FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The four of us were staying at Daniel's house despite the storm. Honestly, I knew his house perfectly safe, the problem was the sound of the rain and the occasional bowts of hail hitting the massive window. The sound echoed and resonated through out the house, and everything had to be turned up louder than usual to to be audible.

We were sitting on the floor in separate sleeping bags- well, separate from the other couple- and watching some romcom that Daniel's mom and grandma wanted to watch. I didn't mind, I always thought they were funny, and since everyone knew I was gay, it was fine. It seemed like the others were enjoying it, too, and now and then Seth would kiss me or squeeze me or nuzzle me some other adorable thing that hardened my boner.

Something that I always loved about Daniel's house was how warm it was. I was one to always be cold, even during summer days, so their house being so warm was nice. My parents didn't keep the house too warm, mostly for billing reasons, which I understood. Still, warmth was nice.

Even though me and Seth, and Ted and Daniel were in separate sleeping bags- more like nests- we were still all crammed together. Their couches could be pushed together and face each other, and the space created when you removed the back cushions was enough for the four of us to lay comfortably. We all liked to have something to our backs, so me and Ted put a row of cushions between us to lean against, and neither of us minded when we leaned back more to feel the other's head or arm or shoulder already there. We all just kinda cuddled, letting ourselves enjoy any body we could.

Aside from only being able to see the TV- which was fine by all accounts- the only problem was that we couldn't get up. If we tried, we'd either slip on the sleeping bags, get ourselves caught in the blankets, or be pulled back down by the others. Ted was the only one who could get out of the mass since he always slept in one, so he got us popcorn and soda and such. In fact, the two bowls between us were giant salad bowls that held at least five servings of popcorn each.

And it wasn't cheep, crappy, microwaved popcorn either. It was the good stuff, made in one of those theatre style popcorn makers, and the Parker's even had theatre butter. To add to it, they had so many god damn seasonings that I couldn't even think of what purposes they'd all serve. Every sweet, salty, meaty, and cheesy flavors could be found. Daniel even tricked Ted into trying the weird combo of bacon, Parmesan, and caramel flavors, which apparently Ted liked since he kept eating it. Me and Seth were simple to please; butter and salt was all we needed. Well, and soda. Everybody needs soda.

The movie was fine, until the lights started flickering, which was fine. And then they'd go out for a few seconds at a time, as if it'd wait for all the lights in the house to flick off in clusters, half seconds at a time, then all the power would come back. By the time we were only twenty minutes away from finishing the movie, when the power finally went out. Completely. Leaving us all in a pitch black, noisy, and all together creepy room. The only light was Seth's glowing body, which made him the candidate for going and getting flash lights and candles, and Daniel went with him to help him find them. They came back, shined some lights around, and I was still morbidly terrified.

Why? Well, let me explain to you while children fear the dark. See, children's minds are creative and imaginative! This all well and good, until you turn out the lights. Who knows what could lurk behind every object that once gave you comfort, who knows what could happen when your not looking, who knows what fills the space around you, and who knows what you don't. Children usually lose this fear by the time they're ten, but those who don't, get an extra couple years of anatomy and biology to add to their fears. Everything cold that touches my arm could be the warmth seeping from the room, or it could be the appendage of some nightmarish monster that only exists in the shadows. Maybe there's bacteria that behave... differently... when the lights go out. Maybe those tapping sounds aren't just the rain against the window, and maybe those growls aren't just the thunder. Maybe those shapes I see in the bright flashes of light, aren't just the furniture, and maybe the lights aren't just the lightning. Maybe I'm hysterical, or maybe I'm the only one who understands. Either way, I'm freaked out, and I'm terrified, and I'm certainly more afraid of the dark than I am to admit that.

