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Jake makes makes his way to his room, where he quickly tosses today's clothes into a laundry hamper, and soon he's down to his boxers looking at himself wide eyed in the bathroom mirror. He could hardly believe the events of the past few hours. Had he really disobeyed his parents and gotten high only to be nearly arrested? He could feel the spot on his neck where that alpha cop had scruffed and picked him up. He could see fear and horror on his face, at the memory. Was that all really him?

Despite his emotionally frazzled nerves, that is him staring back in the mirror. Same toned but slightly too thick to be slender rabbit. His eyes are deep brown but the whites of his eyes are pink from the weed. Most of his body is covered in rich hazelnut brown fur but the tips of his ears are white. He's white around the muzzle too, showing pink nose and chops, and he has a minimal white tuft right in the middle of his chest, right between two pink nipples. His tummy is white in the mark of a long teardrop dripping from his navel and he knows that the stretch of fur extends to his thicker pubic fur, down the insides of his thighs, and around under his butt to make a little heart shape right between his cheeks. Kinda embarrassing, but porn videos tell him that that kinda thing is considered attractive. His small brown cotton tail has a white tip at the end. The rest of his body is the same uniform deep brown.

Jake turns on the water to the shower. He feels dirty after today and he's sure he can still smell the scent of weed clinging to his fur. He pulls out of his boxers to reveal his brown cock, pink tip poking from his foreskin, and big brown bunny balls are framed by white. His taint is also brown but the area around his but and inner thighs is also copy-paper white.

He wrinkles his nose. Sweating all day in his underwear has left an obvious shameful scent. Maybe he needs to go on a higher dose of his pheromone suppressants. Hormones are supposed to be kinda all over the place at his age. He shivers a bit, trying not to think about how that cop's pupils had dilated when she sniffed at him. Just now, he realizes that she never gave any of them her name. She seems more and more sketchy the more Jake thinks about her. But she did escort them home. That seems altruistic.

Despite all of the fear and turmoil of the night he feels kinda horny now that he's alone. That tension between him and Kyle has something inside of him buzzing and alive. Christ, maybe the thrill of the night was contributing.

Shaking his head he hops in the shower and lathers his entire body up with scent-blocking 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner. Electric breeze scented, whatever that means. It smells kinda like aftershave.

Soon Jake has dried himself with the towel and is wearing it around his waist while he sits and stares at the posters on his wall, his fur still quite damp. After a couple minutes of staring at the wall he realizes he's still really high and does not want to interact with his parents at all when they get home. The last and youngest kid, he has all the attention now that he wanted when he was little, in the mostly empty nest. Soon he'd be joining his brothers and sisters in college.

He turns off his light and he realizes how sleepy he is. He tries to think of a way not to talk to his parents tonight and his addled mind solves the problem for him. Between the chaos of the night, the safety of his room, and the effects of the weed, Jake conks out at 9:00 pm.

His dad knocks on his door and opens it when he gets home, twenty minutes later, but doesn't wake his son up. He's somewhat concerned about his son sleeping so early but he'd rather have this than him staying up late partying or playing video games. Jake must have had a long week at school, he reasons, closing the bedroom door on the dreaming rabbit.

-

Jake is in the locker room getting ready for a lacrosse game. He's grinning and tying his laces. His teammates are all chatting and hyping each other up. Someone smacks Jake on the back. "We're gonna kick their asses out there ey' Jake?"

"They're not gonna know what hit them." Jake says confidently. But, truth be told, Jake is feeling under the weather. It started this morning, just a bit of nausea and a flushed temperature. Of course he pushed through it. It's the 9th grade lacrosse championship and he can't let his team down. Jake wouldn't miss this for the world.

Now though, he feels an uncomfortable, feverish heat that radiates though his limbs, his torso, his groin. That nausea has become dizziness and he feels tight somewhere deep in his belly.

He's on the field and sweating. They've been playing for a while how, and the scoreboard shows they've fallen behind three points. The bleachers are filled with parents and he know his mom, dad and older sister is in the audience. Jake is having trouble keeping up with his teammates. He never tires this early, but he's having to hold himself up, hands on on his knees, and he's panting hard. That tightness in his belly is turning into a painful cramp.

He almost misses it when a teammate passes him the ball. He tries to catch the ball, but he feels sluggish and weak. The throw was perfect, and he feels frustrated and embarrassed, when he misses it. The ball drops to the field, and he chases after, to scoop it. A wolf on the opposing team barrels past, checking him, and knocking him to the ground. The world spins as he falls. He gets on all fours trying to push himself up to his feet, but to his horror, he can't manage it. His entire body feels so hot. His legs are shaking and when he tries to activate his core muscles a white hot cramp erupts from somewhere deep inside his stomach, in between his navel and pelvis.

