When Ateri Mated Sur'an 1 (Patreon)

Gre7g suggested this one. I kinda wanted to do something with Sur'an anyway, so this was a fun exercise to do an alternate universe! There's gonna be a part 2 tomorrow because I MAY have gotten carried away. Also, part 2 is probably entirely NSFW, but this one is relatively chaste.

Comments appreciated!

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“I was thinking about having a cub,” Commander Sur’an said, sitting in the corner with the captain, his thirtieth birthday party happening to other people. She had both paws wrapped around one of his in a specially pleading way.

Ateri’s clear eyes widened; they always stood out against his dark pelt. “I… suppose… but, dear, we talked about this. I thought it better to set an example for the crew.”

“I think we already did,” Sur’an said. “We refused Captain Idal’s birth token. If there was any unfairness in the system, it was that; we should put our names in for the lottery and wait to have a cub like everyone else.”

Ateri huffed. “That wasn’t my point. It’s unfair in the broadest terms. We shouldn’t be living under the thumb of the krakun like this, allowing them to dictate how we might live…”

Sur’an brushed a paw across Ateri’s strong chin. He was so strong, with a neck like a structural cable. Though when she kissed it, it was soft and forgiving on the outside. “I know. It’s a principled stance. But it’s one thing to declare so when you’re young, and we’re already halfway to our Going Away. Besides, by denying ourselves a cub, aren’t the krakun still dictating our lives?”

Ateri nodded. “I can’t say I’m not tempted. I would very much like a cub. One, perhaps.”

“I want four cubs,” Sur’an laughed.

Ateri stiffened. “Four!”

“Six! Eleven!”

“Dear!” Ateri glanced around at the party happening elsewhere in the room, as though someone might have heard her joke and taken it seriously.

The rumor had always been that Captain Ateri pairbonded with Commander Sur’an as a power play, to increase stability among the officers, keep the civil administration in line and reinforce his rather young ascension to the captain’s chair. But the truth was: he loved her dearly and without regret, and wasn’t about to let their high ranks get in the way of that. There was no law against it, he figured, and so there should have been no questioning or backtalk. But there was always someone waiting in the wings to take what the highest ranked officers said too seriously.

But as Ateri turned his gaze across the crowd, his ears suddenly turned up in alarm. Sur’an turned to see who he was looking at—and she saw right away, too. She pushed away from the corner table and stood at the same time as the captain, and they hurried over to the one bench nearby, where a white-furred geroo lay slumped and disheveled.

“Lieutenant?” Ateri asked, shaking her shoulder. She suddenly righted herself, not having passed out but smelling strongly of wine—she’d clearly been crying, and wiped her eyes and cheeks with a napkin.

“Captain!” Jakari exclaimed with a start. “And… Commander. I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to draw attention to myself. You don’t need to bother with me.” She pressed the napkin to her puffy eyes to conceal the tears faster, but it just made her eyes pinker.

“I just wanted to know,” Ateri said, “…I saw you enter with a crew member. Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” Jakari said, and then her ears wilted. “Well… it’s nothing I should be concerning you with.”

Sur’an took a seat so she wasn’t towering over the poor female. Ateri followed her lead and sat next to his mate.

“I think it wrong someone should be upset at my birthday party,” Ateri said. “I don’t particularly like the things myself but I wouldn’t like someone’s thoughts of me soured by a poor experience.”

There was more to it than that. Jakari was Captain Idal’s youngest daughter, and so there was a tint of responsibility to her happiness. And she was certainly capable, even subcommander material.

“I don’t know if it’s even easy to talk about,” Jakari said. “But really, you needn’t coddle me. There’s just a gap between the officers and the non-officer crew. Viky was… well, it’s a long story. Suffice to say, I think ambition scares some geroo.”

“Oh I could tell you all about that,” Sur’an said. “Before Ateri and I got together I was dating this geroo named Danash. I was getting up early in the morning and he wasn’t. And as much as I loved him, the gap was just… getting wider all the time. I couldn’t really talk about work with him, as he’d always make a point of ignoring it. And honestly I didn’t blame him; he drew an awful rack of tiles and thought of work as, at best, a necessary evil. So if I really wanted to, I could have decided that I agreed with him to stop thinking about work at home and make him and work entirely separate lives. But I wasn’t sure I could or even wanted to do it; being First Officer doesn’t really allow you the privilege of turning your job off when you get home. And, well, Ateri was already right here…”

Jakari blushed hard when Sur’an squeezed Ateri’s paw. Ateri spread his ears in a soft smile.

