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'You think you're in love,' Colton said, staring at me unflinchingly. 'With me. Really in love? Not just a crush or some kind of infatuation you can't place?'

I nodded, feeling choked and twitchy. 'Yeah. Despite everything. I love you Colton Vincent, you awesome fox.' I held up a finger. 'Even though you still owe me the biggest apology for trying to ruin my prom night. And for getting my brother in trouble when he was nothing to do with us having a bitch fight. And you called your own sister the c-word. And you called me a faggot. And a trash-panda. And you deliberately hurt my feelings any way you could think of and you didn't think of me as a person. And you told me I wasn't good enough for your sister when I bet all you wanted was...'

Was me? Oh God.

'Was you?' Colton said. 'You know what I've never had, Aldrington?'

'What?'

'Someone say they love me. I mean love me like this. Not like my family. You think you actually do? I won't be mad if you were just getting carried away. What do you feel like? Right now?' He shifted closer to me and I could smell the faint hints of the same aftershave he'd used on prom night. 'I'm sorry for all the times I called you a trash panda. And for insulting your family. And for stealing your brother's car. And for how I hurt your feelings and treated you like you were inferior because of your species. And that I didn't accept your help when it was the one nice thing anyone's done for me in years that didn't involve wanting anything else. Apart from maybe being my friend. And then what? Seeing if you really could fall in love with me and not just think I was cool?'

I couldn't talk. My throat was in a knot.

'Come on, raccoon. You were doing great. And I just finally got a load off my mind that's been on it for sixteen fucking _years._Talk to me. How do you feel?'

Here it was. The side of him he hadn't shown to Caitlyn, or even let her have a hint of. Reserved.

For the right person?

'Say something to me,' Colton said, his eyes dancing with roguish intent. 'Say anything. Just talk.'

'I accept your apology,' I said. 'And I'm...'

'Don't you dare be sorry too. I needed what you did. Badly. Maybe you don't feel great about it, but it doesn't matter. Someone had to stop me behaving like I was. You had some serious balls, raccoon. So thanks.'

'I...' I started laughing. Mum was right: forgiveness was the right thing to do. Hating someone took too much strength. It was better spent wanting to love them And I did want to love Colton. I wanted to touch him. And I was going to do something so crazy that I might regret it for life, but I no longer cared.

'You got a thought you wanna finish there, raccoon?'

You don't want me to be a coward, Courtney? I thought. Watch this.

'I imagine you skating naked all the time,' I told him. 'Like you did back then. Just not when you were twelve, oh shit that came out wrong, I mean...I imagine you skating naked now. Looking like this. I imagine that you found a place to put that thing, with all that energy I heard you had, and that place...that place was m-'

I couldn't breathe. Colton had his hands behind my head, my ears between his fingers, and he was so close his breath was warm on the tip of my wet nose.

'I_love_ your embarrassed floppy ears, Aldrington.' He rubbed them. 'You're holding your breath right now. Let it out and breathe deep, before you just explode.'

I exhaled the longest breath of my life and closed my eyes, wondering if when I opened them again this would all be real. It was. Colton was still there, and I was sighing deeply as he got his finger tips in the soft space behind my ears and pressed. A great tremor of some feeling I barely knew went through me.

I was purring. Colton put his forehead against mine and gave a soft, sensual growl. 'Here I am, Aldrington. You won. Courtney was wrong. You're not a coward. And when I'm with you I don't feel like one anymore either.' He stroked a hand down my neck, then my back, rubbing my hoodie against me fur underneath it. 'This is your first time, right? Did anyone touch you like this before?'

I shook my head, moving away slightly. 'I don't know if I can, Colton. I want to but...' I put my arms around his back and hugged him to me. 'Oh God. Tell me this is real.'

'It's real,' Colton said. 'I'm here. And if tomorrow's my gone-day I want to know you, like this. Before I get there. And I want this for you. And this isn't saying sorry. This is saying everything sorry doesn't say.' He got his hands all the way down to my lap, and then moved away. 'But there's one thing I've got to ask. Promise you won't automatically think I'm a dick all over again?'

