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Yello! It's me, the best and brightest gayena you're likely to be acquainted with! Or at least the most conceited. ;3

If you're new, Episode 1 is to stage right - that means left, if you're not a thespian. If you're not new, you know the drill by now!

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_ Saturday. _

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Daniel the dragon was whistling to himself, a small black cord snaking up from his pocket to one ear, as he unloaded boxes of tea from a cart of pallets. There was a sale, and apparently it had been announced on national television, because this was the third time they'd had to restock the shelf tonight.

Squeezing past him, a dark-furred wolf carried several boxes of coffee tins in his arms. Brad had been a little subdued all night, still thoughtful in the wake of his encounter with Wallace. Unlike most of the time he spent thinking about the dog, however, the wolf found himself in a fairly decent mood. He even chuckled a little as the dragon hummed.

"Is that Kelly? Really?"

Daniel waved a box of green oolong. "Hey, how bout a nice cup of shut up?"

"I didn't think you listened to that stuff, scalyface."

"It's just this damn song," the dragon replied, straightening up. "Had it on repeat all week... I don't really like most of her stuff."

"Right."

"Hey, it's better than Britney. And she's hot."

"Dunno about that," Brad said, with a bit of a chuckle, before he grimaced a bit. Daniel didn't reply for a moment, continuing to unload his boxes of tea.

"...hmmm hm hm hmm, dananaaa na na naaaa..."

"You sound like a fax machine," Brad remarked, ripping the plastic off of one of the boxes he had.

"Yeah, I know," the dragon grumbled. "Can't help that I'm tone-deaf. You sing it, then." He paused, grinning.

Brad snorted. "You're kidding, right? What makes you think I even know the lyrics?"

"Everyone knows the lyrics, it's been on the radio so much. You sing random shit all the time. You sang Paula Abdul for Jane."

"It was just after her birthday and it happened to be on the radio while I was doing inventory."

The dragon leaned against the metal shelving, looking piqued. "Come on, Brad, don't be shy."

"Arright fine. If it'll shut you up." Brad shoved a can of coffee to the back and dropped his husky voice into a low, smooth baritone.

"I want you to know

That it doesn't matter

Where we take this road

Someone's gotta go

And I want you to know

I couldn't've loved you better

But I want you to move on

So I'm already gone"

Brad stuffed another can of coffee back into the shelf. Fortunately, the specific lyrics of the song didn't fit too closely to any of his breakups, so it wasn't that painful. A lot less mutual affection and a lot more emotional flailing. Also Brad wasn't exactly a pop diva.

"Dang. You've got a hell of a voice," Daniel remarked, after a moment.

"If you tell me I could do American Idol..." Brad growled.

"Hah, no, I don't even watch it," the dragon responded.

...Hell. Now it was stuck in Brad's head, too.

There was a cheerful ding from the vicinity of the dragon's waist. Brad stuffed the last can of coffee back into the rear of the shelf, and folded the box up, before tearing the plastic off of the other box he'd been carrying. This one was decaf. Bleh. Still, Jonathon drank it sometimes, so maybe it wasn't all that bad. Tasted the same, right?

Brad looked over at the dragon, and found the younger male poking at his phone, which had made the alerting tone a moment before. The wolf blinked.

"Don't let Jane see you," he rumbled, fairly surprised; Daniel wasn't normally much of a rule-breaker.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," the dragon waved off. He clicked keys rapidly with his thumbs, smiled a little, and returned the phone to his pocket. "Not like it's a problem with me."

The 'unlike you,' went unsaid; Brad had started leaving his phone in the back room to contribute to his chances of remaining employed.

Not that it was really a huge risk that he'd get fired. Jane yelled at him a lot, but she liked him. Brad wasn't exactly a stellar employee, but he was always polite and helpful to customers, and he knew his way around the old clunky computer inventory system by now - whatever his faults, his boss valued the former and was loath to surrender help with the latter.

Still. Probably ought to be to work on time more often, even if there never was anyone crashing down the doors in a grocery store. He didn't want to give the mare too long a list of reasons to fire him.

"So... How are things with... uh, your..."

Brad shoved a can of decaf back into the shelves with particular vehemence.

"...boyfriend?"

Why do you want to know? The wolf straightened up, a paw going to his lower back, which was aching. "Okay." He glanced over to the yellow dragon, who had paused, holding a box of Sleepytime. The awkward vibes were almost tangible.

