Strawberry Cheesecake

Whole Latte Beauty, Edden City Center Food Court

18th of December, 1:21 PM

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Cubs skipped down the city center outside, their parents doing their very best to keep them under control and failing, teenagers who were free for their winter break frequented cafès and the like whilst single adults canvased the bars or strip clubs depending on how desperate they were. On the other end of the freedom spectrum you had university students (such as me) who were all working their winter jobs to help pay for food, those new text books that are no different from the last and to recover from the finical blow Christmas was about deal us. We all knew that our winter jobs wouldn't pay for everything, the rest would come from our parents who were happy to be rid of us and didn't want us coming back. I, however, wouldn't be getting my annual dead drop.

No, my parents didn't hate me. Yes, they're rich; I mean, you'd hope so considering that they were a Count and Countess. The reason why I wasn't getting any help from my family was because, like all headstrong young adults, I was intent on surviving alone. That and their title didn't mean dirt anymore, the Tsukino name was as dead as it could get, as dead as my tail and as dead as I was going to be in a few months.

So far into my university journey, I'd asked for two small cash donations from my parents. The first? That was to help with getting the university equipment my dumbass had forgotten to buy, because at age eighteen I still told myself that everything was indeed in my bag already or would be bought for me. The second cash injection was for my tail amputation. It hadn't been some cubish decision to make me stand out of the crowd, although admittedly having metal rings dangling from my ears, an expensive tribal bracer around what was left of my tail, snake bites, nipple rings, a septum piercing... I could go on, but I think you get the point as to how much I enjoyed standing out and body modification. However, removing every single piercing for my interviews was getting frustrating and proving a time stealing task.

Anyway, back to my tail amputation. It had been a cure and the only cure to the necrosis that had left me in immense pain as well as rendering my tail useless, I couldn't even flick the tip without forcing myself to scream out as if a hot poker had jabbed me. Now that the extension to my body had been cut off (leaving behind a stub close to what a Manx's tail would look like) the pain was gone, but I still found it difficult to balance. My clumsiness had always been present, so I wasn't too bothered by having less balance; what really got under my skin (and still does to this day) was that the customers incessantly had to ask me:_ 'Are you a Manx? Or a Siamese? Are you cross-bred? Where did your tail go? Does it hurt? OMG! I've never seen a Manx-Siamese crossbreed. You are a crossbreed right?'_ The onslaught of questions made me feel like breaking out into a rage driven, frenzy through the town square. I'd considered getting a tail graft, a plastic/robotic replacement or even finding my old one in some trash bin to glue it back onto my stub like sticking a doll back together for your little sibling after they've tore its limbs off like a sadistic hunting dog. But no matter how vexing the talkative customers and accidentally rude customers were to me and me alone, nothing could compare to my classmates (mates used loosely) and fellow (again used without complete certainty) students teasing me about the truth, I was a cruel, unloving, amputee Siamese cat who'd gotten what was coming to him when a frat boy Akita plucked me by my tail, snapped it at the base and left me howling in the parks of our lovely university town.

I could see that Akita from across the room, I could sense him almost and I could definitely smell him; jeez that guy needed a shower or two! As he and two other lads who attended the same university as me, judging by the hoodies they wore, entered the coffee shop to sit in the corner and disturb the other customers with their catcalls, I glared at them with cold eyes.

Those students were the lucky ones, the Akita and his friends, those students had full scholarships. They didn't have to work themselves into constant stress thanks to winter jobs clashing with homework or catch up sessions interrupting daily life because not only were they professor's favorites, everything was given to them (including A* grades) at the click of finger by their rich friends who weren't as smart as them who wanted to impress the scholarship students and the teachers they had tucked under their belt. How or why a rich furson would even seek the approval of somefur who relied on their scholarship I didn't know, so I avoided those types of furs who a) milked their scholarship, grades and intelligence for everything others had to offer or b) tried desperately to be best-friends with said furson type a in the hopes of either getting homework done for them or for popularity. Scowling at those fursons, I prayed my shift would end soon so that I wouldn't have to interact with the Akita and his pals.

