AAAAH!" a female raccoon screamed loudly, feeling the absolute most pain she ever felt in her life.

"Push, push!" the doctors instructed.

"It's going to be okay, Jill," Dan attempted to comfort, holding his wife's hand. His voice was loud and full of panic, though, so it didn't actually do a lot of good. Not that tone of voice lessens pain.

And in a giant flash of white searing pain that blinded eyesight, it was all over. It was over, thank God... Now, they could all go home happy, raise the perfect family, watch their little young son grow up into a strong man, watch him go to college, watch him get married. They would be proud, die happy and become an old, wrinkly crazy elderly couple who shoot at mailmen and salesmen whenever they drive by their house. These were the thoughts running in both Jill and Dan's minds when the baby finally came.

"Uhm," one of the doctors started, looking down at the infant in his arms. "I don't know how to say this easily, but..."

It was Christmas, the completely-white interior house decorated with more colorful designs, things you'd only see on this holiday. Snowflakes, snowmen, stockings, other such things. Tod was still young, a little cub almost ready to start going to school. The young coonboy ran out of his room, racing through the single-floored home and into the living room. His parents were there, sitting on a couch next to the big Christmas tree. They both smiled down at him lovingly.

"Open up your presents, sweetie!" Jill

The older male nodded, "They're all for you. Every single one."

"Yay!" Tod yelled, throwing his arms in the air. He looked to the pile, no! The mountain of gifts, all wrapped up in special paper of his favorite cartoon superhero! So many of the presents were cool. Coloring books, action figures, an educational board game, but what seemed the most out of place was a big book. It didn't have a colorful cover, it was very thick and didn't look very fun. What kind of present is this?

When they saw him looking at it oddly, Jill spoke up, "Honey, you're about to start going to school and we know it's going to be kind of hard for you, being away from us."

"We got you that book, because we thought it might help. I know it might be hard to understand right now, but just keep it in your room and look at it sometimes. You'll learn how to understand it when you learn things at school," Dan explained.

Not really sure what it meant, but assuming the book was going to be fun, Tod wagged and yipped happily, "Okay!"

The kid grabbed a handful of things and raced off to his room, intending to play for endless hours. Left behind, his parents looked to one another sadly, then hugged.

Tod stood out in the front yard, kicking around a beach ball that he had simply found randomly in a ditch. Their house was pure white, angelic-looking and quite big, with a well-cut lawn and a cement layout connecting the garage and the street. He giggled and wagged his tail furiously as the ball kept bouncing around every time it was kicked. It was a shame Mom and Dad couldn't play, since they were out working late. They had different jobs and got home at different times, so Dan took public transportation. Cheaper than buying another car.

One strong kick sent the ball sailing through the air, landing down hard on blacktop. It rolled a little bit before coming to a stop. The raccoon ran towards it, continuing to giggle and play with his ball. A loud noise, something mechanical, rang through the air continuously, coming closer, though it was not registered in such a young mind. It turned into a loud screech, then a loud crash, which finally did get the attention of Tod. He turned around and saw the most horrible sight he had ever seen, something he had nightmares of for the rest of his days. It was his mom's car, flipped on its' roof, completely smashed up and smoking.

Tod screamed as loud as he could and ran over to the mangled mess of metal, crawling down on his knees and looking through the driver's side. Jill didn't look too good. There was lots of red stuff on her. The young coon reached out, shaking her.

"Mommy, Mommy!" he yelled at her, crying and completely scared. "Please, wake up!"

But she wouldn't. The distant noise of an ambulance rang somewhere in the background, but it too was not heard by the child. He was thinking too hard. All Tod wanted in the whole wide world was just to do things different. To not get that stupid ball. He clutched his eyes shut and cried his little heart out, forming fists with his hands so hard that claws made blood ooze out. It didn't matter what the sacrifice was, it could be all the toys in the world, or it could even be being hit by the car instead of it flipping over to avoid it. Anything.

Anything...

Before any other thoughts were conjured, Tod stood back in the front yard of his house. He looked around frantically, not sure what had happened. No wreck, nothing out of the normal. Had it even happened? But through all the quick looking around, his eyes landed on a ball in a ditch, across the street of where he lived. Fear shot through like a gun, or like jumping in a pool of cold water on a hot day and that almost-painful rush of a change of temperature. It was probably a good idea to not get the ball.

