Birds of Prey - Bisexual Edition

To his surprise, he was actually beginning to relax and have some fun, the aliens buying the two humans as many drinks as they required to feel the effects. It reminded him of spending an evening with a group of close friends, then he realized that these were his friends. They had spent enough time together, been through so much, that he felt comfortable describing them as such.

After a while, the table was littered with empty glasses, the bowl of tobacco almost used up as the aliens took their last puffs. Jaeger was pleasantly tipsy, while Baker was as wasted as it was possible to get on such small quantities of drink and herb, already beginning to drift off to sleep on the pile of cushions. The aliens were still very much alert and awake, on the other hand, giving Jaeger the impression that their night had only just begun.

Coza and Maza seemed to discuss something for a minute, there were lots of flashes of colored feathers that Jaeger couldn't follow, Maza glancing in his direction every so often as the two argued. The other aliens chimed in too, but they seemed less invested. Coza pulled her communicator out of her pocket and began to tap at the touch screen. She was quite drunk, and she still seemed surly, her eyes fixed intently on the phone as she typed.

"What's going on?" Jaeger asked, looking between the two aliens. He had never seen them disagree like this before.

"If this really is my last night alive, then I want some company," Coza muttered. "I'm calling Yaotl'mal'atzi."

Jaeger looked to Maza for an explanation, unable to remember the complicated name.

"He's the nurse that you met at the hospital," she explained. "I'm of the opinion that we already have company, but this is what Coza'ma'lotl wants..."

It was interesting to see that disagreements could happen within the tightly-knit flocks, though the alcohol was certainly playing a part. Jaeger had gotten the impression that Coza had meant something quite different by company, or perhaps Maza saw him as...that kind of company?

"He's on his way," Coza said, returning the phone to her pocket. "I think...I think I need someone tonight..."

She leaned her head on Maza's shoulder, her friend resting an arm around her. Jaeger wanted to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that they were going to prevail against the Bugs, but there was nothing that he could say to her that he hadn't said already.

"Let's get one more round," Maza said, whistling for the waiter.

***

Due to the exemplary transit system, it didn't take the nurse more than fifteen minutes to arrive, and Jaeger saw him descend the steps at the entrance to the lounge. He seemed out of his element, looking around nervously as he searched for Coza. His vibrant plumes puffed up in shades of pink and yellow when he laid eyes on Jaeger, who was impossible to miss due to his size and alien appearance, the display drawing the attention of the other patrons. Jaeger had to keep in mind that from a Valbaran perspective, a beautiful woman in a red dress had just stepped into their dingy bar.

His green scales shone under the red glow of the lounge's lighting, buffed or waxed perhaps, and he was sporting jewelry of the same kind that Jaeger had seen the receptionist at the hospital wearing. He could see the glint of the necklace and the headband from across the room. His clothing was a little more revealing than that worn by the females, his tunic cut low to expose his shoulders, and his tight shorts leaving little to the imagination. Jaeger had to remind himself that this wasn't a female, despite the distinctly feminine shape of his hips. The male was dolled up in a sense, perhaps Coza would have her companion for the night after all.

She warbled to him, and he a made a beeline to their booth, Maza stepping out to let him sit beside Coza. She took a seat beside him, sandwiching him between the two females, Coza immediately draping an arm about his shoulders. His feathers were so large that they were downright unwieldy, he couldn't even turn his head in such a tight space when he emoted, which was something that he did frequently due to Coza's clumsy advances. She was drunk, coming on strong, whispering things in his ear in their native tongue. They must be salacious indeed, judging by the shades of his fluttering headdress.

Maza seemed less interested, more annoyed by his presence than anything, but Coza soon passed him over her lap and sat him between her and Ayau. The feathery Valbaran was more enthusiastic, placing a hand on his thigh as she joined the whispered conversation. Yaotl glanced at Jaeger every so often, always blinking rapidly and averting his gaze whenever the human met it, just as he had in the examination room.

"Is this how Valbaran courtship usually goes?" Jaeger asked Maza. Not wanting to be overheard by the male perhaps, she got up from her seat on the cushions and walked around the table to his side, sliding in beside him.

