WOW! It has been a long time since I continued this series. I'm sorry for making everyone wait, but Chapter 3 is finally here. If you haven't dropped off from my lack of uploads here it is! This one is briefer than chapter 2 and is actually just as simple as T and Stizz heading back to (their) apartment and their stinky shenanigans on the way there/once they arrive. More to come soon! (I promise this time!) Also, I'm sorry these all got uploaded in different file types. Google Docs is not my friend.

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It took a while before T was fully stood up from those coffee shop chairs, huffing a bit after taking a rest sitting so long. It was obvious that the big purple guy wasn’t exactly the most active of the crowd. But despite this, T was excited to spend the day with Stizz.


"We can head for the apartment now. It's not far; a few blocks by bus. Or, we can just walk." Stizz, the green counterpart to Turner explains, taking a sip while they began to walk, and a bit caught off guard by T grasping his paw quickly. "Oh, we need to get your things. I don't have a car, so I can't haul anything. I could call someone to help if you have large things to move. But if it's just small stuff, then I can help you pack up and carry it." Stizz elaborates, then blinks awkwardly. "Do you... have, um, things, you need to get?" he asks, suddenly feeling insensitive.


T shakes his head in reply and leaves his coffee sitting on the table only half drunk out of pure excitement. He just wanted to get the few things he had and get to the apartment. "Just a small bag of stuff. It should still be there unless someone mistakes it for trash! But uh... That might be a real possibility, it's all scent marked" He joked, though this was more serious than T let on. "And as for transportation, if you don't mind stinking up a bus while we sit, I wouldn't mind taking it"


"Fair enough," Stizz replies, letting go of his paw and putting his arm over T's shoulders again. "My landlord has some rules about scent marking indoors, but, he's been very patient with me. It helps that my apartment is on the corner by the utility room, so I don't actually have any neighbors who could complain about the smells." He chuckles, then sighs as the two squeezes through the gate and into the alley again.


T let out a soft purr as Stizz pulled him closer. The world could have been collapsing around them and T wouldn't have cared, he felt absolute comfort in the lizard's arms. Maybe he was falling for the lizard, and maybe he was interested in men as well, but all T really cared about was how he felt. But the stink of the trash around them was enough to draw Turner's attention away from his own thoughts and back into the current moment, however.


Sure enough, a small, skunky-smelling bag is lying against one of the cans, well-hidden from view. "Ooh. Um. I don't know if they'll let you take that on the bus," Stizz says, laughing. "It stinks pretty badly." He blinks and shakes his head, briefly losing himself to the smelly musk.


"I guess maybe I should have cut down on the marking a bit" T replied, shaking himself off slightly and pulling up the small black one-strap bag onto his opposite shoulder.


Stizz chuckles and shakes his head. "It's your property. You can mark it as much as you like. I know how good it feels to let those scent glands out. Believe me... even though I didn't grow up with a tribe, I still have some favorite spots to mark. It must be a natural urge. They're, um, mostly outside, though," he finishes with a pause.


"We can walk. It's not too far, and pretty safe. We might work up a good sweat along the way, too," he says with a wink. "I would have walked this morning, but I was feeling a bit lazy. Turns out I'm pretty glad I took the bus." He smiles bashfully and hugs T's shoulders against him a little more tightly.


"Walking sounds good to me, and sweating sounds like a good exercise" T chuckled, beginning to guide Stizz back out the alleyway. "We can try taking the bus another day. Besides, you'll probably use it to get to your classes as well" he explained, and put his paw up, curling two of his fingers into air quotes as he said the word ‘classes’.


They pivot in the direction of Stizz’s home and begins ambling along the sidewalk. "Yeah, I take a special shuttle to get to the school campus. Fortunately, I only have one course I need to show up for in person, and it only meets a couple of times per week. The rest, I can do online." He thinks for a moment. "Which means, over the computer." He thinks again. "Which is... um, you've seen a phone, right? It's... actually, it's not important." He pats Turner on the shoulder and keeps walking.


"If you want to tag along with me, then, go right ahead. And, if you want to stay home alone, that's fine too." Several furs begin moving to either side of the sidewalk as the two stink lizards and their sphere of body odor and skunky musk approach and pass by. Stizz hardly seems to notice, until they come to a crosswalk and he notices a cluster of people standing and waiting for a good ten feet away from them. T had managed to lose himself in the scent of Stizz once again. It was getting harder and harder to draw himself away, his natural stink lizard urges kicking in. Fortunately, the lizard quickly stopping in place caused T to stop alongside him. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Turner glanced over to Stizz.


"Sorry! I uh... Dazed off. I would be happy to. Any time spent with a friend is a good time, isn't that right?" T exclaimed, as the light turned green and the two of them began to cross together. Only now had T noticed that the two of them almost seemed as if they were a couple, from a viewer's perspective. But the strangest part was... He didn't mind that much.


The green lizard chuckles again, motioning to the people T may or may not have noticed parting. "Looks like these people can smell us coming. Don't worry about them. We're almost home. What do you have in your bag, anyway?" he asks.


As he spoke, Stizz could feel T's presence growing slowly closer to himself, and notices his hair tail and fur is laying flat now, signifying a more calm feeling. It could be a submissive sort of effect of his own scent on the rival male, he thinks, but something about having a familiar presence like this near him is making him feel more calm than usual, so he decides not to call attention to it. He is almost regretting his sad little outburst earlier; this is practically a wild stink lizard, and they are known for their curiosity, but it just so happened that Turner had been able to express it with words instead of just mindlessly sniffing him all over like their kind tended to do to strange new things or people in the wild.


