was his tail. \n\t“Yeah.” Tai reached the door to the changing room first, and he wrenched it open, holding it so Mike could go first. \n\tThe changing room itself was a tiled, square room with benches around two of the walls, small, white metal lockers on another, and the final wall was taken up by a row of ten shower booths, each one behind a blue, lockable wooden door. Mike walked over to his usual locker and took out their bags.\n\t“You need to meet my coach. He’s awesome, but he’s on vacation at the moment.” He paused for an instant, then looked back at Tai, who stood straight and looked back at him. \n“What’s wrong?” the younger kit asked, cocking his head inquisitively. \n\t“Nothing,” Mike lied, smiling. He stretched, then without ceremony reached down and pulled his black swimming briefs right off. “Hey,” he breathed, looking around to be sure they were alone. “Let’s shower together!”\n\tAgain, that odd ‘warmth’ in the pit of Tai’s stomach returned. “R-really?” the long-haired kit asked, puzzled. “I- I mean, you sure? Here?”\n\t“Sure! Don’t need two showers for us when we can share one, right?” Mike crossed the room to a randomly picked wooden door, his furless member bouncing slightly in front of him. “Saves water, right? They’re always telling us to conserve water. ‘Sides, we don’t want to stink of chlorine.” \n\t“Uh, r-right.” Tai blushed and tried to hide his confusion as he slowly slipped his swimming briefs off. \n\tMike opened the door and motioned urgently for Tai to join him before turning to the taps and switching the jet of water on. Tai darted into the shower cubicle as fast as he could, shutting the blue-painted wooden door behind him. He looked around, trying to avoid looking at his friend’s naked body. \n\tUnfortunately, he was starved for things to look at in here. It was a small cubicle, clearly meant for just one adult, with surprisingly clean white tiles on the wall and floor. He tried to look up at the ceiling, but felt a stronger boy’s fingers on his wrist, yanking him under the cascading water. \n\t“Sorry, but you have to get wet if you’re gonna have a shower,” joked Mike, grinning cheekily. \n\tSatisfied, Mike set about working the pool water out of his fur, firmly running his paws through his matted fur. Tai, with nothing else to look at, resigned to look at his friend as he hogged most of the water. He wasn’t as good looking when his fur was soaked like that, he observed. He still looked great, but that layer of warm fuzz was something else. \n\tTai jumped and silently scolded himself. \n\tMike looked up at him in the process of rubbing down his left shin, arching his spine and looking curiously at his smaller friend. “What’s up?” he enquired, changing to the right thigh. “Gah! Chlorine is such a pain.” \n\tShaking his head, Tai forced his gaze to the floor. “N-nothing.” But when Mike stretched up, rubbing down his head-fur with his eyes closed and torso pushed forwards, he suddenly found himself staring again, his breathing becoming strangely ragged. \n\tEven now, even after the previous night, he couldn’t stop thinking about…\n\t“Did you want to do anything tonight?” Mike asked, still working on his head-fur. “I think your mom comes home tonight or tomorrow.” \n\tThere was no reply at first, and Mike just kept washing himself down. Finally, he rinsed his head and squinted into the running water. “Tai?” He opened his eyes just in time to see the tawny kit take a big step forwards and grab him in a savagely tight embrace. “Whoa!” \n\tTai pressed his body against Mike’s. “I don’t want to go home…” he whispered, before standing on his tip-toes and kissing Mike enthusiastically, in a much more mature fashion than Mike had ever expected. Like the very first night they had met…\n\tWhen the kiss was finally broken, Tai didn’t move away. Instead, he stood there, still clutching Mike’s wet, bigger body as close as he could, leaning backwards just enough to look into his hazel eyes with a mixture of pleading and awkward adoration. \n\t“Tai?” gasped Mike, wrapping his own arms around the other soaking kit. “Wh-what’s wrong-?” \n\tEverything Jake had said and the absurdity of the situation had just come crashing down on Tai. “This is stupid,” he stated. “I like you. You… just seeing you makes me feel all weird. I like doing those things with you.” His eyes watered and he seemed to choke for a second. “D-do you really like me? That’s all I want to know.”\n\tMike stared at him, stunned. In his chest, a bizarre feeling, as if his heart wanted to take wings and soar away, left him breathless. “W-what?” he exhaled, looking bewildered. Tai’s expression changed immediately to one of heartbreak and embarrassment, before Mike managed to add, “Of course I do.” He shuffled nervously. “I-I was happy to not do anything… you know… ever again if you weren’t alright with it…”\n\t“R-really?” \n\tMike nodded. “I… well, you’re my friend, Tai!” he finally exclaimed, giving the smaller kit a squeeze. “You don’t do stuff like this if you don’t lo- uh, like the other fur.” \nHe didn’t know for sure if Tai remembered how he had blurted out that he was in love with the tawny fox the very first night they met. That still made his ears go red.\n\t“Today my mom gets home?” whispered Tai, resting his head on Mike’s chest and adjusting his grip so he held the bigger boy close to him by his brown-furred hips. \n\tRubbing Tai’s sides, Mike nodded. “Yeah.” \n\tSighing happily, Tai squeezed Mike a bit tighter, content to stay in the embrace for a while longer.\n\t“Um. T-Tai?” said Mike, rubbing his friend’s back and shoulders. “We should finish up. Jake’ll wonder where we are and we’ll get in trouble.”\n\tThe small kit in his arms smiled and finally backed off. “OK,” he agreed, shaking his head gently to get his irritating head-fur out of his face. He closed his eyes and quickly shoved his muzzle under the jet of water, washing his face. “But it’s my turn!” \n\tGrinning, Mike placed his paws on Tai’s stomach, slowly massaging the furry surface and digging his fingers in gently. “Then I’ll help, huh?” \n\t“Ahaha! That tickles!”\n\tWhen they finally finished working the chlorinated pool water from their pelts, Mike turned off the water and suddenly gasped. “Oh crap,” he chortled. “I forgot our towels.” When Tai’s face took on a slight cast of horror, he hastily added, “Oh, don’t worry, we don’t have to leave the change rooms; the lockers are just over there.” \n\t“Should we put our bathers back on?” asked Tai, still clearly nervous. “We still have to get to the lockers.”\n\t“Nah,” Mike replied, running a paw through his soaked head-fur. “It’s alright. Told you, nobody cares. It’s a changing room, everyone’s naked in here.” \n\tNodding, Tai pressed up against the tiled wall, letting Mike squeeze past and open the door. There were other furs out there, and with a squeak Tai retreated back into the shower cubicle. \n\tMike looked at him with honest confusion. “What’s up? You don’t have any problem with me seeing you naked.” \n\t“Um, it’s different. They don’t know us!”\n\t“They won’t care,” Mike reassured him, taking Tai’s paw in his. “C’mon… it’s alright!” \n\tDrawing courage from his friend, Tai let himself be led out into the change room and over to their locker. However, he was surprised when he and Mike received very little attention. A few cursory glances, and maybe one or two of the grown up furs looked for a little longer; maybe because they found the two foxes holding hands to be cute, or perhaps they had something in common with Jake. Either way, none of the glances, or stares, seemed malicious or judgmental, and Tai felt his apprehension ebb away. \n\tIn fact, the few brief glances, especially the one or two that lingered, were kind of compliments, he reasoned. Like when he first met Jake.\n\tMike handed him a yellow beach towel, and the duo started to dry off. Strangely, Tai caught himself watching Mike once again: even the way the older boy dried himself was interesting. While Tai fumbled with his towel – admittedly distracted – Mike methodically and quickly rubbed down. Even here, Mike’s greater experience and confidence showed.\n\tNaturally, when Mike spread his legs to dry his shins, Tai snuck an obvious peek, grinning cheekily – it was alright now, and Mike was always nice to look at. The older kit noticed, grinned, and silently returned the attention.\nAfterwards, they both put on their boxers and pants, stuffing everything in Mike’s sports bag, ensuring their soaked, chlorine-drenched bathers were safely enclosed in a plastic bag. Yet when Tai went to put his shirt back on, Mike stopped him. “Don’t put your shirt on,” he said quietly. “It’ll help you dry off.”\n\tTai swallowed and nodded. “Okay.” Shirtless wasn’t too big a deal for him. Complete nudity was another thing entirely. So, he bravely neglected his shirt, and together the fox boys quickly vacated the changing room.\n\t“See, not so bad, huh?” chuckled Mike, draping a friendly arm over Tai’s shoulder. Tai merely grinned in response. He had to admit, it was easier with his friend helping him. Once he got over the idea itself, being seen naked in the changing rooms really wasn’t too bad.\n\tJake had showered and changed much faster than the boys and was already waiting for them outside the room, leaning against the wall. “Ready to go?” he asked, surprising them both as they exited. To his credit, he didn’t comment on the fact they’d taken so long in the change rooms, or that they had forgotten to wear their shirts. \n\tThey nodded and all three of them made their way to the car outside, the sun stinging their eyes and warming their bodies. It had gotten warmer since they’d arrived, and unfortunately a lot brighter.\n\tIn the car, there was a change that did not go unnoticed by Jake. Mike and Tai sat right next to one another, the entire lengths of their bodies pressed together in a sleepy, seated cuddle. They both had contented looks on their faces, perked ears…\n\tWith a bitter-sweet sigh, Jake realized Tai had taken his clumsy advice and whatever was wrong before was patched up now. The two kits were back to being inseparable – and naughty – for better or worse.\n\tThe very idea made him tremble.\n\n\tLater that evening, Jake was still with them as they sat in the den. Comfortable with being themselves around Jake now, the two boys were occupying the sofa, sitting together comfortably. \n\tWeirdly enough, they were talking about viruses. None of them knew how they’d got onto that topic at this point, but they were discussing them, particularly how they kept changing until one day there’d be some kind of Ultimate Doomsday Influenza Epidemic. Something about the world ending because of a cold struck the boys as amusing. They were coming up with all sorts of grotesque and weird ways for the epidemic to kill billions, and Jake had to admit they were quite imaginative. Sneezing to death as per Tai’s suggestion would be a pretty spectacular way to go; and everyone laughed when he tried to act his suggestion out.\n\tJake mentioned “vector viruses”, something he’d heard about on a sci-fi show, which were retro-viruses that were used to alter DNA. Which proved to be a bit of a mistake; Mike knew what DNA was, roughly, but Tai had never heard of it. The teen found himself stuck having to explain the basics of genetics… and Mike then pushed him to explain what a retro-virus was, his curiosity utterly overwhelming as always. \n\tThankfully, they didn’t push it when he said that this was all from a badly written television show.\n\tElated nonetheless himself, Jake stood to go to the bathroom, leaving the two boys alone. \n\tAs the canine got up to leave, Tai spotted something set upon the modern, black entertainment unit that housed the Donaldson’s television: a small bronze picture frame, right beside the monstrous screen. Innocent curiosity compelled him to get up and have a look, though he felt Mike watching him keenly as he crossed the sitting room to it. \n\tIn the picture was a long haired female fox with chestnut fur, alluringly dark eyes and a beatific smile, standing in what seemed to be a lush cedar forest holding a tiny baby kit, clothed in thick swaddling. The beautiful vixen looked so happy, and her hazel eyes seemed to glitter.\n\tTai’s eyes widened and he looked back at the couch, suddenly embarrassed. Mike was staring at him with a strange, unreadable expression. “Um, Mike?” he asked shyly. \n\t“Yeah?” \n\tHe indicated the picture frame unnecessarily. “Is this your mom?”\n\tMike gave a peculiarly weak smile and nodded. \n\t“Wh-where is she?” \n\tThe brown furred kit gave a strained chortle. “Uh, she died,” he said softly, still smiling. “A long time ago.” He fell silent again, watching Tai with that unusual expression. \n\tTai’s face flushed a little and he smiled slightly. “She’s, um, pretty…” \n\t“I know.” \n\tTai felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden. What was with that gaze? He’d lost a parent too! He wasn’t being rude, was he? Shouldn’t he have commented?\n\t“What about your dad?” Mike asked abruptly, the blank mask of his features taking on a kind of timid curiosity. “Where is he?” \n\tImmediately, Tai responded: “Dead.” It wasn’t that much of a sensitive topic for him anymore. At least, talking about it was easy for him. In fact, he broke out into a grin. “Hey, wonder if my mom and your dad will get along?” \n\tHe partly expected Mike to laugh at the idiotic notion, or look disturbed by it, but instead the barky-furred boy smiled. “That’d be kinda neat,” he chuckled.\n\tLying on the coffee table, Jake’s cell phone began to vibrate, comically jittering its way towards the edge of the table. Mike reached out and picked it up before it plunged off the edge. “Jake!” he said loudly, standing up and walking toward the bathroom. “Your phone’s ringing!” \n\tTai stole one more glance at the beautiful chestnut fox, frozen in her cheerfulness. Though she was gone now. It was like how he always remembered his dad, smiling, laughing, tickling him… but he was dead. Gone forever.\n\tNot smiling. Not happy. Dead.\n\tSo that was one more thing he had in common with his new best friend. Maybe… if just maybe their two parents would get along… it would be so great – greater than Tai could put into words – if they did. \n\tAnd he could have a dad again. And a real family.\n\nChapter Five – Fin. \n\n-- By Krazy Kitsune/Kichigai Kitsune\nCopyright 2005 onwards.\n\n",
"writing_bbcode_parsed": "Tai’s Story - Chapter 5.
