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Eli drummed his fingers on his legs, looking down the pathway that stretched out between the trees to his left. It was quite a nice day today, all things considered - he felt himself sweating only a little bit, just sitting here in the shade. A gentle breeze blew through the trees overhead, filling his ears with their soft, sweet rustling in the space left by the cicadas, dying down over the days as summer truly neared its end. The wild dog shifted on the bench, squeezed his paws between his knees, sat back against the sun-heated wood, and sighed. Soon it would become cold, so that he wouldn't be able to come outside without his heavy jacket and a had covering his large ears.

Carefully he rested his head across the back of the bench, squinting up at the far-off tops of the trees, watching the way they danced in the remnants of that breeze. One little leaf about half the side of his palm twirled down; he watched it as it came, then rolled his head to the side so that it settled against his shoulder instead of his cheek. That was as much of an autumn as they would get here, with the trees either turning brown or dropping all of their leaves. There would be maybe a week of fair weather in that time, too, but nothing to really get excited about.

So much was changing.

At least the sun wasn't coming down right into his eyes, broken by both the branches as well as the horizon itself. Late afternoon - that had something to do with the more comfortable temperature, too. Soft twittering of birds up in those trees, the crackle and patter of some small thing running through the underbrush... if he really focused, the far-off swirling and lapping of waves against the banks of the lake and river, and the woosh of rapids near the rocks.

Peaceful, really; a few times when he was in college, between classes or if he woke up a little too early one morning and couldn't get back to sleep, sometimes Eli would go out across the sleeping campus and sit on a bench just like this one, out in the carefully-maintained center green. It would sound just like this, all of these little noises intermingling and mixing, sometimes one coming over another, sometimes a different one. Peaceful.

As though knowing that such a thing couldn't be for him, though, the wild dog felt his paw twitching towards his phone again, resting there on the darkened wood beside him. It had been early morning when he'd received her response, the wild dog sitting at work with his head weighing heavily in his paw, statistics for the library dragged to one half of his screen and his story project to the other. He hadn't gotten much progress on either since he had come in, a little early that morning due to his inability to get back to sleep, and then...

He licked his lips, swallowed, leaned forward again, and unlocked his phone to look at their chat.

~stripesandhypes [8:31 AM]: [Voice (0:03)]

When that first came in he had straightened up, then sat back, then stared at the ceiling with a thousand things running through his head. What could that be? That's enough time to say "Fuck off" or "Eat shit" or "Don't talk to me" or... The nervousness and embarrassment had not released his heart since he had sent his own message earlier in the night, and as he had gotten out of bed and paced, as he had booted his computer back up and idly played some game just to give himself something to pass the time, he thought about deleting it. Maybe she won't see it, he thought back then. Or maybe she will, and she won't listen. Maybe I'm an idiot.

Then she did. He hadn't seen the sent flick to read, hasn't seen the ~stripesandhypes is recording a voice message... hadn't felt it coming in. He had just reached down to check his phone, and saw that waiting for him. She was online when he'd listened to it, and the timestamp said it had only been two minutes.

"I love you too."

Eli had nearly dropped the phone. Suddenly everything came back to him in full force again, pinning his ears to his head and squeezing his eyes with tears, and for some six or seven minutes he just sat there, phone hanging loose from his paw, other paw covering his nose and mouth. Lynn sounded tired, exhausted really, yet still sweet and gentle and relieved.

It didn't have the same _sound_as when Marlin said it, either - which, the wild dog noted to himself, hadn't happened in quite a while. Marlin's tone showed it to be something of habit and repetition, like everything else in their relationship just something still maintained out of routine and familiarity, but Lynn's words felt... different. It sounded a little bit as though she wasn't sure how to say it, as if the words were unfamiliar. As though they felt strange on her tongue.

Knowing what all she had been through and what Richard had told him, they probably did.

Shortly after that one, after she had definitely seen he'd heard her message, movement on Eli's screen had brought his still-foggy eyes back down. ~stripesandhypes is recording a voice message... which turned into one a bit longer, with her sounding less tired and more relaxed, though with an undeniable note of tightly-collared trepidation beneath: "Could you meet me out at the nature preserve today? If you're at work today - after that. Let me know."

