Lightning Strikes Twice
"Lightning Strikes Twice"
by K.M. Hirosaki ([email protected])
This story and all characters are copyright © 2005 K.M. Hirosaki.
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This was shaping up to be the best vacation ever. I don't need to tell you how good it feels to have an entire week away to yourself after almost three straight years of nothing but work, work, work. After spending day-in and day-out working the stock market and running office work, I was collecting interest on relaxation that I'd owed myself.
The otter that was chatting me up said that his name was Kavanu. He sounded so adorable when he'd said it, too, throwing some teasing into the singsong tone that most of the otters on Kahalo spoke with. The island wasn't home to just otters, but they were far and away the overwhelming majority of the population, and were definitely the first folk to settle it. It was easy to see why, too: Kahalo is one of those places that people mention with a wistful sigh whenever they talk about 'dream vacations' and the like. The feeling I got when the pilot buzzed down the shoreline to land us on the water was just amazing, like I'd stepped right out into one of those illustrated dime novel accounts.
Kavanu was pretty exotically enticing, himself, and I was as sure as anything that he was hitting on me. We were hanging out at one of the local tourist spots--a place that didn't feel like it was what 'real' Kahalo folks did for nightlife, but I couldn't complain about the nice blend of tropical juices and liqueurs that they managed to keep serving up.
"So," Kavanu asked, leaning in toward me, continuing on with that same singsong. "You gonna tell me your name, mister kangaroo?" As he said that, he ran one of his claws up and down the inside of my forearm. Anyone close enough to see would've known that we were flirting, but even if they did, I didn't care.
I smiled at him, letting him tickle my grayish fur for a few seconds before responding. "Martin," I said, meeting him eye-on. He just grinned even wider, and I knew for sure that my hunch had been right. This cute little otter was going to be all over me, just like the one from the night before.
Pakali was another otter, about as young as Kavanu here was, who looked barely old enough to be drinking. Maybe customs on Kahalo were different, but he certainly didn't seem to fear any repercussions of what he was doing, and the last thing I'd wanted to do was talk him out of what he was doing.
Maybe the flowers acted as some kind of aphrodisiac, maybe the bartender had been lacing my drinks, or maybe I was just so glad to be away from home that I didn't care--it didn't matter, I suppose. All that did matter in that moment was Kavanu. The way he was looking at me made me want to just grab him and kiss him, and then see what kind of look he had on his face afterward.
"Can I call you Marty?" he asked, sitting himself more upright. Even such a simple question sounded so coy coming from him. He definitely knew what he was doing; I bet he pulled this act on a lot of guys who came through on vacation. "'Martin' just makes you sound so... so old."
I had to laugh when he said that. He reached up and adjusted the bright pink and purple flower he'd docked against his ear, playing up his own youthfulness. In reality, he couldn't have been any more than ten years younger than me, but I was pretty sure that he knew full well that he was hitting one of my buttons. Hell, when I'd been his age, I was a flirtatious little firebug like that, too--that had certainly been a scene, back in the day. After the Depression, I had shut myself down for a bit, dealing with the rest of the world and not with myself, but now that the gates had been opened again, I felt almost exactly like I had in the good ol' days.
"Yeah, you can call me Marty," I replied as I reached out to help him adjust that flower of his. He cocked his head and smiled, taking a sniff in through his nostrils. It looked like he wanted to nuzzle at my wrist and start nibbling his way up the inside of my arm, but the game wasn't quite that far along yet. Instead, I took my hand back to myself, erring on the side of discretion. Again, I didn't know if islander custom would approve of natives interacting with foreigners like this--especially not when it was an island boy and an outsider businessman.
Kavanu curled his muscular tail around one leg of his stool, using it for a counterbalance as he leaned back to blatantly show off his body. Like most of the local men, he went around topless (and the skimpy drawers that he had on barely amounted to real 'clothing' at all). Pakali had teased me in the exact same way, leaning back with the same look on his face, daring me to fantasize. I was more than happy to oblige.
"How long are you staying here on Kahalo, Marty?" Kavanu asked, picking up his drink and taking a tiny sip from it. He made sure to continue leaning backwards the entire time, and his movements didn't suffer for it at all.
I picked up my own drink, eager to get a quick buzz working. "Just until the end of the week," I said. "It's looking like I'm really going to regret having to go back home, after all this."
