“A witch! That's all they ever see me as!” She screamed tearfully, turning away from the counter to flee into the night.
But quickly, a hedgehog, albeit a cyborg, grasped her wrist in his firm metal hand. The female hedgehog squirmed and yanked at his grip, but his unnatural hand held her tight.
“Tanya, that's not true.” The cyborg spoke, softly, but assertively. His robotic right eye gleamed in the overhead lighting, that was just enough to light the café, but left some corner draped in shadows; perfect for customers who wanted some solitude.
This was mainly what the place was for. It was a nest for the lost, lonely and shunned to come and drown their woes in something more healthy than a pint of beer. These outcasts soon formed a community here, and anyone new was viewed with fear and suspicion at first, until they were properly judged to be safe. Few came to Mikey's Café without a sad story, a regret, or because they wanted to get away from the outside life, for a more sedate break.
Tanya was one of them. She lived in the suburbs of the city, but worked in the deeper regions as a prostitute, a job she chose to do, and made a fair wage out of it. But, out of her 'working' hours, she would take young men off the streets, should they blunder into one of her 'traps' under her power of hypnosis. What she did with them after was never talked about in the café, but out in the city, was near to hot gossip.
Known as 'The Siren of Corimanth' her presence is frequently mentioned in guide books, also with the words 'Beware'.
As such, the hedgehog in question doesn't like this view. In fact, it was a new edition of a guide book with such accusing words that had prompted this in the first place.
“Yes it is! I can barely go anywhere without someone recognizing me and causing trouble! You know I can't buy anything from any store!” Tanya wailed. “You have to get Ecko to buy stuff for me!”
The light blue chameleon looked up from his cleaning, hearing his name. It was strange that only Mikey and Ecko worked here, but then again, they got few costumers.
The male hedgehog sighed, and walked around the counter, still holding her wrist in a iron clamp grasp.
“Tanya, that may be so, but it doesn't change the facts. I know what you're really like. Heck, I'm sure everyone in here can vouch for you. Right?” Mikey raised his voice for the other patrons to hear.
There were only two, but they piped in with their ayes. One was a white hawk with long dirty blonde hair who had a fox in his heart, but was too shy to approach her. This created a small depression, which he came here to ease. The other was a purple bat with large fangs poking out of sides of his mouth, which not only hindered eating, but speaking too. As such, he was considered an oddity and teased. So he came here.
“But no-one likes us Mikey,” Tanya moaned miserably, “we're outcasts; no-body will have anything to do with us! We could die and they wouldn't know! Or think!”
“Now calm down. At least you're a much better state than me!” Mikey snapped, which stunned the hypnotist into silence.
Everyone knew what had happened to the hedgehog. It had been in the newspapers for a fortnight. A building had been set alight through carelessness. Mikey, blinded by smoke, and the fire biting into him, ran and promptly smashed a window and fell two stories to the ground. The fire, fall, and shattered glass had torn his once handsome figure into a wreck. Only the help of a fox whose expertise were cybernetic parts managed to restore him to a better form.
But it came with a price. He looked scary, unnatural to those around him. They at first pitied him, but some started rumours of rocket launchers hidden in his arms; if he got a virus, he could go berserk! So pity turned to fear. Which always turns to hate. Shunned by society, Mikey crept away, but started the café so other outcasts could have a haven.
“Twenty years, I was a handsome hedgehog. I had girls who admired me, and some boys were envious of my shape. There were a few gays who took a shine to me! But no, some idiot has set a blaze which ruins my life! And I'm supposed to be lucky; seven wives will never see their husbands again, and neither will those two blokes be able to kiss their wives!” He shuddered with despair and anger.
“I was one of many who survived, Tanya. I may have been ruined, but I survived. Do you think a day hasn't gone by when I don't think of the unlucky ones and wish that they can see their children again?!” Tears appeared in his natural eye, the only one that showed emotion through both eyelids and the eye itself.
She was quieted for a minute as Mikey attempted to contain the rest of his emotions. Blinking away his stinging tears, he tried to push the uncomfortable memories; Tanya quietly taking this all in.
After a minute of so had elapsed, she spoke again.
“Well, this probably isn't as bad as yours, but...my mother...Carrie, she never loved me.” The female hedgehog spoke slowly, gently picking her words like fruit. “I was the third of her four children; I think those pregnancies did it. She didn't mind my older brother, but she loved Anna. Anna is her only outlet for her love. She spoils her! Buys fancy dresses, and make-up and jewellery for her whenever she goes into town, but what did she ever buy me?” Tanya's tone turned harsh, sour in her mouth like a lemon, “Nothing but these rings on my wrists!”
She gestured to the purple rings that sat snugly on her wrists, holding her snow white gloves in place. They were polished so they gleamed in the dim light.
“But why do you wear them, Tanya, if they remind you of a neglecting mother?” Mikey asked, curiously.
