{"sf1_id":136601,"sf2_id":"J1OALEkm","title":"Sonata","author":"Ampersandestet","words":1579,"posted_at":"2010-04-04T11:26:00.000Z","tags":["College","First Person","M/M","No-Yiff","Otter","Raccoon","Story Development","Story Series"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/136601-sonata","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/J1OALEkm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/c3/84/c3847d1f-1677-4d27-a4ff-888e47eeced1","description":"#1 of Sonata","content":"Requiem\n\nChapter One\n\nSonata\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"It is often said that love is a verb, a four letter word, a rose, a feeling. I think, perhaps, that love is more like chance, like two boats passing in the night.\n\nHowever, in most of my experience, those two boats crash together and are carrying a lot of gunpowder. Pretty to watch, but only in a catastrophic sense.\n\nBut, for even one such as myself, there is always a chance, an opportunity, to make a beautiful thing happen. That would be my one wish, my one dream, my one desire. To find one to make into my eternally beloved.\"\n\nI sighed as I nearly slammed my head onto my laptop keyboard.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\"Too sappy !\" I exclaimed as I read over what I had written. I rubbed a paw over my eyes, groaning as I held back a headache. Two days ago, my English professor had decided that we would write about love in an attempt to help break the ice in my class. How idiotic, I thought. Here I would be prattling on about what I thought about love, and in front of near strangers no less. Hopefully they would not think any less of me.\n\nI looked at the digital clock next to my computer and groaned again. Nearly three in the morning, and this assignment was due in six hours.\n\n\"Fuck. Wait, maybe I can put that in my paper. 'Love is about fucking. Lots and lots of fucking.'\"\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI wonder how that would go over with the professor.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI heard a slight chirp over the music playing in my earbuds and noticed the message alert flash on the corner of my laptop.\n\ndraikash: sup ?\n\nI smiled to myself, welcoming this abrupt interruption.\n\ncoonybard: not much. Writing a stupid paper. You?\n\ndraikash: just chillin'. Shouldnt you be out stealing or something?\n\ncoonybard: how original. Isnt there a flight of stairs you should become acquainted with?\n\nI chuckled to myself at that one. My friend Ash likes to prey on the fact that I am a raccoon and, as such, apparently prone to thievery. I simply retaliate with the time he tripped walking up a flight of stairs. Dragons and their stairs.\n\ndraikash: lol wutever. If I had known you were going to be such a queen I wouldnt have imed you.\n\ncoonybard: whatever. You know you would miss me.\n\ndraikash: sure, whatever. You going to the party tomorrow?\n\ncoonybard: party?\n\ndraikash: oops! Thought you were invited. Sorry bro. I gtg.\n\nWith that, he signed out, I guess out of embarrassment. I am not really one for parties anyhow: too much noise, and everyone just wants to hook up. Besides, I have too many papers to write.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI stood up and decided to go outside for some air. I quietly walked through my dorm so I would not wake up my suitemates, but I did not worry. Raccoons, you see, are naturally disposed to walking sneakily, and the two cheetah brothers I share a suite with could sleep through a hurricane. I grabbed a soda and walked down the six flights of stairs to the outdoors.\n\nAs I walked under the new moon, I reflected on where I was, and how I got there. I was just your average raccoon, physically. I could hold my own in a friendly game of football or something like that, but I was not an overachieving athlete, barring my daily ninety minutes at the gym. I prided myself more on my mental ability; I had been given a full ride to university because of my supposed smarts. I was really good at painting as well, so I decided that I would focus on that. However, for now, it was the core classes necessary, and boy did they suck.\n\nI realised that there were almost no lights on, which suited me. I liked the dark, personally, and if some were not looking closely I could almost meld into it. I guess a fringe benefit with being a raccoon. Then again, I tried my best to be a wallflower anyway: if capable in anything, appear otherwise.\n\nI walked no real path, taking time to enjoy the sounds of the night, which included the occasional chirp from a cricket and vomit from a frat boy stumbling home from the bars downtown. Ah, the sounds of nature. I turned on my music player and allowed the sounds of downtempo to relax my mind.