By Any Other Name
By Any Other Name
by K.M. Hirosaki ([email protected])
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This story and all characters are copyright (c) 2006 K.M. Hirosaki
As the Dawn's Damsel drifted closer to the large, welcoming planet, the proximity alarm went off, jolting Dalrent out of his trance of boredom. With his attention back on the matter and hand, the coyote swung his chair back over to the control console and began to get the ship ready for landing.
Dalrent wasn't much a fan of the name Dawn's Damsel, he thought (not for the first time) as he adjusted the ship's transponder settings. It wasn't like he'd picked the name, though, and he was free to change it, but he'd need to wait for an opportunity, first. Such an opportunity wasn't going to come while he was on Torrin, though, so he'd need to put up with the name for a little while longer. He hoped that he wouldn't accidentally get used to it before he got around to changing it.
Torrin's automated planetary traffic control system automatically identified and registered Dalrent's ship and gave him an appropriate approach vector for landing in Olesko, the capital city. If there were any problems, a live operator would open communications and direct things as necessary, but a quick look at the current traffic grid showed that there probably wouldn't be any issues.
That was how Dalrent wanted it: as trouble-free as possible. Luckily, the most risky part (allowing the planetary traffic control system to actually identify the ship) had already passed without a hitch, and so the likelihood of there being any trouble once he was actually on-planet was low. He wasn't going to be staying long, after all, and if trouble were to arise before he left... well, escaping from a planet where one was unwelcome anyway wasn't necessarily the most difficult feat to pull off.
Ideally, a transport of the Dawn's Damsel's class would be crewed by two people, but Dalrent had flown on dozens of different spacecraft in his time, and so the coyote was able to make do without a copilot. Also, the ship was equipped with some top-of-the-line automated features that took a lot of the navigational guesswork out of setting up for a proper landing, with control guidance hooking up with the data stream from Torrin's own traffic control grid for maximum reliability.
With all that technology at the coyote's disposal, the trip down to Olesko was slow and uneventful, without even much tension or fear to make things interesting. Still, if he didn't leave Olesko and Torrin feeling like he had some fire nipping at the tip of his tail, then that meant that he hadn't done his job right. A man had to keep his pride, after all, even when he was on the run.
Once he was in the planet's atmosphere and had locked the ship into its landing pattern, Dalrent was free to open a communications channel, since by that point, the computer had all critical control of the vessel. Relaxing back in his chair, the coyote pulled up a private frequency from his datakey and then waited for an answer.
Without any surprise on Dalrent's part, the connection was answered in a matter of seconds. The small viewscreen sprung to life with the image of a young, well-dressed male tiger, whose eyes lit up a moment later. "Dal?" the young feline asked, voice nearly a chirp. "Is that you?"
"It's me," the coyote replied with a smile, staying calmly leaned back in his chair. "I'm landing in Olesko now. I've got about six hours. Do you think I could see you real quick?"
"Yeah, yeah, of course," the tiger replied, stammering. "When should I expect you?"
Dalrent shot a glance over at the ship's chronometer. "Let's say top of the hour?"
The tiger nodded. "Sure, I can do that," he said. He reached for the communications console switch, but then hesitated. "It's good to see you again," he added with another smile before he finally cut the call.
*
The coyote stretched and yawned as he disembarked the ship and strolled about the landing platform. Even with the ship's internal environmental settings set to what he was used to, there was something about being on an actual planet that the coyote could just never get from a starship, no matter how much he tweaked things like gravity and temperature and humidity.
Torrin, too, was a welcome breath of fresh air--literally, even, since it was one of the all-too-rare planets that was capable of supporting life without the need for terraforming, like most inhabited worlds throughout the star cluster. Dalrent might have just been imagining it, but he'd always sworn that he could tell the difference between a naturally hospitable planet and one that had been technologically groomed into accepting life. Perhaps the best thing about Torrin itself, though, was that it was so very close to Dalrent's own homeworld of New Tenochtitlan in terms of gravity and atmospheric makeup. In a way, coming here was like coming home (which he was extra-thankful for, since there were standing orders for him to be shot on sight back on his actual homeworld).
