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Welcome to Crispen's Overflow, where I post everything that isn't a main series while I am waiting for inspiration or for my beta readers' feedback. Here, you will find one-offs, short stories, and maybe a poem or two. Be warned though, everything posted here is raw: typed, proofread, and edited by only me in one day so mistakes may follow.

~Stay Crispy

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Chocolates or whatever...

Nicklos was pissed.

"This shitty place again..."

Nicklos swore under his breath. He was still pissed. How pissed? He could feel his temples pounding in forehead. The lion closed his eyes and tried to stop himself from cursing his friend for what felt like fiftieth time that day. He stomped noticeably on the tiled floor with a clack.

"Fuck Petir," he spat as he gave into the temptation. Nicklos shifted uncomfortably in his seat for almost his tenth time. He looked up to give the restaurant the dirtiest face through sleep deprived eyes could manage.

He hated everything about it. The stupid tables that were crushing his knees. The fucking glass on the table. Nicklos resisted the urge to shove the irritatingly flickery candles onto the floor. He hated the way the waiters and waitresses where staring at him sitting at the damn table-for-two by himself. He decided that most of all he hated the overly-stuffed chair as he shifted in it again. The lion cringed at the sound of a couple clinking glasses.

"No, no..." he mumbled to himself. Nicklos was wrong to hate the chair most of all. He returned to hating Petir instead. After all the fucking glass might be making his arm fur all sweaty on the table, but it didn't drag him out of his nice comfortable house at 6:00 PM to wait here for half an hour.

That asshole of a friend had barged into his house while he had been sleeping off his morning six-pack of St. Vipels beers. He had rushed in and complained like always while annoying him by opening all the blinds to let the searing light in. Petir always had something to complain about during his afternoon hangover. Whether it was the overpowering stench of alcohol, the fact that Nicklos hadn't been working for about a month since he was fired, or even that he still had the leftover pizza from last week's visit.

Nicklos mulled over his muddle of messy thoughts. The more he thought about it, the less he was sure whether he had been fired a month ago or three. He shrugged with indifference. Whoever this girl Petir had him meeting was not worth getting up so early. Or was it late?

The lion caught a wiff of someone's body odor as they walked by. He crinkled his snout. It was just great that people were now assaulting the all of his senses.

For a second his sharp intellect broke though his miasma of thoughts like a surfacing whale. Had he showered? Was he actually smelling himself? No, he foggily remembered Petir ordering him around the house to prepare for this date. Nicklos was now somewhat less ungrateful that Petir had forced him to take a shower and find something clean to wear.

He checked his watch to see it said 8:03 PM in green glowing numbers. She was already over a half hour late. Those stupid chocolates that Petir made him bring along would hopefully be melted soon if he placed it a little closer to candles. That, and little more sabotage, would guarantee that Petir wouldn't trust him to have a blind-date with any of his friends for some time. He snickered to himself a little. He would pocket the extra $70 Petir had trusted him for paying dinner and get himself a few extra beers tomorrow.

"Table for Mr. Engle!" A politely quiet voice spoke above the general din of the restaurant and grew annoying.

The lion didn't even lift his head to turn to the waiter, but instead maintained a lazy gaze at irritating candle.

"Table for Mr. Engle?" The quiet voice remained increasingly aggravating.

Again he didn't respond.

"Ah, Mr. Engle, you must of not heard me calling you. I saw you walk in here with Petir," the waiter stood beside him. Somehow Petir could ruin his day and not even be here.

"Yeah, yeah my bad. Bad hearing since the war you see," Nicklos spoke the half-truth. No doubt the constant chop of helicopter blades over roaring gunfire had afflicted his hearing, but he was content to use it as an excuse to ignore nearly anyone. It never did seem to work on Petir though.

"My sincerest apologies Mr. Engle." The waiter's geniality made Nicklos nearly sick. "I have a Miss Malher to see you. Another one of Petir's friends I assume."

He was about to continue ignoring the waiter until he realized that the man was too polite to know better, "Yes I've been expecting her for some time now." It was exhausting to speak, but luckily it was enough for the man to leave him to his stupid glass-covered table.

He went back to cursing the chair. The general din of conversation began grating on his ears and he resisted the temptation to bury his face in his hands. It reminded him of that chopper. Chop. Chop. Chop.

Nicklos shook his head and returned to brooding. He unstuck his fur from the table and listened carefully for any sounds of someone approaching. The lion prided himself on having sharp senses, even if they were somewhat dulled by the war. Well that and a few too many beers.

"Are you Nicklos?" An inquisitive voice asked him. He simply nodded his head. Nicklos hadn't heard her approaching, but remained unsurprised.

"I got you these," he held out his paw carelessly, "Its chocolates or whatever..."

