Red, White, and Blue Epilogue
#8 of Red, White, and Blue
...And that's it for this book. For my future projects, look at the journal I posted. It's been a blast. Rate and comment
Epilogue: Use Somebody
Alexei opened his eyes, the first sight greeting him that particular morning his beautiful, scarlet, incredible, very unclothed girlfriend rustling him awake. "Get up, sleepy! It's Christmas morning," Natalya said fairly quietly, a glowing smile on her face. Alex looked over at the clock on his nightstand, and groaned, "Really, Natalya? We have to get up at 6 A.M.? I already have the only present I want right here next to me." Natalya hugged him and kissed him on the nose, joking, "Thank you, Alexei. I was kind of hoping for Brad Pitt though." Alex put on an expression of mock-offense, and Natalya rolled her eyes and joined her lips with his. The husky laid flat on his back, and the vixen on her side, resting her head on his shoulder and rubbing his chest with her paw as she mused, "So is this how you want to spend our first Christmas? Lying naked in bed all day?" "You make that sound like a bad thing," Alex replied defensively. "Because it is. You're getting up and we're having a great holiday whether you like it or not," Natalya commanded, and seeing that Alex wasn't going to complain anymore, she changed the subject, "So, do you think Santa came last night?" "I don't know," Alexei grinned, "He was probably a bit busy. I know I did, though."
Natalya's eyes shot open wider and she smacked the husky as hard as she could (which wasn't very hard) on the chest, yelping, "ALEXEI! NO! BAD!" "Oh come on," Pavlov pleaded, "You did too. What's wrong with saying the truth?" "Because it's completely uncalled for," Natalya exclaimed, "You're not taking our sex for granted are you?" "Well, last night was the fifth time this week," Alex mumbled. Natalya replied worriedly, "Is this becoming a problem for us? I don't want our whole relationship to be based on how much time we spend in bed..." "No, it's not a problem," Alexei declared firmly, "When couples have problems with sex, it's because what they perceive as love is just an extension of physical intimacy. We have the exact opposite; we love each other, with or without sex. We've proven that definitively over the last couple of months. I think for us, sex is just another way of showing our love. I know for me at least, when I'm with you I feel like I'm giving you everything I possibly could in body, mind, and soul. Natalya, there's no way I would let something as stupid as sex get between us. I just love you too much for that, and if you want to stop having it, I could live with that. I could live with anything to keep the most amazing female in the world at my side."
That did it for Natalya. She crawled on top of her male and put her paws under his head, gently pulling him into a long, loving kiss. After what seemed like a blissful eternity, she took her lips away from his and whispered, "How did I end up with someone like you? Of all the females in the world who could have had you, why am I so lucky?" Alexei ran his paws through her facial fur, suggesting, "True love?" Natalya giggled and kissed him on the nose, "A little cliché, but I'd believe it. Assuming you're not messing around with other females behind my back like that slutty dingo from your work, of course. But that would just be silly, wouldn't it?" Ice briefly ran down Alexei's veins, but he quickly recovered, professing, "Why would I cheat on you? Anyone else would be trading down." "I know you wouldn't. I'm just messing with you," the vixen smiled. Alex rolled his eyes in mock frustration, then pulled her back into another lengthy kiss before speeding up and suddenly rolling over so he was on top of her. He softly and passionately kissed her numerous times, descending from her lips down her neck and chest, lingering on a barely noticeable tuft of white fur right at the division of her breasts.
"Alexei. Stop," Natalya said flatly, "You're charming and hot, but not THAT charming and hot. We just talked about this. We're supposed to be getting up right now, not getting off. No sex on Christmas morning, baby. Sorry." "Alright, fine," Pavlov said, sticking his tongue out jokingly before rolling off her and out of bed, effectively throwing off the sheets in the process. As he stood at the edge of the bed, Natalya called his name semi-seductively. He turned around and observed her lying on her side, one paw resting on her top hip and the other drawing little circles in the bed with a finger, and tail shifting to and fro hypnotically. Even though he had now seen her nude several times, he still almost drooled at the sight; every contour of her red body seemed to sing of heaven right then. "Alexei... knyaz... Just because we're not doing it now doesn't mean we're done forever. If you behave all day today, I'll make sure you get a special final present tonight," the vixen uttered alluringly. "Oh," Alexei countered, leaning on the bed so his head hovered over hers, "So I have to get on your Nice List to be naughty?" "Yes, lover. But I think the rewards are well worth the trouble," the vixen said. "As do I," the husky agreed, briefly pressing his lips to hers again before standing up and asking her, "Has anyone ever told you that you are unbelievably fucking hot?" "I've heard that a few times, thankfully mostly from you," she responded, getting up off the bed and walking over to Alex's dresser. She pulled open one of the drawers, which had previously been unused, but now housed some spare clothes for Natalya for when she spent the night, and retrieved and put on some of said clothes, making herself look somewhat decent before telling Alex that she was going downstairs, remarking in closing, "Oh and you're probably gonna wanna put some clothes on yourself. I wouldn't mind seeing more of you like this, but the others might not feel the same way. Love you, knyaz, see you downstairs."
