Author's Note: Hello Lads and Ladies
Currently Busy as shit with Life and friends rn, don't even have much time to write this Author's notes. Hopefully gonna get so more writing done soon. Keep your heads up! See ya in the next Chapter!
Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The Dude who Likes Tanks
Enjoy!
-Portal
Chapter 12: Reasons
Working in admin was a choice made in a passionate rush of wanting to help out in any way she could… now she regretted the decision, at least partially. It was taxing to do so much mind-numbingly monotone work that by the second week she was already having second thoughts. Legosi was getting worse and even their university classes had turned more into hostile warnings by the state. Professors talked about security measures and the campus had turned into a strict curfew zone. No one without an eligible and sound explanation was allowed on the grounds anymore.
Juno tried her best to drown her thoughts out yet, with the monotone nature of working in that headache-inducing, stale place, she had no other option but to dwell on things. And even though the work was boring and could be done by almost anyone, it did not mean that there weren't metric tons of it for every single worker.
Case files and data over-poured every desk before the day even started, and just as they finished half the workload so did another come in and leave them with more than they started. This work was useless and a punishment to every office worker, even though none of them were what Yahya was trying to punish.
Not that he would care… tyrants rarely care about their slaves.
She made her way to the kitchen, drinking some tea in her small pause before it was back to the grindstone. She sat on one of the shitty chairs in the tiny kitchen nook in front of the toilets. Had she not had the pause she would've gone crazy, yet it didn't do anything enough to properly calm her down from the volatile concoction of things in her mind. Her small impulse of turning the building ablaze was growing every day she remained, and she was sure there would be no situation in which that urge would dwindle.
After having drunk just the cup she walked back to her seat. Looking at the many messages and emails that had flowed into her workplace computer.
The stress was getting to her and her logic was inebriated. She saw the files in front of her and looked behind her. Her cubicle was in the corner of the pit as the office collectively called it. A horrible place that swallowed lives that went in too deep.
She looked ahead, confident that in her nook she was alone. She clicked a file to check the info and began to dig through the files in front of her. She was only supposed to sort by name and category of mental and physical capability, not read through the notes themselves. She soon understood exactly why the higher-ups forbid such things.
The first case file she ever opened was of a caprid and canine hybrid. There were photos of them in the nude, the expressions were not appreciative of such a measure.
But the pictures were just the start. Everything was in the file. Psychiatric evaluations, physiological quirks, and features down to the detail of the size of their fangs, bite force, and individual tooth structure. Banking details, a personal history, and even notes of the parental units.
This individual had been neglected and had to fend for themselves in a job market at age fourteen, a criminal history being a given. They had stolen groceries and as time progressed watches and other valuable items to sell on the black market. They were labeled dangerous although mostly described as peaceful and docile, in conversation deeply remorseful of their past.
With a heavy heart, Juno continued and regretted the decision while still forcing herself to continue.
Some of them were the products of abusive relationships, non-consensual relations, or exploitative situations. Some mothers were prostitutes used by the wealthy to feed a fetish and then were cast aside when they happened to get pregnant. Many had broken or non-existent relationships with their parents. Others admitted to attacking them at certain points in their lives.
The entire number of folders was full of hurt, cruelty, and messy coping mechanisms of people that had no idea where to turn. Most of all Juno felt a strong disgust within her knowing that she was sitting in the same building with the horse responsible for all of it.
She closed the folders and put them back on her little desk, breathing out in complete desolation.
She got back to work after another break, her mind blocking the knowledge that she was doing the state's dirty work but her work drive had started to become brittle. She finished the agonizing work day and instead of heading for the EL train home, she wandered over the city plaza. The city plaza was close enough to Cherryton's hill that the incline started if one walked the five minutes from the city plaza through one of the shopping strips. Most zones here were for pedestrians only, tiled streets between buildings meant only for the citizens, not for the metal carriages that dominated modern-day life.
