Right to a Bear's Arms, Ch. 6 (Patreon)

"And then what happened?" demanded Ophelia, leaning forwards across Kelin's knees as he did situps. He grunted with the strain, the workout matt was plush underneath of him and he used its bounce to propel him upwards with every curl, but his abdominals were killing him, and he could feel a sheen of sweat on his lower back, staining his skintight workout shirt and probably the matt as well. He didn't sweat much in the usual ways that guys did, but that didn't mean he wasn't doing as much work as possible to keep up his trim, athletic shape.

"Then," he puffed. "We went back to town." Down, and up. "Got sushi." Down, up. "Didn't talk much more."

"And hold..." the otter said, making him maintain his lifted core while still being halfway elevated. His abs screamed at him but he endured it. Ophelia was a surprisingly intensive physical trainer, and probably why so many people here respected her. She had a way of sticking to exactly your strengths but making you regret ever being born.

"Am i...being...punished...for something?!" he asked, voice straining and face slowly turning red. His teeth were clenched and his hands tightened in their hold behind his head.

"If you're talking, you're not breathing," she said in a singsong voice. "You have to keep breathing if you want to live."

"Not sure...I want to...anymore!" he panted and his core trembled with the strain. He had never known situps could make him want to die before but Ophelia had helped him discover many things.

She smirked down at him. "If you die, you don't get to go out with Hera again. You wouldn't risk breaking that poor girl's heart just after you got done getting her to open up would you?" She giggled coyly and nodded. "Ok, down."

"I was wrong!" he exclaimed as he made himself lower his body back down naturally rather than just letting go. "You're not an angel, you're a demon. I hate you, so much. You don't play fair..." He took several long breaths to recover.

"Aww, sounds like there's a little bitch in there, and I need to work harder to get him out." Her voice was ridiculously sweet and high-pitched and she beamed down at him as she said it.

He snorted and blinked up at her. He thought he had known Ophelia pretty well before, she had never seemed the type to swear but the looks he had gotten when he had asked her for a little spotting while Hera was out on her medical check up for the day... Maybe there had been real reasoning behind how Hugo and Rey had winced. "Hey now, I thought you liked me," he joked up at her, grinning and feeling a little energy coming back just from that exchange.

She gave him the prettiest of smiles. "Oh trust me, Kelin, you'd know if I didn't like you. Like if I ever heard you hurt that girl, after everything. You'd regret the day you were born. Call it...a mother's natural protective instincts."

He felt actual fear and noticed that even as a joke, Ophelia had turned on her Aggression just the tiniest bit. "Trust me Ophelia, after everything I imagine she's gone through, I'd never want to hurt her ever. Also I think, with respect, she's a bit old for you to be mothering."

"Well how old do you think I am that I couldn't be motherly for her?" she asked coyly and leaned across his knees more. "I don't see you doing your reps..."

"I don't...know!" he said, resuming the curls, and dreading the incoming Hold she was no doubt to inflict upon him again for daring to sass her. It was almost exhilarating really, like his muscles were tense and spring-loaded, in preparation to fight their hardest at the whims and mercy of this short, adorable Otter. "Like...25?"

She laughed then and she glanced at her watch. "Sure, maybe 10 years ago if I still lied about it. My pups are already almost in high school. You're sweet though." She patted his knee and leaned back up. She was surprisingly solid and he didn't move at all as he kept curling up and down. "I suppose flattery does get you somewhere in the world. You can take a rest." She slid off his feet and sat cross legged beside him. "So what else did you both talk about, if you don't mind an old woman asking?"

He laid flat on his back and panted, then rolled onto his side. The gym wasn't very full today. "Ophelia, 35 isn't old. You're still in your prime, especially with your job. Your husband is a very lucky man and he probably knows it."

"Why, Mister Kelin, are you flirting with your trainer?" she asked, putting on a mock shocked voice.

He snorted and grinned. "No offense Ophelia, but I've never been as happy as I was after that hike. I'm just saying." He slowly lifted up and sat alongside her, reaching over and taking a drink from his water bottle nearby.

"I notice you deflected me quite handily with that last bit of flattery," she said wryly. "I suppose I shouldn't pry."

"No, it's ok," he said chuckling. "Mostly it was just small talk, like what her favorite kind of food was, teasing back and forth. She's amazing... Whatever happened, I'm still curious as to how she was before it. Although, something does tell me she was always this laid back. I still have no idea what to do for the next date..."

Ophelia nodded. "I get it, you don't want to say there's pressure, but there is, especially since she out and said she has...plans. Do you...not want that?"

