Carter's Streets

Foreword: This was written originally for the common theme of /PoFG/, a trash bin dedicated to the degenerate setting where human beings are dumb, domestic animals akin to the humans from Planet of the Apes or dogs. They live among a world of anthropomorphized animals, some kept as mere pets. But, among them are some who are keener than most. Where they came from whether natural phenomenon or unnatural, none are sure. There is no established canon but some common themes from which this story inverts in some ways. Where most /PoFG/ stories revolve around type B and D personality humans coming to terms with their subservient roll despite their intelligence being close to or equal with the dominant life forms, this story does not deal with docile or submissive humans.
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Carter's Streets

Prologue:

Carter was a nervous sort. Coyotes like him, as a species, were wary of the larger species and tended to give them a wide berth; it was borderline instinctual. When Carter had left home, he had not found much in the way of success. He and his roommates had been evicted one too many times what with how hard it was to handle finances in this economy. The landlord had taken the coyote and his roommates, a badger, coon, and stoat- hey, little guys need to stick together- to court for back rent and damages to the property, but since one cannot get blood from a stone, all he really got was an award in his favor for back rent and to keep their security deposit. Hey, Carter had no money, which is why he was squatting in this old building sitting among a public housing project that had lost funding and been closed down. Tweakers had long since beat him to the copper pipes, so it was not much other than shelter from the elements.

Now, Carter was dressed out in stained and torn jeans and way too baggy shirts stained with the smell of canine musk. He was just glad canines did not sweat as prolifically as other species like rodents. He had heard some uncomfortable information from rats and other species with sweat-cooled sections of their skin about it stinking up some parts of their clothes. Still, Carter made a conscious effort not to smell himself. He had lost weight since he had begun squatting. Always slender but now downright skinny, Carter was not in the best of shape. Whelp, no time to ruminate on the poor-me's. Carter would have to think about some way to get some money... and some food. Now if only he knew anything about getting money besides panhandling.

A noise startled Carter out of his reverie. "Shi-et man, I'm too hungry for this shit," he murmured to himself. He looked out to see if it was someone he knew or those asshole cats that had been skulking around. He carefully peered around the dingy-black molding of the open archway, cringing each time his feet stepped on some debris or detritus and made a crinkle or crunch. Two hazel eyes, pinpoint pupils staring back at him wildly made him shriek in a decidedly un-masculine way. The owner of the eyes lept back and snarled at him. Carter nervously eyeballed the lead pipe in the stranger's hands before snapping back up to his face, and finally his stressed mind processed that this was not a stranger.

"Oh, it's you," Carter said, breathing a sigh of relief. The human across from him eyeballed him warily. In the dim light, Carter had not immediately recognized him with the hood up, scarf on, and the surgical face mask stretched around his head. He knew those eyes though, and the beard sticking out from the face mask was a giveaway once you realized it was a human. The beast standing with his shoulders back and stance wide; he was probably off-put by Carter's lack of composure. You know what they say about animals, they mirror you. If you are stressed, they are stressed. Carter let the calm come over him, something that had gotten harder since he had started using 'medicinal aides' for calming himself down. But, he still had it in him. One did not draw attention to oneself when the big boys were talking.

The pinkish, almost-white, skin of the vanilla breed human had lost what little color it had from the excitement which was slowly returning as he calmed. His brown hair was long and shaggy but somehow not dirty and matted. The facial hair was unshaven and growing thickly from his high cheekbones and down to cover the front of his neck, probably either to keep other humans from biting it or to make him look more threatening. Warm clothing wrapped him, probably two or three layers judging by the look of it. He had boots on his feet, although Carter had never seen boots made for humans. They probably were out there for weirdos who liked to play dress-up with their pets. How this guy stayed clean-ish and kept finding food baffled Carter, but the human usually came in not stinking too badly like a lot of human strays and with food of some kind. Maybe he had figured out a spot to clean off, or maybe some kind stranger had taken pity on him. The beast was smart, though. And wary.

The human gave him a look of thinly veiled disdain and bit into something. The smell of the food made its way to Carter's nose. It smelled hot and delicious. He salivated, and Carter's stomach let a humiliating rumble escape. The sound caught the attention of the human. He was not as jumpy as Carter, but he had a sort of situational awareness that made the coyote self-conscious about his actions. The human masticated his big mouthful of food slowly and meticulously while he stared Carter down, mercilessly maintaining eye-contact. "Hey, s'your food, man," the Coyote said as he averted his eyes, "I'm na' gonna take it." While Coyotes had teeth and claws, not all humans were the little, friendly, gallumping oafs that you saw on TV and fun memes. Some were big, and they got mean on the streets, not that Carter could find it in his heart to blame them. The streets were a mean place.

The human sighed and swallowed his mouthful. He approached Carter, and the coyote shrank back. The human was big, as big as some wolves and cougars he had seen, and broad-shouldered. Carter had no idea how strong the beast was and most certainly did not want to find out. A fistful of a hamburger got shoved against his snout. Carter's eyes, having reflexively clenched shut, opened up to find the big hand of the human pressing a scrap of food into his face. He looked up and saw the human looking down at him with a neutral expression, lips pressed thin into a line. Cautiously, Carter slowly lifted his hand up and wrapped it around the proffered meal. It was not much, but hey, it beat going hungry.

Carter backed off, and the human watched him while he ate the food, taking another bite out of his own meal. Carter had not been given even half, but he had been given something. When Carter had finished horking down his morsel, the human was still slowly chewing his food and taking small bites. Did humans share food with each other? They were social animals alright, but he had never heard of them sharing food, especially not food. The human's lead pipe, wrapped in scraps of some kind and hanging off of the belt of the pants he had on dangled menacingly. Come to think of it, Carter had never seen a human armed with a weapon before. He wondered if it was his favorite toy or something. He hoped that was what it was. Good lord, he hoped.
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Carter squatted in the smallest bedroom with some shit covered futon some other vagrant had left here at some point and other disgusting debris. Even the human found it disgusting when he entered, probably for the same reason Carter had. It smelled stale and rancid in here. The human grabbed the futon and drug it away, throwing it outside, something Carter himself had been too lazy to do, and returned with that dufflebag Carter had always seen him haul around. He popped himself down in the corner, the one that had view of both the single bedroom window to one side and the doorway to the other. Carter had inched away to the other side of the room. The human had been around this area enough that Carter was used to him, and Carter presumed that the human was used to Carter as well, but that did not mean Carter felt like trying his luck. The human had probably come in here for the same reason he had, because the small room was the warmest in the hollowed out shell of the derelict building. Some cardboard was duct taped to the broken out window like it was in most of the buildings here by bums that had come here long before Carter and would be left up for those that would come after him. It was insulated enough. Now if only it did not reek.

As it would turn out, the single hamburger was not all the food the human had. The vanilla's dufflebag turned out to have a packing of a few greasy, slimy fast food items that looked old enough that the grease had begun soaking through the wrapper. There were chicken sandwiches, slivers of chicken with a glob of mayonnaise, a sad piece of shriveled lettuce, sandwiched between sesame seed buns; hamburgers, many of them burnt and the produce on them shriveled; and other food that was old enough to be disgusting but not so old as to be rotten. After the beast ate his fourth helping, Carter's growling stomach, invigorated by the small amount of food in it, made one last valiant attempt to motivate Carter to find food for himself.

A soft, squishy object impacted the side of his head and bounced off. "Hey!" Carter squawked indignantly. He looked over to see the human smirking at him. Smirking. He looked to see what had hit him. To his surprise, it was another hamburger with a thin piece of cheese and dedicates, shriveled vegetables. It was not at all appetizing, but hey any port in a storm. Carter wolfed- ahem, coyote-ed- the hamburger down let out a sigh of satisfaction afterwards. He glanced at the human who was still eating for he was one to eat slowly and meticulously. "Jeez, do ya jus' sneak in an’ snatch all this?" Carter asked rhetorically, "Gotcha some sticky fingers, yeah boy?" The human's smirk faded, and the look of disdain returned. Humans were expressive animals once you got used to them. Maybe he disliked the noise Carter was making.

Carter turned sheepish. "Heh, no offense," he said, feeling silly for talking to a human, "No shame in dumpster divin' or gettin' whatchyou need, right?" The human rolled his eyes. Well screw you too, buddy, Carter thought.
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Chapter 1:

It had already been close to evening, and Carter fell asleep. He had just thought to rest his eyes a bit, not wanting to be vulnerable to the human in the middle of the night if he decided that stale fast food had not been enough, but against his will, Morpheus drug him into the realm of dreams. When he awoke, the human was bundled up in a grease-spotted blanket with his back to the wall. His head was resting on the dufflebag. Well, if humans knew one thing, it was how to get comfy. Growing up, Carter had had a pet, and that chocolate breed human was the biggest bed hog he had ever known. Granted, it was also a big human, not like some of those short and skinny chocolates you saw across the Atlantic. Something about the way they had been bred in the last couple centuries had changed the way the local chocolates looked. But hey, new breeds and sub-breeds appeared all the time.

When Carter sat up and yawned, the human's eyes opened and locked onto him. So, he was a light sleeper. Good to know. "Good morning," Carter said. The human grunted back at him. Cute. That stretched a smile across his muzzle. Apparently the human did not like that and was scrutinizing Carter's expression. Carter's smile turned sheepish. "Thanks for the food, boy," he said instead, attempting to change the subject. Unfortunately, he just got that same look of disdain. "Hey, I know, I know," Carter said. He had not had anyone friendly to talk to, just talk to, in a while, so his need for interaction had overcome his sense of embarrassment at talking to a dumb animal. "I saw a good corner that hasn't been milked in a while," he said, "There's a religious neighborhood nearby, so lotsa money to be made, boy."

The human lifted his hand to his forehead, extending his thumb and index finger into a capital 'L'. Whoever taught the human to do that was a jackass. A loser, huh? Well guess who also eats out of the trash? You, you big dumb brute. "Har-de-har-har," he said to the human, "Well boy, you got a better way to make some green? Do I look like a gainfully employed and productive member of society?" The human was silent. Gotcha, bitch. Oh man, what was he doing? Carter suddenly felt really stupid. "Carter, my man, you're losin' it, talkin' to a human," he chastised himself aloud. Great, now the human was snickering at him. What little was left of his soiled pride was shredded by this human and buried in the back yard.

"Well how you gonna earn, boy?" Carter said to the human, "You wanna come wif me, be my cute widdle mascot?" His tone had gotten sickeningly sweet by the end there, and the human's snickering had stopped. Carter then got flipped the bird. "Fuck, man, no need to be rude, y'know? What joker taught you that, anyway?" Carter groused. He sighed and got up. "Too bad though, I see the other homeless with cute humans out there gettin' mad dolla'," he told to his new acquaintance, a human. The human's upset melted and he regarded Carter. The human's demeanor melted back to ire when Carter next said, "Yer not very cute though. Too big and shaggy." Carter felt like he had had the last laugh as he left.

It took him almost a minute to realize that the human was following him. The Coyote leapt through his pelt when he finally realized. How something could be so big and yet step so quietly was beyond him.
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For a while, Carter was afraid that the stray human would scare people off. Panhandling was hard enough without a scary-looking human making things difficult on him. Oh, was Carter in for a surprise. He suddenly seemed a lot less scary and curled up on the concrete sidewalk ground next to Carter while he put up his sign proclaiming his and 'his human's' need for sustenance. He even acted friendly with passers-by which got a lot of attention. He rolled onto his back and smiled up at them. The pedestrians smiled and pat him, unwary of the supplicating human’s guileless and happy expression.

“Oh you take such good care of him, don’t you,” a cute pangolin had said to Carter, “He’s so happy and clean!” Carter smiled nervously. It was weird having a non-homeless woman talk to him of her own free will, and the image was hard to rectify with the confident, slinking, and assertive beast he had seen around the derelict buildings in the old public housing block.

“Y-yeah,” Carter said, “He’s a good boy, alright. Smart too.” The human’s expression did not change, but his eyes slid to stare Carter in the eye. Suddenly, Carter remembered just how smart the human was and hoped that he was only looking at him because he was talking.

“Yes, such a good boy,” the pangolin girl said, rubbing the human’s tummy with both her clawed hands. He wriggled on the floor. For a second, Carter thought he was writhing in discomfort, but maybe he was misjudging the situation.

A squeal from another girl, a young fox, by the looks of it, came. She came by and joined in on the petting, and the human looked like he might be getting a bit overwhelmed. Carter bit his lip nervously. Come on, you big brute, don’t you dare snap at them, he thought, The last thing I need is getting run off this corner because of you.

The foxy fox bent over and the low-cut neckline of her blouse showed the huge tracts of land the girl had been blessed with. The human sat up, and his face was enveloped in her tits. She hugged his head to her, further pressing the damn lucky bastard closer to her bosom. He hugged her back. Carter’s heart leaped into throat when she squealed, but it was just that excitement. She scratched his head, and her tail wagged excitedly while she pet him enthusiastically. “Aww, he’s so sweet,” she said.

Carter breathed a sigh of relief having been briefly worried that he would snap at her. Then, he saw the human smirking at him again. What? He winked at Carter. Gently, the fox pushed the human off, and he relinquished his grip on her, looking up and smiling in happily. Yeah, I saw that, you pervert, Carter thought. She caressed the side of his face and rubbed the bearded cheek. The girls eventually said their farewells and moved on. They dropped some change before they left, mostly pennies but Carter saw some silver.

It was a busy street, and several passers by also dropped some change and even a dollar or two in his bucket. To Carter's surprise, the human occasionally emptied the bucket into his dufflebag. The coyote let a nervous whine out the first time, but the human patted him on the back and gave him a thumbs up. Had whomever had him last trained him to panhandle? Well, they did pay more when your tin cup was empty.

Now that he thought of it, the human had put his lead pipe away in the bag when they moved onto the corner which was good because that would have made people nervous. Carter hoped the human did not know how to use it. After all, humans could carry stuff, play with balls and Frisbees, and once in a while, you would see one open a door, but there was no way one knew how to use a cudgel to bash your brains out, right?
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Chapter 2:

Eventually, it got dark, and people stopped giving. It was time to pack up. The human slid the rest of the money into the bag. “Well,” Carter said, “I hope you plan on sharing the cash.” No one was around, so he was not as self-conscious about talking to him. The human rolled his eyes again and started heading off back the way they came. Carter hurried after him, not wanting the money to disappear with the human.

They did not make it fifty feet before they heard an oily voice from an alleyway, “Damn, Carrie, ya worked tha’ corner gooood.” Carter cringed and turned to face the smarmy face of Vincent, a ‘lone wolf.’ Wolves that lacked a community were like coyotes that lacked one, usually too sleazy or pathetic to allow around others like the two bums they were. Vince though, was not nice, not in the least. Carter has seen him in more than a few fights over turf disputes, booze snatching, and much more of the same.

“Hey, Vince,” Carter said reluctantly. It rarely hurt to be cordial, and being rude often did hurt when disrespect was taken as seriously as it was among the homeless.

Vince gave him a toothy but unfriendly grin. “Carrie, my man, what’cha doin’ runnin’ Terry’s corner, man?” he asked in feigned surprise. He wanted something.

“Ah shit,” Carter cursed aloud, unable to help himself. Terry was a crazy fucker, and if he knew Carter had worked this corner, he would hunt him down and cut him up. Carter tried to say something but all that came out was, “Fuuuuck.”

“Hey man, don’chyu worry,” Vincent said with a leer, “I won’ say nuthin.”

Carter stood there, pinching the bridge of his muzzle, and waited for the other shoe to drop.

“’Cor, it sure would be nice to have some tha’ take,” Vincent finished with a grin filled with sharp teeth and vile intent.

There it was. Carter sighed and started for the dufflebag slung around the human’s shoulder only to be stopped by the human’s outreached arm halting his advancement. “C’mon boy,” Carter said, “Terry’s bad news.” The human’s shaggy brown hair flipped when his head cocked to look at him. Carter returned with a pleading stare, yet the human remained impassive, clearly either oblivious or uncaring. With his hood down and that face mask off, no longer doing the cutesy act that had gotten him so much attention just an hour ago, the hard, angular features of his face and the set of his jaw sent a chill down the coyote’s spine. Still, Terry scared Carter more, and so he valiantly tried to worm out of the human’s grip and get closer, but he was held at arm’s length. Damn, Carter hated being a shrimp.

“Heheh, not trained, is he?” Vincent asked with mirth.

“Shaddup,” Carter shot back at the snickering wolf. He tried again to get to the bag only for the human to intercept him. The human shot him a look, and Carter wanted to strangle him. Stupid mutt! You don’t even know what to do with the money, Carter thought, Stop being so stingy.

“Damn, Carrie, jus’ take it,” Vincent said, starting to walk over to the human. The human’s head swiveled to lock eyes with the advancing wolf. Vincent paused, suddenly wary. Something about the look in that human’s eye told him that it was a bad idea to get any closer. “Heheh, disobedient sonuvahum, eh? Where’d you find him?”

“He just started following me around,” Carter groused, “Stupid humie doesn’t listen.”

“Heh, well if you can’t get the money, how ‘bout a trade? He know the peanut butter game?” Vincent said in a manner that indicated he was only half-joking.

Carter gave Vince an uncomfortable look. “Uh, dunno. Wouldn’t risk it,” he said, “He’s not friendly.”

“Looked friendly ‘nough wit’ all those people earlier,” Vincent pointed out.

“Hey if you wanna risk getting your cock bitten off, be my guest,” Carter retorted dryly.

The wolf gave a shrug and his black lips spread in a carefree expression. “Oh well,” he said, “If ya don’ got the money, we can do our usual trade.”

“Ah, c’mon, Vince,” Carter pleaded, “Can’t I bring it to you later?”

“Bitch, get yo’ faggot ass over her and suck mah dick,” Vince demanded, having lost his patience.

Carter’s ears went back, and he looked around. There was no one here but the human and Vincent. The human was not being helpful, and Vincent would tell Terry about Carter’s indiscretion. The coyote’s shoulders slumped, and he heaved a heavy sigh. He began trudging over to Vincent and mumbled under his breath. “M’not a fag,” he mumbled.

“You suck dick fo’ dolla’, you’s a fag, faggot,” Vincent said imperiously as he unzipped his pants. The red rocket was waiting for Carter and pointed straight at him. Carter hesitated, grimacing at the job ahead of him. It took mere seconds for Vincent to lose his patience and push down on Carter’s head until he was forced onto his knees.

Carter blanched as the pointed red cock was shoved into his face. He looked up at the much bigger wolf  and laughed nervously. His laugh was the opening needed for Vincent to shove himself inside Carter’s mouth.

“C’mon, suck!” Vince groused while he forced Carter’s head down his length. Carter’s eyes watered when the point tickled his tonsils, but he got the message and began working his lips and tongue. The lovely attentions melted Vincent a bit, and he let up. Carter pulled his head back, sliding the wolf dick through his lips until the point was just barely in his mouth. His wide canine tongue slipped out and licked repeatedly at the underside. This was not the first time. Sometimes you got desperate for money, you know?

Suddenly Carter remembered the human and hoped he had not run off with all the money. His eyes darted over. The human was still there, staring at them. He looked annoyed and there was a faint curl of disgust on his lip. Well, don’t see you helping out, Carter thought, Thank you sooo much.

It was not long before Vincent backed Carter’s crouched form into a wall and pumped his hips with rapid and recklessh abandon. Carter flailed in distress, but it stopped when Vincent’s knot swelled up behind his teeth and locked him, the pointed tip tickling the underside of his uvula. Carter coughed and sputtered while the cum started filling the back of his throat. Some came out his nose until he got the swallowing down. He had never gotten used to that.

