Leather and Lace Ch. 8
Blood, Sweat and Fears
By Shadowed Ember

TRIGGER/CONTENT WARNINGS:
Violence, Blood

March 15, 2014
Kalayo Residence - Morning

Holly…

Llyulf’s eyes snapped open with a gasp, nearly sending the young wolf into a coughing fit choking on his own saliva. Clearing his throat to stave it off, he stared up at the dimly lit ceiling above him, only illuminated by a thin stream of sunlight that managed to slip past his curtains. He’d been dreaming of— A wash of formerly still, chilly air rolled over his mostly uncovered form a moment after he heard the heat kick on. The damn HVAC unit was pretty old, and it always took a minute before it was doing more than just moving around the cool air.

The wolf settled back into his thoughts with a slight shiver. He must have passed out crazy hard last night… Apparently in his fugue state he’d stripped down and decided to forgo even his boxers, and barely managed to cover any of his body with his sheet at all. He reached down to grab his woolen blanket that lay crumpled and abandoned at the foot of his bed as he tried desperately to hold onto the rapidly fading imprint of the dream he’d been having. He pulled it up and over himself— 

Llyulf let out a sudden soft hiss and whine, wincing as the blanket slid over some… very sensitive flesh around his hips that his not quite awake brain hadn’t had the foresight to protect from the scratchy fabric. 

The wolf muttered a quiet curse as the details of the dream continued to slip away from him. All he could really remember clearly was Holly, looking up and feeling her warmth pressed and shifting against him, locked in a tight embrace.

Leo stared at the ceiling and huffed. He reached up to his headboard, his paw brushing against a cord, following its length to find it currently attached to— nothing. He frowned.

My phone must still be in my pants from yesterday… probably.

The teen spotted said pants tossed haphazardly over the back of his computer chair, decidedly not within reach. Clapping his paws to his face, he dragged them down with a groan, and gingerly rolled to the edge of the bed. 

Well, shit… I guess the day starts now, then…

*******

A quick run to the bathroom, and more than a little grumbling later, the teenaged wolf stumbled into the kitchen where his father stood at the stove, a cloud of delicious smelling steam wafting up from an aggressively sizzling pan. 

Mmmm, bacon…

 Llyulf pulled his head to the side with his paw, trying and ultimately failing to elicit a crack from his neck, and letting out a dissatisfied groan at the release that never came. Pulling the milk jug from the fridge, he hooked the open door with his foot, and flipped it closed…. albeit with a bit more force than he’d intended. As it slammed shut, his dad flinched away from the sound.

“Sonuva… Damn, son, chill,” Niall barked over his shoulder, straightening back up. “You’re gonna break the door, you keep throwing it around like that. Fuck.” 

“Sorry Dad, I didn’t think I gave ‘er that much, honestly. My bad.” Leo finished pouring his glass and returned the jug to the fridge. “Good morning to you, too,” he added, flopping into his chair at the table. “You’re uh… you’re up early for a Sunday. Do you have to work? I think you were out even later than me last night.”

Niall’s ear swivelled around to listen, before shaking his head. “Nah, just woke up early, and felt like getting up for once. I wasn’t out that late. When did you end up getting back?”

“Eh, around midnight I think? Holly and I— we had a bit of a weird night.”

The older wolf cocked his head enough to be noticed from behind. “Weird, huh? Hopefully, it wasn’t anything bad. Gotta say, I had a bit of an odd time myself last night, but more in a good way… At least, I think it was.”

“You think it was?” Llyulf snorted. “What, are you missing time?”

“Har dee har har, son. Who said I was even drinking last night?” Niall quipped. “To be fair, I did have a couple drinks,” the older wolf clarified. “But c’mon, it was Saturday night, and I know my limits.” He dipped into the fridge and brought out a carton of eggs. “You gonna want any of these?”

“Fried in bacon grease? Hell yeah, what kinda question is that?” the teen agreed excitedly. “So what's up with this ‘maybe a good thing,’ huh? You can’t say something like that and not spill.”

The grease fizzled and spat dramatically as Niall cracked a couple of the eggs into the pan. “Hmm… Maybe a better way to put it is ‘it's a little early to tell how good it might be,’” Niall started. “There’s a little dive bar down the block I did some work at a few weeks ago. I popped in last night, and uh…. Met some people.”

“Met some people there, or met some new people?”

“Met some new people,” the older wolf confirmed.

Llyulf licked his lips as his dad turned and approached to drop off a plate with a pair of crispy-edged eggs, a hefty portion of bacon, and a couple slices of under-done toast. “Really? That’s cool I guess.” The younger wolf picked up and crunched on one of the pieces of bacon, scrolling idly on his phone in the other paw. “I’m still not hearing where the ‘might be good’ might be. Someone offer you some work or something?”

“Oh, nah, nothing like that. I wasn’t looking for work.” Niall plopped down with a plate of his own in the chair across from his son. “I just ended up accidentally helping someone celebrate their birthday.”

Leo’s eyes flicked up from his phone, one eyebrow arched. “O-kaaay?”

His dad coughed, and Niall quickly took a sip from his glass. “She was sweet. And really pretty.”

The teen wolf’s other eyebrow rose to join the first. “She? How’d you help her celebrate? I ain’t looking for a little brother,” he said, a smirk crawling onto his face. The rapid blinking he got before his dad managed to formulate a response was absolutely the most perfect reaction he could have asked for.

Niall jabbed his fork in his smug son’s direction. “Alright now, cool it. I’m not looking to give you one either.” The older wolf rolled his eyes. “Besides, we ain’t even had a date, yet, jeez.”

“The operative there being ‘yet’, Dad. So you’re looking for one of those at least.”

“Can’t let you be the only one having fun around here, can I?” Niall leaned back in his chair and tore a chunk off a particularly thick slice of sweet, sweet bacon. “I don’t know if it’ll end up going anywhere, but I figure I’ll at least give her a call today. She cared enough to respond to my text last night, so I must not’ve done too bad for myself.”

“Look at you, old man,” Leo laughed. “Getting a girl’s number on her birthday. Guess that’s enough to be impressed about. Nice.” He sopped up the remnants of his eggs with the last bits of his toast. For all the flak he was giving his dad, it was nice to see him with a little less strain in his smile. “Gramps got game.”

The older wolf’s smile vanished, and his eyes locked on Leo’s. “Gramps? Don’t tell me you need a nursery already.” Those eyes couldn’t sell the seriousness, though, and the mask fell away almost immediately. “You make me a grandfather before I’m 40 and I tell you what, son, I’ll throw you headfirst into a snowdrift. How’s about we both keep minis off the table.”

The wolf teen snorted, downing the last dregs in his glass, and rose to his feet. “Deal. We can’t afford that shit anyway.” He dropped off his dishes in the sink, and stopped in the kitchen archway on his way back to his room. “Seriously, though. It's cool that you met someone. If she’s half as sweet as Holly, we’ll both be doing great for ourselves,” he said over his shoulder, before heading down the hall. He almost made it back into his room before he heard Niall yell out to him.

“Oh, hey, you said you had a weird night, too. What was up with that?”

“Uh…” Nothing you probably need to worry about, Dad. The cops are already dealing with it. You keep on riding your high. “You know what? Nothing that interesting. Your story was better.”

“You sure? I’m here if you nee—”

“I’m good, Dad, jeez. I’ll let you know if I need ya, but I’m pretty good at handling myself,” Leo yelled back down the hall.

*******
March 17, 2014

Chimera Prep - Afternoon

The young black wolf rolled his head around, stretching out his neck as he shouldered his bag coming out of his programming classroom. While he'd heard the mayor made a habit of keeping an eye on the Dark Riders, Leo had to believe that seeing Ms. Fargo after school, at the school, couldn't arouse THAT much suspicion even if Roman had eyes there. The liger may be a Dark Rider, but she was also his teacher. Regardless, the meeting had been fruitful, at least.

