Pervert 3
for Bluewolf01
by Lukos

I growled as I fumbled for the fourth time with the blue silk tie. I hated ties, and I hated formal clothes, but there I stood in front of the mirror, perfectly groomed and smelling quite amazing, if I say so myself, wearing crisp slacks and a button-down shirt. All I needed was to tie this stupid tie and I’d be ready to do what I wasn’t looking forward to doing.

“Ready to go job hunting?” It was Bulmung that brought the term to my mind. I had been trying to keep it out of my mind, as though ignoring its name would magically provide me with a job without the hassle of driving through San Diego and hearing dozens of potential employers give me non-answers about how they are “always accepting applications” and tell me to go home and complete unnecessarily lengthy ones online.

The tauren was standing in the doorway to our bedroom, casually eating a bowl of Cheerios and wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. I rolled my eyes at him.

“Yeah, thrilled,” I grumbled, starting a fifth attempt to tie my tie. “I just *loooove* job hunting.”

Bulmung chuckled. I heard him set the bowl down on the dresser, and felt his warmth as he stood directly behind me and reached around my body. I watched us in the mirror, fascinated, as he expertly manipulated the absolutely pointless piece of fabric into a perfect Windsor knot.

I shook my head incredulously. “How the heck did you do that? I’ve been trying for like ten minutes.”

He rubbed his paws down my sides, making me shudder pleasantly until they came to rest at my hips and pulled me against his warm body. He smelled like soap. Soap and Cheerios. I leaned against him happily.

“I’m a magic bull,” he said, his face completely serious. “I can do anything.”

“Tch, then can you get me a job?”

The corners of his mouth rose in a cheeky smirk. “I’m magic, not a miracle worker.”

I suppressed a laugh and elbowed him in the side, and he grunted, laughing. “Hey, you set yourself up for that one!” he complained.

I supposed I had, but I told myself Bulmung deserved it anyway. He picked up his bowl of cereal and sat on the bed behind me as I straightened the accursed tie and turned to face him.

“How do I look?” I asked him.

“Like a boss,” he casually replied through a mouthful of cereal. “Hey, why don’t you just ask Frozen for help?”

I tilted my head at him. How was Frozen supposed to help me? “Come on, Bul. I may be new to San Diego but I don’t need a chaperone. I can do this myself.”

Bulmung just shrugged his broad shoulders. “If you say so. Can I at least walk you to the car, O Independent One?”

“You’re not wearing pants,” I pointed out.

“Heh, yeah like that would stop me.”

Without responding, I sat down beside him and leaned in close. He did the same, and we connected in a gentle kiss. I closed my eyes, feeling the tauren try his best not to spill the rest of his cereal as his tongue slipped into my mouth. As much as I hated job hunting, being near Bulmung somehow made everything feel good and right with the world.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed before Bulmung finally grabbed my arms. “You’re stalling,” he said.

“You’re sexy,” I retorted.

“You’re leaving.” The tauren stood up, pulling me firmly with him by the arms, ignoring my protests. “Now you have a good day,” he said firmly, escorting me to the living room to grab my wallet and keys. “Drive safe, obey the speed limit and all that. I’ll meet you later for lunch, okay?”

“Okaaay,” I sighed. This job hunting thing was clearly going to happen whether I wanted it to or not.

Sure enough, though he was wearing only an undershirt and a pair of boxers, Bulmung pulled me straight out the front door and to the driver door of his Jeep, where I begrudgingly crossed my arms.

“Hey,” he said, leaning forward to kiss me on the forehead. “You’ll do great, okay? Wow ‘em.”

I smiled weakly. “Thanks,” I said. “See you at lunch?”

“You bet. Vinero’s, just before the Coronado Bridge. Call me if you can’t find it.”

“Okay.” I opened the door, and after one more kiss goodbye, I was off on the dreaded job hunt.

Driving around and asking random businesses whether or not they were hiring felt more pointless nowadays than it ever possibly could have been. Part of the frustration of job hunting this way was walking into a place, well-dressed and with your best smile, to ask whether or not it was hiring, and hearing the same tired non-answer from almost every one: “We’re accepting applications. Go home and apply online.”

I grumbled as I left the first place, a local sit-down restaurant, which had given me that exact answer.

“Hey, my name’s Felix,” I had said to the manager cheerfully. “I have experience as a server and a bartender, and I was wondering if you had any job openings.”

