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I hope you all enjoy reading this. By all means, please comment and critique; I love feedback. Nick is bisexual, and the story has some homosexual content. Don't read if that bothers you etc. Thanks!

• Xi

All's Fair - Part 14

"Ugh. I can't believe school got here so soon." Jake's head nodded blearily over his oatmeal, completely ignoring the first signs of a wonderful sunrise outside.

"I warned you," I replied, stealing some more grapes off the plate in the middle of the kitchen table and leaning against the wall so I could laugh at him and watch the slow shift from indigo-green to red-gold at the same time. I was significantly more awake, having slept less well than was usual for me lately and gotten up a couple hours before.

I watched the wolf eat, my gaze straying over his features. I'd forgotten the way he looked in the school uniform. My face slipped for just an instant, riveted on those half-shut eyes. He was so tired. I'd known he was too noble for his own good - or anyone else's. It was stupid, and he deserved what he got for it. Just because he was too much of an idiot to know when to quit. I mean, you can't give everything you have to your girlfriend, then when she leaves give everything you have to someone else. He didn't have that much to give, and he was tearing apart from trying. He didn't even find rest in sleep anymore; I heard him whimpering at night, felt him writhe away from his demons. He wouldn't answer when I asked what he dreamed of.

My lips twisted bitterly. My nightmares were so much less frequent now.

I'd remained silent too long. "Mutt? You okay?"

I smiled easily, let the lies slip carelessly over my tongue. "Says the dog who's nodding off over breakfast. I'm fine; in fact, I'm simply overflowing with excitement to meet the challenges of the new semester. Aren't you?"

"Ugh. It's way too early to be so cheerful."

"And to think you're supposed to be the morning fur around here." I laughed.

"Who is?" Michael asked from the entry, yawning and still trying to get one arm into his shirt. His fur was all mussed and rumpled, and just slightly damp from the shower he'd obviously not brushed himself after. Tottering over, the young deer yawned widely, looked at Jake's oatmeal, then stared piteously at us until I laughed and got up to get him a bowl and fill it from the pan by the range. Ten minutes later he was his usual bouncy self, tanked up on brown sugar and blackberries. He'd had some oatmeal with them, too. He ran upstairs for his backpack, came back with it wide open and trailing pencils to tug on Jake's paw. "Come on," he urged with a grin, "the bus is coming soon!" Jake groaned, then levered himself out of the chair and followed his brother back upstairs, picking up said pencils on the way. He had a couple spoonfuls left in his bowl. I bit my lip, then looked around - and added another scoop from the pan, plus sugar and milk. He was too big to subsist off just one bowl. I'd make him finish before he left.

I jumped from the bar between the kitchen and living room to the balcony, then climbed up and walked into my room. The covers were still tousled - we'd slept there last night. I straightened them a little, then fished out my backpack and checked through it. Paper, pens, pencils, calculator. Quite light - they'd load me down with textbooks later, but so be it.

My eyes fell on the envelope on the shelf. Dan and Halo had, with profuse apologies, been forced to work early today, even though they would normally have driven everyone to school on the first day. So they'd spoken with me last night, and left the letter as a reminder. I was supposed to head back to the center after school for a checkup. I supposed I'd been lucky to make it through the break without having to; I assumed Dan and Halo had been keeping my handlers up to date. It also let me know that my schedule had not changed for the new semester, except that I'd switched out phys ed and art for computer science and economics. I hadn't realized that the core classes would last the whole year; I'd assumed that I'd have a whole new set for the next semester.

A few minutes later we were waiting outside for Michael's bus; when it arrived we said goodbye and went inside again during the interim between his and Aislyn's.

"So is Aislyn even up yet?" I asked once we'd shut the door on the sparkling, frosty morning.

"Aislyn has been up for quite some time, thank you," her voice answered from the top of the stairs, making me jump. "She simply chose to spend the time productively instead of downstairs." She'd grown, if possible, even colder as the break waned; I had no idea why. Normally, I'd have guessed that she didn't want me fraternizing with her brother, except she'd quite literally pushed me into his arms.