He pulled out his phone and tapped out a text to Holly, shuffling along in the direction of his locker. The halls were mostly empty already, even just 15 minutes after the final bell. 

[Ms. Fargo really liked my idea for the     ]
[‘project’. Even said she could absolutely]
[see backing something like it. I don’t      ] 
[think funding will be a problem now.      ]

[Good to know. I know Megan and     ]
[Claire said they would, but it still      ]
[helps to get it from the horse’s mouth]
[Liger’s mouth, you mean :)]
[Kidding, kidding]
[I have enough stashed away to cover a ]
[good bit too, since we’ll get it back in a] 
[couple months. As long as I’m covered]
[by summer when I need to get a place  ]
[for next year, I’ll be set                         ]

Leo stopped in the middle of the ‘T’ in the hall, briefly frowning in the direction of his locker. It was all the way at the end of the hall to his right, but his car was almost closer, if he just took the left hall instead…

He grumbled softly, turning right, and making his way down the ‘neverending’ path to his locker. He probably could speedread the chapter he had due for tomorrow in the morning, but that meant he could just as easily get it done tonight and not have to worry about it. Best laid plans, and all that shit. He gave the dial of the combination lock a couple of whirrs before putting in his combination, and yanking open the door. 

Lit, Stat, no Calc, no Bio, no—

“About time you showed, little bitch. Thought you’d snuck by me for a hot minute there.”

Leo froze, and his hackles rose immediately. He hadn’t seen Ryan all day! C’mon, now isn’t the time to– ugh, breathe, play it cool, he won’t start anything here, right? “Sorry to keep you waiting, I didn’t think you were even here today,” he spoke hesitantly, without turning around. 

“Oh, so you were looking out for me then. Good to know you haven’t forgotten that stunt you pull–” 

“Look dude, I’ll be honest,” Llyulf interrupted. The wolf finished transferring his textbooks, slid his arm through one of the straps of his backpack, his other paw tensed on top of the locker door. His own heartbeat thundered in his ears as he focused on his breath. “I have no interest in starting shit with you. I’m down if we never speak again, in or out of school.”

“And what, you get off free with the cheap shot you took?” Ryan growled. “I don’t fucking think so.”

Leo let out a soft growl of his own. “I wasn’t aiming there, asshole. You threatened my girlfriend, and you swung on me. It's your own fau–” he snapped back testily, spinning to face the badger. 

Or rather, he tried to. The wolf’s body slammed into the wall of metal in front of him before he could turn around, his forehead bouncing off the top edge of the locker door, before collapsing down to one knee, groaning. Already he could feel sweat soaking his fur and running down one side of his face as panic attempted to set in. Before he could recover the wind the badger had knocked out of him, Llyulf felt himself hauled back up by the collar of his jacket, spun around and thrown back into the lockers. 

“Not so tough now, are you, little fucker?” Ryan sneered, now holding the wolf up by the front of his collar. “What was that shit you said to me? That you shouldn’t talk—” The badger’s fist found Leo’s jaw, sending sparks flashing through the teen’s vision, dazing him, even as he tried to push the larger male away. “— when you fight?” Another blow connected with the wolf’s ribs, driving what air he’d managed to recover back out of his lungs, before Ryan’s elbow came up and over Leo’s arms and crashed into the his cheek, sending him careening to the side, staggering and stumbling a couple of steps before crumpling to the floor. 

Need… to get… away…

Leo pushed himself up to all fours, coughing, trying to clear the haze from his mind, and eyes. His right eye burned, his face was wet… and there were spots of red appearing in what blurry view he had of the scuffed linoleum floor. 

“Maybe you talk too much, fucker. And we’re just getting started!” The badger punctuated the last word with a swift kick to the downed teen’s side, knocking him over again just as he tried to get back to his feet.

Not good, not good, not good, not good.

Leo struggled back to his knees, wheezing, and pushed himself shakily to his feet while Ryan cracked his knuckles above him.

“Whatcha got, little bitch?” The badger smacked his own cheek. “C’mon, I bet you I don’t even feel it. You got lucky last time.” For every uneven step back the wolf took, Ryan took a step forward, not letting Llyulf put any distance in between them. “Why are you running? Realize how fucked you are? Fine.” The badger leapt forward, swinging for the bloody side of Leo’s face where he knew he’d be partially obscured. 

Fortunately for Leo, he did see it coming. On the flip side, he wasn’t exactly agile at the moment. He threw himself at the wall, Ryan’s fist barely missing his head, then jumped forward, rushing over to his still open locker and slamming it shut. He made to take off down the hallway, but he wasn’t fast enough. The badger was able to snag the handle on top of his backpack and yank him backwards right off his feet. 

“Ha! Nice try. But I’m not done with you. Maybe if I break your face enough, they’ll be able to put it back together better.”

The wolf dropped, letting his arms slide out of the straps of his bag, rolling left as Ryan just laughed and tossed the backpack, sending it sliding down the hall. Another kick from the badger glanced off Leo’s hip and threw him off balance as he attempted to scramble to his feet. He stumbled into the wall a little harder than he would have liked, knocking a green shamrock poster to the floor, but at least he was standing now. Panting, he tried to wipe his eye to clear it, but it just stung more, and only succeeded in making his arm stickier. His good eye had cleared enough at least that he could see the gloat on Ryan’s face. Could have lived without that visual… Now how d—

“Hey! Y-you’re bleeding!”

Leo watched the badger’s eyes widen, and the larger fur twisted to look over his shoulder for the source of the yell. The wolf, however, didn’t care to wait to find out who it was, all he knew was that the badger was no longer looking in his direction, and took the moment to make a mad dash past Ryan while the larger male was contorted. 

“Get lost, doe, this doesn– GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE FUCK!” Ryan roared as Leo tore by him.

The deer girl that had distracted the badger shrank back against the wall, but Leo didn’t slow up. He was barely able to snag his bag as he ran by it, almost tripping over his own feet, but managed to stay mostly upright. He didn’t bother looking behind him. He could hear the heavy footfalls of the badger over the pounding in his head. His only goal was the door at the end of the hall, and getting outside before Ryan could reach him. 

“Fuck, sorry!” he shouted as he barely missed bowling over a pretty, short-haired skunk girl that stepped out of one of the classrooms ahead of him. She shouted something back at him, but he wasn’t able to parse it. He hit the door at full speed, flinging it open ahead of him and making a beeline for where he knew his truck was, praising whatever god that happened to be listening that there was no vehicle parked in front of him. 

Leo was vaguely aware of more shouting in his direction from one end of the parking lot, but again, he wasn’t going to slow down long enough to try and figure any of it out. Leaping into the front seat, he skipped over the seatbelt, turned the key, and threw the truck in Drive. His foot hit the floor with the pedal underneath, and the vehicle leaned precipitously as he launched toward the parking lot exit. The ‘where’ could wait. Right now, all that mattered was getting away from here.

*******

Once he’d made it a couple blocks from the school, he turned down a side street, and roughly shifted into park on the edge of the road, flipping on his hazards. Adrenaline was starting to wash out of him, and fuck, everything hurt. His sides, his chest, his back– The wolf leaned forward, tossing his backpack to the passenger seat with a groan. The sharp corners of textbooks in his back surely weren't helping matters. His head throbbed, and he popped open the center console to grab some napkins he had stashed away, mentally cringing at the smears of red he was leaving on the beige leather. Mental cringing became physical and he let out a grunt as he pressed the wad to the area that hurt most above his eyes, gritting his teeth. 

What the fuck do I do now? 

