Feral High, Ch. 7 (Patreon)

Kenzi felt stupid.  She looked stupid.  She had never felt more ridiculous and out of place in her life.  She was standing in the middle of the mall, outside the store where she and Anon had agreed to meet up, frantically checking her phone every few seconds as if somehow it might change the fabric of reality and she could call this whole thing off.  Why in the world had she suggested they go out on an official date?

'Because he mentioned that he really wanted to go out together, just the two of us, and your introverted ass decided, Okay, we're doing THAT now!'

She glowered at nothing and no one, imagining that she was strangling her inner voice for ever convincing her to do this.  She cast another look at herself in her phone's camera.  She fixed her recently dyed pink comb of normally erect mohawk.  It currently hung loose and down over one eye in an undercut, highlighting the dark stripes and spots of her pelt in stark contrast of color.  She wasn't wearing her leather jacket as she usually did, instead just an intentionally ratty but still fashionable heavy metal shirt, striped in white and red lines, that only went to her shoulders since her arms were too big to cover with the tiny sleeves.  She had studded boots on her paws, and a choker around her neck.   And a skirt.

She hadn't driven her bike here.  She wanted to look like a girl who a guy would actually go out with, while still maintaining her punk, goth, bad-girl vibe.  Anon had always said he liked how she dressed, but she wanted to do something special for him.  So, she had made some changes to the ensemble that ordinarily she would have throttled the culprit who dared suggest them.  That being her.  But you couldn't choke yourself without people thinking you were mental.

She was wearing a SKIRT for spirit's sake!  It was short.  And frilly.  And her tail hung out the back.  For probably the twentieth time, she tried to tug it down a bit lower over the the fishnet stockings on her muscular thighs.  She wished for nothing more than the tiled linoleum floor to open up and swallow her whole and spare her the embarrassment of anyone seeing her like this.

The hyena girl snarled loudly and startled a nearby group of people.  She met their eyes with a glower and they hurried along.  That...was probably a mistake.  She sat down hard on the mall bench and buried her muzzle in her paws.  She leaned it back up a second later.  She would smudge her makeup if she did that.  She checked it in the camera.  No harm done.

Shazi and Zenza had insisted on doing it for her when they heard the news.  They had arrived with her, about an hour ago since she wanted to be early, helped her do her makeup, force her to take off her more macho attire and change into something more...demure and feminine, then hurry away with repeated orders to let them know how it went.  She hated it.  She despised it.  But this had been her idea.

"Do not let me back out," she had growled at the pair of girls when they had started getting her changed and dolled up.  And so they had practically bullied her every time she started to hesitate.  On went the makeup, off went the heavy piercings save for one on her eyebrow and nostril.

If her mother could see her now, she might have died of shock.  She thought back to that morning when she had been getting ready to leave the house.

***

She woke up with her alarm.  She never woke up with her alarm.  She got dressed in basic clothing, threw the extra stuff she needed in a bag, and tramped down the stairs.

Her mother, Erie Heen, had been at the kitchen counter, making herself a cup of coffee.  She had turned around in surprise to the sounds of her daughter emerging from the staircase to the basement and onto the landing of the room.

They had stared at one another for a tense few seconds.  Neither said a word.

Kenzi had always been super jealous of her mother, especially for how naturally pretty she was.  They weren't that much different in age, not when you really stopped to think about it.  She was huge, even compared to Kenzi, but then again, Anthros, especially predators, tended to swell up to full size when they finally became full adults.  Something about a rite of age or something.  Or she was just really big.  A lot of Anthros were just really big.  She had her brown hair cut very modestly, loose and hanging currently around one-side of her face from the natural mohawk style of Hyenas.  She had no piercings, spots and fur patterns neat and unadorned, and she was even now wearing her police uniform, stretching out the flexible material to the limits with both powerhouse bulk and feminine assets on a bulky, broad-shouldered frame.  If Kenzi looked like that as she got older, she would be happy.  The only accented part of the woman was her tail, tufted silver at the end for some reason.

