Author's note: Ah, the fresh smell of a new arc beginning. I can already tell this is going to be a good one. Thanks for making it all this way, I hope you continue to enjoy it as much as I enjoy making it! This is the longest chapter so far, which I feel like everyone deserves after that last chapter...

Chapter 16 - The Knight and His King

The Meteor Festival took place the next day. Juno took Louis's place, and she used her position to tell everyone of Legosi's deed, and to sow respect for wolves, and carnivores. She tried to place a candle with him as well, but he couldn't. He knew he didn't love Juno. He...

He loved Louis. It was still weird to think about, but it only made sense. It made so much sense. Even though he was a male, and an herbivore, Legosi was sure of it.

...Made sense, considering his strange family lineage.

More weeks passed, and Louis didn't come to the club. Legosi saw him once from a distance, maybe, but he wasn't sure. He also wasn't out by the fountain when he checked, and even then it was hard to get out now, what with the stricter curfew. Set in place after the incident. It was quite upsetting, not getting to see the animal he loved after saving him.

Almost a month after the incident, Legosi set out to Louis' dorm. He didn't want people to see him going there ever, so he avoided it. Today, however, the wolf couldn't take not seeing Louis anymore, so he left quite late. Not late enough to be night, but the sun was setting in the sky.

The deer was in his dorm, reading a romance novel. After Legosi had saved him, Louis found himself thinking about the wolf more...His smile, his friendliness...He wondered what it would be like to hug him.

He wished he had his other eye, every day he thought about it at least once. He wondered if he'd ever get used to it. Now, he had a black eye patch that went over his face. At least no one had made fun of him for looking like a pirate, so far.

After the whole ordeal, Louis' father, Oguma, was furious with the school for letting something like that happen. But most of all, he blamed Louis for being so weak and allowing himself to be almost killed like that. He paid and ordered the school to have Louis take his classes from his dorm and the deer was no longer allowed to go out at night and eat at the fountain anymore. It was a lot harder considering it was mostly reading and not being lectured, but Louis could handle it. He was a hard worker.

Legosi made sure nobody was following him. People regarded him higher now, but oddly enough, any fame the wolf ever gained seemed to shed off within a week or so. Oh well, he preferred it. He just wasn't the kind of wolf to stay in the limelight, like Louis. He liked watching his senpai in the spotlight, especially knowing he was usually the one to light him up. He hoped he could do that in other ways than just as a stage crew member, soon...

Louis had no idea that the wolf was on his way, so it would be a nice surprise. Legosi walked up to the square building, looking up at it. It was strange how much it looked like a little house, with its tiled roof and small windows. It was a living space, after all, but still. Louis was treated so special...He deserved it.

The wolf walked up to the door, noticing how it wasn't as tall as he was. That was fine, though he hoped the ceiling was still tall enough for him to fit...He rapped on the door with the back of his knuckles, twice, hoping the deer was home. Or even at school, for that matter.

Louis looked up from his book, blinking. Was it dinner time already? He got up and walked forward, opening the door and looking up at the large wolf in front of him.

Legosi forgot how stunning he looked...even the eyepatch he wore, plain as it was, was made beautifully framed to his face. His one remaining eye gazed upon him as he saw Louis smile a bit.

"Legosi-kun."

"Louis-senpai! You're still at school! You haven't been anywhere and..th-the fountain...I looked for you and you weren't there and...and I never got your phone number so-" Legosi rambled.

Louis shook his head. "It seems the world kept us apart."

The carnivore pressed his fingers together. "W-well, I mean, I could have just came here to begin with, now that I think about it..."

"Then the wait wouldn't have been as worth it," he half-joked. "Come in." The deer stepped aside so the large animal could duck inside.

Legosi did so, feeling relieved as he realized he would be able to stand up after all. It was like a mini apartment! Louis had this all to himself? He stared in awe at the cleanliness and tidiness of everything, but then again, Louis wasn't really a messy animal.

The deer shut the door behind him and almost immediately came to Legosi and grabbed his tie, rubbing it with his thumb. "What have you been up to lately?"

The wolf swallowed as the deer fiddled with his tie. Louis-senpai must really like my tie..."W-well, we had the Meteor Festival. Juno took your place. I don't know if you heard about that. She kind of put me in the spotlight, saying how brave I was to rescue you, and how I used my natural traits as a wolf to save and protect you. That made a lot of the wolf students feel a lot better about themselves..."