"Aghk! Uuung.."

He's hardly aware that his team loses the point and that the whistle blows to regroup. He still can't get up to re-join his team. It's beginning to dawn on him that something is seriously the matter.

"What the heck Jake? You just left us out there!" Someone is yelling and Jake feels footsteps jogging up to him. "OH SHIT! COACH! SOMETHING'S WRONG! GUYS?!"

Jake opens his eyes to find the world spinning and the sunlight bright and painful. What is that feeling? He looks back underneath him and he sees his pants are soaking, around his crotch, heavy and wet with something. Water? Did he piss himself? He reaches out to touch it and his paw comes away with something clear and slimy sticking to it. It forms a long string between his index finger and thumb when he rubs them together and then pulls them apart. What the fuck? He has to put his arm down again to support his weight. Why the hell does he have a boner? When did that happen? He feels so overwhelmed and his emotions are all of a sudden completely out of his control.

Someone's hand is on his back, and it's terrifying and intense. Every point of contact feels sensitive, hot, and prickling. They're asking what's wrong, and if he can hear or talk to them. Jake wants to snap at them to get away. He want's to be alone. Instead he whimpers, as hot tears start to roll from his face and into the grass. He curls himself up into the fetal position.

He smells, more than hears or sees, that his parents are there and they're the only people in the world who could feel safe to him right now. He reaches out for them allowing his dad to hoist him up, and carry him protectively to the car. The scent of omega heat, smoking and wafting from the boy, could potentially attract an unsavory crowd in their wake.

He's in the hospital bed and the doctor is explaining things to Jake's parents more than Jake himself. Something about medication, heats, and safety training. The boy is too out of it to really take anything in, all he knows is that his life as he knew it is over.

All of a sudden he's in school and he's dripping lubricant, from his ass, onto the linoleum. The class is sex ed, and the teacher is talking about male omegas. "While the female alpha can both give birth and get women pregnant, the male omega does not have a womb. This is why they have been regarded as sex slaves In the past. What else are they good for? Evolutionarily they are designed to be used by the community to fulfill unmet sexual needs."

He's nude and the class is pointing at him and shouting insults. Tyler is there, disgusted look on his face. "Fucking omega FREAK! SLUTTY PATHETIC ANIMAL! America fucking broke apart because of you. Most places you don't even have rights!"

The class is gone and that police officer is there and she's telling him to get on his knees, hands behind his head.

She walks up looming over him. "You know what I need you to do you little whore." Theres an animal lust In her eyes.

He cowers as she grabs at him. Her claws are digging into him and she's dragging him up towards her crotch.

-

Jake wakes up, flailing. He's sweating, and chilly daylight is pouring in from the window. He's near hyperventilating from the dream and he sucks in on air, trying to control his breath. In... out... in... out... He comes to, taking in his room and calming from the memory turned nightmare.

He brings an arm over his face, elbow covering his eyes. That fucking dream. That memory. He feels the adrenaline and shame pumping through him still. He feels like he could throw up. He feels fuzzy in his brain from a weed hangover and he just lays there on his bed for a while before taking his phone out to check his texts.

Kyle texted him at 10:00 last night to let Jake know he was back home safe and to see how he was feeling. It looks like he also made a group chat with Nat and Sara, their numbers displayed instead of contact names.

Jake puts his phone back down and groans. He feels foggy, tired, and downright strange. Jake is suddenly awake with a rush of panic and shame at what he'd done last night! Not only did he disobey his parents to go out and get high, he nearly got arrested by an alpha police officer and now he was keeping them in the dark. He has the sudden fear that they will somehow find out. Worse still, he has the worrying instinct that it might be better if he just tells them everything. But Jake doesn't want to get into trouble so resolves to go about his day as if nothing happened at all.

He groans again, remembering that he has homework to get done this weekend. Looking back at his phone, he sees that he's somehow slept until 11:30 despite the fact he's sure he fell asleep as early as 9:00. He picks a pair of comfy black sweat pants and a blue t shirt out from his dresser. He half makes his bed before dry swallowing his omega pills, and sitting back on top of the covers to text Kyle.

The texts from his friend says:

-Kyle-

'Hey everyone is okay I hope'

'Starting a group text with all of us'

'Reply with your name so everyone can make contacts'

'This is Kyle'

'Obviously'

It looks like Nat and Sarah have yet to respond.

'It's Jake', Jake types simply, and hits send. And then: 'I'm okay', 'That was crazy'. He doesn't know what else to say. For now, he settles on going out to the kitchen to have breakfast. Everything else can wait for later.

