FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Finn paced back and forth for some time now, his nervousness evident. The buizel had already walked across the entirety of his small apartment a few times over trying to let out the worry he'd built up inside of himself. If his mother were here, she likely would have warned him about wearing down a path in the floorboards like she always did at home. He'd been a nervous pacer since childhood and moving out to live on his own in the city only exacerbated the issue. His anxiety had only gotten worse now that he had to take care of himself and manage everything, but this was a big step for him, and he needed to do it.

After getting his degree, he'd managed to land a pretty good position at a tech company in a city a few hours away from his small hometown, meaning he needed to "fly the nest", as they say. Tons of crying from his parents about how their "little baby was all grown up", and such. He'd had to sit through a week straight of his parents getting ready to deal with their new empty nest syndrome, and his mother, a floatzel about double his height, basically never let him away from her side in that time.

Finn had never been one for the super emotional things, and always got uncomfortable around others crying, so that time was a bit difficult for him to get through, but now he was here, all on his own. Thinking back to how his parents talked about him being all grown up at least elicited a chuckle from him, bringing a bit of levity to his current anxiousness. How little they knew.

He stopped pacing in front of the full-length mirror in front of his bed, looking himself over once more as he fiddled with the strings on the front of his hoodie. The 2-foot-tall aquatic weasel was wearing a simple black hoodie and grey, baggy sweatpants, a comfortable and basic outfit that wouldn't really draw any special attention to him. That was the goal, of course, as his anxiety came from what was underneath those clothes - a large adult diaper was taped around his waist, giving a slight poof to the baggy pants he wore.

It was the small buizel's very personal secret, but he kept a small stash of them stuffed in a box underneath his bed. Throughout childhood and adolescence, he'd had a bit of trouble with things other kids went through with ease, in particular, potty training. He was slow to gain that control, and even had trouble with bedwetting for a long time, leaving him in the protective underwear for quite a while after most of his friends had grown out of it.

However, later in life, they'd become a bit of a guilty pleasure for the buizel, something he never thought he'd be thinking. They were comforting, reminding him of a simpler, happier time, and letting him reexperience it on his own. For a while he thought he was crazy, maybe the only person in the world to actually like the things, but he eventually discovered through the wonders of the internet that there were plenty of people like him, and he started to indulge himself.

But his indulgence of this particular interest of his wasn't one he'd fully dived into. He'd seen and heard about the many different things people enjoyed, but he just didn't have the courage to buy any special clothing or accessories, with it taking days for him to even bring himself to purchase his first pack of diapers to wear. But today was going to be a new experience as well - today he was committed to wearing one outside of his apartment.

He was mortified by the prospect, and he'd tried to bring himself to do it multiple times before, only to chicken out at the last minute each time. But today was the day. He needed to do some basic shopping, and decided that he was going to be doing it padded, even if it killed him. Which... it might, with how long he'd spent just pacing back and forth in his apartment.

Finn took a deep breath and checked himself one more time, making sure nothing was peeking past his waistband or showing beneath his pants. He was confident nobody would notice the slight bulge it gave him, and though the crinkles when he walked were deafening to him, he'd read in plenty of places online that it basically wasn't audible to anyone else. He was going to do it. He could do it. He just needed to...

Take the first steps out of his door.

Finn breathed deeply to try to calm himself. He walked down the street past plenty of other pokémon, and he was in constant fear that each and every one of them could see how obvious it was that he was wearing a diaper under his clothes, and they were going to make fun of him and he would be so embarrassed and it would just be a catastrophe and -

He took another deep breath. He tried to focus on some things to take his mind off of the worry, making sure his hoodie was always pulled down and wasn't riding up to reveal him to the entire world. But while the worry was constantly on his mind... there was also a sort of thrill to it. Having a secret like this hidden in plain sight, being able to indulge in this and feel that sense of fear mixing with the excitement felt wonderful, if mortifying.

He eventually found himself in front of the store, without having even realized how far he'd walked. His mind had been so preoccupied along the way that time seemed to fly by, despite each moment feeling agonizingly slow and scary. He took yet another breath and fiddled with the strings on his hoodie as he walked in the door, his inflated collar poofing up just a bit as he did.

Stepping inside, he grabbed a basket and started making his way around the store. The fear was still there, but much of it had been replaced with excitement and giddiness - he was finally doing something he'd wanted to try for so long! He could feel the padding underneath his sweatpants, giving a slight extra waddle to his walk and comfortably wrapping around him in a swaddle that gave a feeling of safety.

He went about grabbing what he needed, stocking up on some ramen, which would be his primary food source for the foreseeable future, just like back in college. He sighed a bit at that, but the buizel was used to the ramen diet at this point. He grabbed a few more things that he needed, placing them into his basket as he went, before stopping at the entrance to a particular isle - one with some things he thought he definitely wouldn't be brave enough to grab.

