Houseparty
0700 Hours, Winter 4th, 1994 (Local Time) Corneria City, CDSS
Weeks had passed, and the resident human had settled into routine with his feline hosts.
Logan was always one of the first awake, enjoying the quiet sunrise spilling lavender and gold across the retreating night sky. Crisp morning air had started to become chillier, and the onset of winter announced itself with gentle snowflakes passing the Lynx family household's windows.
Under the hum of the artificial lights, Logan busied himself in the kitchen. Hearty brown bread was toasted and buttered, a skillet fired up and eggs scrambled with a dash of salt and pepper. The meat strips which he'd initially mistook for bacon were actually from a farm animal common to the region, the name of which he couldn't pronounce. Bacon, he thought with a shrug, or close enough. Some persimmons were sliced, and he boiled water for the coffee. It too was a product of a bean he didn't recognize, but more or less equated to the same thing in UNSC space.
He found it curious how similar their cultures were in some respects, and how alien in others. Persimmons seemed to be the most popular fruit on Corneria, and seafood from Aquas was considered high class dining. Miyu's father Kyle had been helpful enough explaining some of the points to remember, particularly what constituted a classy date meal and what didn't. Hangry girls were dangerous, Kyle had said. Logan rolled his eyes at the Lynx's chuckles.
The rest of the family slowly filed into the little kitchen, with Catherine ruffling his hair for helping with breakfast again so early. With both parents working it was a welcome break having their alien tenant give them a hand.
Logan took a seat as he passed the hot sauce to Miyu, who looked completely bedraggled so early in the morning. Not an early rising kitty, that one.
"How's school going you two?" Cathy asked as she helped her youngest daughter up to the table.
"Not so bad," Logan answered for the both of them. Miyu had her eyes scrunched shut by sleep, and her ears were twitching irritably.
"I'm sure you're both enjoying the practical classes, but your academic ones aren't lagging behind, are they?" Catherine asked seriously.
Logan smiled and shook his head.
"It's been interesting learning about your history and culture. The composition classes are pretty easy. Science is a little tricky but we have a study group."
"Ah yes, I'm sure Dr. Toad's son has been helping you all plenty."
"He's a bright guy."
A sip of coffee warmed him. The human teen grinned as he saw Abby using both paws to eat her persimmon slices on toast.
"Any news from your brother?" Mr. Lynx asked over a forkful of eggs.
"Last heard from him yesterday. Doing well at his duty station, but OPSEC and all means he can't tall me where. Still glad he's safe though."
"That's a relief."
Both Logan and Miyu finished their meals and excused themselves. The female Lynx had finally started to wake up, letting out a tail curling yawn.
"Maaaaaan... what I'd give to skip school and just stay in bed all day."
Logan laced his boots up and hefted his ruck, "It's cheesecake in the caf today though."
Miyu's ears stiffened and she grinned. "Alright, you win."
They laughed as they climbed aboard Miyu's hoverbike, and rocketed off out of the garage.
It had become a nice routine, riding to school together. Logan enjoyed the opportunity to see Corneria City fly past them, always changing. Even now the advertisements above and clothing of the bustling crowds reflected the colder season of the Cornerian calendar. The human shivered a bit in his sweatshirt and leather jacket; Pretty soon he'd have to get a parka. It was a little rough not having a nice coat of fur.
A car sounded off near them, and both the human and the lynx waved at Fay's excited face all curls and ears beaming from Bill's truck. They soon drifted apart in the down town traffic. Logan suspected Miyu often wanted to impress him with her fancy riding.
He tightened his grip on the passenger seat as they curved around an intersection. Consider him suitably impressed and worried for his life.
The absolute chaos of the parking lot welcomed them. The sheer variety of species decked out in alien fashion strained the human's eyes, he felt a bit over stimulated with so much color and difference surrounding him.
A female husky leaned out of her SUV window to wave at her pups, and Logan surreptitiously admired just how generous her bust was.
Maybe some difference was a good thing after all...