She walked without much of a destination, the trip being a mind clearer. She walked upwards the incline and looked up the street as the hill became more apparent as it started to stick out over the roofing. Without any other idea on where to head instead, it was where she went, up the hill towards school grounds.
Things were always simpler in the past…
Maybe it was that in retrospect you always found the easiest solution to every problem, knowing you lived to tell the tale. But then again, Juno knew that what they had gone through was far from normal. Fear of losing people you cared about, fear of people dying. Normal teenagers weren't met with such an ordeal at such a young age… but wasn't that what the Beastar system dictated?
She reached the outer wall of Cherryton academy, a brick wall that separated students from the outside world. They had proven ineffective before and they would prove futile here. Rebellion was airborne, it didn't care for material separation. As long as the idea could freely flow, the outside world gained it via means of newspaper or internet articles and you had an outbreak that rivaled any viral infection.
She walked along the wall, seeing the pavement of the walkway behind the parking spots for faculty employees. The spread of greenery along the lane and the street between the surrounding houses. A little corner store that signaled the beginning of the descent from the heightened halls of academics to the unfiltered and savage normal populace.
She entered the corner shop and her ears flicked when they heard the grading buzz of a faulty fluorescent lamp that illuminated the store in a stark white. A group of teens, not much younger than her, stood by the counter and were buying snacks and magazines. She smiled, remembering the times she went out into the city with an outing permit, walking out with friends to go see a movie or go to a park.
She browsed the store, walking through the isles as she observed the objects left and right. The newspapers' doom and gloom, the refreshing cool of the drink section's giant display fridges, and the reminiscent sweetness of the candy aisle. She grabbed three bars of synthetic chocolate, one of matcha, one of strawberry, and Legosi's favorite blueberries.
The teens smiled as they passed her by, nothing but a friendly civilian. She paid the price to the teller, an old lady that indulged in friendly conversation with her. She left and walked towards the school. She followed the wall until she made it to the area of the chain link fence that overlooked Edobutsu's Bay. She walked down the incline till she was at an observation platform. There were stationary coin-operated binoculars on the edges and she remembered coming here with her family. It was the few times that Amara smiled when they were in public.
Juno sat down on one of the benches, a spot where she had been half a dozen times or so. She felt the sun on her skin and a slight breeze pick up as she looked over the bay and the streets below.
Hybrid's never had the time for a simple pleasure like a calm walk out in the sun. They were too busy being labeled as undesirable and being hounded left and right. On a weekend day, they would be hounded by other families to leave the spot, the parents voicing concerns about hybrids being this out in the open. And on calm weekdays such as these it was likely they would be followed by police if some old lady had called out of worry something bad was going to happen.
This is why I do this.
People like Legosi, people like Yajuu, animals of any given nature should have the right to live out their lives uninterrupted, unburdened by the worry of others. Juno knew before but needed the reminder anyway of what she was fighting for.
So that everyone has a chance at life.
Richard looked over the perch of the roof, his eyes honing in perfectly on Taishiro. He only followed him in small segments, planning on when and where to start being his shadow. He knew the guy was nervous and paranoid, and paranoid targets were more apt at detecting when someone was following them. His main job was easy, finding out exactly where he worked and how to enter it.
Whatever Project Vertigo was, Melon wanted to know. Richard had a few ideas but didn't bother speaking them out. Melon was a thinker, and thinkers could easily be uprooted from their thoughts if the incorrect word was chosen. Most people at first meeting the eagle might think he was dimwitted, a brutish moron that didn't know which words to choose, violence being his preferred language of rebuttal for he didn't know any others.
Richard didn't mind that. People coming to their own conclusions was good in this business. If they failed to identify their killer before it was too late, it was their last mistake to make.
If they got to know him longer than that, there was always a point of realization. Where they began to understand a part of how he worked. They would see his deliberate choice in clothing, his efficient and straightforward strut, and his choice to remain silent most of the time as part of a clockwork. They started to understand part of the enigma.
