"Ken-sa, nanji kama dan?", she said as she grinned.

Ken sighed with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment.  "No, Hanae, Ihaven't have time to study Zanji.  My ancestors could speak it, but I wasborn and raised here, remember?"

Hanae tsked behind the counter disapprovingly.  "Rani ha?"

A youthful bull appeared from the kitchen, wearing a white apron andsmiling.  "Grandma, this is a regular customer, let him order."

The cow faced her grandson.  "But he has lost the old ways, the traditions."

The bull nodded.  "But remember his family came here 80 years ago..wehave only been here for 10."

Ken sighed a bit.  "Its OK Akira, she's right.  I have the looks of thehomeland but none of the culture I guess."  He didn't need to glance at themenu board as he had the list memorized long ago.   "I guess I'll takecombo plate D with an egg roll and...."

~~~

Jesse had his bare feet up on the desk, leaning back in his chair,dressed in a dark blue short sleeved security guard outfit.  Arrayed infront of him was a dozen flat screened monitors, each one tied in to acamera scanning  every corner of the garage.   Every night he watched thegaudy limos pull up, and  park in the depth of the building afterdischarging snotty furs wearing tacky jewelry at the front of the operahouse.   When he had first been on the job some months ago, he had foundthe gigantic cars fascinating to watch; now he preferred to watch the moreordinary furs park their own cars.   He enjoyed watching the common fursbecause there was a lot more variety then you saw in the upper class.   Histhoughts were interrupted by the metal door banging open, along with theunmistakable spicy smell of Zanjise take-out.

"Anything to write home about?", asked Ken, closing the door behind him.

"Nada.  The opera started an hour ago."

Ken handed the much younger wolf a stapled bag.  "Its got the ducksauce..none of that yellow neon hot mustard you hate", said the tanukimirthfully.

Jesse chuckled.  "It had better."  Both sat down to eat their food.  Thewolf ate quickly, while the tanuki ate much more meticulously.   Jessespoke again, with a mouth full of ginger chicken, "Lotsa limos thistime...more than usual..must be a premiere night"

Ken nodded and swallowed before replying. "Its called, 'The Glaive ofVauderbrand.'   A lot of the jet set will be at this one to socialize."

Jesse smirked, "And try outdo each other in who dresses the worst, andhave sex in the closets"

Ken nearly choked on his eggroll from chuckling.  "Now now Jes."  Heabruptly dropped his half eaten roll when he saw an image flash on monitor#3.   He watched stunned as the camera cycled through 3 other views of thesecond floor before giving him another glimpse of the pair pushed upagainst a pillar.   "Jesse?"

Jesse swiveled back to the camera bank but saw nothing out of theordinary..for about a second.  Then his jaw dropped.  "Damn!"  He reachedout with a shaking paw and froze the view on the monitor.

"What the hell?  Right in front of the camera too!", said a ratherbewildered tanuki.   The Freeland culture believed in free love, but thistwosome was unusually brazen.  One of the figures was clearly a female catof some exotic type.   Her mate was a male with long ears and an improbablemixture of other animal features.  Both the security guards watched,transfixed by the spectacle.  Ken had been watching over the garage for adecade and a half and had seen many occasions of furs hopping into limosfor sexual liaisons but he had never seen anyonemating in the open likethis.

"I guess these guys couldn't wait to find a closet", said Ken, his mouthas dry as paper.

~~~

A few minutes later they both were still sitting there, both a bit sweatyand hot from the recent excitement.  Camera #3 was now cycling through thestandard angles again.  Neither spoke for awhile.  Finally Ken recoveredenough to finish off his eggroll.   "Well, I would ask you since you're thenew guy to go clean the pillar off on Level 2, but I'm feeling generoustoday."

Jesse was silent, still staring at the empty screen.  Eventually the wolfgot up out of the seat and walked into the tiny bathroom nearby to wash hisface with cold water.   Ken sighed and sat in the swivel chair.  He calledto Jesse  "That was....interesting.  Wasn't it?"

Jesse came back out and stood behind the Tanuki.  "Yes, it made me thinkI could be as daring as they, if I gave myself a chance."

Ken just shook his head a bit.  "Maybe...I think something like thatcould be fun.  With the right fur."

Jesse smiled warmly put his paw on Ken's shoulder and tenderly licked thetanuki's earfur.  He started to speak, "Maybe with me, you-", and stoppedshort.  Ken's fur bristled and he whirled around in shock and surprise.Jesse staggered back, paling quite a bit.  "Um, I'm sorry, I thought...Iwas sure..."   He sank limply against the cinderblock wall.  He lookedaghast, "Oh god, I'm sorry!"

