Title: There's No Love Without Violence Status: Complete Characters: Anon, Fang, Trish, Reed, Naser, Original Characters Rating: SFW Classification: One-Shot Author: GardieGirl Summary: Estrus Season had come once again to Volcaldera Bluffs Love was in the humid air as mother nature caused unchecked spikes in hormone in the sexually matured residents of the city to unfathomable levels. It was a season in which love can blossom and a dino can find the love of their lives. Too bad love also came with unchecked violence. Fang had wondered if humans were in some kind of cabal or maybe it was that old tribe mentality that had unified them against dinokind in ages past. Regardless, Fang never recalled Anon being particularly fond of Principal Fang or Mr. Carldewskii. He seemed to be just as distant to the figures of authority as any of the other students regardless if they were dino or human. Nor did the dweeb scream troublemaker to Fang beyond using school wifi to download gigs of pornography. Which made it all the more surprising when Anon was called the Principal’s office out of the blue during music class. Anon’s face did a terrible job hiding the confusion that both she and him had at the announcement. But regardless, the human teen got up and left the room to whatever Spears had instored for him. Not that Fang minded the disappearance of the human. She tolerated the skinnie’s presence in the two classes that they shared, and she herself wouldn’t go out of their way to be in the presence of the bigoted ape. Regardless, Fang could now enjoy their wondrous passion for music uninterrupted by Volcano High’s own bald ape. … … … It was almost the end of class when Anon returned, and Fang would have missed him had she not been putting away the music room’s ancient instruments. Anon looked like he had seen a ghost with how pale and gaunt he now looked. He said nothing nor did he even look in Fang’s direction when he mechanically walked to his seat and sat down. Fang debated whether she should go up and check on Anon and see if he was alright. However at the exact moment the bell rang and with it so the herds of students going to their next set of classes. Anon was quick to disappear into the crowd, seemingly with no desire to talk about whatever happened in the office. It was a rare occasion that the Aaron family actually sat down and ate dinner together without things devolving into one giant fight. But since everyone in the family appeared to have a pretty good day combined with the matriarch making the shared favorite meal of the four. Then it wasn’t hard to believe that no one wanted to ruin what was the end of a nice day with a fight. It didn’t matter to Fang either way as her attention was solely on the plate of meat while her other three members of the family talked away. She zoned out during her mom and dad’s little speech about their day, as such things were boring at best and annoying at worst. That was until the moment that always ruffled their feather arrived at these rare occasions. “Naser, how was your day today? Anything interesting happened?”, gently asked their mother. Fang rolled her eyes and waited for perfect little Naser to talk about all the things he did today, perfectly. “Not much beyond the usual, Noami and I had student council things. Drake and I just did our usual game of basketball when the gym rolled around.”, Naser said whilst picking at his food, “Though I suppose something interesting did happen at practice today…” Their mother’s smile deepened while their father’s eyebrow was raised. Fang rolled her eyes, not bothering to hide it. “We had a new member join for the track team’s practice today, and I gotta say that I wasn’t expecting someone like him at all.”, remarked Naser. “Was it some buck fifty dino looking to prove something?”, Their Father remarked while chewing some food. “You are right about the buck fifty part dad, but he wasn't a dino, he was a human.”, replied Naser. Fang suddenly found herself paying attention to the conversation. Wondering if this was the same human that both them and Naser knew, or if it was a different one. As the idea of a dweeb like Anon willfully exercising is completely unbelievable. “Sounds really pathetic.”, added their dad, “Must have a sad sight to behold.” “Um, well it kinda was.”, Naser said awkwardly, “But despite it all, he asked me when the next practice was coming up. He wanted to continue.” “He certainly sounds determined.”, said their mother. “He was in a sort of weird way.”, Naser said with his hand on his chin, “When I asked him why he wanted to do this all he said was ‘I just need to get stronger and tougher, I aint gotta splain shi-” Naser cut himself off before the swear word could escape his beak. That’s where the conversation ended, or it should have if not for the fact Fang didn’t get the answer she wanted. Normally something as trivial as a random skinnie showing up for track practice shouldn't matter to the nonbinary ptero-girl. But something deep down was nagging her to know. “Was it Anon?”, Fang asked, making the first bit of noise throughout the entire dinner. All three members of their family looked at her. “Y-Yeah, it was.”, Naser said, “How did you kno…” “We’re partners in science class and share the same music period.”, Fang said coolly, “Sometimes the dweeb will eat lunch with the band and me.” Fang almost could’ve sworn she saw something twitch in her Father’s eye. He then looked at Fang and then back to Naser. It was clear that some gears were turning behind the mind of the Aaron patriarch. “So, Naser…tell me more about this Anon kid.”, He said in the most threatening way possible. Fang always found it weird on how things just seemed to happen with no rhyme or reason. She thought she managed to figure out how life worked a long time ago, but she was beginning to doubt such notions as nothing more than teenage hubris. Case and point Anon. She remembered seeing the skinnie on his first day of school. It was kind of hard not to. He stuck out like a sore tail being the only human student in the entire school. Her opinions of the skinnie were nothing really to note, maybe seeing him occasionally in the hallway at most. But she didn’t really feel anything towards him until that little episode of bigotry. After that incident, she hoped that maybe the skinnie would take a hint and leave her alone, and he did to a certain extent. Which made it all the more weirder that she was starting to see Anon more often than she wanted to in places she would never expect. Never did she expect to share another class with the skinnie nor did she expect to see or hear more about him beyond those classes. Yet, once again she had been dead wrong about that. She would hear about him and his exploits on the track team from Naser when he talked with their parents in the evenings when she was home. She would catch a glimpse of him going to the school’s weight room with the other muscle heads to presumably lift weights. The