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Solace

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When gazing at the night sky, there are few views that would compare to what you can see from the burrows.

Oh sure, you can say that a clear night on the tallest tower in Zootopia can be romantic, but all the bright artificial lights below only blot out the true beauty of the celestial canvas above you.

No. For Sharla, the best place to really appreciate what the cosmos can give you is on a grassy hill overlooking Bunnyburrow, at the latest hour, when all the little farmers have gone to bed, and the quiet town has gone dark and dormant. At that peak hour, the sky has the center stage and is always ready to dazzle and amaze her with every twinkling dot and shooting star.

For that little black sheep, it was like the greatest show in the universe was being performed for her and her alone. And ever since she was a tiny lamb, she adored it so much that she wished that she could just reach out and grasp that heavenly majesty, just for the briefest moment. All she ever dreamed of was to one day be up there with the stars that she loved so, so much.

But dreams and wishes were almost as untouchable as those stars were from where she sat.

No matter how hard she studied and worked for it, Sharla never made it into ZASA, never got to be the astronaut that she said she would, and never had her chance to embrace her celestial beloved.

She was earth-bound, and that was that.

Nevertheless, even when trapped in Bunnyburrow, stuck serving tables at Cuddy’s Diner, she still had her special place on the hill where she could be alone with the stars and quietly contemplate their grandeur.

But it was on this night, Sharla’s silence was broken by the rustling of bushes.

“Hm? Someone there?” Sharla softly asked as she stood up. She would have spoken more loudly, but she was a little worried that maybe being heard by someone lurking in the bushes could turn out to be a bad idea. When in doubt, trust your prey instincts.

Tensely, she held her breath and listened for a reply, but there was no response, only the breeze.

Sharla relaxed a little, figuring it must have been her imagination playing tricks on her, which was a little out of the ordinary, considering how calm she felt up here. She was about to sit back down, when suddenly there was another, closer noise from the bushes, and a large shadowy figure emerged from the brush. Sharla bleated in shock and her feet gave out, dropping her roughly to the ground. Whoever this interloper was, his silhouette made him look enormous and threatening; visions of missing mammal posters hanging up at the post office with her picture on them flashed before her eyes.

“Oh! Oh shoot, sorry,” the shadow apologized in a gentle and somewhat familiar drawl. “I-I didn’t know this spot was taken. I’ll jes’-- ACH!” The figure cried out painfully as Sharla shined her pocket flashlight in its face, revealing him to not be some looming monster, but rather just a stocky fox holding a small metal flask.

It didn’t hit her at first, but she quickly realized just who she was looking at.

“…Gideon? Gideon Grey?” She furrowed her brow and lowered the flashlight a little, relieving the fox’s blindness while still keeping him in sight.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me, darlin’.” Gideon rubbed his eyes and then blinked a few times to readjust to the darkness. “I, ah, take it you heard of m-- Wait, is that Sharla? Gareth’s sister?”

Though it wasn’t all that necessary for a nocturnal animal like a fox, Sharla still turned the flashlight on herself to give him a better look. “Heh. Yeah... It’s Sharla,” she said with a bashful chuckle and a shrug. He was the last mammal that she’d expect to run into on this hill at this hour, and despite the rumors she had heard about him turning over a new leaf, the friendly grin on his snout was almost as surprising as their encounter.

“Well shoot, this is a small world, ain’t it?” Gideon slapped his knee and barked a short laugh. “I always figured you’d be up there in space about now. You, uh, visitin’ home?”

“No, I, ah… I still live here, actually.” It was hard to hide her embarrassment in admitting it. After all, the fact that the former schoolyard bully still remembered her childhood boasts stung a little; just enough for Gideon to take notice.

“Well, uh, anyhow, I should prob’ly get going.” Gideon scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably and started to turn to leave. “Didn’t mean to intrude--”

“No, wait,” Sharla called out to halt him, which actually caught the both of them off guard. “You can-- You can stay. …If you’d like, that is.” She then patted the grass next to her as an open invitation.

