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"Hey man," says Lily, leaning around Thomas' wallet, "settle an argument for us."

The pizza guy looks wary. "Okay?"

"So, man to man -" Lily holds up Thomas' razor. "Does this guy need a new razor, or what?"

The pizza guy's nose wrinkles as he grins. "Yeah, man, that's nasty."

"Told ya," says Lily, elbowing Thomas gently in the side as he accepts the pizza box.

After Thomas has thanked the guy, listened to a brief and highly enthusiastic recommendation for an online-only razor brand, promised to check out the site, thanked the guy again, wished him a good night and closed the door, Thomas turns to Lily with an exasperated expression and says "What if we," flipping a pointing finger between himself and Lily, "are the ones vividly hallucinating a clean razor? What then?"

"No," says Lily, shaking her head.

"What?"

"No, I said," says Lily, taking the pizza from Thomas and heading towards the couch. "If we start down that road, Tom, we're both gonna go nuts. Magic is real and you're a fox and I'm part of this big magic thing, that's all there is to it. If we start questioning our own eyes, then we're gonna open ourselves up to some really headfucky stuff." She sits down, and opens the box. "I mean, it's already headfucky, but it's gonna be the sad kind of headfucky, not the wonderful kind."

Thomas is quiet for a moment. "Yeah, I get your point. Like, what if I'm in a coma and this is all some kind of weird dream?"

"Then you'd still be hungry for pizza," says Lily. "Sit." Thomas does so.

The pizza is half ham and pineapple, and half ham and every other meat. Lily reaches for the half with fruit in it.

They take a bite, in thoughtful quiet.

After he swallows Thomas looks to his right, towards Lily. "Are you watching me chew?"

"It's the muzzle," says Lily, around her bite, deciding to be frank. "It's weird and bizarre and fascinating."

"I know," says Thomas, quietly, nodding. "So can we talk about the muzzle?"

"Yes please!" says Lily, shuffling closer. "Can I start?"

"Sure," says Thomas, taking a bite.

"I thought for sure you'd be, like, a messy eater, with that thing."

Thomas chews, nods, swallows. "So you're pleasantly surprised that I'm not slopping pizza sauce all over myself and drooling."

"Very pleasantly surprised!" giggles Lily. "You're all... delicate and shit. I hate when people chew with their mouths open."

Thomas' eyes widen. "Oh my god that guy in line today, with the gum. I could hear him from two customers back."

"I saw!" says Lily. "Do people just not teach their kids how to chew, or what? Is this a thing that people have to learn?"

"I figured I would," said Thomas. "I kinda hid in the corner when I went for my lunch today. But as long as I wasn't thinking about it, it was alright."

"Is that a big thing?" Lily takes a bite and shamelessly talks with pizza stuffed into her cheek like a hamster, because frankly they have too much to discuss for decent manners. "Not thinking about it?"

"Yeah," says Thomas. "As long as I'm just going about my day like I'm not a fox, then it doesn't bother me at all. But when I have a minute to notice my body, it's like a part of my brain rebels and goes "Holy fuck, you're a fox and you've no idea how to pilot this thing." Y'know?"

"So I guess it's a good thing that we had the busiest day ever. Kept you from tripping over your tail."

"Exactly. Like, if you become aware of your breathing, your job becomes forgetting how to breathe so that you can get on with your day without thinking about breathing."

Lily feels exasperated. "Manual breathing enabled," she grumbles, "thanks for that. Distract me from it with more muzzle stuff, please."

"Okay, get this," says Thomas, crunching on the crust. "Cross your eyes and look at your nose, right? Now it's poking out into your field of view and you can't not look at it, right?" He extends a finger and holds it three or four inches in front of Lily's face. "My nose is heeeeere."

Lily covers her nose. "Oh my God!"

"And it's there all the time," says Thomas. "And these things -" he takes a whisker between thumb and forefinger - "they kinda twitch sometimes, y'know? So just as I'm starting to forget my muzzle, it's this sudden movement out of the corner of my eye and BAM, nosetown, population: me."

"That sounds awful!" says Lily, genuinely concerned.

Thomas waves a hand dismissively. "I'll probably get used to it," he says. "Probably won't drive me crazy. I mean, my dad's pretty sane. Like, he's scarily sane, sometimes."

