Scavenging Love

Written by JustCallmeFaux

Edited by multiple people, including WastedTimeEE, Toonophile, KarakuriCentral, and DoctorPortal455. Big shout out to them for their contribution.

Warning: This story contains some really dark subject matters that may not be suitable for everyone, including themes of loneliness, nightmares, some form of swearing, and adult themes. Reader's discretion is advised.

Prologue

It was a dark, starless night in the always-bustling city of Zootopia. The Sahara Square is alive and shimmering with light. It shone like a glittering gemstone against the surrounding sea of darkened dunes, its blaring spotlights masking the natural glimmer of the midnight sky save for the most rural corners of the District thanks to their domineering presence over the land. At the heart of this district lay the world-famous Palm Hotel, one of the largest luxury establishments ever built, shining like a beacon throughout the oasis. Like a moth to a flame, citizens and tourists alike would be drawn in by its warm and alluring glow against the stark coldness offered by the desert nights. It was a true marvel in engineering and architecture, a wonder of ingenuity already nestled within an even grander spectacle of the modern world in its home city. Even the residents of such prestigious cities like the famous Las Preygas, or Monte Cowlo, would find themselves green with envy of the mammals fortunate enough to call Sahara Square home. But outside of the glitz and glamor of the beautiful Palm Hotel, the dark desert landscape remained largely dormant for the night. It was quiet and still, save for the occasional lone roar of Zootopia's famous bullet train that traveled the inner loop line en route through Sahara Square to TundraTown at lightning speed.

On the district's outskirts, the oasis began to taper and give way to the calm, quiet stillness of the desert beyond its limits. The sound of lively music often carried on the breeze at night, flittering from the suburbs nestled on the fringe. The native nightlife of the quaint little neighborhoods joined the heart of the oasis as it tried to match its tempo. One of those lively little hamlets was the small community of Cactus Grove, which was currently filled with sounds of rowdy young mammals cracking small jokes and singing along with the lyrics of their favorite songs that had carried across the cool evening air. Some strolled along the rough concrete sidewalks, dancing to the beat of their own music taste, while others lounged or huddled in small groups, trading stories and jabs with those closest to them. The rows of sand-like adobe apartments stretched across the entire street funneled the delightful din of the mammals who lived there up and out into the starless sky above to join with Sahara Square's evening concerto.

Amid those many adobe homes and structures stacked upon one another that crowded the quaint little street was a larger apartment complex. A dark and quaint little six-story building that the locals of Cactus Grove called home. At this hour, the apartment building's older residents slept soundly in their beds, the nightly noise of the lively mammals on the block having grown to be little more than white noise long ago. The same could be said for its younger residents, although a small number of them had remained wide awake, keeping the volume on their TV as low as possible to get away with watching movies and shows they knew their parents would never allow them to watch. There was nothing truly notable about the countless darkened apartments that made up the complex, almost all having the same floor plan and all utterly ordinary. However, one among them lies in nearly complete, pitch blackness, save for a soft, muted beam of light that had emanated from between the slightly parted curtains of a bedroom window. The warm lighting of the district beyond spilled across the hardwood floor impotently, unable to reach the mammal sprawled upon the bed just beyond its reach. The suite was almost silent except for the occasional muffled chatter, errant knock, or bang from the neighboring Floors.

But despite the peaceful stillness, the grayish-brown-furred canid haphazardly strewn across his improper bedding isn't sleeping all that soundly.

Miles Lewis Lupis is troubled.

Chapter One

Miles Can't Sleep

Miles has been ruffling on his spring mattress bed for what felt like hours to him. He was supposed to be asleep a couple of hours before getting ready for work. But begrudgingly, Miles is not in the best frame of mind to get himself to sleep. It's not because the mattress he is sleeping on is uncomfortable. The canid had taken great lengths to make his bed elegant and fair. Instead, he will have to return to work on a Saturday morning, which was supposed to be Miles's weekend off.

The sudden intrusion occurred when Miles was called in by his Opossum supervisor, Mr. Piko, to come by his office for a one-on-one talk meeting. During their meeting, Mr. Piko brought disturbing news that an unnamed garbage truck driver had a vehicle accident while on their way home from work.

