November 29, 2022

Maddy Gillespie blinked their eyes open and yawned, well-rested, from beneath magenta sheets.

Two months ago, the burly sheep-bear had been a licensed superhero with a government security clearance, vaguely dissatisfied by the burden of upholding her hero father’s legacy, but giving her all regardless. A month ago, she’d started off on the journey that ended in spectacularly quitting the Ontario’s Heroes team, cathartically maiming her transphobic creep colleague/stalker on her way to defect to the Korps. Today, in her cozy, den-like single quarters deep within the residential sector of KDS, she awoke once again relieved to be under no pressure whatsoever, and responsible for nothing. No duty rosters, no patrols, no status reports or security briefings or team meetings, and especially no dealing with fragile backstabbing fuckboys.

They’d hardly believed it at first, that the vast supervillainous collective would simply help. ROSE had been bemused, but insistent on encouraging the sheep-bear to explore and see it for themself. They had, and inspected the shops and services and restaurants lining the avenues of the massive underground complex at length. In particular, they’d plowed their massive appetite through the various kiosks, stands, boîtes, bistros, cafes and clubs in the mess hall sector; the food was plentiful, delicious, and came at no charge.

Although, Maddy realized as she proceeded to get dressed, she’d need to resume regular training soon if she intended to keep up that pace. True, comfortable, flattering (and fucking hot) clothing – both decorative and functional – was similarly freely available in the quartermaster’s sector. However, the favourite old pair of jeans she’d been wearing when she arrived were…starting to get just a little too tight. She leaned against the side of the unmade bed as she tried to wiggle into the nearly-black denim, eventually giving up and throwing herself back onto the mattress, groaning in defeat.

Exchanging the pants for a pair of lightweight synthetic leggings that hugged their bulky ursine ass and thighs, telekinetically pulled into their hand from the closet shelf across the room, the sheep-bear sighed with a half-snort. Today was as good a day as any to get back in the swing of things, they supposed, grabbing their RCGs from the charging cradle on the sleek bedside shelf. The usual text messages scrolled by rapidly on bootup; by now, the stylized rose icon was a comfort after those few seconds.

“Morning, ROSE,” Maddy said brightly, as she pulled a sports bra down over her beefy shoulders. “Can you, uh, point me to the kind of gym facilities I’d need for a basic workout? And then, what kind of options do I have for training with my powers?”

Good morning, Maddy! I’d be happy to, and you’re in luck – they’re almost in the same place.

Two side-by-side beacons appeared in the map view of her visor’s wayfinding app, and the sheep-bear could swear that ROSE was invisibly smirking at them.

After some careful weight training and cardio – conscious not to lift too much or run the treadmill too hard, after a month of getting soft – Maddy proceeded, at ROSE’s direction, to report to the personal trainers’ bullpen. A masculine figure in behelixed, lightweight composite body armour waved as she approached. On closer inspection, it was a lean, weathered, older blue jay.

“Hi there, Maddy!” he chirped eagerly. “I’m Tommy, he/him, and I’ll be sparring with you today.” He shrugged, semi-abashedly, fluffing his blue-feathered neck. “Well, I say sparring, but mostly I’ll be operating our standard telekinetic obstacle course and hazard scenario for you. There might be a surprise or two! But really, we just want to feel out your power and skill levels, get a current reading on classifying the strength of your telekinesis, so we can calibrate an experience more personalized to you for ongoing training. Sound good?”

The sheep-bear, still faintly panting from her regular gym routine, offered a hand to shake. “Yeah! Yeah. I pushed myself hard the last time I was using my powers for more than, like, convenience stuff,” they admitted hesitantly, the sound of Slider’s leg breaking still echoing in their head. “I’d like to at least keep up with regular practice, even if I’m not…well…”

The blue jay took her hand and shook it firmly, almost professionally. “Planning on getting yourself cleared to officially go out as a field agent any time soon? Hey, newbie, don’t worry; I get it. Not everyone who signs on with the black hats wants to go on a roaring rampage of revenge,” he nodded sagely. “At least, not right away.”

“Something like that,” Maddy said mildly.

The sheep-bear followed the blue jay to Training Bay F. It was a long hall-like space, floored in stainless steel grating. Tommy took his position behind a transparent blast shield at the room’s control panel, twenty metres or more away from the centre of the room. He called out, his voice amplified into Maddy’s ears by her own RCGs: “Ready?”

“Ready,” she replied, taking a deep breath and flexing her hoof-nailed hands.

The program started, and the lights dimmed. True to his word, Tommy wasn’t going for the gusto, at least to start with. The sheep-bear faced no more than a few volleys of glossy black rubber balls from cannons concealed in the walls – although some turned out to be augmented-reality overlays in their RCGs’ view, which momentarily disoriented them when those projectiles proved immune to their powers. The difficulty slowly increased, and Maddy could see the blue jay nodding with approval as he activated one new hazard after another. They huffed, beginning to get winded, and had to be increasingly quick on their feet to deflect a gush of pink slime from a ceiling trapdoor, and extinguish a series of mock-incendiary devices that rolled out from ankle-high chutes. Suddenly, the sheep-bear felt the ambient temperature drop slightly – was that the early warning of a cryokinetic device being activated…?

