The Apartment Can Wait

The changing room was empty when he carried her in, or at least, empty enough.

She barely had time to register the lockers lining the walls before her back met one of them with a loud metallic clang, his massive frame pressing her against it, her legs wrapping around his waist with what little strength she had left. The sheer difference in their sizes made the position almost absurd, her bare back against the cold metal while the warmth of his fur radiated against her front like a furnace. The contrast made her gasp.

"You have got to be kidding me-" She breathed, but her hands were already pulling him closer by the nape of his neck, her fingers disappearing into the thick mane there, contradicting every word.

He entered her again without ceremony and she threw her head back against the locker with a second clang, considerably louder than the first, her long ears pressing flat against her skull.

"Okay-" A broken laugh escaped her. "Okay we are doing this."

There was nothing calculated about it this time. No performance, no smirk, no sharp remark timed perfectly for effect. Just her, completely undone, held up entirely by him and the cold metal at her back, ankles locked behind him as best they could given the size of him, fingers gripping whatever she could reach. The locker rattled with every thrust, a rhythmic protest of metal on metal that she was absolutely certain could be heard from the main hall. His claws found the locker on either side of her head for leverage and left marks in the metal she would later consider a personal achievement.

"If we break this thing-" She started, ears twitching.

"We will not break it." He said.

The locker groaned ominously.

"You were saying-" She managed between gasps, and then lost the thought entirely as he shifted and the size of him hit a different angle altogether and turned her brain completely off.

This time she came with her face buried in the fur of his neck, teeth grazing whatever skin she could find beneath it, a muffled sound escaping her that she would deny making if asked. Her long ears dropped sideways completely, totally out of her control, which she would also be denying later. Her whole body shook with it, legs tightening around him, nails dragging down his back through the fur.

He followed shortly after, and the locker, whether from the force of a Hrothgar at full effort or simply from poor timing, gave a spectacular lurch sideways, the door swinging open and slamming into the adjacent one like a small, pathetic disaster.

The sound echoed.

Silence.

Then footsteps.

The door to the changing room opened and a very tired-looking attendant stared at them both, her still pinned against the damaged locker by a very large lion man, with the specific expression of someone who was not paid enough for this.

"You will need to leave." The attendant said flatly.

They walked out into the night air still slightly damp, clothes half-sorted, her hair a disaster she had given up on entirely, ears still at a somewhat undignified angle that she kept trying to correct.

She walked two steps, stopped, and looked up at him, which required more of an upward angle than she usually tolerated, with the expression of someone who had done a full accounting of their body and found several items missing.

"I cannot make it to your apartment." She said simply. "I am being honest with you. My legs are having a separate conversation from the rest of me and I refuse to negotiate with them right now."

He looked like he might argue.

"First Inn we find." She pointed ahead with zero room for discussion. "We are sleeping there. The apartment exists tomorrow."

They found one three streets down. She did not comment on whether it was cleaner than the last one.

At the front desk she held up two fingers before he could say anything.

"Two rooms." She said to the clerk.

He looked at her. Then at the Hrothgar beside her. Then back at her, clearly doing some mental math about the evening.

She looked back with complete composure, ears perfectly straight now, every inch the professional.

"Listen." She said, turning to face him while the clerk pretended to be very busy with the keys. "What happened tonight was... exceptional." A pause. "Genuinely. I am not being sarcastic, which as you know, is rare." She crossed her arms. "But we work together. And I would like to keep working together without it becoming complicated. Which means separate rooms, separate mornings, and we wake up tomorrow as the same two people who walked into that party.... Also-" She dropped her voice just slightly, one ear tilting toward him almost involuntarily. "My pussy cannot take another round today. I mean that with the utmost sincerity. She is retired for the evening. She has filed for leave. I am respecting that. You are disproportionately large and she needs time to reconsider her life choices."

She accepted her key from the clerk without breaking eye contact with Lev.

"Good night." She said with the most dignified smirk she could manage on legs that were still faintly trembling. "See you on the other side of a full night of sleep."

She walked to her room.

She did not look back.

Both ears, however, swiveled briefly in his direction as she turned the corner.

She would also be denying that.