He gingerly pulled the napkins away to see just how much they were absorbing. The answer was pretty simple: way too much for his taste. He seemed to still be actively bleeding, which means he probably needed some sort of medical intervention. He wiped his paw on his uniform pants leaving another red streak, and pulled out his phone, which seemed to have stayed fully intact in his pocket somehow. Surprising, considering all the bouncing around he had done on the floor and walls of the school. He really wanted to avoid Marblecliff General. Hospitals were expensive, and while he was pretty sure his dad had insurance, he doubted it would be very comprehensive. A quick Google search for urgent care locations mentioned there was one a couple miles down the road. 

Open Paws Medical Clinic. Should be cheaper than the hospital, at least.

He tapped on the address, took a moment to put on the seatbelt that he’d neglected while peeling out of the school parking lot, and pulled off towards the place, hoping they could get him fixed up, at least a little bit.

*******

Open Paws Medical Clinic
 
Everything sucked. Every move he made, voluntary or not, hurt. The soft lurch as his SUV bumped the wheel stop in the parking space, hurt. Sliding out of his truck, hurt. Pushing his door shut, hurt. Limping to the door of the Clinic, hurt. Yanking on the glass and metal door that felt like it was hermetically sealed to the frame? Fucking ow! Yeah, that definitely hurt. 

Llyulf cringed reflexively as a digital chime sounded near the top of the door frame.

BING-BONG!

“Welcome to Open Paws! Come on up, I’ll get you your pape–” started the pretty white mouse behind the front desk, before her pink eyes came up to focus on the bloody wolf. “Oh my! What happened to you, young man?!” She leapt to her feet and rushed around the desk, popping open and holding the door leading to the exam rooms, beckoning to the teen. “Come, through this third door on your left, let’s get you sat down.” She led him to the indicated room and called around the corner. “Doc, we’ve got a pretty urgent one. He’s going to need some cleanup, and probably some stitches.”

Leo followed dutifully, and carefully climbed up onto the papered exam table. 

“Stitches? What a great way to end the day.” A vaguely canine woman in a doctor’s coat followed the sarcastic response through the doorway, pushing a metal cart into the room and over to the side of the table. Her brows rose as she scanned over the battered wolf. “Shit, kid. I thought the Moon-Moon thing was just a meme.”

Llyulf stared blankly back at her. “Moon… moon?” The doctor’s fingers snapped in front of his face, causing him to flinch, then wince from the reactive motion.

“Responds to stimuli, so the patient might just be a little slow,” she said, seemingly to herself. “Alright, pup, I need a quick rundown of what the hell happened to you so I don’t accidentally break you more while I’m trying to help.”

The wolf teen couldn’t tell if Ryan had rung his bell harder than he’d thought, or if this doctor was as crazy as she seemed. His phone started buzzing in his pocket, but he ignored it. “Uh… a badger sort of jumped me at my locke–”

“No,” she cut him off. “The events can wait. What hurts, and are you bleeding anywhere else that you know of?”

“Oh. Um, no, I think it's just my forehead that’s bleeding. Honestly, most of my body hurts at the moment, but the worst is my sides, like uh, my ribs, and my head.”

“He was also limping a little when he came in, Shanoa,” the mouse lady piped up. “Do you need anything else from me before I head back up front?”

“Should be good, Gwen,” the doctor responded as she handed Leo a thick gauze pad. “Here, hold that just over your brow, and apply pressure, if you can. I know it won’t feel good. I just want to check a couple things before I get to that, but there is no reason to have you still bleeding everywhere while I do. Hold out the other arm too so I can get at your sides,” she instructed. 

Leo complied, listening to her soft humming as her paws started deftly roaming Leo’s torso, hips and legs, applying gentle pressure to various locations. Some hurt more than others, but even with the pain, it was clear the abundant care and gentleness she worked with, regardless of her initial brusqueness. As she worked, she introduced herself as Dr. Shanoa Kiyomizu, the owner of the clinic. Once she seemed satisfied with her preliminary assessment, she took some vitals, and instructed him to lay back on the table. 

“I’m going to work on cleaning this up, while we go over what would have been in your entry paperwork. It’s going to hurt. I have to get the blood out of the fur around the cut so that I can work on, and disinfect it. Now, do you have any allergies, especially to medications?”

The wolf laid out flat on the table, gritting his teeth as she began to dab at the sticky area, silencing his phone as it vibrated in his pocket again. The scent of isopropyl alcohol assaulted his nose, just before the entire area felt like it was under a torch. He fought to keep his voice level and controlled as she peppered him with a range of questions, quizzing him on his family’s medical history, followed by a recounting of the actual injurious event.

Once she had cleaned him up to her satisfaction, she gave him a numbing agent so she could start the sutures. The wolf was sure the anesthetic was doing something, but fuck it still hurt like crazy. While she worked, she talked, and it did at least help distract him a bit.

“You shouldn’t make a habit of pissing off the guy that did this to you. I’d really rather not keep seeing you in my office.”

“Trust me, doc, I didn’t plan on it the first time.”

“No, but you still managed to get your ass kicked so bad you looked like you were in a car wreck.”

“Hey, I don’t make a habit of fighting at all,” he protested. “I prefer to use my head rather than my paws, so when he surprised me—.”

“He used your head alright. Rocked it right down Main.”

Leo scowled. “Aren’t you supposed to make your patients feel better?”

Dr. Kiyomizu’s response was a non-committal shrug. “My job is to put you back together. I leave the personal stuff to the shrin–”

The voice of the mouse woman interrupted the doctor’s quip. “Shanoa, the Mayor’s office is on the line. He’s being very insistent, he says he wants to discuss—”

Leo bit his lip as Dr. Kiyomizu tensed. She muttered a quick apology before yelling out over her shoulder. “Tell that shitstain I don’t care what he wants.”

“He said he expects to be at his desk for another hour or so.”

“Gwen, I’m with a patient. Just hang up on him. If it's that important, he can waddle his ass down here.” 

Leo had to fight the urge to raise his eyebrows at the level of animosity in her tone. “Not a fan of the Mayor?”

“That's one way of putting it,’” the doctor scoffed. “I wouldn't piss on that chikushou if he was on fire.”

He felt a tug, then heard a snip. “All done?”

“Still need to clean you up again, but the stitches are done. You can sit back up if you want, though.”

Gingerly, the young wolf righted himself, groaning. “Well, not sure what your beef is with Mayor Zaritzky, but has anyone— ugh, sorry— has anyone told you about the ‘performance’ we’re planning for May? I think some of the flyers have started going around already.”

“What performance? And who’s ‘we’?”

“Oh, shit. Er, sorry. Um, I guess if you have no idea what I’m talking about, that sounds way more—.” The wolf cut off as his phone started buzzing in his pocket again. Pulling it out, he accidentally sent it to voicemail, revealing multiple missed calls. He frowned. Swiping at the screen, it turned out all five of the calls were from the same number. Megan. “Um–”

“Gimme just a minute to finish, kid. I’ll do one last once-over on you, then you can make whatever calls you need to, while I get all your paperwork put together.”

He nodded, placing the phone face down next to him as she returned to clearing away the bits of congealed blood around his eye. By the time she finished, his phone had already started buzzing again on the padded table. Dr. Kiyomizu rolled her eyes, wheeling back on her stool before standing and heading for the door. Leo scooped up the phone and— 

*******
Giacomo Estate

Holly rushed excitedly to the door, flinging it open and throwing her arms around the blindsided skunk who had been reaching for the doorbell. “Chelsea!”

“Damn, girl, acting like we didn’t just see each other last week.” Chelsea rolled her eyes playfully, returning the embrace. “I still wish you were at Chimera Prep and we could’ve shared some classes together. It would make them go faster, and loads less awkward. I didn’t really recognize anyone I expected to today.” The skunk followed Holly through the door, and up the staircase. “Do you know if Bethany is still around?”

