Foxbutt Ch. 04

Foxbutt so far:

Part 1, Part 2,Part 3. This is my first ever furry story, so please let me know what you think! Check my profile to see my other story series.

Lily hyperventilates as calmly as she can manage, knuckles white as fingers squeeze the wheel. Calm down, Lily. She forces herself to count to four as she breathes in, count to four as she breathes out, you're just going back to the den of some magical creature so that you can share a pizza, get a hold of yourself, there's nothing scary about pizza.

The problem is twofold - firstly, she's not throwing games at people, and secondly, she's not staring Thomas right in the face, so now she's had a second or two to absorb what's happening to her. She can't even tell if she wants the light to hurry up and turn green, or stay red for a day or two so she can figure out how she feels about all this. The hairs on her forearms begin slowly to rise, and her eyebrows itch.

Rain hammers her windshield, the sort of rain that doesn't leave pretty individual lenses of inverted worlds on the glass but instead pours against her like a river getting up and dancing after a long nap. The wipers whip back and forth on their highest setting, motors protesting loudly, thumping against their stops in time with Lily's heartbeat. They throw what seems like a gallon of water over the side with each beat, leaving the glass just clear enough to glimpse Thomas' pointy ears in the driver's seat of the car in front, silhouetted against red, and then the rain annihilates the view an eyeblink later.

Thump, whip, ears, red, blur, thump, whip, ears, red, blur, thump, whip, ears, green, flash - the world flicks turquoise-white for an instant, and Lily is sure she saw Thomas' eyes in his rear-view mirror, fur white as snow and red as blood in the lightning, and then the bang of thunder follows almost instantly, so loud she feels it in her sternum, so loud the rain vibrates and shimmers on the glass, and Lily jumps.

That was really close.

Thomas' taillights dim, and his car eases forwards. Lily exhales and follows him.

***

The two cars roll slowly into side-by-side parking spaces outside Thomas' apartment building, rain bouncing off their hoods.

Lily cuts the engine, breathing hard, heart pounding. She feels it in her neck, hears it deep in her ears. The drive was short, but unbelievably tense - and not just because she could barely see Thomas' car in front of her. She swallows, leaving her mouth dry, and looks to her right - she can't see Thomas through two panes of fogged-up glass, but she sees the blueish white light from his phone, flickering as his thumbs move, rising to what must be his ear.

Her own phone lights up in its cradle. She picks up.

"Hi," she squeaks, shivering despite the heat, the phone seeming heavy in her weakened arms.

"Hi," says Thomas, crackly in her right ear. She strains to see him. "Wanna give it a minute to see if it lets up, or make a run for it?"

Lily laughs, not sure why - she needs some kind of release, that's all. "I've no idea," she replies, absurdly. She giggles and slumps down in her seat, sighing happily. "Ahhhh, no idea at all."

"Weird day, huh," says Thomas.

"Yeah," says Lily, quietly, smiling.

They're quiet for a moment, listening to the rain and each other's crackly breathing.

"I haven't seen it like this in a while," says Thomas, quietly.

"Climate change I guess," breathes Lily. "Thanks for going slow, by the way, I had a hell of a time seeing anything."

"Me too," replies Thomas.

With the defroster turned off, the windshield begins a slow fade to white. Lily feels a warmth in her tummy as her neck and toes feel a chill, contemplating whether to say it.

"Tom?" says Lily, low in her seat, looking through the center of the wheel.

"Yeah?"

"I think..." Lily swallows. "I think it says a lot about how comfortable I am with you, that we're talking about the weather and driving and stuff when... you're a fox."

Thomas chuckles in her ear. Lily shivers.

"Yeah," he says, breathily. "I'm glad you're with me, for this."

Lily smiles. "I'm glad I'm here too. I'd..." she looks over to her right, hesitates. "I'd kind of prefer to be there, though."

Thomas hesitates just long enough for a smile to form, that Lily can hear in his words. "I'd like that too."

"I can hear you smiling," says Lily, watching the rivers flow down the window. "It doesn't sound like when I smile. Or like when you smiled before, y'know how you can hear when people are smiling, in their voices - it doesn't sound like that. But I know." She grins. "Even though I've never heard the difference between a sad muzzle and a smiley muzzle, even though all the muscles must surely be different, so the difference it makes to the sound can't possibly be the same, I somehow know it."

"D'you think that's part of the..." Thomas hesitates.

"Say it, Tom," whispers Lily, her heart racing. "Say magic."

"Uh..." Thomas hesitates, begins to speak, stops, begins again, finally admits "Yeah. Yeah, let's be honest with ourselves, magic. Or, like, science that we don't understand yet."

"I'm not saying 'sufficiently-advanced science' every time, Tom, that's too many syllables. Magic."

"Yeah, it must be part of the magic that stopped anyone noticing me. Except you."

"So magic's real," says Lily, "and I'm on a date with a magical person who drives an old Toyota."