“Well, that’s just it,” Jakari said. “We all joined the academy because we thought that being an officer would bring importance and direction to our lives. And everyone else just seems to look up at us and think we’re… snobs.”

“Is that what happened?” Ateri asked.

Jakari nodded with her ears sunk low. “She wasn’t particularly impressed with the officers around here, and she finally said that I was just showing off and shutting her out. But maybe it was my fault. I like brushing tails with the higher-ups, and maybe that’s elitist of me.”

Sur’an perked her ears, and whispered into Ateri’s ear, “Jakari’s into females?”

“Partly,” Ateri said. He would have known, since he’d known Idal’s family rather intimately.

Sur’an blushed. She enjoyed females, too, but she’d never really made it known. There wasn’t any law against it, but neither were there provisions for it, and geroo tended to think of same-sex couples as acting selfish with their DNA. So there was this pressure to not seem too sexually eccentric. But then again, Sur’an was already mated to the most eligible male on the ship. She didn’t really need to think about her other attractions so much beyond idle imaginings and the occasional pornography.

At the moment, Jakari didn’t really have anyone. Sur’an didn’t doubt there was attraction, but Jakari was quite serious about her career. Was it, perhaps, desperation that led her to dating females?

Sur’an’s ears perked. Oh. She’s… alone. Jakari wasn’t outright saying it; to complain so bitterly in front of the captain and commander would have just seemed needlessly contemptuous.

The commander took the white geroo’s paw in her own.

“Well, come on!” Sur’an said.

“Huh?” Jakari’s ears perked in surprise, as did Ateri’s.

“Well, we weren’t doing anything better!” Sur’an said. “And if Jakari is very much into brushing tails with the ship elites, what better to improve her mood than the tails of the Captain and Commander?”

Ateri raised an ear in contemplation, then yarped. “Yes, why not! We’ll show you off to everyone. Our friend the eligible bachelorette Jakari!”

“Oh!” Jakari blushed hard. “No, you don’t have to, sirs! I’m not, I’m still… kinda reeling!”

“Oh, we don’t have to take it seriously,” Sur’an said. “It’s just an excuse to get absolutely smashed.”

“Well I would like that,” Jakari finally spread her ears in a warm smile, and squeezed Sur’an’s paw. “Who’s standing near the best wine?”

—

They spent the rest of the party playing up Jakari’s status to the subcommanders and other first lieutenants. She didn’t make a terribly fine impression, being already quite drunk when they started and even moreso when the hour finally grew late enough that the captain could reasonably excuse himself from his own party—he never hosted them himself, on account of really disliking them.

Out of inertia more than anything, and because she had trouble standing straight, Jakari ended up following Ateri and Sur’an to their apartment, which she’d never been. She was quite surprised, her eyes lighting up, when they emerged from the central ramp Top Side, and her toes brushed against the green grass of the domed landscape. There were very few living apartments here, but since the captain could decide for himself wherever he wished to live with no rent, he simply picked out a place situated just underneath the Auxiliary Bridge. It looked far more spacious from the outside than the actual apartment space was, since the bridge towered up like a mighty wedge against the side of the dome, and it was a bit like walking down a meadow path to a castle tower.

“We really should get her home,” Ateri said. But he’d been carrying some presents back from the party, things that he really had no use for but would have been awkward to turn down. Maybe he could have given some to Jakari, but that too would have been strange. Already she was making eyes at the captain like many females did; Sur’an could swear she was twitching her nose in Ateri’s direction and lustfully drinking in his scent.

“Yes, of course,” Jakari said, shaking her head and standing herself upright, but still leaning on Sur’an. “But if it’s okay, I would like a drink of water, maybe some kevvia if you have any.”

“By all means,” Sur’an said. With Jakari still partially propped around her other shoulder, Sur’an pulled out her strand and unlocked the door.