Erie, short for Valerie, Elzabeth Heen had gotten pregnant in high school when she was 14.  The dad and her boyfriend, a 17 year old Wolverine, not the usual high-school jerk but admittedly a well-known trouble-maker, had stopped his antics cold when he became a father.  He had dropped everything to take care of her mom, especially when her grandparents had kicked her out when they found out the news, as they had been raising her as the preppy, do-good type.  They'd struggled for a while during the pregnancy, bouncing from place to place before finally coming to settle in a cheap house and he took on several jobs to support them, all while refocusing himself on graduating, and her too.  He had signed on for his obligatory military service when he got out of high school.

His picture sat on the mantle place, a medal hanging from the edge.  They were supposed to get married when he got back from being deployed.  Kenzi had only been a few months old when they got the news.  She'd never met him.

Erie, on the other hand, had been forced to grow up hard and fast.  She kept her nose clean, did everything by the book, strictly followed rules, and tried to provide as best as possible for her daughter.  That was when the problems had started.  Kenzi had been diagnosed at a young age with Hyper-Active Aggression Disorder, following several outbursts in elementary school.  The mental issues caused by it shortened the already tightly wound Hyena fury glands to a razor-thin line.  She would get angry, depressed, or defensive on the drop of a hat; prolonged social activity was a strain mentally, and given how Anthros solved everything through either physical labor or emotional expression, she had driven away many people even as a cub.

Taking it in stride, her mother had taken classes, spent time studying up, and consulting with doctors and specialists.  None of it really helped since there wasn't much to do.  Medicine hadn't progressed as much for treating symptoms like hers as it had now, and the drugs they did have back then just made Kenzi feel even worse.  She and her mom fought a lot, more than was normal.  Erie had been forced to curb her own Aggression in order not to cause actual fights in the home.

Kenzi always regretted the arguments they had.

Finally, the silence began to annoy her.  She rolled her eyes and stomped past her still startled mom to the fridge.  She pulled out some breakfast fixings and set to making herself something to eat.

"Morning!" chimed her mom at last.  She glanced up from the bread she was buttering to see that Erie had taken her cup of coffee and was nestling it between her big paws.

She grunted.

"You're...awake," she noted, obviously still surprised.  "On a Saturday.  Before noon."

"Have stuff I want to do today," she growled.

Erie narrowed her eyes a bit, sipping at her coffee.  "And your homework?"

"Done."

Erie huffed.  "Right."

Kenzi felt a flare of Aggression build up at that single disbelieving note.  She took a deep breath and calmed herself.  She turned around to face her mom, toast in hand.  "It's all upstairs on my desk if you want to check it," she told her glibly.

This made her mom's eyes go wide again.  She stared hard at her daughter before she chuffed out a breath.  "Well...okay then."  She shook herself and then eyed her again, still wary.  Normally they'd already be shouting at one another from her being mad that Erie didn't believe her and Erie being defensive because she had every right to.  "May I ask what's so important?"

Kenzi snapped her jaws shut and she sat down at the table.  "Why?  Going to call out a patrol to tail me?"

Erie seemed to almost relax at the confrontational tone.  "Maybe.  It's certainly crossed my mind a time or two."  She sat down across from her daughter and folded her paws atop of one another.  She eyed the rather laid-back and less extravagant Hellion look she was wearing.  "You...look..."  She struggled for a word.  "Neat."

They locked eyes for a bit before, without meaning to, Kenzi chuckled.  "Thanks mom, something a girl always wants to hear.  I was going for neat."

Erie's jaw dropped open a bit.  It wasn't to be unexpected.  This sort of dialogue between them was a complete rarity.  She stood up and immediately slapped a paw to Kenzi's forehead.  "Are you sick or something?" she demanded.

She waved her mom's paw away with a growl at having her personal space invaded.  "No, mom," she snapped.  "I just..."  She frowned down at her toast.  "...Okay.  Promise you won't...flip out or something?"

Erie sat back in her chair with a glower of her own.  "I knew it.  What did you do?"

Her eyes snapped back up.  "What?  Nothing!"

"You never act this way, Mackenzie.  What on earth did you break, or do, or steal?"

