Ioan half lay, half slouched against the headboard, May draped bonelessly up along eir front. She'd gotten up to make them both coffee to sip in bed while they woke up, then proceed to doze off again, using eir chest as a pillow and the rest of em as mattress.
Ey, meanwhile, had made it through most of eir coffee, resting the cup between the skunk's shoulder blades between sips. It was technically Christmas, ey knew, though neither of them cared much for the holiday. The only reason it stuck in eir mind was eir plans for making the traditional tocană and mămăligă that afternoon. Ey hadn't learned to cook much prior to uploading --- just a few simple dishes for a poor student --- and it wasn't until ey had wound up on the System in eir current sim that ey'd gone back to teach emself all the things ey'd loved growing up.
(( Does some thinking ))
Ey frowned when ey lifted eir mug, only to find it empty.
"I'm going to drink your coffee, May."
"If you do, I will pin you down and pluck your eyebrows bald," she mumbled, slowly lifting her head and reaching out toward her mug on the nightstand.
"Sounds painful," ey said, laughing. "That's a new one."
"One day, they're going to find my dead body, clearly smothered to death, my eyebrows fully plucked, sand in my shoes, cracker crumbs in my bed, all of my pens un-capped, all of my book pages dog-eared, with skunk fur in all the food," ey said, laughing. "I'm pretty sure they'll know it was you."
She lifted her chin to park it on eir shoulder. "Mm, well, it is a risk I am willing to take."
Ey tilted eir head to give the top of her own a kiss. An awkward affair, but worth it. "You stay up too late again?"
She shrugged noncommittally.
"Well, you're a pretty cozy blanket, if warm, so I guess I'll allow it."
Lifting her snout, she licked at eir shoulder, getting a laugh out of em. "Whereas you, my dear, are not a very good pillow. Just full to the brim with bones."
"I need those to live."
"Lame," she drawled. After a moment, she added thoughtfully, "I am glad that you have skin, though. It would be quite disgusting without."
"Ew. As am I." Ey leaned over to grab her coffee cup and steal a sip, threats be damned. "I'm still surprised you didn't wind up with another furry, though. Figured that would be more your style."
"I wind up with people that I like, whether they have fur or not." She shrugged. "Which is not to say that I have not wound up with other furries."
"I'm not complaining. You're soft."
"To be fair, that is what I like about you having skin, too, my dear. Skin is soft, as well. Were you a furry, though, what species would you be?"
Ey pet along her back, thinking. "I don't know. I've only really had extensive interactions with skunks, foxes, and weasels. Maybe a squirrel?"
She rolled off eir front and sat up eagerly. "A squirrel? Really? Would you be one of those fancy red ones with the ear tufts and outrageous tales or one of the gray ones that were all over where I grew up?"
A quick query of the perisystem archive gave em a good idea of what each might look like. "The red ones sound really ostentatious. I don't know if I could pull that off."
She retrieved her coffee mug from em and settled in beside em instead. "Yes, but the tail," she whined. "Come on, my dear. You would simply *have* to be a red squirrel. You dress all fancy, still, even."
"Are they bigger than skunk tails?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. "Solid competition."
"I can't picture anything having a bigger tail than you, May. Definitely outrageous."
"I thought you liked my tail."
"I do!"
She laughed and dotted her nose against eir cheek. "Excellent."
"You know, I've always wondered," ey said, getting an arm around her. "Why did the most political stanza of the clade stay skunks? Wouldn't it be more effective to be humans? It's not like the majority of folks on the Systems are furries."
"Only three of the ten are skunks anymore, and you have met all three. Besides, I think End Waking is the only one of the three of us who has not spent time in human form. Some of me in other relationships were --- or perhaps are --- humans. I spent six months with you in that form, even. Remember?"
Ey nodded. "It was pretty weird."
"For both of us, yes. I like being what I am! Short, chubby, soft, furry...it is just that these are all things that are disarming to a great many people," she said, poking at her own belly. "Even skunks, despite their reputation for smelling bad, are more often seen as bumbling, stupid creatures."
"I wouldn't call you stupid, May. Bumbling, though..."
She rolled her eyes. "Thank you, I think? But yes, even bumbling is a calculated gesture to be inoffensive."
"End Waking said similar." Ey dug through eir exocortices until ey came up with the line, ""Were you amused by the absent minded way that I made tea? The way I just puttered around, doing this, then that, as though I kept remembering that I needed first wood, then water, then mugs?" He said it was a matter of intent."
"It is, yes. I am sure that some of the clade who remain skunks are so without a second thought, but that is not how True Name worked, and so it is not how we work."
"And she did that for the same reasons? To be inoffensive?"
She nodded. "In a way. At first, she could not be anything but, as that is how she was forked, but she kept it because of the way the Council worked. She was a skunk, Debarre was a weasel, Zeke-- Ezekiel spent half the time looking like a shambling pile of dirty rags and the other half like an unhoused man, and user11824 looked like the least remarkable person possible, as though your eyes simply slid right off of him. The ethos of the Council was to be just ordinary people who were weird before uploading and remained weird after."
"Jonas wasn't that weird when I met him."
She made a sour face. "But everything that he did was intentional. Every aspect of his appearance and personality."
Ey nodded. It certainly tallied from eir memories.
"But I think True Name kept it after the Council disbanded for much the same reasons. She is a furry because there are plenty of furries on the System. She remains in her early thirties because that is what one expects out of those on the System. She is not unattractive among furries, maintaining that soft figure and well kept appearance without heading towards sex-symbol because that is what many on the System wind up doing for one reason or another. She is normal, I am cute, Why Ask Questions is that shithead at the bar that everyone loves, and so on."
"Right, that makes sense." Ey hesitated, composing eir next words carefully. "You talk about her quite a bit. I know that--"
"You asked, Ioan," she said, frowning.
"I know, May, I just mean in general. I know you're consciously working on how you feel about her, and I keep bringing her up besides. Just an observation."
The moment of tenseness lingered, then passed as she wilted against em, sighing. "I know, my dear. I did not mean to get snippy. You are right, and I am not sure how I feel about that fact, that she is so often on my mind. My feelings remain complex."
"Oh, I definitely get that."
"You seem to enjoy her company more."
Ey shrugged. "I guess. It started out as a way to keep things smooth between us, but now it's just a thing to do outside the house."
"Coffee dates are good," she said, nodding.
"I don't know if I'd call them dates. No romance, there."
The skunk laughed and shook her head. "Just an expression."
"Oh, right." Ey shrugged. "She's just like...a coworker one is friends with. There are contexts that I enjoy her company in, but it's not like I'm inviting her over for the holidays."
"Which is good," she said, grinning. "I am sure that I will get to the point where she and I can coexist in the same space without either of us feeling bad, but sharing Christmas dinner with her would be far too much."
Ey nodded and tightened eir arm around her, kissing between her ears. "Same, I think. Thanks for reminding me, though. I should probably get up and get that started.
They both slid out of the bed to complete their morning routines: Ioan to make another pot of coffee and prepare breakfast while May went through her grooming routine, then eating, a shower for em while she worked on her monologue.
The dinner itself wasn't onerous, a stew of pork --- ey'd been raised on a version with lamb, which May hadn't liked --- tomatoes, and mushrooms in a garlicky, paprika-filled gravy. Still, it benefited from a longer cooking time, so ey began that after eir shower and set it to simmering.
