Anywhere But Here
A Banjo-Kazooie / Zootopia Crossover Story (feat. Kung Fu Panda)
Chapter 2: Acquaintance

He couldn't help but be ashamed of himself when Bottles had to snap him out of his daze when they actually got to the station.

Just what the heck was wrong with him?

About an hour ago, he had been excited about his blind date, but now that he was far more conscious of being away from Kazooie, something just seemed wrong. Now that he was out of the stupor and on the train to Zootopia, he began to reason with the reflection in the glass that the sudden change of pace was making him feel this way. He didn't need to worry about Kazooie because she was perfectly capable of handling herself and his younger sister. The thought of any potential desire for intimacy with the bird didn't seem quite right to him, and purely on the fact that he was on a ride to see another woman. If it had not been for the circumstances, he would have asked Kazooie to come with him altogether, but there was no way that he was going to allow Kazooie to be a third wheel - it would go against their friendship, and Kazooie's desire for her best friend's full attention.

Ironically, he was doing just that by leaving her behind. If this had been another night, the clear skies would have been perfect for star-gazing, and the breegull would have had all the attention he could give her. Since the thought occurred to him, he even began to look out the window himself, though already doing so by staring at his reflection. Turning his eyes more towards the sky, he was disappointed to find that the closer they came to the city, the harder it was to see the beautiful sky that he had so become accustom to.

Then again, if all of this worked out, the scenery wasn't going to the be only thing in his life that would change. It was this very thought that lead him to contemplate if whether or not he wanted anything to change in the first place. Just because this was going to be his first date, that didn't mean that he was oblivious to everything that could happen during one, and his knowledge thereof was because of Tooty, whom had occasionally talked his ears off about the matter. Perhaps it was for this very reason that he was grateful that they were. After all, if there was anything that he was relieved to know, it was the fact what dates actually meant - it was to determine someone's compatibility with someone of the opposite sex to see how well they would work as mates.

There was something else that he knew too, and that was the obvious protest from Kazooie's eyes that he was going to do this in the first place. Sure, she didn't exactly say it, but enough sarcastic remarks and looks told the bear everything he needed to know, and that was that Kazooie was completely against this. He understood the bird's frustration - in fact, under normal circumstances, Banjo would have thought it was weird to go to such a strange new place to meet a perfect stranger, despite the comfort of having someone he knew to accompany him. However, he also trusted Bottle's intuition about things, as he had none of his own on this subject, and believed his words when the mole strongly insisted that the girl he was about to meet will not be a disappointment.

Banjo could not prove, nor disprove, Bottles intuition at the moment - it was the prime reason that he was willing to give this stranger a chance. Who knows, maybe he'll even come to like her, and he might finally have someone to settle down with in Spiral Mountain. That, or perhaps remain in Zootopia, whichever his preferences turn out to be if the time ever comes.

That is, if the time will ever come at all.

Since the topic came to his mind, he began to wonder something else as well, such as whether or not Kazooie would approve of having another individual in the house. The bird was rather possessive, especially towards things and individuals that meant an awful lot to her. He concluded that he wouldn't have to worry about Tooty's approval, as she was open to most people like he was. However, Kazooie was not like that, but she did have her reasons, and there were situations where he was grateful for that.

However, this time, he couldn't get Kazooie's approval on who he was dating. It was cruel thinking about it that way, but the fact was that it wasn't Kazooie's place to give her approval or disapproval, unless of course he would ask her about it. He could only hope that if he and this stranger got past tonight together, the bird would come to like her, just like how Banjo started to get a warm feeling about the city when he first laid eyes on it.

Bottles had taken the liberty of explaining to him some of the basic in and outs of the location that was so heavily populated, but as the train started to come into the city, he admitted that he was caught in a different trance altogether - one of the kind of awes that came from being in complete wonder. The mole had told him that it was huge, but even when the train made its way into the city, Banjo was certain that he didn't have a complete grasp of just how large it was. Perhaps if Kazooie was with him, they could have flown into the sky and see the brilliantly lit city from the top.

That is, if Kazooie had come at all, but she wasn't here, and he would have to satisfy that genuine curiosity for another time.

So lost was the bear in his awe of the city, that he had almost forgotten to get off altogether. If it had not been for Bottles, his attentive escort, he would have been too lost in his own thoughts and shock to have continued why exactly he was there to begin with. Blushing in embarrassment towards the mole, Banjo was able to proceed to get off of the train with him, along with hundreds of other animals. There were some that reminded him of his friends, but others were of the like that he had never seen before - some rather remarkable, whiles others just plainly unusual.

