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I hope you all enjoy. By all means, please comment; I love feedback. Nick is bisexual, and the story has some homosexual content. Don't read if that bothers you etc. Thanks!

• Xi

All's Fair - Part 12

The icy sidewalk reached up and smacked me in the face, and I yelped and grabbed my nose, then pulled my paw away. No blood - this time.

How hard could it be to learn to skateboard. Right.

A small black hoof entered my vision, shortly followed by a small black nose at the end of Michael's muzzle as he lay down to look at me. "Are you okay?" the young deer asked cheerfully.

I thought about it. "Oog." Michael pulled me to my feet and I dragged my - well, Jake's, really; he'd let me borrow an old one - board back to the top of the slight incline.

"That's why you're supposed to wear a helmet, mutt," Jake told me without a trace of either laughter or sympathy once I was in earshot.

"Oog," I replied moodily. Jake's lips twitched.

"You're twisting your body too far. Just turn your head, not your chest."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Mum." Eyeing my board with distaste, I gamely set it down and put one paw onto it.

I tried keeping my body sideways that time, and was rewarded with a mix of disgruntlement and joy when it seemed to help. Then Jake rolled lazily past me on a two-wheeled wave board, making me stare and sigh in envy as he carved a russet-furred swath down the sidewalk. And, unfortunately, the aforementioned sidewalk took poorly to my inattention and rewarded me with a small bump and then another bruising impact as I keeled over.

Lying on my back, I stared at the lowering clouds and contemplated the merits of walking. It was safer, reliable, didn't take any special equipment, the worst you'd get from staring at someone was a telephone pole to the head once in a while... and it was also terminally slow. Damn.

"Oog," I said to the world at large.

"Ivan, wait, hang on, are you sure I'm ready for thi -" my protests degenerated into a wordless yell as the lion pushed me off the concrete ledge and let me fall into the abyss below.

Much to my surprise, I managed to stay on the board as it fell/rolled to the bottom of the tube and momentum took it halfway up the opposite side, where Ivan's roommate caught my arms while I stumbled off it, then planted his own foot on the wood to keep it from going anywhere. I'd since learned that his name was Caleb, and he looked like he was smothering a smile for politeness' sake. Ivan, on the other hand, suffered from no such handicap. He was laughing so hard he actually had tears in his eyes and grabbed his stomach - while skating an effortless half-circle around us.

"Your face was priceless!" he gasped.

I muttered something uncomplimentary, which made Caleb clench his jaws even harder to suppress his amusement. Then I took my board to the top of the tube and looked down, gulping. But hey, what's life without a little pain? I pushed myself off the edge.

I repeated that mantra to myself as I climbed out the other side, shaking my scraped paw and half-limping as my pants rubbed a similar scrape on my knee. I'd made it clear across the tube, but at the top my board had decided to turn and my feet had not.

Wandering away from the skating park, I stopped to watch Becky demolish her latest victim. The silver-furred fox was seated on a bench across from a pretty squirrel who I vaguely recognized from school. Between them was one of the park's stone chessboards.

"Ha!" Becky crowed, slamming her knight down on the board with a flourish and a wide grin. "Checkmate!" The squirrel groaned melodramatically, and slid a five-pence coin to Becky's side. The fox picked the coin up and immediately flipped it, watching it spin in the air for a second before catching it and slapping it back onto the board. "Heads," she announced with a grin. She slid the coin back over to the squirrel, along with another from a small pile by her paw. "You live to fight another day, Emily." Her grin widened. "Rematch?"

The squirrel laughed and declined to general applause, and after a moment a grey tortoiseshell cat stepped forward - or was pushed forward by his friends, depending on how you looked at it - and gamely took out a five-pence piece of his own while Becky eagerly reset the pieces.

"I don't get it," a wolf from my History class said quietly. "What's up with the money?"

"The betting is just a game," Todd explained with a smile from the wolf's other side. "If you win, you keep her coin; if you lose, she flips it: heads you get her coin anyway, tails she gets yours."

"Otherwise no one would dare play her," I said, laughing. "Has anyone beaten her yet?"

"Actually, some otter did this morning," Todd said with a wicked grin. "I've even got a picture of it on my cell, so she's never gonna live it down." He showed it to us - Becky's face had an almost comical look of amazement as an adult otter checkmated her. From the looks of the board, it had been a near thing; only a pawful of pieces remained on each side.

