With the passing of time comes the passing of the seasons, and Brickhedge is no exception. Here, however, it always seems that the seasons arrive just a tad bit earlier than most places.
"Ignore the Old Farmer's Almanac!" an editorial piece in the week's Brickhedge Times states in bold letters, overshadowing the bigger article about a recent campaign rally. "Just like every year, you can expect cooler temperatures to begin settling in over the course of the final day of August, with the first real effects being immediately noticeable when you step outside your house the next morning!"
Advrik the wolf wouldn't have believed it had he not been standing in the chilly morning air that very first day of September, sipping on a piping hot cup of coffee that had the right balance of cream and lavender syrup(A local product he had picked up from the general store down the street, past the Walgreens).
"No need to break out the jackets just yet, but some light long sleeves seem to be all you'll need through the first half of the month." The writer finished, seeming to hit the nail on the head with every passing sentence. There was a definite chill in the air, accompanied by a gentle breeze that pushed the cool air past the outer layer of his thick fur and right onto his paled skin beneath.
A steady stream of steam billowed off of the coffee's surface as he took another sip of the hot liquid, tasting the mellow creaminess mingle with the bitter coffee and sweet, floral syrup in his mouth as it sloshed across his tongue and slid down his throat where, for whatever reason, triggered the call of nature.
He turned and walked back into his house, wearing only a black pair of sleeping pants, and placed his mug on the warmer that sat on the coffee table before the couch, right beside his phone. "It's always that first cup of coffee that gets you," he lamented as he loped across the small living area and headed toward the bathroom.
All the while, his phone silently vibrated in hopes of gaining his attention, but nature had called, and that was simply that.
***
ME: It's September. It's September. It's motha-fuckin' September!
Brigid the fox hesitated sending the text in its current form. It was barely 6am, but her censors had no sleep mode. Her excitement for the month's arrival had been at the forefront of numerous discussions with Eligh, Advrik, and even Callista, the town doctor(who shared near-equal levels of excitement).
Send. Her phone made a little FWIP! sound as she placed it on the bedstand and rolled over onto her back, looking up at the ceiling.
Sure, she dwelled on just how immature her text must have sounded, but if anybeast knew just how exciting the coming of autumn and the advent of pumpkin spice season was to the vixen, they would understand.
Advrik understood, for sure. Having expressed his fondness for pumpkin-everything. With the events of the last month having been so chaotic, it had slipped her mind, but as she stood outside on the balcony with Eligh the previous night, cold air slipped into the little mountain town, hidden amongst the thick fog that had covered the town as a result of the two colliding temperamental air flows.
The recollection that pumpkin season would soon arrive had resurfaced with it.
The sun hadn't even crested the mountains yet, her room still bathed in a cool, dark light. The only sound was the constant quiet hum of her oscillating floor fan. She'd found that most nights as of late had been easier on her, with her no longer requiring the TV be left on while an old sitcom played at a barely audible level.
She'd not a single doubt in her head that it was because of Advrik. That she and the wolf had hit it off the way they did the first time last spring, then disappeared from each other's lives throughout the summer, and only then, thanks to Eligh and Advrik's little funny-nosed mole buddy, were they finally brought back to each other.
Thinking about Advrik allowed her to drift off peacefully into sleep most nights. He was both her serotonin and melatonin.
And even now, thinking about what the day might bring as she found herself snuggling up with a pillow pressed firmly against her body, she drifted slowly back to sleep, the burn of sleepiness smoothing out as she departed the waking world once more, for just a few hours.
***
Advrik stepped out of the shower, fur dripping heavily with warm water, his hair even more so. A shower to wash away the last remnants of summer, he thought. It'd felt right, all nigh on sixty minutes of it. The water bill would reflect it, but screw it, he thought; it had been worth it to feel that warm, sudsy water soak his fur right to the flesh beneath.
His undercoat was something he rarely ever thought about, but with the coming of the cooler season and the promise of frigid mountain winters, he may have to put more focus on it going forward.
Not to mention looking and smelling nice for Brigid.
That thought froze him in front of the body-length mirror, towel wrapped around his waist and another rapidly finding purchase amidst the moisture-laden hair atop his head.
Brigid.
Sure, he would admit now that the lavender vixen had encroached upon his thoughts a time or two since that fateful meeting the week after he moved into town. But the way he thought of her now, after Desmond had conspired with Eligh to reunite them, was drastically different. He was sure he was falling for her, and that scared him. More so than the Wulphelk ever did.
The gray wolf removed the towel from his head, his normally shaggy head of hair now a stringy, wet mess of strands. He knew the fox had feelings for him; Desmond and even the grizzly she lived with had made that clear, and her actions towards him certainly didn't leave much room for argument otherwise, either.
But, he wondered now, worried more like it, that if these new emerging feelings of his might result in a repeat of a similar problem he'd experienced in the past, where he had become so hopelessly infatuated with his one and only previous partner that his happiness had depended solely on her—an experience that had been unlike any hell he'd ever experienced before.
Well, outside of discovering that a monster in another universe stalked him wherever he went.