“Well, we’re accepting applications,” offered the manager, an overdressed raccoon with way too many pens in his company-branded shirt pocket. “If you just go to Brinwells.com, you can apply online.”

It was all I could do not to roll my eyes right there in front of him and say, “You *can* just say ‘no,’ you know.”

I had been through job-hunting sessions like this before. Finding a job in Colorado had been difficult. I had spent half of the summer running around Denver and getting answers just like the one the Brinwells manager had given me, filling out annoyingly long online applications until I loathed turning on my computer. Even then, the only reason I got a job was because one of my mom’s coworkers had connections with the owners of a new restaurant that was opening. I hated that rather than give me an actual answer so I could either apply or cross them off my list, these managers would rather waste my time with non-answers and half-hour-long online applications that they probably wouldn’t even look at. It was frustrating.

Realizing that this was just the first stop of the job hunt and I still had a long day of this ahead of me, I had forced away the immediate frustration I felt and tried to smile genuinely. My past experiences with job hunting made this feel like another tally on a long scoreboard of job hunting: them, a million; me, one.

“I will,” I had said politely to the Brinwell’s manager. “Thanks.”

More than that, I hated places that would get my hopes up for no reason. For example, several stops in, I made a U-turn for a bookstore that had a “Now Hiring!” sign in its window. I had already written down one place, another casual sit-down restaurant that had mentioned a possible opening in the near future. A bookstore didn’t sound particularly exciting, but I liked reading alright and a Now Hiring sign meant a guaranteed opening.

The manager of the bookstore was a short, frumpy antelope woman with an outdated pants suit and wire-rimmed glasses perched on her nose that she never seemed to actually look through. She reeked of boring and looked unfriendly, but I reminded myself not to judge a book by its cover and gave her a smile.

“Hi, ma’am, my name’s Felix, and I saw your Now Hiring sign in the win—”

“I’m sorry,” she interrupted, holding up a paw to further emphasize her intention to cut me off. “This location is fully staffed.”

“But the sign—”

“That’s for corporate. It means the company’s hiring, but this location is full.”

She was *not* a good model for the “Don’t judge a book by its cover” line. At that moment, I decided that she was every bit as boring, frumpy, and unfriendly as she looked, and I wanted to burn that stupidly pointless sign right off the window and her equally pointless wire-rimmed glasses with it.

Despite my frustrations, however, I knew that wasn’t something I would or should do, and I smiled courteously, thanked her for her time, and left the old broom to her crummy fully-staffed bookstore.

I’m not normally like that, I promise. I was just so frustrated that all these managers, all these businesses, seemed intent on nothing but wasting the time of those who were in need of employment. All of this felt like a huge waste of time, especially since I had been through it all before. I wasn’t even going to be done with this when I got home; I’d still have hours to spend filling out pointless applications for businesses that probably wouldn’t even tell me whether or not they knew I had submitted them.

I decided that I couldn’t deal with the job hunting thing anymore right now. Lunch wasn’t for another hour or so. I would hang out in San Diego, meet Bulmung at Vinero’s as planned, and then ask around a little more before heading back home.

Despite my tedious task, it was actually a very nice day out. Summer was on in force, and it was hot (especially in a tie), but the sky was nice and blue, scattered with puffy clouds that provided occasional shade and possibly a nice bit of rain later on. Despite my formal attire, I hoped for it. I had missed California’s rain. You’d think that rain was just rain, wherever you are, but California’s warm showers felt completely different from Colorado’s. Honestly, both were nice, but California’s felt like home.

I loosened my tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons of my shirt, mentally reviewing the places that I had stopped.

“So GameGo and Great Buy want me to do applications,” I mumbled, opening the sunroof and rolling down the windows. I pulled out of Great Buy’s parking lot onto Mission Center Road, poking the buttons on the steering wheel to explore Bulmung’s CD collection. “Bookstore’s a *heeeeeyll* no. Maybe I should try Sea World. Or maybe I need to just stop thinking about this for awhile.”

I had almost forgotten that I was taking a break. Resting at a stop light, I kept my foot on the brake and stared up through the sun roof.

“I HATE JOB HUNTING!” I yelled into the sky. The clouds offered me no help whatsoever, but a car honked to my left. A large, bearded German Shepherd gave me a thumbs up.

