# All's Fair - Part 7

Author: Xi-entaj
Tags: Deer, Gay, Husky, No-Yiff, Wolf

#7 of All's Fair

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?&nbsp; Do I have enough detail?&nbsp; Are the characters fun and/or believable? (or too preditctable?)&nbsp; Good parts/bad parts?&nbsp;

Thanks for reading!

- Xi

**All's Fair - Part 7**

We pulled into a paved half-circle driveway in front of a nice two-story house on a one-acre lot.&nbsp; Looking at it, I judged that Jake's family made maybe one hundred grand per year or more.&nbsp;

Jake tried to get my bag for me, but I gave him a dirty look and took it myself.&nbsp; It was awkward, but manageable.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; On the inside the house showed a streak of&nbsp; modernist design that, combined with the classic suburban features, should have looked awful but didn't.&nbsp; The windows were huge, making the spacious rooms very light despite the bold, clean-edged matte black and iridescent burgundy furnishings.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;

"Just let me know if you need anything, Nick," she said kindly.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;

The bedroom was large for me, maybe fourteen feet square, with another enormous set of windows on two walls.&nbsp; I stared at the space, equipped at the moment with a built in queen size bed with shelves, a slouch chair, and desk.&nbsp; Turning to shut the door behind me, I noticed the bolt on the handle.&nbsp;

The rooms at the correction center don't have locks - not on the inside, anyway.&nbsp;

Jake came into view on the balcony and I quickly dried my eyes.&nbsp; He noticed anyway.&nbsp; "Is something wrong?" he asked.&nbsp; "You can have another room if you don't like this one."&nbsp;

"No, it's just - the door locks," I said stupidly.&nbsp; Then I shook myself.&nbsp; "I don't need a maid to help unpacking," I said in my normal voice.&nbsp;

He looked at me with an expression I couldn't read, then nodded.&nbsp; "My room's the next one here," he said.&nbsp; "My brother and sister - they're at school still - are in the ones closer to the stairs.&nbsp; Them and the master suite downstairs are off limits, but you can help yourself to food in the kitchen or whatever.&nbsp; My parents usually work all day, so they won't be around much before seven.&nbsp; You break anything, mutt, you pay for it."&nbsp;

I snorted.&nbsp; "How clumsy do you think I am?"&nbsp;

He didn't answer, just looked pointedly at my casts.&nbsp; I rolled my eyes and shut the door gently in his face.&nbsp; Then I sagged against it.&nbsp; God, what had I gotten myself into?&nbsp; Trapped in a fantastic house with an incredible room - and a gorgeous wolf I couldn't stand.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Then again, I could always sneak out a window or something once my casts were off.&nbsp;

Unpacking took all of ten minuts and barely made any impression at all on the room's clean emptiness.&nbsp; I wanted it that way.&nbsp; Returning downstairs, I saw Dan and Halo doing a decent job of pretending they weren't waiting for me.&nbsp;

"Hi, Nick," Dan said, smiling at me.&nbsp; "Come sit down, please."&nbsp; I gingerly planted myself on a couch across from them.&nbsp; "I just wanted to lay out the ground rules for you," he continued.&nbsp; "Jake probably already told you that bedrooms are off-limits unless you have permission - and that means we won't come into yours, either.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; You can leave a note on the table if we're not here.&nbsp; Also, I understand that you're quite good in school, so we expect your grades to reflect that."&nbsp; I barely restrained from rolling my eyes at that; my grades were almost always good, despite myself.&nbsp; "Finally, we expect a certain degree of politeness and responsibility: please and thank you, no broken property, and so forth."&nbsp; He softened it with a smile.&nbsp; "Can you do that?"&nbsp;

I nodded mutely, then cleared my throat at his raised eyebrow.&nbsp; "Ah, yes, Sir."&nbsp; I grinned shyly.&nbsp; "I think, anyway."&nbsp; At that moment I did, too, even though I knew the fixed dinner would be an issue.&nbsp; I didn't like being bound like that.&nbsp; Still.&nbsp;

