Covalence: Chapter 5: Chapter 2

AN: Thanks Isha for helping preread and edit this chapter!

Lyte felt much better after a slice of pizza; spicy tamato sauce was truly the balm that healed all wounds. From how the zeraora perked up, he figured the other three slices had been similarly rejuvenating for her.

They set out with full bellies and renewed spirit. According to Zinnia, they still had a couple hours before they could head to the warehouse, which meant it was a perfect opportunity for her to hit the gym. She sounded quite cheerful about it. He had been wondering (anxiously) about what sort of impact this was having on her usual day; the answer was, apparently, not much, except she was going to the gym in the afternoon instead of the morning.

She left him in the lobby, where the pikachu spent most of the time resting and practicing using his new crutches. They were helpful for standing and walking; he found he could sort of three-legged scamper without them, but he didn’t need a doctor to tell him that was hard on his other legs. Lyte had hoped it would tire him out, but it did the opposite, leaving him restless and even more eager to be home. Of course, his keys were also in his coat, so he was locked out until they picked it up anyway.

After she was done at the gym (somehow looking less tired than when she started) and with a few assorted errands, it was finally time to pick up his things. They headed to the tram station to ride down to Old Town, where the pikachu had a moment of moral panic about being unable to pay the fare; Zinnia just rolled her eyes and carried him on anyway.

Everything seemed so much closer when she was the one walking. It felt like he blinked and they’d gone from the station to the warehouse. The shadows were lengthening, the warmth of the sun fading; the zeraora walked around the building to a different side than he’d entered through before. An unassuming metal door was set in the wall, its paint flaking, a shielded slat set into it at eye height. Eye height for someone tall, anyway. A floodlight above it cast a pool of light onto the aging bricks of the street.

The zeraora didn’t even look at the handle. She breathed out, breathed in, stood up straighter, and knocked.

The slat remained closed; Lyte squinted, shielding his eyes from the glare. The floodlight neatly concealed a little camera peering down at them.

The door unlocked with a loud clunk. It swung inward, revealing the bouncer towering within. The hide of her wide belly was tan and sectioned like plates; everything else was covered in stony gray hide thick enough to be a suit of armor. Lyte recognized her; he’d seen the rhydon around the last two nights, though he couldn’t recall her name.

She knew his, though. Kind of. “ZK and the incredible flying ‘chu,” she rumbled, voice like the grinding of gravel.

Lyte winced. I’ve got a nickname now. Great.

“He’s with me.” Zinnia said, her voice imbued with the strength and finality of steel. She strode in, as though daring the door guard to stop her.

The rhydon—a foot taller than the zeraora and at least triple her weight—did no such thing. “Come in,” she said curtly, stepping out of the way and waving them through.

They stepped into the back section of the warehouse, the part Lyte had only been in while half delirious. He didn’t have much of a chance to look around—he spotted lockers, the medic section, and confirmed there were indeed showers—because Zinnia marched like a cat possessed, heading right for the dividing wall. She barely slowed to pull the door open, carrying him through and making for the upstairs bar. The zeraora took the stairs two at a time, vaulting up to the mezzanine platform. She set Lyte on the bar—actually set, gripping him and flipping him around to place his footpaws on it.

The pikachu wobbled, dropping onto all fours to steady himself. He was almost dizzy from the rush. It’d taken less than a minute from walking in to arriving at the bar. I mean, I appreciate the hurry, but isn’t this a little much?

“Is it here?” Zinnia asked. She couldn’t look any more impatient if she tried; her scarf-tail lashed behind her, her digits drummed on the bar, and her foot was tapping on the floor.

“I’m looking, hold on,” Lyte said. He crawled forward, dropping to the underbar and then swinging himself down to the shelves underneath it. A little three-legged scurrying later and he’d got it. His raincoat was right where he left it, its hi-vis yellow soothing to his soul. Lyte pulled it on and patted his pockets, relief washing over him as he felt his orb and keys still in their proper spots. “Thank the Three,” he said. “It’s all here.”

“Great,” Zinnia said. “C’mon.”

“I am,” Lyte protested. “I’m doing this three-legged, remember?” He scrambled to the nearest ladder (there were a couple, for pokémon his size) and started climbing. It was a pain; he had to use his arms to pull up his left leg, since his right didn’t work. By the top, his arms ached a bit, even though it hadn’t been that far. He shook them out. Good thing I’m small. I’m gonna be so ripped in a month.

A big yellow paw scooped him up before he even realized what was happening. Lyte squeaked and clung to it, disoriented. Zinnia had always been so good about letting him climb onto her; she almost never just picked him up without asking. “Hey, what’s the rush?” he asked, settling back against her paw and arm.

“Just want to get this over with,” she said. The zeraora turned toward the stairs, took one step, and stopped. She didn’t say anything, but the snort of air from her nose had the energy of “ah, fuck.”

“Yes, what is the rush?” said a dry and raspy voice. The cacturne proprietor rose into view, climbing the stairs with plodding, methodical steps. “Leaving so soon?”

Oh. Lyte figured out what the rush was. But, why?

Mr. Moe stepped onto the landing, planting both trunklike legs there and blocking the way down. “I wanted to congratulate you on your victory, ZK. You scurried away so quickly last night, I didn’t get a chance.” He gave them an unsettling smile, the spines around his mouth interlocking like thin, snaggly teeth.

“I had more pressing concerns,” Zinnia said, hefting Lyte. Her voice was cold.

“Of course, of course.” The cacturne didn’t take his eyes off her. “It was a very impressive performance. Almost like an entirely new you. You haven’t been sandbagging all this time, have you?”

Lyte spoke up without thinking. “I mean, she kind of can’t not—” he started, before he got a faceful of kitty belly and a warning squeeze from Zinnia’s cradling paw.

The zeraora continued as though he hadn’t said anything. She didn’t even bat an eye. “He pissed me off,” she said, “so I kicked his ass. That’s what happens.”

The pikachu squirmed so he could see again, peering between the two of them.

“I see. It’s an issue of motivation,” said the cactus. He barely moved as he talked, his arms held out to his sides. Conserving energy, maybe; it was a disconcerting effect. “Well, I hope for your sake you can keep it up. You’ll have a lot more matches to defend your title.”

Zinnia drew herself up, forcing Moe to tilt his head back to maintain eye contact from under his pointy hat. “Not tonight I don’t,” she declared, staring him down. “I have to look after my friend here.”

Lyte thought for sure he wouldn’t take this, that he’d fire back with something. But the cacturne just shrugged. “Sure,” he said. “More time to get everyone hyped up. Tomorrow, though! And remember”—Mr. Moe waggled his spines at her—“you want that sweet champion prize, you have to earn it.”

