{"sf1_id":1667155,"sf2_id":"zeRK7jKm","title":"The Leaves of Fall Act 3: Something That Matters (Part 1)","author":"Oliver_Hart","words":1350,"posted_at":"2020-12-29T19:49:43.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Alternate Reality","Anon","Boy","Brother","Bunny","Classroom","Couple","Emo","Fight","Girl","Green text","Greentext","HMOFA","Halloween","Heterosexual","High School","Hmofa/","Human","Kissing","Plot Development","Rabbit","Siblings","Slow burn","Young Romance","anthro/human"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1667155-the-leaves-of-fall-act-3-something-that-matters-part-1","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/zeRK7jKm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/2d/10/2d1035d9-524e-4815-869f-74c48cf4beb9","description":"You've never really 'fit in' with the heavily divided Ranchview High School crowd. Jock, Goth, Prep, Cheerleader, Nerd... you were never any of these. But as Halloween approaches, strange things start happening, and a dark ritual begins with the finding of a curious red book. It's a race against time for you and your friends to stop a group of students from ushering in an age of darkness, and to also figure out just what the hell is wrong with that rabbit.  \n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  \n  \nAbout this version: originally, The Leaves of Fall was split into two pastebins to compensate for the length of the story. Given that pastebin has chosen to censor this story for ambiguous reasons, it will forever be stored here and on AO3. This new version contains spelling, grammar and content fixes. Please understand that the content is all the same as the earlier versions minus some sentences being changed and fixed up. I cannot stress this enough: no new content has been added. It's my hope that this is a cleaner, easier-to-read version of the story.  \n  \nCover: [https://imgur.com/a/vZS4Q](https://imgur.com/a/vZS4Q)  \nSam (drawn by Akella of /hmofa/) [https://imgur.com/a/nk3t1wT](https://imgur.com/a/nk3t1wT)  \nFan art collection: [https://imgur.com/a/SCCSIQv](https://imgur.com/a/SCCSIQv)  \nAccompanying playlist (WIP): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9aXlzDRA49QKxgYsOV2JuDd410\\_nI-0J](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9aXlzDRA49QKxgYsOV2JuDd410_nI-0J)  \nAlternative link: [https://www.sofurry.com/view/1479078](https://www.sofurry.com/view/1479078)  \nTotal word count: 147,552 words","content":"# Act 3: Something That Matters\n\n* * *\n\n\\\u003eWednesday morning\n\n\\\u003eYour eyes crack open\n\n\\\u003eYou feel Sam against you, his form is as familiar as your own clothing at this point\n\n\\\u003eWOW he feels warm, even through your clothing\n\n\\\u003eLike a little ball of magma clinging to you\n\n\\\u003eWhat time is it?\n\n\\\u003eYou check your phone\n\n\\\u003eIt's only 6:30 a.m.\n\n\\\u003eThat explains the lack of light showering in from the crucifix-shaped window\n\n\\\u003eYou have another hour-and-a-half before school\n\n\\\u003eYou stretch out delicately as Sam shifts, his leg kicking, snared in a dream\n\n\\\u003eDawww\n\n\\\u003eUsually when one of your friends falls asleep on you, you feel mildly uncomfortable\n\n\\\u003eBut this is not like one of these times\n\n\\\u003eIt just feels right to have him next to you\n\n\\\u003eAlex snores away like a bulldozer crushing a field of glass bottles\n\n\\\u003eYou're about to shut your eyes again when you hear someone moving around on the old wooden bench\n\n\\\u003eYou turn your head\n\n\\\u003eJenna is up and moving, smoothing her sweater, running her paws through her unkempt fur\n\n\\\u003eShe must not notice you, because she starts licking at her arm, smoothing it out with her thin, pink tongue\n\n\\\u003eYou wonder what it's like to groom yourself with your tongue\n\n\\\u003eIt's like always having a brush on hand!