Dan grinned back.&nbsp; "Good enough, Nick.&nbsp; 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."&nbsp; He and Halo stood up.&nbsp; "Well, we're going to pick up Michael and Aislyn from school.&nbsp; It's good to have you, Nick."&nbsp;

"Thank you," I said quietly to their retreating backs.&nbsp; I don't know if they heard.&nbsp;

After a few minutes I got up and went outside to the back yard.&nbsp; There was a semi-enclosed garden around the northeast corner of the house, giving the master suite some lush privacy.&nbsp; Curiosity made me peek into it, but aside from some benches and a fountain or two, there wasn't much there except dormant plants.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Low rock walls made grassy terraces in the gentle slope behind it.&nbsp; It was a very well-kept place.&nbsp;

I wandered back into the trees until I couldn't be seen from the house, but not so far that I ran into the fence.&nbsp; I explored slowly until I heard the van pulling back into the garage, then made my way back to the house.&nbsp;

I made it in just as they were coming in from the garage and starting to look for me.&nbsp;

"Oh, good, I was wondering where you'd gone," Halo said.&nbsp; "I'd like you to meed Michael, and Aislyn.&nbsp; Kids, this is Nick."&nbsp;

I looked at the pair curiously.&nbsp; Aislyn looked a lot like Jake, but slimmer and female.&nbsp; Definitely hot, and she knew it, but she carried herself more like a multibillion dollar business executive than a middle schooler.&nbsp; She nodded coolly to me.&nbsp; Michael was a deer like Halo, maybe fifth or sixth grade - I'm bad at guessing ages - who smiled cheerfully at me.&nbsp; "Hi!" he said in a high-pitched voice, and I groaned to myself.&nbsp; He was only a head shorter than me, and he hadn't even hit his growth spurts yet.&nbsp; Aislyn was already an inch or two taller.&nbsp;

"Hey," I replied.&nbsp;

"He goggled at my casts.&nbsp; "Wow.&nbsp; What'd you do to yourself?"&nbsp;

I shrugged.&nbsp; "I ran into a gang a few weeks ago.&nbsp; It doesn't hurt anymore."&nbsp; Mostly true.&nbsp; It occurred to me to wonder what had happened to the panther I'd attacked, and his companions.&nbsp;

Michael 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.&nbsp; He got over it quickly, anyway.&nbsp; "Come on," he uged, grabbing my paw and pulling me towards the stairs.&nbsp; "I'll show you my room."&nbsp; I had to retrieve my paw so that I could work the crutch, and then I followed his bounding progress back up the stairs.&nbsp; I was definitely looking forward to losing the casts; stairs were a chore.&nbsp;

"Are you really in high school?&nbsp; You're not very tall," Michael asked from the balcony.&nbsp; "I'm in fourth grade, but I know some furs in fifth grade.&nbsp; Are you as old as Jake?"&nbsp;

"No," I said as I got to the last step.&nbsp; "I'm a year behind him.&nbsp; We took mathematics together though."&nbsp;

"Oh.&nbsp; I don't like math; it's boring.&nbsp; But Aislyn's really good at it.&nbsp; She's good at everything."&nbsp; He ran into his room, but I stopped at the door, remembering what Dan had said.&nbsp; I'd probably have done so anyway, though.&nbsp; He glanced behind him and saw me there.&nbsp; "Oh, you can come in.&nbsp; Jake's good at math too, but I don't think he's as good as Aislyn.&nbsp; He's better than me, though.&nbsp; They have to help me, sometimes."&nbsp; He grinned sheepishly.&nbsp; "I like it better when we do English and crafts."&nbsp;

His bed was covered in a dark green, unlike the furniture in the rest of the house, so I assumed he'd picked it.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; If he'd done them, he was very good.&nbsp; When he saw me looking at them, he immediately launched into introductions of the furs, then started telling me about the cars.&nbsp; I sat on the green chair in the corner by the door and let him go for a while.&nbsp; Hey, don't laugh just because I have a soft spot for kids.&nbsp; Besides, I was feeling mellow at the moment.&nbsp;

