WARNING: This story may contain content of an adult nature. If you are easily offended or are under the legal age to view adult content in your area, please exit now. This text is intended for adults only and may include scenes of sexual content or graphic violence. Reader discretion is advised.

Revelations by IndigoNeko

Chapter 36 – Opportunity Knocks

Monday, June 22nd, 2015

Carefully balancing a cup of coffee, a tall, muscular siberian tiger walked down the dark hallway from the kitchen to his living room. For once there weren’t any gaming console cords strewn across the dimly lit living room floor. The reason for that was immediately obvious: there was an empty area on the wall opposite the sectional sofa between the entertainment center shelves where a flat-screen television would normally hang. That television was currently upstairs in his daughter’s bedroom, where he had moved it to keep the cub entertained while shi recovered from a pair of broken ribs and a broken leg. 

The white and black-striped tiger, whose name was David, miraculously made it across the living room without tripping or even spilling a drop of his morning coffee. He really shouldn’t have been surprised anymore by such a minor achievement, but for the vast majority of his life he had been a terribly clumsy, skinny computer geek. It was only about twelve years ago, after taking up martial arts, that he had gained some modicum of coordination and musculature. It was also the same time that he had met his first girlfriend, an orange and black-striped siberian tigress named Raenne, who was teaching the karate class he had enrolled in. She was the same woman who he’d eventually married and who had given birth to their daughter Alex.

Alex was his pride and joy. Up until he’d had his own, David had never been fond of children. It was like some vast hidden part of the universe he’d never imagined could exist had somehow opened up and revealed the secrets of the heavens. Now that he was a father, he finally understood just how wonderful the gift of a child could be. Even one who was different, like Alex. 

Up until their daughter was born, both David and Raenne had thought Alex would be a boy. However, the doctor that delivered the cub had immediately discovered that the child was one of the 1 in 1,000 or so that were born with both sexes, the result of the fusion of both a male and female zygote within the womb. The technical term was tetragametic chimera. But that was far too much science to think about in the morning.

After making his way across the living room, David pushed open the pair of french doors that led into the sunroom that he used as an office and computer room. It would normally have been rather difficult to see anything in the faint pre-dawn light, but David was blessed with surprisingly good night vision thanks to his feline heritage. Everything in the room was clearly visible to him in shades of steel blue. So, without thinking anything of how dark it was, he set his cup of coffee on the computer desk and tapped the power button on the P.C. tower. By the time he had managed to sit down in the office chair, the computer was up and running, ready for him to start doing whatever he needed.

It didn’t take long for him to open the web browser and hit up LinkedIn, quickly returning to the task of job hunting that he had been working on over the last few days. Surprisingly, there was a brand new job listed for an iOS developer with a company called Digital Grizzly. The IT company looked like they specialized in UI/UX development and custom software. After scanning through the job listing, he frowned. It was suspiciously close to his exact skill set, and it was the first iOS development job he’d come across after looking through over a hundred software development job listings located in Colorado. He clicked the ‘Apply’ button at the top and then clicked a few more buttons to append his resume to the job application.

David wasted the next half hour or so browsing memes on Imgur and spending some time on Reddit. After the sun had risen and he was starting to feel a bit more like his normal self, he began his morning ritual, heading upstairs to take a shower and get dressed in his usual business-casual attire, a button-down shirt with rolled up sleeves and khaki cargo shorts.

Another ten minutes after that, the tiger made french toast for breakfast; the same thing they had every morning, whether it was himself, his wife, or even their daughter who made it. He set two of the plates out on the dining room table for the two of them along with some microwaved sausage links. The last one he sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar and carried up to his daughter’s room, where he set it on hir desk. He heard a yawn coming from hir bed as he stepped out of the bedroom and smiled. The smell of cinnamon was enough to wake hir up now.

David was cleaning up the kitchen after having breakfast with his wife when his cell phone started ringing. He quickly fished it out of his pocket and swiped the bar at the bottom of the screen to answer it. “David speaking, how can I help you?” he asked.

“Hi, this is Cortney with Digital Grizzly. I just got your resume this morning. It looks like you have quite a formidable resume,” the woman on the other end of the line said. “Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

David cocked his head to one side, rather bewildered; he’d only applied to the job like an hour ago. “I do, actually. I applied to Digital Grizzly just this morning.”

