Capital Furs

Vita Dulcis

Chapter 1

2018.  Dressed in slacks and a dress shirt, a twenty-nine year old Aubrey Mitchel stood in front of a high school classroom with a black marker in his fingers.  The soft featured snow leopard still featured a short stature and his hair had been cut back since his youth, now tied back with only a couple of inches to spare but his bangs went to his eyes.  He looked at his class of furred faces that sat in the rows of desks, some looking on in interest, others bored and slouched or hunched in their seats.  “This is going to seem a bit elementary for you but in a historical sense it really isn’t.”  He turned to the white board at the end of the class and wrote out five letters.  ‘HUMAN’ is what he wrote in large black capital letters.  “What does this word mean?”

“People.” said a girl seated in the middle of room; she was one of four foxes in the class.

“Yes.”  Aubrey replaced the cap of his marker.  “That’s the easy answer.  What else does it mean?  Where does it come from?”  The question was answered only with blank stares from his students.  “We use ‘human’ to define every ‘intelligent’ being on earth.  We use words like ‘humanity’ to describe us, we put that word on probes that we sent into space.  When people hurt each other we say it’s ‘inhumane’.  It’s the word we use to define ourselves as something different from the animals; it certainly does mean ‘people’.  The class still only offered silence and idle movements.  “’Humain’, where ‘human’ comes from meant ‘that of mankind’.”

“What about woman kind?”, asked another girls voice.  Aubrey turned back to see who had spoken.  Sitting in the back row was a snow leopard-clouded leopard hybrid, his own niece, June Ramsden.

Aubrey smiled.  “Back then ‘man’ collectively defined all ‘people’ as well.  The prefix ‘waep’ was use to specific boys and ‘wif’ to make ‘wifman’ was for girls.”

“Is that where the word ‘Wife’ comes from?”

“Yes, it is.”  Aubrey continued to his topic to get to his point.  “’Humanus’ where ‘human’ is derived from was a word that referred to culture. ‘Human’ has old meanings such as ‘those who are like the gods but are not the gods’.  We are collectively unified under the word ‘human’.  Throughout all of history however we have had conflicts because of species.  Now,” Aubrey parted his arms and posed a question to the class.  “What do you think would happen if another species became ‘human’?  If they evolved into something like us, walking up right, talking, building things?”

This got the class to stop looking so bored and murmured whispers were exchanged between seats while a few students sat up.  One boy, a German shepherd, raised his hand and spoke up.  “You mean like if the cows started talking?”  His question earned chuckles and more hushed discussion between the students, some joked, some shrugged at the idea, and one remarked about talking cheeseburgers.

Aubrey smiled, some might not be taking it seriously but he was glad to see they were at least thinking now.  “Maybe, but they’re pretty far off at this point.  To evolve that far now would take thousands and thousands of years.  How about something closer?  Primates like monkeys and apes already look a lot like us.  They have a similar shape to any of us, developed hands, thumbs, they can even walk upright unlike almost all animals.”

“Do you mean talking monkeys, Mr. Mitchel?”  Asked June from her seat at the end of the room.  More students started laughing at the idea.  One cat next to June even mimicked the sounds of a monkey mixed with caveman like language.

Aubrey was irritated and his tail swayed behind him now, showing it while his face didn’t.  “I guess monkeys are too stupid to evolve that far, huh?”  Asked Aubrey and the consensus of the class agreed with that statement while they calmed down.  The snow leopard grinned wide.  “How many of you have pet cats or dogs?”  The students quieted down, with silence form his students of canine or feline persuasion.  “Monkeys don’t seem so stupid when you think about it that way, do they?”  Some nodded in agreement, others looked away and a few didn’t seem to have their opinions swayed.  Eyeing the clock Aubrey saw that the bell was about to ring and he needed to finish up.  “Okay guys, homework; for next class I want three hundred words about what impact you think a new species becoming human would have on society and future history.”

The assignment of garnered groans and complaints from the students as the packed up their books and made for the door.  One rabbit complained about how half as many words would be fair.

“When you guys get into college, you’ll wish you had teachers that only assigned three hundred words.  It’s less than a page, it’s not a big deal.  Just think about it and write what you come up with.”

---

Lunch period came to the high school and teenagers took over the cafeteria and hallways.  Scattered across the school the sat into their groups and cliques to eat and chat.  One duo sat at a table, the hybrid leopard June and her sixteen year old cousin, Mathew Mitchel.  Mathew, a wolf was Aubrey’s step-son, having married their father years ago and approaching the table with a tray of food in hand was his younger brother Skyler.  The leopard and wolves were all related by law but by looking at them no one would ever assume it.

Mathew had taken on traits of his father since puberty, almost six feet tall already and his shoulders broadening.  His fourteen year old brother in contrast was smaller in stature like Aubrey but still had two inches over him.  June who was in the grade between the wolves was only a few inches under six feet, her figure had filled out well but she hid it under baggy pants and a loose hockey jersey.  She had come to be a bit of a tomboy.

Mathew groaned as his little brother joined them.  “Why do you always have to sit with me?” he asked with irritation.

Skyler had spent years getting used Matt’s attitude which ranged between levels of hostility.  “Because no one else will with you at lunch.” he said calmly.

June snerked and leaned in to Skyler.  “Did you ask her?”

Tail wagging behind his chair, he nodded.  “Yeah, she said ‘yes’.”

Not sure what the other two were talking about but noticing his brothers pleased state, Mathew sat up in his seat.  “Ask who?  Yes to what?”

Skyler’s eyes landed on Mathew.  “I asked Amy Shaw out, she’s one of the wolves in my class.”

“Wait,” Mathew was now nearly choking in shock.  “How’d you get a girl before me!?”  His loud voice caused students at other tables to turn their attention to their table.

June crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back.  “Do you have to act like an idiot?”

“I’m not an idiot, but how did he get a girl to go out with him before I ever did?”

“I asked her and she said yes.”  Mathew said plainly.

“Shut up.”

“Matt,” June rolled her eyes as the older wolf seemed to get distressed.  “Have you even ever asked anyone out?”

“No, but,”

“That would be your problem.”

Mathew growled quietly.  “How do you get a chick when you’re the one that Dad and Aubrey thought were going to be, ya, ‘you know’.”

Skyler’s calm face soured slightly and his eyes narrowed.  “I’m not gay just because Dad and Dad are.”

“You’re short like Aubrey is,”

“I’m taller than him.”

“And you were always the crying kid to ran to Dad or Aubrey when something was wrong,” Pointing out to June he continued.  “And you’d let her protect you.” Mathew said.

Shaking her head, June sighed.  “I protected him from you picking on him and I’ve kicked your ass more than once because of it.”

“Yeah, you got beat up by a girl.” said Skyler smugly.

“Well,” Turning her head to Matt, June was thinking up things that would irritate him just right.  “If Sky’s got a girl, he’s not gay.  That must mean it’s you instead.”

“I’m not gay!” shouted Matt as he bore his teeth at his cousin.

“You got two dads, odds are good that one of you will be like them and Matt’s got a girl.  Why haven’t you ever tried to ask anyone out?”

Rolling his eyes, Mathew shoved is tray into center of the table and stood up.  “Fuck you guys.”  He growled again under his words and left them.

