Boundless

To Strengthen a Bond

The warm breath against Ah'kaedh scales had a deep, calm rhythm. His Girl's right arm was slung across his chest, her hand resting in his left clavicle, five fingers tangled in his tresses.

His purr, grave and loud, ensured his tiny Girl would enjoy a restful, peaceful sleep. An evolutionary trick that secured males the right to their heads. Yautja females were stronger, taller, and as aggressive as any male - sure enough his people would have met extinction or at least not developed a very structured society if not for their ability to mollify and entrance their partners.

My God, I love you...

Bound to be a severe challenge, for Ah'kaedh, keeping his Girl was worth whatever price, no matter how high.

Which included the thunderstorm raging in his chest. For a creature of logic and stony demeanor, dealing with conflicting, paradoxical feelings plaguing his brain was costly already.

(No wonder why most Yautjas would spend their lives unbounded. It was not usual, and frankly, the outcome was considered undesirable by many).

The Enforcer, who had been a creature of order and the cold reason his whole life, found himself wishing for chaos.

The very chaos impelling him to react in the most disturbing ways, to the most absurd things; the jealousy of her attention, the need to have her sleeping form close by, the patience, the (ridiculous) growing concern for her safety, the (outrageous) hand feeding. Hell, the purring... Ah'kaedh could barely contain it.

I must have lost my mind to torture all those years ago...

The cynical, stoic, disciplined Hunter in him was mostly displeased by how his impulses would take over when Lance was concerned.

Like the first time he purred for his Girl. Ah'kaedh could remember it, oh so well.

It happened during his imprisonment at Seizei labs. Four decades ago. Lance had been around for 7, almost 8 months.

229 days. It had been 229 days.

By the final months of Ah'kaedh's captivity, Lance had become his sanity's anchor; the Yautja had always been a creature of structure and habit, and his Girl was a reliable constant during his imprisonment.

They had routines, which served to ground and steady his mind. Not surprisingly, the day Lance stepped inside his enclosure oozing tension, unable to do anything but stammer, it immediately affected him.

At that rate, Ah'kaedh was so used to abuse and torture that pain would be preferable to any disturbance in the delicate equilibrium securing his sanity.

What a strange thing, the hostage purring for his captor, his tormentor. Comforting her. Calming her. Not that he had done it deliberately, no. It simply happened.

In fact, Ah'kaedh had lost his goddamn mind upon realizing he'd been purring. Livid at himself for such weakness, but mostly furious at his Girl, who dared to rip such a reaction out of him.

But for a moment, for a brief moment, the Enforcer actually entranced her; who had laid a hand over his chest, to better feel the deep rumble.

****

The Enforcer took a deep breath, feeling his chest resound louder, squeezing his Girl closer (Lance's only reaction was a deep sigh).

A recent memory played in his mind's eye:

Not even three months in, and I was already struggling to reconcile my duties with... well, with you, Lance had confessed. It was the only time they actually discussed the days of his confinement.