Gideon paused and stared at her for a moment. Little pastry wheels seemed to spin in his head as he considered her offer, and then he shrugged, walked over, and plopped himself down next to her.

Though he wasn’t as large as he appeared when she first saw him shrouded in darkness, he still seemed so much bigger than her when sitting by her side; almost like the two of them never closed the gap in height since they were children. But being this close to him somehow felt different, and not even in the sense that she didn’t feel intimidated by him anymore, but rather that she couldn’t fathom ever being afraid of him in the first place. He just seemed so… Unassuming. So unlike who he used to be.

And, taking notice of the flask he was still clutching in his paw, maybe a little sad and alone.

Like her.

“So, ah, h-how’s your brother doing?” Gideon asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Oh, well, you know,” Sharla murmured, “he’s off at Zoo-U, getting his medical degree…” She tried not to be bitter about her younger brother’s success, but she still hated being the one left behind.

“No kidding?” Gideon asked with sincere astonishment. “Your brother a doctor… Huh. Never would have figured.”

“What about Travis?” she asked in return. “You two always seemed joined at the hip.”

“Heh,” Gideon snickered and shook his head. “I suppose we kinda were, weren’t we?” His free paw hand placed itself on top of the flask’s top, but he still left it unopened and simply patted it absently. “Well, Travis got himself into some highfalutin school too. Studyin’ biology or somethin’.”

“Him?” Sharla could barely contain her laughter, which she was worried about offending Gideon with at first, but he quickly joined her in amusement over the idea of the sneaky little ferret being a scientist.

“I know, I know,” he groaned playfully. “Truth be told, Travis was always brighter than me, so it only makes sense he’d put that brain of his to good use.” He then craned his head lower to her and uttered in a low voice “Jus’ don’t tell him I said that if you somehow ever see him again. It’ll give him a big head.”

She giggled at the aside and chirped “sure,” but then a moment after something clicked in her head. “’Ever see him again’? You don’t think he’ll come back to visit?”

Gideon didn’t reply at first, or even look at her. Instead he started unscrewing the cap on his flask and stopped after a few turns. “Don’t see a reason for it,” he mumbled, and then turned to her. “Do you?”

“Gideon, I--”

“Aw, heck. I’m sorry.” He ran his paw through his hair as he suddenly apologized. “You don’t need to hear any of that. How, uh… How’ve you been doin’? You must be pretty busy if I haven’t seen you around this whole time.”

“Oh, I dunno,” Sharla said aloofly. “Been working at Cuddy’s these days.” She didn’t want to discuss it, but she knew it would have to come up eventually, so it might as well be now.

“That old grassy-spoon?” Gideon asked, and then exhaled in an almost discontented manner. “Well that figures. They don’t really cater to my type around there.” And with that statement, he finally took a swig of his flask, and immediately sucked his teeth at the burning taste. “Not even when you come callin’ with a business proposal.”

Sharla sensed some bitterness in there. She tried to think of something to say, but Gideon opened his mouth before anything came to mind.

“Would you have any problem eating a pie made by a fox?”

“No,” she replied softly, feeling some guilt by association, “I don’t see why I would.” After a pause, she then added “Bet it’d taste as good as any,” and gave him a comforting smile, “Maybe even better.” She meant to cheer him up, but Gideon still had a dark cloud over his head as he swished the flask back and forth in his paw.

“Sorry, Sharla,” he apologized, not taking his eyes off the flask. “I shouldn’t be disrespectin’ where you work like that. I-I’m sure everyone you work with is real nice and your customers are friendly and all…”

She knew he was just trying to be nice, but everything he said only dug in and twisted her heart. Her coworkers weren’t nice; they gossiped and sniped behind each others’ backs. Mr. Chittlins, the short order cook, was always so nasty and abrasive. And as for Mr. Cuddy… Well, Gideon wasn’t the first pred to be rudely turned away by that old goat, and the things she heard him say as soon as they were out of earshot made her skin crawl.

