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Christmas Eve with the Family.

AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' started blaring, interrupting a wonderful moment.

"Is that your phone?" Cerberus asked. God damn it! I was sure I had turned it off. I thought as I ignored the phone and the question, because what I was doing was so much more enjoyable.

"It says it's Brian," Cerberus said, holding my phone in his paw. Of course it was Brian; I'm one of those people that get different ring tones for all the people on his contact list so he knows who's calling just by the ring (if you're wondering, Cerberus is 'Everlong' by the Foo Fighters). Brian is the raccoon in charge of the campus tutoring center where I work. I didn't want to talk to him right then- my muzzle was doing more important things then talking, but sighing I saw the phone in Cerberus' paw, so I took it, hit the answer button and gently released Cerberus from my snout.

"Brian."

"Jay Dee! Good to hear from you. Am I interrupting something?"

"Yeah kind of," I said as I reached my free claw down to grasp Cerberus and began stroking him. This was, I admit, my loner alpha male showing through as I was hoping that he would moan loud enough so that Brian would hear, and leave no doubt that I wasn't in the mood for talk. Also, as soon as this was done, I was going right back to what I was doing, but dogs are much more social creatures then dragons, and Cerberus robbed me of the first part of my plan by clamping his muzzle shut with both his paws- which would have actually been sort of cute, if I hadn't been so annoyed.

"I'll be quick then," Brian said. "I need you to come in tomorrow to conduct a tour of the center for a potential student."

"Aren't there people in Admissions, whose job that is?" I complained in a tone that I hoped adequately expressed that I was in the middle of giving my boyfriend a blowjob and would much rather be doing that.

"Yes, but it was requested that we have somebody from the center here to show off the place."

"And?" I asked, as I gave Cerberus a squeeze, which sent his eyes rolling back into his head. "I'm leaving town tomorrow!"

"Look Jay, you are the only one who's still in town, and you're the only one of the tutors that's been published." That sent a quiet alarm bell off in my head.

"I'm leaving town tomorrow," I repeated firmly.

"It will be in the morning Jay. The university is offering four hours for a half an hour worth of work..."

Four hours for a half hour tour? From, 'Brian the Clock Nazi?' Now I knew that something was up.

"Who the fuck are you, and what have you done with Brian?"

"I know Jay, I know, but this comes straight from Tillman." Then this was real. I couldn't just walk away from that kind of money.

"Oh great, it's a booster isn't it?" I groaned.

"It's a potential student, a high school senior Jay," Brian tried to assure me.

"Yeah, 'cuz every high school senior wants to spend their winter break looking at colleges two days before Christmas," I snorted. "You know, I was one not too long ago."

"They'll be here at ten. Wear a nice shirt eh Jay Dee," Brian chuckled as he signed off.

I made sure my phone was off this time, and tossed it to the floor. I returned my attention to Cerberus, who was still up in spite of my flagging attention. He looked down at me as I began the preparations to return my muzzle to his shaft.

"What was that all about?" he asked as he reached a paw down to stroke my crest.

"Oh, I'm going to have to go into work tomorrow and show some stuck up rich kid and their parents how we're going to keep 'em from failing so Mommy and Daddy can keep giving the university money."

"Are they paying you?"

"Four hours, all for a half an hour of work," I told him as I resumed licking him.

"You could have gone to a football school," Cerberus told me with a moan.

I stopped licking him and looked up at him. "Look, I don't want to hear a polysyllabic utterance outta you for the next half hour, got it?"

His eyes lit up at that, and I returned him to my muzzle and went back to work. The rest of the evening passed without further interruption, then, we both slept soundly in each-others embrace.

I showed up at the tutoring center at nine thirty, still nursing a Diet Mountain Dew. Cerberus had me switched to diet sodas as part of a better diet, and I'd lost a lot of weight already. I looked almost as good naked as Cerberus does now. I was wearing a brown polo and khakis that I got up early to iron, and my scales were polished to a nice shine. Cerberus had the car packed and was looking for a small gift for my grandfather, in keeping with the tradition in my family that the first visitor on Christmas Eve had to be a gift bearing male: Since we had at least an eight hour drive ahead of us, that would be us. First though, I had to survive the next hour. Brian did have the courtesy to show up to support me and share what he knew about or guests. It turned out that they were a family of foxes, the Tanners. They had old money, and their son, Devin was college shopping. From what Brian told me, Devin was not the best of students- mainly because he was smart enough to get bored quickly. He'd been in and out of tutoring centers, and private tutors his entire life; Brian wanted him to meet me specifically as a published author.