She stood up angrily from her seat.  "I didn't do anything, Officer!" she snarled.  "I was trying to have a fucking moment with my mom, so sorry that I intruded on your duties!"  She picked up her plate and threw the breakfast in the trash.  She snatched up her bag, ready to storm out.

Erie stood in the doorway in a flash.  Her eyes were shrewd and searching before her expression became...desperate.  "Kenzi, I'm sorry," she said, keeping her paws up.  "I'm just...I'm..."  She sighed then and her bulky arms flopped down to her sides.  "I...did not expect my morning to start out this way.  I'm dealing with some stuff on my own."

She sighed and slumped against the counter facing her mom.  "Yeah well...neither did I.  I'm just...trying, mom."

"Trying?"

"Trying to...fix myself."

There was a long silence.  Kenzi forced herself to look up at her mom.  The expression on her face made Kenzi want to flee.  She hated seeing her mom look upset.  Especially because of something she had said or done.  It happened all too often.

"I'm just...I'm tired of being..."  she trailed off and looked away again.  "Me."

"Being you isn't...a bad thing," offered her mom although she didn't sound like she entirely believed it herself.

"I know.  But...I wanna be better.  I got a long way to go to do it but...I really wanna try."

"Kenzi..." muttered Erie.  "I'm just...I don't know what to say.  What...caused this?"

"You have to promise not to laugh or judge or get upset at me," warned the teen.

"On the spirits," swore Erie.

Kenzi groaned and palmed her face in a big paw.  "I...have a date.  A boyfriend.  Okay?  He makes me...want to do better."  Again, silence greeted her.  She flicked her eyes at her mom, sure she was going to see amusement or something infuriating there.

Erie's expression was instead dumbfounded.  Her jaw had fallen open.

"What?" she demanded.

"You?" asked her mother.  "You have a boyfriend?"

"What's so weird about that?" she snapped.

"Nothing," Erie was quick to say, raising her paws.  "I just...assumed you were into girls from how you were always hanging out with those two friends of yours."

"A girl can like being who she is without having to be labeled by all the modern slang and terms.  So what that I'm butch?  Besides, mom, I'm pan."

"You're what?"

Kenzi rolled her eyes.  "Pansexual, mom."  For some reason, explaining this was beginning to cause her Aggression to rise but not because of anger.  "I care about who the person is on the inside.  Or...at least I do now."

"This...guy must be pretty important," replied Erie hesitantly, not wanting to set her daughter off by saying the wrong thing.  Kenzi nodded, since that was fair.  "Are you two...serious?"

Again, she nodded.  No reason in denying it.  It actually felt good to have someone she cared about like how she felt towards Anon, even if she didn't understand what a girl like her could offer him.  Maybe by changing herself, she could be better for him.

"And...you're not...?"  Erie's eyes furrowed in concern, glancing at her daughter once up and down.

Now the Aggression truly soared high.  Her face heated up beneath her fur and it fluffed up. Her ears folded down against her skull.  "No!" she snapped.  "We haven't even done anything like that."

Erie sighed again, looking relieved.  "Good.  Well...I...guess..."  she looked around, awkwardly scratching at the back of her neck.  Kenzi watched her mom, perplexed, before she saw her reach into her purse and pull out...money.  She offered it to her daughter.  "Have fun, okay?"

Kenzi stared hard at her mother, at the handful of bills in her paw, and then back up at her face.  Heat rushed through her and she looked away hurriedly.  She slapped the bills out of her mom's paw and shoved them into her pocket, biting her lower lip hard.  "Thanks..." she growled out, voice harsh and gravelly.  "I gotta go."

She moved past her mom and out of the house.  She glanced back once to see Erie had come out as well, watching her walk towards the bus station and leaving her motorcycle, which she knew her mother had always disliked that she rode on given how many accidents occurred on them.  Her mom waved.  She waved back and then set her shoulders and eyes squarely forward.  She didn't want to let her mom know that she was close to crying.

Erie didn't want to let her daughter see her crying as well.  Only hers came from a hesitant pride.  Whoever this boy was, he had changed things.

