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"At least it's stopped raining."

Fox, curled up with his muzzle resting on his tail, didn't even move. "If you say that again," he said, "I will throw you over the side."

"Just trying to put a positive light on things." Raccoon had slumped against the wall of the small cabin, his muzzle between the slats. Dust drifted around the cabin, appearing where the light shone through the slats, disappearing as it floated out of the beam. Nothing else moved. The air smelled of skunk, fox, and the ever-present salty ocean.

"A positive light will be the one that shines on land," Fox said.

Raccoon shifted slightly. "Well, none of that in sight."

"I wish I'd been one of the drowned."

Raccoon looked down at the small orange animal. "You don't mean that."

"Forty days of rain. At least as many floating on the water. I hate water."

"You're not seasick, at least."

Fox cracked an eye to look up at Raccoon. "Vixen is, and that's almost as bad. You realize I haven't had any for--well, since it started raining?"

"Really?" Raccoon looked down curiously.

"When the rain started, our den flooded out, and then there was all the bustle and excitement and there was always someone around. We didn't have any privacy until we'd set sail. Or set float, or whatever it is we're doing." He yawned and rolled an eye toward the slats and the glimmering light that shone through them. "And when she hasn't been seasick, she's been depressed."

"We're not allowed to do anything anyway," Raccoon said.

Fox snorted. "Foxes follow rules as long as it's convenient. Don't tell me you're actually abstaining because of that." He laughed when Raccoon didn't respond. "You think everyone's following orders? I heard Horse and Mare going at it the other day when the old man was up on the deck."

"Why didn't you report them, then?"

Fox grinned. "I wanted to hear the end of the show."

Raccoon chewed absently on the wood. "Why didn't you call me?"

"Wasn't time. Badger and the Mice and Capy were all watching too, and Fennec caught the very end." He flicked his ears. "Helps to have good hearing. Don't chew the ship."

Raccoon stopped. "I thought you only follow rules when it's convenient."

"It is convenient, for me." Fox's tongue lolled as he laughed. "Oh, don't leave. Go ahead and chew if you want. I doubt you'll do any damage. You're not Woodpecker."

"Or Porcupine."

"Or Beaver."

"Or Termite."

They laughed. "Did he really bring a pair of termites?" Fox asked.

"Imagine them trying to abstain while we're afloat." Raccoon giggled.

Fox yawned, and looked around the small, narrow cabin. In order that most travelers might have access to fresh air, the cabin was twelve feet long, ending in a five by five foot slatted wall that looked out over the water. At the moment, Fox and Raccoon were the only two of the eight inhabitants in the cabin. "So why have you abstained? Mate seasick or depressed?"

Raccoon shook his head. "We didn't have much of a family, and she hasn't gotten sick. She's just a stickler for rules."

"Too bad for you," Fox said. "You mean you're not?"

Raccoon shrugged. "I think she's just not coming into season."

"Too bad that you are."

Raccoon jumped, looked down at himself, then at Fox. "How...uh...I mean..."

Fox's nostrils flared. "Why do you think I stay in here? All those scents out there give me a headache. At least in here I just have to smell the Coyotes, the Skunks, and one horny Raccoon."

Raccoon flicked his tail around to cover his groin. "It's nothing," he mumbled. "It'll go away."

"In a couple months it'll go away. Just like mine. Not much consideration paid to the males on this heavenly craft, is there?"

"S'why we have muzzles," Raccoon said, still looking down.

"Maybe it's why you have a muzzle," Fox said. "You think that's a substitute for a nice, firm vixen? Alas, there's only one Vixen left, and she's seasick. Or missing all her friends."

"Don't you miss your friends?"

Fox stretched out, lying on his side and lifting his head to the lowest slat to look out over the water. "Not really. They were always trying to take our stuff, or steal Vixen, or something."

"They don't sound like very good friends."

