A Lion's Tail and a Bear's Hug: Chapter 10
#10 of A Lion's Tail and a Bear's Hug
As you may have read in my journal A lion's tail will be soon reach an unexpected end. Anyway I hope you enjoy the last 4-5 chapters. Comments and criticisms would be most wlecome
A Lion's Tail and a Bear's Hug: Chapter 10
Secrets
Lejon awoke to feel Bjorn nuzzling him gently.
"How come you always seem to wake up first?" The lion whispered while snuggling up closer to his bear. Bjorn mumbled something and hugged Lejon closer to him. Awww he's still asleep that's so cute! After a few minutes Lejon heard the bear yawn and could tell that he was finally waking up.
"Hey woody" Bjorn whispered into Lejon's ear with a slight chuckle.
"What the f- Who the hell is woody?" Lejon asked shocked that Bjorn might have mistaken him for another guy.
"You're woody." The bear said prodding the lion's erection, which Lejon hadn't noticed until the bear had poked it. Lejon blushed to himself, glad that the bear wasn't able to see it. Soon the lion's alarm rang to signal that it was 8 o'clock.
"Awwww fuck it's Monday" The lion said with a groan as he tried to get up from the bear, who was trying with all his might to keep his lover close to him, partially because he wanted to keep cuddling his lion, but more importantly because Lejon was keeping him warm and he knew he would feel cold the second he lost body contact. "No, Bjorn. I'm sorry but I have work. I'll be back at 4. I'm sure you'll find some way to keep yourself amused."
"Do you have to go to work?" The bear whimpered sleepily.
"Yes Bjorn, this flat isn't going to pay its rent itself," Lejon said with a roll of his eyes as he broke away from the bear's grip and put on his clothes for work. Lejon made his way to the kitchen, wolfed down some corn flakes and then made his way back to the bedroom. Bjorn had already fallen back asleep and he looked so cute and peaceful that Lejon decided to leave him be. Lejon checked his phone again. Shit almost 8.15 gotta get to the bus stop quick.
Lejon rushed out of the flat grabbing his keys and oyster card and sprinted to the bus stop as he saw a bus just ahead of him. The bus would've driven past if it wasn't for the fact that someone else had to take it as well. Lejon sat down and said a few prayers while he waited for his bus to take him to the McDonalds where he worked. As he stood outside the door he sighed to himself, working at McDonalds wasn't exactly any fur's dream job, but in Lejon's circumstances it was the only option he had, but even then it barely paid the bills. And he had school fees to pay soon as well...
Lejon got changed into his uniform in the staff toilet and came out to the till. He sighed again to himself. He couldn't help but worry about school. His school wasn't cheap. His mum and dad had been paying the fees, but his mum was in debt when she passed away, and thanks to inheritance laws he'd been forced to pay it off with all the money that was in his bank account at the time. That was just over a month ago, and no doubt he'd have to pay the terms fees in the next week or so. That would be somewhere between one to two thousand pounds even though he had a scholarship.
Lejon blinked as he realised someone was trying to place an order.
"I'm sorry can you repeat that for me?" Lejon asked.
A young female ferret, probably the same age as Lejon, rolled her eyes and kissed her teeth at him. Then she spoke slowly just to mock him.
"I said I want a chicken legend meal with diet coke. Is that ok with you?"
"That's absolutely fine." Lejon said, trying to hide his irritation as he registered the order at the till and then told Benjamin, a tubby badger who prepared the food, what the ferret had ordered. While his back was turned Lejon heard the ferret muttering to herself under her breath.
"How fucking dumb to you have to be to work in this place? I mean, do you have to fail all your exams to be considered for the job?" Lejon spun round and stared the ferret right in the face.
"I can fucking hear you y'know." He growled. "And, no, I didn't fail my exams. I probably did better than you did anyway. Go on, enlighten me. What exactly did you get in your GCSEs cos you look like you're my age so I can only presume you did them unless you got held back a year at some stage."
