11 comments/ 26670 views/ 30 favorites A Beautiful Beast for Christmas By: TaLtos6 ***I've had elements of lesbian romance in my works here & there before (see http://www.literotica.com/s/a-wild-thing-in-the-darkness-ch-01 on my page), but I've never done a piece just in that genre until now and listed it as such. This is a part of another tale of mine, "Chameleon in Chrome" which is running in the Non-Human category. I wrote it ages ago, but I've been posting it lately to cover a gap in my regular writing. I just polish it a touch and go. But as I was doing that for the next chapter, I sat back and looked it over. I've always had a thing for reading a touch of lesbian love which is set at Christmas. Ok, I'm blushing a little here, I just enjoy those ones a lot, ok? They uh, ... they just get to me somehow. In this, I suddenly realized that I'd written that sort of story without even meaning to, so I wiped the dust off my screen and brought it to term. Since it's the December 23nd this evening, I know this will be way late for Christmas. I just hope that it's enjoyed. It takes place about 300 years in the future on a low-rent trading post and spaceport called Nanworth Colony someplace way out there. Inside, it's warm and as crooked as hell on about every administrative level. Outside, it pure holy howling frigid Hell where the blizzards seldom stop and the cold just sucks the life from you - so hardly anyone ever goes there, unless they're being paid really, really well for it. The first part doesn't fit the genre at all - but it sets the stage for the rest in a big way, so if you're a purist, just try to get through the first page or so. Meet Debbie La Croix - an unhappy woman with a past. :) Oh, and Merry Christmas. 0_o *** ------------------------ The Anubian sat on a small bench with his arms restrained straight out on either side of him. The tranquilizer that he'd been hit with was finally wearing off, though slowly, since they'd kept the dose topped up and he found himself trying to work his consciousness through the fog of it. He'd been drugged, though he'd never fully lost consciousness. He wanted to snort in derision. Humans and their stupidity. It even went as far as what they thought that they knew about his kind. He did hear the door to the cell being unlocked very quietly, though, and he waited with his eyes closed; his head not hanging down quite so much anymore. He felt the bonds around his wrists which held him there, but he also felt that his bracers hadn't been removed. He guessed that they'd either been overlooked somehow or that more likely, his captors hadn't thought them to be important. He activated the cameras in the left one with a curling motion of one finger. The tendon in his forearm stood out and he heard the barely-audible click. He had a feeling that he'd want a record of this. The female pound guard crept into the cell, barely moving -- barely daring to draw a breath as she came. She knew that what she'd been trying to fight off in her mind was unconscionable and very likely highly illegal as well, given her position. She didn't want to harm him in any way, though the thought in her mind of what she wanted to do would still constitute abuse in the strict legal sense once she was living her little fantasy. But she couldn't help herself anymore. He'd been here under sedation for the maximum allowable time. She felt drawn here, and it was going to have to be now or never. She hadn't been pulled here by any conscious thought of desire from 'him'. This was all something inside of her and she'd finally lost her ability to fight off her desires any longer. It happened to her fairly often. It was one of the reasons that she was working here, after all. She looked at him, sitting there with his eyes closed. Her own eyes ran over his lean and muscled body. Side to side and top to bottom, he was the single most wickedly attractive male that she'd ever seen and, ... God, she thought; he must stand well over six feet tall. Well, when he was on two feet anyway. As she crept closer, she barely felt her tongue as it slipped out of her mouth to lick her own lips, though she noticed after a moment and gently bit her lower lip as she edged nearer. It was as hard as anything to do, but she brought her face as close to his muscled body as she could and inhaled his scent a little slowly. What she smelled was a little foreign to her, but that didn't matter. His scent screamed 'MALE' to her. Pure, heavy-balled musk hit her brain and it told her a lot about him if you were a female with eyes to see his power and beauty as well. He was the kind who could bang you until you threw your head back into the pillow so hard that you could hear your own vertebrae grind, as well as the way that your jaw threatened to snap its ligaments as you screamed for him. And if by some magic miracle, you managed to retain enough control to lunge up and bite one of those nipples in your joy, well, he'd just roar at you and fuck you even harder. He was the kind who'd laugh softly as he watched you get up on aching and trembling hips to stumble uncertainly to the can for a piss - if he didn't change his mind and fuck you all over again right then on the floor. It would come to you then that it wasn't out of cruelty or anything stupid - he actually cared and it would amaze him that you'd have put it off for that long when you didn't need to at all. He was just amazed that you did. Hell, he'd CARRY you there if he thought that you couldn't make it. To one very lonely female guard who worked alone far too often at the animal impound, that was love if it stayed with you. She knew the kind. She'd had one once upon a time; an incredible male who could make her grab her pillow and hold on in a white-knuckled grip so that at least she had something to lay her head on while he held her up on failing knees and caressed her everywhere that he could reach so softly and well while he STILL fucked her brains out and chuckled over the staccato slapping of his hips on her ass. But she'd lost him one night as he'd worked overtime on the outside and an avalanche took him from her forever. She'd never been the same since, though she tried never to let it get to her too much. When it did, there was always the ones that the cops brought here, wasn't there? Most of those ones couldn't hold a candle to her Robby's memory - though this one might, she guessed. It was just too bad that he was likely an animal. Why if he could even speak to her a little, she'd do anything in her power to free him... Just as long as he fucked her like Robby used to and he stayed around and never went to the outside. But she guessed that he wasn't like that; he was just a fuck in an animal impound to her, just passing through on the way to wherever they threw these things after the quick hearing. She lowered her nose and inhaled again. She wanted to groan, but she didn't; being so careful to not even exhale against him in order to draw another breath of him into her nostrils. Her knees felt a little weak for it all the same and she sank onto them onto the floor there between his legs and looked up at his face. He was something, she thought. With those pointed ears standing straight up the way that they were, and, his coal black fur ... And she could just make out the tip of one tooth at each corner of his long, narrow mouth as they extended barely past his sweet-looking lips. To her at the moment; he was sooo sexually attractive to her. She actually felt a little lost. She was already wet. She'd always had thoughts of fucking with one of these dog-men things. She wanted to touch the very short fur which covered those long muscles. She almost ached to do it, too. She stopped as she consciously forced herself to remember that she had turned off the surveillance cam in this cell. Just to make certain, she looked up and she saw that the tiny LED was out. It was a moment of pure coincidence, but as she turned her head back to look at him again, she didn't see it as the tiny LED winked back on. She sighed inaudibly. She'd done this before to other males -- just not one like him and she wondered if she might ever get the chance to even meet one of these ones for herself one day, though she supposed not. She saw them only very rarely, most often in the company of their females, and there was no ignoring the looks of disdain with which they regarded humans. She shook the thought out of her mind. Even the females looked so good to her, and from the very little that she'd heard at all of their kind, they were all known - once you got their fuses lit properly - to be such incredible sex beasts. She guessed that the best that she could manage here was to fuck him while he was still out of it and satisfy herself with that. She knew what she'd do after that, of course; though waiting for her shift to end would feel like forever passing. She'd run out and scour the vidshops in the commerce sector, looking almost frantically until she found her favorite seller in the corners, knowing that he probably wouldn't let her down. But she was confident that at some point later today, she'd go home and shove the wolfish-looking dildo that she planned to buy into her as she watched the illegal porno that she'd hopefully find. The worm in the little shops was good to her, knowing that she was a little bent and he always kept odd things in stock just for her -- since she kept coming back. What she didn't know in her ignorance of his kind was that no such video existed. No Anubian would have ever consented to be a part of such a thing, even if he or she was starving and needed the money. There was nothing illegal about inter-species relationships out this far, but pornography of it was illegal to make, sell, purchase, or own. Humans were still humans, and their lawmakers knew that if they didn't at least try to keep some sort of lid on things, sooner or later, somebody somewhere would start screwing potted plants or other things which couldn't say no. She'd done this before to male prisoners of various species that the cops brought here sometimes if they didn't know what to do with them, though she'd never had a shot at one like this one ever. She was actually beginning to hope that they'd forgotten about this one. With a little luck, this might work out and she could maybe make it a regular thing to help her get through her long shifts. You had to time things right, that was all, she told herself. At the right time, they'd still be under, pretty much and she'd suck to get them hard. It usually didn't take long at all, thanks to the particular sedative that was used here. Once that had happened and she could see what they had, she'd climb up and ease herself down on them for a hopefully fine fuck until she was happy. The contraceptive foam in her pussy would deal with the spermatozoa and with a quick wipe of a towelette, no one would be the wiser. Best of all, they'd never really be sure of what had happened. She opened her mouth and her tongue slipped out to lick the end of his sheath. Now that it had begun, she felt a little emboldened and she began to try to get her tongue into the end of it. She felt the tip and the heat which was beginning there and in only moments, she felt it as the end of it grew to emerge for her. With a sigh that she couldn't contain, she began to fellate him. She gave in to her want and her hand reached out to caress and hold his scrotum. The balls in there felt so large and heavy to her and when she felt that he'd reached what had to be his full size, she started licking it up and down over it's long and darkly pink length. A good thing that she was already on her knees, she thought, the taste and the heat of it would probably have driven her there anyway. She reminded herself that time was against her, so she quickly stood up and pulled off her trousers to prepare herself for the final sweet part. With her hands on him in such private places, she doubted that he'd notice her weight as she sat on that fine long prick of his. But she landed on the floor, jumping off just in time as he'd opened his eyes and snarled. The way that his teeth had snapped shut almost over her nose had been a hell of a fright and a very near thing. She heard the hallway door open behind her and she jumped up to get her pants on as quickly as she could. It didn't help that the prisoner was almost barking the place down in his rage at her. "What were you doing?" the shift super asked as she came to the open door with three others, one of them a human male. "N-nothing," the pound worker said. "Oh fuck off," the older woman groaned, rolling her eyes, "Nothing, huh? Think you can come up with a good lie here for the public about how your belt is hanging undone and your shirt is outside of your pants?" She pointed to the camera on the wall above them, "Try hard, Debbie. I need to hear a really good fairy-tale after what I was looking at in the monitor back there a few seconds ago. I just happened to look at the panel on my way by and I found just one cam switch in the off position. I turned it on just for the hell of it and guess what I was looking at." Debbie stuttered and mumbled for a moment, and the super told her to unlock the restraints. She looked up, her mouth falling open, "But, ... but, .. he, ..." "Just unlock him," her superior said, "As usual, the Security types can't tell something intelligent from a rock and they brought him here by mistake -- since their own IQ is a lot closer to the rock." She turned to the others, "It happens here now and then. If I hadn't been out on my lunch at the time that your friend was brought in, I'd have set them straight." The supervisor turned to the quiet, though still angry individual on the bench, "I'm very sorry about all of this, Sir." His ankles were free as Debbie worked with trembling fingers. He didn't move a hair, though he glared at her, waiting. When both of his wrists had been freed, he moved faster than anyone would have believed possible, grabbing Debbie by the throat, lifting her clean off the floor to growl in accented, yet startlingly clear English. "Do not ever dare to try to stand in my sight again." He threw her against the single barred wall next to the door as though it was nothing. Her head slammed against the bars and she fell into a heap on the floor. The large male might have been an Anubian, but his relieved little wife was a different species entirely and she was against him the next instant, holding on for all that she was worth. It softened things for him in a heartbeat as he looked down at her for a moment as he held her, and then he looked up. "I have video of the whole incident," he said coldly, "and now I will go to swear out a complaint against this one, you, and this whole place," he said quietly, "There is an Anubian embassy here -- as you call us -- and I will seek what aid that I can there." With that, they left the impound. ------------------------ Back in the depths of the facility, Debbie had regained consciousness and she began to sputter about calling the cops herself to have the creature charged with assault as she tried to hold her head. "Just shut up and have one of these headache pills, sweetie," the supervisor said quietly as she sat on the floor with her arm around Debbie, "With a little luck, nothing will come of it since the cops here are such fools. The only problem will be the record of you trying to fuck yourself on him." "I don't know what I was thinking," Debbie sobbed, "I'll lose my job if anybody ever sees that." The other woman nodded, "Listen, you're not the first one who's done that. I've been doing it forever. I just don't get as many chances for it these days, that's all. Hey," she paused, thinking things over, "have you ever, ... you know, ... uh, with another girl? Maybe we could get together later after I wipe that video. I've got the key, you know." --------------------------------- Weeks later, Debbie made her way slowly through the edges of the commerce sector to a type of establishment which still existed in many settlements and on many worlds. Anywhere that man (and more importantly, woman) traveled and somehow set up in commerce, it wasn't long before there were coffee shops or cafes. Debbie had a few reasons to be at least a little cautious. The day that she'd tried to have her way with the Anubian prisoner at the impound, her supervisor had suggested a way out in a sense. It took Debbie only a few minutes to discover that whatever had been recorded by the surveillance camera in the Anubian's holding cell was not likely ever going to be erased by her supervisor, no matter what she might have agreed to. It was worth far more if it could be used as leverage for extortion. She'd started to agree in principle, but she tried to specify that what had been recorded be erased first. "Well I can't do that honey," the woman had smiled, "I might be ordered to provide it, but if I don't hear anything by this time tomorrow, then, ..." Debbie had guessed how things might go and she'd left then. She'd already heard about the way that these things went through others, and she also knew that no matter what she did, ... And so, after hours of her crying over things in her regretful guilt, Debbie had come to a series of decisions. Robby hadn't exactly left her independently wealthy, so she had to work at something in the long term, but he had done his best to see that she'd be as well looked-after as he could manage things. She gave her notice the next day and when the woman made a few threats in a roundabout way unless she cooperated, Debbie quit on the spot and walked away. She went down to the Nanworth equivalent of the trailer park of long ago and she checked out her old vacation home, as it were, to see if it was still liveable. This was the old and slow travel hauler that they'd bought together and fixed up a little and then used on a few vacation trips here and there throughout the same system. Debbie wiped her tears and thanked Robby's memory once again. She could live here and sell off their other assets -- namely the condo where they'd lived. With a little luck, that might get her enough to buy a new fuel cell and then she could leave, though it might take her half a year to get it all done. She had a notion to move to a larger rock where they'd liked to go fishing. Maybe she could set up a business there, who knew? She just knew that she didn't want to go on living on Nanworth, for damn sure. As she liquidated everything and scraped her money together, she found that she had in the neighborhood of enough for a fuel cell, but not enough to really give her much of a grubstake to get started with if she subtracted what she'd need to live on until then. So there was her problem. She thought about it for a few days and decided that she could take in a roommate to help out with the costs and if she was as careful saving as she'd been up to this point, well then it might work. It took her a month or so to get up her nerve and then she put out an ad on a local buy & sell site that she knew was well-situated in the Arrivals terminal at the port on the large monitors there. She spent a week or so just tossing responses for one reason or another and then she'd read a reply which grabbed her somehow, sent as it had been by a new arrival who needed a place to stay while looking for someone in her family. The text discussions had gone fairly well to that point, so Debbie suggested a meeting in a safe place -- which was why she was working her way to the coffee shop right then. She went in and bought a small cup of coffee and then sat down outside in the mall to wait, watching the people who came and went. The ones inside were either definitely not the one that she was looking for or they were right out as far as she was concerned, though a glance at the time told her that she was still a bit early. A Beautiful Beast for Christmas All that she knew of this person was that she was a female from off-world -- though that could fit most people here -- and that her name was Khensa. She tried, but she couldn't place the name for its origins at all and had given up. She sent a text, asking Khensa if she was still going to be able to make their meeting. The reply was almost instant. "On the way now. I don't know the mall very well at all, so I might be a little late, but I hope not." Debbie was surprised again. Whoever Khensa was, she never abbreviated much of anything in her texts to Debbie, and she'd asked that Debbie not do too much of it either, since English wasn't her language. It always knocked Debbie on her ass a little. Not her language? Khensa's written English was better than about anyone's around there. She sipped her coffee and waited while looking around now and then, and wondering what Khensa looked like. In a little while, ... she heard the soft and tinny sound of someone listening to some music through earpods in the quiet of the almost deserted early morning at the mall. For one thing, it had to be plenty loud and for another, the music was a little different. It was heavy on very complex rhythms, though the melody was a little subdued -- when Debbie could hear it at all. She looked up, trying to locate the source of the sounds in the sparsely populated mall and then ... She watched a tall female come almost straight down the middle of the mall and she tried not to stare. The person was walking in just a little bit of a hurry and the only way that Debbie had to really know it at all was by the long, slow strides that the female was taking. Everything else, from hand motions to the way that she carried her long body was pure runway model. Debbie didn't see much of any footwear at all and it took her a second to realize that the other soft sounds that she heard were from the girl's toenails on the synthetic marble flooring. She saw a sort of an abbreviated tank top which ended a fair distance above her navel, and she could also see the way that the smallish breasts in there bounced from her long and purposeful strides. Below that, she wore tight jeans. Overtop, there was a long Afghan-style coat, open all the way. Her hair had to be really long, to Debbie's way of thinking. Well, she was tall and though her hair was done in a cornrow style, it still hung most of the way down her back. She knew that this couldn't be Khensa. Why would a girl dressed that way be looking for a room out among the vacation craft in a crappy spaceport like Nanworth? A lot of people were staring at her for a few reasons, Debbie guessed, and she realized that she likely wore the same sort of expression right then herself -- so she made a point to change it, not wanting to be rude. All the same, though, she was looking. The girl walked on, looking left and right at the stores and the shops -- and looking right through any people looking at her at the same time as those long legs carried her on. Debbie watched in a little awe at the way that the girl walked as though she couldn't have cared less over the way that the other people were staring openly at her. Debbie guessed that she must have been looking for more than half a minute and then the girl looked right at her for just a split-second. Debbie saw a very minute second-take and the barest, yet sincere-looking pleasant smile before the girl walked on, still looking one way and then the other. Just as the girl was about to pass by where Debbie sat, her ears flicked up a little more and looked even more pointed and then the girl turned and walked straight into the coffee shop. Debbie watched her hips as she walked away for a few seconds, amazed at how she could 'see' those lean hips by their movements right through the long coat. Then she turned away and resumed looking for Khensa. She thought about the female and looked once a couple of minutes later to see her sit down at a table alone near the window. Debbie sighed. Not that she'd been thinking of it at all, but the beautiful female's ethnicity reminded her of the incident a few weeks earlier which had caused the large changes that Debbie was making in her life. The mystery female was an Anubian, one of the very dark ones. Her hair was as black as midnight and her very short fur -- what was visible, anyway -- was so black and lustrous that it almost appeared blue. She had the same long face as the male that she'd seen; the long nose over the snout which sometimes showed just a hint of the tips of her canine teeth at the corners of her jaw. This one was a female however, and the pure beauty in that face was remarkable. Debbie didn't look again -- well at least not for several minutes. She couldn't help it, wondering how these things could look so, ... incredibly attractive and obviously full of grace. Debbie would never consider it, but she was beautiful in her own way. There had been a time when she could have been a model herself. In fact, she could still make a living like that -- if she only knew how and could look at herself a little objectively. But she couldn't, being the daughter of a pair of botanists who were always living out on the edges of someplace as they studied what grew there. She'd met Robby at the school dance when they were seventeen and in their final year. She'd never met him before since she was one of the 'out students' who attended via vid-link. That dance had been the first time that she'd ever been there in person. Their love had been a natural thing and they'd set off together to go to college on another rock out in space. The next thing they knew, they were married. Aside from her husband's untimely demise, their life together had been a rather happy one. Debbie still had the same figure and she still had her long, honey-blonde hair, but, ... She had trouble meeting people, being where she was from and, ... She didn't have a clue about modeling, though she liked to look at the photos in the online magazines that she read now and then. She tried to sip her coffee and found that she'd already finished it, sipping the way that she had to cover her nervousness. She looked at the time on her phone and she saw that Khensa was now about five minutes late. "Khensa," she sent, "I'm going to buy a coffee if Ur still coming." Khensa replied right away. "Do that and I'll meet you in a minute. Take a table by the window if you can, so I'll know who you are and if I'm even at the right shop." Debbie sort of stared at her phone a little uneasily at that, not really feeling comfortable with it. She went back inside and bought another cup of coffee and she was a little relieved to see that there were no free tables at the window right then so she took another one which was deserted. She glanced over toward the Anubian girl and watched for a few seconds as she had a very short conversation with a couple of young human men who were trying to pick her up. She heard very little of what was said other than perhaps a few lines from the female in that accent, the same one that she'd heard from the one back in the impound. "- No. I have no interest in either of you. Please bother someone of your own species. I am aware of the way that you refer to people of my kind. So that you know, we see you as rather crude apes." Debbie found herself looking at her phone with raised eyebrows, now that she remembered the cool disdain that she'd always seen on those faces. Apes, huh? As she thought about that, she didn't notice it as the place emptied out. To a place such as that, it was the normal randomness of the business day. There were predictable busy periods and in between those, there was just the way that people seem to find that they wanted what was sold there with a little bit of synchronicity. Right then, there were only two customers in the whole place. Debbie was growing a little tired of waiting, so she sent, "I'm in the coffee shop." What she read next was, "I know. I'm here too." Debbie stared at her phone and wondered if she ought to look up. She did finally and she turned her head. The Anubian sat there looking at her with a sort of slightly hopeful little smile. Until that moment, Debbie would have said that in her opinion, humans were the most attractive species known. What she was looking at now as she tried not to stare was forcing her to revise her opinion. She suddenly felt a desire to be an Anubian girl, if she could just look a little like this one in some way on even her worst day. The other female's smile widened a little, "I made my guess when it was only us here in the whole place. May I come over and join you?" Debbie nodded and seconds later, she was looking at the beautiful creature as they shook hands for a moment. The more that she thought about it, the more Debbie wanted to know -- or at least clear the air. "Forgive me," she began, "but I couldn't help overhearing what you said to those guys. You consider us as apes?" There was surprise written on the other one's features for a split-second. "I mean, I knew that you wanted to blow them off," Debbie said, "But -- well, is that the way that we're seen by Anubians?" The female shook her head, "Yes, no, and not particularly. By some few, yes, but I think they'd find something to use in a derogatory sense no matter what. The majority do not think that way, and most have never thought about it at all. My remark was not meant to include you. You see, almost all of us do not tell falsehoods. So it can be a bit of a challenge at times such as you saw. I wished for those two to leave me alone. What I said was that we as a people or a group or at least some of us see humans that way. I did not include myself, though I left it unsaid. As far as the rest, I do know that many humans regard us as dog creatures of some