Ch 46: Paging Doctor Beat
“Are you sure that’s what happened? Sounds like you may have had a seizure or something.”
Lirya idly chewed on the end of her straw, having been staring into the eyes of Nurse Shugart the entire time she had been speaking. When the words came to a stop, she perked up her ears, eyebrows raised. “Do what?”
Shugart snorted with a snark of her lips, something that Lirya was really beginning to like every time she did it. “A seizure. If you had a sudden lapse in memory and such vivid hallucinations, you may have very well had a stress-induced seizure.”
That wouldn’t explain the cloth… Lirya thought to herself, glancing towards Mohki’s pocket as the brown fur munched on some chicken wings beside her. “I suppose… but it felt too real.”
“They can sometimes feel real,” Shugart explained, stirring the straw in her margarita. She had invited Lirya and Mohki to a cowboy bar on the eatery floor of the mall, figuring the two would be quite hungry. She was a little annoyed that Mohki kept checking her data-slate and giving her odd little looks, but the attention from Lirya was a bit infectious.“Things can feel so real that it can actually replace itself as an entire memory in your brain, leading to symptoms that can match up with bipolar disorder.”
Mohki gave a snort of her own, then a quiet giggle as she set down a cleaned set of chicken bones. “Lirya is not bipolar.”
Both Nurse Shugart and Lirya looked at her, both waiting for more information. Mohki clicked her teeth as she leaned her head towards Lirya, the music just loud enough to require shouting or shorter range.
“How far have you gotten through all the information from the data-cache?” Mohki asked, picking up a fresh chicken wing with her padded fingers.
Lirya looked up in thought. “Uhhmm… three quarters of the way through?”
Mohki held up her chicken wing like a piece of chalk, making little wave-like motions in the air. “According to the traditions of our record keeping, ancient Blackmoon elders spoke of truly magnificent white furs that were able to tap into the Frunri-”
“The hell is a Frunri?” Shugart asked, furrowing her brows at the alien word before taking a sip of her margarita.
Lirya leaned towards her, whispering “memory weave” politely before sitting back in her chair and looking to Mohki with a perky smile.
Shugart made a noise in her throat, continuing to drink as she glanced to Mohki.
“Anyway, they were able to kind of look into the Frunri and live within the old memory for a time, reading secrets from books over shoulders, or listening in on conversations hundreds of years old if they were truly skilled.” Mohki said excitedly, clearly showing her interest in her voice the longer she spoke. “I’m talking old conversations or events, reading history and time as if it were nothing more than a book they could pick up at any time!”
Lirya’s mouth gaped open a few inches as she stared at Mohki, blinking rapidly as everything clicked into place within her mind.
To both of the Kafya’s surprise, Shugart let out an “mmm!” of understanding as well, snapping her fingers as she set down her drink.
“Oh that’s dangerous!” Shugart exclaimed, pointing a finger at Lirya. “That means people of her color could instantly go and find lies if something sounded fishy!”
Mohki nodded. “Which is very dangerous to any kind of government that seeks control.”
“... And how a tyrannical government could find a holdout of white furs that had thought they were hidden…” Lirya whispered, slowly setting down her french fry that she had picked up while Mohki spoke. “How they were able to find exactly where I was on Fort Benning, right down to the gym location…”
—
“Does that track?” Skooma asked, looking up at Sparkle Otter. “How is that possible? No one can look into time, not unless they were-”
“Going the speed of light, or faster.” Washu interrupted, shaking his digital head. “Our skip travel only works because we are ‘technically’ slipping between a thin void between our world and the world we collide with when we erupt a remnant node. We do not actually travel along light, and it is the squeezing of the two realms that causes all the heat.”
Sparkle Otter narrowed her digital eyes, watching Lirya through the security camera they had all hacked into. “Then how the hell can a living being see into the history of time and light? Especially when light only travels in one direction?”
“Perhaps through… moonlight.” Oballen mused with a smile, generating a disgusted groan from Sparkle Otter.
“Memories from moonlight!” Whirler cried out with a giggle, spinning around on her digital toes. “Through the glow of the now, to the shine of the then!”
Skooma looked back at Washu, gesturing towards the screen. “It was in the data-cache, sure, but it read to me like standard living-being mysticism. There is no way to actually look into the past, just as it is impossible to travel faster than light unless using the Dedorik Effect.”