The customers weren’t as bad, but they were still very demanding.

And cheap.

Nothing worse than busting your tail to keep a pack of sows fed, only to end up with little more than pennies for a tip.

Maybe some mammals would be happy to be in her place.

“Sharla?”

But not her.

“You alright there, darlin’?”

She wanted to be a hundred-- No. A thousand miles above it all.

“Hello? Earth to Sharla?”

“Huh?” She snapped out of her daze, realizing that she had lost herself in the stars again. Gideon was leaning over close to her, with an open paw poised to wave in front of her face.

“You were kinda spacin’ out on me there. Eh heh,” Gideon tried to chuckle at his own joke, but the look on her face must’ve discouraged him, so it only came out forced and embarrassed.

“Sorry Gideon. I was just thinking about my job, s’all.” The concern on the fox’s face seemed to be asking for some sort of reassurance, so she shrugged and said “It’s fine, I guess. Work is okay.”

“But are you happy?”

It was so strange hearing him ask that, but even stranger that she couldn’t find it in herself to just give him the straight answer; no, she wasn’t; she was as unhappy as all hell. She woke up every morning dreading her job. Dreading the daily reminders that she was still stuck here

So why couldn’t she just come out and say it?

“I’m not really sure,” she quietly replied. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught him taking another pull on his flask, and it occurred to her to return the question. “What about you? Are you happy here?”

Gideon held a pensive look on his face for a moment and rested the flask on his chest. “I suppose,” he said, but then he tilted his head from side to side in indecision. “Maybe?” Finally his shoulders slumped and he sighed, “I’m not so sure I know neither.”

“Well it can’t be all that bad. Best baker in the tri-burrows, right?”

“Well… That’s only on account of the fact that all the good ones move to Zootopia to work for the big league bakeries like St. Painda. I just was lucky enough to be the last big fish in the little pond. You know what I mean?”

Sharla forced a little lopsided smile and nodded. “Yeah, I think I do.”

“But…” Gideon shifted his weight, resting himself on his side to face her more properly. “I guess you’re kinda right. I’m doin’ what I like. Don’t have no boss breathin’ down my neck.” He shook his head and sniggered a little. “Even buried the old hatchet with the Hopps clan. They’re partners with me.” He wagged a thumb at himself. “Me. The former holy terror of Bunnyburrow, Gideon Grey. Could you ever believe it?”

If he asked her this a year ago, she would have said no, but word traveled fast around town when folks started seeing the Hopps’ produce truck making deliveries at Gideon’s bakery.

“Still,” he sighed, “most folks might be friendly when you’re ringing them up, but they don’t care to say hello when they see you walkin’ around town. That’s for sure…”

“I’m sure they’ll come around some day,” Sharla suggested optimistically.

Gideon, however, didn’t seem as hopeful.

“Well, if they ever do, I probably wouldn’t deserve it.”

“What’re you talking about?” Former bully or not, she had trouble accepting that someone could deserve to be disliked when they turned a new leaf like he did.

“It’s like I said, I was a red menace back in the day. You of all mammals should know better than anyone.”

“Why?” she asked incredulously. “Because you tried to steal some dumb carnival tickets when we were kids? Because you shoved my brother around from time to time?”

“Well, I--”

“Gideon,” she cut him off, “We spent the tickets on those dumb little styrofoam planes that break as soon as you use them. And Gareth? He forgot about you bullying him just as soon as you stopped.”

“Okay, but--”

“And if everyone in town keeps treating you like you’re still the same person that you were when you were little, well that’s their problem, not yours,” Sharla pressed on; it felt like a floodgate had been released in her head. “Alright? They’re the ones who’re still living in the past, not you. All they want to do is just hold you back, b-because they know they’re stuck with their own failures, a-and they won’t be happy until you’re stuck too.”

