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Why is it that we all reach out for someone? Seriously, how did this yearning for pairing off come to be? Is it instinctual, or do we just think it is because everyone's done it for the past so many hundreds of years?

And why is it that every romance film, book or even story straight from someone's lips always gets tied up in a nice little bow, and everybody turns out happy? In all my life I've never known someone who hasn't experienced a love story for themselves... so why am I the odd one out?

I've had my share of attempts at asking a girl out, but every time I try that attempt always falls flat on its face, or the girl always claims that she's busy or she's already dating another guy. I had a feeling that they were making it up.

I never quite understood what it was about me that nobody liked. I tick a lot of boxes in the try-hard cool guy list. Or at least I think I do. I'm a fighter pilot, I sometimes wear those leather jackets with the patches on them, I've got a motorbike licence... hell, I've even got a pair of Ray Bans. I've got everything set for a shitty Top Gun remake.

Yet, none of these things brought me any closer to a girl. Of course, there will be some people out there wallowing on about the fact that it's not about material, it's about personality. If that's the case, then why didn't I have a girl sooner? I tried being nice and charming, and that didn't work. Now I'm trying to be cool, and that's not working either.

I should also probably clarify at this point that not only am I a twenty three year old virgin; I still have yet to have a first kiss. Sad, huh? I know.

I guess all that's left for me now is to provide people with entertainment about my failed attempts and try to boost their esteem with my near non-existent love life.

My name is Rik, and this is a recording of my love life... or my failed love life for a much more apt description.

"I suck at writing." The fox admitted to himself, quickly shutting the lid of his laptop before leaning back in his chair. He spent a few moments gazing up at the dull imperfections of the ceiling as he reflected on his brief bout of sadness.

The sadness and general feel that his life sucked often came back to haunt him, no matter how great he tried to make his life previously. He told himself often enough that he did have a good life, which he did. His dream was to be an Air Force pilot, and he was. As a bonus he now lived in the Bahamas living his dream while surrounded by people who he liked. Of course, he often doubted whether they appreciated his company in turn; but still, he was enjoying himself enough.

The main thing that bugged him was that after all his life, he had never once come close to love. At times he thought he did, but only to later discover that whomever he liked didn't like him as much in turn. Reflecting on his loneliness very nearly brought a tear to his eye. He most probably would have continued these reflections, were it not for a resounding series of knocks at the door.

"Rik! Wake up you lazy sod!" A voice piped up from behind the door. Rik had a good guess who it was, judging by a slight accent to it. It sounded Eastern European, but to untrained ears it would have probably sounded more like Russian. The voice in question belonged to a Polish man; a friend of Rik's.

"What do you want now?" Rik replied, not budging from his chair.

"I want to talk." The voice said. Sighing, Rik rose from his seat and made his way over to the door. Once there he undid the single lock, and opened the door. Standing on the porch, if a single slab of concrete in front of the doorway could be called a porch, was a tiger. The tiger in question was dressed particularly casually, wearing a pair of green cargo trousers, a pair of scruffy boots and a grey t-shirt boldly declaring 'ARMY'. He wasn't in the army of course; he was actually the Weapons Systems Operator on Rik's plane, though the fox did like to call him the co-pilot in order to spite him at times. He stood only a couple of inches taller than Rik, but if the fox strained his ears enough then he could just about get to the same height.

"What's up?" Rik said flatly.

"Rik, you look like shit." The tiger replied.

"Well thanks, bud. You look good too."

"Mhmm," The tiger grumbled back. "Seriously though, you look like you haven't slept in ages. You alright?"

"Yeah, I just got a bit over emotional just then... I'm okay now." Rik said as he casually ran a hand down his face. "What's the talk about?"

"Well, there's a party going on at the mess tonight. I wanted to see if you wanted to go."

"Yeah... yeah, sure." Rik said as his head slowly dropped down until he was staring at his feet.

"Something's up with you." The tiger decided finally.

"I'm fine!"

"Then why do you look like someone's died?"

Rik paused a moment, not entirely sure what to say. After a good period of silence, the tiger butted in.

"Do you want to talk a walk? The beach is great for clearing your mind at this time." He said. Rik paused again, but this time responded to him, and nodded to signify an agreement.

