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It’s just not fair...

For most furs, that feeling would be matched with a fuming sense of anger, a sort of righteous indignation—but Luka couldn’t find that sort of feeling in himself. The badger only felt a deep-seated sense of sadness. The thought wasn’t one of anger, but of resignation. It was the sense of a fur who knew the deck was stacked against him, but who was powerless to do anything but play the game anyway.

Why him?

The badger looked out over the quad from his shaded spot at a picnic table, focused as always on the singular cause of his wistful sadness: the boy who had inadvertently brought his entire world to a grinding halt.

Ian.

He was just walking down the sidewalk, messenger bag full of books slung over his slender shoulder, hooves clicking against the pavement. Seemingly every fur he passed got a familiar nod and a greeting—some even got a quick hug or a passing conversation—from the lithe ibex. Everything about Ian projected confidence and poise. He walked quickly, with a level of confidence the badger knew that he never once had displayed himself. His brown eyes were constantly alight, shining with joy as he smiled and laughed with more furs than Luka had ever actually known in his entire life combined. Ian’s clothes were thrifted, but designer; he knew how to dress to impress and clearly put a lot of effort into his appearance. It wasn’t just clothes, either: Luka knew that Ian wasn’t shy with his body, whether that was running shirtless across the lawn in a game of ultimate frisbee or offering to pose for life-drawing classes for his fellow art majors, the ibex was clearly proud of his body and took great care of it.

Luka growled under his breath, frustration writ large on his broad muzzle. A passing hare skittered away at the noise, and Luka dropped his head into his arms on the tabletop in shame. There was absolutely no reason for him to be this out of sorts. Obviously it’s not like Ian was the first attractive fur he’d seen in his life. He was in college, the time of life where basically every fur he could meet was at their prime of life, and Pomona State University was never in any shortage of attractive furs. Athletes, artists, adventurous furs exploring the boundaries of their sexuality, repressed furs coming out of their shells and discovering themselves—anything anyfur could possibly be attracted to was on campus in abundance.

But none of it had ever grabbed the badger’s attention like this before. Not until him. Not until Ian.

For his first two years, Luka had managed to be happy at college. He had friends, he had his schoolwork, the robotics club projects, gaming groups... The idea of sexual attraction or dating had rarely if ever crossed his mind. Even he would admit that a certain degree of that was self-inflicted: Luka couldn’t really see himself as a catch for anyfur. He was tall and broadly built—he was a badger, after all—but he saw himself as having a terminal case of Premature Dad Bod. And on top of that, smaller furs constantly mistook his resting expression as irritation and seemingly expected him to lash out at the slightest provocation—and as he was a badger, practically every other fur was smaller than he was. It shouldn’t get under Luka’s fur, but it did. It was hurtful when somefur assumed the worst about him, so he withdrew, which made him seem even more aloof and scary. In the end, he just ended up hating himself. Hating his body for looking like it did. Hating his species for inspiring fear.

It felt like an impossible cycle to break, and so he coped by putting all of those parts of himself that craved social connection on the back burner, hopefully to be reclaimed after graduation.

And so he went through the first half of college unconcerned with love, sexuality, attraction, exploration, or indeed any of those things that seem to be near-universal constants for college life. Luka was just content to be himself, never having to question whether or not he was straight. At least... not until his junior year began.

The badger hadn’t even made it to his class registration before his world had shattered. Ian had been in the center of the campus mall, shirtless and sweaty, in the middle of a pickup pawball game. Luka had been aware of the ibex before, the whip-thin boy was nearly impossible to miss. He had a social gravitation about him—every fur seemed drawn into his orbit. But one moment had changed everything, and it started with the most passing of glances.

Nearly seven months later, and the image was still seared into Luka’s memory. The first time he’d ever locked eyes with Ian as he jogged after an errant throw and bent to pick it up. The badger was immediately struck with how dark the smaller boy’s brown eyes were, and yet how brightly they seemed to shine inside the frame of his long eyelashes. For the first time, Luka felt like maybe some fur was actually looking at him, seeing him, and the ibex seemed to give no indication of being disgusted or afraid. The moment lasted barely a heartbeat, but Luka was captivated.

