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Half a day later.

After a rather sudden wakeup in the morning as the pair fell asleep at some point during Two Towers, cuddled with each other in their t-shirts and boxers as they were, things rolled hastily into a workday for both.

Of course, after dropping Rowan off and heading to his own job, Jacinto really got the feeling that he hurried to have a dull time.

At a particularly nothing point during the morning, he picks up his phone once he's certain no one is around to care near his cubicle and pops a text message to his boyfriend.

"Hey there. Survived work start okay?"

Rowan hears his phone buzz as he sits at his desk, trying to think through his work without really doing any work... but mostly just thinking about last night and this morning.

He reaches for it and smiles, glancing around at his coworkers before typing a response.

"I managed to make it from the car to my desk. So I'm pretty sure I'm alive atm."

Jacinto: "Alive is good. Aside from the hurry, last night was so good..."

Rowan: "Can't stop thinking about it. Or you. <3"

Jacinto: "Well. Yeah, that." Pause for a few moments. "...what movie did we even start watching last night?"

Rowan: "Lord of the Rings. Fellowship finished and we started Two Towers... but clearly that movie is as good as I remember to put us both to sleep."

Jacinto: stifles a giggle. "Either that or you're just as comfy in flesh as you are in fur." Pause. "That reads kind of wrong, somehow."

Rowan: blushes, shaking his head before he responds. "I'll take it. I could say the same about you." He pauses, then sends another message, "Didn't read wrong to me. <3"

Jacinto:"Well good. I was afraid I'd make myself look silly to you." Pause. "Besides the obvious pink fluffy dog in the room, anyway."

Rowan:"Well, maybe I just like silly things, so never be afraid of that."

Jacinto:"True. And speaking of obvious pink fluffy dogs... can't wait to be one for you tonight." For the briefest moments, Jacinto considers at the sheer turn for the weird his life has taken as he looks at the text he just typed.

Rowan: stops himself short of a giggle, "Looking forward to it~. Thinking of meeting up with a certain deer? Or wanna see how things go with just ol' Rowan?"

Jacinto: "Well... as dangerous as that line of thinking is to entertain at work, I am... curious."

Rowan: "Yeah, maybe not want to think on that too hard atm." Pause, "But I am curious too."

A moment of two of typing, then pausing, then typing again, repeated a few times. "...I have words, a lot of words about this, but for the sake of both our sanity while still at work, let's explore that topic when I come pick you up. Or when we get home."

Rowan: "Topic shelved for now." Pause. "I sorta want to swing by my place to bring some more stuff over, but that can wait I suppose."

Jacinto: "I'm pretty sure we can swing by. Since... I guess we both agree that my place is better for us to spend time together."

Rowan: "Yeah. My place is kinda small. I feel like I've spent more time at your house than mine anyways over the years."

Jacinto: "Maybe. For some reason."

Rowan: "More happy time anyways." He pauses, reflecting a moment with a smile. "You really have been the brightest point of my life for awhile now."

Jacinto: "Very bright, and I'm not even referencing Akari's gems now."

Rowan: "They do glow brighter when she's happy. Hard for me to show the same sort of emotion so easily. Probably."

Jacinto: "To be fair it is a pretty high bar. We lack in glowy parts."

Rowan: "That might also be for the best. I think if I were glowing pink my coworkers might have questions." He pauses to look around the office, but most everyone is fairly involved with their own work, or their own attempts to look busy.

Jacinto: "Heh. True. Even if having antennae and much better hearing normally would allow me to know if someone's about to come check on how much work I'm doing, basically before they know it."

Rowan smirks, "Well maybe if we can find a job that is okay with coming to work in a fursuit daily, but that seems like it might be a negative mark on the resume."

Jacinto: "Juuuuust maybe. Potentially probably might want to keep that part to ourselves, regardless of how real we know magic apparently is."

"And on that note I really hope no one else ever reads this conversation."

Rowan: "Ha, I mean... this is just roleplay. Not like any of this is actually real. Ha ha." He sits back, hoping the sarcasm goes through, then adds "(Just to make sure we're covered)"

Jacinto: "I mean... yeah, obviously." Jacinto does another brief ponder about where his life has gone, before typing again: "So I guess the last one and a half of Lord of the Rings is off the table for tonight. Sleeping in bed is considerably better than on the couch."

Rowan: "Right. Obviously. And... agreed? I do like those movies... or, the first and third one. But I'll choose bed with you over them for sure."

Jacinto: "Definitely. With or without totally roleplayed fur." Pause. "There, now I've made sure no one wants to read our conversation."

Rowan: "Ha! Probably some corner of the internet that would anyway, but I'll just assume we're safe to roleplay as we wish in the privacy of your home."

Jacinto: "For a given value of 'roleplaying', anyway, considering. But yes."

Rowan types something out, then stops... types again... "It's a weird way to think about it now, isn't it? I mean, that's always what it was at the cons, right? Maybe?"

Jacinto: "Just a degree or five more real."

Rowan: "Yeah. But did the roleplay get more real or" He pauses, possibly having hit send to early, but his response is delayed as well. "or I don't know. Was it less of a role than I thought?"

