"So what's his deal?"

Nym looks up from his book, finding Yhana sitting upright; she is determined to pry this time.

All the same to him, he responds in an unengaged tone, "What deal?"

"Your brother, I mean," she presses. "I thought he was about to have an aneurysm on the spot or something."

"Would not be his first," the fox says, tucking the book away. "He gets so angry it’s unhealthy; he’s got all sorts of stents and springs in his head because of it, but you didn't hear it from me." His expression changes to a ponderous one for a moment, before that devious smile from earlier creeps onto his face once more. "Actually, I think maybe I'm the only person you safely could hear it from, so… yes, you did."

"You seem pretty unbothered by that," I interject. "I don't know how much I can say on penalty of whatever, but--"

"Literally anything you want to say, long as you're with me," he assures.

"--but even from a layperson's perspective, he just… unequivocally sucked to behold."

"All the more reason 'Long Live Leksan' is more heartfelt than mantra. His PR’s so bad he leaves it to his favorite Warden to take care of that end of things for him.”

“That wolverine guy? He’s intense too though…” Yhana groans.

“What wolverine guy?” I ask.

“Warden Oleander, planetary administrator for the Nayre Dominion Archives,” Nym explains with a derisive grandiosity, “and newly appointed overseer of the entire isle of Iyakamraa.”

“Guy keeps busy…”

“Yeah, but he’s such a kiss-ass I think if Jen ordered him to actually lick his boots he’d end up taking a bite. You’ll be seeing and hearing plenty of him once we get to Iyakamraa.”

“Some kind of announcement every couple of hours,” Yhana adds. “I don’t think he sleeps.”

“Well no, he’s got a lot of time to make up for if he ever wants to be as over-the-top as Jen. Give it another couple of decades, he’ll get there.”

"Let's hope not," I sigh. "One seems like plenty."

"Agreed," Yhana says, standing up and glancing out towards the setting sun. "Well, before I get in trouble for being too unpatriotic on public transport, I'm going to go scope out the sleeper car and conspire with myself in silence, I think. I could probably turn in early."

"You know what, I could too," I add, realizing how exhausted I still am. "Will you be alright out here, Nym?"

"Perfectly fine, I've still got plenty of company," he affirms, raising his book. I know the feeling well.

I turn to follow Yhana but she's already making her way down the aisle. I give Nym a polite nod to dismiss myself, and pace off quickly.

The next few cars are a similar scene, coach seating sparsely populated by passengers heading northbound. I catch some inkling of a conversation about parallels between the Archives and the Keepers from back when the latter held similar power, but I don't stop to eavesdrop, much as I'd like to.

I tail Yhana through a diner car and then a domed lounge, supported by metal filigrees in the triangular motif that permeates all the Dominion’s amenities, and into the next, the first of at least two sleeper cars, based on my initial count during boarding. She studies the wall to her left as she slows down, eventually identifying her number on the second tier and pulling open the opaque cover on its hinges to climb in.

It's only then that something occurs to me and I'm stricken with embarrassment that it didn't sooner.

"Hey Yhana?" I say in just above a whisper.

"Hm?" she emanates back.

"How do I know which one is mine? I didn't get a ticket or anything."

"Yeah, the reservation was for the surviving crew. You're just my ride-along."

"So I don't have one?"

"Well, not of your own," she says, the dash of shame in her tone pointedly just for show.

I can feel myself cycle through expressions before I clutch my scarf and bury my face in it.

"Yhana, that's so forward…" I muffle through it. What is she thinking? “Besides, I don’t really—“

"Oh, whatever you're thinking, stow it, there's no room for you as you are."

I can feel the heat in my face distill itself from its flustered mix into one purely of exasperation as I peek one eye out at her.

"You just wanted to eat me again." 

Her already smug smile widens further yet, giving credence to my accusation.

"Don't ask a leopard to change her spots, now."

"That feels like it's in poor taste."

"Don't ask a jackal to change her whatever, then, her…" she pulls up the side of her shirt just to take a look at her pattern, a black patch outlined in white, running shoulder to hip, encompassing overlapping streaks of white in jagged parallel. "Stripes, then."

"You've got one big one on each side, I don't think they count as stripes."

"How do you know there's one on the other side?" she asks.

"I don't, I'm just assuming, but my point stands."

"I think you're just being pedantic."

"I think you're being unreasonable! You said you had this taken care of!"

I'm shushed from somewhere towards the front of the car as my volume increases, and I inhale deeply as I check myself.

"Well, I'll be here if you change your mind. If not, maybe you can talk Nym into giving his own up?"

"You're so…"

"Think carefully, Merion."

"Actually, I will go think!"

I won't disguise the fact that I'm storming off with my temper high, after all, I don't know what I expected.

In the midway between the sleeper car and lounge, I take a moment to breathe deep and collect myself, before calmly conveying myself back to my seat in coach.

"Good morning, hardly noticed the night go by," Nym says without looking up. He expels air from his nose in restrained amusement with himself.