By Kichigai Kitsune
Copyright 2005 onwards.
Disclaimer: This story contains coarse language, violence, adult themes and scenes of an explicit adult nature involving two young “cubs” (young anthropomorphic non-humans). If you are under the legal age as prescribed by the laws under which you are subject to reading such material, do not continue beyond this disclaimer.
\tWhen Robert returned, the two boys were sitting in Mike’s room, clad in fluffy blue cotton bathrobes and their brightly colored satin boxers, playing the Gamestation. Their pointed ears were perked and their attention was riveted on their game. Robert smiled tolerantly.
\t“Sorry, that took a little longer than expected and it got cold,” the grown-up apologized from the doorway, thumbing in the direction of the kitchen. “The food is in the fridge. I’ll heat it back up at about six, okay.”
\t“Okay, dad,” Mike nodded, getting onto his knees and maneuvering around to lie on his belly, never relinquishing the controller. “Thanks a bunch.”
\t“That’s alright.” Robert surreptitiously sniffed at the air. The distinct scent of their peachy shampoo and conditioner hung heavy in the air. “Okay, I’ll be in my study if you need anything, guys. Have some work to do. Oh, Tai?” The tawny furred pup looked up at him inquiringly. “Your mother will be back in about two days. She asked me to tell you that she’s sorry for springing this on you.”
\t“Oh, okay…” Tai was wondering when his mother would try to get in touch with him. Assuming she ever bothered.
\t“She also says that you should grab some clothes from your apartment.” Robert nodded approvingly at his son. “Good thinking, Mike. Giving Tai your old bathrobe, I mean. I forgot you still had it. Okie-dokie, catch you two later!” He exited and shut the door behind him.
\t“Your dad has to work? Today?” Tai’s voice was slightly incredulous. “So late?”
\t“Of course; no rest for the wicked. Why?”
\tTai frowned. “I dunno. He gets home from the fair, but then he has to work?”
\tMike nodded. “Growing up sucks.”
\tThe tawny kit got up and lay down next to his friend, sliding a paw into his open robe and placing it on Mike’s back. “You’re warm…” he remarked softly.
\tMike nodded again. “Yeah, so are you. It’s because we just got out of the bath, I think.”
\t“Hmmm. That was really nice.”
\tMike looked sidelong at his friend. He was getting braver. Tai was surer of Mike now, and he openly sought this contact. Wanted to keep close. A major change for the boy who seemed so reserved, almost distrustful, when they first met.
\tIt made sense, Mike figured. Now that he had convinced Tai he wasn’t going to hurt him, the kit was showing his affectionate side. Perhaps desperate for someone to touch, or hug, because his mom always seemed to be away. As far as Mike could tell anyway.
\t“Hey, you still haven’t really told me what happened to your paw,” he pointed out, not taking his eyes away from the screen, while expertly dispatching several of the computer controlled opponents. “I mean, what actually happened?”
\tTai shrugged and pulled his arm out of Mike’s bathrobe. “I couldn’t get around Darron and his friends and I thought they were gonna kill me so I jumped off the top of the car-park and landed in a cart. I hit my paw on the edge. The doctors said that I, um, separated it or something.”
\t“So it was dislocated, huh?” Mike nodded knowingly. “Better than broken! You were so lucky. Should be okay pretty soon. I did that to my elbow once. It really hurts when they put it back into place, doesn’t it?”
\tAn emphatic nod.
Mike furrowed his brow. “Tai, you must’ve been really scared if you jumped from up there! That’s really high!”
\t“I had to,” replied Tai, shifting around until he lay on his back looking up at Mike. “They had knives and they were trying to stab me!”
\t“Public school.” Mike shuddered in disgust. “So glad my dad home-schools me.”
\tTai smiled a bittersweet smile. “My mom doesn’t care. I’ve been in a bunch of schools so far, and in all of them stuff like this happened. She acted as if I was eg-ex-exaggerating. She just doesn’t care.” He sighed. “Ever since dad died... she’s always busy.”
\tMike nodded somberly. “I don’t know, but…” He bit his lip. “I’ll ask my dad to see if we can help. It might not be anything, but–” he hesitated. “This is real serious. Maybe we could get your mom to listen.”
\t“R-really?”
\t“Look, this is depressing…” Mike got up and padded over to the Gamestation. “Let’s put on a game for two players!”
\tTai’s ears perked upright again. “You mean we can both play at the same time?”
\t“Sure!”
\tThe tawny kit’s eyes widened. “That’s awesome!!”
\t
\tWhen it was a few hours later, the two fox-boys went into the dining room, not bothering to get out of their bathrobes. It was almost bed-time after all.
\tThe Chinese food was excellent, and the two kits felt extra drowsy for eating so much of it. Besides, they had to get up early so they could go to the swimming pool uptown.
\tTai and Mike asked politely to be excused from the table and Robert gave them their leave.
\tMike stood and yawned so hard it almost seemed like his jaw would split. “Uh. Sorry, dad. I’m beat.” He started to walk around the small glass table, picking up the cutlery.
\t“Tiring day.” Robert stood and picked up his plate, and the two kits dutifully handed him theirs. “Tai, you tired as well?”
\tThe little fox sighed contentedly and nodded. “Yes sir,” he said, shifting in the chair. “I’m always like this after I eat dinner.”
\t“That’s understandable; Mike’s like that too… obviously.” The adult fox took the plates over to the sink and placed them in the basin. “I’m not going to complain if he wants to go to bed without me badgering him, though.” He turned the tap and a jet of water ‘scooshed’ loudly onto the plates.
\t“Thanks for the food, dad,” Mike said, carrying the cutlery over to the sink as well. “Can I ask a favor?”
\t“Shoot.” He took the forks and threw them into the water.
\t“Can you make our hot chocolate a little earlier?” Mike smiled winsomely at his dad. “We’re gonna go to bed now.”
\t“I can manage that.”
\t“You’re the best!” The pup hugged his father’s waist then walked back to his room, motioning for Tai to follow.
\tBack in the bedroom, the two boys sluggishly made their way to the bed, un-belting their robes as they moved. Mike gently bumped the door with his rear and continued on. They both seated themselves on the edge of the double mattress, robes open, bare chests and boxers exposed.
\tThere was a significant difference once that door closed behind the two kits. A major change. That change was simple: they weren’t tired anymore.
\tMike’s eyes were alight with mischief and his mind was aflame with anticipation. He stared archly at Tai.
\t“What now?” Tai enquired quietly, squirming on the spot, as if Mike’s gaze had pinned him in place. His ears started to get a little warm and he felt his heart beat getting quicker. A feeling, hard to describe, started to bloom outwards from somewhere in his tummy, until his entire body crawled with it. A feeling that was becoming familiar to him now.
\tMike crawled across the double bed towards him on his paws and knees, robe hanging loosely over his shoulders. “I’ve just thought of a cool idea…” he said breathily.
\tTai’s entire face felt warm now. He wanted to tear his eyes away and stare at the floor, but something in Mike’s eyes and voice was almost hypnotic.
\t“What?” he asked, his own voice automatically adopting that same whispered-quality as Mike’s.
\t“I got an idea for what we can use these belts for…” The horny kit’s muzzle was covered by his fringe of brown fur, artistically hiding one of his eyes and shading his toothy smile. “They’d make pretty comfy ropes, don’t you think? You know, to tie you up?”
\tTai froze, looking at Mike with worried eyes.
\tMike leaned back onto his foot-paws instantly. He held a paw up and said, “But not if you don’t wanna do it. It’s up to you. Just an idea.”
\tBut Tai did want to do it.
\tEven though something inside him was screeching that he shouldn’t like the idea as much as he did- he shouldn’t be so keen to let another boy, bigger and rougher than he was, tie him up and place him at his mercy- Tai realized he did trust Mike. He could trust him. He wasn’t scared of Mike at all… but that’s what scared him. He never trusted anybody!
\tWhat if he was making another mistake?
\tThis wasn’t something as simple as being close to him, or the dirty play in the spa. Letting this bigger boy tie him up in his house was a different matter entirely. But the simple, obvious truth was… he wanted to try it. The idea made him tingle all over.
\tSurely, if there was ever any other boy he could trust, it would be this one?
\t“Alright,” he said eventually. “H-have you got any more? Belts?”
\t“Huh? Why more?”
\tTai’s face suddenly flushed and he covered his muzzle with his paws. “Could you tie my legs up please…?” he asked bashfully. “I trust you, Mike. At least, I think so…”
\t“Oh, gee, thanks,” said Mike wryly. Then he crawled a little closer. “Tai, I won’t hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you, ever!”
\t“S-sorry.” Tai pulled himself onto his knees and looked his brown friend in his face. “It’s not that. I-I think I’m… I’m… not sure if I should.” He cast his gaze downwards. “I… I just feel so weird.”
\t“You’re not weird.” Mike placed a tender and deliberate kiss on the younger kit’s cheek – to his delight, Tai couldn’t keep a smile away after it. But it didn’t last long at all.
\tIn the soft bedroom light, Tai stared taciturnly at the white carpet. After a few moments, he sniffed loudly, bowing his head. “I’m sorry.” He blinked back tears before they could form, knowing full well that crying would just make things worse.
\tThe quavering apology brought a chill to Mike’s chest. “H-hey, hey, what’s wrong?” he said softly, lightly touching the smaller boy’s shoulder. “What’re you sorry for?!”
\tWithout warning, two thin tawny arms enveloped Mike’s chest and crossed behind his back. Tai had snatched his friend in a firm embrace. But he said nothing.
\t“Tai? What’s wrong?” The older kit swallowed. This wasn’t right.
\t“Nothing!” blurted Tai, breaking out a loud sob. “Nothing is wrong! Nothing feels wrong, and that’s what’s wrong!”
\tMike freaked. “Hey, don’t cry!” he exclaimed, cradling the younger fox soothingly. “Geez! What’s the matter?”
\t“I’m not sure,” Tai groaned. He struggled to keep his voice steady. “I don’t know if I should. I want to but no one likes being tied up, do they? What if mom finds out? Or your dad? Mom’d kill me if she knew!”
\tBaffled and a little scared, Mike’s brain scrabbled for something to say. Tai being upset by this suggestion was the absolute worst case scenario.
\t“No, Tai, you got it all wrong!” he said, affecting an amused voice, though he didn’t find this in the least funny. “You know I’ll stop if you ask! It’s alright to like this stuff! A lot of people do!”
\t“Why?”
\t“They just do.” Mike nosed at Tai’s ears in an attempt to relax him, but it didn’t seem to work. Instead, he sat down right beside him, embracing the tawny kit tightly.
\tThe little fox turned slightly and pressed against his friend’s chest. “I-Is it okay?” he asked shyly. “To want to be tied up?”
\t“Course it is.”
\t“But I hate it!” Tai objected, shaking his head vehemently. “I’ve always been pushed around. I hate that!”
\t“But I’m not pushing you around!” Mike said quietly. “If you don’t want to do it, I’ll do what you say, right? I’m not a bully. I’d never wanna hurt you. It’s not the same thing at all!”
\tThe kit opened his mouth to say something, but then he snapped it closed again, confused. He thought about it for a second. “S-so, it has to do with how much you trust the person doing it?”
\tMike shrugged, remembering how baffling the explanations on this topic he’d illicitly read up on were when he didn’t have the context for them. He still didn’t get it all – but to Mike, that didn’t matter. This wasn’t something that needed to be complicated to him: he liked it, he didn’t need to know exactly why. “Exactly. You wouldn’t trust a jerk or a bully to do it. But what about me? Or, I dunno, your mom?”
\t“Um, I guess…” Tai sniffled, his expression still a little puzzled.
\tMike nodded emphatically. “Chill out, Tai! Anyway, I’m not going to hurt you while you’re tied up.” He grinned naughtily. “Gonna do the opposite!”
\tThe smaller kit raised his eyes at last, smiling wanly. “I know.”
\tMike brushed a tender paw along his friend’s shoulder. “But, um, do you really want to? We don’t have to. I mean, the tie-up thing was just an idea.”
\tHesitating only briefly, Tai nodded. “Yeah,” he whispered, wiping his nose on his wrist. “Go on. Tie me up. I’ve never been tied up before. I want to try it.”
\t“Okay…” Mike gently separated them, grinning. “Wait right here, I’m gonna go get the other belts.”
\tWhen Mike returned from his foray into the laundry, Tai had neatly placed the pillows and comforter to the bottom of the bed and lay spread-eagled in the middle of the mattress, squinting up at the ceiling light. He was still wearing his boxers and robe, which was now splayed out under him.
He was going to be tied up soon by another boy. In another house, alone. What would that mean?
This was strange. Why was he okay with the idea?
\tMike lazily tossed the two extra belts onto the kit’s chest, surprising him.
\tTai let out a bark of surprise and shot into a sitting position. “Wh-?! Oh…” Tentatively, he rubbed a paw over the cotton strips. They were soft and smooth. He exhaled shakily in mild trepidation.
\t“Ready?” Mike asked, crawling onto the bed alongside the exposed younger boy.
\tTai nodded, a surge of excitement dizzying him. “Yes.”