An hour or so later, Jill's brown car turned the corner, pulled in and entered the garage. Tod ran towards it once the car stopped, practically leaping up towards her the moment she stepped out.

She laughed, "Well, I'm happy to see you, too!"

"Please don't do that again, please don't sleep and not wake up," Tod begged, crying tears on his mother's shirt.

"Huh?" Jill asked, confused, then hugged her son tightly. "I'll always be here, don't worry..."

After that, everything felt darker.

Whenever you talk to an adult about "back in his day," they always say they wish they could go back and be young again. And that when they watch you grow, it happens so fast. It's true. For now, Tod was in high school as a freshman. It was going to be the first day, going to this place. You get to be the big kids and bully everyone else underneath you (not that Tod bullied anyone! It was the opposite). But when you go to the next grade, you start at the bottom of the chain all over again. Youngest of everyone, shortest and weakest.

Tod sat at the front of the bus, always preferring that over anywhere else. Everyone usually chose for the very back, or the closest possible, because you got to sit further away from the driver and goof around more. But not Tod. No, for he didn't goof off like everyone else. Sitting at the front meant two things: no one would mess with you, because the driver would see, the second is you get off faster. No one could trip you AND you got home a few seconds quicker, so you could catch a minute or two extra of the ending of a fun cartoon that disappointedly played just as the school day started to end.

School wasn't all fun and games like the coonboy thought it would be. It was, well, weird. Half of the people acted strangely nice, like gooshy-huggy grandma-pulling-your-cheeks nice, the other half were rotten. They were mean, big bullies. He didn't understand it. He didn't deserve it. Many things were hard to understand, but why couldn't he just have... a friend? Not someone who'd hug him and tell him how amazing he is all the time, but those kinds of people who play in your room with your toys, or games, or watch a movie, or anything else he always saw on TV.

After walking the hallway and getting a few weird looks and laughs, Tod entered the classroom matching on the paper he had in his hand, carrying his backpack with him inside. It seemed weird, since everyone else used lockers in the hallway. He put his stuff up in a cubby holder with 'Tod Litch' written on a tag. Then, he sat down at a desk that also had 'Tod Litch' written on a name tag in a corner. The class was filled with only a few others, most writing on their desk itself, or picking their nose. Tod used to do the same, until that day years ago. Even if it was just a weird dream, it felt so real.

An overweight female skunk stood at the front of the room, smiling brightly. "Hello, class! I need your attention all up here, please." Everyone stopped being so stupid and looked up at her for the time being. The skunk's voice was soft like snow and radiant like sunlight. She seemed nice.

"My names' Mrs. Burles, I'm your teacher," Mrs. Burles explained simply. "You won't go from class to class like everyone else. We're all going to be very close to each other, because all so very, very special."

That last word swirled around in Tod's head and suddenly made the world spin, everything becoming a blur other than his own body. Why was that word something he heard so often, so many times? Before, he loved it when his parents called him special, or when teachers at school did. He loved all the hugs, the help received to finish school work, everything. But every night, that damn nightmare haunted. What made him so special that Tod killed his own mother, what made him deserve all this?! Or did it even happen? Maybe that's what being special meant. Maybe "special" was a word used for people who had nightmares that felt real all the time.

But what's so good about being special? Tod began to wonder what it'd feel like to be normal, then thought back on that book from Christmas. It took a long, long time to understand it and even now, most of it was incomprehensible, but it seemed to say something along the lines of it's okay to be special. That being normal wasn't worth it, because you wouldn't be the same person anymore and everyone loved you just the way you were. Even so, it just didn't feel right. Something was... wrong, but Tod didn't know exactly quite what.

Maybe if Tod could make a normal friend, or just hang out with them, then it'd be alright. Where was that place everyone hanged out in? The... cafeteria, right? But that was hours from now, and special people didn't get to eat with normal people. They ate in here, with Mrs. Burles. Well, not today. Today, the world will be different.

The coon looked up to the clock, it just being barely eight AM. But that's wrong, it needs to be lunch time! Waiting sucks so much, why couldn't time just disappear.

And...

So it did.

The clock said 12:20. That was the big kid's lunch, the oldest grade's turn to eat. Tod, though, didn't mentally process the fact time flew. It was simply a fact of what time it was, nothing more. But what time it was didn't fully help, how was it possible to sneak out?!

