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Rain was falling down in torrents outside, where students padded up and down the sidewalk as hastily as they forseeably could, against the chill autumn wind that made the windows shake and howled like a hellish, tormented demon. However it wasn't the howling of the wind, nor the rattling of the windows that kept Zain from concentrating on his studies, nor any of the myriad other sounds that a strong Autumn gale can produce. He looked across the rain-soaked lawn outside his window, sipped his coffee (still a bit too hot to drink quickly), and thought about his first week of classes. They were interesting, definitely. The bright young fox had a voracious appetite for learning and especially Astronomy. He had enjoyed the animated Professor Yangston's lectures, rife with enthusiasm and vigour, made all the more memorable due to the Deer's seemingly boundless energy that led him to pace about the room, gesturing to the sky that so captured his imagination. Zain smiled as he remembered the Deer nearly squashing a late-comer flat as he paced to and fro at a pace that made many of the bemused freshman a bit dizzy. Intriguing though his classes were, they quickly receded to the background of his musings as he came upon the real reason for his temporary lack of interest in his studies. For all of his enthusiasm for science (he normally adored being in class), and despite the capering about of his new favorite teacher, he had still found himself distracted. There he was, sitting in his first class on his first day of college, full of nervous excitement for what was to come, but through the door had walked something-someone- that had sent his heart racing and still made his fur tingle.

"Zain!" shouted his roommate, Matt from down the hall. "Zain! What are you sleep- The tiger rounded the corner, and poked his head through the doorway to find Zain staring out the window with a somewhat glazed look in his eyes, a hint of a smile playing at the corner of his muzzle. "Hey, dude, Earth to Z!" "Huh? Oh... sorry Matt... I guess I zoned there for second, what's up?" Zain said with a sheepish grin, trying to regain some semblance of composure. He took his hand off of his face, sat up a bit straighter, and turned to face his roommate, who was starting to look a bit embarrassed, as if he had walked in on him in the middle of changing. "That's okay" he said with a small laugh. "I know how you science guys are, got your heads in the clouds... or the black holes or whatever. "Mikee and I are going into town for a while, you want to go?" The tiger's tail was whipped to and fro behind him, echoing the excited grin on his face, and just missing the sides of the door frame. Zain's thoughts went back to his neglected homework for a moment, but seeing the tiger's earnestness, he decided a few hours of relaxing might do some good. "Mhmm, sure, just let me change." was his reply. He looked about his rather untidy dorm room (what would his mother say if she were here?) and spotted his favorite purple and black sweatshirt, and pulled on a pair of jeans. Deep-set jade green eyes, as green as summer, stared back at him from the mirror on the back of his door. He was pretty tall, (for a fox) about five foot eleven, he had a feminine frame- as "skinny as toothpick on a diet", as his mother used to tell him, and as black as a jar of ink from ear to paw. 'Man, I look tired.' he thought to himself as he closed the door behind him and went to join his roommates at the door.

His thoughts continued to wander as he padded over the marble floor of the local mall, sipping yet another caffeine-laced concoction (soy cappuccinooo, no sugar) from Pawbucks, taking in noseful after noseful of the various scents and smells of the many restaurants and stands that lined the walls of the food court. His more refined vulpine nose could pick out freshly baked cinnamon rolls, pepperoni pizza, brewing coffee, and many other delicious scents that made his mouth water and his stomach rumble. His roommates jabbered on for short while about their new classes (better than high-school at least), but they quickly turned (as boy's thoughts and conversations usually do) to the various girls they had encountered. Neither Matt nor Mikee seemed to notice that Zain was hardly paying attention, so caught up were they with the prospect of dorm dating life.

"By the time you're all done with this class, Mr Yangston had said, you will hopefully all be able to appreciate our position in this vast and beautiful cosmos. We are all tinier than grains of sand compared to the sweeping grandeur that surrounds us, spanning the light-years." Wonderful though his introductory speech was, one student had completely stopped listening. As Professor Yangston had uttered the word 'beautiful'- he had walked in the room. It was like a sign from the heavens, although Zain seemed to be the only one who noticed. Two eyes of the deepest, piercing azure blue had met his, eyes that made his fur stand on end, his heart stand still. His mouth seemed to have forgotten how to produce saliva. He felt like his soul was being drained from his body to merge with those eyes, they contained the placid serenity of a quiet arctic morning, as the sun rises and it's rays dance and play upon the crystals of pure ice. He longed right there to hide himself in all of that quiet beauty and splendor, to curl up and get lost for a while in those eyes.

