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  "description": "Tai continues to struggle to cope with the horrifying situation, but with Mike by his side it seems he can handle almost anything. Almost.\nTogether, they help one another resolve their issues, but one issue is beyond them: the past. A past they never knew, had no control over...\n\nTheir very lives are in danger now.\nThough they do not know it.\n\nNote: I ask that you download the actual document to see this novel as it was intended. However, for those without patience (i.e., the dumb-asses), 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": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Tai continues to struggle to cope with the horrifying situation, but with Mike by his side it seems he can handle almost anything. Almost.<br />Together, they help one another resolve their issues, but one issue is beyond them: the past. A past they never knew, had no control over...<br /><br />Their very lives are in danger now.<br />Though they do not know it.<br /><br />Note: I ask that you download the actual document to see this novel as it was intended. However, for those without patience (i.e., the dumb-asses), I am going to allow the InkBunny preview window to hold the entire story. I repeat: downloading the actual file is VERY much recommended.</span>",
  "writing": "Tai’s Story - Chapter 9.\nBy Kichigai Kitsune\nCopyright 2005 onwards.\n\nDisclaimer: This story contains coarse language, violence, adult themes and scenes of an 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\tThe next morning, Mike stirred and finally cracked his eyes open. He’d been warm and comfortable all night, but just recently, something had changed to make him a little less cozy. The bed had gotten colder, and when he felt around for a certain ‘thing’ to snuggle up to and regain some of his previous warmth, it wasn’t there for him.\n\t“Hrnmm?” he moaned, sitting up sleepily and stretching. The bed was empty aside from his very own self. Tai was up and about.\n\tSighing in resignation, Mike threw back his covers and stood. It was obviously time to get up; the early-morning sun was shining tentatively through heavy gray clouds into his room. It looked like it was going to rain a little. \nHe slipped into his warm green and white cotton pajamas, even though he hadn’t worn them to bed. They were nearby and comfortable. \n\tWhen he ambled into the den, he spotted Tai sitting cross-legged on the carpet and actually dressed, an old plain dark-blue shirt and faded jeans, in front of the television. He was watching a cartoon that vaguely tickled Mike’s memory somehow. “Good morning, Tai!” he said, yawning as he joined the younger kit. A strange watermark at the bottom of the television screen claimed it was quarter past seven.\n\tTai looked over at him and smiled. A genuine smile. “Morning!” he piped. “Your dad’s up too.” \n\t“He gets up really early every day.” Mike frowned at the television. Colorful mythical creatures seemed to be battling at the behest of a bunch of kits about his age, in the middle of a small town’s street. “Is this…? Umm… what was it called again?” \n\tTai nodded immediately. “Battle Eidolon ZERO.” He pointed at the screen. “I’ve missed lots. They’ve nearly caught the leader of the Emerald Knights. Last time I watched, they didn’t know who it was. Turns out it was the guy who let them stay in his garage when they first got to the town. I thought he was a cool guy, but he’s an eidolon smuggler.” \n\t“I don’t usually get up this early. Dad lets me sleep till nine unless I have practice. Is the show any good?”\n\tTai grinned. “I tried not to wake you.” \n\t“It’s okay. You didn’t really.” Mike shrugged.\n\t“This is my favorite television show. It’s good.” Tai fixed his eyes to the screen again. Then he looked a little sheepish. “Um, did you want to watch something?”\n\t“Nuh-uh. You can keep watching. I usually don’t get up this early. I’ll watch with you if you want?”\n\tTai tried and failed to hide his excitement. “Sure!” He scooted a little closer to Mike. “I’ll explain stuff.”\n\tMike casually draped an arm over the smaller kit’s shoulders. The very idea of having someone to watch his favorite show with just thrilled Tai, and it seemed that he’d finally been able to wake up happy. That meant that Mike had succeeded, and succeeding always made him feel great. He was just one of those furs.\n\tAt first, Mike was mostly just feigning interest. He wasn’t a fan of television, preferring more active forms of entertainment, like his swimming, video games or playing with toys; television was just too sedentary for him. Too boring. He even preferred books or comics, because at least then his mind was at work.\n\tBut as the show went on, he found his interest building. It really wasn’t too bad. Watching immensely powerful mythical creatures tear each other up with obscenely flashy energy maneuvers and savage physical onslaughts had its own appeal, but the characters were well acted and the plot seemed substantial. \n\t“Mom used to get up really early for work before we moved,” Tai said all of a sudden. “I had to get up a bit later for school, so I watched TV alone in the morning before I went.” \n\tMike bit his tongue before he could ask why Tai even bothered going to school if his mom wasn’t at the door shooing him out. With a cattle-prod. “Oh, I get ya.” \n\tRobert walked in from his study, whistling quietly. “Morning, boys,” he said. “How are we this drizzly morning?”\n\t“Good,” Mike replied, his eyes fixed on a gigantic phoenix-thing made of shimmering light as it whirled high into the air to shower its foes with flaming rain. \n\tThe grown up paused. “Good show?” he asked, slightly puzzled. \n\t“It’s okay.” Mike finally looked over and grinned. “Kinda cool.”\n\t“Oh no. You’re not going to become a television junkie, are you?” \n\tMike laughed brightly. “Nope!” \n\tWith a chuckle, Robert sat behind the boys on the leather couch. “I don’t usually see you up this early unless you have practice, Mike,” he pointed out as he tried to follow the confusing light-show on the screen. “How about you, Tai? What time do you get up in the morning normally?” \n\t“Half past six,” Tai answered, eyes locked on the screen. “School used to start at about eight fifteen.”\n\tRobert snickered. “To think I thought Mike was an early-bird. That’s about when he’d wake up.” He paused. “Though I’ve never seen him complain about getting up quite early for training.” \n\tMike shuddered. “That doesn’t mean I wanna do that every morning!” he whined plaintively. “It’s too cold!” \n\t“I’m sure that doesn’t bother Tai in the least. Alaska probably makes this place seem like the Bahamas. Isn’t that right, Tai?” \n\tThe tawny kit seemed to cringe for a second. “Umm, like what?”\n\t“It’s a bunch of tropical islands a bit south east of America. It’s a popular holiday destination.” \n\tFrowning, Tai thought about it. “Well…” he said hesitantly. “I-it can be warm in Alaska.”\n\t“I was being figurative, Tai,” Robert chortled. “New York is nothing like a tropical island, believe me. It’s pretty much winter now, so you’ll get to see the worst weather we have to offer here in a little while.”\n\tThe commercials cut in, and Mike giggled. “That’s right!” he suddenly exclaimed. “We’ve never asked you what Alaska’s like.”\n\tTai jumped. “What it’s like?” he repeated, ears flattening. “Uh, how do you mean?” \n\tRobert straightened slightly. This topic could still be very painful to the younger boy. The grownup prepared to divert the conversation at the first sign of distress.\n\t“Does it snow all the time there?” \n\t“No. Not all the time.” Tai furrowed his brow in confusion. It wasn’t even close to snowing all the time. There was a summer and spring back in Alaska, so sometimes it was very warm. He’d never run into someone who thought it always snowed.\n\t“Aww. Does it snow hard when it does?” \n\t“Oh, I guess it does.” Tai reflected on that. Mike had probably never been literally stuck indoors as a blizzard raged on outside and sealed his family away from outside contact for two days. He’d actually liked it when that happened: at least there was no way to make him go to school when that happened. If only it happened more often. “Sometimes. When it got really bad, you couldn’t open the doors or windows, and even if you could, you couldn’t go anywhere outside.” \n\t“That sounds neat. Well, sometimes it would be. Not all the time, of course.”\n\t“Where exactly did you live, Tai?” Robert enquired. “Your mom wasn’t very specific.” \n\tThe tawny kit thought hard. Geography was not his favorite topic. “Um, you know where Anchorage is?” \n\t“Yes.” \n\t“We lived, um, to- to the left a bit. And up. On the map.”\n\tMike sniggered. “You mean north-west.” \n\tThe younger kit flushed. “Um, yeah. Y-you could see the mountains from my room. They usually had snow on them.”\n\t“The Alaska Ranges. No wonder you got some nasty weather so close to them.” Robert tapped a pair of fingers together. “Wait a tick,” he murmured. “You got up before seven? School started at quarter past eight? How far away was your school?”\n\tTai shrugged. “My first school was nearer, but the next two were a long walk away.”\n\t“How long a walk? Guess?” \n\t“Umm… it took me nearly an hour. I usually got there as the bell rang.” Tai shifted slightly. He didn’t really like thinking about Alaska anymore. He wasn’t going back there, and now he didn’t really want to – there was nothing for him there, never was, and now he could see that. On some strange level, he wanted to cut everything loose; go somewhere where he could let go. But he couldn’t go anywhere or do anything.\n\t“Whoo. Walking for an hour in winter mornings must’ve been fun. Was the sun even up?”\n\tTai shook his head. “Not always. But sometimes it, um, it was up.” \n\tMuch to Tai’s shock, Mike grinned hugely. “That sounds awesome!” he exulted. \n\t“Mike, are you telling me that you’d like to be woken up at quarter to seven during a blizzard and sent for an hour long walk in the snow and dark?” Rob enquired mildly. “Because I think it’d get old very fast, personally.”\n\t“You should’ve snowboarded to school every day!” Mike chortled. “Even in the dark!”\n\t“Snowboarding stuff is way too expensive,” responded Tai immediately. “We couldn’t afford it. I looked.” \n\tThey chatted on for a minute or so, Tai trying his best to describe his old home. It wasn’t easy – though there were many difference between his former home and the sleepless city he found himself in now, Tai found himself at a loss to describe it all. It was hard to relate things to Mike in particular, though the older boy was listening intently; he’d never experienced anything aside from living in this densely packed, vertical metropolis.\n\tYet even still, Tai felt a glowing warmth settling comfortably in his chest. He was still so unused to this attention. The conversation. Being welcome to discuss things with others, especially an adult. \n\tEventually, Robert sat forward and stretched. “Alright, I’m going to put on a real brekky.” He eyed Mike critically. “You’re not going to be sitting around in your pajamas all morning, are you Mike?” \n\tMike, looking at the TV, rolled his eyes. “No, dad.” \n\t“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Michael,” Robert told him gently. “I don’t do it to you.” \n\tThe pup laughed and stood. “I didn’t mean it, dad!” he promised, hugging his father tightly. \n\tRob squeezed just a little. “Well, is being smart really a good idea when you’re in those pajamas?” He slipped his paws underneath the kit’s armpits. “They don’t offer much protection.” \n\tInstantly, Mike yelped and burst out laughing as his father easily tickled him into submission, laying him out on the couch beside him. “Okay!” he blurted, flailing just a little. “I’m sorry! Ha-ha-ha! Stop!” \n\tRob mercifully did, leaning forwards and giving his son a quick lick on the nose. “Good. After breakfast, get into some real clothing then.” The grownup shot a grin at Tai.\n\tTai just gave a small, wistful smile in reply. Those were things he’d miss, he knew. So few and far between they had been, and now he’d never experience those warm embraces again. He turned resolutely back to the screen. \n\tThere was a rustle behind him, but before he could turn to look...\n\t“Goooin’ up!” He heard Robert say, and two strong paws slipped under his arms, lifting him high off the ground with almost no effort. \n\tRobert scooped Tai up easily and sat back down next to his own son, the smaller kit on his lap. “You looked a little lonely there, Tai,” he explained rationally. “Like you needed a hug or something.” He squeezed the little boy firmly. \n\tSurprised and confused, Tai tried to pull away for the briefest moment. Robert hadn’t done anything like this before. However, when he realized what was happening, he surrendered to the embrace and held it closed tight with his own paws. The young boy felt strange, however. \nNot uncomfortable, not exactly – not nervous, even though Robert was still almost a stranger to him. No… the opposite.\nLike he had somehow wanted this moment for so long; and never wanted it to end.\nThey stayed like this for a few moments, before Robert gave the tawny fox boy a tender lick behind the ear.\n\t“Alright.” Grinning warmly, Robert deposited Tai alongside Mike, and he put both of their paws in his lap so they could lie comfortably. “Your show’s about to come back on soon and I need to get the food goin’. How long has the show got left?” \n\tTai looked over Mike’s chest at the screen, apparently a little flustered. “T-twelve minutes.” \n\t“Gotcha.” The adult gave both pups a very brief rub on each of their paws before standing. “Be good.”\n\t“Never!” Mike exclaimed indignantly. \n\t\nThe deli door clanked open noisily, and the skunk crept inside. \nHe put his paws resolutely in his hooded-top’s pouch and swallowed. “What the hell am I doin’?” he groaned at himself, approaching the counter. \nThe tartan curtain parted and the grizzled old badger stepped up behind the counter. His eyes alighted on the skunk and hardened like two little agates. “You!” he growled, reaching down for something concealed behind the wooden surface.\nThe twelve-gauge was in his hands in moments, and he swung it until it pointed right at the teenager. \nWayle flinched away. “W-wait!” he cried, hands raised. “Don’t shoot! Shit!”\n“Whaddaya want, kid? Come by to settle the score? Steal some more?” \nWayle actually whimpered. Facing the business end of a shotgun is always extremely emasculating. “No! Look, I just got in here! I don’t have anything on me! No weapons, no stuff, nothin’!”\nThe wary badger kept the barrel on the teen. He was not insane; normally he’d never even consider pointing this thing at a living creature, but it was definitely not unheard of for young foolhardy ‘gang-members’ to kill or maim in order to save face in the eyes of their group. The storekeeper had been around too long for him to idly let that happen to him. \n“Look,” Wayle pleaded, with his paws still up in the air. “I just wanted to talk. Don’t shoot me, c’mon! Shit, all I did was walk into the store, man!” \n“Talk?” repeated the storekeeper, one eyebrow raising. “Why would I talk to a punk like you? After seeing you tryin’ to knife a little kit, you think I’d listen to a word?” \nWayle shook his head vehemently. “No, man, no! Look, I didn’t ever want to really hurt that kid.” He eyed the barrel for a second. “C-could you, like, point that a bit to the side or somethin’?”\nThe badger did that… by about three degrees. “Speak your piece and just get the hell out, Wayle.” \nThe skunk swallowed again. “Look, that little kit? It wasn’t me that wuz trying to kill him. I just… wanted to scare him a bit.” He shook his head. “It was Darron. He’s crazy, man.” \n“That’s nice.”\n“I-I didn’t wanna steal nothing from you…” Wayle said weakly. “The others were making me.” \n“Bullshit. Kid, just tell ‘em no when they’re trying to make you do shit you don’t want to.” The badger shook his head. “It’s no excuse.” \nWayle bit his lip. He looked distraught, but oddly determined. “It’s not that simple. You can’t just say ‘no’ and think everything’ll be alright. S-sometimes it’s like you’re just… trapped…” The skunk closed his eyes. “You can call me weak if you want, man, but if it’s between bein’ the one they rip into the next time or stealin’ a few packs of cigs and nobody gettin’ hurt, the choice is tougher than you’d think. \n“You can’t just… just sit on the outside and say it’s easy coz it ain’t.” He directed his watery gaze at the storekeeper, and when he spoke next his customary urban drawl was gone. “You’d never believe what you can do when things go that way, you know?”\nThe badger blinked. He lowered his gun a little more and stared at the teen for a few moments. “Nah,” he murmured. “I get what you mean. What did you want from me?” \n“I’m sorry. For real. Nobody’s making me say this, I ain’t frontin’. I got nothing against you; I shouldn’t have touched your stuff without paying for it. I don’t even smoke. That shit stinks.” Wayle drew in a breath. “Uh, but… do you know where Darron’s gone? Nobody’s seen him for ages.”\nThe old badger frowned in confusion. “Why the hell would I know?” \n“I-I dunno. Didn’t the cops ask you to make a statement or anything? You might’ve found something out.” \n“Nope, I got nothing for you. Well… what happened to you?” \nWayle laughed wryly. “Uh, I got off this time,” he said quietly. “Went easy on me. Eight months community service.” He sighed. “I’m two outta three. Next up, is two years for me in juvie. Probably no parole or anythin’.”\nThe world-weary badger sighed. Wayle was clearly not that bad a kid. He was probably right… in over his head, it was not easy to back out, and now it was all catching up to him. Two years of his life could be wasted if he screwed up again, and Wayle was probably only seventeen or sixteen.\nMaybe it was for the best, the badger reasoned. Provided things went well, maybe the detention center would be the best thing for the kid. Give him a chance to get away from his school and the others. Or maybe instead it’d lock him in with exactly the type of furs he needs to get away from.\n“I guess he’s probably behind bars then,” he offered to the teen. “He’d have gone over his three long ago, Wayle.”\nWayle nodded. “I guess so,” he said softly. “Nobody seems to know.”\n“Why do you care, Wayle? Darron’s an asshole.”\n“I know, but…” Wayle paused. “Even though I know he’d probably not give a shit if it was me… I still hope he’s okay, you know? I’m sick of this shit. Everythin’s fine and then we have to go do something stupid. An’ I’m sittin’ there for weeks after, wonderin’ why we just had to go fuck it all up. We didn’t have to. Darron came along two years ago, out of fuckin’ nowhere, and he just… made everythin’ worse. But everyone always goes along with him.”\n“Why don’t you talk to your parents and get out of all this?” the badger suddenly demanded, baffled and annoyed. “Sort this shit out! You’re not a bad kid. So why don’t you sort this out?”\n“Talk to who?” Wayle shrugged. “I don’t even know who my dad is, and when I go home, mom’ll be fucked up and spaced out on the couch. Always is. Nothin’ I say gets through now. I-I’ll go now, aight? Don’t wanna get on your nerves. Sorry. Thanks for listenin’. I just had to say it. It didn’t feel right to leave things as they was.”\nThe armed store-owner had no words for that.\nThe teen moved to shamble back out the door, but he paused halfway there. “Y-you know,” he said softly, “I saw that kit at school—the fox. Wuz his first day. He was scared and alone.” Suddenly he laughed; a sour, resentful laugh that seemed to come from a very dark place. “I was like that, every day. He was a nice kid, I’m sure, but I’ve seen it all before, man. Someday, he’d have grabbed on to whatever bunch woulda taken him, and for a kit as poor as him in that school, that means guys like… like us.\n“I hope it don’t happen. But that little kit could end up like a fuckin’ idiot that does what others tell him to, no matter how fuckin’ stupid it is, cuz he wants them to like his weak ass. Too pussy to step outta line in case they smack you back down. Scared to admit you’d rather read a book than swagger around like a dipshit at the mall an’ have a fucked up life, poppin’ drugs and starting shit with everyone. I ain’t ever gonna make a difference, an’ I know this shit. Because the world changed me, an’ I’m too fuckin’ weak to change the world. Everyone is.” He turned and wiped his nose. \n“And if you’ve heard anyone say or do differently, well, fuck ‘em,” he added bitterly, as he started to move towards the door again. “They were just lucky.”\nThe shopkeeper sighed and placed the gun down underneath the counter. “Wayle.”\n“Yeah?”\n“Name’s Bradley. Why don’t you come by once in a while?”\n Wayle looked stunned. “W-wha-?”\n“Yeah. Alone, and don’t steal nothing.” Bradley grinned. “I think I gotta keep an eye on you. In the store and outside.”\nAfter a few shocked seconds, Wayle gave him a wan little smile. “Cool. A’ight.”\nThe teenaged skunk left silently, and Bradley the shop-keeping badger looked down at his old, callused paws. A moment later, he grunted and leaned against the countertop. Staring at the closed shop door. \n“Lucky, eh?”\n\n\tRobert stared at the toaster blankly, watching the air above it ripple and warp as the heat rose. \n\tStrangely, as his eyes unfocused, a memory intruded itself with startling clarity. The smallest most insignificant details were recreated faithfully in his mind’s eye, and somehow he found himself over eight years ago. Tom and Eraline had spoken with him in this very apartment before they left for San Francisco. Eraline had been rocking the cooing baby Tai in her arms, wrapped up comfortably. He was something like a month old at this point, barely any fur on him, and Eraline held him like he was the most precious object in the world. Naturally, to her he was.\n\t“It could happen at any time,” she’d insisted to Robert. “It’s not that we want it to, of course, but, well…you know…”\n\tTom had stepped in at that point, laying a gentle paw on Eraline’s shoulder. “Look, we’d be honored if you’d watch after Tai,” he had said. “He’s got no grandparents or anything here. But you and Haley are the closest… closest things to family we’ve had over here. So, uh, what I’m trying to say is, will you be his, umm… what was called again, honey? Ha-ha!”\n\t“Godparents, I think they call them,” Eraline supplied, grinning tolerantly.\n\t“Sorry. I’m not good at being sentimental. You know that; gets me all flustered.”\n\t“I remember your last attempt at a speech, yes. Robert, listen. They’re moving us. California, next week.” \n\tRobert had shaken his head, he remembered, grinning a little facetiously. “So I’ve heard. It doesn’t matter. Remember: wherever you go, if anything happens, I’ll try to be there for you. Unless you end up in Britain that is. All bets are off then, I’m not bloody going back there if you dragged me.” \n\tThen Tom narrowed his emerald eyes slightly, but started to smirk. “It’s impossible to tell if you’re serious or not sometimes.”\n\t“Then I’ll be serious. Tom, I’d be honored more than I can say- and I’m quite the word-smith- to watch over your son, no matter what. But I hope you don’t plan on dying any time soon.”\n\t“I plan on dying fifty years from now at least, surrounded by hordes of happy, well-fed grand-kits, but it’s the unplanned we’re worried about.”\n\t“I’ll take care of Tai if anything happens, I swear it. Just be careful. I know you can’t tell me what they’ve got you doing in California, but I’m getting a strong sense of danger from it. And that’s abnormal.”\n\tTheir shared, guilty looks had told him he was right. \n\tThe toaster’s springs uncoiled, and the bread popped half a foot up into the air, startling Robert out of his reverie. The memory, vivid in his mind moments before, swam before him and melted away and he was left staring unfocusedly at the white, smoking kitchen appliance.\n\tThey were gone now. Two of his first friends in America, his best friends ever, and he didn’t even know why they’d died. \n\tHe laughed aloud as he retrieved the slightly blackened toast. Tom always used to complain about his habit of mock seriousness and sarcasm. Now that Robert thought about it, Mike had inherited it; he was already a master of it. He had to wonder what Tai had inherited from his parents.\n\tCome to think it, it wasn’t much of a mystery.\nWhen Eraline had first returned to New York, they met up at a restaurant only a night after she’d taken her little boy back upstairs with her. She was run off her feet and struck him as a little vague but they both reconfirmed their mutually resolve to keep their old friendship secret from their sons for the moment. The truth would’ve been a lot to take in, they’d reasoned, especially if they were totally honest.\nIn only a single meeting, Robert had gleaned much from her. They had had a lot to catch up on, so they spoke to one another almost all night, with Eraline almost desperate to talk to him about everything she could before she had to drive home and sleep.\nIt was at that point that Robert had started to worry. \nFrom what Robert could tell, Eraline still bore the scars of losing her husband four years ago, and she had changed; she seemed to be perpetually haunted now, and her morbid work was starting to dominate her life. Robert was not surprised to see that she seemed disinterested in just about everything but soullessly eking out each day as it came. \nShe was dying inside.