“We only have a limited time son, and my time is up. But you made every second worth it. Use your time to make others happy.”
His father’s last words always lingered in his mind, but they were some of the only things he’d been hearing in his head for the past two days, besides the voices of self doubt.
Now he risked forgetting them forever.
Todd rolled to his side and looked at his phone. 10 PM. He could hear Sam snoring slightly. He was out like a light. Maybe it was for the best though. It gave Todd a chance to finally have some time alone…
The young man quietly got out of bed and grabbed the pair of shorts he had worn earlier that day from his laundry basket. He gave it a quick sniff, shrugged, and put them on. He then proceeded to do the same thing with his tank top. Even though his enhanced sense of smell could tell him that these clothes were dirty, he wasn’t going to dirty a new pair of clothes just to go outside for a few minutes. Todd grabbed his phone off the nightstand before quietly leaving the dorm room. He needed to clear his head.
Todd’s childhood wasn’t ideal, to say the least. His parents divorced when he was only 5 years old, leaving him to be passed back and forth between his mother and father every weekend due to the joint custody agreement. If Todd was able to have a say in the ruling at that age, he would’ve just asked to stay with his father full time.
While he loved his mother, she always seemed to be too busy with work to spend time with him. As such, it wasn’t uncommon for Todd to come home from school and find a babysitter there instead of his mother. Whenever she made plans for them to have a day together, they were almost always cancelled an hour or so before. As such, he learned to numb the pain of disappointment. He understood that she had to work in order to make a living, but he always wished that he could see her more.
His father, on the other hand, was always there for him. He always expected his dad to be home to help him with his homework, eat dinner with him, and play games together. He opened up a lot more to his dad than he did to his mom because of this. Whenever he and his dad would sit down and play games together, his dad would say “Someday, I’m going to go back to school and learn how to make games. That way I can make everyone as happy as you make me, Todd.” But he never got the chance.
When his father died, Todd’s entire life came crashing down around him. His mother grieved for a little while, but it wasn’t long before she was dating again. She ended up marrying a man who absolutely despised Todd, but she would never know that, since she was never around. Todd’s stepfather frequently looked for excuses to verbally abuse the young boy. Without anyone to talk to and a man who constantly abused him, Todd shut himself off from the world. He became shy, antisocial, and terrified to do anything outside of his comfort zone. That’s why when it came to choosing a college, Todd chose the furthest in-state college from home. He wanted to be far away from everyone and everything that had ever hurt him.
Todd’s wandering brought him to the lakeshore. He wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gotten here, but there was a part of him that made Todd feel like he was supposed to be here. He sat down on a nearby bench and stared out at the still water of the lake.
Being here was a bittersweet feeling. This world was giving Todd a new life, a new family who loves and cares for him, and friends that he would do anything for. But that came at the cost of his memories from being human being suppressed and locked away deep within his mind.
“I can’t forget him…” Todd said quietly, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I can’t forget these times with Sam…” As tears ran down his cheeks, a soft gust of wind blew through the trees, making the leaves rustle.
The sound of a phone buzzing made Todd reach up and wipe some tears from his eyes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, and his heart almost stopped when he saw the caller ID.
Mom
His hands shaky, Todd accepted the call and held the phone up to his ear. “H-Hello?”
“Sweetie? Are you okay?” a female voice asked from the other end. “You sound like you’ve been crying.”
The image of a female wolf appeared in Todd’s head. She had white fur, like Sam, and she was an inch or two shorter than Todd was. Her fur always smelt of freshly picked roses, which was why Todd loved to hug her when he was just a pup.
“Y-Yeah…I-I’m okay mom…” Todd sniffed. “I was…I-I was j-just th-thinking…”
“About your father…” his mother finished. “I was too, honestly. I’m glad my motherly intuition convinced me to call you.”
“I…I had a-a n-nightmare…that I…I f-forgot him…”
“Aww, honey.” His mother’s voice was soothing enough to calm a raging storm. “If I know anything about you, it’s that you had a relationship with your father that would make him impossible to forget.”
“B-B-But what if…wh-what if I do?” Todd stuttered, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Wh-What if I wake up one m-m-morning and…and I d-don’t know who he w-was?!”
“That won’t happen,” his mother replied softly. “Do you remember what his last words to you were?”
“We…we only h-have a limited time son, and m-my t-time is up,” Todd said softly. “But you…y-you made every s-s-second worth it. Use your t-time…to m-make others h-h-happy.”
“You were your father’s pride and joy,” his mother said. “Every night when I got home from work, he would tell me about how proud he was of you. It always made me jealous that he got to build such a strong relationship with you while I was stuck working.”
