Time For A Change Of Pace – Chapter 2: Strange feelings and even stranger occurrences

It took a night of surprisingly easy sleep for Nate to process the events that had occurred previous day, the tingling sensation let by the bear admittedly helping in that area a fair bit. He had really been hugged by the other male and the fox couldn’t even deny how good that feeling was. Despite the ursine being nearly a stranger, somehow he had felt at home in the feeling he emanated. As much as the vulpine knew it was strange, he wanted more of that feeling and he wanted it soon.

But then it hit him, a horrible realisation that caused his ears to pull back and flatten against his skull in sadness. He had no way of contacting Josh and knowing that he lived quite a distance away made it all the more likely that they’d never meet again. It crushed him and he wasn’t entirely sure why, after all this bear was a sweet one but they’d only shared a hug so far. But that was just it…so far.

‘Wait…’ the fox thought to himself; shivering from head to toe as something else dawned on him, what if he wanted more from Josh?  Quickly shaking his head, attempting to clear it and standing up to stretch a bit “no…I’m not like that…I’m not into…men” Who he was trying to convince of that he didn’t know but it was more to himself. 

Nate had been raised into one of those families where most of the members seemed to be against homosexuals, so he had developed a slight biased away from that to keep himself from being banished from his rather tight knit family. But this wasn’t the only problem, as a lot of his friends seemed to also hold the same ideals; each of them probably raised in a similar manor to his own. Peer pressure is always such an unfair factor when thinking things over like this. 

And just like that he laughed at his own thoughts; getting dressed into the same sky blue shirt and dark grey shorts as yesterday. Giving his fur a quick brush down, the fox looked at himself in the wall mirror. He didn’t look at all tired, quite the contrast to his usual zombie-like look. Even tilting his head in confusion didn’t help, he knew why he slept so well he just couldn’t really get used to the idea.

All at once his mind had a flood of thoughts, some strange and even some quite disturbing to the vulpine.  Slightly gripping at his own skull; his brain ached at the overflow of ideas and information, a very slight whimper leaving him as the pain throbbed around his subconscious.  He had to force himself to stop and the only way he could think of was to go to the beach again today to see if the bear might be there once again. Even though he doubted it highly, his tail couldn’t stop waggling at the idea that he may get some more time to get to know the ursine.

His head gave him a break and he supposed he had better go to keep that from happening again, those bare paws moving him over to the door of his room. While he made his way through his home he noticed how quiet it was this morning, leading him to the conclusion that he was alone. Gently moving down the stairs, he gave a little happy yip as he jumped the last few steps. If you asked him why he was so excited he still wouldn’t be able to answer you though.

But, even as he exited the house and locked up; even Nate didn’t know what that day held for him. A quick trip later and he was at the bus stop once again, strangely it was around the same time he had arrived there the previous day. The bus came after a few moments, pulling up to the stop almost gracefully and letting the fox on board. Paying his fare to the grumpy, old owl of a bus driver; who simple grunted in response and passed the vulpine his ticket boredly. 

Quickly finding a space to sit as the driver once again set off down that familiar road; seeming to be stuck in a long De-ja-vu of the previous morning. He had even managed to get the same exact seat, an odd occurrence no matter how you looked at it. But the similarities didn’t even stop there; it seemed that the bus was stopping in the exact same places again; actually making it quite surreal. However, there would soon come something to change that, that thing arriving after a good half-hour or so on the bus. 

That something came in the shape of a lovely furry bubble of bear that was Josh. He climbed on the bus and gave his fare, before turning to face the bus; only then noticing the familiar face of the fox.  With a gentle blush the ursine smiled and gave a few long strides to sit beside the vulpine, looking at the floor awkwardly as he rested that round rump on the seat.  It was a stark contrast to the behaviour he’d displayed earlier, that confident, happy bear was now a seemingly more shy soul. It was soon apparent why though, as he spoke up after a moment of awkward silence.

“H-heya Nate…nice to see ya again…um…s-sorry about that hug yesterday...not sure why I did that and I completely understand if it was awkward for you” The fox tilted his head, looking at the ursine confusedly; what the hell was this guy? Sweet, shy and cute and yet somehow having that air of power about him, it was oddly captivating. Giving a shake of his head he smiles, blushing too as he answered as calmly as he was able “It’s ok…I kinda liked it Josh if I’m honest…” The fox couldn’t help but rub his foot paws together awkwardly even upon saying that, it wasn’t something he’d usually say even to someone closer to him.

Blinking the bear looked at the fox, his face going slightly redder at that revelation “y-y-you did?” Giving a simple affirmative nod the fox smiled slightly, looking even more awkward somehow. Josh was speechless for a moment, looking forward and noticing that the bus had gone quite far already.  He pressed the buzzer after a few stops of awkward silence and made to get off, only to find that he was being followed off by that fox.

Rather than question the vulpine and hold up the bus he decided to roll with it for now, waiting for the bus to stop completely before padding off with the other male in tow. Once they were both safely off the bus and out of the way of the small crowd of people that surrounded the bus stop; only then did the bear stop and turn toward the fox finally finding his voice “what’re you doing Nate? I know you don’t need to come down here to go shopping like I do, why get off here with me?”

A rather obvious gulp and reddened look crossed that short muzzle of the fox; it seemed that he had been caught red handed. He looked down at the ground a bit as he answered, trying to avoid eye contact as he admitted what was going on “I…was originally going to the beach again…hoping to find you there but then you came on the bus and I…I decided I’d get off at the same stop as you and we could have a good chat again.” He had obviously covered up how much he had loved the hug, but he still hoped he’d get another somehow. 

Josh just stood there, dumbstruck for a moment or two before smiling like he had the previous day “Ok then Nate, let’s get this shopping done and have a good talk again then”. It seemed that the bear had regained that lovely sense of happiness, although the fox was finding himself liking both sides of the ursine for different reasons. The shy side was cute and it was quite nice to see when his face went red, but the happy side was full of life and energy and seemed to fill him with the same sort of feeling.

With a small, happy yip the slightly younger male nodded and quickly looked around “ok then, where to first dude?” Suddenly things had gotten a lot more relaxed between them and even as they headed off in the direction the bear pointed, they had already begun talking just like they had on that bus ride home yesterday. Something was growing between them, it was friendship but that wasn’t all; a little spark of a different sort was forming albeit unknown to one part of the duo…

End of chapter 2