The young otter laughed--almost giggled, really. "I hear a lot of that," he said. "Seems that nobody wants to leave once they've gotten a taste of what we've got to offer." I could've sworn that I saw him run just the very tip of his little pink tongue over his lip when he said that, but the moment passed far too quickly.
From behind the rim of my glass, I smiled back at him, and then set the glass back down, empty. "I can see why," I said, my finger flicking the little paper umbrella that stuck up from the ice.
"Let me get you another drink," Kavanu said, reaching over to pluck the little umbrella from the glass before tucking it in against his ear, along with his flower. He then turned to the bartender (another otter, and presumably also a native) and shook the empty glass and clicked his tongue. The bartender gave a prompt nod, smiled back at him, and went about fixing a new round of drinks.
"So, what is it that you do when you're not on vacation, Marty?" the young otter then asked, turning his attention back to me. He leaned back forward, finally, as if to show his interest in me, and crossed one leg over the other. I could tell how nimble and flexible he was, and it was getting difficult for me to keep my eyes off of his tail as it uncurled from around the stool.
Without having a sip of drink to disguise myself with, I just softly cleared my throat and looked back into the kid's eyes. "Hard to explain: it involves tickers, stocks, and numbers," I replied. "Things that are very important and very dull." I tried to punctuate my tone with humor, since I really didn't feel like having to gripe about my job if I could avoid it.
"Are you successful?" Kavanu followed up with, that sly grin of his getting even bigger.
"Successful enough that I can afford to come to spend a week in an island paradise like this, at least."
The bartender dropped off a pair of drinks for us, and Kavanu smirked at me as he twisted sideways, picking up both glasses, handing one off to me. "Here's to success, then," he said, clinking his glass against mine. "And welcome to Kahalo."
Those words sent a shiver down my spine and made my pulse jump. The night before, after Pakali had gotten me away from the drinking and the crowds of tourists, he took me down to the beachfront in order to show me what he'd playfully referred to as "a proper Kahalo welcome."
I'd have been lying if I'd said that I wouldn't have been disappointed if I didn't get the same kind of treatment from Kavanu that evening. Everything about the otter's flirting mannerism told me that I wasn't going to have to worry about that, though. No longer was he testing the waters with me; he knew full well that he had his hooks in, and it was just a matter of how far he'd draw out the teasing before finally closing the trap. But, after all, part of the fun was seeing how long the fuse would run.
Kavanu was a better tease than Pakali, I admitted, too. Thoughts of my encounter with Pakali were right up in the front of my thoughts, though, and as I sized up Kavanu's lithe body, I wondered how this night would differ from the last. In any case, the mustelid's quirky body language told me that we'd be enjoying ourselves, somehow or another.
The look in his eyes said that he probably had a pretty good idea of what I was imagining as I looked at him. We were still playing our game, sure, but the pretense was gone. In that sense, it was like sexual energy in the air between us had increased tenfold, and that was probably more than I could comfortably handle for much longer.
"So, are you this welcoming and hospitable to all the folks who travel down these parts?" I asked, taking a sip of my new drink.
Uncrossing his legs, the otter set his glass back down on the bar. "Not, not all of them," he replied. "Just the ones who look like they'd appreciate a... a certain side of life here on Kahalo."
"Oh, I definitely appreciate it," I said, shifting about on my stool, to recover from the slouched-over posture I'd ended up in due to gawking. "So, tell me," I then asked. "Do you dance at all?" I motioned over to the side, to what amounted to a dance floor.
Kavanu's tail twisted back down, like it had a mind of its own, while the otter just kept his eyes on me. "Oh, I do," he said, suddenly downing half of his fruity drink in one go. "I don't know if dancing is really what I'm in the mood for tonight, though."
"No?"
"No," he said, getting quieter. "But, hey... you've got the rest of the week for dancing, don't you? Why not do something a little less touristy and a little more... unique? Refreshing?"
I set my elbow against the bar and leaned closer. "You mean like take a chance?"
"Just like that," Kavanu responded. He leaned in toward me, in turn, painfully slow on the approach. His eyes stayed open, glued on mine, and they twinkled with a mixture of lust, affection, and mischief. My gaze fell upon his lips, as they came closer, falling in line with my own.