\tSlowly, carefully, Mike started to wrap a belt around Tai’s wrist. He smiled, listening to Tai’s tremulous breathing. His own started to speed up to match. This was going to be incredible… if Tai didn’t freak out again, at least.
\t“I-I can’t believe we’re gonna do this,” Tai said aloud, aware of activity inside his short satin boxers. His chest felt strange. Sort of tight. It was an excitement so strong it almost was unbearable.
\t“It’s just a tie up game. Never played one before?”
\tTai shook his head.
\t“That sucks. It’ll be fun!”
\tHis arm was extended and the cotton belt was tied around the bed frame at the top, to either side. When Mike did likewise to his other paw his mouth went abruptly dry. He experimentally tugged on the two broad belts, only to find that the knots done by the older boy were tight and unlikely to budge if he resisted – and no matter what he did, he couldn’t reach them with his fingers. If Mike continued, he’d be totally immobilized in moments. He didn’t realize at first what it meant to be really tied up.
\tWhen Mike was finished, Tai doubted he’d be able to resist in the slightest.
\t“This is my last chance to say no!” he thought, breathing very fast.
He said nothing.
\tMike was almost ready to burst now. He fended off the nearly overwhelming exhilaration by focusing on his task. With deliberate and precise movements, he carefully tied an elaborate knot around Tai’s first skinny ankle, a knot that left a length of cotton free in order to tie the leg to the metal bars at the base of the bed, then another on Tai’s other ankle, before yanking Tai down on the bed and fixing his ankles firmly to the poles. The plaster cast on his damaged ankle was no problem, as the cotton belt was just very firmly tied above it.
\tTai let out a little mewl after he tested his bonds and found that Mike had left him nearly no leeway at all. He jerked hard, but the improvised restraints didn’t loosen or slip at all, and Tai was nowhere near strong enough to snap the cotton-nylon strips to escape. The quiet sound he made was high pitched and quivering.
\tMike picked up the comforter and draped it over Tai’s body, then rolled it back until it only covered the littler kit’s feet. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned after that strange, unintelligible sound.
\t“I-I’m fine,” replied Tai, forcing himself to breathe steadily. “I’m okay, Mike, honest.”
\t“If you think you’re going to get scared, let me know, alright?” Mike grinned outrageously. “I’ll let you free straight away. You have a stiffy, by the way.” He pointed at the small tent in the smaller kit’s boxers.
\tTai stuck his tongue out from his sharp muzzle, trying to look a little braver than he felt. “So do you! I can see it from here.” Then he swallowed. The brown fox boy had adopted a strangely predatory expression and hovered over him, growling archly. “M-M-Mike?!” he stammered.
\tBefore Tai could panic, however, a playful smile surfaced on Mike’s features, and the older pup shed his cotton robe, straddling his tied friend’s supple chest. Tai idly noticed that the feeling of satin on fur was pretty cool.
\tMike placed his paws on Tai’s chest, gently massaging Tai’s flat chest, using his thumbs to stroke the fur concealed nipples. “Does this feel nice?” he asked breathlessly. Tai nodded and smiled, huffing slightly as his little nipples were tweaked and rubbed. Gladly, he pushed his chest up a little.
\tThen the older fox kit took his index finger on his paw and traced it down the ticklish inside of an arm, awarded by the sound of a youthful giggle.
\tTai wriggled uselessly underneath his friend’s hips. He could feel his erection poking and brushing against Mike’s backside. “You aren’t going to tickle me… are you?” he enquired, eyes wide. Practically asking for it.
\t“Only… a lot.” Mike promptly dug his paws into Tai’s sides, just underneath the ribcage and wriggled them, making full use of his stubby claws. The resulting shriek was immediate and Mike winced, pinning his ears down. “Oookay, just not now.” He leant down towards Tai’s face. “Hey, I have an idea! You’re a little loud, so how about I gag you…?”
\tThe bound vulpine kit tensed, pulling his bonds even tauter. “What?!” he squeaked, eyes now at dinner-plate width.
\t“Oh, yeah,” Mike giggled, deciding to push his luck. “How does a blindfold sound? That’s just an extra, but we need the gag. We can’t have you waking the neighbors up in the middle of the night.”
\t“B-blindfold? Gag!?” Tai was shivering in the warm room. “M-Mike, I-I dunno!”
\t“Can’t you just give it a try?” was the whispered response. “Later on, just for a few minutes, then you can tell me what it’s like. Please?”
\tThat took Tai aback slightly. The bigger fox’s eyes shimmered, hopefully. Pleading with him. Tai admitted he had always enjoyed the kidnapping scenes in movies, where the characters were bound and gagged and tied up, but now he was faced with the chance to try it himself. And Mike was begging him… “A-alright…”
\tMike smiled and started exploring the warm, tight body underneath his. With curious paws, he felt every single nook and cranny of Tai’s furry body. He slid them across his friend’s belly, massaged his chest, brushed at his thighs, and explored the area enclosed by his boxer shorts, all to the sound of Tai’s rapt sighs. Mike was trembling, and his tingling stiffy poked unashamedly out from his groin.
\tIt was wonderful. Tai’s body was warm and the fur covering it was smooth and dreamy all over, like velvet-spun clouds. He touched everything he could of the tawny boy’s adorable form, appreciating it whole.
\tTai had his eyes closed, enthralled by the sensual, intimate feeling of his friend playing with his entire body.
\tThere was a knock on the door.
\tMike’s reaction was instantaneous and startlingly precise. He slipped off Tai’s body, so he was lying next to Tai, and wrenched the comforter up to their necks, covering Tai’s wrists with pillows and stuffing a third underneath their heads. “Come in!” he called, picking up a comic book from the side of the bed and making it appear for all the world as if he’d just been reading a bed time story to his companion.
\tRobert entered, holding two mugs of warm cocoa, while Tai looked around in shock. “Hi guys,” the adult said, concentrating on keeping from spilling the indelible liquid on the expensive carpet. He placed the mugs on one of the dressers made to leave. “Careful, they’re really hot and I overfilled them, so don’t spill them. Get to sleep soon, boys. It’s late.”
\t“Love you, dad. G’night!” Mike called in a fluting voice.
\t“Good night Mr. Donaldson,” added Tai breathily, relieved that the grownup hadn’t noticed anything amiss. His heart was thumping so hard he thought Robert would hear.
\t“Good night boys. Love you too, Mike.” Robert closed the door, and the kits could hear the soft, measured footfalls as he made his way back to the study on the other side of the apartment.
\tWhen he was definitely out of earshot, Mike giggled. “That was close,” he muttered, turning on a lamp above his bed and getting up to switch the main light off. “Now, where were we…?” He grinned toothily as he made his way back. “Ah, yes. I think it might be time for that gag I mentioned. Shaaaall we? We have to make my dad think we’re going to bed.”
\tAn incoherent mewl.
\tMike opened his closet door and started rummaging through his sock drawer. “I haven’t got a real one, but we can improvise.” He extracted a few pairs of socks. Long, knee-high football socks. “What do you think?”
\t“I-isn’t that dirty?”
\t“They were all washed yesterday.” He reached in and grabbed some more socks of various other sizes. “Besides, it’s only my paws. They’re clean! Are you ready? Tai?”
\tTai swallowed and nodded. “…G-go on, please!” he blurted. “I wanna try it.”
\tThe ten-year-old nodded and walked towards his little playmate. “Here, I’m gonna put this is your muzzle, okay?”
\tTai nodded, but when the stuffed sock was nearly pushed into his open mouth, he twisted away sharply. “Wait, I’ve got something to say!”
\t“What, what?”
\tTai grinned shyly. “Love you.”
\tOn a whim, Mike took Tai’s head in his paws and delivered a firm kiss to the littler boy’s nose.
\tThe tawny-pup opened his mouth to take the stuffed sock and Mike obliged, gently but firmly placing the sock into the pup’s mouth. Tai screwed his features once the bland, dry sock could be felt on his tongue. The sock quickly sucked up most of the moisture from Tai’s muzzle, making him slightly uncomfortable at first.
\tMike, with one of his more normal length socks, tied Tai’s muzzle closed. Then without giving the little kit even a second’s warning, tied a football sock over his eyes, blindfolding him in an instant.
\tTai’s protestation was muffled.
\t“Just for a few minutes,” Mike reminded him, soothingly stroking his brow. “Then I’ll take them off and you can decide.”
\tBlind, Tai nodded and tried to swallow, but he couldn’t, not with the sock in his mouth.
\tThe world had gone dark; this sock was thick and black. No light permeated its fibers, and Tai was totally sightless. He couldn’t see what was going on anymore, nor could he speak out if he was scared, or in pain. Already, his heartbeat came louder and faster. His vulpine ears strained, but what he heard was of no use. Merely the sounds of Mike’s rough, excited breathing and the high pitched mosquito-like whine that seemed to be emanating from the lamp.
\tHe knew whatever he said now would be muffled and incoherent, so he didn’t even bother.
\tA paw slowly slipped up the leg of his boxers, and he let out a startled complaint.
\tThe intrusive paw slowly rubbed over his furry little scrotum, curling its fingers around and over his diminutive penis. Tai inhaled sharply through his nose and held his breath, shaking slightly as that warm sensation spread from his dick through his body.
\tMike was fighting to keep up his slow and steady pace. There was nothing more interesting at the moment than the sight of this totally powerless little fox-boy, strapped down on the bed underneath his weight, squirming and moaning from his attentions. He couldn’t rush this.
\tA wicked grin spread across Mike’s face and he withdrew the paw from Tai’s boxers. The little kit whined and writhed at the deprivation, bucking his hips towards Mike’s, pleading with him not to stop.
\tThat shriek, which before had been almost loud and shrill enough to shatter glass before, was muffled greatly this time by the sock-gag as Mike assaulted Tai’s armpits with his paws.
\t“Heh!” he sniggered, bringing a paw down to Tai’s belly and tickling it – causing the little fox try to press into the mattress as if it would somehow yield and he could be sucked down into its safety. “Now I got you! You can’t stop me from tickling you crazy! Muahahaha!” The false laugh disintegrated into a real belly laugh, and Mike shifted his ticklish ministrations to Tai’s sides.
\tThe tied kit struggled mightily, considering his small size, but despite his bucking and pulling, the cotton belts refused to slacken even a little and all Tai accomplished was tensing his body, which of course just made a much better target for Mike.
\tTai laughed and cried, oblivious to the fact his little cock had become hard as possible. “This is cool!” he thought, wriggling his toes in a futile effort to distract himself from the tickle-attack: he just had to suffer every instant of horrible sensation. “It’s cooler than cool!” Mike slowed the tickling down a tormenting, slow pace, and Tai fought to resist it, completely in vain; he couldn’t stop his high-pitched squeak from turning into uncontrollable giggling.
\tIn spite of it all, Mike was right: this was fun.
Naturally the bark furred kit sitting on his pelvic area was more than aware of his tawny friend’s erection. Quickly and dexterously, Mike undid the button fly on the satin boxers and left physics to do the rest of the job. It did. When the kit struggled and twisted his hips, trying to escape an inescapable tickle attack on his lower belly, his small, smooth-skinned dick slipped out of the fly. Judging by the hysterical squealing and wailing, Mike guessed he hadn’t even noticed.
\tSo he slid off the kit and started running his paws down the supple legs, feeling the warmth and tension in those skinny appendages. He shuddered. This was insane! He had Tai tied up for him, willingly, and he had offered his entire body to Mike. He could do anything he wanted!
\tLaughing more as he felt a smooth tongue up the inside of his thigh, Tai contended with his urge to hyperventilate.
\tIt was weird, Tai thought. He was at Mike’s mercy and Mike had done nothing that hadn’t made them both happy – in fact, this was a lot of fun! The tickling was awful, but Mike knew when to stop. Besides, the simple feeling of their bodies touching, feeling one another’s warmth and the ripple of each other’s muscles, the comfort of being held and touched by someone you loved and trusted, was an amazing experience. Tied up or not.
\tMike glanced over at his work table, where all of his stationery was kept. On the top was a thin, long plastic pen. It was the perfect length, design and width for an improvised dildo, at least for a total beginner. He looked down at Tai. The kit’s chest was heaving with sobbing giggles. He’d liked everything so far, but taking the risk of scaring him again was a bad idea.
\tIt sucked, having to take things so slowly. Mike had a big list he wanted to get through.
\tMike decided to get a little naughty. He stuck his muzzle between Tai’s legs and started snuffling around, smelling deeply. Tai giggled and tried to pull his legs in. He accomplished nothing.
\t“Mmm,” Mike muttered, rubbing at Tai’s lower belly. “You smell really good.”
\tWith shaking legs, Tai forced himself to stop struggling and relax once again. He let out a tranquil sigh as Mike began to breathe in his scent deeply, occasionally letting his long tongue slip out and lap at his furry scrotum. He finally realized with a mental jolt that his boxers had been opened and his privates exposed.
\tWhen had that happened?!
\tMike brought forth a paw and wrapped a few fingers around Tai’s cock. He licked the head wetly, drawing the rough flat of his tongue across the sensitive skin, making the pup wriggle and gasp. “Are you ready, Tai?” Mike asked playfully, starting to pump the length of warm flesh in his fingers. “Do you want me to take those things off you? Just nod if you want me to.” An emphatic headshake. “Alrighty!”