"By the way," I added teasingly, "When I said you could invite anyone you felt like, I didn't know you'd bring half the freshman class!" I waved my paw at the congregation spilling over the park, talking in little clumps and clustered around the folding table of drinks - some from me and Jake, others from other furs who'd showed up.

Todd raised his paws in protest. "Aw, come on, there's only like -" he glanced over the crowd for a rough head count "- sixty furs here. And I didn't invite most of them - I just said they could invite anyone they wanted too. So it's really his fault!" He pointed in playful accusation at the wolf, who raised his paws in turn.

"Hey, I only invited those three guys over there. Besides, it's not like there's no room. I'm just wondering who invited them." He pointed back towards the skate park, where a dozen or so older furs were gathered, with the requisite zone of separation between them and the freshmen.

"Oi!" I protested. "I only invited two of them!" Technically only one; Jake had purchased the drinks and invited himself. But Todd and the wolf both hounded me until I laughingly surrendered.

After a couple of hours things broke up as groups headed off for lunch or other pursuits. Ivan wound up tagging along with me as I tried to skateboard after Jake and Amy. The parallel hit me approximately like an anvil to the nose, but I did my best not to act weird. It helped that, for whatever reason, Amy seemed to like Ivan fairly well, and vice versa. Definitely one of the last pairs I'd have expected to ever work, but I guess it shows what I know. Anyway, I did fairly well, as long as I didn't get distracted and fall off again. Even then, I was landing more and more on my feet instead of my face. But it was a good thing Amy was walking, because I wasn't going anywhere fast.

Jake's house was swarming with midgets - or at least, midgets when compared with anyone except me. They transitioned more-or-less peacefully to the patio out back when we arrived, herded by a half-dozen or so assorted parents. Frankly, I was amazed first that they'd been inside to begin with and second that the furniture as all intact, considering their energy levels. Once outside, Dan and Halo got out a box of sparklers, even though it was still broad daylight except for the still-lowering clouds, which pretty much guaranteed mayhem for another hour at least.

Jake and Ivan started booting the X-box in the living room while Amy and I looked into the kitchen to see what was available. There was a plate of sugar cookies on the bar, iced with varying degrees of skill so that I assumed it had been a group effort, and half a box of pizza still on the table. I ran outside to check if the food was available - it was; apparently they'd already finished what they were going to - then ran back inside and transplanted it to the coffee table in the living room while Amy got drinks.

Somehow I wound up mashed between a lion and a leopard on the couch and not exactly comfortable with either one. Still, it least I hadn't wound up between Jake and Amy; my life wouldn't have been worth the national insurance card it was printed on.

I was trounced fairly early on, and spent most of the rest of the time just watching - in some ways it was more fun, because I could watch everyone's screen segment and keep tabs on what was going on. Eventually Ivan was pronounced the victor, over Jake's dead body.

The kids outside came in afterwards and mingled for a little while before their parents took them home under the first fat white snowflakes. Ivan was fairly clearly uncomfortable around them and around Dan and Halo, and left soon afterwards. I retreated to my room when Amy silently threatened ocular-engendered incineration and left them alone. Frankly, I needed it anyway; collapsing back onto the bed, I let the relative silence envelop me. Jeez, it wasn't even three yet.

A couple of hours later Jake stopped by my open door while I doodled eyes on a notepad, the book I'd been reading before then lying open on a pillow. Hastily I flipped the pad over and stuffed the ruby marker I'd been using under the same pillow.

"Tired already?" the wolf teased, leaning against the frame.

"Maybe," I admitted. "You actually do this every year?"

"Pretty much," he agreed, grinning. I caught a bit of Amy's scent off of him and felt my brows lower slightly. "Don't worry - Christmas Day is a lot quieter. We usually have dinner with my grandparents, but they went to visit their family up north this year, and Mum and Dad decided to stay here."

"Because of me," I noted flatly. Jake's eyes flickered.

"Well - yeah," he said. "Can I come in?"

"No."

Jake started to say something, but Michael interrupted him by skidding over in a green sweater and a Santa Clause hat. "Hey guys!" he panted energetically. "D'you want to come watch a movie?"

"Sure," the wolf answered with a smile, albeit one that looked almost involuntary. Michael has that effect.

"Yeah," I said in turn. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Great!" the deer said, and ran back around the balcony.

Jake stayed in my doorway, and I sighed. "Meaning I'd like to be alone for a little, genius."

"Are you all right?" he asked, ignoring my gentle hint. "Were there too many furs around today?"

I rolled my eyes. "It was fine; this is unrelated. Go away, Jake."