* * *

So, the two walked. Thanks to the layout of the island and location of the housing they were supplied with, the beach wasn't too far away. Being nearly sunset, and the island being more of a military outpost than a tourist attraction; the beach was nearly deserted. There was roughly one person per every kilometre of beach, two in the case of the two airmen.

The fox and the tiger made their way down the sandy gradient. The tiger tried making idle conversation, but the fox never replied to any of it; keeping his hands plunged tragically into his pockets like two weights bogging his arms down.

Eventually it got to the point where the tiger couldn't take it anymore, and he forcefully grabbed Rik's shoulders and spun him around, glaring at him when he finally gained the courtesy to look up at him.

"Rik, you're usually much more annoying than you are now. What's wrong?" He asked. Rik wasn't entirely pleased with how he put it, but he answered nonetheless.

"To be honest, I don't really know," He started, looking out to sea for some kind of inspiration with which he may fuel his answer. "Well, actually, I do, but I'm not sure how exactly it happened. That and you're not exactly the best person I can confide in, Aleksi." Aleksi opened his mouth to protest, but shut it again and shrugged. Rik continued.

"I am a loser, for lack of a better word," He mumbled. "My life is fantastic and I wouldn't want anything else, except to change my pathetic example of a love life."

"What do you mean? I've seen you with plenty of girls." Aleksi replied optimistically. Rik glared at him.

"Name one."

"Erm... ooh! That hyena girl you were with at the pub a couple of months ago."

"She was engaged, I just bought her a drink after I lost a bet on the rugby."

"What about Jess, back in the old squadron?"

"She was a close friend. She didn't want anything more."

"That vixen I saw you with in Belfast?"

"That was my sister."

"Well fuck, Rik." Aleksi concluded.

"I suck with women. And after realising how much I suck with women, I just got all depressed and I don't want to do anything anymore!" The fox said as he idly kicked some sand around with the toe of his boot. Somewhat saddened himself by the sight of his usually happy-go-lucky, overly-excitable friend looking so upset, Aleksi looked out to sea for help. He saw a single speedboat briskly skimming across the crests of the water. That was enough for him to have an idea.

"You're going on vacation." Aleksi declared. Rik looked up at him.

"Says who?"

"Says me.

"Oh, really now?"

"Listen up," Aleksi said as he gestured to the horizon. "Out there is the Bahamas. You're in one of the best holiday spots on the planet. All I'm asking is for you to take a few days off, and in the end you'll be fine. It'll take your mind off the whole thing."

"How do you know?"

"Just give it a try." Aleksi pleaded. Before either of them could say any more, a low flying fighter plane shot overhead at high speed. Looking up quickly enough to catch the aircraft's shape, they concluded it to be a Saab Viggen. From having such a tightly knit squadron and that particular plane being the only one of its kind on the island, they knew exactly who was flying it, and gave no more attention to it. The near deafening roar of the jet engines caught up a few seconds later. "Besides, it'll do you good to get away from that!" Aleksi bellowed over the deep rumble of the jet. Rik looked to the horizon, thinking deeply about it momentarily.

"What about the Colonel? She won't let me swan off that easily."

"Pfft," Aleksi dismissed. "There's no mission coming up; we're fine. Plus he," the tiger gestured to the jet that had flown overhead seconds earlier, now nearly a speck in the afternoon sky. "...goes to Sweden for holidays, and he isn't back for ages at a time."

Rik looked down at the ground a little more, weighing the options in his head for a bit, before looking back up a bit. As much as he hated to admit it, his friend made a good case.

"Get me off the hook for one day and I'll go." Rik instructed his friend. "Just one day, and make sure it's an island close to this one."

"Fine." Aleksi replied, quickly looking at his watch as he plodded off in the direction of the airfield, leaving Rik alone on the beach to watch the tiny speck resembling the fighter soar about the sky.

* * *

To leave a long story short, Aleksi did manage to get Rik and himself out of work for a day, at the expense of having to sacrifice two days of leave to cover both of them. The entire process was dealt with in just under a week. Aleksi, being remarkably frugal by nature, arranged everything to total up to not even fifty dollars in travel expenses. As a consequence of his tight attitude to money, the two were forced to travel between islands via boat. Furthermore, in order to have a full day off, they had to wake up relatively early in order to save the time that would otherwise be lost on the boat trip. This didn't exactly please Rik.