So here he was, waiting, letting the wind run its warm fingers through his fur. Determination forced him to remain seated though his heart pounded in his chest, nervousness keeping his fingers moving, his tail and ears twitching, his leg bouncing. Already he had glanced down the path leading to the park's entrance three times now thinking he heard footsteps, but each time found out he was wrong. Well, one time he was right, but that was just a slim otter in shorts and a tight shirt jogging by.

Maybe I was wrong,_he thought for the fifth time. _Maybe she's not coming. Maybe she changed her mind, or maybe she doesn't actually want to see me, or maybe it's gonna be Richard and he's gonna beat me up even though he said he wouldn't or maybe-

"Hey."

Despite himself he jumped at her voice, then swiveled his head back around to see her standing there a short distance away. Today she wore a pair of gym shorts, black and highlighted and edged with crimson red, that came halfway down her thighs, and then a solid grey V-neck shirt. One wrist bore a gunmetal fitness tracker and the other a couple of bracelets, wooden beads and woven cloth and a black silicone one that said something or other; her piercings remained the same, jingling softly when she tilted her head, but the colors seemed different.

And she looked beautiful. Tired, drawn, tense, but strong and confident. She regarded him with maintained indifference as the wild dog looked up at her, letting his eyes seize hers before she drew them away, but an undeniable smile touched the corners of her lips. Eli thought about standing, saw her twitch as if to come closer, settled himself back... waited as she came no closer and then, awkwardly, he finally did stand up.

The wind in the trees picked back up again, but he didn't notice. Again and again the striped hyena's gaze flickered to him before she tore it away again, purposely tightening her lips and turning her head a bit.

"Lynn..."

This time they lingered on him a moment longer, watching his eyes, his mouth, his ears, his eyes again. Her entire body looked as though she wanted to move - to hug me? To turn and leave? - but she remained stoically in place, paws clasped behind her back, shoulders strong and straight. Slowly Eli stepped toward her, like she were a rare wild animal that might bolt at the slightest inclination.

The hyena swallowed, drew in a breath through her nose, let herself look at him again. Something flicked across her muzzle, changing her expression, and her mouth twitched again - but Eli didn't see what it was. Suddenly he was against her, muzzle pressed into her neck, arms wrapped tight around her upper back, breathing her scent again. Faintly floral touched with sweat, a bit sour yet so, so sweet. The wild dog inhaled, swallowed, held it a moment, let it shudder out through the fur of her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry..."

And then her arms were around him, too, squeezing his shoulder forward as the wild dog shook against her, struggling and failing to fight back the tears that recently had plagued him so often. Her strong, sure grip pressed against him, familiar pressure of her fingers holding him against her, other paw drifting down to his lower back to rub at the spot he liked... and after a moment she rested her head on his shoulder, too, and shifted it to nuzzle against his.

Her voice came soft and warm against his ear. "I didn't mean to scare you," she murmured, touching her nose to his cheek. "I've just... been through a lot, and hearing something like this happen again..."

Eli nodded, still not quite able to get a hold of himself. Lynn's paws moved to his shoulders and held him back, only so that she could look him in the face.

"You know," she went on, stronger now, "we're gonna have to talk things out and lay down some good, solid ground rules, okay?"

Another nod. He reached up and wiped his nose across the back of his paw. "I know. I know. I'm... I'm sorry."

For another moment she watched him, her colorful eyes dancing back and forth between his... and then a sweet, lovely smile spread across her muzzle, slight but there. Eli felt his heart leap in his chest. "I know," the hyena breathed, a gentle chuckle underlining her words; "I know, Eli. It's okay. I'm here now." Still facing him, she let her paws slide down his shoulders to his arms, from there to his wrists... and from there they intertwined with his. She gave both of them a squeeze. "And so are you."

Eli swallowed, nodded, licked his lips. Lynn focused her smile on him, and in that moment, he felt just a little bit better. I'm here now, and so are you.