After Natalya left, Alexei went to the bathroom, and as he washed his paws, he contemplated his complex love life. Actually, Alex thought, It's not that complicated. I'm just a dirtbag. He loved Natalya with every ounce of his being; this much was true. The only problem was, a few of those ounces shared their affections with someone else, and that fur just happened to be the one person Natalya had just used as an example of who would be the worst person to cheat on her with. Alex didn't expect Elise to get even remotely close to taking Natalya's place, but he still felt horrible for making out with her after the Kossenko op, which was something he instigated. As guilty as he felt for this though, he felt massively worse due to the fact that it wasn't an isolated incident. Every day he had gone into H.U.R.T. HQ since that day, he shared some kind of romantic moment with the dingo, and he hated himself for it. He hated himself, but he couldn't resist her. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was in love with two females. So far he had kept himself from advancing past first base, but he didn't know how much longer he could hold out; he couldn't keep his paws off her.
He remembered a couple days earlier, when they shared a beautiful moment at Elise's favorite spot on the roof, their snouts locked in a warm embrace, her arms hung around his neck, his tightly wrapped around her back, just above the base of her tail. They separated after remaining conjoined for an extended period of time, and Alex whispered that he had to go, nuzzling the side of her head and neck, feeling the soft warmth emanating from her fur. She asked quietly if there was any way he could spend the holidays with her, and he said he had to spend them with his adoptive family. At Elise's request, he never brought up Natalya unless it was absolutely necessary. The dingo removed her arms from around his neck and placed her paws on his chest, and Alex slid his paws to her hips and let their noses touch as Elise confessed that she wished he didn't have to leave, her mesmerizing brown eyes begging him to stay. He apologized, then put his mouth to hers, sensing her tongue swimming around in his mouth one last time before he walked her back to her office.
And this was just one experience he had with her. Alex excused himself for cheating on Natalya by convincing himself that Elise needed him to keep her stress in check, but that reasoning only belied the fact that the husky wanted her. Maybe not as much as his real girlfriend, but he still desired somewhere deep inside to taste the forbidden fruit that presented itself as an older, voluptuous, striking, strong-willed, (and by some descriptions) crazy Australian dingo whose heart belonged to no one except him. As Alexei looked in the mirror though, something odd started to happen. He felt woozy, and his vision faded into solid bright green. He closed his eyes, trying to recover, but everything stayed vibrantly verdant. He seemed to have an out of body experience as he felt he had no more control of his self, everything was just, green. Eventually though, the color started to dissipate, until he began looking at a cloudy image of what appeared to be a husky puppy in the arms of a grown husky. The view zoomed in, and he saw the pup from the eyes of the older canine. He was even able to look around a bit, but everything except the dog's arms and the infant looked tremendously out of focus.
He observed the fur pattern on the husky's arms and realized suddenly, Is... Is that... me? Alex deduced that somehow, this was his own future self, and that this bundle of fluff he was looking at was his daughter. He had no idea how or why this was happening, but it answered some questions, and raised many more. At least I live long enough to become a father, the husky thought, but how am I seeing this? Who's the mother? I can sense the name of someone, but I think that's my daughter. It starts with a "K"... Kristen, maybe? No, that's not right... But that's not important anyway. I need to find out why this is happening right now. He noticed his daughter's eyes. The big, brown, beautiful eyes. Even at this extremely young stage, he concluded that she must have inherited her mother's eyes, and that caused a revelation, Wow. My daughter's eyes... They remind me of Natalya's. Wait... Oh my God, is Natalya the mother? Who else has eyes like that? Whoever his mate was approached him, putting her arms around his waist and observing her new child. All he noticed were her pronounced snout and pointed ears, both also signs of Natalya, and just as the canine female opened her mouth to speak, the dreamlike sequence became distorted, resuming its original greenish hue, before he returned to reality, where real life Natalya was shaking him in a panic. He snapped back into consciousness and began breathing quickly, then calmed down and looked at Natalya.