nerd should be a jock based on how much exercise he does, and yet… …Anon never screamed “Hey I like to lift weights and play sports” upon initial appearances. In all honesty the guy looked like he would rather spend hours being a couch potato than do any exercise. Which made it all the more weird when she saw that he was at the garden club volunteering all of the labor intensive jobs. On a Saturday no less with no sort of school beautification punishment attached to his strings. The guy had made himself the apple of Rosa’s eye with all the hard work he was putting into the school’s botanical garden. Her shrill accented voice grating on her ears as she praised Anon for his hard work. Anon humbly thanked Rosa for her praise and continued his work even as the other students trickled on out to enjoy the remainder of their Saturday. Fang glanced back as she began the long trip to her home and watched the human load bags of fertilizer with ease. She couldn’t help but notice how jacked Anon was getting. She just wondered why? It had been a week of extreme heat in the city of Volcaldera with temperatures soaring to triple digits. The increased heat caused the air’s humidity to rise to uncomfortable levels for even the heat tolerant dinosaur residents. However, such a heat wave is not an anomaly of the weather, but rather a recurring phenomenon that harkened one of the worst or one of the best times of the year, depending on who you asked. Estrus Season had come once again to Volcaldera Bluffs Love was in the humid air as hormones spiked in the sexually matured residents of the city to unfathomable levels. Too bad love also came with unchecked violence as the males began to fight with each other to prove their worth to the girls. While the females instinctually tried to make themselves as appealing as possible to attract the best the guys had to offer. And sometimes a prettier girl got punched in the face as a consequence. For a non-binary ptero-girl, this was another reminder why puberty sucked. Despite the status of her preferred gender, Fang was not insusceptible to the increased hormones and the urges that came to them. And her father, the papa dino that he was, had more or less kept her locked up at home and waited for the worst of the season to burn out. Lest his daughter get too wild with some unfortunate boy causing the father-ptero to snap his nine iron golf club in two. Over said boy’s skull, of course. As a result her week consisted of being held up in her room high on barely working hormonal suppressants, either doing homework or fighting the ingrained desire to find a partner. But at the same time being confined to one's house had the left Fang stir crazy from literally only seeing three rooms at a given time. Frankly, she was glad that things had winded down enough for her dad to let her out of the house and attend the last day of the school week. Even still, it was followed by her Father’s usual overbearing way of doing things. Hence why she was given a ride to school in her dad’s car instead of walking like she usually does. Her normal rebellious self would had scoffed at the idea and told her old man to fuck off, but even at the tail end of the season the heat and humidity was still a killer. So a ride in the air conditioned car was a welcome treat compared to walking in the heat. They didn’t speak, there was no need. As they both know a fight would break out between them, due to the increased hormones in the duo. Which not only caused increased attraction but also increased aggression and that usually meant shorter fuses on already bad tempers. Fang stared mindlessly out the window of her dad’s moving car trying to focus on something other than the hormonal feelings. Her thoughts turned to her friends and she wondered how they were handling the week. Her friends had more or less given her radio silence to some of the few texts Fang sent out to them. Which was understandable, given they were probably dealing with their own hormonal related issues. The only person to respond to her texts was Anon. Although it was always at the end of the day, it made her heart flutter to see at least one of her friends give attention. “Why is always the skinnie the one I can count on?” , Fang remarked to themself. But she shouldn’t be too harsh on her friends after all, this week was going to be hard on everyone. Heck, she should be lucky she hadn’t missed this week in its entirety like she had done so for the last three years. This was going to be an entirely new experience for her and she won’t lie, she’s a little bit excited. Something different was always welcomed in the face of the same old boring routine at Volcano High. … … … Eventually her father’s squad car made it to its intended destination, and with it Fang set off to attend school during the twilight of estrus season. Even though the worst of the season died down, there were still embers of the fire that engulfed the school. The fights between the boys of different dinos was near constant as were the number of couples that were practically glued to each other. As were there an equal number of people with sullen and tearful expressions. But the embers of the chaos that engulfed the school hadn’t died out completely. There were still small brawls between contesting students with plenty of blood and teeth flying. There were screeches and howls of those trying to put on displays of attraction. And most of all, there were a lot of vicious glares as students of both sexes defended what was theirs from ANY who came a little too close. It was a real jungle out there. As the ptero-girl walked past the commotion and turned to the hall that took her to her first class. Fang saw something that she had never expected to see. It was the math teacher Mr. Carldewskii dressed in a full set of riot gear, combat boots and equipped with a combat helmet with plexiglass faceguard. The most surprising feature was the weird orange colored bean bag pump shotgun he carried. Fang had so many questions and none of them were math related. But as much as she wanted to stop standing there like an idiot with a goofy expression on their face. It appeared that Mr. Carldewskii was busy…busy shooting at a tidal wave of male raptor students beelining it straight to him. “STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU BUNCH OF FRIGGIN ANIMALS!”, screamed a panicked Mr. Carldewskii as he continued to fire his weapon into the horde. While many of the raptors in the horde fell from the beanbags fired into their number, there were just way too many for the teacher to handle with the firepower he had. In a final and panicked desperate attempt to escape the horde, Mr. Carldewskii dropped his gun and attempted to flee. But whether the raptors were much faster than they appeared or maybe it was because Mr. Carldewskii was just too out of shape even to put up a chase. It didn’t matter in the end. Fang stood there jaw hitting the ground as she watched her math