sort. I used that as a springboard to work my comment against as though in retaliation." She tilted her head a little then, looking concerned, "Or will what you overheard cause you and I difficulties? If so, then please say it and I will leave. I truly meant no insult to you." "No, please don't go," Debbie sighed, "It was just a sort of shock to overhear and well, I'm afraid that I don't really get it. We don't think of ourselves as even connected to -- " "But you are," the girl smiled without judgement, "It is where you came from. You are advanced now and masters of your great civilisation just as we are the masters or our own, but the roots are still to be seen by outsiders such as me. I didn't say anything about ugly - even to those ones that I was speaking to. I do not consider you to be ugly as a people at all. It is only where you came from. My personal opinion is that you are startlingly beautiful to me. Look at me. We hold ourselves in high regard the same as humans do themselves, yet we are descended from something which rather resembles the common jackal on Earth." She grinned a little, "And we try not to think about that too much either." "But whenever I've seen any of your people, though it's not very often," Debbie said, "They all seem to carry the same expression, as though they're so sorry that they have to be here with the riff-raff." Khensa leaned forward with a conspiratorial sort of sly little grin, "It is an affectation," she smiled, "How better to hide how alone and different you feel in crowds of others who are not the same thing as you are?" She held out her hand again, "I would like to do this properly. I am Khensa Ahhotep -- " The rest was a strange sort of gurgling yerf to Debbie's ears and she asked for it to be repeated. She only heard the same thing a second time and knew that she'd never manage it. "I'm sorry, Khensa," she said with a shrug, "That last part is something that I can't even begin -- " Khensa laughed as she nodded, "It's alright. I know that much of our speech requires a mouth like mine. I only said it to be complete since that is my name." Debbie smiled and noticed that they were still shaking hands, "I'm Debbie Millhouse." Khensa shook her head, "I will use that to address you if you wish, but I know that 'Debbie' is a short form for Deborah, which I much prefer. But have you no middle name?" "Deborah Lisette La Croix, is my birth name -- which I'm thinking of going back to, now that I have the thought in my head," Debbie smiled. "A very lovely name," Khensa nodded, "but how does 'Millhouse' come into it?" "My married name," Debbie said "I'm a widow. I lost Robby three years ago." "I'm so sorry," Khensa said, reaching for Debbie's arm again, "I think that you're far too young to feel that loss." "It's alright," the human said quietly, "I've gotten used to being alone again. Where does your middle name come from? Even your first name, ... " The Anubian smiled, "When our two kinds discovered each other about a hundred years ago in your time units, we found out about your history and learned then of the old Egyptian culture on your home world. Through that, we came to know of the old god Anubis, which is where humans found the term they use to describe us. To ourselves and each other, we are the Shm'Sha -- spoken as 'Shm-ShA' by us. If you shift the emphasis to the other syllable, it carries a rather different meaning, so you must either be careful or just call me an Anubian. We feel no slight in it and many would likely prefer to hear it from humans. Our learning of that culture was a great coincidence, but nothing more. All the same, it caused several fashion trends where I come from and one of them was in the popular names we used for children. Khensa was a warrior queen back there and I believe that Ahhotep was a famous priestess of some sort." "I like your names," Debbie smiled, "Well, the two that I can even pronounce. Why are you looking for a place out here? You look pretty well-heeled to me. Actually, you look like a model, to be honest." Khensa laughed a little at that. "I was a model," she smiled, "But I have grown too old and a little too often-seen back on my world. I know that I could do well on Earth if I wished to continue, but to me, the lifestyle only leads one to develop a, ... well let us say a jaded point of view where one becomes just so bored with everything. That is what had happened to me." She shrugged, "No matter what, I am a person, and people -- that is, most real people, the ones who buy the fashions that I modeled, do not live their lives as though they were at a continuous party which never ended. Also, there was a catastrophic sadness which came to me. You see, I am from a noble family - one of three which are tied together. Our purpose over thousands of Earth years was to guard and protect the members of our ruling house. There was an attempt to overthrow that house and though the families prevailed, it was a very near thing. I was not even there at the time. I was either modeling or as one of several, my job was to protect an ambassador. When the dust settled, I was released and sent away. Most of the three families who survived are now wanderers, too ashamed to ever return home. The knife fell so hard and fast that I was flying in a small diplomatic craft at the time that I was informed. I asked where I was to leave the craft and I was told that I could have it as my own -- as long as I never returned. I didn't know what to do and for a time, I just wandered, hoping that something might come to me -- and it did, finally. I remembered a time when I was younger and I had the love of a good male. We eventually parted because our duties would take us far from each other, and it was very hard for us to do, but we had to do it. Neither one of us could tell our superiors that we didn't wish to do what our purpose was." She looked off out into the mall for a moment at a store on the other side which was decorated in a Christmas motif. "You might laugh to hear it, but there are some things which have always been thought of as human that have made their transference to our culture. My people have little interest in the human concept of Christianity by itself, since the players mean nothing to us. But the tradition of Christmas as a festive and giving time has actually become widely popular among the Shm'Sha. I had my little place to live and my male and I spent our Christmas there together like a pair of human children with stars in our eyes. I don't know if it was intended to be the true message of Christmas back there on your home world, but to me, it was a time to feel very thankful for what I had. I wanted for nothing and neither did he, and as the days led up to the night of Christmas Eve and the following morning, we ran around and shopped and ate and we found others who were not as fortunate as we were and we gave what we could to them before we returned to my home and we made love right there on the floor in some furs the whole night long. I have never forgotten that one magical night. The next week, we learned that we could not stay together and we parted. I have not seen him since that time." She looked over at Debbie -- who smiled back from where she sat with her chin on her arm. Khensa sniffled a little and wiped her tears for a moment. "As I wandered from one place to another, I had a thought that if I was released from the service of a family which mine had protected and served for so long, then there could be only two outcomes for that male. He is either dead from the fighting, or he was released as well. I have heard that he had to serve on some merchant vessel. From what I was able to piece together, he is free, and that he came this way not long ago. For all that I know, he might be married by now to someone else, but I wish to see my cousin again, at least one more time. I need to know that he truly has his freedom and that he is well." Debbie blinked for a moment, "He was your cousin?" Khensa nodded, "Yes. There is nothing wrong in it to Shm'Sha people. It was even important among the three families, since we were nobles and we knew what we had that way. I learned that among your ancient Egyptians, it was common to marry one's brother among royalty. That is not allowed where we came from at all, though some have done it secretly to follow the Egyptian fashion a little too slavishly for my taste. My cousin and I loved each other very much. I often wish that we had run away together to some other world and culture. A very romantic idea, I think, but not very practical." "I think that's about the nicest little Christmas story that I've ever heard -- even though it's a sad one," Debbie smiled, "and I hope that you can find him, but, ..." Khensa came back to herself, "I have some money. What I wish is to find a clean, safe and inexpensive place to live while I search for him, so that if he is not here, I am not encumbered with property or leases. I have been searching with my little craft, but it is a small one, not built to really live aboard even by one for very long, unless you travel in cryo." They sat for a minute and then Debbie offered to buy the next coffee. As she got up to go to the counter, she wondered about something. She found that she liked Khensa very much in just a short time, though they didn't know each other much at all. That wasn't the point. Debbie had been sitting there listening and she felt something a little strange in her. She separated out the pure loveliness and grace that she saw and then she set aside the very exoticness of Khensa -- her ways and mannerisms and her obviously considerable intellect. No, she thought, there was something there tugging at her somehow. She just couldn't get what it was until she was on her way back to the table. A Beautiful Beast for Christmas She knew what it was then and Khensa sat wondering why Debbie was laughing quietly. When she tilted her head, Debbie laughed even more. "When I was a little girl," she said, "Just a little kid of maybe six or almost seven, we were on a pretty barren rock, though it had at least a little bit of a settlement to it. I guess you wouldn't know it to look at me now, but back then, my hair was just about white. That's just the way that I was born. The UV on that world was murderously high and I guess that I spent most of my childhood when I was outside in a suit with a ton of UV block cream all over my face. Life was pretty lonely for me there and I was a little unhappy most of the time as I recall it. My parents were botanists, and sometimes they worked with other scientists. For a long time, they worked with a couple who were both geologists which specialized in soil formations and the sort of plant life that might be supported there. I guess that it was a big thing back on Earth at one time, but there are many different kinds of humans, Khensa. I don't know if you're aware of that at all." The Anubian nodded, "I had not considered it, but I do know that you are right. I have seen pictures of many people who looked very different to each other. My kind has differences, but not as broad as yours." Debbie nodded, "I think that it was a big deal once, but now they don't much care about that. Anyway, the geologists had a daughter too and we were just at about the same age. We must have looked like quite a set; a little black girl with really dark skin and then there was me, a pasty white kid with snow-white hair. Joni and I were best friends," she chuckled, "probably because we were each other's only friend, but we loved each other and we were inseparable. We ate over at each other's house and we slept over at each other's house all the time from about six or seven all the way until we were thirteen. Joni's parents left then to work on another world and I never saw her again." She looked over at Khensa and she laughed a little, "Sitting here with you, I kept getting the most comfortable feeling and I couldn't place it. I guess it just took me a while, but I'm sure now that I've transferred that feeling from my memories of Joni to you, Khensa." She pushed Khensa's coffee across the table to her, "Do you want to hear what I'm running from?" She told it all -- though she never knew quite where she'd found the courage for it. When Khensa heard that there had been one of her kind involved, Debbie asked her to wait until she was finished telling everything. "So I'm pretty sure that I want to leave here but I think it'll take me about six months. I can show you my ship, and I do have a bit of room in it. It was made for a couple of people to travel in with just a little comfort -- like you can really live in it, though it's always a little cramped when there are two of you. It's not fast, since it wasn't meant to be more than a moving vacation home, but it does have cryo equipment. Though you might not need to live there after all. I remember the name of that male that day at the impound. Is your cousin's name Tesem?" Khensa almost dropped her cup and she looked a little embarrassed for a moment as she laughingly apologized. Debbie grinned, "You know that's the first time that I've seen just a hint of a crack in that perfect, polished exterior, Khensa. I'd almost say not to worry about it, since as our expression goes; it just shows that you're human. Maybe you ought to be concerned." "I shouldn't have gotten so easily rattled," Khensa grinned, "Tesem is not an uncommon name back home. He was tall?" Debbie smiled, "Oh yeah. I guessed he was over six feet and when he stood up to yell at me for what I did, I think that he must have been six-three, six-four or so, It's hard to tell from a human's point of view. You guys stand differently on two legs to us, and depending on the way that you hold your ankles, your height can vary a bit. So yeah, he was tall and by his fur and all, he could have been your brother." Khensa thought back, "When I knew him, he was very fit and muscular. It went with his work to be like that." She looked over at Debbie again, who said nothing this time, only nodding with a grin. Khensa wondered how much difficulty a human might have at telling one of her kind from the next. "He was good to look at?" Debbie's face fell from where she rested her chin on her hand to land with her forehead on her arm as she chuckled for a moment. She lifted her head then as she tried for a little control. "Try to imagine what I was risking, wanting to do what I told you. It was wrong, Khensa, very wrong, but I'd done it before with males who were good to look at. But I'd never seen anyone like him in my life before -- and I have seen Anubians around here at times. I wanted him, Khensa. I don't know how I managed to live through my shifts while he was there before that day. I used to stare at the monitor at him and when that wasn't good enough because his head hung down from