Los Angeles (Todd)
#23 of First Steps
Dexter pulled up outside of an apartment building about five minutes later. Wendell grabbed his phone and I opened the passenger door. Dexter soon follows us. The three of us walks up to the gate.
"So. Angie lives here?" I ask.
"Yep. With Janelle." Wendell says. I push open the gate. To my left and right, there are a set of stairs. Wendell leads us up the one on the right. When we get to the top, we immediately turn around and walk across the balcony to the door at the end. 1405. This is the one. Wendell knocks on the door.
"Are you positive Angie wants to meet me?" I ask.
"Of course. You heard how eager she sounded on the phone." Wendell says. After about ten more seconds, the door opens. A pink Vixen is standing there. At first she looks at Wendell with wide, shocked eyes.
"Wendell?" she says.
"Hey, cousin." he says. She wraps her arms around him out of excitement.
"I'm so glad you made it!"
"Angie, this is Todd. My boyfriend." he gestures to me.
"Hi." I say nervously.
"It's great to meet you face-to-face." She enthusiastically hugs me too. I, of course, hug her back, but it doesn't last long. "Come in you guys!" Angie steps back into her apartment and we follow. It's not very big. Right in front of the door is the kitchen counter. This will take some time to get used to.
"Where's Janelle?" Wendell asks.
"She's asleep." Angie says.
"Don't you think we should wake her up?" I ask.
"No. Really, it's the only way she can cope with her headaches. She takes tons of naps every day."
"Oh."
"They work. She doesn't get stressed... as much." Angie leads us all into her living room. It's only in the next room on the left. It's a bit smaller than my old room in Tennessee. There's a couch in one end and a TV on the other end of the room. Us guys sit on the couch while Angie stands next to the TV.
"Now what?" I ask.
"You guys said you're moving in, aren't you?" Angie says.
"Yep." Wendell puts an arm around me. "Well, me and Todd. I don't remember hearing anything about Dexter."
"I live on the other side of town." Dexter says.
"He still lives with his mother." Angie whispers.
"Shut up! There's nothing wrong with living your parents in your mid-twenties."
"I know, but it's still kinda funny."
"So, where are me and Wendell sleeping at?" I can't help but ask.
"Oh. Right. Follow me." She leads us back out into the kitchen. On the left is a narrow hallway about fifteen or twenty feet long. There's only two doors in here. One on the left and one on the right. Kinda like those stairs outside. Angie said the one on the right's the guest bedroom and the one on the left is Angie and Janelle's bedroom. Wendell opens the door on the right and I follow him. Inside is a two person bed in the corner, a dresser in the opposite corner and a desk next to the window on the opposite wall of the door.
"It's all yours." Angie says, "At least until you guys can get back on your feet." She and Dexter leave us alone for us to settle in. I sit on the bed. Wendell walks around the room a bit.
"So." I say, unable to think of anything else to say.
"So." he repeats.
"We're here. We actually did it. We went on a cross-country journey and now here we are. New home. New life."
"But it's gonna be great to spend that new life with you." Wendell sits next to me, pulls me into a hug and kisses me. I kiss him back. We both lay down on the bed together. I slowly caress his arm. It's gonna be great being with him. I forgot why I ever thought I didn't want to come here.
"Do you think they'll mind if we have a little fun in here?" Wendell says, teasingly.
"Well," I think for a moment, "They did say to get settled in. And, the way I see it, we're gonna be here for a while."
"So, why don't we get started?" he winks at me and puts on his playful grin. Wendell climbs on top of me and kisses me again, pinning my arms and legs down. He breaks the kiss, but ends up kissing my neck. I roll my head back to give him a better angle. I moan in ecstasy as I feel him gently caressing my neck with kisses. I feel a little bit of his teeth too, but like always, he doesn't bite, he just nibbles. His teeth carefully grazing my neck.
"This is nice." I say.
"Really?" he says.
"Mhm."
"Then why don't I mess with my rainbow foxy a little more?" he says. I haven't heard that term in a long time, but I still love the nickname. Wendell hops off the bed and takes off my shoes and my socks. Can he ever get enough of my foot paws? He doesn't kiss them. He takes my left foot and carefully rubs it. Wendell lightly pushes his thumb into the sole of my foot and makes a circle motion. It feels nice. I mur a bit and lay back down.
"Does foxy love that?" Wendell says.
"Yes." I smile and put my arms over my head. Wendell eventually moves on to the other foot. He's good at this. After massaging my feet for a while, he starts to kiss my foot. I laugh a little bit, but it feels nice. He kisses each of my toes and the heel of my foot.