\n\nAs I hummed along to the music, I thought about what I was going to do with this latest assignment. I figured I could just half ass it and turn it in, if anything, for credit of completion. That would at least buy me some time to make revisions and excuses.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nYeah, I am sure that would go over well.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBack to square one. I looked up to view the few stars visible in the city sky. I smiled as I made out part of a constellation before returning my gaze to street level, just in time to see the eyes half a meter away from my snout before colliding with the rest of whoever it was. I fell backwards, as did this late night individual, my earbuds ripped from my ears as I landed firmly on my rump.\n\n\"Ouch !\" I heard a voice, definitely masculine, definitely hurt, and definitely pissed.\n\n\"Sorry, should have watched where I was going,\" I said softly, trying to assess the other individual.\n\n\"Nah, not your fault. You came out of nowhere. I should have worn something lighter, and besides, I am not really all that good at night vision,\" the voice said with a chuckle. I closely examined the individual sitting in front of me to discover he was an otter.\n\n\"I did not know otters went for jogs,\" I said with slight mirth.\n\n\"Only when the pools are closed,\" he said with a chuckle. \"Who do I have the pleasure of running into tonight ?\"\n\n\"Oh ? So this is a frequent occurrence then ?\"\n\n\"Nah, you're the first. Guess you popped my cherry.\" I laughed along with him as I pulled out my mobile to slightly illuminate my face.\n\n\"My name is Eoin.\" I said, smiling softly.\n\n\"Trystan is my name, and it is a pleasure, I suppose.\" Paws were shaken and as we stood in front of each other awkwardly, trying to make conversation, I saw him slightly wince.\n\n\"You okay ?\" I asked as he rubbed his head.\n\n\"Yeah, I will be. Just gotta take some aspirin or something. You have a hard head, you know that ?\"\n\n\"You and my mum would get along just fine,\" I said, chuckling softly.\n\n\"You all right ?\" Trystan asked, earning a shrug from me.\n\n\"I have had worse, I suppose.\"\n\n\"Still, I feel kinda bad. I did run into you and all. How about I make you some lunch one day to make up for it ?\"\n\n\"I am fine, promise,\" I said.\n\n\"How does tomorrow night sound ?\"\n\n\"No need, I swear,\" I said somewhat insistently. Trystan stealthily grabbed my mobile from my paw, punched some keys and waited for a few moments. I heard a ring before he ended the call.\n\n\"There, I called myself. I'll give you a call around, say, seven ? I bet you like crawfish.\"\n\n\"You just ganked my phone.\" I added, somewhat lamely.\n\n\"Come hungry !\" Trystan said as he handed my phone back. \"See you later.\"\n\n\"Do I have any opinion that matters in this ?\" I asked, somewhat in mirth. Who knows a college student that would turn down a free meal ?\n\n\"Nope. Later !\" Trystan said as he ran past me, jogging all the while. I just shook my head, trying to process what had just happened, before putting my earbuds back in and walking back to my dorm room.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nTwenty minutes, one shower, and a mallomar later, I was still confused. What exactly had happened ? Was I going out on a date ? I shook my head and sighed, still feeling the slight throbbing from where I had collided with him. However random this encounter was, it did give me an idea for my paper. I returned to it, deleting what I had written.\n\n\"Love, in mathematical terms, can be expressed as follows:\n\nlove=unknown.\n\nTherefore, it is ignorant of me to assume that I know what love is. When I solve the equation, I will write a better paper on it.\"\n\nSatisfied with my paper, and quite sure it would either be seen as brilliant or abject failure by the professor, I decided to sleep for a few hours before my class.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFour hours, a venti frappucino, and a walk through a just-arising campus later, I discovered that my professor had canceled class due to a cold.\n\nBullshit. I said it. Utter bullshit.\n\nRegardless, I had to press on. As that was my only class for the day, I realised that I could get a few more hours of sleep. As I returned to my dorm, I passed by where I had had a run in a few mere hours prior.\n\n\"Fate, a cruel mistress indeed.\" I said, probably quoting something I had heard, as I walked on by. The day was still young: who knew what new adventures had yet to unfold.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThat is what I thought, at least, until noon came around.\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Sonata","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/141070-sonata-2.json"}}