After Dark: Interlude - Chapter 2: You aren't responsible for the actions of others.
#7 of After Dark
After Dark: Interlude.
Chapter 2 "You aren't responsible for the actions of others."
WARNING: The following story may contain elements that are not everybody's cup of tea. If you find any one of the following concepts distressing, disturbing, or simply not to your taste, you may want to think twice about reading this story. Please examine these tags and make up your own mind. Do not complain if you ignore this warning.
Mature concepts, 18+
infantilism, homosexuality, furries, immaturity, maturity, plot, realistic, violence (not in erotic situations), budding romance, college.
Jay woke to blaring alarms going from low base to high treble. Every display in his room flashing a red map. He jumped out of bed and knocked over one of the the stacks of boxes with a loud crash, wincing as he scrabbled for his pants and a shirt as a loud, urgent, but calm voice announced over and over. "Fire. Please clear the building." He yanked his pants up and walked over to the door, feeling it. Cool, no smoke underneath either. He looked to the display next to the door and saw the fire was localized to the other side of the wing, and yanked his door open, following the red signs until he was outside with a lot of the other residents. The area was hidden from the street, but he could hear the sirens of approaching fire trucks and breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked around, and realized he hadn't really needed to worry about getting pants on over his soaked diapers. Mosaic caused a much higher incidence of bed wetting and weak bladders, or at least, bodies that resisted attempts at human-style potty training. A good thirty people or more had come down pant-less, and half of those were wearing diapers in various colors, levels of babyishness and sissyness, and stages of use. At least twice that number were obviously padded under their pyjamas.
Richard walked up, dressed in boxers, a singlet and a scowl. "Hey. You alright?" Jay nodded. "Bumped my hip leaping out of bed, but..." he looked Richard over out of habit, noting that he lacked a bulge in rear or any telltale signs of diaper use, but upon sniffing the air, he did notice something else. "Wait, smoke? You were closer?" Richard looked quietly to the Bilby, paused a moment, and nodded.
Jay stared at him, his hands beginning to shake. "This was... this was..." he turned away and crouched down, covering his face. "Not again. Twice in the same damn twenty four hour period."
The Hyena blinked, and gently put his hand on Jay's back. "There was stuff on the news last night about an incident on a plane... that was you, wasn't it?... Why didn't you tell me what happened on the plane?" he asked in a soft tone, and Jay shook his head.
"Didn't want to think about it myself. It was just so... bizarre. I knew I'd see more discrimination away from home, where everyone knew me, but..." Jay shook his head and just moved to wrap his arms lightly around the Hyena's waist, who did not protest.
The two stood there in silence, watching the firetrucks pull up. A squirrel lady gently pushed her way through the crowd. "Everyone stay calm... This is being dealt with." She spotted Richard and walked over. "Rich. I hear you saw what happened?"
He shrugged. "Not everything, Rebbecca, I heard a crash, a whump of flame catching, and managed get up in time to see a vehicle pulling away... It was an unmarked black sedan, no license plate."
Rebbecca rubbed her eyes, her large fluffy tail flopping to the ground as she sighed. In the background, the firetrucks could be heard spraying the fire with foam. "Oh Lord... It must have been related to that news story." her eyes turned to the Bilby. "Wait, you're Jaiden, right?"
He clung closer to Richard and nodded up at her, and she sighed again. "Sorry... we're increasing security around the building... it seems that the incident aboard your flight made the news, and the woman is screaming reverse discrimination... unfortunately, we're an easy target." Her phone rang, and she excused herself quietly to answer it as Jay looked up at Richard. "This is all... my fault?"
Richard looked down, his face falling as he regarded his new friend, and shook his head.. "You aren't responsible for the actions of others." he said quietly, and stroked one of the Bilby's trembling, pierced ears. He looked down as he did so and blinked a little as he noticed the waistband of the Bilby's padding protruding from the back of his pants, uncovered by his crouching. He reached down and subtly tugged them up to hide it, causing Jay to cling even tighter.
