Content Warning: Cub/cub/cub/cub (9.5I-M, 10M, 10M, 11M), Crying (minor), Bad Parenting, Abusive Household, Criminal Activities, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, 90’s-era-slurs.

Before the Fall


“Treehouse”

by beforethefall [Inkbunny]


Chapter One - The Crew

It was too hot to sleep. Not that he could've, anyway, since Zach's mom and stepdad were arguing over something, again, which would have kept him up even if the hum of the stale, musty-smelling window air conditioner outside his bedroom door was working better. They were probably fighting about money. It was always about money, now, ever since his stepdad lost his job six months ago and hadn't been able to get a new one for whatever reason, they lost their house in the suburbs, and Zach had to stop going to his school and lost touch with all his friends. It could be worse; his mom reminded him of this regularly, and said to be thankful she still had her job, and we were able to find a place they could afford. Three weeks had passed since they moved into the Fallow Acres so-called ‘lake community’, but even Zach wasn't fooled. He lived on the wrong side of the tracks now, quite literally; a dumpy trailer park full of run-down trailers on the outskirts of town, bordered by a railyard on one side and state highway on the other. The closest thing to a lake nearby was a reeking, pond-scummy runoff reservoir across the highway that he was forbidden to go near. He didn't need to be told twice.

It could be worse. Zach had quickly been drawn into the fold of a friend group, even despite him feeling so different from them. and maybe having accidentally let it show once or twice. He was just a cat from the city, they used to live in a pretty nice house and he was mostly just interested in suburban kid stuff. Cartoons, sports, and the Friday fish fry at the church down the road. Out here, things were pretty different. They were good guys, but seemed different than the kids he grew up around.

Zach had been first noticed and immediately dubbed the name “New Kid” by Kelly Turner, who everyone called Kellogg; he was a hooded rat only a couple months older than he was, having just had his 10th birthday. Kelly was way into army stuff, and wanted to join the military just like his dad did. His dad was kind of weird though and would act weird sometimes; Kelly explained that he saw some really nasty stuff out in the desert and it messed him up. Belly, the next-oldest at ten and a half, was an opossum - and a fairly standard poor kid with a shit home life caused by shit circumstances. His real name was Jerry Bellick, so nobody blamed him for wanting to be called by his nickname- even his own family did. He was a little chubby, and wore raggedy clothes. He was a nice guy that just got handed a shit deal; his mom got knocked up when she was thirteen by this shithead named Mikey who was ten years older than her, and she still lived with him. Belly didn't spend much time at home, he was always out late and up early and tried to spend as much time as he could away from their trailer. Finally, their ring-leader, in more than one sense; Coll-boy, the raccoon. Colin Hall was his real name, but in keeping with their theme, everyone had their nicknames. Colin was the eldest, a couple months past his 11th birthday. He was the biggest, too; tallest out of the group and heaviest, but not as chubby as Belly. Colin was smart, and tended to mastermind most schemes the group got into. He could be a real asshole sometimes, but always with the best intentions. He was a good leader, and the group always came first.

mimisrol drew this. <3

kolka drew this. <3 kolka drew this. <3

They were tight-knit, as close as they come, and totally open with each other. No fake friends here, no two-facedness either; what you see is what you got, all with a single simple understanding: Nobody gets out of the park on their own. That concept had been relayed to him early on when he joined the group; the only people they could really rely on was each other and the gang was always all-in. Their ultimate escape plan? To figure out a way to save enough money to get some secondhand instruments and start a band, and hit it big.

Yeah. It definitely could be worse. Zach was thankful the window worked in his bedroom, even if it didn't have a screen. He climbed out of bed and went to open it, but as the dirty frame scraped through the channel as it slid to the side, he noticed a light in the trees past the old chain link fence that bordered the trailer park. Zach thought it odd that the treehouse would be lit up this late, and hearing his mom and stepdad still arguing on the other end of the trailer, Zach decided to go investigate. He pulled up a pair of dirty jeans and with his usual feline grace, he hopped neatly through the window and landed silently on the grass below, sticking to the shadows as he snuck through the trailer park. His parents weren't the only ones arguing; Belly's dad was drunk again and ranting and raving about ‘that little faggot virgin' this and ‘fuckin’ pussy loser' that; pretty standard for late on a Friday night in the park. Zach ducked around the side of Colin's trailer and through the hole in the chainlink fence, soon disappearing into the path in the woods for the short walk to their base of operations.