“So I saw,” the perky voice replied. “You’re actually the first person to apply to the position, and you have a rather formidable resume. I figured the least I can do is call you. You’ve been working with iOS for over five years now, using Objective-C. Is that right?”

“It is. I’ve been writing iOS and Android applications for six years now using Objective-C and Java. Before that I was a full stack web developer for about ten years,” the white tiger explained, wandering out of the kitchen and into the living room while he chatted on the phone.

“Fantastic! That’s exactly the sort of experience we were looking for. So, let me tell you a little bit about Digital Grizzly. We’re a mid-sized company located in Prairie Flats, near Denver, Colorado. We’ve got around fifty employees at the moment, mostly software developers, and we specialize in making custom native applications with a rich and vibrant user interface...”

David listened intently as the voice on the phone gave him more details on the company itself, then began explaining their interview process. 

__________________________________________________

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015

A teenaged doberman pinscher sat on her bed, trying not to hyperventilate as she waited for someone to answer her call. It had literally been weeks since the end of school, and she’d finally worked up the courage to call the monkey that she had met in the last few weeks of school. She was horribly self-conscious about her speech impediment, the result of having most of her front teeth shattered on the same day she had met him. She’d gradually figured out how to pronounce her sibilant sounds again, but it had taken weeks. 

Luckily for her, Terrence had managed to get the boy’s phone number when all the legal shenanigans had started. Terrence was her employer, and the business-ferret treated her like family, which was a good thing for the live-in maid. So when an angry wanna-be boyfriend had knocked her out cold in the high school cafeteria after she had rudely rebuffed his advances, Terrence had contacted a lawyer who was his fraternity brother and started cases against the school district for negligence and against the boy who had assaulted her for pain and suffering. The monkey she was currently calling had also become part of the suit against the school district, since he’d been suspended for defending her.

“Hikari speaking,” she heard the japanese macaque say from his side of the phone.

“Hi Hikari. This is Charlotte... the dog from your biology class,” she said, trying not to slur her sibilant sounds. 

“Charlotte! How are you? Is your nose feeling any better?” Hikari asked. He definitely remembered the doberman pinscher; she was one of the hottest sophomores in the school... actually, now that this school year was over, both of them were technically juniors, or would be once school started again.

“I’m doing better. I don’t need to use quite so many pain meds, though I won’t have the surgical plates removed from my skull for another two months or so. It’s really weird seeing the ridges under the fur on my nose when I look in the mirror,” Charlotte replied.

“What about your teeth?” the japanese macaque asked, remembering the x-rays he’d seen a glance of. He’d had one of his lateral incisors knocked out in a martial arts match last year and he remembered how painful it was. He could only imagine how painful it must have been to have both fangs knocked out and several other teeth chipped, not to mention having her face broken so badly that she’d needed surgical plates to hold her upper muzzle bones together.

“I’ve got an appointment to talk with a dental surgeon in August. It’ll all be covered at least; the judge granted us full restitution last week, so Diego’s going to have to pay for it,” she said.

“Well that’s good at least. Wish I’d known he’d knocked your teeth out. I’d have done the same to him. Hell, if I see him in the hallways next year-”

“No; don’t even think about it,” Charlotte interrupted. “You don’t want to wind up paying restitution for breaking his teeth... or wind up in juvie like he did.”

“Yeah, I suppose that’s true,” Hikari grudgingly admitted. “So... why’d you call, anyway?” he asked, curious why she’d called him.

“Well... remember you said you’d help me with translating some manga?” the doberman asked.

“Yeah, of course,” the japanese macaque said. He’d offered to help her when they got to talking after finishing the biology lab assignment together, the same day Diego had put her in the hospital.

“Do you think you might maybe have some free time this week?” she asked hopefully. She really did want some help with translating manga, but after seeing the blurry cell phone video someone had posted on YouTube of Hikari kicking Diego clear across the cafeteria, defending her... she was hoping to actually get to know him. He seemed like a legitimately nice guy, even if he wasn’t a canine. Not that it mattered that much; interspecies relationships weren’t nearly as taboo now as they were, say, fifty years ago. Heck, her employers Terrence and Julia were a ferret and a stoat, and their half-breed daughter Elizabeth was in a relationship with her best friend, a tiger.

“Sure!” Hikari said. “I’ve got work most of this week and a karate thing on Friday, but I’m free on Saturday. Would it be okay if I came over, say, Saturday afternoon?” he asked.

Charlotte smiled, ignoring the slight ache that it caused. “That would be awesome.”

