FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Daniel was first aware that his head and chest were pressed against something warm and firm, yet soft and soothing. His eyes slowly drifted open, and he found that his upper body was resting snugly on R’kan’s chest, his head tucked under the Lahzid’s chin, both of his scaly arms wrapped around his back in a loving embrace. A blanket was draped over both their naked bodies and they were atop something soft – though Daniel had no idea what. The human hummed in approval at the perfect place to wake up.

“Mornin’ sunshine,” R’kan chirped cheerily, tracing Daniel’s jawline sensually with a single claw. “Sleep well?” Daniel nodded, his head rubbing against R’kan’s chest scales as he couldn’t be bothered to lift it.

“Mmm. The best night I’ve ever had.” R’kan nibbled on his ear, warm breath rolling over Daniel’s neck in waves, making him shiver in delight.

“And this is only the beginning,” he whispered. Daniel shivered again and found his eyes closing once more as R’kan licked his sensitive bare skin with his smooth tongue. Then, R’kan left an anticlimactic chaste kiss on Daniel’s cheek before hauling himself out of bed. “Sorry hun,” he apologised, looking genuinely very apologetic; his eyes were full of longing to stay with Daniel in bed and just cuddle the day away, but alas, he was a soldier with a duty to perform. “I have a scavenger mission scheduled today – I won’t be back until about sixteen-hundred hours. Will you be okay on your own until then?”

Daniel gave him his bravest smile and nodded. It didn’t look very convincing. “Hey, Iotan will have smoothed things out with the guys down here by now, so I can guarantee nobody here will hurt you unprovoked. If you really want to, you can just stay here – nobody will come and bother you – but I’d recommend you go out, try to make some friends, and for the love of god, eat something. I’ve heard all sorts of stories about you skipping meals from Laeina, via Amy.” R’kan rubbed the human’s back comfortingly as he offered up a chuckle, but Daniel didn’t respond in kind. He just hugged R’kan quickly, before pulling away and muttering:

“I’ll be okay. I’ve got some stuff Dover wanted me to do anyway.” R’kan knew Daniel was doing his best, but quite frankly, he was terrible at hiding his anxiety at being left alone in the strange place full of strangers he didn’t trust. The Lahzid felt guilt swelling up inside him, but knew he couldn’t just skimp out on his duty, no matter how badly he wanted to.

“When I get back, I’ll give you a very special treat, okay?” Daniel bit his lip.

“Why are you a soldier?” he demanded softly after a pregnant silence. R’kan blinked, then did a double-take.

“Say what now?”

“Why are you a soldier? You hate fighting, you hate killing people and you have somebody who can never live without you, yet you’re still willing to go out and throw your life on the line for a pointless cause.” Daniel turned to face him, the beginnings of tears in his eyes. “Why?”

“I…” R’kan hated seeing him like that. Damn it Daniel, you’re giving me a real big guilt trip here. R’kan sighed. “You have nothing to worry about. I’m not going out to fight; I’m going out to find resources to help keep my people alive. I guess the only thing that makes me a soldier is that I’m expected to defend myself and my peers if we get attacked. I will be back by the end of the day, I promise you.” Daniel nodded miserably. His heart told him he wanted to go with R’kan, but his head told him he’d only make the situation worse if they did get attacked, even if he didn’t have his damned limp to slow them down.

R’kan gave him another kiss, then threw one final longing look over his shoulder as he left. Yet again, he had been caught off-guard by his human. He’d thought that Daniel had wanted him to stay because he was scared and didn’t want to be alone, but he was only concerned for R’kan’s safety.

Soon after his boyfriend left, Daniel fished out his laptop and decided to bury himself in work so as to distract himself from the horrific thoughts clouding his mind. His task he’d given himself was collecting pieces of information – events, thefts, attacks and the likes – which felt off in some way. They didn’t seem to quite match the abilities and style of the Lahzids, but Daniel couldn’t quite put his finger on why.

He didn’t know how long he was sitting alone in R’kan’s room, distracting himself with pages and pages of videos, images and documents, but it must have been hours before a knock interrupted him. He quickly gathered himself, combing his hair with his hand and adjusting his clothing, before wandering over to the doorway. His stomach growled painfully. There was a slender grey Lahzid leaning against the wall outside with her arms folded across her chest. Striking blue eyes watched him curiously as he emerged.