\nEraline hinted that she and her son were becoming remote; that the former joy of her life traded maybe a dozen words with her a day. But Rob had got nothing much more out of her; Eraline was always a bit tight lipped. It was like trying to get words from a block of ice sometimes. \nAbsurdly, she complained about her son doing likewise to her. Distant as they had become, and with Tai sealing up more and more with every passing month, Robert had to wonder if Eraline truly knew her son in her last days. \nOn some level, Robert knew that she looked at Tai’s beautiful face and saw her husband – her love turning to loss. Once, she said that her son couldn’t possibly understand their situation; she spoke of him as a mindless child that demanded her attention and drained her more every day. It was a far cry from the adoring words she had used to use when discussing her beloved progeny.\nBut it was obviously wrong. Tai seemed to understand much, and he was just keeping himself to himself. His own problems and troubles and feelings, he kept quiet about, which confused and frustrated his mother. Ironically, it was Eraline that didn’t understand her son; didn’t understand his thoughts and circumstances, and why he felt such an overpowering need to hide from the world. Her bitter grief had blinded her to her son’s.\nNow it was too late. At the ultimate level, she loved him beyond description, and she would’ve—no, she did die for him. But she had missed out on so much. As had Tom, dying when Tai was so young. Their little boy had a tremendous mind, even if he didn’t know it himself.\nRobert sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, picking up a butter knife.\nIt wasn’t over yet. Mike was cracking Tai’s shell, finding and mending the younger kit’s sorest wounds and fears with such tenderness and maturity Robert swelled up with pride just thinking about it. He had his own part to play too, and a promise to keep.\nProtocol, policy and everything else?\nAll of that could go to hell. He was going to keep that promise.\n\n\tWhen the cartoon had finished, Mike sat up and stretched. “That was pretty cool,” he admitted. “Didn’t get a lot of it, though.” When he received no reply, he turned around. “Tai?” The kit was staring listlessly at the screen, his eyes wet. “What’s wrong?”\n\t“Nothing.” Tai rubbed at his face and sat too. “Just thinking.” \n\tMike inched closer. “C’mon, what is it?”\n\tThe tawny kit swallowed and shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it. Please?”\n\tMike had never heard those words from Tai before. He didn’t ask again. \n\tAs the next cartoon came on, however, Tai sniffed. “Mike?”\n\t“Yeah?”\n\t“Have you ever thought about… what happens after?” \n\tMike frowned. “After what?”\n\t“Um, remember how I said that I keep thinking about mom?” Tai shivered. “It keeps coming back into my head, no matter what.” \n\t“Try to think about other stuff, Tai,” Mike told him gravely. “Every time it comes into your head, kick it right back out.” \n\t“I keep worrying… when they put her in the ground…” Tai suddenly looked nauseous and horrified. “Don’t things eat you? Worms and stuff? And flies lay their babies… I heard somewhere that dead bodies can sometimes burst and-”\n\tMike started and glared at Tai firmly. “Stop it!” But he could tell it was too late. \n\tTai burst into tears. “My mom’s gonna be eaten by bugs!” he almost screamed. \n\t“Oh, crap…” Mike groaned, dashing over. Why now? It had been nearly two weeks! “Look at me, Tai! Please?” \n\tThe kit curled up and closed his eyes firmly, covering his face with his paws. “No!” \n\tRobert came in, looking alarmed as he held a plate with six slices of toast. He laid it on the coffee table quickly and came to the couch, kneeling down. “What’s going on?” he asked. \n\tMike looked at his father helplessly. “H-he just started crying and talking about his mom.” \n\tRobert swore quietly. This wasn’t unexpected. A few weeks after Haley had passed away, Mike had broken down late one night in almost exactly the same way, his distress keeping both he and his father up until dawn the next day. \n\tNot even thinking about it, Robert pushed his own son aside and positioned himself in front of the kit. For some reason, he knew he had to stop it this time.\n\tTai was hiccupping as he cried. “I-I saw her!” he blurted at nobody, seemingly just bawling random thoughts as they came to him. “On the table! I could see the holes!” \n\tThe grown up firmly grabbed Tai’s wrists and tried to pry them away from the pup’s face. “Tai, please open your eyes!” he said sharply. “Come on. Let me talk to you. It’s okay, I promise.” \n\tAfter resisting for several moments, the kit opened his leafy eyes, but little reason was in them. \n\t“Tai, listen to me. Your mom isn’t going to have any of that stuff happen to her. That’s not what’s going to happen, alright?” Robert leaned in closer. “Be brave, Tai. Nobody is going to let any of that stuff happen to your mom. Forget about it.”\n\tThe kit stared at him, still crying. It was hard to tell if he was actually seeing anything at all. \n\t“Do you believe me?” Robert prompted, reaching out and stroking Tai’s head briefly. “I promise I won’t let it happen. Believe me?” \n\tTai nodded very slowly, whimpering.\n\tThe adult pulled him into a tight hug. “Don’t think about these things. I’ll take care of it. Everything. I promise.”\n\tRobert sat down on the couch, easily holding Tai close to him. He held the kit close, and the kit clung to him in return.\n\tWith unutterably perfect timing, the phone in the kitchen started to ring, its absurdly cheerful twinkling grating. Robert barely resisted the urge to curse. \n\tMike fidgeted uncomfortably. “Um… W-want me to get it?” he asked in a small voice.\n\t“No, I’ll get it,” growled Robert. It’d be for him anyway. “Hold him, Mike.” He carefully extricated himself from the kit’s four-limbed grasp and let his son take him. The ten-year-old immediately pulled the smaller kit to him.\n\tAs Robert walked briskly to the phone, he muttered to himself. “God, I hate phones,” he grumbled irrationally.\n\tWhile his father went to silence the aggravating device, back in the den Mike was rocking Tai slightly. “It’s okay,” he found himself murmuring over and over, hoping it was actually getting through. Some part of him knew he was talking to himself too.\n\tHe too had hoped Tai was over this phase, that they’d managed to head it off somehow, but he clearly wasn’t. Mike felt shaken. He knew this could happen! He knew, and he wanted to stop it but when it came he was useless – his own father had simply pushed him out of the way without a word. All he had been able to was watch as his best friend succumbed to hysteria. \n\tSqueezing the smaller boy to him, he buried his muzzle in the tawny head-fur, biting his lip to force back his own sob.\n\tSome minutes later, Robert returned, barely restrained fury evident on his features, but he just knelt down by the couch again. “Are you two alright?” he asked quietly. \n\tTai didn’t reply, but Mike sniffled. “Sorry dad,” he whispered.\n\t“What? Why?”\n\t“I didn’t know what to do,” Mike confessed. “I should’ve – i-it happened to me. I got scared. I thought he was okay. I-I’m sorry.”\n\t“I’m not mad at you, Mike.” Robert brushed his son’s flattened velvety ear. “You’re doing great.”\n\t“Really? I thought you were when you pushed me out of the way.”\n\tThe grownup blinked. “I’m sorry Mike, I shouldn’t have pushed you. I just wanted to help.” Suddenly, he felt a pang of guilt. That single, unthinking action could’ve been a huge mistake. “Is he okay now?”\n\tMike drew back a little and looked down at the little tawny face. “Are you alright now, Tai?” he enquired quietly, nuzzling at the younger kit’s pink nose. Tai nodded feebly. “Cool. Don’t think about that stuff again, okay? If my dad says it’s not gonna happen, it ain’t. Trust me.”\n\tThe brown-furred fox boy felt a large paw on his shoulder, and he turned back to his dad curiously.\n\tRobert smiled wryly at his son; the pup had an interesting mix of expressions on his face. He was anxious, distraught, and clearly a little angry at himself – though there was that look of fierce protectiveness again. That same determined face he had made one day not long ago, a few nights after Tai had gone home. When Mike took on a responsibility, foolishly or not, he really took it to heart.\n\t“Boys, I’ve got to go to the office today. I can’t get out of it. I really don’t want to leave you alone, but I have no choice. I’ve only got a few hours.”\n\tMike nodded. “Uh, what about Jake?” \n\t“I’m going to try to get him to look after you today, but there’s no guarantee.” Robert groaned and sat down. “Tai, can you hear me?”\n\t“Yeah,” Tai replied weakly. The storm had passed quickly, yet the pup seemed rattled. As if even he couldn’t believe he’d been so overwhelmed just moments before.\n\t“Are you hungry?”\n\t “Yeah.” \n\t“Munch on some toast for now.” Robert looked right at his son. His next few words were extremely quiet. “Mike, look after him. He needs company right now more than anything. You do know what to do if it happens again. You can handle it.”\n\tThe brown-furred pup frowned at his father for a moment, and then finally he grinned. “No problem, dad. Leave it to me.”\n\n\tIn the darkness of his room, Jake was enjoying a soda on his bed while watching a movie on his very own puny television when his cell phone buzzed into life over on his computer desk. It was surrounded by the six other video disks he’d rented to counter the night’s inevitable tedium.\n\tGroaning, he got up and padded over to it, picking up the vigorously vibrating object and pressing the answer key. “Hello?” he asked, pawing some paper from his desk and leaning on the resultant clearing.\n\t“Jake?” he heard over the phone. “It’s Robert.” \n\t“Oh,” said Jake, a little surprised. “Hi Rob. What’s up?” \n\t“It’s a long story, but something really bad happened and I need you to look after the boys again.” \n\tSomething bad? “Um, ok. When?” \n\t“Tonight, if you’re available. I’ll pay double what I usually do. I can’t leave the boys alone, and I don’t trust any other babysitter.” \n\tMoney was good and all, but… “Rob, what’s happened?” enquired Jake, feeling a little suspicious.\n\t“I’ll tell you in person. Can’t really discuss it over the phone. Even if you show up and don’t want to take it I’ll pay you just for coming. It’s sort of… a little more than what you’re used to.” \n\t“Alright. I’ll be there pretty soon. A few hours I guess.” \n\t“Do you have any friends you’d like to bring?” \n\t“Uhh, no, they’re all busy. I’m the only one who finished my assignments.” \n\t“… OK, see you soon! Bye.” \n\tJake put down the phone, frowning. “What the hell?” He walked to the window and threw open the windows, blinding himself with mid-afternoon light. Looks like his quiet night in wasn’t going to be happening. A tight, ominous feeling seized his stomach. \n\tNobody had ever asked him to bring friends to a babysitting job before, and he got the strong impression Robert was concerned. Or maybe afraid of something. Even stranger, offering to pay him if he didn’t take the job? That didn’t even make sense. Something was very wrong here. Something had happened.\n\tBut what could have possibly happened to warrant this?!\n\n\nAlmost nine years ago…\n\n\tEraline checked her watch and sighed. It wasn’t a pleasant night to be standing in the middle of a New York alley, under the spurious protection of the fire-escapes above. The cold weather was just trying to settle in, and the first attempts at actual snow were stifled by still warm air, and the result was a horrendous down-pouring of dirty sleet, made oily and disgusting by pollution.\n\tHer fur-trimmed jacket was soaked through, and her shoes felt… squidgy. God she hated that!\n\t“Where are you?” she muttered grumpily. This wasn’t how a person who had recently undergone labor should be spending her nights. She should be recovering, clad in warm clothes and her beloved’s warm grasp as they cradled and cooed to their warm son. Warmly. \n\tNot waiting for a contact at three in the morning. A decidedly not-warm scenario.\n\tThere was a shuffling towards the other end of the alley—the end that was steeped in shadow, hidden from the unimpressive efforts of the street-lights that tried to break through the airborne sludge. Eraline’s senses were very sharp at the moment; even above and beyond what your average lone female’s should be in a dark, secluded lane in the middle of the night. \n\tShe squinted as a furtive form slipped from the darkness and approached her. From the way it carried itself, it was female too. So she’d finally arrived; Eraline breathed a sigh of relief as the figure came nearer.\n\t“E-Eraline?” she hissed, barely audible over the weather. \n\tEraline gestured her closer, smiling a little. “Glad you could join me,” she said with just a touch of asperity. “Lovely weather, isn’t it?”\n\t“I rather like it. Made it much easier to get out of the building.” Stepping underneath the same fire-escape landing that Eraline was using for cover, the wolf pushed back her black hood.\n\tShe was an attractive lupine, Eraline was forced to concede. Her gray coat was shot through with white, giving her an interesting, almost stormy appearance, and her amber eyes went well with that, bizarrely. She was however very gaunt and looked rather unkempt. All things considered, she had every right to be.\n\t“Did you have any problems?” Eraline asked, eyes flickering over the nearby access points to their little alley and the hiding spots therein. \n\tThe lady-wolf shook her head, trying to smile too. Those yellow eyes of hers were haunted and she appeared rather tired. “Just my son. I had to put him to bed—quite firmly. He saw me preparing to leave, but I don’t think he’ll tell anyone. I’m sorry I was late.” \n\t“I see. Don’t be sorry, Kayla. Though I won’t deny that I wish we could’ve picked a slightly drier meeting place.”\n\t“I think we’d have trouble finding one tonight.” \n\t“True.”\n\tKayla withdrew from her jacket a small thumb-drive and, with a quick look around, pressed it into Eraline’s waiting paw. “That’s it all. All you’ll need.” \n\tThe vixen blinked and looked down at it. “That was fast. Very well, I’ll make arrangements to get you and your son out of here before we go any further.” \n\tKayla’s eyes closed briefly. “Thank you,” she said, her voice strained. \n\tThat wasn’t right. Something about her demeanor was just not right, Eraline reasoned. And this meeting had been called too soon; there was no way Kayla could’ve done her part of the bargain so quickly. She narrowed her icy blue eyes, and they just stared at each other in uneasy silence.\n\t“I’m sorry, Eraline,” whimpered the wolf at last.\n\tEraline felt like she’d suddenly swallowed an anvil. “He found out…” she whispered. “Didn’t he?”\n\tThe golden eyes shifted slightly, silently conveying deepest regret, fear and despair; with only that as the warning, Kayla’s right paw swung up and around, directly at the vixen’s face. In that paw, a small, razor-sharp blade gleamed. \n\tThere was no way Kayla could’ve predicted the exact consequences of this action. Neither could Eraline, both the immediate and the effects that’d come to fruition years later.\n\tIt wasn’t something the vixen consciously thought about. The exactness, violence and complexity of the movements were committed to instinct.\n\tRaising one arm- the left to her attacker’s right- to first block, then deflect the knife-wielding limb to the side of their bodies as she stepped in, Eraline brought her own right arm underneath Kayla’s outstretched elbow, and latched it onto her own opposing wrist, completing a figure-four-like position with their arms. Suddenly she took a deep step backwards, and forced the intricate pretzel their arms had become downwards towards her own hips. It was all completed in less than a second.\n\tThe result of that surprisingly technical response was profound but simple. There was a horrific ripping sound as Kayla’s shoulder joint was destroyed, and her entire body was hurled sideways over the axis of that ruined shoulder. She collapsed with astonishing force onto the harsh gravel, and stared up in shock at the lethal vixen.\n\tWho returned that stare with horror. \n\tA mistake, an application of too much force. Or perhaps just absurd, cosmically atrocious luck. \n\tKayla laid on the ground, her own tiny blade buried in the side of her neck. In the fall, she had dropped the slender little knife, then fallen onto it hard, as only the hilt protruded from her fur. Already blood was pouring from the grievous wound, thin droplets staining the wet ground. \n\t“Oh, my God…” Eraline gasped, kneeling to inspect the injury. “I’m sorry, Kayla.” \n\tThe wolf, however, smiled and weakly pushed Eraline away. “G-go. Tha-thanks… you tried. You need to go.” \n\t“I failed you. Shit!” Eraline stumbled backwards, a trembling paw covering her muzzle. “Oh shit, what’ve I done!? Why did you-!?” \n\tBut Kayla still smiled. “Th-thank you, Eraline…”\n\tA moment of unnatural quiet, of darkness and chill seemed to engulf the alley, then…\n\t“Mom?!” a weak, incredulous voice blurted. “No. No!”\n\tEraline looked back at the darkened end of the alley, as splashes indicated someone was running towards her. Someone small.\n\tEventually, that someone too came into the weak light. It was a small boy. A wolf-boy, of no more than ten or eleven. He wore baggy cargo pants and a white shirt, and he was soaked right through. He obviously had been exposed to the freezing sleet in barely more than his fur, and he trembled violently.\n\t“Mom?” he whispered, slowly approaching. After a few seconds, he turned to glare at Eraline, his expression both disbelieving and yet so infuriated. “WHY?!” he screamed, voice quavering. “What did she ever do to you?!” He dropped to his knees over his mother, gasping when he spotted the knife’s hilt jutting out from her neck. “N-no… Oh shit!” Gingerly, he touched it. As if he couldn’t believe it was there. \nWith a choked cry, the boy fell upon the bleeding corpse. Clutching it tightly, head pressed firmly against her chest as he wept.\n\tThere was nothing she could do or say. Eraline merely stared at the kit. \n\tThis was him. This was Kayla’s son. The one she’d literally just died for. Suddenly, Eraline felt faint: Kayla came to their meeting tonight knowing full well she wouldn’t make it back home—she knew that attacking Eraline would end her life one way or another. That she’d never see her boy again; but at least he’d be protected. It was starting to make sense now. Horrible, dismaying sense.\n\tA chilling notion came to her next. It was dark, but the wolf-boy had probably gotten a good look at her already. There was no way of knowing how much Kayla had been forced to divulge and that made the personal risk even greater; as foul as the very idea was, Eraline knew at that point that she really should kill this pup. Murder him and leave him in a dark, sodden alley with his mother. At least they’d be together.\n\tBut she could not. Perhaps it was because she herself was a mother now, but she couldn’t do that. There was no way she could dishonor what this mother gave her life for. It went so far beyond merely wrong.\n\tShe continued to watch him in silence. \n\t“Why, mom?” he was asking, touching his nose to hers, tears leaking from behind his tightly closed eyes. “Why does this always happen to us? Why does it-?! No…”\n\tMinutes passed, and wolf-boy could do nothing more than cry and squeeze his mother’s lifeless face to his, ignoring the blood that seeped into his fur and pooled around his knees on the wet bitumen. He was a hard-bitten young pup. Blood didn’t bother him.\n\tFinally, he knew not how much later, he looked up, teeth clenched with hate and frustration born of a hundred injustices, ready to hurl obscenity and abuse at the vixen that’d killed the one person he cared for. \n\tOnly there was nothing there. She had melted into the night like a shadow.\n\t\n\tRobert cracked open one eye and listened. Did he really just hear a knock on the door?\n\tA short few seconds later, his sleepy brain decided he’d imagined it, and going back to sleep would be a good plan. After all, chasing after a toddler all day as he had today was just a little exhausting. At least he’d had some help from his best mate, but with Haley out of town, that really had just made it a normal exhausting day instead of an impossible nightmare. So he closed that eye.\n\tBut it came again, louder and sharper now. \n\tWith a sigh, he hauled himself from his queen bed, so empty and meaningless without his wife to occupy at least half of it for him, and stumbled to the corridor. \n\t“Who is it?” he mumbled sleepily. \n\t“It’s me,” came a familiar brisk voice. \n\tHurriedly, the pajama-clad Robert opened the door. He frowned at the vixen beyond it, who looked wet and miserable to say the least. “What’s the matter, Eraline?” he asked. \n\t“Is-is Tom here?” she asked wanly, leaning on the door-frame. \n\t“No, he went home around midnight—with little Tai of course.” \n\t“Oh.” \n\t“I’d ask if you want to come in, but I’d imagine you’d rather get home to your own bed?”\n\tEraline just looked at him, and her eyes began to water. “Robert…” \n\tHe blinked a few times, trying to wake himself up properly. “Eraline? What’s wrong?!” \n\t“I… I just…” And with a broken wail, she fell forwards onto his chest, clutching his soft cotton pajamas in her paws. “Shiiiiit!” \n\tStartled, Robert held her loosely, cradling her carefully in his arms. “What happened?!”\n\tStill sobbing, Eraline merely shook her head.  That was all Robert needed to know that she wouldn’t tell him. Hell, she’d probably take it to her grave.\n\t“Eraline…” he sighed, squeezing her slightly. “Let’s get you inside.”\n\t“Thanks, Rob…” \n\tRobert smiled hollowly. “You’ll need some rest for tomorrow. Believe me, you’re going to have a lot of fun now you’re a new mother. It’s just harder from here on.”\n\tShe laughed at that for some reason, sniffling simultaneously. “I know.” She sniffed and looked up at him, looking shocking vulnerable for the first time he’d ever really seen. “I know. But it’s worth it, right?” \n\t“Yeah. I think so. I’ve never done it before either.”\n\tEraline chortled, wiping her nose dry. “I’d hope you’d never been a mother before, Robert.”\n\t“Past life.”\n\n6 years later.\n\n\tNever before had Robert appreciated how hard it is to truly stand in one position, and not move an inch, for anything longer than a moment. Muscles he didn’t even know he had were trembling, and it must’ve been going on five minutes now that he had been keeping this posture, on the windy roof of an apartment building in the mid-day sun. Maybe ten, he wasn’t sure. Behind him stood a large air-conditioning unit, a gargantuan aluminum cube, affixed with several ventilation pumps, steadily humming away as Robert tried to ignore its grating white noise.\n\tHis eyes were locked onto the ferret’s, down the sights of a handgun. \n\tHe was becoming even more exhausted, because he could not, at any second, let the image before him lose meaning. He had to be taking in and analyzing everything, even if nothing seemed to be happening…\n\tAt long last, Nathan made a move. He snickered derisively, and cracked his neck. \n\tJust that movement alone caused Robert’s adrenaline levels to blast out of control, and his muscles tensed painfully. He exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself; this wasn’t his strong point at all. He wasn’t good at relaxing when he had to keep a gun trained on someone twelve feet away. Sweat oozed from his head-fur and snaked its way through the fur on his face until he had to close an eye to stop the salty liquid from stinging it.\n\t“Are you really planning on just standing there until someone else comes to help you out?” sighed Nathan, cockily wiping sweat from his brow.\n\t“Move again and I’ll shoot,” Robert replied tersely. \n\tAgain the derisive snort. “You’ll miss, Robert. Your hands are shaking like the pope in a whorehouse. Parkinson’s and all.”\n\tRobert allowed himself a smile. It was one of the few muscle groups he trusted himself to employ right now. “Funny.”\n\t“Why haven’t you shot me yet?” asked Nathan, his tone curious. “We could both get this done with much faster if you’d stop the cat-and-mouse game.”\n\t“You and I both know that I can’t do that.”\n\tThe ferret grinned. “Aw, can’t shoot your old buddy?”\n\t“No, I need to know what you gave them.” \n\t“So no residual feelings of loyalty? Of friendship? I’m hurt!”\n\tRobert snarled slightly, taking an awkward step forward. “After what you did to my son, you think you can call me a friend?”\n\tThat was foolish, Robert realized. Moving at all could provide this ferret an opportunity to either attack or escape, and he could chance neither. Particularly in light of the fact he probably wouldn’t survive either occurrence at this point. He had to keep the barrel of the gun on him, and squeeze the moment he moved… he had to. He also had to keep this distance—not easy considering he really wanted to rush the ferret and beat him to death.\n\t“Fair enough, Rob. I’m afraid I couldn’t accept your friendship under these circumstances anyway. It’d just be… grotesque.” With an expression of mocking calm, Nathan looked around, frowning as the sun bored into his eyes. “Fuck it’s hot today. How about we chat a little until someone either shows up or your arms fall off?”\n\t“We have little to converse about.” \n\t“Oh stop acting all pissed off. We both know that I might let something slip, and that’s exactly what you’re waiting for. Grow up.” \n\t“Alright. Why the hell did you do it? What did they offer you, exactly?” \n\tNate’s expression became a little harrowed. “It’s not a matter of what I was offered.” \n\t“What’re you saying?”\n\t“There are plenty of ways to coerce someone into doing what you want, and I don’t think I’ll be telling you what they ‘offered’ me, so to speak.” Nate sighed. \n\t“Hrm. Very clever, by the way,” complimented Robert, taking a deep breath. “I almost didn’t check to see if my records were accessed. You raped a little boy just to conceal what you were really after. I see now, you have no conscience at all.” \n\t“Not true. I was very considerate of little Mikey, as much as I could be. I did what I had to do; we’ve all been made to do horrible things out of necessity. If he’s anything like you or Haley, it’ll just make him stronger.” Nathan frowned. “How the shit did you know it was me? I know I never left anything for you.”