Tales Of Suburban Malaise Part 2 - One Good Man

Story by kamacat on SoFurry

, , , ,


So this is the second part of an episodic story I wrote a few years ago...I was planning on it being six or seven episodes long but I only got partway through the third before I lost interest in the characters. I don't particularly care for the first episode very much but I still like this one, and I think it stands on its own away from the rest of the writing quite well. So, here it is...

Episode 2

"One good man ain't much, it's only everything." - Janis Joplin

In my English class, we were just finishing up work on Hamlet. Having gone through the whole play nearly line-by-line over the last couple weeks meant that I wasn't too sad to see it go.

I clapped my hands together to get their attention. "Alright class, instead of doing a paper or a report on Hamlet, I've decided it'd be more enjoyable and more fruitful for us all to do a short presentation."

Groans filled the class.

"Now, now, I'm not interested in making your lives difficult, so this one isn't too bad. Every one of you is going to pick a soliloquy from the play, let's say a minimum of 8 lines, memorize it, and recite it to the class."

"Memorize it!?" several students whined in unison.

"Oh, it's not so bad. I did it for my English class in high school too. And you can bring props if you like, whatever you want...have some fun with it! Let your inner actor out! Shall we make it due Wednesday?" A hand went up in the back of the class.

"Yes, Jen."

"What are we doing after Hamlet?"

"Ah...that's a bit of a secret. Still hammering out the details. I'll let you guys know Monday, hopefully."

"Hammering out the details" was code for fighting with the administration. I'd only been working at this school for a couple months now, and I had pushed to have a week-long unit on gay literature to fulfill part of the state's requirement on cultural plurality in English classes. As expected, there was...some resistance.

"Are you insane!? We can't offer that sort of thing in a public school!" the principal had said when I first told him my idea.

"Why not!?" I asked, shocked at the vehemence of his refusal.

"You've got a hundred students between your classes. Do you realize how many angry parents we're going to have calling us, coming for my head?"

"I would guess somewhere in the vicinity of...none!" I replied defiantly.

"Look," he said, calmer now. "I can appreciate your thinking. But I don't think people are ready for that sort of thing yet."

"Not ready? Look, this isn't the dark ages, nor is it Middle America. This is the 21st Century in California, and you need to give these kids AND their parents more credit than this." I had my arms crossed and my ears were on fire. I was physically restraining myself from pulling him apart.

"Alright, well, I guess we'll talk about this more formally later. Maybe get a couple more people on board. Try and get some thoughts together, maybe an outline of what you plan to cover," he said with a shrug, attempting to placate me.

"Alright, I'll do just that. Next Friday, at lunch?" I said firmly, extending my paw to him.

"Sounds fine." We shook on it and parted ways.

So today was the day that I was to present my proposal to the principal and whoever else would be there, and I had prepared an outline and some talking points. But as the bell for the morning break rang, my presentation was the last thing on my mind.

"Alright class, I'll see you next time. Have a good weekend," I said as they packed up their things and headed out the door. I impatiently watched them all leave, closing the door behind them, and made a beeline for the computer on my desk.

I went straight for my e-mail account, typing in my account password feverishly. Five new messages! Spam, spam, spam, spam...not spam, eh? I clicked it.

"Hello Phillip. My name is Eddie. I got your e-mail about dinner tonight and I like your picture. What else can you tell me about yourself? I see you like camping. I try and go every year myself. I'm a manager at an electronics store, working my way through business school...what do you do? E-mail me back :)"

I smiled. He certainly seemed nice, and he had sent a better picture this time too. I looked up at the clock and saw I had only a few minutes to type my reply.

"Hey Eddie. Yeah, I do like camping, I go once or twice a summer up in the Sierras. As for what I do, I got my degree recently and I just started as an English teacher at a local high school. I like the new picture you sent, it's cute...sorry I don't have one to reciprocate with right now, but I'm on break at work. Stay in touch about dinner tonight!"

