Chapter Text
It was a tug through the link that brought Orbit out of sleep.
Nothing sharp, like distance, because sometimes Ajani’s curiosity caused him to test the limits of his range; it was the kind of trickle that, while noticeable and distinctive, let her flounder around in warm haze of half-wakefulness. He was happy, though, she could tell.
There was something curled against her thigh, warm even through the plush blankets. Somewhat odd, Ajani enjoyed being under the covers with her. Orbit fumbled lazily until she freed an arm from the sheets, and felt around until she could bury her hand in the soft fur ball at her hip.
She yanked her hand back almost immediately in alarm, and actually bothered to pull the blankets away from her head and take a look. This was not at all her fur ball; very furry, very, with a long, glorious coat that made it’s owner look both wild and dignified, but it was not hers. While she had been expecting Ajani, she instead got Harley. Thrust’s daemon, despite having just had Orbit’s fingers running through her fur, gave her an entirely unworried look through half-lidded eyes, yawned, and contorted herself through what would have been an exaggeratedly languid stretch if Orbit had not been familiar with her.
Orbit blinked the last of the sleep from her eyes, because clearly she needed to be awake for whatever was happening. Apparently Orbit’s brush caused Harley no pain. Which made her suddenly anxious to know why Ajani was so happy, wherever he was.
Turns out he was not far at all. Never mind that Thrust’s studio apartment was of a size that a daemon’s range could not be put through it’s paces unless either party ran for opposite corners, but the lemur’s long, black tail made a pretty good signpost for him where he had it sticking up in the air. Just as telling, there was a great deal of giggling coming from the couch, which had its back not far off the foot of the bed (and Orbit had long since gotten over that Thrust’s relatively Spartan apartment did include a lavishly dressed bed of massive proportions. This was Thrust; of course he would). Thrust had one of his long legs draped over the said back of the couch, and it was the only part of him easily seen. But if Thrust was lying on the couch, taking up the whole couch, because that’s what he did, that would practically put Ajani sitting on Thrust’s chest.
Well, that explained the happy tugs on her bond. Again, she was momentarily mystified by the lack of pain; she and Thrust were close, in a “friends with benefits” way, but not that much. Not enough for this. Well. At least she had thought so.
While their initial run ins had been aggravating, because the pilot of the three-engined heavy with the chipper voice pulled some acrobatic stunts in the air that would leave her impressed if it hadn’t been an active fire scene, it had been a good week until she had found herself on the same tarmac as him. Her deliberate stomp towards his giant aircraft to let him know, away from FCC monitoring, that he was an idiot itching for death had terminated abruptly as a similarly giant man appeared in the door, ambling slowly down the stairs. Giant, but not much older than herself, and with a smile so bright she almost regretted wanting to slap it off his face. Almost. Across his shoulders was what she first thought to be a very fluffy bobcat, but the long tail quelled that quick enough. She was just the biggest Maine Coon Orbit had ever seen in her life. Big, and pretty.
The massive grinning idiot underneath her wasn’t bad to look at either. Very tall. Very solid.
Just… aggravating.
He got less aggravating over time, but no less determined to tickle danger on the chin. Regardless, a muggy night on a dark airbase later that season would be the first in a long string of casual hookups. Casual, because that’s how Thrust liked it, and Orbit did not feel like trying to wrangle a man that did not want to be kept. And at the end of the season, they’d be going their separate ways.
The end of the season came and went, and it was to both their surprise to find that they shared a home airfield. They lived at opposite ends of the county, a good half-hour commute with no traffic, but the occasional tryst continued. She rather liked it; when he wasn’t being a loud, flirty rake with some manner of curse that drew trouble from miles away, Thrust was just kind of a goof. A warm goof, and sometimes when she had her face buried in her hands she was really just trying not to laugh, even as he grinned through looking sheepish and Harley rolled her eyes and Ajani howled at the hilarity of it all until he fell off Orbit’s shoulder.
Off-season, though, the booty calls swiftly became invitations to something else. Movies, dinner, camping trips, arcades and laser tag. Netflix and chill. A surprise birthday present (she didn’t know how he’d found out, but he had; turns out the man could cook a mean dinner when he wanted to. Never mind being outrageously touched to the point of having to drink more wine to loosen up her throat, but she would have jumped his bones just for spoiling her with food). Sometimes they comfortably did nothing at all.