\n\tRobert smirked. “Mike saw your face. His description was accurate.” \n\t“Really? Wily little guy. I should’ve killed him; I warned him not to try and see me. Was sure he hadn’t managed to.” \n\t“Wouldn’t have mattered. You should’ve left town anyway. Your bathing habits would’ve been all I needed to go on.”\n\t“Meaning?” \n\t“You stink, Nate. Like you wouldn’t believe. I know cesspools that gag when you walk past. All he’d have to do is describe your ungodly stench.”\n\tThe ferret laughed, and looked up as a helicopter passed by, its thrumming rotors hammering rhythmically on Robert’s nerves. “I used to have to go for months without bathing back in South Africa. Habits formed.”\n\tThey fell silent for another minute at least, while Robert prayed he wouldn’t have to endure another helicopter flying over. Sweat threaded its way through his fur, and he felt uncomfortable—more so, that is.\n\t“So how did you hurt your knee?” \n\t“Some ass tripped me on the outfield. Someone else basically ended up stomping on it sideways.” \n\t“Ouch.” Nate winced. “I told you that playing that idiotic sport would get you crippled.” \n\t“I’m not crippled yet.”\n\t“Consider this an omen of things to come.”\n\tRobert had to laugh. But it just made him feel even tenser. By now he was swaying and four or five times in the last minute he had to correct his aim as his arms were dropping. What a day for a heat-wave.\n\t“Tell me, whatever happened to that other vixen you used to hang around with. The one you went all moony-eyed over until that other fox walked into the picture.” \n\t“Not at liberty to say, not that I really know. She’s well, however.” Robert’s eyes narrowed. “Nate, what the hell are you doing?! The information you took could get dozens killed! Don’t you have any regard for your colleagues? You don’t just sell this information to the highest bidder or give to some asshole drug-lord so he can do that for you!” \n\t“Trust me, I know. There was only one record I was after. I haven’t given them anything more than that, and I destroyed the backup.”\n\t“That’s something at least.” \n\t“Of course, if the price had been considerably higher I might’ve considered giving them the whole thing, but it wasn’t so I didn’t.” \n\t“…. Nate… someone might still die because of what you did. Who did what to justify this all?” \n\t“Guess what? Not at liberty to say. Anyway, let’s discuss this lady-fox. Eraline, wasn’t it?” Nate leered somewhat vulgarly. “That was one hot bitch. Did you ever manage to touch-down?” \n\t“No.” \n\t“I see. So that other guy got in before you huh? It’s expected where you’re concerned. You need to be a bit more assertive.” \n\t“It’s moot now, I’m married.”\n\tNate nodded, his expression lamenting. “Yes. Big mistake.” \n\tRobert chortled, shaking his head in amusement. “Really? You’ve never felt anything like it, Nathan, so I don’t think you’ll understand.”\n\t“Then enlighten me?” \n\t“Like you’re even listening. You’re just trying to talk me into a stupor so you can explode like you’ve been itching to do for the last twelve minutes. But you’re not going to break me, Nate. Not like this.” \n\t“Yes,” conceded the ferret, with a tired sigh. “You’re fairly indomitable when you’re the one with the gun.” His eyes flickered to the side, off the rooftop to the nearest adjacent building. “Huh. Looks like the wait is almost over.” \n\tRobert almost caved, he almost looked over at the neighboring structure and gave the ferret his chance. But though his entire body twitched, and his eyes almost looked away, he held firm. \n\tNathan burst out laughing. It was a happy, bright laugh straight from the gut. “Oh shit,” he said. “You’re definitely the best, Robert. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, even though you threw it all away to become a father and baby-sitter.” \n\t“There are more fulfilling pursuits than killing others and pointless espionage, Nate. Fatherhood is just one of them. I didn’t throw anything away.”\n\t“Yeah, you know what? You’re right. I see what you mean. Children are amazing. Mike is like a mini-you—tough little guy too, and smart. It’s mind-blowing. I can understand you…” He paused, and his expression grew sly. “But right now you should choose to duck behind that air-conditioning pump if you want to see your son again.”\n\tRobert literally felt it.  He felt that someone was about to kill him. He’d always thought that it was a myth, but the fur on the back of his neck seemed to electrify, and his entire body went deathly cold. \n\tHe turned and leaped for the dubious safety of the blocky air-conditioning unit on the raised concrete platform behind him. As he hit the ground and rolled to his feet, he even heard the distant crack, and almost simultaneously a piece of the concrete floor had a hole blasted in it. A sniper. It was a fucking sniper! On the adjacent rooftop!\n\tWhen he turned back around, Nate was right on top of him, and he moved with the preternatural agility he had always possessed. He smashed the firearm from Robert’s grip with a hard, accurate elbow, numbing the fox’s entire arm, and brought a devastating knee into the fox’s chest which hurled him into the aluminum air-conditioner. It dented considerably. \n\t“Bhgaah!” wheezed Robert. It felt for a moment like his chest was crushed, and his injured knee buckled beneath his weight. \n\tUnder normal circumstance, not so dazed and with a functional leg, he might’ve ducked or blocked the high-kick, but as it was he failed to do anything but sort of lean to the side, and Nathan’s boot smashed right into his temple. \n\tWhen he came to, blood caked on the side of his head and oozing from his muzzle, it was evening, and he was alone on the high rooftop. \n\tRolling himself to his backside, with a throbbing headache, he tried to clear his vision. \n\t“Damn!” he snarled to himself. Infuriated, he almost struck himself, but with that head injury it would’ve been an atrocious idea. He was already concussed; if he was destined to suffer brain-damage, then he wasn’t going to be the one to bring it on himself. He set his paws beneath him and tried to stand, but he immediately fell onto his back. The world was swirling, and he found focusing impossible.\n\tCursing again, he withdrew his cell phone and called for help.\n\tThen he sighed, gathering his wits and trying to get some perspective. His ego was almost as badly injured as his head was, but he knew he was being foolish. The ferret looked unimpressive, but he was a well trained field officer. The moment he turned his back on Nathan, any other outcome would’ve been a miracle.\n\t“Yeah,” he mumbled, slurring his words only a little as he laid his head gingerly on the still warm concrete. He adjusted his position as best he could, getting comfortable as he waited. “He can kick my ass. It proves nothing.” Suddenly, perhaps it was the concussion, all he wanted was a frothy, milky latte and to snuggle up to his son, to read to him and nuzzle his little neck… “Well. I guess I’m really not cut out for this stuff after all.”\n\tHe sighed and looked up, just watching the roiling clouds tumble about the ever-shifting sky. It made him a little dizzy. “I guess you were right, Haley,” he chortled, closing his eyes again. “God do I miss you.”\n\t\nPresently.\n\n\tThe hands of his “Who Gives A Damn?” clock moved intolerably slowly as Mike watched it with intense apathy. \n\tThere were dozens of things he could’ve spent the last hour doing, and he was usually great at occupying himself, but he felt strangely out of it. Tai’s break-down earlier confirmed a few things for him that he wished he hadn’t even thought about, yet they continued to dominate his wandering young mind.\n\tHe had, that night they’d driven so hurriedly to the hospital, thought that he knew what Tai was experiencing. Quickly he came to realize that he had no idea what levels of fear and pain the little kit was suffering. \nLosing a parent was painful and destructive, but losing both, leaving you lost and scared in a new and strange place, as Tai had was very different. Now Tai was an orphan. With his future uncertain and the promise of eternal misery hanging over him, the already miserable Tai had probably been on the verge of losing his mind over the last few weeks.\n\tSo Mike had done all he could for Tai, to minimize the shy country-kit’s discomfort in the largest, greasiest, most crowded city in the United States. It had seemed to be working, but Mike had missed something else. Something that only became really clear to him when he found himself churning Tai’s earlier words around in his head.\n\tWhen his mother had died, Mike received the news from his choked up father, and together they had grieved. Tai on the other hand… had seen it. From what Mike understood, Tai had seen somebody blow holes in his mother with a gun, and try to kill him too; if that wasn’t bad enough, Tai had actually witnessed his mother’s passing and seen her bloody body itself ‘on the table’ as he’d said.\n\tWas there any way to fix this, or at least help? Could Mike do anything? Could he even take this himself?! \n\tIt scared him. Now more than ever, he knew there was always the chance that his father could go to work one day, and never come back. The mere thought of it was so horrible. It had always scared him. Kept him awake at night, ever since his mother had died – he knew it could one day happen to his father too.\n\tMike had known Tai was waking from nightmares, sleeping in the same bed as him, but this revelation put that fact in a whole new light. They were not just bad dreams. Tai’s sleep was invaded by visions of his deceased mother, blood and masked assailants trying to murder him silently. How many times had he relived it? How many times in his mind had he tried to shake his mom awake again and again, but she never moved?\n\tIt made Mike shake to even think about it. But he kept thinking about it anyway.\n\tWhat the hell was with that?! \n\tThere was a knock on his door and Tai poked his head in. “Mike, can I come in?” he asked diffidently. \n\t“Of course,” responded Mike absently. “Where were you?”\n\t“Talking to your dad,” Tai replied, looking a little bashful. “He… um, he wanted to talk to me about what was gonna happen to my mom.”\n\tMike eyed him impassively for a second. “Oh.” He still remembered Tai fleeing when that was brought up the last time.\n\t“He… he was telling me about the funeral. I d-don’t know if I want to go.”\n\t“Why not?”\n\tTai squirmed. “I think I’d… Like this morning. Again. I don’t want to see…”\n\tMike stood and walked over to the poor kit. “They can close the coffin. Did for me. You won’t need to see anything.”\n\t“That’s what your dad said, but I don’t know if I can do it.”\n\t“Okay. Don’t you want to say goodbye?”\n\tTai flinched away and he looked a little upset. “I do! I do! But…”\n\t“Okay.” Mike reached out and took Tai’s paw. “It’s alright. It’s not a big deal, yeah?”\n\tThe kit shot him a warm smile. “Thank you.” He bit his lip briefly. “Um. Y-your dad didn’t say anything about when I’d be going to an orphanage.”\n\t“You didn’t ask him?” The shy silence answered that.\n\t“N-no.” Tai came a little closer, and he rather meekly held out his arms, as if he was asking to be picked up. “I can’t ask…”\n\tWith a laugh, Mike pulled him into a hug. “Yeah. ‘Hey, can you please adopt me?’ I guess it’d sound weird.”\n\tTai gave a contented sigh. “Do you want to sit down again?”\n\tMike nodded and the two sat cross-legged on his unmade single bed together, messing the covers a little in the process. \n\t“Oh, um, M-Mike?” Tai asked softly. “Can I ask you something?”\n\t“Sure can.” \n\tThe leafy eyes were uncertain. “Uh, okay. Umm… your dad said that you think I should see a doctor. A sort of brain-doctor.”\n\t“Huh? You mean a therapist?”\n\t“I think that’s what he said. He said that you’d only say that if you were really worried ‘cause you don’t like them. Why?”\n\tMike blinked a few times. “What, why am I worried?” That was a bit of a silly question, he thought.\n\t“Um, no. Why don’t you like them? They’re supposed to help, right? They’re doctors. I wanted to know why you don’t like them. If you don’t like them, then… I-I guess you’d have a reason. I just wondered.”\n\tThe brown furred boy leaned backwards onto the wall, propping himself up on its surface. “It’s because of the time I got mugged. I didn’t like the way the therapists all thought I was dumb. They didn’t help.”\n\tSeeming to have expected that, Tai asked tentatively, “I-I… um, what r-really happened when you were mugged?” \n\tMike looked at the cringing kit in surprise. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “You really want to know? How come?” \n\tTai looked highly embarrassed now. “Umm… I don’t get it.”\n\tBaffled, Mike looked at Tai steadily. “Y-you don’t get it?” he repeated incredulously. What was there to get?\n\tIt was almost to be expected that Tai instantly mistook the incredulity for scorn, and he averted his eyes. “I-I mean, you don’t seem to worry about it, but Jake and your dad think it was a big thing. Especially Jake.”\n\t“Oh, um, it’s complicated.”\n\t“Okay.” Sensing his older friend’s reluctance, Tai dropped the matter. Just the night before they’re grilled one another about touchy subjects and that was uncomfortable enough for him. Ever since they’d met, more than half of their conversation had been about horrible things; that was good, in a way, because Tai needed to talk to someone about those things, he knew that now. But he wasn’t so curious that he wanted to make tonight another miserable one.\n\tHowever, Mike fidgeted and went quiet. He stared at his paws.\n\t“It happened when dad had to go out one day.” The barky-furred boy reached down and absently removed some lint from between his toes. His voice was a dead whisper.\n\t“Y-you don’t need to tell me,” Tai blurted hastily.\n\t“I want to.”\n\tMystified, Tai stared dumbly at his friend.\nMike swallowed awkwardly, continuing to stare at his paws. “D-dad was out at work. I heard this noise, like the front door closing, and I went out to check. I thought dad was home early. I didn’t see anyone, but when I went to go back to my room, he… he grabbed me around the neck, and, like, held my muzzle shut.” The barky-furred boy mimed it quickly.\n\tTai felt a chill. That tactic sounded horribly familiar.\n\t“I c-couldn’t scream or anything… he was choking me and it hurt my muzzle. Th-then he put a big knife up to my neck, and told me that if I made a noise he’d c-cut my throat, then wait and kill dad when he got home. He pushed me to the ground and started to tie my wrists together with those plastic tie-things. Zip-ties I think.” Mike swallowed. “He took the knife and cut off my shirt; wrapped it around my head. Said that i-if I saw his face, he’d kill us. I thought he was going to do it anyway, but just in case I did what I was told.”\nMike’s features were impassive, yet Tai thought he could detect a little quaver in Mike’s tone. Almost undetectable.\nHe didn’t blame him. Tai knew what it was like… someone had broken into Mike’s home and hurt him. The idea of being safe at home had evaporated like the unreality it was. It was scary. Nowhere was safe now, not even his warm bed in his own room. Now, every time he had to sleep, every time he was left alone, somebody could break in. Maybe even to hurt him again. The only reason Tai managed to sleep at night was that he could cling to his beloved friend. \nThis was what Mike had been living with since that day.\nHowever, then the older kit spaced out. For a moment, he closed his eyes. An almost imperceptible tremble beset his muscles.\n“M-Mike?”\n\t“Sorry. Um, well, he dragged me into the bathroom. I remember… he pushed me onto my back, and pulled my shorts off. I was too scared to move…” The ten-year-old inhaled deeply. He fidgeted, running a paw through his medium length head-fur and looking anywhere but at Tai. “Started—started to touch me. Rubbed, uh, down there, at my dick. I got stiff, and he kept going. After awhile, he sucked on it. I couldn’t believe the feeling… I was scared when I orgasmed. D-didn’t know what it was.”\n\t“Mike, you don’t need to-”\n\t“No.” The kit shook his head. “I wanna tell you.” \n\tThe tawny kit was baffled now. Why did Mike want to tell him this tale? It was awful. “A-are you okay!?” \n\t“A little tingly,” admitted Mike, still shaking. “It’s okay. Um, anyway. After a while of that, he made me suck on his. It wasn’t stiff at first, so he made me, um, get it like that. It was pretty gross; he stunk so badly. Then he turned me over and shoved it into my butt. It hurt like hell at first.”\n\tTai blinked in confusion. After a second, he got it. “He did what?” he gagged. “Why did he-?”\n\tMike took a shaky breath, falling silent for nearly an entire minute. Tai stared at him, horrified and confused, while the barky kit regrouped. “H-he only did it for a few minutes. I think he was only in our apartment for like half an hour. It still hurt a lot, but he did it slowly. When he was done, he told me I’d been g-good and that he was sorry. He wasn’t too bad to me… because I did as he said, I guess. When I got sore knees, he even put a towel under them for me. Uh, wh-where was I?”\n\t“When he was done…?” Tai prompted in a whisper. He felt dizzy himself, and his fingertips were tingling. He had to imagine Mike felt a thousand times worse.\n“Oh yeah, th-thanks. He carried me into the shower and turned the cold water tap on. Washed me all over, and when he was done with that he tied my ankles to my wrists and just left me there, with the water still running… my shirt was still around my head. I couldn’t move or nothin’. I thought I was gonna drown. Dad was so upset when he came in and saw me like that. I just wanted the water turned off and to sit near the heater.”\n\t“Mike!” the tawny kit exclaimed, aghast. “That must’ve been so scary.”\n\tMike shook his head. “It was, but…” The brown-furred kit smiled wanly. “Don’t worry about it. I’m still alive, and so is my dad. I was okay. I was glad at first that everyone cared and fussed over me, but I got sick of it. It was as if they thought I’d been broken.” He paused and scrunched his eyes shut tight. He hesitated, before it seemed he came to a decision. “I guess… I-I liked it, Tai. I thought about it all the time.”\n\tThere was a moment of stunned silence, then Tai squeaked, “Wh-what? How did you like it?!” \n\tMike drew his knees up to his chest and hid his face between them, cuddling himself tightly. “Oh, shit!” he whined, his voice tiny. “I knew you’d think I was crazy! That’s why I didn’t tell you! I know I wasn’t supposed to! I know it’s wrong, but I couldn’t- I…”\n\tTai got to his knees, crawling towards his older friend. “Wait! No, it’s okay! It’s okay!” He gently touched Mike’s leg. “I like things I’m not meant to, right? You told me that was okay. What’s the difference?”\n\tMike stared down at the mattress. The confusion that’d been welling up inside him for years suddenly boiled over, and he found himself absolutely needing to tell Tai everything. The oddly colored fox kit was the only one he could trust with the truth. He was the one who deserved to know the most. A part of him was screaming at him to shut his mouth, to say no more, but he knew it was too late now. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t. I didn’t want anyone to find out. It was my secret.” \n\tThere was an awkward pause while Mike collected himself. A strange idea came to Tai. “Mike, uh, i-is this why you wanted to do things to me? Like, tie me up and stuff?”\n\tThe hazel eyes widened and the brown-furred pup stared at friend. “Wha-?”\n\t“I just thought… it’s the same sort of thing, right? Except you ask me first.”\n\tMike eyed him, stricken. “Oh, shit!! Yes, since I first saw you. The first… I wanted to. Yes. I’m sorry!!”\n\tThe tawny pup just blinked. “Mike, I-”\n\t“I’m sorry! It wasn’t all about that, I swear! You’re my friend, honest! I wanted to be on the other side of it. I wanted to have a friend to do this stuff with.”\n\t“Mike… I don’t—” \n\t“I didn’t want to hurt you or scare you like him! I never want to hurt you! I was really happy when you liked what I did, I just wanted you to- to feel it without being scared or hurt or worried or nothing!”\n\t“Mike!”\n\t“I’m so sorry! Don’t hate me. Don’t go. Shit, don’t…”\n\t“Stop it!” Tai finally snapped, exasperated. For some reason, seeing Mike like this both irritated and frightened him. “I know you’re my friend. I’m stupid, but I can tell that.”\n\t“You’re not stupid!” Mike exclaimed. \n\t“See?” The tawny kit hugged the long, bark-furred legs cheerily in a slightly puerile attempt to lighten the mood. “I just wanted to know what happened. What got your dad, and Jake, all upset.”\n\t“I lied.” Mike fretted, shuffling away a few inches. “You asked me about this before. I did want to be your friend because of this. You noticed it already. That whole first day I was trying just to touch you and stuff. I was just a big creepy jerk… no, a total asshole!”\n\t“And now?”\n\t“What?”\n\tTai smiled slightly. “Do you still only want to be my friend because of it?”\n\t“No way! I… I wanted a friend too.” Mike hung his head. “I didn’t think I’d like you this much though.”\n\tQuietly, Tai swallowed. “I didn’t think you’d like me. It’s okay though, because we do like each other, right?” He moved closer to his bigger companion again. “I don’t care why you wanted to be my friend. You even told me before you wouldn’t do those things with me if you couldn’t prove you were my friend too, and you did!”\n\tAfter some time dedicated to staring at Tai’s earnest face, Mike finally returned the smaller kit’s smile. “Okay,” he said, tone sort of tentative. Embarrassed. “S-sorry.”\n\tTai squeezed Mike’s legs gently, running his paws along the thickly furred limb. The warm, silky fur helped him to think. \nLast night, something had struck him, and it had rattled him to the very core. It took him saying it to Mike for his preteen vulpine mind to finally understand it. His friends always left him, or turned on him, because of Tai’s own idiocy. He had so much pent up frustration, so much confusion and anger, that he would do utterly stupid things.\n\tBefore he could stop himself, words would be said; things would be done. Afterwards Tai didn’t even feel it was himself who had done it. He was just as startled as the friend who’d come to comfort him, or had the misfortune of being in just the wrong place at the wrong time. Eventually, he’d try to apologize once he worked up the courage, but they never listened… he just kept doing it again and again, so why should they? \nTimid and distrustful, Tai would also avoid the ones that tried to become his friends, seeking comfort in books and beanbags in libraries. Books and comics didn’t judge him, didn’t hurt him, and he didn’t hurt them.\n\tEventually it got to the point where he simply didn’t trust anyone to be close to him—literally. His strange, reclusive behavior, weak and effeminate appearance, debilitating shyness and obvious poverty made him a prime target for the crueler kits, and nobody ever came to his aid because he’d scared them off by being a crazy little jerk. Even his teachers, not that they were much use in the first place.\n\tThat revelation colored everything a darker shade. Tai had never had a high opinion of himself, but now he was almost shocked by what he perceived to be his level of idiocy.\n\tBut so far not once had Mike turned on him. Most importantly, when he was with Mike, Tai had almost never felt that frustration compelling him to screw things up. Whenever he had, Mike had immediately forgiven him!\n\tIn fact, the only thing that Mike seemed to be annoyed at was his distrusting nature. He didn’t care that Tai had no money; he actually appreciated Tai’s looks; he didn’t pass judgment when Tai got all silly and playful; and oddly enough, he kept insisting that Tai was actually smart—even though Tai couldn’t think of any time where he’d actually shown that around Mike or his dad.\n\tTheir friendship was nothing like anything Tai had experience before. Just knowing he was going to wake up and see the older boy near him had sent him to bed happy – even with the horrible nightmares that plagued his sleep now, Tai felt he could handle them, because the moment he woke up crying, someone was there for him.\n\tMike meant more to him than anything now.\n\tSo why the hell would Tai give a damn why Mike decided to become his best friend ever? Who ever cared why a friend became a friend, if he was a true one? It just didn’t strike him as important. Mike was the most important fur Tai had ever met, and that was that.\n\tMike sighed and scooted down the bed so he could cuddle Tai’s chest. After a moment, he leaned downwards and they touched noses. The hazel and green eyes just melted into one another in much the same way as the bodies did with the embrace. \n“You know… want to do something until Jake is here?” \n“Hmm?” \n“We haven’t played the Gamestation together for ages.”\nTai actually laughed away that idea. “Nuh-uh!” he said. “I have a better idea.” \nOnly a few inches from his own eyes, Mike’s blinked, a little surprised. “Oh?”\nShaking a little, Tai slid his muzzle downwards just fraction of an inch. He opened up, and his warm breath lightly tickled the hairs on the tip of Mike’s snout. With an almost reverent sigh, Tai pressed his muzzle to Mike’s. The leafy jewels of his eyes vanished behind his eyelids. \nIt didn’t take much persuasion for Mike. He gladly opened up himself.\nTai scooted closer and kissed tenderly, his paws resting on Mike’s shoulders. He sent his tongue forth, shivering as it slid over the tip of his friend’s.  \nKissing was so weird, he thought as he tentatively flicked his tongue around towards the front of Mike’s muzzle. It felt wonderful in his opinion though. Sent little tingles right through him when the saliva-slick tongues brushed against each other. But that wasn’t it. It was such a strange situation, to be so close to another, to have some of the most vulnerable things on his body near another’s… he would have to thank Mike one day for introducing it to him.\nGroaning, Mike wrapped his arms higher around Tai’s chest, pulling the smaller boy’s shoulders inwards and securing a grasp on the kit’s nape, locking his fingers into the long head-fur. He pressed them both together more firmly, and his own tongue started to probe around deeply as he locked their delicate muzzles together tightly. \nThey knelt together on the printed covers of the bed, twining their sensitive tongues and running little paws over one another’s bodies, into those warm nooks and crannies, those exposed and those still hidden by soft clothing. It was almost as much curious exploration as it was a passionate kiss, both boys suddenly enthralled by this intimate activity they had rarely taken the opportunity to enjoy with one another.\nIt was even better than Tai remembered the first time.\nMike squeezed Tai to him, upping the pace and slowly but surely pushing Tai backwards, laying him flat. \nIt barely even registered. Tai whined and reciprocated as Mike made it clear he wanted to get a little more energetic. It was hard to breathe; but when he did, he could literally taste Mike’s breath. It wasn’t bad at all; Tai had heard plenty of furs talk about how bad others’ breath could be, but he never really noticed anything truly stinky or disgusting whenever he was this close to Mike. \nHe felt his shoulders touch the mattress, and Mike settled his weight on top of his chest...\nAll of a sudden, Mike pulled away with a gasp. “Oh, I forgot to shut the door!” He looked back over his shoulder, and indeed the door was ajar, offering any passersby a clear view of the bed and the two snogging vulpines.\nAs Mike moved to go and shut the door, Tai jolted upright and loudly clonked the side of his head on the wall the bed was up against. He didn’t even make a sound; just fell back onto the mattress again. \n“Oh shit, are you alright?” exclaimed Mike, forgetting immediately about the door and instead hovering over Tai.\nTai blinked a few times, his eyes watering, but he nodded. “Y-yeah…” he replied. He squeezed his eyes closed briefly, but when he opened them he seemed alright— if a little unhappy. \n“You’re sure?” Mike gingerly reached out to touch the side of the kit’s head. Tai winced, but nodded again. There was absolutely no indication that he was about to cry, and that surprised Mike. If he’d smacked his head off the wall like that he’d be fighting back the tears. \nTai pulled himself into a seated position and smiled wanly. “I’m alright.” \n“Sorry, that was my fault,” blurted Mike. “Um, I’ll go shut the door.” \nHe did that, checking the corridor briefly. Then Mike sidled back up to the kit, who was gently rubbing his temple. “Oww.” Mike’s tone was apologetic. “My fault. Sorry.”\nWith a slightly comical glare at the wall, Tai shook his head. “Nuh-uh. Stupid wall’s fault.”\nMike giggled at that. “Yeah, stupid wall.” Then he wistfully added, “I guess that ruined everything, huh?”\n“Doesn’t have to,” Tai said hopefully.\nLaughing some more, Mike sat beside his friend again. “Is your head alright?”\n“Yeah. I won’t cry, it’s okay.” The tawny kit smiled and snuggled up to Mike’s thighs. \n“I never said you would!” Mike said happily, squeezing the back of Tai’s neck firmly, massaging it. “Lie on your back a second!” he suddenly ordered, repositioning himself behind Tai. Curious, Tai did so. \n“Like this?” \nA pair of paws slipped in under Tai’s cheeks, brushed the side of his neck until they tightly grasped the back of his head. “Gyeehee!” Tai tensed up slightly. “That tickles!” \nMike pulled on the littler kit’s head, lifting it forwards and up. “Tell me how this feels. I’ve gone to physiotherapists before and they did this for me.” He started to also push his fingers in to the soft space at the base of the younger pup’s head. \nTo say Tai liked it was an understatement of the worst kind. He groaned and instantly went limp. “W-wow,” he whimpered, wincing slightly. “Wh-what’re you doing? It feels weird!”\n“Just a massage,” replied Mike offhandedly. “You’ve never had one before? I’ve never done it before, but I’ve had a few.”\n“No…” Honestly, Tai had rarely been touched by anyone in his life. Now, the tension in his neck muscles that he hadn’t even noticed before was being magically removed by just Mike’s inexperienced paws. His eyes closed and he started to feel lightheaded. \n“Even my dad’s given me some before,” Mike added quietly, staring down at the woozy Tai’s face. “You can have them on your back, your paws… anywhere. They’re good for you too.” \nThere was no real reply from Tai. He nodded very slightly and started to breathe steadily through an open muzzle. “Mhmm…” \nWith a content smile on his own features, Mike continued to admire his ‘catch.’ It was still a matter of some surprise to him that things had gone so far and so fast with Tai. He realized long ago that it could only have been this way if Tai had wanted it just as much as he had. That meant everything.\n“You’re adorable!” he said frankly. Then grinned almost wickedly when Tai sheepishly squirmed as a reply.\nFending off somnolence, Tai opened his eyes. “Would your dad come in at all?” he said softly. “At this time?”\nChecking his clock, Mike shrugged. “He might. He knocks first though. Why?” \n“I want to cuddle until Jake gets here.” \n“We’re doing that, aren’t we?” \nTai’s smile got shy and he almost averted his gaze. “I wanna do more than just cuddle.” \n“Oh.” Mike sniggered. “We can do whatever you want. We can do stuff with clothes on you know. Or go have a shower.”\nTai beamed and settled down again. \nHowever, that line of thought brought an interesting idea to Mike, and he frowned as he struggled with it for a few moments. “You know,” he began, “I don’t know how dad would act if he found out what we were doing.” \nThe green eyes opened again. “What d’you mean?” \nStarting to swirl and push his fingers in even more – to the delight of his subject – Mike shrugged. “I don’t know what he’d do. I think he could freak out and go really crazy, because he’d be thinking about what happened to me two years ago.” He swallowed. “Or he might be totally okay with it. My dad’s cool with a lot of stuff.”\nTai tensed slightly, gazing up at his friend. \n“I-I think he knows anyway, maybe,” Mike continued pensively. “I dunno. He’s never said anything.”\nSuddenly looking scared, Tai blurted, “No, don’t tell him! Please!”\n“What’s wrong?” \nTai shuddered. “Parents don’t like this stuff. They always go crazy about it; and they never even tell you what’s wrong with it.”\n“Not my dad, Tai. He’ll tell you what’s wrong with it; he always does, and yesterday was the craziest I’ve ever seen him get, because I put you in danger.”\nThe tawny kit looked anxious for a moment, then he closed his eyes. “He’s still a grownup. It’s better if they don’t know things.”\nMike looked down sadly at the gloomy kit. There it was again! Tai didn’t trust anyone; not even Mike’s dad. Mike was starting to visualize some kind of force-field around Tai, that whenever someone tried to speak to him, he just threw up and hid behind until they went away. Which was, at least, a cool mental image, but it was just so irritating.\nIt was so wrong that Tai was doing it to him, and to his father…\n\tThere was a sharp rap on the door, and Tai instinctively slipped away and sat up while Mike asked who it was. \n\tThe door opened, and his dad stuck a grinning muzzle in. “Hi boys,” he said. “Almost time for me to leave. Jake will be here soon.” \n\t“Alright,” responded Mike, sighing.\n\t“Tai, when I get back, we need to talk about your schooling, alright?” \n\tTai shot the adult a dismayed glance, and he inhaled sharply. He didn’t reply.\n\tFrom the direction of the front door, there was a rhythmic banging. “Oh. There we go. I’ll see you later boys. Keep your chins up, and be safe.”\n\tWhen he shut the door, Tai continued to stare blankly into middle distance. \n\t“What’s up, Tai?” asked Mike, leaping to his feet and stretching. He hoped the abrupt movement would snap Tai out of his sudden reverie. It was easier than trying to discover what was on his mind. “Let’s go say hi to Jake.” \n\tAfter a pause, Tai too leapt to his feet. “Alright!” he said, trying to sound enthusiastic.\n\tAs they made their way to the door, Mike caught his smaller friend around the shoulders with a gentle hug, and he tenderly kissed the kit’s pink nose. “Mmah!” he exaggerated. “We’ll continue this later. Maybe Jake will join in.”\n\t“I don’t think he will.”\n\t“C’mon, Captain Miserable.”\n\n\tTai moaned in dismay as his dice-roll clattered across the table top to a depressing single dot. “I’m having a bad day,” he said darkly, prodding his piece along the colorful board with one finger. Then he sighed. “You fall into some quicksand and are sucked back four squares… oh, what!?”\n\tMike chortled and picked up the dice. “Why are you going back anywhere? Don’t you drown if you fall into quicksand?” he asked, rolling a five and landing on a blank square. “How weird would it be to drown in sand?”\n\t“Not always,” Jake told him. “Most of the time it’s not deep enough. It can be a pain to get out though.” \n\t“That’s lame.” \n\tJake rolled and also landed on a blank square, evoking a quiet growl from Tai. “You wouldn’t say that if you were stuck in quicksand.” \n\t“Sure I would. Just for you!” \n\t“Well, anyway, I guess they were just sick of it being random snakes and ladders.”\n\t“Yeah, guess so. Leaving ladders just lying around is one thing, but snakes?”\n\tTai was slumped forward with his muzzle resting on the table, looking utterly dejected—though it seemed to be because of the board-game. Robert had briefly explained what happened, and even specifically warned the stunned teenager that Tai might at any point break down. No wonder Robert had offered him extra pay. Looking after a grieving kit was something he’d never done before. But Jake felt a strange connection to the tawny little boy. \n\tHe wanted to help, any way he could.\nSo far, Tai seemed fine... even if he was getting trounced at this particular game. Jake wanted to say something, offer his condolences or something, but he wasn’t sure he should. \nWhen Jake arrived, the boys had emerged from their room rather unenergetically, just moments after Robert managed to give him his quick explanation. It seemed Tai lost a pitched battle with his inhibitions and he rather timidly tried to hug Jake. Jake didn’t refuse him. He wouldn’t refuse the bereaved pup anything. \nThe affectionate hug confused him at first, but after thinking about it, he got all choked up. The kit had obviously decided that Jake was his first friend in New York, and he desperately wanted comfort from anyone he trusted. He didn’t, so to speak, want Jake to drift away.\nShaking away the memory, Jake refocused in time to see Tai lift the dice in one paw and dropped it pathetically. It clattered to a six. \nHis tawny ears perked slowly and he looked at the board hopefully, but he suddenly looked crestfallen. “Oh, crap.” Six ahead of him was ‘You fall off the mountain trail! Return to square one!’ \nJake gawked. “You really are having terrible luck today, Tai.” \n“I hate this game.” Tai shifted uncomfortably. “Can we do something else?” He moved a paw and knocked a cup of juice over, spattering his t-shirt and pants with bright red liquid. He just looked at the cup in shock for a moment before groaning aloud.\nMike shrugged. “I’ll get it,” he offered, standing and heading to the kitchen for a cloth. “You should go change, Tai! Your clothes are in my room still.”\nTai stood too and walked down the hallway, careful to make sure none of the juice dripped off of him. He opened Mike’s room door while ripping his soiled shirt over his head. He spied his unopened suitcase on Mike’s floor and ambled over to it, simultaneously dropping his pants.\n\tAt least he hadn’t juiced his underwear somehow. He wasn’t even sure where they were packed.\n\tBack in the kitchen, Jake was busy rinsing the cup out in the sink, trying not to laugh at the poor kit’s misfortunate. There was a knock on the front door, and Mike stopped mopping up the juice to look at it. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Why would someone be knocking at eight at night? \n\tJake stepped towards it. “Yes?” \n\tThe response was a gruff, urgent voice. “Hey, I live above you guys. I found a leather wallet with uhh… Robert Donaldson’s name in it. Down in the lobby. It had this address in it, so, uhh… yeah.” \n\tJake walked to the door, a little confused. “Oh, alright, can you leave it at the door?” \n\t“Someone could steal it.” \n\t“Uh, alright then, hang on.” Jake walked to the door and yanked it open.\n\tHe saw the torque wrench coming, but didn’t see anything beyond it, or get a chance to duck. The metal instrument slammed into his head with a sickening crunch, and Jake crumpled to the floor. \n\tA huge tiger ambled into the apartment. He was wearing a leather jacket and black pants, and he grinned when he saw the shocked Mike gaping at him in terror. “Hello, boy-o,” he growled as two other thugs filed in behind him, moving straight for Mike. \n\tThe kit screamed in fright, darting around behind the kitchen table. \n\tMuttering to himself, the tiger blocked the doorway and folded his arms, watching events unfold.\n\tDown the hall, a much smaller, tawnier fox-boy came out of a room, wearing just a pair of jeans on his tiny body and holding a shirt in his hands. The tiger gave an ugly laugh, turning and casually shutting the door. \n\tMike yelled at the top of his voice for help, trying to keep the table between him and a rat, while his friend, what seemed to be a bull-terrier, went down the hall for Tai. “No!” the kit yelled, as the rat suddenly dashed around the table, smirking.\n\tTai tried to dash back into Mike’s room, but the invading dog caught his tail when he turned, brutally yanking him backwards. “No, don’t!” he tried to plead, but the kidnapper just slipped a forearm in front his neck, pulling up and back. He dragged the boy easily into the living room, choking him painfully into silence.\n\t“I got mine,” the muscle-bound goon joked.\n\tMike froze, some foolish impulse trying to get him to go help, when the rat grabbed his shoulder. “Let go!” he cried fearfully, instantly lashing out with a small fist that caught his attacker on the point of the nose. The rat yelped and stumbled back, clutching his nose. \n\tBefore Mike could turn around, however, he was shoved harder than he’d ever been in his life. He felt a single paw on his back, and suddenly he was flying forwards. \n\tHe crashed face first to the ground, the wind leaving his body. He struggled to his feet, but a massive paw closed around the back of his neck and pulled him backwards.\n\tSomething slammed into his stomach, just below the sternum and into his solar plexus. A choked gurgle escaped his throat as the pain gushed through him, and his whole body seemed to collapse inwards.\n\tThe paw released him and he sank to his knees. A sort of buzzing, fuzzy noise started up in his ears, but he could still make out the tiger’s voice, albeit indistinctly over his own coughing. \n\t“See, Sammy. You can’t be all pussy-footed when kids are givin’ you trouble. Just do what you gotta do to get ‘em to behave. It’s just like women.”\n\tIt hurt so much, as if something up inside his chest had been crushed. He couldn’t breathe either; his lungs had just locked up. Things were getting fuzzier and darker by the second… was he going to pass out? \n\tHe’d never passed out before. Did it hurt?\n\tMike felt himself being lifted up, and through the tiny, unfocused slits his vision had become, he could see a rather pissed off rat. He had a ridiculous ear-ring that looked like a violin, and a thin drool of blood was coming out his nose for some reason. \n\tSuddenly it was all just blackness.\n\nChapter Nine – Fin. \n\n-- By Krazy Kitsune/Kichigai Kitsune\nCopyright 2005 onwards.\n\n",
  "writing_bbcode_parsed": "<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Tai&rsquo;s Story - Chapter 9.<br />By Kichigai Kitsune<br />Copyright 2005 onwards.<br /><br />Disclaimer: This story contains coarse language, violence, adult themes and scenes of an adult nature involving two young &ldquo;cubs&rdquo; (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. <br /><br />\tThe next morning, Mike stirred and finally cracked his eyes open. He&rsquo;d been warm and comfortable all night, but just recently, something had changed to make him a little less cozy. The bed had gotten colder, and when he felt around for a certain &lsquo;thing&rsquo; to snuggle up to and regain some of his previous warmth, it wasn&rsquo;t there for him.<br />\t&ldquo;Hrnmm?&rdquo; he moaned, sitting up sleepily and stretching. The bed was empty aside from his very own self. Tai was up and about.<br />\tSighing in resignation, Mike threw back his covers and stood. It was obviously time to get up; the early-morning sun was shining tentatively through heavy gray clouds into his room. It looked like it was going to rain a little. <br />He slipped into his warm green and white cotton pajamas, even though he hadn&rsquo;t worn them to bed. They were nearby and comfortable. <br />\tWhen he ambled into the den, he spotted Tai sitting cross-legged on the carpet and actually dressed, an old plain dark-blue shirt and faded jeans, in front of the television. He was watching a cartoon that vaguely tickled Mike&rsquo;s memory somehow. &ldquo;Good morning, Tai!&rdquo; he said, yawning as he joined the younger kit. A strange watermark at the bottom of the television screen claimed it was quarter past seven.<br />\tTai looked over at him and smiled. A genuine smile. &ldquo;Morning!&rdquo; he piped. &ldquo;Your dad&rsquo;s up too.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;He gets up really early every day.&rdquo; Mike frowned at the television. Colorful mythical creatures seemed to be battling at the behest of a bunch of kits about his age, in the middle of a small town&rsquo;s street. &ldquo;Is this&hellip;? Umm&hellip; what was it called again?&rdquo; <br />\tTai nodded immediately. &ldquo;Battle Eidolon ZERO.&rdquo; He pointed at the screen. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve missed lots. They&rsquo;ve nearly caught the leader of the Emerald Knights. Last time I watched, they didn&rsquo;t know who it was. Turns out it was the guy who let them stay in his garage when they first got to the town. I thought he was a cool guy, but he&rsquo;s an eidolon smuggler.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t usually get up this early. Dad lets me sleep till nine unless I have practice. Is the show any good?&rdquo;<br />\tTai grinned. &ldquo;I tried not to wake you.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay. You didn&rsquo;t really.&rdquo; Mike shrugged.<br />\t&ldquo;This is my favorite television show. It&rsquo;s good.&rdquo; Tai fixed his eyes to the screen again. Then he looked a little sheepish. &ldquo;Um, did you want to watch something?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Nuh-uh. You can keep watching. I usually don&rsquo;t get up this early. I&rsquo;ll watch with you if you want?&rdquo;<br />\tTai tried and failed to hide his excitement. &ldquo;Sure!&rdquo; He scooted a little closer to Mike. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll explain stuff.&rdquo;<br />\tMike casually draped an arm over the smaller kit&rsquo;s shoulders. The very idea of having someone to watch his favorite show with just thrilled Tai, and it seemed that he&rsquo;d finally been able to wake up happy. That meant that Mike had succeeded, and succeeding always made him feel great. He was just one of those furs.<br />\tAt first, Mike was mostly just feigning interest. He wasn&rsquo;t a fan of television, preferring more active forms of entertainment, like his swimming, video games or playing with toys; television was just too sedentary for him. Too boring. He even preferred books or comics, because at least then his mind was at work.<br />\tBut as the show went on, he found his interest building. It really wasn&rsquo;t too bad. Watching immensely powerful mythical creatures tear each other up with obscenely flashy energy maneuvers and savage physical onslaughts had its own appeal, but the characters were well acted and the plot seemed substantial. <br />\t&ldquo;Mom used to get up really early for work before we moved,&rdquo; Tai said all of a sudden. &ldquo;I had to get up a bit later for school, so I watched TV alone in the morning before I went.&rdquo; <br />\tMike bit his tongue before he could ask why Tai even bothered going to school if his mom wasn&rsquo;t at the door shooing him out. With a cattle-prod. &ldquo;Oh, I get ya.&rdquo; <br />\tRobert walked in from his study, whistling quietly. &ldquo;Morning, boys,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How are we this drizzly morning?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Good,&rdquo; Mike replied, his eyes fixed on a gigantic phoenix-thing made of shimmering light as it whirled high into the air to shower its foes with flaming rain. <br />\tThe grown up paused. &ldquo;Good show?&rdquo; he asked, slightly puzzled. <br />\t&ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay.&rdquo; Mike finally looked over and grinned. &ldquo;Kinda cool.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Oh no. You&rsquo;re not going to become a television junkie, are you?&rdquo; <br />\tMike laughed brightly. &ldquo;Nope!&rdquo; <br />\tWith a chuckle, Robert sat behind the boys on the leather couch. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t usually see you up this early unless you have practice, Mike,&rdquo; he pointed out as he tried to follow the confusing light-show on the screen. &ldquo;How about you, Tai? What time do you get up in the morning normally?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Half past six,&rdquo; Tai answered, eyes locked on the screen. &ldquo;School used to start at about eight fifteen.&rdquo;<br />\tRobert snickered. &ldquo;To think I thought Mike was an early-bird. That&rsquo;s about when he&rsquo;d wake up.&rdquo; He paused. &ldquo;Though I&rsquo;ve never seen him complain about getting up quite early for training.&rdquo; <br />\tMike shuddered. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t mean I wanna do that every morning!&rdquo; he whined plaintively. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s too cold!&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure that doesn&rsquo;t bother Tai in the least. Alaska probably makes this place seem like the Bahamas. Isn&rsquo;t that right, Tai?&rdquo; <br />\tThe tawny kit seemed to cringe for a second. &ldquo;Umm, like what?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bunch of tropical islands a bit south east of America. It&rsquo;s a popular holiday destination.&rdquo; <br />\tFrowning, Tai thought about it. &ldquo;Well&hellip;&rdquo; he said hesitantly. &ldquo;I-it can be warm in Alaska.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I was being figurative, Tai,&rdquo; Robert chortled. &ldquo;New York is nothing like a tropical island, believe me. It&rsquo;s pretty much winter now, so you&rsquo;ll get to see the worst weather we have to offer here in a little while.&rdquo;<br />\tThe commercials cut in, and Mike giggled. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s right!&rdquo; he suddenly exclaimed. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve never asked you what Alaska&rsquo;s like.&rdquo;<br />\tTai jumped. &ldquo;What it&rsquo;s like?&rdquo; he repeated, ears flattening. &ldquo;Uh, how do you mean?&rdquo; <br />\tRobert straightened slightly. This topic could still be very painful to the younger boy. The grownup prepared to divert the conversation at the first sign of distress.<br />\t&ldquo;Does it snow all the time there?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;No. Not all the time.&rdquo; Tai furrowed his brow in confusion. It wasn&rsquo;t even close to snowing all the time. There was a summer and spring back in Alaska, so sometimes it was very warm. He&rsquo;d never run into someone who thought it always snowed.<br />\t&ldquo;Aww. Does it snow hard when it does?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Oh, I guess it does.&rdquo; Tai reflected on that. Mike had probably never been literally stuck indoors as a blizzard raged on outside and sealed his family away from outside contact for two days. He&rsquo;d actually liked it when that happened: at least there was no way to make him go to school when that happened. If only it happened more often. &ldquo;Sometimes. When it got really bad, you couldn&rsquo;t open the doors or windows, and even if you could, you couldn&rsquo;t go anywhere outside.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;That sounds neat. Well, sometimes it would be. Not all the time, of course.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Where exactly did you live, Tai?&rdquo; Robert enquired. &ldquo;Your mom wasn&rsquo;t very specific.&rdquo; <br />\tThe tawny kit thought hard. Geography was not his favorite topic. &ldquo;Um, you know where Anchorage is?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Yes.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;We lived, um, to- to the left a bit. And up. On the map.&rdquo;<br />\tMike sniggered. &ldquo;You mean north-west.&rdquo; <br />\tThe younger kit flushed. &ldquo;Um, yeah. Y-you could see the mountains from my room. They usually had snow on them.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;The Alaska Ranges. No wonder you got some nasty weather so close to them.