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Rock Dog: Day Job by Tempo

~ ~ ~

A red fox with a bass guitar sat in an office chair. She idly traded little sketches of strumming with her new boyfriend. The dog in question sat cross-legged on the floor, plucking notes from a battered acoustic. Now and then, they hummed accompaniments. It came so easy. Even playing in a rock legend's private studio felt like jamming in her parents' basement when it was with Bodi.

She nodded along as she rumbled through an improvised bassline, careful not to wheel her office chair back into the mixer board. Just that one long console of dials looked like it cost more than she'd made in her whole life. Sometimes, she still couldn't believe she was a rock star. Most of the time, in fact.

The phone rang, perking Darma's ears. She looked up from tuning her bass and across the cavernous space of Angus Scattergood's recording studio.

The phone rang again. Bodi rolled to a halt in the office chair he'd been happily freewheeling in. He glanced from the phone, to the goat not answering, and finally to her. His eyebrows rose.

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. If she hadn't been wearing her bass, she'd have just gotten off her tail and picked up the receiver.

The phone rang yet again. The keypad lit up green each time, illuminating the goat drummer's entranced face. He looked like the glowing keys were transmitting all the secrets of the universe into his chemically-addled brain.

"Germur. Germ." Resigned, Darma whistled for the her bandmate's attention. "That's a phone and you should answer it."

"What?" Germur sat up and looked around. Then he realized his paw had grasped the ringing handset. "Oh, nice." With great care, he pressed the pickup button, then raise it to his ear. "Hello?"

A voice echoed from the other end. "Hello? Who is this? Grummer?"

"Whoa." The goat's eyes shot wide. "That's, like, Germur plus drummer, man. That's my entire being."

"Whatever." A sigh echoed into the large room. "Is Angus there? Actually, no. Is the fox there? Give me to the fox."

"I can't just give you to someone, agent guy." Germur shook his head. "You don't belong to anybody."

"Give...the phone...to...the fox."

With a slightly startled look, Germur blinked at her. His lips pursed, as if he was trying to keep in an explanation that this was Angus's phone.

Wheeling the chair over, the vixen gestured for her drummer to hand over the phone. She always tried to get between Bodi and anyone who wrote contracts. Also, between Germur and accidentally putting the phone in the microwave again. She cleared her throat and set the handset to her ear. "Hello, Ian."

"Darma! Thank goodness." Relief flooded his voice. "What's the status?"

"We have four songs recorded. We're a little iffy on one of them and might re-record." She adjusted the hood of her sweater, which had caught on her guitar strap. "Today hasn't been the best. We were doing great today until we wouldn't let Angus delete a perfectly good session and he locked himself in the bathroom two hours ago."

The agent chuckled. "I know that sounds like a bad day, but you've made more progress in three months than I have in three years."

"And the tracks?"

"Already mailed. Angus said to just send you demo cassettes, but I just copied the masters."

"Great! Yeah, he's been doing that as a way to keep us from changing the final mix." Ian breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew. Kid, I don't know how we managed without you."

She nodded, then reminded herself she was on the phone. "That's nice of you to say."

"I can be a pretty nice guy when someone else is wrangling Angus for me." His tone tightened back to professional anxiety. "Hey, so, are you and Bodi a thing?"

Her ears heated with a blush. "Yes, Bodi and I are dating."

"Idea." He snapped his fingers audibly over the phone. "How would you feel about hiding that so you're both available as fan heartthrobs?"

Doubt gripped her heart. Was it naïve to reject an idea from one of the biggest agents in music? Could her being selfish on this one little thing sink their band just as they started? But then she took a deep breath, cradled the phone against her shoulder, and strummed a steady succession of notes on her bass to calm herself. Disconnected from the amp, they hung in the air for heartbeat each. Watching Bodi help the robot butler pick up pizza boxes, she steeled her voice. "I wouldn't want to."

"I appreciate that honesty." The agent had a smile to his voice, though he hurried on. "Okay, how do you feel about just hiding that Bodi is dating someone?"

She glanced over at her boyfriend, who grinned back with pure happiness. "You've met him. Do you think he could lie?"

"Got it." Just like that, his tone changed from convincing to lecturing. "We'll come up with some kind of love-story marketing. Like you're writing the songs for each other."

