{"sf1_id":154866,"sf2_id":"Oe5or4Nn","title":"All's Fair - Part 7","author":"Xi-entaj","words":2605,"posted_at":"2010-06-19T07:47:00.000Z","tags":["Deer","Gay","Husky","No-Yiff","Wolf"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/154866-all-s-fair-part-7","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Oe5or4Nn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/5a/83/5a83a51d-4341-4af6-bae4-f8c555ce648c","description":"#7 of All's Fair","content":"The story's main character is bi, so don't read if you don't want to. As ever, your thoughts and criticism are welcome so that I can get better. Are things moving too slow?\u0026nbsp; Do I have enough detail?\u0026nbsp; Are the characters fun and/or believable? (or too preditctable?)\u0026nbsp; Good parts/bad parts?\u0026nbsp;\n\nThanks for reading!\n\n- Xi\n\n**All's Fair - Part 7**\n\nWe pulled into a paved half-circle driveway in front of a nice two-story house on a one-acre lot.\u0026nbsp; Looking at it, I judged that Jake's family made maybe one hundred grand per year or more.\u0026nbsp;\n\nJake tried to get my bag for me, but I gave him a dirty look and took it myself.\u0026nbsp; It was awkward, but manageable.\u0026nbsp; I hopped out of the van - Dan had pulled it up to the fornt door for me before taking it into the garage - and let Halo lead me inside.\u0026nbsp; I had to give Jake another dirty look when he held the door open for me, but there wasn't much I could do and he smirked to show he knew it.\u0026nbsp; On the inside the house showed a streak of\u0026nbsp; modernist design that, combined with the classic suburban features, should have looked awful but didn't.\u0026nbsp; The windows were huge, making the spacious rooms very light despite the bold, clean-edged matte black and iridescent burgundy furnishings.\u0026nbsp; Halo took me through the atrium to the stairs in the living room, pointed out the kitchen, then told me where my room was - the last door on the balcony that overlooked the living room - and let me get settled in.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Just let me know if you need anything, Nick,\" she said kindly.\u0026nbsp; I tore my eyes off the twin fifteen-by-thirty glass walls on the living room's north side, nodded, and started up the stairs.\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe bedroom was large for me, maybe fourteen feet square, with another enormous set of windows on two walls.\u0026nbsp; I stared at the space, equipped at the moment with a built in queen size bed with shelves, a slouch chair, and desk.\u0026nbsp; Turning to shut the door behind me, I noticed the bolt on the handle.\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe rooms at the correction center don't have locks - not on the inside, anyway.\u0026nbsp;\n\nJake came into view on the balcony and I quickly dried my eyes.\u0026nbsp; He noticed anyway.\u0026nbsp; \"Is something wrong?\" he asked.\u0026nbsp; \"You can have another room if you don't like this one.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"No, it's just - the door locks,\" I said stupidly.\u0026nbsp; Then I shook myself.\u0026nbsp; \"I don't need a maid to help unpacking,\" I said in my normal voice.\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe looked at me with an expression I couldn't read, then nodded.\u0026nbsp; \"My room's the next one here,\" he said.\u0026nbsp; \"My brother and sister - they're at school still - are in the ones closer to the stairs.\u0026nbsp; Them and the master suite downstairs are off limits, but you can help yourself to food in the kitchen or whatever.\u0026nbsp; My parents usually work all day, so they won't be around much before seven.\u0026nbsp; You break anything, mutt, you pay for it.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nI snorted.\u0026nbsp; \"How clumsy do you think I am?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe didn't answer, just looked pointedly at my casts.\u0026nbsp; I rolled my eyes and shut the door gently in his face.\u0026nbsp; Then I sagged against it.\u0026nbsp; God, what had I gotten myself into?\u0026nbsp; Trapped in a fantastic house with an incredible room - and a gorgeous wolf I couldn't stand.\u0026nbsp; Slim to no odds he'd quit shadowing me everywhere - probably he'd decided I should be closer so he could do it more effectively.\u0026nbsp; Then again, I could always sneak out a window or something once my casts were off.\u0026nbsp;\n\nUnpacking took all of ten minuts and barely made any impression at all on the room's clean emptiness.