Best Friends Either Way
7:00am, Thursday
Mark
Mark laid in bed on his side, hugging his pillow tight against his chest as he went through another panic attack. He had been awake for four days and he felt like he was going to die.
His curtain was shut. The bedroom door was locked. The lights were off, and he had unplugged and powered off every electronic device in his room, but he still didn't feel alone enough. He gripped his pillow tighter. His muscles were tired from the death-grip he'd been holding the same pillow with for the last several hours, but he was terrified of letting go of it. He had no reason 'why'. He had no reason 'why' for any of this. Any of the hiding in his room, hiding from his friends, hiding from sleep, hiding from the few responsibilities he had. Sometimes he just couldn't, and he had no further explanation than that. Sometimes he just fell into a dark place in his mind that seized him and didn't let him go for hours or, if he was unlucky, days.
This one had definitely been days.
He felt like the entire world outside of his room was a monster.
The black-and-white cat bit at his own shoulder, digging his teeth into his bicep, trying to use the pain to force himself to stay awake longer. There was nothing that would be wrong with sleeping. It would be good for him. It would probably snap him out of this, even, which he was desperate for. But he was afraid to sleep. He didn't know 'why' he was afraid to sleep. The idea of letting go just filled him with dread.
By the time 7:01 rolled around, sleep had won, and Mark was out.
He woke up six hours later--around 1:00pm--and he felt better. He didn't feel amazing--quite the contrary, he felt exactly like he had been running in a marathon for the last four days straight. But he at least felt like that marathon was over now, for a while.
He wiped the sleep out of his eyes, got out of bed, and went to unlock his bedroom door. When he did open the door, the light from the hall outside was a little blinding. He squinted as he walked down the hall, past the door to Russell's room, and into the living room/kitchen area of the apartment. There in the living room, he saw Russell--a grey fox--hunched over his laptop on the couch, with several other screens illuminated around him--a phone, two tablets, a smaller laptop off to the side, and a practically ancient game boy advance. Most of the screens looked like they were filled up with work things.
"Hey," Mark said, looking at his friend's setup with something of fascination.
Russell's attention snapped away from his work the second he heard the cat's voice. "Mark!" the fox said, and unburied himself from his collection of screens to get up and hug his roommate.
Mark hugged the grey fox back--maybe a little too closely. The cat definitely worried that he had been getting a little reckless about that kind of thing lately: hugging the fox too tight, or meeting the fox's eyes for too long while they talked, or showing too much interest in the two of them spending more time together. They were best friends, but, Mark had to constantly remind himself that they were just best friends.
Still, after the week he'd just had, Mark did need a hug. He squeezed his friend back as they embraced in the living room, letting himself give in a little bit to how nice it felt to be close to someone.
Not too close, though, Mark reminded himself, and eventually backed away.
He wasn't sure how he and Russell had started hugging, exactly. It had always just kind of been a thing between them. In any case, the cat certainly wasn't about to complain about it.
"Whatcha working on?" Mark asked, eyes once again drawn to the grey fox's gallery of screens strewn out all over the couch.
"Bleh. Just work stuff. Millenger wants the new build finished by tomorrow morning, but he's too scared to ask any of the girls to help, so god forbid a single person on the female half our fucking team even lifts a finger."
"So they're just literally not helping?"
"They just literally don't even know that they're supposed to help," Russell said, and let out an aggravated sigh. "It's not their fault. The whole communication thing there is just fucked, is all."
"I'm sorry."
"Not your fault," Russell said, and shrugged. "How are you, by the way? Feels like I haven't seen you for the last week. You doing okay?"
"I'm good now," Mark answered. The black-and-white cat's arms were crossed tightly over his stomach. His long feline tail was pressed down flat against the back of his leg, with the very end of it curling around his right ankle. "It's just... you know. The usual."
"Anxiety?" Russell asked.
Mark nodded.
"Anything I can do to help?" Russell pressed.
"Nah. Like I said, I'm good now."
"What about next time?" the grey fox asked. "Any magic words I can say, or magic song I can annoy you with, or magic food I can bring you?"