I slowly eased up on my hug, letting myself brush a hand against his cheek and then keep hold of his neck, all my limbs feeling like they were numb with electricity. 'Sure. What is it?'

'If you wanted to take me to the prom so badly, why didn't you just ask? I might have said yes. Everyone at school knows what I am. Your coming out might have been the talk of the year for all the right reasons. We might have just avoided everything that happened.'

I tried to humour him, but at least when I let my honest reply out I was laughing. 'Oh fuck you Colton Vincent! You'd never have said yes to me. It took a whole bunch of stupid shit to bring us together and you're going to admit it. Or I'm never letting this happen. Say it.'

'Yeah, alright trash-panda. I'd never have said yes.' This time, Colton took hold of my chest and playfully shook me.

I grabbed one of his ears and pinched it. 'Every time you call me that, I do that. Next time I'm going to nip your ear.'

'Trash-panda. Try it.'

I tensed and coiled back as if ready to leap onto him.

'Oh I'm liking that look!' Colton said, putting a slight growl behind it. 'Trash panda!'

'Know what?' I said. 'I'm not that easy. And you're going to tell me another secret. You did something to me with a claw. You did it on purpose. At the park and in front of your parents. They didn't see. What the hell did you do exactly? On my neck. I felt like I was shivering, right here.'

'Oh that,' Colton said. 'Come here. Closer. Closer.' he whispered the last part, and fondled at the top of my hood. 'Can I?' Before I could answer, he put a hand inside my shirt and tickled the fur at the top of my chest, working his hand up and onto my shoulder.

Oh fucking hell, I was back to a full on purr again. Colton was rubbing my shoulder. Then I felt a claw in an odd place somewhere in the middle of it. The semi in my pants was going to go full on if he kept this up.

'All I did was this.' he dug the claw in, just slightly, and I got the feeling up my neck again. 'It's a nerve. I'm so good I got it through your shirt. And your prom suit. And by the way, you looked amazing last Saturday.' He reached his hand onto the other shoulder and did the same on that side. 'Can I take this off and see what's underneath yet? Or do you like it on?'

'How would I know?' I said. 'On. I think. I'm just...'

'Bashful?' Colton said. 'Shy? Okay, shall I go first? Want to see if I'm what you always thought?'

'You're pulling my tail,' I said, somehow sure he didn't realise, and I only just had. Colton had the middle of my tail gripped lightly in his free hand, and he'd started tugging it.

'Oh. Yeah, I am. You mind? It's a really nice tail. And you know what else? I never did this with a raccoon before. I just always wanted to. It's just...I'm stupid, but...'

'It doesn't matter,' I said. 'That was old Colton. Take a sniff.' I pulled my hoody up slightly. 'Put your nose in there and sniff.'

Colton grinned. 'Now you're talking.' He put his whole head under and took a deep breath through his nose. Then a second, then a third, then he came out and dropped my hood back down. 'That your thing? You like people smelling you?'

I was certainly going to burst out of my pants if he did it again. But it wasn't my thing. He wasn't knowing about that yet. I didn't even know if I could tell him at all. But I could get him close. 'For a raccoon, I said, 'I'm as clean as a bedsheet.'

'Sure,' Colton said. 'If you like your bedsheets to smell like peanut butter and marshmallows.'

'You're kidding, right?' I said. Then I laughed as his nose twitched. 'I do not smell like peanut butter! Or marshmallows. I hate marshmallows.'

'Sure you do. You're the peanut butter raccoon.' He sniffed a little more around my neck. 'And I smell coconut. And old car-seat leather. And burnt marshmallows. What do you wash yourself in? And by the way, it was a compliment. Before you bristle up like I bet you're doing under there.' He put his hands up my hood and rubbed my stomach, then his nose just under the head hole and took another sniff of me. 'Sweet, raccoon. However you do it, keep doing it.' He looked down at my lap. 'You like this, huh? Wanna sniff the fox? If you're right about all my dreams coming true, I'll have to go through coat inspection every day. Wanna inspect my coat like a soldier isn't allowed to anymore?' He growled, and it was more like a purr. 'Come on. You're sitting on those hands again. Don't sit on them. Use them. Take the fox's clothes off. He's all yours.'