the sedative, I used to go there and stare at him through the bars as he slept." She looked over and saw that Khensa was listening, so she held up her index finger for a long moment to emphasize it. "For hours, Khensa. I stared at him for hours at a time. I know that I'm pretty," she said. "But I also know that I'm not beautiful like you are. I also know that if it were even a little possible, I'd have loved to try to have at least some sort of relationship with him. Hell, I think that I would have been at least a little happy to have someone like him for a friend." She'd been looking down at the tabletop for a few seconds by then. She looked up and sighed, "But what I would have loved to have was the possibility to get to know him really well." She picked up her cup to take a sip and Khensa watched Debbie's eyebrows rise as she spoke into the cup for a moment, "I think that I'd have killed to have the chance to have the love of a male like that." She set her cup down, "Does that answer your question?" -------------------------- They were walking together to the camper part of the huge cavern which was the general parking hangar at the port. Both of them were cold there, but at least the wind wasn't more than something which howled to them angrily from a little far away and the snow couldn't reach them where they were. There was no attempt made to heat the gigantic cave -- since there was that opening to the outside, but at least the air was still and not threatening to take your breath from you. Actually, it was a fair bit warmer in the cavern, being closer to the heat of the core in a few spots. But that difference to the way that a person felt as they walked along the paths and boardwalks was not much more than a matter of numbers. Khensa was worried for Debbie all the same. To her, most of the insides of the port were a little too warm. Here, it was far too cold for her and she had her coat done up all the way. Debbie wore only a light jacket. "I will be lucky to get you to my craft before you catch this pneumonia sickness, Deborah," she grumbled a little as they walked. "Don't worry about me," the human said through her teeth, "I'll be fine -- that is, if your ship is closer than the next hundred yards." "I do worry a little," Khensa said in the same tone. Debbie stopped then and she looked over, "Why?" Khensa shrugged, "It is strange for one like me and I admit it, but I care suddenly, so I worry. Maybe it is because this Christmas time is coming. I really cannot say. I think that I hope for your friendship." Debbie caught herself staring, though Khensa didn't see it. She opened her coat and before her companion could do anything, she pulled as much of it around Debbie as she could and then she pulled her along to get going, "I have fur." The inside of the craft didn't feel very much warmer than it was outside, though it really was. It was only in an idle setting as far as heat went to save the fuel cells when Khensa wasn't there. As soon as they were inside, she almost forced Debbie to sit on the bed at the rear of the compartment as she wrapped her in some furs. When she was certain that Debbie was alright for the moment, she stepped forward and lit off an auxiliary power unit as well as cranking the one which ran off the port's power hook up. In only moments, they couldn't see their breath anymore though it would take a little while before anything that they touched in there didn't feel cold. Khensa asked Debbie about a hot cup of tea and Debbie looked up, surprised. "I did say that some human things have made their transference to our culture," she smiled, "the love of coffee and tea are two others." As the small microwave oven churned, she looked for a picture tablet and she quickly set up a little slide show for the human girl before she handed it over and indicated which button cycled the pictures, "Tell me which of these males is Tesem." Debbie had a little trouble, since her frostbitten fingers weren't being very cooperative right then, but by the time that they settled in next to each other sipping their tea, Khensa was a little astounded. Debbie had found all of the pictures of Tesem by then. "He's younger in all of these, but I'm sure that's him. I can't know for sure, since it's been a few weeks, but I'm almost certain that he's still here someplace. He made a lot of noise about going to the Anubian embassy here to complain about what I did. I kind of wonder why nothing's come of it." Khensa held up two fingers, "One: there is no Anubian embassy on Nanworth. Tesem must know that. I think that it was all just noise to bluff by and two: maybe he liked what you did, but did not want to appear to approve, since by what you have said, he has this small female for him now." "He did more than bluff and appear not to approve," Debbie said, "I doubt that he liked it -- since he almost smashed my skull against the bars before he left." Khensa looked outside through the windscreen at the way that the wind had seemed to have shifted a little so that now there was the thinnest dusting of snow over the nose of the craft. "I am thinking once more of that Christmas long ago." Debbie could barely say that she knew Khensa very much at all, but she had a thought then. "Apparently, the want to have at least a little bit of the Christmas feeling is a little strong in some humans, Khensa. Robby's parents had both been born on Earth and had grown up there. Where we were, it was almost always hot, dry and dusty." Khensa looked over with a little smile, pleased to have her thoughts interrupted a little bit, "What was it like when it wasn't like that?" Debbie shrugged, "Then it was cold, dry and dusty. On Earth in some places where the climate allows for winter, human children wait for a really good snowfall, like where there's maybe the width of an adult hand or more out on the ground. If it's just a little wet, it's sticky then and we say that it's packing snow. You can make really good snowballs out of it to throw at your friends. They start with a big snowball and roll it around until it becomes a really big one. They do that three times most often to make three different sized balls and then they stack them up from biggest to smallest. With a few little things and your imagination, you can make a snowman or snowwoman. It's a lot of fun." "How can you tell one from the other?" Khensa asked. Debbie rolled her eyes and nudged one of Khensa's breasts very gently through her top with her fingertips. "Oh," the Anubian said thoughtfully, "so then they require five snowballs?" "Something like that," Debbie smiled, "but if you let the boys near her they always pack more on until she becomes a snowMAMMA," she said with a little laugh, "I've even heard that they fall over." "Anyway, before Robby had been born, when they were getting ready to leave, his father bought a few aerosol cans of fake snow. It was supposed to be used against the glass of a window to make it look like there's been a snowfall. All those years later when Robby was a boy, his father went out into the desert and he brought back three tumbleweeds. They're like an odd sort of plant which is formed into a ball by the wind and they roll around forever in the desert there. He jammed a stick into the ground and then he impaled the tumbleweeds on it in a stack of three and then he sprayed the fake snow on them until he had a snowman for his son, right out there in the desert." She looked over at Khensa and then at the clock in the corner of the display of the picture viewer. "I can't read your language. What's the date in terms that I might understand." Khensa thought it over, "December the 23rd, in the human calendar, why?" "Well, I threw out tons of stuff when I cleaned out the condo where I used to live, but I've still got some Christmas stuff. Why don't we go shopping and I'll try to make you a decent Christmas, if you think that you'd like that?" Khensa's mouth fell open, "But --" Debbie waved her off, "Listen, you can't have what you'd really want and I can't seem to be able to do anything right, other than to maybe fuck up the Lord's Prayer. I'm pretty sure that we're at least on the way to being able to figure out if we can live together while we're here. I guess that I'm hoping for your friendship too. So let's get some things and go to my ship, since it's bigger and I've even got a little fake Christmas tree. We can decorate a little and eat like hogs and try to have a good Christmas, for a couple of girls who've never been to Earth at Christmastime." "What is the Lord's Pra --" "Never mind, Khensa," Debbie smiled, "I'm a little afraid that if I elaborate, that I'll jinx my own attempt at doing something right for a change." "You are not going out again in only that jacket," Khensa said in a voice which brooked no argument, "I have lots of clothing and we are not that different in our sizes." She opened a rather narrow closet and pulled out a jacket. "Not bad," Debbie grinned as she pulled it on. It was a bomber-style jacket in a kind of pseudo-leather with a fleece type lining and a fake fur ruff collar, "I really like the shoulders, kind of like there's shoulder pads." "It is only a little stiffer there," Khensa nodded, "On you, I guess that it is like that. For me, it allows me the room if I go on four feet. I have others. If you like it, then it is yours. It looks very good on you." Debbie began to shake her head, "Oh, I couldn't." "Yes you could," the Anubian nodded, "and you will. If you will try to make a Christmas out of nothing, then I will do what I must to keep you from freezing." ---------------------------- Debbie was a lot warmer as they walked to her camper carrying the few things that Khensa wanted to bring along. The jacket felt great to her and though she was careful not to show it, she found that the ruff collar carried just a hint of Khensa's scent to her nose and she found after the first few sniffs of it that she really liked it and hoped a little that it never left the garment, though she knew that it likely would. There was something to it that was as exotic as the girl who'd given it to her, warm and a touch spicy somehow, and taken together with the warmth of the garment, she found that she'd have really liked to have been able to stop for a moment to just jam her nose into the faux fur and inhale deeply. It surprised them both that they weren't located that far apart, the only border being an invisible line which separated the Transitory parking, such as where Khensa was parked and the longer term Monthly parking, where they were headed now. "My home," Debbie smiled as they neared her camper craft, "such as it is." Khensa's eyes ran over the craft and she saw that it had been maintained well and there looked to have been some recent service as well. "Seals mostly," Debbie nodded when it came up, "I needed to replace them. They weren't bad and they still tested out ok, but you have to replace them when the schedule calls for that if you want to keep up the spaceworthiness ratings, otherwise all you've got is a can to live out of." Debbie stood a little nervously as Khensa looked around the interior, explaining some of the features if the Anubian looked to be unfamiliar with anything. "This is very nice, Deborah," Khensa remarked, "and very roomy to one like me, who lives in a craft where I can almost touch both walls from the pilot seat." "Well it's still going to be a little tight now and then," Debbie replied, "You can go a little nuts in here on a long slow run. Robby and I loved each other to death, but by the time that we got to our vacation spot, I was about ready to leave him." She turned her head to see Khensa's slightly shocked face and she laughed, "Well, for at least for an hour or two." She pointed to a few framed photos and Khensa stood admiring the man in them. "He was very attractive," she said quietly. Debbie nodded as she stepped over to a panel and looked at the state of the craft's on-board water cell. It was separate from the drinking supply and was intended for uses such as dish washing, very light laundry and the shower. As such, it was re-processed over and over, cleaned, filtered, aerated and scrubbed chemically as needed. But there were still small losses over time due to evaporation or spillage. Over time, the losses added up, though very, very slowly. Debbie made up her mind and looked over at Khensa, "Do you think that you'd want to room here with me? I'm asking now since if you say yes, I'll sell back the washing water in my water cell to the colony and buy a full new load. The filters and systems are in great shape and all, but the water itself has been here since our first vacation, so that's, ... five and a half years. It's only been used by me living here for the past month or so, but still, ..." Khensa hadn't even considered it, but she was now a little impressed that Debbie would sell off and restock just out of consideration for her feelings. Everyone knew that the water from the washing taps or the shower nozzle was as fresh and clean as the systems could make it, but there was still the thought that the water that you were showering under had been used for the same purpose by the previous occupants over and over before you. Restocking made a bit of a statement. Khensa smiled and she nodded, "I'd like that very much, I think, now that we seem to be getting to know each other. I do insist that you allow me to pay for the first level filtration packs, however." Debbie was surprised, "The ones here are still good for, ... I dunno, I'd have to look, but I'm sure that they've got years left." Khensa shook her head, "That's not it, Deborah. I can see that you're a very clean person and so am I. But we'll need packs at least one rating up from what you've got. I'm not human." Debbie tilted her head, "So? I doubt that I'd mind, and I kind of hope that you won't, so -- " Khensa smiled that smile of hers as she held out her hand, "Touch my arm." Debbie reached and she looked over, still not getting it. "Shm'Sha are very clean -- almost fastidiously so," Khensa grinned a little sheepishly, "I'm sure that if you've heard anything about us, then you know that we are considered at least a little -- anal about it. What do you feel?" Debbie held onto the Anubian's forelimb and ran her thumb along it softly for a moment, "You're warm and you feel really nice to touch, but -- " Khensa looked down with a smile, "Thank you, but I'm trying to tell you that I have fur. It's not long, obviously, but though the same dead skin cells as you have on your skin will be washed off and caught by the first level packs, there will also be a little fur now and then as well. My buying the next level up means that the packs won't become clogged. I'd be very embarrassed if that happened over and over because of what I am." A Beautiful Beast for Christmas