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It was a new day and there were new things to worry about, order number one was to get some coffee. Had he not been accustomed to the cold from being near ice so often today might have felt chilly as a cold front had settled in overnight. Plenty of locals were running around, going about their business bundled in thick coats, humans and anthros alike. Howler though deemed it only necessary to add a scarf to his normal "civilian" attire since his fur was pretty much keeping the cold at bay but he didn't want to look too out of place as he walked to his favorite coffee shop to unwind for a bit.

Not only was their coffee top notch but the building was situated on a street corner so the front two intersection-facing walls were lined with booths behind large windows making people watching easy. It looked old, too and felt rustic and that atmosphere mixed with the delicious coffee smells made it one of Howler's favorite places to relax. He stepped in and his tail wagged a little as he took in the heavy scent of roasted coffee beans and spices. He placed his order and grabbed a cinnamon roll, too. Just as he was pondering which side of the shop he wanted to sit on something made his ears perk up.

"It can't be. Howler, is that you?" He turned to face the voice and sure enough, of all the coffee shops in town, of all the people to run into, there was Sharkie. "It is! Hey man, come have a seat." Howler reluctantly walked over to the booth and to the shark who was grinning like an idiot and stood at the edge of the table.

"Well if it isn't Sharkie."

"Hey, we're not out on the ice. Call me James."

"J-James?" Howler was somewhat taken aback at learning Sharkie's real name out of the blue. He stared at the shark briefly, his brain comparing his features to the name and let it sink in that he found it a nice fit.

"Yup, that's me! I'm glad I ran into you though because I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I guess we kinda got off on the wrong foot there, I may have overstepped my boundaries just assuming I could skate on your ice and-"

"It's fine, it's fine." Howler interrupted. "It was innocent enough and I am a canine after all so there's that whole territorial thing. But you beat me fair and square...even though I wasn't expecting you to use your tail." Howler's mind quickly wandered back to being up-ended and pinned under the shark but he shook his head and tried to quickly move on from those thoughts to prevent anything embarrassing.

"If you insist, but that's still not the way I wanted to introduce myself. How about we start over. This seems like a nice enough place to chat for a bit and get to know each other better. Howler had eased up some and set his pastry on the table and sat down opposite to the shark. "Ooh I had one of those too, they make 'em really good here!"

"Yeah a lot of the stuff here is really good; I've been coming here long before I was in the mascot business."

"And this is my first time here. Small world, huh? So how long have you been in the mascot business anyway?"

"Hm? Well I've had this gig for about three-and-a-half years now but I've been working with and around mascots for a long time."

"Well I've still got a lot to learn, clearly. Maybe you can show me the ropes or at least fill me in on some trade secrets. So what do I call you anyway?"

"Call me?" Howler pondered his options for a moment. He generally liked to keep his real name private save for close personal friends and he wasn't sure Sharkie needed to know that yet. "Howler is fine." "Aww that's no fun. I told you mine." Howler was prepared to give a rebuttal on the merits of a mascot choosing to keep his real name private when the barista at the end of the service counter called out, "Canis. I have one mocha order for Canis."

Sharkie figured it out right away as no one else had placed an order since the coyote had gone through. Howler's face flushed a bit as he heard his name carry across the coffee shop. He planted a paw over his face to hide his blushing and tried desperately for a moment to disappear into thin air and not be noticed but was quickly spotted by the employee.

"Ah, there you are sir!" Sharkie couldn't help but grin a bit and had to stifle a laugh as the bubbly girl walked over. "For a moment I thought you had left, but here's your mocha." Howler removed his paw and turned to smile at the waitress and nod while she set the drink down as Sharkie spoke up,

"I like it."

"You hush."

"It's very unique."

"Not another word!" The flustered coyote fished into his pocket for a tip and handed a dollar to the girl, "Thank you, miss." She turned and headed back.

"Canis." He was about to snap another comment back at the shark but, while he wouldn't admit it out loud, he was put surprisingly at ease hearing Sharkie say his name. Sharkie nodded, "It suits you well."

