SABRINA

a story by

CHRIS YOST

(c) 1998 by Chris Yost. All rights to story content reserved. Characters Sabrina the Skunkette, Amy the Squirrel, Tabitha, and Tammy Vixen (c) Eric W. Schwartz. Character Roxikat (c) John Barrett. Character Thomas Woolfe (c) Michael Higgs. Characters Chris Foxx, Susan Felin, Cindy Lapine, Amy Squirrel, Clarence Skunk, Dexter Collie, and Wendy Vixxen (c) Chris Yost. All rights to additional characters reserved by their respective owners. Story based on characters and situations created by Eric W. Schwartz. Windows95 (TM) Microsoft Corp. Amiga (TM) Gateway Computers.

After the shower Chris was drying Sabrina's back. "So, what's this idea you have?" she asked.

"Depends." Chris dried Sabrina's back fur vigorously, then stopped and reached around her from behind, pretending to dry her chest. "Do you trust me?"

Sabrina quivered, feeling Chris press himself against her. "Well, I dunno," she laughed, "after pulling me into the bathtub!"

Sabrina squealed as Chris pawed her from under his towel. "You'd have to trust me completely."

"I do." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against Chris' shoulder.

Chris ran the towel from her breasts and down over her tummy. Opening his eyes he glanced at Sabrina's wet clothes by the tub. "How many of those blue T-shirts do you own, anyway?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know," Sabrina answered. "I've got a drawer full of them." Her hands went over Chris' "Want one?"

"You've got the figure for 'em, not me." Sabrina turned Chris around and dried his back, dodging his beating tail -- I'm still here naked with him! She was still coming to grips with that as she ran her towel quickly down and up his legs, moved it around to his front and dropped it. She squatted to catch it, and when it didn't hit the floor she looked up to see Chris staring at her over his shoulder, his smile and bright eyes twinkling made Sabrina realize where it ended up.

Her blush made her eyes squeeze shut. "Quit looking at me!" she yelled, laughing out loud.

Chris turned, snickering. "Never!" He brushed his hand over Sabrina's damp hair. She lifted her head and opened her eyes, then turned her head with another laugh and snatched her towel back.

Yip! "Hey, careful!"

Sabrina leapt up and sprinted out the door, Chris chasing her to the living room where he tackled her and they landed on the couch. Smiling at each other they didn't have to say a word. They kissed. And they kissed again.

And they kissed longer.

And longer.

And Chris pulled her tail back down and wedged it under her.

"So," Chris said, "want to wrap my present again?"

Sabrina raised her eyebrows. "Maybe." She moved toward Chris and brushed her nose against his. "Can you give me five minutes?"

"Nope." He turned his head slightly and took her, holding her, moving his mouth to hers, Sabrina opening hers to allow Chris' tongue to enter, drawing gently on it at first, then harder as it was now far too late to remember the remaining two green packages laying next to the two pair of glasses in Sabrina's bedroom.

"Ground Control to Major Mustelidae."

"Huh?" Sabrina turned away from watching the scenery speed by. "Sorry," she said, still smiling, and adjusted her seatbelt.

"I'm glad to know your weekend went so well," Amy said and changed lanes to pass the Jeep.

"Oh, did it ever." Sabrina sighed and turned back to the window, hoping she was facing west toward Pennsylvania. "I always hate it when he has to go home." She turned back. "I guess your weekend went okay?"

Amy ducked Sabrina's car in front of a station wagon and steered onto the exit ramp. "A lot better than okay," she said over the car horn passing behind them. "We really needed this weekend alone. You and Debbye had a great idea convincing us to go. Did you know the bathroom was an outhouse?"

"It was?" Sabrina laughed.

"Yeah, and in the middle of the night for a pregnant woman, it's an experience!" She turned the last corner toward the college. "And I'm really sorry for the way I treated you when you first met Chris. Who would ever had thought it would've bloomed a romance?"

"I wish I could tell you everything we did," Sabrina said. "I wish it could last like they do in those novels I read."

"I hope you don't end up like I did," Amy said and pulled into a parking spot near the English Department.

Sabrina unbuckled her seatbelt. "Well," she said, "let's just say my body co-operated this month." She grabbed her books and purse.

"Lucky girl!"

Sabrina put her hand on the door handle and paused. "For the first time, I really do feel lucky." She opened the door. "See ya at five." She got out and walked up to the bench near the budding oak tree as Amy backed her car out. Despite the time of year it was still chilly, and Sabrina zipped her jacket the rest of the way up.

"Hey, 'brina!"

Looking up Sabrina saw Cindy walking up from the red Mazda three spaces up. "Hey, Cindy!" she called back.

Cindy ran the rest of the way up to the bench with her bookbag bouncing on one shoulder. She sat down and pressed a fist into Sabrina's arm. "So? How did Friday night go?"

"Cin-dy La-pine!" Sabrina said in a really bad Southern twang, "I swear that is all y'all think of!" She dropped the accent and leaned in close -- "It went great! Only one bad thing but it turned out okay in the end, and OBOY what a night!"

"You sprayed him, didn't you?"

blush!

Cindy giggled. "How did you guess??" Sabrina hissed.

Cindy tilted her head and brushed her hair back between her ears and used the same bad accent Sabrina'd used. "Why, fe-male intuition, honey chile! They is some things y'all just cain't hide." In her normal voice, "Did he like the lasagna?"