"And your dad's a fox," says Lily.

"Yup."

"Did you find out that your dad's a fox this morning, too?"

"So..." Thomas swallows. "Shall I just tell you all about my morning?"

"Yes please," says Lily. "Were you a fox straight away when you woke up?"

"Yeah. So it went something like this." Thomas leans back on the couch and closes his eyes. "I'm in bed, obviously." He stretches his arms above his head, yawns theatrically, arches his back, reaches down with both hands to stretch his shoulders, encounters his tail between his legs. He opens his eyes, looks down at his tail and says "What the fuck?"

Lily giggles. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh."

"Oh, you should." He grabs his tail. "What the fuck?!" He feels his face. "What the fuck?!" He pulls out his phone, opens the camera, aims it at his face - "Gee willikers, I'm some kind of fox creature! I guess I must be dreaming!"

Lily snickers. "Tom," she says quietly, "do you wear anything to bed?"

"Nope," says Thomas.

"So you got the full effect straight away," says Lily.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Tom," says Lily, slyly, blushing, "was your tail really the first thing you noticed?"

"No," says Thomas, the insides of his ears pinkening, "I'm giving you the G-rated version. We'll -" he shakes his head, smiles, "we'll get to that. Anyway, I run into the bathroom, and I look at myself in the mirror, and nobody's hacked my phone camera and I'm a fox."

"Yikes," says Lily.

"Yeah, pretty much," says Thomas. "I was about to call you, but... I dunno why, I guess I thought "Fuck, maybe this is genetic or something," so I called my dad. Video-called him. And I couldn't talk, because I was looking at my own, y'know, the outgoing window, and my tongue kept getting all mixed up, and my dad said "hey look at me," and I did, and -" Thomas waves his arms in the air. "HE WAS A FOX TOO, and that was just a bananas way to start the day."

Lily giggles. "Jesus fuck."

"He gave me the Being A Fox 101, told me only him, my granddad, my mom and my old pediatrician knew about it, told me that someone else could see it too, and -" Thomas closes his eyes briefly - "really overemphasized that it was okay if it was a guy, as did my mom, pretty sure they assume I'm gay..."

"You brought girls home, when you still lived with them?" says Lily.

Thomas shrugs one shoulder, half-smiles, cocks his head to the side, talks quietly. "Well, y'know me, I'm kind of a shy guy, and distracted with school and jobs and friends, never really put myself out there, and I think it's pretty okay for them to keep open-minded like that, 'cause I'm probably bi anyway."

"Yeah, I remember," says Lily, sadly remembering a time last year, when Thomas had pined over a straight guy for a week or so. "Did you talk to your mom? What'd she say about all this?"

Thomas sighs. "She got all emotional - good kind of emotional, I mean - said it was good to finally see me."

Lily stares. "What, your mom couldn't see you were a fox?"

"She said when I was a baby she could see, but then I'd flip back and forth, and then eventually I was human all the time."

Lily shakes her head. "Tom, that makes no sense. She nursed you, right?"

Thomas nods.

"That muzzle!" says Lily, putting her hand down hastily when she realizes she's pointing. "You're telling me she could just ignore that," she gestures towards her breast, "clamped on her?"

"I dunno, Lily, I guess I'll ask her over dinner tomorrow night."

"Ah," says Lily. "Yeah, that'd be awkward." She grins. "Maybe I'll ask her."

Thomas swallows. "Did we skip the dating and go straight to dinner with the in-laws, here?"

"Just planning out my week," says Lily. "Tell me what happened next."

"Well," says Thomas, "my dad said to take a shower and go to work, don't draw attention to myself, don't tuck my tail into my pants, and close my eyes while I'm brushing my teeth, and I ignored that advice and the toothpaste went just everywhere."

Lily giggles. "Well your breath's okay, so don't worry about that."

"I've got a sonic toothbrush, right? You ever tried one of those?"

"No," says Lily, leaning back, fingers in her hair.

"So there's a learning curve. The first time you put one in your mouth and turn it on, the toothpaste just goes -" fingers outstretched, Thomas blows a raspberry while making vigorous plosive gestures with his hands. "So this morning I did that, in a stranger's mouth, which happened to belong to a fox. I just made it up as I went along. Very messy. Much spit."