"Heheh. No, sorry, no magic," Jack said, smiling a little. His tail stopped pressing down so hard against the back of his leg, and instead moved around through the air a bit.
"Pizza's pretty magic," Russell insisted. "Next time you're being a pile of worries, I'm gonna bring you pizza and see what happens."
The cat snickered, tail now raised into the air and curling around happily. "Go for it," he said. "You know I can never turn down pizza."
"Want me to order one right now?"
"No, you don't have t--"
"C'monnn, it'll be good. I'll talk on the phone and answer the door and everything. You don't have to talk to any--"
Russell stopped talking as the cat pounced forward and hugged him. The fox gave the cat a couple of pats back.
After a few minutes of deciding what they wanted, Russell called up the closest place that delivered and gave them the order. Jack felt a small flutter of anxiety just knowing that someone was going to be coming to their apartment soon, but, the anxiety was admittedly mitigated a little bit with the knowledge that that 'someone' was bringing them food.
With the pizza ordered, Jack sat back down on the couch. The arrangement of the living room was fairly simple, with a couch on one end and a TV on the other. In the space between was a beanbag chair and a few random hacky sacks. Jack laid back in the beanbag chair, throwing a hacky sack up into the air and catching it, while Russell continued to work.
"I really can't wait for the guy to get here, to be honest," Jack said. "I haven't eaten in like the last two days."
"Wait, really? That's not good for you, Jack."
"Tell me about it."
"No, I mean like, seriously," Russel said, glancing over at one of his tablets and then typing a few things into his laptop. "I'm not a doctor, but 'you have to ear food sometimes' is just being-a-living-organism 101, you know?"
"Yeah. I'll work on it," Jack said. "Starting with pizza when it gets here."
"Heh. Good."
When the pizza arrived, Jack went and hide around the corner until the delivery person was gone and Russell gave the all-clear. When jack did come back, he licked his lips at the two large pizzas that now sat on the kitchen counter. One meat lovers, and one supreme--or 'lumberjack pizza' and 'garbage pizza', as Russell affectionately referred to them as. The grey fox had a nickname for basically every type of food, 99% of which, Jack was pretty sure the grey fox made up on the spot.
"Wanna do it where we each get half of each one?" Jack asked, looking like he was about to leap onto the counter and dig straight in.
"Heh. Jack, these things are huge. I don't think I could eat a quarter of even one of them right now."
"Psh. I could totally eat a whole one."
"Jack, you're skinnier than I am. How do you have such a big appetite?"
"Good metabolism?"
"Heh. Must be. But yeah, dig in, grab whatever you want."
Jack grabbed a plate from the cupboard, piled up four slices onto his dish--two slices from each pizza--and went to sit down in the beanbag chair to eat. Jack grabbed one slice from each pizza for the time being, and went to the couch. The two of them watched gameshow fail compilations on the TV, and had a fun time laughing and eating.
"Wh--holy shit," Russell said, when he got up to get another slice at one point. "Did we actually eat both pizzas already?"
"Yup," Jack said, facing Russell upside-down from a very reclined position on the beanbag chair. "Pretty much fifty-fifty. I had nine slices, so you must've had the other seven."
"Jesus we're fat."
"Pfff, we are so not fat," Jack said.
"Yeah but we're gonna be at this rate. Fuck."
Jack shrugged. "If this is the life fat people live, I'm on board."
"Heh. Speak for yourself, man. I gotta at least stay lean until I get a girlfriend."
Jack knew full-well that Russell was straight, but he still felt his heart sink a little bit every time the grey fox offered a reminder like that.
No longer on the brink of starvation, the black-and-white cat headed back to his room to catch up on the rest of his sleep.
12:21noon, Friday
Russell
"You owe me big," Russell said, sitting down on the swivel chair behind Natalie and giving himself a spin. Satisfied with his 360, the grey fox opened up the to-go box he'd gotten from the Chinese place across the street.
"Hey, you wanna at least ask before you turn my cubicle into your break room?" Natalie shot back.
Russell could see that her snow-leopard tail was twitching in aggravation, but the thing was so fluffy that it was hard to take the warning sign seriously.
"You see the new build we pushed out at 6 this morning?" Russell went on.
"Yeah?" Natalie said.
"You know that me, Phil, and Tom didn't sleep last night to get it finished?"
"What?" the snow leopard questioned. "Why?"
"Millenger's afraid of cooties," Russell answered, while ripping open the paper wrapper around his chopsticks.
"Oh my jesus fucking god, did he not tell us that a project was due?" Natalie asked.
"Sure didn't."
"Again?"
"Yehp. And you know I would've passed it on, if it weren't for how pissy he gets when we 'undermine' him."
"I swear, I'm so done with this place," Natalie sighed. "Sorry you guy had to--"
"It's fine," Russell said, giving her a little wave with his chopsticks.
"It's not fine," the snow leopard insisted. "We don't get paid enough to put up with this shit. Like, seriously: how can you even afford to get takeout every day?"
"Roommate covers rent," Russell said, with his mouth full of noodles.
"All of it?"
"Mhmm."
"Why?"
"Rich."
"And living with you?"
"Heh, yeah," Russell said, after having a drink from his lemonade. "Best friend growing up. Would've moved in together even if it was me coving all of it, to be honest."
"Wow. Lucky you," Natalie said. Her tail had calmed down, and sat across her lap. "How'd he make his money? Smart guy, famous guy?"
"Rich parents guy."
"Ah. Lame."
"Hey, his parents were good people. Be nice."
"They were good people?" Natalie asked.
Russell nodded.
"Oh," Natalie said. "Sorry."
"No worries. It was uncool of me to even bring them up and give you the temptation. I know how you are, meanie-cat."
"That's... that's not a phrase, Russell," Natalie said. "How many 'blank-y cat' names do we have to go through? It's just scaredy-cat and pussy-cat. Those are literally the only two."
"Tch. You're being such a judgy-cat today."
"I swear to god Russell."
"Catty-cat."
"Out of my cubicle or I'm calling HR."
"Heh, yeah, you have fun picking up the slack if I ever get fired," Russell said on his way out.
Natalie sighed, and conceded that point to the grey fox.
5:19pm, Friday
Mark
Mark sat in his bedroom, waiting for Russell to get home. The cat felt a little bit pathetic when he thought about it too much, but, Russell getting home really was the highlight of every weekday. The cat didn't go outside unless he absolutely had to, and it wasn't like he had any other friends who he'd done a good job of keeping in touch with. So for the most part, it basically was just Russell in his life.
Mark cringed a little bit at himself, and sighed. As he waited, he tossed a tennis ball back and forth between his hands. The apartment was littered with little objects that the cat liked to fidget with. Balls, hacky sacks, pens.
He looked forward to giving the fox a quick 'welcome back' hug.
Honestly, he fantasized about giving the fox a much longer hug. Hours. Days. Just holding each other. It'd be nice.
Again, Mark cringed at himself and sighed.
The cat wondered how the hell people even met each other. The idea of putting himself on a dating app and the idea of going outside to a bar both horrified him equally.
When the cat heard the front door open, he pushed all of these thoughts aside and pranced down the hall to go greet Russell. The door had barely closed behind the grey fox before the cat was on him.
"Heh, hey man," the grey fox said warmly, and hugged the soft black-and-white cat back.
It was all Mark could do not to purr.
After a second, the fox stopped hugging and went to take off his shoes.
The cat, however, held onto the fox for just a second longer, forcing the fox to pause and figure out if they were still hugging or not. When Mark realized that he had clung onto the fox for too long and made it awkward, he backed away completely, and stood a few steps back from his friend, petrified.
"S-sorry," Mark stammered. "I thought--"
"Heh. Mark, it's cool. I think we're both a little sleep-deprived right now. Our brains are being all stupid because of it."
Mark nodded, graciously accepting the excuse that Russell had offered.
"Do-over?" Russell offered, holding out his arms.
Mark stepped forward, and the two of them hugged again. They hugged for quite a lot longer this time, standing there together in the kitchen beside the front door.
Mark realized--far too late to do anything about it--that he was purring as Russell held him. He was about to apologize, before he realized something even more out-of-the-ordinary: the grey fox was petting him, which had probably started the purring in the first place. Over and over, the grey fox pet softly down the back of the cat's head.