"Grrff...thank you, I suppose." The shark continued to grin, loving the reactions from Howler over that issue. He could have poked more at the situation but he didn't want to upset the coyote too much so he turned the topic back to their previous discussion. Howler had originally planned to just sit for a moment to humor Sharkie, but the more they chatted the more he was enjoying the conversation, a simple pleasure he had not achieved in a while. Sure he was friendly with some of the other mascots out there but never had he actually sat and talked with any of them one-on-one like this. It was amusing hearing how different their upbringings were yet here they were representatives of national hockey clubs.

"What's your favorite entrance?" Sharkie mused.

"Entrance?"

"Yeah, coming out onto the ice before a game. I want to talk with the management about letting me bungee jump from the rafters."

"That sounds...pretty dangerous but could look really cool if you'd be able to pull it off. It's not nearly as exciting but I like when i get to drive the zamboni out. Not as high risk as bungee jumping but the crowd likes it. We had a cool idea earlier in the season but it fell through due to logistics."

"What was it?"

"Oh, nothing important. Just something silly."

"What could be too silly for a mascot? Come on I want to know."

"Well, you already know my name which is way more than I had planned on sharing anyhow...I wanted to play the drums in the middle of the ice since that's kinda something I do in my spare time. Maybe even at an intermission or fill in for a guest band or something, you know? Figured it would get the crowd really riled up." Sharkie's eyes lit up.

"A drum solo! That sounds amazing! You must be pretty good then."

"I like to think I'm decent, I've been playing 'em since I was little but never with any intent to make that a career."

"I've always wanted to learn; I have rhythm but I've never understood how you keep track of everything in your head, so many options at your fingertips. Teach me!"

"What? Teach you? No no, I'm not any kind of a teacher, sorry." Howler sheepishly waved his hands in the air. "Can I watch you play?"

"Watch?

"Yeah! C'mon that'd be too cool. I mean unless you already had plans. Though, y'know, I guess I am kind of asking a lot, I'm sorry if that was a bit sudden but it did sound like a fun idea. Perhaps some other time." Howler was already thinking of some way to get out of this and was surprised when Sharkie ended up talking himself out of it instead. He felt almost bad like he'd be letting him down somehow.

"No you're right, could be fun. Our team doesn't have another practice until tomorrow and I haven't had a guest over in a while so that'd be a nice change of pace." He couldn't believe he was agreeing to this with someone he barely knew.

"Really? Sweet!" Sharkie held out his fist and Howler reluctantly gave him a fist bump. He looked at his watch and noticed that they had been talking for almost an hour.

"You're really chatty you know that? I can't even manage a conversation with my girlfriend for that long."

"That's my shark charm I guess."

"Shark charm indeed." Howler thought to himself as he watched Sharkie gather his things.

"Looks like you've got about an inch on me I'd say."

"Hmm? Inch?" As they stood up to leave Sharkie pointed at the top of Howler's head.

"Yeah, it's not often I have to look up at someone else."

"Oh my height, yeah I never could figure out why, no one in my family is anywhere near this tall."

"Plus with your ears that must make you what, six-five, six-four?" "Haha, yeah, but that doesn't count. I just say six-one to keep it simple."

"Fair enough, so...whose car are we taking?"

"Well I walked, my place is only a bit over a mile from here. Wait, you drove? Didn't your team bus it here?"

"Yeah but I can't stand the bus, I get a bit more leniency than the players because I generally don't have to be at a lot of the same meetings so I told 'em I would make my own way back and I grabbed a rental. We don't have a game for two more days anyway."

"Looks like you're driving then, I'll navigate."

"Welp, this is my place"

Sharkie whistled as he entered.

"Looks nice and cozy, like a place where you can actually settle down. My apartment is pretty much just a place for my stuff but you've got an actual house of your own. I'm impressed."

"Thanks, I quite like it." He led Sharkie over to the living room and tossed his scarf on the couch.

"Hey you weren't kidding about the drums." Sharkie pointed across the hall into a smaller room with a drum set in a corner.

"Yeah that's essentially my game room. Got my set in there, some consoles, a pinball machine for some reason."

"Ooh and a guitar!" Sharkie had walked into the room to look around. "A Gibson."

"Yup, it is. Good eye."

"My dad has a few. I can play a few chords but I'm no guitarist." Howler walked around and took a seat behind the drums, picking up one of multiple pairs of sticks in a sleeve on the side.

