FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hey everyone,

Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, it has been a very full month for me, with my two weeks in Lyon with my love and another extra week of vacation with friends, I managed to write this only now :-) The story is going smoothly and I have so many ideas, I hope you will like this chapter ! All names and characters are fictional, and I must warn that the examination procedures in here most likely don't correspond completely to those of the real life faculty.

That said, as always, I want to thank my Gritou for his help on this chapter and, most of all, for being in my life and supporting me so much, and for his patience and understanding. I love you babe!

"..... That's the reason why we use such material in the presence of cracks or inf-"

"That's enough" Luca interrupted the student in front of him. "Now, if you may sit over there, we will discuss what mark to give."

The pit-bull only nodded and swiftly went to sit far from the commission, giving some privacy to Luca and Ale. The lupo noticed how his pants outlined the curves of a passable ass while watching the shirt-wearing dog, something he did without much thought or intention in bedding the student, since it would be unethical, even if said student was gay.

"So" the dog said with his head turned toward his friend, "I didn't ask you before, but why don't you go out with her alone? Neither of you need to be accompanied, you are grown-ups!"

"I know, but we both want to know each other more before that" Ale answered, gesturing a bit as always when he tried to explain himself. "It wouldn't be safe to see us alone, as we would..."

"Jump on each other?"

"Exactly! But I think, after a couple of these evenings, we will have some proper dates."

"I think that's crazy, Ale." Luca spoke himself.

"Why?" The other asked with a quizzical expression.

"Well, normal people do the other way around, and if you both feel like that, there is no need to-"

"There is, trust me, since we want to build something serious!" The black dog exclaimed with a good flickering of him ears.

"Okay, okay, I understand! So, what do you think if we go to that little bar in Prati? It has good music, but not too loud, so we can talk and have fun without stressing our lugs."

"Yeah, I think it is a good choice. Plus, we can go to La Sora Maria for a grattachecca after it¹!"

"Are you sure?" The tall canine asked "You know that there will be so many people at that hour, we will have to wait more than an hour to get it!"

"So what? They are delicious!"

Luca could do nothing but give up on the subject, and proceed to ask another question. "What about her friend? What did she tell you of him?"

"Not much, he is about our age, nice and very funny, and she assured you she isn't trying to get you two together. She just thought that it would be nice to bring a gay friend with her since I'm doing the same." He answered, his ears not showing signs of treachery.

"Okay, though it would have been the same if she had brought a girl or a straight friend, the fact we are both gay doesn't mean we'll get along!"

"But at least you won't be bothered by talking about shopping, clothes and shoes!" The rottie said, trying to make it more appealing for his best friend.

"You don't know many gay men besides me, don't you?"

"Weren't we supposed to give a mark?" Ale successfully dodged the question.

"You are right, what about 28²?"

"Yes, I think it's okay."

Luca wrote their agreement on a paper, alongside the questions they have posed to the student. He then nodded to the stressed pitbull waiting for the response to come closer.

"It is 28 for us. Now you will go to the professor, I hope you'll manage to better it!" The lupo brightly smiled.

"Thank you, and good day!" The student said, taking the paper with him and walking toward the professor, who waited not far from there. The two canines both took a deep breath before the rottweiller asked a hopeful question.

"Was he the last one?"

With a quick check of the room they both noticed there weren't any more students waiting to be listened by them. "Yes, he was, all who are left are for the professor."

"Evviva³! Let's get something to drink from the vendor machine!"

"Let's be quick though, the professor will be finished with it in a few minutes."

They walked outside and made their way toward the nearest vending machine, which wasn't that far from there. Luca fed the machine the money needed for a fresh beverage, noticing from the reflection on the glass how Ale was madly scratching some point on his sizeable rump.

"You shouldn't do that in public." The lupo warned him.

"I know" the other answered, while taking his turn for the vending machine. "This damn suit just makes my tail itch, why do we have to wear them at the exams?"