“Nor can you see light during activation of the Dedorik Effect, as there is no true light in the in-between.” Washu agreed with a nod. “What the brown furred Kafya speaks of is… impossible. It doesn’t qualify for improbable, either. There is no data or known knowledge to back up what she is saying.”
Sparkle Otter wound the multiple open windows backwards, taking them back to a critical moment inside the jump room. “And yet, we are left with his mystery.”
Sparkle Otter zoomed in on Lirya’s harness, devoid of any foreign materials as she sat down.
“No cloth!” Whirler said, pointing eagerly to Lirya’s parachute rig. “And thennn!”
Sparkle Otter wound it forward, Lirya standing up mechanically as if she were not inside her mind or body and going through the ready-checks.
Then, the recording camera had a small, instantaneous stutter, the blink of an eye, and the cloth was right there, plain as day in her harness.
“Cloth!” Whirler cried out, rapidly pointing at the screen. “Right there! Nothing living or dead can move that fast! Not even me!”
Washu grimaced at the screen, just as he had done the first time. “Impossible… just, impossible.”
“Yet.” Oballen said darkly, also staring up at the recording with narrowed digital eyes. “And, yet.”
Sparkle Otter shut down all the screens, sitting down mid air in a seat that was not there. “This doesn’t make any sense… but if it is true, everything makes sense…”
“Should I run this up to the boss lady?” Skooma asked, placing all the files into a neat folder in his hands.
Sparkle Otter rubbed at her digital temples with a hand, then nodded.
—
“It’s possible, but those kind of Kafya are rare!” Mohki said, holding out her hands as she began to mildly geek out. “One in billions! Maybe one in a million can tap into a recent memory, or perhaps be able to read off-shoot thoughts of the mind, but to be able to read time like that? Like you may have?! One in billions of an already rare fur color!”
Shugart watched Lirya closely now, the white fur’s lips turning down into a frown and her ears falling.
“You would think learning that you are one in a krillion would make you smile.” Shugart said quietly, her blonde-gray hair falling across her rain-blue eyes strand by slow strand. “You don’t look like that is making you happy.”
Lirya looked up quickly to Shugart, forcing a smile onto her face as she struggled with her emotions. “Oh, it’s great! It’s just… I…”
Lirya gazed at Shugart as the answers to her questions fluttered across her mind like snowflakes falling in a dead wind. She had always wondered why her fur color was hated so, and to learn it was due to an implanted hatred by design…
“Lirya?” Mohki asked quietly, slowly setting down her chicken wing.
The answers continued to slowly settle into place for Lirya; She was not hated, she was feared. They were feared for what they may be able to do, to find out, to root out and bring to the light.
The Elder Councils must have sought control at one point or another, but it is hard to seize control from an element of your race that could see through lies. That required the surgical removal of that element, like an organ that the body no longer wanted.
Instead of living and coexisting with the white furs, they instead wanted to make sure that the chances of someone like Lirya being able to live was near zero.
Spread fear of the white fur, seize control, then use their own culture to breed hatred, disgust, and the need to despise such a color as she.
All to make sure the truth could never come to light.
Eradicate the white fur, keep them under control, remove the rogue elements that could risk the awful reality becoming known.
“I know what you need.” Shugart said abruptly, setting down her margarita glass and standing up.
Lirya shook her head roughly with a shake of the ears, the sudden movement jerking her from her thoughts. “W-, who, what?”
“You need a visit from Doctor Beat.” Shugart said matter of factly, and pulled Lirya’s chair away from the table with a scoot of wooden leg to floorboard.
Mohki looked as confused as Lirya, her ears perked. “Doctor… Beat?”
“Paging Doctor Beat!” Shugart called out, gently pulling Lirya out of her chair and holding her hand in the air with her own. She walked Lirya to a small dance area of polished wood, and people turned to watch.
Someone in the staff room of the bar pressed a button, and the music changed abruptly as a new track was put into place.
“Dance The Night” clicked onto the speakers, and with a shouting laugh of joy, quite a few other diners hopped up from their tables.
Confused, Lirya looked around in alarm before Nurse Shugart twirled Lirya around with a swish of her white tail, then took both of her pawed hands in her own Human ones.