June and Skyler sat in silence for a moment while Matt disappeared into the students.  Reaching to Matt’s abandoned tray, June claimed a carton of chocolate milk from it.  “How do you put up with him?”

Shrugging, Skyler started at his lunch.  “He just sits in his room most of the time so he’s not a big deal.  People wouldn’t avoid him if he’d just relax instead of either yelling or glaring at people.”

Sighing again, June thought about her cousin but she knew there wasn’t anything she could do to affect the situation.  “So where are you taking her?”

“Uhh, movie I guess.”

“No.  Don’t just do a movie if you want to impress her.”

“Why not?  Don’t people go out to the movies?”

“You’re both sitting next to each other in the dark and you can’t talk.  You guys might as well be in class or something.”

“Well, what do you suggest?”

“Take her to a movie first and then do other stuff.  There’s a theater in the mall down town, go there and after hang out with her.”
“Hang out?”

“Talk to her, stupid.  Look at stuff.  Eat.  Get to know each other.”

Skyler was a little naïve at his age but had been developing a better understanding in the last few years. “We already do that at school.”

June hung her head.  “Just do it.”

---

The Mitchel home was once the Ramsden home, it had been Aubrey’s family home since he was born and he and his three brothers were raised there.  Aubrey’s mother gifted it to Aubrey almost eight years ago after he graduated from university.  Since then it had slowly changed as shifted from being his parent’s house into being his own families’ house.  New furniture, walls repainted, the cupboards redone, and carpets replaced.  The boys got home first by the bus and Aubrey followed over an hour later as the teachers were the last to ever leave the school.  ‘The man of the house’ so to speak was Eric, biological father to Mathew and Skyler and the husband who’s name Aubrey had taken.

After getting home on the bus Mathew retreated to his own bedroom upstairs and kept the door closed.  He had his own laptop would spend most of his time hiding in the internet.

Downstairs, Skyler had brought June home with him, it wasn’t uncommon for her to visit in the afternoon and be taken home to her mother later.  They sat at the dining room table, themselves with laptops each and trying to clear their homework sooner than later.  June peered over her screen at her cousin.  “What do you think it’d be like if insects turned into people?”

“Eww.  It’d be gross.  Would they still sting people and stuff?”

June hadn’t considered that and looked back at the laptop while thinking about it.  “Hey Uncle Aub,”

“It’s cheating if I help you!” called out Aubrey’s voice from the kitchen.

June’s ears flattened slightly as the girl leaned into the table.  “You’re my uncle, you’re supposed to help me out.”

“I’m your teacher, I’m supposed to let you learn.”  Aubrey emerged from the kitchen and into the adjacent dining room.  He smiled; at least they were doing their homework early.  “How’s your mom June?”

Looking up and shrugging, June turned to Aubrey.  “She’s alright.  Judge ruled in her favor, so now dad has to buy me new hockey stuff for not paying his child support.”

Aubrey made an awkward face.  “Uh. That’s great.”  His brother was her father and her mother had divorced him almost five years ago, though it wasn’t anything no one saw coming.  “Tell her to say hi and to come over on occasion, would you?”

“She thinks it’s weird cause she’s not related to you anymore.”

Sighing, Aubrey shook his head.  He’d rather see his former sister in law than his own brother Thomas, she was far more tolerable but he wasn’t about openly insult June’s father in front of her.

“So what’s for dinner Uncle Aub?”

“You know if we keep feeding you, your mom’s going to have to pay us child support.”  The snow leopard turned back into the kitchen and opened up one of the cupboards.  “Eric got caught up after work, but he’s bringing home pizza soon.”  His eyes glanced over to the clock on the stove.  “Hopefully soon.  Where’s Matt?”

“His room, where else?” said Skyler from across the table.

Aubrey didn’t even respond, he should have assumed that’s where the young wolf was hiding.  His attention was diverted when the front door of the house opened and Eric entered.  The wolf stood tall with a pair of pizza boxes in his arms.  Black hair cut short, broad, tall, dressed on jeans and a black t-shirt with ‘POLICE’ written across the back in white lettering.  “Awesome.” cheered Aubrey as he came down the front hallway to relieve him of the boxes and inched up on his toes to kiss the wolf on the cheek.  “It’s good to have a man that brings home the bacon.”

Eric smiled and began to take off his shoes.  “I just keep dreaming of coming home to a beautiful housewife with dinner on the table and my slippers in hand.”

The snow leopard let out a sharp, short laugh and grinned.  “Keep dreaming, hon.” As he passed by the stairs in the front hall, Aubrey paused and yelled up them.  “Matt!  Dinner!”

Clearing the table of school work the pizza boxes were opened and the family gathered around table with one exception.  The teenagers helped themselves without question but the parents were noticing Mathew taking his time to come down.  Finally they heard the first step of the stairs squeak and knew he was finally making the effort.

Crossing the kitchen for the dining room stopped for a moment.  “Hey.”  He said simply before taking a plate and reaching between his father and brother to pull a trio of slices onto the plate.  He turned again and was going straight back up stairs rather than sit down.

“Matt, sit down please.” said Aubrey.

Mathew paid no mind to Aubrey’s words and continued through the kitchen.

Eric turned his head as he saw Aubrey had been ignored.  “Listen to your father.”

“He’s not.”

“What?”

The teenage wolf turned and stood by the kitchen island.  “He’s not my father.” He said smugly.

Aubrey hung his head and swallowed his food.  “Not this again.” He said under his breath.  “Please just sit down Matt.”

While Aubrey was purposefully dodging what Mathew had said, Eric was stuck on it.  “I’ve told you before not to say things like that to him.  Say you’re sorry and sit down, now.”

“You might have married him, he might be my ‘step dad’ but he’s not my father and he’s not my mother.  I’m not even the same species as Aubrey.”

“Don’t call him ‘Aubrey’, Skyler doesn’t.”

Aubrey shook his head.  “It’s fine, he can call me whatever.”

“Fuck you, you can’t make me!”

“Mathew!”

Again shaking his head while his tail fell low and his head sunk.  “Go to your room.  Okay?  If you don’t want to eat with the family, fine, go upstairs.”

The other children just kept eating slowly but paid close attention to the argument in front of them.  Meanwhile, Eric wasn’t happy with Mathew getting to go to his room as he wanted but he wasn’t going to supersede Aubrey’s orders.  More over, with June at the table it was awkward to let any argument continue.  With Mathew’s exit, everyone went back to eating but now it was quiet and hushed.  “June, I’ll drive you home after dinner, alright?”

“Sure.”, said the hybrid leopard as she stuffed another slice of pizza into her mouth.

Turning to his husband, Eric looked at Aubrey.  “Try to talk to him while I’m out?”  

Rolling his eyes, Aubrey didn’t seem to hold any faith in that working.  “Yeah, right.”

---

A couple hours later, Aubrey was laying across the bed in the master bedroom.  He was on his side with a pillow clutched into his arms and his tail was curling upward and then rapping against the bedding with irritation.  The door opened and his eyes moved up to see Eric letting himself in before closing the door and locking it behind him.

Eric looked Aubrey up and down, noting the motion of his tail and approached the bed.  “Well you look happy.  How’d it go?”

“I don’t know.  He’s been in his room all night.  There’s no point in talking to him.  He’s angry and he’s sixteen, what am I going to do about it?”