The Lahzid looked much like any other; tall, slender, humanoid body; angular head that could be at home on an alligator – however, the muzzle was shorter, maintained a slim width throughout its length and ended bluntly rather than tapering to a tip.

The figure standing before him had wider hips than R’kan did, signifying it was female, not to mention the tale was slightly shorter and more muscular. The females also had stronger bones and softer belly scales that took on a lighter shade than the rest of the body, a trait that would have ensured their young stayed warm when they nested. The female in question also lacked any patterning to her scales, unlike R’kan, who had streaks of darker colouring upon his back. She cocked her head, ears twitching slightly under her long, smooth and bowed horns that stuck out the back of her skull. If Daniel had to guess, the horns also doubled as armour for the ears seeing as the two seemed to always be pressing together – excluding when the ears twitched or swung out to the side, much like a cat’s.

“Hiya…” Daniel greeted cautiously.

“Iotan told us there was a human lurking about the place, but I had yet to meet him,” the Lahzid girl stated. “And that means that the human has gone fifteen hours without a meal. Come with me before you starve to death, little one.” Daniel blushed slightly at the pet name and wondered if the Lahzid actually knew his name or not, but decided he could introduce himself formally on the way to where the food was at.

“I ah, yes thanks…?” Daniel tripped over his words, realising he didn’t actually know how to respond to the kind order properly – it hadn’t been a question, that’s for sure. The Lahzid smiled and motioned towards the hallway beyond R’kan’s room with her head. Daniel stepped outside and allowed her to lead the way. “Uh, my name’s Daniel, by the way. I don’t believe we’ve met?”

“I’m Dynia,” she replied simply. They emerged into a large room that was filled with all sorts of mismatching tables and chairs with string lights criss-crossing the ceiling to illuminate the expansive area. The makeshift mess hall was busy as Lahzids bustled past each other to get their lunch ration for the day. The tables were quite crowded as there seemed to be less tables than chairs and Lahzids, but Daniel noticed one table had been left empty; it was small, very off to the side and only had two chairs accompanying it. Dynia sat Daniel down at this table, which had obviously been left for them, and quickly moved off to get them both some food. Daniel tried to ignore all the stares he was getting, most of the occupants of the room having to take two glances at him, being used to running from or fighting any humans they came across on instinct.

Dynia returned, placing a small tray before Daniel. It contained a steaming pile of rice, some chicken strips and thick gravy over the lot. “We don’t have MREs like your military, so every meal is cooked fresh before serving. Honestly, I don’t envy you lot and your stale, vacuum-sealed meals.” Daniel chuckled, deciding to let Dynia have her little victory rather than tell her that the outpost had a fully-functioning cafeteria which served fresh food also – probably with better ingredients at their disposal too.

Daniel tried a mouthful, and was surprised to find that the taste agreed with him. Though when he thought about it, the Lahzids had probably cooked the meal from a box or packet, following the obligatory instructions that came with, then mass-produced it on a larger scale. Daniel took another look at his food, and concluded that it was definitely the sort of thing you’d find in a microwavable TV dinner. He dug in eagerly. He quite liked TV dinners.

Daniel finished his meal quickly, well before Dynia, who seemed to be savouring the incredibly interesting alien flavours, so he amused himself by letting his eyes wander around the room, drinking in the sights. He noticed a large crowd was accumulating around a random table near the centre of the room. He cleared his throat to gain Dynia’s attention.

“Hey, what’s going on over there?” he asked curiously, pointing towards the commotion. Dynia shrugged.

“Probably just Y’dre and his crew with some new human device. They’re real tech-heads and enjoy studying human stuff to find out what it does.”

“I could give them a hand with that,” Daniel pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s ruin the fun of it. The best part is when they finally discern its use through their own detective work. It can get quite amusing watching them argue over what they think it does, and their investigations can last weeks on end. You can go and take a look if you like, but just try not to spoil their fun.” Daniel nodded and crept over to the crowd, trying his best not to attract attention as he stepped on a chair to peer over the tall aliens’ shoulders.

The six figures sitting at the table were holding up a bright orange oblong with a silver cylinder, a gauge and some outlets set into the front. Some words on the side were obscured by a huge, black singe mark. However, the box itself actually seemed in perfectly good condition despite this. A Lahzid next to Daniel nudged him.

