I’ve always liked winter more than any other season. I think it’s a bit more romantic than the others. The snow, the fireplaces, cuddling to keep warm. Others would like to say that spring is the time for romance, but I’d have to disagree. Those people have just never experienced love during the cold season. While a dorm near the mountains of Maryland may not seem like the most romantic setting, especially with the lack of snow, it definitely can be. I guess I’ll tell you about it. It’s a good story. It has it’s share of romantic issues: Arguments and make-ups, with a dash of violence and a tiny bit of deception. But I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

So there we were on the bed. I was on my back with no shirt, my arms over my head, and he was straddled on top of me. He leaned over until his muzzle was almost touching mine, and the door to the room swung open. I panicked and shoved him off of me, leaping to the other side of the bed. I didn’t want anyone else to know my secret just yet. The person in my doorway was my good friend Dist. He wore a shocked expression on his face.

"Um… Cecil, W- what are you two doing?" He stuttered. I wasn’t sure how to answer his question. Instead, my eyes started to trail slowly around the room. That was when he chimed in; the one who had been on top of me only moments ago. The only one who knew my secret. Altec. The panther that I had met a little while ago. He was tall, strong, and had the most interesting haircut I’ve seen in a while: short in the back, long in the front, and it was blonde. Scratch that. It was practically white.

"We were wrestling." He said, leaping at me and putting me into a half-nelson hold on the bed. His well built body easily held my lithe frame in place. "You surprised me when you came in so suddenly, and he got out of my pin." He squeezed his arm around my neck a little. I tapped the bed twice.

"Alright, alright. You win. Now… uhn… let go, damn it!" He did and I fell off the bed. I stood up, and that was when I saw Dist’s video camera. And the little red light that was flashing on it. My eyes widened and my throat became dry. I could feel my heart rate increase by at least 20 beats. "Dist, uh…" My voice was cracking, "What’s… with the video camera?"

Dist held it up to his eye, getting a perfect headshot of me. "It’s for an assignment. Mr. Lansing wants us to go around, scare our fellow furs, and get it on tape."

I chuckled nervously, "Sounds, like s-some contest for America’s Funniest Home Videos… Are you gonna… use this footage…?"

Dist just laughed. "No way," He said, "You guys didn’t scream or anything." My body relaxed at his words, but my heart was still racing. Dist turned his camera off. "Alright, I’ll see you guys later. The battery is almost dead and I’m out of film on this tape." He chuckled, waved and left. I watched his cougar tail trail behind him as he walked away. I walked up to the door of my dorm room and slowly closed it. I turned around and headed towards the bathroom. Altec came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my chest. He was stronger than a normal panther.

He leaned down to my ear. "Don’t you want to continue what we started?" He whispered in a sexy baritone. I shook my head. I didn’t want to do anything right now. I needed to be alone for a little to calm down. He turned me around, "Come on." He said, leaning in to try and kiss me. I put my paw on his chest, keeping us an arms length apart.

"I lost the feeling." I told him. He frowned. "I came this close to being found out," I said quietly, putting two of my fingers about an inch apart, "You know I’m not ready to come out yet. I just need some time to myself to calm down…"

With that, Altec let go of me, stared me in the eye for about a minute, and left the room without saying a word. Of course, I did nothing to stop him. I spent the next half hour sitting in the shower, letting the hot water roll down my body and soak my orange fur. I turned the water off and dried myself. I stopped in front of the mirror as I left the bathroom. A short fox stared back at me. His hair was brown and hung past his shoulders. He wore glasses that hid his haunting green eyes. He had the famous "fox gloves" on his arms and legs. He was just an ordinary red fox, skinny with a lithe athletic build. I stopped staring at my reflection and plopped down onto my bed with just a towel on. I was surprised that Altec would even acknowledge someone like me. He seemed out of my league. I don’t know, I’ve never considered myself attractive…But Altec thought so apparently. Maybe a lot of other people did too…

He had made me a little angry though. The way that he just walked out without even trying to reassure me. Asshole… I sat up and tied my hair back into my signature ponytail, letting the bangs fall to the sides of my face. The shower had calmed my nerves, but now I needed to relive my stress. I turned on my Wii console and started to play Guilty Gear. I had been playing with Altec before we started to "wrestle" on the bed. 17 wins and 3 losses. Altec was no match for my skills with the one-armed samurai: Baiken. After losing to the final boss for the hundredth time, I gave up and looked over at my clock. It was 9:30 P.M. Time for dinner. I threw on a pair of loose jeans and a white t-shirt and headed out to the snack machine that resided at the end of the hallway.