Shugart smiled broadly at Lirya as she then began to dance, a simple step that Lirya quickly adapted to with a nervous smile of her own.
“There we go!” Shugart laughed as she gave Lirya a few more twirls, finally pulling a giggle from the white fur. “Looks like Doctor Beat’s medicine is working!”
Mohki, smiling with relief that Nurse Shugart was able to quickly rally Lirya, startled when a Human man in cowboy boots and jeans walked up to her, holding out his hand.
“Want to dance?” He asked, his smile bright, and likely a soldier judging by his haircut.
“I uh…” Mohki began, then pointed at herself before rapidly wiping at her fingers and lips to remove the wing sauce on her fur. “Wait, me? Really?”
He shrugged. “Why not? If you dance half as well as you eat chicken wings, I’m in for a treat!”
Mohki’s ears quickly went rigid as she snorted in embarrassment, hiding her nose behind a pawed hand as she laughed.
She did not, however, refuse the offer, walking with the Human to the dance floor as Lirya let out a laugh out of her own.
As “Good Luck, Babe!” played over the speakers, Lirya’s mind cleared itself with the sound of Shugart’s laugh in her ears, and the reflection of her bright smile in Lirya’s black eyes.
Lirya didn’t know why, but for some reason the Human always hit her like a tincture, pushing away the bad thoughts and keeping her mind in the current good… and that made her rather reluctant to let the feeling go away.
Unknown to Lirya, Shugart had tested this theory quite a few times, giving Lirya the chance to release her pawed fingers with a lightening of her grip.
Lirya, however, never let go, so Shugart didn’t either.
As the music played, Mohki dancing with the Human man behind them, Shugart leaned in towards Lirya as they moved a little close together.
“Have you been trying to get into the hospital all this time just to see me again?” Shugart quietly shouted near Lirya’s ear, causing the white fur’s ears to go a little more rigid as she smiled bashfully. “The other nurses were talking about it and taking bets. Dr. Killjoy thought you were wonder-”
“Yes she has!” Mohki shouted as she was swung past the two by the Human man, the two laughing gruffly as they went by. “Tyllia figured it out!”
Her hearing was still far better than anyone else’s, just something that brown furs have always been known for. Tyllia also liked to gossip, and had been warning Mohki the entire time after Shugart asked them to the cowboy bar.
“Mohki!” Lirya giggle-shouted at the brown fur as they went flying by, which made Shugart laugh.
“Why?” Shugart asked with a flirtatious tilt of her head, her hair falling over her eyes in a way that always made Lirya’s heart purr in her chest.
She was holding Lirya so close that there was barely any space between them, moving a little slower as “Dreams” took over the speakers around them.
Lirya shrugged shyly with a shoulder, happily letting her hands rest on Shugart’s shoulders as the Human’s rested on her hips. “I don’t know… I just… you make me feel funny!”
“I make a lot of people feel funny! I give them drugs, remember?” Shugart replied, which made Lirya grin.
As a pair of Pwah went dancing by, following the beat of the song in their own flowing, smooth-step of a Pwah gait, Shugart moved herself and Lirya towards a quieter corner of the dancer floor.
First, so they could talk, and two, to avoid the Kojynn doing the double-armed lawn mower to impress a Lilgaran woman.
“So what is it?” Shugart asked, stepping forward to remove any space at all and resting her forearms on Lirya’s hips, a sensation that made the Kafyan’s skin shiver. “Shouldn’t you be interested in some strapping Human male? Like Mohki over there.”
Lirya followed Shugart’s nod to see Mohki rolling her shoulders and grooving with the man as “Too Sweet” cranked above them on the speakers.
Lirya pressed her lips together with a short shake of her head, looking back into Shugart’s eyes. “I don’t know, I just… I never…”
“They don’t make you feel some kind of way?”
“Not like you do...”
“Never found a nice Kafyan man?”
Lirya puffed air out of her nose, giving her head another shake.
Shugart raised her eyebrows. “Oh, I see now. Kafyan women?”
Lirya shook her head again, then giggled sheepishly when Shugart raised an eyebrow.