Despite the fact that he knows his parents have no reason to doubt him, Jake still feels his heart beginning to hammer and his paws getting sweaty as he makes his way down the hall, filled with family photographs, to the house's kitchen. He stops to look at a big portrait, taken of everyone last Christmas. Gathered around the warm rainbow light of the tree, everyone was grinning. It had been a year since all of his siblings were back home, and he was looking forward to that, most of all. Just three more weeks until winter break and then he gets to see his sisters again.

Jake found his dad sitting at the table with a newspaper and cold cup of coffee, when he entered the kitchen.

"Good morning dad, what was up with your work last night?" Jake greets his father, as he fishes a box of lucky charms from the cupboard. He has to stand on his toes, but just barely.

"Needed me to run maintenance on a businesses network. The entire thing needed re-networking and I took the overtime. Now there's no way they can try and steal me away for a last minute Christmas emergency. They'll have to find another sucker." Jake's dad, Todd, was looking up from his paper to smile at his son. Grey all over, Todd was overweight, but he preferred the term 'stocky', plus; he wore the weight well.

Jake was pouring milk over his high-heaping bowl. He was in that awkward teenage phase where he found it difficult and annoying to try and hold a conversation with his parents, as much as he loved and admired them. "Well that's um, nice of you? We'd all be pissed if you missed Christmas"

"You know I'd never dream of it Jakey." Todd gets up to heat his coffee in the microwave. "Or let my boss make me for that matter." he mumbles that last part.

Jake wants to eat his cereal alone upstairs, but he knows that's against house rules, so he puts his milk away into the fridge and sits across from where his father was sitting a moment ago, taking out his phone to scroll reddit as he eats.

There's a news story about protests about omega behavioral correction camps outside of Nashville and Huston. Furs are talking about it, all over the front page. The thought of such a place makes Jake feel sick, so he switches over to a memes sub.

Jake's father sit's down across from him. "Hey kiddo, are you doing alright? I noticed you were asleep when I got in last night and you seem kinda.. down." He scratches at his big neck. "You slept late too. Not going for your run today either?"

Jake fels a surge of indignant and selfish teenage anger. Couldn't his dad mind his business for ONE day? So what if he didn't work out one day? Not like the man in front of him worked out ever. Jake knew he was just being looked after, but it makes him feel angry and helpless, more so, after the frightening events of the night before and seeing those reddit posts.

He takes a calming breath. Jake doesn't like acting out or being mean, and he loves his dad. "I guess I am kinda down." That was honest at least. "We're learning about the secession and it seems like some scary stuff is going on in the world."

Todd's grey face looked back at Jake sympathetically, and he nervously rubs at his arm. "You are, are you? It's very tough time for everyone Jake. And yes there are always scary things in the world." He swallows, eyebrows looking pained. "I know being an omega can be scary son, but you've got a big family and we're all out to protect you. We will never, ever, let anything bad happen to you, whatever it takes. Understand?"

Jake's phone dings, but he's to busy dealing with this damn conversation and the emotions flooding up in him. He wants to be angry at his parents for assuming him to be so helpless, but after his experience with the cop the night before, Jake is genuinely touched and he feels tears poking at the back of his nose. He feels reassured and protected.

"Thanks Dad." Jake want's to hug his dad, but his pride wanted to preserve some sense of individual power and autonomy. He changes to subject to banish those lurking tears. "Is Mom home?"

"Hmm, Yeah. She got home at 7:30 kiddo." That mean't she'd be sleeping all day and they wouldn't see her until dinner. Todd looks at Jake for a long, concerned, moment, "I'm here if you need anything else, Jake. I'm gonna be in the TV room watching Game of Thrones."

"Yeah actually, I'm supposed to interview a family member about their experience with the secession. I'm also supposed to find a news source or document from the same time." Jake starts. "Do you have magazines or news papers like that? I think I wanna interview Mom because you guys always talk about how involved she was in the migration efforts."

Todd scratches the back of his head while Jake brings his cereal bowl to his white and pink muzzle, to drink the sugary milk at the bottom. "Yeah actually I think I do have something like that. Box of old magazines and shit in the garage, been meaning to do something about it for like a decade."

"Great!" Jake says. The brown bunny hops to his feet paws and goes into the kitchen to rinse his bowl. He's was actually feeling excited about this.

His dad presses on his knees to stand up. "Great idea about interviewing your mom. That woman has stories on stories."

On their way to the garage, Jake's phone explodes with dinging. Taking a look confirms that it's the infant group chat. Everyone's going on about last night and either Sarah or Nat, Jake can't tell because he hasn't made contacts for anyone yet, is going off on a tangent about a new season of her favorite show. Jake vows to read and reply to everything before the volume of messages gets too overwhelming, but he turns his phone to mute for the time being.

