No, this story isn´t dead yet. I´m just slow and I´m also putting a lot of time into my Aggretsuko-story in the meanwhile.
Anyway, for the few of you who still enjoy this story, here is chapter 21.
Big thanks to RedLiteAlexi for his love and support!
Beastars – Into the Spotlight
Chapter 21 – There always is a way
POV Legoshi
Going through the hallways of the school felt really uncomfortable now. They were staring from all sides, all having the same questions written on their faces. But they also were too afraid to ask or even just talk to me. In fact, they all walked around me and took a distance of at least 6 feet, almost like I had some kind of easily spreading virus on me or something.
I was used to being stared at by other students of course, but now they stared for a very different reason. They all had heard it on the news of course. They all knew I had been injured in a real gunfight, and now it felt like they were even more scared of me than back then when I was just being hated for being a large carnivore. It was not a nice feeling, but one that still felt kinda familiar to me.
The pain of my wounds was almost completely gone in the meanwhile, even without the painkillers, but I still felt it quite noticeable when doing certain every-day moves like picking something up from the floor or standing up from a chair. The most painful thing however was the way everyone was taking their distance from me right now.
Apart from my dorm-mates, nobody had attempted to talk with me yet. Not even the normally quite self-confident and chatty hen who sat beside me in class said a single word to me today. She seemed so distant, I didn´t even want to start a conversation myself.
The first one I met who actually approached me was Aoba, who I met in the hallway after the last class I had today. He looked just as concerned about me as the rest of the school, but he at least still treated me like I was a good friend of his.
"Legoshi" he started of slowly, "…nice to see you! …how…how are you?" he wanted to know.
"I´m alright…" I said with a shrug of my shoulder, "Nice to see you too! How have your holidays been, Aoba?"
That just made him chuckle very slightly, "…not gonna lie, they would have been more relaxing if I hadn't heard on the news that you got shot in a clan-fight…"
I knew I would hear something like that eventually, but I was glad he mentioned it nevertheless. The sooner they all got this out of their systems the better.
"…it was just a graze in the end…" I sighed, fully aware that wouldn´t get the topic off the table, "…and it healed pretty well in the meanwhile."
He nodded a little but still seemed very conflicted about it.
"…don't worry about me, that thing is done now…" I told him.
"I…I just never knew how serious all this was…" he said slowly, "…when they interrupted our premiere, I thought this was just some sort of political stunt or statement…but…"
"It was a warning…" I explained lowly, taking a short look around, "…but they´re all in prison now."
Although I wasn´t totally out of trouble now that the Shishigumi were out of the picture, I kinda wanted my friends to believe that for now. Aoba was probably smart enough to figure that out as well, but I didn´t want to get further into that topic either way.
"…so…what happened on that day?" he asked lowly.
"I saved Louis from getting killed by them and started the fight myself. When they noticed they would lose that fight, one of them shot at me. And one of them attacked us with a knife..."
"Jesus, Legoshi…" he sighed, shaking his head in slight disbelief, "…and I thought being a Beastar would just be a walk in the park, getting all that free stuff and such…"
"I think it´s more of a burden to be honest…" I sighed, "…and now everybody is scared of me again anyway."
"Well…" he said, shrugging his shoulders a little, "…it was kinda scary to hear you being in some sort of gang fight and getting shot, not gonna lie to you. This is serious stuff."
I nodded slowly. There wasn´t anything I could say against that really. I would be scared too if I heard that from somebody else at my highschool.
"Hey…are you coming to the drama-club meeting on Wednesday?" he then quickly switched the topic, "Sanu is gonna talk about the new piece…"
"Yeah, I think I´ll take a look…" I affirmed with a little shrug of my shoulders.
I of course knew how much he wanted me to keep going as an actor, but I just didn´t see any way to make that work anymore.
"Will be our last chance to perform before our last school year starts…" he reminded me with a motivating little smirk.
"Yeah…" I sighed, "…but I think we´ve done more than enough for the drama-club already, haven't we?"
His shoulders now dropped a little bit.
"Come on Legoshi…" he said, "…we need to be on stage! Haven´t you seen the photos Sanu sent us?"
"Yeah…" I confessed with a little nod, "…it looked kinda cool."
"This is the last time we can do something like that again! We have to enjoy it while we can!"
Just when he said that, somebody else suddenly joined our little circle. It was Sheila, the cheetah who was leading the dance team of our drama-club. It seemed now that she had noticed it wasn't any different to talk to me since the Shishigumi teardown, she didn´t seem to be too afraid of me anymore either.
"…well…it probably is the last time in highschool…" I mentioned to Aoba, "…but you have gotten a letter from that acting school as well, haven't you? After Volpone?"
He nodded about that question.
"Hey guys" Sheila now greeted us carefully, "…how´s it going?"
I just nodded with a friendly smile, Aoba now tilted his head a little bit.
"…not too sure about that yet" the bald eagle explained ironically, "…I can´t convince Legoshi to get on stage one last time…"
"Well…" she said, "…honestly…after Volpone it kinda showed that he wasn´t that enthusiastic about it anymore…"
Hearing her say that actually struck me with a little bit of disappointment right now. I had expected to hear a lot of things today, but not that. I was pretty sure I still had given it my all for that performance as well, even though I didn´t like the role too much, but now it slowly got to me that I probably had been a little distracted by all the other stuff going on around me.
"Yeah okay…" even Aoba now confessed, "…the piece was a little bit silly. But it was still cool to watch and we got cool photos out of it!"
"What…Kai in boxers?" Sheila asked ironically, and Aoba immediately grinned a little bit as well.
"Come on…" I sighed with a little smirk, "…he didn´t do too badly, did he? Give him another chance!"
Aoba just shook his head.
"He can´t possibly replace you, Legoshi. He did a good job saving the premiere, but he´s not an accepted lead-actor."
"But you are" I told him with great confidence, "…it´s time for you to take the lead now!"
To that statement he now just pulled his phone from his pocket, quickly searched for something and then started a video, presenting his screen so we could see.
From the camera perspective it looked like it must have been recorded by somebody in the audience. The video was taken during the premiere performance, and it captured the entire incident with the Shishigumi on the stage. He now scrolled to the part where they all left the scene again and I was telling the crew and the audience to keep the show going without me.
He let the both of us watch without commenting it, then he stopped it after I had left the room to follow Skye and Boris.
"…Legoshi…I don't know where you gain that confidence and energy from…" he commented lowly and with a serious expression, "…but I can´t even come close to that. Nobody can. That is an entirely different level of cool. That is nothing short of legendary…"
As I thought he was massively over-exaggerating once again, I just shrugged my shoulders with a little sigh.
"…we need you on the stage, Legoshi. The drama club will totally fail with all those expectations they have now."
"…where did you get that video from?" I asked curiously, "I haven't seen that in Sanu´s album..."
"This is from YouTube…" he told me with a slightly concerned expression about that, "…but I can´t tell you who uploaded it without asking for permission."
I nodded slowly. I knew this would cast waves all along, but I hadn't even thought about anything like that before.
"Really?" Sheila asked, "Is that even allowed?"
"I don't think so…" Aoba said while shrugging his shoulders, "…but it just proves my point that Legoshi is a real celebrity in the meanwhile. It has half a million views already."
This just left me sighing once more. I knew about my popularity; this was nothing new anymore. I was an even bigger deal than Louis was back then. But now that I had been in that gunfight, things were very different. I wasn't even sure Sanu still wanted me to go back on stage.