Not my greatest work I knew, but just as I thought about re-typing it, the bell signaling second period rang and the first students for my class started walking in, so I quickly sent it off and closed my browser, standing up to greet the students.

That afternoon at lunch, I headed straight for the principal's office, despite the strong urges I had to check my e-mail again, to give my presentation. Walking into the main office, the receptionist gave me a wary look as I gave a half-hearted wave and proceeded back to the principal's office. One of the P.E. coaches gave me a thumbs-up and an encouraging smile as I stepped up to the principal's door. I guessed that news traveled quickly around the school...

The principal looked up from his desk. He was flanked by two middle-aged women: an overweight tabby with horn-rimmed glasses and a bulky sweater and a petite jaguar in a trim business suit.

"Ah, Mr. Avery, come in. I'd like you to meet Mrs. Reynolds, who's the head of the PTA this year," he said motioning to the jaguar on his right, "and Ms. Steinmeyer, from the district."

"How do you do?" I replied politely, extending my paw to each of them in turn.

"Now Mr. Avery, let's get straight down to it," Mrs. Reynolds said firmly. "We understand your intentions with the cultural pluralism unit of your class, and just want to make sure that you're setting out to handle this thing with the utmost tact and professionalism."

"Alright then, so I guess the smut's out," I said jokingly, pretending to scratch something off of my presentation outline. I looked up into three stone-cold faces and felt my grin slip off my face. I guess they weren't going to go for humor...

"Of course I understand the concerns of the school and the district," I continued seriously. "But there has been tons of legitimate gay and lesbian literature produced in the last few decades, and I feel I've got a way of presenting it that doesn't step on anyone's toes. Besides," I added, "I'm only looking for a week on this whole thing. The rest of my cultural pluralism unit is much more conventional."

Steinmeyer shot a glance at the principal but didn't say anything.

"Well, let's have a look at your outline," the principal said in a helpful tone. I nervously handed each of them a copy. The hostility in the room was palpable.

They read over my outline in silence while I felt my hands clench and unclench involuntarily. After a minute the principal looked up, took off his glasses, and said, "seems fair enough. Mrs. Reynolds?"

"I...uh...well I think it could be workable. But...well, it is a required class. Are we willing to take that risk?"

Steinmeyer shook her head slightly.

"Look," I said, "I think we need to give the students and the parents more credit than this. I mean, we've had a gay-straight alliance on this campus for well over a decade and nobody's sent any mail bombs over that, have they?"

"Yes, but students aren't required to join the GSA," Reynolds replied forcefully.

"Who are you protecting, anyway?" I snapped back at her. "We'd be kidding ourselves if we said there are no gay students at this school." Or gay teachers, I thought to myself... "We all know there are. Don't they deserve to have a student body that's maybe just a little more sympathetic to them?"

They all looked around nervously at each other, unsure of what to say next. They all knew that to continue with their opposition would make them appear like monsters, but none of them were about to give up yet.

I sighed. I knew I had to go to my last line of defense. "...if it's liability you're worried about, I don't see how that's an issue. I'm new here; if this blows up in all our faces, you blame me and kick me out the door, problem solved."

Reynolds looked surprised and thoughtful. She started nodding her head. "Mr. Avery, are you really willing to risk your job over this? Because if you are, I think we may have an agreement."

I smiled at her. "I'd stake my teaching career on it, Mrs. Reynolds."

The tension in the room passed and everyone started smiling at each other.

"Well then Mr. Avery, you may go ahead with your plans," the principal said as he stood up, his paw extended. I shook his paw, and then the paws of the two women, and walked back to my class.

I got through my afternoon class, even though every minute had felt like an eternity, and went home early, leaving my grading work for the weekend. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with it then and there. When I got home I went straight for my computer and, much to my delight, Eddie had sent another e-mail.

