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"I made a new friend the other day."

Richard's tall ears flicked her way, though at first he didn't look up from his laptop screen at all. In fact, he actually bent in closer towards it, holding his half-eaten donut in his lips while he swiftly typed something in. Then he looked up at his sister, his shorter mane swaying a bit with the movement. "Yeah? Just over at-?"

"Mhmm." She pulled out the chair across from him and leaned over the table, her paw hovering over the open donut box before settling on one. She never understood how he could like maple so much, and being her brother, he knew that getting mostly maple was one surefire way to keep Lynn from swiping them from him. "At - at Brian's."

"Oh, how's he doing? I really oughtta stop in."

"I 'unno. Didn't speak to him." She popped a donut hole into her mouth, then draped her arm across the back of the chair. Richard's smooth grey eyes flicked up to her for a moment, then back down to his screen. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are you gonna ask me about him?"

"I just d- ohh." He tapped his claws against the table. "Your friend."

Lynn reached for another donut hole. Richard slapped her paw, which didn't deter her in the slightest. "He's an African wild dog."

"Oh! One of my friends in high school was a wild dog."

"I remember. He was the one who got you high for the first time, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. And the first dick I sucked..." The other hyena rubbed his chin for a moment. "Is he cute?"

"Eli?"

"Is that his name?"

"Yeah. Eli. Short for... fuck, he said at lunch today... Elijah! That's it."

Richard reached over for his coffee mug and lifted it to his lips, though paused before taking a sip. "You took him to lunch already?"

"It's - the place we went to was right across the street! Besides, it's not like that." Lynn crossed her arms in front of her chest. "He's gay, Richard."

"But is he cute?"

"I mean..."

He kept on struggling with his chopsticks. She could remember that. Sometimes they'd slip out between his fingers, or he'd miss his mouth with them, or they just wouldn't work. Eli liked to act like he didn't notice and that it didn't happen, but honestly, it had been hard for Lynn to keep her eyes off of him throughout it. He had this... this kind of quiet, calm contentment to him, like he felt perfectly happy being wherever he was. With her, at the time, and that made her feel good. She could easily see becoming good friends with him, going forward.

_ _

His admission of being gay - or at least, as close to an admission as he'd given: 'my ex', 'we broke up a few times', and 'he' - hadn't really come as much of a surprise. After all, she'd been able to smell the sex on him in the music shop that morning, and that's what made her pause in greeting him. Just this... rich, intense air of vulpine masculinity hovering off of him, pheromones concentrated enough to make her stop where she stood. She hadn't picked up a smell similar to that since she'd buried her nose in one, four years ago when her boyfriend was a fox.

_ _

And the way he acted like it wasn't obvious! The flicking of those boat-sail ears, the twitching of his short whiskers, the little blush she could just barely see beneath his painted fur. He acted twitchy and uncertain around her, but none of it was an unpleasant uncertainty. He just didn't know how he should act if he wanted to keep her nearby.

_ _

And he certainly did want that. Maybe that wasn't clear to him, but it was to her.

Lynn shrugged. "Yeah. I guess so."

"So you want his dick, right?"

She drummed her claws on the table. "Gay."

"Yeah, but you probably didn't know that before you started talking to him, huh?"

"Well, I mean..."

Richard looked up over the edge of his screen just enough for her to see the edge of his smile. That was the same smile that their father always made, after making some crude juke or another; Lynn always thought that seeing it on her brother was a bit uncanny.

"But if he's gay..." He shrugged. "Guess that means you gotta give him to me, right?"

"You haven't even seen him!"

"So get me a picture."

"I did get his number-"

Richard threw his head back and cackled. Lynn just rolled her eyes and pushed back from the table.

"I'll be in my room, alright? We still planning on soy pork for dinner?"

"Yeah. Everything's in the fridge. Lemme know when you're hungry and we can get a start."

Fucking... She pushed one of her paws into her pocket as she made her way down the hall, fingers wrapping around the shape of her phone. It had been basically dead since she finally blocked Rodney about two months ago - really, that had been long overdue - but it still came to her just as instinct, as reflex. Maybe she'd have a reason for that soon. I mean, yeah, okay. Eli's cute. I think he's a bit hot. So what? A girl can have some fun, right?

_ _

Apparently not, I guess. Well, he didn't say he's explicitly, strictly gay. I just hope he doesn't turn out fucking bonkers, but... knowing my luck...

The hyena sprawled out facedown across her bed, then turned her muzzle to the side and squinted against the light that managed to come in through the curtains drawn in front of the window. She had her friends back near campus, and they went out together if she ever couldn't come down here for the weekend, or if anything else like that happened. It wasn't _unusual_for something like this to happen. Richard just liked teasing her: that was in the job description for him being her brother.

