(It's) Always There
Copyright© 2026 by Daniel Tors
Chapter 6
To her knees, quiet. Navy reached into the sleeping bag around her waist and adjusted the comforter inside until it covered everywhere, the semi-cold polyester lining still touching her legs in some spots. All situated comfortably to warm her lower half, Navy took to the collage of drawings in front; the room was almost pitch-black, the window just to the plastic display-sleeves’ right being what allowed her to see the images in any detail, blinds shuttered by mandate leaving the studio’s inside with naught but it and another window’s dim slivers of blueish gray light, pattering rain and its clouds obfuscating in addition what minimal rays she’d get from the moon and stars.
In each of the clear but dust-covered sleeves – non-abrasive pink as a backing and mostly showing in the half-inch space between each section – was a hand-drawn landscape. Scooching to wipe off a cover from the corner closest, Navy took time to really look at the illustration, this willing disobeyal of the order to sleep far preferable to unwillingly doing so anyway.
Details meshed together due to the circumstances, but even then the strong artistry that went into the sheer rock cliff and sunny, tempestuous waves at its side shone through with clarity – it was obvious that whoever drew these wanted a realistic style, and understood how to get there. The perspective was, in effect, that of someone standing near the cliff’s edge, their view part rock arch leading to the ocean, and an obscured, medieval-looking village far in the distance off to the right, the rest taken up by rolling plateau, the whole image consistently intricate from foreground to back.
Going through them systematically, Navy found the rest were similar – different in their own ways, but the intent and style were alike. All were broad, complex vistas usually viewed at eye-level, most of possibly real natural locations sometimes with minor rural presence while a few were of definitely real places, like Stonehenge or Paris. Catching her the most not just for their unusualness, one was from the perspective of someone on the roof of a normal high-rise in a modern city while looking to the horizon at the rising (or setting) of a Dyson Sphere, the other of someone in bed viewing an open apartment drawn with an inordinate amount of detail, a balcony across them with midday streaming in through billowing curtains while a woman stood casually facing away and past the railing.
Proudly displayed at the center of the composition was something different. Using what was clearly the same style just less refined, two girls in their late-teens or maybe early-twenties were depicted sitting on a bench in the woods, the focus majorly kept on them. The girl on the left, a cheetah, had a full-faced and earnest grin on her, while the other, the woman from before who Navy could now tell was a Bernese dog (and looked younger), was smiling more softly, they’re hands held and resting between. Navy couldn’t help but want to look at it closer, so she undid the button that held it in place to do just that. After a bit, she noticed the corner had in cursive writing, “A drawing of us together. I hope you like it, Noah.” It was dated to two-thousand-three.
Seeing at a glance there weren’t any others like it, Navy recalled the chest she’d seen on the lowest night-stand shelf; when the tiger reached for it, she put mild pressure on her right arm without thinking, an immense jolt of tearing pain sent through her wound and further. Frozen a while by the sharp stab permeating her, she then carefully got on her side, and suspended her slung arm as the throbbing gradually abated ... Eventually, once it was manageable, she continued, getting herself as close to the bed’s edge as possible to reach the box while consciously keeping her other limb motionless. With a deal of effort she grabbed it and brought it onto the bed, awkwardly dragging it and pushing herself back up afterwards.
Some examination re-revealed the carved words, “Tristan’s other pictures.” Navy opened the small trunk’s lockless top, interested to see if...
... Her face went hot. Picked up before she’d realized, Navy was holding a drawing of the Bernese dog – on the same daybed she was right then – sitting naked against the wall, Noah’s tongue playfully poking out, legs spread, and fingers made into a heart shape... between them. Navy really shouldn’t be looking at this, but kept doing it anyway, so, next one ... A redraw of the first. Identical pose, she made her fingers into that shape around ... not girls’ genitals.
How awful she felt for invading the couple’s privacy built in Navy’s stomach until she couldn’t bear not putting everything back – as soon as it was, Navy resumed a position like she’d not even looked at it, that terrible remorse in her inevitably betraying any outwards sense of not having done something wrong that she tried to portray ... And, well ... she’d done it, and knew that, so it was odd she bothered.
