My apologies for this taking so long, but reasons. X3 Can explain in a journal. Anyways like usual please give constructive criticism if you can, and I apologize for any errors that are there. Ran this through a spell and grammar check, and then had someone proof read it... hope that got everything. X3

Submission is 5152 words :3

Please enjoy :3


The arctic fox let out a content, coffee scented sigh after sipping down her first drink of her latte. She held the white cup between her equally white furred paws, the only bits of color showing being the brown Cyberbeans logo of a cartoon coffee bean holding a laptop. It was a cute logo, she thought, and one of the many tiny perks of patronizing Cyberbeans.

Leah plopped down upon a flower shaped cushion, and murred involuntarily at how comfy the simple green pillow was. It was time to set up camp! Down to her right went the coffee table, to the left went her backpack, in her lap – laptop, of course, earbuds to the ears, and most importantly, her cellphone in her breast pocket. She gazed over her magnificent set up in pride, white tail dragging back and forth along the chestnut table top behind her.

‘That appointment didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would,’ she thought to herself as she booted up her laptop. ‘But hey, thirty minutes of fast Wi-Fi! Worth the twenty cent coffee,’ of which she took another sip as she clicked on the browser icon.

After twenty seconds of loading the application Leah was greeted with her home page. Leah scanned down the page, finding a number of news stories. “Heat Wave Finally Ending,” “Best and Worst Majors from Last Year,” “Two Horned Found Dead in RV,” “Star Christy Finally Announces New Sequel to ‘Valley Cats’”… Leah’s trackpad pointer hoovered on that last one for just a moment, before clicking on the search bar.

‘funny cat videos’, enter.

A couple clicks later and Leah’s ears were filled with the sounds of adorable mews and purrs. Taking hold of her coffee once again, just savoring the white chocolate and caramel aromas with her twitching black nose, Leah knew this was a great day. Video after video, cat after cat, the half hour passed by very quickly, all the while Leaf’s fluffy tail thumped and swished against the tabletop, and she held her black paw pads over her muzzle to keep herself from making any embarrassing sounds out loud.

Deep inside of her Leah was aware that a real cat would probably see her as more of a toy than a friend, which was made painfully aware as she glanced at some of the video titles in the side bar, like “Cat Thinks Micro is Prey”. ‘They called us micros, that’s an improvement,’ Leah mentally noted before moving onto a cuter sounding video. “Cat and Micro meet (cute).”

The video game to life before Leah, first shot showing a snoozing feline on its side. An adorable belly of white and orange fur moved up and down as the fluff ball napped, until its ear twitched. The fox herself grew a bit worried when a fellow person who was vertically different moved towards the cat; her eyes zipped immediately back to the waking fluff beast. It knew it wasn’t alone now. What was going to happen? Her question was soon answered; white paws reached out and grabbed the husky. There was no fighting, but the cat had him in its clutches! A white paw moved to the pause button, about to stop this travesty before things took a different turn; rather than become a toy, or worse, the feline pulled the micro right into the fluff of its chest, and held him there as it closed its eyes. A hug.

Leah bite her finger to keep herself from letting out a squee.

Many cats actually were trained to coexist with micros, and other small creatures. For the average housecat there was practically no danger, it was just the other cats in the world that were not as well mannered. Wild cats, the kind that enjoyed living in poorer neighborhoods. ‘But the department of animal control did take care of almost all the cats in southside,’ Leah made sure to correct herself with a smile. ‘People are looking out for us.’

Leah’s eyes looked to the bottom right corner of her screen and she realized it was a few minutes past the time her friend said he would show up. She pulled out her phone and tapped it, but no new messages, just the reflection of blue eyes on the poor quality screen. ‘A few minutes isn’t a big deal, there’s probably all kinds of traffic at this time, especially coming north.’

More time to look at fun videos on the internet! But she would need some more coffee, if one could call it that, to handle all of the cuteness on the internet. As if reading her mind, the eyes of the jackal barista met with Leah’s when she looked upwards; with a long breath, the canine approached, the golden discs boring down at Leah with their lack of concern or passion.