Debbie got it and she smiled, "Ok, Khensa. I wasn't thinking of that. I'm a little glad now that you were, though." She made the transaction on her panel and they heard the sounds of her pumps running as the washing water was removed. It took only a minute or so and then they heard the valves switching over to allow the loading of the 'new' water. When the load was complete, she toggled a software switch on her panel and looked over, "I'm moving some to the heater so we'll have water for showers later if we want. What comes onboard from the facility here is just a little above freezing and I don't want to have a few hundred gallons stealing heat from the rest of the craft. I might as well bite the bullet and heat it now. We can pick up the filter packs at the office on our way by, since we won't be using any water until we get back." She looked toward the bed and then she felt a little sheepish. "I hadn't given it any thought until now, but how do you want to work the sleeping arrangements? I guess I can take my bed apart and I do have a storage space outside. If you'll help me get it apart, we can bring yours and I'll buy a new single bed for myself." Khensa shook her head, "No, my bed is an attached rack-type bunk on my craft. Let's not worry about it for now. I brought some bedding for me and I can sleep on the floor for a few nights until we decide." Debbie said no, flat out, "You just said that Shm'Sha are very clean. My bed is a double since Robby and I obviously slept together. Unless either or both of us are the kind of sleepers who sling out our arms and punch the other one in their sleep -- " Khensa shook her head, aghast at the thought, "Not at all. I don't think that I move very much when I sleep. I am certainly not a wild sleeper." "Oh thank God," Debbie laughed in a little relief, "because Robby sure was. He'd loll and roll around, and throw his arms and legs out something awful when he slept. I always had to get by on about the last six inches of the mattress most nights. There were times when I woke up on the floor and when I tried to get back into bed, I'd find that he'd taken even THAT from me. I could have killed him in his sleep for that. I couldn't even wake him up then." "That will never be a problem," Khensa smiled, "I am a very light sleeper. If it ever happens, only shake me a little, Deborah. I will move." --------------------------- So back to the commerce sector they went with Khensa listening with fascination to the sorts of things that Debbie would be looking for. On the way, they stopped in at the office for the filter packs and the clerk looked up questioningly. "Have you had any issues, Mrs. Millhouse? My records show that the same filter pack type has been used on your craft since the beginning -- even before you and, ... " He looked at his screen, "Mr. Millhouse purchased it. Why do you need these ones?" "My husband was lost on the outside and died three years ago," Debbie said. After the clerk offered his condolences for her loss, he seemed to notice Khensa for the first time. "I'm just taking on a roommate to help out with the upkeep expenses, Phil, that's all." He groaned just a little, "I wish you hadn't said that to me now, even though I asked. I ought to know enough to keep my fool mouth shut sometimes. Now I'm obligated to update the records, listing a change in the domestic status." "But why is that anyone's business?" Debbie asked. "It isn't -- in my own opinion, Debbie," the middle-aged human nodded, "but it's the law here on Nanworth. Strictly speaking, roommates are not allowed in the Monthly section. If you were in the Transitory section, I could just put it down as a crew change. But that would see you paying even more for the slot that you'd be in over there. For your type of accommodation, I'd have to list,... " He looked up, and Debbie said, "This is my roommate Khensa, Phil." Khensa held out her hand a little tentatively, "We have met before. You were the one who helped me to get my craft settled in the Transitory area." She was a little surprised when he took her hand and shook it. There hadn't been time when she'd arrived. Many humans wouldn't shake her hand in her experience. "I thought that I recognized you," he said with a small smile. "Anyway, I'm afraid that the only way that I can list Khensa on your craft, Debbie, is if it were by a change of marital status." Same-sex marriages weren't all that commonplace on Nanworth, but they were recognized, so that was why Phil had mentioned it as a way forward past the problem. "Oh fine, then," Debbie smiled, not really believing this wrinkle, "Will putting that down bring the marriage license inspector around? What a crock this place is sometimes." He shook his head, "No. I doubt that anybody will give a rat's ass, just like me. It's just a legal requirement that I update the records in their stupid way, that's all. What would you like me to put down?" They looked at each other for a moment and burst out laughing. Khensa held up her hands and shrugged, "Do as you need to, Deborah." "Ok then Phil, you just put us down as common law, ok?" Debbie chuckled. "Can't," he said, "it's in the by-laws. You need to be licensed, so common law is out. They want their fee, Debbie." He looked even more uncomfortable then. "Who uh, ... I mean which one, ...um, ..." "Oh for Pete's sake," Debbie groaned, "We didn't think that rooming together would ever get this complex. Put Khensa down as my husband, since I'm pretty freaking sure that it's the next thing that this stupid colony will want to know about our private business. We're just going to be rooming together." "Fine," Phil nodded, "I'll need a name and the spelling." Khensa was still in a little shock over what Debbie had said. She blinked and then, "Khensa Ahhotep -- " Phil looked up, "How am I ever going to spell that surname?" Khensa shook her head, "I do not think that it is even possible for you to put it down phonetically. The structure does not exist in any human tongue. Put my last name down as La Croix, please." Debbie looked over with raised eyebrows. Khensa shrugged, "I think it will make this easier. If I am now your husband on a data screen, then the least that I can do is to take my wife's name. It is allowed here, correct?" Phil nodded, plenty relieved at side-stepping the terror of trying to fill in the Anubian's surname. "I'll just register the name change as well, so to make sure that I'm not putting anything down in error here, you're Khensa Ahhotep La Croix. Have I got that right?" he asked as he swiveled his monitor around for them to confirm the spelling. Khensa nodded with a pleased-looking smile which astonished Debbie slightly. "There," he smiled, "all done. About the only thing that this might trigger is the arrival at some point of the Welcome Wagon lady, though if I see her, I'll do my best to tell her to bugger off, ok? That'll be thirty-five credits, plus the twenty-nine for the filter packs. With taxes, it'll be eighty credits total." Debbie rolled her eyes and looked at the ceiling tiles, "What um, ... oh, I can't wait to hear this part, what is the thirty-five credit fee for, Phil?" "The fees for the Khensa'a name change, and I've also changed your surname, Debbie. I remembered that time when you first arrived here and your records needed changing to your married name, AND, ... he beamed a little as he reached over to his printer, "Your brand spanking new marriage license, of course. I don't give a crap personally and I'm a little annoyed to be forced to go through this shit every so often, but here you go and congratulations. I wish you two many happy years of wedded bliss. A divorce is a little more expensive, though. Just thought I'd put it out there, that's all." ----------------------- They walked out of the office and on down the boardwalk which would lead them back to the main part of the colony. "Just let me say that I apologize for the stupidity of all this," Debbie said, "I'm a little surprised that you went for it just so we could room together. I mean, it's a change in marital status and you even changed your name for this. That sort of thing can stay on your record a long time, so to speak." Khensa shrugged, "I took it for what it was, Deborah. It was nothing more than the colony trying to make money on something. Think of it as a tax and nothing more." They walked on in silence for a few moments. "Though I can admit that I am very pleased, all the same," Khensa grinned a little, " I like my new name, and it will make things easier for you and I now as well. I never thought that I would ever find myself wed to anyone. To find that I now have such a beautiful wife, ..." They laughed over it a little nervously and then Debbie added, "Well I used to have my handsome husband." She looked over for a second, "In your own way, Khensa, you look very regal to me, and a little of that tends to spill over into 'handsome' to me in a way. Other than that, I'm proud to have a beauty like you too." They chuckled over it a little more and then Khensa felt Debbie take her hand. She looked down. "Hey," Debbie laughed, "I'm just going with it, that's all. I don't think I really mind it and I sure don't give a damn what anybody here thinks of me anymore. If you don't mind, let's go and raise some eyebrows, 'dear'. I'm feeling pretty proud right now too." Khensa nodded, outright grinning now and they walked on for a time until she stopped and Debbie looked up, "What? Or maybe I ought to ask it as 'What, Honey'?" She giggled a little then. She saw that Khensa wore a slightly strange look right then, "I was just thinking that where I come from, it is customary when getting married for the groom to kiss the bride. I have never kissed a human before, and I'd guess that you have never kissed an Anubian -- well, who knew of it at the time, I guess. I think that I would like to try -- if it will not cause you to feel badly. Could we?" Debbie looked up, a little astonished for a moment, but she thought about it quickly and she nodded, "Ok, Khensa. I think I'd actually like that. I am warning you though that I tend to be a little mischievous sometimes." She looked down for a moment, "Now that I think of it, I haven't really felt mischievous much at all since I was widowed, like that part of me died with Robby." She looked up then and Khensa saw the gleam there in her bright blue eyes, "But I sure feel that way now, so I might just feel a little like playing on that while we're out together, if it doesn't embarrass you." Khensa slipped her long arms around Debbie's waist and she smiled for a second, "If you are not embarrassed to be seen with what I know that some humans refer to as walking Pharaoh hounds, I think that I'd feel very proud to be seen with you like that, knowing that we are married, and I cannot even explain that feeling to myself. I only know that I like it very much -- and I like the look that you carry in your eye a lot right now as well." Debbie looked up into the Anubian's long, dark face for a moment and her gaze settled on those quiet and observant yellow eyes for a second. She'd never done anything with another female before in her life, but in the Anubian's own quiet and very strong way, Khensa looked very good to her and she wondered at herself for a second before she pushed the thought away with a smiling little shrug. "Hey, we're married, Khensa. We've got a license to kiss now. I'm willing to try if you are." She reached to put her arms around the Anubian's neck and she had the quick amending thought that Khensa was no longer just an Anubian. Khensa -- on paper at the very least -- was Debbie's Anubian now and for some reason, that made this much better and not awkward at all. She had to stretch just a little as she felt her chest against Khensa's and she closed her eyes for the kiss. It felt a little strange and right after that, it felt very new and really good to them both, though it didn't last long and they looked at each other afterwards. "That felt really very good," Khensa said as though it had surprised her. Debbie shook her head, "No it didn't. It felt fantastic. Can we do that again? I like kissing my husband the sexy Pharaoh hound if you like kissing your wife the ape." Khensa's hand reached up to touch Debbie's cheek softly for a moment. "I think that I would love to kiss my beautiful blonde ape again." Their second kiss lasted a lot longer and they pulled themselves apart rather reluctantly. "I loved that," Debbie said, almost as a sigh, "I've never been kissed like that in my freaking life before, but unless you want to forego the Christmas that I promised you, we'd better get moving." Khensa nodded and they walked off, holding hands and still feeling the surprised shock of something that nice. -------------------------------- "Do Shm'Sha people do what we've done?" Debbie asked as they walked through the mall, still holding hands, "I mean, do they ever pair off as couples of the same sex?" Khensa nodded, "Yes. It has always been so. There is always a percentage of the population who do this. I read somewhere that this has only happened for humans within the past few hundred years. For us, it is a natural thing. If we met another Shm'Sha here, it wouldn't even be a surprise to him or her -- other than the differences in our species." "Haven't Shm'Sha ever married apes before?" Debbie asked. "You are not an ape, Debbie. You are a human. The apes on your home world were only the starting point of your origins. I do not know if it has ever happened. I think that statistically, it must have. I doubt that we could have been the first pair in a hundred years. It doesn't stand to reason out of probability alone." Debbie pulled Khensa over to her and she smiled as she kissed Khensa's long ear for a second in a hidden way while breathing in that wonderful scent, "Listen, I'm amazed and pretty happy to find that I have something that I want to explore with you. I liked you as soon as I laid eyes on you. I just didn't ever expect this. I've never done something like this, but I really, really want to now. So, just allow me to feel a little bit, ... uh, primal here in a way. The thought of being your ape is a very surprising one for me. But I like it, Khensa. Please don't tell me that I have to stop now." "You do not have to stop," Khensa smiled as she looked at Debbie, "I only thought that you were saying it in a self-depreciating manner which I didn't like if that were the reason for it. As far as my feelings go, I am, ..." she searched for the word for a second, "thrilled. I am feeling thrilled at the thought of being out shopping for Christmas with my new bride. We did not plan this, though I felt much the same as I think you did when we met. The first moment when I knew that you had to be the one that I was looking to meet was a difficult one for