Goodnight John
Story by sangheilinerd on SoFurry
Last week's prompt. Extremely late: I found out who it was just a few seconds too late.
I went down kind of a dark path with this one. 1065 word count.
I kissed John goodnight. He looked so handsome in his uniform. All the metal bits and bobs shone in the glow of the porch light. His badge catching the light just right to accentuate the eagle which perched atop it. He’d always told me that being a cop was difficult. Being a cop and a Fur. That was practically impossible.
The Furs in the world had only come to be seen as equals politically very recently. But a lot of the old hatreds and tensions still ran deep. Racism—ever present in human society—had taken root in the hearts of many concerning Furs. I never understood.
John was a six-foot-six German Shepherd fur. His heart was true. He was a good person. Intelligent. Just because he looked like a dog walking on two legs, didn’t mean that he was as intelligent as one. No. In fact he’d been the valedictorian of our class in college.
Graduating Magna cum Lauda in a school which had only recently started accepting Fur applicants would have been amazing enough on its own, but he did it while also working two jobs to pay his way through.
Then after doing that, as if this man was born with a halo, he joined the Police Academy. Flew through the training with ease. Became an officer. He was given the shittiest beat. At the worst time. His sergeant was an asshole through and through. Yet even under these circumstances, John continued to thrive. He won his sergeant’s respect the same way he had his teachers in school. He was promoted to senior trooper well before he should have been.
I remember that night. I can still feel a slight twinge from my hole from our celebrations. Now with a new partner and a look of determination in his eye, I sent the love of my life off to face the dredges of society. Damn it all if he didn’t look dashing in those blues. The blue actually seemed to accentuate the browns and blacks of his fur not clash with it. His amber eyes flashing with humor, “You like what you see?”
I nodded mutely. He laughed. “Love you.”
“Love you, too. Now go stop some bad guys, love.” I replied. He hugged me and gave me a big sloppy, wet kiss. His broad, flat tongue licking up my face and leaving it covered with drool.
“Night love. See you in the morning?”
“In the morning. Sure.”
He walked down the stairs of the walkway, heading down to his partner waiting in the cruiser. His partner, waved at me I waved back. John’s partner was a good dude. He respected John, and he’d not cared when he found out that John and I were married. Being a human guy married to a male Dog, lent itself to some of its own issues. Yet, Hank had been cool about it.
Hank sped off, disappearing down the street. I went into the house. I grabbed a beer and some leftovers from the fridge. Then turned on some sitcom or another and vegged for a few hours. After a while, though I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I looked over at the clock, ten in the evening. Definitely time for some shut eye.
***
I woke up with a start. There was a clattering from the front door. I looked over at the alarm clock on my nightstand. It was two in the morning. Too early for John to be coming home. I got out of the bed and reached under it. I pulled out John’s Mossberg 12 shotgun. Pumped the action and loaded a round. I went down the stairs which led to the bedrooms in our house. I waited on the last landing, watching the door with the shotgun pointed at where center of mass would be for the average human man. When I heard the door open, I sighted down the barrel and squeezed.
I saw his face and realized too late who it was. It was John. He flew back onto the concrete outside. His eyes wide in shock. I looked down at John. I couldn’t believe what I’d done. Luckily he had been wearing his body armor, which itself was chewed up by the birdshot. “John! John, oh my god! Are you ok?”
He groaned, “You shot me!” He huffed. I couldn’t exactly respond. “Larson, you shot me. You’re lucky I was wearing a vest.”
He looked down at the vest, removing it. I finally asked, “Should I call an ambulance?”
“No, love. It’s ok. I’ll get—”
Hank put a hand on John’s shoulder and said, “get checked up right away. I called a bus already. Larson,” he eyed me, “what the actual fuck!?”
“I didn’t think John would be home so early. I thought he was a robber or something.” I replied. It made me think, though, “Why is he home early?”
“We got a tip about a human power group calling themselves the Sons of Mars we’re going to come after me…” John leveled his gaze at me, “by kidnapping you.”
“Guess we know now that Larson can take care of himself, yeah?” Hank joked, shaking his head.
John smiled at me, “I’ve always known that. One of the many reasons why I mated him.”
“I’m still sorry, John. I didn’t know it was you.” I apologized, “I love you.”
“I love you too. And I know you’d never hurt me on purpose, love.”
“So what were you gonna do about the Sons of Mars?”
“We were going to take you to the precinct.” Hank said to me, then, to John, “You ok, John?”
“Broken rib or three. I’ll live.”
Just then the ambulance showed. A cervine and a Latina woman jumped out. They came over and checked him out. Forcing him onto a gurney. I turned around to go back into the house and grab my wallet and phone.
“Larson, wait up! We still need to get you out of the house.” Hank said as he came up to my side.
“I know…aren’t you going to have to report this? I’m sure my neighbors heard the shot.” I asked.
“Let’s just worry about John for now.” Hank said.
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Hank.” He just smiled. I smiled back, “let me grab my phone and we can head to the station.”