And somewhere along the line, she had abandoned the thought of seeing someone else, because that portion of her life had been taken over by someone with such a large personality that you could make a couple complete people out of him. Especially when he argued with his daemon, because someone had to keep Thrust from getting his ass whupped when Orbit wasn’t there to do it. It was done out of love, and maddeningly fun to watch, especially since Harley really did share his love of a good romping adventure. It all still paled before the incident at the club, where Orbit had shown up dressed to impress and ready for a fun night out, only to find Thrust and Harley in front of a burning segment of the bar, with some manner of hard alcohol as the fuel, as a bartender made a mad dash for a fire extinguisher. They had rounded to face her, both pairs of hazel eyes wide, hands and paws thrown skyward with a simultaneous “I swear it wasn’t us this time!” They had ended up just heading out to eat instead. That was okay with Orbit; Thrust was awfully appreciative of her dress regardless.
Ajani liked him, and Harley, more than anyone else she’d ever been with. The race to a joke’s punch line was real. Orbit was sure than any toning her stomach had was simply from laughing.
Speaking of, there was more muffled giggling from the couch. Orbit decided that it was far passed time she see for herself what her daemon and her lover were up to, and sat slowly up in bed. Harley opened her eyes again, turning her head slightly, but she did not rise. Orbit was of half a mind to lay back down, hot damn that was a comfortable mattress, but another round of giggles, the deeper set sounding distinctly muffled, had her sliding slowly out from under the blankets.
“They’ve been like that for a good fifteen minutes.”
And Orbit turned to look at the cat now happily filling Orbit’s warm spot with her body. Harley just watched her right back while waving a paw lazily at the couch. “They didn’t want to disturb you, hence the pillow.”
Pillow? Orbit was standing now, and just a couple strides had her leaning over the couch. Sure enough, Ajani was seated on Thrust’s chest, one of his little hands helping to support Thrust’s tablet, as both the man’s hands were busy holding a pillow to his face as he laughed into it. Ajani noticed her immediately, and gave the back of the pillow a couple of hard, deliberate pokes. It got Thrust’s attention well enough.
He grinned up at her, face red, eyes wet, and trying to catch his breath.
“Heya, pretty lady. We didn’t wake you, did we?”
How to answer that? My daemon is sitting on your chest and I can feel it but it’s rather nice and it’s better than the dream I was having anyways? Hm, not quite.
“No, not really.” And she reached over to pluck the tablet from Ajani’s hands, and give him a gentle pat. What the hell were they watching? “Not directly, anyways.”
Daemon and human exchange looks, and Ajani climbed slowly off Thrust’s chest and onto the back of the couch, near where Orbit was leaning.
“It was an accident, you know.” He had his little hands against her hip.
“Yeah, I know.” Because she had, just minutes before, done something similar, so she had little room to judge. She gave him a calming scratch to the back of his head.
“It didn’t hurt, though, even though it was just a brush.” Ajani was standing on his back legs now, eye level to Orbit. “So we just…” He shrugged his tiny shoulders. “Don’t be mad at him.”
Thrust was still lying on the couch, staring up at her, as if trying to gauge how much trouble he was in. Orbit gave them both a smile, but gave Thrust’s foot an extra smack for good measure.
“I’m hardly mad. Confused, and wondering how I missed all the signs, and tired and we know who’s fault that is,” and Trust’s wide, smarmy smile came back, with a truckload of extra flirtation for good measure. “But Harley and I just inadvertently checked; looks like we’re all good.”
Orbit almost jumped when said cat silently appeared further down the couch, still sleepy, but looking to be involved in the conversation. Thrust reached up to scratch at one of her furry cheeks, and she leaned into it.
“Yeah, I felt that,” and his grin tempered down to something more reasonable. He returned to watching Orbit, and his regard was almost piercing (and that was surprisingly intimidating, even from a man that she knew would use his giant hands to move snails and earthworms off the sidewalks after it rained). “I’ve never had anyone get close enough to touch Harley, before.”