“I will.”

Huh? What’s he talking about? The pikachu almost asked about it, but changed his mind. I can ask Zinnia about it later. There was something more important he had to bring up, especially since this might be the last time he saw the cacturne. “Um, Mr. Moe, sir,” Lyte said. His voice sounded humiliatingly squeaky in his ears. “Sorry for the, um, big scene last night.”

“Don’t apologize,” Zinnia hissed at him. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Mr. Moe swept the air with one arm. “Don’t worry about it, kid. Looks to me you already paid your dues,” he rasped.

“You’ll, um, have to find another bartender, too.”

“Already did.”

“Oh, uh, I’m glad.” Lyte swallowed. Ask for it, you can do it. Don’t show weakness. Internally, he burst into crazed laughter. “Don’t show weakness?” Too fucking late for that, self! The pikachu steeled himself as best he could, which was really poorly. “Can I—” He nearly choked. He’d forgotten to breathe in first. After rectifying that, he tried again. “Can I have my pay for the last two nights, then?”

The cacturne casually swept his arm back. “After deducting the damages to the bar, you actually owe me money. But I’m not a prickly guy. I’ll call it even.”

“That’s a load of muk,” Zinnia growled. “Lyte didn’t break anything.”

The cacturne gestured one spiny arm towards the panels of wood veneer hanging on the mezzanine platform’s back walls. The one Lyte had hit had not been replaced; several cracks radiated out from the pikachu’s point of impact. The splinters had been cleaned up, but a big chunk of the panel’s lower half was missing.

“Yeah? You think he was self-propelled?” she said. “That fake stuff is worthless anyway.”

“It’s high quality veneer! And he was in charge of the bar,” Moe said, with an air of regret, as though there was nothing he could do about it. “It’s his respons—”

“Cut the shit,” the zeraora snarled. She stepped closer. Sparks crackled along her whiskers and between her claws, prickling Lyte’s nose with the sharp scent of ozone. “Pay him what you owe and go collect your ‘damages’ from Thwompert.”

Lyte shivered on her behalf; just the thought of speaking to the cacturne like that terrified him. But she didn’t waver at all. The zeraora was in her element here, focused and confident (and more than a little angry). It was hard to believe this was the same person who’d stumbled over chairs at the coffee shop, who’d timidly shrank into herself at the urgent care. The part of him that wasn’t petrified thought she’d never been hotter.

Moe looked up at her, unflinching. He appeared to be mulling it over. “All right,” he said at last. “If it’s that important to you, I can make an exception.” (Lyte felt a scornful fuzz of static at the word “exception”.) “But I don’t have the cash prepared. I like to do things by the book, you know.”

“Then have it tomorrow,” Zinnia said. “I’ll bring it to him.” She stalked over to the cacturne, looming barely a foot away. (Much too close for Lyte’s taste, held between them both.) “Out of the way, please.”

“Aye.” The grass-type shambled slowly to the side, maintaining eye contact with her the entire time. “See you tomorrow evening, champion,” he rasped.

The zeraora went for the stairs as soon as there was room, paws drumming as she shimmied down. “‘Already paid your dues’ my fucking ass,” she said to herself, though her voice was definitely loud enough for Moe to hear. “Trying to scam him out of honest wages.”

---

Zinnia insisted on taking him to her favorite curry place again. By the time they were done with dinner (a quiet affair) and on the tram home (to Lyte’s home, anyway), the sun had set, the sky fading from brilliant orange to a deepening dusky blue. This time, Lyte had insisted on paying, both for dinner and for his tram fare.

The pikachu watched the twilit plants and buildings pass by out the window until it grew too dim and it was just his own face looking back at him, tired bags under his eyes. Then he turned away, leaning back against Zinnia’s belly. He was sitting on the big cat’s lap again, atop her yellow-furred legs with their zigzag black stripes. Nobody had threatened to sit on him this time; they’d just defaulted to this. Lyte liked it.

He’d been desperately missing his connection orb all day. Now that he actually had it back, he wasn’t sure what to do with it. Tell people I broke my leg, or foot, or whatever, he thought. But whom? Jodi? His static? His parents? Three above, all of them, probably. But they’d have questions, and he’d have to explain it, and all put together it was too overwhelming to think about. Maybe he could do it tomorrow.

Lyte tipped his head back, ears squashing against Zinnia’s midsection. He looked up at her, at the underside of her black-furred muzzle, while she stared out the window into the darkness. She seemed tired, spent; the energy she’d had while confronting the cacturne was gone. “Hey,” he said.

Her double-notched left ear flicked out and down, aiming towards him.

“What did he mean back there? About like, ‘earning the champion prize’ or something like that?”

The zeraora took a long breath in and let an even longer sigh out. “There’s a big prize for taking the top spot,” she explained. “But there’s some strings attached. It’s not paid out all at once; you have to do a bunch of fights to get it, and if you win, you get a bit of it.”

“What if you lose?”

She held up her paw and rolled her digits closed, clenching it into a fist. Then she opened it all at once. “Poof. Gone.” Zinnia slumped her head onto that paw, leaning against the window even as the rattle of the tram jostled her around. “So I’m probably getting a grand total of fuck all for it, with my charge issues.”

“Oh. That sucks.”

“Is what it is.” She sighed again. “That’s the other reason I never bothered beating him before.”

Lyte pressed himself more firmly against her and nuzzled at her lower belly. Surely she’s thought of this, but… “You know, there’s a way we can solve the charge problem.”

“Hm?” The zeraora looked down at him, neck contorted, chin pressed to chest so she could see him beaming back up at her. “Oh. No.”

“Why not?” the pikachu protested.

“I don’t want to… use you like that.”

“We don’t have to do that—”

“I wasn’t suggesting it,” Zinnia said, icily. “I meant in general. You’re so much more to me than just a source of charge.”

“Am I?” Lyte thought, then realized he’d said it out loud. He laughed. “We barely know each other. I mean, I want to get to know you a lot better! But you haven’t even been to movie night.” We haven’t even kissed, he thought. But we have cum in her stomach, part of him piped up.

She slumped back against the seat that was just slightly too small for her. “I want you to be more, then,” she amended. “I don’t want to just—just take from you like that.”

“Zinnia, please. It’s not taking, I am offering it to you. You can split the winnings with me if it eases your conscience—Three know we both need the money—and it’s not like I’m going to have anything to do for the next while.” He nuzzled at the paw resting next to him, trying to lift it so he could push his cheek against her pale blue pawpad.