The third part of understanding came only with long-time working partners, something that only came when working directly in contact with the eagle. Seeing his version of downtime and his living quarters. Realizing his military experience in how he shot a gun and how he was always vigilant.
The fourth and last part of knowing Richard was subtle to an observer. But it opened a door in communication that usually made most interactions stern and tense to most. The only people he had ever formed a bond to such strength were his old comrades, his mother and of course the general to the hybrid army. Melon himself.
Richard noted the time of day and the stay of Taishiro at the restaurant, clockwork. To an army professional, there was the question of how it would ever be possible to condense an entire person into the pages of a notebook. A target was always someone that had been analyzed to the most minute detail, or in Taishiro's case was in the process of being analyzed into the furthest corner of his personality.
Soon there would be no more mystery to the scientist born and raised here. To the top contender in his field. A red deer high grad qualifier that had made his parents very proud. There would be no question as to if he was kind, if he was mean, if he was a bigot, or just plain oblivious to the workings of the world outside. There would be no instance of Taishiro unknown to Omnivora. The enemy was the closest friend.
Richard closed his notebook and walked in a crouch away from the brick barrier that divided the roof from death by falling. He opened the door to the stairwell and began descending the stairs. He passed by some of the building's tenants, surprised faces and frightened eyes following the eagles form.
Richard asked himself if Taishiro had any regrets in life. If the deer had any things that he would fix if he could go back. And if he did, if he would pick the moment he had accepted involvement with Yahya and whatever Project Vertigo was. Although Richard would soon know every move of the trusty little researcher, every aspect of personality and every interest, that was one thing he would never know. For even if he tortured him or killed him, there would be no way for him to know or gauge the truth.
Some few things were truly only between one and oneself.
Monstrously high with an evil uglier shadow the state building stood erect in the middle of the city plaza, rearing its ugly truth to the city. Tokugawa was actually surprised at how innocuous it looked in the shades of daylight that he operated very sparsely in.
"Mr. Tokugawa, Sublime Beastar Yahya is waiting for you in his office." He nodded at the secretary and entered the elevator car. To be left without instinct meant he was most often alone with his own thoughts while in absolute reality.
Tokugawa had witnessed the grim nature of the black market, but he had never witnessed war. It was the singular dividing metric between him and the rest of the men in the black market. He had seen death, injustices, torture, and everything else that came with the mob, but never the drastics of war. Murder was singular, an execution was a single night. An event that could be planned and orchestrated much like any other thing that one organized for work. War was chaos, was fear, was unplanned uncertainty that tore things apart like a tornado.
The conversation he was about to have was an open invitation to the devil in black to meddle in that chaos. Curtain call, all bets are off.
He left the elevator car and didn't bother knocking on the black stone door.
Yahya sat at his office, overlooking papers, reading things off his computer. He looked up and immediately two things were clear. Both animals in the room were angry, one for the ensuing death of the place he called home, the other for the audacity that his opponent would dare enter the room without knocking.
"You forgot-"
"You are well aware of what you're doing." Tokugawa broke him off. Yahya's response was an annoyed look and a repeated motion toward the door.
"You forgot to knock."
"You are well aware that my hands are just as tied as yours."
Yahya smashed his fist onto the table and jumped up from his seat. He was pointing towards the door with the pen he was rejecting the notion to deescalate as the other Sublime Beastars were urging him too.
"YOU FORGOT TO KNOCK!" Anger seethed under the black-furred skin as he looked more like a bull and less like a horse. Tokugawa remained cold.
"I'm not going to."
The anger had hang time in the air, somewhere between a boiling pot and a warm stovetop. They held perfect eye contact, one waiting if the other gave up first. Tokugawa relished for just a moment that no one seemed to realize that he never lost such games. He and his father had trained well enough in the sport of never relenting in one's position of power.
Yahya scoffed as he grabbed under his desk, his hand emerging with a bottle of liquor. Tokugawa was, without any reaction, merely surprised that the state of things seemed to even harbor an effect on the unbreakable devil in black.