"This is stupid and I hate it." Rik complained as the small 'ferry' cruised through the sweltering heat that had arisen that day. "If I wanted to wake up at stupid o' clock and spend all day on a pissy boat, I'd have joined the Navy."

"Give over!" Aleksi retorted between mouthfuls of the sandwich that apparently resembled his breakfast. "You'll be fine in when we get there. By the end of the day you'll not want to leave."

"We'll see about that." The fox replied, leaning against the hull to watch the deep blue water break against the bow and spread the white froth around the hull, before churning it up again in the bow wave.

It wasn't too much longer before the next island came into sight. Unlike the island they came from, which had more of a military compound feel to it; this one felt like it was engineered for tourists. This much was evident even before they hit the beach, thanks to the flashy hotel complex on the beach and the pompous villas neatly lined up on the coastline.

The ferry calmly drew up to a conveniently placed dock within the harbour, which it was secured to with the help of mooring lines which were lazily draped over the moorings and left there.

The duo timidly stepped off the boat and onto the harbour walkway, which then deposited them straight onto the beach. Looking around didn't exactly improve Rik's current mind-set.

Scattered all along the beach were loud, boisterous and seemingly happy looking teenagers. Of course, there was the odd family or aggravated looking adult every now and then; but the beach was primarily dominated by adolescents. It occurred to Rik that it was June, and the American high school and colleges were finished, and the graduates were most probably celebrating with a holiday in the Bahamas.

"Aleksi, you dumb-arse. You put us on a beach full of bloody students!" He said flatly, but by the time he looked back, he had found that Aleksi had already sweet talked himself into a game of beach volleyball with three bikini clad girls.

"Bastard." He muttered. Still, he had to admire his friend's speed.

So, seeing as he had nothing constructive to do, the fox plunged his hands into his pockets again and began to aimlessly stroll about the beach. He kept himself to himself and didn't try to interact with anyone.

'Some holiday' he thought to himself repeatedly as he made his way up the beach. Upon going as far as the beach would go before it turned into a cacophony of boulders and rock pools. So, logically, he turned on his heels and began marching back the other way. He was beginning to think that this holiday was much more of a personal getaway for Aleksi than a mind-clearance for himself.

The fox passed hours away marching up and down the beach, entertaining himself only with what sprang to his mind at infrequent intervals. While thinking of the various possibilities to get back at Aleksi for bringing him all the way out here for nothing, he spotted a minor commotion out of the corner of his eye. Looking towards the shoreline, he saw that a small crowd was assembling near the swash as someone appeared to be dragging something out of the water.

Seeing it as the most interesting thing to take place throughout the entire day, Rik shrugged and made his way over to the crowd, lazily shouldering his way in.

The crowd formed a semi-circle, facing towards the sea. In the centre of the gathering was a figure lying in the sand; a feline of some description. Rik took a guess that it was a lynx or a bobcat or something similar, but left it at that. In any case, he was definitely male, and his fur was damp. He looked unconscious, lying on his back with his mouth gaping open. Drawing conclusion from logical assumptions, it looked as though he'd drowned.

Beside him crouched a figure appearing to be a lifeguard, judging by the red swimsuit with the white cross on the back. Due to the fact that the lifeguard was facing away from him, Rik couldn't decipher what species she was; only that she was definitely a canine of some description, and a female. She had white fur, which narrowed her down to being an arctic breed, or an albino.

The female bent towards the feline so that her right ear was hovering over his muzzle, listening for breathing Rik quickly inferred. She continued holding her ear over the cat's mouth for a moment longer after Rik deciphered what exactly was happening. Once that moment was up, the lifeguard quickly jumped into action. In one swift movement, her hand moved onto the feline's nose and carefully yet forcefully pinched it to stop the airflow. At the same time, she took a deep breath, and then leant forward, closing her maw around the feline's.

Rik guessed that she was about to perform the CPR procedure, when all of a sudden the feline's hand suddenly shot up and placed itself on the back of the lifeguard's head and pushed it down onto him.

He just forced a kiss from her.