The big feline didn’t let him; he may as well have been trying to lift a mountain. She grit her teeth, grumbled, and sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

That’ll have to do for now, I guess. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

As they rode on, Lyte couldn’t shake the feeling that he did know her better. His memories of the previous night were hazy, but when he was inside her, he’d felt something sizzling against his cheeks. Her feelings? Emotions? He really wanted to do it again. Why doesn’t she?

---

With keys in paw, Lyte let them into the gated small-mon apartment complex where he lived. The lobby was an island of golden light in the deepening evening; the front wall was all glass, door included, but they couldn’t see past the sidewalk outside. He directed Zinnia towards his apartment—turn left at the back hallway, then take the stairs at the end to the second floor—but she was distracted by something. He glanced up at her and followed her gaze.

The lobby had a pair of short tables with some chairs of various sizes; Zinnia was tilting her head at the nearest one. “Is this place really for small pokémon?” she asked, confused. “Everything seems big enough for me.”

Lyte stared at the table, consciously perceiving the chunky wooden antique for the first time in months, maybe years. They’d both blended fully into the background to him. “Uhh, yeah,” he said. “This is just the lobby. You’ll see.”

With a bit more nudging, she padded on, following his directions down the hallway to the stairs. These were more unusual, shorter and shallower than the standard step size. (“Hm, I guess I’ll have to start taking the elevator,” Lyte mused.) But it was when they stepped out onto the second floor that Zinnia really understood.

She had to duck to step through the door, and the ceiling beyond was low enough it brushed against her ears. This part of the building was actually outside, leading to a balcony walkway with apartment doors on the left and a view onto a shared courtyard space on the right. It would have been downright claustrophobic if it weren’t open on one side.

“I see,” Zinnia said. She hunched over further, keeping her ears away from the third floor balcony above, and set out. All the doors on the left were shorter than her, even hunched over. “Which one’s yours?”

“219,” Lyte said. “The numbers count down here, it’s actually about in the middle—right here, actually. Here, put me down.”

She did.

The pikachu wobbled on his hindlegs while she retrieved his crutches from her bag. It wasn’t like his right leg couldn’t support him; it was fine as long as he didn’t forget and try to use it. Maybe I can get some sort of brace, he mused, so I can’t make that mistake. He managed to stay standing until he got his crutches, then leaned on them while he unlocked the door. “Finally,” he said, pushing it open. “It’s good to be home.”

Lyte hobbled his way inside, then spent the next thirty seconds messing up the order of operations required to take off his coat without falling on his face. It was like an annoying puzzle; have to get the crutches under the coat, have to lean on one side while reaching across to try and get the arm off…

Eventually he just gave up and shucked it like he normally did, tossing it onto a hook by the door and falling over in the process. He sighed. “Probably going to be doing that a lot.” The pikachu picked himself (and his crutches) back up and turned to face the door.

Zinnia stood outside, crouched down low enough that she could peer through his doorway. She looked concerned. “Will you be all right by yourself?”

“Yeah, I think—” The pikachu sagged, his ears flatting. “Wait, by myself? You’re not staying?”

The big cat snorted with rueful laughter. “Lyte, there’s no way I can fit in your place,” she said. “The door is what, three and a half feet tall? It barely comes up to my chest!”

He had to admit, she did look quite funny folded up like that. But still. “You’ll fit! You’re flexible,” Lyte said. “I’d really like it if you did. Just the once. In case I need something.” The words felt tingly on his lips, his spirit buoyed with excitement and apprehension in equal part. There was just something about inviting her in, even in circumstances like this.

The zeraora shrugged and leaned forward, bracing her big paws against the doorjambs so she could poke her head in and look around. “Will I actually fit…?”

Lyte turned to study his apartment with her. He liked his place; he’d lucked out when shopping around. His unit had one main room, deep rather than wide; he had a couch on the left, a low table in front of it, and his teleorb on the right. At the back, there was a little kitchen on the left and the door to his bedroom slash office on the right. Some of the furniture was large for him, especially the built-ins—they were more meant for someone two to three feet tall, not nine inches—but he made do. “See, I’ve got space. My couch folds out into a big cot—we can move the coffee table.” He looked back up at her, beaming.

Seeing the zeraora crouching just to fit her head through the door did give him some second thoughts. Her whiskers and cheek tufts made her head look nearly as wide as the door itself; she made his entire apartment look tiny. “I dunno, Lyte. What about your bathroom? Can I even fit in it?”

“Probably not, but don’t worry about that! See that key by the door?” He pointed; she twisted her head to look. “That’s for the big bathrooms, they’re all the way down at the end of the hall. There’s even showers in there, I think.” He shrugged. “I haven’t checked in a while. Pretty sure, though.”

Zinnia still looked unsure. Her mouth twisted. “I really shouldn’t,” she said.

“What? Why not?” Lyte asked. “You said it yourself, you’re concerned if I’ll be okay! Well, you asked about it, anyway.”

“I am, but…” She trailed off and frowned, brows furrowing as though deep in thought. “I don’t want to impose,” she said.

“I’ve been imposing on you all day,” the pikachu countered. “Seems only fair to impose back!” He thought about it a moment longer. “Honestly, still seems like me doing the imposing. My cot probably isn’t as nice as your floor mattress. I mean, bed.”

That got a chuckle out of her. “Hey, it gets the job done.” Even with that little moment of levity, Zinnia still seemed oddly reticent, like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words. Eventually she sighed. “I’ll stay a bit longer. Make sure you’re settling in okay, and there’s no surprises or anything. All right?”

Lyte nodded, eager to agree to anything that meant more Zinnia. He’d spent all day with her, yes, but most of it had been stressful and draining. It didn’t really feel like they’d spent time together at all, so the idea of just relaxing with her sounded dreamy. “Okay!” he said. “I’ll get the door.” He shuffled to stand against the wall next to it, holding it open for her.

The zeraora took her paws off the doorframe and leaned inside. Lyte immediately realized he’d misjudged her size; she was huge. He thought he kept his place pretty clean—sure, there were some piles of mail lying around, but he at least kept it out of the walkway—but “walkway” meant something vastly different for him than it did for Zinnia, especially on all fours. Paws as big as him planted on the floor, squeezing between his shelves and coat rack and end table.

“Watch your head,” he cautioned, unable to do much else. It’s a good thing I’m over here, he thought. If I were in front of her, seeing her prowling on all fours like that… I’d be weak in the knees. Except not his right knee, he realized with a little scowl. Can’t even have figures of speech. Lame. Wait, fuck—

She was still passing through the door beside him, walking like she was balancing on a tightrope to keep her paws away from his stuff. Her scarf-tail twitched above and behind her, arched against his four-foot ceiling, swaying side to side to help her balance. As soon as it was through the door, Lyte realized the danger, but there was nothing he could do. Zinnia’s tailtip thumped against the door, then swung the other way, sweeping a FWO2 mini and an empty vase off the top of his under-window bookshelf.