"Russell, I..."
"Oh. God, sorry, was I just--"
"N-no, I... I liked that a lot."
The cat felt his heart beating furiously in his chest as the two of them--still hugging--talked like this.
Carefully, Russell began petting the back of Mark's head once again. "This good?" Russell asked.
Mark nodded, and hugged Russell tighter for a second.
With that, the two of them stepped back from each other.
"Heh. Good do-over?" Russell asked.
Mark nodded, feeling genuinely amazing inside.
The two of them went back to their rooms, and caught up on some much-needed sleep.
1:02pm, Saturday
Russell
Russell continued to lay in his bed, thinking. He wasn't even sleeping in, really: he had woken up at his usual time. But after waking up, he'd just continued to lay there in bed, staring up at the ceiling, deep in thought.
His mind was stuck on yesterday's hug with Mark. He kept flashing back to petting the back of the cat's head. He kept remembering how nice it felt to finally show the cat an extra little bit of affection. He loved showing the cat affection. He loved anything that made the cat happy--anything that helped the cat to relax a bit. But he also worried about overwhelming the cat with that kind of thing and making it weird.
He recalled how they had hugged for. Definitely a lot longer than any 'normal' friends probably would. He remembered taking in Mark's warmth as they embraced, and even more than that, he remembered taking in Mark's scent.
Russell wondered what the right thing to do was.
The grey fox wasn't gay or anything. Generally speaking, he was not attracted to men.
But, he had heard that sometimes there were flukes with that kind of thing.
And he had been feeling something with Mark for a really long time.
The grey fox bit his tongue, and stared up at the ceiling for a little while longer.
1:16pm, Saturday
Mark
Mark laid on the couch in the living room, twirling a pen in his hand. The cat was bored. Normally the grey fox would've been out of his room hours ago, and the two would be hanging out, watching dumb internet videos, laughing, having good weekend fun.
Especially since the hug yesterday, Mark had been pretty eager to see more of his friend. He had been happy, basically, which was an unusual and very welcome feeling. He considered going to knock on the grey fox's door, but, he figured the grey fox must've been busy with something important if he was staying in so late.
From the couch, Mark looked up at the living room's closed curtains. The curtains were basically always closed. Mark got nervous and paranoid whenever they were open, and just any rando off the street could look into his home.
Mark had a rare change of heart though: he wanted somebody to look, and see how happy he was right now, laying on the couch, waiting for his best friend, still unabashedly blissed-out just from a longer-than-usually hug.
The cat got up, and started to walk across the room.
On the way to the window, the cat took about ten pauses to reconsider opening the curtains. He hadn't even seen the outside world for himself in a couple of weeks now. Hadn't browsed the internet for a few days. Hadn't asked Russell if there was any major world news. For all the cat knew, the sky could be purple when he opened the curtain, and people could be flying around on jetpacks. It wasn't likely, but, the cat had missed things like that before: back when smartphones were new, it had felt like the cat had just blinked before everyone in the world was expected to have one. The cat hadn't really 'just blinked', obviously. But what the cat had done was hide in his room from basically the time they were first coming out until the time they had become popular. He wasn't super proud of those years of his life. He liked to think he was a little bit better than that now. He still had panic attacks, but, he could at least go outside sometimes when he felt like he had to.
Having reached the other side of the living room, Mark pushed open the apartments' curtains, flooding the living room with light. The cat basked in front of the window for a moment, letting the sun sink into his black-and-white fur. He purred, and looked at the city outside.
The view was nothing spectacular. His and Russell's apartment was situated about halfway up a skyscraper: the view from the living room window was basically just the glass face of the other skyscraper across the street. Still, Mark looked around, taking in the sights of the people and cars down below, and the bright blue sky overhead.
Sometimes the world didn't seem like a monster. Sometimes the world felt alright.
"Heya window-cat," Russell said, startling the feline.
Mark turned around, and saw Russell had finally left his room, and was standing at the edge of the living room. "Sup, stealth-fox?" the cat asked him.
"Sorry I slept in so late. Stressful week, y'know?"
Mark nodded.
"Anyways. Wanna order food and watch something together?" Russell asked.
Mark, tail flicking around happily, nodded again.
11:56pm, Saturday
Russell
After a long day of bingeing movies and eating delivery food, the grey fox and the black-and-white cat were both just about ready to call it a night. The two of them were sitting together on the couch, talking as the ending credits to Mr. and Mrs. Smith played.
"Did you think that romance was at all believable though?" Russell asked, snickering a little.
"I mean, I don't exactly think it was supposed to be a documentary," Mark countered, giggling a little bit too. "I think if the movie was realistic, even that scene where they met wouldn't have happened, and that would pretty much kill the rest of the movie."
"Heh. Yeah. Fair enough. You wanna watch another one, or are you good for the night?"
"I'm good," Mark said, tail flicking happily. "Bedtime for you too?"
"Probably a good idea," Russell said, nodding. "Hey uh..."
"Hm? What's up?" Mark asked, as the grey fox trailed off.
"No, I just... I had a dumb idea. Forget about it--"
"Nooo, tell me," Mark insisted, and reached over with his footpaw to give the grey fox a little playful kick.
"Heh, alright, alright," Russell said, pushing the cat's soft padded foot away. "I was just thinking of how we used to do sleepovers, and how it might be fun for one of us to come sleep in the others' bedroom for tonight."
After saying this, the grey fox looked closely at his friend to see if the cat would be terrified by the idea. Far from it though, the cat looked excited.
"I think that'd be fun," Mark said, his flicking tail confirming that he was super on board with the idea of a sleepover. The cat then laughed a little, and said, "Like, honestly if you wanna do this, I'll go get my blankets and start making a nest on your bedroom floor."
"Heh, yeah, or like..." the grey fox trailed off.
"Hmmm?" Mark pressed.
"You could even sleep on my bed if you wanted?" Russell suggested. "I-I mean, I'd feel bad making you sleep on the floor, you know?"
"Oh--Y-yeah, we could--"
"I mean, you don't have to--"
"No, I'd really like to," Mark insisted, and gave the grey fox a very genuine smile.
"Heh. Awesome," Russell said.
The two of them got up, and headed for Russell's room.
"Hey uh, I'm gonna brush my teeth real quick," Russell mentioned, when they reached the doorway. "Be back in just a sec. Feel free to make yourself cozy and everything."
"S-sure, no problem," Mark said.
The cat stepped into the bedroom, while the grey fox continued down the hall to the bathroom. In the bathroom, the grey fox didn't brush his teeth right away. First, he turned on the fan, turned on the faucet, and took a moment to stare deeply at himself in the mirror, interrogating himself about what the hell he was doing right now.
"You don't toy with him," he scolded himself out loud, letting the sound of his voice be drowned out by the whirring fan and running faucet. "Whatever the hell you're doing right now, you don't make him uncomfortable, don't make him feel overwhelmed, and don't make him feel like you're hitting on him. He's your best friend. He's always been your best friend. Don't fuck it up, stupid."
With that out of the way, the grey fox did brush his teeth, and floss, and use the bathroom--typical bedtime routine. Once finished with everything, he shut off the fan, the faucet, and the light, and headed for the bedroom.
When he got to his room, his tail wagged and his heart skipped a beat at the sight of Mark lying there in his bed, curled up in some blankets, looking up expectantly for the grey fox to come join him. Eager to comply, Russell walked to the bed and crawled in under the covers with his friend.
"Would it be weird to ask for a hug right now?" Mark asked.
Russell, not caring how weird it was, reached out and hugged Mark tight. The cat purred as they embraced, and the fox wagged his tail.
The two of them kept holding each other long into the night, until they both fell happily asleep.
9:01am, Saturday
Mark
In the morning, Mark woke up to find that he was in bed with his best friend, and that the two of them were spooning. It was a beautiful feeling that Mark never wanted to let go of, but it also made him nervous: he was the big spoon, and he worried about what Russell would think when he woke up and learned that his friend had been cuddling him all night.
The cat laid there as quiet and still as he could, hoping that time would stretch out forever, and he could keep on holding the fox before the fox woke up.
