A Traitor's Redemption

Story by Kooshmeister on SoFurry

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Bartholomew Cryer finds love and forgiveness.


This is my first Bucky O'Hare fan fiction, erotic or otherwise, that focuses entirely on one of my self-created characters. Cryer is a character I RPed as for a brief period, a hare who was a traitor to his own people, and this story is supposed to be what became of him after he disappeared from the storyline he appeared in in the RP. It's also my second try at a heterosexual relationship, and my attempt to do a story about a small guy and a large (as in tall and muscular) female getting together. Up until now I'd just used canon characters from the show, so let's see how I'll do with an entirely original one, shall we?

Bartholomew Cryer is copyright....me! Ha! I made a funny.

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It was all Edmund Rusk's fault. Cryer was stuck here on this worthless, filthy planet, and it was all that fat, stupid Rusk's fault. If he wasn't already dead, he would've hunted him down and killed him by now.

Planet Sludge was one of the worst possible places in the Aniverse that anyone could live. The planet was, originally, as pristine as you could hope for, until it started to be used as a sort of universal trash dump. This polluted the atmosphere something terrible, causing the world to have perpetual grey skies filled with rolling black clouds. So not only was it just a generally nasty planet to be on, it was a depressing one, too. However the denizens of the Aniverse soon found another use for Sludge. Because so many different worlds used it as their garbage dump, it was considered, by and large, neutral territory. As a result, many criminals, spies and other fugitives from justice found that Sludge was an ideal place to hide out. The planet's natural unpleasantness also deterred anyone from coming to try and catch them. Non-criminals soon found the planet tempting as well. As a result, Sludge soon grew from a typical garbage planet into a sparsely populated world, and it was decided by most of the planets who dumped their trash there that since Sludge was now officially inhabited by colonists, even if most of them were criminals, continuing to dump their refuse there wasn't viable.

So the trash dumpings stopped, but what had already been dumped remained, and the planet's atmosphere remained ruined. Cities sprung up, built on top of the dumps or in amongst them. In particular, Sludge quickly became a favorite place for less than ethical corporations to build their smoke-belching factories; no one would complain with the planet already in such a dire state. In the space of but a few years, Sludge became as bustling and busy as any world.

So, following his banishment from Warren, it was to Sludge that Bartholomew Cryer had come. He was living in a dingy, three-room apartment, typical of most dwellings on Sludge. His hatred of uncleanliness and germs notwithstanding, the wiry brown hare hadn't had much of a choice in the matter. Sludge, as repulsive as it was, was the only safe haven for him in the entire Aniverse. If he returned to Warren anytime soon, he'd be killed. Bucky O'Hare had made that perfectly clear. Traitors like him were usually killed on sight by the angry masses, but O'Hare had been merciful and let him go. So, after stealing a spaceship, Cryer had fled to Sludge. He'd managed to find a relatively gullible and inexperienced junk dealer, to whom he sold his ship for twice as much as it was worth. Combined with the money he'd taken with him when he left Warren, which had comprised his entire life's savings, Cryer had become, more or less, well-off financially.

Emotionally was another matter. He found that, as with most mornings, he did not want to leave his apartment. Getting out of bed was no problem. He disliked laying in bed all the time, because it brought up unpleasant memories of his childhood, when he'd been bedridden for months on end with all sorts of illnesses. But actually stepping outside his apartment was something he found intensely difficult to do. Part of it was due to Cryer's germaphobia. Cryer used half of the money to buy the crummy apartment he was now living in, and while certainly messy, he'd spent a lot of time getting it as clean as he possibly could, so that it was considerably more pleasant than the rest of the building, as well as the rest of the entire town, and he would've been happy to stay locked up inside it forever rather than venture out in the chaotic and dirty world beyond the apartment building.

But a variety of things made him leave, day after day, despite his nagging phobias. Boredom was one. Simply pacing back and forth in the tiny apartment and reading the same books over and over got old really quickly. Necessity was another. Cryer needed to buy things, such as food, and his job also required that he leave his apartment, although it didn't actually necessitate that he leave the building, as that job was as the building's resident Mr. Fixit. Back on Warren, when he was in the Home Guard, Cryer had, along with his late companion Rusk, served as an engineer, and his knowledge of how things worked served him well in his new life here on Sludge. Thankfully, though, his schedule was clear for the day, and his fridge and pantry were stocked up, but the nagging boredom drove him to leave the apartment, as did the overwhelming urge to drown his troubles at the closest bar.

As for the other half of his money, one thing that was very plentiful on Sludge aside from garbage and factories was bars. Plenty of places to get drunk at. And getting drunk had pretty much become the only thing Bartholomew Cryer lived for anymore. He'd never been much of a drinker back home on Warren. His now ex-wife Celia had made sure of that. But once on Sludge Cryer had discovered that becoming intoxicated could really be a lot of fun, even if the next-day hangovers and sickness were a real bother. He'd become, pretty much, the ultimate barfly, his face, if not his name, known to most of the bartenders around town, and he'd racked up quite a tab at each of them, too. Getting drunk helped one forget, at least for a while. And Bartholomew Cryer had a lot that he wanted to forget.

It's all Rusk's fault, Cryer thought as he finally found the courage to leave the apartment. He was wearing his typical dark blue blazer and bluejeans. Mrs. Snagg, the loud and verbally abusive mole woman who lived down the hall, ambushed him and started complaining about her busted TV. In no mood to deal with her today, Cryer angrily brushed her off, promising to get to the TV tomorrow, and continued on his way.

As he left the building and walked to Talia's, Cryer, as he often did, ruminated on his past. It helped get him all worked up to drink. The faster he got drunk, the better. He and Edmund Rusk had been secretly contacted by the toads, and promised a lot of money and power if they would betray the other hares and sabotage Warren's defense grid, at whose control station they worked as engineers. Lieutenant Cryer, in particular, was the Officer of Engineers. The toads seemed to pick them, specifically, because Rusk was greedy and impulsive and would agree right away, while Cryer....well, Cryer wasn't sure why they'd chosen him. Maybe it was due to his open, and often commented-upon, dislike of Captain Bucky O'Hare. But simply hating Bucky wouldn't have led Cryer to betray his people on its own. It'd taken a lot of pestering and convincing on Rusk's part, and Cryer, not knowing how to properly deal with peer pressure, had allowed Rusk to talk him into it.

It'd been a disaster. Not for the toads, of course. They got what they wanted and conquered the planet, but Rusk and Cryer's treachery was soon revealed, and retribution was swiftly brought about. Rusk had fought. A big mistake on his part, as it'd led to him having his head all but taken off by a shot from Deadeye Duck's blaster. Cryer had surrendered, and, in his fear from seeing Rusk's death, broke down and had begged for mercy. More than anything else, he hated himself for being so weak that he'd grovelled for his life like a worm. Remarkably, Bucky had let him live, and told him to leave Warren and never return. He had.

Cryer sighed deeply as he arrived at Talia's. It was a bar a few blocks away from his apartment building. It wasn't the closest. There were at least two joints a lot closer to his building than this one, but Talia's was, at least in Cryer's opinion, the nicest of the bars he'd frequented, and as a result it was the one he kept coming back to the most. It was as clean as a place on this planet could be, and brightly lit, unlike the grungy, dim bars that were closer to his home.

The bar was owned and operated by Talia Lizzardi, a very large dark green female alligator. She had shoulder-length brown hair that she usually kept tied back in a sort of ponytail. She was quite large, even for an alligator, but not large as in fat. Far from it. Talia was actually quite muscular. Not insanely so, like those weird female bodybuilding competitions Cryer had seen from time to time. It was just obvious she'd worked hard her entire life and had a very fit body as a result. Cryer liked her a lot and, although he didn't know it, the feeling was more than mutual. Initially it hadn't been. When Cryer first came into the almost exclusively reptilian bar, he'd been indifferent towards Talia and she distrustful of him. Mammals didn't generally like reptiles, more-so than even reptiles disliked mammals. However Cryer's soft-spoken, quiet and shy nature soon made a nice change of pace from the loud and rowdy customers that usually frequented the establishment.

"Hi, Tal," he said as he came in, taking off his jacket and hanging it on the coat rack by the door.

"Mornin'," she said. Like most alligators she seemed to have a Southern accent, although her wasn't as strong as, say, Al Negator. When she spoke it was almost always as a very smooth purr that Cryer, against his will, found alluring.

He had a seat at the very end of the bar farthest from the door, his usual spot. She came over with a bottle of Swamp Grass. Although normally drunk only by reptiles and waterfowl, Cryer had tried it once and liked it enough that he had begun ordering almost nothing but that since coming here. This was something else that made Talia like Cryer; his seeming shunning of his own culture and his apparent desire to immerse himself into a non-mammal one. She set an empty drinking glass in front of him. "The usual stuff?" she asked, poised with the bottle over the glass.

"Sure," he said.

She poured the dark brownish green, vaguely scummy-looking liquid into the glass, watching him. He rarely, if ever, made eye contact with her, preferring to keep his eyes downcast or glance off in another direction when speaking to her. The fact he did this with almost everyone else he spoke to is what made her stop finding it rude. Clearly, she thought, here was a man with a lot on his mind who preferred not to talk about it, and who also preferred to keep to himself because of it. Nevertheless, as she did almost every time he came in, she said, "You look like a man with a lot weighin' down on him" as she finished pouring when the glass was half full.

He chuckled, picking up the glass and swishing the drink around it, watching the liquid, not looking up at her as he spoke. "You're very observant," he said. This was his usually response. That or something akin to it.

Talia put the cork back in the bottle and smiled warmly, even though he wasn't looking at her. "Want to talk about it?" she asked. She knew what he was going to say, but asked anyway. And she would keep asking until he told her. She found him interesting; he was the closest thing her bar had ever had to one of those stereotypical tall dark strangers with a mysterious past.

He waited a moment before replying. He took a sip of the Swamp Grass, and grimaced. It tasted bitter, but he still enjoyed drinking it due to its high alcohol content. And why wouldn't it have so much in it? It was a drink invented by pirates. "No," he said finally after he finished swallowing.

