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Chapter 23: Working Up the Courage

Hunter safely came back home. His parents were still awake, waiting for him while watching television. He was the last one to come back home as his brothers and sister came back before him. He yawned and bade goodnight to his folks and went to bed.

As usual, resting on his bed, he recollected tonight's events, hanging out with Keanu and friends on Halloween, Keanu winning a contest, Broderick and Sol winning the best costume contest, and Sol getting kidnapped by a disgruntled secret lover.

A lot happened tonight and one of them had stuck in his mind the most.

Keanu happily won two tickets and he had not said anything. Hunter wondered if he were called to participate in the game of Clue and won, he would take Keanu out to the park. But now was in reverse. Keanu had the tickets and maybe he had some plans on what to do with them. Maybe he would take his father next weekend or his cousins and the other would pay their own. He would never know, but he would see.

Or... maybe it was Sol who scared him off from saying anything. Sol, being a teaser, playfully begged Keanu to take Hunter to the park. Maybe he shied away from that and kept quiet. And he saw how his white ears pricked and turned red from standing behind. Had that been the case, Sol should have shut up.

Aside from that, he saw how happy and cheery Keanu was, he had a good time. That made him smile and his heart fluttered.

He wished he could ask him to go with him, but felt it was rude and selfish without hearing Keanu's final decision with his second ticket.

He had to wait.

...

Monday and Tuesday were quiet times for Keanu, Hunter, and friends. They focused on classwork and new subjects when things had calm down after that Sunday night incident.

Sol was fine those two days and told the others not to bother about Robin and Topher.

He once said to Hunter and Broderick, "Okay, I admit, I deserved it, I'm an idiot, and shut up about it. We're now even; I pranked him, and he pranked me back."

Sergio was the one the others checked on him the most after his blackmailing ordeal. Xavier texted the others and Milagros the most on his state of trauma, but eventually, Sergio turned out well and he could finally breathe some fresh air. He said he would take a break from pranking and his other hobby that he would probably stop doing forever. His phase had ended too soon and grew out of it.

Today was November, and Xavier knew it was the start of the Christmas holidays in his home country. His mother sent him a picture of the fully decked Christmas tree in the living room while Xavier was drawing in art class. Xavier snorted.

"What's up?" Milagros asked.

"Nothing, my mother put the Christmas tree in the living room." Xavier stretched his arm with the phone to her and then to Keanu.

"Oh, looks nice," she said.

Keanu was puzzled, leaning closer from his easel. "But... today's November."

Xavier explained, "Where I'm from, we celebrate the holidays from November to the half of January."

"What? What do you do in November?"

"I'm only exaggerating a bit, Keanu, but we celebrate Thanksgiving as you all do, then Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, Día de Los Reyes, and finally the San Sebastian Festival in January. The thing is that my mom and many others cannot help but place already the damn tree after Halloween."

Milagros chuckled. "It's pretty funny though."

The three continued working on their drawings, but then Xavier brought up another subject.

"Ah, Milagros, what's your first name? After hearing your brother's full name, I thought it was his first name."

"Um... it's Luisa..."

Xavier looked at her a little bewildered. "Luisa? Luisa Milagros?"

She nodded quietly.

"So your brother is called Luis Sergio and yours as Luisa? Hmph, and here I thought you two didn't carry a typical twin name," he continued drawing, "to be honest with you, I like it, but why do you prefer Milagros? That name is a bit hard to pronounce for English-speakers."

"It was mostly by my parents and the rest of the family called us by our middle names. They had it easy to pronounce it in their first language. And it got stuck with us."

"Ah, I see. Though, I like it."

Milagros glanced at the drawing green parrot. "Thanks."

"Oh, guys, uh, about Sergio, how is he?" Keanu asked.

"He's doing fine, taking a breather," assured Milagros.

"He drank two cups of stress-relieving tea this morning," Xavier added. "I think it worked."

Keanu nodded and stared at his fidgeting fingers holding his pencil. He sat on his stool, his tail swung left and right behind and thinking deeply.