“Just me then? How curious.” Shugart mused, giving Lirya’s hips a squeeze with her forearms and making the Kafya giggle. “No living being across the stars caught your eye until you got to my hospital? I find the odds rather interesting…”
“There’s nothing curious about it! You’re just… interesting.” Lirya admitted, wrapping her arms around Shugart’s neck so she could idly play with the Human’s blonde-gray hair with her padded fingers. “It’s not like my own people really saw me as anything more than… some… thing that they had to deal with…”
This tale has been pilfered from NovelPhoenix. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“I think I know a way to see how curious it can be.” Shugart said quietly with a smile that Lirya couldn’t place, cocking her head to the speakers as they changed to a different song. “Just do what I do, and we’ll see how your heart reacts.”
An older tune, by Earth standards, “Work From Home” was considered one of the many Human songs that made a lot of non-Humans flush in the cheeks. Not to mention a lot of non-Humans would listen to the song in private, with the doors closed, and likely not out loud. This pattern was a continuous affliction with Human music, as no other species had a way with words that Humans could smith, their music able to uplift, soothe, or make other species feel rather funny about their reproductive regions.
There was also the issue of “Watermelon Sugar” causing a small orgy on a far away station on the fringe of the arm, an insectoid species making it their “call to duty” song whenever egg laying season comes around.
“Work From Home” caught Lirya off guard when she heard the song come onto the speakers at first, but her heart gave an awful whirl when Shugart stepped forward into her, their chests coming together and the Human lightly resting her forehead against Lirya’s own furry one.
Having had as much intimate contact as a door hinge in her life, the squish of Shugart’s tattooed breasts pressing onto her own nearly took Lirya out at the knees. She managed to remain standing upright with a light wobble of legs on unsteady feet, and swallowed hard in her throat as her nerves quickly unraveled.
Lirya’s mouth parted in an awkward smile as Shugart began to slowly move her body from the hips, lightly rubbing their stomachs together. Both of their shirt hems began to slowly rise with the friction, smooth, tattooed Human skin sliding across creamy, white Kafyan fur crisscrossed with old scars.
Despite the fast tempo of the song, Shugart kept the movements slow and deliberate, Lirya finding it rather interesting how the sway of her hips was still peaking at the major beats.
Lirya found the sudden arrival of Shugart’s hand down by the base of her tail a little more interesting, the other in the middle of her back as their thighs moved in constant contact with each other.
It was a curious feeling that Lirya had never had the pleasure of experiencing before, intimate connection through touch having never been a real avenue she had been able to explore. Sure, she hugged her parents in private where no one could see, but it was nothing like the fire that Shugart set under her skin.
Lirya slid her eyes over to Mohki, and her eyes widened with embarrassment as she saw Mohki dancing in a… similar way, though Framing Hanley’s “Lollipop” cover had sharply changed how she was dancing.
As well as the change of her and her dance partner facing the same direction, with Mohki dancing in front of him while his hands were placed on her stomach.
The scent of Shugart’s strawberry margarita flavored breath hot in her nose, the feeling of her breasts sliding against hers, and the feeling of their shirts sliding up near their belly buttons had Lirya’s blood bubbling in a way that was… far different than the jumps from before.
It was a giddy, excited feeling that made her fingers tremble and her shoulders quiver, that made her hips move in time with Shugarts and her breath quicken.
Lirya’s heart roared in her chest like the engine of a voidship when Shugart noticed Lirya staring at Mohki, then let out a husky laugh as she turned in Lirya’s arms. The larger seat of Shugart’s jeans found itself in a rather intriguing place due to their slight height difference, and Lirya was suddenly not sure what to do with her hands.
At a loss, she wrapped them around Shugart’s hips, hanging on for dear life as the Human woman leaned against Lirya and reached behind with a hand, running her fingers through Lirya’s long, snow-gray hair.
Her face was so close to Lirya’s as she leaned back, that she could feel the Human’s nose against her cheek. Lirya’s breath caught in her throat, Shugart grinning at her with hooded eyes as she engaged the stomach muscles under Lirya’s trembling fingers and began to grind the plush seat of her jeans against the Kafya behind her.
