	Braulio sat on the hard seat against the wall of the waiting room.  Another dog, some kind of spitz, had come into school and pulled him out.  Apparently Braulio’s grandmother died today.  Except that she didn’t.  The dog wasn’t family to him at all, and everyone knew it.  Vitor was an Amigo.  The dog had brought him straight here, to Mulheres Peludas Nuas, to see Caio, their “boss”.  I’m going to die... Braulio thought to himself, Vitor must have died.  They’re probably going to torture me... and leave me in the favela to make an example...  As his mind wandered his face stayed stony.  He’d been through a lot in his life, even as young as he was.   He was almost relieved, now.  If the Amigos kill him there won’t be any police, there won’t be an investigation, his mother will never know about Diego, and no one else will know about Diego’s secret... hobbies, either.  This is for the best...  


        Since that night, Braulio hadn’t slept more than a few minutes.  He couldn’t get the feeling out of his head.  The warm, wet, slick feeling of blood on his fur and the way it tugged and ripped at it when he had to wash and comb it all out.  Vitor’s screams echoing through the alley kept him up at night, like it was still being megaphoned straight into his ears.  He could smell the rancid sweat and stale piss from Vitor’s cock when it was shoved in his face.  He could almost taste it... 


        Braulio puked in his mouth a little at the thought.  He’d been so close.  Vitor had almost... The door opened suddenly and slammed back against the wall.  “PUP!  Get in here!  And shut the goddamned door behind you!”  A middle-aged porcupine stomped back into his office and sat down, his back to the desk and the door, looking out the window.  Braulio stood up and slowly walked to the door, his thick tail tucked between his legs and his ears drooping down low by his head.  The bristles on the porcupines back were thick as spears, but luckily most of them were plucked leaving only the long wiry underfur that they have.  Braulio took the door and quietly shut it, not moving any closer to the large older man as the latch clicked behind him.  He stood there for a little while, waiting in the column of shadow created by the chairs between him and the window.  “Are you gonna stand there shakin’ all morning?  Quit cowering like a little faggot.”  The hair on the back of Braulio’s neck stood up and he bit his tongue a little.  


	Braulio took an instinctive step forward but reality kept him from going farther.  He wasn’t used to being talked to that way by anyone besides his mother, but there wasn’t anything he could do now.  What could I do, hit him?  he thought.  Hit him once?  A couple of times?  Go down fighting?  Braulio stepped back and straightened up, clenching his fists at his sides.  I’m not a thug like that.  I’ll go with my pride intact...  


	“Jesus, you little brat, come sit down.  I haven’t got all goddamned day.”  A gout of smoke rose from behind the tall wooden and leather chair.  Braulio walked around the shorter chair that sat in front of him and into the light for the first time in a while.  The window was open to the east, toward the water, and the morning sun blared through almost blinding him after spending so long in the dingy lights of the waiting room.  He shielded his eyes with his arm and climbed up into the chair, his butt squeaking against the cheap fake leather.  “Took ya long enough...”  The man’s voice was hoarse and deep.  Not from age, though. The porcupine couldn’t have been any older than Braulio’s mother, he was sure.  It was a scratch in his throat that Braulio was familiar with, too much smoke and too much liquor with maybe a little khat.  “So... Tell me about what happened at carnival, Brau...”  


	The porcupine called him Brau.  Barely anyone called him that, not even his mother.  The porcupine turned around to face him.  He was leaned back and sprawled out in his chair.  “Tell me how you killed Vitor.”  He leant forward onto his desk, letting the shadow wrap over his face and torso.  


	Braulio sat up straight, his hands on his thighs with his shoulders back.  He took in a deep breath, and looked the older, broader, shadow-covered man into where his eyes should have been.  “He attacked me in the alley because of some stuff with Reji, and I defended myself.”  