"Hey Phil. Can I call you that? You can call me Ed if you want. Anyway, teaching, gotta respect that. I think it's really cool that you're putting yourself into all that. As for dinner, how does 8 o' clock sound? We can meet at a restaurant somewhere and see how things go. Hit me up soon!"

I typed up my reply on the spot, and he got back to me in a few minutes. We went back and forth for a while, agreeing on a Japanese restaurant nearby and getting steadily more flirtatious with each passing message. He had just sent me a nearly nude picture of himself when I heard the door from the garage slam shut.

"Phillip, are you going to be home for dinner tonight?" I heard my father ask from the doorway. I scrambled to close the picture that was on my screen, hoping he hadn't seen it.

"Uh...actually, no. Yeah, I got a thing. With some friends. Tonight." I let out a cough and forced a smile.

"Oh...alright. Well, have fun," he replied, and proceeded to walk upstairs. Did he just give me an odd look? No, I must've been imagining things. Then again I hadn't been very smooth...

Eight o' clock neared and I carefully brushed down all my fur from head to toe and found a nice shirt to wear to dinner. As I looked in the bathroom mirror I cursed my utter lack of fashion...I didn't know much, but I knew enough to know that I looked about five years behind the times. It would have to do, I thought, as I checked my watch. 7:41. I had better hit the road.

I arrived at the restaurant about five minutes early and was relieved to find there wasn't a very long wait that night, as the Kobe Castle was a rather popular place on the weekends. I stood out in front of the restaurant waiting for Eddie to show up, suddenly feeling very self-aware...I was here, meeting a total stranger for the first time. Someone I had just discovered twelve hours ago! How could this possibly be healthy? Or sane? What if he turns out to...

"Phillip, I presume?" I heard. I turned and saw a brown bear, shorter than I had thought, perhaps 5'6" and coming up to just my chin. He was giving me a warm smile and had his paw extended.

"Why yes. Eddie, I'm guessing," I said, shaking the doubts I had out of my mind best I could and giving him a hearty handshake.

"The one and only. I hope you haven't been waiting too long," he said. There was a hint of an accent to his voice. Maybe Wisconsin? Whatever it was, it was rather comforting.

"Nah, nah...just got here a couple minutes ago. Care to go inside? It's rather frigid out here."

"Lead the way," he replied with a little bow motioning me toward the door, which I opened for him and repeated his little bow motioning him inside. Well, he certainly doesn't seem like the axe murdering type, I thought as I followed him inside.

"There's a little bit of a wait, so you want to go to the bar, grab a drink before we start?" I asked, hoping I didn't seem like I was trying to get him drunk...certainly wasn't my style, but he wasn't one to know that.

"Sounds like as good an idea as any," he replied casually.

We plopped down on a pair of bar stools near the end, waiting for the bartender to take notice of us. The place was pretty crowded though, what with it being a Friday night.

"So have you ever been here before?" I asked, attempting to make some small talk.

"No, never even heard of it. I just came out here for school last year so I haven't been around a whole lot."

My hyperactive imagination immediately caught the double-entendre of his words. Had he meant that, or was I over-thinking it? Damn my analytical brain, I thought, I have enough trouble relaxing without going over every last word he has to say.

"Oh, well, I think you'll like it. The food's great and they cook it right at your table. It's a lot of fun."

The bartender sauntered up to us before Eddie had a chance to respond. "What can I getcha fellas?"

I looked at Eddie "go ahead."

"Nah, you first," he replied.

"Alright...I'll have a Sapporo."

"And I'll have a margarita. Blended, with salt."

The bartender gave a nod to each of us and walked away.

"A margarita? At a Japanese place? Interesting choice," I said to him.

"Well, I'm not a huge drinker," he said with a shrug, "so I go for something fruity, and it's not like I know what to get at a Japanese place in the first place..."

"Ah, well, that makes two of us," I said with a smile as the bartender dropped off our drinks. I didn't want to make him uncomfortable by belittling his drink choice; it was just so curious that I couldn't help myself.