The Tanners arrived right on ten 'o clock, escorted by one of the girls from Admissions who took the first opportunity she could to duck out for a smoke. The Tanners were a family of grey foxes, not red as was more common amongst the vulpine's. The parents were well dressed in matching suits and clearly looked down on my pathetic attempt to dress nicely. Devin was a lean looking fox that barely made it to my chest with his ears, but unlike his parents he was dressed in jeans and a tee shirt. Something about him made me nervous from the moment I shook his paw, but I couldn't quite place it. Brian did most of the talking at first, and the Tanners' opinion of me improved a little when they heard I was a published author. I didn't bother to add that all my work was online only. Eventually, we showed them around the section of the building that the tutoring center occupied. There wasn't much to look at: an open study area, some cubicles setup for personal sessions, two larger rooms for group sessions, and the computer area that we had to keep a constant monitor on for WoW playing. During the entire tour, I just got this weird feeling that Devin kept staring at me... like he knew who I was, but couldn't quite place me. It made me a little bit nervous and it got even more so when he asked me point blank why I smelled like a dog...A male dog.

That got him a lecture from his mother about polite and proper questions, while I told him that my roommate was a husky. That Cerberus lived with me was no secret, so Brian didn't react at all, but I couldn't quite shake the feeling that the little bastard had just tried to out me. No, that couldn't be it. I was reading too much into it, he was probably just an ass who had never had to share a room with anyone else before; he probably had a servant that did his laundry for him rather than use the same towel as his... roommate. I was just being paranoid, and about something I had sworn to not be paranoid about.

The tour wound down quickly after that, and the skunk from admissions met the Tanners reeking of tobacco. As the Tanners shook paws with us, both Brian and I found that we had mysteriously collected twenty dollar bills. Devin gave me another look, and as he trailed behind his parents, I swear he looked back and winked at me. What the hell was with that kid? Brian just shook his head and we put the money in the 'tip' jar that we were collecting money in for some new equipment for the center. With that done, he signed my check while I called Cerberus, who was still out at the shopping center on the other side of town. I was in no real hurry to leave now, and I was thinking about waiting until after dinner to head out to let traffic die down. Besides, for some reason, I now had the overwhelming urge to take another shower. Cerberus said he'd be here in twenty minutes, so Brian I chatted about our departed guests, the weather, Christmas, and the over long college football bowl season. We came to the conclusion that the proliferation of college bowls had to do with the sponsorship opportunities, so perhaps having so many bowls was actually a good thing as it meant that more companies could afford to sponsor them. More sponsors, more money. More money, better economy etc. etc. etc... Eventually, my phone rang again; it was Cerberus telling me that he was waiting for me. I said goodbye to Brian, and headed downstairs to meet my boyfriend.

We touched muzzles briefly as I got in the car, and then we headed off to put my check in the bank and get lunch. Cerberus thought that the attitude of the Tanners was just as funny as I had, but he was also disturbed by Devin's behavior.

"If I didn't know any better," I told Cerberus as I took a long pull on my soda. "I would have almost said he was checking me out."

"How do you know he wasn't?" he asked with a cocky grin after taking a bite out of his sub. "Your, 'Gaydar' not pinging?"

"Oh fuck, Cerberus. If I ever had such a thing it was never any use to me," I replied after almost choking on my drink.

"You found me okay," he assured me. He continued before I could remind him that he found me. "Anyway, forget it. If he was hitting on you, and not getting caught, then he should be smart enough to realize that if you smell like another male, you're spoken for."

"You're probably right, but you just can't tell with these stuck up rich kids that have never been told 'no' in their lives. The mom was wearing a St Mary pendent, she'd probably shit a brick if she thought he was gay."

Cerberus laughed at that, and that was the end of that conversation. After lunch, we went home and got that shower I wanted, complete with husky bath toy. We took a long nap after that, and had an early supper of chicken breast (the only breasts we liked, as our juvenile joke went) sandwiches. We got on the road about six thirty- my parents had arrived at Grandpa's house at three in the afternoon, and assured us that there would be pizza and wings available when we arrived.

The traffic was pretty light for most of the trip so we made good time. We only stopped for gas and bathroom breaks, picking up energy drinks and snacks when we did. We had a rather interesting conversation about the Civil War, a subject that I had not known that Cerberus was interested in. He was probably most interested in it because I was, and that was the subject of the lectures that I brought to listen to on this trip. Cerberus actually seemed most impressed when I disagreed with some of the analysis that the professor offered. It was a much easier drive for me with someone to talk to, than the times I had made this late night drive alone, and midnight came and went without me noticing. We arrived in my grandfather's town a little after two thirty in the morning, with a flurry of snow falling.

I didn't see my brother's car when we pulled in, meaning that he was either working late or was out visiting friends. I hadn't heard anything from Deax, not that I expected to hear from him at all. He just wasn't the kind of dragon that talked about what he was doing. We didn't expect to get much sleep, Andthuos was coming over at 5:30am for the family tradition of 'stomping'- basically sending the males of the family out to friends and family for most of the morning. In theory, as I mentioned, this was supposed to bring good luck to the person being visited for the year, but my mother assumed that the tradition was started to get the males out of the house while the females made the traditional Christmas Eve meal. Personally, I favored my mother's interpretation, as my grandfather tended to be a little bit of a control freak...