“This is killing me. What is it?” he asked. Suddenly, Lahzids were turning to him with questioning looks, stepping aside slightly to clear him a path to the table. Daniel realised they wanted him to approach the device and reveal its purpose.

“Ah! A human!” the Lahzid holding the box roared as Daniel reached the table. A seat was pulled up for him. “Finally, we’ve been stumped over this thing for over a month now. Br’den thought he figured it out, but ended up failing miserably in front of everybody.” The Lahzid burst into laughter at another’s expression, Daniel presumed that this was Br’den from the look of injured pride on his face.

“Did you get that from a plane?” Daniel asked with a furrowed brow as he accepted the device from the Lahzid’s hand.

“Er… yes. Yes, definitely. What is it?”

“What kind of plane was it? Bomber? Fighter?”

“Fighter. A protector of the city I believe. We found it crashed a few blocks away from the east edge of the city closest to us. What is it?”

“It’s a black box,” Daniel revealed. “A flight recorder. Humans bombed this city to kingdom come, and this device could hold the key to finding out why.” There was a collective gasp from around him. “I might have the equipment to read it back in R’kan’s room; give me a minute, will you?” The Lahzid nodded, took hold of the device again and watched as Daniel ran off as fast as his limp would allow.

“Hm, I didn’t notice he had a limp,” Br’den admitted. “It’s only really apparent when he runs, don’t you think?” The Lahzid with the flight recorder, whose name was Y’dre, nodded noncommittally. Daniel returned with his laptop and a bunch of wires clutched to his chest, which he hastily set up on the table and hooked up. Y’dre stared at the tabs open on-screen from the morning’s research and ‘hmm’ed.

“I remember that,” he said. “A bunch of humans showed up, shot the humans we were fighting, then ran off like they were scared. We got a lot of supplies from that mission.” Daniel glanced up from his work to read what was on the screen. A battle report from six months ago, where thirty troops were found slaughtered, by Lahzids obviously. Daniel however, found it quite interesting how the troops had been sent to investigate Lahzid refugees who hadn’t had the chance to gather the arms with which the soldiers were killed. All of the soldiers had been killed with firearms, not claws and brute strength.

“Huh,” Daniel uttered interestedly. “That is unusual. Hey, maybe I can get your help later with these reports I’m making? You might be able to help me with first-hand experience.” Y’dre nodded.

“Don’t see why not. Though it would only be fair for you to teach me more about the device you call a ‘laptop’ in return.”

“Yeah sure… here we go! Now we’re in business.” Daniel sat down before the screen, well aware of the gathered crowd, making him deem it unwise to plug in his headphones seeing as they would want to hear the audio file too. There were a few other files alongside the audio recording, but Daniel decided to start with something everybody would be able to hear.

“This is Sergeant Finnick, routine air patrol, October twenty-first – ah, we have a squadron of bombers inbound. Lazkey, are they scheduled to be here?” a voice in the recording asked.

“No sir,” another voice replied.

“Let’s check in. Ahem, unidentified aircraft, please state your identity and reason for occupying our airspace.” Silence.

“They look Korean, sir,” Lazkey observed. “Permission to report in to air control?”

“HOLY SHIT – THERE GOES AIR CONTROL!” a third voice screamed.

“Return fire! Return fire! Take them out before they destroy the city!”

“Mayday, mayday! This is Airman Lazkey, UNDF Fighter Squadron US division Delta Six. We are down two planes and our commanding officer. We’ve managed to take down one enemy plane and the co-ordinates are as follows:”

Daniel quickly scrambled to grab his notepad and scribbled down the string numbers Lazkey spouted. “I’m definitely not making it out of this alive. If anybody can hear this, tell my wife I love her. TAKE THIS YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Static. The Lahzids looked horrified, then bowed their heads sadly and shuffled away. Judging by the damage report before the plane’s monitoring systems were destroyed, Lazkey had kamikaze’d his plane into the enemy in one final act of defiance. Daniel peered at the coordinates he’d jotted down and quickly ran them through a digital map of the local area.

“So, what went down here?” Dynia asked, leaning on the table next to him.

“I think I’m close to something big – something that can pin the bombing of this city on humans. If I can find this downed plane and retrieve its flight recorder…” Daniel didn’t finish that thought. Would he expose the humans; stop them fighting the Lahzids in favour of fighting amongst themselves?