I spent two dollars on junk food. Doritos and white cheddar popcorn was all that I wanted. I looked out the window of the hallway. From two stories up, I could see Altec smoking in the parking lot. I kind of wanted to talk to him. But I was still a little mad. So I just turned and headed back to my dorm with my snacks in hand. I was almost at my door when I felt arms around my head. One on top, and one under my jaw. I knew exactly who it was. This was Dist’s way of greeting me: pretending to snap my neck from behind. It was a thing we did. A strange thing. His paws made the motion, and I fell halfway to the floor like always. I stood back up and delivered a soft punch to his shoulder. "Nice to see you too, man." I said.

"Hey." He replied, eying my snacks. "Dinner?" he asked pointing to them. I held them up to my face. "Yeah, I guess." I said. He laughed and put his paw on my shoulder. "Sorry about earlier." He said, "I didn’t mean to interrupt you guys." My heart started running a marathon again. "Uh… What are you talking about? We were just-"

"Wrestling, right?" He said, cutting me off. "You don’t have to lie. I was kind of able to put the pieces together."

"…Oh." I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

Dist saw the look of concern on my face. "I don‘t care, man. Really, I don‘t. And you don’t need worry about the tape either. Once I get the footage that I need off it, I’ll toss it in the trash."

"I’d prefer if you lit it on fire and then scattered the ashes off the roof of the school."

He laughed. "Alright. I guess I could do that instead." He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and fiddled through it, counting the money. "How about I take ya’ out for pizza? It’s gotta be better than Doritos and popcorn."

I thought it over for a second. "Okay," I told him, "But I want stuffed crust."

He laughed again. "Sure thing."

**********

When we arrived at the Pizza Hut, it was crowded. Dist had to maneuver his car around the parking lot at least three times before we finally managed to find a space. We got inside to realize that it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. The line was rather short and it seemed that most of the furs in the restaurant were finishing up their meals. After waiting in line for about five minutes, we ordered a large stuffed crust pizza with extra pepperoni and two drinks. We were staring at the news that was being broadcast on all the televisions when our order got called. They were saying something about a potential snow storm this week. I didn’t care, the news furs were almost always wrong. It would probably just be a shit load of rain…

We picked up the food and drinks, found an empty booth near the back of the restaurant, and sat down. While we ate, we discussed… me. I told him that I found out a few weeks ago. I told him about how I meet Altec when I bumped into him in the hallway during a class change. I told him how Altec said that I was the cutest fox he’d ever seen, how Altec sucked at Guilty Gear, how Altec kissed me whenever he left, and how Altec just walked out tonight without saying anything. Okay, maybe we didn’t talk about me as much as I thought.

Dist listened to every word that I said, nodding occasionally. "Sounds to me like you had you first fight." He said, sinking his teeth into his fourth piece. I picked up my third and placed it on my plate. "Really? I didn’t seem like a fight at all."

Dist chewed a few more times and swallowed. "Trust me," He said, "It was a fight. It wasn’t huge or anything, but it was still a fight." He paused to take a sip of his Coke. "Usually with couples, the smallest things can become fights."

I stared out the window, watching the cars roar by on the highway. "I hope he isn’t to angry with me…" I said after taking a few bites of my slice. Dist gave me a reassuring kick to the shin. "I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s just your first one. If you split up over it, then it wasn’t meant to be." I sighed. "Yeah, I guess you’re right…"

Dist paid the canine waitress and drove us back to the dorm. I noted that Dist was a generous tipper. We parked and headed into the building, taking the stairs to the second floor. Dist had the first room after the stairs. "G’night, Cecil." He said. "Night." I replied. After Dist closed his door, I headed off around the corner. Only to see Altec waiting outside my door. He saw me approach but didn’t move.

