Intersteller Cohabitation for Dummies
Copyright© 2025 by Megumi Kashuahara
Chapter 5: Heat Wave
The week after “The Talk” was simultaneously the best and most anxiety-inducing week of Marcus’s life.
Best, because: He had a girlfriend. An actual, official, mutually-acknowledged girlfriend who loved him and wanted to be with him and looked at him like he hung the moon.
Anxiety-inducing, because: Said girlfriend was going into heat in approximately seven days, and Marcus was trying very hard to be mature and prepared about the whole thing while internally panicking.
“So,” Vera said on Monday morning, sitting across from him at breakfast in his shirt (but now it MEANT something, which made it even more distracting), “we should probably talk about what to expect.”
Marcus set down his coffee. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s talk.”
“Heat cycles for vulpine females typically last three to five days.”
“Okay.”
“During that time, my body temperature will rise slightly. I’ll be more ... sensitive. To touch. To scent. To proximity.”
“Right.”
“And I’ll have a very strong biological urge to mate.” She met his eyes directly. “With you, specifically, since we’re courting.”
Marcus’s coffee mug paused halfway to his mouth. “How strong are we talking?”
“Very.” Vera’s ears flicked. “I’ll be somewhat ... insistent. Persistent. Single-minded in my focus.”
“On mating.”
“On YOU.” She smiled slightly. “It’s not that I won’t be myself. I’ll still be me. But the urge will be very strong. And I’ll want you close. Constantly.”
“For three to five days.”
“Yes.”
Marcus processed this. “Should we, uh, stock up on anything? Food? Water? Do you need anything specific?”
Vera’s expression went soft. “You’re taking this seriously.”
“Of course I am. I want to do this right. I want to take care of you.”
---She stood up, walked around the table, and climbed into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her tail curled around both of them.
“This is why I love you,” she murmured against his neck. “You’re so careful with me.”
Marcus held her close, breathing in the scent of her hair. “So. Shopping list?”
“Lots of water. Easy snacks. Maybe some electrolyte drinks.” She pulled back to look at him, a mischievous glint in her golden eyes. “We’re going to be burning a lot of calories.”
Marcus’s face heated. “Right. Yes. Calories. Got it.”
Tuesday, they went shopping.
Marcus pushed the cart while Vera loaded it with supplies. Water bottles. Granola bars. Fruit. Sports drinks. A truly alarming amount of protein bars.
“Are we preparing for heat or the apocalypse?” Marcus asked, eyeing the cart.
“Both?” Vera grinned. “Trust me, you’ll thank me later.”
An elderly woman passed them in the aisle, took one look at their cart full of supplies, looked at Vera’s fox ears and swishing tail, looked at Marcus’s slightly panicked expression, and smiled knowingly.
“Good luck, dear,” she said to Marcus.
“Thank you?” Marcus replied weakly.
Vera just laughed and added another case of water.
Wednesday, Vera started nesting with renewed intensity.
She dragged every soft thing in the apartment into her nest in the living room. Blankets, pillows, his shirts (all of them), her clothes, towels, everything. The nest was now approximately the size of a small island.
“Is this normal?” Marcus asked, watching her arrange and rearrange pillows for the fifteenth time.
“Very normal. I’m preparing.” She fluffed another pillow. “The nest needs to be perfect.”
“For the heat?”
“For us.” She looked at him, her expression soft. “This is where we’ll be. Where we’ll bond. It needs to be comfortable for both of us.”
Marcus felt something warm bloom in his chest. “Need help?”
Her face lit up. “Really?”
“Really. Tell me where you want things.”
They spent the next hour building the nest together. Marcus following Vera’s very specific instructions about pillow placement and blanket layering. By the end, they had created what could only be described as the most comfortable fort known to mankind.
“Perfect,” Vera declared, surveying their work. “Absolutely perfect.”
She pulled Marcus down into the nest with her, and they lay there together, wrapped in softness, her tail around his waist, his hand in her hair.
“I’m nervous,” Marcus admitted quietly.
“Me too,” Vera said.
“Really?”
“Of course. This is important. This is...” She turned to face him. “This is when we truly bond. When we become mates in every sense. That’s significant.”
“What if I mess it up?”
Vera laughed softly and kissed him. “Marcus. You’ve been accidentally courting me perfectly for weeks. I think you’ll manage.”
