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"Good 'ol Days"

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The leaves had fallen as Autumn had rolled around. The season bringing a nice, warm breeze into Avery's little ears. His mother had taken him to the public park to play in the playscape, making sure to keep an eye on him. He wandered through the tubing of the large structure, coming into a small dome area where three other boys were hanging out. They looked to be his age, if not a year or two older.

Hesitant, he stepped into the dome area. "Uh.. Hello. My name is Avery." All their eyes were drawn to him--that of a black cat, a hare, and a golden retriever--making him blush a bit in embarrassment. "What's your names?"

They just stared at him, a bit surprised before the black cat introduced himself, almost huffing with self confidence. "I'm Kevin", he points to the others. "That's Mark, and that's Sean." They both waved at their introductions. "It's nice t'meetcha." He held his hand out to shake, causing Avery to stare at it and awkwardly shake his hand, having almost turned it into a weird high-five before doing a quick save. "You wanna sit with us? Mark and Sean are playing Pokemon and I got Mario if you wanna watch."

Avery spent about an hour with the boys, going back and forth and being simply mesmerized by how the games worked, the retriever even letting Avery play his gameboy to teach him how to play the game. Before anyone knew it, it was almost dark, the sun almost setting on the horizon.

"Avery! It's time to go!" His mother walked up to one of the playscape slides, Avery giving his fair wells to the boys and going down it, being thrown into his mother's arms and spun around, giggling as his mother brought him in close. "Did you have fun today, baby?" "Mhmm! I made some friends, too! They had monster games and even let me watch them play!" "Aww. I'm glad you had fun." She looks up at the little dome and smiles before looking back down at the calico. "You feel like some Mac 'n Cheese, little man?"

The boy's eyes lit up and he practically nodded until his neck was tired, his mom laughing as she took him home.

As the weekend ended and the week began, children were going straight to school first thing in the morning. A long "beep" could be heard, signaling the start of class. As the students entered their classrooms, Avery made his way to his class.

The teacher, Mr. Hoff--A somewhat hefty bear--stood at the front of the class and cleared his throat. "Settle down, kids, settle down. Today, we've got someone new joining our class." Signals Avery to walk up to the front of the class. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

Avery looks at all the students and nods. "..H..Hi. My name is Avery Dawson. It's nice to meet you."

Mr. Hoff pats him on the back, letting him go and choose a round table to sit at. Before the calico can decide where to sit, he sees a familiar face--or rather two--Mark and Kevin. He looks at the teacher, pointing at the two. "Can I go sit with them?" "Sure. Go right ahead."

Avery walked over and took his seat, getting a warm greeting from the two. From there, they sat in their chairs until lunch rolled around, and then recess where they'd meet up with Sean. They played together on the slides and even went a little... crazy with the merry-go-round next to the swings.

From there, their friendship blossomed and stayed constant until middle school. Although, Mark and Avery had gotten a little closer to each other than the others, but that wasn't much of a dampener on the group. Eventually, Sean did have to move away, so it was only the three until high school came around.

Hormones raging through them and their voices lowering. Their classes were mostly separate, but they made time during lunch, as they all fell into the same time frame. By now, Avery had gotten his own DSi, battling the others on Pokemon, even using the game to wager over snacks brought from home sometimes.

When Kevin was sick, however, Mark and Avery were a bit.. nervous around each other. More specifically Avery. He hadn't realized it, but he seemed to be.. falling for Mark. Unbeknownst to him, Mark had felt similarly, but just decided to keep to himself. The more they bonded over their games, the more red in the face Avery got when they were alone together at lunch. They both kept their feelings secret until Junior year came around. Their lunches were separate, so they always met up before school and hung out in the stairwells between halls. Occasionally there would be at least one missing person, but they still stayed close.

As conflicts of interests appeared, it was only natural that there were some arguments about certain shows or games. Some fights would end with a laugh, others.. not so much. It was one fight, however, that changed everything.

Prior to this fight, Avery had gotten a bit harder at talking around Mark, irking him just a little, but not too much. Their argument, surprisingly, was over a multiplayer game of Mario 64. Avery was getting mad over how Mark kept using the shortcuts in the slide race and how he--unadmitingly--was more skilled at the game. It slowly devolved into personal insults. Then, it went to Mark expressing his anger about Avery, having been under the impression that he'd been trying to keep a secret from him. In any other situation, Avery would have kept his mouth shut, but it was the heat of the moment when he blurted it out. "It's not my fault I like you!!"

Silence.

"You.. what?" Mark was a bit taken aback, not really knowing what to say or how to say it. Avery, on the other hand, was blushing heavily as the realization had quickly settled in. "N-Nothing! I didn't say anything, just.. stop using those stupid shortcuts!" "...What?" The calico stormed off.

For about a month, it was as if Avery was avoiding him; almost never showing up at the stairwell and not saying a word to him whenever they were there together. Mark was still a bit confused, the words still running through his head. __He.. likes me? Like.. LIKE likes me? Like.. a boyfriend?__

After several days, it finally settled in. After a few weeks, the act of avoiding him finally got to him, causing him to wait in the stairwell alone, knowing Kevin wouldn't be there on that day and anticipating Avery to be there.

Like clockwork, Avery did finally show up, sitting down at the stairwell and avoiding eye contact. Mark sighed and sat next to him, making him scoot away. Getting just a little playful, he scooted closer, causing the same action. They repeated this until Avery was against the wall with Mark almost squishing him, trying not to laugh before remembering what he was going to say. "Er.. Avery.." Just saying his name made him flinch. "About what you said a.. few weeks ago. Were you serious?" He didn't answer, but his face was getting redder by the second. "Cuz.. if you were, I mean--Not that I'm rejecting you, I just.. didn't know you felt that way about me." He smiles. "Kinda flattering, actually." He put a hand on his back. "If it's of any consolation, I like you, too." The calico's practically beet red, still avoiding looking up at him. "Liked you for a long time, actually. Just took me off-guard that you were the one to say it first. Beat me to it, heheh." He gives his back a few rubs, noticing Avery's swaying tail before getting a little idea.

"Tell you what, if you apologize, I'll uh.. buy us some movie tickets for Friday. Three whole days. If not.. I'll just take Kevin. He's been kinda wanting to see Zootopia, and it comes out on Friday, so--" Avery mumbled under his breath, still flushed red from embarrassment.

"What?"

".. 'm sorry.." He mumbled again, but a little more audible.

"I.. didn't quite catch that."

"I said I'm sorry, okay?!" He finally looked Mark in the eye, tears practically welling up in the poor kitty's eyes.

"It's a date then!" Mark said, chuckling as he hugged him, the bell ringing and everyone going to class.

The two became a lot closer in those three days, movie night finally rolling around. It wasn't too bad, for a first date. Although, It would have gone a bit better had a mom not brought her infant child into the theater and had to wait until a fourth of the movie to get kicked out for not getting her kid under control. The two laughed it off and enjoyed the movie, Mark even making the cliche move of yawning and putting an arm around Avery. Their parents picked them both up and took them home. As soon as they got home, they talked on the phone for hours until it was way past their curfew. They of course came back to school tired, but still happy.

They'd kept their relationship secret, eventually moving it to the level of kissing in private, Avery knowing the perfect places where they wouldn't be seen. The only person who knew what was going on was Kevin and, at the time, he was dating one of the cheerleaders.

Graduation had finally come along and the two both had their licenses by then, having them free to do as they pleased. They had date after date after date, their making out becoming more and more heated. It'd be a while before they did anything sexual, but that's a story for another time.

End of Cat and Dog, Vol. 2