That was when her knees buckled from a series of dull thumps from behind, and she keeled over, tumbling to protect her face and bare arms. A buzzer sounded, and the program stopped, with full lights returning. A few meters away, a spray of water washed away the last of the slime trap’s residue.

“Hey, Maddy!”, the blue jay chirped perkily, looming over her prone form, with what turned out to be a massive autocannon (its translucent ammo reservoir filled with the same glossy rubber target balls) in both hands. He seemed to be visibly sparkling, somehow, like an anime protagonist’s object of affection. “That was really good! I did warn you there might be some surprises, though,” he said with a warm smile, as he set down the weapon and squatted low to help up the sheep-bear. “You’ve got a lot of power and finesse – I can see that you’ve worked hard to streamline your motions to conserve energy and keep your defenses up – and I have to say I’m impressed! I reviewed your dossier; the PHL must have been pissed to lose you.”

Brushing herself off with a Tommy-proffered towel as they exited, Maddy muttered darkly. “I’m sure Director Hagen was, but not because he thought my powers were worth anything. All he wanted was…anyway, uh, I’d rather not think about that right now.”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” he said with chagrin. “Me and my big mouth. I’d be happy to get you set up with another trainer if you’d like?”

Maddy looked up and down at the older man’s exceptionally earnest body language. “No, no, that’s okay. This was…this was a good workout. How often can I use these facilities?”

“Any time you like! And if you want to book me, well, ROSE knows where I live,” the blue jay said brightly as the two walked down the hall.

The sheep-bear bid Tommy goodbye partway back to the bullpen, diverting down a side corridor to a vending machine of sports drinks near the cardio equipment; parched, they impatiently punched the button for a glass bottle of the unnaturally-neon blue raspberry flavour, and guzzled it in a matter of seconds while leaning sweatily against the paneled walls. That was when they spotted a familiar-looking set of swept-back antlers bobbing up and down, a few rows of machines over.

Maddy pitched the bottle in a nearby recycling chute and ducked behind a bank of elliptical trainers, squinting at the back of the broad cervine figure pumping the pedals of a stationary bike. She gulped as she sidled around, trying to get a view of the deer’s face. Is that…

ROSE chimed in, a little too eagerly.

[Yes, that’s Grace!]

The chubby doe wore compression shorts, and a magenta sweatband against the pedicles of her graceful antlers kept her wavy, golden-brown tresses from falling into her face. Her modest breasts filled out a black tank top emblazoned with a giant K-LAW insignia. From her vaguely distracted expression, Maddy guessed that the lawyer was probably watching or listening to something through her cateye-framed RCGs as she pedaled.

They hadn’t seen the deer in the few weeks since properly joining the Korps and moving into their quarters. When Maddy first inquired, ROSE had helpfully explained that Grace was temporarily residing at VCS, attending a trial in Vancouver; they’d hesitated to send a message when the AI offered, however. Maddy could do this on their own, could become acclimatized to their…career change, and make some friends on their own; they didn’t need anyone holding their hand. Play it cool, the sheep-bear had thought to themself, an urge slightly undermined by remembering how comfortably they’d fallen asleep on the sweetly matronly doe’s soft thigh at the Halloween party.

In any event, she was…she was more confident, now; she was no longer intimidated by the deer, and able to own that she did, in fact, like the idea of fucking the gorgeous older woman. A lot, she pondered, flushing. The doe might have once good-naturedly teased Maddy about her age in the context of a flirtatious joke, but it didn’t seem like that was necessarily a dealbreaker? At the party Grace had seemed receptive to an advance from a woman only a few years older than the sheep-bear, after all…

Confident, slightly turned on, and still just the tiniest bit self-conscious, Maddy stepped in front of Grace’s bike and gave her a hesitant wave.

The deer perked up, her attention definitively caught, when she recognized the face of the erstwhile hero before her. “Maddy! Hello! It’s so good to see you, dear!” Her hooves slowed the pedals until they stopped, and she took a long swig from a stainless steel water bottle, breathing heavily. After a few seconds of catching her breath, Grace leaned over the cardio machine’s control panel to warmly smile at the sheep-bear. “I hear you’re settling in comfortably?”

“I, uh, yes! Yes I am!” The sheep-bear realized they must have seemed a bit manic, but plowed ahead, reflecting that sometimes the only way out was through. “So! I was wondering! Would you like to, um, get lunch again some time? Or – or dinner, maybe? I’d love to tell you all about what happened after Halloween! Or just hang out, even…?”

Grace’s eyes dropped to the panel of the exercise machine, and she chuckled. “I’ve still got a half-hour of workout left, and then I have some things to do at the office, but how about NAME in the mess hall sector at seven? Best sushi I’ve had on-base, anywhere but VCS. Unless you’d like to go topside?”

Maddy inhaled sharply. “Nonono, no, NAME sounds good! I’ll see you then! Enjoy your workout!” The sheep-bear waved goodbye and hustled away, leaving the mildly confused doe to resume pedaling with a shrug.

A few hours later, Grace Dunlop, Barrister & Solicitor, sat behind her desk, and peered down at the traffic twenty-odd floors below. As Chief Counsel of Korps front biotech company Helical BioSpectra, Inc., her office came with an enviable view of University Avenue. She gazed out towards the weather beacon tower of the Canada Life Building; the flashing white signal, with lights running down the structure, signaled that snow and colder temperatures were on the way for the afternoon. Of course, she mused, she could just put on her RCGs and ask ROSE for a forecast any time, and a likely more accurate one at that. It was nice to have the quietly respectable antique on hand as part of the scenery, regardless.

