AN: This story started out because I had a visual of the last scene in my mind. I didn't expect it to turn out as relationally nuanced as it did. The parts exploring touch and pack bonding took me by surprise, but I think the story is richer for it.
Caine meandered down the dark street with Jupiter's hand tucked in his elbow. A small smile played over his lips as he thought about their "date." She had explained the word to him. Apparently it had connotations beyond the identification of a particular day. It seemed to include courting rituals and a gathering of friends.
They had shared a meal and then listened to a musical performance in the park, a pleasant way to relax. But somehow, doing it with Jupiter made it more significant. His heart glowed with a contentment deeper than he'd felt before. When he was with her, everything was better and brighter.
He sighed softly as he stopped in front of her house. "Good night, Your Majesty."
Jupiter looked around and spotted a chaise lounge in the front yard. "This evening was amazing. I don't want it to end. Let's sit for a while."
They started out sitting side by side with Jupiter leaning into him, her head on his shoulder, her fingers idly tracing the pattern on his shirt. A warm summer breeze batted tendrils of her hair around his face. Her lovely warm scent wafted up and enveloped him. He didn't want the evening to end either. There was nothing better than having his queen happy and in his arms.
"Caine?" She looked up at him. "Hold me, please."
"My pleasure." He turned to recline in the chaise and then pulled her onto his lap. She laid her head on his chest, her hand resting on his bicep. For a while she drifted between awake and asleep.
When her weight became uncomfortable, he shifted her around. She nestled her head into the crook of his neck.
A moment later she sat up. "Caine, you're sweating even though it's cooling down."
"It's the coat." He shrugged apologetically. "I don't mind." And he truly didn't. He barely noticed mild discomforts anymore, not after military training, battle conditions and the Deadlands.
"So take it off. It's completely dark. Nobody will see your wings."
He sat up and shrugged out of the coat awkwardly. It wasn't easy to do while she was sitting in his lap.
After he settled back, she snuggled deeper into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder.
"You smell different tonight. Did you put on cologne or something?" she asked.
"No, Your Majesty. It's shampoo," he replied. Instead of using the portable sonic cleaner, he'd tried a shower when he'd cleaned up before their date. The sensation of water flowing over his skin was sensual, a luxury usually reserved for the wealthy.
"Well, you always smell good to me, and feel good to me too." She reached over his shoulder and stroked the edge of his wing.
He loved it when she touched him. All creatures needed positive touch to thrive. After years of deprivation, it was as if she was pulling him out of a tiny cell and showing him a galaxy's worth of tenderness. It was overwhelming, sometimes to the point where he had to ask her to stop.
From as early as he could remember touch had been about competition, about training and about fighting. Not finding a pack meant that he hadn't experienced the kindness of common touch often. He knew the harsh side of touch intimately: how to use his body to hurt others, what force was necessary to knock someone out or kill them, what it felt like to receive those kind of blows.
As he matured, he had given and received the slaps on the back or the punches to the shoulder that indicated camaraderie or congratulations, and occasionally he had engaged in sexual liaisons which necessitated physical touch.
But no one had ever touched him like she did. She was showing him the gentle side of touch, how it could be used to encourage, to show support, to bring pleasure, to demonstrate compassion. She did it because he liked it and because she wanted to. It brought both of them pleasure.
The simple touches, like her tapping him on the shoulder or grabbing his wrist to get his attention, meant more than he could put into words. He would never grow tired of the soft slide of her fingers along his skin. It felt like companionship, love and home all at once.
"It's amazing how soft the prosthetic is, but doesn't feel… I don't know… alive like skin does."
"I've always thought that skin was just skin, Your Majesty."
"No, there's something special about your skin. I can't really describe it, but it adds texture to the meaning of the word home somehow."
"Sounds to me like you're trying to describe 'pack,' Your Majesty," Caine responded. "For humans, home is usually a place, people, and perhaps objects that remind you of a feeling associated with them. Pack is broader. It's about smell and touch, togetherness and things I don't have words to describe, like another way of being family."
She sat up abruptly. "Wait, Stinger said you didn't have a pack."
He examined her carefully, trying to judge her reaction. He could tell her he was describing what he'd observed, which was true. But it wasn't the whole truth. He'd found pack with her. He didn't have words to explain it, but finding pack after so long was incredible, like he'd searched the entire universe and finally found the part of him that was missing.
