Chapter 4
"Do you have any proof it was I who stole the wraps?" Rio challenged Dan. He brought an arm to his fur, ready to throw it in the case of a duel.
"I did not say it was you who did," quipped the old man.
"Well I didn't."
"Oh, but I think you did," Dan accused anyway. "And after you took them, you killed them mercilessly with your own hands!"
Meanwhile, Mele climaxed a couple more times and left her stall to wash her hands. She absently noted seeing the wild-man-janitor-creature leave the ladies' room but paid it no heed. A good finger party was just what she needed since Rio had been unable to perform intercourse on her person.
Her face faulted when she realized her beloved's break was almost over. She raced out of the bathroom in hopes of at least being able to kiss him good-bye.
Jan galloped on all fours back into the mens' room thinking that Rio had perhaps come to relieve his bladder on the floor. With saving Rio from impending doom as his top priority, he scoured the perimeter of the restroom with utmost haste, licking it clean in the process. His tongue felt enriched with the plethora of flavors, but the wild man could not waste time for it was of the essence.
"Oooh, what's this?" Jan pondered when his eyes caught sight of a peculiar bottle on one of the sinks. He went to swipe it, but it slipped from his grasp and rolled to one of the toilets. Jan jumped for it and rolled like a spy to the commode. Long watched with amusement at the tiger-boy's antics.
Just then, Gou bolted into the stall needing to relieve himself. He stepped on the hunched form of Jan-not on purpose, but he couldn't hold it in any longer. He peed all over Long's face and all over the walls of the stalls because Jan kept laughing while playing with the bottle of what appeared to be eye-drops. Long's cries of agony were drowned out by the satisfied flush that followed.
"Ah, well back to work!" Gou said happily to himself before leaving the bathroom after washing his hands twelve times. He skipped past Master Shafu's office where he overheard what sounded like a heated argument. Wary for his good friend, Gou took post outside the office in case Rio needed reinforcement. He flexed his biceps and made his pecs dance for effect.
Dan continued to state that Rio was a thief, encouraging Master Shafu to fire him. This time Mele, who had been walking by staring at Gou's dancing pectorals, overheard the accusation.
Rio was beyond offended by the accusation against him. If there was one thing he hated more than being blamed for something he didn't do, it was being blamed for something that was 100% his fault. The audacity of Dan to even have the nerve to point a chocolate-coated finger in his direction!
Rio could have killed Master Shafu and Dan right there. He considered this, and decided there really was no reason not to go ahead and rid himself of these idiots. But then Mele burst through the door, hoping to rescue her love by any means necessary.
"It was Mele who stole the bacon wraps!" Mele cried, sacrificing herself for Rio. Some part of Rio felt touched by this, but of course he didn't show it.
"I will hire a private investigator to uncover who stole the bacon wraps," Master Shafu declared, apparently ignoring Mele.
"But, Mele just said..." Mele was confused. She secretly enjoyed the idea of sacrificing herself for her love.
"But I know that Rio did it!" Dan insisted, also ignoring Mele.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Rio said coolly as he ate a piece of bacon that he had somehow missed from inside his fur. No one was looking in his direction except for Dan who at that very instant was wrought with severe anal spasms so he couldn't properly discern if Rio was eating a bacon strip or a turd.
Master Shafu flipped through a phone-book. "Will you two please quit your squibbling for just a moment? I have trouble finding anything in alphabetical order as it is."
Dan recovered momentarily and glared daggers at Rio. "You will never be stronger if you continue to weave lies and commit larceny!"
Rio's finely-shaped eyebrows twitched. "I have had it with your preaching, you good-for-nothing white tiger! Mele," he said, facing his wife. "Go stand over there so I can throw my fur epically and have it land on you, thereby proving that I have some sort of sympathy for you."
Mele clapped her hands ecstatically and did as he said. "I will catch whatever you throw at me, Rio-sama~"
Dan adopted a fighting stance. "You will lose," he promised.
Rio rolled his eyes and threw his cape. It missed Mele, but she quickly scuttled over to it and crawled underneath to please her lover. Rio held up his fist, staring at it as he made his threat with wide eyes of doom: "If you do not take back your false accusations now, I will shove that wiimote-" he threw his other arm in the direction of the device, not breaking his eye-contact with his fist- "right up your ass, old man."
"You wouldn't dare...eeeuuuhhh," Dan would have continued to mock Rio's sexiness in italics, but instead he fell to the ground crying because of the pain in his buttocks. Rio would have laughed aloud for once, if he had not heard Jan's scream coming from outside combined with what sounded like an elephant's trumpet.