Silently he left, and I frowned to myself. I couldn't remember when I'd last called him by name like that - not sarcastic, or getting his attention, just... saying it.

Staring at the wolf's form moving down the balcony, I wondered if there even was a way to describe the feeling of being able to just get some friends together, with virtually no planning or thought, when I'd never had the liberty to do it before. Of being able to take them... home... to a house that isn't a jail cell, that you can feel proud of, if only by association.

And then throw in Ivan. I half-growled and flopped onto my back. In a lot of ways, I was glad at the way things had gone. We were talking, closer than we'd ever been, but there was a stone wall at the end of the road. And I wasn't sure I even wanted to tear it down anymore. I liked being just friends, and that scared me. It left me feeling sort of loose, like I'd lost my metaphorical anchor in the middle of a hurricane.

I shook it off and walked out of the room. Rather than walk all the way around to the stairs, I checked to see if anyone was underneath, then swung over the banister and dropped a few feet to the first floor, in the process earning myself a reproving look from Halo.

Before she could say anything, I put on my puppy dog eyes. "Aw, come on; it's faster than going all the way around!"

She had a hint of a grin lurking around her muzzle, but her voice was firm. "Maybe so, but I'd still prefer you took the stairs."

"It's perfectly safe! Honest!"

"Even so."

"But -"

"But no!" She finally broke down and laughed, and I sighed theatrically, unhappiness temporarily forgotten except for the clinical voice in the back of my head recalling the god-awful lecture I'd gotten a few years ago about the onset of puberty - specifically the part about mood swings. I metaphorically threw a pillow at it with a grin.

I'm not sure when during the movie Jake's arm moved from the back of the couch to my shoulders, any more than I knew why, once I'd noticed, I pretended that I hadn't. What I do know is that I felt tremendously relieved when Michael saw it and, rather than say anything, simply crawled over both our laps to claim Jake's other arm; and even more so when neither Dan nor Halo reacted at all. I had more than enough to think about without having to deal with anyone else's comments.

After the movie Dan put an a disc of Christmas songs, and then I learned that you should never play Monopoly against a family that usually plays around one round per week, not counting their other board games. Holy cow.

About midway through - for everyone else; I'd been bankrupt for ten minutes already - Aislyn came in, complete with a melting coat of frost, a green scarf, two shopping bags, and - wonder of wonders - a happy smile. I had to come back half an hour later to pick my jaw up off the floor and reattach it. She decided to join the game, even though she'd be at a disadvantage for starting late, and through some very lucky rolls wound up building herself an empire and only narrowly losing to Dan.

I could probably spend half an hour describing the food, and still not get there. I guess no one told Dan or Halo that they were just feeding the six of us, so by the end of it I could barely move. I just managed to help get things into the dishwasher, then tottered to the living room and fell onto the couch with a satisfyingly solid thump.

An indeterminate amount of time later, Michael apparently lost patience with the general unwillingness to move while we digested and ran up the stairs into his room. He'd been fidgeting for several minutes before then, and I barely had time to wonder what was eating him - if you'll excuse the reverse-pun - before he popped out again laden with a small stack of brightly-wrapped presents. Moving with rather more care than usual so that he didn't drop anything, he walked back down the stairs and distributed them under the tree by the windows. Then he ran back and started tugging at our paws, trying to make us get up. "Come on!" he laughed. "Now you all have to get your presents!"

Jake groaned when Michael started pulling at him. "Do I have to?" he asked plaintively, before he got a conniving grin on his face. "Maybe I should check to see if it'll be worth my time?" He got off the half-couch and started towards the tree, with the young deer now trying unsuccessfully trying to pull him towards the stairs instead. "I wonder what you got for me?"

"No fair! You have to wait until Christmas to open them! Da-ad! Make him stop!"

By then most of us were laughing too hard to pretend to be lazy any longer, so we started getting up. Dan and Halo walked paw-in-paw to the master bedroom, while I started up the stairs to mine. Jake relented and started up after me, leaving Michael to try to make Aislyn get moving.

"So I take it you don't really have a Santa Clause tradition here?" I asked as we walked down the balcony.

Jake smiled. "Not really, no. We've done it this way for as long as I can remember, and frankly I like it better than some guy on a sled doing it anyway."

Fair point. I opened my closet and got out my own stack of presents, hoping as I did so that everyone would like them, then chastising myself for giving a damn. But I couldn't seem to put any heart behind that last, anymore than I could banish the happy smile on my muzzle.