The apartment, though not large, was immaculate and clean. Sur’an often had energy to work out when she returned home after a frustrating day, and she usually spent that energy just cleaning until Ateri finally returned himself. It was a better use of her time than lounging around watching trashy drama videos, in any case; she liked to feel tired, as it made rest all the more enticing.

As Ateri stacked the presents in the kitchen and turned to the pantry to find something for Jakari to drink or chew, Sur’an sat down with Jakari on the bed, and Jakari slumped into Sur’an’s shoulder.

“You doing better?” Sur’an asked, hoping the answer was a simple yes.

“I suppose,” Jakari said. “I can’t help but think about what might have been, though.”

“Viky?”

“No, I mean… before that. I always had eyes for Ateri. I just… never made my move.”

“Jakari…” Sur’an started. “You’re drunk. You shouldn’t be talking about this to me.”

“You’re drunk, too!”

“But not nearly as much!”

“I’m serious though! I always loved Ateri from a distance, and well… you got to be his, and I always… I really love that about you.”

Sur’an tilted her ears in confusion. “You… love that? You’re not jealous?”

“Of course I’m jealous,” Jakari yarped. “I think maybe I started wanting to brush tails with every important person to see if I could capture that feeling for myself, to find another Ateri among the crew. But after today…” she shook her head. “No. I love you two.”

“You mean, you love Ateri,” Sur’an said, almost casually correcting Jakari. It was understandable, given how desirable the captain was.

Jakari, though, gave Sur’an a stern look, then pulled her down into a firm kiss.

Sur’an was shocked by the display. But Jakari was right, she was drunk, and the gesture just felt so warm and inviting, that she heedlessly pulled Jakari closer to herself, letting some of her bound-up feeling for her own sex out in the gesture. She almost regretted it immediately, as Ateri returned from the kitchen to find the two wrapped in each others’ arms.

“Uh…” Ateri started, carefully setting the cup of water on the mantle before he dropped it.

When Jakari finally pulled away, Sur’an was about to say it was a mistake, they were all too drunk and really should get Jakari back to her apartment. But Jakari put a paw to Sur’an’s lips, and carefully turned to the captain.

“Listen,” she said. “I… know it’s too late to become your mate. But I need you. I need you both.”

“Lieutenant…” Ateri carefully placed the kevvia bar in his other paw on the nightstand. “You’re drunk.”

“That’s what I told her!” Sur’an said, a bit defensively.

“You’re right,” Jakari said, sniffling. “I am. But I’m not completely out of my wits. When I go home tonight, I’m going to be thinking of you, and tomorrow morning, too, and I know this because I have been. That’s not the wine talking. That’s a very lonely female just speaking her true mind for once.”

She stood at once, as though she were about to leave in a hurry, but independent on each other, both Sur’an and Ateri placed a paw on Jakari’s shoulder, and eased her back down onto the bed.

“Jakari…” Ateri started. “This isn’t the best circumstances, you know. I believe you, but you are drunk.”

“Can she sleep between us?” Sur’an asked.

Both Ateri and Jakari perked their ears in surprise.

“What?” Sur’an asked. “You know I’ve been idly considering it. It’s not unheard of for mated couples to have a third on the side.”

“But…” Ateri gestured to the drink Lieutenant.

Sur’an shrugged. “She’s a persuasive kisser.”

“I suppose I’m hesitant because of the reputation factor,” Ateri said. “If this got out, a lot of the good will we’ve been building up might be ruined.”

“I don’t think so,” Jakari said. “The rumor is you’ve banged half the females on the ship anyway.”

Ateri’s ears burned red. “That was a long time ago.”

“See!” Jakari yarped.

“And we do both know the lieutenant,” Sur’an said. “Maybe not intimately, but we’ve been colleagues for at least a decade at this point. She’s ambitious, yes, but we both know she’s quite loyal, and we were both agreed anyone who gave her up was being foolish.”

Ateri scratched at his chin as he thought, and then with a heavy sigh, finally nodded. “You can stay the night,”

Jakari’s eyes and ears lit up like beckoning stars.

“But let’s keep it above the waistline,” he said, gesturing the level with his paw. “Despite the rumors, I don’t actually prefer sex to be casual and disposable. If we’re to be getting that close, I want to know you.”

“Yes sir, of course,” Jakari nodded quickly.

“And call me Ateri,” he said. He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips.