Santino walked into the room, "Morning, you four." he laughed, "Have fun last night?"

I opened my eyes. What I was looking at made me frown. I was spooning a dog. Then I remembered what happened the night prior. "Yup." I croaked, my voice scratchy from lack of use. I adjusted my position so I was on my back. "You're not in the least bit disgusted by this?"

"I have no problem with this, because it's not my place to judge, Nick. My brother is gay. I lost my virginity before marriage. If you think a foursome containing four willing participants is going to shock me, you’re wrong. We're all 'sexual deviants' here, Nick." he explained. He walked out the door.

Josef woke next. "Wie hast du geschlafen?" How'd you sleep? He yawned.

"Gut. Ich war Tods müde, nachdem Sex." Well. I was deathly tired after sex.

"Deine erste Klasse ist um zwölf Uhr. Ja?" Your first class is at 12. Right?

"Ja. Frühstücken wir! Wachen wir der Drache und seinen Hund nicht auf!" Yes. Let's eat breakfast. Let's not wake the dragon and his dog up.

Jonny's tail started wagging and he chuckled, "Der Drache ist ein schwerer Schläfer." The dragon is a heavy sleeper.

"Good morning, Jonny." I said, "How you feeling?"

"Besser als gestern. Mein Arsch tut mir weh. You knotted me last night, didn't you?" Better than yesterday. My ass hurts.

"You don't remember?"

"Vaguely. I was still recovering from Jordan biting me. I remember sixty-nine-ing with Jordan, but that is all."

"Well you were doing that while I slammed your tailhole and Josef did the same for Jordan." I winked at him. "Come hon. Let's get some breakfast."

***

I pulled in the parking lot at IHOP. In the car were Jonny, Josef, and I. We had left Jordan to sleep in. He had no classes on Tuesdays. And considering how tired he was the previous night, I didn’t expect him to wake until after my class at noon.

I parked the car. I, then gave Josef a kiss and got out. Jonny looked at me as he got out.

When we were walking up to the door, I looked back at Jonny. He was walking with a wide stance. "Was I too much for you?" I jested.

"Please... Just haven't been knotted since I got with Jordan." He looked to the side.

"Since you got with Jordan?" I looked at him quizzically.

"Nunya"He snapped.

"Really? You're going to leave me in the dark like that?"

"I was a bit of a slut in High School." he mumbled, "three of the guys I dated were canids, and those were all within several weeks of each other."

"Es gibt kein Grund, um dich zu schämen. Wir sind alle Dummköpfe in der Hochschule. Ich war ein Homophobe in der Hochschule, und jetzt sieh mich an!" There's no reason to feel ashamed. We're all idiots in high school. I was a homophobe in high school and look at me now. I replied.

"I know. I just hate talking about high school because of just how idiotic I was." he explained, "I never was with a guy longer than two weeks and species didn't matter either. If it had a dick I'd date it."

"Then you met Jordan?"

"Dann habe ich Jordan kennen gelernt." Then I met Jordan. He affirmed. I could see him tear up, "Dann hat Jordan mir gefragt, um meinen Eltern zu erzählen." Then Jordan asked me to tell my parents.

I stared at him for a few seconds. Josef got us on the list. It was quite crowded. A ten to twenty minute wait.

***

"So how is Jonny?" Isaac asked.

"Well he didn't bruise that badly. He wants Jordan to walk him to class and back to their apartment. Jordan is not overly happy about that. At least he is a flier."

"Well, I understand why Jonny asked Jordan, but Jordan has his own stuff to get done."

I nodded. The professor asked, "Coulter, ¿Quieres que decir a la clase sobre que  ustedes hablan?"

"Sí, porque es importante para saber." I turned to the class, "I just want you all to know that one of my friends keeps getting beat up by some gay-bashers. They're from the Triangle fraternity. This is the third time in the last three weeks that he has been victimized. My fiancé and I are trying to bring these furs to justice. If you have any information that would help, please bring it to the campus PD. Thank you."

"Pues, no yo tenía una idea. Lo siento, Coulter. Di a Jonny que tratáremos de encontrarlos. Pero, ¡No le discutan Ustedes en mi clase!" Well, I hadn't any idea. I'm sorry, Coulter. Tell Jonny that we will try to find them. But, don't discuss this in my class.

"Warten wir bis dem Ende der Klasse!" Let's wait until the end of the class. I whispered to Isaac.

***

"Nick, that was extremely brave! What the hell were you thinking?" the panther exclaimed. Isaac looked extremely nervous.

"So you're the one who has been going around and telling people to give us to the police?" a male voice said behind me. I turned around and there in my face was a leonine male from Triangle, one of the ones who'd beat Jonny up.

I calmly stated, "Yes, my friend. You could make the lives of those in our class easier if you turned yourself in."

He swung his left arm--claws out--directly at my face. I ducked. His momentum carried him around so his back was open, he was off balance and I kicked him. He toppled over.

“I am no weakling, Monsieur. I also know how to defend myself, you bigot.” I said. I finished with as much malice in my voice as I could muster.

“You fucking faggot! You’re going to pay for that.”

“James Lionel Orson, What in God’s great Earth do you think you’re doing?” Said a beautiful female voice, “What the hell are you saying?”

I turned around and saw a gorgeous lioness. She was about 5’8”, healthily skinny and wore an Aubrey State hoodie and short shorts which showed off her well sculpted ass. Her leonine tail was moving in the way a cat’s does when they’re angry. I looked back to the male, I saw a familial similarity.

“Sis, this is no place for a woman.” The male said.

“Madame?” I looked at her, my politeness honest.

“You get as far away from here as possible. I’ll deal with him. He’s my brother and he’s been going through this ‘Southern Baptist’ phase. I just don’t get it. Now…Get the fuck out of here.” She replied.