“I’d take my squad out with you, but Iotan would never sanction it. He hates sending anybody out unless it’s absolutely necessary, so you’re on your own.” Daniel was surprised he actually had the freedom to leave. He gathered his things and made to return to R’kan’s room. “Oh, and could you do me a massive favour?” Daniel paused and indicated that he was listening. “This Sergeant has come a long way, searching all over for R’kan, and I thought seeing as you know him so personally, while you’re out, you could greet them and bring them back here. Iotan has this rule against broadcasting our location over the radio, no matter how secure we think the line is.”

“Why does this Sergeant need to meet R’kan so bad?” Daniel inquired. Dynia shrugged.

“That’s between them. If R’kan wanted me to know, he would tell me. But if I had to guess, they’re probably an old squad member of his, or have news about his family.” Dynia peered at the coordinates Daniel was holding. “I’ll tell them to meet you there, shall I?” Daniel nodded.

“Yeah, that’d be convenient. I’m gonna go ahead and set out before it’s too late. Would you mind telling Iotan I’m going – if he wants to know, that is.” Dynia assured him she would, before rushing away to contact the Sergeant via the Underground’s communications room.

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

Daniel stared up at the battered tower that stood before him. It was some kind of office building; stark grey in colour and stretching up dozens of stories. At the bottom, aside from all the rubble that had rained down during the city’s bombardment, it looked untouched. But as his eyes roamed upwards, the building sustained more damage. Chunks were missing in some places, windows were shattered, and the grey slate roof had been severed completely, the tail of an aeroplane sticking out almost comically.

This is where the coordinates led, and that tail fin belonged to the answer to all Daniel’s questions. He pushed open the preserved glass doors and paced inside. It was eerily quiet in the lobby of the office building. Daniel passed an elevator, already well aware that it wouldn’t be functioning, not that he would have risked ascending the thrashed structure in a metal coffin anyway. Instead, he began his long ascent via the stairwell.

He passed floor after floor of desks and cubicles, each little work area telling stories of everyday life before the war struck the city. Cold and mouldy coffee cups perched upon stacks of papers or in clear spaces on cluttered desks. Files were abandoned on the floor where somebody had been carrying them to the photocopier. Ants scurried frantically over a half-eaten sandwich. Bulletin boards had public events that seemed so important to these people before their lives were turned upside-down.

Daniel reached the roof access and heaved the door open. Half the roof had been shaved off, chunks of concrete piled up at the nose of the crashed vehicle. Daniel stepped onto the metal wing, then immediately jumped back off as the rubble below the plane shifted, making the planes slide forward and push over the wall that had barely been standing, exposing the world beyond. The nose was now sticking out over the side of the building, hanging in open air. Daniel heard several clunk sounds as rubble bounced off the side of the building, beginning their journey to the ground. He never heard them hit the bottom.

Daniel took a deep breath, then gingerly placed a foot back onto the wing. The plane remained where it was. He pulled himself up onto his hands and knees, gripping the edges of a bent-up panel to stabilise himself as the broken vehicle groaned and leant forward a few millimetres. He began crawling, ever-so-slowly, towards the front of the plane. He reached the glass canopy and examined the spider-web-like cracks that spanned its surface, then reached over and nabbed a chunk of concrete off the metal hull. He raised his hand high in the air, then slammed the rock down on the glass. The plane lurched, but only slid forward a little bit.

Daniel smacked the glass again. A tortured moan from the metal contraption, but no movement this time. One final blow, and the glass caved in with an ear-splitting crack and the tinkling of glass. He grimaced and tried to ignore the shrivelled body of the deceased pilot. Definitely human. He searched the cockpit, but everything was written in Korean. He’d researched where it was earlier in most fighters deployed by the UNDF, and remembered that it was either in the tail or beneath the pilot’s seat. Right, he had to move that body.

Daniel held his breath and quickly tried to shove the body aside, wanting to touch it as little as possible. It didn’t budge. Daniel cracked open an eye and realised the pilot was still strapped in. He grimaced and unbuckled the body, before trying again. This time, he managed to roll the corpse over the side of the canopy and onto the roof of the building. The plane jutted forward, slid a metre, then jerked to a stop, almost throwing Daniel over the edge.