Parking Miyu's hoverbike, the pair joined the throng of students pouring into the secondary school. Fay and Bill found them in the confusion soon enough, and they slowly filtered through the hallways to their lockers.
Logan thumbed the simple RFID lock and opened the battered door, swapping out his science textbook for the history one he'd need in first period. A spare set of gym clothes were folded in classic UNSC grey at the bottom of the locker, and he'd taped up a faded recruitment poster from his time shipping around with his brother. It was a snapshot of the Master Chief amid haggard marines and factory workers all armed, storming a Covenant Anti-Air emplacement on a hill.
BELIEVE
Back during the battle for Earth, the simple cry had become a rally for the beleaguered human forces. Even with impossible odds against them, humanity struggled on knowing full well how outgunned they were. It was a testament to their spirit, and something Logan never wanted to forget.
He wondered what the war with Venom would mean for the Lylat system, how his friends lives would be irrevocably changed. Of all the unique talents in the motley assortment of McCloud's gang, Logan wondered what his being there meant for the group.
Maybe there was some reason. Sometimes, the right man in the right place made all the difference.
He closed his locker with a metallic scrape, and headed off to Cunningham's homeroom.
"During the Macbeth Civil War, a proxy war was fought between the superpowers of the system through arming opposing sides of the conflict. By supplying weapons, intel and resources to the rebel factions, Venom sought to diminish Corneria's ability to project force through that region of space..."
Taking notes in his pad, Logan could hear only the scratch of stylus through the classroom as Cunningham's pleasant tone recited a passage from the textbook. Beside him, Miyu was scribbling a doodle of a Space Dynamics T-65 Interceptor.
"While domestically, Macbeth wasn't a military powerhouse, the resulting conflict introduced a significant amount of weapons and caches that have remained to the present day. Unexploded ordinance still claims casualties yearly in some parts of the planet..."
Logan glanced across the classroom idly. In the corner, he saw O'Donnell not writing at all, boring a hole into his desk with a glare.
The human teenager didn't blame him for being bitter. Dredging up war memories wasn't pleasant.
"The rebel cause for Macbeth's independence was never fully realized, and critics of the war have maintained that as the focus remained on regional superpowers denying each other geopolitical advantages, the domestic turmoil would inevitably return as the needs of the warring cultures were not addressed..."
That was familiar.
Before the Human/Covenant war the tensions in the outer colonies were the result of an over extended federation falling apart. Insurrectionists appealed to the citizenry disillusioned with distant inner colonies controlling them and demanded independence, which resulted in escalating tensions. If it wasn't for several nuclear bombings, the 'innies' would have had much wider support.
Of course, rumors were that ONI was responsible for those very bombings in order to justify a crackdown.
So over here in Lylat, there were more innocents demanding the right to self-govern, caught in a tug of war between superpowers. The more things changed the more they stayed the same.
Logan thought back to the destruction of the ship CCS Vigilant he had seen on the news. Was this some unrelated attack, or just the kind of underhanded deal that ONI would have arranged? Shortly afterwards, his brother Adrian had said the UNSC was committing to black ops in the system, and only a short while after that full blown war had broken out.
There was also the bomb planted at the home of Lylat's top mercenary...
Yet Logan could still not answer why the UNSC would commit to war against Venom.
At some level, fighting in a different theater protected the Human assets in their own systems, but the UNSC navy was not strong enough in the post war years to afford the losses that a prolonged conflict would bring.
So what was the real motive behind the UNSC coming to Corneria's aid?
He scribbled his thoughts darkly on the page in front of him.
As he looked at the point form notes, a stray thought crossed his mind.
What if we were being manipulated into war?
The bell rang as the period ended, and Logan shook his head as he swiped his text program aside and began packing his rucksack. He was sick of mulling over this.
He'd had enough war for a lifetime when Tribute was glassed.
Leaving the classroom, Wolf clapped him on the shoulder.
"I need a drink."
The ache in his tone was familiar. Logan had heard it often from himself.
"Sure."
"You boys are so stupid."