Her mind flashed through every song they'd written together and all the ones bouncing around in her heart that she still hadn't managed to coax into guitar strings. "We are."

Ian laughed. "Great. Go with that."

She glanced at the clock and found an excellent reason to stop talking about this. "I should go." Her thumb toyed with the bent metal phone antenna that no longer retracted. "I have to get to work."

"Work? You still have a day job?" Dry amusement crept into the agent's tone. "I thought you kids were both living on Angus's sofa."

"In his garden shed, actually." She glanced at the clock, which was built into an actual guitar body and mounted above a door shamed like a giant vinyl record. "It's my last day. I don't want to be late."

"Sheesh! You're really bad at being a rock star." He laughed. "Thanks for the updates, Dar. I'll be watching for those tracks. Stay in touch."

The phone beeped to silence, leaving Darma to wonder what in the last line had made her heart drop. She plucked through the bassline for their latest song, watching as Bodi strode up.

The mastiff put his large, warm paw on her shoulder. "Hey. Everything okay with Ian?"

"Yeah, everything's fine with him." She slumped back in the chair and lift his paw to her cheek ruff. "It's me I'm less sure about."

He tilted his head with concern. "Something wrong?"

The vixen sighed, slid off the chair and took off her bass. "Nah, just nerves." She set it on one of the dozen or so guitar racks around the room. "I should get to the cafe, though."

"I can walk you there." His tail swished.

Hers relaxed toward the floor. She glanced up at him. "Thought you were coming to walk me home after?"

"I'll do both." Smiling broadly, he offered his paw.

She took it and felt the touch kindle a smile within her. Tough to feel down when your boyfriend's a dog.

~ ~ ~

Darma's last day working at the cafe had snuck up on her. Anxiety lingered at the edges of her mind; she bumped into it whenever her thoughts wandered. Yes, she wanted to be a rock star. Yes, they'd released a single and the sales tracker had more digits than her phone number. But it had still felt surreal to put in her two weeks notice. Her boss and coworkers had been congratulatory, if not sure entirely what to say. Still, she kept expecting to wake up from the dream.

Not that she expected Germur and Bodi to ditch her. She'd known Germ forever. And Bodi didn't have a treacherous bone in his body. Her thoughts lingered on how well she'd gotten to know the mastiff's anatomy in the last few weeks. By the time she realized she'd put four shots of espresso in a chai latte, the hedgehog in question was already vibrating out the door, quills softly clattering.

The little cafe, crammed into the ground floor of an office building, had always seemed like a stepping stone. Why did she feel scared to leave it? It shouldn't feel like it was too easy, like she hadn't earned it. She'd been working for this moment since she'd first picked up a guitar. Worry bounced around her head like a slow-motion pinball. Those old city-fox instincts insisted this was too good to be true. It was reality's fault, really. If she was supposed to believe the last few months were real, it shouldn't have included meeting rock legend Angus Scattergood. You don't just meet Angus Scattergood.

Her ears perked. Through the clatter of cups and plates, someone was playing acoustic. Because they'd taken a seat on the far side of the cafe, she hadn't noticed right away. That happened sometimes. This close to Rock 'n Roll Park, musicians wandered into just about any venue. It occurred to her, not for the first time, that she should probably do something rebellious to tell her day job to stick it, flip everybody off and set fire to her apron and roar away on a motorcycle, but that seemed unnecessarily mean toward her co-workers. Plus, she'd taken the bus.

The evening rush arrived, taking no notice of her doubts. She was just the vixen behind the counter. She whipped up orders to a soundtrack of weirdly-upbeat Radiohead covers. Once every muzzle in the place had a drink steaming its whiskers, she pressed her paws to the counter with a deep breath. She had to just be psyching herself out. Foxes always outfox themselves.

Her fingertips twitched through the bass part, the soft spell of acoustic guitar enchanting them. Silly as it sounded, it always calmed her down to think through the bass line of a song while heard it. She wanted to tell Bodi that. She wanted to tell him everything ever about her. Her mom had informed her, when they'd talked a couple days earlier, that was a normal feeling when you're in love. Talk about another weird fact reality expected her to accept.