The deer sighed. She spun around in her chair when she heard a polite cough in a familiar, reedy voice from the door.

It was Rin Gorgoni: her friend, colleague, nominal superior in the K-LAW hierarchy, and official CEO of the front company besides. The slinky blue anole was wearing a kicky jumper dress under a flowing turquoise parka, leaning feyly against the doorframe; they removed their faux-fur ushanka as they spoke. “Morning, hon. Press conference at the Sheraton went well. How’s that brief for the Bloomberg thing going?”

The doe shrugged. “Done; I already flipped it to you while you were out,” she said distantly.

Rin sniffed, eyeing Grace with concern. “I know that look,” they murmured, closing the door behind them as they sat down in the chief counsel’s guest chair, throwing their coat and hat atop her small side table. “What’s up?”

The doe sighed. “Maddy.”

“Oh, how are they? Still settling in?”

“It seems so! But my immediate concern is that, uh…she asked me to dinner tonight,” she grimaced.

Rin beamed. “Sounds lovely! A nice chance to catch up, then?”

“Okay, though, I wasn’t sure at first, but I think it might be a date…?”

The anole peered quizzically at Grace, tenting their long fingers. “…And? I was the one who had to get over a personal issue with Maddy, but you seemed very keen on her all along.”

The doe grew increasingly exasperated as she tried to explain. “Well, sure, they’re well-meaning and clever and kind, and I’m so very, very glad to have helped them get away from the hero game, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to – it’s not – I’m not like – I hadn’t planned on fucking them, Rin!”

Rin cocked one ridged, pierced eyebrow at the deer. “You’re not like me? Was that what you were going to say?”

Grace’s hand flew to her muzzle. “Oh, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

The androgynous anole brushed her off with a sly smile. “Hon, I am a slut. I’m a proud slut. I’ve had…let’s see…at least a dozen partners in the last week? I’m still famous in field ops for my ability to horn up any mission, I know; if there was a ‘Lifetime Achievements in Sexpionage’ award, I’d expect to at least be nominated. That’s just me, I like it fine, and in my fifty-five years on this planet I’ve never felt the need to apologize for that,” they shrugged. “I know you’re not a prude, but is it possible you’re a little self-conscious about feeling like you’re somehow not allowed to be that sexual as you get older? Like you ‘ought’ to be some kind of respectable surrogate mother figure in the background, for someone Maddy’s age?”

“...Maybe,” the deer said, slightly embarrassed.

“And further,” Rin said patiently, “You’re clearly into her. She’s bigger, stronger and butcher than you, and I happen to know that’s exactly what you like in a domme. Tell the truth, you’ve thought about it, haven’t you?”

Grace winced and rubbed at her neck, but nodded, silently.

“Anyway, if memory serves, both Marcy and I are more than a bit older than you, and that’s never stopped you from playing with either of us. Or from freezing up around her like a little lost fawn whenever the doctor gets…persuasive,” the anole smirked kindly.

“Um. Twenty-two and fourteen years older,” the deer mumbled shyly, looking away.

“Just like that, yes, exactly,” Rin said, as they petted Grace’s arm to soothe the doe. “So if you can enthusiastically consent to sex with the two of us, with a respective twenty-two and thirteen—”

“—Fourteen—”

“—Fourteen-year age gap, why can’t our young sheep-bear friend do the same with you? I haven’t heard you object on material grounds, just procedural ones.”

“They’re – they’re a brand new recruit…? And Maddy’s just…they’ve grown up a bit sheltered, being pressured into a PHL career since childhood, is what I mean. I had a bit more, uh, life experience?”

“Grace Elizabeth Dunlop. Darling. As your friend – never mind the chain of command – I’m calling bullshit on that particular rationalization. You’ve told me how little you actually lived, pre-transition. Maddy’s situation is a bit different, but it’s not that far from a green young articling student of a doe who first walked into this office in 2009, back when it was mine.”

The deer huffed deeply, gently scowling. “Fine. I just…Rin, I’m nervous, okay? I’m afraid of hurting her. Even if most of her life’s been sheltered, she’s been through a lot, breaking free from the PHL. I don’t want her to feel obligated to me somehow, just because I helped her in a crisis.” Grace then looked up, thoughtfully. “...I hope ROSE has been suggesting therapy to her,” she muttered.

“Did you ever feel obligated to Marcy for recruiting you? And more importantly, do you think she was wrong to fuck you?”

“No?! She was just, I mean, you know, super fucking hot, and I wanted…I was hoping some of that confidence would rub off on me, I guess.”

“Rub off, heh,” Rin snickered, with a waggle of their eyebrows. Grace hucked a wadded-up piece of paper at her nominal superior’s sleek blue head; the anole dodged it easily, and gave the deer a huge, shit-eating grin.

“Anyway. Marcy was goals for me from the moment I woke up in that medbay at SHS. She was just so…powerful, so put-together, so unapologetically, defiantly terrifying and commanding and beautiful. How could I not get turned on by all that, as a dumbass egg who was just finally figuring out that I was attracted to girls as a girl?”

