A wind breeze blew against my neck.

I shivered, holding my jacket tighter as I crossed and held my arms closer to my sides. I checked my watch and saw that it was already past ten, inciting me walk faster to my apartment. The city was quiet though, making the walk much more serene than usual. Focusing ahead, I pull out my phone and check the weather for the rest of the night. Of course, the light snow that had already been falling would continue all night. I shove my phone back in my pocket and cross my arms for warmth again.

I was walking home from the local pub, prior to which I was at the office where I worked my usual nine-to-five. I liked it for the most part. The job wasn’t too bad and my coworkers made it a blast. I smiled thinking about the time we sprayed fart spray in the HR department, forcing a mass evacuation from the third floor.

As much as I liked the job, I was overworked. I’ve probably done more paperwork alone in the past three weeks than what all my coworkers combined have done in the past two years. I was incredibly exhausted this past week, and the fact that my car’s transmission went out a week earlier didn’t help, either.

I stopped thinking about all this though, when my eyes met a dark figure laying on the ground in an alley.

I stopped dead in my tracks and kept my eyes on the lifeless figure. It wasn’t moving, and seemed to be a bit bigger than what a human would be. I fumbled for my phone and turned on my flashlight, stepping closer slowly. To my surprise and relief, it wasn’t a dead body.

But rather, an empty black wolf fursuit.

Usually, I’d just bat an eye at a fursuit, but this one caught my attention. It looked incredibly detailed and cute, with subtle curves that gave it a sexy look to it. I was never really into them, but after seeing this one here, I thought this one could be a starting point.

I look up from the bottom of the alley, trying to see any windows from where it may had been thrown from. None at all. I came to the conclusion that someone had either ditched it here, or it was forgotten by someone.

I crouched down and inspected it closer. It definitely was dirty and wet from falling snow, but didn’t have any major damage or tears in the seams. I look over my shoulder once more and begin picking up the head and body. I briskly walked out of the alley and carried the fursuit home, disregarding its previous owner.

“If they cared about it,” I said to myself, “it wouldn’t have been there in the first place."

When I stepped into my apartment, I dropped the thing on the floor. It was worth carrying it home, but the thing was heavy. After taking a breather, I grunted and picked up the fursuit once again and dropped it on my couch in the living room. I walked to my kitchen and finally set down my purse and hung up my jacket, which I forgot to do when I walked in.

I looked back to the wolf suit on the couch and contemplated what I should do with it.  It looked way more dirty than it did now that we were in good lighting, prompting me to turn around and open the cabinet under the sink. I grabbed my cleaning bucket and a few utensils to scrub it down. I set everything down next to the couch when I felt a headache coming along.

Remembering I’ve had many drinks already, I determined that it would be best to clean it tomorrow morning. I had the day off, anyway. I left the bucket with all of the cleaning supplies next to the couch and turned off the lights. Even if I didn’t wear the suit, I definitely could get a few hundred bucks from it.

I walked to my room and flopped on my bed, exhausted. I rubbed my eyes, took an ibuprofen, and shut off the light.

When I woke up, I felt a whole lot worse than what I did last night. My stomach was churning and the headache was so much worse. It was one of those days that you knew would be a bad one before it even starts. I instinctively reached for the ibuprofen bottle again and put two more in my hand.

“That’s what you get for drinking Kayla,” I said to myself, “a fucking hangover.”

I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom, where I hovered over the toilet waiting to vomit to no avail. I pensively waited and waited until I bored myself to leave and start breakfast.

Walking to my kitchen, I heard a scrubbing sound. I stopped dead in my tracks and listened to the furious scrubbing sounds coming from my living room.

I grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer, sliding it out silently. I faced the doorway that connected my kitchen and living room, and peered around the corner.

The wolf fursuit that I had carried her last night was sitting upright, holding its leg out and scrubbing its thigh.

I stop peeking and hold the knife tighter in my hand. Someone had broken into my apartment. And, for some reason, put on the fursuit to clean it? It didn’t make sense.

I shook my head and peeked around the doorway again, to which my eyes were met by the black wolf’s. It was staring at me whilst sitting back on the couch, relaxed. It spoke in a nonchalant, cute feminine voice.

“Took you long enough to get up. Wanna help me get this dirt off of me?” it said, lifting up the brush in one hand.

After processing what the fuck I just heard and saw, I screamed and bolted for my bathroom. I burst inside and slammed the door behind me, locking it. I looked down for my knife and realized I had dropped it whenever I ran away.

It was quiet for a moment before I heard footsteps down my hallway. They stopped right in front of the bathroom door. I heard a light knocking sound and the same voice speak.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry for that.” she said.

