FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hey everyone, it's been a little while! Because I currently have some free time, I've been writing a commission for Executaball.This is the first time I've done a commissioned piece, and I'm quite happy with how it's turning out. It helps that Exec. and I seem to have a lot of the same interests. (Let's just say that if you liked Salt and Flame, you'll like this.)

As the title implies, this is a multipart series. We've currently planned on it lasting for five chapters, and chapter three is currently about halfway done. As I finish further chapters, I'll be releasing them until the series is completed. (~1 chapter / 2 weeks)

Enjoy! I'm excited to see what you think of this new development. And a final thanks to Executaball, without whom I probably wouldn't be writing. xoxo, whimper

"Amanda! Amanda, oh my god, Amanda, you're alive."

A tall, brown furred dog looked down at me, smiling and starting to laugh. I could tell she was a little rough and tumbled, lipstick smeared slightly, one of her ears inside out. Dogs never noticed that. Or maybe it was just Amanda.

"El! I am like, thirty percent alive." Gosh, did I love that crackly vocal fry she spoke with. She put a hand out shakily, propping it against the wall and slowly sitting down next to my waist. I was starfished on the carpet, fingers spread in frozen jazz hands, the liquor inside of me doing a fine job of keeping me down.

"Amanda," I cooed, "that is so amazing. I am so proud of you. Please hug me."

I smiled, as widely and as stupidly as I could. I felt like I was dying - nobody had been talking to me for at least fifty seconds at this point.

"Sure kiddo," she chuckled, gently pulling me up by the shoulders and patting my back. This wasn't the first time I'd been this limp in her arms, but it was certainly one for the books.

"Amanda, is there confetti all over me?"

I could hear her giggling. As he did, I slowly reached up to her face with both my hands, and put her ear inside-in. I was a good helper.

"Yes, Elliot, you are covered in confetti, and you really ought to know that. You kept asking people to, and I quote, decorate your antlers."

I tried to look up at them, which kind of works. I could see purple strands of tissue paper draping off of one tip.

"I totally did. Hehehehehe." I closed my eyes, and squeezed her. She was wearing her trashy party perfume. It was terrible - I don't know if it just doesn't work on gay people, or if I should tell her to stop using it, but it made me reconsider snuggling her. I did it anyways, of course. It was also strangely homey. A reminder of college, and how it felt to find home in a new place.

"I'm so glad you came with me. From college. I was so scared of moving to Greenborough alone. But I got to bring you."

She squeezed me.

"I know. You've said that about a hundred times tonight, sweetie."

She laughed, in a kind of pitiful way, but I let her get away with it. I was small! And bad at drinking! She really should have seen this coming.

"So, Elliot," she cooed, trying to keep me awake. "Got any big new years resolutions?"

I smiled. "Nope."

"Really? None? We should make some."

"Any suggestions?" I returned into the realm of the awoken, struggling to open my eyes for her.

"Well, I signed up for a spin class. Wanna join?"

Slowly, gently, I released myself from her grip, sitting up against the wall. "No, Amanda, not really." I pulled out my phone, and starting scrolling through it.

"Woah, shocker." Her tone was so sarcastic, and she smirked evilly at me. "Knowing you? Mister exercise? Mister outdoorsman? Hehe." She patted my shoulder. "I'm gonna get you some water, El. Stay here!"

I dropped my jaw, as if I had a lot to say back to her. I didn't, of course, but I needed her to know that I was appalled by her calling out my noodle-body. She stood up and left, leaving me to my own devices. I'd show her. I pulled up my web browser, typed a query, and pressed some buttons. I was now the proud owner of a gym membership.

A month passed, and the memories of new years hadn't returned to Elliot's mind even once. Well, at least the last half of the night. He remembered everything until everybody had screamed "one," and he had thrown a shot back in lieu of a kiss. Now, however, he was curled up in bed, looking at his laptop, trying to reclaim the hundred dollars that had just been withdrawn from his bank account. His eyes were squinted, trying to block the beams of sun creeping through his blinds.

riiiiiiing. riiiiiiing. riiiiiiing. click.

