Zig Zag is Copyright © Max Black Rabbit. Sabrina, Darke Katt and R.C. are Copyright © Eric W. Schwartz. James Sheppard, Marvin Badger, Rhonda Badger, Yohni, Alexi, Michael, Esteban, Mia, Wanda Vixen and Tamara Rabbit are Copyright © James Bruner. Jean LeBrun, Francois LeBrun, Marie LeBrun, Gabrielle Ryder, Theodore Bigglesworth-Farthington von Salzburg the Third, Roxanne Bigglesworth-Farthington von Salzburg, Timothy Bigglesworth-Farthington von Salzburg, Malcolm Grazer, Doctor Lupin, Doctor Fox Jones, William Pongo, Captain Archibald, Peter Spermophilus, Miranda Spermophilus, Leo Leon, Vincent Leon, Abu-Yusuf, Sergeant Otetiani, Lieutenant Black, Julie Black, Miriam Redtail, Lizzy Doe, Emma Grey, Rowena Spyke, Jeremy Mustela, William White, Hannah Vulpes, Professor Nutkin, Professor Moose Nicholson, Professor Verner Schnauzer, Professor Erica Belge, Charles 'Mouse' Mombay, Ulf Søndergård, Paul Donkey, Harley Davidson (Not the motorcycle manufacturer, obviously) and Pethouse Magazine is © Joan Jacobsen, 2005.
Legal Notice: This story is Copyright © 2005 by Joan Jacobsen. This story may not be sold or used for commercial profit in any form or fashion. This story may not be modified in any way. This story may not be posted on a mirror site or any other Internet site without the written permission of the author. This story may not be distributed on print, magnetic, electrical or optical mediums.
Permission to use characters that are Copyright other individuals was obtained prior to the appearance of said characters.
The author, Joan Jacobsen, hereby asserts moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is an independent work of fiction with no connection whatsoever to Max Black Rabbit, Eric W. Schwartz, E.S. Productions or James Bruner and is in no way meant to imply any connection with Max Black Rabbit, Eric W. Schwartz, E.S. Productions, or James Bruner. This story contains characters created by Max Black Rabbit, Eric W. Schwartz, James Bruner, Tigermark and Silver Coyote. Events and characters occurring in this story should not be considered part of the storylines for either 'Zig Zag', 'Sabrina Online' or 'Sabrina Online - The Story'.
In fact, as far as 'Zig Zag', 'Sabrina Online', 'Sabrina Online - The Story' and 'Zig Zag the Story' are concerned, this story does not exist. The artists disavow any knowledge of and do not officially sanction the events in this story.
What's the verdict?
Jean LeBrun was nervous. She had to admit to herself that anything else would be unnatural. The furs across the table were all well known faces. She'd known them as intelligent, skilled, professional furs for years.
But she was still nervous.
She did her best to fight it though. To not let it show. Too much depended on it.
"Do you have anything to add, Miss LeBrun?" a female rabbit in her fifties asked. Her voice was both calm and pleasant, even friendly.
"I don't think there's any more I can say, is there?" Jean asked and smiled as calmly as she could.
That was all that was said. A few nods from the remaining furs in the room, and Jean got to her feet, leaving the room. She felt horrible. Like she'd just been retaking her finals and failed. She closed the door behind her and leaned against the wall outside, sighing heavily.
So much had happened in the last two years. After coming home from New York and the hospital, she had spent almost six months recovering fully. She had gone to a number of checkups with Doc Lupin and he'd eventually removed the stitches too. It was easier than for her to travel all the way back to New York for it, after all. She didn't think that much about those days anymore. For years, surgery had been something she worked towards, and once it was over, she knew she had to do something to get as ordinary a life as she could.
One such thing was to quietly put it behind her. Not forget it, nor deny it. Simply...move on.
It hadn't always been easy. Esteban, her boyfriend for the past two and a half years, had been a tower and pillar of strength during that time. Esteban was a tall, extremely handsome Hispanic wolf. Maned wolf, at that. He had a thing about his mane. Jean giggled at the thought of it. She'd never known another fur that vain about a part of him- or herself. Just thinking about him, though, made her feel good.