“He wasn’t always like this.”

Sitting up, Aubrey pushed himself up on one side and shook his head in disagreement.  “Yes, he has.  He’s been angry since I met him when he was six years old, the only difference is now he’s bigger and he knows we can’t make him sit in the corner for being bad.”  There was a sigh.  “Maybe he needs more therapy.”

“He’s already in therapy, Aub.” said Eric as he sat down on the edge of the bed.  “The problem is, he knows.  Sky doesn’t remember their mother but Matt remembers enough and he remembers that she left, that she wasn’t forced to leave, and that no on took her away but that she realized she didn’t want him.”

Aubrey took a deep breath and rolled onto his back where he stared up at the ceiling for a few moments.  “He doesn’t hate me, does he?  I’m just an easy target for him to blame.  Cause I'm the one his dad fell in love with after.  I’m the proof that she’s never coming back.”

Eric reached out for Aubrey’s hand and pulled him towards himself.  “You’re cuter then Mel was anyway.”

Putting his arms around Eric, Aubrey held him tight and nuzzled his nose into his neck.  “I’m really worried about him.  I’ve seen kids like that at school, some of them get over it but some of them just run themselves into the ground and drop out after they flunk a couple years.”

“And that’s why you are his father too, because you worry about him.”

“It was easier when he was little.  I was still bigger than him.”

“Are you going to complain about being short again?”

Aubrey leaned back from Eric as his face scrunched up.  “Everyone in this house is bigger than me now.  Even Sky’s taller than me this year.”

“It’s not like you’re a midget or something.”  Reaching behind Aubrey’s head to stoke his hair, Eric smiled.  “Though I liked it better when you had longer hair.”

“I liked it better when I had my own dorm room that we could sneak off to, or we could dump the kids off with my mom.”

“Do you remember our first time?”

Aubrey snerked, “I remember you being nervous and not sure what to do.”

“I’d never been with a guy before.”

“And then,” Aubrey grinned and placed his hands on Eric’s shoulders, pushing him back into the bed.  “I think I told you to just lie back and relax.”

“Something like that.”  Eric smiled wider as he lie back against the mattress but their turn towards intimacy was cut short bye the loud sound of something slamming into the door, followed by a painful yelp.

“Oh geez.”  Aubrey started to laugh and rolled off Eric while covering his face.  “Thank god you locked the door.”

The wolf groaned.  “God it’s like the third time he’s done that.”

Aubrey got up from the bed and came to the door, opening it to see the sight of Skyler sitting on the floor and cupping his muzzle painfully in the door.  He was trying not to laugh by a wide grin was stuck on his face.

“Why’s the door locked?”

“Why do you try to open doors without knocking first?” replied Aubrey.

“Is he okay?”

Aubrey looked back into the room for a second.  “His face is still on straight.”  He returned to Skyler who was still on the hallway floor and in pain from walking nose first into the door.  “How’d you like it if I came into your room all the time without knocking?”

Skyler looked up at his step-father without a word as he spent the time figuring out what he was implying.  “Eww.”, he said simply once he got the implication.

“I thought so.  You start knocking and I’ll keep knocking, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Returning to the bed, he on the edge next to Eric and the two parents looked back at their son.  “So?”

“What?”

Aubrey and Eric traded glances before Eric spoke up.  “You came to our room for something.”

“Oh yeah.”  Skyler shook his head, he was still a bit stunned from the door but truth be told he always seemed to be just slightly distracted by his own thoughts.  “I need a ride out on Friday.  I have a date.”

Tossing a look to Eric, Aubrey seemed surprised.  “Like, a date date?”

“Yeah?”

Both the wolf and the snow leopard were just speechless.  They had somehow assumed that Mathew would be the first one to have a date and hadn’t put much thought into Skyler, he seemed more innocent anyway though he certainly was more popular at school.  They weren’t sure how to approach this but after shifting his weight on the bed Eric nodded.  “That’s great, what’s her name?”

“You assume it’s a ‘her’?” said Aubrey to Eric.

“Don’t start.”

Skyler scrunched his face just a bit and nodded.  “Her name is Amy, she’s a wolf in my class.  It’s okay right?”  He seemed unsure of himself and the fact that his parents were focusing more on the fact that he had a date in the first place made him feel off.  “I asked her out to go eat and then a movie on Friday.  We can get a ride, right?”

The boy seemed to have everything lined up, despite asking the girl out and having a plan he did neglect to arrange a ride there to start with.  Aubrey and Eric seemed to weigh the decision silently as they sat on the bed.  Eric didn’t seem to have a problem and spoke up first.  “Me and the guys are doing poker on Friday, you can take him, right babe?”

Rolling his head towards Eric, Aubrey seemed to pout.  “But I wanted to see all the good looking cops in my house at once.”  The snow leopard’s eyes fell to Skyler and he gestured in agreement.  “But this way I get to meet the girl and ask her all sorts of questions!”

“Err,” Skyler didn’t seem to take to that last part at all.  “Could you like, not say anything, the whole time?”

Aubrey frowned.  “I won’t embarrass you, I promise, Sweet Heart.”

“And don’t call me ‘Sweet Heart’ in front of her?”

Watching the exchange, Eric chuckled and smiled.  “He’ll behave, he doesn’t want to turn into your Grandma after all, right Babe?”

Aubrey quickly frowned.  “Hey, I’m not nearly as embarrassing as my mother!”  He stopped himself and looked back to Skyler.  “It’s fine, okay?  Now get to bed before it’s late, okay hon?”

Wagging his tail, having it sorted now out, Skyler nodded “Cool, thanks dad.” He said turned about and left them in the room to his parents.

Aubrey fell back into the bed and looked up at Eric while he lay on his back.  “God, when did I stop being young and cool?” asked the Snow Leopard as he groaned over his own step-son worrying about him being embarrassing.

The wolf smiled and moved his hand to the snow leopards hair, running his fingers across his bangs.  “The moment you stopped being ‘Dad’s Boyfriend’ and became ‘a parent’.  Then you doubled it up when you became a teacher at their school.”

“Hey,” Aubrey protested the last part.  “I was a high school teacher before they were high school students.  It’s their fault for growing up.”  Thinking a bit he smiled and sighed happily.  “I used to worry a bit about him, but I guess he’s okay.  He got a girl to agree to go out with him after all.”

Eric nodded in agreement.  “He’s just way more relaxed than his brother ever is.  At least we don’t have to worry about both of them.”

“I don’t want to worry about either of them.  I want them to be both okay.”

“They’ll be okay.” Eric said, leaning down and kissing his husband on the forehead.  “Matt just needs more effort.”

“I hope that’s all it is.”

Vita Dulcis

Chapter Two:


The walls of the room Mathew sat in were light blue, posters of mental health information and clichéd motivational posters were hung up.  The teenaged wolf sat amongst one group of chairs on one side of a desk while a man sat in an armed chair on the other side.  This was a doctor’s office; he was meeting with his psychologist as he had been every two weeks for a few months now.

The doctor was a ring tailed cat, which isn’t a cat at all but a procyon, the same taxonomic family as the raccoon.  With black and brown fur, he had a black and white ringed tail that was obscured behind the desk and he was dressed in slacks and an unbuttoned dress shirt.  Overall, he looked casual rather than uptight or analytical.  “So, your parents tell me that you’ve been arguing with your step father again.  You stay away from the family and spend most of your time in your room.”