me. I had to force myself to speak." Debbie felt the words come to her as palpable things and she kissed Khensa right there in the mall, in front of everyone for a long moment. "I don't know how this is going to work out or even if it will work at all," she said, "All that I know is that right now, I'm feeling hope inside of me. I haven't felt something like that for a long time, so as odd as this is between us if you look at it from outside, it doesn't feel that way to me. I love this feeling." As they walked on through the mall, Khensa's eye caught the small flash of red, green and white up above the central part of the main hall where all of the other halls met. There was something attached to the underside of one of the structural braces which held up the cathedral style roof. She pointed, "What is that up there? It looks to be a small type of plant growing on the metal." It took Debbie a second to see it and she sighed with a smile, "It's not growing there. It can't grow there for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it's fake and made of plastic, and for another, it's supposed to look like a parasitic plant which grows on living trees back on Earth. That's a plastic imitation of a sprig of mistletoe that someone has hung up there for Christmas. It's deadly poison if you eat a real one, but it's also a really old Christmas tradition. People hang it up at this time of year. If you see somebody that you like, but you don't really know yet, or if it's a person that you just like, you can stand under it and if they see you there, they have to kiss you. Long ago, boys could kiss girls there like that, but they had to pluck one of the white berries off after each kiss. Once all the berries are gone, you can't have any more kisses until you hang up another sprig. Come on." She dragged Khensa under the mistletoe and she threw her arms around her neck to kiss her, and in a moment, she felt it as Khensa returned her joy with kisses of her own and they stood there for a time kissing. "I have found another human tradition that I love," Khensa chuckled. As they turned to go, Khensa felt the tug on her sleeve and looked back. There was a human male there with a leering grin and his breath almost fumed in the air between them from the booze that he'd been drinking at lunch. "Hey," he smiled sloppily, "you don't need to kiss her if you want somebody to smooch on. Kiss me, and I'll kiss her after." Khensa turned to Debbie, "Must I?" Debbie shook her head, "No, of course not." Khensa nodded and moved to walk away, but the man hung onto her sleeve. "Hey, what am I, chopped liver?" Khensa's face changed a little in an instant as she turned her head back with her long ears lowered flat against her head and her lips pulling back from her teeth. "Do you wish to be?" she asked in a low snarl. He let her go and they walked off. ------------------------------- They didn't intend it, but they found that their purchases mounted up a little in no time, so Debbie bought a little wheeled carrier to drag along behind them as they went. Most of what they'd bought was food, though there were a couple of bottles of wine as well. As they were leaving the wine shop, Debbie looked over across the mall for a moment. "I've never been close enough to really look whenever I saw Anubian couples shopping together in here," she said, "Is there a way to show that a pair of them are married? Humans use rings to show it." Khensa nodded, "It depends on the time in history. The first things were collars worn by both partners. Later on, we wore bracelets which were too small to be removed and were worn forever. These days though, many of us seem to have taken the human symbol of rings, though I have seen couples who use all of those things at the same time. I have always thought that those ones must have done it while in the first blushes of their love after being wed." "That sounds really nice," Debbie smiled, "We're not like that though -- at least, I don't know. This is all really strange to me, since I only met you today. But I do want something to start with -- since we seem to be together in a strange little fairy-tale somehow. ----------------------------- The sales clerk at the jewellery store that Debbie had seen looked very surprised. "Do you want like a matched set or something?" Debbie nodded, "Yup. Nothing really fancy though. We'd like to see some matched wedding rings." When the clerk looked up, Debbie smiled, "We just got married." The clerk's eyes widened as she regarded Khensa, but she was profit-oriented enough to smile and offer her congratulations. As she searched a little in an effort to present them with a good selection, she thought about it. She didn't have much of a thought about two females together at all. She was only thinking about their different species and she wondered how Debbie had even gotten the Anubian to notice her, never mind want to marry her. A Beautiful Beast for Christmas To her, Debbie was a stunning, though understated beauty, but in her experience, these Anubians never showed that they wanted to even speak to a human at all, if it could be avoided. She looked back once and she saw them standing together just like any other couple who came to her shop to buy something. They were standing a little close to each other, feeling it, she guessed and the thing of it was that she saw hope there in them both. Given that they were two very different creatures, she silently wished them both the best of luck. She didn't care much, but she thought that they were probably going to have to face all the same issues as anyone else -- only more of them, that was all. She was in her third marriage now and she already knew that it was going to land on the skids at some point in the not too distant future if things went on as they were. Three different men, the same result every time. She was wondering what was wrong with her own selection process, if that was what it was. She looked back again and they were standing with their arms around each other, talking quietly with smiles as they pointed to other articles now and then. She turned away and pulled out the last of the two selection boxes that she was thinking of showing them and she shrugged to herself. Maybe they had the right idea, who the hell could say? ----------------------- After the transaction had gone through, the clerk thought herself a little lucky that she had a pair of rings that they'd liked in both of their sizes, though it had been a little weird to see the human woman bring up a concern. She'd watched as the Anubian got down on all fours to find out if the ring would cause her any discomfort in walking. "I wish you all the best," she smiled sincerely as she handed Debbie the receipt, "and Merry Christmas." "Merry Christmas to you as well," Khensa said as they turned to go. As she watched them, the woman stood in a bit of shock. The Anubian had returned her sentiment and she wondered how much she knew of the custom. ----------------------------- "It's much warmer in here now," Khensa smiled as they walked through the door of Debbie's craft. "I keep the outer window covers closed to help retain the heat," Debbie smiled, "As I recall, that was a big selling point when you're out in space. You just keep them closed up and use the navigational cams that are built into the outside in a few places. Unless you're docking or something, you don't need to actually look out through the windscreens." They took off their coats and started right in to put up the bits of tinsel and the other decorations and then Debbie pulled out the little Christmas tree to stand it up and plug it in. Khensa sighed as she looked at it and began to sink to her knees. She was obviously in love with it and Debbie felt a rather strong desire right then to look for a real tree somewhere so that the Anubian could see the symbol in more of the splendor which something such as that was supposed to have. It didn't matter much, she supposed. It was the thought that counted after all, and if this lovely creature could get the feeling from her poor little fake approximation of the real thing, well that was alright. "Deborah," Khensa smiled after a while, looking a little nervous, "It is warm here and I think that it is warm enough to feel comfortable to you, I hope. I am a little too warm, being trapped in my fur coat. If you think that there is little chance that we would be disturbed now, I wonder if it would be alright for me to remove my clothes. May I? Or would that make you uncomfortable?" Debbie laughed, "I've been wanting to see something like that all day! Please do that and I'll go lock the door." "You mean, to keep intruders out?" Khensa asked but Debbie laughed even more as she shook her head with a grin, "Nope, to keep you in!" Khensa stared for a moment and then she just smiled, "As you have said it, we're married now." She began to remove her clothing. Debbie got hold of herself before she found herself staring at Khensa's struggle to get her tight jeans off. It was at that point that she found that Khensa had a tail, though it wasn't thick or anything. It protruded through an opening at the back of Khensa's jeans and she helped to guide it through as the girl stood bent over a little, wiggling her hips to get the waist of the open jeans past her buns. "Hold it. Hold on," Debbie grinned as they laughed together, "I never thought that it could be such a predicament. A good thing you have a wife to get you dressed - and undressed now. Just uh, waddle backwards until you're against the foot of the bed." Khensa complied, rather embarrassed now that it had proven to be so difficult just to get her pants off. She stood there, feeling the bed against the backs of her lower legs. "And? Now what?" she asked. Debbie just grinned, "This part is easy." She walked up and pushed Khensa over backwards so that she fell onto the bed. Then she grabbed the cuffs of the pants and began to tug until she had them off. She looked at the small, oddly-shaped lump in Khensa's thong for only long enough for it to register and then she looked away, smiling down at Khensa. "What a beauty," she sighed and Khensa smiled her nervous thanks. "Can I please unwrap my gift a little early?" Khensa looked up for a moment in a little uncertainty and then she nodded. Debbie pulled Khensa's thong off and she helped by lifting her hips. Debbie looked down and she saw that Khensa's cleft sure didn't resemble the classic camel toe. It was dark and looked something like a black plum sticking out of her with a bit of a pronounced upward point to the portion where her clitoris obviously hid under its hood there. Where the line would be on the plum, was the slit between her lips. Khensa had been very nervous about this moment between them. She knew that she was rather different from human females and she wondered if it might put Debbie off. But Debbie only smiled as she got onto the bed beside her, still fully dressed as she sat on one hip and looked down into Khensa's face. "I'll never know how I could ever get this lucky," she smiled before she lowered her head to kiss Khensa very slowly. While Khensa groaned softly, Debbie ran her hand over her breastbone and slid it over to cup one of Khensa'a breasts. "I was afraid that you might not like me," the Anubian said. "I was afraid to see you like this while I was standing up," the human smiled, "I know now that I was right and I'd have felt a little stupid when I fell to my knees. She shook her head slowly, "You're different. So what? I think that we should celebrate things like that. That's one of the attractions that you must have to want an ape. It's also one of the attractions to me that draws me to you. It's not the whole thing, Khensa, but it's a very sweet thrill that we can enjoy with each other all the same." She leaned down and kissed one black nipple, licking it to wet it before she squeezed it softly with her lips. Khensa's long sigh was a thrill for her to hear. She kept at it while her hand drifted over the soft dark fur on its way lower, over the rock hard and flat belly to where she began to trace around the plum with her fingers. "This is very nice," she sighed into Khensa'a ear as her fingertips touched the sides of the dark protrusion gently. It was very firm, she noticed, and it was moist in the middle. When she looked at it again, she was a little surprised to see that it had grown a little bit, but then she thought a little about the equivalency of the purpose of these things, both hers and Khensa's, so she knew almost at once after that that it had grown out of Khensa'a arousal, much the same way that her own lips there tended to get a little pouty when she was aroused -- like, ... well, like right then. She guessed that somehow, there might not be the room for it and so on Khensa -- and she had to assume that it was the same for all Anubian females -- that when it went puffy, it also came out just a little. She thought it looked nice and it fit with the rest of things. "I'll make you a bargain," she smiled as she pulled her head back to look into those eyes that she was already falling for, "We can either begin now -- and I warn you that I haven't really got a clue, or we can enjoy our first evening together at Christmastime and save the loving until later." Khensa groaned so softly that it almost came out as a whine, "I want you right now, but I think it is better to wait until later. What do you think?" Debbie just had to know, so she slid one fingertip over the line which parted the fruit and she brought it to her mouth in a rather rare moment of purposeful daring, now that they were on the bed and all. "I think," she said before Khensa watched her tongue slip out of her mouth to lick the moisture from her finger, "that my husband is a very wise girl." She leaned down to kiss Khensa for a moment and then she sat back again, "I also think," she smiled, "That I'm a very lucky one who's just discovered that I love the way that you taste, so I think, ..." She leaned down and waggled her eyebrows a little comically, "that I've been an idiot for all of this time for not trying something like this. But I've got you now, and I'm going to keep you, Baby." She looked up with a soft laugh at herself, "I'm so happy and it's even better that it's Christmas. I like to see the things that you see through your eyes because it makes me appreciate what I always took for granted." When Khensa got up, Debbie removed her clothes and they gave in to just one long kissing embrace before continuing with the decorations, though it was incredibly difficult for them both to do. "I'd probably get used to seeing you this way," Debbie smiled as she stood leaning against Khensa with her fingers toying at the Anubian's tail where it met her long flanks, "But I'm hoping that it takes a good long while