\tTai squealed into the sock-gag when he felt the tip of his granite hard penis being taken into Mike’s soft, moist maw. Two fingers began to gently massage below the head, the two feelings sending that, what Tai could only describe as, wonderful warm-electricity buzzing through his genital area. Tai whined and pressed his hips forwards, uselessly trying to increase the pressure, or at least get more of him inside that heavenly vulpine muzzle.
\tBut Mike had other plans. His paws firmly ensured that no more of Tai was inside his mouth than he wanted, and his tongue was driving the little kit wild with its lubricated swiping of the light pink flesh.
\tMike continued his careful work until Tai’s complaints stopped being merely plaintive and insistent and started becoming desperate. Then, out of pity, he decided to speed things up a little. Tai’s moans become more contented.
However, the barky-furred kit wasn’t going to be hurried at all. He slowly, very slowly, brought his submissive friend to the brink of orgasm, licking, kissing and suckling the tiny cock in his paws… he didn’t, however, suck the whole thing into his muzzle properly. He wanted Tai to squirm, and Tai was obliging.
\tFinally, Tai squealed into his gag. Mike massaged his testicles in his furry sack and sucked hard on the little organ, running his tongue over the tip firmly, catapulting the hapless kit into an intense orgasm. Mike didn’t stop even as he felt the penis in his paws shudder and jerk in dry orgasm, instead continuing on with his ministration, his tongue still paying particular attention to that sensitive tip.
\tWhich soon became hypersensitive. Mike’s talented tongue started to aggravate the raw nerves and send even more powerful waves of electricity over the small pup’s body than when he’d teased him in the bathtub. Mike remembered the almost pained gasp he’d got merely for touching it after Tai’s first orgasm.
\tHe continued on, knowing full well the strength of the sensation he was forcing upon the tied-down littler cub. He felt the dancing muscles of his belly, the tense trembling of his entire body… it was utterly awesome. He knew Tai had to be enjoying it too, even if it was so overpowering.
\tTai’s whines and whimpers changed note quickly. He was pleading for Mike to cease his pleasure-turned-torment. “Mmop!” he mumbled shrilly.
\tMike slowly wound down; by the finish he had left his bound little friend shuddering, a clammy cold wreck on the bed, panting heavily.
\t“Like that?” the bark-furred fox-boy enquired. He wiped at his muzzle with his other paw.
\tTai nodded, still trembling slightly.
\t“Should I untie you now? Do you want me to leave you like this?”
\tTai nearly nodded, but then he realized that Mike had deliberately asked two contradictory questions… He snorted a laugh, and Mike snickered.
\tAt last, Tai felt the socks coming off of his muzzle and over his eyes. A paw hovered in front of his nose, so he delicately placed the two ankle socks into it. “Untie me, please?” he asked, squinting as the lamp light blinded him.
\tWithout delay, Mike set to work undoing the binds. He threw the four cotton belts onto the floor along with the socks, easing his friend into a sitting position. “Are you okay?” he asked kindly.
\tTai leaned forwards at lightning speed and locked his jaws in a surprise kiss with those of his friend, flattening him to the bed. Then he leaned back and sat there, looking exhausted but happy, with an adoring gleam in his eyes.
\t“You seem fine to me,” gasped Mike. Of all the reactions he expected after essentially torturing Tai, a kiss wasn’t one of them.
\t Leaning over, Mike switched the bedside lamp off and snuggled up to Tai, holding the dazed kit tightly to his chest. “Thanks a lot for playing with me tonight,” he said sincerely. “You’re the coolest, Tai.”
\t“That was awesome!!” Tai suddenly squeezed himself to Mike’s chest in a loving cuddle. “Wait...” He gently broke the hug, pulled off his robe and boxers, and proceeded to crawl down the bed.
\t“Tai, whatcha doing?” Mike enquired quietly, then his unseeing eyes went wide as his boxers were speedily tugged down past his knees and a muzzle enveloped his still hard cock. It took the entirety of it at once, wrapping a heavenly tongue around it. “Oh!” he exclaimed, raising his hips off the mattress.
\tThis time, there was no water to get in the way and even though he was still reeling from that amazing orgasm, Tai was very much motivated.
\tMike gasped as Tai wrapped his skinny arms around his waist, suckling on the bigger boy’s penis enthusiastically.
\tThough he had felt it before, though so long ago, it felt much better now. Mike sprawled out, closing his eyes. A shaky moan escaped his muzzle, and he started to writhe slowly, not of his own volition. Clutching at the sheets and Tai’s long head-fur.
\tIt was wonderful. So unlike his first experience. So right somehow. He was on a comfortable bed, and it was his shy, affectionate little friend cuddling right up to him and sucking him off happily. Suddenly, he found himself cursing all the time of his life that had gone by where he hadn’t experienced it. It was truly amazing.
\tHowever, Tai sped up, confidence coming to him at last. He sealed his muzzle around the little member, increasing the suction and letting his tongue contour to its smooth, rounded perfection. Mike started to tense up, his gasps and groans growing more urgent…
\tIn the darkness, Mike shut his eyes tightly, focusing entirely the bliss his enthusiastic younger friend was inflicting on him. It became his entire world for the moment; a warm, comfortable cloud of feeling, like the hot mist from the spa, that he wanted to just stay in forever.
\tThe older boy felt it coming, but even still he couldn’t prepare himself for it. Not in the least. He couldn’t hold back the loud cry, and his entire body trembled in spasm, beyond his control. Splayed on either side of the smaller kit, his legs kicked and his back arched. “Unnhh!!” Even knowing it was coming, his body was no more controllable than Tai’s was when it took him utterly by surprise…
\tKnowing it was done, Tai slowed down, starting to suckle on his friend’s member for no other reason than because he admitted to himself that he liked to. After a moment, Mike was weakly struggling, afflicted by that same wonderful oversensitivity Tai had felt. Smiling, Tai withdrew, showing the bigger boy the mercy he had been denied.
\t“Oh…” Mike sighed, stretching out languidly. Both his voice and body trembled still. “Oh, crap… that was awesome.”
\t“I hope it was,” the kit replied, scooting slowly back up to head height, “because I was trying my best!”
\tLazily, Mike rolled over and laid an arm across Tai’s downy furred chest….
\tThey were both suddenly so very drowsy. Wordlessly, they snuggled their shaky nude bodies together.
\tBut after awhile, Tai stirred. “Mike, can we talk for a little while?”
\tMike jerked his eyes open. “Wha? Y-yeah, of course.” He fought away the creeping fatigue and switched his lamp on again, on the weakest setting, so it merely bathed the room in a warm glow.
\t“It’s just that I’ve got a couple of questions…”
\t“Shoot. I can stay up for a little longer.” He yawned. “Barely.”
\t“That first time met… did you want to do this stuff with me?”
\tMike tensed slightly.
\t“Is that why you wanted to be my friend?”
\t“No!” Mike protested. Then he sighed. “Well… I mean- I th-thought about it, yeah. I wanted to…”
\tThe littler fox-pup just lay there, silent.
\t“Look,” Mike said slowly, getting a little closer and swallowing his pride, “I’m sorry. I like you, as a friend. I swear.” There was a pause. An awkward, guilty silence. “… Do you believe me?”
\tIn the darkness Mike could see very little of the younger pup’s face. “I-I don’t know.”
\tMike swallowed hard.
\tThe younger fox stared at the indistinct dark shape next to him. Confused. He wasn’t sure if he cared about this or not. Mike seemed genuinely friendly to him, really caring. He didn’t know what to think, how to feel. Mike was his friend. He enjoyed playing with him. Did it really matter if Mike first wanted to talk to him to convince him to naughty things? No, that itself didn’t matter.
\tHe had answered honestly. At this point, he didn’t know if he believed Mike. Suddenly, he found himself doubtful again. Would Mike only be his friend to do these things? Then turn on him? The way everyone else did?! Tai was fine with the naughty stuff, but now Mike had made him doubt… he opened his muzzle, but the older boy spoke first.
\t“Did you only do this stuff because you felt you had to?”
\tTai blinked. “Wh-what? N-no, I-”
\t“You know what that means, right?” Mike buried his muzzle in his paws, despairingly. “This means we can’t play with each other anymore.” Tai gasped. “I dunno for sure if you really wanted to do those things – if you wanna be my friend. I can’t do this stuff if you don’t want to do it for yourself! That’ll make me no better than that guy who…”
\tThe tawny fox felt his chest seize up. “Not true!” he protested, shaking his head violently. “I liked it!”
\t“Just coz you think you liked it doesn’t mean you want it…” mumbled Mike cryptically.
\tThere was a long, baffled silence as Tai stared at the older kit. What had just happened? What did Mike mean by that?
\tA heavy feeling came over him. Couldn’t play with Mike anymore? Oh no.
\tOh no…
Sniffing, Tai rolled off the bed, clumsily trying to stand while his sore ankle started throbbing in protest, and looked for his clothes and crutch.
\t“Huh - Where are you going?” Mike demanded, surprised. “Oh, you don’t have to get dressed just to go to the toilet, Tai. Dad’s in the study.”
\tThe kit shook his head. “I’m not going to the toilet. I’m gonna go home.”
\t“Huh?! Why?”
\t“You said we can’t be friends anymore and I-…” Tai pulled his shirt on and picked up his pants. “It’s not right for me to stay. I’ve got my keys with me, and I’ll be alright at home alone.”
\tWhat stung Mike was the way Tai said that. He wasn’t being catty, or spiteful. He was serious.
\t“Whoa, stop!” The older kit swung his legs over the bed and shot to his feet. “I never said that! Just that we shouldn’t do that kinda stuff for awhile, until we both know we want to! You don’t have to go, Tai! Please don’t go!”
\tTai looked at him in abject shock. Not just at how Mike had begged him not to go but at the fact Mike’s brown eyes were shimmering with tears, wide with alarm. Slowly, it changed to sadness.
\t“No, never mind…” Mike added, slumping and turning away. “It’s up to you. Go if you want. I’ll miss you though.” His voice cracked. “It’s not what I meant…”
\tThe two of them stood perfectly still, Mike staring at the floor, shoulders heaving gently with his heavy breathing, and Tai staring guiltily at his friend’s back. He wanted to reach out and embrace him, but Mike had said no more, and he didn’t know where the line was drawn. They were so close a few minutes ago, too. He could still smell Mike’s fur…
\tBut he felt paralyzed. At a complete loss for words. Tai had no idea what to do, where to go. Finally, a brilliant idea came to him. To just ask. “W-what should we do?”
\tMike turned back to him, and Tai was stunned to see he was now clearly crying. “I don’t know!” Mike sniffed. “I don’t want you to go.”
\tTai shivered. “I don’t… I don’t want to.”
\tWith as much dignity as he could muster, Mike swiped at his nose with a wrist. “A-alright. I have an idea. Y-you wanna know if I really want to be your friend, and I wanna know if you really want to do that stuff with me.” He frowned. “Then why don’t we do it tomorrow? We can go to the pool like we planned. None of these types of games. Friends.” He held out a paw. “That’ll give me a chance to prove myself, and you get a chance to find out for sure if you want to be my friend, right?”
\tWithout a moment’s thought, Tai grabbed that proffered paw and shook it. “Sure!”
\tMike looked about ready to faint with relief. “Okay… okay. Let’s get to bed…”
\tTai moved towards the bed, but he stopped, sniffing the air. “Um. What about the cocoa?”
\tMike looked forlornly at the cups on the bedside cabinet. “Um… I think we’ll just save them for tomorrow. It’s late.”
\tThe ten-year-old sighed with genuine regret.
\tThe small office was dark, illuminated only scarcely by the light from two computer screens, left on by some of the lazier workers. Eraline sighed, working her way past a few of the messier workstations to her own, which luckily was right beside a stained, smudgy window that overlooked the grimy New York dockyards. It wasn’t a pleasant visage, but it was better than having to stare at a wall. With a sigh, she placed a manila folder on her desk, paused, and knelt down.
\tShe felt exhausted, and very nervous, as she reached under her assigned desk, reaching behind the metal frame of her work computer. She felt around, finally grasping a small plastic nodule behind the machine and pulling on it. It slid out, and she looked at it. The flash-drive had to be left for hours while data was copied over to it. She should’ve left it overnight, but…
\tThere was a footfall at the entrance to the office, and she quickly slipped the device into her jacket’s pocket.
\t“Hey!” snapped a voice, young and aggressive. “Who’s there?!”
\tEraline stood. “Hold on, don’t shoot!” she said, trying to make it sound like a joke. Though, as expected, the security guard had his paw atop his holster. “It’s only me.”
\t“Eraline?!” exclaimed the young security guard, shining a powerful hand-held flashlight at her. “It’s well after hours, what’re you doing in here? We’re about close up.”
\t“Oh, Katz said he wanted some paperwork done for the morning, but I’m not due to come in until nine. I figured I’d just nip in and dump them before you locked up.”
\tThe guard frowned, approaching her. “Fair enough,” he said. “You’re new here, so just a bit of a warning. This is the New York City docks, not some small town pier. Some of us boys can get a bit edgy when the sun goes down and we’re on our lonesome. All kinds of filth try to sneak around in here in the dark.”