&rdquo; Robert tapped a pair of fingers together. &ldquo;Wait a tick,&rdquo; he murmured. &ldquo;You got up before seven? School started at quarter past eight? How far away was your school?&rdquo;<br />\tTai shrugged. &ldquo;My first school was nearer, but the next two were a long walk away.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;How long a walk? Guess?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Umm&hellip; it took me nearly an hour. I usually got there as the bell rang.&rdquo; Tai shifted slightly. He didn&rsquo;t really like thinking about Alaska anymore. He wasn&rsquo;t going back there, and now he didn&rsquo;t really want to &ndash; there was nothing for him there, never was, and now he could see that. On some strange level, he wanted to cut everything loose; go somewhere where he could let go. But he couldn&rsquo;t go anywhere or do anything.<br />\t&ldquo;Whoo. Walking for an hour in winter mornings must&rsquo;ve been fun. Was the sun even up?&rdquo;<br />\tTai shook his head. &ldquo;Not always. But sometimes it, um, it was up.&rdquo; <br />\tMuch to Tai&rsquo;s shock, Mike grinned hugely. &ldquo;That sounds awesome!&rdquo; he exulted. <br />\t&ldquo;Mike, are you telling me that you&rsquo;d like to be woken up at quarter to seven during a blizzard and sent for an hour long walk in the snow and dark?&rdquo; Rob enquired mildly. &ldquo;Because I think it&rsquo;d get old very fast, personally.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You should&rsquo;ve snowboarded to school every day!&rdquo; Mike chortled. &ldquo;Even in the dark!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Snowboarding stuff is way too expensive,&rdquo; responded Tai immediately. &ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t afford it. I looked.&rdquo; <br />\tThey chatted on for a minute or so, Tai trying his best to describe his old home. It wasn&rsquo;t easy &ndash; though there were many difference between his former home and the sleepless city he found himself in now, Tai found himself at a loss to describe it all. It was hard to relate things to Mike in particular, though the older boy was listening intently; he&rsquo;d never experienced anything aside from living in this densely packed, vertical metropolis.<br />\tYet even still, Tai felt a glowing warmth settling comfortably in his chest. He was still so unused to this attention. The conversation. Being welcome to discuss things with others, especially an adult. <br />\tEventually, Robert sat forward and stretched. &ldquo;Alright, I&rsquo;m going to put on a real brekky.&rdquo; He eyed Mike critically. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not going to be sitting around in your pajamas all morning, are you Mike?&rdquo; <br />\tMike, looking at the TV, rolled his eyes. &ldquo;No, dad.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t roll your eyes at me, Michael,&rdquo; Robert told him gently. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t do it to you.&rdquo; <br />\tThe pup laughed and stood. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t mean it, dad!&rdquo; he promised, hugging his father tightly. <br />\tRob squeezed just a little. &ldquo;Well, is being smart really a good idea when you&rsquo;re in those pajamas?&rdquo; He slipped his paws underneath the kit&rsquo;s armpits. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t offer much protection.&rdquo; <br />\tInstantly, Mike yelped and burst out laughing as his father easily tickled him into submission, laying him out on the couch beside him. &ldquo;Okay!&rdquo; he blurted, flailing just a little. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry! Ha-ha-ha! Stop!&rdquo; <br />\tRob mercifully did, leaning forwards and giving his son a quick lick on the nose. &ldquo;Good. After breakfast, get into some real clothing then.&rdquo; The grownup shot a grin at Tai.<br />\tTai just gave a small, wistful smile in reply. Those were things he&rsquo;d miss, he knew. So few and far between they had been, and now he&rsquo;d never experience those warm embraces again. He turned resolutely back to the screen. <br />\tThere was a rustle behind him, but before he could turn to look...<br />\t&ldquo;Goooin&rsquo; up!&rdquo; He heard Robert say, and two strong paws slipped under his arms, lifting him high off the ground with almost no effort. <br />\tRobert scooped Tai up easily and sat back down next to his own son, the smaller kit on his lap. &ldquo;You looked a little lonely there, Tai,&rdquo; he explained rationally. &ldquo;Like you needed a hug or something.&rdquo; He squeezed the little boy firmly. <br />\tSurprised and confused, Tai tried to pull away for the briefest moment. Robert hadn&rsquo;t done anything like this before. However, when he realized what was happening, he surrendered to the embrace and held it closed tight with his own paws. The young boy felt strange, however. <br />Not uncomfortable, not exactly &ndash; not nervous, even though Robert was still almost a stranger to him. No&hellip; the opposite.<br />Like he had somehow wanted this moment for so long; and never wanted it to end.<br />They stayed like this for a few moments, before Robert gave the tawny fox boy a tender lick behind the ear.<br />\t&ldquo;Alright.&rdquo; Grinning warmly, Robert deposited Tai alongside Mike, and he put both of their paws in his lap so they could lie comfortably. &ldquo;Your show&rsquo;s about to come back on soon and I need to get the food goin&rsquo;. How long has the show got left?&rdquo; <br />\tTai looked over Mike&rsquo;s chest at the screen, apparently a little flustered. &ldquo;T-twelve minutes.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Gotcha.&rdquo; The adult gave both pups a very brief rub on each of their paws before standing. &ldquo;Be good.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Never!&rdquo; Mike exclaimed indignantly. <br />\t<br />The deli door clanked open noisily, and the skunk crept inside. <br />He put his paws resolutely in his hooded-top&rsquo;s pouch and swallowed. &ldquo;What the hell am I doin&rsquo;?&rdquo; he groaned at himself, approaching the counter. <br />The tartan curtain parted and the grizzled old badger stepped up behind the counter. His eyes alighted on the skunk and hardened like two little agates. &ldquo;You!&rdquo; he growled, reaching down for something concealed behind the wooden surface.<br />The twelve-gauge was in his hands in moments, and he swung it until it pointed right at the teenager. <br />Wayle flinched away. &ldquo;W-wait!&rdquo; he cried, hands raised. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t shoot! Shit!&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Whaddaya want, kid? Come by to settle the score? Steal some more?&rdquo; <br />Wayle actually whimpered. Facing the business end of a shotgun is always extremely emasculating. &ldquo;No! Look, I just got in here! I don&rsquo;t have anything on me! No weapons, no stuff, nothin&rsquo;!&rdquo;<br />The wary badger kept the barrel on the teen. He was not insane; normally he&rsquo;d never even consider pointing this thing at a living creature, but it was definitely not unheard of for young foolhardy &lsquo;gang-members&rsquo; to kill or maim in order to save face in the eyes of their group. The storekeeper had been around too long for him to idly let that happen to him. <br />&ldquo;Look,&rdquo; Wayle pleaded, with his paws still up in the air. &ldquo;I just wanted to talk. Don&rsquo;t shoot me, c&rsquo;mon! Shit, all I did was walk into the store, man!&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;Talk?&rdquo; repeated the storekeeper, one eyebrow raising. &ldquo;Why would I talk to a punk like you? After seeing you tryin&rsquo; to knife a little kit, you think I&rsquo;d listen to a word?&rdquo; <br />Wayle shook his head vehemently. &ldquo;No, man, no! Look, I didn&rsquo;t ever want to really hurt that kid.&rdquo; He eyed the barrel for a second. &ldquo;C-could you, like, point that a bit to the side or somethin&rsquo;?&rdquo;<br />The badger did that&hellip; by about three degrees. &ldquo;Speak your piece and just get the hell out, Wayle.&rdquo; <br />The skunk swallowed again. &ldquo;Look, that little kit? It wasn&rsquo;t me that wuz trying to kill him. I just&hellip; wanted to scare him a bit.&rdquo; He shook his head. &ldquo;It was Darron. He&rsquo;s crazy, man.&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;That&rsquo;s nice.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;I-I didn&rsquo;t wanna steal nothing from you&hellip;&rdquo; Wayle said weakly. &ldquo;The others were making me.&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;Bullshit. Kid, just tell &lsquo;em no when they&rsquo;re trying to make you do shit you don&rsquo;t want to.&rdquo; The badger shook his head. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no excuse.&rdquo; <br />Wayle bit his lip. He looked distraught, but oddly determined. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that simple. You can&rsquo;t just say &lsquo;no&rsquo; and think everything&rsquo;ll be alright. S-sometimes it&rsquo;s like you&rsquo;re just&hellip; trapped&hellip;&rdquo; The skunk closed his eyes. &ldquo;You can call me weak if you want, man, but if it&rsquo;s between bein&rsquo; the one they rip into the next time or stealin&rsquo; a few packs of cigs and nobody gettin&rsquo; hurt, the choice is tougher than you&rsquo;d think. <br />&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t just&hellip; just sit on the outside and say it&rsquo;s easy coz it ain&rsquo;t.&rdquo; He directed his watery gaze at the storekeeper, and when he spoke next his customary urban drawl was gone. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d never believe what you can do when things go that way, you know?&rdquo;<br />The badger blinked. He lowered his gun a little more and stared at the teen for a few moments. &ldquo;Nah,&rdquo; he murmured. &ldquo;I get what you mean. What did you want from me?&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry. For real. Nobody&rsquo;s making me say this, I ain&rsquo;t frontin&rsquo;. I got nothing against you; I shouldn&rsquo;t have touched your stuff without paying for it. I don&rsquo;t even smoke. That shit stinks.&rdquo; Wayle drew in a breath. &ldquo;Uh, but&hellip; do you know where Darron&rsquo;s gone? Nobody&rsquo;s seen him for ages.&rdquo;<br />The old badger frowned in confusion. &ldquo;Why the hell would I know?&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;I-I dunno. Didn&rsquo;t the cops ask you to make a statement or anything? You might&rsquo;ve found something out.&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;Nope, I got nothing for you. Well&hellip; what happened to you?&rdquo; <br />Wayle laughed wryly. &ldquo;Uh, I got off this time,&rdquo; he said quietly. &ldquo;Went easy on me. Eight months community service.&rdquo; He sighed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m two outta three. Next up, is two years for me in juvie. Probably no parole or anythin&rsquo;.&rdquo;<br />The world-weary badger sighed. Wayle was clearly not that bad a kid. He was probably right&hellip; in over his head, it was not easy to back out, and now it was all catching up to him. Two years of his life could be wasted if he screwed up again, and Wayle was probably only seventeen or sixteen.<br />Maybe it was for the best, the badger reasoned. Provided things went well, maybe the detention center would be the best thing for the kid. Give him a chance to get away from his school and the others. Or maybe instead it&rsquo;d lock him in with exactly the type of furs he needs to get away from.<br />&ldquo;I guess he&rsquo;s probably behind bars then,&rdquo; he offered to the teen. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d have gone over his three long ago, Wayle.&rdquo;<br />Wayle nodded. &ldquo;I guess so,&rdquo; he said softly. &ldquo;Nobody seems to know.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Why do you care, Wayle? Darron&rsquo;s an asshole.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;I know, but&hellip;&rdquo; Wayle paused. &ldquo;Even though I know he&rsquo;d probably not give a shit if it was me&hellip; I still hope he&rsquo;s okay, you know? I&rsquo;m sick of this shit. Everythin&rsquo;s fine and then we have to go do something stupid. An&rsquo; I&rsquo;m sittin&rsquo; there for weeks after, wonderin&rsquo; why we just had to go fuck it all up. We didn&rsquo;t have to. Darron came along two years ago, out of fuckin&rsquo; nowhere, and he just&hellip; made everythin&rsquo; worse. But everyone always goes along with him.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you talk to your parents and get out of all this?&rdquo; the badger suddenly demanded, baffled and annoyed. &ldquo;Sort this shit out! You&rsquo;re not a bad kid. So why don&rsquo;t you sort this out?&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Talk to who?&rdquo; Wayle shrugged. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even know who my dad is, and when I go home, mom&rsquo;ll be fucked up and spaced out on the couch. Always is. Nothin&rsquo; I say gets through now. I-I&rsquo;ll go now, aight? Don&rsquo;t wanna get on your nerves. Sorry. Thanks for listenin&rsquo;. I just had to say it. It didn&rsquo;t feel right to leave things as they was.&rdquo;<br />The armed store-owner had no words for that.<br />The teen moved to shamble back out the door, but he paused halfway there. &ldquo;Y-you know,&rdquo; he said softly, &ldquo;I saw that kit at school&mdash;the fox. Wuz his first day. He was scared and alone.&rdquo; Suddenly he laughed; a sour, resentful laugh that seemed to come from a very dark place. &ldquo;I was like that, every day. He was a nice kid, I&rsquo;m sure, but I&rsquo;ve seen it all before, man. Someday, he&rsquo;d have grabbed on to whatever bunch woulda taken him, and for a kit as poor as him in that school, that means guys like&hellip; like us.<br />&ldquo;I hope it don&rsquo;t happen. But that little kit could end up like a fuckin&rsquo; idiot that does what others tell him to, no matter how fuckin&rsquo; stupid it is, cuz he wants them to like his weak ass. Too pussy to step outta line in case they smack you back down. Scared to admit you&rsquo;d rather read a book than swagger around like a dipshit at the mall an&rsquo; have a fucked up life, poppin&rsquo; drugs and starting shit with everyone. I ain&rsquo;t ever gonna make a difference, an&rsquo; I know this shit. Because the world changed me, an&rsquo; I&rsquo;m too fuckin&rsquo; weak to change the world. Everyone is.&rdquo; He turned and wiped his nose. <br />&ldquo;And if you&rsquo;ve heard anyone say or do differently, well, fuck &lsquo;em,&rdquo; he added bitterly, as he started to move towards the door again. &ldquo;They were just lucky.&rdquo;<br />The shopkeeper sighed and placed the gun down underneath the counter. &ldquo;Wayle.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Yeah?&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Name&rsquo;s Bradley. Why don&rsquo;t you come by once in a while?&rdquo;<br />&nbsp;Wayle looked stunned. &ldquo;W-wha-?&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Yeah. Alone, and don&rsquo;t steal nothing.&rdquo; Bradley grinned. &ldquo;I think I gotta keep an eye on you. In the store and outside.&rdquo;<br />After a few shocked seconds, Wayle gave him a wan little smile. &ldquo;Cool. A&rsquo;ight.&rdquo;<br />The teenaged skunk left silently, and Bradley the shop-keeping badger looked down at his old, callused paws. A moment later, he grunted and leaned against the countertop. Staring at the closed shop door. <br />&ldquo;Lucky, eh?&rdquo;<br /><br />\tRobert stared at the toaster blankly, watching the air above it ripple and warp as the heat rose. <br />\tStrangely, as his eyes unfocused, a memory intruded itself with startling clarity. The smallest most insignificant details were recreated faithfully in his mind&rsquo;s eye, and somehow he found himself over eight years ago. Tom and Eraline had spoken with him in this very apartment before they left for San Francisco. Eraline had been rocking the cooing baby Tai in her arms, wrapped up comfortably. He was something like a month old at this point, barely any fur on him, and Eraline held him like he was the most precious object in the world. Naturally, to her he was.<br />\t&ldquo;It could happen at any time,&rdquo; she&rsquo;d insisted to Robert. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that we want it to, of course, but, well&hellip;you know&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tTom had stepped in at that point, laying a gentle paw on Eraline&rsquo;s shoulder. &ldquo;Look, we&rsquo;d be honored if you&rsquo;d watch after Tai,&rdquo; he had said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got no grandparents or anything here. But you and Haley are the closest&hellip; closest things to family we&rsquo;ve had over here. So, uh, what I&rsquo;m trying to say is, will you be his, umm&hellip; what was called again, honey? Ha-ha!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Godparents, I think they call them,&rdquo; Eraline supplied, grinning tolerantly.<br />\t&ldquo;Sorry. I&rsquo;m not good at being sentimental. You know that; gets me all flustered.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I remember your last attempt at a speech, yes. Robert, listen. They&rsquo;re moving us. California, next week.&rdquo; <br />\tRobert had shaken his head, he remembered, grinning a little facetiously. &ldquo;So I&rsquo;ve heard. It doesn&rsquo;t matter. Remember: wherever you go, if anything happens, I&rsquo;ll try to be there for you. Unless you end up in Britain that is. All bets are off then, I&rsquo;m not bloody going back there if you dragged me.&rdquo; <br />\tThen Tom narrowed his emerald eyes slightly, but started to smirk. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s impossible to tell if you&rsquo;re serious or not sometimes.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll be serious. Tom, I&rsquo;d be honored more than I can say- and I&rsquo;m quite the word-smith- to watch over your son, no matter what. But I hope you don&rsquo;t plan on dying any time soon.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I plan on dying fifty years from now at least, surrounded by hordes of happy, well-fed grand-kits, but it&rsquo;s the unplanned we&rsquo;re worried about.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take care of Tai if anything happens, I swear it. Just be careful. I know you can&rsquo;t tell me what they&rsquo;ve got you doing in California, but I&rsquo;m getting a strong sense of danger from it. And that&rsquo;s abnormal.&rdquo;<br />\tTheir shared, guilty looks had told him he was right. <br />\tThe toaster&rsquo;s springs uncoiled, and the bread popped half a foot up into the air, startling Robert out of his reverie. The memory, vivid in his mind moments before, swam before him and melted away and he was left staring unfocusedly at the white, smoking kitchen appliance.<br />\tThey were gone now. Two of his first friends in America, his best friends ever, and he didn&rsquo;t even know why they&rsquo;d died. <br />\tHe laughed aloud as he retrieved the slightly blackened toast. Tom always used to complain about his habit of mock seriousness and sarcasm. Now that Robert thought about it, Mike had inherited it; he was already a master of it. He had to wonder what Tai had inherited from his parents.<br />\tCome to think it, it wasn&rsquo;t much of a mystery.<br />When Eraline had first returned to New York, they met up at a restaurant only a night after she&rsquo;d taken her little boy back upstairs with her. She was run off her feet and struck him as a little vague but they both reconfirmed their mutually resolve to keep their old friendship secret from their sons for the moment. The truth would&rsquo;ve been a lot to take in, they&rsquo;d reasoned, especially if they were totally honest.<br />In only a single meeting, Robert had gleaned much from her. They had had a lot to catch up on, so they spoke to one another almost all night, with Eraline almost desperate to talk to him about everything she could before she had to drive home and sleep.<br />It was at that point that Robert had started to worry. <br />From what Robert could tell, Eraline still bore the scars of losing her husband four years ago, and she had changed; she seemed to be perpetually haunted now, and her morbid work was starting to dominate her life. Robert was not surprised to see that she seemed disinterested in just about everything but soullessly eking out each day as it came. <br />She was dying inside.<br />Eraline hinted that she and her son were becoming remote; that the former joy of her life traded maybe a dozen words with her a day. But Rob had got nothing much more out of her; Eraline was always a bit tight lipped. It was like trying to get words from a block of ice sometimes. <br />Absurdly, she complained about her son doing likewise to her. Distant as they had become, and with Tai sealing up more and more with every passing month, Robert had to wonder if Eraline truly knew her son in her last days. <br />On some level, Robert knew that she looked at Tai&rsquo;s beautiful face and saw her husband &ndash; her love turning to loss. Once, she said that her son couldn&rsquo;t possibly understand their situation; she spoke of him as a mindless child that demanded her attention and drained her more every day. It was a far cry from the adoring words she had used to use when discussing her beloved progeny.<br />But it was obviously wrong. Tai seemed to understand much, and he was just keeping himself to himself. His own problems and troubles and feelings, he kept quiet about, which confused and frustrated his mother. Ironically, it was Eraline that didn&rsquo;t understand her son; didn&rsquo;t understand his thoughts and circumstances, and why he felt such an overpowering need to hide from the world. Her bitter grief had blinded her to her son&rsquo;s.<br />Now it was too late. At the ultimate level, she loved him beyond description, and she would&rsquo;ve&mdash;no, she did die for him. But she had missed out on so much. As had Tom, dying when Tai was so young. Their little boy had a tremendous mind, even if he didn&rsquo;t know it himself.<br />Robert sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, picking up a butter knife.<br />It wasn&rsquo;t over yet. Mike was cracking Tai&rsquo;s shell, finding and mending the younger kit&rsquo;s sorest wounds and fears with such tenderness and maturity Robert swelled up with pride just thinking about it. He had his own part to play too, and a promise to keep.<br />Protocol, policy and everything else?<br />All of that could go to hell. He was going to keep that promise.<br /><br />\tWhen the cartoon had finished, Mike sat up and stretched. &ldquo;That was pretty cool,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t get a lot of it, though.&rdquo; When he received no reply, he turned around. &ldquo;Tai?&rdquo; The kit was staring listlessly at the screen, his eyes wet. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s wrong?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Nothing.&rdquo; Tai rubbed at his face and sat too. &ldquo;Just thinking.&rdquo; <br />\tMike inched closer. &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon, what is it?&rdquo;<br />\tThe tawny kit swallowed and shook his head. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to talk about it. Please?&rdquo;<br />\tMike had never heard those words from Tai before. He didn&rsquo;t ask again. <br />\tAs the next cartoon came on, however, Tai sniffed. &ldquo;Mike?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Have you ever thought about&hellip; what happens after?&rdquo; <br />\tMike frowned. &ldquo;After what?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Um, remember how I said that I keep thinking about mom?&rdquo; Tai shivered. &ldquo;It keeps coming back into my head, no matter what.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Try to think about other stuff, Tai,&rdquo; Mike told him gravely. &ldquo;Every time it comes into your head, kick it right back out.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I keep worrying&hellip; when they put her in the ground&hellip;&rdquo; Tai suddenly looked nauseous and horrified. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t things eat you? Worms and stuff? And flies lay their babies&hellip; I heard somewhere that dead bodies can sometimes burst and-&rdquo;<br />\tMike started and glared at Tai firmly. &ldquo;Stop it!&rdquo; But he could tell it was too late. <br />\tTai burst into tears. &ldquo;My mom&rsquo;s gonna be eaten by bugs!&rdquo; he almost screamed. <br />\t&ldquo;Oh, crap&hellip;&rdquo; Mike groaned, dashing over. Why now? It had been nearly two weeks! &ldquo;Look at me, Tai! Please?&rdquo; <br />\tThe kit curled up and closed his eyes firmly, covering his face with his paws. &ldquo;No!&rdquo; <br />\tRobert came in, looking alarmed as he held a plate with six slices of toast. He laid it on the coffee table quickly and came to the couch, kneeling down. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s going on?&rdquo; he asked. <br />\tMike looked at his father helplessly. &ldquo;H-he just started crying and talking about his mom.&rdquo; <br />\tRobert swore quietly. This wasn&rsquo;t unexpected. A few weeks after Haley had passed away, Mike had broken down late one night in almost exactly the same way, his distress keeping both he and his father up until dawn the next day. <br />\tNot even thinking about it, Robert pushed his own son aside and positioned himself in front of the kit. For some reason, he knew he had to stop it this time.<br />\tTai was hiccupping as he cried. &ldquo;I-I saw her!&rdquo; he blurted at nobody, seemingly just bawling random thoughts as they came to him. &ldquo;On the table! I could see the holes!