So yeah, I'm terrified, jumpy, and easily susceptible to the care and comfort of a man. Any man. Someone remembered I was afraid of the dark, and I felt the pillows move next to me. I was pulled into someone's embrace, and figured it was Ted. Seth's arms would be burning up, and Daniel was stilling holding Ted, until his arms extended to hold me as well. They pull me up between them and held me close, and at some point Seth got in the mix, and made Ted move so Seth could slide under me and keep me warm. Ted returned to his spot, and they slid the blankets and sleeping bags back up over us, and I fell asleep in their loving embrace...

I awake in the morning to the light bleeding over the cliff and streaming through the window. Daniel and Seth were still asleep, but Ted was wide awake, laying on his stomach an inch or two away from us, and drawing something on a pad of paper he had. I rolled over, careful to not wake Seth, but his arms pulled me close so I couldn't move away. I still got a decent view of Ted's drawing though, and was thoroughly amazed by how well drawn it was.

It still took me a minute to figure out what he was drawing, but I realized it was a hand, extended in the air, and holding a ball of fire, or energy, or sunlight, or something in it. He caught me looking at his drawing, blushed, and moved it away so I couldn't see.

"Why don't you let me see your work? It's really good." [Me]

"I don't know, it's just embarrassing."

"How? Not very many people can draw that well."

"I know, and that's why. I don't... I don't like people seeing my art, no matter how good it is. I just don't."

"Okay, but, still... Your friends should be allowed to see."

"No."

"What about your boyfriends?"

"You aren't Daniel, so-"

"That was plural."

"... God I hate you. Fine..." He slid the pad back to where I could see, and started on the back ground. It was interesting watching him draw, how he began with such arbitrary, shapeless, and formless lines, and how slowly he'd finish up a shape, trying so hard not to miss place a line. If he erased it was over obscurely tiny things that I would've called insignificant, but he seemed to think otherwise. After he finished a shape, he'd add a little detail to it, and slowly over the course of what felt like a couple hours, the image was completed. He looked it over, frowned at a couple things, drew a thick X over the whole thing, scribbled over it, ripped the paper off the pad, balled it up, and tossed it out of the nest we had.

"Why'd you do that? It looked great!" [Me]

"The flame didn't look right, I drew the fingers wrong, and the background wasn't right."

"... Those are tiny, insignificant things! It's still a good picture!"

"Okay, I'm the artist. If I say something's done wrong, it's done wrong. If I say I hate the image, everyone else should too."

"Jeez, calm down. I was just saying it looked good."

"I... I'm sorry, I just... I don't like it when people look at my drawings, so I judge them harder when the do. Honestly, I drew the left hand instead of the right hand, which bugged me, and the flames were messed up, and I proportioned the background weirdly. It looked fine it just... It just wasn't exactly what I wanted."

"Yeah... I know how you feel, I'm like that too. I'm only proud of my art when it's something that I actually like drawing. Before I turned gay, I'd show my parents just about everything I drew, but I started drawing things that they wouldn't approve of. People kissing, hugging, or holding hands. I couldn't draw women very well, so they were all guys. At some point I realized I was gay, and stopped mentally complaining about that."

"Huh... Heh, I guess you've got more of a reason to hide what you draw then I do."

"Yeah, but I don't get it. Why was the guy holding fire?"

"Oh, I don't know. I just thought that always looked cool."

"Ah. So, how does that work with music? I mean, you played the guitar at Thanksgiving."

"Oh, that. Yeah, I don't like playing publically, and despite that, dad always drags me down to the church on the Sunday before Fourth of July to play the national anthem on the guitar. I hate it."

"That explains why you were gone that Sunday."

"Yup. ... Man, it's so weird that our dads go to the same church. Well, and your mom."

"Yeah. I guess it makes sense, but it's still weird."

"Yeah... This world has so many connections. It makes you wonder how it got so complicated. I mean, was it this complicated when there were only ten or twenty people in the world? Were their lives this intricate, this complicated, or did they live lives so simple that we can't even imagine?"

"Ugh, philosophy."

"Ugh, thinking in general."