Last Halloween, he won two tickets for Sunshine Park. The tickets would be valid until next Sunday and must make use of it by Friday night. He felt like he had an opportunity with Hunter here. The worst he could say was no, but it felt non-existent. Would Hunter say yes, and would he go out with him as a date?

"Date" was a powerful word. It was defined differently from hanging out as friends.

"Keanu, are you okay?" Milagros asked.

Keanu shook his thoughts and turned at her. "I-I'm fine, thank you." He fidgeted with his fingers. "C-can we talk after class?"

Milagros thought in wonder, but replied, "Sure."

The class ended and the three left together, but Milagros told Xavier she and Keanu had something to talk about. He would see them at lunch later.

Keanu and Milagros walked in a secluded corner of the building away from the leaving crowd of students. It was just like the last time she spoke with Sergio about his self-exploration.

"Is there something in your mind, Keanu?" Milagros asked.

Keanu shyly rubbed one arm with his hand and quietly spoke to her, "How... how do you ask a guy out?"

Her ears pricked in surprise. "Really? Who is it?"

"It's Hunter, didn't I tell you?"

"Aside from you're into wolves, you didn't answer me from the other day."

He rubbed his neck. "Ah, I didn't, did I? Um, you see, I have these tickets and I'm kind of hoping to invite Hunter to the amusement park."

"As a date?"

Keanu nodded.

"Well, that's great, you have a big opportunity!"

"But..."

"What is it?"

"What if he doesn't want it to be a date?"

"Don't worry, Keanu, I'm sure Hunter will be thrilled to go out with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, he's open-minded, caring, and has that big-brother attitude and... I can tell you he is really a great guy to hang out and I'm sure you have in the past months, right? The last thing he is going to say is no and you know he is into guys."

"You really know him well, do you?"

"Of course, and..." leaned closer and whispered, "between you and me, I used to have a crush on him before I found out he's gay."

"You had? Oh, I'm sorry..."

"It's okay, good thing I found out sooner without telling me, it would have been awkward between us if I asked him out."

"How did you find out?"

"His Facebook profile when I was looking at his relationship status."

"Oh..." Keanu sounded unimpressed, but, good thing it wasn't dramatic. "That figures..."

"So, anyway, Keanu, I'm sure Hunter will go out with you, there's no way he will reject you, he likes you too, so keep that in mind, okay?"

"Sure, thank you, Milagros." Keanu smiled.

With that out of that way, Keanu felt he could confidently ask him out for this Friday evening.

He wished he needed more time, but the tickets became his time limit.

...

In the afternoon of Tuesday, Sol texted Sergio a few times to know how he was doing, he replied the usual that he was fine and well. Sol curiously tried to ask about his "new personal secret" he mentioned but he did not want to talk about it, so Sol left it at that.

He came back to his dorm after his last class of the day, he did like any student would do, stripping naked to his underwear and laying down on the bed comfortably.

Sol did not have a laptop and relied on his phone and the library's computer room for his studies and homework projects. The phone's screen was large enough to watch video streaming and other... ahem, entertaining pleasures.

For someone who got blue-balled due to a prank was understandable. He never got to be wild with the maned wolf that night. In all honesty, he was intrigued when he met Topher, but the prank made him cut ties or keep his distance for a while and the same went for Robin, but more permanent.

The leopard had the bottle of lube ready and a hand towel on his nightstand and searched for porn online. He had an account there so he could get better recommendations with the algorithm system to get better content by his tastes.

The porn site's home page, with his account, showed him the recommendations, however, there were some videos he did saw before and some he did not watch yet. Due to his diverse tastes, the algorithm increased for more similar content he had watched previously.

For example, when he searched for pink-scaled dragons, more similar videos of dragon men would appear on the homepage later. When he searched for reindeers in Christmas clothes, more similar videos of reindeer men would appear in the recommendation. When he searched for green-feathered parrot men that spoke Spanish, more similar video suggestions would appear. And when he searched for coyote men...

He caught the attention of a thumbnail, when he half-pressed it, a short showcase of what the video was about showed a dancing coyote wearing only a thong with the Mexican flag. It was titled "Ricardo Milos Parody - Mexican Ver." It got his attention, finding it intriguing, and pressed it.