"Cheers," I said, picking up my beer, "to an evening out."

"Hear hear." We clinked our drinks together and took a swig each. I couldn't help but twist my face at the bitter taste of my beer.

"Whatsa matter?" he asked. "Not a beer person?"

"I like beer alright but...not this one. Uck," I said with a chuckle as I took another sip.

"Glutton for punishment, eh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Well if I don't drink it, who will?" I replied jokingly. He let out a laugh.

There was silence for a moment. "So," I said, clearing my throat, "how's your margarita?"

"Oh, pretty good, ya know. Nothing fancy."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," I said, nodding. Silence again.

"So when'd you decide to get into teaching?" he asked, breaking the silence. "Not to pry or anything..."

"How's that prying?" I scoffed. "Actually it was sorta unplanned. There was a sudden opening at my old high school; I applied on a whim, got the job. It's temporary but I'm having fun with it."

"Ah. Funny how life works sometimes."

"Indeed it is...so, how about your funny life? Where ya from?"

"Minneapolis originally. I lived in Chicago for awhile, just working, ya know, and I moved out here for school." He said, stirring his drink with one of his claws.

"That's quite a ways to come for school. Why California?" I asked, quickly adding, "you don't have to tell me...if you don't want to."

"Oh it's no problem. Just...to get away from the snow, I guess. See what the west coast had to offer. Ya know, typical Californian reasons." I nodded respectfully at that and took another swig of my increasingly warm beer. There was another moment of silence.

"Did you hear that?" Eddie asked.

"Hear what?"

"They just gave a third call for somebody. What did you put us down as?"

I suddenly realized that Eddie didn't know my last name. It was a somewhat disquieting feeling. "Avery. We're under Avery."

"Well they've been calling us for awhile now!" Eddie said, laughing. "C'mon, let's go before they give away our table." He held out his paw for me for a second but quickly retracted it when I didn't grab it, looking embarrassed.

I wanted to apologize to him, but it felt like such a weird thing to acknowledge, and by the time I'd thought of the best way to say sorry, we were halfway to our table and my chance was gone. My analytical mind leaped into overdrive. How can you expect to find anyone if you're going to function like that? You can't just feel awkward all the time. I shook the thought out of my head. I was over-thinking everything again, and things never worked out when that started happening...

We both enjoyed a great dinner together. Our chef was the best I'd ever had at that restaurant, performing all sorts of tricks and stunts as he cooked, flipping pieces of food into his hat and around his back, and generally just putting on a great show. In the social atmosphere, it was difficult for Eddie and I to continue our conversation much, but everything started to quiet down as the meal finished and we shared a bowl of green tea sherbet. By that time, the restaurant was almost entirely empty and the staff was starting to put up the chairs around us.

As we finished the last of our sherbet, Eddie looked up at me with his soft, brown eyes and smiled. "So...what next?" He asked.

"I've got no plans," I replied with a smirk and a shrug.

"Well...want to head to my place and watch a movie?"

"Sounds like a fine way to spend an evening." This was about as good as I got at flirting.

"What, you're not even going to ask what movies I've got?" he said, feigning surprise.

"Don't worry about me; I'm easy," I said, immediately cringing. That double entendre was certainly not intentional.

"Well, we better get going then. You can follow me to my place," he said, standing up and grabbing his jacket from his chair. I followed him up to the front and we walked out after I covered the check, having felt guilty about the rather exorbitant cost of our meal.

I followed his taillights through the night for about twenty minutes, finally pulling up in front of an older two-story apartment complex in a part of town that I didn't know very well. It wasn't exactly the ghetto, but it was far from paradise. I parked on the curb, stepped out of my car, and waited on the sidewalk for Eddie to lead me to his place.

"This way, Phil," I heard him yell from somewhere behind the building. I jogged around the corner of the building and caught sight of him walking up some stairs at the far end of a cracked parking lot. "I'm up here on the second floor," he shouted when he saw me plodding up to him.

