The Red Ballet (Furry NSFW Gay Dark Romance)

Chapter II

Yesterday I got off work at 18.00. I don't know why I am so obsessed with the time. 8 in the morning. Get up. 8:15. Like, REALLY get up. Scorf down the pack of noodles that took 4 minutes to make. Take a quick shower. Not that anyone seems to notice, scoffing their noses at my rodent musk. But it makes me feel clean.

8:30. I like 8:30. That's when I leave the house and sit on a bus for 24 minutes. Whatever happens in those 24 minutes is beyond my control. I can merely sit there with a pair of headphones over my ears, listening to the same playlist as every morning. It is exactly 24 minutes. Well, and 10 seconds, but that's neither here nor there. Not everything can be perfect.

9 hours of gruelling nothingness. Maybe I should be grateful to occupy my time with nothingness. There are people out there who slice their paw pads for scraps, betting their lives against unjust and cruel odds. Not everything can be perfect, and I suppose that I am included in this idiom. Anyway, I am always looking up at that ugly, scarred clock for the nothingness to tick away. I did so in school as well. It's not that I hated school. Okay, maybe a little bit, but to be fair to me, it was a rather shitty school. Not their fault, of course. Why waste money on us rodents to have a chance at something other than spending their days in nothingness when there are lions, wolves, and even deer who may be Something? We should be thankful that we even get to be in schools. Mother...

I jump at the door bell. Maybe I should pay more attention, but I think this says more about the store rather than my own work ethic.

Oh.

"You're back again? Running another errand for the girls?"

It's the goat from yesterday. He gives me an unsteady look while slowly making his way towards the counter. There is hesitation in his steps. I feel it in my voice too, but what I don't feel is my eyes going haywire, going to and fro throughout the store as if searching for something unknown.

"Hi..." His voice is hoarse, like he hasn't had anything to drink since we last met.

"Euhm..." He doesn't say anything half funny about it this time. "Euhm, I mean, do you need anything?" He still doesn't really look at me. "A glass of water? An ambulance? Sorry, an ambulance in this economy? I think I'd rather crawl there with my spine sticking out of my-"

"What? Why are you talking about that?" He seems thoroughly confused.

"Too morbid? Sorry. I'll get you that water." I decide against tap water and hoist up a bottle from the side of the counter. "On the house. I mean, it's not my house to give from, really, but that also means I don't really care."

"Thanks." He takes it with his hooves and holds it awkwardly without attempting to uncork it.
I scratch my head, but quickly stop. "D-do you wanna come to the back?" I ask.
He gives me another unsteady stare. "I don't think I have the time to, you know, show you that real good time."

"No!" I hold up my paws. "No, I mean... Sorry. You just look like you need a minute to get back to normal."

His face scrounges up into deep folds, casting shadows across the white fur. "Why? Nothing's wrong with me." The plastic bottle in his hooves crinkle, and I think one of his eyes twitches for a moment.

"O...kay..."

His head makes a shaking motion before he says: "I'm just a bit hungover, that's all. There was a big crowd yesterday, so I went with the girls to celebrate. That's all."

"That's all." I repeat, but he doesn't catch the reference I am making to how he made fun of me for my euhms. "So, you just need more energy drinks?"

"Yeah. Could you get them for me? And try to have an even number between the pink, blue, and black ones so they can choose whatever they want."

This may be the most I've been asked to do by a customer for quite a while now. It takes me some time to gather a whole car trunk's worth of energy drinks on the counter. Even more so to get them out to the little barrow he's got waiting outside.

"How old school." I say, pointing to it. "It's like you're a little stablehand moving the hay around. Shit. I'm sorry. I shouldn't make such jokes." He wasn't a horse, but goats also used to be second-class service people.

"It's cool. Not like rats haven't been through much worse."

"Yeah..."

Fuck, I always ruin the mood saying stupid shit like that. What if he thinks I'm some bigot now? Actually, he probably doesn't think much of it at all. He still seems pretty spaced out from the hungover.

"Hey, so..." I bite at a claw. My chest suddenly hurts a bit, and I have to tell myself I'm not doing this out of selfishness. "Can I come around the ballet later today after I'm off work?  I j-just wanna check up on you. Out of concern for our one loyal customer, you know?"

"Sure."

He grabs the handles of the barrow and starts rolling towards the ballet.

"Wait!"

He stops and turns around, and I think I see some of that smug glee from yesterday in his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?"

"Emilio."