The snickering of young kits arose near the jungle gym, coming from the wolf and bear standing there. The two kits were grinning as they uttered their low sneering, paws over their muzzles to try and cover up the giggles as they pointed to the tiger in front of them.

The striped feline looked back with saddened eyes, his mouth opened slightly as he wondered what their laughter was all about. He didn't exactly understand what they thought was funny. "What?" he muttered to them.

The gray wolf pup standing not too far away from him shook his head. "You seriously think you can be a dancer?" he inquired in response.

The tiger put his paws against his side defensively. "I don't think. I'm going to be one. The best one in the world, as a matter of fact. Just check out these moves."

He provided the canid and his jaguar friend with a demonstration of how well he believed his dancing was. He rolled his arms in a circle while bouncing his knees, doing that simple dance with a satisfied smile on his face, following that up by striking a pose he thought made him looked cool. Like the kind he saw the dancers he was inspired by did from time to time.

"Well?" the tiger asked.

The two kits only snickered more upon watching him. The look on the enthusiastic feline's face faded away once again.

"That's not dancing, you dork," the wolf ridiculed. "If you think whatever you were doing was dancing..." He didn't even finish what he was about to say, simply turning towards his ursid friend. "Come on. Let's leave this loser alone to do his stupid dancing."

"If that's what you call whatever that was he was doin'," added the bear in a not-so-quiet whisper to this friend.

The muttering from those two made the poor tiger cub upset, and he turned himself around to the side and sat down on the grass, trying to hide the sadness. He normally never let the words from them get under his fur, but this time was different. He first wanted to try to have just a little bit of fun before the bell rang and recess was over for him, but that fun ended for him suddenly once they came and ruined his good spirits.

I guess they're right... he thought in that moment. I guess I'm not going to be a great dancer someday.

He crossed his arms and sagged his head with his dreams being shot down by the bullies that had walked away to the other side of the school's playground. He remained there for a minute or so until he felt a russet paw touch him on the shoulder, startling him just a moment before he looked over to see who it belonged to. A few inches away stood a fox kit the same age as him, dressed in some kind of green uniform and hat. Directly to the left of the vulpine was a shorter tan fox with long ears.

"Hey," the fox said with a happy tone of voice, looking at the tiger with a sympathetic expression on his muzzle. "Don't listen to those two."

"It's hard to do that when they're always sayin' something bad," replied the feline.

"I know," responded the vulpine. "They pick on me sometimes too. Just don't let 'em see that they get to you. That's my motto."

"Yeah, you're right," the tiger muttered admittedly. Looking back over at him, he asked, "What's your name?"

"My name's Nicolas Wilde," responded the fox politely as he outstretched a paw. "But my friends just call me Nick. And next to me is my best friend, Finnick."

"Yo," chimed the fennec fox to his left, his voice much deeper than other kits his age around the school.

"What's your name?" Nick asked.

The tiger hesitantly responded, "I'm Diego. Say, what's with that outfit?"

"Oh, this?" The fox kit looked down at his shirt before returning his attention to the feline. "This here's my Junior Ranger Scouts outfit. You're lookin' at someone that's gonna be the newest member."

"Cool." The smile returned to the tiger cub named Diego, and he got up from where he was sitting in the grass and wiped himself off. "Never seen a fox in the Ranger Scouts before."

"Well, then I guess I'm just gonna have to be the first," replied Nick with confidence. "It's my dream to be one."

"My dreams to be the greatest dancer," Diego told him. "Or maybe the greatest dancer in the school so I can win the talent show, for now."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll win that. My mom always says you can do anything you put your mind to. Isn't that true, Fin?"

"For sure," agreed Finnick in his low voice.

"Yeah, but..." A sigh escaped Diego as he sagged his head once again. "I'm probably not as great as I thought I was."

"Don't listen to what those two we're tellin' ya," insisted Nick. "I'm sure you're awesome at dancing. What are some moves ya got?"

"Oh, uh... I don't know. I kinda got a routine, but it's not that good."

"How does it go?"

"Well, I kinda just do this..."

Diego turned to the side and held one arm out in front of him, swinging the other one in and out as he took steps forward. He then pumped a fist as he nodded his head and bounced his knees rhythmically, even though there was no music to go along with. He then rolled his head around with his paws on his sides before doing the same pose from before, a paw held out in front of him.

He looked back at the tod and his best friend with a shrug of his shoulders, expecting the same response he had gotten from the wolf earlier.

"Well?" he sighed. "I know, it's no good."

Nick was silent a moment before giving his thoughts. "That was so cool, dude!" he responded with sincerity.

"Y-You really think so?" inquired Diego with a hint of doubt.

The fox kit raised two fingers to use forehead and replied, "Ranger Scout's promise. How do you do that dance?"

The tiger was surprised at his question for a second. "Oh, you want me to show you?"

"Sure, dude," responded Nick. "We'd like to try that out, right, Fin?"

"Yeah," was the simple answer that came from the fennec fox.

Diego smiled once again. Not only did these two believe that he could do what he wanted to do, but they also wanted to learn his little dance. His creation that came to his mind. "Okay," he said with his self-confidence officially returning to him. "First thing you wanna do is stand straight and then turn to the side."

Nick and Finnick joined the new friend they had made and did as he told them.

"Then ya hold your arm out like this, right?" the vulpine asked as he outstretched his left arm, just as he had seen the tiger do when he did the dance for him a moment ago. He was a pretty good learner in all of his classes, so he was quick to figure out what step came next.