I followed him up the stairs and we walked past a few identical looking doors before he stopped and pulled his keys out of his pocket, flipping through them until he found his house key. He pushed the door open and motioned me inside.

He flipped on a light and I took a look around. It was a typical 40-odd year old apartment...cottage cheese ceiling textures, white walls with mediocre drywall repairs, an older brown shag carpet. His furniture was plain and mismatched, clearly an amalgamation of hand-me-downs. Outside of a couple dirty dishes in the sink and a few wires and video games strewn about his entertainment center, it was pretty tidy. All in all it was a pretty typical college sort of place. "Please, make yourself comfortable," he said, waving his arm at the couch, "I'm just going to freshen up."

"Ok." I took off my jacket and draped it over the back of one of his dining chairs and settled myself into his couch. As I heard the sound of water running, I found myself humming to myself and folded my paws in my lap, taking a look at what he had in his video game collection. Halo 3, Dead Rising, one of the newer Metroid games. Nothing too extraordinary...

I heard the bathroom door open from somewhere back in the apartment. A moment later Eddie walked in, his shirt unbuttoned and untucked, and he sat down on the couch next to me. "Now," he said, sidling up real close, "where were we?" He leaned in and placed his paw on my thigh and squeezed while he put his nose against my whiskers.

I fought my initial feeling of discomfort, closing my eyes and gulping. You know you can stop this before it starts, my mind told me. But I want this...he's a nice guy, and I haven't had any in so long, I thought to myself. Do you really? Or are you making the same mistake you always do?

I moved my paw to gently brush through his arm fur, the coarseness of it a little surprising to me. "I think we were right...here," I said saucily, turning my head toward his and parting my lips slightly. He leaned in closer, his lips touching mine, and I felt his tongue gently sliding along my front teeth. It had been so long since someone had kissed me, the slimy warmth of his saliva in my mouth caught me rather off-guard and I jerked my head away.

"What's wrong?"

"N...nothing," I stammered. "It's just been a while."

"Mmhmm...we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" he whispered, this time reaching a paw across me and placing it on my hip while he moved in for a deeper kiss. He gently pushed my torso back on the couch and pivoted my body around my hips until he was lying on top of me and untucking my shirt, all while not breaking his increasingly aggressive kiss.

Our tongues danced around each other's, our muzzles fully locked together. He was straddling my groin, grinding his body vigorously into mine as he fumbled with my shirt buttons, unbuttoning them one after the other. I followed his lead and worked my way down his shirt buttons, both of us finishing with each other's at about the same time.

He broke our kiss and reared up, panting, and aggressively pulled off his shirt and his undershirt. As quickly as he had broken our kiss, he was back with his muzzle to mine, working his tongue around my fangs and playing with my tongue as his slid his paws across my chest and to my shoulders, working my shirt off.

He broke the kiss again to allow me to pull off my shirt, which I did quickly, along with my undershirt. I tossed them across the room and ran my paws through his thick chest fur, looking into his eyes with a slack-jawed expression, which he responded to with a grin. He leaned down and nuzzled his face against mine. "You..." I heard him whisper in my ear. Then I felt the tip of his tongue trailing along the outer edge of my ear, causing me to shiver, "...are adorable."

I felt myself grow flushed at that. I so rarely knew what to do with a compliment, and always found myself refuting them, which was only "adorable" until it got annoying, I knew. Was I over-thinking things once more? He had his paws on my shoulders and he was looking down at me. Yet again my chance to reply had passed me by as the gears ground away in my head.

"You, uh...wanna move this to the bedroom?" he asked coyly, circling a finger around in my chest fur.

"No reason not to," I said. No reason not to? What kind of lame response is that? I thought. As lame as my reply had seemed to me, he took no notice and dismounted from me, holding out his paw, which I grabbed, pulling myself to my feet. He led me down the hall to his bedroom, holding my paw the whole way.