He came for a date with Rosie Palms but spent the entire twenty-minute video laughing. The dance moves were terrible, but the jiggling crotch shot was a fine sight to see, and the music was cheesy as a typical erotic dancer like the said title. He looked at the username; K9_aztecwarrior. He pressed it and met with the page profile and more videos. The picture profile showed a shirtless pic of the coyote holding a phone, but no face was shown. The cover photo was the same but more inviting, he was half-naked with some familiar-looking pants and lying comfortably on the couch and face cropped off. Sol had to admit he had a good-looking body.

He scrolled on the videos and, so far, he found ten. He started with the first video published at the bottom and played it, he was now in the mood and interested in this coyote guy.

He could not help but feel there was something about this amateur that was telling him something deep in his mind but could not reach the surface.

So, anyway, he picked the bottle of lube and applied some to his palm.

He was going to binge-watch those videos today!

...

On Wednesday as planned was the day he would tell Hunter to ask him out after history class, but first, he had English class that morning. Last Monday, Keanu felt a little awkward with Robin around sitting next to him in class. The raccoon was being himself as normal but knowing what he did on Halloween made him...

...unworthy to talk to him.

He could not pretend he didn't know what he did but had no choice but to do so and continued cooperating with him doing things related to schoolwork.

The smile he bared, one would mistake it as being in a good mood, but Keanu knew better. It was a satisfied smug on his face, and probably remembering the cruel prank he did on Sol. Just how cruel was Sol's prank before Robin fired back?

Sometimes, the stuff he watched on television and media might have taught the wolf a thing or two and one of them was to keep enemies closer. Not that he was a severely bad person, but he was one who should not be crossed with. And from that day on, he was just an acquaintance.

English class ended and Keanu left the classroom in a little hurry. He wasn't aware that he was nervous, with a pinch of excitement, to talk to Hunter seriously and his walking pace was a subtle sign. He was aware of his heart beating but he knew he would talk to Hunter after class this afternoon. He walked to the main entrance and made for the glass doors half-blindly.

He pulled one door and met with something in the way. He also pushed the door open simultaneously and both stopped immediately before they could have struck one another for the second time. Keanu's blood turned cold.

"Hey, watch it!" said Terrence.

Keanu's ears lowered. "S-sorry, I was in a hurry."

The ferret-man towered over him with a bittered look on his face. Why he was glaring at him like that, looking at him up and down?

"I... I didn't mean to get--"

"Just. Watch. Out," he coldly said.

Keanu gulped; he was motionless. The ferret walked past him but out of Keanu's view, he shouted behind.

"You ruined my game, you know that?"

Letting go the door closing, Keanu whirled around to face him in terror. "B-but y-you..."

"If you were minding your business, none of this would happen."

He stepped closer; Keanu was pressing his back against the glass door. He wasn't making sense. A few people nearby were seeing this, at least he had witnesses.

But one bystander took action, a red-tailed hawk stopped him from getting closer.

He spoke in struggling English, "Terrence, leave alone, you scare him."

That did the trick and stood back bitterly from Keanu. The hawk-man then told the wolf, "Go."

He did just that and opened the glass door and walked away, catching his breath.

He felt horrible, did the one-game suspension affect him? It was only just one game match, right? And they actually won without him, and Xerxes and his teammates did their best to win and he would play in the next upcoming match against the Conquistadors from San Diego University this semester. The worst part was being blamed for something he could not control.

Keanu tried to hide it from Hunter and friends during lunch hour as he ate in peace. He tried to keep his ears up, but it kept falling. Hunter had already detected his exterior mood.

This alone ruined Keanu's opportunity to talk with Hunter. Fear had taken over his cheerful mood.

After both finished their lunches, Keanu hastily left the cafeteria for the library, but Hunter caught on. He asked what was wrong and Keanu timidly told him what happened at the 100 Building after his English class. Hunter kept his anger at bay from growling.

"Did he hurt you?" Hunter demanded. His voice was so grave and scared Keanu a little. He was afraid that he would go running after him and gave him a piece of his mind with one hand on his neck to give him a major warning against the wall.