I stopped in front of him. "…Hi." I said.

"I was wondering when you’d show up." He replied, "I was waiting out here for a good thirty minutes."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I went out to get pizza with Dist. We were…" I paused. Didn’t he just say that he had been waiting for a half hour? "Um… You were out here for thirty minutes?" I asked him.

"Yeah." he said. "I felt bad about just walking out earlier. I wanted to apologize." He grabbed me around my waist and pulled me right up to his chest. When we were this close, I felt shorter than normal. Altec was a good foot taller than me. He leaned down and planted a kiss right on my lips. It was only a few seconds later, to my disappointment, that he pulled back. "Well," he said in the same sexy baritone that he used earlier, "Do you accept my apology?"

I realized that I was right in plain view. I realized that anyone who happened to leave their room would see me. But right now, I just didn’t care. I got up on my tippy toes and returned his kiss. "Yes." I said, "I accept your apology." After the kiss, I told him "Good night" and started to head into my room. He stopped me.

"Can’t I come in for a little?" He asked me, wearing a sly grin on his face. "I figured we could ‘wrestle’ some more." I frowned. "Altec…" I said, "Just because I accept your apology, doesn’t mean that I’m automatically ready for anything really intimate…"

"Alright. I understand." He said. "I’ll… see you in the morning." He hugged me and left. I watched as he walked away again. His tail was enticing. The way that it swayed when he stepped. After he turned the corner, I went into my room, undressed, and tried to go to sleep. But I couldn’t. I kept thinking about Altec. Was all he wanted from our relationship sex? It kind of seemed that way. And the way he talked to me just now; it seemed like the kindness had left his voice. It wasn’t until twelve o’clock that I really started to get sleepy. Good thing all my classes were in the afternoon tomorrow.

**********

My alarm woke me up at 10:50 am. I turned it off and got out of bed. I quickly dressed myself in a green t-shirt that said "Wingman" on it, and the same pair of pants that I wore yesterday. I had forgotten to do laundry so I was short on jeans. I fixed my hair into a ponytail, brushed my teeth, grabbed my wallet and was out the door at 11:00. I headed down to the cafeteria for lunch. I didn’t want to go to class on an empty stomach. I bought a chicken sandwich, some milk, and french fries. I sat down at a table near the back of the lunchroom, away from all the other furs, and had started eating when I saw Altec come in. I waved him over. He waved back but pointed to the lunch line; signaling that he was going to get some food first. Five minutes later, were eating together. Or at least, he was eating. I had finished already.

"Do you have any classes today?" I asked him.

He shook his head and swallowed the piece of cheese pizza that he had been eating. "Nope, none today." He said. After that, it was kind of an awkward silence. I started to fiddle with my thumbs and stare out the window. Altec tapped my hand and I looked back at him. He had finished his lunch. The tray was pushed to the side and had some trash on it.

"Are we ever going to do anything ‘physical’ together in this relationship." He asked me.

"What?" I said. Had he really just asked me that. "Eventually, yes. But I’ve told you already, I don’t think that I am mentally ready for anything intimate."

"…Right." He said with a sigh. I think that my lack of willingness was starting to annoy him.

Another moment of awkward silence fell upon our table. A few other furs passed us, too caught up in their ideal chit chat to pay us any attention at all. This time, I broke the silence. I needed to ask him.

"Altec." I said.

He returned his eyes to mine. "What?"

"Um… Are you mad at me…?" I asked him quietly.

"No." He sighed, "I understand that you aren’t ready yet. I’ll wait until you are."

"…Thank you Altec."

"No problem."

His words made me feel better. It took him long enough, but he finally realized that he’ll have to wait for me. And he seemed okay with that. But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that resided in the back of my mind. The feeling that maybe he was just giving me lip service.

