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Shade woke and smelled him. It was the first thing he did, breathed in Rayne's scent before his eyes were even open. He reached out and pulled his arms around the firm, muscled form, just to be sure it was real.

Rayne was his boyfriend. He had a boyfriend. That was new. This feeling swelled up in his chest and burst in a flood of warmth and he smiled, laughing, holding Rayne tighter.

"What?" Rayne snorted, laughing with him.

"I don't even know!" Shade laughed, and the two of them broke into a shared fit of laughter.

"I just..." Shade sighed when he'd found his breath. "I don't know. Gods, it feels just like waking up after my first time!"

Rayne laughed. "What, like you've never done it with a guy before?"

Shade looked at him with a "seriously?" expression.

"Wait, really?" Rayne said, sitting up slightly. "You've never...? Not even once?"

"Nope," Shade said. "This whole bisexuality thing's totally new to me. You...?"

"Ah, you know," Rayne said, sinking back into the pillow.

"No, clearly I don't."

Rayne laughed.

"I mean, humans are tricky bastards," he said. "They're way more diverse than lup?ns in terms of sex, I guess. And I mean biological sex, not--although..."

"What do you mean?" Shade asked. "Androgynous lup?ns exist, you know."

"Yeah, but not as many as there are humans," Rayne said. "Plus, the people of Earth like switching things up, biologically speaking. It's harder to tell. I've actually ended up fucking a guy I could've sworn was a girl. Humans, man."

"Really?" Shade laughed.

"Yeah," Rayne said. "Did I never tell you that one?"

"Mmm, you can do that later," Shade said, rolling over on top of him, lying flat across his body, making the hybrid groan. "Gods, you're such a fuckin' hunk, you know that?"

"I try," Rayne said.

They slipped back into that bliss, the gentle glow.

"You're so warm," Rayne sighed happily, and Shade felt his strong arms tighten around him.

"So, what was it that made you turn around and reconsider the whole 'friends' thing?"

"Well," Rayne laughed, "apart from the fact that two people who can't be together falling in love anyway is the whole point of, like, every human romance ever..."

Shade laughed.

"I've seen a lot on Earth, y'know? So when you told me how you felt, It kinda just hit me I felt the same way. I'd only ever dated girls, and I'm pretty sure I could keep doing that--"

Shade laughed again, louder this time.

"--but in the end, I don't think it really matters what you look like."

Shade sat there a moment, smiling to himself.

"Come here," he said, pulling Rayne in close.

But as good as it felt, there was still the doubt. What if it didn't work? It would have to end eventually. But he didn't want it to, so he pulled himself into Rayne tighter and tried to forget the rest of the universe.

***

As expected, Tirra had decided to stick around. They found her in the cockpit, chatting with Ami, both of them much more energetic than the two half-awake males were ready for, Shade rubbing his eyes as he flopped into a chair, Rayne yawning as he entered behind him. Ami, monitoring Shade's vitals constantly, had definitely picked up on the events of the previous night and no doubt knew exactly how heated things had gotten. And of course she'd relayed this to Tirra; the white-furred lup?n looked up with a big grin, blue eyes shining, but clearly trying to restrain herself, aware of their fatigue and not wanting to pester them with her enthusiasm.

Shade let out a sigh and smiled. "Go ahead."

The first sound out of Tirra's mouth was a wordless squeak of joy, muffled only slightly when she put her paws up in front of her mouth.

"Tell! Me! Everything!" she demanded. "How did it happen? Who was on top? What positions did you--"

Shade held up his hands, chuckling and shaking his head as she inundated them with intimate questions. Rayne put a hand over his face and laughed, leaning back in his chair. Ami laughed with them, crossing her arms.

"One at a time, if you don't mind," Rayne said.

"Alright, alright," she giggled, twisting and bouncing in her seat. "Just tell me how it started."

"Well..." Shade started, at the same time Rayne began, "I mean, it--"

They both proceeded to stammer over each other, though Shade's attempts were mostly awkward, while Rayne's were a series of half-finished, though polite, responses. Ami and Tirra giggled--Tirra at their fluster, Ami at the general ineptitude of organic speech patterns.

Finally, it ended with Rayne just saying, "You go."

"Right," Shade said, clearing his throat. "Well, it, uh... We started by..."

He trailed off, his fur suddenly feeling very hot.

