Unlikely Pairing: Part 1
#1 of Unlikely Pairing
Unlikely Pairing: Part1
By Ephemeral_dreams
Amidst a tangled mess of sheets, worn clothing, a novel, and pillows, a brightly-colored mass of flesh was emitting the typical noises of slumber: snoring, random twitches and dreaming mutters.
Of course, the dutiful digital device that was a cellular phone (Keith was sure the thing was cursed) suddenly emitted a loud screech, followed by annoying vibrations and very, very loud music, directly underneath the pillow.
The dozing snow leopard's paw shot out, fumbling under his maw till he found the cell, pressing here and there till it went quiet, maw curled into a smile as he went back to, hopefully, his previous dream.
-about half an hour later-
When the alarm clock rang, strategically placed as far away from the bed as possible (which was only about ten feet anyway), Keith only gave a groan and shot up, afraid the Sarge caught him sleeping in. The cat mentally smacked himself again as he got up, again reminding himself he was no longer in Boot camp. His bushy tail grabs the cellphone from behind him as he trots off to the bathroom, placing it atop the toilet lid before jumping into the shower.
Still half-dreaming, he turned the wrong knob, and got a mawful of ice cold water, which did an excellent job at waking him up, albeit with loud yelp and muttered profanities.
Humming and starting to sing to himself, Keith showered, noting once again, how long feline furs took to wash properly.
Ten minutes later, after a thorough scrubbing and frenzied use of a hair dryer, Keith steps out of the shower, wearing nothing. 'mmm showers are so nice..'
The feline hums and walks over to his drawer besides his bed, getting dressed, rather in a hurry.
Keith finishes and walks out the door, wearing his usual camo long-sleeve pants, and a very nerdy-looking black Tee with the words "I am your webmaster, you must Submit!" on it. Whistling a tune in his head, the leopard proceeds to his workplace on campus...
About a mile away, on the B wing on campus, amidst all the snoring, partying and otherwise loud noises, an otter dozes quietly on his bed. Contrary to the snow leopard, this room is neat and organized: students have been known to confuse it for an empty dorm.
A little alarm clock on the bedside stand buzzed for a few seconds, before a paw clicked it shut, owner shooting up immediately, and getting up to stretch, giving a long yawn.
Jason trots off to the bathroom, showering quietly, taking a good fifteen minutes to dry his luscious fur off, giving a glance at his own visage in the mirror: young, boyish looking fac, with emerald green eyes and silver irises staring back at him.
Nobody knew why he had those odd eyes, but it was a topic of many a conversations back in high school.
Shrugging to himself once again, Jason dresses in mere minutes, in brown shorts and a plain white tee, jams a snack bar in his maw and trots out the door, holding a book bag.
"And that's what my time in Costa Rica has taught me. Thank you"
A blonde tigress bows and gets off the podium in front of a large hall, smiling softly with the numerous claps around the room, sitting down near the middle. A goat, looking older than his 40's-self, stepped up and coughed, calling out the next student to give presentations on their summer research internships.
"Jason Hunt, Please share your experiences"
With a timid nod, an otter trots up to the podium, taking a few moments to plug in his Toshiba Satellite pro, giving a cough before addressing the classroom full of furs, of which only a few were paying any attention at all.
"As you can see in this photo, I've been at the University of Minnesota's stem cell research department, and...Yes Professor?"
The goat points to the screen, which was black.
Flustered and blushing a little, the otter frantically tries to fix the computer, but he wasn't very good with these...So he gave up after a few minutes, scrambling over to the professor to explain the situation and possibly get a deadline, trying to ignore all the odd stares behind his maw...
Meanwhile, Keith was bored out of his mind, staring at his work computer, willing for some issue to pop up so he could busy himself.
He couldn't be blamed though, working at the University's Tech support got boring quick: most of the issues were user-error, or just plain dumb furs trying to use sophisticated machinery. And him with his naturally talented "tech-savvy"-ness, could resolve most problems within few seconds.
Keith had already spoken to his boss, a husky in his senior years, and gotten responsibility for the dormitory network security as well. After he'd blocked a few porn sites, there he was again: bored, getting paid to nearly fall asleep in front of his computer, all the more frustrating with his own laptop behind him.
"uggh....i could be raping some Dota pubs right now...."
Sighing into his paws again, the leopard took quick, furtive glances around the small office.
'hmm...boss is on lunch.....why not'
swiveling around in his office chair, he grabs his own HP pavilion, a crappy one for such a nerd like himself, and boots up Warcraft 3, quickly going to clan cash and hosting.... His pawpads flying across the keyboards, he utilized his 110 wpm "skeelz" to the max.
Only a minute later, he was waiting for the automated game to start.
Still cursing under his breath, Jason dodged odd looks and frequent snickers as he padded out of the classroom, considering for a second throwing his laptop on the concrete floor.
'why, why why why why why!!! UGhhhh!!! '
After stopping at the vending machine to grab a bottle of soda, the frustrated otter sees a cheery-looking Snow leopard on a small ad for the school's Tech support. It was only a few minutes away, and he was done for the day... why not.
After getting lost in the sea of furs walking around for a good half hour, Jason stepped into a glass building: the Information Technology building. He stopped to ask a receptionist where Tech support was, then opened the glass door, stopping to peer inside.
There sat a rather well-built snow leopard, sitting atop a stool, his right paw clicking the mouse positively ten times a second, his left paw pressing multiple keys in synch as his sapphire eyes bore holes into the laptop in front of him.