So now, she was 25, going on 26, and life still wasn't always easy. Mixed species couples still got a lot of odd looks, and she, herself, was hardly a wolf. She looked at her paws for a moment. Well, a canid at least, she reminded herself. There weren't all that many gray vixen's around in the first place, nor that many gray foxes. She chuckled again. She'd been both at different times of her life. At least...physically. The surgery two years ago had taken care of the confusion.
It hadn't taken care of the prejudice. Some furs couldn't deal with it. Others wouldn't. Whatever their reason, she still met her share of bigots. Being a transsexual in a mixed-species relationship wasn't exactly a walk on rose-petals. But she wasn't complaining. She'd done the best she could with what life had dealt her, and she felt she had good reason to be proud of herself for what she had achieved.
Jean smiled. A very special friend of hers had once told her that life had dealt her some really rotten cards in the poker game of life, but that she would teach the vixen how to bluff.
That friend had succeeded spectacularly. Jean no longer feared the world. She didn't fear her own reflection nor did it nauseate her. She went to sleep every night, content in the arms of the wolf she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and woke up every morning with a smile on her face.
That, in itself was something. That she woke up with a sense of happiness and wanting to meet the world head on, instead of a sense of impeding doom and dread about what would happen during that day.
But she was still nervous. She looked around the hallway. She'd come this way scores of times in the last five years. Going to or coming from a lecture. Lectures with the very furs she had just been facing, all over again.
It shouldn't be so hard. She'd finished her thesis just before the summer holidays. She'd been proud of it, too. It had dealt with the reinstatement of the Jesuit order, and the reasons it had been dissolved in the first place. She had defended her thesis, and had passed with honors. That had been two and a half months ago. That same day, two of her three best friends from university had passed theirs. Emma and Miriam.
Emma had been a quiet, introverted girl when Jean had first met her. Moreso than herself, which, the vixen reminded herself, was a truly impressive feat. She'd worn baggy clothes, thick glasses and generally walked with a slouch, apologizing for using up valuable oxygen at every conceivable opportunity. The mink was also a very, very good student. She had a head for theory the likes of which Jean hadn't seen before or since. On the other paw, Emma's memory wasn't quite as good as hers.
Miriam was a red vixen. The first to talk to Jean at campus, and to try to make friends with her at a time where everyone else generally considered her a...a freak.
The word tasted badly in Jean's mouth, even at the memory. She'd heard it too often. Miriam had helped with that too. She was a real hippie, by nature, and she hadn't given a damned what anyone else's prejudiced opinions had been. She'd made an effort to get to know Jean and the result was a firm, warm friendship that would probably last a lifetime. The fact that Miriam dated Jean's former psychiatrist, Fox Jones, and that they were engaged to be married in just a few weeks, meant that the two vixens hadn't had much time together over the summer. There was a lot of planning to be done, after all.
The last of the quartet, Lizzy, had passed her finals a couple of days earlier. They had all been there when she'd received her grade. Much to Lizzy's surprise she got a good one. She'd chosen to write her thesis on the rise and fall of Marxism, making the radical claim that Marxism as a political system was dead within five years of Lenin's Coup d'Etat in Russia. None of the teachers had agreed with her, but she had been able to defend her views well enough...and passionately enough...that she got quite a good grade. It was typical of Lizzy. A sika doe, with the heart of a true rebel and enough genuine warmth to heat up the North Pole, was still living with Leo. They were the most illogical couple in Ohio, as far as Jean was concerned. Leo was a tall, handsome lion who'd spent the first part of his adult life lounging on every sunny beach in the world, dating models and driving fast cars. His father was a Fortune Five-hundred fur, and his mother was aspiring to get on the list herself. Leo, on the other hand, was a bleeding heart idealist and hopeless at business. He didn't want to be good at business. He wanted to have a normal, ordinary, life, doing things he considered meaningful. That didn't include board-meetings and stock-exchange jitters. He was studying art, now. He'd done so for over a year and he showed a lot of promise, too.
Jean smiled at the memories that bubbled up in her mind. Memories of what she and her friends had come through, and what they'd experienced here. The hallway was quiet right now. Classes hadn't started quite yet. They would in three days time, though. Normally, there would've been lectures for the past several weeks, but the buildings had undergone a major overhaul during the summer holidays. The entire semester had been rescheduled accordingly. The students were no doubt already groaning about the extra workload this would result in.