“Hey, big guy. You like what you see or something?”

Downy tan fur running throat to belly, broken by the expansive chest tattoos Ian proudly displayed. Two wings, multicolored and vibrant, curling almost delicately under each pectoral. It must have cost him a near fortune to have done; the linework was exquisite and detailed, which was notoriously difficult to do since it was hard to predict how the fur would grow once it had been dyed at the root. If anything, the art on his body only served to highlight the rest of his frame. Muscular abs with scarcely an ounce of fat on them, his arms toned but not bulky, and the way his pale fur followed the curve of his pelvis as it disappeared into his shorts...

Luka shook himself out of his daydream, still cursing himself. Honestly, it was getting pathetic. He’d never even so much as had a conversation with the ibex, but he was approaching stalker-level behavior. He did his homework outdoors whenever the weather permitted to increase his chances at catching a glimpse of Ian’s smile. He molded his eating habits around Ian’s class schedule so he’d be sure to have a chance to see him in the cafeteria. Luka couldn’t stop himself. He kept imagining what those horns felt like, were they smooth or rough? Would it hurt Ian to hold them? The badger thanked his lucky stars for his dark, striped fur that hid the bright red blush he could feel clear to his eartips anytime the caprine boy walked past his table and he caught himself staring at that bubble-butt Ian had, the only part of him that seemed to bely his masculine nature.

His first crush, and it just had to be on a male.

This whole obsession was starting to get in the way of his normal life, and Luka knew it. Whenever he sat outside to “work on his schoolwork”, nothing ended up getting done. He growled at himself and shoved his notebook back into his backpack, ignoring a hedgehog who started and moved to give him a wide berth.

“Oh, get over yourself,” he scowled at them as he got up and left the quad.

---

Back in his room, he felt safer, more insulated—but also alone with his problems, one of which was the small stack of assignments he’d been putting off. Luka slumped into his desk chair, rubbing his eyes with his large paws. He’d been neglecting sleep in favor of not falling behind on classwork, but it was definitely taking a toll on him. The statistics textbook on the corner of his desk stared at him accusingly. Could he possibly get it done in the two hours he had before his tabletop session tonight? Almost certainly not, he realized.

Shit, I have to cancel.

Muttering under his breath, Luka quickly composed an extremely apologetic email to his gaming group and—pointedly ignoring the judgemental gaze of his textbooks—headed for the bathroom.

For a long time after he relieved himself, he simply stared at his own face in the mirror, more and more disillusioned with himself with every passing moment.

You have to get the fuck over the ibex, he scolded himself. It’s never gonna happen. You can’t even talk to him, and you think you have any sort of chance in hell? He stared into his oddly bright, blue eyes; set deeply in his dark, broad face. Like most badgers he had an extremely broad muzzle, short and angular. Combined with the dark stripes that masked his eyes, it gave him a dour expression by default. His body was large, hulking, nearly too large for him. He constantly tried to hide his strength, to hunch his shoulders and appear smaller, anything to try to put the other furs around campus at ease. It rarely worked. Smaller species would scatter when he passed them on the sidewalk, as if they were afraid of being stepped on, or blamed for getting in his way. Badgers like him were stereotyped as brutish and violent; and while Luka knew that the reputation could sometimes be true, seeing every grey-and-black fur in a movie cast as the bad guy’s muscle, or a goon to fight the hero... It might have been laughable if he didn’t have to deal with the everyday reality of subconscious fear that traveled with him like a bow wave with a boat.

If he’d even been a badger who could live up to that stereotype, maybe he’d feel better about himself, but Luka was as far from society’s picture of him as possible. He was heavyset, with just enough of a belly on him to define the shape of his t-shirt no matter what he tried. His headfur was unruly and medium-length, not quite enough to hide his face behind. His dress code was basic shirt and jeans—and nerdy shirts at that. He was a robotics geek, not a jock. He couldn’t throw a pawball even if forced to try at gunpoint, and he’d rather spend his days playing games in his dorm anyway.

