Black Velvet

"Does that feel good?" he chuckled, feeling her tremble like a leaf. In response, she coiled her tail around his wrist like a furry manacle, preventing him from pulling his hand away. He kept up his stroking, Zuki arching her back and writhing on the bed. She moved so beautifully, her muscles shifting beneath her fur, her shiny coat reflecting the light to give the impression that she was clad in vinyl.

He noticed that she was rubbing her thick thighs together now, and his face reddened. Perhaps he should lay off a little. He could feel an uncomfortable pressure growing beneath his trousers, too.

Zuki sank back into the mattress and loosened her tight hold on his arm as he roamed higher, resuming his initial mission of relieving her tension and loosening up her back. He slid his fingers into the groove of her spine, her damp fur making his touch slippery, almost as if it was made to facilitate a good massage. The two columns of muscle to either side of it were full of knots caused by stress and tension, and he began to work them out as he slowly moved upwards towards her bandages.

"Oh, Jules..." Zuki moaned as he sank the heel of his hand into the sensitive tissue, her sultry voice catching him off-guard and sending an undeniable throb of arousal coursing through him like an electric shock. "That feels so good..."

"I-I'm glad," he replied awkwardly. Images of Yuta riding Velez into the ground flashed before his mind's eye, the intrusive thoughts betraying him. Fortunately, Zuki still had her face buried in the pillows near the headboard, so she couldn't see the tent that was rising in his pants. Professionalism...objectivity...the concepts were being drowned by a feverish desire that was smoldering inside him, the heat rising up through his body as his eyes lingered on her rump, the beginnings of her pert cheeks just peeking out above her loose waistband. She was so warm, her fur so silky and touchable, slick with moisture. He just wanted to-

"Don't slow down," she grumbled, snapping him out of his stupor.

He returned to the more problematic area around her hips and the base of her tail, seeking out more trigger points and knots as he tried to calm his racing heart. The alien seemed to be in heaven, locked in a slow, gyrating dance as if her body was moving of its own accord. She might be so relaxed that she was slipping in and out of consciousness, trapped in a dreamlike state somewhere between waking and sleep.

"There!" she suddenly gasped, his thumb pressing into her muscle just below one of the dimples in her back and a hair above her cheeks. "Oh please...there..."

She seemed to melt as he kneaded the area with his palm, twitching and sucking in sharp breaths as he skirted the plump, springy flesh of her butt. Taking the initiative, he brought both hands to bear, placing one on top of the other like he was about to perform CPR.

Zuki moaned into the pillows, clutching them with her furry hands as he leveraged all of the strength that he could muster to drive the heel of his hand deep into the trigger point, making slow circles as he worked out the stress. Her chiseled body danced with every subtle motion of his wrists, Jules marveling at the fact that he could have such an effect on so large a creature.

She raised her hips off the bed, pushing her rump into the air, her breath coming in short gasps as he intensified his massage. The pleasure that bordered on pain, that wonderful ache must be permeating her lower body now, she might be feeling it from the small of her back all the way down to her...nether regions. Maybe he should stop here?

He looked up to see if she had emerged from the pillows, but she seemed to be hiding her face, lost in her fugue as he pushed her closer and closer to what felt like some manner of climax. It was somewhat of a challenge to keep his hands in the right place, but he did his best as she twisted and shivered, Zuki finally loosing a drawn-out moan before collapsing into the sheets in a shuddering heap. She twitched and trembled as if an electrical current was passing through her body, her thighs locked together, her heavy breathing stifled by the cushions.

Jules watched her with a blend of arousal and apprehension, wondering if he had crossed a line. He had expected a strong reaction, but not one quite that strong.

"How do you feel?" he finally asked, breaking a silence that had only been punctuated by her labored breathing and the pulsing of his own blood in his ears. She slowly rolled onto her side, her shifting weight on the mattress threatening to throw him off balance, her green eyes glittering as her face emerged from the cushions.