Just around six hours, though--that was all he'd have. He'd do what he could to make his stay worth it, even if he wouldn't have time to have the Dawn's Damsel repainted and its name changed to something more fitting Dalrent's own tastes. It seemed, though, that he'd have plenty of time for that at his next stop.
He'd probably be keeping the ship, he'd decided, since it was rugged, nondescript, and pretty fast. In fact, if he'd had his choice of what ship to steal when he'd escaped from Jashin, he would have picked a ship much like the Dawn's Damsel, so in a way, he'd lucked out. As it was, he only had the ship because he'd already killed its captain (she'd had it coming, though, since she'd made the foolish choice to try to come after Dalrent in the first place), and so it made sense to take off in the Dawn's Damsel and just hope that the rest of its crew were mercenaries (or just plain old hired goons) who wouldn't have taken the time or effort to report the ship stolen.
If anyone were going to have reported the ship stolen, though, it would have happened long before Dalrent landed in Olesko, so he was in the clear, as much as he could hope. After leaving Torrin, he'd work on forging new papers and titles asserting his ownership over the vessel, and then he could re-register it with a name that wasn't so girly.
That was all far into the future, though, as far as Dalrent was concerned, now, because he needed to make the next few hours here on Torrin last. He'd considered just taking public transit because it drew less attention to himself, but he had more than enough money after the Jashin run, and it was faster and so much more efficient to rent a private vehicle, even if it meant leaving more evidence that he'd been here at all. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, though, he wagered, since he hadn't ever been caught in any of the crimes he'd committed on this planet.
It was in the course of committing one of those crimes, some six years ago, that Dalrent first met young Kertel, the tiger whom he was currently on his way to see. That was a very fortuitous happenstance indeed, as it was his newly-formed association with Kertel that had allowed Dalrent to escape suspicion as he, in turn, escaped from Olesko Palace with the digigraphs of Princess Kalli and a lupine philanderer whose name Dalrent never did learn.
Kertel himself was some type of prince, Dalrent knew. Torrin was a very convoluted constitutional monarchy, however, and so he wasn't quite sure how young Kertel fit into the whole scheme of royal succession, but the coyote was pretty sure that Kertel was some far-removed relation from even those few royals who held purely figurehead status. What mattered was that Kertel was rich and well-connected--and, of course, willing to assist Dalrent whenever the coyote got into the wrong sort of trouble.
Rather than heading toward Olesko Palace, though, Dalrent instead headed for Kertel's own private residence elsewhere in the capital's center. Though their conversation back aboard the ship had been brief, Dalrent knew that that's where Kertel would be heading, as that was standard procedure for whenever the coyote dropped by unexpected in just the sort of situation he was now in.
Parking his rental at the landing port on the 87th Floor of the New Unity Tower, Dalrent did one final check of his personal effects to make sure that everything was in order. If anyone had somehow been tailing him all the way here, he didn't want Kertel to have to get in trouble for it as well. As far as Dalrent knew, the suite that Kertel kept at the New Unity Tower wasn't publicly known, but that was only as far as Dalrent knew, and he wasn't as familiar with things on Torrin as he'd like, in that regard.
Reasonably sure that he was in the clear, Dalrent headed on into the building. Even after all these years, he still knew these particular hallways by heart, and he took his last few seconds to let a final bit of calm wash over him before he pressed the door chime for Kertel's suite.
Dalrent imagined that Kertel was hovering by the door already and was taking his time in answering just so that he wouldn't seem overeager or nervous, but when he did answer, the coyote could still see both the eagerness and nervousness in the tiger's eyes.
"Dal?" the tiger asked, hints of disbelief in his voice. "God, what are you doing here?"
Dalrent stepped on inside, let the door close behind him, and then, to answer the young tiger's question, pressed him against the wall and leaned in for a deep, passionate kiss. Kertel was flustered for just a second or two before he finished melting in the coyote's paws, parting his lips and taking the coyote's tongue into his muzzle. With the tiger submitting to his abrupt advances, Dalrent let his paws spill down from Kertel's shoulders, moving down along his sides until they made it to his slender hips.
"God, I've missed you," Dalrent huffed as he pulled out of the kiss, his tail wagging openly, without any pretext or shyness.