Lirya had seen Humans do this in a few recordings that she had watched in private, her own little personal foray into Human social tendencies, but to feel it in person was otherworldly. There was this tickle somewhere below her stomach that coiled like a snake under her flesh, her body felt so hot that she was surprised she hadn’t melted into a puddle at Shugart’s feet by now, and she kept having this barbaric urge to drag her claws against Shugart’s stomach muscles and leave marks…
Shugart gently pulled Lirya’s face into her neck and shoulder, Lirya breathing in deep with lowered eyelids as the feeling of it all overwhelmed her. Shugart’s deliberate motions made her ears so stiff that they throbbed with the beating of Lirya’s racing heart, the smell of the Human woman’s skin made her head feel fuzzy, and that snake under her belly coiled and writhed with an eager-pleasure that she had never felt before in her life.
At the crescendo of the music, Shugart grinned with bright teeth at Lirya as she continued to grind against her, moving her mouth closer to Lirya’s lips.
This is it! Lirya screamed in her mind, having seen enough Human romance movies to know what was coming, and kept her lips slightly parted as she waited for Shugart’s to touch them with her own.
Then the music stopped, and everyone began to clap.
“How did that feel?” Shugart asked with a happy breathlessness, spinning back around in front of Lirya with a cheerful bounce on her heels.
“... What?” Lirya said flatly as her eyelids fluttered open, blinking rapidly as she stood frozen in place. “What happened? W-Where is the music?!”
“Oh, the music is all done,” Shugart said, giving Lirya’s hips a wiggle as she nodded sideways at the digital clock on the wall. “They only play a few songs so people can eat.”
“But… b-but!” Lirya stammered, her fur frayed out and ears so stiff they throbbed with an aching pulse. “B-but! No!”
Mohki, further crashing the party, swallowed the two with a large embrace, breathing fast and ears flushed rigid. “Holy shit that was fun! And I got that guy’s number, look!”
Lirya side-eyed the piece of paper near her face in Mohki’s hand, her heart still thudding in her face as she felt the awful reality seep into her veins.
She had missed her moment.
“Ffffuck.” Lirya hissed, causing Shugart to burst out in a loud giggle and Mohki to look at her, confused. She looked back at the speakers, pointing at them. “C-Can’t we just make them do the music again?!”
Shugart shook her head, turning Lirya by the hips so she could view the cool down clock. “Nope, hour long cool down after someone calls for Doctor Beat.”
“... We can’t… call for Doctor Beat again?” Lirya asked, crestfallen.
“Sorry pussy cat, Doctor Beat only makes house calls every hour.” Shugart replied, bumping the side of her hip against Lirya’s. “Come on, let’s finish our food before it gets cold!”
Lirya let out an anguished exhale, the numbers ticking down on the counter and thwarting her desires to reestablish the docking procedure she was hoping their lips would complete.
“Aren’t they more like foxes though?” Someone murmured as Lirya walked by a table, having overheard Shugart’s comment.
Her head so fuzzy and warm that it felt like a hive of bees were making a home in her brain, Lirya mechanically finished her dinner with numb fingers. As she ate, listening to Mohki talking to Shugart about her favorite music, Lirya would catch the eyes of Shugart with her own.
There was something behind those rain-water eyes now, a kind of understanding that made the snake in her belly strike at her nerves and send a shiver up her spine. It almost felt like a game, now, trying to sneak little looks at each other without getting caught.
Lirya lost this game, a lot, whether it was getting caught looking down into Shugart’s tattooed cleavage, or getting snared by her eyes as Lirya tried to take in her face.
Mohki, too juiced up by dancing with the male Human, didn’t manage to notice a single time where Shugart smiled smugly, or Lirya flushing and looking away. By the time they had finished their dinner, Lirya had found control of herself and cooled her nerves, walking in between Mohki and Shugart as they made their way towards the exit of the mall.
“Hey Mohki, I called a tarry-lift for us to split but it can’t find our exit.” Shugart said, holding up her data-slate as they came near. “Mind running out and flagging it down for us?”
“Sure!” Mohki chirped, taking off at a jog towards the front doors.
Shugart brought her eyebrows together with humor, glancing over at Lirya. “What a body guard.”
“She’s probably still excited by the guy and not thinking straight.” Lirya replied with an airy, amused voice as Mohki jogged out the doors, though her ears perked up immediately when Shugart took her by the hand.
Lirya looked around to Shugart, who had one of those Human looks in her eyes.
“There isn’t a tarry-lift, and we’re only going to have a few minutes before she realizes that.” Shugart hissed flirtatiously at Lirya, then pulled her towards a nearby relaxation wall-inlet.