For a moment the two stood there, held in each other's arms as the soft wind wrapped and curled around them. Then Lynn leaned forward, touched her lips to his cheek, and left a kiss there that felt as though it tingled when she drew away, still holding on to one of his paws. "Wanna go for a walk?"

"Oh. Um..." Once more the wild dog wiped at his nose and eyes, then reached down for his phone. "Yeah. Sure."

"Cliff trail?"

He frowned. "I thought you liked the lake trail."

"Sure." Lynn shrugged and pushed up against him, knocking him partially off-balance. "But it's nice to get a change of scenery every now and then, wouldn't you say?"

And so it was. Lynn started in the lead, pulling Eli gently along until he had taken his place right beside her - and then the two walked together, hand in hand, letting the silence settle around them so that what occurred between them could pass. It took its time in doing so: Eli could feel the awkwardness between them, bearing down that silence and sharpening it to painful point, poking at him every time he looked over at the hyena beside him to see her eyes flit quickly away from him.

Then, though, that awkwardness started to melt. There would be no shouted words, no curses, no growls or tears. The wild dog could still feel that odd feeling of clarity - in his nose, mostly - that came after a quick little cry, and with that he realized that he could smell the nature around them in a way that mixed and melded with Lynn's scent, so strong to him when they had first met but now familiar, comfortable, sweet. He adjusted his paw in her grasp and tightened his fingers around hers, then felt a little pulse of pleasure echo through his body when she squeezed back.

The birds continued; a lone cicada started up somewhere behind and to their right, this one carrying a different tune than the ones from earlier in the summer, nearly mechanical in its timbre. The quiet murmuring of the water disappeared into the blanket of silence underneath the sounds of the forest, further burying the two in their own little bubble out here in the last few days of summer.

Gradually Eli felt himself relax. Tension that he had forgotten was there oozed out of his body, freeing up his chest and his limbs and his mind; he sidled closer to Lynn so that her arm touched his, then reached over with his other paw to hold her arm and rest his head against her shoulder as they walked. A moment later she bumped hers on his again, and he heard her breathe a soft sigh.

"So." Lynn rolled her fingers between Eli's. "What happened? Between you and him."

Her voice sounded just like another part of the forest, another little breath of birdsong floating on the warm breeze. That, too, had started to die down, giving way to the imperceptibly-cooler touch of the deepening evening. Eli glanced up; in the dappled little spaces between the trees the sky had started to tint faintly pinkish-grey. He thought about his answer for a moment, sighed, and dove into it.

"It was awful from the start. No different from how it used to be, really, but..." For some reason he found that his words, that his explanation, came with a bit of difficulty. As though these words felt strange on _his_tongue. "I don't know. It just _sucked_this time."

"Mm." Even just that sounded lovely to his ears.

"We got into a fight about, um... a few different things, and I told him..." The wild dog looked out between the trees, suddenly realizing why this trail was named what it was. Out there past the thickest trunks the land suddenly fell away, dry and rocky, into a series of abrupt downward ridges into a smooth valley, coated with loose gravel and reddish-orange outcrops and, of course, taller rocks covered with graffiti. Beyond them he could see the forest start back up again on the way up the other side of the valley, with some rather well-off person's house sitting atop the far hill. "I told him I did something I regret, and that being with him was making it worse. I told him... that I don't think we - he and I - should be together, and that he's been... fuckin' awful for six years but I never realized it, and... and that there was someone else I'd been seeing, someone I'd been getting closer to, and..." Realizing what he was saying, he faked a cough so he could cut off, and intentionally kept his gaze out across the cliffs.

After a moment, though, Lynn squeezed his paw again. "And?"

"And I, um..." Eli glanced at her. This time she held his gaze, and yet again he saw that familiar warmth in her eyes and the touch of gentle amusement on her lips. "I told him I needed someone else. That someone. Someone other than him. Then he left, and I just... started moving my stuff back home."