“Right there with ya, man!” he shouted. I smiled sheepishly, thankful that the light had changed just then.

Without Bulmung or Frozen, I really didn’t know where I wanted to go. Visitors to San Diego would probably find tons to do. Residents such as myself would take San Diego’s activities for granted. I hadn’t been to San Diego in awhile, but now that I had spent a week or so here it all felt second nature again. I kept Vinero’s in mind, but otherwise I drove with no real destination. I began to recognize where I was. There was the big Sam’s Mart on College Avenue. There was the sprawling campus of San Diego State University, just before the Kumeyaay Highway bridge.

There were the streets and houses I grew up around. I recognized houses that I hadn’t seen in a long, long time, and the route I was taking. My fingers gripped the steering wheel apprehensively. I parked Bulmung’s Jeep in a well-kept cul-de-sac, and turned the stereo system down, trying to look as unassuming and not-creepy as possible as the wave of nostalgia washed over me.

I sat there, across the street from the two houses, with the one grey one separating them. The one on my right had belonged to my family: a warm, simple two-story home with a two-car garage and a meticulously-kept lawn. My dad would have loved to see how well the new residents were treating that lawn. A palm tree stood, random yet proud, in the front yard, several feet from the sidewalk. Multicolored pinwheels spun lazily along the clean, white driveway, where a shiny new minivan sat, ready to haul kids and parents and perhaps soccer equipment for an after school sports club. A new family was in this house, and yet there was my room on the top floor, where I had spent my childhood and most of my teenage years. There was my window, from which I had stared questioningly into the sky during many of my pubescent wonderings, from which I had answered many calls to go outside and play from Bulmung or Frozen or other random school friends.

To the left, the grey house that never seemed to keep a resident for more than three years or so. Past that, Bulmung’s place. I remembered all the family barbecues, all the games of catch, all the growing up we did in these homes, on these sidewalks. I remembered all the times we’d go to Frozen’s place just down the road for some movies and snacks. This little cul-de-sac, this little community, had been my world, and both Bulmung and Frozen had been huge parts of it.

I remembered a summer when I was sixteen years old, and Bulmung and I had spent a day swimming at the Y over in Mission Valley. It had been a fun day, but a strange one. You see, I was sixteen. I was doing my teenage… hormone… thing, or whatever adults like to call it, but I was noticing that something was wrong. My eyes would rove over plenty of chests and backsides, but never a girl’s. That day at the Y, it had been Bulmung. I had stared at him all day, like some kind of creepy pervert. When he had pulled himself out of the water, I’d watched the way his wet Speedo (yeah, even then the guy wore a freaking Speedo) hugged places I knew I wasn’t supposed to be staring at. I’d notice the subtle wiggle of the bulge in his crotch as he walked across the diving board to perform what would inevitably turn into a cannonball. I’d notice the muscles in his rump and in his thighs as he turned himself upside down in the water to dive to the bottom of the pool.

I’d had a week to mull this over, to learn what I was, and to worry about the consequences of what I was. Bulmung was the one who had noticed that something was bothering me. I figured I’d been able to hide it from everyone, even Frozen. Somehow, Bulmung had noticed something that I had failed to hide, and I don’t think I’ll ever know what that is.

Nevertheless, I had been sitting in that room that I was sitting in Bulmung’s car and staring at, sixteen years old, on my computer. I had been watching some anime that Frozen had shown me, when Bulmung sent me an instant message. I still had the chat log from that conversation saved on my phone.

MWTBulmung (9:23 PM): So how long do I have to wait before you tell me what’s up?

FelixGood23 (9:23 PM): Huh?

MWTBulmung (9:24 PM): lol, c’mon Felix, you haven’t been yourself lately and you think I didnt notice?

FelixGood23 (9:24 PM): Are you high?

MWTBulmung (9:24 PM): high on life, man. Seriously tho what’s bothering you? :/

FelixGood23 (9:26 PM): It’s nothing, man

MWTBulmung (9:26 PM): Sounds more like its somethin and you just dont wanna tel me about it.

MWTBulmung (9:26 PM): tell*

MWTBulmung (9:27 PM): I’m your best friend you know. Me and Froze. I know somethings wrong. Maybe I can help.

FelixGood23 (9:30 PM): I’m fine, Bul I can work it out

MWTBulmung (9:30 PM): So there IS something! HA! PROGRESS!