I headed inside to scope out the sleeping arrangements while Cerberus pulled out the gift basket he had picked up for my grandfather. My parents were sleeping on an air mattress in the living room, my grandfather was asleep in his bed, in what had been the TV/dining room before hip surgery had forced him to abandon his upstairs room, and as expected my brother's room upstairs was empty. I headed back downstairs just as Cerberus entered the house, and pointed him in the direction of the bathroom while I checked out the spare bedroom downstairs. As Mom had promised, it was set up for Cerberus to sleep in, and I directed him to it with a good night kiss when he was finished in the bathroom. I visited the bathroom myself, and then headed upstairs to sleep on the futon in my brother's room.

Or rather, I tried to sleep. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the three difficult days ahead of me. While I had gotten myself worked up about telling my parents, I had known in the back of my mind that they would be okay with it, but now, I would have to deal with the parts of my family that were a little more close minded. I wasn't worried about Grandpa, as long as we played it cool, he would accept that we were just friends and leave it at that. My brother Deax worried me though. On some level, he might be okay with it, but I had also routinely quit out of games with him on Xbox Live when I could no longer stand him exchanging homophobic comments with the attention whores that seemed to congregate on the service. I really didn't know how he would react. If HE was a mystery to me, Andthuos was even worse...probably social liberal, but also a political conservative. I clammed up every time our conversations steered anywhere near politics, and while I hadn't heard him ever express a viewpoint on this issue, I worried that his political stance would affect his views.

My aunt would probably be okay with it, but I didn't even want to think about my uncle and his family. They were loud, obnoxious, and rude with each other- starting with my uncle, who was the breathing definition of those shirts that say 'I'm not fifty. I am eighteen with thirty two years' experience.' Or at least that's the way he always acted, and the four kids (two male, two female) were no better. Of course the three older ones had mellowed a little as they'd gone off to college, but the youngest... he was the last person I needed to know about me and Cerberus. He had some developmental problems, and would probably accuse us of being gay anyway- because he would often just blurt out the rudest things. I tried to get along with him, because I had learning disabilities too, but I just couldn't make it work for more than a few minutes before he offended me. If any of them knew, they would give me an endless string of grief over it.

As I lay there, I suddenly hated everything about this situation. I had to hide my feelings, and even when I was thinking about it I couldn't talk to Cerberus. My back had started to hurt on the uncomfortable mattress, and that did not help my mood. I put my claws over my eyes and tried not to become frustrated at my thoughts. I had just given up and decided that I could make it for three days when I heard the back door open and close. My brother had returned.

"You awake dude?" he asked when he opened the door to his room a few moments later.

"Yeah," I replied. "I had a couple of energy drinks on the way up, so I don't think I'll be sleeping much."

"Okay, I'm gonna turn on the light," he said as he did just that, revealing his red and tan coloring. Even though he was three years younger than me, he was about a head taller than me. "Your buddy is downstairs?"

"In the spare bedroom," I told him. "He should have the door closed."

"Alrighty," Deax replied. "I'm gonna go grab a shower- Andthuos should be here about 5:30, he's bringing Max with him."

That was good. Max was Andthuos' wyrmling, and this would be his introduction to most of the family- it would be the first time I had met him. Having an infant along would deflect a lot of questions about Cerberus and why I had brought him along. I had informed Cerberus that he did not have to come with us, but he had stated that he wanted to. This would likely mean that we would have to take two cars, which I didn't mind at all. Deax disappeared to take his shower, and turned the light off when he left. I continued to lie awake, thinking that maybe I could make it through this after all. Somehow, I managed to doze off for a couple hours.

I awoke at five according to my watch to the sounds of people moving downstairs. I lay awake for a few minutes, trying to decide if it was worth my while to get up, but my bladder decided that argument. I headed downstairs, said good morning to my grandfather and visited the bathroom. I turned my phone on to find a text from my cousin that he was on his way. After conversation with my parents, I decided to wake Cerberus, so he would have the time he needed in the bathroom while my brother was still asleep. I entered the spare bedroom, and closed the door behind me. This would likely be the most time we would have alone for the next couple of days, and I planned to take full advantage.

Cerberus was lying on his side, facing the wall away from me. I gently sat on the edge of the bed, put my arm around him, and put my snout in his fur just behind his ear. His eyes opened and he made a happy moaning noise.

"Good morning sexy," I whispered into his ear. "You ready to get up?"

"I don't wanna," Cerberus said sleepily.

"Okay," I said as I began to pull my arm away. "That's fine. You get some more sleep; Mom may ask you to help her with the cooking later. I should be back late in the morning."

Cerberus grabbed my arm before I could withdraw it completely. "I don't wanna do that either. I wanna just stay here with you."

I was tempted. Once everyone left, who would know? Mom? She already knew. I thought long and hard about it. "You know I want to Cerberus, but, you know, family obligations and all that."

"How much time do we have?" he asked with a yawn.

"Not enough," I replied. "Probably just about enough for you to use the little doggie's room!"

"Do I have time to brush?" he asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"Don't worry about it," I laughed. "The tradition is for us to be a little scruffy, no one will notice."

