CHAPTER 1: SANDWICH GIRL

	“You there, sir! You look like you need a sandwich! I make the best sandwiches on the station, satisfaction guaranteed or your credits back!”
	Miller could hear her even over the bustle of the crowd that always clogged the walkway on the Pinwheel's torus, a Polar Borealan by the sound of her, with quite a set of lungs. He was in the tourist quarter, on his way back from his engineering project. Cleaning out the ventilation system after the epidemic of baby Krell was an ongoing job. It wasn't fun or flattering work, but somebody had to do it. The entire aft section of the station had been stinking of lizard droppings for weeks.
	He pushed past the throngs of humans and aliens as he made his way forward. The population of the massive space station was comprised of all manner of people, civilians and military personnel alike. There were squads of Marines on shore leave perusing the cafes and stores, distinguished by their Navy-blue jumpsuits. He could see a pack of feline Borealans in the distance clad in similar attire, towering head and shoulders above their human counterparts. There were even a few lumbering Krell, the throngs of people parting to let them pass lest they be crushed underfoot by the sixteen foot long reptiles.
	The tourist quarter was the section of the Pinwheel that had the most civilians, mostly people who were in transit, either switching to an outgoing vessel or waiting for their ship to be refueled.
	The Pinwheel's actual name was Fort Hamilton, but nobody really called it that these days. It had never been intended to be a transport and trade hub, but its favorable location and the sheer size of the installation had made that somewhat of an inevitability. Thousands of people traveled to and from it every day, its massive hangars accommodating the largest classes of UNN vessels that needed refits or repair time in dry dock.
	The walkway was lined with planters and benches, with a painted sky on the ceiling and facsimiles of storefronts and buildings carved into the hull to either side of the street. The designers had posited that the personnel would not require shore leave if they could approximate the feeling of being on a terrestrial planet through the use of such decorations, and for the most part, they had been right.
	Walking along the torus, the donut-shaped wheel that spun around a central hub in order to generate artificial gravity from which the station got its nickname, one could be fooled into thinking that they were on some street somewhere on Earth or one of her colonies. The illusion was shattered on a daily basis for Miller, however. It was his job to crawl through the guts of the station, to pull back the facade and maintain the inner workings of the great machine.
	He was returning home from just such a job, and today his route happened to lead him through the tourist quarter. Come to think of it, it was getting pretty late, and he hadn't eaten yet. The gigantic lamps that were embedded in the painted ceiling to simulate natural light were already dimming.
	Miller heard the Polar shout over the din of a thousand different conversations again, her voice was like a damned foghorn.
	“Best sandwiches on the station! Get your sandwiches! You won't find a fusion of Earth and Borealan cuisine like this anywhere else!”
	Well, she certainly wanted his business more than the other restaurants that were located in the tourist quarter, maybe he'd give her a go. After all, he was in the mood for something exotic today. He had eaten Indian food, Chinese food, but never Borealan food. By the look of them, they were carnivores, a meat dish didn't sound half bad.
	He changed course, making his way over to her store. He couldn't see her through the crowd, but he could follow her voice, the scent of food growing stronger as he drew nearer. He finally pushed his way through the throngs of people and emerged to see a replica stall built into the matte white hull of the station. It wasn't much of a store, it looked more like a hot dog cart, it was the smallest and cheapest quarters that he had ever seen. It must be longer than it looked, extending deeper into the station's hull, but the storefront was scarcely five feet wide. There was a colorful awning above his head, and there was a menu that had been printed on paper and taped to the wall beside the counter.
	Occupying the window was a Polar Borealan of impressive size. Miller was no stranger to the eight-foot-tall aliens, he had seen them frequently enough that their presence had become routine, but this one was different. As well as being inhumanly tall, she was quite fat, her furry belly protruding over the counter as if someone had stuffed her inside the store. There was a door to her right, and he wondered how she would even fit through it. It was tall enough for a Borealan, but nowhere near wide enough for her. She looked like a damned marshmallow.
	He had to struggle to keep his eyes off her breasts. She was wearing clothing that was far too tight for her, he could make out an oversized t-shirt that did almost nothing to contain her figure, along with an apron that was straining against her body. He couldn't see if she was wearing pants, but they were no doubt stretched to their limits too. Her boobs were the size of bags of fertilizer that one might buy at a garden supply store, pressed together so tightly that you could have lost a small child in her cleavage.
	The aliens were basically humanoid, but they had digitigrade legs and a long, puffy tail. Their three-fingered hands were tipped with curved claws, and their feet more resembled the paws of big cats than those of humans. Unlike the usual variety of Borealan, these ones were covered from head to toe in fluffy, white fur that was spotted with black markings that resembled coffee stains.
	The two round ears that protruded from her mop of slate-grey hair swiveled to track him as he approached, her pale blue eyes widening and her pink, feline nose twitching excitedly.
	“What can I do for you, stranger?”
	She spoke with what almost sounded like a Russian accent, and he tore his eyes away from her strange appearance as he read from the list of food items that was taped to the wall beside her.
	“I dunno, what would you recommend?”
	She was so damned bubbly, as if she could scarcely contain her excitement at being asked about food, and she leaned out of the window to peer at the menu. Miller had to take a step back to avoid getting clocked in the head by her massive breasts, they were swinging like a pair of wrecking balls, and they looked heavy enough to put him in the infirmary.
	“How about a longburger?”
	“What the hell is a longburger?” Miller asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.
	“You won't know about it because I invented it,” she announced proudly, placing a furry hand on her chest for good measure. “You take minced beef, you lay it out in a sesame seed sub roll that you split lengthwise, and then you layer on the cheese and pickles and lettuce. You heat it in the oven just a little so that the cheese melts over the meat and sticks to it, and then you lather it in your sauces of choice.”
	“So it's a cheeseburger, but in a sub sandwich?”
	“Well, regular burgers are a little...small.” She waved her hands suddenly, alarming him. “Oh, not to say that small things are inherently bad, no offense intended! Just that my kind have to eat a rather large number of burgers before we're satisfied. They're made for humans you see, and humans are...small.”
	“I guess it sounds pretty good, if a little indulgent,” he said as he scratched his stubbly chin. “Okay, give me one of those with ketchup and mayo. Actually, make it about a third of one. It looks like your portions are all Borealan-sized and I think consuming that much cheese might kill me.”
	“Are you sure?” the woman asked, leaning her furry elbow on the countertop and resting her face in her palm. Miller noted that there were pink pads protruding from beneath the fur on her thick fingers, probably to make gripping objects easier for her.
	“You look a little scrawny if you don't mind my saying so, maybe you could use the protein.”
	“I'm of average build for a human,” he protested. “Why am I even listening to this? Are you going to sell me a sandwich or not?”
	“Well, I can't just make you part of a sandwich, doesn't work that way. But what I can do is make you a whole sandwich and then cut off a portion for you. I'll eat the rest of it.”
	“Oh great, yeah,” he replied sarcastically as she turned her back on him and vanished deeper into the store. “That's what I wanted to do today, pay for someone else's sandwich.”
	He drummed his fingers on the counter as he waited for her to return. After a few minutes, she reemerged from the back of the narrow store, placing a large paper bag on the counter. It was only one end of the sandwich, but it was almost as large as an entire sub in its own right, overflowing with meat and cheese. He had to admit, it smelled delicious, steam rising from the bag as he rummaged in his pocket for his wallet.
	“What do I owe you?”
	“Twenty-six credits please.”
	“Twenty-six creds! That's daylight robbery!”
	“Hey, you asked for a sandwich, and that quantity of ingredients isn't cheap. Relax, I'll make it up to you.”
	He watched as she struggled to take off her apron, her enormous body wobbling with the effort, and then she shuffled towards the door. She had to turn sideways to fit through it, her paunchy belly catching on the frame for a moment before she finally succeeded in freeing herself from its confines.
	Now that he could see her in her entirety, the weight seemed more appropriate. It was distributed to all of the right places, mostly her hips, breasts, and thighs. She was indeed packed into a pair of shorts that looked as if they were about ready to burst at the seams, her clothing was all thin and sparse as if she was dressed for summer weather, despite the Pinwheel's torus being fairly cool. He wasn't surprised, with all that fur and insulating fat she must overheat easily.
	She had no trouble moving, her weight seemed to be no hindrance at all. She was agile and spry once free of the confines of the store, the alien skipping over to stand beside him. He noticed that she was holding the rest of his sandwich in her hand.
	“So, where are we eating?”
	“We?” Miller asked, confused. “What do you mean we?”
	“Well, you just bought me dinner. It's a bit forward, we just met after all, but I figure I'll give you a chance and see what happens.”
	Miller spread his arms in exasperation.
	“You made me buy you dinner! I just wanted a damned sandwich on my way home from work!”
	“Where do you live?”
	“I'm not telling you that!”
	He turned and began to walk away, but noticed that she was tagging along beside him, peering at him excitedly with her azure eyes. Her feline pupils were round and large. He didn't like that look, he felt as if she was about to throw down the sandwich and take a bite out of him instead.
	He took a seat on a nearby bench, and the alien sat down next to him, the wooden planks making worrying noises as they sagged under her bulk. It was human-sized, and so she had to sit in a weird position, her knees up near her face and her fluffy tail trailing on the ground. There were planters to either side of the benches to provide the occupants with some measure of privacy, and her head was lost in the fronds of a tree as she struggled to brush them aside.
	Miller ignored her, opening up his paper bag and taking a bite of the sandwich. It was surprisingly good, she hadn't been overselling it. The meat was tender and succulent, while the cheese was just the right consistency to hold the whole thing together and prevent it from collapsing into a wet mess. He licked the sauces from his lips as his unwelcome companion watched excitedly, biting off a massive hunk of her own meal.
	“Good, right?” she said over a mouthful of meat and cheese.
	“Yeah, it's pretty good.”
	They sat in silence for a minute or two, Miller just hoping that she'd get bored and leave him alone, but before long she started talking again. She was burning through her massive sandwich alarming quickly, pausing to take bites as she prattled.
	“Crazy weather we're having lately. It's been so hot.”
	He stopped chewing, turning his head to glare up at her.
	“What do you mean crazy weather we're having? We're on a space station, it's a controlled environment that's kept at a constant temperature. There is no weather.”
	“I suppose you'd know all about that, being an engineer,” she said.
	“How do you know I'm an engineer?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. She reached over and prodded his chest with one of her thick, clawed fingers, gesturing to his yellow overalls.
	“I'd really prefer if you didn't touch me,” he grumbled, pushing her furry hand away. It was the size of a damned dinner plate, and surprisingly fluffy.
	“Hey,” she began, leaning closer than was comfortable to whisper in his ear. Miller scooted away from her, but soon found himself trapped between the metal armrest and her oppressive bulk. “Maybe you could put in a word with the other engineers and get them to change the thermostat. I'd sure appreciate it. This station gets too hot for my liking.”
	Miller took another bite of his sandwich, shaking his head in exasperation.
	“I don't know how you think it works, but there's no dial to change the temperature. You're kind of in my personal space right now, can you...”
	She shuffled back a little, her ass and thighs were so plump that it didn't make much of a difference, taking up enough of the bench that he was in danger of being pushed onto the floor.
	“Sometimes I get so hot, that I take off all my clothes and go chill out in the meat locker for a while. I'm not supposed to, because of this thing called health and safety, but I do it anyway. What they don't know can't hurt them, right?”
	Miller paused, swallowing a mouthful of cheese and meat before taking a disdainful glance at his sandwich.
	“You gonna eat that?” the Polar asked, pointing at it. She had already demolished her share, and she was eyeing what remained of his sandwich hungrily.
	“Not anymore,” he complained, handing it to her. She plucked it from his hand and ate it in one bite, Miller rapidly realizing that she had somehow gotten both his money and his meal.
	“So what's your name?” she asked, Miller watching as she licked her furry fingers with her tongue. It was maybe a foot long, rough like that of a cat, combing her snow-white fur as she cleaned it of grease and sauce. “Mine is Kailha, but everyone calls me Kofe.”
	“Coffee?” Miller asked, confused by her strange pronunciation of the word.
	“Kofe, it's Russian for coffee, on account of my markings.” She gestured to her round thigh, where there were indeed a number of black camouflage patterns that resembled the stains left by coffee cups. She had quite a lot of patterning, it reminded him of a snow leopard.
	“Why Russian?”
	“Because I'm Russian.”
	“You're not Russian,” he shot back skeptically, “you're a Borealan.”
	“I'm a Russian Borealan,” she insisted, “I became a Russian citizen along with the rest of my people when we migrated there from Borealis.”
	“Oh, I think I remember seeing that on the news. Fair enough.”
	“So what's your name?” she insisted, leaning closer as she peered at him expectantly with her blue eyes. Miller was hesitant to tell her, he was getting a weird vibe from this girl, she seemed a little crazy.
	“It's Jeff,” he replied. Giving her his first name wouldn't cause any problems, there must be hundreds of Jeffs working on the station.
	“Pleased to meet you, Jeff. So, do you usually go around buying dinner for girls that you've just met? You work fast, I'll give you that.”
	“I-I didn't buy you dinner!” he stammered, his face reddening in a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
	“Well you paid for the sandwich, and I ate it, so technically you did. Trying to sweep me off my feet, maybe? As the old human saying goes, the path to a woman's heart is through her stomach.” She patted her belly as if to illustrate the point.
	“I don't think that's how the saying goes...”
	“Well I'd like to go on a second date, what do you say?”
	“I say you're nuts, and I have to get home,” he announced as he rose to his feet. The Polar seemed undeterred, standing up alongside him and giving him a pat on the back. The blow was so heavy that it made him stumble, knocking the air out of his lungs.
	“I'll see you tomorrow Jeff! Swing by my store again and pick up another sandwich.”
	“Yeah, sure,” he said as he set off in the direction of the residential quarter. He could feel her eyes on his back as he made his way through the crowd, until eventually, the curve of the station's torus put him out of her line of sight.
	What a strange character. Were all Borealans that pushy, or was it just her? It was flattering in a way, he was used to pursuing women, not the other way around. Nobody had ever come on that strong before. Still, he didn't have much interest in dating an alien, especially one that would probably crush his pelvis.
	Oh well, it was probably the last he'd ever see of her.

***

	Kofe watched the human leave, a plan formulating in her head. She had taken a liking to this man, and she wasn't quite sure why. He was small, cute, slight. Yet he was still masculine, assertive. Something about his attitude towards her made her want him all the more, she wasn't used to being denied. He was only about six feet tall, and he didn't have any meat on his bones, but being spurned had ignited a strange kind of fire in her. It was possible that he just didn't like aliens, but she was a perceptive creature, she had picked up on where his eyes had been wandering. No, he was attracted to her on some level, but her feminine wiles hadn't worked on him at all...
	Males of her own kind were easy enough to bag, sex was friendly and communal, performed as much for social maneuvering as for pleasure and reproduction. There was little reason to refuse, and even if the intended result was not achieved, everyone had fun all the same.
	She was fairly new to the Pinwheel, however. She didn't have a good grasp of human customs and social behaviors yet. She knew many Polars who had taken human mates, who had slept with them for passion or for fun, and their stories about their relations with the hairless little aliens had made Kofe quite jealous. Now she had found a human that she wanted, and the game was afoot.
	She made her way back to her store, struggling to slide through the door frame and heading for the vidphone that was mounted on the wall in the back room. By the time her black claws were typing in commands, her scheme had already been hatched. First, she needed the number of the personnel records department, easy enough to find in the public registry. She placed a call, her thick fingers struggling to hit the human-sized icon on the touch panel, and before long the communicator was ringing.
	The display came to life, showing the face of a young human man with pale skin and dark hair. He was youthful, and she could tell by the way that his eyes were dilating and his cheeks were starting to redden that he had copped an eyeful of her cleavage, Kofe needing to lean down to human height in order to use the device. It was just as she had intended. Fortunately, her mark was male, straight too by the way he was reacting. Humans usually limited themselves to partners of just one of their two sexes, for reasons that Kofe could never wrap her head around. Everyone knew that the same sex was better at oral, so why limit yourself?
	“Personnel Records, what I can do for you, Ma'am?”
	Ah, a feminine honorific. That was a good sign, he was already ascribing a certain amount of respect and authority to her. She must be intimidating to the tiny human.
	“Hi,” she said, putting on the honeyed voice that she usually reserved for seduction. Some humans seemed to respond to her deep contralto more than others. “I'm having a problem, and I wondered if you could help me out?”
	“Certainly Ma'am, are you having a problem with your ID card?”
	“No, it's not that,” she said as she twirled a lock of her long hair in her claw. “I actually feel kind of silly. There's a mistake on my personnel record and wouldn't you know, it took me this long to realize it!”
	“What manner of mistake, Ma'am? I'm sure we can help you correct that.”
	“As you may already know, I'm a Polar,” she said as she placed a hand just above her cleavage to illustrate her point. The young man's eyes were drawn by the movement, giving him another eyeful of her breasts. “We came from Borealis originally, but we migrated to Siberia, and I just today noticed that my record shows me as being a Borealan citizen rather than a Russian one. It's a small mistake, and it hasn't caused me any problems so far, but I feel like I should get it straightened out all the same. Can you just...go into your computer and change it for me?”
	“I'm sorry Ma'am, there are privacy concerns. I'm not allowed to make any changes to the records without the owner being present to sign off on it.”
	“Damn,” Kofe sighed, feigning disappointment. In reality, she knew full well that he couldn't make any changes to her records. “You mean I'll have to pay you a visit? How inconvenient.”
	“It should be a trivial fix,” the young man confirmed. “If you'd like to head down to the office today, I'd be happy to take care of it myself.”
	“Oh, would you?” Kofe asked as she beamed at him. “What a darling, I'd be so grateful...”
	“S-Sure,” he stammered, his cheeks visibly flushing as she batted her long lashes at him. “Come down any time today, and we'll get it fixed for you. I'm Alan, by the way. Just ask the secretary to send you on through to my office.”
	“I'll see you soon...Alan.”
	She shut off the vidphone, grinning to herself. That had gone off without a hitch, and now she had a perfect excuse to get into the building that had access to all of the personnel records. She only had a name to go on, Jeff, but it would be enough.

***

	The secretary looked up from her terminal, her eyes widening behind her glasses as Kofe ducked in through the main door. It was made with humans in mind, two feet shorter than she was and far too narrow for her bulk. She struggled, gripping the metal frame with her claws as she tried to pull herself through, her wide hips catching on it. She twisted sideways once she had gotten her shoulders through the door, sucking in her gut and finally managing to get past, popping into the room like a champagne cork leaving a bottle. She brushed herself off once inside, the ceiling high enough that it just scraped the tops of her ears, then made her way over to the front desk.
	“Can I...help you?” the secretary asked, craning her neck to look up at the eight-foot Borealan.
	“I'm here to see Alan, he's expecting me.”
	“Right through there...” The woman pointed to a door to her left, her eyes lingering on Kofe as she walked towards it. She knocked on the door, hearing a familiar voice give her permission to enter. Kofe gripped the brass doorknob and swung the wooden panel outwards, leaning down and waving to the young man that she had spoken to over the phone with her massive hand.
	“Hi, Alan.”
	“Hello Ma'am, please come in!”
	She was faced with another challenge, these accursed human doors almost seemed designed to keep her out. She crouched and tried to make herself as small as possible, her breasts bumping into the frame as she struggled to contain them in her arm. She shuffled sideways, her butt pressing against the wood through the fabric of her shorts, and then she was through.
	“Small doors you have round here,” she joked, once again able to stand at full height now that she was inside.
	“I'm sorry about that,” he said, gesturing to a chair in front of his desk. “This facility was constructed before first contact. Please have a seat. Actually...that might-”
	“No problem,” Kofe said. “I'll just sit on the carpet.”
	She pushed the tiny chair aside and sat cross-legged on the floor, her exaggerated stature putting her at a little over head-height to the human. It was good that he had to look up at her, that alone had a psychological impact, it should make him more pliable.
	“Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice, Alan, I really appreciate it.”
	“No problem!” he replied, clearly taken aback by her size. His office was small, and she was occupying the majority of it. She was making sure to lean forwards a little, ensuring that her tight t-shirt gave him as good a view of her furry cleavage as possible. He was struggling to keep his eyes off her, that pink flush returning to his cheeks. If she was going to take advantage of him, then giving him some nice memories to beat it to later was the least that she could do.
	“So, where do we start?” Kofe asked, jolting Alan out of his trance.
	“Oh, I'm sorry. I, uh...” He typed on his keyboard for a moment, his eyes turning to the screen. The computer's monitor was facing away from her, and so she couldn't see the readout.
	“What are you doing right now?” Kofe asked excitedly, the human staring up at her with a hint of confusion in his expression. “I mean, we didn't have computers back on the homeworld, they're still a novelty to us. It's all magic to me, you'd have to be some kind of wizard to work them.”
	That seemed to put him more at ease, and he returned to his work with a smile on his face.
	“Right now I'm entering in my passcode so that I can access the database, only authorized personnel can make edits to the registry.”
	“Oh wow, so only you can access those files?”
	“Well, me and the other employees. Here we are, foreign nationals, non-humans...Borealans. This is the right section. I'm going to need your name, please.”
	“How rude of me for failing to introduce myself,” she chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand daintily and throwing her head back as she laughed into it. She held that position for a few seconds, giving Alan a chance to get a better look at her while he thought that she was unaware. When she turned her eyes back on him, he was even redder, his eyes fixed on his screen.
	“My name is Kailha, I'm sure I'm the only one on the station, so there's no need for a surname.”
	“Ah, I see your file, now it's just a matter of-”
	Kofe reached across the table and placed one of her furry paws over his hand, staying his mouse as he looked up at her in alarm.
	“Alan, I'm sorry if it's inappropriate to ask you this, but...” She met his gaze with her sapphire eyes, batting her lashes at him as he swallowed conspicuously. She could hear his heart thudding in his chest with her sensitive ears, smell the pheromones leaking from his pores. He was about to explode. “Can I trouble you for a glass of water?”
	His relief was obvious, and he began to laugh, doing a poor job of concealing his tension.
	“I saw a water cooler down the hall on the way in,” she continued, “and my kind tend to overheat in this environment. I'd go myself, but the door...”
	“Of course,” Alan said, standing up behind his desk. “Please wait here, I'll be back in a moment.”
	“Could you make it two or three glasses?” Kofe called after him as he left the office. He nodded, then closed the door behind him with a click.
	The moment he was gone, Kofe sprang into action, moving silently on her padded feet despite her size and leaning around the desk to get a look at the monitor. There was a list of Polars on the station, a rather short one, and a search bar with her name in it was open in the top right corner of the user interface. The keyboard was too small for her fat fingers, but she could use her sharp claws instead, and she rapidly backed out of the menu. She ended up on what must be the homepage of the server that handled personnel files, navigating quickly to the UNN section. The employees were listed by vocation, and she quickly found the engineering department, typing Jeffrey into the search bar. Three names came up, and she grinned to herself, selecting the first name. It opened up a new window with the person's serial number and private information, along with a photo ID. Just as she had hoped, there was no reason for them not to store the photos when everyone who worked on the station was required to have an ID card.
	This one wasn't Jeff, and she backed out, selecting the second name. She had scant seconds, Alan was probably already on his way back. Her eyes widened when she saw the second photo, this was the one! Jeff was staring back at her, with his red hair and green eyes, so cute! Jeffrey Miller, that was his full name, and it was all that she needed.
	She typed furiously, navigating back to the Polar menu and entering in her name, leaving the cursor in exactly the same place that she had found it. Almost the moment that she returned to her seated position there was a click as the door opened, Alan stepping into the room as he struggled to hold three styrofoam cups. Kofe leaned towards him and plucked them from his hands with her long arms, downing the first in one gulp as he made his way back over to his seat.
	“Thank you, Alan,” she purred. “You're such a darling.”
	“It's no problem,” he said, scooting his chair forward as he returned to his work. “Now then, you said that you had a problem with your...”
	“What's wrong?” Kofe asked, feigning ignorance as she downed another cup of water.
	“I believe there's been some kind of mistake, Ma'am.”
	“Please, call me Kailha,” she said.
	“Of course Miss...uh, Kailha. The information that I'm looking at right now shows you as a citizen of the Russian Federation.”
	“Is that so? I could have sworn that it said Borealis. Are you absolutely sure?”
	“That's what it says. Perhaps there was a misprint on your ID card? Do you have it with you?”
	“Oh Alan, I'm sorry. I've wasted your time! I feel so foolish right now,” she said, acting distraught.
	“No, not at all,” he said in an attempt to reassure her. “Helping people out with things like this is my job! I'm sure it's just a misprint. I'll put in an order to have your ID card reissued, and it should arrive at your residence in a couple of days.”
	“Really? That's such a relief. You're so capable, Alan.”
	He blushed, pleased by her compliment.
	“Is there anything else that I can help you with?”
	“No, you've solved all of my problems already,” she announced. “And if I should have...other queries?”
	“You can always reach me at the office, and if I'm off-duty, you can leave a message with the secretary.”
	She reached over the desk and took his hand, sandwiching it between her furry palms.
	“You've been so helpful, Alan. Perhaps I'll be able to...repay the favor some time.” She put on her most syrupy and seductive voice, watching the little human melt at the suggestion. It was all so easy, he was young, inexperienced. All it would take was a kiss, and he would be like putty in her hands. But easy wasn't fun, that was why she wanted Jeff.
	She pulled away, standing up as the young human looked on.
	“I'll see myself out,” she said. “See you around, Alan.”
	She lingered for a moment, stopping just short of blowing him a kiss, and then walked out of the room. She could feel his eyes on her back as she struggled through the doorway, trying to suppress her grin as she walked past the sour-faced secretary.
	All according to plan…

CHAPTER 2: THE WORST DATE IN HISTORY

	Miller struggled his way out of the vent, emerging into a narrow space about the size of a broom closet that was packed with cables and pipes. He dropped to the floor and brushed himself off with his thick gloves, turning to secure the vent cover behind him. The damned Krell had made a mess, the agile little lizards had been through the whole quadrant, filling the maze of tunnels and shafts with droppings and broken eggshells. They might be gone, but their leavings still remained, and he was one of the poor saps tasked with sanitation.
	His yellow overalls were caked in oil and dust, and he removed his breathing mask, slipping off his gloves and stowing them in his pocket. The overtime pay hardly seemed worth crawling through miles of ventilation shafts and cleaning up lizard shit, but it needed to get done. The station was like a living ecosystem, so large and with so many interdependencies that when one system was affected, it usually caused a cascade of problems. The air filtration system circulated throughout the Pinwheel and if it wasn't properly maintained then contaminants could spread all over the place. Airborne viruses, foreign plant spores, molds and bacteria. Not to mention the problem of fresh air not getting where it needed to go. It could pose a serious hazard to the health of the occupants.
	So many people were passing through these days, human and alien alike. The station was becoming a petri dish. In his opinion, it was only a matter of time before someone brought a horrible strain of flu onto the station or some alien disease, and the whole thing had to be quarantined.
	He rummaged in his pocket for his phone, tapping at the glass screen for a moment before holding it up to his ear.
	“Yeah this is Miller, I found out what was causing the pressure drop in section thirty-six D. Yup, same as in one-oh-four, eggshell blocking the ventilation fan. It's out now, you can release the lockdown and put the system back online. No problem. I'm clocking out, so I'll see you on the next shift. Yeah, take care.”
	Miller slid aside an access panel in the wall, crouching as he stepped out into an apartment. It was a night and day difference. On one side of the hidden panel were the inner workings of the station, its guts naked for all to see, and on the other was an attractively furnished apartment no different from one that you might find on any of the more developed colony worlds. The average person only saw the veneer of white metal. They didn't realize that behind these walls were hundreds of miles of pipes, vents, and cables that circulated power and water throughout the station.
	It was the most impressive structure ever built in Miller's opinion, halfway between a city and a spaceship, at least that was the way he felt when he wasn't crawling through it on his hands and knees.
	They had needed to close up a dozen of the apartments in the residential quarter today because of a pressure drop that had been registered in the vent system. Something was interrupting the flow of oxygen and was causing a dangerous backwash of carbon dioxide, stale air in other words. It had turned out to be a blocked fan, and now it should be working correctly again.
	It was a small victory, every day there was something new that needed fixing or cleaning, but the engineers were the unsung heroes that kept the Pinwheel spinning.
	He made his way out of the apartment and onto the torus, and immediately the sounds of a thousand conversations assaulted his ears. He waded into the ever-present crowd, eager to get back home and take a shower. He wasn't too far from his own residence today, he wouldn't have to walk halfway around the station. He could also avoid going through the tourist quarter, lest he be accosted by that strange Polar again.
	“Jeff!”
	Miller froze up as a voice like a foghorn rang out across the torus. He turned to see a white mass struggling through the throngs of people, recognizing it as Kofe. How the hell had she found him?
	“Hey Jeff, wait up!” She succeeded in pushing through the crowd, the smaller humans parting to let the giant alien pass lest they be crushed underfoot, and she came to a stop beside him. She peered down at him excitedly, her eyes bright, a warm smile on her face as if he should be happy to see her.
	“Kofe? What the hell...how did you find out where I was working today?”
	“Well, first I checked the personnel files to see how many engineers were named Jeffrey, and there were only three. I knew that you were Miller, because your photo was in your file. Then it was just a matter of calling your shift manager and asking him where you were.”
	“And he just gave you that information? He didn't ask who was calling or why? Wait, how did you get access to the personnel files? Those are supposed to be confidential.”
	“I have my sources. Anyway, are you on your way home? Do you want to stop for some food? You must be hungry after working all day, right?”
	He wanted to scold her, and he was certainly going to have some words with his manager about giving random people his personal information, but something about her persistence was endearing. He sighed, waving for her to follow him.
	“Come on then.”
	She beamed, practically skipping as she walked along beside him. She reached down and took his hand in hers, her palm coated with soft, downy fur. Immediately his hand began to warm, almost uncomfortably so. Their insulating fur was no joke, how on Earth did she tolerate the station's human-centric temperature?
	“There you go getting in my personal space again,” Miller complained, glaring up at her as she smiled innocently. “So, are you going to tell me what this is all about, why you've been hounding me over the last couple of days?”
	“You're interesting,” she replied, as if it should have been obvious to him.
	“Interesting? What about me is so interesting that you're stalking me?”
	“Let me ask you a question,” she said, quickly changing the subject. “Do you like me?”
	“Do I like you?” Miller repeated incredulously, “why would you ask me that? I don't even know you, I've talked to you for a grand total of about fifteen minutes.”
	“Well then let's get to know each other better. That's what dating is for, right?”
	“We're not dating,” he protested, feeling her squeeze his hand as she marched him along.
	“You're taking me out to dinner, sure sounds like a date to me.”
	She was doing it again, outplaying him. Was he slow, or was she just that fast?
	“I'll ask you again,” she continued, her loud voice rising over the sound of the crowded torus as she led him towards the tourist quarter. “Do you like me?”
	“You'll have to be more specific,” he grumbled. He noticed that her round ears were swiveling to track him like a pair of furry radar dishes, her hearing no doubt far more sensitive than his own.
	“Well...do you like aliens?”
	“Aliens are fine. I don't work with any, but I see them around on the station.”
	“And what about my species, do you like us?”
	“You're the first one that I've ever met, so I couldn't tell you.”
	“What kind of girls do you like? Or do you like boys? Some humans are like that.”
	“I like girls,” he insisted, “and never you mind what kind. What's this all about anyway?”
	He was playing coy. He knew what she was getting at, he'd have to be a real bonehead not to pick up on the signals that she was sending, but it just didn't make any sense to him. Why did she like him so much? Why was she going to such extreme lengths to track him down? He thought that he had made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested, and yet here she was. Maybe this date would be worth his time just to pick her brains and find out what the hell was going on here. The curiosity was starting to eat at him.
	“Well,” Kofe said as she began to swing his arm back and forth. “I've noticed that most human males seem to like their partner to be smaller than they are. Very sexually dimorphic your species, the men are usually bigger and stronger than the women. I know that isn't the case for everyone, so I wondered which category you fell into? If we're going on a date, I should know where we stand, don't you agree?”
	“We're not going on a date,” he insisted, quickly realizing that it didn't matter what he said. His protests were falling on deaf ears. How the hell had he gotten into this situation anyway?
	He needed to go about this with a new perspective. He got the impression that if he tried to ditch her or turn her down, then she'd just find him again. Kofe seemed to have taken an immediate liking to him for reasons that he couldn't fathom, and so no amount of avoidance was going to get her off his back. He couldn't lie to her and tell her that he wasn't into aliens or that he didn't find her attractive, because it wasn't entirely true. She seemed pretty sharp, and he got the impression that she would see through it. As he walked beside the giant creature, he began to formulate a plan. What if he gave her the worst date of her life? Surely then she would lose interest and leave him to his own devices? Yes, he would take her to the worst restaurant on the station, give her the cold shoulder, that would send her packing. If she ignored everything that he said, then he would have to make her think that breaking off this non-existent relationship was her own idea...

