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Gazelle loved performing, it was her favorite thing in the entire world. She loved the adrenaline rush, the feeling of being connected with the crowd like she was a part of something bigger than herself. Afterwards, she usually spent some time meeting her fans, and by the time she got back to the tour bus, her dancers were all already there. Two of the tigers were on the couch, one of them lying so that her feet were in the other one’s lap. The tiger was gently massaging her feet for her.
“Gazelle, come sit down, I’ll do you next,” she said, but Gazelle smiled and declined. Last time she’d taken her up on the offer, she’d had bruises down her legs. It didn’t matter if the tiger tried to be gentle, she was used to massaging her fellow dancers.
“I think I’ll just go change and visit Sally,” Gazelle said.
“What happened to Gabriel?”
“I can’t do men anymore. He was awful,” Gazelle said, making a face.
“What did he do? Do you need us to pay him a visit?” she asked. Gazelle laughed.
“What are you going to do, dance at him?” she asked, not unkindly.
“We can look intimidating if we want to! What did Gabriel do?”
“Smelled my urine.”
“He did what?”
“It’s a gazelle thing. I’m not into it. I’m going to tell Sally tonight. How I feel about her, I mean.” Gazelle said. One of the tigers laughed about the urine but the other one hit her to make her shut up.
“Good luck!” she said, and Gazelle walked back to the bedroom to change into something more comfortable. She opened the doors only to see her other two backup dancers locked in a passionate embrace. She couldn't tell if they were naked or not, because their shorts blended in so well with their natural markings, but she looked away before she had a chance to really find out. They were very noisy, which thankfully muffled her footsteps so that they didn’t even notice her come in.
Gazelle grabbed a new outfit and taking it into the bathroom to change. She put on a sweatshirt that she was pretty sure belonged to one of them, not her, but it was big enough that it made her figure unrecognizable which was all she wanted. Gazelle zipped it up and headed out into the night.
She made her way across the city to the small lake in the warmer section of Tundratown, and knelt down in the snow. She had brought a wetsuit with her, and she took off her clothes, her back turned to the lake, and slipped it on. Thankfully there was no one around, or else she would have seen naked photos of herself on every entertainment gossip blog by morning.
“Hey! How was your show!” Sally said, flopping up onto the shore. The seal smiled, her cute face making Gazelle’s heart melt.
“It was good, but I was thinking of you the whole time,” Gazelle said. Sally stood up and Gazelle leaned down so that they could be at the same level. She kissed Sally, feeling her smile as their lips met.
“Come on, get in here with me,” Sally said, taking Gazelle’s hand and pulling her into the water with her, laughing and splashing. It was freezing, but with the wetsuit on, and with Sally there distracting her, Gazelle didn’t even notice. The two of them, here together, was what Gazelle looked forward to each day. Sometimes Sally came to her, and then Gazelle kicked out her dancers and they had the tour bus to themselves, but sometimes Gazelle came to Sally, and though she was wearing a wetsuit, she could make Sally feel good and that felt nice too. At first, her dancers kept telling her that she and Sally wouldn’t work out, and she should stay with Gabriel, but eventually they saw how much she cared for Sally. If anyone could make a cross-species relationship work, it was them, and even though Gazelle wasn’t really ready to go public yet, she wasn’t ashamed. She just didn’t want to expose Sally to the pitfalls that came with being rich and famous. Gazelle had never felt this way with anyone before.
“I love you, Sally,” Gazelle whispered as they came up for air.
“I love you too, Gazelle.” Sally replied. In each other’s arms, in a cold lake in the middle of nowhere, with the moon shining brightly in the night sky above them, Gazelle thought this was the happiest she had ever been in her entire life.