It was a nervous night for Kalentiri. He was on a blind date. All the rat knew was that the person was a she. Any other information was left to the imagination. The restaurant itself was fairly busy with more coming in, he hoped his date got here soon. He didn’t want to give up the nice seat that he worked hard to ensure the wait staff gave him! The window gave him an excellent view of the moon and the stars. The cool grey furred rat was a little nervous, but he tried not to show it as he sat at the table. The place chosen was informal enough that he left his hoodie on, not wanting her to see that he was chubby and let her think it was just the baggy hoodie.

A cough forced him to look up. And there she was. She was stunning. A dark purple hair, nice chocolate brown eyes and a killer smile. Literally. She was a tiger after all. Tiri couldn’t help himself. He stared. Especially at the heart shape between her eyes. It looked like was something added on, but on her it looked completely naturally. 

“Are you Kalentiri…?”

He gulped and looked up. His rodent instinct told him to run. But she was too lovely to do so. And he was too nice. So for now, he got up and adjusted his hoodie after a wipe of his hands. He walked over to her, noticing how much taller she was than him. Tiri didn’t let that stop him. He took her handpaw into his and kissed it.

“I am Kalentiri but yes most people call me Tiri. Very rarely Kale.”

He wasn’t trying to sound so hotty or upper crust. It was had for him to let out so much as a squeak sometimes around this woman. It was pure instinct, as he was a smaller rodent. His fur was getting a little wet with sweat as his eyes darted around before Tiri grabbed his water and gulped it down.

“Nice to meet you, Tiri. I’m Alexis but most of my friends call me Ace.”

“Oh? From the eighties version of that one show?”

She took a piece of bread, he noticed, as they both looked for a server. The people that set up this date had agreed to a place that sold burgers at least as long as it wasn’t McFatties or Blendies. Eventually a young looking fox came over. They both ordered the biggest burger, a extra fries and a soft drink. 

“Comes from when I was a male. I was the pitcher of my high school baseball team, and a wide receiver for my football team. So I was an Ace.” 

He nods, eating a piece of bread himself. The noise of the restaurant made it kind of hard to think, though not to hear. He wasn’t really trying to stall. Just Kalentiri wasn’t very good at conversations, especially with people that he just met. The rodent knew it made things awkward but it was all he could do not to apologize to her. For once, the smart ass he was wasn’t coming out. 

“So you’re transgender? Cool! I mean my friends said you were diffe..”

He stopped when he saw her staring at him. Now the rodent was worried that he had overstepped some kind of boundary. Instead she took his hand in hers and squeezed. It was right about there that he knew she was the one.  Alex smiled at him.

“I’m different. I know. It’s not a big deal. I embrace it rather than run from it.”
He nodded, not really sure what more to say. It was about then that their dinner came. Alex put extra ketchup on her burger while Tiri put mustard on his. They looked at each other a moment before they dug in.

“What about you? Any sports?”

“Oh, well I like to swim when I can. Bowling is fun too. I mostly prefer cards or board games and driving. It helps me relax. I’m not the athletic kind really.”

He patted his stomach to indicate why. Tiri knew he was chubby, and mostly didn’t care but the thought of the tigress seeing him in such a manner was embarrassing. He watched her sit back with a French fry and giggle a little bit.

“Hey, not everyone needs to be seven foot tall and muscular. Look at history. Babe Roo was portly and how many homeruns did he hit? There’s a player for the Tigers that’s kinda...big. He’s a major league baseball player. There’s a couple of basketball players and a golfer. So you’re fine. You do you. Besides that...”

She takes his hand again after putting the fry into her mouth. Alex watched him to make sure he was staring at her. The rat didn’t know what to do, worried about what she might do before relaxing.

“Looks don’t matter. It’s about personality. That’s all that really matters. And you’ve got personality, even if for some reason you’re trying to hide it from me. All of our mutual friends speak highly of you. I think we can take this to date number after this.”

The night continued with that. He started to come out of his shell more and more as the night progressed. She laughed, and almost joked on her Coke from the jokes he told. They both ordered desert to finish the night off and then agreed to meet the next day for a bowling date.