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The Striped Filly

Flying Changes

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare) for Chris Silverhoof

Chapter Six

With work proceeding with surprising serenity, it looked like nothing could go wrong for the two of them besides the stares on the street. And Christian was getting used to even those as the days passed and the air grew crisper still, frost coating the grass in the mornings. Anna didn't like that, complaining that it made the grass taste funny, and insisted on eating out more often or warming herself in Christian's flat on the outskirts of the city. It was a bit of a commute to get there, but she said that it was worth it as long as he got to spend time with him. He only hoped he could live up to expectations.

Clip-clopping side by side, they chattered on their way to the shops, arguing playfully about who would cook that night. Due to the height and position of the kitchen units in Chris' flat, it was more difficult for her to take over the cooking entirely for an evening, although she enthusiastically 'helped' whenever able.

Pausing to cross the road to the supermarket, chain retail shops to his back, Christian admired the lights shimmering through Anna's mane, twinkling down her stripes as if she had become part of the life of the city itself. The good food and constant walking as she explored further and further afield - still disliking the underground - suited her to no end, coat gleaming with excellent health.

He drifted into his own world as they waited, wondering, as he often did, what their next day together would bring. So far, it was only good and he was even getting used to his new hooves. He frowned, thoughts ricocheting off in another direction even as he bent to kiss Anna on the lips, the filly giggling as they shared a sweet moment out in the open. He'd have to really impress her with dinner tonight. And what on earth could he get her for Christmas? His thoughts spiralled, her kiss fizzing on his lips.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

An all too familiar voice snapped Christian out of his blissful reverie and he groaned, fingers curling into a fist within his pocket.

Shit.

"Hi, Todd," Christian said, ears slipping back warily. "How's tricks?"

Scowling, the young man knocked away his offered paw with the back of his hand, glaring at Christian with the venom of a viper.

"I should have known..."

He shook his head, disgust lining the hard lines in his face. Christian set his jaw in return, stepping in front of Anna who pushed her nose into the small of his back.

"You should have known...what exactly..."

Todd laughed, though there was no humour in the sound.

"This!" He gestured at Christian and Anna with flailing arms, lips twisted viciously. "I thought in the coffee shop...but no, I didn't think you'd stoop so fucking low as to bed a fucking animal."

He looked Christian up and down, a sneer painted on his otherwise handsome face, contorting it into the grotesque. As handsome as he would have otherwise been, he could have been wearing a Halloween mask, so twisted was his expression.

"Jesus fucking Christ, man, were you so desperate to get your dick wet that you went for a fucking donkey?"

Anna stiffened and he pressed his palm into her neck, giving her the comfort through touch that he couldn't in the words trapped in his throat. Christian swallowed to no avail, glancing from left to right to take in the forming crowd. Why couldn't people leave well enough alone? He growled inwardly. How was he harming anyone else? What had he - or Anna - ever done to deserve this? His chest tightened.

"She's a zebra," he forced out, lifting a hoof, "and perhaps you haven't heard of a little thing called love?"

Todd widened his eyes incredulously and bellowed a laugh, slapping his thigh.

"Oh god, it's worse than I thought!"

He howled, bent over at the waist. Some of the spectators, wrapped up warm against the cold, even started to chuckle in awkward agreement. Christian leaned in closer to Anna, suddenly too hot in his oversized coat. He gripped her withers, fingers biting as they cut in. Although she winced, the zebra did not move away, leaning into his touch and lending him her strength.

"You think you can actually be in love with that thing?" Todd hissed, pointing at Anna, who stepped out from behind her partner with defiance shining in her eyes. "It's an animal! It doesn't have feelings!"

He brought his hand to his mouth as if holding back vomit.

"You're seriously sick, Christian, just what the fuck is wrong with you? I can't believe you and I were ever friends..." He shook his head. "How could you be into that crazy shit?"

His words degenerated into random, disconnected mumbling and he turned to his audience, spreading his arms wide to rally them in agreement. To Christian's dismay, as he found himself wordless under the barrage of abuse, He ran his paw down Anna's neck again and again, telling her with soft words that the others didn't matter. Although his voice was but a whisper, her laboured, heavy breaths calmed and she pressed her cheek into the curve of his palm, ears pricked. She was as alert and on edge as a zebra on the plains watching the slink of a lion through the long grass.

Confident that he had soothed her as much as possible for the time being, he turned back to the problem, paws shaking.

"I'll handle it," he said softly to the zebra at his hip. "Stay here."