Slouching in his chair and looking disinterested, Mathew kept his arms crossed over his chest with head turned away.  “Yeah, and?”

The doctor kept calm and wouldn’t push Mathew into shutting down like his parents might have.  “Your father got remarried ten years ago now, having your step father around is nothing new but it seems you’re problems with him have been growing over the last few years.”

“I never liked him to start with and he’s not my father.”

“Why isn’t he your father, Mathew?”

“Cause he’s not, my dad’s my dad.  He’s just the guy that my dad went gay for.”

“Do you not like that your father’s with another man now?”

“No.”  Mathew shook his head.  “I don’t care if people are gay.  There’s some kids at school like that anyway, but why should he be my ‘Step-Dad’?  All he did was marry my dad, what does that have to do with me?”

“So you’re okay with him being your Dad’s husband, but not him also being your dad?”

“Yeah.”

The psychologist was quiet while he scribbled down notes onto a pad and his tail would curl around the leg of his chair as he put thought into his notes.  “So, do you think that he can’t be your father because you’re not related to him like you are your biological father?”

“It’s pretty obvious that he’s not my father.  Anyone can tell, just but looking at us.  Aubrey doesn’t match.”

“But you don’t have a problem with other mixed species families, do you?”

Darting his eyes to the doctor before casting them away again, Mathew had paused.  “No.”

“What about adopted children?  Are those people their parents?”

“That’s different.”  Mathew was slowly growing frustrated but not nearly as quickly as when others argued with him.  The questions were leading into conclusions as he made his answers but he didn’t like being asked so many things.  “Why don’t you ever say anything?  You just ask me stuff.”

The doctor began to smile kindly.  “Would you listen to me if I sat here and told you what you were doing wrong?”

“I’d tell you to fuck off.”

“So it’s better that I ask you stuff rather than tell you stuff, don’t you think?”

Mathew wanted to disagree just for the sake of it but couldn’t find any grounds for it.  Instead he adjusted his arms but kept the crossed before answering.  “I guess so.”

“Does Aubrey fight with you?”

“No.”

“Does he punish you more than your father does?”

“No, he lets me get away with more stuff than Dad does.”

“But when your father punishes you, you’re more likely to listen, aren’t you?”

Again, Mathew made a face of mild frustration.  “I never told you that.”

“But I know you care what your father thinks, you’re only dismissive of Aubrey.”

“That’s cause Aubrey’s not my dad.  I already told you.”

“So it’s just because he’s not your biological father then?  That’s why you don’t listen to him?”

“Even if he tries, it doesn’t make him my dad and I already have one, so I don’t need two.”

“Do you need a mother?”

Mathew was caught off guard by the question and finally turned his head towards the doctor rather than looking away dismissively.  “She’s gone.”

“I know.”  The doctor himself was feeling weary, he was trying guide Mathew into considering his feelings for his mother that abandoned him and how they tie to his resentment towards Aubrey but he didn’t want to set him off.  “She divorced your father and you haven’t seen her since you were very little.  Do you remember her?”

“I remember that she was there and that she left.  I kept asking when she’d come back and Dad would just say he was sorry, she didn’t want to come back.”

“Do you remember her ‘being a parent’ or do you just remember her being there?”

Mathew was drawing a blank, he didn’t like his answer.  The reality was that his mother had never wanted children, both he and his brother were accidents that his father refused to abort or give up for adoption.  For over two years she reluctantly played ‘Mommy’ but was obligated into it, her heart had never been in it and eventually she decided she didn’t want to play anymore and left, surrendering all custody.  He thought and thought and thought, he had an idea of what it’d have been like to been raised with a mother and father but couldn’t recall any memories of nurturing from his mother.  He started looking confused and distraught and seemed to lose himself in his own thoughts while the room he was in started to feel far away.

---

Aubrey and Eric sat next to each other in the waiting room.  The magazines were out of date and but the old toys in the corner at least inspired nostalgic memories.  Eric read a magazine anyway while Aubrey slouched in his chair himself, head tilted back and stared up at the ceiling.  “A hundred dollars an hour.” He said.  

“My insurance pays for half of it and you don’t really care about the money anyway.” said Eric before letting the waiting room fall back into silence.

Squirming in his seat awkwardly turned his head about the waiting room.  “Do you think I’m spoiled?”

“Yes.” The wolf said simply.

Aubrey didn’t expect such a quick answer and his face quickly turned to upset.  “How can you say that?  I’ve had my share of crap in my life.”

“If you didn’t think it might be true, would you have asked me?”

“Are you a psychologist now too?”

Eric sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.  “You’re gay but your parents were accepting, even encouraging.  Despite being gay, you’ve managed to get married to another guy and are now the father of two children, without even the effort or cost of adoption.  If you were born even twenty years earlier your life would have been very different.”

The snow leopard looked far from happy and kept his eyes narrowed on Eric.  “That’s it?”  

“You’re mother gave you your family home for a dollar, so you’ll never have to worry about losing your home so long as the property taxes are paid.”

“She could have mentioned that the house needed a twenty thousand dollar roof job.”

Eric shrugged and continued.  “Since we’re both employed and there’s no rent or mortgage to pay; you were able to pay off your student loans in only four years and the only debt we have is the van, which will be paid off in a year anyway.  With potential savings plus retirement plans, we’re pretty much financially set for life even if one of us loses our jobs.”

Aubrey had never taken the time to think it all out in order like that and was struck wordless.

Turning to Aubrey, he reached his arm over his shoulder while smiling at him.  “It’s not bad thing though.”

“Yeah,” Grinning, Aubrey looked up.  “You got a free house too.”

“I paid for the roof.” Said Eric which a quiet laugh.  He stopped though, both of them turned quiet as the doctor came down the hall with Mathew and they stopped in the doorway.  Eric had the urge to ask ‘Clean bill of health, doc?’ like he would at the pediatricians office but this was a different kind of doctor and Mathew wasn’t fine.  He tried to smile at Mathew but the expression was forced.  As he looked upon his son’s face he noticed his eyes looked red and blood shot and the fur under his eyes looked damp; Mathew had been crying.

The doctor looked like the most optimistic person of the four.  “I just want to talk to your parents for a second, that okay Matt?”

“Whatever.”  Mathew only shrugged.

“Can you wait in the car then?”  Asked Eric.  Mathew obliged him but didn’t say anything in response.

Aubrey kept his eyes locked on Mathew until he had left their view around a hallway corner.  “Geez, I didn’t even know he could cry.”

“He got a little emotional today.” Said the doctor and he made it sound like it wasn’t a big issue.  “He’s not as bad off as you’d think, but he can be pretty angry.”

Eric began to look impatient.  “We figured the angry thing out ready.  How is he?  Big picture, how is he?”

“He’s sixteen, pumped with testosterone, angry and frustrated.  Without help he’ll probably get worse but he’s salvageable.”  The doctor nodded.  “The good news is I don’t think he needs any medication.  His biggest issue is his mother; he hates her.  He acts like he hates Aubrey, but it’s his mother that he can barely remember that he hates.  He hates that she even let it come to be that he can barely remember.  Like a cruel joke in his memories; He really barely remembers her but he remembers just enough to know that she was there and she left.  Just enough to make it hurt without anything good to focus on.”