Kertel pulled the coyote into a nice, firm hug, stronger than it looked like the tiger would be capable of. "Oh, I've missed you, too," he replied, his own tail lashing about every which way. "I... I almost didn't think you'd ever come back, but I... well..."
"Oh, you know me better than that," Dalrent said, using all of his honest roguish charm to smile a smile that he knew would melt Kertel's little heart. "Besides, I haven't been away all that long."
"Almost two years, next month," Kertel replied, the beginnings of a frown forming on his face.
Dalrent brushed it off with another grin. "Hey, in the grand scheme of things, two years is nothing," he said, stroking his fingers down the back over Kertel's head. "After all, we've both hopefully got plenty of time left."
Kertel nodded, and then he started to frown again. "But not right now, right?" he asked. "You said you've only got six hours."
"Yeah," Dalrent said. "I'm just stopping long enough refuel my reactor, get some maintenance done, and then I've got to head out for Astrid-2." He paused, took a breath, and then offered a simple, "You know how it goes."
"You're on the run again, aren't you?" The tiger was still frowning, but he rubbed Dalrent's own hips as if to reassure him, as if to say, 'I know it's not your fault.'
The coyote flashed some fang in his next smile. "Just for a little while," he said. "A little laying low and I should be able to show my face again."
With a quick nuzzle to the chin, Kertel then slipped out out of the embrace. "You didn't do anything too bad this time, did you?" he asked.
Meeting Kertel's gaze with a totally straight face, the coyote replied, "No, nothing too bad." In Dalrent's experience, killing would-be capturers in self-defense (after having been suckered into a bad deal-turned-trap) wasn't the worst thing he could have done, after all. "I'm sure you'd rather not hear the details, though, right?"
The tiger gave a tiny, stiff nod. "It's safer for the both of us that way," he said. He wandered on into the room, pacing about slowly, a glumness having taken over his attitude. "I mean, I know that you're going to do what you do, and I can't stop that, but..."
"But you're still happy to see me?" Dalrent offered, following the shorter tiger.
When Kertel turned back around, he had a new smile on his face. "I'm beyond happy to see you," he said. "I just wish we had more time, that's all."
Dalrent once more closed the gap between them. "Then let's make sure that we make the best out of what time we have," he said, and then he pulled the tiger into another kiss.
This kiss started slower than the previous one, but because of that, it was also more careful, as if they both knew that they didn't need to rush, that they were both really here and that this was actually really happening. Dalrent's fingers felt up the front of Kertel's formal shirt, playing with the embroidered edges and the tassels over the chest, while Kertel's paws roamed over Dalrent's rugged spacer's vest. It was nice--damned nice, really--to get this chance to refamiliarize themselves with one another's bodies, the coyote thought, before he started to undo that fancy top the tiger was wearing.
Years of working on spaceship machinery had given Dalrent uncanny manual dexterity, and so even planetary noblemen's formalwear was of little hindrance to the coyote's determined paws, and he succeeded in stripping the tiger bare from the waist up in a matter of seconds. Kertel mewled out a soft sound of surprise, but he was quickly silenced into another moan as Dalrent laid another kiss on him. The tiger was far too flustered to be able to do much more beyond letting his own paws wander over the rough, sturdy fabric of the coyote's vest and flight suit. All in due time, Dalrent thought to himself, his lips twisting into a partial grin even as he kept his snout locked with Kertel's.
Kertel had the kind of splendidly clean and soft fur that only a well-off planet-dweller could hope for, and Dalrent luxuriated in the way the feline's pelt felt against his fingers as they roamed over the younger male's chest and stomach. Underneath that layer of lovely fur, the coyote could feel the tiger tense, warm up, and shiver, and the cat's breathing got more huffy and urgent through his nostrils. "Oh, I have missed you," the coyote stressed as he pressed his muzzle against the tiger's cheek.