She saw that Gideon was a little unsettled by what she was saying, but there just wasn’t anything stopping her now as the words just stampeded and stumbled out of her mouth.

“Y-you can’t let them beat you, Gideon. You can’t let them make you into t-the disappointment they want you to be.” Her body was trembling; shaking with indignation. “You have to keep m-moving forward, or you’re tr-trapped like they are. Like I-- I…”

It was the lump in her throat that ceased the ranting flood, choking herself on her own words. She was so caught up in her frustrated bluster that she didn’t realize who she was really talking about until it was too late and the emotional gut punch hit her, knocking all the wind out. Her mouth moved speechlessly, unsure if there was anything left to be said.

And then she felt it.

First it started with a welling around her eyes, followed by a wetness down her skin, and then finally settled and soaked into the wool of her cheeks.

She was crying.

Without sobs.

Without moans.

Crying.

“Aw, come on now, girl,” Gideon sympathetically cooed, and he dropped his flask to the ground as he started patting around his dungarees for a handkerchief. “Hol’ on, must be here somewhere…”

Sharla didn’t hold on as instructed. Instead she snatched up the flask and tilted her head back with the spout pressed against her lips, letting the dry taste of whiskey wash over her gums and down her throat. A tingling, comforting warmth crept over her body like an invisible blanket, making everything feel just a little bit better. She wasn’t much of one for drinking, but now seemed as good a time as any for it.

Sometimes you need a little spontaneity in your life.

“Sorry,” she murmured, handing him back the flask and accepting a red and white checkered handkerchief he held out for her. “I should have asked.”

“That’s alright, darlin’,” he replied reassuringly, while giving the flask a little shake to gauge what was left. “Shoulda offered to share it in the first place.”

She laughed a little at his near unflappable manners, and started dabbing the cloth to her damp eyes. “Can I change my answer?”

“Sure.”

She handed back the handkerchief and took a short breath before speaking. “No. I’m not happy. I haven’t been happy since I flunked out of college and moved back home. Just about the only time I ever do feel happy is when I’m up here. But…” She tailed off for a moment, glancing at the stars, and then back to Gideon. “I think maybe all I’ve been doing is hiding and bottling it up. I’m, ah… I’m sorry about losing my head like that.”

“Aw, don’t worry about that,” he waved a paw and chuckled. “It’s like my old counselor used to say, you were just havin’ a little breakthrough, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Maybe it was the alcohol seeping in, but there was something about his attitude that kind of perked her up a little.

“Anyway, nothin’ wrong about coming up here if it makes you feel a little bit better. Although,” Gideon paused and raised the flask, readying another sip. “It might work better if you share it with someone.”

“Is that a fact?”

“Mmm hmm,” he grunted and had a drink.

“And would that someone happen to be you?”

Gideon smirked behind the metal container. “Maybe.”

Sharla sat up; her wool still glistened with tears in the moonlight, but any other signs of her having just cried were already fading behind the smile that was breaking across her face. “You, Gideon Grey, want to come stargazing with me?” The thought seemed so absurd, she almost felt like a kid again.

“Perhaps.” He was grinning; getting almost as much amusement out of it as she did.

“Do you even know anything about the constellations?”

He shrugged. “You could teach me.”

“You’re seriously willing to do that for me?”

“Sweetpea,” Gideon said warmly, holding out his flask to her, offering the last shot. “If it’ll keep those pretty blue eyes of yours clear and dry, I will join you any and every night you ask.”

“Gideon,” she felt nearly dumbstruck as she accepted the whiskey from him, “I-I don’t know what to say…” She almost wanted to hide behind the flask and cover up this sudden wave of bashfulness. “You… You think my eyes are pretty?”

Whatever embarrassment she tried to hide, Gideon instead wore on his sleeve, as he immediately started laughing nervously while rubbing the back of his head. “Well- Uh… That is- Ah, shoot. Heh.”

And it was while watching him stutter and fluster that Sharla suddenly remembered something she had long ago forgot in all those years of studying and working towards being an astronaut.

