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Heya, furballs! Welcome to Fae's Christmas Music-Themed Special 2013! Five stories are here to tease you through the Christmas period. You've had four stories already, and today marks a return to the story arc of Taylor and Lucas, previously seen in Luka and Insensitive. Fear not, though! Fae's Christmas Music-Themed Special will return, if the gods are kind and just, next year!

Don't forget to keep an eye on my Twitter (@FaoraMeridian) if you want to know what's going up ahead of time, or if you want to be alerted to other stories or otherwise just hear me ramble on about random things!

For now though, do enjoy Turn Back Time; the final story of Fae's Christmas Music-Themed Special 2013! Merry Christmas, and may your year to come be filled with happiness!

• Ol' Saint Fae

Turn Back Time

"Mister Carter? Your three o'clock appointment has arrived."

A sliver of anger rose up along Carter's spine. The horse turned to the intercom on his desk as he took a slow, deep breath to try and calm himself. It didn't work quite as well as he'd hope. "Escort our guest down to me, if you please," he replied. While he hoped the words came out cleanly, he couldn't help but not the way he bit out the last three words. He was angrier than he thought.

Carter took another long breath and forced himself to hold it. He couldn't afford to be angry. He couldn't afford to make any stupid mistakes. He knew who he was dealing with, better than he had before. If it had just been about how this asshole had broken Sammy's arm, that would have been enough to earn his attention. But knowing what he'd done to the best little employee Carter had ever known? Well, that was something else.

It took all of Carter's self-control not to pace back and forth while he waited for his 'guest' to arrive. He'd planned out everything that he was going to say. He had laid out every little detail of this meeting in his mind since Sam had come into his office a week and a half ago. That didn't mean he was ready for what was about to walk into his personal office.

And when the door opened, it was all Carter could do to keep the anger that flared through him from showing on his face. The equine that stepped into the office towered so tall that he had to duck to keep his head from hitting the doorframe. His shoulders were so broad it was a miracle he'd fit through the door at all. The smile on his face was warm and friendly, and brown eyes sparkled in the light. "Good to meet you, Jim."

"James," Carter corrected him as the taller equine offered his hand. It was swiftly and deliberately ignored, and Carter waved him instead to one of the leather chairs at the desk as he circled around to take his own seat. "It's not good, Damien. Now sit."

One of Damien's eyebrows perked slightly as his smile broadened. "Now don't be like that, Jimmy," he crooned as he allowed himself to sink down deep into one of the offered chairs. "We don't have to be enemies. In fact, we should be best of friends. We have a lot in common, you and I."

Carter folded the laptop on his desk closed and folded his arms atop it. Damien's friendly attitude was all designed to put him off, but knowing that didn't help his control any. The horse that smiled across the desk at him was a monster. "We had one thing in common. He's gone now. Right now, we just have a single issue to resolve."

"Actually, we've got two," Damien corrected him. "I presume you're interested in exacting some toll from me for what happened to your little whore. Sam, right?" His smile soured a little. "We can address that in a moment. Firstly, if you'll allow me, I would resolve our _other_issue. Lucas. I want to know where he is."

Carter snorted and shook his head. "Who says I know where he is? I was just his boss. Besides, it'll be a cold day in hell before I let you at him again." He began to smile as he tilted his head up slowly. "Oh, I see how it is. You're here because you don't know where he is, do you?"

The smile vanished entirely from Damien's face. In its place was left a blank, emotionless stare that bored into Carter's face and stole away the smaller equine's stare. "Lucas has nothing. He has no one, Jimmy. No one to take him in. Nowhere to go. No money. I saw to it that all he needed was me. All that he had was right here, with me... and with you."

"He had nothing but abuse_with you," Carter countered. His muzzle twisted in a snarl as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "You think we couldn't see what you were doing to him? You think that we're really so _stupid that we wouldn't know how you were hurting him?"

The smile was suddenly back on Damien's face as he cocked an eyebrow. "But I wasn't hurting him," he evenly replied. "Lucas and I were in a committed relationship. I don't expect you to understand the intricacies of the master/slave style, but I assure you that he chose to remain with me of his own volition. The only choice he was ever allowed as my pet was the choice to leave. He relinquished his will to me. His body was mine."

Anger began to color Carter's voice despite his best attempt to contain it. "You broke his jaw once."

"I've got a big cock," Damien countered with an easy little chuckle. "I needed to make room. Lucas liked the rough stuff. And if memory serves, you would pawn him off on all of your rougher customers, yes?"

Carter snorted again. This was how Damien justified his actions? "Lucas chose to take on the rougher clients," he corrected the taller horse. "He did it so my other boys wouldn't have to suffer." His eyes narrowed. "He liked to say that there was nothing they could do to him that he couldn't handle... all thanks to you."

Damien continued to smile as he nodded. "I do my best. I suppose you've no interest in telling me when Lucas is then, do you?" When Carter gave the barest shake of his head, Damien nodded again and smiled all the wider. "Then let us instead discuss our second matter of contention. Your other whore. Sam."

"You broke his arm." Carter felt his blood begin to boil. Damian's calm was beginning to border on insufferable. "You abused him, too, because you couldn't abuse Lucas."

