Yeah, I know this took me way too long to finish. I´m sorry for the wait, hope it was still somewhat worth it!
Also: Haven´t shouted out my discord server in a while! We still post a lot of memes, porn, dumb ideas and other good stuff; and you´re very welcome to join us! Just add me (Furrwolf#8163), and I´ll personally invite you to the server!
Big thanks to RedLiteAlexi for helping me with the correction and contributing a little part to it as well!
Hope you enjoy!
Beastars – Into the spotlight 2.0
Chapter 11 – Not that boring
POV Leon
It´s only been three days and I missed her already. I knew I would see her again soon, I would meet her in Tokyo as soon as my dad would have to get there for work anyway.
I told him we could have come with them right away when the summer break started, but for some weird reason he had been really stubborn about this.
Ever since I had to tell them about that fight at the spring ball, something had been different. Almost as if it was my fault they started messing with Julian. It felt like they thought I would get into trouble all the time now, but no matter how often I tried to explain it, they didn´t seem convinced. I told them that I just had stopped the fight before anybody would have gotten seriously hurt, and they even told me that the principal had told them the same thing as well, but somehow my dad just wouldn't let go of this topic. He kept on talking about that ´something had to be done about this´.
It was the first Monday of the holidays, just about half an hour after breakfast, when he suddenly knocked on the door to my room again and his head popped in.
"Would you please come into the living room?" he asked, "We have a guest."
"A guest?" I asked in slight puzzlement, dropping my phone onto my matrass and leaving it there.
I had answered Lucy´s last message a minute ago, and now it seemed like she was getting ready for her next big tour through Tokyo anyway. The timing for him seemed convenient.
I just raised an eyebrow at him as he didn't want to tell me who the guest was, he just waved me to follow him as I sighed a little and got off my bed.
The way he said we had a guests didn´t sound too promising for some reason, it kinda spelled something inconvenient already, but when we arrived at the ground level, I was in for a little bit of a shock. It was even worse than anticipated.
"What is he doing here?" I asked in confusion and slight annoyance. I didn't even try to hide that I didn´t like this already.
The red fox from my Highschool dorm was standing in our living room for some reason. He was casually dressed in some black shorts and a white T-shirt, and he for himself seemed to be quite surprised about being here as well. He took a fascinated look around our, just like all the other people who visited our home for the first time.
"Great" I thought, "Just more fuel for him to call me a rich kid later."
Legoshi waited for another moment until we both had his attention.
"I just took the liberty to invite a friend of yours to clear a few things up, is that so bad?" my dad asked me with an amused chuckle, "Why don't you say hi?"
Julian slightly nodded towards me, I guessed more because of respect for my father than because he was happy to see me.
"When did I say he was my friend?" I asked dryly.
He predictably wasn't happy about that behavior of mine, but then again, I still hadn't gotten an explanation why he was here in the first place.
"He´s from your dorm after all" Legoshi said with a shrug of his shoulders, "I hope you´re at least trying to get along."
I just sighed very deeply. This seemed so unnecessary already.
"Don't be so rude."
"I…I´m not sure what I´m supposed to do here either…my mom just dropped me off here" the red fox said defensively, "…I mean…I can leave if I´m not welcome."
"No, no" my dad of course waved it off very politely, "Please, you´re very welcome to stay, Julian. I´m glad you´re here. It appears I just didn´t know about the relationship you two share. Leon never told me."
"The guy hates me" I clarified, pointing at Julian before he could tell him anything else, "He calls me rich kid all the time, he thinks I´m this brat of a movie star that gets everything handed to him."
My dad actually just chuckled a little about this, even though Julian looked really ashamed about me telling him about that right now. He couldn't deny he said it, we both knew I wasn´t making that up, but now that my dad was around, he didn´t seem to have the balls to stand behind his statements anymore.
But Legoshi wasn´t exactly mad about that anyway, he just smiled in amusement.
"I mean…" he asked me dogmatically, "Look around you. You´re not exactly struggling for survival, are you?"
"Yeah, I know! But I´m not exactly running around school bragging about it either! And he knows that!"
My dad still had an amused smirk on his face though, he wasn´t really taking it seriously for some reason. He just raised an eyebrow once again.
He was known for being rather humble in public himself, and he had raised me to be humble about it as well, but that didn´t seem to be satisfying enough for him somehow.
"…I bet you haven´t been calling him the nicest things either, have you?" he asked me when I gave him an annoyed little sigh, "There are always two sides to the medal."
I just sighed once again, it wasn´t like I could totally deny that either.
Julian now raised an eyebrow a little bit, my dad just nodded contentedly.
"Try hard" Julian reminded me of what I´ve been calling him, "Sweaty little fox. You said I was compensating my personality with my workout…you know…there is more, but…"
"There we go" Legoshi laughed with a nod, "Just as I though. No one is entirely innocent here."
I just sighed a little bit once again, but Julian actually was rather restrained about this still. He wasn't trying to provoke me as he did usually.
And then he made a move I hadn't expected from him at all:
"I´m very sorry I started that fight with those wolves and that Leon got involved" he said towards my dad lowly, "If that´s what this is about. I didn´t want to cause you any trouble."
My dad just shook his head about that though.
"No" he told him in a very understanding manner, waving it off, "I don't think you should be sorry for standing up for a friend. I think you should be proud of that, even though it might have been a little reckless."
Both Julian and I just stared at him now. I had been expecting some sort of lecture as well right now, but that apparently was not the reason he had gathered us here.
"Honestly, I´m a little disappointed that Leon hasn´t tried to help you before you got injured."
He left that with a little bit of a pause, I couldn't quite believe he wanted to put this into my shoes right now.
"What?" I yelled in slight disbelief, "I never even wanted to get into a fight!"
That didn´t seem to be of any importance either.
"Nobody should ever want that" he explained while shaking his head, "But sometimes there just is no other way in order to do the right thing. Those drunk sophomores had been just about to take advantage of somebody weaker and smaller than them. This would have been the right time to intervene, no matter if you wanted to get into a fight or not."
I found this just so ridiculous.
"Well…you be talking…" I muttered.
"Yes, Leon" he suddenly got even louder, "I be talking! I´m a wolf too, one of the biggest and strongest carnivores out there. And if I hadn´t made use of my strong physique in critical situations back then, loved ones and friends of mine would have gotten badly injured if not even worse."
His mood suddenly had swung from light-hearted and playful to something really dark and real just like that. I didn´t understand what he was so mad about all over sudden, but it seemed like he was about to explain.
"…I´ve made bad decisions myself, I´m not trying to deny that, but I also have made good ones, even though I didn´t want to get into fights."
"…w-what do you mean?"
He took a deep breath, trying to calm down a little bit. "I mean that you can and should use your strength for good in case someone is in danger. Lucas and Han used their advantage against somebody smaller than them, who was on his own on top of that" he explained while pointing at Julian, "…and it would have been a good idea to help him, no matter how good or bad your relationship is."
I still just remained shaking my head a little bit.
"How do you even know about all of this?" I asked in disbelief and annoyance. "What´s the big deal right now?"
"I talked to the principal after your drama club performance. He also invited me for a little talk in his office a few days later and he showed me a video one of the students took."
This was just getting worse and worse. It became more and more clear he had invested quite a lot of time and effort into this, so it seemed like this would not be resolved in a few minutes and Julian wouldn't leave our house again very soon. There was more to this.