"Is this... too bizarre?"

"I thought you were gonna finish that sentence with 'a date.'"

"Is this a bizarre date?"

"Yes," says Lily, instantly.

They're quiet for a moment, grinning into their phones.

"Cool," says Thomas.

"Cool," says Lily, comfortable.

"Thanks for not saying 'magical creature,' by the way."

Lily grins. "I nearly said 'magical creature.' I stopped myself at the last second 'cause I thought it might sound ruder than I meant it to."

"I wouldn't have been offended."

"Good," says Lily, and watches the rain.

They both do, for a moment. Then Lily frowns.

"Tom?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's your tail, right now?"

"It's, uh..." there's a rustling. "It's kinda playing with the parking brake."

Lily laughs explosively.

"It's just," says Thomas, chuckling himself, "y'know, kinda doing its thing, there..."

"I'm sorry," snickers Lily, "I don't mean to laugh, I probably shouldn't laugh..."

"Heh, no," says Thomas, "I mean this whole thing is kinda inherently funny, y'know?"

Lily gathers herself, calms down, giggles into the phone, "You're... yeah, you're funny, but..." she smiles and blushes. What she wants to say is You're funny, and you're also attractive and sexy and fascinating, and being silly and funny doesn't ever have to take away from the sexy, it can enhance it, so don't stop being funny - it comes out as "You're cute too."

"And fuzzy!" replies Thomas, laughing.

"Heheh," chuckles Lily. The rain, impossibly, batters the car even harder. "Man, isn't it ever gonna let up for a minute?"

"Probably," says Thomas. "I mean, one day."

"Tom," says Lily, taking a deep breath and summoning up the will to say it, imagining how her voice must sound in Thomas' ear, quiet and tinny and intimate in the roar of the rain, "I wanna have a really good look at you."

"Let's make a run for it," says Thomas.

"On three," says Lily, curling her fingers around the handle. "One, two -"

***

The pair burst through the apartment building doors, laughing, dripping, holding hands. In the ten seconds it took them to run across the parking lot, they've been soaked to the skin. Thomas' T-shirt clings wetly to his chest, and his fur shines.

Lily feels goosebumps raise on her forearms. The air conditioner is running. "Christ it's cold in here," she says, running for the elevator.

"Is it?" pants Thomas behind her.

"I assure you it is," says Lily, hitting the button, "mister Well-Insulated." The elevator doors open immediately, and they step inside.

Thomas hits the button. He looks down at Lily and grins, standing two or three inches higher than her.

Lily looks up and grins back, and snakes her right hand into Thomas' left as the doors close.

Thomas squeezes.

Lily looks down, at her hand inside his, as the elevator rises. It's a hand? A paw? Curiously she strokes the pads of her fingers over his fur. A jewel of clear rainwater squeezes out of the dense mat, and drips onto the floor.

She looks down, behind him. His tail is swishing happily from side to side, flicking off water, an absurd and mesmerizing oscillating brush, and she admits to herself that she wants to hug it.

She looks back up, to see Thomas watching her watching him.

"Sorry," she mumbles, looking off to the side, "didn't mean to stare."

"You can stare all you want," says Thomas, softly, with a little squeeze of her hand. "I'm just glad you can see me."

Lily's stomach lifts up into her heart, and the doors open.

***

Lily catches the towel that Thomas tosses to her, and uses it to ruffle her hair. She doesn't sit down - she carries on advancing towards the bathroom, towards Thomas, declaring "I have some questions."

"Yeah, me too," says Thomas, and Lily watches him rub the towel all over his head, awkwardly stroking it across the cheeks of his muzzle, flattening his whiskers. "You go first, though."

"I wanna see your bathroom," says Lily, "if that's alright."

"Sure," says Thomas, and steps aside to let her past.

Lily finds what she's looking for, in the usual place, and picks it up. Dropping the towel, she brings Thomas' razor up close to her eyes.

"How often do you change your razor blades, Tom?"

Thomas shrugs, stepping into the bathroom behind her. "I dunno, uh... once or twice a month, maybe?"

"And how long's this one been in here?"

Thomas squints. "I've no idea. I don't really keep track."

"But it's not, like, fresh out of the box this morning," says Lily, waving the razor around.

"Well, no," says Thomas.

"Right," says Lily, showing Thomas, "look at that." She points to the pristine lubrication strip. "And see," she turns the razor over, "no stubble caught in the blades, behind here. This is brand new, Tom, it's never been used."

Thomas frowns at the razor. "So..." his eyes widen, and he looks up at Lily. "So every morning, I take a shower," he says, pointing behind him, "I get out and I stand right here," he points to the bathmat Lily's standing on, "I look in the mirror," he points at Lily's reflection, "and I spend a few minutes vividly hallucinating shaving my face."

Lily waves the razor. "Sure looks like it."

"Can I offer you some coffee?"