***
	
	They came to a stop in front of a building, its decorative facade carved out of the white hull of the station. There were large windows along the front that looked out onto the crowded torus, people eating in small booths and around tables visible through the glass. There was a large awning with the restaurant chain's logo displayed prominently upon it, and he smiled to himself as Kofe looked it over.
	Nobody would ever think of taking their date to a fast food restaurant, it was borderline insulting. He waited, anticipating a comment from Kofe, but rather than complain she clapped her massive hands together happily.
	“Oh! I love this place! You come here too, Jeff? You can get so many burgers for such a small price.”
	His heart sank as she gripped him by the hand and dragged him towards the door. Of course she had been here before, she had probably cleaned out every restaurant and food stand on the station at least once. Food was her job, and it seemed to be her hobby too.
	She hesitated at the door, examining the glass panels like a cat about to try a difficult jump from a bed to a dresser, judging it carefully.
	“What's the matter?” Miller asked, watching her as she scratched her furry chin with one of her black claws.
	“This station isn't really built for my kind,” she explained, “human-sized doors are sometimes a problem for me.”
	“How do you even access half of the station?” Miller asked skeptically. Come to think of it, she was so tall and wide that she wouldn't be able to even fit inside half of the buildings that he worked in on a daily basis. How had she even gotten onto the station in the first place? Had they put her in the cargo bay of a carrier and then let her in through one of the docking bays? If a Krell could fit in a dropship, then he supposed that Kofe could too, but her size must be a hindrance in more scenarios than he could even imagine.
	“Alright, stand back,” she said as she crouched in front of the door. Luckily it was a double door, and so her girth was less of a problem than her exaggerated stature. A patron who had been about to leave the establishment took a few steps away from the entrance, his eyes wide as the furry alien prepared to enter. She looked like she was about to compete in a limbo competition.
	She pushed the two glass doors open with her padded hands, her claws squeaking on the panes, the opening just large enough that her furry shoulders brushed the frame. She let go of the doors, her bulk preventing them from closing on her. Her hips were wider than her shoulders, and they blocked her, so she twisted sideways and wriggled until she managed to slip past. She emerged into the restaurant and stood up at full height, the ceiling high enough that she only had to stoop a little to save from hitting her head, brushing herself off and straightening her woefully inadequate t-shirt. It was far too small for her. Her furry belly protruded from beneath it, and her mammoth breasts struggled against the fabric. It looked as if she was one meal away from exploding out of it.
	Miller followed behind her, feeling a little self-conscious as the other restaurant goers stared at them. Kofe was impossible to ignore, seven or eight hundred pounds of snow-white fur crammed into clothes that looked more suited to a hot summer's day than a climate controlled space station.
	She strode over to the counter and planted her hands on it, leaning close to the digital menu boards that were displayed on monitors near the ceiling. She was tall enough that they were at head-height to her, her pink nose only a couple of inches away from the screens as she read off the menu. The poor employee who was waiting to take her order behind the cash register was presented with a faceful of her impressive cleavage, his cheeks reddening as he adjusted his colorful hat.
	“Sorry. I'm not so good at reading human characters yet,” she admitted, mouthing the words silently as she followed the sentence with her claw like a child reading from a picture book. “Oh, they still serve those fish fillet sandwiches with cheese, those are great. I'll take twelve of those.”
	“A dozen?” the employee asked in disbelief, craning his neck to look up at her and holding his paper hat in place with one hand. “I mean...sure, but that's gonna take us a few minutes. Is it to go?”
	“That's okay, we'll eat it here. What are you having, Jeff?”
	Jeff crept forward reluctantly, no longer able to conceal his association with her. He glanced up at the board for a moment, playing his eyes over the menu of cheap burgers and junk food.
	“Gimme the...cheeseburger menu, with the fries and soda.”
	“Small, medium or large menu?” the employee asked. He seemed relieved to be dealing with another human.
	“Make it a medium.”
	“Jeff,” Kofe protested, “you'll waste away at this rate! What if there's a cold winter and you have to live off your fat reserves?”
	“I live on a space station,” he shot back, “there's no such thing as winter here.”
	“Oh well, if you find yourself in need of warmth, just come see me. I have enough to spare.”
	“You've got that right,” he muttered under his breath.
	“Jeff!” Kofe exclaimed, reaching down and giving him a playful shove. Well, playful by her standards, it sent him reeling. “For someone who plays so hard to get, you're quite the flatterer.”
	He implies that she's overweight, she takes it as a compliment? Typical. Her hearing range was incredible, she must be able to pick up someone whispering across the damned torus. This plan was already backfiring massively. The restaurant employee glanced between them, one of his eyebrows raised, and Miller felt his face begin to warm with embarrassment.
	“It's not like that,” he said, lowering his voice so that the other patrons couldn't overhear them. “I'm not with her, we're just-”
	“We're on a date!” Kofe bellowed. Miller glanced around nervously, reflexively trying to shrink his head into the collar of his overalls like some kind of flustered tortoise.
	“We're not on a date,” he clarified, “she just calls it a date.”
	“Hey man, I don't judge,” the employee said. He just looked like he wanted to get away from them, pointing across the room towards one of the booths by the window. “That booth over there is free, we'll bring your order over when it's ready.”
	Miller gave up, vowing never to visit this establishment again lest he be recognized. He gave Kofe a disdainful look as she plunged her fluffy hand into a bowl of sauce packets, practically emptying it.
	“Are these free?” she asked.
	“Yes, b-but we do ask that customers only take-”
	“Thanks!” she said, turning about and heading over to their booth. Miller mouthed sorry to the employee, then followed behind her.
	Kofe stopped beside it, dropping her sauce packets in a pile and planting her hands on her hips as she examined the seating arrangements. A fat human would have had trouble getting into one of these booths, never mind a Borealan. Miller edged past her bulk, pressing into the fat of her thigh as he skirted around her and took a seat. His Polar companion turned her head, surveying the room, and then marched out of view.
	He waited, curious as to what she was doing, and then there was a horrible sound like nails on a chalkboard. He covered his ears, watching as she dragged a table across the floor, the metal legs screeching against the station's hull. The conversation in the restaurant went silent, the other customers either covering their ears or glaring at Kofe as she brought it to a stop in front of the booth. She tested it with her hand, leaning some of her weight on it to see if the frame could hold her. It creaked ominously, but she shrugged and planted her plump ass firmly upon it. The table was a remarkably good fit for her, allowing her to sit comfortably without having to stoop or crouch.
	“They really need to bring this station up to date,” she complained, shifting her weight uncomfortably. With an ass like that, she could probably sit anywhere she wanted, it was like a portable waterbed. “Good job the gravity is lower here,” she joked, crossing her long legs and beaming down at Miller. “Now where were we?”
	He leaned across the table in the booth, cradling his face in his hands as she snapped her thick fingers.
	“Oh yes, I remember. I was asking you what kind of girls you liked.”
	Miller shook his head, grumbling muffled complaints.
	“I don't know, I've not dated for a long time.”
	“No? Why not? You're a fine example of your species, if you don't mind my saying so.”
	“It just...didn't happen for me. I work too much, I don't have much free time. Being an engineer on this station is like being a doctor. You're on call at all hours of the day and night, because if something breaks on the Pinwheel, then it can put lives in danger. You have to be available to crawl through a vent, or spacewalk across the hull if it means solving a problem before it threatens the integrity of the station.”
	“Sounds like a hard job,” she mused, “must pay well though.”
	“Erm...not really,” he lied. She was entirely correct, it did pay well, but this might be an opportunity to make himself even less of an attractive prospect.
	She gave him a sideways glance, perhaps trying to gauge if he was telling her the truth or not.
	“I mean it would pay well,” he added, “but all of my income goes towards...paying off my massive gambling debts.”
	“You're a gambler? You don't strike me as somebody who takes a lot of chances.”
	“Oh yeah,” he said, spreading his arms in a shrug. “I love gambling. I'll put a wager on anything, it's an addiction.”
	“And where do you gamble on the station? I was under the impression that gambling was illegal in UNN space.”
	“Oh...right. Yeah, it is, but I gamble at the...underground gambling place. You wouldn't know it, on account of it being underground. I can't tell you where it is of course.”
	Was she buying it? Hard to tell...
	“Well, what are you attracted to? Do you like big girls, small girls? Fur, skin or scales? Big boobs, no boobs?”
	“Those are all...fine.”
	“You ever been with an alien before?” Kofe asked. She grinned as she leaned closer to him, Miller struggling to keep his eyes away from her bust. It was like a black hole, he could have stuck his entire head in there. “I heard that the Marines enjoy training with the Borealans on the station. It's become a right of passage, some say, survive a night with a Shock Trooper. Kind of like a hazing ritual for the newbies.”
	“I uh...hadn't heard about that,” he replied. The Equatorials were the furless, heavily muscled variety of Borealan, Kofe's distant evolutionary cousins. They were just as big as she was, though somewhat less wide. If they fucked anything like they fought, then it was no wonder that sleeping with them had become a way to prove one's courage. Miller didn't even like making eye contact with them, they had claws that looked like they could tear through the hull and their exposed skin was covered in battle scars.
	“Oh yeah, I have it on good authority. I know a doctor who works at the station's hospital, she's mated to a human, and she knows a training instructor who is also in a relationship with a human male. He's a firing instructor down at the range.”
	“Sounds like there's a lot of it going around,” Miller replied dismissively, just hoping that the food would arrive soon so that she would focus on eating instead of making awkward conversation.
	“Lots of Polars become doctors you know,” she continued, “probably because we're naturally inclined towards being compassionate.”
	“If you say so...”
	“It's true! We're a very social people, very tightly knit communities. If you live in a frozen tundra, you have to be ready to help each other out in hard times, or everyone would die.”
	“So what made you want to live on this station?” Miller asked, finally giving in and engaging with her. “It has to be too hot for you here, and everything is too small for you. What's the appeal?”
	“I grew up on the homeworld, then my pack moved to Siberia. We settled part of the taiga that was too hostile for humans to live in. It gave me a taste for travel I suppose. I wanted to see more alien cultures, meet more strangers. Where better to do that than on the Pinwheel? It's like the center of the Universe, everyone who is anyone passes through here at some point, every species in the Coalition lives side by side. Except Brokers, never seen any of those guys around here. You ever seen a Broker?”
	“Can't say that I have.”
	“What about you, Jeff? What are you doing on this station?”
	“Oh, I'm...fleeing more gambling debts of course. Racked up quite a few on Earth. I owe a lot of money to some real bad people, mobsters. It probably isn't safe to associate with me at all, really, they might use my friends to get to me if they find out where I'm hiding.”
	Maybe he was laying it on too thick, she hadn't said anything about it so far, but he had to make his story a little more believable.
	“You wouldn't rat me out, would you? I'm taking a big risk telling you this.”
	“Oh...no, of course not,” she replied. “So what kind of things do you gamble on?”
	Come on Miller, you're a goddamned engineer for Christ's sake, think of something!
	“You know, card games, dice. Humans are big on games of chance.”
	They were interrupted by a server carrying a tray with their order, Miller letting out a sigh of relief as her attention immediately diverted from him to the food. The man placed the tray in front of them on the booth’s table, leaning around Kofe's sheer mass to reach it.
	“Enjoy your meal.”
	After he was gone, another came, and then another. In all four people came to deliver their meal, a medium sized menu for Miller and a dozen sizable filet-of-fish sandwiches for Kofe. He pulled his tray closer, opening up the cardboard box that contained his burger. It might be fast food, but he was damned hungry, he had worked up quite the appetite crawling through all those vents. He had a medium order of fries too and some soda, not bad for about ten credits.
	He raised his burger to his mouth, then paused as he watched Kofe. She picked up one of the sandwiches in her furry fingers, tearing off the paper wrapper with her claws then downing it in one gulp. She hardly even chewed, it was just gone, little more than a morsel to the massive creature.
	“These are good,” she mumbled, cramming two more of them into her mouth like someone wolfing down hors-d'oeuvres at a wedding. “They can't hold a candle to my sandwiches of course, but I've had worse. You see how many of these I have to eat? That's why I sell such large sandwiches. Because of the quantity of ingredients that I use, I only need to sell half a dozen sandwiches a day to break even.”
	“Yeah, I remember how expensive they are,” Miller grumbled as he bit into his burger.
	Kofe picked up a few sauce packets from the massive handful that she had deposited on the table, not even taking the time to open them, simply crushing them in her large hand so that the contents were squeezed out onto her bun. Mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard. It just came out of her palm in a fat clump.
	“Isn't that going to get all over your fur?”
	She gave him a smirk, opening her hand so that he could see the mess of sauces. They were matting her snowy coat, sticky and clumpy, it was a real mess. As he watched, her long, pink tongue snaked slowly out of her mouth. It just kept coming, thick and tapered at the end, covered in tiny barbs that were almost too small to make out. It must have been a clear foot long. It wound around her fingers, prehensile, she had remarkable control over it. She dragged it through the mess of sauces, the barbs raking her fine fur and cleaning it, so effective that with one lick she left a spotless line down the center of her palm.
	He realized that he was staring, quickly clearing his throat and returning to his meal. It was too late, however, she had picked up on that minute lapse in composure. She knew just as well as he did that his mind was now swirling with other, more obscene uses for that dexterous appendage. He tried to keep his mind off it, popping his straw into his styrofoam cup and taking a noisy draw from it.
	Kofe cleaned herself like a cat, then started on another sandwich, chewing contentedly as she filled her cheeks. By the time Miller had finished half of his burger, she was most of the way through her pile, leaving a stack of discarded wrappers and crushed sauce packets in her wake. He could hear the table that she was sitting on creaking in protest, but the metal legs seemed to be holding for the moment.
	“Good food?” he asked sarcastically, annoyed that the implied insult of having taken her to a fast food chain had gone right over her head.
	“Oh yeah, simple but tasty. You're a rustic man, Jeff, you appreciate the simple pleasures. I like that about you. How's your meal?”
	“It's...adequate.”
	“You'll have to come by my store again sometime soon, I'll make you a burger that's better than sex. Choice cuts of beef, real cheddar cheese, no synthetic ingredients. The sesame seeds in the buns are from New Pennsylvania. Well...better than the sex that you're used to in any case.”
	Miller lurched and almost choked on a mouthful of fries as he felt her tail sneak below the table, curling around his leg like a furry tentacle. He coughed, taking a draw from his soda to clear his throat. She leaned closer, lowering her voice to a whisper as she boxed him into the booth, Miller doing his best to scoot away from her but finding himself trapped between the window and her furry bust.
	“You've never been with a Polar, right? I've never been with a human, but some of my friends have. My friend Railha who works at the hospital, she told me about this thing she likes to do with her tongue, says her mate goes crazy for it. She uses her weight to pin him to the bed, and she curls it around his-”
	“Sandwiches!” Miller exclaimed, Kofe cocking her head at him. “I just love your sandwiches. Please tell me more about them.”
	She withdrew, Miller finally able to breathe again now that he no longer feared being crushed.
	“Well like I said, they're made from all natural ingredients. Corn-fed beef from Franklin, sesame seeds and cheeses from New Pennsylvania, sauces from Borealis. That's where the fusion of human and Borealan cuisine comes into play, I use traditional oils from different territories on the homeworld to add flavor to the meat. It might not be very apparent to a human palate, but it's night and day for Borealans. Humans like sweet food, we prefer savory flavors. That's why I use a lot of sauces, adds to the taste.”
	Miller nodded his head, feigning interest as she rambled.
	“Wish I could get my hands on some oil containers, it's not uncommon for people to carry their favorite condiments around with them back home. I used to really like refined fish oil, there was this species that lived in the frozen lakes of the Polar territory that produced this amazing oil...”
	Miller finished off his meal as she babbled, just glad that she was talking about something besides lurid sex acts. Fortunately, her appreciation for food was as great as her apparent love of carnality. It was like white noise, and he took a moment to look out across the torus as he ate the last of his fries. There were so many people, like a sea of jumpsuits with the odd civilian standing out due to their lack of a uniform.
	It was somewhat ironic to live on one of the most crowded space stations that existed, and yet to be so alone. That was one thing that he hadn't lied about, he really didn't have enough time for dating. What little free time he tended to get was usually interrupted by a call out for urgent repairs of some kind. He had racked up a huge amount of money, having no time to enjoy his wages and having nothing to spend them on. No time for hobbies, no time for girls. Maybe he should take a vacation soon, somewhere off-station where he couldn't be called in even if the Pinwheel was falling apart.
	Kofe reached over and nudged him with her fist, getting his attention and snapping him out of his thought.
	“Were you daydreaming? I asked you about how you got involved with bad people back on your homeworld.”
	“The gambling stuff?”
	She nodded vigorously.
	“Right, well...” He had to think of something fast, something believable. She was an alien after all, what did she know about human culture and customs?
	“I bet a lot of money on a card game, and I lost big time. Turns out the casino owner was involved in organized crime, and he wasn't too happy about my debts. He sent some enforcers after me, told them to bring back the money or my head. But I managed to get off-world, and I ended up here.”
	Kofe leaned closer to him again, pressing him up against the glass with her bulk.
	“How exciting! What kind of card game?”
	“Uh...poker.”
	“I love poker!” she exclaimed, loudly enough that it drew the attention of several disgruntled customers who were trying to enjoy their meals. “Give me all the details. How much did you bet? What was your hand, and what beat it?”
	Shit, he didn't know the first thing about poker, he had never played a game in his life. The only card game he was even remotely familiar with was solitaire, and only because he played it on his phone during downtime on the job. Could he bullshit his way through this? Come on Miller, think, you must have watched a movie or read a book at some point that had a poker game in it.
	“Well, I had a really good hand, and so I went all-in. But the guy who beat me had four Aces. Once in a lifetime thing, couldn't have planned for it. Needless to say, he beat everyone at the table. I bet way more money than I actually had, because I had such a good hand, the odds of losing were insignificant.”
	“Aces were high, I assume? Jokers wild?”
	“Oh yeah, very high, very wild.”
	“What was your hand?”
	Miller hesitated for a moment, trying to remember the different rankings of the cards. It was a little like chess, right? Yeah, that sounded right. Kings, Queens, Bishops. What was below an Ace? Probably a King. Wait, Royal Flush, that was a term that he had heard somewhere before.
	“It was a Royal Flush,” he replied confidently, “I thought it was unbeatable, but I guess they proved me wrong. It seemed like a surefire thing, I mean, what are the odds of being beaten with a hand like that?”
	“So you're an avid poker player?” Kofe asked, seemingly convinced by his fictitious story. Miller breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing a little as she drew back.
	“Oh yeah, I can't get enough of it. That's mostly what we play down at the underground gambling place, a whole lot of poker.”
	Kofe grinned at him, exposing her pointed teeth.
	"Oh yeah, that's some bad luck. Which Ace did you have?"
	"Which one?"
	"Yeah, which suit? A Royal Flush includes an Ace when they're high, as I'm sure you know."
	Miller had to think for a moment, and then the lyrics of a song came to mind.
	"The Ace of spades, that was the one."
	"And to think that your opponent had all four of the others, those are some very unlikely odds. Impossible to predict, one might say."
	"What can I say, I'm just unlucky," he replied with an exaggerated shrug. Kofe narrowed her blue eyes at him for a moment and then broke into a hearty laugh.
	“I would expect someone who had played poker before to know that a Royal Flush includes an Ace. How did your opponent have four Aces if you had a Royal Flush? There are only four aces in a deck. A Royal Flush also beats four Aces and a wild card, which means that the scenario you just described is completely impossible.”
	“Alright, you got me,” he admitted as she smirked triumphantly at him. “I was lying, I'm a terrible person, and I'm sure that you want nothing more to do with me.” He tried to conceal his hopeful tone, but somehow she didn't seem deterred. In Miller's experience, women hated being lied to, but Kofe was looking at him with a strange and ominous glint in her eye.
	“W-What's the matter?” he stammered, “aren't you mad?”
	“You had me going there for a minute,” she said as her tone turned sly, leaning close to him again and boxing him into the booth. She was like a wall of snowy fur, Miller doing his best to keep his eyes off her boundless cleavage. She was looking at him like he was a juicy steak, practically licking her chops.
	“In Polar culture, Machiavellian intelligence is considered a desirable trait. Social and political maneuvering is an important part of our society, it's how we gain and lose standing in the pack. We smooth-talk, and we manipulate. We make deals, and we mislead in order to move up the ladder. Our whole social system is a kind of poker game, and your bluff wasn't half bad.”
	Typical, his attempt to make himself as undesirable as possible had completely backfired. Now she seemed more interested in him than ever, she was leering at him in a way that made him very uncomfortable.
	“You're cute when you're angry,” she giggled, covering her mouth with a giant hand. “You done eating? Why don't you take me back to your place, show me around? I'd like to see how humans live.”
	While the prospect of escaping the angry glares of the patrons was an attractive one, he didn't really want Kofe to know where he lived, that was if she hadn't already discovered that piece of information along with his full name when she had gone snooping through his personnel files. 
	“You know, I have to work tomorrow, I really should be getting home so that I can get some sleep.”
	“It's still early,” Kofe whined, “and you can sleep at my apartment if you want to. I have plenty of room for you. You're scarcely bigger than a little kitten.”
	She dragged him out of his chair at that, apparently overcome by his cuteness, wrapping her furry arms around him and pulling him against her bust. She squeezed the air out of his lungs, she was as strong as a lion, he couldn't so much as wriggle as she squashed him against her pudgy body. He felt her hand on the back of his head, her claws pricking his scalp as she pressed his face into the downy fur just above her cleavage. It was as soft and as luxurious as an expensive mink coat, so deep that he could almost bury his entire head in it. He felt her warm breath on his head as she cooed happily, the delicate strands tickling his cheeks.
	She was so warm, her insulating coat and her considerable blubber trapped so much heat that it was like hugging a boiler that had been wrapped in a carpet. No wonder she was always complaining about the heat on the station, and she dressed so sparsely. She was designed for an arctic climate, like a polar bear.
	He had expected her to smell like an animal, musky, unpleasant. But instead, his nose was filled with the scent of perfume. She smelled like cherries and strawberries, fruity and inviting. She had clearly gone to some lengths to treat her fur with shampoos and conditioners. It must be quite an ordeal to wash this much fur so carefully, but the result was a wonderful scent and a texture that was as soft as silk.
	Her pendulant breasts were compressing against his chest like a pair of damned space hoppers, her copious sweater meat spreading and deforming beneath her thin t-shirt like fresh cookie dough. His arms were pinned against his sides by her powerful grip, he could feel her bicep even beneath the layers of fat and fur. She was surprisingly strong, there was the physique of a bodybuilder buried under there somewhere, no doubt a product of the high gravity found on her home planet. Just moving this much mass around would be like weight training. 
	He was starting to become drowsy, and not just because he couldn't breathe. She was so warm and soft that it was hypnotic, like she was tricking his senses into thinking that it was time to sleep. He couldn't have imagined a more inviting bed, she was like a warm cloud.
	She released him after a moment, and he snapped out of his stupor, collapsing back into the booth as she smiled down at him. He shook his head, trying to clear it of her scent. It was like some kind of witchcraft. 
	"Come on Jeff, let's pay our bill and get out of here."
	"Y-Yeah, alright."
	He opened his wallet, forgetting for a moment his claims of being hard-up, and deposited a handful of credit chips on the table. There was an ear-splitting screeching as Kofe pushed her table along the floor, returning it to where she had found it, the other restaurant goers and the man who was staffing the counter glaring at her disdainfully.
	He rose to his feet, following behind her as she made for the door, tasked once again with navigating the human-sized opening. 
	"After you," Miller said sarcastically, gesturing to the glass panels as she sized them up. Kofe crouched down to a more suitable height, pulling both of the doors open. On her way in, the glass doors had been angled away from her, but now she had to keep them held open as she struggled through the narrow space. Her wide hips caught on the doors and she stopped fast, grumbling to herself. She looked like a dog that was trying to fit down a rabbit hole in pursuit of its quarry.
	"A little help?" she asked, Miller rolling his eyes and sidling up behind her. Her butt was enormous, as wide as three or four men standing shoulder to shoulder. Her tight shorts were riding up to expose the beginnings of her furry cheeks as she struggled, her puffy tail waving in his face. 
	"What do you want, a push?"
	"I'm almost through, just give me a shove while I try to hold the doors open."
	He shrugged and reached out his arms, planting his hands in her silky fur. They immediately sank almost up to the wrist in her yielding fat, it was like pushing his fingers into wet clay. He gave her a push, and she wriggled, her long tail batting him in the face. The whole restaurant and most of the people walking nearby on the torus were watching the strange scene unfold at this point, gawking at the struggling Polar. Miller took a couple of steps back and then drove his shoulder into her rump, sending her toppling onto the deck outside.
	She brushed herself off and straightened her shorts, making a futile attempt to pull them down where they were riding up her meaty thighs. Miller followed behind her, the giant alien seemingly undeterred. She lunged for him, and he tried to dance out of her range, but too late. She succeeded in catching his arm in hers, and she tugged him closer, setting off towards the residential quarter and dragging her reluctant companion along beside her.
	
CHAPTER 3: COLD FEET

	The great sunlamps that were embedded in the painted ceiling were already beginning to dim when they arrived at her front door. It was a fairly standard apartment as far as Miller could see, built into the white hull of the station like all of the residences to its left and right, sporting a few decorative planters here and there to add to the illusion that they weren't on a giant space station. The major difference between this apartment and his own was the size of the door, eight-feet tall and twice as wide as a man. This was one of the Borealan residences that had been constructed for the massive influx of tourists and diplomats that the UNN had expected to arrive shortly following the species' induction into the Coalition, but which had never materialized. Now these supersized apartments were left mostly vacant, the few Borealan denizens of the station who were not housed in the barracks were able to rent them for far cheaper than the crowded and sought after human equivalents.
	She swiped her ID card at the door, and it opened with a whoosh, the wooden paneling only decorative as the metal covering slid into the wall. Kofe ducked inside, and he followed after her, the interior lights turning on automatically to illuminate a gigantic space.
	Miller was a little jealous, it was a huge studio apartment, open-plan with only the bathroom and bedroom hidden behind their own dividing walls as far as he could see. It was large enough to fit his own apartment inside it twice over, as well as having a tall enough ceiling that even Kofe's massive stature didn't cause her to bump her head. It was lavishly furnished too, with seating and counters that were appropriately scaled up for Borealan use. The couch that sat in front of a large television that was embedded in the wall was so big that it could have easily served as a queen-sized bed.
	"Nice place," he commented, turning his head to look around as he followed her into the expansive room. As soon as he spoke, he noticed that his breath was visible, condensating due to the extreme cold that hit him like a wall. It was frigid in here, was there some kind of malfunction with her thermostat? It was like standing inside a meat locker. Kofe seemed to immediately relax, however, more at ease now that she was in an environment that more closely approximated that of her home.
	"Can I get you something to drink?" she asked, making her way over to the fridge. Miller noted that even though this apartment was built for Borealans, there was scarcely an inch of room to either side of her wide hips as she passed between the table and the kitchen counter.
	"Oh, sure," he replied. His teeth were already starting to chatter, and he had subconsciously crossed his arms in an attempt to ward off the cold.
	"I have raises the hair, soda, fruit juice."
	"What's raises the hair?" Miller asked.
	"A Borealan drink, you want to try some? It's low alcohol, kind of like human wine."
	"Yeah, sure."
	She retrieved a bottle of pink liquid from the fridge and collected two glasses from a shelf above the counter. It was so strange to Miller, like he was standing on the set of a forced perspective movie, everything was blown up in size. It was messing with his perception, his brain seemingly unable to decide whether the room was too large, or if he had shrunken down to the size of a toddler.
	Kofe walked back over to him, gesturing that he should sit on the massive couch, and he hopped up onto it like a child trying to climb into a booster seat. She set the bottle and the two cups down on the glass coffee table, itself as high as the average office desk. Miller sat on the edge of the sofa, feeling foolish as his legs dangled in the air.
	His fluffy host sat down beside him, the cushions sagging beneath her and pulling him towards her, like a representation of a black hole on a two-dimensional grid. His face planted into her shoulder before he had a chance to right himself, her fur tickling his nose. As he tried to climb free, she curled her arm around him, trapping him in a one-armed hug. Miller slowly ceased his struggling as he realized that her body heat was staving off the oppressive cold.
	"Well aren't you eager?" Kofe chuckled, peering down at him with a salacious look in her eye. "I've barely had time to get comfortable, and you're already throwing yourself at me. At least you took me out to dinner first, I'll give you that."
	"I didn't do either of those things," Miller complained, his voice muffled as she pressed his head into the side of her bosom with her bicep and headlocked him. "I just fell into you."
	"Uhuh, and you can beat a Royal Flush with four Aces, right?"
	She released him, chuckling heartily as he straightened his hair, then she leaned forward and began to pour the pink liquid from the bottle into the two glasses. They could scarcely be described as such, they were the size of beer steins. He examined the label on the bottle, but it was all Borealan script, what looked like claw marks arranged in patterns. She filled one of the giant glasses with the beverage, handing it to Miller who gave it an experimental sniff.
	"Smells like fruit punch," he said, lifting it to his lips and taking a sip. It tasted pretty good. It didn’t pack much of a punch due to the low alcohol content, and it had a flavor that reminded him of red berries. He took another, longer draw from the glass as Kofe watched him with a smile on her face.
	"I forgot that you humans drink alcohol like it's going out of style."
	"Don't Borealans?" Miller asked, struggling with the heavy glass as he took another drink from it.
	"No, we can't handle much alcohol. The quantities that you little guys consume it in are poisonous to us. One of your shots would send us to the hospital."
	"So what's in this?"
	"Raises the hair is made from fermented berries, it's only two or three percent alcohol. That's enough to get us quite drunk if we consume enough of it in one sitting."
	"Do you have to import it from your home planet?"
	"Oh yes," she replied, pausing to take a drink before continuing. "We experimented with making our own in Siberia, but we were advised not to introduce alien plant life into the local ecosystem. The native berries don't quite ferment in the same way. It's a shame, I think the berries would grow well in the Taiga, it's very temperate."
	"The Taiga is temperate?" Miller laughed. "Maybe for you. It's almost uninhabitable for humans."
	"I know," she replied, "that's why we colonized it. We have a whole city now, and the population is exploding due to the favorable conditions. The environment that we lived in back on Borealis was more similar to your Arctic territories, Siberia is fertile and hospitable in comparison."
	"And how does a human apartment compare to your housing back in Russia?"
	"It lacks the rustic charm of a hut erected with one's own hands," she said as she glanced about the room. "But the Pinwheel is very accommodating. It's a shame to see so many of these apartments sit empty. The Equatorials are only interested in fighting. I doubt you'll see many tourists from Elysia or Rask showing up to learn about the galaxy and to broaden their minds, but when the new generation of Polars begins to mature, I'm sure that many of these dwellings will become occupied."
	"Sounds like you don't think much of Equatorials," Miller laughed, leaning forward and setting his glass down on the oversized coffee table. The drink was quite tasty, but there was far too much for him to consume in a single sitting. 
	"You try sharing a planet with them for a few thousand years," she chided, "then we'll see what you think of them."
	Miller shivered conspicuously, wrapping his arms around himself as he exhaled a plume of mist. His yellow overalls were woefully insufficient for keeping him warm. He didn't even think he owned any cold weather clothes anymore, the station was climate controlled. The only time that he ever encountered temperatures below what was comfortable was when he was marching along the outside of the hull in a space suit.
	"Sorry," Kofe said, "I like to keep the apartment cool. It's still a little toasty for my liking, but this is as low as the thermostat will go."
	"It's freezing," Miller complained. Kofe reached over and nudged him with her elbow to get his attention, Miller scowling up at her as she patted the cushion between them with her heavy hand.
	"You can scooch a little closer you know, I'm plenty warm."
	He recalled her forceful bear hug back in the fast food restaurant, how incredibly warm and soft her body had been. He knew exactly what she was doing, however, he had quickly cottoned on to her tactics. This was probably all part of some elaborate scheme to get him into her arms.
	At this rate he was going to get frostbite, so he didn't have much of a choice. She smirked at him as she saw his scowl deepen, somehow knowing that he had changed his mind just by reading his expression.
	"Alright," he grumbled, "but only because I'm freezing my ass off. Don't read into this, I'm not doing it because I like you."
	"I would never attempt to misinterpret your actions," she said with a toothy grin. "Now come here, you'll catch your death."
	He reluctantly shuffled closer to her, but almost the moment that he began to move, Kofe reached out and hooked him with her long arm again. She dragged him closer, wrapping her arm around him and pushing his head into the side of her ample bosom. His face sank into her malleable fat, her soft fur separated from his cheek by naught but an insubstantial barrier of thin fabric in the form of her stretched t-shirt. The heavy globe was large enough that it not only encompassed his head, but spilled down over his shoulder too. Even what little of its weight was resting on him was enough to squash him down into the couch, it felt like a rucksack full of bricks had been slung across his shoulder. How did she even walk with these things?
	That wonderful scent assailed him once again, worming its way into his brain and clouding his judgment. She smelled so undeniably feminine, her taste in perfumes and soaps mirroring that of her human counterparts. 
	Almost immediately the aura of heat that her body radiated warmed him, the chill air seeming to recede. It was such a stark contrast, reminding him of coming in from the snow as a child and taking a seat in front of a roaring fire, a cup of hot cocoa in hand. She warmed him in the same way that a hot drink did, the sensation similar to the feeling of a warm beverage sliding down one's throat and filling their belly. It permeated him to the core, relieving and somehow calming.
	"We can stay like this for a while," she whispered, her voice low and husky. "Isn't it comfortable?"
	His body instinctively sought out heat to warm itself, and her perfumed scent was so inviting. His hand brushed against the silky fur of her thigh, and he couldn't help but let his mind wander, imagining what being engulfed in that soft coat would feel like.
	"You can touch me if you want to," she said, her warm breath blowing his hair. "I don't mind. Wrap your arms around me, get in close..."
	Miller awoke as if from a dream, pushing away from her as his head seemed to clear of the fog that had fallen over it. He allowed her to keep her arm draped about his shoulders, leaning his body against hers for warmth, but he was intent on wresting control of the situation from his furry companion. He couldn't be seduced so easily, to allow himself to be plied by such an obvious trick would cost him his self-respect.
	"Don't get any big ideas," he grumbled, shifting his weight as she peered down at him. "I'm just cold is all."
	She seemed taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor, perhaps wrongly assuming that she had finally broken him. But instead of disappointment, he saw excitement in her expression. It was if the more he resisted her, the more she wanted him.
	"Actually, I have to get up pretty early for work tomorrow," Miller said. "I'd better get some sleep."
	Kofe seemed disappointed, but she didn't press the issue, releasing him from her grasp to shiver as he sat beside her.
	“If you insist. You can take the couch, it's plenty large enough for you. I'd offer you my bed as a courtesy, but the couch is too small for me to sleep on comfortably. My bedroom is in there,” she added, pointing towards a door with her clawed finger.
	“Yeah, I don't need to know that.”
	“Well if you need anything, come find me,” she said with a toothy grin. “My door is always open to you.”
	“Duly noted,” he grumbled. She stood and began to walk away, drink in hand. Miller climbed up to peer over the tall headrest of the couch and called after her.
	“Hey! Don't I get a blanket? I'll freeze to death out here!”
	“Oh, sorry,” she chuckled. “I sometimes forget that humans can't survive in the cold. I'll get you something suitable.”
	He sank back into the cushions, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched his breath crystallize. How the hell had she managed to get the thermostat this low? This should be registering as a malfunction on the station's life support system, how had she avoided a call from maintenance? He had half a mind to leave, but the human and Borealan apartments were on different ends of the residential quarter. It was quite a walk back, and he had to be up again for work in six or seven hours.
	Kofe returned, sneaking up behind the couch and depositing a gigantic blanket on top of him. It was the size of the carpet in his living room and oppressively heavy, quickly burying him in its deep folds. He struggled to free himself, the Polar laughing at his muffled complaints, until finally he dug himself free and poked his head out into the cold air. It was covered in fine hairs, almost like fur, and he spat a few of the white strands out of his mouth as he glared up at her. 
	“I said a blanket,” he snapped, “you could use this thing as a tarp for a shuttle. What's this made of? Please tell me you didn't knit this from your own fur...”
	“Relax, it's imitation fur,” she said as he struggled to find a comfortable position. “But it's a pretty good approximation of a Polar's coat. When you live alone like I do, it's a comfort to feel as though you're sharing a bed with someone. We're pack animals you know, we're used to sleeping in huge piles.”
	“A pack? More like a pod,” Miller chided.
	“You flatterer,” she chuckled, waving her hand dismissively. Again she had taken an insult as a compliment, much to his chagrin. “Sleep tight, Jeff.”
	“Yeah, tight. This blanket is crushing me. I'm going to be suffocated in my sleep.”
	She turned and made her way back towards the bedroom, stopping at the automatic door to glance back at the couch before vanishing from view.

***
	
	Kofe closed the door behind her, and once she was out of sight of her guest, she made her way over to the wall. There was a touch panel mounted near the bed that controlled the thermostat in the apartment. It was currently set to six degrees Celsius. Polars preferred it to be around ten degrees, and so it was a little cooler than she generally liked. There were two wires trailing away from the device that led to a second, smaller box that was taped to the wall beside it. It was a single-board microcomputer that had been rigged to bypass the safety features on the thermostat, disabling the automatic alarm that would alert the station's central computer to the dangerous drop in temperature. Dangerous for humans maybe, but pleasant for Polars.
	They were made by a wily Federation Polar who worked on the station and who had taken it upon himself to fix the problem encountered by so many of his kin. It wasn't exactly in line with station regulations, not that anyone actually read them, but what the humans didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
	She turned it down a little further, chuckling quietly to herself. Three degrees should do the trick. Satisfied that the trap was set, she retreated to her bed, stripping off her clothing before slipping beneath the cover. It was lighter and thinner than what she usually used, and if all went to plan, the freezing human would be forced to get in close to her for warmth.
	Now all she had to do was wait for her prey to come to her...

***
	
	Miller wrapped the massive blanket around himself tightly like a caterpillar in a cocoon. The apartment was freezing, it almost seemed to have gotten colder as the night went on. He was painfully aware of every draft of cold air that penetrated the sheet and stabbed at him like a knife. The temperature on the station didn't plummet when the sun set, as there was no sun. The lamps in the ceiling only imitated the night and day cycle on a superficial level, the temperature on the station was regulated by entirely unrelated climate control systems. He had lived and worked here for so long that he had almost forgotten the discomfort of a summer's day and the sting of a winter's night. This was an unpleasant reminder.
	As large and as thick as this blanket was, it just wasn't doing a good enough job of trapping his body heat. His teeth were chattering, and he was shivering violently, at this rate he would end up too sick to work tomorrow.
	He remembered Kofe's invitation to join her in bed. He knew that it was another one of her ploys, but the allure of her warm body was overpowering his stubbornness. If he was fully aware of her attempts to manipulate him, did it still count? Was he still succumbing to her trickery if he did so voluntarily? He was beginning to fear her satisfied grin more than his impending frostbite.
	To hell with it, he wasn't going to get a wink of sleep this way, he had to brave Kofe's bedroom and do his best to ignore her advances.
	He crawled out from under the sheet with considerable difficulty, it was unreasonably heavy, and then flopped down onto the floor. He considered wrapping the blanket around himself and bringing it with him, if only to serve as a barrier between him and Kofe, but it weighed enough that dragging it all the way across the room would have exhausted him. It could have been used as a fucking tent.
	Attempting to stave off his shivering, he walked across the apartment and hesitated at the door, his fist raised as he prepared to knock. Was he really going to give her the satisfaction? What was he even doing here, why had he agreed to sleep over at her place to begin with?
	He knocked on the false wooden panel, and before he had even lowered his arm, he heard her honeyed voice from the other side as she cooed her invitation.
	“Come in, Jeff.”
	He rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath as the panel slid open. Kofe was lying in a massive bed, two or three times the length and width of a king size, her generous figure covered by a thin blanket that rose to her chest. It clung to her body, leaving very little to the imagination. He could see that she was no longer wearing her shirt, and there were no visible straps on her shoulders that might betray the presence of a bra. Without its support, her bust was at the mercy of gravity, spreading out across her chest like a pair of giant water balloons that were about ready to burst. He could have upended a gallon drum of fluid into one of them with room to spare. It was a miracle that she had ever been able to cram these things into a shirt of that size.
	“You just couldn't stay away, could you?” 
	She was putting on her best seductive voice and striking a pose like she was doing a photo shoot for a magazine, one arm resting above her head and her hips turned on their side, accentuating the curves of her buxom figure.
	“It was either share a bed with you, or freeze to death,” he replied grumpily. “And I want you to know that it was a difficult decision.”
	She flung the sheet aside and patted the mattress beside her, Miller reluctantly walking around the edge of the massive bed and struggling up onto it. It was about a foot higher than was convenient for a human. How much had it cost the UNN to furnish all of these Borealan-sized apartments?
	Miller had scarcely tumbled onto the bed before Kofe threw the sheet about him like she was trapping an animal in a net, dragging him closer to her and engulfing him in her furry body. She was like a giant, fluffy beanbag, her malleable flesh morphing around him like an amoeba that was trying to swallow him up. 
	Immediately he was hit by a wave of heat, his violent shivering abating as one of her long arms curled around him. 
	“Are you...nude?” Miller asked. He could feel her downy fur against the exposed skin on the back of his neck, her breasts cascading over his shoulders in an avalanche of flesh. He felt as if he could have lost his entire body in her cleavage, deep as it was. Her breath blew in his hair, the tire of her belly pressing against his butt. Fortunately, he was still wearing his overalls, but her nakedness made him uncomfortable all the same.
	“Don't most people sleep in the nude?” she asked, whispering in his ear. 
	“Not to my knowledge...especially when they have guests.”
	“Well Polars certainly do. Are you warming up now, spooning with me? If you had some more meat on your bones, you might not get so cold.”
	“Are you kidding me?” Miller grumbled, shuffling as he tried to get some distance from her. It was to no avail, however, she had a tight hold on him. Beneath her fat, she was hiding muscles like iron. “I work in engineering, I know full well that you've done something to the thermostat. It shouldn't be able to go this low without triggering a maintenance alarm.”
	“Maybe you could stay over for the day tomorrow and find out what's wrong with it?”
	“You want me to fix an appliance? Really? Wait a minute, have you been watching human porn in an attempt to find out how we court?”
	“No...” Kofe replied unconvincingly.
	“Well, that isn't how it works.”
	“I wish you'd loosen up a little,” she said, squeezing him like he was nothing more than a teddy bear. “You humans are always so uptight. There's nothing sacred about sex you know, it's just a natural function of your body. We can all do it at any time, for any reason, and with whoever we want. It feels good, so why resist it?”
	“We don't even know each other,” he shot back, his cheeks starting to burn as the conversation changed gears. 
	“You've taken me on two dates,” Kofe protested, shifting her weight to ensure that he could feel her doughy body engulfing him. “According to human courting rituals, it's supposed to be an appropriate time to make a move.”
	“I don't even know...how you work,” Miller added. “I mean, you're an alien.”
	“You could let me take the lead,” she whispered, her puffy lips grazing his ear. “I promise it would feel good. I really, really like you, Jeff. I've never met a human who was so...evasive before. You're smart, wily, willful. If you don't like me back, won't you let me have you? Just once, so that I can get you off my mind? You wouldn't regret it, I might even be able to change your mind about me.”
	It was an oddly heartfelt plea, the sincerity of her words softening his stony heart. She really did like him, she wasn't just chasing sex or novelty. This was the only way that she knew how to express herself, the way that her kind usually got what they wanted, through seduction. 
	Was she really so terrible? It was only because of how pushy and persistent she was that he had gained such a negative opinion of her, along with his apprehensions about sleeping with an alien. How would that work? What were her parts like? She was so big and so strange... 
	Fuck it, his romantic life had no pulse, and it wasn't like he had the time or the desire to go searching for a more suitable mate. What harm would it do to give her a chance? At the very least, it might get her off his back. Literally in this case.
	“Alright,” he sighed, “I'll give you a chance.”
	He heard her mewl with joy, and then in a second she was pushing her face into the nape of his neck. Her kisses were warm and wet, her soft lips crawling across his skin as she mouthed and nibbled gently with her sharp teeth. His spine arched, a bolt of electricity coursing through him as her massive hands began to roam across his body, probing for a way past his clothing. Nobody had ever touched him like this before. She was so aggressive and greedy, yet gentle and considerate, holding back her immense strength to accommodate his human frailty.
	She bit his shoulder more aggressively, contrasting it with a soothing, lingering kiss a moment later.
	“Wait, wait,” he protested as he struggled to regain control of his faculties. “I meant we can go on a real date.”
	“Oh,” she replied sheepishly, “of course. I'll just...”
	She rolled off him, lying on her back beside him, the springs in the mattress creaking unhappily. He was initially pleased that she was giving him some space for once, but then the cold set in and he began to miss the warmth of her fur. She noticed his shivering, creeping slowly closer to him again.
	“We can still cuddle,” she suggested, “I promise not to cross any lines.”
	He reluctantly agreed, and once again he felt her arms close around him, her heat staving off the cold. 