"I´ll come to the meeting…" I assured with a little sigh once more, "…but I can´t promise anything…"
POV Jack
"I promise you…" I sighed, looking her right in the eyes once again, "…she just nodded shortly and walked past me."
"Didn't you at least try to ask her if everything is alright?"
"She…" I sighed, "…she didn´t look like she wanted me to ask. She seemed really distant…"
Anita nodded understandingly but still looked onto the floor with a sad expression.
"She hasn´t talked to me ever since Legoshi broke up with her" she mentioned lowly, and we could really tell how much that hurt her.
"Well…Legoshi hasn´t really talked to us either…"
"Yeah…" she agreed, "…but I´m not sure I would talk a whole lot either if I had to deal with gang fights and stuff like that. I was so shocked when I heard it in the news!"
"Tell me about it…" Miguno sighed, "…I couldn't close an eye that night!"
Collot slowly nodded to that statement as well. We all shared the same thoughts about this.
I noticed it in class today as well. They stared at him from all sides, but they were too afraid to talk to him. It was pretty scary after all, and nobody wanted to have anything to do with that.
"You think Juno avoids us because of Legoshi?" I asked them lowly, "…maybe she thinks we hate her now?"
"Oh god I hope not!" Anita said, "…why would we hate her?"
"I mean…" Miguno sighed, "…it is a little weird now that they´re not together anymore…but…"
"I really hope they´ll make up somehow…" I agreed, "…at least stay friends."
"If we´re honest with ourselves…" Collot suddenly spoke up, "…there is just one person who can fix this, and that´s Legoshi. I think we all were aware he never had true honest feelings for her, but shoving it into her face like that just wasn´t the right thing to do."
Anita found herself nodding to that in total agreement. Then she looked at me once again.
"Jack, you´re the one who knows him the best" she told me, "Please try and talk to him!"
At first I still found myself hesitating a little bit, but then I nodded carefully.
Pretty much in that moment, we heard somebody using their keys on the dorms door-lock. This could have been Voss or Durham as well, but it really was Legoshi who decided to come visit us this afternoon.
Gently as ever he opened the door from the outside and carefully stepped into the room like he was trying not to wake up anybody who might be taking a nap.
"Speak of the devil…" Collot chuckled lowly, immediately getting his attention therefore.
"Hey guys" the wolf greeted us lowly, "…how have your holidays been?"
"Oh what do you think they´ve been after hearing you got shot in a clan fight you doofus!" Anita asked him with a weird mixture of anger and joy because of seeing him.
She got off my bed now, came closer towards him and boxed into his shoulder. Then she hugged him.
"Heh…" he sighed, "…yeah, I´m really sorry for scaring you guys like that."
"You better be…" Miguno commented with a little chuckle, then he went on his way to hug the wolf as well.
I did the same and Collot joined in on it too a moment later. This still was boosting the mood a little. Hugging Legoshi from all sides was just so much fun.
"So…can we see it?" Anita then asked impatiently.
"See…what?" Legoshi asked in slight confusion.
"The gunshot you dummy" she sighed, already grabbing his vest to pull it upwards.
Legoshi sighed a little but then pulled his clothing up himself so we could take a look.
"There is more than one wound, Legoshi…" I explained what I saw.
"The one on the left was the gunshot that bruised me, the rest was from a knife" he sighed, knowing how much worse that sounded.
"My god" Anita said, putting her hands in front of her mouth in shock, "…Legoshi, what the hell are you getting yourself into?!"
He just nodded slowly and with an agreeing little sigh, then he let his shirt and his vest fall back down over his abdomen.
"I know…" he said, looking at the floor, "…I´m sorry."
Then it was Miguno who wanted to ask him something.
"So…" he began, "…those guns they pointed at you on the stage…they were not fake-guns, were they?"
That question visibly downed the mood even a little more, but as all of us were interested in the answer, and he couldn't leave it unanswered anyway, he nodded hesitantly.
"I guess they all were real…" he sighed to make it official, "…I just didn´t want the entire school to make a scene because of it."
It actually made sense to me when he said it, but it still seemed like a horrible compromise he had to take. There probably was so much more we didn´t know about, but he wouldn´t tell us because he didn´t want us to worry.
At this point, it didn't feel like he was a student here anymore. It didn´t even feel like he wanted to belong to this dorm anymore for some reason. It felt like he just visited to show us that he was alright and we shouldn't worry about him. Sadly for him, it caused the exact opposite of that.
"I´m worried about you, Legoshi…" I told him in all honesty, "…we all are worried about you…"
POV Juno
Of all the people I didn´t want to meet today, he was the one I wanted to see the least: Kai.
When I met him in the hallway, the mongoose predictably tried to be the nice guy once again, asking how I was doing and how my holidays were, but I just ignored it with a forced little smile and walked past him. I didn´t feel like stupid small talk with a Simp right now.
But it was not just him. They all looked at me differently now, they all approached me in a way as if they cared about me, but in reality they all wanted to talked to me because they searched for somebody who was doing even worse than them right now.
As soon as I entered my dorm, they all just kept staring at me of course. The questions they had on their minds where obvious:
"What´s her relationship with Legoshi now. Is it true that he left her for that vixen? Is it true that she slept with the mongoose-boy who replaced him in the premiere performance? Is it true that Dekra won´t ever finish the rexmas-special sex chapter?"
I just threw my backpack onto my bed, got myself some more comfortable clothing and left the dorm before anyone could actually ask me about any of that. I just wanted to be alone right now. I didn´t want to do any studying, I didn´t want to do anything else.
I aimlessly wandered around the mostly empty hallways of the school, but I still didn´t feel like I was getting any privacy anywhere.
Not knowing what else to do, I remembered where I ended up last time and that it didn´t even turn out to be so bad in the end. So even though the weather was still kinda cold and it also looked like it was about to rain soon, I headed for the garden, hoping to find some peace and quiet there. That seemed to be my best option yet once again.
(Now read "Ex´s and Oh´s" by RedLiteAlexi again, just because it´s fluffy and beautiful.)
POV Jack
I´ve been waiting for this situation since the beginning of the christmas-holidays already.
Just the two of us walking side by side, nobody else, just like it´s always been back in the day.
But it didn´t feel like it did earlier. He seemed even taller now, even more mature somehow.
It took me almost half the way through the park to even start a conversation, that was how unfamiliar it felt.
"…so…someone really pointed their gun at you and pulled the trigger?"
It seemed like he had been expecting a question like that, although the answer was quite obvious in the meanwhile.
"…I didn't even notice it at first. It all went down so fast. I started that fight to my advantage, used that moment of surprise…and the adrenaline did the rest really. The nurses gave me something for the pain, I slept for a few hours and then woke up in the hospital…" he explained.
"Is that why you haven't answered any of our calls?"
He nodded slowly, "You guys must have been worried about me…"
"Well of course we were worried about you!" I almost blurted out at him, "…we´ve been worried about you ever since you´ve gotten abducted!"
He just nodded shamefully and I decided to use that moment while it lasted.
"…have you seen Juno ever since?"
"No…" he sighed, "…I haven't…yet…"
"You should consider apologizing to her…"
"I…I…" he sighed.
"We miss her!" I told him straight away, "…she isn´t talking to neither Anita nor me, and we both still consider her a friend you know!"
He nodded again, swallowing the words he wanted to reply to that initially. Then he took a quick look at the cold and cloudy sky above us.
It seemed like it would start to rain pretty soon, I even thought I felt a drop of water hit my arm already.
"…I´ll talk to her…" he then sighed, "…I promise."
