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Funny how things work out, isnt it? Most of the time when something like this happens, its the cheater whos trying to contact the ex and apologize, not the other way around.

That would be William's way of subtly guilting me and reminding me of just who had the moral high ground in the conversation, something i'm almost certain he does without being aware of it. After Zoey left, after Harley and I hung out for a bit longer in my room (and just that, actually; though adventurous paws had made their way up shirts and underneath pants waistbands, Mom's clattering in the kitchen kept us awake). I'd responded to the mutt's text with what I think would be a suitably curt "What?"

He didn't reply back within minutes like I was used to. Instead, my phone vibrated in my pocket only after dinner had been finished and eaten, a good hour and a half later. Harley sat at my desk looking through the games I had - he hadn't brought his laptop today - while I lay back on my bed, one leg crossed over the other. I had to keep on reminding myself of what Zoey said, her advice to treat William kindly and go easy on him.

I just wanted to talk to you some, Danny. Its been a week and i havent heard hardly anything from you. I just wanted to be sure youre doing ok.

"That's not all you want to talk about, is it?" I wanted to text back, but... again, remembering Zoey. William and I had had little rough patches in our relationship in the past, usually caused by me getting frustrated yet again with him or the way he acted or the way he treated me and my friends, and I would stop talking to him for a while and tell him that my patience was running very thin... but then sure enough, I'd start missing him before too long and would come back, if only for my own comfort. I'm sure it stroked his already-throbbing ego to know after a while that that's how things would go, and I'm also sure he expected that this time.

I glanced over my phone at the other end of the room, the coyote sitting back in my desk chair with the title screen of a familiar game coming up, its music quietly starting on the speakers. His tail wagged behind him a little bit, through the hole in the back of the chair. If I turned to the side and touched my nose to the fabric of the pillow, I could still quite easily pick up his scent lingering there.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Doing well." Obligatory: "You?"

I dont want to sound needy or clingy or whatever, but i miss you. My mother keeps on asking why im spending so much time at home all of a sudden, and she asked if something happened between you and me... i didnt really feel like telling her the truth, so i just told her we're fine.

Maybe it was just my frustration with him. Maybe it was just his selfishness subconsciously coming through again and dictating his words - but, then, who was I to talk, with my whole going-back-to-him-for-comfort thing? What did that say about Harley? - but that felt, again, like that message carried some sort of subliminal intent.

"What, do you want me to apologize and ask to get back together, so you ca" "Ah. I told my mom already." What else could I say? The bed creaked a little as I adjusted my position, also causing Harley's tall ears to perk up and point back towards me for a second. So far he seemed to be enjoying the game he'd picked. "She asked, so I figured I'd tell her. She'd figure out sooner or later, right?" Then, my own little barb: "It's not like this is just a one-week long thing, after all."

Then, I couldn't help but wonder what possible messages William had prepared to send in response to that, only to delete them right after. Hell, maybe he had more self control than me, and could keep all of those in his head without typing them out first... but seeing as how he'd come over without even letting me know, just because he "wanted to spend some time with his wolf" when in reality he just wanted to get off and then cuddle for maybe three minutes - I doubted it.

How was your day?

Hadn't he just asked this? "Can't complain. Went to the movies with Harley. with my boyfriend. with a friend.with Harley. Ran into Zoey there, so we talked for a while and she came back with us to say hi to Mom."

How are you doing with him? I know its kind of an awkward subject between you and i, but... i care about you, you know? I wanna be sure youre doing okay. Even if that means relying on someone else to be at your side. Im sorry things had to go the way they did between us, danny, and i wish youd told me before that you weren't happy with our relationship.

"I did.""We're together now. Sorry if you were looking to get back together." Again, obligatory. William's next response came remarkably quickly, even for him - and right over Harley's sudden question of "Hey, Danny, how do I open the inventory?", so there were two different things running in my mind at once-

I expected as much. I hope he makes you happy. He seems nice enough.

"You could check the keybindings. I think default is escape, but I thought that was weird so I rebound it to E..."

"Yeah, that's it! Thanks."

Then, a second message:

Do you think we can still be friends?

I looked at that for a moment longer than the others, reading over the words again and again, hearing it in William's voice. My eyes started to hurt a bit from looking at the bright pixels for so long, though, and after another few seconds I dropped my phone to the pillow beside me and stood up to make my way over to Harley; again his ears flicked back, and he reached to pause the game and look back at me, quiet questioning in his green eyes.

"Everything okay, Danny? How's your talk with Will going?"