Thankfully, the driver survived the wreck, but it consequently left him with a broken rib cage and a fractured pelvis due to the incident. Hence, the driver is on medical leave until they're ready and fit for work, and that is when Miles steps into the picture. Mr. Piko wanted to ask a favor from the coyote to help cover the driving shift period for the time being. So until the driver is released from medical care or when management finds a new replacement for him, it's gonna be extra work he'll be doing. Despite the hefty toll it will take on him, Miles accepts the offer anyway.

However, it's not as though he wants to take on the extra work. Miles had plans for the weekend, not very important, but personal plans nonetheless. He and his co-worker/friend wanted to spend the weekend off together to play some poker at his bud's bar and watch the games afterward. Just kicking back, relaxing at a local tavern, and talking about their daily lives.

That's how Miles likes to spend his weekend with Lubo, nothing too crazy to ask for. As irritating as it may be for the young canid to skip a Saturday off for work, Miles has to do it out of necessity. He needs the extra income to save up on next month's rent. Miles is increasingly concerned with how rent prices have risen in recent months. It's already bad enough for him that last year's bill had grown from Ƶ500 bucks to around Ƶ900 bucks a month, a Ƶ400 buck increase just for a small one-bedroom studio apartment he resides in.

While he is making a decent salary from his garbage job, which is better than what he was earning when Miles was doing other garbage jobs he had taken at the time, it is barely enough to keep him afloat for the time being. However, he will get evicted from his apartment if he doesn't save for next month's fees and other expenses. So, in a worst-case scenario, he may end up homeless on the streets again. Just thinking about it made the canid strike a cold shiver down his spine. It was a promise he had made to himself long ago, a promise Miles had made since he was a young teen, a promise he had made to himself that he would never want to relive that experience again. It's really a miracle that Lubo took him under his paw and gave him a roof over his head. For this very reason, Miles is immensely thankful for the maned wolf that saved him from the streets in the first place.

But even though Lubo is well known for being a canid of great charity, asking him again for a place to stay still does not feel right to the scruffy canid. Lubo will insist on all he wants; Miles does not enjoy relying on others for help, as he hates being a freeloader, especially towards Lubo. From the way he sees it, he only had to look after his own pelt, even if someone asked him to do so otherwise. In the meantime, though, this is something that future Miles will have to watch out for. For now, Miles simply has to deal with getting some shut-eye for the night to prepare himself for the weekend shift that awaits him in the morning.

As the clock continued to tick across the room, one second at a time, Miles found himself staring at the plain white dark ceiling above him for what seemed like an eternity, feeling like he was staring at a piece of empty space. He glances at his alarm clock, and it currently reads 11:30 PM. Even though the coyote had been staring at the dumb ceiling for an hour and a half, Miles still couldn't sleep. After Miles cursed himself for checking on his alarm clock, he released a sigh of frustration out of his dry snout. He can already feel the stress building inside him as the night continues. It felt as if the night getting closer to its final hours of darkness. Sooner or later, Miles will dread that Saturday morning, waking up in a zombie-like state at 5:00 AM while sluggishly lagging behind on work. There's no doubt in the coyote's mind that he will be stuck in the passenger seat while Lubo will be doing all the dirty work. That kind of guilt will not go over well with Miles; whether sick or not, it still doesn't sit well with him in the slightest.

It's not that he intended to isolate himself from any support of his friends; this is just how he usually behaves. Miles sort of guessed that he was born this way when he was but an infant at the orphanage. He never told anyone where he was born or where his family was from. His real family is somewhat of a 4

mystery to him or anyone else, as a matter of fact. Either way, Miles stopped asking questions about 'his parents long before leaving the orphanage. He accepted his fate that he will probably never meet his real parents, nor does he even want to meet them anyway. If Miles has to give an award for the best father figure, he would gladly pass it to Lubo.

Even though Lubo is not his biological father and also the fact that he is a different canine species of a Maned Wolf himself, Lubo is the closest father figure he ever has in recent memory.

Though at certain times, he can be a typical old geezer. Lubo is the type of mammal who likes to drink occasionally from time to time, on weekends after work. But on rare occasions when Lubo is not careful with his taste buds, he can get pretty erratic in his drunken state. On the one paw, he would act like a cave mammal and start making some barking noises around the tavern. Miles was stunned to hear what a maned wolf's bark sounded like; he never expected the old canine to make some of the highest barking pitches he had ever heard.