"Do you have any idea how beautiful your feet are?" Wendell asks. I shake my head no. "Well they are gorgeous. They deserve so much attention." He goes back to kissing my foot. After getting hundreds of kisses, I sit back up and he goes over to my right foot. "I'm sorry, I didn't give this foot enough attention." Wendell winks at me then starts kissing me right foot. I reach out and rub his head, scratching a little behind his ear. He looks up at me and kisses my nose.
"Is the big bad wolf enjoying my feet?" I tease him.
"Yes, I am."
"Then who's stopping you?" He starts to lick my toes. It's a nice feeling. I ruffle the fur on his head. Wendell drags his tongue up the sole of my foot and licks in between my toes.
"Does a certain wolf love the taste of my feet?" I ask.
"Mhm." he doesn't even lift his head to answer, just mumbles that and continues licking me. I love this so much. I pop a toe in his mouth.
"Suck." I command. He does as I ask. I throw my head back and moan loud out of pleasure and delight. Wendell sucks on my big toe and runs his tongue along it too. His paw caresses my leg a little bit.
"You love my toes don't you?" I say teasingly.
"Yes." he says, a little hint of submissiveness in there.
"Good wolf." I use my other foot and run it down his body. He shudders a bit but keeps sucking my foot. Wendell's tail wags back and forth. Mine would, but I'm sitting down right now.
After a long time, Wendell lets go of my foot and take my toes out of his mouth. He lifts me up and carries me in his arms back into the kitchen where Angie and Dexter are talking.
"What were you guys doing?" Angie asks.
"What? You said to get settled in." Wendell says like some kind of teasing brother.
"I didn't mean like that," she laughs, "I meant get your stuff in there."
"But, all of our stuff was destroyed in a twister in Oklahoma." I explain.
"Oh. You weren't having sex, were you?"
"No. But a certain wolf was making love to my hind paws." I say. Angie cracks up laughing. So does Dexter. Wendell blushes a little bit, but keeps that cute smile on. I kiss him on the cheek. "Aww, come on cutie. We're just teasing with you."
"I know." Wendell tightens his grip on me and kisses me back.
When they're laughing dies down a bit, Angie says, "I always knew Wendell had a foot fetish."
"Shut up!" Wendell says, embarrassed.
"Come on, buddy," Dexter says, "You want to hear one of my weird fetishes?"
"What?" I ask.
"Well," the tiger blushes up, scratches the back of his head and says, "I... have a... bondage fetish." The three of us laugh our asses off when we hear that. I've heard of it before.
"Really?" Angie says.
"Quiet! I just like being tied down or something and being fondled with." We laugh harder. This is seriously funny as hell. The only thing close to bonage that be and Wendell have done was just hold our arms and legs down. But, we didn't use any ropes or chains so, it doesn't count.
"What! Is all that laughing about?!" We all turn around and see a polar bear, about a few inches taller than me, standing in the doorway. I'm guessing this is Janelle.
"Janelle!" Angie says, "You weren't supposed to be awake for another hour."
"Then how come I'm awake?" she says.
"We were just laughing about how Dexter has a weird fetish about being tied up and 'played' with."
"That is weird." Janelle snickers a bit. She then casts a glare at me. "Who's the fox with the rainbow tail?"
"Janelle, this is Todd McCarthy. You know? The fur I've been telling you about? They're going to be living here for several months." Angie says.
"Oh. Well, nice to meet you, Todd." she puts a paw out. Wendell puts me down and I shake paws with Janelle.
"It's great to meet you too." I say.
"Well, I don't know about you all, but I'm tired." Wendell says, "How about we catch a nap?"
"Sound fine to me." Angie says.
"Alright. Goodbye guys. I've gotta get going." Dexter says.
"See ya, Dex!" Angie and Jani say in unison. He then leaves the apartment. Wendell picks me back up and carries us into our new room. I close the door behind us.
"I can definitely get used to this." Wendell says.
"Me too." We both lay down on the bed and Wendell covers us both with a blanket. I wrap my arms around him and we drift off into sleep.
***
"Well, we've got them. Now let's head back to the apartment." Wendell says. We were just out buying me a new phone and some new charger cords. It's a start after we basically reset our lives.
"Sounds great." I say. I carry the bag in my left paw and me and Wendell hold paws on the way home. I notice that some furs glare at us and almost all of them put a huge grin on their face. Even a young bunny says, "Mommy! Mommy! Look! It's those guys who beat up the bad guys!" It makes me blush but we keep walking.