You have literally nothing to offer someone like him, his reflection told him coldly.

A spark of self-hating rage snapped inside his head, but rather than punching the mirror his fist merely rested gently on the surface, unable to bring himself to even that paltry level of violence. He knew it was true, anyway. There was no sense in getting angry over it.

So why were the corners of his eyes wet?

---

Luka made it just three problems into his statistics homework when somefur knocked on his dormroom door. Heaving a sigh that rattled the furniture at having been derailed yet again, he stomped to the door and threw it open.

“WHAT?” he barked, immediately catching himself as he saw three of his friends in the hallway recoil instinctively. “Shit, sorry, what’s up? You got my email, right?”

“Yeah bro, we got it,” the red panda in front of the trio said, quickly recomposing himself. “That’s why we’re here.”

Luka frowned, his wide brow furrowing in confusion. “I don’t understand...”

“Damn, Gene, you were right...” stoat standing behind the panda muttered to him, “He looks terrible.”

Luka snorted. “Thanks, Devon. Nice to see you too, asshole.”

Gene rolled his eyes, shouldering past the badger into the dorm room. “Look, Luka, to be perfectly honest, we’re kinda worried about you. You’ve kinda looked like shit lately. You always seem tired and frustrated, and you’ve never been this behind on your school shit before.”

The cat, Alain, hopped up onto Luka’s bed and sat crosslegged, watching the badger intently. “Look, Stripes, something’s got you knotted up like a cub’s shoelaces, and we’re here to learn what it is and help you fix it. Or forget about it. Whatever’s needed.”

“Look, you guys, I really appreciate the sentiment, I really do...” Luka trailed off as he realized that he wasn’t actually making it up, he did feel the warmth of his gaming buddies worrying about him—but he caught himself quickly. “I just... It’s not really something I want to talk about right now.”

Devon frowned. “What, something you can’t tell your best friends about?”

“Not... not can’t. Just...”

“Ah,” Alain nodded knowingly. “Embarrassing. Something fresh.”

Luka just blushed and turned away, his ears pinning back against his head.

“Okay, well, we know the answer for that,” Gene said, clapping his paws together.

Luka stared. “No.”

“Yes,” Alain countered.

“Please, not tonight.”

“Sorry, Stripes,” Devon said, “You need to loosen up and let whatever this is go.”

“We’re not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Gene said, his smile softening his threat.

Part of Luka wanted to fight tooth and claw to be left alone. He truly did have work to do—but another part of him, one that was growing by the moment, desperately wanted to be able to confide in somefur. And here his friends were, giving him all the excuse he needed to do just that.

He sighed. “Fine.”

The other three furs threw up their fists.

“MacLean’s!”

MacLean’s Pub wasn’t a dive—at least not technically. It also wasn’t technically a queer bar, despite having queer nights every other week. It was just “the other bar” to most of the campus’ legally-aged inhabitants. The best-kept-secret that everyfur seemed to know about. It was further away from Dorm Row, a little quieter, a bit less lit up than the more prominent watering holes that lined campus. It was a bar where you could keep your eyes up and find a random fur to cozy up with, or just keep to your group and never be bothered.

MacLean’s was known for four things: cheap-but-strong drinks, good music that wasn’t loud enough to hurt a canid’s hearing, an oddly active hookup culture, and The Code.

Whoever you may be, we drink together as friends and family through and through.

The old Burghish drinking slogan was carved into a large wooden sign, ornately made and set prominently behind the bar above the mirror, and every fur who patronized the establishment on any sort of regular basis took it to heart. In the true spirit of any good Burghish pub, the only thing you weren’t allowed to be at MacLean’s was judgemental.

For a Friday evening, the quartet of friends had gotten extremely lucky with their timing. They quickly swept into an open booth before the place could really start to fill up. Devon ordered the first round, and Luka welcomed the burn of the tequila.

