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Summer ended.

Like usual, it wasn't a clear, precise endpoint when the seasons changed and autumn began tightening its grip on the sky and earth. Eli remembered pulling his arms closer around himself as he walked into work each morning, then suddenly one day wishing he had brought his jacket. Lynn continued her morning jogs, having decided on a good route following their move-in to the new apartment, although her boyfriend noticed that she no longer came back quite so drenched in sweat.

The cicadas continued to quiet themselves, dripping down from the sound of the day to a low buzz around noon and early evening, and from there, to nothing. The crickets stopped as well, leaving the only sounds at night to be the cars going along the highway out behind the apartment and the busy street to the side. Then the wind started, too, cold gusts of air that swirled and carried along close to the sidewalk, pushed down by the gathering clouds overhead that somehow never developed into a storm. Sometimes those clouds carried the unmistakable ash-grey of a rainstorm, and very rarely it was a quiet drizzle that stirred Eli awake in the morning.

This was one of those mornings. A cool, dreary midautumn Saturday, with the wild dog still half asleep even as he thumbed through the diner's menu. Lynn kept one side of his body warm, or at least the leg of that side with hers pressed gently against his, her footpaw occasionally pressing up at his ankle or down over his own. She was already used to waking up a good hour or two earlier than Eli due to her somewhat unfortunate class schedule this semester, and this particular morning had already gotten out of the shower by the time Eli left the realm of his dreams. He only vaguely remembered her getting up, mostly because whatever it was he had dreamt about had gotten noticeably colder when that happened.

He leaned back and thumped his head gently against the back of the booth in letting a wide, cavernous yawn out - which earned a glare from the hyena beside him. Then, however, the other striped hyena across from the two continued that yawn... and a moment later, so did the cheetah beside him.

"God," Richard mumbled, digging the heel of his palm against his eye, "it's too early."

"This was _your_idea, you know." Lynn leaned over to peer at Eli's menu, briefly surrounding him in a soft puff of her shampoo. Two months since moving in together and still he hadn't gotten tired of that scent. "Oh shit, that's right, now that it's fall they've brought their white hot chocolate back..."

"Well, yeah, but..." The male hyena yawned again, and slowly toppled over to thump his head against the cheetah's shoulder. He smiled and draped a spotted arm around Rick's shoulders. "I'm just not used to getting up this early. What kind of place only serves breakfast until eight? It's the twenty-first century."

The cheetah leaned down to touch his nose to his boyfriend's cheek. "The century of all-day breakfast?"

"Mhmm." Richard looked up and met his lips in a kiss. Eli watched them for a moment, smiling - then felt a nudge against his arm. Lynn rolled her eyes at him and stuck her tongue out. "I'm just so hungry, all the time."

"Which is amazing," Lynn went on, "considering you don't do anything. Look - Miguel works in physical labor, and he has a smaller appetite than you. Where does it all go?"

"My giant brain." Richard straightened up and placed his menu facedown on the table. "I want the smiley face pancake."

Miguel beside him rolled his eyes. "You always do..."

"Well, come on. It's one of the best things on the menu."

"The regular or chocolate one?"

"Mm... chocolate today."

"Ah. My little brother likes the chocolate."

"How is Tony, by the way? You haven't mentioned him in a while..."

Eli folded his menu and put it down as well. He nudged Lynn. "I think I'll be getting that too..."

"Oh my God." The striped hyena shook her head. "You two are both children."

His first time seeing Richard again after the entire Marlin fiasco had been... a bit awkward, needless to say. Eli had come over to spend the weekend in the time between when his lease on his house expired and before he and Lynn had fully acquired the new lease on their apartment, and when the two of them were curled up on the couch watching one of her favorite musicals, her brother strode in through the front door. Eli could feel the intensity of the male hyena's stare, then, and pulled Lynn's arm up to cover his muzzle - but she just pulled the wild dog closer to her body and nuzzled down between his large ears, and after another moment, Rick visibly relaxed and went about his business. He never mentioned it, but his opinion on the whole thing definitely lingered afterwards, with his conversations with Eli remaining a bit tense and sparse for the next three weeks as he and Lynn got their things moved in.