‘Treehouse’ was being generous. Tree-hovel might fit better. It was a clap-trap little shelter built in the crook under a fallen tree that had propped itself in the branches of another tree. It was made out of scavenged pallet wood, railroad ties and other debris the resourceful gang had gathered together in the years prior to Zach's arrival and, ultimately, made for a surprisingly solid little shelter. Zach slipped through the rickety door that creaked and into the relative privacy of the group's treehouse to, as he'd already expected, find Belly sitting in one of the rusty folding chairs that was situated around the lone oil lantern they'd scavenged, fueled by stolen tiki torch oil and sat upon a warped plywood wire spool. Belly's face was buried in his arms, and he was hugging his knees.

“Hey, Belly,” Zach said as the treehouse door swung shut with a metallic twang of the screen-door spring behind him. He sat next to the opossum on the old log that served as a bench.

“Hey, New Kid,” Belly responded with a bit of croak in his voice. Zach acted like he didn't notice Belly wiping his eyes covertly in the crook of his arms.

“Your dad's really on a tear tonight, huh?”

“…Fuck him,” Belly said, sniffing. Zach could see well enough in the low light that Belly had been roughed up pretty bad.

“Yeah, seriously. Mikey's such a dick,” Zach muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “You okay, though?”

“Yeah. I've had worse.” Belly said, before turning his head at the sound of rustling outside. Zach noticed as well, and both kids bristled a bit at the thought of having been followed…until a familiar whiskery rodent-nose and buckteeth tucked through the door, followed by the rest of Kelly.

“Hey, nerds. On night watch or somethin'?" the rat said as he stepped inside, dropping his backpack beside the log and flopping astride it, facing Zach. “I saw you sneakin' around, New Kid. Not gonna invite your battle buddy to come out and play?” he teased the cat, nudging Zach's bare tortoise-shell furred shoulder with a hand.

“I just saw the light on out here,” Zach mumbled, still feeling a bit sleepy, “My parents were being too loud for me to sleep anyway,” he admitted, trying to cover for Belly.

“Pfff. Belly's dad is keeping the whole park up,” Kelly laughed, “Think he's lookin' in a mirror saying all that shit? What a loser,” the rat grinned, which made the others laugh a little too. “C'mon, it's high time for night ops. What're we gonna do, guys?" the rat kid said, seeming similarly reluctant to go home anytime soon. Belly spoke up first.

“We could hop a train into town and sneak into a late movie. It's almost time for the ten-thirteen,” Belly said. He often wanted to skip town, but ever since Zach had joined up with the group it had never been more than a thought. Kelly spoke up next,

“Oh, we could go to the bowling alley and pick butts out of the ashtrays,” the rat said. Zach had smoked once or twice, but wasn't too much of a fan. Kelly was well hooked though, and picking half-smoked cigarette butts from public ash trays was his favored method of acquiring cigarettes.

“Dude, that's so gross,” Zach laughed, shoving the rat who effortlessly pulled the cat into an arm-bar.

“Nice try, New Kid! Still no match for me!” Kelly laughed, before letting Zach go and playfully poking the shirtless cat in the ribs. Zach squeaked out and slapped Kelly's hands away.

“Pff, whatever, dude! If I wanted to get you I would.” the cat protested, before all three boys jumped at a fourth voice.

“I wanna see that! Round one; FIGHT!” came Colin's voice from a window, and the three boys inside swiveled abruptly to see Colin grinning at them through a window, before slipping in through the creaky door. “Full house, huh? Looks like I'm late to the party. But not empty handed,” he laughed. The raccoon flopped on the grungy old sofa - covered in a tarp to keep the worst of the mold and mildew at bay - and started digging in his backpack, before tossing bottles out, first to Belly, then Kelly and Zach. Each caught their bottle in turn.

“Oh, cool. Thanks Coll-boy,” Belly said, eagerly gripping and twisting the bottlecap in a turn of his ratty t-shirt, breaking the seal. Kelly did the same, and Zach - barring any such garment, tried to bare-hand it, setting his tongue and wincing a little as the pointy rim of the bottle cap dug into his fingers.

“Uh, thanks Coll-boy. Little help?” he asked, offering the bottle to Kelly with a sheepish grin. The rat just took a swig from his own opened bottle before handing it to Zach, and opening the new one to keep for himself.

“Yeah, whatever; the corner store didn't need them anyway. So, what're we doing tonight?" the raccoon asked, looking around the room. Zach took a drink. It was boozy, fruity. It wasn't bad, but the burn of alcohol was still really new to him, and he coughed a little.

“We could kill my dad," Belly offered, and Colin laughed.

“Yeah, we could. What the heck, man. He's such a loser. Still about you being a virgin?" Colin laughed. Belly nodded. “Ugh, what's his deal? Like does he expect everyone to be banging at birth or something?” the raccoon continued, making Belly shrug.