... Regardless, Navy went back to the display, eyeing what Tristan made with continued, partially subsiding pangs of guilt. These were openly shown, Navy liked them, and she liked even more how some of them made her feel, especially so knowing who they were to each other ... It was nice.
... At some point while enraptured by one of Tristan’s drawings, Navy heard someone get up behind her. It was Case, the wolf then quietly walking around Hane to approach her. Not understanding what for when he gestured that she follow, Navy obliged anyway, equal effort put in to not wake the man sleeping next to her. Case led her out of the studio, past Red on watch by the stair railing, and to the next room, opposite where she was and right by the path to the first floor. Sitting on the bed when motioned to do so – they were in a master bedroom, it seemed – sparks were struck in front of her, the candle they lit set nearby. Aside that, all light was blocked in and from going out.
“Arm,” he ordered neutrally while digging through his backpack.
“ ... R-right; sure,” she stumbled, taking her dark brown sling off after.
He took her by the elbow and undid the bloodied cloth, the gunshot searing nigh-unbearably with every touch or movement as it dripped more blood, Case soon starting to clean her bruised flesh as he’d done several times before...
Navy, without looking at him in the admittedly uncomfortable closeness, started, “Hey Case...”
The wolf looked at her in acknowledgment, then returned to what he was doing.
“I ... I never said thanks – f-for pulling me out of the way, and ... all this stuff. So, uh ... Thank you. A-and it was my fault what happened, so also ... I’m sorry you got hurt and could’ve died.”
Another terrible pang made her tense, and Case replied, “ ... No sense in leaving you there.”
... Even though she felt horrid, Navy felt inclined to continue while watching him work. “ ... Mum... [wince] ... taught me how to do first aid, s-sometimes, but I always did bad; I could remember what to do, but even when it was fake and mum was helping I would get stressed out at all the guessing. There’s too much room to get yelled at, for me ... but y-you’re pretty good at it ... at least I think so.”
Case responded, “Your mother yelled at you?”
“Wha ... Oh, uh ... No, she never yelled at me, I just meant it was really important, and I was ... I was just trying to say the consequences would be bad if it was real, and people get yelled at when they do things really wrong on TV and in books.” She grinned with half a heart, and added, “Mum did swear under her breath a lot when she was trying to fix things, though. She probably thought I couldn’t hear.”
He was done, so started to wrap a new bandage. Again, an urge arose to say something, and what came to mind first had no segue from one topic to the next, yet she broke the silence with it anyway – not to say it hadn’t been nagging at her, though. She asked, “How do you get up like that? On your own in the middle of the night, I mean.”
Case answered simply, “Repetition and a lot of focus.” She said nothing back.
Gusts of stronger wind and rain washed against the windowpanes behind her as Case fastened the dressings tight, but not too tight. He held her arm palm up, and instructed, “Try to move it.”
For the second time, Navy tried to curl her fingers, a fervent sense of pain and impediment at once as what she attempted to push through ... and nothing happened. She could feel her hand and the entire limb with no issue, so nothing was paralyzed, but her digits simply wouldn’t move more than a twitch. The tiger’s wrist fared better with a little movement, though barely.
In a minute-or-so, he told Navy, “That’s enough,” and grabbed her sling. While redoing it over the appendage – the appendage she may not ever be able to properly use again – Case said, “Same as before, then; just keep it still, and we’ll see what happens.”
Case gathered his things, then gestured for her to follow; she was staring at him.
...”Could...” she began, then stopped. “ ... You asked me yesterday if my chest felt wrong, and I said no then ... but I’ve been thinking about it, a-and it does.”
He contemplated a second, then asked, “How?”
“ ... It just feels weird – l-like something near my sternum isn’t lining up how it used to,” Navy answered, pointing, though he surely knew where that was.
Coming back over with a slightly confused expression, Case pressed the spot with two fingers. “ ... Does that hurt?”
She watched his hand, and told him, “Nope...”