"You know why" The tall canine said after taking a sip of iced tea. "The professor is fond of giving the right image, and he thinks a commission must look like that."

"We aren't lawyers, we are fucking restorers for God's sake!"

"I know, I know. Hurry up, it must be almost finished."

The prophecy of Luca was right, as in the time they took for going outside and take their refreshing drinks the professor had interrogated the remaining students and was just dismissing the last one with a handshake. All the other assistants were gathering around him, ready to get over with this session of exam, which had lasted for some hours.

"Good work everyone" Professor De Angelis boomed after they remained alone. "Diana, could you please go and register these votes? Good. You can all go home now!"

The two friends were just turning when they saw the badger slapping his forehead, his usual gesture when he reminded something. "Ah, I forgot, could you please come to my office, Luca, Alessandro? In a few minutes, of course."

They watched the tail of the professor disappear through the door, both somewhat worried about this summon.

"Did we do something wrong?" Ale asked, while they began to walk toward the office, as they had interpreted the leave for what it was, the old badger needing to go to the bathroom.

"I really don't think so. Maybe he has something to say to us." The lupo answered, his tail nervously wagging.

"Maybe he discovered we are slacking off!"

"We aren't slacking off!" Luca exclaimed.

"And what do you call the frequent pauses?"

"You are right" the other replied, his ears flattening in realization.

"I'm sure it isn't something like that, though." The black dog assured, turning in a long corridor.

"Yep, maybe, but still ....."

"Yeah, I know." Silence fell, the two dogs pacing in the corridors, surpassing or getting surpassed by students, some of which were euphoric, others depressed, the opposite reactions to the results of an exam. The exam season was just beginning, which meant less work for the assistants like Luca and Ale, more for the poor subjects of the evaluations.

They finally got to the department of Restoration, and they waited some time in front of the door labeled "Prof. Alfonso De Angelis" before the titular professor appeared.

"There you are, good, get inside boys!" The cheerful fur said, motioning the two dogs inside and on the chairs. They did like they were ordered, with Luca's leg moving a bit for the nervousness.

"So, everything is fine with you two? How were the students this time?"

"Everything is fine." Ale answered after exchanging glances with his friend. "The students were really prepared, it seems they followed the lessons well and took lots of notes during that."

"And with life in general?" The badger asked, his bespectacled gaze fixed on the silent canine.

"Very good prof, thanks for asking." Was the faint reply.

"Are you enjoying the fair weather, boys?"

They both made some noises to voice their consent.

"Like going to outdoors bars and playing some tennis?"

"Something like that." Luca spoke before gathering some courage to pose the inevitable question. "If I may ask, why did you want us here, prof?"

"My, for nothing special, just a nice chat with my favorite assistants." He caught the sighs of relief, and the keenness in his eyes screamed how doomed they were now. "Do you think I called you for some specific reason?"

That made the culprits squirm in front of the calm accuser, in a silence that began to stretch indefinitely since both parties didn't want to break it. The two didn't manage to withstand such a stare, and in the end one of them made the gruesome confession.

"We are taking too many pauses from work!" The truth exploded from a rottie mouth.

"But we will never do that again, we promise!" The lupine one was quick to add.

The grandfatherly badger continued to stare with a severe expression for some minutes, his paws forming a pyramid while he was contemplating. Finally, his mouth moved again.

"Ahahahahahahahaahahahahahahah!"

Luca and Ale watched the professor laugh in disbelief, frozen there on their chairs. The laugh didn't last that long, though it left the older fur without much breath.

"So... you were... worried about something ..... So little.... That's so funny!"

"Yes, we were, actually." Luca took the lead this time.

"You shouldn't worry about that, you know I prefer to have my assistants well rested. Especially when they work on something delicate." The professor lectured the two guilt-ridden dogs.

"They weren't actually so few and nee-ouch!" This time, the lupine was interrupted by a timed kick in his sheen, delivered by the rottie sited near him, who didn't want their chance of redemption to be ruined by an over-talking restorer.