CHAPTER 4: DINING EXPERIENCE
	
	“So what makes this restaurant better than the other one we went to?” Kofe asked, standing with her hands on her hips as she examined the establishment. She narrowed her eyes as she struggled to read the text on the sign that hung from the building's facade, at head-height to her. “La G...Grande Assiette. What does that mean?” she asked, butchering the pronunciation.
	“It's French,” Miller replied, sizing up the doorway and wondering how Kofe was going to fit through it. It was one thing to cause a scene at a cheap fast food joint, but it was quite another to create a public disturbance in the Pinwheel's only high-end restaurant. He wasn't sure that they would even be able to seat a Borealan.
	He had foregone his usual yellow overalls and had instead opted to wear the one presentable set of clothes that he owned. It wasn't quite a suit, more like a pair of jeans and a dress shirt, but it was the best that he could do on short notice. He had impressed upon Kofe the importance of dressing properly, yet here she was, wearing a black linen shift dress. It might have been more modest on a smaller woman, but it clung to her exaggerated figure. There was enough material there to use it as a sail for a boat. It was a knee-length, sleeveless dress with a v-neck that was light and floaty, designed for hot weather. It contrasted with her white fur, making the way that she was spilling out of it all the more conspicuous.
	“This is just what humans do,” he explained, “you take your date to a fancy restaurant.”
	“That doesn't make much sense. In my experience, expensive food is rarely the best tasting or the most filling. Food from street vendors is usually the best.”
	“Well you wanted to go on a real date, so here we are. It's a human custom, so just go with it.”
	“Hey, I'm not complaining about free food, I just thought it was an odd choice.”
	“Free food?” Miller asked.
	“Yeah, I read up on this ritual. The male is supposed to pay the bill.”
	“You realize they'll kick me off the station if I run out of money and can't afford to pay my rent and utility fees, right?”
	She reached down and messed up his hair playfully, Miller cursing as he tried in vain to straighten it again.
	“Come on Jeff, we have a date to go on.”
	She took him by the hand and dragged him along behind her, leading him up to the restaurant's glass door. Miller would never have imagined that he would one day come to dread the sight of a door, but he felt his cheeks already beginning to flush as the patrons behind the windows turned to stare.
	Kofe crouched, turning sideways and taking a deep breath as she sucked in her gut. Her breasts caught on the frame as she pushed through the doorway, and she attempted to compress them with her arm without much luck, eventually succeeding in pushing her way through. She stood and brushed off her dress, the black material already coated in a layer of white hairs that made her look like she was covered in glitter. She had to crouch a little in here, as the ceiling was a little too low for her to stand upright. There were also light fixtures and chandeliers, Kofe dodging them as Miller led her to a podium, behind which a terrified head waiter was standing.
	“Uh...reservation for two?” Miller mumbled, unsure of why he had phrased the statement as a question.
	“N-Name please?” the waiter asked, tearing his wide eyes away from the giant alien as he swiped at a touch panel that was embedded in the wood.
	“Miller.”
	“Ah yes, you're in the database. Please wait a moment, sir, I think that we might need some...specialized seating arrangements for your companion.”
	He hurried away into the restaurant, and Miller took a moment to admire the décor. It was all earthy tones, beige and brown, with imitation wood finishes. The chandeliers that hung from the ceiling cast a dim, yellow glow, only the light from the windows that looked out onto the torus brightening the establishment. The floor was wood, probably imitation, as was the bar. The tables and chairs were lined up in rows, also wood, and the whole place had a very rustic vibe. They were clearly going for a traditional farmhouse aesthetic, like a bar or an inn that one might find the French countryside.
	It was very impressive considering the restaurant's location. It wasn't easy to make the matte white metal of the station look like anything besides sterile hull material.
	The place was pretty packed, most of the tables were occupied by patrons who were consumed by their gourmet food, a few of the nearer ones looking up to examine Kofe. They appeared to be mostly civilians, tourists either visiting the station or passing through on their way to other colonies. The outlying worlds were shitholes if Miller was being honest, but Franklin was a popular destination for tourists and businessmen that bordered contested territory. Those damned cowboys were tenacious, it would take more than a few Bug scouting raids to shake them off their rock.
	Private yachts generally weren't given docking clearance on the Pinwheel, because at any moment a battle damaged fleet might show up for a refit, but the upper classes tended to find their way to the station on liners and civilian vessels. Adventuring across the galaxy was a popular pastime for those with too much money and time these days.
	The head waiter returned, looking flustered.
	“Please follow me, sir, we can seat you now.”
	He guided them between the tables, Kofe paying close attention to her wide hips so as not to crash into the other patrons. They arrived at a table that had been moved some distance away from the rest to make room for Kofe's bulk. The head waiter gestured to one of the chairs, indicating that Miller should take a seat.
	“My apologies, ma'am, but we don't have any chairs that are suitable for someone of your...stature. If you'd like, we can bring you some cushions to sit on.”
	“Don't sweat it,” she replied aloofly, patting her rump. “I brought my own cushion.”
	Miller covered his face with his hands, but the waiter seemed relieved. Perhaps he had expected her to protest. He quickly hurried back to his post and out of sight. Kofe sized up the table, then sat down cross-legged, tall enough that she was at a fairly comfortable height. Miller handed her one of the laminated menus, and she opened it, her eyes narrowing as they played over the text.
	“What is...pommes frites? Mother's mercy, how many languages do you humans have? I can't even read English all that well yet.”
	“Those are fries,” he replied. “Hang on, I'll come and help you.”
	He left his seat and circled around the table to peer over her shoulder, reading the dishes off to her as he traced the menu with his finger.
	“How about this one? Filet Mignon. It's a choice cut of beef, sauteed with a yellow tomato vinaigrette. You might like that. It comes with grilled asparagus.”
	“Alright,” she replied. “I'm kind of lost, so I'll just trust your judgment.”
	Before very along another waiter appeared, a woman this time. She set down a basket of sliced bread and a pitcher of water on the table, then asked them if they were ready to order. Miller relayed their choices, and she took their menus away, disappearing into the kitchen behind the bar.
	“Are these for us?” Kofe asked, gesturing to the items that the waitress had left.
	“Yep, you can eat those. But don't spoil your appetite. Wait, what am I saying? You could eat all of the bread in the restaurant, and I doubt it would put a dent in your appetite. Help yourself.”
	Apparently, she was more concerned with the water, lifting the jug in one hand and downing it in a few gulps. She set it down like she had just slammed a beer, wiping her mouth with the back of her furry forearm and exhaling contentedly.
	“Thank goodness, that's ice cold. It's really hot in here.”
	“Yeah, I guess it's pretty warm,” Miller confirmed. Restaurants like this were often pretty hot, that was why he hadn't brought a jacket. So many people crammed into such a small space, with a hot kitchen only feet away would always cause the temperature to rise a little. Kofe seemed to be swallowing as if she still had a mouthful of water even after setting down the jug. Before he could ask her about it, the waitress returned with more laminated menus.
	“Anything from the wine menu, sir, madam?”
	“No wine for me, thanks. I'll take a coffee, black. Can you bring us some more water too?”
	“Of course,” the woman replied. “Anything for you, madam?”
	“Uh...” Kofe examined the menu for a moment. “Can I get some sparkling water?”
	“Right away. Would you like me to bring you the bottle?” she asked with a smile. This waitress at least seemed to be happy to see Kofe. After serving dozens of snooty tourists, it must be a breath of fresh air to have an alien patron who wasn't quite so uptight. Kofe nodded, and the woman left again.
	“You thirsty?” Miller asked.
	“Yeah, I'm getting pretty warm,” she replied as she fanned herself with the wine menu. “You humans sure do like it hot.”
	“Come on, you live in an arctic environment. I almost lost all of my fingers to your apartment.”
	“Ugh, my pads are starting to sweat,” she grumbled as she wiped her hands on her dress. “I wish you would have let me wear less clothing.”
	“You can't eat at a restaurant like this wearing a pair of shorts and a blouse,” he said, “I doubt that they'd even let you in.”
	She reached across the table and plucked one of the decorative flowers from a small vase, popping it into her mouth and shearing away the petals with her sharp teeth before Miller could stop her.
	“Well this isn't very tasty,” she complained.
	“Will you put that down? Not everything on the table is edible. Why the hell did you think that you could eat a flower?”
	“I don't know, I thought maybe it was some human delicacy. I don't know what your kind eats.”
	“Just eat the bread if you're hungry, the main course shouldn't be too long.”
	She started on the bread as he glanced around the restaurant nervously. A couple of people at neighboring tables had taken notice, one lavishly dressed woman muttering under her breath at the sight.
	Kofe finished the basket of bread off quickly, plucking a hunk of butter from its dish with her claws and eating it whole, rather than spreading it on the slices.
	Soon the waitress returned with their drinks, placing the water before Kofe and handing Miller his coffee. He stirred it with his spoon, watching the steam rise from it in a lazy plume.
	“My name is Kofe,” she announced loudly to the waitress. “Like the drink!”
	“Is that so?” the waitress chuckled, putting a hand daintily to her mouth.
	“We're on a date,” she added, loudly enough that everyone nearby could hear her. Miller groaned, hiding his face with his hands as his Borealan companion shot him a toothy grin.
	“I'll be back with your meals soon,” the waitress said with a wink, heading off to take orders from the other tables. Kofe wasted no time, downing a second jug of water in a few gulps, ice cubes and all. She sighed, refreshed, licking her lips with her long tongue. She eyed the bottle of sparkling water, popping the cap and bringing it to her mouth as Miller scrambled to stop her.
	“Kofe, wait! That water is carbonated! It-”
	Too late, she had already downed half of it, her eyes widening as she realized that something was amiss. She placed it back on the table, shaking her head vigorously and sticking her tongue out.
	“It stings my tongue!”
	“I tried to tell you,” he muttered, “it's a carbonated drink. It's fizzy, full of tiny bubbles like a can of soda. It's also full of-”
	Kofe belched loudly into her hand, the woman at the adjacent table shooting her an outraged look.
	“...gas,” Miller finished. “Go easy on it, and do try to mind your manners. I don't want to get kicked out of this place.”
	“Alright, alright. I'm doing my best here. I doubt you'd fare so well at a Polar banquet.”
	She resumed her drinking, taking smaller sips this time around, seeming to enjoy the sensation of the cool liquid in her mouth. Miller found himself wondering how a Polar would cool itself when it began to overheat. Dogs and cats panted when they got too hot, but he had never seen Kofe do that before. She said that her pads were sweating, but furred animals couldn't sweat across their entire bodies, at least he thought not. He remembered reading something about horses being able to sweat, perhaps he was wrong.
	He wasn't cruel. If she genuinely couldn't take the heat, then they could always leave early, but he at least wanted to enjoy one course before that happened. It wasn't often that he found an excuse to eat gourmet food.
	As if on cue, the waitress returned, carrying a stack of plates in her hands. She placed them before the pair, Kofe's eyes lighting up as the scents reached her nose. The Polar had a square, porcelain dish with a choice cut of steak, lightly drizzled with garlic sauce and garnished with asparagus. Miller had opted for the Ratatouille Nicoise, a French specialty comprised of stewed vegetables. He was saving room for the desserts, the restaurant was somewhat famous for its pastries and cakes.
	“Wait...this is it?” Kofe stared at her plate, pouting. “With the amount this cost, they should have brought me a pile of meat up to here,” she said as she mimed with her hand. “This doesn't even look large enough to satisfy a human. We could have bought our weight in burgers instead.”
	“Quality over quantity,” Miller chided. She made to spear the steak with her claw, but he stopped her, gesturing to the cutlery that had been laid out beside her plate. Kofe rolled her eyes, picking up the knife and fork reluctantly, fumbling with them like someone using chopsticks for the first time.
	“I have perfectly good claws,” she grumbled, “humans only use cutlery as a substitute.”
	“You promised you'd behave,” he said, and she nodded.
	“I know, I know.”
	She cut off a small piece of meat, the tiny implements like toys in her giant fingers, and popped it into her mouth.
	“Good?” Miller asked, eating a spoonful of his stew.
	“I guess it’s alright,” she admitted, hastily cutting off another piece. She finished her meal very quickly, despite making visible efforts to restrain her usual appetite. 
	“If it’s only alright, then why are you eating it so quickly?” Miller chided. “Hey, don’t lick the plate!”
	“Fine, it might be as good as street food,” she confessed with a grin. “It's a lot like you, actually. Very tasty, but not a lot to go around.”
	She eyed his own plate hungrily, and he reassured her that more courses were to come. As Miller finished up his Ratatouille, he was distracted by sudden movement, watching as Kofe began to lick the exposed fur on her arms. She dragged her obscenely long tongue from the elbow to the wrist, coating her fluffy fur in saliva, strings of it hanging from the corners of her mouth.
	Their neighbors mumbled and gasped in disgust, shooting her angry looks, glaring at Miller too as if he had any control over the alien.
	“What the hell are you doing?” Miller hissed, trying to keep his voice down.
	“It’s far too hot in here,” she replied, using her surprisingly dexterous organ to lick her chest through the v-neck of her dress. Her tongue must have been a foot long, the dull barbs that lined its upper side combing the fine strands of her coat.
	“What the...why are you licking yourself like that? Are you taking a bath in the middle of the restaurant? They'll kick us out, can't you restrain yourself?”
	“I'm overheating!” Kofe protested, pausing her licking for a moment to explain. “Humans and Equatorials don't have fur like Polars do, you can sweat to cool off. We can only sweat through the pads on our hands and feet, so when we get too hot, we have to use other methods.” She resumed her licking, the wet fur glistening under the light from the chandeliers. “We lick our fur, and when the saliva evaporates, it cools us like sweat would. We drool, and when the situation really becomes dire, we start to pant. If you ever see a Polar panting, it means they're in trouble, and you should help them.”
	She wiped away one of the dangling strands of saliva with the back of her forearm, Miller cradling his head in his hands. Kofe was going to give him an aneurysm before they even got to the dessert at this rate.
	“Can you at least go to the bathroom to do it?”
	“Not if it means getting through another door,” she complained, resuming her grooming.
	The waitress returned, standing beside their table with the dessert menus in hand as she watched Kofe curiously. She seemed more amused than disgusted, in stark contrast to the finely dressed woman at the adjacent table who was shooting daggers at the Polar. The angry patron reached over and tapped at the waitress' arm to get her attention.
	“Can't you do something about them?” she spat, acting as if Kofe and Miller couldn't hear her. “We came here to enjoy a nice meal, and these...people are making a scene. I have half a mind to complain to the manager.”
	Kofe paused her licking to glare at the woman, who shrank back into her seat, as if afraid that the giant alien was about to pounce on her. The man who was sitting across from her, an older fellow who was likely her spouse, sat quietly as if he was afraid to speak out of turn. He looked to Miller like a cowed husband who lived in fear of his tyrannical harpy of a wife.
	“I'll talk to them Ma'am,” the waitress said as she handed Kofe and Miller the laminated menus. “I will have to ask you to try and refrain from disturbing the other guests, guys,” she added with a quick wink when she was sure that the woman and her husband weren’t looking. “I'll be back in a little while to take your orders. More ice water, miss?”
	Kofe nodded happily, and the waitress retreated to the kitchen. The Borelean resumed her licking, their belligerent neighbor glancing over at them every so often as she mouthed inaudible complaints to her terrorized husband. When all of Kofe's exposed fur was suitably damp, she finally stopped, Miller breathing a sigh of relief when she didn't double over to lick herself beneath the table like a giant cat.
	He wanted to diffuse the situation that was clearly brewing between Kofe and the aristocrat at the neighboring table, but he doubted his ability to do so. Trying to engage the furious woman would probably just make things worse. He exchanged a sympathetic glance with her husband, then turned his attention to the dessert menu.
	As he had known before choosing this restaurant, it was famous for its wide selection of confectioneries, made in a traditional French style. The menu touted eclairs, macarons, choux pastries and tropezienne tarts amongst other things. It was all very decadent. Cream-filled brioche lightly dusted with powdered sugar, croissants loaded with chocolate and custard, it should be enough to drive any Polar to distraction.
	Kofe grew visibly excited as he read off the menu to her, her round ears perking up and her pink nose twitching. Miller was unsure now whether she was drooling because she was too hot, or in anticipation of the cakes and pastries. She couldn't decide which ones she wanted, and so they elected to order a sample tray of everything. It was a lot of food that was intended to serve a whole party of people, but it was a good excuse to let Kofe eat a more appropriate portion without simply ordering an embarrassing number of separate menu items.
	The waitress returned to take their order, placing another pitcher of ice water on the table which Kofe quickly drank, much to the ire of the increasingly angry woman at the table across from theirs. She seemed to take umbrage with everything that Kofe did, watching her like a hawk so that she could huff and mutter at every perceived slight or faux pas.
	It was actually beginning to get under Miller's skin. Yes, Kofe was behaving strangely in a public setting. But she was an alien, immersed in a foreign culture whose social conventions were very different from her own. She wasn't being intentionally disruptive, and she had ceased her licking now. He resolved to say something to the woman if she made another comment that was directed towards his companion.
	The waitress approached their table carrying a large platter of cakes and assorted desserts in her hands, placing it down and smiling at Kofe's awestruck expression. There was every variety of French patisserie imaginable, including a few slices of the larger cakes that were on display behind a glass counter near the bar. Kofe looked to Miller, perhaps waiting for permission to start destroying the confectioneries. 
	“Don’t eat everything all at once,” he said, giving her a knowing nod. She plucked a chocolate eclair from the stack, removing the little frilled wrapper and popping the whole thing into her mouth. A wide smile brightened her face as she chewed, no doubt discovering the cream filling, and the waitress chuckled at her expression.
	“Enjoy your dessert,” she said, “I'll be back in a while with the bill. Try those little cakes that are stacked on top of one another, miss. They're called religieuses, they're good.” The waitress glanced at the couple behind her for a moment, then lowered her voice as she whispered to Kofe. “Let me know if you need anything else, alright?”
	“Fhank 'oo,” Kofe mumbled as the grinning waitress made her way over to another table. She swallowed her mouthful of cream and pastry, moving on to the religieuses as the waitress had suggested.
	“I'm starting to warm up to this dating,” she said, licking her furry fingers clean of the chocolate glaze. “Enjoying food together is a noble tradition.”
	Miller heard the woman at the neighboring table give a disgusted huff, turning up her nose as she complained to her husband.
	“Honestly she's even talking with her mouth full, it's making me sick.”
	Kofe overheard the comment. Her round ears drooping a little and her smile fading. She popped the cake into her mouth, chewing quietly, her enjoyment of the desserts clearly marred by the continued nagging. Seeing her upset filled Miller with a sudden and unexpected flush of anger. Kofe was naive, innocent, any offense that she inadvertently caused the other patrons was no fault of her own. This woman was being completely unreasonable, vindictive at this point.
	Miller was no diplomat, he worked a job that left little room for bullshit. When something went wrong on the Pinwheel it needed to be fixed pronto, as quickly and as efficiently as possible. If someone fucked up, it could result in very real danger to the station's inhabitants. He was no stranger to chewing out colleagues and dressing down new engineers for their mistakes, he had a short fuse, and he had been conditioned over the years to come down hard and fast on people who wouldn't follow protocol. He was in a restaurant, however, flying off the handle and cursing them out would accomplish nothing besides getting them kicked out and ruining Kofe’s date in the process.
	He took a deep breath and tried to compose himself, then quickly leaned over to the adjacent table, getting the attention of the woman and her husband.
	“Sorry about my friend here,” he whispered. “She’s an alien, and it’s her first time eating out at a place this fancy. She’s still struggling with etiquette and human social conventions. She’s not trying to disturb you on purpose, she’s just excited to be here.”
	The woman’s angry scowl softened a little, and she seemed somewhat taken aback by the fact that he was addressing her directly. They clearly knew nothing about aliens. Miller couldn't stand these rich tourists. She was probably a retiree from some wealthy colony planet, so vacuous that she had nothing better to do with her free time than wander space like a vagrant and waste her savings on frivolous crap.
	“Well,” she stammered, “I certainly hope that you’ll instruct her properly so that this doesn’t happen again in the future.”
	“Hell, I’m not all that well mannered myself,” he admitted. “I’m an engineer, most of my time is spent crawling through ducts and fixing pipes. Feel free to let her know when she does something wrong.”
	That seemed to diffuse the situation, the woman sharing a glance with Kofe before returning to her meal. The complaints ceased, and Kofe gave Miller an appreciative look. She was a perceptive creature, could she tell that he was suppressing his anger? He had managed to turn the situation around through some rather deft social maneuvering, and that was something that Kofe had told him that her people found attractive.
	The Polar seemed reassured, perking up as she resumed eating. Before long she was smiling happily again, the woman's rude comments forgotten as she dug into a wobbling slice of flan. Hearing the woman's snide remarks had made him rethink his own attitude towards the Polar. Did he sound like that woman when he complained about her behavior? Maybe he should lay off a little.
	Kofe polished off the stack of assorted desserts very quickly, before long there was nothing left but crumbs. She licked her fingers clean of the cream and glazing contentedly, and the woman seemed to take offense, leaning over to whisper to her. Miller bristled, expecting another tirade. But instead, she politely informed the Polar that it was rude to lick one's fingers at the table and that she should use the napkins provided for her instead. Kofe thanked for her the advice, then actually followed through, using the napkins to clean her furry fingers. He was surprised that his ploy had worked so well, all of the tension between the two couples seemed to have dissipated.
	When the waitress returned with the bill, she glanced between the two tables, apparently picking up on the lightened mood.
	“Did you enjoy your dessert, ma'am?” she asked. “How were the religieuses?” 
	“They were great,” Kofe replied happily, “you humans sure are small for a species that produces such good food.”
	The waitress chuckled as she handed Miller the slip of paper.
	“Well that's great to hear, I hope you'll visit us again soon. I'll have a talk with the manager about getting a few Borealan-sized chairs and tables in here. I doubt they'll see much use, but we really should take more steps to accommodate our alien guests. If a Krell wanted a table, I have no idea what we'd do...”
	“That would be nice,” Kofe said, “but I don't mind the floor. I have a lot of cushion.”
	“I see,” the waitress replied, struggling to curtail her laughter. She was having a very hard time maintaining her professional composure in the company of the boisterous Polar. “Well, I'll be happy to serve you if you ever eat here again. It was nice to meet you, Miss Kofe.”
	She extended a tiny hand, and Kofe examined it for a moment, then took it. She encompassed it entirely in her sausage-like fingers and shook it gently. Beaming, the waitress bid them good night and proceeded to one of the other tables. Kofe seemed very pleased by the interaction.
	It was odd how different people responded to meeting aliens. Some were afraid of them, suspicious and wary. Some were curious almost to the point that it became inappropriate. Others, like the waitress, were immediately welcoming and friendly.
	Miller glanced at the bill, thanking his stars that he had such a full bank account due to his miserly ways. Shipping fine ingredients billions of miles across space wasn't cheap, evidently. If he was spending so much, then he might as well give their waitress a hefty tip. Her efforts had gone a long way towards making Kofe feel welcome, and he appreciated it.
	All in all, it had been a pretty good date...
	 
CHAPTER 5: CLOSETED

	“Thanks for sticking up for me back there,” Kofe said, Miller's hand held in hers as they walked together beneath the dimming lamps of the torus. It was late, and the street was as clear as it ever got, the choking crowds having mostly retreated to their bunks and beds. There were still people everywhere, but one could walk without brushing shoulders with them at this time of night. In half an hour or so the lights would turn off to simulate darkness, with only the smaller lamps and the emergency lighting serving to illuminate the Pinwheel for those who worked the night shift.
	“You looked so angry,” Kofe continued, “I thought you were going to drag her out of the restaurant by the hair and throw her out of the nearest airlock.”
	“She certainly would have deserved it,” Miller laughed, “but I didn't want to spoil the date for you. You seemed to be having a good time.”
	She nodded enthusiastically, pulling her black dress down where it was starting to ride up her thick thighs as she walked beside him.
	“I had fun, and the food was good. I liked the dessert. Maybe there's something to be said for human courtship.”
	“So, am I walking you back to your apartment?” Miller asked. 
	“Trying to get rid of me already?” Kofe chuckled, nudging him with her elbow and very nearly knocking him off his feet. He righted himself, straightening his shirt.
	“Of course not, but it's late, and I have work tomorrow.”
	“I was kind of hoping we might go back to your place,” she suggested, peering down at him expectantly with her blue eyes. “You slept over at my apartment, I'd like to see yours.”
	“Uh...” He looked her up and down pointedly. “Not that I don't want you to come over, but I have nowhere to put you. You'd barely fit on my bed, and my couch is scarcely large enough for a human to sleep on.”
	“We can find a way to make it work,” she protested, “worst case scenario we can sleep together on the floor.”
	“I don't have an air mattress or a sleeping bag for you though.”
	Kofe patted her belly with her giant hand, grinning at him and baring her sharp teeth.
	“You can use me as a mattress. I have a lot of cushion.”
	“Yeah, I can see that,” he grumbled as his cheeks started to redden. “Alright, you can come visit for a couple of hours. But you can't stay over, alright? There really isn't anywhere for you to sleep. Come to think of it, it remains to be seen if we can even fit you inside the apartment. It's not very large, even for a human...”
	“You're an engineer, you'll think of something.”
	
***
	
	“Well, here it is,” Miller announced as he gestured to the door of his apartment. “Home sweet home.”
	He swiped his ID card in a reader that was embedded in the frame and the door slid open with a whoosh. He stepped over the threshold, Kofe leaning down to poke her head through the doorway behind him, examining his abode.
	It was open-plan, just as Kofe's residence had been, but the entire apartment could have fit in her home three or four times over. The ceiling was lower, meaning that she had to crouch as she struggled through the door, her fluffy bulk catching on the frame. She wiggled and twisted, trying to get her wide hips past the obstruction, until finally Miller took her by the hand and helped to pull her through. She stood up, knocking her head on the ceiling and grumbling to herself as she rubbed it, crouching to a more appropriate height.
	“I'm afraid that I can't offer you much to drink that doesn't have an insanely high alcohol content for a Borealan,” he said as he made his way towards the fridge. “I have water if you're still too hot, and the freezer dispenses ice cubes.”
	“Water would be fine,” she replied, “is there somewhere I can sit down?”
	The apartments were all laid out very similarly, they all shared the same basic floor plan. There was a living room and a kitchen, and then a bathroom and a bedroom that were sectioned off behind their own doors for privacy. Miller gestured to the couch that was placed in front of a wall-mounted TV in the living room.
	“You can try that, but as I said earlier, everything in my apartment is going to be miniature to you. Hop off it again if you hear any ominous creaks, I don't need to be shelling out for a new couch after that restaurant bill.”
	She waddled across the room and lowered herself down tentatively onto the cushions, the frame sagging beneath her weight. Her rump was large enough to take up both seats, her fat hips spilling over the armrests. Miller was worried that the next time she stood up, she might take it with her. 
	He returned and handed her a glass of ice water, then turned to leave again, intending to drag one of the kitchen chairs over to the living room. Kofe grabbed his arm, and he looked back at her with a confused expression.
	“There's nowhere for me to sit,” he complained. 
	She patted her meaty thigh with her other hand, grinning at him expectantly. He opened his mouth to refuse, but before he could utter so much as a no, she had plucked him off the ground by his collar and had deposited him on her lap. She curled an arm around him to keep him from wriggling free, trapping him in a hug as he struggled in vain to escape. He relaxed after a few moments, accepting his fate as he realized that resistance was futile, the soft fur on her bicep tickling his face as she held him tightly.
	Her thighs were softer than the cushions of the couch would have been, it was like sitting on a waterbed that had been wrapped in a furry blanket. Once she felt him relax, she loosened her death grip on him, supporting him with her arm as he leaned back against it. Her breasts were so large that it was impossible to avoid contact with them, the nearest boob eating his shoulder and pressing against his cheek. Her dress was thin and floaty, made from linen, and it clung to her as if she had been vacuum-packed into it. He was amazed that it hadn't torn open and expelled her furry paunch by now, she had been wearing it for hours. She rested her dinner plate sized hand on his thigh, her furry fingers roaming tantalizingly close to his groin.
	“See? There's room,” Kofe chuckled as she took a sip of her water. The glass was tiny in her massive hand, even his largest pint glass was scarcely the size of a soda can to her.
	“You weren't joking about the living space,” she said as she looked around the apartment, “this really is pokey. You should come and live with me, there's plenty of room.”
	“Move in with you!?” Miller exclaimed, Kofe watching him with a sly expression as choked on his words. “I agreed to go on one date, we're not...this isn't...me and you aren't a thing, that isn't how this works.”
	“We've been on three dates,” Kofe protested, pouting. “And I read that on the third date humans are expected to-”
	Miller interrupted her by shaking his head vigorously. Sure the date had been a lot of fun, and he was starting to warm up to her, but Kofe moved faster than a Courser. Even with a human partner, he might not have been ready to take things to the next level yet, or even to skip right over several levels as Kofe seemed to be suggesting. He wasn't sure if she was joking or not, but her comment had the intended effect of making his face as red as a tomato, Kofe smirking at his expression as he sat on her lap like she was an oversized Santa Claus.
	“Well, you did invite me over to your place on the night of our third date, what's a girl to assume?”
	“You begged to see my apartment!”
	“Semantics. We've been on three dates, and I'm staying over at your place for the night. Your friends and coworkers will assume that we're a couple now, and according to the customs of your people, you owe me a kiss.”
	“Oh no,” Miller protested, starting to wriggle in her grasp. She had tightened her hold on him, her long arm wrapped around his torso to trap his arms at his sides and her heavy breast pushing against him through the thin fabric of her dress. “Where did you read that? In some trashy online publication? There are no set limits on when people are supposed to...on when they take things further. It depends on the individuals.”
	“Don't you want to kiss me?” Kofe asked, putting on a distressed tone. He was caught speechless for a few moments, staring up into her blue eyes as she batted her lashes at him. Miller was suddenly painfully aware of her pink lips, the way that they reflected the light, so full and lush...
	He swallowed hard, trying to compose himself. 
	“It's not about that. Besides, how would that even work? I've seen your tongue, it's as long as my forearm and covered in barbs.”
	“I never said anything about using my tongue,” she replied slyly, and his cheeks burned an even brighter shade of red. “Sounds like you're letting your imagination get ahead of you there, Jeff. But if you insist...”
	His stomach lurched as she leaned him back in her arms, curling one hand beneath him to support his back and cradling his head with the second, like a scene from a romance movie. She loomed over him, casting him into shadow, bringing her face down level with his. She stopped with her lips an inch away from his own, the scents of her soaps and perfumes invading his head like the creeping tendrils of some evil octopus. God, she smelled good. Did all Polars groom themselves so diligently or was it just Kofe?
	Miller had never really felt this way before. He was skirting six feet, a gruff grease monkey with a sour temper and an imposing build, he had never been on the receiving end of a woman's advances like this. In all of his prior relationships, he had been the one to make the first move, the one to initiate and the one to take charge. Why did this make him feel so...fluttery? He felt like there was an angry swarm of butterflies in his stomach and his heart was hammering against his ribcage as if it was trying to break free.
	To his surprise, she didn't proceed with her unsolicited kiss, hanging there above him as if waiting for something. Her long, slate-grey hair fell about her face, cascading past his head and seeming to seal the two of them off from the rest of the world.
	“Come on Jeff,” she whispered, her warm breath tickling his skin. “We had fun on our date, didn't we? I know you like me, your pupils are dilated, I can hear your heart beating faster and faster the closer I get to you. I can smell the pheromones in your sweat. Would one little kiss be so bad?”
	He realized that she was waiting for his permission, his consent, despite his body already being under her spell. No, it was more than that. She wanted him to ask for it, she was waiting to hear the words from his own mouth.
	“I guess it wouldn't hurt,” Miller mumbled.
	Kofe drew him closer, her soft lips pressing against his. They were larger than those of a human, but it wasn't a hindrance, so full and smooth as she locked him in a gentle embrace. The kiss was downright modest, Kofe lingering for a moment before she drew back with a smack to peer down at him with her reflective, feline eyes. She waited, her pink nose twitching. Miller found himself wanting more, and he realized that she was waiting for him to come to her. This wasn't just a kiss, it was some kind of mind game. Kofe was baiting him, wearing down his defenses until he couldn't help but throw himself at her. It was working.
	He raised a hand tentatively, combing her furry cheek with his fingers. It was smoother and silkier than the fur on the rest of her body, like running his hand across satin. She smiled at him in a way that made his heart skip a beat. He couldn't help himself, rising to kiss her of his own accord.
	That seemed to satisfy the Polar, her grip on him tightening as she met his lips. This time she opened them, the metallic taste of her saliva pricking his taste buds as her kiss became more daring and sensual. He felt the tip of her tapered tongue slide into his mouth, slow, exploratory. A pleasant shiver coursed up his spine and his eyes closed of their own accord as her organ gently glanced his own, entwining in a slow dance.
	It was so large, thick and wide as well as long, yet flexible and yielding. It appeared that Kofe was holding back for the moment, teasing him with nothing more than a couple of inches of its near foot-long length.
	He had expected the barbs that coated its surface to be rough like sandpaper, but instead, they were rather dull. The underside of her monstrous tongue was as smooth as that of a human, flesh like wet silk gliding against his inner cheeks and glancing the roof of his mouth as she tasted him.
	Kofe withdrew, giving him a moment to catch his breath, wetting her lips suggestively as she poised above him. This close to him, her inviting scent filled his nose, the shampoos and perfumes that she used to treat her snow-white fur making her smell like a bouquet of freshly-picked flowers. There were hints of red berries too, cocoa butter, and a touch of mint that might have been from her toothpaste. It was inescapable, invading his senses with every staggered breath that he took.
	She soon leaned back down again, running her fingers through his hair and pricking his scalp with her claws as her kissing took on a more lurid quality. Her embrace became greedy, wanton, Kofe piling more of her obscene length past his lips. She quickly filled his mouth, bulging his cheeks, her dexterous organ licking him from the inside. She painted his palate with her tongue and drew shapes in his cheeks, the narrow tip grazing the back of his throat. It was the deepest and most unrestrained kiss that he had ever been subjected to, his spine arching and his loins beginning to swell as she ravished him.
	He felt drunk, dazed, like her slippery tongue was sapping his strength. He had completely relaxed in her arms, limp and pliable save for his slow writhing. She held him tightly, possessively, every powerful stroke of her organ making stars dance before his eyes.
	How could she be so gentle and considerate of his human limitations, yet so unbridled and bawdy? He tried to meet her kiss, but it was hopeless. She was so much larger and stronger than he was, her sinuous organ roiling in his mouth as his tiny human tongue mounted a futile resistance, the invader so long and flexible that she could completely encompass it in a prison of wet velvet.
	Again Kofe pulled back, the length of her tongue sliding out of his mouth like a giant strand of spaghetti, leaving him gasping in her arms. The sagging web of saliva that connected their lips broke, falling to his burning cheek, Kofe cleaning it away with her furry thumb. Her black claws were like meat hooks, but she was so careful with them, always keeping them clear of his skin.
	“Was it as bad as you expected it to be?” she whispered, her voice breathy and husky. She chewed on her lower lip covetously as she watched him attempt to compose himself, still prone in her arms. Her breasts were pressing down on him with a surprising weight through the thin fabric of her dress, the doughy fat spreading across his torso and thighs such that he was practically buried in it. They were so large that one couldn't even get close to her without bumping into them, like she was surrounded by a force field of soft flesh. He prayed that she couldn't feel the hardness that was digging into one of them.
	Miller tried to muster some kind of snarky reply, but there was something about the way that she was looking at him with those blue eyes that turned his tongue into a lump of lead. He was torn between wanting more and wanting to resist her obvious attempts to seduce him. It was like being hitched to two trucks that were driving in opposite directions, the conflict threatening to tear him in half.
	The giant Polar giggled to herself, planting a wet kiss on his forehead. She sat him upright again, perching him on her lap, resting a heavy arm about his shoulders as she let him stew for a few moments. She eventually grew impatient, tapping his arm with her finger.
	“Anybody home?”
	“Y-Yeah,” he replied, struggling through the fog that had overtaken his brain.
	“Kissing an alien isn't so bad, right?”
	“I...guess not.”
	“You may want to, um...go for a walk around and get your blood flowing.”
	With a surge of embarrassment, he realized that he was pitching a very conspicuous tent, hopping to his feet and making sure to keep his back to her as he inched around the couch and made for the kitchen.
	“You want anything to eat or drink?” Miller asked, quickly changing the subject as she smirked at him from across the tiny apartment.
	“No, I'm sure I'd eat you out of house and home. Why don't you show me around your place?”
	“There's not much to see,” Miller replied, crouching in front of the fridge as he rummaged for an alcoholic beverage that might settle his nerves. He found a half-empty bottle of scotch, filling a glass with ice and pouring it on the rocks. He took a long draw, the drink warming him. A little Irish courage should see him through the rest of her visit.
	“You must have hobbies,” Kofe protested, turning towards him with her arm resting across the headrest of the couch. “What do you do when you're not working?”
	“Honestly, I'm rarely not working. I don't get a lot of time off, and I'm always on call. If an airlock jams or an oxygen processor craps out, they can't just wait and have someone fix it when their next shift starts.”
	“Well, I'm going to have a poke about,” Kofe announced as she struggled to free her rump from the couch.
	“You've pretty much seen the whole apartment already,” Miller complained as she stepped deftly around the furniture. “I swear I'm not hiding anything of interest in the bathroom.”
	He followed her as she headed straight for the bedroom, sliding the faux wooden panel open before he could stop her. She turned sideways and struggled through the doorway, her body practically made from protruding obstructions. Her breasts and belly caught on the frame, as did her butt, but her flesh was malleable enough that she managed to force her way through. It was like watching someone try to force a marshmallow through a coin slot.
	When she emerged into the bedroom, her bulk blocking his view, he heard her coo excitedly.
	“What's this!?”
	He squeezed through behind her, her massive body very nearly taking up the entire room as she crouched near the far wall. There were shelves bolted a few feet off the ground and a low table, Miller making the most of what little space was available to him. The surfaces were covered in scale models off UNN ships, hobby kits that the engineer had painstakingly assembled in his limited free time. There were two dozen of them, and the cupboard that also stored his clothes was full of more kits waiting to be built.
	“I don't have any hobbies,” Kofe mocked, imitating his voice as she examined the models. “Are these spaceships? Do you collect them?”
	“Look with your eyes, not your fingers,” he complained as she turned one of them on its stand to get a better look at it. “I build model kits, I guess it's the closest thing that I have to a hobby. I know that it's dorky, you don't need to tell me.”
	“Why are you hiding these in here?” Kofe asked, examining the spaceships intently. “You built these yourself?”
	“Yeah, I'm an engineer after all. I'm certainly capable of putting a model spaceship together. Do you...like them?”
	“Yeah, I like them,” she laughed. “Why are you so nervous about people seeing them? You should put shelves up in the living room, there's far more space in there. They'd make great conversation pieces.”
	Miller was taken aback. He had always assumed that other people would see his hobby as childish or a waste of time, but Kofe was immediately onboard. He didn't get the impression that she was humoring him, she was always very straightforward, she didn't mince words. Emboldened, he sidled a little closer to her, peering past her bulk to see which ships she was looking at.
	“That one is the Kartikeya,” he said, pointing to the large model that she was inspecting. “It's a Martian battleship, Phobos class, one of the largest in the UNN fleet. You see how the two halves are built around a kind of cylindrical structure? That's a mass accelerator, like a giant railgun. It has a loading mechanism like an oversized revolver, where that wheel turns and slots a new projectile into the loading tube, tungsten slugs about the size of a trailer. Then the magnetic rings accelerate it to a percentage of light speed.”
	“What about this one?” Kofe asked, pointing to a sleeker vessel whose hull was dotted with docked shuttles, making it look a little like a metallic pine cone.
	“That's the Shiroyama, one of the UNN's jump carriers. See all the little shuttles that are docked in recesses along the hull?”
	“And this one?”
	She pointed to something that looked like a knitting needle, a long, tapered tube with a bulge on one end.
	“Oh, that's a Courser. They're the fastest ships in the fleet. See that bulge at the far end? That's where the superlight drive and the nuclear reactors are housed. The design balances low mass with as much power production as possible, which means that it can be extremely light, while also housing enough nuclear reactors to charge the superlight drive for long-range jumps.”
	He shuffled past her and picked up a smaller model to show her. This one was white, with sleek, curved lines that gave it an attractive silhouette. Its hull was dotted with large portholes and windows, to give the occupants a good view of space. There was even a deck that was decorated to resemble the wooden hulls of ancient sailing ships, complete with deck chairs and a swimming pool, shielded from the vacuum of space by a clear bubble of fortified glass.
	“This one, on the other hand, can't jump very far. It's a civilian yacht, the smallest class of ships that can house a jump drive. It only has one nuclear reactor, so it takes a comparatively long time to travel interstellar distances. It has to do a little jump, then coast along until the reactor can charge the drive again, like a game of interdimensional leapfrog.”
	“You sure do know a lot about spaceships,” Kofe mused as she examined the model, “did you grow up near a shipyard or something?”
	“No,” he replied, placing the yacht back on its shelf. “I started off training to be a spaceship engineer. I wanted to work on carriers, but I guess I wound up here. Not that I'm complaining, being stationed here is a hell of a lot better than working on a carrier, my quarters are ten times the size they would be on a spaceship. Living on the Pinwheel has more in common with being planetside than being on a station, there's so much space. I'm not getting shot at either, which is always a plus. I guess things just turned out this way. I know plenty of wannabe hotshot pilots who ended up being technicians instead. What we want isn't always what we need, and where we want to be isn't always where we'll do the most good.”
	“So...do you have any more of these?”
	“What do you mean?”
	“Got any kits that you haven't assembled yet?”
	“Oh yeah, loads,” Miller replied as he gestured towards the closet. Kofe moved over to it, stooping to examine the contents as she slid the door open. There was a stack of five or six boxes piled high beneath the pants and jackets that were hung up inside. She lifted one of them, looking at the picture and reading off the title.
	“UNN...Frig..ate. A Frigate.”
	“That's a torpedo frigate,” Miller confirmed, peering past her bulk. “See the little circular caps along the hull? Those pop open to reveal the torpedo tubes. They fire the torpedoes vertically, and then the thrusters align them towards their targets.”
	“Want to build it?” Kofe asked, turning her head to grin at him.
	“Uh...sure,” he replied, surprised by her candor. “I didn't peg you as someone who liked building models.”
	“I don't. Or at least, I've never done it before. Who knows, maybe I'll like it. You should never pass up a chance to try something new, right?”
	“You don't have to humor me you know,” Miller said, his tone coming across a little more self-deprecating than he had intended. “We could watch a movie or something instead.”
	“I'm not humoring you,” she chuckled, clasping the box under her arm and making for the door. He followed after her, waiting for a moment as she struggled back through into the apartment. She set the box down on the kitchen table, pushing a chair aside as she sat on the floor, shuffling to get comfortable on the cushion of her rump. Her long tail trailed along the tiled deck like a furry anaconda, waving back and forth. She gestured to the chair opposite her, inviting him to sit.
	“Hang on,” Miller said, “if we're doing this then we'll need glue and a scalpel.”
	