"Yes please," says Lily, weakly, watching Thomas walk out of the bathroom and taking an immediate right into the tiny kitchen.

"Are you getting the same feeling I am," she hears Thomas say, over the sound of a cupboard opening, "that this magic is so powerful, that we're... I dunno, just getting the first tiny little idea of just how huge this thing is, how it can bend reality like that?"

Lily considers for a moment, and decides to answer truthfully. "Actually I was distracted by watching your tail." She hears the clatter of a spoon being dropped. "But now I've got a bit of the old existential dread slash wonder thing going on, sure, now you bring it up." She realizes she's still holding Thomas' razor, sets it down, exits the bathroom, is greeted by Thomas' tail in the air as he bends to pick up the spoon he's dropped. As he straightens up, its fluffy bulk lowers, and strokes ticklish down Lily's face as she inhales in surprise, her weight shifting to her back foot, a mouth full of damp fur. The red-brown brush slides smoothly between her breasts and down to her navel before Thomas leaps a foot into the air, fur standing on end, tail suddenly twice as voluminous.

He emits a small yet loud startled noise that sounds like "Ip," spins midjump and lands facing Lily, crouched, breathing hard, an expression of panic, gripping the spoon at viscera-height.

"Sorry," says Lily, absurdly, adrenaline rushing into her spine, the scent of Thomas' tail still lingering beneath her nose and over her lips, strange yet somehow familiar, utterly alien yet recognizably male, a hair on her tongue. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"I -" Thomas straightens. "Fuck, sorry Lily, I... I felt that! Was that you?"

Lily grins. "Yeah."

"Oh, uh - sorry, I didn't mean to, like, hit you with my tail -" he grabs the item in question and shakes it at her - "I felt it! Remember when I knocked all the games off the shelf?"

"Yeah?"

"I didn't feel a thing, then. I just felt you in my tail!"

"Wow!" says Lily, grin spreading wider. "What did it feel like?"

"Really fucking weird," says Thomas, his own grin appearing now. "Like, like my tailbone's somewhere between my knees, but it's not my tailbone, it's something else, it's a whole new part of me that's, like... like..."

"...a tail?"

"Yes! Exactly!" laughs Thomas. He puts the spoon down and strokes fingers over the white tip of his tail, holding the orange in his other hand. "Uff," he says, wrinkling his nose, doing something complicated with his eyebrows, clearly struggling with the sensation. "That's really weird. I don't know if I can describe it."

"Can..." Lily swallows. "Can I feel?"

Thomas wrenches his eyes from his own tail, looks at Lily, side-on. Bites his lip. Hesitates. Then he extends his arm, still holding his tail, offering it to her.

Lily's heart pounds in her ears, adrenaline diffusing through her muscles from the earlier jumpscare. She reaches her right hand out with trembling fingers and allows them, ever-so-gently, to contact the soft white tuft. She can't feel it - the hairs are too delicate. She moves, and the feeling of fur slowly appears, soft as sunlight, warm as breath.

Thomas shivers, and his tail twitches in his hand. Ever so gently, his grip relaxes, and Lily, not sure what she's doing but trying anyway, moves her left hand closer to his. Her right hand moves further downwards from the snow into the desert, feeling coarser fur, long stiff hairs mixed with softer ones, complicated, fascinating, exhilarating.

She realizes she's stroking him the wrong way, as though she were annoying her pet cat, and she pulls her hand away - her fingers tremble in the air, twitching to grasp the soft warmth of him, and she controls herself. She looks up into Thomas' eyes, sees trust and vulnerability there, breathes deeply, looks back down at his tail.

As she reaches, slowly, for the base of his tail, Thomas' grip relaxes and his tail falls into the waiting palm of her left hand. It's warm. Lily feels a pulse. The fingertips of her right hand settle into the coarse ginger fur just above Thomas' buttocks, and she begins a long, slow, indulgent stroke, allowing her fingers to slip deep into the fur yet being as gentle as she dares. As her fingers move through orange and black she feels Thomas' tail twitch heavy in her palm, and she sees him shiver out of the corner of her eye - as they meet white, he lets out a gasp.

Lily looks up, into Thomas' eyes. Sees a young man lost in his own body, trusting her to help him explore it, sharing it with her.

She slowly reaches up with her right hand, touches it to Thomas' cheek. His whiskers tickle her palm.

Lily leans forward, watching Thomas' eyes. She hears his hurried breathing as they ease closed and he leans in - Lily feels a racing pulse in his jaw as she gently moves him towards her, her own heartbeat matching in her neck, her mouth dry, her breath coming in quick little gasps, his whiskers sliding past her cheekbones, she sees the pattern of fine and delicate hairs on his eyelids just before she allows her own eyes to close and feel the heat of his breath on her lips and his nose brushes against hers and his hand touches her hip and the fucking doorbell rings and he leaps a foot into the air again.

Feeling absurd, Lily grins, throws both hands up in the air and shouts "Pizza time!"