An embarrassed look crossed Holly’s face. “Once I started online classes, I lost touch with basically all of our old friends. I don’t think she’s gone though.” The chipmunk wracked her brain for the last time she’d seen the fox. “I want to say she was in Cavallo, mmm, last year? She mentioned her family had run into some hard times, and she’d switched out of Chimera to go to Harold Griffin High. I’m not sure what happened to Lacey or Emma, before you ask.” She felt bad, and she could tell it was coloring her voice as she led the way into her bedroom. “You sure you didn’t see either of them?” she asked awkwardly. 

“I don’t think so,” the skunk sighed. “To be fair, Emma always did blend into a crowd, and of course I may have missed Lacey, but I don’t remember seeing any goats all day. They definitely weren’t in my classes.” She sat on the foot of Holly’s bed and flopped back. 

The chipmunk girl dropped into her desk chair, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees, her hair cascading forward to partially obscure her face. “I’m sorry, Chels. You’d probably like Leo and his friends. They’re all pretty great.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe I can introduce you and Leo this weekend. Were the classes at least ok?”

“Classes were fine, just boring. Philosophy seems to be the only class I’m not ahead in. Nothing too crazy; I’m even still kind of ahead one concept we covered on base, but there's one they covered in class here we hadn’t gotten to yet. The textbooks were just ordered a little differently, or something. Stat, physics, English all that I was able to jump right in today, no issues whatsoever. The only real hiccup of the day was after class. I stayed after a little bit to go over the syllabus with the Philosophy teacher, and some guy almost ran into me as he got chased out to the parking lot. I guess there was a fight or something. Crazy thing for a first day, right?”

“Oh no, that’s terrible. I’m glad you’re ok. I think it’s pretty lucky you don’t need to ‘catch up’ on anything, really. I can’t imagine trying to move schools in the middle of a semester like that.”

“Yeah, I expected it to be worse.” Chelsea rolled herself back into a sitting position. “Mom saw the opening and wanted to take it, and I told her I was absolutely willing to put up with some pains to be back here. Instead, for the most part I get to coast a little while I get in the groove here before graduation. Speaking of my classes, what are you taking, with all your special freedom?” 

“Oh!” Holly spun in her chair and flipped open her laptop and tapped the power button. “I’m running through some accelerated courses. I take less of them, but faster. I like it a lot. Right now I am doing French II, European History, and Physics. Last semester I did French I, Pre-Calculus and English Lit. I took Spanish and German last year. That was pretty rough, but I got through it.” A picture of Leo and herself on the bench at Wheeler Park a few weeks ago flashed up on the screen before it was replaced with a browser window. 

“Damn, crushing the languages, eh?” The skunk girl let out a little gasp as the desktop background disappeared before she got a good look. She lurched forward. “Hey! Was that the boyfriend you keep talking about but never show me? Go back, go back, go back, no way you are skipping right by that.”

Holly snorted. “Okay, okay. Don’t get your tights in a twist. Here.” The chipmunk minimized the window to reveal her desktop, turning with a soft blush and a smile to her friend— only to be met with a concerned frown. “Chels? What’s up?”

The skunk continued to stare at the screen. “That’s Leo? You uh… you might want to call him.”

“Wha-? Why? What happened?”

“Remember that guy I told you got chased out of the school? He was bleeding pretty bad. And I am pretty sure it was Leo…” Chelsea said uneasily, not meeting Holly’s eyes.

The chipmunk felt the blush rush off her face faster than it had arrived, leaving a chilled tingle behind. “Was… was the guy chasing him a big badger?”

“Yeah. Do you know hi– Holly, what’s wrong?”

Holly didn’t answer. She was already scrambling across the room to snatch her phone from her bag, and hurriedly dialed her wolf’s number with shaking paws…

*******

Open Paws Medical Clinic

“WHAT THE FUCK, LEO?! WHERE ARE YOU?”

The wolf recoiled, holding the phone out at arms length. The screen flashed and went dark again as he turned down the volume. “Megs, chill. You about blew my ear off.”

“GOOD! I’ll chill when I know what the fuck is going on! You almost hit someone peeling out of the parking lot. Kristin went tearing off after Ryan when he came out of the hall behind you, so he bailed. Not sure where they went. What happened? Where the fuck are you, LB?”

“I’m at an urgent care. Ryan jumped me at my locker. I–” the wolf teen explained.

“He did what?” The bat had gone from shouting to hir words barely making it out of the earpiece. Muffled conversation continued unintelligibly from the phone.

Leo hesitantly gave the volume rocker a couple clicks up. “TLDR, Holly and I ran into Ryan on Friday at the movie theater. Words were exchanged, he swung at me, I tried to knee him in the stomach, ended up scoring a little lower than I intended. I was expecting him to cause a stink, but I didn’t see him all day. So when I went to my locker at the end of the day, he caught me off guard. It was… not great, and I was just trying to get away from him.” A pang of guilt knifed through the wolf. “Who… who did I almost hit? They’re okay, right?” he asked softly.

“Brittney and Cassidy, but they’re fine, you just almost clipped their bumper speeding past them.”

“Brittney who? Cass was the girl that uh…”

“Not important, LB. What about you? Why are you at urgent care?”

“Im fi–” he started, before correcting himself. “Well, no, that’s not totally true. I will be fine, but I had to get some stitches above my eye, and my body pretty well hates me right now. I missed your calls while the doc was working on me.” He caught Ross’ voice faintly in the background.

“Kristin’s coming back, Megs.”

“Why don’t you deal with her, Megan, and I’ll get back to you again tonight once I’m home and not still cooped up in this room,” Llyulf suggested. “I know the doctor said she was prepping paperwork for me.”

“Alright, LB, but I’m going to hold you to that. Take care.”

He tapped the ‘End Call’ button and almost tossed his phone to the side, when he saw the missed call symbol at the top of the screen. He opened his recent calls and frowned. 

Huh? When the… how did I ignore a call from Holly? You never even told me I had a call coming in…

*******
Giacomo Estate

…And the first ring barely started before the call immediately went to voicemail. Holly turned to the skunk. “Are you sure it was him? He’s not answering.”

“Maybe he can’t? Like I said, if it was him, he was bleeding pretty bad when he ran past me. Who was that badger chasing him?”

“His name is Ryan, and he’s awful. He tried for weeks to get me to go to Chimera Prep’s Winter Formal with him. I kept telling him no, but he wore me down a little, and I figured if he was that persistent, maybe he deserved a chance. Then he ditched me at the dance for some trampy green cat not even an hour in!” the chipmunk spat. “Now, for some reason, he’s offended that I'm with Leo. We ended up running into him Friday night at the movie theater, and it… ugh, the night spiraled after that. He grabbed me, but Leo was able to head him off, and we got away.”

“That’s messed up, girl. Did you tell mom and dad?”

“I— no, actually.” Holly blinked rapidly as she ran back over the night in her head. “We got followed after we left the theater, but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t Ryan. Whoever it was kept their distance even when we stopped in an empty parking lot. They just kept following us until a police cruiser ran them off. We were so focused on the car, and Leo got upset when the cops lost them. I don’t think either of us mentioned Ryan to my parents…”

“You might want to, if he’s going to be this stupid. Grabbing you in public is pretty bad, but if he’s willing to attack Leo at school too, do you think he’s going to just… stop?”

Holly sighed. “You’re right.” She chewed at the corner of her lip. “I really hope Leo’s okay. I don’t know why he wouldn’t—” Her phone chirped in her paw, startling her so much it tumbled to the carpet. Scooping it back up, she read the incoming call notification and quickly tapped the screen to answer it. “L-Leo?

“Hey beautiful. I’m sorry, I’m not sure how I missed your call, I was on the line with Megan, but it never told me you were calling. When I got off the phone, suddenly it was saying a call was missed. You okay? You sound a little… off.”

