FSE

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Lynn drummed her fingers along the wheel, eyes forward without focusing, still able to see the streetlights and the green glow of the upcoming stoplight. Pretty good evening, all things considered: for the third or fourth time since setting out from the theater, she glanced up at the rearview, ensuring that Eli still remained behind her in his own car. The wild dog had seemed a little... nervous, or rather distracted at first, but then he'd settled into it. That seemed to be the way he always was, or at least around her.

And she wasn't certain how to feel about that. As she approached the light a little closer it flicked from green to yellow, and for a moment the hyena's footpaw twitched in thinking about pressing down - "red means stop, green means go, and yellow means go faster," her mother used to quote from a favorite movie - but then shifted to the side and slowed instead. Eli was... something, to be sure. He acted for all the world like a high schooler who'd just barely managed to find the courage to approach his crush. The thing was, though, Lynn didn't think he knew.

That had been why she'd tried so much during the movie. The greeting, standing close to him in line, brushing and bumping against him whenever she got the chance... and then he'd gotten up during the previews and came back with snacks for her. Lynn chuckled, then realized the light had switched back from red to green and shifted her footpaw back. Of course snacks would be the easiest way to a hyena's heart. She'd reached out and touched his arm to thank him, and for the first time, he didn't tense up as though the touch startled him. Then some more throughout the movie, reaching over and brushing paws like on the cheesy college romance TV shows, looking at each other and laughing quietly, glancing over to see the other's reaction to various scenes in the movie...

God, it felt so _nice_to be able to do this again. Lynn looked up at one of the street signs as it passed by, the reflective material catching her headlights and shining bright silver-white for a moment. It felt so nice, and things were going so right. She'd gotten his interest and attention, and then his number, and now he'd agreed to come over to her place tonight... would it be a bit presumptuous to admit she'd been planning-slash-hoping for things to turn this way since before leaving tonight? The hyena licked her lips, slowed a bit again, merged into the turn lane, looked up into the rearview. Still there, still behind her. Maybe tonight she'd be able to get him _beneath_her as well.

He was just... ugh, she thought, second time I've been attracted to a guy who's gay. This one, though... The last one she'd quickly found out to be the "ew, breasts" and "women are gross, I don't understand how anyone can like them" type of gay, so that interest dropped off fairly quickly. Eli didn't show any of that. In fact, Lynn wasn't even certain that he'd never had a girlfriend, or hadn't even tried it. So, the possibility was there, and of course she planned to take full advantage of that possibility once the opportunity presented itself.

A song she didn't really like popped on the radio then, so she reached forward and switched the station, then slowed again to make another turn. Getting close now. Sure, she didn't have the most wholesome of motivations in befriend Eli, but... well, she always ended up forgetting about that when actually spending time with him. The interest and faint tingling want remained, but something else came forward and claimed her attention. And did she want that?

Well. After Liliana, Rodney, Rick, Matt, and Sven, not necessarily in that order, she'd well exceeded her fill of romantic relationships, and those had all come since she was in high school. Hell, right now she might as well call herself Sven for the way she approached this thing with Eli: sexual desire driving the interest, which she hadn't yet admitted to him. For all she knew, maybe he'd decided to approach this with an open mind, to take this friendship however and wherever it goes, and she just wanted to see what he had in his pants and-

A little bit too close to the curb right there. The hyena tossed the wheel the other direction, pulling away for a moment and then settling back into her lane. Thinking about Sven always got her into a mood, especially when she'd realized a couple of days ago that she'd basically taken on his mannerisms towards her, but with Eli instead. However, Sven had gone on for two months before she'd realized the differences in their views of their relationship - or, she'd realized it from two days in, but only came to terms with it after two months. Eli hadn't even started yet. She could fix things, could make them better, could... something.

One last turn onto her brother's street. Lynn swallowed and glanced at the rearview again. This isn't going to turn into one of those, she resolved for probably the seventeenth time since meeting the wild dog. No patience for bullshit. I won't - it won't fuck up this time. He isn't like the other ones. I'm not the same as I was before.

_ _

But that's what I said for all of the other ones, too, isn't it?