The plastic figure clattered lightly against the floor, while the vase landed with a tremendous crash. Ceramics were always far louder than their size suggested, and the vase was no exception. It didn’t even break, but disaster nearly ensued anyway; Zinnia had already been twisting her head to see what she’d touched and the noise made her flinch, disrupting her delicate balance. The zeraora mrowled and dug her claws into Lyte’s floor with a tooth-buzzing screech.

For a terrible moment he thought she was going to fall and take out everything around her in the process, but he underestimated her. His floor acquired four sets of score marks, but Zinnia managed to catch herself, frozen in place with her hackles raised. There was no sound except her panting breaths. Lyte realized he was holding his.

Time resumed. Some miracle of feline instincts allowed Zinnia to navigate her way to his couch without knocking anything else over. It was a deep couch, much deeper than someone Lyte’s size would need; he had a stack of pillows to lean against, since the back was so far away. She brushed them aside and took a seat, folding her legs up and wrapping her arms around them. Even folded up like this she barely fit, her ears flatted away from the ceiling and her tail curled around to rest in front of her. The zeraora seemed a bundle of nerves, her eyes wide, tailtip twitching, fur standing on end. “Sorry,” she said, eventually.

The pikachu realized he was staring, mouth still open. He shut his mouth and the door, then began hefting himself over to the couch. “It’s fine! No harm done,” he said, putting as much reassuring cheer in his voice as he could manage. “Nice save. I, uh, I thought I kept my place neat enough. But I guess for you it’s still pretty cluttered. My bad.”

The zeraora let out a nervous chuckle. “I can’t judge. Looks great to me,” she said, whiskers twitching. She relaxed just a little, her hackles lowering a bit. Her ears lifted back up, brushing against the ceiling.

Lyte crutch-walked up to her. Looking up at her like this made her look colossal. No, it wasn’t the angle—he’d been looking up at her like this all day—it was seeing her in his apartment, taking up most of the couch and filling the space floor to ceiling. Her three-toed footpaws were splayed on the floor, claws still peeking out, sawtooth tail fluff twitching atop them. Her handpaws were clasped together around her striped, folded knees, fidgeting a little. The pikachu realized he was staring again. “Here, uh, let’s get the coffee table out of the way and set up the cot,” he suggested.

“I don’t need the cot, I’m not staying over,” Zinnia said.

“It’ll be comfier than being a pretzel on the couch.” He shrugged. “At least let’s get the table out of the way so you can stretch your legs.”

That was compelling enough for her. Working together—which meant Zinnia doing all the work and Lyte staying out of the way, telling her when her leg was clear or warning her about her tail—they pushed his coffee table off to the side, nestling it neatly against the wall. He convinced her to unfold the cot, too, the couch body producing a surprisingly long mattress already wrapped in sheets (“I wash them each time, they’re clean”).

The zeraora did find it more comfortable, leaning against the wall with her legs stretched out in front of her. Lyte shared the cot with her, leaning against a leg. The future hung over them both like an ominous cloud, but the warm light and pleasant company kept it at bay for the evening. It reminded Lyte of a sleepover, the aimless chatter, the casual closeness, the feeling of shirking responsibility together.

It got late before either of them realized, late enough that Zinnia admitted she wasn’t going to go home that night. Instead, she investigated the big bathrooms (status report: serviceable), this time managing to let herself out of and into Lyte’s apartment without knocking anything over.

By the time she returned and settled back onto the cot, the pikachu had nearly worked up the courage to say goodnight properly. “Thanks so much for helping me today, and for staying and keeping me company,” Lyte said. He fidgeted with his forepaws, gripping at them and twisting them together.

“Yeah, of course,” Zinnia said. She hesitated. Probably still thinking it was her fault even if she didn’t say it. “Goodnight. Sleep well.”

“You too. There’s a blanket in the closet if you need it.” The pikachu stood there, feeling increasingly awkward. Then he leaned over her paw to hug it, burying his face in its furry back and planting a kiss right between the mirrored black zags. Lyte pulled back, hoping his cheek spots hid his blush. “Um, goodnight!” He shuffled in place, slowly turning around to leave.

That was when two big zera-paws gripped him from both sides, scooping him up into the air. Lyte squeaked as Zinnia lifted him up, still facing away from her, unable to see what she was doing. Warm breath ruffled his headfur. Then her nose nuzzled at the top of his head, whiskers brushing at his ears, the smooth fronts of her fangs gliding against his fur. She gave him a much longer kiss between his ears, the warmth of her lips palpable even through his fur.

Lyte squeaked again. He shivered and froze and melted all at once, going limp in Zinnia’s paws. They squeezed at him, like a big, firm hug. He could not have said how long it lasted, but eventually it was over. The zeraora gave him a rough-tongued goodbye lick and set him back down, leaning over to place him on the floor and not the cot. “Okay. Now you can go. Goodnight,” she said.

“Y-Yeah,” Lyte squeaked. He peeked up at her, seeing a warm smile stretched across her entire muzzle. “Thanks so much, again. Goodnight!” With that, the pikachu made his escape, hobbling off to his bedroom and only nearly wiping out once in his haste.

---

Of course, he wasn’t going to his bedroom to sleep right away. Especially not after that. The pikachu shut his door behind him and hopped—ow, no, bad—and carefully pulled himself up into his desk chair. He fired up his desktop orb, a soft thaumic hum filling the room as it glowed to life. With one paw, he logged in, drumming his digits at it to pull up the browser. The other paw draped down between his legs, lightly fondling at his sheath. His thin tip was already peeking out, moisture beading at the end.

Was it awkward looking at porn when Zinnia was in his living room, barely ten feet away? Well, kind of. Especially because he was searching up her species, specifically. But it’s not weird. We’re just not, y’know, at that point yet, Lyte argued. Another thought reared its head: what if you fall over and can’t get up and need her to help you but also your dick is out—

Shut up and enjoy the porn, Lyte admonished himself. His thoughts were surprisingly compliant. Arousal did that to you, he supposed.

The search results were just as sparse as the last couple times he’d done this. Zinnia’s species was truly quite rare. There was basically only one… actress? Porn star? Adult content creator? Eugrh. Lyte didn’t know what the term was these days. He pulled up her OnlyMons and combed through a bunch of teasers for things he didn’t have access to. Maybe there was another older public release he’d missed, buried somewhere. I probably should be paying her at this point, Lyte thought. He sighed. But maybe paying for porn right now of all times isn’t the best move…

He probably would have subscribed already if most of her stuff didn’t have this hypno-RP sorta theme to it. Not to yuck any yums or whatever, but it wasn’t really his thing. Though it wasn’t just her, he’d seen some of that in his wider searches—aha! Here’s one. “Pussy on pussy action”, hmm?