Damien's eyes widened as he rose both arms to wave Carter off. "Abused him? No, never! I would never do something like that! I informed your employees ahead of time that I required a fox that could handle a few certain interests of mine. I was rough with him, yes, but check your records. I was up-front about it, and I had no intention of ever breaking his arm. He twisted when I... heh, when I penetrated him. Poor thing thought I was lubed up enough. He was wrong. I had a hold of his arm, and so when he twisted-"

A surge of anger broke to the surface and Carter beat a fist down on his desk to silence Damian. "What you don't seem to understand, Damien, is that we have security cameras in every suite," Carter snapped. He lifted the lid on his laptop and pulled up the footage he needed as he spoke. "We like to have the ability to keep an eye on our clients, to make sure that they don't do anything nasty to my boys. Would you like to see what you _really_did?"

When Damien just shrugged, Carter turned the laptop's screen around to show him. Carter himself didn't pay attention. He'd watched the footage time and time again, each time more disgusted than the last. It all started the same. Damien was nice, Damien was friendly, Damien was seductive and Damien teased his whore. Damien seemed like a standard client.

Then he forced the fox down. He forced the fox to worship his cock. He forced the fox to present himself. And then, before he'd even mounted the fox and slid inside, he grabbed the fox's arm and violently twisted it to the side. The howl of pain was silent on the video footage, but it was obvious to see. It was equally as obvious as the backhanded slap to the back of the fox's head. That was when the fox finally, shakily, lifted his rump.

Carter stopped the video before any more of the night's abuse showed up. He looked up at Damien's face, and saw a look of intense concentration there. Fresh disgust welled up through him when he turned the laptop back to him and looked down; there was a large bulge in the taller equine's jeans that hadn't been there before. He'd been aroused by his abusive display. "What do you say to that evidence?" he asked.

Damien took in a deep breath and held it a moment as one hand drifted down to stroke his bulge through his pants, before he released it in a soft sigh as he looked to Carter. "Well... a couple things. First, my god that fox was tight. I think I might ask for him again."

"Never again," Carter corrected him with another snort. "You're blacklisted; you're not welcome at any establishment of mine ever again. So, second?"

"Second?" Damien's eyes narrowed as the smile vanished from his face. "Secondly, you require your clients to sign contracts before they are allowed into your fancy little whorehouses. Legally binding. Fun things, of course. No bringing disease in, no breaking the employees, the limits of what you can and cannot do... all that sort of thing."

Carter's jaw worked from side to side as he folded his arms atop the desk again. "Keeps my boys safe. What's it to you?"

It was Damien's turn to slam a fist down on the desk, and the motion was sudden and hard enough to cause Carter to jump back. A smile tugged at Damien's muzzle at Carter's surprise and unease. "You're breaking the law, Jimmy. Violation of privacy... have you heard of it? Your little contract doesn't mention that you record everything that goes on in your rooms."

"Those cameras are there to ensure the safety of my staff and my clients!" Carter all but yelled at Damien.

For his part, Damien just sat back in the chair with his smug little smile. "Best of intentions, but it's still illegal. How much porn have you got archived on your servers? How much material have you got saved from your 'clients' and their deepest, most perverted fantasies?" Damien began to chuckle. "How many of them know you've got that material?"

Carter fell silent for a moment, and that was when Damien leaned forward again. "Here's the deal you knew was coming the moment I stepped into your office, Jimmy. See, you did help little Lucas slip my net. He had no one else who would have helped him. No friends. No family. I made sure he burned his bridges when he came with me. His only friend in the whole world?" He nodded to Carter. "That's you.

"So here's your deal. I won't bring legal action against you, and I won't contact your other clients, one by one, and convince them to bring legal action against you, if you give me Lucas' location." He spread his arms out wide as he leaned back again. "This little business of yours only hangs on by a thread. You know, I thought I saw a congressman on the way in. A married congressman." The on Damien's face smile turned sweet. "I wonder if he'd like to know that the video of his indiscretions is on your hard drive, just waiting to be hacked and made public."

"You wouldn't dare," Carter replied with a little smirk of his own. "You seem to think that threatening my business would scare me into letting you know where Lucas is, if I even knew. You know what, though? If you're right, and you destroy my business because I won't tell you... that's _not_gonna make me tell you afterward."

Damien just shrugged. His smile drew wider. "You won't tell me afterward, no. But I will destroy you for taking my little fox from me. I will destroy your business, I will destroy your life, and I will make sure that every little whore you've got in here loses their job." He leaned back a little further in the chair as his smile grew into a chillingly broad grin. "Maybe I'll hire them myself. Maybe, all together, I can turn them into something approaching as good a fuck as Lucas."

As Carter all but trembled with rage, Damien leaned in over the desk. "Come on... Jimmy. All I need is a city. Then you can call Lucas and warn him I'm coming. It gives him plenty of time to get away before I find him again." He gave the smaller horse a little wink. "Make him uproot his life again. Drive him into hiding. Make him run from me. He can probably get out before I get there, right? And then I need to find him, too..."

"You really think I'm going to tell you where he is?" Carter asked as he ground his teeth together.

"I know you're going to tell me where he is," Damien answered with a smirk. "Because if you don't, it's not just Lucas' well-being on the line. It's yours. It's that of every little cockslut you've got under your roof here. And," he added, as Carter opened his mouth to speak, "if you lie_to me, then I will find Lucas and then destroy everything you hold dear _anyway. I keep my promises, Jim. Do you really want all your boys out of work?"

Carter's breath huffed out of him as frustration and defeat all mingled in his heart. He'd expected from Lucas' stories that Damien was a brute. He was that, but he was also more calculating and more intelligent than Carter had expected. He hadn't been ready to be backed into a corner.