As the tiger tried to angle his muzzle for another kiss, Dalrent instead urged the young feline backwards, half-step by half-step, until finally the tiger bumped up against the edge of the bed and fell backwards. With a soft cry, Kertel landed on his back, and then he gazed up at the coyote with a wide-eyed stare full of lust as well as tenderness. Content that the tiger wasn't going to try to get away, Dalrent shucked off his vest and then started to unzip his flight suit. Dalrent wasn't one to show off, and attempting to perform a striptease while wearing such a strictly utilitarian garment would have been way more embarrassing than sexy, but the coyote still just took his time so that the tiger could enjoy and linger in anticipation as his scragglier canine lover got undressed.
Once he was down to his undergarments, Dalrent crawled onto the bed, hovering over Kertel on all fours. He let his paws roam their way down along the tiger's torso as he smiled into the feline's face, and then his fingers went about unlacing Kertel's fancy leather belt--real leather, by the feel of it, which meant that if Dalrent were to swipe it, it would probably be enough to pay for the maintenance and refueling costs for the Dawn's Damsel. Money wasn't on the coyote's mind as much as other things were, though, and so he let himself forget about the belt entirely as he finished opening up the tiger's pants and then reached on inside.
Kertel was already just about fully hard, and his face twisted up beautifully as he let out a tense, breathy squeak from the way Dalrent closed his fingers down around his erection. That squeeze was all he got, and the coyote took both of his paws and used them to pull the tiger's pants and underpants clear off. Now good and naked and excited, the young tiger prince flicked his tail about and let his gaze wander over Dalrent's body, spending no small amount of time examining the well-defined outline of the coyote's own package; his underpants would have left little to the imagination, even if Kertel didn't know full well what Dalrent was sporting.
Content to leave the tiger in suspense for a little bit longer, the coyote slipped back a bit and bent down to bring his muzzle down between the tiger's thighs, treating his stiff shaft to a few slow licks. His lips brushed against it as he lapped at it a couple of times, but he never fully brought it on into his mouth, and the feline reacted by squirming and tensing and bunching his paws in against the bed sheets. Even aroused, Kertel still smelled like the regal cat he was, with hints of expensive perfumes still exuding from his fur. Still, underlying all that was still the unmistakable scent of tiger, which Dalrent's canine nose picked up very strongly. In a way, the coyote missed the youthful scent that Kertel had had when he'd first met the tiger, but even though that muskiness was a bit different, now, it was no less intoxicating in terms of its full-on maleness.
Discomfort started to register in the back of Dalrent's mind, and so he stood back up onto his feet before the front of the bed and then slipped his underpants off. His sheath was down most all the way, now, giving the reclining tiger a pleasant eyeful that he seemed to appreciate, if the glimmer in his gaze was to be any indication. Before Dalrent could hunker back down onto the bed, though, Kertel flipped himself over and crawled up onto his paws and knees to face the coyote.
For a second or two, Kertel looked up into Dalrent's face, and his mouth hung open like he wanted to say something, but he was either too shy or too much at a loss for words; instead, he fixed his gaze lower, and then he bent down to lick his soft tongue at Dalrent's own drizzling shaft. The tiger's striped tail flicked up and then curled back down, and a purr resonated in his throat as he brought his lips up to kiss and suckle the canine's wet and swollen tip.
Dalrent brought one of his paws to the tiger's head and started to stroke him between the ears. He didn't push or press, but the tiger took the coyote's shaft deeper into his muzzle all the same. The coyote turned his paw to the side, then, petting the feline on the cheek so that he could watch that face in action. To look at him now, so eagerly servicing the canine with his lips and tongue, one would never think him a member of a privileged class; Dalrent didn't know how many male lovers Kertel had taken in his day, but even after two years of the coyote being away from Torrin, the tiger didn't seem at all out-of-practice.
The way that Kertel worked his muzzle back and forth over Dalrent's stiff shaft was nothing short of splendid. The coyote hadn't know the pleasure of anything other than his own paw since... well, since before Jashin, at least. The sensation of a delicate, warm and wet suckling was almost too much of a wonderful shock for him to bear, but Dalrent himself wasn't so unpracticed as to be unable to hold back his own limit for pleasure. He bit down on his lip, his breathing wavering as he panted in and out through his nostrils, and then he started to rock his hips back and forth, going very slowly so that the tiger could keep pace with him. After a few moments of sputtering, their rhythms synced up again.
