Chapter 87 - Refusal and Realization
Legosi followed his deer outside, not seeing him like this since they were at Horns.
The deer moved quickly toward the school with purpose, hands curled up into fists. "You should have known this would be my reaction."
"I know." Legosi caught up to him and reached for his hand to hold.
Louis gripped it. "I'm pissed. This is fucked up."
"I know..."
They got to the doors, which Louis pulled open, allowing them to enter and start their way down the hall to Gon's office.
The hallways were eerily empty for a school day. Everyone must have gone straight back to their rooms.
In no time, Louis was bursting through the doors of Gon's office, startling the tiger. "Gon-San!"
Legosi covered his face, realizing he didn't tell the principal that Louis would also be coming, or that...this would happen.
The tiger jumped. "Legosi-kun, Louis-kun! What's all this about?"
Louis slammed his hand on the desk. "You told Legosi to leave our dorm?"
The feline adjusted his glasses. "Rules are rules. Segregation begins next year and every carnivore and herbivore is going to be split up."
The deer squinted. "That's bullshit. Legosi and I are just fine. Did they not take into account that every carnivore is different?!"
Legosi stood there fidgeting. Louis was the true ferocious one.
"What?" Gon blinked.
"Legosi still has never tried to eat me. He's never even hurt me! This is fucking ridiculous!"
The older animal's head reared back. "Language, Louis-kun!"
The wolf flinched at his fiance's lie, and how mad he was getting. But he knew he couldn't stop it now.
The tiger cleared his throat. "Didn't you say you tried to eat Louis in spring?"
The deer's head turned to Legosi.
The canine cleared his throat. "I-it's alright, Louis. He knows..."
"That doesn't help our case!" His lover snapped.
"Th-there wasn't a case when I told him! I'm sorry!"
"Yes there was! Tem was killed just before that!"
"But Gon-san knows I won't hurt you! He supports us! This is out of his control!"
Louis crossed his arms. "We refuse to follow these rules."
Legosi held his hands up. "E-enough. Gon-san, I'm going to be dropping out."
The cat blinked, then shook his head. "Come again?"
"If this school is going to be segregated, I'm dropping out."
"But you only have a year left!"
"I don't want to be in a school that can't even protect its own students! There's no use staying here."
Gon looked hurt. He opened his mouth to say something, then took a moment and finally said; "I'm sorry."
Legosi's angry expression softened, and he walked over to the principal. "Gon-san, it's not your fault. I know you're trying your hardest."
"Will you be finishing your education somewhere else?" Gon asked.
Legosi shrugged. "I could, but I want to establish a good starting point with my relationship with Louis."
The tiger blinked. "Haven't you already started?"
"We can't stay at this school forever, Gon-san, and this just made it clearer to me..."
"I-I never expected you to stay forever!"
Legosi looked back to Louis to try to gauge what the deer thought of his argument.
Louis shook his head. "It doesn't matter anymore, Gon-San. We're leaving. If we can't be together here, then we don't want to be here."
The wolf turned back and nodded. "I'm sorry, Gon-san. If you would please let us stay until the end of the school year, that would be appreciated."
"Aren't you dropping out?"
Legosi's face blanked. He knew he couldn't tell Gon about the investigation, but he also had no idea what excuse to use for them to stay. "It's...just for us to get our bearings."
"How soon?"
"The...end of the school year?" the wolf repeated.
"I meant are you dropping out now?"
"Yes. There would be no reason to go to classes if I'm just going to drop out."
"I'll...file the withdrawal papers then."
"...Thank you." Legosi looked back at Louis once again before he had another thought. He turned back to Gon. "Will...it need a signature from my grandpa?"
"It will," the tiger nodded.
Legosi looked back at his partner once more. "That'll be another trip."
"Mm," The deer responded.
"I'll get it to him, Gon-san. When do you need it?" the wolf asked.
"In a week's time after I file the paper, so, a week from today," Gon said. He then sighed. "Yet another student dropping out..."
"I'm so sorry," Legosi apologized again.
"Parents aren't too happy with Cherryton right now."
"I can imagine." Legosi walked back to Louis, hooking his arms around him.
The deer took a breath. "I apologize for my outburst, but Legosi comes before anything else."
The wolf's heart fluttered at those words. His tail whapped their legs as he brought his head down and nuzzled the side of his face.
Gon smiled. "You two...Always love before all."
Legosi looked at Gon. "Maybe...that's what's wrong with the world. Animals have forgotten how to put love first..."
Louis snorted. "Don't think they forgot. They never have."
"We'll teach them!"
"Every animal in the world?" Gon blinked.
"All the animals we meet!"
Louis grabbed his hand and laced their fingers. "I love you more than anything."
Gon smiled goofily at the teens. "I feel like a proud father, and I'm not even a father."
"A f-father..." Legosi blinked.
"Yeah, hahaha," Gon grinned.
The deer blinked. He didn't really know the feline, so he must have been talking about his mate.
"Thank you again, Gon-san. We'll keep in contact with you. We'll let you know how we're doing when we leave," Legosi promised.
Louis nodded. "I am sorry that I yelled at you, again. I just care about him too much to be separated." Plus, we have to protect one another now.