"…so why are you bringing it up now?" I wanted to know, "It´s not like we can make it undone or something."
"Yes, but I can prepare you in case something like this should happen again."
"I stopped the fight, didn´t I?" I asked while rolling my eyes.
"What if you just got lucky? Also, they were really drunk and Julian had knocked one of them down already."
I hated that he knew about all that right now. This was just so pointless.
"What if I didn´t get lucky?" I asked.
"Prove it to me" my dad said with a dry little chuckle, "Prove me you can defend yourself against another wolf."
"What?"
He now wordlessly took the lead towards the glass doors to the porch, expecting us to follow him apparently.
Just now I noticed he had pulled all the big blue sports-mats up from the basement and spread them around the pool for some reason.
"What, is this the fight club now?" I asked sarcastically.
"If that´s what you want to call it, yes" he said with a nod, apparently not even kidding about this.
"Can we talk about it?" I asked with a chuckle, "…about the fight club I mean?"
"I´m curious to see if you still talk that big in a few minutes."
I took a short look at Julian, he just shrugged his shoulders as well.
"Come on" I sighed, "You´re not really serious about this, right?"
"I don't think you can defend yourself" he told me again, "I don't think you could defend yourself against either of those sophomores if they were sober."
"Pah" I waved it off, "They won´t come close to us anymore anyway."
That comment of mine suddenly brought a big smile onto his face.
"What, because daddy is a famous movie actor?" he asked me teasingly, "Because daddy will fix everything and anything that goes wrong in your life?"
"Dad, what the hell?" I asked in great annoyance, "What´s this about, I don't-"
"You think being a lead actor in the drama club makes you invincible?" he continued, "Do you think Julian could never ever become dangerous for you because he´s a fox?"
"What…what are you talking about?" I growled, "What do you want from me? What does that have to do with anything?"
"I want you to fight me. I want you to knock me down, right here and right now."
"No, thanks" I said while shaking my head, "Don't want to. I got nothing to prove to you."
"Oh yes you do, Romeo. There is a lot you´ve got to prove."
"Leave me alone already" I told him loudly, "I don't understand what your point is!"
"Really?" he asked in slight surprise, "So then I guess Julian did have a point with calling you a spoiled rich kid."
I took a deep breath now, trying to calm down before I would completely lose my shit.
"I´m spoiled for not wanting to get into an unnecessary fight?" I asked, shaking my head in pure disbelief.
From the corner of my eye I just noticed how my mom was coming towards us from the living room. I found that a good opportunity.
"Mom" I asked her, "Can you please tell him to stop with his bullshit already? Don't know what´s wrong with him today. He´s just not letting go of this-"
POV Julian
The pretty wolfess and notorious canine fashion model just continued on her way towards him with a big smile on her face, but she didn't say a word. When she reached him, she suddenly began pushing him towards the edge of the pool with a lot of force, apparently not being on his side either.
"Hey!" Leon complained loudly, pushing back so he wouldn´t fall in, "No! What the hell?!"
"Someone scared of his little daddy?" she asked him teasingly, poking his stomach a little bit, "You scared you might get wet again?"
"Okay stop!" he yelled in great annoyance, "Alright!"
She now let go of him and he slowly walked up towards Legoshi, raising his fists like he actually did want to fight him now.
"So…" he asked, "…how do you want to-"
In that moment his dad already hit him in the shoulder with a quick but not very powerful punch, trying to stir him up even more apparently.
Leon now prepared to take a swing as well, but his dad blocked it with his hands without any troubles. Leon tried again with his left fist, but he blocked that as well. Then he suddenly grabbed one of Leons arms, pulled him towards him and used one of his legs to swipe him off his feet and make him crash face first onto the blue sports-mat he was standing on.
I hadn´t expected it to escalate that quickly, but it was really interesting to watch nevertheless.
"Ah f-" Leon groaned, trying to get up again.
Legoshi let him get back up, took a step back and waited for him to attack him again. Leon tried to bring more violence into this fight now, it seemed like this was really going on his nerves. It appeared that was his father´s intention all along though, he tried to make him as mad and as aggressive as possible.
"That´s all you have to offer?" he asked while blocking and dodging Leon´s next few swings he took at him, "You sure Lucy doesn´t just like you because your big fancy room and the pool in our garden?"
I couldn't help but chuckle a little about that comment, I liked how his dad wasn´t afraid of saying it either.
"Ahhh!" Leon yelled in pure rage, "Can you shut up about that already!?"
He still kept on punching him, then he suddenly landed quite a solid blow on his dad´s face.
John Wick stumbled a step backwards, but he remained upright and without any great inconveniences.
"There we go" he chuckled, holding his snout for a moment, "That´s a little better."
"What do you mean a litt-"
Legoshi now moved towards him with great speed and agility, pushing him from left to right, hitting a few really hard punches on his torso here and there, making him totally unable to cope with any of those attacks.
It seemed like he wasn´t just a badass fighter in movies, he actually knew how to deliver some hurt to his opponents.
He pushed Leon further and further back on the mat, bringing him closer and closer to the edge of the pool with his attacks.
Leon tried everything he could to dodge and block him, but he didn't stand a chance. Then his dad lifted him high into the air and just tossed him with his back into the water, which looked like it really would have hurt if he had landed on a concrete floor instead of the pool.
"Whoa" I commented in amusement while Legoshi just casually took a seat by the edge of the pool now and waited for Leon to regain his focus.
"I mean…" he chuckled with a humble but also slightly mischievous smirk, "So much for just beating up bad guys in movies, right?"
Leon shook his head to get the water out of his fur, then he slowly began swimming back to the edge of the pool.
"What the hell?!" he complained, also with a hint of fear in his voice, "Are you trying to kill me?"
"I didn´t use any claws or teeth. I didn´t even hit your head. This would look way different if somebody was trying to kill you."
"That was awesome!" I told him in great excitement, not being able to hold it in, "I mean-"
"Oh yeah?" Leon asked sarcastically, "Maybe you think different about that when it´s you."
"Dude" I chuckled, lowering my voice a little bit since Legoshi was listening as well, "You´re getting a free fighting lesson right now. How cool is this? My parents wouldn´t even give me enough allowance to join a proper gym."
Legoshi just raised an eyebrow towards his son right now, then he pointed his head towards me with a little smile to underline the point I just made.
"See?" Legoshi asked him, "And the spoiled rich-kid brat that is you barely ever uses the gym in his basement."
"Oh fuck off already!" Leon yelled in great annoyance, climbing out of the pool and angrily stomping towards him.
Legoshi got onto his feet just in time, blocking the rage driven attacks Leon now tried to hit him with.
Quite a hefty but also short wrestling match later Leon ended up in the pool once again, even though he had put up quite a lot more of a fight this time. It seemed like his dad had almost gotten him where he wanted him at this point.
They both were panting a little when he swam back towards the ladder again, Legoshi looked a little more content in the meanwhile.
I just grinned at Leon when he came crawling back out of the water, I just couldn't help myself. Seeing him getting humiliated like that was just the best thing ever.
I had the feeling Leon wanted to say something to me along the lines of: "Why don't you try it yourself?", but Legoshi came towards us before he even had the chance to.
"That was a little bit better" Legoshi informed him once more, "But those other two wolves would probably have beaten you down if you were on your own."
