Core goes on a date!

Core's Opportunity - Chapter 17
by Zmeydros

The sun is hanging low in the sky, just past the edge of the clouds. The tiny mist-like drops that are falling from the uniform blanket of clouds above conspire with the sunlight to make an amber haze. It has been a week since anything though the window had crisp edges due to the endless fine drizzle. Normally, Core likes the rain, but getting coated in tiny droplets whenever he goes outside is getting old.

But that's not the only thing that's getting old. He looks at his phone again. No message from Petra. She said she'd get back to him this week and it's Saturday, there's only like eight hours of the week left.

For the fourth time this week, he taps on her name and stares at the screen. Would texting her show her that he's too needy? Would it show that he doesn't trust her to make good on her promise? His stomach twists. Does she even want to see him again? Maybe she somehow texted him from a fake number back at the pub...Urgh! These thoughts have been in his head all week.

He works through the breathing exercise Denise taught him. The most logical explanation is that Petra wants to see him again and just got caught up in something. He doesn't know what she does for a job, she might be a game developer and be pulling a hundred hour week for all he knows.

Finally feeling a bit calmer, he tries to focus. If she really does want to see him again, what should he do? He's waited a week, so he should probably just text her. But what should he text her? Maybe he could just remind her? Tell her he's looking forward to next week? Ask her how her week has been? Tell her that he's watched a couple introductory videos about Overwatch?

This is impossible! He's never really dated before. There was always a risk the person he dated would find out what he was and just leave. As anxiety pulls at his chest, he starts a text to Millie. "Are you around?"

"At the club. I'm a bit busy, can we talk when you get here?" 

"Sure." It's a half hour until he leaves for work and he doesn't want to be thinking about this during his whole shift or until Millie has time. He'll need to focus on what Victoria's teaching him. He blushes. That is, if they don't have sex again.

His heart speeds up as he realizes something. Texting Victoria, he says, "Can you talk?"

"Kitty can! Arrive early and she'll take a break from spreadsheets."

He smirks. She could brighten any day. "Okay, heading over."

After throwing together a turkey and pepper-jack sandwich, he rushes to work.

He's about a half hour early when he makes it  into Victoria's room. She gets up from her computer chair and walks over to the bed saying, "What's on your mind?" As she sits down, she pats the spot next to her.

Sitting next to her, he slumps his shoulders. "Do you know Petra?"

She nods. "Hmm, I've only talked to her a couple times, but she seems nice."

"Well, she kinda, umm, asked me out on a date back at Denise's party."

Victoria claps her hands. "Wow! That's great!"

His lips try to turn upwards at her excitement, but his tenseness keeps a full smile from forming. "She said she'd get back to me this week about it, but it's Saturday and..."

Throwing an arm around him, she pulls him against her side. "Oh, that's rough. Have you tried to text her?"

"No, but, there's something else I need to ask about f-first." 

"Oh? What is it?" She looks at him with her big green eyes.

He fidgets. "This whole week, I've been waiting to hear back from her and I haven't done anything with you or Millie because I don't know what Petra wants. I was looking forward to doing sexy stuff with you today, but I think we shouldn't until I know whether it's okay with her."

She blinked and one ear folded down. "You haven't been on an actual date with her yet and you didn't have an actual time set up, so I don't think it would be bad for us to have fun. But I'm fine holding off until you've asked her. I just hope you hear back from her soon."

"Me too." He frowns.

"So, why haven't you texted her?"

"I just--I don't know if I should. She said she'd get back to me. I don't want to be pushy."

Rubbing his side, she says, "I think you should text her. If she's not super busy, she's probably thinking about you too and it's possible she's nervous or something. Sending that first message can be terrifying."

He nods. "I know the feeling."

"If you have her number, I'm sure she intended you to be able to contact her. How about you send one message and then if she doesn't respond, you just drop it?"

"But what do I send?"