'"Who's scruffy looking?"' he asked with a grin. He knew I would get the quote as he rolled over to face me. "Just one kiss, to sustain me through the morning?"

Our muzzles met for a long kiss, drinking in each other for as long as we could. I didn't want to break the kiss, but I knew we were running out of time. I reached down and pulled the covers off of Cerberus.

"Come on, doggie, it's time to get up. I'll wait for you in the living room," I told him as I got off the bed. I closed the door behind me so that Cerberus could get dressed.

In the living room the only person I saw was Mom, who was seated in a recliner reading her Kindle. As I sat down on the couch across the room from her, she gave me a strange look.

"If you keep looking at me like you expected me to come out of there pulling my pants back up, there will be no reason for me to hide it," I told her.

"You have that little 'I'm in love' smile on your face," she told me with a smile of her own. I frowned at that. "It makes me happy that you've found someone that you care for so deeply."

"I know how lucky I've been," I responded as I looked over and saw Cerberus scurrying into the bathroom.

Any further comment was forestalled by the arrival of my father, who sat down on the loveseat with a cup of coffee. With that, the conversation turned to the topic of what stops we were going to make and what gifts where to be distributed. Everyone would get a box of cookies, many of them made by me and Cerberus, and a few people would get jellies that Dad had made. We talked about travel arrangements...Andthuos had an SUV, but I was thinking about taking my car as well which would allow us to drop out if Mom needed anything from the store (and Dad knew that she always would).

Grandpa came out and sat down just before Cerberus came out of the bathroom. I introduced him to my Grandfather (a brown dragon), and Cerberus called him 'Coach Drac' in the manner that most people outside my family addressed him. We began talking about school again, and how we had met. Grandpa tuned out shortly after that, and I steered the conversation to wyrmling's to prepare Cerberus for Max's arrival even though I fully expected embarrassing stories from my own childhood. They never came though; as Mom sensed what I wanted from her and began explaining the ways that wyrmling's were different from cubs. Dragons are quadrupeds for the first ten years or so of our lives before we learn to shape shift, so a dragon wyrmling tends to be a lot more mobile than a cub of the same age. Mom pointed out some claw marks on the couch that she guessed that Max had put there climbing on it. Cerberus had just asked if Max would be able to fly when the door opened and in bounded a small copper scaled dragon. With his tiny wings out stretched, he probably would have reached up to my knee, and he was about that long from snout to tail. He pranced into the living room like he owned the place, then realized that there were strangers sitting there. He wasn't overly put out by my parents or me, but he took one look at Cerberus and scurried out of the room. I chuckled at that, and Cerberus gave me a glare. Then Max returned in the arms of his father, and the look on Cerberus' face as his head went almost vertical was priceless.

Even in his Anthro form, my cousin Andthuos (And or Andi, I told Cerberus to call him since furs sometimes have trouble with what they call the 'hissy-ness' of dragon names) was a massive copper-orange dragon, almost seven and a half feet tall and over four hundred pounds. He looked exactly like what he was: a defensive lineman in football whose career had been cut short by injury. Now he was, like my grandfather (before he retired), a school teacher and a high school football coach. While I took care of introductions, Max kept staring at Cerberus. Looking back at it, I was probably more offended then Cerberus was, as I had to keep reminding myself that Max's mother was a graphic designer like Cerberus, and could work from home. It was likely that Cerberus was the first fur that he had ever seen. Cerberus, for his part, just made a game out of it and stared right back. Dad and Andi had just begun to trade stories when Deax came downstairs and headed into the bathroom. Sensing that we were no longer involved in the conversation, Cerberus and I excused ourselves to finish emptying the car. That done, we returned to the living room to find that we were ready to leave, and that there seemed to be a consensus that taking two cars was a good idea, as Andi said that Max's things had taken away a few seats in his SUV. So Cerberus and I took the cookies and the jelly in our car while everyone else got in Andi's SUV.

Our first stop was my Aunt, Andi's mother. She would be heading over to help my Mom with making dinner pretty much as soon as we left. She was interested in meeting Cerberus, and they seemed to hit it off right away...but my Aunt was the kind of dragon that loved to talk. If we let her, we could have stood around talking all day, but we left after a few moments, headed to my Uncle's house. An odd incident happened as we were leaving: Deax asked to take a picture of me. I agreed, and he quickly took the picture on his phone before hopping in the car. I looked at Cerberus, who just shrugged. Why would my brother need a picture of me? Most of his friends already knew what I looked like, as did his girlfriend. Since I couldn't come up with a reason, I just blew it off and got in the car to pull out and followed Andi.