“It wasn’t…it wasn’t y-your fault mom…” Todd replied quietly. “You were w-working hard to keep us a-afloat. I…I’m just happy that you were there to help me g-grieve. You…you gave up everything…just to be there for me…”
That’s right…his mom retired from her well-paying job early in order to be with him while he grieved. She left the workforce…so her son could have a shoulder to cry on. She wanted to finally make up for the 12 years she hadn’t been there for him. His mom did eventually go back to work, but she made sure to make more time for Todd.
“Of course I gave up that cushy job in order to be with you,” his mother replied. “I needed to be there to help you grieve, and you needed to be there to help me grieve the loss of my spouse of 13 years.”
His parents never divorced. Todd’s mom grieved his dad’s death until Todd was 16. When she eventually started dating again, she met Stanley, a husky who looked tough, but he’s just a big teddy bear. He treats Todd with respect and never oversteps his boundaries.
“Th-Thank you mom…” Todd said. “I…I feel like…like I n-never had…the c-c-courage to s-say that enough…”
“Sweetie, you’re at a university on the opposite side of the state because you wanted to do what your father always wanted to do: design games to make people happy,” Todd’s mother said. “You’re in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar anthros, and you’re embracing it. You have far more courage than you know. I know that you’re shy, but I also know that you’re going to find someone who makes you open up and reveal your true self.”
He’s always been shy. It wasn’t easy for Todd to make friends in school, but that all changed when he met Sam.
Todd’s mom yawned on the other end of the phone. “Alright honey, I think it’s time we both got back to bed. You have classes and I have work. I love you sweetheart.”
“I love you too m-mom. I-I promise I’ll c-call more o-often. G-Good night...”
“Good night sweetheart.” With that, Todd ended his phone call and tucked his phone back into his pants pocket. Plenty of new memories had filled his mind during the phone call, but he could still remember his father’s last words and the time he spent with Sam learning to be more social and developing a crush on him. And if he thought hard enough, he could still recall his memories as a human…so he could remember everything again.
A soft gust of wind blew through Todd’s fur, and his vision suddenly went a bit blurry. He rubbed his eyes, thinking that something had suddenly gotten into them. When that didn’t work, he took off his glasses to clean them, only to realize something: he could see.
His vision was crisp, and he could see significantly better in the dark. Pulling out his phone again, Todd opened up his camera and looked at his eyes. They no longer looked fully human, instead looking like a hybrid between human and wolf eyes. To his surprise, however, they had retained their brilliant blue color. But how was that possible? Wolves can’t have blue eyes.
“Of course I can,” Todd thought to himself suddenly. “Grandma was a husky, and Grandpa was a wolf. Dad inherited Grandma’s blue eyes, and I inherited mine from him. Grandma, Grandpa, and mom have always told me that I’m the spitting image of dad.”
Shrugging off his sudden thought, Todd got up from the bench he had been sitting on and held his glasses up. He’d always hated these things, with their thick frames and large size. He finally didn’t need them anymore, but it didn’t feel right to just destroy them or throw them away. He gently tucked them in his pocket. He’d keep them as a memento of his old life.
His ears flicked at the sound of someone running down the path to get to the lake. He turned his head and saw Sam step onto the beach. He looked around frantically before locking eyes with Todd and sprinting towards him. Before Todd could even react, the jock had wrapped him in a tight hug.
“Todd! Oh thank God I found you!” he said, his voice sounding shaky. “I’ve been looking for you for over half an hour! What have you been doing?!”
“I…I just n-needed to clear my h-head,” Todd said. “I’m f-fine now.”
Sam sighed in relief. “Good, now let’s get back to the dorm, okay?”
- - - - -
“A-And that’s what happened…” Todd finished as Sam opened the door to their room.
“Damn, that’s…a lot…” Sam commented, taking off his shirt and shorts as Todd did the same. “All these new memories…they take a lot out of you. Let’s hit the hay for tonight, okay?” Sam prepared to climb back into bed, when Todd suddenly grabbed his wrist.
“Wait…” Todd said softly. “There’s something you need to know.”
Sam stopped trying to get into bed and turned to fully face Todd. “Is there something wrong Todd?”
Todd’s face turned red as he looked up into Sam’s eyes. While they had turned from a gorgeous brown to an icy blue, Todd still found them stunningly hypnotic. “I…I wanted to say…th-thank you…f-for helping me…”
“Y-Yeah…any time man…” Sam stuttered slightly, a blush appearing on his face. A force compelled him to move slightly closer.