"So I have a question," says Lily. "Kind of a personal question, about your pointy face, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"Shoot," says Thomas, grinning.

"Have, uh..." Lily wriggles her toes. "Have you ever kissed a girl, with that thing?"

Thomas laughs, ears pinkening. "Eh - okay, so... well, remember the whole shy-busy-distracted thing..."

"You've never been kissed?"

"Once," says Thomas, surprising Lily.

If he'd said "Oh yeah, bunch of times," I wouldn't be surprised. If he'd said never, I wouldn't be surprised either. Weird night.

"Oh, do tell," she says, grabbing another slice.

"It was at a party," says Thomas, rearranging his tail. "At Terry's place. Her name was Jenny, but I didn't even know her - I was sober, she really, really wasn't. She went on about her ex for a little while. She kinda half fell over when she got up to get another drink, I caught her, and she laughed, and I laughed, and she..." Thomas shrugs. "Just, kinda, took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting it at all - I kinda pulled away a bit, and she looked at me funny and told me I was a weird kisser, which makes sense in retrospect."

"Aww," says Lily. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," says Thomas. "I mean, y'know, she wasn't, like, aggressive. I think she just misinterpreted."

"So what'd you do?"

"What, with the rest of the party?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we carried on chatting like nothing had happened, 'cause we were just, like, enjoying each other's company. Had a nice conversation with Jenny, held her hair while she puked, drove her home, went home myself, and went to bed half excited that I had my first kiss and half depressed that it was like that."

"Aww," says Lily again, resting her chin on her palm. "But also nice, right? Some of my best friends are people I was attracted to initially. You scratch off that surface of sexy and there's a whole person under there!"

"Oh yeah, totally," says Thomas. "Never saw her again."

"Damn," says Lily.

"Yeah, kind of a bummer. Probably wouldn't have kissed her again, but we got on really well."

"Tom," says Lily, "D'you think you're shy because you're a fox? Like, maybe that's part of the magic, encouraging you to stay unnoticed?"

"The thought's occurred to me," says Thomas, nodding. "I feel like a lot of things make sense now, that were just kind of inconvenient before."

"Like what?"

"Like constantly being hot, for one," says Thomas. "Like you said earlier."

"And being colorblind, yeah," says Lily, smiling, "I mean, it's obvious now, in hindsight. Things I wanna ask you are coming up as you're answering the last question, makes me think I wanna write out a list."

"What's the most recent?"

"Do you have any cavities? Fillings? Dental work?"

Thomas shakes his head. "I've actually never been to a dentist."

"Seriously?"

"Never. Never broken a bone or had an X-ray, either."

"Can I see your teeth?" asks Lily, shyly.

"Huh? Uh, sure," says Thomas. He does something complicated with his lips closed - probably tongueing off the last of the pizza sauce, thinks Lily - and opens his mouth.

Lily shuffles forward on the couch, and peers inside, her heart beating faster.

Thomas' teeth are shining white and glistening. His gums are patchy - his lips are black, and the insides of his gums are pink, and the border between them looks like it once ran along a river but got wiggled around over a thousand years of dodgy cartography.

Lily studies Thomas' tongue, taking the requisite few seconds to think That's a really long tongue, followed by holy shit wait, no, that REALLY is an EXTREMELY long tongue, like, longer than my hand, noticing that Thomas is curling the very tip back towards the roof of his mouth.

The fur below his bottom fangs - each about as long as the last joint of her index finger - is jet black, fading to the same shade of white as Thomas bears around the rest of his mouth, starting with his strange round black nose. Beneath the nose is a little vertical black line, the white fur flowing from either side. Beneath, a pair of canines descend, long, sharp-looking, curving slightly backwards.

All of his teeth are terrifically pointy. Outside, the storm picks up again, rain hammering the window.

"For someone who's never been to the dentist," says Lily, reaching out a hand and gently, slowly stroking Thomas' left upper canine, feeling its smoothness - "you've got some shiny teeth." She smiles, and looks him in the eye.

Thomas' eyes are deep amber, his pupils vertical slits. As she watches, they widen, looking at her, as his jaw slowly closes.