"You should have seen how she looked at that mongoose-guy who took over your role…" I followed a weird thought that went through my head, "…she was almost seemed as attracted to as she probably was annoyed by him…"
He just nodded to that with an ironic little smirk.
"You know something about that, don't you?"
He nodded.
"…I told him to practise my role as well. He wanted a lead-role ever since he joined the drama-club, and since Juno and I broke up just before the premiere, I thought that was a good opportunity…"
"What?!" I asked in slight shock, "…you have planned that?"
"No, not exactly that…" he sighed, "…I told him that just I case Juno didn´t want to perform with me anymore."
"…but…" I said in slight confusion, "…but are you not worried he might go a little too far with her?"
"I´m pretty sure he had sex with her the evening after the premiere…" he chuckled light-heartedly, "…at least she smelled like him a lot in the performance of the next day."
I just couldn't believe how unbothered he still was about this. It really was like he never had feelings for her after all. It was like that wolf girl had been nothing more than just a toy, maybe an excuse to him.
"…can I ask you…" I sighed, "…don't take this the wrong way, but what do you like about Skye so much?"
That just made him chuckle a little more, he couldn't hide a little smirk even.
"…what?" I asked with a forced little chuckle myself, almost a little impatiently. I almost wanted to add: "What does she have that Juno couldn't give you? Why would you date a woman that´s so much older than you and another species on top of that. When has Juno ever treated you badly?"
But then he rendered all of that completely irrelevant with just one sentence.
"I don't even know where to begin" he said with a little smile, leaving it at that for a moment.
He just let that sink in, and everything else I wanted to say just never made it past my lips. My tongue was just tied right now.
"She´s real…" he then began explaining, "…I mean…Juno is a nice girl and all, but it always felt like she tried forcing our relationship too hard. Like it was more for status that for herself."
I heard what he said, but I didn´t understand it. To me it has always been clear that Juno really loved him. She loved him unconditionally and probably would have been his mate for life if he shared those feelings. But as his view on that still didn´t make any sense to me, I just kept listening.
"…apart from the drama-club, Juno and I don't have anything in common. …Skye is just as broken as I am. She´s been getting dealt a lot of bad hands and has been fighting a lot being all on her own for many years. She understands me, she sees past the image I was force to create."
"…but-"
"Juno just saw a boyfriend and an object of status in me" he explained dryly, completely shattering every little bit of hope I had left, "…and that was more painful than convenient to be honest."
"W-wait…now wait a minute" I stuttered in slight disbelief, "…there is more to her than that you know? Juno dreamed of having kids with you one day! She dreamed of making the world a better place for carnivores! She´s only seventeen, Legoshi! And she was in love with you, I don't think you should just write her off like that!"
That finally made him stop in his tracks for a moment. The tall wolf now looked down on me, exhaling as if he was at least a little conflicted with that right now.
"…it´s not like I don't feel sorry about it, Jack…" he sighed, "…but I´m not in love with her. I´ve never really been if I´m all honest with myself, I just went with it for the sake of convenience. I know that was wrong, but I can´t make it undone now."
More drops of rain came falling down from the sky in the meanwhile and it seemed to become stronger and stronger with every moment that passed.
"…I´ll try to make things right with her…" he assured me again, speeding up his walking-pace a little since it felt like it would start to rain pretty heavily soon, "…but I won´t ever be anything more than a friend to her from now on. Please try to accept that."
The rain got heavier quickly and we almost started running now. The dorm-building was at least another hundred yards away and we were getting really wet already.
"Skye is so much older than you!" I yelled while trying to keep up with him, "Do you really love her that much?"
As it really was pouring down on us now I started running and went into a full-on sprint towards the dorms. I overtook the physically still slightly impaired wolf and tried to get under the cover of the roof by the entrance door. Then I waited for him.
We both were soaking wet from the rain, running hadn't really saved us from it, but Legoshi didn´t even seem too bothered about it. He still smiled a little bit when he caught up to me.
"I would want to be with her even if she was 45, Jack…" he chuckled, looking serious about that statement though, "…I love her. Nothing is gonna change that."
With that he opened the door for us and waited until I passed him. There was no way to change his mind, he couldn't make that any more-clear.
"Okay…" I sighed in slight defeat, not having anything more to add, "…I just hope you know what you´re doing."
POV Kai
First day back at school and my mood was almost as shitty as it had been before the Christmas break. The teachers had dumped a whole lot of work on our shoulders, the other students, especially Juno, seemed really distant and confused about the recent events, and on top of that it now also had started raining. Not snowing like it was supposed to in the winter, it was just cold wind and loads of cold water.
And just once again, the only topic everyone was talking about was Legoshi. How could it be any differently, why wouldn´t they talk about him? He ended a criminal lion clan, of course he was the only topic right now.
But nobody seemed to know anything. Of the few people I asked, some of them had seen him today, but nobody seemed to have had the guts to actually talk to him. I would have talked to him without any hesitation, but I haven't met him in any of the hallways today and I didn´t know where his dorm was either. I was about to check if I could find it, but then my motivation quickly faded once again as I figured I would have to meet his entire dorm and probably answer a lot of uncomfortable questions.
So after I finally got done with all the homework they had given us for today, I went back to my own dorm first of all.
It seemed like most of my dorm mates where still out learning or doing other activities, because most of them weren't here yet, but one of them was actually lurking in the shadows of his bottom bunk already. Tyler.
"There is the superstar of our dorm!" he greeted me with a little chuckle, looking up from the book he was reading.
"…what do you want now?" I asked with a tired little chuckle.
"Nothing in particular…" he grinned in amusement, "Just curious how your day was, Mr. Odysseus…"
"Why would you care about my day?" I asked the other mongoose in slight confusion.
Nobody in this dorm cared about anything their room-mates were doing. I didn´t care about his day, why would he care about mine?
"…oh…you know…" he chuckled, "Just heard some rumours…"
"What rumours?" I asked lazily while throwing my backpack into the corner and myself onto the matrass of my bed.
That question just made him smile a little wider now.
"Come on man, what rumours?"
"Oh…" he grinned, "…just that you…you know…fooled around with Legoshi´s ex after the premiere…"
Hearing that out of his mouth shocked me a little for some reason. But it filled me with a little bit of pride right now.
"Who spread those rumours? Has Juno talked about it to anyone? Has somebody of the drama-club noticed my smell in her fur or hers in mine?"
Since I couldn't deny that rumour to be true, and he probably wouldn't believe me anyway if I tried to do so, I just gave him a lazy little smirk.
"Maybe they guessed it since I was with her all evening and came back to the dorm pretty late that night…?"
But the reason why he brought up that whole topic in the first place was pretty clear to me already.
"…haven´t I told you about that before it happened already?" he asked with a big grin.
I was hoping he wouldn't bring it up, but I should have already guessed that he wouldn´t let me get away from it that easily. He actually had guessed my crush on Juno correctly when I used his "services" last time, and that seemed to fill him with great pride for some reason.
"Yeah yeah…" I sighed, as it was inevitable that he would find this really exciting, "…so what?"
"I´m not saying anything!" he defended himself with a big grin, "…I´m really proud of you!"
"Oh come on…" I told him in slight annoyance about his almost parental joyfulness, "…shut up, will you?"
"Gotta say…" he continued grinning teasingly, "…I am a little jealous right now…"
"What of me?" I asked in slight surprise, "…I thought you´re just into guys?"
"No…" he laughed, "…of Juno...you know…spending the night with a handsome stallion like you…"
"Oh shut up you little dick!" I told him with an ironic little sigh, "…what´s your deal?!"