"Like I'm floating," she giggled, her husky voice low and comely. She opened her arms to him in invitation, and he found himself crawling across the sheets towards her. Zuki wrapped them around him and brought him closer, her clawed fingers delving into his hair, he could feel their sharp points brush against his scalp. She pressed his face into the woolen turtleneck of her sweater, her furry chin resting on his head, and he breathed in a lungful of her wonderful scent. Her sweater had begun to take on her distinctive blackberry aroma, and there was a hint of the soap that they had used in the shower earlier, unable to overpower her naturally feminine smell. Somehow, it calmed his racing heart, melting all of the tension out of his muscles as effectively as any deep tissue massage ever could.

She reached down and gripped the heavy bed sheet with her other arm, throwing it over them and swaddling them both tightly in its cocoon, burying Jules entirely. She stroked his head in a way that sent tingling pulses of sensation crawling down his spine like electrical fingers, the fleshy pads on her digits massaging him gently as she pushed his face into the nape of her neck, repaying the favor. He couldn't see anything beneath the cover, his sense of touch heightened as though he had been blindfolded, sparks flying in his brain with her every gentle caress.

She was so incredibly warm, her body heat permeating the little pocket that had been created beneath the sheets, her breath blowing his hair. He had been this close to her once before, when she had hidden from the Rask on the torus, but this was the first time that he could relax and appreciate her.

The fabric of her sweater was not as coarse as it had looked, and he could feel her chest rising and falling rhythmically beneath it, the softness of her bandaged torso cushioning him. He was afraid to put his hands on her, but she gave him little choice, and so he rested an arm about her waist by necessity. Somehow, lying here in Zuki's embrace beneath the blanket was more intimate than sharing a bed with any of his previous partners, despite the fact that they were both fully clothed and that they hadn't crossed any romantic boundaries.

Previous partners? No, Zuki was not a partner. They were friends, packmates. Were they platonic? How would the Araxie have put it? What was-

His racing thoughts were quietened as Zuki shifted her weight, a rumbling sigh that almost resembled a purr escaping her throat from beneath the turtleneck, his ear pressed up against it. Her fingers felt amazing as they stroked his hair. She was letting her claws touch him, but not enough to cut him, just enough that it felt a little like the teeth of a comb. She had such immense physical strength, she was so much larger than him, and yet she treated him with such care and consideration.

"It doesn't hurt," she murmured, her deep contralto resonating through him. "I can't remember a time when my back didn't ache. The absence of pain feels like...pleasure in comparison."

"It's no trouble," Jules replied, his voice muffled by her sweater. "It takes all of ten minutes to give a massage."

"I wish that I could do the same for you," she mumbled, her warm breath blowing the strands of his hair. "But my claws would cut you."

She pulled him tighter again, his cheek rubbing against her sweater, her massive hand resting in the small of his back. They were practically spooning now, was this normal for Araxie packs?

"What would you do if I were an Araxie?" he asked, and he could swear that he heard the beating of her massive heart quicken at the question. "What exactly is it that Araxie do together when they socialize?"

"We eat together, we bathe one another," she began. "But we've done that already."

They certainly had. Memories of her toned muscles flexing beneath her velvet fur flashed in his mind, the feeling of her coat wet with suds of slippery soap still fresh and stark. "We sleep together, as we're doing now..."

"Exactly like this?" he whispered into her sweater.

"M-more or less," she stammered, "there are usually more than just two people."

"At least this way, you have my undivided attention."

She chuckled, pushing her wet nose into his hair and nuzzling.

"Are you comfortable? Can you sleep like this?" she asked.

"Yeah..."

He had expected to be far too distracted, but as much as being so close to her sent his brain into a tailspin, the warmth of her body beneath the covers and the hypnotic quality of her breathing was already lulling him into a kind of trance. After a few minutes, he found himself wondering how he could ever have gotten to sleep in any other way.

"I...I like this," she continued, Jules feeling her grip on him tighten possessively. "So many winters have passed since I was last accepted into a pack, since I was able to share a bed with someone and feel their warmth."

"Sorry I can't be a big pile of furry cats for you," he said, and she giggled into his hair.

"Don't worry, I like this better."

"Oh? Why is that?" Jules asked, somewhat surprised by her response.

"As you said, I have your undivided attention. Back in my home territory, even when I was assigned to a pack by the Patriarch himself in an attempt to find me a job, I was always the outlier. The lowest-ranked. I'm the lowest-ranked in our pack, too, but there's only the two of us. I don't have to fight to be noticed."

"Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be the Alpha. How am I doing so far?"

"Pretty great," she chuckled, pushing her face into his hair again.

***

Jules awoke during the night a couple of times when Zuki shifted or gripped him tighter in her sleep. It should have annoyed him, but it was strangely nice, waking up to feel her warmth and being reminded of her presence. He was so relaxed, he felt as if his limbs wouldn't have responded to the command to move if he had wanted them to, his head rising and falling gently along with her padded chest.

He was too drowsy, too tired to focus on anything besides Zuki. Her scent, the heat of her body pressed up against his, the feeling of her furry face pressing into his hair. She seemed to enjoy his scent as he did hers, his own clothes now starting to smell like her beneath the covers, and he wondered idly what she made of him.

Was this the second time that he had woken, or the third? It was all blurred together, and as his heavy eyelids closed once again, he hoped that it would not be the last.

***

"Hey," Zuki murmured, Jules blinking groggily as he looked up at her from beneath the heavy blanket. She was gazing down at him with her green, reflective eyes, her dark fur making the rest of her face almost invisible in the gloom save for the shine of her black lips.

"Hey," he muttered, beginning to wake up. "What time is it?"

"Nighttime," she replied.

"How long have you been up?"

"A little while," she admitted, "I didn't want to move and risk waking you. You looked so peaceful."

They were still buried beneath a mountain of sheets, trapping all of their body heat. It was like cuddling up beside a warm hearth in the dead of winter, he couldn't believe how much warmth she could put out. Every instinct in his body fought against him as he slid out from under the blanket, Zuki releasing her hold on him. It wasn't as if the air out here was cold, it was all climate-controlled to be as comfortable as possible, but he had become so accustomed to the temperature of the bed that it sure as hell felt like it.

"You want some breakfast?" he asked, yawning and stretching. "I could cook you up some fried potatoes and bacon, I think you'd like that."

"Mhmm," she replied, and he turned to see her peering at him with those emerald eyes. She was lying on her side like she was posing for a painting, the wide curve of her hip tapering into her comparatively narrow waist beneath the covers in the shape of an hourglass. Her green irises were mesmerizing in the darkness, he could scarcely look away. Realizing that his face was beginning to warm, he made a hasty retreat towards the door, stepping through and turning on the lights in the open-plan area of the apartment.

The light seemed to drive away the shadows that were lurking in his mind, intrusive thoughts that stalked him like an Araxie in the jungle, waiting for the perfect time to pounce. He could still feel Zuki's eyes on his back, even though there was a dividing wall between them.

He moved over to the kitchen area and opened up a packet of bacon from the fridge, then oiled up a pan ready for the potatoes. Everything was super-sized, and the iron skillet was almost too heavy for him to lift, large enough that it could handle Borealan-scale portions. He began to cook, happy to have something to occupy himself with, tossing the potatoes as they started to crisp in the bubbling vegetable oil.

Jules lurched suddenly, dropping his spatula as Zuki snuck up behind him, as silent as a whisper. She closed her arms around him, pulling him tight against her sweater. Once again, he felt her warmth seep into him through the boundary of their clothing as she rested her furry chin in his hair, watching him cook. She was certainly feeling more permissive today, stalking him like a predator. She might be clumsy by Araxie standards, but Jules certainly couldn't hear her coming.

"You nearly scared the life out of me," he laughed, "why are you sneaking around all of a sudden?"

"I'm hunting my breakfast," she replied with a toothy grin. "It smells so good," she added, watching as the oil in the pan popped and spat. "What are those strips of meat from?"

"A pig," he replied, turning one of them over as they cooked in their own fat. "It's another Earth animal. Pork is a little easier to come by than beef all the way out here."

"Will you teach me more today?" Zuki asked, Jules suddenly all too conscious of the way that her soft chest was pressing against his shoulders from behind.

"We'll pick up where we left off, yeah. I want to do something this afternoon, though, if it's alright with you. Something fun that we can both enjoy. It doesn't have to distract you from your studies for too long."

"Something fun?"

