FSE

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Part ten of the 'Hero's Reward' series... read on if you wan. This is the longest one I have typed, so if you don't have the attention span... I'll leave it at that, eh? (Still not that long compared to other stories I have seen, mine are all just short.)

* * *

Kyle was running through the corridor to the woodshop, papers from his notebook fluttering about as he struggled to hold on to his slippery textbooks. He blinked, at the wrong time apparently, the very slight obscuring of his vision causing him to ram into someone. The wrong person, definitely, to every run into.

Aeiea, a cloaked and hooded crow was now on the ground in front of the panther.

"What do you all have against me?" the raven wailed, pulling her black hood down further and hiding under her cape.

"I'm sorry Aeiea... it was an accident-" Kyle started, but the crow cut him off.

"That's what they all said. Look at me!" she wept, her black orb eyes boring into the panther. "You all have to hit me. Punch me, kick me, boss me around! Respect for the Gothic raven? I think not." She hissed, pushing Kyle aside. "Out of my way you wretched tabby...!" the crow said finally, gating away and making a disturbing clicking noise when she walked.

"One word lady... 'Prozac'." He muttered to himself, proceeding to woodshop.

The class was dull and boring, the only amusement anyone found was flicking nails at Joshua Fibrace, the only full human in the entire school. Kyle sat next to Joshua, have to constantly bat away flying objects with his notebook, he was hardly able to get the assignment done. None of his friends were in this class, so passing notes was out of the question. He laughed at that thought.

Most of the time, Kyle daydreamed about Nikki, his little Neko girlfriend. This habit had caused the panther to unintentionally drive more than one nail through his paw. He remembered one... it was a day after he and Nikki had yiffed for the very first time...

...He was sitting at his workshop desk, he was hammering a nail at each stud to pair his picket fence section for a class project. His section was rather sloppy looking as all he did was think of Nikki's tight features and arousing sounds the whole time. He brought his hammer around to the thumbnail, where he would finish one side. Kyle wasn't exactly looking at the thumbnail when he hammered it, as he was too busy with his new sense of being 'moonstruck'. He hammered the Goddamned thing through his left paw. "FUCK!" he screamed aloud, seeing blood ooze from the brutal wound. "Mr. Peterson, may I be excused?"

"Fine! Fine! Go just get the hell out of my classroom!" the teacher yelled, slamming his fist angrily on his table...

He remembered that like it was yesterday. Good times. Today, though there was a short period, so nothing but reading was to be done. Kyle sat reading his nerdy one-thousand-plus page book, sitting with his face behind it as to shield himself form flying spitwads, nails, and paper claws.

The thing that puzzled everyone about Kyle, was that now was a time when you could talk, play, draw, do anything you want in the classroom, but he chose to read instead.

Joshua, one human in a thousand Anthros, had a serious inferiority complex. Kyle felt really sorry for him, and tried his best to defend him from jeering and spitting furs.

"You ok, Josh?" Kyle asked, looking up from his book 'Exile'.

"Yeah..." the boy replied, his curly-haired head resting in his shoulders. He had many blisters and bruises from being beaten on a daily basis by stronger furs.

As if to silence the crowd of rowdy furs, the door o the room swung open and the familiar, skanky form of a deep red vixen stood in the frame. "Mrs. Mack needs Kyle Eighly to the office..." the she-fox in the doorway said softly, waiting for Kyle to reach the door before leaving it.

"Hey Riku... did she say why-" Kyle began to say, but Riku cut him off by grasping his face and kissing him passionately on the lips. Kyle closed his eyes in spite of his wailing conscience, and let his knees go weak.

Finally, the panther pushed her away. "Jesus, Riku!" Kyle yelled, backing up and seeing the lustful look on the vixen's face. "I'm serious now, what do they need me for?"

"Oh... the office doesn't need you, I do. Come here you!" she said eagerly, grasping Kyle around the shoulders again and kissing him.

"Get off! Don't you have another class to be truant from?" the blue panther asked, pushing Riku away for a second time.

"Listen, Kyle... I need loving..." the fox insisted, stepping forward.

Kyle thought quickly, spouting an absent suggestion. "How about Roger... Roger Haitmei!" he stuttered, backing against the wall.

"The taijitsu wolf? The one with the locker next to Foods?" Riku asked, thinking for a bit.

"Yeah."

"Nah. No way. He'd whip his katana on me if I said no to him..." she concluded, waving her hands in front of her.

"He wouldn't..."

"Yeah he would... remember Ashley?"

"Oh..." Kyle said to himself quietly, thinking again. "Sam Teager?"

"He's gay."

"Oh... I forgot..." the panther whispered, more to himself than to the desperate vixen, who was again standing uncomfortably close to him. "You're a big girl, Riku. You'll figure it out." He said finally, smiling brightly.

"Well... in case you ever get tired of your little kitty-bitch, give me a ring..." Riku said finally, whipping around and letting her tail flick Kyle a good-bye.

Kyle scowled, turning back into the classroom, where students were already packing up to leave. 'Second period down for the count... Science and then lunch...' he though to himself, sighing heavily.

The panther was trying not to think too much about the date that he was planning with Nikki. The reason: he had not planned anything at all yet.

Science with Mrs. Williams was as dull and slow as ever. Nothing going on here but raw... education. Kyle was laying with his furry face pressed on the sleek black desk at which he sat, scratching symbols on the surface of it with his claws. He heard a nagging hum in his ears then, one that was increasing in intensity and volume.

"Kyle!" Mrs. Williams shouted, and the panther shot up bolt-straight. Some students laughed at his oblivious state of surprise.

"Er... sorry. I..." he stuttered, flipping through the pages of his spiral notebook. "What was the question?"

The otter-woman sighed. "The equation for determining density."

"Um... er. I got it right here." Kyle muttered hopefully, flipping a few pages over. "The quotient of an object's mass and volume gives you its density...?"

"A quick save mister Eighly. Good work, but try to stay awake next time I call on you," the teacher said, smiling.

"Gunsmoke it..." the panther muttered to himself, relieved.

After that, the period seemed to go by very quickly, even if it was right before lunch.

Kyle casually proceeded to his locker, switching out his folders to prepare for fourth period after he ate. The panther flinched as a cold finger an over the back of his neck. A chill shook down his spine, causing his tail to flick at the intruder.

"Blue one... I need to talk to you...' a cold, eerie voice hissed from behind him. He whipped around abruptly, eyeing his strange acquaintance.

"Aeiea. Hello," he stuttered, nerve still racking his voice-box.

"Come this way. I speak of something personal. I need your consent." The raven whispered to him, pulling the panther by the wrist to a secluded corner out near the back of the lunchroom kitchen.

"Why mine?" he asked, finally managing to yank his wrist free of Aeiea's persistent grasp.

"I like you, blue one. You are the only one who is nice- er... will listen to me..." the crow said quietly, her voice trailing away slightly.

Kyle blushed noticeably, turning his head away. "What is the problem, Aeiea?"

"It's him..." she said, pointing a finger to the exotic black canine sitting at the table across the wide room. "The one with black fur."

The blue panther raised an eyebrow. "Well... what's the problem, is he mean to you?" he asked, looking back sincerely at the raven-girl.

"No... it is not that. When I look at him... something happens to me..." Aeiea said, her eye glazing over dreamily.

"What happens?" Kyle continued, now curious.

"Well... I blush, and get all... nervous. Like I can't..." she started, looking down at her feet. "And the front of me... leeks... I just want to touch him..."

"You're talking about Casey... well... it's kind of hard to explain Aeiea..." Kyle said, knowing her concern. "By the looks of it... you are in love with him..." he said, blushing again. "Wait... did you say 'leeks'?"

"Yes... well... something comes out of the front of me... right here..." Aeiea said at length, pointing to her area.

"Wait another minute... no one has ever told you about any of this?" The panther asked, quite surprised.

Aeiea shook her head.

"You never asked your parents about... er... puberty?" Kyle asked again, grabbing her hand.

"I did try to ask them, but they always change the subject... like they don't want me to know..." the crow said finally.

"Well... I can tell you... You are- er... horny. But first you should get this out of you. Tell Casey how you feel." Kyle insisted, pushing the cloaked and hooded bird-girl off to the lunch table.

"I can't do that!" she cawed, pulling back.

"Just tell him exactly how you feel... in private if it would help." Kyle continued, pushing her on again.

"Ok... if you insist, I'll tell him exactly how I feel." She assured him, and clicked away, her cape flowing freely behind her as she whipped around.

* * *

Casey Steele, a rare black wolf, was sitting quietly at his lunch bench, not saying a word or making a sound. He was wearing black and white urban camouflage slacks, black combat boots, and a Pagan vest studded with steel squares.

He casually removed his black headphones, and pulled down his little Emo glasses. A blushing raven girl was now leaning on the table in front of him, pulling back her black cowl. "Can I help you...?" he asked in his deep, emotive voice. He then gazed down Aeiea's shaking features. She wasn't ugly, far from it actually. Her body was quite shapely, and her face was prettily charming, however black and sleek with greased-over feathers.

"Uh... Hi Casey..." the crow stuttered, her voice cracking noticeably. The fox raised an eyebrow.

'Exactly how I feel...' Aeiea thought to herself. "I'm horny." She said aloud, her beak-mouth paying a bright smile.

"Oook... Hmmmyeah... I'm gonna go." Casey murmured, standing up quickly and running away, thoroughly freaked out. Aeiea wept into her arms, trotting back over to Kyle.

"What happened? What did you say?" the blue panther asked, a curious and concerned expression on his face.

"It's hopeless! I'm not even his species... oooh... what is wrong with me?" the raven wailed, draping her pessimistic posture onto Kyle.

He patted her on the back, saying "Nothing. You just need to brighten your outlook on things is all..." he whispered. "Here, talk to this guy, he helps me!" the panther said, dreaming up the best idea he had had all day. He wrote down the phone number for Dr. Auburn on a piece of paper, and handed it to the crow-girl.

"A shrink? I can't see a councilor! My parents don't want me to..." the girl groaned, halfheartedly stuffing the little shred of note.

Kyle looked again very curious. "What did you say to Casey?"

"I told him that I was... horny. You know, like you said," Aeiea recited her words, smiling as if waiting for approval.

The panther jumped, quite startled at what she had said. "You have never talked to a boy before have you?" he asked.

Aeiea shook her head again.

"Not in your whole life?"

"Only you, blue one..." the raven finished, closing her eyes and looking away.

"Speak to Dr. Auburn, he can help you. That is all I have to say. 'See you around Aeiea." He stopped as he was walking away, turning around once more. "By the way... you can call me Kyle." He finished, paying her a smile of honest friendship.

As the blue panther strutted out into the cafeteria, he was met by Keller and Aaron.

"Hey Kyle, where were you?" Keller, the very tall jaguar asked, his voice hissing annoyingly through his big braces.

"Chatting..." Kyle replied simply, not even bothering to buy a lunch. He sighed, changing the subject. "I hate Mondays."

