FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It wasn't usually the director of photography's job, on these shoots, to do this kind of groundwork. Finding sources for local legends, or the locals who could tell them, was something the writers/hosts/directors/producers had always handled. And yes, he would admit, this shoot was special, no matter how much he wished it wasn't. So this was the work-around.

It was this or appear on-camera, and he'd sooner quit altogether.

In the bosses' defense, they seemed to understand how little he wanted to do an episode here. The guys didn't want to put him on camera against his will. They'd put off this location three times already. But every time they did, the fans in the comments, and in the stream chat, and on the patreon messages, clamored louder and louder to 'DO ECHO NEXT!!!1!' and 'WHEN ECHO?!' and 'stop f***ing stalling you know what we want stop f***ing c***teasing us you f**(user banned for: slurs or harmful/bigoted language.)' Eventually you run out of excuses.

But that didn't make him any more eager to be the on-camera Local Expert.

He'd been given a phone number, of course--and it was the same one, hadn't changed since high school--but... better to do this in person. Internet said the auto shop was still running, still in the same place he remembered it. He'd be in town tomorrow, get the mobile studio set up in the motel, and then go have a talk.

They were supposed to be here to look for ghosts. But did he have to make contact with this one?

When Leo first woke, his instinct, as it had been for months now, was to turn his head, eyes still shut, and nose toward where one of his owners, most likely Will, would probably be if they were in bed with him. This wasn't by choice, it wasn't something he was entirely aware he did. Nor was his second instinct, which was ,when he failed to find another familiar-scented body in whose fur to bury his face, to raise a hand to his neck and feel the collar there. In lieu of his master's bodily presence, it remained a source of comforting contact. Both these he did without being fully awake.

But this morning found him in his own bed, in the apartment over the auto shop. Convenience of just having to pull on his clothes and head downstairs to start work still outweighed the satisfaction of fully and finally moving into the little basement room shared with Todd. Murdoch would sometimes call the room the 'Slave Quarters' and then look expectantly at everyone for laughter, which there was an unspoken treaty never to give to this joke. This discouraged him not at all. Someday, probably someday soon, Leo would let go of this place, let it sink gratefully back into the crypt of miscellaneous storage from which he'd reluctantly resurrected it, and take the step into deeper enslavement that living in his owner's home would be.

But not yet. There was no hurry. For now he was more than content with spending more nights a week than not on his knees, or on all fours, or cuddled up against a man's side, thoroughly used in whatever way Will ordered, and blissfully grateful for the certainty that his obedience was accepted and treasured.

Just remembering had him rock hard in the shower, but he made sure to start his phone camera filming before he stroked himself to relief. Master might want the video.

The day made every promise of being uneventful.

He replaced the mass airflow sensor on a sedan, pretty routine work.

He explained as patiently as he could that diesel engines need oil too--that gasoline ones needing oil and diesel doing without was not in fact 'the whole difference' between them--to a coatimundi in a polo shirt in the driver's seat of a oversized pickup that was, for obvious reasons, probably now beyond saving.

On his lunch break, Will texted him some orders: he was to go this evening to the Byrnes place, let Murdoch and Cliff use him however they pleased, and then come up to the cabin for the weekend.

He replied "Yes Master," and got called a "Good boy" and that felt as good as it always did.

He rethreaded a new fan belt onto a dirt-ordinary engine dressed up like a luxury SUV, but that discrepancy was between the customer and the dealer they'd bought this thing from, not him.

He'd clocked out, washed his hands, gone upstairs to exercise--no matter how many times he drove the Fitness Monitor off with Workout Power, it seemed, it would just come back to destroy the planet for being out of shape again--and then had another shower.

It was still a couple hours before Murdoch would be off work... maybe he could get some payroll paperwork out of the way? Technically Dad was supposed to do it but he'd been making worrisome noises about retirement again, so Leo had agreed to take care of some of it in exchange for putting the gumball machine back in the waiting area, this time, at Will's and surprisingly Todd's suggestion, in support of shelters for homeless or disowned queer kids.

When he stepped out of the office, there was Chase.

"Hey Leo." Chase said.

"Chase," Leo's mouth seemed to have forgotten to connect words to emotions. "You're... here."

"Yeah," he seemed not to want to talk about that, though really, when had Chase ever seemed like he wanted to talk about anything? "Here for work."

"Cool," He looked different, a little. Older, wearier. He'd grown a beard, a short scruff from ear to ear. But still so obviously the same that Leo could feel the fur on his back standing on end, because the memories were there, pulling at him like a gravity well, but any promise of love and happiness was drained from them. "What kinda work?"

"It's a youtube thing. This show where they check out, like, weird history, unsolved crimes, supposed hauntings." Chase's voice was like a spasm in his affections, they moved him without feeling or desire. "I'm just the cameraman."

"Well, I dunno of any hauntings," except, Leo didn't add, the way I was haunted for years by the loneliness you left me with, "that've been happening in this garage."

"I'm not looking for the garage, Leo, I'm looking for you."