She'd done the same thing to him, naturally. Like that time his senior year of high school when he brought home that lion, the one who shaved his mane. You're a top! she'd bark at him, Just date a lioness! Richard always came back at her with "It's not the same, you're straight, you wouldn't understand - that's like me telling you, why don't you just date a lioness?"

That had been before he'd learned about Liliana. That was something she still kept to herself, a big maybe. A maybe that took up about three months of her life and probably seventeen orgasms, but a _maybe_nonetheless.

With a bit of effort she managed to dredge her phone out from her pocket and held it between her palm and the mattress, muzzle still sideways across the pillow. A few taps brought her to her Contacts screen, with that one new one filling in the spot between Daniel L and Ethan. Important to tap the name and not just right of the name - that would start an audio call, which wasn't what she wanted. Eli probably didn't, either. He gave off the general air of someone who tried to avoid talking on the phone.

The so-familiar blank message screen came up then, and she pinched her tongue between her front teeth trying to type out her greeting with one thumb and nothing else. She had just gotten home a little bit ago; would he think it odd that she was already texting him? Well, probably not. Guys could be remarkably_thick (_in more than one way, she thought with a smirk), and if he really _was_fully gay, he probably wouldn't think anything of it.

Actually, her last two boyfriends had been bi. Straight guys could get so... something. Something not great. Her thumb drifted down to the Send key:

Sup pup

After that went, Lynn squinted at the screen. The little chat bubble floated up to the top of the window, marking the beginning of their history with a little 3:18 PM. This was just the stock messaging program; not her preferred method of communication, and it didn't offer read receipts, which could be a mixed blessing. Rodney had gotten pissed at her when she'd turned hers off for him.

This is Lynn btw. Dunno if that was clear or not

_ _

Always good to make certain. She'd made some embarrassing mistakes in the past. Then again, everyone did, but she doubted with a fair amount of confidence that most people's brothers didn't know what their full, unclothed breasts looked like, because they'd accidentally sent him a full album of nudes. Richard laughed that one off, though it still made Lynn blush every time she thought about it for two months after; his name was just _right_next to Rick, another ex of hers, both in her contacts and in her message history at the time. At least she hadn't seen his dick since they were puppies.

Yet. She shrugged to herself, fur rustling against the sheets. Could never really mark anything out for possibility. After all, it had taken Rick several months of trading nudes and hooking up for him to realize he was gay.

Her phone gave a short little vibration, drawing her eyes back to the dimmed screen. Another chat bubble floated up beneath her messages, coming in from the other side of the window:

Oh! Hey. c: I was wondering when you'd text me. I just got home a little bit ago

_ _

He was wondering... Lynn smiled. Of course he was. Already this was going better than the last guy she'd tried to sink her teeth into. That one came over a local dating app, and instead of _"Oh! Hey"_he'd showed her what he had between his legs. There hadn't been a lot there.

_ _

Hah, me too. Where would she go from here? She hadn't really planned it out that far. Usually it was the boy that set the pace of things. Planning on whipping up dinner with my bro here in a bit. How about you?

With that, she breathed a low sigh and let her phone fall flat against the mattress. Eli very clearly showed the signs that he liked her, and was attracted to her... so he couldn't be fully gay. Right? It could just be a backwards Rick. Or... Rick had certainly enjoyed when she pushed him down against the bed and held him by his shoulders to ride him. Lynn still had one of the videos on her phone, and every now and then brought it back up for a little self-enjoyment. How would she even go about getting there with Eli?

A whole bunch of what-ifs and maybes, all strung together on a long line. Nothing she hadn't dealt with before, really. Her phone vibrated again, giving her a small startle.

Probably just play video games til bedtime, tbh. The library isn't exactly hard work but its still nice to take a break every now and then.

_ _

Her ears perked. One of them did, at least; the other kind of struggled between her head and the pillow. No shit? What do you play? My bro has a console and I've got a system back up at my dorm - maybe we could play together someti

Lynn pressed her lips together, drew in a breath, let it out. Maybe that was too much. She erased that last part, read over her message, though about it again, sent it. Then she changed her mind and started typing it out again, only for another incoming message from Eli forcing her to stop.

I have a pc and a console too. Right now I've been really into the recent Starfortress update. :3 I'd be down to play together sometime, if youd like. Do you have a mic?

_ _

She felt another smile start to press up at the corners of her lips. It remained almost straight through to when she finally pulled herself back up to start cooking with Richard.

~ ~ ~

It felt like they'd hit it off really well. Later that night Lynn wished him goodnight, set her phone face-down on her nightstand, and half-expected to hear a few more texts come in; that was usually what happened from guys interested in her. She rested one paw beneath her head, rolled onto her other side, panties off and bra on, and took a while to get to sleep. Once there, though, she had no trouble carrying through until the morning, and reached over to tap her phone alarm off with fleeting thoughts of that wild dog swirling around in her head.