The vixen knew she would've, herself. It made her smile a little. It also brought the nerves back. Students. Classes. Lectures.
She sighed and ran a paw over her long hair, letting herself slide down against the wall until she was sitting, leaning against it next to the door. She wondered what took the furs behind it so long. It was like being on trial.
Trial.
That brought back other memories of this place. Dark memories of pain and broken bones. Of three furs, so hateful that they tried to kill her. She'd bumped into one of them, only two hallways away. The next thing she knew, she woke up in the hospital, with broken bones and damaged ligaments. It had taken a long time before she could walk without a limp afterwards.
Of course, the worst part had been after the trial, when one of those three had escaped prison and come back after her. He'd never come close...the police had intercepted him and killed him, but not without cost. One police-officer had lost a paw, another had spent months recovering from slashwounds to his body. It was terrible to think about, so Jean tried to push it from her mind.
The door beside her opened. The rabbit stuck her head outside.
"Ahh, there you are," she said and came out, closing the door after herself.
Jean got back to her feet and nodded, brushing down her skirt. "So, what's the verdict?" she asked.
"You've hardly been on trial," the rabbit said with a wink. "Congratulations, Jean...you got the job. I know it's short notice, but you need to do your first lecture already on Monday. You'll have lectures Monday, Tuesday and Thursday."
"That's fine, Mrs. Belge, you warned applicants that they would need to prepare to start their lectures very fast. I've been reading and making plans for three weeks," Jean chuckled. That at least wasn't going to be a problem
"Good. Critical Thinking happens to be the class you scored highest on. No one's gotten a higher grade here in the last decade or so. You're well qualified, Jean, I have no doubt about that. Otherwise, I wouldn't hire you. I'm probably going to find some other classes for you to teach as well, either as replacement or as support for someone. Most likely, you and Moose Nicholson will be working together," the Mrs. Belge said, warmly. She looked proud of the vixen.
"Excellent. Mr. Nicholson is stern but he's extremely capable. I'd be happy to assist if he feels there's anything I have to offer," Jean said, blushing slightly at the praise.
Mrs. Belge chuckled. "You know...he liked you when you were still just a student here, Jean. After you decided to start speaking up in class, he'd mention you regularly. He rarely remembers the names of his students very well, so you must've made an impact."
Jean blushed deeper. "Thank you. I will not let you down."
"I know you won't. But take it easy. Everyone is allowed a few mistakes at first. This isn't a contest and we know that you're capable," the rabbit said, holding out a paw for Jean.
The vixen shook it. "I'll see you first thing Monday morning then. Thank you. Very much!"
Mrs. Belge nodded. "Welcome to the faculty, Jean."
As Jean left the building, she felt like she was walking on clouds.
###
Gabrielle Ryder looked up from packing her bags. She had tried to economize with the amount of luggage she was going to bring for two reasons. First of all because she knew she'd buy more where they were going. Secondly, because she knew the fur going with her would be probably be bringing half her wardrobe if not all of it.
She smiled and closed the bag she'd just finished with. Her reflection looked back at her from the mirror. She was now 28 years old. Probably in the absolute prime of her career, and she wasn't ashamed of herself for a moment. Not exactly what she'd been raised to...the thought alone made her grin...but she made a living as a porn actress at probably the most famous triple X-rated movie studio in the Midwest, maybe in the United States as a whole. It was a good job. With the best boss she could possibly ask for. Of course, she'd developed a personal friendship with Zig Zag very quickly, and that only helped things along. The tigerstriped skunk had given Gabrielle a chance, probably against all better judgment.
The reflection smiled back at Gabrielle. 28, and still a knockout. A bronco with a black mane and an figure most males would kill to be seen within reach of, she had nothing to complain about at least. She knew she probably only had three, at best four years left in the business, and that was only provided age didn't start showing on her early, but she wasn't concerned. She took one day at a time and enjoyed it.