That just made him laugh even harder, and I would be lying if I said it wasn't a tiny bit contagious right now. It annoyed me, but I knew he didn´t mean it like that.
It also made me feel a little uncomfortable however.
"Is that little pervert really simping for me right now or did he say that just to be funny?"
It was no secret to anybody that he liked to do sexual favours to other guys for just a very small amount of money, but that was exactly what made him so inscrutable. There were a lot of rumours about him, but nothing they said behind his back mattered to him in any way. Over the years he had given everyone in the dorm a blowjob at some point, we all knew about that and he still was rather proud than ashamed about it. So he could pretty much say anything he wanted to me and I couldn't really say anything about it. He was not afraid of using that power.
"It seems like I´ve prepared you well…" he continued in that teasing manner, "…haven´t I?"
"What?" I asked in slight surprise about that statement, tired of pretending clueless in the meanwhile, "…because you raised your tail for me?"
(There is a chapter about that btw ;) It´s called "Chapter 17.X1 – Mongoose on a rampage", and it´s available in never-published-chapters on the Discord server if you´re interested.)
"…you did seem kinda stressed before the premiere…" he mentioned with an amused chuckle, and I sadly couldn't disagree with him on that either if I was totally honest.
"I had to learn Legoshi´s entire script as well, what do you think?! Of course I was fuckin stressed!" I told him.
Although I didn´t expect that excuse to work, it certainly changed the topic a little right now.
"Did he really make you learn his entire script in case he would have to bail half-way through the performance?"
"No, I learned his script because he feared that Juno wouldn't want to perform with him. I had no idea the freaking Shishigumi would attack him on stage..."
"It seemed like he knew about it though…" he mentioned now, "…he even knew they were using fake guns after all…"
"They weren´t fake guns."
I said out loud as if it was totally obvious, and then I just realized how freaking stupid that was.
"Fuck! Kai you idiot! Where would you know that from? You have to explain that now!"
"What do you mean not fake?" he asked in confusion, certainly looking a little scared about that statement of mine. I tried to keep my cool but my pulse was racing right now.
"…I mean…he was hit by a real gunshot in a fight with that clan two days later…do you really think they would have brought fake guns if they already had those intentions?"
I wasn't quite sure if that sounded believable or not, but it seemed like he was buying it.
"Shit…" he said, now more lowly, "…I´ve never thought about it like that."
"He played that off like it was just one big joke…" I explained my way of thinking, "…but he really just tried to save us from the trouble…"
"Well…at least he trusted you to finish his role for him…"
"Wow."
I never would have thought that I could talk to this guy about anything else than casual bullshit, but right now I was actually quite glad to have him here. I should probably take him a little more serious in the future, he made a few really good points right now.
"…that wolf still is a total mystery to me…he didn´t even care that I had sex with Juno, he didn´t even mention it, although he clearly knew about it…"
"Makes him even better of an actor in the end, doesn't it?"
Tyler really was a lot smarter than I first thought he was. My own narrow-mindedness shocked me a little right now, I never really saw him as more than the notorious slut everybody saw him as. There was more to him than just a little mongoose who gave out tail for money.
"…it was actually him who broke up with her…" I explained, "…I don't think he really acted over that, he really just didn´t care."
"You think he´s with that white vixen who helped him fighting on stage?"
I nodded affirmingly. "…he told us about it later that evening."
"Why would he leave Juno for her?" Tyler now asked in slight disbelief, "…they were looking so good together!"
"Don't ask me…" I sighed, "…it seems like they never were that close to each other after all."
"Oh I don't think it´s as easy as that, Kai" he now told me with a little chuckle.
"What do you mean by that exactly?" I wanted to know curiously, as this almost sounded a bit provocative to me.
"I don't know…" he said hesitantly, "…to me it seems like it was her who broke up and he´s trying to make her jealous by dating that vixen…"
"It´s not like that…" I told him rather loudly, "…he didn´t mind at all when I fooled around with her!"
"I…I didn´t mean it like that, I just…"
"You just wanted to say that I was just a quick rebound fuck to her! That´s why you´re bringing this up!"
"N-no!" he said defensively, "Kai! Listen, don't get this the wrong way…"
"I know she´s not in love with me you dumbass!" I almost yelled at him, "I´m not stupid, okay?"
He looked a little bewildered all over sudden, almost a little scared even, and just a moment later I realized how I was treating him again.
"…h-hey! I…I didn´t say you were stupid!" he stuttered lowly, looking at me with sad eyes as my own breath was suddenly getting really heavy.
"Fuck! Why was this stressing me out so much? Why am I yelling at him for that?"
I immediately felt like the biggest asshole who ever lived once again.
My eyes actually began tearing up a little now, I couldn´t deny it. I suddenly had that gun before my inner eyes once again. I remembered how I wanted to change my behaviour, I remembered everything I had promised myself to do better.
And now I just continued where I had left off. I immediately went back to my old ways at the very first day back at school already.
He looked a little conflicted as well over sudden, but I couldn´t help myself. There were still more tears coming up in my eyes. I inhaled sharply, trying to deal with the pain that that suddenly caused in the back of my throat, but it was no use. I couldn´t hide it from him.
He probably thought I was crying because Juno would never have the same feelings for me I had for her, but it really was about my behaviour towards him right now.
"Kai…I´m sorry…I didn´t want to upset-"
"It´s not that…" I interrupted him carefully, "…I´m sorry for yelling at you like that."
He seemed a little overwhelmed by this situation as well right now. I was so ashamed about that, I actually tried to hide my face behind my hands in that moment.
"You still seem kinda stressed out to be honest, are you sure everything is alright?" he asked carefully.
He was still so nice to me for some reason. Even after I yelled at him like that once again. I was a little dumbfounded at the moment.
I´ve never shown any weakness to anyone here before. Not in my dorm, not to anyone at this school I believed.
"I guess I am a little stressed…" I confessed, rubbing my eyes, "…but I shouldn't let this out on you. I´ve been such an asshole once again…"
He left that standing in the room for a moment.
"…how did you come to that conclusion all over sudden?" he asked with an uncomfortable little chuckle.
"…you´ve just been nice to me all this time, and I never really realized it. And now I´m getting loud and aggressive again for no good reason…"
"Oh come on…" he chuckled lowly, putting his book away completely and sitting upright on his matrass now.
"No, I mean it…" I told him, trying to look him in the eyes and not hide behind my hands now, "…I´ve just been a real dick to you all this time, and you don't deserve to be treated like that!"
"Nah…" he waved it off with a friendly little smirk, "…this whole dorm is full of douchebags. You at least know about and don't try to hide it."
I was a little surprised he said it out loud like that, but as I couldn't and didn´t even want to disagree with him on that, I just nodded a little.
"…It´s nice of you to say sorry though" he then told me with a little smirk, "…guess it´s not that easy to break through your façade like that."
I just caught myself nodding to that again. There was no better way of describing it really. Nobody wanted to show weakness here, nobody wanted to be the "weird guy" and nobody wanted to get caught showing any sign of emotion. It seemed like he had figured that out a long time ago already. Tyler was smarter than that as well, apparently. And since he was not ashamed of anything, that suddenly made him so much more mature than anyone else our age.
I just watched him with a fascinated but also slightly confused little smile as he now made his way over to my bed.
Then he surprised me even a little more.
"Get off your bed for a moment, will you?" he asked with a welcoming little smirk.
"W-what?" I asked in slight confusion.
"Come on, I won´t hurt you!"