This would be their second double-date, though, with the first as a celebration for them moving in together. Eli only vaguely remembered getting quite drunk that night, first from whatever wild concoctions Richard's boyfriend ordered on his behalf, and then on the rest of the same bottle of whiskey that Lynn had had him try the first time he came over. Somewhere during the night, her older friend Jordan ended up coming over, too. Eli awoke the next morning shirtless on the couch, though with that small fox on top of him instead of the striped hyena like he'd expected.

That took some explanation and sleuth-work, too, since none of the three involved - Eli himself, Lynn, and Jordan - could remember. Richard ended up revealing that Eli had given the fox his first kiss with another guy, which Jordan had explained as "well, that's okay, it's not weird, since I'm - kind of bisexual, I guess? I'm... still figuring it out."

So that was familiar. Jordan already approved of Eli - the wild dog knew that beforehand - and now the two had gotten to talking fairly often, and even playing video games online on some weekends, sometimes with Lynn with them as well. It felt good to finally have another friend, someone who shared some interests and whom his partner actually liked. These past few months, or really this past half year, had been full of firsts for Eli.

"Well..." He opened his menu back up, squinting at the other page. "Maybe not. Maybe I'll get the breakfast burrito. The one drizzled in queso..."

Lynn reached over to take the menu from him. Her fingers brushed over his for a moment. "Oh, look at you. Trying something new."

Eli grinned at her. "For once in my life."

"Ah, don't say that..." She returned his grin, then leaned down and touched her nose to his. She went on in a softer voice: "You've come a real long way, hon. I'm proud of you for that."

"Thank you." That nose-nuzzle turned into a soft kiss. "I'm pretty proud, too. But, you know, it's pretty much all because of you..."

Across the table, Richard made a show of scowling and turning his head away. "Oh, God. Look at that. Not in public, you two. How many times do you have to hear that?..." Beside him, Miguel chuckled behind his paw.

It really _was_amazing, though, how much his life had changed in such a relatively short time. Sharing in that chuckle for a moment, Eli turned and looked out the window beside him, peering through the translucent advertisement stuck to the glass. The sun continued to rise up behind those gathered clouds, rough lumpy pillows of various greys, cement to ash to stone to graphite. The rain had stopped shortly after he and Lynn had arrived, with her brother and his boyfriend having already picked out a booth.

The cheetah and Lynn actually spoke on their own every now and then, apparently, sharing an interest of superstition and the occult; he had actually gotten her a new tarot deck for her birthday this year, which was the one she had used when she had done a reading for Eli.

For your present, Death: change. You are stepping into a new chapter of your life. For your future, The Lovers: duality of masculine and feminine, of harmony and instability. Indecision. For your past, the Five of Cups: disappointment, heartache, resentment.

Miguel was plenty cute, of course. The wild dog stole a glance at him, making sure his muzzle still pointed out the window: smooth golden-amber fur speckled with clean black spots, wavy tear tracks running down from his eyes to the corners of his mouth, a tint of a richer brown along his forehead and cheeks, sharp yellow-orange eyes. He had one earring and apparently another piercing further down somewhere, though as far as Eli had seen, it wasn't in his belly button like Lynn's. He spoke with a very faint Spanish accent and had a younger brother who had just entered college this year. Next month would mark his two year anniversary with Rick, who was without a doubt still in love with him.

Eli wondered if he had that same look whenever he looked at Lynn. He was still amazed that things had turned out this way, that not only were they together now but also lived together, going to bed alongside each other every night and waking up in the morning just the same. It still surprised him how fresh and new everything felt with her, how he could still feel his tail thump against his chair when he heard her pull into the parking lot at the apartment, how he couldn't hold back the grin when she came through the door, how her kisses still made him melt against her and brought back that same certain feeling.

And every night, every morning, every lunchtime phone call ended with the same thing: "I love you," followed by a soft "I love you too".