My Uncle Sevethetux (Sev, for Furs) was an accountant, and his house was a rather large construction that befitted his larger income. His entryway was hardwood floor, with an intricate compass inlay just inside the door: A design that appealed to both my father and I, but the rest of the downstairs was carpeted... with white carpets, a choice I had never understood. Uncle Sev was not downstairs when we arrived, but his wife Mai was. She offered coffee, which most of us politely declined, greeted Cerberus, and promptly turned all her attention to Max. While I think everyone was somewhat interested to meet Cerberus, well, he just couldn't compete with wyrmling cuteness. I ate an orange while we waited for Uncle Sev and my younger (male) cousins Xaz and Lex, and Mai fawned over Max with her oldest daughter Ayk. I was grateful that Max had been brought along, as it made it easier for Cerberus to slip by without too much attention. Finally, Uncle Sev and Xaz arrived, and then we had to sit through the annual fight about whether Lex was coming or not (he's the one I mentioned earlier). After that was done (he was coming), he started off on the right claw by asking who the hell Cerberus was and what he was doing here. I managed not to choke on the orange slice I was eating at that exact moment. Cerberus, having been warned by myself and others, didn't rise to the bait either while Lex got a lecture from his mother.

We got rolling pretty quickly after that, with Dad joining Cerberus and me in our car to make room in Andi's car. I let Dad drive, and we passed through our first couple of stops without serious incident. Our third stop was my Great Aunt, where we had breakfast. Drinking my Great Aunt's coffee was considered a manhood test among the others, but I had no real desire for that kind of contest and had warned Cerberus about it. Neither of us drank the coffee. It was our second to last stop when things actually happened. The dragon we were visiting was ill, and it was suggested that they might not deal well with the smell of a dog and Andi wanted to keep Max from getting sick as well. So Cerberus and I waited outside, keeping an eye on Max while he pounced around in the snow.

"How come I've never seen any wyrmling's like Max?" Cerberus asked as he leaned against me.

I honestly didn't hear him, even though he was so close. I was watching Max make his way up a wall of snow compacted by the plow that had cleaned the streets. Every now and again, he would stop to stick his nose into a crevice or a nook. As I watched him, a story began to form in my mind. Cerberus mentioned this in his little interruption: this was how most of my stories started for me. I would be watching, or reading, or playing something and suddenly I would ask myself 'What if?' What if instead of my cousin's wyrmling climbing up a snow bank; it was a heroic dragon fighting his way up to the mountain stronghold of some secret order of assassins to save his captured love? Why had they done that? I chuckled to myself: A year ago, that love would have been some generic damsel in distress: formidable, perhaps, in her own right...but no match for an elite order of assassins. Now though, I saw a handsome black wolf, a former member of an order that did not tolerate former members, hunted down and sacrificing him-self, so that his dragon lover could live in peace. Did he understand that love would not tolerate such sacrifice? Did he know that his lover was coming for him? What if?

My train of thought was derailed by Cerberus' elbow in my stomach. He repeated his question.

"Because of Styrker's Law," I told him. "By law, wyrmling's cannot be integrated with the general population until they can assume an Anthro form."

"Why?" he asked, his eyes wide with genuine curiosity. That helped stem the anger that the topic instantly brought up in me, and I forced myself to remember that history was not Cerberus' best subject.

"In the eyes of the law," I began as my nostrils began to smoke despite my attempts to remain calm. The tip of my tail began smacking the ground. "That is not a child playing in a snow drift: it is a walking fire hazard. He will have to go to special schools, take special buses, and will probably not see another Fur after you until he's ten or eleven. That is the legacy of Styrker's Law."

"It can't be that bad can it?" Cerberus asked. "I mean, I've only seen you breath fire once. He can't be that much of a hazard."

"No," I agreed, my anger swelling again. "I never once set fire to anything as a wyrmling, and he probably won't either. That was never what Styrker wanted, the fucking species-ist prick."

"Excuse me?" Cerberus asked, sensing for the first time just how angry I was. He may have also been remembering his history lessons too. To Furs, Styrker was one of the heroes of the integration movement, the movement founded on the idea of equality among the species. To them, Styrker had put the good of everyone (the Furs) above the good of his own species (dragons). That it was all a lie was something that Styrker managed to hide very well from the Furs and not so well from dragons.

"Styrker was never trying to protect Furs from dragons," I snorted. "He wanted to protect dragons from Furs. It was his hope that while Max is isolated, taught dragon history by dragon teachers and socializing only with other dragons, that someone will plant it in his head that dragons are better than any other species. And maybe he'll believe it too, and carry it into adulthood and will help fulfil the destiny of all dragons to become the 'Master Species.'"

The look of shock and disbelief that Cerberus gave me told it all. He couldn't believe what I was telling him, but at the same time he knew me well enough to know that I was telling him the truth as I saw it. I blew out a smoke ring.

"I'm paraphrasing his memoirs," I told him. "They weren't widely published, but I can track down a copy if you want. I was lucky, Cerbi, I grew up in an area that didn't have a big dragon population, so I at least had Fur teachers while I was young. It opened my eyes to a lot of things, and I'm grateful for that. Styrker would not have approved of our relationship."

"In what way, the across species thing?" Cerbi asked.

"In either way," I responded with a short jet of flame. "The only thing that Styrker hated worse than Furs was gays."

I looked down to try to calm myself, and noticed that Max had climbed down off the snow pile and was watching me intently. He had seen my pyrotechnics, I knew, and was racing to sit in front of us. He did just that, studying me curiously and trying to work his throat muscles in the way he'd seen me do.