Darma pulled out her phone and started a text to her boyfriend. She'd put little heart and note emojis next to his name in her contacts, just as a little reminder to herself that she'd moved from having a crush on him to actually dating him. Not sure how to compress her tangle of emotions into something poetic, she sent him a smile emoji. A flare of giddiness warmed her ears. She felt like such a teenager, texting such cutesy things, but Bodi was a cutesy guy who gave her cutesy feelings.

A familiar riff echoed from someone's phone. Her ears popped up. How many people in the city had a recording of her playing the baseline of "Play That Funky Music" as their ringtone?

Nobody else in the coffee shop reacted. For an instant, she doubted herself. She fired off a sparkle emoji, just to see if she could make it happen again. Again, through all the chitter and chatter of the patrons and the strands of acoustic guitar, she heard the recorded bass part. No way.

Ducking around the counter, she glimpsed a Tibetan mastiff blithely strumming through the world's cheeriest instrumental cover of "No Surprises." His head rocked back and forth, facing the window instead of her. The illuminated rectangle of a phone screen glowed in his pocket, then blinked off again. He was pretty sexy when he sang.

Luckily, the coffee shop was fairly noisy, so nobody heard the slight squeak Darma was pretty sure she made. Her face flushed. She straightened her cheek ruffs and smoothed her apron. Rubbing her orange paws together, she hurried over, trying to maintain her cool in spite of bouncy emotions. She never thought of herself as sappy, but she'd never been in love.

The vixen barista traipsed past a pair of giant pandas, who were slowly losing their markings to a tray of powdered donuts. She navigated the mismatched tables, each scaled to different species. She ducked a boisterous gestured from a boar and hopped over a bunny's radish-shaped purse.

Head bobbing, eyes closed, Bodi was too in the zone to see her coming. About a meter away, his ears twitched under that knitted hat. Looking up from his guitar, he gave her a gigantic smile. That brown tail drummed against the chair in time to the chorus.

Shaking her head, she propped her hands on the hips of her apron, then leaned in and bumped her nose to his. A quick nuzzle, accented by the slightest nods of his head to the rhythm, and she was back upright.

Around her, a couple patrons chuckled at the cute display.

A renewed blush found her ears, but then she watched Bodi's grin broaden to the point that he had to let his muzzle drop open to accommodate the glee. All the while, he continued playing like nobody was watching.

~ ~ ~

Night shaded in the city. Streetlights blinked on. Cars cast noticeable illumination over the inoffensively hip art on the walls.

One by one, the rest of the staff, mostly teenagers, hugged her goodbye and took turns trying to figure out what version of "good luck" you're supposed to wish someone who has apparently already lucked into becoming a rock star.

Ushering a trio of red pandas out the door, Darma closed the front door after their voluminous tails had finally exited. The other employees had already bailed. She flipped the sign to "closed." For a moment, she considered the chapter of her life that was doing likewise. Even a temporary job got to be a big part of your life after a few years. She flicked the lights off, the cafe draped with darkness save for the varied light outside.

Bodi set his guitar beside the door, propped against her backpack. His big paws settled on her hips. That blocky muzzle rested against her cheek ruff.

She watched her faint reflection overlaid on the street scene. A deep sigh fogged the glass, but didn't relieve the pressure in her chest. "Why's it feel like I haven't earned this?"

"I dunno." He shrugged, and those warm arms slipped around her. "Do you usually get things when you earn them?"

The vixen's brow furrowed. Her boyfriend was actually pretty insightful, in a goofball sort of way. After a second, she'd finished the karmic math. "No."

"That's probably why it feels weird." The mastiff nodded. "If it's about earning stuff, you worked a lot harder than I did."

She leaned back and buried her face in his shoulder. "Bodi, you literally shoot magic out of your guitar."

"Well, yeah." He chucked and held her closer. "But that just sorta came to me, once I opened myself up to it. You actually know music stuff." He rocked his head back and forth gently as he counted through a list. "Amps. Booking concerts. Changing strings. Contracts. How guitar straps work. Sheet music."

With a snort, she glanced up at him. "Whoa. Whoa. Sorry, back up. You having magic powers is on par with my being able to read music?"

"Uhh, yep." The dog bounced a little as he yapped the yep.