Rin lounged back in the chair, draping their long, bare limbs across it in a languorously blue-scaled tangle. “Those sound like valid reasons to be into Marcy to me,” they said with a good-natured shrug. “When I first met her…well, to be fair, neither of us quite had a handle on the whole gender thing yet, but that was still the energy she had en femme. And it was and is indeed, I will grant, super fucking hot.”

“Okay…?” 

The anole nodded their long neck towards the back wall of the office. “And if Marcy walked through that door right this second and told you to get on your knees for her, wouldn’t you?”

Grace’s eyes turned to the doorway and grew wide as if caught in headlights, and her breath hitched momentarily in her throat before she faintly squeaked out a tiny “Uh-huh…?” Refocusing on Rin, she composed herself enough to ask, “But she’s, um, in Ottawa right now? Right…?”

Rin snorted, bemused, and waved off the question. “Anyway, the point is that I’m positive you’re just as jaw-droppingly attractive an older woman to them as Marcy was – and is – to you. And back then you were an adult, sound of mind and all that, even if a little inexperienced in matters of the more moist bodily functions. So it sounds to me, darling, like you’re not trusting Maddy with the same autonomy and competence to make decisions that you allowed for yourself, when you were in your twenties.” Limp-wristedly propping their pale dewlap up with the back of one lanky hand as they leaned forward, Rin arched one heavily pierced brow. “Is that fair, do you think?”

Grace winced, and half-heartedly gestured in exhaustion before returning to staring out the window to University Avenue. “Yes. I mean, yes, okay, that’s what I’m doing, I guess. And no, it’s not fair.”

“So, you’re going to…”

The doe grinned weakly as she covered her face with hoof-nailed hands, rubbing at her graceful cervine muzzle. “...I’m going to go on a date with Maddy Gillespie,” she chuckled nervously.

Maddy looked around as they approached the entrance of the sushi restaurant from the wide KDS corridor, just slightly anxious. The sheep-bear huffed to themself, straightening their back and standing in what they hoped was a cool, nonchalant pose as they examined the sloganed banner hanging from the wall sign - “IT’S PRONOUNCED ‘NA-MEH.’”

She’d visited the quartermasters’ again that afternoon after the gym, following a long, cool shower – one in which she’d still had to…take care of the excess nervous energy engendered by thinking about going to dinner with the older woman – and had decided to consult a professional. Monty, the tiny old wallaby craftsman who’d made Maddy’s Halloween costume in a matter of minutes, was pleased as punch to work with her on a newly tailored ensemble for her date; the sheep-bear had picked it up from his shop just a few hours later.

As a result, the sheep-bear was now clad in pinstriped navy blue trousers and a handsomely futch fuschia vest that accentuated just the right amount of curves. The roguishly rolled-up sleeves and open collar of their lavender shirt were carefully calculated to impress upon the doe that they were fully casual about this whole thing, and certainly hadn’t been second-guessing themself in the mirror up until the very moment of leaving their quarters. Maddy was about to don the RCGs folded up in their belt loop, and ask ROSE if Grace was on her way…and then she saw the deer, and flushed.

Grace wore a dark dress with one of her customary square-shouldered pink jackets, and it looked very much like her matching, opalescent hoof polish had been touched up since the morning. She smiled warmly, and gave a tiny wave as she walked up. “Hi, Maddy! Shall we?”

“Grace! Hello, yes, of course,” the sheep-bear said with an eager nod, trying furiously to tamp down the panic in her heart, and the two approached the hostess, a thin otter femme. “I’ve, heh, been looking forward to this all day…? Thank you. I mean, just, um…thank you. It’s great to see you again…!” Stupid, stupid, stupid, the sheep-bear thought to herself, as the otter showed them to a booth with a glossy black-lacquered table before stepping away.

They’d thought they were ready, but once the deer was right there, right in front of them with that lovely, soft, squeezable-looking body and charmingly sardonic wit, and she was with Maddy, on a date, and it was happening…the sheep-bear shuddered, as the hostess quickly hustled back to bring the two some water and green tea. They sipped at the glass, hoping Grace wouldn’t notice the faint rattling of the ice as their hand shook.

The booth was separated from the others by drawable paper screens, and a conveyor belt of various dishes slowly crawled past along the far wall of the banquette seats. The deer wasted no time in getting started, and plucked a bowl of steamed edamame and several plates of rolls from the line, gesturing for Maddy to do the same before beginning to dig in.

“So! I know the broad strokes of what went down after Halloween – and I certainly heard about what you did to that twerp who knocked over our garbage cans, well done! – but I’m all ears,” the doe said with a playful twitch of the same. “How was your road trip?”

“Well,” the sheep-bear said thoughtfully as she reached for a hefty slab of fatty salmon sashimi with her chopsticks, “I found out some things about my family.” She dipped it in soy sauce before depositing the delicious umami bomb directly onto her heavy tongue, and shivered in pleasure momentarily as she chewed; Grace had been right about the quality of the fish. Swallowing and reaching for a piece of dynamite roll, she continued. “Dad was always a bastard, and they all knew. Fuckin’...toxic nerd who suddenly got powers and decided that actually, being an asshole bully was fine, as long as he got to do it. Granddad probably did think the lie was for my sake, on some level, but what he really wanted was a do-over on raising his sociopathic dead superhero son. Especially since Dad beat him up, too. It was…it was sad, honestly.”