The alcohol loosened him up surprisingly quickly, to the point where he barely even hesitated when Alain brought up the point of the evening.

“So, talk to us, Stripes. What’s up with you?”

“A lot, actually,” Luka admitted. “I... Look, you guys know me, right?”

“As well as anyfur does, I guess,” Devon shrugged.

The badger swallowed a massive gulp of his beer, willing the warmth in his stomach to force his nerves down. “So, like... fuck.”

“Luka, dude. Dude.” The badger looked back up to meet Gene’s gaze. “You know we’re not gonna fuckin judge you for anything, and least of all here. You can tell us.”

He took a deep breath. “Okay, so, there’s this boy...”

The three friends sat attentively, soaking up the story Luka told with varying expressions ranging from understanding to delighted surprise and back again, and by the time Luka got to the end of unburdening his soul the group was into their fourth round and all were nudging past “tipsy” and headed for “smashed.”

Luka drained the dregs out of his glass into his maw, and tapped the empty glass thoughtfully on the tabletop as he finished up his tale. “Yeah, so... that’s pretty much it.”

“Damn,” Devon said. “Who knew our badger boy was bi?”

“Fuckin’ good fer you,” Alain borderline shouted, his tail twitching behind him drunkenly. “And fuck im if he don’t wanna look at you or whatever. Yer more than good enough for him.”

Luka blushed, but didn’t hush his friend.

Gene was thoughtful, the red panda rubbing his chinfur thoughtfully as he processed. “Maybe you just, like, need to get it out of your system? Find some fur to have a good time with, forget that goat.”

“Ibex,” Devon corrected.

“Youbex,” Alain countered.

“That’s what I said.”

“Shutup,” Gene replied. “Like, it can’t hurt, right? You’re not a virgin, are you?”

“Nooo...” Luka hedged.

“Okay, so it doesn’t have to be all important or anything. Just get your head cleared.”

The badger huffed. “Okay. Let’s say that even if I did agree with you, how the heck am I supposed to do that? My whole problem is that I can’t talk to random furs, and even if I did have spare money lying around it’s not like sex work is somehow just legal if you ask nicely.”

Devon shook his head, and then seemed to regret it. “No, no,” he interjected, a paw holding his head steady, “Nothing like that, dude. You can ju—like, go—go use the bathroom.”

Luka scowled. “I’m not jerking off in a pub bathroom, Devon, what the fuck?”

Gene pushed the stoat over in the booth, where he lay giggling gently as the room swam around him. “Not that, me badger brother. There’s a secret hiding at MacLean’s. One you’re too innocent and sweet to know about.”

“I, um... thank you?”

The red panda grinned and leaned in conspiratorially. “Look at the bathrooms.” Luka craned his neck slightly to see the short hallway where the doors to the bathrooms were, as they always had been. Two on either side marked with the traditional “Males” and “Females” signage, but because MacLean’s was what it was, in between was a single occupancy toilet for those who didn’t feel like they fit on either side.

“What about ‘em?”

“The middle toilet’s got that indicator on it, right?”

“Obviously, yeah. ‘Occupied.’ What about it?”

Gene rolled his eyes. “I’m gettin’ there, keep your pants on. That middle toilet has a secret. You can slide the toilet paper holder to the side, there’s a glory hole hidden in it.”

Luka’s eyes went wide. “You’re shittin’ me.”

Gene shook his head. “I’m not. Goes right into the wall of the first stall in the males’ bathroom. If you’re feelin’ frisky, you just watch the middle door. If the indicator’s red for a while, you go in the stall, and if the hole is open that means some fur is in there open for business. Slide ‘em some cash, and bam.”

Luka withdrew, worried. “That can’t be legal.”

Gene shrugged. “It ain’t, but then again neither is the weed, but MacLean don’t care much about that. Just be discreet, treat other furs well, and nobody’s likely to turn you in for anything. It’s just furs willing to hookup and furs willing to have hookups.”