***
	
	“Careful,” Miller gasped, watching with bated breath as Kofe placed the tiny torpedo in its tube. This was the final piece, they had decided to leave the last bay with its cap open, the missile emerging slightly to simulate a launch in progress. He leaned in and carefully placed a dab of model glue to hold it in place, Kofe pinching it between her black claws to keep it steady.
	Her hands were larger than his head, and her fingers were almost as thick as his wrists, but she was surprisingly good at delicate work. Rather than using the unwieldy pads on the ends of her digits to grip small objects, she used her pointed claws, pinching things between them like a pair of tweezers. It was actually very useful, and it avoided getting glue or paint on her fur. Truth be told, Miller had been expecting to be gluing more parts to Kofe than to the frigate. It was no surprise that so many Polars seemed to be finding their way into the medical field, they must make excellent surgeons, and their bedside manner was probably unparalleled.
	She drew her hand back, the torpedo staying in place.
	“Is it finished?”
	“Yep,” Miller replied, appraising the newly minted frigate as it stood perched on its stand. They had decided to paint it in Martian regalia, clean, red stripes decorating the ocean-grey hull.
	“It looks great,” Kofe said as she leaned in to examine it. “How large are the real ones?”
	“They're about five hundred feet long, maybe four and a half thousand tons. So...what do you think about my hobby?”
	“It's pretty fun,” she said as she scratched her furry chin with her claw. “Very zen. I can't say that I know very much about spaceships, or even that I have much of an interest in them, but we got to make something cool together. That's time well spent in my book.”
	“Oh damn, what time is it?” Miller scrambled out of his seat to check a nearby tablet computer that was resting on the kitchen counter. “Fuck, it's gone two AM, we've been at this for hours.”
	“Time flies when you're having fun,” Kofe said, stretching her long arms above her head and yawning widely. It was contagious, Miller following suit soon after, much to her amusement. She stood and brushed herself off, careful to avoid hitting her head on the low ceiling.
	“Guess I'd better go home and let you get some shut-eye, unless you want me to stay?”
	“I'd like that,” Miller admitted, “but there really isn't anywhere for you to lie down in here. The bed and the couch are too small, and I can't really move the furniture around, there wouldn't be enough floor space.”
	“I got my kiss at least, so I suppose I'm satisfied for now,” she said with a wink. “I know where you live now, Jeff. I'll be back to bother you again if you disappear.”
	“I won't disappear,” he laughed. “I hate to admit it, but I had a pretty good time today. I didn't think we'd get along, we're so...different. But I guess I was wrong. I'm glad we went on a real date, is what I'm saying.”
	She listened to him ramble, standing with her hands on her hips as if waiting for something. He went quiet, his face starting to redden as her blue eyes pierced him, the beginnings of a smile curling the corners of her mouth. Her round ears twitched as they swiveled to face him, like a pair of furry radar dishes.
	“Uh,” Miller continued, stammering his way through his ill-thought-out proposition. “I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd like to see you again. Y'know, in an official capacity...”
	She didn't respond, smirking at him as he grew increasingly flustered. He cleared his throat, loosening his collar as he struggled to get the words out. He was embarrassed to admit that he was starting to develop feelings for her, and there was also the fact that he hated admitting that she had succeeded in wooing him. She had achieved exactly what she had set out to achieve, but worse than that, she now had Miller wanting the same thing.
	“We can go on another date, if you want to,” he finally said.
	Kofe crouched down level with him, leaning forward to plant a kiss on his forehead.
	“Of course I do. You know where I'll be, come find me when you're off work tomorrow evening. We'll do something fun.”
	She turned to leave, but Miller called after her, and she paused at the door. He scooped up the model frigate from the kitchen table and thrust it into her hands, the Polar blinking in surprise.
	“Keep this,” he insisted, “we made it together. Watch your fur, some of the paint might still be wet.”
	She took the model carefully in her giant hand, reaching down to mess up his red hair before beginning the ordeal of exiting the apartment. She eventually made it out onto the torus, the frigate still intact, giving him a wave before she set off downspin in the direction of the Borealan housing.
	He watched her for a minute or two, her white fur illuminated by the yellow glow of the lights that served the function of street lamps, the Polar head and shoulders above the other pedestrians. When the curvature of the station obscured her from view, he closed the automatic door with a pneumatic hiss, leaning with his back against the fake wood panel and running his fingers through his hair.
	What was this alien doing to him? He couldn't remember ever feeling this way before, it was like she had caught his heart with a fish hook and was trying to yank it out of his chest. If this was what falling in love felt like, then it was an oddly unpleasant sensation. It was like he had drunk a vial of poison and Kofe was the only person with the antidote.
	What was with that kiss? Why couldn't he get it off his mind? It was like hearing a catchy tune, an earworm that burrows into your brain and resurfaces at random, leaving you humming along despite yourself. Maybe he should sleep on it, see how he felt the next morning. He only had a few hours before his next shift started, so that was the best option.
	He headed towards his bedroom, hoping that his dreams wouldn't exacerbate his dilemma.
	
CHAPTER 6: TURNING UP THE HEAT
	
	“Best sandwiches on the station, satisfaction guaranteed or your credits back! Get your sandwiches here, the only store that sells a fusion of Borealan and human cuisine!”
	Miller could hear her from a mile away, she had a voice like a foghorn. His shift had just ended, and he had decided to take her up on her offer. He had woken up feeling the same way about Kofe as he had the night before, confirming that it wasn't the result of alcohol, or some kind of insidious Polar mind control. While he wasn't really sure what that meant, he knew that he wanted to see her again. Maybe spending some more time with her would help him figure things out.
	She seemed to notice him before he announced himself, her ears swiveling on a pivot and her pink nose twitching. Could she smell him even through the crowd of people? She waved to him when he came into view, struggling out of her apron and sliding through the door to the right of her counter. She greeted him with an enthusiastic hug, trapping him in her massive arms and lifting him a couple of feet off the ground, Miller wheezing as she crushed him. She deposited him on the floor again, brushing off his yellow overalls apologetically. He usually hated it when she picked him up, but today it was almost welcome. There was something about the way that he sank into her body that he was starting to enjoy. She was wearing a striped t-shirt today that was battling to contain her bust, along with a pair of jean shorts that were being devoured by the paunch of her belly.
	“Couldn't stay away, eh?” she said with a smirk.
	“Don't you have to man your stall?” Miller asked, gesturing to her now empty shop.
	“I'm self-employed,” she replied, “I can check out any time I like.”
	She took him by the arm and began to march him away from her store, the crowds of shoppers and off-duty personnel in the tourist quarter parting before her like the Red Sea.
	“Where are we going?” Miller asked.
	“Somewhere I like to go to relax after a hard day's work.”
	“So you're not going to tell me?”
	“You'll find out soon enough!”
	He had no guess as to where she might be dragging him, and so he wracked his brain trying to remember everything that he knew about Polars. What did they like? Food and drink was a possibility, but they couldn't go to a bar and get wasted in the way that humans did, because the aliens could barely tolerate alcohol. They had already visited two restaurants, and so it was unlikely that she would take him to another one. Movies maybe? No, there was no cinema on the Pinwheel, the inhabitants watched movies in their own quarters. There were no concert halls on the station, no live music, there wasn't much of anything that required a large venue.
	She led him through the tourist quarter, stopping at a building that was only a ten-minute walk from her store. The door was Borealan-sized, which was surprising to him. As an engineer, he was intimately familiar with the layout of the station and its facilities. Besides the barracks in the military quarter and the apartments in the residential quarter, there were very few buildings that were built specifically to accommodate the giant aliens.
	There was no sign hanging above the door, and there were no obvious indications of what the building might contain, but the exterior had been modeled after a log cabin. The white hull material had been shaped into what looked like stacked logs, left unpainted, creating an odd contrast between the rustic facade and the space-age construction materials. There were no windows, only the large door, which Kofe pushed through as she tugged him along behind her. Despite the size of the door, her wide hips still caught on the frame, she was chubby even by Polar metrics.
	The interior was similarly decorated, but with a little more color, making Miller feel like he had stepped into a hunting lodge. There were paintings of icy mountains and frozen pine forests on the walls, the theme of winter was omnipresent.
	Kofe stopped at a counter to their right, greeting a human woman who was standing behind it. She was clad in plain, white clothes that reminded Miller of a nurse or maybe a masseuse.
	“Welcome back, Miss Kofe,” she said as she smiled up at her. “You want the usual? Rooms five and three are available.”
	“I've brought someone with me today,” the grinning Polar announced. She reached over and slipped her hands under Miller's arms, lifting him off the floor and depositing him in front of the counter so that the woman could get a look at him. “This is my boyfriend!”
	“Oh!” the woman exclaimed, Miller giving her a halfhearted wave as he tried to conceal his embarrassment. At this rate Kofe should just buy an oversized purse and carry him around in it like a chihuahua, considering the way that she liked to manhandle him.
	“Well good for you Kofe,” the woman said, smiling as she tapped at a touch panel. “A room for two will be...thirty credits between you for an hour. That sound okay?”
	“That's great, thanks,” Kofe said as she handed the woman her credit card.
	“You have room three for an hour,” the woman said as she passed the card back to Kofe over the counter. “Have a nice stay!”
	“I'm sure we will,” Kofe replied as she engulfed Miller's hand in her furry paw and tugged him down the hallway.
	“What room? Where are we, Kofe?” Miller asked. A short distance down the corridor there were several doors to either side of them, eight or maybe ten in all. They were all large enough to accommodate a Borealan, about eight feet tall and half as wide. There was no indication as to what might be behind them, but he noted that it was getting noticeably hotter the deeper they went.
	One of the doors slid open, and a Borealan of the Equatorial variety stepped out. It was a female, tall enough that her ears skirted the doorframe. Miller's eyes were drawn to her impressive body, heavily muscled and naked save for a black sports bra and a pair of shorts to preserve her modesty. She had abdominal muscles that could have been used as a rumble strip, her thighs as round as tree trunks, her dark skin glistening with what looked like it could have been moisture or sweat. She had striking hair and fur, platinum blonde with faded stripes like a Siberian tiger. Unlike the Polars, the Equatorials only had fur on their forearms and lower legs, leaving the rest of their skin clear.
	Some people found the aliens irresistibly attractive, but they always came across as overdeveloped to Miller, like gym rats or steroid abusers. Her muscles scarcely looked real, more like molded plastic than anything that could be living. He could understand where their admirers were coming from, but he preferred partners who wouldn't tear his face off for looking at them funny.
	The stranger swung a large towel over her shoulder, she appeared to be breathing heavily. Was this place some kind of private gym? Kofe pressed herself up against the wall to let the Equatorial pass, the alien glancing down at Miller as she walked by. It was an oddly predatory gaze that instilled a kind of primal unease in him, and he got the distinct impression that the regulars were not used to seeing humans here. Wherever here was...
	“Here's our room,” Kofe announced, stopping before an identical door marked with a large number three. She hit a touch panel that was embedded in the frame, and it slid open, Miller struggling to see past her girth as she led him inside. By the time the door had closed behind him, he realized that he was in a wooden room.
	It was fairly small, perhaps the size of the living room in his apartment, the walls coated in wood paneling that reminded him of floorboards. To one side of the room were tiered benches, made from the same wood, comprised of two levels of seating like an extremely small bleacher. Against the adjacent wall was some kind of squat box. The exterior was made from matching wood, while the interior was metal and filled with what looked like smooth stones, almost like a treasure chest with no lid. There was a wooden bucket sat on the lower of the two benches along with a few rolled up towels, and there were a couple of lockers off in one corner of the room.
	“What is this?” Miller asked, walking about the room as he examined it.
	“You've never been to a sauna before?” Kofe asked.
	“A sauna? Can't say that I have. I think I went in a hot tub once back on terra firma, but I've never been to a spa or anything like that.”
	“That's surprising, I assumed that all humans used them. There were lots of them in Siberia, and the Russians seemed to like bathhouses. They called them Banya. The Polars in the colony learned how to build them too, as hot springs were a big part of our culture back on Borealis and there weren't any in the region that we colonized. They're so popular that I'm sure the majority of our dwellings have a Banya by now, they're easily assembled from the same materials that we use in our construction. A traditional sauna is little more than a log cabin with a few special features.”
	“I thought you guys hated heat?” Miller asked, “what's the attraction of a sauna?”
	“We may be built for cold weather, but that doesn't mean that we have to enjoy it. A sauna or a hot spring can be a welcome reprieve from freezing temperatures. Back on Borealis, arctic temperatures could get as low as minus fifty degrees Celsius, and in the Siberian Taiga they can drop to minus thirty in the winter. I think you'll agree that those conditions are a little different from what you'd find in my apartment.”
	“Not that I don't want to give the sauna a try,” Miller said, turning to face her. “But I didn't bring any swimwear, and...what are you doing?”
	Kofe paused, halfway through the process of removing her tent-like t-shirt, her fluffy belly exposed as she prepared to pull the garment up and over her head.
	“I'm getting undressed of course. You don't wear a swimsuit in the sauna, Jeff.”
	“So...you want me to take my clothes off?”
	She gave him a toothy grin, then lifted her shirt. Her mammoth breasts strained against the striped fabric, pushing it to its limits. Miller would not have been surprised in the least to hear it tear and to see her white fur poke through the seams, but the garment endured against all odds. Kofe struggled with the weight of her bust, pulling the shirt up and over her breasts, revealing them to be bare beneath the thin layer of clothing. After a moment of resistance, they dropped with enough weight that he could almost feel the impact from across the room, the globes of fat and fur bouncing gently as they hung from her chest.
	He had been aware of their size and shape beforehand, of course, any clothing that Kofe wore was revealing simply by virtue of how tight it was on her voluptuous figure. She could have bought the thickest and most padded sweater available, and she would have filled it out all the same, leaving nothing to the imagination.
	Still, to see her completely exposed...it was hard to do them justice. They were like a pair of space hoppers, he could have sat on one and used it as a beanbag chair.
	Miller turned away from her, his face burning as he made a futile attempt to give her some privacy.
	“You should probably...wrap yourself in a towel or something,” he mumbled.
	“Humans are such prudes,” she complained, her tone playful. “I don't have anything that you've not seen before, I promise. Besides, we're going out now, right? You can get a look at me if you want to, I don't mind.”
	He stared intently at the wall for a few moments and then he heard her sigh.
	“Oh alright, if it'll make you feel better I'll put a towel on.”
	He heard shuffling and what sounded like one of the lockers being opened, then creaking as she sat down on one of the benches. When he turned to face her again, she was completely nude save for a relatively small, grey towel that was draped over her lap. It was a little unnecessary he realized, as the overhang of her belly and her thick thighs would have obscured her privates from view on their own. Her breasts, however, were still exposed. Kofe smirked at him as his eyes were inexorably drawn to them like magnets. She was resting with her hands on the bench to support her, leaning back slightly, and he could have sworn that she was pressing her upper arms together in order to further accentuate them.
	“Unless you can find me a bigger towel, I'm afraid I'll have to go topless. I'm sure that your fragile sensibilities will survive.” She watched him expectantly for a moment, her expression sly. “Well go on, it's your turn.”
	“Aren't there any changing rooms?”
	“No,” she laughed, clearly delighting in how uncomfortable she was making him. “Clothes off, come on. We only have an hour you know.”
	“Alright, alright. But don't look, okay?”
	Kofe made a show of covering her eyes with one hand, crossing her legs as her puffy tail waved back and forth. Miller turned away from her, glancing over his shoulder to ensure that she wasn't peeking, then began to undress. He kicked off his shoes and slipped out of his yellow work overalls, stowing them in one of the lockers, then proceeded to take off his shirt and jeans. Now wearing only his underwear, he looked back at Kofe, his cheeks flushing as she saw that she was peering between her fingers conspicuously with a mischievous grin on her face.
	“Hey, you told me you wouldn't look!”
	“I lied,” she replied, chewing on the end of one of her black claws as she looked him up and down covetously.
	“Just throw me a towel, will you?”
	Kofe tossed one of the rolled up bath towels at him, and he wrapped it around his waist like a skirt, sliding his underwear off beneath it and stowing them in the locker. Keeping the towel on, he shuffled over to where Kofe was sitting and planted himself beside her, keeping a distance of maybe a foot between them.
	“So...what happens now?”
	Kofe lifted the wooden bucket from its place on the bench, taking the ladle that was resting inside it and leaning forward towards the stones. She used it to pour water over them, and the liquid hissed, turning to steam almost immediately upon contact. The smooth rocks were apparently very hot. She repeated the action a few times until the room was thick with humidity, the cloud of hot steam obscuring his vision and causing Kofe's white fur to blend with the air.
	The temperature in the room was rising rapidly, and Miller was already beginning to sweat. Kofe leaned back, large enough that she could rest her elbows on the second tier of benches, closing her eyes and exhaling as she enjoyed the sensation. Her fur was starting to puff up, making the already fat Polar look even larger than she was.
	It was extremely hot, the moisture in the air preventing the sheen of sweat that was now coating his body from evaporating. If he pursed his lips and sucked, he could probably have taken a drink from the very air itself.
	Keeping his eyes off Kofe was a struggle, there was just so...much of her. The tight clothes that she usually wore had actually been containing much of her girth, which was now unrestrained. The cushion of her butt spread out where she sat, her thighs like a pair of oil barrels wrapped in foam as they ate the lip of the bench, the paunch of her belly resting on her lap like a melting candle on the edge of a shelf. Her breasts were like a pair of military rucksacks laden with gear, the kind that drill instructors used to exhaust grown men in the prime of their life on hikes. He was surprised to see that the malleable fat was keeping its shape, her boobs round and defined even as they sagged from her chest. When he thought about it, it made sense, as Earth-standard gravity was pretty low by her standards and her body would have to operate under much harsher conditions than this. They wobbled every time she moved, like a plate of jello, they looked so impossibly soft and plush...
	Miller snapped out of his trance when Kofe caught him staring, smirking at his red face as he turned away to peer at the adjacent wall.
	She leaned forward to pour more water over the hot stones, ensuring that her breasts dangled from her chest enticingly, spilling over her knees like melting wax. Was she doing all of this just to wear him down, to torture him?
	She leaned back again, enjoying the mist that she had created. She was so confident, there was no trace of embarrassment or self-consciousness in her. It seemed that nudity was perfectly natural and socially acceptable to the Polars. Miller, on the other hand, was hunched over with his arms crossed over his chest in a futile attempt to cover himself.
	“Relax,” Kofe chuckled, “this is supposed to be therapeutic. Besides, I want to get a good look at you. We're dating, aren't we?”
	Reluctantly, Miller uncrossed his arms, trying to take her advice and loosen up a little. He did work pretty hard, his maintenance schedule was grueling. Maybe her motives were not so suspicious after all, she might genuinely be trying to help him unwind. Besides, if he was going to spend an hour with her in this hotbox, he might as well try to enjoy it.
	He leaned back against the wood paneling of the bench behind him, letting the sweat flow. It was kind of cleansing in a way, the heat permeating his muscles. He could feel Kofe's eyes playing across his naked body, his musculature accented by the warm lighting of the room as it reflected on his wet skin, giving him a distinct shine.
	He wondered what she must think of him, what about him was so attractive to her. He was tiny in comparison to her, both in terms of stature and weight. Polar males were just as large as the females, he had seen one or two of them on the torus. They were eight or nine feet tall and heavily muscled despite their insulating blubber. They looked like powerlifters, with round bellies that were packed with functional muscle.
	Miller looked nothing like that, his skin was clean and devoid of fur, his muscles defined but modest. His work required a certain amount of physical labor that kept him in decent shape, and he ate well enough that he didn't have a whole lot of body fat. Besides some softness around the belly where he had indulged in a few too many beers, he was pretty happy with the way that he looked.
	The question, however, was whether Kofe liked it. He glanced over at her, his heart quickening as he caught her blue, reflective eyes examining him. The tension was starting to become too much for him, he was getting tired of wondering. Maybe he should just ask her, wasn't openness her whole thing?
	“So...” Miller began, “are you...okay with me?”
	She raised an eyebrow at him, and he immediately regretted his question. It was a half-measure.
	“You're asking if I like you?”
	“I guess so, yeah. I mean, we're so different. What is it that you find...attractive about me?”
	“Well,” she said as she shot him a sordid grin, “for a start...” She shuffled closer to him across the bench until the meat of her thigh was pressing against his leg, her wet fur oddly pleasant on his skin. “You're really short, and that's adorable.”
	“I am not adorable,” Miller complained, scowling up at her as she loomed over him and bit her lip in her pearly teeth.
	“Are too. You can't help being cute, you're like a little hairless kitten. Whenever I see you, I just want to lift you off the ground and squeeze the life out of you.”
	“Well, I'm glad to know that you have at least some self-control,” he grumbled.
	He felt her gigantic arm wrap around his shoulders, her hand draped across his chest. It almost looked like that of a bear, but with longer, humanoid fingers. Her pink pads were spongy and soft, while the wet fur was downy and silky, like a loofah. She was careful with her meat hook claws, but they still made him a little nervous. They looked like they could have carved welts in his flesh an inch deep with the slightest twitch.
	“You look a little like an Equatorial I suppose,” she continued, “but with less fur. Your skin is smooth, shiny, pleasant to touch. Shall I tell you a secret?”
	She leaned down to whisper in his ear, scooting towards him until he could feel the weight of one of her breasts pressing down on him as it engulfed his shoulder. She pulled him closer with her arm, Miller cocooned in yielding fat and damp fur.
	“Lots of Borealans like humans, it's kind of in fashion right now to date them. Equatorials like you because you're easy to dominate, they have this whole complex where they want to tear you up for being sassy little teases, but they can't because you're too fragile. Drives them half crazy.”
	Miller gulped as he remembered the muscular Equatorial that they had passed on the way in. He didn't want to imagine what being at the mercy of one of those things would be like when it was driven mad by lust. He thanked his stars that Kofe's people had a far more agreeable temperament.
	“Humans have a lot of...attractive qualities,” she added. Miller jumped as he felt her free hand sneak over to engulf his own, making him feel like he was wearing an oversized mitten. She opened her fingers, looking down at his hand as it rested in her fluffy palm, as if comparing their sizes. The span of his fingers was scarcely large enough to fill her palm.
	“You don't have claws. Polars are careful of course, but there are still some...things...that we can't do safely. A human can touch someone wherever he wants, all over, nothing is off-limits. He can give his partner a massage without the fear of accidentally cutting them, he can comb their fur, there's nowhere that he can't put his fingers. You get the idea.”
	She released him from her grasp, Miller's brain boiling as hot as the steam in the air. She smirked at him, leaning forward to wet the stones again, the loud hiss of evaporating moisture jolting him back to reality.
	“There's also your tongues,” she said, “do you know how wild it is that humans don't have barbs on their tongues? It's like you were made for...y'know.”
	“Kissing?” Miller volunteered.
	“Amongst other things...”
	She leaned back on the benches again, relaxing and letting her slate-grey hair cascade over her shoulders. She really did seem to be enjoying the sauna, and the woman at the counter had known her by name, she must visit here often.
	“That's not the reason I like you though,” she said, flashing him a toothy smile. “You have more in common with us than you realize. I've never seen a human try to bullshit his way through a conversation as ardently as you have, you've got Polar smarts. If I didn't know that it was impossible, I'd say that one of your parents had been unfaithful during a business trip to Siberia.”
	The humor relieved some of the sexual tension, and he laughed a little louder than he had intended, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand reflexively before realizing how futile the gesture was. He was soaking in sweat by this point, even the towel that was wrapped around his lower body was heavy with moisture. It must have been forty degrees by now at least.
	“Why don't you come over here and give me a back rub?” Kofe asked.
	“A back rub?”
	“Yeah. I want to see if what they say about humans is true, put those clawless fingers to work. A sauna and a massage would compliment each other well, don't you agree? Besides, I have a lot of...weight to carry around, it makes my shoulders ache.”
	“I...guess so.”
	She noticed that he was getting embarrassed again, loosing an exaggerated sigh.
	“Come on Miller, you have to push through this prudishness of yours. We're alone, we're in a relationship, I've had my tongue down your throat. There's nothing wrong with nudity. If this was a Banya back in the colony, you'd be insulting your hosts by refusing to strip off. Here, watch this.”
	Before he could protest, Kofe lifted him from his seat and planted him on her lap. He felt the soft texture of her wet fur against his back, sinking into the cushion of her thighs as she let his weight rest on them. As if intending to prevent his escape, she wrapped him in her arms, pulling him tight against her torso. The round tire of her belly enveloped him, pressing against his lower back like a plump lumbar pillow. It was like sitting in the deepest and most luxurious armchair ever made, Miller sinking what felt like an inch or more into her body, her feathery fur tickling his bare skin wherever it touched him. Due to his smaller stature, the top of his head didn't even reach her furry chin.
	Initially, her heavy breasts pressed against his back, spreading and deforming like putty. But as she squeezed him tighter, they slid around his shoulders to engulf his upper body completely. It was like being wrapped in a wet fur coat, her cleavage so deep and encompassing that her squashy flesh could very nearly meet around his chest. They weighed so much that it was almost uncomfortable, the twin globes of fat resting only a little of their weight on his shoulders, but it was enough to make him feel like his spine was telescoping. How on Earth did she walk around with these things? They would have broken the back of an average woman.
	Her warmth began to cook him, her coat so thick and deep that his hands sank up to the wrist in her sodden fur. The copious meat of her bust insulated him, trapping the heat and making him sweat even more, their contact slippery and wet. He sat there in silence for a few moments, sandwiched between her breasts, his arms trapped at his sides by what felt like the weight of two people.
	“See?” Kofe whispered, Miller feeling her warm breath on his neck. “You're not dying, are you? You didn't explode when you touched me.”
	His muscles were like coiled springs, his body so tense that he was like a stone statue in her lap, afraid to move lest he touch something that he shouldn't.
	“Relax,” she breathed, blowing strands of his hair as she chuckled. “You're so tense. Maybe I should give you a back rub rather than the other way around.”
	She seemed intent on keeping him trapped until he calmed down, and gradually his tension began to melt away. Her vast body was undeniably comfortable and relaxing, he felt like he was resting against a furry waterbed, his body sinking into her inhumanly soft flesh. He began to grow accustomed to the sensation of having her fur against his skin, the weight of her breasts pressing down on him, her flowery scent all around him. It was what she wanted, after all, this was all her idea. Hell, knowing Kofe, she had probably meticulously planned this moment days ago.
	The Polar loosened her grip when she sensed that he was calming down, leaning back against the bench behind her. If she had been like an armchair, now she was a recliner, Miller lying on top of her and letting his head rest on the cushy pillow of her bust. They stayed that way for a few minutes, Miller enjoying the new seating arrangements and letting the heat of the sauna wash over him.
	“Alright, time to get up,” Kofe commanded. She took him in her hands and deposited him on the bench beside her, leaning forward to pour another ladle-full of water onto the hot stones. A plume of steam rose into the air, Kofe taking in a deep breath contentedly.
	When she leaned back again, she felt Miller's hands on her shoulders, and she turned her head to get a look at him. He had climbed up onto the second row of benches, sitting with his legs crossed, as the span of her shoulders was actually too wide for her to sit between them.
	“What made you change your mind?” Kofe asked, teasing him.
	Miller began to knead, feigning reluctance as he pushed his thumbs into her flesh. Even her back and shoulders had a layer of insulating fat, his fingers sinking almost up to the knuckle. Her coat only added to its depth, puffed up due to the humidity, but no less soft. Beneath her blubber was hard muscle, but he really had to dig to find it. Just as her strength suggested, if he was to peel away all of her fat, she would probably have resembled the Equatorial that had passed by them in the hallway. It took a great deal of strength to move this kind of weight around with as much ease as she did.
	He would never have admitted it to her, but she was an incredibly touchable creature. Her fur was as soft as silk, clearly very carefully maintained, while her fat layer made her irresistibly squishy. She was like a giant, ambulatory teddy bear.
	Kofe sighed appreciatively, leaning back against the bench, her long hair falling across his lap. As he massaged her back, his eyes were drawn to her ears, level with his face now that he was sitting a tier above her. They looked like the ears that one might find on a bear or a lion, small and round, covered in fluffy hairs. They moved independently of one another, flicking and twitching occasionally.
	He reached out a tentative hand and gripped one of them, rolling it between his fingers as he examined it. It was fairly thin beneath the puffy fur, like that of a domestic cat. Kofe loosed a rumbling sound, and he pulled back, fearing that it was an angry growl. Instead, he realized that she was purring. It was deep and resonating, just like a big cat. He returned his hand to her ear and stroked it experimentally, feeling her body shift beneath him as she enjoyed the sensation. He grew bolder, scratching behind her ears as one would with a pet, watching as her long tail waved back and forth on the bench like a furry anaconda.
	“Ooh, keep that up,” she groaned. “See, this is what I'm talking about. Borealans can't do that, our claws are too sharp.”
	“You're cats, right? Can't you retract them?”
	“Retract them? Like up into our fingers? No, we can't do that. And we're not cats, that's just convergent evolution. I've heard humans comparing us to all kinds of feline animals that developed on your planet. Panthers, tigers, lions. Who knows, with enough time, maybe those animals would have evolved to resemble Borealans one day.”
	“Well you look like cats to me...”
	“Oh, shut up and keep stroking my ears.”
	She was such a large creature, and yet the lightest touch of his fingers sent shivers rolling conspicuously through her plush body like ripples on a lake, making her more abundant features wobble enticingly. It all complimented her figure, filling her out in ways that seemed designed to draw the male gaze.
	“You're slacking off,” she complained, leaning her head back and resting it in his lap. She looked up at him with her blue eyes, smirking at his red face. “What's the matter, are you letting your thoughts wander?”
	“It's just the heat,” he replied, resuming his massage. He ran his fingers through her hair, which was distinct from her fur both in color and texture. While her coat was white, her hair was grey, and it was straight rather than being curly. He combed it slowly, Kofe seeming the enjoy the sensation of his fingers on her scalp.
	“Uh-huh. Whatever you say, mister poker champion,” she snickered.
	He took a lock of her hair in his hand and gave it a playful tug, Kofe's tail going straight as a board for a moment, before relaxing back onto the bench. She turned her head to glare back at him, a mischievous glint in her eye.
	“If you're going to pull a girl's hair like that then you'd better be able to follow through, short stuff.”
	His face burned even redder at the implication, and he resumed his stroking without further comment, Kofe's eyelids fluttering as he returned his attention to her ears. It really was like petting a big cat, assuming that one could have gotten so close to a tiger without it tearing their arms off. Her purring was vibrating the bench beneath him, and she was sliding slowly down into her seat. He had never seen her so relaxed before.
	Eventually, she was snapped out of her trance by the need to splash more water on the hot stones, Miller's fingers leaving her hair as she shuffled forward. There was another puff of hot steam, mist lingering in the air as the intense heat washed over them. It really was relieving Miller's stress, as if the aches and pains that resulted from a hard day's work were leaving his body along with his perspiration. He couldn't remember ever sweating this much before, it was like he had run a marathon in the middle of a summer's day.
	They relaxed in the sauna for maybe half an hour longer, Miller occasionally resuming his petting as Kofe sat with her head in his lap. The intense heat and humidity was gradually becoming less comfortable, and after a while, he was starting to feel like a pickle in a jar.
	“I think that's enough sauna-ing for me,” he said, Kofe's ears perking up as she woke from her catnap.
	“Yeah, I guess we've been in here for a good forty minutes,” she said as she stretched her arms above her head. “Let's go get a shower.”
	“A shower?”
	“You didn't expect to just put your clothes back on and walk out covered in sweat, did you?”
	“I...suppose not. I've never been to a sauna before.”
	“Well you're supposed to take a cold shower afterwards, it's good for you. On the homeworld, we'd hop out of the hot springs and roll around in the snow, and in Siberia they usually take a dip in a frozen lake.”
	“I guess that makes sense,” he said as he rose to his feet and stepped down onto the floor, securing his towel about his waist like a skirt.
	“Uh...Jeff? You can't take a towel into the shower.”
	“I'm not walking around a public facility in the nude,” he complained, “I'm pretty sure that's illegal as well as being in poor taste.”
	“This is a spa geared towards Borealans,” she replied, “the giant doors should have given that away. Nobody cares if they see your junk, trust me. Hangups about naked bodies are a distinctly human phenomenon.”
	He didn't like it, but he didn't have much of a choice. It would be a long and embarrassing walk of shame back to his apartment if he didn't shower and dry off on Kofe's terms.
	“What about our clothes?” he asked, gesturing to the lockers.
	“They'll still be here when we get back.”
	She cast her towel aside, leaving it on the bench as she made her way over to the door and hit a touch screen that was mounted in the frame, the panel sliding open with a rush of cool air. Miller followed behind her, keeping his towel about his waist despite her protests. The Polar might hail from an entire race of nudists, but human dignity was a little more fragile.
	He stepped into the corridor reluctantly, keeping his eyes above Kofe's beltline as she hit another touch interface that was mounted on the outside. The door snapped shut, and Miller could make out the sound of rushing air behind it, like someone had turned on a blow dryer.
	“I've set the sauna to vent,” Kofe explained, “it'll dry out and cool off ready for the next customer. It also means that we can get dressed without getting all wet again.”
	He would have expected there to be a changing room, but in a lot of ways, this method made sense. Space was always at a premium on the Pinwheel, establishments that were permitted to set up shop on the station had to make use of every inch that they could get. It was also unlikely that they had the time to wait for the saunas to cool down on their own, he had only seen perhaps a dozen such doors on the way in, and some of those might have been showers.
	Kofe set off, and he hurried behind her, wondering how she was able to walk around in the nude with such confidence. Like she said, it must just be some cultural thing. Human cultures seemed ashamed of nudity in most contexts, but Kofe couldn't have cared less as she sauntered down the hallway, her wide hips swaying back and forth. He caught a sneaky look at her butt now that her back was to him, wondering how she managed to get all of that meat into a pair of shorts. It defied physics, her posterior protruded far enough that he could have used it as a bookshelf.
	At the end of the hallway, they came to a door, which Kofe opened, revealing a tiled room beyond. It was a large, communal shower room, like one might find at a gym or a bathhouse. There were booths separated by dividing walls, like cubicles, probably geared more towards human customers than the indifferent Borealans. Miller could hear the sound of water pounding against the floor, which suggested that some of the booths might already be occupied.
	His giant companion led him forward, selecting a booth and pushing open a swinging door that reminded him of a bathroom stall. The interior was very large by human standards, less so for the giant Borealans, and a tight fit for Kofe. It was just wide enough that there was maybe half an inch between her hips and the wall on either side, and when she turned to look back at him, her belly and breasts scraped against it. Above them was a showerhead, and there was a grate beneath their feet through which the water would drain. There was also a stainless steel bench where one could sit and let the water cascade over them, or at least one would have been able to do that, if Kofe didn't occupy all of the space.
	There was scarcely room enough for Miller, who was pressed up against her butt from behind as her tail waved in his face. It was like being slowly devoured by a furry carpet.
	“Shouldn't we use separate booths?” he asked, spitting out one of her white hairs as he scowled up at her. “There's barely enough room for you, never mind me.”
	“Don't you think it's intimate?”
	“I think it's like sharing a phone booth with a woolly mammoth. I'm gonna go find my own booth if it's all the same to you.”
	“But I need you to do my back!” Kofe protested as he slid out through the door. It swung shut behind him on its hinge, and he found himself alone in the shower room. He checked that the towel was safely secured around his waist, then began to peruse the booths. He could hear the sound of water hitting tile, and if he stooped, he could see beneath the doors.
	He moved along the rightmost row, seeing that two of the four booths were occupied by Borealans. Both varieties had furry feet, and so it was hard to tell which one they were. All of the Polars that he had seen so far had been white, and so that pair of orange paws probably belonged to an Equatorial. Good lord, those black claws resembled those of dinosaurs, absolutely enormous. They clicked on the tile when the alien shifted its weight, scraping the material. The second specimen was equally endowed, with claws that could have been used as meat hooks protruding from its straw-colored fur. They sure did come in a lot of varieties.
	He moved to the left side, wanting to steer clear of the notoriously bad-tempered creatures where possible. It looked like all of these booths were unoccupied.
	There was a pneumatic hiss as the door to the shower room slid open, Miller's blood curdling as he saw an Equatorial step into the room. She was female, different from the one that he had passed in the hallway earlier. She had jet black fur and skin that was very nearly the same shade, so dark that it almost had a blue sheen under the room's harsh lighting. She had just come from a sauna, clearly, as her nude body was glistening with beads of sweat. The stranger caught him looking, and how could he not? Her breasts were firm and pert, as large as his head at least, and her toned muscles reflected the light like volcanic glass.
	She glared at him with her striking, green eyes, like a pair of emeralds embedded in obsidian. He gave her a sheepish grin and then slipped into one of the booths, closing the door behind him and breathing a sigh of relief. There were no locks, but he felt safer with a wall between him and the alien.
	As he examined the shower head, searching for a way to turn it on, he heard the sound of sharp claws on tile. It was getting closer, and he crouched, bringing his head down to see under the door. A pair of jet black feet were marching his way. The fleshy pads would have made their contact silent, was it not for the wicked talons that squeaked like nails on a chalkboard.
	The alien paused in front of his door, Miller looking around frantically as he searched for an escape route. There were none, he was cornered.
	The door swung open, banging against the wall, the naked Equatorial filling the space as she blocked his exit with her massive figure. There seemed to be almost no body fat on her, whenever she moved he could see every muscle bulging and moving beneath her onyx skin.
	Miller couldn't figure out where to look, her nude body filling his field of view, her large breasts at head-height to him. Should he look at the floor? Meet her piercing gaze?
	“So, peeking under stalls, are you? How did you get in here, are you some kind of xenophile?”
	Her voice was a deep contralto, course and gravelly, almost like a growl in its own right.
	“N-No,” he protested, settling on looking her in the eye. She raised an eyebrow at that, almost as if she hadn't expected such confidence from a human. “I was checking which stalls were free. I came here with a friend.”
	“Oh really? Why would this friend let you wander off on your own in a Borealan bathhouse? That's just asking for trouble. Seems to me you're just another curious human looking for some action.”
	She dug her claws into the stall and took a step forward, scarring it with her fingers as she dragged them along. Miller retreated away from her, feeling the cold tiles against his back as he bumped into the far wall. She leaned down to bring her face level with his, her breasts hanging enticingly from her chest.
	“Looks like you found some, little man.”
	“Hey, back off,” he snapped as she reached towards him with one of her furry hands. The stranger faltered, surprised by his commanding tone, a sinister smile curling her lips.
	“You're a feisty one, aren't you? Keep it up, I love it when they talk back.”
	She put her hands on his shoulders, forcing him to sit on the steel bench as she wet her lips with her pink tongue. She looked like she was about to eat him. As she loomed over him, he heard the sound of claws on tile again, and he saw Kofe searching for him through the open door. If he stayed quiet, then the Equatorial might have her sordid way with him. But if he called for help, he would have to brave a shower with Kofe. He weighed the two options, deciding that Kofe's satisfied smirk was marginally better than being eaten.
	“Kofe!” Miller shouted, “a little help?!”
	In a moment, Kofe's snow-white bulk was blocking the opening. The Equatorial's ears swiveled to point backwards, then her head followed, staring over her shoulder at the intruding Polar.
	“Excuse me,” Kofe said, her tone apologetic. “This one's mine.”
	Her long, puffy tail snaked past the dark-skinned alien, coiling around Miller's waist like a boa constrictor. The Equatorial stepped aside as Kofe lifted him clear off the bench, plucking him out of the booth like he was a toy in an arcade claw machine. She deposited him at her side, then looked back at his would-be assailant, who was scowling at her. There was a brief pause, Miller fearing that the two aliens were about to go at it. He could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. Then the palpable hostility evaporated, the dusky Borealan shrugging her muscular shoulders.
	“I thought he smelled a little like Polar. Keep a better eye on him, and mark him if you want to keep him. Don't let him just run around like an unsupervised kitten.”
	“He's fragile!” Kofe protested, her tail still coiled around him protectively.
	“They're not that fragile, I've seen it done. He'll get over it.”
	Kofe took him by the hand and led him back over to her chosen booth, guiding him inside and blocking his escape route with her mass. She was wide enough that he couldn't have squeezed past her if he had wanted to.
	“On second thought,” he said, “sharing a booth is fine by me.”
	She smirked at him, closing the door behind them with her prehensile tail.
	“It's generally not a good idea for a human to be alone with an Equatorial. They can be a little...forward.”
	“What does marking mean?” Miller asked.
	“Oh, that's when an Equatorial bites their mate to leave a scar on their neck, to show that they're taken.”
	“Helluva wedding ring,” he muttered, imagining having one of those things sinking its teeth into his shoulder.
	“Are you ready to take a shower now? Done exploring?”
	“Alright,” he grumbled, trying to avert his eyes from her bust as it wobbled an inch from his nose. He didn't have much of a choice, it was either shower with Kofe or face the wrath of her evolutionary cousin. She noticed that he was still avoiding looking at her naked body, laughing softly at his obvious discomfort.
	“You can't avert your eyes forever, Jeff, and you're going to have to touch me eventually. Just relax, you might even enjoy yourself...”
	Kofe reached past him and turned a dial on the wall, Miller having to lean back to avoid being knocked unconscious by her furry boobs. It was no exaggeration, they were genuinely large enough and heavy enough to constitute a real threat, even if they were wrapped in doughy fat and plush fur. Ending up in the infirmary due to a boob-induced concussion wasn't something that he needed.
	Warm water began to pour from the shower head, immediately flattening Kofe's puffed up fur as it splashed across her chest and shoulders. It made her downy coat cling to her figure, accentuating it even more than usual. There was no question now as to where the fur ended and the flesh began, it almost looked like she was wearing a white catsuit.
	She took a minute to let the water cascade over her face, fiddling with the temperature until she got it just right. It was a wonderful feeling to wash away all of the sweat that had accumulated, Miller running his fingers through his hair and across his chest, enjoying the sensation. Kofe watched him, pulling the curtain of wet hair that had fallen over her face aside, and he soon stopped when he realized that she was ogling him.
	“Don't stop on my account,” she said, smirking at his red face. “You should probably remove that towel, by the way, it'll get soaked.”
	There was no way, and he shook his head defiantly.
	“It'll get heavier and heavier until it falls off,” she laughed, “is this your version of a striptease? I have to wait for the towel to slide down on its own?”
	“You just do your thing, and I'll do my thing,” he said. She leaned over and plucked a bottle from the steel bench behind him, and he noticed that there were several such containers lined up along its length. She upended it into her furry palm, a strong scent of tropical fruits rising to Miller's nose, then she began to spread it on her fur.
	“What are those?” Miller asked, “some kind of shampoos?”
	“Soaps, conditioners, that kind of thing. I have to clean and treat my fur after using the sauna, I can't leave it all puffed up like this, I'll get split ends.”
	“Did you bring that here in advance or something?”
	“I come here pretty often, I just leave my stuff in one of the booths so that I don't have to carry it around with me.”
	She rubbed her hands together, creating a foamy lather, then she began to spread it across her chest and neck. Her palms were so fluffy that she could use them like a loofah. It smelled strongly of fruit, very pleasant, mingling with her natural scent in the small confines of the booth. He watched as her hands roamed slowly down towards her breasts, her large fingers sinking up to the knuckle in their malleable flesh as she squeezed and kneaded.
	Miller knew that she was putting on a show to titillate him, yet he was transfixed, he couldn't look away. She lifted them so effortlessly despite their obvious weight, letting the fat spread between her fingers like wet clay, as if she was attempting to mold them into some new shape. Soap suds clung to her sodden fur, making them slippery, her digits gliding deftly across their surface. He noticed a pair of pink nipples protruding from the fur, an unwelcome throb surging through his loins.
	She let them fall heavily, gravity wresting control of them like two bags of cement, knocking together enticingly as she shifted her weight. She crawled her fingers down to her belly, as soft and as deep as her bust. It almost looked like it was full of water, but he knew it to be flesh, the physics of her body mesmerizing as she worked the shampoo into her coat. The Polar could bury her hands in it almost up to the wrist, like she was fluffing a feather pillow, taking great handfuls as the velvet fat deformed and shifted like fresh dough.
	When her questing fingers neared her thighs, he turned his back to her, both to give her privacy and to make sure that the aching erection that he was now sporting was well hidden. He turned his face up towards the shower, hoping that the cool water might quell the burning in his cheeks. That was the prescription for unwanted arousal, right? A cold shower.
	There was a loud slap, and he shivered, feeling Kofe's furry hands on his shoulders. They were damp with water and soap, so large that her claws reached his chest. She massaged him slowly, her grip surprisingly strong, soap suds sliding down his belly. Those wicked talons were lethal, but she was very careful with them, her fleshy pads smooth and spongy against his skin. He couldn't help but roll his head back as she drove her thumbs into the base of his neck, kneading and rubbing to ease the tension out of his muscles. Her wet fur felt wonderful, like a bath towel made from the most expensive and luxurious fabric.
	Her large body interrupted the direct stream from the shower head as she loomed over him, what water that reached him pouring across her shoulders and chest before it got to him. She drew closer, keeping up her relaxing massage as Miller felt the yielding meat of her breasts squashing up against him from behind, the paunch of her belly bumping into his lower back.
	It took every last ounce of his willpower to stop himself from simply falling backwards into that lavish cushion of damp fur and plush fat. It would have been like plunging into the most comfortable bed ever made, those mammoth breasts enveloping him and her arms wrapping around him, surrounded by Kofe on all sides...
	He shook his head, dispelling the intrusive thoughts and brushing her hands away.
	“Communal bathing is normal for Polars you know,” she said, sliding one of her soft hands down his back and ensuring that he felt the tips of her claws as they traced his spine. “Do humans not wash together? How do you get at those...hard to reach places?”
	“We manage,” he grumbled, his blood pounding in his ears as he struggled to collect himself. God, the touch of her fingers was like an electric shock. She knew exactly how much pressure to apply with her claws, like a woman lightly running her fingernails across his skin to tease him.
	“Well, I need some help,” she said. “There's a lot more of me than there is of you, so how about lending me a hand or two?”
	He felt her moving, the booth so inadequate for containing the alien that her protruding breasts and belly scraped against the wall when she turned around. Her butt bumped into him, very nearly bouncing him into the wall. It was as springy as rubber, he could have bounced a bowling ball off of it.
	Miller turned to face her now that she had her back to him, the Polar no longer able to ogle his conspicuous erection, and he was met with a solid wall of fur. Her hourglass hips very nearly touched the sides of the stall such was her girth, her rump large enough that he could have wrapped both arms around it and they would not have come close to meeting on the other side. Her long tail waved back and forth impatiently, thinner now that her puffy fur was wet, making it look like a length of hose.
	Kofe knelt suddenly, sitting on her heels, the ample fat of her cheeks spilling around them like molten plastic until he could no longer see them. She peeked back over her shoulder at him, her blue eyes alight with what he now recognized to be Polar mischief. She used her prehensile tail to reach out and grip his wrist, guiding his hand towards her back.
	She planted it deep in her silky coat, his hand vanishing up to the wrist as her sodden fur engulfed it. He could feel the supple fat beneath, and deeper still was firm muscle. Even with Kofe crouching, she was only just at head height, Miller having to raise his arm to touch her between the shoulders.
	The alien withdrew her tail, then used it to pluck the bottle of shampoo from her hand, passing it back to him. Miller took it, staring at it as if he didn't know what to do with the item.
	“Wash me,” Kofe explained. “Don't be scared, you can touch me wherever you like, however you like...”
	He squeezed some of the viscous liquid into his hand, staring up at her and feigning reluctance as she watched him expectantly. He kind of liked the way that she felt, the sensation of touching her...but he wasn't about to admit that to Kofe.
	He rubbed the gooey concoction into her fur, making slow circles and using his fingers like a comb, pushing them deep into her coat. It was a kind of unintentional massage too, he could feel the muscles shifting and twitching beneath her layer of velutinous blubber wherever he touched her, Kofe rolling her shoulders and exhaling as she reveled in the sensation.
	“Unf. Those humans fingers are putting in work,” she sighed, conveying her enjoyment through the sultry tone of her voice. “Deeper, don't be afraid to get rough, it feels good...”
	Thanking his stars that she couldn't see the tent that he was pitching beneath his towel, he did as she asked, kneading and clawing at her. She arched her long spine, her ears flicking and her tail curling, Miller marveling at the way she reacted. It was kind of fun, flattering even. She was so much larger than he was and yet he could make her wriggle around like a human lover who was completely under his power.
	No, he shouldn't think of her like that. She was an alien, completely different from a woman. Yet she was so human in so many ways, in all of the ways that counted. Pound for pound she was the equivalent of several women...
	Miller cursed his wandering mind, trying to focus on what he was doing, moving his hands across her broad shoulders as he spread the suds. He quickly realized that this was no trivial task. It was like shampooing a bearskin rug by hand, if he had stretched it all out, he could have used it to carpet his living room. His arms were already becoming tired, and his fingers were aching, unaccustomed to the strain of massage.
	He squeezed out another handful of shampoo, the flowery smell rising to his nose. He used significantly more this time, and he wondered idly how many of these bottles she got through in a month. They were human-sized, obtained on the station it seemed. It made her smell...familiar, tricking his senses, a Trojan horse made of lavender and citrus.
	Miller moved down her back, Kofe shifting and wriggling as his fingers crawled down her spine. He traced the wide curve of her hips with his soapy hands, then paused at her haunches, unsure of how to proceed. The Polar chuckled, the movement making her ample cheeks wobble, then reached behind her with her tail again. It was like a damned tentacle, incredibly dexterous and flexible. She hooked it around his wrist, guiding his hand lower, her grip firm but gentle as she prevented him from pulling away.
	She slid his hand across her butt, pressing it into the globe of fat. It was like sinking his fingers into warm cookie batter, the muscle beneath springing back to its original shape when she released him.
	“I think you missed a spot,” she teased, flashing her reflective eyes at him over her shoulder.
	He steeled himself, spreading the shampoo across the upper half of her cheeks, skirting the base of her tail. She flinched when he dug his fingers into the spot where the appendage joined to her body, a violent shiver rolling through her. Miller wondered for a moment if he had hurt her, the alien sitting as still as a statue, her muscles tensed. He heard a comely sigh, then she slowly sank back down to a relaxed posture like deflating balloon. Apparently not, she seemed to have enjoyed it a great deal.
	Curious, he repeated the gesture, scratching the base of her tail with his fingers. Kofe jumped like he had hooked her up to an electrical current, her hips rolling reflexively as if she was doing a sensual dance. He withdrew his hand, looking up at her as she peered back over her shoulder. Her eyelids were drooping, and she had a predatory look about her.
	“Do that again, and I can't be held accountable for my actions,” she whispered. Miller couldn't tell if she was joking or not, erring on the side of caution as he roamed lower.
	Kofe stood suddenly, surprising him and very nearly knocking him off balance. Her ample cheeks bounced as they settled, now at chest height to him. What she wanted was obvious, and he slid his hands lower, the soap making her fur enticingly slippery. Her rear was large enough that coating it with suds required considerable effort, Miller having to stretch his arms out to reach around her sides, like he was trying to hug a furry barrel of crude oil. She was as wide as three or four men standing shoulder to shoulder, it was almost alarming. The flesh here was just as soft and flexible as her breasts, spilling between his fingers whenever he got confident enough to give it a squeeze. It was like a pair of exercise balls that were being pressed together, the abyssal cleft between them deep enough that a small child could have gotten lost in it.
	She hadn't reacted when he had squeezed her, and so he grew a little bolder, cupping one of her cheeks and weighing it in his palm. It was heavy, so much so that he had to strain to lift it, her flesh spilling over the sides of his hand as it sank into her. When he released it, the weighty globe fell back into place, a subtle ripple spreading across her cheek like the surface of a lake.
	“Having fun back there?”
	He blushed, moving on and pretending that he hadn't heard her, his fingers reaching her furry thighs. They were no less doughy than her other features, his digits delving into her velvety fat up to the knuckle. Beneath it was muscle like steel suspension cables, alarmingly firm and unyielding, providing her with the immense strength that moving her enormous body around required. He was struck again by the contrast between her outward appearance and her body's underlying power.
	A human of these dimensions would be a bedridden invalid, and yet Kofe was agile and spry. Not only did she have enough muscle and strong enough bones to support her considerable weight, but he got the impression that her dimensions were not unusual for Polars. She had no difficulty getting around, besides her problems with human-sized doors. She was as healthy and as alert as anyone that he had ever met. She almost seemed to have a childlike energy about her, far more active and lively than her size would lead one to assume. She could even operate in Borealis gravity, which was thirty percent higher than Earth-standard, presumably without any great difficulty.
	Her thighs were as round as tree trunks, Miller's hands able to meet on the other side, but only just. He ran out of shampoo and poured another handful of the creamy liquid, beginning to spread it again as her tail waved back and forth, batting his face with her wet fur.
	Kofe twitched when his hands glanced her inner thighs, although he was careful not to roam too high, the giant feline enjoying the sensation of his fingers delving into her fur as he washed her. He reached her calves, which had less insulating fat and were even more powerfully built, and then he withdrew. It seemed that she didn't expect him to wash her feet, but she waved her long tail in his face, bothering him with it until he gripped it in his hands to stop her thrashing.
	“Do my tail,” she insisted, and he began to run his soapy hands up and down its length. There was a large amount of fur to give it that puffed up look, but it was currently soaked and clinging to her skin, making it appear flatter than it usually did. The tapered appendage was perhaps a little thinner than her wrist, also packed with muscle to give it the dexterity that would allow her to manipulate objects with it, and the strength that let her lift him off the ground.
	“That feels good,” she sighed as he rubbed the soap into her downy coat. “I should have you do this more often...”
	His hands skirted the base of her tail, and she tensed up again, a sharp gasp escaping her throat. He quickly retreated, releasing the appendage from his grasp. Her back, butt, and legs were now coated in a thick layer of foamy shampoo. She was far enough forward in the booth that the stream of cool water didn't reach her, splashing against Miller's back instead.
	Kofe began to step backwards, forcing Miller to retreat until he felt the cold metal bench against the back of his legs.
	“Kofe!” he complained as he lost his footing on the slippery floor, his ass landing on the metal seat with a thud. The Polar continued until his shoulders were pressed up against the cold tile of the wall behind him, her butt filling his field of view. Wet, soapy fur engulfed him, the weight of her rump pressing down on his thighs as she rested it in his lap. She was sitting on him, not putting all of her weight on him as that would have been dangerous, but enough that he had no hope of freeing himself from beneath her bulk. It was like she was giving him an unsolicited lap dance. He tried to push her away, but that accomplished little besides making his hands disappear up to the wrist. It was like trying to lift a giant bag of sand from beneath.
	“What the hell are you doing?” Miller grumbled, his voice somewhat muffled by her fur. Her tail was draped over his shoulder, curling around his neck like she was trying to hug him with it.
	“I need to wash all this shampoo off,” she replied, as if she was unaware of the fact that he was about to be lost between her cheeks.
	“You're crushing me!”
	“No I'm not, you'll be fine. It's not my fault that the booth is so small, I need to get under the shower.”
	He struggled, but it was to no avail, finally accepting his fate as the flow of water from the shower head cascaded down her back and carried the soap suds away.
	“The shower head is adjustable,” he grumbled, “you're doing this on purpose.”
	“Slander,” she replied sarcastically, “I would do no such thing.”
	She was no doubt grinning to herself, but he couldn't see anything besides white fur. It was so silky, and it smelled wonderful, imbued with the fruity scents of the shampoo. It pressed heavily into his lap, the erection that he was hiding beneath his towel sinking deep into her flesh. He could feel her velvet fur brushing against the material. It was tantalizingly close. What would it feel like if it were to rub against his naked skin? He ran his hand through her coat, the wet fur gliding across his palm, his member throbbing as his imagination got the better of him.
	He could tear off his towel and thrust into her cheeks, feel that damp, velvet fur wrap around him as his member sank into her warm flesh. Kofe wouldn't care. In fact, she would be delighted, she was only doing all of this to tease him and to wear him down. Having him leap into her arms and beg her to have her sordid way with him would be literally playing into her hands, it was exactly what she wanted.
	Why did the idea of bending to her will irritate him so much? Was he refusing because of some misplaced pride? Denying himself new and pleasurable experiences out of sheer pettiness, because he didn't want to be proven wrong? He had already admitted to himself that he was beginning to enjoy her company, begrudgingly at first, but now the sentiment was becoming increasingly genuine. Was it also time to admit that he was attracted to her, that her exotic, alien features and her feminine wiles had wormed their way into his brain and had planted themselves there like an insidious seed? They had kissed for God's sake, they were showering together, his hands had been all over her voluptuous body...
	Just as the combined pressures of her weight and his own indecision were becoming too much to bear, Kofe stood up, releasing him from beneath her rump. She ran her hands across her behind, washing a few remaining suds from her cheeks, ensuring that Miller got a good view of the way that the fat molded around her fingers like putty.
	“That was nice,” she sighed. “You make a good bathing buddy, Jeff. You should visit a Banya back in Siberia, you'd get a lot of attention.”
	As his brain boiled with the idea of sharing a sauna with half a dozen Kofes, he felt her hands on him, the Polar lifting him off his feet and then standing him upright.
	“Okay, your turn.”
	“My turn!?”
	“Yeah, how does the old human adage go..? You wash my back, I'll wash yours.”
	“It's scratch your back,” he complained, trying in vain to conceal his lingering erection. He had no choice but to turn around and face the wall, lest she point it out.
	“I can scratch it too, but if you want to keep your skin, that's probably not a good idea.”
	He leaned forward with his hands against the tiles, like he was about to undergo a hosing down at a prison. Kofe began to pour the shampoo into her cupped palm, then hesitated, looking him up and down.
	“Uh...you only have fur on your head. How do humans wash their exposed skin?”
	“We wash our hair with shampoo like you do, and then our skin with soap or shower gel. I can do it myself you know, I don't need you to-”
	“I'm doing it!” Kofe insisted, rubbing her furry hands together to create a lather. She reached down towards his head, Miller closing his eyes and grimacing as her sausage-like fingers delved into his hair. Her hands were large enough that she could have encompassed his entire head like it was no larger than a cantaloupe, her wicked claws pricking his scalp as she began to rub in the cold goop. They were heavy and powerful, designed for rending meat like the paws of a bear or a tiger, but she was incredibly gentle. She was so careful with her claws, her touch so light that even their sharp points felt rather pleasant, like the teeth of a comb.
	Miller's muscles relaxed, pleasant tremors rolling down his spine as she massaged his scalp. He couldn't remember the last time that someone else had washed his hair. He always cut it himself, setting the guard his electric razor to the longest length and just buzzing it. While he was a member of the UNN, he wasn't held to the same dress standards as active military personnel, but he preferred function over form.
	This was...nice...relaxing. He caught himself leaning back against her as she rubbed his head, her body shielding him from the water. Her belly was soft against his lower back, inviting, and her breasts cushioned his shoulders like a fleshy travel pillow.
	“You changed your tune pretty quickly,” she crowed, “does it feel that good?”
	Her gloating snapped him out of his trance, but the endless movement of her fingers in his hair was like white noise for his senses, he could barely formulate a reply.
	“Just...shut up and keep going,” he grumbled.
	“Oh? I thought you hated showering with me?”
	“I'm here now, so I might as well get it over with...”
	“If you want to go find another booth, I'll let you pass by me,” she volunteered. “I'm pretty sure your Equatorial friend is done by now.” He didn't reply, and she chuckled to herself again, the same way that she did every time that she caught him in a lie or got the better of him. “What do you say, Jeff? I can stop if you want me to.”
	She was testing him of course. Staying would be admitting that he was enjoying her company, but as much as he wanted to show her up, the sensation of her fingers combing through his hair was just too heavenly to cut short. He wanted to stay like this forever, he never wanted this feeling to end.
	Did he want to prolong this more than he wanted to resist Kofe's temptations? Indecision gripped him, but soon the slow massage of her hands chipped away at his resolve, pushing him over the edge.
	“Well?” she asked, “are you going or are you staying?” He mumbled an inaudible reply, and she leaned closer to hear him better. “What was that?”
	“I'm staying,” he replied. He couldn't see her, as his eyes were closed due to the soap suds that were crawling down his forehead, but he knew that she was grinning. He expected her to gloat, to tease him about his change of heart, but instead she continued rubbing the shampoo into his scalp without comment.
	She finished with his hair, then stepped out from beneath the stream of water, letting it cascade over his head to wash the lather away. Even though she wasn't touching him any longer, he could still feel her fingers moving in his hair, like an echo in his nervous system.
	When he opened his eyes again, she was filling her cupped hand with liquid soap, or perhaps shower gel from a dispenser that was mounted on the wall of the booth. It must have been there for the benefit of human customers, or perhaps the Equatorial patrons used it on the furless areas of their bodies.
	“I thought you were just doing my hair?” Miller asked.
	“Do you only wash your hair when you bathe?”
	“No.”
	“Then why would I?”
	She rubbed her palms together, and Miller planted his hands against the tiled wall again, leaning forwards as her body loomed over him to block the flow from the shower head. She placed her massive hands on his shoulders, like a pair of fur mittens, and began to spread the gel. The soap made her wet fur slippery, her hands sliding across his back, the Polar pressing into his skin with her padded fingers like a masseuse.
	Her damp fur was silky and pleasant, and she was surprisingly good at massage, seeking out his muscles and rubbing them slowly to ease out the knots and stress. She pressed her thumb into the base of his neck and made a sluggish circle, her grip strong, yet gentle. A sudden surge of pleasure dizzied him, flowing through his body like a wave and making him weak at the knees. He might have stumbled had he not been leaning his weight against the wall. He loosed a groan, but just about managed to suppress it, static dancing before his eyes as he regained his composure.
	She wasn't just good at massage, she was an expert, and an expert in human anatomy no less. There was no way that their physiology was similar enough to be interchangeable, she had researched human pressure points and muscle groups beforehand. She had planned this moment ahead of time, probably days in advance. She was as sly as an arctic fox...
	Kofe's fingers roamed lower, pushing between his shoulder blades and applying firm pressure, probing as the Polar searched for something. Miller noticed immediately when she found it, some kind of nerve cluster or pressure point, another dizzying wave of tingling pleasure shooting through him like an electric shock. It wasn't necessarily a sexual pleasure, it was as relaxing as it was intense, but he had no doubt that Kofe's motivations were less than respectable.
	This time he failed to stifle his groan, his muscles turning to jelly as he struggled to stay upright. No wonder they used those massage couches in professional establishments, it was almost impossible to stand while someone was manipulating your nervous system like they were plucking the strings of a harp.
	As well as massaging him, Kofe was spreading the soap across his back, her wet coat tickling his skin as she went. Her fur was so deep and soft. Even while wet it was impossibly thick and feathery, perfectly evolved for trapping heat in her native climate. Even if she fell into a frozen lake, this layer of insulating fur would likely protect her, in the same way that a polar bear could swim in the ocean without freezing. It reminded him of an extravagant fur coat that the wife of some rich and powerful politician or trader might wear, or a pair of gloves fashioned from the most expensive mink or sable.
	It was unlike anything that he had ever experienced before, the combination of her silky hair and the relentless massage making his head spin and his resolve crumble.
	Kofe proceeded towards his lower back, gripping his hips and rubbing the base of his spine with her thumbs. They slipped below the waistline of his towel, kneading the region just above his butt, sending pleasant shivers crawling up his spine. Miller was discovering entirely new sensations, she was doing things to his body that were turning his brain to mush. It was like she was reaching past the barrier of his skin, stroking his nerves and pressing her fingers into his muscle as if she was kneading dough.
	Every crack of his joints and every knot that she worked out released a fresh deluge of sensation, warmth and relaxation permeating him to the core, chased by the exciting sparks of pleasure from the teasing of her soapy hands. She slid her fingers beneath his towel, testing the springiness of his butt as she washed him, Miller too out of it to care that she was copping a feel.
	When she was done with his back, she slid her hands around his sides, her massive paws tickling his waist as she began to rub. She spread the slippery suds across his belly, skirting his sensitive groin area, just barely protected by the sagging towel. Kofe was peering over his shoulder, the water from the shower running across her back as she watched him with her blue eyes, gauging his every twitch and sigh. She no doubt saw the massive bulge beneath the towel, his aching erection tenting the waterlogged fabric despite its weight, but she didn't comment on it.
	Miller realized that at some point during the massage, his hands had left the wall and he was leaning back against Kofe's soft body. She pressed him into her plush belly as she washed his stomach and inched towards his chest, the weight of her heaving breasts spilling onto his shoulders and cradling his head, his eyes transfixed by the slow movement of her fluffy hands.
	He was ticklish, apparently, flinching and squirming when she slid her plush palms across his abdominal muscles. The Polar traced the lines that they carved in his skin with her padded index finger, like she was drawing on him. The pretense of washing was slowly being abandoned as she took the opportunity to get a closer look at him, his anatomy as alien to her as hers was to him.
	She was breathing more heavily, blowing warm air in the nape of his neck as she leaned in, exploring him as her excitement mounted. Her questing digits slid higher, the slimy gel adding to the wonderful texture of her coat, her damp palms slithering across his chest. He shivered when they glanced his nipples, the foam obscuring his skin, Kofe's furry chin now resting on his shoulder as she watched with drooping eyelids.
	If she kissed him now, he wasn't sure what would happen. Even though he was like putty in her hands, despite his conspicuous erection, she wasn't making her move. Why? More importantly, why was he so concerned that Kofe wasn't making her move?
	He wanted it, he realized with a start. He wanted Kofe. The mounting sexual tension was threatening to make him explode, and he wanted release, an end to this game that they had been playing for days. Even so, he didn't want to lose that game. He wanted to be overcome, he wanted to be able to blame it all on Kofe when it was over, to maintain his front of stoicism. But now he understood that it would never happen, not in the way that he wanted it to. Kofe's goal was not merely to get him into bed, to get him into a relationship, but to make him want it.
	It had to come from him, and until he asked her plainly to take things to the next level, she was just going to keep up her relentless teasing until she achieved the desired result. The thing that got her going more than anything else was being wanted, being desired.
	As her soapy hands reached his neck, sparks flying in his brain as her fingers glanced his sensitive throat, the words almost slipped out. His entire body was lit up like a switchboard, she was pushing him to the brink of what he could tolerate, and yet he mustered enough willpower to choke back his plea.
	It wasn't the right time, nor the right place. If they were going to start a real relationship, then he didn't want it to begin as a result of a sordid bathhouse encounter. Kofe seemed to sense his change in demeanor, his new resolve, stepping out from beneath the flow of water and letting it wash the soap from his body. She watched him curiously, her ears pricked up and focused.
	He ran his hands across his arms and chest, cleaning away what remained of the shower gel, his muscles imbued with a wonderful ache that still lingered from her massage. After taking a couple of minutes to let himself cool off and willing his erection to recede, he turned to face her.
	“That was...nice,” he said sheepishly. Even the ever-confident Kofe seemed taken off guard, cocking her head at him.
	“It was?”
	“Yeah, let's go dry off and get a bite to eat, what do you say?”
	Kofe nodded, never one to refuse a free meal. Miller tried to slide past her, the massive bulk of her body pressing him tight against the wall of the booth. He turned sideways, his back to the panel, Kofe shifting her weight without much luck. He wanted to take the initiative and end their shared shower in a way that seemed dignified, but she was sabotaging his plan. He vanished into her wet fur, the meat of her thigh soft and plush enough that it completely encompassed him, its silky surface brushing against his chest and face. It was as if someone had propped a mattress up against the wall and he was struggling to wriggle beneath it.
	He finally popped out on the other side, trying to maintain his air of composure as he opened the door and headed back towards the sauna room, the curious Polar trailing behind him.