Keanu stuttered, a lot, "H-he d-didn't hurt me, h-he, he... he j-just ac-accused me about what he did at the library!"

Hunter frowned disapprovingly. "But you did nothing wrong! And you know that." Hunter tried to calm down and sighed. "So, what happened next?"

"His friend was close by and stopped him from getting closer to me and told me to leave."

"Who was it?"

"Uh, an avian... a hawk?"

"Must be Julio, a friend of Xerxes. Just don't get near him next time, okay?"

"It-it won't be easy when I-I have to go to the 100 B-building for English class, Hunter. I only see him around after class, he... he must be taking a classroom in the same building. H-how can I avoid that?"

Hunter sighed, not knowing what to do. "Just... don't get near him, okay? I'll talk to Xerxes about this, they should keep him cool for a while. From what I heard, Terrence has some issues in his mind and needs to sort them out himself. He'll come around eventually and leave you alone."

Keanu looked down and nodded. "Thank you."

Today was not Keanu's day. Maybe tomorrow might be better...

No... it had to be today! If he delayed, tomorrow would be Thursday and then Friday if he delayed again.

If only he could feel better and recover a little of the good mood he had lost earlier.

"Here, I think this will make you feel better." Hunter handed him a chocolate bar with a smile.

Keanu's ears jumped back in place at the sight of a mint dark chocolate bar. He stared at the smiling Hunter in bewilderment with a flushed look on his white-furred face before taking the wrapped candy bar from his offering hand.

And his stomach felt funny at that moment.

He let out a shy smile that turned into a chuckle. "Uh, thanks..." His tail wagged.

Hunter patted him on his back. "Come on, let's have a short walk before we go to our next class."

Keanu liked that, this might do him good after his ordeal with the ferret and cool down.

His gentle and considerate nature surprised him; Hunter knew what would cheer him up. He felt like he had found one of the reasons why he wanted to go out with Hunter.

The company was welcoming, the wolves strolled almost the length of the campus from north to south while sharing the chocolate bar together. They arrived at the botanical garden's giant dome and the Palmetum. Curious, Keanu wanted to look around to distract himself before they would go to their next class. They had plenty of time.

Inside the dome was filled with biodiversity of flowers, trees, and bushes. The whole place felt like a jungle, covered in nothing but greenery in every corner of the dome. The sun still pierced through inside the glass to provide the needed sun rays for the plants. Sprinklers were spraying an airborne mist of water, making the place humid inside.

The wolves followed a cobblestone path that led to a few alternative paths that would take them back to the main entrance. Keanu browsed through the path, every tree he passed by had a sign with the name of the tree and basic information. Hunter stood idly by, following him as he looked around in interest.

"I always wanted to check out this place for once," said Keanu. "It's pretty cool to see all types of plants in one place, right, Hunter?"

"Sure, if you're the one with nature, I will go camping in the forest."

"Have you gone camping before?"

"Yeah, me and my family in the summers. And you?"

"Same here, and the summer camps too."

Keanu turned around and saw a bush of red roses. Keanu carefully caressed the flower's smooth petals with his fingertips. Hunter saw how calmed, very calmed, Keanu was as he appreciated the red flowers.

"You like roses?" Hunter curiously asked. He would better take note of this if he ever gave him some gifts in the future.

"Yes, I have a bush of white roses on my balcony. I don't think you have seen it. My... my mom loved white roses, she had some in the backyard and the porch at the old house we lived in."

"For remembrance?"

"Yes... it's all I could have to remember her." He sniffed one flower close to him, its petals were soft, and the aroma was soothing as a morning spring.

Hunter looked at his black digital wristwatch, twenty minutes before two. "Uh, Keanu, it's almost time for our next class."

The wolves left the dome to their history class at the 200 Building. Keanu asked, "Do you have any problems with the new subjects?"

"Uh, maybe a little..." Hunter sheepishly said. By little, he meant a lot.

"D-don't worry, Oliver and Frankie are going to join me at the library after class, so we can discuss it there. Didn't Prof. Sheehan ask you for a tutor?"

"Yeah, I'll look forward to it."