Just as our lips were about to touch, the otter's nimble body whipped back into an upright position, and he picked his glass back up, resuming his sipping, looking as nonchalant as can be. Even his eyes were blank and devoid of that intense flirtatious gleam. I was left dazed for several seconds, blinking a few times before I licked my lips and sat back up myself.
I just had to have him. In that moment, I knew it. Memories of my encounter with Pakali were fueling my thoughts of what I wanted to do with this fiendish tease of an otter. I felt like such a tramp for what I was thinking, and by heaven, I loved it. This little guy was going to be worth it.
"Tell you what," I said, after wetting my whistle and finding my composure. "Why don't we finish our drinks, and you can show me what this island paradise of yours is really like, when all of the tourism and showboating is done? Does that work for you?"
Kavanu looked me right in the eye, and I could see the faintest twitch near the corner of his mouth. With a final gulp, he killed off his drink, and then shook his head clear. "I can do that for you," he replied, sounding more blunt than I'd heard him sound. "Just make sure that you keep your eyes on me, okay?"
Oh, I'd be keeping my eyes on him, all right! I slammed back the rest of my drink, just like he had. I hadn't drunk as much of mine as he had, though, and I could feel the alcohol burn the entire way down, and I wasn't as ready for it as I'd wanted to be. This kid was worth it, though. Oh, was he worth it!
"Deal," I answered, motioning with my head for him to get up out of his seat. He was quick to oblige, and as he walked past my stool, I leaned in to blow a breath out against his ear.
I was quick to fall into step, and Kavanu flaunted himself with each step as we made our way out onto the stone-lined walkway that headed away from the beach. For a couple of minutes, neither of us said anything, and he made sure to keep a good distance in front of me, so that I could have the best possible view.
Once we came to a crossroads, he stopped and let me catch up with him. Pointing doing one of the paths, he said, "You know, my place is this way. Feel like dropping by? More free drinks, if you like."
"I'm definitely up for some more Kahalo hospitality," I said, sneaking in a wink. "Lead the way."
The path we headed down went in the opposite direction from where my luxurious resort hotel was, and so I was seeing a part of the coastal town that I hadn't yet seen. Part of me had expected, from the way that Kavanu was dressed, that he lived in some grass hovel, but we actually ended up walking into a tiny complex of miniature condominiums. There weren't any modern skyscrapers (or even modern construction the way I was used to it), but these people weren't as primitive as they'd doubtlessly been even a handful of decades ago.
Nobody was walking around outside within Kavanu's housing area, and he took the opportunity to start shooting me looks as he reached behind himself to tickle my belly as he walked without even looking back. I returned the favor by goosing him, struggling to keep in step so that I didn't trip over his heels or his tail.
When we got to the front door of his condo, he just pushed the door open without having to unlock anything. One of his hands hooked at the waistband of my pants, and he proceeded to drag me deeper inside like that.
I put up a token struggle, letting my feet drag just to force him to take the extra effort. He shot an excellent look back at me, which promised further teasing as simple retribution, and the very thought got me more eager. I let up a little, then, making it easier for the otter to continue on dragging me to the bedroom.
Once in, Kavanu released his grip on my pants and put a hand on my back, shoving me toward the bed. I willfully fell over onto it, lying on my back to let the otter crawl up my legs and sit himself there.
His grin got even goofier, then, and I knew that he finally had me where he wanted me. His tail curled up around one of my feet, sliding back and forth until it knocked my sandal off, and then it wiggled around some more. I flexed my leg back against the tension, and smirked back up at him.
Just then, a voice--a familiar one--came from the hallway outside the bedroom. "Did you get him, honey?" it asked playfully, in that same of singsong Kahalo pitch.
"Oh, I sure did, lover," Kavanu called back, keeping his eyes on my face as he planted both of his hands on my shoulders. "You were right, too--he's a really easy catch."
Something told me that I shouldn't have been nearly so surprised as I was when I saw Pakali step into the room, stark naked and shameless about it. "Didn't I tell you?" he trilled to the other otter. "He's a fun one, too, isn't he?"
Kavanu must have seen something in my eyes, because he laughed like a delighted child, and then reached down to ruffle the hair between my ears. "Oh, without question!" he said. "Sexy, too. I can see why you picked him."
Pakali had made his way over to the bed, now, and he leaned up against it with his webbed hands on the edge. "Hi there, Marty," he said, flicking his tongue at me. "Good to see you again." That was the understatement of the year.
This was shaping up to be the best vacation ever.