I glanced up at the clock. It was 11:45 am. I mentally kicked myself. Class started in fifteen minutes and I hadn’t brought any of my supplies down with me. Looks like I’d be cutting my lunch with Altec shorter than expected. I grabbed my tray and stood up.

"Hey Altec. I’ve gotta run back to my room. I left all my stuff for class up there." I said, chuckling to myself. He nodded to me. I started to leave when he said my name.

"What?" I asked him.

His eyes trailed off to the side a little. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the arcade after your classes are finished. Figured we could do a little DDR."

I stared at him for a few seconds. We’ve never been to an arcade for a date before. Usually, it was some action movie or a restaurant. "Sounds great." I said. "I challenge you to a battle of ’B4U’ on Heavy!"

He laughed a bit. "Your on."

And with that, I took off out of the lunch room, dumping my trash into one of the trash cans. Before I went out the door, I turned around. Altec was looking right at me. I guess he was watching me the whole time that I was weaving in and out of the crowd. He gave me a wink and a wave before turning away to talk to his friend who had approached the table. I felt a slight blush creep up my face and I hurried out the door.

No sooner than I got to the second floor of my dorm, that I ran into Dist. He was worried, I could tell. We had been friends since our freshman year in high school, and he always curled the tip of his tail when he was worried. Right now, it was practically tied into a knot.

"Hey man. What’s wrong?" I asked him.

"Oh, hey Cecil." He paused and took in a deep breath. "Did you take my tape?"

"Tape?"

"Yeah. You know, the one with the footage of you and Altec. I need to take off the other stuff for my project and I can’t find it."

I could feel my heart rate increase inside my chest again. This can’t be good for my health. "W-what do you mean you can’t find it?" I asked nervously.

"I mean it exactly the way it sounds." He said, " I. Can’t. Find. It."

"Did you-"

"Yes! I looked everywhere in my room. In the closet! Under the bed! In the dresser! Even in the bathroom cabinet!" He put his paws on my shoulders, "Dude, I can’t find it anywhere!"

We stared at each other for almost a full minute.

"Do you… think that someone took it?" I asked.

Dist pondered the question, "No I don’t think so. My room is always locked if I‘m not there." He tilted his head. "Unless I forgot to lock it, the only way to get in would be to pick the lock."

"Do you know anyone who can do that?"

"No… Do you know anyone?"

"No."

We both fell silent again, our brains trying to rack up an answer. I glanced at the clock on the wall, and had a miniature panic attack when I realized that I only had five minutes to get to class.

"Dist, you need to check your room one more time. I need to get to class." I said and took off down the hallway. I could hear Dist shouting: "Okay!" as I turned the corner. I reached my room and pulled out my keys, jamming the dorm key into the lock. I have never unlocked my door so quickly. I grabbed the necessary supplies for my next few classes and took off down the hallway, after locking my room back up, and managed to get to my class a few seconds before the bell.

The teacher walked in and almost immediately began a lecture that would probably last the entire class. I should have been taking notes, but I found myself doodling on a sheet of computer paper instead. I glanced up at the clock after I had the figure sketched out. It read 12:30. I sighed, it was going to be a long day…

**********

It was almost five ‘O clock when I was finished with all my classes. I flipped open my cell phone as I headed back to my dorm room and sent Altec a text message that read: "Hey, my classes r out. Wen r we going 2 te arcade?" I got too my room, unlocked the door, and went inside. I tossed my books on my bed and put the sketch that I had been drawing on my desk. My cell phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I opened it and read Altec’s reply.

"Wenevr ur ready. dont forget 2 bring money and meet me @ my car."

I closed my phone and grabbed my wallet, putting it in my back pocket. I thought that he was going to treat me, but I guess not. I put on a light jacket and left my room, heading towards the parking lot next to my building where Altec usually had his car parked. I found him leaning up against the running machine, smoking a cigarette. He was wearing dark blue pants with two belts hanging off the waist. He covered his torso with a white undershirt and a brown jacket that had a lot of pockets.

