FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A half-hour’s drive outside of the sleepy southwestern town of New Branch, the sun was dipping over the edge of the Sedean desert, setting the sky alight with tails of red and gold. Mesas stretched out across the landscape, leaving rivers of darkness between, seemingly dancing in the haze of residual summer heat leaching back out of the rocks into the cooling atmosphere. No birds sounded; the only ones visible were riding thermals so high above they looked like pinpricks against the cloudless ceiling.

Below the tableau, observing the splendor in respectful quiet, were two teenaged canine boys—Chase and Nate. They sat on the front of Chase’s old, rusted car, sipping absently at large styrofoam cups of soda from the corner gas station back in town, wordlessly watching the countdown to the end of the summer.

Chase lounged casually, laying back against the windshield with a soccer ball tucked under his head as a makeshift pillow. The doberman looked thoughtfully into the middle distance, the low light catching his blue/brown fur coat in a way that highlighted the muscles built up in his slim frame. He was built like a runner, and his simple jean shorts and t-shirt matched his energy.

Beside him, his friend Nate sat cross-legged on the hood, the slightly shorter chocolate lab closely matched enough in frame that any observer could tell they shared a sport. The lab’s fur was shaggy and soft where his friend’s was sleek and close, but both were comfortable in the warmth of the evening as they sat in silence. Indeed, there was nothing to do and little to say, the best friends simply relaxing as the final daylight minutes of their summer freedom waned and slipped away.

Chase set his soda down and sighed, letting his blue eyes drift upwards to the bruised sky. “You ever get the feeling like you’re waiting on something? Like something big is gonna happen soon and everyone just forgot to tell you about it?” he asked, more to himself than to his friend. The labrador responded by snatching the soccer ball from behind his friend’s head, which fell against the glass with a dull thunk. “Ow,” Chase deadpanned. “Prick.”

Ignoring his friend’s lighthearted protest, Nate lay back against the windshield as well, tossing the ball into the air above his head and catching it. “Uh, yeah dumbass; school starts tomorrow. But I’m pretty sure someone did tell you about that.”

Chase rolled his eyes. “Puto. How the hell could I forget about that? That’s why we’ve been out the whole day today in the first place.” He waved a paw vaguely at the sky. “You know, ‘capturing misspent youth’ or something like that.”

Nate fumbled a catch and recovered the ball from his chest. “Senior year, bro. Class of ninety-fuckin-nine. You ready?”

“Hell no. I’m not even sure what ready would look like. I just want to get to soccer season already.” Chase’s ears pricked forward as though looking for a sound that should be there but wasn’t. “I don’t know, mano, I just feel... weird, I guess. Unsettled. Like something’s coming. Or, like... Like I’m in the right place at the wrong time.”

Nate just stared vacantly at his friend. “Dude, are you high or something? Since when do you go all philosophical on me?”

“You’d know if I were high, we’ve been together all day.” Chase shook his head. “I don’t know, dog, it’s weird. It’s like we’re in some kind of stage between times. Old enough to drive, but not old enough to have anywhere to go. Not adults who have to think about the future yet, but not really kids, either, you know?”

“Maybe,” the lab just shrugged, spinning the ball half-heartedly on a finger. “I might not be the best dog to recognize that feeling. I grew up in New Branch and this town has always felt like it’s been lost between times. It’s just sorta normal now. Nothing really changes—or it hasn’t until recently. Even that feels kinda different now. Maybe you’re kind of picking up on that?”

As if to prove the point, Chase’s gaze turned towards the old abandoned mine that originally helped put New Branch on the map; one of dozens out here in the hills around the area. Relics of the gold rush, they were the reason New Branch existed at all, back when it was a railroad hub to support the mining companies, and when the rush ended and the companies left with the profits it faded into obscurity just as quickly as it sprang up.

But as Nate had alluded to, the town that never managed to gain a population over five thousand was seeing an influx of late. There was new construction expanding near the town limits, and for the first time in over 70 years there was activity around the mine—new fencing being erected, pickup trucks emblazoned with “Entec Industries” on the doors parked around the entrance. To Chase it smelled like another gold rush, complete with exploitation, and he wondered if this was what it had been like for the people in the area back then.

“Or, I mean,” Nate continued, “maybe this is just what it’s like being a teenager?”

Chase sighed, shaking his head. “For as far as I would know, sure, dude. All I do know is that it feels like we’re just sitting here waiting for anything to happen. I feel stuck.”

“I’m just stuck to this damn windshield,” Nate quipped flatly. “Sure would be nice for this fucking heat to break. I’m so over summer, dude.” Chase reached over and snatched the ball mid-throw, leaving the lab with his shaggy brown paws in empty air over his face. “There’s plenty of things to look forward to, you know. Like getting out of this broke-ass town for starters.”

“We’re fuckin’ always looking forward, though. I’m not even sure it’s ever gonna happen at this rate.”

“Nah, we’re gonna do it,” Nate said, quiet confidence in his voice. “That ball is our ticket out of this dump.” Chase snorted, but Nate ignored him, “I’m fuckin serious, bro. The plan hasn’t changed: we’re gonna play college ball, get some looks, and then go overseas and play in Europe or something. You’ll make enough money that your mom won’t have to work two jobs anymore, and my siblings can have, like, a car and stuff when they grow up. Simple as that.”

A wry smile broke the edges of Chase’s muzzle as he watched a lone wispy cloud overhead, slowly turning purple in the fading light. “Shit, you make it sound so easy.”

“If you want it bad enough, why can’t it be that easy?”

Chase didn’t really have anything to say against that, so the two lapsed into an easy silence as the sky grew saturated and dark, with stars beginning to appear one at a time in the vast expanse.

“The one thing I will miss for sure when we leave is this view,” Nate admitted.

“Yeah...” Chase had to agree, still feeling a sense of awe at the natural beauty. The pair simply existed together until the silence was broken by the slurp of Chase’s straw running out of soda. “I guess we should head home,” he said, “kind of an early morning starting tomorrow.” Nate agreed, and the two climbed back into the old car—which started with a minimal amount of protesting—and they set off back into town proper.

The outskirts of New Branch were a mismatched quilt of half-completed roads, in-process subdivisions with skeletons of houses standing in the moonlight, all in a race to accommodate an oncoming glut of population the town stood no chance of supporting in its current state. Everywhere you looked, the edges of town were construction projects, infrastructure, and growth; but once you passed the city limits you saw New Branch for what it had been for the past fifty years.

Old neighborhoods filled with equally old houses, spread luxuriously in half-acre lots you could never get away with in modern real estate. Stores built in the baby boom years—many boarded up, but the buildings still stood stubbornly against time, merely waiting on new tenants. Parks with out-of-date playgrounds that still saw use despite arguably being borderline unsafe for children. Covered pavilions and stands badly in need of paint near the rough dirt baseball field, and a public pool that spent nearly as much time closed for repairs as it spent open.

Nate barely paid heed to any of it; his family came during the Gold Rush to work in the mines and never managed or chose to leave. To him, this was just how the town had always been and probably would always be, a sort of capsule of a time when nostalgia made sense. Chase, however, felt a particular kind of melancholy when he looked at the town. He’d been nine when he and his mother had moved from the capital to New Branch, not old enough to understand the economic realities, but he understood how different things felt. And now at seventeen, about to start his senior year of high school, he felt more sorrow for the sake of the town that he now called home than anything else. A town founded in the race for wealth, left behind to rot after all that wealth had been plucked from the ground and shipped away to somewhere greener and more promising. Chase thought he could sympathize with it.

Chase pulled up to Nate’s house and the two bumped fists and bid each other farewell. As his friend jogged up the scattered stone walk to his front door Chase was struck by how much life seemed to exude from the Cerada household. The home had warm, yellow siding and toys constantly strewn about the yard, and through the windows Chase could clearly see the outlines of Nate’s younger siblings running about. It felt lived-in, welcoming. The feeling followed him as he drove away, but faded into the quiet background of a sleepy small town until it left him alone in the car, driving past single-family homes nestled among permaculture and desperately maintained lawns that barely survived.

Chase passed the pharmacy and turned into his parking lot, subconsciously wishing for the light and life of his prior stop. A bougie city might call these sandwiched dwellings “brownstones” or something pretentious to boost the rent, but there was no point in New Branch. Every fur in town knew there were no upscale rental properties—you ended up in places like this because you were struggling. It was a congregation of divorcees, minimum-wage-earners, transplants, and folks who didn’t speak the dominant language being quietly pushed to the margins of society, and Chase and his mother were just another one of those familiar stories.

He parked in the driveway and let himself in the door quietly, knowing his mother would likely already be asleep. In fact, she hadn’t even made it to bed tonight, Julie Ramos had crashed on the couch, her empty dinner plate on the coffee table in front of her, tv still on and muted. Chase’s heart ached. He felt like he barely even saw his mother anymore between her two jobs, and even when she was around she was exhausted. He could only just recall the Before Times; back when his mother was vibrant and lively, back when she was a defense lawyer motivated to fight for justice. He thought his mom was an honest-to-goddess superhero back then. Now... Chase threw an afghan over his mother as gently as he could and whispered “Te amo, mama” before heading back to his own room down the short hallway.

Last year, he thought solemnly as he stripped out of his street clothes. Maybe I can finally make a clean break with this place, start something new for once. His gaze drifted over his cramped desk, covered in a combination of schoolwork and a precarious stack of packets, letters, and pamphlets from colleges enticing high school seniors to apply. Most weren’t even opened—Chase barely saw the point. He didn’t really have a plan of study or anything like that, he expected to just do some kind of general arts track at a place where he could play soccer, which was obviously his only yardstick to measure a potential school against. The pile had a noticeable lack of letter-sized envelopes in it that might contain any sort of acceptance letter, but Chase was undeterred. No worthwhile school would be making any admissions decisions until the new year at least. He just had to be patient for a little bit longer to see what kind of change was coming his way.

It had to be coming soon.

---

Chase stared blankly at the cold, unfeeling locker door.

Welp, summer is well and truly dead now. Long live summer...

New locker, same hallways. New combination, same hollow clunk as it unlatched. New year, same routine. Everything new was old again.

Satisfied that his new locker operated acceptably, he trudged to his first hour of the new year, History. The hallway was lively, the energy and buzz of students seeing each other for the first time in weeks or months was still fresh, and the groups of friends were tightly bunched enough that it wasn’t difficult to find a path through the crowd. The various alcoves and corners were abuzz with small conversations about nothing of importance that all caught Chase’s pointed ears as he passed.

“Oh goddess, can you believe they painted the cafeteria in that? It’s like someone bled all over the wall.”

“Yeah, so my info was typo’d. My locker number didn’t even exist. I was looking for it for twenty minutes before I went and made them double-check it.”

“Well of course the speed bump dented your car, puto, that’s what you get for lowering it without a kit.”

Weaving with a practiced grace, Chase made his way towards the classroom with his backpack on his shoulders—self-modified with an elastic cargo net stretched over it and stitched roughly to the corners so that it could hold his trusty soccer ball in place. Despite the bulk, he navigated the crowds with ease. As soon as he passed the classroom’s threshold he heard a voice directed to him.

“Yo, Chase!”

Hearing his name, Chase looked and caught sight of Nate around the center of the classroom, with his backpack on the desk to his right. He indicated it, and Chase took the hint that it was saved for him to occupy. The two friends claimed their seats and stowed their belongings underneath.

“Daaamn, am I glad we get first hour together at least. I’m gonna need someone to keep me awake,” Nate sighed.

“Dude, I got you home early specifically so you could go to sleep, not stay up. Que chinga?”

“I ain’t saying today,” the lab protested, “just in general. You know how boring history is to me.” The class began to settle down as the teacher walked in and began passing out the roll form and a stack of syllabuses. “Hey, you were wanting something new to happen, right? How about that?”

“Who what now?”

Still leaning in, Nate merely nodded his muzzle across Chase’s line of sight towards the seat ahead and to the right of the doberman. As suggested, seated in the indicated desk was someone Chase had never seen before. The cougar boy stuck out immediately—there weren’t many felines in New Branch—and he looked every bit as uncomfortable as one might expect being unique in a new town. If pressed, Chase would admit that the feline wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes; he would clearly do well with the girls in town. Five-foot nine or ten—it was hard to tell with him hunched like he was trying not to stand out—and with sandy fur and black tips on his ears, paws, and tail. He was even built like a runner or something like that, lean but obviously muscled.

Even as Chase noticed these things, he also noticed how his clothes looked high quality and seemed to fit his body more tightly than the typical baggy fashions popular among high school kids these days. His backpack looked a lot nicer than most of the other students here. Even his shoes were some kind of brand Chase had never heard of. They looked expensive, too.

Welp, Chase thought, he obviously isn’t from around here. That much is pretty obvious.

Some said that companies from out west were doing exploratory work in the hills, some said they were some kind of new techie boom looking for cheap land to buy up: nobody could agree on who it was but everyone seemed to agree that some sort of population rush was coming soon. So far it had been noticeable, but subtle—at least as a high school kid. Even one or two new students a year stood out noticeably. For someone like Chase who had had more or less the same classmates for the last 11 years or so, this new student was yet another harbinger of something new, something bigger than anyone here was ready for. A portent of something modern intruding into their world that would change New Branch, maybe forever.

Well, that, or he was just being overly dramatic.

At least this time someone’s parents moved them here at the start of the school year, he thought, thinking back to the pitiable experience a poor freshman girl had last year getting moved in two-thirds of the way through the semester. Talk about getting thrown into the deep end, this kid looked like he was having it hard enough as it was. Hunched over, ears low and held back, and his tan tail twitched relentlessly in nervousness, the black tip darting like some kind of restless insect. Chase found himself almost mesmerized by it to the point that the girl behind him had to poke him in the shoulder to get him to pay attention and take the roll sheet being passed around.

Muttering an apology, Chase took it and printed his name. Curious, he counted back the names he knew with each occupied seat, finally coming to an unknown name that matched the seat now occupied by the feline:

“Daniel Gibson...” he muttered to himself as he passed the sheet forward to the girl in front. Almost as if he knew Chase was saying his name under his breath, Daniel turned and swept the room, his hazel eyes bright and piercing. Chase didn’t know what he was looking for; maybe a friendly face, but as soon as his eyes found Chase they stopped and zeroed in, focused on Chase—no, not at Chase, but under him. Chase glanced down to see what had caught his attention, and when he looked back up Daniel had re-focused along with the rest of the class on the teacher’s lesson. The only thing of note in the area was Chase’s backpack, leaving him fairly perplexed about what might have been in the new kid’s view.

A few minutes into the class, however, Chase had his attention caught by a slight wave of a tawny paw. Looking up, Daniel was looking back at him and lifted his notebook so he could see it. The new fur had just written Soccer? in the corner of the page, and pointed down at his backpack—attached to which was, of course, the omnipresent soccer ball that Chase basically forgot was a separate entity most days. He nodded as Daniel hurriedly pulled the notebook back down and scribbled with sudden energy, holding it back up to Chase’s view:

When are tryouts?

---

The buzz in the hallways between periods was almost palpable. Every corner Chase went past seemed to have a conversation revolving around the mysterious new arrival. He supposed that this is what passed for a big event in a town as small as New Branch.

“You seen the new kid yet?”

“A cougar! That’s kinda wild, there haven’t been any felines in town since the Engles moved away like six years ago.”

“I heard he was from way out west, in Pomona?”

“Is he cute?”

“Dude, he’s got a tattoo!”

“Seriously?! Did his parents know? Isn’t he just sixteen?”

Chase closed his locker with a weary sigh to reveal Nate’s brown muzzle standing behind it. “Okay, dude, I gotta know your opinion at this point. You’ve had two classes with him now, right?”

If his eyes rolled any harder, Chase would have had to pursue them down the hallway. “Hi, Nate. Nice to see you, too. How’s your first day back in school been?”

“Oh fuck you, bro. Just give me this, I know you talked to him, right?”

Chase supposed he couldn’t blame his best friend—or the school in general. A genuinely new thing to talk about was rare as hell in New Branch, and the student population was going to milk it for all it was worth. And Nate was perceptive enough to put the proper clues together to assume that Chase and this new cat boy had at least had a conversation.

True to expectations, as soon as Daniel had made the connection between Chase and soccer he made the effort to sit next to the doberman in second-period biology so they could be properly introduced. Chase wasn’t used to outgoing energy like Daniel’s, but the cougar had an infectious energy that wore away Chase’s cynicism in short order.

He shrugged. “He’s nice. Apparently he’s a junior. Surprisingly chatty once you meet him. Family just moved to town this week, so he’s still pretty shellshocked. Suuuuuper into soccer and wants to try out for the team.”

“No shit? What’s he play?”

“Forward, I think.”

“Left or right?”

“I dunno, I think he said he was left-footed.”

Nate sighed, “Well, Riley won’t be happy about the competition. He might actually have to work at it this year for a change.”

Chase snorted. “I swear that rabbit’s never truly happy. He needs someone to push him anyway. New year, new team and all that.” Chase shut his locker with a dull thunk. “I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks.”

---

By the end of the first week, Daniel had identified Chase and Nate as a safe harbor who wouldn’t treat him like a new specimen to study. He sought them out after class, sat with them at lunch, and generally made a point of saying hello to them when they passed in the mornings. True to form, he had found his way to Chase’s locker at the end of that Friday’s schedule.

“Hey, do you guys mind if I ask what you do for fun around here?” he asked curiously.

Nate raised an eyebrow. “What, you don’t find this place absolutely stimulating?”

Daniel put his paws up quickly, fear that he’d offended his new acquaintances written large on his face. “What, no, no! I’m sorry, fuck, I just wanted to know—”

Chase punched his now laughing friend in the shoulder. “Shit, dude. He’s just messin’ with you, Daniel. We all know this place is kinda shit compared to southern Pomona, of all places.”

Nate collected himself and gave Daniel a grin. “If you like sun, dirt, sun, running or hiking, sun, weird rocks, or sun; then this is the place to be.”

“We hang out at each other’s houses a lot, especially if we have to study or work on a project for something. Play some futsal in the atrium if the skaters aren’t using the benches. Get a burger if we have some spare cash. We spend a decent amount of time down at the LAN Cafe, it’s the closest thing we have in this town to a high school ‘spot’,” Chase recounted. “I guess the bookstore if you’re more, like, nerdy.”

Daniel snorted. “Reading books isn’t that nerdy. Also, this place actually has a network cafe?” he said, seemingly impressed.

“I know, right? In the middle of the fuckin’ Dust Bowl in bass-ackwards Sedea, we actually got high speed internet and a bunch of decent computers,” Nate said. “Owner’s a huge nerd, I think he just started the place so he’d have someone around he could be a nerd with, but it’s got tons of good games and even better air conditioning.”

“Damn, that sounds amazing on its own. I miss the ocean breeze. It’s damn hot here.”

Chase nodded as the trio made their way down the hall and out towards the courtyard. “Yeah, it’s either that or get stoned behind the library. That’s life in a small town for you.” He gave Daniel a sideways glance as he unhooked the corner of the cargo net from his backpack and loosed the soccer ball. “You, uh... Do you burn?”

Daniel just shrugged as Chase lofted the ball in his direction, trapping the ball and bumping it around with a footpaw. “I mean I grew up in So-Pom, so of course I’ve tried it, but it was never really my thing except for like, special occasions, you know? I prefer to be able to breathe easy. Lungs are kind of important for the game.”

Chase nodded, able to respect that response. “I can see that. I definitely never have, I just see the burnouts around here and it puts me off pretty hard. I just—” he cut off suddenly as his brain caught up with his mouth.

“You just...” Daniel prompted.

Chase blushed, slightly ashamed of himself. “I saw the tattoo and I kinda just wanted to make sure you weren’t, like, you know... a delinquent or something, right?”

Daniel gaped and burst out laughing. “Oh my ga-ha-ha-ha-awd, Chase.” He held up his left arm, showing the line art on the inner forearm, clear against the fur. “You saw this and thought, ‘Damn, this cat’s probably gonna end up in prison or something’, right?”

Despite his nervous laughter, Chase had actually been interested in the body art, he just didn’t know how to bring it up without sounding stupid. It was so simple, just a line-art of a sunset over a horizon, the rays shaded in hues of the rainbow around the arc. It wasn’t easy to see against his fur unless you looked up close, but once you did it stood out. “I mean... It’s not like you see a bunch of high school furs with ink, you know?”

Daniel chuckled and dropped his arm. “Yeah... My parents are pretty cool. And it’s not like I cause trouble or anything, so they let me get away with a bit more than some might.”

“Why a sunset?” Nate chimed in.

Daniel looked up, almost surprised, and Chase only just caught the way he rolled his arm in to cover his arm, like he was subconsciously hiding it. “One of my favorite things about home—well, my old home. I used to go down to the beach a lot. My friends and I would go surfing before school, or hang out in the mountains on the weekends sometimes. I always loved the times when the sun was low, it felt... I don’t know, it just felt good. The sky would turn so many colors, the kind you’d never see otherwise.”

Nate nodded, kicking the ball. “You gotta go out into the mesas sometime. The desert has some wild sunsets.”

“It really is beautiful,” Chase admitted, juggling the ball a few times and sending it towards Daniel. “At least you get that, otherwise you just moved to the asscrack of nowhere for nothing.”

Daniel flipped the ball up and balanced it on his footpaw almost absently as he sighed. “It’s for my dad’s job, of course. He’s got a big program with Entec, and they moved us out here. He could have come alone, but we didn’t really want to be separated until I finished school. That was just way too long to be apart.” The ball flicked back towards Nate. “It’s kind of a culture shock though, not gonna lie. I’ve never lived in a town this small before. Or anywhere so dry.”

“It kinda blows, dude,” Nate said, looping the ball up and over his own head before fumbling it and restarting. “We can’t fuckin’ wait to get out of here. Most folks can’t. Can’t figure out why all you newbies keep moving in.”

Daniel laughed. “Honestly, it’s all tech shit, apparently. The old gold mines might be empty, but there’s veins of other minerals that companies like Entec really want. The computer market is only going to grow from here out, dad says. ‘The New Millenium will be all computer based’ and whatnot.”

Chase got distant for a moment. “And what happens when it’s gone?” Daniel gave a confused look as he passed the ball on. “It happened to the gold, too, you know. Companies and industrialists took all the money and left this place to die.”

Daniel got quiet himself. “I wish I knew what to say. It’s all out of my paws, though my dad seems to think that he’ll be here for at least the next twenty years, so who really knows?”

Chase shook his head ruefully. “Damn, I can’t imagine actually staying here intentionally. I’m convinced I’ll never find anything good in this place.”

“Like I said, who really knows?” Daniel said with a wry smile. “You never know when something good will just show up out of nowhere.”

Furs of every stripe looked up as the locker room door opened hard enough to bang into the wall.

“IT’S SOCCER SEASON, BITCHES!” Chase yelled, almost skipping into the packed room. Several of the furs inside offered a cheer or a whoop in response, but the dog barely even noticed, already on his way to where his locker awaited. He weaved around bodies—there were nearly forty students trying out for the program this year, and the locker room could only barely accommodate that many at once. Thankfully things would clear out somewhat once the final rosters were set and the JV and varsity teams split up, but for now it was shoulder-to-shoulder.

“Well damn,” Nate commented as he pulled on a ratty t-shirt. “Someone’s raring to go.”

“Hell yeah. Bro, did you add even more holes to that thing?”

Nate grinned. “More holes means more lucky.”

“I guess I can’t argue with that logic,” Chase laughed, tossing his bookbag into a locker and giving Daniel a shoulder chuck in greeting. “How bout you?”

“Fuckin pumped,” Daniel agreed, a wide smile on his muzzle.

“Feel like you’ve got a shot?”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” the cougar replied confidently. “On the field is one place I’m not a new kid.”

“Vamos! That’s what I like to hear.” Chase shrugged his way out of his jeans, oblivious to anything going on around him, his whip-like tail still going like an airplane propeller. Daniel and Nate caught each other looking at the aggressively waving tail and shared a silent laugh at the overgrown-puppy-antics of their mutual friend.

Despite the cramped quarters, Chase was ready to go in what felt like mere moments. Shirt and shorts, shin pads, paw wraps—the doberman was jogging back out the door leaving his friends scrambling to keep up with his enthusiasm. Stepping out into the sun, feeling the grass under his claws, Chase took a moment to take in a deep breath. The somewhat-patchy pitch had been recently cut and still smelled strongly of cut grass, and despite the struggle of keeping anything green for long in the desert, the field looked good. Maybe someday they could have a nice turf field like Antima High had, but that was probably a long way off in the future, and there was something about the feel of grass and dirt underpaw that Chase wouldn’t trade for the world.

Dozens of players filtered out of the locker room and onto the pitch in small waves, until everyone finally assembled on the sideline. On the field, the group of coaches for the program—three varsity and two JV—conversed and compared notes on their clipboards, until the large ram in the center of the group checked his watch and nodded to another of the coaches.

“All right!” the stallion bellowed in a strong baritone that carried well over the murmur of restless teenagers. “Every fur, listen up!”

The students all scrambled to attention and pulled into a tighter half-circle as the ram stepped forward.

“Thank you, Coach Marcone,” he began. “You all are here to tryout for the soccer program. I see a lot of familiar faces, but for those who I don’t know yet, I am Coach Reede. It’s my job to put together the strongest program possible, so unlike middle school or summer leagues, there will not be a place for all of you. We have eighteen spots on the varsity program and fifteen for JV. Beyond that, we don’t have the space or the ability to manage more teammates. That being said, as coaches, we are looking for not just skilled players, but also those who are coachable, eager, flexible, and good teammates. It’s our job to turn you into Prospectors players, it’s your job to let us know if we can turn you into one.

“Over the course of this week, you’ll all work as a group. You will run drills together, go through conditioning together, and do skills breakouts together. I’m sure you all have an ideal position for yourselves in mind, but we’re still going to want you to try out different things so we can evaluate our options.

“We’re going to work you hard this week—don’t get discouraged by that. Just show us what you can do.”

Having said his piece, he turned and nodded at the stallion again, who stepped up and began ushering the players into formation.

“Let’s go, every fur up into lines! Ten across! Spread out!” He pointed at a senior, a large grey fox. “Dane Burton, front and center, show these pups how we get ready for practice.”

“Yes, coach!” Dane barked, taking his place to guide the group through calisthenics and stretches, after which they all set off on a couple of laps around the perimeter of the field.

The day that followed was a blur of various drills, stations, and workouts—surprisingly few of which actually involved a ball, as the coaching staff attempted to figure out what each players’ baseline was, and by extension, who had been putting in work during the offseason. As Chase high-stepped through a ladder drill, panting heavily, he saw Riley in front of him catch one of his large paws in the ladder and take a stumbling fall to the grass. The jackrabbit rolled with it to end on his back looking up at the doberman.

“Well... shit,” he said.

Chase chuckled and offered him a paw. “I wouldn’t sweat it, those ladders are never made for larger footpaws anyway. Coach already knows your footwork is fine.”

“I’m just glad I didn’t twist an ankle.”

Chase clapped him on the back as he headed back to the line and looked up to see Daniel making his run into the obstacle. The cougar moved fluidly, each paw placed with seeming precision as he moved left and right tapping his feet lightly in the middle of each rung. Chase had never seen a fur move like that, his upper body all stillness and grace as his feet churned. It was... impressive.

The half-pitch sprint came next. Chase’s time of seven and a half seconds wasn’t exactly stunning, though he did manage to take off two-tenths from last year’s time. Satisfied with that run, he watched the rest and cheered them on. Riley blitzed his run, comfortably setting the top time so far of all the prospects with a cocky grin as Coach called out a six-point-six. Nate ran a satisfactory time similar to Chase’s own, but he was curious to see how Daniel would fare. The cougar took his place at the line, body tensed and claws flexing out into the dirt as Coach Marcone called out his start. He was off so quickly Chase was surprised he didn’t leave a dust cloud behind.

Is he moving in slow motion or am I just seeing things weird? Chase thought to himself, watching in amazement. As with the ladder drill, Daniel moved sinuously, body low and pitched forward as he churned the ground with long, light strides. Chase swore he could see the cat’s muscles rippling in his thighs as he sprinted past, snapping back to full speed with a blink.

“Six six!” Marcone called out. Chase’s jaw dropped and Riley paled.

“Holy shit...” Nate gasped. “So much for Riley’s speed advantage I guess?”

Chase could only nod and shrug. “He looks good.” Chase coughed, catching himself. “Fast, I mean. He’s doing well.”

The final assessment of the day was a breakout passing drill, and the assembled prospects organized into a line of furs at center and one at each wing position. The center would make a pass to alternating wing players before breaking towards the goal. The outside lines had to receive the pass, track the running player, and try to hit them with as accurate of a pass as they could manage. The center player then had to try to hit one of several targets placed in the goal attached to the side and cross posts, and every fur would rotate through all three lines in turn. Chase always looked forward to this drill; he played half of his junior year at striker and if all else stayed equal would be the striker again this season, so this was a great chance to get a first look at the players he was likely to gel with in the upcoming season. It was also a very popular drill with the players because it was fun and a chance to really show off and compare themselves against each other.

The doberman’s first pass was to his left to a junior ringtail cat, Zack Graves. He was naturally right-footed, so passing with his left paw wasn’t his strongest suit, but he still managed to put a decently firm pass straight into Chase’s path which he could collect without breaking stride. Trying to push himself, Chase chipped his shot towards the upper target and just missed it, even though the ball was still a quality shot into the top of the net.

“Nice, Zack!” he called as he collected the ball from the goal. The ringtail jogged past him on his way to the right side line and bumped his forearm against Chase’s. “Tough to get a better one than that.”

Chase’s first effort as a winger was to Nate, and it wasn’t bad even though Nate did have to slow up so he didn’t overrun the pass, his shot just barely grazing the side of the wooden target board as it shot into the net. The next time Chase came up on the right side, he was paired with Jorge Sainz at center. The river otter was easy to hit with a pass, but being that he was a goalkeeper and not a shooter his kick went a good five feet over the crossbar and streaked into the backstop like a rocket.

“Hey, you’re getting closer!” Chase ribbed him.

“I just stop ‘em, I don’t shoot ‘em!” Jorge called back, laughing easily. “It’s up to you pendejos to make sure I get fat and lazy in goal this year.”

As he waited in line, Chase kept encouraging all the other furs who went, offering high-fives to all. With some quick math, he realized that his next turn through the line would be with Daniel, and he glanced over at the cougar. Daniel immediately noticed and met his gaze with a confident—almost cocky—grin.

Chase raised an eyebrow curiously.

Daniel nodded his head at his feet. Bring it, he mouthed.

Okay cocky cat, Chase thought to himself, grinning along. You wanna show off, let’s see what you got.

Taking a deep breath to center himself, Chase suddenly moved, paw thudding into the ball as he sent a hard pass about waist-high at the cougar before flashing into a sprint straight—not at the center of the goal, but at the far post instead.

Without so much as missing a beat Daniel deadened the pass on his thigh with casual ease, the ball dropping obediently at his footpaws. In the heartbeat the ball touched the grass, Daniel swept his sandy paw over it, crossing the ball over to his left as if jinking a defender on an end line run. The return pass was a firmly lofted arc, perfectly tracking Chase’s oblique path and crossing the box comfortably out of reach of a hypothetical goalie’s paws.

The doberman’s eyes went wide as he casually leaned his head forward to meet the cross that streaked into the top corner of the goal and thudded firmly into the center of the plywood target hanging there. More than a few of the furs watching hooted or cheered appreciatively at the display, and the coaching staff’s eyebrows shot up.

