Bo yawned in the enveloping darkness and tried to stretch, but his arms weren’t working like he wanted them to. Befuddled by sleep, he was momentarily confused. It was far too quiet for him to be in a standard military transport’s sleeping tube, so…had he wrapped himself up in the sheets again? As he roused, he remembered that he wasn’t sleeping in his comfortable bed in the warm house he shared with Dan Blocker, but was wrapped up in a too-small, military surplus sleeping bag, lying on a rocky patch of ground in a drafty emergency tent a hundred million miles from Earth, and something unpleasantly hard and sharp was poking him in the hip. And, he thought, leaning down to snuffle the top of Dan’s head, he couldn’t have cared less. Wherever Dan slept would always be his home.

Mostly awake now, Bo reached out and hooked a claw through the sleeping bag’s zipper pull and gave a gentle tug. When Dan heard the rasping sound, he wrapped his free arm around the varius and snuggled close. “Where are you going?” he murmured, groggily. “It’s not even light out.”

A rumbling chuckle rolled out of the varius. “You could have slept late if you hadn’t zipped us together.”

*confusion*

*mirth*

“Actually,” Dan said, reaching up with his free hand to rub his eyes, “you did that when I got up to go to the bathroom last night.”

“I did?”

*humor*

“Yup.” He sighed sleepily, burrowing his face into the temporarily unmoving chest of his mate. He knew that condition would change soon. Varii were almost always active, and marrying one meant that delicious morning snuggles were a rare and precious commodity. “Just a few minutes longer, okay?” He opened up their link, feeding his mate a portion of the pleasure he was feeling. He felt Bo settle down to accommodate him, but he also sensed that his partner was itching to get started with his day.

Rolling over in Bo’s arms, Dan wrapped the canine’s long, weighty arms around his torso and burrowed his butt back into Bo’s crotch. Through their link he felt urges stir inside his mate, and the smile that crossed his face was pure, contented pleasure.

“You’re manipulating me,” Bo accused, into Dan’s furless, shell-like ear. His eyes might be closed, but Bo knew that Dan wasn’t sleeping any longer. He pressed his cheek against the side of Dan’s head, then extended his tongue just far enough to run it around Dan’s ear. Feeling the happy shiver run through his mate was as satisfying as any carnal pleasure Bo had ever known.

But that satisfaction did not pour any water on Bo’s ardor.  He yearned to feel Dan even closer to him. An involuntary shudder shot through his muscles, and he had to fight to keep himself from crushing Dan in his arms.

They were both fully open to their link, and Dan felt the passing danger with the equanimity of a man standing on a street corner as a dump truck barrelled past; bare centimeters from death, yet able to stay calm because of trust. But staying calm did not mean that Dan could not feel the thrill of riding a barely-contained wave of mayhem. Bo could have crushed him to a paste any time he wanted to; or any time he grew careless, for that matter, or thrashed around in a bad dream. At times like this, Dan was well aware that his safety was a choice to Bo, not a given, and his absolute trust that Bo would never consciously harm him allowed him to love the varius all the more.

Dan turned, pushed a hand between them and groped Bo shamelessly.  “Stay,” he improvised. “It’s dangerous out there and I’m scared.”

*interest*

“Bullshit.” Bo leaned down and kissed Dan full on the mouth, giving him just enough tongue to demonstrate that his early morning plans had been revised.  “Get that underwear off.”

***

Almost an hour later, the smell of brewing coffee brought both men out of their doze. “Is that...” Dan trailed off, uncertain if he was smelling it with his nose or with Bo’s.

“Oh, yeah!” Bo unzipped their bag and climbed out, rooting through the small tent for his underwear. He found them underneath their sleeping bag, pulled them on, and was already pushing his stubby tail through the hole in them by the time Dan found his own underwear.

“We just got through having sex!” Dan hissed. “You’re all spooged up! You can’t go out there like...that!”

“No,” Bo corrected him. “You’re all spooged up. I blew my load inside you.”

He grinned when Dan held open the sleeping bag and made a disgusted face at the sticky mess he’d left in his half of their bag. “Eww.”

Bo pulled the front of his pants away from his belly and looking at his junk to confirm its condition. “Yup. Clean as a whistle.”

“A whistle that’s been up my butt,” Dan grumbled.