Although disappointed, Talia didn't show it as she turned and walked off to put the bottle away, before going to serve some more customers who came in. She didn't put it very far. She knew that he'd order a refill once he was done with his first glass. He was a heavy drinker. It was one of the reasons she figured he had some dark secret. No man, hare or otherwise, who was skinny as he was could be such a heavy drinker on a regular basis unless they were drinking to forget. Either he did something terrible, or had something terrible happen to him, and considering the type of people who came to Sludge to escape from the law it wouldn't surprise her one little bit if Cryer turned out to be a murderer or something when, and if, he finally divulged his secret.

He finished his first glass in another few quick gulps, then set the empty glass back down. He took a deep breath, and after a moment said, rather timidly, "Uh, could I have another?"

She came over with the bottle and poured him a second glass. It was like a weird little ritual with him. No matter how many times he'd been in her bar, Cryer always asked for seconds like he was scared to death she was going to eat his head. His nervousness only made her like him more for some reason. Talia was the kind of woman who liked weak men. She liked the idea of being a rock in a stormy sea for a desperate man to cling to for comfort. And on Planet Sludge there was a severe shortage of guys like that. If they weren't manly he-man man's men types then they pretended to be, but not Cryer. He was openly submissive and timid. If she could just get him to open up....

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The day wore on. Since it was a weekend it meant Cryer would be in there all day. He only ever got up to stretch his legs or go to the bathroom, then he always came right back to the bar. He supplemented his alcohol intake by munching on peanuts and pretzels. Every so often, he would bury his head in his arms and silently cry. This was because he wasn't drunk enough yet to completely shirk his painful memories, and his inebriation made him lose control of his emotions. Talia had learned not to bother him while he was like this, so she just left him alone, and encouraged everyone else who asked about the sobbing hare to do the same.

Lou Skeggs, a big gecko, was another regular customer who had a distinct lack of tact. He always bothered Talia about her warmblooded customer, asking her what his deal was. He was always disappointed when she told him she didn't know, and constantly entertained the idea of flat-out asking Cryer what the problem was. Talia had always told him not to, but today his curiosity had gotten the better of him it seemed. He went over and sat down right next to Cryer. Cryer ignored him.

"Hey, long-ears," he said. Even as Talia was opening her mouth to say something, Skeggs continued, "what's your problem anyway? Why are you always in here cryin' like a little girl? What are you even doin' in a reptile bar, anyway?"

"Because," Cryer said, turning finally to look at him, "I may as well be a reptile after what I did..."

"You sayin' we reptiles are prone to causin' trouble?" Skeggs snarled, getting angry.

Cryer looked away. "No," he said, "I didn't mean that..."

"Lou, leave him alone," Talia said.

Skeggs looked over at her, than back to Cryer. "You better watch yourself, rabbit," he said, then got up and went back to his usual spot.

After a few more beers, though, his tears dried up and became blissfully drunk. By the time the sun was starting to set, Cryer had already reached his limit. He was so drunk he could barely sit up straight, so he just sort of slumped over the counter-top with his half-drunk glass in one hand. Talia, busy with some other, rowdier customers, kept an eye on him throughout the day, waiting for any signs that he had had enough. That sign came when, shortly after reaching this state of intoxication, he found that he was having trouble getting the rim of his glass to his mouth, slopping the drink around onto the bar-top.

Excusing herself from the other customers, she came over and gingerly took the glass from Cryer's hand, and he made a small, disappointed sound. "I think you've hit your limit for the day, hon," she said.

"Okay," he said, then hiccuped. He'd learned not to argue with her, and even in his drunken state knew she could, and would, deck him to keep him away from the booze if she had to. He grabbed the last remaining handful of pretzels from the bowl in front of him and crammed them into his mouth, bulging out his cheeks, and chewed them slowly and noisily. He uttered a suppressed belch as he did so, causing a couple of chewed-up pretzel bits to fall out of his mouth, then finished chewing and swallowed with some effort. It took him three swallows to get the entire mouthful down, after which he belched again.

"Get on home," she told him. Then, for a change, she tested the waters by saying, "I'm sure you've got a girl who's wonderin' where her boyfriend is."

As he dug into his pants pocket for his wallet, Cryer looked up at her, blinking slowly, one eyebrow raised. "No," he said, "not really." He hiccuped again, managing to get his wallet out. "Not unless you mean Mrs. Snagg who's always after me to fix her television set!" He laughed, once, then took out his money and paid for the drinks. Getting up, he tried to put the wallet back into the pocket, but had some difficulty doing so, amusing everyone, including Talia, by turning around in circles, like a dog chasing its tail, trying to get wallet back into its pocket. Finally, grumbling, he stuffed the entire thing down the front of his pants.

He then turned and walked out of the bar as soberly as he could, bonking into the door-frame on the way out, completely forgetting about his coat. Talia stroked her chin thoughtfully. So, she thought, he didn't have a girlfriend? She could change that. Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she watched Lou Skeggs get up from his seat after tossing down a couple of simoleans, and leave the bar. He went in the same direction as Cryer. This wasn't good, she knew.

Outside, Cryer staggered down the street. Because of all the smog blocking out the sun, Sludge tended to get very cold in the evenings, and dropped to near-freezing temperatures at night. He shivered, wondering idly why so many reptiles came to this planet if it got so cold, but then he figured they must all have heaters in their homes and places of business. Indeed, heating systems were as cheap and plentiful on Sludge as light bulbs on most other worlds. The further he went the colder he got, but he didn't feel like going all the way back to Talia's to get his coat, and in fact in his drunken stupor he hardly even seemed to remember how to get back there even if he wanted to. About the only thing he recognized was the familiar path to his apartment building.

As he sometimes did on these long walks back home, Cryer suddenly felt the last several drinks suddenly threatening to come back up. Covering his mouth, not wanting to toss his cookies right there on the sidewalk in plain sight, he turned and managed to run into the nearest alley where he collapsed to his knees, braced himself, and began trying to vomit. However, he only dry-heaved and coughed up a few half-digested pretzel bits, gagging loudly. When he finally stopped, he stood with some effort, wiping away the drool with with the back of his hand.

His business in the alley wasn't finished yet, though, as he suddenly felt the urge to urinate. Going over to the wall, he unzipped his pants, and his wallet fell out, having been accidentally shoved out by a lazy erection brought on by his intoxicated state. Not wanting to piss on it, he bent over to pick the wallet up, and banged his head on the wall. "Ow!" he yelled, and staggered back a bit, holding his ringing head, and then realized that he'd had to go so badly that he'd already begun peeing. He watched, horrified and frozen in place as his piss landed right on his wallet. Sighing, he just decided to go with it, and leaned against the wall with both hands, and peed.

When he was done, he stuffed his dick back inside his pants and zipped up, and yelped as he got himself caught in his zipper. "Oooow!" he squealed. He grabbed his injured genitals and cupped them gingerly, whimpering. "Oh, oh mommy," he whimpered, then gently grabbed the zipper and began trying to pull it back down, but it was stuck. He gasped in agony. He was gonna be here a while.

He suddenly felt the barrel of a maser pistol pressed against the back of his head and froze. "Havin' some trouble rabbit?" a voice said. It was Lou Skeggs. Skeggs looked over his shoulder and down at his crotch, then chuckled darkly. "Caught in your zipper, I see? That's painful. But I got juuuuuust the right cure for an achin' cock," he continued, and pressed the muzzle of the pistol harder into the back of Cryer's already aching skull.

If Cryer hadn't already relieved himself, he would've urinated in terror, despite having his dick caught in his zipper. He opened his mouth to say something, but only a small burp came out. He coughed, then managed to whimper, "Why are you doing this....?"

"Because," Skeggs said, stepping back and keeping the pistol aimed at the hare's head. "I don't like no mammals comin' into my favorite haunt and stinkin' up the joint."

On the verge of tears, Cryer painfully fell to his knees and ducked his head, covering it with his hands, shuddering in fear. Skeggs scowled at this display of cowardice and took aim, but before he could fire, a deep feminine voice came from his right.

"Lou, you forgot to leave a tip..." Talia said as she walked into the alley.

Skeggs turned, wide-eyed, and was greeted with a fist right in the snout. He dropped the gun and went stumbled backwards, falling flat on his back. He was suddenly seized by the front of his shirt, and Talia lifted the gecko bodily over her head, holding him up in the air long enough for him to kick and scream for a moment, then turned and with a powerful pile-drive dunked him into the nearest trashcan, overflowing with garbage.

Letting go of him she stepped back and dusted her hands off, smirking as she watched his kicking feet and tail tip sticking out of the top of the garbage. "I've been waitin' for an excuse to stuff you in there, Lou," she said, and sighed.

Skeggs could only respond with fierce feet kicks and angry, muffled "Mmmph-rrrrmmmmph!" noises.

Ignoring him, she turned and picked up the discarded maser pistol, and unslung Cryer's jacket from her shoulder. Cryer, for his part, hadn't moved and didn't even seem aware that he'd been rescued. Talia knelt down and draped his jacket over his shoulders gently. "Huh?" he said, and dared to look up, but instead of the barrel of Lou Skeggs' gun he saw, instead, the snout of Talia the bar owner, and his eyes travelled slowly up to meet hers for the first time in months. He swallowed a lump in his throat and blinked stupidly.

"Hi," she said softly. "You forgot your jacket."

She helped him stand and he winced, causing her to notice he was caught in his zipper. She had him sit back down and her hands went for the zipper. His tried to keep them away, but her bigger ones casually brushed his aside. "Relax," she said. "This'll hurt a lot less if you just calm down."

He nodded. "Where's, uh--?"

"Lou?" she said without looking up, focusing on the zipper. "Oh, I just put him back where he belonged." This was going to be a bit difficult. Gently, she took the zipper's tab between thumb and forefinger, then yanked it down suddenly. Cryer's whole body jerked and he cried aloud in pain, but he was free now, and Talia smiled and stood back up to let him zip back up as his leisure.

"Ohhhh, oh thank you," he said, panting. Shaking, he tucked his penis back into his pants, and zipped up more carefully this time. Talia smirked, watching all of it. She then helped him stand, and he put his jacket on, then, remembering his wallet, went and stooped down, mindful of the wall this time, and picked it up between his fingers, grimacing as piss dripped off it. He shook it dry as he he could, then put it into his coat pocket.

