FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I just don't want to leave him alone-" A voice crackled through the phone's speaker, too jumbled for Werner listening in across the room to totally hear. He lifted one of his pointy ears, trying to catch more of his mother's conversation on the phone.

"Are you sure he won't mind? Perhaps him and your daughter can play? I'm sure he'd love to meet Layla!"

"Who is Layla?" The Doberman pup thought to himself, standing from his seated position so he could scoop closer to his mom to try and follow more of what she was plotting for him. He stared at her, the little orange specs above each of his dark eyes twitching as he stared, waiting for his mom to explain her plot.

When she'd finally gotten off the phone, Werner pounced.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! What did you do!? Who's Layla!?"

"Werner, sit!" She blurted, looking at him with bright eyes. "I just have to do some business with the Harris's so you're going to come with- because I don't want to leave you alone- and you can play with their daughter Layla."

"But Moommm!" Werner whined. "I can't play with a girl!" He crossed his arms, pouting. "Girly-girls never want to do anything fun! They just wanna do their hair or read books or something boring!"

"Well, you'll just have to wait and meet her before you judge, hmm?"

Werner pouted, grimacing slightly, but he nodded and let out a whine of agreement. "Okayyyyy."

******

"Okay, Layla... Layla? Are you listening?"

"Huh?" The Cocker Spaniel pup popped her head up at the sound of her mother's voice. Her ears flopped on either side of her head, the deep brown of their fur contrasting with the white shade that covered her muzzle. Her mother waited, patiently, till she saw the blue of her daughter's eyes to know she was listening before she continued.

"I have someone coming over to talk shop, so you're going to meet their son Werner, okay?" She paused, waiting for a nod. "And you'll be nice? And you'll play together?"

She waited. Layla had shifted to look out the window.

She waited. Layla eventually realized something was waiting on her and she sured back. Her mother's expectant face looked back at her. "What?"

"Will you be nice to Werner? And play with him?" Her mother repeated, voice slow and dull.

"Okay!" She chirped, quickly moving on past the conversation as she noticed a car pulling up. "Is that them?"

"Probably!" Her mom said, rising to head to the door and leaving Layla bouncing behind her, her ears flopping with each and every step. She peered out the front door, eager to see who this Werner was.

At the same time, Werner pressed his black button nose to the glass of the car window, equally anticipating finding out more about this Layla.

"She doesn't look too girly..." Werner thought as her saw her. She wore a dress, but it was simplistic, hanging to her mid thigh with a pair of scuffed up converse-esque shoes on her feet. If he squinted hard, he could see dirt scuffed on the sides of each shoe.

Layla squinted out with equal anticipation. She could see a blurry glimpse of the Doberman puppy through the window of the car, but she couldn't tell what he'd be like, not till they parked and he stepped out from the car. She watched him walk, him eyeing her while she eyed him.

Finally, as the parents crossed into the thresholds with official greetings and introductions, the two pups just watched each other, studying the way the other stared at them until their parents had started to transition to the table and left them to do their own introductions.

"Hi," Layla said, giving a wave that bounced her ears in place.

"Hi," Werner mimed back, copying her wave.

"I'm Layla."

"Werner."

"What do you wanna do?"

"Dunno."

"Wanna see my slime?" Layla offered, nodding her head towards the kitchen where she knew the container of the gooey creation was.

"Sure!" Werner felt a sudden glimmer of hope. "Girly girls wouldn't make slime!" He thought to himself, following her to the kitchen with rising curiosity. "How do you make slime?"

"Basically, it's just glue and water..." Layla started, waving her hands around as she spoke. "But then you add this special ingredient, Borax, that makes it really slimey, like... not as sticky? Then you can add stuff to it to make different kinds!"

"That sounds cool!" Werner chirped, his fears quickly dissolving as he realized Layla wasn't some shallow girly girl at all!