***

Back at the mall, Kenzi felt her phone suddenly buzz.  She checked it.  Anon was on his way, apologizing profusely for being late.  He wasn't.  Still, she couldn't let his flustered attitude go to waste.  It was part of what she liked about him, having him always be so shy and uncertain that she could really play with him and see what buttons she could press to get a reaction out of him.  They had been increasingly wonderful reactions lately.

"Hurry up," she told him.  "I ain't walking around this maze by myself.  So you better get here quick."

"Yes, Kenzi," came his reply immediately.

"Who's the #1 Bitch?" she demanded of him, a little ritual that meant far more than just the words.

"You are :)," was his response.

"Damn right."  She grinned to herself and sighed.  She let her face relax into an expression that she never showed anyone else usually.  It felt...good...to have someone like him in her life.  She didn't have to be hard and on all the time.  Instead, he made it fun for when she was.  He seemed to like it too.  Maybe today they could go a little farther than the light stuff they'd gotten to do so far...  Kenzi didn't want to pressure him because he seemed very inexperienced but it was becoming a lot harder to contain her urges.

Her phone growled again, vibrating in her paw and she glanced at the different number.  Anon's alert sound was some anime reference, some clueless guy who sounded completely surprised.  It fit him weirdly enough.  It was from her mom.

"Are you on your date yet?" she asked.

"No, he's not here yet."

She saw the ". . ." of her mom writing for a bit before another text rattled her paw.  "Good, there's something I wanted to talk to you about tonight, if that's okay.  Are you all right with that?"

She flushed and her ears folded down.  "I guess," she replied.  "Why?"

"You were open with me.  I want to be open with you.  I'd like it if we could start being like that more often."

She hung her head.  'Come on Mom,' she growled to herself.  'Don't make me want to cry...'  She had mistreated her mother for a long time.  Hurting her career, her reputation, her entire image of being Ms. Perfect badass Cop lady and having a total hellion for a daughter.  She had spent whole nights crying after their explosive arguments that she had only ever made her mom's life harder by being born.  She never told Erie that.

"There are some things that I want to tell you, and I want you to listen and be open minded, okay?"

"Okay?" she shot back.  "Did someone die or something?"

"No," replied her mom.  "But...just one thing for now.  I'm really proud of you.  I know I suck at saying this stuff in person."

"I do too," admitted Kenzi.  She waited for a bit, struggling to rein in her emotions.  "I'm sorry mom."

"I know.  I'm sorry too.  Have fun on your date.  I love you."

Those three words burned their way into Kenzi's mind and she bit her lip hard.  She had to get angry to keep herself from crying instead.  "Love you too," she managed to shoot back.  The anime guy's voice sounded and she gratefully switched message boards.

"I'm here," said Anon.  "Where are you?"

She allowed herself a small smirk and she glanced up, standing from the bench and tucking her phone into her bag.  She was too used to having pockets instead of a purse like today.  Flicking some of her dyed pink hair out of her eyes, she scanned over the crowd.  She spotted Anon's telltale fluff of hair even surrounded by Anthros.  Wow...he looked good.  Button up shirt, tight jeans...oh my very tight jeans!  They outlined how slender and cute he was.

"Walk forward until you see the hottest bitch around," she shot back then stowed her phone for good and waited.  She saw him grin sheepishly at his phone and then look around.  He obviously wasn't able to see over people's heads like she was so he started making his way shyly through the crowd.

He emerged a minute or so later, brushing his shirt a bit and looking up and over at her.  His eyes went dinner-plate wide and his mouth actually dropped open.  A second later, even over the tumult and various scents wafting around the mall center, she caught a whiff of his emotional reaction.  Visual stimuli wasn't even needed, but oh dear those pants were indeed very tight.  She bared her teeth in a grin and she stalked over toward him.

"Sup," she snarled down at him.  She cocked her weight onto one hip more than the other and leaned a paw down to chuck his chin.  "My boyfriend ghosted me.  You're way cuter than him.  Keep me company?"  Her eyes sparkled down at his and she grinned with a feral light shining off her teeth.