Luka wrung his large paws together anxiously. “I... I still don’t know...”

His friend shrugged. “Hey, no fur's gonna force you to do anything. Just thought you should know, in case you’re interested.” He glanced over to where Devon was still laying with his head halfway in the sleeping Alain’s lap. “I gotta get these two back to the dorms before Devon’s completely useless.”

“You need a paw?”

“Nah, it’s not the first time.”

Luka stood and gave the red panda a surprisingly gentle hug. “Thank you, Gene. I really needed this.”

“Anytime, Stripes. And thanks for trusting us. With any luck, these two asses will remember it tomorrow.”

---

Luka sat in the booth for a long time afterwards, his delayed homework completely forgotten back in his dorm room, nursing a soda and trying to corral his thoughts. There was a lot for him to work through.

I’m bi. Or at least, I think I am.

He’d never actually had that thought before, not using the actual term. It always felt like a very definite, very rigid sort of thing, but now that he’d actually admitted it to his friends and heard it said back to him, it wasn’t as scary. If anything, it actually felt comforting to the badger to have a term to hang on to. It made the idea that he was crushing over a certain male ibex more manageable.

The only question now was what was he going to do about it? Luka was just sober enough to realize the wisdom that he needed to find a way to get over Ian, to allow himself to stop obsessing from afar. But by the same token, he was juuuuust drunk enough to give serious consideration to the rest of Gene’s suggestion as well. He found himself consistently glancing to the back of the bar, where the restrooms waited. They’d always just been toilets before, but now that he knew of this supposed secret it was dug in at the edge of his mind like a splinter. Now there was something forbidden there, something licentious. Despite his comparative innocence, Luka couldn’t deny the appeal.

And unless he’d missed something, the middle door had been displaying the red “occupied” tag over the door latch for a while now...

Maybe Gene was just pulling my tail, he pondered absently. I suppose I could at least look to prove if he was telling the truth or not.

Luka suddenly discovered that his paw was in his pocket, playing idly with the few loose bills he had in there with his student ID and his keys.

I’m sure it’s not even open.

And wouldn’t that be a relief? To be perfectly honest, the whole idea of casual, anonymous sex was something completely foreign to the badger. It felt dangerous. It felt forbidden. But suddenly the thought wouldn’t leave him alone.

Maybe it is. Then what?

The lingering warmth in his gut and fuzziness in his senses gave him the impetus his brain could never manage on its own. Luka stood, setting his glass firmly down on the table. Before he could second-guess himself, Luka started off to the bathrooms. As usual, furs split ahead of him, eager to clear a path, but he scarcely noticed.

The male bathroom was mercifully empty. The smell of soap and scent-inhibitor being blown around the room weren’t quite enough to mask the smell of all manner of bodily releases, but it helped greatly. Luka opened the large, handicapped-accessible stall and darted in, trying to control his shaking paws.

In the rear wall, there was a round, metal plug cover set in the wall, ostensibly for drain cleanout access, but now it was slid to the side just far enough to show light through a mostly-obscured hole.

Oh fuck, it’s real. It’s actually fucking real...

What the hell do I do?

Luka felt like a complete idiot just standing in the stall staring at the wall waiting for some sort of instruction sheet, or maybe a button prompt he could hit to start the next cutscene—but the only thing he could notice was his own racing heartbeat.

With nothing else to try, he reached out and tapped a claw against the circular cover plate.

The answer came nearly instantly.

“Lookin’ for a good time?”

Luka felt blood race to his cheeks in embarrassment that he was actually doing this, and an equal rush of blood to his nethers at the sultry voice. It walked a strange line between masculine and feminine, it was husky but breathy at the same time. It was clearly some fur putting on a voice, but it was absolutely having the intended effect on the badger.

“Y—yeah,” he managed to rasp out, still scared of being overheard.

The cover slid just a little bit further to the side. Not nearly enough to see through or access with any body parts, but clearly enough for a fur to pass a bill through. The message was obvious, even to the first-timer.