He followed her into the kitchen, watching with wonderment as she showed off her collection of homemade slime mixtures. One was plain, wet and slippery. The next was filled with diamond shaped plastic that made it crunch between their paws. The last was filled with kinetic sand so it oozed extra smooth when they passed it back and forth at different heights, letting it melt out of one set of paws down into the other.

"This stuff is so cool!" Werner exclaimed, squeezing the crunch slime with a satisfying crrnnnnchh!

"Yeah! You should make some sometime! You can take one of mine home if you want too, I'll make more!" Werner beamed at her, squishing the slime between his digits as she tried to shape a snowman out of the oozing kinetic slime. Their giggling filled up the kitchen and leaked out into the dining room.

Eventually, their giggling went had their parents going from, "I'm glad those two are getting along." to "Those kids are annoying! And distracting!"

"Hey, you two!" Came the holler of their parents chorusing together.

"Yahhh!?"

"Why don't you go outside and play? We've got work to do!"

"Okay!" Layla called, hurriedly boxing up the slime. They each clicked on a lid, stored them away, and rushed to find their shoes.

"I have a swing set!" Layla said, "And a sandbox!"

"Wow! What do you wanna do first?!"

******

"That's the best sandcastle ever!" Layla leapt up, pointing with an opened mouth at Werner creation. He looked up from where he was hunched over his work of sand art.

"Oh! Thanks!" He blurted back, grinning. "I need a flag for the top though!" He looked at his tower, squinting the barren top of the sculpted mound. "Do you have a leaf of something?"

Layla grinned, bending down and rustling through the grass until she found a bright red leaf. "There! A bold flag!"

"That's perfect!" With a grin spread across his face, he carefully stabbed the leaf down into his castle to finish it.

"Wow, what should we do now?" He asked, turning to Layla with a sparkle of playfulness in his eyes. His ears were both perked up, their pointed tips jutting straight up.

"I have an idea! How about we go swimming!" Her hand waved through the air, becoming a guiding point towards the backyard. "There's a pond back there!" She wiggled her finger. "Come on! I'll show you!"

"Oh wow! A pond!" Werner's curious ears gave a wild flick before they pinned back as he took off in a spring alongside Layla as they bounded back to the yard that spilled out behind the house.

Layla's nose gave a mad twitch, breathing in the blend of the backyard's many smells. Werner gave a hard sniff, following her lead. "Wow! Your yard is big!"

"It is!" Layla agreed, grinning at him for a second before she raced towards the pond. "Come on! Let's swim!"

"Wait! Really?" Werner countered, raising one of his blonde dotted brows. "Can we really?"

Layla gave a grin, suddenly grabbing the hem of her dress and heaving it up to reveal that she had worn a polka-dotted swimsuit beneath. "Just in case of such a swimming emergency!"

"Wow!" Werner rushed to the edge of the pond, kicking his shoes off with either foot and then stripped his shirt over his head. He dumped it on top of his shoes while Layla squirmed out of her dress and peeled her converse off before she clambered onto a massive boulder on the shore. Werner followed her up, peering out over the small pond with his eyes wide with wonder.

It seemed a magical place to the two cubs. The water was crisp and clear in a sparkling hue of blue as the late afternoon sun streamed out across its chill surface. On either side of the pond grew wide trunked, age old trees. A weeping willow whisked its tendrils down the side of the water to their right while a cluster of birch let the sun creep in with broken beams of light through the foliage.

Already enjoying the pond, a duck floated towards the center, idly drifting around in the small gathering of water.

"Ready?" Layla asked, grinning across at Werner.

"Ready!"

One the countdown of three, they both leapt into the water, launching themselves with all the might they had in their short, stubby legs. For what felt like a minute, they tumbled through the air before they crashed across the glassy surface with a crash of exploding water.

The duck, with a jolt, yelped out a cry and took flight, fleeing from their explosion of noisy delight.

"Wow! It's not even cold!" Werner marveled.

"No! It's too shallow for that!" Layla explained, diving down into the water.