It was only a short while, however, before the fox woke up too.
"Mlm. Neh. Mark, are you awake?" Russell asked, unable to see Mark from his position as the little spoon.
Too nervous to say a word, Mark nodded, letting the top of his head rub up and down once on the back of Russell's head as an answer.
"Heh. Gettin' a little handsy, huh?" Russell asked.
Mark was suddenly keenly aware of the arm that he'd wrapped over his friend. He was too petrified now to know if he should take it away or if that would make it even more awkward.
Russell, solving this problem, grabbed the cat's arm, and held it tightly as he snuggled back up against Mark, bringing the two of them even closer together physically.
"Is this alright?" Russell checked.
"It's... kind of the best I've felt in a really long time."
"D'aw. Glad to hear it," the grey fox said. "Maybe we could do this again tomorrow night?"
"Can we please?"
"Yeah. Let's."
With that, Mark and Russell continued to snuggle, staying in bed for a long time even after they'd both woken up.
3:45pm, Wednesday
Russell
"What're you laughing about?" Phil asked, noticing the grey fox's expression.
"Hm? No laughter here, Phil. Only very serious work," Russell responded.
In their shared cubicle, it was hard to hide much for very long. The two of them were sitting side-by-side, both of them racing to find a bug that had been randomly crashing the newest build since Monday. Phil glanced at Russell's computer screen, and confirmed that the grey fox was only looking at the code they were working on.
"Did you remember a funny joke or something?" Phil asked, continuing his pursuit to find out what the grey fox was so amused by.
"Nope, no joke," Russell said, continuing to scroll down through the section of code that he was poking through.
"Then seriously, why are you smiling?"
"Just in a good mood?" Russell offered.
"Why though?"
"I've been..."
Russel trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence. 'Spooning my roommate all week and loving every last second of it' seemed like a little bit too much to just drop on a coworker out of nowhere, especially when Russell himself was unsure of exactly what was going on there.
"Did you find a lady friend?" Phil prodded, now smiling coyly a little bit to egg the fox on.
"You could say that?" Russell supposed. It wasn't factually true at all, but, maybe in some senses it wasn't that far off either.
"What, you meet a dude friend then?" Phil teased.
"Heh, nah, c'mon. You know I'm--holy hell, is it almost 4 already?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck, I haven't taken my lunch break yet. Hold down the fort for me, will ya?"
"Aye-aye, sir," Phil said, giving a mock salute.
Russell, who had actually had his lunch break hours ago, snuck off to the men's room to try something. He made his way over to the most secluded bathrooms in the office, and once there, locked himself inside the farthest stall down.
He dropped his pants around his ankles, sat down, and took out his phone.
After opening up a secure, private browser--sure as hell didn't need work to snoop what he was doing here--Russell opened up his favorite porno site. And once he was there, and the page had loaded, he tried something he had never done before: he tapped over to the gay section.
Within mere minutes, the grey fox had been spent. He had blown his load into the toilet, and was panting a little bit, mind racing from the fact that he had just jerked off--and finished in no time--to gay porn.
Then and there, Russell had to accept something about himself: he was at least a little gay. Mostly still straight. But definitely also a little bit gay.
5:30pm, Wednesday
Mark
Mark laid on the couch, living room window wide open, idly playing with a hacky sack as he waited for Russell to get home. The cat had felt frankly amazing ever since he and Russell had started to cuddle.
When the front door opened, Russell walked inside, closed the door behind himself, took off his shoes, and then laid down on the couch with Mark. The two of them laid face-to-face, hugging in the warm sunlight. Mark purred, and nuzzled against Russell's cheek.
As he nuzzled, however, he realized that the grey fox was backing off a little bit.
"Sorry. Too much?" Mark asked.
"No, it's just..." The grey fox scratched the back of his head in thought. "I've got kind of a random question for you."
"Oh. I mean, sure," Mark said. The two of them continued to lay on the couch together, which didn't leave a lot of room to give each other more space.
"So you know that there's like, gay people and straight people?" Russell asked.
