FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Time was passing too slowly.

I stared up at the clock as the seconds passed, no longer hearing the professor droning on about what ever equations were going to be on next week's exam. I nearly groaned aloud in frustration as the minute hand ticked past the twelve and the professor still hadn't dismissed the class. Were I a lesser man, I would have left halfway through the lesson. I didn't need the review but I did pride myself on being a model student. And then my sweet words of release were uttered.

"Class dismissed," and I was standing, bag in hand.

As I turned to the closest exit, I was shoved back against my desk by a classmate who was clearly in a bigger hurry than I was. I swallowed nervously, realizing it was Jean, the one student I had been avoiding like the plague sense our second class together. He muttered a "sorry" before leaving me to collect myself.

The first day of class, Jean and I had gotten along well enough. We had sat next to each other and helped each other with the assignment for the day. We got along well and I had looked forward to the prospect of making a new friend. The next day we sat together again and that was when I noticed it, the gay pride band on Jean's wrist. I was stiff and nervous for the entirety of that class. The third day of class I wore the cross necklace that my mom had gotten me for Christmas and pointedly avoided any form of contact with him.

I felt dumb; wearing a cross as if it would keep him away like some sort of vampire. But it worked. He tried to talk to me after class and backed off when he noticed me worrying the necklace between my fingers, much like I was doing now as I hurried to the other side of campus where Armin and Eren were waiting.

When I caught sight of my two childhood friends in the distance, they were signing to each other enthusiastically about the trip. I could only see Armin's half of the conversation sense Eren had his back to me. He was apparently trying to explain the appeal of roll play from his perch on the tailgate of Eren's truck, the back of which was tarped over and filled with their supplies for their weekend trip. He stopped mid-sign to wave to me enthusiastically, causing Eren to turn.

"Thank god you finally showed up," Eren said and jutted his thumb over his shoulder in Armin's direction, "I didn't understand half the things this nerd just said. You two can geek out together and leave me out of it."

Armin hopped down from his perch to run to the passenger-side back door, eager to get the journey started, as Eren took his rightful place in the driver's seat. I sat in the back with Armin as was the usual seating arrangement. We had experience trying to sign from the front to the back and it just never worked out well.

"I hope we sell enough stuff to make up for the gas money this truck is going to suck out of us," Armin signed as I fastened my seatbelt.

"You and me both," I said with a laugh.

"Hey hey," Eren said, pulling out of the parking lot, "I'm not listening to one side of a conversation for four hours. Either you keep me in the loop or you sign back."

"Sorry, sorry," I said, "Armin was just saying that he hopes we sell enough to make up for gas money."

"If we don't you're going to pay me back for what I buy, the only reason I'm doing this is because you two claimed I could sell my leather works."

I shuddered at the thought of what sort of effect that would have on my savings. "I'm sure we will. I don't know about me and Armin but you're going to make bank. I bet no one sells leather works." I wasn't really sure who I was assuring more, Eren or myself. Armin patted my shoulder reassuringly so I suppose my expression must have given away my concern. I gave him a thankful smile.

As I turned in my seat to face him, Armin's eyes took on a mischievous glint and he signed, "Sense we'll be four hours from home, are you going to step out of the closet? Eren said he thinks the power of freedom will go to your head and you'll turn into some sort of sex obsessed deviant when we aren't looking."

I couldn't stop the blush that I felt warming my face. I had come out to both Eren and Armin our sophomore year of high school and, after four years of them knowing, you would think it would get easier to talk to them about this sort of thing. But it never did. They had accepted my sexuality right away, with a "that's cool bro" from Eren and a hug from Armin, and they had both been there for me when the unknowing slurs from my classmates and family had been too much. Yet, every time they asked me if a celebrity was attractive or mentioned dating, I would blush hard enough that I could feel my ears burning.

"Like I would ever be that bold," I signed, "It would be nice to find someone though. I don't think I would mind a long distance relationship." I worried my necklace again. It was quickly becoming a nervous habit.

"Then maybe you should take that off," Armin signed before reaching to take the necklace from around my neck. He dropped it into the door handle and nodded, "Better."

I rubbed my neck where the delicate chain had rested. It was really strange not wearing it at this point and I felt weirdly naked. Armin noticed my unease, "We'll get you another one at the con. Or you could wear one of Eren's collars. It would be like advertising."

I shook my head quickly, my blush returning full force. Collars were cute and all but way too bold for me at the moment, "I'll just wait to see if someone is selling any jewelry. I guess I'll give that a try if no one is."