FelixGood23 (9:30 PM): …

MWTBulmung (9:31 PM): You know I just wanna help you, man.

FelixGood23 (9:31 PM): I know

MWTBulmung (9:32 PM): So why won’t you let me?

FelixGood23 (9:34 PM): I dunno. It’s… personal.

MWTBulmung (9:35 PM): lol we’ve seen each other naked. It don’t get more personal.

FelixGood23 (9:35 PM): lol

FelixGood23 (9:38 PM): I dunno, man. I’ve just been… worried. About me.

MWTBulmung (9:42 PM): Sorry. My mom wanted me to put the dog to bed. All’s quiet now.

MWTBulmung (9:42 PM): Why are you worried about you?

FelixGood23 (9:44 PM): I dunno…

MWTBulmung (9:44 PM): Are you sick?

FelixGood23 (9:45 PM): haha no

FelixGood23 (9:45 PM): Not in the traditional sense anyway

MWTBulmung (9:46 PM): I don’t get it.

FelixGood23 (9:49 PM): I just…

FelixGood23 (9:51 PM): I don’t know how to say it.

MWTBulmung (9:52 PM): Straight out, Felix. You know I’m here for you.

FelixGood23 (9:56 PM): I think I might be gay

MWTBulmung (9:57 PM): Wait a second… did you hear that? Oh no… the sky! THE SKY IS FALLING! RUUUUUUN!!!

FelixGood23 (9:58 PM): Bulmung…

MWTBulmung (9:58 PM): Now was that so bad?

FelixGood23 (10:00 PM): I don’t know yet.

MWTBulmung (10:00 PM): Well why do you think you might be gay?

FelixGood23 (10:01 PM): I guess… I’ve only ever had one girlfriend, been single since. And… you know… checking out dudes…

MWTBulmung (10:01 PM): Oh, who?

FelixGood23 (10:01 PM): Bulmung!

MWTBulmung (10:02 PM): lol sorry

MWTBulmung (10:02 PM): Look, Felix, that doesn’t matter. You’re still Felix. I’m still Bulmung. You’re still my bro. Okay?

FelixGood23 (10:03 PM): Okay

FelixGood23 (10:03 PM): Thanks Bul

MWTBulmung (10:03 PM): Of course. Anyone else know?

FelixGood23 (10:04 PM): Youre the first

MWTBulmung (10:04 PM): Will you tell anyone else?

FelixGood23 (10:04 PM): I dunno… probably not. lol my paws are still shaking. I feel so weird…

MWTBulmung (10:05 PM): Aw, sorry man. Don’t be so nervous. I don’t see you any differently than before, okay?

FelixGood23 (10:05 PM): I know, man. Thanks for that.

MWTBulmung (10:06 PM): Would it help if I told you that

MWTBulmung (10:06 PM): I’ve checked out dudes before too?

FelixGood23 (10:07 PM): O.O

MWTBulmung (10:07 PM): haha What?

FelixGood23 (10:08 PM): You have? Who?

MWTBulmung (10:08 PM): I’ll tell you when you tell me.

FelixGood23 (10:09 PM): Don’t you mean if?

MWTBulmung (10:09 PM): Nope.

FelixGood23 (10:12 PM): So you’re gay too?

MWTBulmung (10:12 PM): No.

FelixGood23 (10:12 PM): Oh.

MWTBulmung (10:13 PM): I’m bi.

FelixGood23 (10:13 PM): Oh! Wow. I never would have guessed

MWTBulmung (10:13 PM): That’s just because you don’t pay attention.

FelixGood23 (10:14 PM): I could say the same about you. You didn’t even notice at the Y when I was watching you

MWTBulmung (10:14 PM): I KNEW IT!

FelixGood23 (10:15 PM): ….

MWTBulmung (10:15 PM): Ha! Something seemed off about you that day. Guess it was because you were checking out my butt, huh?

FelixGood23 (10:16 PM): Well I wasn’t embarrassed BEFORE….

MWTBulmung (10:17 PM): Aw I’m sorry man. You know I’m just having fun with ya. Okay. I’ll give you a freebie. You have 30 secs.

FelixGood23 (10:17 PM): Uhh…

FelixGood23 (10:17 PM): What does the MWT mean in your name?