"Well, her productivity lost her the chance to bid her little brother good luck on his first day back," Jake said with the barest hint of a snap behind his voice. I blinked. Maybe Aislyn was mad at him, not me? But she had even less reason for that than for the former. I had to be missing something.

In any case, she came down the stairs brushed, dressed, carrying her book bag, and in all other ways ready to leave. She glided to the kitchen for a glass of juice and gave a tiny, derisive snort. "There's a half-eaten bowl of oatmeal on the table."

"Crap," Jake muttered, and went to get it while I acquired a sudden interest in the ceiling. He came back a moment later, holding the bowl in one paw and a spoon in the other. "I thought I ate more than this."

I laughed derisively. "I'm surprised you could even work the spoon, considering how asleep you were." It seemed to work; he didn't say anything else while he finished it. Towards the end of the bowl Aislyn left to catch her bus with no more than a careless wave in our direction.

Jake watched the door shut with no expression, then sighed. "Ours comes in about ten minutes."

I scoffed. "I've heard too many horror stories about those things. I'll just walk." My face brightened into a mischievous grin. "Better yet, I'll skate!" I ran up the stairs, only half listening - if that - to his protests. Once I'd gotten my new board, I ran back down. "Aw, come on, bet you I'll beat the bus anyway."

"Only if you don't fall and break your nose, mutt!"

"Well, it's not like I'd miss much - it's the first day. Besides, I bet the furs over at the hospital are missing me."

The wolf groaned, then trudged up to get his as well. "Ugh. It's way too early to be so energetic."

"It's not like you have to baby sit me," I snapped, flashing angry before I had time to think it through. Jake looked up with just a hint of surprise and hurt in his eyes, which just served to make it worse. Fuming, I stepped into the sharp, cold morning and started rolling, not going too fast but not bothering to wait for him to lock up either. Spoilsport.

Still, the brisk, clean wind against my fur felt nice.

I collected my schedule at the front desk. Sure enough, it was virtually identical, and I smiled at the imminent prospect of seeing the Royal Marine again, and probably Claire as well. First, though, I needed to get to my locker to stow my board - and make sure the combination I'd been given would work. Which it did, after a moment or two of twisting, jerking, and pleading. So about like usual. I still made it to the classroom in plenty of time.

In fact, I might have waited a bit longer, I thought grumpily a few minutes after that, resting my muzzle on the desk while I waited for everyone to trickle in. Jeez, the room was nearly as cold as it was outside, and not half as interesting. And things went downhill from there. Claire didn't show up, and when I tried to text her and ask if she was sick or something I lost my phone for the rest of the day. So I spent the next hour sulking while the Royal Marine handed out syllabi, outlined the course, and explained the rules - laying emphasis on the prohibition against electronics. Eventually I thawed enough to offer him a sheepish smile on the way out.

Jake caught me long enough in the break halfway through physical science - now biology - for a brusque "I have A-lunch this term; don't get yourself killed," which would, I hope, have made me do a happy dance except that he'd been pressed against Amy when I passed them in the hall. The leopard had favored me with a look that said it might be a good idea to walk off the nearest cliff - for my sake. It made me wonder how much she knew, or guessed.

Anyway.

Sheer habit made me sit next to Ivan at lunch; a second later, we both tensed up. I surreptitiously added an inch of space between us; he equally surreptitiously added another one. Then I burst out laughing, picked up my lunch, and moved to the other side of the table.

Which laughter rather abruptly died once I got a good look at his face. "Shit, you look like hell." His normally clear golden eyes were clouded and had circles under them, like he hadn't slept in a while. Bloody hell, as soon as my sleep gets better everyone else's goes straight down the tubes.

"Tell me about it. I pulled an all-nighter at work to get the overtime." I groaned commiseratingly, but Ivan actually seemed cheerful enough, considering. We talked for a little until the table really started to fill; then I mostly shut up. But even then things went okay - for a moment or two.

"All right, little bitch, you just overstayed my patience," a rough voice growled while an equally rough paw grabbed the scruff of my neck. After a second's thought, I placed them: a bull who also usually hung out here at lunch and who, apparently, had decided that one semester of my company was sufficient.

I mock-sighed. "It's 'overstayed your welcome,' beautiful," I informed him. Why did all of Ivan's friends have to spend so much time in the gym making themselves look irresistible? "That, or 'over_extended_ my patience.' Patience isn't something you can overstay."

The bull took poorly to compliments on his appearance, apparently. Snorting angrily, he plucked me off the bench and dropped me onto the sticky tile. I really didn't want to know what had made it sticky, or how long ago. "Fuck off, 'less you want a new face."

"Nate, leave him be," Ivan said from the other side of the table. My jaw dropped. Ivan? He was kidding, right?

The bull's gape clearly showed he shared my surprise. "You're kidding, right? You want this little prick around?" He started to leer. "I never figured you for a queer, Ivan."

Ivan slid fluidly to his feet and somehow swung himself over the table in the same motion. I'd have loved to know how to do that. He landed less than a foot from the bull, looking down an inch or two into the bull's small, dark eyes. The bull was maybe slightly bulkier, but he couldn't manage to look half as dangerous as the lion confronting him. "You want to say that again?" Ivan asked quietly. Despite the situation I found myself wondering what would happen if he leaned forward just a little and -

Their friends were trying to calm them down, while others started to make a circle around them in case it didn't work. But they were to be disappointed; after a tense silence both parties took a grudging step back, and Ivan wheeled and pushed through them to walk away. I pondered for all of a second and a half before grabbing his plate and following.

He made it clear to the hall outside before I could push my way past the crowd and catch up to him. "Ivan! Hey!"

He slowed only slightly. "You are so much more trouble than you're - worth?" He said, growling at first but losing it when I handed him his lunch. "The hell?"

"You left your food behind," I explained helpfully. "Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks."

Apparently that was a little unusual; he continued to look bemused. "So you take my lunch, but not yours?"

I chuckled. "It's all but impossible to get two plates out through that without dropping at least one. Anyway, you probably outweigh me by a good sixty pounds; I can afford a missed meal better." Which was a much better explanation than saying that I was kind of amazed that he'd done that for me, and that this was the very least I could do. Thankfully, Ivan chose to leave it at that, and we wandered slowly through the halls, talking. Jeez, if I'd known all it took to get him alone was to quit chasing I'd have given up ages ago.

After a little while I came back to it, in a slightly roundabout way. "So, um, I'm really sorry you got into an argument with your friends."

The lion kept walking in silence, long enough that I was about to try a different subject when he spoke. "I'm thinking maybe I need to stop hanging out with them so much."

I blinked. Whoa. "Umm... kay?"

He chuckled, a little sadly. "I mean, I'm not getting anywhere like this, you know? I'm decent at sports and stuff, but I'm not that good, and my grades won't get me into college unless I get working on them. And I sure as hell ain't gonna keep living like I am now if I can help it."

I was a little overwhelmed. Pleased, and grateful that he'd talk to me, but damn it all, when did I become confessor-in-chief? I was due for an evaluation at a juvenile correction center in a few hours, for God's sake. "I... guess that makes sense. I mean, if that's what you want to do."

He looked sideways at me, a little amused. "Now you sound like you want me to stay with them. Did you like getting beat up or something?"

"No, it's not that!" I protested. "I'm just -" I trailed off, making Ivan laugh at my discomfort. Clearly he knew full well how awkward my position was. I laughed. "You're a jerk, you know that?"

"Yep."

"But I'm happy for you." Looking around for something to distract from the sappiness of that last, I saw a familiar figure wandering through another hall that made a T with this one.