Nevertheless, that's where he was. He had to choose between Lucas - alone and recovering from years of abuse at Damien's hands - and all his other boys. He'd taken the time to get to know them all individually. More than a few desperately needed the job he'd given them. Damien also had a point about calling Lucas; even though he didn't have Lucas' direct number, he could call the head of his operation in Bridgeport and get Karl Halleran to pass along a message for him.

It didn't matter that he didn't want to uproot Lucas. It didn't matter that he didn't want to even begin to put Damien back on his trail. But Carter had more than just Lucas to look out for, and he couldn't let more of his boys suffer the way Lucas had had to. It didn't make it right, and it didn't make it fair on Lucas. All it really was in the end was necessary. "You're scum, Damien."

"I'm a forward-thinker, Jimmy," Damien answered with a sly little smile. "I take it you accept my deal? A good choice. I would have hated to tear your little business apart piece by piece... or any more of your boys. Truly hated."

It was with a sigh and a grind of teeth that Carter slumped back in his chair. "I told you, I don't know where Lucas is exactly," he ground out. "I know he headed east. I haven't seen or heard from him directly since he left."

Damien sighed quietly, but his smirk never faded. "Now now, Jim. I told you, I want a city. You might not have heard from him directly, but you know where he is. Or where he was. I don't have all day, you know."

Hatred bubbled up inside Carter, but he squashed it down in the name of his other boys. He couldn't afford to destroy their livelihood. "Bridgeport," he muttered under his breath. "Now get the fuck out of my office."

Damien's smile bloomed as he quickly stood up and offered Carter his hand. "There, now. That wasn't so hard, was it?" He waggled his fingers when Carter refused to shake. "C'mon. This was a good deal for both of us, wasn't it?"

"Get the fuck out of my office," Carter repeated. Anger and dread mixed together.

With a shrug, Damien let his hand drop back to his side. He yawned and cracked his neck as he backed toward the door. "I'll tell you what. I feel like being a good sport. I won't even bother booking a flight over there until tomorrow morning. Plenty of time to warn him, or whatever you want to do." He smirked, offered a little mocking bow, and turned to leave the room.

"If you hurt him?" Carter rose from his chair as Damien paused in the doorway. "I promise you right now. I will end you."

Damien's eyebrows lifted as he folded his arms. "Is that a threat, James?"

"It's a promise," Carter countered, and nodded at the door. "Now. Like I said. Get the fuck out of my office."

The larger horse had no response for that. He just smiled and nodded once before he swept out of the office. He even closed the door behind him, and Carter slumped down behind his desk again. A sigh of relief slipped out of him. He hadn't even known how draining such a short meeting could have been.

After a couple moments to catch his breath and control his mental state, Carter reached for his phone. He had an important call to make, and he had to make sure it got through. If Lucas wasn't warned, he'd be easy pickings for Damien once he arrived in Bridgeport.

The number only took a few moments to punch in, and Carter's breath caught in his throat as he waited for the ring. He muttered, "Fuck," under his breath as it returned a busy signal, and he killed the call with a grunt of frustration. He'd have to try again in a couple of minutes.

If he couldn't get through, Lucas could be in big trouble. That wasn't something that Carter wanted on his conscience.

Integrating into Taylor's little apartment again had been exactly the soul-crushing experience that Lucas had feared. A week in from his begging and pleading on the otter's doorstep, and it wasn't the memories that were undoing Lucas. It wasn't the barely-restrained anger of his ex. It wasn't the familiar sights and smells of what had once been home.

* * * * *

It was the guilt that ate at him.

Taylor left for work every morning, usually at the same time as Lucas was about to head to bed. The whore's life meant that Lucas arrived home a couple of hours before Taylor woke, spent a short time with the otter, and then watched him leave. Every morning he'd wish Taylor a good day.

He didn't know if it was deliberate on Taylor's part, or if it was just a front to protect the otter's still-broken heart. Regardless of the reason, the glare that it earned Lucas every morning burned into him. Day after day, whatever he did or said, that was his only reward.

On some level, Lucas accepted it. Beaten and broken for years, it was easy to slip back into the old mindset. He'd fucked up. He'd fucked up badly. Now he was being punished in a manner far crueler than anything Damien had ever done to him. Bruises healed and scars faded. Emotional pain cut deeper than any knife.

He'd tried. Lucas had tried on three separate occasions during that week to sit down with Taylor and discuss what had happened between them all those years ago. The otter had flat-out refused to discuss any such thing with him, and had reminded Lucas that it was over and done with and he wanted no part of that life ever again. The conversations were probably part of what contributed to Lucas' morning breakfast of guilt and disappointment.

As he made his way up the stairs of the apartment complex, the little fox heaved a quiet sigh. His life was better now. He was free of Damien, he had a roof over his head and food in his belly, and that was more than could be said of a lot of people. He might still have been a whore with no other job prospects, but it was work he could enjoy.

Being debased wasn't something he particularly had a taste for anymore, nor being simply an object to be possessed and fucked and used and tossed aside with a wad of cash. It was, however, all he knew... and Lucas couldn't bring himself to deny that it was nice to have someone want him, even if just for a little while. Even if they were just paying for a warm, tight hole.

A crash perked the fox's ears as he reached the apartment door. Grunts could be heard through it, as Lucas began to fumble for his keys. Someone was inside the apartment at four in the morning; Taylor could have been in trouble. Without even being sure of exactly what he'd do if there was a burglar, Lucas quickly unlocked the door and all but kicked it in as he charged into the room.