I shifted the topic away from my love life and towards excited banter about how the rest of the con would go; how excited we would be to buy from the artists alley and the dealers room, what it would be like living in a hotel room for three nights, and what we had brought for the ball and rave.

The trip passed quickly thanks to our excitement and conversation. Towards the end, Eren nearly missed our exit and it took us about twenty minutes of being lost to find the hotel but, eventually, we reached our destination. Eren left us to wait by the car while he ran to find a dolly. We wanted to get as much of our stuff out of his truck as possible sense we couldn't really lock it up if we took multiple trips and leaving someone to stand guard alone really didn't seem fair.

Armin and I ogled all of the con-goers arriving as we waited. We recognized several beautiful suits by popular makers and tried to ignore a few others that made us wince. I admired a girl's nekomimis wishing I could afford a pair for myself and I knew Armin desperately wanted a pair as well. Armin had always had a nearly obsessive interest in technology and I knew that, if he ever commissioned or made a suit of Florenz, it would be the most expensive suit imaginable.

Once Eren returned with the dolly, he disappeared again to check us into the hotel. He always had the most money in his account so we thought it best to leave him with the responsibility of booking and paying for the room. Armin and I set to the task of loading the cart with our suitcases and boxes of merchandise and we had nearly filled it by the time Eren returned.

Once we had loaded the few remaining boxes, we began the struggle of getting the heavy, loaded dolly to our room on the sixth floor. I was suddenly hit with the realization of how difficult each morning and evening would be. We would probably need to leave most everything in the room and send someone on a supply run if we sold out of something sense it wasn't like we could keep the dolly. We'd really need to buy some sort of collapsible cart of our own for this before our next convention.

We pushed the dolly into the elevator and were joined by someone in a brown and tan wolf suit. I recognized Scitan's work immediately. I had told myself that, if I ever did decide to save up for a suit, I would commission the same maker. It was a full body suit with padded, digitigrade legs and follow eyes. They were only slightly taller than me which meant that the person inside was probably a bit shorter than myself.

The wolf fixed the unwavering gaze of the suit towards me and tilted their head, their gaze trailing down and back up briefly. I reached up to worry my necklace with my free hand, feeling nervous at being scrutinized so pointedly, but, instead, dejectedly rubbed my collar bone when I remembered that it wasn't there.

The wolf quickly reached into the maw of their head and pulled out a small business card for "Sage's Seasoned Jewelry Shop." I took it from the furred hand, noting that the hands of the suit were a tight glove instead of the more common padded paw. It was a well laid out card specifically designed for this con and showed exactly where their table would be in the artist's alley. We probably should have thought to do something like this but our cards only supplied the url to our shared website.

I blushed lightly as I realized they had figured out exactly what my nervous motion had been and had given me a resource to replace the missing item. "Thank you," I said with a smile, the elevator doors opening to my groups floor. "Well this is our floor. I'll see you around," I gave them a wave as I helped to push the dolly out and towards our room. I saw them wave back enthusiastically as the doors closed to take them to their own floor.

When I turned my gaze away from the elevators, I was met by a mischievous grin from Armin. I gave him a light, half-hearted glare in response, "No, Armin, I know what you're thinking and I don't even know what they look like under there or even what gender they are."

Armin patted his chest in response, indicating the fact that there had been no visible breasts on the skin tight suit.

I rolled my eyes, "That doesn't mean anything and you know it." Armin shrugged and we waited for Eren to unlock the door we had stopped at.

Once inside, we gazed around the hotel room approvingly. I knew Armin had once had the chance to stay in a hotel but Eren and I had never stepped foot in one. I felt my heart swell with a feeling I couldn't quite place as I explored the small space.

There were only two beds but that wouldn't be a problem sense none of us had any issue with sharing a bed with each other. There was decent enough closet space, a bathroom with two sinks, and the main room sported a large TV, coffee maker, microwave, and mini-fridge.

I fought off the urge to flop onto the comfortable looking bed and began helping Eren and Armin to unload the dolly into a corner where it would, hopefully, stay out of the way until we needed it the next day. We set our suitcases next to the beds and, with that, we had finished un-packing.

I finally allowed myself to collapse onto the bed closest to the door, sinking into the soft mattress and fluffy duvet. I thought of all the people settling into their rooms in similar ways and I sighed happily.

If I could just stay here forever, that would be great.