for me to come to get used to this thrill, but if I had my way, as good as you look in any clothing, I'd prefer to keep you naked around here. Khensa's lips pulled into a slow smile then, "I love to look at you as well, so, I will if you will." With it settled, they got back to work, sneaking little peeks at each other and grinning when they knew they'd been caught at it. ------------------- As the evening wore on, Debbie turned on her larger mapping display and she found the tiny memory drive that contained the carols and images of winter and roaring fireplaces and huge Christmas trees, winter scenes from Earth and all of the stuff which looked so cheesy at any other time of the year, but at Christmas, it looked just grand. Debbie knew that she'd more than likely have to explain it all to Khensa and she really did, though she didn't mind it a bit as they sat together on the edge of the bed with Khensa's lovely face set in a look of absolute wonder at it all. Debbie found that it gave her a very nice feeling to show these things to Khensa, and perhaps even more, she liked the way that her Anubian was beginning to feel comfortable enough with her to allow her aloofness to fall from her more and more. The microwave ran over and over, cooking up the frozen hors d'œuvres that they'd found. The little oven ran as well to keep everything from cooling too much until everything was ready. Khensa stared at it all. "Ok, the thing here is to try a little of everything," Debbie explained as she held out the large plate that they were to share from, "You might not like some of this. You might even hate it, but that's the way it goes. If you don't like something, then don't eat it. This is just something light to eat and it ought to be fun." She pulled the bottle of wine out of the fridge and twisted off the cap. "The way that it used to be done on Earth is that the bottles were plugged with cork. You needed a tool called a corkscrew to pull it out. Now, you can't even get wine in a corked bottle out here to save your life." They toasted each other and drank one glass with their meal together and after that, they sat on the floor, leaning back against the foot of the bed while they leaned against each other and stared at the tiny little blinking lights of the tree with the cabin lights out. "I was thinking of your Christmas with Tesem," Debbie smiled, "and it reminded me of our Christmases while we were at college, Robby and me. We'd planned forever to go together, and we were poor as mice when we finally got there and paid our tuition. We had it set up so that we could draw enough to live on though we both worked as we could. There was more tuition money in the account, but we set it up to only be released at the times when we needed it to go on in our studies. We didn't even have enough to buy a little tree like that one, but we knew that just one time, we wanted to have a real Christmas tree. Well it just happened that there had been many Earth crops planted there and spruce trees were one species of them. On some worlds, it's big business growing Christmas trees. So, very late one night, Robby and I went out to a vacant field not too far away from where we lived -- like it was right out back and all. The place was scheduled to be built over for more housing and we knew that all of the trees out there just growing wild would be bulldozed down one day." She looked over to see Khensa there hanging on every word. "And?" she asked, "What then?" Debbie shrugged, "We did something that neither of us had ever done before in our lives. We stole one." Khensa sat with her jaw in her lap. "How is that done?" she asked, "How do you steal a tree?" "Put your arm around me and I'll tell you," Debbie smiled softly. When they sat back again, Debbie smiled even more to feel Khensa's arm around her and her other very warm hand cupping one of her breasts very carefully with her thumb just grazing her nipple back and forth very slowly. She slipped her hand down so that she could hold Khensa'a 'plum' with her hand. It came to her then that every single time that she'd ever felt anything of the Anubian's body against hers, there had always been that warmth. Being a human woman, she thought, she could get used to that quite easily. She wanted to grin, but she held it back when she realized that this wonderful person that she was coming to know wore a full-time fur coat. She almost laughed. She'd never feel cold in her bed again. She went on, "We knew that whoever owned that land wouldn't care about the trees or anything else which grew there on it wild, but we also felt that it was wrong to do. We tried to find out so that we might ask, but we couldn't get anywhere and Christmas was coming up in only a day. So while Robby was on his knees in the snow, sawing the poor thing down, I kept a lookout and wondered just how loud a handsaw could sound in the dark of the night. When we finally had it down, we just carried it off, though he went back right away to sweep our tracks with an evergreen bough while I got out the very few cheap decorations that we'd managed to buy. After that, we set it up and decorated it as best we could for a couple of poor students far from home. It was the best Christmas ever to us. We didn't know a soul there that far from the school, since it was the only place that we could afford to rent, so we just stayed home and studied and I baked cookies and we fucked like bunnies in the living room over the Christmas break." She laughed a little, "We didn't see our bed the whole time. We'd just turn out the lights after plugging in the tree lights and we made love and went to sleep when we couldn't do it anymore." She had a thought then and she looked at Khensa. "I know that it's a little foreign to you in some ways, and I don't really know what you know about the meaning of it all, but having sex really isn't an official part of it at all. I guess that when you're young and on your own and if you're got somebody that you care for, it's just something that I'd guess happens a lot, that's all." "I know that," Khensa said, "That was a wonderful story. I could imagine it easily. Do you think that we will make love tonight?" The question was a little odd to Debbie, but she didn't mind. She looked over into Khensa's eyes for a moment and she saw exactly what she'd had a hope to see there. She kissed Khensa softly and smiled a little, "Other than kissing, I really don't know much about the way that it goes with another girl, Khensa, but to me, you're very beautiful and I know that I want to make love with you very much." She sat up and half-turned a little more as she reached for the Anubian's far shoulder with her hand. "Through our little misadventure, we're married. I think that it was something that we did as a matter of convenience so that we could live here together as roommates. But I think that I've had little thoughts of wondering about it even before that. That is what I seem to feel about it. I mean, I know that we're very different, but I don't care about that. I even like it. Now, I'm sitting here with the girl that we needed to say would be my husband and the soft scent of her fur makes me want her even more." She leaned in and kissed Khensa for a long time, both of them moaning a little as their tongues found each other and danced. When they pulled apart, Debbie smiled again as she ran her fingers through Khensa's cornrow hair for a moment, loving the feel of the little beads there. "I know that we didn't exactly pick the day that we met for it, but this is our wedding night, so I'd really like to try if you'll be patient with me until I get the hang of it." Khensa nodded, "This has been the most amazing day for me. In one day, I met someone who I had an immediate desire to know, just on sight. It has never happened to me before." She looked up at the ceiling for a second, as though she just wanted to laugh and then she looked into Debbie's blue eyes again. "At the end of that magical day, I find that she is my wife and now wants to make it, ... what is the word?" Debbie thought, wondering what it was that Khensa wanted to say and then it came to her. "When two people get married in a human culture, I think they can say and do about anything that they want, but it doesn't count in a legal way until they mate together. We call that consummating the marriage." "Ah, yes," Khensa grinned, "that is what I wished to say." "In fact," Debbie went on, "if you wanted to erase all of this, we just have to do nothing and have our marriage annulled. It doesn't count if we don't have sex together within a reasonable period, like a couple of days, I think." But Khensa shook her head at that, "No, Deborah, we must. I do not want to erase anything and I would not want to hurt the heart of the one that I care for so much in so little time. I saw you there on the bench waiting for me this morning. I didn't know that it was you who I was going to meet with, but, I really hoped that it was. I do not believe in this old god of humans, this Anubis character. After my life this far, I did not believe in anything anymore, but when I watched you walk into the place and sit down, looking at your phone, I had such a hope, and though I have been with another female before, it was nothing special to me, since it was in that time when I had become so lax and jaded. Today?" She really did laugh then, "I sat there wondering which god or deity that I had to thank for my incredible luck to have even seen a beauty like you. And to learn that she likes me so much that she would do what we did -- all while telling ourselves and each other that we were only doing it to be able to share a place to live in." A Beautiful Beast for Christmas She nodded while looking right into Debbie's eyes, "Our first kiss changed everything. Our second removed the veils that we both hid behind." "What about your search for Tesem?" Debbie asked a little uncertainly. "If he is here, then I must find him so that I can introduce him to you proudly. I still want to see him, though it is more to see if he is well and happy. But that is for tonight -- if he were to walk in through the door right now. If I can have just a little more of this wonderful day's luck, then I will be able to introduce him to the one who holds my heart as well. I now wish to try to make it so." Debbie chuckled softly as she leaned over to kiss Khensa softly, "You give me just once chance, Khensa, and I think that I'd reach to grab your heart and never let it go." ------------------------------ While Debbie poured them another glass of wine, Khensa picked up the empty plate to take to the little galley. She considered the crumbs there for a moment, "Such little things they were, and yet I am full to bursting." "Well don't do it," Debbie laughed as she brought their glasses in and set them down on the nightstand by the bed, "This place might be roomier than your ship, but it's still small, so bursting is not allowed. In fact, I forbid it." When Khensa stepped out of the galley and looked over toward the bed, her heart just seemed to crash inside of her and her lungs felt as though they'd snagged somehow. The lights were still off and the only light in the room came from the tiny little winking LEDs on the tree. It lent a warm and soft glow to everything and one of those things was Debbie's body as she lay on the bed with a smile. "I may not know what I'm doing once we start, but I have heard that Anubians are really good lovers, so I'm kind of hoping just a little now that you might just show me a little of the uh, legend." Khensa smiled very slowly as she got down on the floor and crept onto the bed, coming to Debbie on all fours. It might have looked a little sexy if she'd been human, but the truth of it was that she wasn't. She was something which, depending on need or circumstance could also be a quadruped. As far as Debbie was concerned, she thought that Khensa could look sexy just brushing her teeth -- and she knew that, having seen it only minutes before. Now? The slow way that the Anubian slunk over across the room in a rather sultry and predatorial way, with her yellow eyes gleaming now and then with the reflected light from the glow of the tree and her mouth open just a little -- just enough to catch the other gleam from her long teeth, ... Debbie felt herself grow sopping wet for Khensa in a little over a heartbeat. "I felt different to you when we stood and hugged without clothes on?" Khensa asked. Debbie nodded, not really knowing if she could even speak right then. "It is because of one of our differences, "Khensa smiled. "What I have protrudes much more than what might be on any human female. I hope that you will like what I have there for you." She moved her front part onto the bed and she just kept coming, so inexorably slowly that Debbie almost whimpered. To her surprise, Khensa didn't move to get beside her. She just poured herself uphill like a slightly threatening shadow and she moved over Debbie and looked down with a mildly feral grin. Debbie noticed the hidden strength of that dark body and she saw the shape of it and felt the way that it had it's effect on her at the same time. For just a thin slice of time, she also saw that plum and the way that the point of it now protruded even more. It reminded her of the prow of a sailing ship, for God's sake, she thought. "I wondered why you wished to list me as the husband between us. It confused me, since where I am from, when females pair in a marriage, there is no distinction made as to their roles. I am not so much of one who could feel comfortable in that role all of the time, so I hope that you can understand that. But for now," she sighed in a rather wickedly wanton tone, "I must to prove my prowess in lovemaking, I think. Such a, ... delicious task that you have set me to." She smiled then, and while Debbie saw lust in that lovely dark face, she also saw a lot more. She tried to smile up, but she doubted that Khensa saw anything other than a rather weak attempt. It had come to Debbie's mind that the way that they were between them as animals left little doubt as to which one would be the more efficient killer out in the wild. "What are you thinking?" the dark girl asked and Debbie told her in an almost trembling voice. Khensa smiled again, still slow as molasses and it was a lot more friendly then as well. "That might be so," she said almost as a whisper as she lowered her face to nuzzle against the human's cheek for a moment, "but I would never hurt you. In fact, I think that today has taught me something about myself. That fool in the mall who wanted to kiss us in his drunkenness? For just the briefest moment, I wanted to kill him. But the thought passed instantly. Right now, ... at this moment," she said as she lowered herself slowly onto Debbie's body, ... "I