When I came back out the pile under the Christmas tree had grown substantially; presumably Dan and Halo's doing, combined with offerings from Jake's other relatives. They ranged from paw-sized to a few monsters longer than my arm, with samples of every size in between. Together with the decorations, the music, the smell of pine sap and food, and the indefinable aura of festivity that permeated the house, it formed an almost fairy-tale picture that would have been difficult to believe had it not been sitting right in front of me.

Things were significantly quieter after dinner. We moved the couch and chairs around the tree, turned the lights down, and took turns reading stories out of a book Halo got out of the master bedroom. Which sounds really silly and dull, but it wasn't. It did make me feel out of place, though, like an outsider despite being mashed between Jake and Halo. But after a while it got harder to remember that I wasn't really part of this family, and easier to just bask in the warmth they were radiating.

Eventually Michael had to go to bed, and Dan and Halo followed suit, though a low light shone from under their door. I got a book from my room and came back down to read it, while Aislyn wrote quietly in a notebook and Jake rested his muzzle on his knee and stared introspectively at nothing. I don't know if Aislyn had a reason for staying out here instead of going to her room like she usually would, but neither of us said anything at all. Maybe she just felt like it, in the same way I did. It wasn't anywhere near as unpleasant as I knew she could have made it; just three furs spending time together, sharing companionship, doing their own things on a Christmas Eve. Regardless, she went to bed a little before ten.

Perhaps a quarter of an hour later Jake finally stirred. "You planning to spend the night out here?"

I twitched out of my doze and blinked. "I might, if I'm not careful." Jake chuckled, uncoiling from his seat and helping me up.

Somewhere between Aislyn's door and his, the remaining fog cleared out and I realized that he hadn't released my paw. I could feel the blood thumping through the veins under each pad, matching the beating in my own chest.

"What are you doing?" I asked him quietly.

"I don't know," he replied in a ragged whisper, betraying the argument he'd been having with himself.

I had to force my pounding heart to quiet itself, to let me think. Then I lifted my chin. "Let go of me," I commanded, my voice calm. He pulled his paw away as if it had been burned, and I started to finish the trip to my door, keeping my head high and my feet steady.

Be hind me the massive wolf whined, very quietly, as though it had been torn out of him. My step faltered the tiniest bit, but I immediately recovered and bit my cheek as hard as I could, tasting blood and using the distraction to remain silent.

"Please, wait," he whispered in torment, even more quietly. I almost didn't hear him, and forced myself to not respond. Drag one leg forward; plant it. Drag the next forward. I told myself it was just my bitten cheek making my eyes water. My mind was fully occupied with that, so that I wouldn't think of the beautiful being behind me, or the way he kept whining and trying not to let me hear it.

Then something changed. He quieted, then drew in a deep breath. "No," he said, his voice still ragged but suddenly firm. I started to hyperventilate and tried to pick up my pace, but he caught me at the entry to my room.

As soon as I felt his paw on my shoulder I spun and tried to hit him, but he was expecting it and blocked me fairly easily.

"Enough," he commanded. Then he slowly pulled me into his embrace, wrapping his arms around me and gently rubbing the edge of my ear. I shuddered and tried pulling away, but had exactly zero success. So I eventually just let him hold me, let his body heat seep through my fur into my body.

Then he pulled an inch or two away and tilted my head back until he could look down at me, and then I was drowning in a flaming, blood-red ocean. His eyes betrayed a hint of nervousness, almost enough for me to break out of his hold, but it was pushed aside by a burning hunger that thrilled me, overwhelmed me, and terrified me at the same time. He smiled a little and leaned down to touch his lips to mine.

I've not lived my live with my eyes covered and my fingers in my ears; I know what everyone says about kissing. How it's the most incredible, amazing feeling you could ever have, how you melt into it, how suddenly their lips, their tongue become your entire world.

I know what they say; I'd just thought they were lying.

I was right. The description didn't even come close.

He was slow, almost hesitant, except that he never once gave me a choice as he pulled me closer, gently parted my lips with his tongue and slipped into my muzzle, exploring and teasing until I tentatively responded. At some point my paws left the floor as he picked me up, and I barely noticed. I just wrapped my arms around him and let him kiss me - gently and powerfully, caring for nothing more than my happiness but never giving an inch either; all the contradictions I'd never known could be combined and never since wanted to separate. A fire lit somewhere in my chest and roared throughout my body until I was sure that I'd burn up and die with my lips against his - sure, and utterly, completely content.