Grace nodded sympathetically as she tapped an order of hot, fresh vegetable tempura into the ROSE-based menu tablet mounted on the counter. “I can imagine, and I’m so sorry.”

“Learning that was – it was the shock I needed, to push me all the way into your corner. Well, our corner, now, I guess.” The sheep-bear chuckled as they perused the rest of the sashimi platter. “Even, uh, went and blew up the Heartwood statue in Grand Prairie, on my way out of town, and that was more satisfying than I expected. Fuck that guy, fuck him so much, I can’t believe I’m even related to that monster.”

“Oh, I saw that! Or, well, the ‘mysterious disappearance’ the local media was running with. Well done, dear,” the doe said warmly, before diving eagerly into the conveyor-belt plate of tempura that had just arrived.

Maddy eventually relaxed enough to be warm, and funny, and candid for the older woman; they swapped stories of terrible relatives, expressed mutual admiration for one another’s appearance and personality, and cackled together over Slider’s extremely well-deserved comeuppance. After some time and many delicious sushi rolls later, the sheep-bear looked at the menu tablet’s screen to realize: they’d been in this beautiful, captivating, endearingly soft woman’s presence for over three hours, and not the moments it felt like. They couldn’t hold this back any longer, and took a deep breath before speaking.

“Grace. I wanted to thank you, so much, for all of your help. And – and for seeing that I needed it, even while I was trying to do the ‘Champion’ thing. But that’s…that’s not why I asked you to dinner, and I feel like you know that…?” The sheep-bear cleared her throat, gulping down the last of her delicate white porcelain cup of tea. “I’m…I’m into you, and I was wondering if you felt the same. Nothing, um, nothing serious, necessarily, I mean, but, you’re very pretty and I felt like you were being a little flirty that one time, and…oh, fuck, this was a bad idea, wasn’t it,” Maddy groaned lightly. Averting her gaze from meeting the eyes of the older woman across the table of empty sushi plates, she folded her burly bare arms in front of her bosom defensively, and almost-imperceptibly hunched down into herself.

The deer giggled shyly, and seemed genuinely touched. “Maddy, no, it’s okay, I promise. Of course you’re attractive, and I like you very much. But when you get to be my age – especially after transitioning a bit later in life, like I did, and with all the baggage that gave me about ‘male socialization’ and what have you – you get extremely cautious about potential power imbalances in sex or romance with younger people. I’d never want to make you uncomfortable around here.”

The mention of age reminded the sheep-bear of why they’d gamed this out as a possibility in the first place, and suddenly, they felt like they were on solid ground again. “You know, I have been with older women before…? On the way back from out west, I met this cool trucker-slash-recon agent at SCS, an older butch, and—”

“Oh! How is Lou?” Grace wiggled her soft eyebrows salaciously, clearly recalling some happy memories. “Does she still do that thing, you know, with her tail, and—”

Maddy snorted, trying and failing to keep herself from giggling. “—And, on your nipples, and…yeah, heh.”

Grace nodded along, evidently delighted. After a moment, she looked down to the table with a sad smile, and idly nudged around the puddled drops of soy sauce on her last plate with chopsticks. “Anyway…it was fine to ask, I promise! All good! But I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I’m just…being cautious. To…to protect you.”

Maddy took a deep breath, puffed up their chest, steeled their jaw, and reached across the table to place one beefy hand atop the smaller, softer digits of the doe. “I can protect myself,” the sheep-bear said with an intensity – and a low, desirous, domineering growl to their voice – they hadn’t realized they could summon. They stared into Grace’s glistening violet eyes, wide with amazement, and realized that the deer’s mouth was also hanging open in apparent shock. They quickly withdrew their hand, chuckling awkwardly and looking away. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from…”

The deer blinked repeatedly and briefly shook her head, until she seemed to have thrown off the surprise. She silently pulled open the paper screen, and shimmied out of the booth, standing up with a blank expression. Maddy cringed, and braced herself for the worst.

“Maddy,” Grace said calmly.

The sheep-bear winced and dragged one meaty hand across her ursine face, chagrined. “I’m – I’m sorry. You said No, you have your reasons, and I can respect that. I hope…I hope we still be friends, at least?”

This time, the deer reached out and took their hand, and leaned over to bring her face closer to the sheep-bear’s. They realized that Grace wasn’t upset; rather, she was biting her lip, trying to suppress a grin, and very faintly panting. “Maddy,” she whispered, “Would you like to see my quarters…?”

Grace couldn’t believe she was leading Maddy by the hand to her bedroom. She’d truly meant to let them down easy, notwithstanding Rin’s encouragement to live a little, as it were. She could admit it to herself, at least: tapping into that voice – that tenderly gruff, confident declaration of sapphic intent, channeled through the vigour and eagerness of youth – had let the sheep-bear barrel right through her defenses. In her seat at NAME, the doe had been fidgeting to concentrate on her words, afraid of disappointing the former hero. And then…

In her mind, a ludicrous scene had flashed by in that instant – herself and Maddy, illustrated in muted oils as if for the cover of a vintage gothic romance, she as the delicately Rubenesque dowager countess overwhelmed by the healthsome, bawdy swagger of the mysterious young sheep-bear rogue lately come o’er the moors – and it viscerally hit her, finally internalizing what she knew intellectually. She was allowed to be desired, just like she had desired Doc— Marcy, when she herself was new to this life. And desire, and clear-eyed honesty and good faith about what they might (or might not) be to one another, had left her weak. She could feel herself grow wet, even as she was fumbling to strip and throw her clothes to the floor.

