The Boy and The Fox

Chapter 5 - "First Date"

'What a week.' Michael thinks to himself. 'But it's finally saturday. I've got all sorts of things planned for Vivian!' Michael wants to start off the day right, so he goes to prepare breakfast for his mate. As he tries to get out of bed, the fox holding onto him grumbles. "Mmm, don't leave, it's saturday..." She says. "I know, but I wanted to make you something for breakfast." Vivian opens her eyes and looks at her mate. "Do you think you can make us some pancakes..?" She asks him. "Anything for you, my love." He responds with a warm smile. Vivians fur turns an even deeper hue of red. Getting out of bed the two make way for the kitchen. "Oh, right... I still gotta unpack." Vivian says, seeing the mass of boxes on the dining room table. "Don't worry, I'll help." Michael reassures her. They quickly finish unpacking Vivians things and begin to make breakfast. "Get ready for the best pancakes you've ever had!" He tells his mate. "Oh, I don't know if you'll be able to top the pancakes at Lucky's." She says with a smirk. "Oh really? Is that a challenge?" "Maybe it is..." Vivian tells Michael. "Maybe if your pancakes impress me, I"ll give you something special." "Challenge accepted. Get ready to eat your words, literally!" Michael says as he grabs his apron. A delicious aroma fills the apartment. Vivian's mouth waters. 'Man... Those do smell pretty good." She thinks to herself. Soon the pancakes are ready. "3 for me, and 3 for you, m'lady." Michael says, serving up the pancakes. "Such a gentleman." Vivians jokes. Michael brings out a bottle of syrup. "What pancakes would be complete without syrup?" He says. "Well that ones at Lucky's don't need it." "Well you don't HAVE to use syrup, but I'd strongly recommend it." He says, covering his still hot pancakes with syrup. "Fiiine, I guess I'll have some." She says as she takes the syrup from Michael. As she takes a bite, her eyes light up and she begins to scarf down the pancakes. Michael laughs. "What?" She says, face full of half chewed pancakes. "Oh nothing!" He says. They quickly finish breakfast. "Gross... My furs all sticky." "Probably should have eaten slower then." Michael tells her. "Haha, very funny." She quips back. "C'mon and help me shower." She says. "If you insist." Michael says, knowing what happens next. Finally cleaned and all the syrup out of her fur, Vivian and Michael begin to plan their day. "Sooo, I was thinking... Maybe I could take you to that fancy restaurant down the street. I think it's called nourriture de fantaisie?" Vivian scoffs. "Yeah, Michael, the wait list is like, a month. I doubt we could get in. Not to mention it's owned by stuck up humans. I don't think they would appreciate a kurvian eating in their fancy restaurant." She says, visibly upset. "Don't worry about the wait. I was able to get us in for today. As for the speciesism, once they see you're with one of the bank's top employees, I doubt they'll mess with us." Michael says, smirking proudly. "One of the top employees? Don't you just do IT?" Vivian asks. "Hey, IT's really important." He says defensively. "Without me and the other dudes in IT the bank couldn't function!" "Ok, ok, I didn't mean to offend you." She says. "But if you think they'll let me in, then I trust you." "Thank you Vivian." He says, placing a kiss onto her lips. "The reservations are at 5:00, so we got some time to kill." Michael says. "Well I happened to notice an SNES on your coffee table... And I play some pretty killer Mario Kart." She brags. "We'll see about that." The two spend most of the day going through Michael's retro video game collection. "I can't believe you have all this stuff!" "Well, besides IT, these games are my passion." "I can tell." Michael looks at his phone's clock. "We should probably get ready." He tells her. "I hope what I have is 'fancy' enough for this place..." Vivian says, going to fetch her clothes. They quickly change into dress clothes. Michael wears a button up shirt and dress pants, while Vivian wears one of her only dresses with a sweater to go with it. "Do I... Look nice?" She asks nervously. "You look absolutely beautiful, my love." He tells her. Michael looks at his phone again. "Well then, we better get going." He says. And so they head out the door. Walking together, hand in hand, down the sidewalk, the two receive many weird stares from kurvians and glares from humans. Michael tightens his grip on Vivians paw. "Just ignore them." He whispers. Her ears