"Watch your tail," I told Cerberus. "He just saw what I did, and he might actually be old enough to do it."

"Oh, he's fine," Cerberus replied, flicking his tail in front of Max. Max had apparently given up on breathing fire and he went into pounce mode: his front limbs pressed against the pavement, his hindquarters up in the air. He was watching Cerberus' tail intently. "Do you think that they will ever change the law?"

"Frankly, no," I told him with a sigh, "and to be honest, I don't think they should either. If the schools are fully integrated, it really will discriminate against dragons."

"How so?" Cerberus asked, looking up quizzically.

"Well, even if Max was a genius, as a wyrmling, he just couldn't excel in a Fur school. See, we're butting up on what 'equal' means: It means 'the same opportunity' not 'all the same.' Paw-writing comes to my mind right away, and that's most of what school is for Furs. A wyrmling would be held back over something like that: I couldn't even write my own name until I got to high school. I think, as dragons integrate more, you're going to see more and more schools with special 'dragon' sections and that's all that we can hope for."

I was watching Max now more intently as he began batting at Cerberus' tail. I was starting to get nervous about that, even though Cerberus was clearly playing with him. I had some unpleasant memories from dealing with my younger cousins, and casually slid the tip of my own tail in front of him. I had hoped that my more colourful tail would distract him, but the novelty of Cerberus' fur kept his attention. He was back in that 'I'm gonna pounce' stance, his tail shaking back and forth as he held it high in the air. I desperately began twitching my tail as fast as I could.

"Cerberus," I hissed, but not in time. Max pounced and caught the tip of Cerberus' tail in his snout. Cerberus let out a startled yip and began trying to shake Max off his tail, which only prompted the little dragon to clamp down even tighter.

"Hey!" I yelled as I reached down to take hold of Max. "That's mine! Nobody gets to chew on that but me!"

That was the scene that my father came out to a moment later: Cerberus sprawled on the hood of our car, his paws desperately grasping the lip at the windshield, moaning in pain and shock; Max holding on as tightly as he could, growling at me around the fur in his muzzle, and me with both claws around his mid-section, one foot on the bumper, pulling on the wyrmling as firmly as I dared, cursing at him and demanding he let go. Dad's first reaction was extremely helpful: he burst out laughing. I risked an angry glare over at him, but didn't say anything as Andi was quickly coming up behind him. Fortunately, Max's father did grasp the severity of the situation and came running as quickly as he could. Max finally released Cerberus after a stern command from Andi, who apologized profusely before taking Max to their car. Cerberus freely admitted that he had been playing with Max and hadn't taken my warnings seriously enough. Andi had barely gotten out of sight before I pulled Cerberus into a concerned hug. We broke it almost instantly, but I insisted on inspecting his tail. My father helped with this, I guess to cover for us as the rest of the family was returning to the cars now. Max didn't have his teeth in yet, so there was no real damage, but I had had enough of the younger members of my family right then, as both Xaz and Lex seemed to think that what had happened to Cerberus was hysterical.

The long awaited phone call from Mom provided the out that I wanted and Dad, Cerberus, and I bowed out at that point to pick up a few things that she needed for dinner. Dad drove, while Cerberus and I sat in the backseat with Cerbi's tail in my lap where I could keep an eye on it. Dad didn't say anything about that, though he still seemed to hold the opinion that the incident had been funny.

The rest of the day proved rather uneventful. We went home and delivered the supplies that Mom needed, and found that my Aunt had arrived without trouble. Cerberus and I helped finish with the cooking, swapping stories back and forth between the four of us. Deax and Grandpa returned a little while later, and since we were having dinner at my Uncle's house because of Grandpa's move downstairs, there was little bossing for him to do. He tried to interfere a little in the cooking, but with the four of us already occupying the small kitchen there was no room for him and he eventually gave up.

Mom sent Cerberus and I out to the garage to make sure that some wine was out there getting cold, a situation that left us alone for several minutes; which we took full advantage of. From the way we went at it, one would have thought that it had been weeks since we kissed instead of a few hours. We were so passionate about it that there was a serious danger of clothes coming off, in spite of the cold; I even found a paw going down my pants before the sound of the door opening sent us scrambling to find the wine. It was Deax, bringing some trash out, and it seemed that the smell of aroused dragon and dog had dissipated quickly in the open air as he didn't say anything to us, but we took the hint, finished our task and went back inside. Mom gave us a knowing look and shook her head at us, but didn't say anything.