She says, "Well, you could be all businesslike and just ask if she has any openings in her schedule next week. You could be more casual and just ask if she'll be free next week. Or you could ask her how her week went and then ask about the date if she starts talking to you."

He sits there leaning against her for a moment thinking. "I like just asking her about her week. It's really neutral."

Victoria nods. "Yeah, often times the hardest thing is just getting a conversation started. Especially early on in dating. People will just stare at each other awkwardly a lot otherwise."

His chest gets tighter. "Maybe I shouldn't go on a date with her, I'll probably just make a fool of myself. I couldn't even get up the courage text her."

"You two seemed to have plenty to talk about at the party."

"Yeah, but we weren't on a date." He sighs.

"Actually, I think you were worse off at the party than you would be on a date. Millie said you two had a misunderstanding when you first met? I don't know what it was, but she said you two worked it out."

He manages a small smile. "Yeah, I guess it was worse than a date. It started with me wondering whether she'd even be willing to talk to me."

She nudges him. "Yep! You'll be way better off on the date. And if you're wondering what to say, just talk to her the way you'd talk to me or Millie."

"I don't know, we talk about a lot of naughty stuff," he says.

Victoria laughs. "She's a regular at the club, I doubt she'd mind."

He blushes.

"Are you feeling more anxious than normal? Getting angry or depressed randomly? Having trouble focusing?" She asks.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

She shrugs. "Kitty knows what it's like to start a new relationship. And, kitty also knows you've been having lots of sexy fun times only to suddenly stop this week."

"Depressed and horny." He shakes his head. "It sucks."

"Well, I've got to run some stuff by Millie. How about you use my bed while I'm gone and try to get off. After that, you can send your text."

"I'm not sure I could, I'm still really nervous." He puts his hands between his knees and looks at the floor.

She gives him a squeeze and then kisses his cheek. "That's alright. I'll be back in fifteen minutes or so. You can just use my bed to relax till then."

After she lets him go, she heads out the door and closes it gently. He stares at the door for a moment before popping off his shoes and sliding back onto her bed. Once he gets the pillows positioned so he's reclining comfortably, he pulls out his phone and types out a text to Petra. "How's your week going?"

Eight minutes later, he gets a response. "Awful. Plane home is delayed two hours."

"Plane home?" He asks.

"It's a loooooong story I can't get into now, " she texts back.

He tries to think of something to continue the conversation, but can't, so he just sends, "Okay." Putting his phone away, he flips over and buries his head in the pillows. Why is he so bad at this? He didn't even get her to set up a time. Does she want to set up a time?

As Victoria is coming back into the room, his phone chimes. She texted him again? With his tail wagging, he takes his phone out. When he looks at the screen, he frowns: it's from Millie. "I'm free now if you need to talk."

He sends back, "Nah, I'm just going to help Victoria with spreadsheets." Any distraction is a good distraction right now.

By the time Victoria has to go dance, he's gotten into a good stride. One of the ad campaigns from last month did really poorly and Victoria has trusted him with making a powerpoint on it and some of the other campaigns that had been run in the last few months.

When his phone chimes, he keeps working. He knows it's a false alarm. Petra's probably not going to be able to chat until after she gets home, if she ever texts him again, that is. 

His phone chimes two more times not even a minute apart and he grumbles as he pulls it out of his pocket. Three texts from Petra? His eyes widen and his paw shakes as he reads them:

"Sorry, was talking to the gate agent. How's Wednesday evening sound?"

"Urgh! This plane has the hardest seats!"

"Gonna have to go back into airplane mode soon, hope you're having a good night."

He hurriedly types out, "Sorry, I'm at work. Wednesday evening works for me."

"Great!" She sends him her address and, "If you can get there by 6PM, we should get a lot of gaming in and still have time to hang out."

"I might not be there till 6:30PM, but I'll let you know." He sends back.

"No problem. In other news: this gryphon flight attendant has a really nice ass. Crap! He's clicking his beak at me. Gotta go into airplane mode."