raise in alert as she hears the humans' judgemental comments. "Is he holding hands with that... Animal?" "How disgraceful!" Michael knew this was bound to happen at some point. Humans and kurvians would never fully get along, but he had hoped they wouldn't have been so vocal about it. Hurrying to the restaurant, they step inside. The server at the front glares at Vivian. "I'm sorry sir, but I cannot serve this animal." He says, with a posh accent. Her tail droops. She gets ready to leave when Michael speaks up. "Sorry, but the reservation is for Michael Smith, party of 2, and this fine lady happens to be with me." The man sighs. "Of course she is... Fine sir, come with me." He says aggressively. He leads them to a table in the back, clearly trying to hide the couple. "You're waiter should be here soon." He says, before trudging back to the front. "Well he seems friendly." Michael jokes. "Yeah, real friendly..." Vivian mumbles. Michael places his hand atop his mates. "It'll be ok, I won't let a few rude comments ruin our first date." He tells her. She smiles a bit. "Yeah, I guess so." The minutes go by with no sign of their waiter. "I guess we'll be getting poor service too..." Michael says. When the two of them are just about to get up and leave, a kurvian, a white wolf, approaches. "Sorry for the long wait! I'm sure you can guess why it took so long." He says. "Anyways, I'm Daniel and I'll be your waiter for the evening." "It's alright, we kind of expected this to happen." Michael tells their waiter. "Still, I'm sorry that you two have to go through that, just because of who you love." Daniel tells them. The kurvian are obviously more sympathetic than the humans they encountered. Michael and Vivian order their drinks and appetizers, which are soon brought out to them. "To our first date!" Michael says, raising his glass of wine. Vivian chuckles and they clink glasses. Quickly finishing the bread, they get ready to order the main course. "Wow, all of this sounds delicious!" She says, while scanning the menu. "Really? Even the cow liver?" Michael questions. "Of course! If it's meat, I'll eat it!" She jokes. "Hmmm, I'll probably get salmon meuniere." He says. "And I'll get the liver!" After a while Daniel returned and they ordered their food. "Excellent choice, your food will be out soon." He says. The two of them converse while they wait for their food. "No way! Your sister actually did that?!" Michael exclaims. "Yup! She really did egg our old principal's house! She hated that old human! He was like SUPER speciesist." She says. "Well then it sounds like he deserved that egging." Michael says, as their food arrives. "Mhmm. Looks delicious!" She says, mouth watering. "And smells good too!" "But does it taste good?" Michael jokes. The two continue to chat as they eat their meal. "I can't believe it's only been a week since I met you." She says. "I'm glad we did meet. I never thought in a million years some as great as you would want to be with a guy like me..." He tells her, looking her in the eyes. "I can say without a doubt that I am in love with you, Vivian." He says. "Oh Michael... I love you too!" She says, smile beaming. They could care less what any others thought of them. They had each other and that's all that mattered. With their meals finished, they pay their tab and head out. "Looks like it's going to rain soon." Michael says, looking at the approaching clouds. "I'm sure we'll be fine, now come on, let's go take that romantic walk you were on about!" She says. And take a romantic walk they do. They walk through the city park, stopping at some tourist stops. As they reach the top of the nearby hill, there's a slight drizzle. "Well it looks like the rain didn't hold off." Michael says, pulling Vivian under a tree for cover. As they stand, hand in hand, watching the rain fall, Vivian leans in and kisses Michael. Michael wraps his arms around her waist, and she wraps her across his neck. They deepen the kiss, tongues intertwining. And as they stand there, in the rain, they feel like the only ones in the whole world. 'This must be what true love feels like.' They both think to themselves. They finally separate for air. Michael wishes it could have lasted forever. "Do you think we could go somewhere a little more private?" She asks him. "Of course, c'mon, let's go home." He says. Grabbing his mate's hand, they run through the rain, all the way home. And so in the comfort of their apartment, they do what all couples do behind closed doors.