His home, his brother, and the boy he likes were slowly falling behind. Stephen's footsteps sounded on the pavement as the night embraced him with its stillness and quiet breeze.

The aimless walk brought the hyena to a small park, not far from his home, where they used to come with his brother when they were children. The park still contained the same children's playground equipment that Stephen had known all those years ago: swings, hammocks, hanging rings, parallel bars, and the octopus....

The octopus, a huge hollow structure that children could climb up and get inside, imagining it could be their secret base, their meeting place. The hyena remembered that place well, that was where his first kiss had been. At the age of eight, Stephen and Nestor had an inseparable friend, Ralph, a porcupine who accompanied them everywhere, he was like a third brother, not a hyena and with quills. For Stephen, Ralph gradually began to be more than a friend, and one afternoon, hiding in the octopus while Nestor was buying candy, they kissed, then looked at each other in silence and kissed again. A couple of months later, Ralph's father got a very good job offer at the other end of the country, the hyenas never saw their friend again, Stephen never loved again, and something cracked, a vial of liquid resentment broke inside him. Until now, until Malcolm… Why?

Stephen stared at the huge purple structure for a while as he remembered his childhood friend, had he been a friend or a love? What was the difference then? What is the difference now? Where is Ralph now? Would Nestor hate him?

The hyena's mouth was dry and its eyes were wet. The young man rested his hand on the outer wall of the large octopus, he wanted to enter but his legs trembled. Stephen stood watching the entrance to the structure until he shook his head and went to sit on one of the hammocks. The hyena took out his little notebook and began to draw, remembering that strange, distant, and simple past.

"Is this what a porcupine's dick looks like?" asked a male voice, coming from behind the hyena.

Stephen covered his drawing and turned to see who was spying on him.

"Hi, don't be scared, I was just observing," replied the stranger.

Climbing on the parallel bars was a young bat. The guy was upside down, hooked with his calves on the pipe, looking at the hyena while sketching a smile.

"Who the fuck are you?" asked Stephen angrily.

"My name's Kevin, I live over there," the boy replied, pointing to a huge, fancy house across the street.

"Well, why the fuck were you spying on me?" the hyena asked again, snorting.

"Well... I was bored, so I came to the games, saw you were drawing, got curious and stayed watching. By the way, you draw very well!" explained the bat.

"Thanks... I guess," replied the hyena, raising an eyebrow as he kept a disapproving look on the stranger.

"Bad night?" asked Kevin.

"What?" said Stephen, confused, coming out of a memory-induced stupor.

"I was asking if you were having a bad night, or do you have that attitude all day?" the bat asked again.

Stephen closed his eyes, sighed, and opened his eyes again, trying to calm himself to not send the stranger to hell. "Half and half...I just got into a fight with my brother and got the worst of it," the hyena explained.

Kevin unhooked himself from the bars falling nimbly on his hands, stood up and approached the other boy, "Easy, most of us people have a knack for being jerks, especially with our loved ones," said the bat in a mocking tone.

Being closer, Stephen was able to observe the stranger more clearly. Kevin was tall, quite tall, and skinny, almost like a skeleton. Despite the cool night wind, the chiropteran was wearing a sleeveless shirt that exposed his chest and armpit hair, and dark blue shorts that invited a glimpse of his long, skinny legs. In his hair, the boy had grown a Mohawk with five spikes, dyed a dark blue that was barely noticeable in the dark.

"Yeah... though it hurts more when you're having a special moment and you just... fuck up," the hyena said, and sighed.

"Relax, it seems like a terrible thing to you now, tomorrow it will be something less serious, and besides you'll have plenty of opportunities to make amends for what you did... unless you killed your brother..... Did you kill your brother?" asked the bat, as a somewhat disturbing image flashed through his mind.

"No, I didn't kill my brother," said Stephen.

Kevin sat on another hammock, to the left of the hyena, rocking slowly, "Good! As long as that keeps up you can fix it."

"Yeah, I guess... Not that I plan on smothering him with my pillow while he sleeps, at least not yet," Stephen said mockingly.

"Ha ha! Try to control yourself, I don't think it's going to go well for a hyena like you in jail!" the bat added.

Stephen raised an eyebrow and frowned as he stared at the tall guy, "A hyena like me? What does that mean?"

"I-I mean... squishy, a soft hyena, pacifist, an artist!" The bat was quick to reply, raising both hands and shielding himself with them.

Stephen let out a chuckle, clenched a fist and bared his teeth," Man! I bet I could break you like a toothpick without much effort."

"It wasn't a comment to offend you! In fact...it's cute," Kevin muttered.

"Ha ha! Relax, I don't get offended that easily.... sometimes. Wait a minute, you said cute?" asked the hyena, somewhat surprised and blushing.

"Well... yeah, you're a cute hyena, I guess..." mumbled the bat again, putting on a nervous smile and touching the ends of his hairdo with his left hand.

"That's was very gay, flying rat!" said Stephen, laughing.

Kevin's eyes widened and he replied angrily, "Not as gay as drawing another man's dick, you stinky dog!"

"Drawing a penis doesn't make you gay! It's a matter of...artistry!" The hyena defended himself.

"Perfect! Then I'll model for you, I'm sure you've never drawn a flying rat!" exclaimed Kevin, leaping out of the hammock and standing up in front of Stephen.

In the stillness of the night, the hyena heard a click coming from the button of the tall bat's shorts. Stephen swallowed saliva, his face turning red, straightened up and stood expectantly.

"Aha! I knew it! homo-hyena! You should see your face!" Kevin shouted triumphantly as he refastened his pants.