When we stepped into the dark room, he reached over to a small desk lamp with his free paw and flicked it on, illuminating the space in a soft, incandescent glow. "Now...this is a lot more like it," he said as he gently turned my body toward his, leaning toward me for another kiss. He was gentler this time, slowly reaching his hands around to my ass, firmly massaging each cheek as he kissed me. He proceeded like that for a minute, with my arms wrapped loosely behind his back, before he broke our kiss and, holding on to my hips, steered me toward the bed and nudged me down to it.

He stood over me for a second, grinning, and then quickly unbuttoned his pants and whipped them off, revealing a plain white jock strap that was just barely covering his ample package. "Now it's your turn," he said, leaning down to unbutton my pants before I could respond. He then hooked his fingers into my belt loops and, after slowly shimmying my slacks off, revealed my plain gray boxers. I had nicer underwear at home, but I hadn't really planned on getting so far that night...

He climbed up on the bed next to me, resting his head on one arm while the other slipped its way into the leg of my boxer shorts, where his slightly extended claws began to tickle at my inner thigh and lightly brushed against my balls. I felt the need to reciprocate his touches, so I planted one paw firmly on his package and started massaging as I leaned in to lick the tip of his nose.

He looked at me, his same brown eyes that were once so soft now filled with a lustful fire. "You, uh...like what you're feeling there, eh?" he asked, looking down at his crotch. I froze for a second. The implications of the question were so naughty; the puritanical side of my brain couldn't help but sound an alarm. Sure you'll play with his cock, but you get all worked up if he asks? Get over yourself... I nodded slowly, half in response to his question, half in response to the thoughts running through my mind. "In that case," he whispered, "I think you oughta get down there."

I flashed a half-hearted smile and gave him a quick kiss before I turned myself in his bed, my face now in his crotch and my feet pressed against the headboard. I hooked my thumbs under the elastic band of his jock strap and lifted it to reveal a rather large package before my eyes. His fuzzy balls, a shade lighter than the rest of his fur, filled my large paw as I cupped them, and his still-sheathed cock was clearly straining to be let out. Thinking back to my shower that morning, I softly rubbed both sides of his sheathed member with my fingertips while I pushed my nose into his fur and took a whiff of his scent. He smelled clean; he had probably showered just before our date, with a sort of dusty musk that seemed to fit his coarse, brown fur. As if he had actually be tromping through the woods recently.

I rested my head on his stomach for a minute, playing with his sheath. I was more relaxed now that I was away from his lips and his eyes, which seemed to demand constant attention. I soon became aware that he was probably expecting me to take the next step, though, so I lifted my head and started nosing around his package, giving gentle probing licks here and there that I made longer and more aggressive as I went. Around his balls, along the length of his sheath...

It didn't take long for his cock to finally slide out into the light, where it leaned over his stomach, flinching with his heartbeat. It was as large as I had suspected, doing a pretty good job of dwarfing my own, which was still hidden in my boxers at this point. I gave the tip a lick, which he responded to with an exaggerated moan, urging me to keep going.

I couldn't help but oblige and quickly took about half of the shaft in my mouth, careful to not catch his rather large cockhead on my fangs. I started bobbing my head slowly, struggling to take the last few inches. I compensated for my inability to deep-throat by giving his member a good tongue-lashing; the rough surface of my tiger tongue had him moaning loudly. Well, at least one of us is enjoying this, I thought to myself as I continued servicing him, challenging myself to take the entire length.

I started to fall into a rhythm when I felt his paws running up my legs and into my boxer shorts, feeling around the base of my tail. I was doing my best to ignore his paws and work on pleasuring him, slobbering my tongue around his enlarged cockhead, but one of his fingers soon started putting pressure on my tailhole, demanding entry; entry which, after more than a year of being a one-way street, my tailhole was none too willing to grant. He pushed harder.