He never thought that there was such a place full of so many wonders and so many mammals. Banjo was ashamed when he began to fancy the idea even more of having Kazooie with him. It was the realization that he was constantly thinking about her that made him shut his thoughts into the back of his mind. He will have to insist Kazooie to join him later, but for now, he was in the place were anyone can be anything and he had made up his mind that he was going to meet the girl who went through so much trouble of meeting him.

Being lead by Bottles, the bear began to make his way through the entrance of the train station, occasionally looking around at the wonders around him, such as a juice joint that had acacia juice for giraffes - even a system that shot their drinks to their ecstatic heights. Even over on his right, there was an entire system specifically for hamsters and the smaller folk, proving to Banjo that he was not the smallest mammal here in a place with animals so tall as the giraffe and ones so mighty like the lion that he had seen just a few minutes ago.

Seeing everything around him so different made him beyond surprised, but at the same time, it made him long for something familiar, like the missing back pack he had grown so accustom to wearing, and the bird that normally took her place inside of it.

This time he shut his eyes tightly for a second - stop thinking about Kazooie - you have a date to get to. He blamed his surroundings for wanting something familiar... well... someone familiar. Remembering that he had Bottles with him, he opened up his eyes and tried to be content with that. Lucky for the mole, he wanted to get the bear's attention anyway, and turned to look at him as they left the train station area, and into their first corner of town.

"Well, we're here," the mole said, earning the bear's full attention.

"But where is she?" Banjo asked, puzzled and looking around, "I don't see..."

He had to stop himself from asking his question, for within about a bow-shot away, there was another mole that looked a lot like Bottles, yet that didn't matter because the bear remembered seeing him before. It was on previous information at a family reunion that Banjo knew that this was Bottle's distant relative. However, that mole was at the corner of his eye - who the bear was actually looking at was a stunning bear beyond the likes he could have imagined seeing in his life. Brown in fur, like himself, curly locks of pure ebony formed around her face, going a little past her shoulders, with a red rose (be it real or fake) pinned neatly into her hair. A red dress that was as far as her knees clad her body spectacularly well, making her natural curves that much noticeable. Like him, her eyes (the color of emeralds) were returning the gaze, making Banjo almost not notice how hard he was blushing, or how close she was to him when they came within earshot to meet.

Only the voice of Bottle's distant relative shook him out of his stupor.

"Hello Bottles, Banjo," he said, "Welcome to Zootopia. May I present a good friend of the family?"

"Y-Yes, of course," Banjo stammered, holding out his paw to bid her welcome, "I'm Banjo."

A gentle smile formed on the female bear's face, extending her own paw into his own, clasping her fingers around his paw in order to do a proper, and firm shake.

"Pleased to meet you," she said in a sweet voice like honey, "My name is Hannah."

Banjo couldn't help himself but smile.

There was something about her hand shake that made him feel better about the whole idea of a blind date.

He had a good feeling about this.

Indeed, he had a really good feeling about this.

Artist's Comments:

And there go introductions... at one-thousand, seven-hundred, and ninety-nine words. Honestly, what's wrong with me today? I'm much better at getting this word count thing. Oh well, the idea seems to do well within itself. It is a phase chapter after all - just to get the necessary greetings out of the way.

Now, I do have a confession to make. In a way, Hannah isn't one-hundred percent original. I got the idea of what the female bear was going to look like from an OC I kept running across when I tried to find fanfiction on Bazzoie (BanjoxKazooie). After finally looking into it, I found out that the name of the OC is Grace, made by Fantasyofthedark94 on DeviantArt. There isn't much on her in regards to background story - only that she falls in love with Banjo, Banjo likes her back, and they eventually have two kids (Elsa and Bobby). She also has this 'annoying' lizard pet, but not really much of anything on him either. I think Kazooie gets someone too, but I didn't care enough to look into see whether or not the artist did artwork on Kazooie's love interest.

Since I didn't care too much about the OC, while at the same time not wanting to wait to get permission from the artist to use her, I decided that I was going to make another OC altogether specifically for this story that lightly references to the original inspiration. Since that included using a different name altogether, I did research to find another name that had the same meaning as the original name, and I came across Hannah, which means grace. Perhaps this is unusually low of me, but for the record, I don't really care, especially since it's three-o-clock in the morning.

Now that I have my confession out of the way, time to move on to chapter three.