At the 200 Building, Prof. Sheehan continued with the new subjects for the third-terms of this semester. Hunter was getting familiar with the early 20th-century history than what was known since the funding. Keanu wrote down notes and other notes from the textbook. Hunter, on the other hand, relied on what Professor was saying and reading out loud from the textbook.

The class was dismissed an hour later, Keanu and Hunter joined with Oliver and Frankie at the library. Keanu helped Hunter to flesh out his notes with better ones he thought would be useful for the upcoming exam.

The company was worth it as Hunter saw Keanu feeling better, he was talking about his favorite subjects and all Hunter could do was smile and listen, knowing well he was in his best comfort zone and made him cheerful. These tutorials were not so bad as he had thought they would be, he had Keanu to be his tutor after all.

That was when Robin came around, holding a textbook. He walked to the four gathered at a table. "Oliver? Here's your textbook. Thanks for letting me borrow it."

The rabbit-man smiled. "Ah! I was wondering when I'll get it back, but thanks."

"No problem..." he looked at the brown and white wolf. "Hunter, right? How was Halloween?"

"Oh, yeah, it was fun--"

"You two have met?" Keanu said perplexed. He wasn't sure if Hunter had met him before the whole revenge prank, but he expected that he would introduce him to Hunter, but Robin just casually greeted him by name.

Hunter rubbed the back of his head and looked away. "We kind of met before the party..."

Robin smiled. "Yeah, I was supposed to hang out with his roommate, but I met him instead by chance." He laughed. "We had a nice chat that day."

Keanu was confused, Hunter did not stay in a dorm and told him that Sol was living alone in his dorm for the semester.

Hunter continued and laughed, albeit awkwardly in the most subtle way. "Yeah, we had, and were you at the Halloween party last Sunday?"

"Yes, I was wearing a black astronaut suit from Among Us that night. The costume was made for tailless folks, and I forgot to cut a hole in the butt that night, but I was afraid of ruining the costume too." He deliberately did that so no one could identify him by his black-and-gray tail. "That material looked cheap." He turned to Frankie and Oliver. "Were you two at the party?"

Frankie shook her head. "No, I spent the weekend at home and took my little brothers for trick-or-treating."

Oliver said, "I was, but I didn't see you from what you said about tailless costumes. Oh, Keanu, I saw you killing it in Clue that night. You were great!"

Keanu laughed. "Thanks."

The awkward tension was gone, Hunter relaxed as the conversation was genuine and natural. Robin wasn't being specific about his ordeal when he met Hunter that fateful day as if he were off the hook since Robin targeted Sol for his revenge prank.

When it was time to go, Frankie, Robin, and Oliver packed up their things and left the library. Keanu and Hunter followed later as the former had to go to the restroom.

Hunter waited for Keanu, but he had a nagging feeling. Keanu came out relieved from the restroom and the two left together from the library.

"Hunter, I'm confused from what Robin said earlier. He thinks you're Sol's roommate or something."

Hunter was embarrassed. "Uh, Keanu, I'm not really in the mood right now."

"What happened, Hunter? I know Sol pranked him, and I know Robin is being all proud of what he did last Sunday."

Hunter stopped walking, this had to come out anytime and hopefully be honest to Keanu. "How should I put it..." he rubbed his chin. "I... I was involved with Sol's prank last Wednesday."

"You were?"

Hunter nodded. "Not just me, but also Natasha too. I don't want to give too much detail, but I simply played as Sol's roommate and the bait to _distract_Robin before Natasha did her part and pretended to act as I was her boyfriend, and she acted all jealous and violent to Robin when she broke into the door. She would catch the two of us... uh... making out?" Hunter really wanted to avoid the raunchy part he was not proud of.

"Making out?" That caught Keanu's attention. "You mean... you..."

"Let's say I had to make a move on him as part of the prank, but he made the move first naturally, so I went with the flow and... you know the rest, but don't get the wrong idea, we didn't do anything too far - just making out until Natasha caught us in the act." Hunter wanted to end this conversation, and hopefully, Keanu had all he needed to hear.