"Why would I even argue with someone that without care takes control of the situation and refuses the relinquish any part of it for common courtesy? Should I let you waltz all over my floor and cry about war like every other panicked little damsel in distress?" Yahya moved past The cougar, wandering to his garden, a certain hanging quality to his walk as if he was merely leaning against an invisible engine that moved him forward.
"I enter your office without knocking, you are taking control of the city without a care what anyone is saying. I know what the Sublime Beastar Council is saying, all of them-"
"Crying and complaining. Don't bring them up, I got better things to care about." Yahya took a swig from the bottle and traversed the room to one glass wall. His walk was bordering between careless wandering and a drunken stumble.
"Is this really how you're planning to do this? Ignoring the worries of others by pretending that they are baseless complaints?"
"What do you want from me?" Yahya looked at the Cougar with confusion, but most of all agitation. The booze surely wasn't helping his mental state. The cougar weighed the possibilities in his mind and walked to the edge of his garden.
"I want you to understand the severity of your actions."
Yahya turned around and stumbled forwards towards him, taking another swig in the process.
"How come all of you prideful men and women come to me with all your worries and treat me like an idiot? You know that what's happening has been planned, orchestrated over years."
"You are an idiot." Tokugawa retorted. Rage returned to Yahya's face as the bottle flew and shattered at Tokugawa's feet.
"This suit was expensive." Tokugawa remained cold even when complaining of him dirtying his suit. The game of kings was apparently about how far could you disrespect someone until they pushed the big red button, a grand and delicate but feeble and easy-to-manipulate game. Yahya stomped forward until they were standing face to face.
Tokugawa was only slightly taller than the horse, their eye lines nearly one-to-one.
"What do you want? You want me to go to my table and call all of this work off? You want me to formally apologize so you can go back to your black market and keep pedaling meat for you carnivore scum?… no, I won't."
Tokugawa had to smirk. Yahya's attempt at provocation was way too easy for him to see.
"Try harder."
"What?" Yahya reacted with confusion. Tokugawa's smile grew.
"Try harder. See when your provoking causes me to lash out, so you can kick me out of your office without looking like an emotionally wounded tyrant."
Yahya looked away from the cougar as he scoffed again, dismissively waving at him.
"You're the disruptor here. I was busy with work when you crashed in here." Yahya continued moodily looking out of the window.
Tokugawa approached with a careful step around the puddle and shards of glass. Yahya chuckled.
"And then you still care more about your shoes than what's at stake here. Why are you here, for politics or because you truly care?"
Tokugawa still approached the glass until both of their reflections were side by side.
"I'm here to warn you. One step further and we're at war."
Yahya still looked blankly down at the city streets. The mob boss found that the politician looked pitiful. This was an obsession, some deep settled issue that had been left unresolved.
"The thing protecting me from your wrath is politics. And those won't change." They remained side by side, calmly speaking to one another.
"This city is begging to be freed from the hybrid disease that plagues the minds of many mentally ill. And I am willing to fix that issue."
Tokugawa had never felt more disdain for the Sublime Beastar than he had now. Unwilling to reason, steadfast in jaded ways.
"You're an idiot."
"Your opinions don't matter." Yahya turned to the dining table and sat down, grabbing a remote out of his pocket. With the press of a button, Toshiro emerged from the door and immediately got to work cleaning up the mess.
"Blood does matter."
"Sacrifices are in order to attain a better society." The Sublime Beastar was deflecting. Tokugawa remembered conversations with his father and suddenly he felt a resurgence of rage.
This ivory tower, the servant, the premium booze. All things that Yahya took for granted because he had an army of loyal supporters. All the prestige, All of the honor, and no respect for anyone.
"You don't care about this country."
Yahya's eye looked up at the cougar. He remained silent as Toshiro mopped up the puddle and shards and finally left the room after a few minutes of silence.
"This is my home, and it is in my best interest to rid it of that terrible crime that causes people to be born that cannot be detected by herbivores, and are rejected by Carnivores. I am eliminating an active problem for my country's people."
"No," Tokugawa replied and Yahya's face flushed with irritation.
"You're acting according to your own speciest ways."
"Get out of my office." Yahya stood up eye to eye looking at the Cougar as he pointed to the door. Rage flushed out along his muzzle, turning it a shade of red as Tokugawa could nearly feel the hot breath of the petty tyrant standing before him. He leaned forward, getting as close as possible.
"If a single tank rolls through my gates, a single officer searches my markets, if a single hybrid gets arrested within my district I'll make a little city trip. The General Hospital, your new research center, the train yard, and lastly the state building."
He leaned back and wore a look of rage that only intensified.
"Get. Out."
"You're getting old-"
"GET OUT."
"-you better watch your back."
Tokugawa left his office and felt a coldness spread in his chest. This little transgression was going to kill a lot of people in the next few weeks, and he wasn't too happy with the guilt that he was forced to do this. Some part of his mind was still trying to convince him that he could do something, the rational part told him that no there was not. He watched the screen above the door show the descent of the elevator car and thought to himself that Yahya had capsized their reality, and they were sinking into madness without any life rafts.
An adulthood crush, nestled deep in the heart of a forsaken man waiting for the men in power to take the shot and see all that he called normal life go down the drain. Yajuu couldn't believe that as Edobutsu's view on Hybrid kind deteriorated his life got better. Not many animals paid any mind to the trenchcoat-wearing stranger on the train, but now they grow weary and paranoid.
The train's drained of life and the last few times the only people there were a few rowdy carnivores. And they left him alone, he looked like a pureblood with a weird fur mutation. He wasn't the enemy of the Hybrid war.
Carol came by more often and stayed until deep into the night. They drank tea, they talked, watched movies or listened to music. It was the teen romance that Yajuu's life had denied him, a sweet thing that gave him racy thoughts as his heart rate increased.
"I'll come by again tomorrow. Pick a movie for then." She grabbed her jacket and her purse but the look she gave him was enough to tell him that she wanted to stay. He approached gently.
"The couch is retractable… in the case that you might want to stay. I got tea, I got some snacks…"
Her look was one of endearment. She was happy that he offered, that much was clear to the weindeer that had never been in a relationship.
"That's a kind offer but I need to get some work done at home. Thank you Yajuu, maybe another time. Goodbye, till tomorrow!" Carol waved and he waved back. The moment she shut the door Yajuu fell to his knees, his hand planted firmly on his chest.
Hormones raced through his veins, thoughts of her turning lewd. He maneuvered his way to the oil box, opening lavender to distract himself from the growing intensity of his passions. He knew that sooner or later he'd have to be honest with her before he just up and kissed her. All in all, he had no idea what she was feeling. Maybe his own vision of events was just rose-tinted glasses.
He settled down and turned on the TV, tuning into a film as he calmed down. The energy in his limbs returned to their acceptable levels and he felt like he could breathe. Mid sigh he heard a noise that immediately soured any good feeling of prior. The specific knock that only a single person in all of Edobutsu knew to make to get his attention.
He opened the door, the familiar Gazelle shape in the door.
"Care to go for a joyride?" The sky was dark, and many windows were full of light out there in stark contrast to the darkness. Yajuu looked at his table, Legosi's letter atop it.
He hummed in agreement, grabbing the letter as he put on his coat and grabbed his house keys. He stored the letter in his pocket, not sharing that piece of information just yet. At first, he thought that Legosi had found out, but over the slow build-up of a casual friendship, he found such a conclusion to be irrational. The komodo wolf was probably just lucky.
"What are we doing?" Yajuu asked, like clockwork. Every time Melon had shown up since his return to the capital it had always been at least semi Omnivora related.
"Need help fixing a problem." Melon descended the stairs, Yajuu followed while checking over his shoulders, paranoid that he was being watched.