"Excuse me? Could we order something?" I heard a deep, gruff, masculine voice ask. I looked to my side to see two customers (a large polar bear and his boyfriend, a smaller one) dressed in exult Christmas sweaters and jeans. The smallest was wrapped up in warm, woolly accessories: a hat, thick black gloves festive arm warmers (which peaked out from under his sweater sleeves) with reindeer on them and matching socks, no doubt his boyfriend, Humber, was responsible for dressing him. It also warmed the void where my heart was supposed to be whenever I saw Humber treating Alsek as if he were the last boy on earth. Humber was naked compared to Alsek, the ursine wore only his Christmas sweater, jeans and hiking boots.

Smiling at my friends, I replied: "Of course, I'm terribly sorry for making you wait. Might I make up for this... horrible mistake by taking you, Alsek, to the movies with me this Sunday?" I smiled to my friend and his partner, leaning over the counter and smirking to the two.

"Oh Xavier you charmer." Alsek chuckled sarcastically, understanding my humor since he'd managed to stick by me for ten long years now. He knew that it wouldn't just be me and him, but Humber clearly didn't. The polar bear scowled, deeply concerned and afraid that he was losing his boyfriend to the punk Siamese behind the counter.

"Hey, no way! He's my boyfriend, I'm the fur-" Humber, glaring at me, stepped forwards and prodded a finger against my chest.

"Baby, he's joking. We're both going to the movies with him." Alsek interrupted Humber by grabbing his beefy arm before the not so gentle giant could vault the counter and pound me into a purple pulp.

"But he said-"

"Yeah I know what this twisted moron said. Luckily, I understand him." Alsek laughed.

Humber was a fairly knew addition to our friendship group, correction: friendship couple. I'll admit that at first I'd been skeptical of Humber when Alsek first dragged him to our lunch table by his forepaw and plonked him down on a bench. Why wouldn't I have been? He was a frat boy, apparently straight, two times the size of both me and Alsek combined and looked too confident. I was surprised when Alsek came back from spring break singing about how wonderful it had been to spend some alone time with that gentlemen of a bear. That had been eight or more months ago, so Humber hadn't gotten to know me that well. Because of this, my humor was lost on him and he had no idea how to deal with me whenever I had one of my moments.

Reaching over the counter, Alsek fished the cinema tickets out of my trouser pockets. "I also know where he puts the important things!"

"In his care." I elaborated as Alsek fanned himself with the bundle of tickets.

"Oh my, four tickets." The polar bear quickly noticed. Raising an eyebrow, he asked: "Do you have somefur special coming with us, Xavi?"

"I must have bought four on accident." I shrugged with a laugh, it wasn't as if spending a few extra was a big deal to me.

"Yeah sorry, I forgot that the day Xavier-Nelson gets a date will be the day the world ends." Humber had to add. Okay, so Humber knew me well enough to know that I was absolutely terrible at flirting and everything else related to dating.

Alsek grinned to his boyfriend, "So we won't have to ever worry about the world ending?"

"Weren't you the furson who went through a different partner every week, be they male, female or anything else on the market?" I quipped.

"Yes, but that was my experimental phase. I know what I want now." Alsek answered. Humber scooped his boyfriend up with an arm so that he was pressed against his chubby form and pecked him on the cheek.

"Can you three fags stop chatting, I want to order something!" A customer behind Alsek and Humber complained.

"Very sorry, mam." I then asked her, projecting my voice so that all of the room could hear me: "Oh! And before I forget, would you like the senior on your order?" The customer behind the two polar bears was clearly in twenties.

"The cheek!" She scalded me with a look before marching out of the door with her tiny impractical handbag dipped in the curve of her arm.

I waited until the laughter in the café had died down before I took Humber and Alsek's order.

"One grande caffè Americano for the little fur and a grande cherry freeze for me please." Humber answered, opening the cash register from his side of the counter and placing the exact amount of money into the appropriate box. Suddenly, a moment after he'd withdrawn his forepaw, it shot back to drop another five pound note in.

