Rest & Relaxation by Gauss Jordan, gauss@playful.com
Part 1 of x, where x ε N ≥ 2
Copyright 2003

Story Code: M/M furry, romantic, contemporary, Wolf, Tiger

NOTICE & WARNING: The characters in this story are completely fictitious. Any resemblance to any person (or furson) is completely coincidental. This is a work of fiction, involving adult, homoerotic fantasies and situations. If this isn't your thing, or it's illegal for you to view this material, please don't read on. Also, with the notable exception of the Nifty Archivists, you absolutely CAN NOT reproduce, alter, repost, or in any other way steal this work without first consulting me, the author.

With that said, this is the first time I've ever written fiction. Ever. Erotic of otherwise. Let me know what I can do to improve this, or what you would like to see in the next part. I aspire to nothing short of Pulitzer-quality Porn!
--

Rest and Relaxation, Part 1 -- Compare and Contrast

--
Ethan looked up from his desk. 'It's 5 PM on a freaking Friday and I'm still here. Dammit. They SO owe me for this.' The young wolf was a project manager at a small technology firm. He was very good at his work, so over the 5 or so years since he had graduated from college, he'd quickly moved up in the firm. Of course, that meant he spent less and less of his time doing the engineering that he loved, and more and more dealing with inter-office B.S. Most recently, his genius managers had decided to "cut costs" by laying off another member from his team, so he was stuck trying to pick up the slack. Overall, he mused, work sucked at the moment.

He picked up the phone and dialed home. "Howdy Ethan!" his roommate Chris answered. Ethan met the 23 year old tiger about two years ago, when Chris was transferred to this town after his company was bought out by Ethan's firm. After a couple of false starts, the wolf finally managed to ask Chris out. A year later, they became lovers and roommates.

Ethan sighed, "Hey Kitty, guess who's stuck at work on a Friday?"

Ethan could hear the smile in Chris's voice, as the tiger said, "You really take your job too seriously. I mean look at me - have you EVER known me to work late?"

"Yeah, but you're just an artist. You don't do any real work." It was an argument they'd had for nearly as long as they'd known each other.

"Come on, you Yuppie Puppy, you just need to relax. Finish up and get your grey butt down here. Since I had some time, I'm cooking a real dinner for us tonight. None of that takeout nonsense." Chris thought, 'He's going to drown himself in that project if I don't stop him.' He continued, "Oh, I also stopped by the mall and bought that new DVD you mentioned yesterday."

Ethan lay back for a moment in his office chair and smiled. "Oh, you're being awfully nice; you must want something."

Chris purred into the handset. "Oh come on Wolfie, I'm just trying to get you to take your mind off your work. Ethan, I swear that that you're going to start losing fur over this new project. *beep* Damn! I've got to run. I forgot about the oven. See you in a bit Ethany."

"All right, I'll leave as soon as I can. Bye." He hung up the phone and did his best to concentrate on the tests he absolutely had to have done by Monday morning.

****

Chris puttered about in the kitchen, making dinner for himself and his lupine mate. "Now let's see -- where'd I put that bowl?" He peered down at his recipe and swore when he discovered that he'd skipped a step. Deciding that the tomatoes weren't all that important anyway, he combined the remaining ingredients and placed the main dish in the oven. He looked at the mess in the kitchen, and made a mental note to tell Ethan it was his turn to clean the kitchen this weekend. The tiger, finally content that he had some semblance of control, set the oven timer and poured himself a glass of white wine with what was left from the recipe. He checked the kitchen over one last time, and padded over to the den to finish his preparations for the evening.

Sipping his wine, he felt pretty proud of himself. He'd managed to clean up the place pretty well, clearing Ethan's work off the coffee table (again), and sweeping away the random bits of detritus from his own creative processes. He very much liked working in a comfortable environment, so often spent his some days "telecommuting" to work from their home. He glanced around the now clean room, admiring the soothing tranquility.