I was on him with a wild growl, and an energy I felt like my night on stage had only been a rehearsal for. I fumbled at all his clothes, not sure what I wanted to pull off first and ending up unable to do anything except stand there and laugh at myself for being so useless. At least he was laughing with me, and helping me get him naked. His coat smelt deeper than just the aftershave, when I finally did have him naked apart from his pants. He had his hands hooked inside them as I took a deep sniff of him and almost came in my pants, sitting there on the straw bail next to him like an idiot.

'Colton,' I said, my breath coming out shallow and excited. 'I don't think I can...'

'Okay, calm, deep breath again,' Colton said. 'You're fine.' He put a hand on my forehead. 'Feel that control? Distract yourself. What do I smell like? Really focus on that scent. What is it?'

Hell if I knew. 'Your coat. It's just your amazing coat.' I ran a hand up his chest, against the knap of his fur. 'Smells like....new carpet and orange blossom. And mesquite charcoal smoke.' It was the closest I could get.

'See?' Colton said. 'Control. You've got it. And if you shoot your load, your young and dumb and there's more where that came from within minutes, raccoon. Trust me. You've taught me one hell of a lesson, this last week. Mind if I teach you a little something?' He licked the tip of my nose, and I felt myself go hard again.

'Leave your pants on,' I said, looking at the bulge in them. It was so big it looked like he could stuff it right through me with one poke. My ears were flat on my head again.

'Alright, you got it. Wanna put your hand in there? Go on, try it.'

I tried it. Colton growled, then purred, then sucked down a deep breath as I rubbed his cock. 'Alright raccoon, here's my thing. I was pulling your tail because I like tails. So get your hands out of my pants for a minute and get hold of that tail.'

I'd played with my own tail as a bored kid many times, but as a teenager I'd just left it alone. Just another ordinary a part of me, and I'd never really thought about Colton's or anyone else's during any fantasy either. I took hold of it. Colton's brush had fur so thick and soft that I almost couldn't get one hand around it.

'There you go,' he said. 'Now pull.'

'You want me to pull your tail? Won't that hurt?' I tugged it a little.

'Oh, tug tug tug, how cute,' Colton said, flashing his teeth. 'Pull it, raccoon. Pull it like you mean it.'

I pulled. Colton flinched a little.

'What was that? Come on. You think it'll hurt? Yeah, it hurts. And I love it. So hurt me, Todd-coon. Pull the fox's tail like you want it to hurt.'

Feeling more out of place than I'd ever been in my life, I yanked Colton's tail hard. He yelped. I yanked it again. He clenched his teeth and sucked air through them hard. I did it a third time, thinking about what an asshole he'd been last week, and this time he let out a growl of pain and bent over. 'Urrrrgh, you bitch! That's it! Pull Colton's tail, bitch!'

What was this thing with him referring to himself in the third person when he was horny? Never mind, I was hot for it. And Colton was trying to walk away from me, like he was trying to stretch his own tail muscle and make it hurt. I yanked it hard again. This time he went down on his knees and lay with his chest flat on the straw bail.

I pulled his tail again, this time for longer and he groaned, then growled, then panted.

'Urrrrrrrrgh SHIT Aldrington it's like you're trying to rip my tailbone out!' I dropped him. 'Did I say stop? Did I? Get back down there, bitch!'

This time, I lifted him off his knees, a sick feeling in my stomach that I was enjoying his pain and something telling me to stop, this I couldn't stop myself. I wanted him so badly. I wanted what made him happy, what turned him on, what made him pant like I'd always wanted him to. He was whining, yelping....thank God this was a quiet place and nobody would hear. Or everyone would, for miles, because the noise I was getting from Colton was practically feral. When I dropped him he gasped so hard I was sure he'd just come.