Anna shot him a look and lifted one hoof defiantly from the ground even as Christian held up his paws. The mare snorted and barrelled past him, standing square before the crowd with her nostrils flared like a racehorse.

"If you have something to say, you should say it to both of us," Anna brayed with all the air in her lungs, ears flattened and the whites of her eyes showing. "We're together and I really don't see what your problem with that is. There is no need for any of this! We haven't done anything! In my land -"

"Oh, shut it," Todd cut across her, rolling his eyes. "What's a gob like that good for anyway - sucking dick?"

He studied her, tapping a finger against the side of his jaw.

"Bet you could get your whole cock in there though. Not that I'd want to." He gagged, bending over and hacking. "Gross. You're disgusting. Just an it, not worth a 'he' or a 'she'."

He laughed, raising his arms to gee the crowd on to join him.

"I'll have it sent back to the zoo and then at least it'll be in the right bloody place, back where it belongs. Out of our sight, right, guys and girls? We don't need to see this!"

Anna looked down, ears drooping and sides shaking. Glancing at Christian, she deflated visibly and mouthed the words 'I'm sorry', lifting a hoof as she turned away. Todd laughed and pointed, hurling further abuse as Christian reached after his lover, heart drumming stringently over his eardrums until the roar of blood pounding was all he could hear. Todd wiped a hand across the back of his mouth and spat on the ground, hand returning to a cockily jutted out hip as he hurled abuse at Anna's back.

Christian didn't see Todd's last gesture, his own fist balled up and already flying through the air. As if carried by divine will, it sailed smack into Todd's jaw, snapping his head neatly to the side. He stumbled backwards, gaping like a goldfish, and dropped like a stone, landing with an undignified thump on his backside. He cursed and spat out a tooth, blood speckling his hand. The crowd fell into an eerie quiet, looking between Christian with his fist still clenched and Todd taking inventory of his injuries.

Anna stopped in her tracks, slowing looking back with quivering ears. Her tail swished and the felled man glared at Christian.

"What the fuck was that for?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

Christian shook, advancing step by deliberate step. Todd scrambled back, heaving himself to his feet as the crowd scattered, giving them a wider berth.

"We were just crossing the street - what right do you think you have to attack us like that?"

Todd scoffed.

"Your opinions don't matter! Why would you think for just one single bloody second that they would matter? Just like it wouldn't matter one bit if I didn't like whoever the hell you were dating."

Christian rubbed the back of his hand across his jaw, though the ache from gritting his teeth so hard remained.

"Who the hell cares? It wouldn't be my life and it certainly wouldn't be my place to interfere with love."

Todd threw his hands up in the air, spittle flying from his lips.

"You can't seriously believe that!"

"What, that I love Anna?" Christian squared his shoulders. "Well, I do. Very much, actually. It doesn't matter whether she has four legs or two - I'd love her all the same. I love her even though our love has made me...change."

He grimaced.

"I can't say I was expecting that but it is what it is."

Todd stormed back and forth, pacing a line that separated Christian and Anna from the crowd.

"Look - it's not that hard. I'll show you she's nothing more than a fucking animal!" He scowled, shooting forward. "If you're too thick to get it into your head."

Lunging to the side of Christian, he rammed both hands into Anna's shoulder, the zebra having watched, slack-jawed from the sidelines. She squealed and kicked out as he slammed into her, teeth bared as instinct bid her to bite. Neck viciously arched, she nearly had a chunk of Todd's flesh between her jaws when Christian slammed the full weight of his body into the other male, using his greater height and strength to his advantage.

Todd stumbled sideways, allowing Anna to wheel away, and Christian followed, bringing his fist up solidly into his stomach. He dropped to the pavement, lungs heaving, and Christian followed, stamping on his ankle with a large hoof even as the man growled and lunged for him, out for blood. The crack was audible, slicing through the air like shattering ice. Todd howled.

Putting his ears down, Christian backed away, paws raised and steady. Todd hugged his knee to his chest, rolling back and forth as tears streamed down his face, sneer long ripped away. Christian couldn't help a tiny smirk, though could not take any pleasure from causing, what had once been a friend, pain. That little self-defence class he'd taken had certainly come to good use in the end; there was no way Todd would be following either of them on that ankle if they needed to make a run for it.

"I'll have you done for that!" Todd snarled, holding his leg as if it was going to drop off. "You can't fucking hit a man on the street and get away with it! Look what you've done to my fucking leg!"

Christian stared at him incredulously, the man rocking piteously on the ground. Not a single soul moved to help him.

"You harassed us - threatened Anna! You shoved her and you seriously expect to say that that's okay?"

"She's an animal, man."

"She's a zebra and sometimes I think more intelligent than you or me, certainly so from the way you've acted! She's smarter than you or I any day!"

Todd rolled on to his stomach, yelping - Christian personally thought he was hamming it up - and the equine backed off further, deciding that he'd pushed things far enough. Anna trembled and snorted, ears facing forward and eyes showing a risky rim of white. He laid a paw on her neck gently, stroking until she turned her attention to him, legs shaking.

"Come on, Anna," he said quietly, crouching to her level with one eye carefully on Todd, who was being helped to his feet. "Let's report this to the police station before that good for nothing piece of..." He caught himself, biting back the words. "Before _he_does. Let's get it sorted."

Wide-eyed, Anna nodded and pushed her forehead into his chest, snorting heavily. He murmured and stroked her ears until her shivers subsided and she raised her head to briefly brush her lips against his. With one sliver of his attention left on Todd, limping into the parting crowd, he chanced that the murmurs he heard were of approval. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

"Mummy, what's that? What are they doing?"

Christian took a breath: just what they didn't need. A small girl, who couldn't have been more than seven years old, dressed in a pink princess dress dangled off her mother's arm, pointing to Anna with a pudgy hand. Her mother pushed a scraggly strand of brown hair out of her face, smiling through the bags under her eyes, as her daughter strained at her arm.

"They're in love, darling," her mother replied, stroking her hair. "Can't you see?"

The girl screwed up her face, nose wrinkling as she looked at them intently. Anna shifted the weight on her hooves and stretched out her head to the small human, ears twitching.

"But..." She tilted her head. "They don't look like us. They look funny."

Anna stilled, nostrils flared, and Christian rubbed down her back, intending to move her along before further words could fly by them.

To his surprise, however, the little girl's mother was swifter. Crouching down so that she was on the same level as the little girl, she looked at her daughter seriously, pushing hair out of her face.

"It doesn't matter if they don't look quite like us, sweet pea. All that matters is that they're in love and that they're happy together. When you love someone, it won't matter what they look like. See, he looks like a horse and looks like us too - there are some people like that here. And she's a zebra. It doesn't matter what they are because they love each other. And you'll love someone too one day. You'll love them anyway because they are so very special to you."

The girl pondered, mouth forming a dark 'O' as she thought it through. Christian cleared his throat and wiped away moisture that he would not admit to from his eyes as Anna grunted her appreciation, ears flicking forward and back. The little girl sprung into life as if she had suddenly come to a momentous realisation, squealing and clapping her hands as her mother laughed and straightened. Anna's head shot back as she snorted, eyes wild at the shock of noise.

"My prince charming will love me!" She shouted, bouncing on her toes as if they had suddenly become fused to springs. "And he'll be...he'll be..." She took a deep breath, tiny lungs expanding. "A zee-ba! He'll be a zee-ba and he'll be my prince charming!"

Anna lowered her muzzle and the girl ran up, grinning delightedly as she stroked Anna once from between her ears all the way down to her nose.

"Thank you," Anna said quietly, blowing arm air into the giggling girl's face. "I hope you'll find your prince charming one day too. I've certainly found mine."

Swinging her hands back and forth, the girl bounced and waved goodbye, running back to her mother babbling about what she'd just done. Her mother only shook her head and stroked her daughter's hair, shrugging her shopping bag more comfortably up on to her shoulder, clearly ready to be on her way.

Chris shot Anna a sly look as the zebra raised her head, rumbling softly as if nothing had happened, although there was a lightness to her ears that had not been there a moment ago

"That may have been the cutest thing I've ever seen," Christian murmured.

He cast the girl's mother a grateful look as they carried on down the street with the girl chattering about 'zee-bas' and how she was going to marry the most beautiful one ever, unable to keep the smile from creeping across his muzzle. It was hard not to feel brighter with the optimism of one little girl to lift his heart. Anna snorted and nudged his side.

"Not as cute as you."

"Now, now. Nothing's as cute as me."

They laughed, forgetting the dispersing crowd and their reason for moving on as they traipsed down the street, tiredness settling over their shoulders. Christian rubbed his knuckles, wincing where the skin had split. Had he really hit Todd that hard?

"By the way..."

Anna called his attention and he smiled down at her, hiding his paw behind his back. She tossed her head and shot him a flirty look, warmth behind her gaze.

"I love you too. Just so you know."

Christian's heart soared.