"So," Talia said, walking with him out of the alley, "where to now?"

"Well, I dunno about you, but I'm going home," Cryer replied. Then, suddenly, he was seized by the urge to vomit again, and ran back into the alley, covering his mouth, his cheeks bulging.

Talia blinked, standing there on the sidewalk. She heard loud gagging and retching sounds, then nothing. A minute or so went by and, suddenly worried about him, she walked back to the alley and found Cryer lying on his back alongside a puddle of revisited beer and pretzels. He was visibly breathing, but clearly passed out. She shook her head and smiled. "Some men just can't hold their booze," she said to herself, tucking Skeggs' pistol into the waistband of her jeans, then stooped down, taking Cryer by the wrist and waist, and lifted him up, draping his limp form over her shoulder without much effort.

Since she didn't know where he lived and waking him up in this state was going to be next to impossible, Talia decided she might as well take him home with her. She lived in the opposite direction from the bar. As she passed it going home, she ran into Eddie, the chubby anole who served as her assistant barkeep of sorts. He was shooing the last few customers out and closing up for the night, just like she'd asked him to do when she had gone after Skeggs.

Talia stopped, wanting to let him know everything was okay, but he didn't seem to notice her until he was finished locking the door and almost ran into her as he turned around to head home. "Whoa!" he said. "Oh, Talia, it's just you."

"Hi, Eddie," she said with a smirk.

Eddie looked at the unconscious hare she was carrying. "That him? Dang, what'd Lou do to him?"

Talia adjusted Cryer's form on her shoulder to make carrying him a little more comfortable. "Nothin'," she replied. "He's just passed out 'cause he had too much to drink as usual. And if you're lookin' for Lou, he's face-down in a trashcan a few blocks from here."

Eddie laughed. Like her, he didn't like Lou Skeggs much, considering him a bully and a pest of the highest order, and only the maser pistol he toted around as a kind of half-assed status symbol had prevented Eddie from telling the mean-spirited gecko to get out. The thought of Talia stuffing the hood into a garbage can was intensely amusing to him. "So, uh, what're you gonna do with him?" he asked, indicating Cryer.

"Well, since I haven't got the faintest idea of where he lives and I don't wanna spend all night tryin' to find it, I'm taking him home with me for the night. He ought to be okay and back to drowning whatever troubles he's got by tomorrow," Talia said.

"Aw, okay," said Eddie, then turned and began walking home. "G'night, Tal."

"Night, Eddie," Talia said back, then turned and continued on her way, earning a few stares from the various people, both mammal and reptile, she passed by, like they'd never seen a large alligator woman toting around an unconscious male hare before.

Talia's apartment was located in a building two blocks down from the bar. She'd saved up enough money to buy a larger apartment on the top floor and fix it up nice. She had come to Sludge as a child with her father, a counterfeiter. When she was a teenager he'd been killed by some rather disreputable individuals who he owed money to, but Talia was a smart girl. Even before her father's death she'd already been more or less living on her own, and she was capable of handling herself due to her daily workout regime that she still kept up even today. She carried Cryer upstairs and into the apartment, glad that her daughter, Lucy, was over at a friend's so she didn't need to be quiet coming in. Besides, Talia didn't want to have Lucy wake up and come out of her room to see her mother carrying some strange man into the house!

Lucy was eight, and already a bright, sweet young girl. Her father, a worthless sack of crap named Ricky O'Dile who'd slept with Talia once, was out of their lives already, having long since fled Sludge to avoid being killed by people he owed money to, ironically just like Talia's father. It seemed that most of the men in her life were always in some sort of trouble. Well, except for Eddie, but he was happily married and had several kids of his own.

Before she did anything else, Talia carried Cryer into the bedroom and set him down on the bed. Then, sighing, she went about her nightly routine of fixing dinner for herself, which went by quicker because Lucy wasn't there and she only had to make enough food for herself. When she was done, she did the dish and poked her head into the bedroom to find that Cryer was still asleep, but had rolled over onto his stomach while she was out of the room. She took a shower, another thing that was costly, as clean water wasn't cheap on Sludge, and then changed into her nightgown, with nothing on underneath it should be noted, and then went back into the bedroom. Cryer was still sleeping soundly. Although she'd decided she was going to sleep with him in the bed with her tonight, she didn't want him sleeping next to her in those clothes, which smelled of the alleyway.

Undressing him was a bit of a chore, but she managed. She tugged off his shoes and and socks, then got his pants, and then made him sit up, and took off his jacket and shirt. When she was done, Cryer was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. He was considerably skinnier than she'd imagined him to be. He looked very emaciated and bony, like he hadn't had a good meal in months. She could count his rib bones, for goodness' sake! But this didn't bother her at all. She didn't like overly muscular men, especially when she herself was already strong enough for the both of them. Smiling, she turned out the light, then came and moved Cryer around so should pull the covers out from him and then back over him. He woke up during this, muttered something, then fell back asleep, causing her to chuckle at just how drunk he was. When she was satisfied that he was all tucked in, Talia went around to her usual side of the bed and crawled in under the covers. For a while she just lay there, thinking, wondering if she should even be doing this. Taking him home with her wasn't a problem, but already dragging him into her bed, even if there wasn't any sex, was a big leap.

But he looked cute enough while he was sleeping that she decided she didn't mind, and then slowly drifted off to sleep.

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When he awoke the next morning, Bartholomew Cryer immediately knew something was different. He opened his eyes and realized at once he was not in his bedroom. He sat bolt upright in the bed, wide-eyed. The bed was empty except for himself and a small handwritten note on the other pillow. Blinking, he reached over and grabbed it, reading it. It said, "Gone to the store. Will be back soon. Watch out for Lucy!" This only confused him further. Who was Lucy? Who had written the note? Whose bed was he even in?! He looked around. The room was rather big and well-furnished, the bed he was in large enough for two more hares of his size and build.

He blinked, suddenly feeling a headache, wincing and clutching his head. No doubt a hangover brought on by last night's unusually overzealous drinking binge. Last night! His eyes widened again as he suddenly remembered Lou Skeggs cornering him in that alley, and then....what? He couldn't really remember what had happened after that. As he glanced towards the bedroom door, which was partially opened, he noticed, on a chair, his clothes! Pants, shirt, and jacket were draped over the back, shoes and socks on the seat cushion. Was he naked?! He lifted up the covers and looked down, thankful he still had his boxers on.

Getting out of bed, he hurriedly dressed and ventured out of the bedroom. The apartment was definitely larger than his. It was still obviously second-rate like everything else on Sludge. The floorboards looked rather old and the wallpaper was obviously put on fairly recently. He figured that whoever lived here had gone to some great expense to fix it up, and they clearly had more money than he did. As he rounded the corner and came into what he realized was the kitchen, he stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a young alligator girl, no older than about seven or eight, sitting at the table and in the process of eating a bowl of some kind of cereal. She took one look at him and screamed. Startled, he screamed, too, and she threw the cereal box at him. It hit him on the head, spilling bits of cereal everywhere, and then the skinny hare turned and fled back down the hallway into the bedroom, slamming the door shut and then sliding down into a sitting position against it, panting.

Meanwhile, Talia was coming up the stairs when she heard the screams and realizing that her daughter and her house guest must have unexpectedly bumped into one another, ran up the rest of the way and charged into the apartment to find Lucy in hysterics and screaming about a burglar. Setting down the grocery bags she had with her, Talia picked up her daughter and hugged her, comforting her, calming down, and did her best to explain that "Mr. Cryer" wasn't a burglar, but a friend of Mommy's who had spent the night. Lucy seemed a bit suspicious, but her mother's explanation of Cryer's presence in the house at least stopped her hysterics. She told Lucy to take the groceries into the kitchen, while she went and checked on Cryer. As she went, she heard Lucy rummaging around in one of the bags. "Yuck!" she said aloud. "Vegetables?"

"Those are for Mr. Cryer," Talia said over her shoulder. She called him "Mr. Cryer" both as a formality, because she didn't want her daughter thinking of him as "Mommy's boyfriend" just yet, and because she didn't actually know what his first name was. She found the bedroom door shut but unlocked, and opened it, walking in to find Cryer, fully dressed, trying to escape through the window. He'd only been able to open it a little ways and was now trying to squeezed through the opening, which was proving to be too narrow even for his skinny frame. "Hey," she said, startling him and walking over. "Where do you think you're going?"

She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back inside, all but flinging him onto the bed, then turned and shut the window. Cryer stammered nervously, "Uh, well, that little girl--"

"My daughter, Lucy," Talia corrected him, turning back to look at him, crossing her arms.

"Oh, uh, of course," he said. "Uh, anyway, she was yelling that I was a burglar and I didn't want to have a whole apartment building's worth of male alligators beating me up over a misunderstanding." He chuckled nervously, loosening his shirt collar.

Talia smiled, glad she'd gotten here when she did, because Cryer was absolutely right. Had Lucy continued screaming and woken up the entire building, every able-bodied man in the entire place would've come up here to her rescue, and Cryer would've wound up in the emergency ward of the closest sad excuse for a hospital, or worse. She helped him up off the bed, apologizing for being so rough with him, and explained to him she'd gone to the market. "I wanted to make you breakfast but all we have in the house is meat, which I'm pretty you don't really want to eat, so I went out and got some fresh vegetables," she said. After a pause, she added, "Or, at least as fresh as they can be on Sludge."

"Oh, uh--" Cryer started to say, but was then seized by the shoulders and steered out of the bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen, their feet crunching loudly on the spilled cereal bits, which Cryer could now see were apparently meat-based.

"Lucy, clean this up," Talia said as she made Cryer sit down at the table. But then, glancing at the clock, she said, "Wait, nevermind. It's time for you to go to school. Hurry or you'll miss your bus and I don't want you walking there by yourself! You can clean it up when you get home."

"Yes, Mommy," Lucy grumbled. She grabbed a pink and purple glitter-covered backpack and raced out of the apartment, yelling a good-bye to them as she went. The front door slammed.