“Okay then. I’ve still got the Stouffer family’s address. Are you still living with them?” he asked.

“Yep,” she confirmed, her tail now vigorously wagging across the bedspread she was sitting on.

“Cool. I’ll drop by on Saturday afternoon,” the japanese macaque said.

“Awesome. See you then,” the doberman pinscher replied. “Catch you later!”

“Later!” he replied, disconnecting the call.

Charlotte tried to keep herself from dancing with excitement as she stood up and pulled open her bedroom door, stepping outside and walking down the hallway to the wide half-pace staircase that ran from the first floor to the third. She quickly but smoothly went down the stairs to the first floor, turning and going through the library to the office room where Julia spent most of her time.

She found the fashionable stoat sitting at the sewing machine that sat on one of the tables in the middle of the room, working on her latest experiment. After waiting a second, Charlotte knocked on the door. Julia looked up, pausing the sewing machine.

“Yes, dear?” the stoat asked.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Mrs. Stouffer, but... would it be okay if Hikari came over on Saturday afternoon?” Charlotte asked. Julia had said it was okay if she invited the monkey over, but that had been quite a while ago.

“Certainly,” Julia replied. “Elizabeth’s going to be over at Alex’s place this weekend. Apparently they’re going on a date.”

“Really?” Charlotte asked, a bit surprised. “That’s adorable!”

Julia rolled her eyes, then sighed. “Okay, maybe a little. But Elizabeth wants a dress to wear on her first date,” the stoat said, gesturing at the garment she was currently working on.

“You’re the best mom ever,” Charlotte said. “I wish you were my mom too sometimes.”

The insides of Julia’s ears turned pink as she blushed. “Well, thank you, I guess. That reminds me; have you spoken to Estelle lately?”

Charlotte pursed her lips and held up a finger. “Uhhh... No. I should go do that,” she said, turning around and heading back into the library.

“Tell her I said ‘Hi’,” Julia called after the teenaged canine as she disappeared around the corner.

__________________________________________________

Wednesday, June 24th, 2015

On the other side of town in the suburbs near Atfalati Park, a young tiger sat on hir bed propped up against a pile of pillows. Over the last week shi had been playing a game hir father normally played, called Skyrim. For a game that was nearly four years old, it was pretty fun and had a lot of options. In addition to the usual aquatic, avian, mammalian and reptilian archetypes, there were a surprisingly large number of playable fantasy races like orcs, elves, and humans. Shi shook hir head at that; the hairless, tailless anthros were kind of creepy; they reminded hir of aliens. Right now shi was playing an elf; they were good at magic, so shi was able to set enemies on fire and heal the dumb warrior named Lydia that was following hir character around.

As hir side started throbbing again, the young tiger realized it was getting rather late; the last time shi had taken one of hir vicodin tablets had been around dinner time. After taking a moment to save the game, shi shut down the console and leaned forward, trying not to whimper. It had been over two weeks since those stupid bullies had broken hir ribs and it still hurt to move. At least shi didn’t have to worry about hir leg anymore since Dr. Nez had removed the cast a few days ago and given hir a ‘boot’ that let hir walk around. It was way more convenient than using the wheelchair like shi had been for the past two weeks.

The complicated plastic contraption went all the way from hir foot-pad to hir thigh, and when shi walked it transferred most of the weight from hir thigh all the way to the ground. Considering how annoying it was to put it off and take it off, shi left it on most of the time while lounging in bed, but left it unbuckled, so that when shi needed to move around shi could just latch it tight and then walk wherever shi needed to. Which is exactly what shi proceeded to do.

A second later the tiger cub pushed hirself off the bed and walked over to the bathroom to do hir business and take one of hir vicodin pills. After shi had finished using the toilet and washed hir paws, shi picked up the little orange pill bottle and popped the lid off. It was then that shi discovered that the bottle was completely empty. The tiger cub turned and walked a few steps out of the bathroom and down the hallway, knocking on the master bedroom door frame.

The white tiger reclining on the bed inside looked up from the book he was reading. “Hey Alex. What’s up?” he asked.

“I’m out of pain pills,” Alex replied, holding up the empty orange bottle.

“Oh. Here, lemme get you some Tylenol,” David replied, dog-earing the page he was on, then closing the book and setting it on the nightstand. He rolled off the bed and stood up, walking over to the master bathroom. After he got inside, he flipped open the medicine cabinet and took out a small bottle of generic acetaminophen. A second later he handed one of the pills to his daughter, then returned the bottle to the medicine cabinet.

“Thanks, dad,” Alex said, turning around and hobbling back down the hallway to hir bathroom to get a glass of water, then brush hir teeth and get ready for bed. Perhaps five minutes later, the young tiger stripped the last of hir clothes off, tossing them into the hamper across the room and crawled under the black coverlet atop hir bed and closed hir eyes.

Up until about three weeks ago, Alex had worn one of hir dad’s old t-shirts and a pair of panties to bed, or pajamas during hir weekly sleepovers with Lizzy. Shi didn’t like to, but hir parents had insisted on it. Then shi had discovered that hir parents didn’t even wear clothes to bed and finally asked if shi could sleep naked too. Surprisingly, they agreed.

How long shi lay there, waiting to fall asleep, shi didn’t know. Shi heard her mom coming up the stairs, then heard both hir parents talking for a moment, then the house went silent again. The hiss of the air vents started, stopped, and started again as shi waited for the throbbing pain in hir chest to subside. Only it didn’t. If anything, it kept getting worse.

Sighing, shi threw back the covers and scooted to the side of the bed. Trying to ignore the ache in hir side, she reached over to pick up the boot lying against the nightstand and wrapped it around hir leg, flipping the latches closed, then stood up and walked carefully down the hallway to hir parents room.

“Mom?” shi asked quietly, peering through the gloom. Without the lights on everything looked steel blue, barely visible in the glow of moonlight from the window. Shi waited a moment, then asked again. “Mom?”

A second later shi heard a rustle of the blankets as hir mom poked her head out from under the blankets. “What’s up, kiddo?”

Alex walked over to hir mom’s side of the bed. “I can’t sleep. My side is hurting,” shi whispered, trying not to wake hir dad up as well; he needed his sleep.

“Did you take one of your pills?” the tigress asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

“I ran out. Dad gave me some Tylenol before I got in bed, but it’s not helping,” Alex whispered back.

Raenne threw back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I’ll go fix you a glass of warm milk. Go hop back in bed, love,” she said, leaning over and giving Alex a kiss.

“Okay mom,” Alex whispered back, watching hir mom as she stood up and walked out of the room, tail bobbing behind her. The way hir mom’s hips swayed as she walked was mesmerizing. At least shi no longer got an erection just from seeing hir parents naked. Shi glanced across the bed at hir dad, watching his chest rising and falling gently under the covers, then walked back to hir own room, taking off the walking cast and resting it against the nightstand before crawling back in bed once again.

Alex heard the sound of the microwave being opened downstairs, then a few beeps. Perhaps thirty seconds later, the microwave beeped again and she heard it open once again, followed by the stairs making soft creaking noises.

“Here you go, kiddo,” Raenne said, using one hand to help her daughter sit up in bed. Once Alex was upright again, she handed hir the warm mug of milk.

“Thank you,” Alex said, taking a few sips. “Sorry I woke you up,” shi added.

“Don’t apologize, love. We’re the ones who told you not to go up and down the stairs on your own,” Raenne said, turning and sitting on the bed.

“I know. I just... I don’t like being a pain in the tail,” Alex said dejectedly.

“You’re not a pain in the tail, love,” Raenne said, patting Alex’s thigh through the covers.

Alex didn’t say anything, sipping the warm milk until the glass was half empty. Then shi tilted it back and gulped the rest, finishing the last of it with a gasp. “Thanks mom,” shi said, handing the mug back.

“You’re welcome, kiddo. Anything else?” the tigress asked, taking the empty mug.

“Umm... maybe... could we have sex? Dad wouldn’t mind if we woke him up for that...” Alex’s voice trailed off as shi saw hir mom shaking hir head in the darkness.

“If anything he would love it. However, I thought you told us that you and Lizzy were dating when you asked us if you two could go on a date this weekend. Remember?” the tigress asked.

“What’s that got to do with it?” Alex asked, confused.

Raenne sighed. “Remember when you first asked us if we could have sex, and I insisted that your dad and I only have sex with you together or not at all, because it would be cheating?”

Alex nodded. “I remember.”

“Do you know what I meant by cheating?” Raenne asked.

“Well... not exactly,” Alex admitted.

“When your father and I married, we made a promise to each other to always be faithful to each other, to be open and honest and do what our partner would want us to do, especially when it comes to sex,” Raenne explained. “One of the tenets of being faithful is to only have sex with your partner, unless your partner knows and approves of you having sex with someone else. Okay?”