"That's good…" A pause. "I can never thank you enough. I thought I wasn't afraid to die...I guess I thought very wrong. And I would have died by a wolf, no less..."

"Y-yeah that would have been a bad way to go out, ahaha..." Idiot, that wasn't the time to laugh! He cleared his throat, looking down, watching to Louis' hand. He smelled so good...And he was so close.

Louis moved his hand on Legosi's tie, continuing to move it between his fingers and such. It was nice to be touching something foreign that was from outside his room. Or maybe this was as close as he could get to touching Legosi without touching him…

"Y-you really like that tie, huh?" Legosi asked, feeling dizzy. His heart was hammering in his chest.

"Keeping my distance. It's a nice tie."

Keeping his distance? What did he mean by that? "Well, it's just the one the school issues...but it does have a nice texture, I guess…" He felt himself get dizzier. "Senpai, I'm gonna sit down, okay?"

"Okay." He let go.

Legosi sat down on the small couch in the small living area. All the furniture was so...small. "Uh, yeah, other than that, just summer classes n' stuff...Drama club is on break for the summer as well…"

Louis returned back to sit on his bed. "I haven't been really attending classes. I'm not really allowed to do anything anymore, thanks to my father. I have to do all my work here." He pointed to a desk against the wall at that was covered in books and papers, a pencil lain across a piece of paper in the middle.

"I bet...but you're still here?" Legosi asked. He felt bad that Louis wasn't allowed to be a part of things like everyone else, but he was glad he was safe, most of all.

"Yeah, for whatever reason. What, did you want me to leave?" Louis looked over.

"N-no! Of course not! I just thought that...since I haven't seen you in so long, you went back home or something!"

"Nope. Just been away from everything," he sighed. "That's why I touched your tie. Something that...wasn't from my room."

"Is someone bringing you food?"

"Yeah. The same thing every day."

"I'll bring you some food too! Anything you want!"

Louis suddenly had the strong urge to hug Legosi, but knew it would be wrong...He concluded he was very social starved, that was all it was.

Legosi looked around again. "So, who else knows about this room? has anybody else visited?"

"Only Haru-chan. We haven't really done anything because of my injuries…"

"A-ah, yeah I'd imagine!" Legosi blushed. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Um, she seemed really nice when I met her at the hospital..."

"She is." Louis laid back. "Everything basically sucks right now."

"I'm sorry…"

"No. I'm sorry. You had to save me. I...got you to do violent things..."

"I didn't mind! Actually it...felt kind of good? When I knew it was all to save you...Truth is, I could have stopped the whole thing. Earlier that day, near Tem's memorial, that same jaguar that helped kidnap you tried to jump you, but I stopped him. He told me about how some carnivores were planning on lynching you. After that, I tried looking for you all day to tell you, but I couldn't find you…" As he said this, he got up from the couch and walked over to the bed, sitting down on it.

Louis looked down. He had been with Haru-chan that day… "Oh...Wow. Well. It's too late now. I lost my eye…"

"I know...I'm so sorry, Louis-senpai..." he reached out to rub the deer's head, but he stopped himself, lightly tapping it with his claw before retreating.

"I don't know why...But I've actually been really sad about it," Louis mumbled.

"I mean...you lost your eye and you only have two...anybody would be sad about that…" Legosi explained.

"It's such a...permanent loss. I don't know. I've spiraled into a depression after everything. I missed you." There was a pause as he thought about how that might come off. "And Haru-chan."

"I missed you too! A lot! ...but, we're here now. Even if it's...'wrong'," Legosi said.

Louis sat up and looked at him. "Actually...I realized something. I think this is right. Segregation leads to hatred of the two groups and things like my kidnapping happen. There will always be racism but...If everyone saw everyone like we see one another..." He gulped. Stop saying things like that, Louis.

Legosi smiled. "I'm glad you see it that way." He laid down, his head hitting the pillow, looking up at the ceiling. His legs almost went off the bed.

Louis laid back down. "Society is fucking ridiculous."

The wolf sighed. "Yeah...So what have you been doing here all alone?"

"Reading. Schoolwork. Uh...That's about it."

"Don't have TV, or games?"

"My dad doesn't want me to have those things. They're distractions," Louis said. "He'd call you a distraction, too."

Legosi scoffed. "Sounds like a fun guy…"

"You are a distraction," Louis said matter-of-factly.