Why would you call Megan before… “That’s because I’ve been really worried, hun. Chelsea came over, and she said she saw you get chased out of the building by Ryan, and you were bleeding a lot–”

“Wait, hold up. Chelsea?” Ugh… so many names today. My head already hurts. “Chelsea is the friend you were telling me about the other night, right?”

“Yes, she started at Chimera Prep today. She came by after school, and she was telling me someone ran by her bleeding, and a badger chased him out, and then she saw you on my computer, and said she was pretty sure it was you, and then you didn’t answer when I called, and I- I—”

“Okay, okay, love. Holly. Holly!” Leo interrupted. “I’m sorry. I would’ve called, I just hadn’t had time yet—”

But you called hir… 

“—but Chelsea’s right, I was bleeding pretty good,” the wolf acknowledged, keeping his voice even, and hopefully reassuring. “He surprised me at my locker at the end of the day, after the halls had cleared out. Once I got away from Ryan, I booked it to my car, and got out of the parking lot as quick as I could. I looked up an urgent care, and got over to this place called Open Paws. The doc here has been patching me up, and she finished just a little bit ago. I’m pretty sore, my head hurts, and I have some stitches above one of my eyes, but I’ll be fine. I promise. Once I get off the phone with you, I’ll be finishing up my paperwork up front, then getting out of here.”

Holly made her way back to her chair and collapsed into it as he explained. “Do you need anyone to come get you? Maybe you could come here and stay for dinner. I’m sure Mamma wouldn’t mind, and then you could meet Chelsea, too.”

“As much as I’d love to see you, and your friend, and have some of your mom’s incredible food, I should probably be there when my Dad gets home to explain the medical bill we’re gonna be getting, and see how much his insurance is going to cover. They only gave me a local painkiller, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to drive, but if I can’t, I’ll let you know. I’m sure Dad’s gonna want to talk to Headmistress Gaithers about Ryan tomorrow, too. Maybe Wednesday?”

“Wednesday is probably fine. I’ll talk to Mamma.” Holly hoped he couldn’t hear the slight pout she was wearing in her voice. What he was saying made sense, but she didn’t have to be happy about it. “If your Dad is off early enough, maybe he can finally come by the house, too.”

“That would be great. He’s been running himself ragged recently.” Something came across the line, but it was muffled, so the chipmunk couldn’t make it out before the wolf continued. “Oh, yes ma’am. Be right there. Hey, gorgeous, they said all the stuff is ready for me to finish filling out, so I gotta go. I’ll text you when I get home, and we can talk more. Love you.”

“Love you too, Leo. Please be careful,” she responded, worry coloring her voice again. 

“Of course, love.”

*******
Open Paws Medical Clinic

The wolf pocketed his phone and followed Dr. Kiyomizu out to the front desk, filling out what information he could from the paperwork the receptionist handed him. “I don’t have my Dad’s insurance information on me, but I should be able to get it to you later this week, if not tomorrow.” 

“Well, just don’t wait too long, or we’ll just end up sending the bill to your address, okay, kid? Now, don’t go scratching at the stitches, even when they itch like crazy. The more you fuck with them, the more likely you’ll scar.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Dr. Kiyomizu rattled off some more care instructions she said were also in the packet she was giving him to take home, then turned to head back to her office. 

“Oh, Doc, hold up. About earlier.” He looked behind him and confirmed the office was empty but for himself, the doctor, and the mouse woman. “You called Zartizky a shitstain–”

“And that’s being nice about it.”

“Right.” Leo cleared his throat. “Well, we’ve got an event we’re planning for May. You’re gonna see some posters around town saying it is going to be a ‘mature, historic show’ about the ‘Fall of the Roman Empire.’”

“Historical. Sounds boring.”

“That’s part of the point.” The corner of the wolf’s muzzle twitched up in a smirk. “But the posters say historic, not historical. And I promise, that isn’t a typo. We’re advertising a stage performance, and there definitely will be a stage. But Mayor Roman Zaritzky isn’t gonna like what’s on it… So I thought you might want to come.”

Dr. Kiyomizu’s eyes narrowed. “History suddenly sounds much less boring. I’m listening… Do tell me more about how I can help ruin that asshole’s day.”

*******

Kalayo Residence - Later That Night

Leo used the dim light of the shutdown sequence on his desktop to make his way to his bed, then gingerly rolled into it with a groan. 

The day had been such a clusterfuck. He’d let his guard down, and paid the price for it. And that price was steep, between the pain and medical bill, which he hadn’t seen yet, but could easily end up being a pretty penny by itself. His dad took it about as well as could be expected, which is to say… not great? Leo got a substantial earful about provoking bullies, and for not telling him about Ryan, or getting followed after his date. Niall insisted on taking off to go to the school tomorrow, and then driving over to Open Paw to give his insurance information for the bill. The teenaged wolf just hoped that getting the faculty involved didn't end up making Ryan more aggressive. He wasn’t eager to have any more afterschool beatdowns. He winced as he shifted onto his side. 

Tomorrow is going to suck, so much…

He fired off a quick text to Holly. His dad had said he wouldn’t be able to commit to dinner with the Giacomo’s since he was taking time off to deal with Leo’s situation, and he might need to pick up an after hours call to compensate, and to help cover the bill from Open Paws. The younger wolf told him he could take care of it once the Rally was over, but his dad refused to let the bill sit for that long, and was paying for it immediately. Still, Niall had passed on his stubbornness whether he liked it or not, and Leo was going to make sure he found out whatever his dad paid from Dr. Kiyomizu so that he could reimburse him. 

His phone dinged, and the wolf teen went back and forth with Holly for a few minutes, though it very quickly became clear when he nodded off twice between messages, only to wake up when the phone clapped against his chest, that his body had decided it was done for the day. The aching wolf fumbled his way through blurry eyes to a hopefully comprehensible goodnight to his lovely chipmunk before dropping his phone on the headboard, and acquiescing to the force dragging him to darkness. 

*******
March 22, 2014
Sequoia Square Mall - Marblecliff, NH

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Leo’s expectation had been correct. He woke up on Tuesday morning barely able to move at all. What he hadn’t counted on was feeling that way for most of the week. Surprise! And even if he somehow didn’t count the achy pain and itchy stitches, the rest of the week had still been a pretty mixed bag.

After Llyulf’s dad complained to Headmistress Gaithers, Ryan hadn’t been suspended because ‘something something scholarship opportunities.’ The wolf teen wasn’t sure whether it was from from the constant shadow he seemed to have from one or more of his friends at all times, or from something that school had said to the badger, but at least aside from a murderous glare Leo got every time Ryan spotted him, the other male had left him alone. 

One of the most interesting reactions to his attack came from Kristin. An aggressive and somewhat volatile ferret girl, Kristin was possibly Megan’s oldest friend, and once a bit more. She had ended up causing all sorts of trouble for Megan, not the least of which by being the one who outed the bat as a herm to the entire school before Leo arrived in Marblecliff, and later trying (and temporarily succeeding) in blowing up Megan and Ross’ relationship. From the moment he’d started hanging out with the bat, she’d always been someone he was warned to steer clear of. Even if Megan had forgiven her over a month ago, and she’d started hanging around the circle occasionally, Leo couldn’t help still feeling a bit wary of her, and certainly hadn’t been the most welcoming of her presence. 

Now he didn’t quite know how to feel about her. Not only had she tried to chase Ryan down the day Leo was attacked, but she seemed pretty eager to avenge the wolf after the fact too. She’d offered to do the badger worse than what he’d done to Leo, but thankfully he was able to talk the ferret down with Megan’s help. The, uh, ‘enthusiastic’ support was appreciated, but all Llyulf wanted was to finish out the year without feeling like he needed to look over his shoulder every second of every day. 