“Ready for your free second cup then?” The older canine asked down in the most disinterested voice. Must be tired from working here on her own, Leah figured.

“Yes please,” the fox paused to scan the nametag of the employee, eying the bronze colored placard that was not terribly smaller than Leah herself, “Julia. Thank you.” She added a wag of the tail in to help show her appreciation; Julia probably needed it today.

The jackal, Julia, paused at the sudden kindness before simply nodding, moving back to her counter and returning with a cup clasped between her giant fingers. The cup was quickly taken into Leah’s hand, who offered another thanks to the uncomfortable giantess who returned back to the counter. Hopefully she could cheer up tonight, the fox mused to herself.

But it was time for even more videos! Settling back onto the cushion the fox took a slow sip of her second latte and resumed the fun. Perhaps it was not so bad that her friend was late, she figured, because at least I can enjoy myself in the meantime. And so the minutes flowed on by. A bit too fast really.

Looking back down at her screen, the time was getting a bit worrisome. It was already 5:20, and there was not a single text or missed call on her phone. He said he’d be there by five, she reminded herself. Sighing, she produced her phone from her pocket and tapped out a text message with her black thumb pads.

“Wer r u at? Everythin ok?” Send. She set her phone down on the hard wood table top so she would better hear it.

In her subscriptions section she spotted some new trailers for “Brave Warriors”, for all smart phones as noted on the video thumbnail. Leah smiled and clicked on the playlist, ears perking up to the sounds of cartoonish combat. Fires, all sorts of colors of hair and armor, plumes of magic bombs, arrows raining, the screen was just awash in action, but the icy blue eyes kept venturing downwards. Even a feminine voiced pig man riding a giant chicken was hard to focus on, as funny and useful as the new class looked. During the window between each video her eyes remained stuck to the white text in the corner.

It was almost 5:40 when the playlist ended. Leah looked at her phone; not one new text.

“I hope everythings ok but I need 2 go. C u tomorrow,” she texted before rising to her feet, dropping her laptop back into her bag and slinging it over one shoulder. Stepping from the tabletop onto a walkway attached to the wall that spanned from the entrance to the counter, she started the trudge back to the entrance.

A cold shiver ran down Leah’s back as she realized the jackal was watching her every move. She craned her head to look around in the café; not a single soul was there, except for her and Julia, who was organizing a display of cookies that was already in order based on bag color, most likely trying to not be too blatant in her staring. Leah looked at the time on her phone, before trotting down the walkway to the counter, Julia instantly looking down to her quizzically.

“I just wanted to say thank you for the service, and for making the drinks so well! The lattes you made tasted a lot better than the Cyberbeans down in Southside, back when we had one. Thank you,” the white fox said with a happy bow, clutching the cup in her paws.

“A machine makes them,” the jackal grunted down at Leah, standing intentionally close to cast a shadow. However, before Leah could feel too intimidated Julia crouched down and eyed the muzzle level fox. “But I do keep the machine as clean as possible, not like there’s much else to, so thank you, and you’re welcome,” she concluded, the corners of her mouth twitching into an almost smile.

“You’re welcome,” Leah sighed in relief, approaching the muzzle, “and I hope you have nice rest of the evening. Hopefully your shift is ending soon?” she inquired, finishing the last of her honey goodness.

“In about an hour, yeah. Thank god too, it’s so fucking boring here like this. Then again at least I get off before the rush,” she replied, actually grinning. “Want me to get rid of that for you?”

“Oh, sure, thank you,” she quickly said, not waiting for any hand to appear but approaching the glinting wall of white fangs, each one almost probably as long as her arm, if not more so. But she reached her arms up, having to stand on the tips of her toes, and manage to balance her white cup atop that black nose, Leah’s own white hair becoming a bit of a mess. The fox giggled at her handiwork, thinking the cup looked like the world’s tiniest dog treat there. “There you go, now sit girl!”

Julia was not sure what to make of the action until the fox spoke up, which made her lips peel back even more.