Chase grabbed the ball and booted it back towards the line in a daze. Holy fuck, he thought, I could have been unconscious and I still could have headed that pass on net.

He cycled to the left line and caught Daniel in the back of the line now on the right side of the field, and the cougar gave him another grin, this one wide and proud.

Alright, this one bears watching.

---

The second day of tryouts was a lot more skills and conditioning drills, so Chase spent most of his time on his own or in 1-on-1 drills. Despite this, he did his best to keep his eyes open to what was going on around him, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when Nate cornered him at the water station when they had a break in the action.

“Well?” Nate prodded.

“Well what?” Chase panted back, trying to catch his breath.

“New kid. Cougar. Daniel. You got a verdict yet?”

Chase took a long drink of water to buy himself time, weighing what he’d seen and trying to keep himself from doubling over to prevent cramping. He glanced around himself just to make sure nobody was going to overhear them too easily, and caught a glimpse of Daniel running a 1-on-1 drill. He was making absolute mincemeat of anyone tasked to defend him, weaving the ball around his footpaws like it was connected on a string. The whole ring of furs in his group groaned and hooted as he nutmegged Drew Sims, the wolf fully twisting around and winding up on his ass as he tried to track the ball that darted between his legs.

“He’s... fate damn it, Nate, he’s good. Really good.”

Nate raised an eyebrow. “I mean, he’s got some moves, sure, but like...?”

Chase wiped the sweat from his hair. “I hate to say it, but Riley’s fucked. He needs to move to midfield, ‘cause forward wing is already sewn up tight.”

“You can already tell that? It’s the second day, bro.”

“Hay dios...” Chase shook his head in amazement. “He’s got a gift. His passes are butter. It’s like he knows where I’m going to be before I even break.”

Nate raised both eyebrows this time. “Ooooookay, so I take it you’re a fan, then.”

“Are you not watching him? The ball glues itself to his paws. I mean, he’s still small so maybe he might give something up in a physical battle, but I’ll eat my fucking paw wraps if he’s not the starting winger this season.”

Nate sniffed in mock offense. “Oh, you’re actually in love. I see how it is. Well fine, I didn’t need you anyway, I could get any striker I want, you’ll see.”

“Pero please, you could never do better than me, not with your looks.”

The pair’s banter was interrupted by a whistle and a call for the next shift, so the two broke off to continue drilling as the squad on the field changed places for their own break. On the way Chase found his eyes shifting towards the opposite squad now leaving the pitch—and to Daniel. He was obviously worn down, dripping sweat and extensively grass-stained, but still energetic and... Chase couldn’t come up with a better term than radiant. He just exuded positivity and energy no matter how tired he seemed. But more to the point, he noticed that Daniel’s eyes were also focused on him, and as their gazes met that smile grew a little bit more.

---

The remainder of the week pushed the hopeful to their limits. More sprints, forcing players to hold a weighted squat for as long as possible before they dropped, distance conditioning from hell. Two of the youngest in the field actually dropped after the third day, already getting the impression that they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rest of the pack. Chase had a feeling their parents had pushed them to try out anyway. Not everyone understood that high school sports were a different beast from the rec leagues.

In his mind Chase already had a pretty decent idea of what the team roster would look like on Monday, but there was always the chance for surprises. He was doing silent evaluations of the roster in his head while the group stretched out at the start of the tryout when Daniel waved his paw in front of Chase’s face.

“Hey, sleepy dog, you in there?”

“Wh—yeah? What?”

Daniel chuckled at him. “What’s got you so distracted?”

“Oh, just thinking about the roster and who might end up where.”

“Yeah? You see a space for me on there?”

Chased almost laughed. “Uh, yeah, I think you’ll be okay, Daniel. You look like you’ve got this pretty well figured out.”

“Yeah...” he replied, preening slightly at the praise. “Wish I could say the same about math, though. I don’t feel very confident at all about that test tomorrow.”

“Really? Huh, I thought you were doing okay at it. You need a little help? Study session?”

The cougar brightened. “That would be awesome! You, uh, wanna come over to my place?”

“Sure, why not? After practice?”

“Yeah! It’s the apartments over on Poplar Street, by the grocery store.”

“Oh, yeah, I know the ones.”

“Excuse me, lovebirds!” Coach Moxiel growled at them, the saluki’s long muzzle radiating impatience. “Would you like to catch up to what the rest of the group is doing?”

Doberman and cougar both looked around, surprised to find that the rest of the players had already gotten up and started off on their warmup jog.

“Shit!” they exclaimed in unison, scrambling up and darting off after the pack of furs who were all laughing at them.

In defiance of Chase’s mental image, Daniel didn’t direct Chase towards the new construction surrounding New Branch, but to the center of the tiny town only about half a mile from Chase’s home. It wasn’t a comfy, paid-for house like Chase had in his head, but a small apartment building quite similar to the one Chase lived in. The building was—inside and out—aged and running down, but looked well-maintained and recently painted. The misgivings burrowed into Chase’s gut about associating with the wealthy out-of-towners was quieting; only to be replaced with a more mundane nervousness, one of meeting a family of strangers and being invited into their territory. It was Chase who was the outsider here, now that he thought about it.

“Okay, so fair warning,” Daniel offered as they walked up the slightly rickety staircase, “my folks are gonna want to chat for a bit. They’re... friendly.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Chase laughed.

“They can be a lot for some furs.”

The instant the door swung open Chase was hit with a wave of homey sensation. The entry to the living room was warmly lit and invitingly cozy, with just the end of a dangerously overstuffed sofa visible from the doorway. The air was equally warm, suffused with the smell of flour, yeast, and slowly simmering stew; and Chase could feel his stomach react immediately to the delicious scent.

“Hey!” Daniel called out into the apartment as he closed the door behind them. A slightly noncommittal greeting came back from the kitchen, until he followed up with “I brought a friend over!” Almost immediately two heads, one cougar and one smaller and rounder lynx, peered from around the corner into the entryway like startled meerkats. Had Chase not been a bit nervous he would have laughed out loud from the sheer comedic timing. “This is Chase, he’s on the soccer team!”

“Oh my! This is new,” the lynx replied happily as she dusted off her grey and black-flecked paws on a well-loved apron. She didn’t even come up to Chase’s armpits, but she radiated cheer and affection as she reached out and took one of Chase’s large paws, patting the back of it joyfully. “We’re so happy to meet you, Chase! I’d give you a hug but I’d get you covered in flour and we certainly don’t need that.”

“It’s good to finally be able to put a face to the name,” the older male cougar said, taking a pawshake of his own in turn. The resemblance to Daniel was uncanny. Chase felt like he was looking at an aged-up photo of his friend—the senior Gibson had glasses and grey threads shooting through the fur on his muzzle and eartips, but otherwise his build and coloring was nearly identical. “I’m Steven, or Steve. Or honestly whatever makes you comfortable, I’m not picky.”

“Okay, thank you,” Chase replied, overwhelmed at the extroverted greeting. “I, uh, thanks. It’s nice to meet you, too, Mr. Gibson.”

He winced and rolled his eyes in response. “Okay, so maybe there’s one rule, then. Just don’t call me that. Make me feel like some old greymuzzle or something.”

The lynx laughed and tugged lightly at his arm, and he obediently bent over sideways enough that his wife could plant a kiss on his cheek. “You are, you rascal, but there’s nothing wrong with wearing your experience.”

Steve laughed along easily. “And, of course, this is Daniel’s mother, Evelyn.”

“Oh please, ‘Evie’ is fine to me,” she said, waving away the formality. “Will you be staying for dinner, Chase?”

Daniel sighed. “Why is that always the first thing you ask someone who visits, mom?”

“Because we have more than enough!”

“I mean, you could always just cook a normal amount of food for three furs.”

She mock-pouted at her son. “You never complained about having leftovers before. Don’t keep an artist from performing her craft!”

Chase laughed into his paw, his prior nervousness melting away. “I really appreciate it, are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Psssh!” she scoffed, returning around the corner to the kitchen. “You boys get to know each other, I’ll call you when it’s time to eat.”

“Chase, you want anything to drink?” Daniel asked, walking over to the fridge and listing off options, “Water, milk, apple juice, coke... what sounds good?”

“Um, some soda would be great, thanks.”

“Got it.” Daniel pulled a 2-liter of Coke out and grabbed a pair of glasses before joining his dad and Chase at the kitchen table, adeptly dodging his mother as she flitted around the kitchen managing multiple batches of fresh, homemade bread at once.

With a modicum of space and a moment of peace, Chase was able to take in more of his surroundings. It was the first time he’d ever been in a feline home, though even as he thought that he cringed over how stupid it was to expect that it would be anything different from a canine home. The furnishings were a mix of old and new, a couple of obviously loved pieces that made the journey from the west coast mixed among replacements that could be found in short order at decent prices to fill out the space. The walls were still largely empty, with the obvious exception of the wall opposite the front door: that wall was covered in a collage of framed photos. A trio of family photos, the three Gibsons together in the past and closer to the present, as well as a larger family gathering including multiple generations. The group was predominantly feline, obviously, but there were enough other species mixed in that Chase got the impression that they weren’t going to be weird about species-ism or anything like that. There were candid shots of Daniel playing soccer as a kit, holding trophies, on the beach with close friends covered in sand and with enormous smiles.

Things like the TV stand and the sofa were so obviously thrift-store finds that it highlighted the cherished items that they made the effort to bring along from the coast. It all felt lived-in, a warm and cozy space of a closely-knit family that was doing their best and doing it together. The kind of space that couldn’t help but put Chase at ease.

“So we’ve heard your name more than a few times,” Daniel’s dad offered with a wry smile. “You’ve been making it a lot easier for Daniel to get transitioned into his new school.”

It may have been a true statement, but having it put out so bluntly made Chase blush. “I’m not doing much,” he muttered, moving to take a sip of his soda to cover his muzzle. “Daniel is the one who noticed that I played soccer, we just hit it off I guess.”

“For someone who ‘isn’t doing much’ you sure are in practically every story we hear so far.”

This time it was Daniel who flushed, his eartips going bright pink just below the black-furred fringe. “Daaaaaaad, come on...” he protested faintly, unwilling to meet the eyes of Chase or his father.

Already flustered, seeing Daniel so bashful caught Chase severely off-guard. He flinched mid-sip, choking as he aspirated soda bubbles up his nose. The glass slipped out of his paw to tonk into the table, which ejected the dark soda all over the tabletop and the front of his shirt.

Chase pushed his chair backwards, coughing up soda and pawing at his shirt uselessly. “Shi—crap, I’m so sorry,” he apologized as he backpedaled. His face burned, and he was thankful that his fur was dark enough to hide the deep, crimson blush he knew he had. Well, probably dark enough to cover it, anyway.

Steve had a roll of paper towels in his paw faster than Chase could follow and began to sop up the tide. “No worries, Chase, happens plenty often.”

Daniel got to his paws and pulled Chase gently out of his seat. “Let’s get you cleaned off before that starts to set in your fur, come on.” He led the doberman into the short hallway, and the first door opened to the bathroom. “Shirt off,” he said casually. Still blushing furiously, Chase obeyed, trying to resist the insane impulse to cover himself as Daniel took the sodden garment. “I’ll throw this in the wash real quick,” the cat said lightly. “I’ll grab a shirt you can wear until it’s dry. You can use the washcloth and that soap there to get cleaned up a bit. I’ll be right back.”

The door closed with a quiet click, leaving Chase alone. He took stock of the damage, glad he managed to avoid soaking his jeans as well. It was mortifying enough just having to give up his shirt to the cougar, never mind his pants.

Que chinga?! he thought with a start, since when have I been body-shy? We share a locker room—we share a SHOWER in the locker room for fuck’s sake. The doberman considered that sure, maybe context mattered, but he’d never once felt weird about being shirtless in front of anyone before, much less another guy.

The image of Daniel sitting at the table sprang into Chase’s mind, he could recall it in photographic detail: the bright pink rushing to Daniel’s ears and cheeks, the shift of his eyes as he stared at the table, the way his ears flattened against his head as his tail cracked like a whip behind him... Chase felt his cheeks grow even warmer. STOP BEING FUCKING WEIRD he screamed internally, slapping his muzzle several times to clear his head. He drenched the paw towel in cold water and pressed it to his fur, grateful for the shock of the cold as he cleaned the sticky syrup from his short fur.

In fairly short order he was presentable again and had no more excuse to avoid the other furs in the house. Chase took a deep breath and opened the door, but nobody was in the hallway. Daniel had left an orange and navy t-shirt on the floor in front of the door and let him be, to Chase’s grateful relief. The doberman shrugged the shirt on, which clung to his slightly larger frame. His nose was filled with the scent of the cougar, muddied by the clean scent of laundry soap and dryer sheets, but unmistakable. He felt an unbearable urge to bury his muzzle into the shirt and breathe deeply, but he fought it off.

I already look like a lunatic to his family, I don’t need them thinking that I’m... being weird about their son. Or whatever.

Taking a beat to compose himself, Chase flipped off the lights and padded down the hall back towards the kitchen—and stopped short of walking into the room as he heard his name.

“No, I absolutely like Chase.” Steve’s voice. “I think he’s a very nice boy. I just... do you think he’s safe? I don’t want to assume the worst of anyone, but you know this town isn’t exactly like back home.”

Chase pressed his back to the wall, feeling ashamed for hiding and eavesdropping, but needing to hear more. It had the feeling of a deeply personal and intimate conversation, and he reasoned that it would be worse to interrupt it than to breach their privacy like this. It almost helped him feel better.

“I really don’t think he’s like those kids, dad.” Daniel replied. His voice was strong, but hesitant.

“No, of course I wouldn’t think that,” Steve assured his son. “It’s just... small towns aren’t the best place to be too open. Every fur knows everyone else’s business in places like this, keeping a secret is difficult. And it doesn’t have to be Chase’s fault that something... happens.”

“We’re not telling you that you have to stay hidden,” Evie said softly, “Please don’t think that. But you know all too well what is at stake. Back home, furs were far more understanding, and we still had to—”

“I know,” Daniel cut her off flatly. “I know.” There was a long, pregnant silence full of unsaid things. “I want to believe in him.”

“I want that, too, Daniel,” his mother assured him. “Just take your time. There’s no deadline or anything, you don’t owe that to any fur.”

“I know, mom. Thanks.”

“Obviously, we’re going to be here for you no matter what,” Steve said. “If you decide that Chase is a safe fur, then we’ll support you and hope for the best.”

Chase felt his fingers twitching anxiously. Am I “safe”?! I... What does that even mean? The canine knew he’d overheard something vitally important and integral to his friend’s life, but he lacked any context that would answer his questions. All he could tell was that it seemed to hinge on him, or maybe the way he acted about something. It was all too much for him to figure out, but he knew he wanted to pass whatever test had been set for him. I can be safe. Yeah. I want to be safe.

Finally walking back into the room, Chase was careful to not give away anything in his expression that he had been listening in. The mood in the room quickly snapped back to normal, with Evie bustling about pulling freshly baked rolls out of the oven and piling them into a basket to share with their guest. Steve smiled warmly and set the table with bowls and silverware as he chatted with the boys—but Daniel was oddly quiet. There was no mistaking the change in his friend; Daniel was subdued behind his bright smile and easy conversation. He was holding back. His tail still lashed at the air behind his chair, and his ears never quite returned to their normal position.

But most of all, there was something in his eyes that Chase hadn’t seen yet, something that flashed across his muzzle when he looked over at Chase in the moments he thought the doberman wouldn’t see: fear and uncertainty.

His feline friend was measuring him up in his head, weighing him against whatever odd doubts ran through his mind. I want to be safe for Daniel, Chase thought. He really wished he knew what he was supposed to do about that.

---

After a very hearty meal—and adequate time to let their stomachs settle afterwards—the boys finally escaped from Daniel’s parents and headed back to his bedroom to start working on the math that was giving Daniel fits. From the first step in the room, Chase felt the same heady wave of scent that he picked on from Daniel’s shirt, only orders of magnitude more. All the furnishings in the room radiated Daniel to him, scents that summoned sea salt and musk and allspice in the dog’s brain.

The room itself was compact, barely with enough floor space leftover for two furs to sit without touching each other, which meant that Chase didn’t have to walk around much to experience everything. The queen-sized bed and dresser were both paw-made furniture, impressive and sturdy, looking almost out of place next to a flimsy desk and folding chair. Atop the dresser were a pawful of soccer trophies scattered among socks that had yet to be put away after doing laundry. The corner of the desk held a small CRT with a video game console stacked on top of it, and a few rows of bookshelves had been attached to the wall above and around the desk with basic brackets.

Chase found his eye drawn to what was on the walls, though. There were dozens of photographs taped around a full-length mirror, showing Daniel with all manner of other furs his age. Some with surfboards, or at a diner, or with their arms thrown around each other’s shoulders as they stood over another fur buried in the sand of a beach. Chase couldn’t help but smile as he looked them over, wondering how good it must have been to grow up so close to such an exotic location. On the wall nearby was the only framed photo in the room, a posed photo of a high school group that must have had fifty furs in it. Chase squinted, and finally picked out Daniel among the assorted furs. The cross section of high school life was stark—there were goths and jocks, obvious nerds and skater punk fashions, and more besides. The only thing that was the same across the group was the broad and heartfelt smiles every fur wore in the photo. The caption at the bottom simply read “Parkville High GSA, 1997”.

“School club?” he asked, turning back to Daniel.

The cougar sat cross-legged on the bed, looking down at his paws. “You could say that, yeah.”

“Big group.”

“Well, it was a way bigger school than anything around here,” Daniel shrugged.

“What’s G—”

“Anyway,” Daniel cut him off, opening his textbook and grabbing a notepad. “Think you can give me a paw on this test prep?”

“Sure!” Chase said, immediately distracted by the whole reason he came over to Daniel’s home in the first place. “What is the test over?”

“Imaginary equations,” the cougar replied, sticking his tongue out distastefully. “What the hell even does that mean?”

“Oh, I remember those from last year, they’re not bad at all,” Chase said, sitting down on the foot of the bed across from Daniel and pulling the textbook to where they could both see. “They're just like binomials, you just...”

Friday came, and the instant the final bell rang Chase, Daniel, and Nate headed for the locker room at nearly a sprint. The locker room door was surrounded by all those who tried out, all examining two pieces of paper taped to the door bearing the final depth chart and roster for the year. A few at a time, furs made it to the front of the scrum, traced their finger over the lists, and either cheered or groaned in response. Chase leaned over the press, using his paws to split Riley’s long ears to see the chart for himself.

“Fuck yeah,” he said quietly, pumping his fist as he turned back to his friends. “Striker.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nate said, rolling his eyes. “We already knew that. Where am I?”

“Mid I think?” Chase glanced back again. “Yeah, center. Nice job, bro.”

“I can’t see!” Daniel complained. “What’s it say?”

“Yeah, you’re not on it,” Chase said, straight-faced.

“What?”

“Says you can’t play here, you’re being promoted to a junior college team.” Chase finally broke as Daniel punched him in the ribs. “Left forward, shit,” he laughed, rubbing his chest.

“You’re such an ass,” Nate laughed.

“Everyfur hurry up already, we still have practice today! That chart can still change if you’re not on the field in ten!” Coach Moxiel barked, the saluki’s voice carrying over the huddle as high schoolers scrambled to get in the door and changed.

The locker room was understandably a madhouse, still packed wall-to-wall as the junior squad wouldn’t break off until Monday, and everyfur trying to find space to bump fists or slap a back to congratulate their new teammates for making a roster spot. Despite the cramped quarters, all the players made their way onto the field in record time, quickly and naturally settling into the ten-wide rows for warm-ups.

Coach Reede faced up the students, the large ram’s voice rumbling as he addressed the group. “I know you’ve all seen the rosters by this point, and I’d like to be the first to say congratulations on making the team, and an extra for all those who made their respective starting eleven. If you did not make the starting lineup, rest assured that is not a set-in-stone assignment. Everything can change over the course of a season, so we expect that all our players will be in top shape and ready to go at all times. Continue to work hard and earn your places; this is a team sport after all! Starting Monday, the JV squad will be on the back field and in the alternate locker room, and for the Varsity squad nothing changes.

“Also,” he continued, “over the course of today’s practice every fur needs to be thinking about who they want to nominate for their team captain. Any fur on the starting eleven for your respective team can be chosen, and you all need to actually put some thought into it, because who your captain is matters.” He stared down the players in turn. “This isn’t just an armband and picking heads or tails at the coin toss; I expect captains in my program to be leaders on the field and in the locker room. The captain will be an extension of the coaches, the first in line to address problems, and you will be expected to accept their authority as you would my own, so you’d better pick someone you feel comfortable following.” Having said his piece, he nodded at the lineups. “With that, let’s get to work. Cerada, lead ‘em out.”

Nate bounced on his footpaws with a “Yes, Coach!” and trotted to the front of the group. “Spread out, line up, jumping jacks, let’s go!”

---

The practice as a whole wasn’t much in terms of skills-focused; with the rosters set the whole crew was getting one last conditioning session in before the season began in earnest. Thankfully, this allowed Chase’s mind to wander a bit as he pondered the coaches’ directive to choose a captain he could follow. Who could the doberman truly feel comfortable lining up behind? Nate was a good guy, but with all due love to him Nate was more of a wingman than a leader, and he pretty well knew it. Riley was a senior, sure, but he was hotheaded. Jorge, the otter in net? Keepers were rarely made captains, since they couldn’t exactly patrol the field or deal with the refs. Manny and Sequon already made it clear they didn’t really want the position, so who was left? Sure, there were a couple guys on the team that wouldn’t raise his hackles if they gave him instructions, but he still had his misgivings.

Throughout the practice, as his body worked his mind wandered. Chase ran through every fur on the roster, trying each on for size in his mind. None stuck out as the Right Choice. Chase had a funny feeling about it, the same one he got now if he was riding in a car with his mother and not driving it. It made him feel unsettled, out-of-control, powerless. Was he just a control freak then? Chase frowned, but the long-and-short of it was that as he gathered near the bench with everyfur else at the end of practice he was still no closer to an answer than he had been at the start of the day.

The coaching staff had a small stack of papers with the combined rosters for each program on it, and began calling the players who made the teams one at a time. Each player would take a slip from their respective coach, circle their choice for captain, and turn it back in with the process being entirely secret to the rest of the team. The coaches started tallying the votes on their clipboards, keeping everything between them and sharing muttered comments and notes between each other. As the list got down to the R’s, Chase finally got called. He took the paper and looked at it in silence. Of the 10 other names on that list, he still didn’t have a sense that he could put himself under anyone’s authority in good faith, there was always something that left him feeling uneasy. So, with no other option presenting itself, Chase cautiously circled his own name and passed it back to his coach. The ram raised an eyebrow as he scanned the sheet, but made no move or comment as he jotted down his note and showed the rest of the coaching staff. The rest of the vote finished up without incident, and there was a brief period of discussion between the five coaches as they discussed the results in a hushed huddle, during which the players grew more and more restless. Eventually, the coaches turned back and shushed the team so they could make the announcement.

“Alright, squads, congrats to your new JV and varsity captains, Rudy Piquet and Chase Ramos!”

The rest of the furs hooted and clapped, a few swore with good humor over not being selected, but everyone moved to congratulate their new leaders. As Chase got slapped on the back and had his fur ruffled from more directions than he could keep track of, he caught a glimpse of Daniel through the press of bodies. The cougar was watching him closely—more closely than anyone else on the team, his eyes shining with unmistakable pride at Chase being chosen. The image would stay burned in Chase’s mind for a very long time.

---

It took a while to get cleaned up after practice, but when Chase finally left the locker room and stepped out the back door into the long afternoon shadows leading to the parking lot, he was still beaming. Or, at least he was until he caught a sniff of smoke in the air—and suspiciously smelling smoke at that. He followed the smell around a corner until he saw Dane leaning against the brick wall of the school, partially obscured by an air conditioning condenser, chatting and laughing with a couple of random kids from school as they smoked.

He noticed Chase’s approach and faced him with a scowl. “You want somethin’, Ramos?”

Chase gestured to the group and their joints, and responded casually “This just seems like the sort of thing your team captain should take an interest in.”

“Captain my ass,” the fox spat. “I didn’t vote for you.”

“Not the point. You know what’s gonna happen if you get caught, whether you listen to me or not.”

“So what, cub scout? You gonna rat me out? Try to get me kicked off the team?”

Chase put his paws up defensively. “Take it down a few notches, Dane. I’m not here to be your mom. Your shit is your own, unless you make it the team’s problem.” He met Dane’s eyes. “So, as an interested party, I’m telling you to be more fucking discrete than to burn directly outside the fucking school.”

“With all due respect,” Dane growled, “choke on my tail. Captain.” He did, however, stub out his joint and push past Chase with only a light shoulder check.

Chase looked up at the sky and sighed. “What a year this is shaping up to be.”

---

The Grimsbury Thunderheads might have been a soft tune-up game to open the season on the road, but the Prospectors’ home opener would be a very different matter altogether. The Cyclones were no joke; Coyote Rock High was nearly the same population as New Branch as a whole, a solid three times the size of their high school. Being the largest school in the western Sedea district meant the school could seemingly pull star forwards out of the aether every year. This year’s version was a mink who was just beginning to shed his brown summer coat for a white winter variant, and he moved like mottled quicksilver. The New Branch back line did their best—Drew and Riley had him basically double-teamed for the entire first half—but he was nearly impossible to contain, and the more attention he drew the more open it left the rest of the field.

Coyote Rock started to overload the field to get Riley in one-on-one defense against the mink, where the shorter jackrabbit had absolutely no chance of keeping up, and it was clearly beginning to wear on him.

Chase tried to offer encouragement. “Cheat him to the sideline, force him back inside where I can pick him up,” but the frustration was building.

“You think I’m not trying to do that?” Riley snapped. “I can’t fucking hold him.”

He wasn’t wrong—the mink was getting in his head, and whenever Chase got close enough he could hear him trash-talking Riley to compound it.

By the time the whistle sounded for the half, only some truly superb efforts from Jorge had kept the game scoreless, with the otter coming out of his paw wraps to bat shots away at the last moment, but he was getting tired and it was only a matter of time until something had to give. Riley hung a towel over his ears and slumped over on the locker room bench, looking like he was ready to punch any fur who tried to talk to him. Even Drew, his center back, was giving him as much space as physically possible.

“Boys,” Coach Reede began as he walked into the locker room, “I’m not gonna tell you this one isn’t a struggle, because it is. We’re not exactly leading from the front out there, and that’s not on you all. This is an extremely good team we’re facing, so we need to continue to do the little things well.” He pointed out the midfielders and forwards in turn. “We need solid passes, don’t go around giving up possession on those fifty-fifty balls, we need actual movement out there. Forwards, I realize they have solid backs on the field, but you have to find a way to get open. We’re frozen if you can’t.

“Our best shot is on set pieces,” he continued, wiping the whiteboard clean and drawing out some formations. “Get the ball to the end line by any means necessary, and get Daniel up for a corner. We’ve got the height advantage in the box, that might just get us through.” Capping the marker, the ram tossed it casually back into the whiteboard’s tray. “Other than that, we just need to stay in this game. Keep your heads, make the smart choices. When there’s no winning option, do whatever gives you the advantage. Use your teammates, that’s why they’re out there. All we need is a chance, one ball can turn this whole thing around.”

Chase stood and held out his fist into the center of the room, and every player stood to join, circling tightly around and pressing their own fists into the middle. “You heard it, team,” Chase said, “as long as we play smart we’re right in the fight. We’re a pack, so let’s play like it! ‘Dig it’ on three! One, two, three!”

“DIG IT!” the team roared back before trotting back out the door. Chase followed them out, fully aware that a certain jackrabbit hadn’t moved to join the circle.

The second half picked up right where the first had let off, despite the Prospectors coming out with renewed energy and fire. They battled hard and scrapped as much as possible, but the speed and skill of the Cyclone front was difficult to deny. Chase kept a wary eye on Riley, he could see the frustration turning to anger in real time: the rabbit stumbling after getting crossed up and punching the turf before getting up, the consistent attempts to get away with holds or jersey pulls to slow the mink down, the constant stream of curses under Riley’s breath. He was folding, even though he refused to give up. There was no way for him to win a physical battle against the larger upperclassman, and the reminder of it came as a shot rocketed past Jorge’s paws and pinged loudly off the crossbar. The game—and the team—were hanging on by their clawtips.

Chase tried to encourage Riley, tried to calm him down, but the red mist was already beginning to descend behind the lapine’s eyes, and that damned mink was continually pushing all his buttons. The trash talk, the subtle kicks to the shin guards that never qualified as fouls, the wide elbows making him dangerous to mark closely; if it wasn’t so infuriating Chase might have been impressed with his aggressive play.

In the fitfy-fifth minute, Jorge darted into the box to break up a crossing pass, and got enough of a paw on it to deflect it out for a corner kick. Coyote Rock began to settle into formation, and as Riley tried to jockey with his mark for position, the mink hip checked him to gain space in the middle of the pack where the ref could never see it clearly, and Riley snapped. He came back hard with an elbow to the kidney. The mink went down like he’d been shot with a cannon, and to be honest Chase was fairly sure that only some of it was an act. A whistle immediately sounded. The red card was held aloft. The entire New Branch side seemed to slump.

Riley fumed, obviously upset at himself for losing his cool, but even more upset at the mink for earning it. Chase pulled the team in to huddle around the rabbit, making sure to keep him well away from the other team as he marched slowly off the pitch. Chase knew he should say something, but what? He totally understood how frustrated the rabbit was, and he wasn’t sure it was really his place to scold or try to coach. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he’d have done anything that different if he’d been in Riley’s position.

Chase walked Riley over to the sideline where Coach Reede intercepted him and spoke quietly to him behind the bench as the other two coaches worked to come up with a new formation. Chase got the assignments and jogged back in to move players around as needed. Every player agreed, but behind their eyes it was clear that they all knew the tide had turned, hard. The corner kick was deflected away, and the game continued, but now they all knew it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed.

The fire behind the determination had been effectively snuffed, and when the mink returned to the pitch a couple minutes later to bring Coyote Rock back to a one-player advantage, they struck back. Without even needing to involve the mink, the cheetah at the Cyclones right forward put down a crossover move that fully left Dane on his tail in the dirt, leaving the cheetah wide open with a clear angle to the near-side corner. Just like that, it was one-nothing.

The ball never even left the New Branch defensive half of the field for the remainder of the game, the score slowly ticking up, two-zero, then three. When the whistle finally granted a reprieve, Coyote Rock had dominated the Prospectors by a score of four to nothing, and the New Branch side was more than ready to get off the field and start forgetting this day had ever existed.

---

The loss was a tough one to take, and the team was showing it as they trudged back to the locker room with tails and ears low. Chase moved among them, offering back slaps and encouragement, but it would take a few days for the sting to fade and even he knew that much. As everyone filed through the door, Chase realized he hadn’t seen Daniel. Looking back down the hallway, he spotted him being mildly cornered by an attractive coyote girl. Kelly Hofstetter was a familiar face at any sporting event, both because she was the primary photographer for the yearbook and school paper and also because she had a well-known appetite for athletes. It remained an open debate about which of those facts had more influence on how many sporting events she showed up to shoot for.

In any case it looked like she had her sights set on the new guy, and Chase was set to shrug and wish Daniel the best until he gave a second look and it struck him that Daniel didn’t look comfortable about it at all. His ears were pinned back and his tail was lashing the wall. Maybe he’s anxious around girls, Chase thought. Chase couldn’t see a good reason to step in or rescue the cougar, but he couldn’t help but feel like maybe Kelly needed to back the fuck off his friend and give him some space.