With tiny movements, Dalrent used his claws to make little furrows in the fur on the side of Kertel's face. He amused himself idly at the patterns he made, mimicking the stripes of the tiger's pelt. Such a vibrant splash of color would be a welcome addition to the dingy interiors of a space transport (to say nothing of the tiger's skilled muzzle), but dragging Kertel away with him wasn't an option--not unless the coyote wanted authorities to find him even faster. A true shame, that.
Kertel's attentions, however talented, were starting to get a bit too aggressive for the coyote's own good--or, rather, for the good of prolonging his pleasure. Dalrent actually used both paws to gently urge the tiger off of his shaft, chuckling quietly as the young feline licked his lips and blushed visibly in his ears. "Easy there," the coyote warned, grinning back down at the cat before taking the all-too-open opportunity to smear his spittle-soaked shaft against that cute snout and bristly whiskers.
"Oh?" Kertel asked, slipping backward along the mattress, letting his legs out from underneath himself. "Am I getting you a bit too worked up?"
"There's no such thing as too worked up," Dalrent replied, kneeling forward with one of his knees on the end of the bed. "But there's also no point in rushing things, now, is there?" he asked, pulling the rest of himself onto the bed to join his companion.
Kertel's tail flicked about. "I suppose not," he admitted, lidding his eyes only partway. "Was there something else you wanted, then, I take it?"
"While I'm here." The coyote's gaze got narrower, as well, and he moved like he was slithering as he lay onto his side atop the cozy mattress while eyeing up the tiger. Though he said nothing else, Kertel moved as if he were reading the canine's mind, flipping himself over onto his belly, facing the headboard.
The way that Kertel lifted his tail up gave Dalrent a pretty good idea of what the cat was expecting, and the coyote smirked, because he knew he wasn't about to give that just yet. Crawling forward on his elbows, he plucked the tiger's tail up with his fingers, stroking down along it with his fingertips and claws, and then he brought himself closer still. He extended his tongue and then lapped at the back of the feline's balls, exposed and so nicely vulnerable down back between his legs. Kertel gasped at the initial touch of Dalrent's tongue, and then he whined and shivered as the coyote licked his way up the short-furred little run along the center of the tiger's rump, until his tongue made it up underneath the tail.
Already squirming delightfully, the tiger's body started to worm around all the more as Dalrent lapped beneath that hiked-up and held-up tail. The scent of feline musk was strong in the canine's nose, but it was clear that Kertel had taken the time to wash up in the time between when Dalrent announced his landing on Torrin and when he showed up here at the suite. Dalrent was appreciative of that, since it made him feel all that much more like he was being treated to some extravagant royal welcome--well, maybe nothing that fancy, but it was the little things that counted, after all.
Dalrent didn't want to dally, and as he licked away underneath Kertel's tail, the coyote's own squirming against the mattress was providing his slicked-up shaft with a bit too much stimulation of its own. Still, the coyote at least made sure to get his tongue pushed in past that snug little ring of flesh, and he probed his tongue about a few times before he pulled back and then pushed himself back up onto his knees.
"All right," he said, placing a paw on Kertel's hip. "Let me see your gorgeous little face." A tiny push was all it took to get the tiger to roll over onto his back, and Dalrent grinned as he took a look down between the tiger's legs, seeing how his leakiness had matted the fur of his sheath, thighs, and lower belly.
Kertel really did have a handsome face--and now that he wasn't in the middle of going down on the coyote, it was easier to see that he came from non-commoner stock. In this part of the star cluster, the idea of 'royalty' wasn't terribly widespread, with very few planets still espousing it, but even a minor noble like Kertel still looked special in a way--and Dalrent spent enough time hopping from planet to planet to be able to notice that difference.
Beyond his face just showing special breeding, though, Kertel's expression was showing how much he wanted--no, _needed--_Dalrent right then, and so the coyote was only too happy to oblige. He grabbed the tiger by the ankles, gently swung his legs apart, and then knelt down in between them. "Oh, Dal," the young feline gasped, squinting his eyes shut as he rested his head back into his pillow and waited for the larger canine to position himself.