"Well, you can always eat Nikki out when you get home. That seems to make things better," Aaron scorned, folding his scoutly arms over his chest.

"Ignoring that..." the blue panther hissed, squinting threateningly. In spite of himself, eating Nikki out sounded pretty good.

"What was your next class again, Kyle?" Keller asked. The jaguar anchored his tall, stalky body with one great paw at his locker.

Kyle sighed for the hundredth time in the past minute, his complexion an abrupt transit to melancholia. "English."

"That sucks... you have Mustain don't you?" he asked back, smiling at the satisfying click of his locker hatch.

"Buller," Kyle corrected, grabbing his huge book from out of his silicone notebook and walking away.

"I don't know... uh. Does Kyle seem kind of drab to you?" Keller said nervously, "I might just be me..."

Aaron walked by, pushing the gentle giant aside. "It's just you." He snapped, storming away. Keller, once again left alone, frowned.

* * *

"I want to do 'something'," Nikki whined to Kyle on their way home through the usual grassy trail.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" the panther asked back, a knowing grin on his face.

"I'm real horny..." she said, leaning her head against her boyfriend's waist as if to give him a big hint.

"Nikki... you're always horny." Kyle said back, patting his Neko on the head and scratching one of her cute little ears.

"That's the way Nekos are... you've got to keep us satisfied," she replied, running one of her delicate fingers over Kyle's plain.

Kyle wisely decided to change the subject. "So... uhh... what do you want to do for the- hem... date this Saturday?" he asked, avoiding Nikki's big green eyes.

"We should go to Alberta's," the Neko replied, "Then over to Mac's for dessert..."

"We could always have dessert at my place." Kyle offered, looking down at Nikki. The Neko made a hand motion that looked like she was jacking Kyle off, taking a load of facial. "Hey, not the 'dessert' I had in mind..."

Nikki smiled innocently, a bright little halo hovering over her head. "How about we go hang out at your house, then?" she asked, hugging him around the waist.

"Yeah... I'm just gonna lay back for a while." The panther said, stretching widely at the crosswalk to his street came into view outside of the grassy trail.

As the two of them stepped up the stairs into Kyle's home, they were greeted by a pleasant guest. A little non-Anthro cat was sitting in front of the two of them, its eyes boring into them with a deceptive calm.

"Hi there kitty!" Nikki squeaked, picking up the now-purring cat and cradling it in her short arms.

"That's Mr. Linseed's cat. Darwin I think." Kyle observed, scratching the little animal behind the ears as Nikki set it down. "I wish I had a cat of my own..."

"Kyle, you are a cat..." the Neko said obviously, then finished with, "Besides, you have me!"

Kyle smiled and rubbed Nikki's upper arm affectionately, pushing his front door open.

"Hi honey, how was school?" came Fiona Eighly's predictable call.

"Fine, I brought Nikki over, is that alright?" the panther replied, letting the Neko kick off her shoes on the tile inside the door.

"Of course! You two have homework to do then?"

"It is Monday, isn't it?" Kyle said sarcastically to his mother, stepping upstairs with Nikki.

The Neko quickly sat herself down on the end of Kyle's bed, arching her back and stretching in a catlike fashion. "Ready to have some fun?" she asked, smiling eagerly.

"Nikki, my parents are home!" Kyle replied, perhaps a bit too loudly.

"I'll be quiet..." she assured him, wearing that innocent look again.

"Doubtful..." Kyle muttered, walking over to the bed.

"Hey... Kyle, I got this... kink in my neck..." the Neko moaned at length, "Could you work it out for me?"

Kyle, in turn, tried to resist her cute flirting. His common sense let up again and walked over to her. "Yeah, just relax. I'll make you feel real nice," he purred, sitting behind her with his legs around her waist. He let her tail tickle his chin as he started to knead at her slender shoulders. "You've got stress... are you ok, Nikki?" he whispered into her twitching ear, letting his fingers invert to the bottom of her shoulder blades.

"Oooh yeah... just a little lower... in the middle. There, God... don't stop," Nikki moaned, caressing the back of her head on Kyle's throat.

"Shh... you said you would be quiet!" the panther scolded into her erect cat-ear. He pulled upward at her shirt-skirt, and let his furry paws work at her bare back.

"Sorry... oh, wow... it feels so good," she moaned back, letting her little tongue hang out of her mouth. "How do you know what makes me feel so... ahh... nice?"

"I just go with the flow..." Kyle replied, wrapping his paws around her entire chest and teasing her hard nipples. "You want me to make you happy with my tongue?"

Nikki smiled eagerly, nodding her head and arching her pretty little back even more. Kyle hoisted the Neko up by the waist, turning around and setting her delicate, limp body against his pillow. He slipped her shirt-skirt off over her shoulders, admiring the curves of her tiny body. The panther started to rub his rough tongue along the broad of her already wet panties, savoring her sweet, if dulled taste. He then rubbed his nose over her clothed, though swollen canyon, taking in her aroma at the same time, then proceeding to licking her underwear over some more.

The Neko moaned quietly, as if she was whispering her pleasure. "Quit teasing... uhn... go inside me... please...!" she purred, her voice becoming louder with the last few syllables. Kyle reached his fuzzy paws up, massaging her flat chest with lulling ease, and calming her down, down all the way across her thighs and to the edge of her little panties. The panther pushed her undergarments to the left, revealing the Neko's swollen, pink love.

Kyle's ears pricked up, and he pulled away slightly from Nikki. His eyes drowned in pure, fearful yellow as his pupils demented themselves to slits.

"Thanks Mrs. Eighly!" Aaron's voice called out from downstairs, and his padded footprints were heard progressing up the stairs. Kyle's room door swung open.

Both Nikki and Kyle looked at Aaron, who was standing and watching in amazement. "What did I tell you Kyle? You would be eating Nikki out by this afternoon, and I just knew it," he chided, cracking knuckles.

Kyle laughed a little at the irony. Nikki spasmed as his sigh tickled her sensitive area.

"Yeah, well... Nikki. You're kinda cute, even though you're still flat as a pancake..." the black panther muttered, petting the Neko's stomach and chest affectionately. Nikki, to his surprise, smiled and giggled.

He blushed, then turned to Kyle, whose face was still wet with Nikki's extract. "We going to the arcade or what?"

Kyle nodded, kissing the Neko's slit once more, then climbing over her to put her discarded garb back on. "You got money?"

"Yeah. I'm all set. I think there might be dinner in it too." Aaron said quickly, turning several pockets out before drawing his wallet.

"Hey, thanks man. Nikki, are you awake?" Kyle asked, taking the upper half of the catgirl's body in his arms.

"We can do this again later, right?" she panted, looking up at Kyle lustfully.

"Jesus... you two are busy...!" Aaron observed, rolling his eyes as he watched the two kitties begin to make out again. "Can we go?"

"Yeah, sure." Kyle and Nikki both said in unison, walking hand-in-hand past Aaron.

He rolled his eyes and followed.

* * *

"Nothing over here. Check, and affirmative. Get ready to lay down some heavy suppressive on the east advancement." Kyle muttered, batting his paw on his armored chest and ramming a clip into his glossy assault rifle.

"Negative, Kyle. We can't get the visual." Aaron replied into his COM unit, clicking off his HUD and sitting back.

"Look out Aaron, Nikki, we've got-" there was some static, and Kyle's voice went in the other two's helmets.

"Nikki, did you hear what he said?" Aaron asked ducking under the overhang, the only thing of him visible were the gloss-shines on his black body-armor.

"Sounded urgent though... wait till the signal comes back." The lesser armored Neko replied, her voice amplified as well as fuzzed by the al-terrain communicator in her retraction helmet. "I think he said-"

"BOAGIES at THREE O' CLOCK!" Kyle's voice screeched into both of their ears again. Nikki drew her 'forty-five in both hands, firing into the north-east position, where the east advancement of formatted enemies were charging from.

"Nikki, for God's sake, aim when you shoot!" Aaron chided, bringing the butt of his rifle to his cheek and packing some caps into the approaching aircraft.

"No good, no good! Fall back Aaron!" Kyle yelled over the padding and ringing of ricocheting shells.

"Nah, I got a visual now..." the black-armored panther insisted, his right paw about to squeeze the trigger.

Nikki bounded right, over and around the overhang, where she was now perched. She busted a few haughty caps into some few haughty enemy's heads.

"Fall back, both of you! I'm telling you! That thing's armed. Oh shit, they got a..." static stunted his voice through the microphone in his helmet, "flank, party of five..."

BAM. Static.

"Oh shit... Kyle's down." Aaron cursed, backing up as a bullet whirred past his ear. "Nikki, we need a seizure, a 'frag, anything!"

"I'm going! I gotta back it-" the line broke off at the words: "Crap... I tripped."

Aaron was now back-to-back with himself, firing wildly and stumbling back under the overhang. He winced as a heavy weight bore down on his shoulders, too heavy for him. He was crushed under the burden of the assault, and then everything went black.

Game Over.

"Crap!" Nikki shouted, throwing off her game helmet.

"Don't shit yourself, kitty. Let's get some dinner." Aaron said rudely, strutting for the door out of the arcade.

Kyle hung up his helmet, and hugged Nikki up to his side. "We should've stayed at my house..." he whispered into her ear, then listened to her giggle.

"We going to go back there?" the Neko asked hopefully.

"I think we can find a better spot to do that than on my bed..." the blue panther replied, blushing.

"Where?" Nikki asked, honestly interested. "How about the floor of my old game room? Shag carpet."

"Ohhh... yeah. That'll do it." Kyle muttered, more to himself than to Nikki. "You've got me excited for once."

The little catgirl closed her eyes, tilted her head, and smiled.

The teriyaki shop down the sidewalk from the mini-mall was a nice place to eat dinner, as they were open all the time.

"Now that we're here, I am a little hungry-" Kyle started, but was interrupted by a car horn.

"Nikki, C'mon we've got to go!" shouted Samantha Wagner from her small Sudan across the street.

"Where are you-" both Aaron and Kyle started to say, but Nikki waved a nervous goodbye to the two panther, and ran off into the car.

"Hmm... odd." Kyle shrugged, then continued to the restaurant with his friend.

* * *

"Mama, where are we going?" Nikki asked, as her mother handed her a hooded sweater.

"Your dad has a meeting in Evansbhurg, we will get dinner on the way back." Mrs. Wagner replied, turning back to face the road.

"But-"

"Hush Nikki, I'm late as it is!" Curt Wagner snapped, turning onto the freeway and driving on cruise control for several minutes.

The three of them arrived at a large office building, which they entered under the lush marble archway.

"Wait in here Nikki." Samantha said, quickly pushing her daughter into a large waiting room and walking away.

Nikki gazed about, quite nervous. In the waiting room sat four people, formerly listening to music on headphones. All eyes of the four humans in the room turned to the Neko, who was wearing a black sweater with the cowl up. The hem of the hoody hung just below her knees.

