FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Colors of the Rainbow

Alright, this is the first story I've done in a long time. I had found a song last night that had affected my emotions greatly because of some... personal problems that had been happening. This story's title is actually the name of that song; if you want to look it up, it's either by "DJ Skeptyk" or "Tune Up!". When I compared the two, they sounded about the same, but the version I found by Skeptyk was about two and half minutes versus three and a half by Tune. I started getting some story ideas, and this is what came up. This story is not based on real life, but such a situation I can see happening in present day. Please, leave a comment and tell me what you think about it. Thank you.

*****************************************************************************

Terin sat quietly outside of the surgery room, his friend's family sitting across from him. He tried to keep his gaze on the floor in front of him as he shivered, looking up occasionally only to be met with pained tearless glares from the others before he would look back down.

The brown wolf tried to keep himself from reflecting on what happened to his fox friend, each split second image attacking the tear glands of his eyes. After about a half hour of glares from them, the family of foxes stood and walked away, Terin's friend's mother and father discussing what had happened by using terms like "disappointing", "faggot", and various other words that the wolf didn't want to hear ever again.

When they had gone out of sight, Terin sighed with little relief. Without anyone else in the room at the moment, it became easier for him to picture the previous day's events all over again, even though he tried his best to block them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Zane, what are you talking about?"

"W-what I mean is... is that..." the aqua furred fox stuttered out, obviously either nervous or scared, maybe both, though Terin couldn't see his friend's eyes since they were closed rather tightly.

Terin began getting agitated, a slightly aggressive tone coming into his voice now. "We've been friends for a few years now. Come on, spit it out already."

Zane just looked away, his body shaking uncontrollably as he dug around from something in his pocket. Terin watched his friend's paw as he pulled out an armband, a slight hiss escaping through his teeth as he saw the colors and design of it.

The brown wolf didn't give the fox any more time when he saw the armband. "You mean to tell me that I've got a fucking tail raiser for a friend!? Hell no! No fucking way!" he shouted at the fox.

Zane shook his head as he stepped back slowly, his eyes spilling tears now. He was in shock and disbelief. He didn't even want to try and believe that this opening up to his friend would cost him the only friend he had left. He didn't want to wrap his mind around it, to contemplate it. He wanted to wake up from the nightmare as he tried speaking back. "B-But I-"

Terin took his friend by the arm and flung him in the direction of the door to his bedroom. "How about you just fucking die somewhere, faggot!?" he yelled as his friend stumbled and fell, looking back as the shock and pain took over completely. "If I ever see you again, I'll kill you myself! Get the hell out of this house!" When Zane tried again to speak, Terin just threw a throwing knife at him, barely missing the fox who dodged out of the way, before slamming his door as hard as possible.

The wolf heard the thuds of someone running out of the house as he began taking out his anger on a punching bag his dad had put up in his bedroom as promised for his 16th birthday. After a moment, he turned on his stereo system and blared it, trying to drown out all sound and thoughts before resuming. It was dark before he realized how sore and sweat-soaked his whole body was from the rigorous stress relief. He gave a final punch into the middle of the bag as he panted audibly and walked over to his stereo, turning it down. Not even a minute later,...

"Terin! Come down here, I need to have a word with you!"

Terin sighed, a tone of tired irritation in his voice as he yelled back. "Alright dad, I'll be down in a minute!" He turned his side fan on and sat in front of it, the cool air on his soaked fur and clothes causing him to shiver as he dried off. He looked over at his clock after a moment and noticed that it had been four minutes already, causing him to growl a little. Part of him swore that he was adopted, since he didn't have the same impatience his dad had.

"Ah, there you are," his dad say with a small smile as Terin started down the stairs. "Your mom was gonna be paying a visit this evening, but she called and said that they're having her work overtime and that she's sorry. Hamburgers will be tomorrow night instead so she can eat too."

Terin laughed at his dad's cocky tone. "Just because you were the cook for the house doesn't mean you're the Iron Chef, dad."

His dad laughed back at him. "Keep it up son, and your hamburger will have extra iron in it made just for you."

"Oh goody for me." They both chuckled as a pot of spaghetti was placed on the table.

After eating in silence for a bit, his dad looked over at him, his face having a slightly serious look on his face. "Terin. I need to talk to you about something."