Feeling the area for anything wrong, he nudged the middle section of her bra aside to check where her ribs connected to the sternum. “Where does it feel wrong?” he asked, and received only a shrug as response.
Continuing, he said, “I’m not you, so I need something to go off.”
... Her breathing had quickened. She’d made the decision to lie knowing it was an awful idea, and now she could only wait, heart twisting in the time inevitably leading to when he’d figure it out. The worst route that could be taken, and that’s what she took ... And he withdrew.
“What?”
“ ... O-okay, so I ... That was a lie; my chest doesn’t feel weird. I...” She halted as his gaze shifted subtly to that of disapproval, jaw clenching a bit ... and Navy should stop digging the hole right there – she could stop, apologize, and there’d be nothing after. Understandably, he didn’t appreciate being lied to, so it would be better if she just left it there and didn’t further entrench herself.
“ ... Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. It’s just ... I had a really stupid question and I didn’t know how to ask it.” Great. Problem solved. “ ... But, uh, I-I don’t expect you to say yes, or anything – we can just go and that’d be fine, too – but I thought we could...” She cleared her throat, and finished, “ ... Maybe we could do stuff.”
His face didn’t waver, only kept looking at her discerningly. “Does ‘do stuff’ mean ‘fuck’?”
How plainly he said it made Navy feel extraordinarily daft – many more reasons beyond phrasing led her to that same conclusion, as well. She sucked it up and responded with squeam, “ ... Yep.”
The wolf thought it over a while, making her uncomfortably sit with the choice.
“I don’t need a reward for helping you, if that’s what this is about.”
“ ... It’s not. It was a genuine question.”
Again, she was made to wait, getting no sense of his train of thought whatsoever beyond his glare. Then, finally, he answered, “Alright.”
“What?” she blurted. “That ... Okay...” the tiger blathered as Case locked the door and reapproached. When he started removing his boots, all Navy could think to say was, “ ... Right now?”
Case eyed her with an amount of stupor she deserved. “You asked...” he said while untying the other shoe, and added, “Don’t have to if you changed your mind. Can’t wait forever, though: I got up to switch with Red.”
Sensibility ... The part of her sensibility that won over answered after many poor attempts to do so, “Uh ... Yes ... I mean no, I didn’t change my mind. I want to.” Despite this, Navy did nothing more than sit watching him as he undressed, legs pressing together harder while the realization set in over the long affair that was Case removing everything on him. She hadn’t been with anyone – hadn’t even held hands with anyone – and she was bout to sleep with someone she barely knew ... Well, that’s not entirely fair to him; he’d been nice, comparatively, and clearly he was willing to do what she’d asked, so that meant something ... and he was really cute. He wasn’t open personality-wise ... but she liked him – enough to ask, at least.
It was no secret Case had a toned body, so it must have been something else that figuratively made Navy feel like her nose was about to start bleeding when Case removed his shirt, the act revealing smoothly defined muscles alongside less obvious lines and spots of slightly darker color in a few places that mostly faded (when she’d taken to another part of him) into his short, partially rough fur, those likely caused by damaged skin. Or, if she was honest, it was merely that she thought Case was attractive, and looked soft in his own sort of way, a gentle pulsing in her groin mixed with untamed contractions in her stomach acting as a lead in that direction.
“Not gonna take my pants off if you don’t,” he stated, snapping Navy out of it.
“Oh ... S-sure...” she replied nervously. With her good hand, Navy undid the mechanisms keeping her pants up and began sliding down both pairs of clothes around her waist, unwillingness to open her legs only making it take longer. Reaching a bit of an impasse, Case wordlessly offered to help, him then pulling them off quicker but not forcefully when she allowed. Fist clenched over the small window to her crotch, the tiger watched as Case put aside the articles near the semi-neat pile of his own, untucking some of the bed’s top blanket and moving it out of the way for a reason she didn’t get.
“Sheets haven’t been changed in decades. Best not to sit on the top one.”
Never letting any more of a gap show, she got onto the space he made, the room’s temperature seeming like it shot above scorching in response to Case getting the rest of the way naked. An amount of decency prevented Navy from staring where she’d of course want to, the height of their hips pretty much perfectly aligned.