"Hey, there's a little girl, eh?" one of the humans in the room said to another, then looking back at her with a friendly face. "Hi there, my name's Allison... by the looks of it, we're gonna be in here for a while."

The four humans in the room were all older than Nikki, probably around Kyle's age.

"Yeah, well, I'm Allison, this here is Parker, David, and Lyddie." Allison said, pointing in linearity from one person to another. "What is your name?"

"Nikki." She replied, taking a few nervous steps to the corner of the room.

"Nikki... hmm. I got a cousin named Nikki. Say, why you wearin' that sweater, eh?" Said Lyddie, who was laid back in her cheep econo-chair across the room.

"Its cold." Nikki replied.

"I don't know what you're talking about, eh?" David quipped, "It has got to be at least seventy degrees..."

"C'mon Nikki, we all know that's a lame excuse, you don't have to be embarrassed. Take off your coat and stay a while, eh?" Allison said, waving the Neko over.

Nikki though quickly of what to say. "I'm not wearing anything under it." She put in finally.

"Nonsense! I can see your collar-" Parker barked, but Nikki cut in rudely.

"I'm not gonna take it off!" she yelled finally, and everyone in the room went quiet.

"I got it. You didn't brush your hair this morning!" Lyddie said, snapping her fingers and pointing to Nikki's hood.

"No... um..." Nikki said, turning her back to the four humans in the waiting room.

"your hiding something... hmm... there must be some kind of drugs on your figure-" David started suspiciously.

"David! Be nice to the little girl!" Allison snapped, standing up, then kneeling next to Nikki. "If you don't want us to see your body... it's ok. I understand-"

Nikki whipped around, her teeth gritted, and her eyes-ears, then she let her tail unfurl behind her.

"Why are you wearing those ears?" Parker asked, while Allison reached to pull them off.

"Ouch, cut it out!" the Neko snapped, turning away in shame. She expected to be called a freak just then.

"Woah... you're a... a kitty." Allison said at length, poking at the Neko's twitching tail.

"Shove it... just leave me alone, please." Nikki wept, her ears flattening to her head.

"Leave you alone? Wait, no you misconstrue!" Allison said aloud, "That's awesome! You are like... a cat and a girl! Can you jump real far, and climb on walls and-" Allison stopped abruptly. "Can you purr?"

"Yes... no... and, er- yes." Nikki said, gaining face, and the four humans in the room smiled brightly at each other, then at the Neko.

Allison smiled widely, and started to rub Nikki behind the ears.

Nikki, her little fangs showing over her lips, let her tongue and freely, and she sat down and rolled over in spite of herself.

Allison tickled Nikki's neck, and the Neko started to purr softly. "Aww! That is sooo cute!" she wailed, more questions boiling in her mind. "Do you have any claws?"

"Um... no. I'm only a half-breed..." the catgirl muttered, prodding Allison for more petting by rubbing her head on the human girl's shoulder.

She scratched the Neko a little more behind the ears, then simply patted her on the head.

"Wait, you said you were a 'half breed', right?" Parker asked Nikki, "Does that mean furries are real?"

Nikki looked up form Allison's shoulder. "'Furries'?" the Neko asked back.

"It's what we humans call... Anthros. You know, like... you, but with more animal than human." Lyddie clarified, putting her fingers to her chin casually.

"Oh... um... yeah. My mama is an Anthro." Nikki said softly.

"She must have left you for a meeting upstairs, eh?" David started, "How old are you, six or seven?"

"I'm twelve." Nikki replied flatly, then rubbing her nose on Allison's arm for more petting.

"Wow... are you sure? Maybe you don't know the math yet-" Allison said at length, but Nikki seemed offended.

"I have the... er... body- of an eight-year-old, see. Well, um... Nekos have pretty small bodies and-" the Neko started, backing away from Allison a little.

"Do you have a lot of friends back home?" David said aloud, standing up and stretching, mostly to get a better view of Nikki.

"I have a few... er. Riku Nushuida-" the catgirl began, then she law Lyddie's face light up.

"Riku, I talk to her on the internet!" the girl said happily, crossing her legs.

"Do you know that she is a vixen?" Nikki asked flaccidly, letting her body fall back onto the hard, industrial carpet.

"I'm not... into girls in that way Nikki-"

"No, not 'that'. I mean she is a fox. An Anthro."

"Wow... she never told me. All she said was that she lives in Glen Rock..." Lyddie replied sternly, crossing her arms in a pensive pose.

"I live in Glen Rock..." the catgirl put in quietly. Nikki finally decided to take a seat on the cheap ottoman near the waiting room's couch.

"So Nikki, you're twelve, eh?" Parker asked, sitting back with his hands folded behind his head. "Have you met that special 'someone'?"

Nikki blushed heavily, causing Allison to giggle out loud. "Well... um... yeah. His name is... Kyle."

"Is he imaginary?" David asked rudely, tilting his head.

"No! He's real. He's a panther. And-" the Neko started.

"Another Anthro? Must be some kind of furry town, Glen Rock." Allison said to herself, and the other three humans in the room. "Is he hot?"

Nikki blushed even more. "Um-"

"Anyone want to play pool upstairs?" Parker asked as though he had been holding the burning question in. He stood up and went for the door.

"I'm gonna stay here with Nikki, but you guys can go if you want." Allison stated with a friendly smile.

"Ok. It was nice meeting you Nikki." Lyddie waved, as the other three of them walked out.

Now that Allison was alone with the Neko, she asked, "Have you and Kyle ever 'yiffed'?"

The Neko recoiled, blushing and averting her gaze. "Why would you ask me that?" she stuttered, her voice now shaky and cracking.

"Just curious. Hey, you didn't say no, eh?" the human girl replied lewdly.

"But... I'm too young. I-" the catgirl started to reply, but Allison cut in yet again.

"You do have a nice body, even if it is kind of young..." she said, bringing her hands up to Nikki and running them all the way from under her arms to her waist. She began to stroke the Neko's thighs.

"Allison, stop! C'mon, you're not a... you know... lesbian, are you?" Nikki yelled, but reduced to a whisper at the last part.

"I didn't say I wasn't..." she replied, pulling Nikki closer to her.

"Stop! Don't touch me anymore! You want to do something fun?" Nikki asked angrily, seeing Allison's eager expression.

She nodded.

"Have you ever been to the local arcade?" the Neko asked.

She shook her head.

* * *

"Run?" Nikki asked, throwing down her spent assault rifle and stomping on it in frustration.

"No, you coward!" Allison shouted, hopping into the back of the gun-mounted jeep.

"Look behind you." Nikki said flatly, her hands on her hips.

Allison turned around slowly, now face-to-face with a hideous virtual alien. The beast had a snarling, fluffy green lizard face with two jaws. It was brandishing what looked like a raw plasma torch in its right claw. "Run?" Allison asked shakily.

"I won't tell if you don't!" Nikki replied, jamming another clip into her 'forty-five and sprinting away with the girl, only to be followed and met by more beasts. The two of them were boxed in, about to be crushed and burned by lasers and gleaming blades. "Nice knowing you Allison..."

The beast behind them fell with a lurch, and the shimmering 'shank' of a blade could be heard. "Hit the dirt, girls!" the boy behind them asked, and they complied quickly. He packed several magazines into the brutal aliens, the armor piercing rounds spilling virtual alien slime onto the two cowering girls.

Nikki's tail flicked as a bullet whizzed an inch past it.

"Cool! How did you get the tail and ears? Some kind of game mod?" the boy, Jim Baxtor, asked Nikki.

"Yeah... brought it from home." The armored Neko replied, blushing. She punched her own chest, hitting the button to put up her gear helmet to hide it.

"Jimmy!" Allison squeaked, running and hugging the tall boy.

"Hey Ally, who's your friend?" Jim asked, sheathing his sword and setting his rifle on his shoulder.

"This is Nikki. Nikki, this is Jim Baxtor, long time school-buddy!" Allison introduced, pushing Nikki forward.

She waved absently.

Jim was wearing crimson armor, which gleamed exceptionally in contrast with his bare head. "Oh, come now. That's hardly proper..." he said, reaching his huge hand out to shake the Neko's tiny one.

Nikki smiled and back up. "Mew, mew." She said, bowing and laughing.

"Ooook... nice to meet you. But C'mon, I saw a bandage up by the Reaming Spire. Let's clear 'em out girls!" he said nobly, expelling his clip and halfheartedly stuffing a new one into the chamber.

"What are we up against?" Allison asked, beating her chest to engage her helmet.

"Players... from some other small town I guess. Little Rock?" he said apathetically.

"No, that's in like, Montana. It must be... oh crap. Glen Rock." Allison yelped, looking across the screen of her GPS.

"Um... Jim? Have you ever seen an Anthro in this game?" Nikki asked worriedly clutching the hammer bar on her pistol.

"I've never seen anyone like that in my life. They're not real." Jim replied concretely.

"You had better not turn around then..." Allison warned, not even bothering to draw her gun.

"Why-"

BAM. The boy fell down and disappeared instantly.

"I'm real. You had better believe it you bastard!" Aaron shouted, spitting on the area where the boy's virtual corpse had disappeared. "No way!" the black panther continued. "Nikki!"

"Aaron! I didn't know these things were connected. Humans and Anthros hardly ever see each other in here, I guess." Nikki said, hugging the panther around his black-armored waist. "Where is Kyle?"

"He died... he's back at our command post. Who's this?" Aaron replied, then asked, pointing his gun to Allison, who winced.

"Don't shoot! Her name is Allison-" the Neko pleaded, jumping up and pulling the cat's arm down.

"Woah... a real live furry..." the human girl said in amazement. "I honestly didn't believe in you guys."

"We prefer the term 'Anthros'. And you best start believing if you want to stay alive for more than half the match." Aaron threatened, flitting his tail.

"Some 'Muds' took our jeep. NPCs, no big deal. It's make picking up Kyle a hell of a job though..." Nikki said professionally.

"So... what is this game called again? I should've started playing it a long time ago." Allison asked curiously, firing her gun into the air and causing everyone else to jump.

"'Spearhead'." Nikki and Aaron both said in perfect unison, then turned around to gaze down the massive green-hill field. A megalith across the river served as a base for enemies at this point.

"So... er... Aaron. Why did you shoot Jim?" Allison asked, dropping her handgun into its holster.

"Why not?" the black panther replied, hitting the barrel of his rifle in his palm. "You guys have seriously never seen any Anthros before?"

Allison shook her head.

"That's sad... you've never seen how much more kick-ass we are." the panther chided, turning his had and slinging his rifle again.

"Get your head out of the clouds, Aaron! We've got work to do!" Nikki yelled, running across the field to the rock opposite the river.

"You're all the way over in Glen Rock right now?" Ally asked the black panther.

"Yeah..." he replied deeply, running after the Neko. Allison then followed the two cats over to a vantage point under the megalith.

"Nikki, you're small enough. Can you get under there?" Aaron asked, pointing to a crawlspace under the rock's meniscus. Nikki nodded, putting down her helmet and disappearing under the gigantic stone. "Now we wait..."

