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Till slumped slightly at his desk in Riverbrook Police HQ, as he was getting the last of his paperwork done for the night. He was working mostly by the light coming from the hallway as he'd shut his off to get a better view of the night cityscape outside.

Not much out of the ordinary to report on tonight; an assault, a burglary or two, and... a certain fox named Jay...

The emotion stung him like it always did, whenever his heart stubbornly yearned for the impossible. He fought it off, like he always did, trying to change the subject with himself... his ridiculously overpowered car... his new computer games... his lovely house in the hills... anything to take his mind off of it.

He shook his head as he stood up and walked down the hallway, trying to clear away the thoughts so he could turn in his paperwork without looking distraught. Till was solid; Till was tough. Nobody had the slightest notion of anything otherwise, and that's the way he liked it.

"Hey there big guy," Sam the night clerk chirped, "how's it going? Catch any hotties tonight?"

Till Grinned for a moment and began to say something, but caught himself. He coughed a bit to conceal it, and started over. Sam was an older guy, a bit large for a beagle, and had pretty much seen it all. Anything Till might have accidentally hinted at would probably have been safe with him. It was still complicated, though, and it wasn't something Till wanted to get himself into a discussion about now.

"Uh, just the usual. Did we get the 11pm surge pushed through processing OK?"

"Oh gawd Till, it's a cluster down there. George called in sick and Tina was in an accident, so Kevin's the only processing clerk down there who knows the new computer system. They had to overflow booking into one of the big cells. Here take a look..."

Sam angled the CCTV over so Till could see. The black and white image revealed a somewhat crowded holding cell with the usual assortment of drunks, druggies, and small time criminals, with the exception of a slender fox shrinking into a corner, trying his best to remain motionless and invisible.

Till's heart skipped a beat. That was Jay all right; he looked petrified. A grungy, thuggish looking wolf had scooted over close to Jay and said something to him, while Jay just looked away, then at his feet, then at the door.

"Maybe I'd better go give them a hand downstairs..." TIll said, "I'll catch ya later Sam."

"I'm sure it's fine Till, you've already put in your standard 12 hours, and we gotta work out in the morning... Ah well, catch ya round!"

Till fought the urge to run until he was out of Sam's sight, then he took the stairs down to booking. Thoughts raced through his mind. What was he doing? What could he do that wouldn't look weird? Why was he doing what he was about to do?

He didn't know, but his instincts drove him onward like tunnelvision to holding cell A, his master key at the ready.

Kevin, the slender husky processing clerk, looked over when he heard the sound of Till's heavy boots jogging along the tiled hallway.

"Hey Till!" Kevin called out from the desk, "It's been a friggin'... um... where ya going? Is everything OK?"

"It's all good Kev, I just need one of these guys for... immediate questioning regarding a new case..."

"Ahhh, oh-kay..." Kevin replied, and turned back around to finish taking a pawprint of a rather intoxicated badger, while Till hastily unlocked the door and strode into the holding cell.

Everyone froze, including a pair of wolves who were menacing Jay in the corner, and looked over at Till.

Till walked over towards the corner, the clump of his boots reverberating in the now silent cell. He depressed a small transmitter concealed in his cargo pocket, and heard a click as the CCD camera light blinked off.

"Oops, looks like we have a camera problem." Till announced, then calmly backhanded one of the troublesome wolves, sending him sprawling to the filthy floor.

"You're gonna have to come with me Jay, " Till stated matter-of-factly, "we need to ask you a few questions...."

"Okey dokey." Jay responded, trying not to grin, inching out of his corner as Till gestured him towards the door.

"Have a nice evening folks, try not to slip on the floor and hit your head on the bench, like that fella down there..." Till grinned evilly, nudged the wolf with one of his big black boots, and clicked the cameras back on as he locked the door behind him and Jay.

Jay breathed deeply as Till led him down the hallway. It had been bad in there; Jay wasn't really the intimidating type, and people could pick that up from a mile away. The endless waiting, then getting packed into that cell. "Such terrible luck today!" he thought to himself, "but then again, maybe not..."

Kevin just watched silently as they passed from sight. Something really weird had just happened. Till wasn't even a detective; after his reports were turned in and the suspect dropped off, he was supposed to be done with them unless he needed to testify in court.