CHAPTER 7: ROYAL FLUSH
	
	Kofe didn't quite understand what was happening. Miller had been ready to crack, he had been leaning into her arms, his erection tenting the fabric of his towel in an unspoken invitation. Just when she thought that she had gotten the better of him, and that he was about to beg her to relieve his mounting pressure, he had stopped the encounter dead in its tracks. Upon leaving the booth, he had seemed perfectly calm and collected, in full control of himself despite the torture that she had subjected him to.
	She hadn't gotten the massage wrong, had she? No, the information about human anatomy that she had studied while planning the trip to the sauna had been accurate. He had responded very strongly to her touch, he had been about ready to collapse by the end of it. Yet the desired result had not been achieved, he still resisted her advances. There was nowhere that she could take things from here. What could be more personal and provocative than sharing a sauna and a shower, what could be more intimate than having their hands all over each other's soaking wet bodies?
	What was she going to do now? The little human just became more and more attractive as time went on. Not only was he as sly as any Polar, but now he seemed indifferent to her seductive powers. It was driving her crazy. She couldn't concentrate at work, she couldn't sleep without getting herself off first, as it was the only way to drive the thoughts of him to the back of her mind. This didn't happen to Polars, they never found themselves in such a situation because a fellow Polar would have no reason to refuse a fumble in the sleeping pile.
	She wasn't wired for this, her head was going to explode if she didn't get her way soon.
	Kofe danced on the spot as she struggled into her shorts, Miller's back turned to her as he pulled on his overalls. They had dried off, and they were getting dressed in the now ventilated sauna room. Soon they would be heading to a restaurant, or maybe a food stand to get something to eat. What then? Miller was obviously not displeased, or he would not have invited her out to eat. That was how humans expressed their interest, according to the forums that she had scoured for information, by inviting their prospective mate out to dinner. That had been the purpose of their date at the restaurant, the first time that Jeff had conceded that they were courting.
	She knew that he was attracted to her, it radiated from him, expressed through every lingering glance and every flush of his cheeks. She wanted him, she had told him so plainly, but it still hadn't happened yet. As much as she enjoyed spending time with him, Borealans were sexual creatures, it was like being deprived of an essential nutrient.
	Once they were both dressed, Kofe thanked the woman behind the counter, and they headed out onto the torus. The artificial breeze caught her long hair, blowing it gently as Jeff walked along beside her. He seemed unusually chipper. He was always gruff and reserved, that was one of the things that she liked about him, but now he was especially hard to read.
	For the first time, she no longer felt in control of the situation. The little human...could he be beating her at her own game?
	
***
	
	Miller had made up his mind, he was going to take control of the situation. If he and Kofe were going to get serious, then he wanted it to be on his terms. More importantly, he wanted Kofe to know that. She seemed somewhat deflated as she walked beside him, her ears and tail sagging a little, perhaps disappointed that her ploy in the sauna had failed. In reality, she had very nearly succeeded, but Miller was made of stern stuff. It took an iron will to repair a hull breach on the outside of a spinning torus that couldn't be disabled for maintenance, only a pair of magnetic boots preventing you from being flung into space like a piece of gravel from a tire.
	She would soon cheer up, however, he would see to that.
	The giant lamps in the ceiling of the station were getting dim now, it would soon be night, and the bustling throngs that usually clogged the walkways were thinning out as the station's inhabitants returned to their homes. Miller knew that there was an ice cream stand near where the tourist quarter ended and the residential quarter began, so the pair stopped there on their way back. Ice cream cones in hand, they sat on a nearby bench to eat, Kofe licking at her melon-sized blob of vanilla as she shifted her weight around. It was human-sized seating, and so she had to crouch low, the frame creaking under her weight as she leaned forward to avoid the fronds of a poorly placed tree.
	“They really need to stop putting these plants around the benches,” she grumbled, batting away the pointed leaves with her hand. “Would it kill them to put in some seating that a Borealan can use without being stabbed in the face by an Earth plant?”
	Miller wasn't too comfortable either, Kofe's round thighs spreading to press him up against the armrest, occupying a space that would have seated four. He held his ice cream cone out of harm's way as she wriggled, the wood creaking its displeasure. She finally seemed satisfied, concentrating on her massive treat, her long tongue snaking out of her mouth to drag its rough surface across the frozen dessert. The barbs left trails like a rake in sand, Kofe smacking her lips happily as she ate.
	“I had fun today,” Miller said, Kofe pausing her licking to glance down at him.
	“You did?” she asked.	
	“Yeah. Maybe I'll stop at your place for a nightcap before I head home.”
	“But I live downspin of you,” Kofe replied, “we'd be passing your apartment...” She trailed off, realizing that she was arguing against spending more time with Miller. “Sure,” she added, “we can hang out some more. Don't you have work tomorrow though?”
	“I'll survive. Worst case scenario I can sleep on your couch again. With the thermostat turned up this time, ideally.”
	Kofe certainly seemed happier now, her ears were pricked up and she had a kind of excited energy about her. She would probably have been swinging her feet back and forth had the bench been high enough off the ground. Instead, her tail flicked behind them, poking through a slat in the wood and rustling the foliage in the decorative planters.
	Despite the fact that her ice cream was ten times the size of his own, they finished at about the same time, Kofe extending a furry hand to him as she rose from her seat. The gesture seemed more significant than usual, Miller glancing up at her as she waited for him. The Polar liked to manhandle him, and she had never asked permission to grab his hand or to take him by the arm before.
	He reached up and took her hand, Kofe pulling him to his feet and keeping a tight hold as they made their way towards the Borealan section of the residential quarter, Miller's arm raised almost above his head to reach her.