"And could we also get two slices of strawberry cheesecake?" I stopped dead in my tracks, I knew that the Akita on the other side of the room had overheard. Thompson used to always order two slices of strawberry cheesecake whenever he visited. Whether Humber had done this accidentally, or on purpose didn't matter; it still sent a chill down my spine.

"Coming right up." I croaked.

As I slipped away to craft and cut their food, Alsek poured over everything on display as Humber fiddled with the miniature rose bushes which lined the top of the glass cases. These two were nothing like the rest of the furs in my university. For one, they were a gay couple. For two, they weren't furson type a or b, but rather type c) the type who only relied on themselves and each other. When I say it these two only borrowed from each other, I mean it. For example, after they'd hastily moved into their apartment for privacy reasons, they were struggling to keep up with rent and despite this I wasn't even allowed to give them a penny. The two had pulled through three months later with more experience in not over spending on new decorations, furniture, clothes and a bed that wouldn't creak or break.

Now that he'd finished wallowing over his favorite desserts and treats, Alsek leaned over the counter and remarked: "Could you do your best not to drop your tail in my cheesecake?"

"Or drop the cheesecake itself?" Humber added. He slapped Alsek on the back in a hearty way, but nearly pushed the small ursine over the glass!

"Very funny you two, but I'm no klutz. If i were, why would I be working the counter? Hmm?"

"Baby, when we roomed together you managed to knock something over everyday." Alsek reminded me. Staying silent, I shrugged and accepted defeat. He was right, I've always managed to find a way to trip over my paw or the flat carpet whilst delivering food; that was why I wasn't working as a waiter in some fancy, five-star restaurant. But don't get me wrong, Whole Latte Beauty was an aptly named café. That and the pun in the name was genius.

After placing their order on the counter, I handed them their change. Alsek and Humber went on their way to a quiet corner of the café where they would make up stories for every passerby. Furs with scars being war-hardened veterans and cubs became aspiring presidents and what not, I had always considered myself too mature for such games. Some of their stories were humorous, so funny that even Thompson burst out laughing on his side of the café.

Luckily, before I could scream at the Akita or die of fear, the next customer approached and asked for something simple: a Cafe au lait with nothing else. Simple. I turned away to prepare their food and everything went smoothly from there on out, as it always did.

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2:56 PM

"Thank you, please come again." I faked a smile at a dalmatian, who was hopefully the last customer of my shift. As soon as I clocked out, the kitchen could be on the fire, the cash machine could break, the coffee could go cold or a million furs could rush through the doors and I wouldn't even consider turning back to help. If I wasn't getting paid, I refused to put up with the customer's bullshit. Of course, this gave me the worst karma in the world. The kind of karma that loved biting me in the ass.

"You're a cute one." A guy, who was wanting of something which was completely off limits to everyfur (save for Humber and Alsek) growled from behind me. Plenty of witty, self-centered responses came into my head, such as: _"I wish I could say the same", "I know." _or maybe a simple _"Door's just behind you." _The last one rarely worked and was 'impolite' as my boss put it. I settled for playing the flattered card.

"Why thank you." I chirped, following that up by turning to him and giving him a smile which was a more discreet, but just as effective way of telling him: _"Fuck off." _Only, I imagined that I'd face him and give him said smile, but what happened was me seeing his face and then breaking out into panic, a cold sweat with a cherry on top: tears.

I may have been a heartless asshole, but boy could I cry when the right thing came up. Thompson who-even-cares-about-his-middle-names Treahearn was the 'right thing' in this case. I dropped the floor, experiencing a frisson of terror as I vividly relieved the memories of having my tail destroyed.

He was supposed to be my tryst, my secret lover boy who was going to meet me in the parks at midnight and feed me strawberries. Thompson lived up to the meeting in the park at midnight, but the only thing he feed me was my own teeth. I hadn't seen his face (as he'd covered it with his hoodie) when he'd driven his fist into my mouth and broken a tooth (or even two), but my gut instinct told me that my attacker was none other than the furson I was devoting myself to. Unsurprisingly, that night was also the night I learned not to trust jocks who approached you in broad daylight with flowers and a box of chocolates, or any type of furson for that matter. Maybe I would have accepted chocolates from Humber or Alsek, but even then I'd be skeptical and ask one of them to try some first.