A million different thoughts came to mind immediately, but the young wolf had an idea of what it was. He knew the door was opened and closed slowly, which meant that the fox wasn't the one who opened it when he had bolted out of the house. "... It's about Zane, isn't it?"

"Sometimes, I can just curse the brains you got from your mother." He took a drink of milk before sighing and nodding. "Yes, it's about him. I want to know why he stormed out of my front do-"

"I don't want to talk about it dad," Terin interrupted quickly.

"Well, I do, Terin. The fact that he burst out of my house crying bothers me enough as it is. What bothers me more though is that you didn't even chase after your friend. You didn't even come out of your room until just before dinner, and he ran off over four hours ago."

"If you knew what he told me, you would have stuffed his limbs into a shotgun one at a time and shot him off the property in pieces," he retorted.

"Really now? What did he tell you that would cause me to do that to him?" his dad inquired curiously.

"He didn't have to tell me. That damn rainbow band of his was enough."

"Language, and what rainbow band?"

Terin became impatient and glared at his dad. "The kind of band that you find faggots wearing on a regular basis."

Terin's dad sighed, shaking his head with disbelief. "Didn't we tell you before that we are an open minded family? Both your mom and I have friends that travel a different road on sexuality, so to speak."

He picked up his plate and carried it to the sink. "Doesn't mean I have to be "open minded" like the two of you."

"No, but he is your fri-"

"Was."

His father dropped a fist on the table, causing the various items on it to rattle and clink. "Interrupt me again, and I'll beat your ass until that attitude leaves. You and Zane have been friends for a few years, and he decided that he trusts you. If he is or isn't homosexual doesn't matter."

"Really?" Terin scoffed as he turned on the hot water and began washing his plate. "Why doesn't it matter?"

"Would you rather he hurt himself by not opening up to you? He was a friend that opened up and trusted you with something personal, and you want to throw away three years of friendship just because he trusted you?"

Terin stopped scrubbing his plate, the hot water scalding his still hands as time itself seemed to stop for him.

His father continued. "I don't talk to him as often as you do, Terin, but I can see in that kid a special detail: he isn't the kind that is going to open up and expect intimacy with whoever he tells, contrary to what you believe about homosexuals in their entirety. He was obviously looking for someone to trust. If I were you, I would have been honored to know that he trusted me that much with something he more than likely hadn't even told his family about yet."

Terin sighed quietly, not noticing the water beginning to scald the hide on his hands. His father came over to him and pulled his hands out of the water and put a hand on his shoulder. "Do your old man a favor and think on that. I'm not favoring him over you. You're my son." He gave Terin's shoulder a light squeeze. "I just think that abandoning him is a major mistake." The young wolf stood there a moment longer before nodding quietly, drying his paws off on his shirt as he went up the stairs to his room, stopping briefly to pick up the previously thrown knife.

When he got into his room, he paced around for a time, his mind wandering on what his dad had just told him. He felt his foot paw scrape against something on the floor. When he looked, he saw the band that Zane had shown him. He slowly knelt down and picked it up, studying it as his mind began to fog over with memories of the friendship that the two had. A few minutes had passed, though they seemed like months or years. When he came back to the present, he found wet streaks on the sides of his muzzle and a pain in his chest and stomach.

"Z-Zane,... I... I'm s-"

A muffled voice echoed suddenly. "Sir?"

The young wolf looked up and around.

"Sir?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Terin slowly came back into the present inside the hospital. He looked at the clock and noticed that two hours had passed since Zane's family had just up and left.

"Sir, are you ok?" A ferret nurse knelt down in front of Tarin, studying his eyes for a moment to see if he was ill.

Tarin had just noticed her there and shook his head in surprise. "No. I mean, yeah. Yeah, I'm ok. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Are you a relative of Zane's?"

Tarin's ears lowered a little. "Um, kinda. I'm his friend."

"Does he not have any relatives?"

"Y-yeah, he does, but... they left about two hours ago. They didn't say anything though." He suddenly popped back in fully from his slight daze from coming back in from the past. "Oh my god, Zane! Is he alright!?"

