"Happy now?" she said. 

"What is this?" I stammered.

"The face of the British Furs for Equality," the panther said, walking into the heart of the building. "We're working on freeing ourselves from the oppression of humans. By any means necessary."

"You're one person..." Jake said.

"My people are elsewhere. Carrying out missions for the cause." 

"Riiiiight," Jake said. "Well, this has been fun and everything but I took a wrong turn in Albuquerque and clearly ended up in crazy town. I'll be off then."

The panther pulled a Glock out of nowhere–though I later saw it was from a holster–and leveled it at Jake as he moved for the door. 

"Are you fucking crazy?" I screamed. "Put the gun down!" 

"I expected this from him, everyone knows he betrayed his own species before. He may wear our fur, but he's not pure." She pointed the gun at me.

"Lady, you're sounding like the psycho humans!" Jake said.

"How do you know my name?" She pointed it back at him. 

"Your name's Lady?" we both said incredulously. 

"Oh... No... It's Laney... that's besides the point!" She cocked the hammer on the gun. 

"What are you doing?" I yelled again. 

"Like I said, he's not a pure fur."

"So you're gonna kill him?"

"If that's what it takes to get you to help us, then yes."

"Wait, join you? You are psycho, bitch."

Quick as a flash, she swung the gun at me, hitting the side of my head. I went down and blood trickled down from the wound. 

"Ooh... What the fuck?" I groaned.

"Listen, pretty boy, I don't want to hurt you necessarily, but I will if I have to. I'm not letting you go unless you do what I tell you. And I'm telling you to help us or there'll be a tragic story about being killed by humans and you'll be our martyr."

I glanced over at Jake and he shook his head.

"If I help you, you don't ever point a gun at either of us. And Jake is under my protection. Anything happens to him, I'm out."

"Fine," she said, curling her lips into a twisted smile. "Let me show you to your room."

Putting the gun back into a holster, she led us from the room, hips swaying as we followed her. Up the stairs lay a hallway with rooms on either side. I couldn't help but notice a room that had gun lining the walls. I shot Jake a look and saw the same fear that was in my eyes. What had I just gotten us into?

"Here it is, boys," the panther said, standing outside a doorway. The room was bare to say the least. A single window was on the wall opposite and the floor was bare hardwood that had a gaping hole in the corner. The only thing in the room was a small, single mattress on the floor. "Goodnight," Laney crooned, closing the door behind us and locking us in. 

"Fuck." Jake slammed his pack onto the floor which groaned at the force. "What the fuck did you get us into?"

"Me? She was going to kill us! Jake, I saved us!"

"Yeah, saved us to become terrorists. You saw that room of guns, right? She's not just gonna let us out of here after seeing that, you know that, right?"

"Well... I'll, I mean... We'll think of something," I said, slumping against the wall. "I just... I panicked when I saw her point the gun at you. I didn't... I couldn't..."

The gravity of the situation, combined with thoughts of anything bad happening to Jake was too much for me and tears began streaming down my face.

"Brent," Jake said, using the stern parental voice on me. "Now is not the time for crying. What the hell are we going to do?"

I racked my brain, trying to figure out some kind of escape plan. "Try the window," was all I could manage. Jake gave it a tug and the wall groaned so loudly and horrible, I thought the wall was going to cave in. "Wait. I got it. We'll play her game, get her thinking we're on her side, and then we'll wait for her to sleep and smash the window and make a break for it."

Jake sighed and sat on the bed. After a while, tears started streaming from his eyes too, and they were soon accompanied with quiet sobs. I stood and walked over to him, sitting on the bed and wrapped my arms around him. I squeezed him, holding him tightly as we cried together.

"I'm so sorry, Jake. I never wanted any of this. I just wanted to have fun with you. I never wanted all the fame. I just wanted to be a normal kid."

"I know. I just... You're used to this stuff, people knowing you, people pointing guns at you. I'm not. I'm pathetic, Brent."

"Shut up. Okay? Shut the hell up. You are not pathetic. You're the only person I've ever had in my corner. The only person to stick with me through everything. And you've gone through so much, Jake. Stuff I can't even imagine. You had to face your fears, and come out to everyone. You had to tell your parents and your friends that you wanted the most difficult and life threatening surgery in the world, the one that makes Gender Reassignment surgery look like a walk in the park, and you still went through with it knowing that before hand. And later you went through ridiculous scrutiny in the press when they found out you had the operation. I never could do any of that. 

"Do you remember when people tried hanging out with me, just because of my fame, and they tried to replace you and be my new best friend? Think about it, I told them to fuck off. Because no one can replace you, Jake Carter."

Jake sniffled a little and nodded. He brought his head up and smiled at me."That was a pretty cheesy speech though, dude."

"Man, shut up," I said, giving him a hard shove. We both felt a little better though, now that the tension was broken. 

"Let's try and get some sleep," he said. 

I nodded, and we both stood up to get changed for bed. However I had to stop after pulling my pants off when I noticed Jake. 

He pulled his shirt off, revealing the same toned, lightly-colored, furry body I'd seen so many times before. But this time, I felt like I was really looking for the first time. He had a six pack, but it wasn't as defined as his chest which made me feel...

Then he dropped his pants which made me less ready to drop mine. He wore tight, purple briefs that were accented in a bright yellow trim. I bit my lip and shuddered to myself at the outline of his sheath. And when he turned around, I saw this tight butt that was absolutely beautiful. 

I shook myself out of it and pulled my shirt off, feeling self-conscious at my larger frame. I wasn't big, or fat but I had a bit of a gut and manboobs. I wasn't exactly sexy, but I hoped that maybe Jake might be a little excited by my form. 

Jake said something I didn't quite catch. 

"Sorry?" I said.

"How are we gonna do this?" he repeated.

"D-do what?" I managed, hoping he didn't see my flushing cheeks under my bright red fur. 

"The mattress. It's gonna be cramped. You got a problem with sleeping together or do you want to trade off?"

"Um... We could try sleeping together."

"Dude, you're, like, sweating bullets. It's just sleeping. Not like we're doing it."

Yeah, too bad... 

"Right, yeah." I crawled into the mattress and was joined by Jake. I really, really regretted not having something to cover up my ugly body. 

We lay in the bed for a while, shivering under the threadbare blanket. I felt so ashamed for ogling him. I was practically drooling over him while he changed. I sighed a bit too loudly. 

"Brent?" Jake said, breath warming my cheek.

"Yeah?" 

"You okay? I can let you have the bed tonight if you don't feel comfortable.

"There was Jake, always thinking of everyone but himself. 

"Yeah," I said. "Just cold is all."

"You too? I... I didn't want to ask, cause it's a little awkward, but would you mind if we... Um... Y'know, spooned?"

There was Jake, always reading my mind. 

"S-sure."

Jake pressed his back to my chest and his butt against my crotch. He grabbed my arms and put his head on one, and wrapped the other around his chest like a blanket. I could smell his hair and the subtly of his shampoo. 

There was Jake, always putting me at ease.

"Night, Brent," he said.

"Goodnight, Jake," I responded.

I sure hope he was asleep when I finally let my tail wag.