Tom sat on the closest seat available, finally allowing himself to breathe. His tongue lolled out, tired after running as fast as he could from the canteen.

“Ah, loup, thanks for waiting up for me." Next to him, Martin did the same. “I owe you lots for this."

“Piss off. Because of you we're almost past the deadline to submit the essay."

Martin gasped a little as he drank from his bottle. “At least we did that before the deadline." he gestured to the rest of the classroom.

Tom looked around. There were some students who were panicking because they hadn't submitted the essay on time. The prof said before she left that she gave them two more hours to submit it but at the cost of a reduced score. No way did Tom want a reduced score, so he ran as quickly as he could after printing his essay with Martin to the classroom, and good lord they were fifteen seconds to the deadline.

If only Mart did his part of the essay on time.

“On the bright side," Tom turned to look at him as the fox continued with a… gasping smile? How could he breathe with his tongue out yet smiling at the same time? “we're fucking done for this semester!"

The corners of the wolf's mouth rose up. “Yeah." He chuckled and looked at the ceilings. “We're done for this semester."

Behind him, James snorted. “Great for you." He walked to their tables, flash drive in hand. “I told the prof to just wait a few more minutes 'cause we're almost done here but she just left."

Max continued, a tired frown on his face. “She's got no chill. Now we got a reduced score just because we submit the essay five fucking minutes past the deadline. I mean, she only gave us three goddamn days to write the essay. That's fucked up."

Tom straightened up in his chair. “I guess she'll reduce your score accordingly, I mean no way Mrs Rebecca's just going to slash ten per cent of your score when you submit it just five mins later."

“I hope she is." The tiger let out a sigh in annoyance and picked up his coat and Max's thick jacket from the table. “Here."

“Thanks." Max took the jacket and put it on, then he turned around. “Oi, Theodore, Lucy, we're gonna print our essay. You said you want to come along?"

“Bentar!" Lucy replied, too busy typing on her laptop.

Tom looked behind him and chirped. “Sekalian aja gih."

“Bangsat, iya bentar, kampret." She didn't even look at them. “Theo, ulangi, eh, I mean, repeat that again."

They all chuckled. The cat could be scary sometimes when she was panicking.

“What did she say?" Max asked Tom.

“'Wait up!' Then I replied, 'come on, just print it together', then she said, 'you son of a, wait up, just a little bit more'."

They laughed.

“Loup, you're lucky, you know. You have another Indo to talk with. Me, no one." Martin nudged the wolf's shoulder. Max and James sat next to them to wait for Lucy and Theodore.

Tom smiled and packed his stuff. “Aw, you have me, you know. On peut parler n'importe quand. Tu veux parler de quoi ?"

“Oh ouias, je l'ai oublié." The fox laughed.

“Or, you know, you can always talk to Nguyen over there. He speaks French too."

“Dude no. He's creepy as merde."

“Okay, we're done." Lucy closed her laptop and pulled out her flash drive. “Fuck Mrs Rebecca. Come on, cuy, let's print it before Her Royal Highness giveth unto us her unlimited wisdom again about 'reading on a paper is better than reading on a screen' and all that."

Theodore just put her laptop in her bag and carried it, holding back his laugh. He then stood up and followed her along.

Tom looked at Lucy as she walked towards them. “Lah?"

“Lah, loh, lah, loh. Bangsat, diem lu." The cat punched the wolf who guffawed and shielded himself from her wrath.

Max watched the scene in amusement.

“They look like husband and wife, aren't they?" Theodore chuckled next to them.

“I hope they're not strangling themselves to death." James said.

“They're laughing themselves to death."

Tom, still laughing, ran out of the room while Lucy chased him.

Martin picked up and carried Tom's bag and coat and stood up as everyone began walking out of the room. The printing kiosk wasn't very far, just in the west canteen, a short walk from the Humanities faculty building. The fox put his coat on and put the hood over his head before going outside.

The snow was building upon the ground. Martin watched as Tom was still being chased by Lucy in the snow, hopelessly hiding behind a lump of snow and laughing. Smiling, he made a snowball and threw it towards them.