“Oh, please,” Bo pretended to be annoyed, but Dan knew he was actually quite happy. “It’s not like Dali and Chuck weren’t up half the night doing the same thing.”

“What?” Dan didn’t have to feign his surprise. As far as he’d known, the two were straight as sticks. “How do you know that?”

Bo shook his head, sadly.  “You’re deaf as a post, Pinks.”

“But they don’t…”

“They apparently do now.” Bo chuckled as he pulled on his shoes. “I’m surprised you didn’t hear them. I think they tried half the positions in the book last night. And this morning, I think they re-visited the ones they liked.”

“I thought they were married?”

“They are,” Bo shrugged. “But they’ve been away from their wives for quite a while now, and that’s gotta be getting old. Their mates wouldn’t expect them to be celibate. That would be cruel.”

Dan sounded intrigued. “Do you think their partners are fooling around?”

“Probably not with each other,” Bo joked. “From what I hear, they probably couldn’t stand each other.” He gently tossed back the sock that Dan had thrown at him and explained. “It’s not ‘fooling around’ when everyone’s aware it’s happening. It’s more like a…rumspringa, I guess, until your mate returns.”

As soon as he said the words his bowling-ball-sized head shot up, his eyes boring into Dan’s. “You just thought of Kensuke,” he accused, playfully.

“I did not!” Dan protested, weakly. He didn’t want to have lurid thoughts about their feline circlemate, but the cat was so damned good looking it was tough not to.

“Did too,” Bo said, happily tapping the side of his head for emphasis. “Can’t lie your way out of this one, pinkie!”

“Fine,” Dan gave in. “Whatever. So If you’re gone for two months, I can bang him?”

“Sure,” Bo shrugged. “He’s family. Just don’t have any kittens.”

“Six weeks?” Dan asked, shrewdly.

“Sure,” Bo repeated, diffidently.

Dan looked thoughtful. “What about a month?” He reconsidered. “Three weeks, maybe?”

Bo stuck out his tongue at his beloved and blew a raspberry for effect. “Now, you’re just being silly.”

“I guess,” Dan said, as he ducked out of their tent and held the flap out of Bo’s way. “But seriously, you’d be okay with that? And tie your shoes,” he mentioned, noticing the varius’ feet as he passed. ”If you break your laces, we don’t have spares.”

Bo tucked the laces in instead of tying them. “Sure,” he said, “as long as it didn’t get out of hand. It only seems weird to you because you’re going by pinkie standards. Haven’t you ever wanted to have sex with someone you’re not mated with?”

“I guess,” Dan admitted, uncertainly. “What about you?”

Bo rolled his huge shoulders to dislodge a kink in his neck. “I’m married, not dead. Most couples hammer out an understanding early on, but I guess we never got around to it.”

“You guess?” Dan poked Bo in the side with his finger. “Maybe because you never told me about that little fact of life?”

“Maybe,” Bo admitted, hesitantly. “I know it’s not a pinkie thing, and I didn’t want to weird you out.”

“Scare me off,” Dan translated.

Bo inclined his head. “That too.”

In a flash of insight, Dan realized that the main reason Bo hadn’t brought up sexual freedom while they were dating was that deep down, he was afraid that Dan might want to find another, more normal person to bond with. “Nope,” he said, assertively. “Your crazy is a perfect match to my crazy. You’re stuck with me.”

“That’s nice.” Bo smiled warmly and pulled Dan close. “But you’d still fuck Kensuke, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh, hells yes!” Dan readily admitted as they reached the campfire. “But only after you’d been gone for at least two weeks.”

Lucas hoisted his mug of coffee in greeting. “Discussing the exception list?”

“Good morning,” Victus said, ignoring his mate. “You two slept late.”

The comment made Lucas snort warm coffee out of his nose. “If that’s what you want to call it,” he commented, wiping his muzzle dry. He recovered in time to hold up a paw as Bo passed and slapped pads with the other man.

Dan watched his mate touch paws with the other varius, then was a little surprised to receive a fist-bump of his own. He wasn’t surprised that Bo earned a high-five by being the bigger, burlier man on top, but hadn’t expected that his performance would garner him the same macho jock treatment.

could not really have done it without you

Bo explained.

it was a team effort

Well, okay then! Dan bumped Lucas’ paw with a loosely held fist and gratefully accepted the coffee mug Victus handed him. “Where did this come from?” he asked, reverently inhaling the delicious smelling vapors. “Oh, God,” he crooned, “I haven’t had coffee in a month.”