He just hoped Keanu did not look at him as some promiscuous idiot who would do anything for pleasure. He hoped the prank would back him up as he was just acting and pretending to do things that were very out of character in real life. Hunter would never approach people like that if he were in a current relationship, but even without, he felt guilty as the last thing he thought about during the outercourse was that erotic dream he had that made him feel... vulnerable, telling him as if this was wrong, very wrong. And he mentally knew that in the aftermath.

Keanu's response was, "Ew..." he softly said with a frown of uncomfortable disgust.

Hunter continued to heal the wound, "To tell you the truth, I knew the risks and all, but I'm not very proud of what I did and how it all led to."

"What do you mean?"

"The revenge prank on Sol."

"Ah, right, I thought there was something more you didn't say."

"Ah, w-well, I wasn't very into the whole making out part, but there wasn't no harm in doing that." He cringed.

"But why did you have to play as bait?"

"Because it would be less suspicious if he meets someone he didn't meet, so I played that part and it worked. Sol wanted to prove if he was capable to make a move on me behind his back and he sure had his proof alright." He sighed.

"Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm sorry, the whole thing made me a little sick in the stomach." He rubbed his stomach in circles. "I never thought Robin would do something like that to Sol in the end. I will never do anything like that ever again."

"It's weird that he didn't target you."

"I'm surprised too, and he seemed fine when we met him at the library. He didn't look like he was holding a grudge against me."

"Do you think he would target you for what you did?"

Hunter shrugged but he doubted, "I don't think so... for now." He kept that in mind just in case.

"Umm, sorry if this made you uncomfortable, Hunter."

"Ah, it's alright, Keanu, nothing wrong about talking about it, I'm just embarrassed about it." Hunter could not stop flushing about the subject. "I just hope you don't think of me as some... uh... weirdo who hooks up with everybody." He kept scratching the back of his head.

"Isn't that what Sol usually does?"

Hunter snickered. "Heh, yeah, he does." He ruffled Keanu's head which he chuckled and shooed his hand away gently. "Come on, or we're gonna miss the train."

The wolves boarded the train homeward. They arrived back to their destination and waved each other goodbye and made for their respective homes across the street.

Keanu slumped on the living room couch and relaxed. What a rough day had been...

That was when he realized that he hadn't asked Hunter out to the park.

"Oh, son of a--"

His phone rang a text message. It was Milagros.

He picked it up and read. "Did you ask him out?" she texted.

Keanu shamefully frowned and texted her, "No, some stuff got in the way today. I lost my mood and couldn't ask him out."

"Did you forget?"

"Just now when you texted me, sorry."

"It's okay, but Friday is just around the corner and your tickets are valid until the weekend, right?"

"I know, but I'm now at home and I feel like he isn't in the mood right now." Before he could send it, he rethought and rewrote.

He texted her, "I know, but I'm now at home and I don't know what to do."

"Might as well call him and ask him out as last resort, but I really wished you could have talked to him in person, the sooner the better."

"Yeah, you're right, I'll call him later. Thx for calling me."

"No prob, let me know for any encouragement you need!"

Keanu had dinner alone that evening as his father was working late tonight, eating some homemade chilidogs from a tin can of chili and two hot dogs. Nicely done. Maybe tomorrow he would make some spaghetti from Aunt Sophia's recipe. But during cooking and eating, he thought of nothing but Hunter and his proposed date this Friday night.

After eating his dinner, he cleaned the dishes and walked to his bedroom and picked up his charging phone, and sat on the bed. He realized just how much he had delayed his goal. Well, justifiable that he was busy with college and his crush was, technically, a second objective.

He stared at his phone and thought carefully. That talk he had with Hunter was... weird. Apparently, Hunter was involved with Sol's prank and had to realistically pretend to make out with Robin and to get caught in front of Natasha... just thinking about it was so... uncomfortable and cringy. He saw how Hunter was so uncomfortable and embarrassed to talk about it when he curiously asked.

At least Hunter was being honest to him.

And that was when it hit him, lighting a bulb over his head; he could cheer him up by asking him out! When he gave him that chocolate bar earlier, it made him feel butterflies in his stomach when he did that. He should do the same thing to him, returning the favor.

He breathed and pressed Hunter's name in his contacts and waited...

