FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Corymb pressed his clenched fist into the touchscreen of the ship's terminal, adding pressure until discolored rings danced on the surface of the display. He gritted his teeth. Everything hurt. Who'd have thought working without gravity wasn't ergonomic? Blisters had formed on the tops of his feet; he had hooked them under a handle to anchor himself, but every tap on the screen made them rub to counteract the force. It took no small amount of willpower not to scratch them. Add to that the eyestrain, the stinging numbness in his fingers from the cold, not to mention the headache that had plagued him endlessly these past few days, and he wasn't sure he had ever been quite this uncomfortable before in his life.

How long had he been working, anyway? It had been some time since he had woken up, and he had only stopped to eat, so surely more than a few hours by now. Yet despite all that painstaking effort he had dumped into this damn project, today and over the last two days, he still had absolutely nothing to show for it.

Corymb sighed and relaxed his hand. They were only days; there was plenty of journey left to burn through. Not that he hadn't prioritized. The ominous LEAVENOW message was a dead end. There wasn't a single foothold to get started with it, and if there was nothing he could do, then it wasn't worth worrying over—not that this stopped him from worrying. But the reactor data was a different story.

While he was still no closer to understanding why the station had exploded, at least he now had numbers. And if Oryza was right about the explosion being connected to the message, then he'd be killing two birds with one stone by working on it. Still, there was a massive difference between having that reactor data and being able to interpret it. He had never expected it to be easy, but the task was plagued by issue after issue, and the few times it wasn't, it was mind-numbingly tedious instead. The headache didn't help. Neither did his mood. Every time the terminal crashed, it was all he could do to stop himself from breaking the damn thing.

If he had a proper computer, one that had been prepared for the task, he'd have finished already. The past two days were only an hour or two of work with the right machine. Oryza had wanted him to put it off for that exact reason, and perhaps she was right, but if he did that, there would be nothing useful left for him to do. Not only that, he'd have to allow himself to be willfully ignorant of the fact that he had everything he needed to work on it, even if it was tedious. With nearly fifty days left to go stuck on the escape pod, there was plenty of time, and he was going to cling to any semblance of meaning he could get his hands on.

Corymb returned his focus to the screen. He was vaguely aware that Oryza was behind him. The escape pod was too small not to know where she was.

A grunt cut through the relative quiet of the escape pod. Corymb didn't turn around. He had his suspicions about what his dragon crewmate was doing, and given by the way her heavy breathing caught unevenly every few seconds, he was right: she was masturbating.

Oryza had first started that new habit of hers on the escape pod two days ago, openly in the cabin just like how she was now. Corymb couldn't fault her for it. While the sleeping compartments provided both privacy and personalized thermostats, they were too tiny to move around in. Not that the cabin was spacious—he had seen single bathrooms larger than it—but at least it wasn't a coffin.

Perhaps it was immodest of her to masturbate so openly, but Corymb couldn't be critical. Considering what they had already shared, there was no modesty left to preserve. If he had any right to complain about anything, it was how loud she sometimes got, but even that wasn't too bad. As long as it was quiet enough for him to get his work done, he would keep his head down. It wasn't his place to tell her how to whittle away the days.

Corymb stared at the screen and did his best to ignore the noises. The cursor blinked idly, mocking him. He could barely stand this damned terminal, this damned data, but he had to. If it had even a shred of an answer, he had to. And why not now? It was as good a time as any, and there was hardly anything else to do.

A light thud sounded behind him—Oryza's tail hitting something? No, there was no point in turning around. But a scratching sound then followed it, like a dozen pencils being dragged across a sheet of paper. What was she even doing? It couldn't hurt to look. He angled his head until he could make out the form of the midnight blue dragoness from the corner of his eye.

Oryza drifted on her back behind him, her eyes pressed shut. She had her hind legs splayed and her forepaw buried between them, rubbing quickly back and forth. As Corymb watched, Oryza lost control of a leg and it struck the nearby compartment door, loudly scraping against the surface.