Finding himself drawn into his own thoughts, Eli turned away from the window and nuzzled up against Lynn's jaw; the hyena rumbled softly and put her arm around him again right as the waiter sidled up to the table. This time instead of a Mexican coyote or a slim caracal, it was a wolf. Not quite just a wolf, as his muzzle had a distinct vulpine shape to it, as did his ears; Eli looked him up and down, noting the way his uniform held to his body. He had those foxy legs, too.

Richard stuck to his promise about ordering the smiley-face pancake, which earned a chuckle and another eyeroll from the waiter himself; Miguel ordered a short stack of pancakes with extra syrup; Eli went for the breakfast burrito, though halfway through his order noticed the waiter's left eye was pale blue and his right deep green, and as a result the wild dog stumbled over his words and had to start over; and Lynn asked for one of their special egg deals, and made sure to request two mugs of the white hot chocolate on the side.

"Two?" the waiter asked; "Two," she replied with a nod, and he wrote it down and scurried off. She waited a moment for him to turn the corner, then slowly turned to others in the booth.

"Okay," the hyena said in a low voice, "we all like dick here. Is it just me, or was he _bombshell_hot?"

This time it was Eli who muttered oh my God and rolled his eyes. Still, though, he had to agree with the rest of them. That was something that the two of them had made sure to talk about early on, of course, as one of those ground rules that Lynn had mentioned: neither of them really saw themselves going out of their way to play around with someone else outside of their relationship, but still they had agreed on a just-in-case scenario based around the stipulation of asking for permission and making sure the other knew.

"Especially with Jordan," Lynn had made sure to point out, with that same damn sly smile on her face. "If things continue between you two, I really want to hear about it."

Across from the two of them, Richard and Miguel suddenly burst out in shared laughter at some joke one or the other told, leaving Eli and Lynn looking quizzically at one another. A year ago the wild dog would never have guessed he could be somewhere like here now, with his girlfriend - that part alone would have shocked him beyond belief - and others close to her. Eli only remembered meeting Marlin's family once or twice throughout high school, and recalled intentionally keeping the fox away from his mother when he learned about her opinions on him.

The wild dog shifted in his seat. Will Mom want to hear about Lynn? A handful of months since that day in the music shop, and suddenly he had so much more to look forward to. Not just the breakfast that would be coming in some ten minutes, but... everything that would happen in his life. In _their_life, with Lynn right here beside him. She would be graduating in about another three months, and already she'd switched to a job more inside her field; Eli himself was fairly certain he could secure a promotion at the library before too long, and had posted the first five chapters of his sci-fi story online to a steadily growing audience.

He felt like he hadn't in quite a long time. Underneath the table he reached over, found her paw, slid his fingers between hers, gave a gentle squeeze... and she squeezed back. It had slowed down a bit since they first moved in, but Eli still wondered every now and then how he had gotten here, and how was it that Lynn could make him feel like this. Not because she was a woman, not because she wasn't Marlin, but simply because she was her.

Melynndra Waites, striped hyena, six-feet-four-inches of runner's legs, crop tops, and ear piercings. Youngest sister of Richard and Melinda, soon-to-be bachelor's of kinesiology with a minor in physics, sweet and gentle yet strong and determined, and quite possibly the love of Eli's life.

"Oh, hey," Rick said, bringing their attention back across the table, "what're your plans for the rest of the day after this?"

Lynn leaned back against the seat. "Hmm... it's Saturday, so I don't have class and neither of us work. Eli?"

"Jordan wanted to continue where we left off last week on that new game of his, but that's not 'til later in the night."

"Yeah. We should be free." She smiled at her brother. "Why?"

He leaned back as well, draping his arms over the back of the booth. "Oh, nothing important... it's just Miguel's favorite musical is in town, and we may have gotten extra tickets..."

The cheetah bounced beside him. "The Grey Spire. It's a dramatic medieval romance."

Lynn squeezed Eli's paw again. "What do you think?"