When he'd finally decided that Ethan was "the one" and moved in with him, he and his new lover first established some ground rules, one of which was that Chris had final say on all decisions involving furniture and interior design, for which, in return, Ethan got his pick of all the latest electronics and computer gadgets. Because of this, the room was an interesting blend of old and new, creating a sort of "ancient modern" style as the tiger liked to call it. Ethan's "toys" had been integrated subtly into the room, so, for example, the blinking Christmas tree that was their entertainment center was actually split on either side of the TV, hidden behind twin translucent waterfalls. Chris had built the racks so that the equipment was faintly visible behind the falling water, creating the illusion of rocks beneath the cascading water.

He'd have to get after Ethan though. The tiger wandered over to the pools, turning off the lights as he walked by various switches. Two rows of solid green lights covered the front of his geeky lover's two latest devices. With the lights off in the room, the left waterfall now had two glowing eerie green bands. Chuckling to himself, the tiger thought, 'I'm convinced he buys this stuff because it makes him feel important, with all these blinking lights, and complex little controls.' His ears perked up, as his reflection in the rippling green water caught his eye. He had managed to stain his shirt in the kitchen, so he was only wearing a faded pair of jeans at the moment. Examining his bare chest for the first time in a while, he realized that Ethan wasn't just pulling his tail, his new workout regimen was finally paying off. The tiger did his best "strong man" imitation, flexing his newfound muscles in the green light. Chris's body was becoming more defined, his musculature outli ned under his fur. "Damn, you look good, Mr. Tiger," he said, giving himself a toothy smile. "We'll definitely have to give Ethan a little show." The tiger kicked off his sandals and went to grab a new shirt. Instead of pulling out a t-shirt from his dresser, the striped cat put on a flowing white linen shirt. He left it unbuttoned, hoping Ethan would notice his new chest, and went about getting ready for the evening.

Returning to their living room, his eyes fell on the new painting that hung above their couch. The two had discovered it at a nice little antique shop not too long ago. They frequented the shop every month or so, enjoying the chitchat with the owners, and the constant amusement provided by their pet parrot. The bird had learned some "interesting" phrases, as the tiger discovered when it greeted him with a lewd cat call and "Hello, Cutey," the first time he entered the store. In fact, when he and Ethan had gone over to pick up the painting, a rather attractive canine happened to browsing through the store. When the cute canine leaned over to examine a particular wooden chest, the gutter-mouth parrot squawked, "Nice ass! I wonder what time it opens!" Chris cracked up with laughter, leaning into his mate for support. The shop owners gave him an apologetic look. Chris wondered from which of the owners the bird had learned *that* choice phrase. As Chris and Ethan carried their new pict ure out, they made sure to tell the canine to go say "Hi" to the parrot.

Chris admired his new acquisition. The new painting, depicting a sunrise (or sunset, now that he thought about) across a lake, had been quite a bargain, and it even matched their furniture. Sort of. He made a mental note to take the frame up to the model shop at work to have it refinished to match the deep earth tones of the rest of their apartment.

He grabbed the shopping bag he'd left by the door, emptying its contents onto the coffee table. He slid down into the sofa, wincing slightly as he readjusted his tail. Chris sifted through the random bits of ribbon and candles he'd picked up on his way home. The tiger was a self-proclaimed "hopeless romantic," as he reminded Ethan every time he picked a new piece of artwork to add their (now crowded) walls. "I've got red, green, and yellow candles, matching ribbon, and note cards. What to do with them..." he trailed off, extending a claw and running through the colored ribbons in thought. A plan started to form in his head, as his striped tail thrashed about excitedly. He decided that the entryway would get the gold theme and the living room the green, which left red for their bedroom. "That works out nicely. I amaze myself sometimes." The tiger wandered around their home, scribbling out random notes and leaving a card or a candle hidden somewhere every now and again, while he waited for his big, (not so) bad wolf to come home.

****

After another hour, Ethan realized there was no way he'd finish the work. Besides, the wolf's mind kept wandering back to his sexy roommate. The tiger had taken his advice and started working out recently, and it was beginning to show.