"Hey, isn't that Claire?"

"Who?" Ivan asked.

"Claire - this girl I know from Composition. But she wasn't there today. Come on," I said, starting down the hall after her. Not really having anything better to do, Ivan followed me.

Sure enough, I saw her at the end of the hall once we'd made it to the intersection. "Hey, Claire!" I called, and she stopped and turned around, then walked slowly back while we came to meet her.

"Hey, Nick," she said with a small smile. "Hello, um...?"

"Ivan," the lion supplied. "What's up?"

"Not too much. You?"

He shrugged, and I butted in. "You weren't in Composition today; did you transfer?" Suddenly my stomach plunged. "Oh, lord, you didn't try to call me, did you? 'Cause I was grounded all last week and -"

"No, nothing like that!" she said, laughing slightly. "I just - felt a little sick this morning, and I got here a little bit ago but I don't want to walk into class an hour late so I'm just killing time."

Before I could say anything, Ivan reached out and indicated her left jaw, a little under her eye. He didn't touch her, but she flinched a little anyway. "By the way, you're bruising a little here, under your fur." Looking closer, I could see he was right, though it was barely visible under the brown on her muzzle.

The bear-fox touched her muzzle and winced. "Oh. I tripped this morning on the stairs."

With all his usual tact, Ivan snorted. "The stairs have good aim," he said. I bit my tongue, hard, to keep from telling him to leave off and to keep myself from reaching out and hugging her. Then I realized that I'd said about the same thing, once, on a snowy rooftop, and that I had hugged her then.

So I decided to screw appearances and hugged her anyway.

She returned it, which helped, but I was still blushing a little when we broke it. Why on earth should it feel weird to do that in a hallway, but not in a park or on a building?

"So," I said, casting around for something to break the awkwardness. "D'you want to see a movie or something after school?" Then I winced. "Erm, make that tomorrow - I have somewhere to be today."

"Can't," Ivan said with a grimace. "I've got work all this week."

Claire looked uncertain. "Umm, maybe? I need to see how much homework I'll have."

"Fair enough," I replied with a grin. "Now that you mention it, maybe I'll wind up revising the request to a study session." We all shared a fairly eloquent look: urgh. School's back.

The correction center looked as charming as ever. I gave it a scowl as I approached, carrying my board and favoring an impending bruise on my shoulder from when I'd tried to make a turn I shouldn't have. Once inside, a lizard gave me a once over and asked for my name. When I gave it, I was transferred to two of my handlers, who both had on matching looks that combined the textbook-approved levels of welcome and somberness.

"It's good to see you again, Nick," the one on the left, a coyote, said, rising and holding out her paw to shake. My eyebrow twitched before I brought it back. Uh-huh. Still, I shook her paw while she went on. "But you were supposed to ride back on the bus - we were worried about you."

My eyebrow twitched harder. "Oh. I'm sorry. Has it been back long?"

The other handler, a hare, fidgeted a bit before standing and shaking my paw as well. "Actually, we held it back to wait for you." He twisted one ear partly back and gave me a meaningful look, but I deflected it with an innocent one.

"So I got here before it did?"

He sighed. "Yes, but only because it waited for you. I'm sure the delay upset some of your busmates, and..." I tuned him out for the next minute or so, watching his lips intently so I wouldn't miss when he stopped.

"Well, anyway, I'm here now," I said with as bright a smile as I could manage. "What sorts of things do you want to know before I head back?"

The hare gave me a disgruntled look, but the coyote took over before he could comment. "We really just want to make sure you're happy, Nick. Are you being treated well?"

"I'm being treated wonderfully."

"Are you sure? You know you can talk to us about anything that's bothering you." I had to bite back a laugh.

"Quite sure, thank you."

"What about their three children? Have you made friends with them?"

"Of course. Excellent friends."

"We worried that perhaps you would be unhappy, after your reaction when the Alteras first arrived to pick you up?"