The wild dog nodded, leaning in to rest his weight against her again. So much had changed, and he felt, he knew, that so much would continue to change.

"Yeah. That sounds like fun."

Lynn's soft scent wafted into his nose and curled around him, keeping him warm and comfortable right here beside her. It had taken some time to get here, and he had encountered a couple of bumps and obstacles along the way, but now that he had found his place, he never wanted to leave it. Now that he had found love, he never wanted to give it up.

Eli made sure to remind her of that, too, of course, all of these months later still upholding his suspicion that he would never stop telling her... and, all of these months later, she upheld her wish that he never would stop. Those were the sweetest words to him, too, of course. Every night, every morning, every lunchtime phone call:

"I love you."

_ _

~ ~ ~

_ _

At last Silerion had escaped the clutches of the Federation following him, harrying him, ravaging him. The answer had been right there in front of him, waiting for him, and yet he hadn't been able to turn and discover it - not until he'd been onboard the flagship again and remembered the foul, crushing guilt, the permeating darkness, the feeling of wrongness. His new allies would keep him safe and free, and he would do all he could to bolster and reinforce them, to help them become the brightest, strongest civilization on this side of the galaxy, just as they had always deserved.

_ _

He was free. And more importantly, with them, he was happy. He looked up at the sky as the last vestiges of the month's storm retreated, and felt the warmth of the sun on his muzzle.

_ _

He was happy.

~ ~ ~

Epilogue

_ _

Months passed. Summer continued and soon finished its transition to autumn, and over time, the temperature continued to drop and the clouds continued to gather in the sky to turn to the quiet chill of winter, the trees having since dropped their leaves and the cicadas long since dying back into silence. Marlin didn't miss them: they had only ever annoyed him.

He had been forced to move back in with his parents for a short time along the way, though soon found a smaller, cheaper apartment about a twelve minutes' drive from his new workplace, and with some dedication began to work his savings back up. Without Eli to bother worrying about he could finally focus on himself, and realized to his shock that it felt... good, almost. Being free, being on his own, not having to worry about a devoted boyfriend to please and pacify.

At the urging of a few different people he booked a handful of therapy sessions throughout December and January, and through those came to accept that he had played as much a part in the crumbling of that relationship as Eli had, if not more. It had been hard to understand and accept, but his therapist - while he could afford the sessions - helped him to see some flaws, some shortcomings. Some things that Marlin hadn't even considered, some others that he thought were fine. Some he thought weren't problems at all. Where Eli had always backed down against his explanations, "that's just how I was raised" and "it's never been a problem before," his therapist put his foot down and would not permit him to stand by those.

The frustration and anger, previously focused at Eli and that girlfriend of his, gradually started to refocus and turn in towards Marlin himself. There was a lot of regret there, he realized, and a lot of things he could have done better. It took a short fling in February for him to realize that, an embarrassing little thing that ended in him sobbing into his hookup's back while tied underneath his tail. Needless to say, that wolf never called him back.

February turned to March, March to April, to May. Then, suddenly, it was summer again, with that so-familiar stinging heat bearing down during the day and the sounds of the crickets and cicadas keeping the night alive. On this Saturday morning Marlin sat back in a thankfully-padded chair outside the coffee shop, watching the cars go by on the street in front of him.

He had tried messaging Eli again a few times since the official break-up, but the last time had been... some number of months ago. That realization had been one he'd come to on his own, after his apportioned therapy funds had run out: Eli wasn't going to message him. He would never be ready to talk. That was fine. Marlin had... accepted that. The fox lifted his drink to his lips and took a slow sip, wanting to savor it before the sun rose to its full strength overhead.

If anything, he wished he could still at least find the wild dog one more time, or get one final message through to him. Not to bug him, or ask for the rent payment that he had been so adamant he'd missed back then, but just... to apologize. Regret really, truly felt awful, and with this span of time separating him from what had happened, regret was all that remained. Sometimes Marlin still kept himself up at night thinking through his apology and what he might say to him if that time ever came.

