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"Hey, Fenris? What's a furry?"
Fenris just about spit out his drink but successfully managed to swallow it down. Granted, it went down all wrong, then, and he went into a violent coughing fit. "Excuse me?" he finally managed to say.
"A furry," said Anders. He was looking at something on his laptop, and Fenris wasn't sure if he wanted to know what.
"Um," Fenris stammered, "That depends. On the context."
"Well, I found this cute cat outfit online, but all the comments are just 'furry' this and 'furry' that."
Oh Maker. "You don't want to know, then," said Fenris.
That, of course, immediately piqued Anders' interest, and he snapped his head towards Fenris. "Why not? Is it naughty?"
"What? No! I mean, well... no. No!" Fenris realized then that he was digging his own hole deeper and deeper, if the grin Anders was sprouting now was any indication.
"I want to know all the details," said Anders.
"There are no details," said Fenris.
"Oh, don't give me that. Of course there are details," Anders said. He set his laptop aside and then pushed himself over towards Fenris, sitting himself cross-legged on the couch right next to him and putting his chin in his palm. "And I want to hear allll about them."
This was going to be awful. "Fine," said Fenris. "Furries are, um. People who like... animals. Anthropomorphic ones. Like in cartoons."
"I like those too," said Anders.
"This is different," said Fenris. "Trust me."
"How is it different?" Anders asked. Then he grinned again. "Are you a furry?"
"No!" Fenris said, perhaps a little too sharply.
"Oooh, that hit a nerve," said Anders.
Fenris realized then that if he didn't come clean now, Anders would keep bothering him until he did. "For a couple of months. In college. I... was into furry a bit, I mean."
Anders' chin was still in his palms. "Just a bit?"
"I liked some of the art, and the idea that you could represent yourself as an animal," said Fenris. "There was an artist online, a really good one. A bit mysterious. He called himself The Dread Wolf. As you can expect, his wolf artwork was very good, so I commissioned him to draw one for me. White, with tattoos like mine. They glowed, even."
"That wolf was supposed to be you, as an animal?" Anders asked.
"Y... yes," said Fenris. He opted not to introduce Anders to the term "fursona".
"You should get this Dread Wolf guy to do a cat version of me," said Anders. "Or maybe a tiger. Do you think a tiger fits me better?"
"I... don't know how to get a hold of him these days, and I like you best as a human," said Fenris.
"But if I was a cat, you could scratch behind my ears!" Anders rested his head on Fenris' shoulder.
"I can do that now," said Fenris.
"Aww, but that's not as fun," said Anders. "I would purr if I was a cat. And swish my tail around. And then wrap my tail around you. Which you would like. Don't deny it." He twisted himself around so his head was in Fenris' lap and he was looking up at him.
"I... might like it. A little," Fenris admitted. "But I'm still not buying you a cat suit."
"Oh, you don't have to," said Anders. "I already ordered it. Then we can... what's that word they were using in the comments? Yiff?"
"Maker save me," muttered Fenris.