But he wasn't sure if she was ready to hear it and he worried about what would happen if she took it the wrong way. But he did need to tell her, and it needed to be soon. He'd never get a better opening than this.
"I didn't." A knot of uncertainty lay just below the calm of his tone.
Her eyes searched his. "You used the past tense. That means you do now?"
He nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off of her.
"I… um…" He watched as she struggled for words, and then found them. "Are you saying you found pack with me?"
He nodded again, his heart in his throat. "Maybe that's why my skin seems different to you?"
She stood up and paced back and forth in front of him.
After a few minutes he couldn't handle it anymore. He called her by name to get her attention. "Jupiter, we don't have to talk about this tonight. You don't have to do anything. Please, let's enjoy the night a while longer. We can deal with it later, after you've had time to absorb the idea."
She nodded slowly and returned to his lap. He lowered his lips to hers, deliberately distracting her with a kiss. She kissed him back with an enthusiasm that surpassed their prior kisses. His head was swimming with the headiness of her – her taste, her aroma, the way her fingers danced along his hairline at the back of his neck.
He trained for all kinds of conditions, but this surpassed anything he'd ever experienced. It felt like vertigo, freefall and a recode rolled up together and floating in a transit beam.
He pulled back from the kiss and rested his forehead against hers, breathing her fragrance deeply to re-center himself. Her fingers continued down his neck until they reached the fabric of his shirt and then the beautiful zinging of his nerves stopped. He wanted more, needed more.
He snaked an arm around her to undo the clasps at the shoulder of his shirt. "Please, don't stop. I… you… that feels amazing."
His forehead still pressed to hers, he could feel the smile in the way her eyebrows moved as her fingers continued, tracing along his collarbone and then out to his shoulder and bicep. She stroked it gently for a moment as though thinking, and he held his breath in suspense, wondering what she would do next.
Suddenly, she pulled back and sat up straighter. In a smooth move, she undid the fasteners down the side of his shirt and pulled it across his body, exposing his chest.
She gave him a saucy grin. "This should help you cool down."
And, like he'd asked, she didn't stop. Her fingers explored the planes of his chest, leaving trails of fire in their wake.
After a few minutes, the slow exploration stopped and she yawned. "I'm sorry, Caine. I don't want to stop, but it was a long day before we had dinner and now I'm crashing. One last cuddle before I go in." She laid her head back down on his shoulder, rested a hand on his chest and snuggled into him. The next moment she was asleep.
He wrapped his arms around her, content to be her pillow. He watched her sleep, noticing when the tiny jerking of her fingers stilled as she shifted into REM.
After an hour or so, her skin began to feel cool. He shifted just enough to free his wings and then encircled her with them.
A loud shriek woke him hours later. He turned to see Aunt Nino standing in the predawn light, newspaper in hand.
Jupiter woke more slowly. "Caine?" She looked at him in confusion, still half asleep. He opened his wings as she sat up. "What's that?"
He jerked his head in the direction of her aunt. Seeing Nino shocked her into wakefulness. "We both fell asleep. She saw your wings."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Get a keeper here, quickly. Unless you have one of those things that blank people hiding in a pocket."
He shook his head gravely. While she headed toward her aunt, he tapped his com uplink to activate it and relayed her request, then he fixed his shirt and settled his coat over his now retracted wings. He made a mental note to always carry a blanker in the future.
Jupiter helped Nino to the porch stairs, speaking in a low calming voice. "It's okay, Nino. Nothing's wrong."
"But he…" She pointed in Caine's direction. "H… he has wings. People don't have wings."
"The keeper will be here momentarily, Your Majesty," Caine said. "I think it would be better if I made myself scarce. I'll see you later." He walked down the street and around the corner, then powered on his boots, surfed back to settle on her roof.
Caine listened from his perch as she told her aunt about him.
"That's Caine. He's my boyfriend. The one you keep asking about? I can't tell you his sign because he wasn't born on Earth. In fact, I'm pretty sure that he wasn't born the usual way at all. He can do the most amazing things. He's got these flying boots..."
Caine saw the telltale shimmer of the cloaked keeper as it arrived.
A blue flash and a moment later, Nino went back into the house as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Jupiter glanced up as if she knew he was there and then followed her aunt into the house to start the day.