When she pulled into the driveway she did so a bit hard, then yanked the parking brake, pulled in a breath, let it out as a huff, and bumped her head back against the headrest. Richard was still here, too, his car sitting on the other half of the cement drive: that would make things awkward. Maybe she could tell Eli she wasn't feeling as great as she'd thought, and send him home. Just avoid all of this. Put it off until later. Lynn tugged the keys out of the ignition, held the handle of the door for a second, pushed it open-

-and saw Eli half-stumble along the curb as he was making his way out of his own car, then catch himself and try to play it off as though nothing happened. Then it took him three tries to lock the door, and when he did look up he noticed Lynn watching him, and he chuckled softly and rubbed behind one of his radar-dish ears... "I made it," he said, his voice quiet even in the somewhat-more-still night air outside of the city's main bounds. "I wasn't sure for a bit there when I almost missed that yellow. So - you live here? Or, um, your brother, right?"

...What was she upset about? For a second right there, Lynn wanted to stride across the lawn and pull the boy into a hug, then and there. A step and a half forward and the cool moisture that had gathered along the grass seeping into the fur of her ankles made her stop, though, and she just returned his little smile, and found it to be genuine.

"Yeah." She swallowed. "My brother's home. You'll get to meet him. C'mon."

Please, please,_she thought while leading Eli to the door, _don't fuck this up for me, Rick. She didn't really believe he would, especially since it'd been his shoulder she'd first cried on after the whole thing with Sven, but still. Couldn't rule out how they _were_siblings. After letting Eli in, she slid back behind the wild dog to close and lock the door, and called over her shoulder "Richard? I'm home. Eli's here. Come say hi."

"Wow." When she turned back, Eli had stuffed his paws into the pockets of his jacket and was looking around the entry room, between the few framed pictures Richard had picked up from various thrift shop expeditions to the little knick-knacks sitting on the shelves built into the wall. Most of those had come from their parents and grandparents; Lynn could remember that one weird hand-carved cat statue with the head that faced backwards. She'd tried to get Rick to throw it out countless times, and every time she did, he'd just move it to a different part of the house to make her think he had, until she inevitably found it again. "This is nice, Lynn. It's just you two here?"

"Mhmm. Usually just him. Again, I come down on weekends." She lightly touched his shoulder as she passed by, which made the wild dog turn his head her way. Lynn peeked down the hall. "He's got a pretty alright job with what he does, and he's good with me... also, was that a backhanded compliment? Just because we're hyenas doesn't mean we live in muck." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Not always. Richard? Come say hi!"

Somewhat to her surprise, Eli stuck his tongue back at her, and then laughed. He was definitely becoming more comfortable with her; that was a good sign. The sound of quiet footsteps along the carpeted floor caught her attention, though, and when she looked back down the hall her brother had just come out of one of the rooms, still pulling a shirt down over his head.

Lynn looked him over. "Were you sleeping?"

"Huh? Oh, no. Showered a little bit ago. This him? 'Scuse me."

A paw against her middle chest pushed her back, and in that moment Lynn knew that her brother had something in mind. She frowned and watched, thoughts racing and paws itching at her sides to pull him away... and then Richard stepped up to the wild dog, briefly looked him over, and extended a paw.

"Hey." He smiled. "I'm Rick. I imagine Lynn has mentioned me?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely." Eli took that paw and shook it, returning the other hyena's smile. "I'm Eli. Has she spoken about me?"

Was that all? She let out the breath she'd been holding. "I have, a few times. I-"

-and then Richard did exactly what she hoped he wouldn't. In one smooth motion the male hyena yanked Eli forward with his grip on his paw, spun him around, and hoisted that arm over his head to pin the wild dog to the wall, other paw coming in against his waist. Eli's large ears suddenly whisked partially back and tinted bright pink in the thinner center portions, and his blush also showed clearly on his cheeks. Lynn took a step forward; Eli's eyes remained fixed on her brother's muzzle, tilted down a couple of inches above his own.

"Also," he went on in a low, smooth growl, "she's mentioned your gay, and currently not taken."

Eli swallowed and briefly glanced to Lynn. "W-well," he began, "it's - kind of complicated, actually, I-"

"Well, if she's mentioned me, she's probably revealed that I am, too. So, may I stake a claim on this... fresh-tilled earth of yours, and - sow my own s-" Then, to Lynn's relief, Richard suddenly released Eli and stepped back, his words breaking down into little giggles. "God. I'm sorry. I just - I can't do that seriously. I'm just kidding." He reached forward to pat the wild dog's shoulder, making him jump. "I'm actually on my way out right now to see my own boyfriend. I didn't scare you, did I?"

"Huh?" The wild dog looked dazed. After a second he shifted his paws from his jacket pockets to his pants pockets: Lynn kept an eye on them, and despite the startled thumping in her chest, stifled a small giggle. Looks like Eli did have to... adjust. "Oh. No. Just - surprised me."