With everything finished, we packed the food for transport and retired to the living room and began trading stories again. Somewhere along the way, I gradually became aware that my Aunt didn't seem to think it strange that Cerberus and I had chosen to sit on the loveseat together. She never said anything about it directly, but I got the distinct impression that she knew and didn't care. I decided not to push my luck on that issue, and played it cool until she left to get ready for dinner. Cerberus and I spent much of the rest of the afternoon playing video games with my brother. Deax still offered no explanation for why he needed a picture of me. I sent Cerberus down to get a shower in the middle of the afternoon, knowing that it would take him longer to get ready than the rest of us because of his fur. Cerberus took a fairly long time in the shower before retreating into the spare bedroom to properly brush his fur out straight again. I took the next shower, as I was hopeful that some of his scent would remain and I wanted to polish my scales. I did manage to arrange it so that Cerberus helped me do my back, although we kept actual contact to a minimum. After that, we went back to playing games and talking while we waited for the rest of the family to get ready.

The time to go came up quickly enough, especially as we began packing up the car. I had saved a bottle of our favorite wine, and Cerberus was pleased when I produced it for him to keep track of. We took three cars so that we could leave in stages as we needed to. My Uncle's family went to church on Christmas Eve, so the place was empty when we arrived. Cerberus and I began puzzling out how to work the oven while Deax and my Dad brought the food in. Mom sat down and began transferring things from travel dishes to oven dishes. We got everything into the oven to warm and settled in to wait for the others to arrive. Things were quiet for a while: Grandpa fell asleep in one of the leather recliners in the family room, Mom and Dad sat in the kitchen talking to each other, Deax disappeared, and Cerberus and I sat in the front living room.

"Watch'ya thinkin' 'bout?" Cerberus asked playfully snapping me out of my thoughts. I was seated on the couch with my back to the front window, and he was sitting in a chair across the room from me. His head was cocked at an angle, and his nose and ears were in motion; a set of tells that spoke of genuine curiosity.

"About how life was a year ago," I told him with a smile, "And about how much it's changed."

"For the better, I hope," Cerberus said with his own smile.

"Yeah," I replied, even though at that exact moment I wasn't feeling it. Last year, I wouldn't have had to lie about my relationship with the person I'd brought with me (she hadn't come, hadn't expressed any desire to spend the holidays with me) or feel guilty just for kissing them. In truth, my thoughts had strayed far from that topic and I was contemplating the true meaning of Christmas. I admit that I was (and still am) at the point in my life where religion hold little meaning for me. It seemed to me to be bound up in tradition and ritual and following those things was more important than faith itself. I had long held this view, and now that most religions viewed me as having something wrong with me, my views had dimmed even more. Mom claimed that there would come a time in my life when I would find comfort in religion, but if there was, I couldn't see it.

I sighed and stared at the ceiling in spite of myself. Cerberus seemed to recognize my mood and didn't say anything further. There was a message in the Christmas story that transcended religion in my view, a deeper meaning than just the birth of a savior for those that chose to believe. At its heart, it was the story of a family coming together. That was the important lesson, and I chose to see Christmas as a celebration of family. That was why I put up with the more obnoxious elements of my family without saying a word, why I didn't get mad at my brother for not spending time with me, why I didn't comment on just how damn rude Lex could be, why I put up with the endless shit that Uncle Sev could dish out. It was because family was important, and it was why I was so frustrated now: I couldn't acknowledge the newest part of my family, even though he was sitting right there. I looked down again, and saw those soft blue eyes looking at me, patiently waiting for me to do anything. He wasn't asking anything of me, not even to return the love I saw there, and suddenly I felt unworthy of him.

"What did I ever do to deserve someone like you?" I asked, my voice cracking as if I was on the verge of tears. If this was bad for me, how bad was it for him? Here he was, in a complete stranger's house, surrounded by dragons, and he couldn't grasp the only lifeline he had. I was feeling very selfish, I had been so worried about what I wanted that I had completely overlooked what Cerberus was going through.

He looked at me and gave me that smile of his, the one that set my heart racing and made me feel like I was someone important, but he never got the chance to respond, as the front door opened and Deax re-entered with a green female dragon. That would be Krixi, his girlfriend of two years now. I had met her briefly last Christmas, but hadn't really gotten to know her at all; it was hardly surprising, since I'd barely heard from my brother in that time. Deax handled introductions with Cerberus, and the two of them went into the kitchen to see my parents.

The rest of the family slowly began to trickle in. First my Aunt, then Andi and his family: Max and his mother Kyrzta. Finally, Uncle Sev and his horde returned from church just as we were checking to see if everything was warm, and opening the bottles of wine. Cerberus and I helped my Mom and Aunt set everything out on the table whilst the chaos of having all our family together swirled around us. Predictably, my young cousins where exchanging insults with each other and Lex was wondering why he was related to them; I kept my annoyance in check, by taking full advantage of Cerberus standing in front of me while we were carrying dishes out to the dining room. After a quick glance to make sure no one was looking, I put my snout at the base of his neck and inhaled as deeply and as quietly as I could. I don't know how he did it, but Cerberus never broke stride even as I had to work hard to contain the shudder that went through me as Cerberus' scent filled my snout, but I was glad that I did, as I think that more than anything got me through dinner.