He was her first crush.

It was before that infamous time at the Carrot Days Festival, when he and Judy got into that fight.

She had just told him she didn’t care about how he tried stealing their tickets, but the truth was that back then it did bother her. She used to see him as an outcast, a young pred who was unfairly judged by a town full of prey.

A black sheep.

All the other prey she played with said he was no good, just another selfish fox, but she had imagined that some day she’d find the courage to tell him how she felt, and that her kindness would bring out the good in him.

That image was shattered the moment he shoved her and goaded her to cry. When she told him to cut it out, it was because he betrayed everything she thought she knew about him. Everything she wanted to believe in him.

And now, over a decade later, here he was, sitting right next to her, the Gideon Grey that she knew had existed under that tough exterior all this time.

Only, he was older now.

Taller.

Handsomer.

More mature.

An adult.

Feeling a little flushed at where her thoughts were starting to take her, Sharla quickly downed the last gulp of the whiskey, looking for the push to finally say what she wanted to since they were little.

“G-Gideon…”

“Hm?”

What she used to fantasize about saying to him.

“I, uh…”

Those words that would tell him how she really felt deep down inside her heart.

“I like your fur!”

Somehow it sounded better when she was nine years old.

Having bleated it out like that, Sharla immediately wished a meteor would fall out of the sky and crush her where she sat. If Gideon was to start laughing in her face, she had it coming.

But he didn’t.

Instead, the big fox smiled, raised himself up to his knees, and leaned his face close to her; staring down at her with his icy blue eyes.

“Would you like to touch it?” he asked.

Sharla’s heart was pounding in her chest as she silently nodded. Shifting herself onto her shins to get a better reach, she calmly raised her hoof to the fluff that covered his cheek. She couldn’t believe this was happening, but as her digits slid into the soft brownish-red fur, she knew this was all very real. He felt nothing like the bushy wool that she had; he was much more plush like a rabbit, only thicker, and fuller.

After a few moments of kneading her fingers through his fur, she started to draw back her hoof, sliding it along the side of his snout. She stroked it all the way to the edge where it met his black nose, which twitched ever so slightly as he breathed. Then she brushed it forward along the shaft of his muzzle, bringing her back to where it met his jowls. Silently she repeated this same movement a few more times, basking herself in the silky sensation of Gideon’s fur.

It was around the fourth return to his cheek that the urge for spontaneity took hold again, so she grasped the collar of his shirt with her free hoof and pulled herself close to him, locking their lips together.

Looking up at him, she saw his eyes first went wide with shock, but soon she felt his black lips pressing back, and his lids went heavy, gazing at her with desire. It was only then that she realized that her heart had stopped hammering away and had now taken flight at the magnitude of the situation.

After all these years, she was finally kissing Gideon Grey, her bully with a heart of gold.

The air was still and noiseless, leaving them hearing only the subtle wet smacking of their mouths moving and meshing together. Cupping his paw around her waist, Gideon tugged her closer, and the tempo of their kissing became more assertive, with the two of them opening their mouths wider to take in more of each other. She felt his other paw dig into the wool below her jaw, trenching its way around until it encircled her head with his firm grip.

Growing bolder, Sharla darted her tongue against his teeth, tickling the sharp edges and indulging in the taboo feeling of being so warmly embraced by this big predator. While flicking the rims of his gums, she suddenly felt his flat tongue clash against hers, winding around it, and continuing further down into her mouth.

She was never got much pleasure out of other boys trying to stick things down her throat before, but Gideon’s long probing muscle felt so wild and exotic that she started to grow warm and moist down below. Without any conscious effort, she found herself moaning as the fox’s tongue slid back and forth, plunging deeper inside her with each push.