Leo did feel kinda bad for Holly though. At dinner on Wednesday, he apologized to her mom and dad for not mentioning Ryan to them Friday night. The car tailing them had made it seem irrelevant by comparison, and he’d sort of forgotten in the chaos. Holly’s dad had seemed pretty understanding towards Leo as the wolf explained, thankfully, but Nicolo also shot a look at his daughter that sent her gaze immediately to the floor. She’d texted later that night saying everything was fine, and Nicolo was just disappointed that she hadn’t mentioned it when she discovered Llyulf had been attacked. Holly could follow her father’s perspective and sort of understood, but she’d wanted Leo to be there so they could explain everything together. 

On top of all of that, they’d had to settle with her resting her head on his shoulder instead of cuddling up on the couch together afterwards. He wanted her to be closer, to have his arms around her, but his ribs had protested mightily when she tried to snuggle up against him. 

Even today, his body was still determined to make its lingering dissatisfaction known. He wasn’t limping anymore, his head didn’t throb (mostly), and he could twist his torso again with a little effort, but there was still some soreness with certain motions. Holly had suggested last night the two of them spend the day together since the weather was finally getting a little warmer. She seemed a little put out when he declined and explained he already had plans for the middle of the day, but would be free later in the afternoon. Together, they had decided to relax on the dock tonight, like they’d done on Valentine's Day, and he was really excited to. He just couldn’t skip out on Megan when he already told hir he’d be there to keep hir company. 

As he walked through the glass double doors of The Rising Dragon, he was met with a sigh of relief from a very bored looking bat. 

“I swear, Leo, I don’t think a single person has even looked in the general direction of this store since we opened,” shi complained, resting hir elbows on the glass display case in front of hir. “I’m really glad you still decided to show. How are you feeling?”

“A little sore, but definitely better than I have been.” The wolf set the bag on the counter, which caught Megan’s attention, and subconsciously raised his paw almost to his temple before lowering it back down again. “The biggest ‘pain’ isn’t even really pain, it's how itchy the stitches are. You deserve a fucking medal for all the shit you put up with. It’s been driving me up the wall.”

“Yeah. Being healed is great. Healing sucks sometimes,” Megan agreed. 

“What about you? Have you heard anything from Heather yet about the con? It actually opened yesterday, right?”

“She’s having a blast over there. Said she’s even sending someone over tonight to grab some stock that she actually pre-sold yesterday and this morning that she didn’t have on the floor, but that she got some requests for anyway.” Shi eyed the bag on the counter and sniffed the air. “So… what have you got there? You didn’t say you were bringing anything.”

“Oh, I just figured you probably wouldn’t have eaten yet, and since you’re alone in the shop today, you probably couldn’t step out.” The wolf shrugged. “So I snagged you some of that lo mein you got the other day. Seemed like a safe bet.”

"Well, I'm definitely not going to turn it down, but I probably won't finish it. With Ross and Melissa out of town, I'm going to Maykere's after work and she's cooking."

"Oh, sweet! I still think it's cool you, Ross and Maykere were able to work something out together." Megan had mentioned a couple weeks ago that shi, Ross and Maykere were experimenting with a relationship between all three of them. It was a little odd for him to imagine, but hey, his best friend was happy, and the three of them seemed sweet together. At least it was simpler than Ethan and Claire's... situation. 

“Yeah, it's still new, and we are still feeling things out, but it's been really nice so far.” Megan reached under the counter, before making hir way around it. “Here, why don’t we go take a seat if we’re going to eat.”

Llyulf’s eyebrow twitched upward, and he bit back a growl at the uncomfortable pull of the stitches, covering it with a cough. “Er, are we able to? You don’t have to stay at the counter?”

“Yeah, I just turned on the door alerts, so it’ll ring if someone comes in. We use it all the time, whenever we can’t keep a view on the door, like when we are cleaning up or stocking.” Shi slid around him and headed for the other side of the store. “C’mon, we’ll sit in the Dragon’s Den.”

As the wolf followed hir over to one of the plastic tables surrounded by folding chairs in the other room, he noticed something conspicuously missing from Megan’s person that had been there at school the day before. “Wait, you’re done with the boot?” he asked excitedly.

“Oh yeah, I went in yesterday after we got out, and they said I should be good,” shi replied, dropping into one of the padded chairs on one side of the table. “I still have the boot for now, but I don’t need to be in it all the time. The doctor recommended I keep it around for another week or so, in case I develop any concerning pain, but so far, other than a little stiffness from, you know, being trapped in a boot, it feels pretty great not having to hobble around.”

Llyulf went to setting out the containers of food. Vegetable lo mein for the bat, and a cheesesteak without the peppers for himself. “That’s awesome, Megs. Now let’s keep it that way. No parkour,” he grinned, taking the seat across from hir.

“Oh fuck you, LB,” shi laughed. The bat cracked open the container and took a deep whiff. “Mmmm, ya know, I brought some fruit to snack on, but damn that smells good, and it's nice and hot,” shi commented, licking hir lips. “Thanks, dude. I’ll get you some cash before you leave, my bag is just in the back.”

“It ain’t enough to worry about,” he countered, waving a paw dismissively. “I’m sure we’ll end up square eventually.”

“Fine, fine.” Shi rolled her eyes, then muttered something under hir breath. 

Leo snorted, shaking his head. He took a closer look around the room while he savored the greasy goodness of his sandwich. On the other end of the table was a loose stack of papers covered in numbers, and on the back wall was a large freestanding speaker next to a mic and stand. He tilted his head and pointed at the latter. 

“What’re those for?”

Megan followed his indication before shrugging. “Just a cheap and easy announcement system really. Whenever they hold the little card tournaments in here, it's easier than trying to yell over everyone, and it feels more official.”

“So they work?”

The bat looked at him with some mix of what seemed like confusion and bemusement. “I mean, I would assume so. I guess they could have gotten fucked up in the time I was gone, but I don’t see why Heather would hang onto them if they were broken.” Hir eyes narrowed. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, nothing serious.” He wiped his paws on a napkin. “I was just kinda curious if the speaker had a three-and-a-half mil input.”

“Trying to play store DJ today or something?” 

“Nah, I was more thinking about getting some practice for that Karaoke bar you told us about. Think your boss would care as long as we don’t piss off the neighbors?”

He watched hir think about it for a moment before shaking hir head. “As long as it’s not too loud, I don’t think she’d mind. What do you wanna work on?”

“I’m not really feeling the Swayze song anymore. I don’t think I want both songs I do to be soft and slow.”

Megan nodded. “Fair enough. Got a better idea of what you want to do instead?” 

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna give a shot at one of the songs my Dad recommended. If it doesn’t work, I have a pretty excellent safe song that everyone should–” The smirking wolf was interrupted by a chiming sound, and the bat called out over him. 

“Just a second, I’ll be right with you.” Shi hopped to her feet, and hurried over to the main part of the store. Shi was back in less than a minute though. “Poor woman saw ‘Games’ and asked if we had some special edition Monopoly game. She heard no, and was gone before I finished speaking,” the bat chuckled. “Now what the hell was up with that look you were giving me? I didn’t like it one bit.”

“Oh, you’ll see. Or rather, you will if I can get that speaker to work.”

The pair walked over to the speaker, Megan flipped it around, and Leo knelt next to it to check the ports on the back. 

“Ha!” the wolf exclaimed. “Aux jack, perfect. It has separate knobs for audio and microphone here too. We might be able to hook up both at the same–”

“Slow your roll, Leo,” the bat cut in. “I don’t think we’ll need a mic. If we are keeping the music low to not bother the neighbors, we should probably keep your wailing down too.”

“Hey, I’m not that bad!” the wolf protested.

“Damn dude, I’m sure you aren’t. Relax,” shi shot back with a smile. “But honestly, doing the vocals raw is probably better. We’d have to turn the mic down so low it wouldn’t really do anything for you, anyway. You can still hold it for the vibe if you really want to.”