"Probably not too many hot ones in quantum-mechanics 101 huh, Z?" Mikee asked. For the second time that day, Zain found himself dumbfoundedly staring at someone talking to him, having completely missed what was said. "Huh? Oh, girls? Nah, not really... unless you're into the whole huge glasses and pocket-protector look." Mikee snorted, barely managing to keep his soda in his mouth. Mikee was the youngest and the shortest of the three dorm mates, having graduated high-school at 16, the young skunk seemed to be adapting pretty well to his new surroundings. An only child, he looked up to Zain and Matt like older brothers. Zain and Matt were happy to fill the role for the excitable little skunk, whos limitless energy and enthusiasm made the shift to college life much more bearable. "Oh my god!" Mikee yelped, abruptly turning and running towards Hal's Games. Zain and Matt, at first startled and thinking that something had happened, exchanged bemused grins. The skunk was on his knees, looking into the glass case of video games. "Kill Frenzy Six is out! Oh man, oh man! I- oh... darn... it's sixty-five dollars! Shoot, well that's alright, I'll get it when I have more money." said Mikee, his gleeful smile slipping off of his face, looking more dejected by the minute.

Zain had a decent amount of money, having saved up some from his summer job working nights as a waiter at the local twenty four hour diner. Mikee was just beginning to walk away from the counter, his tail drooping forlornly, when Zain, hating to see the normally chipper skunk looking so downcast, said "Hey, I'll spot you for what you don't have. You can pay me back when your parents send you some money." "What? Really? Oh, Z... I only have thirty dollars, are you sure?" Mikee asked, his enthusiasm only slightly masked by his sense of propriety. "Sure, it's not like I have a whole lot to spend my money on up here anyway, Mikee. Just don't beat it in one day like the last one, okay?" Zain said, handing Mikee two crisp new twenty dollar bills. "Is this what it's like to have big brothers? I should've adopted you guys sooner! Thanks a lot, Z! I pay you back soon, I promise." Mikee squeaked, taking the twenties gingerly from Zain's outstretched paw, trying his best not to sprint over to the counter.

Rain drizzled hypnotically upon the truck's windows, in stark contrast to Mikee's high-pitched voice that filled the air of Matt's truck on the way home with a seemingly never-ending stream of strategies, comments about the game's graphics (so much better than Kill Frenzy Five!), and about the fourteen new available weapons to choose from (Kill Frenzy Five had only featured twenty-eight), and could Matt drive any slower? He had to play this game already! Zain grinned to himself and looked out the window past the rain-soaked road, the dew-laden grassy hills, the fiery horizon bursting with magnificent crimson, purple, and gold. The truck's windshield wipers thwacking, his mind's eye carried him further on to a snowy tundra, lit only by two luminous sapphire eyes on a strange horizon that was more beautiful to him than any he had encountered in waking life.

Night was quickly setting in as Zain cooked dinner in the compact dorm kitchen (how was anyone supposed to cook like this?), smiling as they other boy's voices drifted through the doorway to the kitchen. Matt's soft, masculine voice was sharply contrasted by Mikee's squeaky one. "Are you SERIOUS? No WAY he killed me! I was behind a corner!" Mikee yelled at the T.V. Screen, while the Lion tried desperately to comfort him in soothing tones. Zain dipped his spoon into the stew he was making, blowing on it and bringing it to his lips. Needs a bit more flavor, he thought to himself. "You can cook? I thought it was going to be school pizza again tonight." Matt was walking towards the oven, rubbing his stomach. "It'll be done soon, keep your pants on." Zain said, forcing the hungry looking tiger into one of the chairs. "What is it, anyway? I'm sorry, I couldn't handle trying to calm Mikee down anymore- I'm starting to think you shouldn't have bought him that game." whispered Matt, running his claws through his headfur. Zain had to stifle a laugh at the tiger's serious tone, and replied "It's one of my grandma's old recipes, I think you'll like it. And haven't you learned to stay at least twenty feet away from Mikee when he's playing video games?" Matt nodded, cracking a pointy-toothed grin and looked a bit less hassled, though his headfur was still sticking up from where his claws had run through it.