These one-person rooms were isolation areas where someone could work, relax, or grab a quick catnap, and were a favorite of soldiers that wanted some alone time to work.
Lirya, her once-calm heart now thrumming back to full speed, looked around in a panic as Shugart pressed her data-slate to the door lock of the room, paying for the minimum of thirty minutes. “What are we going to do in a relaxation inlet?!”
Shugart chuckled darkly, yanking Lirya inside by the hand before wrapping the Kafya up in her arms.
The door shut with a polite “click”, and the front windows frosted automatically with a soft hum.
“... Oh.” Lirya said quietly, then let out a panicked “Oooh!” as Shugart wrapped her arms under her rump and hefted the Kafya up so she was slightly above her.
Lirya giggled indulgently, her tail happily wagging back and forth behind her as her ears began to throb again… though that was due more to where Shugart had her hands than anything else.
“So, how does this work?” Shugart asked, turning slowly in place before gently pressing Lirya against the nearby wall of the little room, the two completely ignoring the plush chair and small desk.
The question caught Lirya off guard… and she then remembered that she had no idea how to kiss.
She had seen the images that Miss La had shown them, and knew how Humans did it, but it dawned on her that there were a few, little anatomical differences between Kafya and Human.
“I would… assume how… you guys do it?” Lirya said bashfully, her arms once again laced around Shugart’s neck. “I’ve never actually done this before…”
“Hah, nerd.” Shugart laughed out, then leaned forward, touching the tip of her nose to Lirya’s. “Let’s just see how the parts align, eh?”
“O-o-ok-kay!” Lirya stuttered out, the touching of their noses in the dark enough to make the snake slither in a way that made her thigh muscles jitter.
There was a pause as Lirya stared in Shugart’s eyes, her mind working up the courage to finally break the trigger wall between the two, and Lirya finally found the moment she had been longing for since waking up to the Human’s face.
Lirya tilted her head to the side, closing her eyelids, and Shugart did the rest.
The feeling of the Human woman’s lips pressing against her own made Lirya’s toes curl in a way that nothing else had before, not even her first taste of Earthen chocolate icecream. An electric current sped through her system like a lightning bolt, joined by the smell of Shugart’s face, the taste of her strawberry margarita on her lips, and the pressure of the Human’s body against hers.
A small, delicate noise left Lirya’s throat involuntarily, which was followed by a deeper, answering rumble from Shugart. Their lips parted with a soft, click of flesh, then reengaged as Lirya pulled the Human woman’s face towards her own, her padded fingers sliding through gray-blonde hair.
Lirya’s mind reacted to the kissing like a wildfire to an indraft, sparks popping and snapping in her mind as she savored the feeling of being… wanted.
The sudden feeling of the longing finally being satiated, of finally knowing what it felt like to be desired, washed over Lirya in a wave of emotions that both confused and excited her in a way she could not put into words. Shugart’s hand running up under her shirt and along her spine, the Human’s fingers gliding through her white fur and over her scars, brought tears to her eyes as she continued to kiss the Human.
Gentle gasps of soul’s relief, confused as lust, fueled the Human onward, keeping Lirya skyward between herself and the wall as she let both her hands travel and roam across the Kafya’s fur.
Soft hands with a nurse’s care traced fingers along scars, feeling the road of life that Lirya bore across her flesh, all while Lirya consumed Shugart’s affections, running her fingers through the woman’s hair and down her shoulders.
“You okay?” Shugart breathed out, having realized Lirya was crying after feeling her tears trickle onto her cheeks. “You’re crying.”
“Yes.” Lirya nodded, eyes still closed as she kissed down Shugart’s face with happy little sighs. “Yes, I’m okay… come here…”
With a happy giggle between the two of them, Lirya quickly wiped at her cheeks before kissing Shugart again, the soft noises in her throat coming freely now.
Shugart did not ask what the scars were from.
She did not pause, to treat Lirya like a delicate little flower with bruised petals.
The Human breathed in Lirya as she was, seeing her for the person that lived, not the history that she represented.
There was no fear of fur color, or species, no pauses for political repercussions or what others would think for daring to mingle with someone of her status, and most certainly no forms to fill out.
There was only hands, lips, soft touches, hot breath, and bare passion.
