Happy Birthday Puppy-Dog.
#1 of Musique
They say that good things come to those who wait.
That's how the story goes.
For one particular teenager, that wasn't the case.
Seventeen years old, and not even a single kiss, even a single glance his way.
This year was going to be different, he told himself.
The same thing he told himself every year.
'He's just round the corner..I can tell, I'll find my love soon...'
He didn't believe a word of it, but it's better to be an optimist that a pessimist.
If not only to please his mother at least.
He was to find much more than he expected, and not even an inkling of an idea did he have for what was to happen.
His little story begins at the turning of his eighteenth birthday, on August first, a cold, brisk morning in his little home in the middle of the city...
_Dear Tzu,
Hope you have a wonderful birthday, and get everything you want!
See you soon! -Mum_
"Heh...Thanks mum.."
The card was pretty ordinary looking, Mrs Cartright hadn't ever been one for elaborate things. White, with a small red present on the front wrapped with a green bow. Inside just simply had the words 'happy birthday' printed in black bold text, and the message his mother had written.
With a small smile crossing his muzzle, Tzu placed the card delicately on his windowsill.
Even when all of his friends from school had abandoned him, his mother had been his one and only constant friend. Every birthday she sent him a card and stopped by to deliver presents, every Christmas she made sure that he was transported up to the family home to spend the holiday with his siblings, and every Easter she made sure that he could paint eggs with his little brother and roll them down the hill beside the small woods next to the family home, where Tzu had often played with his sister when he was a child.
In fact, it was Tzu himself that had insisted upon the latter, for he rarely got to see his little brother at all, having moved away when the little pup was only six years old. Lance had taken a clear liking to his older brother the moment he could walk, and Tzu had done everything in his power to teach him all he knew. He taught him how to crack a conker skin just right so not to damage the brown nut within, he taught him how to tie a tight knot around a tree branch for a good rope-swing, and he taught him everything he needed to know about the woods and life outside the Cartright home. They were inseparable; protective big brother, with a knack for getting in and out of trouble, and wide-eyed, innocent little brother, with a big heart and a mind full of questions for the wide, terrifying world outside his front door.
Therefore it made the decision to move out all the more harder for Tzu. He remembered vividly the tears drowning the young pup's cheeks as his taxi pulled away from the cosy, warm cottage that was his home for sixteen years of his life. His three other siblings all waved boredly, he had never really been that close with any of them. But the hurt look upon the face of little Lance that day was one that haunted him for weeks, months after the move. He waved and waved and waved until the family were nothing but dots on the horizon. His two sisters and the middle brother had entered the house after a few minutes, but he could sense rather than see his little brother standing at his mother's side, watching his big brother, the one person whom he looked up to, disappear from his life.
Tzu wrote every day. After a year had passed in his new flat, he made his first visit to his old home.
That day was easily the best of his life so far. That day, he was greeted by his sisters, Lacuna and Emilia, and the middle brother Jeff. His mother was there, tears in her eyes as she embraced her eldest son. And of course, his most vivid memory of that day was Lance tearing round the corner of the house and come charging towards him, physically knocking him to the floor with his enthusiastic embrace. That day was his most fondest memory, and every night he would think back on it and smile. Before leaving for the city once more the next day, Lance had clung onto his arm for the entire morning, begging him not to leave so soon. Tzu promised that he would write every day, and sent him presents from the city.
There were no tears when Tzu entered the taxi this time, nor when the driver pulled away from the house. Only smiles and promises of presents the next time he arrived.
Two days after he had got back, a package arrived for him, written in Lance's scrawly handwriting. Inside was perhaps the strangest outfit he had ever seen in his life; Bright orange cargo trousers, a bright yellow tanktop, two packets of brightly coloured bangles, bright blue sneakers and a small baby blue satchel bag. Tzu instantly fell in love with this outfit, and vowed to wear it every time he visited Lance, and on every special occasion of the year. But only then, and never another day.