Buuuuut... the thought of picking up just some baby powder and wipes was a tantalizing one. It wouldn't be like suspicious for him to buy it, he was just a regular average customer and it's not like an adult buying some baby powder would make people immediately notice that he was wearing a diaper or anything and it would be totally fine and completely okay... right?

His mind started going a bit into overdrive as he stood at the end of the aisle, before he realized that standing there and staring into the distance is probably a stranger thing than just buying what he wanted to buy, so he swallowed his fears and walked in.

Everything felt pretty scary going into here, like everyone was staring at him and could see right through him, but as he glanced around, there wasn't even anyone else in this aisle. He was perfectly fine. He quickly walked through and located the wipes, grabbing a random package and dropping it into his basket without really looking, as he wanted to get out quickly. He then started searching for the baby powder, eventually finding that it was a few shelves up from the ground... not exactly easy to access for someone his height. Great.

Thoughts raced through his head as he looked up at the bottle, face showing a bit of concentration, before he tried reaching up to it on his toes. Still not quite enough as he reached as far as he could. He sighed internally, but too stubborn to give up and walk away when he had already come this far, he gently placed a foot on the bottom shelf. He knew this was a bad idea, but stood on it and reached as far as he could, just barely touching the bottle of baby powder with the tips of his paws. As he was just barely pulling it towards the edge of the shelf, however, he heard the sounds of a shopping cart coming down the aisle and panicked, turning to look as the bottle tumbled over the edge, only leading to him losing his balance and falling backwards in a panic.

However, while he heard the contents of his basket tumble out onto the ground, he waited for the feeling of hitting the floor to come and braced himself for it, but instead, he seemed to hit something soft and fluffy. His eyes screwed shut, he slowly opened one to see what happened, and found himself looking into the upside-down face of a Typhlosion.

"You alright there, kiddo?" the typhlosion asked, a look of genuine concern on his face. He spoke with a deep rumble in his chest that reverberated through the small buizel, still in shock. Finn slowly took stock of the situation, finding that the typhlosion had seemingly caught him from behind as he fell, and was holding him up underneath his arms.

He pushed himself up off of the kind typhlosion, turning around to get a good look at them. He looked to be about 5 and a half feet tall, towering over the smaller pokémon. He had on a simple button up shirt with a striped pattern, which bulged out over a somewhat large stomach, and he was wearing a simple set of khakis made to fit someone of his stature. He had a concerned expression as the buizel looked up at him, still in a bit of shock.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, thank you for catching me. I couldn't reach it, and I was having some trouble, and then I ended up falling, and--" Finn found himself starting to stammer out excuses anxiously before the Typhlosion cut him off.

"Of course, kiddo, I'm just glad you're safe!", he said in a kind tone. The typhlosion gave him a quick smile to reassure him, noticing the slight fear evident on the buizel's face, and the slight amount of puffing of his air sac collar showing an instinctual reaction of worry.

Finn blushed a bit at being talked to like that, probably just an assumption by the Typhlosion based on the height difference, but it felt nice to hear regardless. He looked up at the larger pokémon bashfully, before remembering that all of his things had tumbled to the ground when he dropped them, eyes widening as he looked down to the ground and started picking them up.

The typhlosion noticed this as well, and said a quick "Ah, lemme help you out there!" as he grabbed the now empty basket and set a few things in it before placing it inside of the cart he had been pushing before he caught the small aquatic weasel.

Finn grabbed some things alongside the typhlosion, picking up the wipes with a bit of bashfulness, noticing that the larger pokémon had grabbed the baby powder that tumbled to the ground nearly with him. Thankfully it hadn't popped open, or there would have been even more issues to deal with. After grabbing the rest of the things, he stood back up and put them in the basket that the typhlosion had placed inside of his cart, which was also laden with plenty of things that he intended to buy. As he did, he saw the typhlosion walking over and grabbing another bottle of baby powder to place in his cart, with much more ease than the buizel had gotten his own, owing to his height.

As he got back to his cart, the typhlosion looked down at the buizel once more, giving him a once over to make sure he was alright. "You got everything you dropped there?" he asked, getting a quick nod in return.

"Yeah, I-I think I picked everything else up after you got the rest. Thank you again, and I'm really sorry about all of that..." Finn responded to the kind stranger.

"It was no problem, I promise!" The typhlosion let out a quick chuckle, his stomach jiggling a bit as he did. "I'm just happy to be of a bit of help, bud!" The buizel blushed just a bit more at the way the typhlosion was talking to him, before he continued. "I just got the last thing I needed, you done shopping? I can help carry your stuff to the checkout, I don't mind. Don't want you to have to carry that heavy basket on your own!"

The buizel felt a bit worried about getting the help from the stranger, but didn't want to refuse his kind offer, and he was done shopping anyways so...

"Y-yeah, I got everything, and if you don't mind... I suppose." He gave a slight smile up to the much larger pokémon as he said that, hoping to come off as friendly.

"Then just follow behind me, bud!" the typhlosion said, starting to walk forward with the buizel's basket still in his cart. "The name's Vulcan, by the way, what's yours?"

"My name's Finn, happy to meet you," the buizel said, following behind the typhlosion. It was only a few moments later that his heart seemed to freeze for a moment as he started nervously fiddling with the bottom of his sweatshirt, realizing that it had ridden up on him, likely when he was reaching for the higher shelf. That would mean... that the waistband of his diaper had been visible... the whole time he was talking to Vulcan...

Finn started internally freaking out as he pulled down his shirt to cover up the top of his pants. Meanwhile, Vulcan seemed to be trotting along perfectly happy, humming a simple melody as he led the furiously bashful buizel forwards, not even noticing the emotional state of the new friend he'd made.

The pair eventually arrived at the self-checkout, finding it to be pretty busy. Finn had managed to calm himself down a bit after the anxiety spike, telling himself that Vulcan probably didn't notice anything and he was just being paranoid.

During the wait in the line, the typhlosion struck up a conversation, startling Finn out of the maze of his own worried thoughts.

"So, how's your time in the city been? Lived here long, or just come in recently?" the kind typhlosion asked, looking down at the buizel whose face seemed a bit scrunched up and worried. He'd always been good at reading others, and things that the smaller pokémon likely didn't notice he was even doing told the typhlosion everything he needed to know about the buizel's mood.

Finn, coming back into reality after being stuck in his own head for a bit, shook his head to clear his mind, looking up to the large fire type. "O-oh, I just moved in recently, came here for a job that'll I'll be starting at soon."

While he'd never been the best with small talk, the buizel felt a bit of tension dissolve as Vulcan gave a warm smile and carried the conversation for him. As they waited in the line, they chatted for a bit of time, the fire type explaining that he'd lived in the city for his whole life, and basically knew the place like the back of his hand, giving another kind chuckle that caused his body to jiggle just a bit.

Eventually the two were able to get to a self-checkout as it opened up, the typhlosion letting the buizel scan his items first and pay for them as he put them into bags for him, happy to help out. Afterwards, Vulcan got all of his items scanned and paid for as well, and Finn helped him bag them as best as he could in an attempt to return the favor.

The two made their way out of the store, Vulcan giving a kind smile.

"Well kiddo, I suppose this is where we split. It was nice to meet a friendly face out shopping today, I wasn't expecting a new friend to fall into my arms like that!" He let out another hearty chuckle, getting Finn to laugh a bit as well, evaporating a lot of tension.

"Yeah, I'm glad to have met you too, it feels better to know that there's people like you in the city at least." Finn looked up at the fire type and gave him a smile back.

"Glad to hear it! Heh heh, I suppose I'll be heading out, best of luck at your new job!" Vulcan gave a wave as he walked off with his cart into the parking lot, Finn waving back and carrying his groceries out, walking back to his apartment.

The buizel eventually made it back in, feeling the soreness in his arms as he dropped all of the bags onto the floor and flopped onto the small couch near the entrance to his room. He breathed out a sigh of relief, and let out a chuckle at having met such a friendly face today, even if everything didn't go quite as he'd hoped.

In fact, towards the end as he'd been talking to Vulcan, he'd even forgotten about the diaper around his waist, and he pulled down his sweatpants, giving it a few quick pats and smiling. The buizel thought about the day, and the fear he'd had at points of it, but the fun in doing something that felt so taboo where nobody would even notice.

He sat back on his couch and relaxed, before getting to the bags that he needed to put away, storing things as his padded rump walked around the house, his forked tail twirling a bit as he thought about how he looked. Doing simple household chores while padded up was a simple pleasure, and it made things so much more bearable to get through.

When he got to the last bag, though, he froze, seeing what looked like a folded-up slip of paper sitting on top. He stood there for a moment, looking at it with a bit of confusion, before eventually reaching down for it and unfolding it, eyes scanning over the contents.

It was a quickly written note, with a bit of messy handwriting on it, and it must have been slipped in when he wasn't paying any attention. It was what was written that sent a pang of fear through the small buizel's heart, however.

"If you ever need a guide in the city, I'm happy to help! Just give me a call!"

"P.S. I'm also free if you ever need someone to give you a quick change, cutie~"

Below this was a phone number, and the signature "- Vulcan"

Finn felt a lot of emotions rush through his system at the same time, unable to focus on any one of them at once before it was replaced by a different one. However, he was especially hit with an overpowering sense of embarrassment, as his entire face turned a violent beet red.