"They weren't that many, really." He also said, to assure their innocence.

"I'm sure they were" The badger dismissed the entire affair with a quick motion of a paw, and then he slapped his forehead with it.

"I was forgetting to tell you something!"

That put back some tension in the two furs in front of him.

"What, exactly?" They asked in unison.

"I talked with the Superintendent, and he is pleased by the work you are doing in Santa Maria in Trastevere."

"Really?"

"Of course" The old fur said. "He was really impressed, especially of the work you two have done."

Luca tilted his head, just a little skeptic about that. "How did he like our work especially? We are part of a team, after all."

"He asked who was restoring the frescos, some of them in particular, and those were the ones you are working on."

"That's a good explanation." The rottie summed up.

"It is. He was so excited that he said you will be appointed for some new big restorations the Ministry is planning in the near future!"

That left the two dogs speechless, and the badger chuckling.

"Yes, I thought that would be your reactions. It sure is important to be noticed at such young age, it's a good thing for both career. Of course, you have to do your best from now on, so that you will get that job, my dear boys!"

The two remained silent, just struck there, where they were sited.

"So, nothing to say?" The prof pressed them.

That made Luca snapped out of his stupor. "We-we are happy for that. Radiant."

"We will work harder to make that possible, sir." The other added.

"You are still in shock, so I excuse you for the lack of emotion. You may go now, and we will meet tomorrow at the basilica, uhm?" Professor De Angelis dismissed the two, who rose from their seats and quietly exited the office.

They walked for a while before they began to truly recover from the shock, and that lead to a gleeful laughter, with their tail madly wagging.

"Ehehe. That's incredible, isn't it?" The lupo spoke first.

"Ahahaha, I can't believe it Luca! We are set for life!" the other echoed.

"Well, not yet Ale! It isn't something sure, only some words from an important fur." The tall lupine said, all sobered up now.

"Yeah, you are right. Still, we are lucky, aren't we?"

"Yep, though I don't see how that man knows enough of art and restoration to value our work...." Luca began to muse, lifting his paw to his muzzle, some doubt sipping in his happiness.

"Uhm, I don't know, and I really don't care, and you shouldn't too!" The rottie exclaimed, not letting doubts to overtake him. "What do you think, do we deserve a drink?"

"At this hour?"

"We have to celebrate! Plus, we have the rest of the afternoon free!" The muscled rottie winked at his friend.

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

"I must say, we needed this beer."Luca said rising his glass.

"To the beer!" Ale toasted with his friend, just before drinking most part of his.

"Easy Ale, we have to work tomorrow!"

"A tiny beer won't do anything to me, and you know it!" The other smiled.

The lupine had ready a reply to this. "Remember last year at Ferragosto?"

"I drank a lot that time!" The black canine defended himself.

"Nope, you didn't, it was only a couple of beers."

"They were Belgian, strong ones those."

"It doesn't explain why you've got so drunk that you stripped yourself and you skinny dipped in the sea in front of everyone."

"It's not what happened" The rottie frowned, his ears dropping a bit for the embarrassment of something that "never" happened.

"I've got photos, if you want some pro-"

"Okay, okay, I understood, I won't drink too much! Gosh, you sound like a wife sometimes!"

Luca couldn't resist the opportunity of teasing his friend further. "But a wife doesn't have a big dong between her legs...."

"I heard that in New York now it's possible to find such a wife." The other retorted.

"Point taken."

That skirmish made the both of them very thirsty, and they passed the next few moments sipping their beers, which left Luca's eyes wandering a bit on his surroundings. They were in Ponte Milvio, one of the places of the Roman night life and the nearest one to their apartment. Of course, at that hour there weren't as many people as in the most crowded ones, but still there were, mainly young people going about, eating ice cream, sitting at the various bars or just standing there and chatting with their friends. The average age was way below his, since it was still before the closing time of the offices, and most of the crowd was formed by high school students just enjoying their deserved holidays and eager to waste their summer in doing nothing except lazing around and partying. Luca somewhat envied those years, even though they weren't his best.