A rumble of his stomach brings him out of his reverie of memories and back into the real world. His paw rubbed his stomach tenderly, another rumble telling him how hungry he really was. He checks the clock by his bedside: It read 12:40PM. Tzu's mother usually stopped by at around about 3 PM to drop off his presents and to take him to the family home, where Lance would be waiting to tackle him to the ground again. The very thought of it made him smile. A third rumble of his empty stomach puts his mind back into focus again, and without a second glance at the card on his windowsill he exits his little room and shuffles lazily into his open plan kitchen, curled tail swishing behind him.
After an hour of making a meal out of whatever he could get his hands on inside the fridge and watching cartoons on his television set, he finally decides to take a shower, and then get dressed in his favourite outfit.
The water came out in long, hot gushes from the showerhead, soaking the naked form of the purple fur in seconds. His eyes closed, and he worked the soap into a lather in his paws, appreciating the awakening effect the water had on his stiff limbs. He coated his fur in the soapy substance, his paws stroking and washing every inch of his body as the steam rose and coated the mirror in a thick fog. After he was through washing the soap from his coat, he squirts a handful of shampoo into his paws and runs them through his long purple hair, cleaning all of the previous night's musk and dandruff from his beautiful locks. As he gave his hair far more attention than was necessary, his mind wandered -as it always did while he was in the shower- to his love life. He didn't know why, but somehow being naked and soaked to the skin always made him think about sex. Or rather, his lack of said activity. Ever since he had first come out as gay nearly six years ago, he had been looking for the perfect fur to join his life to. Someone whom he could love, and who would love him in return. Someone who he would one day ask to marry, and move into a big house out of the city, and live in peace with his one true love.
Unfortunately, he had been too shy to ask a single fur out. Never had a girlfriend before he was gay, never a boyfriend after, his life had been based solely around family. Mostly around his little brother Lance, whom he adored more than any, more than his mother, or any of his other siblings.
Shaking his head, Tzu rubs his head softly, washing the suds from his hair. His gaze is directed downward, and his eyes fall upon the tip of his adulthood, poking out of his sheath as it always did.
With a small sigh, he shuts the showerhead off. Thinking about it would get him nowhere. He was eighteen now, if he didn't act soon, he would be a virgin for the rest of his life. Shaking such a dismaying thought from his head, Tzu steps out of the walk-in shower and picks a towel from the rack by the door, which he wraps around his waist. Deciding to let his fur dry naturally, he makes his way out of the bathroom and into the livingroom/kitchen combo, his cream irises glancing at the television which was on by the door to his apartment. Spongebob. The husky can't help but grin. Would he ever grow up? Or would his mind just stay as childish as when he was ten years old. Tzu firmly hoped it was the latter. He plonks himself down on the sofa in front of the TV just as Spongebob hits Squidward in the face with a water balloon. A grin creeps across his face, content to watch cartoons until his fur dried off completely.
An hour later...
"Aaaaahhhh fuck fuck fuck!!!"
With an angry scowl at the bathroom mirror, Tzu sticks his throbbing finger in his mouth to cool it down. In his right paw he held a pair of hair straighteners, which he was using to style his hair the way he wanted. His left paw was being used to hold the hair back, and in doing so he had scalded his index finger with the hot metal bars. Wincing from the sharp pain pulsing though his finger, he removes said digit from his mouth and continues to straighten his hair.
After several more minutes of straightening and styling, he sizes himself up in the mirror. It was straight all over, two long bangs falling down either side of his face in anime-ish style. His fringe was gelled downwards, and parted in the middle of his forehead so he could see, jagged spikes forming the style of fringe he wanted. Satisfied with his work, he glances at the clock above the bathroom mirror. It read: 2:50PM. With only ten minutes to spare, Tzu whips the towel from his waist and throws it into the laundry basket in the corner of the bathroom, before bounding out through the door and into his bedroom.
Throwing open the closet against the plain blue wall of his room, he moves aside the rows of clothes until he comes across his most prized outfit. The bright colours stood out from the rest of his clothes, and as he takes it out of his closet by the coathanger, Tzu smiles.
It was the outfit his brother had bought him, all those years ago.
He lovingly dons the bright cargo trousers and tanktop, slips on the sneakers over a white pair of socks and slips the bangles onto each arm. Deciding not to wear the bag until it was time to leave, he tucks it under his arm, just as there is a knock at his door.
The clock at his bedside read 3:00PM exactly.