'Well you see, we almost had gay sex last night, but apparently he's not ready for that yet. Coulda fooled me.' No, that was too harsh on Jonathon. 'I screwed up and almost ruined everything, just like I've done in every other relationship I've ever had.' No, that was too harsh on himself.

'At least I didn't give him HIV!'

That one would probably be too harsh on Daniel. Sheesh, did he have to be so dramatic? "We've been... hangin' out some." The wolf smiled a little. "I think it's going places. Good places."

See, was that so hard?

"Good." Daniel smiled a little bit too, continuing to unload tea. "I'm glad."

The wolf shoved the last can of coffee onto the shelf, and set to arranging them all neatly. "Listen, Daniel. If talking about this weirds you out, why do you keep bringing it up?"

The dragon had been about to say something else, when he froze. "It doesn't weird me out!" he sputtered, alarmed.

Brad gave him a glance that made him look at the floor for a second. "You're sure awkward about it."

"Well, geez, Brad, you're the first guy I've ever known in person who's open about it," the teenager retorted. He was blushing. "I can't help it if I'm not used to it, but it doesn't mean I'm... some homophobe!"

"Alright," Brad said disarmingly.

"I don't think it's weird. If I did, I wouldn't talk about it at all. Okay?" The dragon grabbed several boxes with a rough-handed, clumsy gesture, lost his grip, and dropped one. He stuffed the others onto the shelf, refusing to look at the wolf. His ears were angled back sharply.

"Okay..." Brad replied. He reached down and picked up the fallen carton of tea, and held it out to the embarrassed reptile.

Daniel took it with both paws, throwing him a glance, before looking away again. Brad grimaced. Well. That was that out of the way.

"Thanks," the wolf offered, after a moment. "You're a good guy, Daniel."

"Glad I convinced you," the dragon huffed.

Brad folded up the other box. Now he was the uncomfortable one. He stomped back to the back room in silence.

Bradley Wilson. Resident expert at being stupid.

Like when he'd freaked out at Wallace right when the guy was opening up to him. Why hadn't he just... thought?

The wolf tossed the boxes into the large metal container that was hauled out twice a week to the recycling plant, and leaned his forehead against his paw, against the rim of the container.

Poor Wallace. Holy shit. Seriously.

It was... all a complicated mess, now. His emotions for the canine were no longer easy to categorize. He'd thought of the guy with such miserable bitterness for so long, that it was strange to feel something so different. Sympathy. Sadness. Regret... but without the customary ache, the self-pity.

It was hard to feel bad about himself when he felt so bad for the schnauzer.

"There you are, I've been looking all over for you..."

The wolf looked up. "Oh, hi Jane. Sorry, just taking some boxes back, what's up?"

His boss opened her mouth, and then quirked her head. "You okay? You look a little off."

The wolf gave her a saccharine smile. She snorted. The short, overweight palomino was in her late forties; once an entrepreneur, she'd sold her business to a national chain ten years ago, remaining the owner on paper, and had grown progressively grumpier and more cynical ever since. "There's a mom with a whole pack of cubs on very loose leashes; they started in shampoo and have made it about to EasyMac. Could you trail after them and tidy up a bit?"

The wolf grimaced. "Sure. How close do you want me? Discreet few aisles, or breathing down their necks?" He leaned forward, standing on his toes and making his voice growly. "Kids don't act up when I'm supervising."

"Hah, a discreet distance, please. I don't want to hear you've been terrorizing small children again."

"Again?" Brad followed her out of the storeroom, his tone wounded. "I'm great with kids!"

"I'll be sure and have you baby-sit next time I want to see a movie. Once you get done, I think Ryan could use some help on registers; the after-dinner crowd is starting to show up."

"Got it." The wolf paced as directed toward the far side of the store, where such things as soap and fur-trimmers were kept. It wasn't quite a disaster zone, but a few boxes of kleenexes had been knocked off the shelves, some shampoo had been un-arranged, that flavor of antics.

Maybe it was good to keep himself busy, in any event. He'd spent enough time thinking about Wallace and Jonathon today.