Eventually, though, we did have to breathe, so he let me down and cradled me against his chest. I was glad his legs were still working; I relied on them while I slowly hunted down that fire and pushed it back until I could think again. Once I was reasonably sure I could keep my voice from betraying me, I spoke.

"You had no right to do that."

His smile shone through his voice when he responded. "Did I not?" He waited for a reply, but we both knew I wouldn't, so eventually he went on. "Tell me you didn't like it and I'll apologize and never do anything like that again."

I immediately opened my mouth, but the words refused to come. I tried to make them, but I couldn't do it. Eventually I sighed and buried my face deeper into his chest, and he gently licked my ear.

Then he bent down and lifted me easily into his arms, ignoring my protests except to give me a quick kiss - which left me dumb for a while, so it worked perfectly. He carried me into his room, using a foot to shut the door behind him. He set me down on his navy blue comforter, then turned his lamp on a little and locked the door - giving me a reassuring smile that made me assume my face had shown the way my stomach had just turned over. The wolf padded over and sat next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders but otherwise letting me be for a moment.

"So," he said at length.

"So," I replied, trying to mask my fear - among other things.

He started to rub my back. "If you're wondering, the answer is no."

"No, what, exactly?"

"No, we're just going to sleep tonight. Nothing else."

I drew a shuddering breath. "What, too ugly for you?"

He smiled. "Too soon." Then he faced me more seriously. "Could you, even?"

"I don't know," I admitted, wondering why I was answering him at all, let alone honestly. Glancing up at his face, I looked down quickly, my heart constricting with desire. God, he was hot. That's what I told myself.

"Why?" he asked simply.

I looked away, but his arms kept me from going anywhere. "That's personal."

He sighed, but continued to pet my back and shoulders. "All right. You can tell me whenever you're ready."

When he caught me dozing against him, he roused me enough to get me out of my shirt and pants, leaving both our underwear on. Then he pulled me gently down onto the bed with him, with my back pressed to his chest. It was fairly obviously that his body disagreed - vehemently - with his assessment of how soon it was, but somehow I never even considered that he might try anything. I'd never felt so safe in my life as I did there, with his arm draped over my side and chest and his breath rumbling behind me.

Yet despite that I wondered - worried - how long I'd be able to keep that fire inside me pushed away, before it came crashing down on me.

But that would have to wait; the day, and the wolf holding me, were more than I could resist. As I drifted off, I vaguely heard his quiet, kind voice over my head.

"Happy Christmas, Nick."

I woke up - I you can call it that - sprawled diagonally across Jake's body, using his stomach as a mattress, his chest as a pillow, and his arms as blankets. So, naturally enough, I shut my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Jake really had no business being so comfortable, considering that his muscles were approximately as soft as equivalent chunks of granite, but that didn't seem to matter.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Jake caressed my cheek again. "Wake up, mutt," he murmured to me.

I groaned and pushed my nose through his chest fur and into his ruff, squeezing my eyes shut. Then I levitated half a foot into the air with a yelp as he pinched me.

The wolf laughed and pulled me back down again. "You up yet?"

"I hate you," I grumbled. "What was that for?" Looking blearily around until I found his alarm, I groaned. I mean, five-thirty? On Christmas?! Even the correction center wasn't that cruel.

"Yeah, I know," Jake said commiseratingly. "But unless you want to get woken up by Michael in an hour or so, there's not a lot of options."

"I hate your brother, too."

"Pfft. No you don't."

"Well, no, but I bet I would if it were possible."

"Not much of a morning dog, are you."

"I'm plenty of a morning dog. Just not this morning. Any more morning dog this morning might kill me."

He laughed as I slowly levered myself onto my knees, rubbing my eyes. "That made no sense at all, you know."

"Oog."

He picked me up and carried me over to his closet, where he had me double as a pair of paws to grab his clothes and a shelf to set them on, then carried me out and over to my room to get mine. He took exception to my choices, though.

"Black? Oh come on, it's Christmas!"

"But I like black!"

"But it's Christmas! Here, I know you've got at least one green shirt. And you can borrow one of my red scarves and a hat - I can't believe I didn't think to get you any when we went shopping." So, grumbling, I got the green shirt. I wasn't really mad; it was just the form of the thing. In fact, I was starting to go back to sleep, wrapped in the heat radiating from Jake's fur.

Which drowsiness rather abruptly slipped away when I realized that he'd carried me into the bathroom with him as well.

"So what the hell, exactly, do you think you're doing?"

"Taking a bath," he answered, setting me down on the - cold! - edge of the tub and turning the water on to start it filling.

"With me."

