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“It is in times like these that we must ask ourselves, what is it that makes us who we are? Why are we so different than others? Are we really different than others? For humans and anthros, evolution has taken us on different paths. Biologically we may be different. Can the same be said for our consciousness, are spirits? This is the path towards progress that we as both individual parts of a specific species and as ones wanting to unify must achieve. This is the dream and hope of all T’aira.”

_ -Leonus Baxard. 20XX_

---

It was raining. Hard. Laurence spent the majority of the lecture this morning staring out of the open window. Hearing the rain drops pelt against the glass started to make him fall asleep, or at the very least drone out of the current lecture.

At least, that was until a female cheetah nudged him awake.

“Hey.” She whispered. “You may want to write this stuff down. It’s probably going to be on the mid-term.”

Laurence shook his head a bit, then nodded. “Yeah, sorry. Dazed out there for a bit.” It was odd. He only knew her name, Kara. However, beyond that, they never really talked or hung out. Yet, she always sat next to him, almost watching over him in the classroom in case he messed up. It had been like this since the beginning of the semester.

“So, in conclusion, the neurons of this system are something that cannot be categorized with just a simple theorem.” the professor stated, ending off his slideshow, and ending the class quite abruptly.

Looking around the room, Laurence saw all of the students standing up, placing various notes and books into backpacks before leaving the room. This room would have seemed like a normal situation, if not for the melding of the human and anthro students mingling. It was a pure reflection of what the city, and all of T’aira, was trying to uphold.

Placing his books into his bag, Laurence stood up, nearly bumping into a bull as he did so.

“Ah, excuse me.” he said shyly as he walked on by, the bull simply snorting a bit before continuing on his own way.

“Mr. Greiver, may I talk to you for a moment?” a voice called from behind him just as he was about to leave the room, standing aside to let the other students pass.

Kara looked at Laurence, smiling a bit before leaving the classroom. He nodded at her, then nervously looked back at the professor.

Professor McGlove was standing by his desk, waving his hand, or rather paw, for Laurence to meet with him. The large bear was pulling out some sheets when Laurence stepped up.

“Yes, sir? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing, no. However, I did get your appeals to do some undergraduate research in the study of neurobiology.”

The human’s heart nearly skipped a beat as he stood on his toes a bit, anxiously shifting unconsciously.

“You did? Is…is it possible then to do research with you or one of the other faculty members?”

The large bear sighed a bit, taking his unusually tiny glasses off for a moment.

“I do not want to get your hopes up. I would like to fund your project, however, right now my grant is coming to a close. It will be a while before it gets re-negotiated. Perhaps in your second year we might be able to do something, but right now it just seems unlikely.”

Laurence’s face of excitement and eagerness turned into something solemn. He dropped his head a bit. The professor noticed this, and spoke with sternness, though not to Laurence himself.

“You are a smart student. It will take some time, but it will happen.”

He nodded.

“Of course. Thank you for your consideration.” Laurence calmly said before turning from the desk, heading out the classroom and into the large hallway of the college, a lot less hope in his heart than when he had started.

---

Shal was sitting on his bed, scratching his head slightly. His muscles were incredibly from his workout the previous day.

“Damn…must have overdid it.” The tiger mumbled to himself as he forced himself to stand up, shuffling over to the kitchen. He noticed the time, seeing that it was about 9:30 A.M.

Realizing that he still had some time before Laurence finishes with his other classes, he decided to grab glass of water and then some Tylenol from the cupboard, downing the pills as he went to sit on the couch, still completely shirtless and pantless, except for his underwear.

He went through his phone, seeing that he had a few text messages from some of his other friends.

Despite the two living together and basically knowing each other’s phone numbers, Laurence and Shal never really hung out together. They never did anything together. Shal tried to get him to go run in the park with him or even to the local gym, but he just supposed that wasn’t Laurence’s thing.

Flipping through the messages, he didn’t particularly notice anything that was exactly interesting.

After he was done flipping through his messages, he decided to go onto his social network. He hated sitting around doing things like this, but in his current state, he could barely move. Taking a deep sigh, he opened the app and started looking through other people..and furs posts.

Something did catch his eye. He saw that there was a music festival that was occurring a week from today. Going back to his thoughts, he realized that perhaps this would be a good time to try and get the human out of the room.

Shal smiled to himself, taking in the details of the location and other important factors. The only problem was that it seemed to conflict with Laurence’s academic schedule.