&rdquo; <br />\tThe grown up firmly grabbed Tai&rsquo;s wrists and tried to pry them away from the pup&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;Tai, please open your eyes!&rdquo; he said sharply. &ldquo;Come on. Let me talk to you. It&rsquo;s okay, I promise.&rdquo; <br />\tAfter resisting for several moments, the kit opened his leafy eyes, but little reason was in them. <br />\t&ldquo;Tai, listen to me. Your mom isn&rsquo;t going to have any of that stuff happen to her. That&rsquo;s not what&rsquo;s going to happen, alright?&rdquo; Robert leaned in closer. &ldquo;Be brave, Tai. Nobody is going to let any of that stuff happen to your mom. Forget about it.&rdquo;<br />\tThe kit stared at him, still crying. It was hard to tell if he was actually seeing anything at all. <br />\t&ldquo;Do you believe me?&rdquo; Robert prompted, reaching out and stroking Tai&rsquo;s head briefly. &ldquo;I promise I won&rsquo;t let it happen. Believe me?&rdquo; <br />\tTai nodded very slowly, whimpering.<br />\tThe adult pulled him into a tight hug. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t think about these things. I&rsquo;ll take care of it. Everything. I promise.&rdquo;<br />\tRobert sat down on the couch, easily holding Tai close to him. He held the kit close, and the kit clung to him in return.<br />\tWith unutterably perfect timing, the phone in the kitchen started to ring, its absurdly cheerful twinkling grating. Robert barely resisted the urge to curse. <br />\tMike fidgeted uncomfortably. &ldquo;Um&hellip; W-want me to get it?&rdquo; he asked in a small voice.<br />\t&ldquo;No, I&rsquo;ll get it,&rdquo; growled Robert. It&rsquo;d be for him anyway. &ldquo;Hold him, Mike.&rdquo; He carefully extricated himself from the kit&rsquo;s four-limbed grasp and let his son take him. The ten-year-old immediately pulled the smaller kit to him.<br />\tAs Robert walked briskly to the phone, he muttered to himself. &ldquo;God, I hate phones,&rdquo; he grumbled irrationally.<br />\tWhile his father went to silence the aggravating device, back in the den Mike was rocking Tai slightly. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay,&rdquo; he found himself murmuring over and over, hoping it was actually getting through. Some part of him knew he was talking to himself too.<br />\tHe too had hoped Tai was over this phase, that they&rsquo;d managed to head it off somehow, but he clearly wasn&rsquo;t. Mike felt shaken. He knew this could happen! He knew, and he wanted to stop it but when it came he was useless &ndash; his own father had simply pushed him out of the way without a word. All he had been able to was watch as his best friend succumbed to hysteria. <br />\tSqueezing the smaller boy to him, he buried his muzzle in the tawny head-fur, biting his lip to force back his own sob.<br />\tSome minutes later, Robert returned, barely restrained fury evident on his features, but he just knelt down by the couch again. &ldquo;Are you two alright?&rdquo; he asked quietly. <br />\tTai didn&rsquo;t reply, but Mike sniffled. &ldquo;Sorry dad,&rdquo; he whispered.<br />\t&ldquo;What? Why?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what to do,&rdquo; Mike confessed. &ldquo;I should&rsquo;ve &ndash; i-it happened to me. I got scared. I thought he was okay. I-I&rsquo;m sorry.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not mad at you, Mike.&rdquo; Robert brushed his son&rsquo;s flattened velvety ear. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re doing great.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Really? I thought you were when you pushed me out of the way.&rdquo;<br />\tThe grownup blinked. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry Mike, I shouldn&rsquo;t have pushed you. I just wanted to help.&rdquo; Suddenly, he felt a pang of guilt. That single, unthinking action could&rsquo;ve been a huge mistake. &ldquo;Is he okay now?&rdquo;<br />\tMike drew back a little and looked down at the little tawny face. &ldquo;Are you alright now, Tai?&rdquo; he enquired quietly, nuzzling at the younger kit&rsquo;s pink nose. Tai nodded feebly. &ldquo;Cool. Don&rsquo;t think about that stuff again, okay? If my dad says it&rsquo;s not gonna happen, it ain&rsquo;t. Trust me.&rdquo;<br />\tThe brown-furred fox boy felt a large paw on his shoulder, and he turned back to his dad curiously.<br />\tRobert smiled wryly at his son; the pup had an interesting mix of expressions on his face. He was anxious, distraught, and clearly a little angry at himself &ndash; though there was that look of fierce protectiveness again. That same determined face he had made one day not long ago, a few nights after Tai had gone home. When Mike took on a responsibility, foolishly or not, he really took it to heart.<br />\t&ldquo;Boys, I&rsquo;ve got to go to the office today. I can&rsquo;t get out of it. I really don&rsquo;t want to leave you alone, but I have no choice. I&rsquo;ve only got a few hours.&rdquo;<br />\tMike nodded. &ldquo;Uh, what about Jake?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to try to get him to look after you today, but there&rsquo;s no guarantee.&rdquo; Robert groaned and sat down. &ldquo;Tai, can you hear me?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; Tai replied weakly. The storm had passed quickly, yet the pup seemed rattled. As if even he couldn&rsquo;t believe he&rsquo;d been so overwhelmed just moments before.<br />\t&ldquo;Are you hungry?&rdquo;<br />\t &ldquo;Yeah.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Munch on some toast for now.&rdquo; Robert looked right at his son. His next few words were extremely quiet. &ldquo;Mike, look after him. He needs company right now more than anything. You do know what to do if it happens again. You can handle it.&rdquo;<br />\tThe brown-furred pup frowned at his father for a moment, and then finally he grinned. &ldquo;No problem, dad. Leave it to me.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tIn the darkness of his room, Jake was enjoying a soda on his bed while watching a movie on his very own puny television when his cell phone buzzed into life over on his computer desk. It was surrounded by the six other video disks he&rsquo;d rented to counter the night&rsquo;s inevitable tedium.<br />\tGroaning, he got up and padded over to it, picking up the vigorously vibrating object and pressing the answer key. &ldquo;Hello?&rdquo; he asked, pawing some paper from his desk and leaning on the resultant clearing.<br />\t&ldquo;Jake?&rdquo; he heard over the phone. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Robert.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Oh,&rdquo; said Jake, a little surprised. &ldquo;Hi Rob. What&rsquo;s up?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long story, but something really bad happened and I need you to look after the boys again.&rdquo; <br />\tSomething bad? &ldquo;Um, ok. When?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Tonight, if you&rsquo;re available. I&rsquo;ll pay double what I usually do. I can&rsquo;t leave the boys alone, and I don&rsquo;t trust any other babysitter.&rdquo; <br />\tMoney was good and all, but&hellip; &ldquo;Rob, what&rsquo;s happened?&rdquo; enquired Jake, feeling a little suspicious.<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you in person. Can&rsquo;t really discuss it over the phone. Even if you show up and don&rsquo;t want to take it I&rsquo;ll pay you just for coming. It&rsquo;s sort of&hellip; a little more than what you&rsquo;re used to.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Alright. I&rsquo;ll be there pretty soon. A few hours I guess.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Do you have any friends you&rsquo;d like to bring?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Uhh, no, they&rsquo;re all busy. I&rsquo;m the only one who finished my assignments.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;&hellip; OK, see you soon! Bye.&rdquo; <br />\tJake put down the phone, frowning. &ldquo;What the hell?&rdquo; He walked to the window and threw open the windows, blinding himself with mid-afternoon light. Looks like his quiet night in wasn&rsquo;t going to be happening. A tight, ominous feeling seized his stomach. <br />\tNobody had ever asked him to bring friends to a babysitting job before, and he got the strong impression Robert was concerned. Or maybe afraid of something. Even stranger, offering to pay him if he didn&rsquo;t take the job? That didn&rsquo;t even make sense. Something was very wrong here. Something had happened.<br />\tBut what could have possibly happened to warrant this?!<br /><br /><br />Almost nine years ago&hellip;<br /><br />\tEraline checked her watch and sighed. It wasn&rsquo;t a pleasant night to be standing in the middle of a New York alley, under the spurious protection of the fire-escapes above. The cold weather was just trying to settle in, and the first attempts at actual snow were stifled by still warm air, and the result was a horrendous down-pouring of dirty sleet, made oily and disgusting by pollution.<br />\tHer fur-trimmed jacket was soaked through, and her shoes felt&hellip; squidgy. God she hated that!<br />\t&ldquo;Where are you?&rdquo; she muttered grumpily. This wasn&rsquo;t how a person who had recently undergone labor should be spending her nights. She should be recovering, clad in warm clothes and her beloved&rsquo;s warm grasp as they cradled and cooed to their warm son. Warmly. <br />\tNot waiting for a contact at three in the morning. A decidedly not-warm scenario.<br />\tThere was a shuffling towards the other end of the alley&mdash;the end that was steeped in shadow, hidden from the unimpressive efforts of the street-lights that tried to break through the airborne sludge. Eraline&rsquo;s senses were very sharp at the moment; even above and beyond what your average lone female&rsquo;s should be in a dark, secluded lane in the middle of the night. <br />\tShe squinted as a furtive form slipped from the darkness and approached her. From the way it carried itself, it was female too. So she&rsquo;d finally arrived; Eraline breathed a sigh of relief as the figure came nearer.<br />\t&ldquo;E-Eraline?&rdquo; she hissed, barely audible over the weather. <br />\tEraline gestured her closer, smiling a little. &ldquo;Glad you could join me,&rdquo; she said with just a touch of asperity. &ldquo;Lovely weather, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I rather like it. Made it much easier to get out of the building.&rdquo; Stepping underneath the same fire-escape landing that Eraline was using for cover, the wolf pushed back her black hood.<br />\tShe was an attractive lupine, Eraline was forced to concede. Her gray coat was shot through with white, giving her an interesting, almost stormy appearance, and her amber eyes went well with that, bizarrely. She was however very gaunt and looked rather unkempt. All things considered, she had every right to be.<br />\t&ldquo;Did you have any problems?&rdquo; Eraline asked, eyes flickering over the nearby access points to their little alley and the hiding spots therein. <br />\tThe lady-wolf shook her head, trying to smile too. Those yellow eyes of hers were haunted and she appeared rather tired. &ldquo;Just my son. I had to put him to bed&mdash;quite firmly. He saw me preparing to leave, but I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;ll tell anyone. I&rsquo;m sorry I was late.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I see. Don&rsquo;t be sorry, Kayla. Though I won&rsquo;t deny that I wish we could&rsquo;ve picked a slightly drier meeting place.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;d have trouble finding one tonight.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;True.&rdquo;<br />\tKayla withdrew from her jacket a small thumb-drive and, with a quick look around, pressed it into Eraline&rsquo;s waiting paw. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it all. All you&rsquo;ll need.&rdquo; <br />\tThe vixen blinked and looked down at it. &ldquo;That was fast. Very well, I&rsquo;ll make arrangements to get you and your son out of here before we go any further.&rdquo; <br />\tKayla&rsquo;s eyes closed briefly. &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; she said, her voice strained. <br />\tThat wasn&rsquo;t right. Something about her demeanor was just not right, Eraline reasoned. And this meeting had been called too soon; there was no way Kayla could&rsquo;ve done her part of the bargain so quickly. She narrowed her icy blue eyes, and they just stared at each other in uneasy silence.<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, Eraline,&rdquo; whimpered the wolf at last.<br />\tEraline felt like she&rsquo;d suddenly swallowed an anvil. &ldquo;He found out&hellip;&rdquo; she whispered. &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;<br />\tThe golden eyes shifted slightly, silently conveying deepest regret, fear and despair; with only that as the warning, Kayla&rsquo;s right paw swung up and around, directly at the vixen&rsquo;s face. In that paw, a small, razor-sharp blade gleamed. <br />\tThere was no way Kayla could&rsquo;ve predicted the exact consequences of this action. Neither could Eraline, both the immediate and the effects that&rsquo;d come to fruition years later.<br />\tIt wasn&rsquo;t something the vixen consciously thought about. The exactness, violence and complexity of the movements were committed to instinct.<br />\tRaising one arm- the left to her attacker&rsquo;s right- to first block, then deflect the knife-wielding limb to the side of their bodies as she stepped in, Eraline brought her own right arm underneath Kayla&rsquo;s outstretched elbow, and latched it onto her own opposing wrist, completing a figure-four-like position with their arms. Suddenly she took a deep step backwards, and forced the intricate pretzel their arms had become downwards towards her own hips. It was all completed in less than a second.<br />\tThe result of that surprisingly technical response was profound but simple. There was a horrific ripping sound as Kayla&rsquo;s shoulder joint was destroyed, and her entire body was hurled sideways over the axis of that ruined shoulder. She collapsed with astonishing force onto the harsh gravel, and stared up in shock at the lethal vixen.<br />\tWho returned that stare with horror. <br />\tA mistake, an application of too much force. Or perhaps just absurd, cosmically atrocious luck. <br />\tKayla laid on the ground, her own tiny blade buried in the side of her neck. In the fall, she had dropped the slender little knife, then fallen onto it hard, as only the hilt protruded from her fur. Already blood was pouring from the grievous wound, thin droplets staining the wet ground. <br />\t&ldquo;Oh, my God&hellip;&rdquo; Eraline gasped, kneeling to inspect the injury. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, Kayla.&rdquo; <br />\tThe wolf, however, smiled and weakly pushed Eraline away. &ldquo;G-go. Tha-thanks&hellip; you tried. You need to go.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I failed you. Shit!&rdquo; Eraline stumbled backwards, a trembling paw covering her muzzle. &ldquo;Oh shit, what&rsquo;ve I done!? Why did you-!?&rdquo; <br />\tBut Kayla still smiled. &ldquo;Th-thank you, Eraline&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tA moment of unnatural quiet, of darkness and chill seemed to engulf the alley, then&hellip;<br />\t&ldquo;Mom?!&rdquo; a weak, incredulous voice blurted. &ldquo;No. No!&rdquo;<br />\tEraline looked back at the darkened end of the alley, as splashes indicated someone was running towards her. Someone small.<br />\tEventually, that someone too came into the weak light. It was a small boy. A wolf-boy, of no more than ten or eleven. He wore baggy cargo pants and a white shirt, and he was soaked right through. He obviously had been exposed to the freezing sleet in barely more than his fur, and he trembled violently.<br />\t&ldquo;Mom?&rdquo; he whispered, slowly approaching. After a few seconds, he turned to glare at Eraline, his expression both disbelieving and yet so infuriated. &ldquo;WHY?!&rdquo; he screamed, voice quavering. &ldquo;What did she ever do to you?!&rdquo; He dropped to his knees over his mother, gasping when he spotted the knife&rsquo;s hilt jutting out from her neck. &ldquo;N-no&hellip; Oh shit!&rdquo; Gingerly, he touched it. As if he couldn&rsquo;t believe it was there. <br />With a choked cry, the boy fell upon the bleeding corpse. Clutching it tightly, head pressed firmly against her chest as he wept.<br />\tThere was nothing she could do or say. Eraline merely stared at the kit. <br />\tThis was him. This was Kayla&rsquo;s son. The one she&rsquo;d literally just died for. Suddenly, Eraline felt faint: Kayla came to their meeting tonight knowing full well she wouldn&rsquo;t make it back home&mdash;she knew that attacking Eraline would end her life one way or another. That she&rsquo;d never see her boy again; but at least he&rsquo;d be protected. It was starting to make sense now. Horrible, dismaying sense.<br />\tA chilling notion came to her next. It was dark, but the wolf-boy had probably gotten a good look at her already. There was no way of knowing how much Kayla had been forced to divulge and that made the personal risk even greater; as foul as the very idea was, Eraline knew at that point that she really should kill this pup. Murder him and leave him in a dark, sodden alley with his mother. At least they&rsquo;d be together.<br />\tBut she could not. Perhaps it was because she herself was a mother now, but she couldn&rsquo;t do that. There was no way she could dishonor what this mother gave her life for. It went so far beyond merely wrong.<br />\tShe continued to watch him in silence. <br />\t&ldquo;Why, mom?&rdquo; he was asking, touching his nose to hers, tears leaking from behind his tightly closed eyes. &ldquo;Why does this always happen to us? Why does it-?! No&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tMinutes passed, and wolf-boy could do nothing more than cry and squeeze his mother&rsquo;s lifeless face to his, ignoring the blood that seeped into his fur and pooled around his knees on the wet bitumen. He was a hard-bitten young pup. Blood didn&rsquo;t bother him.<br />\tFinally, he knew not how much later, he looked up, teeth clenched with hate and frustration born of a hundred injustices, ready to hurl obscenity and abuse at the vixen that&rsquo;d killed the one person he cared for. <br />\tOnly there was nothing there. She had melted into the night like a shadow.<br />\t<br />\tRobert cracked open one eye and listened. Did he really just hear a knock on the door?<br />\tA short few seconds later, his sleepy brain decided he&rsquo;d imagined it, and going back to sleep would be a good plan. After all, chasing after a toddler all day as he had today was just a little exhausting. At least he&rsquo;d had some help from his best mate, but with Haley out of town, that really had just made it a normal exhausting day instead of an impossible nightmare. So he closed that eye.<br />\tBut it came again, louder and sharper now. <br />\tWith a sigh, he hauled himself from his queen bed, so empty and meaningless without his wife to occupy at least half of it for him, and stumbled to the corridor. <br />\t&ldquo;Who is it?&rdquo; he mumbled sleepily. <br />\t&ldquo;It&rsquo;s me,&rdquo; came a familiar brisk voice. <br />\tHurriedly, the pajama-clad Robert opened the door. He frowned at the vixen beyond it, who looked wet and miserable to say the least. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter, Eraline?&rdquo; he asked. <br />\t&ldquo;Is-is Tom here?&rdquo; she asked wanly, leaning on the door-frame. <br />\t&ldquo;No, he went home around midnight&mdash;with little Tai of course.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Oh.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;d ask if you want to come in, but I&rsquo;d imagine you&rsquo;d rather get home to your own bed?&rdquo;<br />\tEraline just looked at him, and her eyes began to water. &ldquo;Robert&hellip;&rdquo; <br />\tHe blinked a few times, trying to wake himself up properly. &ldquo;Eraline? What&rsquo;s wrong?!&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&hellip; I just&hellip;&rdquo; And with a broken wail, she fell forwards onto his chest, clutching his soft cotton pajamas in her paws. &ldquo;Shiiiiit!&rdquo; <br />\tStartled, Robert held her loosely, cradling her carefully in his arms. &ldquo;What happened?!&rdquo;<br />\tStill sobbing, Eraline merely shook her head.&nbsp;&nbsp;That was all Robert needed to know that she wouldn&rsquo;t tell him. Hell, she&rsquo;d probably take it to her grave.<br />\t&ldquo;Eraline&hellip;&rdquo; he sighed, squeezing her slightly. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s get you inside.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Thanks, Rob&hellip;&rdquo; <br />\tRobert smiled hollowly. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll need some rest for tomorrow. Believe me, you&rsquo;re going to have a lot of fun now you&rsquo;re a new mother. It&rsquo;s just harder from here on.&rdquo;<br />\tShe laughed at that for some reason, sniffling simultaneously. &ldquo;I know.&rdquo; She sniffed and looked up at him, looking shocking vulnerable for the first time he&rsquo;d ever really seen. &ldquo;I know. But it&rsquo;s worth it, right?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Yeah. I think so. I&rsquo;ve never done it before either.&rdquo;<br />\tEraline chortled, wiping her nose dry. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d hope you&rsquo;d never been a mother before, Robert.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Past life.&rdquo;<br /><br />6 years later.<br /><br />\tNever before had Robert appreciated how hard it is to truly stand in one position, and not move an inch, for anything longer than a moment. Muscles he didn&rsquo;t even know he had were trembling, and it must&rsquo;ve been going on five minutes now that he had been keeping this posture, on the windy roof of an apartment building in the mid-day sun. Maybe ten, he wasn&rsquo;t sure. Behind him stood a large air-conditioning unit, a gargantuan aluminum cube, affixed with several ventilation pumps, steadily humming away as Robert tried to ignore its grating white noise.<br />\tHis eyes were locked onto the ferret&rsquo;s, down the sights of a handgun. <br />\tHe was becoming even more exhausted, because he could not, at any second, let the image before him lose meaning. He had to be taking in and analyzing everything, even if nothing seemed to be happening&hellip;<br />\tAt long last, Nathan made a move. He snickered derisively, and cracked his neck. <br />\tJust that movement alone caused Robert&rsquo;s adrenaline levels to blast out of control, and his muscles tensed painfully. He exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself; this wasn&rsquo;t his strong point at all. He wasn&rsquo;t good at relaxing when he had to keep a gun trained on someone twelve feet away. Sweat oozed from his head-fur and snaked its way through the fur on his face until he had to close an eye to stop the salty liquid from stinging it.<br />\t&ldquo;Are you really planning on just standing there until someone else comes to help you out?&rdquo; sighed Nathan, cockily wiping sweat from his brow.<br />\t&ldquo;Move again and I&rsquo;ll shoot,&rdquo; Robert replied tersely. <br />\tAgain the derisive snort. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll miss, Robert. Your hands are shaking like the pope in a whorehouse. Parkinson&rsquo;s and all.&rdquo;<br />\tRobert allowed himself a smile. It was one of the few muscle groups he trusted himself to employ right now. &ldquo;Funny.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Why haven&rsquo;t you shot me yet?&rdquo; asked Nathan, his tone curious. &ldquo;We could both get this done with much faster if you&rsquo;d stop the cat-and-mouse game.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You and I both know that I can&rsquo;t do that.&rdquo;<br />\tThe ferret grinned. &ldquo;Aw, can&rsquo;t shoot your old buddy?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;No, I need to know what you gave them.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;So no residual feelings of loyalty? Of friendship? I&rsquo;m hurt!&rdquo;<br />\tRobert snarled slightly, taking an awkward step forward. &ldquo;After what you did to my son, you think you can call me a friend?&rdquo;<br />\tThat was foolish, Robert realized. Moving at all could provide this ferret an opportunity to either attack or escape, and he could chance neither. Particularly in light of the fact he probably wouldn&rsquo;t survive either occurrence at this point. He had to keep the barrel of the gun on him, and squeeze the moment he moved&hellip; he had to. He also had to keep this distance&mdash;not easy considering he really wanted to rush the ferret and beat him to death.<br />\t&ldquo;Fair enough, Rob. I&rsquo;m afraid I couldn&rsquo;t accept your friendship under these circumstances anyway. It&rsquo;d just be&hellip; grotesque.&rdquo; With an expression of mocking calm, Nathan looked around, frowning as the sun bored into his eyes. &ldquo;Fuck it&rsquo;s hot today. How about we chat a little until someone either shows up or your arms fall off?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;We have little to converse about.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Oh stop acting all pissed off. We both know that I might let something slip, and that&rsquo;s exactly what you&rsquo;re waiting for. Grow up.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Alright. Why the hell did you do it? What did they offer you, exactly?&rdquo; <br />\tNate&rsquo;s expression became a little harrowed. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a matter of what I was offered.