Two startled faces looked over to Lucas' sudden entry. One was Taylor, sprawled belly-down across one of the kitchen counters with his legs dangling off toward the ground. The second was a taller crocodile, his massive hands pinning the otter to the counter with his muzzle curled in what was probably the remains of a snarl.

It took a silent second for Lucas to realize that the crocodile wasn't a burglar.

It took another to realize the pair were naked.

The third second drank in the crocodile's shaft, half-buried in the otter's backside.

"Oh," was all Lucas could think to say.

"Is this a problem?" asked the crocodile as he nodded toward Lucas. The croc's eyes were on the fox, but Taylor was obviously the intended target.

For his part, Taylor just snorted. He wriggled back against the counter, inches of crocodile disappearing into his body as he sighed with content. The otter's own length throbbed sympathetically as pre spurted against the back of the counter. "No problem," he replied after a moment. His eyes lifted to the crocodile as both of his arms slid up to wrap about the taller male's shoulders. "C'mon... keep going."

The crocodile looked almost as uneasy as Lucas. The fox, for his part, looked about ready to pass out from the sight. "You... want an audience?" he asked, as one of Taylor's paws pressed to his cheek and drew his gaze back down again.

"This is my apartment," Taylor replied as he rolled his hips slowly down against his partner's body, working the croc's length against his inner walls. "This is my boyfriend, and that is my ex." He took a moment to look back over at Lucas again, and the familiar glare was back in full force. "And if he's got any sense of decency, he won't be in this room for more than a couple more seconds."

The words, and the angry snap behind them, was enough to jolt Lucas out of his surprise-driven stupor. He blinked and nodded once as he took a long and deep breath, the air rich with musk and sex. "I... buh... sorry, yeah. Yeah," he stammered out, as he all but bolted for his room. He felt the insides of his ears burning bright as they flattened atop his head. Privacy. That's what they needed. Privacy to fuck... in the middle of the living room.

Lucas' door clicked closed behind him and he pressed his back to it as he forced himself to breathe. The scent of Taylor and the croc's little tryst was considerably lessened by the closed-off room, but the memory of it stuck in the fox's mind. Equally firmly wedged in there was a sight that he'd not expected to ever see again.

Taylor had always been an attractive otter, but age had changed him. He didn't have the same skinniness of youth, or the same sharpness to his features. He was smoother, rounder than Lucas could remember. Bit more of a belly, slightly softer face. Same cock, though; Lucas felt a shiver run through him as he remembered the long nights it had spread him open.

He didn't realize how hard he'd become until his paws brushed down his front and bumped into his bulging pants. Realization brought discomfort, as his brain fixated on the problem growing there. Despite a long work-night, his malehood had found something genuinely desirable going on in the other room. It didn't help when a muffled moan - Taylor's, naturally - reached Lucas' ears even through the closed door.

It sent a shiver through him in a way he hadn't expected, tempered with something that he'd not expected in a million years: jealousy. There was another male out there in the living room, pounding away at the otter's backside just like Taylor had done to him so many times so long ago. Someone else was taking the body that Lucas had once been absolutely crazy about. It hurt, and it hurt more than he'd expected.

But still his malehood rose in protest. The sounds, the scents and the memories all worked together to override the jealousy with something more base. The more Lucas tried to force it all out of his mind, the more insistent it seemed to become. One paw moved on its own, his pants tugged down before the fox even knew what he was doing. His sheath surged with the freedom, his malehood quickly stiffening and growing out into the open air. The familiar scent of his own arousal hit his nose, and Lucas bit back a whine.

The fox backed away from the door and closed his eyes as he let himself fall to the floor. He sat with his back against the bed as he eagerly stroked over his shaft, driven by something he didn't quite fully understand. Taylor was an attractive guy. The crocodile had been all but smoldering, and the brief glimpse Lucas caught of his equipment showed that he was a big guy in most every respect. It had been like a porn show in his very own living room, but surely the situation itself should have been enough to keep him from what felt like overheating with desire.

It wasn't the croc. That much Lucas was sure of, as his paw gently teased his flesh and smeared his pre across his shaft. Ordinarily, yes, he might have fantasized about a big, hot guy like that pin him down and take him over the counter just he was doing to Taylor. He might have liked to imagine himself moaning and panting and writhing against the cold surface while he was taken and spread wide and deep.

But it wasn't the crocodile that had sparked it. It had been all the more familiar factors. It had been Taylor that had caught Lucas up in a whirlwind of lust he'd not wanted or expected. The why didn't matter so much in the heat of the moment. The sight of that naked body - one he had once upon a time delightedly explored every last inch of - had woken something.

Thoughts raced backward in time as Lucas' paw pumped over his shaft. Memories flooded him. Forgotten nights came back into sharp focus. Their first time. The naughty little moment in a public rest room on a long roadtrip. Giggling and trying to stay quiet in Taylor's old room at his parent's place when they went to visit. Their last time. The long, _long_night after Taylor had gone away for two weeks, and neither had allowed themselves to get off until he returned.

That last night was at the core. Lucas could feel his mind spin about it, a stable orbit that locked his mind to those memories and his paw to his cock. Jealousy for the crocodile outside faded from his awareness. Another of Taylor's moans pierced the door, and Lucas heard himself utter a quiet whimper in response.

