Reconciliation
==============
*By Indi Latrani*

For the fourth time in ten minutes, Eric's phone rang. For the fourth time in ten minutes, he flinched away from the name and image on the screen, sending it to voicemail. "Okay, that's it, changing that picture." It'd seemed like a cute idea at the time, a photo of him and Kyle together as a contact image. But now, after the breakup...

Eric was halfway through removing the painful image when, of course, the phone rang again. With a surge of frustration, he jabbed the 'Answer' button.

"Oh my GOD, Kyle, what do you want?"

The voice on the other end was familiar, but the panicked tone wasn't. "...Crap, I'm sorry, look, I know this is awkward, but..." Kyle paused, sounding like he was gasping for breath.

Eric's oncoming tirade faltered. He wasn't sure what he'd expected from his ex at this point, but what he was getting sounded like genuine fear. "What's going on, Kyle?" he asked, guarded.

"I'm... look, do you think... could I come over?"

That brought a bit more anger back. "Kyle, it's 1 AM, and you DO remember you broke up with me, right?"

"No, yeah, I know... It's not... Something happened, okay?  I'm sorta stuck downtown, I'm like three blocks away, I don't know where else to go!"

Eric felt an unwelcome pang of concern in his stomach. "Did you get mugged or something?  Are you okay?  Look, why're you calling me?  Call the police!"

The first response over the line was a strange growling whimper, not a sound Eric was used to Kyle, or anyone, making. "I didn't get mugged. The police can't help... Look, please?  It's raining, and... and I just need to get off the street for a bit, you'll... you'll see why."

Eric thought for a long moment. Kyle still sounded genuinely scared, even if all this didn't make much sense. Seeing him again would be far less pleasant than seeing his picture on the phone, but sitting there wondering if something terrible had happened for the rest of the night sounded even worse. "Fine. But if you're putting me on, _I_ will call the police, got it?"

"Fine, okay, that's fine. Thank you, I'll be there in a few minutes, just... thanks."

Kyle hung up and Eric flopped back onto the couch with a groan, trying to bolster himself for whatever he'd just agreed to.

* * *

It was about 10 minutes later when the doorbell rang. Eric took a breath, then got up to answer it. As soon as he'd opened the door, Kyle pushed through in a blur, headed straight for the couch, and buried himself face-down, dropping a backpack on the floor as he did. All Eric could see of him was rain-soaked jeans and jacket.

"Sorry... thank you..." Kyle murmured, voice muffled by the couch.

Eric walked closer, sitting nearby. "Kyle, what the hell is going on?"

"It's... I don't even KNOW." Kyle groaned. "Okay, just... I"m going to... don't freak out, okay?" Kyle shifted position, pulling his head out from where it had been pressed against the cushions and pulling down the hood of his jacket.

"Freak out at--" Eric broke off as he got a better look at Kyle. A long grey-furred muzzle, a shiny black nose, those little gold markings in the fur, matching the big golden eyes... Eric recognized it immediately, the costume Kyle had run across online, the one that had caused the fight, the fight that had led to the breakup. "Oh my god, you actually bought it? What the hell?"

Kyle cringed, Eric could see it despite the furred face, then shook his head. "No--well, yes, but... look!"  

Kyle tugged open the backpack leaning against the couch. Staring up at them was the same lupine face that Kyle wore, though with the two visible at once, there was no comparison. In the backpack was clearly the costume head, oversized, stylized, with a simple cheerful expression. Kyle's head looked more like what the costume might have been modeled after. Detailed, animated, expressive, it wasn't that Eric could see Kyle's anguished expression through a mask, that was really Kyle making the expression, complete with down-folded ears and drooping whiskers.

"What the hell?" Eric shifted in his own seat, at first reaching tentatively to touch the strange sight before him, then relenting as Kyle flinched away. "Kyle, what's going on?  I'm not freaking out, but... what's going on?"

"Okay, so... I bought it. I wanted it, you were right, and I was all embarrassed and that's why I made fun of it, and then we had a big fight and it wasn't like I could admit things then so I left and then I just... I didn't want to be myself for a while."

Eric frowned. The summary of their breakup from Kyle's point of view was more or less what he'd already surmised, but hearing Kyle's confirmation at this point just made him feel more annoyed. He bit back an angry comment, and just deadpanned, "Well, looks like you got that..."

Kyle cringed again. "Look, I'm not used to all that... geeky weird stuff, but, I dunno, I'd been having these dreams and... Okay, I got some birthday money and I bought it, and I was feeling like an asshole for... all that stuff, so I decided to go out dancing and try out being someone who just did what he wanted rather than worrying what everyone else thought."

"And...?"

"And I dunno, it was fun, it was great, but then I was feeling hot and kinda cramped so I went into the bathroom to take it off and get some air, and--"  Kyle gestured at himself and flopped back down sideways on the couch.

Eric kept silent, mind racing along several different tracks. One was still seething about the further revelations about the breakup fight, while another was scrambling for a sensible explanation for what he was seeing. And then there was that little train of thought reminding him that he'd always found that costume attractive, and all this meant maybe Kyle wasn't such a jerk after all.