MWTBulmung (10:18 PM): Really? I give you a freebie and that’s what you ask? I am disappoint.

FelixGood23 (10:18 PM): Redo?

MWTBulmung (10:19 PM): Nope! What’s done is done. It means Mess With The. As in “Mess with the Bulmung, get the horns.”

FelixGood23 (10:21 PM): You are the cheesiest person I know.

MWTBulmung (10:22 PM): Aw, thanks, man! <3

That was Bulmung. Always joking around. Always trying to set me at ease. I leaned my head back against the headrest, staring once again through the sunroof. It was almost lunchtime. Some years ago, if I wasn’t at school, I’d probably have been hanging around with Bulmung and Frozen while my mom made us grilled cheese sandwiches.

For a moment I entertained the idea that perhaps the owners of the homes would let me in for a quick walk through. With my creepiness level also in strong consideration, I put the Jeep into gear and turned the radio back up, driving that familiar fifteen-minute route to the downtown area.

Vinero’s was this small Italian restaurant near the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. It was another one of Bulmung’s new recommendations, thanks to its breadsticks. When I got there, Bulmung was standing outside, already waiting for me. He waved a paw as I stepped out of his vehicle.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t keep me waiting!” he said. “Not too bad. How’d job hunting go?”

“Oh, uh… good!” I said, giving him a quick hug. He smelled like he had just showered. “How’d you get here?”

“Good ol’ public transportation,” he replied, to my dismay.

“I could have picked you up!” I protested. “Why’d you take the bus?”

“Because you needed to job hunt!” he said. “It’s no big deal.”

“Oh.” I guiltily remembered the half hour or so I had spent sitting in front of our old houses, totally *not* job hunting.

“Has it been rough?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Frustrating. I hate job hunting.”

“You *could* just let Frozen help you. He’s—”

“Come on, Bul, I’m a big boy,” I said. “I don’t need him to hold my paws while I look for a job, of all things. Who would hire me then?”

“But—”

“Welcome to Vinero’s,” said the cheerful hostess, who arrived at her podium right at that moment. “Table for two?”

Bulmung nodded, and the hostess led us to a booth and set a pair of menus in front of us. The place smelled good, and my stomach rumbled. “Your server will be right over with your breadsticks,” she stated, and she left us to our conversation.

I held my phone out to Bulmung, our conversation from all those years ago displayed on the screen. “Remember this?” I asked.

Bulmung took my phone and swiped through the array of messages. “Hah, that screen name of mine… yeah, I haven’t seen this in awhile! You keep it around with you?” He continued reading.

“Yeah,” I shrugged, pulling a napkin out of the dispenser and fiddling with it. “It’s on my Dropcrate account, so…”

“Heh. I’m glad you told me,” he said, setting my phone on the table in front of me. “You might not be my boyfriend now if you hadn’t.”

I nodded in agreement. “I don’t know, Bul. I’m just glad you were there for me. I’m sure if you weren’t I would have overthought everything and done something stupid.”

“Probably,” Bulmung agreed. I pouted and chucked the rolled-up napkin at him.  “What brought this on?”

“Well…” I said apologetically, “I… kind of took a break from job-hunting.” He raised an eyebrow at me, and I hurriedly put my paws up. “Not that long! It was just before I came here. An hour tops. I promise, I was job hunting all morning other than that.”

Bulmung watched me, eyebrow raised, a bemused look on his face. I knew he enjoyed watching me squirm, that stupid tauren, and yet I squirmed anyway. “And?” he said.

“And… I ended up going to our houses,” he said. “From before I left and everything.”

“Aw, I wish I could’ve come!” said Bulmung. “I haven’t really been there myself since we left.”

“Yeah, me and you and Frozen should do a tour of our old places,” I agreed. My pause at my old home felt nice, and it would have been even sweeter to enjoy it with the two of them. It’d probably be far less creepy to ask the new residents if we could have a look around together rather than just me by myself.

“Anyway, I just got to thinking about growing up there, and how you were always there for me. I just wanted to say thanks for that, you know? You and Frozen are what brought me back to San Diego, but especially you.”

Bulmung seemed uncharacteristically taken aback. He didn’t answer, but he just kind of stared at me, a look of surprise on his face. I shifted my gaze uncomfortably to the table, beneath my arms, just as our server appeared with a plate of incredible-smelling breadsticks.