One cleanup operation, one long span of swiping soup and soda past the scanner. Finally, Brad was done. Done with work, at least for this week. Hauled in another paycheck, too, which Jane had written him yesterday. This one was going to rent and internet, and of course the fairly large chunk that was always sent in the direction of his pantsuit-wearing mother. Oh, and maybe there'd be some left over for his own grocery shopping, too.

Screw groceries, maybe he'd take Jonathon out somewhere...

Brad hung his apron up, grabbed his backpack. Checked his phone.

"I want you to know..."

One text from Jonathon Howard!

The wolf's muzzle broke into a smile as he navigated his phone's confusing UI. Such a cute wittul waccoon.

It had sure hurt, to make him cry.

The wolf grimaced. He couldn't start thinking about Jonathon in those terms. He felt stupid, for obsessing over Friday quite so much. But, then again, he really, really wanted to make this work. It was understandable to be worried, wasn't it? Until something happened, that reassured him things were going okay?

Here he was fussing, with his claws hovering millimeters from a text message that would probably make him feel a lot better. Brad shook his head and scoffed. What a stupid wuff.

'So apparently my roommate knows i like guys and figured out we were dating last night'

Hm. Well, that was interesting. Not really the reassurance he was looking for, but he couldn't say no to any chance to talk to this guy. 'i was trying not to act fabulous but the swish just sneaks out sometimes everything okay?'

Brad stuck around a little bit. Fiddled with his backpack. Maybe Jonathon wasn't paying attention to his phone now. The wolf sighed and clocked out. He really wanted to talk to his boyfriend, all of a sudden.

The wolf stepped out the rear door of the grocery store into the dark night. He'd had to park toward the back, since his shift had only started at four, when the parking lot was already filled up. He plodded off. A lone wolf, holding his phone for some sense of comfort. It wasn't Jonathon's paw, but it was the closest thing to that he had.

"Hey, Brad!"

The wolf paused and looked back. Someone was running out after him, the rear door of the storeroom still swinging shut behind them.

"Wait up a sec..." Daniel stumbled to a halt, panting, in front of him, and took a moment to catch his breath.

"What's up?"

The dragon grimaced. Half his pointy muzzle was lit up by the weird orangey light by the rear door, the other half was dark. The stripe of fur running from his forehead back over his head was black as the night sky above.

"Look, I wanna say... sorry. For being a dumbass."

"Ah, it's not a big deal..." Brad mumbled; not this topic again...

"No, really, you're probably right, I keep bringing it up and I shouldn't. Maybe I'm trying too hard to act like it's normal or something."

Brad shrugged. "I guess I can't blame you. Been a weird week. Normal isn't... really something I'm used to, right now."

"Heh." The dragon scratched his head. "Still, though, I'd like to meet... what was his name again?"

"Jonathon."

"Jonathon. You and I used to hang out sometimes, we don't really do that any more." The dragon made a face.

"Yeah, my summer schedule was a lot better for that, between classes and work it's just kinda hard." Brad shrugged. "Stressful. But yeah, what the hell. Let's hang out sometime, I'll have him over, you can meet him."

"Cool." Daniel smiled. He had a great smile, Brad observed. The guy had a future in toothpaste commercials. Brush with Dragon Paste! Ditch the flames! Mouth so fresh you'll breathe mint in everyone's faces! And then he would turn his head and give the camera a big grin, and there would be that 'ting!' sound effect and the little twinkle on one of his fangs.

Brad shook his head to dispel the random image. What are you thinking, Brad? Oh, just thinkin' about your smile... Yeah, that's a grand way to get a straight guy comfortable with you.

Though, to be fair... Daniel was pretty attractive.

Where the hell did that thought come from? Faintly disturbed, Brad considered his co-worker; he was Daniel, not...

Hm. Yeah. Not hard on the eyes, really. Cute ears, long and narrow and pointy, dragons always had cool-lookin' ears. Pretty olive-hued eyes. Huggable. Kinda skinny, nice tail. And he was a nice, likeable guy, that's why they were friends.

Geez, what was he doing? You have a boyfriend, wuff, stop checking out other guys!

Not that Jonathon was the jealous type. Not too long ago they were both checking out the same guy in the student union, after all.

Well, even so, he's like a thousand years younger than you, you perv.

Okay, maybe only six, and he was only a few months away from eighteen... Only two years younger than Jonathon, really; at least, Brad assumed, though it occurred to him that he didn't know the raccoon's age exactly.

