"And that's the long and short of it." Stripes finished, sitting backwards in Milo's desk chair as he watched Daryl take it in. They had both caught a good look at Daryl's ass when they came into the dorm room, the poor guy only thinking to pull on pants after he stopped staring at Stripes for a good minute or so. Milo would have been crushing on Daryl super hard, if he wasn't such a dick, no don't think about that.
Instead Milo was prodding his teeth with his tongue. Did they feel sharper? No, it wouldn't happen that quickly. Maybe one of them did. He prodded it with a finger trying to decide. He needed to get out his camera and stand, document his change, maybe see if a few of the others on campus would be game. He could save it for his photography classes. Would his teacher be impressed if he took that sort of initiative? Or maybe the photos would just be burned as evidence they didn't want getting out.
"What's the photography professor like?" Milo wondered allowed.
"Professor Quillson? I've never had his classes but I've heard he's pretty relaxed. Most porcupines can be bristly, but he's pretty chill." Stripes said. Daryl was staring at both of them.
"You're a freak, and you're insane." He said, first pointing at Stripes then Milo. "You're actually excited about this? Aren't you?" He narrowed his eyes at Milo.
"What do you care anyway?" Milo snapped back. "I thought you were leaving at the end of the semester. You can turn back human and go, he said that." Stripes was just bobbing his head in agreement, though Daryl was getting a bit of stink-eye from the Zebra at being called a freak.
"Fine, but I'm not leaving my room." Not their room, Milo noted, to Daryl it was his.
"And meals?" Daryl wrinkled his nose.
"I'll give you my meal card and a hundred bucks a week to bring it back for me."
"Bathroom?"
"Fine, I'm not leaving the floor."
"Classes?"
"Skipping those." Daryl and Milo kept going back and forth.
"Don't want to do that. You'll end up on Lakeshore cleaning duty." Stripes noted, "I told you, we don't expel, you get community service." He rubbed at his chin as he glanced towards the windows where some more Freshmen were filtering out of the building in bewilderment. He remembered his time.
"And how are they going to make me show up?" Daryl smirked as if he had won that one.
"By shutting off your meal card for anything but the bare minimum until you show up. And daddy's ATM card won't work at the local bank when we're on this side." It was Stripes turn to smirk.
No.. it definitely felt sharper. It wasn't in Milo's head, he started bothering the tooth again. Th sound that came out of Daryl was enough like a growl it made Milo giggle. No.. it was normally that pointy, wasn't it? Bother, he hoped something obvious happened soon or he was going to drive himself crazy.
A canine-esque head appeared in the doorway, Brown and black, the a blunt muzzle, leaf shaped ears, with his hair.. head fur?.. in a row of blue and green dyed spikes. He had a few piercings in each ear and two in his left eyebrow. He grinned, showing off a row of sharp teeth. No. Not a canine. Hyena. "Interrupting?"
"Max!" Stripes bounded out of his chair and wrapped up the hyena in a hug, Milo thought he could hear bones cracking. Max was fit, but Stripes was huge. "Max, these are two of our charges this year. Milo and Daryl." Milo waved, Daryl glared. "This is Max, the other third floor RA." And Stripe's boyfriend by the way the hyena's hand was straying towards the zebra's backside.
Max leaned in to whisper something in Stripes' ear. Milo thought he caught. "Oh boy, reminds me a little of us. You were a fucking grump."
"Was not." Stripes returned through gritted teeth, but smiled. "Anyway, you two get settled in, maybe go exploring. We'll hang out in the third floor common room in case anyone has any questions." Stripes and Max headed out and Daryl flopped back on his bed.
"This is fucking insane! You know that right?" Daryl started in. Milo was picking up his camera from his desk, holding it carefully as he checked the how much space was on the memory card.
"Mmm-hmm, insane." He mumbled back. He'd need to do a dump onto the new laptop soon, maybe see if he could get a backup drive, too. "I'm going to go for a walk, want to come with." Despite everything, Milo was resolved not to let his roommate get him down. He was excited for once about the future.
"Didn't you hear me about not leaving this room unless I have to?" Daryl flopped back on his bed and folded his hands together behind his head. Milo had to resist the urge not to take picture. He really was quite good looking, and the way his lean muscles moved. He pulled his eyes away.
"Suit yourself, Dare." Milo didn't know why he was suddenly feeling a little cocky, like he wanted to taunt Daryl out of his funk, but he just grinned and headed to the door.
"Daryl! DAR-YL!" He heard shouted after him.