He stood in front of Navy, and she asked while trying to not let her eyes dart downwards, “Have you ever ... been with someone before me?”
“ ... I have,” he answered.
The tiger blatantly failed what she’d set out to do, eyes pointed straight at his ... for multiple seconds, only brought back when he started, “Have...” but stopped. It sounded like he rephrased the question in his head when he came back with, “Have you done anything like this?”
“ ... With my hands once in a while. But ... it’s been a long time. Nothing’s ever been inside, e-either.”
... Navy couldn’t tell if she was hearing things because of how faint it was, but after a spell Case told her more warmly than she’d ever heard from him, “Just relax and it’ll be better for both us.” He added in response to her practically dancing eyes, “ ... It’s fine to look – that’s half the point.”
The wolf’s hand on her thigh ... Navy let him open them, Case then obliging to pull her to the bed’s edge by the waist and coming even closer, heat emanating from them both as he angled her backwards a bit, openly presenting her vagina, mildly plump outer labia covering all of her except the soft pink strip at its front top, white around to her inner thighs and cupping the shirt’s hem. He probably was, but Navy didn’t know how much he was looking at the indecency since her gaze became almost completely fixed on his genitals. Case’s dick, which hadn’t gotten hard yet, was a few inches long, circumcised, and had a nearly flat color like wine, his balls a just lighter grey, their color shared with the front of his chest down all the way to them. Leaning forward, Navy took her supporting hand off the bed and started to reach for his shaft, looking at him a moment to see if he objected; when he didn’t, Navy grabbed it – careful as she didn’t how it ought to be handled – and made awkward strokes.
It was weird feeling someone else’s bare skin, which she’d basically never done before – Navy had hardly touched her own skin in such a way. His penis was very warm, almost feeling too warm for just being part of a person’s body, and apart from a few calmly present veins and the obvious dip leading to the head it was entirely similar to velvet – softly textured but still mostly smooth. Whatever she was doing worked, Case planting his hands to the sides of her butt and letting the tip of his gradually hardening dick rest against the crease near her groin.
An almost labored exhale from Case a while later told Navy he was ready, his penis a bit over twice the size it started and fairly thicker, which was a marginal amount above average as far as she was aware. Nonetheless, the opening that pleasantly and unsteadily contracted in her felt too short, and certainly too small, to fit him.
Reclining once more and adjusting herself so it would be easier for him, Navy watched as Case put himself against the base of her lips and pushed through to the small hole they concealed, an embarrassing amount of slick fluid (any) leaking from her so early. He went to push further after lining their things up, but Navy stopped him. “W-wait.”
She breathed hard. “Just ... Could you do it slow ... please...”
Case nodded, and replied, “I will. It might hurt anyway, so tell me to stop if it’s too much.” She didn’t here the next words in exact – something about being quiet. Yeah, she’d uh ... do that...
In preparation, Navy splayed her legs a bit more, and tried to loosen the tension inside with some success, deliberate and paced respiration both making the tiger feel better and worse, it revealing how precarious all of her internals were. He prodded at the entrance then made a small push to get in, his tip progressing hardly before being stopped by the tightness, him attempting a couple more times without ever putting much force into it at all, likely trying to work his way inside as a preempt to truly starting. The wolf kept driving his hips into her while not going any deeper, a growing, resonating flex in her canal appreciating the probing more each time, anticipation of the hurt and payoff worsened by Case rubbing the from top of her vagina upwards and then back down with his thumb, Navy having to keep her legs from instinctually closing when he grazed the sensitive peak of her groin. Something between heat, a pleasurable throb, and a mild tingle at its worst was vivid where he readied to penetrate, the tiger’s eyes fixed there when he spread her opening a little on one side, the teasing feeling suddenly over though he moved considerately, and the rate her heart squeezed rapidly increasing.