After both Wolf and Logan had skipped out on science class, Fara had come looking for them since she had a spare period. A few pointed interrogations among the students in the hallways had yielded the pretty fennec the answers she wanted, and thus she was now on the rooftop of CDSS with a pair of inebriated boys and half a bottle of Papetoon whiskey left. The rooftop was a deserted expanse of steel and brilliant white concrete, like much of Corneria, with pipes leading along the buildings.
"That's fascinating, pup." Wolf took another sip of the amber liquid and passed the bottle to the resident human, who was admiring the brilliant afternoon clouds.
"Is there a reason you two are getting drunk in the middle of the day while skipping school?" Miss Phoenix's tail was twitching erratically, as was her scowl.
"Because it's a nice day," O'Donnell folded his arms behind his head as he made himself comfortable, fishing a cigarette out of his jacket, "We need any more reason than that?"
Wolf's background in the Macbeth civil war wasn't pretty. Logan was particularly sensitive to that plight, understanding full well that Cunningham's lecture had brought up memories that the lupine had rather left buried.
When they came up to the roof, they proceeded to drain the bottle as Wolf vented the memories that had been twisting his gut. Logan could relate to many of them, remembering his own time on Tribute and Earth fleeing between evac transports and hunkering down with scavenged weaponry in bombed out buildings.
The guy had been nice enough to lend an ear when he was going through his own troubles, the least he could do was be there for him too.
Still, he wasn't sure the lupine would appreciate having that shared with others just yet, so he wondered if he'd have to ease Fara off with an excuse.
"Logan, talk." The fennec rounded on her hairless friend, eyes blazing.
The human teen sighed, passing a lighter to Wolf with an apologetic look.
"War memories, Fara. We just wanted some space, is all."
The twitching of her tail stopped.
The sound of the city ambience drifted over the breeze, and the smell of tobacco circled them absent any conversation.
"Move over, Lo."
Fara stepped in between the two boys and took the whiskey bottle as she sat down. The gold label flashed in the sun as she tipped her head back, ears folded, and took a swig of the powerful spirit.
"Haaah~"
Both Logan and Wolf were a tad surprised the upper class fennec could handle her liquor so well. She set the bottle down and lay back herself.
The three teenagers were flat on their backs, staring up at the brilliant blue sky above Corneria City. Clouds were few, and whisps buffeted across the breeze high amid the sunshine and contrails of passing jets. Chatter from the grounds below was indistinct, and overall it was a peaceful refuge.
"You boys are sooo stupid..." Fara whispered.
She reached out, and clasped both their hands. Both Logan and Wolf weren't used to having their hand held, and the 'strong silent types' tried not to let it show.
"We're supposed to look out for each other. It doesn't matter what you did or saw back then, you're both one of the gang and we look after our own."
Some pigeons circled overhead, briefly blotting the sun.
"I don't know what's going to happen in this war, but someday I want to see all of us safe and sound when it's over. You're both my friends and I don't want to let you go."
Her grip tightened around their hands.
"So don't bottle it all up and suffer alone. I won't let you."
Both Wolf and Logan were silent, the alcohol in their veins fighting with the nightmares they'd rather forget, and the feeling of the pretty fennec's paws winning out overall.
"Cornerian girls are awfully pushy." Logan remarked plainly.
He got a kick to his shin that set Wolf laughing.
The last period of the day ended with the trio departing to their respective classes to try and not look too sloshed. Logan swore to himself he'd ease off the drinking, at this rate he was either going to go full PTSD or become an alcoholic.
It helped that he had friends keeping him involved to take his mind off the past.
He met Miyu filtering through the crowds as the bell rang, climbing aboard her hoverbike as she kickstarted the engine. Before they managed to peel out of the parking lot, Fox and Falco had swung up alongside them in a sporty blue Cornerian vehicle that must have been the equivalent of a modest human sports car. It looked even more alien than normal to Logan, who had become used to military transports.
The spiked shoulder jacket and omni shades Falco was wearing were ridiculous no matter what galaxy you were from, regardless.
"Hey, you guys free tonight?" Fox called out from the passenger side.