His white fluffy tail swung left and right in patience. This was his only chance. Sometimes he wondered if this was a very good time to talk about it, he didn't know what was going on at the Montana residence across the street.

Hunter answered. "What's up, Keanu?"

"H-hi, Hunter, I hope I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"No, not at all, I'm relaxing in my room. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Keanu gulped, his tail stopping. "Uh, I've been thinking..." he said in a low voice.

"Hmm? What is it?" Keanu could hear some shuffling, probably moving on his bed for a better position.

Keanu brought his fluffy white tail on his lap, his left hand caressing it, and carefully spoke, "...If you're, uh, free this Friday evening... would you... like to, uh, go out... with me... to the amusement park... with me?" he gulped very nervously. He even said "with me" twice.

It all came out, his heart was pounding him, threatening to explode if Hunter took so long to say a word.

But Hunter kept a chill, patient smile the whole wonky sentence, and waited for him to finish it without rushing him too hastily. He honestly had to wait and let him make his decision about the tickets, but this was better than expected. He had to give credit to him for working up the courage to speak out and asking him out despite the little awkward confession he admitted earlier. It seemed that Keanu had taken it very lightly, understanding that it was a prank.

Keanu heard Hunter heartily laughing. "Sure, Keanu, I would like to go out with you to the park. I heard it's all that people are talking about since it opened this semester."

This brought joy in Keanu's heart and spoke excitingly, "R-really?" His fluffy tail could not stop wagging.

"Sure, I'm free on Friday night. And... to tell you the truth, I was wondering if I could go with you, but I felt it was selfish if I did and let you decide on your own. Maybe you'd take your cousins or something."

"Well, that was plan-B, but I'm glad you said yes."

Hunter chuckled. "So, do you like me, huh?" he said it so relaxingly but with a tiny hint of teasing.

Keanu blushed at those somewhat comforting words. "Yes, Hunter... I do."

"So what happened to the whole 'I like you like a big brother' part, you don't see me as a brother anymore?"

"W-what? W-well, th-that's..." Keanu stuttered in confusion.

Hunter laughed. "I'm only kidding, Keanu, I know how you feel about it... I like you too."

Those words, Hunter reciprocated. His heart was pounding along the rhythm with his thumping tail on the bed.

"Is that your tail I'm hearing?"

"Y-yeah?" Keanu heard Hunter laughing, he didn't care at this point. "Listen, I... I thought I could cheer you up after what you talked about earlier. You looked kind of..."

"It's alright, Keanu, thanks for your concern, but I'm fine." It sure worked well being asked out. "So, do you wanna play SkyRiders Online?"

"Sure, sounds good to me."

"Cool, better ask River to give me the Switch, or let him join with us."

"Okay, I'll meet you online. See you." Keanu hung up and switched to Milagros' contact excitingly.

Keanu texted her, "I called Hunter to ask him out. He said YES!"

She replied,"Yes! I knew you could do it! XD."

Shortly after, Keanu, Hunter, and River played video games online on a school night before midnight. Keanu could not stop thinking about the upcoming date and kept thumping his tail on the bed as he played with Hunter and River online.

After their game night, Keanu went to bed with his heart full of desires and romance. Hanging out with Hunter to the amusement park was very exciting. He should start planning what to do at the park. There were so many things to do there for fun.

"Hmm," he mumbled. He stretched one arm and pulled out one drawer under the bed and picked his wolfmen edition of Just Beastly magazine under his comic books and DVD movies collection.

He looked one more time, pages after pages of handsome, hunky wolfmen. The appeal was there but now that he was having a shot with Hunter, he felt he didn't need these men in his life anymore to fantasize about, and Hunter was now all he had in his mind to fantasize. Just thinking about him alone was ten times dreamier than any of the wolfmen in the magazine did to him, and every time he fantasized about them, Hunter would sneak into his mind and give him the best pleasure he ever felt.

He put the magazine back inside the drawer under his bed, turned off the lamp on the nightstand, and covered himself under the blanket.

In just two days, Keanu would have his first-ever date this Friday evening! His tail kept thumping while sleeping soundly on the bed almost the whole night.