"What are you…?" I asked, already getting up on my palms.
"I´m trying to fix you" he chuckled in amusement, "Now stand up already!"
I slowly but still kinda sceptically got onto my feet now, looking at him with a shrug of my shoulders.
He didn´t lose a single further word though. He just took a step forwards and hugged me tightly.
Just like that he pressed his warm body against mine and rested his head on my shoulders.
"There you go" he chuckled lowly, "Tell me that doesn't feel good."
I wasn´t even able to reply anything. This was just the best moment of my whole day. It just felt warm and fluffy and very convenient. I really needed that.
I didn´t even need to answer him anything, I was pretty sure he figured that out as well. He was just right about that once again.
When I was first hesitating a little to return the gesture, I now carefully hugged him back with my arms and just embraced it. This just gave me back such an unbelievable amount of energy.
"That´s a good boy…" Tyler chuckled in amusement. "Let out all that frustration, there is nothing to hide."
It felt like I enjoyed this way more than I should. I just realized that the simple physical sensation of being this close to somebody right now had gotten me really excited in the meanwhile, and since he still didn´t release me from his hug, it was getting increasingly harder to hide it.
Before I could even attempt to do anything about it, the other mongoose suddenly lifted his head off my right shoulder, took a step back and gave me that dirty little smirk once again.
It was pretty obvious he enjoyed that as well, but I wasn´t even too ashamed about it somehow. In fact, it made me chuckle a little when he looked at the noticeable bulge that had formed in my pants in the meanwhile.
"Oh don't look at me like that now…" I told him with a little sigh.
This was too obvious already. He took a quick look around the room and then listened into the hallway outside for a moment.
"Well you are easily getting excited, aren't you?" he asked teasingly, before shamelessly grabbing my dick through my pants.
"This was your plan all along, wasn't it?" I asked him with another little sigh, not that turned off by that thought however, "…you know how to make business."
He just got onto his knees now without further ado, slowly but surely opening up the zipper of my pants. "My, my Kai…" he grinned, "…you really are pent up…"
"You fuckin tease…" I muttered as he began muzzling up to my dick now.
"You know what?" he then asked me with a big naughty grin, pushing me with my back down onto my own matrass suddenly, "…that was really cute of you. So the blowjob is free today if you promise to be a little more gentle this time."
POV Jack
When I first thought this day couldn't become any more-weird and uncomfortable, this situation officially gave my nerves the rest for today.
Barely ten minutes after Legoshi had left our dorm and went ´home´, an almost frighteningly excited Durham suddenly entered the room.
"Hey guys!" he greeted us with a big happy smile on his face.
He came fresh from a workout-session with his athletics-club, but he still seemed full of energy. The sporty coyote was just as wet as Legoshi and I had been when we came back from our little walk, but that didn't seem to bother him either.
It didn´t seem like he wanted to tell us the reason for his excitement though, at least not right away.
Without further ado, he tossed his sports-bag onto his matrass and headed for the bathroom.
We were just left staring after him and then at each other when he shut the door behind him.
"What´s gotten into him all over sudden?" Collot asked towards Miguno, "…he didn´t seem that energetic this morning…"
"I couldn't tell you…" the spotted hyena commented with a shrug of his shoulders.
I already didn´t like this for some reason. I had a slight foreboding coming up already.
This left all of us a little restless right now, apparently, but we had to wait for him to finish his shower to get more clarity.
When he came back from the bathroom, he remembered me of Legoshi a little bit. He just had a towel around his waist when he went back towards his bed, not afraid of taking it off in front of us either before putting on a fresh pair of boxers. I´ve never witnessed him doing that before.
"What´s gotten into you today?" Miguno now asked in slight confusion, as the coyote was neither getting distracted by our staring, nor bothered to explain his excitement.
"…I…" he said, now getting a little nervous though, "…I´m having dinner with a girl tonight..."
"What, really?" I asked in great surprise, sadly not thinking about it first.
He nodded slowly, obviously aware that hearing that would hurt Miguno a little bit.
It was a well-known thing in this dorm that they weren't really a couple, but we also weren't exactly convinced that Miguno actually wanted it to be like that after all. They still were best friends, sometimes sharing a bed together, sometimes more, but they didn´t want this to be something romantical. At least Durham didn´t want that I was pretty sure.
"…who…" Collot began, "…who is she?"
"Her name is Hidemi…she just moved to the city and changed school for her last highschool year…" he explained carefully, "…she´s joined my athletics club…and I had a real nice talk with her this afternoon. I promised to show her around a little…"
Collot nodded understandingly, while we all found ourselves looking at Miguno now. I was a little ashamed that I was not able to help myself staring, but I needed to know how the Hyena would react to that news.
But he didn´t really react at all. It seemed like he totally ignored it, acting cool about it although his heart was probably starting to bleed out already. It´s been a while since Durham had actually been this enthusiastic about something.
The coyote noticed that himself of course, but as he didn´t want to get too deep into that topic right now either, he quickly got to work and continued dressing himself adequately. He even took some good pants out of his drawer for this, finishing it off with a spray of cologne afterwards. It really looked like he was preparing for a date here.
When he was all done with getting ready for his meet-up, he took another quick look at his phone, then he already got off his bed and went on his way again. He didn't say a single further word and just left us here like that.
Having watched all that in total impotency, I just sat back down onto my matrass and looked at Miguno with a sad expression.
First Juno and now him as well. This just felt so horrible to witness, I almost found myself crying about it.
"Just what is going on these days?" I sighed lowly.
Nobody said anything. Another moment of silence passed by, we all still found ourselves looking at Miguno with sad eyes.
He tried to bear it a little longer, but then he suddenly got off his matrass as well, grabbed his jacket and left the room without any further word.
POV Miguno
I still wasn´t quite sure if I could really do this to him, but then I thought "fuck it" and pushed the doorbell anyway. I waited a couple of moments, then a female voice suddenly asked: "Can I help you?" through the connection.
It sounded quite serious and not really inviting, but I guessed that with Legoshi´s status it probably happened quite frequently that they had kinda unpleasant people ringing their doorbell.
"Hey…uhm…" I stuttered, "…It´s Miguno…I´m from Legoshi´s dorm…I was wondering if I could talk to him for a minute?"
I really didn´t want to bother him right now, but as I just couldn't stand being in my dorm at the moment, and it was still pouring with rain outside, I didn´t have a whole lot of options.
"…okay, sure" her voice came back after another moment, now noticeably friendlier, "…get out of the rain and come in!"
The opener buzzed and the door gave way when I pushed it. I went up the stairs and Legoshi was already waiting for me, leaning himself against the doorframe. He just wore some jogging pants and a muscle shirt right now, looking rather exhausted on a physical level.
"Everything alright?" he asked with a concerned voice.
It was pretty clear that he would notice my emotional state at some point, but I knew I didn´t need to hide anything from him anyway.
I nodded slightly, well aware he wouldn't believe me that anyway.
"Something about Durham?"
"He´s met a girl…" I explained with a deep sigh, "…and I´ve rarely seen him so excited before."
"Oh man…" the wolf sighed with an understanding little smirk at me, waving me to follow him into his flat, "…come in, you´re gonna catch a cold when you´re all wet like that!"
When we walked past the doorframe, I saw the woman the voice form earlier belonged to. I knew who she was of course, I´ve even seen her before when she was on our stage fighting a clan of armed lions, but although Legoshi just told us the best about her of course, I naturally was a little nervous right now.
