"So, you changed your mind about using the roses from Gardening Club?" Louis asked to Dom, as the peafowl was before his desk in a relaxed position.
Dom was not like the others, who got easily intimidated by Louis. He was a third-year student, just like him, and he was also one of the members of the senior board of Drama Club. He was on the same level as Louis and saw him as his equal.
Besides, he was never too impressed with Louis' status as the future beastar. Not after being in a close relationship with one as well.
"You were pretty keen on the idea of using the roses to decorate the main gate when you told me about it and said you would run the idea with the others." Louis said to Dom. "What happened?"
Dom looked at him.
"The member of the gardening club who received us was very attached to the roses." Dom said to the deer, and Louis looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Did she made a fuss about you taking the roses?"
Dom looked at him for a few moments.
"She... how do you know the member was a girl?" Dom asked, and Louis did not answer to this, and only continued to look at Dom.
"So, did she make a fuss about the roses?" Louis asked again, and Dom already knew that he was supposed to answer the question. They could be both senior members, but Louis was still the leading actor, while Dom was just the chief of the stagehands. There was an unspoken hierarchy in there, and Louis wanted this hierarchy to be respected, no matter if Dom saw him as his equal or if he fawned over him like the rest of the school.
"She was very receptive on the subject." Dom said to Louis, keeping his neutral and relaxed stance, but as respectful as he should with a fellow classmate. "She allowed us to take the roses if we wanted, in exchange for our help with the garden."
"Oh, so she made a deal with you?" Louis asked, "And you refused, is that what this is about? What, you didn't want to get dirt on your feathers?"
Dom shook his head.
"We helped her alright, and she said we could get the roses." Dom explained, "But, as we helped her care for the garden, I noticed how much she was fond of her flowers. She kept calling them 'her babies', and she insisted us to treat them right. And that... made me think that it would be cruel to take the flowers from her."
"So, you changed your mind about using the roses just because you didn't want for the girl from the gardening club to be upset?" Louis asked, "That's... quite noble of you."
"She seemed really nice." Dom said, and there was a silence in between the two of them. Louis looked at Dom for a moment with a raised eyebrow, nearly as if he was trying to figure the peafowl out. Dom, feeling a bit uncomfortable with this gaze, just said:
"Well, I guess that is it. So, we will not be using the roses. I'll try to think of something else. So, can I go back to my stagehands, or do you have something else you want to discuss?"
Louis looked at him for a moment more, before he said:
"Actually, there is."
The deer straightened himself o his chair, taking a more formal tune as he spoke to the peafowl.
"It is about a certain... video."
Dom visibly flinched. Suddenly, the air on the office became heavier, as he looked at the deer as if he was expecting him to deliver his death sentence at any second.
"Now, I'd like to get one thing out of the way, before there is any misunderstanding between us." Louis said, as he put his hands together before his muzzle, his finger intertwined.
"I don't particularly care about the video."
Dom blinked, looking at Louis.
"I can tell that the video is from before you transferred to Cherryton." Louis said to him. "This means that the video has nothing to do with your school life in here. However, more important than that, the video has nothing to do with your work at this club. What the video shows you... doing, is your own personal business. It is no skin of my nose and, in all honesty, I can honestly say that I feel sorry for you that you had your personal life exposed like that without your consent. Or, at least I want to believe it was without your consent."
Dom looked at him. He didn't show it, but he was relieved for hearing this.
"Your private affairs are not anyone business but your own." Louis said, and that was something that Dom could fully agree. "But... some people might not see it the same way. Including a few members of this club."
Dom looked at Louis as he said that.
"Has anyone... complained about me?" The peafowl asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer or not. Louis then shook his head.
"Not that I heard about it." He said, "But, I want to give you an advice, from one animal to another."
Dom could not help but notice that Louis specifically said "animal", instead of "man", or even "male". Later, Dom would think that this was just him being paranoid.
"You need to remember that you are an important part of this club." Louis said to him, and the peafowl looked intently at him. "You are one of the seniors, and a member of the board of directing members of Drama Club. The younger members of this club owe you respect, for you are both their senpai and one of their directors. So, in case any of them starts giving you trouble, I seriously recommend you put your foot down and remember them of their place."
"Now, I know how sociable you are, and how you care about other people's feelings." Louis said to the peafowl. "But, when it comes to this club, I really expect you to be able to keep the younger members in line and not let their personal feelings get on the way of their work. You need to remind them that for this club to work efficiently, they need to always keep the respect for you as their senior. This is particularly true to the stagehands. Make sure to let them know you won't accept misbehavior or disrespect from your own subordinates."