"Let's see if we can find any cool rocks!" She invited, bouncing in the water on her tiptoes. "Sometimes, I imagine I'm going to find a long lost dragon egg here!"

"I bet there is! It looks like this could have been a dragon's nest!"

"Yeah and then rainwater filled it in-"

"Covering the last batch of eggs she laid here!"

"Oh man! I bet we will find dragon eggs!" They agreed, chorusing excitement as they began to dive into the water, bobbing up to compare rocks every few seconds. One by one, they sifted through rock after rock, putting the contending pretty ones or possible eggs onto the shore until they found themselves lounging in the shallows to catch their breath.

Above them, the sun beamed down with warmth against their wet fur. "How long can you hold your breath?" Werner asked, musing as he rolled to feel the sun on his back.

"Probably like two and a half minutes-"

"Yeah, me too."

"Think we found a dragon egg?"

Layla turned, peeking at their rock stash. "I dunno, they all seem pretty small. Maybe not this time."

"Darn! I thought for sure we'd find one." Werner smirked, suddenly rolling and sending a spray of water across at the spaniel. "I bet it was your fault!" He teased, grinning playfully.

"No way! It was your fault!" She countered, smirking as she cupped her hand and sent another huge splash towards him. He shrieked, dodging her splashing by dropping beneath the water. Layla copied, turning their splash war into a stealth battle.

They'd sink beneath the water, each swimming hard beneath the cover of the water and then popping up, hoping to be the first one up so they wouldn't be pummeled by a wave of water as soon as they rose for breath. The battle thickened.

Werner's strategy was to swim as far as he could, hoping if he was the second one up, he'd be out of range.

Layla's strategy was to swim a short distance but with no bubbles so she was untraceable and then she'd leap out of the water already splashing, ensuring no damage really reached her.

They splashed non stop, only pausing to laugh before they dove back into the water. They used the weeping willows long tendril 'leaves' as cover, swimming through the tangles to try and find a hiding place.

All the while, the sun rose up to its highest peak in the sky and began to descend back down, slowly adding more heat to the shallow pond, ensuring the playing pups never felt the chill of the cool breeze when their wet heads surfaced.

As the sunlight faded from the glaring brilliance of mid-day and began to fade into the warm orange of late afternoon, the clouds started to sprinkle out droplets of warm rain onto the kids below.

"Oh! It's raining!" Layla squealed, laying back in the water so she went flat on the surface. She felt the droplets hit her face, the droplets slightly colder than the pond. The contrast felt refreshing and the rain looked like miniature explosions across the surface of the glassy water.

"Wow!" Werner started to dive into the water. He marveled at how he could escape from the water falling from above by hiding beneath more water. "If you go underneath! You can hear it plopping on top!"

"Wow!" Layla echoed, diving down to try it. She kicked her feet and puttered through the pond water, straining to hear all the different sounds of the rain. When she accidentally swam into Werner's side, their battle was resumed with renewed energy.

However, their small frames could only sustain the pumping, wild swimming of their splash war for so long and eventually they just slumped together on the shore, watching as the darker clouds in the distance began to creep closer and closer.

"Think we should go in soon?"

"I'm pretty tired..."

"Yeah."

They agreed, but for a long minute they didn't jump into motion. Perhaps they were just tired, but perhaps they wanted to savor that peaceful moment on the edge of the pond, watching thick globs of water splash onto the surface, sending ripples out in the hundreds across the entire surface with no one talking, no one rushing them to or fro. Instead it was just two pups, sitting by a pond, enjoying the growing rush of rain on a pond.

"Well, let's go.." Layla murmured, rising as she trotted back over to her dress- discarded onto a rock. She scooped it up, flicking it once through the air before she squirmed and wriggled to get her wet frame back into it.

Werner followed her lead, pulling his shirt down over the sticky wetness of his fur. Then, then jammed damp toes into socks and shoes.