This vid’s co-star was a big blue and black cat that stood on all fours, head level with the zeraora’s chest. A luxray; a female luxray, the camera was eager to reveal, dipping below her star-tipped tail to show the view behind her black rump fluff. That explains the title. Ha ha. Framed by black haunches, the luxray’s slit was understated, a faint hint of pink nestled in pale blue fur. Thin enough even her cordlike tail could cover it, something she took advantage of as she crouched her front down, wiggling her rump in the air and teasing the camera with peeks behind her tail.

Hers was a stark contrast to the plump black lips between the zeraora’s thighs, pressed together in a triangular shape one would have expected to see on a more canine pokémon. It’d surprised Lyte the first time, but he wasn’t complaining; that zera-spade looked really good squishing against the luxray’s snout! She really nuzzled in there, licking and slurping and working her tongue, coaxing pants and moans from the bipedal kitty. (So he imagined, anyway; he had it muted, but her mouth was open and her expression clear.)

Lyte stroked at himself, imagining he was in the luxray’s place. I could do that. I could do better. I’m small enough to use my tongue and both paws all at the same time… He huffed softly, trying not to make much noise.

On the orb, the luxray tried to come up for air; big striped paws gripped at her head, claws digging into her mane to shove that drenched snout back in and hold her in place. She took a deep breath, shuddered from nose to tail, and went limp. The paws released her; the lioness stumbled back a step, wobbling and barely staying standing.

This again? Lyte grumbled. I mean, it’s still hot, but…

Ahead of her, the zeraora tugged at her spade, showing a teasing view of slick pink within. The luxray went for it, sniffing deeply at that treasure of a cookie. The camera cut angles to show the luxray’s face, focusing on her eyes with their characteristic red sclera. Her pupils were wide, and as she eagerly lapped away, they dilated further, yellow irises almost completely hidden.

Lyte hadn’t seen that before. Was that still acting? Most of this person’s stuff seemed to start with oral—it was in most of the teasers—with the other partner always facefirst in her—

Something clicked together in his mind and he got chills, even colder than the time Weft slipped and doused him in iced coffee. The pikachu pulled up a search engine in a new tab; “zeraora phe” was as far as he got before it autosuggested “pheromones”. With his stomach sinking through the floor, Lyte clicked through to the first result, a glossary of Schedule I substances.

Zeraora Allomones

(Though colloquially called pheromones, they are truly allomones, as they act only on other species and not other zeraora.)

The pikachu couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Gotta have their SEO.

The genital secretions of the zeraora contain multiple psychoactive compounds. Together they act as enactogens, stimulants, and psychedelics, with powerful mood-altering and aphrodisiac effects. While they have limited effectiveness outside the electric type, their effects are especially pronounced on rodents of genus Fulgobuccis, where they induce vorarephilic tendencies…

That’s me. I’m rodents of genus Fulgobuccis. Lyte slumped back, in shock. He glanced at his door like it was the only thing between him and a live bomb. Zinnia’s presence seemed much more menacing than comforting with the knowledge that she was specifically adapted to prey on his species. Not just species, my entire genus! Was she… doing this to him? No, he wouldn’t be worried about it if he were hopped up on her pheromones, right? (Allomones, his brain helpfully corrected.)

He looked the other way, at the door to the bathroom, considering if he could open the window and jump. For a moment, he entertained it—he was only on the second floor, that wasn’t too high a fall—then discarded it. Don’t do anything stupid.

Wait, he knew who to ask about this! One of his tabletop friends was a salandit, a lizardlike species known for its psychoactive poison gas. If anyone knew about this stuff, Alexei would, right? Lyte lurched forward and grabbed his orb so fast he nearly fell out of his chair.

*Please be up,* he prayed. His heart leapt when he saw the read and typing indicators. But the typing went on, and on... *Typical Alexei.* Lyte twirled his zigzag tail to ease his nerves.

Lyte read the salandit’s novel and let out a big sigh of relief. Okay, so, I’m definitely not under the influence. I would’ve noticed. He glanced down at himself; his dick had nearly fully retreated during his research and texting. Erection went down, double check.

He was still far from relaxed, though. Why didn’t she tell me? To be fair, he could think of benign reasons. She seemed shy, and this would be incredibly awkward to explain; Lyte tried to imagine how he’d do it, how he’d tell someone that his musk would make them overwhelmingly horny and suggestible and into vore. That sounded awful. But then she went and dated me anyway.

And she definitely knew. That was probably why she didn’t want to stay over; why she had her windows open. Even that time back at the coffee shop, when I shared my charge with her and she dropped me. Right before that, I sniffed her paws. That’s why she freaked out! Lyte felt a swell of respect for her. All those times she could have just… shoved my face in her crotch… like last night… but she didn’t.

It popped like a soap bubble when he realized he’d set the bar underground. Yes, she was trying to protect him from herself—Hm. Don’t like that thought. Trying to keep me from being exposed, that’s better. But that was just the decent thing to do. Why hadn’t she told him? It all came back to that.

Lyte slipped down from his chair and slowly walked to his door. “Zinnia?” he called, raising his voice.

There was a shuffling behind the door, the distant muffled sounds of moving sheets and blankets. “Yeah? Everything okay?”

He opened his mouth and nothing came out. He couldn’t do it. What if she’s just waiting to pounce on me…? To eat me? Maybe I should just pretend everything’s fine. He blinked. Wait a sec. Lyte, you idiot, she already did eat us! We were practically begging her to eat us again and she said no!

“Lyte?” Zinnia said, louder, her concern clear even through his bedroom door.

She’s had plenty of chances to do whatever she wants to me. And she didn’t. He shook his head. He was still afraid, but he could do this. Can’t judge her for not telling me if I can’t even ask about it, he thought. He gathered his courage; a stammer crept into his voice anyway. “W-Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

He nearly bailed. Might actually have, if he’d thought of something else to say in time. Instead, the pikachu squeezed his eyes shut. “About your phero—your allomones. Your scent.”

She was silent.

“I’m not mad,” he said. He reached for his door handle, despite the anxiety screaming at him that she was dangerous. He just couldn’t see her that way. She wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble today if she didn’t care about him.

“I was going to,” she said, voice quieter. He could barely hear it through the door. “Before we… did anything, definitely. But it never seemed like the right time.” She sniffled. “I’m sorry. I should have. I was… scared. Too much of a coward.”