“We had a big pack of it in my shuttle,” Lucas said. “It’s almost gone, though.”

Dan sipped gratefully from his mug, appreciating the simple complexity of a well-brewed cup of coffee. He had no doubt that Victus had been that morning’s barista. Lucas seemed more of a “strain it through a sock” sort of guy. So…where did you guys end up last night?” he asked, knowing he was being a busybody but unable to stop himself. “I remember hearing something about a healing before you disappeared.”

Dan squinted at Lucas and Victus. Something about the dynamic between the two men was different, and if Dan hadn’t been watching the two closely he might have missed the subtle look that passed between them.

“Wait a minute,” Dan exclaimed, excitedly. “I know that look!” A broad grin illuminated his face. “You did it!” Without waiting for confirmation, Dan launched himself off the log he was sitting on and wrapped his arms around Victus.

Victus broke into a quiet, patient smile and patted Dan gently on the back. “Yes,” he acknowledged, formally, we did ‘it’. We bonded.” For Dan’s benefit, he added, “And yes, it was quite a ride.”

“Congratulations!” Dan turned his attention to Lucas and did a small double-take. “Where’s your cast?”

i was wondering when you would notice

Lucas grinned at Victus as he slurped his coffee. “Don’t seem to need it anymore.” He put his cup down, careful to not spill a drop of the precious liquid. “Vic fixed it.”

Dan was on the brink of asking how Victus fixed it, but a hasty warning from Bo told him to drop it.

he will tell you if he wants you to know

Bo advised,

until then

drop it

There was sudden silence around their campfire as Victus and Lucas shared a few words privately, so for Dan’s clarification Bo added,

Lucas might have accidentally spilled some beans

After a moment he added,

i think he may even turn out

to be something of a motormouth

“I think there might have been a few aftershocks from our bonding that you and Bo might have gotten caught up in,” Victus said, as smoothly as if Lucas had said nothing. “Sorry about that.” He dished most of the contents of the pan onto six plates in equal portion, then covered the remainder for the last two workers.

“Are you kidding me?” Dan chuckled, taking the plate Victus handed to him. “I’d pay good money to have a few ‘aftershocks’ like that every now and then.” Leaning over to Bo, Dan scraped a third of his portion onto his mate’s plate. Bo grumbled his perfunctory thanks, then shared a significant look with Lucas before shifting his gaze to the two other varii who were stumbling their way to the campfire.

Dan looked at Bo, then followed his gaze to see Dali and Chuck walking stiffly towards the fire, conspicuously avoiding looking at each other.

“You two look pretty sore,” Lucas said, cheerily. “You must have done a lot of heavy lifting yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Dali said, sounding distinctly uncomfortable. He gratefully took the mug of coffee that Victus offered him. “I guess.”

“Instead of teasing you he should be apologizing,” Victus admonished, shooting his mate a reproving glare. “I think we probably put out a lot of psychic energy last night, and the rest of you may have been caught up in the wave. I do apologize,” he said. “I had no idea that would happen.”

“No worries,” Dali waved off Victus’ concern. “We probably would have hooked up at some point anyway.”

“Yeah,” Chuck sat on the large log beside his friend, but left a discrete distance between them. “it’s not like there are a bunch of opportunities out here,” he said, gazing around meaningfully at the scrub brush surrounding them. “Besides,” he added, “we’re both already bonded. It’s not like anything could happen.”

“Sugar?” Lucas offered them, and both men extended their mugs at precisely the same time, as if they shared one brain.

The look on Victus’ face, Dan thought, was like he’d just swallowed a bug. Surprise, annoyance and disappointment vied for top honors. “Pick a number,” he said, to Chuck and Dali.

“Forty-seven,” they answered simultaneously, then stared at each other in horror.

“Twenty-three,” both men said, in unison.

Chuck looked ill. “Cissy’s going to kill me.” He was so upset that he did not hear the footsteps approaching the group.

“Over what?” They turned as one toward the new voice and saw Clay’s father joining the group. His lined face wore an easy smile which looked as if it got a lot of exercise, but under the scrutiny of so many varius eyes his expression dimmed. “I apologize,” he said, belatedly remembering what Lucas had taught him about varius relations, “I don’t mean to pry.”