“Holy shit. Holy shit,” he muttered to himself. He took a deep breath, immediately regretted it because of the stench of death, then thrust his hand underneath the seat. He felt a bulky box, and lowered his eyes to the object’s level. The shift in weight made the vehicle creak and Daniel felt the nose cone tilt down slightly. He un-clicked the latches holding the flight recorder in place and tugged on the heavy object. He tugged again, it moved a few centimetres. It was jammed in pretty tight, so Daniel braced himself and heaved with all his might, the excess force slamming his back against the controls and causing the plane to screech as it tumbled forward. Gravity finally took a firm hold and the plane steadily slid off the rooftop. Daniel flung the flight recorder in the general direction of the building and began running over the kinetic vehicle on all fours, scrambling to reach the tail before it left the building’s edge.

The plane began to spin end over end just as Daniel threw himself off it, slamming his stomach into the edge of the building, then scrabbling with his fingers to catch hold before he shared the plane’s fate. His hands caught the lip and he stopped his descent with a painful yank to his arms. Despite his better judgement, dangling from the side of an enormously-tall building, he looked down. The plane smashed into the ground, crushing abandoned cars and street signs and crumpling like a tin can.

In that moment, Daniel wondered if he should have frequented the gym more often – well, at all. He found his sweaty hands slipping and his upper-body strength wasn’t the best, especially since the frantic struggle to get off the plane had drained all his stamina. His arms’ muscles were shaking at the strain as he attempted to pull himself up, only to slump back down as he realised he was only draining his energy. Then, a strong hand grabbed his wrist and hauled him up, just like that. He found himself face-to-face with a dull-blue-coloured Lahzid. Daniel looked into their dazzling amber eyes and sighed in relief. R’kan. “How the hell did you find me? Oh thank god you’re –” Daniel paused. No, the horns were shorter, more curved, the face was more angular and the streaks of navy blue were all in the wrong places – not to mention that the Lahzid had much broader hips and an overall more slender figure, enunciating the thick muscles more.

Daniel blushed at his little slip-up. “M-my apologies, you look like somebody I know.” The Lahzid cocked her head – for Daniel knew enough about their physiology to declare her of the female gender – and regarded him strangely.

“When Dynia told me I’d be met by a human, I thought she was joking. You really are a strange little fellow, aren’t you?” Daniel narrowed his eyes.

“Wait a minute… are you…? But R’kan thought you were dead!” he exclaimed, still dangling a few centimetres off the ground by a single wrist. The Lahzid decided to put him down. “You’re Faya, aren’t you? Faya Huurdiin?”

“He thought I was dead?” Faya repeated heartbrokenly. “Oh R’kan… you must have been so lonely…” Daniel held off hugging her despite his overwhelming joy – after all, Daniel was a strange human to her; a stranger. Daniel swept up the flight recorder, which had thankfully sustained no damage, and bounced off towards the stairwell excitedly.

“Come on! Let’s get back right now! R’kan’s gonna be so happy!” Faya bemusedly followed the human as he bounded down the stairs, jogging easily to keep up with his pace. At the bottom, an uneasy-looking bunch of Lahzids – Faya’s squad – greeted them quietly, and followed the confusingly-happy human back to the Underground.

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

R’kan paced furiously in the Underground’s entranceway. His squad had found a big haul and returned an hour early, leaving R’kan to plan a big surprise for Daniel on the trip back, only to discover his human had run off on an errand, ALONE.

“Why would he do this?” R’kan demanded to nobody. “How could he be so reckless? Leaving me like this… to worry about him… not knowing… if…” R’kan trailed off as he came to a sobering realisation, making him stop dead in his tracks.. This is exactly what he had done to Daniel that very morning. Was this what Daniel was feeling when he was crying and begging R’kan not to leave him? Was this Daniel’s punishment for him? No, Daniel would never be that cruel and petty, would he?

He perked up when the sentry heaved the hatch open and murmured something to somebody on the outside. Two Lahzids dropped in, followed by Daniel, then two more Lahzids. R’kan immediately snatched Daniel up into his arms and into a crushing hug. “You-you big idiot!” R’kan growled. “Why did you run off by yourself like that? You could have been killed! I-I-I… I’m so sorry I left you Daniel!”

“Hey, easy there big guy,” Daniel chuckled, concern creeping into his voice. R’kan gently lowered him back onto the ground, but made sure his hands remained connected to Daniel’s shoulders, not wanting to let go of his human any time soon. “I brought a very special person back with me.” R’kan raised his head and stared at the four Lahzid figures that had arrived with Daniel, and the human took the time to step aside and let what happened happen.