Fox grinned. "Well, we tried to take their stuff too. I got to mate with another vixen once. Her fox was away, and she was lonely. It was a beautiful moonlit night, and she smelled like the richest flower of all the fields of the world. We danced for hours, until I was quite beside myself with her scent. I kept jumping onto her back, and she would skip away, singing, 'Not yet, not yet.' Finally, with the moon sinking, I trapped her, drove into her, again and again. She barked and yipped and told me how strong I was, and when we'd finished, she held me tight inside her and I just dozed, drinking in her scent and breathing the chill night air."

"Stop!" Raccoon put his paws over his ears.

Fox grinned. "So you do miss it." He was looking pointedly at Raccoon's tail, which wasn't quite hiding the effect Fox's story had had.

Raccoon shifted it and pointed between Fox's legs. "You're just making yourself more frustrated."

Fox stretched, showing off more. "This? This is nothing. When I mated with that vixen, it was twice as long. When Vixen and I made our children, it was three times this size."

"I don't believe that." Raccoon folded his arms.

"Want me to tell you about that night?"

"No! Let's talk about...let's talk about the water. Have you ever seen so much water?"

Fox grinned. He pawed at Raccoon's tail playfully. "What's the matter? Aren't you afraid you'll forget how to do it? We could be on this boat for months."

"You can't...forget how to do it," Raccoon sputtered.

"You sure?"

"Well, how did you learn?" The masked face leaned forward.

Fox shrugged. "I just knew."

"Ha! So how do you think you'll forget?"

"I didn't learn how to do it," Fox said. "But I learned how to do it well."

Raccoon tilted his muzzle. "Well? Don't you just...well, do it?"

Fox leaned his head back and laughed. "No wonder your mate pretends she's 'following the rules.'"

Raccoon folded his ears back and glared. "She's perfectly satisfied with me."

"Of course she is." Fox swished his tail lazily. "She'll have to be, won't she?"

"I don't see any other raccoons around here." Raccoon settled against the wall again.

"Unless," Fox said as though the other hadn't spoken, his voice still slow and languid, "she finds someone else around her size to get her fun with once her litter's born."

In the mask, the bright black eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Like who?"

Fox's amber eyes gleamed in the light of the slats. "Oh, Bobcat, you know. Or Badger." He stretched again, rolling partly onto his back, his maleness thick and dark against his white belly fur now. "Anyone, really, who knows what he's doing." He pumped his hips suggestively into the air.

"Stop showing off like that," Raccoon said. "What if someone comes back?"

"They won't be back 'til the dark," Fox drawled. "What's the matter? Feeling a little small?"

"No," Raccoon said stiffly. "I just...I mean, we're supposed to be the founders of a new race!"

"So?"

Raccoon's paw rested on one of the slats. The other twisted in the air. "So we need to be saving our energy. For, you know, making babies."

"Which we're not allowed to do at the moment."

"But all this showing off is just making it worse." The masked muzzle turned back to the gap in the boards, his eyes remaining in shadow.

"You have so little imagination." Teeth showed in a wide grin. "Pity, with those nice nimble paws."

Raccoon backed up against the other side of the cabin, hunching into the corner. "I have plenty of imagination."

"And yet you never thought to use those paws on yourself."

Raccoon glared at Fox's smug grin. "Of course I have."

"And what? You're too pure to actually do it?" Raccoon stared out the slats and didn't answer. "Oh, come on. We've been together almost three moon cycles. We're likely to be together three more. Even after that, us night-timers need to stick together, eh?"

"Why don't you just shut up? You're not helping anything."

The fox grinned, rolling all the way onto his back. "I just know if I had paws like yours, I wouldn't be lying here all hot with nowhere to go."

"Shows what you know," Raccoon said.

Fox turned, fixing both eyes on the other. "You going to enlighten me?"

There was a long pause. Outside, the murmur of the boat moving through the water filtered through to fill the silence. Finally, Raccoon said, "It doesn't work." Fox's tail swished against the cabin wall, and his body went still, but he didn't talk. "I mean," Raccoon said, "it feels good and all, but not as good as mating. You don't..." he groped for the word.

