Grayson
Grayson awoke with the vague notion that he may have consumed a small amount of battery acid. That, or one too many hard seltzers. At his right, Keld lay sprawled on his stomach, face half buried in the pillow and tail pinning Grayson in place.
Grayson scrubbed at his face and started the slow process of squirming free.
Keld’s visible eye cracked open. “Mornin’,” he mumbled. “How d’you feel?”
“Like a freshman after his first frat party.”
“I don’t know what that means but congratulations or my condolences.”
Grayson shoved at the heavy tail. “Free me. I just need some water and I’ll be fine.”
Keld swished it over to the other side of his body. “That’s great because you agreed to go for a run with Tara later.”
Grayson stopped dead in his tracks. “I didn’t.”
“You did.”
As if on cue, Grayson’s phone buzzed from the bedside table.
Tara Baker:I’ll be ready in twenty minutes!
“Oh my god,” Grayson groaned. “I told her I needed to start running again because I haven’t been working out, and she said she was going on a run today, andIsaid that’s great, and—Fuck I agreed to go on a run with her.”
“Mhmm.” A shiver ran along Keld’s dorsal fin, wavering from the middle of his back to the lower half of his tail. “You better get that tight little ass moving,aiu.”
Grayson inhaled a cup of water and dug through his drawer of unused workout clothes. After a few minutes of rodent-like fervor, he came up with an old pair of running shorts and a light singlet. He ignored Keld’s eyes on him as he peeled his pajamas off and donned the much smaller garments.
“You should run more often,” Keld commented. His gaze flickered between Grayson’s long, exposed legs, and the bit of collarbone that protruded around the singlet’s straps. “Being mostly naked and sweaty suits you.”
“I’m not sweaty yet.” Grayson found his light gray windbreaker and zipped it over the sleeveless shirt. “And you won’t be here when I get back to see it.”
“True. Don’t shower until I get here.”
“You’re disgusting.”
The Alpha was still grinning as Grayson left, stopping to fill a water bottle on his way out.
Tara was waiting just outside the door to Grayson’s building, looking far too energized for someone who’d consumed at least double the alcohol Grayson had.
“I’m so excited to have a running partner again!” she said as they turned toward the bus stop. “I didn’t know you ran in college, but I guess I should have known from your body type.”
“Scrawny?” Grayson said sarcastically.
“I was going to say lean.” Tara laughed. “Anyway, I wanted to take you up to the northern side of the island. It’s really beautiful up there. More like Usoi than Earth. But I figured I wouldn’t make you run all the way there on your first day back in the game.”
She nudged him with her shoulder. “We’ll take the bus up to Midtown and run from there. Sound good?”
Grayson took a drink from his bottle. “Sounds tolerable. I hope. I don’t get how you can be so…” He gestured to her entire body. “You drank more than me.”
“It’s like how characters in fantasy and sci-fi books make themselves immune to poison by taking bigger and bigger doses. I did that with Whiteclaws. And wine. And tequila.”
“God.” Grayson shook his head. “You should be studied.”
The bus pulled up and the pair boarded. It was mostly empty, considering it was a Sunday morning. Grayson gazed out the window as the bus traveled along the shoreline, watching the plants shift from a mix of purple and green to a wall of violets and mauve.
“This is us.” Tara half-pushed him out of his seat and out onto the sidewalk. The building around them no longer looked exactly human. Houses along the beach were cantilevered into the water, and the structures inland were lower, boasting walls of carved granite and marble.
