What is this thing we call love?
"What is love; I mean really?"
The panther seated near the fireplace coughed as he heard the question and brought a paw to his chest as he tried to regain his composure. After a few moments, the black furred feline cleared his throat and turned to the young red fox seated across from him.
"Whatever do you mean?"
The fox looked towards the fire as it crackled in the stonework fireplace and said, "It came up in lecture today. Blue eyes reflected the warm glow of the fire as the stared absently into the flames.
"You mean in that Literature class of yours? What is it called again?"
"Romantics of the 18th Century," the fox responded dully as he rested his slender muzzle on the upturned palm of a chocolate brown paw. He sighed as his ears flicked back for a moment and he said, "Sorry about startling you."
The panther shook his head and said, "I've had worse reasons to waste tea." He placed the steaming mug down on a coffee table that separated the two and said, "I imagine you are asking for the sake of some research assignment."
"No," the fox said as he turned away from the fire and retrieved his own steaming mug of tea from the table. Bringing it to his lips, he blew gently before taking a sip. He cringed a bit and said, "It's a bit strong."
There was a heavy silence in the room for a few minutes until the panther decided that it was growing far too awkward for his liking. "Then why on earth do you want to discuss such a frivolous concept as love?"
"I don't think it to be frivolous at all," the fox said as his eyes fixed onto the panther. He took another sip from his tea before continuing, "Love has to have some meaning to it after all or how else would it be able to convey such importance in society."
"Society emphasizes the need for sex," the panther said in retort, "not love. Love is only truly brought up in gimmicks to sell jewelry and chocolates at prices far higher than any sane person would pay."
"It isn't society that emphasizes sex," the fox replied as his tail came to curl in his lap, "it's the media."
"All the same," the panther remarked, "I'd much rather not discuss it."
Not wanting to allow another silence to build, the fox took a moment to set his tea down and adjust the collar of the polo he had chosen to wear that morning and said, "Then let's talk about something we both enjoy. I'm sure we can find something to discuss."
"I heard you slept with that lemur from the drama club," the panther said with an amused grin. "What was his name?"
"Darek? It wasn't so much sleeping together as it was I wanted to see him prove a little statement he had made in the dressing a few weeks back," the fox said as he slumped back in the plush old armchair he had taken refuge in.
"What statement might that have been?" the panther said with a note of interest in his voice.
Leaning back a bit, the fox placed both of his paws on the hardwood surface of the coffee table and said, "He can paw a guy just as good with his feet as he can with his hands."
"Was it true?" the panther asked as he retrieved his mug from near the fox's feet.
"It was an interesting experience to say the least," the fox said with a grin as he wriggled the toes on his dark-furred paws. "Took a little while but he finally got me to pop."
"Rumor has it you foxes pop pretty easily," the panther retorted and he let a few teeth show in the smile he gave at his friend's flash of indignity.
"Coming from a feline," the fox replied with a huff, "that is a bit of an empty insult."
"Oh calm down," the panther said as he rolled his eyes and dismissed the issue with a wave of his paw. His tail coiled lazily around the leg of his chair as he said, "Julian said hello."
"Where did you see him at?" the fox asked as he settled back into his chair and brought up the memory of the fennec from his freshman year.
"In my bed about a week ago," the panther said with a bit of longing in his voice, "and then the night after that and the night after that."
"Do you love him?" the fox asked suddenly as he turned his eyes down to his feet and brought his tea to his lips.
"Back on that are we?" the panther said with a slightly annoyed tone. "I'm not going to get out of a discussion over that, am I?"
"Not likely," the fox said as he kept his eyes at his feet.
"I love to have sex with him," the panther said in response as he returned his mug to the coffee table; the contents of which now reduced to a few stray drops that clung to the edge of the ceramic bottom. "I love seeing him naked, I love seeing him giggle as I strip, and... I love seeing him happy."
"You don't love him?" the fox said as he looked up at least and his eyes met the amber orbs of the feline.
"Him as a friend; yes. Him as anything but a tight rear and a skilled muzzle... sadly no," the panther said with an almost sorrowful look in his eye.
"I think you are lying," the fox said with a sly grin that only a fox could ever pull off.
"I think you are a nosy little cock sucker," the panther said with a slight growl in his voice.
The red scoffed and said, "That one really hurt; you know that?" He was about to stand to leave when he saw the panther motion for him to stay seated.
"I'm sorry," the panther said as he shook his head a bit. He gave a huff and said, "You are asking if I love someone that I've seen naked eight out of the twelve times I've ever seen him. I'm sorry but... I can't know just yet."
"I'd know," the fox said as he looked back down at his feet.
"How is that?" the panther said as he sat back and arched a single brow at the red fox seated across from him.
"Remember Brian from last summer? At the lake?"
"The arctic fox? What of him?"
"I loved him."
"You only knew him a week."
"That was all it took."
The panther scoffed and said, "How do you know you loved him?"
The fox was silent for a moment before saying, "When he died... I felt like I had been broken."
"That's right," the panther said softly, "the bus accident last winter."
"Yeah," the fox said before setting his tea down and sitting up straight, "I miss him."
"So what is love Jason? Tell me that," the panther said as he felt a bit of sympathy for the fox. "Please enlighten me since you say you have felt it."
"Love," the fox said softly, "is the feeling you get when you look at a person and only care about them. It's the feeling you get that makes you think that, no matter what, everything will be alright as long as you have this person by your side. It's... feeling complete."
The panther nodded and said, "Well put I suppose." He stood and said, "I must be getting back to my dorm for the night. Sleep well Jason and don't let things get you down; alright?" He started to make his way out of the student center when he felt a slight pang in his chest and looked back at the fox; the smaller male still seated and staring at his feet. "I love you Jason."
The fox looked up with a slight smile and said, "I love you too Jeffery. I'll meet you in your room in fifteen?"
"Make it twenty," the panther said with a slight smile, "I would rather if you met Julian again it would be with him clothed. The joys of having a fox for a roommate is there is never a shortage of nudity when you want it."
"So what do you want?" the fox by the fire asked.
The panther just smiled and walked out of the room.