After all, what was there not to enjoy about her life? She had a good job, a wonderful girlfriend and friends that any sane fur would envy her. She had a good, full life. It hadn't always been that way, and she knew how to appreciate it all the more for it. Her father had run a major crime-ring in the Denver area, and he had made her life utterly miserable for years. His insistence that she came home to an arranged marriage, and her refusal to do so had eventually ended up in a failed kidnapping attempt. Her father had sent one of his most trusted employees to 'bring her back', but it had been foiled by the furs who had been hired to unknowingly fly her back to Denver in the trunk of a car.
It had been a real mess after that for a while. But a decisive effort by one policefemme in particular, coupled with a movie-production at ZZ Studios that had been aimed solely at blackmailing her father into leaving her alone, had eventually paid off. Finally, she had some peace. At the time, she had been living with Jean LeBrun, and supporting the vixen in her journey towards surgery and a somewhat normal life had taken all the strength she had left apart from dealing with her family. When her father finally left her alone, she had enough energy to concentrate on herself as well.
One of the things that had resulted in was Yohni. Her girlfriend. A mongoose, a few years younger than Gabrielle herself, she had slowly eased her way into the filly's heart. At first they had merely been good friends, and Gabrielle had been quite stand-offish towards the mongoose's advances. Yohni hadn't given up though and it had paid off.
Now they'd been a couple for two years. At times, a stormy ride...but it had always been warm and good. At one time, Gabrielle had told Jean that the reason she couldn't imagine herself dating Yohni, was because the mongoose didn't want something steady and long-term. And therefore, she couldn't see herself with Yohni in old age.
Now she could, and that was a constant in her life that she treasured. She had been wrong about Yohni, and she had admitted it many times since.
The mongoose entered the room, carrying two large bags, wearing a huge smile on her face. "Aha! You're almost ready as well. This is going to be something else. Can you imagine this? Shopping in Berlin, Paris and Milan?" she asked and giggled.
Gabrielle shook her head and chuckled. Yohni was an inveterate shop-oholic. "It will be. And I've always wanted to see Europe. I think this is the way to do it, too, y'know. By train, seeing some of the countryside. I think it was really nice of Zig Zag too. I mean...we'll be gone almost seven weeks," she said.
Yohni nodded. She had to agree. Zig Zag had managed to plan it so that their vacation would take place just after they'd finished shooting one movie, and the next one would be without either of them. The two of them had let the skunk know of their plans a long time in advance, but this was just another example of why they both enjoyed working where they did.
"Okay...so we take off first thing tomorrow, right? Flying via Newark to Copenhagen, where we'll spend five days, and then we'll buy the train-tickets to Berlin, right? We'll spend a week in Berlin, and then on to Amsterdam, then south to Paris. From there, we'll take a few days to go south through France, enjoying the trip towards Venice and Milan. Rome last, and then back home, yes?" Gabrielle asked with a smile.
"That's the plan so far but the good thing about THIS kind of vacation is that we decide if we want to prolong the stay in any given place by some," Yohni answered. "Hmm...do you think I've brought enough clothes?"
"Yohni...you'll be shopping your heart out and you can barely carry THOSE two bags. Maybe you should take some out and replenish with European fashions when we get there, hmm?" the equine grinned.
Yohni blinked and looked at Gabrielle with absolute surprise on her face. "You're serious? You mean I could go with less?"
"I think you've got fourteen changes of clothes in there, at least. And we've been saving up for a year for this trip. The shopping spree will be legendary, Yohni...with the bonus we both put aside from 'Amat Victoria Curam', you can buy yourself a new wardrobe several times over while we're there. Take half of what you bring now, and leave room for what you buy there," Gabrielle said and winked. "I'll help you choose what to bring and what to leave if you want."
"I'm going to have to take you up on that. I can't choose what clothes to leave behind. That's asking a little too much of me," Yohni giggled and put the bags down on the bed, opening them both.
Gabrielle looked into the first bag and began the difficult task of finding something Yohni wouldn't miss too much.
###
"CUT! Thank you everyone. Nice work!" Zig Zag called out.
Lights got switched on and the actors and actresses on the set relaxed, visibly. It was always good to get the last scene in the box. It left everyone with a sense of fulfillment. This had been such a scene. Sporadic cheers went up from some of the sound-crew and other technical staff.