"Calm down sir. He's fine. He had a concussion and multiple fractures, most of which were minor, and the doctors already pulled the glass and metal from his wounds as well as sealed them. The internal bleeding he had was minor and was easily mended as well. He's on his way to a room right now." She sighed tiredly; she was obviously working most of the day. "He'll be here for a while though until he gets his strength back though, but other than that, he'll be fine. It's a miracle though." Terin gave her a confused look; the nurse easily picked up the question. "According to the report, the vehicle he was in went head-on into a tree. They were guessing that he was going somewhere near 70 before going off of the road."

Terin panted heavily, already blaming himself for the damage that had happened, the damaged he knew he had caused. Tears were falling from his muzzle before he even noticed his eyes watering or vision blurring. His voice was cracked as he asked, "W-what room will he be in? Can I stay in there with him?"

"I'm sorry sir, but only relati-"

"Please, ma'am. I want to stay by his side this time."

The nurse sighed again, her tiredness making it easy to convince her so she wouldn't have to spend too much energy. "Alright, but if you get in trouble, the responsibility is purely yours. Understood?" The young wolf replied with a simple nod. "Ok then. If you would follow me sir." She stood back up and began walking down the hall, Terin quickly getting up from his chair and walking behind her.

After a while, the nurse stopped and opened a door. Terin glanced inside before seeing his friend on the bed, the IV machine clicking a little as the clear fluids drained through to the sleeping fragile-looking fox. Terin gasped and walked quickly over to the side of the bed, the light from the hall fading as the nurse closed the door. He grabbed the side of the bed, trying to refrain from crying as he saw Zane lying there. He quickly looked behind; noticing a chair, he pulled it up to the side of the bed and sat down quietly, keeping his eyes on his friend. After a moment, he leaned forward and laid his head down on the bed, his eyes closed as tears slid down and were absorbed by the sheets.

Terin didn't notice he had fallen asleep, but when he thought he heard something, he immediately popped awake. "Zane!?" he said with hope. When he looked though, Zane's eyes were still closed, and his body was still motionless, save for light breathing. His ears lowered a little, his hope withered. He started to close his eyes before seeing movement from his watered eyes, hearing that same sound again. He looked over at Zane's hand and saw what was causing it: a twitching finger. The wolf sighed weakly, thinking back and realizing that the last time he saw his friend's hand move, it was to pull out the rainbow band.

The band! Terin quickly dug into his pocket and pulled it out, looking at it. He found slight disbelief that he was holding something that he had found to be so wretched, but now he felt something slightly different too that he couldn't place. His chest and stomach began to hurt again. He dismissed it as just more guilt about having caused his friend to actually try and kill himself. He looked at it again though, and found something strange replacing it: eyes. He shook his head for a moment and looked at it again, and those same eyes still appeared, eyes that were scared and hurt, eyes that looked like... like...

"... Zane's."

The fox's hand slowly slid over, Terin almost not catching it for a moment. When the wolf looked up though, he saw two slight sparkles that weren't far apart, and he could hear a word being formed but not quite making it.

"... T-... a-air..."

The brown wolf stopped all movement. He didn't know how to react now. The last time Zane saw him, he was trashing Zane and the armband and even wishing him dead, and now, here he was beside the light blue fox and holding the armband that was left behind when he ran from the wolf's house.

The fox closed his eyes, his motions stopping again. Terin looked at him worriedly for a moment before he started hearing a very faint snoring sound. The wolf couldn't keep himself from giggling slightly at Zane, and noticed another feeling in his chest again. His mind went back to when he saw Zane's eyes again. He knew what he saw this time. Terin saw a rainbow in the fox's eyes, and he found it comforting, something that scared him briefly but was soon replaced with another feeling. He lightly grabbed Zane's paw through instinct, and the feeling only soared. He stopped for a moment, trying to think of what he was doing, but it all eluded him. That pain, that guilt, it all felt obsolete as he held his friend's paw.

Zane's hand subconsciously grabbed Terin's, and the wolf instantly found himself wanting to hold the fox. He found feelings stronger than those for the girls he had thought about asking out, especially the last one that he found out was actually asking about him. The feeling just didn't compare. Terin shook his head, not thinking about what to believe and what not to believe, but just what was now. His mind went back to the rainbow he saw in Zane's eyes, causing him to smile weakly. He pulled the chair closer and laid his head down next to Zane's side, his paw still holding the fox's, the band loose around the wolf's own wrist as he slowly fell asleep.