one monster catch!

Taylor quickly moved away from the door. He hurried to the other side of the little table that he and Belmira always sat at, as if the simple furniture could provide enough distance. Just a whiff of Alesh's scent had the hairs on the back of the dragon's neck standing up. The prickling, painful desire that he felt was normal — or, it had been, when he didn't really have an outlet for it. Today ... fuck ! today he was going to die of that need, which begged him to throw his aching body at Alesh's feet.

❝Belmira's with a friend,❞ Taylor said. Short, strained. His claws curled into the top of one of the chairs, scratching at the simple fabric. The dragon's eyes were wide ; within them, the darks of his blown pupils threatened to swallow that pretty orange.

❝I'm not sure when she'll be home. It would be best if you left and came back.❞

Taylor flinched at his own directness. Such a pointed comment was far from the civility he had shown Alesh out of respect for their previous relationship and the child he bore as a result of it. Suddenly, his thoughts turned to how Belmira came to be. His wavering voice told Alesh that he loved him — as Alesh kissed his cool, smooth skin over and over. Momentarily lost to his memories, Taylor whimpered. The sound broke him out of his strange state, and he stumbled a few steps further still.

The local beauts have hooked me, too.

When he opened the door to Taylor's place, cooler full of fresh fins in hand, he'd expected to start making dinner. He'd expected little Belmira to have a thousand new things to tell him, and to see Taylor's enamoured expression from over her little shoulder.

He had not, in any capacity, expected that sweetness in the air.

Alesh felt his fur stand on end. As he sought Taylor's gaze, the pupil marred by his Oripathy dilated without his consent. Nostrils flaring, he took in the familiar scent of Taylor's heat, and his tail began to raise behind him, flicking sharply from side to side.

Taylor's words felt ice cold in comparison to the wave of heat that crashed over his skin. Alesh licked his lips and tasted him.

"No can do, I'm afraid. The fins," he said dryly, lifting his cooler into Taylor's view, "they'll go bad if I just leave them, Taylor.

"And I know this lasts quite a while for you. There's no way you'll make it to the freezer."

How they'd relished it, all those years ago. Alesh remembered the nectar of Taylor's slick and the swell of his belly with seed in shuddering detail. They had been sticky, and tired, and reeked of the other, and it had been remarkable.

"Let me stay just long enough to put things away..."

Another inhale of Taylor's heat had Alesh's cock throbbing, and he swallowed against the tide of arousal. In irritation Alesh clicked his tongue, laughed, and after a shake of his head fixed a dark eye on Taylor's flushed face.

As the doors closed behind her, the cautus' eyes caught sight of a fellow colleague resting on one of the couches - it immediately brought a smile to her face, causing Avywenna to hop over to him excitedly. @fintelligence being there was a lucky encounter - and one that prompted her to flop at his side unceremoniously (but not ungracefully), crossing both legs underneath her lithe body and looming over him for a bit.

"I think I got it right this time, Alesh," the female operator said, moving backwards to sit over her own folded limbs and giving Alesh some of his personal space back, "Pirates. A bloke like you, terribly fond of fishing... You just happened to have your little boat in the way of some big, bad pirates, wasn't it?"

Avywenna's blue eyes gleamed with mischief, smiling wildly at him. Of course she had no clue behind the accident that had cost her colleague an eye - but it didn't stop her from trying. "You fought them bravely, but the captain took the eye with his hook. I can see it all so clearly..." her gloved hands moved over the empty air, as if painting that action picture for him to see as well as she did it in her mind.

Naturally, it was all bullshit. But this was routine between them now, and he valued Avywenna's companionship more than any measure of historical accuracy.

By the time she finished speaking, the grin on his face was easy. "You know me, Avywenna. I never like to brag.

"And isn't it better to earn a girl's favour than to have it based on past hurrahs?"

He offered her his bottle wordlessly in case she wanted some.

"There's some regret you never knew me in my years as a corsário. We could have feasted and drank the likes of which these humble Endfielders could never imagine-- and the places on this moon that we could have explored together, let me tell you..."

For the sake of the drama of it all, Alesh let out a wistful sigh.

❝I'm ... fond of it,❞ Taylor finally replied. ❝ — motherhood, I mean. She really is incredible.❞ As he spoke of their daughter, his voice grew sweeter and expression almost dream - like. There was no other love in the world like what he possessed for Mira.

❝All she does is talk. Even in her sleep, Alesh.❞ Taylor's ears slowly turned up. He chuckled. ❝Belmira is a gifted storyteller. She likes to get the other children together. There's these ... plays she puts on for them with puppets that she makes. A lot of them are about — ❞

With his arm stretched comfortably over the back of the couch, Alesh watched Taylor with a familiar, easy-going eye. All these years apart and he was still largely the same dragon he remembered (Alesh had half a mind to ask if this place had as many ghosts as the city did): he still had the kind voice, the bright eyes, and that little note of shyness.

Taylor had always been good at his job, yes, but it was this delicate side of him that charmed Alesh so. Someone this kind couldn't have come out from the system that oppressed so many back home, and yet Taylor had. He was the only detective in all of Talos-II that Alesh truly believed when he said that he "wanted to help", and that earnest goodness must be why Taylor was blooming so fully now: a rose growing under the warm sunshine of motherhood.

I missed you, he thought of saying, but felt it too tacky to admit so soon.

Taylor moved away from the fire. He glanced across the sitting room, evidently unsure of what to do next. After a moment, he seemed to make up his mind. The dragon walked slowly around the coffee table, where the remnants of their drinks were, until he could take a seat on the sofa cushion beside Alesh. They were still a polite distance apart — a respectable, safe distance ( which made Taylor's stomach roll ).

He tucked his tail over his lap. Taylor's fingers played in its soft orange. Both of his long, fur - lined ears swiveled back and pinned themselves down. It was hard to look at Alesh ... and it was also hard not to. Time was a funny thing : it had made him numb to just how much of the man at his side was in their daughter.

"She can speak for herself now, which means there're fewer questions about her I'd need to ask you for, no?"

Even if it wasn't the best time for teasing, it was hard to resist. Alesh had grown soft in his years selling fins, and then even softer working with Endfield Industries. Now any iota of discomfort made him desperate to keep people's spirits up, even if Taylor had every reason in the world to feel like his world was crashing around him.

Funny-- wasn't their separation meant to prevent that? Alesh chewed lightly on the corner of his lip, reaching over to refill the cup of tea he'd drank through earlier.

"And what a talker she is," he mused, leaning back with a laugh. "I had no doubt you'd be good to her all these years, but it's nice to see. She wouldn't be half this talkative if not for the loving home you've given her, you know.

"She's more beautiful than I imagined."

Alesh had never let himself dream about Taylor and their child for long, though.