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Hello all. AkaneKitty here, back with another chapter of Happy Hour.

After a long workday, Commander Feral and Callie discuss Felina, Gabriel, and their own relationship as well...

Author's note: First of all, thank you for the reviews! And welcome Bladestar! I've been enjoying writing these, as their just short little stories. As before, written in a day. I'm using these to test myself. I think I'm going through a creativity spurt...

This one, focusing on Callie and Feral's relationship, is a little short. I didn't want to pad this too much. This relationship is based off another story I've tinkered with called "Just a Dance", where Feral buys a date with Callie at a charity event for fifty thousand dollars. Their relationship here is based off how they had found out things about each other that they like, and it goes from there. Maybe it'll come out later.

Oh, and I did give a brief mention to one of my other stories. See if you can catch it.

As always, I welcome any comments or questions at FFN or through my e-mail.

Enjoy!

-AkaneKitty

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Happy Hour:

Midnight Magic

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"There. Finished at last."

Freshly showered, hair tied up, and wearing her favorite short, pink kimono wrap robe, Callie poured herself a glass of white wine. It was way past midnight, and she had just finished writing and proofing numerous MegaKat City budget reports. Callie hoped the wine would lure her to sleep. She guessed a shot of hard liquor could do the job as well. Too bad Felina raided her bar last week. She didn't have the time to replace it.

Callie was just settling down into her favorite overstuffed chair when she heard her condominium's front door open and slam shut just seconds later. There was only one kat could get past the lazy doorkat downstairs and the passkey required elevator. The grumbling and the cursing only confirmed it.

"Damn federal bureaucrats! If they ever step foot in MegaKat City, I swear to Kataluna that I will kick each of their tails myself! And I don't give a damn about the fucking consequences! I have friends in high places, too!"

Callie could only chuckle at Feral's diatribe He was certainly fired up.

"Jurisdictional cooperation, my tail!" Commander Feral stormed to Callie's living room, and began shedding his uniform's overcoat. He tossed it onto the arm of Callie's couch. "They want to send federal agents into my city so they can claim all the credit, but if something goes wrong it's suddenly my problem? Bullshit!"

Callie sipped her wine, waiting for Feral to pause his ranting and come up for air. "Good morning, Ulysses. Hard day at the office?"

"You could say that." Feral, anger quickly subsiding after he focused on Callie's soothing voice, loosened his tie. "Got anything to drink? I need it."

Callie held up her glass, but Feral shook his head. "There's some beer in the fridge."

"Thanks."

Callie shook her head as Feral proceeded to the kitchen. "Nice of you to drop by so early in the morning."

"I wanted to get away from Headquarters, so it was either here or my home in MegaKat Springs." Feral suck his head into Callie's fridge. "So I took a chance that you might still be up. Either working on one of Manx's speeches, or something else."

"...Am I that predictable?"

"Mmm, hmm. You might want to change that, dear. For safety sakes." Feral stood up after retrieving a couple of beers. He glanced at the label. "Hey, this is Felina's brand."

"Yep. She stopped by here last week, very happy with herself. She quickly abandoned the beer and raided my bar."

"Felina? Happy?" Feral realized that he had been out of touch with his niece for too long. He was buried under too much work to check in with her. "About what?"

"Some kat she happened to run into." Callie folded her legs underneath herself as she settled into her overstuffed chair. "His name was Gabe? Gabriel?"

"Gabriel Leon?"

"That's it."

"Ah. No wonder she was happy. 'Jericho' is back in town." Feral walked back into Callie's living room and threw himself onto her couch. He twisted off the cap of one of the beers. "Although, I wonder why he hasn't talked to me yet..."

"Is he supposed to?"

"If he values his nine lives and what's left of our friendship, he will." Feral took a pull from his beer. "But, I will give him the benefit of the doubt this one time. If he's in deep cover, he can't risk talking to me right now."

"Felina's commando, huh..." Callie placed her wine glass down onto her end table. "She made him sound dangerous when we talked."

"He is. He's a specialist in the art of war."

"And Felina's in love with him...though she wouldn't admit it."

"She won't. Call it Feral stubbornness. She was very hurt when he cheated on her and it almost ruined our friendship." Feral finished his first beer. He started in on the other. "I told him to beg for her forgiveness and maybe someday she'll forgive him. Else, she'd just kick his tail."

"She also said it was supposed to be a one time thing this time around." Callie smiled. "I doubt it."

Feral smirked and finished his beer. "Like how we were supposed to be?"

"It was supposed to be a one night stand."

"Is that how you planned it?"

"I did no such thing." Callie played with her hair, obviously enjoying recalling the moment. "But, I wasn't planning on the afterglow to be that good."

"So it was good for you as it was for me, hmm?"

"Would I brag about your performance that night to Mr. Minutekat if it wasn't?" Callie sat back in her chair. "Consider that a repayment for saving me from a terrible date with Mr. Thomason."

"What about the elevator?" Feral, still smirking, swung his legs off the couch. "Or the Towers?"

"The Towers was just blowing off steam. And consider the former a bonus."

"For my fifty thousand dollar investment?" Feral took a moment to stretch his neck. "Is that what you think?"

"A fifty thousand dollar donation, dear." Callie corrected him. "For a worthy cause, I must add."

"So I see." Feral stood up and proceeded toward Callie's bedroom. "Too bad I don't think I got my money's worth."

"Where are you going?"

"To a place you'll know where to find me."

Callie smiled in spite of herself. "What happened to romance?"

Feral laughed. A real laugh.

"It came in the form of a fifty thousand dollar check."