Looking around the room was an eerie sight to behold. Everyone stood still. Mouths hung open as if to say words, but all they did was hang open. Papers falling off of desks stood in the air. But again, it was not comprehended. It's just the way the world is, right? It's how it is when you're special.

Tod stood up and walked towards Mrs. Burles, who was turned around and writing something on the chalkboard, but not moving, or talking. He cleared his throat, "Excuse me, but I want to go to lunch with all the normal people." Grabbing a hallway pass necklace, which was little more than an laminated note card on string and made way to the lunch room.

The hallways were filled with kids, making their walk to lunch, or, at least it seemed like it. Just like the class, they were all frozen, but from their size, they were probably the seniors. Slowly, their bodies moved. At first, barely, but gradually the pace became normal. Tod wasn't facing the direction of a fox behind him, who was pink-furred and had a feminine appearance, who ended up walking into him on accident and knocking them both over. Lots of laughs were heard.

"Oof!" the fox yelped, quickly standing back up and brushing himself off. He looked down and saw the coon down there, looking like he might cry from the pain. Luckily, it seemed everyone was more focused on getting food in their mouths, so no one stuck around to tease. They all just laughed more and walked their way.

"Piss off!" the pink creature barked at them, then quickly helped Tod stand back up. "Hey, I'm sorry about that, you came out of nowhere, it was so strange! I'm Fulk."

Tod sniffled a little, then replied in a shaky voice, "I'm Tod... Hi..."

With a giggle, Fulk hugged the big fluffy coon. They were about the same height, Tod being a little taller. The weirdness of genetics! But it certainly helped the whole sneaking thing. But wouldn't they come looking for him? Immediately? It was odd they weren't...

"Don't be so shy," he sweetly suggested, giving a brief nuzzle. "I haven't seen you around, come on. You can meet all my friends from last year."

Perhaps this was that bridge, the connection, the link between normal and special. The raccoon smiled and cheered a little too enthusiastically, "Okay!"

They walked in, got their trays of food and then sat down at a table, just like normal people! The whole lunchroom was packed, it must've been... maybe the size of his house! No, bigger, three times bigger. So much talking, so much noise. Tod was so happy that his tail looked like it was on a sugar high. It looked silly, and a horse he sat down next too laughed.

"I know it's the first day of school, but it's not THAT exciting!" the tall, athletically-built equine chuckled out.

"Oh, be quiet, Brent," Kufu, a brown mink shot out in a frinedly tone. "Who's he, Fulk?"

Brent stood up to grab Fulk and Tod in a tight hug, "I bet it's a new boooooyfriiiiend!"

Quickly, Fulk struggled out of the grasp, releasing Tod in effect. "No, he's NOT. I just bumped into him in the hallway a few minutes ago. Everyone laughed at him, so he deserved some -nice-," at that word, he put emphasis on it and stared at Brent, "people to eat lunch with."

The whole time, Tod said nothing. He simply stared at everyone, taking it into his soul, absorbing the surroundings like a sponge.

"I'm Tod!" the raccoon cheerfully informed. The three gave him an odd look, but didn't press into it.

"So, you going to the local dance party this weekend? I saw it posted on the party forums online." Kufu asked, not directing it to anyone specifically while he chewed into a hamburger.

Brent scoffed, "Dancing's for pussies, I'm going to have my older friend buy me booze and eat pizza and play Final Fantasy XIVVIXVIXXVI instead."

"Oh, wow, that's not nerdy at all!" Fulk sarcastically remarked before bursting into laughter, along with Kufu. Tod didn't get the joke, but decided to laugh with them, anyways.

The black horse growled, "Yeah, whatever. If you think it's so funny, new guy, what're you going to do?"

He looked down at his food in thought. The answer was probably the same thing he did every weekend, but inexplicably, that was difficult to put into words. "Draw... watch cartoons."

"Cartoons?!" Brent almost laughed again and nudged the newcomer rather hard, but not purposely to hurt. But it still did. "You're joking, I know it."

"Well, I'm going to be singing. Got to practice for chorus. Can you sing, Tod?"

He only shrugged, for singing had never before been attempted.

Then, from a couple tables back, some preppy-looking wolf stood up and pointed, "Hey, everyone, there's a retard over there!"

That word, Tod had heard it before, but only a few times. Life had been spent in so much isolation, away from normal society and in the room, with all the special people.

Instantly, the entire cafeteria howled in laughter, other than the three the coonboy had been sitting with, who instead looked confused. Kufu leaned forward to ask as quietly as possible to Tod, "Uhm, are they talking about you?"