I left. As Isaac came up to me on our walk out to my car, he said, “Nick, you’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Am I now?”

“We’ll see.”

“I’m calling Jonny. We’re going out to the bars tonight, like we didn’t get to do yesterday.” I pulled out my phone. Then into the mic, I said, “Call Jonny, Mobile.”

The phone did as I bade it to. It rang two times, “Hello? How’s it going Nick?”

“I met the leonine ass who beat the hell out of you. And his sister. I need a drink. Are you done for the day?”

“You know the answer for that one, Nick. Sieh dein Handy Kalender an!” Look at your Phone calendar. Isaac said.

“He’s right. You know?” Jonny replied with a laugh.

“Alright, would you and Jordan want to join me?”

“Jordan has his German Culture class right now, remember?”

“Oh right. Well, do you want to join us? I’d gladly escort you to the car.”

“Well I don’t think the Triangle furs will bother us again.”

“On my honor, Jonny Herz, I will never let those punks hurt you again.” I said, and I meant it. I had seen Jonny nearly beaten to a pulp three times in just these last three weeks. I couldn’t allow this to continue, as a lupine and as a Christian, I couldn’t let this man continue to be the victim of the bigots that the term ‘Christian’ too often got associated with. It was ridiculous. I would show him what true Christians do: LOVE THEIR NEIGHBORS!

“Herzlich danke ich dich, Nicholas Coulter. Du hast mir Hoffe gegeben.” I warmly thank you, Nicholas Coulter. You’ve given me hope, “Kannst du in die Bibliothek kommen?” Can you come to the library.

“Ich bin unterwegs.” I am on my way. I said and took off.

“I’ll be here.” Isaac said.

***

“There you are. I was getting worried.” Jonny said as I was touching down.

I had already gotten my harness on during the flight. So Jonny only had to step up to me and I harnessed him in. We took off again. “Wie geht’s, Jonny? Wie war dein Tag?” How goes it, Jonny? I asked.

“Well, but my day was terrible.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. My Stats prof is an ass.”

And with that, we took off. Well, very slowly, we got off the ground. It had been forever since I took someone with me on a flight; Raymond’s incident meant that I was still weary of flying somebody in the harness.

“Nick, you’re gonna make it, right?” Jonny asked, somewhat terrified.

“Y…Yeah. We’ll…uh…get…there!” I grunted out between wing beats.

***

By the time I got back to the Computer Science building’s parking lot I was panting furiously.

“Am I that heavy, Nick?”

“No it’s… just been… a long time… since I had… a passenger.”

“Sure. You’re saying I’m fat.” Jonny jested.

I growled, “I am not going to say yea or nay on that, Jonny. You are who you are, there is nothing you need to change.”

I touched down on the pavement next to Isaac. The panther looked at me, he sighed, “God doesn’t make mistakes, Jonny. Hell, as I got to know Nick, I began to see that even being a member of GLBT isn’t a mistake either. Nick may be a little vulgar when speaking, but he is a man of God, just as much as I.”

“Thanks man. Let’s get going.” I replied, touched by my friend’s recognition. We walked to my car as a group.

***

“Ah lads, yer back. Ya want the same drinks?” The Pub’s bartender said.

“I want a martini: Bombay, shaken.” Jonny said.

“Oh right, yer the fa—gay men.”

“Ok, look. I understand that this may be hard for you, but we’re giving your pub our patronage. The least you can do is give us some respect. We don’t have to drink here and we’d probably be given better service at a gay bar, but I’d rather not be hit on by every other man in the building. I’ve found my man. That’s all I need.” I asserted, my anger growing rapidly.

“I meant no harm, lad. I really didn’t.”

“You’re fine, I’m just on a short fuse today. Some Jack’ll do me some good.”

“The Panther?”

“A Coke for me.” Isaac said.

“I changed my mind. A Löwenbräu for me, please.” Jonny said. He looked a bit nervous.

“A looven-what?”

“Lohenbrau.” Jonny sighed, “When will I remember that Americans don’t understand the use of the umlaut? Or for that matter know that Löwenbräu is a German beer? And that ‘w’ in German is a ‘v’ sound?”

“Amerikaner sind oft dumm. Besonders mit Sprachen.“ Americans are usually dumb. Especially with languages I laughed.

“Oi! None of that Nazi-speak in here!” The Irishman exclaimed as he poured my drink.

I took the drink and drank it. “Calm yourself.” I said. He poured the beer and gave it to Jonny.

Isaac looked at me and just said, “He always this way with you, Nick?” He was then handed a full glass of Coke. He took a sip and started talking about one of his favorite subjects: Anime. Since the Event, anime hadn’t changed too much, but there wasn’t a reason to. Now it just gave an extra dynamic to the worlds of anime. Since the summer, all Isaac talked about was RWBY, a series by the producers of a long running Halo-based Machinima called Red vs. Blue. It was funny. I really liked the show as well, but I could tell that the art style used by Monty Oum had taken Isaac aback. It was amazing, I’ll admit, but wasn’t so amazing as to fawn over it the way Isaac was wont to do.

“Isaac, you know my favorite character is still Weiss, don’t you?”

“Of course. By the way, with finals a week away, do you know what your plans are for break?”

I took a cardstock paper from my wallet. I showed it to Isaac. He chuckled a little. He took one out of his wallet. It was an Invitation to our mutual friend, Robert’s Commencement Ceremony. The kitsune fox was a Computer Science major like me and Isaac and was graduating during the winter break period.

“I’ll see you there, then. Can’t wait to see him graduate.”

“Nope. Me neither, he deserves this. I can’t wait to see him in those robes. If only he were bi or gay!...Just kidding, Josef!” I said. I laughed a little.

“You little slut!” Isaac said jokingly.