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"Thank you, Jayde..." He looked up at the vixen and smiled softly, sitting forward in his chair while he put down his fork onto the spotless plate in front of him. "You're welcome." He used the dark-colored napkin to wipe his muzzle off from the sauce that his seafood platter had been slathered with carefully, making sure that none of it was left on his fur before he set the napkin back down. "It was nice." He nodded a little and chuckled. "Yeah, it was. Certainly better than what I usually do on a Saturday night." He rested his arms on the table and hunched forward, looking into her blue eyes while the talked. "I usually just sit at home and have a TV dinner or something, at least when I don't have the groceries to cook for myself." She giggled and shook her head a little. "No, I meant for coming to dinner with me." "Oh...right." He let his ears droop a little bit, his face flushing under his gray fur at embarrassment. "I forgot you asked me out, not the other way around!" "You know, I didn't think you'd say yes?" He looked at her and flicked his ears back slightly, tilting his head while he tried to think of a reason as to why she would have thought that. "Because I'm a paramedic?" She shook her head and braced her arms on the table a little to support her head. "No, actually because I know when people have relationship problems on their mind while they're at the bar." He dropped his ears back forward; he hadn't been expecting this turn of the conversation to happen. "Oh..." "I've seen all the faces, I knew what you were going through was something to do with a lover." He nodded to her and let his eyes roam elsewhere, finding himself focusing on a picture just over her shoulder of a group of furs standing on a boat, what looked like a a few children alongside them. "I don't pry...but I can tell. I just didn't like seeing you like that, 'cause you're such a nice guy." "Yeah...well, I guess I shouldn't have to worry about those scenes anymore, huh?" "I hope so." He turned his eyes back to her, but found she had turned her head to look at something else. "Look, Bee, don't worry about it." He drummed his fingers on the table a bit and let out his breath. "I'm really enjoying myself, and I don't feel nasty or anything at you...how do you be mad at someone for caring?" Her head turned back to him and she smiled. "True...I really do care a lot about you." He nodded and smiled back to her, perking his ears a little. "Jay..." "Hm?" "Can I...can I ask what happened to her?" Jayde flicked his ears back, but raised them again before he could let it get the best of him, but his smile still faltered. "I...don't like to talk about it. Not in public." She nodded, but stayed quiet, so he looked down at his empty plate and sat back, waiting for the server to come with their desserts. "Besides, she would have expected me to stop being down about it by now...and I should be finding somebody else that I can be happy with." "A tender heart..." He looked up at her and perked his ears. "Wha-?" "The otter last night--" "Shayden." "Right, Shayden--he said something about you after he'd had a few drinks..." Jayde chuckled and flicked his tail a little bit while he glanced over at the kitchen, then back to Bianca. "Hopefully nothing too strong?" She giggled and shook her head. "No, I didn't give him any of the liquor. I gave him a few watered down shots of tequila. He seemed to enjoy it, but I didn't get him too drunk." "Well, that's good...don't want the poor guy going back home with a drinking problem, or anything." He chuckled and looked back at the kitchen, seeing two of the cooks apparently arguing behind the porthole in the door until they realized he was looking at them, and they moved away from the door. Hmm...wonder what that was about... "He said 'the tender heart takes more pain than a stone to crack, but it heals fastest'." He snapped his head back to her and really flattened his ears this time. "He...really?" She nodded and flicked her ears back. "Jesus...I never thought he would remember that much...Chrissie said that to him when his dad died, before he left the country to go to the tribe. And she said it to me after my parents..." His sentence trailed off, and her ears slowly lowered into her hair. "That's her name, isn't it?" He nodded and looked away, back toward the kitchen to see a face staring at him through the window, but as soon as he looked it vanished behind the rest of the door quickly. "Jayde, I'm sorry...I didn't mean for the dinner to get like this..." "He's right." "What do you mean?" He took a deep breath and put his palms against the edge of the table, pressing on it a little before he looked back at her. "My parents died when I was eight. They were coming home from a trip up north to visit some family, and see my uncle when he got back from his service. A drunk driver on the highway veered into oncoming traffic, and slammed head on into their car just a few miles out from the city. The driver, and my mom were killed instantly, and my dad didn't last much longer after the paramedics showed up and hauled them out of the wreck. I was spending the week at Chrissie's house with her parents while mine were away, and her dad told me what happened. She told me a few nights later when I woke her up crying that I had a tender heart, and that I would be able to make it through alright, because she would be there to help. "Jayde, I'm...I'm so sorry..." He shook his head and reflexively wiped under his eyes, even though he wasn't crying. "No, don't be." He sucked in a breath and forced a smile. "She was absolutely right. I may not be strong enough to let go when I should, but I healed pretty quick after I lost my parents." "Her parents adopted you?" He nodded. "They were my godparents. It was in my father's will that if something happened to my parents, they would have full custody of me if they could handle it."

