Author's note:
This is my first original story, it's an extremely slow burn about the budding romance between a man and a non-human woman. If that's not your thing, then feel free to skip it. If it is, then I hope you enjoy. One last thing: this story does cherry pick a couple of things from the MGE, but it's very much it's own setting.
Last disclaimer, All persons in this story are well over 18.
Chapter One
Beep beep beep beep
I groaned as I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock. Swinging my feet over the side of my bed I made my way to the bathroom.
"Ok, David, time for another day in paradise... at least it's Friday," I murmured before splashing some cold water on my face to help me wake up. Glancing back up at the mirror, I absently traced my finger around the scarring that marred about a quarter of my face. A habit that I developed when the flesh was still healing. Some scars can look cool, like the ones from cuts. Burn scars, on the other hand, never look cool... The pocked skin started just under my left eye and made its way to my chin, spanning the entire width from my ear over to, and encompassing part of my nose. I didn't linger for long though. I'd had a couple decades to accept my face for what it was. I ran a comb through my short dark hair a couple times, if only to get rid of the cowlicks, and made a mental note that it was time for a haircut.
I got dressed and pulled my carry revolver from the my nightstand drawer and looked at it appraisingly. Deciding that I felt like going to the bar after work I put it back in it's safe. Grabbing a cold brew coffee from the fridge I walked out the door to my duplex and into the cool, early spring morning air.
"Good morning David," a gravelly voice called out and I turned my head.
"Morning, Raylund," I replied to my gray-lupine neighbor. Many of the other neighbors protested when he moved in with Lorie, his mate a few years back, but I at had a little experience of what it was like to be ostracized on my appearance so I at least tried to be friendly. "Going for your morning run?" I asked, as he was stretching.
"No, I'm going straight to work today. I'm running a little behind."
"Wanna ride?" I asked, but he shook his large snouted head.
"Thanks, but I've got this. Bye." He took off and for what was probably the millionth time I was impressed at his running speed and the knowledge that he could keep his Olympic-sprinter's pace for miles on end! Inter-species competitive sports didn't exist for multiple reasons, and not all of them were fueled by prejudice!
I got in my truck and started toward the job site that had been my 'office' for the last few weeks. As a superintendent for a general contractor I never worked in the same place for long.
On the way through the downtown area there were a multitude of people on the sidewalks. Most of them were full human, but scattered about was the occasional lupine, centaur, leonite, and even a lamia and an arachne were walking/slithering together. I saw those two most mornings and people always seemed to avoid proximity with them. Around sixty years ago sentient human/animal hybrid species were suddenly discovered around the world over the course of a few months. There was speculation of some science experiments gone haywire, but no one really knew the real reason for their appearance, including themselves. Them popping up was often referred to as The Arrival, and it seemed like they were here to stay. Most of them lived in their own communities fairly secluded from most human populations, but from what I heard the the living conditions weren't very good in many of them. In the last few years, however, some of them had started moving into more populated areas like suburbs, and that had been met with a mixed, but mostly negative response.
Soon enough though I'd made it to the contractor's trailer and my mind quickly became preoccupied with the day's work. A couple hours later, the door opened up.
"Yo, Dave. Wazzup?" I grinned and glanced up from the mechanical print I'd been going over to see the short, stocky form of Tom Renault, the electrical foreman. He was a bit of a knucklehead, but was good at his job, and had been a good friend of mine since middle school. He'd stuck up for me against a lot of bullying I'd gotten over my scarred face until I'd grown much larger than the bullies.
"Hehe, not much, just happy it's Friday."
"I hear that!"
"Wanna toss back a few cold ones tonight?" I asked.
"You know it!" Answered Tom with a grin. A second later he was back to business and we got to talking about the job.
Chapter 2
"Hey Ruth, could you come here for a second?" I turned around and my friend Sara was waving me over. We worked together at a department store, and seeing that she was with a customer, I figured that she probably needed me to reach something high up.
I adjusted my glasses and made my way over and saw that the customer's eyes grew wider as I got closer. She must have never stood next to a minotaur before. I'd gotten used to that reaction since I came to the city six years ago. Most humans weren't used to standing next to someone eight feet tall, though I was actually rather small for my kind.
"May I help you?" I asked as disarmingly as I could.