"You're not supposed to be here, everyone's a dick and does things like this." Fulk folded his ears, almost looking like he was sad.

Was Fulk only sad to learn that this new friend wasn't normal? Just like princesses must marry a prince, the normal must stay with the normal.

That was the moment when food started to be thrown, then milk cartons, which splashed over Tod's silky fur. He cried, like a baby and pounded on the table. His mind screamed stop, just stop. Just stop and let me run. All the laughter stopped, all noise, all food. Without even opening his eyes to look around, Tod ran out, ran, ran ran ran, until school was only in the distant background, not noticing that everyone was frozen in space in the cafeteria, or the hallways, or planes standing still in the sky, or traffic lights not changing.

Eventually, out of breath, the coon collapsed in the middle of a forest. He cried his heart out for what seemed like hours, soaking his face possibly more than the rancid milk had. That's what special meant. Retarded. Stupid. Dumb. It wasn't the dreams. It wasn't because special meant you were smart and amazing and you'd grow up to be a super hero. It was because your fragile, undeveloped mind was too weak to fully handle the knowledge that you are inferior and always will be. That you are weak. Pathetic. Trash.

Tod didn't notice that the wind had suddenly started blowing again, rustling the tree leaves. They fall like an early autumn over the despaired protagonist. The trees cried with him.

"Hey..." a voice called out from behind him. Tod spun around, surprised to see Fulk, of all people there.

Between sobs and sniffles, Tod yelled out angrily, "Stay away! I don't want you here, I'm dumb." But his heart did not meant it, for if it did, the wish would be granted.

Fulk whimpered, "Please don't be like that. I'm sorry for what happened, please. Just give me a chance. You seem so nice, so innocent. You haven't been tainted by the grime of society, you're pure."

"Stop it!" he yelled, standing up on his feet and getting close to his pink friend. "Everyone says I'm amazing, it's a lie! It's a lie... I'm just... dumb."

Tod bursted into tears again and anger left like the release day of a popular video game on store shelves. He collapsed into the friendly fox's arms, who only held him and genuinely cried tears, heartfelt tears. Wishful sadness that the world was perfect.

Fulk brought up the coon's face with a finger, looking deeply into those sparkly blue eyes before kissing deeply. Tod had never kissed before, but he saw the pink eyelids close and did the same, kissing back as best he could. It was true before, innocent. Too innocent to know what he was really doing, but it felt right. For once, something felt right, a polar opposite of that dreadful feeling he felt for years about how he knew something was wrong and could never figure out what it was. Whatever this is, Tod wanted more. Lots more.

Slowly, the two pushed each other gently to the leaf-covered ground. The trees had hearts, not only having emotion to cry, but they even made a warm bed for them. Fulk pried his tongue into his friend's muzzle, lapping it around quite expertly. The coon tried to do the same, though not as good, but enough to get his tongue inside the fox maw and have it suckled on. He moaned loudly, not expecting at all for the sensation to be that pleasant. Fulk chuckled, grinning down. "If you liked that, just wait."

The fox slid down in between his friend's legs, reaching to his crotch. Instinctively, Tod grabbed Fulk's hand in a flash, about to remove it. "Calm down, it's okay. I won't hurt you." With a hesitated nod, he released. Afterwards, without any wait, he felt his zipper being undone and pants tugged down. Then, an overwhelming warmth surrounded unsheathed cooncock. Tod moaned out and thrusted into the muzzle once before hands forcibly held him down and stern eyes stood up above him. It was a wordless command to stay still while work was done. Again, obedience was all that was given.

While Fulk bobbed his head, he twisted it, swirling his tongue and slithering it out as far as it would go, allowing him to lap at Tod' fuzzy sac in the middle of the blow. Although the raccoon tried his best to not struggle, a little wiggling from all the pleasure was impossible to contain. Pre-oozed out of his tip and into the hot wet hole provided so generously for use. To top it off, Fulk began to massage the sensitive virgin tailhole his nose caught the scent of and whose cock couldn't get its' own mind off of. It caused more wiggling, but it felt so good. More good than anything ever before.

"What... what is this?" Tod panted out, his eyes rolling back from the awesomeness of the situation.