The two watched as Gon wrote up the appropriate paperwork and placed it on the desk. Legosi walked over and picked it up, thanking the principal as they both left.
Louis sighed. "I went off again.."
Legosi rubbed his back. "Do you want help with it?"
"Help with what?"
"Um, when you get angry."
"What? Are you gonna give me a rubber band to snap on my wrist? Am I Kai now?"
The wolf shrunk a bit in his stature. "No, no. You just seemed upset about it, so I wanted to know if it bothered you enough..."
"I feel bad about it but...The aggressiveness helps. It gets the urgency across."
The wolf cleared his throat. "Uh, it might sound silly but...it makes me feel safer."
"Hm?"
"Well, because I can't really...show a side of myself like that, and I don't want to. But, when you do it it makes me feel safe."
"You are safe. I'll protect you." Louis looked at him with a fierce gaze.
"I know you will, and I'll protect you."
At that moment, Legosi's phone buzzed. Then buzzed again. He took it out of his pocket.
"Oh...I forgot to tell Pina and Bill what we were doing. And...there's a message from Haru wondering if we still want to get together sometime or not, because of the...you know."
"I don't feel like doing anything, to be honest."
"Yeah...this is all too much." The two exited the building, trudging back into the cold outdoors.
"What do we do though?"
"I...I don't know," Legosi said with a defeated tone. "Maybe...Pina and Bill will think of something."
"Mmm. Do we have to?"
"We already said we would. And I do want to stop that killer."
"I know...But...The news just...Sucks."
"Well, Pina did try to get us prepared for the segregation news. I guess I just didn't want to believe it."
"I knew it was coming...but being told we have to separate, I went into overdrive..."
"Well, we have until March, so that's a little under two months. I think we can do it within that time, especially if I don't have class anymore." The wolf sighed, not quite believing yet that he no longer had to worry about homework or studying.
"Yeah and we can focus solely on the murderer now," Louis sighed.
Soon, they were in front of their home again. Legosi looked up at it, just now noticing that it was just some outcropping of a utility building that looked entirely unremarkable. "Where do you think we'll live after this?" the wolf pondered, quiet voice almost being lost to the wind.
"I don't know," Louis answered, unlocking the door.
Legosi followed. "Uh, I guess you can finish that fruit salad now."
"It's done, you just need to eat it."
"Okay. Will you eat with me?"
"Huh? It was just for you."
The large carnivore took his shoes off, eyes staying on the ground. "Will you...sit with me?"
"Alright." The smaller animal was already removing his shoes and heading toward the table.
Legosi trotted over to the table, sitting down onto it. He felt numb. He was able to drop out of school, but now that just left the investigation before them.
"You...forgot the salad," Louis pointed out.
"Oh...I thought you would bring it to me..."
"Oh, okay." The deer got up and got the salad from the fridge, then set it down in front of his wolf, sitting down once more.
Legosi observed it, noting it was made from raspberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, kiwi...he lost count. A lot of fruit was in it. It looked great. He smiled. "I love you, Louis."
"I love you, too."
The dog clenched his fists. "If that...fucking murderer...just wasn't around...we'd be fine...we'd be fine!"
Louis shook his head. "Woah."
Legosi grabbed his fork and started angrily eating, cheeks puffing out adorably to contrast his furrowed brow.
"We'll find them and then be okay," Louis said.
His mate stopped chewing, swallowed, and set his fork down. "I...I don't know what I'll do when we find the killer...that scares me."
"What you'll do?"
"...Yeah..."
"We don't want to be unprepared when we catch them."
"I don't want to do something like that in front of you. When I fought that wolf...you were unconscious..." Legosi stared at his claws.
"I could only hear it."
"Let's just say...sometimes I understand why Pina wants to put nails in his bat..."
"So you have those thoughts."
Legosi nodded. "When...I think of a carnivore hurting herbivores...when you got hurt...that night when I attacked you...it makes me...so...angry."
"Woah..."
The wolf's ears folded and he held his hands up. "O-oh, I'm sorry, Louis! I didn't mean to scare you."
"You didn't."
His wolf huffed and dug back into his food. He still had an upset expression on his face, although that paired with him eating a bowl of fruit was strangely adorable. He looked back up to Louis, scowling still. "I'm shorry."
"I don't know. This whole situation is fucked."
"We should just...sit all the suspects in a room and ask them."
"Really?"
"It'd be easier," Legosi sulked, looking down at the stain on the carpet.
"Then the killer would know..."
"And they would do something and we would know."
"Oh."
Legosi quickly finished up the fruit, placing the fork down on the table. "Okay, what should we do now?"
"Come up with ideas."
"Well...we could look through those social media sites Kai sent."
"Wasn't Bill doing that?"
"Yeah, but I feel useless."
"You're not!"
Legosi continued, seemingly not hearing the deer. "Wh-what good's a carnivore if they can't even do anything in this situation..."
"I thought we assigned you a task..."
The wolf sighed. "Yeah. I just haven't been able to do it yet...and now that I'm out of class...how am I going to blend in with everyone?"
"Oh shit..." Louis gulped.
Legosi nodded. "Now what?"