But like everyone else in the department, Kevin had a great deal of respect for Till, so he let it slide, filing it away in his mind to ask about later...

"Thank you Till..." Jay said quietly over his shoulders as they walked down the stairs.

"Uh, no prob. I uh... nevermind." Till replied, watching Jay's fluffy white tail tip wag from side to side as he walked.

Till stopped at the bottom of the staircase, leading to the parking garage, and gently nudged Jay around to face him.

"Look, Jay, I'm not supposed to be doing this, I didn't really have a plan in mind when I saw those goons on the camera bugging you, and now if certain people see me with you I'm going to have a lot more explaining to do than I already might. I'm just gonna drop you off near your home, and you're gonna promise not to tell anyone about what happened tonight. /Any/ of it. I got a favor I can call in to get your paperwork to disappear, but you gotta promise me this stays our secret."

Jay's light blue eyes sparkled as they looked up into Till's, and he could no longer contain himself. He leaned up against the big dog and hugged him.

Till, for once, was at a loss for a response. He was simultaneously panicked someone would see them, worried about the chaos he'd created, and aroused by the slender fox wrapping himself around him. He gave the fox a perfunctory hug back.

"Oh I promise, Till," Jay smiled, "I don't think anyone would believe me if I told them. "

"Ok, lets get out of here then."

They walked briskly back out to his police car, backed out, and rumbled off down the street with the full moon beginning to set behind the glittering skyline.

Jay's mind swirled with emotions. He was tired and confused, so much had happened and he really needed sleep to try to get his head back together, but one thought stuck in his mind... "he's gonna drop me off, and then... I'm not gonna see him again..."

The stress and emotion was just too much, and Jay began to sob audibly, despite his best efforts to conceal it.

"You ok Jay?" Till asked looking over, "What's wrong?"

"It's just that... um..." Jay sniffled, and sobbed a bit more.

Just then Jay got an idea. It was far-fetched, but he was desperate, and Till had seemed very sympathetic towards him thus far.

"Well my parents are gonna be mad", Jay lied. His parents weren't even in town, and if they were they wouldn't care.

"I can drop you off a ways away from your house, no worries."

"But, I... I live in kind of a rough neighborhood..."

Also a blatant lie, and one that could easily come back to haunt him, but Jay didn't give a damn right now.

"Could I just stay with you tonight maybe??" Jay blurted out.

After the question was asked, they drove along quietly for a bit. Jay watched for a reaction, as the streetlights periodically lit them up every few seconds.

But there was never a doubt in TIll's mind, after the question was asked, what his answer would be. It just seemed inappropriate to respond immediately.

"OK", Till finally replied, "I got a sofa you can crash on, and you can take a shower if you want. We clean that holding cell, but it's still, well, it still gets gross."

"Thanks Till! You're a lifesaver, you really are!" Jay bubbled.

Till just smiled, downshifted, and took the Blue Mountain exit from the freeway, where 2 miles of winding road would lead them to his peaceful subdivision.

From this far out of the city, one could just start to see the brighter stars, Jay noted, as he walked up the narrow path to Till's front door from the garage. The air was cool and still, and it was very quiet in the hills.

Though he couldn't see too much of it in the darkness, it was apparent Till had a pretty nice house, and it was surrounded by lots of trees and native vegetation.

It had been a night so eventful, so unlike any other, that Jay was in a daze, just trying to stay focused on the outside world without getting lost in wonder that it had all happened.

"Jay," Till called out softly, "house is this way..."

Jay looked up and noticed he'd taken the wrong path where it had forked a few yards back, and was about to walk into a garden.

"Oh oops, " he laughed, "right, this way then..."

He jogged lightly to catch up with Till, who had already opened the door and turned on the light.

It was very cozy inside, and smelled very nice... like leather, machine oil, and Till; a richly male set of scents to take in. Which reminded Jay of his own scent...

"Hey Till, if you don't mind I'd like to take you up on that shower offer before I crash."

"Gotcha, " Till replied, and tossed him a towel from a closet.

"Front bathroom's right here, it's the one you'll want to use. Other one is a bit messy. I'm gonna get some sleep, go ahead and crash wherever you want."