Shugart broke their kiss for a moment, her gray-blonde hair drifting along Lirya’s nose as she leaned forward, slowly kissing along the Kafya’s facial scars.
“When I first saw you, laying there in the bed with all your bandages,” Shugart whispered, slowly placing little kisses along Lirya’s old chin scars, “All I wanted to do was kiss these little things better…”
Lirya’s heart could have wept, and she sighed out a breathy laugh as she slid her hands down the side of Shugart’s face, sniffing and allowing herself to bask in Shugart’s glow.
“I wondered to myself,” Shugart whispered in between soft kisses, “How strong you must be, to carry so much by yourself…”
Shugart then slowed down when she got to the top of Lirya’s main facial scar, the one she had garnered after a hard backhand from an armored Kafyan’s royal gauntlet.
“One for Saint Mandić, who cares for the broken things.” Shugart whispered, kissing the top of her scar and moving down its long, broken line. “One for Saint Hallvard, who ferried the innocent…”
Lirya’s heart felt like a whirlwind, her mind on a height of indulgence she had never felt before. The hot snake that coiled around in her belly and loins stretched out across her body, giving her heart little squeezes that nearly made her moan.
Her scars had always been treated as something ugly, a dark reminder of her abuses by her own people, or a source of pain for her mother and father because they couldn’t keep her as safe as they had wanted… but Shugart made them feel beautiful, strong, and loved with every kiss of her soft lips.
Shugart’s mouth continued to trail the scar, breath pushing against Lirya’s white fur, her voice growing more and more doting as she spoke.
“One for Saint Rita of Cascia, and for those who endure.” Shugart murmured, turning to lightly kiss Lirya’s padded palms before turning back to her face and kissing at her scar again. “One for Saint Thaddeus, who fills us with hope…”
Shugart, having run out of scar, touched her nose to Lirya’s, idly running a hand down the Kafya’s chest from the inside of her shirt. “One for Saint Dymphna, for the pure who have suffered…”
They kissed again, slowly, deeply, Lirya shivering as she felt Shugart’s tongue lightly touch hers, and her toes curled again, her tail thumping against the wall.
As sweet as it may have been, as much as softer parts of Lirya burned to use up the entire thirty minutes, they had always been on a time limit.
Plus, the thumping of Lirya’s tail may as well have been a radar ping for Mohki’s ears.
“... Uh… guys?” Mohki said from outside the frosted windows, giving it a soft knock with her knuckle. “I think I uh… missed the tarry-lift? You uh… you okay in there?”
Lirya growled in her throat, which made Shugart laugh, and she broke the kiss with a smack before glaring at the door. “GIVE ME A MINUTE!”
Mohki’s shadow visibly startled, looking back and forth before spinning around. “Right! I’ll... be right here! You guys just uh… do your thing… in there.”
“Mohki…” Lirya hissed out quietly as she thudded her forehead against Shugart’s, the Human wiggling her hips back and forth to jostle her as she chuckled.
“We were always gonna be interrupted, but I’d figure I’d take the chance to see how much spark we had between us.” Shugart said with a smile, slowly returning Lirya to the ground so she could stand on her own. “Never been hounded after by a female patient before, let alone a furry one, so I was… curious.”
There was a moment of adjusting shirts, bras, and hair smoothing, then Lirya cleared her throat, clasping her hands behind her back.
“So…” Lirya began, bending forward at the hips a few inches. “Curiosity… satisfied?”
Shugart leaned forward, kissing Lirya on the ear before taking her by the chin, and tilting her head upwards towards her. “I still have some curiosities I’d like to explore, if you are up to it.”
Lirya said nothing, just rapidly nodding her head up and down with wide, happy eyes.
Her head only stopped moving once Shugart kissed her again, holding their lips together just long enough to avoid the two of them sparking off another fire inside themselves again.
“I’d like to hang out tomorrow, if you don’t mind.” Shugart murmured, giving Lirya another kiss on her facial scar. “I can always stop by your place, and you can show me what you’re… studying.”
Lirya let out a relieved sigh, hugging Shugart and burying her nose in her neck. She nodded her head a few times, sniffing and trying to keep from crying again. “I’d like that. I’d like that very much!”
“Sounds like a plan.” Shugart replied, then quickly ran her palms down Lirya’s white cheeks to clean away any lingering tears. “Let’s get you straightened up, don’t wanna hop out this room and look like you’ve been crying the entire time.”
When they left the room, Mohki had the same energy as a friend who caught their friend's parents kissing, both keeping close to Lirya while also giving Shugart side-long glances.
Everyone was quiet in the tarry-lift, Shugart only lightly touching the tips of her fingers to Lirya’s in the back seat, which caused the Kafya’s tail to thump. Once Shugart was dropped off at her home, Mohki rounded on Lirya.
“What happened in there?! Did you two make out, or did you get handsy?! I have money against Tyllia that you copped a feel on the Human!” Mohki shrieked with girlish excitement, taking Lirya’s hands in hers. “What did you do? Tell me! Mama has money riding on this!”
Lirya, now blushing under her fur and ears becoming rigid, let out an embarrassed snort before hiding her face in her arm, laughing and giggling out of relief, excitement, and nerves.
“We just.. I mean yeah we… well, my hands went…” Lirya began, then let out another laugh as Mohki punched the roof of the tarry-lift.
“Fuck yeah! Six hundo to Mohki and a fat nothing for Tyllia!” Mohki barked out with a laugh, then wrapped Lirya up in a rough hug. “You little slut, I knew you had it in you after I saw you two dancing!”
Lirya spluttered out a rapid stuttering of words after being called such a thing by Mohki, then let out more shrieks of laughter after the brown furred Kafya plugged her nose into Lirya’s neck, blowing raspberries as the tarry-lift AI rolled its eyes.
—
Sparkle Otter peeked through her fingers, her form so enthralled by second hand cringe that it frayed at the edges. “Is it over?”
“Yeeeaaahhh…” Whirler groused, folding her arms as she turned around to look at the other AI. “And it was just getting good!”
Oballen, looking over Skooma’s head, turned his digital head to Whirler. “Did you really have to be so close to the screen?”
“How else am I supposed to see all the good stuff?!” Whirler grumped, kicking at the air as she pouted.
“There is an incoming bill from the AI team that watches over those pods.” Washu said, having observed the whole thing with bland interest. “They are a bit miffed that such an event happened within one of their areas.”
Sparkle Otter waved a hand. “Just get rid of it, and scrub the feeds, last thing we need is the recording getting out.”
“I can take care of that easy enough.” Skooma replied, though he had found the whole ordeal rather fascinating, watching with the same peaked interest as Whirler. “I can threaten them with a visit from Whirler if they get uppity about it.”
Whirler replied with nothing but a throaty rumble, and she kicked at the digital air again.
Sparkle Otter fanned lightly at her digital face, letting out a puff of breath. “Well, this is certainly… a turn of events. I mean, the Human is nearly four years older than Lirya.”
“As if we did not see this coming.” Washu replied as Skooma ran down the data, and erased it as easily as a Human breathed. “She has always been a little odd, has she not?”
“Well, yes, but Rhidi at least followed the normal protocol of female to male, not female to… female.” Sparkle Otter said, rubbing at her cheeks. “I honestly did not see this coming, not after all the contact between her and her fellow female Kafya being so pedestrian!”
Skooma nodded his head from side to side. “Something should have arisen between her and the other female Kafya, sure, but you know Humans,” He said, clearing the entire data-cache and sending a letter of threat to the other AI, “Once they get a hook in you, there is nothing saving you from being their next catch.”
“What a catch it ended up being.” Oballen chuckled, opening a screen and letting Shugart’s military record scroll down in front of them. “This woman is rather scary!”
Sparkle Otter was beginning to become worried, as her record scrolled on for quite a while, actually.
“Oh no…” Sparkle Otter said with a horrified gasp, even as Whirler jumped up onto her shoulders to read over her head.
“OH HELL YEAH!” Whirler cried out, shaking Sparkle Otter by her shoulders. “Now things are really getting interesting! That’s a whole ass sexual tyrannosaurus right there!”
Washu, as bored as ever, looked over to Oballen, opening his own little window. “The boss will want to know this. I doubt she saw a Blood Beret-turned-nurse joining the equation.”
“It is certainly going to be interesting to see what happens when she meets Carmine.” Oballen chuckled, tapping a digital finger on the screen. “Remarkably young age to join, and to climb so quickly… what an interesting woman. Kind of reminds you of Rhidi, doesn’t it?”