I suppose I should say a little bit about the dinner itself, as it was a traditional dragon winter meal. Which is not what one might expect, and one that came as a surprise to Cerberus: The meal was almost completely meatless. As Mom explained to him (and we were seated at the 'adult' end of the table while my brother, Grandpa, and younger cousins were seated at the far end), this was to remind us of the times in the past where meat wasn't always available in the winter and the only things that could be stored this long where grains. Of course, that tradition had been bent for as long as I could remember since cured sausages had always been part of the meal, and my Mom had taken to adding pork chops as well. Cerberus graciously tried everything, though he did pointedly asked why I never made some of the things he took a liking to. Lex, who was sitting closest to us, heard that unfortunately, and asked what Cerberus, meant by that-leaving him to explain that he lived with me after having trouble with his roommate. I sipped my wine during the whole exchange to cover the fact that I was holding my breath, again, the anger over the situation surged through me. This wasn't fair, I was in love- and I had to hide it? Having Krixi there did not do much to improve my mood. I was just on the verge of real anger when I felt something brush against my thigh. What was that?

Cerberus was deep in conversation with my Mom and Aunt, discussing the absurd amounts of prep time that went in to most of the dishes. It couldn't have been him, but he was the only one on that side of me. I turned back to Andi and Dad's conversation about school and felt it again, the feeling lingered longer this time. There was no doubt: that was a doggie tail on my thigh. I smiled, Cerberus had become an expert on reading my moods, and he always knew just what to do to keep me from sliding down the wrong paths. The rest of dinner passed quickly enough, and Cerberus and I volunteered to help clean up. We were politely refused, and my younger cousins were asked to help. Someone had thought ahead, and we had been using paper plates, which made clean up a lot easier.

The family began to separate into little groups to keep chatting, but I had had enough of them for a little bit. As I always did after supper, I snuck outside for a little fresh air and quiet. I walked down the driveway a little ways, looking up at the stars. When I was younger, I would have been looking for Santa; now though, I was just looking for peace. I could never get over how quiet it was up here, with the snow cushioning everything. It was indeed peaceful. I blew a smoke ring into the sky and watched it drift away.

I was just getting ready to head back in when the door opened and Cerberus emerged. He smiled at me and his tail started wagging.

"Your mom said you'd be outside."

"I like a little after dinner quiet," I told him as he approached. "They can be a bit much in large doses."

"Yeah," Cerberus agreed. He stopped beside me and put his head on my shoulder. "But I like them; even Lex."

"When he's behaving," I muttered. Cerberus frowned at me. "I know, I shouldn't be mean; I love them all really, but they can be, well, too much sometimes."

"I know Jay Dee," he said as he pushed tighter into me. "But nothing is more important than to love your family."

"I know love," I replied, keenly aware that he knew better than anyone the value of family. "I'm glad you like them."

I wrapped my arm around him, and didn't feel so cold anymore. We stared up together into the starry night, enjoying the quiet. Cerberus joked about looking for Santa, and we shared a laugh. After a while, we went back and sat on the front porch, not quite ready to return to the bustle of the family. We just chatted and held each other. Finally, inevitably, we turned to trying to decide if it was worth it to sneak out for some 'alone time.' Cerberus looked embarrassed and hung his head.

"Jay," he'd said quietly. "I'm sorry. I...uh... I took care of that in the shower today. I didn't want to have our time with your family ruined by, well, urges."

I burst out laughing. I wasn't able to help it: The chastised look on his face, the way his tail was curled around himself, they were all so funny to me; I had to wipe tears out of my eyes.

"My silly doggie," I chuckled as I hugged him. "My favorite doggie, can I tell you a secret? So did I!"

He giggled and threw his arms around my neck. He drew me down and into a long kiss. We sat there kissing for a long time, just enjoying each other for as long as we could, but we were rudely interrupted by the sound of the door knob turning. The door window was frosted glass, so there was no danger of us being seen if we acted quickly. We quickly separated, moving a little apart, but it was my father that emerged from inside.

"Humph," he grunted. "You two still have your clothes on. I'm impressed."

"Too cold," I told him. "I think we should be insulted."

"Hmmm," Cerberus returned. "I'm not."

Dad didn't respond to that, which I was grateful for. He closed the door and came out and sat down in the one chair that was on the porch. There was silence for a long time as Cerberus and I went back to holding each other. After a moment, Dad got up and stretched.

"Getting too cold for me out here," he said. "Your mother wanted me to tell you that you have done your duty to the family. If you guys need to be alone, you can go."

I looked at Cerberus as Dad went back inside, trying to get a feel for what he wanted to do. Clearly, he did not want to do what my father thought we wanted to do- and to tell the truth, neither did I, but the idea did have some merit, and I asked Cerberus if he wanted to go back to my grandfather's house. I left it open to him, and he pointed out that we had had a long day; rest sounded good right about then. We headed back inside to say our goodbyes and headed back to my grandfather's.

We headed into the spare bedroom, where I held Cerberus until he fell asleep. When he had, I headed upstairs to try and get some sleep of my own. I was headed into what was probably the best day of my life, but what I didn't know was that it would be twenty-four hours before my world would be rocked forever....

(Once again, thanks to Ruth of Pern for his continuing editing.)