“F-F-F-Faya…?” R’kan choked out.

“Hey there little bro,” Faya greeted him quietly. “Look at you; you’ve changed so much since I last saw you…” The gap between them had been gradually closing as they pulled each other into a caring embrace. “How have you been? Earth treating you well?” Faya laughed bitterly and bit back a tear, squeezing her brother just as hard as she was squeezing her eyes shut.

“I thought you were dead,” R’kan sobbed.

“I know R’kky, I know. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. My pod landed in the middle of the ocean, and I got fished up by some humans… things were pretty bad where I was, but I managed to get away. I came here as soon as I found you.” They finally pulled away from each other, taking shaky breaths. “It must have been awful for you, being stuck here, alone and confused.”

“It’s okay, a few guys took good care of me – in fact, one of them is still in my squad. Then I met Daniel, and he’s been helping me through this… he’s my… boyfriend.” Daniel gave a shy wave when Faya threw a curious stare at him.

“A human?”

“He’s harmless – I mean, a good person.” Once again, R’kan thought back to how violently Daniel had fought when R’kan’s life was in danger. That seemed so long ago now…

“Yeah, I noticed. He just about killed himself out there, all for some orange piece of junk.”

“Oh?” R’kan shot a deadly glare at Daniel, who shied away slightly. “He’s been working tirelessly to try and bring peace to our species. I wouldn’t be surprised if that ‘orange piece of junk’ is the next step towards stopping the fighting here.” Daniel retrieved the junk in question from one of the Lahzids that had accompanied him on the way back and made off to R’kan’s room, but was stopped by R’kan himself. “Where do you think you’re going? The three of us are gonna go grab some dinner.”

Daniel made to excuse himself, seeing as he had work to do, but R’kan was having none of it. “All three of us. It’s mandatory.” Daniel sighed and nodded, passing the flight recorder back to the Lahzid and following along behind the two siblings meekly as they led the way to the mess hall. The human sat down anxiously next to R’kan, and Faya sat down across from them. “They don’t start serving for another few minutes,” R’kan explained. Faya nodded acceptingly and turned to Daniel.

She found the notion of a human mate quite interesting, and wondered what R’kan saw in the thus-far clumsy, shy little man. Saving their species from annihilating each other was a noble cause, but was that really enough to build a relationship on?

“So, what was that box thing you almost died for anyway?” Faya asked. Daniel shuffled on his seat impatiently.

“It’s a flight recorder from one of the planes that bombed this city. The pilot was a human and not from this country either. They shot down the local defence force and began assaulting civilian establishments for no reason. But now, their orders should be stored on that device, we just need to decrypt it and translate the contents, then we can build a more positive image of your kind, and perhaps topple the very foundation of this war by planting seeds of doubt. As the saying goes; tell one lie, and every truth you’ve told becomes questionable.”

And I would very much like to talk to Lieutenant Dover about it so we can get decrypting right away, Daniel added in his head, a little peeved at the fact a family reunion that he had no right to be in was being put before saving the world. Suddenly, Dynia appeared, placing four precariously-balanced trays on the table.

“Hey guys!” she chirped cheerily, taking a seat across from them. “So, you two look alike. You siblings or something?” R’kan nodded.

“This is my sister, Faya.”

“Well, whaddaya know? Looks like you’re gonna get some ‘thanks for finding my sister for me’ sex tonight, ay Daniel?” Daniel blushed and shrunk back into his seat.

“H-have you been drinking?” he asked. Dynia nodded.

“’S good stuff too. Humans really know howta make a good brew…”

“Hmph,” Faya grunted. “No respect, no discipline. Is this how things are run here?”

“Relax sis,” R’kan said with a huff, slouching back in his chair casually. “We’ve been trapped down here for months on end. People have to have a bit of fun every now and again, otherwise we’d go insane.” Faya gave R’kan an odd look, then a small smile graced her muzzle.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m just used to being in military situations, I forget you guys are all civilians. Those are some wise words, pretty confident too. You really have changed, even more than I initially thought.” She faced Daniel again. “Would you believe that a few years ago, he spent all his free time alone in his room, watching cartoons and eating MREs?”

“Faaayaaaa!” R’kan groaned. She giggled, enjoying humiliating his brother in front of his loved one.

“It’s true! He was also quite the fan of playing video games. He used to blabber on about how he could be a soldier just like me in his games.” R’kan’s face soured a bit.