"We smell like wet dogs." Layla murmured as they stood up together. Werner laughed, giving a sniff. "We do.."

They glanced once more at the rain clouds building before they started towards the house once again, running through the yard with their final burst of energy to get home before the true storm hit.

******

At the door, Layla paused them. Her eyes darted to the dining room window, peeking in to see if anyone would be by the back door before she nodded to approach. Werner followed, his ears perked to high alert as they led this secretive mission.

"Shh! We don't want them to see us all wet!" Layla whispered, voice a muffled whisper as she peeked out over her shoulder to Werner. They eased open the back door to the house, pushing it slow enough so that it wouldn't creak on its hinge and send their parents back to say hello.

Then, on their toes, they snuck to the starwell gingerly. Their wet bodies seemed to suck their clothes right to the skin, like a second layer. Their wet faces dribbled as they walked, dropping little drips onto their shirts as they headed up the stairs to the bathroom.

"Here, I'll find us some towels..." She mumbled, almost to herself, an assertion of her mission as she dug into their cabinets to fish out two bundles of thick, furry towels.

"Dry off." Layla instructed, handing Werner over one of the bushy towels. He put it to his face, starting to rub over the wet fur around his muzzle. Layla did the same, musing up her fur madly as droplets of water started to fly off of them. Layla slipped out of the bathroom, "I'll let you dry off! I'll find us some new clothes!"

Layla headed into her bedroom, stripping out of her wet swimsuit once inside the door and rushing the towel around her arms and legs, working it into all the creases of thicker fur to try and speed up the drying process. Then, she tied to towel around her like a dress and turned to her dressers. She dug inside, finding basic basketball shorts for Werner and oversized t-shirts for them both. With a yank, her t-shirt slid over her head and covered her chilled body with the warm hug of fresh laundry.

"Werner! Here's some fresh clothes!" She offered outside the bathroom. He popped the door open, giving her a mere glimpse of his same bare chest and the towel sealed around his waist before he was shucking the shorts on and hurriedly following into her room instead.

"Come on, I like to listen to the rain.." Layla said, leading the way to her bed which was piled with spare blankets and pillows like a nest of cushions. She lifted the covers, writhing in and then offering the blank space beside her to Werner. "This way... we can get a little warmer..."

"Good! I'm freezing!" Werner replied, hurriedly squirming down into the heft of the blankets. They turned together to peer at her window, watching the thick droplets of rain smacking into the panes of glass. As their voices fell silent, the sound of the rain rushed up louder, becoming the soul sound except for the very faint sounds of their breaths whispering out through their lips.

The droplets became a beat on the window's glass, filling their minds with a forming song as the base beat of the thickest drops came hardest, then the chorus of the rustling, dribbling, whisping droplets caught in the wind and flung- not fallen- onto the window. Complimenting was the melody, the rushing and gushing sounds of the rain escaping the spout and running in a river through its tracks towards their eventual spill out.

"I love the sound of rain..." Layla whispered, lowering her voice to match the new tone in the quiet room. She rolled over again, facing Werner in the bed. He smiled.

"The pond was cool-" Werner admitted, feeling like he had to pay his respects to the place she'd shown him.

"It's one of my favorite spots.." Layla agreed, smiling faintly. Werner grinned at the way her floppy ear seemed to fall into her face like hair. Layla grinned back at the way Werner's ears seemed to never relax, always perking up all the way to little points.

"Do people like to poke you?" She asked, voice serious.

"Huh?"

Her finger lifted, slowly and carefully starting in towards his eye only to poke the small blonde dot that characteristically noted a doberman's face. "Do people like to poke you? That seems like a poke spot."

"I don't think... that's ever happened before."

"Oh.." Layla's voice deflated slightly.

For a long second, neither of them spoke but then Werner interjected. "But now it has, so I guess, yes."

Layla smiled, letting it speak for her. Then, another gentle lull of silence stretched between them. They each stretched their legs, finally fully sinking into the bed that cradled them both together. They shifted, tugging blankets up to their chins and fully surrendering to the nesting instinct in the big bed.