I put my hand on his the back of his head. 'How was that? That do it for you?'

'You nearly had it, raccoon. But I'm saving this load for you. I can even do it again and keep it all. Get on it, bitch. Pull Colton's tail again. Do it.' He was sweating hard now, I could smell it through his fur.

'Don't we need a safety word or something? What if I really hurt you and I don't think you really mean stop?'

'I don't do safety words, raccoon!' Colton growled. 'Oh what the fuck. Oranges. Think you can make me say it?'

I tried, certain the skin under Colton's fur would split when I lifted him off his back feet by his tail again. This time I held his head down. He still didn't shoot his load. My own pants were soaked with pre-come, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it all through me. I forced Colton's head down and slapped a hand hard on his backside, needing a release, not knowing where it came from.

'Oh yeah!' He breathed. 'Spank me, raccoon! I've been a very bad boy! Say it!'

'You're a very, very bad fox, Colton Vincent.' I punctuated it my slapping his ass as hard as I could. 'And you know what? I don't think you've learned your lesson yet. So why don't I spank you with your pants off? Yeah, take your fucking pants off. Take em off!' I was already doing it for him. I spanked him hard five times and then let him go, panting almost in time with him. 'Now give me that tail again.'

'Hold up...raccoon,' he said. 'Let me...get my...'

'Breath back?' I suddenly had one killer of an idea. 'Why don't you hold your breath? I love hearing you panting. I wanna make you pant like your life depends on it.' I put my hand on the back of his head and felt under the fur, to find the scar he'd told me about. 'Can I put my hand over your nose and hold your mouth shut?'

'Woah, Todd-coon. I don't do choking. I got freaked out by that once.'

'Sorry,' I said, wondering why he hadn't just gone for 'Oranges.'

'It's cool.' He rolled over onto his front, showing me his soaked pants. And he hadn't fully come yet? 'I can do that on you if you want. Although just the hand. I don't like gripping someone's neck. And I heard a lot of your set last week; I am not ruining that voice with a neck choke. Just a hand to help you hold your breath. That your thing? You always wanted a guy to do that?'

I sat down next to him. 'Nah. I never thought of it before. My thing's....different. It's easy. It hardly needs anything. But...maybe not this time. Maybe next time. Yeah, okay, let's do the breath holding thing. Wanna have a contest who can go longest?'

'Oh come on. Don't make me pull a gone-day speech on you. You've got all the shit on me there is. I can keep a secret for you. I promise. Tell me what your thing is and I'll do it for you till you're so hot for me you can't resist stuffing this.' He slapped his own butt. 'Come on, Aldrington. Tell the fox what you like.'

'You won't wanna do it.'

'Sure I will. 'You just pulled my tail like you were trying to pelt me alive, it was hot. I'd do anything to make you do that again.'

'You promise you won't laugh?'

'If I do, it'll be for the right reasons. You laughed at my naked skating, right?'

'You had to bring that up now?' I shook myself off and tried to straighten up my ears.

'Okay. It's easy. You foxes have good hearing, right? That's good, you're perfect for this. Put one of your ears against my chest so you can hear my heartbeat. That's my thing.'

Colton sat up against the straw bail, his eyes a little wider, his tail twitching, and a playful smile on his face. 'That's _way_cool, Todd-coon. I never heard a guy's heartbeat before. How did I never think of that one? You got it.' He slickened his ears back a little. 'Won't be as good through that hoody though. Gonna take it off yet?'

I did, then went all the way to my jeans with it. My feet were already bare, and only now did Colton seem to notice.

'Nice, you're a barefooter? No sneakers? Always thought about trying that. Damn, raccoon, you've got pads like cow leather! You run barefoot too, don't you? Okay, this is cool.' He kept hold of my feet. 'Paw inspection!'

'Huh?' I said. 'Paw inspection?'