Alex nodded again. Shi vaguely remembered dad talking about this at some point.

“So when I found out your dad had done stuff with you and Lizzy... I didn’t know about it, and I definitely didn’t approve of it. That’s why I got mad; he broke his promise to be faithful to me. He cheated on me,” Raenne explained.

“Oh,” Alex said quietly, feeling a bit ashamed that they had caused hir dad to break his promise.

“Cheating is another word for being unfaithful. If you have sex with someone else and your partner doesn’t know about it, you’re cheating on your partner. David was cheating on me when he did that stuff with you and Lizzy,” the tigress continued to explain. “Does that make sense now?”

Alex nodded a third time.

“Cheating on someone is very, very bad. When I found out that he had done stuff with you and Lizzy I got so mad that I hit him. Actually... If I’d found out he’d cheated on me with anyone else besides you two, I might have killed him,” Raenne said quietly, “that’s how bad it is. When I said that if your dad cheats on me with anyone else that I would divorce him, I wasn’t joking.”

Alex nodded for the fourth time, lip quivering as shi realized just how bad it was. Cheating on someone was probably the worst thing you could do to someone, if it made hir mom that mad; mom never got mad. Shi resolved then and there to never, ever cheat on someone.

“Which brings us back to you and Lizzy. You know Lizzy has sex with her parents; she has to in order to stay alive, and you’re okay with that. But Lizzy doesn’t know you have sex with us. She would probably be okay with it, but she still doesn’t know. That means that you would be cheating on her by having sex with us. Understand?”

“I’m sorry,” Alex whimpered, on the verge of tears. Shi’d never imagined that cheating on someone could be so hurtful. Shi felt utterly miserable, knowing that shi had been cheating on hir best friend. Shi never, ever wanted to hurt the little stoat.

“It’s okay, love,” Raenne said, leaning over and gently kissing her daughter on the nose. “Lizzy would forgive you if she knew about it. Just please don’t tell her that you’ve had sex with us. She has an excuse to have sex with her parents; we don’t. Incest is illegal, especially with a cub like you, so we can’t tell anyone. Not even Lizzy.”

“Okay, mom,” the young tiger replied with a sniffle.

“Now try and get some sleep, love. Goodnight,” Raenne said, giving Alex one last kiss before standing up and quietly padding out of the room.

Alex nodded, then lay back against hir pillow. Shi felt so terrible, knowing that shi had been cheating on hir best friend for weeks now, and the ache from hir broken ribs continued to grow. As the house went quiet once again, a tear slipped down hir cheek, hitting the pillow and staining it dark. Several more followed it, one by one into the early morning hours.

__________________________________________________

Thursday, June 25th, 2015

David pulled the iPhone out of his pocket a few seconds after it started ringing. After seeing the incoming caller ID, he locked his laptop screen and stood up. He swiped to one side to answer the call and held the phone up to his ear as he walked through the quiet office towards the breakroom.

“David Andreyev speaking. How may I help you?” he asked.

“Hi David. This is Cortney again. How are you doing?” the cheerful woman on the other end of the line asked.

“Doing pretty good. How are you?” David asked as he reached the breakroom.

“Great! I just wanted to let you know that Simon told me to send you the offer letter for the amount you had asked for, plus medical, dental, and vision coverage. The document link should be in your email already. We use DocuSign for all our legal documentation; just create a DocuSign account if you don’t already have one. If you agree to the terms in the cover letter, sign it with your digital signature and we’ll send you another email with a link to the employment contract.”

David blinked. He’d expected this would take weeks to hammer out, but apparently they had decided to hire him within three days and only two teleconference interviews, plus a simple coding test. He looked around, making sure nobody else was around before he answered. “Are they okay with me working remotely for the first few weeks while I sell my house? Simon seemed iffy on that.”

“Yep, Simon said that’s fine, and it’s in the contract. He said he wants you to start on Monday, July 13th if at all possible.”

“Huh,” David said, surprised.  “That shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll go check my email then. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Have a wonderful day,” the woman on the other end of the call said.

“You too, Cortney,” David replied, waiting a moment before he tapped the phone screen to end the call, then headed back to his desk. He didn’t get much work done over the last two hours of his shift.