In spite of his best efforts to remain serious, Mark snickered a little bit. "Hyeah, I was aware that there are gay people and straight people. And trans, and bi, and--"
"Bi! Yes! That one!" Russell said, raising his voice a little in excitement that the cat had brought it up. "Do you think that one's legit?"
"Legit?"
"Yeah, like, is it possible for someone to like both?" Russell asked.
"I really don't see why not," Mark said, a little bit amused by this line of questioning. Slowly, his tail began to flick around more.
"And like... with bi people," Russel went on, "do you think their attraction to men and women has to be fifty-fifty? Or can it be like, eighty-twenty? Or one to one-hundred? Or like... one to seven-billion?"
"Russell, are you--" Mark began, and then had to start again when he fully realized what Russell was getting at. "Russell, a-are you saying what I think you are?"
"I... I'm not sure. I'm pretty back-and-forth on this, but, if I'm being honest? I really like it when we hug. And I'd maybe like it if we could take it just a little further? If you want to too, I mean--"
Mark leaned forward and kissed Russell on the lips--something he'd been wanting to do for basically his entire life. Russell kissed back, leaning forward into the kiss just as hard. Afraid to ever let the kiss end, Mark held Russell tight as the two of them kissed deeper and deeper, getting their tongues into each other's mouths. Soon their legs were intertwining too, rubbing playfully against each other. Mark, still locked in a deep kiss with his best friend, started reaching under the grey fox's shirt to feel his bare fluffy chest.
At that, Russell backed off, having to lean quite a ways off the couch to free himself from the feline's persistent kisses.
"Heh, hey, take it easy," Russell said.
"Sorry. I just got really excited that--"
Russell gave the cat a quick peck on the cheek to show that he wasn't mad. "No need to apologize," the grey fox said, smiling as his tail wagged back and forth behind him. "I'm really glad we're doing this. I just don't wanna rush it, y'know?"
Mark nodded. "Yeah, I... maybe got a little bit ahead of myself. I've kind of had a crush on you since like, forever, so..."
Russell--not too surprised to hear the cat say that, though extremely flattered all the same--gave the cat a quick kiss on the nose, which sent the feline into an instant fit of giddy purrs.
"I'd definitely like to try more, if you do too," Russell said. "But I think maybe kissing is enough 'more' for today."
"I am so happy with kissing," Mark said.
"Heh. Well go on then," Russell offered, presenting his kissable face to the cat.
The cat planted a kiss on each side of the fox's muzzle, and then went in for another long kiss, which the fox returned.
The two of them made out for a long time on the couch, and for a very long time in bed, and for as long as they could in the morning before Russell had to get to work.
"Can't you call in sick?" Mark asked, purring from the bed as Russell buttoned up a clean, cat-hair-free work shirt.
"Millinger is an evil dictator who doesn't believe that sickness is a real thing," Russell said in response. "We have to call sick days in in advance."
"That literally makes no sense."
"Tell me about it," Russell said with a sigh.
"Why don't you quit then?" Mark offered.
The grey fox sighed again. "Mark, can we not do this right now?"
"C'mon. You know you don't have to work. I'd cover you for life. Seriously. Literally say the word, and I'll sign over ten million--"
"Nuh-uh. If we're actually gonna talk about this right now, then I'll say it again: your parents gave that money to you, Mark, so that you could live off of it. They thought I was a lowlife. I don't need their money."
Sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed, Mark hung his head and huffed. "You act like I'm not allowed to make my own choices."
Russell, shirt buttoned, turned and kissed the cat on the top of the head, which immediately sent the cat's tail wagging happily, even as the cat continued to pout.
"Look. I appreciate the offer," Russell said. "I always have. I'll think about it, alright?"
"Alright. Have fun at work."
The cat and the fox shared one more long kiss before the fox headed out the door.
11:41am, Thursday
Russell
"Millinger's mad at you," Phil mentioned, out of nowhere.
"What?" Russell asked, stopping all of his work to turn and whisper-shout.
"Yeah. He's seen you eating lunch with Natalie," Phil said. The two of them, as usual, sat side-by-side in their shared tiny cubicle.
"Who gives a shit if I eat lunch with Natalie?" the grey fox questioned.
"Millenger, apparently. He doesn't believe in co-ed workspaces."