Back to Thompson's betrayal. I've never been resilient to anything (weather, insults, punches, all of that tended to mess me up one way or another) so after three strong hits from Thompson, I was down on the ground screaming for mercy. Let me tell you, furious Akitas don't stop fighting until their opponents are more or less dead. Thompson continued beating on me until there was a steady flow of blood from my nose and from the corner of my mouth to go along with the torrent of tears. I'd ended up face down in the dirt on my knees. I wasn't asking for anything, except for forgiveness. Like I've said before, he plucked me like a carrot on harvest day, snapped me like a kitty version of a kitkat then tossed me away like garbage.

So you can understand why being approached by Thompson when only he and his friends were around was worse than being chased by a serial killer. I considered escape routes, throw a hot coffee pot in his face then except through the front? Run out the back door and use my slim, tiny figure to hide under a storage shelf until the manager found me? The only thing I didn't think about was the chance that Thompson was hitting on me.

He stood there, on the other side of the counter awkwardly as I pleaded for my life on the floor. The handsome devil took a rose from the bush whilst I shielded my face and dropped it to me. It floated downwards to land on my face, a single thorn pricked my cheek. I expected him to say something horrible and gory like: "The color of the petals matches your blood." I don't know which would be worse, him being corny or him being disturbing. Actually I do, corny was worse. "The rose is beautiful... L-like you." The Akita blushed. He bobbed up and down on his paws as he waited for my response.

"Don't mess with me like this, Thompson!" I hissed, but flinched and cowered when he looked over the counter.

"I'm sorry about what happened, Xavier... I, err... You got me mad, that's why I did it." As if the dog was trying to justify himself!

"Yeah, because when I get mad I too give my supposed crush necrosis." I managed a smirk, opportunities to be sarcastic really brought out the bitch in me. Luckily for me, Thompson had gotten therapy to help with his anger issues, so he didn't break another one of my limbs. Unfortunately, his sessions hadn't given him a sense of humor.

"Not cool, dude." The Akita frowned. "I'm trying to be honest. I want to win you back."

"Give up." Getting up off of the stone cold floor, I had to hold myself back from spitting at the guy. I'm glad that I didn't spit on his trainers for several reasons; one being because they were surprisingly stylish.

"Am I not allowed to hit on my cutey pie barista?" Thompson flirted. Hearing him call me 'Cutey pie' almost made me throw up and riled me so badly I almost exploded like an atomic bomb. "Give me a chance baby. Just let me in, let me be your boyfriend again. Why can't I date you?"

Enola gay away.

"YOU BROKE MY TAIL, PUT ME IN HOSPITAL AND RUINED MY REPUTATION!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Heads on the street turned. The café fell silent. For a moment there was only the sound of my panting, then my ears picked up on his breathing. He was sniffling. Thompson was sniffling. But stuck up little me didn't notice how badly I'd hurt him. Not just today, but that night as well.

"That's why you're not allowed to date me."

Thompson stood there stunned on the verge crying, silent and trembling. I added with a hiss: "Get lost! You've already ruined me."

Yes I was missing my tail because of him, but perhaps it was nothing compared to what I had done to him.

I collapsed to the cold hard floor, fearing for my life. When the cash register didn't come crashing down on me, I was tempted to get up and discover what Thompson was doing.

He stormed out of the café, his friends dashing after him laughing. There was the sound of a bell, then nothing.

I don't know how long I stayed there, on the floor, but it wasn't that long since my co-worker didn't arrive for their shift. I came back up from the floor to discover that the cafe was empty, but Thompson had left a note.

"I'm sorry Xavier. Can we talk about what's happened between us? Not over the phone, but in person; I need to be able to see your face when we sort out our relationship. Meet me tonight at nine where I broke your tail, I'm sorry if it hurts but there's something I want to show you." - Thompson Wren Gareth Treahearn.

In pure fury, I scrunched it up and tossed it into the bin.

"Nice shot." I heard Alsek chuckle, probably with Humber in tow. Remaining silent for a moment, I turned back to my counter and smiled.