That’s okay, Tom,” Lucas said, buoying the man’s spirits, “We’re all friendly, here.”

‘Friendly,’ Dan thought, but not ‘friends’  The difference was small but important.  The word ‘friends’ wasn’t thrown around lightly among varii because in their culture, it carried real weight.  Lucas calling their relationship ‘friendly’ meant that Tom could be trusted, but perhaps not so much that he would be privvy to anyone’s private knowledge. The way Victus had clammed up after Tom had appeared suggested that it was time to put on his game face again. Without consulting his husband, Dan knew the man wasn’t to know anything about Chuck and Dali’s experience.

“Good morning, Tom!” he said, brightly, matching the man’s friendly expression with a smile of his own. “We have a little coffee to go around. Would you like some?” Dan was glad Lucas had used the man’s given name because it had escaped him completely. Now, if only someone would do the same with Clay’s mother’s name.

Vicky

Bo supplied, helpfully, then immediately corrected himself.

victoria

“We guessed,” Dan said, “about Clay, I mean. He’s a little tough to understand sometimes, but he’s smart and he’s kind. We’ve all taken turns taking care of him while you’ve been...”

dead

...away,” Dan finished, diplomatically.

“That’s good, then,” Tom said, hesitantly. “So you’ve realized that kids like him don’t show up in the books. I mean, we know he’s smart, but you’ll hit a brick wall if you try to treat him like any other smart kid.  But he’s not dumb either, so…” he shrugged helplessly. “Every day is new, with him.”

Dan expected Victus to chime in, but the Kenzine was keeping his own counsel.  Dan thought this odd given the amount of time Victus had spent with Clay over the past month,  but...

leave it

not your business

Bo advised, his tone telling Dan that he was dangerously close to stepping in a huge pile of manure.

***

Dan watched the cluster of varii gathered at the prow of the transport, trying desperately to keep his feelings of amusement out of his link. Bo didn’t like to be a subject for amusement, even for his own husband.

Each of the varii was a visibly different subspecies, yet they all seemed to share the same love of feeling the wind in their faces. Ears all tucked backwards, eyes all narrowed to slits, wind making their fur ripple; Despite their obvious differences, at that moment they seemed very much to be cut from the same cloth.

Dan smiled to himself. Bo knew what he was thinking, and in this case he seemed to think it was pretty funny, too. He turned his gaze to Brunswick and marveled that their colony was growing so quickly. They hadn’t built any office towers yet, but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long.

Tom and Victoria were at the front of the transport as well, using the mass of the varii as a windbreak. Unlike Victus, who had immediately accepted Lucas’ endorsement of the couple at face value, Dan had some lingering concerns. He understood that their child had developmental issues, but that seemed an inadequate explanation for Clay’s lack of reaction to the death of his parents. Dan would have expected crying, screaming, or some other form of negative behavior commensurate with his trauma, but Clay had appeared to take it in stride. A tear or two at first, then…nothing. Perhaps he was only being overly protective, but he had to wonder if the couple had done something – or many somethings – to damage their child.

you are being a mother hen

Bo thought.

!i am not!

Dan thought back, defensively.

it is sort of sweet

Bo returned,

maybe we should have some of our own

Dan grimaced.

talk to me again after

Joy is a year old

he thought, remembering the young puppy they’d left at home in the care of their good friend, Kensuke. After he knew for sure that they could keep a pet alive, maybe then they could talk about kids.

The mental chatter distracted Dan sufficiently that the bump of the transport against its docking station startled him. They were home, and not a moment too soon. This supposed “survey mission” had turned into search and rescue, salvage, and survivor evac all rolled into one, and he was absolutely exhausted.

Dan turned to get his bag, and nearly bumped into Victoria Williams. “Sorry,” he apologized, hastily. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“I suppose not,” Clay’s mother said, brushing absently at her shirt at the spot where Dan had almost touched. Realizing that there was nothing on her shirt to brush away, she took a deep breath and made a conscious effort to relax. “No harm done, and we’re all on edge right now.”

Dan noticed that her eyes did not remain on him, but darted restlessly about the camp. Looking for her son, he assumed. “Clay should be near Victus’ tent,” he offered, as he helped the couple down the short ladder. “They’ve been nearly inseparable since we landed.”