\u0026nbsp; I wanted it that way.\u0026nbsp; Returning downstairs, I saw Dan and Halo doing a decent job of pretending they weren't waiting for me.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Hi, Nick,\" Dan said, smiling at me.\u0026nbsp; \"Come sit down, please.\"\u0026nbsp; I gingerly planted myself on a couch across from them.\u0026nbsp; \"I just wanted to lay out the ground rules for you,\" he continued.\u0026nbsp; \"Jake probably already told you that bedrooms are off-limits unless you have permission - and that means we won't come into yours, either.\u0026nbsp; Other than that, we expect you every day for dinner at seven thirty -\" he gave me a stern look that said plainly he'd heard at least something about my wandering habits \"- and we want to know how long you plan to stay out other than that.\u0026nbsp; You can leave a note on the table if we're not here.\u0026nbsp; Also, I understand that you're quite good in school, so we expect your grades to reflect that.\"\u0026nbsp; I barely restrained from rolling my eyes at that; my grades were almost always good, despite myself.\u0026nbsp; \"Finally, we expect a certain degree of politeness and responsibility: please and thank you, no broken property, and so forth.\"\u0026nbsp; He softened it with a smile.\u0026nbsp; \"Can you do that?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nI nodded mutely, then cleared my throat at his raised eyebrow.\u0026nbsp; \"Ah, yes, Sir.\"\u0026nbsp; I grinned shyly.\u0026nbsp; \"I think, anyway.\"\u0026nbsp; At that moment I did, too, even though I knew the fixed dinner would be an issue.\u0026nbsp; I didn't like being bound like that.\u0026nbsp; Still.\u0026nbsp;\n\nDan grinned back.\u0026nbsp; \"Good enough, Nick.\u0026nbsp; If you have anything you want to talk about, don't hesitate to bring it up - we try to do that at dinner, but any time you're comfortable with is okay.\"\u0026nbsp; He and Halo stood up.\u0026nbsp; \"Well, we're going to pick up Michael and Aislyn from school.\u0026nbsp; It's good to have you, Nick.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Thank you,\" I said quietly to their retreating backs.\u0026nbsp; I don't know if they heard.\u0026nbsp;\n\nAfter a few minutes I got up and went outside to the back yard.\u0026nbsp; There was a semi-enclosed garden around the northeast corner of the house, giving the master suite some lush privacy.\u0026nbsp; Curiosity made me peek into it, but aside from some benches and a fountain or two, there wasn't much there except dormant plants.\u0026nbsp; The room behind it was hidden behind half-closed vertical blinds, but I caught a glimpse of a spacious room set up mush like mine but larger.\u0026nbsp; Turning back to the rest of the yard, I saw a pool, empty for the winter, in a white flagstone patio with a gazebo and a shed on the far side and trees all around.\u0026nbsp; Low rock walls made grassy terraces in the gentle slope behind it.\u0026nbsp; It was a very well-kept place.\u0026nbsp;\n\nI wandered back into the trees until I couldn't be seen from the house, but not so far that I ran into the fence.\u0026nbsp; I explored slowly until I heard the van pulling back into the garage, then made my way back to the house.\u0026nbsp;\n\nI made it in just as they were coming in from the garage and starting to look for me.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Oh, good, I was wondering where you'd gone,\" Halo said.\u0026nbsp; \"I'd like you to meed Michael, and Aislyn.\u0026nbsp; Kids, this is Nick.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nI looked at the pair curiously.\u0026nbsp; Aislyn looked a lot like Jake, but slimmer and female.\u0026nbsp; Definitely hot, and she knew it, but she carried herself more like a multibillion dollar business executive than a middle schooler.\u0026nbsp; She nodded coolly to me.\u0026nbsp; Michael was a deer like Halo, maybe fifth or sixth grade - I'm bad at guessing ages - who smiled cheerfully at me.\u0026nbsp; \"Hi!\" he said in a high-pitched voice, and I groaned to myself.\u0026nbsp; He was only a head shorter than me, and he hadn't even hit his growth spurts yet.\u0026nbsp; Aislyn was already an inch or two taller.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Hey,\" I replied.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"He goggled at my casts.\u0026nbsp; \"Wow.\u0026nbsp; What'd you do to yourself?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nI shrugged.