We placed our orders, and then sat there chatting amicably about various things until they arrived. I told him about the frumpy old woman at the bookstore. He laughed around a mouthful of cola and said he’d give away his Jeep before he saw me working under someone like that.

The food was delicious when it arrived. I had ordered some kind of lasagna thing that I couldn’t pronounce, but would be perfectly happy eating for the rest of the month. I don’t know what Bulmung had, but it sizzled in one of those oven-friendly bowls that restaurants used, and though he told me he had been coming here a lot, he sure seemed to enjoy it.

It was about half past one when we finally left the restaurant, each of us with a foam takeout box. I had more job hunting to do and didn’t want to be in a food coma for it, and Bulmung had finished his lunch but had asked for some more breadsticks to take home. I got into the passenger’s seat, and Bulmung into the driver’s seat (after readjusting his seat and mirrors).

As we drove along Harbor Drive, past the Coronado Bridge, the San Diego Bay gleaming to our right in the bright sunshine, Bulmung was quiet. I didn’t mind. We were comfortable together, and a little quiet didn’t bother either of us. The windows were down, and in the summer heat the breeze felt nice. I could tell that Bulmung was thinking about something by the way he chewed at his lower lip, or sometimes his little finger. He didn’t seem troubled, but rather just contemplative, so I left him to his thoughts as the Jeep hummed smoothly along beneath us.

Suddenly, Bulmung took a different turn than I expected. He turned off Harbor a little early, without really alerting me to where he was going. I didn’t question him, but I was more alert now. Perhaps he found an easier way home, one that avoided midday traffic.

However, Bulmung didn’t take us home. I wasn’t going to complain, frankly. The longer it took to drop him off, the less time I would have to spend driving around asking people for jobs I probably wasn’t going to get.

He parked the Jeep at a little park called Mountain View. He and I had come here a few times growing up. I cringed at the state of it. The “mini park” used to be lush and verdant. It didn’t seem to be so healthy now. Even from the parking lot, I could see the dehydrated plants, dwindling in number, yet hanging on as long as they could in the hope that someone would come and care for them. I hoped the view was at least still as good as I remembered.

“All those things you said,” said Bulmung as we exited the vehicle, “about how you came back to San Diego for me. That true?”

I didn’t answer immediately. Frankly, I had kind of said that on a whim, but in a way it was true. I’d had a job back in Denver. My family was there. It was nice. I could easily have finished school and started my career there. Denver was beautiful, downright picturesque sometimes. What reason did I have to leave what I had there to come back to San Diego and hunt for a job? What reason other than my friends that I had left behind?

“Yeah,” I said. “I was already pretty stable there. I could have found an apartment and roommates and whatever over there, but… it wouldn’t have been the same, you know? I had to do it with you, and with Frozen.”

“I didn’t know that, man,” said Bulmung, sliding his paws into the pockets of his cargo shorts. “I didn’t know you left that stuff for this. I would’ve tried to stop you.”

“Hah!” I retorted. “That’s probably why it felt right not to tell you until now.”

“Felix… come on, you were already set! Why would you uproot yourself for some silly… teenager thing?”

“Because it’s not a ‘silly teenager thing,’” I said, staring firmly at him. “When we talked back when I left about coming together again and whatnot, that wasn’t just a teenager thing. I meant it, and I still want it, and until life or one of you says otherwise, we’re gonna live it.” My face reddened slightly at how passionately I was talking to him in public, but the mini park was deserted.

Bulmung paused as we stopped at the mini park’s namesake, the view. It felt like all of California was laid out before them under a crisp blue sky. I inhaled deeply, enjoying it as I saw Bulmung turn to me out of the corner of my eye.

“You sure say some sweet things, Felix,” he said. I turned toward him, tilting my head slightly, my face reddening.

“I do?”

“Yeah, man,” he grinned. He was enjoying my shyness, but I could tell he meant it. “I mean, we’ve never been… *together*… so I guess we’ve never used that word before, but you do. You’re awesome.”

Somehow, the concept of another guy, particularly Bulmung, actually flirting with me felt foreign… but still somehow good. I tried to hide the smile on my face by staring down at the ground. “You’re awesome,” I said back to him. He scoffed and waved a heavy paw dismissively at me.

