When Dare, Ollie, Curtis, Sam, and Todd arrived at the lecture hall that morning, Milo was already milling around in one of the building’s study lounges where they often hung out when they got to class early. Dare hung back from the rest of the group nervously, suspecting that Milo was still just as livid as he had been the night before, but Milo greeted everyone with his usual friendly demeanor.
“Mornin’, Dare. Sleep well without me around snoring the whole night?” Milo asked with a smirk that made his tusks protrude in a way that was so cute it Dare’s legs feel weak.
“...Y-yeah, like a baby. Feel free to make a habit of running off like that,” Dare replied immediately, though he just as immediately regretted saying it. It was a lie anyway; Dare had barely gotten a wink of sleep without the reassuring rumble of Milo’s chest filling his ears.
“Hmph, I’ll think about it. Your nose looks good, by the way,” Milo said, noticing the changes to Dare’s muzzle that had occurred overnight.
“Thanks, I guess,” Dare sighed, giving a little sniff with his new nose to test his improved senses. “And I like your new soap. Strawberries?”
“No, it’s not a new soa-“ Milo started to say, then he blushed and decided against saying any more. “F-forget it. Thanks. And Dare, I appreciate you letting me take a little break. Things are just too weird right now for… Well, that. And with the stuff with William, I just thought-“
“You didn’t ask my permission to leave. That was all on you,” Dare said quietly, sounding harsher than he had intended. Don’t run away, you can apologize, the little voice in the back of his head said, managing to drown the other voices yelling at him to double down on his harsh retort. “N-no, I mean… Sorry, Milo. I’ll be fine, just take all the time you need, okay?”
The whole lounge went silent out of pure shock at Dare’s unexpected apology. He could hear the others whispering amongst themselves, wondering whether Dare had been replaced by a convincing clone or perhaps that Stripes was using some manner of blackmail to keep the skunk’s attitude under control. In any case, the idea that Dare of all people had willing apologized for anything was not what any of them had expected that morning.
“Y’know, I can hear you,” Dare snarled, glaring at the others who were off to the side. “Just ‘cause your hearing’s all getting better doesn’t mean you can eavesdrop on everything!”
He turned to Milo and started to lean in for a quick kiss, partly out of impulse and partly as a way to see how Milo would respond. But, just like he had so many times before, he stopped himself, still feeling guilty for how he had treated Milo recently. However, just as Dare started to pull away, Milo quickly moved in and gently pressed his snout against Dare’s pink nose and slowly rubbed them together. It was an intimate gesture that seemed to come out of nowhere, pulled out the depths of his new memories.
“Thanks Dare. I’ll talk to you later…” Milo said as he pulled back, flashing his signature tusky grin before sitting down to go over his notes before class. Dare blushed, feeling a couple of soft whiskers burst out from his nose and wiggle nervously, then he turned away and walked over toward where Ollie and Curtis were sitting and staring at him.
“You done gawking, sheep? I thought you wanted my help, and you’re already annoying me,” Dare said as he sat down and got his textbook and notes out. “Let’s get that homework done… And just for the record, I’m not doing your homework for you. You’re gonna learn this shit and do it yourself, got it?”
“Yeah… You two have fun, okay? I’ll just be… anywhere else,” Curtis laughed, wandering over to talk with Todd and Sam for a bit while Dare and Ollie studied.
“Hoo-boy, I’m gonna regret this, aren’t it?” Ollie sighed, but before long him and Dare were nose-deep in the textbook and going over the main topics that were being covered for the next few lectures. They had moved on from hygiene (to Professor LaVeur’s great pleasure), and were focusing on some of the other day-to-day differences between the human and anthro worlds and how they were supposed to navigate them. Specifically, they were looking at building and infrastructure differences. Most of the freshman had already noticed a few uncanny differences in the architecture of Claw Valley University that had stuck out during their initial tour of the campus, including the unusually high ceilings to accommodate especially tall horns or necks, special materials used in the floors to minimize damage to claws and hooves, and subtly shaped doorknobs and other fixtures to allow all types of paws, hooves, and hands to use them comfortably.
Those parts weren’t so hard for Ollie to understand, but as the differences became more nuanced and subtle, he started to feel his eyes glaze over as Dare went over the air filtration needed to remove stray fur and dander from the air.
“Hey, wake up,” Dare snapped, making Ollie jolt up in his seat and snap back to attention. “Is any of this sinking in, Ollie?
“…Can I be real, Dare? No, it’s really not,” Ollie replied, holding his face in his hands and letting out a dramatic sigh. “I mean, I barely thought about building codes and doorknobs and stuff like that back when we were on the human side, and now I’m getting tested on a whole different set of them…?”
Dare had to admit that it wasn’t the most interesting topic in the world, but it seemed to be coming to everyone else in the class without too much trouble. In fact, the only one having trouble other than Ollie was a bat that sat at another end of the lecture hall. But, to be fair the bat might be having more trouble staying awake during the day than paying attention to the lecture.
“It’s really that hard, huh? Can’t you just… you know… ‘Remember’ all the information?” Dare offered. “I mean, I don’t like doing it too often if I have a choice, but we’ve all got a whole set of memories of living in this world. All sorts of memories and experiences that would be helpful…”
“…We could. But if they wanted us to do that, why’d they give us this big book?” Ollie replied, holding up the textbook listlessly. Dare frowned at that, realizing that Ollie was dodging the question. Mom was right, it really is obnoxious when people do that, Dare thought, but he tried not to get too annoyed with Ollie about it. But now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen any evidence at all of Ollie recalling anything from his new life. It had been happening to everyone else in some way or another, from Milo and Sam magically knowing their brothers to Curtis suddenly having a real knack for music to Dare’s seemingly uncontrollable lust for boars and nipple tweaks. Ollie was… just Ollie.
“It’s not so hard to ‘remember’ these things, you know. I called my mom… My new mom, I mean,” Dare offered cautiously. “She seems like a really nice lady. Helped me out when I was feeling upset about everything. Told me about how my little brothers and sister were doing…”
“Hey, that’s great! I’d love to meet her someday! So, what’re your siblings’ names? A buncha little skunks sound cute, so they’d better come visit you one of these days,” Ollie replied cheerfully as he continued to look over the notes that he’d been taking with Dare’s help.
There it is again. He’s being as nice as always, but he’s deflecting. And it seems like it's on purpose, Dare thought, frowning in confusion. Maybe he hadn’t noticed it before since he hadn’t talked much with Ollie, or maybe there was something about this particular conversation that was making it easier for Dare to notice Ollie’s apparent discomfort. Either way, it was… peculiar, to say the least. But it was clear that Dare wasn’t going to be able to get through to Ollie like this. He might have to mention it to Curtis later and see if Ollie’s boyfriend would have any better luck.
“Okay, whatever. Let’s just get back to work…” Dare sighed, turning back to his notes. “We’ve only got ten minutes until class starts, and you’ve only finished half your homework.”
“Oh, shit! Why’re you sitting here blabbin’ about your family, then!?” Ollie yelped, frantically flipping through the textbook and scrambling to write down everything he could. “You’re never gonna be a good teacher if you can’t keep your student on-task, y’know!”
“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind,” Dare snarled sarcastically, having second thoughts about this tutoring thing already.