Orbit was not sure how she felt about that. Warm? Yes. Apprehensive, also yes, because Thrust enjoyed the bachelor life; a gentle soul, but hard to pin down. Orbit usually left those men well alone. They weren’t worth the trouble.
Too bad she kinda liked this one.
She put on her cockiest smirk in response, giving the foot on the couch another swat.
“How many women have you ever told that to?”
Many, was what she really expected.
“None.” Was the answer she got, and it didn’t come from him. Harley was purring against his head, rubbing her nose into his hair, but she was looking at Orbit. “We’ve never stuck around that long.”
“I think last year killed our ability to ‘play,’ darlin’.” And Thrust leaned his head into her fluffy side. A testament to the bulk beneath the fur, she didn’t even budge. “It’s been a while. We’re gettin’ bad at this ‘friends with benefits’ thing.”
“I know; Richie had his birthday at that one club downtown. With the giant fish tanks? You love that place. You didn’t walk out of there with a single number to your name, although a couple ladies sure tried. The one with the handsome cheetah almost threw herself into your lap. But you did—“
Thrust gave an indignant squawk.
“Harley don’t…”
“—compare—“
He was flushing hard, clearly embarrassed.
“Harley, no!”
“—all of them to Orbit.”
And Thrust hid his now cherry-red face back behind the pillow. She was sure that if he could will himself into a hiding spot, he’d have done it immediately. Still purring, Harley curled gently around his head. She did shoot a hesitant glance at Orbit, before looking back down at her own paws.
“I think… we’ve got it bad.”
Thrust just made a pained whimper into his pillow.
Orbit fought down a grin. This man would streak naked across a golf course if you dared him with no shame at all, but admitting to a crush, a very real one, turned him all sorts of interesting shades of pink. She was not surprised in the slightest. She walked around to the front of the couch, depositing the tablet on the coffee table as she did so. Thrust’s bulk simply commanded all of the couch space, so she simply sat on his lap. He lowered the pillow just enough to peek up at her. His forehead was still very red. It was adorable.
“We haven’t been doing a very good job, either.” She exchanged a look with Ajani. “I think I stopped trying to see other people months ago. I just… lost the desire. I had what I needed, somehow.”
Thrust lowered his pillow shield a shade more.
“I’m surprised you don’t have men beating down your door.” He cocked a brow. “Or women.” And he brought the pillow down to his chest to give her a straight deadpan. “Please tell me there are also women beating down your door.”
Orbit smiled and rolled her eyes. So did Harley.
“Not so much, no. To either.” She gave his stomach a gentle pat. “Besides, none of them were as handsome and kind and fun and dorky as the one I’m seeing.”
“I’m a dork?”
“You’re the best kind of dork.”
Thrust grinned, and oh it was nice to see that expression back on his face. He discarded the pillow on the floor, and reached up to her shoulder, tugging her down gently to lay across his chest. Harley unwound herself from around Thrust’s head, regarding them both on the couch before gingerly stepping onto them both, settling herself in the shallow divot between their bodies. Orbit reached a hand out, quite deliberately this time, and gently stroked down the cat’s back.
Hearing Thrust’s breathing hitch quietly was pretty nice, too.
Determined not to be left out, Ajani came down off the back of the couch to snuggle next to the other daemon. His tail was long enough to wrap around them both. Harley immediately set about grooming the back of his ears, which was heart-stoppingly adorable to watch.
“We really are seeing each other, huh.”
Orbit buried her face against Thrust’s cheek and hummed quietly.
“I think so.”
He gave her shoulder a gentle rub, before wrapping both his arms around her—and Ajani and Harley—and squeezing. One of the best things about Thrust was that there was a lot of him to cuddle.
“I would gladly never talk to another woman again if it gave me sole kissing rights to you.”
She laughed against his ear. Like hell; Thrust was a social, talkative flirt even when he wasn’t trying. He would give that promise his all, sweetheart that he was, but it would kill him.
“Well, you don’t have to go that far.” She brought her head back up to nuzzle against his temple. “But sole kissing rights go both ways. If you can claim it, so can I. And they apply to… other things, too.”
And the hand on her shoulder went immediately to her rump, squeezing hard.
“I like this deal. Very much.”
So did she.