Talia went to the grocery bags and began unpacking them. Cryer watched her. She took out come cabbages, lettuce, and carrots. Unconsciously, Cryer licked his lips, and felt his tummy rumbling. The vegetables looked very fresh, or at least fresher than the ones he often bought from that rude rat produce seller down the street from his own apartment building. It'd been a long time since he'd sunk his teeth into any really good fruits or vegetables, and his mouth was watering at the thought. He then felt that pounding in his head again and winced. "Hey," he said, "uh, you don't happen to have an aspirin, do you?"

"Sure," Talia said, pausing long enough to get a bottle of generic store-brand painkillers from the cabinet and hand them to Cryer, then she went back to unpacking. The remainder of the groceries were all things for herself and Lucy. These she put into the cabinets and fridge. The vegetables she left out, since Cryer was going to eat those right away.

Cryer opened the bottle of pills, put two in his mouth, and swallowed them down dry. He gagged a bit. They'd help, but he'd need to go and lie back down for a little while longer before the headache went away entirely. "Uh, I hate to bug you with stupid questions, but....what am I doing here?" he asked finally. "And why was I in my underwear in what I'm assuming was your bed?" He didn't sound at all angry, just confused.

Talia turned and smirked at him. "Well, after I stopped Lou Skeggs from killing you, you puked and passed out. I didn't know where you lived, and I couldn't wake you up. I certainly couldn't just leave you lying there, so I brought you home. As for your clothes, well, they smelled bad. They still do, you need to take them off so I can wash them for you." She then turned and put the lettuce on a cutting board and began using a large knife to dice it up into little pieces.

Cryer just sat there. The directness with which she'd told him to take off his clothes had left him momentarily speechless. Finally he said, "What? Right now?"

"Yes," Talia said, as if he'd asked a really stupid question. "You stink. You smell like sweat and booze. I'll wash them for you, and after breakfast you can have a shower. Now, strip!" She turned and pointed at him with the knife for emphasis.

Cryer flinched a little, and then got up as she turned back to her work. Finishing with the lettuce, she grabbed the cabbage and began to slice that up, too. Cryer sniffed under one arm. Ugh, he thought, she was right. He hurriedly stripped back down to his boxer shorts and set his clothes in the empty chair next to his, and then sat back down, feeling very exposed, his cheeks flushing hotly. "Thank you," he said after a bit. "Uh, I mean, for last night."

Now chopping up the carrots, Talia turned and smiled at him, her long tail lashing slowly. "You already thanked me, remember?" she said.

"I, uh, I thanked you for helping me get my, erm, zipper unstuck, I remember that much," Cryer said. "But I didn't thank you for saving my life. So....thank you." He smiled shyly.

Talia chuckled. "Right, right," she said. "Anyway, don't mention it. I just saw him go after you so I followed him and stopped him before he could kill you. I'd say anyone would've done the same but on this pathetic excuse for a world it's really doubtful." She finished cutting up the carrots, then put them, the lettuce and the cabbages into a bowl and brought it over to Cryer along with a fork for him to eat with. "Dig in," she said, smiling.

"Thanks," he said, and with any more ado, started shovelling the food into his mouth hungrily. "Mmm," he said with his mouth full, chewing noisily, "oh, this is delicious, Tal, thank you. You really didn't have to do this."

"Don't talk with your mouth full," she said, smirking at him, "and don't eat so fast or you'll make yourself sick. After the way you puked your guts out last I'd rather not have liquefied vegetables all over my nice clean kitchen floor."

Cryer nodded, slowing down in his eating, while she fixed herself a plate of what looked like some kind of meat. Cryer didn't want to know what it was. Although he hid it well, inwardly, carnivores made him really uneasy. But, he thought, his eating plants probably disgusted her just as much, so who was he to judge? Great, he thought, this coming from a guy who betrayed his entire planet because he'd been too nervous to tell his overbearing co-worker no and go report the guy for treasonous talk. Talia came over and sat down across from him and the two of them ate in silence, occasionally glancing up at one another, Talia more-so than Cryer. When they were finished, Talia put the dishes in the sink, then, puzzlingly, got a tall glass and began to mix a bunch of ingredients into it, making a fizzy, lumpy mixture, which she then set in front of Cryer.

"Drink that," she said, picking up his clothes.

"What is it?" Cryer asked, peering at it, flicking the rim of the glass with his finger testingly.

"Just a little home remedy I thought up on my own," she said. "It'll help settle your stomach."

Talia took a moment to search through Cryer's clothes for his wallet. Finding it in the jacket pocket, she set it on the table. She then carried the clothes from the kitchen, leaving Cryer alone. He stared at the glass for a moment, then picked it up and took a sip. It tasted like lime. Shrugging, he downed the entire thing in a couple more gulps, and felt it immediately going to work to soothe his uneasy stomach. It felt so good he actually leaned back in the chair and sighed, rubbing his tummy. This was how Talia found him upon returning, having put his clothes in her washing machine. She smiled, leaning against the door-frame and crossing her arms. He didn't seem to notice her, so wrapped up in the fizzy feeling in his tummy.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" she asked.

"Gah!" he said, jumping, and almost dropping the glass. He fumbled with it, but caught and carefully set it back down on the table.

"You sure are jumpy," she said, and then frowned. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Uh, Cryer," he said.

"No, your first name," Talia pressed.

Cryer scratched the back of his neck, then said, "Bartholomew."

Talia smiled. "That's a nice name," she said. "Very sophisticated and regal-sounding." She walked over and slapped him on the back. "Now then, shower time. The bathroom is just off the master bedroom. Get your little butt in there and wash up. You're going to smell nice when you leave here." She then went over and turned on the sink faucet, and started washing the dishes.

Cryer sat there for a moment, but by this point he knew better than to argue or ask for clarification. Talia wanted him to take a shower, no ifs, ands or buts. So, he rose and walked out of the kitchen, mindful to avoid stepping in the spilled cereal, and headed back down the hall to the bedroom. Entering, he saw a door to his left. Going to it and opening it, he flicked on the light and found a small but clean bathroom with a sink, toilet and walk-in shower, all obviously recently installed. Walking, in he closed the door, frowning as he discovered the lock was broken. Oh well, he though. She knows I'm in here. She won't barge in unexpectedly or anything. Walking to the shower, he slid open the opaque glass door, and blinked at how large it was. The bathroom wasn't small. At least, not originally. But when Talia had had the new shower installed she'd had it made twice as big as normal to accommodate her large size, with the end result that the shower took up over half the bathroom.

"Whoa," Cryer said, blinking.

He reached in and found the faucet, and turned the knobs to his liking. A little bit of hot water, and a bit of cold water. It made for very warm water, but not too hot, which he preferred. However the water still sent up steam in the cold air. He then slipped out of his boxers and set them aside on the closed lid of the toilet, and got inside, pulling the door shut. The water felt great on his body, which ached a bit from last night's roughhousing. The aspiring was helping with this in addition to his headache, but the cool feeling of the water soaking his fur helped to soothe away the rest. Remembering last night and how he'd been caught in his zipper, he glanced down, grabbing his flaccid penis and examining it. There was a little reddish spot on the end, just under the head, where the zipper had actually snagged, but it was nothing permanent. Looking around he noticed a bar of soap and some shampoo bottles. He grabbed the soap and started lathering up his fur.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Out in the kitchen, Talia finished washing the dishes and set them aside to dry. Turning the water off, she smiled as she could now hear the water running through the pipes. Yup, he was in the shower. She stood there for a moment, thinking again about how good she thought Bartholomew Cryer looked in spite of his extremely bony build, and how he was, to her, the perfect example of a man. A man who she could, lovingly, rule over, who'd let her be the boss of the relationship, and would need her more than she needed him. Cryer, with his shyness and nervousness, seemed to fit the bill. But did he think the same about her? She knew almost nothing about him. What if he was one of those inadequate males who felt the need to make up for their below-average bodies and lack of self-esteem by dating weaker girls? What if she, twice his height and build, intimidated him too much? Hell, what if he didn't even like the idea of making it with an alligator?

What if, what if, what! She shook her head, getting a grip on herself. She'd been uncertain about few things in her life, but always managed to come to the right decision no matter what. The fact remained that above all else, Bartholomew Cryer was unmarried and lacked a girlfriend by his own admission, and, more importantly, he seemed like a nice, polite man, on a planet that had a severe shortage of them. If she wanted a good man, she knew Bartholomew Cryer was that man. The fact she hardly knew him was inconsequential. She could get to know him, and he her. Both physically and emotionally. And if she wanted him, what better time to snag him than now, when she had just gotten done saving his life and going out of her way to make him feel at home in her apartment?

So, that was settled then. She wanted Cryer. But how to go about getting him? She pondered this, and, insanely, the thought of surprising him when he came out of the shower had occurred to her, and it made her giggle. But, why not? The skinny hare was so damn nervous and shy that it would be next to impossible to bring up the subject without making it awkward as hell. If she simply pounced him when he least expected it, the way nature had always intended for matings to occur, it wouldn't be awkward for long. His body would respond to what she did to him and he would give in. Such a thing might even open him up emotionally and made him more comfortable with her afterwards. And hell, Lucy was at school and would be gone all day so there was no need to worry about her daughter walking in on them accidentally. Sure, she thought, I'll go for it. I want him and I'm going to make him mine! Find out his dark secret, comfort him, and give him a shoulder to cry on.

Smirking, she began to undress, taking off her T-shirt. She was wearing a sports bra underneath which held back her modest breasts. This she began to take off as she left the kitchen and headed towards the bedroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Talia's shower was certainly nicer than his, Cryer observed. His, despite all his best efforts, had a rather unsettling mildew and fungus infestation. Although he wanted to get back to his own apartment as soon as possible, because that was where all his stuff was, Cryer felt an odd sense of contentment here. The apartment's cleanliness, and Talia's mothering him, made him feel good inside, the way that concoction she'd made him drink had made his upset stomach feel all fizzy and good. Besides, he thought, for an alligator, Talia was quite beautiful. He secretly had a thing for tough women and figured Talia was right up his alley, but had never said anything both due to his unwillingness to make any attachments here because of his past, and due to his understandable concern that his diminished body wouldn't seem at all appealing to her.

