Author's note: This relatively brief story is part of a comic collaboration with Patrick Little (Shin Gallon) that we intend to submit to Genus: Male.  It features all four of my main characters!

Coming Out   

   Elijah stood in the living room of the small apartment shared by his friends Micah and Khris.  “I don’t know,” he said, drawing his eyebrows together and flattening his ears.  “I just don’t know . . . I do like girls, but sometimes, when I look at another guy…”

            “I know,” Micah said softly, putting his arm around the slightly taller kit fox’s shoulders.  “You don’t have to be shy around us – we’ve all been through that uncertainty.”

            Elijah nodded and looked at Khris and Neil; the arctic fox, clothed in his usual leather jacket, tight t-shirt, and jeans, lounged in the doorway, and the rat, in slacks and a turtleneck shirt, sat on the couch and grinned encouragingly.

            “But – what would other people think?” Elijah asked worriedly, turning to the fennec.  “My friends –“

            “Aren’t we your friends?” Neil asked, leaning forward.

            “Yes, of course,” Elijah answered. 

            “A friend who doesn’t accept you the way you are isn’t a very good friend,” Micah pointed out, turning to face the kit fox.

            “Good point,” Elijah agreed, his expressive blue eyes wide and thoughtful. He walked across the small room and slumped down into the couch next to Neil.  “I’m just so confused!” he exclaimed plaintively.  “And that girl in my class who asked me out the other day – she’ll be so disappointed!”

            “Shhh,” Micah soothed the flustered fox, sitting next to him.  Khris came forward and sat on the footstool across from the couch.

            “We’re all your friends here,” the arctic fox said reassuringly, placing a hand on Elijah’s knee.

            “I know, I know…”  Elijah covered his face with his hands.  “Was it like this for you guys – so confusing?”

            Khris shrugged.  “I think I knew all along.  I never liked women.”

            “A bit,” Neil added, pushing his small wire glasses up his muzzle.  “I remember dating girls in high school, but it just never – felt right.  And then one day I happened to wander into a gay bar, quite accidentally!”  He shrugged and smiled.

            “I struggled with it for a long time,” Micah agreed.  “I tried really hard to be straight, to ignore how I really felt – it wasn’t fun!”  He shook his head sadly.  “Denying myself the love and intimacy that I longed for, just to fit in better!  And the world didn’t collapse around me when I finally came out, my friends didn’t all hate me, I wasn’t kicked out of school!  And then I met Khris, and realized how happy I could be!”  Micah grinned and reached forward to hold his boyfriend’s paw, and the arctic fox smiled back.

            Elijah stared into his lap, his hands between his knees.  “I guess so…”  He turned and looked at the fennec next to him, and managed a small smile.  “Thanks for listening, I really appreciate it!  You know, Micah…I’ve sort of…sort of had a crush on you for a few weeks now.”  Elijah returned his gaze to his lap, blushing furiously through his fur.

            “Oh – really?”  Micah giggled.  Elijah started to apologize, ashamed, but Micah’s lips closed over his before he could open his mouth, and the fennec’s paw slid under his shirt, then down to his pants.

            “Oh…” Elijah murmured when the kiss ended, his blue eyes wide.

            “I guess you liked that, Lij, because you’re hard,” Micah pointed out in a matter-of-fact voice that made his friends snicker.  “Here, why don’t I help you with that?”

            Elijah started to protest, but Neil, still sitting next to him, shushed him while Micah unbuttoned his own shirt and pants.  The fennec gently took hold of Elijah’s trembling paw and pressed it into the thick white fur on his chest.

            “Ah…” Elijah moaned.  Micah removed his pants and moved the kit fox’s hand to the hard bulge in his briefs, where an erection strained at his sheath. 

“Lij, you’re trembling!”  Still holding Elijah’s hand, the fennec guided it under the elastic band of his underwear, gasping at the feel of the kit fox’s fingerpads on his unsheathed erection.

            Elijah drew his paw back suddenly, breathing sharply and heavily.

            “I’m sorry, Lij,” Micah worriedly started to say, “did I –“

            “No,” Elijah gasped.  “I want – I want you to do that to me.”

            Micah grinned.  “Gladly.”

            Elijah shut his eyes and sank back into the couch, feeling Neil’s warm thigh pressed against his one side, Khris’ reassuring paw on his knee, and Micah’s nearly nude body on his other side as the fennec caressed the bulge evident in the kit fox’s tight brown slacks.  Micah kissed Elijah again as he slowly unbuttoned the kit fox’s fly and slid the pants down his thighs, caressing the soft fur there, and exposing Elijah’s boxer briefs.

            “Unh,” Elijah moaned, shuddering and bucking his hips as Micah’s paw stroked his most sensitive area through the fabric of his underwear, while Neil and Khris watched intently, their hands creeping toward their own groins.  Micah removed Elijah’s underwear and then his own, exposing an erection that was slender like the rest of him.  He reached out a hand to stroke Elijah but the kit fox stopped him.  “No, I want to…” he gulped before continuing, “I want to feel you inside me.  If that’s okay.”

            “I’ve never done that before,” Micah whispered, his eyes wide.  “Are you sure you – you’re ready for that?”

            Elijah nodded vigorously and turned sideways, holding his tail to the side and exposing his rump to the fennec.

            “Okay – but let me know if I hurt you!”  Micah retrieved a small bottle of lubrication from a drawer in the chest next to the couch and dipped his finger into it.  He probed at Elijah’s pink tail-hole with one finger and was rewarded with a sharp gasp.  “Why don’t you sit in my lap?”  Micah guided the slightly taller kit fox into his lap with his back toward the fennec, breathing sharply as Elijah lowered himself, driving Micah deeper into his incredibly tight warmth.

            “Aaah!” the kit fox cried out, feeling the fennec’s erection deep inside.  Micah wrapped his arms around Elijah’s chest and nuzzled the back of his neck as he started to slowly thrust.  By this point, both Neil and Khris had unbuttoned their flies to free their own erections and were pleasuring themselves as they watched.

            “Oh – I’m gonna come!!” Elijah whimpered, treating Khris and Neil to a clear view as he arched his back and his erection throbbed and spurted all over his belly.  The spasms pulsing through his groin and buttocks drove Micah to his own climax, and the fennec clenched his teeth, sinking his claws into Elijah’s thick chest fur, and came deep within the kit fox.

            Neil and Khris reached orgasm seconds later, and the four sprawled into a spent and tangled heap on the couch.

            “Are you still confused?” Micah asked with a lazy grin.

            “I suppose not,” Elijah answered breathily.  “Though I still like girls, too!”

            “Ew!!” Khris grimaced.

The end.