"I'm just gonna sleep out here," I say, planting myself back in my seat. I probably would have liked his joke a lot if I was in better spirits, honestly.

"You're welcome to try but these seats do get uncomfortable over time," the fox points out. "What changed your mind?"

"The sleeping arrangement. Yhana wanted--"

"Say no more, she'll do that. Do you want my alcove?" Nym offers, unprompted.

"Nonono, that's yours!" I insist. "I'll make something work."

"Well, the offer stands if not."

"Either way, I appreciate it, but I could never."

“Think on it a while. Anyway, you're new so she's hard focused on you for it right now. It's a compulsion."

"So she does this to everybody?" I ask. I'm more surprised that I'm not surprised.

"Well, almost everybody. I'm included in that selection now and again, though the difference between you and I is that I don't mind. "

“I mean I don’t think I would have if she hadn’t been so underhanded…”

That gets Nym to lift his gaze from his book to study my face. “Oh?”

There’s so much packed into one syllable. I’m usually somewhat reserved, at least outside my own head of course, but in a relaxed environment, genuine curiosity and interest will smash open every lock I’ve got in a single go.

I straighten up in my seat, eyes drifting upwards as I try to recall. I mean, Lurrah’s sake, I’ve already shared a couple of near-death experiences with Nym, so a moderately-embarrassing story should be much easier. “So she’s not the first person to swallow me. I had a necroharmonic friend I tried it with, we even took turns on each other. We made sure we had plenty of extract and probiotics ready, and we practiced on those pectin jelly ‘eggs’ first, you know the ones, until we could bring them in and back out without too much difficulty and without bursting them, it was as safe as we could make it.”

I find myself sighing, despite myself. “I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did, honestly. We never did try again after that, they ended up moving offworld not long afterward but I uh…”

My eyes still don’t meet his, though I can feel the intensity of his attention as I pass them by to look at the floor. “They’re not so easy to find anymore and I don’t have them very often, but every time I do I can’t help but reminisce. They don’t even taste very good, but that hardly matters if I don’t chew them, right?”

Silence fills the air between us as my head remains bowed, but when I finally look up to him again, he’s wearing the widest grin I’ve ever seen.

“Do pardon me for saying so,” he begins, “but you’re kind of adorable, do you know that?”

I sit upright, hoping I’m not blushing too hard again. I don’t let on, but the thought of having an experience like that with Nym crosses my mind for a moment too. The way his lithe figure could so easily slip down into mine, safe and warm and heavy… Okay that’s enough of that. “I-I yeah, I mean, I’m secure in that, but what makes you bring it up?”

“Oh, there’s no need for me to keep driving it in,” he says, slotting a bookmark between the pages I’ve distracted him from. “You’ve just got an endearing way of revisiting that memory. You talk about it the same way one might about their first kiss.”

“I mean… it was also that.”

“Well now I have to pry,” he says, leaning forward. “Were you the small one or the big one when it happened?”

Before I can even decide if I want to answer that or not, a third participant chimes in. “You really shouldn’t advertise what easy prey you are.”

“When did you get here?” Nym jolts, focusing on Suraokh who seems to have simply phased into the seat adjacent to mine. “I didn’t even see you arrive.”

“He’ll do that,” I say, initially startled, but far less than the fox.

“Are you planning on walking back in there, giving Yhana some perspective, and going through with it?” the kangaroo asks.

I blink very, very slowly at that, surprised at what a read on me he has. “Well… I was.”

"Do you think this will win you any personal space?"

"Maybe I'm not looking for more personal space, just a nice crumb of honesty."

"You are easy." Suraokh says plainly.

"I liked you better when you couldn’t talk as much,” I retort just as flatly. “Look, if she doesn't give me that, I'll just give sleeping out here a shot." With that, I stand up and awkwardly wedge myself past Suraokh the way one must when leaving the window seat, and head down the aisle again.

As I depart, I can hear the beginnings of Nym trying to strike up a conversation with Suraokh, getting right to the point. "So, do you recall how yesterday you produced all that condensate? Think you can do that again?..."

I stop rolling my eyes halfway; as amused as I am, I realize I'll probably have to be asking him for the same before long.

I’m so busy rehearsing in my head what I might want to say that I don’t even really notice the time it takes me to reach the sleeper car again. Yhana’s alcove covering is still slightly ajar, so I take a seat on the floor next to it, resting my back against the wall and giving it a knock.

“Welcome back,” Yhana says. I was almost expecting something smug but it doesn’t come, so there go about half the scenarios that played out in my mind. Not that I mind. I’m petty enough to prepare for it, I’ll admit, but not enough to outright wish for it.

“Thanks.” Idiot, say more. “...You know, you can do what you do without being secretive about it, right?”

“Well yeah.”

“Good, good. Because like… I’d prefer that. And obviously I’m not gonna wanna go along with it every time, but sometimes I’ll be willing, you know.” Idiot, stop talking right there. “...More than willing, sometimes.” Goddamn it.

After a few seconds, Yhana’s hand reaches out to lift the cover, and she pokes her head out to look at me, eyes narrowed. “Say that last part again.”

