Trying Something New (clean, romanticized)
Sparky awoke to the noise of a door slamming down the hall. While this was not a noise capable of waking a normal person, it was like a gunshot to his ears. This, combined with the cotton on his tongue and the abnormal brightness of the light from behind his curtains, reminded him that there was a reason why he doesn't drink. His hand blundered about the top of his stereo until he found his sunglasses. Donning them, he relaxed back into his bed, stretching out his stiffened muscles. As he moved, Sparky felt the un-buttoned button-up shirt still wrapped around his torso. He could ALSO feel the sheets rubbing against his exposed package. Emanating from the general direction of his roommate's room were the faint strings of some rap song. Oh good...A potential witness. Daring to take a shaded squint around his room, Sparky took note of the clothes scattered about his floor, bed, and desk. The khakis, silver vest, tie, boxer briefs, the sock jammed in the doorway, and the sock draped over the desk lamp were all his. The mesh tank top, tight jeans, and socks on the bedposts were not. He flopped back and thought back on last night's events...
Sparky was many things: a sophomore chemical engineer at the Florida Institute of Technology, a major gaming geek, a fan of sci-fi. He was a red panda, kind-of fit, not exactly the best looking guy, but not ugly either. But one thing he was not was the party type, especially college parties. Too loud, too many people, and someone always ended up spilling things in his fur. But the past week had been stressful, and he needed to blow off some steam. Plus, Nick was only in town for a week, and he had pressuring Sparky to out and party AT LEAST once for a while; so, after an hour of pestering, he finally relented, under the condition that he only HAD to stay for an hour. Besides, Nick was his best friend since eighth grade, and currently was halfway through his senior year of high school back in New York. He was lean wolf, jet black fur and hair with a sleek sheen and a single white tuft at the base of his neck, and popular with both the gentlemen and ladies, which Sparky never understood. After all, Nick was one of the biggest, goofiest dorks he ever knew, hence why they were so close.
As they were getting ready to go, Sparky gave a quick look over his outfit in the bathroom mirror of his dorm room. A white button up, with a well fitted shiny silver vest and a blue tie tucked under the vest, black dress slacks, and his favorite blue converse, for there were his favorite shoes. On his head rested a black pinstripe fedora, from either side of which his ears protruded. Nick poked his head into the bathroom.
"You ready yet?"
Sparky turned back to him. "How do I look?"
Nick paused to consider. "Well, if I had to venture a guess, I'd say I have no fashion sense and you look fine." Nick was wearing his black polo, the top button un-buttoned to frame his white tuft and the collar up, baggy blue jeans, and red converse. No fashion sense indeed. One cab ride later, the were standing in front of a large black building with a strong baseline emanating from within and a neon sign mounted outside saying "Ruffled Fur"
"Oh joy. What a great way to start the evening," said Sparky, looking up at the sign. Nick turned to him.
"Oh calm down, it's just a club name. C'mon, let's go in."
They walked up to the bouncer, a very large, very intimidating stallion (bypassing the line).
"Hey! Back of the line!" Nick looked him right and the eye and said "I'm a friend of Luke's." The bouncer stared them down for a few seconds. Nick stared right back, matching his gaze and not backing down a single inch. Finally, the bouncer pulled aside the rope and let them in. Once they passed, Sparky murmured to Nick, "Who's Luke?" Nick paused for a second to consider his question.
"No idea!"
Upon entering the club, Sparky saw exactly what he expected: Scantily clad couples of almost every species grinding on each other on the dance floor to the rhythm of the techno music blaring through the club at a deafening volume. Scanning the room, Sparky saw the oddly shaped furniture, the ultraviolet lighting, and an abundance of glow-sticks. Sparky leaned over to Nick, nearly shouting to be heard over the music.
"I already want to go home." Nick shouted right back at him "Oh, don't be a buzz kill! You've been talking about how stressed out you are. We're here to de-stress! Have fun!" With that, Nick spotted a group of girls at a table across the club. "Dibs on the rabbit in the blue!" Sparky looked over to the table. Three rabbits, a dog, and a tiger, all relatively attractive college women, mostly Sparky's classmates. "Fine by me. You can have them all." Sparky hadn't finished speaking before Nick started towards the table. Hope his hotel room is soundproof, thought Sparky.
Weaving between gyrating dancers and the odd furniture, Sparky sat himself down at the bar. The bartender looked up at him.
"Hmm. Not many red pandas in this club. What's your poison?"
Sparky chuckled a bit to himself. "No 'poison'. Just coke, if you please."
"Coke and anything?"
"Nope. Just coke"
The bartender shrugged, then pulled out a glass, plopped in two ice cubes, then filled the glass with coke, and handed it over.
"A coke at a nightclub? On a free drink night? Kinda strange, dontcha think?"
Sparky turned to see who had spoken. Sitting next to him at the bar was a handsome young river otter, with dark brown fur, and stunning, deep, beautiful blue eyes. On his lean, toned body he wore a black denim jacket over a mesh tank top, skinny jeans, and sneakers. On his head rested a beret that was as blue and vibrant as his eyes. He was quite fit and, as Sparky looked his firm figure up and down, he notices a telltale bulge in the front of his jeans. His face was youthful and finely kept, neither stuffed nor gaunt, but nicely set, as if molded for Adonis himself.
Sparky blushed a little (hard to notice through his red-orange fur), and he turned back to his drink, muttering, "Well, maybe I'm just a strange person."
The otter leaned closer to him. "Well, maybe I like strange."
Sparky blushed fully from ears to tail-tip. He could feel the butterflies flitting like mad in his stomach, and his tail grew a little bushy. The otter saw this, chuckled a little to himself, and then extended his hand.