They were stuck there. As soon as Carter had started swallowing, Vincent sang out, “Faaaag~gooot,” almost musically, “You’s tha’ best knob gobbler here, Carrie.” Vincent looked way too smug. “Better than the girls,” he continued, “You’s a good little bitch boy, fag.” Carter summoned his best glower up at Vincent to which the wolf did not take kindly. Vincent pushed hips forward just far enough in to poke the back of Carter’s throat and gag him. “That’s what I thought,” Vincent said.

Meanwhile, the human stood there, bag over his shoulder, arms crossed. Carter felt awfully self-conscious, like the damn human was judging him. What? You’re a whore too, Carter thought, I saw you all over those girls earlier… Well, those were girls. Stupid human.

Vincent pulled himself out when his knot deflated, and he wiped himself off on Carter’s face, taking one last dump on his self-esteem. “Now turn’ round,” he told Carter with one hand on the smaller canine’s shoulder.

The coyote looked up in alarm. “No way, man! We had a deal,” he squawked at Vincent, voice cracking.

“Deal’s na’ over yet,” Vincent growled at him, “Na’ til I say it is. You don’ want Terry findin’ out ‘bout you movin’ in on his turf. Now, turn tha’ phat girly ass my way.”

Carter gulped and almost fled, but he knew that Terry would track him down. He wrestled with himself internally, realizing that he was trapped. Fucking fucking fuck. He had not known Terry worked this corner. Had he, Carter would have stayed far away. Bastard, Carter thought, wanting no part of this but seeing no other option. He stopped resisting began rolling over. Vincent grabbed his tail yanking up on it hard. Carter yipped as the pain rushed up his spine. The pain relocated when Vincent ripped his pants down and shoved a clawed finger up his asshole dry. Tears welled up in Carter’s eyes. This was going to suck. “Oh, look that,” Vincent said, “We’re gonna-.”

A metal clang rang out through the air, and Vincent collapsed. Carter spun around, hauling up his pants when he saw Vincent sprawled across the cold ground with a dazed expression and bloody temple. The wolf groaned deliriously. The lead pipe came down again, and Vincent was either out cold or dead. The lead pipe was for more than just show, it seemed. Fuck, that had done some serious damage, Carter thought.

“Fuuuuck,” Carter said inarticulately. He closed his eyes, hoping this whole situation would go away. When his eyes opened, he looked down and saw Vincent bleeding from his temple and onto the concrete. “Fuuuuuck,” he said again. Carter looked at the human with the bloody pipe and cursed. “Damn it, now he's either alive and going to tell Terry who will kill me,” the coyote lamented, “or he’s dead and the cops will kill me.”

The human looked Carter in the eye and cocked his head to one side in an almost quizzical manner. Carter exploded, “Fuck, do you have any idea what you’ve done?!” he shouted at the human, “Do you- mmmmf!” Carter was cut off when the human put its big paw over his face and clenched his muzzle shut. Carter went quiet. Did Carter just scream at a scary human who just murdered a big fucking wolf with a pipe? Yes, Carter, you genius; you did. The coyote went quiet, sensing it was for his own good. The human’s hazel eyes stared into his. They were not quite as terrifying as they had been the first few times this human had stared him down, but Carter felt cowed.

The human’s grip released him, and he took the pipe in both hands and prepared to bring the pipe down on Vincent one more time. However, Carter intercepted the blow on the back swing. “You can’t!” he hissed at the human who had gotten into the mess, “The cops! They’ll put me in prison and you’ll be put down.” The human, to Carter’s surprise, hesitated and looked at him. Sometimes, Carter almost thought this guy could understand him. It must have been because animals listened to your tone more so than what you were actually saying. Hopefully, the meaning got across though.

The dufflebag hit the floor with a dull thud. Carter heard some of the change tinkle inside and was suddenly reminded that all of this had been over money. Damn! If only the human had let him at the money. He’d have been able to give Vincent enough for him to shut his mouth. Sure, it would only delay the problem, but this was a much, much bigger and more immediate problem.

The bag unzipped, and the human rummaged through it. Carter had never seen a human act like this. Some could be taught to carry and fetch stuff. Carter had seen a couple videos of humans opening doors, and that was rare. The whole turning and pushing at the same time seemed to throw them off. What was he looking for? Food? At a time like this?

A blanket came out and scooped Vincent up into it. His head lolled off to the side and the blood which previously had been spilling down his side was now soaking into the blanket. The startling and ripping sound of duct tape coming off the spool made Carter leap through his skin. Vincent’s hands, feet, and muzzle were bound. The human rolled Vincent into a wolf wrap burrito and he was hauled up onto the human’s shoulder. Carter looked nervously at the few droplets of blood that had fallen onto the concrete. The human shook his head and used his free hand to grab Carter by the shoulder and usher him away.

Stupid human.

Well, at least Carter’s ass would maintain its spotless record as an exit-only facility.
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Chapter 3:

The two got home, and Carter was almost in a state of shock, mechanically walking forwards while he ruminated over how wrong things had gone so fast. The only way things could have been worse is if the human had waited until Vincent had fucked him to knock him out; then, it would have been all for not. A mouthful of cum was bad enough, but that was not exactly a new experience for Carter. Desperate times, man.

Carter dropped his weight in the corner of the smallest bedroom of the derelict public housing unit and let his head drop. His ears drooped, his shoulders slumped, and his tail was tucked firmly between his legs. How had this gone so wrong? The coyote wanted nothing to do with this. After all, Carter was not the one who brained Vincent, it was the human who did it. The police could not possibly blame Carter right? The human was not his, right? Hopefully, they would see it that way.

Carter felt a hand on his head, and he shrunk away. Looking up, it was the human. The human stroked his ears back and made soft, shushing noises at him. “Shhhh,” the human sounded to him while he ran his hand over the coyote’s scalp, soft ears, and down his neck. He stood, and walked away with the blanket containing Vincent shouldered. It had been surreal, being pet by the most common and most popular pet animals in the world.

What did Carter do to deserve this?

With the horror of the situation and the chance to just sit afterwards, the adrenaline left Carter’s system in a rush, and he fell asleep. When he awoke, he was covered in a blanket. He sniffed and averted his nose. Yep, this blanket smelled like human. They had a real pungent odor because they sweat; they sweat a lot. Carter really, really hoped this was not the blanket that Vincent had bled all over. Oh shit, Vincent! He sat up and rubbed his eyes, ears up and swiveling. Once his vision focused, Carter’s attention settled in on the human sleeping on the opposite side of the room. His hood was back up and the surgical mask back across his face. He slept on his sleeping bag with no blanket.

There was no sign of Vincent or the blanket he was wrapped in. “Ah shit, man,” Carter muttered. The human’s eye cracked open to watch him. Carter eyed him back warily. “You’re a real light sleeper, aren’tcha?” Carter said in an almost accusing tone. The human closed his eyes and writhed a bit to get more comfortable against his dufflebag. “You really had to fuck my life up, huh?” Carter continued, puffing up and getting ready to lambaste the human, “Now either I’m gonna go to jail, or Terry is going to fucking murder me!” The human snorted at him and started rousting himself, as if accepting that he was not going to get any sleep like this.

Carter continued to think of more ways to curse the human that had once been a mere distant acquaintance he causally avoided and had turned into a well-meaning danger. What if he struck again and it got blamed on Carter? He was interrupted from his ruminating by the tinkling of change.  The human was laying out coins and sorting out the bills. Carter’s jaw dropped, too shocked to continue his diatribe.

When he ran out of bills, the human went back into the bag to scrounge for more. He emptied it out, revealing a couple uneaten items of food, a soiled portable shovel, and- A soiled shovel? Carter’s vision honed in on the mud caked on his boots and the cuffs of his pants. Holy shit, had he buried Vincent? Of course he did. If he’s smart enough to sort money- even if the humie mutt is only going off of appearance- he’s smart enough to dig a hole with a shovel. Carter’s voice caught in his throat, and the human looked at him as if the coyote were the weird one. “Fuck man, did you bury Vincent?” he asked, almost expecting an answer. Instead, all he got was a disinterested grunt while the human dumped the rest of the change and a few wadded up bills.

Carter was on edge, enough to start chewing his claws, something he had not done since he first lost his home. The human simply ignored him while the coyote slowly lost his mind in the corner. A few minutes passed, and the human passed stacked up some bills, piled a bunch of coins together, and scooted them towards Carter. Carter looked down at the money in shock. He picked up the stack of bills first and began counting. Five… Ten…

By the time he was finished, Carter realized he had a hundred twenty-two dollars plus whatever was in the pile of change. “Wow,” he said, seeing a bright side for the first time in a while, “That was a good take.” Well, it had been a busy corner. Carter could see why Terry would kill anyone that moved in on it. Hopefully he never found out…

The human stood, stretched, and left with half the money. Carter numbly watched him go and then looked down at the money in his hand. Damn, what had just happened?
______

About three miles away and an hour on foot, a small shopping center was disturbed by a guy in a dirty hoodie and filthy pants. Most people steered clear of him because of the smell abusing their poor noses. He smelled almost like he had rolled around in a pit of a dozen stinky, dirty humans, but the guy kept his head down and talked to no one. One busy-body, a scrutinizing and nosy white-tailed doe watched him with distaste. Her kid sat in the shopping cart and looked around. His spotted tail hung limply through his jeans. Looked like a cat of some kind. Surgical mask. Must have been sick or crazy. Best steer clear. She turned her shopping cart the other way and avoided him.

When the guy trudged up to the counter. Toiletries, deodorant- thank god- a twelve-pack of wine coolers, scissors, duct tape, can openers, steel wool, bleach, bars of soap, a bunch of bananas, disposable cutlery, more face masks, and a men’s magazine. Vixxxen was popular. The old goat running the checkout lane, Janice read her name tag, scrutinized him, but scanned his purchases anyways. She could see almost nothing behind unkempt hair, goggle-like sunglasses, the scarf, and face mask. He coughed a few times, lightly, like he was trying not to. “Sick, deary?” Janice asked. The guy nodded but did not engage her any more.

When the total was rang up, he pulled out a wallet and paid in cash, exact change. He picked up his bags, stuck them in the cart, and rolled them away. Janice watched the poor sick dearie. Head down, shoulders slumped, tail limp. She certainly did not want what he had. With that thought, Janice sprinkled some antiseptic wash on her hands on the hard hoofed fingertips and rubbed them all over her hands. She had touched things he had touched and thought best to stop the line of contamination with her.
______

When the human returned to his hideout in the derelict public housing, Carter was still there, much to the human’s surprise. Carter looked up, surprised as well. Apparently he had not expected to the human back so soon either. It was only the afternoon. “Uh, hi,” Carter said. The human stared at him through some sunglasses he had never seen him wear before for a moment before shoving his paw into some grocery bags. After some rummaging, a magazine came flying at the coyote’s face and splayed across it, wrapping around his head. Carter sputtered and pulled it off only to be greeted by the centerfold, Miss April. The fox had to have tits as big as her head! And, the hips to go with it. Carter almost drooled.

Wait a tic. “You got me a girlie mag?” Carter asked the human incredulously. The beast shrugged at him and hauled his stuff to where he normally slept. Was that a tail? Carter rubbed his eyes and goggled at the tail. The human apparently noticed Carter’s attention turned around. He began unbuttoning his pants.

“Hey man, keep your pants on!” Carter shouted, but the beast did not listen. The coyote had no idea what it was up to, but he did not want a repeat of last night. The human the reached behind him and pulled off something. He tugged up and before him dangled a prosthetic tail with the end tied around a bag clip. Carter goggled incredulously, “A tail extension? You stole someone’s tail extension to wear?” The human snorted at him, coiled up the fake tail, and tossed it in his dufflebag. The human knew what made him look different and corrected it by stealing some poor Bob’s prosthetic tail? The human went back to sorting through his stuff.

Carter saw bags from at least three different stores. Man, that human had been busy. There was no way that was a normal human. What the flying fuck, man? Carter was too sober for this shit. With that thought, the coyote took out the weed he had bought today with his take- the human was not the only one who had been busy- and started rolling himself the fattest blunt he could make with the cheap wrapping paper he got.

The human continued undressing in front of him, and Carter tuned it out while he lit up. The smoke poured down his throat and into his lungs, and the coyote slowly sucked in as much as he could and held it in until he began to cough on it. He managed to exhale properly, and Carter’s head spun. He crinkled his purchased bag of chips and began to stuff them into his mouth. He stared off into space, letting the feeling of calm and subtle euphoria flow through him.

Across from him, the human was naked, surprisingly lacking the powerful odor humans normally had, and changing out of the dirty clothes that he had had on earlier, tossing them into a neglected pile on the floor and pulling out new clean clothes. The human was tall, broad-shouldered, and covered in lean muscle. Damn, Carter thought, must have been a show or fighting human at some point. Then again, Carter’s intoxicated mind thought, that cannot possibly be an ordinary human. Too smart. Damn, was it an alien? Fuck, he was sitting in the same room as an alien human. Fuck, don’t aliens anal probe you? Carter really really wanted to keep his ass virgin until the day he died.

Carter had just taken his third deep hit off the gigglestick when the human turned to face him, a cock that intimidated Carter more so than Vincent’s ever had swinging pendulously between his legs, folded his arms across his chest, and all Carter could do was shout, “Don’t probe my ass!”

“You know,” human said slowly, his voice was deep, rumbling, and scared Carter on some primordial level, causing his heart to sink into the pit of his stomach, “If you keep staring at me and not that porn I got you, I’m going to start doubting that ‘I’m not a fag’ spiel you were trying to sell yesterday.”

Carter blinked and put his blunt down, suddenly turned off of it. “A-are,” the coyote stammered out, “y-you an alien?”

“No, stupid,” the human said in deadpan, “You’re high. This is just a product of your stoner imagination. Humans can’t talk.”

“Don’t give me that sarcastic shit,” Carter shouted, “Weed doesn’t do that!”

“It does if it’s laced with something nasty,” the human product of his imagination corrected, “You sure you’re not a fag, Carrie? This is a pretty homoerotic hallucination.”

“Fuck you,” Carter groused, “I hate that nickname.”

“You never introduced yourself,” the human said dryly.

“If you’re a product of my stoned out mind, why don’t you already know?”

“I’m a product of your subconscious, man; I don’t make the rules.”

Carter paused, unable to think of a retort as high as he was. Just when he thought life could not get any worse, he reached into his chip bag only to find nothing but salt and monosodium glutamate powder. Damn, Carter had not realized he ate them all. He sighed and looked up at the human who had started dressing himself. “Carter,” he bit out in introduction, “Fuck man, how do you even do what you do? Tell me that, subconscious, how is a human able to find food, count money, go shopping, and use a fucking weapon to fucking kill fucking Vincent- Holy shit!” Carter began to hyperventilate and the human who thankfully had underwear on now stepped over and knelt down to pat him on the back. Somehow, the contact helped him calm down a bit.

“I’m smart,” the human said simply, “and people underestimate me.”

Carter gave him a skeptical look but nodded. “Yeah, some kind of genetic freak I take it?” he asked.

“Sounds a bit more plausible than aliens, I have to admit, Carter,” the human said with a shrug.

“So what now, are you going to haunt me and keep making things difficult for me?” Carter shouted at him.

“Woah there, buddy,” the human said, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed, “What, because I got rid of your rapist gay lover there?”

“I’m not a fa-” Carter began but was interrupted by the human.

“Shut it. I don’t fucking care whether you like dick, pussy, or if you get your jollies by pressing your ass into banana cream pies and crying all night,” the human said, jabbing his finger into Carter’s chest. It hurt and made the coyote hiss at the prod. “Just because you’re too stupid to see it, I’m going to tell you exactly where that road led because it is a well traveled road. That guy was going to hold that Terry guy over you for as long as he could and extort you for everything. Hell, even if you catered to his every demand and let him lock you into a gimp suit and carry you off to his fuck-hut sex-dungeon, he’d probably eventually tell Terry anyways, and then what?”

Carter was at a loss for words. That made a lot of sense, but he did not want to admit it.

“Now, if you want to get your shit together or go slurp up someone else’s cock-”  the human continued, shutting down Carter’s token protest against the attack on his sexuality with a glare, “-or puss, you do you. It’s not my problem. You don’t like me? Why are you even coming here? It’s not like I follow you around.”

The human left, put the rest of his clothes on, threw the rest of his stuff in his dufflebag, did a few practice expressions of a happy human, a mad human, and a timid human, then walked right out.

Carter coughed out the last bit of marijuana fumes that was clogging his lungs.
______

 Chapter 4:

The sun was going down, and Carter’s head was spinning. He had since come down from his high and stowed the rest of his weed for later. He wanted a clear head for now. Well, he did not want one, but sense told him that it was necessary. Moreover, he was unsure whether or not the stuff was tainted. After all, he had just seen some freaky shit. The alternative, that it was real, was something Carter was not yet crazy enough to believe. Think, Carter. What did it mean?

Well, Carter thought slowly, the human had been clean. He had deodorant, new clothes, fruit, and a shiny new crowbar. Come to think of it, Carter had not seen his pipe. How did he get rid of it? Wait a minute, Carter, stop thinking about that. You know what happens. What else? The human had given him porn, girl porn. Man, what if this really was his subconscious’s way of telling him to get his shit together?

The coyote wandered aimlessly, lost in thought. He stopped and checked to see how much he had left. The weed had cost a lot. The chips were expensive too. Hmm, but he was not yet flat broke. What could he do?

Well, he could clean up, and maybe he could see about trading up from panhandling and the occasional whoring. Yeah, he especially hated feeling desperate enough to do choke down dick.
_____

Much later that day, Carter felt like a million bucks despite being flat broke again. He had thought long and hard about how that human could possibly have cleaned up while being on the streets. His first thought was stealing into someone’s backyard pool, but he had quickly banished the idea. Trespassing could mean jail time. How else? A bit of detective work, and Carter found  a few external spigots nearby his usual haunts that worked. While it was nothing like taking a shower, it was enough to lather up and scrub down. For the first time in a long time, Carter felt clean.

He had used the remainder of his money on some cheap clean clothes. After buying soap, deodorant, a new tooth brush, and a few other essentials, he had not had enough left for the department store and eventually found a thrift store. Across it were ridiculous-sounding ads like “50% off all clothes every Wednesday!” and “20% off entire store every Saturday!” Well, maybe it drew in business.

Carter managed to get just one set of clothes with what he had left, but it was cheap enough that the newly reinvigorated coyote memorized the store’s location for the future. Carter would never have to smell like a dumpster fire unless he chose to again. Granted, he could never even think about working Terry’s corner again, but there were other corners right? Hey, maybe at this rate he could get a job.
______

The big human squatted by the dumpster behind a dinky strip by a gas station. His hood was down and he had none of the accouterments that would obfuscate his nature. They were not necessary here. He rolled up his sleeve and checked the cheap digital watch on his wrist. It was nearly ten o’clock p.m. Something special happened at ten on weeknights. The back door to the cheap pizza joint opened up and a stout rat started hauling out big black trash bags. He looked up, unsurprised to see the human. “Hey, you,” the rat said in a borderline friendly tone as he muscled the garbage over. The human courteously lifted the lid up for him and grabbed one of the two bags to put in.