"Seems like it. Sorry, man. I just - like messing with my sister's friends." Richard looked to Lynn and gave her an apologetic smile. She showed her teeth in return, which just made him laugh again. "Seriously, though. I am in a relationship, so I won't step in your zone."

Lynn cleared her throat, catching both of their ears - wide ovals and tall triangles. "Hey, just 'cause you're in a relationship doesn't mean you're closed off. You were there when I was with Lilly, right? Oh. Yeah." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You walked in on us with Evan from high school since you didn't believe in knocking first."

He raised his paws in defense and started edging towards the door. "Okay. Okay. I'm in a committed," then at another glare from his sister, "closed relationship. I'll just. Um. Head out."

Eli finally pulled himself away from the wall, at the same time sliding his paws out of his pockets as well. "Oh. Um. Okay. It was - it was good meeting you, Richard."

His ears perked with that, and he turned back to face the two of them. "Hey, she didn't... didn't tell you that I prefer 'Dick', did she?"

There it was. Lynn actually snorted, and it looked like Eli cracked a smile too. "She did."

"God - okay. Whatever. We're even, Lynn." Richard jabbed a finger at her, then reached out to shake Eli's paw again. "Good meeting you. Hopefully you stick around for a bit; I'd like to get to know you better. Not often she makes friends. See you guys later."

Lynn watched as he left, swiping his keys from the hanger by the door and giving them one last smile, then waited for the sound of his car door closing. Still, though, her heart beat in her chest; was she actually nervous about spending time with Eli? She licked her lips, swallowed, sighed, and looked over to the wild dog, still close to the wall and looking a bit ruffled. Their eye contact held for only a second before Eli glanced away.

Not a great start, but she felt like she could still save it. She hoped, at least. No - Lynn would. She reached forward again and touched his shoulder, waiting until he looked up at her again, and then gave an attempt at a gentle smile. "Would you - like me to show you around the house? It's a bit small, but still too big for just the two of us."

"Oh. Yeah." Eli nodded. "I'd like that."

~ ~ ~

Admittedly, it took him a while to take his mind off of that other striped hyena. Richard... he wasn't particularly attractive, or at least not to Eli, but of course that entire predicament had still gotten the wild dog stirring. Nothing he could say or do about that. For a moment there he'd thought that Lynn had noticed, too, and Eli had only half-paid attention in the moments right afterwards when she'd started to show him around the place since he'd been busy trying to think up an explanation or an apology.

It's not him, he tried, it's just, you know, being up against a wall with a bigger guy, and like, he smells like - what? Like her? Richard did have that same dry-ish, musty scent to him, floating over across Eli's muzzle on the stirring of air when he'd first pinned him, and... what? Lynn had her eyes on him now. He blinked.

"What? Sorry, I'm... sorry. What's up?"

She nodded towards the little refrigerator pushed up against the wall with a small stack of old books atop it. "Drink? Cream soda and a bit of whiskey mixes really well, y'know. Not enough to get you fucked up, but just, like." She shrugged. "Tasty. Unless you do wanna get fucked up."

So far she'd walked him down the hall, showed him Richard's room - modestly decorated, more so than he'd expected given that first impression, and explained briefly about her brother's job and his interests - and then brought him here into hers, at the back of the hall and just around the corner. A bit larger than Rick's and yet still more sparsely furnished and decorated, with the bed against one wall and drawers, fridge, and TV against the other, and one nightstand with the upper drawer partially open. She had a flag, or rather a canvas cloth, hanging by the window; Eli didn't recognize the symbol on it.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Whiskey?" Marlin liked to drink. That was where he'd gotten most of his drinking experience from, which so far amount pretty closely to if it's not tequila or cheap beer... "What kind?"

Lynn swished her tail when she bent over, rummaging through the fridge for a moment. Cream soda from a bottle, apparently: Eli didn't recognize that, either, and took a moment to look over the label while the hyena fetched the opener as well as a glass from on top of the dresser. "Got a preference? I like whiskey. Got a few."

"Um... well..." What do you have? was going to be his next question, before she slid over and opened the lowest drawer of the dresser. Looks like she did like whiskey. "Your choice. Gimme your favorite."