Rio brought his fist down and ran to the door, pummeling past Gou.
"You can do it, friend!" Gou cheered Rio on, as his co-worker looked like a man with a mission.
"Rio-sama~" Mele cried, following after her husband. She tried to take the fur with her, but it was surprisingly heavier than it looked, and she grew tired after dragging it past the door. She looked at Gou. She had never seen this man before; he was probably an intern or something.
"You there," she ordered. Normally she wouldn't entrust the fur to anyone, but this lad looked reliable.
Gou met her eyes and smiled kindly. "Yes, Mrs. Rio?"
"How do you know my name?" Mele asked. She had to admit that the name had a nice ring to it.
"We met earlier when your husband was making you coffee," Gou said, smiling fondly at the memory. "I helped, remember?"
Mele gazed at him with suspicion. "I don't think I've met you before in my life."
Gou chuckled amiably at this. "I see, I see. You appear to have the same sense of humor as Rio. Anyway, how can I help you?"
"Shave your chest ASAP," Mele commented. "But for now, I am leaving this mantle in your care. I hope your hands are cleaner than your upper torso."
Gou nodded and accepted the cape, vowing to protect it with his life. Mele took off after her husband.
Rio felt strangely protective of Jan, apparently more so than his father, who would continue to wither in pain on the floor of Master Shafu's office. Without knowing what was truly driving him, the black lion turned a corner and found Jan cowering outside the mens' room. Rio, who had an eye for details, noticed the bottle of eye-drops discarded at the wild man's feet. It touched him to know that Jan had indeed played with it, and it made him almost bat-shit crazy to see that the man-boy was being...what was this? Molested by an elephant?
The elephant cackled as he stripped Jan of his loincloth. This was Master Shafu's friend who had a price on his head in eight other countries and five U.S. territories for rape and child molestation. Again Rio reflected that it might be best to kill Master Shafu and be done with it, if that cat associated himself with criminals such as this. Rio grabbed the elephant's nose and poked him in the eye. The pervert staggered away from Jan with a cry of pain.
"What gives!?" the elephant exclaimed.
Rio wasn't finished. He went to the animal and fisted its trunk until his arm was nearly shoulder-deep inside. Then he grabbed a bunch of the nose hair and plucked them all at once, reducing the elephant to tears.
"Alright, alright!" The elephant surrendered. It fell to its knees and coiled up in a fetal position. Rio walked over to Jan, threw his loincloth back to him while avoiding looking at his privates, and held out his hand to pull him up. It was the clean hand, but Jan, so used to cleaning up random shit, felt more comfortable reaching for the one covered in elephant snot. He tried to lick Rio's arm clean to show his gratitude, but Rio got too weirded out and pulled his hand away.
"Rio-sama~" Mele called as she arrived on the scene. She stopped short of her husband but that was a mistake as the elephant took the chance to cop a feel of her ass.
"Touch me again and see what happens," Mele threatened the elephant under her breath when she felt the trunk against her inner thigh. "Rio-sama~" she said again, stepping on the elephant's balls and running over to her husband. She wrapped her arms around him.
"Not now, Mele," Rio said, pushing her off. He faced Jan who returned the gaze with a sincere smile.
Jan felt nothing but gratitude toward his best friend. He said thank you, but Rio only gave him a blank look, obviously not understanding his words. Instead the man turned around and said over his shoulder, "Be more aware of your surroundings." Jan couldn't help but think how cool and mysterious Rio seemed, especially without his cape hiding the well-defined muscles of the older man's body.
Jan suddenly remembered the danger that Rio was in. The Starbucks was haunted!
Master Shafu finally decided to come out of his office to see what was going on, and found his elephant friend lying on the floor crying.
"Rio, what did you do to my friend?" Master Shafu asked.
"I was defending Jan, because no one else would," Rio explained while making a fist.
The elephant saw the fist and started to re-live the terrible ordeal once more. He ran to Master Shafu's robes and hid inside them while using the opportunity to play with the cat's testicles.
"Ooh!" Master Shafu said gleefully. "You have nice technique~" He reclaimed his composure and looked sternly at Rio. "I have half a mind to slap you for your insolence, but seeing as no one was too poorly hurt..." The elephant whimpered. "Oh, hush, Ele-Han. This happens to you on a daily basis." Master Shafu cleared his throat of a hair-ball. "Anyway, I have already contacted the investigator, and he will be here shortly. The truth behind the missing bacon wraps will be uncovered."
Mele looked nervously at Rio, but he only squinted his eyes at Master Shafu, as if saying "bring it on, old man-cat-thing."