It always paid to be courteous, especially with courteous people. Reciprocity was a major ingredient to etiquette so much so that it was practically instinct. The rat made an ingratiating gesture to the human. “Thanks, big guy, but I know why you’re here,” he told the human to which the shaggy beast tilted its head to one side quizzically. “Don’t you worry, I’ll be right back,” he told the human. The strolled back inside and came back out, opening the door with three boxes of pizza in his hands. “We’ve got three Ready-Mades just waiting to be thrown into the garbage tonight,” the rat said conversational, “Here you go big guy.”

A tall hyena stuck her head out the door and said, “Marshall, you need to sto- Oh frig, don’t tell me you’re feeding that stray?”

The rat startled. “Hey Tammy, we throw out the spares every night anyways,” he pointed out, having to crane his neck to look up at the big woman, “What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that you’ll encourage him to hang around, and he might bite someone,” Tammy stated humorlessly.

“He only shows up at closing, and he’s fine. Look at him!” Marshall said, gesticulating wildly to indicate the human. The human pitched in and lifted one hand away from supporting the three boxes of pizza to smile and wave at the irritated hyena.

“Cute,” Tammy deadpanned, “He can’t hang around here, Marshall.”  She ignored the kiss the human blew to her. It was unsettling, actually. She continued, “If I see him again, I’m calling the pound.” Ultimatum delivered, she ignored the human flipping her the bird with that shit-eating grin and ducked back inside.  She would make Marshall pay for teaching him that later.

“Pfbah, managers, amiright?” Marshall said, “But yeah, looks like I can’t feed you anymore.” Marshall turned to shoo away the human to find that he had already left.
____

“Carter?” someone called, “Carter! Over here!”

The coyote, upon hearing his name, started scanning the environs for someone calling out to him. He was still nearby the grocery store and was picking someone out of the crowd in the late night. Eventually, Carter saw one of his former roommates, the badger. She stomped over to him and drew him into a bear hug. Even though she waas more or less the same size as Carter, she was strong. Badgers were robust unlike the gracile coyotes. Carter smiled and hugged her back, for once not feeling self-conscious about his smell. “Hey Barb, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” he asked.

Barbara broke the hug and punched Carter’s arm. “Yes, too long,” she said, “and you haven’t called.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t have a phone right now. Too expensive,” Carter said with a shrug.

“You could have messaged or emailed,” Barbara shot back.

“No internet either.”

“What, do you live in a hole in the ground?”

“Pretty much.”

Barbara laughed and hugged the coyote again. “It’s been too long,” the badger said, “C’mon, let’s catch up.”

Despite his nostalgia, Carter looked up and noted the black sky above. “You sure, Barb?” he asked, “It’s pretty late, and I’ve had a long day.”

“You’re not getting away from me that easily,” the badger growled playfully.  C’mon, pack your shit and we can meet up at your place for a while.”

“Mmmkay,” Carter said slowly, “One problem.”

“What’s that?”

“My roommate is super unfriendly,” Carter said solemnly. It was sort of true. That human meant business when clobbered Vincent. Besides, Carter did not want his friend to see his hovel.

“Eh, I can handle him,” Barb said dismissively.

Carter was growing alarmed. “Can you handle the business end of a gun?” he asked, trying further to dissuade her, “’Cause he’s real jumpy. Especially at night.”

That seemed to put a stopper on Barbara’s plans. “Hmm,” she said, carefully considering going up against a gun toting maniac. “You’re not exaggerating?” Carter shook his head emphatically. She sighed, “Fine, we’ll go to my place.”

That actually did not sound bad to Carter. He might be able to weasel a warm bed out of this for the night. Or, at least a sofa. Barbara was not exactly a soft touch, but they were friends. Well, former roommates. She was being awfully chummy, so Carter liked to think that they were friends.

“Alright, get your car and follow me,” she told him, turning around to get to her vehicle.

“Actually, I walked,” Carter interjected. Barbara turned around to give him a look. Seriously?- is what her look said. Carter shrugged. “Saves money and burns calories,” he said. He followed Barbara on the route to her car.

“Fine,” she said, having already given up, “but you’ve just got to tell me about this crazy roommate of yours. Is he a real maniac?”

Carter barked out a laugh. “Oh you would not believe-”  Carter began, only to stop dead  and choke on his words as he saw the human round the corner from behind the strip with three pizza boxes in hand. Speak of the devil. Oh, shit shit shit, Carter thought, The human was headed their way.

Barbara noticed Carter’s sudden jolt and turned round to see the human passing by. The human ignored them until it was close enough to notice Carter. He regarded the coyote and grunted at him in a sort of greeting. He leaned away to continue his journey. His foot had just lifted off the ground when Barbara's voice broke the silence, "Does that human have pizza?"

Carter let out a nervous laugh, and the human stopped to give them a contemptuous look as if they were the ones here who were ridiculous and not the maybe-talking but definitely way-too-smart human walking away with pizza. He was not wearing all  the components of his disguise so how did he get them? Begging? Wait, how much of that did Carter halucinate, he wondered. Despite this, the human was looking at Carter like this was somehow his fault. What, did the human expect him to control the weather along with other people?

"Is he yours?" Barbara asked. She was looking at him curiously, and Carter was unsure of he could lie his way out of this or what the truth of the situation was.

"Um, kinda?" Carter hedged. He cringed as he said it, but it was too late. He had to roll with it now. Hopefully, he would not dig himself too deep.

"How can he be kinda yours?" Barbara asked, immediately skeptical, "He or he isn't?" To compound the issue, the human was staring him down again. With both of their attentions on him, Carter felt pressured.

"He's kinda... a stay?" Carter tried, grasping for straws. The human raised an eyebrow at him, just one. Carter had never seen one do that before.

Barbara parroted him flatly, "Kind of a stray, huh?"

"Well, he kind of showed up and kept hanging around-" Carter saw the disbelieving look on the badger's face and kept blathering to try to spit something plausible out, "and he's already trained so he's kind of... adopted?"

Barbara scowled at him. "Well, why didn't you just say so?" she asked with consternation at having to put  up with Carter's halting excuses. She turned to the human who stood there with the pizza having since become aloof. "Is he friendly?" she inquired doubtfully.

"Uh, I've seen him play with total strangers before, " Carter answered truthfully. He conveniently omitted the time he probably killed a hulking wolf with a blunt instrument. Carter never saw hide nor hair of Vincent's body after the incident,  but even without that visual affirmation, common sense told him the wolf was dead. "He takes some time to warm up, but he's a smart one," he added, hoping it would somehow help sell his case.

 Barbara shrugged. "Well, if he behaves well,  he can meet Jerry's human. It'll be fun," she said.

Carter sent the human a pleading look. Come on, don't blow my cover on this, please, Carter mentally begged, hoping the human would pick up on what he wanted. The beast was stone- faced. After a few heart-pounding moments when Carter could feel his rapid pulse drum in his ears, the human seemed to aquiece and come to move over to join them.  With the pressure relieved, Carter could focus on more trivial, friendly matters. If luck held,  this time no one would die.  "Jerry has a human?" he asked,  mildly surprised. That was new.

"Hm? Oh yeah," Barbara confirmed, "He got her certified as a therapy human so that he could keep her on our last move. Turns out the landlord couldn't say no since his sudden need for one cropped up... after moving in."

Carter laughed. "That sounds like him," he commented, "I take it you guys are rooming again?"

"Yeah. Tiny place, though. We thought about getting the gang back together, but it's so friggin' cramped, we don't think we could get away with it."

"It can't be that bad."

"It's a one bedroom and not much else."

That earned Barbara a curious look. "You and Jerry, huh?" Carter probed.

At that, Barbara blanched. "Heck no," she proclaimed emphatically,  "One bedroom, two beds. Bunk beds, actually. Saves space."

"Makes sense," Carter said neutrally although secretly he was mildly relieved. He was not jealous of or for Barbara per se, but the idea of being left behind in relationships stung despite sense telling him he should be glad for his friends had that been the case. Oh, well. It was moot anyways.

It turned out that Barbara’s sedan was so compact that the human had to slouch and put his legs in an awkward position. He grunted, obviously uncomfortable, but otherwise put his seat belt on, lifting up the three boxes of pizza he had to fit the belt around his bulk. “Woah, he is smart, isn’t he?” Barbara commented as she loaded herself up and started adjusting her mirrors, “You hear everyone call their pets smart, but I’ve never seen a human do that.”

Carter sat up front with Barbara, and the human moved the pizzas off his lap and onto the other backseat, stretching himself out to stave off the discomfort of being compressed into the too-small space.  They pulled out and sped off, Barbara making a dangerous left turn into a major street to get to her destination. Carter and the human both cringed at the maneuver. Badgers, man. They thought they owned the road.
_____

Chapter 5:

As Barbara was fiddling with her keys at the front door to her apartment in an out of the way building within a sizable complex, there was already scratching at the door. The human seemed a bit put off by the noise, and he took a subtle step back. It aroused Carter’s attention to the disturbance, and he could not help but ask. “What’s making that noise?” he asked. There was a loud thump and the door frame creaked.

“Huh? Oh, that’s Jerry’s human. She hears whenever one of us drives up and runs up to the door,” Barbara explained, distracted by searching for her apartment key, “Ah.” She finally found it and the doorknob opened with a click. The moment the door pitched in even the slightest, it was pulled open, and a short, caramel breed human impacted headlong into Barbara’s stout frame. The badger hugged the human while she rubbed her hairless cheek into her chest. Barbara giggled in a girlish way that bellied her usual manner. “Down girl,’ she said, “I said down!” She mushed the human girl back over the threshold and herded her off to the side so that Carter and the stray he picked up could enter.

The inside was dimly lit with a standing lamp in one corner and the bright screen of the television on one wall. In front of it was a tubby raccoon who had yet to divert his attention or greet the new arrivals. The front of his stained white T-shirt had a sprinkling of chip dust, and his claws and fingertips were painted orange with the stuff.

“Jerry,” Barbara called, “Jerry!”

The second call snapped the raccoon out of what he was watching, and he called back, “Hey, Barb.” His hand rustled around the extra large chip bag and withdrew another handful to munch on. He was still yet to so much as look over, too absorbed in his entertainment.

Carter could not help but smile at the scene. Nostalgia filled him despite the unfamiliar abode. “Been a while, huh, Jerry?” Carter prompted, causing the Raccoon to jump and nearly spill his chips. His head swiveled around.

“Carter?” he asked, stupefied, “What’re you doin’ here, man?” He blinked his wide eyes once and then twice, caught flatfooted by the encounter.

“I found him at the grocery store and insisted he come hang for a bit,” Barbara supplied helpfully, “I figured hey, it’s Friday, it’s not like Carter would have anything better to do.”

Carter’s ears flattened and he pressed his lips together in annoyance. “Gee, thanks, Barb,” he said, “I clear my busy calendar as a favor to a friend, and this is what I get?” Truth be told, he had forgotten that it was Friday. Days of the week lost their meaning when every day was monotonous.

The bony fist of the badger impacted Carter’s shoulder, stinging it a bit. The coyote feigned great pain, clutching his shoulder and falling to one knee as if he had been mortally wounded. Barbara laughed and pulled him to his feet. “Get up, ya goof,” she commanded fondly.

The human stood awkwardly behind them holding his pizza, waiting for them to move. He relaxed a bit when Barbara guided Carter towards the couch and moved to follow. Unfortunately, he was intercepted by the gaze of the human girl standing staring at him with an enraptured sort of bemusement. She looked to the side and then turned back to the stranger, causing her short skirt to flip up and flash her bare bottom at the human. Her guileless, honey brown eyes were wide and questioning. There was a standoff.

The male human’s eyes narrowed and trailed from the top of her scalp where her shiny black hair hung down to her shoulders and drug over her face to her thin tank top and down to her bare feet before snapping up to her eyes. She suddenly looked uncomfortable. The human took a step forward, and she bolted, making a noise of inarticulate distress, running over to the raccoon couch potato, falling to the floor and hugging his knees. “Woah, what’s up, Princess?” Jerry asked her.

Carter’s ears perked up and swiveled to regard the human. His head turned just enough to put him in his peripheral vision. What did he do? Barbara picked up on this and looked over to the human whose hands were still encumbered with the pizzas. Jerry was the last to notice, and the first thing he noticed was, “Hey, pizza!” Then, he saw the human holding him and asked, “He yours, Carter?”

There was a pause, then Carter nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he answered. The human used one boot tip to step on his lace and undid the bow on his shoelaces. He kicked the boot off at the linoleum tile by the threshold and repeated the process with the other boot. He similarly pulled off his socks by stepping on the toes and pulling them off his feet. The socks deposited by the mud-encrusted boots, and the human stepped forward steadily and in a disturbingly quiet fashion, his weight subtly shifting with each step. He stopped by the couch and sized up the badger and raccoon. With a sniff, he noticed that the couch was full, but there was some kind of squashy beanbag chair by the table.

Barbara let out a squawk of surprise when the human thrust two pizza boxes into her lap and stepped off with the last one to lower his weight onto the beanbag chair. He let out a slow sigh of contentment and lifted the lid off of the last box of pizza he had reserved for himself. The distressed cry of the human girl, Princess, interrupted him. She stood up from the front of the sofa and took three thundering steps over to stand in front of the beanbag chair. She made several inarticulate grunts and gesticulated wildly. The male human looked up at her with a look of abject disgust peering through his shaggy brown locks as if someone had taken a steaming dump on his lap. Apparently, he was not pleased with the interaction.

Carter suddenly felt nervous again. “What’s her problem?” he asked, hoping to diffuse the situation.

“Eh? Oh, that’s her chair. She probably doesn’t want to share,” Jerry supplied helpfully although he made no move to correct the situation, only looking on as a spectator.

Barbara set the pizza boxes aside and stood up. She trundled over, wrapping her arms around Princess from behind and lifted her off her feet. She bleated in protest but failed to struggle free. “Clear your lap, Jerry,” she instructed her friend.

“Why?” the raccoon asked petulantly.

“So you can hold her and calm her down,” Barbara asked with some strain, “Now get-”

Carter was on the ball faster than Jerry and pulled his chip bag and the pizza he had snagged from the boxes earlier out of his hand, much to Jerry’s indignation, and freed his lap for Barbara to dump Princess into. Jerry wrapped his arms around her and held her close, getting the caked on chip dust onto her tank-top. The human girl settled in, struggling and writhing at first until eventually she ran out of oomph. She watched the strange human in her chair from her spot on Jerry’s lap with wide-eyed and uncomprehending countenance.

“Heheh, sorry about that,” Carter apologized. Although none of this was really his fault, he had nominally claimed the shaggy beast of a human as his own for now, so any trouble he caused was technically his responsibility. Oh well, Carter knew better next time. The next time they met in public, they would have nothing to do with one another. That made the most sense.

Jerry waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. She’s not used to other humans and is just excitable,” he dismissed.

Carter gave the human a cautious glance but was reassured when he had simply gone back to ignoring the rest of them and was watching TV and biting into his first slice of pizza.

Whatever was on the TV was not terribly interesting to Carter. Jerry was watching some vaguely dramatic show, and the coyote had joined midway. The dynamics of the characters and the plot were mystifying to him at the present.

“Since when is Joe an Alien?” Barbara asked with a confused grunt, “And thanks for bringing the pizza, Carter.”

Jerry grunted his thanks out to Carter and told Barbara, “You missed an episode, Barb.”

“Figures,” she said. Crunch. Barbara scowled at Jerry feeding Princess some chips. “C’mon, Jer,” she chastised the raccoon, “don’t feed her that crap while we’re eating. She’s already a terrible beggar.”

“Carter’s human is eating pizza,” he absentmindedly shifted the focus from him to Carter.

The coyote shot Jerry a glare which the raccoon either did not notice with his focus on the television or flatly ignored. Carter’s glare turned to a sheepish look when Barbara’s ire turned towards him.

She looked to the human who was casually eating pizza with better table manners than Jerry. “Don’t tell me you feed him that crap,” she asked, somehow hoping it was not true.

“Well, uh, I mean if it’s bad for him it sure as hell isn’t any good for us,” Carter said, blinking rapidly at the situation.

Barbara paused. “Well, you’ve got me there,” she admitted. She dropped the subject and went back to eating.

Sometime in the middle of the show, the human set the pizza box aside on the coffee table, half of the pie eaten, and got up, stretching. He strode off and disappeared down the hall. Carter was mildly concerned and leaned over the arm of the couch to peer through the doorway leading to the hall.

“Where’s he going?” Barbara asked, not really concerned but distracted by Carter’s movement.

“I think he went into your bathroom,” Carter answered absently, “Huh, well then.” He figured he knew what he was doing and left it at that. Some time later, the toilet flushed. None of them were concerned. Concern did however crop up when they all heard the shower start up.

Jerry, surprisingly was the most upset. “Ah Jeez, Carter, what’s your human doing?” he demanded, “I don’t need him breaking anything in there.”

“Uh...” Carter was at a loss. On the one hand, he did not want the human to do what Jerry feared and break his friends’ stuff. On the other hand, there was the niggling fear of getting his ass kicked by a pissed off human.

And so, the badger rolled her eyes at them and stood up to take care of the situation. Carter nervously set his food aside and followed her. Down the hall and to the right, the only bathroom in the apartment’s door was closed. When Barbara tried it, it was locked. “Shit,” she cursed. She twisted the knob as hard as she could and shook the door. “Locked,” she said to Carter who was quite concerned.

“Any way to open it from outside?” he asked.

“I’ll get the screwdriver,” she said with an exasperated sigh. She had begun to veer off when Carter grabbed her by the arm.

“Lemme try something,” he said, “Hey, buddy? You hear me in there? Can you please open the door? I have to really go to the bathroom.” There was no reply. Barbara was looking at him, arms akimbo and incredulous as to what he was doing. Carter nervously laughed and tried again. “Damn it man, I need to go!” he shouted inside.

“Carter, what on-” Barbara began but cut herself off when she heard the door click open and the door swung inward. There, the human stood sopping wet, covered in suds, and naked in all his glory. He gave the coyote and badger an annoyed look.

“Uh, Barb, his eyes are up there. Waaay up there,” Carter said, elbowing his friend. Barbara closed her gaping jaw with a click and drug her vision up.

“Well,” she began, fishing for anything to break the tension, “I see he’s not fixed.” The human snorted at her and stepped back into the shower to finish scrubbing down and rinsing off.

Barbara went back to the couch and sat down, a tad bewildered. “So what was up?” Jerry asked, less irate now and mellowing back out.

“Carter’s human was taking a shower,” Barbara said, still not believing it.

“He what?” Jerry asked, head snapping over to check Barbara for signs deception.

She laughed and said, “No, seriously. He was covered in soap and everything. He opened the door when Carter asked him to.”

“Ho-ly shit,” Jerry said, “How’d Carter get him to do that?”

“He said he was a stray, so he probably came already trained,” Barbara filled him in, “Also, you might want to keep him away from Princess. He’s not fixed, and I know you never bothered to get her spayed. We don’t need to be drowning in babies.”  Jerry grunted and went back to watching his television. “Seriously, Jerry,” Barbara warned, “You don’t need a pregnant human. She may be your ‘therapy human,’ but her babes won’t be.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jerry said, “We’ll pull them a part if either of them manage to get his pants off.”

“He managed to undress himself in the shower, Jerry,” Barbara said, her volume raising a bit.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh.’”
____

    It was past midnight, and although they had not yet gotten around to really catching up, Barbara did not yet feel like driving Carter home since she had been his ride here. When asked, the coyote truthfully told them that he did not have work in the morning, so he was told he could sleep on the couch. Carter, having not slept on an actual cushion in a long time, was happy to accept. Everyone went to bed late; it was Friday after all. The lights went out, Princess was shut in Jerry and Barbara’s room, and it was dark.