\n\n\\\u003ePart of you wants to try, but the lucid part of you knows how disgusting that would be\n\n\\\u003eJenna turns to start on her other arm and bends her neck low to reach her thin wrists\n\n\\\u003eWhen your eyes meet\n\n\\\u003e…\n\n\\\u003eYou swear, you can almost hear the little voice inside Jenna screaming with shame\n\n\\\u003eThe vixen glows beet red\u0026nbsp;\n\n\\\u003eShe tries to play off her grooming as her smoothing out the fur on her arm, briskly running her paws across her fur, back and forth\n\n\\\u003eRuffling and un-ruffling\n\n\\\u003e\"Morning…\" she whispers, still glowing red\n\n“Were you just-\"\n\n\\\u003e\"NO!\" Her voice rings out in a thin staccato, fueled by embarrassment\n\n\\\u003eShe catches herself quickly and claps a palm over her muzzle\n\n\\\u003eSam shifts his body and mumbles something you can't hear\n\n\\\u003eWhatever\n\n\\\u003eNot a big deal. You've been caught picking your nose plenty of times\n\n\\\u003eJenna points to the exit doors of the church\n\n\\\u003eImmediately you know what she wants\n\n\\\u003eUntangling yourself from Sam is more of a challenge than you expected\n\n\\\u003eYou worm your way away from him, trying to get him to lean against the back of the pew instead of on you\n\n\\\u003eGravity has other plans\n\n\\\u003eThe bunny slides downward, his head landing directly into the crook of your lap\n\n\\\u003e…Right on your-\n\n\\\u003eYeah\n\n\\\u003eYou flush red and stifle a frustrated groan that swells in your throat\n\n\\\u003eFucking hell\n\n\\\u003eNow what do you do?\n\n\\\u003eYou look to Jenna, desperate for help\n\n\\\u003eBut the vixen is fucking useless\n\n\\\u003eShe's bent over, fighting the giggles\n\n\\\u003eYou can hear each one of her fits pop inside her mouth like little balloons\n\n\\\u003eFoxes and their gekkering\n\n\\\u003eYou blush even harder as your eyebrows slope downward into a viscous scowl\n\n\\\u003eWhich makes you just look constipated\n\n\\\u003eAnd makes Jenna laugh even harder\n\n\\\u003eWhen you get out of this you swear you're going to tell everyone she still licks herself to groom\n\n\\\u003eDon't most mammals grow out of that?\n\n\\\u003eWhatever\n\n\\\u003eYou still gotta get Sam off\n\n\\\u003e…\n\n\\\u003eOF YOU\n\n\\\u003eNot 'off'\n\n\\\u003eFuck\n\n\\\u003eYou slowly, very slowly, slide his head over your thigh\n\n\\\u003eYou plunge your hands into the tangles of his hair and fur, holding him in place so when you slip out from under him, his skull doesn't smack the hardwood of the pews\n\n\\\u003eHe feels INSANELY hot to the touch\n\n\\\u003eHis body radiates warmth like a tiny little engine\n\n\\\u003eIf Sam were an engine, he'd be a dirt bike or something\n\n\\\u003eYou bite your lower lip\n\n\\\u003eShit\n\n\\\u003eWhat if he's getting sick?\n\n\\\u003eWith all of this going on, the last thing you need is a sick bunny\n\n\\\u003eBefore school you'll go to the store and get him some medicine\n\n\\\u003eBut he NEEDS to be in class\n\n\\\u003eYou're not going to ruin his life and get him expelled for absences\n\n\\\u003eYou've already ruined his life in one way\n\n\\\u003eIf he makes it out of this alive, you'd rather not have it ruined academically\n\n\\\u003eHere goes nothing\n\n\\\u003eYou gently lift his head\n\n\\\u003eSlide out underneath him\n\n\\\u003eAnd then lay him gingerly back down on the pew\n\n\\\u003eAs if he were made of delicate glass\n\n\\\u003eThat dumb little bun just curls in on himself and doesn't seem to even notice you're gone\n\n\\\u003eWhen you stand up, you have to brush off the stray strands of Sam's fur\n\n\\\u003eUselessly doubled over on herself, Jenna is now gasping in the quiet air as she chokes back laughter\n\n\\\u003eYou swallow the knot of shame that's lodged in your throat\n\n\\\u003eKeep it together, Anonymous\n\n\\\u003eBurn that image of her licking herself into your retinas\n\n\\\u003eJenna is still laughing as you two slip out the back doors, but once you're outside in the brisk air, she stops\n\n\\\u003eShe gives you a very inquisitive look, one of her eyebrows raised in confusion\n\n\\\u003eShe inhales deeply through her nose\n\n\\\u003e\"Hold still,\" she commands, before-\n\n\\\u003eWhat the hell?