teacher get enveloped in a mosh pit of violence. Dust kicked up as claws and tails shot out of the chaos alongside with the occasional glimpse of Mr. Carldewskii trying to escape. Frantic screams of the math teacher alongside the roars of the raptors were all that came out. It was at this moment that Fang decided to play the hero and noped the fuck out of there before she got entangled in whatever started…that. The lunch rush had been more chaotic than Fang expected and that was with things finally being toned down. There were no less than three fights, one all out brawl, and one unfortunate student being pulled out on a stretcher, courtesy of Chad Shark, when he took the last pumpkin pie. She saw Principal Spear, dressed without his suit coat and tie along with a bullet proof vest, suplexing students that were getting too crazy with the violence. Fang was only just able to slink in and take a chicken sandwich and slink out without getting caught in the crossfire between some hormonal teens. With her near death experience avoided, Fang hurried off to the sanctuary of the auditorium to hang out with her friends. When she walked through the double doors to the auditorium, she saw Reed and Trish were already there with Anon currently being absent. Which wasn’t unusual given that he was usually the last one to show up anyways. Thoughts of Anon dissipated when Reed began to wave enthusiastically at Fang gesturing for her to come sit with them. When Fang finally made it to the stage she was finally able to see her friends close up since a week ago. Reed looked more baked than usual with the scent of Carfentanyl being heavier than she ever remembered. He was also constantly taking sips from his thermos along with eating handfuls of Cheeta Fluffs from a jumbo sized bag. Trish on the other hand looked absolutely horrible, but not in an obvious way. The teenage trike had seriously dolled herself up with a lot of care and attention to her makeup and the polished sheen on her horns. She was also dressed like the stereotypical sexy office lady with the white button shirt and black skirt with black pantyhoes. But Fang was able to notice that Trish’s eyes were unfocused and red while she slouched over her plate of greens. It also went noticed that she was spearing the veggies rather aggressively. It seems that Trish had an even worse time dealing with the week than Fang. “Yo Fang! Good to see you made it today. How is it going?”, Reed said with his usual smile and finger guns. “Oh you know, just trying to get past the week.”, replied Fang, “How about you Reed and you Trish?” “Oh nothing.”, Reed said in a sleepy tone, “Just chilling, Killing.” Reed then took a big gulp of his thermos and crunched another handful of Fluffs. “Everything is fine.”, Trish said in a tone that indicates things are not fine, “Just stupid...cis-gendered…fucking…how am I not…fucking fuck..” Fang looked with big eyes as Trish continued to mumble obscenities as she continued to stab her plates of greens with the fork. One could easily interpret it as the trike was stabbing a dino with how she was holding the utensil. Fang didn’t dare pry her for any more information given how Trish was barely holding it together. After all, the only thing worse than not finding a mate was getting rejected by them. Her thoughts on Trish’s love life were interrupted by the doors of the Auditorium being opened with a loud bang and stumbling out came an unfamiliar figure. Said figure was dressed in a set of battered riot gear along with a riot shield with a metric ton of scratch marks on it. He lingered on the ground in his splayed position before he stood up and limply walked over towards their table. Fang, Trish and Reed watched with wide eyes as the geared up figure came to Anon’s usual spot and sat down after dropping his shield on the ground next to him. The figure reached up and undid the strap holding his helmet before taking it and setting down on the table; he was quick to then remove the nylon mask covering his lower face. Revealing the slick and sweaty face of Anon. The sole human student of Volcano High huffed air greedily as his gaze remained unfocused before he turned his attention to his fellow rejects. The three dinosaur teens all blinked in confusion, before they all looked at each other and then back at Anon. “Sup Bro.”, Reed said to break the ice. “Sup Reed.”, Anon said as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Awkward silence. “Sooo, what’s with the get up, dweeb?,”, Fang asked as she leaned forward a bit, “Going the way of the police? Did my dad leave such an impression on you?” “Going fascist is more like it.”, mumbled Trish, “Probably joined the boogaloo brigade too.” Anon frowned at the comments made by his fellow rejects before he rolled his eyes. “I needed some extra protection, thank you very much.”, pouted Anon. “Protection?”, Trish gritted out, “I guess a pussy would need protection from all the dicks coming for it.” Anon glared at Trish, but chose not to retaliate with an equally mean insult. The bald human undid a velcro strap on his uniform and pulled out a granola bar. Anon took a bite out of the bar before making a disgusted expression as he chewed the food slowly. Anon swallowed the food with a loud gulp, and his expression immediately went sour. “That is some disgusting stuff.”, Anon complained, “You can probably kill a Mosa with the taste alone.” “So why are you eating it?,”, Reed asked as he drank from his thermos. “I couldn’t make it to the cafeteria before the rush and I don’t fancy having to fight anyone who thinks I’ll make a good target to impress their crush.”, grumbled Anon. Anon took another bite of the bar and his face scrunched up as soon as it entered his mouth. “This week really sucked some coconut-sized balls.," complained the human, “ I am glad it is almost over.” Fang gave the human a reassuring smile while Trish was completely unsympathetic to the plights of the human. Anon flashed Fang his own smile before his attention went back to the disgusting granola bar he was having for lunch. Fang let out a small giggle at the expense of the human as he devoured his terrible lunch. She turned to devour her own lunch before her nostrils caught wind of something. Fang sniffed the air as she tried to figure out the scent of the odor. It had an iron-metallic tang to it with a wet earthy smell to it. And for some reason the scent, wherever it came from, was driving Fang nuts. It wasn’t in a repugnant sort of way either but rather Fang was going euphoric over this smell. It had the same level of aromatic pleasantness as a tray of cooked dino nuggies or the woody fragrance of a brand new guitar. But even worse than any of that. Fang found herself feeling…frisky the more she breathed in this mysterious scent. Fang hunched over, unable to take a bite of her sandwich as the mysterious fragrance hung in the air around her like a toxic miasma. The hormones in her body screamed in excitement as