    Hours passed, and then a door creaked open in the hallway only to be shut again. A short figure trundled through the dark and managed to make it to the kitchen. A dim light turned on, and Barbara appeared in the kitchen wearing a rather large white bra and black basketball shorts. She idly scratched herself while she pulled a glass out of the cupboard and got herself a drink of water. She had just set her glass in the sink when she turned and walked into the broad chest of ‘Carter’s’ human. She startled and peeled herself back. “Oof, sorry there, big guy,” she said, casting a wary look up at him. His head tilted a bit. She was vigilant but unfearing, but despite her nature, the badger could not help but goggle when he opened up the cupboard, got his own glass and own water before drinking it slowly like a civilized person. “Damn, what else is in your bag of tricks?” she asked him rhetorically. The human shrugged and took another sip.

    She watched him, amused, and reached up to pet him. To her consternation, he leaned a way, keeping one eye on her hand and the other on her. She frowned. “Hey, be nice,” she said, “Carter said you play well with others.” Despite her wishes he stepped back and looked at her with contempt. Barbara folded her arms under he tits and lifted them in a huff. “You’re a jerk, you know that?” she told him, turning to leave in a huff. As soon as her back was to him, she felt the human’s hand run over her head and down her spine in one gentle stroke, and she froze up, spinning around to see the human’s smirking face. “Did you just-?” she asked incredulously. Her jaw set, and she darted forward to seek her revenge… in petting. Unfortunately for her, badgers were a short-limbed race, and the human had the advantage of reach. He stepped out of the way and managed to run his hand down her back again. Curses!

    She landed against his core with a thud and bear hugged him, but human hugged her back and hefted Barbara off of her feet and over his shoulder where he could stroke her from head to tail to his hearts content. The badger struggled for freedom but to no avail. She could not help but giggle and started playfully thumping on the beast’s back to make him let her go. To her surprise, he flicked the light switch off, and she could feel them moving. He continued petting her, and Barbara felt like she had no choice but to pet him back. The first time she managed to run her claws through his straight and squeaky clean head-hair, she felt the human’s big, meaty paw swat her butt with a dull clap through the fabric of her basketball shorts. She squeaked and pinched the human, but he shrugged it off and spanked her again. The badger kicked and flailed like she was a little girl again even as gravity pulled her down with the human who had dropped his weight onto the beanbag chair with a dull thud.

    Barbara felt her pulled into the human’s lap, and she was pet all over. She had to wonder if the human knew he was being ironic or if he was just trying to play with her the way that he had been played with. After all, she knew him to be an excellent mimic. The human had gotten a glass of water just like she had after have only been shown once, and Barbara had not been even trying to show him anything. The playful energy between them did not dissipate, and she turned around, straddled him, and began running her fingers through his hair. She felt smug about finally being able to pet him unrestrained despite the fact that he was currently doing the same to her. After all, it meant that he was letting her. It was victory, for she had won the beast’s trust. She did not even really mind the reciprocal petting, even if his hands were going a bit low. Once in a while, his paw would run over one side or the other of her bottom, but it was not that big of a deal. His aim usually more or less wound up in the correct petting end destination, the small of her back or tail.

The human’s face pressed into her neck and inhaled. Barbara felt tickled by it, but continued to pet the human’s back. She was having a lot of fun in a manner she had not in a while. Sometimes, animals could surprise you, and you got to have a grand time with them. This guy was also a lot smarter than Princess who frustrated Barb sometimes. Jerry spoiled her. As the human nuzzled her neck, she felt his lips purse and kiss a sensitive spot. She sucked in a breath, pressing her bosom into the human’s chest, and wriggled away from the sensation. It was a bit overstimulating. She tried to readjust, but failed. The human continued to slobber all over her; although, slobber was not really the right word. Barbara had seen Princess lavish Jerry a bit or lick food off of his hands or shirt, but this was not quite the same. It was fine though. The human moved and kissed her cheek. Barbara giggled. She was not sure what she was so scared of before. Carter did say his human had played with strangers before. And to think, he had seemed so grumpy before!

The human rolled over, taking Barbara with him, and she was pinned under his weight. “Oof, gerroff,” she said to him. She tickled the human under his arms and he giggled for her. Oh, ticklish, was he? She thought deviously. Barbara continued to badger him, seeking out more ticklish areas on his sides, neck, and belly only to find her tactics used against her. This human! He even tried something creative; he used his fingertips to tickle Barbara’s nipple through her bra. It certainly tickled, but she batted his hand away the first time he tried it. He then followed up and got her under her exposed armpit. He tried it a couple more times, apparently thinking they were still playing. She was not going to let a few dirty tricks steal victory from her.

The human also continued to kiss and nip at her. Thank god he could do it without slobbering like Princess. It was disgusting to get that much human spit on her. This was minimal. He got her neck and nipped at her collarbone as he pulled away, so Barbara wrapped her legs around his trunk prevented him from escaping so easily. The human forgot his escape and pressed forward, his face pressed against Barbara’s chest. His nose and face buried in her cleavage, and he shook his head against the bra fabric. Barbara snorted at his antics. The human tried to pull away again, but her legs wrapped around his middle kept him firmly in place. She grabbed his shouldered and whispered, “Gotcha,” to him.

The human kissed her. Barbara’s eyes bulged and she sputtered, pulling away from him and giving the human his chance to wriggle down further. His arms now trapped her middle and he peered up at her through the darkness and the valley of her cleavage. She could barely make his outline out in the darkness. The only light was a small pinpoint LED coming from their entertainment center, but somehow she could tell that he was smirking at her. The human’s lips pressed slowly and firmly into her stomach and broke with a pop. You haven’t won yet, mongrel, Barbara thought.

When she felt the waistband of the basketball shorts she slept in start to slipp, Barbara grabbed at them but missed. The human had wrapped his arms around her hips and his bulk was in the way. She tried to push him down, and to her surprise, he moved with her push… taking her shorts with him. Great. She huffed, but before she realized it, the human was between her legs. He inhaled her scent. “Down boy,” she told him, but apparently that fell on deaf ears. A gasp escaped her when his tongue lapped across her inner thigh. She squirmed, but the human had a solid grip on her. How could she extricate herself without causing a scene? The last thing she needed to do was wake everyone up and cause a big ruckus and possibly a horrible misunderstanding.

Oh… Oh! Looks like someone taught him the peanut butter game. The badger squirmed but only managed to grind between the beanbag chair and the human’s face. She thought to herself, ‘How were you going to get out of this one, Barb?’ She relaxed a bit and a shiver went up her spine as the human really got into it. She could see nothing in this black besides a few faint outlines. She almost let out a noise. He may be unable to speak, but this human apparently knew his alphabet. Barbara was frustrated and ambivalent about the situation. Her judgment was clouded.

Unable to push the human away and unwilling to do something as drastic as strike him, lest the beast use his mouth for something more aggressive down there, Barbara was stuck. She did not want something sensitive bitten off. Lost in her indecision, things got far enough along for the human’s tongue to slip up inside of her and flick up and across the roof of her canal. The badger’s brain melted. Her head fell back against the beanbag chair, and air rushed through her nose, filling her lungs, and swelling her chest. Her hands gripped either side of the bag and clenched tightly. So close. And yet, the human’s head pulled away, lifting up and leaving Barbara hanging. Oh, come on. Why did he stop?

She felt the pressure of his chest against hers and then she realized why he stopped. Something was poking her. Through the fog of her brain, she wondered briefly what she wanted. Oh yeah, this was wrong, she finally remembered. Too late. The beast pushed himself inside of her, and she felt the fat glans move up inside of her and spread her walls to make way for the rest of the beast’s cock. The beast’s weight impacted her pelvis, and she stopped caring. It came down again, sending a crash of momentum through her whole body. She panted, and a squeak of a noise escaped her throat. Her breaths were heavy, and the beast atop her, spearing her, grunted, exhaling in deep rumbles each time his hips bucked forward. Inside her, his manhood throbbed. It pulsated with hot blood sloshing in and out of it with the racing heartbeat thundering in his chest.

Each rock sent a wave through her entire body. The beanbag rustled like a pile of leaves, grinding under their combined weight. He was relentless, hilting himself inside each time, and she took it. Her eyes closed, and she relaxed into it. She felt him kiss her neck again, suckling along the sensitive spot atop her carotid. A gentle breath escaped her. She leaned into it. He kissed up her neck, onto her jaw, and met her lips. Somewhere in the back of her head, she was surprised that she kissed back. The pace picked up, and she felt it rising in her, coming traveling up her spine until she released.  Her body shook, her insides contorted, and she spasmed, grinding her hips back against the human atop her. It stayed with her for many seconds, and she continued to throw her hips upward, enveloping and drawing in more deeply the slight curve of his manhood. Slowly, the euphoria subsided, and she realized she was clutching the human and digging her claws into him.

The human’s jerky thrust had forced him as deep as he could go. His testicles slapped into her ass one last time, and in an effort to get in just a bit deeper, he had hiked Barbara’s legs up and forced them back a bit far, angling her pelvis up and getting just an extra bit inside. His sack tightened, dragging his heavy balls up her backside to prepare them for their intended purpose. Blood engorged the shaft more so than ever before, stretching Barbara out, and a hot fluid bubbled out and painted her insides. A single, blistering spurt came out in a long string and clung to her walls. More of the viscous fluid followed and began to pool inside. A third and fourth shot of seed poured into her, and Barbara had been inseminated. She sighed, eyes rolling back. That was rare. Now no one could ever find out about this.

Meanwhile, a very uncomfortable Carter shifted his head under his pillow. It had muffled the noise at the cost of his comfort, but now that it was over, maybe he could get some sleep.
___

Chapter 6:

The next morning was a simple affair. Everyone slept in. To everyone’s surprise though, the first one up was Jerry. He usually was a late riser. Then again, when the rest of them stopped to think about it, Jerry was likely the last one to go to sleep. Barbara and Carter both did not want to think about it and mentally shifted their attentions to breakfast. Cereal poured, and the male human was still asleep, sprawled across the his body half on and half off of the beanbag chair. Barbara had undergone the delicate process of extracting herself from his embrace after he had fallen asleep last night. As cozy as it had been under his arm, it would have been mortifying to have been found there by the others.

“Mornin’, Carter,” she greeted her friend as he sleepily got up, half-asleep and half-dead. He trudged over, still wearing his rumpled clothes from yesterday. He grunted at her and refused to meet her eye. Oh… oh no. Carter had been sleeping on the couch. How could she have forgotten?!

“Hey Carter,” Jerry said, getting himself some overly sweetened cereal for himself, “Help yourself to breakfast. Milk’s on the counter.” The raccoon was in his underwear and a white t-shirt. It looked like he had changed from yesterday, but it was dingy enough that it was likely he had just pulled a clean-ish shirt out of his hamper and called it good enough.

Carter gratefully seized the opportunity to move away from the table and into the kitchen. He busied himself in the kitchen, and Barbara cast a guilty look to the human on the floor. Wait, where did he go? Oh, he had gotten up just long enough to occupy the couch and pull Carter’s blanket over himself. Man, he could just disappear from one place and appear in another if you took your eyes off of him. When Carter came back with his cereal and sat down at the table, he and Barbara stared at their bowls, poking at them with their spoons while looking anywhere but at each other. Jerry sat there eating, oblivious to the awkward silence.

Eventually, Jerry got up to stick his bowl in the sink and probably not wash it like he was supposed to, leaving Barbara and Carter alone. Rather than sit alone with Barbara, Carter quickly wolfed down his cereal, drank the milk from the bowl like a savage, and then got up, clattering his chair against the floor as he pushed it back. He was in the kitchen in a heartbeat, leaving Barbara alone to stew.

“Hungry?” Jerry asked his coyote friend conversationally.

“Uh, yeah,” Carter said, not knowing what to say. He just followed his friend into the living room. Jerry was probably already planning on starting up the TV.

When they came upon the human stretched out and occupying the entire couch with his bulk, Jerry regarded it with calm but firm action. “Alright, big guy, time to move,” he said, yanking the cover off of him. The human’s eyes opened as narrow slits. Jerry reached over and tugged on the guy’s sweater but was unable to budge him. The human slapped his hand away and slowly sat up. He cracked his neck and swung his legs off, budging over and taking the far side of the couch. Jerry seemed not to care so long as there was room for him to sit.

“Where’s Princess?” Barbara asked suddenly. At hearing her name, there was a sound of distress from a door in the hallway. Barbara stood up immediately to check it. She opened a closet door, and Princess spilled out. There were tears on her face. Apparently, she had been trapped inside. “How did you get in there?” Barbara asked, baffled.

“Shit,” Jerry said, honestly surprised, “She was whining this morning, so I let her out so I could get some sleep, but I don’t know how she got in there.”

“You let her out?!” Barbara asked, alarmed, “She could have gotten knocked up with Carter’s beast over there prowling around.” Carter snorted at that, but Barbara ignored him.

Jerry, for what it was worth, looked properly abashed. “Sorry, Barb,” he said, “I forgot.”

“You forgot,” Barb repeated flatly.

“Yeah, it was early, and I was sleepy,” he pleaded.

“I don’t even know how she got in there, but maybe if she was locked away in there, she wasn’t getting pregnant,” Barbara said throwing up her arms in defeat.

“You seem really enthusiastic about cockblocking Princess,” Jerry noted mildly, “Jealous?”

Barbara shot him a venomous look, which got a chuckle out of Jerry, and marched to take her spot on the couch only to find the buggering beast himself in her place. She stared at him. “And just where am I supposed to sit?” she asked him as if he could understand her. She blanched when a sly smile crossed the human’s bearded face and he patted his lap in invitation. To make it worse,  he winked at her.

Jerry laughed. “Go for it, Barb," he told her,  "He's big enough."

Yesterday, Barbara totally would have gone for it if just for the laughs, now though, she could not help but hesitate.  It was more like sitting in a guy's lap now, a guy she in fact had slept with while Carter had been trying to sleep in the same room. She could not help but wonder why did he not say anything? Well, screw you, Carter. If you are going to be judgmental prick, Barbara might as well own it. So, she sat in the human's lap and spread her arms out to get comfy.

Jerry was acting like someone who had heard a joke for the first time and had just discovered the joy of laughter. Princess, was apparently jealous of all the attention and jumped ran over to leap into Jerry's lap. He pet her joyously while Barbara got comfortable and Carter got uncomfortable. Jerry laughed harder when 'Carter's' human started petting Barbara. The laughter was cathartic and helped Barbara ignore the elephant in the room and, just a little, laugh at herself.

Carter was hopelessly lost. He had come here to have some fun with his friends and now things were just so awkward between two of them that he was unsure as how to proceed. Barb was his friend, and he did not want to make her feel uncomfortable now matter how weird it was that she had gotten freaky with a human. Heck, Carter had been sure they were just playing until he heard their voices give them away. Barbara's husky voice suddenly going low and sensual was going to haunt him as much as the human's grunts and groans. So, obviously the only viable course of action was to do the healthy thing and repress all of it. It never happened. Life would be much happier that way.
_______

Outside, Carter got a bit of fresh air. The sun was bright and climbing steadily towards its zenith. The apartment grounds were aesthetically pleasing. Despite how small their place was, Jerry and Barbara were blessed with well manicured lawns and maintained trees in between the complex buildings and winding concrete pathways. It may not be much, but just its presence felt far more pleasant and joyous than the burned out husks of derelict structures and shantytowns. A soft feeling filled his chest, and Carter felt a brief moment of contentment.

He was broken from his reverie by a rustling of plastic. Looking over his shoulder to see if it was one of his friends, it turned out to be a neighbor. The neighbor was a slender fox in a baggy jersey and loose black sweatpants and with brown bangs obscuring his face. The fox was svelte and on the effeminate side, a bit like Carter but much more so. Carter waved with a friendly smile tugging on the corner of his lips. The fox was hauling a pair of black, thirty gallon, plastic, trash bags. They looked more cumbersome than heavy, and were stretching out, ready to tear and make a mess.

“Want some help, man?” Carter offered on a whim, not having anything better to do.

The fox regarded him with half-lidded eyes. A bit of jerky was sticking out of the mouth and being casually chewed. The meat rolled over to the corner of the fox’s muzzle and was clenched between its molars. “Sure,” said a surprisingly feminine tenor. What was now more obviously a girl offered the top of one bag to him, and Carter took it after he overcame his brief surprise. He bunched up the plastic a bit, holding it with two hands to keep the thin, stretching plastic from breaking. Now that Carter realized it was a girl, he could see it in her gate; the way her hips turned revealed the slender curve going up her body that were otherwise hidden by the baggy clothes. It was a short trip to the dumpster and took nary a minute. The two rounded back to head towards the apartment building in amicable silence.

At reaching the door, Carter figured they would part ways now and looked at the entry door to Barbara and Jerry’s one-room apartment. He stared at the cheap brass numeral four on the door and paused. There was a flutter of anxiety in his chest. The short time he had had with this old friends was bittersweet in a way, but he was unsure if he could stomach the awkwardness between him and Barbara just yet. He had originally come out for some fresh air and a bit of a break, nominally a smoke break although Carter lacked any smokes at the moment. He quibbled with himself whether or not to go back in now.

“You new?” the fox asked from nearby the door to the adjacent apartment.

Carter snapped out of his thoughts and said, “Wha?” He had not quite caught what she had said.

“Did you just move in?” she asked, “Haven’t seen you before.” It was a calm, even tone she used. Her hands were in her pockets, and her body was facing her own door, having only turned her head to look at Carter.

“Uh, no,” Carter said, “I’m visiting friends.” He pointed to Barbara and Jerry’s door.

The fox nodded. “Well, later,” she said, disappearing into her apartment.

Carter stood there a moment. “Later,” he murmured, deciding to go back inside.
_____

“Hey Carter,” Jerry said, “Do you have anything?”

“What?” Carter asked, bemused. What did Jerry want.

“Y’know,” Jerry said with a wide-eyed and meaningful look.

Oh. Jerry’s ears went back. “Sorry, Jer. I’m thinkin’ about quitting,”  he told his friend.

“Huh?” Jerry asked, stupefied, “since when?”

“Not long,” Carter said truthfully, “I got some funky contamination and it gave me a bad trip that made me reevaluate things.”

“You decided to quit because of one bad trip?”

Carter laughed. “My hallucinations actually gave me something to think about, and I’m hoping to quit among other things,” he explained, “I’ll probably do what most people do and fuck up eventually, but hey, worth a shot, right?”

“Uhuh,” Jerry said skeptically, “Whatever you want, man. Good for you, I guess.”

He seemed a bit put out, but Carter figured he would get used to it. Potheads tended to bum weed off of each other a lot, and Jerry probably figured this was just an attempt to be stingy. Most would rather deny having weed than outright refuse because it would be too awkward to refuse a friend. Eh, let him think that.

Carter was getting ready to go anyways, and as much as he would like the excuse to sit back and hang some more, Barbara had already asked a couple times when he wanted to go back, and Carter knew that was a sure sign of wearing out his welcome. Really, he did not want to leave a warm home and go back to the dirty and abandoned public housing, but he would not want to do that because he might not be invited back in the future. He had not brought much of anything with him besides what he had bought with his last few dollars. So, he got his stuff together, and he and Barbara left for the parking unit.

Along the way, Carter spotted their neighbor the fox wearing some kind of work uniform and heading in the same direction, likely going to work. Carter envied her. While it might suck to work on a Saturday, it sure as heck beat unemployment. He waved to her, and her eyes slid over to him. She lazily lifted her hand in a reciprocating gesture and let it drop. After the brief exchange, they ended up walking in two different directions.