I left after twenty minutes or so, since he was supposed to be studying.&nbsp; Aislyn's door was shut.&nbsp; Jake's was open, but I obviously didn't look in to see if he was there.&nbsp; I'm not that desparate.&nbsp;

I didn't shut my door, just lay down on the bed, testing it.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; It certainly said good things about Dan and Halo.&nbsp;

After ten minutes I realized I didn't really know what to do with myself.&nbsp; Usually the center had planned activities or made me do homework.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; I supposed I could see what movies and games were here, but I didn't feel like it.&nbsp; After a minute I I stood and set up my government-issue laptop on the desk.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Besides, my firewall would probably block them.&nbsp; Once I had things working I killed the laptop and left.&nbsp;

I poked my head into the kitchen on my way out.&nbsp; Michael had migrated down to the kitchen table with his parents.&nbsp; "I'll be back in a couple hours," I said.&nbsp;

"Thanks, Nick," Halo said, looking up.&nbsp; "Do you need directions anywhere?"&nbsp;

"Um, I'm actually looking for a library," I admitted.&nbsp; Part of me was appalled; I was fully capable of looking, so what was I doing asking for directions?&nbsp; But Halo described the location fairly quickly, and I fled.&nbsp;

Dinner was a decidedly foreign experience.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Everyone had changed into more casual clothes except for Aislyn, Michael, and me.&nbsp; Aislyn had changed, but I wasn't going to call her clinging, severe black dress casual.&nbsp;

Michael brought up the subject with all his usual tact.&nbsp; "Hey, Nick, why haven't you changed?&nbsp; I was doing homework, but you weren't.&nbsp; Don't you have any other clothes?"&nbsp;

I blushed slightly, but I'm pretty sure that my fur hid it.&nbsp; White isn't the best color for that, but such is life.&nbsp; "Um, actually I don't.&nbsp; I have a couple other sets, but mostly I wear the uniforms."&nbsp;

"Well, we can't have that," Halo said firmly, clicking her hoof against the hardwood floor.&nbsp; She thought about it.&nbsp; "I suppose we can take you shopping this weekend.&nbsp; I don't really want to take more time off work to go before that, but..."&nbsp;

"Don't worry about it, Mum," Jake said.&nbsp; "If you leave some money I can take him tomorrow after my chemistry final."&nbsp; He smiled innocently under my glare.&nbsp;

"Thanks, Jake," Halo said gratefully.&nbsp;

I squirmed in embarrassment.&nbsp; "You really don't have to," I mumbled.&nbsp; At this point my face probably glowed.&nbsp;

"Nonsense," Halo said in that firm voice.&nbsp; "You're ours now, at least for a while; we can afford to get you some clothes."&nbsp; She stared at me until I gave in.&nbsp; Dan and Jake both smiled in amusement; even Aislyn's lips twitched.&nbsp; Michael just looked at us in confusion.&nbsp;

After dinner Aislyn vanished again; this must have been usual because no one commented.&nbsp; Jake helped clean up, then he and his parents joined Michael in the living room for a game of scrabble while I watched.&nbsp; Around nine they chased the yawning deer upstairs to bed.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Silently turned Halo's words over in my mind.&nbsp; I wasn't sure I liked being 'theirs'; while better than being 'the state's', I would have preferred to be 'mine'.&nbsp; I shrugged it off; I didn't feel like following a figure of speech.&nbsp; Quietly I slid off the couch and wandered outside for a while, then came back, thanked Dan and Halo again, and went to bed.&nbsp;

The new room made my nightmares worse, and I woke up twice that I remember.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; The furs at the center would bug you if you took too long about it.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp;

Several hours and several miles later, I reflected bitterly that at least I got half a day off.&nbsp; Sighing, I wondered what would happen if I didn't meet Jake like I'd told Halo I would.&nbsp; It would be easy.&nbsp; All I had to do was sit here.&nbsp; It's not like I had to decide to break my word; all I had to do was not keep it.&nbsp;

My face crumpled for a second, because a moment later I stood and pointed my nose for school.&nbsp; Mine, indeed.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

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Thanks for reading!

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/Oe5or4Nn
Part of the series All\'s Fair
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