"Amanda?"

"Hey, El! Since when are you up before noon on a weekend?"

The deer scratched his head, his perky ear twitching back to life after being slept on for the last eight hours.

"Since I got a job, and had to unfuck my sleep schedule."

She chuckled at that. Or maybe she was just talking, and it was getting garbled by the wind.

"Are you on a run?" He could have sworn he heard her panting.

"Yeah, yeah," she chirped, slowing her pace a little. "Could you even hear me?"

"It's fine, I'm just like... Mad at your healthiness, a little."

"The word is 'envious', El."

"No, I think mad was right." He chuckled. "Anyhow, I got a text this morning, and now I am poor."

"What?"

"My bank texted me that a withdrawal was made from my account! And now a gym has my hundred dollars, and I do not have it."

He could still hear her panting. He could also tell she'd stopped running, at this point.

"Oh!" Her awful bluetooth headphones crackled at the volume of her voice. "Yeah! New years, remember?"

The deer tried his best to recall anything after the "one", but it was all gone.

"New years_what_, Amanda?"

"You signed up for that. And then lorded it over me for the rest of the night."

"Then why are they billing me now?!"

"Uh, subscriptions, El. I'm pretty sure you just signed up to get billed monthly until you cancelled."

Elliot scoffed.

"But I didn't even go! Not once!"

"No need to convince me, El!"

"Hey! I'm in good shape!"

"Yup."

"HEY!"

She was cackling on the other line, now.

"Just go, El. You paid for the first month, and didn't use it. You've already paid for the second, now, and I really doubt they'll give it back to you. Just give it a try."

All five feet of Elliot's little deer body seemed to shrink back into his bed, repulsed by the idea.

"But I've got stuff to do today."

"You totally do not."

"I so do."

"Prove it," Amanda snarled.

There was a long, drawn out silence, save for the sound of Amanda's phone jostling in the wind as she ran.

"Fine."

"Haha, great. Let me know how it goes, El. Bring regular clothes and gym clothes, remember."

"I've been to a gym!"

"Sure."

And with that, the phone made a little beep as Amanda hung up, continuing on her run. The deer laid back in his bed, closing his laptop and pushing it onto the sheets next to him.

"Bitch," he huffed under his breath.

Elliot sat in his car, feeling the summer sun blistering the air around him. Sitting next to him, in the passenger seat which scarcely contained a passenger, was his duffel bag. It seemed pointlessly large, given what he had inside of it, but it was all he had. The point was that he had_arrived,_ and he was going to _exercise._It didn't matter that his things were in a sack five times the size it needed to be, or that he wasn't sure if he'd brought everything he needed.

Do I need deodorant? He thought, unsure if he was supposed to bring an extra stick. He was already wearing it, but wasn't sure if that was enough.

After a minute of sitting in the car, trying to convince himself to go back home, he finally opened the car door. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he stepped out, locked his car, and entered the building.

The inside of the gym was equally tattered as the outside - Elliot was surprised that there were any paying customers, considering how the flaky paint was chipped around the inexplicable crown molding. Once he'd cleared the entrance, he walked past the changerooms. He was already wearing his grey gym shorts, as well as the blue tanktop he pretended was a muscle shirt.

In his mind, he'd imagined going to the weight rack, doing some bicep curls, and going home, but he found himself far too embarrassed to. There were people watching, after all, and he wasn't entirely sure he knew how to correctly lift weights. Instead, he just stepped onto a treadmill, feigning his confidence even with one of those, and started prodding at buttons

The machine whirred to life, and within moments he was jogging. Facing a window.

Now that he was actually here, it seemed pretty stupid. If he'd wanted to have gone on a jog, he could have just... Jogged. Outside.