"Oh, that? That was a simple misunderstanding. I'm really very happy with the family. They've been very nice to me." Amazing how giving all the right answers could infuriate them so much. It was all I could do to limit myself to a happy smile instead of collapsing into sadistic, angry, hysterical mirth.

Now it was the coyote's turn to get miffed, and the hare's to step in. "That's great, Nick. Now, how was your day? Do you think you'll be okay with school without help?"

My grin widened a bit - just a bit, to my pride. "I had a wonderful day at school, thank you very much for asking. Of course, it's still very early, but I feel that this is the beginning of a great term for me. And, after all, all the Alteras have been so helpful to me, I'm sure they'll be able to help if I run into any snags with the coursework."

I guess that was finally too much to be borne. "Nick, we're trying to be serious. We want to find out if there's anything wrong, so we can work together to solve it. We want this to be as good for you as possible, so that you can get the most from this experience." Bullshit. On all counts. I guess my tolerance dropped over the break. But I kept it from affecting my voice.

"I'm being serious. Really I am. I'm very happy with the Alteras. I look forward to spending the semester with them and learning what it's like."

He gave up. "All right. Well, why don't you tell us about your break?"

"Well, while we were driving over Mr. and Mrs. Altera introduced themselves as Dan and Halo, respectively, because I asked to call them by name instead of using familial terms. We arrived at a large, two-story house and Dan let me out by a concrete walkway to the front door, which was painted black and set behind a porch. Inside, Halo showed me into the living room from the parlor, and directed my attention to the kitchen, on the left, and told me that my new bedroom was upstairs - the stairs were on the right - all the way around the balcony that overlooked three sides of the living room. I took my bag into my new bedroom and set it on the dark red bedcovers while I unpacked my five spare school uniforms, my laptop, my alarm clock, the notebook and writing utensils I keep, and put them into their places. On returning downstairs, Dan and Halo said -" I paused, and put on a sheepish expression. "I'm sorry, I don't remember exactly what they said. Is that important?"

Frankly, I had to admire their self control for not hitting me. "No, Nick. Please don't be so disrespectful. We're doing you a great favor by letting you stay with this family, and they have been very good to allow it. Please just give us a general outline."

"Oh. My apologies; I meant no disrespect. The break was quite good; I got my casts off, got some new clothes for casual wear, and some great Christmas gifts, like this." I patted my board. "I spent time with friends from school and with the Alteras, and I enjoyed myself a lot."

"Nick, you know that Mr. and Mrs. Altera have been in regular contact with us? Perhaps you'd like to tell us a little more?"

No shit, Sherlock. "Have they? What sort of things would you like to know?"

"They said you were very depressed for a week or so after your casts were removed, and that you ran away on Christmas."

"Oh, that. I just had a few off days; I'm very sorry for what I did, and for worrying you and the Alteras. I've apologized to them, and done my best to make amends since." I threw in a comically penitent expression to top it off.

The coyote took over. "We thought you understood that this opportunity meant that you'd need to cooperate to help us make it work, Nick."

I gave her my puppy dog eyes. "But I'm trying my hardest to cooperate. I've answered all your questions, and I really am doing my best to fit in with the Alteras. What more can I do?"

It turns out that their being steeped in bullshit worked to my advantage; neither of them called me out for that. After another half hour or so of cat-and-mouse they let me out. It was not, needless to say, terribly conducive to a good mood afterwards. I kept my jaws clenched tight the whole way back to Jake's house to protect passers by, then marched to my room and locked the door. I didn't even care that I was probably in a whole pile of trouble with Dan and Halo now; they could damn well deal with it.

So I guess it was a good thing I wasn't going to see a movie tonight.

***

I'm not sure I'm totally satisfied with it, but it'll do for the moment, anyway. By the way, what sound does an angry bull make? I had him growling, but I'm not sure if they do, so I switched it to a scowl. Regardless, let me know what you think so far, any issues you had, and thanks again for taking time on my stories.