"Ah! Good taste." They shared a grin for a moment, and that moment lasted a little longer than all of the others they had shared so far. Lynn turned back to the drink, starting to tilt the bottle down into the glass. "I'm sure you've noticed there's not really a lot in here. Since I'm only down on the weekends, and even then not _every_weekend, I didn't really wanna spend more money on furniture. We've got a lot of stuff from our parents, but..." The hyena turned to Eli again, then took a sip of the cream soda from the bottle. "Whatever, y'know? So how much? 'Tasty', or 'fucked up'?"

"Not a lot. Um..." Eli's phone vibrated in his pocket, and his paw itched to check the message - but he stopped himself. Didn't have to look to know who that had to be. "I think I'm just gonna push my plans tonight off 'til another time. So - well, not too much."

"Gotcha." She twisted the cap of the jug off, brought it to her nose to take a sniff, let out a satisfied sigh, and then leaned in to carefully pour it. The pale amber of the cream soda stirred and shifted with the added alcohol, and Lynn swirled it around in the glass before taking a sip... and then she shrugged and added a little bit more. "There you go. Let me know how that is. I have to keep my own liquor cabinet separate from Rick's since he's got such shitty taste."

Once again, their fingers brushed in the exchange, and this time Eli glanced forward at Lynn's muzzle. She caught his gaze and smiled, which... for some reason muddled his thoughts. He almost forgot to grip onto the glass once she let go of it.

For some reason.

"Thank you. I don't think I've ever had cream soda and whiskey before..." It did smell nice. Smooth, sweet, with just the barest twinge of the cool sting of alcohol.

"Was one of the first drinks I had. Dad likes whiskey, and we had soda around the house, and I was still in high school and didn't want to be like some of my other friends and go so hard that I couldn't open my eyes the next day under the hangover..." Lynn shrugged again. She turned back to the dresser to make herself one, using the rest of the cream soda in the bottle. "Oh. There's something else I wanna show you."

The first sip gave much the same impression. Eli rolled it around over his tongue for a moment, swallowed, thought about it... took another sip. He nodded. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I realized..." Lynn capped the whiskey again but left it where it sat, then took a step around Eli to make her way over towards the nightstand. She bumped the top drawer shut with her hip and reached for the second. "We've spoken about our interests some, but I haven't really shown you. Have I mentioned tarot?"

That made his ears perk. "What, like the - the fortune-telling?"

Lynn turned to him again, a fair-sized and brightly colored cardboard box in her other paw. "I got a deck, and I've been practicing my reading. Wanna play around with it?"

"What do I have to do?"

The hyena motioned to the bed. "Nothing, really. Just sit down. I gotta shuffle these huge fuckin' cards..."

Soft mattress, with a notable firmness beneath. Not quite memory foam, but not quite not, either. "D'you also do, like... the Ouija board stuff? Or, what is it, bonecasting or whatever it's called?"

The cards were_big. Each one had the same design on the back, colorful and intricate - and with the same symbol as she had on that big flag in the center. "Nah. Not a superstition thing, though all of my friends that shared the interest stayed far the fuck away from 'em for some reason. Just never had the interest. Also, I've... got my hands full with _this. I still don't have it fully down." She shifted the cards around and over each other a few more times, then looked up at the wild dog across from her. "Okay. Ready? I'll do a simple one."

"Sure." Eli reached over to place his drink on the nightstand, then turned back - and did the same for Lynn's, held out towards him from where she'd had it between her legs. "You're not gonna tell me the exact time and place of my death, right?"

"Doesn't work like that. Also, first rule of tarot is to never ask questions you don't want the answer to." Lynn shrugged, placing one card face-down between the two of them, then a second and a third on either side. "When you see people in movies or whatever, though, that's usually the first question they ask. Relationships and love and shit. Never goes well."

"I have to ask a question?"

"You can. Don't have to. Can do, like... a general reading, too." She tapped the back of that center card with a claw. "That's what this is. We're seeing what's going on for_you_, now."

Eli chuckled. "You know, if you wanna know what's up, you could ask me."

"Could. This is more fun, though. It's the same stuff as horoscopes - vague enough that it can apply to just about anyone, and total bullshit, but it's fun to pretend it's not." She slid her finger beneath the card, holding it down with her thumb. "Ready?"

He reached for his drink again. "I guess so."

"Okay. Well... usually, it's best to, like, use something relating to the person you're reading, but I forgot to do that. Like a focus, I guess. Besides, you're right here, so." Lynn shrugged again, then tapped the back of the first card. "This is where you are, right now." She flipped it, then moved to the one on her right. "This is where you're going." Then, finally, the one on her left. "And this is where you're coming from."