He'd finished soaping up his fur and rinsed all of the suds out by just letting the water cascade down over him. Once it was all gone, he reached over and grabbed one of the shampoo bottles so he could do his head fur. Before he could do more than pick it up, however, he heard the bathroom door open and close. He turned and looked, but the shower door was so fogged up by steam that he couldn't see anything. Suddenly he could see a large shape looming closer, a shadow in the shape of an alligator. It could only be Talia. What was she doing in here? Cryer wondered. Surely she knew he was in here!

"Uh, T-Talia?" he called out. There was no answer. The figure just beyond the shower door shifted a bit, doing something. He cleared his throat. "Um, I, uh, I'm in here. I don't want to sound rude of anything, but--" He froze as he suddenly saw, finally, what it was the figure was doing. The hands were at the hips, pushing down, and the body was making an unmistakable side-to-side motion. It was Talia, all right....and she was taking her clothes off! Cryer felt his heart start thudding in his chest rapidly. He felt a stirring in his loins and, sure enough, his flaccid cock began to rise a bit, and he quickly grabbed for it with both hands to push it back down and cover, and, to do so, he had to drop the shampoo bottle with landed on his foot, making him yelp in pain. "Owie!" he said, wincing.

He suddenly heard a soft, dull thump, followed by a low moan, and, turning, his eyes widened as he saw the figure of Talia was pressing itself up against the fogged-up glass. She was topless, at least, because he thought he could make out her nipples. After a moment, Talia leaned back again, and then there was a beat of total silence before the shower door was flung open, and the tall, buff alligator woman stood before the naked Cryer, completely nude herself. Cryer's jaw dropped. She was gorgeous. Her hair was down. He'd never seen her without her hair in a ponytail. Her body was fit and alluring as any woman's of any species. She wasn't too muscular or two thin, although her large size did make her appear more muscled than she actually was. She was certainly beefier than the bony little hare she now stood before, shaking and covering his nudity with his hands like a scared little boy.

"Talia!" he gasped.

Without a word, she stepped into the shower. Still covering himself, Cryer backed up until he thudded into the far wall. The shower was big enough to admit all of the massive alligator woman, but despite its size it was, really, only built to accommodate her, so that when she was fully inside, Cryer found himself more than a little crowded. Using her tail, Talia slammed the door shut. Cryer gulped, heart beating so fast he felt it would explode in his chest. If he thought she was beautiful before she got into the shower, she was even more breathtaking in it! The showerhead, high enough to be well above her head, rained water down over her nude reptilian form, soaking her hair and matting it to her head and the back of her neck, and the water drizzled down over her, making her scales glisten.

"By the Great Mother," Cryer whispered shakily under his breath.

The two of them simply stood there a moment or two in total silence, Talia letting the water come down over her, and Cryer standing there awestruck and covering himself, his cock only getting harder pinned beneath this quivering hands. Finally, she spoke.

"What's that you've got there?" she asked, talking at normal volume, as if this was a perfectly normal occurrence.

"Um, duh," Cryer stammered, looking down. As if on instinct, he took his hands away, and an erect cock suddenly sprung up and thumped into his flat belly with a loud, wet smacking sound, the hare giving a small grunt.

Talia crossed her massive arms over her chest, smirking down at him. "I see I got just the reaction I wanted," she said.

"Huh?" Cryer said.

Talia then bent down until she was at eye-level with the hare, their faces inches apart. Slowly, she leaned in and her lips met his in a gentle kiss. This seemed to have a calming effect on Cryer, who shuddered once, then became still, tentatively kissing back, closing his eyes. Although Talia had originally planned to strip naked and be lying on the bed when Cryer emerged from the bathroom later, she'd changed her mind after remembering that the lock on the bathroom door was broken, meaning she could simply walk in and join him. Besides, she thought as she stood there kissing him, this was much better. If she'd done it the way she'd originally planned, she would've come across as slutty, and she disliked being thought of that way. By doing it this way, it showed how direct and forceful she was, as if they were already dating and did it all the time, to keep Cryer off-balance for now to make him more susceptible to her seduction. And it seemed to be working, judging by how little he was resisting. She smiled inwardly, feeling assured that he had, indeed, secretly liked her for some time, and, more to the point, didn't mind making it with an alligator chick at all.

Her big, strong hands came up and rested on his thin, bony shoulders. Cryer felt completely helpless and within her power right now, like she could snap him in half like a toothpick if she wanted to. But while strong, she was gentle, even when she suddenly slid her hands underneath his armpits and stood back up, taking him with her and lifting the surprised hare up off his feet. Cryer meeped into the kiss but didn't try to break away. In fact, he barely registered any surprise at all until arms slid completely around him in a powerful embrace, hands sliding down to suddenly grab and cup his ass. He yelped and jerk away from the kiss, and although he wanted to protest, he found himself so utterly confused that all he could get out was inarticulate gibberish.

Leaving his butt, her hands found his thighs and she manipulated his legs to wrap around her thick waist, so that she could hold onto him one-handed, with her right hand hand on the small of his back. Using her now-freed left hand, she found the knob for the hot water and turned it up, causing the water to get hotter as it came out of the showerhead and really start steaming the bathroom up.

Talia hugged him tightly to her, making him groan as his cock was pressed against her taut stomach, and rubbed noses with him, quieting him with a gentle "Shhh."

Cryer didn't argue, and hushed. She smiled and kissed him again, this time just a gentle peck on the lips, followed by an unexpected and tantalizing lick on the nose from her broad tongue, after which she felt him shudder in her arms. With her tail, she picked up the dropped shampoo bottle, wrapping her tail tip around it and lifting it up to where they were. Cryer watched, fascinated, having been unaware that alligators, or at least some of them, were capable of using their tails as prehensile limbs. Talia held her left hand out, palm up, underneath the bottle, and the tail squeezed it until the lid came off and a good amount of shampoo was squirted out into her waiting palm with a quiet blurp.

While the tail replaced the bottle on the nearby rack with the others, Talia brought her hand down on the top of Cryer's head with a soft smack, and then began using her clawed fingertips to work the shampoo into his head fur. Cryer closed his eyes and moaned. She wasn't so much washing his hair as she was giving him a scalp massage, one that felt wonderful! He felt as if he might orgasm from that alone, especially when, as the hand left his head, Talia slid the clawed tip of her index finger down the side of his face and under his chin, using it to tip the hare's head back so it went under the water, leaning forwards and nuzzling his exposed throat while the water rinsed his hair out.

Instinctively, Cryer began to start moving his hips, thrusting his raging erection against Talia's belly scales, finding that while the scales there were soft and smooth, there was hard muscle just beneath them, so it felt like humping a wooden tabletop covered by a thick tablecloth. It was at this point that Talia knew she had him. And now that she had successfully seduced him, it was time to really make him hers, but allowing him to explore her and have some fun of his own.

He slowly tilted his head back out, hair dripping, eyes literally spinning wildly in their sockets in an incredibly cartoonish manner. Talia now unwrapped his legs from around her waist and led him, basically, slide slowly down the front of her body until his feet touched the floor again. Due to the incredible difference in height between them, Cryer's face was level with Talia's chest, and her breasts filled his vision. He suddenly felt her hand on the back of his head, nudging him towards them. He didn't need any further encouraging. He buried his face in her cleavage quiet eagerly, finding the scales with covered her firm globes were just as soft as the ones on her belly.

Talia stood there, keeping her well-muscled arms around him, as a constant reminder of her presence, while he licked the cleft of her cleavage and gave the side of each breast hickeys. Talia was amused. Either he was a virgin, or it had been a long time since he'd been with a woman, because Cryer had no idea of how to pleasure a woman's breast, and was, clearly, just doing whatever leaped into his lust-crazed mind. His hands, meanwhile, timidly began to wander, starting at her hips, one going up the side of her body, the other down it, both become bolder when she made no mover to stop him.

Inevitably, the hand that moved down went around to her backside and groped her ass, making her chuckle. But then she began to growl with pleasure as his fingers slid underneath the tail and began to rub slowly along the underside of it. Unfortunately, as horny as she was, there wasn't much room in the shower for her to let him fuck her, at least not without it being really awkward and uncomfortable, so as much as she wanted the skinny hare to mount her and see what he was made of, she was going to be forced to have him pleasure her in another way. It was selfish of her, admittedly, to want to get off before him after she'd promised herself that at least for now his pleasure would come before hers in order to further loosen him up. But, she had a nagging worry that he was only being as eager as he was due to instinctive lust, and that, once he climaxed and began thinking clearly again, he might start having second thoughts about the whole thing. And while this was not true, Talia had no way of knowing that right now, and, if Cryer could not fuck her within the confines of the shower, then she wanted to feel his mouth on her pussy, if only just once.

So, while Cryer was in the middle of licking over one of the alligator's breasts, he suddenly felt her hand on the top of his head, and it began pushing down. Without a word, she forced him to kneel at her feet and spread her legs for him, displaying her womanly depths to him. He licked his lips, knowing exactly what she wanted him to do. While kneeling his face was not actually level with her slit, but rather a few inches above it, forcing him to rise up a bit and really stretch so that his mouth reached it. He'd eaten pussy before. He had, after all, been married once, and had had several girlfriends back on Warren both before and after his failed first marriage, so he knew, basically, what to do. He'd never done this with an alligator before, only female hares, but he figured a pussy was a pussy. He nuzzled at the lips of the slit softly, earning a gentle rumble from Talia above him. Slowly, he slid his tongue out and licked along the out lips of the pussy, before letting the tongue slither in and start wriggling deeper. He had to admit, he wasn't the because pussy-eater in the Aniverse, but his girlfriends hadn't really complained, so obviously he knew enough to get the job done. His method involved using his tongue as a scoop to plumb the depths of his partner's womanhood, slurping out the fluids, while using his lips and teeth to stimulate the woman. Whether or not it was the best method of pleasuring a woman, Cryer didn't know, but he did know it almost always succeeded in getting his partner to cum, so he felt confident about using his technique with Talia.

