Chapter Text
Juno sighs deeply, rubbing the joints of her thumbs against her eyes. The air was slightly chilly, trying to get her to wrap up in her blankets and stay there longer but the gray wolf forced herself up and threw off her blankets.
Juno moves to the bathroom and splashes her face with water, more so effectively waking her up properly. She lets the water drop from her fur and removes her clothes, a plain black sweater and a pair of spandex shorts. She turns on the shower and waits for the water to warm up before stepping in.
She does her usual morning routine of showering, blow drying her fur, making sure the hairs flow in a nice direction, and steps back in her room naked.
What? She lives alone.
Anyways, she searches her drawers for a nice fit for the day. She plans on getting a nice drink from Beastbucks before she heads to the theater.
Juno pulls out a pair of black tights, a white flowy blouse, and a black pleated skirt. After putting on undergarments she throws on her clothes and turns to her closet for a light beige coat. She places over her chair for when she leaves and quickly signs onto her laptop to check her emails.
She reads off the first few emails. Clothing sales, the schedule from Louis, potential opening auditions for other productions. Her brows furrow when she sees an email from her landlord.
She opens the email and her heart immediately drops to her stomach.
An….
AN EVICTION NOTICE?!
Juno sits up straight with wide eyes, quickly scanning through the email.
She’s relieved that the eviction is because the owner of the condo she’s renting out is selling the condo, and that she’s given a 60-day notice.
She starts to panic again.
‘I have to be out of here in 60 days?’ Juno places the palms of her hands on her forehead and whines.
“I have to find a place and move out in 60 days.” Juno drags her hands down her face and leans back, sighing.
For now, she grudgingly stood up and took her coat, moved into the living room and towards the front door to pull on a pair of dark brown boots, grab her purse, and set off to Beastbucks.
She’ll start her apartment hunt after work,
<><><>
Juno arrives at the local theater after getting herself a matcha chai tea. She waves and smiles politely (no teeth of course) at her fellow actors and the stage crew greeting her. She sits down at a seat near the doorway as people start coming in and gathering backstage.
Juno beams and waves as Legosi enters the room. He waves back and averts his eyes, turning away to talk with Kai.
Juno frowns but turns her attention to loud clapping sounds, also prompting everyone’s heads to turn in the direction of the sound.
Standing tall in the middle of the room is a red deer, Louis.
“Everyone, thank you all so much for coming to this very important meeting. First of all, I would like to congratulate everyone on their part in putting the play of Adler together. Everyone, give ourselves and each other a round of applause.” Everyone starts clapping, some even whooping and hollering.
“Now, today’s meeting is very important as we will be starting a new production today.” This announcement peaked everyone’s interest and started muttering about themselves.
Juno’s tail started wagging heavily behind her. She’s been restless waiting for the new production to get done writing. She started to grow frustrated at Louis talking to her about it but never giving specific details.
“Alright settle down everyone!” Juno stifled a life at the mental image of Louis treating them as if they were his children. What a mom.
“The production we will be putting on…” Louis turned around and grabbed a large stack of papers, their scripts most likely. “-is Burlesque.” He announced with a smirk.
Everyone’s eyes widened, some with shock, some with amusement, some even excitement.
Juno’s was one of excitement. She was excited for the performance and singing aspect of the play. It was probably going to be absolutely grueling in terms of rehearsal but it was an opportunity to show more of her talent and to push the limits of it to an even higher standard.
“We have made some adjustments to the script and characters of the play, but the plot is generally the same.” Louis split the stack of scripts in half and held it out to two animals nearest to his sides.
“Pass around the scripts, today’s session will be everyone reading the script and hopefully discussing everyone’s roles and ideas afterwards.” Everyone passed the scripts around and started reading it. Juno grabbed her own and passed it to Sheila beside her.
She started to read the script.
She raised her eyebrows in slight surprise when she saw Jack's character as a female. Everything seems to be the same except that Jack is a woman, engaged to a man but he’s still having an affair with the main character.
An interesting choice but it makes everyone all the more interested in who’s getting casted as which character.
This also isn’t their first production with lgbt+ characters. Pina played a drag character, Els was an asexual character, Bills and Tao were gay, HELL Aoba was a trans character.
Halfway through the script Juno found her attention slipping away. Not because the script was boring, but because thoughts of her eviction kept seeping into her focus.
She found herself thinking about the email she read that morning, prompting her to reread the same three lines over and over.
Juno huffed and hardened her stare at the paper, trying to zero in on the text on the papers.
After going through another repeat of the next two lines she moved on from, she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. Juno looked up and saw Louis in front of her.
“Juno, may I talk to you in my office?” Juno nodded and left her purse and script on her chair and followed Louis into his private office.
Juno sat in the chair in front of his desk as he closed the door and moved to the other side of the desk.
“I’m not gonna yell at you don’t worry.” Louis said a straightforward tone, but Juno could hear the light joking undertone in his voice.
Juno chuckled, “I haven’t even done anything so that better be the case.” She grinned at the deer.
When Juno first met Louis in theater school, her first year and his third year, they did not get along at all.
In fact, Juno had even ‘declared war’ on the deer! Though, after five years of them working together and even hanging out outside of school their rivalry turned into a more trusting friendship.
Louis let himself smile around the younger wolf. “No no, quite the opposite actually. You’re awfully quiet and...let’s say you look a bit disconnected from everything going on. Unusual since you’re normally excited for the start of a new production.” His smile turned down into a frown.
Juno’s ears drooped slightly. She felt slightly guilty when she saw Louis’ eyes narrow in concern.
“Sorry, I just had a bad start to my day is all.” Juno mumbled, turning her gaze to fidget with her claws.
“Would you like to talk about it? It could be of help to let some of it out?” Louis suggested. Juno felt a small sense of pride at how far he’s truly come. Louis is still awkward when it comes to emotional talk and comfort, but he’s getting better at being more open and letting others open up to him.
Juno crossed her legs and looked up at him. “Well I’m getting evicted in 60 days so that’s bound to put you in a stressful situation.” Juno sheepishly laughed.
Louis on the other hand, looked alarmed. “Evicted? And for what?” Juno leaned forward and waved her hands in reassurance.
“It’s not anything personal or unreasonable! My landlord is selling the condo so this is more so an everybody thing.” Juno sighed. “At least I was given a good amount of time to find a new place and pack.” She muttered.
Louis leaned onto his elbows. “Right, right. If you need more time and you don’t have a place to stay you know you can stay at the penthouse.”
‘Ah, the perks of having a rich friend.’
Juno thought as she smiled at the deer. “Thanks Louis, I really appreciate it.” Louis smiled back at her before sitting up in realization.
“Oh, I just remembered! I have a high school friend who’s actually in need of a roommate. I can get you in touch with her and you can check out her place and the conditions, see if it’s right for you.” Juno blinked at the sudden suggestion.
She didn’t think he had friends from high school.
“Sure! I’ll take anything right now.” Juno said, taking out her phone. Louis recited a phone number to her.
“Her name’s Haru. I believe you guys can get along. I’ll let her know about you as well.” The two animals nodded at each other and stood up, heading out to the backstage to talk about the script.
Juno felt her stressed ease just a bit.