Anon for his part just grinned back and nodded.  "Okay," he murmured in that soft voice that always got her fur on edge.  She beamed more and took his hand in her paw, uncaring if anyone else saw or commented.  She started to turn away but paused when he squeezed her furry fingers.  He had surprisingly strong hands.  "Just one first?" he asked, sounding hopeful.

She rolled her eyes, pretending to be annoyed and put out.  "Fine, but only because you aren't too horribly late.  Also because you're really cute."  She leaned down and lifted his chin again with her other paw to align their faces more despite the size difference.  She kissed him once on the lips, adoring how gentle and soft his were against her own.  She heard him inhale deeply and she couldn't help but feel her tail wag a little before she leaned up and away from him.

They set off together, hand in paw.  "Where do you wanna go first?" he asked.  "Are you hungry?"

"Starving," she admitted.  She had been regretting throwing out her breakfast before.  "I want Chinese, you in?"

Anon grinned.  "Yes please."

Flustered by his sweetness once again, Kenzi played it off, pretending to be as gruff and taciturn as ever.  "What's this please shit?  Am I your teacher or something?"

"No," admitted Anon, following along easily at her side.  "But you do teach me a lot."

She leered down at her boyfriend.  "I'll teach you a whole lot more soon."

He blushed hard and he ducked his head.  His thick hair hid his face and she couldn't help a surge of happy Aggression and dominance rise up in her chest.  It should have been illegal to be as cute as he was.

They ordered food at a local Chinese restaurant a few outlets down.  They paid separately because she didn't care for the stupid 'macho guy pays for everything' stuff and Anon respected that.  Afterward, they sat and ate, her with pork fried rice with egg and shrimp, and him with lo-mien and teriyaki chicken.  They took bites of one another's food, and she even let him take a picture of them together.  She made sure to wrap an arm around him in it, glaring at the camera so that everyone who looked at the picture would know who this adorable little guy belonged to.

After that, the date went pretty much wherever they willed it to go.  They checked out the video game store, where she tried not to embarrass herself while Anon went on and on about his favorite games and she had to resist not splurging out a bunch of useless lore about each and every one.  They inspected a few clothing stores and she dragged him to, of course, the lingerie section to tease him which set she would look best in.  Surprisingly, he gave her real feedback and not just stammering blushes.  It took the wind out of her sails a bit but it was fun seeing him actually, if shyly, eager at her innuendos.  Maybe he was getting up to being ready for it after all...  Shame the store had little that would fit her.  She shopped mostly online for this stuff.

The best part of their wanderings led them to the arcade.  The mall had a very nice sized one with both vintage and new age games set up.  They bought tokens and played a bunch of different ones.  Anon was a weirdly good shot.  She excelled in the sword games as well as, to his utter shock, the dance ones.  She got super into them, both in the footstep choreography as well as the finger-dancing that had become all the rage over the local short video platforms.  Kenzi had always enjoyed them once she figured out how.  The level of speed she had worked up to for both was a small point of pride as well as embarrassment to imagine someone seeing her punk-goth self doing silly dance moves.  Seeing Anon's reactions to them made them all worth it.

As she stepped down from the latest song, Anon rushed forward and grabbed her around the middle, hugging her hard.  "I had no idea you were so good at dancing!" he crowed.

Flushing, Kenzi looked away from him, trying to shove him off of her weakly.  She really liked it when he hugged her.  "Get off you weirdo.  Just because I'm your girlfriend doesn't mean you get to plant your face in my boobs whenever you want to."

Anon stepped back eventually, still beaming.  "You should do that professionally!"

She snorted.  "What, like on the phone thing?  Pass."

"You could always do the thing with the masks and stuff.  Hide your identity?  Adds more mystery."

"And you seriously think people would watch that?" she challenged him, growling.

"I would."  His eyes were so bright and eager that she wilted a bit inside.

"...I'll think about it."  She looked away, scratching at the back of her head and hiding her small grin in her thick bangs.  "Although...I would look really good in a gasmask..."