As if taking her groans of pleasure as a cue to go further, Gideon rolled into a reclining position, bringing Sharla up and onto his stomach, where she willingly straddled him. The paw Gideon had around her waist crept towards the small of her back, forking around her stubby tail, which twitched and jerked excitedly at his touch. Almost like he was kneading dough, he started to squeeze and stroke her ass in an alternating rhythm with his tongue’s movements.

Emboldened by Gideon’s untamed willingness to explore her body, Sharla extended her right leg down, heavily rubbing it against his crotch, where she felt him already stiffening with excitement. He let out a deep grunt as she dragged her shin back over his groin; his bulge now pressing tightly against his jeans. The grip on her perky behind became rougher and dug into the cleft between her cheeks.

If it wasn’t for the fact that her lips were already busy, she’d be smirking in satisfaction that a little black sheep like her could turn on a big fox like him so easily.

Giving a couple more passes over his constrained erection, Sharla decided to try out a little trick one of her friends told her about a few years ago. Drawing her leg back up, she hooked her hooved toes around the button of his jeans and popped it loose with a little twist. Then she caught the zipper at the top of his fly with one of her toes, slowly pulled it down as she stretched out her leg, unzipping him and tugging his pants a little bit down his waist, releasing him from his first layer of containment, allowing his growth to stand freer than before.

Pressing the top of her foot against his tented underwear, she stroked the underside of his cock through the thin cotton. Gideon shuddered and his tongue retracted from her mouth, breaking off their messy kiss. He reclined his head back, letting his tongue lull and flop out the side as he panted and gasped at the wild sensation of her foot-job.

“You like that?” Sharla purred. Now she was smirking.

Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was her libido. She couldn’t tell which, but there was something primal taking hold of her.

Something hungry.

Something predatory.

“T-take off your shirt.” Gideon seemed to hesitate in spite of the insistence of her tone, so she pressed her foot against him harder and urged him “Now.”

Somewhere behind the lusty fumes that were clouding her mind, she guessed that he was probably shy about his girth; worried that she might be turned off by a healthy gut, but the truth was that like all other sheep, she was naturally attracted to rams, who always looked heavyset when unshorn for too long.

However, unlike other sheep, she never cared much for the insubstantiality of wool. No, what she craved was something firmer. Something tangible. Something real.

And this husky fox had exactly what she was looking for.

Removing his paws from her body, Gideon clumsily unbuttoned his flannel shirt, wearing a nervous half-smile on his face. Teasing him as he went, Sharla swirled the tip of one of her toes around the head of his penis; the fabric around it felt already damp with precum.

When he had finally undone the last button, she gazed down at his moonlit chest, savoring the moment before she dove face first between his doughy pecs. If she couldn’t explore the vastness of space, she sure as spit was going to explore the rusty red hills of Gideon’s stomach and chest.

Rubbing her face against his thick fur, she let out a satisfied sigh. Her arms hugged around him, trying to hold as much of Gideon as she could. His body was so firm yet comfortable, that she felt like she was in heaven. Rooting her nose into his sternum, her nostrils flared and twitched, inhaling his scent.

It was intoxicating. His smelt earthy, but with a touch of sweetness. Clearly some of his ingredients must’ve mixed in with his fur while working in his bakery, making his body smell like fresh pastries.

Feeling his paw clamp down on the back of her head, it was obvious that Gideon was enjoying the attention she was giving him, but Sharla figured she still owed him a little bit more for obliging her. Reaching her foot up to the waistband of his underwear, she curled her hooves and kicked down the last barrier between his cock and the free air, finally allowing it to stand tall.

She turned her head a little to get a glimpse of his prick and found that just like his tongue, it was so much more enticing than what she was used to. The red rod of flesh looked so thick, and that knot as the base was even more engorged than the shaft; she wondered with amusement if she could possibly take the entire thing all at once.

Placing the flat of her foot against his member, she resumed stroking him, now in direct contact, from base to tip, brushing her sole along his length. When she reached the top of his cock she pinched and tweaked it with the crook of her toes, causing Gideon to shudder and whine at the mixed sensation it sent through his body.