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;What&rsquo;re you saying?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;There are plenty of ways to coerce someone into doing what you want, and I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll be telling you what they &lsquo;offered&rsquo; me, so to speak.&rdquo; Nate sighed. <br />\t&ldquo;Hrm. Very clever, by the way,&rdquo; complimented Robert, taking a deep breath. &ldquo;I almost didn&rsquo;t check to see if my records were accessed. You raped a little boy just to conceal what you were really after. I see now, you have no conscience at all.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Not true. I was very considerate of little Mikey, as much as I could be. I did what I had to do; we&rsquo;ve all been made to do horrible things out of necessity. If he&rsquo;s anything like you or Haley, it&rsquo;ll just make him stronger.&rdquo; Nathan frowned. &ldquo;How the shit did you know it was me? I know I never left anything for you.&rdquo;<br />\tRobert smirked. &ldquo;Mike saw your face. His description was accurate.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Really? Wily little guy. I should&rsquo;ve killed him; I warned him not to try and see me. Was sure he hadn&rsquo;t managed to.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t have mattered. You should&rsquo;ve left town anyway. Your bathing habits would&rsquo;ve been all I needed to go on.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Meaning?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;You stink, Nate. Like you wouldn&rsquo;t believe. I know cesspools that gag when you walk past. All he&rsquo;d have to do is describe your ungodly stench.&rdquo;<br />\tThe ferret laughed, and looked up as a helicopter passed by, its thrumming rotors hammering rhythmically on Robert&rsquo;s nerves. &ldquo;I used to have to go for months without bathing back in South Africa. Habits formed.&rdquo;<br />\tThey fell silent for another minute at least, while Robert prayed he wouldn&rsquo;t have to endure another helicopter flying over. Sweat threaded its way through his fur, and he felt uncomfortable&mdash;more so, that is.<br />\t&ldquo;So how did you hurt your knee?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Some ass tripped me on the outfield. Someone else basically ended up stomping on it sideways.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Ouch.&rdquo; Nate winced. &ldquo;I told you that playing that idiotic sport would get you crippled.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not crippled yet.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Consider this an omen of things to come.&rdquo;<br />\tRobert had to laugh. But it just made him feel even tenser. By now he was swaying and four or five times in the last minute he had to correct his aim as his arms were dropping. What a day for a heat-wave.<br />\t&ldquo;Tell me, whatever happened to that other vixen you used to hang around with. The one you went all moony-eyed over until that other fox walked into the picture.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Not at liberty to say, not that I really know. She&rsquo;s well, however.&rdquo; Robert&rsquo;s eyes narrowed. &ldquo;Nate, what the hell are you doing?! The information you took could get dozens killed! Don&rsquo;t you have any regard for your colleagues? You don&rsquo;t just sell this information to the highest bidder or give to some asshole drug-lord so he can do that for you!&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Trust me, I know. There was only one record I was after. I haven&rsquo;t given them anything more than that, and I destroyed the backup.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;That&rsquo;s something at least.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Of course, if the price had been considerably higher I might&rsquo;ve considered giving them the whole thing, but it wasn&rsquo;t so I didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;&hellip;. Nate&hellip; someone might still die because of what you did. Who did what to justify this all?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Guess what? Not at liberty to say. Anyway, let&rsquo;s discuss this lady-fox. Eraline, wasn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; Nate leered somewhat vulgarly. &ldquo;That was one hot bitch. Did you ever manage to touch-down?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;No.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I see. So that other guy got in before you huh? It&rsquo;s expected where you&rsquo;re concerned. You need to be a bit more assertive.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;It&rsquo;s moot now, I&rsquo;m married.&rdquo;<br />\tNate nodded, his expression lamenting. &ldquo;Yes. Big mistake.&rdquo; <br />\tRobert chortled, shaking his head in amusement. &ldquo;Really? You&rsquo;ve never felt anything like it, Nathan, so I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll understand.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Then enlighten me?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Like you&rsquo;re even listening. You&rsquo;re just trying to talk me into a stupor so you can explode like you&rsquo;ve been itching to do for the last twelve minutes. But you&rsquo;re not going to break me, Nate. Not like this.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; conceded the ferret, with a tired sigh. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re fairly indomitable when you&rsquo;re the one with the gun.&rdquo; His eyes flickered to the side, off the rooftop to the nearest adjacent building. &ldquo;Huh. Looks like the wait is almost over.&rdquo; <br />\tRobert almost caved, he almost looked over at the neighboring structure and gave the ferret his chance. But though his entire body twitched, and his eyes almost looked away, he held firm. <br />\tNathan burst out laughing. It was a happy, bright laugh straight from the gut. &ldquo;Oh shit,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re definitely the best, Robert. Don&rsquo;t let anyone tell you otherwise, even though you threw it all away to become a father and baby-sitter.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;There are more fulfilling pursuits than killing others and pointless espionage, Nate. Fatherhood is just one of them. I didn&rsquo;t throw anything away.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah, you know what? You&rsquo;re right. I see what you mean. Children are amazing. Mike is like a mini-you&mdash;tough little guy too, and smart. It&rsquo;s mind-blowing. I can understand you&hellip;&rdquo; He paused, and his expression grew sly. &ldquo;But right now you should choose to duck behind that air-conditioning pump if you want to see your son again.&rdquo;<br />\tRobert literally felt it.&nbsp;&nbsp;He felt that someone was about to kill him. He&rsquo;d always thought that it was a myth, but the fur on the back of his neck seemed to electrify, and his entire body went deathly cold. <br />\tHe turned and leaped for the dubious safety of the blocky air-conditioning unit on the raised concrete platform behind him. As he hit the ground and rolled to his feet, he even heard the distant crack, and almost simultaneously a piece of the concrete floor had a hole blasted in it. A sniper. It was a fucking sniper! On the adjacent rooftop!<br />\tWhen he turned back around, Nate was right on top of him, and he moved with the preternatural agility he had always possessed. He smashed the firearm from Robert&rsquo;s grip with a hard, accurate elbow, numbing the fox&rsquo;s entire arm, and brought a devastating knee into the fox&rsquo;s chest which hurled him into the aluminum air-conditioner. It dented considerably. <br />\t&ldquo;Bhgaah!&rdquo; wheezed Robert. It felt for a moment like his chest was crushed, and his injured knee buckled beneath his weight. <br />\tUnder normal circumstance, not so dazed and with a functional leg, he might&rsquo;ve ducked or blocked the high-kick, but as it was he failed to do anything but sort of lean to the side, and Nathan&rsquo;s boot smashed right into his temple. <br />\tWhen he came to, blood caked on the side of his head and oozing from his muzzle, it was evening, and he was alone on the high rooftop. <br />\tRolling himself to his backside, with a throbbing headache, he tried to clear his vision. <br />\t&ldquo;Damn!&rdquo; he snarled to himself. Infuriated, he almost struck himself, but with that head injury it would&rsquo;ve been an atrocious idea. He was already concussed; if he was destined to suffer brain-damage, then he wasn&rsquo;t going to be the one to bring it on himself. He set his paws beneath him and tried to stand, but he immediately fell onto his back. The world was swirling, and he found focusing impossible.<br />\tCursing again, he withdrew his cell phone and called for help.<br />\tThen he sighed, gathering his wits and trying to get some perspective. His ego was almost as badly injured as his head was, but he knew he was being foolish. The ferret looked unimpressive, but he was a well trained field officer. The moment he turned his back on Nathan, any other outcome would&rsquo;ve been a miracle.<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; he mumbled, slurring his words only a little as he laid his head gingerly on the still warm concrete. He adjusted his position as best he could, getting comfortable as he waited. &ldquo;He can kick my ass. It proves nothing.&rdquo; Suddenly, perhaps it was the concussion, all he wanted was a frothy, milky latte and to snuggle up to his son, to read to him and nuzzle his little neck&hellip; &ldquo;Well. I guess I&rsquo;m really not cut out for this stuff after all.&rdquo;<br />\tHe sighed and looked up, just watching the roiling clouds tumble about the ever-shifting sky. It made him a little dizzy. &ldquo;I guess you were right, Haley,&rdquo; he chortled, closing his eyes again. &ldquo;God do I miss you.&rdquo;<br />\t<br />Presently.<br /><br />\tThe hands of his &ldquo;Who Gives A Damn?&rdquo; clock moved intolerably slowly as Mike watched it with intense apathy. <br />\tThere were dozens of things he could&rsquo;ve spent the last hour doing, and he was usually great at occupying himself, but he felt strangely out of it. Tai&rsquo;s break-down earlier confirmed a few things for him that he wished he hadn&rsquo;t even thought about, yet they continued to dominate his wandering young mind.<br />\tHe had, that night they&rsquo;d driven so hurriedly to the hospital, thought that he knew what Tai was experiencing. Quickly he came to realize that he had no idea what levels of fear and pain the little kit was suffering. <br />Losing a parent was painful and destructive, but losing both, leaving you lost and scared in a new and strange place, as Tai had was very different. Now Tai was an orphan. With his future uncertain and the promise of eternal misery hanging over him, the already miserable Tai had probably been on the verge of losing his mind over the last few weeks.<br />\tSo Mike had done all he could for Tai, to minimize the shy country-kit&rsquo;s discomfort in the largest, greasiest, most crowded city in the United States. It had seemed to be working, but Mike had missed something else. Something that only became really clear to him when he found himself churning Tai&rsquo;s earlier words around in his head.<br />\tWhen his mother had died, Mike received the news from his choked up father, and together they had grieved. Tai on the other hand&hellip; had seen it. From what Mike understood, Tai had seen somebody blow holes in his mother with a gun, and try to kill him too; if that wasn&rsquo;t bad enough, Tai had actually witnessed his mother&rsquo;s passing and seen her bloody body itself &lsquo;on the table&rsquo; as he&rsquo;d said.<br />\tWas there any way to fix this, or at least help? Could Mike do anything? Could he even take this himself?! <br />\tIt scared him. Now more than ever, he knew there was always the chance that his father could go to work one day, and never come back. The mere thought of it was so horrible. It had always scared him. Kept him awake at night, ever since his mother had died &ndash; he knew it could one day happen to his father too.<br />\tMike had known Tai was waking from nightmares, sleeping in the same bed as him, but this revelation put that fact in a whole new light. They were not just bad dreams. Tai&rsquo;s sleep was invaded by visions of his deceased mother, blood and masked assailants trying to murder him silently. How many times had he relived it? How many times in his mind had he tried to shake his mom awake again and again, but she never moved?<br />\tIt made Mike shake to even think about it. But he kept thinking about it anyway.<br />\tWhat the hell was with that?! <br />\tThere was a knock on his door and Tai poked his head in. &ldquo;Mike, can I come in?&rdquo; he asked diffidently. <br />\t&ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; responded Mike absently. &ldquo;Where were you?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Talking to your dad,&rdquo; Tai replied, looking a little bashful. &ldquo;He&hellip; um, he wanted to talk to me about what was gonna happen to my mom.&rdquo;<br />\tMike eyed him impassively for a second. &ldquo;Oh.&rdquo; He still remembered Tai fleeing when that was brought up the last time.<br />\t&ldquo;He&hellip; he was telling me about the funeral. I d-don&rsquo;t know if I want to go.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;<br />\tTai squirmed. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d&hellip; Like this morning. Again. I don&rsquo;t want to see&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tMike stood and walked over to the poor kit. &ldquo;They can close the coffin. Did for me. You won&rsquo;t need to see anything.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what your dad said, but I don&rsquo;t know if I can do it.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Okay. Don&rsquo;t you want to say goodbye?&rdquo;<br />\tTai flinched away and he looked a little upset. &ldquo;I do! I do! But&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Okay.&rdquo; Mike reached out and took Tai&rsquo;s paw. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s alright. It&rsquo;s not a big deal, yeah?&rdquo;<br />\tThe kit shot him a warm smile. &ldquo;Thank you.&rdquo; He bit his lip briefly. &ldquo;Um. Y-your dad didn&rsquo;t say anything about when I&rsquo;d be going to an orphanage.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t ask him?&rdquo; The shy silence answered that.<br />\t&ldquo;N-no.&rdquo; Tai came a little closer, and he rather meekly held out his arms, as if he was asking to be picked up. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t ask&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tWith a laugh, Mike pulled him into a hug. &ldquo;Yeah. &lsquo;Hey, can you please adopt me?&rsquo; I guess it&rsquo;d sound weird.&rdquo;<br />\tTai gave a contented sigh. &ldquo;Do you want to sit down again?&rdquo;<br />\tMike nodded and the two sat cross-legged on his unmade single bed together, messing the covers a little in the process. <br />\t&ldquo;Oh, um, M-Mike?&rdquo; Tai asked softly. &ldquo;Can I ask you something?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Sure can.&rdquo; <br />\tThe leafy eyes were uncertain. &ldquo;Uh, okay. Umm&hellip; your dad said that you think I should see a doctor. A sort of brain-doctor.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Huh? You mean a therapist?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s what he said. He said that you&rsquo;d only say that if you were really worried &lsquo;cause you don&rsquo;t like them. Why?&rdquo;<br />\tMike blinked a few times. &ldquo;What, why am I worried?&rdquo; That was a bit of a silly question, he thought.<br />\t&ldquo;Um, no. Why don&rsquo;t you like them? They&rsquo;re supposed to help, right? They&rsquo;re doctors. I wanted to know why you don&rsquo;t like them. If you don&rsquo;t like them, then&hellip; I-I guess you&rsquo;d have a reason. I just wondered.&rdquo;<br />\tThe brown furred boy leaned backwards onto the wall, propping himself up on its surface. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s because of the time I got mugged. I didn&rsquo;t like the way the therapists all thought I was dumb. They didn&rsquo;t help.&rdquo;<br />\tSeeming to have expected that, Tai asked tentatively, &ldquo;I-I&hellip; um, what r-really happened when you were mugged?&rdquo; <br />\tMike looked at the cringing kit in surprise. &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;You really want to know? How come?&rdquo; <br />\tTai looked highly embarrassed now. &ldquo;Umm&hellip; I don&rsquo;t get it.&rdquo;<br />\tBaffled, Mike looked at Tai steadily. &ldquo;Y-you don&rsquo;t get it?&rdquo; he repeated incredulously. What was there to get?<br />\tIt was almost to be expected that Tai instantly mistook the incredulity for scorn, and he averted his eyes. &ldquo;I-I mean, you don&rsquo;t seem to worry about it, but Jake and your dad think it was a big thing. Especially Jake.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Oh, um, it&rsquo;s complicated.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Okay.&rdquo; Sensing his older friend&rsquo;s reluctance, Tai dropped the matter. Just the night before they&rsquo;re grilled one another about touchy subjects and that was uncomfortable enough for him. Ever since they&rsquo;d met, more than half of their conversation had been about horrible things; that was good, in a way, because Tai needed to talk to someone about those things, he knew that now. But he wasn&rsquo;t so curious that he wanted to make tonight another miserable one.<br />\tHowever, Mike fidgeted and went quiet. He stared at his paws.<br />\t&ldquo;It happened when dad had to go out one day.&rdquo; The barky-furred boy reached down and absently removed some lint from between his toes. His voice was a dead whisper.<br />\t&ldquo;Y-you don&rsquo;t need to tell me,&rdquo; Tai blurted hastily.<br />\t&ldquo;I want to.&rdquo;<br />\tMystified, Tai stared dumbly at his friend.<br />Mike swallowed awkwardly, continuing to stare at his paws. &ldquo;D-dad was out at work. I heard this noise, like the front door closing, and I went out to check. I thought dad was home early. I didn&rsquo;t see anyone, but when I went to go back to my room, he&hellip; he grabbed me around the neck, and, like, held my muzzle shut.&rdquo; The barky-furred boy mimed it quickly.<br />\tTai felt a chill. That tactic sounded horribly familiar.<br />\t&ldquo;I c-couldn&rsquo;t scream or anything&hellip; he was choking me and it hurt my muzzle. Th-then he put a big knife up to my neck, and told me that if I made a noise he&rsquo;d c-cut my throat, then wait and kill dad when he got home. He pushed me to the ground and started to tie my wrists together with those plastic tie-things. Zip-ties I think.&rdquo; Mike swallowed. &ldquo;He took the knife and cut off my shirt; wrapped it around my head. Said that i-if I saw his face, he&rsquo;d kill us. I thought he was going to do it anyway, but just in case I did what I was told.&rdquo;<br />Mike&rsquo;s features were impassive, yet Tai thought he could detect a little quaver in Mike&rsquo;s tone. Almost undetectable.<br />He didn&rsquo;t blame him. Tai knew what it was like&hellip; someone had broken into Mike&rsquo;s home and hurt him. The idea of being safe at home had evaporated like the unreality it was. It was scary. Nowhere was safe now, not even his warm bed in his own room. Now, every time he had to sleep, every time he was left alone, somebody could break in. Maybe even to hurt him again. The only reason Tai managed to sleep at night was that he could cling to his beloved friend. <br />This was what Mike had been living with since that day.<br />However, then the older kit spaced out. For a moment, he closed his eyes. An almost imperceptible tremble beset his muscles.<br />&ldquo;M-Mike?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Sorry. Um, well, he dragged me into the bathroom. I remember&hellip; he pushed me onto my back, and pulled my shorts off. I was too scared to move&hellip;&rdquo; The ten-year-old inhaled deeply. He fidgeted, running a paw through his medium length head-fur and looking anywhere but at Tai. &ldquo;Started&mdash;started to touch me. Rubbed, uh, down there, at my dick. I got stiff, and he kept going. After awhile, he sucked on it. I couldn&rsquo;t believe the feeling&hellip; I was scared when I orgasmed. D-didn&rsquo;t know what it was.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Mike, you don&rsquo;t need to-&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;No.&rdquo; The kit shook his head. &ldquo;I wanna tell you.&rdquo; <br />\tThe tawny kit was baffled now. Why did Mike want to tell him this tale? It was awful. &ldquo;A-are you okay!?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;A little tingly,&rdquo; admitted Mike, still shaking. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay. Um, anyway. After a while of that, he made me suck on his. It wasn&rsquo;t stiff at first, so he made me, um, get it like that. It was pretty gross; he stunk so badly. Then he turned me over and shoved it into my butt. It hurt like hell at first.&rdquo;<br />\tTai blinked in confusion. After a second, he got it. &ldquo;He did what?&rdquo; he gagged. &ldquo;Why did he-?&rdquo;<br />\tMike took a shaky breath, falling silent for nearly an entire minute. Tai stared at him, horrified and confused, while the barky kit regrouped. &ldquo;H-he only did it for a few minutes. I think he was only in our apartment for like half an hour. It still hurt a lot, but he did it slowly. When he was done, he told me I&rsquo;d been g-good and that he was sorry. He wasn&rsquo;t too bad to me&hellip; because I did as he said, I guess. When I got sore knees, he even put a towel under them for me. Uh, wh-where was I?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;When he was done&hellip;?&rdquo; Tai prompted in a whisper. He felt dizzy himself, and his fingertips were tingling. He had to imagine Mike felt a thousand times worse.<br />&ldquo;Oh yeah, th-thanks. He carried me into the shower and turned the cold water tap on. Washed me all over, and when he was done with that he tied my ankles to my wrists and just left me there, with the water still running&hellip; my shirt was still around my head. I couldn&rsquo;t move or nothin&rsquo;. I thought I was gonna drown. Dad was so upset when he came in and saw me like that. I just wanted the water turned off and to sit near the heater.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Mike!&rdquo; the tawny kit exclaimed, aghast. &ldquo;That must&rsquo;ve been so scary.&rdquo;<br />\tMike shook his head. &ldquo;It was, but&hellip;&rdquo; The brown-furred kit smiled wanly. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry about it. I&rsquo;m still alive, and so is my dad. I was okay. I was glad at first that everyone cared and fussed over me, but I got sick of it. It was as if they thought I&rsquo;d been broken.&rdquo; He paused and scrunched his eyes shut tight. He hesitated, before it seemed he came to a decision. &ldquo;I guess&hellip; I-I liked it, Tai. I thought about it all the time.&rdquo;<br />\tThere was a moment of stunned silence, then Tai squeaked, &ldquo;Wh-what? How did you like it?!&rdquo; <br />\tMike drew his knees up to his chest and hid his face between them, cuddling himself tightly. &ldquo;Oh, shit!&rdquo; he whined, his voice tiny. &ldquo;I knew you&rsquo;d think I was crazy! That&rsquo;s why I didn&rsquo;t tell you! I know I wasn&rsquo;t supposed to! I know it&rsquo;s wrong, but I couldn&rsquo;t- I&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\tTai got to his knees, crawling towards his older friend. &ldquo;Wait! No, it&rsquo;s okay! It&rsquo;s okay!&rdquo; He gently touched Mike&rsquo;s leg. &ldquo;I like things I&rsquo;m not meant to, right? You told me that was okay. What&rsquo;s the difference?&rdquo;<br />\tMike stared down at the mattress. The confusion that&rsquo;d been welling up inside him for years suddenly boiled over, and he found himself absolutely needing to tell Tai everything. The oddly colored fox kit was the only one he could trust with the truth. He was the one who deserved to know the most. A part of him was screaming at him to shut his mouth, to say no more, but he knew it was too late now. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I shouldn&rsquo;t. I didn&rsquo;t want anyone to find out. It was my secret.&rdquo; <br />\tThere was an awkward pause while Mike collected himself. A strange idea came to Tai. &ldquo;Mike, uh, i-is this why you wanted to do things to me? Like, tie me up and stuff?&rdquo;<br />\tThe hazel eyes widened and the brown-furred pup stared at friend. &ldquo;Wha-?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I just thought&hellip; it&rsquo;s the same sort of thing, right? Except you ask me first.&rdquo;<br />\tMike eyed him, stricken. &ldquo;Oh, shit!! Yes, since I first saw you. The first&hellip; I wanted to. Yes. I&rsquo;m sorry!!&rdquo;<br />\tThe tawny pup just blinked. &ldquo;Mike, I-&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry! It wasn&rsquo;t all about that, I swear! You&rsquo;re my friend, honest! I wanted to be on the other side of it. I wanted to have a friend to do this stuff with.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Mike&hellip; I don&rsquo;t&mdash;&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to hurt you or scare you like him! I never want to hurt you! I was really happy when you liked what I did, I just wanted you to- to feel it without being scared or hurt or worried or nothing!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Mike!