\u0026nbsp; \"I ran into a gang a few weeks ago.\u0026nbsp; It doesn't hurt anymore.\"\u0026nbsp; Mostly true.\u0026nbsp; It occurred to me to wonder what had happened to the panther I'd attacked, and his companions.\u0026nbsp;\n\nMichael looked disappointed that I wasn't launching into a full, gory account, but his parents smiled gratefully at me from behind his back as the potential episode passed.\u0026nbsp; He got over it quickly, anyway.\u0026nbsp; \"Come on,\" he uged, grabbing my paw and pulling me towards the stairs.\u0026nbsp; \"I'll show you my room.\"\u0026nbsp; I had to retrieve my paw so that I could work the crutch, and then I followed his bounding progress back up the stairs.\u0026nbsp; I was definitely looking forward to losing the casts; stairs were a chore.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Are you really in high school?\u0026nbsp; You're not very tall,\" Michael asked from the balcony.\u0026nbsp; \"I'm in fourth grade, but I know some furs in fifth grade.\u0026nbsp; Are you as old as Jake?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"No,\" I said as I got to the last step.\u0026nbsp; \"I'm a year behind him.\u0026nbsp; We took mathematics together though.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Oh.\u0026nbsp; I don't like math; it's boring.\u0026nbsp; But Aislyn's really good at it.\u0026nbsp; She's good at everything.\"\u0026nbsp; He ran into his room, but I stopped at the door, remembering what Dan had said.\u0026nbsp; I'd probably have done so anyway, though.\u0026nbsp; He glanced behind him and saw me there.\u0026nbsp; \"Oh, you can come in.\u0026nbsp; Jake's good at math too, but I don't think he's as good as Aislyn.\u0026nbsp; He's better than me, though.\u0026nbsp; They have to help me, sometimes.\"\u0026nbsp; He grinned sheepishly.\u0026nbsp; \"I like it better when we do English and crafts.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nHis bed was covered in a dark green, unlike the furniture in the rest of the house, so I assumed he'd picked it.\u0026nbsp; The walls were covered in posters, mostly of cars and trucks, but a few were drawings of young furs, probably his friends or something, or landscapes.\u0026nbsp; If he'd done them, he was very good.\u0026nbsp; When he saw me looking at them, he immediately launched into introductions of the furs, then started telling me about the cars.\u0026nbsp; I sat on the green chair in the corner by the door and let him go for a while.\u0026nbsp; Hey, don't laugh just because I have a soft spot for kids.\u0026nbsp; Besides, I was feeling mellow at the moment.\u0026nbsp;\n\nI left after twenty minutes or so, since he was supposed to be studying.\u0026nbsp; Aislyn's door was shut.\u0026nbsp; Jake's was open, but I obviously didn't look in to see if he was there.\u0026nbsp; I'm not that desparate.\u0026nbsp;\n\nI didn't shut my door, just lay down on the bed, testing it.\u0026nbsp; It felt fantastic, and I grinned as I wondered what the odds were that I'd get fostered to a house decorated in my favorite color.\u0026nbsp; It certainly said good things about Dan and Halo.\u0026nbsp;\n\nAfter ten minutes I realized I didn't really know what to do with myself.\u0026nbsp; Usually the center had planned activities or made me do homework.\u0026nbsp; I didn't have any books of my own; I borrowed from the center or a library on the rare occasions I wanted to read something.\u0026nbsp; I supposed I could see what movies and games were here, but I didn't feel like it.\u0026nbsp; After a minute I I stood and set up my government-issue laptop on the desk.\u0026nbsp; With a pleasant shock I saw that the Alteras had wireless, but that didn't help much since I didn't care for false-life social sites.\u0026nbsp; Besides, my firewall would probably block them.\u0026nbsp; Once I had things working I killed the laptop and left.\u0026nbsp;\n\nI poked my head into the kitchen on my way out.\u0026nbsp; Michael had migrated down to the kitchen table with his parents.\u0026nbsp; \"I'll be back in a couple hours,\" I said.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Thanks, Nick,\" Halo said, looking up.\u0026nbsp; \"Do you need directions anywhere?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Um, I'm actually looking for a library,\" I admitted.\u0026nbsp; Part of me was appalled; I was fully capable of looking, so what was I doing asking for directions?\u0026nbsp; But Halo described the location fairly quickly, and I fled.