Well, that explained the noise. Curiosity sated. Except he kept looking anyway, his attention rapt as Oryza arched her back and began rubbing faster. He caught pink flashes of wet flesh as she kneaded her paw into her clit. It was nothing he hadn't seen before, yet it was entrancing all the same. Her chest heaved and her nostrils flared as she pleasured herself. Still Corymb watched. He wasn't even sure if it was lust, but he needed to look at something other than a screen, and Oryza was the most interesting.

Corymb felt the start of an erection form. The last time he had gotten off had been with her, four days ago—before the LEAVENOW message, and before he had worked on the reactor data. It had been easier not to worry back then, easier to fool around. But being pent up was no reason to shirk from his work. He turned back to the terminal.

“You know, there's no need to sneak glances like that," Oryza huffed from behind. “You're more than welcome to watch. I'll give you the best seat in the house."

“I'm good." Corymb didn't turn around.

“You could even join me, if you want."

The corners of his lips tightened. It was hardly the first time Oryza had offered—the frequency was getting annoying, actually—but she still wasn't wrong. For the last few minutes, he had done nothing but stare at the computer or stare at her, neither of which had been remotely productive. So long as he wasn't doing anything useful, what harm was there in spending some quality, pleasurable time together?

At least, that was how he used to think about it. But the more he mulled it over, something he had no lack of time for, the less he was sure that having sex with her was responsible. Certainly it wasn't professional. He was an interspecies representative of humanity, for fuck's sake. Was that the example he wanted to set? Was that even a meaningful way to view it?

The purpose of the mission was to build the relationship between dragons and humans. Oryza was a part of that, but sex was surely beyond the pale. Minus that which they already had. That was because of extenuating circumstances and didn't count. Well, most of it.

Regardless, sweeping the matter under the rug was prudent. He wasn't sure how the dragon populace would respond, but it would be a scandal back on Earth if word got out. Even ignoring that, there were still health considerations. He wasn't sure exactly how he had gotten pneumonia earlier, but certainly no one else had gotten it back on the station. It could've been down to stress or bad luck, but sex was hardly sanitary. He knew how to take a warning when he got one.

“I know your offer stands," Corymb finally said. “You don't need to keep asking."

“By the tides, you'd think I was suggesting to pull your teeth, not mate."

Corymb tensed. Was she trying to guilt him? He was never sure if he was overanalyzing things or not. The cabin fever was frying his brain.

“Maybe later," he said.

“Fine. But will you at least bear talking with me? I feel like we've been distant lately."

“Well, I've been busy, and you've been… otherwise occupied."

“Oh, that's rich." Oryza turned her head and snorted. “Half the time you're not even doing anything, and I don't know how you define 'occupied', but all I ever do is loiter."

Or masturbate, Corymb was tempted to say, but he wasn't about to escalate things. “Just because I'm not tapping away doesn't mean I'm not doing anything."

“Whatever. Let's just drop it." She flipped upright, into a more modest position. “But I am serious about talking. Even if it interrupts you. Or me, I guess. It's worth it."

“Talk about what?"

“Anything? Everything? It's not healthy to close up."

Corymb relaxed his shoulders. Oryza wasn't wrong—they had barely talked over the past few days. Maybe he was letting everything get to him.

“I'm not closing up," he said, “I'm trying to have the obsession numb everything." He massaged his temples. It would be good to take a step back, to let himself clear his mind. Healthy, even. “No, you're right. I know you're right. But I need to do something. Or feel like I'm doing something, at least."

“You and me both."

Corymb put the terminal to sleep. “Okay." He rubbed his eyes. The afterimage of the bright screen flashed in his vision, pulsing in time with his headache. He'd have to raid the medical supplies for another dose of pain medication if it didn't go away soon. “I hope you have conversation ideas," he said as he turned towards her, “because I am not there right now, mentally."

“You make it sound like I've planned everything out." She flicked an ear. “Which I haven't. Yet." After a few moments of silence, she continued: “Okay. I've got one. Low-hanging fruit, maybe. What are you going to do if—I mean when—we get back?"