"Why did you guys come back? Want another coffee?"

"No, no coffees for Al here!" Humber chuckled. "He's been bouncing up and down since his last one."

"It's called caffeine, Humber. You'd like it too if you stopped drinking iced drinks." Alsek rolled his eyes and slapped the larger bear's belly, it jiggled beneath his jumper.

"Okay then, if it's not a drink, what do you guys guys want?"

"We wanted to check on you." Alsek answered. My heart sank in my chest, if they found out that Thompson had caused me to breakdown they'd both go and confront the Akita. Perhaps if Thompson had no friends, I wouldn't have been worried about Humber considering that the polar bear was twice his size and could take him in a fight easy. But if Thompson's pack of friends had his back, Humber wouldn't stand a chance. I knew for a fact that Alsek wouldn't last a minute with only Thompson for several reasons.

"We know that Thompson was in here and... well, we worried about you." That polar bear fretted, leaning over the counter and reaching out a forepaw to brush at my exposed arm.

"So, when we saw everyfur who was in the cafe going in the opposite direction, we didn't want to take any chances." Humber added, going as far as walking around the barrier and holding out his arms for me to embrace. Heartless, old me pushed the bear away with a harmless shove.

"I'm fine guys..." I muttered the blatant lie. Humber inched closer to the bin whilst Alsek drew my attention.

"Xavier..." Alsek hummed softly. "I know you, when there's no customers in the cafe you play games on your phone. And I know Thompson, he's always trying to get back with you and I also know that you don't use the bin. What's happened?"

The smaller polar bear went to my other side and smooched my cheek in a friendly way, trying to coax it out of me.

"You watch too much crime shows." I answered, chuckling. Again, Alsek picked up on it.

"You don't chuckle, you giggle. What's wrong?" He growled, squeezing my arm and baring his teeth. He meant no harm, he wouldn't able to do any harm either.

"Nothing!" I yipped, yanking my arm from his tight grip. "Humber." Alsek summoned. Humber scooped me up, his arms around my waist. I was lifted out from behind the counter just as my co-worker entered.

"Xavier here is telling us anything!" Alsek whistled skipping from behind the counter. "This isn't a kidnapping!" My wolf co-worker awkwardly faked his laugh and got to work cleaning up the cash register as always. Alsek then chirped: "Oh! I'm going to go order us some drinks!" Humber set me down in the corner booth, Alsek would join us after he fetched us all drinks.

The chubby bear nudged me with his arm and grunted: "Now's your chance to tell me what Thompson did."

"You know what he did, he broke my tail." I mumbled in response.

"I meant what he did today." Humber's arm slipped under my brown shirt to rub my back. "Come on, Alsek isn't here and you know I won't do anything stupid."

"And what if I don't tell you?"

"Nothing. I won't do anything. You know that I'm just a big fluffy marshmallow." Humber squished his belly, it molded to his forepaws. I sighed, I knew that I was going to regret this later.

"It's... It is Thompson." I saw Humber twitch out of the corner of my eye, but now that I'd mentioned his name I wouldn't get away with not sharing the whole story. I tried to stay silent, but Humber rumbled with his throat and pulled me close against him. Instinctively, I latched on to his jumper and kicked my paws up.

"What did Thompson do?"

"He... Thompson came up to me after you guys had left. Then he called and said that I was beautiful, like the roses." Humber scoffed, finding Thompson's attempt at flirting hilarious. I wasn't exactly in a joking mood. After I shot the polar bear a mean look, he cleared his throat and asked:

"With... Did he use the voice?"

"Of course he did. I think that he was trying to charm me. I didn't work. Anyway... I got, shouty with him and he just... stood there. He listened to me for once."

"Why? Why did you shout at him? You never shout." Humber wasn't questioning my actions, in fact he purely agreed with me that I shouldn't have talked to the Akita in a normal, friendly voice; he didn't deserve anything but hate.

"He tried to justify what he did, by saying that it was my fault for getting him angry."

"Typical Thompson." Humber shrugged. "It wasn't your fault." He added, giving my forepaw a squeeze in the way that Thompson used to.