Fifteen minutes after his shift ended, David walked out to his S.U.V., his messenger bag substantially more full than it normally was. He still had some stuff at his desk, but it would fit in the messenger bag tomorrow, when he turned in his two-week notice.

While the white tiger drove home, he kept mentally debating whether he should wait to submit his resignation two weeks early or just wait until the last minute to ensure he didn’t miss a day of pay if the company decided to let him go immediately. He also had a bit of paid time off accrued. Then he remembered that the employee handbook had said something about requiring giving two weeks notice prior to resignation. 

David sighed as he pulled into the cul-de-sac he lived at, hitting the garage remote and waiting a moment as the garage door opened before pulling into the little garage. It barely held two cars and didn’t even have a door from the garage into the house. He made a mental note to write down all the little things about the house that irritated him so that they could avoid them when searching for a new one in Colorado.

After stepping out of the garage and slapping the keypad, the white tiger walked up the small walkway to the front door, where he pulled out his key and opened the front door. He closed and locked the front door behind himself and glanced into the kitchen, only to find it empty. Then he remembered that it was Thursday, and Raenne had karate lessons. Sighing, he turned back around and headed upstairs.

Just as he reached the second floor landing, he heard the toilet flush in the upstairs bathroom. Ignoring it for the moment, he stepped into the master bedroom and set down his messenger bag on the bed; he was going to have to empty it out so that he could retrieve the last few things from his desk at work tomorrow. Deciding to get it over with sooner rather than later, he flipped the bag open and began pulling out the various cups, manuals, printed memes, photographs and other random knick-knacks that he’d accumulated at work. The only thing he left in the bag was the laptop.

He picked up the cups and computer manuals to take down stairs, then stepped out of the bedroom, only to come to a halt as his daughter stepped out of the bathroom. The only thing shi was wearing was the walking cast, and honestly shi looked terrible: matted fur, tail dragging on the ground, and shoulders hunched.

“Alex? What’s wrong?” he asked, stepping over to hir.

The tiger cub stopped and turned to face him and he nearly stepped back; there were streaks of crusty goop running down hir cheeks.

“Hurts,” shi mumbled.

“Jesus. You look like death warmed over. Did your mom give you some Tylenol?” he asked. 

Alex nodded. “About an hour ago. It’s not doing anything; my side feels like it’s on fire and I’ve been sick to my stomach all day. I couldn’t sleep last night either.”

David mentally cursed. They’d had Alex on Vicodin for over a month, and shi was probably going through withdrawal cause they hadn’t weaned hir off of it. Well, at least he could get hir cleaned up a bit, since it was obvious shi hadn’t taken a shower or gotten dressed today, even though it nearly supper time. 

“Well, I can’t do anything for the pain, but we should still get you cleaned up and get you something to eat. C’mon back in here and hop in the tub, kiddo.”

Alex didn’t say anything, but did turn around and hobbled back into the bathroom. David followed, closing the door and quickly stripping off his button-down shirt, shorts, and boxers. Alex sat down on the edge of the tub and took off the walking cast while he turned on the warm water, checking the temperature and adjusting it until it was warm enough to steam a bit but not hot enough to burn, then he plugged the drain and let the water run, slowly filling up the tub.

“Sit down up here, kiddo,” he said, reaching up and taking down the detachable shower head before sitting down on the edge of the tub. Once the tub was about a third full, he hit the switch on the spigot, activating the shower head, then rinsed Alex down while shi sat in the warm water. Once shi was thoroughly soaked, he turned off the shower head and got a handful of shampoo from the dispenser, rubbed it over his hands and began gently running his hands through the fur on hir head and face, trying to clean off the crusty goop left from hours of crying. 

Two minutes later he got another handful of shampoo and sat down on his knees behind hir, carefully soaping down hir back and chest and rubbing his hands through hir thick fur. He hadn’t given hir a bath for probably three or four years now. Shi had been a fluffy, pudgy cub then. Now shi was practically pure muscle from being so active; playing soccer, volleyball, wall-ball, snowboarding and swimming. At least shi wasn’t dangerously skinny anymore, not since breaking hir leg and his insisting that shi eat more at dinner. 

David got another handful of shampoo. “Stand up, love,” he asked. After Alex stood, he ran his paws down the outside of hir legs and then down hir tail. “Is it okay if I get between your legs?”

“Uh-huh,” Alex replied noncommittally. 