"I think this is the one!" Jake nervously spots his dad, as the big man stands on his toes to coax a heavy box from a high shelf. Amazingly, Todd gets the box down, without falling over, by putting it on his shoulder and then throwing it to the ground, with a whump.

Jake tries to pick up the box and it's clearly filled, to the brim, with paper. "Oooof thats fucking heavy."

"Language son!" Todd reprimands Jake, but he isn't too bothered. Jake has heard his father drop the F-bomb on a number of occasions.

The pair of rabbits help each other carry the box into the house and set it down on the table. Jake takes a pair of scissors to the decade old, dusty duct tape, to reveal the history inside. Stacks of old magazines filled the box. There didn't look to be any newspapers, but Jake guesses that even the most apolitical sources would at least mention the secession.

"Good luck with all of that. I'm surprised they want you looking at all this stuff from that time." Todd rubs his son's shoulder. "I don't know all that's in there, but um.. well some scary and brutal stuff happened during the secession. Just be prepared, is what I'm telling you, son."

Jake nods as his father leaves to watch the television. He begins to take stock of his sources. He finds over twenty issues of National Geographic at the top. Indeed one of the covers has an arial photograph of a packed highway that Jake guesses must be related to the secession. He puts that one to the side.

Jake is pleased to find a full run of Time magazine from the year 2002 and several issues from 2001. He feels surreal looking at some of the iconic magazine covers in front of him. A close up of George Bush as he looks on with his smug ram's face. Chaos is erupting on rout 70 and a tiger can be seen jumping on the hood of car. The twin towers are frozen in time, as fire and rubble explode from their sides and fall towards the camera. Worried cubs' faces can be seen in the reflection of a close up of a riot helmet. There's an intimate shot of an old cat and she's crying, slumped and alone in an airport. A syringe, labeled 'omega', is pointed at a red furred arm. Texan state troopers are rolling out a barbed wire fence, to erect a checkpoint.

Jake's breath catches and he hisses out when he sees a particular cover, displaying a terrified otter, presumably an omega, as she's being dragged somewhere by texan officials. Yellow text in the lower right hand corner reads: 'Omega rights crisis in southern states! Amnesty period comes to an end!'.

And then there's the really famous one. It's a picture of that fateful secession talk in the Washington DC congress building. Everyone looks tired. George Bush rests his forehead in his palm, fingers scratching at head fur. To the left of him is a straight backed and confident looking border collie. She looks on with a fixed gaze, despite those bags under her eyes and lines on her face. That's Octavia Ringling, the woman who became the president of the Californian Union Republic. To the right of bush, is a greasy looking boar with a twisted sneer, behind his tusks. Teddy White: the man who effectively organized the southern and midwestern states under Texas to secede under the express political goal of stripping away omega rights.

The agreement passed that day, on June 12th, 2002, would split the United States of America into three separate countries. The north east, New England, the original colonies, and Michigan all became The American Colonial Democracy. Bush kept his position of president of The Colonies, as they were colloquially known, until his loss against Romney in 2008.

Teddy White took the midwest and the south for the Confederacy of Texas. He remains it's leader, some would say, corrupt dictator, to the present day. Texas also got Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. It was a hairsbreadth negotiations maneuver that won Octavia Ringling Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, so that Colorado and New Mexico could also join California. Naturally, the entire west coast became part of California.

Jake can hardly believe his luck at his finds. These are great sources and he can share with Kyle. That's a good opportunity to get Kyle over so Jake's parents can get comfortable with him.

Jake rummages around the box to see what's left. Unfortunately nothing nearly as good or relevant as the Time volumes, but several volumes of The New Yorker seem like they could hold promising political cartoons. Theres some magazines particularly for electronics and nurses. Jake laughs at the ridiculous hairstyle displayed on the cover of a July 2001 issue of Bunny Beauty magazine.

Jake snorts with embarrassment, horror, and amusement when he pulls out an issue of Playgirl Alpha. A lewd shot of slender deer in a speedo is on the cover. Why did his parents even have that?! Jake guesses that they'd me mortified and surprised to find out it was in their garage all these years. He also finds a more understandable issue of Playboy Beta. He throws them back into the box, cover down. Enough of that.

Jake takes the good magazines up to his room. All of the images has him feeling an antsy political angst. It's hard not to be outraged, knowing that he'd have no rights if he was born a state over. He was technically alive during the secession; he reminds himself, just too young to remember anything.

He's needs a break and decides to spend his energy by going on that jog his dad was giving him shit about over breakfast. First, Jake wants to catch up with the group chat and show everyone he's actually interested in them. He takes his phone out and is relieved to see there isn't going to be too much to read through.