The decision was made for Chase as he heard his name being called. “Ramos! My office, if you’d be so kind!” Chase snapped back into the moment and hurried to the windowed office that stood between the locker room and the much larger weight room. To the doberman it always looked like some sort of prison warden’s station or something with its cold cinder block construction and cheap countertop desks bolted into the walls. The school had made its best effort to brighten it up with a coat of paint and such, but it was still the barest office imaginable since there was only so much that you could do with a room that all the athletic coaches were expected to share throughout the school year.

“Hey coach, you wanted to see me?”

“I did, take a seat.” Chase pulled out one of the unused desk chairs and faced the ram. Behind him, Coaches Marcone and Moxiel did some bookkeeping and entered stats into a computer, but paid them no mind. “Wondering why I called you in?”

Chase nodded dumbly.

“You’re not in trouble or anything, don’t look so scared; this is a teaching moment. Riley lost his cool today. It happens, especially when he was getting outworked so much by his marker on the field. I’ve already talked to him about it. My issue with the red card is that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

Chase said nothing, still unclear on what was meant by that.

Coach Reede looked into Chase’s eyes. “You’ve never been in this position before have you? Being a captain or leader, I mean.” The doberman shook his head. “You being voted for surprised me, you never struck me as a fur who wanted the position or wanted to draw attention. I had absolutely no idea if you would even work out as a captain at all.”

Chase frowned. “So why did you let me have it?”

“I mean, you got voted for. But more than that, I see a lot of potential in you. You work harder than almost anyone, even if your instinct is to keep your head down. You try to encourage on the field, and that’s good. You’ve got a good head, and I feel like I can trust you to do what’s right by the team. But more than any of that, I think it sealed it for me when you voted for yourself to be captain.”

Chase kept his face neutral, but his ears perking up betrayed his surprise. The ram chuckled.

“It could have been an arrogant move—and from a lot of kids it would be—but I could see you being thoughtful about it. You honestly think that you’re better suited to it, and I want my captain to have that kind of mindset. I want you to be a leader before I make you a leader, you get it?”

“Kinda?” Chase said slowly. “Not really, I guess.”

The coach leaned back in his chair. “What happened on the field today happened because you didn’t intervene before it got out of your grasp,” he said with his customary straightforwardness. “You knew Riley was overmatched and getting into his head. He was frustrated, making mistakes. I can’t come out on the field to intervene, you have to be the first one to step in. That’s what I was talking about in tryouts when I said my captain has to be my eyes and mouth on the field. Give Riley the help he needs, shift the defense, even talk to the ref and get him to start watching the shit that mink was pulling on Riley out there.”

Chase nodded, starting to understand as the coach continued.

“I want you to be proactive; spot problems and correct them. If there’s something your players need to be doing differently, then make it happen. If there’s something we need to be doing differently as coaches, talk to us. You said it yourself in the locker room, this team is a pack. Your pack. Be the alpha and do what needs to be done.”

The young doberman spent a few moments in silence, digesting these orders as his coach watched him closely. “What if I don’t know what to do?” he finally asked.

“Follow your gut,” the ram said. “Like I said, you’ve got a good head and a good heart. If you ask yourself ‘what is the best thing for the team in this situation’, I bet anything that you’ll end up making a good decision. Lead by example, and as long as you are acting in the interests of the team, I’ll back you up.”

“...and what if I fuck it up?”

Coach shrugged. “Then we’ll have another of these little meetings to talk it out and figure out what you can do differently next time. I don’t expect you to be perfect, Chase—you’re still a pup just like everyone else. I just want to see you step up.”

Chase was surprised. “It’s really that simple?”

“Do you think it needs to be complicated?”

“I guess not...” Chase replied, almost dazed at the one-eighty the conversation had taken from his expectations. “In that case, I suppose I do have a suggestion to make.” The coach raised an eyebrow and nodded his head to continue. “Riley just isn’t a defender; we need to play him up more on the attack and outside the box on defense.”

“Okay, tell me why,” the ram said calmly.

“I’ve played with and against him since middle school, he’s got a solid footpaw and a great shot, but he’s not as quick as you’d think he is. He got a lot of mileage out of corners and long crosses, but if you try to mark him one-on-one against most midfielders he’s gonna get burned.”

“So what do you think we should do about that?”

“I think he’s completely lost in a 3-4-3. Maybe pull him up as a center forward in a 4-2-3-1 or something like that. I think he can be really dangerous at the top of the box, especially if Daniel is pulling defenders to cover his speed.”

His coach was quiet as he rocked his chair for a few moments. “Damn, you really thought about this, haven’t you?”

“I mean, I knew pretty much from the first day of tryouts that Riley wasn’t going to keep a forward job with Daniel around.”

Coach Reede laughed. “Okay, see, this is a good lesson to take away. You knew all of this about your teammates but didn’t say anything about how I used them. This little idea on its own could maybe have prevented today’s red card. See what I’m talking about?”

Chase flushed slightly, starting to see how much he had to learn about leadership. “Yeah, coach, I think I do.”

“Be the captain, Chase. Lead, and let them follow you.” Coach Reede waved at the door. “Alright, get out of here. I know you have better places to be.”

“Thanks, coach,” Chase said, stood, and left the locker room with a renewed sense of purpose.

---

As Chase left the now-empty locker room, he found his ears perking towards an unexpected sound in the hallway: sobbing. Looking around, he saw a pair of girls huddled around someone else tucked in an alcove by the water fountains.

“That fucking cat!” came a crying, but still furious, voice. “He turned me down like I made him sick or something! Who the fuck does he think he is?”

Oh, Kelly, Chase realized, and now was able to make out a coyote’s tail sticking out between her clique. So I guess Daniel actually wasn’t interested in her after all.

“Look, he’s an idiot,” said a squirrel, patting Kelly presumably on the shoulder or back.

“Yeah, totally,” a raccoon girl chimed in.

“He said I ‘wasn’t his type’ or some shit,” Kelly moaned.

“What type, hot? Interested in him?”

The raccoon snickered. “A girl?”

Kelly snorted, collecting herself. “Yeah, I just bet that’s it. He’s probably gay or something.”

“Gotta be, right?” the squirrel asked. “The coast is full of those fruits.”

Chase let the door slam behind him and the two girls looked up at him, startled. Chase stared coldly at the trio as he walked by.

“Keep walking, loser,” Kelly said. Her makeup was streaked and her eyes were red, but she snarled at him.

Chase said nothing, but he met her glare with his own all the same.

Something was changing, Chase could feel it. A metaphorical breeze had shifted among the hormone-laden air of the school hallways, and the dobie couldn’t decide if was a portent or not. He passed just as many conversations in the hall as normal, but now many of them were whispered instead of loud and boisterous. Some random furs threw glances at Chase, and more at Daniel, and turned away in a rush as soon as they were noticed.

Nothing he caught wind of was making any sense until he overheard the key phrase:

“Oh, Kelly was right about him, you can tell.”

Fuck...

What had that nosey fucking coyote started now? And... why? Surely Daniel hadn’t even been at the school long enough to—

“Ah shit,” he muttered, stopping suddenly in the middle of the hall and tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling as random furs tried to flow around him. “He turned her down...”

Spinning on his heel, Chase started back the opposite direction, spotting his quarry just as the bell for the next class period sounded. Kelly had just turned away from her locker, and caught sight of Chase just as she was about to leave. Chase realized how intense his face must have been when she paled and the fur on her tail bushed out in fear as he planted a paw firmly on the locker next to her head.

“Um, excuse us asshole,” one of her cadre spat, “we have to get to class. What’s your pro—”

“No, you’re right,” Chase said coldly. “You’d better get going.”

Kelly put on a brave face and nodded at the other girls, who left the two of them relatively alone.

“What. The fuck. Did you do?” Chase growled.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” she protested, but the way her ears were flattened back made it unconvincing.

“Yes you do.”

Kelly huffed. “Nothing you need to be concerned with.”

“Daniel is on my team, which makes it my problem. What the fuck makes you think you can just spread bullshit rumors about other furs?”

“Oh, is it bullshit?” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she fluttered her eyes coquettishly. “You don’t think your boy plays for the other side? If he were any more gay, then he’d—”

“He’d what, not have turned you down?” Chase knew he was right from the way Kelly bristled. “You petty bitch,” he spat. “You think you’re such a fucking prize that no guy could possibly not be into you?”

Kelly pushed out her chest defiantly. “Get out of my face or I’ll let it slip that you’re his boyfriend.”

Chase felt his heart skip and his blood run cold. Immediately, he growled low and threateningly. “Take it all back. Tell your little bitch clique that you made it up or I’ll start telling everyone about your abortion.”

She gasped. “What the fuck are you talking about, I never had an abortion!”

“Yeah, but who’s going to believe you?” he sneered, unwilling to believe that he was actually saying this out loud. “You’ve already been with half of the athletes that go to this school. To hear the talk around the locker rooms, you’re the easiest elective the school has to offer. Entiendo?”

The two canines faced down for several more seconds, until the smaller finally looked away. “You wouldn’t...” she protested quietly, hesitantly.

“I will,” Chase promised, ignoring the taste in his muzzle. “If it teaches you to mind your own damn business for once.”

“You fucking asshole,” she said, much more subdued. “I’m late for class.”

Chase didn’t respond, but he straightened up and put his arm down, and the coyote scurried off. For a heartbeat, Chase thought he might have actually managed to head off the danger. He thought that maybe, just maybe, he had managed to clear Daniel’s name. But as good as it had felt, some fatalist voice inside told him that the genie would never really go back in the bottle.

---

The feeling hung in the back of his mind, dug in like a tick, even as the team boarded the bus to their away game at Antima High. Was the team quieter than usual, or was that just his mind playing tricks on him? Certainly more of the team was engrossed in a book or listening to music than normal, but that didn’t mean anything, right? And Antima’s locker rooms were huge, that’s why it felt like everyone was leaving a buffer zone of space around Daniel; that had to be it. The defensive cadre was certainly clumped up, but they were a unit and it was a good thing for them. The way they glanced back over their shoulders at him as they got changed for the game wasn’t anything to be concerned about.

Warmups proceeded as usual, but Chase felt the mood shift as soon as the game started. Antima was a huge school, but they always put more substance into their football and baseball programs than soccer, and this season was a down year for them at any rate. The Prospectors were holding their own against them just fine, despite the fact that Chase and Nate were the only two players on the side to send a pass towards Daniel in the entire first half. Even the Rapid players had picked up on it, their right back drifting further and further towards center, leaving Daniel wide open and completely ignored as they double-marked Max and Chase in turn. The cougar looked flummoxed, waving for passes with yards of space around himself, but it was like he was invisible.

Thirty-seven minutes in, Daniel snapped. He swiped an errant pass near midfield, and proceeded to take off down the sideline. He dodged left, then right in a spin move that left the shocked Rapid back stumbling and darted to the corner of the penalty box as Antima scrambled to try to mark the player they’d completely forgotten about. Daniel wasn’t having any of it. He muscled the ball through a sliding challenge from a skunk and cracked off a booming shot to the far corner. The goalie was so flat-pawed that he didn’t even manage to make a dive at it as the ball was caught in the back of the net. Daniel took off towards the sideline with a fist pump as the whistle sounded the goal, but aside from a few fist bumps from the reserve players, less than half of the team ran over to congratulate him.

Antima called a time out, giving Coach Reede the chance to walk over to Chase. “Um, what the hell is going on out there?” he asked, frustration writ large on his muzzle.

“I wish I knew, Coach,” Chase admitted. “Something’s going on with the team.”

“I’m glad Daniel surprised them, but this isn’t going to win us any games like this. We’re gonna have to make a change if this doesn’t turn around.”

Chase couldn’t respond. He knew his coach wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t have any answers.

Halfway through the second half, Coach Reede gave in and pulled Daniel off the field. Riley moved up to wing and the sophomore kit fox Lucas got his first playing minutes on defense. The New Branch side quickly stacked on two more goals and maintained a healthy three-goal lead all the way to the end.

In the locker room after the game, Coach Reede praised the team, but mentioned that the play they showed for most of the game wouldn’t hold up against a better-prepared team. Chase pulled every fur into the middle of the room with fists extended.

“We are a pack,” he barked. “We win as a pack, we lose as a pack, and we take care of each other as a pack.” Only a few of the team would meet his eyes as he scanned the huddle. “That’s the only way we win. ‘Dig It’ on three—one, two, three!”

“Dig it!” the team yelled, but not nearly as loudly as they normally did after a win. A few more of the teammates did make an effort to give Daniel a slap on the back or a fist bump as congratulations for his—frankly stunning—goal, but on the bus ride home there was still a full seat gap between him and anyone else on the bus.

---

“Chase, hold up a second.”

The doberman turned to see Nate walking up to his car, the chocolate lab had a serious look on his face and his paws shoved deep into his pockets. “What’s up, dude?”

“I just... I wanted to catch up with you, you know?”

“I guess,” Chase replied, scratching the back of his head absently. “It’s been a minute since we’ve been able to hang out.”

“Wanna grab a burger?”

Chase nodded, and the two drove to the center of town to the Nugget Cafe. The two canines already knew what they would order before they even arrived, so they quickly ordered and sat in a booth.

“So, what’s been going on, bro?” Chase inquired curiously.

Nate was silent for a beat. “I... I dunno, it’s been hard to find... time... to hang out. You’re always with Daniel, anyway.”

“And?” Chase asked, taking a drink of his soda. “He’s a friend now, obviously you’re just as welcome to hang out with both of us.”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea, though?”

The doberman’s brow furrowed at his friend. “What’s that mean?”

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Nate backpedaled, not wanting to rile his friend up. “Maybe, like, you might not want to be so close, is all.”

Chase’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve never had a problem with Daniel before, what’s going on? You jealous or something?”

Nate sighed, and looked down with a defeated aspect as their food arrived and was set on the table in front of them. “I, just...” he muttered, picking up his burger absently. “Look, there’s rumors.”

“Do not tell me you believe that bullshit, Nate. That’s a lie Kelly started ‘cause she got stood up.”

The lab’s ears fully pinned back as Nate saw his friend getting upset. “Hey, dude, it’s not like I’m saying anything, it’s just... furs are talking. They’re saying that Daniel is, like... kinda girly. I mean, it does kinda make sense if you think about it. He’s from the coast, he’s not giving any of the girls the time of day, he’s got that tattoo...”

“Oh pinche madre” Chase spat. “You sound like you’re in second grade talking about cooties.”

“Chase, come on,” Nate spoke up slightly, trying to get through. “I’m not saying that if he does actually turn out to be a tailraiser that it’s, like, bad or anything. I’m not saying he’s not a good guy. I’m just worried that if that really is true and comes out then he’s going to catch a lot of shit, and you’re going to catch a lot too, if you’re standing too close.”

Chase took a deep breath, trying to keep his emotions down, but Nate still looked up and saw his ears quivering as he tried to suppress his anger. “First off, don’t ever fucking call him a ‘tailraiser’ around me again, entiendo?”

Nate shrank back, but didn’t respond for a long time. “What if it’s true, Chase?”

It was Chase’s turn to stay quiet for an uncomfortably long time. “So you think I should just stop hanging out with him? We’re his first friends, Nate, you want to cut him off just like that? Do you not remember how grateful he was that we accepted him, and you want to push him away the moment anything seems complicated or difficult for us?” Nate didn’t respond as he looked down at his lap. “I expected better of you, Nate,” Chase said quietly. “He’s our teammate and our friend.”

“I don’t want to see you get hurt,” Nate muttered softly.

“Yeah, well, you picked a shitty way of showing it,” Chase responded coldly before wrapping his burger back up and walking out of the diner with his food.

For several weeks, Chase and Daniel had teamed up to wear down Chase’s mother enough to get her to accept an invitation to dinner at the Gibson house, and their efforts had finally won out. Chase climbed the stairs to Daniel’s apartment quickly, making the stairs shake as he bounced on his paws in excitement.

“Fur and fang, Chase,” his mother protested, “can I at least climb the stairs before you bring the whole building down on us?”

Undaunted, the young doberman did his best to restrain himself as he waited, but the sight of him practically vibrating in place was enough to make his mom laugh.

Julie managed to make it to the top of the stairs without losing her grip on the covered casserole dish she carried; Chase could barely remember the last time his mother had found the time and energy to make a homecooked dish, but she felt compelled to put in the effort for the sake of a dinner invite to meet her son’s new friend and his family.

And after so much time trying to make schedules align, to the point that Chase had even snuck into the diner to talk to his mom’s boss about getting her a day off, it was finally happening.

“Hey, you guys! Welcome, welcome, you’re right on time!”

Chase couldn’t keep a grin down as he walked through the doorway of the Gibson home along with his mother. Chase fist-bumped Daniel as he let them in and politely took the dish from Julie and ferried it towards the kitchen.

He was replaced nearly instantly with his father, the elder cougar greeting Chase and his mother effervescently. “Welcome! It’s an absolute pleasure! We’ve been looking forward to this for a while now.” He shook Julie’s paw politely but firmly, and escorted her through the apartment towards the show unfolding around the dining table.

“We’re so glad you could join us, Julie,” Evie said, setting the table with dish after dish in a way that physics would say shouldn’t fit, but she found a way with a skill obviously born of long years of practice. “I... well, I may have gone slightly overboard for tonight.”

Daniel laughed. “Mom, we’ll be eating leftovers for weeks.”

“Oh, don’t act like you’ve ever complained about that before,” his father chided. “It’s a good thing you run as much as you do, the way you eat, I swear.”

Julie laughed, just a bit self-consciously, pulling out the proffered seat and setting herself in it. “It all smells incredible. I have no idea how you managed all of this!”

“Oh, please, I just love to cook, is all. You’re encouraged to take some home with you tonight!”

Steve chuckled. “Maybe even required to. At least if we want our refrigerator to close again.”

Chase looked over at his mom, who was all set to graciously decline the offer, until she glanced over at him. Her face softened, just a little. “That would actually be... incredible. I—I don’t get the chance to have a meal like this very often, much less make one.”

Steve nodded sagely as the family all took their seats, taking some food on his plate and offering the dish around. “Yes, Chase had implied that you worked quite a lot. I’m sure that must be very hard on you.”

Julie nodded, too tired to argue. “It... it is. It’s just Chase and me, and I have to do whatever I can. The—the law practice never really took off,” she admitted. “It’s been hard to make ends meet sometimes, but we always make it through.”

Evie leaned in and gave Julie’s paw a mother-to-mother squeeze. “Whatever you’re doing, Julie, it’s working. You’re raising a fine young dog.”

Chase blushed and looked away, which completely failed to help because he ended up looking at Daniel who—despite the obvious signs of missing sleep—was watching him and genuinely smiling, making him blush even harder. Chase ended up just staring at his own lap as Steve picked up after swallowing a mouthful of food.

“Oh, we’re quite pleased that Chase found his way into Daniel’s life. We had... well, we had some problems with bullying for several years when Daniel was growing up. I think we were all worrying about whether or not that was going to be a cycle we’d have to live through again in a new place.”

Completely unbidden, the ominous conversation with Nate sprang into Chase’s mind. There’s rumors... I’m not saying he’s not a good guy... You might want to not be quite so close... What if it’s true... Chase felt a cold chill go down his back, but the table conversation was unbroken.

“Chase has made things really easy on Daniel, got him in with the soccer team, made friends. It’s a testament to how you raised him, really.” Chase watched his mom wring her paws bashfully, not really knowing how to accept such open and incisive praise. “We’re a close family, always have been. It’s helped us get through some dark times, but we strongly believe that a real family is one that would go to war for each other.”

Chase nodded at that statement, finding himself galvanized by the thought. “Absolutely. I don’t think we’ve ever said it in those terms, but we sure understand it.”

His mom took his paw under the table and gave it a heartfelt squeeze. Thankfully, the conversation lightened up somewhat as Steve and Evie took a genuine interest in his mother’s law work, leaving Chase and Daniel somewhat on their own. Chase glanced over at Daniel as he took a big swig of his water. The feline’s muzzle was smiling, but his face was creased with worry lines and the bags under his eyes were seemingly larger by the day. What if it’s true... Daniel wiped his mouth with his napkin and caught Chase looking at him, and despite everything his piercing hazel eyes were as warm as Chase had ever seen them.

So what if it is?

---

“So... the Gibsons are... intense,” Chase’s mother laughed lightly as they walked down the stairs back towards their car much later in the night. “I think I like them though. You can tell there’s a lot of love in that house.”

Chase nodded. “Yeah, they’re pretty good furs.” The evening had stretched on and on, long after dinner had finished. The Gibsons even managed to rope the normally withdrawn Julie into a board game. Chase swore this night had been the most he’d ever seen his mother talk—or laugh—in his life before.

“I didn’t know you and Daniel were that close,” she mentioned neutrally.

Chase flushed, grateful the dark of night in the parking lot would hide it. “Yeah, I guess we are. He just sorta grew on me.”

“Well I think it’s really noble of you to step up and befriend a new fur like that. It’s clear that it means a lot to them.” She paused as her paw touched the handle of the car’s door, looking at her son. “I’m really proud of who you’re becoming, Chase.”

Chase blushed and fell quiet as they climbed into the car and turned out of the parking lot in silence. The ride home was brief, but the entire time Chase’s mind was in constant turmoil as he stared vacantly out the window, wondering if his mother would still be so proud of him for befriending Daniel if she heard the same rumors that had been spreading around school like invasive weeds.

Would she still be proud if the rumors were about him?

Chase found himself at an absolute loss as to how to cope with the changes going on around him. The hushed rumors and furtive whispers were apparently now an open topic. Chase couldn’t count the number of things he overheard about Daniel being... well, all manner of slurs and nicknames that raised the hackles on Chase’s neck. Jokes about playing “smear the queer” said just loudly enough to be overheard when he and Daniel walked by. Shoulder checks to both of them in the hall. Some fur had even broken into Daniel’s locker and urinated on his belongings. Things were moving far too quickly to grasp and it was taking a serious toll. Daniel was withdrawing steadily, the weight of it bearing down on the cougar directly. Where he used to be gregarious and outgoing in the halls, he now kept his ears down and his shoulders hunched, practically hiding behind Chase as they walked. His performance was slipping in practices as he struggled to over-exert himself, and Chase could see the struggle to justify his place on the team and even to justify his own self-worth. Even his grades were starting to slide, and it was clear that Daniel was losing the will to fight for himself.

Chase had absolutely no idea how to combat this tide. Even talking with his coach about it didn’t present any real solutions, only encouragement to lead by example and the coaches would back him up. It was torture to watch. Worst of all, Chase knew he couldn’t go chasing down every little aggression he saw, even among the team, or else he’d be branded as Daniel’s “white knight” and lumped in with him in the public shaming. How was that supposed to be fair to either of them? And Chase couldn’t even really put into words what he was feeling in any event, how could he possibly support what he couldn’t figure out his own damn self?

He threw himself into trying to keep the team together as a pack, but cracks were showing and growing larger all the time. Several of his teammates took Chase’s heartfelt words to mind and seemed to put whatever conflicts they had aside, but the team was breaking into seeming factions on each half of the field. Chase, Nate, and Max were quietly supportive of Daniel, with the ringtail cat making a surprisingly earnest effort to ensure Daniel wasn’t alone or completely ostracized by the team. Max, Sequon, and Jorge were noncommittal, clearly unwilling to stick their necks out but also not showing any inclination to treat the cougar as anything other than their teammate—which frankly Chase could live with just fine.

The clear problem was the defensive line. The three canine backs—Dane, Drew, and Manny—had banded into a unit that wasn’t shy about showing their problems with Daniel, and they’d managed to rope Riley into spending more time with them than Chase was happy with. The rabbit wasn’t up to their level of hazing yet, but that sort of influence could only last so long before infecting him.

Chase did what he could to make sure that no overt bullying took place on the field, but even as the captain his scope was limited to what he could see. Passes being made too far on purpose so Daniel would fail and have to go chase it. Rocks, dirt and various small items thrown or flicked at the back of his head as they swapped high-fives whenever they landed a hit. Various “accidental” fouls or balls kicked at his face a little bit too conveniently hard. None of it was anything that an outside observer would call “hazing” or “violence”, but the pattern was clearly being set that nobody else was going to come to Daniel’s defense whatever happened to him. The team’s cohesion was breaking down; the entire left side of the field was just being left out of plays whenever Daniel was on the pitch, and it felt like the end of the team’s positive run was coming in Chase’s mind. Despite their extremely strong start, the Prospectors had dropped the last two and were hanging on to a 7-3 record by a thread; and Chase knew it wasn’t going to last like this.

As with all things that escalate in the shadows, a breaking point was reached.

For weeks now, Daniel had been lagging behind in the locker room as the rest of the team showered and got changed, hiding away in a corner, showing the weariness in every line of his body. He wanted to give the rest of the team time and space so he didn’t make them uncomfortable, and when Chase offered to wait with him he refused, telling Chase to go get cleaned up with “I can handle my own problems.”

On this day he waited just as long as he always did, lagging and making a show of resting and putting away his gear. Chase had gotten his shower done and was getting dressed again, watching the cougar warily. The shower wasn’t empty, but Daniel got up anyway with his towel around his waist and shuffled off to get clean. Chase realized suddenly that he hadn’t left the showers empty like usual.

“Oh fuck no,” a voice snapped Chase’s head around violently towards the showers. “I ain’t having some queer stare at me while I’m showering.”

“Oh lay off, Dane” Daniel sighed. “Nobody is interested in looking at you.”

“Oh, you got jokes now?” said a second voice, which Chase quickly pinned as belonging to the wolf, Drew. He started to move towards the shower.

“I’m just here to play soccer,” Daniel said, weariness clearly evident in his voice.

“No, we’re here to play soccer,” Dane said derisively, “not to play with boys. Maybe you need to go back to whatever—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” the cougar snapped, his frustration boiling over. “You can get used to it or you can keep snapping at shadows but I’m part of this fucking team, and—”

“Fuck off, faggot,” Dane barked. Chase heard a grunt, saw Daniel stumble backwards past the doorway, and watched as his head cracked against the cinderblock wall. The feline slumped to the floor with a deep groan, paw held to the back of his head as he lay on the wet floor being soaked by the spray of the showerheads.

In a heartbeat, Chase was in the showers, blocking the doorway with an expression darker than a desert thundercloud, a deep bass snarl resonating in his chest. Dane, Drew, and Riley stood there, eyes wide. Riley was shaking in place, and Drew put his paws up and backed quickly away from Dane, who still had his paw up and extended in stunned silence. Chase turned away to tend to his friend. “Daniel, are you okay?”

“I think so,” Daniel croaked. “Maybe.”

“Can you stand?”

“Yeah... yeah. Probably.”

“Okay. We’ll get you into the coach’s office for a minute.” Chase stood and turned back to the offenders. He took a step towards them. They took a step back.

“You three get your asses out, dry, and dressed,” he growled, the tone making it unmistakable that the two would obey his commands. “And you stay there. Fucking now.”

The rabbit, wolf, and grey fox scrambled out of the shower as Chase helped Daniel to his feet and walked him unsteadily into the office where he could sit in the desk chair and rest. “Take it easy for a minute,” he instructed, pressing a spare towel to Daniel’s head. “Hold pressure on it, I’ll be right back. I have to deal with this shit.” Daniel just nodded shakily and tried to comply.

When Chase walked out into the locker room he was surprised to see the furs sitting on a bench, cowed and quiet. Chase stared at them, silent and wrathful, taking the measure of all three. “Give me one fucking reason—any reason at all why I shouldn’t have you all off the team right now,” he growled.

Riley was trembling, pulling his ears down against his head with his paws as he stayed silent, his footpaws bumping rapidly against the ground.

“I—I... It wasn’t—didn’t mean to—” Dane stammered, still looking dazed.

“Fuck’s sake, Dane, get yourself together,” Drew interrupted. “Chase, the cat’s a tailraiser,” the wolf said simply, as if it justified him.

Chase’s muzzle was stonelike even as his mind spun:

That’s none of your fucking business.

That’s just a shitty rumor.

You hateful fucker.

We are a team first and foremost.

What actually came out of his mouth surprised even him.

“I don’t give a shit.”

Drew frowned. “Dude, you gonna share a shower with a queer_?_”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“And so you expect all of us to—”

“I. Do not. Give a shit.” Chase bellowed, putting his balled up paw into the door of a locker with a bang that resounded off the walls as the anger finally took him. The trio jumped at the noise. “There is no justification—none—for attacking someone who did absolutely nothing to you! Much less a fucking teammate! Lo pinche juro por Dios! This team is a pack, my pack. Do you absolute idiots know what a pack is? It’s family.”

All three stared gaping at the now-dented locker panel, but Drew looked away and scoffed halfheartedly. “Not my family...” he muttered, almost like he was trying to convince himself at this point.

“Then get the fuck out of my locker room,” Chase replied coldly. Drew’s muzzle spun back up to meet him, shocked. “Do I look like I’m joking? You attacked a teammate, and in a way that could have legitimately killed him. Do you fucking see that?” The doberman stabbed a finger back at the shower wall where all three could see a small red splash of blood on the concrete where Daniel’s head had hit, an inch at most away from a metal shower tap covered in hard edges. The whites of Dane’s eyes grew as he saw the evidence of how close it had been to a truly horrific incident. “Just a breath closer, Dane. Just a paws-width more and you could have been a fucking murderer right now. And for what? Because you heard a rumor that one of your teammates might be gay?! Is that who you are?” Chase laughed bitterly. “What, are you so afraid of the cat fifty pounds lighter than you that you think you couldn’t defend yourself from his advances? Do you think you’re really doing the rest of us a huge favor by inviting trouble to our locker room? Think you’ll catch the gay from him? Are you incapable of being enough of a fucking adult to say ‘I’m flattered but no thanks’?!”

Chase shook his head in frustration, his lips drawing back to expose his fangs. “Let me be, just, so clear right now. Whatever happens outside of these walls and outside of our field? I do not care. Your business is your own business right up to the point where it affects all of us. Who Daniel does or does not like does not affect anyone else but him, but you being violent fucking beasts does. If you are a part of this team, that means that you look out for your teammates. It means you care about them and make them better players and better furs, not worse. If that’s a problem for you then get out, I don’t want or need you around.

“If you want to stay on this team then you will do the following: you will make it abundantly and explicitly clear to Daniel that he has nothing to fear from you, and you will make sure that he has a safe place on this team and in this school. I don’t expect you to support his “lifestyle” or whatever, I don’t even expect you to be friends. But if you’re here, on this team, then I do expect you to act like a pack.”

The three shrank back as Chase leaned in close and grew quiet. “But I will say this and do not mistake me,” he growled low in his throat, “If you walk away I’d better not see either of you within twenty feet of anyone on my team, because I will fucking end you. You got that? I will tear you limb from limb and send you home to your parents in a bag. This is my family. Daniel is my family, and I will go to war on his behalf. You three can decide for yourselves if you’re part of my pack or if you’re my enemy. Me explico?”

The three nodded—emphatically, in Riley’s case—but said nothing.

Chase felt suddenly deflated, like all the anger he had to spare had been spent and he was left strangely weightless. He pointed at the door, eyes closing, and simply said “Get out,” and the trio rapidly followed his order.

The sudden silence of the locker room felt deafening to Chase. His paws shook from the leftover adrenaline that masked the pain of him punching a locker hard enough to dent the surface, and he quietly replayed all the things he had just yelled in his head as if he couldn’t believe he’d been the one to say them. It lasted until a quiet sound broke the silence—just a small, choked sob coming from the office that caught Chase’s pointed ears.

Chase pushed the door open and looked down at Daniel to see if he was okay. The cougar looked every ounce the young teen he was all of a sudden. Where there had sat a teammate and friend, there was now a child, fearful and injured, hugging his arms around his chest and crying as quietly as he could. Chase had no idea what to do, so he just knelt in front of his friend and put his paws on the cat’s shoulders.

“I’m so sorry, Daniel,” he whispered, unclear what else he could possibly say to reassure the cougar as he examined the gash behind the cougar’s ear, the bleeding from which was thankfully nearly stopped. “I’m so, so sorry. This never should have happened. I can’t believe any of this got this bad. I should—I should have done something more.”

“No,” Daniel replied, his voice shaky. “You... you did what you could. I nev—I never wanted this to be your problem, too.” He leaned back slightly in the chair, wiping his eyes roughly with the palms of his paws as he caught his breath. “Thank you for saying all that,” he muttered, unwilling or unable to look directly at Chase.

“I meant it,” the doberman replied quickly.

“I know. I could tell.” Daniel winced at a touch as Chase finished his examination, and then regained his bearings. “The thing is though... they’re not wrong.”

Chase just stared at his teary, red eyes and the sandy fur unevenly stained from the blood.

“I... I am gay. For real.”

“...I—I know.”

Daniel’s eyes widened slightly, but Chase kept going, the words seemingly pouring forth to his own surprise as he finally connected the dots in his head. “I think I’ve known for a while now. It all makes so much sense: how you had some bad things happen to you back home, why your family is so close and so protective and why they thanked me for watching out for you, how you never tried to fight back or deny it...” Chase choked, hearing his own admission. “And... and how you look at me.”

“Is... Is that... okay?” Daniel asked, his voice barely over a whisper. “Are you still... can you still be my... friend?”

Chase heard the mixed tenor of desperation and hope in Daniel’s voice, and tried to consult his own fears, his own misgivings, experiences, prejudices, fucking after-school specials on TV—anything that would tell him how he was supposed to feel about all this—but he only felt stillness. Quiet.

Peace.

“Absolutely,” Chase replied quietly. “I meant what I said; I really don’t care if you’re gay or not.” Some of the fear on Daniel’s short muzzle started to fade into surprise as Chase continued, “And what does it even matter if you’re gay anyway? You are who you are, and you’re Daniel. And, that’s stupid to say, but like, I mean it. You’re my friend, my teammate, and you don’t deserve to be fucking singled out for who you are. You should be treated like anyone else, and protected, and... and—” his voice broke just a little. “And loved like anyone else.”

Daniel broke, the tears flowing freely once again. “I—I was so fucking scared...” he whispered between sobs. “I still am. I... I don’t know how to not be.” Chase simply remained quiet, letting his friend vent, his head spinning, until the cougar was able to speak again. “It’s just like it was before, in middle school, all over again. I—I couldn’t take it then. It nearly killed me. It... It was so close...”

“It was that bad?” Chase asked quietly.

In response, Daniel rolled his forearm over, showing the ink drawn indelibly into his skin. He took Chase’s paw in his own and drew it close, pressing Chase’s fingers to the ink lines in the shape of a sunset. As they brushed over the line depicting the horizon that bisected the sun, he suddenly felt something different: a large scar made itself known to his touch. The line was drawn exactly in the path of the puckered tissue, following a path that traced over soft, vulnerable flesh and large veins hidden beneath the skin. Chase realized with a start that he’d never before actually seen a self-harm scar—much less touched one, and his paw began to shake as Daniel continued.

“I really wanted to die, so much. I felt like I deserved it for the longest time, like all of this attention was my fault. I... I tried. I couldn—it was too much, all too much. I found a box cutter in my dad’s tools in the garage, an—” He took a deep, quivering breath between tears. “I passed out after the first arm; all the blood freaked me out and I got so dizzy and... My mom found me in time, though, she got me to the hospital. My parents got me therapy, got therapy for all of us. It helped—it kept me going until I got to high school and things improved when I found a few more furs like me, but I guess there’s some things you can never truly leave behind.”

Chase traced the scar again, this time with something approaching reverence. “Fuck, Daniel, I’m so sorry...”

“Yeah, so that’s why my parents were okay with me getting a tattoo. It lets me have something positive to look at instead of a bitter memory.” Chase tightened his grip on the feline’s paw, and the faintest hint of a smile appeared on Daniel’s muzzle. “There’s one big difference, though, between then and now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Back then I didn’t have anyone on my side. And now I do.”

“I promise,” Chase said, his heart feeling like it was going to burst for a whole host of reasons he didn’t have any words to express. “You won’t be alone. I can’t promise much, but I can promise that at least.”

“Please tell me I can hug you now.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Daniel practically leapt from the chair to throw his arms around Chase’s neck, still openly shedding tears onto his shoulder as they went to their knees on the floor. It was awkward—Chase didn’t really know how to parse the idea that he was hugging a dude dressed in just a towel in the locker room office—but more than that he could feel the core of warmth that was slowly spreading throughout him, as well as the faint and slowly growing rumble of a purr deep in Daniel’s chest. Chase closed his eyes and leaned into Daniel’s shoulder himself. It felt good. He finally understood what it meant to be a safe person for Daniel, and it felt right.

---

Chase didn’t let Daniel out of his sight as they got everything cleaned up, re-dressed, and walked out to the parking lot to get in Chase’s abused car. The sun was just beginning to set, the chill of the evening starting to permeate the air, and everything felt still and close. Daniel never said so much as a word the whole time, still clearly shaken and trying to resist the urge to hang onto Chase’s arm like a little kit, and the silence was deeply unnerving to the canine. As he pulled out onto the main road through town he kept glancing over to see Daniel’s paw in his lap twitching every so often. His eyes were distant, looking through the dashboard at something invisible and internal as he dealt with whatever turmoil was going on inside his head.

He watched Daniel’s fingers clench and release, as though searching for something to hang on to, before straightening and repeating the cycle. Chase stopped at a red light, and without thinking about it he reached his own paw over and slid it into Daniel’s, which immediately gripped him with an intensity that surprised Chase. He looked at it, surprised at himself, and saw the delicate tattoo on his friend’s forearm. He remembered what it meant—how much it meant to Daniel, and saw it now for what it really was: a way for him to find hope and pride out of what he had survived.

It... it reminds me of home, he had said. I always loved the times when the sun was low...The sky would turn so many colors, the kind you’d never see otherwise.

How much comfort had he left behind in his old home? How many friends who really knew him? How many safe places where he could just be himself? How much healing from his traumatic past had just been undone in the space of a few weeks?

Daniel had his eyes closed, regulating his breathing as he tried to calm himself down, but it was clearly a battle. Chase looked back up as the light turned green; the sky was catching, the lowering sun turning the expanse into a flaming display of gold and red, and immediately Chase knew what he wanted to do.

With his eyes closed, Daniel didn’t see Chase turn off the route home. By the time he looked up the car was passing the suburban construction, lots growing less developed and the houses less and less finished as they got further away from the city center like some kind of urban evolution running in reverse. “Uh, Chase?” he finally asked, “Where are we going?”

Chase gave his paw a squeeze, only belatedly realizing that he was still holding it. “It’s okay, I just want to take a little detour. I think you’ll like it.” Daniel fell quiet again, willing to take his friend at his word. They drove on, now leaving the city behind fully, taking the local road out into the empty countryside. A full half-hour later, as the sun was nearly touching the horizon, Chase stopped the car deep in mesa territory. He nearly pulled his passenger out of the car, urging him to follow. Daniel did, confused, practically being forced to jog up the path to the top behind his teammate.

The pair stepped out onto the flat top of the mesa just as the ball of the sun hit the earth. Before them, the world stretched on seemingly endlessly, flat and nearly-featureless, the different colored bands of geologic strata catching the light in a way that made them dance like a terrestrial rainbow in hues of red, purple, and ochre.

As Daniel took the scene in, Chase reached over and took his left paw again, as he had in the car, and turned it so his forearm was facing up.

“You told me you missed the colors,” Chase said quietly, himself bathed in gold and orange, staring at the dark lines inked in the cougar’s fur.

“I did,” Daniel breathed, entranced by the sights. “I do.”

The two got comfortable, sitting on the bare rock. Daniel was settling somewhat, but he still reached into his backpack after a few minutes and rummaged around. “I hope you don’t mind,” he said, pulling a small baggy with a pawful of joints and a lighter. Both the bag and the contents looked a bit rough, like they’d spent more than a little time in the backpack just bouncing around. “I kept some for the right occasion, but I just... everything is buzzing.” Chase just nodded, nonplussed, and Daniel pulled one out and sparked it up, taking a deep breath. When he exhaled, it looked like all the stress in his body wafted into the air along with the smoke. He practically sagged.

“What’s it like?” Chase asked, surprised at himself.

“What, being high?” Daniel closed his eyes. “It’s... It’s like having walls removed inside yourself. You can just feel things better, but like, you’re not trapped, you know?. If you're overwhelmed then it feels more manageable, if you’re in pain it helps it fade into the background, and if you feel good then you just feel more of it like your body is more aware of itself somehow.” He looked over at Chase. “You wanna try?”

He almost declined out of reflex; but now, at this moment, what was possibly the harm? Chase just shrugged and held his paw out.

“Don’t go nuts on your first try, just small inhales until you get a feel for it.” Daniel coached as he passed the joint over.

Chase tried to regulate himself, he did, but he still was left coughing from the unfamiliar sensation of smoke tickling his lungs from the inside. Daniel laughed. “Yeah, I know, right?”

“Okay, it’s not as bad as I thought, I just wasn’t ready.” Chase argued, passing it back to Daniel who took another hit himself. Over a few more turns, Chase got more accustomed to it, and started to feel himself elevating as he lay back on the ground and looked at the darkening sky above. His head had a pleasant lightness, like it was detached from his body somehow, but he didn’t feel drunk or numbed. It was like he could feel every inch of where his fur was touching the bare rock. This must be what Daniel had meant by feeling more.

The rest of the joint got used before either of them felt like breaking the silence again. Daniel stubbed out the end on the ground and lay back next to Chase. “Are you okay with what happened today, Chase?” he asked hesitantly.

Chase’s head was lagging a few seconds behind the rest of him and he just started to speak before he was aware of it. “With you being bullied? Chingalo, fuck no.”

“I didn’t mean that part,” Daniel said quietly.

Chase was quiet for a long time before he responded, “I’m honestly not sure yet. I think so, but there’s a lot of feelings to sort through. I know I meant everything I said, somehow, but I just haven’t figured out what that means to me.”

Daniel nodded even though Chase wasn’t looking at him, and rolled over slightly to press himself against Chase’s side. “For real though, I can’t thank you enough for what you did. And said. And just... who you are.” There was nothing Chase could say to respond to that, his brain had taken a full leave of absence as he felt Daniel against him, their fur mingling where it met. Daniel continued, “I just, I want you to know that if I do anything that makes you uncomfortable, you can tell me, you know?” His paw closed on Chase’s shirt just to have something to hold on to, like he was grounding himself on Chase’s presence. “I never want to do that to you, Chase.”

Chase’s body was almost screaming, his fur felt like it was made of live wires that were pulsing out at every touch, like shooting stars were communicating the sensations to his brain instead of mere nerve endings. He’d never felt like this before, like his body just needed to be touched, like he might go crazy if it weren’t. He couldn’t stop a gasp and long exhale as Daniel grasped his shirt, the fabric running across his chest and abdomen in a way that left a trail of sparks in his mind. Unconsciously, he pulled Daniel even closer against his side with his arm, wrapping it around the smaller cat’s shoulders and running it up and down absently.

“I’m happy,” he sighed, almost like he was telling himself as much as Daniel, trailing his blunt claws through the fur on Daniel’s shoulder and arm. “Right now, I... Everything just feels right.”

It was a good few seconds before his faded brain recognized the fact that Daniel had leaned up and kissed him on the cheek and was now nuzzled into Chase’s side, his head resting on Chase’s chest, his paw running slowly across his stomach. Once it hit, though, Chase’s brain exploded. Some part of his logic center tried to figure out why his emotions were doing happy backflips at the gesture, what the hell any of this meant for him going forward, and why he should actually care. Instead, he settled for tilting his head down and touching his lips to the sandy-furred head, reciprocating the affection. Daniel looked up at him; surprised, but with a warring mix of hope and hesitation in his eyes as he leaned in ever so slightly. Maybe it was the lack of inhibitions, maybe it really was what he wanted all along. Maybe he was just interested in knowing what it felt like. Chase didn’t know and didn’t feel like spending a lot of time pondering over it right now. He just closed the last bit of distance between them and met Daniel’s lips with his own.

Chase wouldn’t have had words to describe the feeling even if he had been stone sober, so as high as he was his logic centers just settled for shutting down and staying quiet. The sensation of Daniel rolling slightly and melting into the kiss, the way the smaller body fit against his own, the smoothness of Daniel’s fur as Chase’s paws unconsciously found their way under his shirt to his bare back; everything was too much to bear on its own, and combined it was a tidal wave that was sweeping Chase under. He could feel the light touch of Daniel’s tongue on his lips, the shape of the other boy’s sharp teeth as he got slightly more bold and explored the space with his own tongue. His body was exulting in the feeling of contact, of closeness, of release.

Stars appeared overhead in the blackening sky just as they appeared behind Chase’s eyes, exploding into his mind. Everything just felt right, it felt correct and somehow inevitable, like he was meant to be in this exact place with this exact boy at this exact time and his whole life had just led him up to this point.

After a few passionate minutes, they stopped making out and just lay together in the darkness, slowly sobering up while they enjoyed the cool air and the still-warm rock, watching the stars appear. When they could stand again without any danger of being dizzy, they headed back down to the car and started the drive back into town. Chase’s mind finally cleared sufficiently for him to start to think about what the hell had just happened to him today, but there were no answers forthcoming about what this all meant for him.

Am I in love, he wondered silently, Am I gay_? Can you just be gay for one fur and not for anyone else? Fuck, do I tell my mom?_

When he pulled the car into the parking lot at Daniel’s apartment, he must have had a look on his face that gave away the game because Daniel leaned over the center console and put his paw on the back of Chase’s head. “Hey,” he said, “talk to me tomorrow, okay? Whatever you want is...” he hesitated only slightly, but Chase caught it. “It’s fine with me. Just as long as we’re still friends I’ll be okay.”

Daniel opened the door and climbed out without any further ado, and shut it softly behind himself. Chase knew instinctually that Daniel was just trying to give him space to figure himself out. Surely if anyone understood where he was at right now, Daniel would, right?

The drive home was made in grave-like silence. Chase had no space in his head for new thoughts or music or distractions. He was only dimly aware that the time had passed at all, until he found his car parked safely behind his mother’s car in the driveway of their duplex. As he walked in the door, he found his mother doing some cleaning in the kitchen, and the older doberman looked up in surprise as he entered.

“Where have you been?” she asked, curiously. “I almost never get home before you.” Before Chase could formulate a response of some sort from the spaghetti of emotions in his brain, his mom had read his face and stopped what she was doing. “Chase? Que malo, honey?”

Chase just stood, silently, still trying to parse himself out into something he could express. Drying her paws, Julie came around the island to take her son’s paws and led him to the couch where they sat together. “Hon, you can talk to me, okay? I promise.”

“Mom...” he started, haltingly, hesitating as he searched for words. “I... I think I might be in love?”

Julie started, completely taken by surprise given the turmoil on his face. “Well that’s—por que...” she looked at him again, reading deeper between the lines—and suddenly she understood. “Oh, baby, oh honey,” she cooed, pulling Chase into a firm hug. “Mi hijo, it’s Daniel, isn’t it?”

Chase just started crying into his mom’s shoulder, confirming her suspicions as his feelings ran over the top of the dam. “I—I just—I don’t—who am I?” he choked out between sobs. “I don’t know wh—what’s happening to me.”

His mother pulled back enough to meet his eyes with her own and she pressed her forehead against Chase’s. “You’re my son, Chase. You will always be my son.”

“You... you’d be okay with me? Like, if I were... like that?”

“Chase Ramos, we have always had each other, and that will never change. Somos familia, somos la misma sangre, okay? Whatever else you are, you are mine and I love you.”

The tears started again, this time a full and cathartic release of tension as Chase melted into the embrace and wept with all his strength. All his fear, uncertainty, and pain melted out into his cries as his mother held him. The fist around his heart started to loosen, and the weight of everything that happened over weeks finally lifted off of his shoulders.

“Te amo, mama,” he whispered. “Thank you.”

The next day at school was a blur to Chase. All he really knew was that in first period he’d given Daniel a note that they’d talk after school since they had a day without practice, and the rest of life completely escaped his notice.

“Dude?”

Chase was just caught in his own thoughts as they swirled around him. He felt like he was standing on a precipice, except that every direction around him was a sheer cliff face and he was just hanging in the air waiting to see which direction he plummeted.

“Chase? You good?”

The doberman still didn’t flinch or respond until a tater tot bounced off his muzzle.

“Gah—wh—I” he sputtered.

Nate was staring at him with a curious look on his face. “Dude, where the fuck have you been all day?”

It was only then that Chase was aware that he was at lunch, a tray in front of him, completely untouched. The projectile tater tot had landed in the middle of a pile of mashed potatoes like the cherry on a sundae.

“All day?” he finally managed to ask as his brain rebooted into realtime.

“You haven’t even started eating and lunch is basically over, I don’t think you’ve said two words all day, and you nearly walked into two doors and a table so far. What the hell has gotten into you?”

“...I wish I knew,” was Chase’s vague response.

Nate reached over and dragged Chase’s tray away from him and started to tuck into the meal himself. “Is everything good?” he asked, but got no reply. “Did something happen?”

Chase started. “What do you mean? What would have happened?”

The lab shrugged noncommittally. “I dunno, bro, but you’re spaced out completely and Daniel hasn’t been around at all either. I just wondered if you two had a fight or something like that.”

“No, no...” Chase said, internally screaming at how close Nate had inadvertently come to guessing. “Nothing like that.”

“You coming down with something?”

“No—I mean... possibly.” Yeah, he thought sarcastically, I’m coming down with GAY. “Something.”

Nate frowned. “Well don’t give it to me.”

Chase flinched, just enough to be noticeable. “I think you’re safe, hermano.”

Thankfully, he was saved from further interrogation and humiliation by the bell. “Hey, thanks for getting my tray for me,” he quipped as he stood up. Nate just flipped him off and shoveled the last bit of food into his mouth as Chase practically fled the room for his next class.

Only three periods left to go... he reminded himself. He desperately hoped that he’d at least know what he wanted to say by that point.

---

Chase was unsure if he was upset or relieved to find that Daniel wasn’t waiting for him by his locker at the end of the school day. Nor was he in the gym, parking lot, or waiting at Chase’s car. Instead, there was just a small note, folded to be fairly inconspicuous to passersby, and tucked into the windshield wiper of his car.

Hey, I know there’s probably a lot on your mind right now. I’m not going to push you or rush you into a conversation you’re not ready to have. If/when you are ready, though, come over to my place.

Whether intentionally or not, the note was short and nondescript enough to not give away who it was written by, and vague enough that only Chase would understand it. He felt a wave of relief thinking that if anyone else had snuck a peek at the note they’d think he was meeting a girl or something, and then he immediately felt awful for being grateful. Was he ashamed?

Other cars around him pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the main road, but Chase just sat in the driver’s seat trying to find a hold on himself. The only conclusion he could come to was that it wouldn’t be fair to decide anything without Daniel knowing about it, so he reasoned that he might as well not put it off any longer. A short drive through town later, he was parked in front of the familiar apartment block and walking up the stairs to the 2nd floor door.

The door opened mid-knock, revealing Daniel’s face. He panted slightly, as if he’d pounced the whole length of the apartment to get the door the instant Chase rapped its surface. They stared at each other without saying anything, as if both looking for clues on each other’s faces.

“What in the actual hell, Daniel?!” Evie’s voice came from the living room. She peeked around the corner. “Oh, Chase! Hello, hon, come on in, please!” Chase did so, grateful for the distraction. “I assume you’re here for Daniel, but if you want to stay for dinner just let me know!”

Chase nodded his head gratefully. “Thank you. I’m not sure yet, but I’ll think about it,” he replied as Daniel began to lead him back to his room. He followed dumbly, taking a seat on the edge of the bed as Daniel sat in his desk chair. The already small room felt so much smaller now.

“I’m really glad you came,” Daniel offered. “Is—is there anything you wanted to... say?”

Chase took a deep breath, pushing his headfur back restlessly as he exhaled. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve been feeling all kinds of shit all day and I can’t sort any of it out.”

The cougar nodded slowly. “Yeah, that’s understandable.” He leaned forward slightly. “Can I ask you a few questions and see if that helps?” Chase nodded his assent. “Okay. Just, like, promise me you’ll be completely honest. First, do you still want to be my friend?”

“Wait, what?” Chase asked, honestly surprised. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Daniel stifled a laugh. “Are you serious? Is it that hard to believe that you wouldn’t want to put yourself in the middle of all the shit happening to me right now? I wouldn’t ask that of anyone.”

“And, just—what, leave you on your own? How could I do that? I promised that I’d never do exactly that to you.”

Daniel’s gaze dropped as he hid a disbelieving smile. “And that’s why you’re so special,” he muttered. “Okay,” he continued, looking back up, “so knowing that, do you regret what happened last night?”

That gave Chase pause, his muzzle scrunching to the side as he considered out loud. “That’s such a weird question to answer,” he admitted. “I don’t think I do? Like, none of it makes any sense, and I know I was high and all but the feeling was... well it was intense, for starters.” Daniel nodded his understanding, but didn’t interject. “I don’t know what... kissing you... means. Not yet.”

“If it helps at all, it was that intense for me, too,” Daniel admitted softly. Chase looked up, surprised. “Hey, just because I know I’m gay doesn’t mean that I can’t be flustered and get schoolboy crushes, you know. You...” he shook his head slightly, unwilling to continue. “I can get to my thoughts later, this is your time right now.

“When you think of me, what comes to mind?”

Chase did so, a small unconscious smile in the corner of his muzzle. “I think you’re the fastest I’ve ever become friends with someone since I met Nate. I think you’re an incredible athlete and I admire you on the field. I think you’re fun and a really nice guy.” The doberman caught himself just a little. “I think that you don’t deserve all the shit you’re getting at school. I think I want to protect you. I think that I want to ensure that you can be happy.”

Daniel leaned in slightly further, his eyes shining as he looked up at Chase. “That’s a good start...”

“I think I care about you more than I’ve cared about anyone before, and that really freaks me out,” Chase admitted. His eyes lowered as he bared his soul, unable to meet Daniel’s piercing eyes and unwilling to stop the torrent of words now that they were flowing. “I think you felt really good against me and I didn’t want to admit it. I think your fur is the softest thing I’ve ever felt and I really want to feel it again. I think I want to make sure that you never feel like an outsider.

“And I think that the idea of you not being around hurts so much that I couldn’t stand it. I think I could deal with anything compared to that.”

Daniel’s forehead was now practically touching Chase’s, his breath warm on the canine’s whiskers. “That’s a really good start,” he said, his voice barely over a whisper.

“Am I crazy?” Chase breathed back, eyes shut tight. “Is this nuts? It’s so fast, it doesn’t feel real.”

“Let me tell you what I think,” the cougar said, “I think you are the most selfless fur I’ve ever met. I think you saw a scared cat and made him feel like he was home, like he was wanted. I think that every time I’ve seen you step up for your teammates or your friends I’ve felt so proud I wanted to scream. I think you are fundamentally good.”

A soft paw traced Chase’s face, wiping away a stray tear and coming back to rest on his cheek. Even though he wasn’t looking, Chase could hear purring low in his friend’s throat. The sound was surprisingly calming to Chase, he mentally grabbed onto the sensation and let the heartfelt words pour over him as Daniel continued, barely above a whisper. “I think that you have the soul of a leader and the body of a god. I think that being around you makes me feel safer than anything except being held by you. I think I want to get lost in your fur and know every inch of you.” Daniel swallowed, nervously. “I think I’m scared, too. I never thought I could fall this hard for someone this quickly, and I don’t know what it means. I’m scared that being around me will hurt you, and I can’t stand the idea that it might be because of me. But more than that, I think that giving up and never knowing might kill me.”

Chase took a shaky breath and opened his eyes. He was so close that Daniel’s eyes were all he could see. They filled his vision, the soft hazel seeming to shift and flow in the low lights like molten metal. “I think you’re beautiful,” he said quickly. “I’ve never thought that about a guy before, but I think... like, I really want to hold you, too.”

Daniel smiled. “I think I want to kiss you again.”

“I... I think that would be okay.”

The cougar’s lips met his own, and the stars came back out as Chase closed his eyes once again.

---

School was... different now. Everything around him seemed to blur, but it all focused around the tawny-furred cat who had suddenly become the center of Chase’s world. The two did their best to maintain a low profile, restraining themselves to the friendly encounters they were used to, but it was hard to keep from casting furtive glances at each other or to hide the flustered blush that inevitably followed. The boys would tap their fists in greeting, and occasionally offer a back slap during practices, but they were borderline afraid of getting too close on campus lest they lose their self-control.

After school, however, they were free to give vent to their tensions. Every day of the following week they’d leave school in Chase’s car as normal, holding paws below the sight lines of the windows and dashboard, and they’d turn off the main road to find somewhere isolated where they could park and make out without being disturbed or noticed. Furtive touches became bolder over time, kisses became desperate and forceful, teasing claws became a threat of leaving marks somewhere visible. Somewhere in the back of his mind Chase knew they were playing a dangerous game, but there was no stopping himself.

That Friday found them parked in a spot by the loading docks of the grocery store, relaxing with a quick makeout, but generally just enjoying the day’s quiet and comfort. Chase had the driver’s seat leaned back, and Daniel had his head in his lap, laying on his back with his legs and footpaws dangling out the passenger window.

“So,” Daniel said, hesitantly breaking the comfortable silence between them, “is it okay if I ask ‘what are we’?”

“How’s that?”

The cougar craned his head back to look up at his doberman. “I mean, like, am I your boyfriend? You know, are we dating?”

Chase wasn’t surprised by the way his heartrate jumped at the mention. “I... I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it...” It was true, in a sense.

“Really?” Daniel asked, honestly surprised.

The canine blushed, slightly ashamed. “I mean, I guess I have thought about it, but it, like... I kinda panic.”

“Hey, I’m not asking you to come out or anything. You know that, right?”

Chase nodded. “I know, I know. It’s just me, I’m just being stupid about it. It’s like the cartoons, I know I’ve run over the edge of the cliff but as long as I don’t look down I won’t fall.”

Daniel nodded understandingly. “Because saying it makes it real.”

“You get it, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, silly dog,” Daniel laughed. “Do you have any idea how long I lived in some weird kind of denial about liking guys before finally accepting it?”

“So... this is normal then?”

“Mostly normal, yeah.” Daniel pulled his legs back into the car and sat up to face Chase more equally. “It’s just not something you want to hide away from for too long, because being able to accept yourself feels so much more free.”

Chase grinned. “I do like you, you know.”

“No shit,” Daniel purred. “I could tell from the way you keep using your tongue in my mouth.”

“I think—no, fuck that, I know that I want to be with you. I want—” he took a deep breath, “Iwantyoutobemyboyfriend.” Daniel’s smile lit up his face as Chase kept speaking. “There. I said it. Boyfriend. _Boy_friend. I have a boyfriend?” Daniel nodded furiously as Chase’s smile spread to match Daniel’s. “Oh my goddess I have a boyfriend!”

The cat practically jumped over the center console to embrace his new partner. “How’s it feel, puppy?”

Chase’s stomach twisted around itself in the most pleasant way at the name “puppy”. “I feel... light.”

“That’s exactly the feeling!”

They embraced and stole a few kisses, but mostly sat in silence absorbing the afterglow of self-realization until Chase asked another question.

“So, like... am I gay then?”

Daniel shrugged easily. “Dunno. You might be, but that’s up to you to decide, I think.”

“Wait,” Chase looked confused, “am I allowed to still like girls, too?”

“Not as long as you’re dating me, you’re not,” Daniel laughed and stuck his tongue out impishly. “For real though, being bisexual is totally okay, too, you know? You don’t owe a label to anyone, the only thing that matters is that you know yourself and you’re honest with yourself.” He traced a claw over the exposed fur on Chase’s bicep absently, flushing pink as he lowered his voice. “And that you’re honest with me.”

The doberman shivered at the touch, wishing he could purr himself. “Okay, well, I honestly think you’re really cute.”

Daniel did purr, the vibrations traveling into Chase’s chest where they were pressed together. “Hey,” he eventually said, “I know we have a game tomorrow, but you wanna get out of here for a while? I think I wanna go back out into the desert again.”

Chase felt his ears go rigid as he recalled how “the desert” had gone last time, and he felt something else go a bit rigid as he considered how it might very well go this time. “Uh... yeah,” he agreed, his voice somewhat breaking. “Yeah, I’d like that a lot.”

“Then get me out of here.” Daniel brought his face in front of Chase’s, his hazel eyes boring into the canine’s. “Puppy.”

---

Against all odds, Chase managed to not wreck or run off the road on the way out to mesa country, though it was a struggle as every neuron in his hormone-flooded brain wanted to bury the gas pedal into the floor. He didn’t dare look over into the passenger seat, because he knew full well that Daniel was watching him with a shit-eating grin, proud at how easily he was able to affect the canine to this degree.

The temperature was dropping as they left the city limits and the desert took over the landscape, venting the heat of the day into the rapidly cooling atmosphere, and the two were grateful for their jackets as the climbed up the worn path to the flat tabletop, where they could barely see the last remaining rays of the setting sun.

They plopped down onto the stone as Daniel produced the baggie from a coat pocket and grinned at Chase. He sparked the joint wordlessly, taking a deep breath and passing it over to his partner. Chase took it and immediately drew in a measured breath, holding it deep and feeling his nervousness melting as the smoke suffused into his body. He let the smoke slip out his nose slowly, a long exhale, and closed his eyes contentedly.

“I’m not sure if I should like that so much, but I could really get used to it,” he admitted.

“Yeah,” Daniel affirmed, “they always tried so hard to scare us about it in school as kids but honestly?” He shook his head, chuckling at the memories of the hapless D.A.R.E. programs he’d sat through. “It’s just, like... it’s an ingredient, you know?”

“To what?”

“To an experience. It’s like salt in food, it just makes things more somehow.” The cougar passed the joint back to his friend and blew a stream of smoke. “Like I said, it just lets the walls down, you don’t feel so contained.”

The second hit rushed into Chase’s system, slowly bringing back the increasingly-familiar tingle of awareness of his own body. “Yeah, more. It definitely turns my senses up, or at least my sense of touch.”

Daniel nodded. “I can see that. I think for me, it’s more like allowing my brain to quiet down, to get out of the way of me just existing in the moment.”

Chase lay back on the rock face, his fur feeling like it was standing on end wherever it met the warmth of the rock face or the cool of the air. He was getting those little wisps of electricity again, feeling it run along his skin when a breeze stirred his fur. He reached out absently, brushing his paw over the fur on the back of Daniel’s arm, and then back up again with the back of his paw. “So soft...” he muttered.

“You weren’t kidding,” Daniel laughed. “You really do get touchy when you’re high, don’t you?”

The doberman wriggled uncomfortably. “I feel like... like if I can’t touch someone or be touched then my skin will just jump off. It’s so weird to explain.”

Daniel rolled over, half-covering Chase’s body with his own as he fed the joint back into Chase’s mouth. “I can’t have that, hon. I guess I’ll have to make sure you’re touched as much as you need.”

Chase shuddered as he inhaled, a rush of pure lust spreading through his limbs as he looked at the cougar with his eyes half-closed. He looked positively sultry in the moment. Chase blew out the smoke-filled breath, put the joint down on the rock, and pulled Daniel into his arms.

The pair made out with desperate energy, paws finding their way to every bit of exposed fur they could find, creeping under jacket lapels and shirt hems, but it wasn’t enough to sate them. Daniel traced his mouth down Chase’s muzzle, planting teasingly-soft kisses along his jaw and down the side of his neck. His rough tongue swept through the soft fur at the hollow of Chase’s throat, and the canine moaned quietly, rubbing his paws around the base of the feline’s ears. The feeling of Daniel’s purring into his throat was driving Chase mad, until he felt the cat’s paws drift off his torso to his legs. To his thighs. Chase let out a gasp, his head rocking back as Daniel’s paw swept gently over his crotch. He squeezed just so lightly at Chase’s painfully hard dick before practically moaning into the doberman’s chest fur.

“Goddess, Chase, I want you so much.” Chase couldn’t manage a response, all he could do was pant as Daniel brought his paw to rest directly over the button of Chase’s jeans. “May I?” he asked softly, looking up to Chase’s face.

Chase could only manage a firm nod of assent, but it was more than enough for the cougar. He eagerly tore open the encumbering jeans, desperate to get at what was hidden within. Chase had thought that being high made normal touch overwhelming, but from the first moment that Daniel’s paw came to rest against his cock his brain practically melted. The cougar didn’t rush in as greedily as he wanted to, he also wanted to savor the moment, to make sure that this first impression was stored in his mind forever. He traced a finger along the length, examining the shape, so different from his own. “Fur’s sake, Chase,” he muttered, “you’re huge...” The doberman barely registered the praise consciously, he just let out a deep moan as the paw closed around his member and began to stroke it slowly, almost luxuriously as he inched his way down his boyfriend’s body.

“Daniel, fuck, I—fuuuuuuuuck,” he panted breathlessly. “I’ve—never done this before...”

Daniel purred deeply as he nuzzled along the side of Chase’s crotch, the rumble flowing through his fur to settle deep into his core. “I know it shouldn’t matter,” he replied, “but it makes me really happy that I get to be first.”

The cat touched his tongue gently to the side of the erection, dragging the rough surface up along the length of the side until he reached the crown, where he slid his lips around it with a satisfied moan alongside his purring.

Chase’s entire body went rigid, lifting his tail clear of the ground as he let out a full-throated, wordless cry, “Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!” The sound faded into the empty desert, bouncing off rock faces and echoing briefly.

Daniel pulled the shaft free of his lips and gave it a leisurely stroke as he panted with need. “Oh fuuuuuuck, Chase, yes, let me hear you.” Chase couldn’t have done otherwise even had he wanted to as Daniel went back down on him, taking the shaft as deeply into his muzzle as he could manage. Chase writhed in bliss—the wet heat of a mouth, the rumbled vibrations of purring combined with low guttural moans, the way the cougar twitched and wriggled against his body as though he couldn’t touch enough of it at the same time—none of it would let Chase enjoy this for long.

“Jeeeeesus, Daniel, I—I can’t—I’m—” he gasped, his breath hitching in his throat as he was swept under a tidal wave of new sensations.

“I want it, Chase,” the cat said around the tip of Chase’s malehood, just letting it rest on the edge of his lips. “Let it go, I want it so much.” His tongue flicked around the head as he begged, until Chase felt the end of his restraint approach. He grabbed Daniel’s ear in his paw, tugging firmly in no particular direction, but Daniel took the unspoken hint and threw himself back onto the straining cock, lashing the underside with his rough tongue and grasping his paw behind Chase’s swollen knot as he bobbed his head furiously. He needed this, and Chase obliged him.

With an unrestrained cry into the night sky, Chase’s back arched as he reached his peak. Daniel murred happily as his lover came harder than he thought possible, coating the back of his maw with lust. The doberman was on the edge of blacking out as his prick throbbed and jerked, massaged by tongue and throat, and he gripped the head in his lap possessively, holding Daniel as close as he could.

With a barely audible gag, Daniel managed to swallow nearly all of the spent seed before he choked, still purring as his paw massaged the canine shaft and balls tenderly. He gave a last, lingering lick over the head and then settled down atop his partner’s lap, content to simply remain holding his boyfriend’s genitals like a precious treasure.

Chase collapsed bonelessly, feeling like his soul had just been sucked out of his body. As he opened his eyes again, the stars seemed to double and then swim back together again against the stark black background. He struggled to find anything to say—what could possibly sum up an experience like that?

He finally settled on a breathless “Holy shit...”

Daniel crawled up to nestle his shoulder into the dog’s armpit, resting his sandy head on Chase’s chest, his paw still caressing lovingly along Chase’s groin and genitals. “Yeah,” he responded in a whisper, “holy shit is right.” He shivered slightly, only now realizing how brisk the air had become now that the heat of the moment was passing.

Chase felt it, and pulled him in tightly to his side. “You’re incredible, you know that?” he praised, nuzzling into the cat’s headfur.

“I actually had no idea,” Daniel replied shyly. “I’ve never tried before...”

“Obviously I didn’t just mean the blowjob,” Chase chuckled. “It’s just you. You’re amazing all on your own.” He paused. “But yeah, I mean, that was fucking incredible for something you’ve never done before.”

“You inspire me,” was the only reply Daniel offered, but it seemed like enough. The two boys lapsed into a comfortable silence, just holding each other, basking in the contact between fur, holding paws tightly. Or, they did up until the point Daniel’s shivering became noticeable.

“Danny?”

“I really don’t want to go home, hon, but if we don’t get out of here they’re going to find our bodies frozen like this.”

“Yeah, you have a solid point.”

The pair slowly recollected themselves, repaired their disheveled clothing, and began the downhill trek back to the car. The entire drive back into town they didn’t pass a single other vehicle. As Chase drove, Daniel practically lounged in the passenger seat, holding Chase’s free paw with his own and staring at it as he traced his thumb claw along the back. He radiated contentment in a way Chase had never seen from him until this moment.

It was all too short a drive for either of them, but soon they were parked in front of the squat apartment building. Chase walked with Daniel up to the doorway, neither of them saying anything until they were there. They simply stood in front of the door facing each other, holding both of each other’s paws in their own as they searched for words.

“Chase, I—” Daniel stalled, catching himself. “You make me so happy.”

Chase flushed, his jaw hanging slightly as he stuttered awkwardly, until the light next to his head suddenly flicked on and the door opened.

Evie stood in the doorway in flannel pajamas, the short, round-faced lynx trying to scowl at her son and nearly managing to pull it off. “Hello, Daniel Gibson. Do you have any idea what time it is?”

The young cougar flushed red. “Ah, yeah... Sorry mom. Um...” he looked over at Chase. “So, Chase and I are dating now...”

A smile broke through for just an instant before she settled back into her affected scowl. “Congratulations, you two. You are still grounded, you know that, right?”

Daniel grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I know.”

“Get in here,” she sighed. “I love you, Daniel.”

“Love you too, mom.”

Shaking her head, Evie turned to close the door, looking back at Chase standing awkwardly on the threshold. “I’m glad he found you,” she said, her voice genuine and pleased. “Take good care of my boy.” And the door closed with a soft click.

---

Chase tried to close the door behind himself as quietly as possible, but despite his best efforts he found his mother standing in the hallway anyway.

“Chase, where the hell have you been? It’s nearly midnight! Don’t you have a game tomorrow?”

He just stared at the floor vacantly, his muzzle tugged upwards in a disbelieving smile.

“Chase?”

“Sorry mom. I, just—” he let a huge smile bloom on his face as he finally met her gaze. “I have a boyfriend.”

Boyfriend.

Chase never knew a word could affect him this much. Saying it out loud had unlocked something in him; at any given moment he could catch a glimpse of his cougar and the feelings in him threatened to overrun and drown him. It was like trying to hold back the ocean with a broom. It took every ounce of willpower in his body to not kiss Daniel in the hallways, to avoid brushing his tan paw with his dark brown one, to keep a look of dopey love off his face.

It would only be a matter of time before Chase blew his cover wide open, before he said or did the wrong thing and left no doubt in anyfur’s mind that he was head-over-paws gay for Daniel. Manny had already more or less gotten a hint of it, and he was refusing to let it go. The rest of the team might be wondering, but the sheer amount of disgust and hate in Manny’s accusations was enough to keep them sympathetic towards their captain. Nobody on the team wanted to be around the coyote, and for all the effort he put into trying to drive a wedge between Daniel and the team, all he was really accomplishing was getting more and more furs on Daniel’s side.

If anything, it helped Chase keep his cover intact. He could stand up for his boyfriend without seeming out of place, as there was nearly always at least one other player standing with him. It made Chase confident—confident that Daniel would be accepted, confident that maybe he could be accepted in time, that maybe no one else was really that close to clocking how in love he was.

Despite his best efforts, Chase knew the dam was doomed to break at some point, and he was doing everything he could to keep it from happening somewhere public, from exposing the two of them.

He very nearly succeeded.

---

The final whistle sounded, and the Prospectors celebrated another win over the Frezia Flares. Their record was the best the school had done in a decade, and spirits were high in the postgame huddle. The typical sounds and smells of the locker room swirled around them, boys hurried in and out of the showers, pulled on street clothes, and hurried out to their cars to be free for as much of the evening as they could manage to hold on to; but Chase and Daniel lingered. They took their time, feigning exhaustion and a need to rest before getting cleaned up, eventually managing to make their way into the showers. They stood on opposite sides of the open shower, refusing to look anywhere near each other as the rest of the team finished and one by one shut off their taps and got dried and dressed.

Daniel risked a hesitant glance as the number of onlookers dwindled, and he could fully see the stress in the doberman’s shoulders, how hard he was working to hold himself back. Daniel shivered at the thought and turned the water temperature down a bit to compensate for the flush his cheeks and ears were suddenly taking on.

The two found themselves alone in the shower, but they held off.

They heard a locker slam shut, but remained still.

The locker room door latched as the last player left the room, and Chase practically launched himself across the shower to his lover. Daniel _mrow_ed in surprise as Chase pinned him roughly to the wall and planted his slender muzzle against the cat’s shorter one, his tongue already snaking out to try to force entrance to Daniel’s mouth. He swept his arms around Chase’s back as the taller canine’s paws roamed all over him, trying to feel every inch of exposed fur he could reach at once, kneading the muscles and flesh beneath with desperate and obvious lust.

Chase was on fire, every tense feeling he’d kept repressed in public boiling over at once. He needed to touch, he needed to taste—he needed to fuck. His lips fell away from Daniel’s to press to the side of the cougar’s neck, drawing a raspy moan in response. His teeth nipped lightly at the exposed nape before him, roughly handling the cat’s ass in his paws. Chase tugged at the long, tawny tail and he felt Daniel’s claws come out and press firmly into his back, pricking his shoulder blades with points of sharp, bright sensation. Daniel’s breathing was already ragged as he panted.

Both of the boys could feel the other’s erections pressing into their bellies, both having gotten harder faster than they thought possible. Chase’s knot was already fully out as his body raged in a hormonal storm, Daniel’s slender cock grinding needily against his own. He reached a tan paw out, blunt claws splayed safely, and grasped around both members. He began to stroke, slowly at first but speeding up as his composure failed and the two boys began to gasp and grunt in unison.

Daniel’s claws raked through blue-black fur as he writhed. “Goddess damn,” he gasped, “Chase I need it. I want you so bad.” He faded into a long, drawn-out moan as Chase’s jaw clamped lightly where his shoulder met his neck, the firm yet restrained press of the canine’s teeth wanting to claim him but knowing that leaving a mark would doom them both.

“I know,” Chase muttered into the cougar’s dripping fur, “I’ve been the same way. Not being able to touch you is killing me.” The dog’s mind was a blur of heat and sensation, and he stopped thinking consciously about what he was doing and just focused on the feeling of fur under his fingertips, of muscles tensing and relaxing in his paws, of gasps and sighs echoing in his ears.

Before he knew what was happening he was on his knees, burying his muzzle into Daniel’s groin, nuzzling along the side of his rigid shaft, his nose seeking out stronger and stronger points of origin for the scent that had short-circuited his brain. Daniel moaned and shook as Chase’s tongue swept out to caress his hanging sac, and there was no longer any chance of the dog holding himself back.

Chase plunged his muzzle down, taking the straining feline cock as deep as he could manage. His elongated muzzle helped, but even so the feeling of the subtly spined shaft tickling the back of his maw was new. Chase felt like he was going to gag, but also like he was melting. He lashed his tongue across the underside of Daniel’s penis, drawing gasp after gasp out of his lover.

“Chase, I—oh fuck—I can’t—Chase—I don’t want to hold back...”

The doberman smiled around his mouthful of flesh, still careful to keep his teeth away, and grabbed Daniel’s ass with a paw and pulled subtly on it in encouragement.

It was all the cougar needed. His paws latched onto Chase’s ears, tugging firmly but carefully, drawing a long, heartfelt moan from the doberman’s throat. The vibrations running along his shaft made Daniel shiver even in the warm spray of the shower, and he began thrusting into the wet muzzle.

Chase went limp, allowing his head to be controlled by his ears, submitting fully to his partner, and despite everything he would have expected before now he was loving it.

“Fuck—fuck’s sake, Chase,” Daniel panted, “You—you’re so—fucking—sexy.”

It was Chase’s turn to rake claws through fur, kneading the tensing flesh of Daniel’s ass repeatedly, tugging on his tail playfully, almost daring him to get rougher. For his part, the cougar resisted the urging—but he didn’t let up either. He thrust over and over into the welcoming muzzle, feeling the rumble of Chase’s moans on his flesh, until he felt something bright beginning to grow behind his closed eyes.

Somehow, Chase could sense it too, his lover’s end was rapidly approaching, and Daniel was too lost in the moment to even notice. For a split second his brain intervened, demanding to know what he expected was going to happen. Was he ready to take Daniel’s cum? What did it taste like? What if he hated the taste? ...what if he DIDN’T?

Despite the momentary doubt, Chase’s brain was firmly overthrown by the rest of his body. The hunger was too great, the need too powerful. Without any experience, Chase still understood instinctually what he wanted, and he drew his muzzle back and off the twitching rod, only to start stroking it off, rough and fast. Daniel half bent over at the waist as he began to fall over the edge of the cliff, and opened his eyes to see his boyfriend on his knees, one paw jerking Daniel’s cock and the other his own, his muzzle open and waiting as he moaned with need.

It was a sight that would stay in Daniel’s mind until the day he died, and it was far too much for him to even think about resisting. With a cry that echoed off the concrete walls, he came. Chase felt the twitches begin, felt pulses of heat along the length of the cock he cradled in his paw, and he moaned wantonly as the first jet splashed along the side of his muzzle. More spurts followed as he closed his eyes; he felt them land on his forehead, his cheek, his tongue, his neck. The warm, thick cum slid deeper into his mouth, the taste sharp, astringent, salty, bitter—but somehow right. It felt like he could taste the essence of Daniel on his tongue. The thrill, the taboo, the delicious filthiness of the moment sent him over his own edge and he grasped around his knot as he jerked, spraying his own cum to splash the ground between Daniel’s footpaws and the wall behind him.

Daniel’s knees shook as he slid down the wall to land on his ass on the soiled floor in front of his lover and took stock of the canine’s cum-streaked face and blissful expression. Chase finally opened his own eyes and saw Daniel looking at him with something akin to awe. He raised an eyebrow, and the cat laughed out loud.

“You are the hottest fucking sight I have ever seen, Chase Ramos.”

Chase’s tail thumped wetly against the floor as he caught his breath. “I can’t believe I did that,” he admitted.

“Not only that, but you were incredible.”

“No shit?”

“Literally better than anything I ever dreamed of,” Daniel admitted warmly.

The flush of warmth in Chase’s cheeks reminded him that he was also wearing quite a lot of his partner’s spunk, and to cover his embarrassment he stood, stepped back into the spray, and started scrubbing at his face.

With his eyes closed, he felt Daniel move behind him and press himself to Chase’s back, wrapping his arms around Chase’s midsection. The cougar’s cheek rested against his shoulder, and a happy purr rumbled through his chest and into the dobie’s back. Chase wished he could share that contentment as he desperately scrubbed away the evidence of their tryst.

I’m such a fucking coward...

---

Chase growled low in his throat, sweat dripping from his brow. He was used to pushing himself to his limits—it was his primary way of dealing with the frustration in him that never seemed to go away these days—but it was starting to run away from him. He ran himself ragged all throughout practices, ran extra laps afterwards, snapped at himself for even the slightest mess-ups or missed steps. Generally, he thought that his perfectionism was a way to drive himself to greater heights, but he was losing control.

As impossible as it felt to keep a lid on his growing passion for his boyfriend, his rage and self-hatred was growing just as fast and seemingly twice as powerful.

Now, in the midst of endless 1-v-1 drills, he stared down his current target: Manny Aguayo. The coyote was grinning at him with a predatory glee as they faced off. He had taken over as the driving force behind bullying Daniel, and the vitriol was building daily. Just seeing him was sending red through Chase’s vision.

“Hey loverboy,” the coyote taunted with a wicked grin. “Think your paws are as clever with the ball as they are on your boyfriend?” Chase held his tongue, but seethed inwardly.

The whistle blasted out and the ball dropped at Chase’s paws. The goal seemed simple enough: just get past the defending player before they could steal the ball, but it was clear from the way Manny watched him that he had other motivations in mind. Chase tapped his toes to the ball, feinting crossovers to either side, before rolling the ball to his left with a head fake. Always the quality defender, Manny didn’t fall for the head fake and tracked with him quickly. Chase spun back to the middle, using his body to screen, but the contact he’d anticipated didn’t happen. Manny leaned back, letting his planted footpaw catch Chase’s and sending the doberman to the turf.

Coach Marcone blew the whistle to call an end to that rep. “Again!” he called, “watch yourself, Aguayo, if your paw moves even a fraction that’s an easy yellow card.”

Manny completely ignored his coach instead pinning Chase’s eyes with his own as he regained his paws.

“Cheap shit, Manny,” he muttered.

“You both lose your balance so easily,” Manny retorted. “Maybe you can do a proper job of hitting your head and do us all a favor this time.”

“Fucking shit, Manny,” Dane muttered from the circle of players surrounding them. “What’s wrong with you?”

Chase refused to dignify him with a response, taking his position and awaiting the ball.

This time, as the whistle sounded, Chase roll-stepped the ball forward, turning to screen the ball with his body. Instead of tracking him, Manny opted to step directly into his line, raising an arm over his shoulder to body him off the ball. The coyote’s elbow connected squarely with Chase’s jaw as he was pulled over backwards to land hard on the turf.

“Foul!” Coach Marcone yelled. “Don’t push your luck,” he scolded the coyote, who shrugged.

“Get your boyfriend to kiss it better. Or maybe I could kick you in the dick, he could kiss that for you instead, huh?”

Chase snarled, his paws clenching into fists and opening again as he tried to restrain himself. Manny noticed, his hateful smile only growing as Chase lined up opposite him again for one last run.

“Except you’d rather do it for him, wouldn’t you?” he continued, voice low. “Cocksucking bitch.”

Chase burst forward without even waiting for the ball, bulling his head directly into Manny’s sternum and driving him to the ground. The coyote actually laughed as he was tackled, at least until his head hit the ground and rattled him. Chase landed two good shots to Manny’s face before any fur could reach him, their paws closing on his practice jersey and his arms as he struggled to tear the coyote boy to pieces. The team pulled him upright, away from Manny, who rolled over onto all fours and laughed between coughs as he caught his wind.

“Yeah, that’s what I fucking thought,” he taunted. “Maybe make sure no fur can hear you this ti—”

Chase pulled loose, his jersey ripping and tufts of fur pulling free around the paws holding him back, giving him enough space to swing his footpaw into the side of Manny’s jaw, hard.

The coyote slumped to the ground, moving weakly in a daze as blood leaked from his jaw to pool around a broken canine tooth in the dirt.

“I’ll kill you, I’ll fucking kill you,” Chase’s claws raked the turf as he struggled, muttering darkly over and over and over again as he was pulled bodily away by his teammates, his words muffled and slurred with tears of rage.

---

At Coach Reede’s direction, Chase went straight back to the locker room, got showered, and sat in the coaches’ office until the ram could deal with him. Manny was taken to the trainer’s office, which was definitely for the best. Chase had enough to deal with inside his own head without seeing the coyote again.

He couldn’t believe that he’d actually snapped like that, just completely lost his mind with rage. Replaying it over and over in his head he couldn’t rule out the idea that he’d been telling the truth: that he actually might have tried to kill the coyote if he hadn’t been stopped. Chase hadn’t even been that far into his rage when Daniel had been attacked in the shower.

And he wasn’t even bullying Daniel, he realized. He was trying to get to ME.

A shiver of shame ran down his back. He couldn’t even justify himself by saying he was standing up for his secret boyfriend, because he wasn’t—he was lashing out because someone dared to come close to outing him. He needed to prevent Manny from saying what he thought he knew, the implication that he knew Chase had blown Daniel in the showers was just on the tip of his tongue before Chase had kicked him so hard he’d bitten the tip of it off. It was more rage than he’d felt in his entire life, and he had a strong suspicion that it was because his rage wasn’t even completely directed at Manny—a good portion of it was actually directed at himself.

He’d threatened Kelly with the most disgusting revenge he could contemplate when she said she’d include him in the gay rumors. He’d legitimately injured a teammate for the same reason, even if said teammate was a toxic and hateful asshole. The pattern was becoming too clear for the canine to deny anymore. Chase hung his head in his paws, wanting to cry and scream into the empty office. I’m still such a fucking coward.

Thankfully, the office door opened before Chase could self-destruct too much more, and Coach Reede drew up a chair to sit in front of the stricken doberman boy. For quite a while, the ram just watched him, taking in Chase’s aspect and letting him stew, until he finally broke the silence:

“You have anything to say for yourself, Ramos?”

If Chase could have burrowed into a hole in the ground he would have. “Not really, sir,” he said with a whine in his throat.

Coach Reede sighed. “I’ve talked to Coach Marcone and some of the players who overheard what was going on. This doesn’t leave the room, but the shit he was saying is beyond the realm of acceptability, and I can’t exactly find it in myself to blame you for punting him. As captain, you should know that this is far from the first strike against Manny. I’ve talked to him multiple times already about bullying Daniel and some of the sophomore subs on the roster, and this was his last straw. He’s off the team.”

Chase nodded, the slight vindication failing to make a dent in his shame.

“But on the record, as captain, you have to know that you have to be bigger than some fucking school playground bullshit like that, Chase! What the hell happened to you out there?”

His jaw worked up and down, but Chase couldn’t find any sound to come out. He had no explanation, no excuses. Were it not for the hatred and thinly veiled threat, jibes like that would just be locker-room barbs that were laughed off countless times in every school across the entire country. Were it not for the truth, none of it would have had any power over him.

His coach sighed, exasperated, and ran a paw through the fleece between his horns. “It’s not like I can tell you to just go home and get your head on straight. If it were simple you’d already have done it, but whatever is eating you needs to be figured out, now. First Gibson falls apart, and now you, too? We can’t deal with this for long.” He leaned forward, lowering his voice. “Chase, a little bit ago you came to me to talk about Daniel. I know he’s been having a rough time in school, and I don’t have to be his mother to take a guess as to why.” Chase tensed, but kept silent. “I don’t know how you’re wrapped up in this, or why it’s such a sore point for you. I can guess, but that’s not my place any more than it is Manny’s. Either way, if it’s causing you this much distress then you’ve got to make a choice at some point before you self-destruct.

“Thankfully for you, I guess, you’ll have a little time to figure your shit out. You’re obviously benched for the Dewclaw Reach game on Saturday. I’m moving Grady into the open back spot, and we’ll give Lucas a chance to prove himself as a forward in your position. Dewclaw isn’t great, it’ll be a good enough time to evaluate him for future seasons.”

“I’m sorry, coach,” Chase said, his voice dull and lifeless at the news.

“I am too, Chase,” the ram rumbled back. “I want you to lead this team, but I also want you to be happy and healthy. It’s just high school soccer, pup, it shouldn’t be worth this level of stress.”

“I wish it were just that, coach. I really do.”

Coach Reede just stood up and clapped a large paw gently onto Chase’s shoulder as he prepared to leave. “I suggest you get out of here before the rest of the team comes in. Come back Monday and try to decide what you want in the meantime.”

Friday was an unseasonably cold and dour day for October. The rare all-day rain shower churned up the dust into a slurry that stuck to every available surface and paw. The desert would be stunning in a few days, Chase knew, but for the moment the sky mirrored his mood perfectly.

He sat on his bed, in front of his bedroom window, and drank in the atmosphere. Practice was likely cancelled for the day—not that he could be there in any case—and the team would be indoors doing agility drills and weight room work. Half of Chase wished he could be there to work off his stress, and the other half couldn’t find the motivation to do anything but sit on his bed and hug his knees to his chest, letting himself drift off into the dark and murky waters of his mind..

It was nearly dark when he was started awake by the phone ringing on his desk. He could feel Daniel on the other end before his paw even touched the receiver.

“Hello?” he muttered.

For a time there was no answer, but he easily recognized Daniel’s breathing. The quiet felt like a hug, just knowing that Daniel was with him in spirit, sitting in silence.

“Hey hon,” the cougar’s voice eventually came through the speaker. Distorted, tinny, but still warm and worried. “How are you doing?”

“Shitty,” Chase sighed.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“I guess.”

“Okay.” Chase could hear the rasp of Daniel’s sheets and the creak of the box spring as he sat down on his bed. “So what the hell happened? That was... well, it was scary, to be honest. I’ve never seen you like that...”

Chase closed his eyes, the familiar shame burning brightly behind his vision again.

“What did he say to you?”

“He...” Chase stalled. “He was talking shit about you—about us. Saying he should kick me in the dick so you could kiss it better. Stupid shit. He... he sounded like he knew what we did.”

Daniel remained quiet for several breaths. “He’s such a fucking asshole. He’s been getting so much worse since... well, since the locker room fight.” Chase heard a quiet intake of breath. “Do you think he actually knew about us fooling around, or was he just fucking with you?”

“Well, if he didn’t know before, I’m sure he’s convinced now.” Chase’s voice quivered in the dark room. “I... I don’t know what happened to me. I just saw red and wanted him to hurt, so much.”

“I didn’t know you had that in you,” Daniel admitted softly.

The doberman screwed his eyes shut. “Are y—are you scared of me? After seeing that?”

“Shit, of course not!” Chase let out a breath he didn’t remember holding as his cougar reassured him through the phone. “I’d never even think you could do that to me. I just—it makes me wonder what’s behind it. You’ve been really frustrated lately, and when we get time together, it’s... Look, I’ll take any excuse to be with you, Chase, and I love you so much—but it’s felt almost, like, desperate recently. I can tell you’re not okay.”

“No, I’m not,” he admitted. “I feel like I’m being chased—don’t laugh at that.” A short, muffled snort indicated that Daniel was doing his best to refrain. “I’m so on edge. And I know it’s my fault, I know I’m being a huge coward. I know that I’m leaving you on your own by refusing to come out with you, it’s not fair—hell, it’s cruel of me. I feel like I’m just taking advantage of you and then hiding you when I go out in public.”

“Hon,” the cougar said, almost pleading. “Please don’t do that to yourself. I would never ask you to out yourself before you’re ready and confident, and I’m sorry if I ever gave you that impression. I mean, it’s not even like I’m out, not at school at least. Our families know, and they love us. We know, and we love each other, right?”

“Right,” Chase agreed, trying to keep his breathing under control. “But it’s so hard to, like, laugh that shit off now. It’s not just joking, it’s... it’s hateful. How do you deal with it?”

“I have you,” Daniel said. “And I know who I am. It doesn’t fix things, but it does help.”

“I feel like I’m just making things worse. For both of us.” Chase’s breath hitched in his throat as his eyes started to water. “I’m sorry,” he gasped into the phone as tears started to flow. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry...”

He held the headset to his ear, listening to the quiet, comforting reassurances of his boyfriend through the phone until he finally ran out of tears and drifted off to sleep.

---

Saturday found the team riding high on a 10-3 record as they assembled for their home game against the Dewclaw Reach Bluecoats. The team got ready and hit the field as per normal. Halftime passed without incident. The postgame celebrations happened as the players got cleaned up and left, the locker room growing quieter and quieter as they filed out to enjoy their weekend victory.

None of the furs noticed the loose panel on the top of one of the locker banks, and even if they had they would have thought little of it. Whether by time or nimble claws, the rivets had been worked loose and a couple were missing entirely, but the panel stayed put throughout the day’s activity. It stayed in place despite constant banging locker doors and furs leaning against the wall, it resisted soccer balls being kicked around and paws slapping the metal in impromptu drum solos.

Right up until the point where it didn’t.

The panel had been removed and replaced several times before over the course of the season, with nobody ever paying it the slightest bit of attention, until today after the game where gravity finally won out and the panel clattered to the ground in the empty locker room.

The gaping hole in the locker bank caught the eye of the janitorial staff when they came through, their cursory inspection quickly discovering the contents hidden in a rush within.

The janitor left to find a phone.

---

By the time Chase got to school on Monday the whole student body was ablaze with rumor; the story of how the cops had descended on the school over the weekend and swarmed all around the gym and athletic wing. Nobody knew what had happened, but everyone had theories. Chase could almost feel the increased police presence around the campus as he went through the school day, and he obviously wasn’t alone. When the team started to gather for practice after classes, nearly everyone on the roster was talking about how they felt like they were being stalked.

Coach Reede called a team meeting first thing before anyone even got changed. The mood was anxious.

“Everyone sit the fuck down,” the large ram belted, “and listen up, we’ve got an issue.”

He stepped aside, and Vice Principal Oaksteade took his place. An imposing-looking buck in a severe button-down shirt and tie with a stern face, he spoke softly but every fur in the room heard him clearly despite it:

“Over the weekend a stash of marijuana was discovered in this locker room.” A murmur of surprise ran through the athletes. “I’m sure you’re all well-aware that this school has a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs or drug use, especially on campus. While there weren’t any obvious clues or witnesses about who the culprit was, this is a situation where punishment must be done. This leaves me at an impasse, so I’ve decided to offer all of you a choice: the culprit fesses up and will face discipline with potential leniency for their honesty, or the team as a unit will have to suffer the consequences.”

Chase raised his paw. “Uh, sorry, sir, what does that mean?”

“The team will forfeit games. As many as it takes to settle the issue.”

A sea of wide, disbelieving eyes met the vice principal’s as all the team members took in the meaning of his words.

Chase broke the silence again, “Sir, we’re only a game behind for the district, and there’s only four games left in the season. If we forfeit any games, then our season is... over.”

The stag nodded seriously. “Then it seems like we’d better resolve this quickly, hadn’t we?”

Without anything further, Principal Oaksteade nodded at Coach Reede and walked back out the door, leaving the team alone to digest what was being held over their heads.

He looked somberly at the team. “Boys, this isn’t a joke; the cops are saying the amount they found could potentially be felony-worthy. Somebody brought trouble to our door, and everyone needs to think about how much they value this team versus themselves.” He let that sink in for a long, drawn-out silence.

“Practice is cancelled today,” he finally concluded. “Think it over.” He walked back into his office, collected his belongings, and walked out into the hall.

Nobody else in the locker room had moved, but surely as the tides, every muzzle began to turn slowly towards Chase.