“Yes, you should have. But it’s okay. Now I know.” Lyte pulled his door open. A blast of cold air hit him in the face; she’d opened his window, next to his front door.

The zeraora was lying on the cot, propped up on some pillows, his blanket and sheet tented by her knees. She looked at him with utter confusion, like she couldn’t imagine any reason why he’d open his bedroom door.

He took one swinging crutch-step out and she freaked.

“Wait wait don’t come any closer,” she said, fear and shame strangling her voice until it cracked. “I—this is just stupid, there’s no other way to put it—but I heard you, and I was…” She trailed off and buried her face in her knees, ears angled flat in mortification. “You can’t come near me right now,” she said, muffled.

Whoops. The pikachu’s own ears wiggled flat and back up, embarrassment tempered by the comedy of the whole thing. He chuckled. “Sorry. I guess I wasn’t as subtle as I thought.”

“Don’t apologize! It’s your apartment,” Zinnia said, still talking into her knees. “I shouldn’t have stayed over.” Her scarf-tail twitched frenetically, thwacking against the wall, the bed, everything in reach. “I can fix this. I’ll go shower and go home. And I’ll wash your sheets for you.”

“Hey, relax,” Lyte said, trying to calm her down before she broke something with her tail. “It’s okay. No harm, no foul. I’m not kicking you out.” He leaned on his left foot and swung forward another step.

The zeraora’s ears twitched at the sound of his crutches. She lifted her head to see him move and recoiled as if struck, her eyes wide and fearful. “Stop! Stop. Don’t come any closer,” she pleaded.

Oookay. “Okay,” Lyte said. “I won’t. But why not? I know what I’m getting myself into and I’m okay with it.” His brain was still catching up to him. Ah, wait. If she doesn’t want to have sex yet—that’s totally fair—then she’s right, I shouldn’t get close to her. He braced himself for a stern chastising.

Except the zeraora didn’t say anything like that. She curled up tight, head on her knees. “Because I want it to be real,” she said, in a small, barely audible voice. “I don’t want to take advantage of you. I already exposed you by accident, I know I did. That’s why you… y’know, want me to eat you again.”

Lyte followed along until the very end, where he shook his head and couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s not why. Zinnia, I’ve known I was into vore since I was a pichu. I promise you didn’t do that to me. If you don’t believe me, ask Weft.”

She stared at him, pupils wide in the darkness.

“And I’ve been crushing on you way before I got to cuddle your paws at work that one time. That’s the only time I ever smelled it, I think. So you didn’t do that to me either.” It felt like he’d violated some cardinal rule by telling her about his crush. Which is ridiculous. We both just admitted to jerking off to each other and I’m worried about her knowing I’m into her? “As far as I can tell, I’m unaffected right now. So whatever it is we have, it’s real to me.” Should I do it? Drop the L word? It’s only been… a week? Has it really only been a week? It felt like so much longer. Lyte agonized and eventually wimped out. “Zinnia, I really really like you.”

The zeraora, silent the whole time, still didn’t reply. Eventually she sniffled.

Lyte realized she was crying. His remaining confidence evaporated. “Are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

Zinnia shook her head and sniffled again. She struggled to talk. “No, I just… I don’t deserve you at all,” she said, voice thick. “I like you too.”

“I think you deserve the world,” he said, confidence returning. “We all do.” The pikachu shook his head and chuckled. “Listen to me, I’m getting real sappy.” He looked at the zeraora, her eyes glistening in the dim light. “Hey, I’m sorry for interrupting you earlier. Probably gave you a heart attack. Can I make up for it?”

She gave him a blank stare.

Lyte leaned on his right crutch and gestured with the left. “Can I come closer?”

The zeraora hugged herself tighter and let a frustrated hissing-growling sound rumble in the back of her throat before she released it. “I want to say yes so badly,” she said. “But I don’t want to do that to you.”

“As the one it’s being ‘done to’, shouldn’t that be up to me?” Lyte said. “At least partly?”

“Partly, yes,” Zinnia said, reluctant. “But I’ll have to live with it too. And—” Her voice got quiet. “I don’t exactly know what it’ll do to you,” she admitted.

Lyte tilted his head at her, surprised. “You don’t?” Things made more sense now; she was letting anxiety run away with her, like he often did. The pikachu shrugged. “Eh, I read about it. It’ll make me super horny and even more into vore than usual. Seems fine.” He hadn’t actually read the whole page, but the way Alexei talked made it sound like aphrodisiacs were all pretty similar.

“If you’re sure,” she said, uncertain.

“I’ll just get on the cot. How’s that?”

Slowly, she nodded. “Okay.”

The pikachu clunked and swung his way over to the foot of the cot, where he dropped his crutches and struggled his way on top of it. There was just the bottom sheet here; Zinnia had pulled the top sheet and blanket back, wrapping them around the shapes of her raised knees and shoulders. He looked up at her and she looked back, both staring at each other in the gloom. Lyte broke the silence first. “You can say no,” he said. “I can go back to my room and paw off just fine.” It felt silly, given their size difference, but Lyte told himself it was right. “Size isn’t consent” works both ways.

The big cat looked like she was really thinking about it, but after several seconds she shook her head. “No, I… I really want this,” she whispered. She unfolded herself some, relaxing, her knees angling out to the sides underneath the blanket.

Lyte grinned. “I’m gonna burrow under the covers, then.” When she nodded, he went right for them, diving onto his belly and doing a three-legged squirm to shuffle his way under the sheet and blanket. A couple body-lengths later and he emerged into open space, into the tent between her legs. It was nice and warm here; Lyte took a breath.

For a moment it seemed like nothing happened. The air just smelled like her, but much headier. In the middle of his second breath, he felt warm all over, his heart lurching like someone had reached into his chest and squeezed it. His dick throbbed to life, pressing between his belly and the sheet. “Wow, that’s intense,” he gasped. So that’s why the luxray had trouble standing.

“You good?” Zinnia asked, with clear concern.

His next breaths would have floored him if he weren’t already crawling. Pins and needles tingled through his body, his tapered shaft hard as a rock and leaving a trail of precum on the sheet behind him. “I’m good,” Lyte panted. “Chu…” Am I good…?

After a few more, he didn’t care. He was between her thighs, paws on the supple, squishy flesh nestled in the center. It was too dark to see, but he didn’t need to see anything at all. Lyte stroked her, running his paws over the plump triangle of her spade. He heard her let out a gentle gasp. That’s what he wanted; more of that. His own pleasure wasn’t a concern at all, not to his allomone-addled mind. All that mattered was right in front of him. The pikachu leaned in to nuzzle her, to pant into her, then set about putting his tongue and paws to work just like he’d dreamed of.