-(958)243-9213-

'This is Sarah'

'You're underselling it'

'That cop was creepy she didn't even give us her name'

-Kyle-

'For real'

'That was seriously scary'

-(958)123-3213

'Hi this is Sarah'

'Everyone here already had your name in their phone Kyle'

'dumb fuck'

-(958)243-9213-

'Shut up Nat'

-Kyle-

'Oh my god'

'Thats not Sarah thats Nat'

-(958)123-3213-

'Guys stop confusing Jake'

'but yeah that was freaky'

'She stopped following me after Jake's house'

'I mean she stopped following Nat'

-Jake-

'Hey guys sorry I was busy'

'If anyone needs sources for Humanities I found a gold mine'

'Did she actually stop following after my house?'

Jake is disturbed by that last detail regarding the cop. He hopes she just figured she put the teens on the straight and narrow and left them too it. That seems like an unlikely stretch to him, but he can't think of any other reasonable explanation. Jake notices that he has a private text from Kyle asking if he's okay. He replies in the affirmative and asks Kyle the same thing, even if his friend didn't get the brunt of the cop's attentions. He also puts in Sarah and Nat's numbers hoping he gets them right.

All this talk about that cop has Jake wired even more now so he throws on a sweatshirt and grabs his pepper spray. He opens the door to the television room. "Hey Dad, I'm going on a jog before lunch."

Todd pauses the tv. "Back on your routine eh? Sorry if it seemed like I was criticizing you at breakfast; I'm proud of you son. How long?" This is the drill whenever Jake goes on a jog. He tells or texts one of his parents how long he'd be so they'd know if something goes wrong. This way they could take action as soon as possible and have something to give to the police.

"call it an hour." That would give him some room for leniency.

Jake hates the first 5 or so minutes when he runs, but once he falls into the rhythm, he loves the meditative feeling of the wind on his face, his breath, his heart, his feet smacking the sidewalk. It's a glorious state, free of excess thought or worry. Jake always feels better after a good run.

He starts by going around his block twice, and then braving out into some other neighborhoods. Jake knows the area well and eventually he falls onto his usual route. The thunder of his heartbeat and the cold wind in his chest makes Jake's worries and insecurities blow away. It even seems to be doing things for that lingering brain fog. Earlier, he was worried about inviting Kyle over and broaching the topic with his parents, but now he feels confident on the matter. Jake is sure his parent's will be happy he's making friends, plus they've already met the goat from the time they were paired on a group project.

Jake is even starting to play with the idea of coming out as an omega to his friends and class, by the time his run is coming to a close. After his incident on the lacrosse field, Jake was ashamed and scared of his status as an omega. The experience was traumatizing. He is scared of the social stigma and pitying gazes of course, but he knows of a few out and proud omegas at Cholla High. Jake admires them and their political anger and courage. Can Jake be brave like them? The thought makes him dizzy and split a grin with joy and excitement. He had already gone under his parents nose, gotten high, and was nearly arrested. He's on a roll; why stop now?

It's dark at 6:00 ,when Jake's dad calls him down to set the table. Mom's finally up, and she's lounging on the sofa with her reading tablet and a glass of red wine. Her name is Shelly and she is very proud of her career and family. Jake admires his mother.

"Hey Mom," Jake says as he sets plates and silverware, clattering to the table.

"If its not my favorite youngest child, how was your week sweetie?" Shelly doesn't look up from her book but her voice travels, to the kitchen, all the same.

There's a clinking sound as Jake grabs glasses from the kitchen, dancing around his father while he tends to the stove. "Not bad!" Jake calls out. "Can I interview you for a project about the secession?"

This gets shelly to look up. The brown and white spotted rabbit's are eyebrows raised. "Sure Jake." She swigs from her wine glass. "What is it you wanted to hear about exactly?" Jake notices how tired her eyes are, but her voice is attentive and interested, regardless.

"Spaghetti's ready!" Todd interrupts his family's conversation. Shelly and Jake move to sit in their usual spots, both too hungry to care.

"This looks great dear," Shelly says to her husband, leaning in for a kiss.

"It's my specialty. Spaghetti boiled from the box and store bought marinara." Jake laughs at his dad's humor and Shelly rolls her eyes.

"Well it looks delicious regardless. Just what the doctor ordered, and I would know." Jake's mom helps herself to the first serving. "And what's this? Microwaved meatballs? What's the occasion?"

Jake helps himself greedily, and Todd serves himself last. There's a moment of silence as the three dug in. It is delicious. Store-bought rush-job, or not, carbs and tomato sauce paired with salty meat is always seems to hit the spot.

