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Eli squeezed his paw more firmly around Lynn's, her arm a comfortable weight across his side and against his chest. She felt so warm, so soft curled up around him from behind; the gentle rhythm of her breath on his neck, the slight tickling of her whiskers and her fur on his cheek, the little shifts of movement as she adjusted her position... how she had entwined her footpaws with his, leg on top of leg wrapped around leg on leg. Whenever he shifted, she did so too - not an "I'm uncomfortable", but rather an "I'm awake and I want to touch you".

That part was obvious. It should have been when he'd first fallen into her hug earlier in the day, and her paws had made their way to his back and started kneading there; then it should have been when he'd drifted down on top of her on the couch and felt her wrap back around him. Instead, though, he realized it as soon as he'd climbed into bed with her, the mattress and sheets already comfortably warm from her presence. She'd stripped off her bra first - that had provided a bit of a distraction - and he'd gotten down to his boxers before sliding in alongside her, and then...

The wild dog closed his eyes and entwined his fingers with hers, bringing his other paw up to clamp around Lynn's on his chest. He'd slid into the bed alongside her, and her larger form had immediately curled around his, pushing him into his side and settling her muzzle into his neck, her knees up behind his, one arm under his head and the other around his chest, and... Eli shifted again, pushing back against the hyena behind him. He didn't know how much time had passed since then, though the tempting weight of sleep pulled at his eyelids; he'd been aware of the passage of time, yet willfully ignorant of it.

It was a bit odd, cuddling like this with someone where he couldn't push his back flat against their chest, and as such he tried to lean his upper body forward a bit to prevent any unnecessary squishing, but Lynn didn't seem to mind too much. In fact, every now and then she pulled him a bit more tightly back against her, sometimes with a little _noise._Somewhere between a sigh, a huff, and a little something else, like the sweet rumble that her massages had squeezed out of Eli.

She was awake, too; that part he knew. He could tell in how whenever he squeezed her paw, she returned it; how he'd push his hips back against her, and she'd grind gently forward on him; how he'd move his muzzle a bit, and she would raise her head to allow him the space, then lower it back down to nuzzle back into place. Even with her different tastes and scents still clinging strong and meaty in his throat and nose, Eli could still pick up the slight floral touch of the soap she'd chosen for the day, the light layer of perfume - or maybe that was just shampoo - and then beneath those the brighter, fuller presence of her.

That was the one he enjoyed the most. Maybe a bit too much: on a couple occasions the hyena's paw had wandered down a bit far, and brushed against the same twitching eager length that she'd just worked a short while earlier. Eli could feel himself blush each time that happened, not only because it happened but also since he didn't want her to get the wrong idea. Right now, he wanted this.

Sure, it could be hard to steer his mind away from thoughts of fitting his muzzle up between her legs again; or maybe of letting his tongue stray further down, where he'd have to lift her legs up over his shoulders like Marlin had to do with him sometimes; or feeling her settle her weight down into his lap like she had at the end of the night, leaning in over him to press those admittedly quite hefty breasts against his muzzle so that he could get another good taste of her nipple; or of the teasing she'd given him over the week with talk of slipping his cock between her footpaws, or pressing her paws against the side of his face, or-

The wild dog swallowed, untwined his fingers from hers, and rolled over onto his other side, pushing through the embarrassment that had stemmed from a few different sources now. In the darkness of the bedroom, the only light being the dim yellow glow from a nearby streetlight coming through the curtained window, her half-open eyes glittered softly, gently. Not with the sly yet bright sparkle that had started to feel standard for her, but this time with a rather different touch to them.

Eli reached to drape his arm over her body, running his fingers gently up through the fur of her lower back as he had done so many times before to Marlin to no response. Lynn, however, let her eyes close the rest of the way, a sweet slight shiver vibrating through her body; Eli felt her tighten her grip around him, too, blunted claws digging against his back. His fingers made their way up to her shoulders, where her muscles loosened and she let out a soft sigh; then he started coursing them back down, with her to shiver again and pull closer to him.

The feeling of her breath, the sound of her half-voiced sighs, the warmth of her body, the softness of her fur...

...the knowledge of her presence.

Eli nuzzled in at her neck, breathing deep of that lovely scent; he'd thought it a bit sharp at first, a bit pungent in that characteristic hyena way, but then again, he'd thought nearly the same of Marlin's. He drew it in through his nose, held it for a second, let it shudder out between parted lips. Then he nosed up towards her jaw, pursed his lips in a gentle kiss, moved up a little bit, did so again. There was that sound in Lynn's throat again, this time tinged with amusement, or satisfaction - and then he felt her doing the same, moving up along the line of his jaw.