\tThe vixen smiled. “Sometimes in broad daylight too,” she thought to herself. “Sorry,” she said aloud. “I didn’t think of that… Um, one second, I came over here to finish something off, and I dropped my pen. Do you mind if I-?”
\tThe guard nodded. “I don’t, but you’ve got five minutes. I’m counting.”
\t“Won’t be one.” Kneeling again, Eraline reached under the desk and picked up a pen. One she had deliberately knocked down there earlier in the day. She stood, flipping over the manila folder.
\tSatisfied at her performance for the office surveillance camera.
\tQuickly, she finished off the paper at the very top of the pile. “Alright, done.” Closing the file, Eraline walked over to the nearest desk and dumped it atop the pile of trash. She couldn’t resist shaking her head in disgust at it all.
\t“Okay, come on,” the guard insisted, ushering her to the door. “No offense intended, but I got a job to do. Bet you can’t wait to get home to your boy anyway, right?”
\tEraline felt a dull, painful chill settle into her chest.
\t“…Yeah.”
\t“Tai?”
\tThe sound of his name cut across the fluffy clouds of his dreams and tried to call him back to the land of the living. He wasn’t interested.
\t“C’mon, Tai!”
\tThe cub rolled over and mewled sleepily.
\t“Wake up, lazy-butt!”
\tAt last, Tai mumbled some incoherent gibberish, then added “Too comfy!” on the end.
\t“Ohhh, Geez-Louise!” Mike rolled his eyes heavenwards. “Well, can I at least have my arm back?”
\tNo response. Though Mike was sure he saw a smile on the kit’s face.
\t“Aargh!” He yanked his arm free, careful not to hurt his slight friend. “Sleepy-head.” He touched Tai gently then slid out from under the covers, making sure he didn’t let any of the heat escape or the cold air of the room rush in to fill the void he left.
\tHe walked over to the window overlooking the brightly lit street and stretched. He fell onto the window sill, dizzied.
\t“Woo, I gotta pee!” he muttered. He considered dressing, but his dad had seen him naked before. It wouldn’t kill him. But he did have to get Tai up, he supposed. “Tai!” he said to the slowly awakening kit. “It’s time to wake up. We’ve got to go to the pool before nine, and we need to have breakfast and shower.”
\tTai rubbed his eyes sluggishly, sitting up slowly. His eyes weren’t quite focused and his head swayed like a cobra. “Uhh… why a shower? We’re going swimming, right?”
\t“Showers are good in the morning, they wake you up. Anyway, if we get things out of the way quickly, we can play something before we go.”
\t“How will get to the pool?”
\t“Dad will drive us. I cleared it with him last night.”
\tThe door opened and Robert poked his head in. “Actually guys,” he began, “Jake’s gonna take you. I tried to ask his father, but he couldn’t go either.”
\t“Jake?” Tai exclaimed, waking up almost instantaneously.
\t“Aww, you aren’t coming, dad?” whined Mike.
\t“Nah, sorry. I’ve got a lot of work to do. Need to cover for someone at the university.” Robert raised an eyebrow and chortled. “Lookin’ good boys. Lost your clothes in the night, huh?”
\tTai hid his face by pulling the comforter up.
\t“Shy, ain’t he?” Mike laughed, holding his arms out to his dad, asking to be picked up despite his nudity. Robert obliged and easily hefted his little boy into his arms, nuzzling his nose lovingly. Tai could only think of how much he’d want to shrivel and die if his mom saw him sleeping naked. Let alone actually asking her to pick him up.
\t“What do you guys want for breakfast?” the grown-up enquired, resting his muzzle on his pup’s head.
\t“Sandwiches!!” Mike replied, holding his father tighter. “Have we got any salami?”
\t“Yep. I’ll throw something together.”
\t“Awesome!”
\tRobert put Mike down. “Okay, boys, it’s time to get dressed. You can’t go to the pool naked!”
\tTai just curled up into a ball.
\t“Tai, don’t be embarrassed!” Mike laughed. “Okay, I’m just going to the toilet. Be back soon. We’ll have a shower then get dressed.”
\tRobert pulled back the top of the blanket and smiled at the little fox hiding under it, like a timid mouse. “Come on, Tai, time to get up. I won’t peek.” He knew his own son was very laid back about his nudity, but other kits he knew could get rather ashamed. “I’m not going to stay here to look at you.”
\tTai rolled over, his expression inordinately shy. He summoned his courage and sat up, knowing that it shouldn’t matter if the grownup saw his bare chest at least. “O-okay. Umm, didn’t you say that my mom was coming back today?”
\t“Maybe; she was going to try for tonight, but she might get back well after you’ll have to be in bed.”
\t“Thank you for looking after me.”
\t“Don’t mention it, Tai. It was great to have you around. Are you going to be alright with your ankle today though?”
\t“Yeah. I can limp around.”
\t“Careful with it, Tai. Don’t use it too much or you’ll make things a lot worse. I’m going to tell Jake to make sure you dry it off. See you!”
\tRobert went to the kitchen, leaving Tai to stretch before heading to the bathroom to wait for his friend. The door was locked, and he remembered that the toilet was actually in there as well as the shower. He waited patiently for Mike to open the door, hoping Robert didn’t return and see him fully exposed.
\tWhen the door did open, Tai, this time fully awake, was met with the visage of his friend in the nude. Mike cocked his head. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
\t“N-nothing.” Tai was suddenly reminded of his own nudity, and he felt his face grow hot. There was also that oddly familiar ‘glowing’ feeling in his lower belly.
\t“You really don’t need to worry,” said Mike, half serious. “Not here, anyway. Dad doesn’t really care. Did I tell you? He plays football at the university where he teaches. He’s spent more time in changing rooms than I have. We’ve seen loads of naked furs.”
\tTai flushed and nodded.
\tMike took the younger kit’s arm in his paw and pulled him gently into the bathroom. He stuck his head out into the hallway furtively, then closed the door. He turned back to face Tai.
\t“Wh-what?” Tai asked, surprised. He wasn’t sure if he expected to share the shower with the older boy.
\tMike shrugged. “Nothing. Actually, I got a question.”
\t“Huh?”
\t“Do you really want to go swimming today, or are you just coming because I asked?”
\t“Well…” Tai squirmed and looked at his nude reflection in the bathroom mirror. “I’ve never gone swimming in a pool before. I guess I want to see what it’s like.”
\t“You what?”
\t“There was a few pools near my old home, but I never went.”
\t“You mean ‘there were a few.’” Mike correct absently. He seemed to be thinking, looking blankly at his friend and putting his hands on his hips. Tai caught himself staring when he did, but looked away quickly—they’d promised not to do things like that anymore. “So, you can’t swim, can you?”
\tTai adapted something he’d heard his mother say. “Of course I can. Like a brick.” He smiled nervously.
\t“Not a problem.” The bark-furred boy grinned. “We’ll see how we go. Still want to come?”
\t“Sure… I guess.”
\t“Are you sure you’re unsure whether or not you’re sure?”
\t“Wh-what?”
\t“C’mon, let’s get in the shower.”
\tJake arrived a little later, and Robert quickly said his goodbyes and left the boys in the care of the teen.
\tThey were lying on Mike’s bed, alongside one another, and playing the video game Tai’d seen when he first stayed here – it was starting to really fascinate him. The door creaked open and Jake poked his russet muzzle in.
\t“Hey guys! What’s up?” he said cheerfully. He was wearing black jeans, a red shirt and a light brown jacket. A long steel chain connected his wallet to his jeans, dangling fashionably down his leg.
\t“The roof,” quipped Mike instantly. “Nothing much,” he added then. “It’s been a boring morning.”
\t“A cold one too. Sure you want to swim in this?”
\tMike stood and stretched. “Indoor pool. Should be okay.” He had on a long sleeved gray and blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
\tJake nodded and leaned against the door frame. “You should bring a pullover or something anyway.”
\tTai sat up cross-legged. He had his hoodie next to him and was wearing some new clothes; Jake noticed that twice now he’d seen Tai in the same gear. But now he was now wearing a deep blue t-shirt and cheap black track-pants with a red stripe down each leg. A cast coated one of the skinny kit’s ankles.
\t“Are you going to be alright to swim with your ankle wrapped up in that?” Jake asked, idly wondering when and how it got hurt.
\tThe kit nodded. “Um, yeah,” he replied. Jake felt he seemed a little distracted. “The doctors said I could let it get wet, but I have to dry it off.”
\t“So, when are we leaving?” Mike enquired, enthusiastic to get some practice in. He had seated himself again and was slipping on a pair of flip-flops.
\t“Have you had breakfast yet?”
\t“Just some sandwiches.”
\tJake shrugged. “OK, get ready and let’s jet. I’ll treat you to somethin’, I got paid yesterday.”
\t“Thanks for taking us Jake.”
\t“No problem. Just promise me one thing.”
\tMike looked up, curious.
\t“No strip teases, Mike. None of that stuff in public.”
\t“Of course,” Tai suddenly joked. “We only do that at home.”
\tMike stuffed a sweater into his sports bag hastily and darted out of the room to go to the toilet before they left, leaving Tai and Jake in the room together.
\tThe little fox waited until Mike was out of earshot, and he spoke up just as Jake made to turn and leave the room. “Jake?” he said quietly. The larger canine turned to him, and Tai quickly looked down at his paws dangling over the edge of the bed. “Um… can I ask a favor?”
\t“Shoot.”
\t“Um. C-can you teach me?” he felt the familiar steadily increasing heat in his cheeks and he knew he was blushing under his fur. “Can you teach me to swim?”
\tJake paused. Though he’d brought his own swimming gear, he wasn’t too keen on getting into the water himself. “Mike’s a better teacher for that than I am,” he said coolly.
\t“I know, but he’ll be busy.” Tai already knew how pathetic he’d look, trying to flounder around on his own.
\tWith a mental sigh of resignation, Jake nodded. “We’ll see. Come on, let’s get moving.”
\tJake let the two fox boys into ‘his’ car, and almost from the moment he did he knew something was wrong.
\tThe duo sat apart, and their conversation, when they actually spoke to one another, was awkward. Tentative. Not the chatter of typical kids, nor the mature banter he knew Mike at least was capable of. It was odd, definitely not what he expected considering the… intimate show they put on when Jake last saw them. Eventually they started discussing the color of passing cars. They didn’t seem even remotely interested in the topic; like they were struggling for things to say.
\tThe teenager felt uncomfortably like he was restricting them. They clearly had other things they needed to discuss.
\t“Another pink one,” Tai noted quietly. “Why would you want a pink car?”
\t“Like your boxers?” retorted Mike. He grinned over at the tawny kit.
\tTai smiled nervously. “No one sees those.”
\tThe younger fox felt a strange twinge of relief for some reason, and he reached up absently to brush one of his stray bangs out of his face. It flopped right back, and he despairingly left it. It was just a nervous habit of his, and that lock naturally fell in front of his eyes anyway. It either had to be cut or just put up with, and Tai hadn’t suffered a haircut in years.
\tThe two foxes locked eyes for a split second, then they both went back to looking out the window and remarking on cars.
\tJake frowned in puzzlement. What the hell was going on here?
\t“So, what do you guys want to eat?” he asked, pushing the matter aside for now.
\t“What’s along the way again?” replied Mike, stretching up so intensely in the seat that his navel was actually visible.
\t“A lot. What do you feel like?” Jake frowned. “Didn’t you guys get much sleep last night?”
\tTai was already yawning before he even thought to stop it. “Uhh, yeah,” he lied, badly. “I think it’s just because it’s early in the morning.”
\tJake forced his facial muscles to affect disinterest again; for Tai, maybe, but Mike, for all the years he’d known him, had been an early bird, especially when practice was involved. It was nine in the morning; Mike was usually up and about by then. Maybe the kit was getting into the teenage tradition of lethargy early.
\t“Ya know, I feel like some sausage… maybe a sausage roll,” Mike mused. “Haven’t had one in ages. Tai?”
\t The tawny boy had leaned his head on the window again. His breath was misting the window, thanks to the blisteringly cold morning temperature, and he was watching that with what could best be termed ‘bored interest’. He frowned, thinking for a moment. “Um, a-actually, I’d like some chicken.”
\tJake raised an eyebrow. The smaller kit struck him as extremely deferential. Shy and unassertive, despite the strange, almost attention-seeking decision to go topless for Jake. Jake was mildly astonished he didn’t just agree with Mike.
\tBut if Mike was surprised, but he didn’t let it show. “Well, Jake, it’s up to you now!”
\tThe alsatian coughed. “How about both?” he suggested. “We can go to a good home-style restaurant a few blocks from the pools and swing around again.”
\tThe kits voiced their agreement.
\tBut then the car fell silent again.
\t“Hey, there’s that pink car again,” Mike said suddenly. “Wonder if she’s lost?”
\tEarly as it was, the trio were seated in short order at the restaurant.
\tIt was a nice place that tried very hard to affect a southern, homey atmosphere. The alfresco dining area outside looked more like a garden. As they walked through the front door, Tai noticed there were white lace drapes on all the wide windows skirting the dining area, and the tables and chairs were well polished oak. Verdant houseplants were almost everywhere, while the middle of the dining area was taken up with a grandiose pond-like water feature, constructed of gray stone, that was home to three fern bushes.