"Altec," I said, walking up to him, "I thought you said that you were trying to quit."

He took one last puff of the cigarette, tossed it to the ground, and squished it with his foot. "I am," He replied, "That was the first one that I’ve had all day." He opened the drivers side door and stepped into the car, motioning for me to get in as well. So I hopped in. It was a pretty decent car. Okay, I lied. It’s an old Chevy. At least it has leather interior and a CD player. He had recently gotten it repainted to fix the fading red color. There was an air freshener and a pair of fuzzy purple dice hanging from the rear view mirror. I was glad that Altec had started the car before I got there. It was only about 30 degrees outside, and his car takes a long time to heat up.

Altec released the parking brake, put the Chevy into drive, and pulled out of the space.

"Hey, mind if I put on Sonata Arctica?" I asked him.

"Sure go ahead. Put on their "Unia" album."

I began to dig through the CD collection in his car until I found the right one. I placed it into the CD player and let the "metal that didn’t sound like metal" flow into my ears. We drove the whole way to the arcade in silence, just enjoying the music. Of course, we were right in the middle of my favorite song when we arrived. I sighed as Altec cut the car off, ending the song during the solo. He chucked.

"It’ll pick up right where it left off when we come back."

"I know, I know." I said, getting out of the car. I looked up at the huge building that we arrived at. Our arcade was inside the Mall. Altec stepped out of the car as well, gave me a thumbs up and a "Lets go!" I smiled back and we headed into the collection of stores that was the Mall.

I’ve never been to the Mall before, at least not with Altec. So I was really excited, and resisting the urge to jump around like an idiot. I was saving that for DDR. The arcade was on the second floor of the Mall, so we had to take an escalator up one level. We passed the food court too. I was already mentally taking note of what was there to eat. I had my eye on the Panda Express over in the corner. Finally, we came to the arcade. They had a sign that read: "Pocket Change" hanging over the entrance. We walked in, me before Altec, and started browsing the games. The DDR machine had a whole group of furs around it, like usual. The Pump It Up machine directly across from it had no furs, like usual. Both Altec and I got five dollars each worth of change and stuffed the quarters into our pockets. But Altec took one of his and colored over it with a sharpie he had. That way, we could tell which quarter was ours in the quarter line at the DDR machine. There was a good ten quarters ahead of ours, so we went to go and play some other games.

The Capcom Vs Marvel 2 machine had a few furs on it, but I managed to get a game in against a German Shepard who looked a little bit older than me. I kicked his ass too. But then this Husky came up and wiped the floor with me. I barely took out his first fighter. We shook hands and I let the next challenger at the controls, then I decided to go and check on our quarter. There were still four ahead of it. I shrugged to myself and joined Altec on the House of the Dead 2 game. We wasted a good number of our quarters before a fur tapped Altec on the shoulder, telling him it was our turn. So we left the game and took our places on the DDR pads. We both set it to Heavy.

Altec turned to look at me as I browsed through the song list. "So which song are we doing first?" He asked.

I flipped through the song list for a bit more before I stopped on "Butterfly."

"How about this one?" I said.

Altec listened to the music for a few seconds before he nodded and gave me a thumbs up. I selected the song and got myself into position. The techno music started and the steps began to scroll up the screen. It was a fast beat. I had to block out everything except the arrows and the music. The lights from the machine were blinding. Altec’s hand bumped into mine. I hoped that he wasn’t losing his balance. About a minute later, the song ended and our scores began to roll on the screen. Altec’s came up as a "C". He sighed. I guess that he thought he did a little better than that. Mine continued to roll for a bit until it stopped on "A". I could feel my face light up. A few furs clapped or cheered and Altec gave me a congratulatory elbow on my shoulder.

Altec decided to pick the next song. He went through the list a bit and stopped on "Kick the Can". He glanced over at me and I gave him a look that said "Go for it". He selected the song and the lights flared up again as the music started. It was a fun song. The rhythm of the steps had us moving all over the pad. The song ended and our scores started to roll. Altec’s stopped on "A" and he thrust his arm forward in celebration.