They'd barely been able to wait until they'd gotten back to the apartment. In fact, they hadn't waited at all; Lucas could remember with clarity the way he'd shoved Taylor against the wall in the stairwell. The otter had grunted with the force of the impact, but all fight had left him the moment Lucas had unzipped his jeans.

It had been the scent that made sure Lucas hadn't gone anywhere. Two weeks pent up and a six hour plane flight was enough to amplify that natural male scent with all manner of fox-dominating power. Lucas could remember how, at the time, he'd wondered if Taylor had been hard as a rock and leaking pre into his briefs the whole damn flight back. It seemed likely. It _smelled_likely. Lucas loved it. _Had_loved it.

And Taylor hadn't been able to push him away, either. He'd pressed both webbed paws against the wall at his back and moaned loud enough to alert the entire damn apartment complex to what they were doing, but neither male had given a damn. His hips had lifted to grind his cotton-covered shaft against Lucas' muzzle, to bump his cheek and graze across the fox's lips.

If not for the effort of two shaky paws, Lucas might have tried to suck Taylor off right there through his underwear. His tongue dragged across those briefs even as fingers tried to tug them down, the effort made all the greater by the hardness of the flesh it trapped. Grunts of desire turned briefly to growls of frustration.

Then relief, and then a muffled moan of satisfaction. The otter's length had popped free and all but sprung against Lucas' face, and the fox had smoothly sucked every last inch down into his mouth. Ears flattened atop his head as he drove himself forward and swallowed his boyfriend entirely, the otter's fingertips curled against the wall the whole time. Lucas had felt Taylor's tip slide right down into his throat, but all the fox could do was reach about to grab his otter by the backside and pull him closer.

The memory skipped and jumped as Lucas' paw rode his length that much harder. The fox felt himself begin to pant as Taylor's cries in the living room grew louder, broken by the need for breath. Lucas' head rolled back against his bed as his legs spread out wide, his free paw reaching down to slide fingers firmly up from tailhole to sheath.

They'd almost kicked the door down in their eagerness, Lucas with his shirt half off and Taylor with his pants almost around his ankles. When the door had finally opened, Taylor had all but pulled the fox inside, where Lucas had tripped over the otter's jeans and stumbled to the floor. Taylor had quickly followed, sprawled atop him in what could only have been a deliberate motion.

Equally eager fingers had stripped Lucas' pants off and thrown them into the wall. Bare backside had greeted the otter, and Lucas had told him with what little breath he had that he'd already gotten ready for this and that Taylor didn't have to wait. The liberty of lubing himself up inside just before he'd gone to pick up the otter had been the best idea he figured he'd ever had.

It had been proven when Taylor had mounted the fox right there in the doorway. He kicked the door sharply closed behind them as he guided his tip one-handed up against Lucas' entrance, and both had gasped and moaned in a mixture of pleasure and relief as the satisfaction of the contact gave way to the heat of their bodies colliding.

Taylor hadn't been into the rougher stuff back then. He'd been a slow lover, calm and deliberate and focused on using the fox's body as much to get himself off as his partner. He'd learned every little thing that drove Lucas crazy, from the nips to his left ear to the way he loved having his hips squeezed as he was taken. He played Lucas like an instrument every time they were together, without fail.

But the Taylor that day in Lucas' memories wasn't the same otter. He'd become a wild thing, untamed and rough and overeager in all the best possible ways. Fingertips had dug into fur and raked through it, troughs left in their wake as brown hips slammed against red. There was nothing gentle or methodical about how Lucas had been taken. There had only been two weeks of pent-up need and two young males who needed their respective releases.

That didn't mean that Taylor had popped first or fast by any means. Lucas could remember every thrust, every grunt and every slam of his boyfriend's body against his own. He remembered in crystal-clear detail every inch of the otter's shaft and the way it pushed down inside him. He could remember how it teased his walls and ground against his prostate whenever Taylor was in his normal mood... and he could remember how that new, eager, rough Taylor had all but slammed himself into it again and again.

Lucas had popped first and early, as Taylor reached under him and pulled him off the floor. Streaks of white had painted the floor and stained the wood as Lucas had pushed back against the otter's chest and belly to ensure Taylor was deep as he could go inside as he let loose. Outside the memories, Lucas felt his shaft twitch sympathetically as another moan rose outside. A spurt of pre splattered across the back of his bedroom door in pale imitation of the memories.

The memories shifted again as the living room floor was lost in a whirlwind. It had been abandoned for the couch. There Lucas had been pushed down onto his back, his tailhole already soaked with one load of the otter's seed. It left the depths under his tail slick and easily spread, perfect for when the still-hard Taylor had pushed down inside him again. Lucas hadn't been ready and he hadn't been sure he could have gone a second time, but in spite of his thoughts his flagged shaft had risen again anyway.

Soft cushions under him absorbed the shock of every hard thrust that spread the fox wide. One leg ran up the back of the couch and hooked over it as the other fell over the edge in Lucas' attempt to bare himself completely for his partner's needs. The invitation was accepted over and over and over again, as Taylor drove down into the fox's body. There had been no question, only the otter's insistence and the fox's acceptance.

The bedroom, where Lucas had been bent over against the headboard again. The shower, where Taylor had held up the fox and ground him against the cold tiles while bucking up into his abused backside. The bathroom floor, when they couldn't wait to get to another room before they went again. The heat of Taylor's body there, fresh out of the shower, when he'd been the recipient of Lucas' load on the rare occasion of the fox being on top.