"Well duh" he sighed in annoyance, "Two versus one isn´t a fair fight either, is it?"
"But that won´t stop them from doing it" Legoshi told him while raising an eyebrow. "Julian didn´t run from the fight, even though he was on his own. Did he?"
"N-no…" Leon said lowly, having to accept the counter argument yet once again.
I already had the feeling he was tearing up a little bit, apparently still in slight disbelief his dad was so unforgiving about this right now.
"…why…why do you have to be so harsh about this?" Leon asked then, "What´s your deal all over sudden?"
That question now finally made him soften up a little bit.
"You think I´m being harsh?" he asked him, helping him out of the pool and taking a seat next to him with his feet in the water. "Why don't you ask Julian what his parents gave him for being brave and trying to save a friend from too drunk and lust-driven sophomores?"
"W-what?" I asked in great shock he knew about that.
John Wick himself just looked at me now, giving me an understanding little smirk. "They just gave you shit for it, didn´t they? Like you´re the sole reason for all the misfortune in their lives."
A cold shiver ran down my spine when I heard that.
"W-what how do you know?"
"I talked to your dad first when I called your house to invite you" he sighed, "When I said I wanted to talk it out with you guys, he said some really unnecessary and mean things about you. He apologized in advance for me to having to deal with you. He called you the runt of the family and that you should not be worth any of my time."
Hearing this from a man like him was both really uncomfortable but also somewhat encouraging right now. He didn´t look like he regretted having invited me, he looked like he really was rather on my side than on my parents, even though he didn´t really know me yet.
Even Leon seemed a little surprised about it right now.
"Yeah…" I sighed lowly, nodding to what he said, "…that sounds like him alright."
"I don't think you´re not worth my time by the way, I just felt sorry for myself that I had to deal with him. This toxicity can´t be good for anybody."
I nodded slowly, trying to force a little smile for his kind words.
"Those bruises on your hands" he now suddenly switched the topic, "They look like they´re from a punching bag."
I nodded slowly.
This man was just incredible, he was even smarter and more comprehensive than I ever imagined he was. He´s not always gotten everything just handed to him, he knew the values of respect and that literally nothing ever came for free. I thought Leon was incredibly lucky to have a dad like him. I could understand his father´s struggles with him not seeing that. I could understand why he had been acting a little bit harsh right now.
"…you wanna try fighting something else than a soulless bag of rice?" Legoshi now asked me with an encouraging smirk, getting up onto his feet again.
"R-really?" I asked as my pulse rapidly started rising now, "Are you sure?"
"Let´s go" he said with a confident smirk, "No claws, no teeth, no holding back!"
He looked totally sure about this, he looked like he knew how to handle anything thrown at him.
"O-okay!" I told him, "Yeah, that´d be cool!"
POV Leon
I´ve literally never seen Julian being excited like this about something. Maybe when he met my parents for the first time in the school´s garden, but he legit was jittery about this right now.
While I still rather wanted to get dried up and go back up into my room again, the red fox genuinely looked like he wanted to get beaten up and thrown into the pool right now.
I myself was still trying to play it cool and hold in my emotions, hoping I wouldn't start crying if this day got any worse.
My dad got into somewhat of a defensive pose once again.
Julian now was in the same spot I was in earlier, but he still seemed slightly hesitant of attacking him.
"Go on" Legoshi told him, "Show me what you would have done to those sophomores who forced themselves onto Bailey!"
When I had expected Julian to not fall for that trigger my dad obviously tried to use, and while I expected him to hold back because my dad was a famous celebrity and he was a guest here, my dormmate actually took him by the word and started attacking him.
Nobody has every displayed this amount of confidence in front of my dad before. At least no one my age.
At first, Julian tried to hit him with his fists like I did it earlier, but when he learned that that didn´t bring him very far, he suddenly tried it a little more aggressively. He took a quick step back, then he began running towards him and did a really high jump before trying to take a swing.
"Whoa" Legoshi yelled in surprise, just barely able to dodge that attack, "Yes! That´s the stuff!"
Julian nodded contentedly, standing up from the mat once again, shaking his hurting fist a little.
"Foxes can jump very high, use that!" my dad told him enthusiastically, getting himself ready to block yet another attack.
I wasn´t quite sure where he knew that from, but he was right. Julian leaped even further into the air this time, almost flying towards the taller wolf with great speed and purpose.
My dad blocked and then grabbed his fist in mid air though, shifted it away from his body and remained unharmed yet once again.
Julian landed on his feet this time, not losing any time though and went straight for another punch again, this time hitting Legoshi in the stomach without getting blocked for the first time.
"Ooof…" my dad yelped, but it was clear he over-acted it a little bit, "Yep, there we go…"
"Oh shit!" Julian apologized immediately, "I´m sorry!"
"Uhhh…" Legoshi acted like he was in great pain, "…I think…I think I´ll never be able to walk again…I…I can see the light fading…"
"Don't fall for his bullshit" I said while rolling my eyes, "He just want´s you to let your guard down and throw you in the p-"
In that very moment Legoshi had already lifted him up, carried him a few steps towards the water and then, just like he did to me earlier, he tossed him in there with a content smirk on his face.
"Whoa hey!" the red fox complained in mid-air, but of course it was way too late already. Water splashed into every direction as he landed in the wet, now he was just as drenched as me.
But he was a good sport about it, actually.
"Haha okay!" he laughed, shaking water out of his ears, "Is that how the game is played?"
"Yep" I commented dryly, "That you have to get used to here…"
"What´s up now boys?" Legoshi asked playful- and also really enthusiastically, "Is anyone gonna throw me in the pool today or what?"
While Julian was on his way towards the pool ladder already, I noticed my mom walking past us with a few old fashion magazines in her hands, heading towards the sun-loungers as it looked like. My guess was that she was still trying to find Lucy´s dad in the fashion and underwear-ads. This was her new favorite hobby ever since she gotten to know him. Juno enjoyed it just as much as Lucy, and I felt kinda bad for the poor guy already.
While Julian still was very enthusiastic trying to fight my dad into the pool, I casually walked around them slowly but surely, trying to make it look like I just wanted to see it from a different perspective.
In reality I just waited to push my dad into the pool by surprise once he´s let his guard down. I hoped it would finally shut him up once he had been in the water as well.
Julian once again gave him quite a bit of a fight though, this time trying it from different angles and trying to walk around him so he wouldn´t have the water behind his back anymore.
When he eventually was happy with his position, he tried attacking him with a high jump attack once again. But Legoshi somehow still knew a way to deal with that. He simply ducked under him, grabbed the fox in mid-air, casually tossed him over his head and Julian ended up in the pool for a second time. It just looked so easy for him.
Seeing this as my chance, I now rushed towards him at full speed, getting myself ready to check him into the pool at maximum attack.
The moment I expected the impact into his body though, I just stumbled into nothingness. My feet got caught on some lower part of his body, he grabbed one of my legs, spun over my entire body in mid-air and catapulted me into the water with all the momentum I had brought with me.
Julian was lucky I didn´t land right on top of him in the water, but predictably, since nothing happened to him, he was just laughing his ass off once again.
"Hahaha" he laughed at me, still in great excitement about all this. Then he turned towards my father again, "How did you do that?! That was so cool!"
"You think he sneaked around us for no reason?" he laughed with a shrug of his shoulders, "He had this on his mind from the first minute."
POV Julian
Leon just rolled his eyes at that comment a little bit, I still couldn´t help myself but grin about this widely.
I just loved everything about this. I could do this the whole day long, I don't think I´ve ever done something that was this much fun. I was already toying with the thought of joining a professional fighting guild in the meanwhile, I was even thinking about getting myself a job like Lucy to be able to afford it. That would be easily worth the effort if I could properly learn how to fight like that.
Legoshi reached me a hand when I had made it back to the edge of the pool again, I took it and he pulled me out of the water and put me back down onto my feet with one single motion.
"You´re lifting weights 5 times a week, aren't you?" he then asked for some reason.
I nodded quietly, looking down at my totally drenched clothes.
"You´re packing quite a hard punch" he mentioned with a content smile, "Use that to surprise your opponents."
I nodded understandingly, I took it as a great complement coming from him.
He now helped Leon out of the pool as well, watching him contentedly as he still looked rather annoyed than amused by this.
Since my clothes were so wet and therefore tight right now, I felt something on my leg that was bothering me a little bit. I inspected it, and then with great shock I realized that I´ve had my phone in my pockets this entire time already.
"Oh shit…" I muttered, pulling it out and trying to turn it on. It was totally lifeless, the screen stayed black, no matter which buttons I pressed and how long I pressed them.
It had never been a quality device to begin with, which probably was another reason for the poor waterproofing, but it had been good enough to run all the apps I needed.
My parents never spared me much money and the shallow allowance I did get I rather saved up to spend on nice clothes or more healthy food. But I certainly didn´t have enough cash to spare to just buy a new phone right now. Not even a crappy one.
"Yeah, that happens sometimes" Leon chuckled with a little sigh, not sounding like he would be too bothered about that right now though.
Legoshi just laughed about that comment from him a little bit, but not for the reason I expected.
"Spoken like a true rich kid" he commented with a big grin, thinking just the same as me as it turned out, "´Oh well, there goes another one.´"
"It´s always you or mom pushing me in the pool!" Leon complained in annoyance, "None of those were my fault!"
Legoshi actually just nodded with a little smile now.
"Don't worry about your phone, Julian" he then waved it off, "We´ll get you a new one on our way home."
"R-really?" I asked in slight disbelief. This day seemed to be just getting cooler.
"Newest model, whatever you like" he affirmed with a relaxed smirk, "A better one than Leon has."
While I still couldn´t quite believe my luck, Leon just started shaking his head once again with a little sigh.
"Oh come on" he complained again, "Now you´re just having a laugh at me. Why do you have to be such a dick today?"
"You know what?" he told him with a challenging smirk, "You get me into that pool in a fight, you´ll get the new model as well."
He rolled his eyes to that a little bit at first, but then he nodded slightly.
"Deal" he agreed with his proposal, "Bring it on old man."
POV Lucy
Getting to see Tokyo with my personal travel guides was even more fun than I had anticipated. After we had been sight-seeing the whole day yesterday already, today Fenneko insisted we should go to one of the city´s biggest shopping malls.
This place was just insane compared to what I was used to from my hometown. The big fashion brands all had a little section in the shops I usually got my clothes from, here some of them had their own exclusive stores.
Having visited various different stores and spent arguably way more money than I normally would be comfortable with, we took a little break in one of the cute little cafes in the middle of the mall´s big hallways.
Fenneko had gotten herself an espresso, Ookami an iced coffee and I had gone for a refreshing peach ice tea. We were all very content with our choices, and while we relaxed I shortly checked out the messages I have been sent in the last few hours.
Juno had sent me quite a lot of photos and videos I just noticed, and they looked promising on the first look already.
Legoshi was doing some sort of fighting-training with Leon I quickly concluded from the images, but something about that was slightly odd. There was a red fox in those photos as well, and when I watched the video there was no doubt about it anymore who it was.
"Haha, what is Julian doing there?"
I asked her in the chat quickly, even before I showed the photos to Fenneko and Ookami.
"I´m not entirely sure. Legoshi invited him over, I think because he was involved in that little fight at your spring-ball as well. Leon doesn´t seem to be his best friend, but I think they´re warming up to each other slowly but surely."
Juno explained in her text. That actually made quite a lot of sense to me, I thought it was really cool of Legoshi to spend some time with them.
"Say hi for me!" I wrote back, still feeling happy and excited about my day, "And tell Leon I miss him!"
I watched the videos she sent with my dad and my new step-mom, and we all laughed in great amusement when Legoshi repeatedly blocked their attacks and threw them into the water eventually. It honestly looked like a lot of fun, and I was glad Leon wasn´t too bored either while I was having such a grand time here.
"He does know how to fight" Ookami commented in amusement, "Hope I never get into any troubles with him."
"Haha I don't think so" I chuckled, "He´s been calm and sweet ever since I knew him. I think it´s not easy to get him out of his calm."
He smiled to that comment, I looked at my phone once again.
"Will do! Leon misses you quite a lot as well!"
Juno had written back in the meanwhile.
I smiled and was about to put it back into my pocket, but then I suddenly got even a few more pictures from her.
She had photographed some snippets from what looked like fashion magazines lying in her lap, and the photos in the magazines showed a maned wolf in various different outfits on different pages. It was from the same brand they had modelled for in the TV ads and street poster advertisements, it seemed like Juno still had the fun of her life with this.
"Look, dad" I told him, showing him the pictures with a big grin, "Speaking of getting in trouble…Look! She found more!"
"Oh great" he ironically sighed with a little smile, "I´m never going to live this down, am I?"
"By the way" Fenneko suddenly grinned in great amusement, "We haven´t even visited the store yet! It´s one floor higher I believe…"
"Wait…Canine Klein has its own store here?" I asked in great amusement.
She nodded. "It´s the man´s store though."
"Oh no! Too bad I´m all set for clothes until the end of time" Ookami said with a dry little smirk, "Gotta skip this one I guess."
"Maybe you could get something for Leon" Fenneko suggested with a grin towards me.
"Yeah" I agreed, "Good idea!"
"You remember our reservation at the Hard Rock Café is at 1pm, right?" Ookami reminded us, "And it´s a few train-stops away. I don't think we got any more time to-"
"Did you know they have posters of their models in the stores?" Fenneko asked me with a big smile, shamelessly interrupting her partner with a big grin, "Sometimes even on the packaging. I´m on a wall in the store in Shibuya for example, maybe we can find Ooki here as well!"
I was just left grinning at my dad as well, this just wasn't getting less funny.
"You think I could maybe get an autograph?" I asked with a little giggle.
"Only if we go right away" Fenneko said enthusiastically, getting off her chair as we were all finished with our drinks anyway.
"Let´s go" I agreed enthusiastically.
Ookami now got off his seat as well, quickly caught up to the fennec vixen, lifted her up by surprise and put her on his shoulders.
"I´m leading the way now" he announced with an ironic little smirk, waiting for me to get up and follow him, "I know the way to where we want to be."
"I´m not too sure about that" Fenneko chuckled from on top of his head, "But I´m guessing you won´t leave us a choice?"
"Nope" he affirmed while shaking his head, "Now come on, the city is busy and we don't have a lot of time!"