"I had fun playing with you," He whispered, like it was a secret.

Layla gave a little nod, just a twitch of her chin down. But her eyes glimmered with a small smile. "I did too."

"Will you be my friend then?" He asked, voice a mere breath, vulnerable and sweet as only a cub's can be.

"I'd love to be your friend." She murmured, finding his hands beneath the cover and gently squeezing his digits into her own. He could feel the slightest hint of lingering wetness and cold in her paw.

He let out a small churr of pleasure and squeezed back. His fingers started to rub into hers, just slightly, trying to warm her cold fur.

The two cubs shifted to sit closer together. The warm of the blankets closed over them, the heft of the many layers pressing them down comfortable into safe pancakes of heat. Their fingers stayed locked together while Werner's head slipped down onto Layla's shoulder. Her head slumped on top of his, becoming a stack of jostled skulls atop her pillow.

Finally, feeling warm and safe and freshly awarded new friendship, the work of their play earlier caught up with them. All the swimming had certainly worn them out, and now their bodies felt it as they quickly, rapidly started to quiet all together.

Downstairs, the parents had started to stir, realizing that it was steadily pouring outside.

"Think the kids came in?" Werner's mother asked, her instincts finally flaring.

"Oh, I saw them sneaking upstairs a bit ago. Looks like they had some fun." Layla's mother interjected, smiling with a knowing grin. Layla had been plenty sneaky, but that didn't stop her mother from seeing her on the stairs once they started mounting up the main hallway in the center of the house. The woman hadn't said a thing, she didn't mind a couple of happy wet cubs in her house.

"Thick as thieves those two looked." Her husband chimed in, sharing her sentiment of patience.

"Good." Werner's mother nodded, smiling. For a second, she looked down to all the folders spread across the table, finally all labeled and sorted into stacks with notes and action plans lined up on top. A wave of relief flooded her as she realized the meeting had actually gone flawlessly. "I'm glad he wasn't a bother."

"Not at all. It seems the two of them hit it off." The woman smiled, rising from the table with a slight stretch. "In fact, why don't you stay for dinner so they can keep playing and we can relax a bit now that that organization is done?"

The adults started to bustle in the kitchen, starting to prepare appetizers and produce glasses of wine to eat while cooking the actual food. They began to chatter about topics other than their work, relaxing after hours of focused discussion. The wine began to flow, sloshing inside their cups as they leaned onto the counter, perched on the stools, and hashed out the joys and windfalls of parenthood.

Eventually, Layla's big sister, Kelly, was sent upstairs to fetch the kids' opinion on what should be cooked when they realized that while wine was enough to sustain them, their kids might need something more hearty.

However, when Kelly pressed her palm to Layla's bedroom door to peer inside, she found the room silent except for the steady pattering of the rain on the window and the soft whistling of two sets of lungs breathing in tune with one another.

The two pups- one Doberman, one Spaniel- had fallen asleep tangled in a pile of dark chocolate brown and pale dusty brown. Layla's ear spilled on her face and Werner's short stubby tail poked out from the blanket on the edge of the bed. Their wet faces left blotchy patches on the pillows from haphazard drying, but the chill of their wet bodies seemed to have been countered by the mound of blankets over them. Their paws were still clutched together atop their pillow, fingers woven together in their fresh friendship.

Kelly just smiled, shaking her head. For a moment longer, she lingered in the peaceful moment where she could hearing the distant sounds of the parents laughing in the kitchen but the silence of the bedroom threatened to swallow her. Just the rush and splatter of rain on glass and the small breaths of the two cubs in perfect rhythm together. "Better not wake them.." She murmured finally, turning back downstairs to where everyone waited in the kitchen. She rounded in, grinning to deliver the news.

"I found them sleeping together, cute as all get out and whipped out. So I decided to let sleeping pups lie~"