He swallows gently as they cross the road, eyeing the bag again. "N-never mind," he mutters gently, seeing Turner hesitate a bit to answer. "Not my business. But if you need some clothes... well, mine might be too small, but, we can see about finding you something at the thrift store some time. I do most of my shopping there, since, well, my sweat and musk are just going to eat through the fibers anyway." He laughs awkwardly, then takes a breath.


"Here we are. The red brick building with the iron gate there. I'm on the third floor. We can take the elevator up." Stizz opens the clear glass door leading to the small lobby, then mashes the arrow button by the big metal elevator in the middle. The metal doors slide open, and a raccoon in a thick coat stumbles past them, wrinkling his nose as he heads out the door. "After you," Stizz offers gently, the empty elevator waiting patiently.


T, not understanding the strange gesture, tilted his head slightly as he raised an eyebrow. Why didn't Stizz go in? He figured it might be another form of trust, to let someone step in before you is a sign of the other taking the brunt of danger. "Of course!" T said proudly, stepping in with a bit more vigor than one might expect from such a simple act. "Now you, my good lizard!" T chuckled, enjoying playing his role for his new friend.


Stizz laughs heartily. "Thank you, my good sir," he says, in a mock haughty tone.


"And I guess I need clothes in this weird city, but what's a thrift store?" He asked. "Better question: what's a thrift? And how do I wear one on my body?"


The doors slide shut and Stizz presses the number 3 button with his knuckle. "At least some clothes would be a good idea, yes. They help keep your scents held back, too, in case you are near someone who's... sensitive to smells. And, 'thrift' means... clothes that people donate, because they didn't want them anymore. They cost way less than buying new ones, but, they may be, erm, out of fashion. Unless buying thrift clothes is suddenly in fashion again. It's complicated." He chuckles, and sighs as the slow old elevator finally whirrs to life, lifting them off the ground floor. The two lizards' bodily musks quickly fill the small, hot metal chamber, perfuming the air with smelly, skunk sweat and the odor of hideously bad breath. Stizz snorts and pretends not to notice, but he is secretly hoping the elevator ride will end soon before he gets overwhelmed by the scents.


As Stizz spoke, however, T was lost to the pure musk trapped by this small metal elevator space, especially amplified by the heat... Turner fought with himself for a moment. He was better than this! Stizz thought of him as civilized, not just a wild stink lizard. If he let himself indulge in the scent of his new friend, everything T had been working up to would be in vain. He tried his best to hold down his urges, fight every instinct in his body to get down on all fours and... Shit, Turner shouldn't even be thinking about that.


Ding! The elevator door opens at last, and Stizz practically stumbles out as he gasps for fresh air. He looks back over his shoulder and chuckles. T pants heavily as he stepped out of the elevator, however, extremely glad to be out. What was simply a strenuous task for Stizz was a humongous personal victory for Turner. Ever since he had first come to this city, he had been distracted by scents, never been able to properly hold himself back. But now he had someone to hold himself back for, and that was a large step forward. T finally notices Stizz offering a bright smile of encouragement and returns with one of his own.


"Hate to be the next person who has to ride in there! At least we didn't fart or anything." Stizz grins triumphantly, proud of his stinking. "Well, I didn't anyway. Come on out. My door is just at the end of this hall." He guides the purple lizard down the narrow hallway, a wall on one side and a row of windows facing the street on the other. At the end of the hall is a lone door, with the number 34 stamped on the outside. "This is my place," he says as he pats himself down to look for his keys. "If you ever forget this number, them, um... follow your nose, I guess!" He laughs as he retrieves his key and fits it into the lock. The door swings open, and Stizz nudges the light switch on with his elbow as he passes through.


"Come on in," he says, all smiles. As Stizz speaks now, T has absolutely no problem paying attention. Stizz is thrilled to finally have a roommate again, sure, but having a stink lizard around might be more therapeutic than he realized. He shuts the door behind Turner, then heads to the small hallway past the kitchen and before the living area. Two doors sit across from one another.


"My door is on the right, right across from you. If you need anything, just knock. Or, yell... I could probably hear you." Stizz turns the knob on the left-hand door and steps inside, again bumping the light switch with his elbow. The air is slightly stale and cool, with a bit of a beastly smell to it due to its former furred resident. There is a decently-made full bed, a little desk and chair, a bookshelf, closet, small bathroom, and a small chest of drawers; everything a resident could need. Stizz smiles. "What do you think?"


As T steps into Stizz’s room, it was everything he could have expected. The whole place was very neat and tidy, but there were lingering scents that T could, at this point, easily identify as having his friend’s scent. "So this is how stink lizards live in the city..." He observed, more to himself than to Stizz. As Stizz opened up his new room, the purple mustelid stepped in after his roommate and placed his bag down onto the bed. "It's perfect~" T cooed, and went up to Stizz, enveloping him in a tight hug. Turner was completely overcome with emotions, when he thought of getting a room he imagined something similar to small office space, with a small nest space. Stizz had given T... So much more than he had ever expected. He would even swear a tear or two fell, the stink lizard could hardly believe someone who he had just met today had gifted him all of this.


Stizz lifts his arms slightly caught off guard but quickly wraps them around T's thick trunk gently. "I guess that means you like it," he says with a smile. Sharp, excited musk is pouring off the stink lizard, a sign of welling emotions, and Stizz can't help but plant his snout against T's scaley shoulder and inhale gently. This was going to be different for sure, but he couldn’t wait. Something told Stizz that he wouldn’t be bored very often anymore.