The doe planted her wide bottom on the sheets and began to wiggle inwards towards the middle of the bed, eyes heavy and stammering, “Y-You can just – please, put your things anywhere—”

Maddy nodded as she stood at the foot of the bed, and made another low, pleased growl while carefully unbuttoning her vest and shirt. When each article was removed, the sheep-bear flourished a wrist; it floated telekinetically from her other hand to fold itself neatly in mid-air, before hovering to fall gently across the mauve pleather Barcelona chair in the corner of the deer’s bedroom. After a moment she stood topless in her high-waisted trousers, and angled one beefy arm to an equally-beefy hip. She loomed, and Grace couldn’t help but observe her broad, brown-furred musclegut, imagining nuzzling down the length of that slight shag of a treasure trail.

“You’re beautiful,” the sheep-bear rumbled, as they mounted the foot of the bed and slowly crawled forward with a cocky sneer, licking their dark lips. “Can I fuck you, Grace?”

The deer stared half-stunned up into steel-blue eyes and the saliva-shiny incisors of Maddy’s open maw, nodding eagerly, and felt absurdly grateful for the younger woman’s attention.

Maddy couldn’t believe Grace had led her by the hand to her bedroom. The lawyer’s quarters were only slightly larger than her own, but more clearly lived-in and personalized. As the two stumbled inwards past the foyer, dim pot lights illuminated automatically – Thanks, ROSE, the sheep-bear thought in passing – to reveal clean-lined modernist decor in gentle pinks and lavenders. Handsomely framed and inlaid vintage movie posters for ‘La Fiancée de Frankenstein’ and ‘Il fantasma dell'Opera’ lined one wall, the sunken, piercing equine eyes of the Monster and masked vulpine leer of the Phantom seeming to observe the entire scene. She suppressed a giggle as the deer, already nude and reclining sensually, meekly exhorted her to drop her clothes anywhere.

This was happening, and Grace seemed to have become instantly receptive once they took charge of the moment. Maddy wasn’t surprised, exactly, that the soft doe was so responsive to being dominated by a big butch – she’d mentioned having similar fun with Lou Cartier in the past, as the sheep-bear had experienced themself not that long ago – but it excited them to have an opportunity to try out their skills with another transfem, hopefully free of any societally-induced self-consciousness about the dynamic. You can do this, they thought. It might have been easier with ROSE’s voice in their head for moral support, but they could domme this deer, and do it with flair besides.

Grace repositioned her body slightly on the bed, shifting her hips to reveal a peek of damp thighs and glistening labia. Maddy inhaled sharply, restraining herself from diving in muzzle-first before even stripping, and resolved: if she was going to do this, she was going to practice her style. The sheep-bear briefly pondered how to best assert dominance over the deer, before settling on the very personalized flex of carefully, intentionally using her telekinesis to neatly remove and fold each doffed piece of clothing. Once topless, she flexed a muscular arm in what she again hoped was a femme-baiting pose of suave swagger. It seemed to work, as the older woman gazed up at her wide-eyed and speechless, just as in their booth at dinner.

Summoning the doe-melting tone of voice once more, consciously speaking from their diaphragm, Maddy began advancing their bulky body onto the bed. “You’re beautiful,” the sheep-bear said confidently, despite the nervousness in their heart. “Can I fuck you, Grace?” The deer fervently nodded assent and spread her legs even wider, still evidently too overloaded to speak; Maddy rumbled appreciatively with each lumbering movement forward.

The sheep-bear pulled the deer’s lower body closer and upwards, luxuriating in the plush softness of Grace’s thighs and belly before bringing their muzzle lower, taking a deep, lusty whiff of the older woman’s already-wet cunt. Maddy spread their broad jaws wide and let their long, meaty ursine tongue unfurl wetly along the deer’s puffy labia before beginning to slowly lap up and down. The doe huffed with tiny meep-like squeals at each deep, luscious lick inside her, and covered her muzzle with one hand; the other rested lightly at the crest of her belly.

Sensing an opportunity, the sheep-bear raised her mouth slightly, drooling a trail of the deer’s prolific juices up her pudenda to gently (but firmly) nibble on those hoof-nailed fingers; feeling Grace push the hand further past her teeth, Maddy made a low chuckle and tasted the doe’s fine hide and slightly sagging flesh. She was rewarded with a nervously joyous babble of bottomy gibberish, and squeezed appreciatively at the older woman’s pillowy sides with her questing hands.

The sheep-bear reached down to unbutton their slacks before telekinetically shuffling them off of their hips to slump to the carpeted floor at the foot of the bed. (Grace was a little too preoccupied to notice another slick flourish of their powers, and their finesse with fine telekinesis work like buttons might be…compromised at the moment, admittedly.) Now clad only in practical, hip-hugging boxers, they removed the doe’s hand from their mouth to take it in their own meaty paw, and kiss it gently and suavely, locking eyes with its owner.