With a chuckle, he puts away his phone. A half hour later, Victoria comes back and he helps her out of her costume. Then she dons a robe and teaches him more Excel tricks.

* * * * *

Petra's complex should be at the bottom of this hill, but all he sees is a solid eight-story-tall concrete cube topped with a giant flower-shaped solar collector thing. Does Petra live at a solar power plant? A secret government bunker? There are no windows, only giant square vents multiple stories tall.

Pulling over, he double checks the map on his phone and the address she sent him. It's definitely the right place. Maybe she lives in a building behind this giant power plant or whatever? He drives down the hill until he sees a sign stating: "Welcome to Karstav'lok Arctic Habitat and Research Facility."

Karstav'lok...he's heard that name before, but he's not sure where. Something from his childhood?

He follows the "Visitor's Parking" signs and goes around back of the building. Once he's parked, he texts Petra, "I'm here."

"Be out in a sec!" she texts back.

The wide sidewalk from the parking lot slopes down about ten feet to opaque double doors. A keypad is beside the doors has a glowing red light in the top right corner. The light turns orange when the door swings open. 

A tall polar bear spots core as he walks out. "Forgot your card?"

"No, just waiting for a friend."

The polar bear sighs in relief. "I thought I was going to have to tell you to call the help line. No worries, have a good day."

"You can't let people in if they forget their card?" He tilts his head.

He nods. "The research center under the apartments requires a high clearance. They're real sticklers for security here."

Petra pops her head out of the door. "Hey there!"

"Hey!" Core says.

The polar bear says, "Good day to you!"

Core waves bye and then walks over to Petra. 

She hands him a lanyard with a card attached to it, "Okay, now put the card in the slot on the keypad and press pound-one-one-seven-two." 

Staring at the card, he says, "Oh, okay."

She closes the door.

He walks over to the keypad and fiddles with the lanyard until he figures out the card has a little retractable string attached to it. Pulling on the string, he gets the card into the slot and types the code. A long beep sounds along with a buzz on the door. He grabs the door handle and slips inside.

Petra pulls him into a hug. "I'm so happy you're here!"

Hugging, he says back, "Me too!" After she lets go, he asks, "So, I need to have my own card?"

"Everyone does. You have a visitor card. Don't forget to wear it when you're not in my room or security will show up and escort you out of the building. And when you leave, I have to escort you out and take the card back." she says.

His eyebrows scrunch together as he notices there's two cameras watching the entry way flanked by LED strips that light the room. "Don't they already have cameras watching everyone?"

"Don't even get me started about this place. I live here because it's kept nice and cold, that's all." She takes his hand. "Let's go."

Letting her tug him along toward an elevator, he trots across the green tiles with tan stripes in them while looking at the odd ribbed concrete that makes up the walls. The elevator has a brownish-black floor and lighted panels that have 'Karstav'lok' plastered all over them. He points at the company name. "I can't remember where I've heard this name before, it's bugging me."

She hits the button for B10 saying, "They're like COAT's Amazon. They started with appliances and now they do everything."

It takes him a moment to realize she's talking about the "Coalition Of Arctic Territories." People from the rest of the world usually call it the "Coalition" or the "Arctic Territories," but only people actually from there just pronounce the acronym like the word "coat."

"Were you born in the COAT?" she asks.

He nods, "Yeah, I've just been away a very long time." The air is much cooler now, it's nice.

"Me too, my parents keep telling me they want me to visit, but they can't ever seem to fit me into their schedule."

One of his ears folds down. "Fit you into their schedule? You're their daughter."

"They're busybodies. They're using their retirement to pick up every hobby they wish they'd had time for when they were younger. And, if they have an evening with nothing going on, they make up an event and invite people over. They were both doctors, so I don't think they know what free time is or how to use it." She laughs, but it sounds sad, hollow.

He gives a chuckle to make her feel less awkward. Then he notices she's still holding his hand and starts to blush. Whatever he was going to say, he's forgotten it. All he can think about is the warmth of her paw pads against his.