She undoubtedly was a few years older than Legoshi and I, but she was undoubtedly one of the coolest and most beautiful woman I´ve ever met in my life. The white furred vixen had some sort of bandage on one of her arms, not being covered by the short black t-shirt she wore, and she gave me a sympathetic little smile when I nodded towards her.
"Sorry if I sounded a little cold" she told me lowly, "…we always have to be a little careful."
I nodded understandingly.
"I´m Skye by the way, it´s nice to meet you!"
"M-miguno…" I stuttered lowly.
Legoshi closed the door behind me, I got out of my wet jacket and hung it onto one of the free hooks in the hallway wardrobe. My fur felt cold and wet and made me feel even more miserable right now. I was glad they let me in and weren't mad at me for coming unannounced, but that didn´t solve the main problem for me after all. This was eating me up on the inside, and it wasn´t easy to hide that from them.
"…yeah…" the grey-wolf agreed with her earlier statement, "…I´m not even allowed to spend the nights at the dorm anymore. The principal thinks it might be too dangerous for you guys."
I nodded understandingly, although I personally wouldn't really have minded that. To me he still was part of our dorm, he never turned his back on us.
"…not sure you really wanna be in there right now anyway…" I told him, probably sounding more cynical than I intended to, "…Jack is looking just as heartbroken as if Anita just had broken up with him."
"Oh no…" Legoshi sighed again, "…yeah, I can imagine this hit´s him hard."
"I hope he soon realizes that our last year at highschool is coming up soon…" I mentioned, "…this wasn´t gonna last forever anyway…"
"The least things do…" Skye mentioned with a little smirk towards me, "…that´s why you try to stick to them while they last."
I followed them into the living room and was a little surprised by the sight I was greeted with. The couches were all pushed to the side so there was a big space in the middle of the room, and that only for the purpose of rolling out a quite large, blue matt on the floor as it seemed.
My first thought was "that doesn´t seem like the most comfortable way to have sex" but then I began to realize that it probably had a reason why they both were wearing workout clothing right now.
"What happened to this place?" I asked in slight amusement, as Legoshi really was looking a little exhausted.
"Combat training" Skye explained with a little chuckle, "…or call it rehabilitation…"
"Call it torture…" Legoshi muttered in a slightly ironic tone.
"Come on!" she chuckled at him, "…where is the guy who ended the Shishigumi?"
"So this is where the heavily lifting happens?" I asked.
Legoshi just nodded silently, Skye´s smirk widened a little. "I´m trying my best…" she commented.
"The whole school is talking about it…" I mentioned with a little smile, "…nobody has seen anyone fight like this before."
"They´re talking about me all the time…" Legoshi sighed lowly, "…but now they´re also afraid of me again."
This seemed to be a bigger issue for him than I first thought it would be. The struggles of his past seemed to have caught up with him again.
"That´s something you will have to get used to…" Skye explained softly, walking up to him and placing one hand on his snout carefully.
The wolf looked just as exhausted and demotivated as I was feeling right now. Now that we´ve gotten into that topic a little further, his façade seemed to be crumbling a little. It seemed like he had quite a rough start as well today.
She looked into his eyes for another moment, then her smile suddenly widened a little once again.
"I think I have an idea what to do with you boys."
"What…what would that be?" Legoshi asked her in slight confusion.
She just began rolling up the matt on the floor though, giving the hint that it would explain itself pretty soon.
Still being a little surprised by her sudden enthusiasm, the grey wolf helped her bringing the living room back into its normal setting. When the job was done, she headed for the bedroom.
"Guys, get your jacket´s, we´re going out."
"Where?" he asked in slight confusion, once again not getting an answer, "…where are we going?"
POV Skye
"Skylar!" Jerome greeted me when we entered his from the outside rather nondescript looking but still quite adequately visited pub, "…my day just got a little bit brighter!"
I greeted him back with a hug and an amused little smirk. Seeing him on this side of the counter was quite unusual since he was mostly busy giving out beer and mixing cocktails for customers, but it seemed I had caught him at a convenient moment.
"So good to see you!" he continued, "What brings me the honour?"
"It´s cold and rainy outside…" I answered with an ironic chuckle, and just now the laid-back and usually really charismatic turtle noticed the wolf and the hyena I had with me.
"They belong to you?" he asked, now being slightly sceptical as he already noticed that they both probably were below the legal drinking.
I nodded quickly, "…don't worry, they won´t cause you any trouble."
"They seem a little young to visit-"
"They are, Jerome" I quickly cut him off, "…but I promise you, even if the police should stop here, he is a Beastar and I´ll personally make sure they won´t…"
In that very moment, Jerome´s eyes went a little wider and his face went a lot friendlier once again.
"…aren't you that wolf who ended the Shishigumi?" he asked, actually sounding really excited now.
As that caused a few people near us to turn their heads, Legoshi just nodded with a humble little smile.
"It´s a great honour!" he told him, shaking his hand, already having thrown all his doubts overboard, "Please, just feel like at home here!"
"Thank you" the wolf replied, "…that´s really kind of you."
"Oh that´s the least I can do!" he assured, "…Skye helped me so much with those douchebags already! You should have seen her when she was kicking their-"
"Jerome…" I stopped him, raising a hand with a short wink and a little smile, "…he´s seen me fighting before."
He nodded, finally understanding that I didn´t really want to discuss all this out here.
"…why don't you guys get yourself a nice table?" he then offered, pointing at a comfortable looking booth in the corner of the room, "…I´ll hook you up with a round of today´s special!"
"Thanks Jerome!" I told him contentedly, before I took the lead towards my favourite spot in the whole pub.
It was in a rather small, not too brightly lit corner of the room, but you still had a pretty good view over the whole location.
The old turtle went back behind his counter and began preparing some drinks for us, Legoshi and his dorm-mate followed me. We took a seat and made ourselves comfortable, then they both finally seemed to relax a little.
After a few moments had passed, Legoshi suddenly leaned in a little closer towards me.
"You´ve had trouble with them here as well?" he asked me lowly, seemingly still in slight disbelief about hearing it.
"Yeah…" I waved it off, "…they used to come here quite regularly…but since the red deer had taken over, they started acting up because of the smallest little things."
He nodded understandingly.
"You´ve caused a lot of trouble by saving that bunny girl" I told him with an ironic little chuckle.
"Yeah, I know…" he said with a little sigh.
"He shook the entire school with that…" Miguno commented, "…the atmosphere has completely changed ever since. And not in a bad way I think."
"Not for everybody…" he said, shaking his head shortly, "…I just can´t match everybody´s expectations."
"Noone ever can" I told him with a serious expression, "…trust me. That's nothing to be ashamed about."
"But I didn´t have to be such a douchebag towards Juno!" he sighed, "…I…I mean, I wasn´t in love with her…but then I should have told her earlier! Jack is right, I´ve been a total jerk towards her!"
This was seriously bothering him right now. More than he first wanted to admit after he told me about the talk he had with him earlier this afternoon.
"Come on…" I told him with a confident smile, "…she´s a tough and pretty girl. A few years from now, she´ll have totally forgotten about you anyway! In her memories, you´ll just be that douchebag Beastar-boy she used to fuck in highschool, nothing more..."
His slightly offended gaze went towards me for that comment, but he didn´t say anything. He knew I was right, and since there was nothing to add, he then couldn´t hide a tried little smile about it either.
Miguno however nodded as if he knew exactly what I was talking about. I guessed that was pretty much how he was feeling about his ´boyfriend´ right now.