\tDozens of wide tables encircled it, set out with, white, frilly table cloths and inscribed menus.
\tThe menus were bound in a soft, pungent wood. Mike opened his after the waitress left them seated and immediately screwed his face.
\t“Why do their menus stink?” he asked in a sotto voce.
\tJake lifted a finger to his muzzle and shushed him, unable to keep a grin down. “Shhh! It’s the wood, Mike. It doesn’t stink either.”
\tThe waitress returned almost instantly. It was a perky lapin with large ears, a slim body, a smile that appeared permanent and, so far as the trio could tell, a genuine southern accent. “Hi guys,” she chirped, looking at all of them and shining her gleaming smile. “I’m Jessie, and I’ll be your waitress this cold morning.”
\t“Cold alright,” muttered Mike. “Excuse me ma’am, but could you turn the heaters up or something?” Across the table from him, Tai was shaking slightly and had wrapped his arms around himself, trying to focus on reading his menu.
\tJessie laughed. “Sorry, we just opened, so the heating is taking its sweet time.” She looked at the boys sympathetically. “It’ll be warmer in a few minutes, I promise, hun. So, would you like more time to decide or are you ready to order?”
\tMike nearly retorted that they’d had less than no time to decide so far, but instead kept it to himself. He looked down at the menu again and quickly scanned it. “Uhh… can I just have a breakfast please?” he said, looking up at the tall lapin-lady. “It’d be real cool if you’d swap the salad for extra sausage though.”
\t“Sure.”
\tJake spoke up next, sensing Tai still wasn’t too sure of his choice yet. “I’ll have a burger please. With fries.”
\t“Beef burger…” Jessie looked over to the smaller fox boy who was still frowning at his menu, a few locks of unruly tawny hair flopped in front of his face. “And you, honey?”
\tHe looked up, slightly embarrassed, and swiped the hair back around his left ear with practiced speed. “Umm, can I have a chicken burger please?”
\t“Grilled or fried?”
\t“Um, I-I guess,” Tai stammered, not even sure what the difference was, “Grilled?”
\t“No problem! Do you want some fries with it? Only a buck more.”
\tTai shook his head. “No thanks.”
\tScribbling rapidly on her notepad, Jessie asked one more question: “Anything to drink?”
\t“Cola.”
\t“Water.”
\t“Apple juice, please.”
\tShe scribbled a little more, then looked up, that radiant smile of hers damn near blinding. “Alright! I’ll be back soon! Shouldn’t take long, since you came in early.” She walked away, humming softly.
\tWhen the rabbit was out of earshot, Mike grinned at the tawny kit. “Hehe!” he chuckled. “So, that’s why. All grilled food, huh?”
\tJake looked across the table. “What’s this?”
\tMike scanned the restaurant quickly to ensure it was still empty. “Go on, Tai, lift up your shirt for a second. Go on!”
\tAbashed and confused, Tai nonetheless did as he was told. He stood up briefly and lifted his hoodie and shirt to reveal his skinny lower torso and tummy, causing Jake’s heart to skip for a split moment. Tai’s lower body was very lean and embraced by a near-golden fur, creamy white on his flat belly, which slightly tapered down to his hips before widening almost imperceptibly again. Jake gulped: Tai wore his tracksuit pants quite low, resting several inches below his little navel.
\t“Mike!” the teen grated, eyeing Mike balefully.
\t“What? You’ll see more than that in the pool,” Mike said insouciantly. “I didn’t mean it like that, I swear! See what I mean though? He, like, eats entire pizzas and he’s so skinny!”
\tBlushing, Tai lowered his clothes and sat down again. “It’s probably because I don’t eat much,” he proffered. “I’ve gone a few days without eating once!”
\t“Wouldn’t your mom freak out?” Jake said, positively astounded. The idea of not eating at least twice a day, to him, seemed bizarre – the teen loved his food.
\t“Mom’s always had to work all day and night shifts,” replied Tai. “It’s not her fault. I just don’t get very hungry. There wasn’t much food anyway.”
\t“How much do you eat on a normal day, then?”
\t“Not a lot. I don’t get hungry very often.”
\tJake sighed. “That’s not good. You really have to be fed more. Being skinny is one thing, but it might also be why you’re so short. Stunting your growth.” Something had abruptly gone very wrong. Tai was staring straight downward, his shoulders slumped. Jake shut up immediately.
\tTai whimpered and shook his head. “Sh-she couldn’t. She had to work or I wouldn’t eat at all. Not her fault.”
\tImmediately, both Jake and Mike became alarmed.
\t“Tai!” the teen hastened to apologize. “I’m sorry; I wasn’t criticizing your mom. Sorry.”
\tMike however looked sadly at the smaller boy. He remembered the eight-year-old’s eyes, his quavering voice, when his mom left him on the day they met each other the first time. Tai wasn’t defending his mom from Jake…
\tJessie bustled back up then and handed over three glasses of liquid, smiled, and walked away, evidently still busy despite it being early. Her presence was timely, however, and Tai ducked under the table when she approached, pretending to be tying his shoelaces. He sat back up when she left, and his eyes were miraculously dry.
\tWith a nervous cough, Jake switched topic quickly. “What have you got planned for after the pools, guys?”
\tMike reclined in his chair, hoping the awkward moment had passed already. “Nothin’ big,” he replied, resting his head back into his paws. “Tai will probably sleep over for one more night.”
\t“Ah, back to school soon, huh?” his tone was sympathetic. “That sucks.”
\t“Yeah.” Tai muttered.
\t“Is your paw better yet? Maybe you can get your mom to let you stay off for a while longer.”
\tTai looked under the table at his bandaged ankle, sealed inside its thick plaster cast. He flexed it gingerly and had to admit the pain was minor. “I think it’s getting better…” there was a distinct note of disappointment in his voice.
\tMike chuckled. “I remember when I hurt my arm; couldn’t wait for it to get better.”
\t“Oh, you broke it, Tai?” Jake looked at him in surprise.
\t“Nuh-uh,” replied the fox boy, smiling. “Just sprained it badly and hit it off the side of a shopping cart.”
\t“Yeesh.”
\t“In fact,” Mike drawled, “it was really lucky. He’s lucky he didn’t break a lot of stuff, jumping off the mall roof like that.”
\tJake’s eyes widened. “Say what? Why?!”
\tTai shot his friend a withering look. “I was being chased… it was the only way I could escape.”
\t“Chased?! By who? C’mon, Tai, tell me how it happened!”
\tWith a sigh of resignation, Tai passed the time until the food was brought to the table by explaining who it was that chased him through the city, and why. Jake was having trouble believing that someone his age would try to stab or kill a kid as small as Tai, but then Tai described his school to him…
\tThe teenager swore under his breath. “Unbelievable.”
\tMike’s eyes glinted. “What was that?”
\t“I said: unbe-”
\t“Before that.”
\tJake smiled down on the ten-year-old fox. “I said a word you don’t know yet.”
\tMike chortled. “There aren’t many of those.”
\t“I know, but I have to pretend while we’re in public.”
\tTheir casual, almost affectionate, banter made Tai smile, his furry ears slowly perking upwards. All of a sudden, he realized he was loving the situation. Back in Alaska, he and his mother almost never left their house, aside from going to school or work, where Eraline scarcely listened to him. When they did go out, he was simply being towed along behind his mom; the adults never listened to him, why would they? He had nothing to say, and even if he did, why would anyone listen?
\tStrangely, it was usually worse with other kids.
He always felt useless and distant from everyone. It hurt. All he wanted was just someone to talk to him, to listen to him. The last fur to do that died years ago. Tai was no attention-seeker. If anything, he was the opposite. But being nothing to anybody, a nobody, every day, aside from a target for mean-spirited jerks, for so long…
\tBut Jake had just listened to him telling a story for almost five minutes. Really, truly listened! Shown some concern and real interest! No other grownup had done that! Aside from Mike’s dad, maybe.
Then there was Mike himself. The bigger boy was older, and had every right to talk down to him the way all the others Tai had encountered did, but he didn’t. Mike treated him like an equal. So considerate and friendly. The awkward conversation of the previous night started to seem even more ludicrous now.
A happy chuckle escaped his muzzle.
\tSomehow, here, now, he was somebody.
\tThey pulled up to the swimming pools and jumped out the car, grabbing their individual bags from the trunk of the car and made their way towards the entrance. Enjoying and energized the crisp, cold morning, Mike wanted to jog, or maybe even run, but the injured Tai could hardly oblige.
\tIt was a large complex, a sports-center about the size of Tai’s old elementary school but made of a few large buildings, rather than dozens of small classrooms. When the trio opened the glass doors into the swimming pool building, the stench of chlorine nearly brought Tai to his knees.
\tHe dry-retched and would’ve outright collapsed if Mike hadn’t caught him.
\t“I-it stinks!” he complained, trying to avoid breathing in through his nose. He felt bile rising in his throat.
\tMike chuckled and helped his friend find his footing once more. “You get used to it,” he said unhelpfully.
\t“Isn’t that like getting used to hitting your head on a wall? Yeuugh!”
\tJake had wrinkled his nose, but didn’t seem drastically bothered by the stink. “Is there even an outdoor pool here, Mike?”
\t“Yeah, on the other side,” Mike said absently, trying to keep Tai upright as another wave of baulking nearly overwhelmed him. The littler fox was leaning heavily on him; one paw had even grasped a pawful of Mike’s shirt.
\t“Wow, are you alright?” Jake sighed. “I think we’re gonna have to wait a while for Tai to get used to the smell before we all go get changed.”
\tMike nodded. Tai was reacting strongly to the smell- which stood to reason, since he’d probably never smelled chlorine before- and Mike had seen what could happen to kits as young as him. They definitely didn’t want Tai to puke in the pool, or start crying in distress; he silently cursed himself for not thinking about it. “Think we should make a break for the canteen? It always stinks much less there.”
\tTai retched once more and looked up at the two older boys. His eyes were watering and reddened, while his expression had taken on a pained quality. “H-how come you guys are taking th-this so well?!” he gagged. “I-it’s so gross!”
\t“It is,” Mike replied, trying to keep his younger friend upright despite the damage he was doing to his shirt. “We’re just more used to it. You get okay with it after a while. Indoor pools stink because there’s less ventilation.”
\t“L-less wh-what?”
\t“Less air going through, to take away the stink. C’mon, let’s get to the canteen…”
\tTai held his breath, nodded, and prepared to sprint if necessary, his ankle be damned.
\tA few minutes later, they were sitting on the plastic chairs in the canteen, which was a self-enclosed part of the pool. The casual opening of the entrance however, allowed some of the sickening chlorine smell to waft in. Eventually, Tai had managed to tolerate the milder stench in the canteen, but the very thought of going back into the pool area made his stomach churn.
\tThey weren’t the only furs at the pool this day of course. While school was still in session, there were kids on supervised swimming lessons, as well as a handful that appeared to be there with parents anyway. There were older furs, as well as an entire swimming team comprised of teenaged otters.
\tTai took a deep breath; he was surprised when he didn’t throw up because of it. “Mike,” he said quietly. “You can go ahead you know.”
\t“Nah, I’m alright waiting for you,” he said, smiling. “We have all day.”
\tJake checked his watch. “Yeah, that’s alright, don’t ask me if I have anything to do today,” he said sourly.
\t“Don’t you have to practice?” Tai said gently, smiling at Mike.
\tMike sighed and stood. “Guess you’re right!” he picked up his bag and began to amble towards the changing room. “Don’t be too long, ‘k?”
\tOnce Mike was out of earshot, Jake fixed the tawny vulpine kit with a steady stare. “Yes?”
\tTai winced. “Umm, well… I wanted to talk with you about some stuff… also I can’t swim.”
\t“Huh?” Jake blinked, leaning closer. “Talk about stuff?”
\t“Yeah.”
\t“Well, fire away.”
\tThe boy looked around nervously, then leaned in closer too. “Uhh… um, I wanted to talk about… uhh…you know…?” An uncomprehending stare was all he got. “Th-that thing you and Mike are, uh, arguing about?”
\tJake’s heart stopped, then skittered about his chest for a moment like a mad rat. “Not here!” he hissed firmly. “People can hear!”
\t“I know, I know!” responded Tai hastily, in an equally low voice. “I’ll be quiet, I promise! It’s just… I need to talk to someone! Please?”
\tHis voice was so pathetic, Jake’s resolve weakened like a castle wall hit with a cannon ball. “But why here?”
\t“I don’t want Mike to hear.”
\tJake buried his head in his hands, his ears drooping tragically. “God, why me?” he moaned under his breath. “Alright, Tai… be very, very quiet. Stop the moment I tell you to. I’ll answer what I can.”
\tBiting his lower lip, Tai let his eyes convey a wordless thanks. “Um, I need to know… why do you say no to him? Um, I know you…”
\t“Find him attractive?” Jake supplied acidly, glaring at Tai.
\t“Yeah.” The shy kit quailed slightly.
\t“Two reasons, Tai,” began the teen quietly. “The first is simple: it’s dangerous. If we get caught, it’s me that’ll be in real trouble. Trouble you don’t know yet and probably wouldn’t understand. Just get that if we were caught, my whole life could be ruined. The second reason is a little more complicated.”