"Finish?" Fox suggested.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Ever tried on someone else?"

Light fell in a stripe across Raccoon's eyes as he looked down at the fox. "No," he said flatly.

"Ever wanted to?"

"No."

Fox grinned. "Really? I have."

"You don't have paws." For answer, Fox stuck out his tongue and licked the air. "Ew!" Raccoon said. "You licked...another guy's..."

"Sure. Makes a nice change from licking your own."

The raccoon's paws held each other. He chewed on a slat again, and then said, "So...does that work?"

Fox shook his head. "Nah. Like you said. Feels good, doesn't do it all the way. Even if you go all the way into the muzzle."

"All the way..." Raccoon gaped.

The fox rolled onto his side, stretching his legs. "If the vixens are all holding kits and you're still horny, and there's nobody around but other guys..."

"But still," Raccoon sputtered. "All the way...the muzzle?"

One eye gleamed up at him. "I can show you if you want."

"No, that's okay."

Fox laughed. "You want the next forty days to be as boring as the last? Don't worry, I won't tell the Old Man."

"I really just don't..." Raccoon looked to the cabin door and back. "What would I have to do?"

The grin stretched across the russet muzzle again, widely. "Don't tell me you've already forgotten what it's like."

"I mean, like after. I don't think I could..." Raccoon grimaced and licked the air, once.

"Well," the fox said, getting to his feet, "I might ask you to try out those cute little paws." Without waiting for an answer, he padded over to Raccoon's corner and lowered his muzzle, nudging aside the ringed tail.

"I told you," the raccoon said, wrapping his tail more tightly around himself, "it doesn't--"

Fox grinned. "Looks like you're interested in the idea."

"I--" Raccoon fell silent, leaning back against the wall as the fox's muzzle dipped below his tail and the pink tongue flashed.

The sounds of the ocean took over again, soft and rhythmic, as though the water were matching Raccoon's barely audible pants. His tail fell away, revealing the thickening length of his maleness, growing under the soft licks of the fox's tongue. Fox barely moved his head, letting his long tongue slide up the reddish shaft, teasing the hot skin until it glistened in the soft ocean light.

Raccoon moaned softly, pressing back harder against the wall and lifting his hips. His paws twitched at the air. Fox turned his muzzle to the side, and paused in his licking to say, "Not so bad, is it?"

"N-no," Raccoon chattered. "I can't believe...it doesn't...finish?"

"Uh-uh." Fox bent back down, brushing his nose against the shivering shaft, then curling his tongue around it again and dragging upward, flicking and teasing. "Not 'less raccoons work different than foxes."

"Ohh," Raccoon shuddered. "However I work is how all raccoons work now."

"Do you always talk like this during mating? No wonder your mate's up on deck."

"It's true," Raccoon said, panting slightly as Fox resumed licking. "Just look out there. Nobody left but us."

Fox paused again. "You probably just shouldn't talk for a bit." He lowered his muzzle, and this time closed it gently around the raccoon's shaft, sucking as he moved up and down.

Raccoon's eyes rolled back in his head. One paw clutched convulsively at the slats, scrabbling along the wood as his whole body trembled. For several minutes, his harsh panting dominated the sounds in the cabin, until he moaned and squealed, "Enough!"

Fox lifted his muzzle, licked his lips, and grinned. "Ready for more?"

"No." Raccoon raised his paw. "No more. Can't..." He shook his head, his eyes dazed.

"So you don't want to finish?"

The raccoon looked back at the reddish muzzle, tilted coyly toward him. A stripe of light fell across one amber eye. "You said...can't like that."

"Not like that," Fox said. "But there is a way."

Raccoon's paw strayed down to brush his trembling erection. "You don't...I mean, without my mate..." He looked confused.

"My, my." Fox clucked. "What did you do with all your spare time?" He turned his back on Raccoon, but instead of walking away, curled his tail upward and waggled his hips back and forth. "Hurry, before all the slick wears off."