After a few moments, the Squirrel hung up the phone, and cleared her throat. The entire collection of panicked, worried furs immediately went quiet and turned to look her way. Those who couldn't see still turned and lifted ears to get maximum earshot. She lowered her eyes, then lifted them, and at once every trace of stress was gone from her voice. She sounded like she might be announcing what flavor ice cream they were going to have for desert.
"We have had an incident. An incendiary device was thrown from the street at our building. It was caught immediately by the automated defense system, so the fire department knew about it right away." she spoke in a voice both quiet and carrying. "The police have been notified, and will be taking forensic evidence from the three or four rooms that were burned. Unfortunately, those of you in those rooms will have to bunk in with others, so talk to your brothers and sisters and work it out." She smiled a bit. "The good news is that according to the insurance company, who were also here pretty quickly, there appears to be no major structural damage. We'll have it sorted out in a week or two. The bad news is that we're going to have to step security back up."
A few voices protested, and she waved them into silence. "Questions at the end. Now. We'll have an armed security guard posted at the street entrance twenty four seven for the next few weeks, so if you have visitors, you'll have to meet them there. You'll be asked to sign in and out at that entrance, same system as opens your doors. We don't care when or why you come in and out, just that you're supposed to."
She sighed. "Now, I just got a call, the fire is under control, but the media will be here in about five minutes, if not less, so I won't talk long. Anyone who doesn't want pictures taken, go back to your common areas. Those in rooms three oh two to three oh five, I'm sorry, but those are the rooms affected... Now. Any questions?" Several hands shot up, and she nodded to one. "Yes, John?"
"Miz Cooley, C-Can we get anything out of our rooms?" asked a Horse dressed in nothing but a onesie over the top of an extremely thick pink diaper, quite obviously soaked. He didn't seem too embarrassed, other than a mild blush, appearing in such infantile garb in front of the rest of the group here, but he did cast a wary eye and a large Horse ear to the hedge. They'd all hear any cars coming down the one way street, even over the commotion of the emergency workers.
The aforementioned Ms Cooley put on an over the top, exasperated look and scolded the Horse. "For the last time, Mike, It's Rebbecca, Or Reb, or "Hey you!", Not Mizzzz Cooley." She slurred the salutation, and Mike giggled. "To answer your question, Yes, Just not anything that might have contacted smoke, and only with your floor monitors present as witnesses. If there's anything that shouldn't be there... well, we're not investigating anyone here, we're just trying to find who committed this act against us. Any other questions?" A dearth of hands appeared, and she nodded. "Okay. Now, If anyone needs anything that can't be sourced from the house, I'll make a trip to a clothing store in an hour or two and pick things up for the next few days. Try and get spares from friends or anyone in the house who has access to clothing of your size. If you can't, IM me your size... Mike, I don't think we'll find anything for you that isn't in the diaper closet." The Horse blushed a little and smirked. The squirrel continued. "The house insurance will be covering all repairs and replacements, so don't worry about money." The small group of those directly affected gave a small sigh of relief, and smiled to them. "Go on. Get inside and get changed before the media get here. I'll be out on the front lawn talking to them. Anyone dressed in more than what John is in is welcome to come stand with me, but let me talk to them." She said, and the group quickly dispersed, those who were wearing the least going first.
Richard sighed. "Well, there's my day of loafing done with." He said, grunting, looking over to the Bilby. "Er... well, I can bunk with someone else if you like. Don't want to intrude."
Jay shrugged and smiled, extricating himself from the clinging hug. "It's okay,I have a couch. If you don't mind the stacked up boxes, I don't either."
Richard smirked gently as he let him go. "Well, Perhaps you can show me whats in them." he said, causing the Bilby to blush profusely and mumble.
"Maybe."
***
The pair walked in to Jay's room, Richard flopping on the couch with a sigh, Jay settling on the office chair at the desk, which was empty apart from a keyboard and a monitor on a swivel, the latter two items catching Jay's attention. "Oh, hell, just a sec. I need to let people know I got in okay... completely forgot to last night."