"Obviously." His ears turned faintly pink as he blushed and slid off his grey boxers. Not that it mattered, because I immediately blushed darker than he could ever hope for, yelped, and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to banish the image. He could have put Adonis to shame any day of the week. While half-asleep and covered in mud. Without even trying.

"Did not need to see that, Jake!"

He snorted. "You see the same stuff every day."

"Not that," I murmured fervently, but so quietly that he didn't hear.

"You probably want to do the same, by the way."

"You're out of your mind. I like Ivan, remember?"

"Okay, but it's going to be awfully uncomfortable when I dump you in."

My eyes snapped open and focused on his face. "You wouldn't dare." He raised an eyebrow, and I groaned. "Scratch that. You're a complete asshole, you know." Turning, if possible, even redder, I shut my eyes again, slid off my own boxers, and slipped into the gratifyingly hot water. A moment later, I felt Jake get in next to me, and smelled shampoo.

Then his paws started roughly scrubbing my chest, making me yelp. He immediately gentled his ministrations. "Sorry. My fur is coarser than yours, so I'm used to pressing harder."

"Presumably you know that I'm perfectly capable of cleaning myself, right?"

"I know. Presumably you're also capable of opening your eyes, right?"

"I told you, I do not need to see that."

He chuckled. "Of all the furs in the world, I wouldn't have expected you to be so modest. But it's fine; hang on a minute while I get your face."

I shivered while his paws moved carefully over my muzzle, ears, and around my eyes, working the shampoo into the shorter fur there. Once he'd finished his paws left me for a bit, but I didn't recognize the splashing noise in time to stop him from dumping a bucket of water over my head.

"Oi!" I spluttered while he laughed. Then he had me lean forward so he could start on my back and tail, and after that did the same for himself.

A few minutes later he sobered, though. With a vengeance.

"This doesn't change anything, Nick. I'm still straight. I have a girlfriend and I love her. That's just the way it is."

I thought about saying any number of things then, like what he was doing now, or if he'd ever kissed Amy the way he'd - kissed - damn, it was hard even to think that word! - me, or if he actually thought I was stupid enough to buy that, or if I actually had been stupid enough to buy it last night, if that had all been a lie, a way to mess with my head or get himself a warm body for the night, or what?! I thought about it, but the cold, rational part of my mind took over and kept me from actually saying any of it. It was better this way; better to just let that lie where it would. In a way, that part of my mind told me ruthlessly, it was probably one of the better things he could have said; it helped make this a clean break. So I didn't say anything; I just snorted a little and nuzzled under his jaw, and he just sighed and hugged me for a moment.

A bit later the mood fled again and I squirmed in embarrassment while he worked his way up each of my legs, ending high up my thighs. Without even looking I knew he was getting an eyeful, but he at least had the decency not to mention it.

"Jeez, do I get any privacy anymore?" I asked, feigning annoyance to try to hide my discomfiture.

Jake grinned and passed me the shampoo. "Sure. I'll let you finish up. Heck, I'll even let you dry off and dress yourself, 'kay?"

"Great," I said sarcastically while he finished cleaning himself and stepped out of the tub to dry off. "I feel like such a big kid now."

He laughed and started brushing his fur down and pulling his clothes on, to my simultaneous disappointment and relief. "I guess I'll go see who's awake. Breakfast will probably be in thirty or forty minutes, unless everyone decided to sleep in."

"And how often has that happened?"

"To date? Never." He grinned while I shook my head, then stepped out.

I sighed once he'd gone, then stepped out to dry myself off as well. God, I couldn't deal with this right now. I'd maybe, just maybe, been getting to be part of the family, if only sort of. Then he'd come along. And I knew where that road led; I'd walked it, nearly a decade ago, and I. Would. Not. Go. Back. I couldn't do it again.

So I pulled my clothes on, opened the bathroom window, and dropped to the snowy driveway beneath it.

***

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the scene that got this whole fiasco rolling. It took me seventy-three pages to get there, but I did :). Do I like it? Yep, except maybe for the very end (of course, a better question is: do you like it? and why/why not). In the mean time, though, a note on the yiff: it wasn't there (in case you couldn't tell ;) ). The scene was originally thought out to be significantly more "mature" rated, but I don't think Nick could do it yet and I don't thing Jake would. And I'm more comfortable with it the way it stands, for the moment at least. If you've waited all this time for a yiff scene, (1) wow, and (2) sorry :)

So: thanks to everyone who read this, double thanks to everyone who's read my other installments, and uber thanks to everyone who has or will comment :D