More than one call for a drink was heard too.
Esteban flicked a couple of switches on the camera he'd been working and chuckled. Drinks were normal too after the completion of a movie. Lots of drinks, preferably. He remembered those binges very well. It had only been two years since he'd been in front of the camera, rather than behind it. All that had changed, though. He no longer acted, but Zig Zag had been nice enough to give him a chance as a camera-fur. It had worked out very well indeed.
It had all started at a party at the studio. He'd met Jean. He'd looked into her eyes and somehow, he never really got over that. Good thing too. His life had certainly taken a few spins since he'd met the vixen at least. Including going home to meet his family. That hadn't gone down too well. His father had discovered Jean's...secret. The result hadn't been pretty. Within an hour, he'd confronted Esteban's mother about it...and been thrown out of the house. Not long after, he'd been found dead. Suicide.
Esteban did not miss him. But he felt bad that his mother had been placed in that whole awful situation. At least she was a smart femme, and had gotten out of the ordeal more or less on top. Not to mention that she liked Jean. He'd taken the vixen back once more, since, for a visit. It had been very nice. The fact that Jean meant he was no longer acting also met with his mother's approval. She'd probably like for him to not work at the studio at all but she could deal with him working behind the cameras a lot better than in front of them.
"Hey, lobo...what's the verdict?" Zig Zag's voice asked beside the wolf.
He snapped out of his trip down memory lane and smiled at his employer. "Bueno, Jefa...I theenk the cutteeng room furs weell love thees. Not much work to be done."
Zig Zag smiled. Esteban's accent was as much his trademark as his mane. No matter what he did, he couldn't seem to shake it. She nodded and looked back at the emptying set.
"Good," she said and patted the wolf's arm. "So...how're things at home? It's been a while since I've seen you and Jean privately."
"Eet's just that there's been a lot of work for her the last month or so. Weeth the job eenterview and all..." the wolf answered, looking apologetic.
"Ohhh yeah, that's today isn't it? Imagine that...our vixen, Ph.D. student..." Zig Zag said, smiling thoughtfully.
"Ahem...my veexen," Esteban grinned.
"Oh? You have that in writing?" Zig Zag asked and prodded the wolf's side with a finger.
Esteban slumped and shook his head. "I never seem to find the right time to ask her," he said. "I want to ask her. But the moment I build up to eet...sometheeng happens. The phone reengs, someone knocks on the door...sometheeng. Everee time. Eet's like fate."
Zig Zag smiled and put a paw on Esteban's shoulder, leading him out of the studio. "You know...you just have to pick a time and go with it. Let the phone ring. Let the visitors knock on your door. Don't let anything distract you. Take the plunge, lobo..."
Esteban nodded and smiled. "Gracias, Jefa...I weell do that."
###
It was a very nice day in New York. It was especially nice for Malcolm Grazer. He was walking down the street, on his way to work. It was a nice day and he kept his jacket slung over his shoulder and his free paw in his pocket. There was a light spring to his step, but since he was a dancer by trade, that wasn't surprising. This morning was particularly good, because he was headed for the first rehearsals for his first lead. Not many had really given him a chance. There were very few equines in his line of work. Normally, it took much smaller furs, but then, Arabian equines were lithe and wiry by nature. He wasn't the only equine in the business, in any case, but there certainly weren't many. Doing pirouettes on the rim of his hoof had taken some time to learn, for instance. There were times when furs with toes had it easier. It wasn't an issue anymore. He was an up and coming star on the scene and he enjoyed the feeling.
He liked New York. He couldn't really imagine living anywhere else. Possibly San Francisco but that was mostly because of the gay community there. Then again, that scene was fairly good in New York too, and he liked the mood in the city. It never slept. It never stopped to breathe. Quite a few furs would probably go raving nuts after a few hours of it, but he thrived on it. Besides, he wasn't alone in deciding where to live.
He ran a paw through his pitch black mane at the thought and smiled. He'd been living with Timothy, a bronco out of Denver, for the last couple of years. They'd have gone further and gotten some paperwork on one another if legislation allowed it, but such was not the case. It annoyed Malcolm quite a bit and over the last few years he'd become increasingly active in various equal-rights groups. Timothy as well, for that matter. Neither of them liked being labeled second class citizens.