She remained quiet for a moment, pulling her gaze from his to look forward across the path. Up ahead it curved smoothly to the left, away from the ridges and back towards where Eli thought the parking lot was. "You said all that?"

"Yeah."

"And you told me you were going to clear things up with him?"

"Well... yeah. I doubt he got the message. And knowing him, even if he did he's gonna try to change my mind from it." Eli rolled his eyes. "He's been texting and calling me nearly nonstop since them."

"Block his ass."

The wild dog looked up at her again, but no humor shone on her face. Her sharp eyes flicked down towards at him, though she kept her muzzle forward.

Eli swallowed. "I would, but - I mean, he knows my address. He's already showed up at my place when he knows I'll be home."

That, though, brought a response out of her: the hyena furrowed her brow and spun on Eli, seizing his other wrist in her paw. "Holy _shit,_Eli. Have you thought about taking that to court?"

The smaller wild dog leaned back away from her, startled by the sudden energy. "Well, I mean, um, my... rental lease expires... soon, so I don't think..." Gradually her grip on him lightened. "I don't know."

Still Lynn watched him for a moment, then continued forward. Eli waited here he was and then hurried to catch up - and breathed a sigh of relief when she let him intertwine his paw with hers again. It looked as though she were more... confused, maybe, rather than upset. The process of her thoughts visibly showed along her muzzle as the hyena bit her lower lip, half-tilted her head, frowned, swallowed, let her tongue flick out across her lips.

Eli coughed again. "Did you... Lynn, does your brother know about, um..."

"I was busy with exams." There was the exhaustion again, coming out on her voice. "Never told him. He did ask where you were this weekend, though, and I didn't know what to tell him, so... maybe he knows something was up."

Was. Past tense. Not anymore.

"Eli."

"Huh?"

Lynn licked her lips again, for the first time showing a shred of nervousness. She looked down at him, swallowed, and looked back to the path. "Do you see now why I got so worked up that one night? When I was telling you about my past relationships?"

Suddenly he became aware that the birds in the trees had stopped. That left the occasional whisper of wind and then their voices. "...Yeah."

"It's just... I can't help but worry and be suspicious. After so much of that..."

"I know." Though he had felt it melting away earlier, still some of that ice remained, strong and cold and resistant. "I fucked up. It was you who helped me realize what was going on, Lynn, and... like I said, I just..." The wild dog sighed and shrugged. "I just wish I could've recognized it earlier."

"And you fixed what you fucked up." This time Lynn shrugged. The movement lifted Eli's arm and shoulder. "Mostly. I just hope you did it of your own accord instead of as a way to stop the guilt you felt from hurting me."

Sharp, glassy ice, digging into one side of his heart. Eli mulled over his words for a moment, then smiled inwardly to himself.

"Here. C'mere."

He dragged her over towards a shaded spot cast from a large tree hanging over the pathway. Lynn frowned, watching him with suspicion as he took out his phone, glanced up at her to make sure she was watching... and then the wild dog scrolled through his phone's menu to open his contacts. From there he scrolled down, found Marlin's name... then hit Block number, and from there, Delete contact. He waited until the confirmation - Contact deleted - popped up, then looked up at her again.

"There." He smiled. "How's that?"

For the first time in more than a week, then, he heard her laugh. It was that same rich, hearty laugh that he had gotten out of her on their first date at the Vietnamese restaurant near the music shop, the one that spread a grin to his muzzle and made his tail wag. "It's a start, I guess," she said, then waited for him to put his phone away so she could take his paw again. "How're you gonna have your talk with him?"

"Well... I mean, he'll show up at my place again sooner or later. We'll... we can have it face to face."

"Are you sure?"

Eli shrugged again. At this point he mostly just didn't care anymore. "Sure. Would you like to be there, too?"

"I would."

This time when he looked up at her, Lynn met his gaze with a mischievous grin. Fitting for a hyena. Eli bumped his head gently against her shoulder again and the two continued along the path, ignoring the warmth of the day for the warmth of each other's presence. The trail started to loop again, spreading back away from its starting point and further back into the woods. Eli gave Lynn's paw another squeeze, just to remind her that that contact was still there. Once again, Lynn returned it.