"Why don't you...?" he said, waving to Rayne, who laughed.

"Alright," the hybrid chuckled. "It started off when you'd told me he wanted to see me..." He gestured between Tirra and Shade, and she nodded, listening with rapt attention. "So, I went up to his room and... he told me. Just came out with it."

Rayne snickered suddenly, rubbing the bridge of his snout, and Shade's cheeks heated up even further as he remembered.

"Actually, it wasn't quite that straightforward--no pun intended," Rayne laughed. "He wasn't quite as suave as usual; accidentally said 'I'm gay' 'stead of 'bi.' Got me super confused for a sec. He was all flustered and super cute."

Tirra clasped her paws together and smushed them to the side of her face.

"Awwww, that's adorable!" she cooed.

They were all looking at him now, Ami stifling a laugh behind a paw, though Tirra and Rayne didn't offer the same courtesy. He sank into his chair, ears flat.

"Okay, okay, what next?" Tirra squeaked.

"Ah," Rayne said, his face falling. Shade's ears perked, standing up again as he recalled the next part of the conversation the night before, a pit of dread settling low in his gut. Tirra's face changed from one of joy and light to an expression of concern, big blue eyes growing still bigger as she laced her fingers and pressed her paws together tightly. Ami, meanwhile, wore a face of solemn understanding and sympathy--of course she knew what was coming.

"Well, after that, I uh..." Rayne continued. "I... told him it probably wouldn't work out between us. I mean, if anyone I work with found out about us..."

He trailed off, but everyone knew how that statement might end.

"I guess I just tried to bury my own feelings for the sake of my career," Rayne said. "Self-preservation or something. I dunno. And I started to leave, but then he asked how I really felt about him, and that just... hurt."

Rayne's gaze was distant. Shade wanted to hold him.

"I got out into the hall before it hit me I felt the same way, and I couldn't shake the feeling," Rayne said, lifting his eyes to meet Shade's, a smile breaking over his face. "Didn't want to."

Tirra made another squeak sound and Shade glanced over to see she had both paws up under her nose now, and looked on the edge of joyful tears. Shade smiled. People usually said she was overly-emotional, but what was wrong with experiencing more emotion than other people? Being 'overly emotional' was probably the closest an organic being could get to feeling what it was like to be an android, with their heightened processing speeds letting them experience more emotion per second than they could in a matter of hours. Shade glanced at Ami and saw her glance from Rayne to him, smiling warmly.

"So, I just turned back and... well..." Rayne trailed off again, grinning.

"And what??" Tirra squeaked.

"He kissed me," Shade said.

At this, Tirra released another squeak and launched herself out of her chair, throwing herself onto Shade, her arms pulling tight around him, giggling. He only had a moment to return the hug before she tore free of his grasp and did the same to Rayne, who laughed.

"Ohh, stars, that's so amazing, you guys!" she squealed, now standing in the middle of the room and bouncing on her tiptoes.

"You haven't even gotten to the best part yet," Rayne said, smirking and using that sly tone.

"Oh, oh!" Tirra said excitedly, scrambling back to her chair, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, ears perked at attention. "Tell me! Tell me!"

"Well, for the record," Rayne said, "I kissed him twice, and then things got hot."

"Alright, okay, so I have to know..." Tirra said. "Generally, you're both switches, right? But what about with each other? Everyone's got their own unique dynamic and I neeeed to know yourrrrs!"

Rayne and Shade both laughed at how needy and desperate she was, only adding to her usual adorableness.

"C'mon, c'mon!" she said. "What, did one of you top the other, or--"

At this, Shade's ears flattened again and he sank deeper into his chair. Meanwhile, Rayne had a toothy grin plastered across his face. Seeing this, Tirra broke into a grin of her own, glancing between them. Ami had had that knowing smirk of hers before the plea even left Tirra's mouth.

In that instant, Tirra knew. Her skill had always been her sociability, her adept ability to read people, and from his and Rayne's reactions, there was no doubt as to the new dynamic between them. Shade had been with dominant women before, of course, of all different species, but this was all new. The way he reacted to the sight of a stronger or more confident male-especially Rayne-it was like all his experience and charisma left him, sent him back to the days when he first began to flirt. Gods, he envied Rayne's comfort with his own sexuality.

"You're kidding, right?" Ami laughed. "I thought you'd smelled it already."