As much as he would like to make it a surprise…well….he was sure Laurence could skip a day of classes and be fine. So, telling him ahead of time shouldn’t be an issue.

Shal also hadn’t seen the human really hanging out with anyone in particular, so there was no reason why this wouldn’t work out.

Grinning a bit more, but mostly to himself, the tiger went onto the website, buying two tickets to the festival.

---

Laurence finished the last class for the day. He was tired.

Looking at the clock, he saw that it was 3:30 in the afternoon.

“Forgot to eat lunch…” he thought to himself as he stepped out of the college and onto the campus border.

As he looked around, he saw a couple humans talking with a few wolves about going to a party or something, one of the wolves highfiving one of the humans and laughing.

Taking a look to the other side of where he was walking, he saw a giraffe playing with a guitar by a tree, idly strumming chords while a few other furs were gathered around him.

“Hey Laurence.”

Quickly looking behind him, he saw Kara running up to him, grabbing onto his shoulder.

“I saw you leave the classroom this morning. You looked upset after you spoke with the prof. Everything okay?”

“Umm….yeah. Just can’t do any research with him this year. I suppose its usual though, so I’m not too upset about it.”

Kara looked at Laurence, ears folding down a bit.

“Ah. It’s still a shame though. Sorry about that.”

A few minutes of silence flew by before she spoke again.

“I was also wondering, if maybe you might like to hang out sometime. I haven’t really seen you talk much with the other students, so I thought if it was okay with you, perhaps something tomorrow, or the next day?”

Laurence looked at the cheetah, and smiled.

“Yeah, I think we could do something. Maybe not right now though. I do have to head home.”

Kara nodded, tail flicking behind her.

“Alright. I’ll catch you later then.” She said as she went ahead of him, waving behind her as she did so.

He waved back, though a bit shyly.

Maybe Shal was right. Maybe he was staying in his room way too long. Just as he was about to dwell on the situation more, his stomach rumbled quite loudly, catching the attention of a few passersby’s.

Blushing a little at that, Laurence decided to make his way home. He doubted Shal would have anything cooked up yet, though he had to admit the cat did make a good salmon and casserole plate.

He looked at his wallet and decided he had enough to pick some items up at the store on his way back.

---

Deciding it was time to actually try and get dressed, the tiger went to his room, dragging out a shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

Sliding a bare footpaw into the fabric, he pulled on the pants, huffing a bit as the fabric seemed to stretch a bit too tightly over his legs.

“Hmmm…perhaps I need to get a new pair?” the tiger thought to himself when he heard the door handle turn, his ears perking up a bit.

“Hey Shal, I’m ho…..”

Laurence stood at the door, looking at the tall tiger in nothing but the sweatpants, his topless form covering everything in the human’s view.

He must have stood there too long, as the tiger had to continue the sentence for him.

“You’re…home.” The tiger said slowly and punctuating the last word, grinning a bit before grabbing the shirt that he laid on the sofa.

“It’s almost like you haven’t seen a topless tiger before.”

Laurence shook his head a bit, feeling the heat rising to his face.

“W-well, you know it’s not like I come in here expecting to SEE a topless tiger in the room. Besides, shouldn’t you be out jogging or working out?”

“Nah.” Shal stated, pulling the tight shirt over himself, struggling a bit to get his head through the hole. “It’s rest day. And I think I need to get new clothes.” He said, the tiger managing to pull the shirt down, his chest and abs creating an outline in the fabric.

“No…no you don’t.” thought Laurence as he had to peel his eyes away from the male before him, setting a bag down on the counter after closing the door behind him.

Hearing the shuffling of the bag, the tiger looked at the counter, tilting his head.

“What’s that?”

“This? This is lunch. I haven’t eaten anything yet.” Laurence said as he pulled out a small box of sushi. This seemed to make the tiger pout a bit.

“And here I was planning on making a large supper.”

Frowning, Laurence looked at the tiger. Ever since they got together, Shal knew of Laurence’s inability to make anything other than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Luckily for him, the tiger was a fairly decent cook, and basically took charge of the meals for the day.

“Well, I can hold off, but my stomach is killing me. Besides, it’s only almost four now. And its only a few pieces of sushi. I think of this as mostly a snack rather than an actual lunch.”

