FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ruby Rowan hadn't exactly been thrilled when Richard sprung the dinner date on her without asking, though, there was a small part of her that was happy to get the news. The two rarely went out for dinner together, then again, they rarely ate dinner together at all due to their schedules. The vixen usually worked nights at the hospital, and her husband worked all day, so their primary interaction was around an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening when the two were passing one another for work.

For being in her late sixties, Ruby looked astounding. Her muzzle was greying more and more every year, but she allowed it to. It gave her an air of nobility and wisdom, as if she was the queen of the hospital, which in many aspects, she was. Like her name implied, the vixen was a vibrant shade of ruby red, which contrasted a bit with her husband who was more a red-brown color. Unlike Richard, she didn't have any brown on her at all, save for a little patch that she only ever showed to her husband the few nights the two would actual engage in intercourse.

For now, though, she was dressed quite beautifully, her dress cut medium length in the back and a little low in the front. Richard had been a bit surprised at the dress she picked, but he certainly was not complaining. "My dear you look absolutely gorgeous in that dress," the old tod said as he took his wife's hand to help her out of the car, "I don't think you've ever looked more beautiful than you have tonight."

Ruby smiled. Her husband was paying her a compliment, something he rarely had the chance to do. "Thank you, Richard," the vixen replied as she slid in beside her husband. Her tod slipped the valet a twenty before escorting her down the carpeted walkway into the Oasis.

To say that the hotel and casino wasn't opulent was to say the Sahara had too much rain. The al-Daube family had purchased the old place from the previous owners and had actually closed the palm tree shaped building for a year to renovate everything until the interior looked like the luxurious palaces that most people had only seen in movies. The floors had been replaced with marble. Fixtures had been plated with pure gold. The Arabian frescos been painstakingly reconstructed using the finest of paints, marbles, and jewels. Even the light fixtures had been replaced.

It was said that Ali al-Daube bought the hotel and casino as a way of testing if his son could take over the family business. He'd not only done that, he'd gone far and above his parents' expectations. The last Richard had heard, Shakir had managed to rake in somewhere in the high hundreds of millions in revenue that had covered the initial purchase cost and was slowly recuperating the cost of the renovations. Between the gambling, the three five star restaurants, and the exclusive deal that Shakir had managed to broker with Gazelle for her to perform on stage there, the hotel was packed nearly every day.

Ruby had been to the Oasis a few times after all the renovations were complete, but those had been for work. This was the first time she was actually coming to the Hotel and Casino without having to drag a briefcase along. The vixen gently nested against her husband, the tod dressed up in a dark colored business suit, as the two made their way towards Gordon Ramsey's. "We should do this more often," Ruby said with a smile. Richard grinned back, "Yes, we really should. Hopefully when your schedule isn't so busy, we can do this again, and maybe we could have sex after."

The vixen chuckled before giving his chest a pat, "Oh you."

"What? I'm serious. I haven't gotten to enjoy your feminine wilds in almost a month. If we weren't about to meet with Mike and Helen and a client, I'd skip dinner and whisk you straight up to one of the rooms," the tod said as he stopped dead in his tracks. Ruby kept going, but Richard yanked her off her feet, pulling her towards him to hold her against him.

"You're a hopeless romantic, you know that, Richard," the vixen said with a smile.

"Ah yes, my dear, I am quite hopeless, but not romantic."

"Don't you mean it the other way around?"

"I know what I said," the tod replied as he slowly pulled her back up onto her feet, "Now. I think we should get to the restaurant. Unless you'd be interested in skipping dinner entirely and getting a room for the night."

Ruby smirked, "Let's get dinner first before we think about any dessert." The vixen paused for a second, "You did remember to tell Mike and Helen and your clients which restaurant it was, right?"

"Of course I did," her husband said.

Unfortunately, Richard didn't, so his four guests ended up being about ten minutes late. The elder fox wasn't exactly thrilled when Mike, Helen, and their two clients were escorted to the large booth he and his wife were occupying. He didn't seem to pay the other two any attention, his focus firmly on the youngest of his two sons. "Took you long enough," he said as he gave his son a glare before turning his attention over to Helen, his expression changing completely, "Helen! So wonderful to see you! How are my grandvixens?"

Mike chuffed as he and his wife slid into the booth. He wasn't exactly thrilled by the way his father acted, and in truth, neither was Mike's mother. Helen, on the other hand, kept her smile and air of civility. "Oh, they're doing well, Richard. They would have loved to join us, but they had to head home," the silver vixen replied.