His eyes half-closed, and he tried his best to dissolve away into the beat from his headphones.

A little while later, a big hand entered his view. He nearly jumped, and he watched it press the red rubber "STOP" button on his machine. The deer spun his head to the side, slowing down as the tread beneath him decelerated, and yanked his headphones out.

"Twigs?"

The little deer gawked, mouth agape as he looked over the other man head to toe. A massive dragon - easily seven feet tall, built like a god, sharp angles defining his frame. His tail extended out several feet behind him, coming to a fuzzy little point. His scales were black, and he had patches of fur in some places. A little fluff around the jawline, some spilling out between his pecs, which were visible via his deep v-neck. To increase his apparent size further were broad, tall wings protruding from his back. When extended, they would certainly be at least ten feet across, but they were neatly folded at the moment. All in all? He was one damn intimidating man.

A man who, apparently, knew Elliot's middle school nickname.

"Shit!" The deer's lips were curling into a shocked smile, now. Those purple accents in his ears and eyes were unmistakable. "Leo?"

The dragon returned Elliot's smile, admittedly with far more teeth.

"It's been years! The giant dragon threw his arms around the smaller male, squeezing him in a tight hug before putting him back on the gym floor.

"Jeez, tell me about it." The deer outstretched his hands, gesturing at the dragon's massive frame.

"Did you hit puberty, like, four more times? You were practically a newt the last time I saw you!"

The dragon chuckled.

"I didn't hit puberty again, but I certainly wasn't finished with it when you were."

Elliot nodded, still squinting an eye in confusion. "Meaning?" He added.

"Meeaaaning," the dragon mocked, "I've been growing like a tree since I last saw you. And now you're the tiny one."

Elliot smirked. He always loved being called tiny, regardless of circumstance. Still, even with that unintentional complement, the whole event was rather shocking to the deer. He and Leo had been close friends all through childhood, but the dragon had always been pretty shrimpy.

"So," Elliot cooed, "Just.. Dragon stuff, then? As per usual?"

Leo chuckled a little. His voice was so much deeper than it had been as a teenager, and it was still surprising the deer every time.

"Yup. Dragon stuff. Just like my pile of gold, and my sex slaves."

"Haw haw." Elliot rolled his eyes. "Big dumb reptile. And I wouldn't be shocked if you_did_ have a pile of gold. You dragons do like shiny things."

"Hey, we like sex slaves too, but most of us restrain ourselves." He seemed to consider it for a moment, then reiterated with a wink. "Most of us."

The deer was taken quite off guard by that. Before he could reply, though, the dragon started to laugh.

"God, you're easy to scare." He chuckled, and gave the deer a firm pat on the shoulder. El laughed, too.

"I'm just not used to the new you. Back in middle school, you were so much less confident." He grinned evilly. "And you had this awful squeaky voice. And girls didn't like you at all."

The dragon rolled his eyes, giving the deer an gentle punch on the shoulder.

"Yeah, and you used to be so damn irritating. Still are, actually."

The dragon reached his hand out, and clasped the deer's. Then, he pulled him into a bro-hug, with their hands between their chest, and a firm pat to the back. Elliot took a minute trying not to puke at the sickeningly heterosexual activity, but hid his disgust. He still hadn't come out to Leo, after all this time. He'd been deep in the closet during middle school, and after going to different universities, they'd fallen entirely out of touch.

"Missed you, dude. It's been years."

Leo released him, smiling warmly.

"God, yeah. Oh, yeah," the deer continued, dropping an eyebrow quizically. "How'd you end up in Greenborough?"

"Heh, I don't have a great answer to that. Home was nice, but I'd been there for so long. Maybe I was a little envious of you, going to university out of town."

The deer smiled shyly. There had always been pain there.

"Yeah, heh. Sorry about that. Clearly you get it now, though."

"Yup."

They were both quiet for a moment

"What about you, twigs? How'd you end up here? Last I recall, you were going to school on the other side of the country."