“Kay,” he said, reaching over the side of the tub to the small shelf next to it and picking up a washcloth. He wet it and put some soap on it before reaching between hir legs and gently running the cloth over hir female sex and between the soft folds of skin there, then under hir tail. “Okay, turn around,” he said. Alex did so, and he flipped the washcloth around and gently ran it over hir male parts as well, rubbing hir sheath until hir penis was showing before using the washcloth on that as well. He wrung out the washcloth and set it down, then reached over and picked up the shower head.

After spraying down his hands, he sprayed hir down as well, working his way from head to toe, making sure to get all the soap off from around hir genitals; it could cause rashes if you didn’t get it all off. Then he got a handful of conditioner from the dispenser and began running his hands through hir fur once again, making his way from ears to ankles, being especially cautious around hir broken ribs. Luckily it was easy to spot, since the doctors had shaved a patch on hir side where they had performed the operation to patch hir lung and put the plates on hir ribs. It would be another month before the fur grew all the way back in... and then they would have to shave hir again when they removed the plates.

Once shi was thoroughly covered in fur-conditioner, he rinsed off his hands once again and sprayed hir down. It was obvious shi wasn’t feeling very good; shi hadn’t said a single word except to respond to what he’d said. Sighing, he opened the drain to let the soapy water out. “Do you want me to fill it back up, so you can lay in the warm water?” he asked.

Alex didn’t respond for a moment, then shook hir head.

Sighing again, he sprayed the sides of the tub as the last of the soapy water drained out, then stood up, quickly sprayed down his feet and reattached the shower head. “Okay then. Into the dryer with you,” he said, grabbing a towel off the rack and using it to pat down his feet and arms.

A moment later, Alex had climbed over the edge of the tub and into the stand-up fur dryer. As it came to life with a roar of rushing wind, David put his clothes back on and stepped out of the bathroom, walking into his daughter's room and quickly pulling one of his old t-shirts out of the closet before returning to the bathroom and setting it on the counter.

As his daughter stepped out of the fur-dryer, David knelt in front of hir, picking up the walking cast and wrapping it around hir leg, then latching it. “Hold up your arms,” he said, picking up the t-shirt from the counter, then draping it over hir, pulling it down over hir head. As he let go, the lower hem fell down to nearly hir knees. 

“Okay, all done. Want to go downstairs for dinner?” he asked.

Alex shook hir head.

“Are you hungry at all?” David asked, remembering shi’d said shi was sick to hir stomach.

Again, shi shook hir head.

“Back to your room?” he asked, trying to at least get some kind of response.

For a second shi was quiet, then shi finally looked up at him. “Could I take a nap with you?” shi asked.

David sighed, then took a step forward, giving hir a hug and holding hir head against his chest. He hated knowing shi was feeling bad and being unable to do anything about it. “Sure, baby. Let me go grab a snack real quick. Your bed or mine?”

“Yours,” Alex said.

“Okay then. I’ll be back up here in a moment,” he said. Leaning down and kissing the top of hir head before letting hir go and quickly heading back downstairs to get something to eat. After opening the fridge he decided on a quick quesadilla, pulling out the tortillas, salsa, some pre-cooked chicken, and a bag of shredded cheese. Two minutes later he finished putting everything back into the refrigerator and headed back upstairs with two plates. Hopefully Alex would eat at least one of them. If not, he could just eat both.

He found Alex was sitting in the middle of the bed in his bedroom, her walking cast lying on the floor. He walked over to one side of the bed and handed a plate to hir, then set his own plate on the nightstand before stripping off his shirt and shorts again, crawling into bed in his boxers.

Alex didn’t protest the food; shi was a little hungry, even if shi was still feeling a bit nauseous. Shi set the plate in hir lap and picked up the quesadilla, nibbling on the edges. David finished his pretty quickly, then set the plate back on the nightstand, leaning back against the pillows while Alex continued to nibble hir way through the chicken and cheese filled tortilla. 

Shi was probably halfway done when shi decided shi’d had enough and handed the plate back to hir father, then lay down next to his side, rolling over and tucking hir face against his side. David wrapped an arm around hir back, then set the plate down on the nightstand atop his own empty plate and picked up the half-eaten quesadilla to finish it himself. 

It wasn’t two minutes later before David heard a faint whistling noise coming from his side, repeating every six seconds or so. After glancing down at his daughter, he picked up the book that was sitting on the nightstand next to the dishes, intending to get in a bit of reading time while his daughter caught some ‘Z’s. 