Corymb stretched his arms and put his hands behind his head. “Well, we dock, right? Somewhere. We're not going into an atmosphere in this thing." He knocked on the ship's hull. “At least, I hope not. I guess ground control hasn't finished the flight plans yet, but any guesses on where we'll go?"

“No. I know there are a few stations in orbit, but nothing big enough for this many people."

“Hmm." He hadn't even seen Arche. That was the whole point behind positioning the ring station on the oppose side of Barnard's star, antipodal to the dragon homeworld. Supposedly, it was a cultural thing for dragons around being watched and recorded, but it seemed extreme to put a star in between the station and the planet for the sake of privacy alone. He'd have thought distance would be enough, even if the station was equipped with telescopes that the dragon government classified under the absurdly broad category of “military-grade". Any radio telescope big enough to talk to Earth qualified, and the station had two of those. Or used to have. The thing was derelict, now.

“What do you think they'll have us do, then?" Corymb said.

Oryza shrugged her wings. “Split everyone up? Leave us in orbit for a bit? Who knows. The logistics are ground control's problem. That wasn't what I was asking. What are you personally going to do?"

“Oh. I don't know. I'll help with the postmortem on the station. And"—he glanced back to the terminal, quashing the urge to wake it out of habit—“whatever that weird message is. Then I'll catch a ride back to Earth on whatever regular trade ship I manage to squeeze into. But outside of that?" He only shrugged.

Oryza looked at him for a long moment. “You are heading back, then?"

“I mean, I'm only here for the ring station. Was only here for it. Why, did you think I'd stay?"

“Well, it seems a waste to come all this way just to head back. You said the journey was what, twelve years?"

He nodded. The trip cost six years both ways. To think Barnard was one of the closest stars to Earth, too. Even if the relativistic effects made the trip feel instantaneous to everyone aboard, causality would not be cheated. For everyone back home, it was no different to leaving for over a decade.

“Have you thought about staying longer?" Oryza asked.

“No," Corymb said, a bit taken aback. Of course he hadn't. There were dragon ambassadors at Earth, but they mostly stayed in orbit; the amount of nitrogen in regular air was toxic to them. Arche didn't have the same level of space development as Earth, so he could hardly just show up at a station and live there. As for the planet itself, even though the air on the dragon homeworld was technically breathable, chronic exposure was rather unhealthy. Add in the stronger gravity and balmy temperatures that only sometimes rose above freezing and it shaped up to be a miserable experience for anyone unlucky enough to be inside a human body. It was for precisely those reasons that it had not been officially condoned.

Oryza cocked her head. “It's worth considering."

“This isn't a road trip, Oryza. The mission plan says—"

“Your mission plan was written by people six light years away who have next to no understanding of the current situation."

Corymb frowned. “Uh, it's called a contingency? There's no station. More context seems moot. Besides, our mission plan is crystal clear on the matter: no station equals I go home."

“But that's stupid. It's a waste of a trip. And you can't even ask for permission because it'd take twelve years to get a response."

Corymb exhaled through his nose. Oryza wasn't wrong; it was a bit of a waste to just head on back. He had only been on the station for a couple of months, and already he was leaving? It was literally the longest journey humanity had, and he was turning around early.

“If you could ask to stay," Oryza said, “ignoring the delay, do you think they'd say yes?"

Corymb chuckled. “Maybe. I don't know. They do have a hard time finding people who are both smart enough to be astronauts and dumb enough to make this trip."

Oryza grinned. “Just saying."

Corymb laughed awkwardly. It was a ridiculous idea, throwing the mission plan to the wind. But it was also a waste when the trip would cost twelve years, round-trip. No one human could stop him. The only people with that authority were six light years away. Even so, it wasn't what he was supposed to do. He sighed. “Well, I'll think about it. What about you?"

“Hmm?"

“What are you going to do once this is all done?"

“Oh. Not entirely sure yet. I guess I'll definitely throw a party with some friends and mates."

“What does a dragon party look like?"

“Depends on the dragon. Me? Food. Drinks. An excuse to catch up with all of my favorite people. Once it gets late, some people leave and it kinda naturally transitions into an orgy."