Leo fought to keep his breathing even. He had to remind himself that the otter in front of him was not himself all the possible futures the two of them could have had together. He was just his ex. But Leo himself, he didn't have to face this as just this otter's ex. He had the strength of all the men he belonged to. Like all their arms were around him even now. And that was thousands of times more of a connection than he had to Chase-

"Why?" Leo said as cautiously as he could.

"Well, if they're doing an episode on the region," Chase explained, "they try to have locals to be on camera a couple times, weigh in on urban legends or supposedly haunted stuff. They've already got a private investigator to present findings about local history, but they wanted someone who'd lived here their whole life, so..."

"Wait so like... you want my help with your job?" Wait, was he... he wasn't here 'looking for him,' he was JUST looking for him?

-the moment passed. Leo kept his head, pulled himself back to his feet by a chain of rubber and steel links, stronger than the anchor trying to drag him down. The season was over, the story closed, and it was for the best. They'd been apart too long to connect again, like a broken bone that had healed without being set.

"Yeah," Chase said, "I, uh, wouldn't have bothered you, but you're literally the only person I knew growing up who's still here."

"Wait, what about you, yeah?" Leo blinked. "You lived there longer'n I did."

Chase's jaw clenched, his shoulders hunched, and his eyes went wide. "No. I'm not going on camera. I can't."

Well at least it sounded like this was awkward for him too. "I'll have to ask-" Leo started, stopped, considered if he wanted to say this, "-my owner." Yeah, turned out he did.

Chase blushed, which was rewarding. "Jenna mentioned you were... seeing someone again. Guess it turned serious, huh?"

"Guess it did, yeah." Leo decided Chase didn't need to know more than that, at least not yet anyway. "How about you?"

The otter looked away and shrugged. "Not really, no. There were a couple tries but it always just petered out. You know how it is."

"I do," Leo answered, which was probably truer than Chase knew. "Well, I gotta get some work done before I have to run this evening, but I'll message you when I know, yeah? How long before I'd need to decide?"

"They're supposed to be arriving tomorrow."

Leo gave Chase his number. It felt like going to bed with the front door unlocked.

When they arrived with Leo, Cliff pulled Will aside. "There's something on his mind," said the stoat. "He's more affectionate than usual."

"By affectionate you mean...?" Will frowned.

"He was begging."

"Like, before, or?"

"All through the duration, any time his mouth wasn't occupied."

"Hm, understood. I'll pick his brains."

"You may need," Cliff cautioned, "need to tire him out first."

"That sounds," Will smirked, "like a challenge."

Will was inside him, pressing deeper with each thrust, but Leo couldn't do anything but moan, because his mouth was full of Sam.

Within moments of his arrival, Will had ordered him upstairs.

"You look worried, pup," he'd said when Leo got there.

"Worried, sir?" Leo had thought he'd been doing a better job hiding it.

"Good for you I know what a worried pup needs," Will had taken a seat on the edge of the bed.

He hadn't been wrong, Leo would admit, if he'd had a mouth not completely full of puma cock. Will had pulled him between his knees, nestled his head in his crotch, and slowly rubbed his ears. Only when Leo's breathing had calmed and his shoulders unclenched had his master undone his pants.

"Deep breaths, pup," Will had pulled aside his jock and given his balls to Leo's nose. "Savor it."

"Yes master," Leo whispered.

"What are you?" Will's hands had cradled his head and his cock rested atop his face.

"I'm your property, Master." The scent, the warmth, the submission were something he could finally submerge into like a hot bath.

"What does that make you?" It wasn't that Will's paws had held his face back, it was that they meant he hadn't had permission yet, and THAT he'd held him back.

"I'm a slave, sir," which meant nothing mattered but obeying, and that was a relief like air conditioning after a long day outside.

"And what are you going to do?" Will had gripped the scruff of Leo's neck.

"Obey, master," Leo had whispered.

"Then suck my dick," Will had ordered, "and love it."

Which were easy commands to obey.

All evening, whenever his most recent afterglow had begun to fade, Will would pass him to Nik, Sam, Murdoch, or Cliff, and he'd be too absorbed in submission to care about Chase. He wrapped himself in slavery and sex like they were blankets.

Finally both Sam and Will had finished in and filled him, and he'd curled up under Will's arm, satisfied to the point of exhaustion. Will's paw on his back only barely moved to put him. On the other side of Will, Sam was already asleep.

Leo had promised to ask about Chase's project. But that could wait till the morning.

At that moment, outside a motel in Payton proper, on the valley floor, an otter finished his cigarette. Everything was set up, the guys would be arriving tomorrow, and either Leo would agree to talk about growing up here, or Chase would have to do it.

It was eerie, being back. There was a quality to the night here, that there wasn't in Bountiful or Oregon, and made him feel sixteen again.

Which, considering the sorts of person he'd been at sixteen, he didn't much like.

God. Leo had an 'owner,' apparently? He'd always been a horny fucker, but Chase wouldn't have guessed he had a kinky side like that.

Fuck it, though. Nothing to do with him. Right?

Chase shut the motel door, turned out the lights, and lay in bed alone. It was some time before he managed to get to sleep.