Luka fumbled, his paws feeling overlarge and clumsy, but fished out a rumpled twenty and fed it through the slot, where it disappeared quickly.

The plate slid fully open, revealing a smooth hole in the wall, between 3-4 inches in diameter, the rim covered with some sort of foam rubber or tape to prevent anyfur catching anything precious on the edges. From his taller-than-average vantage point, it was clear that the structure of the wall had been cut away in favor of a single steel plate thin enough to provide easy access for whatever mystery fur was occupying the middle chamber, though from his side the illusion was seamless.

The only other thing he could see was a tawny fluff, most likely chest or belly fur—impossible to identify.

“Let’s see the goods, hon.”

Reminded of why he was there, Luka shook himself back to the moment and fumbled with his jeans again, this time popping the button on the third try and letting his fly spring open. Luka immediately felt a wave of relief, the pressure of his intensely hard cock no longer trapped within his jeans as it sprang free into the cool air of the bathroom.

Nothing left but to go for it...

As tall as he was, Luka had to widen his stance and lower his hips just enough to feed his shaft through the hole. He’d never in his life felt this exposed before, displayed like a piece of meat to somefur he couldn’t even see. Would they think he was weird-looking? Maybe his tool was just too big for whatever species was over there, or smelled bad or something?

His hips met the tiled wall as the badger’s whole body shook nervously. From the other side he heard a gasp, and he grimaced, expecting the worst.

The gasp was quickly followed by a quiet coo of delight, and Luka felt the first featherlight touch of a paw on his member. Luka gave a gasp of his own, groaning at the teasing and suddenly, desperately aware of how much he needed to get off.

“Oh hon...” the mystery voice said, barely audible over the background hubbub of the bar, “this is... gorgeous...”

Whoever it was, they sounded eager, needy—not something Luka ever expected to hear because of him. It had to have been a mistake. But it wasn’t, because now whoever was over there had both paws on his cock and was stroking him slowly but firmly.

“This is going to be so nice...”

Luka panted as he felt a fluttering over the tip of his dick—it could only be from a tongue. Was this stranger really about to blow him? I guess he was expecting something to happen, but Luka never would have been able to guess what it would be.

The badger moaned, pressing his hips harder against the tile as he felt himself slipping slowly into a warm, soft wetness. He could hear the sound of a needy moan—no, he could feel that moan vibrating up his shaft along a dexterous tongue.

Luka completely forgot where he was. Time passed without meaning. He was living in an isolated bubble of touch and sound, his eyes shut as he focused on the necessary senses. His anonymous partner was taking him so deep—Luka never thought he could feel this—but no noise of discomfort or displeasure came from the other side. In fact, everything Luka could glean from his experience pointed to his partner being extremely eager with their work. The soft moans were coming more frequently, high-pitched but husky. The movement of lips and tongue never stopped or slowed—if anything they seemed to pick up in intensity, becoming fast and desperate.

“Fuck,” Luka panted against the tile, “fuck, oh goddess fuck I’m so close. I’m—I can’t—”

The mouth on his shaft popped free, replaced by those soft paws, just long enough for the mystery fur to moan back.

“Do it, big guy. Come for me. I need it.”

Something in Luka’s mind clicked. Something in that voice, in that desperate plea... It was all the badger could take. His hips bounced off the wall with dull, muted slaps as his cock began to jerk. He bit his lip to stop himself from crying out loud, hard enough that he swore he was about to bite clean through.

Luka felt each pulse as it drove down his cock and out. He felt the tongue and mouth convulse and shift with each gulp and swallow. On the verge of blacking out, Luka finally felt the mouth release him. His shaft pulsed wetly in the naked air a few times more before finally going slack. His knees desperately wanted to go slack as well.

Withdrawing his now thoroughly-emptied rod from the glory hole, Luka could hear the fur panting as they caught their breath, occasionally coughing from the experience despite their obvious skill.

The voice that met Luka’s ear was slightly raspier, which would make sense after how he’d used their throat as he did, but it was just enough of a change to connect some dots.