His ears were assaulted with a gentle laugh. Whatever he had been expecting from the girl, this was not it. He turned to face the assailant.

"Whats your problem?" He froze as he saw her for the first time.

"Well these are flowers for starters," a stark white vixen giggled, "And sunflowers at that, my favorite." She held them close to her gentle snout and sighed. She raised an eyebrow playfully, "How did you know?" He studied the way her dress followed the natural curves of her body before speaking suddenly.

"Uh, lucky guess I suppose.," Nicklos choked out. He didn't believe in love at first sight, but the sudden dryness in his throat told him he at least had a crush. He stood up a little too quickly and offered a chair, "Please take a seat."

"Why thank you," the slender figure in a small black dress took her seat, "Petir didn't mention that you were a gentleman."

"Of course that prick didn't," Nicklos mumbled quietly to himself as he sat back down. Was this Petir's game? Set him up with such an impressive lady then make fool out of him?

"No," she continued apparently not hearing him, "He just kept talking about how you loved flying, how you own a helicopter, and that you flew in the war. You sound like quite the war hero." She seemed impressed, maybe Petir wasn't so bad.

"Well its nothing worth bragging about. The old bird was mine for most of the war and I had been saving up all my danger pay so by the time it ended I bought it at the decommissioning auction." Nicklos remembered Queen Bitch fondly. It had been far too long since he had taken his prized bird up for a flight or even seen the old hag for that matter.

"I'd love to see it some time or maybe go up on a flight," she stared dreamily into space, "Just to see the city lights twinkling at night would be amazing!"

"Well have to make it a date then!" Nicklos exclaimed enthusiastically. Anything to see this beauty again, he could only imagine the way the wind might pull on that smooth fur of hers. What was he thinking? He knew nothing about this girl and he was already daydreaming about another date? Would she think he was coming on too strong and decide to leave early?

She squealed cutely with delight, "Oh that would be exciting! I'm Berlyn by the way."

"Nicklos, but it seems Petir already told you that," he had to admit how adorable it was when she had her hands clenched nervously on the table cloth. Hadn't the table been covered in glass a few moments ago? He couldn't remember because suddenly he was staring into her deep blue eyes.

They started talking and after a few minutes the waiter came along and took their order. Strangely Nicklos couldn't quite remember what he had ordered, but it mattered little. All that mattered is that he kept on his best behavior and did anything he could to make her laugh.

They spent the next twenty minutes or so engrossed in conversation. He learned that she was a nurse at the local hospital, that she loved to cook Italian food, that she couldn't stand pink but adored purple, and about a million other facts he couldn't quite keep straight in his mind. It took a lot of effort just to try and keep track of her.

When their meals arrived he didn't touch his food the entire time. They laughed as they shared a glass of wine and told outrageous stories. He was careful to only drink a little since Berlyn had told him that she had been picked up by Petir and needed a ride home after. Petir was such a good guy to him. Why hadn't he seen that before?

The general din of conversation slowly disappeared around him and it was replaced by the musical sound of Beryln's voice. Or was that just his apartment's music? It sounded familiar enough. She seemed to notice his discomfort.

"Whats wrong sweetie," she laughed, "We were having such a good time. Was it because I told you my panty size? Sorry if that was too personal too soon."

"Whu- what?" The lion shook his head confused and stared at the floor. He didn't remember any of that, "Why is the carpet? Wasn't it tiled before?"

"Of course not dear," the vixen shook her head bemused, "Now you were telling me about the time you woke up?"

"What? What did you say?" Nicklos' head was spinning. Why did he suddenly smell body odor, it smelled oddly like himself. But hadn't he worn deodorant?

"I said wake up," the vixen gave him an adorable smile.

"I- you-" Nicklos felt his world slip around him.

"Wake up!"

"What?"

"Dude it's six in the afternoon already! What have you been doing all day?"

"I thought... wait Petir what are you doing here?"

"Ugh you have this fucking pizza here from last week, you need to get your shit together."

"But Petir... I thought we were going somewhere or something?"

"Yeah, you've got a date in less than two hours dude, get in the shower and get ready."

"Yeah... Yeah! I'm up! Shit, thanks for waking me up."

"No problem, glad to see you are excited for this one. You seemed pissed the other day when I brought it up."

"Sorry man can't hear you in the shower!"

"Yeah whatever. I brought some- hey why are there already sunflowers by your bed?"

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And here we are at last dear reader.. This one is a stand-alone. Once more I thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed yourself. I have some good and bad news. First of all on my main series I have made little to no progress. However, with the Fall semester over I will have all break finally nail that bitch out. This was mainly to serve as a way to warm up the thinking parts of my mind for the work to come. I'm open to any and all feedback but comments are preferred.

~Stay Crispy