"Maybe I'm just really good at moving."

The dragon rolled his eyes.

"Heh, fine, real answer. I figured I was going to have to move somewhere after school was over. And so many of my friends were going to crazy places, I just wanted to try something.. New. I've been here for about seven months now. What about you?"

"Ah," Leo nodded, "I understand that. I had a couple friends of mine do the same. And I moved a year ago, I think. It's felt like forever."

"Time flies," The deer added. Leo simply nodded.

"What the hell are you doing at a gym, by the way?"

The deer laughed. "Well, while you were getting all buff, I was training to be a cross-country runner."

Leo looked skeptical, but uncertain. "Really?"

"Nah, not at all. New years stuff."

"That adds up better. I always got the impression you were too.. Well, not to be sexist, but - too girly for this stuff."

Elliot smirked. The dragon wasn't wrong in the slightest, but the deer wasn't particularly eager to come out to him. Relatives and old friends were always the hardest to come out to. They always cared about it too much, in one way or the other.

"And I always thought you were a gecko pretending to be a dragon. Things change."

"Ooh, at some point, someone's gonna teach you not to mess with a man twice your size. I hope it's me."

Elliot felt his face burning a little at that. He shook it off - he obviously meant that to be a threat, not a tease.

"I'm shaking in my boots, I promise."

"Haw haw. Anyhow, twigs, I've got plans in a couple hours, so I really ought to squeeze this workout in before that. Wanna grab lunch sometime?"

Elliot nodded. "Sure. Is your phone number the same?"

"Yup." He waved as he walked over to the weight rack - unlike Elliot, he certainly knew how to use those things.

"See you, dude!" Elliot put his headphones back in, and kept running. After the shortest time that didn't seem intentionally cut off, he packed his things and left. Leo didn't seem to notice.

A few days later, Elliot and Leo met for lunch. They'd texted nearly every day in the interstice, getting more and more familiar after all this time. Of course, they steered away from the sensitive stuff - Elliot wasn't keen to reinvigorate their fight about him leaving town. Even though it seemed so long ago, it was still a no man's land.

Elliot didn't come out, either. But he probed at it. Nothing too direct, but he measured all those subtle cues that homophobes gave off. Luckily, though, he wasn't getting any.

"Twigs!"

The deer turned in place, looking up from his phone. He was wearing a puffy purple jacket that crinkled slightly as he swivelled.

"Hey dude!"

The dragon gave him a quick hug - this time, it wasn't the bro kind - and began walking to the restaurant entrance.

"What're you doing outside? Trying to freeze?"

"Hah," El replied, "Nah. I'm not gonna wait in the lobby like a weirdo."

"You could have gotten us a table, or something."

"I didn't want to waste my time."

"How do you mean?" Leo replied, a sneer on his face.

"Well, I figure there's like.. A fifty-fifty chance you're not even gonna fit in this restaurant. How tall are you?"

Leo cackled a little bit, opening the door for the deer. He quietly thanked him in reply.

"Uhh, been a while since I checked. Seven two, I think?"

"I still don't understand how that's possible. That's like.. Two and a half of you from middle school."

"You'll get used to it." With only a slight pause between sentences, he smiled and waved at the server who approached them. "Table for two?" He posited.

"Sure, right this way."

Leo had suggested this place. It was fairly trendy, and Elliot had seen others like it in the past. Big glass windows, stupid-but-clearly-expensive modern art, and a playlist that was somehow the deer's exact, twinky taste in music.

The waiter seated them, handing out their menus before tending to his other tables. The two had a small booth, facing one another on opposite sides of a U-shaped bench.

"God, when was the last time we like.. Went somewhere?"

Leo thumbed through his menu, eyes half-glazed over.

"It's been a long time, twigs."

They both went quiet. That feeling was there again. They let it hang in the air longer this time - Elliot wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"Mitchell Aubry's p arty. That's the last time I remember." Ellot smirked, hoping to lighten the mood. That had been a night.