The ferret scoffed at Lejon's outburst.
"6As and 3Bs" She said proudly, to which Lejon laughed.
"11 A*s. That's what I got. Do you think I want to work here? Listen girl. My mom's dead, my dad's in a coma. I work here to pay my rent and I don't even know if I can afford that along with my school fees, so I'm sorry if thinking about my financial problems meant I wasn't paying attention to your stupid order straight away." Lejon growled then looked a bit shocked and composed himself. The ferret on the other hand was blushing and wouldn't look Lejon in the face.
"I-I'm sorry..." She muttered. Lejon's ears flattened against his head.
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that stuff, none of that concerned you. I just hate when people insult me before they even get to know me." He turned around and put the food together. "Here, look I'm sorry, I hope I haven't ruined your day, you can have this on me. Don't argue please, I was out of line and this is the only way I can make it up to you. I hope you have a nice day."
The ferret looked slightly shocked but took the meal regardless.
"Thank you... and I'm sorry, I hope everything goes well for you." The ferret left quietly leaving Lejon alone with Benjamin. Lejon put the necessary money from his wallet into the till and then looked up at the clock; it was almost 9.00. Leanne, Josh and Aaron should be arriving for their shifts any minute.
Lejon was startled but a paw on his shoulder. He turned round to see Benjamin giving him a sorry look.
"Hey, Lejon, if you ever need it, I could always lend you some money, I mean, I've got quite a bit saved up in the bank, it would be no trouble for me to lend you enough to pay your rent or whatever." A tear crept into the corner of Lejon's eye and he hugged Benjamin tightly.
"Thank but no thanks. I don't like to rely on other people for money but thank you so much for being here for me Ben, you're a good friend." Benjamin gave Lejon an understanding nod.
"Well I'm always willing to help" The badger said with a smile. Lejon smiled back. He couldn't deny, although he hated the job, his colleagues always made it bearable.
Bjorn finally decided to get out of bed at 10 o'clock. He made his way to the kitchen and decided to make some toast for himself since it was the only thing that he deemed to be 'remotely edible'. After he finished, he got dressed and got his phone out of his pocket he scrolled through his contacts and finally hit the dial button.
"Hi, its Bjorn... yeah... well I don't know if you heard but Lejon got into an accident with a gang... yeah he's fine now but I feel like it's my fault... I know but I still want to make it up to him... well there was one thing I had in mind... yeah... it might be possible... alright then we'll need to meet up and talk in person... alright, this evening or tomorrow night... alright tomorrow... yes I'll bring the money... ok bye... yes I'll be alone... ok bye." Bjorn hung up the phone. He hoped he was doing the right thing on this occasion. He sighed to himself and sat on the couch.
He wasn't quite sure what to do, he didn't want to play the Xbox without Lejon, and he didn't want to leave the apartment either because Lejon hadn't given him a spare key or anything and he didn't want to just take off back to his own apartment just yet. In the end he decided to go back to the futon and get some more sleep, he loved dreaming, he could happily spend a day just dreaming, one of his friends even called him the owl man because he enjoyed sleeping during the day and working at night.
As he slipped back into his dreams he found himself with Lejon again. The two of them were cuddling in the park. It was a nice summer's day. Bjorn was kissing Lejon gently and the two were happy to just sit in the sun in each other's company. Clouds would occasionally sail through the sky on their lazy course to nowhere in particular, but soon the sky was getting clogged up with clouds and the sun was being hidden from view. Lejon whimpered quietly and Bjorn held him close as the sky gradually darkened.
The bear didn't even realise as it happened but they were suddenly in an alleyway. A large crowd of furs was milling around them and suddenly Bjorn found himself separated from Lejon; they were being swept to opposite ends of the alleyway. Bjorn blinked and stared in horror as he realised suddenly that all the furs in the crowd wore black hoodies and kept their faces hidden. Bjorn saw Lejon fighting with a group of the furs at his end of the alley. They had knives and he had his weird metal staff thing. More and more furs were making their way towards Lejon and Bjorn was punching and kicking his way through the crowd to try and reach his lion so he could protect him, but the crowd seemed to only get bigger and the distance between him and Lejon only seemed to grow.
