FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Dressed only in their swimwear still, the two otters climbed into the driver and passenger seats of Rye's car. Damp after showering, Rye turned on the heated seats to help them dry faster while he drove down the narrow lanes of the parking lot and exited.

"That was awesome," Cloud complimented him. "You're totally the best lifeguard at that awesome place."

"Thanks," Rye said, blushing a slight shade of red beneath his fur. "Did you have fun despite the drowning ordeal?"

"Yes, I did," remarked Cloud, smiling over to him. "It's not everyday you witness something so dramatic. I wasn't expecting for so much excitement to end my day.

"Cloud, does anyone ever really expect to drown?" asked Rye.

"I suppose not," he replied with a chuckle.

The vehicle practically flew by its surroundings, being in a hurry to reach its destination. Taking his eyes off the road for a moment, Rye smiled over to Cloud. "Usually it's actually quite boring, so thank you for coming along with me today. I had fun."

"Thank you for allowing me to go with you. Today was great, and if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to do this more often."

"Absolutely." Driving into Rye's designated parking spot, the otters stepped out of the car. "Do you want to hang over again today? I noticed that you don't look exactly settled-in your apartment yet."

"I can't deny that," answered Cloud, shutting the car door. "Sure, why not?"

Both otters snatched their clothes out from the car's backseat, and brought them inside. Being a stranger to the apartment, Cloud again waited for permission before he would make himself comfortable inside the otter's home.

"Don't be afraid and make yourself at home," Rye suggested, tossing his school clothes on the sofa and heading straight for the kitchen. "Hungry?"

"Starved actually," Cloud replied. He placed his clothes on the arm of the sofa in a neat pile. "But I do need to shower, otherwise I'll become a mess and really will look like a cloud."

"We're otters," said Rye with his head in the fridge. "Our fur isn't affected by water that much. Besides, what's wrong with looking like a giant cotton ball? Well, I suppose a child could be allergic to cotton here."

"Cotton?" repeated Cloud, leaning over the sofa. "I said cloud. Well, at least I won't look like a big blue sponge."

"Sponge," said Rye giggling and retrieving a jar of peeled clams from the fridge. "Is that the best you can come up with, Cotton?"

"I'd rather be cotton than a sponge," Cloud replied, and playfully stuck his tongue out at Rye.

He smirked before pointing across the room to the bedroom. "The bathroom is just through there. There'll be a towel hung up near the shower."

"Thanks."

The bathroom door was heard closing and Rye continued about his business of preparing yet another meal in his home. He boiled some water and poured in some frozen clams that he had retrieved from the freezer. The power of hot water rushing through the pipes and falling to the shower floor could be heard echoing through the relatively silent apartment.

By the time Rye was plucking the clams from the boiling water with tongs, he heard the shower be turned off and the full-body dryer be activated. The dryer was deactivated and soon Cloud came out from the bedroom door with only a towel loosely tied around his waist, which instantly drew Rye's gaze.

"I forgot my clothes," admitted Cloud with a nervous chuckle, clearly having already quickly brushed his fur. He walked over to the sofa and grabbed his clothes from it.

Rye smiled a little too genuinely, "That's alright. I don't bring my clothes into the bathroom when I shower either."

With another nervous chuckle and a bright blush, Cloud scuttled back into the bedroom. While Rye added spices, his thoughts lingered on Cloud's image shy image. The white otter reappeared, this time with clothes on.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. "It smells like the beach out here."

"I just boiled some clams," Rye remarked. "Come eat. I think I'm going to have a quick rinse myself before I eat. The smell of bleach is starting to get to me."

"Okay, I'll still be here by the time you're done," said Cloud, following his nose into the kitchen.

"Go ahead and turn on the television if you're bored," Rye suggested, both otters passing and smiling at each other. "I'll be out in a minute or two."

"Thanks."

Carrying his clothes with him, Rye went into the bathroom and headed toward his shower. Once the door was closed, Rye slipped out of his swimming shorts after placing his pile of clothes on the counter. Starting at the shower glass door, leading to the full-body air dryer was a small trail of water.

Before stepping into the shower, Rye turned it on as he normally did to allow the water to heat up before he steps in. In the meantime, Rye placed his paws on the counter and sighed quietly to himself with his head hung low and eyes closed.

