chapter 3: the aftermath (I cant't come up with a better title)

chase pov

I was sleeping rather soundly when I heard someone knock on my door. I groaned. I looked at the clock. 6 in the morning. I thought it was unusual that someone would wake up this early, but I answered the door anyway. What I saw woke me up instantly and shook me to the core. It was Skye. But she looked...broken. Her fur was tattered. Her eyes were red and bloodshot. Her face...was strained with tears. I got scared.

"A-a-are you ok?" I asked.

"No…." She croaked. Out of nowhere, she ran at me and hugged me tightly. She was sobbing like crazy. I embraced her back, letting her emotions free as I said nothing. After a few minutes, I asked her if she wanted to talk about it, and we both ended up going inside my house. Our pup houses were big enough to have two of us in at once. She closed the door behind her. I sat next to her as she began to speak.

"It's all my fault. I let my curiosity get the best of me." She moaned.

"What did you do?" I responded.

"I... was in your pup house last night...I don't know why. I found this note in the corner." She admitted. I was mortified. She found it and must have watched it last night.

"Y-y-you found my tape, did you?" I cried. "Y-yes." My heart sank. I knew someone would find that tape eventually. And I knew I was going to crack and tell her everything. But she found out first. I knew I had a lot of explaining to do. I wiped her tears away as fast as she shed them. "But that wasn't it…" She whined. "I had the most horrific nightmares. I saw you die several times in front of my very eyes. The last time I saw you die, you got shot in the head!" She cried. As tears continued to be shed from her face, I put my paw on her back, gently soothing her as she let out her grief. "I'm sorry. It's just that...I'm scared of...losing you." She choked. I nodded.

"Me too. I can't imagine losing you either." I nuzzled her gently, feeling the hot tears grace my muzzle. I began to think about Skye, and how dangerous her job was, even though I never realized it. "You got some dangerous things yourself, don't forget that. You're a pilot. You gotta deal with wind speed, flying into storms, and other things I don't even know about." After a while, Skye seemed to ease up a bit.

"I have a few questions…about this whole thing. First, when did you get the...idea of making this?" she asked. I sighed deeply.

"You remember that time when we had to stop a robbery and that guy pulled out a gun? He shot at me but missed by inches."

"Yeah. I remember that."

"Before that, we had several close calls. It was so frequent that I started to worry about myself and the future I had. If I was going to make it out. So I bought some VHS tapes and a camcorder. Rocky taught me how to use it, and I recorded that tape three months ago. I was going to destroy it and make a new one, but at the same time, I wanted to talk to you about how I felt. I was going to do it tonight actually." Skye seemed a bit relieved.

"Was anyone else in on this, or was it just you?" she asked. I sighed again.

"Marshall was in on it." Her eyes widened in shock. "When I was at the store buying those things, I ran into him. We talked about the same things, and he was just as worried as I was. I think his job is even more dangerous than mine. He has to run into burning buildings, for crying out loud. He told me he was very worried about Eve if he died. I felt the same about you. So, we both decided to do the same thing. He would record a tape, and so would I. He hasn't told me anything about her or anyone else discovering his tape, so it seems like he's pretty safe."

Skye nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Poor Everest. She's gone through so much." She then looked at me directly in the eyes, tears once again flowing. "Is it true that you want us...to mate?"

I choked up. "Yeah. It's true. I do want to do those things with you…when we're a little older." We embraced each other once again. But this felt different. It felt warm. It felt compassionate. It felt...amazing to be honest. We stared at each other for what seemed like ten years. Skye pulled me closer, and bam. We were...kissing. But it felt different than usual. It was full of intimacy, tenderness, purpose, ecstasy and every other adjective you can possibly describe out of love. It went for a while. We only separated so that we could breathe oxygen. "So...you just wanna do something together today? Just the two of us?" I panted.

Skye didn't hesitate to answer as her eyes glowed brightly. "Yeah. I would love that."

neutral pov

Skye and Chase would spend the day just to themselves, enjoying some well-deserved private moments. They talked, laughed and enjoyed being together. They were by themselves the whole day, with nobody in the entire world daring to check on them except one brave soul.

chase pov

Me and Skye just finished dinner at the lookout, and we were ready to watch a movie when a familiar voice called on my pup tag. "Hey Chase! How's it going, bro?" It was Marshall. Of course.

"Hey Marsh. What's up?"

"Nothin' much. We're coming back from our sleepover dude. It was so dope." It turns out that Zuma was with him.

I turned to Skye. She had that look in her eyes. The bedroom eyes. She wanted me to herself. And I felt the same way.

"Uhhhh…..Can you come back tomorrow?" I asked my friends. Silence on the other end.

"Why's that?" Marshall asked.

"Look. Me and Skye are alone. We haven't had the time to do that recently."

"Oh. That's cool. I'll think of something." Marshall responded. More silence on the other end.

"You know what, Chase dude? We'll do you a favor and just crash at Katie's."

"Will do, guys. I'll see ya tomorrow."

"You know it, dude."

A few hours later, it was getting late. It was around 10 at night or so. I was walking back to my pup house for the night when Skye stopped me.

"Wait..." She started to blush. "Can I sleep in your house tonight? Just so I don't get those horrible nightmares again?" I thought about it for a moment. Ryder laid down a rule when we all became teenagers that opposite genders cannot sleep together in our pup houses alone until we're 18. I always thought it was a dumb rule. I know for a fact that Marshall and Everest broke that rule at least four times. Not sexual, mind you. Just out of comfort. The first time that they did it was a few months ago, when we had a terrible thunderstorm. Ryder found out and made me punish them in private, but I let them go. I never broke a rule that was made by Ryder. But there were other things. We're 17 years old, both of us. We were maturing fast. And...well...I hated that rule anyway.

"Yeah, I don't mind." I responded. We both walked into my house and sat next to each other on my insanely large pup bed. Both of us were getting tired pretty fast. "I might sound like a broken record, but...I love you." I quipped.

She grinned. "It's a broken record I don't ever wanna fix." We laughed as I turned out the lights. We snuggled together and settled down for a nice, long sleep.


I woke up first, stretching out my limbs and turning my face to see her. Skye. The sun had the best reflection on her fur, making her absolutely gorgeous. I saw her wake up.

"Mornin, beautiful."

She looked up at me with her traditional cute smile, warmer than usual.

"Mornin, handsome."

"How well did you sleep last night?" I asked.

"Oh, it was wonderful. Never felt better."

"Me neither." I responded. We nuzzled each other when we heard some honking outside my pup house. I looked at the time. It was nine in the morning. Skye and I walked out of the house, only to see Zuma and Marshall roll into the lookout with his fire truck.

"Hey dudes! Can we come back in now?" Zuma begged as he hopped out of the truck.

"Of course." Skye insisted. As Marshall was walking back into the lookout, he stopped. He gave me a suspicious look.

"Hey, bro. I saw you and Skye leaving your pup house."

"Yeah...what's up with that?" I responded.

"Were you two sleeping together last night?" He smirked.

"Yeah, we were. Don't tell Ryder, though." Skye interjected.

"I won't tell him. It's about time you guys did that." Marshall laughed as he walked inside the lookout. As soon as we were alone, we looked at each other. Smiles were painted on both of our faces as we walked side by side into the lookout, with no fear as a day began anew.