Instead of responding, though, I rested my chin atop his muzzle and draped my arms around his shoulders, fingers brushing along his chestruff through his shirt. He brought a paw up to close around mine, and flicked his ears against my whiskers.

"Harley, I just wanted to tell you - um..." God, here was that odd feeling again, muddling my thoughts and my words. Pulsing, warm pressure in the middle of my chest, making me want to squeeze him tight and bury my nose in his fur. God knows he deserves it. "...I - really like you, I guess." Not as eloquent as I'd hoped, but-

-but his tail still wagged and thwapped repeatedly across my legs. He tilted his head back, and I lifted mine up so we could look each other in the eyes. "Oh. Good! 'Cause I guess I really like you, too, Daniel."

William's last message would be something for me to respond to once I was aware of an answer. Harley resumed his game and half-leaned forward to get back into his posture - but then adjusted it again so I could keep my arms around him and my chin on top of his head. Still his tail swayed.

"Oh - and, uh, sorry to ask, Danny, but... do you think we could run by the pharmacy tomorrow so I can refill my meds? I - ran out early in the week."

"Yeah, sure. I'm sure we can figure something out."

~ ~ ~

Halfway through Saturday - it was another night spent with heavy panting ,eager thrusting, moans muffled by fur or a pillow or an arm - Harley and I remembered that we had our history project due the following Monday. He cursed himself for leaving his laptop at home again and for having neglected to email his part to me, but still we sat down and worked through what we could. And - it felt good to finally get something done, after a week solid where things hardly went right.

Turns out the professor had posted a rubric and outline for the presentation, too, which neither of us know due to lack of paying attention in class... and which neither of us realized, of course, until a handful of minutes before we were to take Harley home. It was also then that I realized - I had yet to visit his house. This would be the first time, as odd as that was... and sure, we'd only known each other for about two weeks now (which wasn't something I'd tell someone about my boyfriend - calling him that still sent a sweet shiver down my spine - for fear of being judged) but still, after everything we'd done already...

I remember when he'd said that the houses were closer together, and there were less trees than my neighborhood. Once Mom turned the corner onto his street as per his direction, I could see he was right: where on my street you can walk down the middle of the road and see the lines of trees converge to a V at the end of your vision, here, everything was open to bright blue sky, and there was hardly enough space between the houses for someone to take a piss without hitting the next wall. It was a nice, quiet neighborhood, not counting the noise of the nearby highway that cut right through on the open air.

"Forty-seven..." Mom glanced out her window, peering at the numbers painted onto the curb. "...oh-six... this the one?"

"Yes ma'am."

A single car sat in the driveway; Harley visibly perked up in the front seat when he noticed it, and - after we'd stopped in front, he reached out and placed an excited paw on my mom's arm.

"Oh! Mrs. Lane! Can I borrow your son for a moment?"

"As long as you bring him back in one piece. He has a cousin on his dad's side who's part coyote, and when they were little I let them out to play once... and Daniel came back with a chunk the size of his tiny fist taken out of his butt, and he was crying up a storm..."

Harley turned back towards me, him in the passenger seat and me in the back. Eyebrows raised, he mouthed: so that's where that scar came from?

"Someone you want him to meet, Harley?"

"Yes, ma'am." His tail was wagging even before he'd fully stepped out of the car. "Won't be long, promise."

"Yeah, sure. Nothing better than a family friend - Zoey will tell you that. Speaking of which, Daniel, ask her over for dinner again sometime, will you?"

The words had made their way out of my mouth as soon as the car doors closed behind us: "Your dad?"

"Yeah. He didn't tell me he'd be home this weekend... his schedule's gotten really busy again over the years so I don't see him as often as when - well, you know, but... he's always there. Just not physically. You get it?"

"Yeah." I was so tempted to reach over and intertwine my paw with his, but - there was Mom right back there, who (maybe) thought that we were still just friends. "Hey, speaking of, are you... doing okay?"

His ears perked. For a moment, he glanced down; the sidewalk had been broken at some point in time, resulting in an uneven, shattered step up. Had he not looked down, I probably would have missed it and tumbled all over myself. "I'm doing well, I think. I don't know if you could tell, but, um - earlier today, I'd started to feel..."

When I was sitting down playing a game with him behind me, his paw had tightened on my shoulder for a few minutes and his responses reduced to single-word replies, only to have him go and lie down a little later. I paused the game and went to lie down with him, and we just... well, we'd just stayed like that, his paws on my chest and mine under his shirt stroking the fur along his back, him keeping his eyes closed and mechanically regulating his breathing. I could tell.