***
	
	The door to Kofe's apartment slid open, and Miller stepped inside, his companion squeezing through behind him. The interior lights turned on automatically, and Miller noticed that it was a little warmer than the last time that he had been there, confirming his suspicion that she had intentionally lowered the thermostat in order to get him into bed. Everything looked the same as it had before, save for a model spaceship that was displayed prominently on her coffee table.
	“Make yourself comfortable,” Kofe said as she walked over to the kitchen, “do you want anything to drink?”
	“I'll have some coffee,” he replied, and she reached towards a shelf above the counter to retrieve the ground beans.
	“I’ll assume that you’re not talking about me,” she chuckled. She upended the container into a coffee maker, the machine beginning to whir as she turned it on. Miller felt oddly nervous, and there was a kind of awkward tension in the air. Kofe seemed to have taken his rejection in the shower as just that, a rejection, rather than a postponement of affection until a more appropriate time. Miller wanted to take the initiative, he was poised like a tiger ready to pounce, waiting for the right moment to make his move. If he didn’t tell her how he felt soon, he might explode. 
	“How do you like it?” she asked, her back to him as she leaned on the counter and waited for the machine to do its work. “Do you take it with cream or sugar?”
	“I like it very sweet,” he replied, crossing the open-plan apartment and wrapping his arms around her waist. “Fluffy and persistent, outgoing to the point that it's annoying, about eight-feet tall...”
	The Polar stood as straight as a board, the fur on her tail puffing up in surprise as he pushed his face into the small of her back, his hands delving into the tire of her belly that protruded over her tight shorts. Hugging her was a struggle and almost beyond the span of his arms, but he did his best, taking in the fruity smell of her fur as his face sank into her like citrus-scented quicksand.
	He had taken her off-guard it seemed, perhaps she hadn't expected him to be the one to move things along after all of his resistance to her advances. Slowly her muscles relaxed, her tail returning to its usual dimensions, and he felt her massive hands encompass his own as he clung to her. It was like wearing a pair of furry mittens, her soft coat trapping his body heat. Her tail curled around him, returning the embrace even as he stood behind her. She hesitated, the usually talkative alien now lost for words, struggling to formulate a response as he clung to her.
	“Where's this coming from?” Kofe finally asked, disbelief in her voice. “I was beginning to think that you really weren't attracted to me after what happened in the sauna.”
	“Of course I'm attracted to you,” he grumbled, his voice muffled by her fur. “How could I not be? I just...wanted it to be my choice. I wanted to wait until I was ready before things got too serious.”
	“We could have fooled around without things getting serious,” she said, but Miller shook his head.
	“Not me,” he replied, “I'm a one-woman kind of guy.”
	“I'm a lot of woman so you're getting a good deal,” Kofe giggled, her relief evident.
	“I have a lot of lost time to make up for, so I need as much woman as I can get.”
	“So all this time...you were resisting me, even though you wanted me?” Her tail seemed to tighten around him possessively, as if afraid that he might escape her clutches.
	“That about sums it up, yeah. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head these last few days, I almost lost my mind in the shower earlier. And when you kissed me in the apartment...not a minute has gone by that mind hasn't wandered back to that moment. I guess you grew on me...in more ways than one.”
	“They do say that coffee is an acquired taste,” she joked, trying to diffuse the tension with humor. For all of her attempts at seduction, she was oddly stilted, perhaps Polars were not accustomed to heartfelt confessions. “And here I was thinking that I had you wrapped around my finger,” she continued, “but I guess I've been upstaged. Maybe your poker face isn't so bad after all...”
	She spun around, wrapping her massive arms around him and lifting him clear off the floor. His work boots dangled a couple of feet off the ground as she pressed him into her bust, Miller sinking deep into the copious meat of her breasts like they were trying to eat him, Kofe squeezing the air out of his lungs and mewling happily.
	“Oh Jeff, I wanted this so badly, I was starting to think that you'd never come around!”
	She waved him back and forth as she hugged him tight against her body, the fluffy fur on her chest tickling his nose as he sucked in what air he could, the giant alien forgetting her strength for a moment. She realized that she was crushing him, loosening her hold a little and laughing abashedly.
	“Sorry, you kind of took me by surprise with this whole thing. Look at you, you little predator, just lying in wait for the perfect moment...”
	She deposited him on the countertop, brushing him off, and then her excited expression turned sordid. Her heavy breasts rested in his lap, practically bursting through the thin fabric of her striped t-shirt as she drew closer, hooking one of her fluffy hands behind his head and leaning him back. Her soft lips pressed against his, her winding tongue slipping into his mouth as she subjected him to a deep and lascivious kiss. Her copper taste was all that he could focus on, chased by an aftertaste of vanilla from the ice cream that she had eaten earlier, Miller doing his best to meet her embrace despite their difference in size.
	Her tongue was so impossibly agile and dexterous. Its deft and gentle movements had all the artistry of a painter's brush, shivers running down his spine like roaming fingertips as she licked and stroked. Kofe moaned softly, her own arousal perhaps getting the better of her, Miller's growing erection pushing into the meat of her bust through her clothing. He had no doubt that she felt it, but that didn't matter anymore.
	For the first time he felt like he didn't have to mount any resistance, he was unreserved, completely open to her. She drew shapes on the roof of his mouth and bulged his cheeks, licking him from the inside, teasing him with the rough surface of her tongue before soothing him with the wet satin of its underside. It was so slippery, coated in her metallic saliva, irresistible as it wormed its way deeper.
	He felt it glance the back of his throat, a kiss so deep and intense that it made his eyes water, but Miller didn't care. He wanted this, he wanted everything that she could give him no matter how overwhelming it might be. He wanted Kofe, and whatever that entailed would be worth the price of admission.
	She rumbled appreciatively as he combed the downy fur on her cheeks with his fingers, cradling her head, the giant feline purring like an engine. Just like the blood that was pumping through his face and turning it a deep shade of crimson, Kofe could not disguise her excitement, the resonance was practically shaking the counter beneath him.
	She pulled back with a wet smack, the thin strand of saliva that linked their lips breaking and falling to her bust as her tongue slithered out of his mouth, giving him a moment to catch his breath. Her blue eyes were so intense, like shining sapphires, her pupils dilated into dark circles like a cat that was watching a bird through a window. She stroked his hair, pricking his scalp with her claws in the way that she had in the shower, knowing that he liked it.
	His eyelids fluttered, a drawn-out sigh escaping from his lips as she rubbed his head. His hands were trembling, his legs too. What had come over him? He felt like his heart was about to break through his ribs and skip across the kitchen floor under its own power. Kofe couldn't keep her paws off him, running her clawed fingers through his hair, her other hand crawling across his back. She kissed him again, this time a rapid, desperate flurry of quick pecks that left him dazed.
	“We should really take this to the bedroom,” she whispered, “or I'm going to need to throw out these shorts. You have no idea how hard it is to find clothes that fit me...”
	“Anything I need to know about first?” Miller asked, blushing as Kofe stifled a chuckle with the back of her hand.
	“No, I don't have any surprises down there. Promise.”
	“Do we need like...protection?”
	“Don't worry, you can't get me pregnant. You're welcome to try though...”
	She extended her hand to him again, as she had at the bench, and he took it. The Polar led him to the door that separated the bedroom from the rest of the apartment, the panel sliding open and the lights inside turning on automatically. She released Miller and clapped her hands together a couple of times, the computer dimming the yellow glow to set a more romantic mood. She lifted Miller off the floor like a doll and deposited him on the edge of her bed, his feet not even touching the ground, then she began to undress.
	Kofe was putting on a show for him, hooking her fingers beneath her shirt and lifting it painfully slowly, teasing him. Her striped top carried her heavy breasts with it until they fell out from under its support, the furry globes bouncing like they were made of gelatin. Miller could get a look at them without having to feign propriety now, his eyes playing over her sumptuous bust as it settled. Despite their massive weight, they somehow maintained their shape, as soft as putty but round and enticing. Her erect, pink nipples protruded from beneath her pristine fur, drawing his gaze.
	Kofe cupped her boobs in her large hands, her delicate fat spilling through her fingers and over her palms like they were made of melting wax, her digits sinking deep in their plush surface as she kneaded and squeezed. She pressed them together, her cleavage so deep that it could very nearly encompass his body, presenting them to him as if in invitation.
	She released them, letting them bounce as they hung from her chest, gravity taking hold of them again. Her hands slid down her torso, tracing the voluptuous curves of her body, pausing for a moment to delve into the tire of her belly that protruded over the waistline of her skin-tight shorts. It looked just as soft and as inviting at her breasts, like she was smuggling a padded body pillow under a fur coat.
	She lifted her paunch with one hand in order to access the button that fastened her denim shorts beneath it. The garment was made of stern stuff. The single button and the zipper beneath it must have the tensile strength of a damned suspension cable, judging by how her massive body strained against the material. She popped the button, and the zipper tore open of its own accord, exposing a tuft of the same white fur that was present all over her body. No underwear, the extra layer probably made her too hot...
	Kofe swung her wide hips back and forth like a pendulum, struggling to pull the garment over her round thighs, the tight fabric digging into her satin flesh and creating small muffin tops. She was so inhumanly soft, her body molding around anything that it came into contact with. She eventually succeeded, stepping out of her shorts and standing before Miller nude, in all her glory. Her fluffy tail waved back and forth behind her, and he could see that her breathing was quickening as her abundant chest rose and fell. It was from arousal, not exertion, her lids drooping as her blue eyes locked onto him.
	He made to unfasten his yellow overalls, but she took a step forward and reached down to stay his hand.
	“Let me,” she said, plucking at the buttons with her clawed fingers. She undid the braces, and the upper section fell away, revealing the collared shirt beneath it. Wasting no time, she hurriedly fumbled with the buttons, tearing open the garment and exposing his naked torso. With a gentle hand on his chest, she leaned him back on the bed until he was lying down with his legs hanging off the edge of the mattress, Miller sighing as she planted a lingering kiss on his belly.
	She tugged down his overalls, pausing to pull off his boots, then dragged them off and discarded them on the floor. The sweatpants that he was wearing beneath them went too, until only his underwear was left, a conspicuous bulge drawing her attention. He flinched as she planted another wet kiss on his hip, crawling towards the elastic waistband of his shorts, her long hair falling across his belly and tickling his skin. He couldn't see past it, he could only feel the sensation of her soft lips and her rough tongue as it flicked across his inner thigh, the Polar teasing him ruthlessly.
	He couldn't resist delving his fingers into her slate-grey locks, rubbing her scalp and scratching her ears in the way that he knew drove her wild. She shivered, faltering as he rolled the furry membrane of her round ear between his thumb and index finger, Kofe leaning her weight on the bed and making the frame creak. She seemed to sink towards the floor, weak at the knees as her rumbling purr shook his bones, her warm breath blowing across his groin as she panted.
	She seemed to composed herself again, resuming her work, Miller tensing as he felt her sharp claws graze his skin on their way beneath his waistband. She hooked the fabric and pulled it down, the elastic catching on his erection for a moment before it bounced free, bobbing in the air an inch from her nose. He felt her breath on the tip, Kofe parting her hair so that he could see her reflective eyes staring up at him.
	Her fingers curled around his shaft, her hand large enough to envelop it entirely, the velvet fur that now encompassed him brushing against his glans. It was like being teased with a silken glove, her fur was so strikingly delicate and fine, brushing against his member as it pulsed and throbbed in her palm. She was so much larger than him, and he started to feel a little self-conscious.
	“Is that...enough for you?” Miller asked sheepishly, Kofe chuckling as she squeezed his member gently in her hand.
	“Polar males probably aren't as large as you're picturing,” she replied, “don't worry about that. I have more than enough to work with here...”
	She seemed so confident now, a dramatic change from how flustered she had been in the kitchen when he had confessed his feelings to her. The bedroom was her domain, and she knew exactly what to do with him, Miller able to do little more than sit back and watch. She began to stroke softly, her pace excruciatingly slow as she ran her fluffy fingers up and down his length. She pulled back his foreskin, using the fleshy pad on the tip of her thumb to make lazy circles on his glans, the stimulation making him curl his toes.
	“It's so different from ours,” Kofe muttered, biting her lip with her sharp teeth as she played with him. “Ours are kind of a red color, with no skin protecting them, pretty veiny. Yours is so smooth...”
	She began to pump her hand a little faster, Miller's hips starting to thrust into the warm fur of her palm, exquisitely soft against his skin. He hadn't imagined that it would feel this way, it was so luxurious, Kofe matching his pace as he bucked into her fist.
	“Don't worry, I know what to do,” she whispered. “My friend who works down at the clinic has a human partner, and she told me what he likes...”
	Miller's cheeks flushed as he imagined the aliens sitting down to a meal and discussing such topics. Was there a whole social network of Borealans on the station who shared interspecies sex tips and methods for getting humans into bed? Based on what he knew about Kofe, the prospect didn't surprise him in the least.
	With her free hand, she dragged her claws across his thigh, careful to only apply enough pressure that it tickled rather than cutting him as she roamed up towards his groin. She cupped his balls in her fluffy palm, a pleasant shiver passing through his body. It felt surprisingly good, better even than her hand as it slid up and down his shaft, pleasure coursing through him like an electrical current as she stroked them.
	“Does that feel good?” Kofe asked, watching him with a warm smile as he twitched and bucked on the sheets.
	“Yeah,” he gasped, her smile turning into a toothy grin.
	“You're too fucking cute,” she growled, resuming her stroking and pumping as she watched him intently. He almost couldn't make eye contact with her, it made his heart skip, his member jumping in time with it as she buried it in her hand. “I don’t want you coming too quickly now, let me know if you get close. I want to enjoy this, I want to watch you writhe about for a while...”
	He relaxed on the bed, every squeeze of her fingers making sparks fly in his brain, his eyelids fluttering as he stared at the ceiling in an attempt to stave off the pleasure. He had heard someone say that you should do math problems during sex to take your mind off it if you wanted to last longer. He tried to imagine the equations in his head, but he couldn't think straight, the feeling of her silky fur as she teased his balls drawing all of his focus.
	She kissed his hip again, her puffy lips pressing against his skin and sucking to leave a red welt, Kofe seeming to enjoy the way that it lingered on his body.
	“You have such smooth skin,” she mused, removing her hand from his balls and resting her cheek in her palm as she continued her slow handjob. Her pose was so casual, her elbow leaning on the bed beside him like a student at her desk, her head cocked slightly as she watched his member leak a bead of clear fluid. “I can see your muscles moving beneath the surface every time you twitch...”
	His eyes widened as she brought her lips down towards the tip of his erection, pursing them as she kissed it, a wave of pleasure rocking him. Her touch was so light and gentle, and somehow that made it all the more unbearable, the alien batting her long lashes at him as she drank in his reaction.
	“Hang on,” he said, and she paused to look up at him. “Your tongue is a little...rough, and your teeth...”
	“Do you trust me?” Kofe asked.
	“I guess so, yeah.”
	“Then lie back and let me take care of you.”
	He did as she asked, taking handfuls of the thin sheets that covered her bed as he felt those smooth, wet lips slide over his tender glans. Her mouth was so warm, her lips so much larger than those of any human, but they didn't feel any different. The lining was no less silky, her saliva no less slippery, gliding against his sensitive flesh to produce a wonderful sensation that made his head spin. She sucked on the tip, trapping it between her lips, drawing on it rhythmically as he squirmed.
	He had seen her tongue before, had it in his mouth. The prospect of its exaggerated length was exciting, but he feared those rough barbs. The upper surface of the organ was lined with what was essentially sandpaper. He would just have to trust that her friend had given her good advice...
	Something that felt like satin soaked in personal lubricant glanced him, and his spine arched off the bed, Miller gritting his teeth against the surge of pleasure. It was the tapered tip of her tongue, she was using the smooth underside to paint his glans with her thick saliva, making circles as she lapped at it like a lollipop.
	“Oh God...” Miller groaned, the sensation getting the better of him as he reached down and took handfuls of her hair. Encouraged by his strong reaction, she crawled her lips a little lower, taking him deeper into her mouth. Her tongue coiled around him, the Polar careful to keep the barbed side away from his member as she encompassed his length in warm, silky flesh.
	It moved ceaselessly, sliding and twitching as it wrapped around him, surprisingly strong. It tightened like a rope as her saliva escaped her lips to roll down his shaft, Miller clinging to her hair for dear life as if afraid that he might float away. Kofe glanced up at him, her reflective eyes flashing in the low light, and then she pushed him deeper. Her velvet cheeks pressed around him as she sucked, smooth and slick, like she was pressing two satin cushions against his skin. Her warmth penetrated him to the core, the heat reaching past the barrier of his flesh, his glans bumping against the back of her throat as her lips sealed around the base. 
	He loosed a bestial grunt, his abdominal muscles clenching of their own accord to make him sit upright as a searing bolt of pleasure wracked him. Kofe seemed undeterred by the violent throbbing of his member as it jumped in her mouth, lashing it with deft strokes of her tongue, Miller's eyes glazing over as ecstasy surged through him like an electrical current.
	She swallowed him deeper in a very literal sense, the muscles of her throat seizing him with all the strength of a fist and dragging him down, the rhythmic contractions massaging him in cruel waves. He could feel every spasm as she drank, his most sensitive anatomy encased by rippling flesh that was softer and smoother than anything that he had experienced before. His glans was being massaged by her narrow throat while her cheeks sealed around his shaft, her tongue teasing him with quick flicks and licks as it darted about in her mouth. It was almost too much to stand. He hadn't been in her mouth for more than a minute, and there was already a familiar pressure rising inside him.
	“S-Slow down,” he stammered, and she slid her puffy lips back up his shaft. She paused with them locked around the tip, mouthing softly as she looked up at him through the curtain of her hair.
	“Sorry, is it too much?”
	“Oh fuck, don't apologize,” he laughed giddily. “Just go a little slower, I'm...not used to this.”
	“My little man likes it slow? As you wish...”
	She returned her pink lips to his glans, teasing him with painfully slow kisses and drawn-out licks, using the smooth underside of her dexterous tongue to stroke it. Her thick saliva made her contact so wonderfully slippery, strings of it hanging from her chin as she nursed at the end of his erection.
	She cupped his balls again, squeezing them gently and letting her fine fur tickle him, watching him with her blue eyes to gauge his reaction. Kofe was so doting, loving, as if she delighted in making him feel this way. It filled him with an odd kind of warmth and excitement, like she had kindled a fire in his belly.
	The Polar paused for a moment, sweeping her long hair back over her shoulders so that he could see her properly, intent on having Miller watch. Now he could see the way that her obscenely long tongue snaked out of her mouth, almost a clear foot of pink, glistening muscle. The control that she had over it was shocking. Never mind tying a cherry stem, she could have solved a fucking Rubix cube inside her mouth with that thing.
	She nibbled at his shaft with her lips, sliding them up and down, pausing to lick here and there. She was keeping him on edge, providing just enough stimulation to keep him in a state of perpetual pleasure, never knowing when and where the next glance of her tongue would come. All the while she stroked his balls with her furry fingers, brushing his sensitive skin, Miller flinching with every touch. He was like a puppet on a string, completely under her control.
	“Railha said that I can use the rough side if I'm gentle,” she said, gesturing to her tongue. “Want to try it?”
	“As long as you're gentle,” he muttered, too dazed to put up any kind of resistance. She grinned, shifting her weight as she knelt on the floor at the edge of the bed, taking his member in her hand. She cupped her palm around it, not gripping it in her fist, but steadying it so that she didn't push it away with her licking. 
	He shivered as he felt the slap of her wet organ against the underside of his shaft, slick with her drool, and then she began to slowly drag it higher. He did his best to stay still, but the pleasure was too intense, Miller squirming as Kofe gripped his hip with one hand to keep him from wriggling free. The barbs were rough and harsh, but her flesh was so velvety and warm, a cushion of saliva making her tongue glide up his pulsing member with little resistance. It felt so raw, unfiltered, scouring his nerves on its way up. It very nearly hurt, but not quite. When she reached his glans, he yelped, and she slowed to look up at his red face.
	“I'm sorry, did it hurt?”
	“N-No,” he gasped, “it felt great.”
	“Oh,” she murmured, her tone turning sly again. “You like it when I do this?”
	She licked the underside of his glans again, teasing his sweet spot as he gritted his teeth against the sensory overload. It was like she was filling his head with white noise, the corners of his vision growing fuzzy and dark as if his brain was shutting down to protect itself. Kofe lapped slowly, like she was eating an ice cream cone, his ecstasy mounting until it reached a fever pitch.
	The Polar sensed that he was about to pop, quickly pinching the base of his member between her thumb and forefinger to cut him off before he lost control.
	“Ouch, hey!” Miller winced, his sharp pleasure diminishing to a dull ache as he throbbed between her fingers. She gave him a moment to cool down, the urgent need inside him receding slowly to leave him gasping on the bed.
	When he looked down, Kofe was smirking at him, batting her lashes as she leaned her face on her hand again.
	“You act so gruff all the time,” she said, idly twirling one of her long locks in her clawed finger. “I wouldn't have guessed that you were this sensitive. It's adorable.”
	“Don't call me adorable,” he grumbled, and she laughed behind her hand.
	“Are you offended, my adorable little Jeff? Let me make it up to you...”
	She bobbed her head in his lap, and in an instant he felt her lips sliding over the head of his cock again, the tip bumping into the back of her throat as she took him to the hilt. He groaned, his hips rising from the sheets reflexively. If she had a gag reflex then she knew how to suppress it, the alien wasn’t even flinching as he thrust deep into her gullet. It was so narrow, her flesh as smooth as glass, her delicate mucosa warm and wet as it wrapped around him.
	She applied so much suction, her cheeks pressing down on him, gulping mouthfuls of her pooling saliva around his shaft as she swallowed. He felt her sneak a hand below his butt, encouraging him to thrust into her mouth. He was all too happy to oblige, sinking his fingers into her hair and rocking his hips back and forth. Kofe opened her pursed lips every so often to release the intense pressure, letting him slide in and out of her, her tongue lolling from her mouth to wet his balls. He was worried that she couldn't breathe, but she never pulled away. On the contrary, she seemed as into it as he was. She met his gaze whenever he dared to glance down at her, her arousal evident in her expression. She must have a lung capacity that was several times that of his own, so perhaps she could hold her breath for a really long time.
	Kofe had said that human tongues were practically designed to please Borealans, but he was starting to feel the same way about hers, her long organ painting his skin and slithering across his balls even as he pushed deep into her esophagus. Her muscles wrung him like a dishcloth, squeezing so intently that it made stars dance before his eyes like motes of dust, her relentless massage making him dig his nails into the bed.
	She finally took a break to catch her breath after what felt like minutes, taking his member in her hand and pulling it out of her mouth along with a sagging web of stringy saliva. She let it slide down his shaft in globs, breaking to fall to his belly and thighs, clear ropes of her drool linking her lips to his cock as she panted. Before he could utter so much as a word, she used her furry hand like a towel, wiping away the goop and collecting it in her palm. She then closed her fingers around his aching member with an audible squelch and began to rub slowly, keeping him on the brink with her slimy fur.
	“That’s gross,” Miller mumbled, Kofe responding with a flirtatious giggle.
	“If it’s so gross, then why do you love it so much? Your poker face is slipping, Jeff.”
	It felt amazing, a completely different dimension of sensation, every strand of her white coat sticking to his skin as she ran her hand up and down his erection. He covered his face with his hands as if it might block out some of the pleasure that was turning his brain to soup, his entire body tingling with residual bliss.
	“You're so fun to play with,” she whispered, the sensation of her breath on the tip of his cock amplified by the fluid that clung to it. “You like these, right?”
	He glanced down to see her lifting her massive breasts, like attempting to hoist a bag of sand from the bottom, the weight of them causing her supple flesh to flow around her hands and bury them from view. She squashed the globes together, the vast pillows deforming and shifting, mesmerizing him. “Don't think that you got away with copping an eyeful all those times you thought I wasn't paying attention.”
	“You share part of the blame,” he grumbled, “throwing them in my face all the time and wearing clothes that are several sizes too small.”
	“It’s hard to find clothes that fit me,” she replied, “that they happen to be very revealing is merely coincidental.”
	She heaved them up onto the bed, dropping them heavily into his lap, their weight making the mattress bounce and its springs creak. They spilled over Miller's bare thighs like melting butter, his member vanishing between them along with his entire lower body. Kofe smirked at his expression, rolling her boobs in her hands as she buried him in a mountain of opulent fat and fur.
	“You can play with them if you want to,” she offered, “don't be scared of getting rough.”
	It was an offer that he couldn't refuse, sitting up and reaching towards the heaving mass. His fingers sank into their yielding surface up to the knuckle, Kofe sucking her lower lip into her mouth and chewing on it salaciously, exhaling a low sigh as he took handfuls of her inviting flesh. They seemed almost bottomless, Miller pressing his fingers into her breasts and feeling them sink until they were no longer visible, her fur and fat molding around him to envelop his digits. They almost didn't look real, as exaggerated and oversized as they were from a human perspective, but they were alive. They moved as she did, he could feel the beat of her powerful heart as she cradled him, warmth radiating from them like they were a pair of giant hot water bottles.
	He took handfuls of them, clawing and kneading like he was shaping fresh dough, her breathing growing heavier and her chest heaving in turn. They were larger than her own head, voluminous enough that one of them could have filled the seat of an average car without much difficulty. He tried to lift one experimentally and found that it was very difficult, releasing the unwieldy globe before he sprained his wrist.
	Beneath the thick cushion of fat was firmer breast tissue, so deep that he had to bury his hands up to the wrist to reach it, Kofe shivering appreciatively as he squeezed it. He couldn't deny that her chest had been a source of fascination to him during the days that they had been dating, it was her most prominent feature in more ways than one. The shirts that she bought were thin and revealing by necessity, as anything that obscured more of her figure would make her exponentially hotter. A cool evening on the station was a hot summer's day for Kofe, with all this fat and fur she had to wear clothes that left little to the imagination.
	Tonight he didn't have to imagine, now he could have his fill, nothing was off-limits as he delved deep into her luxuriant bust. Even as they spilled across his lap, they were high enough that he could have rested his elbows on them like a desk, every tremor that passed through them making her downy fur and her silky hairs brush against his erection. There was still a sheen of saliva clinging to his shaft, making her fur stick to him, her cleavage so deep that there was no sign of his member.
	“You're like a kid with a new toy,” she chuckled, the movement making her breasts wobble like a plate of jello. She pressed the two spheres together, squashing and deforming them, even her own massive hands disappearing completely into the cushy fat. The weight in his lap shifted, and he felt pressure around his member, the two walls of satin flesh closing around him like she was turning the screw of a vice.
	He felt an urgent desire to thrust into them, but he couldn't lift his hips from the bed, they were just too heavy. Kofe recognized the problem, pausing for a moment, then they both began to snicker.
	“That ain't gonna work,” he chuckled.
	“Nope,” she replied, smirking at him.
	“Feels good though,” he muttered, “I don't think I've ever felt anything so soft before.”
	“How about this?” Kofe asked after a momentary pause, gripping her breasts in her hands and beginning to rub them against him. She alternated from left to right, pushing one forward and then pulling the other back, Kofe strong enough to manipulate them despite their sheer mass. Miller gritted his teeth, fresh bursts of pleasure creeping up through his body, a new surge of arousal fogging his brain.
	“Fuck...keep that up,” he groaned, leaning back a little and letting the pleasant waves wash over him. She wasn't doing much more than rubbing her fur against his cock, but her permeating warmth and the unbelievable softness of her boobs felt wonderful, the weight and pressure combining to produce an intoxicating tightness. The drool that still clung to his shaft made the contact a little slippery too, Miller basking in the sensation as Kofe looked on with a satisfied expression.
	“Told you we'd find a way to make this work,” she said, and all he could manage in response was a shaky thumbs-up. She continued her rubbing for a minute or two, and Miller had to remark that despite her immense size and strength, handling her breasts still took some effort. While she was no doubt burly enough to lift them, their size and pliability meant that it was almost like trying to hold sand in one's hand, her flesh spilling through her fingers and making almost willful attempts to escape her grasp.
	She finally ceased her rubbing, wrapping both arms around her breasts instead as if she was hugging them. Just as Miller was about to ask what she was doing, she squeezed tightly, her fat spilling both under and over her furry forearms as she compressed them. The pressure around his member intensified, Miller gasping as it was buried in what felt like a boundless sea of flesh. They pressed down on him from all sides, as tight as her throat had been, tufts of her fluffy fur tickling his glans and caressing his length. She began to squeeze rhythmically, finding a slow pace, the contractions of her flexible tissue surprisingly stimulating.
	“This works a lot better,” she said, apparently enjoying herself. Miller realized that he was having a lot of fun too, their encounter going beyond a simple exchange of sexual pleasure. It was as much about exploration and experimentation as it was about merely getting each other off. They were so different, their bodies nigh incompatible due to their differences in size and weight. Just getting to this point was a kind of adventure in its own right.
	“Let me try something,” Kofe said. Before Miller could ask what she had in mind, she plunged her face into her cleavage. Her long hair fell over the shelf of her bust, obscuring her from view, Miller feeling her shift as the motions caused the mountain of breast meat to shake and tremble.
	Suddenly there was warmth and wetness, something slippery brushing against his glans and then coiling around it. He recognized the unmistakable smoothness of her tongue, she had pushed it between her boobs like she was drilling for oil, and his eyes rolled back into his head as her velutinous flesh trapped him in a warm cocoon. It slid gradually down his length, inch by inch, probing blindly as it went. If he didn't know better, he might have mistaken it for some kind of slug or eel that was intent of making a meal of him.
	Once she had a mental image of where he was located in the depths of her bust, she found a rhythm, alternating between compressing her boobs and dragging her tongue across his skin. She paid careful attention to his glans, ensuring that it was drenched in her stringy slaver, the silky surface of her tongue swirling around it as she moved.
	“You're just full of good ideas tonight,” he groaned, flopping back to lie on the bed. She withdrew her tongue for a moment so that she could speak, using the dexterous organ to part her hair and smirking up at him.
	“Oh, so you think that because you're an engineer you have a monopoly on ingenuity? The sandwich girl can't come up with good ideas?” Her tone was teasing, it was just an excuse to make him wait and to prolong his arousal. The absence of her wet tongue was already leaving him longing for more. Kofe seemed to get off on being wanted, both in relationships and in the bedroom, he got the impression that she was going to make him beg for it.
	“If I say no, will you keep going?”
	“Hmm...” Kofe feigned contemplation, letting him stew for a moment. “Tell me that I'm pretty.”
	“Huh?” Miller asked, his cheeks flushing.
	“And make it good. Seen as we're doing honesty tonight, tell me what you like about me. All those things you kept to yourself while we were dating.”
	Of course, if Kofe had an opportunity to gain leverage over him she would take it, especially if it meant embarrassing him at the same time. She batted her lashes at him, watching with her blue eyes as he stewed.
	“I...uh, I like that you're big.”
	“Big?” she exclaimed, putting on an outraged expression as her breasts shifted around his member. “Is that all you have to say?”
	“Come on,” he grumbled, “your boobs weigh as much as I do.”
	“And? Tell me what you like about them. What happened to that sharp tongue of yours?”
	She wasn't going to let up until she got what she wanted, he knew her well enough to know that, and so he pushed through his shyness.
	“I like the way that they always look like they're about to burst out of your shirt. I love how their weight presses them into the fabric so that you can kind of...make out their shape. I like how your belly pushes out from under it, like your body is making a conscious effort to undress itself.”
	“You little sneak,” she said with a wide grin, chewing on her lower lip as she gazed at him. “So you were taking a peek at Kofe's rack every chance you got?” She twisted her boobs again, Miller grunting as the pressure and texture sent a jolt of pleasure shooting up his spine. “I would have let you touch them you know,” she added, her tone sly. “You only had to ask. I would have let you lift up my shirt and push your face into them, play with them as much as you liked. Since you're being such an honest little man, maybe I'll let you blow your load between them...but only if you ask nicely. Would you like that?”
	“Y-Yes,” he replied, his mind swimming with possibilities as he tried in vain to disguise how excited the prospect made him.
	“What else?” she asked, grinning at him as she slowly rocked her bust back and forth to keep him excited.
	“Your fur is really soft,” he admitted, the sensation of her silky coat as it brushed against his skin chipping away at his resolve. “I didn't like it at first, I thought it made you look too...different. But now that I've touched it I can't get enough of it, I can scarcely keep my hands off you.”
	“Good boy,” she whispered, drawing him in with her hypnotic gaze. Somehow lying to her got more difficult the more time he spent in her company, those reflective, blue irises seeming to pierce through him like laser beams. “Keep going...”
	“It's so warm, and it smells so good. I just want to push my face into your fur, all the time. It drives me crazy.”
	She mewled happily, apparently delighted by his confession.
	“Let me know any time you want a hug,” she said, “and I'll bury you in my fur. Any time, any place, I'll make sure you get your fix. Now keep it up, flattery will get you everywhere, and I do mean everywhere...”
	“You're just so...curvy and full figured...”
	“Full figured? You mean I'm fat, right?”
	“Yeah, but in a good way,” he added hastily. “It goes to all the right places. Your ass and your thighs, your hips and your boobs. You're soft all over, like someone drew you with a protractor, all curvy and rounded...”
	“Honey, to a Polar there's no such as being fat in a bad way. Now c'mere.”
	She wrapped her arms around his lower body, pulling him closer and compressing him against her bust, her face delving once more into her fluffy cleavage. Miller found himself in a sitting position, Kofe's breasts squeezed tightly between the two of them, her strong arms encircling him as she pressed her doughy boobs around his member. He couldn't see anything below his chest beside a wobbling mound of white fur and Kofe's slate-grey hair, her round ears twitching as she pushed her tongue into her bust.
	The pressure alone was enough to set him on edge, twin walls of fat and downy fur closing in around him, then he felt the glossy surface of her slimy tongue as it located his glans. It twisted and wound like the tentacle of some deep-sea octopus, grasping suckers replaced with smooth muscle, its hot surface coated in a layer of viscous saliva. It sprang to life, wrapping him in satin flesh, its dimensions easily able to encompass every inch of his member.
	The tapered organ moved ceaselessly, so impossibly flexible and limber, stroking in the very same moment that it squeezed. All pretense of teasing had been abandoned, there was a whirlwind of sensation swirling around his sensitive length, Miller holding his breath as if his brain couldn't perform so many functions at once.
	He couldn't see what was happening and somehow that made it all the more intense, almost like being blindfolded. Sodden fur stroked against his skin, damp with the thick slime that coated her tongue, the meat of her breasts so yielding and malleable that it was like pushing his erection into warm margarine. Her prehensile organ swirled and licked, so long and encompassing that it felt like there were somehow half a dozen human-sized tongues running up and down his shaft, lapping at his balls and grazing his tender tip.
	The stimulation was at the forefront of his mind, so intense that it distracted him from any other thoughts or concerns, one hundred percent of his brain's processing power completely devoted to measuring every lick and throb. It was as if his nervous system had been inactive for his whole life and now was being turned on for the first time, lighting up bright and brilliant like a fireworks display, such was the contrast between his resting state and this new dimension of pleasure.
	Miller leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her head and delving his fingers into her silky hair, the only part of her that was within reach from their odd position. He buried his face in the mop of grey strands, the scent of her flowery shampoo filling his nose as he nuzzled. He was beside himself, not really knowing how to react, his conscious mind taking a back seat to more base and archaic instincts as he clung to her. One of his hands slid down the back of her neck, taking a handful of the fluffy fur between her shoulders, even his fingertips seeming to take part in the tingling ecstasy that pulsed through his body like the beating of a heart.
	Her pace was ruthless, and he felt a pressure rising inside him, an urgency that he knew all too well. It started as a twinge deep in his pelvis, his muscles contracting and tensing, and then like a blooming flower it spread into a vibrant and dazzling explosion. A whimper escaped his lips as the power of his first ejaculation forced his eyes closed, practically making his ears ring as bursts of white light flooded his skull. There was no effort required, no frantic pumping needed to reach his peak as was the case when he took care of his urges alone. Instead it came thick and fast, like a bursting dam, impossible to hold back even if he had wanted to. He had been a bachelor for so long that he had almost forgotten the sensation of having another person make him come, it was intoxicating.
	His member jumped in the confines of her furry bust, a thick wad of his ejaculate shooting deep into her cleavage, as if his body couldn't tell it apart from a fertile womb. As soon as she felt the warm emission seep into her fur, tasted it on her tongue, she tightened her breasts around him and withdrew her snaking organ.
	He released her head from his grasp as her face emerged from between the fluffy mounds of her bust, his heart hammering in his chest as her blue eyes met his, the lascivious Polar intent on watching him as he climaxed. She pulled him even tighter with her powerful arms, still wrapped around his lower back, the pressure between her boobs growing ever more powerful.
	The next emission didn't make it an inch before it was deflected back to coat his member in a hot, sticky sheen, her soft flesh constricting around him and making him feel like he was ejaculating into a furry condom. Each rush of viscous fluid was chased by a pleasure so acute and raw that it almost resembled pain, satisfying in a way that only scratching the urgent itch of one's seething lust could be. His spine arched and his fingers dug into whatever was in reach, be it fur or bed sheets, his hips rocking like a pendulum as his instincts commanded him to bury his manhood as deeply as possible.
	It just kept coming, again and again, he hadn't known that he could produce this much of it. It was like she was pulling a knotted rope out of his body. He could feel every clump of gelatinous semen as it was expelled, splashing against her welcoming fur as it added to the pervasive heat and wetness.
	“That's right,” Kofe cooed in her husky voice, “let it all out for me...”
	She watched him all the while, drinking in his pained expressions, her ears twitching at the sounds of his gasps and moans. She was scrutinizing him so intently, transfixed. He was embarrassed to be seen in this state, yet the pleasure that she derived from it was projected through the batting of her lashes and the way that she chewed on her lower lip, her enjoyment rivaling his own. It wasn't that she was an uncommonly generous lover, he realized, but that seeing him melt at her touch was as gratifying to her as being the recipient of this wracking ecstasy.
	She wanted to be adored, to be in control, and right now he was giving her everything that her oversized heart desired.
	Totally spent, Miller lay on the bed sheets, his member twitching as lingering aftershocks rippled through him. The intense pleasure was replaced with a sense of warmth and satisfaction that fell over him like a heated blanket. He was scarcely able to keep his eyes open. He looked down to see Kofe shifting, releasing her breasts from her arms and letting them fall free, their weight pressing him into the mattress as they spread out.
	She parted them, showing him the clinging clumps of pearly fluid that stuck to her fur, thick ropes of it bridging her cleavage as the heavy globes drifted apart.
	“Look at the mess you made,” she murmured, reaching down a finger and running the fleshy pad up the length of his member. It was coated in a layer of his own emission, Kofe pressing her thumb and forefinger together, then pulling them apart to create a sagging strand. “Pretty impressive for such a small creature...”
	Before he could stop her, she had leaned down to take his still rigid member into her mouth, her lips pursing around the hilt as he exhaled a low groan. He was hypersensitive now, the sensation of her roving tongue as it cleaned him from the base to the tip making his head spin. She sucked and licked, dragging her lips up his shaft, leaving him as dry as a bone. She did the same with her chest, her tongue reaching all the way down to comb her fur like a cat, leaving her white coat spotless.
	She rose from her crouching position at the edge of the bed, then flopped down onto it beside him, her weight causing the springs to squeal and the mattress to dent like a visual representation of a gravity well. As if he was a planet caught in her pull, he rolled towards her, the mattress sloping inescapably in the direction of her prone figure.
	He bumped into her soft fur, and before he could right himself, he felt her massive arms enclose him. Kofe hugged him tightly against her nude form, if someone who was covered from head to toe in a silky coat of fur could be referred to as such, the giant alien rolling onto her side and plunging him into the vastness of her body.
	She delved her fingers into his hair and pressed his head between her breasts, which were tightly pressed together due to her posture, the upper one compressing the lower one with its weight. Not one to be discouraged, she merely forced him past the initial resistance, her feathery fur brushing against his red cheeks as she thrust him into the warm depths of her bust. The breast below his head cushioned him with its wonderful plumpness, a giant pillow of flesh sheathed in fine fur, the other pressing on him from above. He breathed in lungfuls of her fruity scent with every breath, a hint of enticing, feminine musk following behind it as she cuddled him.
	Her other hand crawled down his back and tugged him closer, his entire body above the thighs sinking into her cushioned belly, softer and deeper than even the mattress that lay beneath them. Her flesh engulfed him like it was a living thing that was trying to swallow him up, irresistibly touchable and inviting as he buried his fingers in the blubbery layer of insulating fat.
	Kofe sealed the deal with her arms, her biceps bulging as she squeezed him so tightly that he could scarcely breathe. Was it not for the girth that cushioned him, she likely would have crushed him into a pancake. After a few moments of almost giddy hugging, she loosened her hold a little, keeping him close but giving him more room to catch his breath.
	“I thought you might pass out back there,” she said, her breasts wobbling around his head like jello as she chuckled at him. “Did it feel good?”
	He mumbled something inaudible, his voice muffled by her cleavage, and so she reached up to move one of her breasts out of the way so that she could make out what he was saying.
	“Obviously,” he repeated, and she laughed again.
	“Tell me how it felt, come on! Tell me what you liked best so that I'll know what to do next time.”
	“Next time?” Miller asked sarcastically, “aren't you being a little presumptuous?”
	“Oh, as if you could stay away from me,” she shot back with a smirk. “I bet if I picked you up and put you outside, you'd be scratching at the door like a stray dog within ten minutes. Come on, tell me. You can't keep secrets from me now...I bet I could make you sing like a bird with the right kind of encouragement.”
	He reddened as she watched him intently, smirking at his embarrassment.
	“It felt...good.”
	“Only good?” Kofe asked skeptically.
	“Okay, it felt amazing,” he conceded. “Your fur feels so good when it’s wet, and your tongue...don’t even get me started on your tongue.”
	“I’m getting you started,” she said, encouraging him with a prod of her finger.
	“It’s so long and flexible, you have such fine control over it. When you coil it around me and start sliding it up and down…”
	Kofe shot him a toothy grin, leaning down to nuzzle as she rubbed her pink nose against his cheek.
	“You like that, huh? I thought as much, based on the adorable noises that you were making.”
	They cuddled for a while, the slow rise and fall of Kofe's soft chest somehow hypnotic. It made him want to sleep, she was just so warm and inviting. The Polar was like a giant, living teddy bear that could hug you back, her claws combing his hair as he breathed in her familiar fragrance. His seething afterglow only contributed to the sensation of peace and satisfaction. He was in heaven, the fluffy, white fur that he was buried in serving the role of the puffy clouds.