"It's called sex, get used to it. I'll be doing it a lot more from now on," Fulk grinned. Then, he climbed up on top of the coon. He was special, Tod really was. But not in the 'stupid sense,' not in any bad way. With great realization, as Fulk stared down at that pile of cute fluffy fur, seeing those sparkly blue eyes yet again... He somehow tugged at the fox's heart. It was too early to call it love at first sight. But it was something truly special.

Fulk looked concerned and immensely horny at the same time. His musk filled Tod's nose. The smell was new and unfamiliar, but addictive. "We're going to do something a little different now, but just stay still and calm." Before a reply could be given, the fox plunged himself down like a hammer hitting a nail. In a second, Tod's erection was engulfed in a new home, a warm, tight home. It was much more intense than the oral from before and it made it completely impossible to control the actions afterwards.

Hands grasped Fulk's thighs, so that Tod could have a nice and firm grip. He began thrusting fast and hard, moaning uncontrollably loud. Luck and love was with this one, though. The fox was going to initially protest, but the rough treatment was, well, it was damn good! That hard pounding, thick pulsating meat sliding in and out, screwing his brains out. Fulk leaned back and moaned loudly, grabbing his own cock and masturbating furiously while Tod humped mercilessly.

Semen shot out and covered his pink hand and also the creature below him. Tod didn't know what it was and so didn't do anything about the cum all over him, other than the fact his maw was hanging wide open from panting so much and a lot of the substance fell in there. After a few more pounds, the raccoon reached orgasm almost at the same time, the feeling so powerful it almost knocked him unconscious, but the urge to feel as much bliss as possible happened to be far more strong.

Utterly out of breath, Fulk collapsed down on his new friend. But is that really the right word? Nah. Boyfriend will do. Happy and content, the fox closed his eyes, muttering something into Tod's ears before he passed out with exhaustion from the sex.

For once, yes, something felt right. After all this time and searching, something felt perfect. But then memories flashed back to the cafeteria, of all those jerks throwing things, laughing, pointing. If things continued like this, Fulk would get the same treatment. Bad things might happen, pranks teenagers would play that might go too far. Even if not, just, how could it work and true happiness really be obtained?

Tears fell from Tod's eyes. His heart ached, beating loud enough for him to ear and, unknowing at the time, at the exact same pace as the sleeping pink thing on top of him. More than anything, Tod wanted to be normal. Or maybe not normal. If normal meant the same as closed-mindedness and being an asshole like the kids at lunch, well, abnormal would have to do. As long as he and Fulk could live happy, with no one bothering them. No one hurting either of them, in any way. Not any way, not ever. And it would be like that until every star in existence and the sky was nothing more than a black inkwell.

"I love you, too."

It was Christmas, the completely-white interior house decorated with more colorful designs, things you'd only see on this holiday. Snowflakes, snowmen, stockings, other such things. Tod was still young, a little cub almost ready to start going to school. The young coonboy ran out of his room, racing through the single-floored home and into the living room. His parents were there, sitting on a couch next to the big Christmas tree. They both smiled down at him lovingly.

"Open up your presents, sweetie!" Jill

The older male nodded, "They're all for you. Every single one."

"Yay!" Tod yelled, throwing his arms in the air. He looked to the pile, no! The mountain of gifts, all wrapped up in special paper of his favorite cartoon superhero! So many of the presents were cool. Coloring books, action figures, an educational board game, but what caught his eye the most was this little electronical folded gadget. Previously, he had seen it in a TV commercial and wanted one. Ever since birth, the raccoon had been a genius. Taking toasters apart and putting them back together, fixing a broken DVD player his parents were frustrated with and about to simply buy a new one, among other scenarioes. This, this was his very own laptop!

Tod grabbed the object and ran off to his room, intending to use it and get on that thing he only heard about, the Internet, for endless hours of fun.

His parents looked to one another, then hugged each other happily.

It was the day before his first day of high school, and Tod had piles of junk laying around him in the basement, which he had claimed for his own abode for the needs of more space for all of the projects the little genius constantly did. He pulled down the welding mask as sparks flew.

Dan banged on the wall of the basement, "Tod, you need to sleep, or you'll be exhausted tomorrow at school."

"Yeah, yeah," he replied with annoyance, turning the tools off and tossing the mask aside. After laying in his bed, within minutes, he drifted off to sleep.

Over at the table he had been working at, books laid about, all probably from the library. Book of clocks, opened up to a random page, other books about space, a couple books on how electricity and electronics in general work and even one, big, thick book on time travel.