“Unfortunately, it’s a lot less fun in real life. Being a soldier, that is.”

“Dating, however, is a lot more fun than in the games,” Daniel added with a sheepish grin. Dynia giggled and almost collapsed onto the table. Then she picked up her food, her knife and fork banging to the table noisily. She shoved her muzzle into the tray and began guzzling it down.

“Ew, gross!” Faya exclaimed, barely containing her amused giggles as she dodged a flying blob of processed meat. “Who even invited her here?”

“You two would make such a cute couple!” Dynia roared out boisterously. Daniel glanced under the table and saw an empty vodka bottle. Ah, that explained a lot. R’kan frowned and furrowed his brow.

“Dynia, Daniel and I are a couple,” he reminded her. Dynia blinked.

“Threesome!” she blurted out, then face-planted onto the table, right into her tray of food. R’kan glanced at his sister shiftily, hoping that Dynia had wanted the threesome to include herself rather than Faya, because incest wasn’t really his thing. At all.

Laeina approached cautiously and pulled up a seat.

“Hey you four…” she greeted confusedly. “Is she okay?” Daniel, R’kan and Faya all shrugged simultaneously. “Anyway… I was thinking, seeing as bringing Daniel here went down so well, that tomorrow I could introduce Amy to everyone?”

“I don’t think R’kan approves,” Daniel said, keeping a straight face. Laeina almost asked why, but Daniel answered the unspoken question first. “There doesn’t appear to be a foursome in that plan.”

“Daniel! In front of my sister?” R’kan protested. Faya giggled.

“R’kan, I didn’t know you liked to be so kinky. What, do you cuff Daniel up when you have intercourse too?” R’kan blushed and looked away, refusing to answer. “Oh my gosh, you did! You did!” Faya burst out laughing at her embarrassed brother, slamming her fist on the table when his face began turning purple.

“Whoa, I didn’t even know you guys could blush like that,” Daniel giggled.

“Okay, okay, we’ve all had a laugh, now let’s all stop making fun of ol’ R’kan,” R’kan urged.

“So is that a yes on the Amy thing?” Laeina clarified.

“Don’t see why not,” Daniel answered honestly. “It would probably benefit us – you know, I could teach her all the places that make R’kan squirm, Amy can teach me all the things that make you moan…” Daniel winked at Laeina’s mortified expression.

“E-excuse me! We don’t have s-sex every night l-like you two horny animals do! In fact, I’m still a virgin!” Laeina jabbed a thumb into her chest, almost proudly.

“Mm, you’re right, that is a problem,” Daniel agreed, twisting Laeina’s words to further make fun of her. “But lucky for you, you have me! I can give you a plethora of awesome pick-up lines. Oh, and R’kan’s gotten pretty good at pillow talk, so he can give you a few tips on that.”

“You guys are very openly sexual,” Faya observed.

“M-male pigs!” Laeina cried, only half-serious.

“Yeah… I could go for some of that…” Dynia murmured from out of nowhere, suddenly awake again. “So, hows-about that threesome?” If she wasn’t so drunk, Daniel would have actually considered that offer, but taking advantage of drunk people wasn’t his forte. Then again, drunken people tend to let slip their innermost desires via lack of self-control, so maybe there would be a possibility later.

“Okay, I think it’s probably time Daniel and I head off to bed,” R’kan announced, standing and stretching languorously.

“Not for sleeping,” Daniel whispered, winking again, before following R’kan’s lead. Laeina scoffed at him and rolled her eyes, ending up with her gaze averted embarrassedly. The two made their way to R’kan’s room, holding hands the whole time.

“Well, I’ve got to meet up with Amy now. Catch ya later, uh, you two,” Laeina excused herself, before pushing herself up off the table and swaggering away.

“Well crap. What about you hun? Wanna walk on the wild side?” Dynia implored, gazing at Faya intently. Faya just eyed her with a raised eye ridge, prompting her to plant her face back onto the table with a disappointed groan. “I’m so horny…” she slurred, before going silent.

Now Faya was alone with her thoughts. It was a lot to take in. It was like she didn’t really know her brother anymore; he was so much more mature and confident, but she could still see that child hiding beneath the hardened shell he’d created for himself. Faya sighed and sunk back in her seat, mulling over the recent events. At least she got to see him again, even if he was going to be spending all his time with somebody else.