POV Leon
It was getting more serious and aggressive with every fight, but neither Julian nor I managed to get him into the pool for some reason. He was so incredibly quick and relentless, it almost looked too easy for him. I had no idea where he had so much fighting routine from, but there was no doubt he had it.
I already knew I would have many sore spots all over my body the next few days. He didn´t hit us often, but when he did it was quite a shift.
Even Julian was out of energy at some point, panting heavily as well after swimming back to the edge of the pool.
Legoshi was panting a little bit as well in the meanwhile though, it seemed like he was okay with taking a little break from this.
"Okay…" I panted in defeat, "You do know how to fight. I don't think we can deny that."
Julian nodded to that statement of mine, not being ashamed about it either.
"…but where did you learn to fight like that. And why?"
"I was a Beastar back when I was in Highschool" he began telling us after a short moment of silence, "And a few years afterwards. But I quit that life eventually and left it behind me. Mainly because of you and to protect my family."
He now looked at me for a moment, then his gaze went back on the floor.
"…I had a big rivalry with a really dangerous clan of Lions."
"What?"
He nodded. "I was in love with this bunny girl and they abducted her for the sole purpose of eating her."
My stomach almost immediately twisted when I realized that he must be talking about Haru, the fur on my neck stood straight and my pulse sped up a little bit.
"…not knowing what I was doing, I rushed into that tower, trying to find her before they would have killed her. I had a friend who helped me as backup, he cleared the way behind me while I punched my way towards her. I came just in time to save her, and then I was in a really bloody battle with their boss. I got injured a little bit, but I won the fight and almost killed the lion. But I was fine with that, she´s still alive and I´m still very happy every time I get to see her."
"Wow…" Julian said lowly, and on this rare occasion I actually agreed with him.
"You saved Haru from a savage Lion? You could have died yourself?"
He nodded slowly, then he looked at me with a little smile.
"…the word spread around slowly but surely, I was a big deal at school all over sudden. And then I got a lead role in the drama club, even though I didn´t want it, and the entire school began talking about the awkward tall wolf who had been feared and alone for most of his life before. I was nominated to become a Beastar and I couldn't do anything to stop them voting for me."
"And the Lions?" Julian asked, "They targeted you even more?"
He nodded affirmingly. This was just getting more and more unbelievable, I couldn´t understand why he hid all that from me for so long.
"…but as I was voted a Beastar, I then got supported by a really powerful clan of vixens. One of them trained me to fight and defend myself, I´ve never been able to beat her in a fight though."
"What, a vixen?" I asked in slight disbelief.
He nodded with a little smirk. "She was so fast she was out of my sight most of the time. She was flying through the air like a bullet, her punches came so fast and hard and precise it almost always threw me onto the floor."
"Damn" Julian said in great awe.
My dad just nodded. "She grew up in a shaolin temple, she was trained since she was a kid. I´ve never seen anybody fight like that since."
"What´s she doing now?" I asked with great interest.
"She had to leave town after a while, she did it for my safety. She provoked all the other clans with a video she made, getting all their attention off of me therefore. And then she left…"
"Hey boys" my mom suddenly interrupted the conversation, "Don't forget to drink enough while you´re out here in the sun!"
She had a tray of glasses with her and handed one to us each. It was lemonade and actually came really nice right now. I hadn't even noticed how thirsty I was in the meanwhile.
"Thanks!" Julian told her politely, contentedly beginning to drink in big gulps too.
Legoshi took a glass and emptied it in one go, greatly appreciating my mom´s service as well.
"Thanks honey" he told her with a smile as she put the tray down onto the table for a moment.
"So you boys are telling me you still didn´t manage to get this old man into the pool?" Juno asked Julian and I with an amused little smirk.
"…It´s not that complicated you know?" she asked, walking towards him and grabbing one of his hands. She pulled him up onto his feet, he barely managed to put his empty glass into a secure place.
Then she pulled him towards the pool and he reluctantly followed her there. But instead of just trying to push him in, she pulled him into a deep kiss, putting her arms and one of her legs around him. He of course just let her do whatever she wanted to him, it was pretty clear he didn´t have the intention of actually fighting or resisting her.
When she separated her lips from his again slowly, she casually and without much force pushed him over and he landed with his back in the water.
"Pfff…" Julian laughed in great amusement, "Not sure that works for either of us…"
"See?" Juno grinned proudly, sticking out her tongue, "Not much to it."
Legoshi casually started paddling through the water on his back, relaxing in the cold refreshing water contentedly.
I just continued drinking my lemonade, it was not like I had watched these shenanigans of them for the first time.
"Alright guys" my mom told us then, collecting all the glasses and getting on her way again, "I´m gonna go get us something for lunch. Any wishes or ideas?"
"Hmm…" Legoshi began thinking out loud, "I feel like something with peanuts. Don't ask me why."
I just shrugged my shoulders as I wasn´t averted by that suggestion.
Juno now looked at Julian, he just nodded in agreement. "Peanuts are always nice. Good source of protein."
"Of course" I chuckled ironically, rolling my eyes a little bit.
"I´ll get us a lots of tofu sate with peanut sauce and other healthy things!" she announced, seemingly content with that suggestion as well.
"See you later boys" she said while waving us shortly.
We waved back and soon later she had disappeared into the house again.
Now that she was out of earshot, I suddenly remembered what my dad had told us about earlier. He had swum back towards the edge of the pool in the meanwhile, taking a seat with his feet remaining in the water.
"…so you´re telling me" I picked up the earlier topic, "You can fight like that, but there was a vixen who kicked your ass every time?"
Legoshi now turned towards me again, then he nodded with a little smile.
"Yes, son. She did. Never judge a book by its cover and never underestimate somebody because of their size."
I now turned my head towards Julian slowly, he just raised an eyebrow in slight amusement.
"Is that why you told us this?" I asked my dad now.
He just shrugged his shoulders with a little smirk. "I bet Julian wouldn't mind a fair fight, right? Same rules as earlier, no claws and no teeth."
"Lets go" the red fox announced, being just as enthusiastic about it as earlier while getting back up onto his feet. "At least one of you has to end up in the water today!"
"That´s the spirit" my dad told him.
I was getting up from the mat as well slowly but surely, but I wasn´t entirely sure I really wanted to fight again.
"Hold on for a moment" Legoshi suddenly told us, "Before you fight, I want you two to say something nice to each other. Something genuinely nice. I´m sure both of you see something good in each other."
Julian and I just looked at each other for a moment, he was trying to think of something as well as it seemed.
"Leon, you go first" my dad told me.
"Uh…" I said, still trying to come up with something, "Well…your workout is quite impressive I guess."
Julian just raised one of his eyebrows again.
"…and I think you did the right thing with defending Bailey from those sophomores. I should have helped you earlier."
My dad nodded contentedly, then the both of us looked at the red fox. He had something ready as well though, and he wasn´t shy of speaking up.
"I think you´re a talented actor too. I liked your performance with Lucy. …and thanks for protecting me from further attacks when I was down. This could have ended worse I guess."
I gave him a silent nod with a little smirk, this actually was kind of a wholesome moment right now.
"Alright then" Legoshi announced contentedly, "Now that that's settled…winners get to fight me again."
POV Lucy
I had expected a slightly more enthusiastic reaction when I sent Bailey the photos and videos I got from Juno earlier, but she didn´t seem that interested for some reason.