Milo enjoyed his walk, and took plenty of photos along the way. Humans and these.. what had Stripes called them? Anthros? Mixing. Some of the more interested new arrivals were chatting it up with the upper classmen that had started trickling in this morning. Other hung of to the side with more dubious expressions. He caught a few candid shots, and others were happy to pose for him when he found someone that was a particularly interesting species, or had an interesting fur pattern. He was finding art in these people. It was like waking up in an exotic land where everything was new and bright and exciting. A muscular beaver with an orange mohawk was only to eager to pose for him, and a graceful young cat woman with the markings of a Siamese and brilliant blue eyes was another happy model.
He was capturing a more candid photo of a bear napping under a tree when he heard a polite clearing of the throat from behind him. He spun around and found a porcupine watching him with a smile. He was all and a it lanky, wearing jeans and keeping his spines flat so he could wear a vest as well. Not all the anthros wore shirts, some contenting themselves with just pants or shorts. Something about this porcupine spoke of an older adult, not one of the college kids. "Taking photos?" Milo nodded and the man held out a hand. "May I?" Milo's hand instinctively wrapped tighter about his camera. t was his most valued possession and years in the state home had taught him to be jealous with it.
"I won't harm it or your photos, I promise, I just want to take a look." Milo lifted the strap over his head and placed it in the porcupine's waiting hand. He started going through the shots, nodding and making some interested noises. "Good eye for perspective. You seem to know the rule of thirds. Nice use of focus and exposure. You seem to have a talent for this young man. Have you signed up for any photography classes?" The man handed the camera back gingerly, someone used to handling expensive equipment.
"It's, uh, my major actually." Milo said a bit sheepishly after the compliments.
"Well then. I'll be seeing a lot of you. I'm Professor Quillson, art department, and the photography professor. Though I also teach design." He winked.
"I'm Milo." He held out his hand for the professor who shook it with a surprisingly firm grip.
"I look forward to seeing you in class, Milo. You have some real talent, there. Keep it up. By the way, the lake at sunset provides some absolutely stunning vistas." Quillson grinned at him and headed off to one of the nearby buildings.
Milo was having trouble keeping a smile off his face. He has always been a pretty average student except for art, and his high school hadn't offered photography, so he had never had a teacher gush quite like that over his work. Or really compliment it all that much. He rubbed at his jaw as he looked off in that direction for a while. Things were definite.... no that tooth was sharper. And bigger. The one on the other side seemed to match. He ran back to the dorm, eager.
----------------------------
"This soon?" Stripes was muttering as he and Max sat staring into Milo's open mouth.
"It's not like it's a record. We had that one guy our year pop a fox tail during the morning speech." Max said lightly. "Milo here must just be ready to accept things."
Ready? Of course he was ready. What was he even leaving behind? Everything he owned and cared about fit in a single box. "But aren't fangs normally.. um.. up top." The two sharper teeth were both in his lower jaw. He could still close his mouth, but it was a weird feeling having them there.
"If they're fangs." Stripes said, leaning back in the couch, Max falling back against him. "I think they're tusks."
"Like an elephant?" Milo asked and Max shook his head.
"No, those are up top. Lower.." Max tilted his head to the side. "Boars or hippos I think. Neither is common on campus at all so I don't know who we could check against."
"Hippo doesn't sound great. Boar.." Milo shook his head. "What if I end up hating what I become?" He asked. It would be just his luck, too.
Stripes and Max exchanged looks, then Max laughed a genuine hyena cackle. "Some people might not feel like it's right at first, but it always seems to be the right one in the end. Just give it time and let it happen. I wasn't happy with this at first but then, well, it grew on me. Helped that someone liked my though." He prodded Stripes in the side. "Even if he took a while to admit it. And stop poking your tooth, you'll break it."
Milo snatched his hand back down. "He's not going to break it."
"If he's playing with a tooth that much what's going to happen when his.." The hyena cut off as Stripes clamped his muzzle shut with a strong hand, and a sharp look. Max was still grinning.
"Why don't you go see if you can drag Daryl out for lunch. You two weren't partnered up by accident. Roommates are carefully picked, there's something each of you has that the other needs. Just try, he might surprise you." Stripes looked over to Max still trying to pull the zebra's hand off his muzzle with little success. "Are you going to behave?" Max nodded.
As soon as the hand was off his mouth he said, "Penis!" And went running for their dorm. Stripes just stared after his boyfriend with a heavy sigh.