Standing above him, Talia was already on the verge of an orgasm. Admittedly not because of anything Cryer was actually doing down there, but merely from the thought that he WAS actually down there, and how easy it had been to get him there. All her worrying had been for nothing. If the hare liked her enough to bury his face into her womanhood, willingly pleasuring her before himself, then she was confident that he was cooperating with her out of more than merely lust. And while was busying himself down there, Talia decided to actually start taking advantage of the fact they were in the shower, by grabbing the bar of soap and using it to wash herself, lathering herself up by sliding the slick bar over her shoulders, arms, and breasts. It was while she was washing the latter that Cryer's nose actually entered her pussy, making her squeeze the soap so hard it flew up out of her hand and over the shower door, landing noisily somewhere in the other half of the bathroom. She grunted in response, and the hare pushed his muzzle ever deeper, his lips making contact with with her clitoris, tongue brushing it gently as it scooped her dripping sexual fluids into Cryer's waiting mouth. She began to rub her soapy breasts, hissing in delight, using all of her willpower not to squeeze her legs together in pleasure, fearful of accidentally hurting the smaller, weaker hare. But as Cryer grabbed ahold of her ass and used his grip there to hoist himself up further, his tongue brushed along Talia's clit again and sent her over the edge.

She leaned back against the shower door, feeling her orgasm imminent, and closed her legs, bring her well-muscled thighs crushing in tightly around Cryer's head, forcing his entire muzzled deep into her pussy with an audible slurping noise. Cryer struggled a bit, especially when she started bucking her hips, suddenly fearful that she wouldn't know her own strength and break his neck, but, unable to get free, he decided his best course of action was to bring Talia to climax as soon as possible.

He needn't have worried, though. At least, not about getting his neck snapped. Even when in the throes of orgasmic bliss, Talia did in fact know her own strength, and, after Cryer seemed to still be living after the initial squeeze and the first few thrusts of her hips, she figured it was smooth sailing from here on, and was able to exert just the right amount of strength to use him to stimulate herself, making him fuck her using his face, but not seriously injure him. Breathing was another matter. She was well aware she could accidentally suffocate him down there, but luckily, there was no need to worry about that because she was close enough to orgasm this wouldn't go on for much longer, and if he'd lasted this long immersed in her pussy, he'd survive a few more seconds. Finally, she orgasmed after the umpteenth time his nose rubbed against her sweet spot, grabbing her breasts and squeezing them as she came, tightening her thighs around Cryer's head even harder, like a vice, but then she let go, releasing him, and he immediately pulled back. Her body was blocking the flow of water from the showerhead, so she was able to admire the fact his face-fur was positively soaked in her thick pussy juices.

He took a huge, deep breath, and coughed, spitting up a bit of sex juice, and then, a bit wobbly herself, she bent down and helped him stand. "Are you all right?" she asked.

He coughed again, but then took another breath, nodding. "Uh-huh," he said, sounding exhausted.

"Good," she said. "I'd hate to lose you that way. Imagine how awkward the obituary would look!" She laughed, ruffling his hair.

"Uhhh," he said, looking groggy.

She bent down and kissed him, tasting her own juices. Then, suddenly, she spun him around so he was facing the wall.

"Huh? What?" he said, surprised.

"Put your hands up," she instructed, grabbing his wrists and planting his palms firmly on the tiled wall for him. Then her hands slid down his bony body to grab his until now ignored cock, earning a grunt and a moan from him. "Relax, let Talia take care of you," she whispered into his ear, pausing to lick a big gob of pussy-juice off his cheek before tightening her grip and pumping her fist up and down his cock. It didn't take long to get him off. He was spurting after the first few jerks, his thick seed coating the tiles on the wall and dripping slowly down. As he came, crying out, she continued to nuzzle and lick at his face from over his shoulder. "Mmm," she said. "Better?"

He nodded, swallowing. "Y-Yeah...." he managed.

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. By now, the water was getting cold, so they needed to hurry unless they wanted to take an ice cold shower. She hurriedly shampooed and washed her hair, then made him stand under the showerhead to wash the remaining sex juices off his face. That accomplished, she turned the water off, leaving them both dripping. There was only one towel at the moment, so they'd have to share it. Because her scales would dry off faster than his fur, she let him use the towel first, stepping out dripping wet, noting the soap bar where it had landed in the sink. She stood there, waiting patiently, as he dried himself off. When he was done he handed her the towel and she used it, then hung it back up on the towel rack to dry. Then she opened the door, beckoning with a claw as she walked out into the bedroom naked. "Watch out, the tiles are slippery," she said, the warning coming too late.

"Gah, whoooa!" Cryer yelped as he slip-slided on the floor tiles made slick by the water that had dripped off of her body, but he managed to catch himself with his hand on the sink even as she was turning to help him, holding up a hand to wordlessly let her know he was fine. Walking more carefully now, he exited the bathroom, not bothering with his boxers for now. Seeing as how they just got done having sex, they'd seen practically every inch of one another naked already so modesty wasn't a big concern between them right now.

Talia looked at the clock on her nightstand. She needed to get down to the bar, soon. She was already late. Eddie had probably already opened the joint up using his keys and was probably already serving the early-morning regulars. "Shit," she said, running to the dresser and hurriedly dressing. "Listen, Bart, I hate to screw and run but I'm late for work. Do you have a job you need to get to?"

Cryer was a little surprised she'd called him Bart instead of Bartholomew, and normally he hated that, but for some reason he didn't mind that she'd done it. "Oh, no, not really," he said. "I just do odd jobs for the tenants at my apartment building. I think Mrs. Snagg's television set can wait a little while longer," he added with a wry grin.

"Good," Talia said as he finished dressing, fixing her hair and tying it back into a ponytail again. "I want you to stay here, okay? Don't leave the apartment and try to walk home on your own, since you don't know which way the bar is from here, and I haven't got time to give directions."

Cryer nodded. He didn't feel like going anywhere, anyway. He was glad at last to have a valid excuse not to have to repair Mrs. Snagg's TV set while she stood over him like a vulture and kept yelling how he was doing it wrong.

"I'll be back later tonight, and Lucy will be home this afternoon. Until then you can lie around naked if you'd like, but put your clothes in the dryer so they'll be ready by the time she gets home at about six, okay? If you're hungry there's more veggies in the fridge." She kissed him on the cheek, and then hurried out the door.

Cryer stood there for a moment, rubbing his cheek where she'd kissed him, managing a small smile. Wow, he thought. He'd just made it with a girl for the first time in an entire year. And not just any girl, but a real woman, one he'd secretly come to admire over the months they'd know one another. Heading back into the bathroom and stepping carefully to avoid the slick spots, he grabbed his boxer shorts off the toilet and put them back on once he was safely back out in the bedroom again. He puffed up his bony chest, imagining that he looked tough. Yeah, I just ate a woman out and she liked it! he thought. By the Great Mother, she was great. She was everything he'd dreamed of an more, and she even found him attractive, too, which boosted the skinny hare's self-confidence considerably.

His chest deflated, though, as he thought about telling her of his past. Obviously, what they had done wasn't any one-time fling. The fact she'd invited him to stay there all day and even get to know her daughter suggested that their shower together was the first step to a more meaningful relationship. Which meant, if it was to be a successful one, they would have to not keep any secrets from one another. Cryer dreaded that. But perhaps if she spent enough time with him and got to know him for who he really was, Bartholomew Cryer the shy, polite lover, and not Bartholomew Cryer the infamous traitor, then the blow would be softened when he finally told her.

Yes, Cryer told himself. He could handle this. Time could heal wounds, and it could also ensure that she would love him no matter what he'd done a long time ago on some other planet she'd never even been to. He hoped so, anyway. But he'd worry about that later. Just thinking about what they'd just gotten done doing was already making his cock harden again, so he went and flopped down on the bed for a nice jerkoff session. When he was done, he'd get himself something to eat and get his clothes into the dryer, so he'd be fully dressed when the little girl, Lucy, came home before her mother did.

Oh, Talia, he though, pumping his fist on his cock, you're the most wonderful woman I've ever met and I barely even know you yet. But that's going to change! I'll make you love me back, and I'll prove to the entire Aniverse that I'm a good person deep inside! I WILL be remembered by someone for something besides my betrayal.

He came sooner than he had in years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day seemed to drag on forever for Talia. Luckily, due to her work ethic, she was able to cope. The work day went relatively smoothly. There was some minor disruption when Lou Skeggs showed up, drunken beyond reason after filling up on booze at another bar, looking to get some payback for getting stuffed into a trashcan the night before. He was armed with a broken piece of off the end of a two-by-four, which he'd used to try to bludgeon Eddie when the anole tried to stop him, but Talia had managed to get the weapon away from him, and a swift punch in the gut brought the intoxicated gecko to his knees. Afterwards, Talia instructed two of her regulars, Earl and Lenny, a pair of big monitor lizards, to take Skeggs out back and work him over. Not to kill him, of course, but to give him a severe enough beating that he would heed their warning to stay away from Talia's from now on and never bother her friends. According to them, when they were done Skeggs had run off crying like a child.

Talia's was one of the only bars in this city that closed down before dark, rather than staying open. Most bars in town stayed open twenty-four-seven, and were more popular, but that was just the sort of thing Talia wanted to avoid. With the exception of Skeggs and a couple of his lowlife friends, Talia's was, for the most part, frequented by decent folk. Every single one of them had of course broken some kind of law in the past like everyone else on Sludge, and probably continued to do so, but they behaved themselves and showed both Talia and Eddie and their joint a great deal of respect. Earl and Lenny, for example, did some part-time work as enforcers for a local crime lord, but were good enough friends with Talia that they often did her favors like taking care of troublemakers such as Skeggs. Talia, no fool, did keep a couple of maser pistols on the premises, but she'd only had to take one of them out a few times over the years to use as an accessory to intimidate some of the rowdier customers into behaving themselves, and had actually used the weapon even less. Eddie's blackjack got more frequent use, however.