"Is he a literal fucking dinosaur? How old do you have to be to even..." The grey fox took a deep breath. "Thanks for letting me know. I'm gonna go talk to him."
"Sure that's a good idea?" Phil asked.
"I'm sure I'm gonna do it either way," Russell said, and stood up to leave.
On the way to Millenger's office, the grey fox stewed on all of the dumb, backwards, nonsensical rules that the boss enforced around the office, and how counter-productive and frustrating they were. He thought about how he didn't even care how much worse it would get when he confronted the boss about all of it.
By the time Russell reached Millenger's office door, though, the grey fox had started to think of it another way.
He thought of how frustrating it would be to Millenger if, instead of coming in and arguing and giving the boss a reason to fire him... maybe he could just leave instead, and never say a word.
He thought about the cat sitting alone back at the apartment, and how he'd so much rather be cuddling with Mark than spending another minute of his life 'putting up with' anyone else's bullshit.
He thought of how happy the cat made him.
The grey fox took a deep breath, stood up straight, and walked out of the office forever.
When he got home early, Mark was visibly ecstatic. "Didja quit?" the cat asked, before the fox had even taken off his shoes by the door.
Russell nodded.
The cat pounced on him, and the two made out there on the kitchen floor.
Right there on a Thursday afternoon, in the heat of the moment on the kitchen floor of the apartment that they shared, Mark eagerly gave his virginity away to the caring grey fox.
2:21pm, Friday
Mark
"So is this what you do all day?" Russell asked, watching the cat try--and fail--to juggle the three hacky sacks in the living room.
"Nah. I'd say today has been a more productive day than usual, honestly," Mark said, collecting up the hacky sacks again after two of them had gone flying.
"Heh. Mark. Literally all you've done today is make out with me, eat breakfast, and try to juggle."
"That's three things! That's three more things than I do most days!" Mark countered.
"Goofball," Russell said, sticking his tongue out at the cat. The grey fox sat on the couch with his laptop, half watching Mark, and half watching his email inbox fill up with notifications about how much trouble he was in at work. Both things were fairly amusing to the grey fox at this point.
"If I learn to juggle, will you kiss me?" Mark asked.
"I'll kiss you either way, doofus."
"Aw."
"Heh. Hey uh, by the way... wanna maybe go out tonight?" Russell asked.
The cat stopped messing around with the hacky sacks, and looked up at the grey fox timidly.
"I mean, just to celebrate the whole, 'fuck work, let's live life how we want' thing. Really feels like something worth making a night out of, if you think you'd be alright with it."
Mark thought about it.
Eventually, the cat crawled up onto Russell's lap.
"I'd love to go out with you," Mark said, and hugged grey fox. "So like... are we boyfriends?"
"Boyfriends," Russell agreed, and hugged his feline boyfriend back.
9:33pm, Friday
Russell and Mark
Russell and Mark sat on a bench in the city park, peoplewatching. At first they had just been holding hands on the bench, though after a little while, the cat had climbed up to sit on the grey fox's lap, which the grey fox had had no complaints about.
Earlier, the two of them had gone out to eat at a nice restaurant. In spite of being terrified by being out in public, Mark felt kind of like Russell was a suit of armor: he felt invulnerable when he was with the grey fox.
As they sat there in the park, Mark turned around on Russell's lap to give the fox a kiss.
The fox kissed back, and wagged his tail a little.
Both of them felt weird as hell 'outing themslves' in public. Mark felt like he was showing the world a secret that he'd spent his entire life guarding so carefully. Russell felt like he was posing, and that he ought to have been wearing a sign that clarified he was actually straight most of the time. Still, both of them cared more about each other than they did about what other people thought.
After kissing, Mark turned back around on Russell's lap so that they were both facing the same way on the bench, looking out at the nighttime city park. Russell wrapped his arms around the cat, which made both of them feel more secure.
"Hey Russell? I know this might be dumb to say, since it's not a new feeling exactly, but... I love you, okay?"
Russell gave the cat an affectionate squeeze. "I love you too Mark. I'm really glad we're doing this."
With that, the two of them got up and headed back to the apartment, hand in hand.