They talked a little more over dessert, thanking the server while he gave Jayde a curious glance, but nothing was said other than the usual "Hope you enjoy your desserts. If there is anything else, please let me know." kind of deal, but he didn't let it bother him. After about an hour they decided it was time to call it a night at the restaurant, and he asked for the bill, chit-chatting a little while they waited. "You know, Jay, I should really be paying." Bianca was staring at him with a look of dominance, and a slight frown on her face. "Don't worry about it...a gentleman always pays for the lady, right?" He looked up and thanked the server as he brought the check, and reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet, looking at the total on the bill. He stopped short, though, and stared at the vixen. "But if I didn't know any better, I'd swear I already had..." He tugged the server's sleeve as he started walking away, making the weasel start and turn around. "Is there a problem, sir?" "Yeah..." He held up the bill and used his finger to indicate the total. "There must be a mistake...the dinner totaled probably a hundred and fifty." The server nodded. "Correct, but your bill has been paid, already." He stated, matter-of-factually. "By whom, may I ask? I'd like to at least be able to thank them for their generosity." "The chef, sir. He recognized you from the photo on the wall, and asked me to tell you he had a small debt to repay to your parents." "Tell...him I said thank you, please." The server nodded and walked off, leaving him a little stunned, one of his ears flicking towards Bianca's direction, hearing her begin gathering her things. "Well...that was-" "Strange..." "Already finishing one another's sentences, are we?" Jayde looked over at her, chuckling and flushing under his fur while she giggled. "I guess so." He stood up and slid his wallet back into his pocket with the bill, then slid the chair in with his foot. "You ready to go?" "Mhmm~" He walked around the table and pushed her chair in after she had stood and moved out of the way, then he wrapped his arm around her middle as they started walking, waving to the host on their way out of the door and into the dark parking lot. When the door closed behind them, the vixen turned a little and looped her arm around him as well, nuzzling slightly at his chest while they walked to his car. They said a few words as he held the door open for her, and again when he climbed into the driver's seat and turned the ignition key to start his way onto the fairly empty street. The drive was relatively silent, the bulk of the way down Fairstreet, but they started talking lightly as he turned off and started towards her home. The topics were more casual than what they had delved into back at the restaurant, jumping between questions of Bianca's childhood, and how her day at work went, or what it was like for Jayde to drive an ambulance all the time, and he brought up the pair of feral foxes he kept as pets back at his place. For the most part, they answered each other fairly normally, and talking about Violet and Axel kept Bianca interested, giggling and making remarks of adoration every so often, until he had pulled into her driveway. He looked at her while he put the car in park, but his finger rested on the lock button for a few moments before he pressed the button and put his hands on the steering wheel after the pop of the doors unlocking. "I..." He trailed of and bit his lip a little, wondering if he should tell her, or not, but in the end the desire to tell somebody won out. He knew if he kept it from her, it could hurt their relationship, and he didn't want anything to come between them. "Hmm?" "It was an accident." He let out his breath softly and made a show of looking at the mileage read out...or, he tried to. "We were...well, mating, during her second onset heat, and we got too into it. She wanted me to bite her, and, I bit her the wrong way without meaning to. I didn't know that it would happen like that...but, when I bit her it was too late for me to back out, and it was a while before anybody realized there was something wrong." "She had trial heats, then..." He nodded and sat back in his chair. "How old were you when she first came into it?" "We were ten. We were at a lake during a school field trip, and we couldn't help ourselves." He shrugged and glanced at her, rubbing his hand through his hair. "She was supposed to get her parents' permission first, I guess, but, it was easier to ask for forgiveness, than permission." "How old were you when she died?" "I was twelve." "You started out early with the ladies." She giggled a bit and he looked over at her, completely confused. "Guess you must have experimented with her quite a bit?" "I...well, yeah, we experimented a bit here and there. Mostly, though, we just did what came naturally. When she was with me, anyways. There were a few times that she was with another boy, but, well that stopped for some reason, and then it was just me." He turned the car off and undid his seatbelt. "Anyways, would you like me to walk you up to your door?" She smiled to him and nodded, unbuckling her own seat belt. "I'd love that." He smiled to her and got out of the car, closing his door softly to walk around and open hers and help her stand, closing the door behind her. They wrapped their arms around one another and started walking up the small walkway until she started fishing for