The distant sound of a roaring motor could be heard behind them. "What the...?" Allison muttered, then jumped in fright as a dusting jeep flew over the horizon.

"Fuego! Fuego El gato!" San Iago Hau-Dez, who was standing and holding onto the gun-mount of the soaring, ramping vehicle yelled. He was brandishing a victorious saber in his right arm, landing in the shallow water in the river off of the jeep and rolling.

"La Chico est moir Riku contactos mal fortuna! El Zorro dun femme, rojo est mui loco!" San shouted over the purr of the engine.

Kyle hopped out of the driver's seat. He held up the bleeding head of an alien enemy, and tossed it to Aaron.

"Lovely..." the black panther said, dropping the bleeding part.

"Where is Nikki? Who is this?" Kyle asked, pointing his finger, not his gun, to Allison.

"Nikki is under the rock... and this is Allison... Nikki's new... er... friend." Aaron replied, looking at the human and thinking 'lesbian' just by the way she looked at the Neko.

Allison waved at the blue panther, and at the orange tabby. "So you are Kyle?" she asked, beating her chest to erect her combat helmet.

"Yeah... so you met Nikki, eh?" the panther next to the rumbling jeep asked, slinging his gun and running his paw through his blue hair. "What is she doing all the way in Evansbhurg?"

"I guess her dad works at the company over here, and they kind of dropped her off. She and I just walked down to the arcade." Allison replied, and Aaron scowled unprovoked.

"What is taking that kitty so long?" the black panther asked, his gun remaining slung over his shoulder. A few minutes after he asked, Nikki emerged from under the megalith

"No one up there-" the Neko started, then her eyes lit up, "Kyle!" she jumped up with her legs around his waist, and kissed him.

Kyle was disappointed that he could not actually feel the kiss, but he caressed Nikki's armored back virtually anyway.

Allison scowled.

"What is wrong with you, girl?" San asked the human, placing the tip of his sword onto her nose.

"Nothing."

"Sure don't look like nothing to me... Unos missiles por favor!" the tabby ordered, and Aaron dropped a single high-velocity round into his hand. "To death! Fuego!" he yelled finally, pointing his loaded, overkill-poised weapon to the girl head. "Funny, no?"

Kyle immediately batted the Mexican tabby's hand down, twisting his thin wrist to dislodge the gun from his fingers. "Casualty is not funny." He scolded, tossing the perfectly good gun over his shoulder. "Move on soldiers."

* * *

Zach and Fiona Eighly were lounging easily in their dimly lit living room, awaiting Kyle's return from the arcade.

"He must be home, by now anyway." Fiona complained, walking for the front door to look outside.

Her paw was an inch away from the knob, when a melancholy knock sounded from the other side. Fiona pulled open the door, and her pink husband looked up from the newspaper. The panthress's eyes opened wide, as she was now face-to-face with a burly, uniformed wolf.

The wolf's gray-furred face showed intimidating contrast with his green military uniform. A few purple hearts, captain's bars, and medals of honor dotted his noble apparel. He removed his hat, and a tear ran down the front of his olive uniform. "The parents of Rajmir Kenneth Eighly?" he wept, trying to show pride and hold back his mournful tears.

"Yes. Good evening...?" Fiona replied, and Zach stood up at her side.

"It is my deepest regret to inform you that," the general started, then looked up at the couple of panthers. "May I come in? We should sit down..."

"Certainly, please have a seat."

"I am General Wiley Quincy, and I have a police escort for this news..." the uniformed wolf said, his voice stunted. "Your son, Raj. One of our finest warriors. Heart of gold..." he continued, his hat over his heart. "Yes... well... I regret to inform you that he was, last night, put under official Surgeon General's rest."

"Oh my God..." Fiona wept into her husband's shoulder.

"Is he... ok?" Zach asked the military officer, patting his wife on the back.

"I am sorry Mr. Eighly... he never made it out of the operation..." general Quincy wept, setting his badged hat on the table. "I am deeply sorry. Of all my years in service, all the bloodshed and losses, taking names is the saddest part of my job." With that, the wolf passed over Raj's medical records, and over the secrecy was stamped 'Killed in Action'.

"No! Raj is gone! He can't be..." Fiona wailed, slamming her fist onto the table and leaving a considerable dent in the wood's finish.

"I am deeply sorry ma'am... truly I am." Quincy wept, "This Saturday will be a eulogy for the lost soldiers hailed from Glen Rock, Pennsylvania. I assure you that Raj will be mentioned with sovereignty." He placed his hat back over his heart. "Good night, ma'am, sir." With that, the wolf walked away, out the door.

General Quincy, all his life, was haunted by the sounds of crying and weeping mothers.

"How can we tell Kyle?" Fiona wept, her face in the glossy finish of the dinner table.

"We have to tell him, Fiona. When he gets home, we need to sit down with him." Zach replied, dripping tears onto his wife's head.

About fifteen minutes later, Kyle walked into a dim, quiet evening in the house. All the lamps were off, and only the blue of the dulling sky shade lit the many silhouettes of trinkets and things from the living room.

"Kyle... you're home..." Fiona sniffed. "Please sit down, we need to talk."

Kyle's first impression was that he was in trouble, so he trotted sadly over to the couch opposite his parents. His second impression was of fearful confusion, as an upright picture of Raj illuminated by a candle stood at the end table of the gray couch.

"Mom, Dad, what hap-" Kyle started, the room around his seemed to be spinning, and his mother's voice seemed a lot louder now.

"Honey... please take this slow, and easy. Don't be afraid." Fiona started, and Zach merely sat next to her with his eyes closed. "A man stopped by earlier. And he told us... well..." she passed over the classified folder to her son, and Kyle scanned over it with his eyes.

"Is this a joke, Mom?" the young panther asked, then his eyes widened abruptly when she shook her head.

He looked down at the top of the first page of medical notes. 'Eighly, Rajmir K: Killed in Action'. Kyle dropped the folder, falling to his knees in front of the couch. He didn't even have the energy, or the vibe at all to cry, so he merely stared forward. He wasn't looking at his mother, or his father. Just nothing.

"It's just a nightmare. A dream. At seven o' clock, you will come up to my room and turn off my alarm. Wake me up in the morning. Six weeks until Raj comes home!" the panther-boy laughed, his voice on the brink of euphoric insanity.

"Kyle, please don't do this to yourself. This is not a nightmare. Raj is gone. I'm sorry." The panthress whispered, walking over to her son. Zach stood up, and left, his eyes wide as well. He couldn't bear to see his son like that any longer.

"Oh my baby, I'm so sorry that this happened. I fell like it's all my fault..." Fiona whispered, with her arms now full around her kneeling son.

"Mother..." Kyle muttered, his voice high pitched with coming tears. He continued when he felt his mother's head nod onto his shoulder. "I want to die."

"Kyle, please don't say that! Raj received his reward. He's up in heaven now with... er... Pachelbel and Mozart." The panthress said to her son, who was still frozen solid with grief.

"I just want to see him again. Make him come back... we can do it. No one is gone forever!" Kyle said maniacally, only making his grieving mother cry harder.

"No Kyle. Raj is gone. Forever."

"How do I make the pain go away, mother?" the young panther asked, standing up zombily, as though he no longer had a soul.

"It will. In time. Raj is in a better place. Much better." She said to her son. "Please, now. Go to bed. Stay home from school tomorrow if you need to. Just remember, Raj is happy now. Up in heaven with no more worries."

* * *

Kyle lay awake in bed, his paws around his own neck. All he had to do was squeeze, and his claws would do the rest. The pain would be over and done with.

He couldn't do it, as it would be a selfish thing, suicide. He could not bring himself to pass the pain he felt right now to his mother, father, friends, and most of all, Nikki. With a curse to cruel life, Kyle shut his eyes, envisioning Raj's face in his mind. Troubled slumber seized him, and he thanked God that it was sound sleep. No disturbing dreams. He knew that it was Raj doing that, from the big scratching post in the sky, his brother took away his nightmares.

The next morning was cold, even under his covers, and his sheets, Kyle was freezing cold. His depression knocked itself back up, making it difficult for him to find a need to ever, ever get out of bed. It was Tuesday, and his mother had called him in to stay home from school.

Finally, the panther stood up, walking down the carpeted stars of his house, still in his boxers. Kyle didn't feel like eating breakfast, as it was just a waste of time. He just sat there, basking in oblivion as if waiting for something, anything, to happen to him.

That thing came, after an hour of complete nothing in Kyle's mind, there was a hasty knock at his front door. He was still in his underwear, but he didn't give the slightest care anymore.

He opened the door quickly, seeing Riku standing in the frame.

"You want to walk to school then...?" the vixen's eyes widened at the sight of Kyle mostly naked.

"I'm not going." The panther replied concretely.

"Well... um. Neither am I. Can I come in?" Riku asked, stepping inside anyway.

"I don't care." Kyle said dully, turning around.

"You must be sad, I heard what happened to Ra-"

"Don't say his name!" Kyle barked, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Sorry."

"Why are you here, Riku?" the panther asked, once again, not bothering to look at her. In reply, Riku opened her backpack, revealing a glossy, green bottle of tequila.

"I thought you might want some. It always helps me. Takes the pain away." The fox said empathetically, pouring out two shots, and handing one of the small crystal cups to the panther across the table.

Kyle stared absently at the shot. After a few seconds, he took it, and dropped its contents into his throat. The strong alcohol burned all the way down his throat, somewhat warming and dulling his senses. "Strong." He muttered.

Riku promptly refilled the panther's shot, passing it back to him. "Drink some more, please. It doesn't bother me."

The blue panther complied without question. By now, his right mind was taking a dive for its life. Kyle passed the shot back for another round. "Thanks Riku."

"What are friends for?"

"I'm sorry about yesterday... at school. I wasn't thinking right..." he murmured to her, taking his third shot and asking for yet another.

"Shhh... drink. It's ok." Riku whispered, only on her second shot by now. She sighed. "I didn't tell anyone this. I had a twin sister... her name was Tara... but she died in my mother's arms at birth..."

"I'm sorry Riku... you have had to live with that all your life... and me only a day..." Kyle, now on his seventh shot, said absently.

"See Kyle, I care about you. When I... reach out to you like I did at school... I just want help..." the vixen said, wrapping her arms around the panther next to her.

Kyle took a deep breath. "I feel like... nothing. There is no pain... I can't think."

Riku smiled emotionlessly, scooting hr empty shot away. "Don't think." She said, embracing and kissing Kyle passionately on the lips, letting her weight fall onto and around his lap. The panther returned her loving kiss tenfold, massaging her soft, furry back with his great paws. Kyle stood up with her, still paying their romantic, if drunken, embrace and journeying into the living room, all the way onto the couch.

"If... if you're half as good a fuck as I dreamed you are... I-I'd be cumming already..." Riku moaned between sighs of kissing.

"We'll see about that..." Kyle whispered back, nibbling on the fox's sensitive ear.