	“You stabbed him in the balls.”  He sat back and turned sideways, letting the light fall onto his face again.  The shape of his face looked badger-ish, with a longer, more predatory muzzle than a porcupine’s.  “You need to remember something, pup.”  He turned his face to Braulio and blew a long could in his face.  It smelled slightly of marijuana with the tobacco.  “There were four other people in that alley with you and Vitor.”  He took the cigar out of his mouth with two thick fingers and put it out in a square carnival glass ashtray.  “Now I’m going to tell you what happened, since you seem to have forgotten.”  Braulio opened his maw, about to speak, but he was interrupted by the porcupine.  He dropped his eyes down to the floor, clenching his toes in his shoes nervously.  “Vitor and his friends caught you on the beach with a little queima-rosca having a little party.  The xupa-rola ran off and you started sulking home like a fucking boiola.  Your father would have been fucking ashamed.”   Braulio’s eyes shot up from the floor, his whole body tensing.  He started to speak but he was cut off again, quicker than before.  “But the way you handled Vitor when the fucking paedophile tried to facefuck you?  HAHA!  Marcio would have been so goddamned proud!  And hey, at least you proved you’re not a complete fruta, and we can work with that!”


	“What are you talking about?”  Braulio’s confusion overwhelmed his fear, making him forget for a moment that he was probably not coming out of this alive.  It had been years since he had heard anyone call his father by name, let alone talking about him in a positive light.  “You knew my dad?”


	The porcupine stood up and flipped on the lights, the dirty room’s peeling wallpaper and grimy edges showing clearly.  “Me and your papai ran together in the Comando Vermelho before we split off with the Amigos!   We were like brothers!”  He laughed and sat back down in his chair, putting his feet up on the table.  


	Braulio just looked up at him stunned.  For what seemed like minutes a thousand questions stewed in Braulio’s head. The porcupine pulled a shiny steel butane lighter out of his pants’ pocket and picked his cigar out of the ash tray.  “Where is my father now?”  Braulio asked.  


	The porcupine froze for a second with the cigar on his lips and the lighter at the ready.  He let out a deep sigh and sparked the lighter, inhaling a puff to pull in the smoke before shutting off the lighter and setting it on the table.   He took a good, deep breath through his cigar before letting it out in a long, rolling cloud.  “I guess... I don’t know.”  He shook his tail a little, making the quills rattle slightly.  “You were the last person to see him, as far as I know... We asked your mom about it but she wouldn’t have anything to do with us... So long as her CV dealers kept feeding her tik and khat and everything else she wouldn’t have anything to do with us...”  


	“Did he run off?”  Braulio looked up at the porcupine with a determined face.  It’d been so long and he’d never known what really happened to his father.  Whether he just ran off, or if he was dead, or if he was working and just waiting on some day to come home.  


	“Listen, kid...”  The porcupine stood up and walked in front of Braulio, towering over him as thick grey smoke billowed from his nostrils.  “The only way your papai would have left you with that bruxa mother of yours is if he was rotting in the jungle somewhere, or sunk in the ocean.  He never would have abandoned you with her.”  He bent down, putting his hands on the arm of the chair and getting in Braulio’s face, making him feel truly intimidated for the first time so far.  “Do you understand that, pup?”  Braulio could taste the stale liquor on his breath, and the smoke almost made him gag.  He nodded nervously and blinked his eyes hard trying to fight the sting from the smoke.  


	The porcupine punched his shoulder lightly and stood up.  “Good!  Your papai was a good man, and you’d better not have any second thoughts about that.  Now...”  He sat on the desk across from Braulio, crossing his legs so they didn’t sway under him.  Call me Titio Caio.”  


	Braulio looked up at him and nodded slightly.  His eyes were a little wide and his body was still a little tense.  Today had been surprise after surprise, and Braulio wasn’t sure if they were good or bad.  His father hadn’t abandoned him, on purpose at least, so that was good.  But on the other hand that meant he was probably dead.  Vitor had died and Braulio had killed him, but he wasn’t in trouble for it.  That was bittersweet on its own.  He had found family besides his mother finally, but that family was a gangster with the Amigos por Amigos, the owner of a strip club, and a drug dealer.  Most of all though, what kept ringing in his head was the idea that his father would have been proud of him.  That thought would have been more comforting if he hadn’t just killed a man.  


	“So tell me, kid.”  Caio’s voice woke Braulio up.  “Are you like, completely gay, or were  you just messing around?”


	Braulio’s eyes were as big as plates and his head turned down and left.  “I’m not gay... We were just hanging out and stuff happened...”  