“Get out of here! How did you break into my apartment!?” I yell, now weaponizing a nearby shampoo bottle.

“Uh, excuse me? You literally carried me into your apartment. So if I ‘broke in,’ you’re the person who broke me in. You’re an accessory to the crime.”

I pondered that I may have carried someone  into my home, without even knowing it.

Actually, I couldn’t have. The suit was heavy, but not that heavy. There would be no way that someone could’ve been in that suit when I carried it home. Or maybe, there could’ve been someone in it, as I hadn’t looked inside of the suit when I brought it back. The racing thoughts made me more anxious than I already was.

“Stay back! I will fucking stab you if you get in here!” I threaten, keeping my eyes on the door.

“Well, you’re probably gonna need this to do that.” she said, now walking away from the door. Seconds later, the footsteps return and the knife I had grabbed earlier was slid under the door.

I dropped the shampoo and immediately snagged the knife, holding it close to me.

“Sooo... are you going to help me clean my fur, or no?”

I start holding the knife less tightly. If she wanted to harm me, she wouldn’t have given me the knife back, and probably would’ve tried to break into the bathroom, but didn’t. Taking that into consideration, I decided that I needed to get the intruder out peacefully, but firmly.

“Look, I-I don’t know who you are, or what you want, but I need you to leave.” I say, putting my ear to the door. There was a short moment of silence before I heard her speak again.

“But, but why did you bring me here in the first place if your intention was just to throw me out?”

“I didn’t know you were in the suit when I brought you in. Now seriously, I need you to leave.”

Another short moment of silence before I heard a response.

“Okay,” I hear her say with a disappointed, quiet voice, “I’ll leave.”

I hear footsteps retreating to my front door as I unlock and open the bathroom door, peering out from the bathroom doorway. I see her standing by the door with her head down, her back facing me.

I waited for her to leave but she seemed like she was waiting for me to meet her at the door, which I wasn’t really planning on. However, I put the knife down on the sink counter and made sure I would see her leave my apartment before I called the police. At least, until I felt immense nausea arising from the hangover I completely forgot about due to the unforeseen circumstances from  this morning.

“Hey,” I say, closing my eyes shut to try to battle the nausea, “I need you to leave, now.”

I see her head turn around at me.

“Can I at least get a goodbye?”

“I don’t-“ I stop, interrupted by nausea I had tried to suppress. It was the worst possible time to throw up. I ran to the toilet and knelt over vomiting the cheap drinks I had last night.

I collapsed next to it, miserable from the aftermath of last night’s bar visit. I heard footsteps coming to the bathroom doorway and stopping, as I continued vomiting.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine, just stay over there. I am-“ I was interrupted by my stomach convulsing and me vomiting into the toilet.

The wolf suit inched near me and knelt down with me.

“Oh, you’re sick, aren’t you?” she asked.

I couldn’t even answer her question or tell her to back up with the current state of my stomach. I kept throwing up into the toilet before I felt warm, fluffy arms wrap around me tightly in a hug.

This finally provoked a response from me.

“Get off of me! What are you-“ I stopped, not because I needed to throw up, but because the hug felt... wonderful.

It felt oddly uplifting, and my stomach nausea seemingly vanished; along with my headache. I looked down at her arms and grabbed them, clutching the fur. All the pain from the hangover had disappeared within the short span of that hug. While I didn’t know how, I only knew that the hug was the best hug I’ve received in my life.

“How did... how did you-“ I whisper.

“Do you feel better?” she asked, slowly letting go.

I turn around and was met by the head of the fursuit, looking into my eyes. My mouth was wide open, as I still tried to process the “magic” of the hug.

“I-I do...” I stutter. “B-but how did you-“

“I’m not a normal fursuit.” she said, putting her paw on my hand.

I pull away and realize that this person who had just healed me was also an intruder, one who I have not seen the face of. This made me question why I even trusted them in the first place.

“Thanks, but, I still need you to leave.”

“Why?” she said. “What did I do?”

“You broke into my apartment, put on my fur-“

“This again? You carried me inside here!”

I played along.

“Okay, sure, then why did you put on the fursuit?”

She opened her mouth to reply but stopped.

“What?” I asked. I heard a sigh, then she looked down.

“Well, there’s only one way for you to take this, so...” she said, adjusting herself so her back faced me. “Undo the zipper.”

I grabbed the zipper and slowly pulled down, revealing the inside that was filled with nothing, no one, despite curves being pushed into the outside of the suit. I squinted making sure that my eyes weren’t lying, and after confirming that, my hands froze.

I must’ve stayed frozen for a bit because she turned her head and looked at me as if she was confused.

“Uh, you good?”