And then, of course, their lips pressed together again, lighter this time. Lynn's arms wrapped around Eli's shoulders, and he squeezed his around her lower back. She certainly felt_his distraction, now that he didn't bother to keep himself angled away from her, but the hyena made no move to reach down and caress his length again. So she knew, and she understood. That felt odd to Eli, yet welcome. Were he to be in her position and Marlin in his, the fox would _expect Eli to take care of him.

No fox tonight, though. Their kiss having parted, Eli returned his nose to her neck and settled in, a warm sigh of contentment washing out through that cookies-and-cream striped fur.

No fox; just hyena.

~ ~ ~

It was the sound of the shower's running water that woke him the next morning, to a warm yet empty bed. Eli rolled sleepily over, thinking maybe Lynn had shifted to his other side, but found nothing there - and then rolled back over again, wondering maybe if he'd missed her the first time. Still halfway under the veil of sleep, he didn't notice her sliding out of the hallway and back into the room until the hyena had pinned him beneath her, now fully nude.

That was quite a good look on her. Eli squirmed, his wrists clamped beneath her paws, in an attempt to shift the blanket further down his body.

"Oh! You caught me..."

"I did." Lynn tilted his head to the side with her muzzle against his neck - and then Eli tightened up against the feeling of sharp teeth and moist tongue settling against his throat. "Mornin', dirtpup. I was about to take a shower. There's a nature preserve about fifteen minutes away; wanna go on a little hike today?"

"That..." A gasp interrupted the wild dog's words, as Lynn sank her teeth back into place. This time, it was more than just his shoulders that gave a twitch. "Sounds good. How long will you be? I'd like to... sleep a bit more..."

One of her paws released his; Eli opened his eyes, watching it make its way down his half-revealed chest. "Well, I have to wait for it to warm up first, so..." As it would turn out, though, that paw provided what he'd wanted, pulling the covers back the rest of the way - and bringing the tent of his boxers into view, with a throb against the slight brush. Then another, as Lynn slid her fingers beneath the waistband and wrapped them around his cock directly. "Is this okay to pass the time, or do you just really want to sleep?"

Another gasp, this one from a different source. Eli shifted, turning his muzzle to the other side and pulling against his still-pinned arm. "No, this... this is fine, you can... ooh..."

Eli did manage to get in another ten minutes or so of sleep afterwards, before he was roused yet again by Lynn leaning down to coax him awake. Then came a simple breakfast of leftover soup - "I'm a hyena", Lynn responded when Eli mentioned how that was odd; "you better get used to a lot of weird shit if you'll be spending time with me" - and a brief discussion of who would drive to the place, with the wild dog ending up behind the wheel while the hyena directed him.

He hadn't been around this part of the city before, out near the outskirts without being in the true heart of nothing like that Mexican restaurant had been. A clear blue sky shone overhead, patches of puffy greyish clouds floating along whenever he found the opportunity to look, and the recent rains and today's warmth had kickstarted the growth and spread of plants on the sides of the highway and between the roads, rich greens and revitalized yellows, patches of pink and orange and red from the wildflowers, gold of daisies.

"Oh," Lynn said after a while; most of the drive had been in a straight line down the highway. "Take this next exit and then turn left at the light. It'll be right there. You can see it from here, actually." She reached over to rest her paw along Eli's thigh, and for what had to be the twentieth time since they'd gotten into the car, a half-conscious smile warmed his lips.

Since the previous night, he'd been so aware of her, consciously feeling her in the seat beside him, or every now and then glancing over to see her squinting down at her phone for one reason or another. At a couple points along the way Eli would look over to see Lynn staring out the window, and as if she could feel him, too, her triangular ears perked with a jingle of her piercings, and she'd swivel her muzzle around to look at him, and there eyes would meet, and they would both smile...

The time spent on the drive allowed the day to heat up a bit further, though - as the hyena put it - "the humidity's good since it's a couple days after the rain, and since it did_rain, the heat isn't too bad". Despite this, it still felt a bit _more than Eli would have preferred, in his dark jeans and t-shirt. Lynn, however, bounded out of the car in just what he'd watched her put on this morning, a different pair of shorts and that same sports bra.