wish to claim what is mine." As they looked into each other's eyes, Debbie felt the way that Khensa adjusted herself so that her plum -- that sweet, wild and delicious-looking firmness between her legs found its way forward and pressed against Debbie's outer lips in a teasing sort of way. Debbie gasped a little to feel it and Khensa pushed forward a little, seeking the right place to begin. A few moments later, and Debbie felt her lips -- both sets -- being parted and she knew that the dark little hood over Khensa's clitoris had completely receded, just by listening to the change in her lover's breathing. Khensa moved then, thrusting very slowly, still in a slightly experimental way, and Debbie thought a little more of the shape of that wonderful plum. It could also be a plowblade. The next thrust spread Debbie even more and she felt the intrusion of Khensa's much longer clitoris as it slipped inside of her to actually penetrate her for a short distance. Her hands flew up to touch Khensa's shoulders and hang on because she had no choice in it somehow. The third thrust caused her to groan and she threw her head back in response. The sight of that lovely throat there under her, open and exposed in that manner was the last of the common animal stimuli that Khensa could stand. She began to move more and harder every time that she plowed into Debbie's furrow and she lowered her head to take that throat in her long teeth, just to hold as she mated her human -- just to squeeze so very lightly now and again as her tongue lapped the bare pale skin there. Debbie got it -- what this was to signify -- even if Khensa wasn't really aware of it. This was Khensa taking her mate, claiming what was hers as she'd said. She felt one of Khensa'a long hands take hold of her breast and it added to what was becoming something wild to Debbie. She didn't mind it. She cried out as her hands flew over the short fur on her lover's back. She spread her legs as much as she was able, trying to offer that pure and magnificently female plow just a little more furrow. Fuck that, Debbie thought, she drew her legs back to give Khensa all the furrow that she had to give to her. "AaaAh! UhhUH, AaaaAHH!" the strange wild noises seemed to fill the air in the little camper craft and Debbie wondered why Khensa would make them, until she realized that it was her own throat which was the source. Khensa was breathing like a bellows right up against her throat and just below her ear. The most complex sound that she made was "rrrr,...rrrr,...rrrr," on and on like that. "Yes!" Debbie cried, "Oh, Khens, Oh Khensa, Oh Ohh! Oh fuck. Fu -- fuck me Khensa, oh God, OH!" Debbie's own clitoris felt like it was humming every time that Khensa's slipped underneath it to lift it a little. She wondered how this could feel so good. In spite of the way that she could feel that little thing slide in and out of her, it didn't make sense, since there was no great prick filling her here. Khensa released Debbie's throat and she looked down into those hypnotic and dangerous blue eyes, so foreign to her, so crystalline and pure. Debbie looked up and she saw the golden orbs there above her and she felt naked somehow in their light. It was as if they were taking knowledge from her about how she felt and offered nothing back. Until she saw Khensa blink. Then she saw that they took nothing at all, but were giving to her as Khensa smiled in her joy at making her Deborah happy. Debbie seized that head and pulled it down while she opened her mouth to offer it to her beast. Khensa took Debbie's sweet mouth in much the same manner as she took her in this mating. It was hard and a little ferocious and most of all, it was very loving as well. For the first time since that horrible night when she'd opened the door to hear that her Robby was dead, Debbie's heart flew in her chest and she noticed then that Khensa no longer held her breast at all. Khensa's incredible body was now being held up by her strong arms so that her nipples and her amazing furry breasts could tease Debbie's every time that she pushed forward. It was a little annoying at first. It was like a pair of tickles that you couldn't ever scratch because the sense would be gone if you did. It was really nice, now that she thought about it and ... It was just fucking awesome as the whole thing came to her in a flash of realization. She was being fucked so amazingly well by her huge black-furred beast. The arrival of that thought coincided with the waves from her crotch. Her nipples seemed to have re-established that long-forgotten connection to her crotch somehow and, and, ... Debbie threw her head back into the pillow and she heard the first few faint clicks from her neck and she just knew. It hit her then, that first strong blasting wave that hadn't even given her fair warning. She lifted her shoulders off the bed and tilted her head back even more as she cried out with her mouth open wide. Khensa saw it and it brought her own rushing crash to her. She fucked faster, harder, faster still, as though she was trying to outrun her own orgasm to stay just a little ahead of the wave, just a little more, a little longer, so that her Deborah might finish well. She'd never said a thing, not wanting to jinx this on both sides at once, but for the Shm'Sha, to finish poorly or weakly in a first coupling was regarded as a way to presage the pairing from that point on, so it was paramount to finish well the very first time. Khensa knew it was a pile of dung. But it was the popular nonsensical custom back there. As though she needed even more pressure. It was daunting enough to want to please someone so beautiful and foreign to her. She sure didn't need to keep thinking of some old Anubian wive's tale. Debbie was pushing against her as though she was trying to sit up and Khensa reached to hold her tightly as she allowed a little room for the motion. In the next moment, she felt Debbie's face against the side of hers, crying out into her ear a little painfully and trying to kiss her so needfully at the same time. She couldn't believe the sounds that she was hearing. "Oh Khensa, Oh, Oh Khensa, oh, oh, Ah, Ahh, AAhh, ... KhenSAAAAAAAAaaaaaa." She tried to hold on to Deborah while still allowing the insane way that she seemed to want to writhe for several long moments until she just lowered the two of them down onto the bed with a groan. There were long minutes of only their breathing and silence otherwise for a time as Khensa focused on the ceiling and the way that the colored lights danced their magical combinations of hues up there. Debbie seemed to lunge at her from out of nowhere on her left side to press her head against her chest for a moment before shifting so that she could take one of Khensa'a nipples in her mouth to suckle very softly, like a newborn who already had a full belly, but just wanted the security of her mother's breast against her little face. Khensa smiled to herself. She'd made love to a human female, of all things. And it had been wonderful. "I think," Debbie began and it sounded a little like a croak then. "I'm not completely sure because, ..." she raised her head to look at the display on the clock built into the wall, "I've only known you for, ... well, it's now our second day, Khensa." The Anubian smiled even wider, thoroughly entertained by Debbie trying and failing to say something which just had to be important to her somehow. She reached to hold Debbie and stroke the lovely blonde hair which fascinated her so for a moment, "There was something which you wished to say, but I don't think that you ever got there." Debbie looked at her and nodded before she lowered her head to kiss that nipple again and hold onto the breast with both hands as she began to suckle once more. She stopped finally and only moved her head enough so that she could whisper very slowly, dragging her lips over the nipple and causing Khensa to almost flinch, though she didn't, loving the sensation so much. "I think I love you, Khensa," Debbie whispered, "It's too early to be sure. I just know how I feel. But it's the 24th now. That makes it Christmas Eve, though it's still pretty early. Just as soon as I can, I'm gonna get up and make love to you, you wonderful, incredible fucking awesome girl." There was silence for a few moments as Debbie seemed to concentrate on the nipple in front of her while Khensa stroked her head. "Fuck it," Debbie sighed, "I may as well say it. If I can't make this work -- and even at Christmas, ... Khensa, I love you. Please love me back and whatever you do, don't you dare leave me or go to work at a job on the outside, ok? Ok?" Khensa turned over a little to take Debbie into her arms and she sighed from the tightness of Debbie's hug. "I love you too, Deborah. Merry Christmas." ------------------------- Khensa listened to Debbie's soft breathing. From the sound of it, she was asleep. Khensa thought it was sweet to listen to her. She remembered what had been said about making love to her, but she guessed that it had been a long day for the human and she might be tired out. She'd never had a human lover before, so she didn't know. And anyway, she didn't really mind, either. It had been a long day for her too. From wanting to share a living space to ending up married and making love to that, she smiled as she looked over at what to her was the most beautiful person that she'd ever seen. She hadn't yet, but she intended to ask Deborah about these angel things, almost certain that her lover shared a little of that lineage. She eased herself off the bed and she stepped over to the nightstand. There were the two glasses of wine there, a little forgotten now. From what she knew, she couldn't just pour it back into the bottle. It seemed a bit of a shame to her. The thought caused her to look at Deborah again as another smile began on her face. It hadn't been all that long ago that nothing had seemed like a shame to her. Her life had been one long endless round of parties and male and female bodies either in the beds that she passed through or passing through her own bed. Now she looked over at her beautiful blonde ape again and she knew that she'd probably never want anyone else again. She knew that Deborah would make good on her promise to make love to her at some point in the near future. She walked to the galley to pour out the wine as she thought about that for a moment. She realized that she was holding her glass and she raised it to her lips. She'd only had time to swallow once and then Deborah was there in front of her, apologizing for drifting off. "It's alright, Deborah," she smiled in a bit of surprise, "A long day, I do not mind." "Well I mind," Debbie said seriously, "I'm so sorry." She took the other wineglass from Khensa and she threw back about a third of it. "I can't afford to buy wine that I won't drink," she smiled. "So set your glass down, honey -- that is, unless you're sophisticated enough to be able to hold it up while I do this. You're my husband now. So it's my job, the way that I see it, to keep you pleased. You wanted to know why I told Phil that you were the husband? The answer is that I just knew. I don't want us to be set in any way, Khensa. I just know that between us, you're the stronger one - and I'm coming to love that about you very much." Debbie began to kiss her way down Khensa'a front, making little side-trips to visit her breasts along the way as she went. Khensa shivered as she felt Debbie's hands holding on to her ribs and then sliding down to keep pace with her amazing mouth as it nibbled and grazed its way over the furry plains around and below her navel. And then farther south. Khensa felt Debbie's hands as they took hold of her flanks and then she felt the first of the kisses, like little butterflies as Debbie kissed her wet way around that part of her which was so unusual to a human girl. She sipped her wine, knowing that soon, there'd be little chance of it. She looked down and felt her heart taken to see her sweet human beauty as she tried -- and failed -- to open her mouth wide enough so that she could close it over what she referred to as 'Khensa's magical plum'. She gave up her attempt after another moment and then Khensa watched as Debbie began to lick and suck as well as any pro. She leaned back against the counter and she reached to hold Debbie's head, whimpering and cooing out her own love to the girl on her knees before her. For someone who'd never done it before, Debbie had Khensa bucking her hips against her face in pretty much record time while Khensa's tail moved forward to tickle Debbie's flat belly where she could just to hear her giggle. It was over not long afterward and she helped her girl up off the floor. "I've gotta find a tissue for my face, "Debbie began, but Khensa only spun her around and kissed her, licking what she could away at the same time. "Take me to bed, Deborah," she smiled as she felt Debbie's arm slip around her waist, "We need to conserve our strength for the coming days." "Huh?" Debbie looked up and Khensa smiled as she got under the covers and waited for her lover to join her, "How do you mean?" "I think that we must go and buy some more food before we do much more of anything," Khensa grinned, "and then, of course, maybe a little more wine. I will pay for it all if you will continue to teach me." Debbie looked down at her Anubian there in her arms with a soft smile and a little shrug, "What do you want to learn from me, Khensa?" "Well, I love to listen to your tales. I enjoy them so much. But sometimes I have a question over some point or other and I am afraid to interrupt you, so then, ..." She sighed as she reached to hold one of the blonde's breasts, "Well the questions return to me later on, though the circumstances have changed and I am afraid to mention it again." "Like what, Khensa? Ask me anything. I'll always try to help you." "Well," Khensa began, as she began to feel a little tired herself and also a little of the effects of the glass of wine as it hit her bloodstream, "You spoke of baking cookies and I do not know what they are or why one might wish to bake them." Debbie leaned down and kissed Khensa's forehead, "Then that's something else that we're going to do when we get up. We need to buy a few more things so that I can bake you some Christmas cookies. They're for eating, in case I wasn't clear." A Beautiful Beast for Christmas "Oh," Khensa smiled and nodded a little in a way that just took Debbie's heart away, "Well what are bunnies then? I do not even know what they are, but from your story, I think that I must -- at some point during this Christmastime -- learn to fuck like one for you." Debbie laughed as she slid down next to Khensa, "Just go to sleep now, Baby. I'll explain it all to you in the morning and then show you properly after dinner sometime."