“This is Tate Hall,” Eric said, taking over for the student who’d been giving a history of the University as they walked. And Thomas sunk into his shoulders in preparation for what had to be coming. “If you decide on one of the sciences for your major, Thomas, this is where you’ll be spending many hours in your day. And since I also spend a lot of my time here, we’ll be able to have father-son bonding time.”
The ermine next to Thomas chuckled.
“The Hall was built in...”
Thomas tuned out his father. He already knew more about it than he wanted. The years it had been renovated, the new labs they had set up. Over the last two months, his father had been giving him the history of every department on campus as his way of ‘helping’ Thomas decide what his major would be.
Once his father was done promoting his department to the students, the crowd parted as he walked through it, and Thomas wasn’t fast enough. His father grabbed his arm and pulled him along. He only let his son go inside the library facing the hall, as he pointed to this area or that one. Thomas hurried to put distance between him and his father, but it was too late. Everyone had noticed him and now, other than Paul, no one came within five feet of him.
The margay he’d seen when he’d arrived gave him an understanding nod, but he kept on with the rest.
“It’ll be okay,” Paul said. “In a couple of hours, they’ll have forgotten about this and that he’s your dad.”
“Not if he’s got anything to say about it,” Thomas grumbled. His father just didn’t get how damaging to his reputation it was to be associated with someone in the administration. For all his good intentions, his father had basically ensured Thomas would be a pariah.
And his father didn’t stop. At every building, he inserted Thomas into his presentation. In Bruinink Hall, he pointed out how Thomas could come there once he’d worked out his major so they could help him register for the proper classes. At Coffman, he mentioned Thomas could bring any guy he dated there for a concert or motivational talk.
At the Stadium, he even managed to insert Roland, by telling everyone how his other son would be playing there in a few years.
On and on it went. Eric never allowing anyone to forget his son was among them, and his father sounded so proud of that fact each time he mentioned the two of them would rub shoulders on campus. Thomas endured some of it by messaging his tirade about his father’s comments to Mark, Donna, Nathan, and Marian. They’d already spent the summer listening to him complain about his father taking an interest in his academic future; he didn’t see why it should stop just because they’d moved away.
It also let him mostly miss the pitying looks the other students were giving him.
Then they reached the Freshman admission building and his ordeal came to an end. Everyone broke up as the student guides led groups to the varying set of offices used by the counselors. Since his father was involved with the sciences, and Thomas was undecided, this was one place where he wouldn’t have to endure another conversation about his future and how he needed to pick a direction.
The wait, among the dozen other students, wasn’t long. One counselor exited an office, called a name, and that student went in. Another did the same, then a third... and then Eric walked in.
“Sorry about that, Thomas. If you’ll follow me, we’ll get working on your schedule.”
Thomas stared as his father held the door open. There was no way this was legal.
“Come on, Thomas,” his father urged. “You aren’t the only student I need to help today.”
##### ##### #####
Questions.
So many questions.
Questions his father already knew the answers to, because he’d asked Thomas every other day for the last... forever, as far as Thomas was concerned.
“Have you narrowed down your field of interest?”
“How about medical science? You could follow along with Paul.”
“Where do you imagine yourself working in ten years?”
“You know that the University has one of the best Science departments in the county and there’s always a call for science.”
At least it had to end since, as his father had said, Thomas wasn’t the only student he had to help. In the end, Thomas had a schedule of classes covering the core curriculum, and he was heading outside. Paul called to him, but Thomas simply waved. He had something more important to do.
Thomas made it to the Registrar's office, and the counter, without problem. The woman on the other side was a svelte bear with honey gold fur.
“Hi,” he greeted her, “my name’s Thomas Hertz, and I’d like to request to be assigned a different counselor.”
“You must be Eric’s son,” she replied with a wide smile.
“Err,” Thomas hesitated. If she knew his father, this couldn’t be good. “Yes, and I think it’s a conflict of interests for my father to be my counselor, don’t you? I’m not even in the sciences.”
“Yes, he did that with your brother and sister, too.” She leaned against the counter. “I remember there being something of a push back with Victor, but he said he was okay with it, and you have to admit that your father does know what he’s doing when it comes to guiding you through the course load.”
“You’re not going to help, are you?”
“You’ll be fine, Thomas,” she said, still smiling. “You and Roland both.”
Thomas looked at the schedule on his phone. Maybe Roland would be fine, but it wasn’t like Thomas was going to survive to find out.
##### ##### #####
“Are you sure my father didn’t set up your course schedule?” Thomas asked Paul, looking at the tiger’s even busier schedule.
“Going into the sciences means I have a lot of labs. Particularly with so much of the core curriculum knocked out through AP courses,” Paul replied before taking a spoonful of ice cream. “You should get some before they run out. It’s not like we’re going to be getting another ice cream bar after this.”
“After being told my father can run my life even here, I lost my appetite.”
“It’s not that bad, and you have Chemistry so we’ll have the excuse of tutoring you to hang out more.”
“I just-”
“There you go, son.” A large bowl with scoop after scoop of colorful ice cream topped with sprinkles, both rainbow and chocolate, nuts and broken candy pieces, was placed before him.
Thomas felt the gazes, and he wished he could melt the way the sides of the giant sunday before him were. Of course he wasn’t done enduring his father’s well meaning torture. Now, on top of that, the others probably thought he was some spoiled kid, with his father bending the rules for him.
Thomas turned the bowl until he found a scoop of chocolate ice cream. He wished there was candied mint somewhere on there. That always went really well with chocolate; especially when his mom made it.
“You’d think that after eighteen years of desserts,” he grumbled, “dad would know I don’t need anything but the chocolate.”
“He probably just wants you to have the chance to try new favors,” Paul replied, cutting a piece of banana in his ice cream with the spoon. “Remember, this isn’t highschool, this is-”
“A brand new world. You said that already.”
“Then try stuff,” Paul encouraged. He nodded to a giraffe in conversation with a gorilla. “I’m pretty sure I heard him speak French. Go talk to him. You never know what it might lead to.”
“Him laughing at me. High school French isn’t something to be proud of. I’d be lucky to ask for directions and not get sent in the opposite one.”
“You aren’t that bad.”
Thomas sighed. “I should have taken advantage of all those AP classes like you did.”
“Then you’d have to know what you wanted to major in by the time you got here.” Paul stood. “I’m going to go back for seconds. I am taking advantage of this bar while it’s here.”
Thomas watched his best friend make his way through the cafeteria tables and spotted his father behind the counter putting together another giant colorful sunday. He looked at the one before him, with only the chocolate eaten. He was not staying here for a second serving.
He sent Paul a message as he stood, letting him know he had enough of the crowd, and headed outside without, hopefully, his father noticing him.
Once there, he took a breath, enjoying the small band of orange in the western sky and the quiet, only to have it broken by a moan.
On his left, at the edge of the light, the margay he’d seen in the crowd of students had the monkey with white fur framing his face pressed against the wall and they were kissing fiercely. Wow, were they kissing; they were putting their entire bodies into it. A hand going down between them, then motion, and coming up and pulling-
Thomas swallowed as he watched the hard cock and balls being pulled out of the expensive pants, then turned away as the hand started stroking and the moaning intensified.
Fuck, they were... his ears burned.
He glanced over his shoulder only long enough to confirm what they were doing, then he was walking away. When Paul had talked about people trying stuff, while at University, Thomas hadn’t thought that was something some would get up to.
He should have talked to the margay after all. It could have been Thomas against the wall.
He rearranged himself as he walked.
Right, like a guy with expensive taste like him would have bothered with a rat like Thomas.