Eric and Aubrey both exchanged looks, while the doctor seemed optimistic in his presentation of the situation it still sounded to them that the only fix was to some how change the way things went down fourteen years ago.

“Mathew is salvageable.  At his age he can be easily frustrated but he can also get over his issues with his mother rather than let him slide and screw his life up.  Often parents bring their kids in when they are far more gone than Mathew is and it’s a lot harder to work with them but he should be fine with time and effort.”

Eric shook his head as he heard the situation and offered out his hand to the doctor.  “So, two weeks then?”

“Two weeks.”  Said the doctor, “It’ll be good to see you guys again then.  Just make an appointment with my secretary.”

---


The next day came and it was Friday.  As would be expected the students of the high school were all eager for the day to end and the weekend to begin.  At school Mathew wasn’t very social; He sat at the back of his classrooms, he had no real friends aside from acquaintances he sat next to in class and he wasn’t a member of any of the ad-hoc social groups that had formed.  He didn’t see Aubrey much either except the occasional wave in the hallway.

The truth was that neither Mathew or Skyler had classes with Aubrey as their teacher, he had engineered it this way to ensure that they could have a more ‘normal’ school life without their step father as their teacher.  With their difference in species few people at the school even knew that ‘Mr. Mitchel’ was their step father and everyone assumed the names were merely a coincidence.

Mathew’s science class was monotonous and he sat at the back of the room with his laptop in front of him, one elbow the desk, his face propped up in his palm and bored look glazed over his face.  Today they were learning about phlogiston theory and how the scientific method encouraging challenging of theories in the search of better theories.  He’d type down his notes when the teacher put something new on the projector but otherwise he didn’t care.

“Hey Mitchel,” The words were spoken quietly by the student in the desk adjacent to Mathew’s.  James Grover; he was a cougar, a tan furred feline with short cut blond hair and dressed casually like every other student.  “I heard your little brother got a date with the hottest chick in 9th grade.”

“And?”  Mathew didn’t care, he was surprised that Skyler getting a date was even gossip worthy considering how unremarkable he was.

“She’s hot.  She’s in the 9th grade but she’s got bigger tits than most the girls in our grade.  How’d he get her?”

“I dunno, God.”  Mathew certainly didn’t want to get stuck discussing Skyler’s relationship accomplishments again.  He sneered but the bell rang before he could dwell on it much and began packing his things into his bag instead.

James however continued to press Mathew as the continued into the hallway.  “How come you can’t get a chick like that?  They look at you sometimes, you know.”

Taking a short double take, Mathew seemed just a bit more interesting.  “Who does?”

“Girls, do, some of them at least.  They don’t say much but you see it sometimes.  You’re big and tall and good looking, you’d have a chance if you didn’t sit around with that look on your face all day.”

Shaking his head, Mathew uttered a short laugh.  “You sure they’re the ones looking at me and it’s not you?”

“Hey, fuck you, you’re the one that ignores all the girls after all.  You got two dads, it probably runs in the family even.”  James hadn’t even made a harsh insult at Mathew, he had only been ribbing him in response.  If anything, while not the most politely presented, James had encouraged him to take more initiative with the girls at the school.

Mathew on the other hand wasn’t the friendliest person to begin with and even hearing about Skyler’s achievement was enough to irritate him.  Even ‘pulled punch’ at his sexuality and referencing his relation to Aubrey had been upset him. He thrust his right hand out and shoved James’ shoulder.  “Fuck you.”

“You got to learn to relax man!  I was just sayin’ is all.”  James returned the same gesture to Mathew.

Unwilling to leave it at that, Mathew would escalate things, he shoved James into the lockers and began to wail on him before James roll him off and turn him into the lockers instead.  This was when the students that filled the hall began to eagerly chant ‘Fight, fight, fight!’  James himself wasn’t going to drop it now, two tempers had flared and he was going to continue until he either lost or Mathew submitted.

---


The fight hadn’t lasted long before teachers came down and broke it up.  Both the cougar and the young wolf spent their time in front of the principal while their combined stories were taken and compared.  Punishment was decided upon and finally they called their parents; One of which wasn’t very far away.

Mathew was sitting alone in a small room that had once been office space but had been reserved for the isolation of students in events like this.  It couldn’t have been more than twelve feet square and featured only a desk and some chairs.  His left eye was completely blood shot and puffed up with a bruise that would show itself soon and in addition there was a cut on his lip and his muzzle.  Nothing serious but it was clear what he had been through.

The door opened and Aubrey entered and he slammed the door behind him.  He had been called from his own class and didn’t look pleased.  “Well, you look messed up.”

“You should see the other guy.” Said Mathew smugly.

“I did, you didn’t make a scratch.  Good job.”

“What do you want?  I thought they’d call dad.”

“That includes me.  I spoke to your dad, he’s busy with work, but do you know what?  So am I.”  Aubrey wasn’t used to being the lecturing type but Mathew had managed to bring it out this time.  “I’m not just some parent who has the principal call them.  That guy is my boss Mathew and I had to apologize to him for my kid starting a fight in his hallway.”

“I’m not your-”

“Shut up.”  Aubrey even growled.  He wasn’t going to put up with any of Mathew’s resistant commentary this time and his posture, tail and ears were clearly hostile.  “They want to send you home for the rest of the day but they can’t; your dad is working and so am I.  There’s no one to take you home.  So you are going to sit here for the rest of the day and then you’re going to take the bus home before me and your father get a chance to have at you.  Got it?”

“Whatever.”

“Yeah, ‘Whatever’.”  Aubrey shook his head in disgust at Mathew.  “Get your homework done before you get home at least, got it?”

Mathew simply nodded in response.

---

The children always got home before their parents.  The bus brought the boys home before Aubrey could drive home and Eric didn’t get off until later anyway.  Mathew had ample time to retreat into his room without any interference from anyone in the house.  By the time Aubrey and Eric were home to discuss Mathew he’d been holed up and chatting online for over an hour.

Together they occupied the kitchen, Aubrey pacing along the counter and Eric sat at the island and drinking a coffee. “We need to punish him, somehow.” said Aubrey.

Eric disagreed and shook his head.  “What are we going to do?  Send him to his room?  He’s always in there anyway.  Besides, I think he may have learned enough today.”

“What?  How?”  Aubrey didn’t believe what he was hearing, especially when Eric was the one who was typically harsher at punishment.  “He started a fight and got out of half his classes as a reward!”

“He picked a fight and got the crap kicked out of him, Aubrey.  I think there’s something he could have learned from that alone.”

Aubrey stopped at the island and crossed his arms while considering Eric’s point.  He didn’t like it himself but he could recognize its potential validity.  “So we just leave it as it is now?”

“Besides, we could wind up pushing him into a worse place.  He’s angry enough as it is, losing a fight he started probably didn’t help right?”  Eric fidgeted with the coffee cup in front of him and took a sip.  “I haven’t seen him yet, how bad did he mess him up?”

“He’s got a few cuts and his eye is probably black by now.  He’ll be fine in a week or so.  I still don’t like ‘doing nothing’.”

“I think this is something he can try and sort out himself.  He stays in his room so grounding him won’t do anything.  He doesn’t even have any friends I think.”