The pictures on the faces were pretty, too. Intricate borders, same amount of color as the backs and the box, but what they actually depicted meant nothing to him. Eli leaned in. "...So..."

"You got Death."

He brought his drink to his lips again. "I'm gonna die?"

Lynn rolled her eyes, though her mouth quirked into a smile. "No, puppy. Everyone thinks that. Death doesn't actually mean death. It means change. Like... something's changing in your life right now. Maybe you're entering a new chapter, or something that you've had in your life before is coming to a close. Shut one door and open a new one. What you got over here..." The one on her right showed two people, male and female, on their knees with arms raised and paws together. "That's the Lovers."

Eli swallowed, coughed, took another sip. "What's that one mean?"

"Duality. Mostly. Tarot's old as shit, so of course it's stupid fucking binary-gendered: in some situations it can represent, like... a harmony between your masculine and feminine tendencies." Lynn lifted the card to peer at it a little closer. As she did so Eli's eyes drifted to the one remaining, which looked for all the word like just a candelabra overflowing with water instead of wax. "However, if I remember right, it can also show indecision. Instability, I guess. That's another fun thing about tarot - it all depends on what's around it. The context."

"What about that last one?"

"That's - shit. That one's a minor arcana. I don't have those memorized. One sec." Lynn reached beside her to the box and dug out a small paper booklet, flipping through the pages. She let out an embarrassed chuckled. "Sorry. I'm still practicing. Um... Five of Cups. Oh wow. I remember you've mentioned your boy toy before; what's his name?"

"Huh? Marlin?"

"Is that it? You said you two've broken up a lot, right?"

"Yeah..." Another sip.

"Friendly breakups?"

"Not really. I mean, we're friends now, but..."

"Friends as in, you two hang out like you and I do?" Lynn lowered the booklet. "Or friends like me and my ex Rick. Not - Richard Rick, not my brother. Another guy."

Eli blinked.

"Friends with benefits. We were fuckbuddies."

"That's it."

That made Lynn chuckle again. "See, here's another place tarot can be fun. Five of Cups sounds to me like it's a bad relationship in a nutshell. Fighting and quarrel, but not clear, outright unhappiness, and there's still lust and desire in there too, all bundled up into one. And, you know..." She snapped the booklet shut, or at least as much as she could with those paper pages and cover. "Repeatedly getting back together and breaking up, and still fucking in between, even though - from what little you've told me of him - he can really piss you off, a lot? That sounds like a textbook abusive relationship."

They'd had a couple of conversations about Marlin so far, and by now he thought Lynn had a fairly rounded picture of the situation. The one time he'd mentioned it, though, she hadn't seemed to side with him for why he still wanted to get back together with him. "Oh. That's creepy."

The hyena grinned again. "Isn't it? I can understand your 'past' card, with the abusive relationship, but the rest..." She reached a paw out to him; it took a moment for him to realize she wanted her drink. "Something in your life is changing, and you're indecisive about it. Actually, that could still probably apply to your fox boy, couldn't it? Having doubts about getting back with him?"

No. "Maybe." It's just what he'd gotten used to, and it felt _so_strange to be without him. "But he fucks real good and I like his pheromones."

That yanked a laugh out of Lynn, and she had to take another drink afterwards. When she finished, though, there was no humor in her eyes. "I know that feeling. You know that's not a good reason to stay with someone, though, right? I've tried, time and time again, to stay with someone because they made my body feel good, and... I don't know."

Outside the wind blew. It had been a bit cool earlier in the night, before the movie; maybe it would rain again later. That might be nice. Lynn looked over the three cards a moment longer, then drew them together and slid them back into the deck.

"Ah well. Sorry if that made you feel awkward."

"No! No, it's fine. That was interesting. I never knew that stuff was that deep."

This time her smile seemed a bit more reserved, a bit... embarrassed, maybe. Odd to see that on her muzzle. "Yeah. There's a lot there. Some other things I like playing around with, too, but... I don't wanna bore you. Are you hungry? There's snacks in the kitchen, or we could see about making a meal - I don't know about you, but I didn't have that big of a dinner."

Not much left of his drink. Eli peered into his glass, then looked up at the hyena again. "Yeah, that sounds good. Make me another drink?"

That perked her up. "Oh, you like it?"

"I do."

"Same whiskey?"

"Um - surprise me again."

So far, it seemed as though Lynn had a bit of a skill in doing that.