That, too, was a good look for her; Eli reached to close the car door, missed, reached again, and missed again, since his eyes remained on the hyena doing her stretches a short ways out along the sidewalk. Hell, the first time he'd looked at her - really, _really_looked at her - those couple weeks back in the music shop, she'd been in a crop-top hanging down halfway across her chest and a similarly short leather jacket.

Leather. Eli clicked the 'lock' button and strode around to meet up with Lynn, who straightened up from reaching down towards her toes. Who wears a leather jacket in late spring? Who was she trying to impress?

_ _

She did look pretty killer, though... The hyena gave him a wide grin, showing large, sharp fangs that - thinking back to this morning - would've made him squirm, were they behind closed doors. Eli returned the grin, then let his eyes wander down her body again: sharp stripes curved in along her sides, blackish-brown slashes across soft sandy-white fur, the curves of her hips and lines of her muscles seeming to point in towards that single ring pierced through her belly button. Guess when you have something like that, you just wanna show it off.

"Good to go?" she said, holding his grin for a moment longer before turning to head towards the park map. "I hope you're ready to do some running."

Eli paused. "What? Is that why you're dressed like that?"

Lynn looked down over herself. "Little bit. Why? Didn't you say that you liked to run, back when we saw the movie?"

"Wh-" He crunched up along the gravel path behind her, eyes following Lynn's finger as she looked down over the trail options... Meadow Path Trail. 4.23 miles. "Yeah. I did. Past tense. I, like, swim sometimes, I guess? And by 'sometimes' I mean when my vixen friend invites me to her place for a party-"

Lynn turned those glimmering eyes over her shoulder at him, that so-familiar sly smile already on her lips. She started down the chosen trail, the gravel path thankfully shaded by intertwining boughs of trees overhead. "You have a vixen friend?"

"Yeah. Since, like, middle school. We don't talk too often anymore, but... you know."

"Introduce me sometime."

Introduce me. For some reason that stuck in his head along the first leg of the trail, the hyena keeping a brisk pace alongside and shortly ahead of him whenever his mind wandered too far. What about when I introduce her to my brother, and my parents... God, what'll they think? Mom always bugged me in high school about "so you're not interested in girls? At all?" and now there's her, and... she doesn't want to meet Marlin. I don't want her to meet Marlin. I hope they never have to meet, either. What about my other friends, though? Like Randal, and Shelby? I think Shelby used to be into me, but I was with Marlin already, and she didn't really like the gay thing anyway...

_ _

Hey. Lynn had pulled ahead of him again, apparently unknowing that he'd fallen behind - except for how her ears remained angled back his way. Quit it. It was one night. Wait and see, remember?

"Eli..."

The wild dog started a bit, then picked up his pace to catch up to Lynn. "Huh?"

She pointed off into the trees. "Look."

Between the tall trunks thickly woven with hanging vines, broken yet still living branches, tall bushes, and several other things Eli didn't quite have the words for, the midday sun glittered warmly off of a wide, still lake, coming into view in patches in the spaces between. It looked as though it bent off underneath a highway bridge over there, and had something almost like a beach along one side with reddish-brown clay sand and rounded, moss-coated rocks glistening wetly in the light.

"I didn't choose the lake trail for us today." Lynn turned fully around, now half-jogging as she watched the wild dog. "But it is one of my favorites. It's just, y'know... kinda long. So I wanted to tackle something a bit... less so, since I figured you're not keeping too up to date on your exercise."

"I wouldn't quite say that."

"No?"

Eli shrugged. "Riding dick is real hard work. Sometimes I have to stop 'cause my thighs and lower back muscles ache too much."

Lynn leaned in towards him, still jogging backwards. "Wait 'til you can do it without having to take a break." With that, a grin, and she turned back and picked up her pace. Eli nearly had to sprint to catch up to her after his surprise-induced pause.

Little time or motivation for talking further now that the two had actually started running, and yet Lynn kept an eye on the wild dog alongside her. She slowed down if he did, though pushed him to keep going; sometimes she'd turn around in front of him again and take his paws in hers, pads warm and slick from sweat, guiding him forward at a more relaxed pace; and once she slowed and pushed against his shoulders from behind, which resulted in both of them slowing to a stop to laugh.

The sun's heat bore down on Eli's forehead and shoulders, with what little moisture from the rainstorm that remained clinging to his skin beneath his fur. His legs ached, his chest and throat burned, it felt as though his mouth had dried up. Lynn looked as though she were doing no better, as she braced her paws on her knees and doubled over to catch her breath... but when she turned her head and looked up at him, her contented energy still came clearly through. It was in her eyes, on her tired smile, in the way she just kind of... brightened when her gaze fell on Eli.