“Ugh, I hate winter." James complained, his tail creeping close to his leg. He hugged himself, a small fog forming under his breath.

Martin grabbed the tiger's tail and gave it to him. The tiger instantly hugged it along.

“Look at the bright side," Max said. “it's bright everywhere due to the snow."

“Guys the cold broke Max."

Everyone laughed a bit.

“Wanna do snowball war?" Theodore asked.

Tom ran by the group, making the group pause walking. He was still being chased by Lucy who was holding several snowballs in her hands. “Sini lu, anjing!"

“Gua serigala!"

Max chuckled. “I think it's better if we keep the war to them."

Martin laughed.

Not long after, the two walked to the group. Lucy was gripping Tom's tail and the wolf was holding back a laugh, his ears flat. “Where's the fire? We can burn him to keep warm." She said with a grin.

“I think you broke him." Theodore threw her thick jacket to her.

She caught the jacket and pulled the wolf's tail tighter. “Nah, I'm keeping him in a leash."

“Sometimes I curse my long tail."

Everyone laughed again. Lucy then released Tom's tail. Tom, free from the cat's wrath, took his coat from Martin and hid behind Max, holding his thick arms and peeked from behind him.

Max chuckled and acted as his protective shield. “Princess, do not come near the prince, for you have avenged your fury."

“Princess, my arse."

They reached the west canteen and sat down. It was almost vacant, there were only a few kiosks open and there were even fewer people there. It was the last week of school, after all, the uni would get deserted starting from next Monday.

Martin looked to the printing kiosk and saw some people standing there.

“Max, flash drive." James said, his whiskers looked frozen.

The large dog almost laughed. “Isn't in on you?"

“I didn—oh here it is. Theo, let's go."

The deer stood up and followed the tiger to the kiosk.

“Anyway guys," Max started, pocketing his phone. He then said casually, “There's a party this Saturday at my bud Andy's place celebrating our freedom from the final-terms. You're all invited."

Martin, who was drinking from his bottle, choked on it and looked at the German Shepherd, “Wait, seriously? We're invited to your party?"

The others echoed the question.

Tom looked away, his phone forgotten on the table.

“Yeah, why not?" Max chuckled.

“Um, I'm not trying to be judgemental, but he's a football team member, right? Won't it be… uh, you know, awkward and stuff?" Martin played with his hands.

“Nah, dude, don't worry. We the football team get along with everyone." The dog patted the fox's shoulder. “We don't bite, you know. Unlike this monster with winter fur who calls himself Tom here."

Said wolf perked up. “I'm sorry, what?"

“Seriously, he got angry at Andy and told him to piss off and do his homework properly." Max laughed, his tail wagging behind him. “When was it, a month ago or something?"

“Max, shut up!"

Lucy laughed along and shoved the wolf's side. “Cuy, have you seriously told a football team member to piss off? Amazing you made it out alive and in one piece."

Tom's ears flattened in embarrassment.

“He's not angry at him, anyway. I mean, who dares to disturb this big, badass, scary, totally fluffy wolf?"

The wolf kicked Max under the table.

Max laughed again. “Eh anyway, really, you're all invited. Come to the library at 7 pm on Saturday, okay? His place isn't that far from here, we'll walk there."

“Okay, then." Martin said nervously. “But can you guarantee that?"

“100% legit guaranteed." He gave them a thumbs-up.

Looking away so his nervousness couldn't be seen, Tom glanced over the printing kiosk, at James and Theodore. Whoa, he was invited to a party? And not just a party, a football club's party? He couldn't stand being with Max without stealing a glance or two and now he was invited to a party full of lads like him?

He might need another batch of tissues.

“Oh anyway, Mart, don't forget to invite Ellie and Kevin."

“Will do. Wait who's Kevin?"

Yep, definitely another batch of tissues.

He looked at James instead. The tiger was clipping his essay and his tail swayed a bit. Even through the thick coat, James' body shape was noticeable, printed on the clothing as though it was tight. His body was defined, muscled, but not as ripped as Max.