He flushed and gave her a look that made her giggle again. "I'm a guy, of course I do. But that doesn't change how my mind tries to make the logistics work, and I feel almost bad thinking about it anyways. One second she's this shut-in woman who doesn't like to express her own feelings and has tons of trauma and guilt. And then the next second, I've apparently flipped some switch and she wants to 'eat me like porridge from fairy tale'. I even thought about Googling...that but I was terrified of what the search engine would pull up. Do...Anthros really interbreed much between species? I mean like how does that work?"

Ophelia waved her tail and thought about it, both of them listening to the techno music playing softly in the background. Nearby, a group of gazelle girls who looked to be in their teens were chatting and jogging on a treadmill. "There used to be a stigma about that sort of thing, and then we figured out it doesn't cause any bad side effects.. Kids turn out looking more like one parent or the other anyways. Maybe a Tiger gets with a Dog, and the kids turn out as puppies with stripes. With a Human though...I've no idea. And it's not like you two are trying to have babies."

Kelin was beginning to already feel very uncomfortable with the subject material they were discussing. "Still..."

She nodded again. "Still, you want things to go smoothly, and I'm not really the kind of person you go to for the sex talk. I'm a gossiper by nature and I love to hear about it afterwards, hell all Anthros have a little bit more easy look at mating since it's all so natural for us, but I get what you're talking about. Plus, it's not like you two are just meeting up and heading straight to her place. You want a date that she's comfortable with, where you both have fun, and things evolve naturally."

He beamed, feeling relieved. "Exactly!"

"Does she like music? Why not take her somewhere with that? All your other 'dates' have been to places she likes, so why not show her that side of yourself? You get so passionate about music that I cannot imagine she wouldn't enjoy seeing that."

"Like...a club? I'm not that big a fan myself of scenes like that, and there aren't many around here that are Cohabitation Friendly yet."

She shook her head, thinking as she tapped her tail on the floor to the beat of the music. "Are you much for singing? Why not a karaoke bar? There's drinks, food, a relaxed setting, either private rooms or the main floor. My husband and I used to go to one a few years ago, and we always had a great time. You would be completely in your element."

Kelin thought about that. "Is the one you liked still open?"

"Songbirds? I believe so. They don't have private rooms anymore, but there is a group rate if you'd be more comfortable with others. Do you have any friends that could go with you?" She checked her phone and pulled up the listing for the bar. It had good reviews and looked very nice.

"Honestly?" he said and drank more from his water bottle. "You all...here...are my only real friends. I try to focus just on school stuff at school and I'm so excited to get here that I don't socialize much."

He saw her beam at him and she thumped him with her tail. "Well we all like you too. I'll even put a poll in with some of the other trainers and maybe we can all take an evening and go together!" Her eyes took on a slightly wicked look and she grinned. "Momma Meddler can even get her match-maker claws back out..."

He blinked in surprise and nervously grinned. "Someone else...I hope? Not me?"

She sniffed. "I already worked my magic on you, I have someone else in mind. You remember Jenile? Our front-desk worker?"

He remembered. "Yeah! Super perky raccoon girl. She's a doll."

Ophelia nodded. "Well! Don't go gossipping like you're me, but there's a little workplace crush going around that involves a certain trainer who has no idea she has a thing for him. So this bar idea is the perfect way to get the sparks flying!"

Kelin chuckled again, still a bit nervous at how intense Ophelia was apparently about this sort of thing. "Mum's the word," he said seriously. "Which trainer...am I allowed to ask?"

She thwapped him with her tail and made him yelp at how hard that rudder was. "No telling," she said and sniffed. "I don't trust anyone to not spill the beans, and then the magic isn't for real."

"What if...you're...?"

"Wrong?" she said challengingly.

"No! Well...not that you're not...wrong but what if you're not...entirely...correct...?"

"Please, Momma is never wrong. It's like that song. Mother knows best." She haughtily sniffed at him again and turned up her muzzle at him before relenting with a cocky grin. "I'll check around with the other trainers and such, and see when we can all be available. I know this weekend the gym will be closed for renovations and a meeting for some group of alumni from the college. Why don't we make plans for then?"

He blinked in surprise but nodded. "That sounds good." His phone went off at that moment and he looked over, plucking it up, and seeing who had texted him. He went a little red as Ophelia could literally be felt leering at him. She was such a mystery...

"Well I wonder who that could be..." she said.

He glowered over at her. Opening the text, he saw that it read, simply, "Out of meeting. Hungry. Going to get food and then back home. You good?"