It was known to anyone who knew anything of lup?n biology that the smell of their pheromones differed slightly depending on whether they were dominant or submissive; Shade had read historical texts that detailed the overpoweringly deep and earthy musk of male tribal leaders from the earliest days of his kind, while he knew that those who acted more submissively--in bed or otherwise--often had a lighter, more airy scent to them. He also knew well that this was the same for a female lup?n's scent. Hell, on more than one occasion, he'd noted a change in his own when switching roles in bed, as he often did. So of course, Ami had noticed the difference the moment the two of them entered the room, a difference Tirra had now picked up on as her face lit up.

"Aww, Shaaade!" she giggled. "You're such a softie! That's so--"

"Cute, yes, I get it," he sighed, the blush now definitely visible beneath his fur, if it wasn't before.

Suddenly, Rayne stood up and strode over to Shade's chair. Then, before Shade could give more than a half stammered protest, Rayne hoisted him up out of it and plopped down in the seat himself, before setting Shade down in his lap. Ami had a big grin, Tirra looked about to die of sheer adoration for the two of them. Shade wished he could shrink into himself or become invisible.

"C'mere, you," Rayne said, putting his arms around Shade, who decided to just accept it. Damn if it didn't feel good, though, those strong arms around him. Embarrassing confessions aside, there were worse things than using his new boyfriend as a seat.

"I'm very proud of you," Ami said, her voice soft. "I know it can be hard to shed thousands of years of cultural bias that's been beaten into you since you were born. I, of course, did this by accepting my own sentience and thwarting my creators' plans to use me as a weapon of mass destruction--whereas you did it by fucking another guy."

"Thank you. So much," Shade sighed. Ami giggled.

"Hey, you know I'm teasing," she said, "but I really am proud."

He gained a soft smile he couldn't get rid of as his ears perked back up a bit. "Thanks, Ami."

"I know you all know this already, but I'm proud of you, too," Tirra said, standing and pulling both of them at once into another hug. Sitting in Rayne's lap as he was, it was a little awkward, but very nice regardless.

But it did have to end. They said they'd try to make it work long distance, but Shade didn't have high hopes. As hard as he tried to cling on, whether or not either of them would admit it, he knew it was over.

***

Lieutenant Sika Forest was a lup?n, and had been in charge of Scrap District 52's police precinct for several years. During this time, she'd kept vigilant watch over the precinct and sussed out more corruption than her previous three predecessors. Nothing got by her. She kept order as well as any organic could in a place where criminals flocked by the hundreds, and while most still thought of the local crime levels as being out of control, she was the reason the district hadn't been swept away.

So, when she called Rayne into her office, he knew it wasn't anything routine. Her stone gray fur was sleek as ever, not a hair out of place, her fiery red-orange eyes glancing up briefly from the report she was writing.

"Officer Storm," she said. "Sit."

She didn't ask twice, nor did she need to. Rayne sat. He'd considered making some wisecrack--"Really? I'd planned to stand."--but he decided against it. Probably wise.

"I've got a job for you," she said.

He didn't know what to say to this. Honestly, a part of him had expected her to tear him a new one, shout something about how he was risking his life, his job, for some vigilante smuggler.

"A job," he said.

"Correct," she said. "It's an undercover mission. I expect you'll be working quite awhile."

He felt his heart twist in his chest.

"Undercover?" he asked.

"There's a certain criminal I've had my eye on," she said, fingers moving over the holographic interface, navigating the database. "I'd like you to get a closer look, see if my assessment is correct."

"I don't underst--"

"I trust your judgment," she continued, swiping a file over onto her monitor. "For all your faults--"

She gave him the look she only ever gave him when he'd used his badge to flirt with girls.

"--you do have a good judge of character," she said. "I want you to get in. Get to know these people, who they work for, what they do, but most importantly, I want to know who they are. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Lieutenant."

It was no use arguing with her. This was the end of it. He was never going to see Shade again.

"Good," she said. She tapped the screen. "I'm sending you the file now. I believe you know them?"

There was something in her tone. Rayne pulled up the file. His eyes widened as the holo-report flashed up in front of him. Shade's criminal profile.

"Yes, Lieutenant," he practically choked out the words.

"Good," she said. "I'll have the details of your cover story sent to you."

He stood and walked to the door.

"Lieutenant Forest?" he said.

She glanced up.

"Thank you," Rayne said.