My whole body flinched as I felt his fat finger pop past my unaccommodating ring. I pulled my mouth off his dick to look back at him, trying not to glare. He grinned at me. "You like that?" he asked, his finger still inside me. What, are you going to tell him you don't and ruin the mood? Let him go for it, part of my brain thought. Hey wait a second; you're not just a piece of meat. You can tell him no if you want to, replied another part of my mind. I glanced back down at his thick member warily, and couldn't help but think that that could really really hurt...

"You got condoms and lube?" I asked softly, hoping he'd say no.

"Yeah, I keep 'em in my medicine cabinet," he said, starting to roll out of bed. "And while I'm gone, go ahead and lose these, eh?" he said, patting my boxers as he walked by me and out the door.

With him gone from the room, I let out a small sigh and slipped my boxers off, tossing them to the floor, and positioned myself flat on my stomach with my butt facing the door. You're a strange one, you know that? I thought to myself. You're trying to tone down his advances but you can't help putting on a bit of a show.

There was some clattering and clacking from the bathroom and in a matter of seconds I heard his soft, thudding footsteps behind me. "Mmm, now that's a view a guy could get used to," I heard from behind me. I let out a smile, my face buried in the pillows so he couldn't see, and gave a playful swish of my tail. I can't help it if I like the game, I thought to myself.

He crawled on the bed, straddling me, and I suddenly felt the pressure of his cockhead pushing against my tailhole. "Hold on a second!" I cried, alarmed. "You gotta lube me up first; take it slow. I haven't done this in awhile."

"Relax, I don't even have my condom on yet," he replied, pulling out his bottle of lube. "Of course I'll be gentle, silly."

He gave me a reassuring rub of my back and I relaxed once again. Maybe this won't be so bad after all. I heard him breathing above me as he fiddled with the bottle, and suddenly there was the cold, slippery feel of lubricant being applied. I flinched and then tried to relax as he pressed a finger into me, sliding in much easier this time with the help of the lube. He slowly started to pump his finger in and out, trying to work me a little looser. The feeling was that familiar blend of the painful and the pleasurable; the burning and the stimulating. It caused my cock to jump with every stroke and my ass to complain about the intruder inside.

"You okay with that?" he asked softly after a minute of working the lube in.

"Y-yeah," I stammered, not quite sure in my response. "I'm doing okay."

"You ready for two fingers?"

"Just use a little more lube and take it slow," I replied.

"Okay. You know you're the one in charge; if it hurts just say so," he murmured. I let out a muted mm-hmm to signal I understood.

His finger popped softly out of me and I heard him fumble with the lubricant bottle again. Again I felt a pressure at my backside, but this time the burning sensation was stronger as his two fingers opened me up. He wiggled them around for a minute, pumping and twisting, and the burning sensation thankfully faded. This might just work, I thought to myself as I soaked in the pleasure of the stimulation, almost falling asleep on the spot from the bliss of it.

"I think I'm ready," I told him after a few minutes of peaceful fingering.

"You sure?" he asked cautiously.

"Only one way to find out," I replied.

"Alright," he said. "Tell me if it hurts."

"Oh believe me, I will," I said with a grin, turning to glance back at him. He flashed me a smile and opened up a condom package, struggling to slip it onto his erect member.

It felt like a couple minutes, but was probably just a few seconds, before I felt him readjust his body and felt the light touch of his penis lining up for entry. Slowly he increased the pressure, pushing against my resisting sphincter, harder and harder. I tried to relax as best I could and yet it still resisted until I suddenly felt it pop in. I gritted my teeth and let out a pained groan as the burning sensation reached near-unbearable levels.

"What? Did I hurt you?" he asked, a genuinely concerned tone to his voice.

"I'll be okay," I managed to say through clenched teeth. "Just give me a second."

There was only the sound of us breathing for a moment, and I felt my heartbeat all over my body...in my chest, in my flushed face, in my pained tailhole, and in my throbbing cock. The pain in my ass subsided once again as I got used to his girth inside me, and I felt my teeth unclench and breathing slow as the burning faded. "Alright," I said finally, "I'm good to go."