His fingers rapidly typed out a response. "Doing great, although the trainer here just about killed me. I even might have an idea for our next date, if you still want to."

It didn't take more than a minute or so for his phone to chime again. Her little emoji profile picture was a stoic-faced bear that looked just like her, with no expression on it, and somehow making everything she texted him seem utterly adorable and hilarious given how apt it was. "Yes." It was short, and simple, but it made his stomach go into knots. A second chime. "Going big?"

"Depends," he responded. His profile picture was one that someone had snagged of him as a joke while he was sitting back in a chair and sipping a cup of coffee, looking annoyed at the person taking it. Hera had seen it in his gallery once and asked him to use it, so he had. "Are you okay with going with some of my friends from here to a group thing? Drinks, food, music?"

A longer time passed before she responded. "Not like I can ravish you in public." He tried not to read into the many possible ways that sentence could be taken, but given how nervous he was, he couldn't help imagining multiple scenarios. Was she annoyed but not wanting to shoot him down? Was she being playful? Was she disappointed? Her next text washed it all away. "Doctor says that group activities will be helpful and help get me back into more society normalities. He was over the moon that I'm dating, but surprised when I said not an Anthro. I showed him a picture."

He got caught up talking to another Human, one of the rare ones around here, who wanted advice on how to use the larger machines, so he didn't respond in time before her next message came through.

"Is that okay?"

He flushed and chuckled awkwardly. Ophelia had since walked away to get something, already busy on her phone making arrangements, so it was just him on the matt. "Of course! Wait, what picture exactly did you show him?" His thoughts went to the profile picture that made him look grumpy.

"What kind of pictures you sending that I am not getting and not supposed to show to others?" she responded. He worried that from the tone that she was mad, but again, his worries were groundless. "If you is failing to send me the naughty pictures, there will be consequences!" She even used an emoji, the angry one, so he knew that she wasn't actually upset, although his face went a shade more red. "You have naughty pictures?"

"No I do not have naughty pictures!" he sent back, chuckling to himself. He felt like a teenager again, and something about how Hera was acting made that seem even more wonderful. It was like being in high school all over again and emotionally falling over every single text and letter his crush sent him.

Her only response was an animated sad face emoji, although it was done using the same bear one she had as a profile picture. The only difference was that it started with the bear looking the same as always, and then a speech bubble came up, and the sad face emoji emerged within it, without the bear changing expression at all beyond the ears twitching. He snorted hard, apparently emojis had come a very very long way. Sometimes it was entirely how she texted him, using them to replace words and it made for utterly hilarious conversations.

"Oh stop being sad lol," he sent back.

Another emoji, the same bear with an animated huffy expression coming out.

"What?"

"Now I want naughty pictures."

He was taking a drink of water at the time that he read the message and he choked, coughing hard and covering his mouth. He stared at the phone's screen, face red. "What is up with you today?" he texted back. "Besides trying to kill me here at the gym?" He wasn't used to seeing her...this open. Flirty even. Was she feeling better? He dared to hope, despite that he had no idea how to handle a...feisty Hera. He was already thinking himself into stress about what she had said during their last date.

He saw her typing a response but it seemed to take a while. So long that he wondered if she was typing up a storm, but that wasn't like her. Maybe she had hit a button or something while driving and the phone was thinking that meant she was typing. Then his phone buzzed. And his blood went cold. "Do you want me to kill you?"

He took a second to think about it, and thereby try not to overthink what she meant. Very carefully, he decided to test the water. "Are we talking mercy kill, or hitting me over the head with a sledge hammer kill?" He felt a rush of exhilaration. Was this how couples normally were at the start of a relationship? All flirty and teasy and seeing who broke first. "You know how easy it is to fluster me."

Once again, his stomach clenched into knots at her response. "Perhaps trade?"

He coughed and sent a blushing emoji her way. "Hera, I'm still at the gym. I can't exactly just..." He trailed off on purpose, knowing that she knew what she was asking him to do.

"Not hearing a no, just a can't."

He palmed his own face and stood up to go sit down on a bench back against the wall. "Hera can I be really really honest with you?"

The bear emoji nodded.

"I've never done that sort of thing before. Let alone in public. And I really, really like you."

The bear gave a heart in a speech bubble. It made him grin and flush, feeling so embarrassed and shy all of a sudden. Somehow, that expressionless little pixelated picture that so resembled how she looked and acted just made it all the more endearing.

"Is it ok to say that I'm really scared?"

