Coping with Chaos
Eli paced up and down his new apartment in downtown Kansas City, sipping from a can of coke and ruminating on
many things at once. Firstly, he forced himself to scrap and restart
a time consuming pen and ink piece. It was just too ugly to be
salvaged. Soren would have disagreed, but he was too nice about Eli's
work. He wasn't objective. Soren was on his list of things to worry
about too. It was 9pm, he was over three hours late, and he had not
called at all today. On top of that, his parents sent him an email
and asked if they could plan a visit. His ears perked up as he heard the keys
turn. He placed his coke on the kitchen counter and went to get the
door. Soren staggered in, his eyes and ears were drooping and he
looked completely exhausted. He dropped his backpack and coat by the
door, not hanging them up, and kicked off his shoes. Such simple
actions seemed to take an extreme amount of energy and willpower to
complete."Shit," said Eli, "What the hell
happened to you?" Eli rarely swore, in contrast to Soren, who had a
sailor's tongue. However, Soren's state was so severe it seemed to
merit it. "What happened at work? And why were you out of touch?"Soren flopped onto the couch, his nine
tails fanned beneath him, his limbs splayed at odd angles as he was
too exhausted to care about sitting like a normal fox. "Chaos,"
sighed Soren. "Utter chaos. The lab was turned upside down, and I
was in the middle of it." Eli slipped between Soren's arms and
began to arrange them so Soren would be able to sit more comfortably.
"What happened," he asked as he laid his head on Soren's
shoulder. Soren growled lowly, appreciating Eli's soft touch. It was a balm on the mental injuries inflicted by one of the worst Mondays of all time."Some people broke into the lab last
night. Over the weekend," sighed Soren, speaking as though the mere
thought of the subject caused him physical injury. "They destroyed
our security hardware then broke all the test subjects out of the
cages and let them loose. On top of that, they smashed the computers
with our data. Three years of testing. Down the drain." "Weren't your subjects just white
mice," queried Eli, stroking Soren's shoulder. It was tight and
tense."Exactly," sighed Soren, "they
have a lifespan of three years at the most and they likely just
walked out the door and got snatched up by predators. Meanwhile, we
need to compensate for loosing all our subjects, and it took us at
least six generations for us to get the genes right, and then two
more to get enough subjects. Then, all our data was ruined, except
for a few back up disks that they missed." "Is that what kept you so long,"
inquired Eli, "the break in?" "Partially," sighed Soren. "But
it got worse. Internal Affairs thinks it was an inside job. The
idiotic intruders managed to get around all of our security measures.
Now they are interrogating everyone from the bottom up. Since I am
one of the newer guys, they dragged me in and drilled me about any of
the security info I knew, as well as where I was in the building for
the past two weeks." "But you're just IT," murmured Eli,
rubbing Soren's shoulders again. "You keep the computers running.
You weren't let in most of the highest level labs." "Yeah," groaned Soren, his head
throbbing from the days work. "But I think they are right. It must
have been an inside job, and they had to start somewhere. The
interrogation took most of the morning, and then they had me running
across the building trying to work on the computers and to restore
data. Sorry I didn't call. I forgot to charge my phone, and I they
didn't give me two minutes peace anyway." Eli slid his hands across Soren's face
and got off the couch. "Do you want me to make you something to
eat? I know its late." asked Eli. "Thanks, but no thanks," said
Soren, getting up. "It's a nice gesture, but we don't want to set
off the fire alarm again. I ate my lunch in the car." Eli blushed a bit, but he knew Soren
was right. He couldn't boil water without burning it. If Soren wasn't
such a kitchen whiz, he would be living off ramen noodles. "they
didn't let you eat lunch? That's harsh." "I'm just glad today is done,"
groaned Soren. "I need to relax a bit and turn in early. I'm beat."Soren staggered his way to the
bathroom. Eli's new place had a damn good bath and a really
snazzy shower. They were both large, luxurious, and high tech. Eli
had a thing for nice showers and the like, and he had spent a fair
chunk of cash to make the bathroom the best room in the apartment. He
really needed a good soak. Soren decided on the bath this time.