She had received them, the blue checkmarks indicated that very clearly, but there wasn´t an initial reply. Not even after 15 minutes. When I checked my phone again, I decided to share another little piece of information.
"Julian drowned his phone in the pool by the way. In case you were wondering."
That message of mine now at least seemed worthy of a reaction.
"Oh, that´s why he´s not answering."
She wrote, leaving it at that though. No ironic comment, no smiley, nothing.
"Yeah, probably…"
I wrote back, shrugging my shoulders a little bit as it seemed like there wasn´t a whole lot more to come from her side. This was unlike her, Bailey loved chatting with me usually.
"Okay."
She wrote then, and it seemed like this conversation was at its end here.
She must have realized that I was able to contact Julian via Juno right now in case she wanted to tell him something, but it either wasn´t that important what she wanted to tell him earlier or she didn´t want anyone else to know about it.
I wanted to think it maybe was something really private, Leon and I were sending each other pictures I wouldn´t want anyone else to see either sometimes.
I decided to put my phone away once again and got my attention back to Ookami and Fenneko.
"So…" I started a topic I wanted to ask him ever since I knew about it. We had just ordered the bill for our really big and tasty lunch, and there surely was time for another fun little conversation. Something that interested me since quite a while already. "How much does it actually pay being a model for a big fashion brand?"
POV Julian (later that afternoon)
"You know…" I told him with a little chuckle, carefully examining the still in transparent foil wrapped box of the new flagship smartphone he just bought me, "The rest of our dorm is probably going to hate me for this."
"What?" he asked with a light-hearted chuckle.
"You know…" I said carefully, "For you inviting me over to your house and all. They´re going to be really jealous."
"You know, this is funny. I´ve told Leon time and time again it would not at all be a problem to invite any of you over. We even encouraged him to do it, but he never even wanted to invite anyone over even for a birthday party of his. I think Lucy just ended up coming to our house because he wanted to practice for drama-club with her."
"What, really?" I asked in slight disbelief.
"I was really glad she stepped up to it" he said with a nod, "Most people coming to our house feel really uncomfortable and uninvited because of who we are. It´s really tough, especially for Leon."
"Well…I guess it´s just pure respect of who you are" I said lowly, "At least it was for me."
He nodded, looking like he´s heard that a hundred times before.
"Leon and Lucy haven't started out as the best of friends apparently…" he started a different topic now, slowing the car down as the lights in front of us just turned red before we could cross them.
"…he must have said something to her she didn´t like hearing, probably for a really good reason, so she somewhat had a moral high ground over him at my birthday party."
"Oh…" I said, "I think I remember meeting her coming back from that on a Sunday morning."
He nodded.
"She looked pretty wiped out."
"I guess all of us did that day" he chuckled, "But she put on quite a show the night before. She pushed him into the pool without a second of hesitation."
"She´s a bit of a spitfire sometimes" I told him with an amused smile, "I can see her doing that, yeah."
"I think it was just what he needed" he chuckled with a nod, "Even though it took him a little while to figure out what she really wanted from him."
"Oh, so I wasn´t the only one who noticed?" I asked boldly and with a little grin.
He just raised a hand and gave me a cheeky high five when I asked that.
"I think that helped boosting his confidence though. He´s opened up a little ever since she´s around."
"I mean…" I said lowly, "He is kinda quiet at school. Apart from when he´s on stage of course! …we didn´t get along too well at first, I always was under the impression he was looking down on us. But it´s true, he never actually made a big deal about being your son."
"Yeah…" he said with a nod, "I think he really doesn´t like it being compared to me. And I can understand that very well. But naturally people do that when they find out, there is nothing much he or I can do about that, sadly."
I nodded understandingly. Now his behavior slowly but surely made a little more sense to me. There was another side to every medal as it seemed.
"Where was Lucy today by the way?" I asked carefully, trying to get away from that other topic a little bit.
"She´s visiting her dad in Tokyo" he explained to me, "Leon wanted to go with her right away, but he has to be a little patient."
"Wait…" I interrupted, "So it´s true? I thought those have just been rumors. About her finding her dad."
"It´s true" Legoshi told me with an amused smile, "And it´s a real miracle."
"Damn. That´s cool."
"How goes the rumor exactly?" he asked with great interest, just as we entered the little town Bailey and her family lived in.
"Uhh…well. First time I heard it, somebody said they knew somebody who had seen her with another maned wolf in the school park. After the drama-club performance. They figured he could be family. Somebody else told me something about him being a Canine Klein model…" I said with a shrug of my shoulders.
His smile just widened a little bit when he heard that. I figured all of that must be true then.
"Have you seen Breaking Bad by any chance?" he asked me now for some weird reason.
"Oh yeah, I really enjoyed that show! Haven´t watched the second season yet though."
"The mongoose playing Jesse Pinkman…" he explained, "His name is Kai, he´s a good old friend of mine, started out in the Cherryton drama-club as well. He met Lucy at my birthday party just a few weeks ago, noticing she had an incredible similarity to the guy who turned out to really be her father. He knew him from a bar in Tokyo as it turned out."
"Damn."
He nodded with a little smile, then he stopped the car by the side of the road. We had reached the destination he had me put into his navigation system, I had been so taken by our conversation that I hadn´t even noticed Bailey´s house coming up.
"Uhh…" I said, trying to sort my thoughts, "Thank you so much for this whole day! It was so awesome!"
"My pleasure, Julian. Thanks for following my invitation, thanks for being a good sport!"
"No need to ask twice" I chuckled, "The fighting lessons were awesome! I had so much fun! I´d gladly do it again!"
"Maybe I can convince Leon of doing that again someday" he told me with a little wink, "Also: I told him to invite his entire dorm and have a little pool party for his birthday."
"That´d be cool" I said with a nod, "Maybe I could bring Bailey as well then? She was so jealous about Lucy being to your place already…"
"Sure you can bring her" he said with a smile, "Greet her for me, okay? Have a nice evening!"
I opened the co-driver door, grabbed the box with my new phone and got out of the actually quite humble mid-class car he drove today.
"Thanks, I will! And thanks for bringing me!"
"That´s no problem" he said with a smile.
"Have a nice evening!" I waved him once more before I closed the door.
POV Leon
"Uh…hey" I greeted the bunny upon entering her shop, "Do you perhaps sell any peace-lilies here?"
She hadn´t seen who was entering the store behind her as she was up on a ladder stocking a high shelf, I knew this question would make her roll her eyes a little bit since I was basically standing right in front of the stand with the peace-lilies.
"Yeah…" she said, sighing a little while turning around, "They´re right next to you on the…"
I smiled at her and she rolled her eyes a little bit. Then she climbed down from her ladder and came waddling towards me slowly.
"Hey baby boy" she greeted me with a smile, "How was your first day of your summer-holidays?"
"Well…" I said with a short shrug of my shoulders, "Interesting, that´s for sure."
"Yeah?" she asked, inspecting one of the flower pots with the peace-lilies in them a little closer now that she was standing right beside it anyway.
"So my dad…this morning…out of nowhere…" I tried to form a sentence, but I didn´t really know where to even begin, "He put the blue mats from the gym room all around the pool. And he invited Julian over, you know the red fox from my dorm you met in the garden?"
She nodded with a little smile.
"Yeah, so…he talked to us about that little fight we had with those sophomore wolves at the spring ball. I wasn´t sure why he brought that up in the first place, but then he went on about me not being able to properly defend myself and so on…"
Her smile even went a little bit wider now.