He thought she was going to take a very long time to answer, that she was going to be upset, maybe revert, stop being playful and open with him. All of the worst case scenarios went through his head. But instead, he got an instantaneous "I am too." He stared at those three little words in shock. In relief.

"Really?"

The bear emoji nodded again. Then she was typing for quite a while. Finally, "Truth is that even after I said what I said, I was. Entire walk back, it was all I could think of, if I had pressured you, made you feel guilty about it. The wait for you to text me that night was horrible, I worried that I had gone too far. I don't hold back when I'm being emotional like that. But then you just kept acting like everything was okay. You don't flirt back with me much, and I like that about you. I don't want you because you're some super horny guy who got a green light from his girlfriend. I want you because you make me feel okay. And okay is all I want. You don't turn me on when you are flirting or playing back at me. But you do when you're you, just you. As weird as it is, I cannot imagine you sending me naughty pictures. But knowing that makes me want them from you. It makes me want to do the same. I know that's all over the place. And if you want a naughty picture sometime, all you have to do is ask."

He hid his face again, rereading the message over and over. "I didn't intend to ask you for one," he said. "And, yes, I was nervous, and I did feel a little pressured after that, but in a good...way...I guess?" He thought for a bit. She recognized that he had more to say so she didn't respond yet, but the messages did say 'read'. "I meant what I said that I wanted to give you 200% of myself because that's what you deserve. But I do mean just me. I don't want to be like every guy, because I'm not."

The bear gave him a happy, content smiley face.

"Maybe I'm not the most macho guy, but I did worry that because I wasn't being that way that, because I'm a dumb guy, that I was letting you down after you were so forward. And now I just...I really like you. I guess that's all I can say."

She sent him another mad face emoji. "You are not allowed to call my Kelin dumb."

My Kelin. His stomach turned into fluttering butterfly wings. "Sorry," he typed back, not letting her know that something had just blown into both his eyes and he had to wipe them on his wristbands. Finally, he texted, "And how are you able to type full sentences like that when you seem to struggle half the time with speaking? :P"

"English is not my first language," she responded. The bear emoji came again, only this time it had a furry hat on over its ears. "Spoken it can be hard to say what I mean. Texting is easier. Especially when it's about something so important to me. I can control when I'm about to say something stupid or that emotionally I struggle to get out when speaking."

"That makes sense. Who taught you English?"

"My old squad commander posted us at a Human airbase. I learned from liaisons there."

Interest piqued, he leaned forwards. "Do I ever get to see a picture of you in your uniform?"

"No."

Her response was so curt and immediate that he felt taken aback a little bit. And then incredibly guilty.

"But I will wear it for you sometime."

And there it was. Right back to butterflies and thrills of nervous tension. "I'd like that. A lot."

The bear nodded. Then the bear gave him a winking face. "You are not one of those guys who gets turned on by women in uniforms are you?"

Without even thinking, he saw that he responded with, "Maybe."

"Hope it still fits then," she said, while he was busy smacking himself in the head. "Despite what I said, I like horny Kelin."

He felt his face almost literally glowing. "I am not horny," he sent back.

"Then go to bathroom and prove it," she shot right back at him.

"No!"

The bear gave him another wink.

"I'm not!"

"Fine, you are not horny." He sat back, feeling like somehow he had won a victory. Chime. "By the way, did you know that using the Google on sexual positions possible for Anthros and Humans is surprisingly lucrative?" He felt like throwing his phone across the room in embarrassment. Ophelia was right, Anthros were way more open about this kind of stuff.

"I think you're the horny one here," Kelin typed angrily, but unable to keep a smile off his glowing face.

"I am now. Going to take a shower now that I am home. Don't stand up too fast, that view belongs to me now. Text me details for date."

"I think I might actually hate you."

He sat back, grumbling, and thought about just going home for the day. His workout buzz had been replaced with...another kind of buzz and he would rather just go home and work on something boring and dull to calm his nerves. His phone chimed one more time. He looked down at it warily, picked it up, and steeled himself when he saw there was a picture attachment. He groaned and clicked on it. He was right, he could NOT handle feisty Hera.

Immediately he sat back hard against the wall, keeping his phone facing only towards him. His eyes went wide and he felt another kind of nervous sweat building. Hera stood facing away from her bathroom mirror, phone posed in one paw, and a towel wrapped around her front, but completely open in the back, revealing an entire span of her muscular spine, shoulders, and down to the very top of her fluffy tail, where the camera angle cut off, just above an obviously uncovered rear view. Written text was labeled upon it saying "Shame."