Miyu's helmet turned briefly at Logan, and then she gave a thumbs up.
"We're having a party at my place. My dad's stuck at CDF HQ and mom's with friends, so we've got the place to ourselves. Figured we could all blow off some steam with the war winding everyone up."
It was initiative like that which really showcased McCloud's talent for leadership. He had the pulse of how his team was feeling, and when they needed a break for morale. People could function under many conditions, but a leader that looked out for his troops first and foremost would get results far beyond the callous minimum of any "career butterbar."
"Plus we got some freshman cuties coming over, and lemme tell ya they're niiice."
Falco's leer was accompanied with a roll of Fox's eyes.
"Seven!" Called out the vulpine, "See you two then!"
They parted ways, and Logan held tight as Miyu navigated the vibrant Cornerian downtown streets.
In no time at all they'd arrived at the Lynx household in the suburbs, and the teens swung their legs off the red bike and unlimbered their backpacks.
"Gonna be a fun night, you dressing up Lo?" Miyu's whiskers twitched as they walked up the stairs, waving to her parents in the living room.
"I'm sure I can throw something together," The human muttered. "Why? What kind of party is it supposed to be?"
The Lynx paused, staring at him with a curious glint that made the teenager slightly uneasy, like he'd missed out on an obvious punchline.
"Dude," she said slowly, "No parents, booze, and a bunch of us getting rowdy after dark?"
"What, like last time we played cards in the McCloud's basement? Right?"
The feline bit her lip, like she was holding back a wicked grin.
"Oh gosh, you really have been freeze-dried and cooped up with the army for too long..."
She patted his cheek, and for an instant Logan had the sensation that he had blundered right onto an anti-tank mine.
"We'll show you how to have a good time, kitten."
Miyu swished her hips and she slipped into her room and shut the door. Logan sighed and turned to his own room, dropping his pack and falling back on the bed to stare at the beige ceiling.
"Something tells me I'm going to regret this..."
In the end, Logan had to admit he didn't regret it.
The music was loud enough to thump into the street when the front door to the McCloud household was opened, filling the rooms inside with tunes from the contemporary Cornerian rock bands. Currently, a band called "K-9 Eighty Two" was blaring through the speakers, apparently one of the popular ones on campus. They sounded similar to the old 'metal' from several decades back in human space. It made the house a bit overwhelming, but with all the cheers and chatter, the atmosphere was welcoming.
Logan was dressed in the nicer pair of jeans he had and a collared black shirt of which he folded up the sleeves to his forearms, since it was a bit warm inside. A quick shower and his messy brown hair was about as neat looking as it would get; He'd let it grow out more than he ever had before, must be the influence of being surrounded by so much fur.
Speaking of fur...
Miyu was showing an awful lot of it. She had a tight black dress that cut off mid-thigh, and whatever was the Cornerian equivalent of eye-shadow was making a very flattering accent of her blue eyes. The heels she wore accented her rear to the point they forced the human teen to remind himself not to stare.
They were welcomed at the door, and quickly passed through the crowded house to find their friends catching up with others as the party got underway. Logan tried to take in all the sights and teenagers around him, though it was a struggle not to bump into anyone. The Cornerians did dress somewhat comparably to human civilians, though there were unique differences in clothing based on species. He could see that some pants or dresses were made to accommodate a tail, and others had button fasteners or similar for wings and the like. The style of clothing varied, like one ferret who was in a baggy sweatshirt and cargo pants searching through the music playlist, to girls like the rabbit in the red dress fixing her makeup in a hallway mirror. In an uncharacteristic moment, Logan wondered if he should get himself some new clothes for the years ahead.
Soon enough he'd clapped a hand on Falco's shoulder and gotten a glass for his trouble.
"What ya havin' man?" Falco shouted over the music.
"Whiskey, neat," Logan replied loudly, as his avian friend poured the amber liquid for him.
"Cheers man!" Lombardi clapped him on the back.