Victoria did not reply, so Tom filled the silence before it could become uncomfortable. “I would have imagined that a Kenzine would have had more important things to do.”

“He thought he’d lost Lucas, and Clay thought he’d lost you two. I think becoming friends helped them both make it through,” Dan observed. “In fact-”

He was cut off by a wail that sounded more to Dan like a cry of pain than it did one of relief. They turned as one to see a small, lean boy whose face was contorted in what Dan thought looked like...rage?

After a moment’s shocked hesitation Clay began striding toward his parents, his shoulders set with that single-minded purpose. To Dan’s astonishment, his first act upon reaching his family was to punch his mother. It was not a strong blow and it landed where it could do her no harm, but still it was hardly what Dan had expected to see. Victoria bore it stoically, as if it were what she’d been expecting all along.

Barely a moment later Clay’s fury evaporated, replaced by six weeks of pent-up emotions he hadn’t been able to face. With an almost animal howl, the young boy latched onto his mother as if he would never let her go. The pain, doubt and sorrow he hadn’t known how to share poured out of him like water from a broken urn, and the expression on Victoria’s face told Dan that she was feeling very much the same.

Dan didn’t realize he was staring until Victus put a hand on his shoulder. “I think he’s in good hands,” the Kenzine said, quietly. “Let’s go back and unload the transport.”

Dan thought that Victus’ voice seemed somewhat unsteady. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Victus answered. “I hadn’t realized how attached I’d become. I’m very glad to see them back together, but still…” He silently pressed a fingerpad to the corner of his eye. He was glad Dan was there to talk to. Lucas might be his partner, but the man loved children with such gleeful abandon that Victus was certain he’d jump headfirst into a discussion about raising a family. Victus had a great many reservations about raising a child in their topsy-turvy world, reservations which his mate would not comprehend. Dan, however, could understand his trepidations.

“It must be tough,” Dan said, “like giving up an animal you’ve been fostering.” At Victus’ curious glance, he added, “I know it’s not the same thing, but it’s the only frame of reference I’ve got to go by.”

“No, you’re right,” Victus said. “The fact that one is human and one is not does not make your love any less valid.”

As they walked, Dan gave into impulse and took Victus’ hand. As lovers of physical contact it was something varii often did, and Dan thought Victus might appreciate the gesture.

Victus had to smile when he felt Dan’s hand slide into his. It was such a varius thing to do, yet seemed so natural from his sapiens friend. “You know, I was raised by sapiens, was trained by them, and have spent almost my entire adult life up until now surrounded by them.”

He squeezed Dan’s hand and pulled him a little closer. “This is nice. It makes me feel like I did when I was a young boy. Whenever he thought I could use a little bucking up, my father would take my hand like this as we walked. He never even needed to say anything, but it always made me feel better, as if I could always rely on him to be there if things got too hard to handle by myself.”

Dan didn’t know what to say to that, so he just returned the squeeze. The image of Dan acting as a full-grown Kenzine warrior’s trusted backup seemed ludicrous, but if it brought Victus peace, then so be it.

At the edge of the camp Lucas intercepted them, and he had no trouble interpreting his mate’s body language. “Aww,” he said, immediately putting down the crate he was carrying. He held his arms wide to envelope Victus in a hug worthy of bears.

Dan disengaged as he saw Lucas coming, feeling as if he were intruding on territory that was better left to others, but Lucas was having none of it. Grabbing Dan before he could escape, Lucas pulled the three of them into a group hug. “You guys are really going to miss taking care of him, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Victus admitted after a moment, before pulling free from the entangling arms. “But he’s where he needs to be, and that’s not far away.”

“It may not be that different,” Dan reasoned. “There’s no reason he can’t still be your student, so you could still get him for the interesting parts of the day.”

“Perhaps,” Victus said, tabling the discussion. He could not help thinking what a difference Master Dagen had made in his own life, and how conflicted he might feel, should his own parents come back from the dead. Targa and Psylla Entrades held a special place in his heart, but still he loved Max and Caroline Dagen every bit as much as he’d loved his biological parents. His two sets of parents were not in competition with each other, but played complementary roles. If all went well, perhaps he and Lucas might eventually complement Victoria and Tom in a similar manner.

But in the meantime, he thought to himself as he pulled a pair of dark-green, plastic cases containing biological samples off the deck of the transport, there’s plenty of work to be done in the present.