Corymb blinked. “An orgy." Of course it would.

“Yeah. Not that there isn't any messing around in the first half—I wouldn't invite anyone that uptight. And it's not like the sex is planned or anything, but once it gets late and everyone's loosened up, that's usually how it goes. I take it human parties aren't like that?"

Corymb snorted. “Depends on the human. For me, take out the orgy and it doesn't sound terribly different."

“Well, if you do end up staying, you can consider yourself invited."

Corymb paused. “You really want me to stay."

“It just seems like a waste of a trip—"

“But you want me to stay."

Oryza sighed. She floated over to the porthole and gazed out of it. “Maybe I do. I don't know. Call it cabin fever, bonding through shared adversity, whatever—but if you do go back, I don't know if we'll ever see each other again. And that thought hurts."

“Oryza—"

“And I know I can't ask you to stay. That'd be selfish. You have a whole home there, people you know, and I can't ask you to put that on hold."

Corymb looked away from her. She had taken the words right out of his mouth. Perhaps he hadn't left behind as much as much as others—he was the archetypal candidate for the trip, as his parents had passed away years ago, and he was both single and without children—but that didn't mean he hadn't left behind friends and other family. Even ignoring that it went against the mission plan, staying meant not seeing them for longer and causing unnecessary worry.

But was it was worse to waste the trip by cutting it short? Surely everyone would understand that. What was even just one more year against twelve, if it meant doing something of value?

“Well," he said, “it's not like that's a decision that has to be made now. I'm not going anywhere. For another fifty some-odd days, at least."

“Unless ground control decides to keep us in orbit for a few more moons while they get their act together."

Corymb snorted. “Please don't joke about that."

“It'll probably be fine. I'm guessing they're freaking out down there, trying to organize all that. We can take it easy up here; this thing practically guides itself. We're just the payload."

“It should be comforting."

“Right? All we have to do is sit down and wait. Easy." She let out a growl. “By the tides, I've never felt so useless before. Boredom I can cope with, but there's no point in doing anything up here. I'm just pouring my life down the drain."

Corymb snorted. Oryza was pouring her life down the drain? She hadn't sacrificed twelve years of time with friends and family for the trip. Not that his suffering negated hers, but it seemed a bit melodramatic.

“Well, welcome to space travel," he said. “There's a lot of waiting."

“Except this time we're waiting for it to end instead of begin."

Corymb rested his head in his hands. “Have you really found nothing to entertain yourself?" It was a leading question. He knew very well how she had been entertaining herself.

“Nothing fulfilling. Masturbating passes time, but it's also a waste of it. It doesn't make me feel less useless. See, you have the reactor data. Even if you don't manage to figure it out in time, you can still feel like you contributed. Win or lose, it's the right decision, no? I don't have anything like that."

“Sorry if this is gushing"—he met her eyes—“ “ “but you have me."

Oryza blinked. “Do I, now?"

Corymb looked away, feeling the familiar tingle of a blush in his cheeks. It had felt like the right thing to say, but now he wasn't even sure what he had meant by it. Had he actually been there for her? Between the work and his mood, maybe he hadn't. The only reason they were talking now was because Oryza had shouldered the burden of forcing this conversation with him.

“I guess I haven't been great about it lately," Corymb said. “But I mean it. I'm here for you."

Oryza studied his expression for a long while before speaking. “What's the point of growing closer if you're just going to leave? It'll just hurt more."

“Every relationship ends. People leave. People die. That doesn't make the ties we build with each other worthless."

“I know that. But knowing doesn't make it any easier!"

“Hey." Corymb pushed off towards her, wrapping himself around the dragoness as he gave her a full-body hug. Her body temperature was colder than his, but there was still a subtle warmth to the closeness. “I'm here."

Oryza sighed and brought her head low, nuzzling her snout into his shoulder. “Can you stay here?"

“For now."

She laughed, in that low, tonal way dragons did. “You're such a jerk." She pulled him closer, pulling him flush against the midnight blue scales of her belly, as if he would float away and vanish the moment she let go.