every dirty idea, carnal desire, and anxiety ridden thought surfaced. Fang frantically looked around while sniffing the air to try and locate the source of miasma. And locate it she did. Her health classes said that during estrus season there were many ways in which an individual could attract a mate. One way was by scent. In this case, a strong successful male would attract females by his own musk, which was nothing more than sweat, from his battles with rivals. A strong male would have a heavy coating of sweat from his battles allowing an earthy odor to coat him if he was winning a lot of battles. While a weak male would have a heavy odor of iron, indicating a significant amount of blood from losses. Females were much more sensitive to these scents as they are the ones who ultimately choose which male they want to be with. If what Anon said was true, and he had spent the whole week fighting everyone…and winning! Then that explains why he would smell like liquid aphrodisiacs. Sweat dripped from Fang’s forehead as she looked at her lap to hide her horrified expression from her friends. Tremors erupted in her hands as she tried to steady herself in the face of her crumbling resolve. She…wanted…no…needed…Anon…to…fu… Out of nowhere, Trish stood up and grabbed Reed’s thermos and opened it in a single turn and flung its contents onto Anon. Trish then lifted the thermos up to her mouth and downed what remained like she was dying of thirst. Fang was completely caught off guard. Reed looked aghast and then depressed at seeing his empty thermos. Anon looked utterly pissed off at being soaked and gave a death glare to the short trike-girl standing there frozen. “What the fuck was that for, trigga?”, Anon said in the most done-with-life and soft tone that Fang ever heard. Despite sounding remarkably calm and collected, this was by far the angriest Fang had ever seen Anon. As his voice was laced with venom while he all but hissed those words through clenched teeth. Trish remained stalwart in the face of the murderous aura coming from the human. Trish stood there breathing heavily before she spoke out, “Doing you and myself a favor, skinnie.” Anon got the “that sounds like bullshit” expression and opened his mouth to retort. “Shut. Up.”, Trish interrupted, “Skinnie, I’d suggest you stop talking right now because right now I am one fucking word away from jumping on you and riding your ape dick until I get knocked up.” Anon’s face immediately went 180 from anger to confusion to absolute horror. Reed also looked utterly horrified as his unfocused eyes darted between the two. The words and the scent of the coffee- Carfentanyl mixture instantly sobered Fang up from her own hormones. And she herself didn’t even know how to process what just happened, much less react to what Trish was saying. Trish hated Anon, but if the scent he was carrying was enough to make Fang go nuts. Then she couldn’t imagine what it was doing to Trish, given that herbivores are even more sensitive to that sort of thing. Yet at the same time, something twitched angrily deep inside Fang. Deep down a tiny voice was encouraging her to attack Trish for daring to encroach on her territory. That was until Fang then looked up her old friend up and down and saw the extent of the damage done to Trish. She was drenched in a heavy sweat while her face was colored completely red. Her button up shirt seemed to undone from the top a little too much with the Trish’s huge cleavage now visible. Her skirt also appeared to be a little undone, showing off a bit of her hips, thighs, and panties off to the world. The situation was made even worse by the fact that Trish’s tail was clearly swaying back and forth in happiness. Yet, at the same time Fang could see the self loathing hidden deep in Trish’s eyes. A clear indication that Trish didn’t like the situation any more than Fang, but the trike was very much at her limit, both emotionally and physically. Hence why the human-dino trio had all utterly locked up in silence, unable or unwilling to say anything in the face of the trike. The trike-girl seemed content to stand there and greedily suck in air like she just ran a marathon. And after what seemed like an eternity of awkward silence, Trish finally spoke out. “I…I am going to go behind those curtains and…hide there for the rest of the day.”, Trish huffed out, “I am going…to stay there…until the carfentanyl makes me pass out. So don’t…bother me.” Trish turned and began to slowly walk towards her intended location. She stopped about halfway and gave a sideway glance to the group. “And Anon.”, said a blushing Trish Anon jumped into the air in surprise. “You’re more than welcome to come and keep me company, but I won’t hold it against you if you aren’t interested.”, said a resigned Trish, “I am fine with any choice you make…” It looked like Trish wanted to say more, but she appeared to hesitate at the idea of finishing the sentence. “But I wouldn’t mind if you were my baby’s daddy…”, she whispered faintly to herself. With that Trish strode the rest of the way and vanished behind the red curtains. Fang turned to look at Anon’s reaction to all of this, and was surprised to see an empty seat with the exit doors to the auditorium swinging closed. She and Reed finished the rest of their lunch in silence. Fang looked to the empty seat that normally housed the dork. It looked sad and lonely without the human occupying it. A frown found itself on the ptero-girl’s face as she reluctantly looked away from the empty seat and onto the science sheet sitting on her desk. The scientific jargon on the paper appeared to be nothing more than a soup of random words. Anon, the dork, was somehow able to discern what all of that word vomit meant and was able to help her understand it all. Normally, Fang wouldn’t be too bothered by the missing skinnie but for some reason she felt a soul vacuuming emptiness inside her. It was as though a piece of her had either been lost or stolen and she couldn’t feel like herself without it. Afterall, why wouldn’t he show up to class? He showed up at lunch, so why wouldn’t he appear at class. Did he find something wrong with her? Did she say something to creep him out with what happened? Did he not think she was pretty? Was he with Trish? Fang shook her head and slapped her cheeks as she cleaned the train of thoughts from her head. She needed to stop this and focus on her work…A frown appeared on her beak as she stared blankly at the worksheet in front of her. It might as well have been a blank piece of paper for her…. “Mr. Fernsworth, can I be excused to the bathroom?”, Fang asked while raising her hand. … Fang stood above the sink as she carefully splashed water on her face. Fang took several deep breaths before she took a paper towel and dried her face. She looked into the mirror containing her reflection on the wall. She needed to control herself better with these stray thoughts. She and Anon were friends. FRIENDS. Not partners, lovers