CHAPTER 8: SILVER TONGUE

	Kofe let him rest for a while, purring softly as she stroked his head, keeping him trapped tightly against her yielding body. After what might have been minutes or hours, he couldn't tell, a sudden movement roused him. She rolled onto her back, the mattress beneath her bouncing and the bed's frame creaking ominously, releasing him from her hold. Her breasts parted, gravity attempting to drag the heavy globes down, and he found himself lying on top of her. She could have served as a bed in her own right, he could have slept on her cushy body like it was a queen-sized mattress and he could have used her breasts as pillows.
	“You rub my back, I'll rub yours,” she said with a suggestive grin.
	“It's scratch your back, and what do you..?” Kofe pointed towards her parted thighs with a clawed finger. “Oh, right,” he added. He began to crawl down her massive body, her soft fat oddly difficult to move on, he kept wobbling and losing his balance. Finally, he felt the fur of her tree trunk-like thighs brush against his legs, and then his knees found the bed sheet.
	Miller kneeled between her legs, Kofe propping herself up on her elbows so that she could see over the twin mounds of her breasts and her obscuring belly. His heart raced in his chest, he was unsure of what was about to happen, but he knew that he wanted to return the favor. She had made him feel so, so good, and he wanted to do the same for her. He had already heard Kofe extol the virtue of human tongues, so it shouldn't be too much of an ordeal to give her what she obviously wanted.
	The problem was, he had never seen a Polar's loins before. Would they be huge? Strangely shaped? What if he couldn't recognize what he was looking at and he had no idea what to do with it? He rested his hands on her thighs, letting them sink into her downy fur, probing at the deep layer of fat beneath. He was presented with a view of her mound, as white and as fluffy as any other region of her body, her thighs extending to the left and right like oil drums wrapped in white velvet and decorated with the coffee stain spots from which she had earned her nickname. Above was the tire of her belly, which would have blocked his view of her had she not been bending over to compensate for it, her blue eyes peering at him from what felt like miles away.
	He could see the anticipation in her expression, the way that she was biting her lip again, the rise and fall of her chest accentuated by her breasts.
	Her white fur gave way to pink skin, fading from one color to the other to create a rose-tinted line between her thighs. Fat, puffy lips surrounded it, the fur sodden with clear fluid that made the fine hairs cling to her body. He reached down with both hands and parted her labia, exposing a glistening, pink vulva. She was impossibly wet, her excitement leaking from her winking opening in a steady stream as her massive body shifted at his touch, Kofe loosing a drawn-out sigh as he peered down at her anatomy.
	It was hot, feverish, he could feel the warmth that radiated from it on his lips as he leaned down closer. Kofe was larger than a human woman, at least as far as he could remember, but not dramatically so. Immediately he felt himself becoming hard again, staring at the wet flesh as it flexed and moved, her feminine scent overpowering the smell of her soaps and perfumes. It was enticing, primal, and his mouth began to water as his fingers skirted her sex.
	He used his thumbs to keep her lips open, so soft and plump, tinted that delicate shade of pink that set something off in his animal brain. Nobody's genitals were especially attractive, but something about Kofe's neat folds and the contrast between her pristine fur and her blushing womanhood fogged his brain with arousal. Maybe it was because he liked her so much, or maybe Polars were just very aesthetically pleasing. Either way, he had never felt such a strong urge to eat someone out before.
	“Are you just gonna look at it?” Kofe chimed, snapping him out of his trance.
	“What if I am?”
	“Jeff,” she moaned, “stop teasing! I want you so bad...”
	Her sultry plea was impossible to refuse. He drew closer, giving it a tentative lick, tasting metal on his tongue as he ran it over her exposed flesh. It was slick with a thick layer of her juices. They had the consistency of syrup, and they clung to him in thin strands, breaking as his tongue slid back into his mouth. His next attempt was more enthusiastic, Miller dragging his tongue along her vulva, his organ gliding between her labia. He felt a shudder run through her massive body, looking up over her belly to see her chewing on one of her black claws as she watched with drooping eyelids.
	He was suddenly struck by how cute she looked. It hit him like a lightning bolt, his heart missing a beat as Kofe cocked her head at him, her feline nose twitching. Before she could ask what was the matter, he delved his face between her thighs, intent on tasting every inch of her.
	His Polar companion shivered and mewled as if she was a giant cat, Miller using the tip of his tongue to trace every fold and crease of her loins, mouthing and kissing wetly as he went. He teased her with his lips, circling her opening with his tongue, dragging its surface up and down her mound like he was trying to paint it with his saliva. A strong desire to please her had overcome his reservations, his pace greedy and wanton.
	Kofe had such a powerful reaction, it was encouraging, erotic. She was having trouble keeping still. He could feel the way that her hips, far wider than his shoulders, rolled and thrust as if some subconscious part of her was trying to fuck his tongue. She arched her long spine, her fat thighs and belly trembling with every minor movement, her long tail waving back and forth as it trailed off the nearest side of the bed.
	“Fuck,” she groaned, her rumbling purring making her voice sound like a growl. It would have been intimidating had he not already been familiar with the odd vocalization. Far from being threatening, it was an involuntary expression of her pleasure, she couldn't seem to help herself. “Your tongue is...amazing...”
	She rocked her head back, out of view from his perspective, her body writhing on the mattress as she made efforts to keep her hips from bucking out of his reach. Miller slid one hand beneath her body, her massive butt cheeks malleable enough that even the weight that she was resting on them did nothing to hinder him, and he took a handful of her fur for purchase. He used two fingers on his free hand to hold her labia apart, keeping up his ardent licking.
	Her juices were coming thicker and faster, almost as if someone had upended a bottle of personal lubricant inside her and it was slowly escaping, the goo sticking to his lips and hanging from his chin in ropes. It was drenching the fur around her loins, making it wet and sticky, but Miller had decided that he very much enjoyed the feeling of her wet fur against his skin.
	The heat was incredible, almost alarming, her swollen lips nearly warm enough to scald him.
	“I thought Railha was exaggerating,” Kofe moaned, her husky voice cracking as he doted on her. “How is it so smooth? I feel like I'm going crazy...”
	“Now who's singing like a bird?” Miller crowed, pausing his licking and rising above the hump of her belly to give her a mischievous grin. Gelatinous ropes of her fluid linked his lips to her burning loins, Kofe seeming to falter at the sight, slowly bringing her claw to her mouth and beginning to nibble on it again.
	“That's a good look for you, Jeff...”
	He wiped the strands away with the back of his hand, his cheeks flushing red, then dipped back down to resume his work. He slid his questing organ downwards, pushing his tongue into her twitching passage and feeling it seize around him like a Chinese finger trap, tighter and more muscular than he would have imagined possible.
	She was so large, and yet her tunnel clenched around him with such force that he would be hard-pressed to get so much as a finger inside her. It expelled his tongue, too slippery and damp to hold onto. He withdrew his hand from beneath her butt and brought up his index finger, pushing it inside her and feeling her satin flesh grip him like a fist. It was textured and irregular, he could feel the folds and bumps as they pressed around him, her muscles trembling beyond the delicate walls. It was like sliding his finger into a twitching, shifting tunnel lined with the most lavish silk, soaked in warm slime that had the viscosity of honey.
	Miller's member bounced in the air as he imagined what being inside her might feel like. He had been concerned that he wasn't large enough to satisfy her, but right now it felt like she was trying to crush his digit, it was almost painful.
	 He crawled his lips slowly higher, flicking her with his tongue as he went, until he located something firm and rounded. Kofe sucked in a sharp breath and lurched, very nearly launching him off the bed, Miller gripping her thigh to save himself from toppling to the floor.
	“There, right there,” she hissed through gritted teeth. It was her clitoris, similarly positioned to that of a human woman, but larger. It was about as big as the tip of his thumb, a shiny nub of flesh that was hidden beneath a hood of protective skin. Miller circled his tongue around it, skirting the sensitive bud as she writhed on the sheets, keeping her on edge as he teased her.
	“By the great mother...keep that up you adorable little...” Kofe's voice tapered out into a low growl, her furry tail coiling around his waist and gripping him as if she was trying to prevent him from escaping. “This is...we are doing this every day from now on,” she huffed. “Twice a day...”
	She let out a disappointed whine as Miller stopped his licking, rising to smirk at her, wetting his thumb with her juices and using it to rub her weak spot. He went painfully slow, tormenting her with a cruel rhythm, just enough to keep the giant alien on the brink.
	“Tell me what you like about me,” Miller demanded, turning the tables on her as she wriggled restlessly on the bed.
	“I thought engineers were supposed to be smart, yet here you are stealing ideas from the sandwich girl.”
	“Sorry, I didn’t hear that,” he said as he poised with his tongue an inch from her dripping loins.
	“I said,” Kofe began, “I thought that engineers were supposed to-”
	She trailed off into a lurid moan as he interrupted her, sliding his tongue up her vulva like he was licking an ice cream cone.
	“Sorry, still can’t make out what you’re saying.”
	“You little beast, I know that you-”
	He began to move his finger inside her, stroking her fleshy walls from within, keeping up his rubbing as her comment was cut off by a pitiable mewl. Seeing her like this was turning Miller on more than he had expected. She was so large and powerful, yet here she was completely at his mercy, her eight-foot frame brought to heel by a one-inch tongue.
	“I'm just giving you a taste of your own medicine,” he said, watching her try to refocus her blue eyes as if she was drunk.
	“You already know what I like about you,” she mumbled, “I thought I made that pretty clear already.”
	“Well I want to hear it again.”
	He started to curl his finger inside her, feeling her muscles spasm, Kofe biting her lip as the waves of pleasure rocked her. Her juices were flowing even more now, seeping out past his finger to wet the sheets beneath her, the lewd sounds that she was making encouraging his probing.
	“Oh, that finger is so smooth,” she whined as she cradled her face in her fluffy hands. “Nobody has ever been able to touch me there before, not like that...”
	“Come on, spit it out,” he said as her muscles clenched around his finger like they were attempting to milk it. She feigned annoyance, but her body betrayed how much she was enjoying her present predicament, her loins sucking on him like a mouth and her excitement dampening her fur.
	“I love your tongue,” she whined, covering her face with her hands. “I almost can't believe that it's real. Your fingers too, you can reach all the way inside me. You have no idea how crazy that is to a Polar. I've never had someone's finger inside me like this before, they'd slice me up.”
	He curled his digit inside her as if to demonstrate her point, the eight-foot alien trembling like a leaf.
	“Keep going, and I'll use my tongue again,” he said. That caught her attention, and her next statement was hurried and gasping, as if she was counting down the seconds.
	“I-I love that you're so small. You're like a little hairless kitten, but at the same time you're so surly and gruff, it drives me crazy. I just want to pick you up off the ground and squeeze the air out of your lungs all the time, but I know that you'd hate it. Yet somehow that makes me want to do it even more. You're so fucking cute Jeff.”
	“I am not cute,” he insisted.
	“The fact that you don't think you're cute just makes you cuter.”
	He polished her clitoris with his thumb, ensuring that it was good and slippery, increasing his pace as punishment for her teasing. She pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes, baring her sharp teeth as her hips rose off the bed. Her massive thighs were trembling, she was really close, but he wanted to draw out her exquisite suffering a little longer.
	“You're the only human that I've ever met who could go toe to toe with a Polar,” she added. “You even managed to fool me, and that's on top of being an adorable little creature that I want to fuck into the ground.”
	She was right on the edge, he could feel it in the way that she was thrusting against his hand, the Polar rambling as her arousal got the better of her.
	“I love the way that you pretend you're not into it when I hit on you. I love how your face turns red when you're embarrassed, so that you can't hide it from me no matter how hard you try. I love the way that you throb between my lips when you come, I love your taste and you smell. I love how you're covered in my scent right now, and you can't even tell.”
	He brought his face back down between her thighs, gripping her with one hand as best he could while the other continued to plunge in and out of her. He struggled to slide a second finger inside her, her narrow passage resisting, but thanks to how slippery she was he eventually succeeded. His lips sealed around her clitoris, and he began to suck gently, drawing it out from beneath its protective hood. He alternated between slow, placating strokes of his tongue and rapid licks that teased its smooth surface. Hearing those words come from her mouth, seeing the state that she was in, it made him feel as if bringing her to completion was the only thing in the world that mattered.
	Kofe mewled and purred as he circled her firm bud, drawing shapes on it, pinching it between his lips and doting on it with his wet muscle. All the while he plunged his fingers as deep as they would go into her pulsating loins, moving his digits independently of one another to create a sensation that was wholly alien to her. Just as he had been blown away by what she could do with her prehensile tongue, so too was Kofe having her world turned upside down by his unique traits, and he knew just what she wanted.
	His pace reached a fever pitch, Kofe writhing as he played his tongue across her loins. The clenching of her passage around his fingers was becoming painful, crushing them against one another, but he endured as he used them to stroke and caress. He wrapped one arm around her thigh to stop her from wriggling free during the throes of her ecstasy, only able to reach about two-thirds of the way around it, her thrusting and squirming making the bed frame clatter against the wall behind the headboard. She gripped him around the waist with her tail, ensuring that he didn't topple onto the floor, but it was still like trying to eat someone out while riding a bucking bronco.
	“Don't stop, don't stop,” she whined. He felt her claws on his scalp, the alien doubling over and reaching down to press his face into her crotch, her hold on him gentle yet firm. Suddenly her thighs snapped shut around his head like a furry bear trap, a low moan emanating from the Polar. It was alarming at first, but her fat was so deep and plush, Kofe careful not to apply too much pressure. She was strong enough to pop his head like a cherry, but she was always conscious of their difference in stature.
	Now engulfed in her warm fur, slick with her slime, he felt a massive tremor roll through her body. Her muscles tensed, a whine catching in her throat, the rolling of her wide hips halting abruptly. She shuddered, Miller feeling the tremors as her legs shook, her sopping tunnel spasming around his fingers. Her muscles slid up his digits in waves, starting at the knuckle and gliding towards the tip, as if her beleaguered body was trying to pull him deeper.
	The brief moment of silent shivering was followed by a drawn-out growl, halfway between a rumbling purr and what sounded like a pissed off lion. She fell back onto the bed, fucking the air desperately as a climax ripped through her. The seizing of her pelvic muscles expelled a flood of clear fluid that coated his hand in a slimy glaze, splashing her thighs and wetting his chin, matting her silky fur and making it stick to his face. Miller continued his licking all the same, drawing out every last pulse of pleasure that he could as Kofe was reduced to a panting wreck.
	It went on for longer than he felt was reasonable, until she finally released her tight hold around his head, collapsing into a furry heap on the bed as he tried in vain to wipe away the sagging mass of Polar come that was dangling from his chin.
	She lay on her back, her eyes unfocused, residual bursts of pleasure making her flinch and gasp like she was being electrocuted. Her inner thighs and her fluffy mound were coated in a sheen of fluid, her splayed lips swollen and rosy as they dripped like a drooling mouth.
	When she had recovered enough to form a coherent sentence, she propped herself up on her elbows, looking down between her parted legs at Miller. She grinned drunkenly, swaying gently, and leaned down to grab him. In an instant she transitioned from lying on her back to sitting cross-legged, surprisingly flexible considering her size and weight, planting Miller in her lap and cradling him in her arms like he was a baby. The meat of her breasts cascaded over his shoulder and belly, pressing down on him with a now all too familiar heft, and he struggled to get his face out from beneath her bust like a drowning sailor trying to get his head above water.
	Kofe hugged him tightly, making good on her threats, smiling wider than he had ever seen. She was positively beaming, and he got the impression that it went beyond simple afterglow.
	“I'm putting you on a new diet,” she whispered, “and I think you can guess what the main food group is.”
	“Coffee?” Miller asked.
	She grinned, wiping his face clean of her juices with her fluffy hand.
	“Um, by the way, make sure you shower thoroughly before you go back to work tomorrow. It won't be detectable to a human nose, but right now you reek of sex. It'll drive any Borealans within half a mile of you to distraction.”
	“Oh, so that's what you meant when you said that I was covered in your scent,” he mused. Kofe put a hand to her mouth, failing to suppress a bashful chuckle.
	“Oh no, did I really say that?”
	“Yep, you kind of went off the rails back there.”
	“That's your fault, wiseguy,” she muttered as she leaned down to kiss him. She supported his head with her hand, pulling him closer and joining their lips, her serpentine tongue winding its way into his mouth. Her embrace was slow and gentle, oddly soothing, making Miller feel as if all the strength was being drained from his body. Kofe switched gears between raunchy and romantic at such a rapid rate, he never knew what she was going to do next.
	She stayed locked with him for a good minute, the slow strokes of her tongue making his heart skip in his chest, until she finally pulled back to gaze down at him with a blend of adoration and lust.
	“You taste of me,” she muttered, the thought clearly filling her with a fresh surge of arousal. “You ready for the main course?”
	The meaning was obvious, and Miller swallowed conspicuously, nodding his head. He wanted so badly to feel those slimy muscles contracting around his shaft, to join with her in the most intimate way, but this was also what he had been the most apprehensive of. She was so much larger and heavier than he was, she could probably pummel his pelvis into bone dust if she even slightly misjudged her own strength. His survival instincts and his desire for her held a brief battle in his head, but his libido won out, and he kept his concerns to himself as she lowered him to the mattress.
	Kofe loomed over him, her weight making her knees sink deep into the bed as she swung one leg over his prone body, her size seeming even more monstrous as she straddled him. Her thighs were so long that her sodden loins were still a foot higher than his erection, however, the Polar sinking a hand into one of her breasts to knead it in anticipation as she looked down at him.
	“H-Hang on,” Miller stammered, his worries getting the better of him. “Is this...safe? Maybe I should be on top?”
	“Trust me,” Kofe chuckled, “I'll be gentle with you.”
	“I don't doubt that, but if you lose your balance, you're going to turn me into a pancake.”
	She paused for a moment, scratching her furry chin with one of her hooked claws as she pondered their predicament. It seemed that neither of them had planned this far ahead, expecting sex to just work when their bodies were configured so differently. Kofe was a good two feet taller than him at least, and she must weigh as much as four or five adult humans. Her sheer size meant that many of the positions that Miller was familiar with were simply unfeasible. She could crush him during cowgirl, doggy would require him to stand on the bed to reach her.
	Come on Miller, he thought to himself. You're an engineer, and this is a mechanical problem. Treat it as such, figure something out! In the absence of acrobatic sex aids like winches and angled pillows, there must still be some positions that both participants would find comfortable.
	“How about this,” he suggested, “we could lie on our sides and try it that way.”
	“Yeah, that could work,” Kofe replied with a nod. She swung her leg back over him and lowered herself down beside him, lounging like she was posing for a photo shoot. She moved slowly, conscious of the fact that she would probably launch him into the ceiling if she let all of her weight fall on her side of the mattress at once. Fortunately, it was Polar-sized, you could probably have parked an average-sized car on it.
	She lay on her side, the curve of her hip towering above him like a rolling hill, covered in white fur instead of green grass. Her belly and bust fell towards the mattress in an avalanche of flesh, her breasts pressed tightly together by their sheer weight, making her look like a wax sculpture that was in the process of melting. She propped her face up in her hand, her elbow sinking into the mattress as she waited for him to get into position.
	The bed sagged beneath her, Miller drawn towards the recess in the sheets like it was magnetic, and he struggled to keep himself from rolling into her. He shuffled down her body until their hips were level, her furry breasts now an inch from his nose due to their difference in stature.
	“Alright,” he said, surveying her massive body like he was directing repairs on a fuel tanker. “If you extend your right leg so that it's straight, then lift your left leg and hook it over me, we should be able to uh...make this work.”
	She did as he instructed, extending her digitigrade right leg so that it was straight and then raising her left leg over him, hooking him with her calf and pulling him flush against her body. She angled her hips slightly to get closer, her knee resting on the mattress behind him so that the considerable weight of her thigh wasn't resting on him. Still, it was so heavily padded with insulating fat that it spilled over him like warm a blanket, the feeling of her downy fur and warm fat as it molded around his bare skin was so inviting. She wrapped her free arm around him, holding him close as the meat of her breasts pressed against his face.
	They were in position, lying side by side on the bed, Miller's erection brushing against the still damp fur of her mound. He reached down and gripped his member, navigating by touch as her voluptuous body obstructed his view, searching for the warmth of her loins. He located her hot, slick flesh, Kofe sighing contentedly as he pressed his glans up against it. He felt her lips graze the tip of his cock, slick with her juices, and beyond them was the wet velvet of her vulva.
	He rubbed up and down its length for a moment, probing for the entrance, then found it. There was considerable resistance, his member almost seeming to bend as he pushed his hips towards her, and then he broke through. Despite her enormous size, she was so damned tight. He slid halfway inside her, slimy satin enclosing him on all sides, her muscular passage constricting around him like the coils of a snake trying to choke its prey.
	Kofe mewled happily, using her leg and her arm to press him up against her body as if trying to pull him deeper. His face was thrust further into the warm fluff of her boobs, malleable enough to engulf his head almost completely, his torso pressing into the paunch of her belly. He reached an arm up and around her waist, not long enough to make it even halfway, sinking his fingers into her doughy body in an attempt to find purchase. It was like trying to hug a waterbed that had been filled with liquid soap instead of water, heavy and yielding, yet delightfully supple.
	For Kofe, it was a battle to keep him close while her vast body sought to push him away, her breasts and stomach seeking to expel him and return to their original shape. She compensated by holding him tightly, Miller being swallowed up by her until he was almost completely out of view.
	She angled her hips so that her lower body was slightly on top of him, using the leverage to press down on him and force him deeper inside her. He groaned into her bust as the slippery walls of her narrow tunnel slid against his shaft, feeling every bump and wrinkle that grazed his skin, until she finally took him to the hilt.
	Buried as deep as he could get, her heat permeated him to the core. Her body was so hot, she was burning up, that wonderful warmth radiating through him. It was like warming one's hands at the fireside on a cold night, chasing away the chill in the air. It was so alluring, captivating, he wanted more...
	They stayed that way for a minute or two, Miller nestled in a prison of fat and fur, her warm body pressing down on him from all sides as they simply enjoyed one another. He felt every subtle movement of her silken loins as they shifted around him, the slow massage of her restless muscles making him jump and throb inside her, Kofe in turn able to feel every pulse of blood that surged through his veins. There was no violent thrusting, no frenzied rutting, merely the exquisite sensation of two living beings joined as one.
	“It's beating inside me like a heart,” she whispered, “I could stay like this forever...”
	“Don't tempt me,” he mumbled. He should be excited, driven out of his mind by lust, yet he felt so relaxed. Kofe chuckled, the movement of her chest making her boobs jiggle around his head, and he exhaled slowly as he felt her run her hand up and down his back. Her fur was so pleasant against his skin, the light touch of her claws teasing him, and he felt her warm breath blow in his hair as she leaned her head down close to him. Kofe was now almost in a fetal position, her massive body curling around Miller's smaller frame.
	“Let me know when you want to start moving,” she whispered, “I really want you to enjoy this. We should go slow, take our time. We have all night to enjoy each other, to figure each other out.”
	Miller would never admit it, but right now he felt as if any fast movement would send him over the edge. He didn't remember sex feeling like this before, had it always felt like this? Her tight passage rippled and undulated around his erection like it was trying to swallow him, caressing him with delicate flesh that was soaked with her thick juices. It was a tiny slice of heaven, the swells and tides of tingling pleasure washing up through his body like waves crashing against the shore.
	He could barely think, his brain popping and crackling like it was being fried in oil, a tingling sensation spreading through him as if electricity was arching between his nerves. They hadn't even started moving yet...
	“I can't hold off any longer,” he finally said, “I'm gonna go crazy.”
	“Go for it,” Kofe chuckled, and he began to thrust. He dragged his member out of her, her velvet walls clinging to him with a powerful suction, and then slammed back inside her. He could get so deep, the giant alien twitching and sighing as he pushed his member into her most intimate reaches. All the while her flesh pressed around him, Miller assailed by so many conflicting sensations that he couldn't process them, his mind blanking out as his hips moved mechanically. The pressure, the wetness, the silkiness...it was irresistible.
	Kofe responded in kind, gently pushing down to meet his thrusts, controlling her heavy hips expertly. She was as lithe and as flexible as a belly dancer despite her obvious size, shimmying and rolling her pelvis as her loins flexed around him with all the dexterity of a hand gloved in satin. It was downright artistic, she had such fine control over her muscles, making a slow figure of eight with her hips that dug his shaft into her sensitive walls at new and exciting angles.
	It quickly got the better of him, Miller losing his cool and dropping his facade of stoicism as she gave him a taste of paradise.
	“Kofe,” he whined, his hands sinking into her plump thighs and hips as she rode him. “Where the hell did you learn to do this?”
	“Do what?” she asked, perplexed by his reaction.
	“That thing you're doing with your hips,” he gasped, his spine arching as she ground his member against her insides like she was trying to scratch a stubborn itch.
	“Oh? Don't humans make love like this?”
	“None that I've ever been with, this is...” His statement tapered into a groan as she pressed her hips down on him, heavy enough that the motion sank him deep into the mattress. A satisfying ache permeated his lower body, her pelvic floor muscles squeezing him in waves.
	“Humans are pretty prudish,” she said, releasing him from under her weight and resuming her slow circling. “Maybe your women don't learn these tricks? If they can't talk about it, who can teach them?”
	He had buried his face between her boobs again, unable to formulate a coherent reply, and she smirked down at him as she elaborated.
	“Polars learn how to please each other as soon as they come of age,” she explained, her voice cracking on a particularly aggressive downward thrust. “There's no shortage of mature females willing to break in a young man and teach him how to make a woman happy. How to pace himself, how to move, how to use his tongue.”
	Miller clawed at her thigh, clinging to her as she switched up the pace of her lovemaking, the springs of the bed creaking beneath them. She swallowed, catching her breath for a moment before continuing.
	“There were plenty of older women ready to teach us tricks, eager to impart generations of experience. They taught the burgeoning females how to move, how to flow like water, how formless rutting can be transformed into a graceful dance.”
	He felt like he was losing his mind, hiding his burning face in the fluff of her chest so that she couldn't see it, the muscles in his body no longer obeying him. It was like she had burrowed into his nervous system, he couldn't stop himself from moving, like he was running on autopilot. Higher thought gave way to primal instinct, her juices seeping around his shaft as he plunged in and out of her. Not that he would have stopped if he could regain control of his faculties, he was on cloud nine.
	“We don't have the same hangups that you do, we don't really have strong sexual preferences either. We learned by doing, through practice. Hours and hours of practice,” she muttered, staring into the distance as she remembered the exploratory fumblings of her youth. “You remind me of a young Polar,” she cooed, “learning what your body can do for the first time.”
	She cradled his head in her fluffy palm, rocking her hips in a slow and punishing waltz, at once forceful and gentle. Every thrust brought with it a surge of electrifying pleasure, making Miller feel like he was floating, his body matching pace with hers as they moved together.
	Her tempo increased, her breathing growing labored as they pushed each other higher. There was no urgency, no mad dash to the finish line that usually made up the brunt of a sexual encounter, both participants chasing that fleeting moment of ecstasy as if it might somehow escape them. Instead, Miller felt like they could keep this up forever. Rather than struggling to reach those heights, now he had to focus on staving them off, Kofe's gyrating hips keeping him teetering on the edge of orgasm. She could make him come at any time, it would only take a final, powerful thrust. But instead, she prolonged their coupling. Climax was not the goal, merely an inevitable conclusion, the slow climb towards it was to be savored and enjoyed.
	They clung to one another, roaming hands exploring alien bodies, silent save for the sounds of gasps and sighs. Verbal communication was no longer necessary, they had transcended it, the flexing of muscles and the low moans of pleasure conveying far more than simple words ever could.
	Miller could feel that his partner was nearing her limits too, her hot passage milking him in ever more frequent contractions, the two of them locked together in a kind of maddening feedback loop. Like the slow boiling of a kettle, the heat and pressure slowly increased, Kofe's graceful and measured strokes becoming more erratic. He was drenched in sweat, it was like the sauna all over again, her fur sticking to his wet skin as her body trapped the heat.
	Minutes must have passed, ten or fifteen, maybe twenty. Miller's perception of time was warped, the world beyond their bed melting away as if they inhabited a pocket dimension all their own. All he could see was her furry body moving atop him, all he could smell was her flowery perfume, all that he could feel were the swells of pleasure that ebbed and flowed in time with the movements of her hips. It saturated him, not localized merely in his loins, but permeating every cell in his body. He felt like he was in a trance, or as if he had taken some kind of psychotropic drug.
	It was becoming too much to bear, his resolve slipping with each thrust. Kofe didn't need to ask if he was close, she was intuitive enough to sense it, feeling the way that his member pulsed inside her and hearing the quickening of his heart.
	Without so much as a word, she pulled him tight, using her leg to lock him inside her. With one monumental thrust, she drove him as deep as he could reach, the final surge of raw pleasure enough to send him toppling over the edge. He took fistfuls of her silky fur as she sent him into a convulsive climax, holding him against her body to keep him buried in her reaches as he bucked and writhed, gritting his teeth to stave off the unbecoming wail that was struggling to escape his throat.
	He erupted inside her, a torrent of his emission pouring from his surging member to flood her passage, the giant alien loosing an almost inaudible whine as she felt the heat of it spread through her. His thick ejaculate splashed against her velvet walls in viscous ropes, forced into the depths of her trembling loins as his member flexed and jumped. Each throb was followed by searing pleasure, harsh and exquisite, each wave more powerful than the last. It just kept coming, his muscles burning as they gave her everything that he had.
	Kofe was shivering, her loins practically vibrating around his length, her breathing ragged and shallow. As another wad of his fluid was pumped inside her, she joined him in his climax, her breath catching in her throat as her muscles seized around him. The sensation was that of a fleshy vice crushing him on all sides, this new tightness forcing a gasp from his lips. Kofe wrapped both arms around his body and hugged him close as her orgasm tore through her.
	Their hips crashed together, their bodies abandoning the slow burn of lovemaking and attempting to maximize their pleasure, every thrust fucking the gelatinous mess deeper inside her. Her nethers sucked at him like an eager mouth, her muscle control adding a new layer of sensation, as if a phantom hand had reached past the barrier of her flesh and was kneading him from the base to the tip.
	Gradually the raging fire of their passion abated, turning to smoldering embers, leaving the pair panting and squirming on the sodden sheets as they slowly came to their senses. It was like climbing out of a pool of molasses, Miller's rational mind pulling itself free from the mire of lust and ecstasy that had swallowed it.
	They remained joined for a time, as if they were too afraid to move, sparks of residual pleasure coursing through their nervous systems to make them twitch and shiver. Kofe finally slid slowly up his shaft and let his member fall free, followed by a torrent of their mingling fluids, an obscene concoction of excitement and semen that spilled forth with the consistency of syrup. Globs of it matted her inner thighs as it seeped from her swollen lips, ropes of it sagging to fall to the sheets below.
	His alien lover collapsed beside him on the bed. She was lying more on her front than on her side, one of her long arms draped across his chest, and her leg still hooked around his hips as he lay on his back. Her breathing was now deep and regular, tremors passing through her massive body as aftershocks rocked her. She was no doubt swimming in the same afterglow that Miller was, the lingering euphoria joined by the dull ache of exertion.
	He felt her hand on his cheek, and she turned his face towards hers, laughing giddily as she pressed closer to give him an affectionate peck. It quickly morphed into a more salacious kiss, her tongue pushing past his lips and entwining with his own, her wanton embrace dragging on and becoming more urgent the longer it lasted. When she finally broke off, she was still giggling drunkenly to herself, watching him intently as he caught his breath. Her lung capacity dwarfed that of any human.
	“Are you glad that you changed your mind about me now?” Kofe asked, failing to suppress a smirk.
	“I'm still adding up the pros and cons,” he replied, and she chuckled again. “I'm starting to appreciate the temperature in this room though,” he added. Kofe's bedroom was pleasantly cold now that his body temperature had gone through the roof, the chill in the air helping to cool him off. Kofe drew a circle on his chest with the pad on her index finger, examining him with her reflective, blue eyes.
	“You're all wet,” she mused.
	“That's sweat,” he explained, “you knew that humans sweat to cool themselves down. You saw me in the sauna, and I remember you talking about it at the restaurant.”
	“I know,” she added as she slid her hand down his belly, the sheen of perspiration making her touch slippery. “But now I can touch it without you flinching away, I can taste it...” She leaned down and dragged her tongue across his chest, the warmth of her saliva contrasting with the cool air. “It's salty. Makes you look all shiny too.”
	As he slowly cooled, he was able to get closer to Kofe, her massive body still radiating warmth like a living space heater. He nestled in her arms, resting his cheek against her bust, enjoying the sensation of her fur against his face as her chest slowly rose and fell. Their encounter had left him so sensitive, the gentle brush of her velvet coat on his skin somehow amplified. Everything felt wonderful, his body was flooded with enough endorphins that he feared he might never return to a normal state of mind.
	“What was it that you were saying earlier about young Polars?” Miller asked, clasping his fingers behind his head and shifting his weight to get more comfortable. He would be ready for another round soon, but he needed a good quarter hour to recover.
	“That you remind me of a young male who just shared a sleeping pile with a few females for the first time?”
	“No,” he grumbled, his cheeks reddening. “What you said about how you guys teach each other to...”
	“How to please our partners?” Kofe finished, and Miller nodded. “Well,” she continued, “our culture is a little more...liberal than yours when it comes to sexuality. I've noticed that humans seem to see promiscuity as a vice, but for us, it's just a natural part of our social interaction. We use it to gain standing in the pack, recreationally amongst friends, even communally as part of a festival or celebration.”
	“That's a little hard to get my head around,” Miller said, “humans don't usually have sex unless they're in some kind of relationship.”
	“Now I know that's not true,” Kofe replied skeptically.
	“Well...we're not supposed to in any case.”
	“It seems to me that humans have almost as much sex as Polars do, they just go about it differently. Your people need an excuse, a reason to have sex, like they're trying to convince themselves that there's some purpose to it beyond just feeling good and making someone happy. You get hung up about gender too.”
	“How do you mean?”
	“Have you ever been with someone of the same sex?”
	“Of course not,” he laughed, “I'm straight.”
	“Why? What don't you like about boys?”
	“I'm just wired that way,” he replied with a shrug, “I didn't choose who I wanted to be attracted to.”
	“So are all humans straight?” Kofe asked.
	“The majority are, but there are some people who are exclusively attracted to partners of the same sex, and a minority who like both.”
	“There aren't really any Borealans who are straight,” she said, the concept seeming to perplex her. “Some people have preferences for one sex or the other, but I've never seen someone refuse a willing partner on those grounds.”
	“So...you've been with other women?” Miller asked sheepishly. Kofe noticed the change in the tone of his voice. She was as sharp as a razor, her senses perfectly attuned to picking up on emotional cues.
	“Yeah,” she replied slyly, edging closer to him and draping an arm around him as she scrutinized his face for tells. “Why? Is that taboo for humans?”
	“Not really,” he muttered, “it just stood out as unusual to me.”
	Kofe wasn't buying it, resting her face in one hand as she drew shapes on his torso with the other, her fingers roaming from his neck to his belly as she curled her lips into a seductive smile.
	“Do you want to hear some of Kofe's old war stories? Is that it? Shall I tell you about all of the socially unacceptable and offensive behavior that we used to get up to back when we were young and curious?”
	“Uh...I don't know,” he stammered, “isn't that kind of private?”
	“You might not know,” she cooed, turning her eyes downwards. “But somebody sure does...” She reached out a finger and brushed the tip of his erection, watching it bounce in the air and giving him a knowing smirk. “I think that he wants to hear all about it, and I think he wants all the sordid details too. You'll just have to cover your ears if it offends your fragile human sensibilities.”