The memories began to snap back from fantasy to reality as Lucas felt his peak rush up to meet him. He felt his whole body began to shake and shudder from the intensity of the memories, mingled with the scent of arousal and sex and the moans that had come from outside. A flicker of reality hit him - that it was not him with Taylor but some other guy - but it was too late for that to have broken the flow of his seed. He bit back a cry as it erupted out of him, thick jets that splattered the door.

Until it opened, and the second volley struck a fully-dressed Taylor in the chest.

It was too late to stop himself, though the surprise of Taylor's presence in front of him was enough to break his moans into a cry of confusion. It mixed in the air with Taylor's yelp of disgust as he danced back from the third spurt, despite its lack of strength. The rest of Lucas' load pumped out in weaker shots that left a white line from the opened door to his middle, his eyes wide as his fingers froze on his shaft.

A couple of moments passed as Lucas attempted to rein his mind in and remember exactly where he was and what he was doing. Arousal left him with his climax, and a mixture of concern and guilt was left in the place of his afterglow as he scrabbled up from the ground. His muzzle opened to call out to Taylor, but the fox slipped on his mess and barely caught himself before he hit the ground.

He heard the click of the front door as it closed, and Lucas rushed out to the living room. "Tay, wait!" he called out as he rushed toward it.

"Wait for fucking what?" came the shouted reply from elsewhere in the apartment.

A confused Lucas spun around as his ears perked and swiveled. He took a moment to breathe and consider the sound before he headed to the bathroom with a much more careful gait. A glance inside showed Taylor, suddenly shirtless again. In a washing basked tucked in the corner of the bathroom was the offending piece of fabric, stained with a sizable portion of Lucas' load. "I... uh..."

Taylor just pursed his lips and lifted his eyebrows. "You-uh-hmm just what, Lucas?" he asked, no small hint of anger in his tone. "You're sorry you came on me? Apology accepted."

Lucas took a moment to try to clear his throat as the otter shoved past him and headed toward his own room. He tried to follow, but the door closed behind him. "I'm sorry for that, yes!" he shouted at the door. "I didn't think you were coming in! You were busy!"

"Yeah, and you were getting off on me getting busy!" was the snapped response from the otter's room. "Fucking hell, Lucas! Did you really... hold on. Fuck!"

Silence held for a couple more moments before Taylor emerged from his room again, with a new shirt and a still-enraged expression. When Lucas backed against the wall opposite the door, Taylor stepped forward again and pressed a fingertip into the fox's bare chest. "Did you really go to everyone else before you decided to drop in on me? Huh? Or are you here to try and get back with the guy you fucked over?"

Lucas' eyes bugged out of his head as he pressed harder against the wall at his back. "I... no! No, I'm not here for that! I came here because I didn't have..." A whimper slid out of his muzzle as he began to sink back down under the force of the otter's glare.

When that glare didn't let up though, a spike of anger began to work through it all. "No, hold on a minute! Who was that?" he demanded as he straightened up again.

Taylor just blinked. "Excuse the fuck out of me?"

"Who was that?" Lucas asked again, as he pointed over toward the living room. "I come home and there's some random guy in the apartment... I thought you were being assaulted! Mugged or something! I didn't expect to come home to see you bent over!"

The otter's eyes narrowed as he folded his arms. "None of your damn business who he is and who I sleep with, Lucas. You left me. Remember? You ran away and broke my heart, and you're not entitled to that sort of information anymore. And don't change the subject! Why were you getting off on me-"

"I come home the same time every shift!" Lucas interrupted. Something in the little fox had broken. No longer on the back foot, he pushed off the wall and watched Taylor begin to shrink back from him. "Every morning! The same fucking time, Taylor! What, you didn't think I'd see the huge fucking crocodile fucking your ass right in front of the front door? You've got a perfectly good bed, last time I fucking checked!"

Despite his backpedalling, Taylor's face was still filled with fury. "This is my apartment, fox," he answered after a moment. The rage was gone from his face, and in its place was left something cold and hard. "I worked my ass off to pay for this when you ran away from me. It's mine_now. You just live here, and you live here at _my leisure. Not yours.

"You don't have to stay here. You know that, right? You could go find your own place. You earn enough, slutting it up at work, don't you?" Lucas' ears fell flat at that, though Taylor's frown just deepened. "Oh, what? You're a whore, Lucas. That's what you are. That's what you do. I could respect you. Did, way back when. Doesn't mean I'm gonna respect your job... not paw, not blow, not rim."

Lucas' teeth ground together as he felt the fight slowly drain back out of him again. A sense of hopelessness merged with helplessness and drooped his ears and shoulders both. "You know I can't go anywhere else," he muttered as he stepped back to lean against the wall. The fox hugged himself tight as he sighed his defeat. "I can't get my own place and support myself... Halleran is taking so much of my paycheck in 'back expenses' that I can't afford to. No one else I still know is willing to help me... just you."

Most of Taylor's anger drained away slowly as he leaned back against his bedroom door, a near mirror to Lucas' stance. "You could look for people who want a roommate," he suggested. "Meet new people. Make new friends. Go strike out on your own and make your way _that_way. You don't need to stay here."

But Lucas shook his head. "I considered it. God, I considered it. You think I wanted to come back here, to you? To... to invade your life again? No. Every night I've been here - well, every day for me, I guess - I've gone to sleep and remembered how we were."