her keys. "Thanks, for picking me up, Jay. I'm glad I asked you out." "I'm glad you asked me out, too." She slid her key into the door and unlocked it, but he stepped back a little when she paused, assuming she was waiting for him to turn around before she opened her door, but instead she took her hand off the knob and turned to face him. She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him towards her for a short kiss before she wrapped her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her and they held onto one another for a good minute, before she pulled out of his arms and opened her door, looking back to him with a smile. "I start in two weeks..." He tilted his head, but his tail flicked when he figured out what she was talking about. "Get cleared from work for a couple of weeks, and come over on the 15thwith your best formal suit, and some spare clothes. You'll be staying here until it finishes." He nodded to her and flicked his ears to the side at the sudden invitation. "I'll...be sure to do that..." He made to turn around, but she called out to him and made him stop. "Oh, and Jayde. You're the only one I'm inviting." He nodded, a little stunned, but he smiled to her as she closed her door. When he heard the click of the lock he turned around and walked to his car, sitting in it for a few minutes before he started driving home, a wide smile on his face.

When he got home he turned on the lights and greeted the two foxes as they came out of the room, petting over their heads and scratching under Violet's chin the way she liked, then he stood up and walked into the kitchen to fill their bowls with some food before making his way down the hallway. He stepped into the shower, relaxing and scrubbing his fur down so he could go into work the next day, and wandered around the house for a while, alternating between watching television and reading until around eleven, when he decided that it was time for him to head to bed, despite not having to go in for work until noon. He stood up and walked into the bedroom, cooing to the foxes as they trotted about his legs with their ears perked up at him, making little chuffing sounds to him before hopping up onto the bed to settle into their favorite spot on the opposite pillow from his. He sat down and grabbed the pack of sleep-aids he had been taking the last few weeks, turning it over and throwing it away when he saw the card was empty. With a shrug he dug into the drawer next to his bedside table and pulled out the fresh box he'd gotten the day before, and used one of his claws to tear open the top while he read the back label. "Little different from the last ones..." He shook the box and held it up, looking back at the foxes to see Axel watching him. "Don't you think?" The fox let out a soft yip and rested his head down on his mate, who was already nestling into him to go to sleep. "Yeah, I don't think it'll hurt either. Just the stuff I buy all the time with different colors." He tugged one of the cards of tablets out, breaking the foil on one to pop it onto his tongue and let it dissolve in his mouth. He scratched at the side of his neck a bit and reclined back in bed, burrowing under the covers, then reached over to turn off the light and roll to sleep, rubbing his tongue on the roof of his mouth to scratch away the funky taste they usually left.

He woke up to a bright light in his eyes, and what felt like a breeze on his fur. _Must have forgotten to close the window..._He sat up and looked around, blinking back the light a little before a thought grabbed onto his mind: He overslept! He jumped up and tripped over his tail, and hauled himself back up while he rubbed his eyes to get them to adjust to the bright light a little quicker, but when he opened his eyes what he saw was not what he had expected. "This...is not my bedroom..." He glanced around and took in the area around him, smelling water nearby on the breeze while all he could see were trees and forest shrubs. Under his feet was a mixture of small pebbles and old leaves and other detritus, probably fallen from the trees in past autumns. He spun around and looked up, seeing a dark sky dotted with stars, despite the bright light, and sighed heavily in relief. He was having another lucid dream, that was all it was. He was still asleep in his bed, and he wasn't late for work. Relaxed, he turned in the direction of where he smelled water, making his way through the trees and underbrush until he came out to the shore of a wide lake, dead calm and reflecting the trees and sky around him like a mirror. Every so often, the wind would create a few ripples on the surface of the lake, but they died down quickly after the breeze finished, leaving it to be just as placid as before. With a smile he made his way down the beach, looking out over the water at the shore of an island out in the water. He continued walking until his feet just dipped into the liquid, and he could look down at his own reflection. His silver-toned fur seemed to shine like metal in the...sunlight?...and his black markings stood out against the gray like darkness in a physical form. Whatever the light source there was, it made his fur look amazing, and he kind of was startled by his appearance, but rather than be concerned with just something small he pulled his shorts off and started wading out into the lake. He let out his breath as the crisp water bit through his fur, making his shiver slightly until