So much for staying off the drink. He stayed a moment for small talk with the gang's resident hotshot who was far too happy to have the attention of some nearby freshman girls. A parakeet with a ponytail was sidled up intimately alongside Lombardi as he told a story about ranking up in the sim league, and the grin on the avian's beak was very self-satisfied.
"Yo! Back me up here Jones, did we cream those Red Team losers or what?"
The human grinned and took a sip from his glass, gesturing at the blue bird to the little crowd around them.
"We couldn't have done it without this guy's sharpshooting. Falco's really something else."
The girls coo'd over the praise, and if Lombardi puffed up anymore he'd fall over strutting. Still, Logan was glad to talk up a friend.
When he slipped out of the kitchen, he ran across Katt Monroe, who was certainly dressed to turn heads. Like Miyu, her dress cut off mid-thigh, though hers was a pleasant cream color, with a deep 'V' for her bust. It complimented her pink fur nicely.
"Heeeey! Glad you could make it Lo!" She hugged him briefly and the human teen gave her a short cheers.
"You seen birdbrain anywhere?" She raised her voice over the music, and Logan pointed back towards the kitchen. When he heard a squawk a moment later, he wondered if he'd unknowingly ruined Falco's romantic prospects for the night.
Well, Katt always had him on her leash, like it or not.
In the living room, couples were dancing with all the couches pushed back to the walls. A cardinal with an impressive chest was getting cheers as she swung her hips from side to side, and there was a coyote arguing with the ferret from earlier now by the stereo over what should be on the playlist. Bill waved to him, wrapped up with Fay adoringly against his chest like always. Logan waved back, and left the couple in their own little world. The crowd was a little too rowdy for his taste up here anyway.
Downstairs he found Fox, Wolf and some other teenagers lounging on the couch and pillows strewn across the floor. The TV was playing some comedy that no one was watching, the pleasant glow of the screen casting a little more light in the dim basement.
"Hey," O'Donnell raised his paw as Logan walked in, and the human clapped the lupine's high five as he slid into the couch.
"Thanks for coming, Lo." Fox looked up from where he was pouring out some shots, the glasses glistening on the well-worn ebony table.
"Thanks for having us, McCloud."
"Not mingling upstairs?" Wolf tossed back his drink and started on another.
"Nah, crowds and noise wear me out..." Logan replied.
Unbeknownst to the three friends, the other Cornerian teenagers watched them with fascination. Fox was already a minor legend among the school for his flight scores and famous dad, and Wolf was considered the most frightening delinquent on campus. Throw in a mysterious alien who topped the rifle qualification charts and the sight of all three chatting amicably was certain to pass through the rumor mill.
"Anyway, I gotta go do my rounds since it's my party and all, but here's to this semester! Good riddance!" Fox lifted one of the shotglasses, and all together the teenagers in the basement crowded forward to take one themselves.
Logan held his own shot and relaxed, echoing the Cornerians around him.
"Land of my Species Pride, World Without Ecocide, Evolution we don't abide, Let Freedom Bark!"
The clink of glasses, the spilling of liquor, and the burn of the spirit filled them as they cheered.
He'd been too wrapped up in the past dead and gone, it was time to look to the future. He just had to be careful not to get too sloshed tonight...
"I TOLD YOU," Falco slurred as he grabbed Logan in a good natured headlock, "THIS FRIGGIN' GUY...GIVE HIM A GUN HE'S SUPERDOG, GIVE HIM TWO AND HE'S GOD!"
Jones was laughing, everyone was laughing. They'd started sharing stories over the fourth round of shots, and things got rowdier from there.
Their friends had popped downstairs when they needed a break from the music up top. Slippy had scrounged some bags of chips and got a cheer as he came down passing them around. Miyu had come down later with Fara, who was looking gorgeous in a lavender dress that split at one hip, revealing a lot of lovely tan leg. Katt sauntered down at her own time, draping her arms around Falco's shoulders much to his annoyance.
Along with their usual group, there were some new faces.
Nook was a second year student, a male raccoon who's dad was chief engineer for one of the docking ports above the city. He was munching chips next to Slippy.