"Let me finish my story you fag!" I snapped, yanking from my forepaw away from Humber and glaring at him. Maybe it was the betrayed and sad look in his eyes, but something about seeing Humber after I'd yelled at him made me break. I went down on his chest completely sniffling and by the time his forepaws were comforting me I was in full blown tears.

"I-I'm so sorry!" I whined. Humber, despite wanting to chuckle and play this off, knew that even the tiniest amount of laughter would push me over the edge.

"It's alright. I know you didn't mean it." He hummed, running his forepaws through my head fur. "Dry your tears, you were just about to finish your story."

"I don't want to now."

"Can I do it then?" I heard the polar bear rummaging around in his pocket. "I think I know how it goes."

"Go ahead..." I said after some brief hesitation, dabbing my eyes with the back of my finger and trying to stifle my crying.

"He left you a note. Didn't he?"

"How do you know?"

"There was a piece of paper in the bin. I promise that I didn't read it." Humber placed it on the table. "May I please read it?"

"No..." Was my answer. Humber remained silent.

I knew that I couldn't keep anything from Humber or Alsek, the guilt would kill me. "He-he wanted me to go meet him... Where I broke my tail. He wanted to meet me tonight."

"Don't go." Humber begged. "For your own sake, don't go!"

"I want to though... That's why I want you to go with me. And Alsek."

"I won't bring Alsek anywhere near that dog!" Humber protested. "But... I'll come with you. You know that I love you just as much as I love Alsek and if it were up to me, I'd tuck you in bed next to me to watch over you both. Is there anyway I can make that happen?" Humber suggested, lifting my finger to look at my red, puffy eyes."

"After I meet Thompson, I'll join you both. But not a second before." I jabbed a finger at him and gave the bear a stern look, just so that he knew I was being serious.

"Okay okay I get it!" Humber chuckled and beamed at me. "Then it's settled, I'll come with you for your protection."

"You don't have to. And I don't want you to." I crossed my arms, trying to persuade him to go back on his promise.

"Too bad. Alsek would kill me if I let Thompson lay a finger on you when I could have been there to prevent it."

"He won't. I have a gut feeling."

"Then I'll believe you. Are we going to tell Alsek?"

"Of course you are!" Alsek himself chirped. "Tell me what, Xavi?" The bear was carrying two coffees, probably for him and me, with an iced tea for Humber. In his other forepaw he carried three slices of strawberry cheesecake, for once I didn't freak at the sight of the treat. But, maybe I wouldn't eat it for a while, if at all.

Alsek sat on my other side, forepaw falling to soothingly stroke my leg. Or, maybe he was trying to sway my decision in his favor. Regardless, I debated in my mind. Yes, Alsek would be mad if I kept it from him, but if I told him he'd only worry.

"Baby, what did he say?" Alsek glared at Humber, forepaws now in his own lap,.

"I won't say unless he wants me to do so. It's his business." Humber promised, reaching a forepaw over my back to take Alsek's. "Do you want me to, Xavier?"

"Yes, please." I said, emotionless and still.

Humber delineated to the other polar bear what exactly had happened, in more detail that I had told him. He added little things and chopped pieces so that things weren't as bad as they were. He and I seemed to have the same idea in mind; if Alsek knew that Thompson was hitting on me, the polar bear would march his way to the dog's frat house and end up getting himself hurt.

Regardless of how diluted the story was, Alsek snapped to me: "Xavier, he's hitting on you. Don't go."

"That's what I said!" Humber roared. He quietened his voice. "But, he wants to go. He wants us to go with him as well."

"Good, because If he wants to go so desperately we're going with you." Alsek snuggled up to me and bumped his head against me. It was slightly painful, but it was good to crack an inside joke.

"Thank you." I mumbled and leaned my head on Alsek's shoulder. "I owe you two."

"You'll make up for it when go to the movies on Sunday." Alsek said, slipping a forepaw under my shirt to rub my belly as Humber started sipping at his tea.

Alsek, being as gay as he always was, asked: "Now then, why don't we talk about what you're going to wear for this date of yours tonight?"

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Story, characters and locations © Kalebthecat