Ethan leaned back, his chair creaking as he closed his eyes. He tried to focus on the problems at hand - the reason he wasn't at home enjoying the company of his mate, but wasn't able to for long. The image of his orange, striped lover kept coming back to his attention, as he started to caress the bulge of his own erection. The wolf imagined his claws gliding across the tiger's bare chest, slowly working his way downward. In his fantasy, Ethan toyed with the tiger's nipples, marveling in the contrast to his own deep charcoal grey paws.

He felt the tiger's claws roaming across his own bare back, nails scritching here and there, rubbing knots out of his tense muscles. They drifted further down, masculine fingers slipping beneath the wolf's bushy tail, caressing his rear. The wolf loved the sensuous pleasures of his mate kneading his firm, masculine glutes, working those thick orange fingers into his furry haunches.

Ethan let out a groan in the empty lab as his attention drifted to the intoxicating, wild scent Chris reeked of when he was aroused. The lustful wolf's mind focused on the strong, sensual musk unique to his tiger lover. The scent reminded Ethan of the jungle - a sort of sweaty, feral, earthy wildness, as if the tiger took his native island tropics with him everywhere. It was natural to picture Chris, nude, roaming silently through a dense jungle, stalking his prey. Ethan fantasized about trying to evade his feline lover, trying to hide himself from those piercing green eyes. His heart raced as he wondered what it would feel like to be *spotted,* for Chris to leap onto him, pushing his shoulders into the ground, straddling his midsection. The wolf would feign resistance, as the tiger "devoured" his prey. He rubbed his erection harder through his slacks, longing for the feeling of Chris's feline muzzle slipping around his maleness, enveloping his firm lupine cock, feline whiskers tick ling his inner thighs - *ding* "Dammit!" Ethan's workstation suddenly interrupted his fantasy. The pressures of work came sweeping back into his mind, and Ethan's aching erection drooped, fading away along with his fantasy.

"That's it. I've had it with this crap. I'm out of here," he growled to no one in particular, adjusting his now limp package through the material of his pants, now slightly damp with precum. Shutting down the equipment, he sent off an e-mail with the results he _did_ have and nearly ran out of the lab. Swinging quickly by his office, he picked up his bag, and made the quarter-mile trek out of the labs to his car grumbling to himself. "I SWEAR that idiot Paul did this to me on purpose. I'm going to have to talk to his boss on Monday. No, maybe that sneaky lizard's in on it too. None of them does a solid day's work except for me. If I weren't here, this contract would have died months ago. I can't believe..." Opening the car door, he slouched into the seat of and noticed a small white card taped to the steering wheel. Bemused, he opened it to find a sketch Chris had drawn of him weeks ago, and a note, with multi-colored ribbon on the corner. Grinning, he read:

'I need you (to loosen up). Follow the yellow brick road.' - S.


'That's interesting,' he thought, fingering the elaborate ribbon. That big striped cat never ceased to surprise him. He started to call Chris on his cell phone to ask what he meant by "yellow brick road," but thought better of it. 'May as well let him surprise me,' he thought, as the hassles of work slowly started to fade out of his consciousness.

Thirty minutes later, the wolf pulled into the driveway of their home. Ethan checked himself over in the rearview mirror. His clear blue eyes stared back at him wearily. 'Maybe I really *do* need to relax," he thought, examining the tired wolf that stared back from the mirror. His usually neat headfur was a mess. He smoothed it out as much as he could, and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt so the creme-colored chestfur that Chris found so arousing was visible. He grabbed his stuff, locked the car door, and prepared to greet his lover.

So, having never written fiction before in my life, I wasn't sure how this turned out. Did you enjoy it? Let me know; I'm working on the second part now. Please write me with any comments / suggestions for where we should go. I'm always looking for interesting, funny, passionate, and/or cute situations and ideas for or about the characters. What would YOU like to see in the part 2?? E-mail me about anything / everything at Gauss@Playful.com.