"That's the idea, yeah," he said as he moved the potatoes around in their pan. After a few minutes, the meal was ready, Zuki's eyes following the plate from the counter to the table as she waited impatiently. It was stacked high with fried potatoes and a veritable mountain of bacon strips. The entire apartment was awash in the scent of cooking meat, even Jules was starting to salivate as he took a seat opposite her.

Zuki tried to spear one of the strips with her fork, finding that it was a little too crispy, becoming frustrated as she jabbed at it.

"You can use your hands," Jules chuckled, "just be sure to clean the grease off them before you touch anything expensive."

She reached down and used the curved claws on her thumb and forefinger like a pair of tweezers, bringing it to her mouth, Jules hearing the telltale crunch as she began to chew. He grinned as her eyes rolled back into her head. Apparently, she liked the taste. It was basically just meat, salt, and grease, after all, everything that her kind seemed to enjoy. Her careful approach was quickly abandoned, and she used her hands unreservedly to shovel more bacon into her mouth, licking away the grease that matted her fur with her barbed tongue.

"You must sell the Araxie some of your pigs," she mumbled over a generous mouthful of bacon, "this is...the best meat I've ever tasted..."

He laughed as he started on his fried potatoes, they were brown and crispy, cooked just right. He was certainly getting a good sense of what Zuki liked to eat now, there were plenty more salty, greasy foods available on the station. In fact, they were probably too readily available to be even remotely healthy for its inhabitants.

Zuki wolfed down her meal at the same rate that Jules ate his, despite her portion being about five times the size of his own. Even so, he hoped that she was getting enough nutrition and that she wasn't lacking anything that she could only obtain from her native diet. She seemed healthy and happy enough, her coat was shiny, and her eyes were bright.

When they were done, Jules brought the empty plates over to the dishwasher, Zuki's already clean due to her having licked away every spot of grease and oil. He had her wash her hands before letting her handle the tablet, then they moved into the living area to resume her diplomatic training.

CHAPTER 13: CHEEK TO CHEEK

"Being a diplomat is not just about knowing the laws as they are written," Jules said as he paced before the holographic fireplace, Zuki watching him intently as she took notes. "Nor is it limited to interpreting and understanding how those laws are applied. It's also about forging connections between people and governments, knowing who talk to and how to do it, navigating the bureaucracy in order to get the information that you need."

"What kind of information?" she asked. He considered for a moment, imagining a scenario that might illustrate what he was talking about.

"Let's imagine that there was an incident between UNN and Araxie forces, just for the sake of this example. Perhaps a UNN dropship experienced a mechanical failure, and it crashed, injuring some Araxie and damaging their property. The Patriarch is understandably angry about this and demands an apology, but the Commander of the UNN forces refuses on the grounds that it was accidental. Tensions begin to rise, with neither side willing to budge on the issue. Relations start to break down, and it's looking like the Patriarch might expel the UNN personnel from the territory in retaliation. As the diplomat, how do you resolve that situation?"

Zuki chewed on her claw for a moment, thinking hard as she stared into space.

"Think of it in social terms," Jules added, "and imagine that you have all of the authority that you need. That both the Patriarch and the UNN Commander value your input."

"I would...try to calm the Patriarch," she replied, "and perhaps convince the Commander to apologize."

"Yes, exactly," Jules said with a clap of his hands. "And how do you reach that stage, where both the Patriarch and the Commander will listen to you?"

"I must earn their respect, become their friends?" she asked.

"Yes, now you're starting to understand. As a diplomat, it is your responsibility to build relationships with the important players. They need to trust you, they need to see you as someone reliable who can help them resolve their problems. When the Patriarch wants to talk to the Commander, his first instinct should be to go through you, because you're the one who knows the man and who understands how he thinks."

"But how do I do that?" she asked, cocking her head.

"You've been doing it!" Jules replied, "that's what so impressed me back in Araxie. I was the visiting dignitary, and when Bozka assigned you to be my liaison, you naturally began to befriend me and assist me. You earned my trust, you showed me that you were capable and reliable, and that you could help me navigate the local culture. You knew everyone in the village, you were able to introduce me to people and act as an intermediary. When I had a question, or I needed to understand something, I didn't go straight to the Patriarch. I came to you. That is what being a diplomat is all about, you already possess the fundamental skills and personality traits that you need, it's just about learning how to apply them."