“I think you got that a little mixed up there squirt. Still, not on your life,” she snarked and rose back to standing, golden irises positioned low so she could keep her muzzle stable, the cup still resting atop her nose.

“Aw, well it was worth a try. Nice balance though, Julia,” she laughed with a shrug.

“Thanks. What’s your name anyways? We don’t get many people from Southside here.”

“It’s Leah, and it’s nice to meet you Julia,” she answered and extended her arm to the enormous barista. “Hopefully I’ll see you again when I start going to the city college. I’d keep you company tonight, but I got to get home; friend didn’t show, so bus it is.”

“Nice to meet you too, Leah. One of the nicer one’s I’ve met,” Julia replied before gently taking Leah’s hand between her forefinger and thumb and giving it a shake. It was tight, but not too painful. “And no worries, just talk to me next time it’s like this. Better than being a little leech, right?” She asked with that same grin.

“I guess so,” Leah chirped back excitedly, shrugging again. “Still, have a good night!” she called out before trotting down the walkway to the exit.

~

Boarding a bus by yourself was always something of a daunting task. If not for the gap on either side of you when crossing the platform the smaller entrance extends out when it opens, then for the fact that you have to stand on the ground near the feet of every other passenger. Leah’s eyes were constantly on the move as she approached the platform, a sole smaller person in a sea of tennis shoes and flip flops. Not that anyone would try to be malicious, she thought, but just in case.

Her perceptive white ears heard the gears of the great machine, an enormous mobile metal building, shifting and preparing to take off. Even if she needed to be safe, she knew she had to hurry, so she bolted. Earbuds smacking noisily against the shell of her laptop as she ran, her ears flattened in determination, and the belief that doing so would cut back on her wind resistance as she ran. The much more enormous Plexiglas doors had already began to close, so she knew she had only had moments. The metal platform was already prepping to retract, but the fox leapt and landed on the silver and yellow strip, sighing in relief when her ears picked up a familiar tone indicating someone was still boarding.

Leah let out something between a laugh and a heavy breath of relief, and slowly made her way into the great metal whale, booping her card against the scanner to the right of the entry way. It was a pretty long trek from the café to the bus stop, and having to run certainly didn’t help, so she took her time approaching the small black square, letting herself catch her breath as she rode the elevator to the balcony where the micro seating was. As the elevator reached its destination, Leah was greeted with nothing but empty seats, arranged in a way that reminded her of a hospital’s waiting room; least she had free choice of any seat.

Plopping down in one of the uncomfortable green seats, Leah looked out at the rest of the bus’s passengers. The bus itself was not particularly crowded, less than half of the giant sized seats were taken, mostly by middle aged folks in suits staring down at their phones. A few of the seats were occupied by other teenagers, though the difference between them was of course that, even on the balcony, they towered over her as they texted.

“Wow you’re really out of breath there lil girl; come on, it wasn’t that much of a jog for you.”

Leah heard a voice speak to her, at least she was pretty sure it was speaking to her. Scanning back over the bus, everyone was still on their phones… except- she jumped in her seat when she realized that, right next to the micro seating was a huge black wolf, dressed in dark gray clothing. She was so dark she almost blended into the wall, if not for those red eyes and those gleaming white teeth.

“O-oh, man, I didn’t see you there, heehee. But I had to jog from like all the way in the café, it was pretty long,” she said with a sheepish smile up to the 20 something, possibly 30 something woman. Leah’s eyes briefly played across the woman’s long black horns that came from behind and over her ears, protruding just a bit over her face. She quickly looked back to her eyes; did not want to stare.

“Man, that’s kinda sad. The café wasn’t even that far from the sidewalk. What were you doing there anyways?” The wolf asked, that same smile still on her face, more of a grin, Leah guessed.

“Well, what most people do, drinking coffee! I used their Wi-Fi too, watched some vids on my lappy,” Leah giggled, playfully swishing her tail.

“Huh, well isn’t that something. And a lappy… oh, you mean a laptop,” the wolf chuckled, eying the bag laying in the seat near the fox. “Wow, they make electronics that small? I remember back when even we didn’t have laptops.”