Then Jerome arrived at our table with three cocktails on his tray. Each of them very colourful and in fancy glasses, finished off with a straw and a tiny little umbrella. Not my favourite choice of drink after all, but good enough to clink glasses with in any case.
"Thanks Jerome" I told him as he placed the drinks in front of us, "Looks good!"
"My pleasure!" he said, "Let me know if you need anything else!"
With that he went back on his way to the bar.
"Come on guys" I told them with an enthusiastic little smirk, quickly removing the straw and the decorations from my glass and then raising it in the middle, "…let´s ditch all this bullshit for a minute!"
"Preach, sister!" Miguno agreed lowly, raising his glass as well.
Legoshi did the same and we clinked our glasses in the middle of the table.
"Come on boys, down the hatch!"
The spotted hyena took a careful sip out of the straw, but then this wasn´t going quickly enough for him either, so he removed it from the glass as well and began gulping it down in quite an impressive pace. Legoshi on the other hand wasn´t in that much of a hurry to get drunk. He put his cocktail down after a few sips, then he turned towards Miguno.
"You could build that into a song…" he then suggested out of nowhere.
"What?" he asked back sarcastically, "…Demi and Duri sitting in a tree?"
This already made me raise an eyebrow at him with a little chuckle.
"Demi?" Legoshi asked.
"It´s Hidemi or something like that…" he said with a shrug of his shoulders, taking another big gulp of his already half empty cocktail.
"Kinda cute nicknames for a couple though…" I commented with a little chuckle.
"Yeah, thanks very much…" he said ironically.
"Come on…" Legoshi said "…it´s just a dinner. It´s not like they´re together already…"
"Well…" I sighed, "…I guess it was just a matter of time anyway. It was kind of a deal we had about that…"
That however made Legoshi´s ears drop a little when he heard it. "I didn´t really believe you when you said that the first time already…if I´m totally honest with you…" he explained carefully, "…I don't want to mock you or anything…I just think you should be honest with yourself…"
The hyena boy nodded slowly, then he focussed on his drink again. Legoshi probably had a point here, but it didn't seem like he really needed some clever advices right now. The way he was downing that cocktail, it was pretty obvious that he was really trying to distract himself from all that tonight.
I noticed how he was looking at something that was behind me from time to time, and even without looking there myself, I was pretty sure I knew what it was. Or who it was for that matter.
The attractive maned wolf was a regular at this bar ever since he was allowed to drink legally. He mostly just sat there at the counter, looking into his phone, drinking one or two beers a night. Sometimes he had a bit of small talk with other guests, sometimes he even left the bar with them. Apart from his looks, he was friendly and charismatic, so it was no wonder he had quite a lot of success with hooking up in a place like this.
I could see the hyena finding him interesting as well, and right now some distraction like that certainly seemed not that bad of an idea to him after all.
I almost wanted to bet on it. I was pretty sure he would go and talk to him once his drink was empty. Good thing he brought quite a lot of thirst with him tonight.
POV Miguno
I had seen his guy when we entered the bar already. I was pretty sure I wasn´t the only one who had seen him, because everything about him was fascinating. At first I thought he was a fox. His fur was mostly a mix of fiery red and orange, and white under his chin and down the front of his neck, but he also had a brown mane going down the back of his head. It fell into many different directions between his ears, partly standing upright, partly going down the back of his head, and I was just drawn to every single feature of his handsome appearance. He also was a whole lot taller than most foxes I´ve seen before. I guessed he was not much older than me, probably just over 20 since that was the legal drinking age in Japan, but that didn´t matter to me too much either. He looked like he was friendly, he looked like he´s had better times as well and he looked like someone I would want to have a conversation with right now.
The maned wolf was still sitting alone on one of the barstools, staring down at the beer in front of him. A few seats further down the counter sat a much older tiger lady who was checking him out as well from time to time, but it didn´t look like he was interested.
Now after having downed that fancy drink, I slowly but surely began feeling a lot more comfortable here. I liked how relaxed Skye was with us as well. She was not shy of speaking her mind and she was not pretending like she needed to look out for us either.
There was not a whole lot more I could ask for right now.
"I´m gonna get myself another drink…" I announced, getting up from the bank I was sitting on.
They both just smiled at me with a little nod and let me do so without any concerns.
So I left my empty glass at their table and headed for the bar.
Not thinking about it any further and without much hesitation, I sat myself down onto one of the two remaining barstools. I picked the one right next to the maned wolf rather than the one next to the old tigress, trying to make it look like it was just by chance of course.
The bartender still was busy mixing a drink for another guest, so I took a look around, examining all the fancy bottles in the shelves behind the counter.
"Aren´t you a little young to be in a bar?" a male voice to my left asked me with a little chuckle, and when I turned towards him, he smiled at me in slight amusement. It was a sympathetic smile though, and it made him look even more handsome than he was already.
"Y-yeah…" I stuttered, trying to hide my excitement about him starting a conversation with me.
"Don't worry, I won´t make any trouble…" he told me with a friendly smirk, "…you kinda look like you need it to be honest."
I was a little shocked of hearing that.
"How does he know?! Was it that obvious?"
"Y-yeah…" I stuttered again, "…I…I…"
He still smiled at me, boosting my confidence to a whole nother, quite unexpected level with that.
"I…I think I lost my boyfriend to a girl today…"
"Fuck! Did I really just say that out loud? Did I really just tell that to a stranger right now?"
Since I had no idea how he would react to that piece of information, I tried my best to act casual about it, but it wasn't as bad as I imagined anyway. He didn´t even act completely disinterested about it. He just nodded understandingly, looking down at his beer again.
"Man that´s tough…" he sighed, "…sorry to hear that."
"…thanks…" I sighed with a mixture of resignation and relief. I was glad he was so chill about it, but just having said it out loud had pushed that topic right into the foreground once again. I just couldn´t ignore it.
Now I just noticed that the bartender had listened to this conversation as well from the distance. He came closer towards us as well now, picking up a bottle of something on his way.
He wordlessly poured the clear liquid into a small glass and then put it down on the counter in front of me.
"I don't know much…" he said with a little smirk on his face, "…but I know that love can be though."
With that and another little wink, he put the bottle back down to where he got it from and continued preparing something else for another customer again.
I took a closer look at the shot-glass in front of me, then I guided it to my lips with shaky hands and downed it with one single gulp. I couldn´t tell what it was just from its taste, but I could tell that it had a really high percentage of alcohol. It burned in the back of my throat for a moment, but I tried not to show it as I put the empty glass back down on the counter.
"That Beastar a friend of yours?" the maned wolf besides me suddenly asked with great interest. It seemed he had noticed us as well earlier already.
"He´s my dormmate. Or at least he used to be, before he got his own private flat and smoking-hot girlfriend…" I explained while pointing towards the corner where Skye and Legoshi were still sitting.
"What Skye is his girlfriend?"
"You know her?" I asked in slight confusion.
"…not really. I´ve seen her here a couple of times… and Jerome just told me about her and what she did to those lions who used to make trouble here…"
I nodded understandingly.
"This woman is just such a mystery…" I mumbled then, trying to keep the conversation going.
"I`ve never seen anyone hit on her so far…" he mentioned in slight amusement, "…I guess she´s got that reputation of a fighting machine for a reason…"
"I´ve seen her fighting those lions on our stage when they interrupted our drama-club performance" I explained with a little nod, "…the way she destroyed them had the entire school talking about it for days."
He nodded understandingly, then he took another sip from his beer. This topic didn´t seem to be terribly interesting to him either, probably because he now knew she had a boyfriend already.