She looked out the window at the dark and bustling city. "Anybody could learn to do that stuff."

"Yeah, but you did." He rubbed the front of her apron, his paw warming her stomach. "You spent a long time learning the right stuff to be in a band."

She sighed and leaned back against him. "I just feel like I should be doing more."

"You shouldn't feel bad for not constantly working your absolute hardest." He kissed the back of her ear. "Sometimes, part of a song doesn't have notes you play. That doesn't mean you're lazy. It just means we each have our own instruments to play."

Now he'd done it. He'd been too freaking adorable again. Darma turned around in his arms. Her paws cupped either side of his big, pleasantly surprised face. Angling up her slender muzzle, she kissed him.

They kissed in the dim light. They kissed their way further back into the little cafe. She untied her apron and tossed it on the counter. Her slim vulpine paws gripped his rump, dragging his hips to hers. She was entering a life where rebellion was expected of you. Not that she even disliked this job especially. This was, ironically, her last chance to be rebellious.

His tail swished back and forth. Oblivious to her vulpine plans, he stroked gentle paws down her back and kept kissing her. Being right up against his body gave her all sorts of naughty ideas. After careful consideration, one in particular won out.

She slipped a paw down the front of his pants. Stroking his sheath up and down, she tugged it back to expose that red tip. The naked heat of his doggy dick pressed to her palm.

Bodi trembled against her. A whine emanated from deep within his sturdy frame. His muzzle pressed against her ear with tender need.

Her fingertips traced the very top of his sack. He had some seriously silky fur. Her palm pressed onto his dick, rubbing the sheath this way and that.

She knelt. Smiling up at him, she bit her lip as she built up some bravery, then kissed the very tip of his dick. It felt so hot against her lips, but cooled as soon as she leaned back. His cock lay, hot, down the length of her tongue.

Panting, he looked down. Walk signs and taillights lit his astonished face. He whined with desire. Not bad for his first blowjob.

Hers too. She didn't know what she was doing, but she seemed to be doing alright. Pulling off him, she nuzzled along the side of his dick. Delicate whiskers traced along sensitive flesh. A naughty thought entered her mind. "Could-- Could you take your pants off?"

The canine blinked through a haze of pleasure. A car drove by, catching in his eyeshine, setting his confusion aglow. "Umf, ah, wha?"

"Nobody can see." She grinned in the shadow of the counter. Her claw traced along the open fly of his pants. At a nervous chuckle, she bit her lip, then touched her nose to the tip of his dick, then glanced up at him with what she hoped was a sexy look. "I just like how you look without pants."

"Oh. Okay." He pushed his pants down. The hem of his shirt draped over the jutting length of his dick, like a sky-blue backdrop framing his deep-red knot. His hands moved behind his head, one foot lifted off the ground in playful shyness. "Like this?"

"Mmmhmm." Her muzzle closed around his shaft. She cupped his balls gently with one paw, the other stroking along his toned and furry stomach. Slowly, inexpertly, she bobbed and licked, keeping her teeth out of the way. Her bushy tail dusted the floor. Having his dick in her mouth was super hot, even if she didn't really know what to do with it. Mostly, she just rolled her tongue around it, feeling all the subtle contours. A thin dribble of precum ran along her gums. As her neck started to hurt from the unfamiliar motion, she wondered if she was doing it right.

A sharp whine of joy drew her attention up. Jaws agape, the mastiff's thick hands braced him against the countertop. His feet shuffled on the worn floorboards.

With a surge of confidence, she gripped his tail and, lips to his dick, whispered: "You should come in my mouth."

The canine grunted. "R-really?"

"Yeah." Rubbing the back of her neck, she squirmed at how safe it felt to be scandalous with him. "After all the coffee I've had here, I want my last drink at this job to be Bodi-flavored."

"Whoa." His dick swelled in her paw. "Maybe you should be writing the lyrics."

She chuckled. "This one's only for private performance." She gave a long lick under his shaft. As she rubbed her head against his fuzzy stomach, she watched his eyes on her as her tongue curled behind his knot. She'd always fantasized about doing that. Long before they'd been dating.

