FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I stand at the window, watching the snow fall in the streetlights, and it looks like the air is filled with falling gold. Too bad it's anything but. If this weather keeps up, I won't be able to hunt, or even get to the grocery store, and while having the five hundred bucks I took from Jesse is great, we can't eat it.

Turning away, I glance over at Jesse, his head nodding forward as he sits on the sofa in front of the TV that I found -- where else? -- in an alley. There's something wrong with it, the picture faded with thin horizontal lines through it, and the screen is cracked right down the middle, but it works. Luckily, my neighbor pays for cable and I managed to steal it from them. The last guy couldn't afford it.

I regard Jesse for another minute before sighing. I hope this works out. I spent all evening editing the pictures -- removing any trace of the bruises on his face, cleaning up the background, and enhancing his assets. Not enough that anyone's going to notice, though. I made the website live about an hour ago and posted a few notices on local bulletin boards and chatrooms. Now we just have to hope that word spreads and someone will call.

Jesse's head drops forward and he sits back up with a jolt, raising a paw to rub his eyes as he yawns.

"Past your bedtime?" I ask with a chuckle.

He glances over his shoulder at me. "Still snowing?"

"I don't think it's let up all day," I say. "I've never seen a storm like this."

He stands up and stretches. "Feels like the furnace is finally working. It's almost warm in here."

"Yeah, the building manager was probably tired of getting calls about how cold it was," I say. "He's usually too lazy to go down to the basement and fix it." There's an awkward silence. I finally turn away. "Well, I'm going to bed. I'll get you my spare blanket. Sorry, I don't have a spare pillow."

"That's okay, I can use my coat," he says. I pull the blanket down from the top shelf of the closet. It's dusty and has a mouse hole chewed in it, and it's not very thick. That's why it's my spare blanket.

"Sorry I don't have anything better," I say as I hand it to him.

"No problem. It's warm enough in here, I'll be fine."

"All right. " I turn and head for the bedroom. "Wake me up if you need anything." I settle down under the comforter, the city lights magnified by the falling snow so that it looks like daylight streaming in through my threadbare curtains. I wonder if anyone will call. I put my cell phone number on the website, but it's just a prepaid phone that I stole from somebody. I hardly use it because I can't afford to buy more minutes. Maybe that will change.

I wake up in the dark, with someone whispering my name. It takes me a moment to realize that it's Jesse.

"What is it?" I ask, sitting up, but as soon as the frigid air seeps through my thick fur, I know what the problem is. I pull the blanket back up to my chin and shiver. "The furnace went out again. Why didn't you--"

"The power's out," Jesse says. That would explain why he didn't turn on the oven. "All over the city, it looks like. It's all dark."

"Well, shit," I mutter. Nobody's going to be looking for an escort in the middle of a city-wide blackout. "C'mon, then -- get in bed."

"No, that's okay," he says. "I'll be fine."

"Don't be stupid," I say. "The walls in this place are thin as a cracker box -- it'll be down near freezing by the time the sun comes up -- and two people sharing two blankets are going to be a hell of a lot warmer than each person huddled beneath their own. C'mon, it's not like we haven't shared a bed before."

"Yeah, but--" He stops and I wonder what he'd started to say. "All right," he says finally. "I guess we really don't have a choice."

"Not really, unless you want to bust up the furniture and light a fire." Which we might have to do if they don't get the power back on quickly. Luckily, the furnace is back on when I wake up, the room comfortably warm. Or maybe it just feels warm because I'm spooned up behind Jesse, my morning wood pressed against his tail.

I jerk back, and I'm not sure if that wakes him, or if he was already awake. He rolls onto his back and looks over at me. "Sorry," I say.

He gives me a small smile. "It's okay," he says. "I've been lying here, thinking, and I owe you an apology. Yesterday was just so...weird, I didn't know how to handle it. It's been a long time since anyone treated me like anything other than a whore, and all I knew about you was that you mugged me and twisted my ear and got me beat up by my pimp."

"Yeah, I am s--" I start to say, but he puts a paw against my muzzle, silencing me.

"Don't interrupt, I'm apologizing." He smiles at me again, and he's incredibly cute with his buck-tooth, rabbit overbite. "I just wanted to say that you seem like a good guy -- the whole mugging thing aside -- and I'm sorry if I acted like an ungrateful bastard after all you've done to help me. You could have left me on that sidewalk to die."

"No," I say, shaking my head as I look down at him, "I couldn't have." He's too beautiful to let die. He blushes and I quickly turn away. Idiot. "I mean, I don't like hurting people," I clarify. "I've never killed anyone, never even sent someone to the hospital. I don't even like mugging people, but sometimes...you know...it's either that or starve to death."

"I know," he says. "I feel the same way about getting plowed in a filthy, stinking alley, but if you're right, if your plan works, neither of us will have to do anything we don't like ever again."

I think I liked it better when he was cold and suspicious toward me. Now I really don't want to let him down.