When the elevator gets to her floor, she leads him out and to the right. It's cool, probably around fifty degrees and it's not muggy at all. His tail starts to wag, he'd feel guilty if he turned his AC down this low, but it's perfect for his arctic heritage.

"I take it you've never heard about this place?" she asks.

"No, but I wish I had. it's nice in here."

"Whole facility is insulated, like four layers or something. They're experimenting with quantum computers and all sorts of other sensitive instruments that need near-perfect climate control in the deep down levels." She stops at a door and puts her card in the slot on the keypad. It beeps and lets her in.

"No code?"

She pulls him into her room and then lets go of his hand. "Nah, once your inside, the security is a bit less crazy."

There's a pile of computer parts in one corner of the room, the ceiling has bright lines of light spaced every few feet. It doesn't look like the LED's he's seen elsewhere.

"Those are light pipes. They collect sunlight up top and direct it through optical fibers so we can have natural sunlight even underground, well, it's Seattle, so I'm not sure who thought that was a good idea. When it's too cloudy or the sun isn't overhead like right now, they pipe light from this massive light source that they shoot microwaves at or something. Or, I dunno, Higgs rambled about it once. Sorry, I'm nervous and talking too much."

"It's fine. Higgs?"

"My roommate, he's an arctic hare who's one of the researchers that works in the deep down." She leans against the island to the left of the sink. It has grey tiles and tan-colored grout like the rest of the kitchen.

"So the 'Deep Down' is the research facility?"

"Yup, it's what we call it, anyway."

Core looks at the couch in the living room which the kitchen leads into which appears to be grey until he notices the upholstery is made of fluffy white and black threads. There's a big HDTV on the wall and the corner with the computer parts is nearly touching the TV stand.

He starts sniffing the air, "Is something burning?"

"The pizza!" Petra exclaims while dashing to the oven. She grabs the hot pads and takes the pizza out. Waving at the wisps of smoke that came out when she opened the oven, she says, "I ruined it didn't I?"

He says, "The pepperoni looks bit scorched, but I think it's okay. How's the crust?"

Pulling out a fork, she lifts up on the edge of the pizza. The crust is very brown. "It's not burnt," she says before laying the edge of the pizza back down.

"That's good."

As she grabs a knife and a cutting board out of the cabinet, he eyes her floofy tail and round ass. Her bit of extra weight is fitting for an arctic species such as herself and it looks really especially good on her. He looks away when he feels a tingling in his crotch. No! This is the first date, he needs to keep a grip on his sexual side.

When she grabs one of the tomatoes sitting out on the counter, he asks, "Are you making something else too?"

"Slices of fresh tomato on top of pepperoni pizza is like my favorite flavor. And I figure it will help hide some of the burnt taste." As she cuts the tomato, her tail swishes back and forth, curling slightly each time she aims the knife.

Watching her concentrate like this, he can't help but smile. How did he find someone this adorable? As she reaches the end of the tomato, she slows down and bends over further a bit raising her tail. Then he realizes she's not cutting the tomato at all, she's just leaning on the counter and pushing her butt up in the air. 

Before he can look away, she glances back and says, "See something you like?" Her tail drifts into a question mark shape.

The way she's looking at him...he's got goosebumps. What does he even say to that? Shit! He has a tent in his pants and she's now looking at it! He turns away. "S-sorry."

He hears her stand back up and pad toward him. Then her hand gently grabs his left shoulder and turns him.  She looks him in the eye as she says, "Before you get all embarrassed, you might want to look down."

When his eyes find the rise in her skirt, his nipples get hard, and warmth rushes into that special place between his thighs. Never in his life has someone else's erection turned him on quite like this. He can't even see it and he's getting light-headed. His own member throbs visibly in his jeans as he stares slack-jawed in disbelief that they're sharing this moment.