So, all in all, Talia considered herself lucky. Her clientele was generally well-behaved if not entirely innocent, and she wanted to avoid the kind of patronage the other bars got. The all-night bars. Those, she knew, tended to be frequented by real scum. Scum with no manners and no respect. A bar that closed its doors come nightfall was not the kind of bar people like that wanted to haunt, so they tended to stay away. Besides, Talia was a single mother, and had to get home to Lucy, and Eddie was also a family man, so neither of them could afford to run the bar all night long.

Evening came, and with it, closing time. Like every night it took some effort to persuaded the last few customers to leave, and one guy, Frank, was so drunk, Eddie said he'd have to walk him home, rather than let him wander off alone and become a walking target for a street gang, of which this city had plenty. So, while Talia was locking up the front entrance of the bar, Eddie stood nearby, Frank's arm around his shoulder to support him.

"So, uh, where's that hare you were carryin' around last night?" he asked when she finished and came walking over.

Talia allowed herself a smirk. "Like I said, he's staying over at my place."

"Really?" Eddie said. "So, uh, it's not just outta the kindness of your heart, then?" He waggled his eyebrows. Talia scoffed, and shook her head, confirming Eddie's suspicions. "Oh, man," he said, grinning like an idiot. "Aw, jeez, did you two do it?"

"That's none of your business," Talia said, smacking him playfully upside the head.

"Aw, you did! Wow!" Eddie said, laughing.

"Go home, Eddie. I'll give you all the horny details tomorrow. Frank looks like he's about to fall asleep anyway, and Marge is probably wondering what's keeping you. I mean, you live right across the street."

"I wanna go home," Frank said, and then hiccuped.

"All right, all right, keep your shorts one," Eddie said. Looking back at Talia, he said, "Welp, uh, goodnight, Tal. I'm really lookin' forward to hearin' all about your new boyfriend!"

He then carried Frank off, laughing. Frank, without even knowing what it was they were laughing about, also laughed, slapping Eddie on the shoulder. Talia watched them until they went around a corner, off in the direction of Frank's place, then she turned and walked down the street to where her own apartment building was, and went inside, grateful for the warm air after walking in the increasingly chilly night. She went leisurely up the stairs, and, coming to her apartment, produced her key and went inside. Immediately, she heard Lucy's voice and Cryer's.

"No, don't put that in your mouth," Cryer was saying. "It's not edible."

"It tastes like cardboard!" Lucy said.

"That's because it IS cardboard."

Shutting the door, Talia came into the kitchen to find that Cryer and her daughter were sitting at the table putting a jigsaw puzzle of a unicorn together, and Cryer was attempting to persuade Lucy to spit out one of the pieces. The rest of the puzzle pieces were scattered all over the floor, having replaced the spilled cereal which, as her mother had asked, Lucy'd cleaned up after arriving home from school. Cryer was holding his hand in front of Lucy's face, motioning for her to spit, but she was shaking her head defiantly.

"Well, hello there, you two," Talia said finally, and they both turned to her. "My, my, making quite a mess, aren't we?"

Cryer shrugged. "She wanted to do puzzles."

"Nyaahhhh!" Lucy said, sticking her tongue out to show her mother the puzzle piece stuck on the end of it.

"That's lovely, honey," Talia said, watching as Cryer attempted to use this opportunity to grab the puzzle piece off her tongue, and it earned him some bitten fingers.

"Yeowch!" he cried.

"Lucy!" Talia scolded. "You spit that puzzle piece out right now, and apologize for biting Mr. Cryer."

Lucy made a pouty face, and spat the puzzle piece out onto the table, then said, "Sorry, Mr. Cryer."

"Good, now go and wash up for supper," her mother ordered, pointing.

Lucy got up and scampered out of the kitchen, and, sighing, Talia went about cooking dinner for three. Cryer shook his bitten hand and sucked on his fingers to make the pain go away. "Heh, cute kid," he said, smiling. "One hell of a bite, though."

"She learned that from her mother," Talia said, turning and winking at him, then snapping her jaws audibly at him, making him jump. She turned and resumed making dinner.

Soon, Lucy was all washed up and came back in, taking a seat at the table while Cryer cleaned up the puzzle pieces, at least the ones that were on the table, and put them back into the box. As with the cereal previously, they decided they'd worry about the puzzle pieces that were on the floor later. Dinner was finished soon enough, a small steak for Lucy and a big one for herself, and a salad for Cryer. There was much conversation over dinner, quite unlike the silent breakfast she and Cryer had had earlier.

Talia explained what had happened to Skeggs, surprising Cryer with how up front she was being about violence in front of her daughter, prompting Talia to explain that on a planet like Sludge, violence happened pretty much everywhere, and Lucy was well aware of both it and the kinds of people who came to her mother's bar. This amazed Cryer, who, despite his own fairly violent lifestyle shortly before and since his exile, had led a relatively nonviolent childhood. Talk turned to what Lucy did at school that day, and what she and her friends did at the sleepover last night, Cryer, occasionally, chiming in to say how brilliant he thought Lucy was, that despite her occasional silliness such as when she put the puzzle piece in her mouth, she was amazingly adept at putting those complicated jigsaw puzzles together. In fact, the one they'd been putting together when Talia came in had been their third.

In fact, Talia realized they seemed to be doing more talking than eating, as they'd been sitting at the table longer than she and Lucy did on their own most of the time, and their plates weren't even close to empty. Hoping to get dinner over with so she could send Lucy off to bed and have some more time alone with Cryer, Talia sternly, but playfully, told them both to shut up and start doing less talking, and more eating. Soon enough dinner was done. Cryer said that because the incident with Skeggs was as a result of Skeggs' failed attempt to kill him last night, Talia's rough day was all his fault, so he volunteered to do the dishes. As he gathered up the dishes all by himself with some effort, Talia escorted Lucy to her room and tucked her in, kissing her goodnight.

Shutting the door, she returned to the kitchen, where she found Cryer with his back to her, singing quietly to himself, his shirt sleeves rolled up as he scrubbed the dishes. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him on the back of the head. "Mmm, I just love a man who does housework," she said.

Cryer chuckled, continuing to work despite the lazy erection he was getting from having her snuggling up against his back, her breasts practically framing his head. "I've lived alone a lot," he said, "so I know how to do a lot of things that most men in the Aniverse stupidly want their women to do."

"Really?" Talia said, smirking.

"Yup," Cryer said. He finished scrubbing the dishes and rinsed them off, while Talia went and sat down at the table. Once he was finished rinsing the dishes he set them aside to dry, and turned to face her, leaning back against the counter-top. "I can cook, clean, and fix almost anything. I used to be an engineer in the military." He inwardly kicked himself for letting that last bit slip, since he knew it was going to open the floodgates and make Talia start asking all kinds of questions.

"Oh, you were in the military?" she asked, cocking her head, smirk fading. Cryer didn't strike her as being a military sort of guy, for several reasons, not the least of which was his far too scrawny build. But she was interested, and wanted to hear more.

"Yeah," he said, sighing, grabbing a dish towel and drying off his hands as he came over and sat back down at the table. "But just as an engineer. I just monitored and fixed things, only at home really, so to speak. As you could probably tell I never saw a lot of combat. In fact, I saw none at all up until about a year or so ago." Fuck. He came to the conclusion he was subconsciously steering the conversation this way. His subconscious mind knew that this was something that had to come out, even if his conscious mind wanted nothing more than to avoid it for as long as possible. He chewed his lower lip nervously.

Talia, interested, leaned forwards. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked softly, reaching over and placing her bigger hand on his in a reassuring and affectionate gesture. She really hoped he would go ahead and spit it out. If they were going to start having a relationship, she wanted to know what it was he was hiding.

"N--" he started to say, then stopped, and said, "I don't know. I think so, but....I don't know."

"Come on, Bart, please. Tell me what it is. I can tell it's absolutely eating you away inside. I've watched you for a whole year, the way you've been practically drinking yourself to death." She squeezed his hand tightly, leaning over to be closer, her eyes filled with warmth and compassion even though, as he so often head, he avoided making eye contact. "I can tell when someone drinks because they enjoy it and when they drink because it dulls the pain. And judging from how sick you get when you drink, I can tell you've never touched a drop of alcohol before you came here."

Cryer squeezed his eyes shut tightly, then opened them. "You really wanna know?" he said. He was fed up. It was all going to come out of him now and he didn't care about the consequences. Talia was right, it was eating away at him on the inside, and he knew if he didn't let it out as soon as possible, to someone, anyone, then it was going to be the death of him. And he couldn't think of anyone better to spill his guts to than a woman who obviously care for him.

"Yes, Bart, I do," Talia said softly. Cryer started to open his mouth, but Talia held her hand up. "Come on," she said, "let's go into the bedroom." She offered him her hand, and after a moment, he accepted it, and she led him out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. He went and sat down on the bed while she closed and locked the door. Then, she came and sat beside him, her bigger body making the bed audibly creak. "Now, tell me."

"I've changed my mind," Cryer said suddenly, his eyes beginning to tear up.

"No, you're going to tell me," Talia insisted.

He shook his head. "No!"

She grabbed his chin and turned his head so he was facing her. "Look into my eyes, Bart, come on, look at me." He did. "Good, now, tell me. Did you do something? Or did someone do something to you?"

"I did something," he finally said, tears starting to flow from his eyes and roll down his cheeks.

He was trembling, Talia noticed, able to feel how he was quivering just by holding onto his chin. It was close to coming out. Like a stubborn orgasm, it was just going to take some more gentle coaxing to make him spit it out. She kept her hand on his chin and looked him dead in the eyes. "Did you kill someone, darling?" she asked.

Cryer was taken aback by the directness of the question, but not completely shocked. He'd learned since this morning that Talia was nothing if not very direct. "What?"

Talia said, as softly and sweetly as she could under the circumstances, "I love on Planet Sludge. This place is inhabited by almost nothing but the worst scum in the Aniverse. Practically everyone comes here to escape from the law. I've heard so many grim stories from my customers at the bar that nothing you can say can shock me, Bart. If you killed someone, tell me, please. Let me help you."

"I, uh, well, no. Sort of. Er, not really," he said, and trailed off. He tried to look away but she jerked his head back. It was clear that he was going to tell her, whether he liked it or not. There was no more fooling around or avoiding it, he was telling. "Did you hear about how the Toad Empire conquered Warren, my home planet?" he asked quietly.