Jacinto:"Talk about conundrums somewhat impossible to parse over just text."

Rowan: "Yeah... yeah. I'll shelf those thoughts for later too."

Jacinto:"Lot of thoughts for later. But it's hard to have Cindi leave my mind for long. Or Akari."

Rowan: "Same. For both of them."

Jacinto: "We're in deep, but at least we know it now."

Rowan: "Yeah. In deep, but I don't really want to surface. Every time we think about it, I just want to go deeper. Maybe should be concerned with that, but I can't bring myself to do it."

Jacinto: "I will refrain from acknowledging the innuendo in that message until after work."

Rowan: "Oh god I didn't even mean that! Rude!"

Jacinto: "Me or you?"

Rowan: "You!" Rowan blushes, trying to recover from his flustered fast typing. "I'm innocent, I swear."

Jacinto: "Sorry, Cindi already took that title."

Rowan: "I should look into rescinding it! Gosh."

Jacinto: "Perhaps you should. Meanwhile Akari gets to be all dirty and mean. Like a polished bunny."

"Okay I swear that wasn't intentional."

Rowan: "Akari would be so scandalized right now, being called all these names and things. And sure it wasn't."

Jacinto: "As noted, Cindi is innocent in all of this, so I stand by that. Nevermind that I am currently sitting at my desk."

Rowan: "So frustrating and unfair, but I can't help but love you both."

Jacinto: "All's fair in love and fur. Or however that saying went."

Rowan: "That sounds right to me~."

Jacinto: "We're probably hopeless." A quiet pause for a few moments. "Oh. Browsing the RFC discord, and there's apparently a fur-only-meet near Louisville two weeks from now. That's pretty doable."

Rowan stares at the message for a long time, unsure what to think of that. Hopeless... but... that's not bad, is it? He perks back up at the second message, "Oh, that close? Yeah, we can manage that pretty easily!"

Jacinto: "Yeah, sounds like a good way to spend a weekend, meeting others in this furry mess of ours."

Rowan: "Yeah! We've kinda kept to ourselves. Though, for pretty good reasons I'd say."

Jacinto: "Definitely good reasons, but the intent last weekend was to scout out others. We sort of failed upwards on that premise, love."

Rowan: "Agreed. Distracted by other topics that were well worth our time."

Jacinto: "Something along those lines. File under: discuss this after work. I will not mention the shower if you don't."

Rowan: "The first one, or the second one, or...?" He pauses, grinning, "But noted. I won't mention it."

Jacinto: "I already didn't, so we're good."

Rowan: "We're good. Perfectly innocent, and good."

Jacinto: "Especially the good part. I like that part. And as noted, innocent."

Rowan: "The good is Very good. Still, it'll be interesting to meet other RF's. Hear their stories."

Jacinto: "Yeah. I've glanced at the Discord here and there, but haven't still introduced myself much or gotten involved. But I'm getting the gist that we're not alone in the desire to be in fur as much as we can get away with..."

Rowan: "Same. Maybe we should make an effort to put ourselves out there in the group a little more?"

Jacinto: "The introvert and lovestruck in me says no, but my sanity disagrees and notes that if we spend time with just each other day in day out, one of us will inevitably explode."

Rowan: "Probably you. Akari and I are a little more introverted sometimes I think, and I really don't want you to explode."

Jacinto: "So we have a plan. We go to Louisville in order to avoid explosions in two weeks' time."

Rowan: "I like it. Rule number one of any good relationship is no exploding. Probably."

Jacinto: "Well it might also be something else, but can't think of it. Maybe it had something to do with showers."

Rowan: "Yeah. Maybe exploding is rule number two? I forget, I'm still new to this."

Jacinto: "Certainly we should avoid exploding in shower, the poor old building can't take that sort of abuse."

Rowan: "Hey I love your place! But otherwise, agreed. That's probably rule number three."

Jacinto: "We're getting a lot of rules in a short amount of time. What is this, Magic the Gathering?"

Rowan: "Heh. Sorry! Don't mean to get all in my head about this." He pauses, "I mean, these rules are jokes, but I do worry about doing something wrong."

Jacinto: "...yeah, me too. But I'm pretty sure we can make it together. We have so far."

Rowan: "We have, yeah. If you ever did anything that I felt was wrong, I wouldn't be afraid to say anything, and I can't imagine you'd hold back either."

Jacinto: "Considering my several cases of almost losing it over the last week, I really don't know what I would hide from you."

"Thank you, by the way."

Rowan: "It's been a lot to lose things over. I can't blame you. If you hadn't, I probably would have worse. And, I'm always here for you."

Jacinto: "Me too. For you, I mean." Pause. "...does this day actually end at any point? Is that on the calendar?"

Rowan: "Ugh. Mine says it ends. But can it be trusted?" Pause "I'm looking forward to seeing you again."

Jacinto: "Yeah. Me too. So much. We could grab pizza on the way home?"

Rowan: "Pizza does sound good..." The text chain continues as the two plan out a little bit more of their plans for that night, with the more looming thoughts of furs and relationships waiting for when they can speak in person.

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