"Y-yes. Could you reach that that shirt? I'd like t-to try it on." She stammered while pointing at a flowered shirt on one of the upper racks.
"This one?" I touched the one it looked like she was pointing that.
"Yeah, t-that one." I pulled it down and gave the best approximation of a human smile that Sara had helped me practice, and the customer looked a little more at ease as I held the top out for her.
"Thank you, miss..."
"Argus. Ruth Argus."
She looked over at another nearby rack. "Miss Argus, could you, maybe, get another one too...?" She asked, this time with just a little less hesitancy.
"Of course." She pointed to another shirt hanging up high. I got it for her and held it out like I did with the other one. The woman smiled nervously.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," I replied with another smile. She took the shirts and headed to the fitting rooms.
"She was totally shaking in her boots." Whispered Sara.
"I know..." I replied, flicking my tail in agitation under my under my skirt. Sara patted me on the arm.
"The aggressive, territorial stereotype totally isn't fair, but hey, you got her to ease up a bit. That's something!" I glanced back down at her.
"Unfortunately that stereotype does fit most bulls perfectly," I corrected.
"But that completely ignores women, and that's
not
fair!" I sighed. We'd had this same conversation many times before. I shot her a look that reminded her that I didn't want to talk about it.
"You know, some of the other girls are going to get some drinks tonight after work, do you want to come?" She offered, changing the subject.
"I'm not sure I'd like that..." I replied slowly. "I don't fit easily in most places, and money is tight."
"Ok then, the first couple drinks are on me," she offered. "Pleeeeease! You stay home most Friday nights, it'll be good for you to not be antisocial once in a while!"
"I think you mean asocial," I corrected with a sigh, "but fine, I'll come. But I'm going home to change first."
"Yay!" Squeaked Sara. "You'll have a good time, I promise!" My ears twitched in skepticism, but I didn't reply.
"We should get back to work."
The rest of the day was thankfully uneventful, and a few hours later I was home. I checked the bottom of my hooves for debris in a tilted up mirror I kept near the door and brushed them off before putting on my leather slippers to keep my hooves from scuffing the floor. It was supposed to be a super durable tile designed for centaur hooves, but the installer must have gone with a cheaper alternative because I left a rather large scrape only one week after moving in, despite my weight being only a fraction of most adult centaurs.
I sat down in the only piece of furniture in my living room, a comfy armchair, and started flipping through the mail I'd picked up on my way in. Most of it was junk, but one of the envelopes was from my landlord.
Opening it, my heart sank as my rent was being raised again. I was barely getting by as it was, and without even going over my budget I was sure the extra cost was going to be more than I could afford! One thing was for sure, I wasn't going to be drinking any more than Sara would pay for tonight! With a sigh I got up and headed to the bedroom
I looked in the closet and gazed longingly at my flannel nightgown. After the news about my lease, I just wanted to settle in for the night with my crochet hook and yarn, but I'd already agreed to go out.
I put on a beige blouse, one of my few good ones, and was careful to not snag it on my horns. Deciding that the black skirt I wore to work was acceptable, I decided to head out.
I arrived at the pub and ignored the stares I received from a few of the other patrons.
"Ruth, over here!" A voice called out over the noise of the pub. Looking around I saw Sara waving me over from the bar. With her were three of our other coworkers; Jenna, Kate, and Tiffany. Kate and Jenna always seemed to be nice people and greeted me politely as I walked up, but Tiffany just shot me a dirty look. While I'd never had much interaction with her, she always struck me as mean and stuck-up. I figured that she was invited because the other's were too polite not too.
I sat down on the much-too-small-for-me stool next to Sara and ordered a daiquiri. I'd always loved strawberry. The other four young women chatted amongst themselves, but being concerned about my finances I couldn't concentrate on the conversation, so I just sipped on my drink and didn't say much. It didn't last though as Sara noticed how quiet I was being.
"Hey, are you ok?" She asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Not really," I replied.
"That's not good," consoled Kate.
"Oh, what's wrong?" Asked Sara. I sighed, figuring it wasn't worth trying to downplay my situation.
"The landlord raised my rent."
"That sucks," Tiffany commented snidely. "Looks like someone needs to get a boyfriend to split expenses with." My heart sank. There was only one male minotaur that I knew of in the city, and he was most certainly not mating material... not even close.