But on the other paw, and regrettably, Lubo would accidentally spill some of his personal life into the conversation that Miles probably never meant to hear. So for the rest of that evening, he had to listen to his old mam ramble and weep about the post-divorce phase that he had gone through many years ago. Just thinking about that awkward incident left Miles cringing for weeks; it would plague his mind for a long while.

Despite Lubo's personal problems, Miles loved hanging out with the old Maned Wolf. Lubo had taken him under his paw when Miles had no one else to look for help in his youth. Lubo is sort of like an uncle to him; he's old-fashioned and still has some problems to deal with, but he still takes the time to check on Miles' well-being.

Although….there was someone else he hadn't forgotten about as well.

Before he met Lubo, way back before he left the orphanage, he used to have a friend who was pretty close to him, and her name was Bonnie. Bonnie was an energetic young raccoon, not like the kid on a sugar rush, but still had the energy to play and goof around all day and night. She could also be a mischievous rascal, but unlike the stereotype displayed on TV, it's always in a playful banter to mess with Miles. But as joyful as it sounds, their introduction was not as smooth as the friendship movies make it out to be. It got to a bumpy start.

The first time Bonnie and Miles met was somewhat rocky at best. He wasn't in an effusive position to make small talk with anyone. Hence, Miles had very little interest in having a quick chat with the young Procyonidae and wanted to be alone. However, that doesn't stop the curious raccoon from pocking around on Miles. So, long story short, after a few months of annoying the canid with some friendly jabs and an endless list of questions Bonnie had for Miles, the canid finally relented and started paying attention to the raccoon.

As annoying as Bonnie was when she wouldn't leave him alone, it turned out that he really liked the odd curious ringtail mammal. He found her energetic personality amusing, and while it could be annoying for some folks, he didn't mind having a long conversation with the young oddball. After all, he finally had someone to speak with that isn't an adult giving him counsel meetings. Even more refreshing was that Bonnie also had a very positive outlook on life. It doesn't matter to her if they're in an orphanage. She likes to imagine it as a school hangout playground and treat it as such. It's Still not perfect, but better than the alternative, none then less.

After hanging out some more time with Bonnie in the following months, he discovered some unique hobbies he didn't think he had in him but was more than welcome to embrace them. He became more playful whenever he was hanging out with the energetic raccoon. He and Bonnie also had a creative way of creating small DIY toys with whatever parts or junk he could find. But that got boring for the duo since they could only find a handful of materials they could scrounge around to make the same toy. But thankfully, they came up with a lightbulb idea. They had a unique concept of creating and customizing their own DIY costumes based on a hit TV show at the time called "Paw Rangers" that they watched on weekends. It was one of their favorite shows at the time, so making a cosplay costume of their favorite characters was a kid's fever dream. So, to start their work, they need to find all the materials they need to make them.

During lunchtime in the afternoon, every child would be outside in the back courtyard eating lunch, hanging out with friends, or playing games like tag or basketball. And while all the kids were busy, most of the adult staff would have to watch them so that no one suddenly left the backyard building. However, as luck would have it, they have a local dumpster near the alleyway inside the courtyard, and some trashcans are scattered outside the backyard. So, with Bonnie's scavenging skill in good shape, she was in charge of collecting any unwanted or dirty cardboard boxes or junk she could get her paws on from any dumpsters or trashcans accounted for.

While she gets to work on dumpster diving, Miles collects any materials Bonnie finds, and after getting all of the materials they can find, they go straight to work on making their own DIY Paw Rangers costumes.

For the art department, Bonnie would start by coloring the cardboard boxes with crayons and colored markers for decor. She also placed stickers around the torso and the box-shaped helmet to mimic the costume design and add some more flare to their designs. While all the cardboard pieces are finished colored, Miles puts them together with clear tape and school glue to get them to stick just where he wants them to be, which needs to be similar to the ones from the TV show as best as they can.

Lastly, after all of the pieces had been put together and assembled with care, they wrote down their names to one of each of their own costumes they had created for the final finishing touches.