Musky, faintly salty, it didn’t matter what her taste was exactly because it was hers and he needed more of it. He nuzzled in deeper, warmth squishing at his snout, his nose and paws covered in slickness. Her flavor coated his tongue, her scents filling his every breath. On some level, he registered again that the zeraora was so unlike other electric-types, so unlike his times with Jodi, the emolga; no static to her fur, no hint of ozone at all.

Zinnia shuddered, slumping back against the pillows she’d stacked. Pleasure crowded out any lingering concerns she had. The little pikachu between her legs seemed to know just what to do, his dexterous paws stroking at her netherlips and delving inside to explore her tunnel. All the while he was nuzzling at her, lapping away with his tongue, servicing her far better than she could manage with her own massive paws. What he lacked in experience he made up for with enthusiasm, eager yet restrained enough to be gentle and not overwhelming. “Oh,” she huffed, letting her mouth hang open to pant. “Lyte…” Not too loud, she thought. There’s people around…

She’d been fantasizing about this for longer than she could remember, but only in recent months had the fantasy settled on his species, his name. Only in the last week, an actual personality. Only in recent days had it become something concrete and not a vague yearning. The zeraora tried to reach for him, to pet him or paw herself or do anything, but a wave of pleasure swept her back, leaving her slumped and mewling in bliss.

Lyte had found what he was looking for, consciously or otherwise. His little arm was fully buried in her and kneading at the roof of her pussy, sending jolts of pleasure arcing up Zinnia’s spine. His short snout was dug deep into her cookie, tongue lapping at the nub hidden within. It was all too much; she’d needed this so badly she couldn’t handle it. The zeraora shuddered from all the sensation, overwhelmed in it, struggling not to be carried away. “Wait,” she panted, voice breathy and strained. “Slow down!”

She may as well have been pleading with a rock; the pikachu was lost in her scent, adrift on a chemical sea. Her grunts, her whines, all her sounds were music to his ears. Some of them might’ve been words, but he was far past comprehension now. His head felt fuzzy, dizzy, not that he needed something like balance when he was sprawled against her, shoulder-deep in her slick and squishy spade. His needy shaft was completely forgotten, throbbing against his belly. Zinnia was his whole world.

The zeraora closed her eyes and tensed her paws, claws extending, hoping for a respite that never came. Her pants turned to moans turned to desperate whimpering gasps, all pretense of being quiet forgotten as her pleasure rose like a wave, building and building until it crested and smashed down on her, washing her away in tumbling, ecstatic incoherence. She might’ve yowled, she might’ve seized up and made no sound at all. She wasn’t aware enough to tell.

When the world resolved itself back into shapes and colors and familiar objects, she was still lying there, on the cot in Lyte’s apartment, sprawled back against a pile of pillows too small for her (just like everything else there). She was warm, content, happy; Zinnia had never felt better in her life. Getting hit by lightning had just been knocked down a peg. “That… was amazing,” she panted.

Underneath the covers, Lyte squirmed against both her legs.

Zinnia blinked, realizing that at some point she’d clamped her legs together, squishing the pikachu between her fluffy thighs. She relaxed, opening them and letting him slump back against her and the sheets. “Sorry. Was it, um… was it good for you too?”

There was no reply. She just felt the pikachu panting, his breath brushing against her folds. His little paws felt at her, gently stroking her plump lips, tugging at them to feel her stretch. Still sensitive from her climax, each touch was like a little jolt, making her ears twitch and her breath quicken.

Lyte was still breathing heavily, recovering from the vise-grip of her thighs. He hadn’t hit his own peak, though the thick scents surrounding him kept him close. One paw stroked himself, mindlessly; he licked his other paw, soaked in her slickness. It drenched his fur, marking him, but it wasn’t enough. He needed more. He needed to be hers. There were no thoughts, her scent commanding him on a primal level, bending his instincts not to her will but to its own, honed by thousands of years of adaptation. He nuzzled at her, deeper and deeper still.

“Lyte?” the zeraora asked, starting to worry.

Pleasure struck her like a bolt from the blue. So soon after her climax, it was jarring, her oversensitivity magnifying pleasure and discomfort alike. She gasped and shivered, struggling to make sense of the sensations between her legs. It was like he’d spread his paws, pulling her open wide, not just side to side but up and down as well. Another surge of pleasure made her moan, overpowering the tenderness, the feeling of gaping only getting more intense. Zinnia panted and whined and fought it, pushing through to throw off the blanket covering her.

The pikachu had buried not just his face but his entire head into her spade, her stretchy lips wrapped entirely around his neck. His ears had folded back, their black tips still poking out from her pussy, blending in with its dark flesh. He was squirming, good leg shuffling against the sheets, trying to push his way further in with little success.

She stared at him, at his ineffectual struggles. Even more into vore, indeed. That’s enough of that. The zeraora reached for him, intending to grab him and pull him out.

That was when he zapped her. Zinnia knew how to get herself off; a little zap went a long way, more than making up for the size of her paws and digits. This was something else. This was like touching a live wire directly to her clit. The zeraora went rigid as sparks arced up into her core, blue chest patch aglow as she soaked up the electricity; charge and ecstasy alike coursed through her circuits. Her folds clamped down on Lyte and rippled, trying to claim him the same way they’d claimed his charge. Muscles spasmed, relaxed, and spasmed again, each possessive clench pulling him an inch deeper until he had been swallowed to his belly, only his rump and tail and hindlegs still outside her.

It felt incredibly, intoxicatingly good. Zinnia panted, her breathing labored. She didn’t know what was going on but she didn’t like it. She had to stop him, stop it, stop herself. It was bad to grab a pikachu by the tail and she knew that, but lunged for it anyway.

Inside her, Lyte was in true bliss. Slick, warm walls squeezed him from all sides, silken soft and welcoming. This was everything he’d ever wanted, better than he’d ever imagined. Every dizzying breath made his whole body tingle, pulling at his strings like a master puppeteer. Inch by inch, he slid from the cold outside into the zeraora’s endlessly inviting warmth. The ripples slowed just as they pulled his shaft into her, a sudden reminder of his throbbing need, pressed between his belly and her hot, slick walls. It was all the invitation his instincts needed. The pikachu squeaked into the zeraora’s depths, thrusting into the snug grip of her tunnel with feral abandon. Already on a hair trigger, the very first buck of his hips pushed him over the edge; the rest were just because he couldn’t possibly stop.