Corymb sighed as he relaxed into her embrace. Had he really been that tense? It had seemed fine while he was working, but now that he was holding Oryza, it was like a hole he hadn't realized existed was being filled.

“I'm not going anywhere," he said.

“For now, at least."

“For now."

Oryza hummed, and Corymb felt his body rumble. “I worry the days we have left will fly by," she said. “We should make the most of the time we have."

Corymb's heart fluttered. “How?"

“Come on, Corymb." She leaned in close to his ear. “We both know how."

“I don't know if we should."

She flicked an ear. “This again? You told me yourself that the rules didn't matter just a few days ago."

Corymb loosened his grip on the dragoness. That was true. He didn't have to be perfect. Not politically, nor with how he spent his time—especially not in these conditions, where the cabin fever would hit anyone hard and the millions of kilometers of privacy could hide anything. But that wasn't what was stopping him.

“The pneumonia," he said. “It wasn't a fluke, was it?"

Oryza's breath caught as she froze, and Corymb sighed. It had only been an educated guess, but that confirmed it. Oryza had told him it was due to stress and lack of sleep, but it didn't take a genius to see through that. The whole station had been sterilized, escape pods included. How else could he have caught something if not from her?

“You tested my snot, right? Do you just suspect, or do you know for sure?" he asked.

Oryza's wings sank. “It matched dragon lactobacteria. So I'm pretty sure."

“Fuck, Oryza." The hug was tight, but he recoiled all the same. “Why didn't you tell me sooner? Should would be even be this close?"

“This is why I couldn't"—she cut off her speech with a frustrated snarl. “It was fine on the station, and it's fine here. I know how you got it. That lactobacteria is part of the vaginal microbiome. There's only so many ways that enough could've gotten into your lungs to cause problems."

“So what, it's from eating you out?" His eyes narrowed. “Or from the ardeo. When you literally tried to drown me in pussy."

“Your words. It's hazy for me."

“I literally couldn't breathe." He chuckled, but it was only funny because things had turned out fine. Without gravity to make things drip, fluids clung, and surface tension made them difficult to remove. Oryza hadn't been able to control herself; the reproductive drug she and most dragons were apparently addicted to was more than just an aphrodisiac.

“Right," Oryza said. “In any case, it'd probably be prudent for you to keep your tongue to yourself." She sighed. “Sorry. I couldn't—I didn't want to it to drive us apart. It was a stupid thing to worry about in hindsight."

“Well, at least I know now." Corymb pursed his lips. “You're going to have to take it again, aren't you? The ardeo?"

“Not yet. We have the better part of a moon."

“So, yes."

“It won't happen like that again. I won't let it."

“You don't even remember letting it happen the first time." He drummed his fingers on her flank. “Can't you take a lower dose?"

“Not sure if it works like that, and I'd rather not mess around with it here. If you want, we can try mating for a few hours before it kicks in. I don't think it's been proven, but some people claim it helps."

Corymb snorted. Of course the solution Oryza would offer would be more sex. Although now, cuddled against the dragoness, the thought didn't seem so bad.

Heat rushed down his spine. Oryza would say yes if he asked. Oh, she'd mock him for taking so long, or perhaps rudely thank him for finally taking some initiative, but she'd agree nonetheless. She had told him as much several times: all he had to do was ask.

Her body was so close. Corymb felt heat concentrate in his groin as an erection rapidly formed. It had been days since he had last gotten off; while he couldn't claim to have Oryza's sex drive, he was pent up.

“Oryza," he breathed.

“Hmm?"

Corymb took a few shaky breaths. Why were the words hard to form? Sex was nothing new. Sure, he hadn't asked for it before, not directly, but that shouldn't matter.

“What is it?"

Corymb swallowed. “Do you want to, uh, mate?"

Oryza smiled. “I'd love to."

“Wait, just like that?" He had expected at least a playful retort.

“Well, I have been asking." Her voice turned husky. “Besides, nothing gets me going quite like a mate saying they want me."