'Feet do it for me too,' Colton said, rubbing my pads. 'You've got grit in between these. Tsk tsk. I got this.' He gently rubbed a claw between my pads, cleaning them out, then he rubbed between my toes, then he went full on weird and put his nose to my feet and sniffed. 'Where have these been?' he said. 'What's that incredible scent?' He put my left sole on his forehead and sniffed again. 'Hot tarmac and...is that tea-tree oil?' He licked my right foot and it tickled. I laughed.

'Colton, that was so not clean!' I shook my head, feeling the blood start to run to it because he had my feet up high while my back was on the floor. 'You are so not kissing my mouth after that!'

Colton held up a hand. 'It was a wet finger, dummy. Not my tongue. Got you!' He smirked. 'And it was wet from sticking it down my pants, raccoon!' Still holding my feet, he pulled me along my back until I was under the barn roof, then let my feet drop down in the straw. He lay down next to me. 'You passed the paw inspection, Aldrington.' He rubbed my chest. 'Which side do you guys have your heart on?'

'Left. Same as you guys.'

He found it with his fingers and smiled as he felt it quicken with anticipation. He rubbed his fingers deep under my fur. 'Which ear do you want?'

I reached up and took his right ear in my hand and smoothed it out.

'You got it.' he snuggled up to me with his head on my chest, found my heartbeat with his ear and listened. 'Man, your engine's seriously running there, Todd-coon.' He tapped out the rhythm of it on the other side of my chest with his left hand. 'I could listen to that all day. So how do I make it go faster? Let's see.'

He reached his hand down to my pants and took hold of my hard, wet cock. Everything inside me jolted. I breathed faster to keep up as he worked me, holding his head down onto my chest and purring with the sheer joy of this. 'This is so seriously hot,' Colton said, his chest starting to swell against mine with his deeper breathing. 'You thought I'd laugh at this? I've never been this hot for someone!' He lifted his head a little, turned it and started nipping me. I kept purring. He rolled me onto my side. 'I need to finish,' he said, his voice barely above a panting whisper. 'Tell me I can do this.'

My heart quickened again. 'Yeah, Colton. Do it. Fuck me you always horny fox.'

He took my pants down and slid inside me, just gently, only poking slightly into my butthole, wrapping his legs over mine and holding himself in while he put his left arm over me, his hand finding my heartbeat again. I nuzzled the back of my head back against him, and his hand came up to stroke my throat and then run back down my chest to my heart. He poked gently into me with his hips again and again, in time with my panting breath, little noises coming from my throat that I couldn't help.

'You're squeaking,' he said. 'That's it. Squeak for me, Aldrington. I got you. Let it go.'

I came, knowing he'd feel my heart race like it wanted to burst out of me, and when he did I felt his wetness inside me a moment later, and his hot breath on the side of my face. He took deep sniffs of the fur on under my chin, his face next to mine, the hand on my chest stroking over my pounding heart.

When he stopped I shut my eyes and caught my breath again. I felt him slide out of me and then cuddle up against me. I slept with the warmth of his coat against my back and the deepest release I had ever felt washing through me.

* * *

When I woke up it was sunrise. Colton was sitting up against a straw bail.

'Oh hey,' he said. 'Rise and shine, sleepy head.' He was texting someone on a phone, and I realised it was my phone. 'Don't freak, I had to text your mum last night and say you were staying over at mine. You really should use a longer password. I only had to watch your fingers move last week to get it. I didn't look at your personal stuff. Honest. That was just a text to my sister to tell her we stayed out all night and had a good time making things up.'

Any other time, I might have gone crazy. This morning, I just smiled. 'Thanks.' As I pulled myself up to join him, I realised I was completely naked, with just my hoody draped over me to cover my manhood. 'You took my pants off?'

'I cleaned you up, yeah.' He shifted closer to me. 'I'd kinda thought you'd end up doing me. It just worked out like it did. Was it okay?'

'It was...you were nice,' I said. 'I always thought it would hurt. You didn't hurt me.'