Zinnia got her paw on his tail just in time to feel the wild thrusting and surge of static. Lyte electrified himself within her, his muffled “chuu!” audible even with layers of flesh and muscle in the way. The beginnings of the thought Oh fuck were obliterated by pleasure so intense the zeraora saw spots, her body no longer responding to her commands. The pikachu wasn’t the only puppet, for she too was helpless against her own instincts. The two of them were the latest actors in a millennia-old play; her body knew the steps, and it was going to dance them whether she liked it or not.

Lyte shuddered, hips still thrusting, splattering his staticky seed all over himself and all over the slick walls gripping him. Each surge of cum came with a surge of charge from his cheeks, and each crackle of sparks made the zeraora’s tunnel ripple, shoving him even deeper. Zinnia’s spade flexed again and again with slick shlrps, creeping over the pikachu’s rump until it was gone. His legs and tail hung from her cookie, gaping it until it quivered again, squelching and squeezing them, her inner muscles working as though they’d always been meant for this. Just the tips of his paws still poked out between her legs; one more involuntary clench sealed them away with a wet shlurk. Only his zigzag tail remained, and it was quickly disappearing. Zinnia’s body knew where he belonged, even if she denied it, and it worked in concert with the pikachu to put him there.

Drifting in dreamy afterglow, the pikachu was almost completely ensconced in warmth, just his twitching tail feeling the cool air of night. The walls rippled insistently at him, smushing him facefirst against a solid wall, a ring of muscle blocking his way forward. There was no thinking involved; her folds squeezed him as though asking for a password, and the answer crackled instinctively from his cheeks, sparks soaking into her flesh. The gate ahead opened wide for him, a final convulsion of muscle shunting him through.

He slid into a slightly more open space, just big enough to curl up in. In dazed wonder, Lyte stroked along the velvety soft walls, feeling them squish under his paws like a cushy foam mattress. Her heartbeat faintly pulsed under his digits, loudly pounding in his ears. The pikachu had always struggled to fit in, to feel a part of something; now he felt more at home than he’d ever been in his life. This was it, this felt right. He finally relaxed, taking deep breaths of the air inside the zeraora’s deepest depths. It was fresher, somehow, but no less intoxicating; his softening shaft twitched, starting to slip back out. Each breath and wave of tingling warmth urged it on until it was poking against the plush walls, his refractory period wiped away. Lyte ground against them and they kneaded back at him, steadily rotating him, pulling his tail the rest of the way inside. The pikachu hardly noticed, drenched in arousal head to toe, taking panting breaths of heady, humid air, humping into the flexing walls.

The kneading slowed, the sounds of squishing quieting, Zinnia’s heart dominating the noises of his thrusts. Her womb slid Lyte into place, a smoothness on the walls brushing against his head, settling against his cheeks. For a moment, static fuzzed at him, a flicker of electric blue illuminating the slick chamber sequestering him. Her uterine walls glistened, wrinkled and fuzzy like the skin of a pecha berry; a matte band ringed them, its glow already fading. The band squeezed at him, satiny smooth flesh squishing his cheeks, asking him a wordless, primordial question. It felt so familiar, like he knew it even deeper than his bones.

The zeraora had been incapacitated by pleasure the entire time, swimming in and out of awareness every few seconds to see the bulge that was Lyte moving progressively upward until he was curled in her lower belly, just a swell beneath her abs. Each kink of his sawtooth tail had sent incredible feelings coursing through her as her body dragged it up through the entire depth of her pussy, in through her cervix, until he was fully tucked inside her, where he belonged. The thought was both hers and not-hers at once, but she was in no state to interrogate it. She draped her paw over her belly, feeling like she was watching someone else move it, even as she stroked at the swell. It felt so good to be full. No, she didn’t feel full so much as not-empty, like a hole she didn’t know was there had finally been filled.

Underneath her paw, her womb massaged the pikachu (her pikachu), kneading him into place, slightly shifting his lump underneath her black fur. Then it went still, leaving just his faint rhythmic motions twitching against her paw. It felt like her body was waiting, like everything in the world was holding its breath except for her, her panting the only sound she could hear.

Lyte had not and could not have thought about the question, but he didn’t need to. Even if his brain weren’t submerged in zeraora allomones, even if he were fully aware and of sound mind, there was no world where he would have ever said no. The pikachu let his charge flow, the band flaring a brilliant cyan. Her womb responded, muscles shifting to cradle him, molding to his shape like it’d been made for him, as though she were a puzzle and he the missing piece. It made it even easier to thrust, squeezing at him, thick plush walls slipping against his tapered cock.

Zinnia groaned as his charge flooded her, setting not just her chest aglow but her paws and whiskers too, illuminating the tiny apartment with lambent electric blue. Her body waited no longer, hugging and squeezing at the pikachu within her, letting her feel every detail of his movements as he rutted against her sensitive innermost walls. She wasn’t addled by her own scent, but she felt euphoric anyway, almost delirious from the sensations. It felt orders of magnitude better than she’d imagined, almost enough to buoy her up and blow her away, but one thing weighed on her. One thought kept her tethered. Lyte.

The zeraora reached out to him, static fuzzing at the edges of her perception, at all her senses at once. “Lyte?” she mumbled. She didn’t know how they’d done it before, she didn’t know if they could do it again, but she needed to feel him, needed to know he was all right after everything. Her vision blurred, eyes fluttering; she clutched at her belly with her paw, claws digging into her fur.

The static dissolved. For a moment, she felt him nestled within herself, the edges of his mind, his adoration and trust for her. A deluge of sensation followed, of pure allomone-induced lust and arousal, overpowering and irresistible: the zeraora would do no more thinking tonight. She jerked back as though shocked, slumping against the pillows. Lyte shuddered within her and peaked, flooding her womb with his seed and her superconductive circuits with pure, rapturous ecstasy. Her eyes rolled back, paws clutching at the sheets and blanket, claws leaving them in tatters. Zinnia shuddered and convulsed, clamping down around Lyte and hugging him tight within herself. There was a twinge as the gate to her womb slammed tightly shut, but she didn’t notice or care, the single moment of pain drowned in an ocean of bliss.

The zeraora yowled, thrashing until she collapsed, shuddering and twitching a while longer until she fell completely limp. She lay there, sprawled out, panting against a pillow. It was one of the few still on the cot after her throes of pleasure had scattered the rest across the room, and it smelled like Lyte, the scent bringing a dopey smile to the kitty’s face. Zinnia hugged the pillow to her chest and passed out, tangled in sheets on a cot that barely fit her, in an apartment far too small for her. Its owner was just a lump in her lower belly, already spent and asleep, snuggled up to her cushy walls and dreaming about being her new tenant.