\t“What is it?” Tai was not one to be dissuaded by ‘complication.’
\tJake sighed heavily. “Tai... I don’t know if you can understand this, but listen: Mike was introduced to this stuff because he was raped when he was about your age. I know that’s not how it is for every, I dunno, sexually aware kit out there, like yourself, I guess. But with Mike it is! I just don’t think it’s right. Every time he tries to get me to do something to him I think about how it began, what he went through and it’s just wrong.”
\t“But Mike said he didn’t mind it too much.”
\t“Yeah, like that’s normal. I dunno, Tai, it just seems wrong, maybe you’ll understand when you’re a bit older, it’s hard to explain; I’d care a lot less if it was a little more normal. Besides, doesn’t change the fact that it’s dangerous. So why do you ask? Did he put you up to it?”
\t“No, no! I… we just, um… well, I dunno.” Tai flushed a little. “Um, do you think there’s any reason for Mike and me to not do it?”
\tJake blinked. Then frowned. “I don’t know, Tai. I guess not really, just remember that Mike isn’t exactly like you. Don’t do anything stupid and don’t let him do anything stupid and you should be fine; be very careful. I don’t think you want to tell anybody though. You might still get in huge trouble. Just remember that if you don’t want to do something you have the right to say so and he has to respect that.”
\tTai closed his eyes for a second and thought hard before speaking next. “J-Jake… Mike thinks I’m only doing things with him because I don’t want to lose him as a friend. And I’m worried that he’s only trying to be my friend because he wants someone to do this stuff with. Wh-what do you think?”
\tThere was a pause, and the only sound was that of the canteen staff chattering and some shouting in the pool area. Then Jake burst out laughing. “I can’t believe I just got asked for relationship advice by a little kit!” he chortled. “Tai, seriously, I don’t know. Mike is a very honest kid, and I think if he realized that he was doing anything like that he’d be ashamed. I don’t think he’d ever hold a false friend just so he has someone to be dirty with.” He took a deep breath. “As for you, I don’t think you’re only doing what he wants so you can be friends. I mean, you’re the only one who knows for sure, Tai. I remember the first night we met. Like I said though, Mike won’t hurt you. Not on purpose.”
\tTai smiled sheepishly. “Thanks Jake…” he said quietly. “Well, just one more thing…”
\t“Hmm?”
\tThe kit’s smile grew even more embarrassed. “I can’t swim real well. Could you…?”
\t“… Oh, fine… come on, let’s get in there.” Jake rolled his eyes and pushed his chair back, grabbing both his and Tai’s bags. Anything to change the damn topic.
\t“Cool!” Tai stood also, then swayed a little. “Whoa… uh, I’m a little more used to the smell now, I think.”
\tEraline pulled the clunky old, white car over to the side of the road, and rested her pointed muzzle on the wheel. She sighed and lidded her eyes for a moment.
\tGod she was sick of this. Cracking her eyes open again, she looked up at the two-storey murky, unclean structure that was her home for the night, once again, with a mixture of loathing and resignation.
\tShe didn’t want to be here, staying at this excuse for a hotel. It wasn’t about what she wanted however. Being offered an excuse to be this close to her new “job” for the first few days, getting to know the employees and the area, was too good a chance to pass up, even if it sent her to the opposite side of the gigantic city and kept her there for days. She’d gotten a lot of information, more than she expected, but it came at a cost.
\tBut until it had all been thoroughly analyzed, there was no way of knowing how useful that information would truly be. What they needed to know wouldn’t just be lying around on unsecure servers she could access from her workstation. She was blindly grasping at straws, exactly the same as they had been four years ago.
\tLuckily, it wouldn’t be for much longer. Hopefully.
\tShe already had a list of things to do now. Normal things, now that she was back in a real city. Now she didn’t have to endure the poverty, the isolation and the sheer boredom she had become so used to.
\tFor one thing, the curtains in her bedroom absolutely had to be replaced. In fact, before Eraline had left, she’d removed the curtains and ugly, stout curtain-rods from her bedroom window. Before she even got ready for her… night shift.
\tThere was more to be done too. She had a real home at last – but of course, within days she’d been called away. Leaving her son alone, again… she knew he was capable; if nothing else, Tai had always been good at looking after himself while his mother was away. He was in good paws too. Probably a better parent than she could be was looking after him. But still, it wasn’t…
\tTwisting in the driver’s seat, Eraline withdrew her black leather wallet and snapped it open. She was never one for purses and the like; she knew her femininity came from herself, not her accessories. She needed something to hold her money and cards, not an ornament that gets in the way and presents a target for thieves.
\tOpening the wallet, she took the key-card from its resting place on top of her credit card. She paused then, her eyes coming to rest on the little passport sized picture she had stuck in the transparent compartment of her wallet normally reserved for a driver’s license. The clear green eyes and shy smile seemed to be directed right at her…
\tShe smiled, opened the car door and stepped out onto the wet road. Grudgingly making her way to the building.
\tThen she frowned, and pulled out her new cell phone. She stared at it for a few moments, before hitting the speed dial and bringing the device to her ear.
\tIt rang out. But as she brought it away from her head, disappointed, she saw the text on the screen. She had a message, so she opened it…
\t“Be careful, Eraline,” it read. “We want you to come home safely and soon. They’ve gone swimming.”
\tShe paused. Tai went swimming? He was afraid of water, wasn’t he? How interesting. Maybe he was getting over it? That was good.
\tEraline smiled widely and kept walking.
\tHer son was safe and happy. For today at least.
\tThat was something she could never guarantee…
\tMike pulled his face out of the water, blinking the stinging water from his eyes and shaking his head so more of it wouldn’t drip down from his medium length head fur. He flicked his ears idly and pulled himself up onto the pool edge.
\tHe’d just done three laps in succession and a rest seemed in order.
\t“Huh?” he muttered to himself, as he caught sight of Tai and Jake at the shallow end of the pool. Jake was giving Tai some instructions, and trying to help the floundering fox-boy stay above water by holding him up with a hand on his stomach. Mike felt a strange, two-way jealousy as he looked on. He shook his head, as if trying to shake it away. There was no problem with Jake helping a kid half his age learn to swim, and no problem with Tai wanting to learn. That’s all it was.
\tHe blinked. Tai was wearing swimming trunks; or rather, briefs. Dark green ones. Mike chuckled to himself; he hadn’t seen a casual swimmer wearing those before, at least not here. He did, because he competed, but casual swimmers seemed to be too scared to wear them. Not that he was complaining, Tai’s revealing swimwear was an interesting sight for him. Mike took a deep breath and tried to focus again.
\tAfter a few more laps he’d probably have done enough; he was confident he could win this time if his competition was the same as last if he just kept this up. Few other kits took this as seriously as he did, and he was feeling in pretty good shape. He barely felt puffed at all. Then he could join the others and examine Tai’s swimwear more closely…
\tDown the pool however, Tai felt like a total fool. There were boys a year or so younger than him, here with a school teacher or something, swimming like fish in the deeper zones of the pool, and yet he could barely stay afloat.
\t“Don’t worry,” Jake said, seeing the frustrated look on the kit’s face. “We all have to start somewhere. Even if it’s the paddling pool – that’s how Mike and I got started, you know. Swimming since we were little toddlers.”
\tTai nodded and tried to keep a positive mindset about it. He could barely get his arms and legs to move in synch; it was more like he was getting used to being submerged in water than learning to swim, because he was sure as heck getting a lot of nothing done.
\tJake shifted position in the water, laying a paw on the kit’s fluffy tail that protruded from the tail-fly at the back of his briefs and gently pressing it down. “You’re not actually doing too bad, you know…” he said, forcing himself to ignore the fact he was basically touching Tai’s butt. “You’re good at treading water at least. Careful with the tail, it can drag out behind you and be a real pain. Try to keep it level.”
\t“Mmblagh!” Tai spat out some chlorinated water. “Uch. It tastes gross.”
\t“That’s why we swim in it, not drink it,” Jake quipped. “Hey, I gotta ask. How come you’ve had no lessons? I’m not sure I’ve ever met a kid who didn’t at least get a lesson before your age. Didn’t your old school have a swimming program?”
\tPlacing his paws down on the pool floor, Tai looked up at the bare-chested teenager in his board-shorts. Tai’s shoulders barely peaked up from the water and yet Jake wasn’t even wet above his flat, furry stomach so far. “Yeah, I think so,” he said, brushing one of his bangs from his face and making to rub his eyes. “I didn’t go to it. They couldn’t make me swim.”
\tJake reached out and stopped him. “Don’t rub, it makes it sting worse. Just blink a few times and keep your fur from dripping it back in.”
\t “OK.” He blinked a few times. “Anyway, I didn’t swim at school… because I’m afraid of water.”
\tThe teenager frowned. “You seem ok to me.”
\t“Yeah I’m fine if I can see the bottom.”
\t“I don’t get you. Why is that?”
\tTai looked at his shimmering, distorted reflection in the bright pool and moved his paws through the water, sending ripples in all directions. “When I was really small, my dad died in a big boat accident. I- I kinda got scared about dying that way… drowning at night. Not sure which way was up or down, because the water and the sky are as dark as each other.” He shuddered slightly. “If I can see the bottom it’s okay. Or if I can stand. Someone once tried to make me swim in a cold lake back home in Alaska. There was even some ice in the water. I really hated water after that.”
\t“Why did they try to make you swim in a deep lake on a freezing day?” Jake said, baffled.
\t“They pushed me in. I got scared.” Tai looked a little embarrassed. “I didn’t know how to swim. I guess they wanted me to drown rather than swim in it.”
\tJake suppressed a sudden urge to punch something. “Who did this? Why?”
\t“Two boys about Mike’s age…” Tai absently made a wave in the water with one arm. “They heard me talking to mom when she dropped me at school one day about how I hated swimming and they pretended to be my friends one day, so they could push me in the lake after school.”
\t“Ah.” Jake smiled tightly. “I’d love to meet them one day. So, how come you didn’t want to learn to swim at school or privately, but you came along today?”
\t“I dunno…” he looked up again, wide eyed.
\t“Did you tell on those boys?” asked Jake, still a little furious.
\t“Yes.”
\t“Did they get in trouble?”
\t“No.”
\t“Why not?!”
\t“Because they said I fell in, and got their parents to say they were at home.” The tawny boy sighed almost angrily. “They never help me. If they even listen to me.”
\t“If I’d been there, I’d have kicked their asses for you, I swear…” said Jake.
\tTai smiled up at him. “Thanks.”
\t“Don’t mention it.”
\tA wave of sympathy came over Jake. He felt suddenly so sorry for Tai. Other kids picked on him, adults never listened to or helped him—from the sound of things, his mother failed to listen most of the time. Come to think of it, Jake hadn’t been to Tai’s apartment two days in a row and the boy’s mother was clearly not around.
\tAt the restaurant earlier, what Tai said under his breath… was she ever around for him?
Jake had to wonder how Mike had won him over so fast.
\tA blast of water smashed into the back of Jake’s head and he turned around slowly to glare at the grinning Mike, who’d stealthily made his way around the duo by swimming under the water. “Hi guys, what’s shakin’?” he asked, swiping back his head fur with a practiced paw.
\t“Not much,” replied Tai brightly, who had managed to avoid being splashed in the face. “How about you?”
\tMike lifted up the stopwatch around his neck and looked ruefully at it. “I just beat my best time.”
\t“So when do you guys wanna go?” Jake asked blandly, giving no hint that he’d just been splashed in the back of the head. “We going to stick around here for a while?”
\t“Yeah, I’m done with training, I just wanna play around for a bit,” Mike said, looking to Tai. “We can stay in the shallow bits. You ok with that?”
\tTai nodded happily. “Okay!”
\t“So how does a game sound?”
\t“Which one?”
\tMike thought for a second. “Marco Polo?” Tai gave him a confused look. “No problem, I’ll explain it. It might even help your swimming out, Tai!
\t“Someone has to swim around with their eyes closed, and the others can only walk in the shallow water. Every time the ‘it’ says ‘Marco!’ everyone else needs to reply with ‘Polo!’, and using the sound he has to find people and tag them.”
\tTai furrowed his brow. “OK, I think I get it.”
\t“One last thing: you’re it!”
\t“What?!”
\t“You need to practice swimming!”
\tWith a groan, Tai closed his eyes and the game began…
\tThey had been playing happily for about half an hour before finally Jake called a halt to the games.
\t“Guys, okay, it’s time to get out of here,” Jake called over Mike’s incessant calls of “Maaaarcooo?”
\t“Aww!” Mike whined, opening his eyes. “How come?”
\t“Yeah!” complained Tai, treading water a few meters into the deeper end. “I’m just starting to like the water.”
\tJake shrugged. “I know guys, but we’ve been here for two hours now. Your dad will be home soon.”
\tWith a discontent groan of defeat, the two boys swam over to the side of the pool and hoisted themselves up. Jake averted his eyes so he wouldn’t stare at the two briefs-clad kits. His resolve didn’t last long, and he snuck a few peeks before pulling himself out of the water as well, berating himself silently.
\tWalking side by side, the two sodden fox kits padded their way to the showers. Tai didn’t like the way the slimy, gritty floor felt on his exposed paw, and so walked a little faster than necessary, ignoring the minor throbbing that caused in his ankle.