“You’ve helped me c-come out of my shell s-so much…a-and I don’t want to f-forget these m-moments with you when we’re older and looking b-back at our f-fond college memories.” Todd wrapped his arms around Sam’s neck and leaned in closer.
“So then…what do you want me to do…?” Sam asked, placing a hand on Todd’s back. By now, the two were just a few inches away from each other, staring longingly into the other’s eyes.
“Kiss me.”
Without needing to be told twice, Sam leaned in and pulled Todd into a long, passionate kiss. Todd didn’t resist the kiss at all. He moaned in pleasure and let the entire thing play out as he felt the tiger gently guide them towards his bed. When the kiss finally broke, the two young men could only stare at each other.
“That was…” Sam started.
“I-Incredible…” Todd finished.
“You wanna take this to the bed?”
“Y-Yeah”
Sam grinned and patted Todd’s head before sweeping him off his feet and placing him in the bed. Todd laughed as Sam climbed into bed with him.
“I n-never knew you were THAT strong,” Todd said, running his hand along Sam’s bicep. Sam just laughed along and pulled him into another kiss, although this time, the future wolf could feel something poking him. When they broke the kiss, Todd looked at Sam with a curious look, as if he was wordlessly asking permission to see what was poking him. Sam rather quickly picked up on this and nodded his head. He quickly sat up in bed as Todd moved down to his boxers and slowly pulled them off, revealing a massive feline cock standing at attention.
“H-Holy fuck…” Todd said softly, his eyes fixed on the animalistic member. “It…it’s beautiful…”
“Cat’s finally out of the bag, huh?” Sam asked jokingly, making Todd groan.
“You’re lucky you’re s-so damn sexy,” Todd said as he moved back up to kiss Sam, all while reaching down and gently stroking Sam’s length. The jock let out a soft gasp of pleasure. The feeling of another person’s hand stroking his cock felt far better than he ever thought it did. Feeling the need to return the favor, Sam reached down and grabbed at the bulge in Todd’s boxers, groping it gently. Todd moaned before scrambling to take off his boxers.
As soon as Todd’s boxers went down, Sam finally saw it: a deep red canine cock fully erect and ready to go. He didn’t waste a second, reaching down and grabbing the other male’s cock. Todd let out a rather canine sounding whimper as he began to thrust into Sam’s hand. Sam quickly began to do the same into Todd’s hand.
As Todd continued to thrust into Sam’s hand, he suddenly moaned rather loudly as the texture of Sam’s hand changed around his cock. He could feel the paw pads growing in as he thrust, the foreign feeling making him thrust even faster. Sam, meanwhile, began to do the same, watching as Todd’s mouth and nose began to push out into a canine muzzle. As he moaned in pleasure, Sam admired the sharp, canine teeth that had filled Todd’s mouth.
Todd could hear Sam’s breathing begin to quicken alongside his own. “Don’t you dare stop now,” Todd thought to himself. He was so close…he just needed one last push…a push that Sam was more than happy to provide. Using his free hand, Sam reached around and gave Todd’s furry ass a firm squeeze. Unable to hold back any longer, Todd threw his head back and let out a full-blooded wolf howl as he came into Sam’s hand. Todd’s howl was all that Sam needed, as he cried out in pleasure and came into Todd’s hand.
When their orgasmic highs finally died down, Todd rolled off of Sam and curled up next to him. He held up his hand that was coated in Sam’s cum and happily lapped it up. Sam proceeded to do the same, although it was less thorough due to him not having a canine tongue.
“God damn Todd…that was fucking incredible ” Sam panted, wrapping an arm around his roommate. “And that howl…”
“I…didn’t expect it to be so loud…” Todd admitted sheepishly. He had it under pretty good assumption that he was the only wolf on the floor, so if anyone had heard it, the source could be easily traced back to him. Surprisingly though, this didn’t bother him.
“Who cares if it bothered anyone?” Todd thought to himself. “I love my boyfriend, and the world needs to know that.”
“H-Hey Sam…does this mean th-”
Todd was suddenly cut off by another passionate kiss like earlier, yet somehow more intense. He didn’t bother questioning it. He just closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, letting Sam take control. When the kiss finally ended, Sam gave Todd a knowing smirk.
“That answer your question?”
Todd nodded. “Y-Yeah.”
“Good.” The tiger wrapped his arm around Todd as the wolf shifted positions so the two of them could spoon.
“I love you, Todd…” Sam said softly.
“I love you too, Sam…” Todd responded
As the two young men closed their eyes and fell asleep in each other’s arms, the wind blew softly outside their window. It would make sure they both remembered this night for years to come.
- - - - -
“The flow of time is always cruel… Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it… A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days.”