Letting the water run until it was scalding, he perused Eli's
extensive collection of bath supplements until he found his personal
favorite, bubbles laced with scents of strawberries and coconut. He
let the sweet fumes waft over him as he undressed, and slipped in,
enjoying the view of the city through the bathrooms tinted windows.
He closed his eyes. His whole body was tensed up, and even the
luxurious bath wasn't helping. After about five minutes, Soren smiled
as a number of sounds reached his ears. He heard the creak of a door,
the rustle of fabric, and a small splash as a slight and slender paw
broke the surface. Eli slid down on top of Soren, his soft body
rubbing on his wet fur. Soren smiled as Eli's arms snaked under his
and reached up behind him, massaging his shoulder and neck."Thanks," sighed Soren, finally
starting to relax a bit as Eli's soft hands moved across his
shoulders, squeezing lightly. He felt a soft kiss on his cheek. He
had hoped that Eli would join him, but felt too awkward to ask."You should have just asked,"
whispered Eli, as though he could read minds. "Sorry," said Soren, breathing in
the scent of Eli's body and the sweet bubble bath. He adjusted his
head so that the bottom of his muzzle rested between Eli's ears. "it's
just still a bit weird for me to be living here. We've only been
together for four months." Eli broke apart for a muzzle to muzzle
kiss, then returned to his position under Soren's head. "Not
really," he said with a giggle. "We were dating for about five
years. It was just that neither of us noticed until a while ago." "You think your parents are gonna buy
that," queried Soren, sounding anxious."Oh, so you read that email," said
Eli, not angry at all. "Yeah," said Soren, a bit guiltily.
"I saw something from your father when you left your laptop up. The
subject was about a visit, and I wanted to know details. I wanted to
be aware of any logistics. And he's such a hard ass sometimes, I
wasn't sure how he would take us living like this." Soren never really got to meet Eli's
parents. He heard stories and had seen them across the campus some
times, but never said anything besides a quick "hello" and
"goodbye." Eli's dad, an austere Houndoom lawyer, was forever in
a jet black suit, and his mother, a very pretty Ninetales, was
definitely where Eli got his creative talent, if Eli's stories were
true. Eli groped behind him and found a
bottle of body wash. He put a liberal amount into his hands and began
wash Soren's silver fur, massaging him into a more relaxed state.
"He's mellowed out now that I am doing well as an artist. He was
really stressed about me not being able to support myself with just
my painting. But we can cross that bridge when we get there," said
Eli calmly, working on Soren's chest now. Soren sighed in contentment, wrapping
his arms around the back of Eli, content to hold him as he worked. He
kissed the top of his head a few times, tasting the sweetness of his hair, longer
now than before. They lay there for at least an hour, chatting about
inconsequential things. That was a benefit of being a fire type: the
water was always hot. Eli was doing his best to keep Soren's mind off
of work. Eli kissed Soren and growled sensually as he
reached down below the water, running his hand down Soren's chest."Not tonight sweetheart," sighed
Soren with regret, even though he really did want it. "I'll be called to go in early
tomorrow. I'll bet you money. I should have gone to bed before now."
He kissed Eli on the muzzle again, reaching up to stroke his face. Eli gave Soren his best disappointed
pout. "Are you sure?" Soren kissed Eli on the
cheek, wishing he could take him up on his offer. "I'll make it up
to you this weekend," he whispered, "an all-nighter if you want."Eli grinned. "Deal," he said after
he finished kissing Soren on the muzzle again. The two foxes stepped out of the bath,
toweling each other dry. Not even bothering to redress, they slipped
into the bed they shared, holding each other. Soren was out cold, but
Eli stayed awake for a bit, stroking his tails. His
head was still running through his other two problems, not to mention
his new worry that another day like today would really run Soren into
the ground. But he shook himself a bit. Shit happens. He smiled a bit in anticipation of the weekend, and soon
he was asleep, his head on Soren's chest, their arms wrapped around
each other.