Pizza for Three (Patreon)

"Stay still!" Charlie raised his voice slightly at Alex as he pulled the hairband out of the tiger's hair. She was sitting on the floor with her back against the mouse, and her eyes were glued to the TV, watching HBO's adaptation of the critically acclaimed PlayStation game, The Last of Us. She had invited Charlie and Tashi to come over and watch it with her, but Charlie wasn't as interested in it as she was. When he saw how much of a mess her hair was, the hairdresser couldn't help himself and had to fix it for her as she watched the show.

But the show was an emotional rollercoaster, and Alex went through groaning, giggling, and crying as she watched episode after episode. "My God, why did they have to make the show so much sadder than the game?" the tiger sniffled and rubbed the small pools of tears that had built up in her eyes as she squeezed the horse plushie in her arms. She paused the TV to stop it from playing the next episode as she continued to sniffle and sit there, feeling a little bit sad. She was so excited to start watching the show that she didn't even dry her hair properly. Her mouse friend ran a hairbrush through her slightly damp hair and was becoming increasingly disappointed in her the more he brushed through her hair. But he kept to himself and let her do her sniffling thing over something sad and depressing in the show while he did his best to brush out the knots in her hair that were a direct result of her not drying her hair fully before tying it up into a ponytail.

"So, it's a show based on a video game?" Charlie asked. "I don't play too many video games." The mouse chuckled as he brushed out the last bits of tangled locks in his tiger friend's hair. He then set the brush aside and grabbed the small spray bottle of hair oil that he had brought with him to use on his own hair. He sprayed a couple of squirts into his hand and rubbed his hands together to get the hair oil all over his little mousey fingers before he roughly combed his fingers through her hair to spread the hair product evenly throughout her locks.

Alex's sniffling stopped very suddenly when she heard Charlie's question. There were very few things worse than watching a movie or a show with a friend who seemed completely uninterested in it. While Charlie didn't pull his phone out of the pocket of his cheese-colored onesie, he did pull out his hair products, which left the tigress perplexed as to where he had them stored and whether or not he always had them on him for hair-related emergencies. He most definitely did. "Yeah! The original game came out on the PS3 back in 2013, then a remastered version came out in 2014, and a remake in 2022." Alex took the mouse directly into a deep dive into the game's release lore. The mouse's interest in the show had the tiger excited. "And now it's on PC, it's a buggy mess, but it's there, so if you want to play it, you have so many options as to where you can play it. You can even play it on my PS5! Do you want to play it?" Alex had gone from sniffling at the massive dose of depression from the show to yapping away about her favorite video game of all time like a puppy happy its owner came back after a short ten-minute walk to the store. If she were able to wag her tail, she probably would be doing so.

Charlie continued to comb his fingers through the tigress’s hair as she excitedly asked him if he wanted to play the game. But he shook his head, “Noooo, not yet, maybe after we have pizza?” He smiled, pulled his fingers out from her hair, and turned to the couch behind him to grab the hair tie that he had removed from Alex’s hair earlier. He put the hair tie into his mouth and held it with his buck teeth as he brought all of the tigress’s locks together to prepare her hair for the perfect silky hair ponytail. “Shpeaking hof pihzza… Wahare is Tashi?”

Alex was left puzzled by the sounds that came out of the mouse’s mouth. “What?” She furrowed her brow and turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. Charlie removed the hair tie from his mouth once Alex’s hair was ready, and he tied it up into a perfect and neat ponytail, or at least he thought so. As he let go of the hairband around Alex’s hair with a soft elastic snap, he repeated himself. “Where is Tashi? He’s been gone for three episodes now; it shouldn’t take that long to get pizza. Plus, he missed the Bill and Frank episode, and that’s gotta be one of the highlights.” The mouse shrugged his shoulders.

The mention of the episode that they had just watched made Alex turn to look back at the TV in front of her and let out a sad sigh. “Yeah…” It took her a couple more seconds to realize what Charlie had said, and when she did, she turned around to look at him again. Her sudden head-turn caused the hair tie that the mouse was still very lightly holding onto to slip free from her hair and ruin the ponytail that the rodent had spent so much time on.

“SO YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, WHAT DID YOU THINK!!!!!” The tigress’s over-excitedness came over her again, and this time Charlie could have sworn he saw her tail wagging around behind her like a dog’s. Her sudden jittery and fast movements made sure her hair got all tangled up again. Charlie couldn’t help but let out another sigh as his work was ruined, but being the good friend that he was, he grabbed his brush, gathered the tigress’s hair, and started again.

“Of course, I was paying attention.” The mouse smiled. “You invited me over to watch a show, I’m not going to sit here and not watch. Why do you think it’s taking me so long to fix your hair? I’m a HAIRDRESSER, Alex. Do you think I'm normally this SLOW?”

“I don’t know! I just thought you were doing something super detailed with my hair and not watching at all. I’m SORRY.” The tigress felt the mouse brush through her hair and its tangles extra hard; so hard that it pulled her head back slightly. “Ow!” Alex nudged the mouse in his stomach with her elbow and chuckled.

“I liked how they were able to tell a very touching and romantic story amidst all the horror of the mushroom apocalypse.” Charlie finally answered the tigress’s question. “It’s a very beautiful episode, less action, but the only thing I would critique is that there was a lot of homosexuality, and you know how much I HATE homosexuality.” He joked.

Alex rolled her eyes and shook her head at her mouse friend. “I keep telling you, you’re bisexual, not gay. So you could get canceled for saying stuff like that if you aren’t careful.”

“As if a hairdresser is a career path that can be canceled,” the mouse scoffed, and continued brushing the tiger’s hair. “Who else is going to keep you looking pretty?”

“You’d be surprised!” the tigress said with a smile as she reached for her phone to check in on Tashi. “But you're right, it doesn't take two hours to get pizza… Unless he's lost.” Just as she was about to open the phone app and call him, the familiar sound of the keycard access system on the door to Alex’s apartment beeped.

‘Beep! Click.’

“Tashi, is that you?” Alex asked in the direction of the hallway, which was mostly dark as Tashi had forgotten to turn on the light before he left for the pies. Tashi closed the door behind him and dusted off his hooves on the welcome mat before he announced his arrival. “Yes! Hello, hello, it is me, I am back with pizza.”

“What took you so long?” Alex and Charlie said simultaneously, to which they both said “Jinx!” and “Jinx again!” before laughing it off and turning their attention back to the Clydesdale as he clopped his way into the living room with the pizza box in his hand. Once he stepped out of the dark entryway and into the light of the living room where Alex and Charlie were sitting, it became clear why he had taken so long to grab pizzas.

Tashi stood in front of the couch with one hand holding the pizza box and the other at his hip. He already towered over both Charlie and Alex when they stood up, but since they were sitting down, he looked about twice as tall. They both craned their necks back slightly to get a full look at him and the getup he had gotten himself into: a zebra-print onesie. The horse stood there with his chin up and his eyes closed as he let his friends look at what he had on with a slightly proud grin spread across his face.

Both Alex and Charlie were left with their jaws hanging low as they stared at Tashi, and it was a long moment of silence before Alex said anything about it. “You found one!!!!” The tigress chirped excitedly.

The horse did a couple of poses in his new stripes before he knelt down and crawled his way over to the tigress and the mouse. "It's not a onesie party if not everyone is in a onesie! Plus, it wasn't too far of a drive, and it meant I could go get pizza from the better place that has those delicious mushrooms… Mmmmm…" The equine licked his lips when he mentioned the mushrooms, and that's when it became clear what his true motivations for driving further were.

Charlie, who had been staring at Tashi ever since he walked into the living room and revealed the outfit that he was in, furrowed his brows before he raised one of them. "Isn't a horse wearing zebra print a cancelable offense?" The mouse gestured his brush in Tashi's direction before he set it onto the couch and grabbed Alex's hair to gather it together in preparation for tying up into a ponytail again.

Alex looked over her shoulder back at Charlie with her own set of furrowed brows. "Wait, really?" She then turned to look at Tashi with a slightly concerned look spread on her face. Tashi, who was about to pop the pizza box open so that they could start eating, gave both Alex and Charlie a very confused look.

"Really?" the Clydesdale blinked.

Charlie shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, just something I saw online one time. Some horse got flack for dressing up as a zebra, and they said it was a form of appropriation." Alex rolled her eyes and shook her head, only for Charlie to grip the bundle of hair that he had in his hand nice and tight to prevent her from shaking too hard and messing up his handiwork again.

"Well, Tashi is only wearing it because he knows I have this thing for zebras… So, it's a sex thing. And you're not allowed to judge people's kinks, right? And it's just us in here. Who's gonna know?" Alex cooed and wrapped her arms snugly around her horse plushie again.

"TMI…" Charlie said as he shook his head. With Alex's hair nicely gathered together in his hands, he turned to the couch to reach for the hair tie. But before he could reach for it, his nose wiggled as he picked up a familiar scent that wafted to his nostrils from the pizza box.

"Yes, Alex, I don't think Charlie needs to know your sexual interest in zebras. But! Enough of that! I have pizza!!!! I think you are going to like this." The horse smiled as he flipped open the cardboard lid and unveiled the gooey, greasy, and thick-crusted pizza pie that was cut into eight even slices. Although the toppings were confusing at first glance, it quickly became apparent what the horse requested from the pizza parlor to make it special.

The pizza box opened in slow motion for the tiger and the mouse, and an almost golden glow shone on their faces as the pie came into their view. Their eyes widened, their pupils dilated, and the horse could almost see hearts in their eyes.

"I asked if they could make a pizza for three: a carnivorous tiger, a vegetarian horse, and a cheese-loving mouse. So, double pepperoni, mushrooms, and olives, double cheese, and peppers and leeks for us all to enjoy," Tashi smiled at his two friends and extended the pizza box toward them. Charlie quickly turned to the couch and grabbed the hair tie to tie up Alex's hair into a ponytail. Despite his speed, he tied it perfectly with no loose strands of hair. Once done, he reached over Alex to grab a slice of his favorite kind of pizza, making cute noises as he nibbled on it. Alex leaned forward to grab a slice of double pepperoni pizza and as she leaned back with her pizza in hand, she heard Charlie's excitement over the pizza being the fancy four-cheese type.

She looked at Tashi and before taking a bite, mouthed a "thank you" and nudged him softly on the knee with her padded foot. Tashi looked at Charlie enjoying the pizza and couldn't help but smile. The tip that Alex had texted to him about the cheese pizza paid off. It was definitely a good first impression made. When he saw Alex mouthing a thank you to him, he winked at her as he picked up a slice of his veggie pizza and put it into his mouth.

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Art by Nelly63

Tashi by TashiGibson