Slowly, hesitantly, Chase stood. “Okay, team...” he began, his jaw working silently as he tried to figure out what to say. He swept his gaze over his teammates, taking them in. The doberman’s eyes hitched as he saw his boyfriend. No, it couldn’t be... Daniel would never do something so careless. Daniel gave him a weak—if encouraging—smile, and Chase continued until one player stood out to him from the back of the room.

Dane.

The fox’s ears were pressed back low in a way Chase had never seen before, and as their eyes met Dane’s eyes went even wider and more fearful. In an instant, Chase knew, and Dane knew that he knew.

“We’re going to deal with this the same way we deal with everything else,” Chase said, his voice quiet and hoarse. “For the good of the team.” Dane flinched away, and if Chase didn’t know him better he’d have sworn that the fox was on the verge of tears. “Nobody on this roster is more important than the team. Nobody.” Chase ran a paw through his short headfur. “Everyone go home for now. If you have anything to say, you talk to me first. If I hear that anyone rats someone else out to the principal before I know about it, we will have problems. We’re a pack, and we handle this in-house. Is that clear?” He got a sea of nods acknowledging his order. “Okay. Everyone be careful going home.”

Thus dismissed, furs began to stand and collect their belongings from lockers with a smattering of door slamming and hushed small talk. Chase held his place through it all, unmoving.

Daniel hitched his bookbag onto his shoulder and met Chase’s eyes. You good? he mouthed silently.

Chase nodded in response. “Go on, we’ll catch up later,” he responded neutrally. Daniel took him at his word, and filtered out of the room along with the rest of the team.

All except for Dane. The grey fox sat hidden on a bench in the very back corner of the room, shaking silently, not looking at anyone or anything around him— At least, until Chase put a footpaw on the bench and startled him back into the moment to find himself alone in the empty room with a dog who controlled his fate and owed him absolutely zero favors.

Chase scowled. “You absolute, fucking, idiota,” he growled. “Do you have anything you can say to make me not go turn you in immediately? Pendejo.”

It hadn’t been Chase’s imagination—Dane was very much on the verge of a breakdown. “I—I—Yo...” He swallowed hard. “Please, Chase. Please. I know I fucked up. I just bought it, and I was gonna take it home with me after the game, I just heard something—someone coming—and panicked. I tried to stash it until today and, well...”

“Por que?” Chase snapped, confused by the violent change in Dane’s attitude. “Why shouldn’t you take the fall for your own fuckup? What do you expect me to do for you, of all furs?”

Dane slumped. “I, I don’t know. Probably nothing. I—” he caught himself and shook his head, hard. “You don’t need some fucking sob story from me. Not that you’d believe it anyway, but it’s my problem, not yours. Not the team’s.”

Chase took a seat on the bench, studying his teammate’s expression curiously. “So why didn’t you fess up on the spot?”

“I—I couldn’t. I just...”

“Dane, talk to me.”

The fox finally met his eyes directly. “Why bother? You fucking hate me.”

Chase let a long, slow breath out as he took stock of his feelings. “I don’t... hate you,” he began, “I mean, sure, we’re not exactly best buddies, but—look, I’m your captain, too. I have to do what’s best for everyone, for the team as a unit. And I can’t do that if I don’t know what the hell is going on.”

Closing his eyes, Dane sighed. “It—goddess dammit. If I come clean then I’ll get expelled. Shit, you heard the coach, I might go to jail. Even if the team loses the rest of the season, I can at least still graduate.”

“And that’s important...” Chase prompted softly.

“I wa—no, I need to get out. I need out of here, out of New Branch. I can do that if I can go to college. I’d be the first fur in my family.” The fox sighed heavily as he gave in and unburdened himself to his captain. “My whole family tree is just shitty, abusive, drunk bastards who got stuck in this town and were pissed off at the whole world about it. I thought I had a shot at being different. At least, I thought I did until I... lost my shit at Daniel and realized who I really was inside.” Chase was quite surprised; not only was this more than he’d ever heard Dane say at one time before, it showed a depth of feeling that he never knew the fox was capable of. “And now I’ve completely fucked it all up. I guess I’m not really any better than my family after all. I deserve this place.”

“Dane, I... Mierda, you sorry fuck...” Chase trailed off. He wanted to reassure the fox that he could be better, that he could escape his supposed fate, but it was hard to get around his anger at the abuse he had given Daniel. Still, the remorse Dane was showing was creating cracks in the dam.

“I do regret it, you know,” Dane continued, seemingly not noticing Chase’s conflict at all. “I don’t know what happened, who the fuck I was being—I just felt cornered. Threatened. I don’t even know what by. Fuck, Chase, I could be in prison right now if Daniel had landed just a little bit wrong. That shook the shit out of me.” The grey fox looked down at his paws, shaking in his lap. “I got a bit hooked on smoking weed after that, it helped the shakes, it made... it made the panic go away. I thought I could keep a handle on it until I was better, until I could make myself better. I apologized to Daniel, I told Drew and Manny to leave him the fuck alone, even though Manny wouldn’t listen. I did everything I thought I could possibly do to make it right, to make the anxiety go away—but it wouldn’t_._ I put you in a shitty place as the captain, and nearly the team as a whole, and for no good reason. I’m sorry.”

Chase caught his breath, his mind spinning as he tried to reconfigure his view of Dane to include this regretful shell of a fur that sat before him, and felt a wave of empathy. “Okay, look. Dane, I swear I’m asking genuinely and not just being an asshole, but how realistic do you think college actually is?”

Dane looked up and actually had a small smile on his face. “My grades are better than you’d think,” he said quietly, but with a touch of pride. “I actually got a look from some places when I sent my SAT scores out last semester, got to talk to a couple coaches and recruiters. Like, it’s not a guarantee, but if my GPA stays over three I think I can actually get a scholarship to Redvale.”

“Wait, Redvale? As in, Pomona State Redvale?” Chase was gobsmacked. “Holy shit, seriously? That’s division one! That’s awesome!”

“Yeah!” Dane’s smile faded slowly. “Yeah... Well, it was awesome, anyway.”

“Okay,” Chase began, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “We have a couple days before the next game. I’m going to handle this. I will.”

“How, though? You can’t just make this go away, Chase.”

“I know,” he replied, trying to stay positive. “But I will, one way or the other.” Dane’s shoulders slumped again—until Chase reached out a paw and put it on his shoulder. “Hey,” he said as the fox looked up to meet his face, “I’m still your captain, you’re a part of my team, my pack. No matter what I decide is the right thing to do here, I really do want to help. Confiame, yeah?”

“Thanks, Chase.” Dane’s tone wasn’t hopeful, but it was genuinely grateful for the offer. “I guess I’ll leave it to you, then.”

Dane gathered up his things, stopping briefly as Chase called out. “Hey, Dane? For what it’s worth, I don’t think you have to be what you’ve been. Or what you are now. I think you can be whoever you want to be, and I’m rooting for you.”

The fox snorted and gave a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, and then turned to leave Chase alone at last with a head full of conflicting thoughts and no clear path to solve them all.

---

“Shit, bro, I really thought things were going to go well for our last year of high school,” Nate lamented, laying his head back exasperatedly on the windshield of Chase’s car. The pair were in their typical hang-out spot on the hood, but this time they traded in the splendor of the desert for the parking lot of The Nugget, the diner in New Branch where Chase’s mother worked. A pair of burgers were working their way through the dog’s bellies, and they were taking their time enjoying a milkshake each as they commiserated.

“Yeah, I mean, they were really going well. Maybe they still can.”

Nate took a long, labored pull from the straw in his milkshake before he could respond. “I mean, sure, but we’re gonna lose a player. At least, I assume that’s the case, right?” Chase didn’t respond. “Why’d you tell everyone to keep things in-house? We already know it’s fucking Dane’s shit, just turn him in and be done with it.”

“It... It’s not quite that simple,” Chase admitted slowly.

“The fuck you talkin’ about? Of course it is. He’s a fuckin burnout and he’s dragging the team down. Cutting him is easy.”

“Mano, it...” he shook his head sadly. “It just isn’t. There’s more going on than you think. This team might be his only way out of this place.”

“Yeah but that’s the same fucking thing for you, too,” Nate replied, sitting up again. The lab’s eyes were intense as they looked his friend over. “You wouldn’t fuck up the team’s whole season over your own shit, so why is this such a hard choice to make about Dane?”

Maybe we’re not as different as it seems... “It’s part of the job,” Chase protested. “I need to consider what’s best for everyone. I’d do the same for you, or Jorge, or Daniel—you know that.”

“Well, you’d certainly do it for Daniel,” Nate said wryly.

Chase snapped around to stare at Nate. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“I’m just saying that you’d definitely go to bat for your boyfriend.”

Chase growled. “That’s not fucking funny.”

“It’s also not a joke,” Nate replied, keeping his voice low. “You really think I can’t tell how bad you two got it for each other?”

“Dude, I—”

“Fucking don’t,” Nate interrupted, his voice sharp for the first time Chase could remember in recent memory. “Don’t fucking do that, Chase. We met before you’d even gotten out of the moving truck when you came to New Branch, and we’ve been brothers ever since then. I don’t think there’s been more than a day where we haven’t been together. I honestly believe that you’ve never lied to me before, and do not think you can start now, Chase, not to me.

“I know you better than anyone in this fucking town, probably better than your mom even does. Do you really think I wouldn’t be able to see how much you’ve changed?”

Chase slumped. “I... changed?”

Nate watched him, eyes glittering in the parking lot’s lights. “How can you not tell? You’re fucking happy, bro.” Chase looked askance at his friend, confused. “You’re so deep into it, it’s weird to see. You smile all the time now, for no damn reason. You seem lighter. Do you realize you haven’t once mentioned wanting to leave New Branch since tryouts started?” Nate took another drink from his milkshake. “Like, on the one paw it’s been so weird to see you turn into someone completely different, but it’s also been so good for you. You seem confident, like you finally know what you want. And it hasn’t been anything on the field that’s changed, so it only leaves so many options for what caused it.”

He’d been found out, but instead of fear, Chase only felt a vast sense of anxiety and relief—and a good dose of embarrassment as he was shown from the outside how incredibly dense and obvious he’d been. “I... It took a long time for me to get to the point that I could think about it in those terms. Before I could admit to myself that it was even possible, much less that it could be true.”

“But it is true,” Nate said simply, not phrasing it as a question.

“Yeah...” Chase admitted quietly. “It is—I am. In love.” He sighed deeply, letting go and jumping into the abyss. “I’m in love with Daniel. I love him so fucking much it hurts.” Even though the stress of being found out felt like a fist clenched around his heart, saying it out loud made him feel like his soul was trying to take flight. “I didn’t choose it, it just happened.”

“Hey, I don’t know a lot about love, but I know it’s rarely a choice you make intentionally, and I’m not saying you’re to blame or anything like that. Like, it’s a shock for me, you know? Suddenly finding out that the dog who is basically your brother has this big secret you never knew about, and suddenly he’s making eyes at another guy, but I’ll adjust. It doesn’t change, like, us, you know?”

Chase sighed. “Thanks, Nate. Hermanos?”

“Yeah, dude. Hermanos.” He bit his lip pensively. “But like, it does change you, right? You get that?”

“How do you mean?”

The chocolate-furred lab sighed, collecting his thoughts. “Like, I’m not exactly a genius, and I still figured it out pretty easily. Manny seemed like he was onto you, until you broke him. Even Coach seems in the know. Furs aren’t stupid just cause they’re in high school; eventually you’ll be an open secret, even if you never come out publicly.”

Chase bristled. “I’m not afraid of what a bunch of other kids think of me, Nate.”

“Yeah, I don’t fuckin’ believe you, dude. Either way... well, maybe you should be,” Nate shrugged. “Not, like, afraid of them hurting you, but what their opinions can do to you—to your dreams.” Nate shot his empty cup into the trash like a basketball before turning to meet Chase eye to eye, his expression serious. “Do you think the whole team is gonna be cool with it? With you being the leader? Are they gonna trust you to be fair when you’re dating someone else on the team?” Chase had no response, and Nate carried on. “What would losing a captain’s spot do to your looks for a D1 college program? Do you think a college team is gonna be okay with a gay fur on the roster? Or a pro team? Hell, the pro leagues are crammed full of guys who would beat the shit out of someone like you or Daniel, never mind the abuse from fans.”

The weight was back, stacking up on Chase’s heart. “Nate, why...” he began, trying his hardest to hold himself together in the face of the truth he couldn’t seem to confront on his own.

Nate threw a paw over Chase’s shoulder and drew the other dog into a firm side hug. “You’re my best friend and my brother, but you’re starting a journey to a place where I can’t follow you. I’d protect you if I could, but I can’t. I just need you to be aware, to do the math yourself. To be ready for a world that might not be safe yet.”

Chase eagerly leaned into the hug and threw his arms around his friend, grateful for the support. “Knowing you’re not cutting me off helps immensely, Nate.”

“Fuck nah, dude. Ride or die together, you know that.”

The two broke off, and Chase stared at his paws in silence for a long time.

“I guess I have a lot to consider then, huh?”

“Yeah, seems that way. But whatever you decide to do, I’m with you.”

“Thank you, Nate.”

“Dumbass,” Nate chuckled, punching Chase in the shoulder. “Where would you be without me?”

---

This team might be his only way out of this place.

Yeah but that’s the same fucking thing for you, too.

Chase’s head was spinning when he made it home and slumped onto the couch. Nate had somehow found the truth with surgical precision: for as long as Chase could remember soccer had been the key to his escape from New Branch. He and his mother had effectively been trapped in the tiny town just as surely as Dane’s ancestors had, and everyone wanted the same thing—a chance at a fresh start.

It was clear as crystal what Dane was running away from, at least. To leave behind a legacy like that... it could easily change the fox’s entire life. Just like it could change Chase’s...

Right?

The path forward had seemed so clear before he’d talked to Nate.

You seem confident, like you finally know what you want.

Why was Nate so sure that Chase knew what he wanted when Chase himself couldn’t even figure it out?! The teenaged doberman grabbed a throw pillow and slapped it down over his muzzle to muffle a frustrated scream.

Do you realize you haven’t once mentioned wanting to leave New Branch since tryouts started?

He hadn’t been wrong, Chase realized, but that had been Chase’s entire motivation for... well, for years now. What was more important than that suddenly?

Well fucking duh, Chase thought sarcastically, it’s plenty obvious that Daniel is what changed everything. It started with him, and it’s always been him.

In his mind’s eye, Chase saw himself at the threshold of a door he’d worked his entire life to get to—but suddenly up close it looked different and foreign, and he wasn’t even sure why he’d wanted it so desperately in the first place. He looked at the handle, but instead of grasping it he turned to look back at the path he took to get there. Sure, all the twists and turns he remembered were there, clear and visible—but there was more to see. The sky surrounding that path was... dark. So very dark. Stormy and tempestuous. He’d been so reticent to look up and see what was around him that he’d never really noticed how grim it had been. He wondered if he’d ever seen the sun at any point on that path before now. He imagined himself looking up, and the sky over his head now was bright, even through scattered clouds. It felt refreshing, and he wondered how he’d managed to survive it before when all he’d felt was oppressive darkness.

And right at the boundary, at the very point where shadow ceded ground to the sunlight, Chase knew instinctively what that point represented:

The kiss...

Looking backwards, it all seemed so obvious now. Letting himself be honest with himself and open to love like that—it freed him in a way he never realized. The darkness—the depression, he realized suddenly—that had surrounded him for so long was no longer his entire reality, and now he knew how much lighter his life could be, if he would just follow it.

Turning back again, Chase regarded the doorway in his mind: a representation of all he’d imagined could free him from the storm clouds. Looking closely, he realized that just because the space was lit brightly didn’t mean it was more free—he’d just be fitting himself into a box, an unnatural climate that could keep the clouds away but would also never let him feel the sun, either. For so long, that had felt like enough—it was an escape. It was better.

But it might not be enough anymore, Chase realized. Now I can feel the sun, and while it’s intermittent, it’s so much warmer than I knew it could be. Isn’t that... best?

There was no guarantee that the skies would always be clear, or that the sun would always be bright, but now Chase had seen outside the cave and the idea of going back into the dark felt so much like dying that it made it hard for him to breathe.

And so he stayed at the intersection for a while, sitting as comfortably as he could with his thoughts while he weighed his mind.

“What is important to me?” he asked himself.

Daniel, came the immediate thought, with such a saccharine note that Chase rolled his eyes at himself even if he smiled. But close behind it was something else, something that Chase knew was—well, new.

I want to help.

Being named captain had been such a shift of viewpoint for the teen. Sure, it was a certain amount of authority, but it made him feel so good to be capable of helping. Just the idea of his players trusting him made his tail wag, and he knew deep down that he’d probably choose death over the idea of letting any of them down.

An honorable goal, to be sure, but could soccer really give him that going forward? He pondered over scenarios, saw himself on teams in the future and while he could always be a captain again, it felt somehow limiting. He could see how small his sphere of influence really was, and if he was truly honest with himself it wasn’t the coaching decisions or wielding the power of his position that gave him the most fulfilment—it was when he went beyond that. When he had stood up for Daniel’s honor, or when Dane had opened up to him about his family life and his dreams.

How could he live up to that?

I want to make a difference...

Chase suddenly thought of his mom, of how he watched her his entire life work herself to the bone for his sake. He remembered how much she loved her law practice, and how passionate she got about making the wrongs right again. Even the Gibsons seemed to recognize the idea—Family goes to war for each other. It was about protection. It was about justice.

Chase knew the times he felt the strongest emotions weren’t just when he was able to help others, he also realized that it was at times when he’d seen a great injustice happening and he felt compelled to act. Daniel being bullied for being gay might have been normal, but it wasn’t just. And as he thought it through, he also realized that while turning Dane in for being the owner of the pot would be morally and legally right, it, too, would not be just. He’d only be extinguishing the life from Dane’s hopes for a better future in exchange for allowing himself to run away from—what? A tenaciously supportive mother? A loving boyfriend with a family that loved him as well? A small town on the edge of the desert? What was he so afraid of that he felt like he had to flee in the first place?

A hard lump settled into Chase’s stomach. He knew what he had to do. It just wouldn’t be easy to explain to anyone else but himself. But, for the first time in a while, he could actually see the path forward. All he had to do now was follow it.

No door had ever felt as heavy as the one leading into the school office. Chase had to steel himself before he pushed it open and announced himself at the front desk as here to see the vice principal. The message was passed along, and Chase was left to sit in one of the hard plastic chairs while he waited for the inevitable.

“Chase?” He looked up at the sound of his name to see the stag looking down at him. “I’m ready, come on in.”

Chase followed into the office and took a seat in front of the surprisingly crappy metal desk as the Vice Principal took his own seat behind it. The stag was dressed more casually today, a simple polo shirt, and seemed much less severe than last time, almost cheerful. Chase supposed that having cops crawling over the school would have a negative effect on an administrator's mood.

“What’s on your mind?” he rumbled in a deep, but comforting voice.

“It... It’s the team, sir,” Chase said. “About the pot thing.”

The principal nodded. “I suspected as much.”

“Well, I just... Is there really no other way to fix this?”

The buck sighed, his impressive antlers swaying. “I know it feels harsh, son. I do. But there’s more than the team in this. The newspaper already wrote an article about the discovery of the weed. The School Board is desperate to save face, they’ll have my damn antlers mounted on the wall if this just gets swept under the rug, and the school’s Code of Conduct gives me precious little leeway here. An exemplary student with zero disciplinary record might get away with a suspension, but an expulsion is likely. That might not seem fair—”

“No,” Chase interjected, glumly, “it does. Make sense.”

Chase could feel the eyes across the desk watching him intently. “So, then, you’re here to tell me...?”

Chase took a deep breath. “It was my weed.”

The stag snorted, bemused. “Not a chance, Ramos.”

“It is, sir!”

“Chase,” the principal sighed, putting a paw to the bridge of his muzzle, “do you think I don’t know who your coach is or something? Or that we don’t talk to each other? Even if you weren’t a good student with zero disciplinary issues on your record, you were suspended from the team on Saturday, remember? You are basically the one player on the team who could not have been at fault.”

“I could have come in after the game! It’s not like the school is locked up tight on a game day or anything!” Chase could feel the stag trying to maintain a straight face as he tried to feign indignation. “Fine, whether you believe me or not, it is mine, and I’m the one you have to punish.”

There was a long pause between them.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you giving yourself up? We both know damn well you’re lying, so why are you insisting that you fall on the sword?”

Chase looked down at his lap. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

The vice principal just frowned, not understanding Chase’s meaning. He waved a paw to prompt the pup to continue.

“It’s—I’m the captain. I’m supposed to lead the team, and that means that the team’s problems are my problems.”

“That’s not how thi—”

Chase pressed on, “And it means that I need to do what’s best for the team, not what’s best for me.”

“How is this best for the team, to lose their captain? How is it best for you to throw away your senior year?”

The canine wilted slightly. “Because there’s more at stake than a game, or even the season. This has a very good chance of ruining some fur’s entire life, and that’s not fair. Because I want them to have a chance to be the fur they want to become. Because I am a good student, and you can suspend me and I can take that and everything can be settled.” He rubbed a paw over the back of his neck ruefully. “I know it sounds stupid when I try to explain why it’s right, but I know it is.”

Oaksteade was silent for a long, long time as he stared at the doberman. Chase couldn’t make ears or tails of his expression; it seemed to oscillate between pride and confusion. He finally folded his hooves together on the desk. “You’re determined to do this, then?”

“I am,” he replied with a firm nod.

“You know I can’t just go easy on you, right? There’s no chance you can stay on the soccer team if you follow through. This is the end.”

“I know, sir. But I can help.”

The vice principal leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath as he considered the pup before him. “Okay, Chase. You win. You’ll be suspended for two weeks, and you’re off the soccer team, but I won’t put this in your record.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I hope whoever this is for earns it.”

Chase nodded, a slight, wry smile on his muzzle. “Me too, sir.”

---

“Guys, if you all could huddle up, I have a bit of an announcement.”

Chase near the door in the locker room, every member of the team staring back at him, including the coaches. Calling a meeting before practice, while not unheard of, immediately had every fur’s attention in the room. Chase felt so out of place in his street clothes in the room full of furs changed for practice, it left him looking like a true outsider instead of their leader.

“First off, I’m sorry. I haven’t been much of a captain lately. My head hasn’t been in the game, and I haven’t been exactly living up to the standard I should be. You deserve better. But the big news is that... well, I’m afraid I have to step away from the team.” A low murmur ran through the team as they cast glances around the room at each other. “For good.”

The murmur increased.

Max threw his black-tipped paws in the air in disbelief. “What the fuck?”

“No!” Nate said.

“Is this about the Manny thing?” Sequon asked, the painted dog’s voice near pleading. “Cause we don’t give a shit about that, he was an asshole. He pushed too far and got what was coming to him.”

“He wasn’t pack!” The protest came from the middle of the scrum, and could only have been Zack, the ringtail’s distinctive voice high and indignant.

Chase nearly smiled despite himself. “No, guys, it’s not that. But that is what I was apologizing for. I... No matter what he said, I shouldn’t have taken the bait.”

The team fell silent, a mix of confusion and resignation on their muzzles, nobody really knowing what to say, until the quiet was broken by a low, hesitant question from Lucas, the sophomore kit fox who had taken his place over the weekend.

“...so was he right?”

More than a couple of the other players turned to glare at him, Max even punching him in the back of his shoulder. “Dude, fucking really?”

“Ow fuck! What!? I mean, okay, but like... I just asked what we all wanted to, right?”

Chase closed his eyes, and tried to hold back the feeling of the room closing in around him. “I—I...” He let out a long breath through his nostrils. “I don’t want to answer that right now,” he said simply, which drew a very mixed reaction from the team. “That’s not the point. The point is, things with the principal and the school board have been settled. The team is free to play, and you all can continue to play. I just... I can’t join you.”

Slowly, in waves, it began to dawn on the team what Chase was talking about and what he had done. “Wait, so you’re just getting kicked off the team?” Nate asked. “Just like that?”

“That, and a two-week suspension, but that’s all,” Chase confirmed, trying to stay upbeat. “Honestly, it’s a slap on the paw, basically nothing...” No fur present seemed convinced by his facade.

“Wait, so, like, you can still be there at the games, right?” Riley asked from the back of the group.

Chase shook his head. “Not for the next two weeks, being suspended also includes school activities, so I can’t be there for that. But afterwards, I can and will be there to cheer and support you all.”

Jorge frowned and crossed his arms. “We didn’t want this,” he said. “It’s not fair. You said we did things as a pack, we all would have taken that bullet together if we had to.”

“No,” Chase replied, “what isn’t fair is allowing my pack to suffer needlessly, to let all of your hard work this year get thrown away for nothing, and costing our seniors their last shot at playing here. And when you made me the captain, you made it my responsibility to do what’s best for the team, not for me.”

The silence in the room was palpable.

“We’re gonna fuckin win,” Nate suddenly said, his voice strained but firm. “You gave us the chance, and we’re gonna pay it off so you can be there with us.”

“I know, hermano.” Chase nodded, his own throat closing up a bit. “If Coach Reede will allow me, I have a couple of suggestions as my last ‘captain-y’ thing, I guess.” The ram nodded, and Chase continued. “Obviously I’m not your captain anymore, but I’d like to nominate Nate to take my place as captain.” A few furs were surprised, a couple shrugged, but there was a hubbub of general consensus among the players that this would be acceptable. “I know there’s not a lot of time in the season, but try to give him the same respect you gave me. I really appreciated it. I hope I did at least some of it well.

“As far as the striker position goes, I think Daniel would be best to fill it, and I think Dane should move forward to wing to play as his line partner, as one of our best ballhandlers.”

Chase looked over at Dane, and the grey fox looked shocked as he glanced over at the cougar and back at Chase again. “I’m trusting you, too,” he said quietly. Dane nodded back. Chase scuffed his footpaw awkwardly. “That’s it, I guess.”

Nate got up and stepped into the middle of the room, putting a fist out in front of him. “One last time,” he said. “As a pack.” Every fur in the room scrambled up to join in, their fists all held together in a riotous mass of fur patterns, and turned to look at him.

Chase’s throat threatened to close up on him completely, but he was just able to get the words out without choking up. “Play as a pack, win as a pack. Di— Dig it on three.” He took a breath and barked out “ONE, TWO, THREE!”

“DIG IT!” the team roared back, louder than he’d ever heard them, as their fists pumped in unison. Everyone scattered and headed to the field, but despite the typical hustle they showed not a single tail was wagging as they jogged out the door.

As they filtered out the door, Coach Reede stepped up. “It seems you really took my advice about stepping up and solving problems to heart, Chase.”

Chase shrugged self-consciously. “I guess so, coach.”

The ram stepped forward and pulled Chase into a firm hug. “You did what you thought was best for the team, and I could never ask for more than that from you. I’m proud of you. Take care of yourself, too, okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

The last few players left the room, with Coach Reede following behind, leaving Chase alone in the locker room—except for a single fur. Dane remained, still as a statue, regarding Chase with an expression that was equal parts anger, confusion, shame, and relief. “Why?” he simply asked.

“I told you,” Chase began, but Dane shook his head sharply.

“Bullshit, Chase. You didn’t deserve that, I didn’t deserve that. Why would you bother? Why would you throw away your chance to play in the future like that?”

“Because...” The doberman searched for words, still finding it hard to explain outside of his own head. “Because it’s just a game, and we’re talking about your life. Because I had a chance to try to do what was right instead of what was ‘correct’. And because nobody—not even me—is more important than the pack. I did what I felt was the most good I could do.”

Dane was silent for a long time as he switched between staring at the floor and Chase. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Seriously, Dane. I’ll be okay,” Chase assured the fox, almost convincing himself that it was true. “You’ve got a chance to be that fur you want to be. Go for it, okay?”

Chase wasn’t prepared for the hug Dane gave him before he rushed back out of the room to catch up with the team, but the feeling of it lingered in his mind as he sat in the locker room for some time afterwards, mixing into the mess of feelings colliding in his churning stomach.

Chase spent the first week of his suspension in near-complete isolation. He left his room only long enough to get food out of the fridge or answer the door when Daniel brought over his collected assignments from school, but that was the extent to which he saw the outside world. Daniel didn’t even try to push his way into the home, not since nearly losing the end of his muzzle in the door as Chase shut it on him the first time he came by. It wasn’t malicious, far from it. Chase just couldn’t see much outside the cloud of the depression weighing on him.

By day nine of his suspension, however, Nate and Daniel had fully had enough of his moping. The bullied their way into the apartment, forced Chase to shower and get cleaned up under threat of violence, and dragged his furred ass out the door and into Daniel’s dad’s car.

“This really seems like an overreaction,” Chase protested weakly from the back seat.

“You mopey bitch,” Nate returned. “Stop being such a damn martyr and eat a fucking burger with your friends.”

Chase looked at Daniel indignantly in the rear-view mirror, but the cougar just shot him a wry look that broadcasted you know damn well he’s not wrong back at the doberman. Chase huffed, but submitted without any further argument.

By the time the three teens arrived at The Nugget, the presence of his two best friends was doing wonders to grow cracks in the shell that surrounded Chase. The gloom of isolating himself began to slip away, and he was even laughing along with his friends by the time their food arrived at the table. There was a familiar comfort in that diner booth, with Nate across from him and Daniel alongside, brushing shoulders casually as they demolished their meals in the way only high school athletes can manage in between laughing at each other’s stories.

“Holy crap I needed this,” Nate gasped, licking some stray ketchup off his paw as he polished off his second burger.

“Yeah, I’m starting to think I did, too.” Chase mused. “Think you got enough to eat? I’m sure there’s gotta be something left in the kitchen.”

Nate grinned. “Just enjoying it while I can, dude. Not gonna be an athlete forever, after all.” Finally sated, he dropped his paws back below the table and watched as the pair across the table continued their meals. “So, we won this weekend,” he finally said. “Fuckin’ sent the Lightning packing, puts us up to 11-4. Just two games to go.”

“Yeah, I’d heard that,” Chase grinned.

“Well, yeah, figures you’d know that,” Nate said sheepishly. “It just... It was a close thing.”

Chase had of course already heard the story from Daniel—he’d gotten a call breathlessly recounting the whole story as soon as Daniel had gotten home from the road game. The New Branch midfield line played like demons, preventing any serious buildup of momentum, but the Boulderwall defense had been their match for ninety minutes. The two sides played to a stalemate until Dane broke out a weak pass with a sliding tackle and booted it to Daniel as he broke towards the goal. When Bouldwall collapsed on him with both fullbacks, he faked the shot and dropped the ball back perfectly onto Riley’s paw for a picture-perfect stoppage-time goal from eighteen yards out. It was inspired team play, one-touch passes and everyone right where they needed to be like it had been choreographed. It was everything Chase had thought the front line would be capable of when he suggested Riley play up after the second week.

It was also killing him that he hadn’t been able to be there to see it himself. The pride he felt at the story churned and twisted like stomach acid even as he kept an upbeat exterior. “Yeah, Boulderwall is tough, they usually either make districts or come close, anyway. Makes sense they’d play us hard.”

Nate nodded absently. “They are, and they did—but it wasn’t just that. The team... I dunno, Chase, it feels different now. Less connected. I don’t really know what to do with it.”

“How do you mean?” Chase asked, frowning.

“Like, when you were captain the team felt like a single unit. This weekend just felt like everyone was looking around for... well, for you.” The brown-furred lab sighed roughly and slumped. “It’s discouraging.”

“Everything takes time. You’ve gotta give the team time to adjust, too.”

“I know, but we don’t have time. I feel fucking useless, like I have no idea what to do.” Nate sighed. “I knew what my job was before—I watch you and take my cues from what you do. When you break, I push up. If you play high, I move the ball to the wings. It was simple; see the field, spot the gaps. Now I have to be the one to set the tempo?”

“Hey, hermano, you knew that just watching and reacting was never gonna get you by in the long term, right?” Nate frowned, but Chase pushed on. “You could only watch me for what to do for so long. This is your chance to learn your own style. You’ve got plenty of skill around you, you just have to see it and use it.”

Nate thought quietly about his friend’s words for several minutes, during which Daniel finished his food and excused himself to the bathroom to let the pair continue in peace.

“But what about the other stuff? Leading, and whatnot? There’s no damn way I could have done what you did for the team, Chase.”

“Hey, buddy, there’s no playbook for that. I was like you when I got the position, too. I caught myself just looking around seeing things happening without me and wondering if I was supposed to have done something different. Remember when Riley got carded? Coach Reede called me out and told me that I had to take the step to lead before things happened, and I had no clue what the right thing to do was, either. He told me that if I just did what I felt was best for the team, I’d probably do the right thing most of the time, and that was all he was asking from me.”

“Ooookay,” Nate said slowly, “what about on the field, though?”

“Same idea,” Chase replied. “You see the whole field as the center, you should be able to know what the team needs. Now you just figure out how to make it happen. If we’re getting beat at a position, reinforce it. If you see a weakness in the other team, move someone to exploit it. If someone needs help, support them. You said it yourself: ‘see the field, spot the gaps.’” Chase pointed a french fry at his best friend. “You need to think of it as your team. You’re the alpha of this pack, now—you know, take ownership of your spot. And honestly, in the worst case the team only has to make it through the last two games of the season. You can absolutely do it.”

“That’s... a lot,” Nate admitted as Daniel returned to the table and slid back into the booth. “I’ll try. I will.”

“I know you will, mano,” Chase said earnestly. “That’s why I recommended you. Don’t stress it so much.”

The two dogs pounded paws as Nate grabbed his coat and backpack. “I gotta catch the bus; I’ve got that damn history paper to finish. Thanks, Chase. Catch you later, Daniel.”

Chase and Daniel voiced their farewells as the lab headed for the door.

“You do that paper already?” Daniel asked.

“Of course, I’ve had nothing but spare time,” Chase admitted. “Thanks for this, by the way. I...” He suddenly sounded deeply tired, the carefully held facade falling away now that Nate was gone. “I don’t know.”

Daniel picked up on it immediately. “Yeah, it was pretty obvious that you weren’t doing okay,” he said simply. “Looks like maybe you still aren’t.”

“No,” Chase admitted. “I’m not.”

“Come on, then,” Daniel said, standing and dropping some bills on the table to cover his part of the tab. The pair took the short drive through town to Daniel’s apartment, said hello as they returned the keys to his father, and walked back to the cougar’s bedroom where they could sit and talk in peace.

“Talk to me, Chase,” Daniel prodded, sitting cross-legged on the foot of the bed and patting the quilt.

Chase sat somewhat hesitantly, taking a place closer to the headboard and leaning against it, both unconsciously aware of the space between them on the bed.

“I’m just... It fucking sucks losing the team,” the dobie admitted. “It was my entire life, basically. Soccer is who I was. Now I guess I’m having a hard time figuring out what’s left.”

“Are you having second thoughts?”

Chase was thoughtful. “I mean, of course I am. I still think I’d make the same choice, but it’s hard not knowing if it’s going to make a difference for the team. Or for Dane,” he admitted.

Daniel nodded. “If it helps, at least so far he really seems like he’s taking it to heart. He’s been—well, not aggressively supportive—but, like... he’s trying. I thought he was gonna bite some fur in the hallway who was talking shit at me the other day, it freaked me out.”

“That’s good to know, at least.” Chase sighed, flicking his ears in discomfort. “I just... I can’t help but think—bah...” he cut himself off, letting the sentence trail.

“No,” the feline pushed gently. “Don’t hold back, say it.”

“It’s not fair,” Chase said, unwilling to meet Daniel’s gaze.

“I don’t care if it’s fair or not, I need to know what you’re feeling.”

Chase sighed heavily. “I can’t help it. I get so... frustrated hearing about the team, about imagining you in my spot. I get pissed off at Dane for putting me in a corner. I just... I dunno, I want to fight someone. And then I think about what I did to Manny, and I want to fight myself.” He closed his eyes tightly, not wanting to see his lover’s reaction as he continued. “I catch myself wondering if I traded the rest of my life for something... temporary. I mean, soccer was going to get me to college, out of New Branch—to the pros, maybe. I could have provided for my mom, but like...” He shrugged in defeat. “What now?”

“Do you think I’m temporary, or are you afraid that I’m temporary?”

Chase winced, hearing the edge of hurt in Daniel’s voice. “No! I—I mean, I hope not. I don’t want you to be temporary, it’s just that there’s so many things in the way, you know?”

“I think I do,” the feline said cautiously.

“Daniel, I... I’m sorry, I don’t want to have regrets about this but I don’t know how to stop thinking about it right now. I keep getting so angry about being forced to choose between the team and... well, you, I guess.”

Daniel frowned thoughtfully before responding. “Can I say something honest?”

“Of course you can, anything.”

The cougar sighed, his tailtip twitching behind his back. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking myself, and it’s been really hard seeing you be so depressed lately. I know it will get better—at least, I hope it will. But I’ve been through quite a lot myself, and I can’t help but see some familiar signs.”

He took a few deep breaths and reached out, taking Chase’s paws in his own and holding them gently. “I told you about the bullying after I came out, but not about what it was like for me to come out. I didn’t come out because I was just so excited about being gay that I had to share it with the world, you know. It was because it was so uncomfortable to keep it hidden that I couldn’t stand it. But even with all that motivation, I still wanted so desperately to hold onto my life as it was. I knew if I came out, everything could change, and that scared the shit out of me.”

Chase looked up at his boyfriend as the cat let go of one paw long enough to unconsciously touch it to the hidden scar on his arm.

“Maybe I was right to be scared, I don’t know. I didn’t want to come out, because that would set it in stone, but eventually I had to. To stay hidden would have crushed me, mentally. Emotionally. So I told my parents. They were, well, a little confused but not really surprised, and they were moderately supportive. Not, like, enthusiastic or anything, but they made it clear that they loved me. My mistake was in coming out to my friends without knowing for sure whether or not they were safe to tell.

“I think he’s a very nice boy. I just... do you think he’s safe?” The words from months ago rang around Chase’s head, as clearly as when Daniel’s dad had said them.

“Turns out they weren’t,” the cougar shrugged. “I guess it’s hard for kids to keep their mouths shut sometimes, and every little fur just loooooves having a secret to tell, right? Basically overnight every fur in my school knew I was a little tailraiser-in-training. From that point on my path had been set, but all of a sudden I lost the ability to just be Daniel instead of that gay kitten, and I started to get really mad about it. Just, really self-loathing. I hated the thought that I was gay, because it was stealing my comfortable life from me. It made me different, when I used to be normal—even though I never really was like the other kids, I just didn’t know it yet.”

“Damn...” Chase breathed, giving the tan paws a squeeze and rubbing his thumbs over the backs. “I’m so sorry, kitten. I... That sounds fucking awful.”

“The worst part was the teachers who just felt compelled to ask not-so-subtle questions about whether or not my parents were abusing me. Bad enough having the other kids make fun of me, but that was... ugh, it felt so gross. I think that’s what pushed my parents off the fence, was when they had a meeting with the school councilor after I’d been in a fight and she straight-up asked them if I was being sexually abused. I’d never seen them so offended and angry before, it completely radicalized them once they’d seen a glimpse of what it was like to be out in public. Having them on my side was great, but none of it got any easier until I... Well, until I tried to kill myself. Going through therapy made me realize that none of the bad things were my fault, but they were the results of my choice. If I’d chosen to stay in the closet, I would have been miserable, but that also would have been my choice. And trying to end the pain was also a choice I made that I had to internalize so I could heal from it.

“My point is: you’ll never be whole until you realize that all of this—all of these choices, all of these situations—they all belong to you. You made the choice to step up and be a leader, you made the decision to look for the most good you could do for the team, and you made the choice to give up your season for someone else who might not have deserved it. Nobody forced it on you, Chase, and until you can accept that you made a choice knowing what the risks were it’s going to eat at you.”

Daniel let go and reached both paws out to cup Chase’s cheeks, holding him and gently forcing the doberman to meet his eyes. Chase nearly flinched, seeing the intensity of the love and emotion they contained, but his cougar wouldn’t let him look away as he continued speaking. “And you also made the choice to let me in. You made the choice to... to love me. You didn’t choose to be gay, but you chose to open yourself to that knowledge. And I’m so happy and so honored that you chose me to open yourself to. I will do anything I can to make it easier, but at some point you do need to own it as well.

“I told you I was okay if you weren’t ready to come out. I can wait as long as it takes for someone like you, Chase, I really can. But I don’t think you can. I think that as long as you wait to own your identity, you’re always going to be trying to hold onto a path that’s disappearing, and you’ll start to resent it. To... to resent me.”

“I never wanted to think that any of this was your fault,” Chase answered softly. “I hated it so much. It made me even more mad at myself, that my brain would betray me like that.”

Daniel nodded knowingly. “It’ll wear you down, eventually. If you hear a lie enough times it becomes a truth in your head, even if you know better.”

“I... I still don’t know if I’m ready, Daniel. Or when I will be.” Chase wrung his paws together as a tear rolled down his cheek. “But I want to be. Can you really wait for me?”

“Of course I can, puppy,” Daniel replied, wiping the tear away gently with a claw. “In the meantime, the advice is still true for your life choices, too. Not just your identity or coming out. If you want to be at peace with leaving the team then you need to own it as your choice, not something that was forced on you.”

Chase unconsciously leaned into the paw on his face, nuzzling gently into the pawpad. “I took a huge gamble, didn’t I?”

“Maybe,” Daniel said, scritching his claws soothingly through the short fur in his paw. “I think every dream we have for our future hangs by a single thread, no matter how secure we think they are. You could have gotten hurt this season, and there goes your career anyway. You could get to college and absolutely love one of your classes and suddenly you want to do something else with your life. Some rich fucker could find oil under your mom’s house and suddenly you’re able to do anything and go anywhere. Who even knows? I don’t think it’s bad to simply decide what you want and go for it.”

Chase wished he could purr like Daniel did as the warmth of his lover’s paw comforted him. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, too. Like, what do I really want? At least for now, anyway.”

A smile quirked the corner of Daniel’s mouth. “And? What do you want?”

“You,” the dobie replied simply, looking up at his boyfriend earnestly. Daniel chuckled and leaned in, planting a passionate kiss on his mouth that Chase eagerly reciprocated, their tongues touching lightly as they explored each other affectionately. By some mutual, wordless agreement they both knew that it wasn’t a time for going further; instead Chase simply melted into Daniel’s arms, leaning his back against his boyfriend’s chest and found the warmth and protection there. The two sat in silence, basking in the closeness and safety of Daniel’s room, feeling their heartbeats slowly syncing up as Chase’s heart calmed and slowed.

“Hey, remember when we had our talk about being together? In here?” Chase nodded, nuzzling into the fur of Daniel’s bicep. “Tell me what you’re thinking, Chase.”

Chase frowned slightly as he thought hard about it. “I think... I think I still feel scared about coming out, but I’m sure I can do it—at least when I’m ready.” He squeezed the tan arm around his chest. “I think I’m incredibly lucky to have met you. I think you completely changed my life without even trying. I think I was using soccer as an escape, a way to control my future—but it wouldn’t have actually made me happy in the long term. I think that maybe you can make me happy, and I really want to find out.”

Daniel hugged his boyfriend, but didn’t interrupt him as he tracked down his disparate thoughts.

“I think I really enjoyed being captain,” he continued, “and I learned a lot about myself. I think I need to keep helping, somehow; I need to find a way to do some good, to make things right. I think maybe that’s why I felt like I needed to stand up for Dane, to give him the chance to change his fate. I... I want to do that for other furs, too. Furs like you—or, shit—I guess like me, too, huh?” he concluded, looking up at Daniel’s muzzle. “It makes me so mad when I think about what you went through, about how much it hurt you. I feel like I have to do something about it, but fuck if I know what or how.”

“Oh, puppy,” Daniel muttered into the fur on top of Chase’s head. “How are you so good?”

“What... What do I do with all that, though?” Chase asked.

“Honestly,” Daniel replied, “it sounds to me like you might want to consider a future in social work or counseling. Heck, maybe even psychology if you really want it.”

“Wait, do you really think I could do that?”

“Why not?” the cat shrugged. “You’re more empathetic than anyone I’ve met before, you’re smart and loyal, and apparently you’re motivated, too. Sounds like more than enough. I’m sure you could do just about anything you put your whole self into.”

Chase was thoughtfully silent. He glanced back again as Daniel broke off, catching sight of a vibrant pink blush on his cheeks going all the way up to his eartips.

“And, I mean... I’m sure whatever school I manage to get into is gonna have a program for that. If you maybe wanna go with me, of course. Maybe, like, we could be roomies...”

The doberman laughed at his boyfriend’s bashfulness, pulled free, and pounced the cougar flat onto the mattress before planting his long muzzle on Danie’s shorter one, and suddenly there was no more room for words.

---

It’s funny how things can change so quickly that they seem to blend from one normal into another, different kind of normal. In the space of a few short months, the Ramos household and the Gibson household had grown quite close, especially once both of their sons came out that they were dating. Before anyone realized it, Saturday dinner as a combined family had become a ritual. Julie had even tried her paw at cooking again on a regular basis. Chase knew that his mom wanted to impress—or at least not embarrass herself—in front of their new friends, but the stress was for naught. The Gibsons were as welcoming and warm as ever, eagerly accepting her offerings and adding them to the bounty they willingly shared.

The atmosphere grew more and more into a combined family as the season had gone on. Steve and Evie were becoming fast friends with Julie. Daniel and Chase could be open in front of their parents, even going so far as to sneak a kiss every so often when they thought the parents weren’t looking, and sat snuggled together on the floor in front of the sofa while everyone watched movies together. Even the photo wall now held a framed snap of all five of them together, wreathed in the glow of Christmas lights hung in the adjacent window far too early for Chase or Daniel’s tastes—not that they would dare rain on Evie’s parade.

Chase had to admit that it was truly wonderful. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his mother so relaxed, just laughing and chatting with Daniel’s folks like they’d always been part of the same family. For his own part, he felt surrounded by a warmth he hadn’t felt since... maybe ever, he realized. Even when his dad had been around and Chase thought he knew how family was meant to feel it had been caring, if a bit cold and distant; but now he was seeing what a real family could be like, one that truly cared, listened, and felt what each other was feeling.

It’s everything I’ve ever wanted, Chase thought to himself. Like this is where I’m meant to be.

He felt mild surprise at the idea even as his brain expressed it. Nothing in his dreams had ever included being in New Branch—hell, his dreams rarely if ever extended beyond the locker room or the soccer field. And yet, as good as he felt flying down the pitch, he never felt anything like the level of contentment he felt now. He looked down at his boyfriend, who leaned against his shoulder with a quilt pulled tightly around their shoulders, half-asleep in the TV’s glow.

I guess I know who to thank for that...

Daniel had completely upended his life. His family had, as well. In one sense, Chase really did want it all. But, for how long? For a brief moment, Chase let his mind cast forward. Would he and Daniel still be together for the rest of the year? That seemed simple enough, but what about after he graduated? Would he stay in New Branch for a year before trying to fulfill his college ambitions? What if Daniel couldn’t get a scholarship to play soccer? What if Chase couldn’t get a scholarship to the same school? What if he couldn’t get one to any school? University would only be for four years, what about after that?

Perhaps sensing his love’s spiraling, Daniel yawned, tilted his muzzle up, and gave Chase a soft kiss on the underside of his jaw before nuzzling back into his space in the crook of Chase’s arm. The canine felt the loop of stressful thoughts break and fade away.

What about, and what about, and what about... Trying to ponder an infinite and expanding future was surely a losing game. Chase realized the only question that truly mattered was one Daniel had already asked him: “What do you want?”

You.

The answer had sprung to his lips so readily it almost felt glib, but Chase never doubted his honesty when he’d said it. Daniel had been right, after all; there was no future he could bank on, no hope he could claim as concrete. All they had was today, right now. And right now they had each other.

He gave Daniel a grateful smile, even if he couldn’t see it, and returned the kiss between the cougar’s ears. He heard a soft gasp and looked over to see his mom hiding her muzzle behind her paws and watching him with an expression of pure joy at the display of young love in front of her.

Chase stuck his tongue out at her impishly and turned back to the movie as she returned the gesture in good fun. The future is for the future, he decided. We’ll face that when it happens, and we’ll face it together.

He felt a warm stirring deep in his chest: subtle, but filling into his being so completely that he knew it always belonged there. Chase finally felt the calm he’d been longing for. He felt peaceful and at ease.

Maybe that’s the answer I’ve been waiting for all along?

“YES!”

Chase jumped in his chair, nearly having a heart attack at the outburst, and turned to stare at Nate—along with every other fur in the computer lab.

The chocolate lab was standing, his chair laying on the floor tipped over as he leapt out of it, fists raised over his head.

“Uh... what?” Chase asked.

For the first time, Nate seemed to remember that he was in school and in a fairly full room of furs who were all regarding him like he’d grown a second head. He scrambled to right his chair and sat back down, grinning ruefully. “Um, my bad, sorry.” He scooted back under the desk and yanked on Chase’s collar, tugging the doberman over as he pointed animatedly at his computer screen. “Duuuude look look look look!”

It took a few seconds for Chase to realize what the barebones HTML webpage was for, but he saw the local newspaper’s logo and he recognized the sports page report. Nate was smiling manically, his brown finger stabbing out at the local scores from Monday’s high school action.

Coyote Rock 2 - Boulderwall 4

“Wait, what?” Chase gaped. “How the hell did that happen?”

Nate had already clicked on the link and was scanning the blurb about the game, short as it was. “Looks like... yeah! Carmichael had to leave the game with an injury in the first half.”

“That’s the mink, isn’t it?”

“Yup! It doesn’t say how bad it was, but he had to be helped off the field and didn’t return, so he might not be at full strength for Friday’s game!”

“Damn, that could be huge,” Chase agreed.

Nate closed the tab and sat back, grinning broadly. “Dude, the top two teams in the western Sedea district both with 13-3 records, meeting for the last game of the regular season? You couldn’t write this shit into a movie.”

“Yeah, but which team are the main characters?”

“Obviously us, we look better on camera.”

The class bell interrupted the pointless banter, and everyfur in the room quickly logged off their computers and headed off to their next period classes. Chase and Nate shuffled into the end of the line, being sure to keep their tails clear of doors and other students passing by, and walked out the classroom door.

The instant he crossed the threshold Chase saw a flash of motion headed at his face, and only had enough time to shut his eyes before something soft and round hit him square in the side of his muzzle, exploding in a rustling puff. He gasped, but found his mouth filled with a cloud of...something. It felt papery and unpleasant, like chewing on a muzzlefull of powdered tin foil, and he fell to all fours on the ground coughing and gasping as he heard several furs laugh.

He forced his eyes open and found himself on his knees in the middle of a circle of glitter, covering the ground and wall with more still fluttering down out of the air, coating his face, his head, his paws, his clothes. He gagged, trying desperately to find breath without inhaling any of the foreign substance, and coughed up more of the fine pink particles that clung tenaciously to the inside of his muzzle. His vision swam worryingly, the surrounding crowd of gathered onlookers turning into a blurred wall of fur and fabric. He couldn’t make out any faces, no distinguishing features or clothing, but he could hear voices—familiar ones, at that.

“Looking good, faggot!”

“Faaaaaabulous!”

“What’s wrong? I thought you fairies loved this kind of shit!”

Manny and Kelly were both immediately recognizable to his ears. Chase tried to look around for coyotes, but between his eyes watering and the press of the crowd gawking at the spectacle there was really no chance. Nate dropped to one knee next to him and started trying to brush off Chase’s muzzle so he could breathe a little more clearly, and then dusted off his shoulders and hair as Chase sat back against the wall. The crowd was starting to disperse now; the show was over and class would be starting soon, but the murmuring among the student body was constant in his ears. Nate tugged him to his paws and helped him to the bathroom.

Grateful for the quiet, Chase ran the sink and pulled off his shirt, handing it to Nate as he started splashing water into his face and hair.

Nate shook the t-shirt out over the trash can, a sparkly rain cascading into the bin. “What the actual fuck was that_?_”

“Mano, I don’t fuckin’ know...” Chase muttered before swishing water around his mouth and spitting it back into the sink. “It’s, Manny. I heard him.”

“I’m pretty sure I heard Kelly, too.”

“Fucking cabrones,” Chase spat. “I’m trying to not be racist against coyotes right now but pinche madre they make it so fucking hard...”

“Those two have always been pricks.” Nate said softly, passing the now-mostly-clean shirt back to the doberman. “But this is... this is something new. They’ve never pushed anyfur this hard before. Are you okay?”

Chase just stared at himself in the mirror. The face that looked back was lifeless, blank, vacant. Is this the sort of thing Daniel had to go through? Could he withstand weeks of this? Months? At what point would he start thinking about whether or not living was worth it? He shook his head, water scattering around the room. Nate raised the t-shirt to shield himself from the splashing, but Chase took it and put it back on without noticing.

“I... I’ll be okay,” he replied quietly.

“You sure?”

“There’s not much else I can be right now.” Chase clapped a paw to Nate’s shoulder in thanks, and they headed off to class, the doberman still trailing the odd piece of glitter in his wake as he walked.

---

Thankfully, there were no more physical assaults to worry about for the remainder of the week, but that was the only silver lining to the otherwise perpetual dark clouds that surrounded him. Chase understood what it meant to be an outcast on a level he never thought possible before; even a couple of days of this was enough to turn him into a withdrawn husk, shuffling from room to room in the crowded school, wishing for nothing other than to make it through the day without being perceived by anyone else. He ate lunch alone, outside of the school despite the cold of the late fall making its presence felt, and appreciated the hour of peace and quiet.

Daniel and Nate did their best to keep his spirits up, but their effect was limited. Chase no longer had a team to go to, a locker room to hide in, or a game in which to burn off his nervous energy and cement his worth to those around him. Nate admitted that he’d shared what had happened with the team, and they were pissed off about it, too. It was a nice gesture, and Chase told him as much.

“It just fuckin sucks,” Nate said, tossing a couple french fries into his muzzle. The lab had tracked Chase down and was sitting with him on a picnic table outside the arts hallway, eating lunch together. The sun was out, and it wasn’t an unpleasant day to enjoy. The warmth of the sunshine felt like it was warming Chase’s spirit as well as his body. He’d made it through the week, and now all he had to do was make it a couple more hours and he could go watch his boyfriend and his team play their big game.

“The other guys on the team want to do something,” Nate continued after swallowing, “but no fur really knows what to do, you know?”

“I mean, what can they do?”

“Well, for starters I heard Dane and Sequon debating if they could get away with putting that coyote in a shallow grave.”

Chase snorted, spraying a bit of bottled water from his muzzle. “Oh goddess, please don’t do that! The last thing I need is to bail someone out of jail on my behalf.”

“I’m, like, ninety percent sure they were joking. I think. Anyway, point is, you do have friends on your side.”

Before Chase could respond to that, the door behind them burst open and Zack spilled into the small courtyard. The dogs stared at him as the ringtail panted, catching his breath after obviously running. “Shit, there you are,” he gasped. “Chase, you gotta come, they’re doi—Dane, he caught Manny...”

“Wait, what?” Chase asked, bewildered.

“Come on!”

Zack grabbed his paw and wheeled back, tugging Chase along, the lunch trays completely forgotten on the table. The trio sprinted through the building, still empty as most furs were still eating lunch, and turned down the hall towards Chase’s locker. He could make out a small huddle of furs around where his locker generally was, and his stomach began to sink as he anticipated the worst.

As they drew closer and slowed, Chase saw Drew, Sequon, and Jorge grouped around his locker, with someone obviously trapped within their half-circle.

“You absolute piece of shit,” Sequon snapped, the painted dog’s tail whipping behind him like it was in a gale. “You lookin’ to lose a few more teeth, asshole?”

“I told you to back the fuck off,” Dane growled. “You should have listened.”

“Ha—you can’t do shit to me.” Manny’s voice was muffled by the bodies around him, but it still carried a strong undercurrent of fear behind the bravado. “You’ll be kicked off the team, too, just like your little tailr—”

Jorge slammed a paw into the locker and the smaller coyote yelped despite himself. “Oh, we won’t touch you now,” he said. “Not at school. But we know where you live, Manny, and we’re gonna stomp the shit out of you the next time we see you.”

Chase walked up behind the soccer players and looked over Dane’s shoulder to see what was happening. Manny was pinned against the lockers, ears flat against his head, his nose bleeding and a matching smear of blood on the locker next to his own where they had apparently met—with some encouragement, Chase assumed. But all he could see was his locker. The metal door had been etched with a metal implement of some kind, branded and carved with epithets.

FAGGOT

TAILRAISER

QUEER

Something inside Chase broke. The starkness of the words, the permanence of their writing, it burrowed into his brain and refused to leave. He slumped, falling to his knees, face vacant. He could vaguely feel Nate and Zack supporting him, trying to shake him back to his senses, but he couldn’t find a reason to do so.

Is this really all there is? he wondered idly. He felt like he was seeing himself from the outside, detached and cold, evaluating himself like a test subject under examination. He saw Dane and Jorge turn to see him, the otter still holding Manny by his shirt in a firm paw, their faces turning concerned as they noticed Chase.

“You’re a fucking dead beast,” he heard Sequon say, his voice sounding like it was coming from a tunnel or something. “Remember that.” He pushed Manny away, sending him sprawling into a trash can sending him and the bin to the ground in a clatter. The coyote scrambled to his paws and ran, the noise starting to draw furs from inside classes and nearby offices to see what was going on.

Slowly, a small crowd started to form up. Furs of all kinds joined the congregation to see what the new distraction was, met by a vulgar locker door and a doberman kneeling on the ground, silent tears rolling down his cheek. The crowd murmured, waves of hushed conversation starting to spread, but the looks on the athletes’ faces deterred anyone from asking what was going on or making any comments.

The doberman’s body rocked as Daniel fell to his own knees alongside Chase, ignoring their prior taboo of physical contact at school and pulling him into a tight side hug. It shook Chase out of his stupor somewhat, his world expanded enough to allow his boyfriend into it.

“Daniel?” he asked softly, his voice only loud enough for the intended target to hear.

“Oh Chase, I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I’m sorry...”

“You—you’re hugging me.”

“Yeah, I am,” the cougar said simply.

“Why... How did you know?”

“Zack came and got me.”

Despite his shock, Chase felt a growing sort of warmth in his chest. His teammates still cared about him. He noticed the soccer players around him, almost like they were in a guarding formation around him, warding off the other students from encroaching. The doberman looked back to the vandalized locker. “This isn’t going to stop, is it?”

“I...” Daniel took a breath through his teeth. “I wish I knew.”

“I never wanted to stand out.”

“I didn’t, either.”

Chase stood slowly, a buzzing sound growing in his ears as he approached the locker and ran his paw over the gouges. He felt each letter, the rough-cut enamel sending pricks and sparks of pain into his fingerpads as they ran across the surface.

“Queer.” He muttered to himself, Daniel’s paw still on the small of his back, letting him know the cougar was there.

The soccer players were beginning to chase the onlookers away as faculty began to arrive and evaluate the situation. Sequon and Dane started telling their story of what happened to the vice principal, the great stag looking more pissed off than any of the students had seen him before.

“It’s all true, though, isn’t it?” Chase said to nobody in particular.. “How can I even try to fight it anymore?”

Daniel gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Hon, something being true doesn’t make it good or bad. Only true.”

The class bell rang out, and furs dispersed, not willing to be late to class even for the entertainment value of something this unexpected. The players walked off with Vice Principal Oaksteade to give their official statements.

“Are you okay?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know,” Chase replied honestly. “But you should go to class. There’s not really anything we can do about it now.”

Sensing Chase’s sincerity, the cougar gave his back a last rub before slowly going on his way.

The doberman stood alone in the hallway, shockingly empty and alone as the class doors closed all around the school.

“Not good or bad, only true,” he said to himself. It must be true, because him being gay and in love was demonstrably good in his private life, but clearly bad as far as school and his peers went. Or, at least excepting his teammates, he realized. He didn’t know if it was good or bad to them, but they were clearly willing to stand up on his behalf, and that was good, right?

If it’s not good or bad, then I’ll have to make it good.

Something sparked in his brain. Chase walked off down the hallway, deeper into the school.

---

The bell rang, and the classrooms opened up again. In the hall, furs tried to move rapidly towards the scene of the latest scandal on campus without looking like they were too interested. Daniel and Nate arrived to a massive crowd grouped up around Chase’s locker, so dense that they had to work together to body their way through to the front.

Chase was gone, but he’d clearly been busy while everyfur else was in class because the entire surface of the locker door was colored over. Nate’s jaw dropped open, and Daniel couldn’t stop a wide, proud smile from breaking out on his muzzle.

The door was now a bright green and gold, bearing the colors of the Prospectors soccer team, with Chase written under the number panel in block capitals. Whatever paint Chase had found was thick; thick enough to fill in the gouges and cover the vile slurs left in the metal. You could feel the carvings of the words with your paw if you traced them, but you couldn’t see them anymore under the vibrant colors. All except for one.

The word QUEER wasn’t just still visible; it was emphasized. Chase had colored in and emboldened each letter in a different color of the rainbow and framed it in black. The effect was unmistakably intentional.

“Holy shit,” Nate muttered.

“I love that fucking mutt so much,” Daniel replied, unable to look away from the sight.

The two heard a rise of voices from one side, and turned to see the shocked crowd parting like a bow wave before a cargo ship, letting Chase through. The dog’s demeanor had completely changed. He smiled casually, his ears were up, his eyes were bright. Even his tail was wagging as he walked up, seemingly oblivious to the furor he was causing among the students.

Daniel gasped. “Chase, I—”

He got no further before Chase met him, throwing an arm around his waist and pressing his muzzle to Daniel’s. Daniel’s eyes shot open, his body going rigid with shock, until he slowly came back to his senses and melted into the kiss, returning it with equal intensity. The voices around them swelled and carried through the crowd like a tidal current, but neither canine nor feline heard them. Chase finally broke the kiss, leaving the stunned cougar gasping for air and flushed bright red clear to his black-furred eartips.

“Hi,” he said.

More than a few of the assembled furs started to hoot and cheer at the couple. Cries of “get it, girl!” and “hell yeah!” rang out.

“You...” Daniel shook his head in amazement. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I decided I don’t like running away from things. From now on, I’ll deal with it in the open.”

“I’d ask if you were sure, but I guess it’s a bit late for that, isn’t it?”

Chase grinned. “I’m just doing what Coach taught me to do; do what I felt was right, and take ownership of my own choices.”

Daniel gave him a sardonic smile in return. “What Coach taught you, huh?”

“Yeah, well...” Chase looked sheepishly at his boyfriend. “I’m not that smart. I needed someone else to help me learn the lesson, too.”

“I’m glad you’re learning it, though.”

Chase took his boyfriend’s paw and tugged gently on it. “We’d better get going. One class left before we’ve got a bus to catch and you’ve got a fucking game to win.”

The awed crowd parted again with scattered applause for the show, letting the pair walk off undisturbed.

---

Chase left his last class just after the soccer team had been called out over the PA and excused from class. His chemistry teacher rarely cared and probably still assumed he was on the team. The halls were quiet enough as he passed his locker, pleased to see that it hadn’t been disturbed yet. He had no illusions that it would last—if nothing else the school would likely replace the door with a new one. Maybe he could convince the principal to give him the current door to hang on his wall?

In any event, he made it out to the team bus in front of school, to find his path blocked by the hulking body of Coach Reede. The ram glowered at him, but a glint in his eyes betrayed the joke. “You lost, Ramos? This is a team bus, you know.”

“Aw come on, coach, you know I’m too poor to afford a ticket.”

“Oh, so now we’re just giving out freebies?”

“I’ll throw in a fiver for gas, if it helps,” Chase grinned.

The ram mirrored his smile. “Get on there, pup.”

Word certainly spreads fast in a small town, as Chase climbed the overlarge steps onto the bus a round of boisterous cheering broke out among the players, many of whom wolf-whistled or slapped him on the back as he passed them. Chase flushed and looked at his paws as he walked slowly down the aisle.

“Good to see you, loverboy!” Max called.

“You little hoe, in the middle of the hallway?!” Lucas was certainly gaining confidence among the team now that Manny was gone, this was more personality than Chase even knew he had at the start of the season. Nate just slapped his paw in a high five and said nothing, but his proud smile said a novel’s worth on its own. A couple of the players were quiet, including the JV reserves called up to fill the roster after Manny and Chase left, but nobody was scowling at him or looking disgusted, and even crossing that low of a bar was enough to send a palpable wave of relief through the doberman. His shoulders released tension that he didn’t even realize had been building for the entire week, and suddenly he was just back in his element, amongst teammates and friends.

Chase gratefully plopped his rump into the seat next to Daniel—no longer separated from the rest of the team, he noticed with some satisfaction. “Okay, so, this is weird.”

“Good, but weird, yeah,” Daniel confirmed.

“Has this been going on all week?”

The cougar shrugged. “Beats me, it felt like things just spun on a dime overnight. Monday, maybe Tuesday, I don’t really know—but the team got really... aggressive. Like, in a good way, though. Nearly everyfur was coming up to me and saying how fucked up it was that you had to quit. I have no idea who told them about the glitter attack—they all seemed to know before I did—but it felt like everyfur was mad about it.”

“Huh...” Chase mused, having an idea of who let the leak slip as he looked forward down the aisle to where Nate was sitting, leaning into the aisle, talking to several of the players around him about the upcoming game. “You guys really are something else.”

“It’s your fault, you know,” Daniel said, drawing a confused look from the doberman. “You started this; this attitude of pack, of family. And you didn’t just say it, you actually lived it. Every fur on this bus is just following your lead.”

“I told you guys to win as a pack, too.”

“Yeah, you did.” Daniel’s smile got predatory. “And we’re gonna follow your lead on that, too.”

---

Chase walked to the locker room with the team, but left them at the door after giving Daniel an embarrassed kiss for good luck. Being in the locker room just felt wrong, so he found his way to the bleachers and sat down in the front row, in short reach of the team’s bench area. The day was cold by Sedean standards, with winds whipping across the field with practically nothing to break them. In Pomona or Cantia they may have the money for huge stadiums with thousands of seats, but not here. Even being one of the largest schools in the state, Coyote Rock had facilities that would be just adequate by the standards of those other states. The fact that they had lights on all their fields—never mind just the pawball or baseball fields—was pure opulence compared to every other school in the district.

By the opening whistle, Chase was shivering slightly, though more out of pent-up energy than the coolness. The bleachers had started to fill out, especially since both schools were aware of what was at stake, but Chase remained oblivious of any fur around him. He looked out to the center circle where his cougar was set to start the game with possession, and Daniel looked over to him in the bleachers and gave a wink just as it began.

True to Nate’s predictions, the mink wasn’t on the field. Chase was pretty sure he spotted him on the sidelines, but not in uniform and wearing a boot brace on his paw. It was a welcome relief for the Prospectors, even though Chase would never wish injury on another player just because he was good. It did seem to make a profound difference, though—either that, or the Prospectors were just motivated in a way the Cyclones weren’t, because the balance of possession was much more balanced than the first meeting earlier in the season.

Nate was anchoring a much stronger defense this time around, making sure his players were in place to pressure ballhandlers the instant a pass was received. The chocolate lab waved his players around, prioritizing cutting off passing lanes instead of marking players, and it was having the intended effect. A couple of slick moves could get the odd single player into striking range, but without anyfur to pass to, Jorge had little problem cutting down the angle and turning aside any shots they managed.

Meanwhile, on the other end Daniel, Nate, Riley, and Zack were working well as a team. They rarely held the ball, preferring to bounce rapidly between passes that kept the defense largely frozen in the middle of the field.

Chase was enraptured. For the first time since his suspension and removal from the team, he felt like he was in the action. He felt himself leaning along with Daniel as he made every cutback, and could nearly feel the ball against his own paws on every pass or shot. It was an opening in the gloom, allowing him to love the game again even without touching the turf with his own two paws. He could feel the flow of the teams, and felt connected for the first time in weeks.

The slow and determined play of the Prospectors line was starting to yield results, he could see. Not in shots, but in placement; the defense was getting worn from being on consistent alert and Chase could see seams starting to open up where a quick player could make a run.

It appeared that Daniel noticed that as well, because mere moments after Chase made the observation the cougar flicked a paw in a signal, and Riley came streaking out of his shadow like a comet. Daniel pulled back, catching his defender in the middle of two options and leaving him with neither, the space allowing him to send a chipped shot into the front of the goalie box where it found Riley in full stride. The rabbit leaped as only his kind really could, and his firm header glanced off the very tips of the keeper’s gloves to find the twine behind.

Chase leapt to his paws, pumping his fists and screaming along with the team. Riley jumped into his team, who caught him by the waist and held him aloft.

Coyote Rock burned their time out and a harried-looking badger stabbed animatedly at a clipboard as he tried to refocus the Cyclones side. The Prospectors were elated at having taken the lead, but Nate was in the center of the huddle before Coach Reede had even made it to the circle, watching with an amused smile as Nate pumped the team up.

“That’s how we fuckin’ do it!” he yelled, clapping his paws. “We have to keep up this pressure. The more we can draw their defense up the field, the more they’re going to be open to Zack or Daniel taking a run past their backline. All we need is one more good cross to put this thing on ice.”

In the bleachers, Chase was beaming. He knew Nate was capable of this, he’d known for a long time. And yet, it seems like he surprised even you, didn’t he? Chase felt the warmth spread through his core and dispel the wind’s chill. He didn’t have any evidence, but in his mind he knew it had been Nate who had rallied the team to his back, who got the team to truly accept Chase as he was. And the team was responding to him.

The dueling strategies seemed to balance each other out, because the teams played largely to a stalemate for the next half hour or so, through the halftime break and into the second half. Coyote Rock began pushing for sideline runs, so Nate snagged Riley’s jersey and called him back to defense. Chase couldn’t make out much from the bleachers, but he saw Nate saying “no crosses” to the rabbit, who nodded seriously and started harrying the middle of the defensive end.

Locking things down was paying dividends, the rabbit’s vertical leap and Jorge’s gloved paws made high crosses nearly impossible, and Drew and Lucas weren’t giving up an inch around the eighteen-yard box. As the clock wound down, the Cyclones began getting desperate. Bodies began to push and jostle for position. Coyote Rock remembered the past and they were trying to get in Riley’s head by playing him physically, but every time he got bodied off the ball Nate was right next to the play and gave him time to get back in position. The one break in the wall came just as the clock ran down. A spry leopard found a gap, popping the ball over Drew’s footpaw as he cut back against the play and leaving his own paw low enough to ensure he got caught by the wolf. It was good enough for a free kick in any situation, but Coyote Rock had collapsed the defense ahead of him, pushing New Branch back to the danger zone of the penalty box.

The ref’s whistle blew, the arm going up and dropping to point directly at the center spot in the box. The whole Prospectors team groaned. A penalty shot was coming.

The clock dropped to zero, and without any real delays or injuries there would be no stoppage time added, so the results of this penalty would either end the game or send it to extra time all on its own. Both teams lined up as they would for a shootout, near the midfield bench area. Coyote Rock trotted out an impressively-built dogfox to take the penalty kick. He bounced on his paws, doing a few light stretches and preparing as Nate had a quick word with Jorge. The dog and the otter pressed their foreheads together, passing quiet conversation, and Nate ended it with a slap to Jorge’s chest and tapped a finger against his forehead. “Get in there,” Chase could just make out reading Nate’s lips.

The fox pawed at the turf as he got set, staring the otter down. Jorge jumped about on his line, an odd smile on his muzzle. He kept flicking his eyes to his left and nodding at the fox, goading him. Come on, he mouthed at the shooter, go left. All yours. Bet you won’t. Chase couldn’t stop a chuckle from bubbling out. Despite the tension, despite the overwhelming odds against a goalkeeper on a penalty shot, Jorge was projecting cocky confidence and daring the fox to prove him wrong.

The ref blew his whistle and Jorge dropped into a crouch as the fox ran up on the ball. The fox’s eyes dropped, his tail flicked to one side, and the instant before he made contact with the ball Jorge dodged to his right, leaving the left side wide open just like he’d said he would. The sound of the fox’s paw against the ball was impressive, sending the ball streaking like a rocket—directly into the center of Jorge’s chest.

The otter dropped like a rock, paws closing over nothing but air, but it didn’t matter as the ball ricocheted off towards the sideline. Every ear on the Coyote Rock roster fell at once as three blasts of the whistle signaled the end of the game and the New Branch players rushed the field, falling on top of their slightly-winded goalie in a mob celebration.

Chase was jumping as he cheered, itching to be a part of that pile if for no other reason than he felt so good he didn’t know how to let all the energy inside him out, trying hard to keep from bursting into tears of joy at the sheer cathartic release he’d experienced today. New Branch had made the playoffs for the first time in fifteen years. They’d done it without him, technically, but it was still his team out there.

Coach Reede pulled his boys back up long enough to do the postgame lineups and paw-shakes, and as they came back over to the bench Nate waved at Chase, beckoning him to join them. The doberman pounced over the short fence, running over to his teammates. The group enveloped him into the mass hug, messing up his headfur and leaving him breathless with the number of backslaps he got as they pressed him further and further into the center of the circle until Chase found himself face to face with Daniel. The both looked around, realizing that the team had pushed them together and was surrounding them, screening them from the outside.

Chase stared at Daniel, who stared back. “Good game,” Chase said, swallowing hard against the emotional moment.

“Yeah,” Daniel agreed.

“Oh, come onnnnnnnnnn,” Sequon groaned. “Just kiss him already you dumbass!”

They both blushed bright red, but did as instructed.

Chase was prepared to stop outside the locker room to wait for the team, but no one on the team would allow it. They pulled him into the room, still cheering and celebrating, until Coach Reede had to bang a locker to get anyfur to pay attention.

“You all should be incredibly proud of yourselves this season,” he said, his gruff voice nevertheless radiating his pride in his players. “Sure, the hard part is still to come, but at least for today you can celebrate!” His face clouded in mock seriousness. “The bad news is that there will be practices this week.” Several players groaned in sympathy with his joke. “Now, now,” the ram said, “you have nobody to blame but yourselves if you wanted to be lazy. That said, we’re gonna take the weekend off.”

Every one of the players cheered at the declaration until the coach waved them back into silence and gestured to Nate. “You guys were incredible,” the chocolate lab told his team. “A couple months ago I thought we’d just play some soccer and win a few games, but you guys came together to overcome so much this season. So much.” He scanned the room with his gaze, meeting the eyes of every player in the room in turn. “I didn’t start it, but you all embraced the mantra of ‘play as a pack, win as a pack’. I could never be more proud to play with any group of furs you could find.”

The team offered a round of applause at his heartfelt words, giving the dog time to turn to his coach and get the game ball. “We don’t usually do game balls in soccer,” he said. “I mean, these things aren’t cheap, right?” Everyone chuckled. “But this is a special occasion, and a special season, and I think it’s only fair that we recognize that this entire season wouldn’t exist without one fur in particular making all of us believe it could exist.” Nate turned and tossed the ball. “Chase.”

Chase caught the ball and looked up at his friend, shocked, as the entire team cheered and surrounded him, offering congratulations and thanks in a mass hubbub that left the doberman completely overwhelmed. He hugged the ball to his chest, tears openly flowing as he laughed and leaned into the scrum.

---

A half-hour’s drive outside of the sleepy southwestern town of New Branch, the sun was dipping over the edge of the Sedean desert, setting the sky alight with tails of red and gold. Mesas stretched out across the landscape, leaving rivers of darkness between, sparkling in the crisp, cool air of the early winter. No birds sounded; the only ones visible were riding thermals so high above they looked like pinpricks against the cloudless ceiling.

Below the tableau, nearly oblivious to the splendor around them, were two teenaged boys—Chase and Daniel. They sat on a large woven blanket, spread across the rock face at a minimum safe distance away from a roaring fire that danced warmly. The game ball sat nearby, next to their belongings, present but unneeded in the moment.

Chase lounged casually on his hip, holding himself up on one arm as he stared thoughtfully into the eyes of the cougar with him. The dancing firelight caught his blue/brown fur coat in a way that highlighted the muscles in his shirtless torso, and Daniel had every intention of noticing them all. The cougar sat cross-legged, also shirtless but with a paw-made quilt wrapped around his shoulders, headfur still mussed from a quick and haphazard shower and drying after the game. The boys had paused only long enough to grab a few blankets from Chase’s room and scrounge some firewood before they high-tailed it into the desert to their mutual favorite place.

“I love it out here,” Daniel said quietly, breathing in the chill desert air. “Funny how a place can become so important so quickly.”

“I wanted to show you beauty,” Chase said, his voice equally low and reverent, “and you ended up showing me the most beautiful thing of all.”

“Oh?” the cougar asked, eyes narrowing, a teasing lilt on his voice. “And what’s that?”

Chase didn’t feel the need to tease back. “You.”

Daniel flushed and tucked his chin, embarrassment laying his ears back. He took the opportunity to breathe deeply of the quilt, pulled from Chase’s bed as they raced back to the car. He looked into Chase’s eyes, and slowly slid the quilt from his shoulders.

Chase watched enraptured as his boyfriend’s torso came into view. It was far from a new sight, but the way the fire’s light traced his body left him breathless. The doberman leaned forward, putting a paw to the cougar’s cheek, and drew him into a deep, passionate kiss. The memory of every kiss they’d shared so far played through his mind, a playlist filled with every emotion under the stars: joy, pain, fear, comfort, belonging, and discovery. The feline purred into his mouth, his tongue vibrating with the deep rumble, and Chase felt his heart skip in response.

Daniel didn’t resist as Chase leaned in harder, lowering him down to the ground, not even breaking the kiss as he did so. Moments stretched into minutes before Chase finally came up for air, his racing heart and raging libido demanding more. His paws drifted down the cougar’s fluffy sides, feeling every dimple and ravine hidden under the tawny coat. Daniel moaned encouragingly, urging his boyfriend on with a lust-drunk smile on his face.

His paw fell to the button of Daniel’s jeans, and he stopped short. “You good, hon?” Daniel whispered, despite the solitude.

“I just... Yeah. I’m so good right now.” He stared at the cougar in awe, watching his body stretch out on the pooled quilt below his back, claws flexing and retracting unconsciously as his heart raced in unison with Chase’s.

The button on Daniel’s jeans popped open with a dexterity Chase’s paws didn’t usually possess, and he eagerly tore the offending pants away from his lover, needing to see every inch of his body in the glow. Daniel writhed eagerly as Chase touched his paws to the strong legs, climbing back up their length with agonizing slowness and tenderness. The cougar’s head rocked back with a long, low moan when Chase pressed his lips to his calf, the side of his knee, the meat of his quad. His panting breaths were a symphony to the doberman, who could feel his tail wagging furiously behind himself as he searched the length and breadth of his boyfriend’s body.

Chase’s nose nuzzled into Daniel’s leg, probing at the hem of his boxers, and Daniel let a keening moan slip out in response. “Chase, fuck, I can’t take much more!”

Chuckling to himself, Chase got to his knees so he could unfasten his own pants. “I really hope that’s not true, kitty,” he growled playfully. “because we haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”

Daniel lunged forward, throwing his arms around Chase’s neck and planting his broad muzzle on Chase’s. Their tongues danced and fenced against each other, eagerly seeking every corner of the other’s mouth as Chase hooked his thumbs in the waistband of Daniel’s boxers and tugged them downwards. Daniel’s muzzle pulled back as he arched his hips, allowing Chase to slide his last remaining clothing off and giving him access to his neck, which the canine dove into, nipping and nuzzling into the soft fur at the hollow of the cougar’s throat.

A constant stream of moans and gasps filled the chilly air as Chase wrapped his paw around his lover’s straining erection and teased his neck with his teeth.

“Goddess, yes, Chase, I need you, I need you so bad.” Daniel kept his arms around Chase’s shoulders, holding him close as his body shook beneath him.

“You feel pretty pent up.”

“Fur and fang, you have no idea. I’ve wanted to jump your bones every moment since you kissed me in the middle of the school.”

Chase didn’t doubt it, the member in his paw was leaking profusely, a steady stream of pre coating his palm and running slowly over his knuckles. “You’re so beautiful, Daniel.”

It was difficult to tell in the orange glow of the fire whether or not the cougar was blushing, but it looked like it from the way he tried to hide his muzzle behind one paw. He hid his face, pulling Chase in until his muzzle was alongside the doberman’s pointed ear. His voice was quiet, husky, and laced with desire: “I need you, Chase Ramos.”

“I—really? Can... can I?”

Daniel just nodded in response.

“How...?”

“In my jacket pocket. Left one.”

Daniel reached over to grab the jacket, and quickly found a tube, which he pulled out and—

“Wait, what?”

The tube read Coconut Oil in bright green letters on white, and Chase stared at it, bewildered.

Daniel smirked. “I stole it from our pantry, just in case. Apparently it does pretty well as a—” he coughed, “personal lubricant.”

Chase raised an eyebrow at him. “How the hell did you know that?”

“Well... um... the computers in the library don’t have the web filters on them like the ones in school do, so when a fur needs answers and is too shy to go to the only store in town, well...”

Chase laughed and kissed him again. “You’re such a nerd.”

“Excuse you, only one of us is actually a jock right now, you might recall.”

“Okay, I was going to be gentle until you went there,” Chase scolded, his bright smile belying his threat as he squeezed out some of the oil onto his palm and felt it start to melt into his fur.

“Maybe I don’t want you to be gentle...”

Chase smeared the oil all over, his patience evaporating in the face of his body’s need. Daniel bit gently into the side of his fist as Chase rubbed the oil under his tail, the touches sending pulses of pleasure up his spine and down into his footpaws. It didn’t take long for Chase to work him open, probing his depth with a tentative finger. Beneath him, Daniel gasped and shook as Chase found new places in him that had never been touched before.

The canine panted heavily. “Am I—uh, I mean...”

“Shiiiiiiiiiiit, Chase, yes, I’m ready. Please fuck me.”

“How—”

“Just like this. I need to see you. I need to hold you.”

Nodding his agreement, Chase lifted the strong, tawny legs and brought himself into position. Both boys gasped out loud at the first contact, and Chase pressed his lips to Daniel’s at the same time as he pressed his way into his lover’s body.

Daniel moaned and clawed softly at his back as he sank, inch by agonizing inch, into his body. Chase echoed his moans back to him, the doberman could feel every twitch of his boyfriend’s hips, every movement as he writhed in joy, every inch of where their bodies were joined together—until at last their hips met and they could get no closer.

“Yeeesssss...” Daniel hissed, grabbing Chase by the ears and squeezing him with his strong legs. “Goddess, yes, it’s so good.”

“Daniel...” Chase gasped out as he drove himself back in, their dual moans twining harmoniously.

One by one the stars peeked out of the darkening canopy overhead, bearing witness as Chase began to make love to his cougar, driving himself into the lithe body beneath him. He alternated between slow, passionate hip rolls and lustful fucking, driving himself as deeply into Daniel’s ass as he physically could. The stillness of the desert echoed with their passionate cries, both unwilling or unable to contain their wordless calls.

Chase finally found his voice long enough to gasp out, “I’m getting close.”

“Fuuuuuuuck, yes, yes, yes...”

“I wanna knot you so fucking bad.”

“Then do it, puppy.” Daniel punctuated his request with a lick, running his rough tongue up the outside of Chase’s ear. “I’m so close, too, I need it. Make me cum.”

All Chase’s restraint fled him, and all he knew was the need to bury his knot into his lover. Daniel gritted his teeth and tried to relax, but his body was on fire and he needed it as much as Chase needed to give it to him.

A half-dozen thrusts later, Daniel’s legs tightened around Chase’s waist, pulling him in as hard as possible as the cougar fell headlong over the edge into his bliss. The doberman felt his knot slip past the ring and into the warmth of Daniel’s body, going lightheaded from the sensations. The pressure, the passion, and the friction between their bellies was more than enough to send Daniel into a full-bodied orgasm that left him shaking and mewling as he felt his lover shake above and inside him. Chase climaxed with him, the pulses of heat he sent into his mate matching the ones that splashed into the mixed fur between their bodies.

The dusky night received their combined cries of passion and closed back in around them as the echoes faded among the mesas, until silence retook the landscape and cloaked the young lovers in its garb.

They remained joined for another twenty minutes or so, both of their tails wagging furiously and twining around each other as they kissed and nipped and nuzzled each other in the meantime. After he was finally able to pull out, they cleaned up with the quilt. Daniel was apologetic, but Chase assured him it needed to be washed anyway and it wouldn’t hurt anything. Energy finally burned off, the lovers simply lay in the warmth of the fire as naked as the desert they lounged in, completely unashamed and unconcerned.

Daniel lay pressed against Chase’s side and traced a claw lazily through patterns in the doberman’s fur that only he could see. “I can’t believe that...” he whispered.

“Was it like you hoped?”

“Oh, puppy, it was so much better than I could have imagined. I couldn’t ask for a better first time.”

Chase stared out at the stars. “I never even would have imagined... Goddess, I came so close to missing out on all of this. So many times I wasn’t sure I wanted it. But for whatever strange reason, you decided I was worth the effort.”

“You’re worth all of it, and more.” Daniel leaned his head up and kissed his boyfriend lightly on the cheek. “I love you, Chase.”

Chase’s mind burst in the same way it had the first time Daniel had kissed him, so close to this same spot in the desert, but instead of the confusion he felt then there was nothing filling his heart now but joy and contentment. TV and movies had told him that it was supposed to be a big conflict for a male to admit that he was in love, but after everything he’d—they’d—been through, Chase couldn’t find any doubt in himself. There was no hesitation at all.

“I love you, too, Daniel.”

There were no more words to say, the two simply cuddled together until the fire died out.

One Year Later

Chase wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of a paw, taking a short break from the heat of the flat iron cooktop and glanced over at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall: just past four in the afternoon. The typical Saturday rush at The Nugget would start up soon, he knew, not only because a couple of the mines nearby would be letting off a shift change, but the school’s soccer game would be ending soon and the team always liked to celebrate after games at the diner—mostly because Chase and his mom gave them a discount as repeat customers.

The doberman looked forward to it; he knew his boyfriend would soon be sitting on the dingy desk chair off the side of the kitchen so he could regale Chase with the story of the day’s victories or defeats. The team had lost a strong senior class the previous year even without Chase on the roster and the New Branch soccer program hadn’t had the steam to make the playoffs this year, but today’s game was still important because they could play spoiler to Frezia’s hopes.

Sometimes it still surfaced in the dog’s mind; how he could be somewhere else in the country right now playing the game he still loved, like Nate was. He missed his best friend, but they kept in touch via emails enough to know that Nate was loving his new school and new team, even if it was much colder up north in Alina than he was used to. Overall, though, Chase couldn’t find it in himself to regret taking a year off. He was able to stay close to Daniel and the Gibsons, as well as his mom. He said his job at the diner was to save up funds for potentially going to college the following year, but in his heart he just wasn’t ready to leave yet. New Branch felt more like home than it ever had before, and Chase saw no reason to fight it right now. The Gibson-Ramos family dynamic had gotten even closer over time, so at least when Chase did feel it was time to leave, he knew his mother would be in good paws with furs who cared about her.

The bell over the front door chimed as Chase took a much-needed drink. He heard his mother call out “Be right with you in a moment!” as he gathered his motivation to get back to scraping the cooktop to prep for the evening, until he was interrupted. Julie’s head popped into the service window.

“Hey, Chase, you’ve got a visitor!”

“Oh, cool. We got any open tickets?”

“No, hon, you’re good. Take a break. I’m about to go off shift.” She gave him a meaningful look. “You’re not working late tonight, are you? It’s Saturday.”

“I know, mom, I wouldn’t miss dinner. I’m just picking up another hour or two. I’ll be home with Daniel.”

Chase hung up his apron on a worn peg by the door, walked out the doorway to front-of-house, and gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to see a familiar, vulpine face.

“Holy shit, Dane? What are you doing back here?”

The grey fox grinned sheepishly, but earnestly. “Hey, Chase. Been a minute.”

“Yeah, it has been,” Chase said, leading Dane over to an empty booth so they could sit down and the fox could shed his jacket. “What have you been up to? You look good! I mean, uh—”

“Thanks,” Dane replied, paying absolutely no mind to any possible connotations of Chase’s compliment. He leaned back casually and comfortably against the worn vinyl. “I wish I could take credit for that, but Coach is fanatical about conditioning and weight room work. Pushes us like a motherfucker, but I can’t argue with the results. I’m actually playing at Pomona State, of all places. Starting, too.”

“That’s freakin’ awesome,” Chase admitted. “So, like, why the hell did you come back to the middle of nowhere?”

“What, a fox can’t just want to see some old friends over winter break?”

Chase raised an incredulous eyebrow and stared at him. “Of all furs, I’m the least likely to believe that you have that much nostalgia for high school.”

The fox shrugged and chuckled. “Yeah, okay, you got me, that’s some bullshit. To be honest, I wanted to make time to see a couple furs in particular, including you. I had a few things I wanted to say face to face, and Daniel told me I could find you here.”

Chase felt his tail twitch at the mention of Daniel’s name but quickly calmed himself. “You went to see him?”

“Yeah, I watched the game. I won’t spoil it, but I caught Daniel afterwards.” Dane swept a paw through his headfur, which had grown out considerably since leaving home. “I’ve been... well, I’ve been telling my coach about this cougar kid I played with back in high school who made me look like a one-legged toddler on the field. I guess he was intrigued by my story. Or maybe he just didn’t believe me and had to see for himself, I dunno.” Chase felt his jaw hang open as he listened. “He sent a scout out to take a look at Daniel a couple weeks ago, and apparently he really liked what he saw. He wants to get Daniel on the team at PSR next year.”

“Holy shit...” Chase breathed, the thoughts inside his head scrambling around like rubber balls in a dryer. Daniel can get a scholarship! Oh my goddess he can play in college. Isn’t that back home for him? It’s so far away—how much does that school COST? Can I get a job or something? I—

“Yeah, it’s hard for me to believe, too.” Dane said simply, oblivious to the inner monologue he cut off. “Look, I know that we’re okay with each other after last year’s... incident, but I still feel guilty. Like, all the damn time. I know I can never repay what I did to both of you.”

“Oh, come on—”

“I’m serious! It stuck with me; I see Daniel hitting his head in my nightmares sometimes, but I’m trying my hardest to keep moving in a positive direction. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the anxiety, but I never forget that I wouldn’t have even had a chance at making a change if it hadn’t been for you, dude. The number of furs who would have put their own necks on the line for somebody like me, well... It’s not a big number.”

Chase reached out and gave Dane’s paw a squeeze, which the fox simply smiled thankfully at. How strange it was to think that just a year prior merely touching him like that would have been evidence of his “sickness” or whatever, but life has a way of changing a fur. “Dane, you’ve obviously already grown so much,” Chase said earnestly. “You’re putting in the work, and it’s paying off.”

“Heh... I don’t know about all that, I’m just glad I was able to do something nice for both of you.”

Chase’s ears perked. “Both of us?”

“Yeah, while we were talking Daniel mentioned some stuff about a possible future you were considering, and, well...” Dane slid a couple folded pieces of printer paper across the table, creased from being in his back pocket. Chase opened them to see a printout of an admissions brochure for Pomona State Redvale. “It turns out that our school does have a nationally-recognized psychology and social work program, so... you know. If you really were interested I’m almost certain you could get some scholarship money for your grades.”

“Dane...” Chase said quietly, eyes growing damp. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Then just go apply, you dumb mutt,” the fox said jokingly. “Follow your boy west.”

Chase folded and pocketed the paper almost reverently, oblivious to the radiant blush growing on Dane’s muzzle.

“And... um, there’s one more thing I wanted to say...” Dane hesitated, “remember last year? Stupid question, of course you do. After I lost it, after I snapped; I said that I felt threatened by Daniel and I couldn’t tell why.” Chase nodded, frowning slightly. “Yeah, well... I think I have some idea why, now.”

The doberman’s head cocked to the side curiously.

“I knew if I really wanted to change, I needed to get out there, meet new furs, you know? Hopefully maybe find some good influences. Maybe even score a few dates, who knows? So I started with some study groups.” Chase wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but the redness in Dane’s cheeks and the fact that he was suddenly looking anywhere except at him was a telling clue. “It worked great, I met a bunch of friends, and I did get a date...” his voice trailed off. “It was just... with a guy...”

Chase’s jaw dropped open. “You’re fucking kidding me...”

Dane hid his face in his paws. “He’s a colt in my chemistry study group. His name’s Kai, and he’s so damn cool, and really nice, and we went to a few events before he asked me out, and... I couldn’t think of a reason to say ‘no’. I... I might have a little crush on him at this point, or at least I really want to keep seeing him.”

The doberman burst out laughing, drawing a few glares from the stray patrons and a confused look from his mom.

“I deserve that,” Dane muttered to himself.

“I’m sorry,” Chase said, still chuckling as he collected himself. “Obviously I get it. This is still a small, pretty backwater town, and it doesn’t exactly encourage you to explore your innermost desires.” He offered the fox a warm smile and reached a fist across the table. “Here’s to knowing yourself.”

The fox gave his fist a bump, but froze just slightly as he did. “I don’t even think I do know myself yet, everything I learn just feels like it’s leaving me with more questions about myself. I’ve been considering if I need to come out to the team now, and what that would even be like. It’s... it’s a lot. I guess I sort of understand a part of what you went through.”

“Well hopefully you’ve got a team around you that’s as awesome as I had.”

Dane smiled and glanced out the window as a small train of cars began to pull into the parking lot. “Speaking of which, looks like the team’s here.”

“Yeah,” Chase replied, stretching his back and standing up. “Back to work, I guess.”

“I think I might stay, grab a bite with the guys.”

“You should. I make a mean hash.”

“It was really good to talk, Chase. I hope I’ll see you next fall?”

Chase gave a warm nod and stepped back behind the counter as a rowdy band of teens flooded in the front door, hooting and cheering, all rallying with their arms around a muscular cougar who instantly found Chase’s eyes, his muzzle stretched wide with the largest, warmest smile. Chase held up the papers Dane had given him in greeting, and they shared a look that communicated everything: they had a potential future open to them. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t certain, or if there would be roadblocks to overcome along the way, or how far from home it might take them. The two boys knew that the path to their future lay towards the west coast, and they’d chase the sun together as far as they could.