"Hey Wendell?" I whisper in his ear.
"Yeah?" he says.
"Most of these furs are staring at us."
"Dexter told us that we were famous here in L.A. Probably because of the way we fought against those homophobes in Tennessee." Oh. That's right.
"So, people know who we are?"
"Dude, we're known in almost half of the country." We keep walking back into the apartment. I open the gate and head upstairs. I knock on the door and Janelle answers it.
"Did you guys get new phones?" she asks.
"No. He did. Mine survived the wreckage." Wendell says.
"Yeah. Besides, my parents would've cancelled my phone contract after what happened." I say.
"Ok." Jani steps aside and we walk back in.
"You guys back?" Angie yells from the living room. She's watching a rerun of FRIENDS.
"Yeah." Wendell says.
"I'm gonna go back into our room and hopefully get my phone set up." I say.
"Ok. I'll start making dinner." Wendell says. I kiss him on the lips and go into our room. I close the door behind me. I notice a slight breeze. I look over and notice the window open. Slowly, I walk over and open the curtains. The window was closed when me and Wendell left. I was about to think that maybe Angie or Janelle opened it to get more air into the place, but that's when I notice a red cat sitting on the ledge.
Before I can get a chance to yell out, Allen puts a paw over my muzzle and drags me out of the room. He loses footing and we fall two stories onto the ground. The impact has hard but I'm ok. Allen holds me down by his foot and takes out three pocketknives.
"Help!!!! Wendell!!!!" Allen then pulls out duct tape and tapes my muzzle shut.
"Your fucking boyfriend isn't going to help you this time." Allen says malevolently. I struggle under his strong hold but I can't move. "You know what your precious boyfriend did? When he threw that knife into Ray's leg, he punctured a major artery. When Steele tried to take it out, Ray started bleeding like crazy. He's dead. And now, you're gonna pay the price." He takes the A knife, opens it up and cuts open my palm. I scream like hell, but I know I can't do anything about it. Allen takes the S knife and cuts open my other palm. Soon enough I've got both paws full of blood.
He opens the R knife and drags it slowly across my chest, but not cutting it. "Say hi to Ray for me." he says. Allen lifts the knife and aims for my chest. I scream like hell. My nightmare is coming true. Just when he's about to kill me, I hear a gunshot and Allen falls onto me. I look up and see Angie holding a revolver.
"No one messes with my friends." she says. She drops the gun and runs up to me. Wendell and Janelle soon follow.
"Are you ok?" Wendell asks. He takes the tape off my muzzle.
"No. He cut my palms open." I say.
"I'll call 911." Janelle says.
"Todd. Listen. You're gonna be ok. We'll get you help." Angie says
"Hello?" Janelle is on her cell phone, "We need an ambulance. Someone got cut up. Badly."
***
The bandages on my paws make it itch like crazy. It's been three days since that incident. My phone's been set up. Angie, Janelle, Wendell and I got the story straight with the police and Allan has been pronounced dead by bullet to the head.
"Hey, Angie?" I say.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for saving my life."
"You're welcome. I couldn't let anything bad happen to my good friends." I smile. Even though it's scary to know that two furs are dead, it's great to know that my new roommates have my back.
"I appreciate it. And as long as I don't clench my fists too much for the next several days, they said that I should be ok." I say.
"That's great news." Wendell says. He embraces me and I try to hug him back, even though it makes my paws feel weird. "You wanna take a walk with me?"
"Sure." I smile. We put our shoes on and we head out the door. As we walk, a thought comes to mind. "Hey, where's Bruno and Sarah? I thought you gave them Angie's address."
"Angie told me that they had to catch their flight back home. Apparently, they only bought a two day vacation to L.A. We're not going to be seeing them for a while." Wendell says.
"That's sad. I'm gonna miss them."
"I am too." We eventually come across a bench we saw at the park back home. I insisted we take a seat. Wendell puts his arm around me and kisses my cheek.
"It's been great. You know." I say.
"Great what?" he asks.
"It's been great moving here and being your boyfriend." I kiss him on the cheek.
"Thanks. I couldn't be happier being with you." he smiles. I return his with my own. I look out into the horizon. The sun is setting.
"Hey look. It's a beautiful sunset." I say.
"Yeah. You're right." he looks in that direction. "Hey Todd?"
"Yeah, Wendell?"
"You know how all those perfect love stories end?"
"How?"
"With a kiss."
"Ok." And with that, he hold both of my paws we seal the deal with the most passionate kiss ever.
END OF BOOK ONE