Nevertheless, I wanted to keep talking to him. He was friendly, he was handsome and I at least wanted to find out his name.
"…so what are you doing here tonight?" I asked casually, actually surprising myself a little with my boldness, "…you coming here more often?"
He nodded shortly.
"This is my last night here though…" he sighed, turning towards me with a little smile once again, "…I´m moving to Tokio tomorrow."
"T-Tokio?" I stuttered, immediately feeling a little heartbroken now that I learned that I would probably never get to see him again, "…r-really? I…I mean that´s kinda exciting, isn´t it?"
He carefully nodded while also shrugging his shoulders. It didn´t seem like he was totally convinced of that yet.
"…I got accepted for a job at a trading firm there…" he explained, "…I´ve been on interviews for months…I was hoping I didn´t have to leave this city, but that´s the only thing I got."
"Damn…" I sighed, taking just a short look down towards the now empty shot glass of liquor Jerome had sent me a minute ago.
He nodded slowly, then he turned towards me and smirked a little once again.
"Damn, I´m still staring at him. Why is this so addictive?"
His beer-glass was almost empty I just noticed. It seemed like he had noticed that I liked him, but I also had the feeling he didn´t want to get too far into this after all. It made sense considering he would move a few hundred miles away from here tomorrow, but I didn´t want it to be true nevertheless. I´d have taken anything tonight, even just an hour in a love-hotel or something like that. Anything but going back to the dorm and encountering a sky-high flying Durham.
"So…what´s your name?"
"Ookami" he said plainly but also with a slightly distant little sigh, "…and you?"
"M-Miguno."
He nodded with a little smile once again, then he brought his beer-glass to his lips and emptied it with one last chug.
For a brief moment I had the hope that that was some sort of signal, a sign that he found me kind of attractive as well and might be open for something crazy tonight, but that hope was gone just as quickly as it came.
"I´m gonna miss this place…" he suddenly said towards the barkeeper, who stood well within hearing range once again. He searched for something in his pockets, and when he found it he tossed it onto the counter next to his beer-glass. It was a 1000yen note.
"Oh I bet there are bars in Tokio as well…" he laughed with a little wink, removing the empty glasses and the money and then quickly cleaning the desk with a towel.
Ookami nodded with a tired little shrug of his shoulders.
"…but maybe you´ll come visit once you´re back here in town?" Jerome asked.
"Assuming you´ll still be here…" he said with an ironic little smirk.
"Ha!" the turtle chuckled in amusement, "I´ve outlived so many customers already, I´ll still be here when you´ve gone into retirement, pretty boy!"
"Well…hopefully…" Ookami said with an amused little wink, standing up from his barstool with that.
"Y-you´re going home already?" I asked him, way before I could even think about stopping my tongue. I probably sounded really desperate and disappointed right now as well, but I just couldn´t help myself. Now I couldn´t take it back anymore anyway, I had to live with is reaction, whatever it was in the end.
Although he clearly noticed why I asked that, he still remained rather calm and well-natured about it. It seemed like he got this sort of attention a lot, and it was easy to see why, but he also knew how to handle it.
"Miguno…please don't take this the wrong way…" he sighed, looking me right in the eyes with his handsome face while placing a hand on my shoulder, "…you really seem like a nice guy…and I´m sure you´ll have your reasons…but this is not a good idea."
"But…but I…" I stuttered, not knowing how to finish that sentence, "…I wanted…"
"A quick and easy fuck won´t fix your soul my friend…" he told me with a tired little chuckle, pulling his hand of my shoulders with that, "…it´s not like I wouldn´t even consider it, you´re kind of attractive…but I just can´t do that to you."
"Oh…" was all I could bring out of my mouth to that, not able to hide a disappointed expression.
He looked a little conflicted, but he stood by his statement.
"It will get better soon, trust me" he told me with one last little smile, then he turned around, left me sitting where I was and headed for the exit of the bar.
I wanted to yell something after him, but my tongue just wouldn´t let me. The door closed behind him, he walked past the windows and then he was out of sight.
Just like that, my evening was just as crappy as before.
POV Jack
The others were fast asleep already, but I was still lying awake, fighting with my thoughts. Firstly, how Legoshi broke Juno´s heart like that and now how Durham had done the very same to Miguno today.
This pulled me down for so many reasons. I was even questioning my own relationship with Anita right now. Not because I ever thought the same way about her, I still loved her to the core, but about her view on me.
"Maybe she´s just acting to love me so she could hang out with Legoshi and Juno? Maybe I am just a rebound from her previous relationship? …no! We spend most of the Christmas holidays together! We went on a hiking tour with her mom and her dad as well, we´ve had so much fun being together! Stop talking yourself into this bullshit again!"
When Durham came back from his "date" earlier tonight, he wasn´t looking all that content for some reason. When we asked him how it went, he almost got a little salty.
It turned out she shot him down tonight. He told it to us as if she was the biggest bitch in history, but to us it rather sounded like he might have been a little too pushy after all. They´ve known each other for half a day and he already thought she had fallen for him.
To me it seemed like he thought it would always be that easy to land in bed with a girl, but he probably hadn´t considered that he wasn´t hugely popular at this school, like Legoshi or Miguno for example. His expectations obviously had been too high for this evening and now he paid the price for it.
He had asked us where Miguno was after he had calmed himself down a little, but as we couldn´t give him an answer to that either, he just laid down onto the hyena´s matrass, covered himself in his blanket and tried to fall asleep as quickly as possible.
His best and closest friend being that pissed off by that seemed to hit him harder than we first thought it would. The usually rather rough and tough behaved coyote now cried himself into sleep as it looked like, wishing for nothing else than his best friend being here for him.
It was almost midnight when I suddenly heard a noise outside in the hallway. Somebody used their keys on the door to our dorm, but it took him quite a while to do it.
When the spotted hyena walked into the room, he didn´t close the door behind him very gently either. I got the impression that he must have been a little drunk. His walk wasn't all that straight and precise, and he let himself fall onto his matrass like he was twice as heavy as normally.
It was just then when he realized that Durham was sleeping on his matrass as well.
At first he seemed a little annoyed by it, because the coyote really was deeply asleep right now and took pretty much all the available space on his bed. He then actually even tried to get back onto his feet again and attempted to climb up the ladder up towards Durham´s bed, but then he changed his mind again and went for his own matrass after all. It was hard to tell because of the darkness, but to me it looked like he either was too drunk to get up onto the top bunk, or he just didn´t care anymore.
"How does an 18 year-old get drunk anyway? Where has he been so long? Did he get into a bar somehow?"
While not being able to answer any of those questions, I watched the clumsy hyena getting rid of most of the cloths he wore, climbing over his friend carefully and then snuggling up to him under the blanket. He rested his snout on top of the coyote´s head and pushed him a little closer to the edge of the matrass to himself just a little more comfortable.
This was actually the most wholesome thing I`ve witnessed on this entire day.
"Not everything is bad. There still is hope and life will go on somehow. It always finds a way, no matter how bad it looks sometimes."
This though finally managed to push all those uncomfortable questions out of my head for a moment, calmed me down and thank rex, finally let me fall asleep.
There we are. Chapter 21. I hope you still enjoy this story a little. If you did, I´d be glad if you let me know in the comments ;)
Next update will be for "Minus times Minus" again but I can´t tell you an exact date.
In the meantime, say hi on discord if you want, we have all the smut, all the memes and all the nonsense you could ever want. Just ad Furrwolf#8163 and I´ll personally invite you to the server ;)
Stay safe and have a nice day!
~furr