Llyulf had to admit the logic tracked. The two of them got the speaker set up and powered, and spun the volume dial all the way down before turning it on. The speaker buzzed a bit as they plugged in the cable, but quickly went silent other than a couple sporadic quiet pops and hisses. 

Opening the music library on his phone, Leo tapped a random song, and let it play for a second, before slowly turning up the volume so the two could easily hear the songs, but it wouldn’t garner any special attention outside the store. The quality wasn’t stellar by any means, but it was serviceable.

Leo started with a country song as a warm-up, since it felt pretty effortless for him. He loved singing in his lower range, it always just felt so… smooth. Opting to hold the mic even if it wasn’t connected, he watched the bat’s eyebrows shoot up when he started, and shi gently bobbed hir head as he continued.

When the wolf finished the song and paused the player on his phone, shi leaned back and let out a low whistle. “Well damn, Leo.”

He chuckled. “I kinda feel like I’m on American Idol right now.”

Megan shrugged. “Honestly, if you were, they probably wouldn’t shred you. I know your voice is on the lower side, but you sing deeper than you speak. And if that was as easy as it looked for you, that’s pretty impressive. Getting down in that range isn’t really common, even for guys. I am going to need you to explain where the hell that drawl came from though.”

It was the wolf’s turn to shrug. “Eh, it feels weird singing a song without an accent if the song has one. I can sorta just… turn it on when I sing country.”

“Oh, it sounds fine,” shi clarified. “I know you came from down south, but it's just weird hearing you sound Southern, dude. That wasn’t the one you wanted to practice though, was it? Sounds like you have that one down.”

Llyulf shook his head. “Nah, that one’s easy for me. Figured I would start with something I knew I could do pretty good with.” He tapped his phone screen to wake it and scrolled down a little before selecting a new song and pausing it before it could start. “This one, not so much. It’s a little bit higher, and not as relaxed. I’ve tried a few times on my own, but it’s been giving me trouble. Maybe you can help with what I might be doing wrong.” As Megan nodded, he tapped play on his phone. 

Rather than watch the bat’s reactions, this time the wolf sang with his eyes closed, focusing solely on the song itself. He winced more than once as his voice wavered and broke, but he finished out the song before he finally cleared his throat and looked at his friend. Shi was leaning back in hir chair, boots crossed on the table, hir purple eyes squinting at him a little as shi played with the piercing in hir lip. He gave hir a weak smile. “Definitely not as easy,” he mumbled. 

Megan turned in the chair, dropped her feet back to the floor and stood, stretching. “Of course it isn’t. That man is a legend. Which, I think, is part of your problem.”

“Too ambitious?” he chuckled nervously.

“It is if you expect to sing like Elton John. There are a couple things that would probably help, if that’s a song you want to do, and the easiest one is to just… sing it differently.” The bat moved over to sit on the corner of the speaker, careful not to knock over the wolf’s phone. “Remember for karaoke, there isn't a backing vocal most of the time. You’re pretty good, honestly, but most of the time you got pitchy trying to follow some of those higher riffs he does. You could just… even those out, and sing them down if you need to, where your voice is more comfortable.”

Leo nodded. “Yeah, I guess. I’m just used to singing with a song, and it’s hard not to follow along.”

“I get that. If you really want to push for those notes, you could always give yourself a visual to help guide you through the progressions in the spots you know you have less control.”

Llyulf blinked and stared blankly at the bat. “Um. What?”

Shi snorted. “Here, it’ll make sense when I show you.” 

Shi held out her paw in front of hir, face down, and sang a stable ‘oooo’. Pushing her palm down, shi lowered hir note. Then, shi flipped her paw over, and it rose with the tone as she slid into a higher one. 

The wolf’s eyes lit up the moment shi moved, but he let her finish the demonstration. “Oh, yeah, I get that.”

“You’d be surprised how much it can focus you, especially in more complex arrangements. Once you get used to them, you can obviously do without, but I still catch myself doing it sometimes even for stuff I know.” Shi cast a sidelong glance at Leo. “You said you had a third song you were wanting to try? Not sure if you were serious with that goofy ass grin you had when you said it.”

“Oh, I’m serious. I can give it a shot, if you want. I’m pretty sure you know the song.” 

Megan hopped off the speaker, but shi hadn’t made it more than a step towards the table before the instantly recognizable drum fill of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ started. Whirling, shi marched in the direction of the plug on the wall, pausing to turn to and face the grinning wolf with hir paws on hir hips when the audio cut off prematurely. “Seriously? You’re fired, LB.”

Llyulf held up his paws. “Easy, sis. Jokes aside, it actually is a really easy song on my voice, but no, I’m not gonna make you actually listen to it. That reaction was perfect though. If you’re cool with it, I do wanna try the vocal control thing you talked about…”

After a few only marginally more successful attempts while Megan watched on from the table, the wolf shook his head. “I’ll keep working on it, I think I can get it. If not, Rick Astley it is.”

“I’m not gonna save you if Ross decides on murder, just saying.” Megan pointed out. Shi tapped her fingertips against the plastic surface of the table. “Hey Leo, before you shut that off–”

Leo looked up from his phone. “Yeah?”

Megan grinned. “What do you think’ll come up if you just hit ‘random shuffle’ on your library? Got any embarrassing shit on there?”

He thought for a moment. “I mean… potentially? I listen to just about everything, and I have some I’d probably consider guilty pleasures on here, but I’m not sure how embarrassing it would really be.”

“Cool. Do it.”

“Now?”

“Yeah.. And if Rick Astley comes on, I’m throwing you out of the store.”

The wolf rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He looked up at the ceiling, his thumb hovering over the button. “Whatcha got for me, Apollo?” he muttered. He tapped the ‘shuffle’ icon.

Step inside
Walk this way
You and me babe
Hey hey!

A loud scraping noise brought Leo’s eyes back down to find Megan on hir feet. Shi came around the table, and started singing along. 

Love is like a bomb, baby, c'mon get it on
Livin' like a lover with a radar phone
Lookin' like a tramp, like a video vamp
Demolition woman, can I be your man?

As the song continued, the wolf joined in, grinning as they started to naturally trade off lines between each other. As the song progressed the bat got more and more into it, and when the last post-chorus dropped, shi did a smooth little step and roll with hir body in time with the music. 

By the time the song ended, both of them had wide grins plastered on their faces, and Megan let out a little “Whoop!”

“Damn Megs. That little roll you did near the end was fucking nice. I wish I could move like that sometimes,” Llyulf commented enviously.

“Oh, c’mon LB, it isn’t that hard. I can show you how.”

“Riiiiiiight,” Leo snorted. “I think you are severely overestimating my ability to move on a good day, let alone with me as sore as I am.”

“Oh quit being a whiny bitch, little bro.” Shi came to stand in front of him. “Start it over, then put down the phone.” 

Leo shrugged and acquiesced, setting the phone on top of the speaker. 

When the post-chorus came up again, Megan repeated the body roll, then had him restart the section twice more. Next, shi showed him without the music, more slowly, and then with one paw on his chest, and one on his hip, helped guide him through the motions step by step. 

He tried to ignore the fact that shi was barely able to keep hirself from dissolving into a fit of giggles the whole time he was trying to put the movements together. He let out a soft growl, more at himself than at hir as he struggled, mostly bothered by the fact he couldn’t blame it on the soreness. It was 100% his coordination that was failing him. 

“Okay, okay, that’s a good enough start, I think,” shi declared, biting back another laugh. “Let’s start the song from the top, I’ll roll on the first one, and you can roll on the second. Let me pull up the lyrics really quick.” Megan pulled out her phone and wrapped a wing around the wolf’s shoulder, scrolling through the lyrics and rattling off which lines each of them should take.

“You’re really getting into this, aren’t you? Are we going to try and actually do this on karaoke night or something?” Leo asked. 

“No idea, but you can’t tell me you aren’t having fun. You’re grinning just as much as me!”