"Anyway what's with this project Jake? I saw that you and your father took out that ancient box of magazines. I didn't even know we had that." Shelly says after swallowing the last little ounce of wine at the bottom of her glass.

"Right! We're learning about the secession. Dad says you were politically active during it.." Jake knows that the Secession is a sore spot with bad memories for lots of adults but his mom and dad have always seemed willing to answer questions. "I'm supposed to ask you about your experiences, what it was like for you, that kind of stuff."

Jake watches as his father rests a paw on shelly's. "Well yes, I volunteered. I drove a van and transported omega's and their families to the west coast states before the amnesty period ended." She looks haunted for a moment, and then shakes her head. "Yes it was quite a frightening period. My efforts received a lot of stink-eye in the south."

"Do you think you can let me record you as you tell me a story? Maybe tomorrow?" Jake asks. The atmosphere in their dining area is more solemn than moments ago.

"I think I'd be up for that. Hopefully I'll wake up at a normal time." She makes a wry face. "Tomorrow is actually the time limit if you need it next week because I'm working nights again next week."

"Jesus! Thats three times in a row!" Todd looks exasperated, and then mutters, "ya think they could find a bat or opossum for that.."

"Yeah, yeah. Well, you know I can handle it." Shelly sighs, shaking her head. "Allot of homeless folk are struggling with the cold so we're getting lots of patients. Got an omega woman this week, armadillo, sweet thing. She was unmedicated and went into heat where she was camping out under a bridge."

Jake tries not to make a horrified face, but it comes anyway. Medication doesn't completely stop heats but it makes their come up slower and the effects more manageable. He cant imagine going through that, unhoused and unmedicated.

"Is she okay?" Jake whispers the question.

"She was having a rough time, and was scared, but last time I saw her things were getting under control and she seemed calm." Shelly looks sad. "She'll be okay, but after she's discharged, who knows what will happen." Jake's mom lives to help others, but she's confined to the same unfair system as everyone else. Theres only so much one woman can do.

Jake picks at his empty plate, making little patterns in the leftover marinara with his fork. He doesn't like hearing stories about bad things that happen to omegas.

Jake's father senses the mood and tries to change the conversation. "Did you find what you were looking for in that box?" Todd is pleased it seems to work.

"Oh yeah! I did, but that reminds me!" Jake feels suddenly hot and nervous. Why is this kind of thing always so hard for him? He wishes he had that confident energy from his run, but proceeds anyway. "I um, well do you think I could have a friend over tomorrow? Partly to study because I found so many good sources, and also maybe to play video games or something.. It's just Kyle."

Jake is somewhat mortified to see the look of surprise on his parents faces. Do they really think he's that much of a loner? "Of course Jakey. I didn't know you were still friends with him." Jakes mother says.

"I remember Kyle. He seemed like a nice boy." Jake's dad agrees.

"Yeah! We're actually pretty good buddies at school. We eat lunch together most days." Jake is happy this is going well. His parents aren't unreasonable, but they are highly protective of their omega son. Jake's little white-tipped tail is wagging a bit and his ears are upright. "Do you think I could have him over, after school sometime?"

Jake's mother and father pause to look at each other for a moment. His mother speaks. "You know that we need to get to know him a bit better first, sweetie..." She trails off, knowing she's about to touch a nerve. "Do you know he's not an alpha? Even if he's just a beta like your father and I, I don't want you to be exploited."

Jake feels frustration roil inside of him. Tears threaten his eyes gain. "Guys, I trust him! I'm not completely helpless you know!" Jake wonders how this conversation would be going if they knew he has a budding crush on his friend. He works his jaw a moment. He hates getting emotional like this. It makes him feel weaker, and well, more omega.

"We know you're not, son. Let's just see how it goes tomorrow... Your mother and I will talk about it." Todd says with a concerned, but sympathetic expression on his muzzle.

Jake knows that this is as good a deal as he's going to get, but his indignant teenage emotions urge him to rebel. "But guys! I'm always so careful and good. I trust him!" If only his parents knew about last night.

Todd is exasperated now. "That's the problem Jake! I don't want you taken off guard or betrayed!" That feels like an unfair catch-22, to Jake. "You know what could happen to you!"

The tears are coming to Jake's eyes now and he hates that knot in his throat. "I just want to feel normal sometimes!" The words choke in his throat. "I promise I can handle this."

"You ARE normal sweetie. It's just that life's sometimes unfair. Your father and I's decision is final Jake. He's free to come over tomorrow while we're here. I promise we'll reconsider. We need some time to get to know him."

Jake finally gives in and nods, a couple tears falling to his plate. "Okay..." Jake is still angry, but he doesn't want to somehow make things worse.