"Oh, what a shame," Richard seemed to pout, "I should have made the reservation for eight, so we could see them again. I'm very sorry Ruby and I have been so busy."

Ruby had been fairly quiet up until then, her gaze looking over at the strange tod and vixen who were now sliding into the booth's seats. He looked like her late son, Chris. She couldn't help herself as she gave a few shocked blinks, doing a double take before slowly looking over at Mike and Helen. "Y... yes... We're both very sorry. The... the hospital... the hospital," the vixen couldn't seem to finish her sentence or keep her concentration on her son and his wife, her gaze moving back to stare at the reddish-yellow vixen and the tod beside her, the tod that looked strikingly like her son.

Kody and Jo could see the older vixen staring at them, her eyes almost popping from her skull. Slowly, Kody reached his hand across the table towards her and her husband. "I'm..." the tod was just about to say when Mike decided to interrupt, "Mom, Richard, this is Ray Schaiferhund, the one I told you about on the phone."

Richard looked down at his wife as she took Ray's hand, his ears perking at her expression. "Ruby, if you keep your muzzle open like that, you'll have a dinner of flies before the food gets here," He said before following her line of sight. His eyes moved down her slender deep red arm, seeing another striking red hand holding hers. It was trying to pull away from the astounded vixen's grasp, but even though the arm was obviously muscular, even though it was hidden by a grey jacket and white long sleeved shirt, Ruby's grip was like a vice. Slowly his gaze moved higher up the arm, over the shoulder to stare into the muzzle and eyes of, "CHRIS!"

"Dad, that's not Chris. That's Ray Schaiferhund, you know, the client I told you about whose parents had Mr. Mousekewitz draw up their Last Will and Testimony," Mike tried to keep the reigns of the conversation, but it was useless.

"Mike! Is this some kind of sick joke? I mean, it's sick, and I fail to see the humor in it, but still. Is this some kind of sick joke? Did you have your older brother cloned? Because if you did, you didn't do a very good job," Richard said as he glared right at his son, "I mean, look at him. His fur is the wrong color, and he's too chubby. I do applaud your effort, but why didn't you bring him home for your mother and I to raise him?"

Jo finally decided to get in the conversation, "He ain't Chris! This is Chris' boy, my boy."

Ruby was too in shock to say a word, just staring at Kody as he kept trying to free his hand from hers, but Richard couldn't keep his mouth from motoring on. "So Mike used you as a surrogate mother for a clone of Chris?"

"I didn't clone Chris!"

"Well, that's obvious. He's a very poor clone, son. But I still applaud you for trying," his father replied.

"Please... G.... Grandma... l.... leggo my hand," the young tod whined as he tried to get his hand free. Ruby's hand immediately let go, the fox's hand flying back to slap his chest, "G... Grand... mother? W... what... what do you.... mean by that?"

"Yes. I'm very curious to know why my son's clone is calling you that as well," Richard interjected as he stared at Kody.

"Chris... Chris was... was my father," the youngest tod at the table said.

"Then why is your name Ray Schaiferhund?"

"It's not. Well... not anymore. My name's actually Kody Grey. I changed it last year."

"If you're my grandson, why isn't your last name Rowan?"

Jo intervened, "Because Chris never married me."

"Chris would never do such a thing," Ruby said with a huff, "he was a good..."

Mike interrupted her, "Yes he did, mom. I told you that for years and you never believed me. Now here's proof."

Richard looked skeptical, "Chris was a model student. The pinnacle of upper middle class society. What you have here is a clone."

"I'm not a clone, Grandpa Rick," Kody snarled at him, "Chris..."

The eldest tod held up his hand. "I can guess what you're going to say. First, you'll tell me that my son was sleeping around. Second, you'll tell me that he managed to knock up your mother and refused to marry her, which would have been completely out of character for him. Third, you'll tell me that you were adopted by these Schaiferhund people. Finally, you'll tell me that years later, after your parents' accident, you started looking for your family."

Everyone except Richard and Ruby blinked.

"Dad. How... how did you know," Mike said completely aghast.

"Know what?"

"What you just said was," Mike started to say before Kody butted in, "Was exactly what happened."

"Wait. What?!"

Ruby shuddered a little, her eyes starting to tear up. "Oh... God... you mean... you mean my Chris," the old vixen began to cry as she grabbed her grandtod and nearly hauled him over the table to give him a big hug.