\n\n\\\u003e-Putting her nose on your side and sniffing\n\n\\\u003eYou flush red grab her by the ears and pull her away like she was a clingy toddler\n\n“What the hell are you doing?\" You demand\n\n\\\u003eJenna takes one last whiff before pushing your hands off her sensitive ears\n\n\\\u003e\"You smell like a female in heat.\"\n\n\\\u003eWat\n\n\\\u003e\"I smelled it last night,\" she continues, oblivious to how uncomfortable and confused you are right now.\n\n\\\u003eMust be instinct\n\n\\\u003e“But I can't figure out why… I'm not even close in my cycle, and even if I were, I take estrus blockers.\"\n\n“C-Could be anything!\" You assure her\n\n\\\u003eBut you're really only assuring yourself\n\n\\\u003eYou have absolutely 0 idea why you'd smell like a female in heat, but the idea that you reek of something like that frightens you\n\n\\\u003eWho knows how you've smelled this entire time? All throughout high school even?\n\n\\\u003eLike a sex-drunk bitch, walking down the halls, dragging a trail of pheromones off of you?\u0026nbsp;\n\n\\\u003eChrist\n\n“How do you know it's a… female's scent?\" You say, holding onto a modicum of hope\n\n\\\u003eJenna shakes her head\n\n\\\u003e\"Oh, no, I'm sure of it. A female in heat will be pretty noticeable. It smells a little bit like sweat or onions, only more…\" she looks to the sky, as if the words were written in the fading darkness “… more sensual, seductive? Like a perfume you really like.\"\n\n\\\u003eOh\n\n\\\u003eYou can't say you've smelled anything in the church other than the lingering wisps of incense — charred and aromatic, burning your nose, but in a pleasent sort of way\u0026nbsp;\n\n\\\u003e\"I must just be losing it. After all, I'm fighting vampires and werewolves with you guys, right?\" Jenna shrugs her shoulders. “And unless you're secretly a girl, then I'm just imagining things.\"\n\n\\\u003eYou manage to smile a bit\n\n\\\u003eWho would pretend to be the opposite sex? Like LMAO what would you gain from it?\n\n\\\u003eOnly an awkward weirdo would do that\n\n“I promise you, I'm not a female in heat,\" you assure\n\n\\\u003ethe vixen nods\n\n\\\u003e\"Yeah I thought so. Shame though. I think you'd look cute as a girl. Anyway, plans? What are we doing?\"\n\n\\\u003eAh yes, plans\n\n\\\u003eYou've been /so/ good at making and implementing those\n\n\\\u003eShit, you were just planning to run to the store really fast and get everyone some breakfast\n\n\\\u003eAnd Sam some medicine\n\n\\\u003eYou tell Jenna, who volunteers to stay behind and wake up Alex\n\n\\\u003e\"I just wouldn't go to The Shop N' Save down the hill with Mike. I'll explain later,\" Jenna assures you\n\n\\\u003eSure, whatever\n\n\\\u003eYou're long past the point of needing explanations for things\n\n\\\u003eThough Mike is still asleep in your car\n\n\\\u003eYou wonder if he'd be up for a ride this early?\n\n\\\u003eAfterall, it's still dark\n\n\\\u003eAnd cold\n\n\\\u003eAnd Sam has your jacket still\n\n\\\u003eYou wrap your arms around your shivering body and stride towards your car, your chattering breath disappearing in wisps of steam","series":{"name":"The Leaves of Fall","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1666412-the-leaves-of-fall-act-2-fear-the-nobodies-part-27.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1668582-the-leaves-of-fall-act-3-something-that-matters-part-2.json"}}