Bodi seemed to like it too. At least, the spurt of precum onto the shoulder of her hoodie seemed to indicate that. Caressing her ears with one paw, his other grasped his dick. She got treated to a front-row seat of him pawing. He jerked off frantically, but with expert flourishes of his pinky whenever it got behind his knot. Guess that manual dexterity had to come from somewhere.

The vixen sat back on her haunches, watching with interest. Even in the dim light, she had a pretty nice view. She liked watching his balls sway in time with each stroke.

His pinky finger politely dragged her hand to his dick. Wrapping it around his girth, the dog stroked himself with her paw. His hot, firm flesh slid under her paw pads on a layer of her own saliva.

Her heart fluttered. Nice to know she could turn a boy on. Her free hand rubbed his inner thighs as he jerked off. She opened her muzzle and extended her tongue to touch just under the tip of his bouncing dick as he stroked it with her paw. Heart racing, she blushed at the idea of tasting him in a place so public most of the day. She could hardly believe she'd been brave enough to go this far, ears flicking up as she watched him jerk off for her.

In just a few strokes, he was grunting. A few more, and he was gasping. His eyes closed as he panted her name between grunts and gasps. He paid more attention to his knot than she had. He must really like having it played with. A frantic, but tender run of his paw down her ears hinted he also liked her.

Keeping her mouth open, she thought about trying to take his knot. They'd only tried a few times since that first night. Her muscles clenched as she imagined the thick swell of canine flesh under her fingertips buried inside her. The thought made her pant harder.

Tension built in his muscles. His butt humped forward, causing his shaft to slip partway back into her mouth. His balls twitched against her knuckles. He came with a stifled howl.

Hot seed spurted against the roof of her mouth. Along with it came a gush of complex saltiness. She flinched in surprise, but managed to keep her mouth open. Less powerful pulses of it fell on her tongue. She didn't manage to catch it all. Some dripped to the floor. But one final advantage of working this day job was that she knew just where the napkins were. She closed her mouth and swallowed without thinking. The feel of his warm cum trailing slowly down her throat made her blush. "So, ummm..." She could flipping taste it on her tongue while she talked, taste him. She brushed a shy paw over her ears. "Did that feel good?"

"Ye-- Yeah..." Bodi steadied himself against the counter, slumped halfway forward. His half-hard dick hung out from his sheath, dripping. "Wow..."

Scooting forward, she hugged his legs and watched that pretty red dick retreat back into its sheath. A pearly glob of cum trailed slowly from his tip, only making it halfway down the shaft before being intercepted by the opening of his sheath and pushed back up as his erection faded.

The magical rock 'n roll dog leaned back against the counter, completely under her spell. His unsteady paw down and cradled her cheek ruff. He smiled down at her with pure wonder and undiluted affection.

Feeling a flicker of absolute rock star bravery, she licked the final traces of cum from his dick as it sank back into his sheath. Pretty wild for a by-the-rules fox, even if the cafe was empty and locked. She felt proud.

He, meanwhile, shivered with aftershocks and gave her a panting smile, looking at her like she was the one who could do magic. His gaze made her feel like a rock star.

The world outside might get to see him, but only she got to see this side of him. People drinking their coffee would have no idea a famous musician had an orgasm here.

Wiping her muzzle, she a nabbed some napkins from under the counter and cleaned up the dripped mess on the floorboards. She reached to throw it in the trash, then froze for an instant with the worry that someone might sniff out her rendezvous. Self-conscious, she stuffed the napkins in her pocket. She glanced back at her bottomless boyfriend. For a heartbeat, she considered going further, but even a rock star can only be so much of a rebel in one day. Still, being this naughty felt safe and fun because it was with a dog she couldn't help but trust. She handed him back his pants.

Bodi, even less self-conscious than usual in his post-orgasmic haze, reached down to take her paw. His lifted her to the light spilling over the countertop. Eye to eye, he leaned slowly in until their noses very softly touched. He smiled, hands just above her tail.

She blushed under her fur. Being held by a boy she'd just given an orgasm to was still a little overwhelming if she thought too much about it. Vulpine overthinking at it again.

The canine, meanwhile, just wagged and kissed her.

Only after the sweet smooch ended did she realize she still had the salty tang of his flavor on her breath. Her eyes dipped, but it proved impossible to be very embarrassed when his embrace reminded her this was just where she was meant to be.