There was that feeling again. The wild dog straightened up, licked his lips, swallowed, tried to swallow again, and nodded back over his shoulder. "There's a bench over there. Wanna sit down for a bit?"

"Good idea. I think..." She patted his shoulder as she passed by. "I think we're about half of the way through. You brought the waters, right?"

"Yeah. I did. But I left them in the car - ow! What was that for?"

"God. I was wrong about not worrying about the humidity. I can really feel it now..." The bench, the wood soft and dark from age and the long time spent so near the lake, creaked beneath both of their weight. "You holding up alright? I hope I didn't push you too hard."

"Nah, I'm..." He draped his arms over the back of the bench and tilted his muzzle up to the sky. Luckily he'd sat in just the right spot so a fat branch cast a shadow shielding his eyes from the sun, even as it slid briefly behind one of those clouds. "I'm alright. I am out of practice, though, but... yeah. I'll live."

Out here in the preserve, surrounded by trees and branches and leaves growing rich in the warmth and humidity of early summer, Eli could rest his head back and peer up into the sky, feeling the soft fingers of a warm breeze run over his fur, and could hear that wind whispering in those trees. To pick up the distant sound of the stirred lake, he had to perk his ears and focus, but that was there too. Each time, though, his left ear - the one closer to Lynn, sitting beside him - flicked over her way as her breathing tickled at his senses again.

The feeling of her breath on my shoulder and neck, and against my upper back when she pulled back and nuzzled in... her sighing against my muzzle after the kiss, nosing up against my cheek...

_ _

As if feeling his thoughts, the hyena scooted a couple inches closer to him, enough for him to know of it while still keeping a space between the two of them. Eli understood; it _was_a bit too hot to be snuggling around, and with both of them panting and sweaty from the run... he smiled softly to himself, paws playing in his lap. Something bubbled in his chest, something with that now so-familiar feeling of anxiousness and hope and nervousness and comfort all mixed together into one strange messy ball.

Eli swallowed and turned his head to look at her - and found her eyes already on him. For once, that didn't muddle his thoughts. "Lynn."

She raised her eyebrows. "Mm? Ready to go already?"

"No, not that. Um... jeez, I don't really know how to start this."

The hyena reached to brace a paw on the front edge of the bench, at the same time tilting her head. Her ears cupped forward towards Eli.

"But, like... hanging out with you, spending time with you, um..." Another swallow. Eli tightened his lips. "Talking with you these past two weeks... s - sleeping with you, I've... realized... I'm not - like - gay."

God. Putting it into actual words is tough.

Eli paused, waiting for her response, but... none came. Along the way he'd glanced away, feeling that nervousness slip its oily grip around his heart, but when he managed to return his gaze to hers, Lynn just waited expectantly. He opened his mouth to continue-

And then the response came. "No?"

"W-well..."

"Eli, hon..." Her paw came lightly down on his leg. "The first thing I noticed - well, no, the second_thing I noticed about you was that your breath _literally smelled like dick." She shrugged. "Fox dick specifically. Foxes have a really characteristic stink." It looked and felt as though she had something more to say, but then decided against it.

"So do hyenas."

After a moment, her grin just magnified the warmth that her touch had begun.

"No, but, seriously, like... not fully gay, you know? I mean - you saw me last night."

Lynn lifted her paw from his thigh and put it to her chin. "I was there, yes." She shifted, draping that arm over the back of the bench, scooting her lower body forward, letting her legs spread open... "So, then, Eli, tell me - what do you think you are?"

"Well, that's the thing. I don't really know."

"Is that a problem?"

"I... don't know. It's like... I can't help but wonder if this was always there. You know?"

"I know. I remember you said that the opportunity never really came up for you to explore that." Lynn shrugged. "Though that's really the first thing you boys do when you hit puberty, right?"

"I was with Marlin already. Well - we were playing around. I don't really remember when we, like... _said_we were together, though."

"And you didn't have any interest while with him?"

"Well..." 'Just brush your teeth or something before you come back.' "He did keep me pretty busy. I never - I just never really thought about it, I guess. Besides, I..." Eli wrapped his paws together and leaned back against the bench. "I dunno. It just kind of feels, like... even if I had brought it up with him, even if it was something we spoke about, that... he wouldn't really let me be anything _other_than gay."

Lynn scoffed. "It doesn't surprise me that he's that kind of gay."

That drew Eli's eyes back towards her. "'That kind of gay'?"