The tiger walked over, a small smirk on his face as he spoke in a deep tone, leaning on the counter.

“Tell ya what. You have seven pieces there. You give me three of them, and I’ll forgive you.”

Sighing a bit, the human tried to negotiate.

“Two and a half pieces, and I’ll wash your clothes.”

“Deal.” the tiger grinned as he grabbed two pieces, throwing them in the air and catching them with his large maw, chewing as he purred contently.

Just as Laurence was about to grab a piece for himself, the tiger beat him to it, taking a piece.

“Ah, remember. Half.” Shal grinned as he used his claw to effortlessly slice the piece of sushi in half, handing the other over to Laurence. The human took it, rolling his eyes a bit as he put it into his mouth. It definitely tasted good.

As they chewed on the food, the tiger pulled out his phone and slid it over to Laurence.

“By va whvay….” Shal stopped, then swallowed his half before continuing. “By the way, take a look at this.” He said, sliding his fingerpad across the screen. He tapped his claw to the music festival site that he had saved on his phone.

“I bought us tickets to this. I thought it would be fun.” The tiger said smiling, tail flicking behind him.

Laurence took another piece of sushi before looking over the phone. It looked like it took place over in the Central Park, about a twenty-five-minute drive from where they were currently at.

“You know…..this actually looks like fun.” Laurence said, looking up at the tiger.

Shal’s expression seemed to be one of extreme happiness, as he had a large grin on his face.

“That’s excellent! We can even do stuff before then too.”

Laurence smiled at the tiger’s enthusiasm. “Yeah, it’s almost like a date.” He said, stopping from putting another piece of sushi into his mouth upon realization of what he just said.

However, the tiger seemed to roll with it.

“Well, you’d probably be the cutest one I’ve taken on a date.”

Smiling, he saw the human’s face go absolutely red with embarrassment. Shal laughed loudly as he nudged the human, placing a heavy paw on his back. “I’m joking, I’m joking.”

Laurence coughed a bit as the tiger hit his back with his handpaw, trying to think of other things to get rid of the redness in his face. Seeing the embarrassment, the tiger patted the human’s shoulder lightly, leaning down a bit to look at his face.

“Hey, you okay there?” he asked, a bit worried.

“H..huh…yeah..Yeah, I’m fine.” Laurence managed to sputter out. All he wanted to do was say something now. Just tell him how he liked the tiger. Tell him of all his inner secrets. But instead…..

“I was just messing with you. Like I’d be embarrassed.” He stated, trying to play it off as a joke. But the tiger still had a look of concern, even though he nodded.

“Alright then. So…….what do you want to do now?” Shal said as he went to the fridge, pulling out a beer and flicking the cap off with a claw.

“Well, since its only 4…we could go shopping for a new television.”

The tiger’s eyes lighted up a bit. “We could, but where is the nearest outlet for that?”

Laurence took the tiger’s phone into his hand and searched through the maps app, scrolling through some of the listings.

“Looks like there is a mall about 20 minutes from here. They don’t close till 9. We could walk.”

“I’d prefer that. Been stuck in here all day.” The tiger said, stretching a bit as he finished his beer, throwing the bottle into the trashcan.

Laurence grinned. “You sure you can walk after drinking?” he teased, getting up from his seat at the small counter.

“Oh trust me, you haven’t seen me when I’ve had my fill.” Shal winked at him, before grabbing his keys. “Come on. We might as well leave now.”

“Wait, should we take the car?”

“Are we actually buying one today, or are we looking?”

“Well…if we find one…I think the car would be easier. In case we do decide to get one.”

The tiger grinned, jingling the keys in his paw a bit. “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.”

Nodding, the human handed over the phone to Shal, before grabbing his own and heading out the door with the tiger.

---

The short drive took a bit longer than they originally thought. Laurence still couldn’t get over how large the vehicle was. Of course, since Shal was the owner of the car, he really shouldn’t have been that surprised, seeing as how it mostly had to accommodate him.

Yet, it still didn’t help that Laurence felt like a toddler sitting in the front seat.

“Hmm…didn’t realize that traffic would be this bad.” The tiger stated as he peered around, carefully analyzing where everyone was at as cars drove past him.

Upon arriving at the mall, it took a good quarter of an hour before they were able to find a spot. Frustrated, Shal had to park near the back of the lot.

“Damn crowds…” he said a bit loudly, a slight roar could be found in his voice as he spoke.