"I'm done with that, Lucas," Taylor quickly interjected with a raised paw. "You know that. I am _not_interested in hooking up with you again. You're... you're fire. Even if I was interested, I wouldn't let myself get burned again. So you can fuck those thoughts right off."

Lucas shook his head again as he glanced up. Taylor's face had gone hard again; stony eyes stared back at him as his muzzle clenched tightly shut. "I told you, I know it's over. I made sure that we were over when I... when I did what I did. I don't want another try. I don't want to get together with you again. I need..." He sighed. "I need somewhere... safe."

Taylor cocked his head to the side. "From your ex? Damien?"

"From my life." Lucas allowed his back to slide slowly down the wall until he came to rest against the floor. Taylor just stared down at him. "I'm a whore. It's all I can do. Damien saw to that. I don't have friends, and I _don't_have family. No one's going to want me, unless they pay for me. No one's gonna..." He bit his tongue for a second before he sighed. "No one's gonna love me. Not me. Not unless they're paying for it.

"And maybe that's okay. Maybe I deserve that. Maybe I fucked up so bad that it's some great, cosmic punishment for what I did to you. I don't expect anything anymore." His eyes drifted up, but only to Taylor's knees. He couldn't bring himself to look the otter in the eye. "But god damn it, I just want to feel safe. There's two places in the whole world right now where I can feel safe, Tay. One of them's my old boss's office. The other's right here. This apartment. With you."

Taylor said nothing, and Lucas couldn't even see if the otter was even looking at him anymore. He sighed again and shook his head. "I don't even want you to love me. I don't want you to want me. I wanted you to forget me. I told you so, when I came back."

"Believe me, I tried," the otter muttered under his breath.

"I know. And I fucked that up. I fuck up everything I touch." Lucas let his head hang down as he worked his jaw from side to side, tail curled up to twitch against his thigh. "But I can't go back, because Damien's there. My boss's office isn't a safe place if Damien's in the same city. This apartment is... it's the only place I can be."

The fox took a long, deep breath and forced his eyes to lift. They raked up slowly over Taylor from bare footpaws to his legs to his belly to his neck, and finally, excruciatingly, met the otter's gaze. "If you honestly want me gone, you don't have to get boned by some random guy in the kitchen for me to see. You don't have to shut me out when I want to talk about what happened. You can just tell me to go because you're right. This is_your apartment. This _is your life. I'm the one invading it. Do you want me to leave?"

"Mike," said Taylor.

Confusion furrowed Lucas' brow as one ear perked slightly. "What?"

"Mike. That's the crocodile's name. He's not some random guy who boned me. He's Mike." Slowly, Taylor slid down against the doorframe until he was on the floor as well, opposite Lucas. He dropped both paws into his lap and leaned his head back against the wall. "We've been seeing each other for six months. Exactly six months, actually. Last night a little celebration."

The little pang of jealousy was quickly squashed by Lucas as he let the otter fall out of sight. The floor, by comparison, was studied very intently. "Congratulations. Seems you two are still doing fine."

Taylor nodded slightly. "I didn't want to tell you I was seeing anyone when you came back because, honestly, I didn't know how you'd react. You've been through so much already, and I didn't want to make it worse in case you'd lied and you had come back, nursing the flame of loves past. He had to get up early to go home and get ready for work, but he wanted to say goodbye, and I thought we had more time than we did, so..." He spread his arms wide and shrugged before he dropped his paws back in his lap.

"So you did what you wanted in your own apartment with your boyfriend, and I came crashing in and... this," Lucas finished. He curled into himself as he wrapped his arms tight around his knees. "I'm sorry. I should have asked before I even came back, that... Does Mike know about me?"

Taylor nodded and shrugged again. "He knows you're my ex and he knows what happened between us. Or... he knows my side. You can try to be objective all you like, but when you're still carrying those scars you can't be completely fair." The otter nodded again as he glanced over toward the living room. "He knows you're running from a bad relationship, and he trusts me. He's a good guy."

"Sounds like it, yeah." Lucas squeezed at himself a little tighter as he rested his forehead on his knees. "But you still didn't answer my question. Same question I asked when I came here in the first place. Do you want me to leave? Because you're right... I could go and move in with some other people. Maybe it'd even be good for me."

But the otter shook his head. "I hated this apartment, you know," he said, as he looked up at the ceiling. "For so long I just hated it. It just reminded me too much of you. I almost left it. I almost upped and took everything and left." He sighed, and a little smile tugged at his muzzle. "But I didn't let my memories of you stop me. I had a nice little apartment and a broken heart. The apartment was fine. My heart needed the work.

"And now... I'm glad. I'm glad that you feel safe here. After all's said and done, I'm actually glad." The little smile slipped away as he looked across at Lucas again. "So you need to ask yourself if you should leave. If you can't handle me being here, or Mike occasionally coming around, or whatever? Maybe you should go. But if you feel safe here, I don't want to be the one to throw you out of it."

As Lucas felt the conversation wind down, he nodded once and sighed quietly. The fox fought back a yawn as he looked at the ground. "Thanks, Tay," he finally replied. "I... I really appreciate it."

The otter nodded back as he started to stand. "Good. Now you've had a long work night, and you should get yourself to bed. It's way too early for me, so I'm gonna get a nap before my alarm goes off. Drop your laundry in the basket and I'll get it done today while you sleep."