The damn human tried to get into the front passenger seat of Barbara’s car, but Carter managed to narrowly slip passed him and secure it for himself. ‘Score,’ he thought. The human stooped down and looked through the car door and flattened his lips together into a thin line. “You snooze you lose,” Carter told him. The human seemed less than amused but got into the back seat without further signs of complaint, stretching himself out as best he could. The sedan was just not sized for him.

The ride was quiet. At first, it was chummy, and Carter was quite comfortable. The human occasionally rustled a bit, trying to get comfortable. He was having a hard time of it. As the ride went on though, and they got closer back to the part of town where the grocery store had been, the silence grew awkward. Carter glanced over to Barbara in concern. Was she okay? She had a real bad temper when driving, and he did not want to get pulled into a bad accident because she was feeling tetchy. The third or so time he glanced at her, she snapped at him. “What?!” she bit out.

“Woah woah,” Carter said, alarmed, “Nothing. You were actin’ weird.”

“I’m acting weird?!” she shouted at him self-consciously, “You’ve been weird all day!” The high volume in the tiny car amplified the shouts and caused Carter’s ears to ring. Even the human was covering his ears with a disgruntled look.

‘C’mon, Barb,” Carter pleaded, “Let’s not do this.”

“Do what?” she hissed at him, “You’re picking a fight.”

The coyote’s ears flattened at the accusation. He was the one picking a fight? Him? Really? “Barb, we’re driving,” he said, ire rising. That seemed to upset Barb more, and she opened her mouth to say something, but Carter cut her off, “Okay, you want to do this? Fine. So, you fuck humans now. What else is new?” His tone was acidic. He was just going to pretend the whole thing never happened, but no, Barb just had to go off on him for no reason. She was not the only one who had been stewing about this.

Barbara’s blood clearly had run cold, and she flipped on her blinker, moved over two lanes, cutting someone off, and pulled into the right-hand shoulder. The hazard lights came on, and the gear went to park. Barbara’s head gently hit the top of the steering wheel and she sucked in a deep breath. Carter hoped it was to calm down and not psyche herself up for mauling him. One thing was for sure, he was not planning on breaking the silence.

The tension hung in the air like the gunk found in the bottom of a grease trap, congealing and clinging to anything and everything. Finally, Barbara asked, “Why didn’t you say something, you little creep?”

Carter’s lip curled up over one side of his face, revealing a canine tooth. “I thought you were just playing around,” he said, “I figured you’d go back to bed and not start fucking right next to me.” Feeling insulted, he added a little salt on the wound with his next barb, “Even if I hadn’t been woken up by the kitchen light, you were certainly loud enough to-” Pain interrupted him. Barb hit him in the arm with as much force as she could muster from her seated position. It was not much, but it stung. She hit him again, and again, her knuckles tenderizing the meat of Carter’s shoulder. “Hey, Barb- ow- Barb, quit it! That stings,” he said.

“Asshole,” she cursed under her breath.

“Oh did he fuck that too?” Carter said before he could stop himself. This time she decked him full force in the side of the head. Carter’s head jerked. “Goddamn it, Barb!” he cursed, clutching the side of his head. It stung, but he was not terribly hurt. He shook it off.

When Barbara looked like she was winding up to deck him again, Carter grabbed her wrist and forced her hand down. “Knock it off!” he growled at her, baring his teeth. Her lips peeled back to show off her own set of choppers. She raised her other fist, but Carter held that down too. They growled at each other for a bit, stuck in the moment of staring down the object of their anger. Their attitudes slipped, however, when a large paw was placed on the backs of both their necks. The rough, callused hands of the human gripped them and held there. He had leaned forward and was frowning at the both of them. Apparently, he had had enough.

“Carter,” Barbara said slowly and quietly, “Call him off.” As she spoke, the human’s grip tightened.  Her friend was no help. He had shrunk back immediately. His days homeless had honed his instincts. Coyotes knew to be quiet when the big boys were talking, even if this one could not talk. Barbara grew concerned, and that concern grew to a chill fright when she saw Carter’s reaction.

After they had calmed down, the human released them and sat back. He was still watching them. Barbara looked to Carter. “What the fuck was that?” she hissed to him. Carter mumbled something unintelligible, and Barbara just turned around and carefully but her hands on the steering wheel, centering herself. Fuck fuck fuck. She had to move slowly. That was not normal, and if Carter could not reign him in, Barbara did not want to be in as disadvantaged a position as she was in. She was slowly reaching for the door when Carter’s voice distracted her. He mumbled something a bit louder than last time.

“What?” she whispered to him.

“M’sorry,” he said, looking properly remorseful. Now? He was doing this now?

“It’s okay,” she said with a forced smile, reaching for the door again, “We just need to leave.” She drew out the word leave for emphasis, but Carter was on a roll.

Carter had averted his gaze, ears drooping. “I just didn’t want to talk about it,” he said, filling the silence, “Wanted to just pretend that it didn’t happen and forget it, but damn it, Barb.”

“Carter,” Barbara said a bit more firmly, “We need to get out of the car. Your human-” The human sighed and rolled his eyes. He popped the door open on his own and stepped out onto the sidewalk. He stepped over to the lamp post and leaned against it, thrusting his hands into his pockets, and waited there, leaving Barbara agog. “Carter… your human’s dangerous,” she told him.

“Yeah,” Carter admitted. This clearly was not news to him, “I’ve never seen him hurt anyone that didn’t have it coming, but yeah, he is.” He shrugged as if to say, ‘what can you do?’

“Carter,” she said very firmly, “It’s a human. It doesn’t know right from wrong.”

“I don’t know what he knows,” Carter said dryly, “In case you didn’t notice, he’s damn sharp.”

“And he just threatened us,” Barbara reaffirmed, “You can’t keep that. He cowed you right away.”

“Hell yeah, he did,” Carter admitted, “I don’t want him to clobber me.”

Barbara was getting frustrated. She clicked the doors locked, only having just now thought of it, and grit her teeth. “Why do you keep him Carter?” she asked him, “It’s not safe.”

“Uh,” Carter began, trailing off, “Remember when I said he was ‘kinda’ mine?”

“Carter...” Barbara growled.

“Well...”

“Carter, you brought him into my home.”

“Eheh, I think we have a bit of catching up to do,” Carter said nervously.

“Y-” Barbara began but Carter cut her off and began filling her in on how he had been living lately. She clammed up and listened, no less upset, but she was listening. Outside, the human waited. Occasionally, he looked around or leaned forward and checked on them, but he mostly minded his own business, just standing there. Barbara wanted to drive off, but Carter wanted to finish his story, and boy, what a story.

“So… you said he was yours because you were embarrassed and didn’t want to admit you were homeless?” she asked, trying to get it sorted straight in her head, “Why didn’t you just say he wasn’t yours?”

“Shit, Iunno,” Carter said, “It slipped out, and saying ‘kinda’ didn’t give me much wiggle room.”

“Eh, fair,” Barbara said, “You always were a shitty liar.” Carter looked properly embarrassed. “But, that’s one of your best qualities,” she teased, ruffling his hair. Carter sputtered and batted her hands away. Inwardly, Barbara was not happy with Carter. She had had no idea he was eking out an existence the way he had, and she was not sure how he let himself get that way. Of all her friends, if she had been asked to predict which one would end up a dirty hobo on the streets, she would have put her money on Jerry.

Barbara sighed and continued, “Seriously though, if you keep hanging around that stray human, you’re going to get hurt.” She gave her friend a pleading look. She was concerned for his safety.

“Hey,” Carter said, getting defensive, “He kinda saved my neck out there.”

“What’s kinda?” Barbara asked suspiciously, having played this game only yesterday with Carter.

Carter failed to meet her gaze and mumbled something. Barbara opened her mouth to probe him further, but Carter managed to say something substantial, “He got rid of a guy that was bothering me, okay?”

“Carter, that’s not okay,” Barbara began.

Carter cut her off, “No, Barb, I mean bothering-bothering me. This wasn’t some kid pushing me around the school yard or trying to steal my milk money.”

“What was he doing?” Barbara asked quietly.

“Look, it’s not important, but-”

“What was he doing?!” Barbara asked loudly.

“He was going to fuck me, okay!” Carter shouted in her face. His eyes squeezed tightly shut, and he pressed his hands into his face, gritting his teeth a growling in the top of his throat. “Damn it, Barb, are you happy?”

Taken aback, Barbara broke from Carter, casting a look out the rear window to check on the human. As if sensing he was being watched, the human’s head rotated to lock eyes with her, and Barbara looked away and returned her attention to Carter. “Hey, sorry. Are you okay?” she asked as delicately as she could. Her best was still awkward. She was not the best at this sensitive stuff. She was a badger, okay? She knew how to kick her brothers around and make them cry uncle, not do the hair braiding shit cats and dogs did.

Carter nodded through his hands and released them. “Yeah,” he said, feeling better, “And again, sorry for being a bastard about your- uh.” Carter decided it was best not to name it. “I get it,” he added.

“Well,” Barbara said dryly, “It’s not quite the same, but close enough.” She eyeballed Carter and asked, “Where are you staying?” He grimaced. “Out with it,” she demanded.

“Abandoned building,” Carter said quickly.

“Jeez-us, Carter.”

“What? What part of homeless did you miss?” Carter asked, incredulous.

“I thought you’d at least be staying at the shelter.”

“They suck,” Carter said, “Believe me, you do not want to ever be there. There are a dozen Vincents waiting there, and the people who run the place suck too.”

“Vincent?” Barbara prodded but stopped when she saw the look on Carter’s face. Well, that answered that. “Never mind,” she said quickly, “How’re you planning to get back on your feet?”

“Uh, get a job?” Carter said wide-eyed and plainly.

“Yeah, what else? What are you going to do?”

“Man, I dunno,” Carter said, irritated, “I’ve been drifting and begging for a while, and I’ve only recently gotten my head screwed on straight. I figure I’ll put some effort into staying clean and hit the bricks as they say.”

“Carter, everyone applies online now.”

“Duh.”

“Well how are you going to fill out an online job application?”

“Hm. Uh- I- Oh, library!” Carter said, figuring it out in a moment, “The libraries have computers with internet access.”

That seemed to satisfy Barbara a bit. “Do you know where one is?” she continued.

“I’ll ask around,” Carter assured her. They probably had a map of libraries and other stuff at the social services office.

Barbara deflated and sat back into her chair. “Goddamn it, Carter,” she said softly. Carter scratched the back of his neck but said nothing. She sighed, the fight leaving her. “Just be safe,” she told him, “And don’t be a stranger. I may not be much help, but I want to know you’re okay.”

Carter gave her an uneasy smile. While it meant a lot to him, at the same time it did not really do him much good. Oh well, Carter was not her responsibility, and it would be unfair of him to guilt her about it. “Okay,” Carter acquiesced. There was a paused, and the chummy air that usually existed between them returned. Or, at least it did until Carter got a wild hair and a devious smirk. “So, I shared my story,” he said.

Barbara was instantly wary. “Uhuh,” she said, not knowing where this was going but not liking it one bit.

“So what’s yours?” Carter asked, needling her in her arm.

“Carter-” she began in warning.

“What’s beast like?” he asked, far too amused.

“You should know,” she said, her lips flattened into a line, “You were there.” Barbara really did not want to get mad at him again, but sheesh.

“It was dark,” Carter corrected, “I didn’t know what was going on.”

“Jump up your own ass and die,” Barbara said, her voice acidic.

“Fair’s fair.”

“Carter-”

“Hey, you’re right, I was there, and I heard you two,” Carter continued to needle her, voice filled with mirth, “Is he better than Jerry?”

“Ew, Carter. Jerry? Really? You think my standards are that low?” she asked her friend, more upset about the idea of sleeping with the raccoon than the embarrassment she felt towards her actual indiscretion.

Snickering, Carter managed to get out a tacit, insincere apology, “Sorry.” He got his giggles out and showed how sorry he was by not relenting, “And now that you’ve found Mr. Right?”

Barbara gave him an even look. “Well, Mister ‘I can’t lock a door,’ I’ve seen both of you naked now, and the human has a leg up on you, a third leg up.”

“Ouch,” Carter said, still grinning, “That’s a low blow, right where the pride and joy is, but I know the old saying, it’s not the tool it’s how you use it.”

Barbara muttered, “You don’t need to tell me.”

Carter’s ear perked. “Oh, what was that?” he inquired

“I said next time turn on the lights and take notes, cherry boy,” Barbara repeated loudly, getting a laugh out of Carter.

“Maybe I should ask him for some pointers,” Carter said, rolling with it, “Think he’ll wingman for me? You know what they say about pet humans being girl magnets.”

“I think that’s the young ones,” Barbara said, “but you better be careful. I hate to say it, Carter, but you’ve got a bad case of girlbutt, and he might get confused.”

“It’s a bit soon to make rape jokes, isn’t it?”

“Too soon for you, maybe. Just lay off the squats, and maybe you won’t have to worry about it.”
_____

Carter had managed to convince Barbara to take the human back to their neighborhood at the very least. The human got back in the car as if nothing had happened. While Carter had expected to go back to the grocery store where they had met up, Barbara drove right past it.

“Uh, Barb,” Carter asked, confused, “Where’re we going?”

“Might as well take you all the way there,” Barbara said to him, keeping he eyes on the road for once.

 Carter realized straight away that she wanted to know where his haunt was but did not fight it. Why bother? So, he gave her the directions and Barbara took a creative interpretation of them. They got there just fine though. Barbara pulled up along about half a block away from the chain link fence enclosing the derelict buildings. Nearby, there was some kind of airfield Barbara never knew existed and a few oddball structures sprinkled around from the slow spread of urbanization into the farthest reaches of the boondocks.

“Wow, this place is out there,” she said, taking in the sights.

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a walk, but it’s hard to argue with ready shelter,” Carter commented.

“If you say so.”

Carter got out of the car and stretched his legs. He had been sitting for a while what with the heated discussion he and Barbara got into, and it felt good to stretch himself out and pop a few joints. Inside the car, Barbara felt the human’s hand on her shoulder. She pulled a way a bit and looked at him.  “What?” she asked him. He smiled at her and patted her arm. Her eyes narrowed, still wary, but relaxed a bit. “Okay, big guy, I accept your apology if that’s what this is,” she said to him. To her surprise, she got a kiss on the cheek which sent her sputtering. “Get out,” she told him but her voice lacked any real ire. The backseat door open, and the human left, pulling his dufflebag with him. He disappeared into the complex of derelict buildings while Carter was saying his goodbyes to Barbara.
_____

Chapter 7:

Carter ducked into the hovel he usually stayed in to find that he had a funny feeling. Something was off. He heard a scratching noise, and curiosity getting the better of him, he slowly stepped down the hall to investigate. It was coming from the smallest bedroom. Is that where the human disappeared off to? Carter leaned to look into the room, the door having long disappeared to time. What he saw caused his throat to seize in an involuntary gag. In the room were three alley cats, one of which was cranking it in the middle of the room while the others ignored him. “Ewekh!” Carter said, alarmed and drawing all eyes to himself.

The other two cats in the corner stood up at his sudden presence. The masturbator also turned to him, and Carter saw more of a freaky cat penis than he ever wanted. He blurted out, “Sorry!” and bolted. He heard a few voices behind him, but he wanted away from that as soon as possible. Man, the homeless were one of the things that made being homeless suck the hardest. He would seek shelter elsewhere for the day. Besides, while he had eaten at his friends’ house, he would be hungry again come tomorrow and was flat broke. He’d need to do something about that.

After evading the attentions of the other bums, Carter eventually moseyed over to a local church, as much as he disliked doing so, only a couple miles from the church. It always felt weird going there for assistance when he was not exactly a stand-up fellow, just needy. What were his list of sins again? Let us see, he cheated on a lot of tests in school. He did drugs if you count weed and cigarettes. The probably would not appreciate his sex life either, but to their credit, neither did Carter. It looked like someone was there. There was no service right now, but the staff were always chummy and polite. Sometimes they had food drives or worked with food banks, but according to the schedule, there was not one for a bit. Naturally, when he inquired about any job opportunities they knew of, they were a bit slim. Sure, they had resume workshops but not openings that they had heard of or could introduce him to. C’est la vie. He did not actually expect such a windfall and only asked because he was there for his main goal, asking where the library was and finding out the dates of the next food drives. The food stamp card most homeless got as soon as their pride allowed them to would not refill for another two weeks, and he’d take whatever he could get.

While he was there, someone offered him a pack of graham crackers which Carter graciously accepted, still abashed by his need but having long since stopped letting his shame withhold him from making the smart choice. He popped one in his mouth as he left for his intended purpose, the library.

________

About a block away from the library Carter was headed to, the human was minding his own business. His hood was down, and he was not making any especial attempts to cover up his face. He scratched his beard with his gloved hand as he moseyed down the asphalt by the curb on the left side of the street. There were no sidewalks on this street. He yawned. It was behind him that he heard a car rolling by. It began to slow, and he turned his head in calm vigilance. The car was a red sport utility vehicle and impossible not to hear as it rolled by on the right side of the street. The driver rolled down the window, and a lioness poked her head out. Oh dear, she was talking to him. The human, getting a funny feeling, decided to ignore her and keep walking.

“Hey boy, where’d you come from?” she asked in a babying voice as one would use when talking to a small child.  The human’s eyes slid over to watch her, but she was yet to get out of the car. Resolved, he continued to ignore her and continue his trek. The car, however, was not stopping and rolled along, keeping pace with him. “Uh, oh, I don’t see a collar. Did someone dump you off?” she continued. Her voice was almost comically high for a creature of her size. The human surreptitiously peered for a possible path he could take where the car could not follow. About two houses down, he spotted a couple duplexes with no perimeter fence. He kept up the pace and maintained the SUV in his peripheral vision.

The human and the car came upon the first duplex on the left. Under his warm clothing, the human’s muscles coiled. One last glance at the SUV showed that the lioness was sticking her head out the window and trying to get his attention with some food. Something about her was not quite right, so instead, the energy that had risen up from his core burst into his feet, and he took off in a spirited but conservative jog across the duplex property, cutting through it and ending up on the other street. Seeing an alleyway leading behind some other properties and ending in some other residential street, he chose that path as the best way to avoid the large vehicle.

Upon nearing the exit to the alley, he slowed his pace. He did not hear anything coming, so he continued slowing to a walk. When he exited the alleyway,  he saw the SUV parked on the curb of the property he was passing by out of the alleyway. Had she seen him? No, she looked as surprised as he felt. She was brazenly approaching him again. The big cat was solidly built as all of her species are and noticeably over six feet in height. The swish-flick twitch of her tail, the pinpoints of her eyes,  and excitable gate did not read as friendly as the lioness probably thought her intent was. To him, she intended to catch him, to take him with her. This was not the same as wanting to be merely social or friendly, no matter what motive may exist in her mind. He was not playing this game.

His hand went into his pocket, and he turned around, faced the big cat, and began backing off. He was not going to bolt and be caught from behind.  His backwards stride and forwards gaze did not seem to encourage her, but it did not dissuade her either. Oh dear, she was talking again. “You want a snack, boy?” came the wheedling offer. She had a piece of jerky it looked like in her hand. Not being left alone was superlatively agitating. The hand he had thrust into his pocket retrieved a plastic black rectangular prism with two metal prongs protruding from it.