Aubrey leaned back against the counter and closed his eyes for a moment.  “That’s sad.”

“At least Sky’s doing okay.”  Eric stood up from the island and set his coffee cup by the sink.  “He’s excited I figure.”

“Are you kidding me?”  Aubrey grinned and walked to the doorway that connected the kitchen to the hall.  “Sky!”  He called out.  “Can you come here for a second?”  From the living room came the youngest wolf of the house and he stood in the hallway with his tail eagerly wagging behind him.  “He’s been like that sine I got home.”

“It just keeps going, huh?”  Bringing his hand to his mouth, Eric covered his muzzle to try and hide a grin.  “Try not to look so eager tonight, okay?  Girls like confidence.”

Looking embarrassed, Skyler reached behind himself and physically grabbed his own tail to stop it.  “I can’t make it stop.”

“That’s body language for you.” said Aubrey.  “You can put up as much of a front as you can but your tail and ears will almost always give you away.  Just try not to get so excited and you’ll be okay.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Hmm.”  Aubrey bit his lip.  “You’re brother’s coming with us to the theater.”  Skyler’s tail stopped wagging immediately.  Aubrey shot Eric grinned.  “Fixed him.”

“Geez.”

“Dad, no!” Skyler immediately protested, when Aubrey started out of the kitchen he came behind.  “He’ll do something stupid!  Why does he have to come?  Leave him behind.  He wouldn’t want to come anyway!”

“And that’s why he’s coming out with me.”

---

Over an hour past as evening set in, the family ate, split up and the dishes were done.  Now there had been several knocks at the door and different men had been let in, police officers that Eric worked with, some he’d known for years and some he’d met more recently.  They hadn’t started yet, some more were still expected but from their voices carried across the house.  Upstairs Aubrey was standing at Mathew’s door and hesitated before knocking on the door.  No reply.  He knocked again.  “You have five seconds before I open it anyway.”  With only a short pause he kept his promise and opened the door to Mathew’s bedroom.

The oldest son sat in his bed surrounded by clutter.  The room was a mess and dimly lit by one lamp.  Dirty clothes and papers across the floor, it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in sometime.  He was on his bed with the glow of a laptop illuminating his face and looked up.  “How come I don’t get a lock like you and dad?”

Aubrey’s eyes darted around the room as he took in the sight, he realized he wasn’t looking at Mathew’s room nearly enough as he kept the door closed all the time.  “Cause then we’d need to break your door to get you out.”  He’d save orders to clean the room for later.  “So how are you doing?”

Realizing that Aubrey wasn’t coming to him for something brief he sighed and closed the laptop.  “The internet’s broken.”

Aubrey nodded.  “That’s cause I turned yours off.  Get dressed, you’re coming out with me and Sky.”

“I’m in trouble, why are you taking me to the movies!?  That’s stupid!”

“Do you want to stay here?”

“Yes.”

“Then taking you out would be good punishment.”

“That’s stupid.”

“You’re still stuck with it.”

Downstairs the house was more alive.  Skyler was waiting and being entertained by his father’s work friends.  Three had arrived and two more were expected.  They all sat around the dining room table and traded jokes.  Michael, a mouse, he’d worked with Eric for at least ten years and they had their history together.  The two others were newer but they’d all known each other for some years now.  A rabbit and an otter filled out the rest of the ranks.

The mouse sat back in his chair and looked Skyler up and down as he tried to participate with the adults.  “Man, he’s huge.  Like twice the size he was last time I saw him.”

“Are you kidding?” said Eric.  “He’s the small one.  His brother’s only two inches shorter than me.  I used to be able to carry them in each arm.”

“Speaking of short, how’s the wife?”

“Heh.  He’s mildly neurotic and histrionic as usual while slowly turning into his mother.”

“I thought you liked his mother.”

“Yeah but he doesn’t.”

Aubrey quickly flew down the stairs, he barely let his heels touch the risers in a childish fashion until reaching the landing.  After crossing the living room he came up behind Skyler and placed his hands on his shoulders.  “Okay boys.  Whatever he tells you,” His right hand lifted and pointed to Eric.  “This house is in my name so he can’t put it up to bet.”

The wolf chortled to his husband while his comrades themselves laughed quietly.  “I own the roof.”

“Of course dear.”  Aubrey tapped Skyler’s shoulder.  “Come on hon, you don’t want to be late.”

“I do own it.”

“Sure you do Eric.”

“Good luck, kid.” Said the rabbit.

“T-thanks.” Stammered Skyler nervously.

Mathew was wondering down the stairs now, he hadn’t hurried to change his clothes.  He traded looks with Aubrey and Mathew and shrugged.  As they pulled on their boots and coats there was another knock on the door.  Dressed and ready, Aubrey pulled the door open expecting to see another one of the guys that Eric worked with; He was almost right.

A fox, a female fox, but she was still a police officer even without her uniform.  She stood in the door looking unassuming but smiled a bit to Aubrey but spoke to him as if her we a child.  “Hey kiddo, you’re still here?”

Aubrey’s ears flattened into his hair immediately and he clenched his jaw. He recognized her even if he couldn’t recall her name and a little piece of him burned just seeing her.

Skyler saw his step father looking at the woman and pulled as his sleeve.  “Dad, come on.”  Aubrey kept silent but they left the house into the snow outdoors to find the van parked amongst several other cars that now filled the driveway and the shoulder in front of the house.  “Who was that, dad?”

“Some bitch your dad worked with.”

“You mean vixen, right?”

“Yeah, right.”

Vita Dulcis

Chapter 3

Each row of the minivan was occupied, leaving the three family members sparsely separated; Aubrey driving in the front, Skyler sitting in the middle and Mathew slouching in the back.

Leaning forward between the seats, Skyler pestered Aubrey.  “Why can’t I ride shotgun?”

“Because you want to sit next to your friend when she gets in.”  Lectured Aubrey.

“I do?”  Skyler was often slow on the uptake, it wasn’t stupid but he seemed to gloss over simple concepts while in a state of calm complacency.  Unlike his brother he simply wasn’t complicated and that was probably why Amy had taken an interest in him.  He was only fourteen and some more experience in life would hopefully bring him up to speed.

“Yes.”

From the back of the van, Mathew sneered and sat up.  “Cause you know what girls want, right Aubrey?”

One could say that Aubrey’s tastes probably were like that of any girl’s but it was true that despite his feminine traits he was still male.  “How about we say ‘I know how a man should treat someone.’?”  There was no argument and he smiled contently to himself.  The van rounded a corner in an urban block and pulled up in front of an apartment building.  Through the windshield a feminine figure dressed in a coat came running out of the apartment lobby and towards the van.

“Hey Sky!”  Amy offered they boy a hug which he received awkwardly.  They were only going on their first date and he was clueless about where he stood and what was and wasn’t appropriate but she seemed to be far more out going.  Her coloring was lighter than the boys but she was still a wolf like them only with black hair that ran down her back and over her shoulders.  Sliding the door shut she sat down next to Skyler and turned her head about van.  The first thing she noticed was Mathew brandishing a black eye and noticeable cuts along the short fur of his muzzle.  “Nice eye.”  He didn’t really reply.  She looked at Aubrey twice before she spoke, clearly recognizing him.  “Oh hey, don’t you teach at my school?”