Sabrina was a skunk girl invited by Fay, since they were friends from science class. She seemed awfully nervous to be there.
Colleen was a senior that was friends with Fox. She had a regional accent, and an impressive fluff of fur due to her Rough Collie heritage. The alcohol hardly seemed to affect her, and she was trading shots with Wolf easily.
In between shots, they set up a game of cards, and then shotgunning beers as penalties. One bet had both Logan and Wolf shirtless doing pushups over who would drink the 'King's Cup,' a mix of everyone's drinks that tasted absolutely unholy.
Logan lost, by a very narrow margin. Though as he choked back the awful drink, the girls shrieking over the pair of them topless was a nice consolation.
"ALRIGHT!" Wolf called out as he swept the cards off the table and pulled on his shirt again, "We need a new game."
"Whose turn is it now, Falco you picked the last one..." Fox said while looking around the group.
"I've got one..." Fara said as she took a long slow sip of her drink.
Miyu leaned over and whispered in the fennec's ear, receiving a whisper in return that made her cackle with laughter.
Logan looked over at the boys, "Bad things are coming, friends..."
They nodded grimly, even as the girls in the room giggled.
The pretty fennec leaned forward over the table.
"Seven minutes in heaven."
"OOOOOHHHHHHH!"
The drunken cheering from the girls had the boys' hackles raised. They might look pretty and sweet, but Cornerian girls were downright scandalous when they wanted to be.
The way the game was played was similar to 'spin the bottle.' The group would go from person to person, spinning the bottle till it landed on a boy/girl respectively. Then the pair would be bundled into a closet with no peeking allowed for 7 minutes, and whatever happened was strictly between them.
When Logan heard those rules from a giggling Miyu, he turned to Fox in disbelief.
"What...?"
The vulpine shrugged.
"Man, these girls get wild. Don't ask me."
Of course, things really did get wild.
The first spin of the bottle landed Falco with Katt, whose green eyes lit up and with a shrieking laugh she tugged the poor avian into the closet for an extremely loud conference that included several yelps from Lombardi.
The second spin landed Wolf with Colleen. The pair stared each other down as the others cheered raucously, until Colleen swished her hips on the way to the closet and Wolf followed after with a toothy grin to the gang. They came out flushed after a suspicious silence and no amount of prodding got an answer out of either of them.
The next spin had Fox paired up with Katt. The color flushed out of the vulpine, and once again Katt hammed it up as she dragged the poor male into the closet to the cheering of the girls. After only 3 minutes, Fox burst out with his shirt ripped, Katt laughing till she held her stomach and fell out of the closet behind him. Falco threw up his wings, "See what I mean, man?!"
The fourth spin was Logan's. He steeled himself with another dram of whiskey, feeling his throat burn and his head spin slightly. The bottle spun on the table, and he looked up from where it stopped and found Miyu smiling at him as their friends erupted into cheers.
Maybe it was the alcohol, but he felt distantly like he was floating.
Almost immediately, he found himself pushed into the cramped closet, across from his Lynx roommate in a very nice dress. Her feline eyes almost glowed in the dark.
They stared at each other for a moment, and Logan couldn't help but chuckle nervously.
"I think I've had too much to drink."
Miyu's eyes narrowed as she smiled up at him, "Me too." She was swaying slightly, and Logan couldn't help but be aware of how warm she made the close quarters, and how her perfume smelled incredible.
"I thought they were joking about the whole...you know...closet thing..."
"Mmm."
"...Kinda funny we got each other, huh?"
"Mmm?"
"Who would you have rather have got?" He asked, trying to focus on her face through the haze.
"You."
The simple statement was driven home as she gripped fistfuls of his shirt, and suddenly her sharp blue eyes was all he could see.
There was the sensation of something soft pressing to his lips, and then a rough textured tongue that prodded his. He felt his eyes droop closed as she melted against him, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
She was warm, and her fur was silky smooth soft, the most incredible sensation against his bare forearms. Her muzzle turned against his mouth and tongue was dueling with his, soft huffs of air gasped by both of them. He ran his hands along the nape of her neck, and up along the base of her ears, eliciting a loud moan as his fingers zeroed in on a sensitive spot.