“I know right? Isn’t it crazy how fast technology advances? Not that I’m complaining; because of how great things are going I get to go to college. Heheh, like, when I was a little kid that seemed like something that could never happen, like just from a practical standpoint. But now, hee, I can barely believe it,” Leah responded back gleefully.

“How nice, I bet your lil parents are proud. What would someone like you study anyways?” The horned wolf asked.

“Law! Well probably political science at first, but eventually going to law school. I got a lot of general education stuff to work through first though, but that’s how it is. Gives me time to plan at least,” Leah answered, her ears twitching as a rush of hot, moist air fell down on her; the dark furred woman was laughing. What was so funny, she huffed internally.

“Heh, that’s so cute. Not to sound demeaning, it’s just a cute thought,” the wolf sort of apologized, kind of, though the fangs showing still made Leah shift in her seat.
“Uhm, yeah, sure, heheh,” Leah replied while pulling her phone out of her pocket, moving her eyes to it. Despite the new message symbol not being visible on her screen she opened her messages anyways and scrolled through her recent texts. She felt the red eyes still on her, and out of the corner of her eye she could see that fangy smile falter, and wrinkles form on the wolf’s forehead. ‘Dang it, I shouldn’t do this, but-‘

“Wait, who’re you again?”

Huh? Leah returned her gaze up to the confused looking wolf, her forehead wrinkling a bit as she raises her eyebrow. “Uh, I didn’t give you my name yet, but it’s Leah,” she admitted, and after some contemplation, added “what about you?”

“What about me?” The wolf questioned, her black furred face still marred with confusion. She lowered her head to be closer to the fox, and Leah could not help but scoot to a further away seat when the tip of one of this person’s thick black horns scraped along the railing of the platform. The huge black nose twitched as Leah figured it was investigating her scent, warm air pushing back and forth against her rapidly to where she needed to hold onto her red hat, though it’s ribbon whipped back and forth freely.

“Your name,” Leah explained, looking out to the other people in the bus, though every single person was on their phone, or in one painful case just not looking over at the scene. Though, the sound of the bus’s brakes screeching interrupted the conversation.

Once the bus came to a stop a mechanical voice announced it as South Elm Avenue, and the every single suited person exited, as well as a number of the teens. In their place entered a number of young people, teens and twenties mostly, in brightly colored uniforms that clashed with the dark insides of the bus entered, along with a couple of sweaty red fox laborers and an old rabbit woman carrying two overflowing paper sacks of groceries.

The pitch black wolf also scanned each new arrival, lifting her face away from the platform which caused Leah to reclaim her previous seat. Her voice showed little recognition for anyone, except when it returned down to the micro seating and a familiar smile crept across it.

“Oh, we got a lil micro up in here too, fancy that. You just board or what?” The wolf asked the confused looking fox, the bus going back into gear thankfully giving Leah a moment to think, looking out of the enormous windows to see familiar buildings being replaced with dark unincorporated land.

“Uh, what do you mean ma’am? I boarded back at café near the county benefits office; you even commented on it,” Leah asked with a bit of worry. The worry grew when the wolf’s smile became something closer to a grimace.

“The hell are you talking about? I’ve been on this bus for almost half an hour and I certainly don’t remember any eretshim milling about here, but you are easy to miss,” the wolf grumbled, before her lips curled into a smirk as she brought her face back down towards Leah.

Leah once again tried to move to a different seat, taking her bag with her, but the muzzle of the wolfess was overshadowing so much of the platform that she could not decide on a safe place. The elevator? That was out; even if it made her less obvious, going down to the floor would just be risky. However even with that thought Leah did inch towards the black rubber square, the maw of this woman taking up more and more of her personal space.

“Aw, running away? Come on, you think we’re buddies, so get over here friend,” the wolf cooed down, and while those eyed stayed locked onto Leah a single black padded finger curled behind the fox and gave her a push towards the canine’s muzzle, just a few centimeters. But then another little push, and another.