"I just needed to warm up, is all." He said to me while he got a few claps and cheers.

I smiled. "Yeah, I thought you were better than a ‘C’" I said to him before I turned my attention back to my own score. The rolling slowed and it landed on "D". I frowned. I thought that I had done much better than that. But then the score shot up to "A". I let out a sigh of relief and got a few cheers.

"I was scared there for a second." I said to Altec.

"Looks like we’re tied on this, huh?" He replied, laughing. I just shrugged. The song selector came back and I went straight to "B4U". I looked to Altec as I selected the song.

"It’s the final showdown." I said with a grin.

"Keep on your toes Cecil." He replied, "I just might surprise you."

The lights began to flash and the music started to blare through the speakers on the sides of the machine. We gave each other one last look as the first steps appeared on the screen. The lights flashed to the beat of the song and we moved in sync with the arrows. I almost lost my balance a few times. The song ended shortly after it started. Both of us were panting slightly. The scores began to roll on the screen again. Altec’s stopped on "D" before it shot up to "A". He looked over at me.

"Heh, beat that." He said with a smirk.

I playfully stuck my tongue out at him and returned my attention back the to screen. The score stopped on "AA" and my eyes went wide. I glanced at the statistics. There was a big fat zero next to the "missed steps" section. I let out a shout and got quite a lot of claps, cheers, and even a few whistles. I was freaking out. That was the first time that I ever got a perfect combo on this song! And it was on my date with Altec! I felt Altec pat me on my shoulder, and he started to say "Congratulations", but he got cut off by my lips locking onto his.

I was completely lost in my own glow of self accomplishment that I had just hopped onto him and started making out. I had no idea how long I had been kissing him, but when I finally came up for air, I saw many furry faces with strange looks of disgust and or dissatisfaction on them. And every single pair of eyes were on us. Or more specifically, me. I had no idea what to do. I glanced up at Altec and saw that even he had been surprised by my little outburst of guy-on-guy-public-make-out 101. That’s when my instincts took over…

And I ran.

I pushed past the small crowd, leaving Altec behind, and rushed out of the arcade. I dodged past fur after fur. Weaved through the concession stands.

I kept running, almost tripping over my own feet.

I finally came to a stop at the end of the food court, by the restrooms. I caught my breath next to one of the columns that reached all the way up to the ceiling.

I bit my bottom lip and punched the column. It hurt, but I didn’t care. I needed to go somewhere. Anywhere but here. I wanted to become one with the column I was leaning up against and just stay that way forever. I glanced upwards. I could see the stars through the sky lights above the food court. That’s where I wanted to go. I wanted to go to the roof and just stare at the night sky. It would calm me down. It would be peaceful. It would be pretty. And no one would find me up there. I stepped away from the pillar, still watching the stars.

Insert "second big mistake of the day" here.

I ran into someone. There was a "clack", a "ker-splush", and a "smish". I looked down. There was a tray on the floor. Along with a Styrofoam cup in a puddle of what looked like Coke-A-Cola, and a Sloppy Joe sandwich. My eyes trailed upward. There was a very pissed off looking bear with Coke-A-Cola and Sloppy Joe on his shirt in front of me.

"You little piece of shit," He said in a very angry tone, "You’d better fuckin’ run. Now."

Wow, my thoughts exactly.

I started to back away, but he just grabbed my shoulder with an iron grip and dragged me into the men’s restroom. Which just happened to be empty by the way. How fucking convenient was that? For him I mean. He didn’t even say anything. He just pulled his fist back and thrust it forward into my torso. It knocked the wind out of me and I fell to my knees clutching my stomach and gasping for air. I think I started to drool a little bit. I could feel a tear start to well up in my eye too.

"Hey"

I looked up to see that the bottom of his foot was right in my face. He thrust it forward violently and sent me skidding backwards onto my side. A new pain, my nose this time. A paw left my stomach to cover my muzzle. Was I bleeding? I don’t think so… I sure hope not. Bloodstains are a bitch to get out of fur. I tried to get up, but he just pushed me back down with his foot. Before I could try to get up again, he had straddled my stomach.