"Yeah!" agreed Anon excitedly, prancing up and down in place.  She grinned more openly at his energy.  "Hey, what was that song you just did?" he asked then.  "You were singing along from what I could hear so you must know it."

She arched her studded eyebrow at him.  "Dah-Dah-Dancing?" she asked.  He nodded.  She narrowed her eyes.  "You mean you don't know the band that's from?"  He shook his head.  She crossed her arms.  "Well, we can't date anymore."  She huffed.  His eyes went wide and his smile dropped off.  He nearly looked heartbroken.  She winked then, relieving his fears.  "Fine, but I'm going to have to show you the band."

He nodded at once.  "They sounded awesome!"

She grabbed his hand.  "Come on then!" she growled and she dragged him out of the arcade, stopping only for them to trade in their points for rewards.  She got a studded wrist bracelet, this place was where she ended up getting a lot of knockoff crap for fun with the girls, and Anon got a stuffed animal.  She teased him about it only a little but happily stowed it in her bag when he confessed it was for her.  She hadn't had the points for it so him noticing was...incredibly sweet.

They rushed off to a darkened store that had blood-red mood-lights built into the ceiling.  Everything was black and gothic for the most part.  She was a regular here.  She pulled Anon with her to a specific stand that had CD's as well as shirts and other various bits of memorabilia.  The shirt on the front showed the band members.  Each of them was dressed, to Anon's adorable surprise, as gothic Japanese school girls but in blacks and reds.  Three of them were Anthros and another was Human.  All in all, a Squirrel, a Rabbit, the Human who looked older than the others, and a Polar Bear Ursid who seemed younger than them all.  The Bear girl was center stage, fist to the sky and a joyous smile on her face.  Her silver hair was spiked up and she had dark makeup on her face.

Anon leaned in close, eyes wide and trying to sound out the name written in Kanji.  "He-ra-ru...Chan?" he asked, glancing up at her.

"And the Idolz," answered Kenzi smugly.  "Absolutely my favorite band."

Needing no second bidding, Anon grabbed a CD of theirs and hurried off to pay for it.  Kenzi stayed by the stand, trying to see if there was anything here she didn't already own.  Spotting a collectible vinyl figurine stowed at the back, she reached for it.

Another paw brushed hers and she jerked back in alarm.  So did the other Anthro.

Kenzi wasn't used to looking up at anyone save for her mom, and that only by an inch or so.  Hyena stared up into the glittering eyes of a huge, athletic Lioness.  She wore a tanktop and jeans underneath a denim jacket that seemed a bit more frayed than ordinarily it might have been.  Her hair was cut short to her skull, giving her that natural, animal-look that Kenzi could not pull off.  What was more, she equaled if not outshone Kenzi for size, not only in height but seemingly in musculature and chest size, which made her immediately dislike the girl.  She thought she recognized her.

For her part, the Leonid girl just blinked down at her.  Then she smiled.  "Sorry!" she said immediately.  "I didn't notice you there.  Were you going to get that?"  She jerked her head at the figurine.

Kenzi crossed her arms, having wanted to shove her paws into her pockets and roll her shoulders to look more intimidating but lacked the slots to do so.  "Maybe," she snapped.  "What's it to you?"

The lion girl blinked.  She could obviously smell Kenzi's Aggression already peaking from how her own muzzle twitched.  Then, to her utter confusion, she just grinned.  "Play you for it," she growled challengingly.

Raising an eyebrow, Kenzi relaxed a bit if only out of confusion.  "What's the game?"

"Lore facts on the band," replied the Leonid.  Kenzi nodded savagely.  The girl pulled out her phone, a much more beaten up one than Kenzi's somehow, and pulled up a website.  "Ok...how old was Heraru-Chan when she entered the band?"

"16," snapped Kenzi.

The Lion checked the site.  "Damn.  Yep."  She handed the phone over.  "Next question."

Kenzi scrolled through several obscure notes on the page.  "What was the original name of the band before they rebranded?"

"We Three Ho-Nou," replied the lion.  "Or, We Three Firebirds."

"I knew that," replied Kenzi hotly and handed the phone back.  "Give me a hard one."

