Wolf awoke to the obnoxious screeching of an alarm clock a few inches away from his head. The annoying buzzer was sitting on a small nightstand next to the queen sized bed he had spent the night in. Doing his best to clear away the grogginess sitting in his head like an oppressive cloud, he smacked his hand on top of the clock. The screech stopped in the middle of piercing his ear drums. He stretched his arms, his hand brushing up against someone's fur. He looked to his left to see Tanya lying on a pillow, propping herself up on her elbow while she looked at him with half open eyes.
"Well how are you doing beautiful?" Wolf inquired while gazing at her lean and muscular figure.
"Better, since last night anyway." The female leopard said while laying herself on top of him.
For a while they lay there, dozing on and off as the sun slowly made its way through the open window and into the room. Wolf felt Tanya shuffle around a little and ask him something, he could only catch a little bit of what she said.
"..Uhm…time would be nice." She mumbled quietly.
Wolf looked over to the small clock, the large red numbers reading 9:35 AM.
"It's about 9:35." Wolf said while laying his head back on the soft pillow, before sitting right back up with a start. He reached down and picked the clock up to look at it a little closer.
"Oh crap!" Wolf shouted while leaping off the bed, taking all the sheet and blankets with him.
"What, what are you freaking out about!?" Tanya said in surprise, not exactly sure what was happening.
"I'm an hour late, and Ben said if I was late one more time my ass was gone!" Wolf shouted while searching for his wallet and his other belongings.
"What do you mean 'gone', would you just tell me what the hell is wrong with you?"
"I have like fifteen minutes to get to work. Listen I'm sorry I have to leave but,"
"Uh Wolf…"
"I honestly wish I could stay but I can't lose this job." Wolf motioned for the window.
"Wolf"
"Now I'll see you later tonight, okay."
"WOLF!"
"What!?"
Tanya couldn't hold back a small chuckle as Wolf was obviously oblivious to his 'little' problem.
"It would probably be a good idea to put some pants on before you go."
Wolf looked downward, hoping the fur was blocking his blush from the piercing eyes of Tanya. Putting a hand over his 'area' he looked at Tanya, her lips took the shape of a smug smirk.
"Uh….yeah, some pants would certainly be nice. You wouldn't happen to know where they are. Would you?" Wolf said using a nervous smile to try and cover up his embarrassment.
Tanya giggled. "Yeah your jeans are sitting in the corner."
"Ah yes very good, very good indeed." Wolf said while practically running over to put on his undergarments. "How did you know where they were?" Wolf asked while quickly zipping up his jeans.
"I'm the one who pulled them off of you, idiot."
With one last awkward smile Wolf leapt out the window and sprinted down the street as fast as he could.
Wolf slowly opened the door which led to a small office inside of a vehicle repair station. He peeked inside, spotting a small bearded man, wearing a dark mahogany suit sitting behind an old worn down desk, while reading a sports illustrated magazine. Wolf hoped that if he snuck in quietly and avoided any form of eye contact, he just might have a chance to sneak in unnoticed. He slithered inside, like some kind of special ops soldier. He hugged the wall and crept around the desk. He was almost there, if he could just sneak into the back he could get to work and pretend like he had been here all day. Just one last step and,
"Well hello Wolf." Wolf heard his boss say while standing up away from his desk.
Wolf sighed and turned around, ready for his fifth scolding this week.
"Ah Ben, just who I needed to talk to to complete my day," Wolf shrugged his shoulders and immediately took a lazy yet surprisingly comfortable position.
"You have been late five times this week for god's sake!" Ben raised his voice, losing what little patience he had left for Wolf. "You are lucky you are the best mechanic I got or else you, would be fired and on the street!" Ben was crumpling the magazine in his left hand while he had his right index finger aimed at Wolf.
"Listen Ben, I have to pretend to be working, so if you could wrap this up? I would really appreciate it." Wolf said while pretending to look at his watch.
Ben's face practically turned red in flustered anger. He placed to finger on his chin and took a couple deep breaths, before continuing his rant.