Jay thanked him again profusely for letting him stay the night, and walked into the bathroom. Despite being tired, he was almost painfully excited to be nude in Till's bathroom; the fantasies flooded his mind as he stepped into the shower and washed up. He couldn't help but unsheathe his foxhood and relieve himself, careful not to make a mess on the walls.

Tired and warm and spent, he finished up and dried off as fast as possible, as he feared he might just fall asleep right there. "But that would be o.k. wouldn't it, Till did say I could crash anywhere!", Jay mused, and then the idea hit him; "I wonder if he really meant /anywhere/? "

He sat on the couch in his towel, drying off his tail, when a slightly groggy looking Till came walking out with a pillow.

"Almost forgot..." Till muttered, setting the pillow gently on the end of the sofa, and walked back into his bedroom and laid down.

A few minutes passed, as Jay sat on the couch. He was beyond much reason at this point, and he simply followed a whim, trotting lightly, but slowly, into Till's bedroom.

Till looked up and watched in the dim light as Jay laid down at the foot of his bed and curled up with the pillow and blanket he'd given him earlier.

After a bit more silence, Jay heard Till moving around a bit, and then, in a deep voice, just above a whisper, say:

"You can come up here if you want..."

Jay smiled and bounced into the bed next to Till, and laid on his side facing away from him, letting his tail drape up and over his legs.

With that, Till slid over towards the tired fox, spooning him gently, and laid one of his massive arms over him.

Jay murred the deepest, most contented murr of his entire life. He felt so safe, so secure, and so wonderfully happy in Till's arms, and he nestled back up gently against the big shepherd dog.

Till smiled to himself. He'd sure caught himself a cute one. Not something that happened every day, or year for that matter. He kissed the slightly damp fox gently on the ear, hugged him close, and drifted off to sleep.

Jay lasted a few moments longer, just taking in the moment; the warm breath on the back of his head, the strong paw resting over his chest, and the trees silhouetted in the dim starlight outside the window, before he too fell to sleep.

...

It so happens that practitioners of certain forms of magic have always held an affinity for either noon, or midnight. But one particularly strange form of magic always peaks in potential in the early morning hours, in the dark stillness between midnight and sunrise. The dream plane coalesces and intersects with our world most strongly then, liberating the souls of the sleeping from the drudgery of an orderly universe, if only for a few hours.

Till and Jay drifted around a small cabin in the midst of a vast plain of tall, skinny trees and snow. The sun was burning a deep bronze as it shone through the small gap between the tree-obscured horizon and the low, dreary clouds, fringed with gold, near the horizon. The inside of the windows had sheeted over in clear ice, thickest in the corners.

A pendulum clock on the wall ticked slowly forward, then backward, then forward again, as a light, fine snow began to fall.

Spirit runes were etched along the perimeter of the bare cabin, glowing a bright orange with electric blue accents.

Jay leaned against a window sill and peered out a clear spot in the middle of a window. Narrow as they were, the trees still held great amounts of accumulated snow in their needles and branches, enough to make some of them bow over.

Till padded silently up behind him, and hugged the fox gently around the waist and chest with his big paws. The runes on the walls rearranged themselves and glowed a crimson red. Then the cabin dissolved, followed by the snow, the ground beneath it, the sun, and the sky, and finally the runes disappeared as well, leaving Till and Jay floating through a formless void.

In light of the spirit world, the physical world is dimensionally unimpressive. In fact, the spirit realm is so intricate and beautiful that the souls of the living must block its memory to function at all during the day, trapped as they are within the confines of a body. Thoughts, logical relations, knowledge, emotions, all spiral out and between one another in all directions, in infinite dimensions.

Sleeping so close on such a calm night had brought Till and Jay to this realm together, and now they drifted through one another's spirits; immense expanses of darks and lights, pleasures and pains, order and confusion. They thought not the pained, conscientious way of the physical world, but in the meandering flow of the unbound soul, like two strands of spider's silk drifting together in an imperceptibly gentle draft.

In a few hours they would wake. The fact that they'd not remember their time together in the dream plane, in the realm of spirits, would in no way affect the connections formed as their bare souls had clung to each other that night, adrift in infinite space, attracted to one other's warmth.