Jake's father grabs his paws. "You are normal son... Please don't ever think otherwise." Jake simply nods in response and clears the table to do the dishes, somewhat embarrassed by his emotions on full display.

Later that night Jake texts Kyle, inviting him over. The rabbit is thrilled to hear that the goat will be coming over at noon. Thankfully that night's sleep is absent from nightmares.

The next day, before Kyle comes over. Jake opens the recording app on his phone and sits in front of his mother on the couch to hear her talk. They share a plate of ginger snaps over herbal tea for the occasion.

"Well, where would you like me to start?" Shelly sits cross legged.

"Hmmmm. I think that's kind of up to you. How about you start with what you were doing during the secession. Tell me about your role as a driver and maybe give me specific details or stories as they come to you."

Shelly watches her son press the red button, to start recording. "Well one thing anyone should know about me is that I live to help people. That's why I became a nurse. The time of secession was terrifying for everyone of course, but, despite having started a family already - you were just a baby - I knew I had to help people who needed to get out of the states, that were going to Texas.

"I had this old red van, a total lemon -too many miles on the damn thing- but it got the job done. Omega's and their families who couldn't get themselves out, used Myspace and Craigslist to find volunteers like me. It was an entire network."

She pauses for a moment to take a sip of her tea. She glanced at her son, and he's eagerly waiting for more. "Anyway, I drove that van to the Texan states, usually just Texas and Oklahoma, but I went as far Luisiana on one occasion. There was a sweet family of alligators in this tailor town. Nobody owned a car, so they needed a way out. Anyway I got them to Denver. Most of my trips ended up back in Denver or Albuquerque.

"You wouldn't believe the looks I got in some of those towns. Usually I went to urban centers, and there were scowls even there. People knew what I was doing and didn't like it one bit. There was only 8 months for omega's to get out, once the secession was in writing. After that, they'd be stripped of their rights.

"I should mention the traffic. You've seen pictures of the backed up highways as people tried to migrate. That van, I started calling her 'ol red, well she didn't have air conditioning, so we were baking in there for days at a time on the road. We were often forced to overfill the van; I wanted to get as many people out as possible, packed her up with water bottles and protein bars for every trip."

Shelly is quiet for a moment. Staring off into space, she takes another sip of her tea and munches on a ginger snap. "I made a total of 23 trips before the amnesty ended, and what I was doing became highly illegal and basically impossible to do." She shakes her head, and to Jake, she all of a sudden seems much older he'd ever thought of her before. "Part of me wishes I could have done more, but if I took it to heart I ever thought that about something, I'd have gone crazy by now. I'm proud of what I was able to do.

"I get emails and calls from some of those families now, don't know how they all ended up. I have crummy camcorder pictures of myself with most of them." This was true and Jake passed a picture of his mother smiling with the family of alligators, from 12 years ago, every day when he walked down the hall.

"Anyway, old red's in a junkyard now. I still sometimes think of those exhausting hot days, trapped in endless traffic." She looks sad, but then perks her ear up to look at her son. "Is there anything else you want to hear about?"

Jake was feeling a turmoil of emotions, as well as a swelling pride for his mother. "I think that's all really good. I never knew all of those details before." He stops the recording. "Wow Mom, thats all really amazing! You're incredible!"

"Oh now, don't go flattering me son. You know how I feel about compliments." But it was obvious she was soaking in the praise from her kid. The two sat in silent for several minutes longer. Shelly watched as her son processed the difficult information while eating ginger snap after ginger snap.

A knock sounds from the door. Jake's heart races and his face splits a grin when he realizes it's probably Kyle. He leaps to his hind paws and his mother is behind him as he goes to greet his friend.

"Kyle!" Jake's heart was all a hammer and buzz when he opened the door. Seeing the black goat standing there, Jake thought he was handsome in his wrinkled jeans and hoodie. How had he never seen it before that night where they were both nearly arrested?

"Hey there, um I didn't know where to park my car. The driveway's okay I hope?" Kyle scratched at the fur around his horns. He'd taken his parent's green minivan and parked it neatly in the driveway.

"You'll be totally fine dear, we'll come harass you boys if we need you to move it." Shelly is warm towards Kyle. "I'm glad you and Jake are still friends."

"Oh great! Well um, thank you? So am I haha..." Kyle clearly doesn't know how to react to that.

Jake rolls his eyes and grabs his friend's arm, pulling him away and towards his room. "We're gonna go to my room to hang out mom. Think we can use the TV later, for video games?"