“I wonder why it's such a big deal to him,” Kelly wondered, sipping as his drink. He grimaced, too.

“Yeah…it's not like it's a big deal, dude. He's a weirdo for being so …weird about it,” Zach spoke up, “We're like, basically kids still.” Colin grinned.

“Wait, you guys are virgins? Ah, man, I forgot I was hanging out with a bunch of little baby kids,” the eldest joked. Belly and Kelly both sipped a bit of their drinks and spit it at Colin, who dodged, having expected some retaliation.

“Screwing your cousin doesn't count!” Kelly argued, and Colin laughed. Belly did too; his dad had been the first to accuse Colin of being a ‘cousin-fucker’.

“Oh, yeah, forgot, I'm the trailer-trash bandit scav that wants to bang his family,” he grinned. “Really, fuck Mikey. He's probably just jealous because his dick's even smaller than yours,” Colin teased Belly, who laughed again.

“You're one to talk, weirdo! Yours is so curved you pee in cursive!” Belly retorted. Everyone laughed at that, before a brief lull fell over the group as they sipped their drinks, all simply happy to be in the refuge of good company again. Eventually, Belly spoke up. “You guys wanna play Never Have I Ever?”

“Yeah!” everyone replied in unison. Belly started.

“Never have I ever… Rode my bike straight into a fence,” the opossum said. Colin glowered, but drank, as did Kelly. Zach laughed.

“Uh, ow? How'd you manage that?" Zach asked.

“The hill at the end of Bendy Road.” the raccoon and rat answered, in unison. Colin picked up the game next.

“Never have I ever swiped food from the trash at school,” the raccoon said. Belly drank without protest.

“Bullshit!” Kelly was quick to argue, “Third grade, sloppy joe and fudge brownie day, you were on free lunches and were still hungry after that shitty peanut butter sandwich,” he pointed at Colin who looked surprised.

“Okaaaay, I forgot about that,” Colin said, sheepishly, and drank twice. Kelly laughed, and drank too. Kelly went next.

“Never have I ever jacked off in the school bathroom,” the rat said, watching the others intently. Belly and Colin both drank, this time, and Zach and Kelly got their chance to laugh at them. Kelly pointed to Zach.

“Uhhh…Never have I ever gotten a boner during class," he said. It was an easy win for him, but he wasn't expecting the simultaneous outcry from the others.

“Bullshit!” they all said, laughing and pointing to him.

“That's impossible!” Colin said. Zach laughed and shook his head.

“Seriously! I've never, ever had a boner during class; and there's no way I could!” he said, and stuck his tongue out at his friends, laughing at how confused they looked.

“Prove it or drink twice, New Kid,” Belly challenged. They all knew the rules of the game. Zach flushed…but, he knew these guys pretty well by now, and doubted they'd be too weird about it. Everyone had their secrets, and the clout from winning a round of the game was worth more than getting drunk a little faster.

“Uh, alright. But this never leaves the gang,” Zach said. The others agreed. Zach put his drink down after another sip, and unbuttoned his jeans, then pulled them down to show off his underwear. Typical boy briefs, but lacking a particular something up front. He pulled the briefs up a bit tighter until a bit of camel-toe showed through the fabric in the dim light.

The others looked astonished, three pairs of wide eyes and slack jaws staring at the absence of masculine anatomy on their friend. Zach laughed.

“You guys should see your faces right now! Drink, motherfuckers!” he commanded, adjusting his briefs so they weren't wedged in his pussy any longer, before pulling his jeans back up and buttoning them. The others laughed a little and took their drinks, starting to feel a little warm from the boozy beverages.

“So, like…you're a boy though, right?” Kelly asked, sounding a little sheepish but obviously curious.

“Dude, don't make it weird,” Zach laughed, shoving Kelly's shoulder. “Yeah, I'm a boy. I can even cum, but it doesn't go squirting out so much,” he laughed, “I'm just put together inside out, kinda,” he said, shrugging.

“That's so awesome,” Kelly said, with a sheepish laugh. It was obvious what he was thinking about, and as Zach's eyes scanned the others there was a bit more awkward fidgeting going on than he expected. Zach rolled his eyes.

“Guys, really?!" the cat laughed, “C'mon. You're up, Belly,” he said, grabbing his own drink and urging this opossum to pick up the game again.

“…Never have I ever caught myself staring at Mrs. Jones' cameltoe in class,” he said, speaking of their fat, middle-aged math teacher that Zach had merely known for a week between his transfer to the new school and before summer break. All three of the other boys groaned, and drank.