“You are!” I insisted. “You’re funny, and smart, and you always know what to say to me. It doesn’t matter what situation I’m in. Somehow, you’re always what makes it better.”

I didn’t look at him but I imagined him blushing a little too. Not much. Just a tiny bit.

“Oh yeah?” he smirked. I could almost hear him smirking. “Well, you’re cute.”

I’m pretty sure my face got red enough to stop traffic should I have decided right then to stand on a street corner. I couldn’t look over at him, and my paws fidgeted. “I…”

“Aw, come on!” groaned Bulmung. “I can’t mess with you by calling you cute if you immediately show that you are!”

“I can’t help it,” I pouted, crossing my arms and turning my back toward him. “And besides, you’re sexy.”

“Mm, so you’ve told me,” he said. I felt his paws wrap around my waist, his muzzle brushing against the back of my neck. I felt tense for a moment. What if someone saw us?

He began gently kissing my neck. It almost tickled, but he did it in such a way that it sent shivers down my spine instead. “And you know what this sexy tauren wants?”

“Something better given in private?” I asked hopefully. He chuckled. “Well, yeah, but that’s not what I meant for right now.”

I turned my head toward him curiously. “What?”

He leaned over just a little bit, and our mouths connected in a kiss. Almost as though this moment were brought to you by the Walt Disney corporation, a breeze began to blow, right over us, and this amazing mountain view we were enjoying. I turned my body around, and our tongues met, sliding past each other. My paw found his cheek, and we stood there, holding each other, kissing, just us.

We managed to end it there, keeping things civil for the public… but we spent the next few minutes there, watching the view with me leaning back against him, and I could tell that he and I were both just about ready to do things that the public was just not ready to see. We headed back to the Jeep, both of us definitely hard and longing to get our paws on each other.

I sort of cheated while Bulmung drove. As he got up to speed, I reached over between his strong thighs and unzipped his pants. He stared at me in surprise, but I didn’t go *that* much further. I pulled his thick member free, holding and squeezing it gently thoughout the drive. Bulmung bit his lower lip, rolling his hips lightly. I could tell that the closer we got to home, the more and more eager he was to get it inside me—and the more eager I was to have him.

We lay in bed some time later, panting and messy. My formal clothes were strewn about in various parts of the room. I leaned back against Bulmung as we caught our breath, feeling his heartbeat through his strong, warm chest.

“You were awesome, Bul,” I murmured to him.

He smiled lazily in his afterglow. “You’re always awesome,” he replied, wrapping his arms around me. “I love you.”

I blinked at those words. Something told me that I was supposed to freak out right about now… but with Bulmung, it felt natural. “I love you,” I replied easily. “Even though I’m going to be sore now when I go job hunting.”

“You’re still going?” Bulmung asked.

“Of course I am,” I sighed. “I don’t want to, but I need a job.”

“You don’t even have anything to wear. Your clothes are kind of… everywhere.”

“I have more clothes,” I replied. I found it ironic that this morning I was the one arguing to stay in from job hunting, but now, after some incredible sex with my boy, I was ready to go out and find that job. Perhaps he made me want to be responsible.

Bulmung rolled his eyes. “And let me guess. You don’t want to ask Frozen for help.”

I rolled my eyes back at him. “I don’t need Frozen to help me find a job!” I repeated for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. “What’s he going to do? Ask around for me? Fill out my applications for me? No one’s going to hire a guy who can’t do that on his own.”

Bulmung suddenly reached down and grabbed my balls. He didn’t squeeze them too hard, but he got my attention.

“Felix, you know that Frozen works at a coffee shop, right?”

“Y-yes,” I said.

“Well he’s a manager at that coffee shop, and he’s hiring.”

“…Oh,” I said, feeling dumb. Bulmung had mentioned Frozen like five times, and I had shut him up each time, too intent upon finding my own job to listen.

“Well… as I was saying, I’ll just ask Frozen. Ah—hey!”

“You’re lucky I love you,” Bulmung said. “Just remember, you owe me gas money. And bus fare.”

“Really? Even if I did this?”

“Nnnh, you’re asking for it, gryphon…”

“I guess I didn’t ask loudly enough.”

“Mmmmm… I’m warning you…”

“Oh, I’m *sooo* scared!”

Not long ago, our relationship was long-distance and completely different. Now, we had *that* kind of relationship. It was getting better and better, and I loved every second of it.