Talia nodded. News of the atrocities committed by the toads had reached even Sludge since they declared war on the United Animal Federation by conquering and enslaving Warren. She thought she knew where this was going.

"I, uh, I helped them," Cryer said, then suddenly he really turned on the waterworks, tears flowing from his eyes. "Me and a friend of mine. A co-worker, really. Rusk. Edmund Rusk. The t-t-toads contacted us, because we worked at the power station for the planet's defense grid network. Offered us money and power if we would--if we would--oh, shit, I betrayed my own people, I let that bastard Rusk talk me into down it!"

Talia removed her hand from his chin, frowning grimly. Sludge had its fair share of traitors, so this didn't especially surprise her. It just disappointed her immensely. But rather than anger she felt nothing but pity for the hare as he sobbed his heart out, covering his face with his hands and sliding off of the bed and to his knees on the floor.

"We did it," he said over and over again, "we did it, we did it! We shut down the defense grid and let the toads invade! When they found out it was us, they killed Rusk, but I got away because I begged for my life by crawling on the ground like a worm! They banished me....and I came here...oh, please forgive me!" He began dry-heaving suddenly, and, not wanting him to make himself sick, Talia got down on the floor beside him and put her hands on his shoulders and tried to get him to calm down.

"It's okay," she said softly. "I forgive you. I understand."

Cryer sniffled, looking up at her, genuine surprise in his tear-filled eyes. "Y-you do?" he said. "Really?"

She smiled softly. "Like I said, I've heard similar stories. But you're the first whose ever actually expressed guilt about it. And I can tell your guilt is genuine, Bart, and not just something you're making up on the spot, because I've seen how you drink. You drink to forget, to punish yourself." She pulled him close, embracing him tightly, and he continued to cry, burying his face in her breasts and she stroked his back, softly shushing him. "Sshhh," she said, "it's all right. It's okay." They sat like this almost an hour. Cryer sobbing like a child and clinging to her as if he'd die if he let go, and Talia keeping him held tightly to herself, comforting him, telling him softly over and over again that it was okay.

Finally, his tears ebbed. He just had no more to give. He finally let go and they parted, sitting there together on the floor, her arm around him, his eyes red and sore from crying. He reached up, using the back of his hand to wipe away a bit of snot that was leaking from his nose. Talia sighed. It hadn't been as bad as she thought it would be. She forgave him, she really did. He'd done something terrible by betraying his people, but he realized this, and beat himself up for it constantly, and upon confessing had begun crying like a little girl. Although the people of Warren might disagree with her, as far as Talia was concerned, Cryer didn't deserve any further punishment. Noting how runny his nose was, she looked down at her shirt, soaked through with his tears and a bit of snot, and took it off, and had Cryer blow his nose on it. It could be washed.

When he was finished, she asked, "All done?" He nodded weakly, and she smiled softly and tossed the soiled shirt aside and then hugged him tightly against her half-naked upper torso. "You don't have to punish yourself anymore, Bart," she said. He didn't respond. "It's all in the past, and it's a crime which can never be undone, so by your guilt alone you've absolved yourself."

He looked up at her, blinking. "What are you saying?" he asked softly.

She gently took his furry face into her scaly palms. "I'm saying I want you to forget about your past. You have a new life here on Sludge. A new with me and Lucy." she said. "Come stay with me. Be a husband to me and a father to Lucy, Bart. Have a happy life again." She leaned forwards and softly kissed him on the lips, then pulled away.

"I-I don't know what to say," he said, honestly. She was asking him to marry her! To accept Lucy as his daughter! His heart melted with happiness, but his head was filled doubt. He was insanely conflicted right now he literally physically ached as though being pulled in two different directions at once.

She smiled. "You don't have to say anything right now," she said, and then got up, pulling him with her to his feet. "Just come to bed with me." She then left him and went around to her side of the bed. Cryer watched her. She reached up and behind herself and undid the snap of her bra, letting it fall away, revealing her breasts to him. He swallowed, licking his lips. She didn't stop there. She undid her jeans and pushed them down off her legs along with his panties, and then let her hair down, looking just as she had earlier in the shower, except dry. As stood there, shaking, she slowly and seductively crawled onto the bed on all fours in a very lizard-like fashioned, even going as far as to let her tongue do a slow circuit of her chops for effect.

"I--" he began, but stopped as she snapped her jaws at him.

"Don't speak," she said. "Just take your clothes off."

He nodded, and hurriedly got out of his clothes, soon standing nude before the alligator. His cock was rock hard despite his unease. Although he was, mostly, unsure of what was about to happen, he knew, from Talia's body language, that they were going to go all the way and finish what they'd started in the shower earlier. This was confirmed when she sat up on her knees and beckoned to him with a finger. "Come on, Bartholomew," she said, seductively, lovingly. He obeyed, going over and crawling onto the bed and getting on his knees in front of her. He lifted his arms, shaking like brittle tree branches in a rough wind, and slid them around Talia's middle. She reached down with one hand and softly stroked his head, running her claws through his shaggy head fur. "Now," she said, shifting a bit on the bed, "you've opened your heart to me and told me your deepest, darkest secret, yes?" It was clear she wanted to know whether or not there was some other serious crime he was hiding, and he hurriedly nodded yes. "Good. Then now, I want you to make love to me."

Grabbing his shoulders, she flopped over onto her back, the bed creaking, pulling the startled hare with her so that he fell on top of her, face landing in her cleavage. She smirked. He was so cute and sexy when he was nervous like this. Like, well, a little scared bunny. She used her hands to move him about on top of her until he was in the ideal position to slide into her and mate her. Her big hands stroked his naked butt softly, until he stopped shaking and calmed down a bit. She didn't want to do this until she was certain he wasn't the least bit nervous. When he had stopped shaking and she was confident he was calm, she said, "Now fuck me, hare-boy. We're going to share this bed as husband and wife if I have anything to say about it, so let's give it a good workout."

He nodded. And, with her hands on his hips guiding him, slid into her, his cock penetrating her pussy. He was average-sized for a male hare, which meant that he wasn't terribly good in the "so big I can feel every inch of it" department. But, she could feel still him, and the knowledge that tonight they would mate, and many more nights afterwards, was enough to keep Talia happy. Besides, if she had wanted a man for his physical attributes, she would've chosen someone besides Bartholomew Cryer. Taking her hands off his hips she placed them on his shoulders as he went to work, beginning to thrust his hips, pistoning his cock in and out of her eager pussy. Talia arched her back, groaning, as he thrust, reaching over and fondling for the switch on the bedside lamp. Finding it, she turned it off, plunging the bedroom into complete darkness. The shades were down, so very little light from the streetlights outside got in. They were almost in total and complete blackness, all by themselves, the rest of the world forgotten.

As Cryer pumped his hips, Talia thrust back, bringing her loins up to meet his firmly with each thrust. She rubbed his shoulders, feeling his fur already damp with sweat from his exertions. She smirked, taken a bit of smug satisfaction in the idea that she was too much woman for him. Cryer, for his part, was giving it everything he had. "Am I, unh, doing okay?" he asked.

"Yes, love," she responded. "Keep it up!" She licked her lips watching the dim outline of his skinny body making love to her body in the dark as he eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. She shifted, reaching over and grabbing both pillows and putting them behind her head so she was sitting propped up a bit. She reached down and gently took Cryer's face in her hands again, and, as he kept thrusting, she brought his face to her left breast, the nipple rubbing his nose, making him groan deeply and fuck her a bit more eagerly. "I think you wanted to play with these earlier," she said with a soft chuckle. His lips closed around the nipple and he suckled on it, making her gasp and press his face into the breast. She then released his head and stretched her muscular body luxuriously underneath him, and folded her arms behind her head, relaxing contently as she watched her future husband work so hard to please her, butt rising and falling in the air, mouth sucking on her nipple. It was a beautiful and romantic sight, and made her love him even more than she did already.

Suddenly, she rolled over so that Cryer was underneath her and she on top of him, her weight pressing down onto him. He took his mouth away from the breast and gasped aloud as he felt her larger body on top of his, and even though he stopped thrusting his hips, she kept moving hers, her reptilian snout nuzzling into his chest, tongue sliding out to lap at his nipples, making him squeal and writhe. The tongue then slid up along his neck and chin to his lips and forced its way inside his mouth as Talia's lips met his in a deep and passionate kiss, her long hair falling down around their heads. Soon enough, he came, shooting his thick seed into her depths, gasping loudly and panting, and she pulled her mouth away from his and tossed her hair back, then laid down fully on him, smiling. She wriggled, enjoying the sheer difference in mass between them, watching his face very closely for his reactions as she brought her full weight onto his body at different intervals. He made such lovely facial expressions! She then sat back up, keeping his still-hard cock buried in herself, and ran her hands through the fur on his best and stomach possessively, mmming as she felt how sweaty he was.

She then brought one sweat-dampened hand to her muzzle and began to lick the sweat off. The other went to Cryer's mouth, and she had him lick that one clean. He sucked on her clawed fingertips adoringly. Then, she grabbed his wrists again. She jerked his arms up and made him grab onto her breasts, mashing his palms into them to wordlessly instruct him to grab and squeeze them. Then she began to rock her hips, and began moving her dripping pussy around on his still-hard cock. She was using his spent cock to pleasure herself. Soon she was practically bouncing on the bed, threatening to crack his hips, while he dutifully continued massaging her breasts. Soon enough, she hit her peak and roared out loud, the entire bed shaking, her legs squeezing tightly around Cryer's hips, making him gasp and wheeze and struggle. Then she flopped back down on top of him, smothering him in her cleavage, tongue lolling as she panted. She lay there like that for a minute or so while Cryer struggled underneath her, then rolled off him, letting him breathe.

He took several deep, grateful breaths, coughing, then, calming down, turned and smiled at her. It was clear he'd enjoyed it. They then cuddled up next to eat other in the hot, sweaty darkness, Cryer nuzzling into Talia's breasts, the alligator woman licking the top of the hare's head and stroking his ears.

The End