Corymb blinked. Oryza thought of him as a mate? He knew mateship wasn't typically an exclusive thing with dragons, but it had seemed semi-serious. Unless he had misunderstood. “Mates, as in we've had sex?"

“By definition. But it can mean more."

“Does it?"

“I don't know, Corymb." She stared at him with those orange eyes. “Does it?"

He frowned. Why was she asking him? Was she trying to imply that there was more going on between them? He wasn't sure why she'd think that; they both knew sex was just for fun. Besides, he still didn't even understand entirely what a mate was to a dragon. He couldn't pretend like he understood the subtler parts to it.

Oryza sighed and turned away. “Never mind." She gave him a sidelong glance. “We're getting sidetracked. Weren't we going to fuck?"

“We were." He laughed. “Though I hope you're not expecting any tongue action this time."

“I wouldn't let you if you tried, for your own sake. Your fingers are better, anyway."

“Oh, you mean these fingers?" Corymb slid a hand down Oryza's belly, letting his fingertips dragon over her cool, dark scales.

“Mmh, I do."

He smiled as he moved his hand further down her belly, feeling it rise and fall with her breaths. With the way Oryza was holding him tightly against her, it was hard to see where he was going, but the landscape of her body was familiar to him. He recognized the way her scales grew finer as he drifted further down her body, in between both of their legs and towards her tail.

Oryza rumbled with contentment and leaned into his touch. “You're so warm."

“Hopefully not too warm, because it's about to get more hot," he whispered. “Though it'd be even hotter if I could see what I was doing."

“But then I'd have to let go of you." She squeezed him tighter.

Corymb winced as the pressure turned to pain. “Too much!"

“Sorry." She loosened her cuddle.

“It's okay, I'm fine." His sides still stung, though. Arche's gravity was stronger than Earth's, and dragon muscles were built to match. “Just be careful, alright? I'm only human."

“Good enough for me."

Corymb scoffed. He'd show her “good enough". He slipped his fingers past her underbelly and between her legs. While he couldn't see what he was doing, he could follow the warmth by touch. Dragon body temperatures ran cold, just below room temperature, but as he neared her sex, the warmth blossomed to just above that. Compared to the frigid air, it qualified as warm.

Corymb slid his fingers over the furrow of her slit, and Oryza tensed. “See?" she breathed. “You found it just fine."

“That's the easy part." He let his fingertips explore her vulva, feeling the gentle curve and warmth. “Are you turned on?"

“Only a little. Not as much as you, I think." She shifted so that her belly rubbed against the underside of his stiffening cock through his jumpsuit.

Corymb groaned, grinding into her reflexively. The sensation was muffled, but he felt enough of it to want more. “We'll have to fix that."

She touched her snout to his nose as she looked him in the eye. “I'm sure you will."

Corymb shook his head as he let his thumb descend softly upon her clit. Oryza's response was immediate, her head shooting up with a sharp inhale. Taking it as a sign to continue, he began to rub in circles, adding pressure when the dragoness crooned in pleasure.

“Better than your paws?" he asked.

“It's always better with someone else. Being wanted." She groaned. “And those hands, oh…"

“I'll bet." Corymb continued to rub, staring up at Oryza. She had her eyes closed and jaw agape, and gyrated her hips into his touch even as she held him against her. It was funny to think about how he was responsible for that pleasure. It wasn't even that hard. He almost wished he had asked sooner—even without the sex, there was a comfort to being held. Although the sex was also nice.

After a minute, a slickness began to build on his fingers. While he couldn't see it, Oryza was definitely getting aroused—though if past experience was anything to go by, it was only the beginning.

“You're wet," he said as he cupped his hand flat against her pussy, letting the fluid mingle with his palm.

“Only a little."

“We'll have to fix that." Before Oryza had a chance to respond, Corymb slipped his index and middle fingers into her pussy, letting the digits sink into her wet folds. Oryza hissed in pleasure, tightening the grip her hind legs had around his hips—thankfully not to the bone-crushing force from before—while her walls massaged his fingers.