The Bilby pulled the keyboard out and loaded the machine, starting to tap keys at a rapid pace, with Richard watching lazily. "No problemo. Of course, they could always just switch on a news feed." Jay smiled thinly to him as he wrote in his blog, pausing for long moments to try and word the last half an hour in a way that wouldn't give his very few readers a heart attack. Jay locked his journal to close family and friends, and used it as a way to send info to them all at once instead of writing six different letters.
Richard looked up after a long period of silence. "What's it like being famous?" he asked after a few minutes, and Jay paused, looking away from the screen.
"Well, famous like I am, where it's because of what you are rather than anything you've done?" Jay asked, and Richard nodded. The Bilby paused, then said softly. "Lonely. You learn not to trust people easily... when something you say casually to someone you thought was a friend ends up in the newsfeed an hour later...." He started to type again, his voice not sad, just honest. "I put on a mask a lot of the time... don't let people in, even my friends don't know that much about the real me."
Richard frowned. "That sounds... painful. How do you cope?"
Jay smirked. "By not showing people whats in my boxes. Nobody but my mother has been in my room since I was fourteen."
Richard blinked, and looked around him. "Are you sure you want me in here?" he asked, in barely a whisper, and Jay nodded. "Well, unless you plan on giving an exclusive to the National Enquirer about my personal habits."
Richard laughed a bit. "Why, has that happened?" Jay smirked, then turned, slit open a box at one side of his desk with a claw, reached in, and tossed a magazine on the coffee table. Richard stared at it a moment, then his face fell. "Oh."
Jay giggled at the reaction. "Don't worry, it's all pretty much made up... made up by me, actually. I told him what I would have wanted to show up, since I didn't trust him. Only about five percent of it was true, and only maybe one percent of that ended up in the magazine. I really do love Milo on my Weetbix." he said, giggling as Richard picked up the magazine, leafing through it. "What on your what?" Richard asked, looking up to the pink-furred marsupial. "Oh, Um, it's like... er, ovaltine, I think. Only it has malt in it. And Weetbix is a breakfast cereal."
Richard blinked. "Okay, that sounds good... really good. Dammit, I forgot breakfast." He put down the magazine and looked at the cover for a few minutes, then up at Jay. After a moment, he swallowed, then said in a soft voice, seeming to lose the genetically-forced sneer that he wore a lot of the time. "I swear by my father that whatever you tell me or show me, inside this room or out, will go no further than me."
Jay stopped typing, looked up at him, then nodded. "Thank you." he said, in a voice not much louder, then hit a few keys to send the diary post through the system. "Now..." the Bilby said with a grin. "Let me get changed and I'll buy you breakfast... I'm starved."
***
The pair giggled at the expression the waitress gave them as they asked for ovaltine and breakfast cereal, but they got something resembling it. Richard also ordered a side of bacon and toast while the Bilby stuck with just the cereal, proclaiming that it was not as good as his mother made. Jay was dressed in black jeans and a skimpy tank top, while Richard had stuck with his board shorts and university top, just borrowing the use of Jay's spray on deodorant to cover the fact he'd slept in them.
"So, what are you majoring in, then?" Richard asked, after he'd polished off his cereal and had started on his bacon. The two were getting the odd glance, but they'd chosen a booth in the back of the restaurant, and were limited to only a few tables. There were an old couple, a woman and her child, and two other furs. The furs smiled politely then looked down at their food. The woman was trying to get her kid to stop staring in delighted wonder at the pink fur. The old man's spoon occasionally missed he was staring so hard, only completing the arc when his wife kicked his shin.
Jay put down his spoon, doing his best to ignore the stares. "Well, I'm kinda torn. I'm taking a few music classes so I don't lose focus on practicing, but I'm really more interested in going into my uncle's line of work. Wildlife conservation and the like. I'm not sure what kind of degree I'll get, but I hope Greyhaven's reputation isn't for nothing."
Richard chuckled. "You've gotta better idea of what you want to do than I have, hun. I'm here on a sports scholarship. 'M a Sophomore, and I still haven't figured out what I'm majoring in. I'm leaning towards something to do with mechanics, but I don't want to end up working in a shop for the rest of my life."
Jay sipped his tea for the first time, and made a face, pushing the cup away. "Oh good god. I'll need to find somewhere local to get some real stuff." he said, then ruminated for a moment as the kid started whispering to her mother, the mother trying her best to pay the bill and shush her daughter. "Maybe you should look into engineering?"
Richard gave this a considerably long thought before he nodded. "Yeah... that might do the ticket, actually. Don't they get into building stuff too... and math?"
Jay grinned. "Well, I think there's more to it than that, but yes, part of engineering is building complicated stuff."
Richard gave a grunt. "Bet there's physics involved."
Jay shook his head with a grin. "I was serious. I'll tutor you."
The mother stood up and started to pull her daughter towards the entryway, when she blurted out. "I like you fur, Mister Bilby!" The restaurant got a hush, as at least half of the occupants and two of the staff were furred. Jay closed his eyes for a moment, then smiled widely to her. "Thank you. I think your hair is pretty too."
The child's mother looked mortified. "Cindy, I've told you... That's not polite." She scolded, then looked up with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, we're visiting my neice and her mother here at the school, from Arizona, we don't have quite as many blended people there... and she happens to love Australian wildlife." Cindy giggled and waved adoringly. Richard just smirked a bit at the reaction.
Jay smirked a bit. "It's okay, Miss. I'm not bothered by it... at least she's not afraid."
The mother smiled. "My niece is blended too... Cindy is just fascinated by all the different blendings here. Anyway, C'mon, Cindy, say goodbye to the nice gentleman." The kid waved enthusiastically and ran over, giving Jay a hug before her mother could intervene, and he grinned and hugged back. "Goodbye, Cindy." he said softly.
Richard grinned at him once the two has left, even the old man not staring now. "I see you're good with handling kids, Mmm?" Jay sighed and nodded.
"It's not like I get a choice. I'm pink, and little girls all seem to want to take me home and put me in their bedroom as a decoration, or something." he said softly, rubbing his eyebrows as the Hyena smirked softly to him, nodding and looking thoughtfully down at his food, then up. "I can see the attraction. I wouldn't mind taking you home and putting you in my bedroom as a decoration." he said, the bilby flushing furiously.You aren't responsible for the actions of others.
Jay nodded, and smiled up to the waitress as she brought the check over, setting it down."So... as to tutoring you. Math and music are similar in some respect, you know. Chords and melodies only sound good to us because they're ratios of eachother. Physics is... I dunno. It makes sense to me the same way music does."
The Hyena paused as he chewed his bacon thoughtfully. "Okay, I'll give it a shot." he paused, and grinned, "What do you play?"
Jay finished his cereal and pushed it away. "Violin and Piano." he said, trying another sip of the tea.
Richard got an impressed look. "I'd love to hear you play some time."
Jay smirked. "Don't worry, you will. I practice an hour a day at least... though I can use headphones if it bothers you."
Richard finished the last bite. "I doubt you could do much to bother me." he said, grinning widely. Jay settled up the tip, blushing hard for the third time that day.
***
The two got back to the apartment, and Rebbecca intercepted them on the way to the lift. "There you are... there's someone here to talk to you, Jay." he said, and indicated her office, which was down the hallway to the left of the elevators, leading the way. Richard bit his lip, and looked to the Bilby questioningly, who gently reached out and squeezed the 'Yena's hand, nodding and gently tugging him with him..
They walked in to the office, and paused a bit as a quite large Wolf stood from the couch, dressed in a business suit that cost a semester's worth of tuition. Maybe more. He grinned wide and extending his hand to Jay. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Andronicus. Your mother has arranged for my office to handle your case. I'm Cray Alpha Timone, and I'll be serving as your lawyer. You're being sued by Mrs Zingleber, the woman who assaulted you on the plane."
***