The tiger shifted a bit, and Tom remembered that moment when he had to carry James to his dorm. He hadn't been fully drunk back then, but he couldn't walk properly so Tom had to carry him. Boy didn't the tiger have tight muscles when he felt it ripple beneath his hand.

Tom had been flustered back then as he walked towards the tiger's dorm with him in his embrace. He had to steady him, and how could he do that without gripping his sides? Good thing the tiger was just a bit taller than him and they were in the middle of the night.

And stripes were hot. Especially when James asked him to help him change his clothes.

Okay heck it wasn't helping. He could feel himself getting hard.

“Tom, you okay?"

The wolf looked away from the tiger and sighed. “Yeah, just… parties aren't really my thing, Max, so… er,"

“I'll be there, promise." The dog smiled brightly. “Besides, it's Andy! You can't say no to Andy."

Tom chuckled a bit. “Well, that's true."

“See? Andy wants you there!"

The wolf leant forward on the table, remembering his first encounter with the lion. They were in the campus café that day, he planned to do some homework while having a cup of his usual tea. It turned out that Max was there with a lion he didn't know. At first Tom felt normal, nervous maybe, but then he became a tad cautious when Andy told him that he was a football team member.

As their conversation progressed, Andy was actually very social like Max. They quickly found a common topic and bonded over, which had actually been homework. Tom couldn't hold back his anger when the lion said he didn't really care about classes and homework and proceeded to lecture him a bit about college, life, money, and time... which terrified him afterwards. He had to refrain himself from taking on the big guys. Even Max had been a bit taken aback.

The lion just looked at him and huffed in defeat, saying that he actually didn't know much of the materials and couldn't really do his homework that much. So, after his own homework was done, he helped to do the lion's as much as he could. Business Administration wasn't really his thing.

After that, the lion thanked him with a sheepish smile—which Tom thought was pretty cute for a hunk with a brown mane like him—and bought him a slice of bread.

He gave out a chuckle as he remembered it. He got along very well with the lion, and probably that was why he wanted him to come to his party.

“Okay, I'll be there." Tom said at Max's curious smile. “Just make sure to save me when Andy decides to hug me to death."

Max let out a guffaw.

Tom chuckled along with him anyway. “Or you're planning to do it, aren't you?"

“Fuck yes!" Max nudged his foot. “But, you know, no homo."

This time, Tom laughed.

If he were to spend the entire winter and new year holiday like this, he would be a very happy wolf indeed.

He ceased laughing and drank from Martin's bottle. “I believe the correct phrase would be 'no sexual stimuli intended'."

“Aw, that's too big."

“But that's what is it, right?"

“...you have a point."

Tom leant back on the chair in smugness, then laughed a bit and looked away, flustered. His ears drooped down, followed by a shy smile on his face.

Max looked at him with a grin.

“Okay, we're done." James walked towards them, followed by Theodore with essay in hand. The tiger snickered a bit when he saw Tom flustering. He reached out and flicked out the wolf's ear.

“Why does everyone like to flick my ears?! Max's ears are bigger!"

Max couldn't help but giggle and wag his tail.

“Me and Max are gonna go to the lecturer's room to submit these. You come along?" He asked.

Martin let out a tired sigh, “I'm going to the dorms. Gotta catch up sleeping."

Theodore chuckled. “You sleep too much."

“Hey! Gotta keep the red bits red."

“What's the relation?" Lucy asked him, to which the fox just shrugged.

“Anyway, yeah, I'm going to the dorm too." Tom said, his ears going back up. “If we're going to hang out tonight, just chat me."

Max stood up and gave them a mock salute. “Sir, yes, sir!"

They all laughed a bit, then went their separate ways.

Notes:

On peut parler n'importe quand. Tu veux parler de quoi ? = We can talk anytime. What do you want to talk about?
Oh, ouias, je l'ai oublié. = Oh right, I forgot.

Cuy = mate/dude
Lah, loh, lah, loh. Bangsat, diem lu. = The hell? Shut the hell up.
Sini lu, anjing! = Come here, you dog!
Gua serigala! = I'm a wolf!

I swear things will get more interesting from this chapter on ._.