Raccoon's voice got very high. "Like that?"

"It works. Come on, you want to finish or don't you?"

His backswept ears heard panting, then Raccoon's paws were on his sides and the chubby body was clambering onto his hips. Raccoon took a moment to situate himself, so Fox took advantage of that to turn back and say one more thing. "Just...reach under with those paws and grab me, would you?"

"Hrf." Raccoon had gotten himself in position. He thrust forward, until both animals gasped. Raccoon lifted his head, back arched to press him into the russet body below, while Fox's head was bowed, his forelegs spread to brace himself against the pressure of the other's hips. His bushy tail bent all the way back to his shoulders, getting in the masked face as Raccoon thrust his way forward, hips starting to pump.

"Paws," Fox growled, and without responding, Raccoon slid his paws down along the white-furred belly until they found the long, red shaft dangling there. He took hold of it, his hips pausing and then resuming their thrusts once he had hold.

Both of them panted now, Raccoon moaning and Fox growling sharply. The raccoon's hips kept pumping into the fox, their motion driving Fox's shaft through his paws. While Raccoon kept still, the arch in his back driving him forward and down, Fox lifted his head and shook it from side to side as Raccoon's shaft pressed into him, jerking back and forth with the slickness he'd given it. His own shaft was far from slick, but Raccoon's paws were smooth and warm, and he slid through them with ease.

It didn't take long for Raccoon's movements to become jerky, his body to stiffen, and his moans to skip into chattering squeaks. He froze atop Fox and chewed on the end of the bushy tail, closing his eyes blissfully and then relaxing as he spent himself into the other, the sensations as familiar as they were intense. He let go of the tail and slumped down, causing Fox to stagger to one side. "How was that?" he murmured.

"Paws!" Fox growled.

"Huh?"

"Keep...going..."

Raccoon's ears perked up. He stroked with his paws. "But...you can't..."

"Watch me."

Slowly, then faster, Raccoon slid his paws along the vulpine shaft. "This isn't so bad," he said. "You're liking it?"

"Grrrf!" Fox rocked back and forth. Raccoon pawed faster, obligingly. He felt warm fluid dripping over his paws but didn't stop. The fox shuddered, staggered back to the other side, and braced his forelegs again, still rocking his hips into the quickly moving paws.

"This is like washing a carrot," Raccoon giggled. Fox's ears were pinned back, his whole body trembling. More and more fluid dripped, then streamed over Raccoon's paws, lubricating them so that they slid more easily over the long shaft. Fox was panting hard, teeth clenched around his short yips as a warm gush of fluid spilled to the wood below.

"Stop! Stop!" he yelped, twisting under Raccoon but unable to get away. Raccoon giggled and fell backwards, sliding out of the white-furred rear with a small pop and landing on his rear, one hindpaw stepping right in the sticky pool on the cabin floor.

"Ew," he said, lifting it to his nose. "Phew! It's all musky!"

"Smells like the rest of the cabin," Fox said. He'd flopped onto one side, his shaft lying against the wood and still leaking, sides heaving as he panted. "Carrot? I'm like a carrot?"

Raccoon let go of his hindpaw and grinned. "I always get silly after mating." He looked at Fox's belly and erection, his earlier self-consciousness gone. "You are big, though. I thought you couldn't finish like that."

"When I'm being mated, I can. Usually we had someone with a muzzle on the bottom one. Paws work better."

"They're all sticky now." Raccoon made a face.

"Oh, come over here," Fox said.

Raccoon walked gingerly over, sitting against the wall beside Fox's head. The fox lifted his muzzle and licked at the nearest paw. Raccoon jumped, then held his paw in place, trying to stop his squirming until both were done. "And the hind one?" Raccoon turned to present that, and Fox licked it clean too. Raccoon giggled, rolling onto his back and kicking with the free paw.