he was waist deep and could kick off to start paddling out into the water and roll over onto his back, using his arms to keep him afloat calmly while he looked up at the sky and traced the constellations mentally, slowly drifting back to the shore while he closed his eyes and started to relax. After a while he rolled over, swimming back to the beach to climb up out of the water and start wringing out his tail. Afterwards he stretched and wagged it to shake some of the left-over water out, running his hands over his front. He felt amazing after the brief swim, like everything had been washed off of him while he was in the water, which he never felt before in one of these dreams, oddly enough. He couldn't place how, or why, but at the same time he didn't really care. Whatever the reason for it, it had to do with the day's events before he went to sleep, so, content with what he was experiencing he continued wringing out the water in his fur and looking around, realizing that there was a change in the scenery around him. Here, the trees were different. They were taller...and they looked older, as well, with thicker trunks and larger branches that reached out over the beach a little like a balcony ceiling. The undergrowth in the trees was mostly old leaves, but there was a lot of grass, and plenty of light filtering down making the interior of the woods easy to see for quite a distance through the trees before they started to get dense from the distance. He looked up and down the beach, then turned around and let his shoulders sag slightly when he saw the orange tint of his shorts laying on the opposite shore from where he was standing, completely nude. He figured he might as well go and get his shorts, just in the event there were other people in the dream with him, but when he started back towards the water he felt a small tug at his tail, prompting him to spin around in shock. Holding onto the end of his tail was a pup, no more than ten or twelve years old, with fur colors and patterns like his(almost exactly like his) looking up at him with sad eyes. "You can't go back that way, Jayden..." He opened his mouth to speak, but the child let go of his tail and started walking away across the sand, his long tail tucked against his legs with the tip dragging against the sand. "Hey..." The child turned around and looked at him, and he stopped without being able to utter another word as the boy's green eyes bored into his, almost seeming to infect him with a state of loneliness. They were his eyes that looked back at him. "Y-you're..." The younger version of himself just sat down in the sand and started digging into it with his fingers, pulling a small pile of it between his legs, then started to mold the sand into a cylinder. He flattened his ears on the top of his head, watching the younger him play with such a distracted...boredom, but he knew what he was feeling. Glancing back at the water he turned, forming an idea. He glanced at the boy in the sand and jogged over to the water's edge and scooped a few handfuls of sand as the cylinder collapsed, then trotted back and got down on his knees in front of himself to start mixing the drier sand in with the wet. "Here...if you use the wet sand, it sticks together better..." "Thanks..." He glanced up and started pulling the sand into a pile again, forming it back into a crude cylinder shape and flattening off the top of it. "You want to build something, Jayden?" The pup looked up at him, perking his ears a little with slightly brighter eyes. "Really?" He nodded, and the younger him smiled slightly, nodding back in affirmation. "Wait right here, okay? I'll go get some more sand from down there." He stood up and jogged back to the water, digging into the sand with his palms like they were shovels, building a pile that was as large as a bowling ball that he packed down and picked up carefully, and made his way back up the gentle slope. He got back down on his knees and sat back on his calves, starting to mix the sand until it was starting to get a little thicker, handing the pup small chunks as he made them. They worked together to build up a higher, wider cylinder until it was as high as they wanted it to be, and he began to scoop out the top of it and carve out little pieces to form the top of a castle tower in shape as his younger self began to form a box together with an angled roof before he stopped. "We need more sand..." He nodded and stood up, heading back to the water to gouge out even more sand, making two trips to bring back enough for them to build with for a while without having to go back for more, but on the second trip slowed down. He thought he had seen something in the trees, but he shrugged and sat back down to start mixing the sand together and build with himself again, eventually raising a few more towers and finishing a large square section they all connected to to form a proper sand-castle. "I'll build the wall..you dig the moat, you're better at it than I am." "Okay." he stepped back and started digging a little down, scooping out the dry sand in a semicircle, packing in some of the mixed sand as he went to keep the walls from sliding back down and looking like crap as he went around the castle, watching Jayde build up a wall that was nearly as tall as his hands as he went. Finally, they finished the castle and he picked up his younger self, lifting him out with a chuckle so they didn't damage it. "All finished!" He