Jason timidly walks inside, holding his laptop bag in one arm, about to get the supposed Tech support person's attention, when he starts from a loud noise from the feline's laptop.
"MMMMMMONSTER KILL!!"
A yelp draws Keith away, only for a moment though, as he's forced to return to the game and press a few more buttons, a "Ahh fresh meat" sound emitting from the speakers, followed by "GODLIKE!"
Smirking at the "noobs" he was currently killing, Keith stops to fully look at the newcomer: a slim, rather cute otter staring back at him, as if lost.
"hey! Uh....welcome to Tech Support, sorry..i've been sitting here for last two hours and got bored... " Waving a dismissive paw at the current game of DotA, which he was glad to see had ended with his rampage, Keith offered a paw.
Jason took the paw, very slightest blush on his cheeks, muttering.
"i.it's ok... uhm.. my laptop broke and I heard you could help me..."
"oh! Sure, just put it on the counter, and I'll look at it" Smiling broadly at finally getting something exciting to do, he eagerly takes the proffered laptop, keys klack-clicking for a few, quiet minutes...minutes Jason spent fidgeting.
'wow he's.....hot...' Unknown to the busily-engaged Leopard, Jason's imagination was running wild, images of the snow leopard naked, half naked, wearing thongs...various, mostly naughty, images bombarded the yet-young otter's mind.
"hmm...It'll take a few days, since it looks like I'll have to reinstall and format the drive, is that ok? ....hey? you all right?"
Jason jumps yet again to a paw gently tapping his cheek, causing him to blush further.
"y...yeah....t..that's fine....w..what uh....what's your name?"
"oh, sorry, I forgot to even introduce myself! I tend to do that when I'm excited.. I'm Keith!"
"I'm Jason...I take Calc with you, I think"
"oh? Sorry I can't remember anyone in that class, I usually sleep in the back anyway.."
"Yeah, I've noticed, but you know all the answers somehow?"
"heh....yeah, I took the AP class in High school, I'm just here cuz I slacked off on the AP test."
"ah...w..well uhm.....can you...help me on homework" the still-blushing otter asked, berating himself. 'stupid! Why would he help someone he'd just met?'
"sure! Where do ya wanna meet?"
"the Karabinger library...uhm, tonight at 6?"
"hmm...yeah, I should be free then. All right! See ya then!"
"thanks!" Jason was positively pushed out the door, Keith was so eager to work on computers, he'd often forget his manners, like now, it would be a miracle if he didn't forget this new "friend."
Of course, when Keith was finally done with fixing that troublesome computer it was 6:30. it'd taken a lot more work then expected: he had to format the drive, then disassemble and clean out the vents because the HD kept overheating.
Rubbing his tired eyes, the snow leopard took his and Jason's laptop, shoving them in his bag, before walking out the back door, taking a glance at his cellphone.
"oh Crap! That's right....ugh" after Paw-palming himself, the leopard took off at a run, heading towards the library fast as he could.
~~~~~~~~few minutes and miles later~~~~~~~~
Jason gave a deeeeep sigh, sitting alone in a corner of the library by the Math section, muzzle on both paws making an arch, staring at a shelf sadly.
'of course...why would a guy like that want to help me....guess I'll go home...'
the young otter got up, and almost made it to the door until something rammed into his front rather hard, causing him to yelp and fall beneath the aggressor.
"a.ah? oomph!!"
"ugh....head..."
The mass of white fur lifted his head, to reveal Keith whose eyes grew wide and fell into an array of apologies to the confused and dazed otter.
"oh my god, are you ok? I'm so sorry, I forgot....I was fixing...uh..here, this...and..."
He takes out Jason's laptop, holding it out in front of him.
Jason, his shy side kicking in immediately, shakily nodded and took it into his paws,muttering.
"w.....what a....about the fee..."
"oh don't worry about it, it's least I can do for being late, AND tackling you down.."
The two of them sat there for a little while, the awkwardness mounting until Keith perks up.
"hey, you wanted help with Calc, right? That table looks empty..let's go!"
With that, he just grabbed the disheveled otter, and sits him down at a table, humming to himself as he looked at his counterpart: h was rather lean, cute...and really,really shy apparently.
An hour later, the two furs each say their goodbyes, exchanging phone numbers and setting their next tutoring time.
Jason trotted away, hugging his backpack shyly through the doors, Keith by his side, who was talking rather boisterously talking about computers and his exploits as a pro gamer. (rambling, rather)
Walking through his dorm door, Keith threw his backpack on the futon/bed, immediately sitting down and sifting through his mail, shaking the mouse to wake the computer with his tail.
As usual, he found little post-it notes and the like with homophobic comments and often outright profanity shoved through the mail slot on his door. And of course, he shredded them up with his claws, then booted up Battlefield2142 to alleviate his rotten mood...
After a good two hours of gunshots, explosions and the leopard yelling into his mike various things like "A squad, Go behind spawn A and camp" or "Noob squad, to C," Keith sighed, taking off the specially designed headset.
"ugggh.......why must there be noobs...." Keith leans back for a stretch, then plops down into the futon, chewing on a Snickers as he falls asleep, not even bothering to turn anything off, sleeping with all his clothes on while his dreams ranged from the cute otter to a barrel of an AR-21.
End of Part 1.
Part 2/3/4/5/6/7/8~~~ will be written in approx 4 months.
As I will not be available due to my induction into the Armed forces.
Wish me luck and, see you all later~