Todd had been younger than that... but, then, so had Brad, at the time...

"Yeah uh." Brad realized they'd lapsed into an awkward silence while his brain flew off on weird tangents. "Well, I guess I need to get going. Let me know?"

"Yup, sure." Brad gave a smile, Daniel returned it, dipping his head a little. They exchanged goodbyes and set off for their cars.

Brad tried to dispel the sense of 'Aww, cute guy!' that had inexplicably manifested in his head. The dragon dude was definitely not as cute as Jonathon, and didn't have half as fine an ass! There, take that, brain-place.

Speaking of Jonathon... Brad pulled his phone out of his pocket. Yup, he'd thought he'd felt it vibrating during the conversation.

'yeah all ok just freaked me out'

Aww. Poor coon. He sure seemed terrified of anyone figuring out he was gay. Brad had gotten a bit of a free pass with the procyonid, considering his surprise kiss had been such an abrupt, unambiguous way to put the topic out there... but really, it seemed that pretty much any other route would have failed. He had to randomly kiss Jonathon, or he never would have gotten the raccoon to consider having a relationship with him. Jonathon wouldn't've admitted he would like it.

Really, that wasn't too healthy. It made Brad worry a little, as he wrenched open the frozen-shut door of his Plymouth. He didn't know too much about Jonathon's family life... but, he couldn't imagine the raccoon's small town was particularly gay-friendly. Poor guy musta been so scared, realizing he liked looking at other boys in gym class. He'd have to ask Jonathon about that sometime.

'poor fella :/ how was your day other than that'

Have to continue the textversation later. Brad cranked his key.

RRRRR-RRRR-RR-RR-RR-RR-RR-RR-RR--

The wolf let up on the key out of surprise. The darn thing didn't normally take that long to engage... But, it was winter, or nearly, and quite cold out...

"Shit..." he hissed, and turned the key again. The engine wailed, its rapid cranking assailing his eardrums.

Five seconds... ten seconds... fifteen seconds...

"C'mon start c'mon start c'mon start... Ffffffuck." The wolf groaned and let up on the key. Give it a break. He wondered if Daniel had already left... Well, Jane and Ryan would still be in for a while yet, at least, the store didn't close for another two hours.

Vreep vreep!

Ah, perfect timing.

'okay :) been workin on homework and playin a game my friend mitch got me into oh and i added you on facebook'

Yay! Now they could randomly chat about randoms. And flirt.

Well, hell, Brad could do that via text as well.

'my book is better now that your cute face is in it ;] you probably don't want us to be fb-official right'

He could probably try the key again... or he could just wait for Jonathon to reply. Brad peered out the window. Stared at a sticky patch where he'd spilled some coke.

Vreepin' all up in hurr.

'haha mine too you sexy yeah my mother would have three heart attacks and an aneurysm if she knew i was dating a hunk like you'

Heheh. 'tell her not to be jealous ;]' Wait for the next text.

'hahaha im the luckiest guy on the planet :) how was your day'

'okay work didnt kill me car's not starting but i am sitting here texing you instead of trying it'

'oh no :/ you'll get cold you need help?'

'nah boss is still at work im okay'

Sigh. Probably ought to try it again. Brad turned the key, and listened to the irritating grate of the starter motor.

Nope... nope... nope... there!

The engine rumbled begrugingly to life, and freezing cold air began to flow out of the vents.

His phone went off again. 'okay if you're sure :/ i'll come rescue you if you need'

Aww. 'you dont even have a car silly dont worry it just started warming up now'

At least, he hoped the icy air jets were slowly growing warmer.

'oh good well if i came at least i could keep you warm until the tow truck got there'

Brad sat smiling at that one for a moment. Such a damn sweet guy.

'you can be the designated cuddle buddy when we end up stranded in this darn thing :] okay going home now text you in a bit'

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Plot's movin', like it tends to. :3 Good ole' Brad. I really like writing chapters like these, where he's just bein' Brad. Especially when he's just being "Brad a.k.a. Jonathon's boyfriend a.k.a. Acolyte of the Temple of the Coonfluff".

Oh, and those lyrics are © RCA Records, they're certainly not mine. My only claim to them is through being really, really, really, really gay. But come on, don't you like hunky guys singing songs originally sung by divas? I sure do. :p

See ya folks next week. :3