"Well...you're not asking me to leave..." the carnivore pressed his fingers together.

"Because you're my favorite distraction."

Legosi's chest fluttered, and his stomach twisted. In a good way. He laughed softly. "Seems like just yesterday when you said you hated me..."

"That feels like forever ago to me."

"That makes sense...you've been through so much...while I've just been living a normal life. I wish I could have lost an eye in your place..."

Louis looked at him, his young 18 year old boy face showing. He felt his heart do a small jump.

Legosi looked back at him. "I'm serious." Then he took a moment to look at his face. "You look cool, at least..."

"Thanks." He laughed a bit, for the FIRST time around Legosi. Maybe anyone. It was over far too soon. The wolf was transfixed. He wanted to hear more.

"So, senpai, what's it feel like to have antlers, anyway?"

"You can take someone's eye out with them, apparently." He laughed again. His shell was breaking, thanks to Legosi.

"Oh, I did notice the wolf was bleeding from his eye when I got there! Uh, good job! ...That was a little late, I guess..." He rolled onto his side to face Louis easier, pulling his legs up with his arms.

Louis looked at him. "It doesn't compare to the damage he did to me. To my reputation."

"Yeah...but he's in jail now...and you're here."

"With you."

Legosi's chest swelled. "Yeah…" He looked out the window. The sun had gone down completely. "Oh, curfew's about to start. I should...get going?" His eyes trailed to Louis for confirmation.

"Okay," Louis said, blankly.

The wolf didn't move. He found himself unable to.

Louis blinked. "You're free to go, Legosi-kun."

"I...don't want to..." he argued.

"H-huh?"

"I haven't seen you for so long...I want to spend more time with you, if that's okay..." He moved his claw along the sheets nervously.

Louis' ears went back a bit, surprised. "What about curfew?"

"Well, I can let my roommates know where I am. They won't tell on me, I promise. And there's enough furniture in this room for a place for me to sleep...I mean...if you don't mind..." Legosi's ears folded back. God, how wolflike of him to force his wishes upon someone.

Louis blinked. "Well...Okay." He looked to the ceiling. "I guess we can spend more time together."

Legosi's tail wagged behind him, thumping rapidly on the bed. The deer smiled more. It was strange to see Louis smiling so much, but he really liked it.

The wolf was utterly transfixed by this deer...His mind screamed at him. IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou. He cleared his throat. "Uh, what's there to do though?"

"Uh...Not really anything, Legosi-kun." If he were Haru I'd...But he's not. He's a lot bigger than me. He was thinking about cuddling.

"Oh! There was this video I wanted to show you." Legosi got his phone out, rolling on his tummy and placing the phone on the pillow in front of them "It's a professional production of Adler. Uh, unless that brings up bad memories, but I thought it was really interesting, comparing it to our production."

He rolled onto his stomach, their arms touching as they began watching. Louis immediately thought about that and it distracted him from the video. Their fur was brushing in the wrong ways...but also the right ways.

Legosi pointed out the sets and lighting, naming the differences and rambling on about the color of the lights and the style of the props. Louis moved his head slowly, looking at the side of the wolf's face. Okay...Is it just me...Or is Legosi...Sort of cute...No, I must be crazy.

"Oh, oh, oh! check this part out!" Legosi kicked his feet behind him happily.

Louis blushed. "Okay..."

Legosi was passionate about few things. One of them was theater set design and lighting and the other was bugs...Which Louis was about to find out.

"Oh, here's another video I like," Legosi smiled. "It's about beetles." His mind went back to Rhino-chan, who he had lost months ago. It made him kind of sad, but he didn't show it.

They watched Zootube for a bit, Louis growing more attached to Legosi by the second. His head turned to face the carnivore again and this time, the wolf noticed. "Are you bored, senpai?"

"Uh..." He looked back at the phone. "No."

"Okay! Cuz here's a video I really liked when I was a kid!"

"Sometimes it's just hard to focus with one eye, that's all." And a big wolf in your small bed…

Video after video, hours passing. Eventually, Legosi laid his head down as he watched, his eyelids getting heavier. He slowly dozed off, the phone falling flat on the pillow. The audio continued to play some random documentary.

Louis noticed and smiled a bit more, then grabbed the phone, moving it to the night stand. He then turned off the light, getting back into bed but scooting toward the edge and facing him.

After a while at just observing Legosi's sleeping body, the deer drifted off into a peaceful sleep.