or whatever. They weren’t even dating nor did the dweeb make any inkling that he was interested in her…no one would be interested in her anyways. Fang shook her head again to dissipate the self-degrading thought, she didn’t want to start preening herself. Instead, the ptero-girl remained motionless as she stared at her reflection for a few minutes before she picked herself up and left the bathroom. She took one step out of the bathroom when something large and dark went flying past her. Fang jumped back in surprise, her eyes nearly bugging out her sockets, and flinched when the sound of creaking metal echoed in the hallway. She immediately looked upon whatever went flying past her in the direction it careened past her. It was Anon. A battered and war-weary one, but it was her dweeb nonetheless. Wait. Stop thinking like that Fang! Regardless of what she thought, the ptero-girl was quick to get to Anon’s side and inspect the teen for damage.The human appeared dazed and confused if the way his head circled was any indication. Fang kneeled down to eye level of the downed human with concern on her face. “Anon?”, said Fang, “Are you okay?” Her voice seemed to sober up the disoriented teen as his spinning head steadied itself. “Hi Fang.”, Anon finally said, “How are you doing?” “I should be asking you that? Considering you cratered a bunch of lockers.”, Fang said as she suppressed a wince. Anon blinked in confusion before muttering something about being an autist. “Sorry, about that Fang. It's been a day.”, replied Anon as he deflated. Awkward silence… “You mind explaining what the hell is going on here? Like why weren’t you at science class?” Fang said, breaking the ice. Before Anon could even part his lips, a loud and angry screech came barreling down the hall. Fang and Anon subconsciously turned their heads towards the source of the sound. From down the hallway emerged the one student that had apparently let out the angry yell. The student was a Quetzalcoatlus, and as such he was really tall and bulker compared to the average ptero-teen. His feathers and scales were white with black accents while the crest on his head was flushed with the color red. He was wearing a letterman jacket with the school’s colors and its initials embroidered. He had a pair of red basketball sneakers and a faded pair of jeans ripped at the knees. Fang recognized this dino as Drake, one of Naser’s sports friends and the captain of the basketball team. And boy oh boy, he looked pissed. From what Fang could recall, Drake was a gentle giant of the Jock clique who really liked to help and get along with everyone. Unlike some Jocks like Chad Shark, Drake wouldn’t go picking unnecessary fights with anyone who looked at him funny. Which made things all the more stranger to see Drake acting like this. Yet, after giving the Quetzal another lookdown, she figured out why. The bloodshot eyes. The heavy breathing. A flushed crest. Drake was juiced up on hormones and Anon was the unlucky target of what was probably unwarranted aggression. There isn’t love without violence after all. “ANON! WE’RE NOT DONE HERE!”, bellowed Drake, “YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER GIRL YOU WANT HUH!” Fang felt something in her heart snap violently as her head slowly turned to face Anon. She peered at the human waiting for the human to explain himself. Who the fuck does this skinnie think that he could go after any girl? Was she not good enough for the bald ape?! Wait what?! “I TOLD YOU I WASN’T TRYING TO GET ANYONE’S GIRL!”, an exasperated Anon bellowed back. “THEN SUBMIT TO MY MIGHT!”, Screamed Drake. “I AM NOT GONNA LET YOU JUMP ME DRAKE!”, retorted Anon. “THEN PERISH!”, roared Drake. Anon grumbled as he rose from the crater of dent lockers he was thrown against and wiped the trickle of blood away from the corner of his mouth. His face had an unusual look of determination as he raised his shield and slowly marched towards Drake. The Quetzal-teen likewise marched towards the human whilst cracking his knuckles and neck in anticipation. The tension in the air was thick enough to be cut with a knife, as Fang found herself holding her breath. Then came the moment it was building up towards, when Drake and Anon finally got close enough to resume their fight. BANG! The sound of cracking glass reverberated across the hallway as Drake punched Anon’s raised shield. Anon staggered back from the blow having to catch himself from landing on his rear. Drake pulled his other arm back and lifted his leg. He attempted to kick and punch down Anon at once. But the human was ready this time, and sidestepped the death blow. Dust and shards of tile jumped into the air as the ground was cratered and cracked from Drake’s strength. Anon used the opportunity to jump up to the taller dino and throw a haymaker in the Quetzal’s face. Anon’s fist landed with a meaty crunch into the side of Drake’s beak with a shockwave.. CRACK! Drake grunted as he was flung into the nearby lockers leaving his outline in the metal as if it were a memory foam mattress. Anon attempted to take advantage of his opponent's moment of weakness and dogpile on the dino. However, Drake retaliated the assault with a backhand. Luckily for Anon, his shield took the brunt of the damage, but the sheer strength of Drake caused Anon to be sent flying into another hallway. Drake wobbly rose from his position wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his beak. The jock wearily shook his head as he jogged into the hallway he flung Anon into. Fang stood there motionless, her beak agape at what she just witnessed. She was at a loss of words until the intrusive thoughts once again returned. This time she imagined herself being carried bridal style by Anon. A scarlet blush emerged on her scaly face as heat returned to her face. “I never knew you were that strong, Anon.”, Fang said to the empty hallway. With the final bell echoing throughout the corridors of Volcano High signaling the beginning of the weekend. Most of the students by now had settled the battles of love by now, and were excitedly rushing home with their significant other. While others mechanically walked the same route dejected and defeated as they went home alone. Fang went through the crowds like she always did, quickly and without a care about who was in it. Normally the ptero-girl would head straight home once she passed the doors of the school. But something deep down was warning her about doing it. She tried to ignore it and continue onward, but she only got as far as the massive staircase before she couldn’t will herself to go further. Fang didn’t know why she was doing this. There was no logical reason for it. Yet, she was compelled to remain there, awkwardly looking around and mindlessly looking down on her phone. Her thoughts drifted to Anon, unsurprisingly, as he had been occupying her mind a lot as of late. And with it all the intrusive thoughts, no doubt caused by the estrus hormones, about Anon