She wrapped her tail around his calf, her own thigh pressing between his legs as they held each other as close as they could. The feeling of running his tongue over her teeth and back along her lovely little rough tongue made her smile against their kiss.
He could feel her breasts press up against his chest, and in a moment of courage he let his hand drift down and cup one of her pert, round cheeks. In turn she trailed a delicate claw along his jaw line, across his neck, and down past his collarbone to tease his beltline, and then...
Light filled the closet, and the two of them instinctively cringed as the shine overloaded their eyes in their inebriated state. Whistles and catcalls filled the room as the gang teased them.
"That was like 8 minutes girl! You're working overtime!"
"WOO! Logan you tha' MAN!"
"I knew it! I knew there was something between those two!"
Logan and Miyu, still caught red-handed in their embrace, looked out at their friends and then back at each other.
There was a moment where Logan had honestly been prepared to untangle themselves and go back to the couch.
...But when Miyu bit her lower lip and looked up at him that way through her long lashes, he had no choice.
Logan reached up and slammed the door to the closet shut, even as the girls outside shrieked and giggled uproariously.
Miyu licked her muzzle as he might his lips, and straddled his lap.
"Good boy," the tomboy whispered, and kissed him again.
In total, they ended up spending 19 minutes in heaven.
The party wound down in the early hours of the morning.
Teens stumbled out on their way home, some together and others not.
Fox and the gang crashed there, locking up and double checking the lights, stove, taps and stereo even as their buzz wore down. The house was soon bathed in a soothing darkness, as the absence of pounding beats made sleep so much more alluring.
Slippy had a wall of beer cans placed all along the outside of his splayed limbs from where he had fallen asleep. Chip crumbs covered his shirt, and a lipstick mark was on his face. They would remind him in the morning it was from the nice skunk girl.
Bill and Fay left early, as the lovey dovey couple always respected her curfew, and Bill was too much of a boy scout to ever disappoint her family.
At some point Fara had snatched Wolf for a round of 7 minutes, and the two were passed out on the basement couch with a bathroom towel for a blanket.
Fox cleaned up the worst of the mess upstairs, before the exhausted vulpine said goodnight and wandered off to his dad's recliner and instantly fell asleep. His snoring wasn't that loud.
Falco was...somewhere, taken by Katt. Without more backup, a rescue mission was impossible. They would miss their avian friend, but Monroe's got him in her claws for the night.
That left Logan and Miyu.
The pair of them found a futon in an unoccupied room. Stumbling to it, holding each other steady, they collapsed giggling together.
Logan unbuttoned and pulled off his shirt, and unbelted his jeans down to his boxers as he rolled over to grab a blanket and tug it over in the dark to their futon.
Miyu reached up unsteadily, still giggling, and undid her dress as she stripped to her sports bra and panties. When they pulled the blanket up over them both, they sighed as the feeling of the soft bedding and cover overwhelmed them.
It could have been the lingering buzz, or the heady rush of hormones from the wild night, but they didn't ponder too much why they were almost bare together in bed. The need for sleep and warmth overrode embarrassment.
"Hey," Logan whispered softly, feeling his throat harsh from the night's drinking.
"Mmm?" Miyu had already snaked an arm across his chest and entwined a leg with his.
"Why me?"
In the back of his mind, Logan knew he was an outsider. An alien. What was he really to the group, as a stranger from far away, so different from them. What could she see in him?
The Lynx's eyes opened slightly, her slit pupils regarding him warmly, before she pulled herself up weakly and kissed his cheek.
"You always help, you always care. You're there when we need you, and you never ask for thanks."
She rest her chin on his collarbone, purring.
"I like talking with you, I like being near you. You make me feel safe, you're not a jerk, and you've got a hot mysterious vibe too."
Blue eyes met grey.
"I like you Logan."
He kissed her, and they cuddled up together under the blanket as the moon cast long shadows over the room. They fell asleep together, amid warm sheets and pleasant dreams.