"Yeah," Diego answered. "Now ya take your other arm and just kinda swing it back and forth. Like this." He demonstrated before looking back at the two. "Now you try it."

Nick and Finnick tried to copy what he had shown them and ended up doing pretty good. Smiles grew on the two kits as they did so.

"Awesome, guys," the tiger complimented. "Now while ya do that, you just take some steps forward. Just step and swing. Step and swing." As they followed his movements, he smiled as well and said, "Yeah, there ya go."

"This is really fun," remarked Nick with joy.

"It is," Diego agreed. "Now make a fist and just pump it like so. Then put your paws by your ears and just roll your head slowly."

The tiger cub repeated this portion of his little dance routine, and Nick and Finnick joined in about a second off from him. The two foxes covered their pointed ears with their paws and tried their best and do what he did, doing it not as much of a rhythmic manner. Had there been a metronome ticking next to them, they wouldn't have been in tempo, but that was quite alright. They were just having fun and enjoying the remainder of recess, the best part about school in both of their opinions.

"Nice," Diego said. He then suddenly held his arm out as if he were gesturing for something walking by stop. "Now one paw out in front of ya!"

Nick and Finnick followed along with him, stopping what they were doing beforehand and flashing their paws out in front of them, showing padded palms with four fingers.

"That was pretty sweet, guys!" the tiger remarked to them a few seconds later. "You learned that pretty fast."

Nick chuckled at all the fun he had just had, turning over to Finnick a moment. "Up high!" he said to him, holding up a paw.

The shorter fox hopped up just a little bit so they could slap paws together. "That was pretty fun," he said to him.

"Glad somebody thinks my dancing's at least kinda cool," Diego said to the two kits.

"Kinda?" answered Nick. "It's awesome. I think you're gonna win that talent show comin' up."

"For sure, mammal," Finnick chimed in. "You show everyone who's boss."

Diego giggled and replied, "Thanks. You know, you guys seem pretty cool. You think we could be friends? I don't have many here."

"Sure thing," Nick said before making another salute. "Friendliness is one of the things I have as a future Ranger Scout."

The bell to the school rang loudly and echoed to where they were standing. Its rolling meant that the fun that only came at the playground during recess was coming to its close. It was back inside and to their next class for all the students outside.

"Well, I guess I gotta get goin'," Nick sighed. "The bell rang. Keep up the awesome dance moves, dude. Maybe whenever you come up with some new ones, you could show Fin and I."

Diego smiled back and said, "O-Okay. Sure."

"See ya," the fox kit replied.

With that, he and his friend Finnick started to make there way back to doors that led back into the school.

Many Years Later...

Diego glanced at himself in the mirror of the dressing room, combing the fur on the top of his head. While he looked at the muscular tiger in sparkly shorts looking back at him, he smiled as he reminisced on that moment from quite some time ago. The moment he met the two mammals that became good friends of his since they were young, the two mammals that told him to never give up on or let anybody put a damper on his dreams.

The road to where he was today wasn't exactly a smooth and simple one to walk along, but it was absolutely worth it in the end.

If someone would have told his eight-year old self that he would one day be the backup dancer for one of the most popular performers in Zootopia, he would have thought they were out of their mind.

Never in a million years did he think that this is where he would be, but all of the reaching for his goals paid out extremely well for him.

Diego stepped away from the lit mirror and slowly made his way to the door. As he walked back out to meet the other three fellow tigers who were just outside. They all were dressed in the same shirts as him and dancing along to some music playing from a tiny speaker to the side of them.

The dance they were doing, however, was not just any ordinary one. It just so happened to be the dance routine that he made his own back when he was just a cub. Turns out those simple yet groovy moves caught on when he first suggested them to the others at the start of the tour, and that was what they all did during the show ever since.

The three tigers all did the head roll move that was part of the routine perfectly in sync with each other, finishing off with them all holding their paws flatly out in front of him.

"Nice," said the tiger in the middle of the trio. Seeing that Diego had just been standing in front of them, he walked over to the speaker and shut the music off. "Hey there, Diego."

"Gettin' some last-minute before the show, huh, Adrian?" Diego asked.

The feline named Adrian chuckled and answered, "We sure are. Just might be gettin' better at the footwork than you now."

"I don't know about that," remarked Diego in reply. "I'm the one that made those moves."

"Uh-huh." Adrian grinned back at him.

The joking that was about to ensue between the two came to a stop before it could begin when the performer they were dancing for stepped into the room. In her dazzling red dress and matching heels, she looked as ready as ever to grace yet another audience with her singing.

"Es la hora del espectáculo, mis amigos," Gazelle told the group of backup dancers, clapping her hooves with anticipation for the moment they would go out on that stage.

"Alright, guys," Diego said to the crew, practically ready to burst with excitement. Even though it was the very same thing for him at every show, he still felt that same feeling of joy that came to him ever since the first one he was part of. "It's showtime."

Lead the way by Gazelle herself, he and the others walked single-file towards the steps that led to the stage at the sold-out venue. The sounds of the crowds eager for the show to start could be heard as with every slow step forward.

Author's Note: Since this Lunar New Year is the Year of the Tiger, I knew I had to write something about a tiger of some sort. And in this case, I thought it would be an interesting idea to come up with a story for tiger that's one of the dancers for Gazelle. I decided to do something different and make this little backstory that he met Nick years and years ago, since I thought that'd be a neat concept to work with.

Anyway, as always, let me know what your thoughts are on this. This one was written pretty quickly, so hopefully y'all enjoyed it. Your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.

'Til next time! :)