being her partner. Fang immediately scolded herself for thinking about her friend that way, and tried to smash down those daydreams Stop it! He’s our FRIEND! We shouldn’t think about him in that way! Why would I even like him! . Then her brain subconsciously answered that question in this imaginary argument. She liked his dorky and nerdy personality. She liked how caring and understanding he was of her and all her problems. She liked how reliable he was in the face of all those people who gave up on her. She liked how he remained by her side even as he made new friends amid all the clubs he joined. How she felt so happy in his presence. Fang clutched her chest as her heart threatened to beat out of her chest from the realization. Fang had a crush on her friend, and only now did she realize what her brain had been trying to tell her all day. It wasn’t hormones making her feel this way, but it was her only feelings being unrestrained by any inhibitors. A small smile formed on the beak of Fang while she was now on cloud nine, her heart beating to the drums of love as she embraced these feelings with open arms. However, the joys of finding out one’s crush on their friend would be tarnished by one simple thought. Does he even like me back in that way? With that poisonous question, Fang deflated immediately and her smile fell upside down. Even though she had gotten to know Anon a bit better as the months passed, there were still many things that Fang did not know about the human. Nor could she really get a bead on how he felt about her. Sure, she could simply ask him but sometimes that simple question could be its own can of worms. Would this transcend their friendship into sometime more or cause everything to crash and burn? Fang didn’t want to ruin her friendship with Anon, given he was the first friend she made in a long time. Yet, she didn’t want to simply let the status quo be the status quo… The dweeb can be a huge idiot, so why not subtly bounce the question to him. You could learn his feelings without any risk. Wow. That was not a bad idea, maybe she should listen to the voices in her head more often. Kill your family, then kill everyone! Okay, maybe not that often. Well, in that case she better waste some time while waiting for Anon to come out. Fang waited while meandering on her phone while she waited for the dweeb to show up. Occasionally, Fang would look up from her electronic device and scan around the entrance of the school. There were a few dinos lingering around, mostly friend groups chilling in each other’s company. Though there appeared to be a ptero-girl surrounded by a bunch of beat up ptero-boys that were close by to her spot. The girl didn’t seem to be paying much mind to the pathetic attempts of the orbiters to garner her attention. But that was not her business anyways. A loud bang and a stream of curses announced the imminent arrival of the dweeb. Fang looked up towards the entry doors of Volcano High. Out from the confines of the High School doors came tumbling out Drake, and was quickly followed by Anon. Anon looked like hammered shit with how worn and damaged he looked. He was missing his helmet while his facemask had been ripped off leaving some shreds of the clothing around his neck like a quirky necklace. His combat pants had holes in it while the boots were scuffed and looked like they were ready to fall apart. The shield was cracked and had the edges chipped while one of the straps holding it in Anon’s arm had broken off. Anon’s chestpiece of the riot gear was gone leaving only a white muscle shirt soaked in sweat that hid little of Anon’s physique. Anon’s face, chest and arms were drenched in sweat and covered in cuts and bruises. Drake looked no better than Anon. The bulky Quetzal was covered in bruises and rumbled up feathers. He had a black eye and blood dripped from the corner of his beak. His clothing was ripped and torn along with some cuts and scrapes along his arms and wings. Drake slouched while his arm clutched his belly, heaving and sucking air as much as he could. His remaining eye betrayed a weariness not seen in the star basketball player. Anon, like his opponent, just stood still breathing air greedily, keeping his eyes trained on Drake. The human was the first to break the ice by speaking to the larger reptilian student. “Drake, I don’t know what’s gotten into you man, but whichever girl you wanted to fight me over isn’t worth…all this.”, Anon said whilst gesturing at Drake. Drake let out a pained chuckle, “I am sorry Anon, but I can’t do that. I want to be hers...” Anon sighed dejectedly, “Fine, if it’s that important to you, Drake. Then I will oblige your wish.”, Anon raised his shield and took a defensive stance, “Just to let you know Drake, I won’t hold this against you.” Drake raised his wings and raised his arms to take his own stance, “Naser was right. You are a bro, Anon.”, Drake grinned, “Win or lose, I won’t hold it against you either.” Like in an old samurai movie, the two duelists remained fixed in their poses. The air was silent with the onlookers not making a noise as well. … … … Drake broke the silence as he charged the human with guttural roar. Anon charged the larger dino teen, his face devoid of any fear letting his own primal warcry. Drake raised his clawed fists and Anon raised his shield. CRACK! A shockwave of air blew dust away as the blows of the two fighters collided with each other. Veins could be seen on Anon as he used all his strength to push back against Drake. The Quetzal-teen’s eyes narrowed as he too exerted the last of his strength to crush the tiny human. The stalemate of strength only lasted briefly before Anon let out a fierce warcry. The human took a step forward, shaking against Drake’s resistance. Drake, however, had his arm wobbling while his knees were bent with the jitters. A panicked expression appeared on Drake’s face while Anon smiled victoriously. The human then back steps away from the Quetzal and charges with his shield raised. Drake nearly fell over when he was caught off balance by the sudden removal of Anon’s shield. Thus he could do nothing but brace for impact as the human charged him. THWACK! A loud meaty sound boomed as the shield made contact with the body of Drake. A raspy wheeze escaped the beak of the dinosaur whilst his eyes bugged out of their sockets. However, this fleshy wall did not stop the human freight train. In a feat of strength worthy of Principal Spears, Anon pushed the larger dino back, seemingly gaining more momentum. The Quetzal-boy snarled in fear as grabbed onto the shield and tried to push against it to stop his movement. But either he was too unbalanced or Anon was too strong because it did nothing to stop the push. So focused was Drake in trying to stop Anon’s charge that little did he realize that at the end of the line was the solid wall of Volcano High itself. Many of the onlookers flinched or looked away when the inevitable happened. Fang on the other