Natalya looked back then asked worriedly, "Alexei? ALEXEI?! Are you okay?!" Alex nodded slowly, and the vixen threw her arms around him, not caring one bit that her male was still in the buff, "Oh thank God! I was so worried... You were up here for twenty minutes, and I came to see if you were okay but you were in this catatonic state and I was so scared... Oh, Alexei, never do that to me again." "Natalya," Alex said slowly, "I don't know exactly what just happened, but I do know some. It'll sound absolutely ridiculous, but you have to hear me out. I saw the future. I saw our daughter." Natalya stared at him blankly, "I... Our... Are you sure?" Alex nodded, and she continued, "Alexei, I... Don't know what to say. I can't know for sure if this really happened or not." The husky reassured her that he was telling the truth, and the vixen responded, "I think we should just let this go for a while... We'll ask Jen about it, she's pretty good with supernatural crap. But for now, just put some pants on so you can come downstairs and join the festivities."
Alex did just that, and he and his love soon forgot, at least temporarily, about Alexei's momentary clairvoyance. Alex spent the early morning playing with Nathan, who followed him around like the little brother he had come to be, and Natalya chatted it up with Jessica. At some point, though, Bronco pulled Alex aside and told him his present to him was in the kitchen. Pavlov followed the dark feline into said kitchen and found a stark white envelope on the table. "What you see before you is the product of your long and ardent work for the protection of your nation, your continent, and your world," Shadowstep opened up, handing him the envelope, "You might have thought your service was purely volunteer work, seeing as you hadn't been compensated since you started with us. I'm here to tell you the opposite. Son, you made the U.S. government's nice list this year, and I couldn't be any more damn proud of you." Alex looked over the envelope, and saw the H.U.R.T. insignia was emblazoned on one side. He carefully opened it up and pulled out a piece of paper and a check. The paper declared that the check was his paycheck for his time at H.U.R.T. as a squad leader, with considerations taken for experience, performance, and professionalism. He knew Bronco had said everyone at H.U.R.T. was overpaid, so he took his time reading the check, and when he got to the monetary amount, he still doubled over in shock from its sheer mass. It was six figures. For a little over three months.
"Bronco, is this for real?!" Alexei asked incredulously. "You bet your ass, son," the cat replied with a beaming grin, "I told you H.U.R.T. pays well. We are the first and last line of defense in North America. We get taken care of. I had a similar reaction the first time I got a paycheck from the task force. Only difference here is, if you do similar work to what you've been doing, expect that value to skyrocket. You'll be worth more than some CEO's in no-time, and no one will ever know unless you tell them." "Holy shit," Alex choked out, "Holy fucking shit. This is why we're in so much debt..." Bronco laughed loudly and clapped him on the shoulder, "No shit! Welcome to the one percent, my boy." Pavlov thanked him immensely, then proceeded to tell him that he needed to inform Natalya.
The husky caught up to his love, who was simply watching the light snowfall out a window on the second floor, and he lovingly wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and kissed her on the cheek. "Alexei," Natalya sighed, "I can feel your heart pounding out of control. What's wrong?" He told her absolutely nothing was wrong, and handed her the check. She looked it over placidly at first, then gasped and covered her mouth with a free paw, looking back at Alex, uttering, "Alexei... Do you realize how much money this is? We could get our own place with this money... If you keep earning like this, my engagement ring better have the Hope Diamond on it." She turned around, grabbed her male and passionately kissed him, then broke off adding, "I feel like we have the world all to ourselves now. You, me, and I guess our future daughter. I keep thinking about us, Alexei, as mates, as parents... Do you think we'll make it?" Alexei Pavlov thought clear back to the beginning of his adventures, when he imagined holding a gorgeous, deeply red-furred, red-haired vixen, and observed the picture of beauty standing before him, locked in his arms. He forgot all about Elise for that moment in time, not even considering letting his future mate go, and kissed her gently before declaring, "I know we'll make it, Natalya. We'll always make it."