FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Com...ing..." Hazard yawned, walking sluggishly to the front door after a buzz from it woke him up from a deep yet restless sleep. He opened the door, only to find that it was Sasuga, standing behind it with a cheery smile on her pretty face. The wolf squinted his eyes, focusing his sight to get a clear image, as he still felt a little groggy and didn't have his glasses on. His head fur was all ruffled up; he looked like a wrinkled rag that needed some serious tend-up, and he was wearing the same clothes he had on him yesterday, sans the white shirt he had over his black tanktop.

"Good morning Hazard!" Sasuga greeted in her chirpy voice.

"Oh... Morn... ing..." Hazard replied in the middle of another deep yawn, his maw opened wide and baring his sharp fangs as he did. Sasuga flinched a bit when she saw him yawn like that; he looked somewhat intimidating, but she returned to smile again when she saw how cute he looked when he finally closed his mouth and a teardrop hanged by the side of one of his sleepy eyes. She noticed how restless he looked, and figured that he'd spent the whole night fixing his new apartment since he moved in yesterday, and apparently hadn't even finished yet from what she could see. She felt kind of bad for not helping him out more, but she didn't have the chance with how Hazard insisted that he didn't want to trouble her. "So... what brings you this early in the morning?" Hazard asked, unable to hold back another yawn, this time remembering to cover his maw with a hand.

"Don't you remember? You asked me to wake you up in case you didn't, to go to your job. It's 6:45," Sasuga said, pointing at her wrist watch.

"Huh...? Oh right!" Hazard smacked his forehead, "Man, it'll take me forever to get ready! Jeez... late in the first day of the job... that'll give 'em a good first impression..." he sighed in frustration and Sasuga's ears drooped down sympathetically.

"Um, don't feel so bad. You can still make it in time!" Sasuga said encouragingly.

"Yeah... you're right! No time to waste! Thanks for the wake up call, Sasuga! I owe you one. You better get going or you'll be late, too." Hazard nodded in gratitude.

"Oh, don't worry about me. I only have one class today and it's eight hours away."

"Eh? Then why are you up so early?" Hazard wondered with a head tilt, noticing how she was already dressed up well in her usual casual wears.

Sasuga giggled, "No school doesn't mean no work. I still have to go to my job at the university. Which reminds me... where you work at?" she asked back.

"Oh, well, it's a national food company at downtown. I work as a tally worker there. Y'know, checking and boxing incoming and outcoming goods?" Hazard answered and Sasuga's faced brightened.

"Oh! I know which company you mean! 'Delfino Bros. Co.'! It's a couple of blocks away from my university! We get our cafeteria goods from there!" Sasuga excitedly pointed out.

"Really? Heh, cool. We're neighbors in both home and workplace. Tell you what then. How about we have lunch together?" Hazard proposed from out of the blue and surprised the kirin.

"L-Lunch? You mean... today?" She stammered slightly, her cheeks turning green; she didn't see that coming.

"Yeah. Unless you're not free."

"Oh, no! I think I'm free around lunch hour..." Sasuga muttered and tried to hold back her blush. Not that she'd mind, but she didn't expect Hazard to ask her out this soon. She'd never been asked out since she arrived at this neighborhood, so she was a little elated.

"Great! It's a date then. Err, not that kinda date! But y'know..." Hazard snickered and Sasuga returned with a delighted nod.

"I know. Oh! You have to hurry if you still wanna make it!" Sasuga then reminded him of the time and Hazard gasped.

"Heck! You're right!" He hurried back to his apartment and not even a few seconds passed before Sasuga heard Hazard yelp, followed by a noisy racket happening inside. She rushed in to check what had happened, and was surprised to see the wolf buried under a high heap of stuff he must've crammed inside the living room closet.

"Hazard! Are you all right!?" Sasuga exclaimed as she helped him out of the mess he made.

"Owww... yeah, I'm fine... I just misplaced the bathroom... again..." Hazard replied jadedly, rubbing his sore head and looking quite embarrassed, and the kirin simply blinked at him in surprise; she started to wonder if he was named 'Hazard' for a reason.

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Sasuga arrived at work early, but that didn't help her as much as she hoped, finding a little note left behind by her supervisor, Mr. Burns. She sighed in distress as she read the note, apparently Mr. Burns didn't spare her any extra work for the day as it contained tons of tasks for her to finish, ranging from filing papers to data inputting in the computer. It was as if that chipmunk's goal in life was to swamp her with endless work, while he slacked off doing god-only-knew-what in his own office.

"Ah well... better get this over with," Sasuga breathed out and prepared to do these chores, as she didn't want to be late for that lunch appointment with Hazard. She was looking forward to it, and she wouldn't let some greasy rodent ruin it for her, even if that greasy rodent was her boss.

Six grueling hours later and Sasuga was all done. "Whew! I thought that would never end... Oh crap! It's already 1:35?!' Sasuga gasped when she looked at the clock on the wall. She had to pick up her pace if she wanted to make it in time. She tidied everything on the desk up and pondered if she should let her boss know she was taking her leave. "Nah!" She decided to just skip away; he'd probably throw some more work at her just to spite her otherwise. Hazard and her arranged to meet up in front of his working place around 2:00 PM, she couldn't waste any more time here.

"Sas!" Sasuga heard a familiar voice calling out for her as she was about to leave the university. She turned around and saw her feline schoolmate Kyle running towards her direction.

"Oh, hey Kyle! Did you just finish your classes?" Sasuga asked as Kyle finally reached her.

"Y-Yeah..." panted the cat, out of breath, "I'm glad I caught you..."

"Hm? Is something wrong?" Sasuga cocked her head in wonder at Kyle, as the young cat settled down and he blushed a bit.

"Umm, n-not really..." he replied, grazing on one of his whiskers. "I just wanted to apologize about what happened yesterday. You know... about me running off like that."

"Oh! Is that why you look so worried? Aw, you're so adorable. It's okay, Kyle, it didn't bother me at all," Sasuga said and comforted the anxious Kyle, who breathed out in relief.

"Phew... I'm so glad to hear that. I... I didn't mean to run off like that. I just wanted to... well... to ask you if..." Kyle started to stammer nervously, acting just the same as the previous day before he went off like a timid kitten.

"Oh dang! I'm sorry, Kyle! I really need to be get going, I have to meet someone right now. I'll see you later, ok?" Sasuga then interrupted him and repentantly said, walking away while waving to her cat friend, Kyle blinking in confusion.

"Huh? O-oh, okay, no problem, catch you later!" Kyle waved back at her and watched her disappear out of his sight, before letting out a dry sigh. "Damn me..."

To be continued...