\t“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Mike asked, idly running a paw through the soaked mass of fluff that was his tail.
\t“Yeah.” Tai reached the door to the changing room first, and he wrenched it open, holding it so Mike could go first.
\tThe changing room itself was a tiled, square room with benches around two of the walls, small, white metal lockers on another, and the final wall was taken up by a row of ten shower booths, each one behind a blue, lockable wooden door. Mike walked over to his usual locker and took out their bags.
\t“You need to meet my coach. He’s awesome, but he’s on vacation at the moment.” He paused for an instant, then looked back at Tai, who stood straight and looked back at him.
“What’s wrong?” the younger kit asked, cocking his head inquisitively.
\t“Nothing,” Mike lied, smiling. He stretched, then without ceremony reached down and pulled his black swimming briefs right off. “Hey,” he breathed, looking around to be sure they were alone. “Let’s shower together!”
\tAgain, that odd ‘warmth’ in the pit of Tai’s stomach returned. “R-really?” the long-haired kit asked, puzzled. “I- I mean, you sure? Here?”
\t“Sure! Don’t need two showers for us when we can share one, right?” Mike crossed the room to a randomly picked wooden door, his furless member bouncing slightly in front of him. “Saves water, right? They’re always telling us to conserve water. ‘Sides, we don’t want to stink of chlorine.”
\t“Uh, r-right.” Tai blushed and tried to hide his confusion as he slowly slipped his swimming briefs off.
\tMike opened the door and motioned urgently for Tai to join him before turning to the taps and switching the jet of water on. Tai darted into the shower cubicle as fast as he could, shutting the blue-painted wooden door behind him. He looked around, trying to avoid looking at his friend’s naked body.
\tUnfortunately, he was starved for things to look at in here. It was a small cubicle, clearly meant for just one adult, with surprisingly clean white tiles on the wall and floor. He tried to look up at the ceiling, but felt a stronger boy’s fingers on his wrist, yanking him under the cascading water.
\t“Sorry, but you have to get wet if you’re gonna have a shower,” joked Mike, grinning cheekily.
\tSatisfied, Mike set about working the pool water out of his fur, firmly running his paws through his matted fur. Tai, with nothing else to look at, resigned to look at his friend as he hogged most of the water. He wasn’t as good looking when his fur was soaked like that, he observed. He still looked great, but that layer of warm fuzz was something else.
\tTai jumped and silently scolded himself.
\tMike looked up at him in the process of rubbing down his left shin, arching his spine and looking curiously at his smaller friend. “What’s up?” he enquired, changing to the right thigh. “Gah! Chlorine is such a pain.”
\tShaking his head, Tai forced his gaze to the floor. “N-nothing.” But when Mike stretched up, rubbing down his head-fur with his eyes closed and torso pushed forwards, he suddenly found himself staring again, his breathing becoming strangely ragged.
\tEven now, even after the previous night, he couldn’t stop thinking about…
\t“Did you want to do anything tonight?” Mike asked, still working on his head-fur. “I think your mom comes home tonight or tomorrow.”
\tThere was no reply at first, and Mike just kept washing himself down. Finally, he rinsed his head and squinted into the running water. “Tai?” He opened his eyes just in time to see the tawny kit take a big step forwards and grab him in a savagely tight embrace. “Whoa!”
\tTai pressed his body against Mike’s. “I don’t want to go home…” he whispered, before standing on his tip-toes and kissing Mike enthusiastically, in a much more mature fashion than Mike had ever expected. Like the very first night they had met…
\tWhen the kiss was finally broken, Tai didn’t move away. Instead, he stood there, still clutching Mike’s wet, bigger body as close as he could, leaning backwards just enough to look into his hazel eyes with a mixture of pleading and awkward adoration.
\t“Tai?” gasped Mike, wrapping his own arms around the other soaking kit. “Wh-what’s wrong-?”
\tEverything Jake had said and the absurdity of the situation had just come crashing down on Tai. “This is stupid,” he stated. “I like you. You… just seeing you makes me feel all weird. I like doing those things with you.” His eyes watered and he seemed to choke for a second. “D-do you really like me? That’s all I want to know.”
\tMike stared at him, stunned. In his chest, a bizarre feeling, as if his heart wanted to take wings and soar away, left him breathless. “W-what?” he exhaled, looking bewildered. Tai’s expression changed immediately to one of heartbreak and embarrassment, before Mike managed to add, “Of course I do.” He shuffled nervously. “I-I was happy to not do anything… you know… ever again if you weren’t alright with it…”
\t“R-really?”
\tMike nodded. “I… well, you’re my friend, Tai!” he finally exclaimed, giving the smaller kit a squeeze. “You don’t do stuff like this if you don’t lo- uh, like the other fur.”
He didn’t know for sure if Tai remembered how he had blurted out that he was in love with the tawny fox the very first night they met. That still made his ears go red.
\t“Today my mom gets home?” whispered Tai, resting his head on Mike’s chest and adjusting his grip so he held the bigger boy close to him by his brown-furred hips.
\tRubbing Tai’s sides, Mike nodded. “Yeah.”
\tSighing happily, Tai squeezed Mike a bit tighter, content to stay in the embrace for a while longer.
\t“Um. T-Tai?” said Mike, rubbing his friend’s back and shoulders. “We should finish up. Jake’ll wonder where we are and we’ll get in trouble.”
\tThe small kit in his arms smiled and finally backed off. “OK,” he agreed, shaking his head gently to get his irritating head-fur out of his face. He closed his eyes and quickly shoved his muzzle under the jet of water, washing his face. “But it’s my turn!”
\tGrinning, Mike placed his paws on Tai’s stomach, slowly massaging the furry surface and digging his fingers in gently. “Then I’ll help, huh?”
\t“Ahaha! That tickles!”
\tWhen they finally finished working the chlorinated pool water from their pelts, Mike turned off the water and suddenly gasped. “Oh crap,” he chortled. “I forgot our towels.” When Tai’s face took on a slight cast of horror, he hastily added, “Oh, don’t worry, we don’t have to leave the change rooms; the lockers are just over there.”
\t“Should we put our bathers back on?” asked Tai, still clearly nervous. “We still have to get to the lockers.”
\t“Nah,” Mike replied, running a paw through his soaked head-fur. “It’s alright. Told you, nobody cares. It’s a changing room, everyone’s naked in here.”
\tNodding, Tai pressed up against the tiled wall, letting Mike squeeze past and open the door. There were other furs out there, and with a squeak Tai retreated back into the shower cubicle.
\tMike looked at him with honest confusion. “What’s up? You don’t have any problem with me seeing you naked.”
\t“Um, it’s different. They don’t know us!”
\t“They won’t care,” Mike reassured him, taking Tai’s paw in his. “C’mon… it’s alright!”
\tDrawing courage from his friend, Tai let himself be led out into the change room and over to their locker. However, he was surprised when he and Mike received very little attention. A few cursory glances, and maybe one or two of the grown up furs looked for a little longer; maybe because they found the two foxes holding hands to be cute, or perhaps they had something in common with Jake. Either way, none of the glances, or stares, seemed malicious or judgmental, and Tai felt his apprehension ebb away.
\tIn fact, the few brief glances, especially the one or two that lingered, were kind of compliments, he reasoned. Like when he first met Jake.
\tMike handed him a yellow beach towel, and the duo started to dry off. Strangely, Tai caught himself watching Mike once again: even the way the older boy dried himself was interesting. While Tai fumbled with his towel – admittedly distracted – Mike methodically and quickly rubbed down. Even here, Mike’s greater experience and confidence showed.
\tNaturally, when Mike spread his legs to dry his shins, Tai snuck an obvious peek, grinning cheekily – it was alright now, and Mike was always nice to look at. The older kit noticed, grinned, and silently returned the attention.
Afterwards, they both put on their boxers and pants, stuffing everything in Mike’s sports bag, ensuring their soaked, chlorine-drenched bathers were safely enclosed in a plastic bag. Yet when Tai went to put his shirt back on, Mike stopped him. “Don’t put your shirt on,” he said quietly. “It’ll help you dry off.”
\tTai swallowed and nodded. “Okay.” Shirtless wasn’t too big a deal for him. Complete nudity was another thing entirely. So, he bravely neglected his shirt, and together the fox boys quickly vacated the changing room.
\t“See, not so bad, huh?” chuckled Mike, draping a friendly arm over Tai’s shoulder. Tai merely grinned in response. He had to admit, it was easier with his friend helping him. Once he got over the idea itself, being seen naked in the changing rooms really wasn’t too bad.
\tJake had showered and changed much faster than the boys and was already waiting for them outside the room, leaning against the wall. “Ready to go?” he asked, surprising them both as they exited. To his credit, he didn’t comment on the fact they’d taken so long in the change rooms, or that they had forgotten to wear their shirts.
\tThey nodded and all three of them made their way to the car outside, the sun stinging their eyes and warming their bodies. It had gotten warmer since they’d arrived, and unfortunately a lot brighter.
\tIn the car, there was a change that did not go unnoticed by Jake. Mike and Tai sat right next to one another, the entire lengths of their bodies pressed together in a sleepy, seated cuddle. They both had contented looks on their faces, perked ears…
\tWith a bitter-sweet sigh, Jake realized Tai had taken his clumsy advice and whatever was wrong before was patched up now. The two kits were back to being inseparable – and naughty – for better or worse.
\tThe very idea made him tremble.
\tLater that evening, Jake was still with them as they sat in the den. Comfortable with being themselves around Jake now, the two boys were occupying the sofa, sitting together comfortably.
\tWeirdly enough, they were talking about viruses. None of them knew how they’d got onto that topic at this point, but they were discussing them, particularly how they kept changing until one day there’d be some kind of Ultimate Doomsday Influenza Epidemic. Something about the world ending because of a cold struck the boys as amusing. They were coming up with all sorts of grotesque and weird ways for the epidemic to kill billions, and Jake had to admit they were quite imaginative. Sneezing to death as per Tai’s suggestion would be a pretty spectacular way to go; and everyone laughed when he tried to act his suggestion out.
\tJake mentioned “vector viruses”, something he’d heard about on a sci-fi show, which were retro-viruses that were used to alter DNA. Which proved to be a bit of a mistake; Mike knew what DNA was, roughly, but Tai had never heard of it. The teen found himself stuck having to explain the basics of genetics… and Mike then pushed him to explain what a retro-virus was, his curiosity utterly overwhelming as always.
\tThankfully, they didn’t push it when he said that this was all from a badly written television show.
\tElated nonetheless himself, Jake stood to go to the bathroom, leaving the two boys alone.
\tAs the canine got up to leave, Tai spotted something set upon the modern, black entertainment unit that housed the Donaldson’s television: a small bronze picture frame, right beside the monstrous screen. Innocent curiosity compelled him to get up and have a look, though he felt Mike watching him keenly as he crossed the sitting room to it.
\tIn the picture was a long haired female fox with chestnut fur, alluringly dark eyes and a beatific smile, standing in what seemed to be a lush cedar forest holding a tiny baby kit, clothed in thick swaddling. The beautiful vixen looked so happy, and her hazel eyes seemed to glitter.
\tTai’s eyes widened and he looked back at the couch, suddenly embarrassed. Mike was staring at him with a strange, unreadable expression. “Um, Mike?” he asked shyly.
\t“Yeah?”
\tHe indicated the picture frame unnecessarily. “Is this your mom?”
\tMike gave a peculiarly weak smile and nodded.
\t“Wh-where is she?”
\tThe brown furred kit gave a strained chortle. “Uh, she died,” he said softly, still smiling. “A long time ago.” He fell silent again, watching Tai with that unusual expression.
\tTai’s face flushed a little and he smiled slightly. “She’s, um, pretty…”
\t“I know.”
\tTai felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden. What was with that gaze? He’d lost a parent too! He wasn’t being rude, was he? Shouldn’t he have commented?
\t“What about your dad?” Mike asked abruptly, the blank mask of his features taking on a kind of timid curiosity. “Where is he?”
\tImmediately, Tai responded: “Dead.” It wasn’t that much of a sensitive topic for him anymore. At least, talking about it was easy for him. In fact, he broke out into a grin. “Hey, wonder if my mom and your dad will get along?”
\tHe partly expected Mike to laugh at the idiotic notion, or look disturbed by it, but instead the barky-furred boy smiled. “That’d be kinda neat,” he chuckled.
\tLying on the coffee table, Jake’s cell phone began to vibrate, comically jittering its way towards the edge of the table. Mike reached out and picked it up before it plunged off the edge. “Jake!” he said loudly, standing up and walking toward the bathroom. “Your phone’s ringing!”
\tTai stole one more glance at the beautiful chestnut fox, frozen in her cheerfulness. Though she was gone now. It was like how he always remembered his dad, smiling, laughing, tickling him… but he was dead. Gone forever.
\tNot smiling. Not happy. Dead.
\tSo that was one more thing he had in common with his new best friend. Maybe… if just maybe their two parents would get along… it would be so great – greater than Tai could put into words – if they did.
\tAnd he could have a dad again. And a real family.
Chapter Five – Fin.
-- By Krazy Kitsune/Kichigai Kitsune
Copyright 2005 onwards.
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