"Yep. I hate you." He sent back, hurriedly clicking off the photo before someone else saw it.

Groaning, he put his phone to the side and ran his fingers through his hair several times, trying to calm himself. This woman was going to be the death of him. His phone went off again, and he snatched it up, glowering. Another media attachment. He clicked onto it, it couldn't be worse than what she had just sent.

It wasn't from Hera. It was a news article, with a video. He got them sometimes, but usually just ignored it. There was so much bad and depressing news nowadays that it got to be depressing to even acknowledge. This one though...something made him click it open.

"...and the recovery efforts of the Estarof city riots are still underway," said a female Snow Leopard reporter. "Following the brutal attacks and damage done by both Anthro city residents and the Human collective arson and terrorist group, known as HUAA, or Humans United Against Anthros, this news stream goes straight to our reporter on the streets, Halley Vern. Halley?"

The picture flashed to another Anthro woman, a Deer, with a microphone on her ear. "Thank you Susan!" she said, voice raised over the sounds of obvious shouting all around her. "I'm standing here on the historic spot, on the corner of Lightfoot lane and 1967 Summers street, where barely a few months ago, horrific violence erupted on both sides of a civilian evacuation of Humans from Estarof. From the reports, the National Guard and Police were called to safeguard and act as riot control during the transition. This video was taken by cellphone by one of the onlookers."

The video went back to Susan, the Leopard, who was queuing up the video. "Viewers, you are strongly warned, this video is not meant for the younger audiences, and caution is advised before viewing or showing to others. What you see may disturb you."

The screen went to black, and then lit up with the shaky handheld video feed of someone's recording. It was hard to make out, huge metal fences towered over the owner of the phone, but on all sides were shouting and ranting humans. On the other side of the fence, a column of other humans were rapidly being escorted into a transit tunnel, flanked on all sides by Policemen. Anthros stood with their backs to the phone, but one, a towering soldier in full combat gear, and wielding a heavy machine gun as if it weighed no more than a toy rifle, was roaring in Anthro speak at another blurry fence at the crowds of Anthros behind it. More soldiers rushed here and there, shouting at the masses of furry and scaly paws that hammered on the fence. He could see the red glowing eyes through the links of the fence. Suddenly a little girl screamed. A panther had leapt over the top of the fence and was charging right at a family of humans who stood terrified before the oncoming predator. The fence was ripped open, Anthros came pouring in, roaring and snarling, slashing with their claws at the armored soldiers, bearing them to the ground. The Panther reached the little girl's parents, swatting the father aside like a ragdoll and went for the girl. She screamed again. The video cut off as the Anthro wielding the machine gun yelled and opened fire into the crowd of Fury-driven creatures, and an explosion of light, sound, and fire tore into the vehicle beside them..

The video went back to an actually tearful eyed Susan, who faced the camera grimly. "Viewers, this attack upon human evacuees was a horrific waste of life, on both sides. Among the casualties listed were five brave Anthro soldiers who sold their own lives to ensure the safe evacuation of the human citizens evicted from their homes by the threat of this very violence, perpetrated by the Anthros living alongside them. The Anthro movement 'Make them Bleed' was seen on the site, as were the masked members of HUAA." The names, ranks, and faces of five Anthro men and women slowly panned down the side of the screen. A Wolf, a Rabbit, two Felines, and a Horse. They were strong, healthy looking military portraits in full dress uniform. The highest ranking member, the Rabbit, was listed as a Captain.

Susan came back onto the screen again. "Among the soldiers KIA, there were 40 Humans also injured, and 8 Anthros. This reporter is not at this time legally allowed to disclose the names of those involved, but several were sent to the hospital in grave condition. This is a time of change, ladies and gentlemen, and one that we so desperately need. This violence must end. Those responsible for the attacks should, in my opinion, be held utterly responsible to the word of the law, and labeled as enemies of the peace as they so are. The whereabouts only surviving soldier of the unit sent as active peace-keepers is, at this time, unknown, but she did receive a full military discharge, with honors, for her protection of the Humans during this atrocity. All of our prayers, and may the protection of the spirits, go with her."

A sixth Anthro soldier's portrait came across the screen. Dressed in full uniform, medals and multi-colored ribbons gleamed on her chest, beret cocked jauntily off to the side to account for her short round ears. Her hair was tied back in a bun, her eyes were bright and shining. The triple stripes of a Sergeant were emblazoned in gold upon her arms, along with active duty slashes. But it was her face that stuck in his mind, burned into his memory as the reporter went on in the background.

Hera's smile was so innocent.