could not look away and was speechless at the feat of strength of the otherwise dorky Anon. BOOM! When the dust cleared and the onlookers dared return their gaze did they see the end of the battle. Anon had all but squished the Quetzal between his shield and the wall with a crater and cracks indicating the force of the impact. Anon was breathing heavily as he pressed the now shattered shield against the slumped body of Drake. The Quetzal-boy had his head hanging while his body was being held up solely by the human’s own strength. Without much fanfare, Anon pulled himself and his shield away from the Quetzal. Drake fell with a meaty splat without the outside interference holding his unconscious body. Anon looked his opponent up and down, and let out a sigh of relief when it became clear that Drake won’t get back up anytime soon. The worn out human now allowed himself to slouch as he slowly fumbled the straps on his arms. The devastated shield that earned a victory for humankind clattered as it hit the ground. There was no celebration, no bragging, no cry of victory, only the relief that it was all over. Unlike the human, Fang found herself staring at her friend with her beak open in a happy smile while her tail wagged back and forth at the sight. Those same intrusive thoughts of admiration invaded her mind yet again as she stared at Anon. “He’s so strong! He’s so tough! He looks so cool! He looks so handsome! I would feel so safe in his arms! I bet he needs someone to nurse him back to health! I should…” A feeling akin to hunger emerged in the ptero-girl’s chest as a swarm of butterflies danced in her tummy. Fang felt her face heat up as a deep blush appeared on her face, and her heart started to throb in her chest. Deep down a small logical part of her told her that it was the hormones making her think this way. But Fang didn’t care anymore. Ruining their friendship be damned. She wanted to go and claim her partner. As Fang made the first steps towards her soon to be lover, someone suddenly brushed past her rather quickly. It was so quick and unexpected that the nonbinary ptero-girl could not help but look and see who it was. The dino that brushed past Fang was another ptero-girl, the same ptero-girl that had a group of beat-up orbiters ptero-boys. Upon closer inspection, Fang recognized the girl. She was dressed in an oversized graphic white shirt and a pair of blue shorts with red low top sneakers. She had a head of long blonde hair and a black hair band. She was covered in dark green scales and yellow tipped green feathers. Her beak was colored red while her eyes were colored the same shade as a turquoise gem. Fang knew her as Victoria, a member of the pompous and proper girl clique that held individuals such as the bitch Naomi. So it was safe to say that Fang hated her guts. Fang watched with a twitch in her eye as Victoria walked up to Anon with a skip in her step. As soon as she reached Anon, Victoria began to talk to Anon with a big grin on her beak. At first, it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary, but then Fang noticed how Victoria very subtly got closer to Anon. Anon didn’t notice it at first, but soon he became aware of the closeness of Victoria. He looked rather uncomfortable with how friendly she was and tried to scoot away from Victoria as she got closer and closer in Anon’s personal space. Ice water splashed on Fang, sobering her as she felt something shatter inside of her. She now felt empty like a blackhole had formed inside of her. She was cold, empty. But before that empty feeling could go any further it was replaced by a fury burning hotter than the sun. It was as if the hottest Red Giant had just gone supernova inside her. Her breathing became strained and edges of her vision turned red as she continued to watch the scene before her. It wasn’t until Victoria had Anon pushed against the wall did Fang clench her claws so hard that they drew blood. Fang took a step towards the two and then another, and another, and another as her gaze was hyper fixed upon the two. In doing so, she was finally able to discern the conversation they were having. “Oh, gee Anon. I had no idea you were this strong?”, Victoria cooed, “Were you always this sculpted?” “I-I j-just spend little w-work at the track team here and there.”, Anon said, his voice quivering,”Umm, you said you wanted something from me, Victoria?” “Oh right, there is something that I want.”, Victoria replied. Fang heard a startled and totally manly cry. “V-Victoria, can you not get so close please.”, Anon said with panic in his voice. “But why would I do that, An-on?”, said the green ptero-girl, “I just wanna snuggle with you, especially when you’re so warm and cozy.” “B-But-” “Shhhuuusssh, just let it happen Anon.” assured Victoria, “Did you know I have been watching you all week? At first I just wanted to see a skinnie get pummeled by the boys. But…after watching you take them all down…and then when you fought Drake…it made me…admit that I was wrong about you Anon…” Whatever happened next caused Anon to let out another manly squeal, “V-Victoria, y-you’re t-too…” “I never figured a human would be the one to catch my attention with such prowess and strength. To be better than all the others”, Victoria continued,”It's settled then…and I choose you, Anon.” Fang put extra effort to climb the stairs to hurry onwards the two, her breath puffing from anger and the exertion. “So, why don’t you come to my place tonight so we can get to know each other better. My parents are gonna be gone till monday, so we'll have all weekend for me to ride that ape di…” If Fang was on the border of a blind rage, then it was this implication that tipped her over the edge. With her vision completely engulfed in red giving her the boost to sprint up the last steps up. The scene before was splayed in the worst possible way for the ptero-girl. Anon had been pushed against the wall, his face blushing red while dripping with sweat. It wasn’t clear if it was from the heat or from the compromising situation he was in. His face was contorted in absolute horror as Victoria had practically pushed herself against Anon, her large breasts rubbing against Anon’s chest. She had one of her clawed hands groping Anon’s bicep while her free hand was caressing Anon’s cheek. Victoria’s scarlet expression was full of lust while also containing a primeval hunger as she gazed at the hairless ape with devious intentions. Fang froze for a moment, taking in the heretical sight before her, her face contorted into one of hurt and sadness. Then, Fang’s expression turned into one of pure rage. Fang bolted towards the two, covering the distance only in a few seconds. And in one swift motion, Fang grabbed onto Victoria’s head, claws digging in the green ptero-girl’s feather scales, and flung her away from Anon with all of her strength. Victoria let out a startled cry as she was sent crashing into a nearby trash can. Fang then jumped away from Anon and