After a few moments of mutual silence, Kyle started up again. "So it's not like I could go back to the dorms, everyone would SEE me, I couldn't even ride the bus, everyone would see me there too. And you were the only person I knew who lived close by, so I figured..." He shrugged, sighing.

The annoyed train of thought won out. "Oh, yeah, God forbid anyone see you looking like anything other than a perfectly normal member of society. Well, I mean, anyone other than the weird ex-boyfriend you were slumming it with."

Kyle frowned for a moment, then sighed again. "Yeah... yeah, that's fair. Look, I dunno, I tried to tell you, I grew up... well, it was like... You know I came out really early, right? So I already had that against me, so if I did anything else that was weird, I'd be basically screwed. You should've seen the GLBT club back then, it was as cliquey and homogenized as everything else in high school. After a while, it got to be a habit."

Kyle had sat back up now, but was hunched over, ears folded downward again. Eric was finding it hard to keep up his anger in the face of that sad-puppy look. "Yeah, that's why I stay away from the one on campus." He paused, and couldn't stop a bit of a smirk at his next thought. "It's gonna be hard to keep that up now, though."

Kyle groaned. "Maybe I'll change back?"

Eric shrugged. "Well, you've got the rest of the weekend to hope for that..."

"You'll let me stay here?"

Eric took a moment to think. This was, he realized, possibly the deepest talk he'd had with Kyle in the six months they'd known each other. It really was hard to stay angry, hearing that story, seeing this situation, strange as it was. "Well, the busses have all stopped running anyway. I guess you're here for tonight, at least. On the couch."

Kyle slumped in relief. "Okay. Thank you. As soon as I figure this out, I'll go, okay?" He paused, then. "Look, but, uh... Can I take my pants off?"

Eric gaped, and Kyle flinched and continued. "Oh, crap, sorry... Look, uh... I think I have a tail, and, well, it's not very comfortable like this."

"Right. Fine. Kyle, this is so weird."

"You're telling me..." Kyle stood up, turning away from Eric, and tugged at his pants, revealing, indeed, a large, fluffy tail, gray-furred like the rest of him, with a few of those golden markings again, and a rather shapely fur-covered rear as well. Eric looked for a long moment, then caught himself, turning away. "I should sleep. This is about all the weirdness I can handle tonight. Don't shed on the furniture."

Kyle made a face, wrapping his jacket around his hips loosely in an attempt at modesty. "Ha ha. But... Thanks, man."

Eric shook his head, wandering off to his bedroom, and flopped heavily on his bed, not even bothering with his own clothes. Laying next to him, as usual, was his small team-mascot plush husky. As he had every other night since Kyle left, he hugged it to himself for companionship. This time, though, as he drifted off to sleep he found himself wondering how much nicer the big furred form in the next room would feel in his arms.

* * *

"Oh my god, WHAT?"  

Eric bolted awake at the yell from the living room. He peered at the clock. 3AM. Less than an hour of sleep. Great. He stood up, storming back out. "Kyle, again, what the hell?"

The canine Kyle was sitting up on the couch again, modesty apparently forgotten, showing off quite a bit more of that gray-and-gold pelt. He was staring at one of his paw-like hands, flexing the fingers a few time. He looked up at Eric as he entered, eyes wide. "I didn't look as close before! I-I'm not even... real anymore!"

"Real?" Eric blinked sleepily. "What do you mean?"

Kyle waved that paw in Eric's face, then pulled it back, squeezing his other forearm with it. Strangely, the arm squished in, quite a bit more than would be explained by fur. "Wait, what?" Kyle let go again, the arm returning to its previous shape, and raised the paw back up for inspection. Now Eric could see the details that must have alarmed Kyle as well; there was stitching there, easy to see where the pawpads attached to the palms, but visible along the digits and even down his arm. "You're still... You're like the suit...?"  

"I'm some kind of freakin' stuffed animal, like your... like the one in your room!"  One part of Eric's mind noted that this was the first time Kyle had referred to the husky with anything but derision, while another suddenly remembered that vague falling-asleep thought. His cheeks reddened.

Kyle, fortunately, wasn't paying attention, something else had apparently occurred to him. "Oh god, does that mean--"  He plunged a hand between his legs, a look of panic on his face for a moment, but he soon relaxed. "Okay, still there... Sorta."  All concerns of modesty had clearly vanished from Kyle's mind as he slid back, exposing the sheath and sac between his legs. "I... guess that's how it is on... oh god, dogs, what the hell..."

Eric blushed deeper now, turning away again, trying to divert the conversation. "So, it's like.. You're the same material as the costume was? I'm not sure if that makes more sense than you just turning into a wolf thing, or way less."

Kyle seemed to eventually realize the show he was putting on, and dragged some clothes back over his lap. "Wait, does that mean someone could, like, wear me?" He reached up to his neck, feeling through the fur there, and even tugged upward on his head gently. Eric's eyes widened, and he reached out to Kyle, in case something alarming happened, but the wolf's head stayed attached.