"Hi, I'm Lance."
Sparky grabbed his hand and shook it. "S-Sparky." Lance looked at him with a slight smile on his slender face. Sparky took a drink of his soda, and took a deep breath. Turning back to Lance, he said "So you like weird?"
"Well, certainly unusual. For example, I'm here tonight with my friend, Todd. He's been feeling shy lately about his gender issues. I bet him that if "she" came out with me tonight, not only would she look just fine AND have a good time, she might even get a few numbers. Hey, that's "her" over there, in the blue shirt!"
Sparky followed the direction Lance was pointing to a table in the corner.
"You mean the rabbit, the one with the blue baby doll tee and miniskirt?"
"Yep, that's him!"
Sparky burst out laughing. Sure enough, there was Nick, pulling every move he had to impress this blue bunny. And there "she" was, fawning over him, sable hands playfully moving closer to the jet black body, eyes filled with ideas.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing. It's just that that happens to be my best friend hitting on your friend over there."
"Think it's going to be a problem if he finds out who 'Tina' really is?"
Sparky turned back to face Lance. "Nah. Nick's got mad skills at picking people up. He can spot silicon at 100 paces, so he probably knows by now. Plus, he's a devious combination of bisexual and open-minded, so you're probably not gonna see Todd again 'til tomorrow morning, at least."
"What about you?"
Sparky looked up from taking a drink. "What about me?"
Lance leaned in closer to him.
"How do you 'identify'? Are you as bi and open-minded as your friend back there?"
Sparky took a quick glance back behind him. Nick's mouth was starting to open as it moved within inches of Todd's open mouth, tongue on the edge of his teeth. Sparky turned back. "Well, maybe not as open minded as my soon to be busy friend back there, but I'm willing to try things once. As for my sexuality.... let's just say that the attractive ones in this club are NOT the ones with boobs."
Lance leaned back a bit and narrowed his eyes, a smile slowly creeping across his features. "Reeeeeally....."
Sparky and Lance spent next hour or so talking. As they spoke, the music faded, the noise of the crowd slackened off, and the world became inconsequential to them. It turned out that Lance was a freshman at FIT, a year under Sparky at the same school. The reason they had never seen each other before is that Lance lived and had classes on the southern side of campus, whereas Sparky spent the majority of his time in the north and central parts. If they had seen each other before, it was from a distance, or in passing, with no real recognition of having ever met before. Lance was studying to be a behavioral psychologist, and was born and raised in Florida. He had met Todd his junior year of High school, when Todd transferred in. Todd currently attends BCC just down the road. When not working at the psych building as a clerk, Lance spent a lot of his time gaming. In fact it turned out that Sparky and Lance had quite a bit in common, from a love of sci-fi to political views (e.g. they couldn't care less about politics).
Lance had ordered two appletinis, offering the one to Sparky and urging him to "try something new." Sparky consented, say he'll try it just this once. Several appletinis later, they were approached by Nick, with Tina under one arm and the tiger who was at the table with them under the other.
"Hey, Sparky, we're gonna take off. You two lovebirds okay on your own?"
"Ahh, shove off, pup. I can cab my way back home. Hey!" Sparky drew Nick aside. "You got protection for tonight?"
"Dude, who're you talking to? I stocked my room with rubbers and lube the day I arrived! I'll be fine!"
"What're you, a San Francisco Scoutmaster?"
"Jealous." Nick walked off towards the door, chatting animatedly and seductively to the two future-conquests beneath his arms. Sparky watched them go, and then turned back to Lance. "Lucky bastard."
"How so?"
"Well, it just seems a might bit unfair. Nick and I have been friends for a while now. I'm one year and two grades older than him, and of the two of us, he's the one who's slept with 10+ people of both genders and many species, while here I sit, the virgin. I don't know how he does it either. He's a dork, he's psycho, he has mediocre people skills and he can successfully hit on just about ANYONE, and make any evening end with any number of people in his bed. I, on the other hand, can quite easily walk into a room of my friends and within seven minutes have said something very awkward. It just frustrates the hell out of me."
"Do you resent him for him for it?"
"No. I resent me. Like I said, I'm a very awkward person. I was only ever in one relationship, a girlfriend when I first came to college, before I realized who I was, and it fell apart within two months. I just don't know how to be cool or even be attractive to someone, apparently." Sparky finished off his current martini. Lance sat for a bit, thinking about what he heard. Suddenly, he grabbed Sparky's hand and yanked him onto the dance floor.
From there on in, things became fuzzy. Sparky vaguely remembered snippets of the rest of the night: he remembered dancing with Lance, timidly at first, but soon moving in sync with the music. He remembered his hands running down Lance's sides as they flowed together to the beat of the song. He remembered offering to share a cab ride back to campus, walking up to his room with Lance so he could say goodnight. He remembered a brush of lips and intertwining of tongues, clothes flying in mad directions as if in a blind frenzy to shed themselves from their bodies. He vaguely remembered hands exploring and groping to find new knowledge of new experience, remembered fur rubbing against his own, foreign warmth pressed around him, hot ragged breath on the back of his neck.
Sparky's hand strayed across the mussed-up sheets and blanket, until his hand came in contact with something. Warm, smooth fur, moving in time with the breathing he now began to notice coming from the other side of the bed. He looked over at the still form of Lance, asleep and lying on his side, facing the wall. Sparky spent some time lying there, just watching him sleep, before sidling closer and wrapping his arms around Lance. As Sparky drifted back to sleep, feeling more content and secure now than he had in a while, he smiled slightly to himself. This was the best birthday ever.