From the people he passed to examine the place itself, a piazza in a roughly triangular shape, with his base formed by the river and its top rising up a hill, where a modest, domed church guarded it. The other sides were occupied by buildings, which housed ice-cream shops, pizzerie, bars and even a sushi bar. He still remembered how that piazza was a calm one with normal shops just a few years before, and that made him feel old.

On the river side there was the name-taker of the place, the Milvian Bridge as the English called it. The bridge itself wasn't nothing special at first glance, just an ancient bridge made of bricks and travertine, with an elegant tower at one end. But if looked a bit more it showed how ancient it really was, an old man who had been through wars and invasions, bearing them with patience, watching how men schemed and died.

The lupine's musings were interrupted by a rottie question.

"Why so thoughtful Luca?"

"Eh, nothing."

"Come on, you can tell me anything!" Ale pressed.

"Well," the taller dog started to explain, still looking at the piazza. "I was looking at the bridge, thinking of the events concerning it, how was the theater of Constantine's victory, and how no one of those people really care about that, or even know!"

The rottie just snorted.

"What?"

"You are an old man trapped in a body of a young one." Was his answer.

"Because I care for that kind of things?"

"Exactly, a normal fur doesn't think like that!" The rottie said, pointing one finger on the table to mark his statement.

"It's not nice to say about your best friend...." The lupo pouted a bit.

"But that's the truth." The other said between sips. "You should think at other things like, like ....."

"Like?"

"Like this Saturday's date!"

"We already talked about that, and we were all set, I thought..."

"We didn't talk about what to wear, and what kind of gifts I have to bring, and...." Ale listed on his fingers.

"We can decide that later!"

"Not the presents!"

"Yeah, right, let me think ...." The lupo said, rising his paw to his chin. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw his friends doing the same. "Are you mocking me Ale?"

"I wouldn't dare!" The dog in question said with an innocent expression.

"Like I don't know you, you are mocking me!"

"Just a bit." The confession came. "But I'm thinking about the gifts, what about chocolates?"

"A bit cliché, plus, you don't know if she likes them, do you?"

"Eh, you are right."

"Since it's a simple night-out, you should give her something simple." The lupo proposed.

"Like what?"

"A flower, maybe?"

That gave an idea to the rottie, whose face was lightened up by such a finding. "She likes lilies! I could give one to her!"

"And you could give her a small plant instead of only the flower, that way the gift would be more meaningful!" The other suggested.

"Yeah, I think that she will like it. Thank you Luca, you are a genius!"

"No need to thank me, I only do my job." The flicking of his ears somewhat betrayed his pride in such a feat. That didn't stop his friend

"No, I have to thank you, and I bow before you for that!" He immediately followed his words, and went on his knees there in front of the lupine.

"No need to do that!" This time some embarrassment crept in his voice.

"Oh mighty lupo, speak your wish and I'll make it true, so that I can repay you. I will do anything!" He was really enjoying that, his tail wagging for how much fun he was having.

"Uhm, anything you say....."

The devilish light in Luca's eyes warned Ale on what that anything could have been, so he quickly modified his statement. "Well, that anything doesn't include sexu-"

"Oh my, you are finally proposing to him?"

The sited dog and the knelt one just froze in their position, only realizing what their little shenanigan could seem to those watching, especially to the malicious owner of that voice. Then they both turned, and a single word escaped Ale's lips.

"Cazzo!4"

Translation:

1) Typical Roman delicacy, made during summer. It's similar to granite, or slushie, but instead of being frozen syrup it is ice broken in little pieces and on which the syrup is poured on, with optional pieces of lemon, coconut or cherries. This particular place makes the best of the entire city!

2) In Italian universities the highest mark is 30, while the lowest mark with which you can pass an exam is 18.

3) Italian version of yay.

4) The Italian equivalent of "Fuck!", though a closer translation would be "cock".