	Caio nodded and took another puff.  “That’s all well and good... You’re going to have to be with a girl soon, though.  And be SEEN with a girl.  Rumors are spreading already and you’ll never make anything of yourself here if people think you’re a baitola.”  Braulio gulped and nodded.  He’d never been with a girl before, accept... “I’ll tell you what, kid.  Just cause you look so nervous, I’ll give you a week to get a girl yourself.  If you can’t manage it I’ll set you up with one of my clean girls, right?”  Braulio looked up shakily and nodded again.  He wasn’t excited to do it with an adult, let alone a hooker.  But he knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to get a girl in time.   
	\“Yes sir.”  Braulio leant forward and slid himself down out of the chair.  He felt a heavy hand thud across the back of his head, enough to get his attention but not enough to hurt.  He grabbed the back of his head and looked up at Caio indignantly.  


	Caio looked down at him and ruffled his headfur and ears, smiling and giving a little chuckle.  “Titio.  Or Caio.  Or  titio Caio.  Either way, not ‘sir,’ got it?”  Braulio nodded with a curious expression on his face, an eyebrow raised and his lip curled a bit.  He kind of wanted to smile, but then again didn’t.  Caio was nice in a way, almost reminding him of his rugby coach, but he was a criminal, an Amigo.  


	“Okay... Titio.”  Braulio smiled, still a little reserved as if testing the waters.  


	Caio smiled back and patted the boy’s cheek as he stood up and started back around to the back of his desk.  “Now get out of here.  Go play or something until school’s over.”  Braulio nodded wagging his tail before turning around and running out, bounding down the steps before he got to the lobby of the club, and walked out calmly, not wanting to draw attention to himself.  Stepping out of the front door and into the street felt almost like stepping out of prison.  Not only was he not in trouble now but he had met Caio too.  There was going to be a lot of hard work in Braulio’s future, he was sure, but he thought Caio would take care of him.  He was a friend of his dad’s after all, even if he did seem a little strange.  More than anything he felt like a weight was off his shoulders.  Even if things weren’t as good as they were before, they weren’t as bad as they could have been, which was good enough.  He looked at his watch to see if he had enough time to go back to school.  It was too late to get to his last class, and there wasn’t any practice today, so he decided to just walk around for the next few hours before he would have to go home.




________________






	It was funny walking around and seeing the leftovers from Carnival.  A lot of people were still hung over and recovering even though the parties had ended the day before yesterday.  Mammals and avians walked around with pastel-colored fur, the bright carnival dyes having washed or sweated out.  They’d have to spend the next month or two with bleached-white fur once the colors all faded away before their new fur and feathers came in.  You could always tell the dancers and the performers by that.  The lizards that walked around or laid sunning themselves shone like mirrors with their polished scales.  On a few of them, mostly women, you could see the outlines of where they had painted themselves.  


	Reptiles were always quite... appealing to Braulio.  Their lack of fur or feathers left little to the imagination as for their figures and they almost always had the most perfect legs and asses, like birds but, again, without those feathers hiding all the curves.  He made his way to the beach, where he could really look around.  The beach was buzzing with some of the most gorgeous bodies in Brazil wrapped in the tiniest bits of designer bikinis, barely covering their bits.  He found a bench in the shade and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, giving himself a little air as he relaxed finally after a long day.  


	He was sat down right in the view of the volleyball nets, under a palm tree, with a street cart behind him selling cocada and pé-de-moleque, giving the air around a sweet tinge.  He just couldn’t see it.  No matter how long or hard he looked he couldn’t see what other men saw when he looked at women.  He could see beautiful women, he could definitely pick out the exceptional ones from the not-so-much, but he didn’t really want any of them.  They didn’t make him feel that urge the way that Diego did, but neither did any of the men around either... As the day went on and more and more people passed by Braulio felt knots forming in his stomach.  Maybe it would be best to just wait for Caio to give him one of his girls.  He couldn’t bear to pretend to like one of the girls at school, even though he knew he could.  Even though he wasn’t nearly as popular as Thiago he knew that there was at least a girl or two that would drop everything for him, but he didn’t feel right doing that either.  He couldn’t bear to make someone else feel like he had made Diego. 


