Isaac told no one what he did.

He wasn’t as stupid as his brother was, the one who broadcast his whole view system to the world. As far as anyone in Isaac’s life was concerned, he was a typical upstanding citizen, happily going along with the perversion that mascaraed as love. As a teenager he’d quite naturally rebelled, decrying his fathers views and trying to somehow make homosexuality okay in his brain. It never worked. Try as he might, he was never able to rectify the idea that two males together was anything but disgusting. He knew one or two gay furs while in high school, and at first had no problem with them. They were in fact what prompted his teenage rebellion against the church, since initially it all seemed hunky-dory. To thirteen and fourteen year old Isaac it seemed like a harmless aspect of their personality, one he didn’t feel wholly comfortable with but could happily ignore. As they got older though, his friends began dating, and when he saw them together…when he saw them walking around and holding hands, or even talking about marriage….or kids…He’d naively assumed that homosexuals resigned themselves to the idea that they would never be married, never have children. Apparently not. These furs, not only flaunted themselves in public, but wanted to subvert what seemed like all kinds of tradition. 

Eventually, Isaac told them he couldn’t be friends with them while they continued that lifestyle…and everyone at high school stopped interacting with him. His last year he spent totally alone, constantly looked down upon by the other students. He never fully grasped why. Why did they take their side over his? He wasn’t like that, he was normal! After a miserable year, he chose a university he knew nobody from his school would go to, and acted consciously to pretend he was okay with it. Which he quickly found out was important, because if he had thought two gays in a high school was shocking, he was appalled to find that in university it seemed as if every second fur was gay. If they weren’t gay, it was something else, transsexual or non-binary, whatever that meant. He gave in and faked it like he was one of them. The straight-but-allied crowd. And it worked, he didn’t even have to do anything, others just assumed he was okay with it.

He was not.

Isaac did not regret alerting his father to the couple’s presence. He possibly regretted that they’d come at all, since the violence probably could have been avoided. His brother and father often had discussions about various gay families nearby, and how they should ‘teach them a lesson’ and such. As far as Isaac knew however, this was one of the few times they’d actually gone through with it. He knew they would, and he felt the couple deserved it. They just had to come down to the sermon, and tease them. Disrespect them. Again, the gays flaunting themselves.

He had a nervous thought, however, that was stalking him. The idea that Lars and Riley would tell everyone…and that there would be a repeat of his high school year. He knew there was no proof he’d been involved, but that didn’t always matter for rumours. So far he’d heard nothing though. Nobody had said anything to him. The fight had happened two weeks or so ago, and he’d heard that Lars was now out of the hospital. The tiger was apparently looking a little worse for wear, but moving about.

Isaac couldn’t help himself but pray they didn’t tell anyone. Things might be normal again, and Lars and Riley would keep to themselves. Have some bloody respect perhaps. Maybe even drop out or move away.

The lion’s thoughts were interrupted by the vibrating in his pocket, pulling his phone out, he read a message from Matt, the lead singer of the band.

Hey, we’re all down at the studio. Just to hang out, might jam a little or something I dunno. Come down tho, Lars is out of the hospital :P. Isaac blinked back his surprise. Surely if they’d said something Matt wouldn’t invite him down? But then why invite him? Was Lars…scared of him? Were they afraid?

Maybe they really would treat him with some respect. Shrugging his fears off, Isaac picked up his backpack and left to go meet his friends.

He got to the school studio the group used fifteen minutes later, walking in he saw the instruments were lying around casually, just in case they wanted to be used. The group was over in the corner however, and heading over Isaac saw the tiger. Lars had both arms wrapped up, and one in a sling. He looked tired. Just poking out from under his shirt were more bandages, obviously wrapped around his torso. Leaning against the wall, he hadn’t seen the lion. Neither had Riley, who was also there. Riley had a bandaged arm, but it wasn’t in a sling. He looked a lot better.

As Isaac was walking over, he saw all their faces. They looked serious and sombre. Matt saw him, and Isaac caught the panic in his eyes. At that moment the lion knew it had been a mistake to come, but it was too late. The goat quickly glanced at Riley, who before he could be stopped also saw Isaac. Matt moved forwards to grab the fox’s shoulder or something, but he was shrugged off and ignored.

Riley stormed over, looking like death. Matt shrugged at him, disappointment in his eyes. Isaac was afraid to turn his back to the computer geek, so he stood his ground. Riley walked straight up and pushed him with both paws in the chest. Isaac took two uncontrolled steps backwards and fell over.