She couldn’t help but giggle a little at how easy it was to tease a big strapping mammal like him. To make him hers.

But that feeling of superiority was short-lived, as Gideon suddenly returned his other paw back to her rump and roughly yanked her pants almost halfway down her thighs. At the same time, one of his claws had caught the elastic of her panties and nearly pulled them down just as far, only for them to spring from his nail and snap back against the bottom of her rear.

Sharla gasped softly, followed by a more audible cry, brought on by the fox grabbing pawful of her left cheek. Digging in deeper than before; his fat, round pinkie peeked into the edge of her moist slit, like a swimmer dipping their toe into the water to see if it was warm.

And Sharla was warm.

Grinding her face back into the thickness of his chest in an attempt to muffle her urge to bleat with excitement, she sensed Gideon’s nose twitch alongside her floppy ear. He licked and nipped at the tender flesh of her earlobe as he continued to slide his digit along her damp lips.

“Ask me,” he panted; his hot breath tickled right into her skull. “P-please, a-ask me. B-before I-- Hf!” He sharply inhaled, as Sharla picked this moment to tickle his bulbous knot with her toes. “Be-before I-I make a mess, d-darlin’!” He finally spat out.

Even when little Sharla was turning him into putty in her hooves, he still acted so considerate.

How could she not oblige him?

Withdrawing her foot from its new playmate, Sharla broke from Gideon’s embrace, pulled her shirt over her head, and leaned down, touching their wiggling noses together. “Gideon Grey,” she softly cooed, placing the tip of one of her hooved fingers to his black lips. “Will you--”

And then she stopped as the realization hit her that he wasn’t just asking her to crudely beg him to fuck her. That the ‘mess’ wasn’t just a concern about staining their pants. The gravity of it pulled her away from the drunken lust, and she felt herself smiling warmly and lovingly at him. And him at her.

“Will you take me, and make me yours? For now and forever?”

Foxes mate for life.

Gideon was so worked up, his affirmation was barely more than a sputtered breath, and he embraced her once more with a deep and meaningful kiss. The kiss led to further undressing, and soon she found herself lying on her back, naked as the day she was born, staring up at the stars as her lover rose over her, taking his place among her beloved night sky as a new and brilliant red star.

“Are you sure?” He asked, taking hold of her right leg; positioning himself for entry. “Won’t you feel stuck with me?”

She almost didn’t hear the question; she was too drawn into the depths of his eyes, which twinkled like their own two little galaxies. She didn’t have to soar into space to touch something beautiful.

It was right there in front of her.

“No, Gideon,” she replied reassuringly. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”

And like slipping a ring over her finger, Gideon pushed himself inside her, sealing their union. The thickness of his organ nearly filled her vagina with every inch, save for the daunting knot at the base.

“Mmm,” Sharla groaned as Gideon slowly retracted and pushed back in again with a slightly quicker thrust. The sensation of being stuffed like this brought her to bite down on one of her knuckles, nearly breaking the skin.

Picking up his pace, Gideon released her leg and cupped the side of her heaving chest. His thumb parted away the wool of her breast until it found one of her nipples, stiff and erect with excitement. Feeling him press the squishy thumb paw against her hard teat, Sharla arched her back, inviting him to toy with it. His other paw clasped around her hip, keeping her close for shorter, quicker pumps; smacking his throbbing lump against her clitoris. With every swing of his pelvis, spasms of pleasure shot through Sharla’s body.

It felt like she was floating, drifting away on a tide of ecstasy, so she took hold of Gideon’s wrists with both her hooves, mooring herself to his body. The desire to frantically bleat at the hurried pounding grew so great that she was left with no other choice than to bite down hard on her bottom lip. Her nostrils flared as her ragged breathing became more rapid and shallow.

Even Gideon seemed lost in the haze of sex; tail wagging excitedly, mouth unhinged, tongue hanging, droplets of saliva flinging about. Some even dripped on her face, which felt so much more arousing than she would have figured drool could ever be.