"Bitch," He said, leaning over a bit, "This is a brand-fucking-new shirt that you just ruined. How do you intend to fucking pay me back for it?"

"I don’t know," I said," Maybe if you got the fuck off of me, we could work something out!"

And yet another mistake to add to my list for the day. Not many people know this about me, but I don‘t get scared when someone hurts me or threatens me, I get angry. And when I get angry, I tend to backtalk. And when I backtalk, I tend to get hurt. So yeah, great move there Cecil.

Mr. Pissed-off-as-hell raised his right arm up, his paw forming a gigantic fist. He brought it down with no mercy, hitting me square in the jaw. My head jerked to the side and I tasted blood.

"How much fucking money you got on you?" I heard him say.

"Less than five fucking dollars."

This time, it was a backhand from his left paw. More pain, but I couldn’t tell if there was more blood.

"Don’t give me any fuckin’ lip." He growled, "How the fuck are you gonna pay me back!?"

"Keep hittin’ me shithead, and I’m not gonna give you one fucking cent!"

He didn’t say anything after that, just stared me in the eye. I thought that he might have taken what I said seriously. But that hope slowly started to fade when he began to reach behind him. He pulled out a handle, and when he made the blade shoot out, all hope was lost. The fucker had a knife! How’d he get that through the security?! He flipped it in his paw so that it was in a perfect stabbing position. I could feel another tear forming. Was I gonna die? Fuck! No fucking way! I started to struggle. Not like this, not on the floor of a public restroom! I’ve got to many things I wanna do! What about Altec? I felt the bear wrap his paw around my neck. So I took my one and only chance…

I punched him right in his goddamned fucking balls. The only area of him that was within my reach that would actually do some damage. I hit him really hard too. He dropped the knife and started to keel over, clutching his groin. I took the opportunity to shove him off of me and got up unnaturally quick. He started to reach for the knife again, but I kicked it away.

"Not today fucker…" I mumbled to him and left the restroom. I think I heard him shout "Fuck you", but I wasn’t paying attention, my face hurt like shit. There was a raccoon security guard standing around near the entrance to the restrooms. I tapped her on the shoulder and she gasped when she saw me.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!" She exclaimed!

"Yeah, I know." I said rather sarcastically, "I got attacked in the bathroom. The guy’s still in there."

She started to head off towards the restroom, but I stopped her.

"Be careful, he had a knife with him too." I told her.

She nodded and placed her hand on her gun and slowly started moving to the men’s restroom door. That was when I felt furry arms wrap around my body.

"There you are!" I heard. It was Altec’s voice. "I was worried when you ran off. Are you okay?" He finished, turning me around in his arms and gasping as he saw blood running from my mouth. "Holy shit! What the hell happened to you?"

"I almost got mugged at knife point in the bathroom." I said pointing to where the security guard was slowly pushing the restroom door open. "I took the fucker down, so she’s gonna try and make an arrest or somethin’."

"What! You got mug-" Altec was cut off by a high pitched scream that silenced the entire food court. We both looked to see that the security guard had fallen with a knife sticking out of her leg. I’m guessing that bear wasn’t through with me yet, because he was lunging right in our direction. He was screaming something or other with his fists in the air. I jumped to my left, and Altec to my right. The bear ran straight past both of us and skidded to a halt. He swung himself around to face me. I glanced around. Furs where screaming and running everywhere. A few of the teenage ones where forming in groups around us to watch. The security guard that had gone down was on her walkie-talkie. Calling for backup I hoped.

The bear began his screaming, arm-flailing run at me again. There was something strange about him. Why would he react so violently over a dirty t-shirt? Maybe he was just one of those furs that had to act super tough everywhere they went? Or maybe he was just high on something. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was stopping him. And right now, I was the only one who could do it. Altec was too far away to reach him before he reached me. And no other guards had shown up yet.