“Have fun, big guy? I know I did.”

Big guy...

“Ian?!”

Luka could hear a soft thud as a body hit the far wall of the center restroom. Unable to resist, afraid that the ibex—if it was him in there—might have hurt himself or fallen or something, Luka knelt and committed the biggest faux-pas of glory holes: he looked through.

It was Ian. The ibex was sitting on the floor against the far wall, eyes wide and panicked at having been identified. “No,” he muttered, “no, no, no... Luka?!” As Luka’s face came into view through the hole, Ian drew his knees up to his chest and started rocking, face buried in his arms. “Nooo, no, not you, why...”

“Ian, are you okay?”

The ibex didn’t answer, but Luka could see enough to tell that he likely wasn’t injured. He could also see that the caprine boy had his pants down around his knees, most likely enjoying their shared time as much as Luka had. He could see that Ian’s shirt was hanging open, showing off the vibrantly-colored wings. Despite his eyes being hidden, Luka could just see glints of wetness on Ian’s forehead and horns, streaks of cum leftover from the most unreal and intense experience of Luka’s life. He could see a sheen of wetness on Ian’s thighs.

What he couldn’t see was the ibex’s penis—because where Luka expected to see it instead he was met with a set of glistening lips and tender, pink folds in their place.

Luka could feel questions developing in the back of his mind, but he had a priority at the moment.

“Ian, say something, please?”

The response was muttered: “Why did it have to be you... I’ve fucked everything up...”

Luka grunted as he stood back up and dressed as quickly as he could. He washed his paws for good measure and exited the restroom quickly, only to stand before the center doorway and rap his knuckles on the door’s surface.

“I-hey, um... It’s me. Please open the door?” The badger’s large ears could pick up the sound of running water and the paper towel dispenser, but no response. “Ian? Please?”

The latch clicked, nearly silent in the background noise, and the lock indicator changed from red to green.

Taking the invitation, Luka opened the door just enough to slide into the restroom and locked it behind himself. Ian sat on the closed toilet seat lid, denim shorts returned to their proper place on his hips, shirt still hanging open as he slumped, head in his paws. His headfur and muzzle were damp from their hasty cleaning in the sink, but Luka could still just pick out fresh, damp lines as the smaller boy shed a stray tear.

“Um... Ian? W—what’s wrong?” Ian didn’t look up. “I—Look, whatever it is, I’m sorry. If I’m just—I didn’t... If I’d known, I never—”

“No, Luka, no.” Ian’s voice was soft, the typical gruff edge missing from it. It... it made sense to Luka now. And it still seemed perfect for Ian. “It’s not you, hon. Not at all. I—” he sighed. “This just wasn’t how I wanted to meet you. I wanted to... I don’t know, at least talk to you first, you know? Do things right?”

“Do what right?” The badger’s head was spinning. “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Of course!” Ian finally looked up, surprised. “Was that not, like, at least sort of obvious?”

“No...” Luka admitted. “Not to me, not at all.”

“I came to school this year determined to say something. The first day I tried to break the ice, and you froze up so fast I just knew I’d given you the impression that I was some sort of huge man-slut or something, so I tried to tone things down, show you I was more... normal, I guess. I’d wave at you, and you’d look away. Or if I passed by you’d have this look on your muzzle like you were gonna be sick or something. But I couldn’t help myself.” The doorframe creaked gently as Luka leaned heavily on it, disbelief plain on his face as Ian continued.

“I made sure to go through the quad almost every day on my way to class, just so I’d get a chance to see you. I ate in the cafeteria when I knew you’d be there, so I could walk by and maybe find an opening to say something. It... It’s pathetic, I know. I feel like a total stalker.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me...” Luka sighed. Ian cringed slightly, but Luka’s face wasn’t disturbed or disgusted at all—if anything, the badger looked mystified. “I... I can’t believe it. That’s my thing.”

“Your thing?”