No messages from him once she'd thumped her way out from the shower, then none as she heated up a few frozen waffles for breakfast - Richard was still asleep, of course - and then no more when she set out for her morning run. Actually, Eli might not have woken up yet, either; Lynn liked to get up early when it was still fairly cool out. That way her run dried her off from her shower, but wasn't tough enough that she got sweaty and smelly all over again. Had to worry about that kind of thing, being a striped hyena.

He'd be alright. She chewed her lip, adjusted the fit of her headphones, doubled down on her pace, and put the dog out of her head. Good to focus on the feeling of the sidewalk beneath her feet, the rhythmic bounce back up along her legs, and most of all the slow-growing burn in her chest and at the back of her throat. Good feelings, all of them; familiar, comfortable.

She knew Richard's neighborhood well enough that she could go on autopilot, too, and focus instead on her surroundings instead of her directions. Summer continued to make its advance, evident in the yellowing of the lawns and the inescapable taste of dry pollen on the air - and down here she couldn't ignore the almost baked scent that hovered above everything else, too, the grit and grime of the nearby city floating out through the clouds. Didn't have that back on campus, but then again, she spent most of her time there inside the buildings. No time to really do too much between work and classes. That was why she had to spread her credit hours out through the summer semester, too.

Like usual, the hyena ended up losing herself along the way. She saw the trees and cars passing by on both sides of her, nodded to the other people going out to get the newspaper or putting their garbage on the curb for pickup, noticed the thicker blanket of clouds that started to gather overhead, but all of that took the backseat in her head. All that existed immediately near her was her steady inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale; that _thump-thump-thump_of her steps against the sidewalk; the grating in her throat that swallowing did nothing to help, the invisible fuel pushing her to continue. Easier to keep running than to stop.

Easier to keep running than to stop. Easier. Easier to...

When she did make it back, she had to double over with her paws on her knees while catching breath. The bad thing about doing that was that it could also get pretty easy to push herself too far. That hadn't quite happened today, but she'd gotten close; if she'd had plans with anyone, it might've merited another shower, just in case. Didn't have to worry about that, though. Richard had something for his job he needed to get done before Monday tomorrow, and Lynn thought she'd take the chance to slump around on the couch and get in some good watching on a TV show she'd been following.

So all in all, it was shaping up to be a good day, and it hadn't even hit 10:30 in the morning yet. The hyena wiped the back of her paw across her forehead and reached for the knob of the front door, digging around in her pocket for her phone with the other. That tired maybe I woke up too early expression turned itself into a slight smile when the screen flashed on, though.

-1- new message.

That was how it went for the next few days. Sort of back and forth, kind of on and off between the two of them, and honestly, it was a nice break from the way guys usually were with her. Eli seemed... not exactly reluctant, but every now and then Lynn could tell that he'd had to take a moment to think out what he wanted to say. Sometimes he'd respond within seconds, sometimes within minutes, sometimes not until an hour or so after she last replied to him.

And the other thing she noticed was that it wasn't hard to talk to him. Even after a long morning of work and then a long afternoon of class, during the times when she'd otherwise prefer to flop face-down on the couch and stay there until the oven heated up enough for her to pop in a frozen pot pie, her phone would vibrate in her pocket and she'd take it out to see an Afternoon Lynn, how was your day? :3 and then not long after, her ears would perk towards the beeping of the preheat alert.

She learned about his current boy-whatever, Marlin, and on multiple different occasions her thumb hovered over the Send_button with something along the lines of _So are you, like, strictly gay, or what? filled in. She never did send that one, though, instead always backspacing over it. Later, she told herself; that would come later. They hadn't quite reached that point yet. He trusted her enough to tell her that Marlin gave him some rather well-proportioned rides every now and then, but not enough to trust her with just how well-proportioned.

It was good to have visual evidence, after all. Lynn almost asked for some so-called evidence of Eli himself, too; I used to be a swimmer in high school, he told her. She thought about seeing him with his shirt off, all paint-splotches and mud splashes with a smooth, carved belly, legs strong yet slim. That kind of thing. She wanted to push further, but held herself back... and it felt good to do that, once she got over her own impatience and eagerness. It felt good to just lie back and let the current take the two of them wherever it went. Sometimes it felt like it would push its own way into something else, but it never fully did.

Semi-sporadic messages throughout the day turned into a solid good morning by Wednesday, and then that as well as a good night by Thursday - she had Thursdays off from both work and class, but usually spent it up at her dorm. That night ended with a goodnight message from Eli, including - w_e'll be hanging out this weekend, right? Im still on for the movie with Marlin, but if something happens, I'll let you know. Sleep well, yeen_ - and then she awoke the next morning to another message, which she hadn't fully expected.

Marlin cancelled. 5pm ok for you? I already have the tickets. See you soon. c: