Feral High, Ch. 5 (Patreon)

The train rumbled along the tracks up above them on the hill.  The wooden planks bounced and rattled beneath the weight of the engine, the rusted metal tracks creaking every now and then.  Anon couldn't be sure when they had last been replaced.  They didn't look broken or as if they were rotting away, but there was something a bit unsettling about seeing those otherwise sturdy materials shifting every so often as the train chugged upon them.  Car after car sped past his vision, each trailer marked with various, brightly colored and stylized graffiti.  He would never be sure how the artists of those works made them look so professional.

He sat in an abandoned old shack, on a ratty, faded couch, inbetween Shazi and Zenza.  The two girls were, as always, cuddled in around him.  They wore their usual outfits, anything that showed off their lovely frames while also making them look rough and intimidating.  Their leather jackets were hung up on old hooks at the door.  It was cool out but, buried between their furry bodies, he could hardly say that he wasn't warm.  The haze of their E-Cigs hung upon the air, slowly drifting down the hill from them by the gentle breeze.

Their cabin overlooked a woodland lake, glittering in the bright, Autumn sun when it poked its head out from behind the heavy cloud coverage.  Trees lined the water's edge and stretched out into the horizon.  A tall mountain loomed in the distance.  It was a beautiful day.  He checked his phone.  4:34 P.M.  It was probably going to start getting dark soon, but he was having fun.  Of a sort.  He was never sure what to do or how to act when he was with the girls.  They always insisted on him joining them for their frequent sojourns out, even if they did nothing but walk out to places like this to talk, smoke, and of course, flirt with him endlessly.

Shazi was an aggressive type, winding herself against him constantly.  Her purr was rather melodic, he had to admit, and she frequently would rub her cheek against his arm or leg.  She often took the chance to lay her head right in his lap, flicking him with her tail.  She even had him pet her every once in a while, and he had to admit it felt really nice to stroke her svelt, spotted fur.  While she was, admittedly, the least curvy of the three of them, she often liked to show off how flexible she could be, as well as her natural athleticism.  She would run, jump, flip, cartwheel, and even hang from anything that could bear her weight, at any other time sitting in various positions that had her legs in the splits.  She and Zenza partook in yoga, and Anon had had the embarrassingly pleasant view of watching them do so a few times.  They seemed to enjoy making him flush, but they didn't seem to do it maliciously.

Zenza was a casual flirt, well aware of her feminine grace and charms.  She liked to drape herself over him nearly all the time, stroking his arms, shoulders, or neck with a paw and had at multiple times been caught wagging her tail when he hugged her back or sat with her while they watched movies on a laptop they brought with them.  While Shazi's sense of humor was often crude, Zenza's was more elegant and gentle.  She could often be caught humming or singing along to whatever they were watching or listening to, her angelic voice sometimes putting Anon right to sleep.  He would then usually find himself, head in her lap, being awoken by the girls' giggling even as the Canine girl stroked his hair and teased his ear tip with her short, blunt claws.

His eyes panned over slowly towards the only absent member of the constant cuddle-pile then.  Kenzi squatted outside the cabin, overlooking the hill that led down to the lake.  She was smoking on her e-cig, like the others were, but she seemed gloomier and more snappy than usual.  She rarely spoke as much or at all when the others were around, but the conversations they shared in private lent him the view of a deep, conflicted mind that often had too much on it.  Frustrations, waves of anger, annoyances, and above all, sadness; all weighed heavily upon the broad Hyenid shoulders.  She brushed them off whenever he tried to ask about it, growling and usually then shoving him under one of her arms.  Right now, she looked trapped, once again, in some dark, lonely world, even with her best friends so nearby.  The breeze ruffled her wild mohawk as he watched her puff away on her cigarette, the smoke pluming from her broad muzzle.

He patted the Leopard and Wild Dog's arms, signaling he wanted to get up.  They obliged, peeling themselves away from him and going back to chatting without missing a beat.  He rubbed his arms, sweaty due to their furry bodies being tightly pressed against him for so long, and then exited the old shack.  He walked slowly and carefully down, taking a seat on a log right next to Kenzi.  She didn't react from what he could see, although her short, stumpy tail did thump once against the ground.  From here, he could tell she had her headphones in, the garbled tones of some heavy metal song blazing audibly.

He sat there, quietly, waiting for her to be ready to talk if she needed to.  He didn't need to force or convince her to.  Kenzi may have seemed an antisocial, aggressive trouble-maker, but he knew that deep inside she just felt scared and alone, for reasons far beyond her control.  He knew what that felt like, gone through it himself as well.  Only, when it had happened to him, he had regressed deep within his shell and become afraid of everyone and everything.  The girls, Misfits they were called, had brought him slowly out of it.  He still wasn't the most talkative teenage boy, but he wasn't as afraid as he used to be.

Finally, Kenzi grunted and popped her headphone out of the ear closest to him.  "What?" she snapped.

He shrugged.  "You looked lonely," was all he said.  "And I wanted to sit with you."

She grumbled something under her breath, appearing annoyed, but, just like Zenza, her tail gave her away.  It thumped against the ground once again.  "Maybe I came out here to be alone," she shot back at him.

He smiled.  "You insist on dragging me out here on the back of your motorcycle, convince the other girls to come with, and you wanted to be alone?" he teased without trying to make it seem like he was mocking her.  She glared at him out of the corner of one of her eyes, a look that only a short while ago would have scared him stiff.  "Well...can I be alone with you?" he asked.

She looked away from him.  She did not answer for a while before, suddenly, she rose to her full height, tucking away her e-cig, and shoved her paws into her jacket pockets.  She started stalking away from him, down the hill, toward the lake.  He watched her go, feeling sad and as if he had pushed her too far, only for her to pause a dozen paces away and look back at him over her studded shoulder.  "Well?" she snapped.  "Are you coming or what?  I'm gonna walk around the lake.  Keep up."  She resumed walking.

Anon grinned and darted back to let the others know where he was going.  Shazi chuckled hoarsely.  "Playa gonna play!" she cackled.

Zenza meanwhile just beamed at him, tail wagging happily.  "Okay, Anon," she cooed.  "Have fun, okay?  We may head back on our bikes in that case.  Are we still on to meet up this weekend?"

"Sure," agreed Anon.  He and Zenza were due to have a study session at her house since he was starting to fall behind in History class.  He waved as they packed up their stuff, and then he hurried after the receding form of Kenzi.  He caught up, panting heavily, a good way down the hill.  Her legs were so long that he had to run flat out just to catch up with her and remained slowly jogging to match her pace.  "It sure is beautiful out here," he commented.

She grunted.  "I liked you better when you were a shut-in little neet," she growled.  "Talkative people piss me off."  Her ears twitched, both headphones having been taken out now.  He knew that she didn't mean that.  He walked along with her.  He decided to stay quiet for a bit, knowing she was just in a bad mood.  He wouldn't pretend to understand why, only wanting to be there for her.  Sure enough, a minute or so later, she just huffed.  "I mean...you can talk if you want to."  She kept her eyes straight ahead.

"Is...there something you'd want to talk about?" he probed hopefully.

Kenzi growled.  It made her chest rumble, her hackles and hair standing up straighter, and her jaws noticeably clenched.  "Yeah.  When are you going to stop beating around the bush?" she demanded.

He looked up at her, confused.  "I'm sorry?" he asked.

"Just drop it," she snapped.  "You play things off like you're some submissive little shy ball of awkward and cuteness, but you totally are a player.  I hate players."

Anon's stomach sank.  "I'm..." he started to say, wanting to state that he was nothing even close to a player.  He knew she would just double down on that opinion if he fought back though.  Instead, he took a deep breath.  "I'm really sorry you think of me that way.  I wish I could tell you I'm not."

She scoffed.  Her thick, musky scent seemed stronger now, more so than usual.  "You have everyone at school constantly asking about you, wanting to know what it'd be like to get a taste or a feel of you.  I bet you just lap it up, getting pawed and sniffed at all day."

His cheeks flushing, Anon actually smiled, chuckling softly.  He felt her furious glare fall upon him and he wiped his face flat.  "I...really don't," he stated firmly but kindly.  "Honestly, Anthros are so physical that it's still really intimidating.  The only ones I don't mind doing it are you three."

She went quiet for a moment or two more, then went right back to growling.  "Sure, right," she huffed.  "Like I believe that.  You and the girls do get pretty cuddly..." she looked down, bright eyes staring at the leaf-strewn sloped earth of the hill as they kept walking.  they were rounding a bend in the trees, coming into sight of another run-down building.  It was an old shed of some sort, long left to rot.  The windows were covered in brush and dirt, the door busted open and hanging off one hinge.  Kenzi stopped before the shed.  "I used to come here a lot," she said softly then.  She pulled out her e-cig, as if on instinct, then tucked it back away.  She took a seat on a stump, looking out over the water.

He sat nearby to her on a fallen log, crossing his hands over his knees and trying not to make her any angrier.  He wished he knew what he'd done wrong to make her so mad.  "Is...it not okay?" he asked carefully a minute or so later.  She was cleaning her claws with a knife.  She glanced at him once.  "Does...me sitting with Shazi and Zenza upset you?"

"Why should I care?" she demanded.  "Shazi is all flirty and clingy, always rubbing up on you.  She could probably make all your dreams come true, all those repressed fantasies about bending a girl into any position you'd imagine.  She's a total sub.  She may act all aggressive, but I know her.  She likes to get in your head and make you go wild.  Plus she's shorter than you.  Humans like girls who are shorter."

"Some do," he agreed.  "I've never had a type, honestly.  Mainly since I was never anyone else's type.  I mainly just got the feeling that Shazi likes ramping me up before she cuddles up more and lets me pet her hair."

She snarled.  "Yeah well, Zenza is hot.  She's all feminine and graceful, she can sing, she can act, she's got the knockout curves, she comes from money, and she knows how to make you happy.  I've seen her old boyfriends, you're nothing like them, and that's probably why she's so wild about you.  She's always talking about how good a cuddler you are, and how soft your hands are when you pet her..."  She scowled and kicked a rock away from her with a big foot paw.

Starting to get an idea of what might be bothering her at last, Anon just settled back on his seat and looked intentionally away from Kenzi.  His cheeks felt flushed and he couldn't keep a small smile off his face.  "Yeah, she's really sweet," he admitted.  "She always talks about how much you were there for her when her ex pulled his stunt."  He shyly played with his fingers.  "You're...pretty awesome too," he ventured to say hesitantly.

"Fuck you," she snapped.  His eyes whipped back over to her to see her literally growling at him.  Her hackles were up, lips quivering, and her teeth beginning to show.  She smelled stronger now.  "I'm a brute.  I'm crude, I'm loud, I'm angry all the fucking time.  I'm not girly, I'm not demure or sweet, I don't give a crap about dressing nice, and I could care less what someone else thinks about me."

Anon swallowed as Kenzi continued to glare at him.  He hadn't ever seen her like this.  He waited until she had torn her eyes away from him.  "I...still like hanging out with you," he said softly.  He edged closer on the log towards her stump.  She snorted but didn't interrupt him.  "Yes, you're really rough.  You always talk like you're either going to hurt me or pick me up and carry me off.  You send me weird stuff all the time, although your music is pretty cool.  I really like it when you send me those heavy metal songs with the lyrics attached."  He smiled hopefully at her, but she just scoffed again, ears flat against her head and moodily flicking her knife around and around her knuckles.  "Still," he continued cautiously, still scooting closer.  "I'm...happy around you."

"Well that's your own fucking fault," she growled.  "Lack of good judgment.  You should be running screaming."

"I know you'd just track me down," he teased.  "That almost makes it...kind of fun.  No one's ever talked to me or treated me like you do.  I was always an outcast, a weirdo, a do-nothing failure who wasn't ever going to amount to anything special in his entire life.  Sometimes, I did want to run when you said you were coming to get me, just to see if you really would chase me.  No one's ever chased me before."

She didn't say anything.  She kept playing with the knife.

Swallowing, trying to muster up his courage, he stood up from his seat and edged closer to her.  The stump she sat on was huge, more than big enough for the two of them.  At this range, he could definitely smell her Aggression ramping up.  Her hair kept standing up straight, her shoulders shaking somewhat, and her lips quivering.  Her long fangs kept flashing every now and then.  He sat down, very slowly, beside her on the tree stump.  She didn't seem like she was about to move, only for at the last second to scoot the barest inch to the side and let him have room to sit beside her.  Their hips pressed against one another.  Her tail thumped again.

"Kenzi..." he said, very softly.  "I...think I..."  He looked up toward her, reaching hesitantly out with a hand towards her paw.

She stiffened, obviously startled, and the knife snagged on something.  It fell to the ground.  Anon jumped in surprise and concern to see her paw was bleeding.  She clenched it tight, growling.

"Oh god, are you okay?" he asked, reaching for her injured paw.  There was a small trickle of red now dripping from her.  "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..."

She surged to her feet, towering over him.  Her eyes were bloodshot, her entire frame heaving in and out.  Her teeth gleamed brightly and her whole, muscular body was as tight as a wire.  "What the hell do you want from me?" she demanded.  Her paws were clenched, blood dripping more steadily from the one.  "You're just going to end up afraid of me, like everyone else does!"  She was shouting now, voice echoing around the trees.  "I'm going to do something and you'll end up scared of me.  I can't..." she closed her eyes tight.  Her paws lifted, shuddering.  More blood stained her fur.  "I can't control...it."

"Control what?" he asked, voice soft, quiet, worried like hell for her.

"My Aggression!" she roared.  She turned, picked up a large cinderblock that was leaning beside the shed, and hurled it off into the lake.  It flew twenty feet and landed with a colossal splash.  She stood there, snarling, chest heaving.  Foam flecked her lips from what he could see.  "I'm so angry, all of the time," she said suddenly.  Her voice was harsh, sad, and emotional, unlike any other time he had ever heard it before.  "I feel like I'm a second away from snapping my teeth at someone.  I hate the meds I'm on, all the doctor's visits, all the lectures from my mom.  I hate school, I hate this town, I hate everything and everyone and I have no reason to.  I'm just so fucking tired of being mad and hating stuff!  And everyone hates me too!"  She picked up another stone, chucking it as well.

He stayed sitting down as she turned, picked up a branch, as thick around as Anon's arm, and swung it at the shed like a bat.  A window shattered and she tossed the stick away.  She panted there, holding her injured paw up to her chest.  More foam flecked her lips and her eyes were distant.  Sensing she was maybe starting to calm down, he stood very slowly and reached for her shoulder.  He knew this probably wasn't a good idea, but he had to try.

"What about the girls?" he asked.  "Shazi, and Zenza?"

"They're scared of me," she snarled.  "They should be.  They're the only people who try and hang around with me, but they suffer because of it.  No one treats them right, because Kenzi the Psycho is their best friend.  They'll just leave me too someday."

"No they wouldn't," Anon argued.  "They love you!"

"No, they don't, they just say they do.  They may hug on me and bring me stuff, but I'm just a filthy fucking user and I don't do a single thing for them that they deserve."

Anon was quiet, wishing he could do something to help.  He spoke up then, voice soft.  "I don't hate you," he nearly whispered.

She stiffened.  Her head sunk low against her chest and she crossed her arms as if suddenly cold.  "You should," she muttered.

"I don't."

"Then you're a fucking moron," she snapped, looking back down over her shoulder.  "Why in the world haven't you just blocked me yet on your phone, run screaming when you see me in the hall?  Why can't you just take the hint and stay away?"

Anon took a deep breath, then walked around in front of her.  He looked up into her feral, tearful eyes, and reached up to touch her wounded paw.  She tried to jerk it away from him but he somehow pulled it down.  He inspected the cut along one of her long, furry fingers.  "Because I like you, Kenzi," he said softly.

Her ears went straight up above her head, as tall as her mohawk.  Her fur bristled and her jaws and shoulders abruptly sagged, lips falling back over her teeth.  Her expression was shocked.  "W-why?" she demanded, voice ragged and weak.

"Because you're nothing like any other girl I've ever met," he said seriously.  "You're rough, and crude, and crass.  You're violent, outspoken, argumentative, confrontational, angry, lonely, afraid, and desperate to have just one person understand what you're going through.  I may not be able to do that, but I want to, if you'll let me."  He stroked her furry paw, careful not to touch her cut.  "How in the world could I hate someone like you?  You're..." he blushed then, smiling.  "Perfect."

Her lip quivered and she bit down hard on it.  "You're...just..."

"I'm not just saying it, Kenzi," he overrode her.  "You're an amazing girl, and you're so scared that no one would ever say it to you so you decided to run away from the whole world before someone could hurt you.  You push people away because you don't believe you deserve to have friends.  Well, you do.  You have two wonderful girls who adore you, and you have me.  If you want me."

She looked away from him.  She eyed the broken window.  "I'm...just a trouble maker," she growled.  "A depressed arsonist, a firestarter."

"And yet, here I am, out on a date with her," shot back Anon.  She looked back down at him.  He tried to go for a cocky smile but it wilted from his sheer awkwardness.  "If...if you wanted to call it a date, anyway."

Her paws lifted very slowly and cupped his cheeks.  Her touch was nothing short of gentle, barely even brushing his skin with her paw pads and furry fingers.  She traced his features, playing with the ends of his short hair where it hung down over his face.  She noticed then that she had stained his cheek with some of her blood and she winced.  "Damn it," she growled and started wiping at it with another finger.  Presumably, this just spread it worse.  "Oh come on," she snapped, rubbing more insistently.  He reached up and stopped her.  Her eyes met his again.  "You don't want me," she stated.

"I think I very much do," he countered.  "You may be a total dom, but I don't think you'd deny me having my own feelings, especially for you.  I may not be enough, but I'll do everything I can to make you feel...not so lonely."

She stiffened again.  Her head bowed and her forehead carefully, tentatively, brushed down against his.  He melted, arms slowly lifting and wrapping around her belly as far as he could reach.  Her own bulky limbs draped down over his slender shoulders, pulling him against her cautiously, as if afraid of breaking him.  The powerful gesture did have the unforeseen side effect of shoving his face right into her buxom chest.  His world became swallowed up by furry plushness, surrounded by creaking leather and powerful crushing weight.  He snuggled in, even as his cheeks burned. Her musk had changed subtle tones, no longer angry smelling but more warm, rich, and reminding him of something slightly woody.

They separated a second or two later and Kenzi actually smiled a bit, showing teeth.  "I...guess the one thing I do have going for me is my girls," she commented.  She actually arched her back a bit and bounced on the heels of her paws, doing wonderfully gravitational things to her portable mountains.  Anon's face went bright red and he averted his gaze.  She heard her chuckle, low and raspy.  "That's damn adorable how you want to play all innocent now," she teased, finally sounding like she was back to her old self.  She chucked his chin with a finger, making him look back up at her.  "So what now?" she asked.  "We going out?"

He smiled hopefully.  "I'd...really like that," he admitted.  "What is dating like for Anthros?"

She shrugged.  "Don't know.  I don't date.  I mainly just used to hook up with anyone I wanted to that was willing.  Never had any complaints.  How about you?"

He winced.  "I've only been on one date other than this one, and it turned out to be a joke.  Her boyfriend beat me up."

Kenzi audibly snarled.  "Well, you're mine now," she stated.  "Anthro dating is mostly just a lot of..." she wiggled her studded eyebrows down at him, making him go bright red.  "You wanna catch up for lost time?  We are all alone after all.  The shed may be a bit dusty but I can make it work."

Anon's face went, if possible, even redder.  "Ummm...!" he stammered out.  "N-no I'm g-good!  I'd r-r-rather get your finger looked at."

Kenzi shrugged, huffing.  "Fine.  Let's go back to your place.  I'll get it treated there, and then we can spend the evening watching movies or other couple junk.  You ain't going to deny me forever though.  I'm just like any other Anthro out there."  Here, her eyes twinkled and she leaned down toward him, hot breath in his face.  "I want me a taste of the strange..."  She licked her lips and then suddenly leaned further down and pecked him on his.  His back went stiff and she leaned back, looking contemplative.  "Huh!" she grunted.  "That was...not half bad!" she growled, looking eagerly down at him.  "Okay!  Let's go."

She turned and latched a paw onto his shirt.  He worried she was about to drag him into the shed like she had offered before, but instead, as his feet mostly left the ground, she just started back up the hill towards the abandoned cabin where she had left her bike parked.  He tried to ask her to put him down, and ended up slung over her shoulder.

"Me want boyfriend," she grunted up at him, lowering her voice adorably into a crude version of itself.  "Take him home.  He not complain, or Kenzi bonk with club!"  She gave a snarl up at him playfully.  He just settled in atop her powerful shoulder, her being careful not to lay him atop the spikes studded into the black leather.

She plopped him down on the motorcycle seat, snapped on their helmets for both of them, and then the two of them rumbled off down the old road back towards the District proper.  They arrived at his dorm-house, parked her bike, and then she proceeded to carry him inside as she had before, letting him unlock the door hurriedly from atop her shoulder before she kicked it gently open and strode inside.  She brushed it closed with her tail.

Their evening was spent on his couch, watching old movies and quoting lines from them.  He didn't leave her lap once the entire time, her arms a vice around him and her head resting atop of his.  He snuggled in happily, heart soaring as he listened to her crude, growling chuckles at the antics of Cary Elwes as Robin Hood.  This was better than he could ever have hoped for.  Her smile was worth all of it.