Dragoncrest Cliffs we'll be at orale by 3 pm friday.

cayetano still can't believe it.
he pinches at his wrist
and then turns around
to the great sleeping beauty
that is a loudly snoring @Kheviel

he's not one to slam and scram,
but he's thinking of the half eaten duck
and wondering if the risk
outweighs the benefit

in the end he decides it can wait,
flops back around on his side
and blows subtly at one twitching kheviel ear. 

Kheviel's ear twitched, twitched, then twitched again. She groaned. Away, you brute. You've had me once. That's all you're getting. She turned and lay her head the other way, protecting the ear he'd just been blowing on, or whatever he'd been doing. Her body was yet still languid and relaxed, but she was sure that would dissipate soon and her old hurts would return. She wanted to enjoy her peaceful sleep while she could.

only once? cayetano protests,
spluttering a soft breath in her ear as she turns
her spine lodged firmly against him
game over.

he sighs and rolls on his back,
raises his paw to the sky
and counts silver stars.
we have to do it at least
the number of times
you've had revolutions
around the sun.
he half jokes with a smile,
one eye turned to the peppery-black flank.
i didn't hear you complain.

She felt the familiarity in their movements, her turn away from him, his roll onto his back. She remembered other males from younger days, remembered their jubilant, stupid faces afterwards. She did not want to open her eyes and see Cayetano grinning at her like a fool. He was merely a distraction from the doldrums of her life, nothing more.

She snorted at his words. Give me another century to recover and maybe we can go again. I'm too old for this.

I didn't hear you complain.

What's to complain about? Every male is the same as any other. You all think you're gods. You're only mortal. She kept her eyes closed. Maybe now that you've had your fun, you'll take your yapping elsewhere. That's right. Shove him away, like you've shoved away everyone else. He doesn't know it yet, but he'll thank you for it later.

he’s not to be put out
by the stern edge of her spine 
nor the barrier put up 
by words that could only come from a place
of bitter disappointment. 

cayetano puts down his paw
watching wordlessly as a green star
streaks across space
some ten billion miles away. 

she mentions being old —
i’m too young to give up that easily.
he winks to her back and gives her a nudge
all the same? he settles into her back
two bodies wedged spine to spine 
obviously, it wounds me greatly to hear this.
he looks to the star studded sky
and says to no one in particular:
i don’t think i’ll ever recover.

When he didn't leave or snap at her, she was surprised, though she kept this thought to herself and did not move. She listened to him speak, listened to him pretend offense at her words, and felt him curl up beside her, pressed spine-to-spine. Some part of her wished to turn and lay half-atop him like one did with packmates in the winter, for warmth. She felt the desire and let it slip past, wondering at it, and then she closed her eyes and went back sleep.

[Fade?]

there's no response but that's okay
cayetano talks for two.

he looks back up at that endless rim
of stars drowning in a black and navy sky

how many thousands of eyes
over immeasurable millennia
had looked and counted those same stars?

and did those stars see them
small ants toiling under impassive suns
there and then gone in the blink of time

replaced by an endless mill of souls
who paused from time to time
like him
and looked at the measureless blue
just like everyone before them.

it's a thread he doesn't want to pull.
he sighs and inspects his nails,
turns an ear to the sleeping kheviel
and before long he's deep in dreams
where fish wade through a constellation of stars
while merlot blooms in the blackwater.