“Because I one day hope she'll come to her senses...I doubt it now, but I still keep them. Just in case. My father was abused by her. She was cross if he spent too much time with me instead of Anna. But he cared for me as best he could when she wasn't looking. Bought me the clothes I wore, made sure I got some love. Java cared for me too, because he liked me more than Anna,” She looked up, and to a wall, gazing blankly at it, “I don't know why she doesn't wish to care for Isaac though. He's only seven years old! I had to care for him when my father was out!”
“You know I left by myself...You took me to the mainland, remember? After I...encountered this weird scientist with the robots. I still don't know why he attacked me.”
Mikey nodded. He used to run a small boat to and from Amenti, after the accident, because he had lost his fulltime job. But when things got worse, he sold the boat and started the café. One of his last voyages was to take a bleeding Tanya to a hospital on the mainland, after she was attacked. He had helped her get her house in the suburbs, a nice peaceful place...
“Java moved here too; he couldn't bear my mother either. One day, I'm going back. I'm going to get Isaac, take him home and raise him myself!” She trembled with repressed despair. “I never had anyone tell me a bedtime story, or tuck me in at night! No-one to hold me and kiss my scrapes better! She...never will love me!” And with that, she burst into tears her body wracking itself as she let sorrow burst free.
As seconds melted into minutes, which progressed into hours, Tanya cried, and the last two patrons left silently, pretending they'd never witnessed it. Mikey only left her to start shutting up shop, and even then she didn't register his disappearance, not even when Ecko spoke his goodbyes to them.
It was only when her eyes ran dry, and a cool metal hand rested on her shoulder, did she pay attention and look up. He looked down on her sympathetically, which even his bionic eye showed.
“It's time we should go home.” Mikey spoke softly.
Tanya nodded, slowly getting up and walking out the door, as the cyborg followed. He turned off the lights and locked up, and noticed her shuffling her way home. Pity formed in his heart.
“Tanya.” He called, and she stopped, looking back to him. “Can I walk you home? We need to finish our talk, anyway.”
She nodded numbly, and the male hedgehog jogged up to her, quickly falling into step. They did not speak for a while, until he mused:
“Our troubles are very similar. Although not exactly the same in a body and mind sense, they are still deep, horrible scars on what would be a perfect life.” He gazed at her.
“Your mother's lack of love is just as bad as my broken, charred body. They will never change...They will always hurt. We will always lament over them.”
“What does lament mean?” Tanya asked.
“Lament is a deep, deep sorrow. To lament is to let that out. Almost like your heart is torn in two.” He explained, saddened at the fact Tanya never had a proper education. She couldn't read, or write. Knowledge of words and how to use them was gained verbally, and she often had to ask someone what a certain word meant. The favouritism of a mother had deeply wounded her. Mikey pondered that if Tanya had been loved truly by her mother, would she have come here? Would she be a prostitute at all? He would never know; the damage had been done, never to be unmade.
They walked together in silence the rest of the way, moving things around in their minds. Mikey glanced at her occasionally. She had a body fit for a male's wildest fantasies, with her ample breasts and curves in all the right places. But the hedgehog was a person underneath that. It wasn't all lust; there was a small crying voice begging for someone to see her as a normal anthro. Alas, only Mikey and few others could see it.
They reached her house quickly, and Tanya began to unlock her front door. The male hedgehog placed a hand on her shoulder again, pulling back a little. She turned around, confused and slightly alarmed as his move until she saw the longing look in his eyes.
The anthros practically fell into each other, relaxing for the first time this day. Mikey had hugged Tanya before, but never had he felt so exhausted. And a part of him wanted to satisfy the child inside Tanya; the one that never got many hugs, from her father and certainly not from her mother. He wanted to care.
Only a minute or so passed by before they summoned the energy to pull themselves out of the embrace, muttering a goodnight to one another going their separate ways.

The night's rituals passed quickly for Mikey, and soon he was in bed, trying to sleep. But his mind was one other things. He thought back to secondary school...The people who liked him...His first love...He remembered the ghoulish moments of the fire, and the pain that had gnawed his frame. And he imagined a life devoid of his mother's love...
For the first night in some years, the cyborg cried himself to sleep.

Tanya too, didn't fare any better. She thought of her lost childhood, Anna's abuse, imagined what someone else's childhood must have been like. Her mind briefly flickered to the heroes of Corimanth; a group of mercenaries that helped the city for a price, but sometimes acted on their own goodwill in a crisis. Tanya knew them; they were her friends. She thought about the couple in the group, a triple hybrid known as Shadow Rider and a double hybrid called Greg. They were rarely seen without one another, their bond was so strong.
Tears danced in the hedgehog's eyes. 'If only someone loved me like that...' Were her last thoughts, before sinking in a deep, thankfully dreamless sleep.

To be continued?