Riku started to pull off her jeans, under which she wore no panties. Kyle ran his broad paws over the fuzzy cleft of her shapely ass, eventually reaching her tail. He followed up to the back of her tiny, striped top, pulling it over her head and laying it on the arms of the cushy sofa.

"Oh... I love being naked... especially with you Kyle..." the vixen moaned, pulling up his furry face again and sliding her smooth tongue into his mouth. Kyle simply slid off his boxers, revealing his pink cock, which was rising and swelling with his drunken lust. He slip his shaft all the way into Riku, causing her to scream in surprise at the unfair intrusion. Once Kyle was in, he began a soft rhythm of kissing, massaging, and fucking on the trembling fox on top of him.

"Are you always this gentle with Nikki?" Riku sighed, melting over Kyle's fluffed up chest.

Kyle jumped with surprise, realizing what he was doing. "Nikki?" he said aloud, "Oh shit... Riku this is wrong, we should... stop."

"Shhh. Settle down kitty, it feels way too good to stop..." she moaned, licking the panther's neck and jerking her hips.

The young panther was now aroused, gyrated his hips to grind the head of his member around inside of his bitch. "'Cumming already', huh?" he chided, the tickle on his sensitive area giving him a stutter. Kyle's legs started to shake, and he hugged Riku tight.

"Ack! Too much love... can't breathe!" she moaned, as Kyle finally sent his seed into her. Riku's big fluffy fox-tail flicked as she felt Kyle spread his legs out.

"Whew... that's the end of that chapter..." Kyle moaned, opening his crossed eyes. "Am I drunk...? I won't remember any of... this... tomorrow..."

"Why would you want to forget me?" Riku asked, pulling her thighs up and taking a rope of sticky cum with her.

"I should not have done that..." the panther sighed. "I... I don't love you Riku... I'm sorry..." he finished, closing his eyes again and tearing with spent pleasure.

"I'm not going to stay up- uhn... at some ungodly hour stretching my creative muscle..." the fox said sarcastically.

"That's not... what I mean..." Kyle grunted, rolling onto his side. Riku positioned herself behind his purring form. "I'm in love with Nikki... and I am sad... very sad... disappointed that you would levy that..."

"Nikki's just a little whore..." Riku giggled, tickling the panther's ear with her slender, black-furred fingers.

"That shit coming from you, Riku?" Kyle replied harshly, "You just got me drunk so I would bang your brains out..."

"Uh oh... someone needs some more tequila..." Riku jeered, "Baby needs his bottle?"

"Oh shut up you slut!" he yelled, standing up and pulling her boxers back on.

"You'd pass out right now if I told you how many shots you had..." the vixen threatened, her nude body striking a sly, sexy pose by the kitchen table.

"Try me."

"Ten."

Kyle looked down at his big blue paws. One, two, three, four paws. That's not good. He passed out on the carpet then and there.

"Heh... cats. Hate to say I told you so..." Riku started, kneeling down right to Kyle's unconscious face. "...but it looks like you just passed out." With that, she kissed him on the cheek, dressed herself, then left.

* * *

Kyle, with much effort, opened his eyes. His parents' worried faces were hanging over him. His head was pounding with a pain he could not believe, though his vision had returned to normal.

"Kyle... oh you're ok! I was very worried!" Fiona cried out, hugging her son around the neck, only making his head hurt more.

"What... happened...?" Kyle asked, then jumped in fright as he remembered taking a shot of tequila a few hours before.

"You were drinking... a lot. Why, Kyle?" the panthress wept over her son, pulling him up close to her kneeling form.

"Mother... when I drink... all my worries go away..." the panther, on the floor in his boxers, sighed aloud.

"That is not the right way to loose your worries. They will just keep coming back. You're too young to drink, it could have killed you, Kyle!" Fiona sobbed, standing up.

Kyle closed his eyes, his head was pounding with both grief and the remnants of a hangover.

"Look Kyle. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. It is natural to grieve for a loved one... just... drinking like that isn't the answer." The panthress finished, kissing her son on the forehead. "I will get you in to see Dr. Auburn."

"Your acting like you didn't even know Raj..." Kyle groaned, as a cloud of pessimism shrouded him.

Mrs. Eighly growled. "You don't know how hard this is for me, my son! When the bond between a mother and her child is broken..." she left it at that.

"Sorry Mom... I... just can't believe he's gone..." he said, rolling over and sobbing into his arms. "He's gone..."

"I'm sorry Kyle... well... if it makes you feel any better... I made the same mistake when I was a kitten..." Fiona sighed, "My father had barely survived cancer... the suspense had driven me to make the mistake of drinking..."

Kyle was hardly listening. The only thing he could think about were the words 'Killed in Action'. It was all his fault. He didn't know how, but it was.

"Kyle, you are going to have to go to school tomorrow. I can't leave you alone."

"You didn't tell anyone at school about this did you?" Kyle asked worriedly, not even looking up at his mother.

Fiona shook her head in reply. "No."

* * *

Kyle seriously considered shooting himself. The nagging sense of pre-guilt for suicide was the only thing that kept him alive.

He noticed abruptly from the corner of his eye, that someone was stalking him through the courtyard and into the hallway. The odd thing was... he may as well have imagined it, because he could not see the intruder head on. He turned around one last time to the loosely-clothed silhouette from the corner of his eye, but it was again gone. Kyle turned back around.

"Instant death." The fur now standing in front of him growled. Roger Teager was in his way now, wearing the usual ghetto-samurai apparel. In his usual sword's stead, he now held a meterstick... to Kyle's neck.

"Excuse me Raj... Roger... I don't have time to... do that today..." Kyle groaned stepping aside and walking forth.

"Someone's not kickin' tune today..." Roger sighed, sliding the long ruler into its cardboard sheath at his side.

Kyle pinned in his locker combination, hanging up his backpack and extracting his note and textbooks.

"Kyle! You were awesome in 'Spearhead' last night!" Nikki squeaked from behind the panther.

"Shh... ouch. Nikki not so loud. I have a headache." He moaned, hanging his head emotionally.

"Sorry. So, what is it, six weeks until Raj gets back?" the Neko asked obliviously, stopping as Kyle stopped.

"Don't."

"Don't what? All I said was-" Nikki started, but she found herself pinned against the lockers with a razor-sharp claw pricking her vulnerable neck. "Kyle please! Put me down, your hurting me!" she tried to said, but her voice was high-pitched with stress.

Kyle's eyes augmented again, and he let the catgirl down. She now had bruises on her back shaped like locker dials. "Nikki don't cry... I'm sorry, I just can't believe he's-"

"Coming back?"

Kyle flinched. "No." he knelt down in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "He..." Kyle's eyes, throat, and voice diluted themselves with crying, "Isn't coming back. He's..." the panther swallowed, closing his eyes and overflowing more tears. "Dead."

"Oh my God..." Nikki whispered under her breath, her eyes now wide and her slit-pupils demented. "I'm so sorry... I didn't know..." Nikki wept. "I'll never know... I've been an only child all my life..." she paused, "If there is anything I can do to make you feel better-"

"Your love is all I need." The panther sobbed, hugging Nikki tightly, an embrace which the Neko returned tenfold.

"Don't worry Kyle. I can make you feel happy again. Trust me." She said into his shoulder, looking up at him all the while he stood up and walked away.

Kyle took in all depredation reflecting from the dull gray-blue linings in the school hallways. He needed it.

The panther walked into the math room with Mr. Robinson, who was an unusually tall jackrabbit. He remembered with much undermined consent, that Riku sat in the cluster across from him.

The panther walked over to her, practically praying on his knees to her, "Please... please don't say anything! I'm miserable enough as it is!" he pleaded quietly, kissing the vixen's feet on the floor.

"I appreciate the gesture... but..." Riku said evilly, raising her hand to gain the attention of many students along with the teacher.

"Riku, please don't!" he hissed covering his head as though an earthquake had hit.

"Go easy on Kyle today. He's sick." She said simply, smiling warmly her mercy to the begging blue panther at her feet.

Kyle stood up immediately, taking Riku in an embracing hug of friendship. "Thank you." He whispered very softly into her ear.

"Don't mention it. I do have a heart you know." The deep red vixen whispered back, walking across the room to her desk.

"Would you like to go to the office, Kyle?" Mr. Robinson asked warmly, but the blue panther merely stood up and shook his furry head.

The rest of that school day was fine, aside from the little work due to constant grief. He remembered something very important that he had to tell Nikki as well, though he waited until after school to do it.

* * *

Kyle sat at the little half-couch in his room, the long neck of his new bass guitar resting in his left hand. The panther was tired, having decided only to wear his boxers and a T-shirt. Nikki was sitting at his desk across the room, scratching her pen n some homework papers.

"Ok, Kyle? What was it that you wanted to tell me?" the Neko asked calmly, hooking the last of her finished papers into her notebook.

"Um... it's about our date this Saturday." Kyle started, placing the guitar in its stand next to the small car-bench. "I er... it can't be this Saturday."

"Why not?" Nikki asked disappointedly, dropping her ungodly about of books onto the panther's bed.

"There is a funeral this Saturday... for Raj. I'm sorry... I guess next week then..." Kyle said at length, taking it easy as if her expected Nikki to furious with him.

"Oh... it's ok Kyle. My parents and I will come to the funeral. I promise." The Neko whispered in reply, seeing Kyle sit back in the little cushioned back and close his eyes.

"Thanks Nikki. You don't know how much that means to me. My family as well." He sighed honestly, spreading his arms apart and letting them dangle behind the half-couch. "But what about our date?"

"I can wait. It'll make the real thing more... fun." Little Nikki Neko said at disappointing length.

"I don't feel like getting up..." Kyle said, letting his body droop flaccidly and quite limply onto the little chair.

Nikki crawled over him from the side, letting her warm little body melt onto his spread lap. She started to absently remove his red boxers, running her tiny fingers along his loin.

Kyle took a deep breath, pulling off his T-shirt. "Nikki... is this what you meant when you said-"

"Shh. Remember last time I did this? I wasn't even trying." Nikki whispered wickedly, taking Kyle's hardening dick in her hands.

It felt different to Kyle, being approached from the side like this. Different, but strangely arousing. Nikki ran her wet, rough tongue is a sopping motion along his shaft, massaging it with her right hand, and juggling his testicles with her left.

Once the panther was completely hard, Nikki started with her assault. She pushed her head as far as it would go around his length, pulling it up and spreading her drooling saliva around his head and canyon. The Neko let more spit coat his member, swashing the sticky substance around him, then finally pulling her head up for another full lick from hilt to tip.

Kyle took another deep breath of pleasure, pushing down on Nikki's head uncontrollably with his right paw. She took the invitation full on, wrapping her lips around his head and following all the way down, letting another load of spit coat him to the crotch.

Kyle's own load of precum mixed with her soothing drool, which the catgirl did not hesitate to spread around as well. She wrapped her warm little hand around his cylinder, her spit making the grip slippery. The Neko nibbled softly at his foreskin, her cute little fangs eventually making their way up to the head, were the tongue met them to grind at his most sensitive tip area.