He stopped at a window and looked at himself in the reflection. For all he could see, he looked like any other fur on the street. Well groomed, clean clothes...but nothing set him apart from the rest of the world. Being set apart by others irked him. At 28, he felt he had as much right to fall in love as any other fur. His partner just happened to be another male. He failed to see the reason in discriminating against him because of it. Shaking his head, he continued down the street. There was no sense in getting himself all worked up over it. That wouldn't change a thing.
Turning a corner, Malcolm sighed as he saw the bus he had to catch take off right in front of him. There was nothing for it except to wait for the next one. At least it'd be along in five minutes time. His boss almost certainly wouldn't notice those five minutes and even if she did, he knew she wouldn't complain. That was what he liked about his job. A year and a half before, he'd quit his job at the New York City Ballet. Most of his friends and colleagues had thought he was making a big mistake, but Timothy had backed him up in it. The mood had been unbearable there. He'd spent most of his days wondering if it was going to get worse and that feeling alone was enough to tell him something was wrong. Eventually, he'd worked up the courage to get out of it. It hadn't taken him long to find employment with a smaller dance company. Having references in his résumé to NYCB opened more doors than he had imagined. He'd eventually settled on a small, up-and-coming expressionistic troupe. It had been the best decision of his career.
He looked at a fruit-stall and picked up an apple, turning it over in his paw. He often bought an apple or orange there, going to work. The owner was a heavy set oryx in his early fifties. Malcolm often exchanged a few words and some news with him while waiting for a bus. Occasionally, he'd deliberately miss a bus, too. Abu-Yusuf was a friendly fur who'd usually keep up to date on the word on the street...about very nearly anything. Even if his news wasn't very reliable, Malcolm felt the entertainment value more than made up for the inaccuracies. He grinned and nodded to the older fur.
"G'morning. These look nice. Can I have six of them, please?" he asked and found some change in his pocket to pay.
"Six, Malcolm? You must have a long, hard day ahead if you're buying that many apples today," Abu-Yusuf answered, running a paw through his beard and chuckling. "You still live a life of sin and depravity?"
Malcolm laughed and nodded. He didn't mind the question, simply because he knew Abu-Yusuf was only kidding around. "Oh yes. You ask me that every morning and the answer is the same every morning..."
"Allah bless America," the oryx said with a wide smile. "Here we are all free."
"Good thing too. How're things going at home?" Malcolm asked, paying up. "Last I heard you were sending Yusuf off to college. How did that go?"
Abu-Yusuf shrugged and leaned over his stall, whispering conspirationally. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but frankly I think you've got the right idea sometimes..." he said. "My wife wailed up a storm and threatened to go after my son just to make sure he didn't fall in with the wrong crowd, that he got properly fed and did his homework. Femmes can be very silly..." he said and handed the stallion a brown bag containing six apples.
Malcolm tried hard to keep a straight face. It wasn't easy. He'd made the mistake, early on, of calling the oryx 'Abu' once, believing it to be his first name and Yusuf to be his family name. He'd promptly been corrected and told that Abu meant 'Father of' and that he was called so because his eldest son's name was Yusuf. He liked the oryx. Abu-Yusuf and his family had fled Iran after the Shah had been toppled, and they had never looked back. He had an extremely laid back attitude to religion, despite invoking the name of Allah earlier, and in most ways was more American than Americans. Abu-Yusuf still spoke with a thick accent but his vocabulary was extensive. Malcolm had never found out what the oryx had done before fleeing his homeland, but despite merely selling fruit and newspapers from a stall in New York City, Abu-Yusuf seemed both wise and well educated. Not to mention wholly content with his life.
The bus arrived. Malcolm flicked over the apple in his paw and made to put it back. After all, he'd just received his purchase. Abu-Yusuf chuckled and shook his head.
"Eat it. I don't know where you last had your paws, my friend," he said and winked.
Malcolm grinned again and nodded. "See you Monday again. Take care and tell your wife she isn't going to help Yusuf by breathing down his neck. University is hard work."
"I will," the oryx answered and waved as Malcolm got on the bus.