There was an unhurried yet compounding sense of pressure for a few seconds as Case properly tried to push in, a quiet schlick arriving when the head of his penis passed the boundary and he refrained afterward, her too busy keeping herself relaxed down there to return his gaze, the man likely checking on her; she felt bad for not looking at him back, and she did want to ... but the stretching was already a lot, and Navy also wanted for them to be able to keep going. Pain started almost right after he got to putting it in her again, an ache and sense of her walls reaching their limit as his widest parts entered her, each deferred clench she wasn’t able to hold back intensifying the discomfort and good feelings, uncertainty about the strain drowned out by the amorous part of Navy that didn’t really care about a little unpleasantness when Case was looming right in front of her, and as it all felt better.
About two inches in, Case moved his hips into her with a bit more force, the strain spiking hard despite his vigor not going up that much over the short span. Navy didn’t say anything, but the hurt forced out a short yip; it may have been her hymen fully tearing that caused the stab, in part, but she couldn’t discern well enough to know. Either way, Case stopped.
“ ... You alright?” he asked. She nodded, but apparently that wasn’t enough to convince him. “It’s fine, you don’t have to be. We’ll stay around here and keep going when you’re ready – or you could lay down, so it’s easier.”
“ ... But I wanna watch~” she replied in a breathy voice that otherwise would have made her want to never look at anyone again, shifting her hips as she tried to stay upright and feeling him halfway inside only deepening how unabashedly indecent her face was, Navy gulping hard then letting strings of saliva form on teeth and tongue as her mouth went agape for all the air she heaved.
Giving no dispute, Case resettled himself a moment then gently pulled back, the drag as he got most of his inserted length out sending more throbs up her, his movement faster than when he put it in. Again, with care but more quickly, he pushed the same amount of his penis into her, wet noises becoming prominent enough to be heard in the repetition he started. The many furrows in her vagina were pressed and moved aside repeatedly at a rhythm where she could feel every groove of him and her, elated signals making anything other than looking at him or where he penetrated unthinkable. Navy wanted to touch him so bad – just holding his arm would do – but her trembling body couldn’t hold itself upright without support. He went a little faster, grinding with what she thought was intent into a part that felt like it was having a deep urge fulfilled at the crest of each decided thrust. She wanted Case to be closer. She wanted to touch him. She wanted them to feel good together...
“F-fuck~” she croaked, head rolling back impulsively.
The feeling steadied on a high note, crotch twitching endlessly as it waited to be sent past the edge ... but it never was. With a confused moan, Navy realized he was slowing down and looked back, thoughts so lost she soon beseeched in a soft kind of whine, “... Mhhh~? It felt so good~...”
Settling to a halt, Case then asked, “You want it all the way though, right?”
Navy thought about it for a second – only a second – and replied, “Yes, I do...” Decency returned in a small fashion, having her ask nicely, “P-please.”
Not giving her much time to come down, Case, half in already, started testing Navy’s deepest parts which he hadn’t yet touched. Uncomfortable pressure began to regain focus as he forced his manhood in deeper, the feeling less than at first, though having her genitals filled overcame so much in the mind that anything else floated varying but usually large amounts out of attention.
Less than an inch of him left, Case finally touched her cervix, details in Navy’s vision softening as she felt all of him, and all of his presence. Her breath stuttered ... then more ... then it stopped. The pressure was in her throat. Case grinded very gently into her, all kinds of ache agreeing that they wanted him to push her over the edge. Navy still didn’t breathe. She wanted him to take her by the face, push a few more times, and cum right when she did. The scorch in her throat built too much so Navy sharply sucked in air, then stopped breathing again. She wanted to lock her legs around Case and kiss him on the mouth. She wanted him to kiss back. She still wasn’t breathing...
With a few more thrusts at her deepest part, Navy rasped jaggedly, and her groin clenched more than it ever had. It squeezed as much as it could, throbbing and quivering around him, the tiger’s hips bucking and rubbing herself against Case while she let out staggered, intense groans of pleasure through a strain that felt like her pelvis was about to give way under the orgasm. The peaking sensation flowed from the innermost parts of her crotch to her whole body, everywhere shuddering in tandem with the most personal bits.