“Mary, what are you doing?” came another person’s voice, “Leave the stray alone and come on in. We’re just getting started.” The lioness looked in the direction of the other voice. She was filled with conflict, and during that time, the human disappeared.
____

The library was sparsely populated. There was the lady at the desk- Carter presumed it was the librarian- a few older people, and a family of opossums hanging all over their mother. Wandering aimlessly and not sure where anything was, he was eventually flagged down by the desk lady, an older black bear sow. She was dressed in a tight overcoat and a blouse did not show the barest- or bear-est- hint of skin and a severe bun. She looked up at him over a pair of small, square glasses, appraising him. “Can I help you, sugah?” she asked politely. Her scrutiny of him made Carter feel self-conscious all of a sudden.

“Eheh, yes, I was wondering if you had any computers?” he said in askance. His ears which once had been up and swiveling to take stock of his new environs had now drooped off to the sides, and he nervously scratched the side of his neck.

“Do you have a library card?” she inquired, to which Carter shook his head. She noddedand put her long claws to work pecking at the keyboard. The pitter-patter of clicks erupted in sort, furious bursts as she navigated her interface quickly. “Alright, you need one to log in to them” she continued, “Do you have your ID and proof of address?”

Carter pulled out his wallet and produced his state identification card, sliding it across the desk to her. She picked it up and examined it. “Cute picture,” she said, smiling at it. Carter again squirmed in his skin. He did have a bit of a goofy picture, all gangling and awkward and with that look of surprise as the flash went off in his face. He had wanted to redo it, but Barbara and his other friends egged him on to keeping it. When the bear finished, she turned to face Carter. “Alright, now do you have your proof of address?” she asked.

“Erm, my address is on my ID,” Carter pointed out in a helpful manner.

“I know that, sweety, but you need some mail or a bill addressed to you at your current address,” she clarified.

“Oh...” Carter said, surprised. Damn, he did not see that coming. Standing there, feeling foolish, Carter tried to think of a way he could fulfill the requirement without having to go all the way down to the homeless shelter and getting them to provide him a place to mail to. Quite frankly, he did not want to admit to anyone he met that he was on the streets. There had to be another way.  He had not bothered to keep any bills from his old address; why would he? Come to think of it, did he even get bills? The utilities were in Barbara’s name. There was the rental agreement he signed, but he did not have that either. Was there anything? Oh yeah! His old phone before the service had been shut off. But, he had signed up for e-billing. The phone he had had been busted since then. Actually, that could work. He could just use his old address, but how could he access it without the internet?

“Darn, I didn’t know that,” he said slowly, “Could I use an e-mailed bill? It should have my address on it.”

The bear gave him an even look and sighed. “Pull it up on your phone, dear,” she acquiesced.

“Uh,” Carter said, stuck. He floundered for a moment, trying to think of what to do next.

“Don’t have a phone?” she asked, surprised.

“It’s broken,” Carter clarified, “Could I bring it up on the computer to show you?”

The bear-sow leaned over, putting her arm on the desk in front of her. She opened her mouth to say something but hesitated. She tried again and then deflated. “Don’t worry about it,” she said and went back to typing on her computer. In a few moments, the machine off to her side whirred to life. Horrible electronic sounds escaped it, the type that sounded like extreme, depraved, robot fellatio. Carter watched the device in mild interest, and it spat out a laminated card. The lady plucked the card out between two claws and offered it to Carter. It had the same goofy image on it as his driver’s license. Great.

Despite everything, Carter felt a slight surge of satisfaction at having gotten this for himself. He was interrupted from his examination of the card by the bear at the desk. She asked, “Alright, do you know how to use a computer?”

Carter gave her a strange look. “Yeah?” he said slowly.

“Have to ask,” she said, “I’ll see if Jane can help you get set up.” She twisted around in her seat and called for this Jane girl, “Jane, dear? Do you have a moment to get this young man set up at the computer?”

Jane appeared, and to Carter’s surprise it was the neighbor of Barbara and Jerry. The vixen was a bit more noticeably feminine outside of her baggy, tomboyish clothes she had been wearing. That being said, she was wearing a pair of men’s jeans with her blouse which was buttoned up to all but the topmost button by the collar. “Oh, hi there,” Carter said to her, “Small world.”

The bear looked up to Jane. “Do you know each other?” she asked her.

“We’re acquainted,” Jane said diplomatically, “C’mon, the computers are this way she said, beckoning him with a lazy wave. Carter followed her. Behind her, her bottle brush tail swished behind her in a dog-ish fashion, and Carter followed.

“So,” Carter started slowly, “I’m Carter.” The introduction only seemed fair. He overheard her name after all.

“Jane,” she reciprocated anyways but said nothing further.

“So you work at a library?” Carter said conversationally, trying to fill the silence. She seemed nice even if she was aloof.

“Volunteer,” she clarified, “I do split shifts at a restaurant nearby, so I have a lot of time to kill between that and going home.”

“Oh, well that sounds good for a resume,” Carter ventured, “Do you like it here?”

“Yeah,” she affirmed, “It’s nice and quiet, plus the people who come here are usually trying to get something done instead of just screwing around.”

“Do you want to be a librarian?” Carter asked, wondering if that was the case. After all, if she liked the library, why not?

She looked to him as they walked. “Mm, yeah kinda, but it’s hard to get a job as one, so I figure it would not be really worth the investment in this job market,” she said, “I looked into the Library Sciences degree path, and to be a full librarian you need a masters and a certificate on top of it, and besides that there are few openings.”

“Oh,” Carter said, never having realized that it took so much to become one, “That sounds like a lot to bank on a slim chance. Did you go to school for something else then?”

“Yep,” Jane said, “I do my homework between shifts and before I start my volunteering here. I was actually working on some now. Might still get my masters in Library Sciences, but I figure I better get a good undergrad to fall back on if that doesn’t pan out.”

Carter was impressed. She sounded sure of herself and like she had a plan for her life. Envy flooded Carter’s veins. He wanted to be like her. “Wow,” he said softly, “You really have yourself figured out.”

“Mm,” she said noncommittally.

“Uh, so what’s your major?”

“Petroleum engineering.”

Carter missed a step. “Damn,” he said, “What’s that like?”

“Dunno yet,” she said, “I’m still getting my lower division out of the way, and I’m going to transfer to an engineering program when I’ve got it all done. No use paying for those classes I’m never going to care about at the university rate.”

“Oh...” Carter said, “Why, uh, Petroleum Engineering?”

“Statistically the highest paying bachelors degree,” she said simply, “and I like science. If I do eventually get my Library Science masters, I might be able to become a research librarian if I’m willing to take the pay cut later. Or maybe I can just do it when I’m old and ready to retire.”

Carter watched her and drank in the information. Huh, he wondered, “Where are you going?”

“Huh?”

“Where are you going to college?”

“The local community college. It’s cheap, and it all gets copied over to whatever university you transfer to. Like I said, why pay full price for the classes I don’t care about? Besides, you still have the name of the university you graduate from on your degree with none the wiser.”

Carter regarded her. This was someone whose brain he needed to pick at some point. Carter was not a planner. He could play ball with a team and follow directions, but the coyote did not function well on his own. It was a pack animal thing, he told himself. He knew foxes were more solitary, so maybe that is why this vixen, Jane, was so together. Or, maybe Carter was just a fuck up. Well, at least he had time to work on it, nothing but time to his name.

“Heh, well,” he said to Jane, “you’re real together, it sounds like. Definitely no plain Jane.”

Despite his joking tone, the vixen did not seem to take it that well. She gave him a look of irritation. “Yep, I’ve heard that one before, plain Jane,” she said evenly yet despite her air of unflappability, Carter could tell he misstepped.

“Er, I said you weren’t a plain Jane,” he clarified carefully. She turned to face him. The corner of her mouth pulled horizontally on one side. Carter backpedaled further, “No no, knowing what you want and working on it between split shifts and-” He paused, realizing he was starting to ramble. “It’s… impressive,” he finished lamely.

She snorted but seemed to accept this. “Yeah, I’ve always been told I was bright,” she said. She sounded almost exasperated at the idea of it. Maybe getting told the same thing all the time was a nuisance? He knew that the gorgeous women out there eventually got sick of being told they were beautiful all the time. Maybe that was the same thing? Although Jane was, well she was nothing like Miss April centerfold in that mag that- Wow, he forgot the human gave it to him. Damn his weird life- but she was not ugly. In fact, Carter thought she was kind of cute in her own way. Foxes always have had such luxurious fur, and it was one thing that looked good on her.

“And pretty,” Carter added. A small laugh escaped Jane, and Carter felt it was at his expense. His brow furrowed and he felt the need to defend himself. “What?” he asked, “You’re cute.”

“Wow, so sweet,” Jane said, her tone monotonous and dry, “I might just get diabetes. When’s the last time you got laid?”

Carter suppressed a squawk of indignation. “Ouch, right in the masculine pride,” he said to her, “I’ll have you know I’m saving myself for marriage.”

“Pfft,” Jane began, suppressing her humor, “There’s a new one.” Carter’s self-deprecating barb had stung himself, but he saw a faint smile on Jane’s face and called it a success. He had reversed whatever he had done to fry himself earlier. Carter made a mental note not to use ‘Plain Jane’ around her. It seemed to be a sore spot, even if he had been saying that she was not one.

He went quiet. There was a lot to chew on. Jane was happy to be silent instead of making small talk with him, and they finally got to the little row of computers in the back of the library. Jane showed him how to log on, the free educational programs on the computer. Apparently the municipal government and library patrons paid among other things a second language program with some sixty-three languages, research database access, and more that Carter did not quite understand what they were but smiled and nodded anyways. He thanked Jane, and she left him for his own devices. He got to work. There had to be unskilled labor ads somewhere.
____

“Psst,” the black bear sow at the desk called to Jane in a manner that was both secretive and obvious. Jane ignored her the first and second time, but the third time, Jane gave up and turned to see what she wanted. The bear waved her over, and Jane decided she was not going to get any work done like this, so she got up and went to see her friend. “What is it, Becky?” she asked.

“That coyote is just a cutie, isn’t he?” she said conspiratorially.

“I guess,” Jane said noncommittally.

“Oh come on,” Becky said, “Are you telling me you don’t want to just eat him up?” The bear’s cajoling oft annoyed Jane, but the more she resisted it, the more Becky would try to rope her into some sort of gossip.

“Mm, he’s a bit scrawny,” Jane said, “not much to eat. You should fatten him up a bit first before you cannibalize him.”

The black bear pouted at her, which looked ridiculous on such a large creature. “You should have said ‘eat him,” you know. It loses the innuendo.” Jane knew perfectly well what she was doing. “But,” Becky continued, “maybe if you don’t want him, I’ll go after him.”

Jane slowly raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you married?” she asked.

“Separated, dear,” Becky corrected.

“Oh, sorry, I hadn’t heard.”

The bear waved her off. “’Tis a bear matter, sweety, not a concern or unusual,” she said.

Jane had no idea what bear matters were, but she nodded anyways. “Well, when you’re done breaking him in half, be sure to drop him off in the ER,” Jane said.

Becky harrumphed, and folded her arms under her considerable chest. “I just might,” she said, a devious look blossoming on her face, “with a smile on his face.”

Jane stared at her older friend for a bit. “Have fun,” she said before wandering back to her previous task. She was no fun, Becky thought.
______

Carter had finished scribbling down another possible lead, one he did not feel optimistic about but recorded anyways. Being realistic, he was looking at every entry level position he could find. Grocery stores, retail, some vague salesman thing that probably involved a lot of cold calls. He turned to get up to see the bear sow from the desk, Becky, stooping down to his level seated at the desk. He let out a startled sound. She had not had that many buttons undone before, at least he did not think. He would have noticed. Yeah, he definitely would have noticed, and he had an eyeful right down her front.

“Got everything, sweet?” she asked conversationally.

“Ah- er- uh- Yes?” he said, “I think so.”

She leaned in to look at his computer screen. Carter squirmed as her large tit pressed into his shoulder. At this closeness, he could smell her. Becky noted the browser tabs out of the corner of her eye: job listing directories, classified ads, a search engine results on “how to make money between jobs” to name a few. Well, at least he doing it on his own initiative. She felt a twinge of pity, but she was here on a mission. A little ways away, Jane was placing a few books away out of the return cart, but Becky knew by the way the vixen had slowed down that she was watching even if she was not obviously looking this way.

“Oh, have you checked the online classifieds, sugah?” Becky asked the nervous coyote.

“Er, yes,” he said, “I’ve got a few leads written down.” He was trying not to look over to his right. If he did, he’d end up sticking his face in her rack, and that would be embarrassing. When the big black bear went around behind him and leaned in again, pressing her soft chest into the back of his head, he froze.

“Have you thought about doing day work while you look,” she asked him innocently.

“Day work?” Carter asked blankly, his brain slowly frying like an egg in his skull.

“Oh, you know,” she said, “Men always have work to do. They can do favors for people between jobs.”

“Favors?” Carter repeated dumbly.

“Oh yes, favors. Lots of people need a strong back to, for example lay pipe,” Becky said, her tone casual.

“Lay pipe?” Carter asked, growing slightly alarmed.

“Oh yes, or clean carpets,” Becky continued, both hand on Carter’s shoulders. Her long bear claws laid atop them. “You see them gathered on the street corners, waiting to be picked up by someone who needs their help,” she continued.

Carter made a strangled noise, and Becky ticked a mental tally for getting his goat. Then, she looked down and saw that she had done more than yank his chain. He wanted to do nothing more than yank his own chain if that rocket in his pocket was any indication. She grinned a predatory grin. It was nice to feel appreciated.

“Day laboring isn’t easy of course, but if you don’t mind moving furniture and cleaning up garbage for almost nothing, then it might help you scrape by,” Becky finished with a Cheshire grin on a bear’s face.

“O-oh.”

Becky suppressed the urge to laugh, and right on cue, Jane showed up, holding a book. “Carter,” she said addressed the mortified coyote, “I found that book you asked about. Want me to check you out?”

He delicately extracted himself from his seat and thanked Becky for her ‘advice’ and hurried to shuffle after Jane who was silent. Once they were out of earshot, Carter mumbled, “Thanks,” to her. She made a neutral grunt of acknowledgment.

When he was about to make his way towards the exit, Jane interrupted him. “Do you want your book?” she asked.

“What?”

She held up a book in her hands. “I did find you a book,” she said neutrally.

Carter floundered a bit. On the one hand, she was being nice. On the other, how was he going to keep the book from being damaged from his rough lifestyle? Better question is, how would he explain that? “Oh, thanks,” he said, “What’s it about?” Damn. He did not have it in him to say no.

“Library card, please,” Jane said, extending her hand for the identification.

Carter gave it to her and asked again, “So what’s it about?”

“Oh, a young man finding his way,” Jane said mysteriously. The vagueness rankled Carter a bit, but he could tell she was not planning on telling him. He did not like that look of mischief twinkling in her eyes one bit.
_____

Outside, the human was hurrying. He had successfully ditched the lioness, but with whomever she was speaking did not successfully coax her off her mission to find him. He had a feeling as to why, she was a rescuer. There were some people who went out of their way to pick up strays. Some were even nice, but this lioness’ body language told him that he wanted nothing to do with her. Her mannerisms were predatory; she would be controlling. He spotted the SUV driving along a street parallel to the one he was on. His lip curled in a silent snarl, his eyes narrowed, and his brow furrowed at the thought. The expression melted away in a second, and he headed to a densely populated area, drawing his hood up. She had seen his clothing, but this would make him stand out a bit less to her if more to others. He could deal with a bit of scrutiny from curious passers by so long as they did not bother him.

As he headed towards a commercial district, an area lined with various grocers, barber shops, knickknack stores, and miscellaneous businesses, he spotted a public library. Ah, good to know. Although, even the most robust disguise would not give him proper identifying papers without some real creativity. Well, that could come eventually. Maybe. Oh, there’s a saving grace coming out of the library, the coyote called Carter.

Carter was just exiting the library when the human stray sidled up alongside him and began walking alongside him as if he belonged there with him. Carter had his book in hand, and was looking at the back cover in interest when he finally noticed the appearance of the human next to him. He startled and stepped away before covering his hand over his chest to still his beating heart. “Gah!” he exclaimed as his eyes went wide and a brief spurt of adrenaline shot through his system, “God, man, you’ve got to stop scaring the shit out of me like that.”

The human looked at him as if he was the strange one, which was one of the many character traits that rankled Carter about the human. Just because he did not seem to be afraid of much does not mean that the smaller and weaker out there did not have a lot to be scared of! Carter did not know where they were going but fell into lockstep out of habit whenever he was with someone they knew. They went a ways without Carter realizing he had started following the human. The coyote was distracted. He looked around and noticed something odd. No one was paying the human any mind. Why? It was then that he realized. “Using me as fuggin’ camouflage,” he mumbled under his breath. No wonder he was sticking next to Carter. Everyone would think the human belonged to him, and he could avoid scrutiny. It was probably a better disguise than that one he had cobbled out of that ridiculous getup of the hood, surgical mask, huge sunglasses, and the prosthetic tail. That on its own looked incredibly suspicious on anyone. Here, he was just a human.

They walked down the concrete sidewalk. Cars whirred past them, and Carter realized he did not know where he was going. He looked around, and decided to make a turn. After all, he had no business wherever the human was going. Unfortunately for Carter, the human turned with him and took a couple jogging steps to catch back up. Looks like he definitely wanted to stick with Carter. Well, unless Carter wanted to make a scene, he had little ability to shake the human unless he were to go somewhere the beast could not follow him. Then again, if he went into a restaurant, and he was in fact followed, everyone would assume the human was his and cause him all sorts of trouble. Great. More complications for his life because of this human being mistaken as his. Granted, Barbara’s mistake had not had much in the way of consequences except for that row they had. Well, unless you count Barbara’s seduction by the animal, but she had not seemed to upset about it until she realized Carter knew.

“So,” he said to the human,  feeling silly but having no one to really talk to, “I’m looking for a job.” The human turned his head to look directly at him. It was disconcerting. Most humans, when they looked at you, were attentive and focused but not in the manner this one was. Carter could almost see the gears turning behind his brow. Despite the sense of understanding there, it was more unnerving than helpful to his venting. “I’ve got a few leads,” he said after a pause, “but it’s going to be tricky. I don’t have a way to leave a callback number or anything.”

“Hmm,” the human’s deep voice rumbled. His lips pursed as if in thought. For a moment, Carter felt like his drug-induced delusion would spring back to life, and the human would begin speaking to him. The beast said nothing, much to Carter’s relief.

“Well, I’ll figure something out,” he told his quasi-friend, “When I spend my first paycheck, I’m going to get a cheap burner phone to keep for work. Maybe I’ll be able to spend a couple nights a week in a motel and wash up to keep my boss from keeling over from my hobo musk.”

Carter saw a brief glimpse of white teeth in the human’s mouth, but it was from a smile. Two, short chuckles escaped him, “Heheh.” The human elbowed him and gestured with a jut of his chin towards a building. Carter looked in the general direction. He saw a fast food place, a drug store, and behind them residences. What did he want? Carter turned back to him in confusion. The human gestured with his hand, pointing at the drug store.

“What, do you want something from there?” Carter asked, “I’m afraid I’m a bit short on money, unless you have some.”