"Do you think that the juniors will be giving me trouble?" Dom asked, to what Louis said:
"Well, I know for a fact that the other seniors won't. Sano is fully supportive of you, and so is Sheila, and I know that the others are professional enough not to let personal feelings get on the way of their work. So, if anyone would openly express discontent towards you, it would probably be the juniors. If they do, then don't hesitate to raise your voice and let them know hierarchy needs to be properly respected. Especially the carnivores, you know they can be pretty unruly."
Once more, Dom flinched a bit as he heard Louis mention carnivores, for it brought memories of his recent encounter with two of them. One of which was a member of that very same club, working under Dom himself.
Louis, of course, noticed it.
"Did they already started giving you trouble?" Louis asked, surprising Dom. "Is this why you have been a little... off, lately?"
Dom said nothing in return.
He could hardly say anything.
No one could know about what had happened with Legoshi. Not even Louis. If he did, Dom was sure that Louis would want to take some short of measure about it. Louis could be a fair guy, but he often came on too strong when "dealing with carnivores". Dom was afraid of what he could do to Legoshi if he found out about how he tried to eat a clubmate.
"Is Kai giving your trouble for his 'demotion'?" Louis asked Dom. "Or is it... Legoshi?"
Dom really needed to go out of his way to avoid showing any reaction to what Louis just said. He did his best poker face as he said to Louis, hoping that he would be convincing enough that the main actor would believe him:
"I had no problem with any of my juniors. They are all dedicated to their work and they all show the proper respect for me."
Dom sighed, before resuming.
"Yes, I have been a bit 'off', as you say, but it is only because of the video spreading over the people. Like you say, it does expose a personal part of my life that it is no one's business but my own." Dom said, and he looked at the deer. "I must have had it get to me due to bad memories of the first time the video spread back on my old school, I might have let it affect my performance, but that was a failure of my part. It will not happen anymore. You can rest assured."
Louis looked at him for a few moments, and then he nodded.
"Well, that is good to hear." The deer said, and Dom resisted the urge to sigh on relief that the deer accepted his excuse and was not asking any more questions about anything.
"So, I guess that's all." Louis concluded. "You can go back to your group, you still have a lot to do, after all. And remember what I told you."
Dom nodded, and walked out of the office.
As Louis was left alone on his office, he let out a sigh he had been holding since Dom walked in.
"So, he changed his mind about the roses only because of Haru, didn't he?" Louis said to himself. "Well, I guess that she can be pretty cute..."
Louis leaned over, shifting his legs, and flinching as he felt the familiar pain on his ankle, which was still hurting even with the patch he had wrapped on it. Louis had the impression that the pain was getting stronger, to be fully honest.
I need to deal with this... Louis thought, as he felt the throbbing pain on his ankle, which he was painfully reminded of with each step he took. After the play... until them, I'll keep using the patches... maybe get some painkillers from the nurse's office.
As Louis continued with his musings, Dom made his way back to the stagehands. As he did, he could not help but notice how some people were looking his way, with some of them whispering among themselves.
A few of them were even on their phones, and they looked up from it to look up Dom's way as he was coming.
Among those last ones were the other stagehands, who were gathered in a small bundle and watching a phone, which was on the hands of a familiar wolf.
They all looked Dom's way while the peafowl was coming, save for the said wolf, who was still looking at his own cellphone with wide, surprised eyes.
T-this... this is really Dom-senpai! Legoshi thought as he looked at the video and saw the figure of the familiar, albeit younger, peafowl that he knew so well.
He had finally been shown the video after he asked his fellow stagehands what was this video that everyone kept mentioning and that involved his senpai. After an awkward moment of them looking at each other, they finally decided to teach Legoshi to use his own phone to look for the video, so the wolf could watch it by himself.
Legoshi never knew that one could feel shocked, mortified, embarrassed and even some other unnamed emotion, all at the same time.
It is really my senpai... Legoshi thought, as he saw the Dom of the video kissing the lips of the naked bull with his beak, causing a weird emotion to bubble up on the pit of his stomach. And, he is with...
"Excuse me." Said a familiar voice, which caused Legoshi to jump a little bit, nearly dropping his phone as he looked at the peafowl of the video, now in flesh and feathers.
Dom had his crossed arms as he looked at the wolf, and he was looking at him with a serious expression.
"Are you watching anything interesting in there, Legoshi?" Dom asked, and Legoshi looked confused for a moment. It seemed that he had forgotten what he was even doing, as he looked back and forth from the peafowl before him to the phone on his hands, the video in it still playing.
"I-I-I... I mean... I am just... hmmm..." Legoshi said, but it seemed that he didn't knew how to say words anymore. After a few moments, Dom simply gave out a sigh.
"Well, if it is a video, then you can watch it in more detail later on." Dom said, "Now, if you could, please, put your phone away so we can focus on our work, we still have a lot to do to prepare for the play. Starting with thinking about a new idea for the main entrance."
Legoshi was surprised with how dry and direct Dom was. The usual warmth that was always on his voice was almost completely gone. That was much of a surprise for the wolf. He nearly forgot to put his phone down, as he said a "y-yes, senpai", and then he went back to work, just like everyone else.
From there, their day proceeded like all the others.
Everyone did what they needed to, talking to each other and interacting normally, as they needed communication with each other so they could coordinate their different teams to make sure that their final product would be as good as they all hoped.
And Dom could notice, as they continued their work, that the animals of Drama Club were treating him the same way they always did.
There was no glaring. No passive-aggressive ignoring. No cold shoulders. No whispering.
None of the things Dom had to go through on his previous school and that eventually led him to have to transfer to Cherryton once they evolved into full-fledge bullying.
This was something that Dom was thankful for.
He was thankful for knowing that the animals whom he knew the most and spent the most time other than his roommates since he arrived in Cherryton did not changed with him after the video started spreading, unlike the "friends" he had back on the previous school.
However, he did notice that there were a lot more looks his way than normal. People were looking over their shoulders to look at him, but they did look away and tried to pretend they were not staring whenever Dom noticed they were staring.
The fact that they were staring at him like that did made Dom uncomfortable. It brought him bad memories of the times when other people stared at him as if he was an oddity in the past, and he remembered very well how things got bad after this.
It all started with staring and whispering.
Dom shook his head, and he instead tried to distract himself from it. He tried to focus on his job as a member of that club, as the leader of the stagehands, all so he could shut down the intrusive bad thoughts and memories trying to come to his head.
As he discussed possible ideas with the others, trying to encourage them to come ideas of their own, Legoshi kept looking at Dom, and he did notice that Dom didn't seemed as relaxed and easy-going as he usually was.
It was as if there was something troubling the peafowl and keeping him from being his usual self.
Legoshi had, at first, assumed that it was because Dom had almost been eaten by him, and that made it awkward for them to interact. However, now that he has seen the video, he wondered if there was not a direct relation to it.
If the video could not have a direct connection to the reason why Dom was acting the way he was, distant and nearly sad. Nearly as if he was scared, not only of Legoshi, but of everyone else.
Could it be... because people were seeing him while he was having sex? Legoshi wondered. Suddenly, Legoshi realized just how intimate that video truly was, especially the part where Dom told that bull who he was with on the video that he loved him.
He sounded very sincere when he sounded that, and that still caused a strange feeling on Legoshi.
Now, Legoshi was not completely oblivious. He was fully aware that two males could fall in love. He heard about things like that. And people never seemed to have good things to say about those kinds of animals.
Animals like Dom.
It seemed society thought a lot of things about animals like Dom, who would have sex with animals of the same gender as themselves.
Legoshi now could see something else on Dom's distance. Like some fear of being mistreated because of the video. A video that exposed an aspect of his life that he didn't exactly wanted to divulge to the world.
A video that exposed his secret.
Legoshi still remembered what Kai told him about how everyone on Drama Club had some kind of secret. Guess this was Dom's. This was the thing that made him unique enough to become a part of the Drama Club.
This was what made him special.
Just like Legoshi's own secret made him special.
And Legoshi knew how he would feel with the very idea of everyone in the school finding out about his secret.
He could understand how Dom was feeling. And he could not help but feel sorry for him for having to go through that.
"So, Legoshi?" Dom said, causing the wolf to, once more, come back to reality. Dom was looking at him.
"Everyone else has been giving ideas, but you are awfully silent." Dom said, "Maybe you could join us by offering an idea. You have any?"
"O-oh?" Legoshi said, as all eyes were now on him. This still made the wolf nervous.
Especially Dom's eyes on him, looking at him expectantly.
"I... uhhh..." Legoshi said, before a sudden idea came to him.
"W-what about we do the same idea as the flowers... but using cloths?" Legoshi asked, and the others looked at him with interest. So the wolf developed the idea:
"We could use red and black cloths with golden trimming in them to decorate the entrance. I mean, those are the same colors of the Adler costume. We could even get one or two fake skulls and put them on the gate as if they were the entrance of the underworld... or, is that too scary?"
"Hey, that's a good idea." Kai said, and the rest of the stagehands agreed with it.
"That is pretty nice." Fudge said.
"I am fan of the entrance of the underworld idea. Sounds original." Kibi said, "We just need to get the cloth and we can get it ready."
"So, everyone in favor?" Dom asks, and the guys all agree. "Good, so that is what we will be doing. Very good, Legoshi."
Legoshi felt his tail wagging as Dom told him that his idea was good. This was strange, because Legoshi had already been complimented by Dom before, but that never made his tail wag.
Until now.
For the rest of the day, Legoshi continued to work with the stagehands, most of it geared towards working on his idea of decorating the entrance with cloths and skulls to make it seem like the gate through which the souls needed to go through in order to reach their final destination.
The kind of place to which a grim reaper would accompany the souls on their final journey.
"That was a really good idea, Legoshi." Kibi would say to the wolf a as they started working on the entrance, and it was working nicely so far. Dom was there, of course, and he was helping Kai tie the cloths to the gate.
Legoshi could not help but keep looking at Dom.
He just looked at him. And it was in a way that he had never looked until now.
Legoshi had never noticed that the shade of blue of his feathers was so... beautiful.
I mean, why would it not be? Peafowls were considered one of the most beautiful animals out there. Everyone agreed that they had a beauty of their own. And some of them went to become actors and models.
Dom himself was invited to join the actor pool, but he had instead decided to become one of the stagehands, what led him to become the director of the said group.
"Dom-senpai..." Legoshi said, and the peafowl turned to look at him. For a long moment, he and Legoshi looked at each other.
Legoshi never noticed how dark Dom's eyes were. They were completely black, and he had such long eyelashes. And his beak looked so...
"Yes, Legoshi?" Dom asked, making the wolf snap at it, and he then remembered what it was that he wanted to talk to Dom. He told him about how he had a certain idea regarding the use of the lighting in a certain scene of the play, and how he thought it would make it look better in the end.
Dom listened to this, and he nodded at the wolf.
"Sounds like an interesting idea." Dom said to him, "It does sound like it would make the scene more interesting. But, you better run it with Louis first. You know that he needs to be consulted about anything that has to do with the play and what will happen in scene."
"Yes, I will." Legoshi said, "And, Dom-senpai, I..." Legoshi said, as he tried to reach out for Dom. The peafowl immediately shied away.
"I have to deal with some other things." Dom said, turning from the wolf. "Kibi, we need to finish those cloths, could you help me out? Kai, you too, we need to finish tying those."
The members of the stagehands looked at Dom as he gave them instructions, and some of them shared looks among themselves.
And, in the middle of them all, was Legoshi, who saw the way that Dom practically pulled himself away from him as the wolf tried to reach out for him.
The same way he did back on the stairs.
And it was all because of Legoshi having tackled Dom and nearly devoured him.
Legoshi still felt awful about it and having Dom act like that around him only reminded him of what he did, and that made the wolf feel even worse.
Legoshi just lowered his head and told Dom that he was going to go see Louis-senpai to discuss his idea with him, and he walked away with his tail slightly tucked between his legs.
All the while the other stagehands looked in between the two of them, the unusually cold and formal peafowl and the wolf who was more withdrawn than normal. And they asked themselves what the heck was going on.
Legoshi, on his end, went inside of the lead actor's office after knocking the door twice and receiving no answer. He found Louis sitting on the ground in front of his own desk, where the skull-mask of Adler sat.
The deer was not very happy with the wolf walking in and was soon admonishing him as he scooped something off the floor and placed it in a rush inside his jacket, as if he didn't want Legoshi to see it.
The wolf apologized, and Louis was soon asking what it was that Legoshi wanted from him, and the wolf was soon explaining his idea to him, and how he thought that could make the final scenes more interesting for the day of the play.
Louis was, however, not paying too much of a close attention to what the wolf was saying. He was too busy seeing how he moved and how he was acting, and he was getting angry at it.
Had Legoshi noticed the signs of growing anger on Louis' features, he would have been very weary. However, he only noticed them when Louis confronted him about saying how big his claws were.
Those were the same claws that caused a wound on Dom's arm.
The claws that always grew back literally overnight every time he trimmed them, no matter how many times he did.
From there, things escalated with such a speed that it honestly made Legoshi dizzy.