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so sorry! Don&rsquo;t hate me. Don&rsquo;t go. Shit, don&rsquo;t&hellip;&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Stop it!&rdquo; Tai finally snapped, exasperated. For some reason, seeing Mike like this both irritated and frightened him. &ldquo;I know you&rsquo;re my friend. I&rsquo;m stupid, but I can tell that.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;You&rsquo;re not stupid!&rdquo; Mike exclaimed. <br />\t&ldquo;See?&rdquo; The tawny kit hugged the long, bark-furred legs cheerily in a slightly puerile attempt to lighten the mood. &ldquo;I just wanted to know what happened. What got your dad, and Jake, all upset.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I lied.&rdquo; Mike fretted, shuffling away a few inches. &ldquo;You asked me about this before. I did want to be your friend because of this. You noticed it already. That whole first day I was trying just to touch you and stuff. I was just a big creepy jerk&hellip; no, a total asshole!&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;And now?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;What?&rdquo;<br />\tTai smiled slightly. &ldquo;Do you still only want to be my friend because of it?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;No way! I&hellip; I wanted a friend too.&rdquo; Mike hung his head. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d like you this much though.&rdquo;<br />\tQuietly, Tai swallowed. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;d like me. It&rsquo;s okay though, because we do like each other, right?&rdquo; He moved closer to his bigger companion again. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care why you wanted to be my friend. You even told me before you wouldn&rsquo;t do those things with me if you couldn&rsquo;t prove you were my friend too, and you did!&rdquo;<br />\tAfter some time dedicated to staring at Tai&rsquo;s earnest face, Mike finally returned the smaller kit&rsquo;s smile. &ldquo;Okay,&rdquo; he said, tone sort of tentative. Embarrassed. &ldquo;S-sorry.&rdquo;<br />\tTai squeezed Mike&rsquo;s legs gently, running his paws along the thickly furred limb. The warm, silky fur helped him to think. <br />Last night, something had struck him, and it had rattled him to the very core. It took him saying it to Mike for his preteen vulpine mind to finally understand it. His friends always left him, or turned on him, because of Tai&rsquo;s own idiocy. He had so much pent up frustration, so much confusion and anger, that he would do utterly stupid things.<br />\tBefore he could stop himself, words would be said; things would be done. Afterwards Tai didn&rsquo;t even feel it was himself who had done it. He was just as startled as the friend who&rsquo;d come to comfort him, or had the misfortune of being in just the wrong place at the wrong time. Eventually, he&rsquo;d try to apologize once he worked up the courage, but they never listened&hellip; he just kept doing it again and again, so why should they? <br />Timid and distrustful, Tai would also avoid the ones that tried to become his friends, seeking comfort in books and beanbags in libraries. Books and comics didn&rsquo;t judge him, didn&rsquo;t hurt him, and he didn&rsquo;t hurt them.<br />\tEventually it got to the point where he simply didn&rsquo;t trust anyone to be close to him&mdash;literally. His strange, reclusive behavior, weak and effeminate appearance, debilitating shyness and obvious poverty made him a prime target for the crueler kits, and nobody ever came to his aid because he&rsquo;d scared them off by being a crazy little jerk. Even his teachers, not that they were much use in the first place.<br />\tThat revelation colored everything a darker shade. Tai had never had a high opinion of himself, but now he was almost shocked by what he perceived to be his level of idiocy.<br />\tBut so far not once had Mike turned on him. Most importantly, when he was with Mike, Tai had almost never felt that frustration compelling him to screw things up. Whenever he had, Mike had immediately forgiven him!<br />\tIn fact, the only thing that Mike seemed to be annoyed at was his distrusting nature. He didn&rsquo;t care that Tai had no money; he actually appreciated Tai&rsquo;s looks; he didn&rsquo;t pass judgment when Tai got all silly and playful; and oddly enough, he kept insisting that Tai was actually smart&mdash;even though Tai couldn&rsquo;t think of any time where he&rsquo;d actually shown that around Mike or his dad.<br />\tTheir friendship was nothing like anything Tai had experience before. Just knowing he was going to wake up and see the older boy near him had sent him to bed happy &ndash; even with the horrible nightmares that plagued his sleep now, Tai felt he could handle them, because the moment he woke up crying, someone was there for him.<br />\tMike meant more to him than anything now.<br />\tSo why the hell would Tai give a damn why Mike decided to become his best friend ever? Who ever cared why a friend became a friend, if he was a true one? It just didn&rsquo;t strike him as important. Mike was the most important fur Tai had ever met, and that was that.<br />\tMike sighed and scooted down the bed so he could cuddle Tai&rsquo;s chest. After a moment, he leaned downwards and they touched noses. The hazel and green eyes just melted into one another in much the same way as the bodies did with the embrace. <br />&ldquo;You know&hellip; want to do something until Jake is here?&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;Hmm?&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t played the Gamestation together for ages.&rdquo;<br />Tai actually laughed away that idea. &ldquo;Nuh-uh!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have a better idea.&rdquo; <br />Only a few inches from his own eyes, Mike&rsquo;s blinked, a little surprised. &ldquo;Oh?&rdquo;<br />Shaking a little, Tai slid his muzzle downwards just fraction of an inch. He opened up, and his warm breath lightly tickled the hairs on the tip of Mike&rsquo;s snout. With an almost reverent sigh, Tai pressed his muzzle to Mike&rsquo;s. The leafy jewels of his eyes vanished behind his eyelids. <br />It didn&rsquo;t take much persuasion for Mike. He gladly opened up himself.<br />Tai scooted closer and kissed tenderly, his paws resting on Mike&rsquo;s shoulders. He sent his tongue forth, shivering as it slid over the tip of his friend&rsquo;s.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />Kissing was so weird, he thought as he tentatively flicked his tongue around towards the front of Mike&rsquo;s muzzle. It felt wonderful in his opinion though. Sent little tingles right through him when the saliva-slick tongues brushed against each other. But that wasn&rsquo;t it. It was such a strange situation, to be so close to another, to have some of the most vulnerable things on his body near another&rsquo;s&hellip; he would have to thank Mike one day for introducing it to him.<br />Groaning, Mike wrapped his arms higher around Tai&rsquo;s chest, pulling the smaller boy&rsquo;s shoulders inwards and securing a grasp on the kit&rsquo;s nape, locking his fingers into the long head-fur. He pressed them both together more firmly, and his own tongue started to probe around deeply as he locked their delicate muzzles together tightly. <br />They knelt together on the printed covers of the bed, twining their sensitive tongues and running little paws over one another&rsquo;s bodies, into those warm nooks and crannies, those exposed and those still hidden by soft clothing. It was almost as much curious exploration as it was a passionate kiss, both boys suddenly enthralled by this intimate activity they had rarely taken the opportunity to enjoy with one another.<br />It was even better than Tai remembered the first time.<br />Mike squeezed Tai to him, upping the pace and slowly but surely pushing Tai backwards, laying him flat. <br />It barely even registered. Tai whined and reciprocated as Mike made it clear he wanted to get a little more energetic. It was hard to breathe; but when he did, he could literally taste Mike&rsquo;s breath. It wasn&rsquo;t bad at all; Tai had heard plenty of furs talk about how bad others&rsquo; breath could be, but he never really noticed anything truly stinky or disgusting whenever he was this close to Mike. <br />He felt his shoulders touch the mattress, and Mike settled his weight on top of his chest...<br />All of a sudden, Mike pulled away with a gasp. &ldquo;Oh, I forgot to shut the door!&rdquo; He looked back over his shoulder, and indeed the door was ajar, offering any passersby a clear view of the bed and the two snogging vulpines.<br />As Mike moved to go and shut the door, Tai jolted upright and loudly clonked the side of his head on the wall the bed was up against. He didn&rsquo;t even make a sound; just fell back onto the mattress again. <br />&ldquo;Oh shit, are you alright?&rdquo; exclaimed Mike, forgetting immediately about the door and instead hovering over Tai.<br />Tai blinked a few times, his eyes watering, but he nodded. &ldquo;Y-yeah&hellip;&rdquo; he replied. He squeezed his eyes closed briefly, but when he opened them he seemed alright&mdash; if a little unhappy. <br />&ldquo;You&rsquo;re sure?&rdquo; Mike gingerly reached out to touch the side of the kit&rsquo;s head. Tai winced, but nodded again. There was absolutely no indication that he was about to cry, and that surprised Mike. If he&rsquo;d smacked his head off the wall like that he&rsquo;d be fighting back the tears. <br />Tai pulled himself into a seated position and smiled wanly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m alright.&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;Sorry, that was my fault,&rdquo; blurted Mike. &ldquo;Um, I&rsquo;ll go shut the door.&rdquo; <br />He did that, checking the corridor briefly. Then Mike sidled back up to the kit, who was gently rubbing his temple. &ldquo;Oww.&rdquo; Mike&rsquo;s tone was apologetic. &ldquo;My fault. Sorry.&rdquo;<br />With a slightly comical glare at the wall, Tai shook his head. &ldquo;Nuh-uh. Stupid wall&rsquo;s fault.&rdquo;<br />Mike giggled at that. &ldquo;Yeah, stupid wall.&rdquo; Then he wistfully added, &ldquo;I guess that ruined everything, huh?&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t have to,&rdquo; Tai said hopefully.<br />Laughing some more, Mike sat beside his friend again. &ldquo;Is your head alright?&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Yeah. I won&rsquo;t cry, it&rsquo;s okay.&rdquo; The tawny kit smiled and snuggled up to Mike&rsquo;s thighs. <br />&ldquo;I never said you would!&rdquo; Mike said happily, squeezing the back of Tai&rsquo;s neck firmly, massaging it. &ldquo;Lie on your back a second!&rdquo; he suddenly ordered, repositioning himself behind Tai. Curious, Tai did so. <br />&ldquo;Like this?&rdquo; <br />A pair of paws slipped in under Tai&rsquo;s cheeks, brushed the side of his neck until they tightly grasped the back of his head. &ldquo;Gyeehee!&rdquo; Tai tensed up slightly. &ldquo;That tickles!&rdquo; <br />Mike pulled on the littler kit&rsquo;s head, lifting it forwards and up. &ldquo;Tell me how this feels. I&rsquo;ve gone to physiotherapists before and they did this for me.&rdquo; He started to also push his fingers in to the soft space at the base of the younger pup&rsquo;s head. <br />To say Tai liked it was an understatement of the worst kind. He groaned and instantly went limp. &ldquo;W-wow,&rdquo; he whimpered, wincing slightly. &ldquo;Wh-what&rsquo;re you doing? It feels weird!&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Just a massage,&rdquo; replied Mike offhandedly. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve never had one before? I&rsquo;ve never done it before, but I&rsquo;ve had a few.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;No&hellip;&rdquo; Honestly, Tai had rarely been touched by anyone in his life. Now, the tension in his neck muscles that he hadn&rsquo;t even noticed before was being magically removed by just Mike&rsquo;s inexperienced paws. His eyes closed and he started to feel lightheaded. <br />&ldquo;Even my dad&rsquo;s given me some before,&rdquo; Mike added quietly, staring down at the woozy Tai&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;You can have them on your back, your paws&hellip; anywhere. They&rsquo;re good for you too.&rdquo; <br />There was no real reply from Tai. He nodded very slightly and started to breathe steadily through an open muzzle. &ldquo;Mhmm&hellip;&rdquo; <br />With a content smile on his own features, Mike continued to admire his &lsquo;catch.&rsquo; It was still a matter of some surprise to him that things had gone so far and so fast with Tai. He realized long ago that it could only have been this way if Tai had wanted it just as much as he had. That meant everything.<br />&ldquo;You&rsquo;re adorable!&rdquo; he said frankly. Then grinned almost wickedly when Tai sheepishly squirmed as a reply.<br />Fending off somnolence, Tai opened his eyes. &ldquo;Would your dad come in at all?&rdquo; he said softly. &ldquo;At this time?&rdquo;<br />Checking his clock, Mike shrugged. &ldquo;He might. He knocks first though. Why?&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;I want to cuddle until Jake gets here.&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;We&rsquo;re doing that, aren&rsquo;t we?&rdquo; <br />Tai&rsquo;s smile got shy and he almost averted his gaze. &ldquo;I wanna do more than just cuddle.&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;Oh.&rdquo; Mike sniggered. &ldquo;We can do whatever you want. We can do stuff with clothes on you know. Or go have a shower.&rdquo;<br />Tai beamed and settled down again. <br />However, that line of thought brought an interesting idea to Mike, and he frowned as he struggled with it for a few moments. &ldquo;You know,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how dad would act if he found out what we were doing.&rdquo; <br />The green eyes opened again. &ldquo;What d&rsquo;you mean?&rdquo; <br />Starting to swirl and push his fingers in even more &ndash; to the delight of his subject &ndash; Mike shrugged. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what he&rsquo;d do. I think he could freak out and go really crazy, because he&rsquo;d be thinking about what happened to me two years ago.&rdquo; He swallowed. &ldquo;Or he might be totally okay with it. My dad&rsquo;s cool with a lot of stuff.&rdquo;<br />Tai tensed slightly, gazing up at his friend. <br />&ldquo;I-I think he knows anyway, maybe,&rdquo; Mike continued pensively. &ldquo;I dunno. He&rsquo;s never said anything.&rdquo;<br />Suddenly looking scared, Tai blurted, &ldquo;No, don&rsquo;t tell him! Please!&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;What&rsquo;s wrong?&rdquo; <br />Tai shuddered. &ldquo;Parents don&rsquo;t like this stuff. They always go crazy about it; and they never even tell you what&rsquo;s wrong with it.&rdquo;<br />&ldquo;Not my dad, Tai. He&rsquo;ll tell you what&rsquo;s wrong with it; he always does, and yesterday was the craziest I&rsquo;ve ever seen him get, because I put you in danger.&rdquo;<br />The tawny kit looked anxious for a moment, then he closed his eyes. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still a grownup. It&rsquo;s better if they don&rsquo;t know things.&rdquo;<br />Mike looked down sadly at the gloomy kit. There it was again! Tai didn&rsquo;t trust anyone; not even Mike&rsquo;s dad. Mike was starting to visualize some kind of force-field around Tai, that whenever someone tried to speak to him, he just threw up and hid behind until they went away. Which was, at least, a cool mental image, but it was just so irritating.<br />It was so wrong that Tai was doing it to him, and to his father&hellip;<br />\tThere was a sharp rap on the door, and Tai instinctively slipped away and sat up while Mike asked who it was. <br />\tThe door opened, and his dad stuck a grinning muzzle in. &ldquo;Hi boys,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Almost time for me to leave. Jake will be here soon.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Alright,&rdquo; responded Mike, sighing.<br />\t&ldquo;Tai, when I get back, we need to talk about your schooling, alright?&rdquo; <br />\tTai shot the adult a dismayed glance, and he inhaled sharply. He didn&rsquo;t reply.<br />\tFrom the direction of the front door, there was a rhythmic banging. &ldquo;Oh. There we go. I&rsquo;ll see you later boys. Keep your chins up, and be safe.&rdquo;<br />\tWhen he shut the door, Tai continued to stare blankly into middle distance. <br />\t&ldquo;What&rsquo;s up, Tai?&rdquo; asked Mike, leaping to his feet and stretching. He hoped the abrupt movement would snap Tai out of his sudden reverie. It was easier than trying to discover what was on his mind. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go say hi to Jake.&rdquo; <br />\tAfter a pause, Tai too leapt to his feet. &ldquo;Alright!&rdquo; he said, trying to sound enthusiastic.<br />\tAs they made their way to the door, Mike caught his smaller friend around the shoulders with a gentle hug, and he tenderly kissed the kit&rsquo;s pink nose. &ldquo;Mmah!&rdquo; he exaggerated. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll continue this later. Maybe Jake will join in.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he will.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;C&rsquo;mon, Captain Miserable.&rdquo;<br /><br />\tTai moaned in dismay as his dice-roll clattered across the table top to a depressing single dot. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m having a bad day,&rdquo; he said darkly, prodding his piece along the colorful board with one finger. Then he sighed. &ldquo;You fall into some quicksand and are sucked back four squares&hellip; oh, what!?&rdquo;<br />\tMike chortled and picked up the dice. &ldquo;Why are you going back anywhere? Don&rsquo;t you drown if you fall into quicksand?&rdquo; he asked, rolling a five and landing on a blank square. &ldquo;How weird would it be to drown in sand?&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Not always,&rdquo; Jake told him. &ldquo;Most of the time it&rsquo;s not deep enough. It can be a pain to get out though.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;That&rsquo;s lame.&rdquo; <br />\tJake rolled and also landed on a blank square, evoking a quiet growl from Tai. &ldquo;You wouldn&rsquo;t say that if you were stuck in quicksand.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Sure I would. Just for you!&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Well, anyway, I guess they were just sick of it being random snakes and ladders.&rdquo;<br />\t&ldquo;Yeah, guess so. Leaving ladders just lying around is one thing, but snakes?&rdquo;<br />\tTai was slumped forward with his muzzle resting on the table, looking utterly dejected&mdash;though it seemed to be because of the board-game. Robert had briefly explained what happened, and even specifically warned the stunned teenager that Tai might at any point break down. No wonder Robert had offered him extra pay. Looking after a grieving kit was something he&rsquo;d never done before. But Jake felt a strange connection to the tawny little boy. <br />\tHe wanted to help, any way he could.<br />So far, Tai seemed fine... even if he was getting trounced at this particular game. Jake wanted to say something, offer his condolences or something, but he wasn&rsquo;t sure he should. <br />When Jake arrived, the boys had emerged from their room rather unenergetically, just moments after Robert managed to give him his quick explanation. It seemed Tai lost a pitched battle with his inhibitions and he rather timidly tried to hug Jake. Jake didn&rsquo;t refuse him. He wouldn&rsquo;t refuse the bereaved pup anything. <br />The affectionate hug confused him at first, but after thinking about it, he got all choked up. The kit had obviously decided that Jake was his first friend in New York, and he desperately wanted comfort from anyone he trusted. He didn&rsquo;t, so to speak, want Jake to drift away.<br />Shaking away the memory, Jake refocused in time to see Tai lift the dice in one paw and dropped it pathetically. It clattered to a six. <br />His tawny ears perked slowly and he looked at the board hopefully, but he suddenly looked crestfallen. &ldquo;Oh, crap.&rdquo; Six ahead of him was &lsquo;You fall off the mountain trail! Return to square one!&rsquo; <br />Jake gawked. &ldquo;You really are having terrible luck today, Tai.&rdquo; <br />&ldquo;I hate this game.&rdquo; Tai shifted uncomfortably. &ldquo;Can we do something else?&rdquo; He moved a paw and knocked a cup of juice over, spattering his t-shirt and pants with bright red liquid. He just looked at the cup in shock for a moment before groaning aloud.<br />Mike shrugged. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get it,&rdquo; he offered, standing and heading to the kitchen for a cloth. &ldquo;You should go change, Tai! Your clothes are in my room still.&rdquo;<br />Tai stood too and walked down the hallway, careful to make sure none of the juice dripped off of him. He opened Mike&rsquo;s room door while ripping his soiled shirt over his head. He spied his unopened suitcase on Mike&rsquo;s floor and ambled over to it, simultaneously dropping his pants.<br />\tAt least he hadn&rsquo;t juiced his underwear somehow. He wasn&rsquo;t even sure where they were packed.<br />\tBack in the kitchen, Jake was busy rinsing the cup out in the sink, trying not to laugh at the poor kit&rsquo;s misfortunate. There was a knock on the front door, and Mike stopped mopping up the juice to look at it. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Why would someone be knocking at eight at night? <br />\tJake stepped towards it. &ldquo;Yes?&rdquo; <br />\tThe response was a gruff, urgent voice. &ldquo;Hey, I live above you guys. I found a leather wallet with uhh&hellip; Robert Donaldson&rsquo;s name in it. Down in the lobby. It had this address in it, so, uhh&hellip; yeah.&rdquo; <br />\tJake walked to the door, a little confused. &ldquo;Oh, alright, can you leave it at the door?&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Someone could steal it.&rdquo; <br />\t&ldquo;Uh, alright then, hang on.&rdquo; Jake walked to the door and yanked it open.<br />\tHe saw the torque wrench coming, but didn&rsquo;t see anything beyond it, or get a chance to duck. The metal instrument slammed into his head with a sickening crunch, and Jake crumpled to the floor. <br />\tA huge tiger ambled into the apartment. He was wearing a leather jacket and black pants, and he grinned when he saw the shocked Mike gaping at him in terror. &ldquo;Hello, boy-o,&rdquo; he growled as two other thugs filed in behind him, moving straight for Mike. <br />\tThe kit screamed in fright, darting around behind the kitchen table. <br />\tMuttering to himself, the tiger blocked the doorway and folded his arms, watching events unfold.<br />\tDown the hall, a much smaller, tawnier fox-boy came out of a room, wearing just a pair of jeans on his tiny body and holding a shirt in his hands. The tiger gave an ugly laugh, turning and casually shutting the door. <br />\tMike yelled at the top of his voice for help, trying to keep the table between him and a rat, while his friend, what seemed to be a bull-terrier, went down the hall for Tai. &ldquo;No!&rdquo; the kit yelled, as the rat suddenly dashed around the table, smirking.<br />\tTai tried to dash back into Mike&rsquo;s room, but the invading dog caught his tail when he turned, brutally yanking him backwards. &ldquo;No, don&rsquo;t!&rdquo; he tried to plead, but the kidnapper just slipped a forearm in front his neck, pulling up and back. He dragged the boy easily into the living room, choking him painfully into silence.<br />\t&ldquo;I got mine,&rdquo; the muscle-bound goon joked.<br />\tMike froze, some foolish impulse trying to get him to go help, when the rat grabbed his shoulder. &ldquo;Let go!&rdquo; he cried fearfully, instantly lashing out with a small fist that caught his attacker on the point of the nose. The rat yelped and stumbled back, clutching his nose. <br />\tBefore Mike could turn around, however, he was shoved harder than he&rsquo;d ever been in his life. He felt a single paw on his back, and suddenly he was flying forwards. <br />\tHe crashed face first to the ground, the wind leaving his body. He struggled to his feet, but a massive paw closed around the back of his neck and pulled him backwards.<br />\tSomething slammed into his stomach, just below the sternum and into his solar plexus. A choked gurgle escaped his throat as the pain gushed through him, and his whole body seemed to collapse inwards.<br />\tThe paw released him and he sank to his knees. A sort of buzzing, fuzzy noise started up in his ears, but he could still make out the tiger&rsquo;s voice, albeit indistinctly over his own coughing. <br />\t&ldquo;See, Sammy. You can&rsquo;t be all pussy-footed when kids are givin&rsquo; you trouble. Just do what you gotta do to get &lsquo;em to behave. It&rsquo;s just like women.&rdquo;<br />\tIt hurt so much, as if something up inside his chest had been crushed. He couldn&rsquo;t breathe either; his lungs had just locked up. Things were getting fuzzier and darker by the second&hellip; was he going to pass out? <br />\tHe&rsquo;d never passed out before. Did it hurt?<br />\tMike felt himself being lifted up, and through the tiny, unfocused slits his vision had become, he could see a rather pissed off rat. He had a ridiculous ear-ring that looked like a violin, and a thin drool of blood was coming out his nose for some reason. <br />\tSuddenly it was all just blackness.<br /><br />Chapter Nine &ndash; Fin. <br /><br />-- By Krazy Kitsune/Kichigai Kitsune<br />Copyright 2005 onwards.<br /><br /></span>",
  "pools_count": 1,
  "title": "Tai's Story - Chapter Nine",
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