Virgil slipped on his clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of skinny-legged jeans before scooping Ryan up off the desk and putting him in his shirt pocket. Ryan, just like the day before was very comfortable in the pocket and had to fight to stay awake. After the weird dream he had last night, he didn't really feel like sleeping. He felt his master walk down the stairs and over to the door.
	“Looks like you've cheered up a bit in the last few minutes,” said Virgil's father coming out of his study, “good thing too, you had your mother worried sick.”
	“Yeah Dad, I uh, found that...thing, I was looking for.”
	Bruce gave his son a funny look, “Oh? And what was that?”
	“N-nothing! Bye Dad!” The mouse-boy hurriedly slipped on his sneakers and walked out the door. Bruce mumbled something to himself and turned on the news.

	Virgil got an early start that day so there was no need to rush. He looked around to make sure no one was there and took Ryan out of his pocket. “Hey Ryan,” he started, “as sort of a reward for coming back on your own, I've decided not to rename you. How does that sound?”
	“Great, thank you Master!” Ryan began to nuzzle Virgil's fingers.
	“No problem little guy.”
	Virgil kept a slow gait. The cold, early autumn air might make his pet's trip unpleasant if it was blowing against him too hard; but at his current leisurely pace, it probably felt good. Virgil continued in the direction of the school gently stroking Ryan's back while the lion purred softly and fought to keep his eyes open. The journey was entirely peaceful for the two, the streets were empty besides the occasional car, and the sidewalks were completely devoid of other anthros.
	The mouse turned a corner and walked down a tree-lined street. He could see the school at the end and wished his tranquil stroll had lasted a little while longer. As he neared the school, he slipped Ryan back into his pocket and began to walk a little faster.
	“Hey Tim!” Virgil called when he saw the green-scaled lizard step out of his car.
	“What's up man.” Tim responded and began walking to meet his friend. “You like your new pet?”
	“Yeah,” said Virgil gently patting his pocket, “way better then having a goldfish.”
	“Good, I still wish you let me squish him though, that would've been awesome!”
	Virgil felt Ryan jump a bit and whispered, “Tim, please don't say those things, you're scaring him. Now tell him you're sorry.” Virgil extended the opening of the pocket with his finger.
	“Fine,” Tim rolled his eyes and said “I'm sorry” in the tone that kids use when they are forced to make an apology.
	“Like you mean it.” said Virgil putting on an annoyed face.
	“Oh come on Virg...” Tim was cut short when the bell rang, “Well I guess it's time to get to class, see ya!” and with that he took off toward the main school building.
	“Heyyyyy!” cried Virgil after him, “That's cheating!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	School was the same as it always was for Virgil, he walked through the hallways without anyone giving him any notice. Not that he minded, not getting any attention was better than getting the attention he usually got. Of course just because Ryan wasn't going to bully him anymore didn't mean too much of anything really.
	The first class after homeroom on Virgil's schedule was gym, gym being a required class or he wouldn't bother taking it. Virgil wasn't the most athletic kid in the world. In fact, most of his days were either spent hanging around with Tim or sitting on his couch playing video games. Virgil walked cautiously about the locker room trying to find a spot away from where the jocks dressed. Thankfully, he found one and proceeded to change into his P. E. uniform which was a school T-shirt and a tight-fitting pair of shorts. He looked down at his gym shoes, they a size-and-a-half too big, perfect for carrying around a half-inch lion.
	Virgil pulled Ryan out of the locker and knelt down near his shoes, “Get in the toe end and you'll be fine okay?”
	Virgil began to lower Ryan into the shoe, “Wait Master! I'm...I'm scared.”
	“Don't worry,” said Virgil in a soothing voice, “I promise you'll be alright.”
	“Okay Master, I-I trust you..” Ryan held his nose as he was placed near the heel, but quickly ran to the toe as he saw his master's foot begin to descend. When he was certain he was out of the reach of his master's relatively gigantic toes Ryan relaxed and curled into a little ball. When he released the hold on his nose in order to breath he was relieved when it didn't stink nearly half as bad as he thought it would. Virgil wiggled his furry toes and Ryan rubbed one to show he was okay. Virgil let out a quiet giggle and left the room.

	“Alright, It's lifting day, so all you little jack offs head over to the weight-room. And try not to kill yourselves okay?” bellowed the gym teacher. Who was a rather unpleasant hyena-morph with more than a few unsolved issues. The students all made their way into the large room full of weightlifting equipment, benches, treadmills etc etc.
	“Oh great...” muttered Virgil, he hated Wednesdays. Virgil made his way over to the free weights and grabbed a couple of fifteen pound ones. He sat down on a bench and started to lift. Meanwhile there was a commotion going on behind him, apparently someone was close to beating a record of some sort. Virgil didn't really care until he heard:
	“Whoa! Tim, I never knew you had it in you! Three sets of Three-fifty!” Virgil whipped around and saw his scrawny friend Tim in the center of a small crowd flexing his non-existent guns.
	“Yeah man,” chimed in another kid, “Ryan's gonna be pissed when he finds out you broke his record!”
	“Oh I don't think I'll have to worry about him.” Tim snickered.
	Once the hour was finally over, everyone went back to the locker room, where Tim was the center of attention. Virgil placed Ryan in his locker and ruffled his mane with a finger, “Don't feel bad, records were made to be broken, right?”
	“Yes Master...” Ryan replied dejected. Virgil changed back into his regular clothes and jumped when he heard a familiar voice.
	“Hey fag! Ryan's not here today, guess that means I get to fill in.” One of Ryan's old friends, Trevor, came around the corner. He was a Doberman and a fairly buff one at that.
	“Leave me alone Trevor.” Virgil said as he scooped his gym clothes as well as Ryan into his gym bag.
	Trevor ran up to him and slammed him into the lockers, “I don't think so, It's finally my turn to kick your ass and I'm not gonna pass that up. Oh, and don't worry about Tim interrupting us, he's already gone...”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	From the gym bag Ryan could here a series of thuds, a loud crash, and a few muffled cries before the sound of footsteps and moaning. Suddenly the bag was lifted up and a white hand reached in, it's fingers wrapping weakly around Ryan before pulling him out. “You're okay right Ryan? You didn't get hurt when I dropped the bag did you?”
	Ryan quivered when he saw his master's face. Most of its left side was swollen with deep bruises and his nose was bleeding pretty bad. “M-master...I...”
	“Oh thank god you're okay.”
	“But what about y-you...”
	“It's okay Ryan,” said Virgil, “I'm used to it.” The mouse gave Ryan a weak smile and put him back in his usual place.
 	Ryan thought about all the times he had done that to Virgil; that was the first he had cried that hard in a long, long time.