“Being a creepy stalker!” Ian’s eyes went wide and Luka slapped himself in the forehead with a broad paw. “No, no, not like that, I mean...” He stopped babbling and took a breath. “That’s how I felt about you!”

“Come on...”

“I’m serious! I’ve been obsessed with you, but you’re so gorgeous and stylish and athletic and... and... and I’m not. I’m nothing like you. I’m huge and overweight and clumsy and nerdy. I never thought I’d even be worthy of talking to you cause you’re so out of my league.”

Both furs soaked in the silence, searching each other’s faces for any sign that they were getting led on or getting their tail pulled, until finally Ian muttered, “Well, shit.”

“Yeah...”

“Are we fucking stupid?”

“Yeah, I think we might be.”

“Goddess...”

Luka ran a paw through his rough headfur. “Ian, can I ask you something, like, intimate?”

Ian laughed. “I think we’re past that, sure.”

“What are you doing here?”

The ibex frowned. “Having a good time?”

“No, I mean... Maybe I should say I’m surprised that you’d be here and not in a relationship already. Like, how in Catucia are you not taken?”

“Aaaahhh... yeah. You’re sweet hon, really. But I’m a gay ibex.”

“Okay.”

“And gay furs tend to have a preference.”

“Sure...”

“...a preference on what you have in your pants?”

“Oooooh. Fuck.” It finally dawned on Luka.

“Yeah. Furs were eager to get to know me for a while when I was a new face, but the first two times I tried to get intimate with somefur, well...” Ian gestured broadly to his crotch with both paws. “It didn’t go great.” He sighed. “After that, I kinda just decided to keep to anonymous encounters when I needed a release. It was just easier, safer. I didn’t have to get hurt that way. It didn’t stop me from catching a crush, as much as it seems inevitable that it’ll go badly.”

“It’s not inevitable,” Luka blurted out. “I mean, I’d never—um, I’m not gay.”

Ian raised an eyebrow suggestively. “No?”

“Well... Not entirely. I guess I was straight before, but I think you sorta turned me bi.”

“What do you mean you guess?”

Luka shuffled his footpaws awkwardly and blushed. “I’ve never really had a crush before...”

“Oh my. You’re so sweet, Luka. I had no idea.”

“I just can’t help but wonder, though, why me? I mean, you’re hot as a summer’s day, I know why somefur would be into you, but me?”

Ian stood, taking a step closer to Luka, staring deeply into his eyes. It was unnerving, but Luka couldn’t break the contact. “For almost a year now, I’ve been imagining myself getting swept up in your arms. You’re big, but you move with such grace and gentleness. You’re always aware of how you affect the furs around you. You’re smart, like, really smart! You’ve got your life together, whereas I’m... well, I’m sort of a fucking mess.”

“Seriously? You?”

The ibex giggled, and the light sound ran up Luka’s spine into his brain. “Honestly I’m not sure I’d still be in school if I weren’t doing so many favors for professors and other classes. I’m barely ever capable of telling somefur ‘no’. I hate that I have no impulse control.” He gestured broadly at the now-covered hole in the wall. “Doing this is how I make most of my money because I can’t keep a job or stick to a budget. I see something cute, or tasty, and I just have to have it.”

“Does... does that include me?”

Luka couldn’t believe he’d just said that out loud. The alcohol had largely been purged from his brain—between the sobering shock and the intense sexual release his mind had cleared dramatically... which meant he couldn’t blame his words on the buzz. This one was all him. Maybe the insane method of breaking the ice between them was working.

Ian reached up and stroked a paw over Luka’s dark-striped cheek. “Oh, hon. It completely does.” The paw faltered, nearly withdrawing. “Is that okay?”

Luka raised his arm, setting his much larger paw over Ian’s and holding it in place against his muzzle. “I’ve wanted to get close to you for months.”

The ibex’s paw tugged his muzzle, just barely hard enough to be felt, down towards his own. Luka didn’t resist.

The two met, muzzles melding and splitting around each other, lips seeking and tasting and touching and speaking without words.