        The sun halfway hid behind the ocean, a long, shimmering tail reflected from what was left above the horizon.  A few stars started to become visible in the darkening sky.  The sweets cart had left long ago, and the people had thinned to only a few couples and a surfer or two, leaving Braulio mostly alone with himself to take in the clean sea air and the soothing sound of the surf.  He hadn’t managed to come to any conclusion about himself today.  He was sure he wasn’t gay.  He just couldn’t be.  But he didn’t really like girls that way either.  Honestly at his age he barely liked girls at all.  His stomach growled and churned.  Since his stomach had been in knots all afternoon anyway he had ignored the hunger pains, but now that it was making noise he realized how hungry he really was.


        He didn’t have any money left on him so he decided to walk home.  There had to at least be some cereal or something quick and easy to eat.  Mom was too lazy to cook, so there was always something like that that didn’t need any work.  His shirt stuck to his back; the humid sea air had made him sweat more than usual.  He unbuttoned it and threw it over his shoulder, letting his sweat-wetted back dry in the open air as he walked on.  When he got home the door was standing open.  He shook his head and walked in quietly, slipping his shoes off and softly padding inside.  He quietly shut the door behind him and bolted it before heading on towards the kitchen.  As he walked down the main hallway he peeked into the living room.  He could smell khat and marijuana again, filling the room with a disgusting haze and making him scrunch his nose.  His mother was asleep on the couch, passed out more like, a half-burnt cigarette in between her fingers.  He shook his head and turned to the kitchen to look for something to eat after throwing his shirt across the back of the chair.  He found a half-empty box of Choco Krispis.  His mom always wanted sweets when she got the munchies, so it was almost a sure thing there would be candy or sugary cereal around.  He looked in the fridge for milk; nothing.  Milk was expensive and usually went bad before anyone drank it.  He poured some in a bowl and started eating, spooning the dry cereal loudly and crunching it somewhat loudly.  He heard shuffling in the living room and froze, hoping if he stayed still enough she wouldn’t notice her, maybe she was still asleep enough or high enough that she’d walk right by him.  He was like a stone, stiff, barely breathing as her claws clicked on the floor behind him.  


        Suddenly he felt arms wrap around his chest, and he breathed again. It was no use now.  Her nose buried in the side of his neck, taking a deep breath.  “You always smell so good... Strong and manly...”  Her hands rubbed up and down his chest.  He was covered in muscles, but he still had a soft, immature shape because of his age.  She gripped one of his pecs and squeezed it as her other hand slid down his belly, rubbing it and stroking over his abs.   “So toned and strong for your age...  O meu menino...”  He yipped a little quietly as she pinched his nipple and rubbed it between her narrow fingers, her other hand massaging over his navel, rubbing around it and dipping in every once in awhile.  She pulled away and Braulio breathed again, not turning to look back at her.  “It’s late.  I’ll let you eat.”  


	His stomach felt sick but he nodded and took another bite, fighting hard to choke it down.  His face hung low and he fought the urge to look anywhere but his cereal.  He took another bite and chewed it noisily, but suddenly he felt sick again.  Paws gripped the insides of his thighs and spread them.  He didn’t dare fight, but fought back a wretch as he felt her nose press against the fly of his pants and nuzzle his sheath.  “Such a big caralho...”  He could hear her lips smacking under the table.  “Keep eating, Brau-Brau.  Mommy’s just a little hungry too.”  She pulled his zipper down and he took another spoonfull, crunching as he felt her playing with his fly, slowly finding her way to his sheath and loosing it from it’s cotton prison.  Her nose pressed against the base of his sheath as a paw slid underneath his sack to slip them out of his fly as well, her other hand rubbing the entrance to his sheath, slipping a fingertip in to rub the very tip of his cock.  He bit the inside of his mouth hard, bringing the blood as he felt himself getting harder.  She licked up the bottom of his sheath and around the tip, pushing her tongue inside to lick around his still soft cock, getting just the tip out as he fought hard to take another bite of his cereal and maybe pretend this wasn’t happening.  The claws of his empty hand dug into the tabletop as her lips wrapped around his tip and unsheathed him into her warm, soft-but-dry mouth, her tongue wrapping around the base and her own soft lips pressing against his crotch.  His hips bucked a little against his will, her paws massaging his balls and rubbing his thigh as she bobbed and twisted her head, stroking him with her tongue and growling deeply into his shaft, making him vibrate down to the balls, making him shiver with shamed pleasure.  He bit into his hand hard to keep from moaning, as he started to get harder and harder, staring down at his empty bowl.  