Navy wrapped her arm around Case as he stood almost just above her, and pulled them together, chest to chest, her face over the shoulder and buried into the side of his neck. Navy’s smallish, firm breasts smooshed against his tough frontside, Case’s warmth with her own as the pulses didn’t stop, the tiger gripping his back tighter and tighter, strange and short moans let out continuously. He never stopped the gentle thrusting, an orgasm which felt like it would never end ignited repeatedly, nice sensations elsewhere somehow getting more overt while ones in her crotch gradually went down, like it evened out but never actually diminished ... But it had to eventually.
Everywhere kept feeling good in its own way, though the distinct pleasure like that in her genitals only reached Navy’s waist at the furthest, the rest something unique. The euphoria passed not all at the same time, though a threshold gone over made Navy realize a “before and after” of sorts, things other than how good she felt returning with reason as a companion. Their combined sweat, the room, and the rain came back into focus, breathing returning to normal but remaining heavy.
No part of her wanted to let go, but some parts knew she had to. Even with some throbs in her groin yet to make their way out, she leaned back and supported herself again. The gaze she met wasn’t like earlier ... or like anything before then, but a part of it she recognized. It felt like Case was looking through her – not past, but through.
... She’d just hugged a man she barely knew while cumming. And ... did he even like her doing that? She hadn’t...
“S-sorry ... I ... I-I don’t know what...” she tried to explain. Guilt panged, and Navy worried he didn’t like it at all. They were there for something casual, and she did that ... They’d only been going for several minutes before she came, too, and she had no idea how close he was – it’s not like she could really control it, but he’d barely been given a chance to finish.
Case kept looking at her, thinking. “It’s...” he began, then stopped.
He cleared his throat, and restarted, “ ... Doesn’t matter; don’t worry about it.” He continued, “ ... You came, so we can be done, if you want.”
“N-no, we can keep going – it’ll still feel nice ... And you haven’t finished yet, so...”
Thinking for a second, he said, “Alright ... If you keep it down this time, like I asked.”
Right – she’d do that ... Though, remembering her voice “going” in such a ... It was her first, and Case didn’t seem to blame her much.
He added, “Nothing to do with you, but I might take a while, so you should probably lay down.”
A few different sensations made Navy want to object, but whatever the orgasm took to make happen left her nearly limp all over, and though being filled was still pleasant, a worsening soreness through her vagina would only develop more aggressively if she remained stubborn about watching; either way, she’d be able to see him, and he’d still be there at all.
She laid back, slumping over the last bit as Navy realized how hard fatigue had set in, barely enough energy remaining to bring herself up by the elbow to look at him and not the ceiling. Case’s hips started gyrating again, dragging his dick out for the first time after she came sending provoked stings of pain along with the good, the rhythm he gradually got back to faster than before, and fully deep – Navy wasn’t worried about the unpleasantness, but arousal didn’t overwhelm her senses and make it all mesh into something pleasant anymore. No yips were let out, but pain was reflected in her groans, her focus put on Case to help deal with it and the man himself eyeing her now and again to check how she felt.
Over a couple minutes, Case’s strokes through her tunnel started to feel more and more like chafes. Though Case was steady and considerate in how he moved, Navy’s inner parts started aching worse, the lubricant she produced not enough to keep up, pain making her tense, and the tenseness making it hurt more in a vicious cycle ... But she kept going, anyway.
Case grunted increasingly but without much sign of finishing – not that she could really know – and some occasional inconsistencies in how he moved made her think he liked it, especially when he was all the way in, knocking against her cervix. It was at these deepest points that it felt worst for her, Navy taking to massaging her clitoris to get her innards more aroused ... to limited success, position and view of him then needing to be kept without aid of her arm.
... Several more minutes went by, and she couldn’t hold back quickly saying, “Ow.”
The wolf huffed as he got closer to finishing, and said while only slowing a little, “ ... I can stop if you want, but a little longer and I’ll...” He gritted his teeth and grunted while pushing his hips forward harder than usual just once, sending a spike up her she didn’t say a thing about, and he went on, “ ... Just a bit longer and I’ll be done.”