CHAPTER 9: SORDID STORIES

	Kofe shifted positions, shuffling up towards the top of the bed and leaning back against the headboard, sitting upright on the mattress. Before Miller could protest, she had hooked him with her prehensile tail and had sat him between her legs, her arms crossing around his chest as her heavy breasts pressed down on him. It was like trying to carry a whole extra person across his shoulders, her fur brushing his cheeks and spilling down his chest as they molded around him, cushioning his head. Her belly was like a lumbar pillow, soft and bouncy as he sank into it. She closed her thighs around him too, then curled her tail about her legs for good measure, preventing his escape.
	“Are you comfy?” Kofe asked, her warm breath blowing his hair from above.
	“Not really,” Miller complained.
	“Now let me see...how long ago was it? This was back on Borealis mind you, we only emigrated to Siberia four or five years ago. I should probably start by describing what a Polar settlement looks like. Imagine endless ice fields as far as the eye can see, dotted by a few trees clinging to life here and there. Craggy mountains in the distance, frozen lakes, and in the middle of it all a little village comprised of wooden huts. There's a longhouse in the center where the highest ranked member of the pack lives, and surrounding it are smaller shacks that were erected either by family units or smaller packs, sometimes individuals.”
	It was a good description, Miller could see it in his mind's eye, not too different from the way that the native people of cold climates used to live on Earth.
	“Inside the longhouse is a huge table,” she continued, “where feasts and communal events are held. It's so long that you can seat two or three dozen Polars at the same time. Fire pits are kept burning at all hours of the day to stave off the cold and to cook food, and there are beds and other kinds of seating arrangements lining the walls between the pillars that hold up the ceiling. It's a hostel as much as a town hall, a place for people to sleep and hang out, the center of Polar life.”
	“I think I see where this is going,” Miller said.
	“I'm getting to it! Be quiet. Now, Polars like to sleep in piles to keep warm. Half a dozen of us all pile into a bed, usually little more than a rat's nest of furs and cushions, and we sleep together. That's one of the hardest things about living on the station, by the way, sleeping alone. I don't know how humans do it.”
	“I doubt you'll find many humans who are fond of sleeping alone either, but we tend to limit our partners to one...”
	“Anyway, as you can probably imagine, sometimes we do more than sleep. If you're sharing a pile and two of your neighbors start going at it, it's an open invitation to join in. After all, if they wanted privacy, they'd be doing it in their hut and not in the longhouse, right?”
	“If you say so,” Miller said, attempting to shrug but finding that her boobs were so heavy that he had difficulty moving his shoulders.
	“That's the way a lot of Polars have their first experience. There's no stress about it, they don't have to worry about courting and all of those hoops that humans have to jump through. If they're of age, then they can stay the night in a longhouse, and if they want to start learning about their sexuality, well...they just find a suitable pile. You'd be hard pressed to find a Polar who doesn't jump at the chance to instruct a wide-eyed youth in the ways of love, teach them what their body can do. Nobody would pressure them into participating if they didn't want to of course. Many newcomers just sit nearby and watch for the first night or two, get a feel for what to expect before they take the plunge, so to speak.”
	“I dunno,” Miller muttered, “losing your virginity at an orgy? Doesn't sound right to me.”
	“Why not?” Kofe asked. “You say orgy like it's a bad thing, but all that's happening is that the older and more experienced members of the community are passing down their knowledge to the next generation. Would you rather deal with stress and uncertainty, or with patient, experienced people who want to make your first time the best that it can be?”
	“I guess it sounds better when you put it like that,” Miller conceded. “But it still seems pretty impersonal to me.”
	“Nobody is forcing them to join a pile for the night,” Kofe clarified. “Some young Polars experiment together, with friends or with people they have a crush on. They're free to choose.”
	“And how about you?” Miller asked. Kofe grinned down at him, squeezing him tightly in her arms as she leaned closer to whisper to him. She caught his ear between her lips and nibbled it gently with her sharp teeth, the wet sounds of it filling his head.
	“First I want to know about your first time. You scratch my back, I scratch yours.”
	“At least you got the saying right this time,” he grumbled. “There's not much to tell really. I was about nineteen, I had just started studying to become an engineer. Me and a group of friends went to a house party, we got a little drunk. There was a girl there who took a liking to me, she invited me upstairs and then things just kind of...happened.”
	“You didn't even know her?” Kofe asked, chuckling at him. “Then what was all that talk about how humans only do it for love?”
	“I mean...that's the ideal scenario,” he stammered. “What do you want? I was a young guy, I wasn't about to turn her down. At that age you have to fight to get any attention from girls at all, it was a dream scenario.”
	“Well?” Kofe asked.
	“Well what?” he replied, shifting uncomfortably in her furry arms. 
	“How was it?”
	“Awkward I suppose,” he said as he struggled to remember that night. It was almost a decade ago and several million miles away. “She was drunk, I didn't have any clue what I was supposed to be doing. I came too soon, and she fell asleep. I left before she woke up.”
	“Did you ever see her again?”
	“Once or twice around campus, but she didn't recognize me, and I didn't press the issue. I guess she didn't remember that night at all.”
	“But that's so...sad,” Kofe muttered as she rested her chin on his head. “It was awkward and embarrassing, you didn't really have any fun. It's not a cherished memory, it took you a minute to even remember what happened.”
	“It's a pretty typical story,” Miller said as he felt her arms tighten around him, the Polar subjecting him to a suffocating bear hug as if she was trying to comfort him. “I'm sure that half the people on the station have had an awkward one night stand, or have hooked up drunk before.”
	“But that shouldn't be your only experience of sex,” Kofe lamented, “how can you say that your experience was better than that of a Polar? If you had lived in our village, you could have spent time with an older, more experienced female who would have been all too happy to show you the ropes.”
	“I've had other relationships since,” he added. “Nothing that lasted, obviously.”
	“It's nice to know that I won't have to eat any ex-girlfriends that come knocking at least,” Kofe said, then laughed when he turned his head to look back at her with a concerned expression. “I'm joking, I'm joking. Although I have eaten larger animals than a human, just in case you were wondering...”
	“Your turn,” he said. He flinched as he felt one of her hands slide down towards his belly, her furry fingers brushing his still erect member.
	“Oh, so now you're eager to hear my story? Why the change of heart?”
	“Just get on with it,” he complained, his cheeks flushing as he heard her snicker from somewhere above him. Kofe rested her hand on his hip, tantalizingly close to his groin as she began her tale.
	“I was a very curious kitten. I used to get myself into all kinds of trouble. Polars rarely have siblings, a breeding pair will usually have one child, then rear it until it can survive independently before they consider having another. The environment on Borealis was harsh, and parents invested a lot of time and resources in their offspring. For that reason, one of the first things Polar kittens learn is how to make friends. If you want to find someone to play with, then you have to wander around the village until you find another little fuzzball. That curiosity stayed with me until I came of age, and so did my best friend. Her name was Suki, she was a little younger than me, more slender. We shared a love of hot springs. I liked to lounge around in them all day, and she liked to relax after a hunt. She was kind of a tomboy, hell of a shot with a rifle.”
	“I thought Borealans had a whole litter of kittens?” Miller asked.
	“No, that's just Equatorials. They'll birth half a dozen of the little demons at once and just let them run rampant.”
	“But if you have sex recreationally with lots of different partners,” Miller continued with a confused expression, “how do the females avoid getting pregnant? Do you have some form of birth control?”
	“We're seasonal breeders,” she explained. “We're safe for most of the year, then when we're in season, we just have to abstain for a little while if we don't want a kitten. Am I to assume that human women are fertile all year round?”
	Miller nodded, and Kofe seemed surprised by his response.
	“Wow, that has to be inconvenient. Anyway, Suki was my best friend growing up. As you well know, Polars bathe communally.”
	Of course, he wasn't about to forget their encounter in the sauna's shower any time soon.
	“Me and Suki would find a secluded hot spring and help one another wash. It's relaxing, it's good for bonding, and it just makes cleaning all this fur a little easier. There was nothing sexual about it, at least not until we started to mature. We weren't completely ignorant, sexuality is a big part of Polar culture after all, and we were at the age when we would be expected to start participating in that aspect of social life very soon. I had really filled out by that point, I had become a woman, and I began to notice that Suki had started to look at me differently. She always seemed flustered around me, nervous. Her eyes would linger on my body, and she seemed more hesitant when we bathed together, almost like she was afraid to touch me.”
	“She was into you?”
	“Oh yeah, she was crushing harder than I've ever seen,” Kofe laughed. “When it was my turn to wash her, she'd go all quiet and fidgety. It seems so obvious to me now, but at the time I didn't think much of it. One day I got frustrated with her because she kept skirting my boobs when she was supposed to be washing me, and so I took both of her hands in mine and just planted them in there. They sank up to the wrist. You should have seen her expression, she looked like she was about to faint. Her hands moved differently, she wasn't just washing me, she was kneading and squeezing. Nobody had ever touched me in that way before. It felt good, it was new and exciting. Suki just kind of...flipped a switch in me, and suddenly I saw her in a completely new light.”
	Kofe sighed, staring into the distance as she recalled the encounter. Miller listened intently as she began to relay the more bawdy details to him, her voice low and husky.
	“It was like she was blowing off all of that pent-up frustration at once. She saw the look in my eyes, the unspoken invitation, and she just went for it. Before I knew what was happening, her tongue was in my mouth. Neither one of us had ever kissed someone before, so it was clumsy, messy. We didn't know what we were doing, but we wanted to figure it out together.”
	Kofe chuckled again, remembering a detail that she found immensely amusing.
	“She kept apologizing,” she continued. “She would pause between kisses to mumble that she was sorry, as if she was forcing herself on me or something, or like she was doing something bad. I just took her hands and encouraged her to feel me up. She had wanted me for so long, the poor thing didn't know what to do with herself, so I took the lead. I didn't have any more experience than she did of course, but I was the only one of us who was even remotely coherent at that point. Her hands were all over me, grabbing my ass, my boobs and my thighs. All the while we kept kissing, she was so desperate, needy. All that I could think about was how cute it was, and how I wanted to make her happy.”
	What must that have looked like? Miller knew from experience how long and dexterous Kofe's tongue was, how deep her kisses were. What would it be like for two Polars to make out? An image of two slugs mating came to mind, their slimy, flexible bodies coiling around one another in a glistening spiral.
	“There was so much bottled up tension, but we were both girls, we didn't know what to do about it. Had one of us been a male it would have been easy, but we had to get a little more creative. Suki was just straddling my thigh and kind of...grinding up and down on it as we made out. I guess it felt good to her, because she was really getting into it. At one point she broke off our kiss and just wrapped her arms around me, burying her face in the nape of my neck and humping my leg. I didn't want to stop her, she looked so happy, so I just held her for a while.”
	It was easy to imagine the young Polar grinding her hips against Kofe's thigh. If it has been anywhere near as large and as plump as it was now, it would have been like fucking a furry pillow. Now he was considering doing the very same thing himself...
	“She couldn't get herself off. She was trying so hard, making these adorable little mewling sounds, but it just wasn't getting the job done. Beyond a certain point, I had to stop her and snap her out of it. Her legs were so shaky, she could barely stand up, she was just leaning against me in the hot spring. I told her that we should try something else, that I wanted to help her feel good and that I wanted to kiss her down there. I led her over to the edge of the pool and had her sit on the rocks with her legs dangling into the water. Her thighs were trembling when I opened them, and I knew that it wasn't because of the cold.”
	Kofe's hand roamed a little lower, Miller shivering as her fluffy fingers found his erection. This time she stroked it lightly, tormenting him with her silky fur as she ran her digits up and down his shaft. She hugged him tight with her other arm, holding him securely around the chest as her massive body pressed against him from behind like a living couch.
	“This guy seems to like my story so far,” she cooed, feeling him twitch as she made slow circles on the head of his cock with the pad on her index finger. “You want to hear what happened next?”
	He nodded, and she stopped her rubbing, leaving him aching as he gazed down at her poised finger.
	“Nuh-uh,” she whispered, “you have to ask me properly...”
	“I want to hear more,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning back against her voluptuous body as she resumed her slow teasing.
	“I had a pretty good idea of what to do with her,” Kofe said. “I had touched myself before, of course. We had the same parts, and so I knew more or less how to please her. If it felt good to rub myself in one place, maybe licking her there would feel even better. I knelt between her legs and kept them open with my hands so that she couldn't close them if she got shy. She was soaking wet, and not just because of the hot spring. It was thicker than the water, and it stuck to her fur in clumps. I had never seen a girl's parts from that angle before, I had only seen my own. It was so pink and fleshy. I had this overpowering desire to kiss her, and so I did. Suki nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt my lips on her flower. I asked her if it felt good and she could barely formulate a reply, but she squeaked out a yes so I kept going. She tasted so good, sour, but the fact that it was coming from Suki just burned me up. It might seem weird to a human, but she was my best friend. I loved her in a way, not the same way that one loves a mate, but I still wanted to pleasure her.”
	“I guess I can understand that,” Miller said, as transfixed now by her slow stroking as he was by her lurid tale.
	“I started to lick her, but she stopped me, putting her hand on my head and telling me that it was too rough. I hadn't realized that it would hurt, it takes a lot of practice for a Borealan to give good head without scratching up their partner. We figured out that I could use the smooth side of my tongue pretty quickly though, and she really liked that. After a couple of minutes, she was rocking her hips to and fro, grinding against my face. My fur was soaked with her juices, I looked kind of like you did earlier...”
	He remembered the way that Kofe's slimy emissions had hung from his chin in strands, a jolt of pleasure running through him as his alien partner took a tighter grip on his shaft. She enclosed it in a prison of fur, pumping slowly with her hand, her pace just fast enough to keep him wanting. He tried to thrust into her fist, but her hold on him was too tight.
	“And when she came, well...if we hadn't been in such a secluded spot, I'm sure that someone would have come looking to see who was making all that noise. She closed her thighs around my head and took handfuls of my hair, wrapping her tail around me like a rope. Her whole body was shaking like she was having a seizure. She filled my mouth with her come, but I just kept going, I wanted her to feel that way for as long as possible. She was lying on her back in the snow by that point, just beyond the rim of the spring, and I was still waist deep in the water. It took her a few minutes to recover, she was panting like she had run a marathon, her eyes all out of focus. When she came to, she slid back into the water, and without so much as a word she got on her knees in front of me and pushed her face between my thighs.”
	Kofe was pumping faster now, her pace increasing as her story grew ever more salacious. Miller could do little more than squirm in her grasp, the Polar pausing to kiss his neck and nibble at his ears as she whispered.
	“Suki was so eager, like I was her Goddess and she was worshiping me. She wrapped her arms around my hips and took handfuls of my butt, burying her face between my legs. I was pretty chubby, even back then, and her head very nearly vanished. When I felt her tongue slide against me, I almost lost my balance. Borealans don't hold a candle to humans when it comes to oral sex, for real, you blew my mind tonight. But it was my first time. It was all new, and Suki was so devoted. She moaned and purred the whole time, like I was the most wonderful thing that she had ever tasted. She was better with her tongue than I was too, she must have been secretly hoping that such an opportunity would present itself. Maybe she had been asking some of the older Polars for advice.”
	“Good to know I'm taking home the gold,” Miller muttered, and she rewarded his comment with a punishing squeeze.
	“Don't get too cocky now. We're gonna run that tongue through its paces before the night is through, see what it can do besides being snarky.”
	“You're in control now,” he replied, “but not half an hour ago I had you wrapped around my finger. Both literally and figuratively.”
	“Keep it up, wiseguy, I've got tricks up my sleeve that will turn you into a mewling kitten.”
	“The only one mewling around here was you.”
	“Be quiet and let me finish my story. So there I was, Suki going down on me like her life depended on it. It didn't take long for her to get me off, and then we kind of just floated around in the water for a while, cuddling and exploring each other. Suki seemed so contented, she had finally gotten what she most desired, and I was just glad to see her happy. We wanted to do more, but we just weren't experienced enough, so we eventually decided to visit the longhouse that night and see if we couldn't find someone to teach us.”
	Miller could imagine what was coming next, and although their alien practices still seemed strange to him, he was still hanging on her every word.
	“We stepped through the doors that night, after the sun had gone down. It was warm and dimly lit, the fires casting dancing shadows on the walls. The communal beds were shrouded in darkness, but we could see bodies shifting and moving, the occasional glimpse of white fur.”
	“You're really laying it on thick,” he grumbled, and she gave his ear a playful bite.
	“We only just discovered television a few years ago, alright? Storytelling is an important custom for my people. So me and Suki looked around for a suitable bed. Polars breed so slowly that it's quite rare for youths to visit the longhouse, let alone two nubile females. There were invitations, beckoning fingers and seductive stares, but we were looking for something specific. At the end of the hall, we came across a pile of furs that was occupied by two females. They were both full grown, as big as I am now, and at that point we must have been about seven feet. I was pretty short for my age in fact, Suki was a few inches taller.”
	“Oh yeah, you're tiny.”
	“I'm just gonna sit on your face if you keep interrupting the story,” she complained.
	“Oh no, anything but that,” he replied sarcastically. Kofe covered his mouth with her furry hand to shut him up, resuming her narration.
	“We were a little bit apprehensive at first, but the older women were very understanding. They took us by the hands and invited us into their bed. The best way to teach any skill is first through demonstration, then practice, and so they proceeded to demonstrate. It was...educational. We sat beside them on the furs and watched them for a while. They were so good at it, every movement and stroke like a choreographed dance, nothing like our clumsy fumbling. It didn't take long before they got us involved. One took Suki, while the other guided me down onto the bed and lay me on my back. She talked to me the whole while, whispering to me and asking if I was comfortable, if I was enjoying it. Being touched by someone experienced was a whole new dimension of pleasure, and even though I didn't share the same bond with her that I did with Suki, it was a pretty amazing experience. I could hear Suki beside me too, mewling not a foot away from me as her partner took her to new heights. Seeing her squirming around as the older female buried her face between her legs was just as exciting as having the same done to me.”
	Miller mumbled something, and Kofe removed her hand from his mouth.
	“What was she doing to you?”
	“Oh, you want the sordid details, do you?” Kofe stroked his member with her fingers, laughing quietly to herself as he went silent again. He couldn't take much more of her teasing, the salacious whispering and the slow handjob were taking their toll on him. He was leaking like a faucet, Kofe wetting her fur with the fluid and using it to make her palm slippery.
	“She knew this trick,” Kofe sighed, leaning her head back as the memories came bubbling to the surface. “She could fold her tongue in on itself, like a slice of ham, so that the rough sides were facing inward. That way the outside was all smooth and soft, and she could lick me without it hurting. She'd push the whole thing inside me, like all the way in...”
	Kofe trailed off, biting her lip as she remembered the sensation.
	“It's not quite as good as having a human on hand, but it was pretty impressive. Maybe one day I'll take you back to the colony, and we'll have a competition, see who can give the best head. I'll be the judge of course...”
	“I'm not really into sharing,” Miller replied, and she pouted.
	“Come on, I saw how you reacted when you discovered what my tongue can do. Imagine how it would feel to have two Polars share you, to have them make out around your cock. It could be two girls if you're not into boys, but you'd be missing out, I hear that boys give far better blowjobs.”
	“Right now I'm having trouble handling even one Polar, never mind two.”
	“Alright, we'll shelve that idea for now. But believe me when I say that the whole colony would want a piece of you. Where was I? Oh yes. The older female ran me through my paces, showed me where to touch, where to lick and where to rub. It was amazing, like I was discovering all of these revelations about my own body. I must have come three or four times in the space of a couple of hours.”
	“A couple of hours?” Miller exclaimed, “that's quite a session for your first time.”
	“What can I say? We were young, energetic, and above all curious. I wanted to memorize all of it, and of course, I didn't want to the pleasure to stop. By the end of my...let's call it a crash course, I was ready for the main event. Me and Suki were both really out of it, drunk on euphoria in a way. After that many orgasms, it can be hard to keep your head on straight. We made love, and the two women watched, guiding us and giving us pointers where necessary. It was so much better than our first foray into sex, we were far better equipped to handle one another. It's hard to remember exactly when, that whole night is such a blur, but past a certain point the two females joined in. I mostly just remember writhing bodies, hands and tongues exploring me inside and out, Suki pressed against me between two large bodies.”
	“Polars have intense relationships,” Miller commented, “I can't imagine having an experience like that with someone without it meaning something more.”
	“She was my childhood friend, I wanted to make her happy. Imagine if you had grown up with a cute girl, staying firm friends all the way into adulthood. Now imagine that her most earnest wish was to spend just one night with you. Wouldn't you do it? Wouldn't you want to make her happy?”
	“That's not a very common scenario for humans, but...I don't know. Probably, yeah. I guess it's a little like friends with benefits, only less casual.”
	“The benefit is sex?” Kofe asked.
	“Yeah,” he replied. “So...there's one thing that bothers me. If you'd do all of that with a friend, then what does that make us? Do you see me as a friend, or as something more?”
	“You don't need to feel jealous,” Kofe chuckled, “although it's terribly cute. All of the people that I fooled around with, Suki and the other partners that I've had since, I left them all behind when I decided to leave the colony and come here. Do you think that I could have done that if I wanted them as mates?”
	“I suppose not,” he conceded.
	“And if you want us to be exclusive, then we'll be exclusive. It's not like I'm going to get bored of you, we've barely scratched the surface...” He felt her puffy lips crawl down his neck towards his shoulder, mouthing gently as his member throbbed in her hand. “Speaking of which, it feels like you're ready for another round. I guess that means you liked my story...”
	“For you, I've got at least two or three more rounds in me.”
	“Well, aren't you full of stamina. Should I lie down on my side again?”
	“No, let's try it like this.”
	“Oh, face to face?” Kofe cooed, feigning surprise. “How romantic...”
	She released him from her grasp, parting her furry thighs and letting him wriggle out from beneath her bust, turning to face her. She was sat on the mattress, leaning back against the headboard, her loins leaking in invitation. Apparently, he hadn't been the only one who had been aroused by the story.
	Kneeling between her legs on the bed, all he had to do was push forward, and their hips were almost exactly level. It was a position that was very comfortable for Kofe, her large size no longer hindering her in such a relaxed posture, and it meant that Miller could control the pace of their coupling this time.
	She rested her hands on her knees, letting him take the lead, watching curiously as he pressed his swollen member against her wet fur. It was so hot, the syrupy residue from their previous encounter still seeping from her opening and sticking to her mound. There was something lurid about the idea of pushing his erection into her while she was still soaked in come and fluids, and he let his cock throb against her satin flesh for a few moments. She looked so sore, her thick labia gliding against his skin, already wet with who knew what. Her pink flesh called to him from within the tuft of white fur, irresistible, the way that it caught the light tantalizing him.
	He took his member in his hand and pressed it against her entrance, the ring of muscle twitching around his glans like a pair of lips, resisting him. Kofe's hanging chest wobbled as she took in a sharp breath, the viscous gunk that still coated her satin walls lubricating him, and he slid inside her with surprising ease. In a second he was pressed up against the roll of her belly, his balls slapping against her wet fur as he buried himself up to the base.
	“Ah!” Kofe exclaimed, her eyelids fluttering as she gazed down at him with her feline eyes. “That felt good. I like this position...you're reaching all the right places.”
	He took a moment to acclimatize himself, shivering as he felt the thick concoction seep around his shaft. It was like penetrating a textured tube full of warm glue. Immediately her muscular walls seized around him, enclosing his twitching length in a velvet prison. He rested his hands on her hips, his fingers sinking an inch deep into her plump body, and he took handfuls for leverage as he began to move.
	He pulled out of her, looking down between their mated bodies to see the way that her tunnel sucked at him, his length coated with slime when it emerged. Strings of it linked her sodden, white fur to his skin, breaking to fall to the already soggy mattress beneath them. It was such a raunchy position, they could see every detail, Kofe's eyes lingering on it just as Miller's did.
	He pushed back inside her, applying a little more force this time. Kofe was massive, he didn't have to worry about hurting her, it would be impossible for him to approximate the strength of a male Polar. He could go all-out, hold nothing back, and hopefully she would appreciate it too. Besides, her pose was so casual, nonchalant. He wanted to get a reaction out of her.
	Miller found a slow and heavy rhythm, pulling himself into her as he gripped the fur on her hips, driving his member against the roof of her passage in the way that she had seemed to enjoy. Kofe leaned back against the headboard and the wall behind it, closing her eyes as a smile curled her lips. She looked so serene, just basking in the pleasure as he pushed in and out of her.
	He could get a much better look at her like this, her breasts were no longer blocking his view. They were in arm's reach now, level with his face, the hefty globes of fat bouncing subtly with every thrust. Her thighs too rose to either side of him, as tall and as thick around as his torso, her paw-like feet resting a good distance apart. Her long tail trailed between them, out of view somewhere behind him. She really was absurdly voluptuous, like some ancient depiction of Venus, her hourglass hips and her heavy breasts almost a parody of femininity by human standards.
	“And you call me adorable,” he muttered between thrusts, “you should see your face.”
	“Why?” Kofe whined, her honeyed voice making his heart skip a beat.
	“You make this cute expression every time I move. There, like that.”
	“I'm not making a face,” she complained, biting her lower lip and chewing it softly as her eyelids drooped seductively.
	“I'm looking at it right now.”
	“What about your face?” Kofe asked, reaching down to cup his cheek in one of her hands. “You're all red again, like an angry little tomato.”
	“Don't ever refer to me as an angry little tomato, or I'll get the guys down in engineering to come up here and fix your thermostat.”
	“Why? Does it make you angry, little tomato boy?” He gave her an especially forceful thrust, impaling her on his shaft, making the eight-foot Polar shivered contentedly. “You're hardly making a good case for me to stop teasing you...”
	In their current position, he could easily reach her breasts. He watched them as they bounced enticingly with every thrust, then leaned forward, taking one of them in his hand. He mauled her flesh with his fingers, as soft and as malleable as putty, finding the nipple beneath her fluffy coat and bringing it to his mouth. His lips sealed around the stiff, pink nub, and he felt Kofe tighten around him as he began to circle it with his tongue. She gasped as he trapped it between his lip and his teeth, pinching it and peppering its surface with licks and glances. He attempted to take her second boob in his hand while he sucked at the first, but quickly realized that it was too heavy for him to hold with only one hand. Instead, he concentrated all of his attention on the first breast, continuing to move his hips as Kofe curled and uncurled her clawed toes.	
	“Like that,” she moaned, flinching as he painted her hard protrusion with his tongue. He sucked to draw it into his mouth and kneaded her flesh with his fingers, like shaping fresh dough. He twisted and squeezed, his fingers sinking up to the knuckle in her fluffy bosom, Kofe arching her long spine and pushing forward to match his pace. Even her nipple was large, about the width of his pinkie finger and half as long when erect. He could do so much more with it than he would have been able to with a regular-sized woman. He ran his lips up and down its length, curling his tongue around it, biting softly and harrying it with flurries of tormenting licks.
	Her breasts were so massive, like a pair of exercise balls covered in a downy coat, so plush and yielding that he felt like he could get lost in them. His probing and licking were encouraged by Kofe's strong reaction, it seemed that she was still enraptured by his tongue, her teasing all but forgotten as she leaned back and let the pleasure overtake her.
	Her loins still gripped him fiercely, clinging to him as he pulled out, only to slam back inside her. Their coupling was so deep and vigorous in this position, both partners able to move independently of one another, as opposed to having Kofe pin him beneath her weight. Their hips slammed together, the two of them moving almost mechanically, Miller driving his erection into her like a piston.
	Slime leaked from her hole in strands, almost as if someone had drizzled liquid soap all over her mound and thighs. She was wet enough that Miller could hear it when he plunged inside her, a lurid squelching that inspired a fresh surge of arousal in him. He suddenly felt so aggressive. Something about being the one to set the pace, seeing Kofe so affected and receptive, it filled him with fire.
	“You're being so rough with me,” Kofe whined, looking down at him as she nibbled on the end of one of her black claws. “No, don't slow down...I like it. Fuck me, Jeff.”
	Her voice was so comely, husky and seductive, the request impossible to refuse. He redoubled his efforts, driving his member into her sopping, pulsing tunnel with renewed vigor as it trembled around him. The friction was wonderful, her textured walls gliding against his sensitive glans, warm and slippery. It felt like a tongue or an inner cheek, delicate flesh that was coated in a glaze of unspeakable fluids.
	Kofe matched pace with him, gyrating her hips as he hammered into her, twisting and rolling like she was dancing to a tune that only she could hear. It drove him into her satin flesh at new angles, his rigid member scouring her insides, the milking motion of her undulating muscles practically begging for a warm load.
	Miller switched to her other breast, the first bouncing as he let it fall to hang from her chest, his alien partner mewling with delight as he drew her engorged nipple into his mouth and lapped at it dotingly.
	“Bite me,” she moaned, “gently...”
	He did as she asked, opening his mouth and sinking his teeth into her areola, applying just enough pressure that she could feel it without it hurting her. She groaned, and he felt her thighs close around his waist, so thick that they could pretty much encompass his entire lower body in their soft meat. Miller repeated the gesture, one of her hands pressing against the back of his head as she delved her fingers into his hair, pulling his face into her breast.
	It was so squishy that it practically encompassed his head, even as he held her nipple between his lips. He kept up his licking, mouthing and biting, Kofe crossing her legs behind his butt and using them to increase the force of their lovemaking.
	She was as strong as a horse, and he soon found that he was being driven into her narrow passage with more vigor than he could have mustered on his own. Kofe's eyes were closed, and her pink lips were pulled back to expose her sharp teeth, her breathing shallow and irregular. One of her hands slid down his back, the Polar seeming to cling to him in the throes of her ecstasy, lost in a fugue as the bed rocked beneath them.
	She pushed them both higher, the impact of their bodies colliding making her boobs and belly jiggle. Only the deep cushion that her layer of insulating fat provided was preventing it from becoming painful. Under other circumstances she would be bruising him, but her belly was acting like an airbag, her thighs bouncy and padded with fat. She drove him into her with a kind of desperation, the overwhelming stimulation turning the exquisite folds and bumps of her loins into a blur of raw pleasure.
	He reflected on the fact that he and Kofe didn't need to wear protection, as there was no chance of her getting pregnant. Everything was so sharp and clear in his mind, their naked flesh pressing together and their fluids mingling, with no barrier between them to dull their senses even a little. They were joined both in body and in mind. They fed into one another, every throb and spasm shared between the two of them. It was as if their nervous systems had been linked by a patch cable, their bodies moving as one. His nerves were on fire, his whole body felt like the head of a penis, tingling pleasure coursing through him like electricity. His muscles ached, but it was a good ache, the satisfying burn of exertion.
	He felt Kofe's furry palm glide against his damp skin as she ran it up and down his back, her other hand stroking his head as he remained locked to her nipple. She was fawning over him, touching him all over, as if her fascination with his alien body had suddenly been rekindled.
	“I can see all of your muscles moving beneath your skin,” she whispered, biting her lip as she watched him. “You're so wet...”
	Sweat was indeed pouring from him, causing his body to shine under the dim lights of her bedroom and making her coat damp and slippery wherever it came into contact with him. Between that and the thick juices that matted Kofe's fur, they were making one hell of a mess. There was something liberating about that. They were letting go of their propriety in the pursuit of pleasure, embracing the raw carnality of being drenched in a lover's fluids, the taste of their salty skin and the scent of their bodies drowning out any reservation that they might have had.
	Kofe was getting close, he could feel it in the way that her insides were gripping him, flexing in cruel waves that seemed purposefully designed to draw out his emission by force. It was nigh unbearable, his orgasm scratching at the door as she milked him relentlessly, but he willed it back. He just had to endure a little longer, just a minute or two more and Kofe would be a shivering mess. Her massive body was heaving, writhing with every thrust, like a mountain of flesh and fur as she clung to him fervently.
	Miller had never felt this way with anyone before. He had been with other people, yes, but it had never felt like this. There had been pleasure, even love, but it had been fleeting and ephemeral. With Kofe it just kept building and building. The longer it went on, the better he felt, and the more he began to adore her. He hadn't had any idea that sex could feel this way, it was like his nerves were extending beyond the bounds of skin, his usually sharp mind now fuzzy and dull. Every strand of her wet fur felt like the loving caress of a fingertip as it brushed against him, the warmth that radiated from her body bathing him in an aura of heat, the wetness and the pressure of her loins transcending his concept of pleasure as they clamped down around him. In that moment he felt like he could just melt into her, as if the two of them would become an amorphous mass of grasping hands, questing lips and roiling pleasure as they tumbled through infinity together.
	Suddenly Kofe loosed a pained yelp, her rutting ceasing abruptly, her thighs locking around him as she trapped him in a tight hug. Her nipple slipped out of his mouth as she plunged his head between her breasts. She clung to him desperately, as if in her trance-like state she somehow thought that burying him in the boundless softness of her body might somehow satisfy the urgent need that burned inside her.
	She moaned a drawn-out curse in her native language, or maybe it was Russian, Miller couldn't tell. Her thighs trapped him in a furry vice grip, her flowery scent filling his lungs and her impossibly silky fur tickling his face as her breasts pressed around his head, Kofe inadvertently squeezing them together with her biceps as she hugged him against her. For a brief moment she seemed frozen, her spine arching away from the headboard and her hot tunnel quivering around his length, her mouth open in a silent wail. Like a fighter craft stalling at the peak of its climb, her entire body seemed to sag, her muscles relaxing and her grip loosening as she began to shake and mewl.
	It was a monumental orgasm, ecstasy making her its plaything as it coursed through her in rapturous currents, her loins gushing with clear fluid as her muscles forced it out of her with their wracking contractions. Even if he had not been subjected to a steady buildup of pressure and arousal over the course of their most recent coupling, Miller doubted that he would have been able to resist the kneading and plying of her velvet passage, joining Kofe in her euphoria almost immediately.
	His member throbbed inside her as he shot a thick rope of his ejaculate into her waiting passage, the sensation forcing a cry from his lips that was muffled by her bust. His hips moved of their own accord, digging deeper, his body pumping its essence into her as if it hoped to overcome their reproductive incompatibility through sheer volume alone. He was shocked that he still had so much left to give her, relaxing as he leaned into her soft body, the pleasure so severe and profound that he couldn't focus on anything else.
	He seemed to fade in and out of awareness with every throb of pleasure, coming to just long enough to feel her fur on his face and to smell her sweet scent, before he was once again plunged into an ocean of bliss. He felt unmoored, like he had been doing work on the outside of the station and his tether had been cut, leaving him tumbling slowly through a field of stars.
	The intensity gradually subsided, giving way to a kind of warm, giddy high. Kofe released her tight hold, keeping her arms wrapped around him, but more relaxed now that their ordeal was over. Miller was draped across her body like she was a giant throw pillow, his member still lodged inside of her. He pulled back, the two of them wincing in unison as a stray spark of pleasure danced through their bodies, her muscles releasing their hold on him.
	A salacious blend of their sexual fluids spilled out of her, but neither one of them paid it any mind. Cleaning up was the least of their concerns, right now they were both surfing that wave of euphoria that follows a mind-bending orgasm, unsure of whether they should be laughing or making out. Kofe elected to do both at once, giggling infectiously as she cupped his face in her hands and leaned down to kiss him, pulling him with her as she toppled over onto her side.
	She buried him in flesh and fur, the two lovers pawing at each other, rolling around as they exchanged sordid kisses between bouts of laughter. They eventually settled into a comfortable pile, Kofe lounging spreadeagled on her back as Miller used her belly as a headrest, lying perpendicular to her. One of her arms was draped across his chest, and he closed his hand around one of her massive fingers, about the size of a banana to him. They took some time to recover, catching their breath and enjoying their afterglow for as long as it lasted, content with simply being close.
	“So is this the next level you kept talking about?” Kofe asked, finally breaking the silence.
	“Yeah, I think this probably qualifies as more than casual dating.”
	She laughed, manhandling him and dragging him into her arms. Once again he found himself enclosed in a prison of fur and fat, Kofe turning over onto her side so that she could better bury him beneath a landslide of breasts and paunch, nestling his head inside the cushion of her cleavage as she cradled his head in her enormous hand. It was like wearing a fluffy hat, and she began to stroke him, slowly massaging his scalp with her padded fingers as her gentle breathing hypnotized him. It was like sinking deep into a warm bed, but no mattress had been designed that even came close to this level of comfort and softness. Memory foam, waterbeds, they had nothing on Kofe.
	“You doing okay down there?” she chuckled, noticing how quiet he had gotten.
	“Yeah,” he breathed, rubbing his cheek in her downy coat.
	“You falling asleep? We can sleep like this if you want to, I don't mind.”
	“No, just comfy,” he muttered. Truth be told, he kind of was falling asleep. He was exhausted, and the lingering pleasure was insidious, making his eyes heavy. He wasn't sure what he was feeling exactly, it was hard to pin down. Perhaps a kind of joy, but duller and more relaxing than the images that the word usually conjured. This joy was quiet and serene, gentle, warming him from within like a belly full of hot cocoa on a cold winter day.
	“You're a lot of fun you know,” she whispered, her tail curling around him possessively like a length of furry rope. “There's nothing stopping us from doing this every night if you want to. We don't need an excuse, we don't need a good reason, my bedroom door is always open. Feel free to bring another model kit over, that's fine too...”
	“Sex and model kits? Now you're just spoiling me.”
	Her laugh reverberated through her body, her breasts and belly jiggling as they cushioned him.
	“So,” he continued, his tone becoming a little more serious. “Did you get what you wanted?”
	“What do you mean?” Kofe asked, peering down at him as he looked up between the twin mounds of her breasts.
	“You wanted to get me into bed from day one, right? Was I worth the wait?”
	“I didn't get what I wanted,” she chuckled, Miller giving her a confused look. She noticed his expression, beginning to elaborate. “When I first met you at my sandwich shop, I took an immediate liking to you. I'm not sure what it was about you that made you so irresistible. You're handsome of course, cute as a button, but I think it was the way that you carried yourself. When I pushed you, you didn't cave. You didn't melt into my arms as I expected, you pushed back. I sensed that you were attracted to me too, I caught you admiring me when you thought that I wasn't paying attention. I could practically smell the arousal on you whenever I started to push your buttons.”
	“You do come on pretty strong,” he muttered.
	“But despite that, you always did everything on your terms. At first, it was just a game to me, I wanted to see how long it would take before I could get you to break. But gradually, I started to see you in a different light. I started to notice traits that I would look for in a mate, not just in a fling. I tried to grow on you, to break down your walls one by one. But instead, you turned it right back around. When I took you to the sauna, that was my last ditch attempt, the ace up my sleeve. That was when the game ended, and I realized that I might not be able to have you after all. When I knew that I was the one who had been seduced, that it was my walls that had been torn down. The idea mortified me, it was unbearable. I had never felt so exposed before, it was like you were holding my heart in your hands.”
	“You didn't fail completely,” Miller admitted, “you did grow on me over time. At first, I found you unbearably irritating, but I guess I was attracted to you. I didn't even realize it myself at the time. Something prevented me from just sending you packing, something made me humor you. The more I hung out with you, the more I started to see aspects of your personality that I liked. I think it was during our date at the restaurant when I really started to fall for you.”
	“You still won,” Kofe added. “In the end, I didn't get a pliable human partner to experiment with, I kind of fell in love with you despite myself. I planned everything in advance, I turned the temperature down in my apartment so that you'd jump into bed with me, from the first day that we met I knew that I wanted to get you into the showers at the sauna. But I didn't plan to fall in love, none of it happened the way that I had expected.”
	“And is that...bad?”
	“I'm a Polar, Jeff. You out-Polar'd me. You tricked me, you seduced me, you had me so fixated on you that I couldn't even sleep properly. No, it's not bad, it's like an indulgent fantasy that somehow came true. I was pretty much soaking my shorts whenever I was around you. But to answer your original question, yes, you were worth the wait. To a Polar, the wait is half the fun.”
	“So can I melt into your arms now, or would I have to forfeit my first place ribbon?”
	“Melt away,” she whispered, in that husky voice that he loved so much. So he did just that, relaxing into her embrace and letting her cushy body envelop him in warm, perfumed fur.

CHAPTER 10: PLAYING HOUSE

	Miller stepped through the door to Kofe's apartment, the panel sliding closed behind him with a whoosh. His yellow overalls were stained with green liquid, as were the gloves that he was wearing, the goop matting his hair into clumps. Fortunately, he had managed to clean most of it off before leaving work, but he couldn't do much about what had seeped into his clothes.
	“What smells like ethanol?” Kofe was standing at the kitchen counter with her back to him, her hourglass figure packed into a pair of woefully inadequate bike shorts that seemed to be stretched to their limits. The fabric was so close to breaking point that he could make out her white fur beneath it. She turned her head to look over her shoulder at him, laughing at the sight that she was presented with. “What the hell happened to you, Jeff?”
	“Coolant leak,” he grumbled, taking a step forward.
	“Oh no no,” she warned, waving a hand at him as she set down a kitchen knife and turned to face him. “Stay right there, we need to get you out of those clothes. No way am I letting you track coolant through the apartment.”
	He waited by the door as she vanished into the bedroom, emerging with a plastic bag in her hands.
	“Come on,” she said, standing in front of him and waving the bag. “Get 'em off.”
	Miller sighed, kicking off his boots and placing them in the bag. He shuffled out of his overalls and then pulled his shirt over his head, Kofe smirking at him as he stripped down to his underwear, dropping the sullied garments into the container.
	“Dinner and a show,” she chimed, “you sure know how to spoil a lady.”
	“You made dinner?” Miller asked, hopping on one leg as he struggled to remove a stubborn sock.
	“Sandwiches, yeah. I made a meatball sub with cheese and sauces. It's real beef from Franklin, and I added some Borealan oils for flavor. I might be dipping into my own supply a little, but now that we have two incomes, I can take the hit.”
	“Awesome, I worked up an appetite today. I can probably eat like...a quarter of it.”
	“Are you going to tell me why you're covered from head to toe in what looks like green paint?”
	“It's engine coolant from the motors that power the landing bay doors,” Miller explained, finally succeeding in freeing himself from his sock. “We're supposed to test them every few months to make sure that they still work.”
	“I didn't see any doors when I flew in,” Kofe said, “aren't those bays all open to space so that the ships can fly in and out?”
	“In a way, yeah. There are force fields that keep the atmosphere in, but which let solid objects pass through. In an emergency, such as in an attack or if the power to the force field is knocked out, there are massive shutters that close to seal the bays. Wouldn't you know it, one of the engines was fucked, and it decided to expel about a gallon of coolant. Guess who was standing directly underneath it at the time?”
	“An angry little tomato?”
	He crossed his arms and glared up at her, Kofe failing to stifle another laugh.
	“Alright tomato boy, let's get you into the shower. The sandwiches will keep.”
	He knew that arguing with her was pointless, and he also knew what a shower with Kofe entailed. Getting clean was only incidental to bathing when she was his companion. He couldn't complain, however. Ever since he had moved in with her a week prior, his quality of life had improved tenfold. He had liked his own apartment just fine of course, but Kofe wouldn't fit inside a human-sized dwelling, and so he had agreed to start moving his stuff over. Her apartment was massive by his standards, he could even fit a lot of his furniture into the space without much trouble. Having a human-sized chair to sit on was a welcome luxury.
	It might have taken him a lot longer to move his stuff out, had Kofe not been able to carry the majority of his belongings in two washing machine-sized boxes on her shoulders. That had made for quite a sight as they walked through the residential quarter.
	No longer did he have to come home to an empty apartment, making a meal out of whatever was quickest and easiest. Kofe usually got off work before he did and nobody had to remind her to start making food at the earliest opportunity. No longer did he try to fill the void in his life with his career, now it was overflowing with fat and fur.
	He glanced into the living room as they passed it, his collection of model spaceships prominently displayed on shelves that Kofe had put up along the wall prior to his arrival. The torpedo frigate that they had built together was still sitting on her coffee table, it had a sentimental value to her that set it apart from the rest. On the kitchen table too was a half-built Warden patrol ship, the pieces scattered about as the box lay open beside a few empty snack wrappers. Maybe they'd do some more work on it later that night, assuming that their bathing didn't spill over into the bedroom and consume their entire evening as it so often did.
	She turned sideways to squeeze through the door, her belly and butt catching on the frame. Once she had wriggled her way inside, she paused, beckoning to him with a clawed finger.
	“Come on Jeff, what say you and me make a different kind of sandwich?”
	He rolled his eyes and stepped through the doorway, Kofe wrapping him in her arms as the automatic door closed behind him.

THE END

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