“You fucking unbelievable piece of work.” Said Riley, shaking his head in disbelief. “I cannot believe you would fucking come here.” Isaac began to stand up.

“Riley…look it’s not what you…” He tried to explain.

“Bullshit. You fucking monster.”

“I did what I could!” He lied, finally standing. Riley stepped forwards again, pointing right in his face.

“You stand there and fucking lie to me. You sick fuck!” He shouted, spit flying out of his mouth. The others just watched, Isaac looked to them for help, but each member of the band aimed their gaze at the ground.

He started to say something but Riley pushed him again, which again made him fall over backwards.

“You are not welcome here. Get the fuck out!” Isaac scampered to his feet, moving to the door. Riley followed him though. As he put a paw on the door to leave, he felt the fox’s own paws grab his shoulders. He was spun around and slammed into the wall. Riley’s forearm pushed up against his throat.

“Riley! Don’t!” He coughed.

“If you ever come near me or Lars again I swear to your fucking god I will kill you.” He said, mouth pulled up in a snarl. “Do you understand? I will kill you. Got it? Say it! Say you understand me!”

“I understand you.” Mumbled the lion.

“I don’t fucking hear you.” Riley said, now in a low guttural growl.

“I understand you I said!” He repeated, louder.

“Not good enough, say it. Say what I’ll do if you come near us again. If you think about us. Tell me what happens if you fuck with us again!”

“You’ll kill me! You’ll kill me, I know you’ll kill me I understand you! Just stop!” Riley stared at him for a moment longer, the young male now sobbing. Finally, the fox stepped back and released him. Isaac fell to his knees, rubbing his throat while coughing and spluttering for air.

“Do not come back here.” Said the fox quietly, turning and walking away. Isaac nodded, knowing it was over, and left.

When Riley returned to the group, Lars hugged him, tears in his eyes. Matt looked heartbroken.

“I’m so sorry guys. I texted him to come before you told me.” He said. Leaving the embrace, Riley turned to him.

“Its fine, I know. I had to do that eventually.” Matt nodded. The band was crushed.

“Well, we’ve effectively lost two members, one forever.” Said Matt. Alex, the husky bassist nodded in agreement.

“Good riddance though.” He added, and Matt seemed to agree.

“How long until you’re able to drum again then Lars?” Asked the goat, sitting down on a wheeled-office chair.

“Not sure.” Shrugged the tiger. “If you guys want to find a replacement, that’s okay.”

“Nah we won’t do that, would hardly be fair. We just need another guitarist. You’re not musically inclined are you Riley?” Asked Matt. The fox shook his head.

“Oh jesus no.”

“That’d be too good to be true.” Matt replied. “So what did the police say then? Are Isaac and his family gonna be charged or what?” The couple both suddenly looked uncomfortable, shifting awkwardly. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“Not exactly.” Said Riley.

“We…didn’t mention their names to the police.” Continued Lars. Alex looked shocked.

“You have to! They can’t get away with that.” He said. Lars shook his head.

“We talked about it.” He said, interlacing his paw with Riley’s. “But in the end it wouldn’t solve anything. There’s no actual proof they were involved. And they’d likely all be each other’s alibis.”

Riley had been adamant they inflict some kind of physical retribution on Isaac, but Lars had disagreed. Isaac had only been the trigger, his father had called the goons, his father had even raised Isaac if you wanted to go that far. But he should still hurt. Eventually, the fox was able to talk his boyfriend into letting him work on sinking Isaac’s grades. Their university had an online assignment upload system, and since they took the same classes Lars was aware of when the lion had to upload work. A few hours after the submission deadline, before the lecturers had seen the submission, Riley would replace it with either; a poorly written piece of material that was mostly copied from Wikipedia, or an entire assignment from another student. Isaac’s marks would sink and he would struggle. If he really put in for a lot of re-marks, and showed his physical saves and print outs he could get around it. But it wouldn’t be easy for him, and would take time to be resolved. His computer now also housed a quiet little virus, that would over time slowly but surely slow his laptop down. Then it would randomly delete the odd file, or reroute data. Mostly an inconvenience, but nothing ever severe enough to prompt the lion to get a whole new machine.

“What are we supposed to tell people though? I can’t stand the idea that this homophobic piece of shit is just walking around, his other friends oblivious to how awful he is.” Alex said after a moment. Riley shrugged.

“I don’t really care that much, but I guess just tell them he’s really homophobic? But I’d keep it vague if I were you.”

The group talked for a little while longer before breaking apart. The conversation was fairly light, for the most part. Nothing too serious. Riley and Lars eventually left to find a coffee shop, trying to avoid Riley’s house, which was currently filled with Danish tiger parents.

