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 ._.