Corymb pumped in and out with his hand while still rubbing her clit, and soon the squelching sounds of sex filled the cabin. He felt every hitch of Oryza's body against his, every breath as he shifted inside her. There was a satisfaction to bringing her that pleasure, to having that instant feedback to his every motion, wordlessly telling him what was and wasn't working. He was playing with her body, trying to make her feel as good as possible. And if he had his way, there was only one way it would end: in a peak.

Oryza bucked her hips and grunted. “More," she said.

Corymb sped up, grinding his body into hers as he fingered her. The underside of his cock rubbed between them, separated only by the fabric of his jumpsuit. His wrist was beginning to feel sore, but that wouldn't stop him; he wouldn't let her down this time. Oryza was going to have a screaming orgasm, courtesy of the wonders of human hands.

As he continued his stimulating, her walls clamped rhythmically on his fingers, smearing lukewarm lubrication between them. Despite the slickness, each clench had ample grip, and it took force to pull his fingers back before thrusting them back in. The noises Oryza made in response made it more than worth the effort, but he wouldn't be able to keep up this pace for much longer. He needed something that could put her over the edge.

Oryza had her head pulled back, eyes shut while she panted. Her neck was exposed to him. That sparked Corymb's memory: she had asked him to lick her on the neck before, just below the chin, and it had seemed to have quite the effect back then. Why not try it out again?

He leaned in, pulling his head close to hers. “Oryza," he whispered. She opened an eye. Then Corymb placed a long, slow lick up her neck.

Oryza's body tensed and then quaked. She opened her jaw and loosed something halfway between a roar and a squeal as she erupted in orgasm. Her pussy spasmed around his fingers, milking them even as she drenched them, and Corymb found himself wishing that it had been his aching cock in there instead.

He drew the lick out for as long as he could, but eventually he reached the bottom of her jaw and released it. Oryza's orgasm began to taper off at the same time, relaxing back into their embrace as she hummed in contentment.

“How was that?" Corymb asked.

“Hah. Pretty good," Oryza said between breaths. “But you should do it a few more times. Just to be sure."

“There's no satisfying you, is there?"

“Not true. You just did. That's why I want more."

Corymb sighed and shook his head. “Well, my wrist needs a break." He pulled his soaked hand away from Oryza's pussy. It was astonishing how wet she could get. “And we could use a towel." He wiped it off on the scales of her flank.

“Hey, I have to clean those!"

“The price you pay for being such a messy dragoness." He wiped off the back of his hand for good measure. “Actually, I've been meaning to ask"—he paused. Maybe it was rude. Then again, his fingers had just been inside her—

“What?"

Well, he wasn't about to take it back. “Is that normal?" he asked. “For dragons, I mean."

“What, being all juicy?" She licked his chin.

Corymb stifled a laugh. “Please," he said, pushing her head away as she aimed another lick, “never say that again. But, uh, yes."

“I don't know what it's like for humans, but that wasn't even that much." Her ears jumped up. “Not that you did a bad job—"

“No—"

“I just mean, well, you remember how it was with the ardeo. You said, uh, drowning? And zero-g definitely was doing a lot of that, but the stuff definitely makes me gush a bit."

“Hmm."

“If you think that's a lot, then you should see what a drake can put out. I seem to remember you were vaguely interested."

“Maybe a little."

“Well, let me know. I can set something up."

“There you go again, acting like I'm going to be here for ages."

Oryza flicked an ear and glanced away. After a pause, she said, “Yeah. There I go again." She pulled him closer.

Corymb frowned. He wouldn't apologize for not promising to stay. He was always going to go back home, back to Earth. Oryza had told him herself that she had no right to even ask.

“I'm here for now," he said. For another fifty days, even, but the words still felt hollow.

“That's right, you are. And you aren't going anywhere." She ground her belly against his, sandwiching his cock between them. “Especially not while you're this hard."

Corymb groaned and returned the rubbing motion. “We should do something about that."

“We should." Oryza loosened her grip on him just enough so that he could undo the zipper and velcro of his jumpsuit, and Corymb wasted no time freeing his erection from its confines.