Leo's face lit up as soon as he heard that name - "Ohhhhhhh, oh no. God, remember that?"

"I probably should have waited for you to get a drink before bringing it up."

Leo seemed unfazed. His elbows were on the table, hands holding up his face and the heavy look of excited disbelief that was on it.

"I asked out... Four.. No, five - jesus! FIVE girls that night."

"Sober, too," Elliot added. He started to chuckle, and it didn't take long to infect the dragon. Elliot sank down further into the booth, pulling up his knees as a counterweight as he laughed. Leo could hardly look at the deer from embarrassment.

"I just don't understand why you didn't wait for the last girl to leave before asking the next one out!"

Leo covered his face entirely in his hands, then slowly used them to wipe his teary-eyed laughter away.

"Did you talk to any of them after?"

Elliot smiled. "Uhhhhh...." He tried to remember.

"OH! Yes, yes. I totally did. Rebecca! She told me they all thought you were some sort of... Shit, give me a sec. I have to remember her exact wording."

Leo looked on in fascination.

"Serial.. dweeb.. pervert. Serial! Dweeb! Pervert!"

"Ahhhhhhh...hahahhaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh." Leo wheezed out a quiet, resigned laugh-scream.

"I think it still works," El said. "Serial dweeb pervert. That's you."

Leo rolled his eyes. Their teasing was punctuated by the return of the waiter. He seemed much less rushed, this time, and explained specials. The two ordered, and the man left.

"Well," Leo continued - Elliot clearly couldn't remember what they'd been talking about. "Girls are way more interested in me these days, at least. I'm not so much of a newt, anymore."

Yeah, talk about it, Elliot thought to himself.

"What about you, twigs? Finally get with a nice doe? Settle down?"

Elliot tried to hide a slight frown. It was time for the conversation he wasn't excited about.

"Err, not exactly. Kinda hunting for a boyfriend, actually."

Leo's eyes went wide, while the rest of his face was still frozen. He seemed intrigued, but not particularly thrown by that development.

"Oh, shit, dude. Uh, huh."

Elliot sank into his seat a little. This could have gone better, he thought.

"How the hell..." Leo was lost in thought, and then looked up at the unamused deer with a start.

"Oh! No, no, twigs, I'm like.. Very fine with that. I'm just trying to figure out how neither of us figured this out."

Elliot rolled his eyes. "Well I think that_I_ figured it out! Don't you?"

Leo raised an eyebrow. "I don't mean you being gay, twigs. I mean that we both are."

Elliot's eyebrow raised. He quickly grew a smirk. "The fuck?"

"Yes! I know! Well, I'm not gay gay, but I'm bi as all hell."

Seemingly on cue, the waiter returned with their drinks. He handed them out, and then left. Elliot raised his glass.

"To pretending to be straight for like... seventeen years?"

"Eighteen!" Leo interjected. "For me, at least."

"Then for Seventeen and a_half_ years," Elliot corrected, pulling his glass back and restarting the motion. This time, Leo's drink met the rim of his own. They both threw back a gulp, and then Elliot returned to laughing.

"So you're not a homophobe, then."

Leo grinned. "El, I fucked a twink's brains out last week."

Elliot went beetred under his fur, returning to sipping his drink and pretending to be unfazed.

"So, no boyfriend, you said. 'Ya getting any tail, though?" Leo grinned evilly.

"Ah, uh, nah. I'm trying to find the right man."

Leo raised an eyebrow at the word man. Under his breath, he whispered into his drinking glass. "sounds like you're the doe looking to settle down."

Elliot looked pissed, but he couldn't at all hear what the dragon had said. "WhAT WAS THAT?!" He raised his voice, but was not unsociably loud.

"Nothinggg," Leo snickered in return.

Elliot looked down at his glass, wrapping both his hands around it. It was something blue and fruity.

