Just Another Normal Day

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

09/23/97:

I was in the midst of a flashback... but a strange one. I've
had three others seance my first one in March. The format
was still the same, I was watching myself from a third
person point of view... I just didn't remember it.

Oriana and I were sitting together on the couch in the
house, though that wasn't the best way to describe it. We
were actually laying together, I was resting my head against
her neck, and she was rubbing my shoulders.

Both of us looked sad, Oriana was near tears and I had my
eye closed. We stayed like that for a couple minutes until
she finally spoke up.

"Fox," she whispered, "you're purring."

I jumped with a start, falling off the couch from where I
had been laying. Rubbing my head I sat up. This was strange,
very very strange. I KNEW that what I had seen had never
happened.

Standing up, I started to head for the kitchen, thinking
about making myself some tea. I was quickly interrupted by a
mouse bursting through the door.

I frowned. "Malia, what are you doing here?"

She was fuming, her paws clenched white and breathing
deeply. "That BITCHED fucked up the sample!"

I sighed, my tea was starting to look less likely, "Of
Burke?"

"Of course of Burke! I took it to someone who I trusted and
she destroyed the sample!"

I ran my hands over my head. "So?"

She grabbed my wrist. "You're going to have a talk with her
about this fuckup. Put some fear of the Council in her!" She
yanked me along and out the door before I could say anything
against it.

As we started through the hallways I yanked my arm out of
her grip. "What exactly DID happen to the sample?"

She drew in the breath, "I took it to someone I've worked
with before. She assured me she would have a full analysis
on it in a week, I went to talk to her and found out that
the sample I gave her was worthless."

"Are you sure it wasn't?"

She glared at me. "My father is a doctor, I KNOW how to
check a sample to see if it's good, and that one was."

I nodded. "Right then, I'll talk to her."

"Good!" She said with a smile, then grabbed my wrist again
and yanked me into an office. "Now talk!"

I blinked, the smiled a bit. "Hello Page."

She looked up from behind her deck, leaning back a bit.
Milgrove was sitting next to her, and a male lion was on the
far side of the desk.

Malia stared at me. "You know her?!"

I nodded.

Page looked from me to Malia then sighed. She turned to the
lion. "I'll get back to you on this in a few days."

He nodded, then brushed between us on the way out.

Page sighed. "I didn't know the sample was your's."

"You wouldn't have fucked it up if you knew then?" Malia
demanded.

She shook her head. "There was problems with the sample."

"I checked it myself!"

I sighed, walking over to Page and tugging her shoulder
gently. "You and me, in the back, now."

She nodded, standing and going into the back room of the
office, I followed her. Closing the door I sighed, slumping
next it. "What happened?"

"When I checked the sample I found that it was bad."

I rubbed my forehead. "Malia grew up with a doctor, she
knows how to verify this type of thing."

She sighed, shaking her head. "Fox, I didn't destroy the
sample!"

"She's telling the truth." Milgrove said as she slipped into
the room.

Page and I both looked at her. "What do you know about
this?" Page asked.

Milgrove sighed, closeting the door behind her. "I'm sorry,
I broke one of the samples a few days ago. I though I keep
it from being contaminated..."

Page frowned, "why didn't you tell me?" She asked, her voice
half angry, half worried.

I shook my head. "While you too talk over this, I have a
mouse to clam down and some tea to get to. So I'll see you
later." I said as I walked out back in to the main office.

Malia was less angry, but still fuming. "Well?!" She
demanded.

Walking to her, I grasped her arm and led her out of the
office. "It turns out that the sample was accidentally
exposed by her... ah... I think she counts as a girlfriend
now."

She deflated sightly. "Damn it... I'm sorry about this."

I shrugged, patting her shoulders. "It's all right, nothing
would surprise me about Burke, he's admitted to time travel,
how hard would it be for him to set up the sample to be
exposed?"

She nodded, "I suppose."

"Good, now I have some of my own things to take care of."

"Right... I'll see you later then," she said with a sigh,
and moved down a different hallway.

I shrugged, heading back to the house. It had been an
interesting few days. Sora still had not returned, nor had
Jadith, I was starting to worry about them. If they didn't
come back soon I would have to go after them.

Then there was the problem with me... Oriana had decided the
day before that it would be safe to try and do another
transformation on me. For safety though she checked my blood
to make sure that all the Bliss from the original spell had
washed out.

It hadn't... it was still in my system, and according the
Ken, glowing a bit with magic. The only thing we could
decided was that Oriana had done something wrong with the
spell to keep it in my system.

It didn't wash for me though, if she had done that I would
still have been a fox-morph. Something else was going on, I
was just inches away from figuring it, just that I wasn't.

I was starting to think this was going to be normal for me.

As I came up to the entrance of the house, I found Rachel
stepping out from the t-curtain. She saw me and smiled.
"Fox, I was just coming to see you."

I nodded, "good... why?"

She chuckled a bit, "things have been getting hectic with
the Council and I just wanted to talk to you."

"Why me?" I asked, stepping through the curtain and opening
the front door of the house.

She coughed as she followed me. "It's a bit embarrassing."

I looked over my shoulder at her. "embarrassing? Why would
talking to me be that?"

She sighed, sitting down on the couch, blushing hard through
her ears. I sat down next to her. "Why not tell me what ever
it is you're so worked up about? I promise I won't laugh."

She took a breath, then leaning over kissed me full on the
lips. I reacted faster this time then I did with Oriana the
year before, pulling away after only a few seconds.

Rachel blushed even more and looked away from me, I just
sighed. "Let me guess, you love me?"

She turned and gave me a _look_ then finally burst out into
laughed. "No... no... not that at all."

I nodded, crossing my arms. "Well that's good... I think."

She smiled, reaching up to touch my face. "Fox... I've tried
to tell you this before, and even started to ask once before
when you were launching your ship."

I smiled back. "What is it exactly?"

She withdrew her hand, blushing twice as much as before.
Looking away from me she took a deep breath. "I... I have a
bit of a skin fetish."

I blinked... twice. "Ah... um... a skin fetish?"

She nodded. "It must sound silly, I know."

I shook my head, cracking a smile. "You don't know some of
mine."

She hugged me, nuzzling my neck, "Would you be willing..."
she started to ask... her voice failing her.

If she was asked, what I think she was asking... and well,
she was a Vixen. I kissed the top of her head. "Of course I
would."

I never did make that tea...

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.
'Milgrove' is (C) 1997 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permission.