Lily's fingertips brush through Thomas' whiskers, the fur on his cheek, find themselves at his ear. The rain is louder now, assaulting the building, trying its hardest to find a way to them. Her heart in her mouth, Lily leans in, watching him - his eyes ease closed, his whiskers tickle her cheek, his breath is hot and humid on her upper lip.

Their lips tentatively slip together.

Lily's shoulders tense; her eyes slowly close and she relaxes easily, stroking Thomas' ear. She feels his hand at her waist, then another at her shoulder, drifting gently towards the back of her neck. She exhales through her nose into his fur; she realizes as she does so that she's been holding her breath.

Lily's heart pounds loud in her ears, sounding like fast thunder in the downpour. Her eyes closed, she focuses on her lips; Thomas is gentle, careful, and she suspects that tenderness stems more from Thomas' uncertainties about his own body.

It's a brand-new mouth, to him. He doesn't know how to kiss with it yet.

To be fair, I don't know how to kiss him either.

His fur is soft, and warm, and Lily's other hand is at his other ear. She shuffles closer to him - their positioning on the couch is a little awkward, with both Lily and Thomas having to turn to their sides. Her lips are wet, and he smells furry and masculine and new.

Slowly she eases her head back, to look at him.

He's smiling. His eyes sparkle.

"You're really handsome," she whispers. She can barely hear herself over the rain.

"You're really beautiful," breathes Thomas. "I've wanted to do that for a while."

Lily grins back at him, taking him by the waist. She leans down and to her right, pulling him towards her, until they're both lying on their sides on the couch, Thomas on the outside. "Do it again," she whispers.

She is delighted that he does, and that he puts his hand behind her waist and shoulders and squeezes her. She embraces back, her lips moving against his. She smells new Ikea sofa and fur.

She squeezes him tightly with her left hand, while her right strokes up the back of his neck, feeling the tufts where it peeks out of his collar.

A thunderous BANG rattles the window in its frame, a bright flash of purple-white giving Lily the outline of Thomas' head in red through her closed eyes. She jumps, and he squeezes her tighter, and she sighs happily into his muzzle, deliciously slippery friction against her lips.

Lily opens her eyes - it's pitch black. She pulls back a little, and touches Thomas on his cheek.

"Can you see me?" she whispers to him.

"Yeah," says Thomas. "You're gorgeous." She feels the way his muzzle moves against her palm when he whispers, and she shivers in excitement.

"You're gorgeous too," says Lily, "as far as I remember. I can't see a thing, foxeyes."

"Oh," says Thomas. "I've got some candles in the kitchen, I can light a few?"

"That'd be super-romantic," says Lily, smiling, butterflies playing just below her navel. When she feels Thomas tense as if to move, she squeezes him close, pressing her breasts and tummy against him. "In a minute," she says, and pulls him gently by the back of the head towards her.

"'kay," says Thomas, and squeezes back, their lips touching.

Lily parts her teeth and lets Thomas feel the very tip of her tongue - the inside of his mouth is hot and wet and full of points and within seconds the tip is not enough and she slides her tongue into him, exploring, curious, passionate.

He makes the sound halfway between a moan and a contented sigh, the appropriately appreciative sound for when your mouth is full of someone else's tongue, and she feels its vibration against her.

I love it when guys make sounds like that. Lily expresses this by _mmph_ing back into Thomas' mouth, as she runs her tongue along his fangs. She gives Thomas a lick against his own tongue, which responds with a caress against hers. She feels her grip tightening on his pointy ear, and eases off lest she hurt him. Her other hand drifts down his back, feeling his solid presence, the rise and fall of his chest, his rapid heartbeat.

She lets her tongue retreat. "Can I play with your tail?" she asks, blushing.

She hears an embarrassed chuckle.

"Please?" she teases. "You have the advantage of me," she whispers.

"Howso?" says Thomas, his breath hot on her face.

"You can see how hard I'm blushing," she admits quietly into the darkness, squeezing her thighs together.

"In that case, okay," says Thomas, and she can hear the smile in his voice.

She strokes downwards with her left hand, feeling the base of Thomas' tail, while her right hand plays with his ear. She looks straight ahead into what she thinks must surely be Thomas' eyes.

Thomas moans softly, a deep and masculine and breathy "Huhh," and Lily feels a thrill run up her spine, his breath hot on her wet lips.