"It better have been nothing."

They continued chatting, avoiding the topic of high school. Eventually, their meals came.

"Gross," El muttered, averting his eyes from the big pile of meat the dragon had ordered. Steak, or something - Elliot tried not to notice.

Leo chuckled a little. "I know, I know. I'm sorry for existing."

"It's fine, it's fine. Just eat my cousins, or whatever."

In a compartment of the deer's mind, there was genuine sentiment to that message. Of course, he said it like he was purely kidding, of course. He knew the dragon didn't really have any choice but to eat that stuff, even if it unsettled him. He could handle the sight of flesh, but watching it squirm under the steak knife, or the gnashing of the dragon's jaws? That was a little too much for him. He just looked at his plate and ignored it. Just like middle school.

"Got a fancy job, mister science degree?" Elliot chuckled, talking through a mouthful.

"Ah, arts kids are so refreshing. I'm so used to getting ripped on by the physicists about how much geology sucks." He took a sip of his drink, and Elliot looked back up. The chewing was done, for the next few minutes.

"But yeah, kinda? I work in computational modeling of tectonic plates, right now. It's pretty neat!"

Elliot nodded, pretending to have a clue what the hell that meant.

"Ah, yes. How exhilirating."

"Haha, I know, I know, it sounds boring. Pays alright, though, which is shocking. What about you, princess?"

Elliot felt his face flushing like it was on fire - Princess? Where had that come from?! He wanted to rebut it, and say something mean to the dragon - perhaps he'd call him a newt, he thought. But there was an uneasy lack of malice in Leo's voice. In his face. It wasn't teasing, it was just.. A name. A name that he hoped he'd misheard, but knew he hadn't.

"O.. Ah, uh, I, uh, work in UX design."

The dragon nodded.

"Is it fun?"

Elliot's mind was running like molasses.

"Yes, it is."

"Good!"

Leo ate another bite. Elliot just watched, this time, somewhat dumbfounded. He took a sip of his drink, feeling what he assumed to be a shot of vodka in it tingle at his throat.

"I'm working on designing a banking app right now. It's a little repetitive. You can't really put much creativity into those things, y'know? It's all about holding the user's hand, and making sure they don't accidentally commit check fraud."

Leo laughed, leaning back into his seat. He'd finished eating - he was always quick with that. It was a dragon thing, Elliot supposed.

"Nice, nice," he cooed, "that's good! What's your favorite project you've worked on?"

Elliot smiled. The awkwardness was fading away, now.

"Oh! I got to work on a design website. Like, a website for graphic designers. A social network, heh."

Leo nodded, finishing his drink, wincing as the ice cubes in his glass sloshed forwards and hit his teeth.

"And obviously designers like crazy design. So we got to go all out with that - there were like six gradients, and the colors had no reason to work together, but it just looked so fucking cohesive!"

Leo smirked.

"What was it you said, earlier? Oh yeah - How exhilirating."

Elliot scowled.

"Asswipe!"

Leo raised an eyebrow, biting his lip to keep himself from laughing.

"You too, twigs."

Eventually, they finished their drinks, food, and their chatting came to a stall. The waiter came so they could pay, and without much ado the two were walking out their door. Once they reached the fork in their paths, they turned to one another.

"Twigs, that was a fun time. I missed the hell out of you, dude. I don't miss you being the tall one, though."

Elliot smiled.

"Honestly? I never really liked being the tall one. I hate being the tall one."

"Snrf." Leo snickered. "Wonder why."

Elliot flipped him off.

"I'll see you, dude." Leo pulled him into a deep hug, and this one lasted for quite some time. Elliot could feel those biceps straining as they squeezed his arm tight, and their necks even weaved together slightly. He blushed, and reciprocated. It was a little odd, though.

Then, Leo released him, and turned around. As he walked into the distance, he called something out, but Elliot was certain he misheard it.

"See 'ya, doe!"