"Nikki... oh God... I'm gonna cum all over you..." the panther moaned, trying to keep his calm, though he curled up his blue toes tightly. In reply, Nikki picked up her head, letting saliva and pre drool down over his cock.

"Almost ready?" the cute little Neko asked, her own eyes half closed.

"I can't hold it in anymore...!" the panther grunted back, picking up his legs.

"Try hard. You can do it..." Nikki whispered, licking his tip again with her rough tongue, and jacking off his spit-slippery shaft at the same time.

"Nikki stop...! I'm trying!" Kyle grunted again, his eyes still closed very tightly, and both of his paws tearing holes in the sides of the little car-bench.

"Just let it out, Kyle..." the Neko whispered again, giving his shaft another temptingly thorough tongue bath.

"No!" he shouted back, moaning uncontrollably at the cute little temptress's warm touches.

"I can make you let it out... watch." The catgirl said evilly, licking him up again, all the way from the balls to the very tip, which was now swollen and red with his effort. Finally, she placed her lips fully around his head, running the tickling fingers of both of her tiny, warm hands up and down his glossy, wet shaft.

Kyle let out a roar, then a grunting moan. Nikki opened her eyes very wide in surprise at the actual amount of jism that the panther expelled. Her mouth filled up instantly with the sticky, warm substance, overflowing and squirting out onto Kyle's longer pubes, then over his furry stomach.

Nikki coughed, getting the stuff out of her throat, then letting it run freely out of her mouth, onto the front of her shirt-skirt.

Kyle moaned again, tilting his fury blue head back over the bench, as a few more smaller squirts broke free form his hold.

"You like...? You like." The Neko hissed, bringing panting Kyle into a wet, cummy kiss on the lips.

Kyle jumped in pleased surprise as Nikki let his own cum fall into his mouth.

The panther smiled and lifted the purring kitty-girl away a few inches. Purring loudly himself, his own spent cum running down his cheeks, he whispered "Nikki... with you around... who needs alcohol?"

Nikki arched her back, letting her tail run itself over the curves that made up the back of her panties. "Are we done?" she asked innocently, purring even louder into Kyle's ear and tickling his shoulder.

"I don't know. Are we?" the panther asked back, wiping the sticky white syrup off of his face. "Is that what my 'stuff' really tastes like?" he then asked.

Nikki nodded, smiling brightly. "It's kinda salty..." the Neko replied, sitting herself back next to her big boy. "Kind of messy around here... I think we'll need a tissue... or two... or ten...?" she giggled, backing up suddenly and swatting Kyle in the arm playfully.

"That was too close last time we did this right after school..." he replied. Referring to a day or two ago, when the two of them had been completely dressed and cum-free within seconds of Mr. And Mrs. Eighly's entrance.

"Where's your sense of adventure?" the Neko asked crawling over him so that her legs were wrapped around his waist, removing her shirt-skirt in the process.

"At least can we take it somewhere else? My parents are gonna be home in like five minutes..." Kyle sighed, lifting Nikki off of him and handing over her shirt. "You know... I need a frappe..." he continued, his thoughts trailing off subject. "What say we head to the coffee shop...?"

Nikki nodded in approval, rubbing her hands together. Kyle turned his head away, hiding his true feeling of deepening grief, which he could not get rid of forever.

* * *

Casey Steele trotted nervously down the common lane, into a back-street where some of the smaller houses stood. The gray-black wolf heaved a deep sigh, stepping up to the third of these dark, secluded housed and quietly rapping on the beaten old door. He heard the shuffling of stressful footsteps on the other side, then the door cracked open.

Casey stared concretely through his Emo glasses at the glossy black eye that peered though it.

Aeiea trembled slightly, as though she had just been doused with a bucket of ice-cold water. "H-hi. Er... hello..." the raven stuttered finally, pulling the chained door fully open.

"Hi...?" Casey started, avoiding her piercing gaze.

"Aeiea. From... school, you know..." the crow-girl continued to mutter, turning completely away and blushing heavily.

"Right. Well... um... I wanted to apologize for ditching you at school... I guess you didn't really... know how to...?" the wolf said forcing a smile to her back, then erasing it as she turned at last to face him. For once, Casey took some time to scan over the raven's slender, cloaked figure.

"Really?" she replied hopefully, pulling down her cowl to cover her flushed, feathery face.

"Well... yeah. That was shallow of me... whether I like you or not." He said with more than a little spent courage.

Aeiea didn't know what to say. The wolf that she had been cluelessly obsessed with for the past months was at her battered doorstep. "D-do you...?"

"Erm... you're very pretty. I just... well. I've never talked to you before. Can I get to know you?" Casey asked, taking a slow step forward.

Aeiea mindlessly nodded, fearfully stepping to the side and letting the black wolf in. She sat down on the torn couch hiding her face. Deep inside, she hoped the Casey would not sit next to her, though was frightened to find that he did just that.

"I guess we should start from the top. I'm Casey Steele." Casey said nervously, prompting the shaking crow to introduce herself.

"I... er... I'm..." Aeiea started, pulling away noticeably as the love of her life leaned slightly forward. "Aeiea Serbia." She finished finally, wincing though unprovoked. Her father didn't like her speaking her name. She was glad that her parents would not be home for about an hour.

"I... um. Well... I'm a wolf. You're a crow."

"Raven." Aeiea corrected, sounding offended.

"I'm sorry." Casey said, dodging the bullet and drawing back. "Tell me about yourself, Aeiea."

"Uhn... don't tell my daddy that I was up here. I'm supposed to stay in the basement..." the raven girl stuttered skeptically, drawing back as well as though the wolf in front of her was holding a knife.

"Oh gee, why?" Casey asked, removing his little round glasses and his black beret.

"Well he says--" she started in reply, but stopped short with a yelp from her beak-mouth as Casey lightly grasped her feathery hands.

"Sorry... uncomfortable?"

"I've hardly ever been touched by anyone before..." Aeiea sighed, her charmingly slender voice now stunted.

"It's ok to be nervous... I'm-" he replied, but stopped as he heard two sets of furious footsteps storm up the front porch. Aeiea's father, Cal Serbia, kicked down the door, lunging into the room. Casey drained of all color as the cold barrel of a shotgun pressed against the back of his head. He dropped Aeiea's hand immediately and put his own the in the air.

"Get the hell out of my house!" the unusually large raven-man screamed, cocking the gun threateningly.

"Daddy, please don't!" Aeiea wept, almost grasping the wolf around the shoulders.

"Shut up!" Cal barked at his daughter. Rita Serbia, Aeiea's mother, stepped slowly into the door at that moment, her face blank of all emotion.

Cal turned around causally, lifting the gun from the boy's head. "My... 'humble' apologies."

Casey's shoulders dropped in half-relief, and he started to stand up.

At the instant, the huge gun-wielding raven whipped around, butting the side of the young black wolf's temple and knocking him out cold.

Aeiea stood up and backed away, tears leaking from her sleek black face.

The big angry raven-man, likely on steroids, gazed at his frail daughter with white-hot fury. "Get back in the fucking basement!" he screamed finally, slapping his daughter hard across the face and watching her crawl toward the cellar hatch under the rug.

"Caleb, please-" Rita stuttered, her face remaining straight and emotionless.

"Shut the fuck up!" Cal screamed at his wife, causing her to shirk down again.

Aeiea sat in the corner of the dark, liquor-smelling cellar, her home. Her black orb-eyes were leaking tears of a new-found emotion, which she could not identify. The blatant darkness calmed her, allowing her to pull her warm black cloak farther up.

Several hours of miserable weeping left Aeiea's face abused with lined of sad emotions. She finally straightened up, then sat down again as she heard and unfamiliar set of footsteps above her.

* * *

"Wife's upstairs. Sleeping probably. Lazy bitch." Cal complained, a smoking roll of paper his clawed and feathered hand. "Heh. This stuff's good, not like the shit you buy on the streets now."

"Friend o' mine grows it. Like corn, right there in his back yard." Blake Barchett, a slightly burly raccoon grunted to the raven-man across the table. "I got more in the car. First one here's just a fuckin' sample," Blake took another inhalant breath of his stick. "So long as you've got the paper for it..."

"Oh... yeah. I told you Blake, I'm getting it up here next week. Can you wait?" Cal asked in frustration, letting the small burning stub hang from his beak as he pulled out his pockets. "Damn it, I got nothin'. Can you wait?"

"No, sorry man. Now or never, this stuff goes quick." The raccoon replied, taking another arrogant puff.

"Ok... look. Uh..." Cal said, thinking as fast as his intoxicated brain would allow. "I'll... uh..."

"Look Cal, I gotta... I gotta get going soon and I-" Blake stuttered, standing up and letting the frail wooden chair fall from his bushy, ringed tail.

"You'll wait right here! (Do you want another DUI?)" the raven yelled, storming over to the mantle to scrap up any loose change he could find. "Look, you got a friend. Can't you just save a bit... bit of this stuff for me?"

"Ehh... sorry Cal. I'm movin' up, and I got a waiting list." The raccoon replied ruefully, stretching his arms before bringing them down for another puff.

Cal had an idea, a good one, that might just win him a share of his precious herbs. A smile spread up his beak, and his eerie crow-eyes gleamed with an outward malice. "You know... Blake. I have a daughter."

"Yeah... so..?" Blake replied, seeing that he wasn't going to leave anytime soon under the watchful eyes of his 'friend'.

"I know how you like... young girls..." Caleb continued, pinching the stick from his beak in a stylized fashion. "How's about we say... you get me some more of this shit, and you can ride her as much as you feel need."

Blake considered it. "Seriously?"

Cal nodded.

"But... Cal... your own daughter...? Even for you that seems a bit..." the coon said worriedly, letting his cap fall back through his hair.

The raven smirked, standing up and walking toward the east-most red square on the carpet. He stomped violently on the area, producing a peculiar hollow sound. "Get up here. NOW!" he barked, lifting up the rug and revealing a bleak trapdoor.

Aeiea hesitated at first, but then, feeling her father's unpleasant vibes of impatience, she cracked open the door. "D-daddy?" she whispered fearfully, seeing the guest through the crack in the hatch.

"Shut your fuckin' mouth, and get the hell up here!" the tall and burly raven-man yelled, kicking the cellar hatch all the way open. Aeiea climbed out, pulling back her hood and revealing her charming, if pessimistic, face.

Blake eyes the raven-girl carefully, admiring her slender shoulders and dropped head. He began to sweat a little and said, "Damn... she's limber as a cat..."

"You got the... heh... 'spices' right?" Cal asked hastily, pushing Aeiea toward the raccoon.

Blake nodded, an evil smile now diluting his furry 'masked' face.

"go ahead and give her a test run..." the crow purred, taking an inhalant of his joint.

"For real?" Blake asked hopefully.

Cal nodded in reply, "Remember, if you want more of her... you gotta get me my fuckin' fix."

Blake stood up, uncomfortably approaching the raven-girl. Aeiea's internal alarm went off and she blushed, backing away nervously.