It hadn’t even occurred to Skyler that she’d recognize Aubrey from school and that not many knew he was their step father.  “Yeah he’s my dad but I don’t have any classes with him.  People don’t really notice.”

Amy was still looking back and forth between Aubrey and Skyler and assumed that he was in fact a wolf-snow leopard hybrid that took on few noticeable feline traits.  “You didn’t even get spots from him or anything!”

“What?”  Skyler needed a second to realize what Amy was implying.  “No, he’s my step-dad, I’m a wolf.”

Aubrey laughed quietly as he put the van into gear and pulled back onto the street.

“Oh, okay.  Wait, you said your dad was a cop.”  Amy seemed slightly confused and looked at Skyler for clarification.

“He is, I got two dads.”

Another pause came from Amy before her face lit up as she came to understand.  “Ohhh!  That’s cool!”  Her head turned to Aubrey again.  “My brother’s like that, he told my parents after he moved out, they were okay after a while I think.”

“Well,” Aubrey glanced back but kept his attention on the road.  “Some people need more time to come around to people being gay I guess, but it’s good they did eventually.”

Amy was out going and energetic, she reminded Aubrey of himself when he was her age and was already jumping to another point.  “You’d look cool with spots though,” she said to Skyler.  “Right up your back and neck, then down your arms?”

Skyler blinked and looked at Amy.  “You think so?”

“Yeah, lots of people dye their fur.  My brother got blue flames all down his tail last month.  It cost him like two hundred bucks but it’s really detailed for a fur-job.”

From the front seat Aubrey grimaced and shook his head.  “No one’s dyeing their fur so long as they live in my house.  No spots, no stripes, no flames.  Especially spots, because the last thing I need is people thinking your dad somehow knocked me up with you.”

“I don’t think people would question it much Aubrey, you already look like a girl half the time.” Snarked Mathew from his seat in the back of the van.

“And think, your dad wants me to grow my hair out again.”

---

It wasn’t long before the van pulled into the parking lot for the theater. It was large with a wide open parking lot and the lights over the entrance shone in the night air.  Outside the theater were lines and groups of people, some waiting to see new releases and others chatting about what they had just seen.  They silver minivan parked managed to find a parking spot near the entrance and Aubrey put it into park.  The snow leopard turned around and looked back at the van full of adolescents.  “Okay guys, call me when you need me to come get you, okay?”  He reached into his wallet and pulled out the generous sum of fifty dollars to pass to Skyler.

“Sure thing Mr. Mitchel.” said Amy politely.  She shifted to her side and opened the van door to hop out.

Before Skyler could climb over Amy’s now empty seat to get out Aubrey grabbed his shoulder and took his attention.  “Talk to her more.  Don’t just listen, talk.  You have to communicate, you’re sitting there quietly too much.”

Standing up under the low ceiling of the van, Mathew leaned over the back of the middle row of seats while the door slid closed again.  “How come he gets fifty bucks?  I want fifty bucks.”

“Fifty bucks for what?  You get your first date with a nice girl, then you get fifty bucks to take her out.”

Mathew flopped back into his seat and groaned.  “So can we go home now?”

“No, we’re gonna leave him alone while he’s doing the macho bonding thing with his work buddies.”  Sighing, Aubrey sat back in his seat in the van.  “Come on up here.”

Reluctantly, Mathew stood up and climbed over the middle seat and into the front seat next to Aubrey.  “Are we just going to sit here for two hours?  It’s going to get cold.”

“You’re talking about cold to a snow leopard, hon.”  Aubrey saw Mathew roll his eyes and turning his gaze out the side window of the van where he could still see Skyler and Amy walking up the steps into the theater.  “We don’t have to.  We can go somewhere else.  We can find a restaurant, you can pick even.”

“I don’t care, we can just sit here.”

---


Inside the theater Amy and Skyler had bought their tickets but the movie wasn’t going to start for another half hour and they sat across from each other in a booth off side from the concessions.  The girl leaned forward and seemed interested, prodding Sky for more details about him now.  “So do you ever get to see your mom?”

“Uhh,” he shook his head.  “No, she left when I was really little.  Dad says she didn’t want kids and left.  I was a baby then, I don’t remember her at all even.  It’s always been me, my Dad and Matt as far back as I can remember.”

Looking a bit sad, Amy wondered if she was turning the conversation in the wrong direction.  “What about you other Dad, ‘Aubrey’, right?”

Skyler smiled at little now and his eyes looked brighter.  “I was still little when he started going out with my dad.  I started kindergarten when they got married.” He laughed quietly.  “He’s kinda my mom now.  He’s a guy and they’re both my dad but Aubrey does all that mothery stuff that my dad doesn’t.” he stopped and looked a little unsure now.  “At least, I think that’s what a mom would do.  I guess I don’t know, huh?”

Amy took it in and accepted it, even if it was stereotypically so.  Two guys together, it made a sort of sense that one of them was ‘the woman’ of the relationship.  “What about your brother?  I saw his eye, is he one of the kids that got into a fight today?”

“I think so.” Skyler leaned forward and crossed his arms over the edge of the table.  “I didn’t see him till he got on the bus.  He probably did something stupid and got in a fight.  He’s always being an asshole.  He fights with my parents and just sits in his room all day when we’re not at school.  I actually thought he’d do something stupid in the van after we picked you up.”

“Do you guys fight?”

Skyler shrugged and shook his head in the negative.  “We used to, he’d pick on me stuff but the last few years he just doesn’t do anything.  He says stupid things but that’s it now.  He just throws fits and storms off to his room when he’s pissed off.”  He thought back to Aubrey’s advice when he got out of the van, and realized he was only answering questions without really engaging Amy.  “Uhh, what about your family?  What’s it like at you place?  Your brother moved out or something?”

---

Back in the van things were degenerating quickly between Mathew and Aubrey.  All day he’d had been more assertive with his step-son and he wasn’t appreciating the new pressure.  They sat in the front seats exchanging words; Aubrey’s was being compassionate but his tone was rising.

Mathew growled and shook his head at his step-father.  “You’re the guys think I’m broken and put me in therapy so he could fix me!”

“We’re worried about you.  You don’t have any friends anymore, you argue, you’re marks are dropping and just lay in your room all day.  We’re just trying to do what’s best for you.”

“It’d be ‘best’ if you backed off.  Why do you even care?”

“Because I love you!”  Aubrey put his hands on the steering wheel and pushed against it with frustration.  The van turned quiet and they say next to each other in tense silence.  After closing his eyes, Aubrey continued.  “But you don’t care.  When ever I even express any concern or interest in you, you glare at me like I’m your enemy or something until I go away.”

“Then stop doing that!  Just leave me alone!”

Taking a slow breath, Aubrey tried to calm down.  “I am so sorry Mathew.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t go away and I can’t just stop giving a shit about you.  I’m not your mother and I can’t give her to you.  I can’t just fix it for you.”

Mathew closed his fists and stayed in his seat in quiet frustration.

“Why shouldn’t you have your mom and dad and had that family?  I had both my parents growing up, they didn’t even fight much.  You’re mom just left and then I came in.  If there was some way I could let you have your mom, I would.  I’d even walk away so it could be you, Sky, your dad and her.  You didn’t deserve to be walked out on.  You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mathew was filled with emotions and shut his eyes while he tried to sort out what he was even feeling right now.  Confusion, sadness, loneliness but anger topped the list.  “Fuck you!  I never asked you to care and you don’t have to!  Why even say anything if you can’t fix it!?  It’s useless!”  Reaching to his side he pulled the handle to open the door and threw it open.  “Fuck off, okay!?”  The wolf slammed the door shut and started to walk quickly across the parking lot.

Aubrey sunk into his seat before pounding his fist into the steering wheel.  “Damn it!  It was so much easier when he was little!”  He wasn’t going to follow Mathew, he knew he wouldn’t get back in the van soon and he was old enough to be out on his own for a while.  Mathew could ride the bus back home if he had to and he knew that his cell phone would transmit his location, it’d only be a matter of looking at their provider’s website to find him.  Trying to calm down, Aubrey decided that he’d just wait there, there was no where to go until Skyler called him and he wasn’t ready to tell Eric that Mathew had run off on him yet.  Quietly and alone in a van that was growing cooler and cooler from the winter air outside Aubrey just sat and thought.

---

A few hours later things were winding down at the house with the police officer’s poker game.  The cards had been stacked and put away and they sat around the table chatting about work.  One of the younger editions to the force was the otter, Curtis Hunt; he’d only joined two years ago and took interest in Eric’s experience.   They’d come to talking about how he deals with his job and home life together.  “So you don’t tell that leopard anything you do on the job?”

Eric sat with his elbows on the table and the kitchen to his back.  He shook his head in response.  “No, I tell him what I do, he’d know something was up if I never said anything.  I don’t tell him when I almost get killed.  Something happens at work but I come home without a scratch, I don’t tell him.”

“Why not?”

“He worries and freaks out.  He worries enough just with stuff he sees on TV I don’t need him telling that some idiot tried taking a shot at me.”

The mouse, Michael who Eric had long worked with was listening in and leaned his head up.  “Tell Curt about when you lost the Interceptor.”

Eric put his palm to his face and groaned as he moved it up into his hair and rubbed behind his ear.  “Oh god, if Aub ever knew about that.”

“What Interceptor?”

With a reluctant sigh Eric looked up.  “It was like five years ago when we were replacing the Crown Victoria’s with new Interceptors.  I had mine for like a week, brand new car, so much better than the old crap we were stuck with.  You know the freeway that leads from here into commercial place outside of downtown?  I pull over some family that was speeding and it’s a routine ticket.  “My car’s in park behind theirs, I’m standing next to his car outside the window, writing up the ticket and that’s when this other idiot comes down the road at like seventy five at least, he’s typing shit into his cell phone and stops paying attention.  Veers to the right onto the curb, before he can even do anything he goes right into my car and throws it into the car I pulled over.  The two cars were totaled.  Imagine it, seventy five to zero in about twenty feet.  Nothing but scrap metal.”

“Christ man,”  The otter looked on in awe at the story and wrapped his mind around the idea of a traffic stop being so dangerous.  “Was everybody okay?”

“I was fine,” Eric gestured with his hands.  “Landed on my ass in the highway.  Few scratches and a broken finger on the family in the first car but my car took all the force so it didn’t hit their car that bad.”

“What about the other car?”

“They pulled his cell phone and steering wheel out of his brain pretty much.  Killed instantly, just gone.  He could have killed me too if I’d been going back to my car.  But I never told Aubrey.  He’d be scared shitless to watch me go out the door for work.  He’d nag me till I quit.”

“Man that sucks.  You should have gotten someone who could deal with it better.”

Eric laughed and shook his head.  “Do you have any idea what the divorce statistics for cops are, kid?”  Standing up and pushing his chair, Eric started to clear empty beer bottles off the table.  “It’s better if you don’t scare the hell out of them.  Besides, the really dangerous stuff almost never happens, people just don’t forget about it when it does.”  He grew quiet for a moment and reflected; His stance on keeping Aubrey in the dark on some things was something he questioned from time to time.  “Anyway, you guys get out.”  He was forcing himself to grin and took the bottles into the kitchen.  “I don’t need the wife nagging me to chase a bunch of cops out of the house when he gets home.”

---

The family van pulled into the driveway the same time the last of Eric’s friend’s cars pulled out.  Eric thought it was remarkable timing and stood by the door to wait for his family’s return.  Skyler seemed pretty happy and ran upstairs but Aubrey couldn’t help but have his ears lain back as he looked at Eric.

Eric counted; one snow leopard and one wolf, Aubrey had come home short one.  “What’s wrong?”  Even if Aubrey was trying to act nonchalant his ears made it clear that something was up.  “Where’s Matt?”

“He ran off.” Said the snow leopard reluctantly.

Eric wasn’t happy with the answer and made a hostile face.  “What do you mean he ran off?  So you lost him?  How’d you let that happen?”

“Relax, it’s not like we can’t find him.  Where’s my computer?”  Kicking his boots off, Aubrey ducked passed Eric entered the living room.  He knew his laptop was left somewhere around the couch and impatiently started looking for it.  He found it sitting on its side between the couch and end table and pulled it out.  The computer started to boot up and Aubrey sat on the couch with it.

Eric was impatient and stood next to Aubrey looking down.  “What did you do?”

“I talked to him.  He got upset, I got upset, eventually he said ‘fuck you’ and jumped out of the van.  You know, the ‘Matt Thing’ that he does every time he’s pissed off.”  With the computer turned on it wasn’t difficult to go to their cell provider’s website and log into a site that would show where all their phones were on GPS.  “There, see?”  He pointed at the screen.  “He isn’t even that from here.”

Looking down at the screen Eric grunted with irritation.  He watched the movement of Mathew’s phone on the screen for a few seconds before he realized the speed he was moving and the route.  “He’s on the bus.  That’s the one that stops a few blocks from here.  I guess he’s coming home.”

“He doesn’t have any where else to go, it’s not like he has any friends to crash with.”  Aubrey fell back into the couch and stared at the laptop’s screen as it showed Mathew getting inching closer by the pixel.  “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have taken him out with us.”

“At least he’s all right.”

Twenty minutes later Mathew got home to find his parents waiting for him in the archway between the front hall and living room.  Closing the door he looked up to them with a tired expression and sighed briefly in expectation of a lecture.

“Are you okay?”  Asked Eric.

Mathew shrugged.  “Yeah.  I just want to go to bed though.”

“Alright.”

A bit surprised that he was being allowed to just go, Mathew looked at both his parents doubtfully but proceeded to the stairs.  After a few steps how he paused and looked back.  “Hey Aubrey.  Dad and Sky would miss you.”

Aubrey didn’t catch Mathews point and blinked a few times.  “Huh?”

“If you went away, they’d miss you.”  It was all Mathew said before continuing up the stairs to his bedroom.

Struck with awe at Mathew’s words Eric turned his attention to Aubrey and motioned up the stairs with his head.  “What did you say to him?”

“Apparently more than I thought I did.”  Aubrey looked up the stairs, listening to the sound of the floor boards shift under Mathew’s weight and the door closing soon after.  He felt strange and uneasy, he’d apparently gotten through to Matt in some way but this wasn’t the end of things by far.  It would probably get worse first.