“That was different. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Exactly. And it was perfect anyway.” She cupped his face. “Just be yourself. Be the male who touches me gently and worries if I’m comfortable and offers to massage my sore muscles without knowing what he’s actually touching.”
Marcus groaned. “Are you ever going to let me live that down?”
“Never. It was adorable. You were adorable.” She kissed him again. “You ARE adorable. And I love you. And this is going to be wonderful because we’re doing it together.”
“Together,” Marcus echoed, and felt his anxiety ease slightly.
Thursday, Vera’s scent changed.
Marcus couldn’t quite explain it. She smelled like herself—that warm, slightly sweet scent he’d come to associate with her—but there was something else now. Something that made his hindbrain sit up and take notice. Something that made it very difficult to concentrate on work.
“Is it starting?” he asked that evening, finding her curled up in the nest, wearing just one of his t-shirts and shorts.
“Soon,” she said, her voice slightly breathy. “Maybe tomorrow. Definitely by Friday night.”
“How do you feel?”
“Warm. Restless.” She looked at him, and her eyes were darker than usual, her pupils dilated. “I keep thinking about you.”
Marcus swallowed hard. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She patted the nest beside her. “Come here?”
He did. She immediately curled into him, pressing close, her nose against his neck.
“You smell good,” she murmured.
“I just showered—”
“No, like ... YOU smell good. Your scent. It’s driving me crazy in the best way.”
Her hand slipped under his shirt, resting on his stomach. Not sexual, just ... touching. Claiming.
“Vera—”
“I know. Not yet. Soon.” She sighed. “But I want you close. Is that okay?”
“That’s more than okay.”
They stayed like that for hours. Just holding each other. Her scent getting stronger, more insistent. His body responding to her proximity, to the biological signals she was broadcasting.
“Marcus?” she whispered as he was starting to doze.
“Mmm?”
“Thank you for doing this with me. For choosing me.”
“Always,” he said, and meant it with everything he had.
Friday arrived, and Marcus knew the moment he woke up that something had changed.
Vera wasn’t in the nest beside him.
She was standing by the window, silhouetted in the morning light, wearing his shirt and nothing else he could see. Her tail was swishing slowly. Her ears were forward, alert.
“Vera?”
She turned, and Marcus’s breath caught.
Her eyes were almost entirely pupil. Her cheeks were flushed. Her breathing was quick and shallow. And the way she looked at him—like he was the only thing in the world that mattered, like she wanted to devour him, like she needed him more than air—
“It started,” she said simply.
Marcus sat up. “Are you okay? Do you need—”
“You.” She crossed to the nest in three quick strides. “I need you. Now. Please.”
She climbed into his lap, straddling him, her hands on his shoulders. She was warm—almost hot—her skin fever-bright.
“Vera—”
“I know we said we’d take it slow. I know you wanted to be gentle and careful.” She kissed him, hard and desperate. “But Marcus, I need you. I’ve needed you for weeks. And now my body is screaming for you and I can’t—I don’t want to wait anymore.”
Marcus cupped her face, making her look at him. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve been sure since the moment you touched my tail on day one.” She pressed her forehead to his. “I’m in heat. I want you. I love you. Please, Marcus. Please.”
“Okay,” he said softly. “Okay, yes. But if at any point you want to stop—”
“I won’t.”
“But if you do—”
“You’ll stop immediately because you’re a good male and you care about me. I know.” She kissed him again, softer this time. “But I won’t want to stop. I promise.”
The rest of the day was a blur of heat and need and connection.
Vera was insistent, just as she’d warned. But she was also playful. Joyful. Herself, just with all her inhibitions stripped away.
And Marcus discovered that while he’d been nervous, while he’d worried about doing things right, his body knew exactly what to do when she was in his arms, looking at him with those golden eyes, purring his name.
They learned each other.
Every touch, every sound, every response.
The nest was perfect for this. Soft and safe and entirely theirs.
And when evening came and they lay tangled together, both breathing hard, Vera’s purr so loud it vibrated through both of them, Marcus thought: This is it. This is what bonding feels like.
“Round one,” Vera murmured against his chest.
Marcus laughed breathlessly. “Round one?”
“Mm-hmm. Heat lasts three to five days, remember?” She looked up at him, eyes gleaming. “We’re just getting started, cowboy.”
Saturday morning, Marcus woke up to an empty nest.
For a moment, panic seized him. Had she left? Had something happened? Was she okay?
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