I opened my eyes the next day, and there was Jake smiling at me. His eyes lit up when I gave him a squeeze, still wrapping my arms around him like I was when I fell asleep. He handed me my glasses and I put them on.

"Good morning, beautiful," he said. I remembered a month ago, on the plane when he said the same thing to me. Before it was a form of playful banter but now it was real.

"Good morning, moaner," I teased, leaning up to kiss him. He gave a loud, exaggerated moan and I just giggled when the kiss broke. "Have you been up long?"

"Twenty minutes, maybe. I didn't want to move and wake you. I was just trying to be sure that this was really happening. Plus you're really cute when you sleep."

I felt my cheeks burn and my ears dropped to my head.

"Shut up," I said, pulling him closer to me.

He laughed and rubbed by back with one paw, the other settling on my waist. I looked up at the guy I loved and felt so lucky to have him. Jake was mine. He and I... We were together... I...

I can't quite put into words how amazing and perfect that was.

Jake leaned down and kissed me, running his hands through my headfur. He moaned ever so softly as our lips moved with each other's. He rubbed my waist and I took his hand in mine, giving it a squeeze. We broke the kiss and looked at each other. I brushed the hair from his face to get a clear view on his perfect green eyes.

"What do you want to do today?" he asked me.

"Let's just... Explore," I said simply.

* * *

"Brent, you need new pants," Jake said to me suddenly.

We had spent the day just roaming around Stuttgart, getting food and exploring the city we found ourselves in. There was this really cool fountain in the center of town that was... Well, bubbling, for a lack of a better way to put it. There were these enormous buildings full of shops that Jake kept dragging me around. We took a brief break for lunch. There was this restaurant that overlooked the plaza of the city. We each ordered this giant thing of schnitzel that was a foot wide at least. It wasn't easy, but somehow, I managed to eat it all. Jake and I sat in post-food happiness, enjoying a glass of Spätburgender, a red wine for those that don't know, when Jake made the comment on my pants.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "These are fine."

"Brent, I want to be able to look at your ass, and in those pants I can't." Jake looked at me from across the table and gave me a completely stern look.

"Oh, come on, you can't be serious. You want me to get new pants so you can check me out more?"

He leaned over the table and took my hand. I felt my face flush a little, still unaccustomed to being affectionate in public.

"I want you to look good. Those pants are way too baggy," he said.

"You could have told me you wanted to go pants shopping before I ate the enormous schnitzel," I smiled, squeezing his hand.

"Well, tough. Let's get going, babe."

I gotta say, being called babe was pretty great.

We walked back down the stretch of shops until we got to the huge complex that was H&M and C&A. We tried C&A first and found nothing that really worked for my size as far as pants went. We did buy these boxers that had a day of the week printed on them, one for each day. It was too funny for us not to.

Over at H&M, Jake handed me a stack of pants to try and after trial and error, we found a good pair and were about to be on our way when Jake went into the changing room with me. He sat me on the bench and straddled me. I was taken aback and didn't know what to do until he leaned down and kissed me, holding my face in his paws. My hands found their way to his lower back which I held, keeping him close to me.

"Sorry," he whispered, biting onto my ear. "I just really wanted to kiss you is all. All those pants that showed off your ass just made it hard for me to resist."

I looked away from him and he just laughed at me. He hopped off my lap and kissed me again, with slightly less tongue, before we went on our way.

We got to the check out and the cashier looked at me with indifference at first, until he looked up again. He was a tan rat that seemed to be bored out of skull.

"Ja, das ist er." Jake said, nipping it in the bud and saving me from confirming that it was, in fact, me.

"Aber ich dachte, dass er in Frankreich war." The cashier said, almost with reverence in his voice. I caught Frankreich as France so I assumed he thought we were still there.

"Man könnte sagen, dass wir schon viel gereist."

"Könnten Sie ihn fragen, ob er das tut so etwas heute Abend?"

Now, I had listened to enough German around Jake and his Nana to be able to pick out a few words and I could tell that the rat was flirting with me. I grabbed Jake by the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss, pressing my lips into his. He practically went limp at my touch and I broke the kiss and Jake looked so completely taken aback that it took him a beat before he looked over at the cashier and said:

"Leider ist er mit jemanden."

The cashier blushed and seemed a little upset that we had embarrassed him like that, but I wanted it to be clear to everyone. Jake was off the market, as was I.

We belonged to each other.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" I asked, looking at Jake through the mirror.

I don't know how he talked me into it, but I was sitting in a chair in this small place with a raccoon unwrapping a needle behind me, occasionally brushing the purple highlighted tips of his hair out of his face. He looked at me and I felt my stomach clench.

"Relax, Brent. You're gonna do fine," Jake said, half looking at me and half examining his own recent addition to his body, a barbell that went through the top of his right ear. I was about to get one of my own. Oh the things that Jake could talk me into...

"Das wird ein wenig weh. Bist du bereit?" The raccoon asked me.

I bit my lip and nodded.

The needle poked through my ear and I relaxed. I was expecting far worse. There wasn't even any blood as I had my ear opened up as the needle went through my ear and out the other side. He slipped a bar through the hole and left it there while he poked the other side with a fresh needle. He screwed on little balls to the bar to keep it in place. He ran through the do's and do not's and Jake thanked him and with a Tschüß, we were on our way.

We didn't do much of anything after that, other than grabbing some Kasespätzle for dinner and just walked through the town. It took a bit of relaxing on my part but I finally felt comfortable enough to hold his hand in public. Jake leaned on me as we walked, happy to be with me.

And as usual, my brain went to the worst possible thing it could go to.

"We have to tell our parents..." 

“What do you mean; we have to tell our parents? Why? We just got together!”

I sighed and rubbed my face in my paws. “Because… I don’t want to be

dishonest to them.”

“Brent,” Jake said, looking at me dead on, stopping us both. “Are you serious?”

“It’s not right of us to not tell them this. Dude… this is huge. And I wouldn’t feel right if we just kept this from them.”

Jake’s eyes took a light to them and I thought he was about to protest, but I saw that light dwindle as he realized that there was no changing my mind. I wanted us to be honest, and that was that. He admitted defeat and nodded, taking my paw.

“Only if you’re sure, Brent.”

“I’m sure. Jake… this whole ordeal… us… it would have been so much simpler if

I had simply been honest with you. I can’t lie anymore. I nearly lost you by lying. I can’t do that again.”

Jake smiled and kissed my cheek.

“Okay, Brent. We’ll do it together. Promise?”

“Promise. Now let’s get back to the hotel so I can get you out of those tight

jeans.”