Laurence, opened to door, having to nearly jump out as he slammed it back behind him.

“Well, I do suppose everyone is getting off at work.”

Shal flicked his tail in agitation. It was apparent that the large cat did not like crowds. However, they both made their way into the building.

Inside was as one could expect based on the amount of cars in the lot. There furs and humans aplenty inside of the mall, a large gathering near the food courts. Of course, those were mostly high school and first year college students catching on days past.

“Today wasn’t the best day.” Shal huffed out a bit, just under his breath as they had to move past large groups to get to the electronic wing.

Laurence bumped into a couple humans on his way, having to apologize several times as he found a large mall map. “Hey Shal, over here.”

Perking his ears up, he looked over the throngs of furs and people to find Laurence’s form, finally spotting him and walking up, pushing a couple out of the way as he did so, a bit to their annoyance.

“Sorry.” He huffed out as he narrowed his eyes at the map. “Alright, lets see where we are at.”

The entire mall was split up into four major sections: Clothing in the East wing, Electronics in the North wing, Food in the West wing and an actual theatre that took up the majority of the Southern wing.

“Umm…so…looks like this mall is pretty compact.” Laurence said as he examined over the map. “Looks like you could find everything here.”

“It has to be this way.” said the tiger. “The way that the commisoners built this city, everything usually revolves around a central point, and well……this is the result. Though its not a bad thing necessarily, and it saves on space. But….” Shal looked around as he spoke. “..well…I don’t like crowds.”

Laurence grinned, poking the tiger’s arm which made him look down at the human. “We are just here to get the TV, right? Besides, I kinda consider this fun. Almost like an adventure.”

The tiger huffed. “Adventure. You still have to wash my clothes.” Shal reminded Laurence as he went back and studied over the map.

“Alright, looks like the store that we are looking for is located on the second floor in the northern wing. Towards the back as well.”

“Okay then. Lets go.” said an overly-eager Laurence, with Shal just shaking his head a bit. At least the human got out of the room for once.

Surprisingly, the northern wing of the mall was not as crowded as the Food section. Guess it made sense however, since that part of the building was the main gathering spot.

“Well, well. At least I can walk here.” the tiger made his way into the electronic store, a zebra looking at the large feline, moving out of the way a bit, the human following close behind him.

A large bear was standing behind the counter, leaning on it with his elbow. “Hello. Welcome to Ivory TV, the largest selection of television and monitors we have to offer.” he said in a very generic voice.

“Thanks.” Laurence stated, before going to the back of the room.

The place was fairly big, and towards the back the hosted a large selection of 30”, 48” all the way to over 80” screens.

“Whew, this must have taken up a large portion of the mall.” the human thought to himself.

“Hey Shal, look at this!” Laurence stated as he pointed to a large television.

The large tiger walked over, bending down a bit as he examined it.

“Hmmm. It is nice. But..there seems to be something off.”

“What? How so?” the human stated as he bent forward to examine the television as well.

Shal softly smiled, tapping a claw against the price. Laurence sighed. “Aren’t you rich?”

The tiger grinned. “If I was, we wouldn’t be living in an apartment like we do. With a nice TV to boot.”

“We? You mean you would take me with you?” Laurence grinned, nudging the big cat a bit.

Shal sighed, shaking his head before standing back up straight. Laurence turned to go look at other televisions, scanning over each one. “Hey Shal, what would our budget be?”

“Shouldn’t we have figured that out before we came? Overall, I would say……$500. That’s as much as I can afford. And that would be with financing options.”

Laurence pouted a bit. “Ffffiinnnnnneeeee.” he drew out the word like a small kid. “By the way, what do you do? All I ever do is see you jogging and working out.”

Almost instantly, it was the larger cat’s turn to act uncomfortable, coughing slightly as he points at a smaller TV. “This would work in the room, right?”

Laurence blinked at the tiger’s nervous reaction. “Why are you dodging the question? It’s not that bad is i…”

“Just drop it.” the tiger looked at the human, this time with less nervousness and more…. ferocity. Either way, Laurence knew when to stop talking.

“Alright, alright. Yeah…I suppose that one will work. And it’s on sale too.”

Nodding, the tiger left the human to go speak to the bear behind the counter for purchasing one. Laurence kind of stood back. The tiger, Shal….he never snapped at him like that. Or acted that unfriendly towards him. Did he really work somewhere that he hated or was that embarrassed to speak about?