Dalrent was less and less calm by the moment, and he nearly toppled over forward as he reached down, grabbed his cock by the base, and nudged it in down between the tiger's tail and balls. He rubbed around, using his thumb and forefinger to hold himself steady, growling in the back of his throat as he got things nice and slick, and then, after making sure he was lined up nice and carefully, he started to push forward. Kertel had just started to open his eyes again, but they once more snapped shut, and his throat fluttered with a gasp that didn't have enough air behind it to make much of a sound. It was cute, Dalrent thought, and he actually waffled over whether he wanted to look at the tiger's face or down at his own shaft as he penetrated him, before ultimately settling on the latter.
It was fast going as the coyote sank down into the willing feline's snug little behind, urgency overcoming the canine's patience. The scent of sex was heavy in the air, now, which was making both of their tails lash about. Dalrent's natural slipperiness combined with the warm slathering of saliva he'd left under Kertel's tail, which was hopefully enough to kill at least some of the tiger's discomfort--if the feline was experiencing much of it, he still wasn't doing anything to discourage the coyote from taking him deeper and harder, with mewls that were altogether too encouraging, really.
The coyote reached down and put one of his paws on Kertel's shoulder and the other on his side, between hips and ribcage, and them he thrust himself down deeper, bringing himself in almost to the very hilt of his shaft. Kertel yelped, sounding like a fox, and as Dalrent's ears caught the sound it made him shiver in further anticipation of what was to come. The tiger writhed some more, and for the next several seconds, Dalrent didn't even move, instead allowing the squirmy feline to do all the movement for him. Soon, though, canine instinct started to take over, and so the coyote gave into the urge to start thrusting again.
The years he'd spent away from Kertel all seemed like the blink of an eye now that Dalrent was here with him again, and memories of the last time he'd spent in the tiger's bed felt as if it had all been just last night or the night before. Kertel was a striking little lover, to be sure, and as the coyote started to have his way with the little tiger now, he really did wish that he didn't need to run off so soon.
Dalrent watched his own shaft some more, staring with interest as he shoved it down underneath the tiger's matted, white-furred balls, disappearing into that too-snug warmth before reemerging, a little bit more slippery each time. More and more, the tinged scents of warmth and sex and arousal clung to the inside of the coyote's nose, almost overpowering him, making him dizzy, making him close to crazed with desire for the adorable, willing feline.
With a grunt of sheer defiance against his own body, Dalrent pulled all the way out, and he had to pant a few times before he had enough breath to speak. "Roll back over," he rumbled back down to Kertel, using one arm to brace himself against the bed's headboard. Kertel, too, looked dizzy, his eyes glassed-over in the room's dim lighting, and he flopped more than rolled over. Dalrent reached down with his free paw and tugged on the tiger's hip, getting him to lift his rump up without actually getting onto all fours. With a new angle at his disposal, the coyote got back into position, and then he started to fuck the shuddering tiger anew.
Dalrent missed getting to see Kertel's face twist and contort with such sinful pleasure, but he always did find it uncomfortable to tie front-to-front with someone who was that much shorter than him. Besides, he knew that the tiger would want to cuddle afterwards, anyway, and the coyote was happy to give him that. The thought of having that warm body tucked in up against him made the coyote start to pant even harder, his knot swelling up, his shaft twitching more erratically as he pounded down into the feline's soft little rump.
Quiet noises that were partway between growls and groans wafted up from Kertel's throat, and Dalrent knew that the cat was taking pleasure out of the act of being mounted itself and not just out of satisfaction of submitting to the lustful canine. The coyote reached down to feel for the tiger's own shaft, only to find that the feline was left with only a hair trigger, as his neck arched back sharply after that brief touch, and with a yowl that made the insides of Dalrent's ears tingle, he started to empty out his musky seed in a thick, splattering puddle down beneath his stomach.
With the scent of the feline's release adding to the mixture of smells in the room, Dalrent started to pump his hips harder. With every thrust, his knot grew more, and the coyote slipped into a near-trancelike state as he just kept bucking down, over and over, until that knot of his was full and tight and he forced it down into the welcoming tightness beneath the tiger's tail. Locked snugly in place, then, Dalrent jerked and bucked a few more times, and over the next several blissful seconds, emptied himself out in a rush of mind-numbing pleasure.