"Shall I get started?" Sharkie nodded and watched intently as he twirled the sticks about his fingers effortlessly for a moment. "Just gotta loosen up." He tapped all his drum and cymbal surfaces to make sure they sounded the way he wanted and kicked his bass pedal a few times for good measure. The shark looked on as Howler began to randomly strike the drums until he fell into a rhythm he liked and easily knocked out a three or four minute drum solo. It almost looked like Howler had come out of a trance he had been so focused. Sharkie clapped adamantly and this caused the canine to blush a bit.

"That was sick!"

"Thank you, y'know you're my first audience member? Emma can't stand the sound."

"Well I'm honored to have been your first." Howler blushed hard at the choice of words, turning his head so Sharkie couldn't see. He decided to change the topic right away.

"Hey, um, I can't be the only one playing, I could use a little backup. You said you can play a few chords?" "It's been a while but yeah." "Grab that guitar and let's have some fun. I've got some guitar picks on my dresser in the room further down the hall." Sharkie made his way to Howler's room and over to the large dresser and sure enough there were a few picks scattered about the other things. He grabbed one and came back to the room and picked up the guitar and flung the strap over his shoulder. He messed with it for a few minutes as he tuned it up.

The two played for a while with Howler pretty much leading the direction and Sharkie following along, some real songs, some imagined up on the spot. He kept pace well enough and managed a pretty sound from the Gibson. There were some sour notes and few chords here and there he fumbled with but he was having fun. After Howler's rendition of 'Who Are You' he slumped back in the seat and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"I think I'm done for now, that was awesome though, I've never had an accompaniment before. You're pretty decent."

"You were so awesome though! But yeah, that was a lot of fun. This thing sounded pretty darn good."

"Do you know who Joe Perry is?"

"As in Joe Perry From Aerosmith?" Howler nodded as he pointed at the guitar, still catching his breath."

"Don't tell me this is his..." Sharkie held it in both hands and eyed it over.

"He gave it to me after a concert they had in our arena a couple years ago. Told me I was his favorite mascot. What do you think about that?"

"No way...I think you're full of it."

"Well it's true. Glad it got some love for once, I don't let anyone touch it."

"You're kidding...now I feel bad." Sharkie set the guitar back against the wall.

"Don't, I'm glad you had fun. Crap what time is it?" Howler hurriedly checked his phone and cursed under his breath. "How the heck did I lose track of 3 hours?" Sharkie was about to chime in but Howler cut him off. "Shark charm, I know, I know. Sorry for the unceremonious goodbye but you should head out, Emma's gonna be home soon and she's not a big fan of surprise guests."

"I understand, bud. Thanks again, I'll catch you around." He offered up and received another fistbump from howler and turned to head out. "Bye, Canis!" Howler grumbled and was about to yell a comment back but the door was already closed.

"Bye, James." He muttered to no one in particular.

As Sharkie got into his rental car he stared back up at the front door he recalled the past few hours. "Man it's been too long since I just got to unwind with someone, definitely have to chill again soon. I don't know who this Emma is but she's a lucky one." He headed off down the road to start his long drive back to northern California. "He's fun, he's cute; so of course he's taken. Happens every time."

In the meantime the coyote had slumped onto his couch and sighed as the quietness surrounded him, he'd had such a fun time rocking out that he'd forgotten how quiet his house usually was. His tail wagged lightly as he recanted events. "Well he seemed like a pretty cool guy, even if he is a rival." He stared blankly at nothing as his body relaxed from the jam session; a good 15 minutes went by before his door creaked open and his girlfriend made her way in.

"Hey babe."

"Hey Em. How was work?"

"Hectic, I had six people try to book Howler for wedding appearances on the same day and they were all very insistent."

"Yikes, sorry I'm so popular." The feline had set her things down and made her way over to the couch. She leaned down and Howler craned his head up just slightly and they shared the briefest kiss.

"It's fine, I've had plenty worse days in PR. You doing ok? You look...exhausted."

"Yeah I'm good, I was actually just getting in some time with my drums." He idly pointed over at the room."

"You need a quieter hobby, probably scared half the neighborhood."

"Actually they loved it, threw me roses and everything."

"Doubtful, with that racket." She looked into the room with the drum set and paused before making her way to the kitchen. "What're we doing for dinner?"

"Whatever it is, no fish."

"Chinese it is!"