“Ma-a-addddy,” the deer panted through a giggly grin, “Is there, ahh, anything you’d like me to do…?” She shrank into herself submissively, flushing, delicate pale tan ears turning bright red.

The sheep-bear growled, just a little louder than she’d dared before; the rough edge was clearly working for her partner, to her slightly anxious glee. She crawled up further atop Grace’s soft body before bringing her muzzle close to the deer’s, and throatily rasping into her face: “Get on your knees, Ms. Dunlop.”

The words rang in the doe’s ears, and her limbs complied before she was consciously aware of their meaning. She wiggled her soft body off the bed and down to the floor – dimly grateful for having selected the soft high pile from the carpeting section of the Facilities catalogue – and knelt, facing her bed. Maddy was still sprawled out on the high mattress, apparently surprised at how energetically she’d obeyed, but looked all the more smug for it.

“Very good,” the sheep-bear rumbled, and scooched up to plant her wide ass on the edge. Her boxer shorts were tented in her lap, and she smoothly undid a button to withdraw her cock; once freed, it sprung out as if it were a firing piston.

Grace gazed at it hungrily, licking her lips. She looked up; Maddy needed only to bare those fierce teeth in a lustful grin, and growl possessively, to make the deer dive forward. Her hands quested inside Maddy’s trunks, caressing the sheep-bear’s sack and angling the tip of their cock towards her waiting mouth. She nuzzled in and around the engorged flesh, gliding her lips across it, huffing its feminine ursine musk. Licking and lapping in helpless abandon, the desperately turned-on doe felt foolish that she had wanted to turn down this experience.

Allowing herself to drop into an almost mesmerized state, Grace drew her tongue carefully up and down each side, finally squeezing a few thin drops of precum into her mouth with an appreciative murmur. Maddy grasped her head by the antlers, gently (but firmly) steering the doe back towards taking the entire length, as if with handlebars. After a moment of enthused deep-throating, she tilted the deer’s head off her sex, and asked, kindly and almost hesitantly:  “Is this good? Am I doing okay?”

The deer nodded. “Green. V-very green. All good, dear,” she mumbled happily as she continued to massage and knead at Maddy’s cock. “And if, um, you’re comfortable with penetration, you’re welcome to, uh…”

“Ah,” Maddy said in a smug tone, before taking a deep breath, and releasing it into Grace’s ears as an ominous rumble. She grasped the doe’s wrists in her strong hands, and led the older woman to stand up, before sitting her down on the bed. The sheep-bear then gently but firmly laid Grace down, and arranged her limbs such that the deer was splayed out, her moist vulva spread wide and welcoming, before herself removing her trunks and climbing atop the bed.

Grace had no desire to object, and tittered lightly as she allowed herself to be repositioned.

Holy fuck, holy fuck, she really wants me to top…? The sheep-bear tried to centre themself by inhaling deeply, before positioning a willing (very willing!) Grace on the covers. Their heart pounded. Maddy had never really experienced bottom dysphoria per se; they liked their modest-but-chunky, mostly-ursine parts just fine. However, they’d also never had the opportunity to do…this, and flushed.

More of Maddy’s sexual history flashed through her head; she realized that on some level she was surprised to have gotten this far with the deer, and suddenly felt unprepared, sure that the anxiety and false bravado beneath her domme act must now have been glaringly obvious. She’d only ever done hand stuff with her brief high school girlfriend, and in her few hookups since then, the sheep-bear had either bottomed for a girl with a dick (strapless or not) or engaged in mutual oral. Now, she was in fact presented with an opportunity for precisely the scenario she’d dreamed of for years – herself, a suave butch domme, just plowing a big soft subby femme in the pussy – and felt vaguely…inhibited, somehow. She gulped, silently grimacing as she tried to clear her mind and focus on the moment.

Some degree of respite came in the realization that the plump, shapely doe was again making the most adorable noises, pleasurable moans interspersed with tiny, needy whines. She scooched her pelvis forward towards Maddy, clearly eager to be mounted. They took a deep breath, screwing up the resolve to proceed; their nethers throbbed in anticipation as they shuffled their knees between the doe’s legs, and then heaved up those big soft thighs with both hands. “Just relax,” the sheep-bear said in a warmly imperious growl, with confidence that belied their internal agitation.

She lined herself up, dripping tip kissing at the deer’s similarly-slick lower lips, and then lunged into Grace. The doe yelped and huffed to be so filled; Maddy, for her part, slowly withdrew and then thrust again, and again, and again, beginning to build up steam. This was…this was pretty fucking great, she considered? Her powerful hips pumped in time with Grace’s squeaks and moans.

“I‘m, ‘m, uh, nearly, uhhhhh,” Grace wheezed, as Maddy picked up her hands and removed them from where they’d crept to rub at her clit.

The sheep-bear roared to the ceiling before slowing down abruptly, and chiding the deer. “You’re going to cum when I say so,” they intoned smugly. “And no touching. I get to make it happen. Do I make myself clear?”

The doe bit her lip, and nodded eagerly. “Uh-huh…?”