"Yeah. Like..." She sat up and made a face. "Eugh. Boobs. Disgusting. Vagina smells like fish, and they bleed from there. Get that shit away from me." Then, she rolled her eyes. "You know. That kind of gay."

"No, it's just - funny that you say that. And kind of offensive. 'That kind of gay'. You're straight, aren't you?"

Another shrug. "Straight-ish. Like you're gay-ish. Or maybe we're both bi or pan or - whatever you like. I told you about that otter girl, right?"

"I think so?"

"Yeah. Back in high school. My first kiss, ever. Opened my eyes. Then that - fucking lioness... kinda-sorta friends-with-benefits for three years..."

"What do you mean, kinda-sorta?"

The hyena turned her bright grin and glittering eyes on him. "'Kinda-sorta' as in, when my parents asked about her, I told them we were just regular friends. I've done lots of gay shit, Eli. Just... I dunno. I wouldn't say I'm actively interested in women now. But it was there, and I don't doubt that it could come up again." She shrugged yet again. "So, like, heteroflexible, ish? Or I guess bi with a preference for you dudes?"

"Gosh."

"Yeah. Effectively straight, 'cause that's the easiest to say and fairly close enough to the truth. But - point of the matter is, it doesn't really matter, right?" Suddenly she reached over and poked him in the shoulder. "Actually, question: are you only interested in me?"

For some reason the question caught him off-guard. Eli rubbed where she'd poked. "I guess so."

"Porn?"

"What about it?"

"You know what the fuck about it."

He coughed. Again his eyes pulled themselves away from her. "Well. Okay. That's - see, I was..."

"Curious, right? Wanting to see if there was anything more to this, wanting to know for certain?"

"...Yeah."

"Yeah. I've been there." Lynn straightened up, spreading her arms. "And here I am now."

"You do give off slight lesbian vibes, you know - _ow!_If you keep hitting me, I'm gonna start hitting you back!"

This time, Lynn placed her paw against his leg as she leaned in, intentionally showing fangs in her smile. "I dare you."

First, Eli leaned back away from her... then returned a softer version of her grin, reached up to caress her jaw in his paw, and closed the distance to kiss her upper lip. She drew back, surprised, which just allowed him to lean closer for a more full-on kiss which, after a second, she returned.

"There. How's that instead?"

The sweet sound of her laugh joined the others, the wind just starting to pick up again. "Keep kissing me and I'll start kissing you back."

What happened? What changed during these two weeks? Was it me, or her, or - both of us?

_ _

Will it keep changing?

The two sat there a moment longer before Lynn rose to her feet, repeating some of the same stretches she'd done back at the car. Eli watched her, then moved to get up as well - only for the hyena to reach a paw down to help him up. He smiled, took it, rose, and then found himself yanked into a firm hug, her arms moving right into place along his back.

"I know it can be hard to talk about," she murmured into his ear. Her breath made his fur tickle. "All of those... new feelings, and the curiosity, and all of that. All I had back then was Richard, and I still couldn't bring it up with him. I'm only so confident about it now because... it was so far in the past, and I've come to terms with it." She pulled out of the hug, though kept her paws on his waist. The smile that Lynn gave him was impossible not to return. "Like I said, I wouldn't say I'm actively into women, but at the same time, I'm not averse to playing around with - or loving one. That's the thing about love."

It always takes you by surprise.

"When you're least expecting it," she went on, "it's there, all of a sudden. Like something you just glossed over before, only to now, suddenly, notice. That new attraction is the same way, isn't it? 'How long has it been there', you're asking yourself, 'was it always there', 'will it go away'... I think, personally, that everyone is capable of loving anyone, and it's just a matter of whether they'll let themselves. Now, that's likely not true, but it feels like it is for me, and..."

Lynn shrugged, her paws falling to her sides. On instinct Eli reached forward and took them in his, ignoring the slight stick of sweat on both of their pads.

The hyena squeezed his just as he did hers. Her smile returned. "And that's good enough for me. With things like this, good enough is good enough."

It was so, so hard in that moment not to stand up on his tiptoes - he'd have to, with their height difference - for another kiss. Any more,_Eli thought, _and I might start to get addicted. "Lynn, thank you. Really. This is - Marlin wouldn't ever do anything like this for me."

"Yeah. Well." She released his paws and turned, starting to jog in place. "I've been in your place. With the - being bi-curious, and the shitty ex-boyfriend thing."

Eli came up beside her. She grinned again.

"On both of those, though, the best thing to do is just... wait and see."