"Yeah, sure. Thanks." The fox glanced up as he watched Taylor vanish inside his bedroom, and the door closed quietly behind him. Lucas felt his eyelids threaten to close right there, but he forced himself to rise as well and head back toward his own room. Crisis created, crisis averted.

Or at least it had been partially averted. Taylor couldn't deny what Lucas had done, and nor could Lucas. The otter had known exactly what Lucas had been doing when he'd opened the bedroom door. There was no hiding that fact. Whether Lucas liked it or not, there was a discussion that was coming that the pair would have to have.

He'd not expected it. That rush of memories, the flood of longing and lust that he hadn't felt since the two had been together, had overwhelmed him completely. Envy had been there, pure and simple. As he sprawled out on his bed, Lucas closed his eyes and sighed. Taylor wasn't the same person he'd been all those years ago.

But the core person was the same. At his deepest, Taylor hadn't changed so much as evolved. The same things that had once drawn Lucas to the otter were all still present, but wrapped up in new layers that were at least partially of his own unintentional design. He'd told Taylor when he'd arrived in Bridgeport again that he hadn't been interested in picking up where they'd left off, and certainly not in the manner which he'd left things.

But as Lucas fell asleep to rest for another long night of hard work and dreams of Taylor flashed through his unconscious mind again, he began to wonder if he was lying to himself as much as Taylor.

* * * *

The sound of the ringing phone through the locked door made Karl Halleran huff in annoyance. The bull fumbled with his keys until he opened up the door to his office and rushed over to his desk to mash a meaty finger down on the speakerphone answer button. "Halleran."

"Karl? It's Jim," came Carter's voice through the line. "Jesus Christ, where the hell have you been? I've been trying to call you since yesterday afternoon!"

The bull frowned and rolled his eyes as he let himself slump down in the chair behind his desk. "You wouldn't have gotten through, Jimbo. I was doing your job, remember? Phone conference with potential investors elsewhere in the country? Looking to take your little company into a franchise direction?" He sighed as he leaned back in the chair. "By the way, I think I drummed up a little more interest in some more southern states that-"

"This is more important than that," Carter interrupted, his voice distorted by the vigorousness of the shout. "Look, is Lucas around right now?"

"Lucas? It's midday; why would... what's going on, Jim?" The bull leaned in closer to the phone. "What's he done this time? I told him he needs to work-"

"Lucas has trouble coming," interrupted Carter once again. "Dangerous trouble. You got me? Big, bad, nasty trouble that could well lose you the best boy you've got working for you there. Now that fox is damn precious to me, and not just as an employee, you got that?"

The frown on Halleran's brow continued to deepen with every sentence. "Jim? Calm down. Okay? I'm not getting rid of your favourite fox. He's fine. I can let him know later on today. Now. What am I passing along?"

There was a sigh of relief from Carter that the receiver picked up clearly. "Tell him that Damien's been looking for him. Tell him that Damien might be on his way there and that he's gotta be careful. Alright? Just tell Lucas that he's gotta watch his back. I don't want that son of a bitch getting his hands on my fox again."

"Sure. You told me what happened when you sent him over; I understand. I'll let Lucas know." He leaned in closer to the phone and huffed once. "Was there anything else I can do for you, before I even get started on my day?"

Another sigh came through, and Halleran could almost imagine the shake of Carter's head. "No... nothing that can't wait until later. I'll check in at the end of the day. Just make sure you warn Lucas."

"Can do, Jimbo. I'll call you later." He mashed down a finger on the End Call button and leaned back in his chair. "Well. Not entirely unexpected." He lifted his head to the office door. "You were right. Took him a while to get in touch with me.

"Not for a lack of trying," Damien answered as he took a step into the office. He smiled warmly as he folded his arms. "Thank you, Karl. Your patronage is very much appreciated."

The bull just raised a single finger. "You promised me a little something, Damien. I let Jim know his boy's safe, and you owe me."

With a little roll of his own eyes, Damien reached into a pocket and withdrew a thick wad of bills. He wagged them in the air for a moment before he tossed them over to the bull. "One hundred thousand. Much more than little Lucas is worth to you, I think."

"Much more. No employee should be prioritized because of Carter's preference, and you've been entirely reasonable with me. Pleasure doing business with you." The bull waved a dismissive hand as he began to count through the money. Damien was forgotten; he had what he wanted.

For his part, the horse just smiled as he turned to leave. The deal was complete, and it was time to move onto the next stage of his plan. Bridgeport hadn't been a problem, nor had been narrowing down where Carter could have sent his favourite little whore. Now all he had to do was find that little whore.

Then he could set things right.

Listen to Turn Back Time by Aqua with this Grooveshark link!

Turn Back Time lyrics

Give me time to reason,

Give me time to think it through.

Passing through the seasons,

Where I cheated you.

I will always have a cross to wear,

But the bolt reminds me I was there.

So give me strength,

To face this test tonight.

If only I could turn back time.

If I had only said what I still hide.

If only I could turn back time,

I would stay for the night.

For the night.

Claim your right to science.

Claim your right to see the truth.

Though my pangs of conscience,

Will drill a hole in you.

I've seen it coming like a thief in the night,

I've seen it coming from the flash of your light.

So give me strength,

To face this test tonight.

If only I could turn back time.

If I had only said what I still hide.

If only I could turn back time,

I would stay for the night.

For the night.

The bolt reminds me I was there.

The bolt reminds me I was there.

If only I could turn back time.

If I had only said what I still hide.

If only I could turn back time,

I would stay for the night.

For the night.