	After almost ten minutes she pulled away with a dry pop and got up from under the table, pressing a wet paw against his lips.  He could smell her pussy on it, and tried to turn his head away, but she put her other hand on the back of his head and forced her fingers past his lips.  “MMm... taste it, baby.  That’s all for you my sexy little man...”  She threw her leg over his legs and sat on his lap, letting her wet pussy press against his crotch.  She rubbed her wet fingers against his tongue, making him taste her as she ground against his cock.  “Mommy tastes good, doesn’t she Brau?”  He felt her lips brush against his tip and then fall down, taking all of him deep into her,  She felt so tight and hot, it was torture; an awful, disgusting pleasure that he couldn’t fight, his hips thrusting on their own and making her moan loudly into his soft ears.  She slid her shirt off quickly and pulled his face into her breasts, the nipples hard and a little long, her breasts not as full as they should be for their size.  He shut his eyes tightly and latched onto one, sucking weakly as she ground it against his face, tugging and stroking over his ears.  She rode him quickly, her lips sloppily squeezing at his cock, and she slammed down hard, quickly, moaning and shivering.  


	She pushed him away and stood up, leaving his crotch completely soaked in her juices and his pants nigh ruined.  “Go take a bath and clean your clothes, boy...” She started to stumble off, nude, with her legs still a little weak both from the drugs and from her recent climax.  “You’re disgusting.”

        Something snapped in Braulio, and he stood, jerking around and grabbing her hair, pulling her down roughly, making her trip.  “WHAT THE FU-?!”  She tried to scream at him but one hand wrapped around her throat and held her down roughly, choking her as the other hand pinned her wrists down.  


	“I’M DISGUSTING?!”  He yelled as he thrust in with all of her force, making her grunt and gasp as loudly as she could with him holding her throat.  “YOU’RE disgusting! You FUCKING WHORE!”  He screamed at her at the top of her lungs as her lips started to turn blue and her eyes fluttered, passing out from lack of air.  “DON’T TOUCH ME AGAIN!  EVER!  I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”  


        Tiny fists beat at Braulio’s chest, and a long, bald tail wrapped around his neck, pulling him back weakly, or at least trying to.  His eyes opened and he saw Sherice under her, the skinny opossum's pink lips a pale blue, her eyes wide with terror as the flesh of her throat wrapped around his hands, the veins popping desperately trying to get blood to her starving brain.  Braulio released her neck and jumped back, falling off the foot of the bed and backing away as Sherice gasped and choked for breath, turning on her belly and pushing herself up, rubbing her throat as Braulio stood up, looking at her in stunned silence.  “S-Sheri?  Are you okay?” 


        She turned and looked at him, still coughing with a roughness in her voice.  “Did you get-hackhack cough-some bad shit or something Brau?  Jesus -cough- you’d better not dip into that shit again!  Sell it, don’t sniff it!”  She scooted back against the headboard and threw her head back, taking deep breaths trying to catch her breath again.  “Get back in bed, hon.”  She patted the bed beside her and rested her hands on her belly.  She had a little pudge on her belly but it was okay.  It was just enough to jiggle when she danced but not enough to be gross, and besides she had an ass to go with it.  She had small breasts though, B’s at most, giving her a somewhat pear-shaped figure, not too much though.  


        Braulio sighed deeply and started crawling back into bed.  He laid beside her, with his back to her, hugging his pillow to his face without any covers over him.  She put her hand on his side and stroked him gently, combing his fur with her claws.  “You know, if you weren’t trying to choke me to DEATH, maybe that could be a little fun, huh?  You’re kinda hot when you’re all forceful like that...”  Brau scoffed quietly and shook his head, not looking back at her.  “Alright be an asshole...”  She laid down beside him and wrapped her arm around his waist, pulling herself tighter to him and pressing her nose into the back of his head.  She took a deep breath of his scent and gave a little shiver.  “You smell so manly, Brau...”  Braulio shuddered a little too, deja vu hitting him hard.  She smiled at his shiver, not knowing what it really meant to him, and squeezed him tightly as they went back to sleep together.  