The stallion took a seat and looked at the apple again, grinning once more. He took a bite and let his mind wander onto today's rehearsals.
###
It was nearly six PM, by the time Jean reached the apartment. She wasn't really sure how time had gone by so quickly either but it was a long drive home. It hadn't gotten any shorter by her no longer being a student. Well, she reminded herself, she still was but now it was a Ph.D. she was studying towards. It was vastly different.
A teacher and a student at the same time. Fascinating, really.
She looked forward to Monday. In fact, Monday couldn't come fast enough. She wanted to cut her teeth on teaching, and the sooner the better. There was still some work to be done over the weekend, needless to say. Now that she knew for a fact that she had the job, she'd have to go through all that she prepared over the last weeks and decide on exactly what to use first.
"Start at the beginning, Jean," she told herself, quietly. "It's generally the best place. Basics. They don't know these things...but you do."
She was smiling, ear to ear. No doubt Esteban would already be home. She had told him not to start cooking dinner until she got back though. It would be best that way. That morning, when leaving, she had no idea when she would be home, after all. She kicked off her shoes and looked into the apartment.
Home.
It brought a little smile to her face. 'Home' meant a safe haven. A place where she never needed to worry about anything regarding the outside world. It was necessary. Had always been necessary. She needed to have a place where she could forget her still-too-frequent encounters with the bias of the world outside. This was it.
Of course, the presence of a certain wolf helped a lot.
It was so easy to feel safe with Esteban. All she had to do was look at him in a certain way...generally with really big, wet puppy eyes, and he'd drop more or less everything in his paws to give her a hug and a kiss and make her feel better. It worked both ways too. Esteban did big wet puppy eyes very well too. All in all, Jean thought, he was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
She dropped her purse on the table in the living room and listened. She smiled...Esteban was home. She could hear him humming in front of the computer in the bedroom. Clearly, he hadn't heard her come home.
"Esteban? I'm back!" she called out. A wicked idea sprang up from the darkest recesses of her mind. She slumped her shoulders a bit and made an effort to look disappointed.
The wolf came out of the bedroom with a big smile on his face. It dropped instantly at seeing her. "Oh no, chica...they deedn't hire you?" he asked, sounding terribly sorry and concerned.
Jean shrugged and sighed. "I don't know, Esteban...something terrible happened," she said, quietly, struggling with herself to not just burst with laughter.
"What ees that?" Esteban asked and came out, putting his arms around his vixen, kissing her hair. "Eet's okay, there weell be other jobs," he whispered.
Jean snuggled up in the embrace and shook her head. "No...no there won't be. At least not for a long time," she said, sighing again.
"Oh, of course there weell be. Maybe not there but you'll find sometheeng else, quicklee, chica," the wolf said, soothingly.
Jean felt torn. This was comfortable. She didn't want the embrace to end but she couldn't keep up the act much longer. "No, dear...I won't," she said, quietly.
"Now, now...no getteeng all glum on me, eh?" Esteban said and kissed her hair again.
"I'm not. I'm going to work on Monday," Jean said and smiled looking up at the wolf.
Esteban's face went from completely blank, to confused, to a wide grin. "'Eeeey...you sneakee leettle..." he began and then stopped, kissing her nose. "I knew you could do eet. Monday already? Well, chica...I theenk thees calls for a celebration!"
The vixen positively beamed with pride. "I wasn't sure how it'd go to be honest but Mrs. Belge came out after just ten minutes and said they'd decided to give me the position. I had expected a 'we'll let you know our decision', at best."
"Well, I never doubted you," Esteban said and smiled. "So I got us a table at the 'Parthenon' tonight."
"Ohh...you're a hopeless romantic, you know..." Jean grinned. "Remember the first time we went there? With Zig Zag and James?"
Esteban nodded again, brushing a lock of hair out of Jean's face without letting go of her with his other arm. "That's why I peecked that place again. Besides, I like Greek food. But si...I remember. You were so beauteeful that evening."
"As opposed to normally?" Jean teased.
"You know better than that," Esteban mumbled and kissed her.
Jean closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Esteban's neck. Kissing him seemed a much better idea than teasing him anyway.