"What was the original band's theme?"

"Dark Japanese Folk Metal Opera," Kenzi and her both spat out at the same time, word for word without looking once at the screen.  They leaned back from one another.  "Ok, really hard one," said Kenzi smugly, not even bothering to take the phone back.  "True or false, the band once did a live show where they had a real sword fight on the stage."

"Trick question," quipped the Lioness, equally pleased with herself.  "False.  But!  They did hire professional stunt actors to then shoot a music video of the same two guys from the show.  The same two guys were also known for doing the sword fight scene in Legends of the Blue Dragon Temple!"  Kenzi said it at the same time as her again.  Both she and the lioness gave each other a respectful, wary nod.

"Respect," Kenzi admitted.

"Respect," echoed the Leonid.  "You can have the figurine."  She stuck out a big paw then.  "We go to the same school, yeah?"  Kenzi nodded.  "Call me Ash.  Ash Prydel"

"Heen.  Kenzi."

They shook paws, gauging one another's strength.  Ash's eyes sparkled as she looked Kenzi up and down.  "I admit, I didn't recognize you at first!" she admitted.  At first, the Hyena wanted to get angry at that comment, right before Ash suddenly beamed.  "You look so cute!  Who did your hair?"

Taken aback, Kenzi dropped the surly glower.  "My...friends."

"The little leopard girl and the Wild Dog Canine?" Ash asked.  Kenzi, again, nodded.  "The leopard just got back into the cheerleaders, yeah?  Good for her!"

Again, Kenzi felt suspicious.  "You seem to know an awful lot about us."

Rolling her feral eyes, Ash chuckled.  "Everyone knows about you Misfits.  Terror of the halls.  Or you used to be anyway.  Haven't heard much about you guys picking fights or stuff in a while.  Rumor has it those two are getting back into their old clubs.  What changed, can I ask?"

Kenzi was about to snap back with 'None of your business,' when a hand wormed its way into her paw.  She started as Anon hugged her from the side.  "I got it!" he panted up at her happily.  She met his face before he glanced to the side at the other person nearby.  "Ash!" he crowed.  "Hey!"

She stared between them in shock as Ash beamed down at the tiny human and they exchanged a fist bump.  "What are you up to?" the lioness asked, voice open and earnest.  Her eyes sparkled and her tail waved openly back and forth.  The way her body relaxed completely made Kenzi abruptly very uncomfortable.

"Just here on a date!" replied Anon, immediately hugging onto Kenzi's arm tighter and leaning against her.  All her worries washed away then.  Ash seemed surprised as well but a second later her brow unfurrowed and she smiled so widely and endearingly that Kenzi had the abrupt feeling that the lioness actually approved.

That was not something Kenzi had expected.  She'd heard the whispers around her and Anon when they had been walking around.  Breeder.  She would have loved more than anything to snap back at them with "Not yet I'm not, but I will be!"  It was a stupid insult, and one she intended to take a lot of pride in when they finally did the deed for real.

"I get it now," Ash said softly.  "Well I won't trouble you both more."  She took a step back and grinned.

Feeling somehow guilty, Kenzi reached back and snagged the figurine.  She held it out.  "Here."  She wasn't sure why she did it but Ash took it nonetheless.  They exchanged a look.

"Thanks," Ash said, sounding almost a bit emotional but biting it off with that same warm smile.  Her big paws folded in around the toy.  "You two look great together."

Shrugging, Kenzi turned and she and Anon strode out of the store.  Anon looked up at her as they kept walking until the passed the food court and then they both sat down.  Kenzi wasted no time in flinging her arm around his shoulders on the bench they were sharing, staking her claim over the little man beside her as she used her other paw to dig out her phone and headphones.  She proceeded to fully indoctrinate him in the ways of Heraru-Chan and the Idolz and he was soon head-banging along with her.

It was a weird day.  An emotional day.  It was Kenzi's very first real date.  Things could not have been better.

But, as all things do, things often seemed their best before they took a sudden and abrupt turn.  It was something she was all too used to in life.  But what would come next, none of them could have anticipated.

TBC.