"You are not going to 'pretend' to work today, like you do every day. Someone actually needed something fixed today. A Miss Winters, I believe was her name." Ben began to shove Wolf through the door to the repair area. "Now get in there and provide some service."
The door slammed behind Wolf, the knob hitting him in the spine on the way out. He heard his boss say something through the door.
"You're working overtime, without pay!" Wolf heard his boss shout through the door.
"I love you to Benjamin! You noisy prick!" Wolf shouted back.
He turned around.
"What?"
Squirrel sat quietly in a small chair, inside the dimly lit repair office. The sounds of an argument could be heard. She figured it had been the mechanic the man in the nice suit had been complaining about. She sighed as she heard the mechanic showed obvious disrespect for his superior. People in New York were always so rude and brudish, she didn't really know why either, maybe it was the air or the constant hustle and bustle of city life. Perhaps they were just naturally mean, she honestly didn't know. She had honestly never liked New Yorkers, not since the mysterious disappearance of her father. Who had adopted her several years ago.
Squirrel had recently treated her self to nice sports car she had seen in a used car depot a few hours ago. She hadn't realized she had been ripped off until she had gotten three blocks away and the car had suddenly stopped working. After some asking around she had learned the best mechanic worked in this exact place, even though it was in one of the slummier parts of town. The door suddenly opened and the mechanic was pushed inside the room. Her eyes grew wide; the mechanic was just like her. Not a Squirrel of course but of the same race perhaps.
"Love you to Benjamin, you noisy prick!" The mechanic yelled at his boss.
He turned to look at her, noticing her odd surprised face he asked.
"What, is something wrong?"
Squirrel didn't seem to hear him, awestruck she kept staring, was he another mutant like the ninja turtles. No, he was much too human looking. There was no doubt about it, they were much more alike then any valley animal was.
"Uh….helloooo, lady you okay?" Wolf waved a hand in Squirrel's face, trying to grasp her attention.
Squirrel snapped back into reality, suddenly aware of her surroundings.
"Oh, sorry yeah I'm perfectly fine. So are you, kind of like me?" She asked in an innocent, yet slightly embarrassed voice.
"Huh, what do you mean 'like you'?" Wolf inquired, slightly confused.
"Well, you know." Squirrel looked down, trying to avoid his quizzical gaze. "Like an animal, but like a human at the same time." She suddenly grew uncomfortable, though she wasn't sure why.
"Uh…yeah I guess so. I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that you aren't from around here. Are you?" Wolf asked kneeling down to her eye level.
"Well no, this is only my third week in New York as a matter of fact. I have just found a place to stay and well, I haven't seen many other people. And certainly not anyone like us."
"Yes well, many of 'us' as you like to put it don't get to live in the upper class. As a matter of fact you're probably the first rich furry in years." Wolf rubbed the back of his neck.
"Wait, how do you know I'm rich?"
"I watch the news, come on you were the first eleven year old to graduate from college. You can't honestly say that you didn't expect to be on the news?"
"Well I didn't think it was that big a deal."
"Well, were are you from anyway?" Wolf inquired, suddenly curious of this girl's origin.
"Me, well I live in a place called the Valley."
"The valley huh, where is that? I certainly haven't seen that on any maps before."
"It's around Asia but certainly very hard to find."
"So tell me, what's your whole story anyway?"
"Well I was dropped by the stork out in the middle of the valley during the storm. If it wasn't for my master I probably would have frozen to death." Squirrel began her story. Wolf listened intently through the entire thing. How she met her step father, her need to be kept secret from the other valley animals, and so on. After about midway through the story Wolf interrupted and sat up.
"Sorry, I would like to hear the rest of your story but if Ben catches me slacking off I'll be in big trouble." Wolf said while heading over to the broken down sports car. Perhaps once were done here we can go get some coffee and I'll hear the rest of your story, and fill in any questions you might have about our species. Sound like a deal?" Wolf said while popping the trunk on her sports car and began his work.
"Yeah that sounds like a deal." Squirrel sat down and waited for Wolf to finish work on her car. For once she had found somebody who was more like her than anyone she had met so far. And the fact that there were many more of their species was a comforting certainly a comforting thought.