'Course I didn't,' Colton said. He looked away for a moment. 'I never meant it when I said I'd kill you. Or when I said I meant it. I'm really sorry for all that. I'm sorry I was always such a jerk to you. Last night I got to see how cool you really are. Nobody's ever listened to me when I talked before. I don't know how many different counsellors I've been through, but none of them listened like you.'

'Yeah,' I said. 'I bet none of them pulled your tail though. Like they were trying to pelt you.' I took hold of it and gave it a tug, just for good measure. Colton grinned. I tugged it again. 'Careful, Todd-coon. It is a little bit sore this morning thanks to you. But man, you knew how to do that when you got going. And spanking my bare butt? I didn't think you had that in you. You've got a darker side than you thought, haven't you?'

'Maybe,' I said, touching his chest and feeling the same twitches of excitement I'd got when I told him what turned me on. I rubbed my ears and stroked his chest. 'You mind?'

'Be my guest,' he said. 'Check out the fox's heartbeat. I bet you'll like it. And I hope you don't mind the way I talk when I get like this. I know it's kinda self-admirant but what the fuck, I do love myself. And I like being a fox.' He clicked his teeth together. I was too busy being hypnotised. Colton's heartbeat was steady and powerful, and I realised I'd never actually heard anyone else's either. I was ready to fall back to sleep to the sound of him.

He stroked the left side of my face. 'That really is a neat little fetish, raccoon. I'm jealous. How did you discover it?'

I really hoped he wouldn't ask me that. 'Errr...I just did.'

'Ooooh okay. I'll go first. I discovered the tail thing when a friend of mine called Jake pulled it during a playfight. I got such a boner I couldn't hide it and he got all weirded out and never wanted to scrap with me again. I didn't care. From then on I got girls to pull my tail by trying to pull theirs when I flirted with them. Then Jake was jealous, because they always noticed what it did and they always liked it. Okay, go, how about you?'

'Do you really have to know?' I said. 'You can enjoy something without explaining it, right?'

Colton sniggered. 'You got some hot trip to hospital with a sports injury and got a finger stuck up your butt that made your engine run?' He stuck up his middle finger and mimed putting on a plastic glove.

'No, Colton. Not even close. And why would anyone stick a finger up my butt for a sports injury? It's pretty hard to injure what's up there doing the sports I do.'

'Really? I've heard about those team locker rooms.'

'Grow up, fox.'

'Yeah yeah.' He thought for a moment. 'Got it! It was your mum, right? She put an ear to chest once when you were sick?'

'NO! I thank my lucky fucking star every single day_that she never thought of that!' I looked away, then looked back at him. 'Okay, it's _kind of like that but it's nothing like it.'

'Well, that makes a lot of sense.'

'I'm not telling you, Colton.' I sat up and looked down at him. 'You don't get to know everything about me just because I let you stuff my butt.'

Colton burst out laughing. I'd heard him laugh before, but it was always an insecurity laugh, or...what exactly? Trying to make light of something serious to make it bearable. That's what he'd done last night. But this was a genuine, fun loving belly laugh, and he probably needed it more than he'd needed last night.

'You're priceless, Todd Aldrington. You don't get to know everything about me just because I let you stuff my butt! You mind if I write that down? That's gotta stay with me for a....'

'Lifetime?'

'Hey, whaddya know? Today's not my gone-day. I woke up this morning and I....you made me forget that whole part of me.' He took a moment to reflect, staring into space, then got up, found his jeans and got out his cigarettes. 'Okay,' he said, lighting up. 'Serious moment. If you and I ever repeat this, and God forbid we ever end up calling this more than just friends with benefits, you're going to have to know what to do if you wake up next to me and I get one of those mornings where I'm blank. Do you think you can handle it?'

'Course I can.'

'They don't happen often,' he said. 'Not as much as they used to. And thank God, I never woke up with anyone the morning after a one night stand and had it happen. But it's....okay, every time it happens it seems to get worse. It's like I'm winding down to this one big time that lasts for good. That's the reality. If you really are in love with me and you want this to be a thing, I don't know how long I might last. In your life or anybody else's. Do you think you could be okay with that, if the time ever came?'