looked down at it, and then back at the pup, who was now wagging his tail as happily as he was. "Not quite finished...we still need a bridge." He looked around and went up to the trees, probing around until he found a patch of bark peeling off of a large pine tree. "Perfect..." He muttered, tearing the bark off and walking back to the sand castle and walking around it. "Where do you want the drawbridge, so the knights can go in and out?" "Hmm..." his younger self went around to the water-facing side of the castle and put his hands on his hips. "Well, the castle faces the sea, so we should have the gate facing the forest, so it fools the enemy kingdom!" He laughed and got down, punching the space for the gate out of the wall without breaking it, and he set the bark in the sand going over the moat for the bridge. "There." "Jayde..." He glanced up at the pup and tilted his head. "Hmm? What is it?" "I didn't say anything..." He pointed over him towards the trees, looking in the same direction he was pointing. "She did." Jayde stood up and turned around, stepping forward a little as he looked at a female stepping away from the trees slowly, her arms holding her belly slightly while she stared directly at him. She looked about his age, and her fur was a familiar cream color, and she had hair of the same color that flowed down to her shoulders before curling upwards slightly. "Uhm...hi, there..." He waved slightly and stepped away from the sand castle, tilting his ears to the side. "I'm sorry if we're on your beach...but-" "You came..." She cut him off, and he stopped talking, lowering his arm to his side while he watched her come closer. "I called you...and you came..." "I don't understand..." He trailed off as he started to pick up the sound of tears in her voice. "Look at how you grew up...you've changed so much since we were kids!" He took a step towards her and stopped, looking at her face. She was crying, and the closer she got the more he could see that she was starting to shake while she looked at him. "Jayde...it's really you, I can't believe it..." He took a few steps towards her, a small knot forming in the pit of his stomach as he glanced back at the younger version of himself, who was standing by the castle still.

"Some dream..." He muttered, turning back around to stop walking towards the female, finding her stopped just a few yards from him, holding her hands over her mouth while she cried. _Wait..._He looked at her eyes, stepping forward a few more steps. They were green, a deep emerald flecked with spots of gold that made them look as deep as lakes, and up close he could see her fur was more of an orange tint, with brighter cream under her snout and down her front. "Chrissie? Is that...you?" She nodded to him and choked out a sob, rushing towards him to wrap her arms tightly around him while she pressed her face into his chest. "You remembered me..." He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, kissing her head while he breathed out a sigh to keep from crying. "I miss you so much..." He whispered, grabbing her fur as she pulled away. "I dream about you every night..." "This isn't a dream, Jayde...it really is me!" She put her hands against his chest and grabbed onto his fur back. "I'm really here..._you're_really here..." He shook his head and swallowed, taking a deep breath. "No, I know I'm dreaming...I took a sleep aid before I went to bed...this is all a dream." He looked into her eyes, searching for something that would tell him he was telling the truth to her. "I just can't figure out why I'm dreaming of you like this..." She hiccuped and shook her head. "You had an allergy to the medication...you never woke up, Jayde..." "No...that's not possible..." He stepped back a little, but she held onto him. "I'm not allergic to any medications in sleep-aids!" He shook his head and stopped, his ears drooping. "Except..." "Diphenhydramine..." She finished his sentence as he remembered the box, how he forgot to read the ingredients label on the back before he dropped it into his shopping basket at the drug store. He stumbled a bit and grabbed onto her for support, staring at her while his mind reeled and his senses went numb. "So...this isn't a dream..." She shook her head. "I-I'm really..." She nodded slightly, more tears welling up in her eyes. "Yes..." He opened his mouth to say something, but forgot what he was about to say, and instead pressed his muzzle to hers in a rough kiss, grabbing onto her fiercely as she kissed back. He pulled away from her lips and kissed the top of her snout, then her forehead, and the top of her head as he held her to him. "I've missed you so much..." "I know..." He coughed a little and choked out a sob, clinging to her. "I love you, Chrissie...I thought I would never see you again!" He cried, digging his fingers into her and squeezing his eyes shut. "I thought I would never be able to tell you how I felt." "I've waited so long to hear you say that, Jayde...you were gone for so...so long..." He opened his eyes as he heard two youthful cries of shock, turning his head to see the younger Jayden crash through the sand castle carelessly to run to a young Christine and latch onto her. He held the back of Chrissie's head as they both cried silently in one another's arms, watching their younger selves drop down to their knees, wailing in tears of joy and holding onto one another like life-lines.

"I'll never leave you again...I promise..."