"Coza'ma'lotl is a little...emotional right now," she explained. "She's also very drunk. You asked us how we would spend this night if it was our last, and I can't really fault her for wanting some male company."

"And...how about you?" Jaeger asked. She shrugged her feathers, not really giving him much of an answer. "Is uh...Yaotl alright?" he continued, watching as Coza began to nibble delicately at his slim neck.

"He wouldn't have come if he didn't like her."

"So what happens now? Supposing that Coza takes him home, do you guys all...together?"

"It's a little more voluntary than that," she explained. "Under normal circumstances, we'd probably all join in, have a go at him, see if we all share the same chemistry. He's pretty cute, and he clearly has that outcome in mind, judging by that top that he's wearing, and the way that he's polished his scales. He probably did the same all down his torso, I bet his stomach is as smooth as glass," she muttered as she glanced across the table at him.

Jaeger was a little shocked. The aliens were usually prudish when it came to such matters, but perhaps this was the alcohol and the weed talking. In any case, he kind of liked her new directness...

"But these aren't normal circumstances?"

She leaned forward, making sure that Baker was soundly asleep before reaching across the table to pick up Jaeger's near-empty glass, downing what was left. She hissed, her plumes flaring in yellow and purple, then set it back down on the varnished surface.

"Yaotl would make an admirable bed warmer, but I kind of had someone else in mind."

Jaeger felt his heart begin to beat faster, suddenly all too aware of the feeling of Maza's soft thigh pressing against him through the insubstantial fabric of her shorts. The fluttering of her feathers brushed his cheek, tickling his skin, and he looked down to see her staring up at him. He blinked, and her expression changed, becoming somehow hungry.

"You always blink like that, do you even know what signals you're sending me?"

"By blinking?" he asked, confused.

"Look at Yaotl, see how he always looks away when you make eye contact? It's the behavior of a submissive male, a receptive male. You're saying come flirt with me, come seduce me, it signals that you're attracted to me."

"Humans have to blink regularly," he laughed, "I'm not doing it on purpose."

"Yeah, I figured as much, but it's still maddening." She stared at the empty glasses for a few moments, summoning the courage to continue, then shuffled a little closer to him as she began to speak again. He felt her warmth through his uniform, one of her hands resting on his thigh as he sat cross-legged, Maza's tail coiling and fidgeting on the cushions beside her like a restless snake.

"Where you come from, in your Coalition," she began. "Do different people...do different species get together? I remember you always made fun of your friend, you called him Scratcher, you implied that he had slept with a Borealis'nay. Is that right?"

"We...some people...do," he replied stiffly. "I can't say that it's looked down upon at all. People have their preferences, of course, but-"

"Have you ever been a relationship with an alien?" she asked. Straight to the point, he'd have to a be lot drunker than he was right now not to see where this line of questioning was leading.

"No, but I've thought about it. I suppose everyone has once or twice."

"How do they make it work, being so different? How could a Krell'nay and an Earth'nay...fit together?"

"I guess they just do what they can."

"I usually let Coza do the flirting," Maza muttered, "I'm not very good at it myself. I tend to...ramble. But theoretically speaking...if I were to tell you that I'd like to take you home tonight and try to make it work, that I wanted to have you, what would you say? Am I too drunk to think straight, or is there something more than friendship between us?"

"I'd say...let's do what we can."

Her sheaths shot out as straight as a board, and her feathers exploded into a display of pink and yellow, Maza trying in vain to suppress them and struggling to keep her cool. She leaned against him, wrapping both of her arms around his bicep and pressing her face against his shoulder. He was so much larger than she was, it was about as much of an embrace as she could muster.

"I feel like I'm swimming," she chuckled drunkenly, "and it's not the drink. How are we going to...I guess it doesn't matter, we can figure it out as we go. You're so strange and alien, yet some parts of you are so familiar, it's like my brain gets all muddled. You're cute like a male, you have the short snout, the smooth skin...yet you don't act like a male. It's like being attracted to a female, who looks male, but behaves like...oh maybe I'm overthinking it."

"I think if we start asking too many questions, we're going to get confused pretty quickly," Jaeger chuckled. "Just go with your gut, or your heart. Whichever one your culture references."