Sabrina smacked Cindy's shoulder. "Yes. I owe you three big time!"

Cindy saw the bus pull in at the stop. "Hey, let's go meet the others. You can start paying us off in details!"

They picked up their belongings and walked down the walk. "Fair 'nuff. I'm dying to tell someone!

"Hello Mister Foxx," said the florist. "Same as usual? Mixed bouquet with one extra rose than last week?"

"Not this week," Chris said, leaning back in his cubicle chair, "Special occasion: two dozen red roses, card to read ... " He looked over his shoulder and leaned into the receiver, cupping the mouthpiece, " ... 'Kitten, thanks for the greatest weekend of my life!' Uhm, 'All my love, Chris.' How's that sound?"

The older raccoon laughed to himself. A young man in love. "Sounds good, same address and credit card?"

"Same as always. Add it to my Frequent Flower miles."

The raccoon groaned. "I should charge you double for that one!"

"I thought you'd have been sick of that joke by now." He leaned back and saw the IT manager behind him. "Thanks again, I'll probably talk to you in a couple weeks. Bye." He hung up the phone. "Hey Jim, I need a favor."

"I'm broke."

Chris stood up and picked up a manila envelope. "Not that." He handed the envelope to him. "These are some writing samples for the job opening. Would you read over them and pass them along?"

"Sure. Resume?"

"It's in there."

"No problem." He handed Chris a packing list. "Two new PC's just in for two new employees. One of them doesn't know Windows 95 so you'll get to play teacher too."

"No one ever knows Windows 95," Dexter said, sticking his snout in. "The more we learn about it, the more we miss our slide rules."

As they laughed a secretary passing out memos handed them each one. Jim looked at his copy. "The first name on here is the one who needs the 95 training. I'll look at these after lunch."

"Thanks, Jim." Chris laid the packing list on his desk as he walked away. "I'm expected to do actual work after the weekend I had." Chris had gloating rights, and intended to use them.

"You want to stop beaming?" Dexter said. "You're blinding the department."

"I never thought I could feel this way about a woman, Dex." Chris picked up his coffee cup and attempted to drink the air that was there in place of coffee.

"Chris," Dexter put a hand on Chris' shoulder. "Let me give you some advice based on my many years of experience." He pulled Chris closer to him. "Four words." He raised his voice. "MARRY HER, YOU IDIOT!"

"I did! Well, biblically-speaking." Shaking his head, Chris set his cup back down where it came from. "Would that I could, Dex."

"You haven't heard yourself. You and she ought to be together all the time. You're perfect for each other. I never told you, but you remind me of me when I met Angel. There's absolutely no difference between you and me in that respect." Dexter paused long enough for a sip from his own mug. "Of course, I never tied Angel up."

"Hey, I had to keep her tail from going up. You weren't there, you don't know!"

"Okay, but her hands too?"

Chris quickly cleared his throat.

"Marry her. You need her."

"I want to, more than anything."

"So?" Dexter raised his eyebrows over his cup.

"So we've only known each other a few months," Chris said. "Besides, I'd need both her parents' and her cartoonist's blessing."

"And you don't think you can get it?"

Chris sighed and leaned against the edge of his cubicle wall. "I hope so, Dexter. I love her so much, I can't imagine any of them saying 'no'." He thought a second. "Sabrina's coming up this weekend for the first time. If my house doesn't scare her off, maybe I'll ask her."

"Practice it all week," Dexter said. "Decide which is your best knee to kneel on."

"I've always liked my left one the best." Chris looked at the memo he'd been holding. "'To all employees, please welcome two new members of our accounting team.'" Shaking his head, "Technical companies always call their people a 'team', ever notice?"

Dexter grinned. "Never paid attention." He turned to walk away.

Chris read the rest of the memo. His face dropped, his stomach sank, and his jaw opened.

"DEXTER!"

Dexter turned from his own cube entry. "What's up?"

Chris began a sprint and tagged Dexter's arm on the way past him. "C'mon!"

Setting his cup down he followed. "What?" He ran after Chris through the open door. "Hey! Wait up! What's wrong?"

"Plenty, if I'm right!" Chris called over his shoulder and dodged two of the cats from building maintenance, swung open the stairwell door and skipped steps running up, Dexter in pursuit, panting, calling after him "I'm getting to old for this sh -- "

Chris never heard. He pulled open the door and ran through, stopping suddenly. He looked through the door and saw his peer sweating and working to keep up. "What is the problem?" he tried to ask again.

"This way." Chris took him down to the cubicle clusters onto the side where the accountants worked. He put an arm out and caught Dexter in the stomach to stop him. "There, look!" He pointed. "We've got to look casual."

"'We', paleface?" Dexter asked, short of breath, moving Chris' arm. Helplessly he followed one step behind as Chris led them in to where the department head was showing the two new employees around, one a brown and white furred vixen, the other a smaller panda.

Chris stopped, Dexter dodged him this time. "Great God in a bottle, it is!"

The three they were watching were laughing when the vixen turned in their direction. She was shapely, lovely, her big brown eyes flashed, then widened. "Chris?" Her mouth opened, her teeth shone, she smiled wide.

Chris only perspired, tugging his tie and collar away from his neck, and laughed uncomfortably.

"*heh* Hi, Windy."

Now Dexter understood. He leaned in toward Chris. "Ruh-roh, Rorge!"