The next hour virtually disappeared as the two of them went back and forth, tweaking who was singing what lines, when they would sing together, the brainstorm only interrupted when the door chimed, and Megan had to run out of the Den to attend to a customer. 

Finally the pair flopped down at the table, laughing heartily, a little out of breath.

“You’re right. That is a ton of fun, even if I can’t roll like you do,” Llyulf admitted. He tapped his chin. “Ya know, even if we don’t duet, I think I have an idea of a good one I can do with Holly.”

“Hmm… Singing one with Ross would be cool. You should totally keep practicing that body roll though. If the bar isn’t as busy, maybe we can whip that one out as a surprise on the fly.”

The wolf chuckled and nodded. “You bet. The real question now is when? Your voice is already sounding pretty good.”

“Hmmm…” Shi pulled up the calendar on hir phone. “The ‘event’ is at the beginning of May…”

“Yep. First weekend. I didn’t think it would be a great idea to have Prom and the rally on back to back weekends.”

“Why don’t we shoot for the middle of April? That’ll give a little more time for my voice, and be a good warmup for the rally. 80s Nights are on Fridays, so… the 18th?” shi suggested. “You can check with Holly, and I’ll see about Ross and Maykere tonight.”

“Holly usually works Fridays, but she gets off early enough it shouldn’t be an issue. I’m going to her place once I take off from here.” Leo’s eyes drifted over to the other side of the table, where they landed on the papers he spotted earlier. “Oh yeah, what are those, by the way?”

Megan glanced around him to see where he was pointing. “Oh! Thanks for reminding me. Those are some character sheets I was working on.” Shi reached over and slid them over in front of her, and started rifling through them. 

“Character sheets for what? They’re just covered in numbers.”

“A D&D campaign I’ve been planning with Ross, Maykere, and some old friends that moved out of town. Would you want to join? I don’t think we offered before when we were talking about setting it up.”

The wolf shook his head. “I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what I was doing.” He peeked at the top of the stack of pages she was shuffling. “What even are all those numbers?”

“Those are my character’s stats. They determine what it's good at, what bonuses it has, and how much damage each type of attack can do.” Shi pointed out the numbers as shi rattled off what each value meant. “My class specializes in Dexterity, so it has the highest modifier.” 

The wolf listened intently as the bat continued explaining hir way down the sheet. He’d never really given it a serious thought, but it sounded way more intriguing than he’d ever given it credit for in passing, and messing with the numbers sounded fun. “I’m not sure if I could really commit to it right now, but who knows, I think I’d be down to give it a try sometime.”

“Fair enough. Maybe we can get you in on a one-shot or something as an introduction over the summer to see if you’ll like it.”

“Sounds good to me. Is there a guidebook or something for stuff like this?”

Megan laughed. “A guidebook? There are tons. I’m pretty sure the question isn’t how many you might want, but how much money you’ve got in that wallet, LB.”

*******

Giacomo Estate - Evening

The blue was just starting to fade from the sky and starting to take on a golden cast on the sides of the clouds above the Giacomo family’s dock. Leo’s chin rested atop Holly’s head as she leaned her back into his chest, while he leaned back against the solid wood railing. His arms encircled her shoulders, and her paws were hooked onto the wolf’s forearms that crossed over her chest. There was a brisk breeze running over the water, but even with it, it still felt better than it had been all week. 

The wind stirred up a couple stray hairs that tickled the wolf’s nose. He shifted slightly, scrunching his muzzle to try and dispel the itch, spurring the chipmunk in his arms to speak up quietly.

“Leaning on you isn’t getting to be too much is it? I don’t want to—”

Llylf raised a digit to her lips to cut her off, shaking his head so that his chin gently rubbed the top of her scalp. “Absolutely not. You feel amazing, and most of the soreness in my body is gone. I want to make up for all the time I lost holding you earlier this week.” He gave her a gentle squeeze as his paw fell away from her lips, and he felt her plant a gentle kiss on his forearm, since it was all she could really get to at the moment, locked as she was in his embrace. 

“Mmm, okay. You’d tell me if something is wrong, right?” she asked.

“Of course, love. I let you know Wednesday, didn’t I?”

“Sorry, it’s— I’m just… not used to this, I guess. I worry. The last two weeks have been a lot,” Holly murmured. 

The wolf loosened his hold, raising up his arms around her. “Here, turn around, gorgeous.” As she complied, resting her paws on his chest, he twined his digits and let his paws drop to the small of her back, pulling her into him. He looked down into her sparkling eyes. “What are you worried about?” he whispered, gently nuzzling her nose with his own. 

The beautiful eyes disappeared as she turned her face away, resting her head against his chest with a sigh. She didn’t answer immediately, but just before he was going to prod her again, her paws dropped from his chest and slid around him to squeeze him gently. 

“You can give’er a little more, if you need to, Holly.” He gave her a firm squeeze to reinforce his statement.

And return the squeeze she did. “It’s just… being with you is like a dream, and sometimes, dreams get scary. Everything’s been going so well, and then, boom, surprise. The whole family’s coming back to town. I wasn’t really super concerned, but there was always that nagging thought in the back of my mind of if any of them might not like you for some reason. But no, it went perfectly! They all seem to love you, especially Nona Rosa. Well, Bianca I’m not totally sure of, but I care a little bit less about her opinion, honestly, with how she’s been acting. The only other thing that was really left to stress about was the rally plans, and even those seemed to be doing well. You were a little off last week, which made me a little nervous, but you you were just anxious about MIT. Then you got your acceptance letter and everything was going great again.”

“And then… Ryan,” the wolf muttered quietly.

“Ryan,” she agreed sourly. “It kind of feels like Ryan popped a bubble. First he interrupts our date, and we have to hightail it out of the movie theater. Then we basically get stalked by someone we can’t identify, and then Ryan shows back up to send you to the hospital after school.”

“Urgent Care,” Leo gently corrected her. 

She pulled her head off his chest to fix her eyes on his. “You needed stitches, Leo. At that point, it might as well be the same thing! I love my class situation, and I’ve never regretted it before, but do you know how much it sucks knowing something can happen to you at school, and I won’t find out until later, since I’m the only one not there? What’s next? I know you said he hasn’t spoken to you since Monday, but what happens when he gets another stupid idea? Or what if the next thing isn’t him?”

“Then we’ll handle it,” the wolf teen asserted firmly. “We aren’t powerless. Hell, we’re probably about to turn this town on its head, and soon. I’ve got better friends than I’ve ever had that have my back. Megan and Ross, Ethan and Claire, Rod, hell, even if I still don’t really know how I feel about everything with her yet, Kristin offered to put another metal plate in Ryan’s head.” 

As he spoke, something Leo didn’t recognize passed over Holly’s face before her mind visibly crashed out on the last thing that came out of his mouth. “Yeah, I know, I just wish I was ther– wait. She— what? Another plate?”

“That’s what she said, at least.” Leo shrugged. “Regardless, pretty soon, Ryan will be in the rearview. We’ll graduate, he’ll fuck off to wherever, and I’ll be waiting for you in Boston for when you get back from your trip.” He could see from her expression that she wasn’t fully convinced. “Hey… I promise I’ll be careful. I’ll keep Ryan on my radar, and I won’t antagonize him.” He leaned down and pulled her up to meet his lips. 

It felt like, for a moment so brief he must have imagined it, she wasn’t returning the kiss, but then she melted into him with a hum, her paws curling between his shoulder blades, her tongue darting out to dance with his own. 

“Holly! Leo! Dinner!”

Leo’s ear flicked at the call from Holly’s mother, and he reluctantly let the chipmunk he held sink away from him. He took a deep breath as the blushing Holly took a step back and held out her paw to him. The wolf smiled as he gladly took it, letting her lead him slightly up the path, so he could enjoy the way the setting sun gilded her curls.