The human went from pleased looking to disgruntled in a flash. He bumped Carter in the back with his side and got him trotting. The coyote stopped and looked at him, about to voice his displeasure at the intrusive gesture, but the human placed his hand on the back of his shoulder and pushed him ahead anyways. Carter squawked but was herded ahead towards the drug store. To his surprise, it was not the front door to which he was led but around the side into the alleyway. There was a brick wall that encompassed the back way, leading towards a dead end where a dumpster was. The human looked around and then up at the walls of the drug store. There was no one here nor any cameras up on the walls. He dropped his ever-present dufflebag and withdrew from it the prosthetic tail and other accouterments from it. It was surreal watching him brush the bangs of his shaggy hair forward, cover up his face, and thread through the hole in his jeans the fake tail. He gestured back around the corner with his gloved hand and Carter suddenly felt very uncomfortable about being seen with the human now. It was weird before, but now he just looked like a thug or a leper.

He started off back towards the entrance, stopped when he realized that Carter had frozen, not following him, and then turned around to fetch and herd him in the direction he wanted. Carter, concerned about making a scene, allowed himself to be herded along. When they went in the first of the double automatic doors of the drug store, the human let go of him. Carter walked alongside him. What did he want from the drug store? Was it more surgical masks for his stupid disguise? The human wandered over and stood in front of a glass case. Carter came over to see what he was after out of sheer morbid curiosity. Ah, it was burner phones. Wait, what the fuck? Carter sent an accusing glance at the human. Its effect upon him was unknown to Carter because the coyote could not see the human’s face. This was too surreal for him, but what was more so was- “I told you I’m broke,” he hissed. The human’s head turned to stare at him through those opaque, black sunglasses.

An employee of the drug store showed up. “Can I help you? The skinny young shrew asked. He was smaller than even carter, and his voice was squeaky like a rodent’s. There was a dead look in his eyes though that Carter found unsettling. Carter stumbled over his words as the smaller mammal ran its tongue over its needle-like teeth.

The human pointed to a cheap phone on the wall. It was the third least expensive on the wall, a small handheld brick that looked like it was from the year 2003. It only cost ten dollars. The shrew nodded and pulled out a key ring diameter of his fist, lined with at least two dozen keys. He flipped through them until he got the case open, pulled it out, and handed it to the disguised humans. The shrew bustled over to the prepaid cards and picked out one. “This is the one that goes with that phone,” he said, also handing that one to the human. The human inclined his head to the store employee and started heading to the cash register. He paid for it and beckoned Carter with a wave of his hand.

Carter, in his bewilderment, followed, unable and unwilling to process the situation. When they were outside, the human gave him another wave to follow him, and they were back behind the drug store. He thrust the phone’s box into his stomach with the prepaid card atop it. Carter let out an “oof” with the impact and reflexively caught the box and card. He looked down at them and back up at the human, and he felt an irrational surge of anger at the situation. “What is this?” the coyote hissed at the human, “What is with you?!” The human stared at him, the disguise masking him revealing nothing. Carter continued to work himself up. “Come on. Answer me! I know you’re fucking with me, and I know that wasn’t just some hallucination. I know you can speak to me,” he shouted in the human’s face. The human did not seem to react to him, and Carter’s hands shot forwards to seize the human by his shirt.

Then, his world turned upside down, and the coyote landed flat on his chest on the asphalt after. The wind rushed from his lungs. His arm was twisted up and behind him at an awkward angle. It was supremely uncomfortable, and instinct told him that if he struggled he could hurt himself. He blinked away the sudden pain and looked up to see the human looking back down at him, holding his arm. He wagged his finger at Carter as if he were a naughty pup and released his arm. Knowing when he was beat, Carter at least had the decency to look sheepish. “Heheh, sorry,” he said. The coughing coyote placed both hands on the ground beneath him, the jagged surface of the asphalt digging into his hands, and started to push himself up. To his surprise, the human grabbed his right upper arm and helped haul him to his feet. “Uh, thanks,” Carter told him.

Carter picked up the phone and card that had hit the ground and scattered away, smart enough to not overlook such a generous gift given. After he he stooped to pick them up and had them in hand, his eyes bulged when he found himself in a headlock. He struggled, especially once the human began knuckling his head, giving him noogies while he squawked in indignity at the rough treatment. Carter struggled away with all his might, but only got free once the human released him. “Oh, screw you,” he told the human in exasperation. What was he doing, treating him like his kid brother. Sheesh.

As the human peeled the accessories hiding his face off, Carter saw that he was smiling at him. It was a cocksure smile, but it did not look angry at him. He had just gotten done peeling his tail off when one of the biggest cats the young coyote had ever seen appeared before him. He- no, she- was a lion, and Carter was briefly alarmed at being accosted by a lioness in an alley behind a drug store until he noted how she was dressed. She was wearing a long skirt and flowery blouse. It was unlikely she was the type to mug someone. Carter calmed down and was about to ask her what she wanted, but she beat him to it.

“You,” she said, accusatory, “is that your human?” Okay, maybe Carter was in trouble. His head jerked away to look at the human, and he had a look of mild disgust, the kind one had when they got something gross on their shoe, at the woman before them. He folded his arms, and his expression faded from disgusted to smug. Damn, what had he drug him into this time? Well, Carter had learned from the time before not to take the blame for whatever he was doing.

“Uh, why?” Carter asked, genuinely perplexed.

“Because he was wandering around, alone, in the middle of the street!” she hissed at him. The rounded face of the lioness bunched up, wrinkling in a way that made her look positively savage even if her dress bellied her as someone who was not a rough and tumbler.

Carter blanched, “What?”

The big cat had apparently already decided that he was guilty and stepped forward to lay into him. Carter was insulted, his masculinity attacked, and pride defiled by a vicious stream of words that poured from her mouth. He had not even admitted that the damn mutt was his, and yet her she was, assuming he was guilty by association! That blasted beast had dragged him into another row. Carter grit his teeth, knowing there was nothing he could say that would end this.

The human stepped in front of Carter. Carter blinked in surprise, and the lioness’s ire was momentarily restrained. The human stared at her, not amused. She looked reluctant to yell at the human. Carter thought that she must have been a human lover. No wonder she was so pissed at him for supposedly letting the human run around. That bastard could take care of himself, but why did Carter have to always be his scapegoat? She looked past the human to Carter, inhaling to give him another tirade. She halted, distracted by something in the human’s hand.

“What’cha got there?” she asked her loud, shouting voice cranking down to her babying tone. A loud crackling, hissing noise filled the air like a bucket of ball barrings being dumped down a slide. The arc of blue electricity that had danced between the prongs of metal gave off the smell of ozone in its absence. The sudden noise and show caused the predatory cat to halt in alarm. Her tail fuzzed, and her hackles rose. She did, however, advance further. The human depressed the button on the taser once more, giving off the snake’s rattle, the electric hiss. A combination of the shock and trepidation the lioness stepped back. “What the fuck?!” she exclaimed.

“He’s… protective?” Carter supplied, grasping for straws himself. She was only yelling at him, and while it sucked, Carter was not in fear of his physical safety at the moment. Things had not escalated that far yet.  Maybe the human knew something he did not. “I don’t think he likes you,” Carter said, “Please leave.”

“Take that thing away from him,” she demanded, but she flinched when the electricity arced between the metal prongs again.

“Shit no!” Carter exclaimed, “I’m with him, you looked like you were gearing up to eviscerate me. Now are you going to take the hint and go?”

The lioness’s hand darted out for the taser, and while she was looking at it, she was not looking at the human’s other hand balled up in a fist and flying towards her face. The large lioness stumbled back, stunned and blindsided, and then she cried out when the tazer slammed into her hip. The tens of thousands of volts coursed through her body and dropped her like a convulsing sack of potatoes. Next, the electric weapon hit her in her neck, and she seized up.

The human stepped over her downed body and left without a word. Carter, not wanting to face the music, followed after him quickly. Fucking fucking fuck. What if she reported him? Well, maybe if she did he could cook up a story about being attacked. Damn the human. Damn him. That one had not even been after him originally, like Vincent had. His fist closed tightly around the phone box, crushing and deforming it. He looked down at the ruined box as he jogged after the disappearing human. Well, at least he seemed to try to make up for it.

___

Chapter 8:

Carter was unsure as how to feel when the human handed him money and pointed at a fast food joint. It was a fiver, just enough for a couple items off the cheap menu or one of the nicer items. Carter had a feeling that if he showed up without food for the both of them though, the human would just take it and eat it. It was his money, after all. Carter paused. Well if that wasn't the craziest notion, the human's money. Oh well. This was life now. What a world. Carter picked a couple items at random and came back with them. "Too bad you can't get into the buffet," he said idly, "They'd catch you for sure." The human nodded. Of course he nodded. Roll with it, Carter.

They ate while Carter checked his list. He had several numbers written down and has called inquiring about hiring. Three went to voice message and the fourth politely told him to go to some job site. At least he was doing something. If this were a smartphone, he could do that now, but this flip phone's shitty browser could barely load psearch results let alone a modern website. He would need to go back to the library for that. Beggars can't be choosers. Once he got a job, maybe he could get one of the cheaper burner smart phones. They sat on a public bench while Carter finished his phone calls. The human was staring off into space. The sun started to get close enough to the horizon to tinge the sky, and the human got up to leave. Carter glanced over.

"Uh," Carter started lamely. The human stopped. "Thanks," he finished." The human turned his head, nodded, and headed off again. Carter wondered where he was going and then decided to get up and follow. It was not as if Carter had anywhere better to go.

It was a long, long walk to where he was headed. Carter moseyed along, interested in where he was going but bored out of his skull. It was the dead of night, and Carter was starting to get creeped out. His main reassurance was that the human so far had proven pretty reliable. They took a brief detour out behind some trees in an empty lot for the human to change his outward appearance again. Huh. Was he planning on going somewhere? Carter rolled with it, and before he knew it, they were at the "Sunny Valley Lodge." What it really was though was a seedy motel. Why? After Carter thought on it for a bit, he remembered when he first lost his home. Most motels took an ID or credit card or both. Maybe this shithole did not care.

Carter felt scuzzy just walking over here. Besides being generally unkept, he caught glimpses of a certain type of person. Cats with notches out of their ears and leather jackets, four wolves packing together looking like they were looking for trouble, and many women wearing clothes with the largest piece of fabric being the how-to-wash tag. The first one to notice them, a calico alley cat with a slender but underfed form, turned and arched her back, inhaling to swell her chest and exaggerate her bust. Carter looked down. They were nice, not huge but nice. He felt vaguely embarrassed but looked anyways. Then he remembered that these women probably wanted money. The human waved to her, and she made a few more coquettish gestures in an attempt to capture his attention and business. The human turned his attention away, and she gave up and she tried to go for Carter. He shied away and she too gave up, starting to look quite offended.

Carter then saw a wider selection of girls sitting on the park bench gossiping. They too clearly worked the same trade. Fishnet and not much else with too-small jackets and the biting cold gave it all away. They noticed them right away, turning their heads like predators noticing their quarry. "Ey, Papi," said the first, standing up to greet them. Carter saw another coyote, and he felt a little embarrassed by the stereotype. Her red clothes stood out against the muted colors of her fur. beneath the jacket, Carter could tell she was skinnier than he was. There was the usual manic disposition. Her shirt stopped at her midriff, showing off her underfed belly which tucked back. Her chest was clearly padded, and the jacket she wore had a fake fur lining that made her look bigger than she was. She all but plastered herself against the human, tail wagging. She kept a six inch distance but seemed to be resisting the urge to come closer. She grinned, lips painted garishly red. Her teeth were yellowing in some places, but they were all there. "You come back for more?" she asked, dragging out the 'r' in more and turning it into a purr.

While Carter was left trying to figure out whether or not they knew he was a human and if not why not, the rest of the girls let out social giggles in the high pitched, forced manner one often heard in the little social games women liked to play among each other. "Careful, Juana, if you touch, you're basically giving the product away," said the second woman from the right. She was older than the rest, approaching middle age and starting to lose her looks, a she-wolf with grey fur appeared along her muzzle, and Carter noticed several small signs of aging in the way her skin hung around her eyes and other halmarks of it. Good lord though, did she have the biggest tits he had ever seen in person. Were those real? Were those H's? Her shirt, white that contrasted starkly with her black fur, showed off her cleavage and had a window that fell halway down. Something underneath was keeping them up and perky, defying gravity with whatever tricks this tradeswoman had up her sleeve.

The coyote's ears flattened back, and she scowled. "My name is Gabriella. Gabriella!" she insisted petulantly, going so far as to stamp her foot. Carter stood frozen and watched the byplay, and the human reached out to pat the girl on the shoulder. The hand, however, was quickly removed.

"Careful, big boy, that'll cost you," a young puma said, a predatory wiggle going down her shoulders even as she sat. The other girls tittered, and the coyote remembered herself and smoothed out her hackles and lifted her tail back up, flagging it over her left hip suggestively. Gabriella then looked up at the taller man. Well it was a hu-man in disguise. "Papi was just being a gentleman," she said, "and he doesn't talk, so that's the next best thing."

"Talk? What man talks? They don't listen, either," the older she-wolf said with a shrug that did some interesting things to her cleavage. Carter's eyes were glued to them, and she noticed right away. She brought her shoulders forward, pressing her tits together. She cocked her head and said, "I hope you're not just window shopping." The she-wolf lost some of her spark when Carter fidgetted and failed to say much. She took a drag off of an old fashioned cancer stick and let the acrid fumes whisp out of her nostrils. "What about you, big boy? I know you're no window shopper. Gonna split the new girl in half again? The little waif's shrill voice still has my ears ringing even now."

"No-no-no," the puma's breathy voice said, "he had her last time. You want something different today, don't you?"

The coyote, Juana- or was it Gabrielle? Carter couldn't remember- sent the she-wolf and puma an ugly look, hackles raising back up. The human, meanwhile, was considering. His head subtly shifted as he considered the women in front of him. Eventually, he pointed at the she-wolf and beckoned her over. She raised her eyebrows and put out her cigarrette. "Well then, looks what I'll get to see what Juana was bitching about for the past week," she said.

The human in disguise led her off to the motel office for obvious reasons. It had only been a couple days. Carter wondered how often he visited here

The coyote let out a strangled, inarticulate noise but gave up and sat down on the bench in a huff. She took a vape out of her back pocket and took a big puff. Her small body almost inflated, and she let a gush of sickly sweet vapor out of her mouth. "Damn it, now I'll never get him again," she grumbled.

The puma shook her head. "Calm down, 'chica'," she said, sardonically using the word to rankle her, "the regulars switch girls around sometime, and  frankly you were complaining about how sore you were for the longest time."

The coyote, whose name Carter was certain was Gabriella and not Juana  which she hated, glowered at her. "I was bragging, okay? I was... surprised," she said.

"Surprised?" the puma prompted.

"Well, most cats have shrimp dicks," she admitted out loud. The puma snorted in an unladylike fashion. "Hey, it was a good kind of surprise, okay? It was like he was-"

"Going to split you like a log, I've heard it," the puma interrupted her with a roll of the eyes, " He can beat your piñata with his stick the next time he wants your skinny ass. Now shut up and find someone else. Talk less. They don't like it when you jabber at them constantly. Just because that one doesn't talk back means he likes it. That's probably why he ditched you for bitch tits over there."

Gabriella looked ready to retort, and then she realized Carter was still standing there. She eyeballed him, not nearly as flirtatious as she was before. "Well?" she asked shortly. Carter edged away and went to the motel office.

"Lost another," the puma said.

"Shut it."

Inside, Carter went to the counter, behind which was the biggest, butchest woman he had ever seen. He blinked at the lioness' heavy frame, wide shoulders, frumpy clothes. The tight skirt hugged her down t o her knees, and her floral blouse was wrapped around what looked like a pair of fake tits. She smiled at him, red lips stretched back over big, white teeth. Her nails were painted bright pink, and she clearly tended to her appearance even if it was misguided. She batted her false eyelashes at him. Her masquera was applied thickly and obviously. Carter noticed he was staring and said. "Uh, did a guy in a mask pass through here?" She was not as pretty as the last lioness he had dealt with, but hey, nature often-

"Oh, he was just in here with Gina," her falsetto buzzed in his ear. She- she was a man. It took Carter a bit to realize because he either did not have a mane or had trimmed it down to the point where one could not even see it any more. Lionesses always looked big and strong to him, so he just thought this was a particularly butch example. No, this was a man and not just an incredibly masculine woman.

Carter collected himself. "Is he-" Carter started to ask.

"Sugar, what do you think he's doin'?" the lion asked in his falsetto, placing his hands on in hips and leaning forward, eyebrow arched high.

Carter winced. "Yeah, guess I should just track him down tomorrow," he said.

"Rooms rented by the hour, hun," the lion replied.

"Ah," Carter said, suddenly conflicted.

"There is one room rented by the night though," the lion continued.

"Just one?" Carter asked, confused.

"It's free but exclusive," he continued, "Do you need a place to stay the night?" He was purring in that fashion the big cats do, the slow, low, crashing rumble that only sounded on the exhale.

Carter stared dumbly, either not following or not wanting to.

He stopped purring. "My room, hun," he clarified.

That was not what Carter wanted to hear. "Ah," he said, shuffling a bit, "Er-" The lion pouted, and Carter said, "I should probably wait for my friend, ma'am."

Hearing "ma'am" seemed to brighten his day a bit. He said, "Well, I suppose you can take a seat there, but don't get in trouble. He only paid for an hour in the room, and most don't use that much." The transvestite turned his attention away from Carter once he sat down and started scribbling on something the coyote could not see from his vantage point. He shifted uncomfortably, trying not to think a bout what kind of smoke and mirrors it took for the human not to get caught.
___

In the dim light of the room, the curtains were drawn. The scarlet woman was sitting on the edge of the bed with her leg crossed over the other. "So, John," she said, filling in his name for him, "Alone we are." She smiled at him. Although acting, she did a convincing coy look. The human in disguise pulled out a menu from a diner and tapped it. The she-wolf leaned in and looked at it. "Hmm, that's a nice Greek place," she said, sitting back. She watched him count out some bills and stick them underneath the motel lamp. She reached over and took them, counted them again, and put them in her handbag. She smiled and then looked up at him with some trepidation. "Are you going to take off your-"

The light flicked off, and the room was pitch black. The zip and swish of fabric filled the room. "Hmm. Okay then," she said. He must by shy about something.
___

Carter had already made all his phone calls for the day. He tried to visit some job listing sites on his burner phone's crummy browser, but there was no wifi and no data on his plan because it was prepaid, and his environs were far too distracting to focus. Occasionally, someone would come in, and they would leave after brusque business with the transvestite clerk despite the lion's catty word play that often made it into the conversation. Carter eventually was lulled into a vague comfort with his situation, when there was some audible shouting involved. Gabriella the coyote whore busted through the door and was reaching into her purse at the counter. A skeevy-looking stoat edged in behind her, looking leery. Pushing past him, a young fox in a hoody and men's jeans started after Gabriella. "Gabby," she said, "let's go home." It was Jane. Carter tried to shrink into the wall and not be seen lest he die of embarrassment.

"No, damn it," Gabriella bit back, "I need this."

Jane  grabbed the skinny girl by her upper arms and held on tight. "Gabby," she said again, "let's go home."

"Look," the stoat interrupted, "I'm just here to do something quick and leave. You can come get her afterwards." He moved to pry Jane off of Gabriella physically.

Jane elbowed him in the ribs for his trouble. "Hands off," she barked at him. The stoat grunted but was just annoyed. He grabbed Jane with both hands and just as his body coiled to act, the heavy clicks of the lion's high heels signaled his huge frame rounding the counter in two steps. His meaty paw landed on the stoat's shoulder and spun him around. The tip of a wickedly curved knife hooked itself in the stoat's nose. "Sir," he said in his falsetto, and then his voice dropped to a low, threatening bass, "you don't put your hands on the girls."