"Do you like me...in that way?" Maza asked. "I was so afraid that you wouldn't be attracted to me, that I would be too alien for you. You don't seem at all surprised to hear any of this."

"It's not as if this is coming out of nowhere," he replied, "you've been flashing pink feathers at me for days. You must have known that I'd figure it out eventually."

"I guess I underestimated the Earth'nay," she chuckled.

"And yeah, I'm attracted to you."

Were they really going to do this? He didn't even know what parts she had, if they would even be compatible. But ever since that moment in the showers on the Rorke, he had felt a kind of tension building between them, their mutual ignorance of one another's cultures and customs preventing it from coming to a head. Finally, those feelings were out in the open. The barriers had come down, and they had reached an understanding. He didn't care if they were rushing into things, if neither one of them really had any idea how it was going to work, or if they'd even be alive in a week's time. It felt right, he wanted this.

Jaeger realized that her flock were staring at them intently. Xico and Ayau had toothy grins on their faces, while Tacka was looking between them a little apprehensively. Coza was lying beside Yaotl in the gloom, the male's upper body out of view, cast into shadow. All that Jaeger could make out was the rapid rise and fall of his chest, and the curling of his toes. Coza wet her lips before she spoke, as if she had been making out with him, a sly look in her eyes as she glanced across the table.

"Took you long enough," she muttered. "I don't know why you waited all this time, rather than just telling him what you wanted. This is why I always have to do the flirting, because you can't take charge when it comes to males."

"We are a flock after all," Maza said as she gazed up at Jaeger, "we must reach consensus if you and I are to take this any further." She turned her eyes to her companions, waiting for them to speak.

"Of course we can take him to bed," Ayau said, "you've had your eye on him practically since we set foot on the Rorke. He's so strange, exotic. It'll be fun."

"Besides," Xico added, her violet eyes fixed intently on his own. "He is a fine specimen, it would be...illuminating to study his alien anatomy more closely. Intimately..."

Coza's head rose from the darkness once more on her flexible neck, one of her hands sliding conspicuously beneath the male's loose-fitting tunic, looking Jaeger up and down as if appraising him. One of her thick thighs was pressing between Yaotl's legs, and her long tail was coiled around his waist, it looked like she was really going to town on the poor creature.

"Sharing a bed with two males? An alien at that? Let the Earth'nay come, if the world is to end, then why not indulge?"

Finally, Maza looked to Tacka, the meek alien nodding her head after a moment of hesitation.

It seemed like everyone approved, even Coza, a fresh surge of excitement rising in Jaeger's belly along with a twinge of apprehension. What was this going to be like with all five of them joining in, six including the nurse? He hadn't been in a relationship for a while, never mind one with an alien, and he had never done anything with more than one partner before. It was pointless to speculate, he would just have to wait and see.

The drinks had all been drunk, and the tobacco had been smoked, it was time to leave. Maza rose from her seat at the table, taking him by the hand and coiling her feather sheath around his wrist possessively, guiding him towards the door. Coza did the same with her prize, tugging a very flustered and dazed Yaotl out of the nest of cushions, wrapping an arm around him to keep him close.

"Hang on," Jaeger said, "I need to help Baker along."

She released him, and he struggled to get Baker out of his seat, his friend just coherent enough to walk with a little help.

"Come on, Baker. Let's get you home, I think you've had enough Valbaran culture for one night."

CHAPTER 15: REACHING CONSENSUS

When they arrived back at the flock's dwelling, Jaeger lay Baker down on the shag carpet in the main dome, putting a cushion beneath his head and leaving him to sleep off his overindulgence. He couldn't blame him too much, they had been celebrating, and Baker had spent months on the Rorke where his consumption of alcohol was strictly moderated. He would be comfortable enough here while Jaeger and the flock occupied the bedroom...

"So...how does this work?" he asked, turning to the flock. They were all bunched up together, save for Coza who was off to one side with Yaotl. She had pushed him against the wall and was already nibbling at his neck again, the little male squirming as she put the moves on him. She was downright ravenous, sliding her hand beneath his floaty tunic, shooting Jaeger a sideways glance as if to say you're next. The rest of the flock craned their long necks to peer at him, talk about being put in the spotlight...