Red Ranger, made by Miles Lewis Lupis,

Green Ranger, made by Bonnie Elizabeth Parker

After all of their months of dumpster diving, scavenging, and decorating, both Miles and Bonnie were ecstatic to finally see their costumes displayed in their full glory right in front of them, all possible with only scraps and spare parts assembled with their own bare paws. Despite its crude design, it didn't matter to the young Miles and Bonnie. This was their creation, and they're proud of making something that was from their favorite TV show. What more could they ask for?

While they admired their awesome creation, Bonnie suddenly pulled her paw out and held Miles's Paw gently. It surprised the young cub, no one had ever held his paw in that kind of matter to a predator like him. A coyote feared and taunted by everyone around him, a species Miles told himself he would never be trusted by both Prey and Predator. Yet here he was, standing in this closed-off secret closet with a new raccoon friend, not from his own species, but outside of one.

It's amusing really, Miles actually hated being touched or held by anyone else. He even told Bonnie not to touch him when they first met because of his defensive nature. But despite this, Miles doesn't display any discomfort. Instead, he felt something warm in his chest. Miles wasn't sure what it was he was feeling, but for some reason, he didn't flinch back like he usually does. It's like it was natural for the young cub to hold Bonnie's paw for this long, in fact, he doesn't know how long they were standing. But Miles isn't gonna question it. For now, he wants to keep holding her paw and take in the moment to admire their cheap paw ranger costume that they both built together, at least until one of them decides to spark up a conversation to break the silence.

The coyote couldn't help but smile. It was one of the best moments he had ever had with Bonnie at the orphanage. It was one of those rare moments where Miles truly felt happy and felt like a part of a small pack that was accepted by someone else outside of his species. It's a genuine happy feeling, but yet strange.

The canid knew a feeling he felt, a very strong and heavy emotion that had been bothering him for as long as he could remember ever since he met Bonnie that many years ago. He didn't want to admit it, yet his mind was conflicted between what he was denying and what he truly wanted to say to himself. Does he miss her? Yes of course. Is he struggling to move on from the past? That's quite obvious. Does he…no.

Miles shrugs that thought off; he'll deal with his unusual feelings another time. He's still unsure if this is the right call to suppress the unusual feelings he had been having for years. But this is uncharted territory for the canine. Miles is left to fend for himself to deal with the mind of his internal conflict he has no control over. If only Miles could've talked about these feelings to Bonnie, she would've known what to tell him and guided along with him to help deal with these feelings.

Why did he not tell her this?

*sigh*

Focus Miles, don't dwell on it

The canine exhaled a heavy sigh, Miles was starting to lose hope of getting some proper sleep as the minutes continued to tick every second. He's still confident enough to get a night's rest, he won't get a perfect night's rest, but better to get a few hours of sleep than none.

He looked at his alarm clock that was still sitting on his nightstand. Most likely, he's gonna guess…

It currently reads 1:15 A.M

How long was Miles awake?

Did time suddenly skip a few hours forward without him noticing?

Or was it because…

Miles forcibly stuffed a pillow around his head, covering his ears and stuffing his snout onto his mattress in a fit of exasperation. He's not gonna let it get into his head, especially not when he has work tomorrow.

The night seems to continue endlessly; the morning sun is far distant from the city-lit skyline, yet it feels like it's getting closer and closer. The longer Miles stays up, the closer the morning gaze comes to view and the more tired the canid will be.

Miles continued to wait, what felt like an agonizing night suddenly felt slow and dim.

His eyes felt heavy, slowly but surely, those heavy eyelids slid shut inch by inch like a camera lens closing itself off to the world.

As Miles waited, the world around him slowly went dark and the sounds of crickets chirping outside the cold night faded away.

In his final moment of conscience, he waited….and waited….more waiting….waiting….waiting….waiting….

Authors Note: Just want to once again give a big shout-out to fellow artists, writers, and friends: WastedTimeEE, Toonophile, Karakuricentural, and DoctorPortal455. They helped me so much by giving me writing advice and suggestions to make the story as interesting as possible to read for you. Especially Portal's suggestion to read more books, which helped me tremendously in expanding my vocabulary. But still, I have plenty to learn from, and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter I and many others have worked on.