"It's not really a joyride if we-"
"I wanted to upkeep the illusion of causality." Melon retorted, his back to the weindeer as he continued to descend the stairs.
"Sorry." Yajuu muttered as they continued down the stairs, his pace picking up as he tried to match the speed of the Geopard.
They reached the parking lot, the van awaiting, drenched in cool darkness, ready to take them wherever they needed to be. They closed the sliding door behind themselves and sat down, the car rumbling to a start and taking off down the road of what had turned into the city that fearfully hid in their home at night.
The vibrations of the turning rubber against the smooth asphalt lulled Yajuu into drowsiness. He peeked beyond the driver's seat into the road. This had been his home, he was born in a little hotel room on the outskirts, he played catch with other hybrid kids in the streets when he was little and he worked for his mother in the day to make extra cash.
The car ride happened without the exchanging of words, it was fine by Yajuu, any words from Melon would've caused more fear anyway. Being friends with a revolutionist was a terrifying thing, and yet through the chains of nostalgia and friendship, he was unable to cut himself loose. He owed the Geopard way too much.
The car stopped and they got out of the car, to his surprise they were outside of town, on a forest road somewhere.
"Car off, kill the lights, and wait for us." The car driver followed Melon's command.
Melon led Yajuu into the forestry up an incline. They walked through a small hiker's path that led them further and further along. After a ten-minute walk, they finally reached their destination. The incline had leveled out and they walked on even ground until they broke through the trunks and underbrush until Yajuu saw what looked like a storage unit built up in the middle of nowhere.
"What is this?" Yajuu asked but only got a smile and a beckoning hand gesture back. Melon was leading him beside the storage unit out to the outcropping of a steep decline. He followed until they stood at the edge and Yajuu finally saw what exactly Melon had brought him here for.
In the valley stood a complex that looked almost identical to one of the new modern hospitals. The entire property was surrounded by giant fences, there were gardens, a large main building, and a few smaller additions left and right.
"It's Yahya's research center. The first find Omnivora ever made, the blueprints and vague location of the place. Max capacity of about 400 hybrids, a guard wing with a max employee count of 150, an admin block, employee parking, species-specific rooms… in Yahya's mind this is the sanctum that he was thinking of, a true testament to clean white that is keeping out the dark corruption of outside." Melon looked away from the buildings towards the weindeer and walked a step closer.
"This is what I need you to see, this is why I need your help. I need all the members I can have. And you know how to make people comfortable, you know how to organize."
Yajuu looked at the buildings beneath and toned out what Melon was saying. His words played second fiddle to what his own thought process was. That romance he wanted to have with Carol would only be possible if this place didn't exist. This whole thing would make them enemies.
I'm only wasting time
"What do you want me to do Mel." Yajuu looked at Melon blankly. The Geopard smiled to reveal teeth in his herbivore face.
"When the call would come and you'd have to take up your tenure here you would go without a fight would you?"
Yajuu looked down at the modern hospital, hidden away from the sight of the town, meant to lock up any little genetic imperfections. Next on the chopping block would be a prison for the parents Yajuu could only imagine.
"I wouldn't fight."
"All I need from you, all that this is about, is a voice on the inside. We'll give you a little gizmo from the tech department and all you need to do is take covert photos. We can even build it into your sunglasses."
Yajuu's eyes were still on the building below them, the white sticking out of the darkness as the last of the daylight reflected from it.
"You want me to be a spy?"
"More or less. After that, your favor is paid and i'd owe you one."
Two friends looked each other eye to eye, one a convicted predation case on the run, another living a quiet and isolated life. Both haunted by injustice since their birth.
"Ok." Yajuu extended his hand and Melon approached him. He grabbed his shoulders and leaned his head forward until his horns met his antlers. A brotherly gesture that Yajuu again reminded them of youth. Two teens who during play often got their antlers mixed up. Melon leaned back and looked at him.
"When this is done, you'll be a hero."
Yajuu retaliated the look and remained somewhat cold to the passion that Melon held.