"…and then he started fighting with us. Like making it a challenge to throw him in the pool."
"He didn´t make it too easy for you I hope?" she asked, and that sounded awfully suspicious somehow. I had a slight foreboding coming up already.
"N-no…" I said, "He´s actually quite good with martial arts…"
"It´s about time he tells you about his past" she mentioned now, "I´m glad he finally listened to me. That fight was a good opportunity to hook up on."
I was just left staring at her dumbfoundedly. She obviously knew about all this, this obviously had something to do with her as well.
Then I remembered what my dad told us about her earlier today. That he saved her from a vicious clan of Lions and so on.
"…hey" I continued a little bit lower, "Is it true he was in really dangerous fights back then?"
The white dwarf rabbit now took a quick look around the shop, the elderly zebra lady was still way out of earshot.
"Yes, it´s true" she whispered lowly, "And he doesn´t really enjoy talking about his past as you probably noticed. But yeah, he learned to fight and he learned to protect what´s important to him."
I nodded slowly, believing every single word she told me as it matched exactly what he told us earlier as well. My dad´s past really hadn´t been as boring as I always thought it had.
The elderly lady now went towards the cash register as she seemed to have found what she had been looking for, Haru slowly but surely moved there as well.
After her customer had paid and left the store, she turned her attention back towards me again.
"What have you got there?" she asked, pointing at the plastic bag from the electronics store I was carrying with me.
"Oh that? Just a new phone."
"Is your old one broken?" she asked with a chuckle, "Did you drown it in the pool once again?"
"Nah…" I said while shaking my head, "It´s just a principle-thing really. But Julian drowned his phone in the pool today."
"Oh, so Legoshi bought him a new one and you thought it was unfair that he got the newer model?" she guessed into the blue.
"No. He made a bet that I couldn't throw him into the pool. And I did."
"Oh, so he let you win?" she grinned unforgivingly.
"Come on" I muttered, "Don't be so mean, okay? I got beaten up all day long and everything hurts already."
"Aww" she said, patting my head as I was in a squatting position down next to her so we could talk face to face, "Don't look so sad baby boy. I think there are kids out there who are off way worse than you…"
I sighed and wrapped my hands around the small white rabbit. She let out a small yelp as I applied some of my weight onto her.
"Yeesh, let off wolfie."
I smirked and got up.
"Oh come on, I'm not that strong. Certainly not enough to actually take my dad."
The rabbit rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand, leading me to the back.
"Okay Mr. muscles, start lifting these mulch bags to the front." The dwarf rabbit smiled and pointed to some white dusty bags on the floor.
"I'm starting to think that you've been a part of our family solely so you could have us move big things for you." I said as I picked up the heavy bag.
"Less yappin' more movin'" the bunny said. I sighed with a smile and started to carry the bag to the front.
"I'm surprised you didn't want to go on the date with mom and dad. I'm sure they would have loved to wine and dine you." I said as I placed the bag down. Haru blushed red and l stifled a laugh.
"I shouldn't expect a raging hormonal teenager to be able to think about anything other than sex" she huffed.
"Besides, I have a business to run. What are you even doing here by the way. Surely the son of a famous celebrity and rising star himself could be doing more on a summer night than begging for attention from a little rabbit like me." She teased.
My ears lowered. "Well… I guess it seems like everyone is busy. My parents are on a date. Most of my dorm mates are back in their hometowns. And well… My girlfriend is hours away in Tokyo. Probably having the time of her life without me."
"Well, well, is the prince actually not wanting to be by himself. From what I remember you would have been begging to be alone for the night just a few months ago."
The rabbit held my hand.
I sighed. "I guess I just wanna feel like I'm not wasting my time. Like I'm not a loser failson!" I grumbled.
Haru cocked her head. "This is a surprise, I thought you didn't want to be compared to your dad."
"I don't, I guess I wanna prove to myself that I have my own life and have my own things going on."
"Maybe you just miss your girlfriend" Haru said, her words dripping with sugary expression. I blushed as she said this.
"Well… I was hoping to hang out. I know she's going there to get to know her parents and that's a big deal. I just miss her a lot." I said, trying to keep my words calm.
"You think it's love?" The rabbit asked.
I turned more red and my ears perked up.
"That's… a stretch, I wouldn't even think of that right now." I said defensively.
"Why not, no use lying to yourself if you really feel that way." She said holding my arm. "My little baby boy is growing up so fast."
"Stuff it Haru!" I said as I shimmied out of her grasp. She chuckled more.
"Calm down kid. Fine, call it what you want. It's not a crime to miss her cause she makes you happy. You wanna help some more or do you think you've been overworked enough?" She asked.
I sighed, I think I'll go home. I have some ideas of how to pass the time. I think I'll soak my muscles in the hot tub, before dad decides he wants to have another sparring match." I said as I looked back at her.
"Fine, fine, take care of yourself." She said as she held out her arms to me. I leaned down and took the rabbit in my arms. Her soft fur felt warm and comforting. My mind flickered to what my dad had taught me. He really risked his life and bloodied lions to protect her. I gripped her a little harder as his words repeated in my head. He had to be brave to help the others he loved. I hoped I would be able to do the same.
"A little tight, don't you think?" She said from inside my grasp.
"Sorry Haru." I stood up and my tail wagged slightly.
"Keep on smiling kid, it looks good on you!" she said as I smiled, turned and opened the door.
POV Julian
As fun and exciting as my day had been earlier, right now it was just awkward. We were sitting at the dinner table with Bailey´s parents and her sister, nobody was in the mood to really talk about anything. At least not as much as they usually liked to talk.
I really used to enjoy spending time with Bailey´s family. Her parents where light-hearted and fun, they liked me and treated me very kindly. Bailey´s older sister was quite like that as well normally, but tonight she didn´t say a single word.
When I told them all about the day I had a Legoshi´s house, they all just nodded with forced little smiles, when I told Bailey´s mom I really liked the food she cooked she just smiled a little bit as well. There was a very weird energy amongst the whole family, an energy that made me think this probably wasn´t the best day to be visiting. Sadly, Bailey didn't really have the chance inform me about that since my old phone didn't work anymore and I hadn´t set up my new one yet.
After dinner her dad started bringing the dirty dishes towards the kitchen wordlessly, I immediately stood up from the table and helped him. They normally really appreciated my will to help around the house, especially in the garden, but today my efforts only earned me a little nod as well.
With the table cleared up, Bailey wordlessly took one of my hands and pulled me with her towards her room. She locked the door behind us with the key, then she turned towards me and started crying right there on the spot. She wasn´t even attempting to explain what had happened, she just started sobbing away and left way to hear tears.
After a short moment I needed to comprehend the situation, I of course went towards her and hugged her carefully, patting her back while she was trying to calm down a little.
"W-what´s wrong?" I asked in great confusion, fearing that it had to do with something I said or did, "Is it something I said?"
She just shook her head to that, I was somewhat glad but also still curious what could have caused this tirade of tears.
"Wait!" a terrifying thought suddenly shot into my head, "You´re not pregnant, are you!?"
She now quickly shook her head again, still trying to calm down her breathing so she could talk.
"They…they´re getting a divorce."
She cried a little more after those words left her lips, having gotten to know her family a little bit in the meanwhile, I could very well understand how hard this must have hit her. It now made absolute sense why they all were behaving so oddly at dinner.