"No! That was a low blow.... Okay... Yeah, I like cock, guilty one hundred percent, happy?" confessed Stephen, averting his gaze from the bat's crotch.

" Victory! Sexy bat one, homo-hyena zero!" exclaimed the bat fervently, swaying his hips and waving his long arms, as if he were an Arabian dancer.

"Good! Good! I get it! God...you're embarrassing!" said Stephen, covering his face with both hands.

"Ha ha! Anything to make a pretty boy smile," said Kevin, putting on a big grin as he looked at the hyena.

Stephen removed his hands from his face, he was smiling and blushing. While the memory of the fight with his brother was still fresh in his head, the stranger had made him laugh so hard that he felt slightly guilty for still being depressed. Someone he had met less than five minutes ago was giving his all to make his night, and the hyena didn't want to be a wayward child. Besides, that long-eared skeleton with the long ears and spikes on his head was... sexy.

"So, weren't you going to model for my drawings?" asked Stephen, pressing the offer the chiropteran had made.

Kevin gave the hyena a sly look, putting both hands over his shorts and fiddling with the button. "Do you really want to see my brown balls?" asked the bat.

"I guess... I've never seen a bat's balls, and you know what they say: knowledge doesn't take up space," replied the hyena.

"I'll make you a deal: if you join me for ice cream, I'll pose for you for half an hour!" offered Kevin.

"Only half an hour?" complained Stephen.

"You think that's not enough? Half an hour sitting still like a statue is torture enough for someone as restless as me. Besides, I'll pay for the ice cream!" added the bat.

Stephen got up from the hammock, put away his sketchbook, thundered the fingers on his hands and neck, and started walking. "Fine, I accept! But I'll order the most expensive ice cream!" clarified the hyena.

"Fuck! I didn't know getting models was so lucrative for artists!" exclaimed Kevin as he ran to catch up to the other boy.

The walk to the ice cream parlor was pleasant. Kevin, despite his unkempt and somewhat aggressive appearance, was a fairly friendly and attentive guy, he was a bit of a chatterbox, but he knew how to pause and appreciate the silences between conversations. Stephen felt strangely comfortable with the bat's presence, and a warm feeling that was born in his chest spread throughout his body every time he exchanged a word with his new friend. Not to mention the tingle he felt in his crotch when he looked up to meet the bat's smile.

"So, what do you do besides harass people in the park?" asked Stephen.

"Well... I train in the afternoons after school and at night I usually play video games or watch movies. The truth is I'm too lazy for what my environment demands of me," replied Kevin as both boys stood in line to buy their ice cream.

"For what your environment demands of you?" the hyena asked again.

"Yeah, idiots who think they're part of some sort of elite and treat others badly," explained the bat.

"Well...come to think of it...it's not like I treat people right sometimes...or most of the time..." muttered Stephen.

"Ha ha! Easy, it's not like I'm a model when it comes to those issues either. But I'm referring to a very specific way of treating people: the disapproving look just for existing, and the wrinkled snout like you're smelling shit..." explained Kevin.

"Well... I don't really know many people like that," the hyena said, thinking of his acquaintances.

"All my... friends are like that," the bat clarified, making quotation marks with his fingers.

As they left the ice cream parlor, Kevin was carrying a plain ice cream in two flavors: peach and cherry, fruity tastes were his biggest weakness. Stephen made good on his threat and ordered the most expensive ice cream: three flavors, consisting of two types of chocolate and banana, plus a mountain of cream and caramel. After all, what better than obsessing over tons of sugar to cure a hurting heart?

The conversation that accompanied the boys' return to the playground was somewhat more banal. Stephen learned that the bat was the same age as him, that his father was an aide to a small-time local politician, that Kevin attended a private high school at the other side of town, and that he liked basketball and smoking pot.

It was almost five o'clock in the morning, the sun was still a long way off, the night breeze had stopped and only the barking of a few ferals could be heard in the vastness of the night. The boys had stopped under the light of a lantern to chat for a while about their life in general and some conceptions about the world, a mutual feeling of closeness and need was getting stronger and stronger, glances were continually meeting, producing silences charged with desire.

Stephen, feeling his legs somewhat tired, sighed and went in the direction of the hammocks to sit down again, but before he reached them, Kevin took him by the hand and led him to the entrance of the huge octopus.

"Look... I know I promised to pose for you but I don't think this is the time or place for that. But I can do something to make it up to you right now," Kevin said, as he pulled the hyena into the dark interior of the child-sized structure.

Stephen's chest was frantically swelling and deflating. Despite the moonlight streaming in through the octopus holes, the hyena couldn't see past his nose. But he was not alone, one of his hands was still firmly gripped by Kevin's hand, and the warmth emanating from the bat's body and asserting itself in the darkness, made Stephen's legs tremble.

Suddenly, Stephen opened his eyes. It was daytime, the warmth of the sun warming the walls of the large infant structure. In front of the hyena was a young porcupine with fur as golden as wheat.

"Ralph..." murmured Stephen.

"You're a very handsome boy."

"I feel strange..." admitted the hyena as the other boy's lips came close to hers.

"But good or bad?" asked the male voice.

"Good... I feel good, weird but good," Stephen explained. His lips quivered. 

A soft breath, peach and cherry, flooded the hyena's nose, he could almost taste those lips now, they were close, on him.

The bat's arms wrapped around Stephen. Silence extended for a few minutes, nothing else happened, it wasn't necessary, maybe....

"Does this feel good?" asked Kevin, breaking the silence without letting go of the hyena's embrace.

"Better than I thought it would. Thanks," Stephen said, and let out a sigh.