"I've got no problem with it, but you might have to wrestle the remote out of your father's hands." She looks on, as Jake pulls the goat off to his room. Part of her wants to insist that Jake keep his door open, but she knows how furious and hurt he would if she tried that. He'll be safe while both his parents were home, and besides, that Kyle boy seems nice.

"Jesus, this stuff is surreal." Kyle is looking at the heap of magazines on Jake's desk. "Weird to think we were alive when this was going on, kinda feels like ancient history ya know?"

Jake knows. He pulls aside the magazine with the famous cover of congress ans that disturbing one with an omega being pulled away to some unknown, but surely awful, fate. "Take your pick man," Jake gestures to the remaining magazines. "I promised to bring in some for Nat and Sarah tomorrow, but they can have whatever is left over." Jake laughs a bit nervously, "I actually don't have much planned to study other than showing these to you."

"Does that mean we get to just hang out for the rest of the day?" Kyle grins at Jake.

"That's what I had in mind." Jake's aware of the blood in his face turning, threatening to turn his pink nose red. "We can eat something or play video games if you want, or, well, um. Well we could watch a movie or something on my bed? Well only if you wanted haha.."

Kyle looks away, his muzzle also gaining a reddish tint, despite it's dark color. "Yeah. I would like that. It sounds fun.."

They get up onto Jake's queen sized bed, and Jake opens Netflix, his computer on his lap. They decide on a crime show, but neither of them are too aware of the episodes. They instead feel each other's bodies, where they touch. They feel each others warmth and heartbeats. Jake realizes with a surge of excitement, that they're practically cuddling.

"Can I do something?" Kyle asks, clearly nervous.

"Um. Yeah! Sure." Jake breathes heavy with nerves, wondering what he's up to. Kyle puts his arm around Jake and the two just sit there, enjoying the new sensation of closeness and sexual tension. They feel each other's hearts beat faster, and wilder, than ever now.

Jake is well aware he's popping a boner under his pants and laptop but doesn't really care. He sees that Kyle is sporting an erection himself, sizable, if that bulge in the goat's jeans is anything to go by. Neither of them say anything about the other's arousal.

They sit there, just feeling each other for the rest of the episode. Jake closes his laptop after that, sensing that neither of them were all that invested. They spend another half hour or so just joking and chatting with each other about light hearted topics. Neither of them make a move for anything further, both happy to enjoy the new romantic and sexual feelings that they are sitting in.

They spend the rest of the afternoon in front of the television, playing fighting games. Jake's parents make infrequent friendly appearances and seem to like Kyle. They don't cuddle or anything outside of the privacy of Jake's room, but his parents can guess that there might be something more than friendship growing between the two teenage furs.

Kyle has to leave before dinner time and Jake walks him out to his car, in the cold dusk. They say their awkward flushed goodbyes. Kyle stands next to his car door like he wants to do or say something. Jake gets up close and hugs the goat. Their hearts go wild all over again.

When Jake pulls out of the hug the two stare at each other's faces, knowing what they want to come next. Kyle is the first to close his eyes and start to lean in. Their mouths touch, and it sends fireworks all along the furs' spines. There's no tongue, but Jake hopes that will change next time.

"Theres something I want to tell you." The words are out of Jake's mouth before he even knows he's forming them. He's right up next to the goat still and his body is filled with an entirely different kind of anxiety and adrenalin. The rabbit reminds himself that he wants to be braver and says the nexts words through choked breath. "I'm an omega Kyle. I just, well I never told you but I want you to know me."

Kyle raises his dark brows. "Oh! I didn't know that." He see's how nervous his friend is and realized that Jake is seriously nervous about his reaction to this. "It changes nothing of course. You're still the same guy." He rubs at his horns. "I'm sorry you felt like you had to hide it from me."

"Its not your fault!" Jake scrambles to clarify his complex feelings. "I didn't even mean to hide it really, it's just that, well, I worried it might change things because my life changed when I found out. It's why I don't play lacrosse anymore."

Kyle hugs Jake again. "Well you're still the same Jake to me. If it's worth anything you're like the most athletic guy I know. I think you could kick some alpha's asses."

Jake giggles a bit at that and the two share one more soft kiss before saying their goodbyes. "Thank's Kyle." As Kyle drives off, Jake cant help but grin and skip as he goes back into his house. Dinner with his parents is like usual, and they ask a bit about Kyle. Jake's mood can't even be brought down when his parents deny his request to have Kyle over unsupervised. They still need time to build trust.

It's a rare occasion that Jake goes to bed excited for school the next day, but the prospect of seeing Kyle and his new friends, combined with his interest in the current material, actually has him looking forward to the morning. With all the excitement in his life, new friends, a crush, and Christmas coming, Jake completely forgets about his strange run in with that cop.