A few minutes later, after the feline and canine had shifted over to lying on the sides, Dalrent still tied to Kertel, the tiger reached back to rub the coyote's hip as he broke the silence:
"What's it like, up there in space?"
Dalrent nuzzled in between the tiger's ears. "You've been in space before, surely."
"I've been on trips in space," Kertel said. "Just brief hops from place to place; I haven't been in space like you've been in space."
"You don't want to experience space like I do," the coyote responded with a chuckle. "Trust me."
"I bet it's lonely," the tiger said.
After a moment's thought, the coyote said, "Well, luckily, I'm able to get someplace warm and cozy every now and again," and he smiled as he shifted his hips, wriggling about his still-trapped shaft.
Kertel giggled like a kitten and flicked his tail against the coyote's side. "Two years is a long time," he said, and though the sentiment was a melancholy one, Dalrent could hear the smile behind it.
"Hopefully I'll be able to make it back here a bit sooner, next time," the coyote said, almost surprised at how much he meant it. He took one of his paws and then just rubbed his paw up and down the tiger's side, thinking about how soothing it must be for the both of them.
The tiger was quiet for a few moments longer, and then he snuggled himself back against Dalrent's front. "I did miss you," he said.
"I can tell," the coyote whispered back into one of Kertel's ears before nibbling at it. "I missed you, too."
"But you still have to leave, right?"
"Just for a little while. Not two years. I promise."
Again, the tiger paused, and the coyote could feel the feline's little body shiver with trepidation. "What if... what if something happens to you? You... you do some dangerous stuff."
"Aw, I won't let anything happen to me," the coyote said, dipping his head down further to lick at the tiger's cheek. "Not when I've got a handsome young man like you as an incentive to come back to."
Kertel chuckled a warm little chuckle, and Dalrent felt the cat's body relax. "Well, I'll be waiting for you," he said, grabbing and then holding one of the coyote's paws. "I'll always be here, waiting for you."
*
Even by the time the Dawn's Damsel broke free of Torrin's atmosphere, Dalrent could still smell sex clinging to himself. He wondered if any of the canid work crew down at the landing area had noticed the reek of aroused male tiger on him. Might give them a little to think about is all, Dalrent thought to himself with a smirk.
Putting the thought out of his mind, Dalrent then called up the starship's navigation console. He was still on the run, though he wasn't really going to be heading for Astrid-2; he needed to tell Kertel something, though, and on the off-chance that anyone had traced the coyote to Torrin--and to Kertel--then the tiger would at least be able to feed any pursuers a false lead that he believed was real.
It didn't matter, really, whether Dalrent went to Astrid-2 or anywhere else, since all Kertel would be thinking about was the fact that the coyote was gone, and no matter where Dalrent went, he knew that the tiger would still be waiting for him, regardless.
The coyote inspected the route he'd taken to get from Jashin to Torrin. Now that he was leaving Torrin, the fact that the Dawn's Damsel wasn't tripping anything in any of the traffic databases was a splendid sign. He'd still want to get the registry changed at his next stop, though, so he went over the map, thinking about which systems he'd be able to head for.
By now, he knew he'd be able to spend more time on-planet without the authorities breathing down his neck. Clapeyron wasn't too far away, and if he spent the night there, he'd probably be able to spend it with Jasper, the strapping young fox who worked for the planet's ecological maintenance ministry--and who had a lovely habit of making breakfast whenever Dalrent did pay him a visit.
Of course, Eliezer's Star was close by, too, and while the colony there was something of a pit (and while he had at least two warrants for his arrest still on the books, there), there was the distinct advantage of being able to call on either Julian the ermine dancer or Merribelle, the tigress mechanic from the local militia base. Possibly, if Dalrent played his cards right and got enough alcohol into the mix, he might be able to finagle both.
While the idea of a slender ermine and/or a tigress was certainly appealing, it was the thought of a warm, homemade breakfast that finally convinced Dalrent to enter a course for Clapeyron.
In the meantime, the coyote could relax, daydream, and go about thinking up a new name for this splendid new vessel he'd nabbed himself.