He didn't say anything, only responding by placing his paws on my ass and slowly starting to piston himself in and out of me. The friction caused me to let out a whimper as I dug my claws into his bed sheets. He worked very slowly and methodically for a few minutes, calmly working his length completely in and out. As time went on, I could feel the muscles in my arms relax, my claws retract, and my whimpers turned into soft purrs. He slowly sped up as he sensed my increasingly relaxed state, but it all felt so natural that I barely noticed.

My perception of the passing of time faded to nothing and all I heard was the sounds of his heavy breathing interspersed with the occasional creak from his bed; all I smelled was our musks intertwining with the smell of the lubricant; all I felt was the stimulating waves of pleasure that traveled from my ass to my cock. I was in that special place that only sex can bring you to; that place where you're so stimulated and on edge and yet so relaxed and carefree.

I think I must have started to work in rhythm with his thrusts at one point, because after a blissful while he started to get rougher with his thrusts and his breathing got more ragged. "Not...long...now," I heard him huff between thrusts. I had been getting pretty close myself for a while now, and with him nearing his finale I reached for my cock and started rubbing up and down the length of my shaft. The increase in stimulation immediately brought me to a higher level of arousal and I started to feel the tings and pangs of my upcoming orgasm originating deep in my groin. My ass started to involuntarily twitch, reminding me of the rather large size of his member that I had gotten so used to up until now, which only served to turn me on more at this point.

He had a remarkably firm grip on my hips and was thrusting violently into me, his audible "ahs" and "unhs" corresponding to my involuntary anal contractions. I was working in time with his quick thrusts and working feverishly on my own cock, feeling myself to be on the very brink of orgasm...

"F-f-fuuuccckkk," he slurred out with his deepest thrusts, which I responded to with my very own ejaculation; shooting my seed onto his sheets with more force than I had in a very, very long time. It was one of those brilliant ejaculations; one of the ones that make you feel so satisfyingly done and drained. He gave a few more half-hearted thrusts, each corresponding to his heaving breaths, and slid out of me. I felt gapingly empty without him inside but not so empty as to disturb my afterglow. I heard the snap of him removing his condom and the thud of him tossing it into the wastebasket next to his bed as I rolled over, revealing the large white stains I had left on his sheets.

"Sorry about that," I said somewhat sheepishly, pointing at my cum.

"Nah, don't worry 'bout it," he said softly, leaning in to kiss me. "I'll wipe it up. You get comfy."

He gave me a lick on my nose and then rolled out of bed and walked to his bathroom, returning after a moment with a towel to wipe up with. When he was done, he tossed it on the floor, turned off his lamp, and crawled back onto the bed and under the covers, beckoning me to join him. I slipped under the covers myself and rolled onto my side with my back to him, which he responded to by wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close.

"That was wonderful," he said softly, nuzzling into my neck.

"Mmm," I replied.

We didn't say any more to each other. We just played with each other's paws, wrapping our fingers around each other's, playing with the fur on our arms, until he finally stopped moving and I heard the soft, heavy breathing of his slumber.

I stared into the darkness of the room, going over the evening again in my mind, replaying it from first meeting to where I was now. He's a nice guy, you know, I thought to myself. He's pretty gentle, and not stupid. Cute too.

Then why do I regret this...?

The thought startled me. The realization that I did, in fact, regret my night with Eddie was sudden and troublesome, but I also realized it was entirely true. The idea gnawed at my mind.

He's not the first nice guy I've regretted, I thought, thinking back to a couple guys I had been with before; nice guys that I liked yet had still pushed away for some reason or another, each time paining me more than the last. Am I just...incapable of finding someone to love? Am I doomed to overthink and never enjoy anyone's company?

I turned the thoughts over in my head again and again, until eventually my eyes closed under the weight of my lids and I fell into a dreamless sleep...