~ ~ ~

After locking up and tossing her keys in the mail slot, Darma stared up at the cafe for a moment, one last time. She felt like she should have something deep to say about the moment, something about being in territory at once well-worn and unfamiliar. But instead she just sighed out the anxiety and excitement that had bundled up in her chest.

Bodi didn't say anything either. His heavy paw settled softly on her shoulder. When she looked to him, unsure, he just shrugged and smiled in support.

With a little huff of determination, the vixen resolved to be excited at quitting her day job.

Her boyfriend walked at her side. "You wanna talk?"

"Okay, but it might not make sense." Her paw scrubbed through her head ruff.

The brown dog chuckled. "You make more sense than anybody I know."

She took a deep breath and tried to gather her thoughts. "I grew up thinking, if I worked hard every day and gave it my all, I'd be a rock star someday."

He wagged. "And you're a rock star now."

"Except it's not because I put in the work." Her shoulders rolled in a frustrated shrug. "It's because I lucked out."

Bodi tilted his head, hat tassels dangling. "You're really good at bass, though."

"Right." Her ears perked as they turned the corner past the little grocery store, faint strains of a dozen different songs echoing down the darkened street. "But I could've been this good and played in that park forever and never become a rock star. That's kinda scary."

He listened and nodded.

"I thought I was living in a world where the effort I put in got me that much further to my goal. But instead I'm living in a world where you fell into my lap and I lucked into making it big."

"I mean, anything's possible." He took her paw in his. "But that doesn't mean you don't deserve to reach your dreams."

"Yeah, but, if life isn't fair and my being a rock star is just luck, it could all go away just as easily."

Again, he watched her and waited for her to continue. That didn't happen a ton, especially with cute boys, so it took a moment for her to move on from finding it a pleasant surprise.

She lifted her paws chest-high. "What if I'd had a cold that day? And I wasn't in the park to meet you?"

His blunt, black claws scratched under his chin with thought. "Well, nobody else was nice to me, so I would've come back next day." He gazed into the distance for an instant, trying to see into the hypothetical. "And the day after that."

Darma nodded. She could actually see him doing that. As they neared the park, individual songs could be picked out: some familiar, some new. Even in just the months since she'd met Bodi, new musicians had started playing in the park, bands had broken up and new ones had formed. Life carried on in the park, just as it had for decades, an complex musical ecosystem. Weird to think, after all these years, it was no longer her habitat.

His paws tumbled in gentle motion over each other. "And eventually, I'd probably meet you."

Amusement perking her whiskers, the fox cast him a wry look. "What? We'd randomly meet?"

"Well, not really randomly." He scratched the back of his head, under that knitted hat. He claimed to own other ones, but she only ever saw him in that green one. "You chose to be there every day, so you controlled that."

Smoothing back her head fluff, she looked up at him with a frown on her slender muzzle. "That's not much control."

He shrugged. "It's like flying a kite. You can't control the wind. But if keep your paws steady, the kite still goes where you want."

The vixen chuckled as they paused at the entrance to Rock 'n Roll Park, now alive with the sound of other bands' dreams. "So, I got here by not letting go."

"You could say that, yeah." He brightened and wagged.

"Heh." She slipped an arm around him. Her tail fluffed with pride, the effect shivering all the way up her spine, leaving her feeling as tall as the mastiff beside her. Smiling, she squeezed him tight in the cool night air. "Well, that I can keep doing."

Around them, other musicians carried their gear and insecurities into and out of the park. Darma and Bodi stood, arms around each other, letting the songs wash over them. Right now, some other future rock legend was probably in that park, guiding the kite of their own fate on the strings of a used guitar.

She smiled and kissed her boyfriend on the cheek. Turning, he grinned back at her, tail swishing under her hand. He nose bumped hers, ever so gently and with infinite fondness. In that moment, she felt like a rock star, even if it was only for an audience of one.

~ ~ ~

I had to come back and write more of Darma and Bodi. They're just too cute!

Art: Slate

Edits: Eljot, Jovo, Carl, Kumo, SillyNekoRobin, Kohaku, Slate, Clover, Kersync, Lilly

• Tempo