"It's just..." Again the hyena shrugged. "You're a good guy, Eli. That was another part of why I got upset whenever you talked about him like that, like you still wanted him."

"Well..."

"You fixed what you messed up, you recognized what you did, you apologized for it... it looks like you learned from your mistake but, well, we'll have to wait and see." This time when she stopped to turn and face Eli, it was a soft smile that crossed her muzzle. Lynn took his other paw in hers, lightly wrapping her fingers over his. "But I trust you. No easy feat after all I've been through. Rick likes you quite a bit, too."

Eli stood up on his tiptoes to touch his nose against hers, then fell back when she surprised him with a kiss. That, too, felt like soft little electric shocks vibrating across his lips. "Funny you mention that..." he went on, as they resumed their pace. "Would you believe it took me six years to realize, maybe it's not a good sign when your close family isn't OK with your partner?"

"That's the twenty-twenty hindsight thing me and Rick talk about every now and then. We've both had our share of shitty partners."

Beneath his footpaws Eli felt the little stray grasses along the trail, resilient against the constant beatdown of runners of bikers and simple walkers like themselves. Small fragments of twigs, rounded pebbles... a cicada husk, lying forlorn on its side. He lifted his large ears towards the trees, and found that he could still hear one. Just one. Things were indeed changing.

He sighed. "A shitty partner is the only one I've had."

"Wouldn't you like to change that?"

"Yeah. I would."

The silence that came after that felt a bit odd. Lynn had said it as though she were going to follow it up with something, but all that came was just their footsteps across the path - until Eli thought to glance sideways at her. There was that sly smile again, and when his gaze met hers, she winked.

Though nothing caught his footpaw, Eli nearly stumbled. "Wait. You're not saying-"

"I think I am."

"Well, I mean..." He reached up and scratched at his neck, intentionally keeping his eyes off of hers. "Would... do you? Want to... you know..."

"Would you?"

Then that warmth started to blossom in his chest again, that sweet, gentle tickle that filled him with bright energy. Eli couldn't remember the first time Lynn had made him feel this, only that she did, and always had - and how long had it taken him to put a name to it? Unable to keep himself from smiling he pressed himself against her again, and nuzzled against her shoulder. He loved her scent.

"Isn't it a bit... fast, though?"

"I dunno." Her shrug this time caused his head to bounce. "A month and a half is pretty good, I think."

"No, I mean, we just had that... that fight, and..."

"It was a fight, Eli. That happens."

"I guess so, but - do you want to-"

"Do you?"

The sun had positioned itself at that perfect angle so that thin, translucent beams of light came down through the spaces between the trees overhead, constantly waving and shifting in the wind. Beyond those the sky had continued its shift, now taking on a rich orange beneath the softer pink at the horizon, and with deep violet-blue at the other side; Eli breathed in, tasting the earthiness of trees and wood and nature, the slight edge of his own sweat, the lighter yet edged musk of striped hyena.

"Yeah." He was nervous, but it felt good. It wasn't the routine rote that he'd gotten used to after six years, with the words and then the feeling of now what? that immediately followed. The wild dog felt the weight of the words on his tongue, felt them balanced there, wanting to come out... and knew the depth of the wonder that would come after, the excitement and exhilaration. "I do."

Lynn didn't keep him waiting. "Good," she said, voice soft again. "Because I do, too. Like I said, though, we'll have to set down some ground rules, and make sure we know our boundaries so there's no misunderstandings, but..."

"All fair." That nervousness melted into the excitement he'd expected, and then Eli picked up his pace to get ahead of Lynn and turn to face her. Then he was the one to take both of her paws in his, and again he stood up to gently kiss her. Her smile spread across to his muzzle between the kiss, brightening and deepening. Soon he found himself laughing softly, grinning in the little spaces between the string of kisses; then Lynn was, too, and then suddenly he felt her strong arms around his back, hoisting him up into the air as she kept him pressed against her.

"D'you know what that makes you?" Lynn said into his ear before she put him back down, with three more kisses coming first.