"C'mon baby... don't pull away from old uncle Blake..." the raccoon whispered, now having pinned the girl to the wall.

"I... I've never seen you before..." Aeiea whispered, closing her eyes and turning her head as Blake began to kiss and lick at her exposed neck.

"You want some of this stuff? It'll make the time fly by..." Blake hissed, holding his smoking joint up to the slender girl's eluding face. Aeiea had tried weed once before, and she hated it.

The girl pushed away, her feathered hand now against the advancing coon's abdomen. Blake merely cuffed his fingers around her wrists, holding them fast to the dry wallpaper behind her.

"It's gonna feel good... so good..." the man whispered, taking a deep breath of Aeiea's hair. "What's your name, baby?"

The raven-girl hesitated. "Aeiea."

"Hmmm... that's a pretty name. Sounds like a hooker's..." Blake hissed, letting her elbow pin her arm, and his paw wandering down to her waist.

"Stop... that hurts!" she yelled pulling her arm outward, but to no avail under the man's dominating strength. "Please, stop!" she whimpered, pulling her tight hips farther toward the wall.

"Shhh... take off this silly cape..." intoxicated Blake purred, his words turning into a forceful kiss as he slipped off Aeiea's black cloak.

"Stop! Daddy!" Aeiea wept, pulling her chin upward to yet evade Blake's approaches.

"Shut up! Shut your Goddamned beak before I tear it off!" Cal snapped furiously, not even bothering to look away from his pillaging of Blake's sports bag. He removed a few baggies of what looked like basil, and shoved them into his pocket.

"Da... aammph!" Aeiea sobbed, unable to finish her cry before Blake's mouth seized hers again. The raccoon then slip his hand down the front of Aeiea's loose cargo pants, into her panties to find what he was looking for. He slid his finger hastily into the front of the raven's slip, caressing its furriness around her walls.

"Mmmph!" Aeiea screamed into him mouth, only arousing him more. She managed to pull away for a short lapse, "Help!" she yelled, feeling her knees go weak.

Blake began to sweat again, one hand working to drop the raven's pants, the other stroking her struggling back. "Ooh... there's something in here... I'm gonna need to move it out of the way..." he whispered, brushing the edge of Aeiea's sensitive hymen with his finger. He pushed hie chest against Aeiea's breasts, dropping his own pants and undergarments. He slipped of his shirt, almost letting Aeiea free, but catching her before she could flee.

The girl didn't know the slightest of anything about sex, or the reason for the raccoon-man to be approaching her like this. She wished that her dad would give a shit and help her, but he just sat there, smoking a joint.

"Yeah... that's it... squirm..." Blake muttered, pulling up Aeiea's shirt and seeing the attractive contrast of hr pink nipples against black feathers. He pinched and mauled lustfully at her rather large, though tender breasts. "So... Aeiea... this is that time when that little chick becomes a big bird..." he muttered into her covered ear, sliding the shirt down her slender right arm.

Aeiea blushed and struggled, now completely nude. "Please let me go... my arms are bleeding!" she yelped, her feathers getting caught on erect nails from the wall.

"Shh! Shut!" Blake hissed, wrapping his arms passionately up and around her armpits, pulling her into another harsh kiss.

"Hmmm... mfph... stop! What are you doing?" Aeiea asked nervously, undulating her body uneasily as the head of Blake's cock hovered in the lips of her swelling slit.

"I'm gonna fuck the yell out of you...!" the coon said finally sliding his member into her as far as it would go before touching her virginity. "Oooh... you're nice n' tight..."

"Ahhh! Stop it, please!" Aeiea yelped, screaming and cawing as her clawed feet kicked uncontrollably. "Daddy, make him stop! Please make him-"

The raven-girl stopped abruptly, her eyes growing wide as a ripping pain shot up and down her legs and waist. She felt a warm fluid, likely blood, flow out of her freely. The girl tried to hold it in, but her strength was diminished and she let it flow out.

"Oooh fuck! I love it... she's so squirmy!" Blake moaned, grasping Aeiea's kicking legs, lifting her up, and plunging into her again with increasing intensity and speed.

Aeiea blushed, now pinned against the wall. Her yelped had turned into full-fledged screams, and she felt immensely uncomfortable with her chest pressing against this stranger's. She felt the member that was intruding her so lewdly swell up slightly, and a warm substance as well as sensation jet into her. She went into heat.

Blake moaned and slowed down finally, his cum overflowing from his victim. "Jesus... your feathers feel so great..." he whispered caressing the raven-girls curvy behind once again.

"Please let me go..." Aeiea mouthed, hardly able to summon any voice.

Blake laughed loudly, panting at the same time. "Baby... I still want to play in your mouth..."

Aeiea didn't even try to decipher what the raccoon had said before she was hastily dropped down to the floor. She could hardly move, so she just let her arms try to hold her up. Her vision was blurred, so all she could see was the floor, and her hanging breasts and hair.

"You got anything to-" Blake started to ask, but Cal already knew the question, and threw the raccoon the strap from his own sports bag. He smiled, clipping the strap to itself and using his to tie Aeiea's hands and feet to each other. Blake looked down at her, smiling evilly. He wrapped his big paw into the raven-girl's black hair, pulling her weeping face up to crotch level.

He let his cum-dripping member rub on the raven's recoiling face, amused by the disgusted look on her face. "Suck." The coon ordered, wiping up a finger full of jism and rubbing it onto Aeiea's cheek. "See this stuff? Just lick it off."

Aeiea closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, still trying to pull away against her lack of leverage.

Blake sat back on the couch near the wall. "I'm waiting..." he said drably, pulling her up to his by the hair and grabbing his smoking joint off of the table, plopping it into his mouth.

Aeiea knew that she wouldn't leave the house alive if she did not do it. As much as she hated this man, and her father, she knew that she had too. She reached up with her slender black tongue, running it slowly and thoroughly up and down Blake's sticky shaft. The taste was utterly intoxicating.

"Yeah... that's the shit..." the raccoon moaned, grabbing Aeiea's hair again and pulling her up closer to his crotch.

A spout of bile touched the tip of the raven-girl's throat, making her wince even more at the awful taste of his man who had probably not showered in weeks.

"Having a good time... what is it...? Blake?" Cal, in a state of euphoria, asked as he watched his own daughter being forced to do disgusting things.

"Oh God... When can I come back?" the raccoon-man asked back, stroking Aeiea's head with one hand and puffing his roll with the other.

"Anytime... just keep this shit coming..." the burly raven-man assured, of course, taking another puff.

"Oh fuck... don't hold back honey... that's it..." Blake moaned, his attention switching back to the pleasing raven-girl's tongue. "Nice... you got it all cleaned off... you know it's just gonna get dirty again..." he smiled wickedly, then threw back his head.

A squirt of precum doused Aeiea's fluffy face feathers, and she pulled back her tongue.

"No... just keep... it's just about ready..." Blake moaned, running his own furry fingers over his pulsing cock.

"Why are you making me... do this?" Aeiea wept, her little eyes looking up at him as she took another lick.

"'Cause it feels... oh fuck... great." Blake replied, his big fuzzy legs now shaking. He let a rope of cum land over her beak and some of her face, the second one falling onto her vulnerable neck. He moaned, pulling the raven-girl's beak very forcefully over his balls. "Uhn... now you need some cleaning, let me lick it off your face..."

"No... please. Just leave me alone now..." Aeiea gasped, rolling onto her side, finally loosing her bonds.

"Yeah... maybe you're right..." Blake hissed to Aeiea's surprise.

The raven-girl smiled.

"You need to rest up for next time." The raccoon finished.

Aeiea frowned.

"Heh... Cal. She's an... amazing fuck. I'll be back... Friday." He said, standing up and pulling his pants back on. His gray and black head poked out from his shirt neck, and he took no hesitation in leaving.

"Bitch!" the raven-man barked, and Aeiea sat up immediately, her glazed face with dripping with cum. "Get in the basement... go to sleep or something... I don't care."

The slender crow-girl crawled over and let herself fall down the hatch again.

* * *

Blake stumbled down the old worn wooden steps, staring inquisitively at the limp body of a black wolf that was sprawled on the sidewalk with one arm in the road. He shrugged, climbing into his car, casually staring it, and turning hastily out of the driveway.

The coon smiled behind the wheel, revving the car and running straight over Casey's sprawling left paw, leaving it a bloody pile in the road.

Casey screamed and cursed, his eyes shooting open immediately. He looked down at his paw, taking off his glasses with his free one. His coordination was all fucked up, and his right eye was blind. As just about anyone in his situation would, he started to cry loudly, of despair, but mostly searing pain.

Casey stood up, his knees buckling, and he stumbled down the lain, leaving a trail of dripping ruby liquid behind him. He didn't remember anything that happened, only that he needed to get home fast.

By the time Casey was stumbling across the front lawn of his large house, he had almost passed out form either pain, or loss of blood, he couldn't tell. He pushed the door open, and fell inside. "Mom... mother...father...?" he panted, his struggles leaving red paw-prints on the tiles.

"Casey? Where-" Mrs. Steele started, then her eyes widened. "Oh my God! Casey! Violet, call an ambulance!"

"What the hell...?" Casey's older sister violet cursed, seeing Casey now propped up against the stairs.

"Just do it! Where's your father?" Tricia Steele, Casey's mother, ordered, holding her injured arm up.

Violet panicked, "I... I don't know! What do I do?" she bellowed, dropping the phone then picking it up again.

"Nine-one-one!" Tricia replied, and Ian Steele ran down the stairs.

"Casey, what happened?" the large wolf-man shouted in his face.

The young wolf just moaned in reply, all of his limbs twitching, including his spiky-furred tail.

"What the hell happened?" Casey's father repeated, even louder now.

"Ian, quit yelling, he's going into shock!" Tricia screamed at her husband, who recoiled and pointed.

"There no fucking skin on his hand!" he bellowed, opening the front door and panicking along with the rest of them.

Casey looked up at his hand, seeing crushed bone, no fur or skin, and hanging muscle. He passed out at the gruesome sight of his wringing tendons.

* * *

"Kyle, no more ginger ale! You're gonna get backed up!" Nikki giggled, taking away the panther's thirteenth bottle of his favorite soda.

"Oh come on... this place has always had the best pop!" Kyle insisted, pointing down the long, marble soda fountain that had always been in the small coffee shop. He let Nikki drink the soda herself, picking a newspaper.

The small headline that caught his eye: 'Three young felines molested and killed by suspected sociopath' it read, and he remembered somewhat hearing about it. In the midst of his reading of the article, Nikki tapped him on the shoulder.

"We had better go, it's getting kind of late," she whispered, looking up and waving goodbye to the soda jerk.

Kyle left the total on the counter, and walked the remainder of the way home with the Neko. Nikki departed at a certain turn to her street, leaving Kyle his familiar limp down the home stretch.

When the panther walked in the door, he was face to face with his parents, and they didn't look happy.