On the next moment, Louis was pressing him against the wall with a hand on his chest, and demanding Legoshi to show him his fangs. When Legoshi said no, Louis forced his hand inside Legoshi's mouth, much to the shock of the wolf.
"I am not just a weak herbivore!" Louis demanded of him, fire burning on his eyes, "I am not! Now stop holding back and show me your true self, carnivore!"
His true self...
The self that attacked Dom.
The self that held him down while drooling at the thought of eating the herbivore he now had on his clutches.
The self that nearly devoured his own senpai.
"Legoshi... what are you doing?"
That voice was still so clear on his mind, as well as the thing he nearly did to the owner of the voice, who looked back at him with his confused, scared dark eyes.
Legoshi reacted before he even knew what he was doing.
His hands roughly made contact with Louis' chest, throwing the herbivore back a few feet and causing him to land heavily in the ground.
For a long moment, both wolf and deer were stunned, as they only looked at each other. Legoshi, slowly realizing what he had done, wanted to apologize. However, he instead only said:
"There is no value for carnivores to show their strength." He said to the deer.
Those words sounded true coming from him, as he could not stop thinking on how his strength nearly claimed the life of one of his own club mates. Of one of his senpais. And yet, those words nearly felt like they were being said by someone else. As if someone was using his mouth to speak. However, the wolf seemed not to mind, he only looked down at Louis.
The one who was an herbivore, just like Dom.
"Your strength... is much more valuable than mine." Legoshi said, "The whole school is going to come to see it. This alone should be a proof of how much more valued is for an herbivore to have strength than a carnivore. Show to them how strong you are, Louis-senpai."
With that said, Legoshi made his way out of the room, leaving Louis, still on the ground, looking at him with a surprised expression.
Legoshi was nearly a zombie as he walked out of the office, and made his way back to where Dom and the others were.
Considering the time, the others had probably made their way back to their dorms by now. The curfew was still in effect since Tem's death.
However, as Legoshi would find out, Dom was still there, as he had to stay to do a few finishing touches to the main gate.
And he was not alone.
"P-please..." Dom said, as he pressed his back against a wall. He was desperately looking for a way out. Desperately trying to figure out a way to escape from the lion standing before him.
"You still dare show your face around, you fucking faggot?" The lion said, as he glared at Dom with murderous hatred.
"Guess I need to make it clearer to you that you don't belong in here." He said, and he slammed his fist into his one palm. "I'll drill the message into you as hard as I can, to make sure it will get inside your tiny skull and into that birdbrain of yours."
"N-no..." Dom said, shivering like a leaf as the lion continued walking to him, and he closed his eyes as the lion was about to punch him.
However, the lion was the one who received a punch to the face, as a fist came out of nowhere and connected to his face, causing him to stumble back, before he eventually recovered his balance and looked to see that the one who punched him was a wolf.
"Leave him alone!" Legoshi barked at the lion, as both him and the peafowl looked with surprise at the wolf.
"L-Legoshi-kun..." Dom said, as the wolf now put himself in between him and the lion.
"I'll not allow you to lay a finger on him!" The wolf said, and the lion looked at him, growling as he clenched both his fists.
"Kali!" Said someone, as two familiar felines, a leopard and a cheetah, made their way into the scene. "Kali, we were looking for you! You stormed out of karate club after..."
The cheetah's words stopped as he looked at the two animals he was glaring at, and he then recognized one of the two.
"You..." He said as he looked at the peafowl, who looked scared out of his mind as he hid behind the wolf, who was growling at the lion.
Understanding what was going on, the two felines were now steering the bigger lion away from the scene, urging him to come with them back to their room before a teacher would come and ask what was going on, what would lead to all of them getting into trouble.
The lion eventually went with them, but not before glaring at the two and saying ominous words:
"This ain't over."
After the lion left with his two friends, Legoshi turned to Dom, asking him if he was okay.
Dom shied away from Legoshi's touch as the wolf tried to touch him. Upon seeing the look on Legoshi's face as he did, Dom then spoke:
"I... I am fine." He said, and he just stood in there. "Thank you, Legoshi-kun."
Legoshi looked at him, and said a "you're welcome, senpai", as they both just stood in there, with the light of the sunset shinning on the two of them.
Legoshi looked at Dom for a while, seeing how the light shone on his feathers, with their dazzling shade of blue.
Legoshi could not believe how he never noticed how pretty Dom's blue feathers were.
He would still be thinking of it that night, when the two of them went back to their respective dorms.