"No, looks like you're just, yeah, plush, like my... yeah."  Eric felt an unwelcome warmth on his cheeks again.

"Oh god, you're blushing. You said you liked how this suit looked, you... you mean you REALLY liked it, didn't you."

Eric's stomach lurched, and he tensed for the torrent of derision that would come next, the big thing that he'd been afraid of Kyle finding out...

But it didn't come. Kyle's tone wasn't mocking, it was merely bemused, even a bit relieved. "Man, who am I to judge, I liked it too. I was the one being all defensive about it, remember?"

Kyle gaped, as surprised by this as anything else he'd seen that night. Not the facts, necessarily, but that Kyle was actually admitting them, this time without even any of that defensiveness. He stood there a long moment, unsure what to say, until one of those quietly insistent trains of thought won out. "Yeah, you're... really hot."

The wolf looked embarrassed for a moment, then showed a rueful smile. "Glad someone thinks so, I guess. I still hope this is temporary though."

With that knowledge out in the open, Eric figured he might as well keep going. "Yeah, when you were thinking of buying that, I did sorta think I'd want you to, y'know... hump me, wearing it."

Kyle grinned. "If you'd told me that, I might've bought it earlier."

"You would've just made fun of me!"

Kyle sighed. "Yeah... Yeah, probably. I was a jerk." He paused. "But now I'm apparently someone else. Just like I wanted. But hopefully not for long."

Eric swallowed hard, then took a deep breath. "I hope I don't regret this, but... while you ARE someone else, do you want to..." He trailed off, worried he was making a mistake, thinking rashly. But really, this was as much about Kyle's new open attitude as his form. This Kyle he never would have broken up with, furred body or not.

Kyle looked surprised for a moment, then smirked. "Well, I DO kinda want to make sure this all still works right..."

* * *

Within minutes they were in Eric's bedroom, Eric bent over his bed, pants around his ankles. Kyle stood over him, hands wandering over the stiff rubbery shaft that he'd coaxed from that sheath. It seemed to be as artificial as the rest, and color-coordinated too, a nice thick shaft of slightly-shiny dark gold. He leaned over Eric, positioning himself, then pushed.

Eric let out a moan at the sensation, the shaft as firm as it looked, and the wolf apparently strong enough to use it well, regardless of what he was made of. He pushed back, letting the tip past his ring. "Mmmh, you're.. bigger, I think..."

"Yeah, there are some things I'm starting to like about this. This feels incredible." Kyle's voice had a throaty rumble to it now, as he pushed harder, leaning over Eric, a furred hand gripping his shoulder as the wolf started to thrust, a bit deeper each time.

"Same here," gasped Eric, shifting one hand to work at his own erection. Then he felt Kyle's large, soft paw wrap around his hand, easing it off.

"I think I can handle you too. I don't seem to really get tired now either." The wolf kept moving as he spoke, stroking Eric's own shaft to the same rhythm.

Eric arched slightly against Kyle's form, then let out a whole new moan of pleasure at the feel of the soft fur across his back, the sensation combining wonderfully with the deep thrusts inside him. "Be... careful of.. the knot," he gasped out, as he felt Kyle's new girth stretch his passage further and further.

"The what...?" Kyle certainly did seem less out of breath. He paused, pulled halfway out. "Oh. Wow. Yeah, you'll have to work up to that." He chuckled, leaning back down over Eric and resuming his thrusts, picking up speed.

Eric groaned, his whole body tensed up, finding himself quickly driven close to his peak, barely even needing Kyle's touch on his cock. A deep growl of "Oh god I'm getting close" from behind him sent an eager shudder through him, as he tried to keep up his movements along with the tireless wolf above him.

Moments later, Kyle let out a howl and Eric felt that shaft jerk inside him, a surge of warmth flooding out. He joined in almost immediately, coming hard, seed spurting messily on the bed as that paw coaxed his own pulsing length.

Kyle's climax seemed to last longer than his own, the wolf staying pressed close, the shaft still jerking slightly inside. Eventually, Kyle eased down on top of him with a throaty sigh. For all that strength, the wolf was surprisingly light on top of him, almost like a lovely soft fluffy blanket.

Eric laid there for a long moment, just enjoying the feeling.  "I... don't think you have to sleep on the couch, anymore," he murmured, finally.

* * *

It was past noon by the time Eric woke up, shifting sleepily in bed and squeezing the soft furry form in his arms. He came awake much quicker, though, when it moved back, an unusual action for a plush husky, but a lovely and welcome one from the large soft wolf he saw when he opened his eyes. "Mmm... you... didn't change back yet," he observed with a sleepy grin.

Kyle stirred, turning toward him, wearing a grin on his muzzle as well. "I think maybe if things stay like this, I might be able to live with that." He paused, a hint of uncertainty flashing over his features. "How about you?"

Eric's smile grew, and he gave Kyle another squeeze. "I think I could live with this too."