She strokes gently down as much of Thomas' tail as she can reach - when she finds that limit, she feels him move, and her forearm is wrapped in a coil of soft, writhing fur.

"Ouph," she breathes, feeling Thomas' whiskers on her lips, his mouth slightly open, his heartbeat fast against hers. "You have a sexy tail, Thomas." She strokes his ear between her fingers.

"Thankyou," breathes Thomas. "It's still moving by itself." His voice is shaky, and his hips are twitching backwards, pushing his tail into her hand.

"Does this feel good, for you?" asks Lily. "What I'm doing here? Your tail seems to like it."

"Ah," says Thomas. "Yes," he whispers. "The rest of me likes it too."

"Good," says Lily, stroking, "'cause I'm kinda making it up as I go along." She sticks her tongue out and licks, sensually, across his lips. "D'you like that?"

"Yes..." says Thomas, shivering against her.

Lily pushes her hips forwards gently. "Is it sensitive? Should I be gentle, or more rough?"

"It's very sensitive..." whispers Thomas, and she gets the feeling his eyes are closed. His muzzle slides past her cheek as he presses himself against her, his hands at her shoulders and lower back, squeezing firmly.

Lily feels his hardness pressing against her inner thigh, and squirms happily. She grins into his ear, and whispers. "Why mister Fox, what's this?" She giggles and pushes her hips forwards, soft into hard - she strokes her fingers from Thomas' tail to his right buttock, and pulls him against her, squeezing gently. He's soft, but she can feel him tensing firm in her grip.

"Uff," says Thomas, his whiskers tickling her ear. "That's, uh..."

"Now I can tell at least one part of you is blushing," she whispers into his ear. "So much for your advantage. Go get some candles so I can look at you." She pats him gently on his bottom, and relaxes so he can stand up.

"Alright," says Thomas, his voice dreamlike and almost panting from somewhere above her. "Just a minute."

"Be quick," she says into the darkness, hearing footsteps padding away from her. She squirms on the couch, feeling the emptiness where he lay a moment ago - she presses her thighs together, and feels satisfying warmth and dampness inside her jeans. Her body aches to be touched, and her mind yearns for a good look at him. She breathes heavily through her nose, lust and curiosity mixed together into an almost overwhelming desire. She hears Thomas opening drawers in the kitchen, and she imagines his motions as she matches them to the sounds she hears, and is shocked - but not especially surprised - to feel herself becoming even more aroused just at the image of him stalking around in the dark, his tail swirling around his knees, his erection straining against his jeans. The way he moves is intoxicating.

I might just end up fucking on the first date, here. Or at the very least getting naked and fooling around with this guy.

Another flash through the window - Lily counts. One one-thousand, two one-thou- bang. Further away, at least.

She stretches languidly on the couch as she hears him approach - there's a clicking sound and a flicker, and Thomas holds a little tealight in the flame of the lighter.

She observes him in the flickering candlelight. It dances warmly on his fur, glints from his eyes, plays wetly along Lily's saliva still clinging to his coal-black lips. She watches his forearms as he takes another candle from the pack, lights it in the flame of the first.

"Give me some," says Lily, rising and holding out her hands. She lights one from Thomas' first, then she moves around his apartment.

Two in the tiny kitchen, set on the counter near to where she touched his tail for the first time.

One in the bathroom, on the sink next to the razor she obsessed over.

She returns to the living room, and places one more next to the two that Thomas had already set down on the coffee table next to the pizza they shared - she gives him a flirty little grin, saying nothing, letting him watch her walk away from him and towards his bedroom.

She opens the door, one lit candle in her left hand, two remaining in her right.

The smell of him.

Thomas' room smells of laundry, and Thomas, and rain. It's louder in here - he sleeps with the window open, thinks Lily, and forgot to close it this morning, because he was so distracted by being a sexy fox. She sets down a candle on his bedside table, lights it - another on his dresser, and one more on the windowsill, closing the window as she does so.

She turns around - Thomas isn't standing in the doorway, he's standing a few feet back from it, watching her, a black pointed-ear silhouette against warm candlelight from the living room.

He doesn't want to put himself between me and the exit, thinks Lily. Is that because he's a considerate man, or because he's a considerate fascinating-and-slightly-scary mythical creature?

She smiles at him, extends the index finger of her right hand, and beckons him in.