"All right, all done." Fox lay back, eyes half-shut. Raccoon turned around to rest his head on the fox's front legs, his chest in front of the slender muzzle.

"That was good. Not as good as a real mating, but pretty good," he said. "I didn't think it would be, but it was. I liked when you got all shivery. When I...when I mated you. And then again when I, um, washed your carrot. Felt almost like a real mating. Except you're too thin. To be a raccoon, I mean." he twisted his head around, trying to see Fox. "How did it feel to you?"

Fox grinned. "You want to find out? Take a turn on bottom next time?"

"Uh, no. But did it feel good? To you?"

"It felt okay."

Raccoon's ears perked. "Just okay?"

"Well," Fox said. "I mean, it was your first time. And it's not like you're a fox."

"You think I could be better?"

Fox yawned. "Most definitely."

Raccoon considered that, brushing his fur with one lazy paw. "Was I the first you did it with who wasn't a fox?"

Fox's half-lidded eye fixed him. "I don't have much in the way of foxes to do anything with on this boat."

"You've done it with someone else on the boat?" Raccoon lifted his head. Fox was grinning at him. "Who?"

"Why's it matter?"

Raccoon opened his mouth, then lay his head back down. "Doesn't. Just curious."

Fox lifted one foreleg and rested it across the fluffy white chest below the masked muzzle. "Jealous?"

Raccoon snorted. "I have a mate."

"Mm. And why aren't you up on deck with her?"

"Why aren't you up on deck with yours?"

"I told you, the scents bother me. I was down here first. You came and joined me." Fox's languid drawl had gotten even slower.

"I got tired of the sun."

"You got tired of the conversation," Fox said. "I believe your exact words were, 'They can't talk about anything except all their dead friends.'"

"Well, it's annoying. We were chosen to provide the future. We should think about the future."

"So you went looking for someone who wouldn't be all mopey."

Raccoon sniffed. "I came back to my cabin. You happened to be here."

Fox chuckled. "Where I'd told you I would be."

During the following silence, Raccoon rested one paw on Fox's foreleg. Presently, Fox said, "It was just Otter."

"Hm?"

"The other one I mated with. It was just Otter."

Raccoon frowned. "Really?"

"Well, you can't hardly not do it with Otter. He's all jumping all over you, and paws and tongue and stuff and sticking his piece in your mouth or wherever it can fit."

"He was never like that with me."

Fox's tongue lolled as he laughed. "Just go ask if he wants to romp sometime. You'll see."

"Nah," Raccoon said, "I don't think I will."

"Suit yourself," Fox said.

"Did Old Man ever find out?"

Fox shrugged his upper shoulder. "Who cares? What's he going to do, throw us over? He's got his family to keep him busy."

The boards creaked around them. Outside, far below, water splashed and beat against the wood. The fur and dust they'd stirred up drifted down through the slices of light, appearing and disappearing. "Does it freak you out sometimes?" Raccoon said. "No dirt, no trees, just wood, all of us crammed in here?"

"A den is a den," Fox said. "One little hole's much like another, wouldn't you say?"

Raccoon grinned and brushed his paw over Fox's leg. "Close enough." He watched the slow downward fall of the dust. "Do you think our cubs will want to play like that?"

"Up to them," Fox said lazily.

Raccoon nodded. "I mean, if they do, then all raccoons and foxes will."

"S'pose." Fox stretched, his pads rubbing against Raccoon's chest as he extended his leg and curled it back.

"Maybe our cubs will play with each other too."

Fox grinned. "You're thinking too much. Just enjoy the moment."

"There's not just this moment," Raccoon said. "There's all the moments to come."

"Worry about them when they get here."

"What if..."

Fox's forepaw tightened around Raccoon's chest. "Really. Shut up."

Raccoon closed his paw around Fox's leg and shifted so that his head rested against the soft white chest. "All right," he said. He closed his eyes, wiping away worries about the future. In moments he was asleep, rocked by the drifting motion of the boat on its inexorable course to whatever destination awaited it.