The towel around his waist unraveled and dropped to the bathroom floor, revealing the wolf's naked body in full: His absent abs, no hint of a six-pack to be seen, instead was a little bit of a belly. His shoulders weren't as broad as one would expect from a wolf either, nor was he as tall as they typically come. Hell, even his privates were about as average as they came, if not below such standards.
Or so he guessed anyway; it wasn't something he'd specifically researched.
Looking at himself, however, he wasn't disappointed with what he was. Advrik had, save for that brief period in his twenties, always been a confident beast. If a similar storm were to befall him, then he would just have to hope that he was better equipped to weather it this time.
When Advrik emerged from the bathroom over an hour later, he'd found not only the text message from Brigid but also the house as a whole feeling a few degrees cooler, no doubt thanks to the wind having picked up and pushed the rapidly cooling air through his screen windows.
***
"I'm gonna get the biggest size they have on the menu!" Brigid declared, sliding down the back of the couch and landing with a thud against the ancient cushions. The throw blanket that Eligh had used the night before stuck in the corner.
Eligh sat across from her in the recliner, wearing nothing but a tight-fitting pair of underwear. He sipped at his coffee as he read something from his laptop's screen.
"You know what? Fuck that; I'll just get Toh to fill my thermos up with it instead! You think you could get your ass-faced mole buddy to do that for me?"
The bear didn't reply.
"Yullo, earth to Eligh! Pumpkin-starved fox over here trying to get your goddamned attention." She basically yelled, waving an arm covered in black fur up and down.
"Brigs, you've literally had a bottle of pumpkin spice coffee syrup in the kitchen all summer long." He took a long gulp of his rum-flavored coffee. "You're acting like a child."
"Yeah, but that was like trying to patch a dam up with a chewed wad of bubblegum! The season has to be right, and the coffee has to be made by an actual barista!" Brigid slipped off the couch and smacked into the floor with a thud. Bolting upright, she dashed into her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.
"Gentle on the framework, Brigs," Eligh grumbled, refilling his coffee mug and returning to his seat.
He'd purposely remained seated the whole time Brigid was in the room, not wanting to have to listen to her remarks about the outline of his peeps. Though, he lamented, comments like that had become rarer and rarer ever since Advrik had entered the picture. He'd have to thank the wolf for that.
The fox returned a few minutes later, no longer dressed in just a pair of grey joggers and the bra with the exposed underwire.
"So, how do I look?" said the fox with a little spin to show off her outfit. The usual pink and black plaid shirt had been removed entirely, sent back to the confines of her dresser, or at this point, her hamper, Eligh had hoped.
She wore a pair of orange-brown corduroy pants with a thick black belt running through the loops. Her top, which seemed almost tailor-made to her unique proportions, was a deeper chocolate brown. Made of a light, breezy material; the long-sleeved shirt hugged her frame almost too perfectly, tight enough that it featured her breasts prominently but not so much that the outline of her bra could be seen.
"You look like you stepped off a Pinterest page, girl. Where'd you get that top?"
"Oh, so you noticed it, eh?" She tucked the shirt into her pants, completing the look. "I had it tailor-made last month. Cost me the last of my savings, but I think it was worth it,"
She looked herself over, casting quick glances over her shoulder, a look of uncertainty dancing across her face as she made eye contact with her friend. "It was worth it, wasn't it?"
Eligh rose from his recliner, risking some sexually charged joke at his expense, and walked over to the only beast who had been his only family and friend for the past decade. The fox had not only migrated from another country to help him out but had also supported him in his political endeavors even though she had zero interest in the subject(regardless of what she might say otherwise).
He laid a huge hand on her shoulder as she gazed upwards at him and not at the bulge in his underwear for once and said, "Brigs, you look stunning." A smile beamed across his face, exposing his fangs.
She leaned her head against his head and sighed, "It's just-- I hope I'm doing all the right things, ya know?"
"You do what is right for you first, Brigs. If Advrik really is as special as you believe he is, then, well, he'll notice you no matter what you do or how you dress." He stepped back, taking another quick glance at the fox in her autumn attire. The scene looking like something out of a porno; A cute little well-dressed fox and the big, muscular grizzly in a pair of underwear. Out of context, the scene would have been ridiculous, Eligh thought.
Heck, it was still ridiculous, but that was just how he and Brigid were with each other.
"Thanks, Eligh..." She said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Now, could you tell your bulge to stop looking at my eyes?"
***
Advrik stepped outside at around 9:30am, dressed in an outfit that looked like it walked straight off the set of a mid-1990s sitcom. He wore the usual dark grey undershirt, only this time, it was a thin, long-sleeved version. Over that was a two-tone brown and black button-up shirt. The left was all brown, and the opposite was all black. The only thing thematically out of place was that his pants, which were long and ran down to his hocks, looked like something the lead singer of a nu-metal band would have worn.
A heavy fabric, all black with chain and various other little bits and bobs that, while wholly unnecessary, made a statement. Or at least it did back in 2008.
He unlocked his phone and shot a quick text, then took in the breeze of early-season chilled air as it moved through Main, ruffling his hair and fur alike.
Autumn was on the way.
His phone dinged, but he knew what it said without even having to check it.
BRIGID: Great, me too! See you at Toh's Beans, Dickweed!
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