The black clawed finger completely blocked the aisle behind her, as well as the seats on either side of her. There was nowhere to run; she just had to keep moving forward, against her will, towards the long muzzle that was nestling itself onto the platform. ‘At least it’s not an open maw,’ Leah told herself, and forced the most apologetic of looks at the wolf.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry I made my accusations, I must have been thinking of someone else I met today, s-so can you give me some space?” She lied.

The wolf murred, before slowly removing her finger from behind Leah. “I guess so, little one, but-“

“Whoa whoa what the hell? Leah, is everything alright? You need me to get this gal to back the hell off?”

A new voice rung out in her defense! A familiar voice actually. Then again the wolf seemed to be backing off on her own, poor woman probably just got confused or something, no biggie, but either way the hulking form of brown furred otter came into view, grasping at the silver support pole and glaring down at the wolf. As far as Leah was concerned he looked positively heroic in the artificial light of the bus, even if he was in a dopey red and yellow uniform.

“The fuck you want?” the wolfess said in a much louder tone as she lifted her head to glare up to the male younger than herself, a much more country accent ringing through Leah’s ears.

“All I want is for you to leave my friend alone, Qereshim bitch. You shouldn’t be getting your fugly horned face anywhere near her,” the otter growled out, and several fellow uniformed people audibly agreed.

Growling back in return the wolf shot up from her seat and barred her fangs at the otter. From Leah’s point of view they were two imposing titans staring each other down, each holding considerable power and height even among their own scaled people, though the otter stood a bit taller. Though the wolf did not seem concerned with this at all, her horns aimed right for the otter’s face. But glancing at the fellow burger flippers all staring at the situation made her huff, and turn her attention to the dark emptiness outside the bus.

“Whatever, we’re about at my stop anyways,” was all the wolf muttered before tapping the button on the side of the bus, signaling a robot ‘Stop Requested’ from the bus’s speakers. And once the bus did screech to a stop, the dark furred woman stepped into the equally dark surroundings, almost blending in like a chameleon as she walked down a nearby road lined by thick trees, just like the ones blocking out the last bit of sunlight.

“I can’t believe people actually live out here,” Leah spoke to herself, before turning her eyes up to the towering otter, finally able to get a good look at him. Her eyes lit up; “Oh wow, Brock, I haven’t seen you since graduation! How’ve you been?”

“They got a village out that way or something, where they do their weird rituals and stuff,” Brock huffed, before tearing his eyes from the woman through the window and looking down to the fox, smiling softly. “Just fine; got a sports scholarship to VSUG, be playing soccer for them. But more importantly are you okay?” He asked as he sat down in the seat the wolf was in. “She didn’t hurt you did she?”

“Wow, a sports scholarship? That’s amazing Brock! But not surprising, you were always great,” she giggled. “But no, no she didn’t really… I mean getting so close to her mouth was really scary, but when I asked her to stop she did. I think, like, she’s just one of those people who get sorta confused easily, poor thing.”

“There’s a reason they’re like that you know,” Brock huffed and gave his friend a stern look.

“I know I know, but it can be genetic too, so I shouldn’t judge her,” Leah defended with a smile. “I’m fine anyways, so no harm no foul, right?”

“I guess, but I think you give some people too much credit,” he sighed out, before smiling himself. “Still, how have you been? You haven’t kept in contact much, the gang’s wondering if you were sick or something.”

“Heh, well I’m not the only one on break you know. The twins Colin and Colleen got out of school at the same time as us, and Isaac and lil Savannah got out a couple weeks later. Mom and dad work in the day, so someone needs to watch them,” Leah explained proudly.

“You’re putting too much pressure on yourself Leah; the twins are old enough to take care of themselves; hell, they can take care of the young ones too, and probably have a lot easier time with it than you,” Brock said with concern, leaning towards the platform.

“I know, but mom and dad like having someone keep an eye on them; plus when they’re busy with parties and stuff someone has to watch the younger ones. Besides, I might as well pull my weight before I start college; then they’ll have to take over,” she chuckled.

“That’s nice, but you gotta live some yourself girl. Having a party at the end of the week, you should come by; it’ll be at night, so you can have your parents watch the kids. Besides you owe us; only person you’ve even been texting is Asher,” he said while smiling, most likely to show his good nature. “We got a deal then?”