"Umm... hi Mom. Dad?" he said sheepishly, paying them a smile.

"You didn't call, Kyle." Fiona Eighly growled, the look of an angry parent drowning her eyes. "We can't trust you on your own after last time."

"But-" Kyle started, but his father cut in.

"You're grounded." Zach said firmly, pointing his pink paw up the stairs.

"What? That's bullshit! I was at the-" the blue panther ranted, throwing down his backpack.

"Don't talk to me like that! Go to your room!" the pink panther yelled, standing up and growling at his son, making him shrink down.

"What the... I was at the coffee shop with Nikki!" Kyle continued, standing his fearful ground.

"That is not the point dear. You didn't tell us where you were going." Fiona said calmly, putting her paws to her lap.

"I shouldn't have to! I'm fifteen Mom!" he replied angrily, storming away to the stairs.

"Your mother and I are just worried... we don't want to see you drinking-" Zach said, trying to calm down with the soothing touch of his wife's slender paw on his shoulder.

"Ginger ale!" Kyle shouted, pointing his claw in his father's face, causing him to growl even louder. "Fucking soda!"

"Don't raise your claws to me! Go to your Goddamned room!" the large panther yelled, pushing his son harmlessly toward the port up to his personal abode. Kyle stormed away.

"That ungrateful little-" Zach sneered to himself, sitting back in the couch.

"Shh... settle down. Raj was the same way, remember?" Fiona said, desperately trying to calm her fuming husband.

"I don't see Kyle dying for his country..." the panther growled back.

"Zach! How could you say that?" the panthress hissed back, standing up. "My God! I can't believe that you would say that!"

"Fiona... I just-"

"No! We may be Raj's parents, but we can't imagine half that pain that Kyle is going through right now!" she yelled back, her fists clenched in balls of rage at her waists. She lifted her hands, taking deep, calming breaths as she had trained herself to do. "I'm gonna go wash something." She stated finally, grabbing a rag from the basket and storming away into the kitchen.

Zach sighed heavily, resting his face in his paws.

* * *

The next day at school was long, and very painful for Kyle. He was sick of having to tell all of his friends that he was grounded, and could not go anywhere.

The blue panther was walking through the hall, slower than usual, bearing his many books in his arms.

"Kyle..." A familiar, yet disturbingly dark female voice beckoned from behind. He whipped around, his long tail rested around his legs.

Aeiea was standing there, her cloak on and over her face as usual, though now, something unsettled Kyle even more so about her gait.

"Hi Aeiea. How's it going with Casey?" the panther asked the raven. "Something wrong? Are you... crying?" he asked, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"It was terrible... my daddy..." the raven-girl started, pulling Kyle to the side.

"Yes...?"

"He... hit him. I don't even know if he is alive or dead. Then-" she continued, weeping into Kyle's shoulder.

"Oh my God..." Kyle whispered, patting her on the back as she sobbed emotionally onto him, letting her body support itself there.

"Daddy wanted his... drugs. He made me... made me do something to pay for them..." she said into his ear, rubbing her cheek onto his.

"What...?" Kyle whispered, though he probably knew the answer.

"I can't say... I-" Aeiea began but Kyle took her by the shoulders in front of him.

"I'm going to call Child Services. We need to go to the office and-" the panther said boldly, pulling Aeiea along by the wrist, or at least trying to.

"No! Daddy will shoot me if I do that..." the raven whimpered, pulling back.

"He can't hurt you. You'll be safe in a foster home." Kyle insisted, urging her along.

"Kyle...?" Aeiea said to the panther's back, and he turned around.

"Yeah?" he replied, just before he jumped with surprise at what the crow-girl did. She wrapped her arms around him, hooking her beak softly onto his lips, and kissing him on the inside with her smooth tongue.

"Woah... lookout, pimp on the loose!" Aaron said as he passed by them, giggling and making the 'forget about it' hand motion.

Kyle pushed her away before she finished displaying her passion. "Aeiea... what?" he stuttered, his vision sparkling and hazy.

"It's a kiss. Isn't that how you show affection?" she asked, folding her hands in front of her.

"Well... yes... but you have to save it for someone that you love..." the panther hissed, wiping his lips, "Sorry... but I'm in deep enough as it is."

"What is a foster home?" Aeiea asked, changing the subject.

"It is a good place. You won't ever have to see your father again." Kyle said aloud, leading her to the office.

"Really?"

"Yes. Mrs. Mack?" Kyle said loudly, "Mrs. Mack, this is serious."

"What's a mater? You sick?" the annoying duck woman asked, pressing a button on the phone receiver.

"Please, this is very serious." Kyle said, his voice dropping to a whisper. He left Aeiea standing behind him in the middle of the room. "You know Aeiea Serbia?" the panther asked quietly, pointing over his shoulder and causing the raven behind him to shift uneasily.

"Her?"

"Yes, her." Kyle's voice dropped down even lower. "She was raped yesterday. I need you to call child services."

Mrs. Mack jumped. "Are you kidding?" she honked, picking up the phone and putting all other calls on hold.

"No. I am dead serious, and I'm worried about her. Please... please call." Kyle said finally, "I beg of you, don't tell anyone unless you need to. She's very... sensitive."

"Thanks Kyle. Brave thing of you to put this to the school's attention." Mrs. Mack replied, making a call to the child services as the panther had requested.

He turned around and met up with Aeiea again. "you will be in a foster home today. All you have to do is tell the people there your fathers name, and anyone else who was there."

Aeiea nodded nervously.

"Don't be afraid of your father anymore. They will take care of him." Kyle assured the raven, hugging her around the shoulders before he started to depart for his next class.

"You're a hero Kyle." She whispered after him, though all she saw was his tail wind the corner out of the student office.

* * *

Kyle was loosing unhealthy amounts of weight, not having eaten for at least three days out of pure stress. Nikki seemed to be pained with empathy for him, going out of her way to make him happy. This only made the panther more uncomfortable.

Aaron had become his best buddy again, having successfully rehabilitated from his drug habits. Riku was just her old crazy, slutty self, nothing to look forward to but her next tempting victim.

"Eh, hey Kyle. I haven't seen you in a while? Everything cool?" Keller asked, sitting down with his lunch tray, and the usual lack of room for his long, stalky body. He was abruptly set aback by the panther's undoubtedly rueful expression.

"I'm fine." Kyle stated simply, setting his head in his furry arms at the table.

"Hey, C'mon... I've seen you 'fine', and that ain't fine, eh?" the tall jaguar insisted, smiling comfortably and flashing his gleaming braces.

"Leave me alone... please. Sorry Keller... a lot has happened lately..." Kyle groaned, hardly audible through his arms.

Keller looked at Nikki.

"He just lost his brother," the Neko whispered to him, rubbing Kyle softly on the back.

"Oh jeez... I didn't know... I'm sorry Kyle," Keller said, wiping his nose and eyes.

"Hey, fuck-face!" a voice from behind Keller jeered. That voice was of Adrian and Damien Pitsler, a pair of twin squirrels who enjoyed on picking upon who they though were the 'lesser'.

"Please not now..." Keller groaned, putting his face in his arms much akin to the way Kyle was.

Adrian and Damien loved to pick on Keller, even though both of their heights barely broke his waistline, and the jaguar easily tenfolded their strength. They took advantage of the fact that Keller couldn't live with himself if he even swatted a fly.

"Stand up... C'mon... you can't hold a gun to a paper target! Steel-mouthed, poor ass wimp!" Adrian shouted, shaking his fist challengingly.

Keller whimpered, his ears flattening.

"You couldn't his a drum with a turkey leg! Yeah, I've heard you play. You SUCK!" Damien followed through, flicking the huge jaguar on the back of his blonde-furred head.

"Keller, don't take that crap! Stand up and punt those finks!" Nikki cheered, attempting to lift the nearly seven-foot-tall giant by the shoulders.

"I can't." the jaguar replied, sniffing up his tears.

"Oh, move over! Let me give 'em a word or two!" Aaron shouted, standing up in a cliché, melodramatic fashion and rolling up his sleeves.

"Oh, here comes old Guenwyvhar! I'm so fuckin' scared!" Adrian squeaked obnoxiously, curling his weak little paws up at his cheeks.

"Here's a deal for the couple of you!" the black panther growled, showing his metal plated claws to the two squirrels, who cowered and shouted.

"He's got Shivs!" Damien squealed, hiding behind his brother.

"Not for you!" Aaron finished, sliding the deadly weapons back in.

"You wouldn't do that you pussy! Pussycat, pussycat!" Adrian teased dumbly, jumping in circles around his brother.

"How 'bout this, squirrels?" the black panther hissed, completely in control. "Next time I'm drivin' in my car, I won't swerve for you!"

"You... you...!" Damien stuttered, unable to think of a better comeback than the flawless quip that had just been sent at him. "Damn it..." and the two of them walked away.

"Nice, Aaron." Riku purred, standing up and tickling the panther on the cheek wit her soothing fingers. "You thinking 'dinner', aren't you?"

"It's lunchtime, and no." Aaron replied, grasping Riku's hand softly and letting it down.

"I'm talking about me. Up that skirt from behind..." the vixen replied, licking his nose.

"You have a sick mind, you know that Riku?" the black panther chided casually, looking down as the fox, who had her behind out and her back arched in a suggestive position toward him.

"Kiss me." She said finally, wrapping her arms around his neck and letting her warm, wet lips embrace his sensually.

"Kyle lifted his head, looking at Nikki. He made the hand signal for 'blweh... vomit!' pointing his finger down his throat. The quirky little Neko giggled.

The bell rang for the end of lunch, and Kyle quickly left. His next class was English, and it wasn't anything good today except 'persuasive literature'. He sighed.

On the way out of the double-doors from lunch, Nikki stopped him by grasping his waist with both hands.

"Nikki?" he asked, kneeling down to the little catgirl.

"Kyle, I want you to listen to me... Just for a second." Nikki said quietly, pulling the panther's ear up to her.

"Yeah?" he asked, listening intently.

"I know it's hard. But be happy. Seeing you sad breaks my little heart. Please... please find something to make you happy. I'll do anything for you if you-" she started to plead, but Kyle placed his blue, furry index finger on her lips.

"Don't worry. Please. Grief is the hardest melancholia to overcome. Your help is doing great things for me. Just please... please for my love... don't worry anymore." Kyle whispered, hugging her around her slender shoulders, causing her belled tail to hang low.

"Umm... that's not really why I brought it up... well see I-" Nikki stuttered, wringing her cute little hands.

"Sorry Nikki... I need to get to my next class!" the blue, running blur yelled form down the hall, waving his farewell O' so abruptly.

"It's important..." the Neko whispered to herself, a starch look drooping her personified, cat-like human face. She picked up her notebook, beginning her meander down the now-empty hallway and letting the little copper bell on her tail drag behind her.

This story will be continued... never you fear (or even give a care). See you then. Throw knives at me.

Oh yeah... almost forgot, eh? Virtual reality does not exist, and it never, ever will. It's just so damn cool I had to put it in there.