I thought I probably couldn´t entirely relate with her feelings right now, my parents were constantly fighting and weren't even married anyways, but for her that must have been quite a shock.
"Oh no" I said lowly, hugging her even a little bit tighter, "I´m so sorry! I didn't know!"
She just nodded slowly, I still had my arms around and didn´t let go of her.
My limbs and stomach still hurt a little bit from all the punches I received today, but I really was fine compared to how she must be feeling. While I have had a real blast of a day so far, her´s must have been an absolute nightmare.
My mind drifted to the wolfess that joined us outside at the pool. Not in a lustful way, though she was incredibly hot, I thought of her in relation to how she behaved around Legoshi. She was completely enraptured by him as she held him and kissed. Though I was only around them for a few moments, I could tell that they loved each other very much. He was her hero and she felt completely secure by him. I wanted to be the same for Bailey, no matter the situation we were in.
POV Leon
Earlier in my life I would have found this really exciting, now it was just a process. Unboxing my new phone went much quicker than anticipated, installing the Sim-card and swapping all my apps and contacts from the old device was way easier than it used to be as well.
There was not a whole lot of joy to it anymore, it even felt kinda lame if I was totally honest with myself.
With that task completed, I suddenly felt really alone and sad once again.
It was just no fun without her anymore, sitting alone in my room made me feel like such a loser all over sudden. I kinda caught myself thinking that even having Julian here right now would be better than this. All the nice things around me were totally worthless without anyone to share them with.
Mom and Dad were out on a date night, Lucy was having a blast in Tokyo with her dad and I was sitting at home playing around with my new phone. This sucked even worse than having to spend time in the tiny cramped dorm room at school, having to wait a whole week until I would see her again would be an absolute nightmare.
I had already replied to all the selfies she had sent me, waiting for her to check her phone again, but it seemed like she was too busy to do so right now.
So I had decided up to boot up my PC, check out on some of my online friends I hadn´t talked to in a while, but they either seemed to be on vacation as well or just not in the mood for gaming right now.
I checked out a few of the new updates on the games I used to play, but even though there was a bit of new stuff to explore, I wasn´t in the mood to try any of it out right now.
I kept on thinking about my visit to Haru´s gardening shop earlier and about all the new things I learned about my dad today, I had so many more questions I wanted to ask them in the meanwhile.
For the first time ever, I now felt the need to do some research on my dad´s past. I always thought I knew everything there was to him, but that didn´t seem to be true at all. There was a lot more I didn´t know, and it really wasn´t as boring as I always thought it was.
POV Bailey
I wasn´t quite sure of it at first, but now I was really glad he was here. With him I had somebody to talk to who understood me, and he probably knew better than anybody how badly it hurt to be disappointed by your parents like that. He wasn't just my boyfriend, it also felt like he was my best friend as well in the meanwhile. I trusted him more than anyone else, he had trusted me with all his flaws as well, with him it felt like the most real friendship I´ve ever had.
I still couldn´t believe what my parents told me and my sister this morning. They knew it for over two months in the meanwhile, they had already signed all the documents. My dad would probably move out of the house sooner or later, it sounded like he had someone new he was seeing already.
I was just so utterly disappointed of him, I just couldn't believe he would rip into our family like that. Ever since I was little they had shared what I would call a very loving relationship, now that all seemed to be ancient history all over sudden.
I had sensed that something unspoken was between my parents since a little while already, they had behaved differently these last few weeks, way less affectionate for each other than they used to be, but I hadn´t expected it to be this bad.
But even my mom seemed to be somewhat fine with this in the meanwhile. I had expected at least a little bit of sadness and remorse, but they´ve both been rather cold and dry about it when they told us.
Just nothing felt real for me anymore right now. The only real thing was the red fox´s shoulders I rested my head on right now.
"Can we go away?" I asked him plainly, he just turned his head towards me in slight confusion.
"Just for a few days. I don't want to be in this house right now. Everything reminds me of them."
"Uh…" he said lowly, "Where to?"
"Don't know…" I said with a shrug, "Anywhere."
"My parent´s house is not a good idea…" he said after thinking about it for a short moment, "They are probably really mad at me because I went to Leon´s today. They still think I was an idiot for trying to protect you from those sophomores and get in a fight. They think Leon´s parents are really mad at me as well, and they probably wouldn't believe me if I told them they aren't."
I nodded understandingly, knowing his parents a little bit in the meanwhile, he probably had a point with what he said.
"What about Tokyo?" I asked him then.
"What?" he asked in slight puzzlement, "Tokyo? You know how expensive that is? The train-ride, let alone a hotel to stay in?"
"Lucy´s dad has a place in Tokyo" I said with a shrug of my shoulders, "She´s there for a little while, I think they´d let us stay for a few nights if we asked nicely…"
"Yeah…" he said lowly, taking another look at me, "…but still, I don't have all that much cash right now to be honest."
"I have a bit saved up" I explained with a shrug of my shoulders, "I think it´ll be enough for the both of us."
He seemed to be thinking about it for a little while, then he suddenly reached out for the expensive looking box in the plastic bag he had brought with him.
He took a closer look at it, I noticed that it was the box of the new phone he was talking about earlier. It was a rather fancy one from what it looked like. The box was still wrapped in its original foil and there was a receipt in the plastic bag as well, it seemed like he had gotten it straight from the store before he came here.
180000yen it said on the receipt, I never even knew you could buy a phone for that kind of money.
"Where have you gotten that from?" I asked in slight puzzlement. I didn´t quite understand why he would spend that much money on a new phone. I guessed he maybe had been saving up for an upgrade for quite a while and today, since his old one died, he decided to finally buy it. Either way, this right now seemed to be a very inconvenient time to make a purchase like that.
"Legoshi bought it for me" he said lowly, looking at the box once again, "Even if it was my fault I had it in my pockets when I fell into the pool. But he´s a really nice guy…"
This cleared things up now, that actually made sense to me. I knew Legoshi was nice and humble, Lucy had told me about that repeatedly, but I thought she might have been exaggerating there a little bit.
"…and you chose the most expensive one you could find?" I asked in slight disbelief.
He shook his head to that as well. "He insisted on it. He said money wasn´t an issue, he even bought one for Leon as well. It didn´t seem that big of a deal to him really."
He turned the box over, looking at all the features his newly acquired device came with.
I had figured earlier already that Legoshi wouldn't have any financial troubles, he was an A-List celebrity after all, but it still seemed so unbelievable that he was breathing the same air as us.
I reached out for the box and took a closer look myself, then I looked at him again.
"…you think he´d be mad if I returned it?" he asked me lowly.
"What?"
"I could get a much cheaper one instead. My old one was working just fine, I wouldn't have needed a better one anyway."
I now was beginning to understand what he was thinking, it was kinda sweet of him for thinking like that.
"I mean…" I said, "I think he´ll understand if you told him what you were doing it for…"
He hesitated for another short little moment, then he tossed the phone and the plastic bag back onto my matrass carefully.
He reached out for one of my hands and held it in his gently, looking me right in the eyes.
"Alright" he said with a little smirk, "Let´s go to Tokyo."
Hey, you´re still here! Hope you liked it a little! Let me know, I´m always happy about some honest criticism!
Catch ya all later!
~furr