“Oh fine, I guess we do,” Leah said with a fake angry tone, before being unable to hold character and laughing. “Sounds great; I’ve missed everyone, just kinda having to keep the house together while mom and dad pick up extra shifts. So I could use this,” she continued with a tail swish.

“Awesome! I’ll pick you up so you don’t need to rely on Asher’s flakey ass. I’ll text you the details soon.”

“Aw, thank you. But yeah, that’s why I’m riding the bus now, Asher totally flaked,” she said with self-conscious chuckle.

“Damn, I don’t know how, or why, you put up with him.”

“We both know he needs some friends right now, and we’ve known him like forever, so I don’t mind, and you should cut him some slack too; it’s a tough situation,” Leah said while crossing her arms and giving him a most judging look, even if her eyes were jovial.

“Way to make me feel bad Leah,” he said while rolling his eyes, but gave her a smirk. “We’re almost at our stop: want me to give you a lift to your place?” And as he asked the mechanical voice spoke back up and announced that they were approaching the ‘South Brooke Stop.’ He set his hand down near the micro seating.

“You’re so easy,” she giggled, “But yeah, I’d like that,” she finished as she boarded the otter’s padded hand, being carried off the bus once it came to a stop. Taking in the familiar sights of the shrub filled fields and lots filled with abandoned farming machinery, Leah thought back to the green trees of Northside, but still, she smiled as she was carried down the sidewalk and to the close cluster of houses surrounded by brick walls.

~

“You know I could have cooked dinner Leah, you don’t have to do everything,” a female zebra, around 16 years old, chided with a well-intentioned smirk as she rested her long muzzle on the light blue countertop. She watched the white fox leaned against the glass saucepan filled with warm soapy water. Her black and white hair rested atop the counter in thick locks, on her right side at least; the hair on the left side of her head stop up in an almost finlike Mohawk.

“Do you remember the last time I let you cook dinner? Not only did you undercook the chicken you destroyed one of our cooking sheets,” she disagreed, tail tiredly swishing behind her.

“How long you gunna hold that against me?” The Zebra asked, snorting hot air onto Leah. “I know that’s not it.”

“Yeah yeah, you’re not wrong, I just find it funny,” she chuckled, rising to her feet and slowly approaching the bus sized muzzle, well what she was assuming was bus sized while trying to apply her earlier experience to it. “But I just like taking care of my little brothers and sisters. But also, well, before mom started working dad asked that I look after all of you, and I intend to keep my word. Show him I can handle things, make him proud,” Leah explained, putting her hands onto the bristly black end of her sister’s muzzle.

“Leah,” the zebra teen said before pausing, looking down to the sister before her muzzle, taking extra careful care to not move too much as she spoke. “You’re a great big sister, but I think you’re taking dad’s words a bit far. It’s not like you have to do everything; there’s no shame in letting people help you,” she smiled, gently running one of her fingers down Leah’s back.

“D’aww, thank you Colleen... but handling everything makes me feel so fulfilled. Without all my classes I need to get my micromanaging out elsewhere. So, deal with it,” Leah giggled, and stuck her tongue out. However, she also pressed her body into the black end of her sister’s muzzle, giving it a hug.

Colleen snorted again. “Yeah I think not, stubborn fox. We can talk about this tomorrow, but for tonight I’m taking charge. And to start, I’m washing up for you, and there’s not a thing you can do about it Leah,” the zebra smirked, plucking the fox off of her muzzle. She stood to her full height and lowered her sister into her breast pocket, still smirking down at her.

Glaring, Leah let out a “hmph”, and tried to climb her way out of the pocket, but she felt the push of her little sister’s finger atop her head.

“Deal with it,” Colleen simply smirked down, and began loading the presoaked dishes into the washer.

Not having much recourse, Leah sighed and got comfortable in the tight crevice of warm fabric. “You’re a big bully. But… thanks, Colleen,” she mumbled, and nestled into her sister’s chest.