Looking up, Rye glanced in the mirror at himself. With the shower having just been used, the mirror had already begun to fog over. Turning on his heel, Rye opened the shower door and stepped through it into the stream of hot water.

Rubbing the fur on his head, rinsing it, Rye's memories were brought back to the shower at the locker room earlier in the day. With his eyes closed, the memories were easy to recover.

He pulled on his dry clothes, and somewhat hesitantly walked out of the bathroom. Slightly nervous, he walked into the living room where he saw Cloud sitting on the couch watching some infomercial.

"Enjoy your shower?" he asked, glancing at Rye.

"It was refreshing," replied the otter, eager to change the subject. "Finding anything interesting on the television?"

"No," answered Cloud. "But I did realize you have some video game consoles. Have any good games?"

"You can judge for me," Rye said, kneeling down near the entertainment center the television was resting on. Opening a cabinet door, the otter revealed a large collection of video games to his friend. "Go ahead and pick one, I'll play with you. I'm going to grab a bite to eat."

"Wow, you have quite the library," Cloud commented, sitting on the floor in front of the open cabinet door. "Interesting."

"Find one you like yet, Cloud?" asked Rye, grabbing the plate of clams and carrying it over to the sofa.

"I think I've heard of this one," he responded, holding up a game.

"Galaxy: Culture," read Rye. "That's the most popular video game out right now. Very complex game, it takes a lot of memory to run it."

"What's it about, Rye?" Cloud asked.

"You'll start out customizing a character," Rye began informing the curious otter. "Then you'll appear inside a spaceport terminal where you can choose to go on any ship you'd like to go anywhere, unless the other players who are piloting demand outrageous prices but not many try to do that at this space port."

"They can do that?" asked Cloud, sitting on the sofa next to Rye with the game in his paws.

"Yes indeed," Rye said. "It's completely free range and customizable. There are no boundaries to what you can explore, create or buy. You can be military infantry or an officer on a battleship, or a pilot traveling between the planets accepting jobs from other players."

"What about just having a regular job, or building something in a city?"

"There are actually quite a few players who simply try to get a rich job and own expensive places inside the game, or even become government officials. You can do anything you want on any planet and everything in between, even turn rogue and become a pirate."

"It's rather elaborate," commented Cloud, handing the game over to Rye. "Let's play it."

Accepting the game, Rye chuckled and stood up to insert the game into the video game console. Rye took two game controllers from a drawer and gave one to Cloud while the game loaded.

"Thanks," said Cloud, watching the loading screen. The game's main menu appeared on the screen and Rye sorted through the options until Cloud finally had a chance to build his own character. He obviously chose to be of the Otter Clan and began to experiment with the physical features of his character.

While Rye watched, he asked, "So why are you out here? Did you not have any obligations back where you came from?"

"What do you mean?" remarked Cloud, still focusing on the character features.

"Did you not have friends or a girlfriend there?"

"No, I didn't have a girlfriend," said Cloud shortly. He clearly didn't want to talk about it. "What about you? Don't you have girlfriend?"

"No," Rye answered, chuckling nervously. "I'm sorry Cloud, I didn't mean to pry."

"It's alright," he replied, finishing the facial characteristics. "It's natural to be curious. I'm actually curious on how long you've been going to Ab Amor High."

"Since my freshman year of high school, so about three years now"

"Has there been anyone you've been wanting to date? It almost seems like you and Ariel once had history even though she has a boyfriend now."

"No," laughed Rye. "We're just good friends. There's no history or anything like that between us."

"All finished," Cloud announced, selecting a confirmation button on the screen.

"I already have a character so I'll be in the terminal with you," said Rye while the game loaded. "If you want to go into the military, you can just follow my character."

"Okay," Cloud responded while he watched an active spaceport terminal appear on the screen, with two otters' characters standing in the middle. With one character following the other, they both boarded a ship after paying the fee and sat in two of the seats. "We just wait now?"

"Yes, that's one of the drawbacks to the game is that there's a lot of waiting, like there is in life," said Rye. "But that allows the actual person to do something else, while their character waits. It's only a few minutes but there's the possibility that pirates might attack us."

"Other players?"

"Yeah."

"So have you ever had a crush on anyone at school before?" Cloud pried.

"You really want to know this stuff?" asked Rye, choosing his words carefully. "Do you have a crush on someone and so you're just checking out the competition?"

Cloud laughed. "Not quite. Like I said, I'm just curious."