“Good girl.” Maddy resumed the pace of her thrusts, herself now also huffing and growling with each motion, and tightly squeezed the deer’s thighs; Grace was also thrusting back now, humping needily into Maddy’s member. Grace was into it (holy fuck did she ever seem to be into it) and the sheep-bear was topping and domming, despite a nagging feeling of insecurity. This was pretty fucking great, still, she told herself. This was…this was exactly what she’d wanted, and it was perfect, and…

This was…this was…

This was too much, Maddy realized with a suddenly gut-wrenching rush of anxiety. Their muscles went slack, and they stopped fucking the older woman. Heaving with a sharp intake of breath, they quickly pulled out and clambered over her elegant cervine haunches. Collapsing on their back, they started to choke up. “I’m – I’m sorry, I can’t,” the sheep-bear said, stumbling on their words. “I want to domme, I want to top, but I just got all – all up in my head and started feeling weird about it, and then I was afraid to disappoint you because you liked the cool suave butch swagger thing so much…”

Grace’s dark lips pursed into a concerned moue; she drew an arm around the bulk of Maddy’s thickly brown-furred body, and embraced them against her own. “Shh, shh, honey, it’s okay, I promise.”

The sheep-bear turned her head to the side, and looked again into those big violet eyes, now apparently holding back tears; she cringed. “Oh, no, oh no no no, I’m sorry, please don’t cry, I’ll – I’ll go, I’m sorry—” She began to reposition an elbow to prop herself up and debark the large bed, but the deer grabbed her arm with both hands.

“Maddy,” Grace said calmly, and with an abrupt, surprising tone of authority. “It’s okay.”

They sniffed. “Are you sure? You’re crying! I just…it seemed like you wanted…like you were only into this if I kept domming you. And I do want to, but this was, um, actually my first time doing…” At this, they gestured weakly but meaningfully towards first their own genitals, and then the deer’s.

The doe smiled warmly and affectionately, and drew her muzzle closer to kiss Maddy on the nose. “Dear, please don’t feel like you need to perform for me. I’m enjoying your company, believe me. If I’m tearing up, it’s because I care about you, and don’t want you to feel like you’ve failed me somehow with, like…‘insufficient swagger?’”

“But back at dinner, it sounded like you were trying to let me down easy? What changed your mind, then, if it wasn’t me, uh, workshopping my domme persona?”

“Well…the voice, admittedly, hah,” the deer giggled to herself lightly. “I’ll cop to that. But it wasn’t just that? It’s a bit of a long story. Anyway, you don’t have to try quite so hard to play out what you think I want in a domme, especially if it’s making things more difficult for you. I’m into cuddly, affectionate fucking too, you know,” Grace beamed.

Maddy smiled at hearing that, feeling remarkably comforted. “I wouldn’t mind giving it a try…?”

Repositioning herself, she pumped her semi-deflated length until she was again hard enough to penetrate the deer, but this time, she entered slowly. Affected bravado gone, she luxuriated in the sensation of embracing Grace’s soft body while gently, pleasurably grinding into her pussy. The deer resumed her own pelvic thrusts back, at a similarly leisurely tempo.

This was…this was also pretty fucking great, the sheep-bear concluded, and she and Grace grinned at one another, delightedly flushed. Feeling bold, she craned down her neck to kiss the deer. She was rewarded by a cervine tongue affectionately probing into her mouth, feeling her sharp canines, and made a low chuckle when each of them withdrew from the kiss.

The pressure in their nethers was building, and their movements became erratic, needy, even desperate. Maddy came inside the deer with one last herky-jerky thrust, and rumbled in ecstasy from deep inside their chest; Grace, meanwhile, still stuffed by the sheep-bear, reached down and pawed frenetically at herself until a moment later she also bleated with pleasure and spasmed rhythmically, slack-jawed.

Collapsing her legs down to the sheets as Maddy pulled out once again – this time, both of them sticky with her copious seed – Grace tilted her head towards the sheep-bear and kissed her again, slowly and happily. “That was lovely, dear,” the doe panted happily. They laid entwined for some time.

After a while relaxing in the afterglow, the deer then pointed vaguely towards a dresser on the other side of the bed, made of tubular steel and warmly-toned cherrywood laminate. “Maddy, would you mind grabbing me a towel from the top drawer? I don’t want to be, ah, dripping, to stand up and get a glass of water,” she chuckled.

They smirked again, and rested a broad hand gently (but firmly) atop Grace’s arm. “Wait, hold on…” Craning their neck to look more clearly towards the other room, Maddy spied a mug on the kitchenette counter emblazoned with the K-LAW division insignia. (Naturally, they observed, suppressing a snort.) With a moment of concentration and a few flexes of their hand, it was rinsed out and filled with cool, clear Lake Ontario water from the faucet, then telekinetically floated smoothly into the bedroom.

Grace gave her a brief, gentle round of applause, and giggled with bemusement anticipating the mug (as well as her requested towel from the dresser, traveling a much shorter distance) being delivered to her waiting hands. “And you don’t think you have natural swagger, eh?”

Maddy flushed, biting their lip until their composure broke, and they joined in the older woman’s laughter.

After the deer had set the emptied mug on her glass bedside table and wiped away some of the fluids on top, inside and underneath her, she resumed snuggling up to the sheep-bear. “So, I guess I kind of promised you a long story, didn’t I.”

“I’m all ears…?”

“Okay, well…let me tell you about someone I know. So, it was 2009, I was nearly finished with law school, and after this one evening class, I’m just a complete dumbass and accidentally get myself locked in the lecture hall…”