I started dashing towards him. Altec didn’t know that I had a plan, so he was freaking out, yelling at me to get the hell outta there. I stayed low to the ground. So low, that it was actually uncomfortable to run. I wondered if I looked like a ninja. The bear was almost on top of me, so I stopped hard with my left footpaw, brought my arms forward too his stomach, and raised myself up. With the help of his own momentum, I flipped him over my shoulder. Football style. I heard a loud thud behind me. I stumbled forward a bit and turned around. The bear lay there, groaning a bit.

He started to turn over. His eyes met mine and all I saw was rage and hatred. I felt Altec put his paw on my shoulder. I looked up at him. He was pissed. His eyes looked just like the bears. The bear started to rise up, but the backup that the raccoon called arrived just in time to force him back down. They searched him. They found drugs on him, but wouldn’t tell us which. They questioned the raccoon guard. They questioned me and Altec. And you know what? Altec didn’t let go of me the whole time. He kept me right up against his chest. So close that I could feel his heartbeat.

It made me happy.

**********

It was a few days after the whole mall incident. Much to Altec’s objections, I didn’t press any charges on the bear. I figured since he was getting charged for the drugs, there was no reason to add to his time in jail. Besides, I didn’t want to go through all the legal stuff.

Anyway, we were sitting on the roof of our dorm, watching the sunset. We were up against the fence and I had my head against his chest. We definitely got closer after that whole mess. We didn’t have to hide our affection for each other anymore either. Dist found out what happened to his video tape. Apparently, one of the kids in his class didn’t do their project for Mr. Lansing. So they picked the lock of Dist’s dorm room and stole the tape. While he was getting the footage off of it, he saw the brief shot of me and Altec. So this guy, being a grade "A" jackass, went and told everybody. Now the entire campus is aware of the relationship between Altec and me. But I guess that I should thank him because it’s made things a lot easier. A lot nicer too. But we still get the occasional glare from disapproving furs. That’s why I have a new motto: "We’re here, we’re queer, so get the fuck out of our way!"

The sun was beginning to disappear behind all the trees. It was absolutely beautiful. The temperature had gone up a bit and a cool breeze was gently blowing through our fur. It was so peaceful, and I don’t know why I said what I said, but it just seemed like he had a right to know.

"Altec?"

"Hmm?" He said, looking down at me.

"I…I used to… not trust you." I said quietly.

"Really?" He said, not sounding surprised, "How come?"

"I don’t know… Sometimes, it just felt like you were only trying to get me in bed… or something…"

His face suddenly became serious, making me regret bringing this up. I felt like I just ruined a perfect moment. My eyes started to drift away from his.

"Cecil." He said.

My eyes slowly moved back to his. I didn’t respond though.

"I have… a confession."

I stared blankly at him.

"You’re right."

My eyes widened.

"That’s how it was at first…" He said, turning his head away, "I only wanted your body."

I sat up after that last comment and opened my mouth to say something, but he swung his head around and locked lips with me. I shoved him away in a slight panic.

"So that’s it?" I said, the anger in my voice obvious, "You’re only after my ass!?"

"No, Cecil. Please don’t get the wrong idea!" He said placing both his paws on my shoulders, "It’s not like that anymore! I’ve really fallen for you!"

I sat there speechless.

"I admit, yes, I was only after your ass in the beginning. But every time I saw you, I began to get more and more attached. I wanted to be with you and protect you. I felt horrible after the whole thing at the mall! I wanted to be there to save you, but I was too late, and you had to do it yourself!"

"…Altec…"

"I know, you don’t want someone to protect you. It’s part of your personality. You don’t want to depend on others all the time. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying to protect you. You’re my boyfriend Cecil."

After that, he looked at me with the most sincere eyes I’ve ever seen.

"Cecil," He said quietly, "I wasn’t lying though, when I said that you were the cutest fox I had ever seen."

After that, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I leapt forward and hugged him. He returned my embrace with all of his might, and we stayed like that for a bit. Another cool breeze ruffled our fur and Altec kissed me on the forehead.

"Altec." I said, looking up at him.

"Yeah."

"… I’m ready."

**********

END…