"Well then, yes," Rye admitted, watching the spacecraft that their digital characters boarded begin taking flight. "There have been one or two crushes I've had." He refused to admit, even to himself, that he already has a crush on Cloud right now too. "Do you always interrogate your new friends?"

Cloud chuckled, "No, I'm just trying to figure out what niches there are around here. I just found it a little odd that someone as popular as you wouldn't be flaunting around a mate."

"Mate,"Rye thought to himself. Why did he choose "mate" instead of "girlfriend?" "It's just not one of my priorities I guess. Besides, I'm going into the actual military after high school, so I don't want to make such a commitment before I fulfill my previous one.

"Oh," muttered Cloud in a rather disappointed tone and quickly changed the subject. "I guess there are no pirates for this trip."

"Guess not," responded Rye gloomily. He felt ashamed that his new attractive friend reacted negatively toward his military commitment.

With the topic dismissed, the otters continued to play the video game late into the day. The host otter occasionally would glance at the time, but never expressed his concern because he enjoyed the company of Cloud and the lighter conversations they shared.

"Nope," said Rye. "The only investments I made when starting out was buying expensive military equipment."

"Those don't give you a regular income," Cloud responded. "My character isn't making much but it will add up as the game goes on."

"I was too eager to begin shooting," remarked Rye. On the screen, his character watched Cloud's rent out a rickety ship barely capable of space flight to another player. "I can't believe you rented that thing out, I was just going to throw it away so it'd be deleted from the game."

"Thanks for letting me have it," Cloud expressed, staring at the screen too. "I'm starting to get a little hungry, and achy."

"I can get you something else to eat if you'd like," replied Rye, moving the analog sticks on the controller.

"I can eat at my place," said Cloud, finishing renting out the digital ship. "It must be late."

"It's actually kind of early," Rye admitted, also concluding the game. "I don't think it'd be a very good idea to walk back to your place tonight."

"It's alright," Cloud said. "We're not in a bad neighborhood."

"No, but occasionally there are drunks out. Oh, do you want to stay here for the night? I have plenty of food for you to eat."

"I don't want to be a nuisance," admitted Cloud with his expression betraying his excitement over the suggestion. No one really enjoys sleeping in an apartment crowded with packed boxes.

"You can make it up to me later," replied Rye. "I'll finish up the game. Eat anything you'd like."

"Our conservations seem very one-sided sometimes," Cloud joked, setting down the video game controller.

"I know," remarked Rye sarcastically turning off the game system. "You convince me to sneak you into the Lagoon, eat my food, and now you're parking your tail here for the night." Cloud laughed and then stood to wander toward the kitchen. "I'll go grab some extra blankets and pillows so we can sleep out here."

"I suppose now I'm forcing you out of your bed too?" asked Cloud, while biting into a pear.

"I suppose so." The host briskly walked into his bedroom, disappearing from his guest's view. He shortly returned, arms full with two blankets and pillows. "You can have the larger couch, and I'll sleep in the sofa chair."

"Sounds fine to me, it'll be better than sleeping on the floor of my apartment."

Rye threw one of his blankets over the couch, and set the pillow on the arm of it before he leaned back the sofa chair, which would allow him to lie in a more prone position. Then he tossed his own pillow and blanket on the sofa and crawled underneath the blanket after taking off his shirt.

"I'll reset my alarm for a little later so we can get a few more minutes of sleep," Rye informed his guest. "I hope you don't mind arriving to school at the last minute."

"Better than being a complete zombie all day tomorrow," commented Cloud, finishing eating his midnight snack. "I'm already feeling sleep deprived." He wandered over to the couch that his host refitted for sleeping in, removed his shirt and slipped under the blanket.

Although Cloud was facing the other way, Rye tried to hide his wondering gaze that desired to stare at Cloud while he undressed.

"Thank you, Rye, really," Cloud said, glancing over at him.

"For what?" Rye asked, returning the gaze.

"For your hospitality," he answered. "You have noidea what it means to me that you are my friend." A genuine smile spread across his jaw before he yawned and rolled on his side. "Goodnight."

"Good night Cloud." Even with only Cloud's bare shoulder and back of his head was visible, Rye stared at him through heavy eyelids. His heart beat strongly in affection, and he knew that he was falling in love with the new otter in town.

The otter also turned on his side to sleep, but not before embracing his pillow thinking of Cloud.