She reaches toward her erection, but stops herself and fans her neck instead. "This thing is so embarrassing. Didn't expect things to get so boneriffic so quickly."

He nods shyly and has trouble meeting her eyes. That part of him that scolds him for being a slut, it's screaming in his mind for him to hide himself from her. To leave, to get out of this situation, to forget about all this sex he's been having because he is clearly out of control and making his date go out of control too!

"Sorry I teased you back there, how about we eat and forget about this awkward?" She offers.

"Sure." He nods. So many other things are trying to get out of his mouth at the same time, he wants to tell her that he loved seeing her get hard over him, that he was close to grabbing his own cock when she almost did, and that he would just have sex right now if he could get up the courage to do it. That animal part of him, the part that wants to rip off her clothes and give her the best sex she's ever had, is just below the surface right now.

Not having to hide who and what he is from her removes a huge barrier, so much fear, so much doubt. In this room, right now, he might, kinda, possibly, somewhat, actually like being a herm. 

It's a warm huggable feeling, like being in a bubblebath for the first time. Wonder, excitement, and acceptance are all mingling with each other.

Maybe the fact that she's so comfortable with herself is rubbing off on him. Maybe it was helped along by Millie's absolute adoration for his breasts while he was in heat. Or maybe he's just having an off day.

She hands him a plate with a couple pieces of pizza and a couple slices of tomato, puts a glass of water in his other hand, and then grabs cloth napkins out of a drawer in the island. As she goes over to the couch, she says, "Want to watch something?"

"Nah, I want to talk more," he says and then realizes he may never have said that to anyone he was attracted to before. Talking with a date should be stressful, but he just has so many questions he has to ask her.

"Sure, what about?" she asks before plopping a slice of tomato on her pizza and taking a bite.

He gulps. Out of all the questions he has, one stands out, the one that is the defining difference between them. "Umm, do you like being a herm?"

"Depends on the day. When I get a hardon at work and have to run to the bathroom to get off so people don't stare at me like I'm a circus performer, I'm not super happy with it. When I'm pleasuring two of my besties at the same time, or blowing up people's conceptions of sex and gender, I love it!"

He fidgets for a moment really wanting to ask something but not being able to say it.

"I know that look, come on, you're not going to offend me by asking me lewd stuff." This time, when she takes a bite of her pizza slice, the fresh tomato slides off and lands on the plate.

"Do you have friends with benefits?" he asks.

"I was gonna break that to you later, but yeah, I have a couple that likes to include me in their sexy times. It started in college and just never quite ended. It's the main reason I haven't dated. Most people would want me to give that up and I don't wanna." She grimaces. "I really should have told you right away when you asked if I was single."

Does he mind that she's not all his? Might never be all his? Does he even want to be all hers? Would he feel okay never doing stuff with Millie or Victoria again? No answer comes to him, so he says, "I'll have to think about it, I can't even decide if I should keep doing stuff with my two friends."

"It's up to you, but I think it's hot you have friends to bone. Heck, if I knew you better, I'd ask about coming along." She takes a big bite and he sees her little cat fangs.

"Oh, okay..." His eyes widen. How can she be like that? She's so blunt, so much like Millie and Victoria...oh! She's a regular at the club, she was invited to Denise's birthday party. Of course she'd be open like this. But does he want that? With Millie, Victoria, and Petra in his life will there be anything to stop him from being a complete slut? 

He starts getting hard: maybe he wants to be a slut. Is there anything wrong with wanting to have sex until he's too exhausted to move? Wanting to pull his pants down and let Petra play with him on their first date? His plate starts tilting in his lap.

She sniffs the air.

He holds the plate down over his prick and desperately tries to think of another subject. "You said you were on a plane last week?" He finally takes a bite of the pizza, his nose crinkles at the burnt taste. After putting a slice of tomato on it, he tries again and finds it's edible if not slightly good.

"I was in Florida for a job interview," she says.

"What? You're going to move away?" Of course his luck would be this bad.