Lejon had cleared a circle around him and no furs were risking getting too close. Suddenly one fur made his way through the crowd directly towards Lejon, there was something different about him but Bjorn couldn't work out what it was. Was it his walk? His appearance? Bjorn tried to warn Lejon. He tried to shout but no voice came out of his mouth. Bjorn tried to push the hooded furs aside and get to Lejon but to no avail. Bjorn could only look on in dread as the strange fur made his way up to Lejon. Lejon gave him a cocky smile and made to swing his metal staff at him.
The new fur dodged the metal staff and pulled out a gun. Lejon paled, dropped his staff and backed away from the fur. Bjorn couldn't do anything to help his lover; he was useless, pathetic, and weak. Lejon had tears streaming down his muzzle. He begged the fur to let him and Bjorn go. Bjorn was shouting trying to get the other furs attention but to no avail. The fur put the gun under Lejon's muzzle. Lejon shook in fear and closed his eyes. Bjorn was paralysed, he tried to force himself to wake up, to do anything which would prevent him from seeing the next few moments of his dream unfold but nothing worked. Lejon looked Bjorn straight in the eyes. Bjorn's heart almost broke as he saw the fear in his lover's eyes. Then a loud shot resonated throughout his dream. The fear left Lejon's eyes... and so did any other hint of life. Lejon's body slumped to the floor and a red stain was left on wall. The crowd dispersed leaving Bjorn alone with Lejon in his arms. Tears fell from Bjorn's muzzle onto Lejon's lifeless cheeks.
"Lejon, I'm sorry, I-I couldn't protect you... Not even in my dreams" Bjorn was trapped, he stayed there with Lejon in his arms for what felt like hours, unable to wake up or change the scenario he just cried and rocked with the lifeless body of his lover in his arms.
Bjorn felt a paw on his shoulder bringing him back to reality. Lejon was looking down at him with a concerned look on his face.
"Hun, are you ok? You've been crying."
"Lejon!" Bjorn grabbed his lion and hugged him close as he cried. "I'm sorry. I had a bad dream... I-I couldn't protect you... You died Lejon and it was all my fault!" Bjorn wept and his tears wet the fur on Lejon's neck. Lejon didn't know what to say so he just let Bjorn hug him.
After 5 minutes Bjorn composed himself. Lejon turned round and hugged the bear.
"Bjorn, I'm really sorry I have to ask but, well I don't know how to put this. Um... would it be ok if you weren't in the flat while I wasn't here. It's just cause I don't have that much money right now and I couldn't really pay the extra electricity, food or heating bills etc." Lejon looked away from Bjorn; he was obviously ashamed that he had to ask Bjorn the question. Bjorn kissed Lejon lightly.
"That's fine hun. I understand, I could always help pay if you want." Lejon explained to Bjorn what he had told Benjamin earlier. "Well it wouldn't be charity or anything" The bear insisted, "I'd be paying for myself."
"I know" Lejon said, "But it just wouldn't feel right for me. And I couldn't ask too much from you anyway, you have your own rent etc. to worry about."
Lejon worked the same shift at McDonalds the next day. Shortly after he got home from work Bjorn excused himself to go out for a few hours. Lejon didn't think anything of it and just studied for the exams he'd be sitting in the summer.
Bjorn made his way to an old gym building. He found the side entrance unlocked as had been arranged. He walked in to find it almost completely dark. A voice cut through the darkness.
"You brought the money?"
"Yes." Bjorn replied. A few lights came on in the building.
"Well then let's get down to business." The voice said as the body of the fur emerged from the shadows and made it way over slowly towards Bjorn...