After the coffee, they just sat in the open air, enjoying the cool. Quiet. The world wandering by them.

“Why do so many furs hate us?” Lars finally asked his boyfriend.

“Hmm.” Replied the boyfriend. “I don’t know.”

“I mean, to the point where they want to kill us. What is so wrong about us that it pushes them into hurting us like that?”

“Nothing is wrong with us. It’s fuckers like the Rev who push others into following his sick goals. Furs that are leaning slightly right wing, and maybe a bit uncomfortable with us. He just…nudges them a little further along.”

“Maybe.”

“I try not to think about it. It could drive you mad.” Riley lit a cigarette, exhaling into the air. “I wanted to kill him today Lars.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” Said the tiger.

“I just saw him and…ugh. Could’ve lost it. Why? Why shouldn’t we kick his fucking door down and just kill him?” Lars gave him a look, surprised at the extremity. The fox almost sounded serious.

“Because we’d go to jail?” He said, somewhat plainly.

“Is that the only reason? Really? Us getting in trouble is the only thing keeping them alive?”

“It makes us a bad as them. Doesn’t it?” Asked Lars.

“I don’t think so. It’s self defence.”

“I’m pretty sure that breaking into someone’s house and killing them is not self defence.”

“Pre-emptive self defence. Who knows how long this goes on for? Are we going to live in fear of this Revered forever? What if Isaac sends him an email tonight telling him about what I did? What if daddy decides to call one of more extreme friends, one that owns some Molotov cocktails? Or a gun? What if they fucking shoot me? Or shoot you? All because we both have a dick. It’s fucked.” The fox stamped his cigarette out in the ashtray.

“I know.”

“It’s wrong. How can they be allowed to get away with it?”

“I don’t know Riley.”

“We should do something about the Reverend though. I don’t like him feeling like he’s won.”

“I don’t know. We should probably just leave them alone. It’s not worth losing you over.”

“I wasn’t gonna kill him.”

“Good. But that’s not what I meant. As far as they’re concerned, this could all be done. That won’t be the case if you go messing with them.”

“Hmm. That’s a good point I guess.”

“It’d be awful if you just make it all worse.”

“We need to do something so he leaves us alone.”

“Maybe.” They paid for the coffee and left. Riley couldn’t shake the feeling they were constantly being watched. He was always on alert, ready to jump to action and protect his boyfriend. Lars was not a fighter, and he knew that. But it was the thing he loved about the tiger. He felt they grounded each other. Grabbing the boy’s paw in his own, he pushed all thoughts but nice ones out of his brain for a while.

Lars, Riley and his father enjoyed having Lars parents around, but were glad when they left. The house was much quieter the next day, which was nice. Lars was pretty much living there now, which seemed to work for everyone involved. They’d had a few visitors the last couple of days too, which contributed to the overall feeling of business. Llewellyn and Lola had visited, which had been lovely. Matt and his girlfriend dropped in for tea, as well as Alex and his brother at one point. Lars’s roommate Jessie stopped by for a coffee one day too. Today the couple were happy to spend the day splayed out on each other in the lounge room, watching movies.

They fell asleep at one point, waking up in the warm glow of the afternoon. Riley looked down at Lars, who was cuddling into him and looking up.

“Lars.” He said.

“Yeah?” Replied the tiger.

“I really love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Am…Am I….I dunno. You’re sure I’m not too crazy for you?” Riley asked, blushing a little.

“What? No…why?”

“I just…have been thinking about it, is all. I’m pretty fucking weird. Breaking paws, hacking into computers…deliberately keeping information from police so that I can deal with problems myself…Those aren’t things that normal furs do.” He explained.

“I guess not. But it comes from a good place.”

“I…” He started, then stopped.

“What?” Lars was paying more attention now, he rarely saw the vulnerable and insecure side of the fox.

“Does it? I’m not so sure. What if I just like hurting others? And I wrap myself up into situations where I get the chance to do that? What if I’m just some psycho, who goes around fucking with others and pretending it’s for a good cause.”

“But you are doing what you’re doing for good reasons Riles.”

“I’m certain that the Revered and his children think the exact same thing. What if I’m no better?”

“Look, sometimes…it makes me nervous. But you’re right. The police can’t do anything to help here. I trust you though, I love you. I don’t care if others think we’re good or bad anymore, I just want you to think I’m good. And I know that you’re good.” Riley was silent for a moment, thinking.

“Thank you.” He whispered finally. Lars smiled, winking.

“Anytime.”