"What do Earth'nay usually do?" Maza asked.

"What do Valbarans usually do?" he replied.

"I think we should take your advice and just follow our guts, or our hearts," she chuckled. She took his hand again, her grip like iron, and guided him over towards the door to the bedroom. He ducked under the low doorway, feeling the plush surface of the room-spanning mattress beneath his feet. She released him in the center of the domed room, her flock following behind them, Coza closing the door as she was the last to enter. She had the male in tow, practically hurling the poor creature down into a nearby rat's nest of cushions, pouncing on him like a velociraptor. The room was plunged into a vaguely red gloom, much like the lounge, and once again the hanging curtains that decorated the walls gave him the same vibe.

Jaeger felt like he was being surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves, the aliens forming a circle around him, peering up at him as their violet eyes reflected what little light there was. They whispered and warbled in their native language, indecipherable to Jaeger, flashing their feathers and scheming as he waited for them to make the next move. The females were the dominant sex in their species, the way that Coza was currently making Yaotl her plaything really hammered that fact home, and so he should probably let them take the lead. When in Rome, as Baker liked to say...

"I want to see what you look like," Maza said, stepping closer to him. She was so short, he had to look directly down at her as she rested her hands on his stomach and pressed her snout up against his chest. She reached up and gripped the zipper on his suit between her thumb and one of her two fingers, pulling it down slowly until it reached his waist. He shrugged it off, then kicked off his shoes and stepped out of the lower half, standing before the aliens wearing only his white shirt and his shorts.

She wanted to pull his shirt over his head, but she couldn't reach, Jaeger doing it in her stead. He tugged it off and discarded it with a little difficulty, it was stuck to his skin due to the heat and humidity. Before the garment had even hit the mattress, Maza's small hands were back at work. She traced the contours of his muscles beneath his damp skin, Jaeger flexing and twitching at her touch.

"When you took us into the shower back on your carrier," she began, her eyes fixed on his belly as she stroked it with her hand. Her skin, or rather scales, were soft and smooth. They weren't like the armored, overlapping scales of a Krell, which were arranged like medieval armor. These were made up of a tiny mosaic of shiny scales, minute, irregular squares and hexagons that interlocked perfectly to create a surface that was as flush as varnished wood. "I thought that you were propositioning me," she laughed. "I didn't know much about your customs yet, I saw that all of the alien races on the Rorke lived together, male and female alike. Sordid thoughts ran through my head. What if this was how the rest of the Galaxy behaved, what if they expected the same of us? Had this vessel, packed with strange and exotic aliens, jumped into our system with the expectation that we would all make love as if that was their way of greeting us? I quickly discovered that I was wrong, of course," she continued, her warm breath blowing on his skin and her hands crawling down towards the bulge in his shorts. "But for a moment, I was ready for that to be the case, I was willing..."

She hooked a finger beneath the elastic waistband of his shorts, Ayau and Xico flanking her and leaning closer to get a better look. Tacka was lounging on the cushions nearby, observing them from a distance, while Coza was too occupied with her new bedmate to pay him any mind. Jaeger didn't know if her sexual aggression was a result of the drink, the weed, or if that was just how she behaved even when sober. She was a beast of a woman, and he thanked his stars that she was too small to give him the same treatment, the breathy cries and lustful warbling of the male echoing in the room.

Maza slid his shorts down to his thighs, slowly exposing his member, already swelling and heavy with blood as it bounced free. Their eyes widened, apparently surprised by what they saw, Maza glancing up at him as she gently lifted it in her palm.

"There's only one!" Xico exclaimed, her eyes fixed intently on his growing member. "It's covered in skin, it's so large and...vascular..."

"It's getting heavier," Maza whispered, "swelling with blood. It's beating like a heart in my hand."

"What's this?" Ayau asked, reaching below and cupping his balls in her palm. Jaeger twitched, the fluffy Valbaran grinning at his response. "It's sensitive."

Their explorations caused him to reach full mast, rising out of Maza's hand, his organ standing erect in front of them and twitching softly with every pulse of blood that rushed through it. It was almost as long and as thick as Maza's forearm, her eyes slowly crawling up its length as her feathers flashed in a shade of deep pink.