After they made the purchase, the tiger ended up carrying the television out of the mall.

“Hey Shal…back there…..if I made you mad..”

“I said to drop it.” the tiger warned, a bit of a growl in his voice, keeping his gaze forward.

There was nothing but silence on the drive back to the apartment. Laurence offered to help Shal take the TV into the room, but he refused, stating that he got it.

“Do you need help setting it up?” Laurence asked, going to grab some water from the fridge.

“I got it.” was the tiger’s only reply.

“Just like everything else…” said the human under his breath

“What was that?!” Shal suddenly stood up, ears flicking back a bit. Laurence took a few steps back in shock, nearly dropping his water.

“Look, I don’t know what I did to suddenly piss you off, but I’m sorry.”

Shal looked at him, taking a large breath before calming down, turning his attention back to the television. “Sorry……”

Laurence walked up, asking the same question. “Do you need help with the television?”

The tiger was plugging in a few things, checking to make sure that the digital receiver was good. “I think I have it.”

Nodding, Laurence went back to the kitchen, finishing up the water before grabbing another bottle.

“Try turning it on.” Shal said, reaching behind him over the remote.

“Thought you didn’t nee….” the human was about to say, but then quickly shut his mouth as he grabbed the remote. He tried pressing the button, but nothing came on.

“Do you have everything plugged in right?”

“Should be.”

“Here, let me see.”

“No, I’ve got it. It’s too crowded back here.”

“I can at least look.”

“Laurence, I got…” the tiger went to face the human, however, as he turned his head, Laurence was close enough.

They were kissing.

Definitely not intentional. Laurence’s eyes went wide as the tiger suddenly backed up, coughing a bit. “Look…that…that wasn’t….”

Reeling a bit back from the shock, Laurence just kinda stood there. Never in his mind did he think that would happen. Granted it was an accident, but maybe now……

“Hey…try the remote…”

“Shal…”

The tiger tilted his ear upwards, looking over at the once again red faced human. Shal stretched out a bit, tilting his head to the side a bit. “Yeah?” he spoke in his usual deep tone, but this time slightly quieter than usual.

“I…I….” Laurence couldn’t think of how to bring it up, the tiger still watching him perplexed.

“I….I think I got the TV working.” the human said, mentally punching himself over and over, pressing the remote, the television turning on, though it was nothing but static.

“See…I…” however, he suddenly felt himself be pushed back, a large paw on his chest as the human looked up.

Shal sighed. “I know what you were going to say.” the tiger said, before placing his lips on the humans once more.

Fireworks nearly went off in Laurence’s mind as Shal closed his eyes, the human following his lead.

It seemed like forever, an eternity of passion, before the tiger pulled back. “I hope….this doesn’t change anything….” Shal stated shyly.

“No……but….maybe you can tell me where you work?” Laurence asked, reaching up and stroking one of the tiger’s ears.

“Not yet…..maybe later. And….sorry for snapping earlier.” the tiger apologized, letting the human stroke his ear, himself purring deeply from his chest.

After another couple minutes, the tiger finally stood up, Laurence pushing himself to a sitting position. Inside he was happy. It was a strange coincidence. A strange coincidence that Laurence was happy to have been a part of.

“So…you are gay?” Laurence grinned, looking at the tiger.

“Not….fully.” Shal said, tail flicking behind him as he went to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of beer and flicking off the top.

They both sat in silence, though the silence was replaced with the noise of soft static from the television monitor.

Finally, it was the human that broke the silence. “Hey Shal?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you……think…I could sleep in your bed tonight?”

Almost instantly, he could feel the tiger wince a bit at that. “Look…what happened….if something comes around…..lets take it slowly, okay?” the feline said, keeping the bottle of beer close.

Internally Laurence pouted a bit as he flicked the television off.

“Okay.”

Later that night, the tiger was in the shower, taking an unusually long time. Laurence was once more out on the patio, staring out at the lights of Maroon. He could pinpoint all the cars and the other nearby apartment lights. Lifting up his gaze, he could see a scattering of stars in the twilight sky. Even with all of the lights in the city, there didn’t seem to be much in the way of light pollution. It was a good thing, as the human looked across some of the constellations, or the beginnings of them as the sky grew darker still. He smiled to himself.

Today was the day. It really happened. But………where can it go from now?