"...you know? But, it's better. A lot better. I was already doing better earlier in the week, and then I came over and spent some time with you, and..." For a split second, he brushed his fingers across the back of my paw. In that simple touch I could feel more warmth than in almost anything else. "I don't know how to explain it."

I couldn't help but smile. We slowed to a stop in front of the door, nice painted wood with a fogged-glass decorative window. It looked like a nice place inside. "Don't worry; I know what you're saying."

"Okay. Okay..." Harley rubbed his paws together and danced around a little on the welcome mat, his excitement evident in his whole body. When his eyes fell on me next, I - actually didn't hear the first half of what he'd said, for the sake of bright green. "...ready? Gosh, I haven't introduced someone to Dad in - years... I'm almost certain he thinks I'm lying when I talk about my friends with him..." He reached forward, held a finger out in the air for a moment, inhaled, exhaled, and rang the doorbell.

"Have you talked about me at all?"

"I - oh, dang, he's already..."

Click of the lock, creak_of the hinges, weird little dried-rubber sound of the door coming free from the threshold... and then there in front of us stood a modestly-dressed coyote, fur edging on stone more than Harley's sand, eyes a cool, smooth steel-grey, tinged with blue at the outer rim and hazel-green at the inner. I could only see so well because the afternoon sunlight shone _just right against his muzzle; a second later, he held a paw up to shield his eyes.

And, then, a wide smile spread across his face. "Well, look who it is."

Yet again, Harley's tail thwapped against my leg. "Hi Dad! I didn't know you were going to be home!"

"I wanted to make it a surprise. You'd told me you weren't feeling great..." He pointed a long-clawed finger towards me. "Who's this?"

"This is Danny." Harley took my wrist in his paw and gave a squeeze. "My boyfriend."

My heart hopped up into my throat - natural reaction - but his dad didn't seem to care one bit. In fact, if anything the news just widened his grin. He rested his paws on his hips and leaned in to get a closer look at me: he stood about half a foot taller than me, which put him maybe two inches above his son.

"Boyfriend, huh? Guess it's my turn to say you didn't tell me."

"Guess it's my turn to say I wanted to make it a surprise."

His dad held a paw out to me, which I took and shook. He had a good, firm grip, fingerpads calloused and claws blunted. Lines in his face, drooping whiskers, silver and white streaks in his fur, but then looking at his eyes and the way he smiled... I couldn't tell if he was forty-five or sixty-five.

"Gosh, Daniel." Now he spoke directly to me, and used a lower, friendlier tone of voice. Maybe he didn't want to scare me off; it was pretty clear that Harley didn't get his slim form from this side of the family. "I really wish I could have more time to get to know you, but - looks like you've got someone back there waiting for you, huh? I just got home myself, so I haven't had time to change or shower or start dinner, but..." He stepped to the side as Harley squeezed past him, tail brushing across both of our legs. "...my son's talked about you. A lot. If I said I didn't see this coming, well - I'd be lying."

"He's a good guy." I tried to give my most polite smile, but instead found it to turn into a genuine one. This older coyote just seemed to ooze friendliness and comfort, as weird as that was. "Met him in my history class."

"Yes, he told me. You were sleeping."

"I was not!"

Low, easy laugh. From inside, Harley shouted something about clothes; his dad half-turned and shouted back "In the closet!" and then turned back to me. Traces of that enjoyment could still be seen on his muzzle, but they quickly faded. "You know, he hasn't had a - well, relationship in three years. Not a real one, at least..."

There it was. I swallowed. "Yeah. He... he told me."

"So he wasn't lying when he told me he likes you."

Just like so many times before, the words came without me thinking about them: "I think it's a little more than that." My tail swayed behind me.

"And how do you feel about him?"

This was one of those questions on an exam where you're certain you know the answer, beyond any shadow of a doubt, and you hardly spend any time filling it in - and then get the graded test back to see you were right. So I gave my answer - "I wanna spend my time with him and make him happy, 'cause just being around him is enough to make me happy" - and it seemed to be satisfactory enough.

He rested his weight against the threshold, raising his other paw to wave at Mom in the car. "Well, then, Daniel, it was good to meet you... I hope I'll get to see you again. Actually, scratch that - I know I will. I'm not at home very often, but I've got high hopes. Give me or Harley a call if you ever need anything, alright? And come over for dinner sometime. He says I make a killer plate of nachos."

"Yes sir! It was good to meet you, too."

"Alright, then. You have a good day." Then over his shoulder again: "Harley! Your boyfriend's leaving!"

"Bye, Danny! See you Monday!"

The sun had only continued to shine. It warmed my muzzle on my way back down the sidewalk, over the little broken step and over the curb to the car. Mom smiled at me, and we were off.