If. Until then, he had to sit with it, had to continue folding it back in his mind with the other things that now would likely never happen. The fox took another sip, rolled the liquid around his mouth a moment, swallowed it down... and then pulled in a slow, steady breath, tasting the air of the city. A year later and he was still here. And Eli, too, was out there somewhere, having long since moved out of that house he had rented and somewhere else. Marlin hadn't bothered trying to track him down.

The fox's ears perked towards another set of footsteps passing by behind him. To his surprise, though, they stopped - and then he felt the little flicker of hope ignite in his chest again.

"Um - excuse me? Marlin?"

This was another new voice, a soft, sweet tenor, not quite what he'd expected. The fox turned in his seat and felt a grin split his muzzle once his eyes fell on the otter who had stopped behind him. He looked even better than he did in his profile pictures on the website.

On seeing his recognition, the otter's face lit up, too, and he was coming forward with his arms out - and Marlin met him and pulled him into a firm hug. He smelled faintly of strawberries, which wasn't fantastic, but that was alright: a shared interest on their profiles showed that this otter wasn't at all averse to having his scent... _overwritten,_so to say, and they had already arranged that Marlin would be more than glad to provide.

"Hey," he breathed, squeezing his arms around the otter's body. "Ren. It's so good to finally meet you."

"Yeah, it is..." Ren actually nuzzled at his neck, then, and Marlin felt him draw in a breath through his nose. "You smell... different than I expected."

Marlin pulled back, letting his arms drift down to the mustelid's waist. "Different?"

The otter smiled. "Not a bad different. I still like it." He stood up on his tiptoes to lean in, lowering his voice. "And I still wanna get a better sense of that scent later on, too, if you're still okay with it."

Marlin grinned at that, mind flicking back over the many scenarios the two had played out throughout the month and a half that they had been talking. "Yeah. Of course."

"But! First things first." Ren nodded back towards the coffee shop. "I'm here now. Sorry I'm a bit late - my flight got delayed a little bit. Did you eat already?"

"No, just..." Marlin lifted his cup. "Just this."

"A coffee shop doesn't make for much of a first date, but hey, it's something, right?" Settling back out of the embrace, Ren fell back alongside Marlin and quietly, gently, took his paw in his own. Their fingers intertwined, and when he squeezed, Marlin squeezed back.

There was that strange fluttering in his chest, then, that... odd, pleasant warmth, feeling like a sweet little flower blooming into bright color. An unfamiliar feeling, and one that Marlin had first felt after one night he had gotten too deep into his own thoughts again and texted the otter. They had been a month in, then, but were already sending little *hugs* and *kisses* among other things, and just knowing what Ren would have done to comfort him had been there in person...

"Don't doubt that you mean a lot to me," the message had said, "and I'll be here for you. Just two weeks til I can be there, remember? We all fuck up, and we're only defined by our past mistakes in how we choose to learn from them. From what you've told me, you've come a long way. I'm really proud of you, hon."

A gentle breeze blew through the outdoor pavilion, warm and comfortable in the morning. Marlin pulled himself a little closer to Ren as the two walked towards the door of the coffee shop, hand in hand. Each time the otter's paw squeezed his own he felt that warmth blossom a little further, this sweet, lovely little feeling.

"Marlin?"

The fox stopped, shoulder already braced against the door. "Huh?"

Ren smiled again, then glanced away with a blush tinting his little teacup ears. "I'm - um..."

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah." Warm green eyes met his. "I'm just... really glad to see you."

There it was again, blooming and pulsing still. Marlin felt his tail stir against the glass of the door and then, acting on that sudden whim, leaned forward and touched his lips to the otter's. Surprised, Ren jumped a bit and stood there... then pressed forward into this kiss.

"I know." Marlin returned his smile, looking into those green eyes. They were so beautiful. "I am, too."

In just a month and a half, so much had changed. Here he was on this pleasant Saturday summer morning, holding his boyfriend's paw for the first time, and wondering why all of this felt so new, so different. So much had changed. It would continue to change, too, Marlin knew.

Forever for the better.

~