\u0026nbsp;\n\nDinner was a decidedly foreign experience.\u0026nbsp; I'd almost never eaten in a family setting instead of a cafeteria; certainly I'd never done so as 'part' of the family, at least since I'd run away when I was six.\u0026nbsp; Everyone had changed into more casual clothes except for Aislyn, Michael, and me.\u0026nbsp; Aislyn had changed, but I wasn't going to call her clinging, severe black dress casual.\u0026nbsp;\n\nMichael brought up the subject with all his usual tact.\u0026nbsp; \"Hey, Nick, why haven't you changed?\u0026nbsp; I was doing homework, but you weren't.\u0026nbsp; Don't you have any other clothes?\"\u0026nbsp;\n\nI blushed slightly, but I'm pretty sure that my fur hid it.\u0026nbsp; White isn't the best color for that, but such is life.\u0026nbsp; \"Um, actually I don't.\u0026nbsp; I have a couple other sets, but mostly I wear the uniforms.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Well, we can't have that,\" Halo said firmly, clicking her hoof against the hardwood floor.\u0026nbsp; She thought about it.\u0026nbsp; \"I suppose we can take you shopping this weekend.\u0026nbsp; I don't really want to take more time off work to go before that, but...\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Don't worry about it, Mum,\" Jake said.\u0026nbsp; \"If you leave some money I can take him tomorrow after my chemistry final.\"\u0026nbsp; He smiled innocently under my glare.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Thanks, Jake,\" Halo said gratefully.\u0026nbsp;\n\nI squirmed in embarrassment.\u0026nbsp; \"You really don't have to,\" I mumbled.\u0026nbsp; At this point my face probably glowed.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Nonsense,\" Halo said in that firm voice.\u0026nbsp; \"You're ours now, at least for a while; we can afford to get you some clothes.\"\u0026nbsp; She stared at me until I gave in.\u0026nbsp; Dan and Jake both smiled in amusement; even Aislyn's lips twitched.\u0026nbsp; Michael just looked at us in confusion.\u0026nbsp;\n\nAfter dinner Aislyn vanished again; this must have been usual because no one commented.\u0026nbsp; Jake helped clean up, then he and his parents joined Michael in the living room for a game of scrabble while I watched.\u0026nbsp; Around nine they chased the yawning deer upstairs to bed.\u0026nbsp; I curled up on a living room couch with a library book, but didn't make much headway since I looked up every time anyone made a noise or passed where I could see them.\u0026nbsp; Silently turned Halo's words over in my mind.\u0026nbsp; I wasn't sure I liked being 'theirs'; while better than being 'the state's', I would have preferred to be 'mine'.\u0026nbsp; I shrugged it off; I didn't feel like following a figure of speech.\u0026nbsp; Quietly I slid off the couch and wandered outside for a while, then came back, thanked Dan and Halo again, and went to bed.\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe new room made my nightmares worse, and I woke up twice that I remember.\u0026nbsp; The second time it was near enough to morning - four a.m. by my glowing alarm - that I shook off my remaining weariness and padded down to the bathroom for a shower.\u0026nbsp; Standing under the hot water, my muzzle turned into the spray while it rinsed the soapsuds down my body into the drain, I wondered how long I could actually stay there.\u0026nbsp; The furs at the center would bug you if you took too long about it.\u0026nbsp; But rather than make the attempt I quickly turned the water to cold and enjoyed the contrast for a moment, then got out and dried myself with a towel from the cabinet.\u0026nbsp;\n\nSeveral hours and several miles later, I reflected bitterly that at least I got half a day off.\u0026nbsp; Sighing, I wondered what would happen if I didn't meet Jake like I'd told Halo I would.\u0026nbsp; It would be easy.\u0026nbsp; All I had to do was sit here.\u0026nbsp; It's not like I had to decide to break my word; all I had to do was not keep it.\u0026nbsp;\n\nMy face crumpled for a second, because a moment later I stood and pointed my nose for school.\u0026nbsp; Mine, indeed.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\\*\\*\\*\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThanks for reading!\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"All\\'s Fair","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/153871-all-s-fair-part-6.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/163327-all-s-fair-part-8.json"}}