“Come on, you heard me.”

“I wanna hear it again.”

We get shushed again. Yhana points in the direction she thinks it’s coming from and shushes back, more assertively, before returning her attention to me. She says nothing, but her gaze drills into me even from my peripheral vision.

“More than willing, sometimes,” I concede. “But I don’t want these tricks, alright?”

“I’ll change my approach,” she agrees. “So… is now one of those times?”

I turn to look at her, finding her expression has softened. She got her little victory out of this situation, so all that’s left is a sense of genuine understanding. I take a beat to breathe in, closing my eyes, and then let it out.

“Yeah. I know this is counterintuitive considering what I just said, but don’t let me know when you’re g--” It’s par for the course with her but I don’t even get to finish before the faculties with which I would speak dissolve with the rest of me.

I’m guessing it’s only been a few seconds by the time I regain my shape. She’s rolled up her shirt a little bit, resting this new, smaller me on the fur of her belly. She bunches my clothes together in one hand before passing them across us into the storage vestibule in the wall; in the other hand, a ball of compressed ectoplasm levitates, vanishing with a flick of her wrist.

It’s just like Suraokh said, she’s got access to more than one radiant frequency, but she hardly tries to hide it. In honesty I’m not even paying it more than that passing thought in the moment, more transfixed by this situation I’ve found myself in.

Well, “found myself in” is too passive; as long as I’m being honest, I agreed to this. Easy prey, sure. But I’ve never liked inconveniencing people, no matter how ready Nym seemed to give up his bed, so if those are my options, just fucking swallow me.

“Well, are you ready?” she asks as I roll myself over and sit up.

“As I’ll ever be. Gentler than last time?” I ask.

“Naturally. I assure you, I can be very gentle when I’m not on the fence about killing you.”

She can almost certainly feel me shudder as she lifts me, and draws me towards her muzzle. Her green eyes watch mine flit here and there, staring down into her maw until it opens, to the point she can no longer see me. Still manages to drop me perfectly centered onto her tongue, though.

I slide in until my calves disappear between her tongue and soft palate, held mostly still in place as she closes again. With her head tipped back, I’m at the mercy of her grip, tightening and loosening as she works her saliva into my fur. It forms a thick layer easily; I can feel myself becoming slick, slipping deeper even without any extra help.

But she was right, she’s being remarkably gentle right now. It’s like she’s massaging the tension out of me as I get acquainted with the heat. But there’s about to be a lot more of it, I can tell, as it washes over me in a wave with the opening of her throat.

And so I slip over the back of her tongue, much the same as the first time, and feel her insides close around my body, inviting me deep into hers. There’s not much to be done about the esophagus unfortunately, it’s a tight ride even if one’s being intentionally delicate, so all I can do is hold my breath as the sound of her heartbeat intensifies, then fades. Not much longer now.

I draw breath again as I slide into her stomach. She must have gotten my size down to precisely what it was last time, because it’s the same mix of snug and easy to sink into, but not so much that it inhibits movement altogether.

“Well, how is it?” Yhana asks.

“Better than the first time, that’s for sure,” I call in reply, settling in.

There’s hardly any evidence left of the lunch we shared not so long ago, but before I can even express my concerns, she’s taken care of it. It feels like at least a couple of swigs of extract that come pouring in, fizzing quietly as they mix with the fluids around me and bring them nearly up to my chest. 

“We can get you a little cozier than this,” she says.

There’s not so much headroom in here with her lying on her back, though she starts to roll onto her side. I’m initially started by the sudden movement and scramble a bit, as I tend to. I would be surprised if she minds it, though. When she’s done, I’m able to work myself into a much more comfortable position against the curve of the wall towards the left side of her body.

“Yeah, that is better. How’d you know?” I ask.

“I take feedback some of the time,” she replies. “I’m gonna work on getting some rest, do you need anything else?”

“I’ll be alright. Hot and humid never fails to make me feel drowsy.”

“Wow, you are easy,” Yhana teases. “From experience, that drink I just took should keep you safe for ten hours or so. So I’ll see you in the morning... as long as I don’t oversleep.”

“You won’t, right?” I call. Silence. “...Right?”

Laughter. It shakes me a little bit; I have to fight against the tremoring stomach wall to stay reclining rather than slip beneath the surface. “Relax, you’re fine. We don’t even have that long left on our ride, we’ll be arriving at Iyakamraa way before the sun even rises.”

“See, this, I love. You, being straightforward, not leaving me in suspense, good stuff,” I emphasize, intentionally laying it on thick. “Great stuff, even.”

More laughter, but at least I’m already braced for it. “Good night, Merion.”

I settle in with a relaxed sigh at that point, giving in to the warmth. “Yeah yeah, good night, Yhana.”

As time passes, I can hear the sounds of her body slowing down, coaxing mine into matching. It doesn’t take long for my eyelids to grow heavy, and hidden deep within my… yeah, my friend, I begin to drift off as well.

I just hope that wherever we are when I wake up, there’s a shower nearby.