"What's that?"

Still half-bent over, she followed her words with a light nip to the base of that same ear. "My boyfriend."

"Gosh." Is this really what it's supposed to feel like? I feel like... like I could run two miles. Like I could jump fifty feet straight up. Like I might never stop smiling. "So then you're-"

"Your girlfriend."

"I've never had a girlfriend before."

"You won't notice much of a difference." Another kiss, one last nose-nuzzle, and Lynn slid her paw into his, again leading him down the path. "I do have that strap-on, with the knotted toy that definitely fits it."

"How big?" Eli nudged her shoulder. "I measure knots in fists, remember."

"Maybe a little larger than what you're used to."

"How do you know that?"

"You and my brother talked about dicks, in public, when we went out to breakfast that one morning." She nudged him back, briefly knocking him off-balance. "Don't think I wasn't listening! And watching."

And so the ice melted. For a while the two walked in silence, and to Eli it felt good, watching the trees swaying above and the slowly-stretching shadows, just experiencing this and _living_alongside Lynn. His footpaws weren't quite used to the short hike, if it could even be called that, but... he rested his head against her arm and let his eyes close for a moment, bringing his awareness back in to just himself and her.

It felt wonderful.

"Oh. Um. How'd your exams go?"

"Pretty good, all in all." Lynn untwined her paw from his so that she could rest an arm around his shoulder. Eli rumbled softly at the touch and hooked his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. "Grades should be coming n Friday. Just a waiting game 'til then. I've already moved out of my dorm..."

"You're not staying for the fall semester? How much do you have left?"

"Just one semester. And funny thing about that." She half-turned her head his way, though kept her eyes forward. "I actually transferred to the university here in town to finish up. Now, don't you get the wrong idea - that was already the plan when I started my summer semester."

"Oh yeah? Already got a living situation set up?"

"I mean, there's Rick, but... it's still a twenty-five minute drive both ways. Why do you ask?" With her already having an arm around him, it was much easier this time for Lynn to lean against Eli and nudge at him. Her pushing and prodding made him chuckle again. "Does mister 'my-rental-lease-is-expiring' have something better in mind?"

"Oh, well..."

"Hmm?" Lynn tilted his head away with her nose pressed against his cheek. "Hmm?"

"Would you - hey, stop that..." The wild dog playfully brushed his paw at her muzzle. "Would you maybe, wanna... I dunno, get a place together? Just, like, a little apartment or something..." Then under his breath: "...since I probably shouldn't have taken out a yearlong lease on an entire house to myself..."

Lynn mulled it over for a moment, or maybe she just pretended to. "So you think getting together after a month and a half is kinda fast, but getting a place together isn't?"

"W-well, I mean-"

"Eli. I'm joking." Lynn gave his paw a squeeze. "We both went to college. I'm sure we've both had roommates that we didn't know for a day. If you're comfortable with it, we can talk about it more in depth once it comes closer..."

He squeezed back. "I'd like that."

"Oh. That reminds me. You still have that house, right?"

"Yeah. I was, um... kind of running out of time, you know?" A bit embarrassed, Eli glanced away again. "There's just been so much going on between you, and Marlin, and what happened, and... it was just another problem I didn't wanna deal with."

Her grip on his paw tightened to the point where he tried to wiggle out of it. "Eli. You can't run from your problems."

"See, I know that now, I-"

"You can't run." Lynn leaned in over him while they walked, using her superior height to her advantage. "It is inevitable."

"Lynn!" Again he pushed at her chest-

-and the hyena grabbed his paw and held it in place there. "Oh. Do that again, that felt nice. Anyway - you still haven't shown me your place..."

"Up until this past week, I had my reasons."

"...and now you can." Lynn slid his paw a little further down. "And then you and I can get reacquainted. It has been a week."

Maybe it would be nice to get out of the slowly-simmering late afternoon heat and into the comfortable coolness of his house. It seemed as though things would heat right back up soon, though. The wild dog returned her grin.

"Y'know? That sounds like a plan."