The stoat looked up, wild-eyed. "S-she's not one of the girls!" he squawked.

"You don't touch the girls," he repeated, biting out each word. The knife cut through the side of the stoat's nostril. He reeled back and clutched his face, cursing loudly. "Get the fuck out of here, Paulo," the lion said, and bleeding man fled. Once he was gone, the stern look on his face melted. The pearl earings in his ears swung as he turned his head to regard Jane. "Now dear," he said, returning to his falsetto, "I need you to leave Gabriella alone too. She's a grown woman."

Jane furrowed her brow. They knife had disappeared back from whence it had came, but adrenaline still coursed through her veins from the earlier confrontation. Her rapid rate of breath had to be consciously slowed. "I'm here to help," she said.

"Hun, you can't help someone if they don't want your help," the lion said flatly, even as he put his knuckles on one hip and cocked his hip to the side, "but I'm not going to let you make a bigger scene. If she wants your help, she knows where to find you, right, Gabriella?" The coyote nodded with wet eyes and jaw clenched shut.

Jane clearly wanted to say something but could not find the words. She tried three times before squeezing her eyes shut and nodding. Turning to leave, she noticed Carter and shook her head in clear disgust.

"Hey, I'm just waiting on a friend. I didn't even know where we were going," he said defensively. Jane gave him a flat look of disbelief.

"He really is waiting on a friend," the lion clerk supplied, "He's too shy to pay to play. Too bad because he's kind of cute if a scruffy sort of way." Carter looked away, mortified. The lion blew him a kiss.

"Some friend," Jane murmured, leaving at last.

Carter cursed under his breath.

___

Chapter 9:

The light flooded in from underneath the bathroom door.  The she-wolf rolled onto her side, intensely sore and eyes squeezed shut to block out the blinding beam of light. The door  opened, and her patron was already dressed and making a few final adjustments in the en suit bathroom mirror before exiting satisfied. He flicked on the lights in the main motel room, he nodded to her and sat on the bed side, inspecting her. Blearily, she looked up at the masked face. He brushed his gloved fingers along the side of her muzzle, looked her in the eyes and then  patted her on the shoulder. She gave a self-conscious smile to suppress her embarrassment. "All done?" she asked rhetorically. He nodded. She figured from his state of dress, but she did not know what else to say. Interacting with a mute often got awkward from the prolonged silence.

He moved towards the door, paused, and looked back over his shoulder at her. The woman laid sprawled on her side. She waved him off with a shooing gesture. "I'm fine. Just resting," she said. The soreness radiating up her backside would disappear eventually. She knew how to handle this. "The room still has time on it. Let me rest," she finished. He turned and left. This was a simple customer. Some of them talked, oh they talked about everything under the sun including their problems. Well, her trade was of comparable price to a therapist at times, and there were certain things a therapist could not do for you. This John, however, could not or refused to talk which meant she got to get back to work sooner. It was ideal really. Besides, he was one of the more fun ones.

Carter jumped up when he saw the human and his shabby camoflauge wander into the room. The lion hummed and greeted him, "Hey, sugar. You give the girls a rough time?" There was a teasing tone to his falsetto. The human's shoulders shook with a smothered chuckle. He nodded and was checked out of the motel by the clerk. The lion leaned over the counter, elbow down. He said, "Well, glad to see you're back regularly again. It's been a while. Thought something happened. The girls missed you." The human shrugged at that and took a step back, waving as he rounded to leave. Carter was after him hurriedly, not wanting to be here any longer.

The human waved to the working girls as he left. The puma leaned back and returned the gesture with a salacious smile. The coyote, Gabriella, was too busy moping to notice. Before long, they were out of the radius of activity. It was quiet save for the buzzing of street lamps. The human was clearly relaxed and comfortable as he strode along. Time passed, and Carter's nerves frayed.

"Hey," he said to the human. He paused. The human did not react, but Carter had a feeling he was listening. He fumbled for words. "Can you talk?" the nervous canine finally spit out. The human pointedly did not respond to him. "Look," Carter said, "You clearly understand everything you hear, so you can't pretend to be just some dumb animal with me." He still did not respond, but his pace seemed to quicken just enough that Carter started to fall behind. Carter picked up the pace as well. His shorter legs needed to take more steps to keep up with the disguised human's longer stride. "Fuck, man, you talked to me before!" he hissed, not wanting to shout and draw attention to them from whomever might be prowling in the night, "I don't buy that hallucination shit. You were taking the opportunity to fuck with me because you could, weren't you?" The human remained silent but swiveled his head to reguard carter. He pulled the goggle-like shades down from his eyes. The pupils were wide but constricted in the dim light that came in. However, he continued to not speak. Instead, he reached out and flicked a particular place on the coyote's muzzle. Carter felt the bone and cartridge vibrate, irritating his nasal cavity and sending him into an unpleasant sneezing fit. It was half a minute before he could speak again without the unpleasant tingle threatening to make him sneeze again. "Fuck you too, buddy," Carter muttered under his breath, "Be like that."

___

Carter slept fitfully bundled up in a blanket on the cold floor of one of the abandoned buildings in his usual haunt, and he smelled his own stink upon waking. It was like a fetid garbage disposal. There was not even any light out yet in the pre-dawn sky. The human was nowhere to be seen. He grumbled to himself and got to work. He wanted to go to the library again no matter how little he wanted to see Jane again. The humiliation he felt stung him and ensnared his thoughts. Even as he soaked beat his clothes against a wall to in a sad attempt at cleanliness, he began to ruminate about the dread of making eye contact and seeing her look of disdain and disgust with him. In his mind's eye, he felt the disgust wash over the invisible filth that already coated him. He washed his clothes a second time. The sun was peering over the mountains in the distance, sending dim blue-grey light into the morning. Carter turned the spigot back on and knelt under it, letting the icy water soak into his fur and cut through the dirt that had built up on him throughout the day of being out in the open. It chilled him and within moments, terrible full body shivers wracked him. It was better than feeling dirty .

Still wet, he dressed himself, feeling better even as the cold air chilled him further. He got moving out onto the streets, arms wrapped over his jacket and around himself. The padding was insulated from his wet fur, but he was still cold. He walked to the library. There was early morning traffic as people rushed to work. Vehicles cut each other off in traffic and went too fast. Anxious and angry faces glared out of the wind shields, frustrated at the trouble they have to go through, some likely resenting having to work at all. Yet, here Carter was living the life where those little inconveniences did not exist. Carter would trade for their burden or ten times their burden for the security of their employment, even if he had to live in a shack to do it.

When he got to the library, it was not open yet. Carter sucked on the inside of his cheek nervously and flattened his ears back along his head. He checked the time on his phone. He had a good thirty minutes before they opened at nine o'clock. Grumbling, he sat on a public bench and crossed his legs. He watched traffic and tried not to think about feeling hungry. He had nothing to eat and no money to buy anything. The human had provided most of his recent meals through some parody of altruism that he seemed infected with. Carter cursed his stupidity. He had had the good fortune of getting enough money to eat for two or three weeks were he smart about it, and he blew half of it on weed. He still had some of it. Maybe he could sell it and not get stuck between his ribs by his customer. Maybe he could sell it to Jerry. It was a thought. Carter had honestly forgotten it existed after his bad trip talking to the human, but he was starting to suspect more and more that that was no trip.

Time crawled by. What was Jerry's number? Carter honestly could hardly recall. He knew Barbara's, but that was only because she forced to feed him the paper it was written on if he refused to take it. He opened his phone's contacts application. He thought about calling her. Wait, what day was today? Was she at work? Carter was unsure about that and thought to wait until the evening. Her work hours were unknown to him, but he thought maybe it would be polite to wait despite wanting to know right now if he could do that. Suppressing the urge to curse out loud, he sat forward, hunching and clutching his head with his flip phone in his hands. He breathed deeply three times and calmed himself, slowing his breaths down. He looked up when he felt eyes on him. It was the librarian he saw, the heavy set black bear. She looked down at him through her small, square glasses curiously. Carter gave her a sheepish smile.

"You're here early," she said conversationally. Already she was headed to the door. Carter stood to follow, hoping to get in and get this over with so he could go find something to eat.

"Uh, yeah," he said, not knowing what else to say.

She looked back at him. Her stubby tail gave a wiggle that moved her professional skirt side to side with its movement. It caught Carter's attention, but he diverted it quickly once he realized he was staring at her rear. The door unlocked with a click, and it opened. She held it open for him, saying, "It's a little early still, but go ahead. Computers, right?" Carter nodded. "Just log in with your library card's number, and you're good to go," she said with a sweet smile.

The lights were yet to be lit as Carter sat down, the only light available filtering in past the stacks from the wall of windows towards te front. Then, the  flourescents buzzed to life once the librarian flipped the switch. Carter pressed the power button on the computer tower, and it booted. Today's agenda was applying to online application sites. Every grocer and department store was on his list. As Carter got used to navigating the various application pages, most of which were on completely seperate sites from the main corporate one with unintuitive domain names. He filled out one application to a bargain grocery chain. He copied and pasted his answers to the various questions into a text document. Some of the questions were inane such as: "Why do you want to work at Cheap Ass Grocery?" Others still had drop down menus upon drop down menus and check boxes which could not be reasonably copied to another fillable form. After that was done, he moved on to a dollar store chain's. He was able to paste some of the answers with some rewording here and there, but it still took time to fill out because of the various menu selections. By noon, he had three filled out.

Carter decided to take a break. He stretched, leaning back and feeling his lower back pop, and then opened the tab to his shiny new email account. Nothing yet. He doubted there would be anything soon, but at least he could come by and check his email at the library once a day. He planned on doing so, at least. It would be time consuming having to walk here, but it was too important not to. His cheap phone lacked the ability to send or receive email. What could he do on his break? Suddenly he remembered he had access to the internet. He searched for a familiar title, and it came up. It was an old browser game he remembered playing as a kid. He smiled as the nostalgia filled him, and he decided to give it a whirl.

"Having fun?" the sweet-sounding voice of the librarian said.

Carter leapt through his skin and promptly lost his game from his inattention. He looked up sheepishly and said, "Just taking a break from the job hunt." He exited out of the tab self-consciously and went back to his list. He then noticed the time and boggled at how many hours he had wasted goofing off. Self-hatred flooded his gut, sinking down like a stone to join his suddenly remembered hunger.

"It sounded like it. I could hear your keyboard from over by the front desk," she said with humor in her voice. She went quiet when she noticed Carter's demeanor, slumped, ears back, and hurriedly getting back to work. He opened a classified ad for menial labor, and the librarian clucked her tongue and left him to his own devices.

Concentrating was difficult now, and he progressed much more slowly. He had trouble finding other stores' application sites because he had trouble thinking it through now. He did it though eventually. Carter got one more application filled, and before he knew it, the librarian was over to tell him, "It's Friday, hun. We close early." Carter looked up and looked at the time. It was five o'clock in the evening. His stomach rumbled, and Carter felt embarrassed. Becky tittered at him, and even though it did not feel malicious, he folded in on himself.

"Any luck?" the librarian asked, leaning over the side of the computer table at the screen. Carter grunted. "Any progress?" she pressed. Carter sat up and reclined against the back of the stiff chair.

"Filled out applications," he said, clearly depressed.

"Good!" she said, drawing out the 'oo' in good, "Keep doing that. It may take time, but you'll know it was worth it once you succeed." Carter nodded absently. She huffed. "What're you doing tonight?" she asked him. He turned his head to her, looking up uncomprehendingly. "It's Friday. Any plans?" she reiterated. He shook his head. "Come on," she said then. Carter hastily logged off of the computer and followed her despite not knowing what was happening. She went behind the front desk and navigated the computer to what she wanted. The computer started to shut down. White text flew up a black screen, and the rest of the computers shut off as well. The librarian picked up a flier and proffered it to Carter. He took it and examined the paper. It said 'Resume Workshop' at the top with times and dates listed. Further down there were listings for 'Basic Skills' labs and workshops of  other sorts. He blinked at it and looked back up to the librarian.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

The librarian gave him a kind smile. "Becky," she said.

"Huh?"

"That's my name," the black bear clarified for him.

Carter blinked and replied, "Ah, I- uh- Carter."

"Nice to meet you, Carter," she said, "Now come on." She departed. Carter followed. She flicked the lights off. Carter realized that she was closing up and likely wanted him out of here. He hastened to leave. As he left out the front door, he stopped and held it open for her. The black bear gave him a toothy grin for the courtesy, and locked the door with her key.

"See you," Carter said as he went to leave.

"Where you going?" Becky asked him.

"Uh," he said, "Away?" His tone was less than confident.

She beckoned him. "Come on," she said again, "You have no plans, right?" Carter shook his head. "Well, come on then. I've got something for you."

Nervous but unwary, Carter followed her. She led him to her vehicle. The sedan had a surprising amount of roominess up front, Carter could tell. She must have needed it, belonging to such a robust species. The power locks clicked open, and Becky looked at Carter expectantly. Tentatively, he opened the car door and slipped into the passenger seat. The engine started. "Where are we going?" Carter asked.

"My place," Becky said.

Carter's heart lurched. What in the world? "Ee-ah- uh," he stumbled over his words.

Becky gave him a sideways look as she pulled out. "I've got some work for you," she said to him.

"Oh!" Carter almost barked, feeling somewhat relieved but also disappointed. Ambivalence aside, his curiosity was piqued.

A wry smile crossed her face. "Maybe when you get a more permanent job," she said. Carter gulped as they turned into the main traffic.
____

Becky's home was a small house in a cheek by jowl residential block. The porch light was on, and when she pulled into the driveway, a floodlight came on, illuminating the whole yard. She bustled him to the front door and inside. Carter looked around, head swiveling as he stood in place while Becky disabled the security alarm. The lights illuminated. The place was nice and tidy. What could she possibly want him to do?

"So..." Carter said slowly, not knowing how to broach the topic. Becky turned to him, expecting him to say something else. Carter looked back at here, blinked, and tried to articulate. "What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"Well, for starters, why don't you go wash the dishes?" she said, pointing to her kitchen. Carter's head swiveled and he did see a stack of dirty dishes in the sink and around it. He nodded and pressed forward into the kitchen. He started to scratch his head and saw a bottle of dish soap sitting on the counter. He turned the water on, tipped some soap into the first pan, and scrubbed. He scrubbed and rinsed a few items before Becky came over to look over his shoulder. She clucked her tongue and said, "They need to be spotless before they go into the dishwasher."

Carter blinked and looked down. Now that she said something, he realized that some stuff hat a couple of flecks still on them. He looked up at her and then went back to pick up a dish. He added some soap to the dish. Becky sighed. "Carter," she said, "too much." She picked up another dish and showed him the correct amount of soap. "If you need more, add more later, okay?" Carter's ears flattened back, feeling thoroughly chastized despite how light of a correction it was. He nodded, not saying anything. He did his best and was more methodical in his approach. That stupid human probably could do this right even. He should be able to. Doing it right took time. Carter had to inspect each dish to make sure he missed nothing. The first time Carter tried to load the dishwasher, he wasted a lot of space. He could tell. Unhappily, Carter unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher before clicking it shut. He fit almost everything in. "Soap's under the sink," Becky called to him while she worked on some kind of laundry task in the living room.

Carter opened up the sink cupboard and found the detergent. He added it and sealed the machine. Taking initiative, he pressed the ON button. He walked over into the living room and stood by while Becky folded clothes. She looked up to him out of the corner of her eye. "Done?" she said after a moment. Carter nodded. "Help me fold these," she said.

The coyote's first attempt at folding was swiftly chided and corrected. Even after being shown how, he loused it up again. Becky paused and then broke it down into individual slow steps for folding the garment. Finally, Carter could fold theshirt without looking like a complete fool. He did the same for each article of clothing of that type first, selectively fishing them out of the clothes, and even then, regularly Becky would pick up and redo something he did. Hanging clothes up on hangars and pairing socks was much easier. With the clothes tucked away, Becky stood and pointed to the sliding glass door that led outside to the back. "To the right of the door outside is a light switch and a pool net. Go ahead and fish out anything you see in the pool," she instructed him. Carter looked at the door and back to her and then left to go do  just that.

Fishing out the pool was easy enough. It was a small above ground pool with leaves and other detritus floating near the top or having sank down to the bottom after becomming waterlogged. It took time to get some of it, but with the flood light on out back, Carter could see everything just fine. When he was done, he went back inside. It was well and dark outside now, and the chill was starting to get to him. When he came back inside, the aroma of cooking food ensnared his senses. Saliva flooded his mouth, and he had to swallow quickly to keep it from slipping out of his muzzle. "Go wash up, Carter," she told him. Carter sped off, eager for what came next. When was the last time he had had a home cooked meal? Real food. Rolling up his sleeves and washing with gusto, the soap went on and washed off as fast as he could make it. Eager, he went back out. "Set the table," Becky said next.

Carter looked around and said, "Uhhhh." Becky pointed to a cubpoard. Carter got to work. At least he remembered how to properly set a table. He had never been able to get away without doing it when he a child. When he returned to the kitchen, he was handed some hotpads and serving dishes. He dutifully carried them back. Becky came back and joined him. She started to serve herself, and so Carter followed suit. Real food. Meat, vegetables, and some kind of rice. He was more interested in the meat, but canines had no problem with the rest. He ate with gusto at first but slowed down immediately, feeling self-conscious about Becky's presence. He chewed his food and then swallowed. "This is great," he said.

Becky smiled at him. "Always nice to be appreciated," she said.

The meal continued in silence. Afterwards, Carter was to wash the dishes again. He did so, making sure they were clean spotless and stacked them. He turned round, and Becky handed him some yellow rubber clothes and cleaner. She gestured to the stove which Carter had already cleaned and cleared. "This is how you open up the stove," she said, disassembling one of the burners, "Clean out all of the debris." Carter nodded. Looked like he was yet to finish. This particular task took the longest. There was a lot of grease and other caked on garbage that did not want to come off. Carter worked at it, feeling the time slip by. Eventually, Becky checked on him and said, "It's clean. The rest are stains that won't come out. Good job."

Carter crawled out from under the stove and stood. He was fairly dirty again. "I think that's it for now," she said, "Do you want to wash up before you go."

"Please," Carter blurted out.

"You know where the bathroom is," Becky reminded him.

Carter headed straight for the bathtub and closed the door behind him. He was in the tub in a moment and turned the water on. He had not had a real bath and been really, truly clean for what felt like forever even with showering in open  water spigots he found here and there. The warm water filled up, and he sank into it, feeling a sort of bliss he had forgotten and never really appreciated before. After a bit of relaxing, he started to wash himself. Some time into his bath, the door opened. He had forgotten to lock it! The water splashed as he rushed to cover his crotch. Becky raised her eyebrows at him, and he tried to smile but was too embarrassed. The black bear gave him an evil smirk and said,  "I won't fall over from shock, hun." Carter grimaced and kept huddled as she retrieved a towel and left. He finished washing himself and got dressed. He felt brand new despite the brief embarrassment.

When he came out, Becky had her purse out and fished out her wallet. She procured a bill and handed it to him. It was a twenty. Carter had earned money and a meal. He felt... really good about that. It was not much, but he was fed and had not made that stellar of a performance. Besides, it was not as if she really needed his help. "Thank you," he said. She nodded. Carter checked the time. It was getting late, and he should probably leave. When Becky left, he slipped towards the door. Carter called out, "Thanks again! Bye!" And he clicked the door shut and jogged off into the night, happy with himself. He definitely did not want to overstay his welcome. Staying the night would definitely be pushing it. After all, Becky was a kind stranger, not a friend.