__________________________________________________

Friday, June 26th, 2015

Raenne and seven other Shotokan Karate instructors from all over the Portland metropolitan area sat on the mat in front of a long, low table. Several pencils and scoring cards lay on the table in front of them. She held a pencil in one hand and was watching carefully as the group of four students in front of them went through the Tekki Sandan kata. While she wasn’t responsible for grading him, one of her own students was part of the group of four. 

One of the other instructors called out as the four students finished the kata, having gone through the entire kata perfectly synchronized despite having never performed the kata together before. The side of Raenne’s mouth curled up slightly; all four students were going to earn their black belts today, provided they did okay with the sparring match. 

The tigress had no doubt that her own student, Hikari, would do just fine in the sparring match. He was absolutely fearless when it came to kumite, and had no problems closing range. 

Raenne quickly finished filling out the judging scorecard; the northwestern salamander she was grading had done just fine with the kata, having no hesitation and getting all the moves correct. Her only remark was that the salamander had a tendency to leave their hands slack when not striking.

All four students quickly wrapped up their hands in preparation for the kumite sparring bout while the instructors who were acting as judges set aside the kata scorecards and picked up kumite point tracking scorecards. After determining the handicaps based on size and species differences, the eight judges waited. There would be three bouts with two matches each, four judges scoring each match.

By the time the matches were over, Raenne had a stack of scorecards filled out. Each of the four students had one at least one match and all of them had proven their competence with at least 20 points each over the three matches. That was kind of surprising, actually. Usually there was at least one student that didn’t meet the minimum and would have to test again.

After a bit of deliberation, all eight of them decided unanimously to pass all four testing students. Handing out the belts was usually done by the highest ranking member, which was usually Raenne for the past two years, ever since she had reached 5th-Dan. Surprisingly, the tigress wasn’t the ranking instructor this time; it was a 6th-Dan member of the SKIF who had been visiting from California.

That was probably a good thing for Hikari. Getting your black belt was supposed to be something to remember, and it probably wouldn’t have been very memorable if he’d received it from the same person who had given him his previous five belts. So, instead of handing out belts this time, Raenne signed the four black belt diplomas along with the other instructors and returned to the edge of the mat and sat, waiting as the students were given their diplomas and belts by the ranking instructor.

Applause came from the bleachers behind her where the parents and other students were sitting as each of the four students received their black belts. After the ceremony was over, she stood, waiting at the edge of the mat for Hikari.

“Congratulations,” she said as he walked up.

“Thank you, sensei,” the japanese macaque replied, bowing. 

“I just showed you the path; you were the one who walked it,” she said.

Hikari nodded, then both of them turned towards the mat and bowed before stepping back to the bleachers where his parents were sitting. He unwrapped the bindings around his hands as he went.

“So, now that you’ve earned your black belt, I have a proposition for you,” the tigress said as they reached Hikari’s parents, waiting for a moment as the older monkeys both wrapped their son in hugs, showering him with congratulations.

After Hikari accepted his parents thanks he turned back to Raenne. “What proposition? I’m still unsure if I will have time to be an assistant instructor; I already have a job and I’m worried about time conflicts...”

“Hikari... I’m going to be leaving the dojo, probably in a month or so,” the tigress said, holding the teenage monkey’s gaze.

Hikari didn’t say anything; he was stunned. The last thing he would have expected was that his teacher for the past six years was going to be leaving.

“Also, Noboru is going to be leaving the dojo in September; he wants to have more free time and he likes his job as an elementary teacher. Someone will need to take over teaching the younger students, and Filipe needs another instructor to cover all the new students we’ve gotten for the summer. So...

“We’re offering you an assistant instructor position for the first month, then you’ll be promoted to full instructor when I leave. That’s two thousand dollars a month salary. Once you hit second Dan, he’s offered to raise that to twenty-five hundred a month. If you keep up with it, Filipe has said he’s willing to split the dojo’s net profits with you as a full partner once you’ve graduated from high-school and reached third Dan,” the tigress explained.

“Hikari, that’s a lot more than you would be getting working at the Shell station once school starts again,” Hikari’s father Manato said, speaking with a thick japanese accent. “If I were you, I would take the job.”

Hana, the young man’s mother, also spoke up. “心に従うべき。”

Raenne smiled at Hana’s words. “That’s what I did. But it’s up to you, Hikari. If you need time to think about it-”

“No, sensei. I will take the job. Thank you,” Hikari said, bowing deeply.