Dick move.

The lifeguard, as soon as she processed this, promptly delivered a forceful punch into the cat's ribcage. The blow winded him, and caused him to lose grip on the lifeguard, who quickly backed away and scrambled to her feet.

"It was worth it." The feline muttered through gritted teeth as he clutched at his ribs. A good deal of the small crowd laughed, evidently being friends of his.

"Little prick!" The lifeguard spat at him. "Someone oughta report you!"

"Yeah? To who, hun?" He said as he slowly got to his feet, teetering a little. Thinking quickly, Rik fished his phone out of his pocket.

"To the police." Rik said flatly. All eyes turned to him. He stayed glaring at the lynx, waving the camera phone at him. "What you just did there was harassment. But since you're on holiday, and are about as mature as a pre-teen girl, I'll let you off with a warning."

"Up yours, dickhead." The lynx replied. A couple of his friends started murmuring amongst themselves.

"You've got five minutes to haul arse off the beach or you can kiss your holiday goodbye. I've got it all here." Rik bluffed. He hadn't actually got a picture of him, but a decent threat would most probably sort it out otherwise.

"You're bluffing."

Shit.

"Try me."

The lynx glared a little longer, looking as if he was about to unleash a torrent of abuse at the fox, or attack him. Either way, it didn't look too pleasing. Eventually, after a period of painful unease, one of his friends split off from the crowd and timidly began to edge away. The lynx sighed and followed him, but not before flipping the bird at Rik. Two more of the crowd then split off and followed him off, smirking to each other as they left.

Following that, nobody seemed to have a reason to stay anymore since the entertainment had ended, so everyone left. Feeling relatively pleased with his effort, Rik stuffed the phone back into his pocket and turned to leave himself; only to be confronted with the lifeguard, who had been standing barely a foot behind him.

Now that he could see her from the front, he was able to take in her details a lot more thoroughly. Her height was just about the same as his own, give or take a couple of centimetres. She essentially had the same markings as Rik did, minus his orange fur. Her muzzle had the two distinct black striped to either side of it, and the tips of her ears faded into black fur. An arctic fox. Just exactly what an arctic fox was doing in the Bahamas, Rik did not know. He didn't really have time to question it though; he was too captivated by the lifeguard's presence to really give any concern to her geographical origin.

Her eyes were bright blue; so vivid that Rik could have compared them to the bluest parts of the sea and sky and still have a hard time picking which was the better colour. Her facial features were soft, delicate; and a slight hint of a smile graced her lips. Her hair was whiter than snow, save for a single blue streak that stretched from the centre of her head, down to her forehead where it strayed just in front of her eyes, along with the rest of her fringe.

Not exactly knowing what he was thinking, Rik decisively filed her under the title of 'The Prettiest Girl I've Ever Met'.

"Thanks." She said quietly. Her accent pointed to her being American, but Rik wasn't too sure. It was one of the more subtle variations of the American accent, whereby it wasn't entirely possible to pin down exactly which state it belonged to. It was entirely possible she originated from Canada. Rik couldn't make an educated guess.

"No problem." He spluttered awkwardly, digging for the next set of words to say. "Someone had to do it, right?"

"Yeah, true." She replied, grinning at him. "Those kids've been a problem to us before. I've heard a couple of other stories about them. I'd say you're the first guy to threaten them about it."

"Yeah, well... it seemed like you didn't exactly appreciate it, so yeah." He said with a relatively blatant nervous edge to his voice.

"Yeah," She said calmly, turning to leave. "Thanks again... um. What's your name?"

"Rik."

"Is that short for something?"

"Richard, but I prefer Rik so much more."

"Right," She said turning away again. "Thanks, Rik!"

With a slight wave and a warm smile, she left.

Rik stood rooted to the spot as he pathetically waved after her. He took in every feature of her while he still could. Her legs, her body, her last smile... he couldn't stop. It was only when she was gone that he realised that he had been staring after her for an arguably creepy amount of time. Even after she had disappeared into the crowd of beach-goers, he was still picturing her in his mind. There was something about her that made him feel more pathetic than he did previously. At the same time though, he felt like he needed her; which was a weird and somewhat laughable sentiment.

He didn't even know her name.