Ken pushed past his partner, blushing noticeably even though his darkmask of fur.   He brusquely spoke as he rushed out, "Excuse me.", andvanished into the garage open space.

~~~

The next night the garage was all but deserted, as it was the weekend.Ken sat alone in the security office, stewing in his unhappy thoughts.  Onthe monitor desk was a note from Jesse, saying that he was taking sickleave for the next week.    Ken kept crumpling it, drumming his fingers forawhile, then straightening out the note to reread it.

"Damn it all to hell!"   The implications were not good.  Now that heknew that his partner had a crush on him, what next?  His previousrelationships had not turned out very well.  He had attractions to malesbefore but he had stuck exclusively with female mates, because he thoughtthat he could have more stable relationships.  It had only worked so-so.He wondered if he should give Jesse a chance.   "Not much good speculating,my friend", he said to himself.   He'd have to look the wolf up to see forsure.

After he had punched out, he went straight to the apartment block about 2miles away from the opera.  He stood in front of the appropriate apartmentdoor and sighed, feeling very uncomfortable.  He had been hesitating herefor nearly a half-hour but he couldn't make up his mind.

A high-pitched nasal voiced startled him, "Hey mister, here to see Jesse?"

Behind him stood the local busybody, a middle aged female dog.  Shesmirked at him.  "Aren't you here a bit late?  Its 3 in the morning, yaknow."

Ken stared down at his uniform and knew there was no other plausibleexcuse he could give to back out.  If he left he was sure as the moons rosethat she'd tell the wolf his partner had been stalking him in his apartmenthallway.  "Well ma'am, of course I'm here to see him."  He knocked on thedoor a few times.  To his surprise, it opened up almost immediately.  Jessestared at him with a certain degree of amazement.

He started to redden in his grayish cheekfur, "Um, hello.    Come on in,if you like."   He saw the canine behind the tanuki.  "Hiya Ms. Greyhound."

The dog laughed and walked back to her own door, slamming it behind her.Ken awkwardly stepped in, and shut the door gently.  "I was..just in thearea.  How is your illness?"   He could see that the room lights were allon and Jesse was still mostly dressed.   It looked like he hadn't gottenmuch sleep.

"Umm, well, I think you know that I mainly just need to get away forawhile.  Let things cool down a bit."  He looked too restless to sit so hepaced and tailswished.   Ken moved over to the sink area so he could peerout the apartment window.  Anything so he wouldn't have to look hisflustered friend in the eyes.  The window had a nice view of a back alleyand a dumpster.

Ken just nodded, aware that Jesse was staring at him.

"Look I'm really, really sorry about last night.  Can just forget it everhappened?"

Ken didn't answer.  Instead he turned on the sink taps and started toclean the large stack of dirty glasses and plates piled haphazardly in thesink.   Jesse blinked not really expecting this or knowing what to do now.He watched silently as the dirty dishes were transformed into a neat stackof cleaned but wet dishes on the counter.  He saw the drying rag on thecounter and after making sure that the tanuki wasn't about to dry thedishes himself he walked over and started drying them.   The tensionrelaxed a bit as they both worked the all too familiar chore.

~~~

Jesse gave an embarrassed smile as he saw Ken sorting through hiscluttered apartment.  All the cast off clothed had been chucked into ahamper and the neatnik tanuki was now straightening out his dresserdrawers.   "Thanks for helping, but you don't need to stick around.  I'mjust glad you accept my apology."

"Oh its OK, I think we're both too wired up to sleep, so I may as wellmake your apartment a bit more presentable."  He moved to rearrange theshirts hanging in the closet.   Jesse smiled despite himself, yesterday hehad made an unwanted advance on Ken, and now he here was redecorating.

About an hour later they were both yawning heavily, as Ken finishedsweeping the kitchen floor.  The apartment was still a bit of a mess but itlooked for better than before.  Ken stretched out and nodded to Jesse."Well I think I'll catch the 17 bus back to my place, its late."

"You can crash out here if you like, you know."

"Sure."  He smiled warmly at his well meaning partner.   "I'm not mad atyou any longer."  He extended a paw.   Jesse gingerly reached out and shookit.  "I'll take the couch."

Jesse shook his head.  "Please take my bed.  I'll take the couch."  Hewalked over and picked up a blanket and a pillow.

"Wait."  Jesse stopped and nodded.  "I've been thinking.   I was playingin my mind whether I truly welcomed your expression of affection.  At firstI thought I didn't, but now, I can see that you are truly a warm andgenerous soul...even if you are a bit of a slob."  Jesse cracked anembarrassed smile at that.   "If you don't mind...?"

"Mind?"

"If you don't mind..why don't we just share the bed?"   The tanukiundressed and slipped under the covers.

"Umm...are you sure?"

Ken smiled.  "Yeah, I'd like it."

They fell asleep together, snuggled under the covers.