FACTS (benny-chan shapiro x tomika macdonald)

~ with him? ~

TW: Drowning, furries, transphobia, homophobia, Rishi Sunak, mature content, language, soft porn, Stonewall, furry-phobia, actual emotional depth????!

Benny-Chan wasn't sure what to think. He'd set the table with all of his favourite snacks, had refreshed the bathroom's tray of kitty litter, run water into a water bowl, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. Hell, he'd even run through his room and hidden all of his more... animal things, like the cat ears and the fursuit and the collars, in the storage room upstairs. His pride flags were gone and in their places were posters of Travis Kelce. He hoped that Tom Macdonald, if he went into that room, would think that maybe, just maybe, Benny-Chan was just as normal as he was.

And now he sat down at his dinner table, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his tormentor and effectively the beginning of what he was expecting would be the worst night of his life, next to the time he confessed his feelings to Rishi Sunak at a UK tea party and was promptly rejected because Rishi had gonorrhea and 'couldn't fathom giving it to him'. 

The doorbell rang. 

The next moments were wholly a blur. He stood from the table. He walked down the hallway. He felt the cold metal of the door handle under his fingers, but he didn't feel it, not really. He heard the wind rushing by his ears as he pulled the door open to the figure of Tom Macdonald, naked, doing the splits on his terrace. "Go down on me." Tom said, and Benny-Chan was so close to feeling that skin under his fingertips when the doorbell rang again.

He realized he'd been sitting at his table all this time, fantasizing. What was wrong with him? He didn't have the time to dissect it. He knew he'd be ripped apart if he were so much as a half-second late, so he sprinted to the front of the house and threw the door open. Tom Macdonald was there on his stoop, staring up at him like he would rather be drowning in Niagara Falls than here.

"I- um, come and- I mean, don't come, obviously, I shouldn't have said that, just- uh, get inside and make yourself come..." He trailed off, staring at the strong hands that had held his neck and jaw while shoving the upper half of his face into a toilet just a few days ago. God, he was getting turned on just looking at those wrists... he gulped, scaring himself. He wasn't meant to be feeling this way about Tom, the same Tom who would beat him into the ground just for being gay, let alone having a crush on him... Benny-Chan caught himself thinking that, not daring to put a label on it, and then realized what he'd just said. "Comfortable! Make yourself comfortable, sorry, I just lost my train of thought, that's all. Sorry about that." He hurried.

"Shut up, rear end." Tom snapped, barging past Benny so viciously that his shoulder stung. "This is a tiny house, Sha-poor-o. Where do you even ea...." His voice went silent upon seeing the dining table and Benny flinched, realizing that he'd forgotten to clear it of male sex magazines. To his credit and Benny-Chan's utter surprise, Tom simply cleared his throat and continued turning around, acting terribly as though he hadn't caught sight of it. This was odd - since when did Tom see an opportunity to abuse Benny and not take it?

"Are you-" Benny began to ask, as Tom moved into the kitchen and took up residence behind the counter.

"I'm doing you a fucking favor by not saying anything, Wham." Tom spat, and Benny wisely nodded and sat down at the opposite end of the house, sensing that coming within six feet of Tom would be a life-threatening idea. Benny swallowed and hoped that Tom didn't see him pushing the magazines under the table with his foot as he took a seat.

"So, I think we should present on-" Benny started, but he was promptly cut off again by Tom's husky voice.

"Look, Shapenis, I think we should get some things out in the open first." Tom said, without looking up from the countertop. Leaning on his hands against the stone, he looked like a shadow figure, his eyes invisible. He was a spirit out of Benny's reach, hovering so near but never coming closer, always just too far away, always too reserved to know anything about him. "We're not friends." Tom's voice was gravelly and deep, serious beyond belief, and it pierced something in Benny that hadn't been pierced before.

"I... I know." Benny replied, his voice equally as grave. "All I need is a good grade. I need to pass this to get into college. My mom isn't paying for it, and neither will my sister, so, you know." Benny swallowed again.

"Did I ask, Ben Ten-inch?" Tom fired, and Benny instinctively shut his mouth and shook his head. "Look, lady, all I want is to get this over with. I don't want to work with you any more than you want to work with me. I just need this grade to get back on the football team."

Benny stayed silent for a moment before deciding it was safe to query. Tom, for all his thorns, seemed relatively docile at the moment, so Benny hazarded, "Back on the football team? I didn't know you ever were."

"I've been on it since I was a freshman. Bench. They never let me play, but.. you get extra credit in Mr. McNeal's science class if you're on the team, and right now that extra credit is the only thing keeping me from failing science. Well, it was, until coach kicked me off for inappropriate conduct." Benny-Chan's face went red, but he didn't dare to say a word, just looking on curiously with his eyebrows raised. "I used a football as a dildo." Tom confessed, explanatorily. 

"Oh." Was all Benny could manage to say in response to that. 

"If I fail science, Shashitshow, I'm flunked. I'm out. I fail eleventh grade. I need this." Tom explained, a lump forming in his throat. Benny sensed that this was more than he was used to sharing with anyone, and the fact that Tom Macdonald was confiding in him made him feel stripped, in an awkward position between emotional intimacy and the standard bully-bullee relationship.

He felt he should say something to make up for it, but all that left his mouth was a dry, "Do you want to head to my room, then? We can start on the project there." Tom nodded unenthusiastically and Benny led him to the stairs. "It's just the room on the right. I'll be up in a second, I'm just going to get a glass of water." Tom muttered something like 'thirsty bitch' and moved upstairs without a glance back, evidently deciding that their shared moment of vulnerability was over.

Benny headed to the kitchen, unaware that Tom Macdonald could do many things, but he could never tell his lefts and rights. Downstairs, Benny guzzled water like your mom guzzled me, and upstairs, Tom was taking the 50/50 guess that the right direction was that way. Downstairs, Benny-Chan Shapiro was putting his dirty glass in the sink.

Upstairs? Well, Tom Macdonald was opening the door to the largest collection of furry equipment that the Guinness World Records team had ever seen.