placed herself between Anon and the bitch that dared to touch him. Victoria, meanwhile, immediately jumped back to her feet after the impact, her expression contorted in rage, and immediately locked eyes with Fang. The world froze and the temperature felt like it dropped down to a single digit as the two locked eyes. Aquamarine warring the Amber. Then, Victoria let out a loud blood curdling scream whilst raising her wings to full height, each of her feathers raised up. Fang met her scream with one of her own and raised her own wings to her full height with her own feathers raised up threateningly. The ptero-girls would continue to posture and shout at each other, ever so slowly inching closer. It wasn’t until the two were merely an arms length away, did the fight begin. Fang was the first to strike with a swipe to Victoria’s face with her claws, drawing blood with her blow. This didn’t deter Victoria as she returned the strike with a grimace, leaving bleeding cuts on Fang's chest. The two would continue to make swipes at each other before Victoria grappled onto Fang. The silver ptero-girl met the grapple with even more vicious clawing and biting. Victoria returned fire with equal ferocity and brutality as they were locked in a death struggle. Anon and the other onlookers could only stand there dumbfounded as the two girls fell onto the ground, rolling around kicking up dust as they tore at each other. No one dared to intervene, lest they get ripped to shreds in the crossfire of the two women. … … … After much blood and sweat, Fang would eventually gain the upper hand by breaking out of the lock and pinning her opponent by stomping down on her opponent whilst pulling on her wings.Victoria tried to buck Fang off of her but the vicious silver ptera-girl stubbornly refused to let go. Dust fluttered in the air as the green ptera-girl tried to break out of the hold, but this ended in failure. Victoria laid on the ground with a face scrunched up in pain, and after what seemed like an eternity did she do something. Skeee-eeeek! This pathetic and defeated sound seemed to be exactly what Fang had been waiting for. Without any hesitation, Fang let her opponent go. Victoria practically bolted away from Fang on her hands and knees incoherently blurting out an apology. Fang replied with a loud ear shattering screech at her fleeing adversary. SKEEEEE-OOONNNK!!! Fang remained where she was still posed to fight whilst he greedily huffed up oxygen. It was only when Victoria stumbled on out of view did the agitation drop from the silvery ptero-girl. Once the apparent threat was gone, she then limped eagerly to a flabbergasted Anon. And it was only then with the ptera-girl standing in front of him did the human fall out of his stupor. Fang looked like hell. She was breathing heavily while she put more weight on one leg over the other. Her scales had splotches of cuts and with bald patches of missing feathers. Her hair was a disaster of a bird’s nest and she was covered head to toe in dust. Her pretty face was marred with blood, bruises, and a nasty black eye on her left eye. Her clothes were sullied with dirt and blood and were ripped and torn throughout the entire outfit. Yet, despite her injuries, Fang wore a victorious grin full of happiness. “F-Fang?”, Anon said in total shock, “Are you okay?” “Of course I am dweeb. Why would I not be okay?”, Fang questioned. “Well it's just you're…pretty banged up.”, Anon stated. “Oh this?”, Fang replied, “It's nothing serious, Anon.”. “B-But, Fang why would Victoria fight like that? Things got a little too out of hand.”, fretted Anon. “I should be asking you the same thing, you dork.”, retorted Fang, “Besides, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to defend what was yours from bitches who think that can take it.” “W-What does that…” Fang rolled her eyes, “It means…” Fang closes the meager distance between her and the human. She would surprise the human by wrapping her arms around his neck and hopping into his arms. The flabbergasted Anon stood there awestruck as he held Fang in his arms bridal style. And she held onto him, practically pressing herself against him. “... I am asking you out, you idiot.”, Fang said as she rested her head on his neck. Anon had never turned red so quickly in his life. “Asking me out? As in dating?” “Duh, that’s what asking someone out means, dweeb. Did you hit your head or something? You’re really slow on the draw, Anon.”, Fang replied with a false bravado, “Unless you wouldn’t…” “I would love to.”, Anon said without hesitating Being the cool girl that she was, Fang totally didn’t wrap herself within her wings and let out a loud and muffled “EEEEEEEEEEE!!!”. That was due to the fact a jolt of electrifying pain surged through her nerves when she tried to do so. Fang winced, as the adrenaline had finally faded out of her system. Her body ached and the cuts on her scales festered with a burning pain. Not to mention how exhausted she felt as well. The ptero-girl slumped further in on herself before she pressed herself a little closer to Anon, she appeared to be oddly relaxed in the face of the pain. “Anon.”, Fang said meekly with a blush. “Yes, Fang?”, replied a scarlet Anon. “I think…that bitch punched harder than I expected. Can you carry me home all the way? I don’t know if I can walk very well?”, Fang said whilst looking away, her entire face red as a scarlet letter. If Anon had that same string bean physique he had when he first arrived then he probably would’ve paled at the thought. This Anon, however, beamed at the idea. “I wouldn’t have any other way Fang. Do you want me to make you some dino nuggies when we get there?”, Anon asked as he began the long walk towards her home. Fang’s tail began to wag back and forth as a small smile crossed the beak of the ptero-girl, “I would like that, but….” Anon paused his walking and looked at her. Somehow the ptero-girl somehow looked even shyer and more embarrassed at the question she intended on asking him than she was being carried bridal style. The scarlet blush on the face of the ptero-girl appeared to get deeper, “My parents aren’t going to be home for a couple hours and Naser isn’t going to be home today. So I was wondering if we could cuddle for a little bit…” Somehow the prospect of cuddling with Fang excited Anon more than the possibility of sex. Maybe it was because Fang wouldn’t just let anybody do something so intimate with anybody, and she trusted him enough to do so. Afterall, hormones or not, Fang spilt her soul out to him on the rooftop, a feat that not even Trish was able to accomplish. It made his own heart beat loudly. “I would love to Fang.”, Anon said with sincerity, “Let this knight take you home, milady.” A smile creaked across Fang’s face as she let out a chuckle. She kissed the cheek of her human boyfriend before she nestled her head between Anon’s neck and his shoulder. She closed her eyes and basked in the warmth of a flustered Anon. “Whatever, dweeb.”