'Why don't we just not think about that question and enjoy each other while this lasts?' I said. 'If your life's really going to be cut off like that, shouldn't you learn to live for the moment a little bit more?'

'Well sure, I'm already good at that but...yeah, okay. We're both alive and we're both here. That's a cool way of seeing it, Todd-coon. And you don't mind I call you that, do you? It kinda rolls off the tongue. It can just be us together in private if you'd rather.'

'It's fine, fox,' I said. 'Just between us. Now come here and let me soothe that sore tail for you.'

'That's what I'm talking about,' Colton said, sitting down next to me and presenting his tail, still naked and his cigarette still in hand.

'Actually,' I said, 'Maybe not yet.' I wanted to hear him laugh some more, like he just had, and I knew just how to get it. 'You said you like feet. I owe you a paw inspection. So gimme those paws.'

'You're the boss, Todd-coon. You go right on and inspect the fox's feet.' He raised his feet, and I sat with my back to him, grabbed them in an underarm grip with my left arm, and locked them against my chest. With the other hand, I stoked my claw down his pads.

'What the....oh no, NO! You're tickling! Todd you asshole that is not how paw inspection works! Stop it! Noooooohuhhuhhoooo!' He was shrieking with hysterical laughter. I'd never heard a shriek that good even in death-metal. 'You're killing me! Stop it! I'm gonna puke you stripey little... Oranges! Oranges, motherfucker!'

I let his feet go, deciding that him puking would ruin it. Besides, even I knew better than to violate a safety word.

'I made you say it, fox.' I said.

He caught his breath still laughing like he was struggling to come down from it. 'Yeah, trashbag. You did.' He got up and sat on the same bale we'd first sat down on last night, looking out into the field. We were both completely naked except the for the fur we were born with. He put his arm around me and I took a deep breath, high on life.

Until I noticed the two ranchers, who had just turned up to get a straw bail from the bar.

'Uuuuh...Colton?'

'What?'

I pointed at them, my ears so flat against my head it was like they were threatening to dissolve right into it.

'Fuuuuuckin_hell!'_ One of them said, dropping the thermos flask he was carrying.

I couldn't move a muscle.

Colton though, he did the coolest thing I'd seen him do yet. He slowly and nonchalantly shook out another cigarette, lit up, blew smoke in their direction and shrugged. 'What?' He said. 'Oh yeah, naked fox right here. Take your best look boys. Made in fuckin' New York City.'

The two of them took off pell-mell across the field. Even I envied the speed they could run at.

'You're a New Yorker originally?' I said.

'Uh-huh. Accent not give it away?' Colton took a deep drag on his Marlboro and handed me my clothes. He'd folded them up next to our original straw bail. A fold so perfect I wasn't sure my mum could have done any better. 'Now might be a good time for us to take off like they've just done. You want some breakfast?'

'Yeah.' I was actually starving. 'I know the perfect place.'

'Where?'

I smiled, then laughed, then stroked Colton's tail, standing up close to him, and kissed him on the mouth. It was a long kiss, and I ran my tongue along his teeth.

'Hey,' he said. 'You're not a bad kisser. Alright, come on, where do you want breakfast?'

'If there's any chance you and me might make this a thing,' I said, 'then there's something you're going to have to learn how to handle. And believe me, it could test even the bravest of foxes.' I licked my lips. 'You really want to make all those apologies count? You've gotta go through a real punishment that's not me pelting you tail-first. You're gonna come sit at the food table with my family.'

Now Colton looked uneasy, if only because he couldn't figure it out. 'What's so punishing about that.'

'Oh my friend,' I said. 'Do not even begin to think you know my mum yet. She...knows...everything.'

Now Colton looked apprehensive. 'Everything? Like...she'd know when her darling boy just lost his innocence to a male fox? You think she could actually guess what just happened last night?'

I shrugged. 'I dunno if she's that good. But what do you say we go test her?