"I don't know if I'm strong enough."
They went back down the incline, to the forest road and went back into the car.
You're wasting your time. If you wait longer she might change her mind, either by getting brainwashed or just coming to her senses.
"Can you drop me off by the residential sector?" Yajuu asked the driver, who lifted an eyebrow through the rearview mirror.
"Is that alright, boss?" he inquired with the Geopard.
Melon looked quizzingly at the Weindeer.
"You planning on walking all the way home?"
"I don't think I want to say." It was uncharacteristic of him, but he knew that Melon held way more secrets from him than he did. Melon shrugged.
"A man is entitled to his own choices, to the residential sector."
Yajuu's eyes widened, realizing what he had almost forgotten.
"Oh… I… this is hard to explain but I got something for you Mel." He grabbed In his pockets while the Geopard looked on in Curiosity.
"My neighbor is Beastar Legosi… he came to me a little while back and asked me to do something for him… He said he couldn't bring it in because they would attack him for being a wolf but he said that I as a hybrid could deliver it…" He handed the letter over to Melon.
"He said it was important that you read it, he didn't realize just who he was asking to do this favor for him… I trust him, he's a good guy."
The truck stopped and Yajuu stood up, putting his hand on Melon's shoulder.
"Listen to the guy, he knows what he's doing."
With that Yajuu left the truck, suddenly standing out on a breezy summer night. He walked along the sidewalk as the car sped off. He felt the number of butterflies in his stomach grow, the tickling feeling of excitement grow as he walked along to his destination, an apartment block just a few steps into the residential sector, the market sector, and Cherryton Hill shielding him from the sigh of the state building.
He walked into the home, checking the time to see it was just around ten. He walked the stairs and felt like he was about to burst. Tickling that ran along his skin, fur that stood upright, and that chilly cool fear of rejection in his chest.
He had never been assertive, but he found that tonight, things would change.
He knocked on the door and waited the agonizing wait, during which the mind always told him that this was the last chance to run away. Then Carol opened the door and that option fluttered away. She was in a tank top and sweatpants, she must've been close to getting to bed.
"Yajuu?" She called out and her sweet voice pushed him on even further.
"Carol… I think I love you." The Weindeer stood in front of the door, jacket around him and again looking as innocent as a child proclaiming their first crush to a girl in another class.
"I think I did ever since you came to visit me after the visit and then it just kept going from there… I know this is quick, we've been friends for a month but… all the things going on around us I'm scared that if I don't take my chance now the chance might never come again." Yajuu scratched the back of his neck as he looked at the lady of interest that stood in the doorway with a stunned face, looking at the Hybrid outside her apartment.
For once in his life Yajuu had a true fear of rejection, that she was shocked because she didn't see this coming at all and was about to respectfully decline his advances. But then she laughed, freely and in shock. He was completely uncertain of the meaning and just remained to wait for her words. Something that would either crush or release him.
"Yajuu I… I think… I love you too."
Relief washed out over him as he laughed and soon both enamored antlered mammals were standing opposite of each other just laughing in relief. As the laughing subsided and that light as a feather feeling spread through him, his arms beside him as if they had no weight at all he realized what came next and held eye contact with her.
"Can I… Kiss you now?"
She looked ahead with beaming eyes, her hand at her mouth, and she nodded. Yajuu approached carefully, making sure to not trip over himself until his arms could reach around her. Their lips met and Yajuu had his first-ever kiss. He felt warmth spread through his chest and felt like he would start floating if she didn't hold him down.
They broke the kiss and both looked at each other.
"Wow… that was nice…" He breathed out and felt his lips tingle. He looked at her and her eyes remained affixed to his.
"Want to keep going?" She asked in a careful voice and he felt the feeling he identified to be love flare up.
"… Yeah… I think so."
In each other's arms they disappeared into her apartment, her pushing the front door closed with her foot.
Yajuu at a later time would find it funny. When the world set ablaze and burned to ashes, he found his flame.