Needing to feel him more, Sharla raised her hips above the ground, causing Gideon’s cock to grind harder against the roof of her insides, intensifying the fire in her body until she reached the point where a sharp pain came from her lip and she tasted the sweetness of blood on her tongue.

Finally she opened her mouth and let loose the scream from within. But it came out like a shriek in a nightmare, formless and inaudible; deaf air. She struggled to form words, but only managed to croak “More.”

Gideon’s response sounded hollow, distant, like she was hearing him through water, but still she understood him asking if she was sure. That he didn’t want to hurt her.

She gripped tighter at his arms and nodded, mentally communicating to him that she knew he couldn’t possibly hurt her now.

And so he gave one last forceful push, barging his knot into her tight muff, tying himself inside her. Her hips felt like they were going to split at the sudden swelling that locked him in, but the sexual thrill was just too powerful for her to remotely feel pain.

All it took was one more little twitch of his pulsating base, and she immediately felt like her body was rocketing off into space. The rush of one orgasm after another pressed on, while Gideon still uncontrollably heaved his hips against her. Some primitive noise emitted from his muzzle; a mixture of chattering and whining that ended with a throaty growl, followed by a warm rush that filled her insides and spilled out of the crevices between her labia and his knot.

Soon the throbbing of his shaft slowed, bringing an end to the flow of semen that poured into her womb, and the two of them collapsed to the ground, side by side, with that bulb of flesh keeping them connected together.

“Hah… Hah… Can I-- Ngf…” Gideon struggled to regain his breath. “Can I t-tell you somethin’?” Sharla only nodded, still blanketed in the afterglow. “When, uh… When I took them tickets from you… I, ah-- I was tryin’ to get you to n-notice me.”

“Oh, Giddy,” she said lovingly, running her hooves through his fur. “All you had to do was say ‘hi’.”

His chest began to rumble. That rumble led to laughter, and soon Sharla found herself howling with him; the two of them realizing that they both wanted the same thing all along.

Each other.

When they finally settled down, nuzzled in each other’s embrace, Sharla remembered the sky above them, and inspiration took hold.

“Did you know there used to be only fifty or so constellations charted before modern astronomers surveyed the stars and decided there was nearly a hundred?”

“We starting my lessons now?” Gideon asked jokingly.

“Well, we’re going to be a while, aren’t we?”

“Fair enough.”

“Anyway,” she continued, “when they decided on a standard for what made a constellation valid, they set all sorts of rules about how far apart each star could be before it didn’t count. It helped decide a number of new constellations, but it also broke up some older ones. Like that one.” She pointed a hooved finger towards a cluster of twinkling lights in the sky.

“That one?” Gideon repeated, attempting to gesture at the same stars she was pointing at.

“No,” Sharla grinned and took hold of his arm, aligning his finger with her line of sight. “That one. Eboris. You see that one star just to the right of it?”

“Uh huh.”

“That star used to be part of the original star chart’s recording of Eboris, but when they measured its distance from the others, they realized it was too far astray to belong.”

“Just that itty bitty distance?” Gideon asked skeptically.

“Well,” she giggled, “it’s further apart than what our eyes can tell from here. However, just further to the north east…” She guided his paw a little over to another nearby star. “That’s Solitarius. Ancient navigators saw it as a single guiding star, but modern science discovered it was just close enough to that orphaned star to make a pair. A new constellation.”

“What’d they call it?”

Sharla looked away from the sky and smiled at Gideon.

“Solace,” she answered.

“Solace? Huh.” He stared at the two stars for a few moments; the wheels seemed to spin in his head before he turned and smiled back at her. “So which one is supposed to be me, an’ which one is you?”

“Does it matter?”

“No,” he replied, kissing her on the forehead. “No I reckon it doesn’t.”

And so the two of them quietly laid together on that grassy hill, content in knowing that they had finally found each other.

Two lonely stars joined in that darkness of the night.