She looked relived I had finally acknowledged her existence and said, "Hi. You're Isaac, right?" Her voice was nervous and a tiny bit desperate but friendly. When I grunted a positive, she calmed down and smiled. "Well, hi. I work with you, and you know, I've noticed something...you know, some of my friends and I can't help shaking the feeling you don't like us."

"I don't."

"You know, it's probably just our imagin--" she stopped and slowly processed what she had just heard. "You--don't like us? Why not?"

I shrugged and leaned back in my chair. "Never liked you people. No big deal."

"Oh...did one of us offend you or something?"

"What? No, no. I mean..." I thought for a second. "You guys aren't human. I don't like you. That's all."

Her face crunched in thought, a tough feat for a Feline. "Well...whatever a Zeroan or..." she paused, as if scared saying the word 'Abomination' would make her tongue burst into flames. "...one of us did to you in the past, you shouldn't let it--"

I interrupted with a sigh. "You don't get it. It's not some psychological thing, it's not due to some deep-seated trauma, I'm just not comfortable around Zeroans or Abominations. And," I added, turning back to my work and latte, "I don't have to talk about this anymore."

The Feline's ears flattened and she bared her teeth in a mix of confusion and anger. "No, you, you just can't be...can't just be so...racist!" she said, hissing out the last word.

"...Are you done?" I disliked the word 'racist', and the Feline's insistence on distracting me was greatly getting on my nerves.

"You're not one of those HAAR bastards, are you?" The Feline gasped. It was almost an accusation.

Comparing me to the terrorists in the Humans Against Abomination Rights...was this girl trying to piss me off? "It isn't like that, you--" I took a breath. "I think you should have the same rights as everyone else, but you're just not human," I almost growled.

The Feline sneered. "'You can exist, just keep away from me,' is that it? You can't honestly think like that!"

I sighed in anger. "Yes, I can."

"No, you can't!"

"Yes, I can."

"No, you c--" I swung my first towards the side of her face. She saw the blow coming and flinched backwards, closing her eyes tightly. I stopped before I touched her. When I was younger, I would have punched her out then and there, but...not now. I cracked my knuckles and shook my hand.

My ears always perked up when a track of Josef or his wife's music played. The news reports of the occasional disasters caught my attention, and I always knew when it was Peccavii doings, and I would recognize the hallmarks of one of Bianca's actions. I even would find the Peccavii events buried in the news in brief sections. I'd glimpse familiar eyes watching me in crowds; I knew when they were keeping tabs on me. I even glimpsed Mubwin once while on vacation.

It wasn't choice; it was barely even conscious. It was an attraction. The life I had would not leave me alone.

"Going somewhere, Whitey?" asked Ki. I always hated that pet name.

Ki expression then changed to one of anger and...almost pity. "You can't want this. Any of this," Ki growled, gesturing around him. My brain yelled at me to kill him, but I held back. I'd let him speak his piece.

"You're an artist, dude. This...You're holding yourself back. No painting, no passion...just a Pharaoh-damned office job." Ki took a step toward me. My muscles clenched even tighter. "And Seryph and Lenneth's little rebellion...they'll do nothing but hold you back further." Ki's voice was almost kind by now. "Come with me, Isaac. You'll get nothing with those guys. With us, you'll get the best kind of release. And me." Ki became the quietest I had ever seen him. "You haven't dated since you left me, Isaac. I know. You don't have to hold yourself back around us."

"Oh, Whitey--"

"Shut up." The smile disappeared from Ki's face. It felt good to finally say that to him. "As I was saying, I'm not holding back. I'm just waiting. And I can wait a little longer." Before Ki even opened his mouth to speak again, I crossed the room in three strides. I jabbed an elbow into Sven's stomach, and the hulking Lizard fell to his knees; without pausing, I slammed my fist into Ki's right cheek. I followed this up with a left hook almost immediately, and when he managed to look up, I punched him in the center of the face. Blood leaked from his nose. Forming my hands into a hammer, I struck him over the head, sending the bastard to the ground.

I could almost feel wind through my hair. Blood spurted out of Ki's nose as he tried to pick himself off the ground. I sneered. "And I've been waiting a long time for this," I said.

I felt two scaly arms wrap around me and pick me off the ground. Damn that Lizard's fast recovery. Sven's arms held strong against my struggles to free myself, and I knew he could crush my ribs just by squeezing with a bit of his strength.

It was a small miracle that I wasn't knocked unconscious by landing on the ground, and a slightly larger miracle that, ignoring the throbbing pain coursing through...everywhere, I checked my limbs and found that none felt broken. I was also thankful my hair was short; less for the blood to get into.