“Damn, it's cold," he said as he resealed the velcro. His cock stuck out, but he wouldn't lose any more heat than he had to.

Oryza snorted. “Yes, and I haven't stopped panting for the last two moons, but you don't hear me complaining. Just stick it in already."

“So impatient." Corymb chuckled as he shimmied down her body, lining things up. He reached his hand back under her tail to figure out where everything was positioned before guiding himself into her.

He sunk in easily, his breath hitching as Oryza's pussy enveloped the head of his cock. An animal groan escaped his lips. It felt divine; the wet, lukewarm muscle of her walls left no sensation to the imagination.

“Fuck, Oryza."

She growled and Corymb felt her walls ripple, squeezing around his cock and urging him deeper. He wasn't about to refuse the offer. He pushed in further, moaning as her pussy engulfed the rest of his shaft, stopping only when their hips met.

He wished he could keep going deeper and deeper, unimpeded by annoyances like physicality. But he was hilted in her thoroughly. The next best thing, then. He got his feet on either side of her tail, using it as leverage in the weightless environment to pull back. Right before he would have slipped out, he changed direction, plunging all the way back in.

It was almost too much sensation. Corymb wasn't prepared for the intensity. Oryza's pussy had an astonishing amount of grip for how slick it was, and he felt every single millimeter of the thrust. It made him want to do it again and again—so he did, crying out as he smoothly pistoned in and out of her, legs shaking from pleasure and exertion.

It only took seconds of that before a pressure began to build between his legs. He tried to hold it back, to stave off the fast-approaching orgasm so he could linger in this moment a little longer, but the feeling only intensified.

“I'm not going to last," he whispered.

Oryza growled, wrapping her hind legs around his butt so he couldn't even thrust, let alone pull out. “Inside," she hissed.

The demand was all it took to send Corymb over the edge. His cock tightened, and then he felt it twitch as ecstasy flooded up his spine. Stars popped into his vision as Corymb came, shooting rope after rope of cum into the dragoness he was buried inside of. Oryza's pussy massaged him all the while. Each little squeeze elevated and prolonged the heights of his pleasure, coaxing out another spurt, another twitch.

As his orgasm waned, Corymb's body slackened. Oryza still held him tightly in her embrace as they floated in the cabin.

“Fuck," Corymb groaned.

“Did you finish?"

“Finish? You downright drained me."

“Oh. Good."

Corymb sighed. “It's not enough for you, is it?"

“You're not a dragon, Corymb. I don't expect you to be one. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy feeling your dick inside me"—she gave a squeeze to emphasize her point—“but it's never going to be a dragon's." She touched her snout to his nose. “Your fingers, though, are a gift from the moons themselves. Don't you dare feel that you're taking more than you give. Not that you should worry about that, anyway."

“But you want more."

Oryza smirked. “Don't you? We could spend every waking minute of the next fifty days mating. There's nothing to stop us."

Corymb clenched his jaw. There she went again, implying the only thing stopping her from enjoying the trip was him. This wasn't a pleasure cruise.

“Look, Oryza," he started, “this was fun, and maybe I even needed it—maybe we both did—but I can't just stick my head in the sand for the rest of the trip. Can we meet in the middle? Compromise?" He glanced back towards the terminal. Excitement and frustration bubbled inside him. There were answers there; he could feel it. Breaks were healthy, but he couldn't afford to get too distracted.

“If it means we mate more often, then I have no complaints." Oryza huffed out a chuckle. “But seriously, don't overwork yourself. Don't let things get this bad next time. Talk to me if you're feeling stressed. I'll always be here for you."

Sighing, Corymb nuzzled into her neck. “Thank you." He wrapped his arms around the dragoness and sunk into her embrace. He wasn't sure he had ever been this relaxed, not since evacuating the station. No—it was more than that. For the first time since being trapped in this tin can surrounded by endless, uncaring void, he felt safe. And just for a moment, the fifty days he had left with Oryza seemed frighteningly short.